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Fitz wars with himself, caught between three conflicting priorities: Self-preservation pulling one way HARD, but his curiosity as to the capabilities of the Protectron and not wanting Mickey to die alone pulling the other.
Eventually, the lure of knowledge wins out, and Fitz sprints off.
"Wait! I can't let you fight it alone! It'll kill you! Probably, anyway." he calls (and mutters that last part), and runs over next to Mickey.
Fitz lashes out with his new brass knuckles, using the momentum from his rush to lend him some extra strength.
Spaulding is once again overcome with fear. "We can't beat that thing. It has guns. Run away! Run away!. He then finds somewhere to take cover hoping that the others will do the sensible thing and flee.
Spaulding high tails it back and ducks behind cover, . Mickey charges at the robot with his iron, but the slow moving robot somehow blocks it with his arm.
"Assaulting a State Officer of the Law is a felony. Priority target acquired."
The robot's glass head begins to glow with light, and a laser flashes out of the bulb of his head towards Mickey.
The beam shoots past Mickey and hits the wall, scorching it.
As Fitz rushes up and connects with a vicious blow on the robot's metallic chest, a huge gong is heard, but unfortunately it doesn't so much as leave a dent.
Spaulding and Spencer go before Protectron, then Mickey and Fitz last.
Fitz takes the time to look incredulously in Spaulding's direction "Spaulding! YOU have a gun!"
Fitz, seeing his attack was ineffective, decides to try a new tactic.
"Okay! We've seen what it can do! I'm going to knock it over, then we leg it! Sound like a plan?"
With that said, Fitz tries to sweep the legs out from under the Protectron.
Spencer glances over the wall at the robot and sees that Mickey and Fitz have both moved in close to attack the thing. He draws the gun from his pocket and tries to work the slide, arming it to fire, but in his excitement and anxiety his finger slides across the magazine release. Cursing under his breath, he picks up the magazine and loads it back into the pistol, then arms it, ready to fire shortly thereafter.
Spaulding looks quizzically at Fitz, as he quickly retreats looking for somewhere safe to hide.
"Spencer's got the gun. All I've got is a knife, and an uneven hunk of concrete. I don't like my odds. Live to fight another day and all".
Mickey decides to take one more shot.
; Total = 7
As Spaulding continues to cower behind a wall, and Spencer battles his own phobias to ready the gun, the robot recognizes two threats now, and activates his rapid fire mode. The glass head glows again, and two lasers fire out towards Mickey and Fitz.
Mickey ducks out of the way, but Fitz catches one squarely in the chest...
Fitz coughs.
"Owwwwwwww..."
The robot pushes back against Nathan's attempt to trip it, but in the end Nathan shifts to unbalance his own stance and offs it's center of gravity.
The robot falls backwards with a thud.
; Total = 14
And with a smash, just after it falls Mickey's tire iron busts through the chest plate of the Protectron, and circuitry and wires are exposed...the curved head of the tire iron catches a chunk of wire, and sparks fly as he pulls it out roughly, and the light in its head fades out.
The alarm in the security booth continues to howl for a bit, but once one of you swipes the badge in the scanner outside of the door, it stops.
Spencer hears the twin crashes, and stands up warily, pointing the pistol--in a proper form Weaver stance--towards the Protectron. Upon seeing that it is fully down and the others are standing by, though, he drops the weapon and runs a hand through his hair. "Damn. Uh, sorry about that. I didn't want to get shot, and, uh, I don't like robots."
As if suddenly hearing the alarm, he springs over to the scanner and swipes the badge, figuring it must work similarly to security in the Vault. Once the alarm goes away, he flips the pistol's safety on and slides it back into his pocket, then turns to face Fitz. "Speaking of getting shot, Fitz. I can try and patch you up there if you want. If nobody else knows how." Spencer glances to the Protectron's "body" and taps his fingers on his thigh. "But we should do it outside. Or in one of the other rooms?"
Fitz nods and coughs again. Once inside he lifts up his shirt.
"I think I may have a bruised rib." he manages, revealing an angry red burn on his side.
