1292/The Human and the Glitch

The Human and the Glitch
Date of Scene:	08 January 2015
Location:	Mojave Wasteland (NewVegas)
Synopsis:	The Starbound Flotilla arrives in the Mojave Wasteland and precipitates some unfortunate events as they attempt to fix the ships of the Glitch and the Human
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 32, 38, Vruasa Telash, 571, Starbound Flotilla, 673

---

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    Hey, it's Mr. New Vegas! "This is breaking news folks, so strap yourselves in, and maybe find a nice Shelter or Vault. Reports from Goodsprings and points to the west of Vegas say a pair of space trailers have appeared in the sky over Potosi Mountain. Anyone who isn't a Powder Ganger or heavily armed is recommended to keep calm. Maybe they'll go away." That's news, now back to the music.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    The Mojave might be a ruined waste but the Old World was prepared and ready for Bombers, ICBMs and more when it came to civil defense. So it should come as no surprise that a pair of random ass spaceships showing up over the desert are spotted by multiple observers.
    Though they aren't over the top of anywhere that one might expect FIRST CONTACT ALIENS would show up. Certainly not over the top of New Vegas or the Hoover Dam or anything like that. Nope, it's over a patch of... well, it should be useless land to the northwest of Goodsprings.
    But there aren't a lot of people who are going to go out and greet the aliens. NCR is stretched far too thin already, and there aren't any strategic or civilian points in that direction. It's too far west for the Legion. And thus it's left to the locals to handle. And who do the locals turn to?

    Johnny Tallbranch grumbles, chewing on a piece of jerky as he looks through a pair of binoculars at the ships. Something familiar. His lip twitches faintly, as the redhead at his side grumbles. Cass is antsy, and is fidgeting with her shotgun. "We should just go down there and see, Johnny. It's not like it's going to get any better if we just stay here."
    "...Dammit." He sighs and stalks back down the hill, jogging in the direction of the "landing site."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Cautious. I do not think this is a necessity."
    "Not really! Technically we could just go loot /stray/ robots for three months in a wasteland. I'm willing to take a cancer for the team!"
    "Incredulous. No you are not."
    "Exactly. So instead of you getting brain cancer and me getting everything-cancer, and also you being sort of a cannibal maybe? Let's go ahead and hit the big concentration of fusion signatures we've got here, so we won't die."
    "Sardonic. We do not have a concept of cannibalism."
    "Fast track to robo-kuru if you ask me."

    A pair of bright red lights has descended from a pair of ships far above. One of them came from a rather modern-looking ship that fits in very well with the 50s style of things. The other is much, much more out-of-place: It appears to be styled after some kind of castle, made of stones and brass. That is, of course, merely seen by those with the required equipment. What others are going to see is something entirely different. When they come to a recession in the wall of one of the giant stone outcroppings that dot the landscape, the landing site in question, they'll find three things: One door, two people. The door is a a huge metal thing, a giant gear meant to roll to one side. The people here are out of place, though not too much so. There's a tall, bearded man with messy, longish hair and a rough face. He looks relatively young, wearing a gray jumpsuit with blue elements at the arms. There's an odd scrap of red around the upper arm with a "T" written in white on it. He's lean, spry, and has the look of a street scrapper. Then there's the robot near him. A molded piece of artificial hair gives her low bangs and a trailing mass of flexible artificial hair-mass down her back. Her face is a single visor, typically displaying two shining blue dots for eyes, and a streamlined mouth mechanism that isn't involved in actually speaking. Would look vaguely princessy, in fact, if it weren't for the iron plates of medieval armor on her.

    Both of them currently have unusual two-pronged orange hand-tools -- matter manipulators, to those who've seen them -- in their hands, and both of them are currently attempting to disintegrate the four-feet-thick thick metal armor of the blast door itself, digging a roughly man-sized indentation inti it with harsh blue light.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    The same black muscle car as before pulls up a good distance from where Johnny and co. have settled in to observe the landing zone. Driving up the disused and battered roads, the vehicle eventually comes to a stop when the driver begins to note the terrain's difficult nature even with her car's modifications. Alexis Maaka steps out of the car, activating the security systems once her passengers hop out. For whoever's sitting in back, she adjusts the passenger seat to provide room to scootch out before closing the door.

