“That should do it,” Drew muttered as he attached the repaired thruster unit back onto the Gutsy before putting the panels back on.

He was back at the Robco plant in the room that lay behind the security door. He had just finished repairing the engine jet on the first of many Gutsies, though it hadn’t been an easy task. Between having to find the necessary parts and the lack of sleep due to a nightmare regarding a particular bus and a Deathclaw, it had been a long, long day.

Drew normally didn’t remember dreams or nightmares, yet this one was still vivid in his mind. It had been so intense that it gave him pause every time he thought about it. For as long as he could remember, he had never had a dream like it. Even when his mother, then later his father had died he hadn’t had such intense dreams. Then again, maybe he had and couldn’t remember.

In the dream in question, he had been hiding in the bus under the seat as he had in reality. Unlike reality, however, the Deathclaw had torn off the back of the bus like paper and reached inside. Its arm had been unusually long and its claws were longer, like swords jutting out ready to impale him.

He had tried to run, but it was no use. The bus seemed to stretch out almost like it was made of elasticated rubber and no matter how far and fast he went, escape only seemed further and further away.

The next thing he knew, the bus was normal again. Only normality had been short-lived as it pitched upwards with a jerk, the front window facing towards the sky.

With a scream, he had grabbed onto the back of one of the many seats and looked down through the hole that had once been the back of the bus. Instead of seeing the ground as he expected, he saw nothing but the gaping maw of an impossibly large Deathclaw. It was ready and waiting to swallow not only him but the entire bus whole.

Then the bus went inside the monstrous cavern with him unwillingly along for the ride. Its long wet tongue had coiled around the bus like a serpent around its prey. The frame then began to buckle and twist as the limb-like tongue had squeezed tighter and tighter. Unable to withstand the crushing force, the shell of the bus had then collapsed, crushing both the vehicle and him along with it.

That was when he had awoken. His heart had been racing and the sense of dread stayed with him throughout the night, stopping him from getting any meaningful sleep.

It had been a few days since the nightmare-inducing encounter with the creature that Jarik had dubbed the ‘Greenclaw’, and thankfully he’d seen no sign of it ever since. If he was lucky, then the thing had mutated into infertility, though he knew he couldn’t take that chance. Not with how massive the thing was. Not as gargantuan as it had been in the dream, but absurdly big all the same.

Despite the danger posed by the monster, he had returned to the Robco plant. Truth be told, he hadn’t mentioned his ordeal to anyone including Jack or Amy, and he especially hadn’t told them how close he had come to being disemboweled. He knew they’d worry and try to talk him out of the whole thing. He couldn’t afford for their concerns to delay him, not for a single day. If anything, it made his work even more important. The last thing the region needed was a huge green Deathclaw wandering around freely. That would only lead to disaster, especially if there were more of them. The best way to deal with the creatures without unnecessary death was to let loose an army of robots to destroy them.

After all, he could fix robots far easier than any doctor could fix a person.

Drew gave the thruster jet a visual once over before he reached inside the back panel. “Time to see if your jets work,” he muttered as he activated the robot with the flick of the switch.

As the Gutsy powered up, he took a few steps back and rested his grubby hands on his hips. The Gutsy’s thruster ignited and it rose into the air before it turned all three eyes on him. Then, with a salute of a clawed pincer it spoke.

“Waiting for orders, sir! Let’s go kick some Commie ass!”

Drew had set himself as its commander which had been surprisingly easy to do. He would have expected it to be more difficult but it had the same backdoor as every Handy model did. At some point, he planned on closing some of the security holes in the software, but for now it wasn’t needed, especially since he had disarmed it before switching it on. Even so, he knew to be weary. Robots could be dangerous with or without weapons, especially when the robot in question had a scalding hot thruster jet streaming out ionized plasma.

He was just glad it wasn’t a conventional rocket that kept them in the air. That would have scorched and burned everything around it. Instead, and thankfully, the heat was primarily focused around the exhaust.

