When they awoke the following morning, the sun was already high overhead, casting it's merciless rays down on everything in the wasteland below, Nadine and Farnan being no exception. The heat and humidity were unchanged from the previous day, leading Nadine to remark "I hope this isn't a permanent weather pattern", to which Farnan replied "if this is what happens in a nuclear summer, I'd much prefer a nuclear winter, or I'd settle for a fall." A small chuckle escaped Nadine's lips, but it quickly died when an immediate sense of hunger and thirst overtook her. "When's the last time you ate something, Jason" she asked, and Farnan reflected that it had been more than a day. "About the same time you did" he replied. "Maybe there is a mess hall or cantina or something around here. We'll work off our tab doing dishes or something until we find a way to get some money. With my fighting skills and your..." she glared at him "charming good looks we'll be rolling in Benjamins in no time." "Supposing of course that there are any people left" Nadine said, unsure of what to add to it. For once, she did not have a quick wit or remark to lighten the suddenly somber mood that overtook the two of them. "Well, we can't exactly live out our lives in a tent now, can we" Jason remarked with a shrug, and he started to put his share of their meager belongings into his pack. "Any particular building strike your fancy to have a look into first?" "You mentioned a mess hall. I don't know about you, but I'd like to look around for that first. The manufacturers of most of the food items produced around the time of the war gave their products a shelf life of about a thousand years, so there might be some useful things left there." "I can hardly wait. Two hundred years of post apocalyptic hell shouldn't make whatever we find much different than the crap Andy Handy used to make in the vault" he said with a laugh, which Nadine joined into. They shouldered their packs, and began the trek across the barren parade grounds towards the first brick building across the way. The wind whistled and stirred, causing flakes of olive drab paint to fall around them, but other than that nothing moved. The pair approached the main doors of the building, only to find them locked. "Stand aside, Grognak" Nadine said to Farnan as he started to plant his feet to shoulder slam the door. She pulled a hairpin out of her hair, and a screwdriver out of her toolbox, and set to work probing the lock to find the sweet spot. After a few twists of the screwdriver that failed to open it, a soft click was heard, and the doorknob creaked out it's protest at being disturbed. Dust and debris were dislodged from the doorframe as Farnan opened the door, pulled the charging handle on his rifle and raised it to port arms. The dust of what seemed like millenia coated every surface of the interior of the building. The first desk they came to in the entrance lobby had a Province of New York Flag and an Army flag crossed behind it, several inches of dust, and a chunk of crumbling ceiling plaster that had fallen across the log book. Beneath the crossed flags were the words U.S. Army Munitions Disposal Command in 6 inch high brass letters. Farnan brushed off the debris and picked up the log book, scanning through the entries for anything of interest. "It says here that the base was re-aligned after that closing of the Alaska campaign. Lots of visits by West Tek, Winchester Arms and other hardware manufacturers in the years leading up to the closure though. Lots of labor bringing heavy crates in, but hardly any crates going out. This could be interesting." "Or it could mean that this place was a disposal site for unusable ammunition" Nadine said, rolling her eyes. As they stared across the pages of the log book, a sound of movement was heard coming from around the corner. A mechanical whir-chunk, whir-chunk was approaching! The glowing dome and body lights of an Army Protectron rounded the corner, and it's halting, raspy mechanical voice called out "Hold...it...right ...there" while orienting it's body towards Nadine and Farnan. Nadine put her hand over Farnan's rapidly rising service rifle, stopping him from introducing it's face to a few rounds of burst fire. "I think I can shut it down, you don't have to destroy it" she said, as she darted into a side passageway. "Distract it so I can get around behind it. The power switch is located next to it's combat inhibitor. Think of all the things we could do with our own robot. It's functions include heavy load lifting, factory work, fine manipulation skills, security patrol, it was used in museums, subways, police forces, and military applications as you can see here." "I hope it wasn't too popular with the Army, even you could outrun it or dodge out of the way." The glare from the previous day briefly flitted across Nadine's features. "I'll let that one go once you apologize after you see what I can do with it once I reprogram it. And for your information we'll probably be encountering these in lots of military bases. Robco, the manufacturer, had a contract with them for hundreds of thousands of units. Even though they suck, they were cheaper than a soldier, and you know how defense budgets go." Don't I ever, thought Farnan. "How far apart are these military bases we're going to be encountering all over the place? Something tells me the subways or busses aren't still running on schedule." "Shut it. You're just grumpy because so far brains have soundly beaten brawn every single challenge we've encountered." Farnan started to protest, but as he did he found another piece of splinter lodged in the sleeve of his combat armor. He picked it out and tossed it aside, sticking out his tongue at Nadine as he did. The protectron was advancing all this time on Farnan, who, having a loaded assault rifle, was obviously the greatest threat. "Just distract it for a few seconds longer, while I..." The protectron's dome changed color from yellow to red, and it shouted "hostile...detected" followed by "firing...weapons". Electronic noises could be heard from inside the dome, but all that came out of the laser projector were sparks. "Malfunction...
