trans_9 | Of Good Intentions and Mechanical Men

Entry tags:

Of Good Intentions and Mechanical Men

_{[This is backdated to shortly after the Fauxbellion, and ties into this channel post.]}

[Hidden Valley Bunker - Dummy Entrance]

Inside the false entrance to the bunker installation, Veronica's set up what looks like an office of sorts for herself. A desk and chair, a few boxes of broken parts she'd gathered up sometime after her arrival, and a few tools. Stuff to make her look busy, if someone came prying. Should someone enter, though, she's poking at her Omnicomm. Rex is lying on the floor nearby. The door to the outside is open, letting some of the natural light from the city in.

[Lucky 38 - Casino Floor]

Entering here, one will see a potentially spooky sight - a casino and bars, devoid of life. Some of the machines are running, and the lights are on, but it's still a place that's oddly quiet. There's an elevator in the middle of the room, and a few robots lying on the floor, or propped against tables or railings. They're roughly seven feet high, and have enough weight to strain someone a bit, even if they're dragging them on their wheel. Veronica's currently hauling one out of the elevator, and is clad in her power armor, sans helmet.

[Hidden Valley Bunker - Laboratory]

Some time after getting the few Securitrons moved to the bunker, Veronica's gotten down to work - be it on devising just how to make a reader for the Platinum Chip, tinkering with the programming Mr. House left on it, or testing out said tinkered programming, she's a busy bee.

The Securitrons are propped against the wall in a row, and a few crates are nearby, loaded with ammunition confiscated from them. After all, if the programming turns out bad, it's better for them to not be able to shoot the place up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Doug was nervous beyond all belief when he approached the location listed in the post. He thought that he would never want to science or anything attached to it again but here he was shuffling carefully. Scurrying from hiding place to hiding place. It was amazing how stealthy he had learned to become after so long running from GLADOS.

Why was he coming back to science?

Because it's all you know.

The constant commentary of his companion cube cut through his thoughts as silently as any other.

Once Doug got close enough, there wouldn't be much sound coming from inside the bunker, save for the periodic shuffling noise that came with Veronica adjusting in her chair. There was a periodic metallic clicking as well, as Rex moved about the bunker.

And Doug...was finding his courage failing him. He crept as close as he dared without leaving his cover and squinted to see if he could better suss out what she was working on, or what made that dog function as it did.

Human interaction had always been so intimidating for him, even before he had been overtaken by his illness. Now it seemed an insurmountable task.

TURRETS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

Doug let out a yelp of fear and dove out from his cover scrambling around to the other side shaking and curled up into a ball waiting for the inevitable explosion of machine gun fire that came with the turrets.

Nothing...he had been tricked into revealing himself by his own cube.

That got the attention of both Rex and Veronica - and both moved to the doorway after Doug dove past it. Veronica stopped just inside to peer out, while Rex went on ahead, sniffing at the man.

"Hey, you okay?"

He continued to lay there for a moment and his hand rose offering itself to Rex to sniff.

"No...no on a number of levels, but that's alright." He was honest and then lied because he wasn't convinced that he would ever be alright. But he hated making it so obvious.

Rex sniffs the hand, and seems contented with the result, and prods the hand with his snout. Veronica steps out, then stoops down. "You need to go to medical, or something?" He admitted to not being okay, so...

"Need a hand?"

Roger may not be the best at getting old tech up and running again himself, but he's always up for supporting the folks who're better at it. And who might need someone to do the literally heavy lifting.

"Hm?" Veronica pauses, looking to the source of the voice, then smiles and nods. "Well, I'm certainly not gonna turn one down, sir! Though in my not-quite-expert opinion, two hands are better suited for moving these guys around."

"Good thing I happen to have two," Roger says. "Damn, this takes me back... Where're we taking them?"

"Well, seems that if you lose one here, apparently you can get it replaced. Seen a guy walking around here with a metal arm. Definitely outclasses Rex's loadout..."

Wait, there was a question directed at her in there, wasn't there?

"Oh! Uh. To the bunker, that way they can be worked on in privacy."

"I'd just as soon avoid that, but it's good to know," says Roger. "All right, let me see what I can do here..."