A moment later, the robot realized its lack of armaments. “Sir, it appears I am missing my standard issue Commie killers!”

“You’re undergoing maintenance,” Drew told it. “You had a faulty thruster unit which was installed during construction. We are currently running some tests.”

“Understood, sir. Do you require me to shut down my thruster module?”

“No. I want to see how it performs.”

“Understood, sir.”

After giving the Gutsy various tasks to perform around the factory, Drew was satisfied that his fix had worked as intended. Back in the room, he shut it down and began to work on the thruster of a second Gutsy. While the first thruster had taken most of the morning and testing had taken a good chunk out of the afternoon, the repair of the second thruster took a lot longer. The reason wasn’t due to its fault being different, as all of them had the same manufacturing fault, but it appeared as though it had been damaged at some point post-manufacture. Probably when the robot was tossed into the back room and abandoned.

Finally, with the second fixed and tested, he powered it down before checking the time.

“Shit.”

It was half-nine at night, far too late to head home which meant he was going to be spending the night. Considering he planned on moving to the old factory anyway, it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, apart from the lack of any mattresses or beds. While he had seen an old couch in the lobby area, that didn’t mean it was in good enough condition that he could use it. If it wasn’t, then he might not be getting much sleep.

After cracking open a beer he had found in the cafeteria earlier in the day, he sat back on an old plastic chair and stared at the array of Gutsies in front of him. Once he had them all fixed up and rearmed, they would make a formidable defense. Out of all the robot types, they were by far the fastest and most agile, though that came with the cost of having lighter weapons and armor. He could load them up with more weaponry and armor, but that would slow them down and thus make them more vulnerable.

As his father used to say: ‘It’s a catch twenty-two’; whatever that meant.

Drew almost dropped his bottle in fright when a loud deep thump echoed from outside of the room. He put the bottle down and reached for his laser rifle before standing up, making his way out into the hallway.

He tightened his grip on his weapon as he heard another deep thump. It sounded like it was coming from the front doors, which were thankfully reinforced.

“Please don’t be one of those fucking green Deathclaws,” he muttered to himself.

With a third deep thud, he decided to lock up the room of Gutsies and headed upstairs. He knew there was a room or office that looked down on the entryway since he had seen it on the crude map plans in the foyer. He believed he should be able to get a good look at the unwelcome visitor from there.

Lock-picking the door to the manager’s office was fairly easy. Inside, he found a typical large desk with a computer, a large window, and a door off to the side. He made a mental note to check what was behind the other door later. First, though, he wanted to see what was banging on the door.

In the darkness, he slowly and carefully made his way around the desk and peered out of the window. Down below he could see a green Deathclaw illuminated by an old light post. It was no longer banging on the door and instead appeared to be studying it from several steps back, as though it was looking for a weakness.

“I hope the fucking thing isn’t intelligent,” he muttered as he continued to watch it with a strange mix of terror and fascination.

One thing he noticed was that it didn’t seem to be as large as the one he’d seen on the highway. While that was good news, it came with a caveat; it meant there were definitely more of the things out there just like he had expected.

Drew found himself pressing his face up against the glass as he studied the monstrosity. Like the one he’d seen earlier, it had large growths on its chest, though now that he was able to get a better look at it, he realized that the tumors looked unfortunately like breasts.

That was if they were tumors. But what else could they be? The thing was a lizard and lizards didn’t have tits.

“What the fuck am I even looking at?”

He continued to stare at it for what felt like an eternity before it turned around and began to walk away. It appeared as though it had finally given up when it stopped and spun back around, its gaze turning upwards towards the office window.

“Shit!”

He dove over the desk and hid from view, hoping the monster hadn’t seen him. If it had, then it would likely renew its attack on the door. That, or it would throw something at the window. He’d seen Deathclaws do that before and they had a lot of power behind those arms, enough to turn the window - reinforced or not - into shards of glass.