    After that, she wanders over to the trunk to grab a shotgun from her storage case, the Ithaca 37 fitted with a shell-holder on one side and a bandolier containing additional shells just in case. It's an old gun, leather wrapped around the sawn-down stock and the barrel fitted with an adjustable choke, but it's reliable and has been for a long time to many owners.

    The shotgun itself tells a story, if not mulitple stories about its past, having changed so many hands. Every tale has a bloody end, but so far Maaka's been able to evade such a fate...so far, anyways.

    But enough of that, as things are happening that require attention!

    Alexis legs it up the hill, linking up with Johnny and his associates with shotgun in hand. "Evening, folks. Anything from our new guests?" She asks, golden eyes spotting the ship after taking a moment to scan the wastes, 12 gauge rested on her shoulder. The lights are pretty obvious, and she begins to focus a bit with binocular vision.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    Anyone else driving up on the Vault will notice... a rather large confluence of matched scenery on the way up to Potosi State Park. Like... a lot of Nuka Cola signs. All over the place. Billboards. Posters. A half busted Neon Sign that no longer lights up.
    Hmmmm.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    That's a lot of Nuka Cola advertisements. Noble Six is riding along through the wastes on a Gungoose. What is a Gungoose, you might ask? A 4 wheel ATV with a front mounted turret that can rotate independently over the front wheels.

    The SPARTAN has changed her armor color for the terrain, opting for the dark earth and steel coloration instead of bright red like she would normally wear. She is following behind Maaka, though it is quite a ways away, so she does not drive up at the same moment. When she does arrive, she dismounts the vehicle and moves towards the group, "Are these aliens hostile?" She asks, simply.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone picks up the rdio broadcast as she arrives and makes not of it, with what Johnny said. She also keeps the music stream while damped as it's pretty nice to listen to, though she keeps the volumn fairly low at this point as she hung on ot her sear in the back of the muscle car which KO may be drooling a bit over this is the sort of thing that she works on and love after all.

She pauses for a moment and checks fort wireless signals of any sort in the region to see if the guests have ny gear giving it up as they make for the vault. Once they arrive she hops out follows after Maaka seemingly chipper.

She also does take notice of all the signs.

"Humm ... look at all those signs kinda odd."

Courier Six (32) has posed:
@FLOTILLA, OTHERS NEARBY:
    The main Vault door is a tough nut to crack, designed to hold out the Apocolypse, and it hell on MMs. That said the large '18' that used to be engraved into the door is now pockmarked and worn off. Whoever inside is going to be grumpy about that.

    And then something happens, and the door starts to rumble and shake as people startto congregate behind the pair of Space Raiders. The door slides forward out of it's cupola, and shudders. Maybe something got triggered! YAY!

    Wait no, that other thing. Especially as the door starts to roll to the side and candy-colored laser blasts zip through the opening into the tunnel beyond. People can be heard hooting and hollaring behind that, but the words are hard to make out over the sounds of lasers.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "What a novel experience! An actual chemical engine!" Rory's ecstatic about this car thing. Not because the ride's fun but because it's ANCIENT MACHINERY by her standards and worth all kinds of novel study.

    One of her Drones is flying overhead, keeping pace with the car. It remains over Rory as she steps out after Alexis and hoofs it up the hill. She stumbles a few times, her Synth morph clanking and clunking a bit under the mask when she almost trips on a boulder...

    The Saucer has a view that Rory's Synth doesn't havethough, and as usual Kotone can also see it by tapping into Rory's PANopticon - she has access, after all.

    The hovering spaceships are displayed through zoom as are the two 'aliens' at the Vault door.

    "Matter Manipulators?!" Rory squeaks happily. She'd JUMP if she was that kind of expressive. As it is she rocks up onto her tiptoes!

    But her excitement is short lived. The old machinery cranking to life and the Vault Door making quite a ruckus as it opens has her taking cover behind that boulder... good thing, too. "It's... it's a bunker? Some hardened facility!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    GUNFIRE.

