Old Conductor, Possessed Anew
Chapter 5
Over a couple hours, the eyebots I sent out started returning, with the last of them arriving just before dawn. As they did so I went over the information each of them had brought to my attention.
The area to the north and northeast was pretty barren- with a bunch of scattered old home businesses and farms amongst the dead trees and dry shrubbery. My eyebots checked a couple of these places, but had to turn back when met with native wildlife- both recognizable in the form of mutated insects and Molerats, but also a couple cases where the creatures within were different from what I was familiar with. Meanwhile, Route 97 heading north/northwest was empty besides the occasional husk of a vehicle, stripped for loot and parts. I did note that they all seemed to be pushed to the side a bit- leaving enough room for vehicles and such to pass through.
To the south and southwest the area from what I could see was also quite barren, if for a different reason. There were signs of a number of the farmsteads having been inhabited recently, with whoever lived in these having been killed within the last few years judging by the state of them and the condition of the skeletons- still having the occasional bit of rotten flesh. The fields themselves laid largely barren, the occasional patch of some crop left to grow.
To the west the three eyebots heading there scouted out the pre-war town of Thrupp and the immediate area. The first check of the Red Rocket and a few nearby buildings actually quite profitable, a number of tools and parts along with salvageable equipment present. There was also a small trucking stop where a few massive fusion-powered semi trucks laid rusting away. While they didn't have anything usable in them, and were almost certainly non-viable to repair, they would still be useful to salvage when I had the time. When the eyebots went into the town of Thrupp itself, they revealed something intriguing.
Thrupp used to house a post-war settlement, emphasis on used to.
A small and hole-filled fence of metal and wooden scrap surrounded much of the pre-war township, likely meant to keep out wildlife and slow down any attackers. My eyebots had silently hovered in from the east, passing by houses in varying levels of condition and a few larger buildings still standing despite some holes. A church of some kind had been badly damaged, leaving parts of it's wall blown out and much of it burned, and some kind of Post office had been the scene of a large battle; the sturdy 2-story building having a few fortified emplacements of barriers and sandbags surrounding it, the ruined form of a machine gun amongst skeletons and old bullet casings around and inside it. A few tattered strips of some flag hung from the pole, their colors different enough to tell me it was neither the old United States flag, nor the one of the Northwest Commonwealth.
Going further west brought me to a second wall; this one much more built up using sheets of metal, stacked vehicles, and solid wood, with no breaches besides an open entrance visible. Going through that, the eyebots had passed by several non-residential buildings, including a fire station seemingly converted into some kind of water storage and purification building and a clinic. During all of this I noted that the buildings here seemed to have more combat damage then those outside of the walls barring a few exceptions.
Finally the eyebots had come to a stop at what was seemingly the main building of the settlement, that being the old school. From what they could see from going through the place, it looked like it had been badly fought over and ransacked- old quarters for this place's guards, offices for those running the place, and storage and equipment rooms all showing varying amounts of looting and damage.
The eyebots had ended up being careful here, as a number of old traps seemed to still be present and armed- larger tripwire grenade traps mixed in with the occasional mine and makeshift tesla trap. Even so, this place definitely still seemed to have some odds and ends present. Whoever had raided the place had not taken everything.
After that, the eyebots had spent another hour or so going through some of the buildings of the old settlement, which revealed a few things. For one, the several barn and animal pen buildings on the other side of the rail line going just through the northern bit of the town were occupied by wasteland wildlife- what appeared to be Radscorpians. I won't be able to see how well they fare against my robotic units until I try, but I do recall something about the larger versions of them fighting Deathclaws and Sentry Bots- indicating that they are capable of doing damage against robots.
Granted that was when it was all a game, but it warranted caution regardless.
Besides that I also checked out another large building, apparently meant to rent out equipment to farmers and construction workers both in the area as part of some kind of local Co-Op. The place was locked up tight, but thankfully my eyebots could simply fly up towards one of the shattered windows and look inside, and boy did they see some interesting stuff.
A lot of it was simple supplies and tools, if very likely valuable for any post-war farmers. Larger in there were a number of tractors and combines and forklifts- all in varying condition. The biggest surprise were the robots in there. The first of them were a pair of tracked robots- a control unit on the back as the front was a pivoting mount equipped with flails.
A moment of familiarity caused me to look through my memories after I paused the recorded footage from the eyebots, soon leading me to some memories of Fallout Tactics, the first Fallout game separate from the main line of games. The game's canon status was quite mixed and debated, so I suppose seeing such a pair of robots here shouldn't be too big of a surprise, since they were originally meant for agriculture before the Calculator got their hands on the type, damn thing putting an AI like me in a bad light.
