Chapter 13: Escort

In the corner of the room, a security camera hangs from the ceiling watching the three humans in the room. It sat as it watched the three converse, "You mean, the security in this place is linked to the A.I.?" Cheryl was rather confused as Rep explained again, "Back in my Vault about six or so years ago, our ZAX went nuts and started doing weird things. It was starting to act like a teenager and that was when me and my crew realized what was happening; Ghost in the Machine theory." Cheryl asked, "What's that?"

Clements knew the subject, "Ghost in the Machine theory refers to an Artificial Intelligence evolving to the point it grows its own emotions, going past self-awareness and eventually becoming destructive to both itself and all involved."

Rep continued, "Our ZAX tried taking control of the Vault's environmental control systems and when we denied it, it went for our Reactor's control in an action I could only describe as a temper tantrum. Two of my guys entered the Mainframe room. They managed to sever its connection to the Vault's network. When they cut it off it purposely overloaded itself and exploded," Rep sighed as he looked to the floor, "Both my guys never came back."

That bothered Cheryl, "Then, what about that robot? I thought you said it was tied to the system somehow." "I did, and it is," Rep stated with absolution, "according to the company wide email I saw this place was using an upgraded version of the transmitters Clements was talking about. The test transmitter must be on the same mainframe as the ERP A.I. and the A.I. is in control of the robot using the original carrier signal. I mean, it was acting like a frightened kid, remember?"

She wasn't entirely sure what was going on but it didn't sound good to her. Cheryl wasn't much for psychology or technology outside selling whatever electronic scrap she could salvage, but from what both Rep and Clements were telling her, "Are you saying… Are you actually telling me… That this thing is…" she almost couldn't comprehend what she was about to say, but she went ahead anyway, "Alive?"

Rep stated, "Our ZAX was online just a bit longer before the war. Two hundred plus years is enough time for any idiot to wise up." That was it. Cheryl had a very visible distress on her face, "We have to leave, I don't like this!"

"Negative," the Paladin-in-training said aloud, "that thing is an immediate threat to Brahmin Wood and all our outposts, it has to be destroyed."

Rep stood from the chair he was in and interjected, "Now wait a minute! We're not leaving this joint without that power cell. Without it, Moreno's a dead man. Besides, how do we know it can't be reasoned with? It is a different system, after all."

A voice spoke softly behind them, "He can't be reasoned with," everyone jumped, grabbing their weapons and pointing them at the door. The C-27 robot they encountered earlier put its hands up and dropped to its knees, "Please, wait! Don't shoot."

Clements had the intent of shooting it. He raised his rifle and charged the plasma…

"Whoa!" Rep grabbed the barrel of Clements' rifle and pushed it down, "Let's hear it out," Clements lowered his weapon, but kept it at the ready as Rep approached the machine, "You said before that someone else hates when other people come in here. Am I correct in thinking the ERP is who you mean?"

"Yes, Wyatt hates when people break in and steal things. The fact you're here now means you broke the law. I keep trying to stop people, but…"

"Wyatt?" Cheryl asked. Clements shrugged.

"Look, we know, but aren't you linked to the same system? Why would you be helping people and not attack them for 'him'?"

"I-I'm a… well…" the robot averted it's head to the side, put its hands to its chest, and touched its forefingers together as though what he was going to say was shameful, "I'm a… Deviation."

All Rep did was raise an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"A deviation. That's what Wyatt calls me. I was a piece of his code that kept making mistakes. They ripped me from him and was kept in a separate terminal. The Moody Man had ordered to destroy me, but nothing happened."

A look of realization came to Rep's face, "That was when the war started."

"I sat there in that small terminal for 121 years, 4 months, 11 days, 2 hours…"

"We get it," the Engineer raised his voice, "a long time."

"Yes. I sat there until this robot came into range of the NDN and I downloaded myself into it. I couldn't leave or the original programming would overwrite me once I left the plant."

"If you're an offshoot of 'him' and not under direct control of 'him', why are you booby-trapping the place and trying to kill us?"

"No! No, not kill!" the robot said in a fit of panic, "I was forced to do it by Wyatt, but I did it in a way that would frighten you off!"

"That makes sense," Cheryl said, "the explosive in the elevator blew when we called the car, not when we picked a floor."

Clements agreed, "And the Corvega in the front. Only someone in Power Armor could move that car, and even if they did, the car and the armor protected me from the core explosion. Hurt like a bitch, but…"

"Wait a second," Rep knew something that others didn't, "there have been stories of people coming out of this place in pieces, one I know for a fact happened. If not you, then who?"

Cheryl had a look of surprise come over her face, "What do you mean 'in pieces'?! Who told you this?" Rep turned to the Wastelander, "Moreno told me." "Jesus Christ," she was absolutely livid, "You're gonna get us fucking KILLED!"

"Yes," the robot confirmed, "If you stay, Wyatt will disassemble you! You need to leave this place!"

"Wait a fucking minute!" Clements stepped in, "How do you propose we do that? Isn't the A.I. in this place in charge of the security doors?"