    "Panicked. Achieve cover immediately." The robot calls out, dashing madly out of the tunnel to the exterior of the outcropping. Barely dodging around the candy-colored lasers, they manage to slip to either side of the tunnel! The recessing in the outcropping emits blistering beams of light between them now.

    "Oh hey, there's more people. Think they're here to kill us?"
    "Stressed. They are going to have an easy time of it if they are."

    The robot pulls, from their Matter Manipulator, what appears to be a large steel battleaxe! And they keep it at the ready, observing what the group near the car is going to do. The human, on the other hand, rather brightly waves and grins, calling out in friendly "Heyyyyyy!" sounds over the noise of LASERS LASERS LASERS.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks over ar Rory for a moment as sh mentions the enginer to her and she seems amused.

"They are kinda dying out where I'm form but not unheard of now lets see wait? Matter Manipulators?"

He line o though changes pretty rapidly at this point.

"Could be but we'd need to get a better look at things."

Kotone is also darting for cover at this point.

"Lasers?!"

If they live and can somehow get some of them those lasers might help XCOM with their laser project however saying alive and finding out what's going on with the aliens is more imporant.

"Whoever is in there ain't happy with us!"

Kotone is now checking to see if the vault has any networks or computer systems she might be able to get into to find out what's going on.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Hooting and hollering definitely gets Alexis' attention as she sees the vault open up, only for the off-worlders ahead to be mobbed by a horde of the locals. "Well, guess we know /someone/ is hostile here." She comments lightly, taking off towards the fight ahead in a full sprint. As usual, she's probably only outpaced by Six, and only just barely so. It won't take her long to get in range, and when she does she manages to ready her shotgun at the vault dwellers.

    "Fight now, chat later! We're friendlies!" She calls over to the human of the pair, before she squeezes off a hail of buckshot towards the angry mob of hostiles, hoping her coat can withstand the laser hail.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"Sup."

VRUASA TELASH is here. He has arrived, characteristically, from absolutely nowhere with no real explanation. He is standing in the middle of the bursts of LASER FIRE along the exterior of the VAULT, and doesn't appear to have any sort of knowledge of what's actually going on. He is struck by weapons fire several times to no actual visible effect, except for glass in his hand exploding violently and sending liquid spraying everywhere.

He glances towards the hole in the Vault door, around towards the people in the surroundings, and then towards the guys with the Matter Manipulators taking cover near the door's exterior. This paints a pretty unclear picture, except for the Matter Manipulators. Must be more of the same guys from that other place.

This is a hell of a lot bigger than that other place, though. And usually quickly fabricated buildings don't come preoccupied with hostile residents armed with lasers.

A very ODD LOOKING SPEAR is drawn out of Vruasa's sylladex. He points one end of it at the opening in the vault door, while holding the other near his mouth. This spear doubles as a MICROPHONE, allowing it to be VERY LOUD. Don't ask how that works.

"HEY ASSHOLES," He booms abruptly, voice tremendously (perhaps, some might say, lethally) amplified by the SONICSTRIKE SPEAR, "the fuck are you shooting for?!"

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    @THE GANG:
    If there's a network in there, it's not showing up on any scans. There's a large energy signature inside though, deep inside the mountain. Something in there is powering that Vault pretty heavily.
    Also the doors open up more fully, the buckshot hitting somebody in the dark of the entryway. That said, someone screams very clearly. "THE TASTE OF THE FUTURE TODAY!" And then a glowing soda bottle with a MicroFusion Cell ducttaped to it is tossed down the corridor. The MFC cooks off which detonates whatever's in the bottle, which lights up a massive glowing shockwave of refreshing flavor and also strontium. Oh look, Vruasa showed up at just the right time! BRISK AND ALSO RADIOACTIVE

    That's followed by a pair of rabid looking men, glowing blue goo dripping from their lips, charging out of the darkness carrying massive swords made out of Nuka-Cola branded metal scraps, barreling past the troll and heading for the group.. /ENJOY THE FLAVOR OF NUKA COLA!!!!!/
    Soda powered berzerkers? Anyways they're charging for George and also Kotone.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory directs her Saucer to approach from a sideways angle and duck down for a quick fly-by of the Vault door. Just who's doing all of that shooting and what's going on up there behind the door? That's what she's out to find out!