detected...engaging...secondary...weapons systems" it droned, bringing it's arms up to firing positions. Two needle sized beams of bright red coherent light shot out of the protectron's 'hands', missing Farnan by a wide margin. The protectron recalculated it's aim, and canted it's weapons slightly downward and to the side. Not on your life Farnan thought, and raised his weapon to his shoulder. Nadine darted out from the side passage and made a mad grab for the combat inhibitor control box once the first discharge was complete. A quick burst from Farnan's rifle removed the right arm of the protectron, just as Nadine found the power switch and flicked it to the off position. The red dome light winked out, and the remaining arm dropped to it's side. "Whew, that was close" Nadine called out, wiping sweat from her brow and sitting down on a nearby desk. Farnan engaged the safety on his rifle, slung it onto his back, and walked over to the now silent, motionless machine. "Not so tough now, are you tin man" he said, rapping his knuckles on the armored plate. "Shall I turn it back on so you two can get all the testosterone out of your systems before we carry on" she asked? "Very funny" he replied, walking over to where she was sitting. "What do we need to get this bucket of bolts back into working order and" he looked at the laser projectors "not trying to deep fry us." "well, I left my circuit probes and data terminal in my other vault suit, so acquiring those would get us off to a good start" she said, looking around at the rest of the room for the first time. They were in an office, composed primarily of desks with blown out computer terminals, but one still stubbornly clung to life, in all it's green screened text only glory. Covered in dust and grime, it clearly showed that it had been topside for centuries with no maintenance, but still appeared to be at least minimally functional. "Check your six" Farnan said, pointing to the faintly glowing screen. "I'll handle this and try to strike up a productive conversation with our friend here, you go on ahead and see if you can find us anything to eat. "I think Grognak can handle that one" Farnan tossed over his shoulder as he put the fresh clip into his rifle and moved out with his weapon at low ready. He continued down the hall, past piles of rubble and debris from collapsed walls or bits of ceiling until he reached what looked to be an intact staircase. "Excelsior" he muttered, mounting the stairs and shaking his head.
detected...engaging...secondary...weapons systems" it droned, bringing it's arms up to firing positions. Two needle sized beams of bright red coherent light shot out of the protectron's 'hands', missing Farnan by a wide margin. The protectron recalculated it's aim, and canted it's weapons slightly downward and to the side. Not on your life Farnan thought, and raised his weapon to his shoulder. Nadine darted out from the side passage and made a mad grab for the combat inhibitor control box once the first discharge was complete. A quick burst from Farnan's rifle removed the right arm of the protectron, just as Nadine found the power switch and flicked it to the off position. The red dome light winked out, and the remaining arm dropped to it's side. "Whew, that was close" Nadine called out, wiping sweat from her brow and sitting down on a nearby desk. Farnan engaged the safety on his rifle, slung it onto his back, and walked over to the now silent, motionless machine. "Not so tough now, are you tin man" he said, rapping his knuckles on the armored plate. "Shall I turn it back on so you two can get all the testosterone out of your systems before we carry on" she asked? "Very funny" he replied, walking over to where she was sitting. "What do we need to get this bucket of bolts back into working order and" he looked at the laser projectors "not trying to deep fry us." "well, I left my circuit probes and data terminal in my other vault suit, so acquiring those would get us off to a good start" she said, looking around at the rest of the room for the first time. They were in an office, composed primarily of desks with blown out computer terminals, but one still stubbornly clung to life, in all it's green screened text only glory. Covered in dust and grime, it clearly showed that it had been topside for centuries with no maintenance, but still appeared to be at least minimally functional. "Check your six" Farnan said, pointing to the faintly glowing screen. "I'll handle this and try to strike up a productive conversation with our friend here, you go on ahead and see if you can find us anything to eat. "I think Grognak can handle that one" Farnan tossed over his shoulder as he put the fresh clip into his rifle and moved out with his weapon at low ready. He continued down the hall, past piles of rubble and debris from collapsed walls or bits of ceiling until he reached what looked to be an intact staircase. "Excelsior" he muttered, mounting the stairs and shaking his head.