It shouldn't take too much longer to muscle the things around to the bunker with both of them working on it, right?

"Well, yeah. I'm not in any hurry to go losing my limbs. Just another interesting thing about this place," she answers, heading for the door with the one she was hauling.

The power of teamwork, at work!

Applejack made her way to the casino as promised, hauling her strongest harness. She poked her head around, seeking out whoever had made the call.

"You said you needed to move something?"

Even after being here a while, and having seen a lot of odd things in her time both here and at home, there's still something just a little strange about seeing a talking pony face-to-face, but it quickly fades.

"Yeah," Veronica comments, moving the robot she was pulling out to the floor carefully. "Need to move these guys to where I can work on them."

"Right," Applejack commented, trotting right over to the robots. She was already well equipped for lugging. "Just strap me up and let's get a move on. I've pulled bigger things. It's just another day for a farmpony."

She smiled at the girl, hoping to aim for 'charming' rather than 'creepy'.

It hit on charming, or close to it, at least! "Alright then. Gimme a second to get it set up..." It took a bit to get the harness hooked up so that the Securitron would be angled well enough that the main body wouldn't drag, though the arms would.

Once that was done, Veronica recovered the one she was hauling a few moments ago. "Alright. The bunker's not too far off."

Anwei arrived with a droop to her head, feet shuffling reluctantly through the rubble. To anyone looking on, she was the very model of a shamed prisoner, going to her forced labor unwillingly.

As soon as she was inside, though, her head rose and sharp eyes scoured the room, not failing to notice the machine-animal lying on the ground.

"Hello," she said, with a salute-ish gesture to her forehead. "I'm Anwei Ayles, and I've been assigned to help you move anything that needs moving." A wink. "Including data."

Rex noticed Anwei as well, raising his head up for a moment to make a curious noise before settling back down.

Veronica grins a bit, and returns the gesture. "Veronica Santangelo, and excellent. Hope you're up for a challenge," she comments, picking up a large, silvery poker chip from her desk. "Because I'll be damned if I can figure out how the heck this thing functions as a data-storage device."

Anwei stepped closer but did not touch the chip. It was unlikely that she could carry much of a static charge in this humid atmosphere, and any properly made equipment would be shielded against a shock, but better safe than sorry.

"Probably the easiest way to unravel it - without risking damage to the coin itself - would be to find out what sort of reader is used to get the data off it. Contact-current, radio frequency, optical - although if there's a lens into the interior, it's very small." She leaned closer, and squinted. "And does it need a power source to be read, or is it pure passive-read data?"

"If I had to wager a guess," Veronica says, turning the chip over in her hands. "Since it doesn't seem to open in any manner I can see, is that the whole surface is a contact area." She frowns. "And going by the rumors about the guy who had it made, making it like that certainly fits him. Way more than enough obnoxious little crevices one would have to replicate to read the damn thing."

"Errr," she said through her teeth, staring at the chip. "You could ask if someone in Engineering has some conductive powder that can be cast from this and then sintered; that might be a first step towards a reader. Personally, I'd try scanning it with the lowest possible power settings first, just in case it's more delicate than it looks. I went optical-to-USB for my storage devices - they didn't have these on the Earth I visited."

She considered. "How secretive was the person who made this? I was wondering - if it's a passively powered device that charges itself from radio waves, it might need power from a specific frequency before it started transmitting its data. Even a passcode - depending on how sophisticated the security is inside this."

All Elle can think of when she walks in the door of the 38 is, Wow, I must be late. She started without me.

"Hey, be careful!" she calls out, jogging down and then up the steps leading to the elevator. "You got that? Let me help..."

Okay, so maybe she shouldn't sound so eager to help, probably. It could be that maybe she's trying just a little too hard to rebuild a friendship. Maybe. But, y'know. It could just be that she's trying to be helpful! Really!

~~Besides, it's her Endurance that sucks, not her Strength.~~

"I got it," Veronica answers. "Power armor's helpful for hauling stuff like this," she adds.

"Good to see you're still around and kicking, though." A pause, then she chuckles. "But knowing what you've been through, that shouldn't be a surprise."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of Good Intentions and Mechanical Men

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Casino floor

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Dummy entrance

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[Lucky 38]

no subject