    But Vruasa appears right in the middle of it all. "What... HOW?!" All diagnostics showing fine, no signs of trouble. Yup, that's a Troll from absolutely nowhere.

    "Um... Kotone, what should we do?"

    Then, NukaBOOOOOOOOOOM!

    "... This is crazy. Crazy!" The worst part about this all is that Rory's unarmed right now!

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    One down, possibly anyways. Maaka gives her shotgun a firm, satisfying pump to chamber a fresh shell as she makes contact with a few of the berserkers. Despite her heavy coat, she manages to move as if she's unencumbered, her forearm blocking a cleaver's strike with the coat's armored layering. The offending Vault Dweller gets a shotgun to the face for his troubles, and Alexis moves on to another target as she chambers a new round.

    Reaching out with one arm, Alexis launches some sort of spike from her left wrist, the projectile aimed squarely at a distant crazy while she continues her buckshot rampage, going back to using her shotgun to thin the horde best she can.

    "Stay out of the fray and pick your shots, let us take the brunt." She tells Kotone and Rory, letting off another shotgun blast to prove her point.

    The Nuka-Grenade gives her reason to back off, coincidentally taking a breathing to load some new shells into the magazine tube before going back to work.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does have a pistol on her at this point and she's totally going to try to not get too think into things but she is going to star providing support fire with her pistol the laser sign might help her a bit and she listens as the scream about nuka cola and wait did that cola give off a radioactive signature?! A little nuclear sign appears on her hud. Okay she knew this place had fallout but the soda?!

"Oh for the love of!"

She's picking her shots carefully at this point as she tries to keep to cover. She does not wnat to go in for /more/ repairs so soon.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft gives a quick, robotic nod to the group up above, and turns to focus on the combat. A grenade lands at her feet! Oh christ. She dodges away as best she can, towards the tunnel, diving and suffering major radiation burns all along her machine body, but her shielded braincase keeps her brain preserved, thankfully. Of course, her visor briefly displays "X_X" and then a geiger counter, before she's back on her feet and running, doing her best to get through.

    With Vruasa drawing fire, and Maaka offering her own cover, Seft seems more confident in advancing, and dashes madly forward, tanking laser-shots all over her metallic body with wounded beeps, attempting to close the gap and go on an axe rampage!

    Of course, the BERSERKERS are here, first and foremost, and why should they ignore Seft? Mostly because George doesn't flee them. He goes right in at them! He assumes an open-palmed defensive stance, the Disarm style of Robusting, and immediately moves to try to shove one to the ground, and take his piece of blunt metal, before engaging the others much the same! He uses his free hand, and the placement of his feet, to brutally sweep people off the ground, and then attempts to crush their heads in with the melee metal in his hand before their berserker endurance lets them get up! It is a pretty intensely brutal effort, all told, and his priority is KOing them or killing them swiftly as possible, so he can dash into the gate itself! When there might be fewer lasers, anyway.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Hostiles are everywhere it seems. Noble Six had opted to bring some of the equipment she had been given over the holidays with her for this particular outing. She was, after all, always fond of being given weapons.

    The desert armor clad SPARTAN moves up to the edge, overlooking the melee going on belong, unlocking the lightning rifle that Rhapsody had given her from her back, and bringing it up to her shoulder. She's test fired it a few times before, so it shouldn't be too hard to fire it from here. She aims at one of the berserkers that's still near the door and strikes at him with the force of a thunderstorm concentrated into one blast.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"I..."

Vruasa is interrupted by the explosion of the nuka cola grenade, which detonates essentially underneath him. He is predictably irradiated but doesn't seem to experience the natural physical consequences of being blown up. He frowns slightly, the sensation of the radiation itself throwing him off a little. He gives a toss of his head and finishes his response to Rory, "... walked."

This is completely true. The fact that he abused time travel in order to accomplish this need not be noted.

He watches the Nuka Cola berserkers barrel past him towards the group, where George appears to be waiting to attack them unarmed. This seems perfectly acceptable to him, so he shunts his Sonicstrike Spear back into his sylladex and walks into the darkness of the vault where all the laser fire is coming from... and also, where Seft appears to have gone. Physically harming him seems insanely difficult, even with lasers and grenades, so it's probably safe to use him as cover. Probably.

