Old Conductor, Possessed Anew
Chapter 3
It was both easy and difficult to deal with the Ghouls.
For over a couple centuries, the Ghouls and my robots had co-existed in a way. The Ghouls seemed to go after either living things or targets that made a lot of noise, meaning that the robots were usually left alone, while the Robots either targeted living beings or noted non-human targets, such as armored vehicles or hostile robots. They had even managed to work together to some extent, as when checking my fragmented video logs I noted a couple times where the Robots engaged people that got too close to the train crash site. The noise would attract the Feral Ghouls, and since they were living the Ghouls would always go after the pinned survivors. It was quite an interesting situation, and one that would have had a few scientists curious. Alas there were none around.
Looking at footage of the Ghouls themselves, they certainly made the biological Human in me disgusted and uneasy, where as the robots had made me interested and awed. The shriveled up flesh, lack of nose, tattered or damaged clothes, and the shifting between horrifying and pitiful in appearance all made me dislike the Ferals.
Back to the present, most of them were easily dealt with. As my Mister Gutsies grouped up before marching on the Relay Station in two groups, each with a Sentry Bot at the center, the Ghouls reacted little- long used to the minor sounds of jet thrusts and motors. The ghouls, a couple centuries old and exposed to the harsh weather and conditions for a good bit of time, were taken by surprise when lasers and plasma started flying.
I withheld using the minigun on each of the two Sentry bots, wanting to conserve the limited ammo remaining, and instead had them use their gatling lasers. It was because of that, amongst other reasons, that I kept the third Sentry bot in reserve with the Assaultrons- this one having the gatling laser replaced by a missile launcher.
It seemed to not be needed, as by the time the Feral Ghouls started realizing that the shots were directed at them, a great majority of them had been whittled down. I digitally grinned as I had the robots march on and exterminate the remainder.
Of course, that was when things got more difficult.
More Feral Ghouls started rushing out from the Station and from behind cars, some of them wearing military armor that, while old, helped them withstand a shot or two from the lasers. Then there were the Glowing Ones, two of them to be specific. The first came out from the Station with some of the others, almost like a Champion guarded by armored guards. As I turned to deal with this, I was blindsided as a second one made itself known.
While it appeared to be trapped in the crushed train engine, it was still able to let out a radiation pulse that caused the sensors of the nearest robots to glitch a bit. More noticeably were the dozen or so previously dead Ferals that sprang up.
That group I pulled back a bit to a slight choke point to better deal with the new mass of Ghouls as the second group was attacked by many of the reinforcements. I grimaced as I lost connection with one Mister Gutsy, swarmed by Ghouls and broken apart, as a second was bombarded by direct radioactive pulses and blows from the Glowing One.
I had the rest of that group pull back as the Ghouls were distracted by those two, forming up the remainder of them and bringing up the reserve Sentry Bot.
As the Ferals finished destroying those two bots and turned to the rest of the group, the reserve Sentry Bot fired it's missile launcher- the projectile exploding amidst the bunched up group. While perhaps more would have survived the explosion if it were the game, or even just remained whole enough to be revived by the Glowing One, this was not the Fallout game. Many of them were torn to bits by the explosion, with it sending the two downed bot's own power core's off in secondary explosions. Limbs and pieces of necrotized flesh were flung about as the survivors stumbled, some missing chunks of flesh or limbs themselves.
Despite their animalistic behavior, the Glowing One almost seemed enraged as is staggered up. Bleeding radioactive blood, it puffed up it's chest and let out a below before charging, the remaining ghouls behind it in as if committing to a final valiant charge.
They were met by a wall of lasers and plasma, with the occasional burst of ballistic ammunition, that cut through them, tearing the group to shreds and sending some to crumple into ash. The Glowing One was killed last, a laser exploding it's head before it finally slumped onto the ground.
At around this time the other group finished off the remaining Ghouls, the Sentry Bot ending up having to go around the collection of bodies. The few remaining Ghouls were mopped up after that, mostly ones either trapped or with reduced mobility.
Despite me finishing them off though, I couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. I had lost two of my limited number of robots to that encounter, and if I had taken a bit to think and plan things out then I could have set things up beforehand, done it better and more efficiently.