"On the plus side now I can honestly say I've body slammed a robot."
"Yeah, no problem." Spencer looks to Mickey. "Mind if I use that kit your cousins gave you? This looks nasty."
Assuming that Mickey agrees, Spencer ushers Nathan into a different room, out of view of the robot, and begins applying some of the ointments and medication in the kit.
Spencer applies some ointment to the wound and wraps it in some gauze, and pulls out a couple of pills for Fitz to take. "That should take off some of the sting, and these should fix some of the pain and keep any swelling down." He cracks a small smile as he packs the kit back up. "Hope you can dry swallow."
"I think I can manage. Thanks, I feel much better already." he says, and weakly smiles back.
Reluctantly, he levers himself back onto his feet, wincing all the while.
"Unfortunately, I don't think we can afford to delay on my account. We should probably find what we can here, perhaps stay the night depending on how long that takes, and trudge forward as soon as possible. Hopefully we'll find some water."
Assuming nobody holds him down to the bed, Fitz slowly makes his way to and searches the security room first.
As Fitz searches the booth he doesn't really see much else new that wasn't noticed before, but he's pretty sure the alarms are all turned off.
...and the party finishes exploring the rest stop. There does seem to be benches to sleep on here, but it's only about 3pm by your collective reasoning. Still, it's late enough to see where the sun will set and attempt to figure north. (Survival at +1)
Spencer assists in searching the rest of the stop with the others, but while they go through, he spends some time getting used to the feel of his new weapons. Most of this is spent trying to quickly pull them from his pockets, and although it takes a while at first--and he once drops the switchblade outright, jumping back as it clicks open and bounces on the ground--he eventually gets the hang of it. By the time the group heads out, supplies in hand, he's able to draw the pistol and raise it to firing position in the blink of an eye.
Shielding his eyes as he looks at the sun and their surroundings, Spencer nods to himself and points. "Looks like it'll set over that way. Which makes north up here... and south, and so on." He gestures to each of the cardinal points and turns to the others. "So, they said there's a town north and a city to the west, right? Where do we want to go? I'm thinking a smaller town might be good to start. Who knows what a city would be like."
"Agreed. Small town people might be more welcoming of strangers, and wiling to accommodate our ignorance better."
"Unless of course they've grown tired of Vault refugees."
Spaulding comes out from his hiding spot behind a concrete barrier of some sort, his mouth hanging open in amazement. "What happened? Did you actually kill it? Then he sees the gruesomeness of the injury to his comrade, and almost pukes.
Helping search and gather items, Spaulding is a bit ashamed that he had so little faith in his party's abilities, but still keeps looking at the robot in fear.
"Do you think that thing has any parts, or maybe a power supply we could salvage"?
Knowledge: Geography Total of 6
XD
WD
He tries to remember anything he can about either the town or city.
As the party gathers their meager supplies, Spaulding shyly begins to speak.
"Hey everybody. I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier today. I'm really not a chicken... and I know I didn't contribute much... but I'll do better. I guess my injury, and being thrust into this situation just got me a little off balance.
Spaulding remembers, based on the maps he studied from before the war, that Orlando was the biggest city west of where he estimates this rest stop to be. The east coast of Florida had many cities along the coast, so the small town could be anywhere, but he did remember reading a lot about a tourist attraction nearby...a space station, named after former president Kennedy...
Spencer nods to Fitz. "That's what I was thinking. As for other refugees... I wonder if we'll meet any. And how that'll go."
When Spaulding apologizes, Spencer shakes his head. "There's nothing to be sorry for, Spaulding. I panicked too, and I'm sure we'll all hit moments out here where we don't know what to do. Hiding is survival more than cowardice. This is a dangerous world, and nobody can be faulted for wanting to live."
"Spencer is right. Fighting the Protectron was a reckless move on our part. It would have been better for us all to flee at once, you did nothing wrong."
"That said, we should all practice fighting whenever we can. I know I'll be going over forms for boxing and those old "Kung Fu" tapes I found a few years ago every night."