As a Troll, Vruasa is naturally nocturnal, so he can see in the dark extremely well. Makes plenty of sense to go wading into the dark of the vault, especially with that wounded tin can ahead of him doing the same.

"I have no idea what's going on. The fuck is going on?" He demands of Seft, who happens to be closest by virtue of running ahead.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Urgent. My human companion and I are attempting to locate and procure fusion materials necessary to restore auto-repair and inter-planet thruster functionality to our ships." Seft says, pulling behind Vruasa and saving herself some laser-slagged armor. "Sheepish. Our expectation was to find either dead humans or military humans. Tribal humans were not expected."

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    @Maaka, Flotboats:

    Well now, between shotguns and ROBUST COMBAT, the pair of scrappers manage to disable and 'subdue' both of the berzerkers, the remnants of them lying in crumbled messes on the dusty tunnel floor. Which makes Seft's and George's charge into the breach all the more exciting.
    Once inside the hail of gunfire, it's clear that the group is dealing with fewer pweople than one might imagine. Inside the Door Chamber, there's a trio of mans with underslung gatling lasers, trying to track onto the trio charging inso the room. That's easier said than done, with the way all o them seem to be twitching and or slightly obese. Also they are all also clad in Nuka-Cola scrapped armor. The whole room is rusty Nuka Cola signs and advertisements, where they haven't been stripped down for whatever sort of bullshit these people have going on.
    Wait no.

    There is one sign, in a place of prominence, clearly and careful maintained at the entrance further into the Vault. The sign is that of a stylized art-deco picture of someone drinking a Sunset Sarsparilla. There is a spraypainted NO symbol over the bottle itself, along with words. THE ENEMY IS NOT ALLOWED INSIDE THESE WALLS.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
@Rory, Kotone, SPARTAN:
    There's a crunching of dirt and grit behind the others, as Johnny Tallbranch scoots up behind the group. Farther back, Cass can be seen with a heavy riot shotgun, guarding the vehicles the group traveled in on.

    "Howdy folks. Looks like you people done stirred up a nest of vipers. Need some help?"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Charging in with shotgun in hand, Alexis takes point without asking, her weapon ready as she leads the party inside. Six can cover the girls, and she's not one to hang back when she's ready for a scrap...or toting a weapon suited more for interior engagements.

    Her eyes switch to night vision as the party goes deeper and deeper into the vault and light begins to get more scarce, shotgun raised and chambered. Once she spots a group of minigunners, she mutters a swear under her breath before sliding into cover, producing a flashbang and pulling the pin. "Flash out." The cyborg calls clearly for her allies' benefit, giving them the signal to wait before the grenade goes off at the vaulters' feet.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "calm them down and I can spare some Helium-3!" Rory stries tos hout over the chaos above her. Because Helium-3 might be TOTALLY useful to other ship's fusion generators! Maybe.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Humans from George's world unfortunately find themselves a little sensitive to flashbangs. Not that they can't recover quick, but they sure won't resist the initial shock! As such, as soon as they reach the three-man gatling showdown, he immediately dives for cover, any cover, somewhere in this room, still keeping a white-knuckled grip on his Nuka Whacker. "Whoops, that's a little too hot for me to handle. Seft! If you'd--" And then the flashbang goes out!

    Seft briefly shuts down her optics and audio for a moment, taking advantage of her robotic nature ruthlessly. Stressed as she is, she begins to shut down her own fear and stress responses as well! Her eyes blink back to life. Attempting to flank around the chosen angle of attack for Noble Six and Kotone Yamakawa. Trying to exploit the hopefully-disoriented nature of these creatures, the robot dives into battle, attempting to instantly and eagerly chop the savages down! If Vruasa decides to approach to do his traditional brutal melee violence, Seft will try to flank opposite him, giving him plenty of room to work as they function in approximate tandem with their medieval-level weapons. As she tries this, the medieval-bot calls out to Rory. "Factual. Apparatus may be required as well. Needs are not known at this time. We are too far to go back. If you are in possession of excess materials useful to us, however, my companion enjoys trading." She's saying this while she attacks, and in a perfect, mechanical monotone.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"I met some other guys like you the other day. Shit wasn't as ridiculous or intense as all thi--" The flashbang goes off and Vruasa can no longer talk effectively from the ringing. He's actually too tough to be flat-out stunned this way, but he does look annoyed enough to stop doing what he's doing momentarily. This is because he's abusing time loops to just come here when all of his senses are working properly again. which he does, a few moments later. A second iteration of Vruasa emerges in a flash of red, materializing from nowhere at the rear of one of the gunners.

