Fallout- Old Glory

"Well, I'm always happy NOT being bitchslapped," Ari chucled as she followed the group, peering back to ensure Biest was following. She kept her eyes to the hills around them, watching, listening and looking. She developed this over-awareness of her surroundings not long after fleeing the DC wastelands...it had saved her ass on many occasions.

"I used to have a robot once," Arianna said conversationally. What she didn't say was that it was a Mr. Handy programed to be a lab assistant. "The damn thing was a smart-ass. It was a Mr. Handy."
 
Jacob replied without turning his head. "Mr. Handies and the variants are smart, they had to be. They've got a tendency to go off on their own ideas, act on their own. Robobrains do the same. You know I once made a robobrain. Crazy thing though, after a couple of months his memories of being human resurfaced. He didn't take it very well, even though he volunteered his brain to be used after he died. Eventually he just kind of accepted it, but he always complained about parts of his human body hurting." Jacob said, reminiscing about that particular experiment. They never did rid the man of his phantom limb syndrome, and he managed to get himself addicted to med-x not long after. He remembered adding the findings on human brain transplantation into the Enclave scientific database with the doctor who had taken care of the medicinal portions of the experiment. "Anyway, intelligence is one of the reasons I'm so attached to the Gutsies. Even if they have their glitches."

"I have experienced no programming malfunctions for 1.86 seconds!" GU-DR blurted out in indignation. It may not seem like a long time to the humans, but 1.86 seconds was a lifetime for a robot doing tens of thousands of processes an instant.
 
"That is amazing!" Ari exclaimed, refering to Jacob's story. "But how did the robobrain regain his human memories? That shouldn't be possible, there are precautions for that!" She placed a hand on her chin, thoughtfully contemplating the issue.

"Unless...unless the chemicals and the mental blocks somehow broke down via some other chemical given to the robot? Or just a chance happening?" Or the effects of FEV exposure, she didn't add to that.

"Very good, DU-DR," she answered the Mr. Gutsy with a smile. "That's on average, roughly 2 percent better than the average wasteland Gutsy!"
 
"It was an older chassis, and the precautions against it are mostly designed for the animal brains the robot was designed for, not a human's. I think a lot of it was just chance though. I don't think we could replicate it anytime soon." Jacob said before yawning.

"My designation is GU-DR young lady!" the robot corrected with a tone of indignation. It was doing at least 4% better than the average Gutsy.
 
With everyone suddenly urged forward by Edward there was no time left to treat Biest leg. As the feral boy realised this he sat down and bent forward to lick the wound just like a dog would do. The way he bent his body to reach the spot showed a quite unusual amout of flexibility for a human being.
With the wound cared for as best he could Biest hurried to Ariannas side. Using a strange looking mixture of limping on his hurt leg and going on three 'legs' he had no trouble to keep pace with the group.

From time to time he ran a little bit forward or to the side to sniff at something that caught his interest or digging in the ground with his 'front paws' before returning back close to Ariannas side.
On the way back from one of these little excursions he made a beeline to the Mr. Gutsy. He never saw such a creature before and sniffed at it.
 
"You built a robobrain... Where in the wasteland could you possibly get the materials and for that matter the equipment to preform such a thing. The equipment would need to be disinfected and, and... I can scarcely believe that."

Just who was this man. He must of had resources, at least at one time. White knew the difficulty of working with a robobrain, from personal experience, it was fiendishly difficult at times and was very fragile work.

"You said GU-DR wasn't functional when you found him? If you couldn't even retrieve a name how did you deal with damage to the rest of the software, especially the OS?"

As Beist went up to sniff GU-DR White's mind wandered, thinking about how back home everyone he'd grown up with would have killed or euthanized the child, they would have called it mercy. They would consider many of the people he had met on the outside damaged or unclean, but in the time White had been on the outside he had learned much and it had changed him. But, at one time he would also given the boy 'Mercy'.
 
GU-DR extended an optical sensor to look at the feral child that had come up to him. "Young man you should really be standing up, it's bad posture to be on all fours as you are. You'll get arthritis by the time you're 20." The robot said, Jacob paid little mind. As long as the child stayed away from him personally, Jacob was fine letting the child be.