"Well, we have food and water, such as it is. Should we eat a meal and see how far we can get before nightfall, or wait until the morning? It'll be dark in about three hours, I believe."
Mickey watched the Protectron, weary that at any moment it might start back up again.
"We have food and shelter, we might as well stay here for now and get an early start. The smaller town sounds like the better bet to me, too."
You all manage to have a decent night's rest, albeit considerably less comfortable than the bunks in the vault.
With the night over, as the sun rises you all start to make your way north.
You notice as you travel, many of the old street signs are toppled, but a handful remain. You can see grafitti c overing many of them. Many of them seem to have the word "Kingdom" spray painted over, with what looks like three overlapping circles (almost...mouse ear like?) next to it...Almost every sign that indicates heading west from your position on a major road does.
Almost all of the buildings seem to have rotted away with age, and few, if any of the previous cities of a bygone generation remain. You see few skeletons of cars, most stripped of major components already with rotten rubber, and little left even to scavenge. As you pass closer to some of the towns, you think you might be able to scavenge some of the buildings for supplies, but the ones that don't already look picked clean seem to be in dubious condition .
The signs that remain do start to point out Kennedy, but they don't say space station, or town...The rest seems blacked out, and much neater than the grafitti of other signs. "MUTANTS AND GHOULS SHOT ON SIGHT" seems to be added in white, almost as an afterthought... The sun is blazing, and you're all starting to get thirsty. You think you're getting close to Kennedy, but you're not sure how long it will be. the broken road seems oddly deserted...
"What say we search one of these buildings? It would be good to have something to barter with when we got to the town, in case we have to pay for passage inside."
Spencer eyes the buildings suspiciously, but nods. "You're probably right, Fitz. Good thinking. Having something to trade or offer in good faith would get us a long way. But I don't like those big ones..." He shakes his head. "Too easy to get lost, or find someone who's taken up residence. Best to start small."
In an effort to escape the oppressive heat, the party ventures off the highway as it passes the ruins of a little town off the highway. As they take some time to look through the different buildings before checking, they find...
Science?
WD
Fitz would have helped him.
Or not.
...all collapsed...
...severely damaged...
...severely damaged...
...minor damage!
After about four hours of searching the town, you all finall come across a building small enough and in good enough condition that doesn't look pocked clean. It's a...
...hardware store, it appears. "ACE o'Spades Overpriced Hardware!"
The group empties the backpack and the others sit back as Spencer moves in to explore the hardware store. (Spencer gets no penalty from the condition of the building, so) he makes it through, picking through the various crashed remains.
In about ten minutes of exploration he manages to find a box with five fission batteries. (6lbs each)
"Well, that does seem to be a decent enough find. I'm sure I can think of something to do with them."
"Still, it's time to move on, I believe. More...consumable supplies are what we need right now."
"Agreed," Spencer says, shifting the batteries in the bag or to his pockets so the group can get everything ready to carry on their way. "If we see anywhere that might have food, may be worth taking a look... Quietly." He glances back to the town as he starts walking down the road again. "Didn't see or hear anything this time, but I'm sure there's other people and things out there."
"Yeah, we should get going," Mickey said as he wiped off a large lather of sweat from his brow.
"You know, I used to read poetry about the sun and its majestic, life-giving splendor and what not. But so far, I'm not a fan. I feel like I'm patrolling next to the steam valves."
"Why did you have to mention the steam valves?" Fitz asks, despairingly.
The group leaves the ghost town behind and heads back on the road. The thirst is hitting them again, hard, but with no potable water in sight and only enough to satiate two people in their bags, they press on, following the exit for Kennedy. More ravaged ruins of buildings lay here, but these seem...utterly and completely collapsed, strangely. Absolute ruin, in fact. As you move closer to investigate, you can hear the distinct sound of gunfire and energy weapons firing, rapidly. There's a some roaring, and an explosion, and out of the smoke walks a humanoid figure, covered head to toe with metal, and helmet over it's head covering it's face. It is carrying what looks like a massive minigun with way more wiring moving into the individual's armor, which it levels at you, yelling, "Four more ghouls over he...whoa..." He (you can tell by the voice, although it seems to have a radio-like quality as it comes through the helmet) pauses for a minute and taps the side of his helmet.