Seems like he knew what Seft had in mind, because Vruasa-2 is positioned optimally to coordinate for her. A vicious, frog-shaped red spear is thrust at the gunner's back without hesitation or remorse. Looks like he's assuming approximately human or troll-like anatomy, because he's aiming for a kidney with his thrust. This is exactly as brutal as should be expected out of him.

The second Vruasa continues his conversation, "... Anyway, if you need to be towed in the meantime, my ship is big enough to handle stuff like that."

Elsewhere, a third iteration of VRUASA is working at his alchemiter, a distinctly aggravated expression on his face. What could he be making?

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    @ALL:

    Well shit, now the people are inside the Wire, so to speak, and there's a flashbang and all of their stats are being drained... and then the ULTRAVIOLENCE starts up with Seft and Vruasa and Maaka and all of that and the first of the gunners goes down in a blaze of blood and kidneys.

    Another one is training his gatling laser to track where George went, when there's a dull /crack/ in the air. If there was violence and ultra-violence before, now there's simply a Bloody Mess. There's a fistsized hole in the wall behind the fellow's head and a pile of meat where his head used to be, and Johnny Tallbranch has his trusty old YCS/186 at his shoulder, cranking out one MFC to load another in. The gauss rifle is smoking at the end. "GET THE LAST ONE!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis grunts in annoyance as not only George but also Vruasa seem to get blinded and deafend for a moment. The effects should pass in a few moments, but all the same it's definitely a loud and bright little gadget. The cyborg mutters somehting about squad tactics before she takes Johnny's advice and dives from cover, her shotgun raised.

    The weapon barks an ugly cough as it spits a hail of metal pellets towards the remaining laserman, and the distinctive 'ch-chk' heralds another shell's discharge as Alexis makes damn certain that a third won't be necessary. By now she's left behind a nice little trail of shotshells where she goes, going nicely with the bodies and other signs of utter carnage.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Get the last one? Can do. Noble Six locks the rifle back onto her back, and then takes a couple of steps back, before she makes a running leap at the remaining target. A pair of thrusters on her back ignite and propel her forward, and she flies forward. Off of her hip, she brings out a small baton looking device, which deploys out into a sword. She swings it as she dashes past him, and then stops. Whether or not he got cut in half depends on how much of him is left after Alexis finishes with him.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Soooo much death and Ultraviolence! Rory would clamp hands over her ears if she were of even less tough emotional fiber. Terrible death and destruction's not a source of horrific trauma emotionally to her as much as it might be to some. She finally decides to move... and does so by zipping up and running low to snatch up a laser rifle or something else handy that one of the fallen no longer... really needs. If people are gonna die she might as well turn things so that others will live!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks to Johnny and Cass nodding once.

"Yes help would be great, Johnny, Cass!"

She takes a moment to reload and then pops back out form cover as she fires of few more well placed shots, but then she ducks back behind cover given the flash bang that's about to go off.

<This is more of an adventure than I expected Rory and ... the multiverse takes all kinds! There's worlds where the land flies>>

Kotone now inspiured by Rory pops out from cover and attempt to grab an dropped weapon as well and get into the fight some more.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "HELLO, THANKS FOR THE HELP." George is still a bit too loud here when he calls out to Johnny, but is slowly managing to get himself to his feet. He recovers enough to move, but not to fight! Alexis Maaka gets a quick thumbs-up! George seems to be accepting the blame for what happened.