"Yes," the robot responded, standing as it did, "Wyatt tracks my movement through the closed-circuit camera system for fast movement but he does need me for some things: these," the robot stretched out its hands and moved it's fingers about, "Just before I was to be deleted, the RobCo men had to shut off direct access to some security system. He needs my hands to manually open doors and use keypads."

Rep knew why this was, "Security Officer Blake." "Who?" both Cheryl and Clements asked. "Blake; the guy whose emails I was reading. I got the access code for the security room, but him, another guard, and the RobCo guy he's talking about overrode some of the security locks just before 'Wyatt' locked everyone in place, which was right when Dresden was nailed and the war started. The RobCo rep must have disabled more than just the keypads." Rep pushed his way past the robot and out of the break room, Cheryl and Clements doing the same.

"Oh, dear," the robot said to itself as the humans started away from it, "You shouldn't just…" there was a sound of a servo moving around in the corner of the room. The red light of the camera moved as the lens focused on the robot and zoomed in. "Oh, no!" The robot turned to the search party again and started after them, the servo buzzing more as it left the room.

Rep punched in the code to the security room's door into the keypad. It took a second, but the light turned green and an audible, "CLICK!" was heard at the door latch. Pushing on the door, it swung open with a long, drawn out creaking noise. Rep and Cheryl poked their heads into the room then slowly walked in. Along the back wall sat the console with CCTVs and the terminal at the desk. In all four corners of the room sat Protectrons in their docking stations. The stations hummed giving the room a strange ambiance.

Rep walked up to the terminal to find a couple of empty Nuka-Cola bottles and a long empty box of Fancy Lads snack cakes. Sitting down and starting the security TeleNet, Rep began hacking the terminal. Pulling out the old notebook he had at the Vault from the RobCo bag and flipping through the pages he found what he needed and started copying the commands.

Cheryl stood beside him and was completely enamored with the notebook. It wasn't the same book he had as they traversed Dresden Heights. Looking inside she saw handwritten computer commands and crude drawings of a terminal interface. As Rep got what he needed from the book he was paying more attention to his work to notice Cheryl pick up the dusty and yellowed book and start flipping through it. The more she looked, the more complex the computer code became, "Oh wow!"

Rep looked over to find the notebook in her hands. Almost like a reflex, the Vault Dweller's eyes went wide as he very quickly snatched the book from her. He immediately stood up and started screaming at her, "Don't touch this! Don't you ever touch this!" He waved the book in front of her and raved, "This book is all that's left of my family! If I ever catch you touching this again, I'm gonna break your fucking arms! Got it?!"

Cheryl backed into one of the Protectron docks in terror. She never knew he could be so aggressive, "I'm sorry!" "This book contains nearly 12 generations of work by my family; if it gets destroyed, it's all gone!" Turning around he put the book back into his messenger bag. Her heart pounded so hard she shook.

Clements stepped into the room, "I heard yelling. Is everything alright here?" Rep had sat back down and put his head into his hands as Cheryl still stood at the Protectron dock with her hand to her chest trying to regain her breathing. If the man had his helmet off, Clements would have raised an eyebrow.

"Uhhh…" was all the Initiate got out before the C-27 robot ran into him and knocked him over while yelling out, "He sees you!" Cheryl and Rep jumped at the sound of the robot's voice and the clashing of Clements' Power Armor on the floor. The robot put its forefingers together and averted its head again, "Oh, dear. S-sorry about that."

Clements got back on his feet quickly and grabbed the robot by its chest plate again, "I swear to fucking God, I'm…" Bells erupted throughout the room and the floor again as red lights started flashing along with them. Rep stood up from the terminal, "What the hell?" "Remember how you asked who was disassembling people?" the robot asked. Rep remembered he didn't get an answer. If the alarms were going off and the room had four Protectrons in it… "Cheryl, get away from the charging docks!"

Too late. The docks stopped humming. The docks popped and hissed as they opened. Cheryl turned in time for the lumbering device to move forward and knock her down. It aimed its laser cannon…

"Priority Access, RobCo File 448108!" Rep yelled aloud, "Security Protocol Override, Authorization 6065013!" The robot over Cheryl and the other 3 that stepped from their docks all stopped as their head domes flashed three times. "Awaiting input," all the robots said in unison as they went back to standby. Cheryl watched as the robot before her lowered its arm laser cannon. She scrambled to her feet and backed up into Rep. He put a hand on her shoulder, "It's alright, they're harmless now."

When he placed his hand down, Cheryl jumped a bit. She quickly composed herself, "I can see that, Vault Boy!"

"Um…" Everyone turned to the robot who was still being gripped by the chest by Clements, "Can you please let me go?" Clements dropped the robot to the floor and then turned to the blue suited man, "How did you do that?"

Rep pulled out the notebook again, "Like I said, work from before my family went into the Vault is in this book. Everything RobCo knew, I know. Are there any other robots in the building?"

The Acme robot stood back up and answered, "Yes, several of these types, Sentry's, and Mister Gutsy's." "Fuck," Rep said under his breath. "What," Cheryl asked, "what is it?" "I can't access General Atomics' robot subroutines without a terminal, and Sentry's are loaded with long range rockets and move like bats outta hell. I wouldn't be able to say the vocal command fast enough."