“This blows my plans to shit,” he hissed.

It had been his plan to eventually bring Amy and Jack here, but at that moment in time, it didn’t seem like such a good idea. Not until he’d activated and armed every damned Gutsy in the factory. The Assaultron would definitely come in handy as well. That was the only way he could see making this place remotely safe. That, and setting up turrets. A place like this was sure to have them already, though they were clearly inactive. He’d have to find a way to reactivate them if there were any or build some if there weren’t.

Drew clutched his chest in fright as he heard something heavy hit the window. He peeked over the desk only to find himself staring into the face of the monstrous beast. Somehow, it had managed to climb up the wall and it was now stood on the eave just below the window staring right back at him, its clawed hands spread out and its breasts pressed up against the glass

At any moment he felt that the thing was going to burst through and murder him. Instead, it kept its eyes locked on him as though it wasn’t sure what it should do next.

Instead of smashing through the window, it thankfully let go and dropped. He heard a thud, followed by the patter of heavy footfalls which got quieter and quieter. Releasing his breath, he rose up and made his way slowly and cautiously back over to the window. Much to his joy, he saw it running off into the distance.

“Thank fuck for that,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

That relief was short-lived as a moment later the monster turned invisible. The only sign it was there was a lensing effect on the environment around it, and that in itself grew less prominent the further away it got before it disappeared completely into the night.

“The fucking things can not only climb but turn invisible,” he said out loud. “We are all fucked!”

Feeling weak, he sat down heavily on the old armchair behind the desk, which creaked under his weight. If they could turn invisible, that meant they could set up ambushes. Deathclaws were definitely smart enough to do that. As to how smart these green ones actually were compared to the regular breed he had no idea. All he knew was that they were clever and could easily wipe out entire settlements if they wanted to.

“I need to find where they’re nesting and wipe the fuckers out,” he said as he placed his laser rifle down on the desk in front of him. “For that, I’ll need an army.”

Drew rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. He knew that securing this place would have to take precedent. There were plenty of parts to build turrets, but first, he would have to check to see whether there was any hidden away that he could use. No point in building something that already existed.

Given enough time, he could turn this place into a fortress. It already was one to a degree. Reinforced front doors, and reinforced shutters as well as thick walls. It was built to withstand being bombed, which meant that the Greenclaws would have a hard time getting in. Though the doors wouldn’t hold up forever. He needed help and despite the danger, he knew that he needed Amy and Jack here if he was going to make any of it work.

Despite knowing that he should probably get some sleep, he decided that he couldn’t afford to. At least not tonight. He needed to check the front door, and either find defense turrets and activate them or start building some.

Drew’s gaze fell onto the desktop computer. He cracked his knuckles before he rolled the chair over. He switched it on and waited for it to boot up. After hacking his way through the password screen, he found himself staring at strings of corrupted files.

With a sigh, he stood up and headed out of the room. He would have to check the database later when he had more time. First, he needed to take a look at the front door to see the damage.

Much to his irritation and fear, he saw a light crack in the frame. A few more minutes of trying and the monster probably would have gotten through. That meant it was strong, very strong.

Feeling more than a little unsettled, he rushed to the security office and checked the terminal there. Like the office computer upstairs, a lot was corrupted, including the turret control system, which proved the place had some at least. It would take some time to clean up the code, possibly all night, but Drew knew it had to be done. Once that was dealt with, he’d have to check to see if they worked. From what he saw they were retractable and on the roof. They could rain fire on any aerial or ground targets with impunity. If they hadn’t seized and he was able to get them to pop out of their shielded hidey-holes, then he would have solved most of his problems. If not, then it would be a long arduous task of fixing that as well.

“Looks like I’m pulling an all-nighter,” he said as he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

In a strange way, he was actually kinda looking forward to it.

He just hoped he didn’t get any more unwelcome visitations from any angry clawed monsters.