The other robots there were also old ones, and took me longer to figure out. Eventually a quick check of my database of blueprints revealed a more 'minor' one, that being the C-12 Sentry Bot developed by Acme, it being the bipedal design seen rarely in Fallout 2. These were missing their weapons and a number of choice military hardware bits, likely meaning that they were sold in the civilian market. No doubt between it's height, balance issues when in combat/rough conditions, some problems involving armor coverage, and relative age made it be phased out- although a couple bits of fragmented articles and notes did indicate attempts to modernize and update it, likely why some were present in Fallout 2 to begin with- let alone in the hands of the Enlcave.
Either way, the three present in their seemed to be different; with modified legs and attached hands likely meant to carry or push large loads. It's coloring- faint construction yellow and orange, showed it's new purpose. It actually wouldn't surprise me if the things had been used to help build the second wall after the nuclear holocaust. Either way, if I could get them to work then that would be great!
Of course, I still needed robots that could actually perform the maintenance and engineering work needed, but these being possibly repairable would be quite the boon for me.
It was towards the end here that I looked over an image showing another flag that had been seen, this one inside the repurposed school and thus much more intact.
The flag itself was a tricolor, with three rows from top to bottom- those being blue, white and green. In the middle of the flag itself was a symbol in the form of a tree, a type of evergreen most likely.
It certainly wasn't a flag I was familiar with, and the quality of it suggested that this wasn't a pre-war and professionally done one. So what was it then, a flag chosen by the people here? Unusual I suppose, but certainly a possibility.
After that, there was the final trio of eyebots from the east to consider, these ones bringing footage and data that brought different concerns and interests to light.
The city of Ellensburg was once the County Seat of Kittitas County. Home to over thirty thousand souls judging by the damaged sign near the outskirts, it also housed one of the more notable institutions of higher education in the old state, that being Central Washington University. That name had seemingly not changed despite the state itself not existing anymore. I didn't know just what the people back before the Great War preferred in terms of States versus Commonwealths, but I do know the idea and referring of states never died- mentions of Alaska and the naming of the NCR proof of that.
My own fragmented database had little on the city as I had not meant to be in this area for long, bound for an airfield that would've taken me to first Alaska, then the front lines. I do have a bit of information mentioning brief talks between my train's security detail and the National Guard stationed there, whom had apparently had to fortify and expand their post here due to 'potential communist activity inciting the populace'. Knowing how bad the Fallout government and military could be at times, no doubt it was probably students becoming politically active and expressing their 'concerns'.
Now though? The city itself seemed to have most of its buildings standing, but there wasn't anything good to say about the inhabitants. The vast majority of the city seemed to be populated by feral ghouls, most of them concentrated in the north and east of the city. The eyebots couldn't figure out what was in those areas specifically, nor what was in the south of the city. In the west however, they witnessed some of the particular human residents of this place.
They were raiders, in fact it wouldn't surprise me if they were from the same group that chased the people that accidentally freed me tyears back. They seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with vehicles, going by the number of them I' watched being driven around or in their garages in the recorded footage, and that was just during the very early morning hours.
From what I could tell, they seemed to be based in that area of the city ue to the number of old mechanic shops, auto stores, and car dealerships in it- which makes sense considering their preference towards vehicles.
What is also noticed is that there appeared to be trouble in the ranks. Despite looking and acting similar, many in the north of the territory were facing and guarding against those to the south and vice versa. That, along with cross out tags in the northern part said that they must have rebelled against the main group, whom appears to have large amounts of guards looking both north and east. I have no clue if their attention eastward was normal or due to another threat, perhaps a third group.
Either way, it would hopefully keep them distracted enough to not have anyone look out this way anytime soon.
What got my attention the most here were the robots. The groups employed a decent number of Protectrons, Mister Handys, and Mister Gutsys. Some of them were definitely meant for fighting, but the majority of them appeared to be more work related- either doing grunt work or assisting in mechanical and engineering duties involving the vehicles and related equipment. They were exactly what I needed, I just had to get them!
A quick glance at my current inventory of operational bots dissuaded me however. At the moment I had a grand total of eleven Mister Gutsys, three Sentry Bots, two Dominator-model assaultrons, and twenty two eyebots, seventeen when not including ones with some sort of issue. From what I saw of the raider's loadouts, that may be enough for a group or two on foot- the raiders seeming to largely use leather and scrap metal armor of varying kinds, with firearms being a mixture of old civilian and some lighter military. Their vehicles however seemed to have the vast majority of their heavy weapons- mostly machine guns and makeshift explosives launchers or even more primitive weapons like a harpoon ballista in one case.
The vehicles would be the most dangerous to me, not only due to their heavy armaments but also because of their mobility- a fast attack force could get here very quickly. Hell, if they launched a force while I was in the middle of attacking, those robots may not get back here in time.
So I needed to play this carefully, so as to both safely grab some of the robots with minimal loses, and to try to prevent them from following me back here.
Slowly, a plan came to mind. My servers hummed in thought as my few of my robotic servants started moving.
AN: The discovered flag, known as the Doug Flag, can be found by typing this, with the first result being it: wiki/Doug_flag