    Seft went for the head, in tandem with Vruasa going for the kidneys. Since she's turned off her stress response, what would normally be a horribly strained woman is perfectly relaxed, even enthusiastic! "Grateful. Greetings, thank you for your assistance." The last combatant here is being handled; Seft does what little she can do to keep the heat off of them! As a machine, she's got precisely zero aversion to dealing with a corpse, so with a rushing dive, she leaps up to the beheaded corpse as it falls, emitting a harsh, brutal buzzing noise intended to attract the attention of the last combatant, and then holds the corpse up, intending to use it as a human shield in her distractions while the others finish him off!

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    @ALL:
    The last man is the unluckiest one here as no fewer than 4 Elites turn on him, rendering him into unrecognizable bits in the process. And then the room falls quiet. Wait no.

    Dimly in the background, there's the happy happy sound of rockabilly Mojave Music Radio, with what sounds like Nuka-Cola jingles mixed in the background, like a mistuned receiver on the fritz.

    And then Johnny comes walking in behind people... "...Damn, what fresh hell is this place? This is... Ugh."

    For the record, only one of the Gatling Lasers are now operation, the other two having been bisected or AXED. You get to fight over it! Alsong with whatever garbage is left of the gear on the others. Better wipe off that blood before you drink your Nuka.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    With that done, Alexis kicks aside what's left of the last guy before pumping another round into battery on her shotgun, slinging it over her shoulder as she casually draws a sidearm. It's a CZ75 SP01 SHADOW, fitted with a flashlight/laser module and a compensator to go with the tritium target sights. Sidearm in hand, she turns on the undermounted light for the benefit of others, switching her night-vision to normal on the way towards the stairs.

    "Isolation's a bitch." She mutters dryly, going DOWN while whistling lightly to the music playing unconsciously. "Anybody goin' down better keep close, let's not get lost in this place if we can help it."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's holding... well, maybe what she's holding isn't functional! If it isn't she'll go for something that is...

    But all the while she looks at the mangled 'tribals' sadly. These people, could they even be saved or were they just mad to begin with?

    "... I don't know what I'm doing Kotone..." But she blinks a moment later, taps a temple, and starts glancing about. "Hold on, I'm picking up some strange radio signals!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "A hole in the ground full of a lot of really intense brand loyalists, far as I can tell!" George says, having recovered properly and now back on his feet after Seft helps him up and he dusts himself off. Walking over to that corpse Seft just dropped, he gives it a brief kick and makes a "pbtttthhht" noise with his mouth. "Well that was fun!" He slings the Nuka Whacker over one shoulder. "Keeping close is good, sure! Not sure why you guys are backing me up, but I'll take it!" Another thumbs-up!

    Sef, meanwhile, quietly re-enables her stress processing and then suddenly acts much more human, leaning briefly against a Nuka Cola sign here and making exhausted buzzing noises. "Tiredly. That was far more opposition than I had expected. Assistance is appreciated." She props herself back up using her battleaxe like a cane. "Grateful. If you find yourselves in need of my assistance in return for your own help in the future, do not hesitate to ask."

    Both get back together, readying to head down, though Seft takes a moment to manually rattle some wires back into place. As she does, she nods to Rory. "Affirming. Mixed radio signals received. My processing power is inadequate to determine more. Unlikely to be relevant, but investigate further if you believe it is." Both of them are going to head down, too, like Maaka. George, for his part, seems... Surprisingly insensitive to the corpses. Seft doesn't seem to be able to parse them as the corpses of thinking beings in the first place.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Folding the sword up into it's folded state again, Noble Six looks to Maaka, "We are going down, of course." She says, "And yes, sticking together would be best for all of us. The last thing we need to do is find ourselves lost in one of thse underground fortresses."

    She flicks on the lights on her helmet, and then looks at the group, "I recommend pairs at the very least, three if you can manage it." She does take a look at George and Seft, "You were attacked by hostile forces, it's simple enough to see that. Honestly these people are probably insane from isolation.." She glances at one of the bottles, "Or drinking radioactive soda for a couple hundred years."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa loosk as things settle down at this point she shakes her head a little bit.

"Story of my life wome days wbut we made it through all right."

She gets a bit of grin on her face as she wtches the last one go down. She pauses wondering about this she looks about the damaged laser they may have parts right? She cleans her self off a bit and moves to follow the party.