Shaking that thought out of my digital mind, I look back at the robots finish up the last of the Ghouls, securing the site for me. Grinning, I have them set up a new perimeter and assign some to begin guarding, while the others- primarily Mister Gutsies, go through the various containers and wreckage to take inventory. A couple I even have their thrusters flare up, briefly sending them skywards and onto a couple of the containers to get a better view of things. It was as I looked at this view through the feeds of the robots that I got an idea of just how much the Conductor AI had done, even when in standby mode.
To describe it, even while in standby mode the Conductor AI was still active to an extent, if doing largely automated processes. It was effective even then, successfully coordinating the robots to good success and taking initiative at times, such as planning with the use of the Ghouls and activating previously inactive robots in a pair of containers. Now that it, or rather 'I' was fully awake though things could be taken to the next level.
The minutes tick by as I first take a look at the deactivated robotic units strung throughout the place. There were, well, a lot of them to say the least.
A couple dozen scattered Gutsies were the most numerous, with many of them in repairable condition given the resources. Besides them were the corpses of four more Assaultrons, all destroyed beyond repair, and the Sentry bots which were very promising.
To say the least there was another half dozen of the Mk I's, with half of them in the more easily repairable range, and a second Mk II to complement the first I had seen. Most notably, both were in decent enough condition, but if I swapped some parts around I could get one of them operating very soon… given some needed tools and equipment which I currently lack.
Having a few of the Gutsies start working on gathering the robotic remains, I next start going through the containers I had on hand to look through with a mixture of cameras and bots. While most of them were damaged or had useless or junked cargo, at most raw materials or things I could break down, there were a few that were still sealed and had things of interest.
The first two containers were already unlocked, and had seen a good bit of activity. A check of the logs showed me why, as the two containers housed munitions and recharging stations. They had also been used up a good bit, with the munitions container at 40% capacity when including the munitions generally not used by me, and most of the stored charge gone from the stations.
Opening the next container, I quickly move on as all the medical supplies on board had been smashed and expired- hardened goop and biohazards filling it. Going to the next one, I end up having to spend a couple hours to get an opening; another trashed container sitting on top of it. When I do open it up, I grin as I see the bots held within; namely a couple dozen eyebots. Not all that good in combat, but excellent for recon.
With the container now open, I am able to connect to them. One by one they turn on and check in with systems green, noting two that fail to turn on and another five that have some sort of issue. That's fine, the others should be more then good enough. Turning the problem ones and a few others off, I task half a dozen to assist with the patrolling, the little bots beeping before flying off one by one out of the container.
In good spirits, I turn to the last one as it is unlocked, the Mister Gutsy pulling the doors open and letting me see the contents within, my digital eyes widening as I glimpse what was within.
My shouts and yells of joy went unheard by all but my systems and bots, my elation at finding a multitude of tools and equipment that would keep my robotic force going and help with setting up myself not reaching the physical world.
It was an hour or so after this that I realized that I hadn't checked the Station or the nearby wrecks on the highway. I send a few eyebots and Mister Gutsies down to examine the wrecks on the nearby highway, both from when the bombs went off and later victims to the robots and Ghouls, before having a couple more enter the station.
The entire thing was old if still habitable like most Fallout structures seem to be. The wood, old and in some cases rotten, still stood as I entered the building connected to the tower, a good third of it demolished from the train crash. There wasn't much around, with a nearby set of stairs revealing a small basement housing a damaged and leaking Fusion Generator.
As the bots finish up the search there, my wavering attention was brought back to it as one of the eyebots spotted a map, formerly posted on the wall but now beneath a collapsed chair. Removing it, I have the Mister Gutsy put it on a nearby table and flatten it, before looking at the map first in curiosity, then with mixed feelings.
Looks like I was in the Northwest Commonwealth, Washington state specifically.
Heh, no place like home eh?
A/N: Next chapter up. For the crates and bot corpses I had done some private rolls to determine what would be in them, suffice to say they were quite nice. Also rolled for the Ghoul fight, with a bad roll there meaning that I still won but lost a couple Mister Gutsies and had others be hit by radiation bursts that would lower quality.