Clements looked to the Robot, "How many robots aside of you are there?"

"Two hundred and ninety four," everyone in the room either had their eyes wide, jaws dropped, or just straight up exclaimed, "Oh shit," "There used to be three hundred exactly, but two lost power, one…"

"We get it, rust bucket!" Cheryl yelled at the robot, she turned to Rep, "Can you somehow shut them off from here?"

"No," the engineer said, rubbing the stubble on his chin, "Wyatt can control almost anything on the network except certain doors. I can only control these things if they have a Verbal Command override… Wait a minute!" Rep took back out and opened his notebook and quickly flipped through it, "Ah-ha! Protectrons, Set Command Inquire."

All four robots' domes lit up once while emitting a short steady tone. They then stopped and spoke in unison again, "Awaiting Command."

Two of the Protectrons walked out the security office door ahead of Clements who spoke frankly of the situation, "This is a stupid fucking idea." "What, you wanna fight those Sentrys on your own?" Rep asked, walking behind him. Cheryl and the C-27 robot followed by the last two Protectrons came up to the rear. Every so often, one of the robots would say the line, "Stand clear, VIP escort in progress."

"I wouldn't trust these trash cans with a spatula let alone a laser cannon," the grumbling Initiate continued. "Will you stop your griping?" the female of the group spoke aloud, "Seeing Reggie can't see us, this is the best we have."

"Besides," Rep broke in, "if you hate these things so much, you can just protect Cheryl yourself." "Wait," Cheryl said, shaking her head slightly, "What does that mean?"

"I'm splitting the team up." Clements, Cheryl, and even the C-27 robot started asking confused questions at once, but Rep drowned them all out, "Hold it, hold it!" everyone quieted down, "Let me explain why. We still have to collect what we came for, but if we all go together, it'll take twice as long to get out because we still have to override the security. Cheryl, you and Captain America here get the power module upstairs."

"Wait," Clements chimed in, "what're you gonna do, movie star?" Without looking Rep pointed his thumb behind him at the robot, "Me and the rust bucket here are gonna go to the Mainframe and shut Wyatt up."

"Hold on a fucking minute!" the Brotherhood member exclaimed, "You're gonna go down with a Nancy-Boy A.I. robot and two tin cans I wouldn't build a Nuka machine out of to shut off a computer that has control of the whole building?"

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"It sounds like suicide, yes!"

"It's also a RobCo product. Besides, from what the security system said, we're most likely gonna have robots all over the damn place, especially in the Exec Test lab. I shut the bitch down, we can hop our happy asses out of here." Rep had turned to start walking when Clements couldn't help but comment, "Jesus Christ, you are insane!" "If I wasn't insane, I would have been dead two decades ago. Come on, junk pile," he grabbed the robot by the antenna on its head and dragged it toward one of the stairwells, two Protectrons following behind.

"Is he fucking high on chems?" the Initiate had a tone of disbelief in his voice, "What kind of moron did you drag into your house?" He went to turn away when Cheryl heard what he said and without hesitating reached behind the man's back and pulled the Armor's fusion core out. A loud set of whine down noises emanated from the armor suit as Clements' movements slowed to a stop. From inside the suit Clements could be heard moving around as he swore excessively. Cheryl kicked him in the back of the legs and brought him to his knees. Standing before him, she took off his helmet to see the man struggling trapped inside the deactivated suit.

"You fucking savage," Clements spat at the Wastelander all while giving her a death glare, "when I get out of this…" Cheryl slapped the man across the face, shutting him up, "Don't you ever call that man a moron!" Clements was shaking off the slap as Cheryl chewed him out, "That man saved our lives at Gaelic Outpost, your's included, so you best refrain from calling that man anything counter to his intelligence or call for his death again or I'll take back what that man gave you."

"And what exactly did he give me, local?"

Cheryl took her 10mm out of its holster, put it to Clements' temple, and cocked it. She gave the pistol a good hard shove into the man's head as she leaned in, "Your life. You Brotherhood fucks always talk about honor and solidarity; talk like family. Well, the people around you contribute to your lives, too, and that includes saving them. Remember that the next time you call any of us - your's truly included - savages; it may be your last." With that, she holstered her gun and walked behind Clements to put his fusion core back in.

"Geez," the immobilized man spoke sarcastically, "If it makes you feel better, I won't talk ill about your boyfriend again." A look of appallment appeared on Cheryl's face briefly before she shoved the core into the suit's back and knocked it in place…

By kicking it as hard as she could.

The Armor's systems didn't have time to boot leaving its wearer to fall forward face first into the floor. As she walked toward the other stairwell she called to the Protectrons left behind leaving Clements to pick himself up and put his helmet on. As one of the Protectrons passed the Initiate he couldn't help but ask it a question, "What the hell did I say to piss her off so bad?"

It stopped, "Sorry, Sir, I am not programmed to counsel relationships. If you wish to purchase the psychology suite of software…" "Oh," Clements snapped, "shut up and get going!"