"Lots of scavenging, time, and a sterile bunker." Jacob lied about the first two, he had been given all the resources he would need for the experiment by the higher ups, and they had actually asked if he'd need more. "As for how I fixed up GU-DR, it took a couple of weeks, and shit spewing fear has a way of motivating a man. As for his OS, I rewrote the OS using fragments I recovered from other Handy types. Some of it I had to rewrite myself, but I'd say 90% of it I got from other robots." Jacob tapped on his Pip-Boy to make the point that most of the work had been done on the wrist mounted computer.
 
Chameleon glanced in vain.
"Seriously? You're sounding like school teachers. By the way Jakey, you're sounding an awful lot like--" He looked at Ari and didn't finish his original scientist. He was going to say 'an Enclave.' But instead; "Like a, a; brainy guy. That's it, I came for the pink roses and brainy guys tend to hate them. So you'd think I'm less a man now? Well, yeh even the crazy guy likes flowers that don't exist!" Lucky. He might've jeapordised relationships like that. Phew, lucky mouth...
 
Biest already heard GU-DR talking but the 'eye' on a shaft and the sudden voice directed at him still caused him to jump a bit. He understood not enough to make sense of the words but even if he had he wouldn't be able to do as the robot suggested. He never learned to walk upright and his young flexible body adjusted to his way of movement. Biest was able to stand on his legs only but it was difficult and exhausting for him. He only used it to have a better overview and only if he really had to.
The robot still puzzled Biest a lot. He couldn't figure out how this strange creature stayed in the air. He sniffed again at it and another deep bark came from him. Again it was a friendly bark. For Biest GU-DR was different but not stranger than the two legged creatures.

Feeling thirsty after his meal and the blood of the cazadores Biest looked around. A couple hundred yards forward he spotted a cactus like plant. Limping he ran to it. Using his teeth to free an area of the thorns he took a bit out of it. He chewed the spongy inside and drank the water that came out of it before he spit it out. After quenching his thirst he came back to Ariannas side. There was some blood in his face from the tips of some of the thorns but Biest didn't care. Survival in the wastelands had it's price on every creature.
 
There it was, out in the distance. The town where Richard Garcia was to meet his supposed contact. He was told about the job by a traveler back in Primm and was seriously hoping it wasn't just a rumor, especially after traveling this far. He was low on supplies and was in dire need of the caps promised to him.

As he entered the town he found he had little energy and took a seat on the ground, resting his weight against a building. He pulled an Aqua Pura out of his bag.

Suddenly one of the townspeople appeared before him, giving him a strange look which he was used to, do to the color of his hair. "You got a staring problem?" he asked.
"Well there's no need to be rude" the man said,"Just wonderin what your doing down there is all."
"Well the way I see it it's none of your business, but if you must know, I just traveled god knows how many miles through pure danger, let alone the heat. Now if you would...". And with that he made a gesture with his hand as if to shoo the man away.

The heat was unbearable. It never got THIS hot back east. Ric really didn't see how people lived in these places. After siting for a while, Ric stood and looked down the road, gazing out of the town. Out in the distance, he saw a group of weary travelers. Thinking nothing of them he retreated to the building and took his seat.
 
You see the town in the distance. Eventually you reach it, and you head to the nearest inn.
Edward smiles and says,"Well, we got here, and with a day to spare as well. Now all of you get some rest here in the inn, I've got some friends I need to speak to."
He walks outside of the inn, and then heads to a small building near the town chapel. He looks around at his surroundings, and then enters the building.
 
Ric sat with his head down. He didn't know these parts well and did not want to start any trouble with the locals. He occasionally heard small whispers coming from the locals as they walked in and out of the building. This bothered him not. They probably just knew the reason he was here.

Ric leaned back in his chair for comfort. That's when an older man walked through the doors, a scoped hunting rifle slung across his back. Ric couldn't quite place it, but there was something different about this man. He looked a bit weathered, as if he had been traveling. Was this the man he came here to meet? He raised his hand and gestured toward him.

"I think I'm who you're looking for", he said,"sorry I couldn't meet you in the last town. I'm still learning my way around the neighborhood."
 