"Wait up...we got humans, Sir. Yes sir, four males. Huh? Oh, yeah, I think that was all the ghouls. Hmm? Yes, sir, I'll find out."
The armored figure puts both arms back on the weapon, and you can hear the sounds of hydraulics as every joint moves, and he nods towards you all, and speaks up. "What are you doing here?"
Mickey raised his hands in the air, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.
"We're just trying to survive out here. We've been told there's a small town up these ways. We were hoping to trade for food and water."
The armored man again raises a handful to his helmet. "They say they're looking to trade, sir. Food and water, sir. Yes. No, sir. No arms drawn. They were carrying crude implements, one has small arms, but no, no threats sir. No...No sir, they don't appear to be jetted out scrubs, sir, on account of they're talking to me, sir. No, sir, I'm not being smart with you, I am being the model of imbecilic obedience the brotherhood requires sir, it's how I made paladin, sir. No sir, that wasn't a smart@ss quip in front of company, I stopped that after you ordered me, sir, it's only dumb@ss quips these days. Well, they look like vaulties, sir, so maybe they have something good? No...No I don't see any PipBoys. Well I'm no genius, sir, but I'd say it's the big blue suits with the number 2 that give it away, sir."
The armored man slings the massive weapon over his back and removes the hand from the side of his helmet, and you can hear him chuckling. "Okay, so my boss is coming. I recognize a set of vaultie vomits when I see them. My wife was a vaultie vomit. Listen up, if you have anything remotely technological, don't show it until they offer you some food and water. Play it up like it's pure gold. Name's McMillan..." he extends a huge gauntlet covered hand, and reaches to his pack, pulling out a handful of MFC cells and tossing it in the direction of whoever has an empty hand besides the one he is shaking. "That's in case you don't have anything. And my boss is a dick, so kiss his @ss, drop 'sir', like it's a comma, and pretend he's a genius. I only get away with this $#it cause he's f***ing my sister. Also, if you know tech, we've got some broken power armor he's been pissed about, so drop in anything you know about power armor."
At that four more armored troops start to climb over some of the rubble, each carrying various heavy munitions and wearing the same power armor as McMillian.
Spencer steps forward to shake the man's hand, grinning. He isn't entirely sure what to make of this situation--the sudden stumbling upon a battle disoriented him some--but he thinks he likes this McMillan. "Spencer. Good call on the Vault thing."
He steps back as the other power armor units begin climbing up out of the rubble. "Thanks for the cells, but we do have some salvage. But as far as power armor? Fitz, maybe you know more than I do, engineering and all..."
"Keep it. Least I can do for one of Maria's fellow vaulties. Maybe you knew her? Maria Espinosa? Short, dark hair, liked to sing a lot, cursed like a sailor to adults, but a sweetheart and clean as a whistle around kids? She said she was a teacher in the vault."
Right then the others arrive, and the leader, whose armor seems to have a digferent design and helmet, speaks up. His voice is straight out of every drill sergeant parody you've ever heard.
"Godd@mnit, McMillian, what in the fiery hell of Miami did I tell you about running off without permission? We could've picked those ghouls off later! And what the hell are you doing picking up strays! I told you about that! We ain't a babysitting service, and we ain't got time for your tomfoolery!"
"What about some Jimfoolery, sir, or maybe some Stevefoolery? I'm just not clear on what name's foolery are allowed, sir."
Behind their helmets you can hear the other three trying desperately not to laugh. The leader whips around to stare the others down, who quickly quiet up.
"I haven't got time for this. We're supposed to get a caravan in from Kingdom soon, and those worthless scribes wait until after they're halfway here to tell me we don't have what we need to get the 53b we dug up in Mayport running, and you know that means another run out to that flooded cesspool of a town. Well, what have the pukes here got? Show me!