Jacob did not stop at the inn, it wasn't his priority at this point. However he was grateful for the downtime, and took the opportunity to temporarily remove himself from the group. "You all have fun getting drunk or whatever, I've got business to take care of." Later he would need to pull aside Arianna, talk to her one on one and try and get her to let it slip that she was ex-Enclave to Jacob. Afterwards he would try and convince her to return to Chicago with him, no doubt the Enclave would welcome back a mind of her caliber. For now though, he needed to offload excess salvage for some money. He found a local on his own, leaning against the railing of a building. "Hey, you, mind giving a scavenger some directions?" Jacob asked, approaching the local. The man eyed GU-DR as Jacob approached, obviously wary of the robot. After a moments pause, the local man directed Jacob to the general store on the eastern edge of town. Jacob tossed the man a cap and continued on his way with GU-DR following.


----------------------------

After about 20 minutes, Jacob reached the general store, Murphey's Law, and entered. He approached the counter and called out for the shopkeeper. "Hey, anyone here for business?" He motioned for GU[DR to approach, and began digging in the innards of the robot. Other than the cazador toxin glands, he had little left to trade after selling things off in the last town. But he had some odds and ends he could probably pawn off, and about 1000 caps in reserve that he could dip into in case of an emergency. The shopkeeper approached Jacob from a back room.

"Y'ello, name's Murphy, but you probably figured that out from the sign out front. You've got the look of a scavenger about you, I get a lot of good business from yer type around here, but I've never seen you come in before."


"I just got to town about an hour ago."

"You with that big merc band that rolled in huh?"

"I wouldn't call us a band, this is just a job. Aside from one or two, I'd never met any of them before a few days ago." Jacob said, and laid out his remaining salvage out. "Anyway, I didn't have time to stop much on the way here and pick up stuff, so it's not much." A set of armor on the wall of the shop caught his eye, one that he had grown very accustomed to seeing in the NCR. "Is that pre-war riot armor? How much are you asking for it?" He asked, pointing to it.

"That old thing? Oh I don't know, 5000 caps, or something around there. You interested in buyin'?" Jacob woefully shook his head.

"Too steep for me right now. I may be back later though after getting my pay, might make it a possibility."

----------------------------------------

Jacob left the general store, roughly 750 caps richer, and completely out of material to barter for other than the glands, which he had purposely held back. He had gotten directions to his next stop from Murphey, the town doctor, who would no doubt be willing to pay quite a bit not just for cazador poison glands to start synthesizing antivenom from, but an egg as well to study the creature itself.
 
"I DON'T DRINK!" He shouted at the bartender who kept insisting he have a swig.
"Calm it guv'. I never meant no harm." The bartender looked wearingly. Of course, he didn't appreciate a whole group of mercs coming in. It intimidated business.
"Yeah, well I do! So shut the fuck up and let me bloody relax." Then he sat on a stool and started talking to one of the locals who was definitely scared out of his wits.
"Say buddy, you know where we are?" The local shook his head as he took a swig from his vodka.
"Easy, in an inn. But no seriously, we are in a video-game. Or is that computer? Well, we're all part of this script. So me talking to you is part of the script. If you die, that might be too. Say, have you ever wandered why you're so weak? Because the designers gave you such a pathetic health bar. Seriously! And also, that damn Blizzard decided to make all this a post-apocalyptic wasteland! Not the Chinese! They were just puppets. Seriously!" The local was so bewildered and scared that he dropped his mug.
"Sir, the only games are our text-based! And what designers?I ain't no fecking weakling. And we haven't had no bloody blizzard for fecking centuries. Who shoved crazy in your mind?!" The local had clearly been fumed up and stood with struggle. Obviously the effects of alcohol had devoured this man's conciense. Chameleon raised up from his stool and gazed at his offender.
"Well well. Your tonge is slurred, graze even. Spirits or none, your very muscle will make a lovely trophy. Angelo would detest at such, but he wouldn't care still. That pussy would sit down, give ya a warning and push you off as if you were a fly. He wasn't affected by that experiment. It's fuzzy, but he was there. I remember that. I think you're a fly, but I swat flies. Maybe you're in turn for swatting?" He threw a fast fist clean into the man's jaw which hurled him off his feet and into the jukebox. Steadily getting backup with obvious pain; the local's effect were wearing off. Chameleon took a deck of cards out and shuffled them as if this was a game.
"Let's see how many times I can disect you with these. Ace or Joker first?" He chuckled, and readied the first card.
 
OOC: pyroD, the group has reached it's destination. You can't sign up for this job, but you can join the group later once the second act of the plot gets into swing. Edward has also gone to talk to some old acquaintances, so you've missed him. Feel free to talk to the other members of the group.

David walked towards the town, holding his AK-112 in his right hand. He was wearing his helmet, which covered his face. He walked into the inn, and taking off his helmet, ordered a drink. He hoped the others would recognise him. He hadn't seen them in 2 years. Hopefully his past with some of them would allow him to manipulate them. The barkeep handed him a bottle of whiskey, and David payed him with two dozen caps. Alcohol was probably one of the oldest of his demons, almost as old as his guilt, but remained one of the few comforts he had left in this world. Turning his mind back to the group, he hoped that Lahar wouldn't recognise him. If she did, then she wouldn't say it, not out of fear for revealing herself as Enclave.
 
On the way to town Biest acted just like you would expect from a dog. He stopped from time to time to sniff around and sometimes he raised his leg to water one of the deadt trees or a rock besides the way they took. His unusual keen senses enabled him to hunt donw some vermin and small amounts of water. Enough for him and maybe a few others to survive but usually not enough for the whole group.

As the town came into sight Biest became more and more uneasy as they came closer. All the people and smells were strange for him. He stayed very close to the others, especially White and Arianna and growled sometimes at a stranger that came too close.
 
OOC: oh my bad. Well you can change it to, my character was sittng in the inn when a group of mercs walked in.

Ric sat uneasy as he gazed at them. He'd seen mercs before, but none such as these. They were the oddest bunch he had ever seen. One stood out as he was wearing a strange black mask.

Ric continued to sit with his head down. Attempting to be as invisible as possible. He pulled another Aqua Pura out of his bag. Down to one now, he thought. He sat quietly, reminiscing over his travels. He ran into several raider gangs on the way here, due to the fall of the Legion most likely. Luckily, his parents had affiliation with them years ago, or else this journey would have proved impossible. That's when suddenly at the table next to him, the merc with the black mask struck a man. The merc stood and pulled out a deck of playing cards. Ric slowly realized that they must have be weapons of some kind.

"Hey now!" Ric said standing. "Is there really a need for this?
 
Chameleon looked over to the newcomer.
"Well your'e brave and most likely stupid. So it makes me wonder, why would you stop me in m moment of triumph? This man tried to insult despite my kindness of telling me the truth. He looks at me like I'm crazy." Then he threw a card that whizzed past the local's head and hit the wall. He did this while he looked at the newcomer. Then he shrugged his shoulders and threw another one that hit the other side of the drunkard. He fainted with fear.
"Okay, so I am crazy. But no need to make a mockery of it! So then the drunken prick faints. Wow, what a man; I say. Low health as well though. Maybe I should reconsider my proposal for the pink roses." He mused to himself and sheathed his cards. Then he approached the newcomer like a fox stalking it's prey, but twice as cunning, and twice as nuts.
"Say kid, ya ever heard of me? The infamous Chameleon?" He then looked at the unconcious local and chuckled. Coulda killed ya, he thought.
 
Ric shuddered as the razor playing cards whizzed past the drunken mans head. So this was the Chameleon he had heard about since coming west. Ric thought he was just some urban legend, especially after hearing the stories about him from a couple hundred years ago. But here he was, or so this man claimed. But after that display, it was pretty hard to doubt it.

"Say, why are you in this town anyway?" Ric asked, wondering.
 
pyroD said:
Ric shuddered as the razor playing cards whizzed past the drunken mans head. So this was the Chameleon he had heard about since coming west. Ric thought he was just some urban legend, especially after hearing the stories about him from a couple hundred years ago. But here he was, or so this man claimed. But after that display, it was pretty hard to doubt it.

"Say, why are you in this town anyway?" Ric asked, wondering.
Click to expand...

OOC: Um, this dosen't really seem to fit with the world's perception of Chameleon. Yes, he might have been in the first world war, but most people think he's psychotic, including himself. And I don't think he is at legendary status. Considering the Vault Dweller is almost unheard of now except for the NCR, and the Chosen One is rarely referred to as anything other than the 'tribal', I doubt some insane mercernary is going to be some urban legend.
 
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