"Consumerism taken to a whole new level of insanity. Oh! I'm Kotone good to meet you both."

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"So, uh..." The second iteration of Vruasa has suddenly become the only iteration of Vruasa. Looks like Vruasa Prime went back in time to become this guy. He follows after Seft, heedless of the ongoing battle. Or, rather, the battle that quickly and messily comes to a halt right next to him. He seems altogether uninterested in the brutal murder going on. The situation is calming down and nobody important seems dead. Just these assholes. He glances towards one of the corpses, considering rifling around in it to see if there's anything worth stealing.

"... Do you think these nutjobs are going to have what you're looking for? Looks to me like they're a bunch of soda-drinking cultists. You're probably just going to find a giant fucking stash of whatever passes for faygo around here. Nuka Cola, I guess." He looks towards one of the nearby signs, and decides to CAPTCHALOGUE it for future alchemy. There's got to be something funny he can get out of this.

"Does anybody care if I take one of these bodies?" He asks nobody in particular.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rolan, Rory's muse, probably just marked down 'soda-drinking cultists' as one of the weirdest phrases ever heard in the Multiverse as part of some random trivia collection subroutine.

    Rory grimaces at the addition. But the expression doesn't last long. It evens out quickly, leaving her just standing there without any real expression and nothing to say. Almost eerie given the circumstances.

    But when she does make a move, it's following Seft. She does try to tune into the radio signals while following in with the group... "Everything might be important. Leave that to me. Just... keep a look out for any more of these tortured people!" ...Tortured might not be the right word to use, but she doesn't want to use the other words.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
UPSTAIRS:
    Johnny grumps a bit at George, before looking over at Vruasa. "Nah, go ahead, man, I don't think they'll need em too much. Hope they won't, anyways."

DOWN:

    Going down into the facility... it's brightly lit, both by overhead lights and glistening pristine Nuka Cola neon signs in Marketing Friendly Positioned Places. There's also a number of surprised looking men and women reaching for weapons and ducking for cover as the INVADERS bust in their 'home'. The overhead crackles, and The Holy Ads stop long enough for a deep voice to intone. "Outsiders, you have come to the Holy Place, the land of flowing syrup and 17 Natural Flavors. Why do you intrude on the Holy Place?"

    None of the people inside are making any more violent moves at the invaders, though one cries out. "The great demon Festus has sent them to test us!" The usage of that name gets people to cower a bit more, especially from Seft who is like onto the Demon, apparently.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
@RORY:
    Oh good, you're now getting 50's style Nuka Cola radio ads expounding on the virtues of Fizzy Drinks Enhancing YOUR LIFE piped right into your muse.
    ENJOY REFRESHING NUKA-COLA QUARTZ!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The pair introduces themselves.
    "George!"
    "Factually. Seft."

    George offers a handshake to Kotone, but Seft has her hands occupied by that weird robot battle-axe. There's a snap and a grin to Noble Six. "There we go! That's the kind of philosophy I like. Can't tell you how often I've gotten people being mad at me 'cause I kept myself safe, seriously!" And then there's a shrug to Vruasa. "Long as you're not planning on cloning them or something, you killed it you bought it as far as I care." He accentuates this with rather casual gestures of his weapon.

    Seft explains to Vruasa. "Uncertain. Our sensors picked up fusion energy on this planet, but I will be the first to admit that none of these Floran-esque savages seem very interested in the art of cold fusion." She makes an uneasy beep. "Determine. We will attempt to continue regardless." Then there's a nod to Rory. "Affirming. I will keep alert." After a pause, "Confused. Whatever these humans may be best called." She seems pretty unwilling to make any kinds of judgement at all about these people! And then the people are diving for cover. "Suggesting. Perhaps a less violent route is possible?"

    Then she speaks up to the group, her visor briefly displaying a speaker symbol and amping up her own volume. "Respectfully. Greetings, humans. I do not come with violent intent. I will leave, if you will provide me guidance and access to-- George what are you doing."

    George is fiddling with delicate electronics on the back of Seft's head. "Stuff. Hold still, won't hurt. Alright, here we go, that should do the trick. Alright, keep going."

    Seft's eye display is replaced now with something odd. Blue pixels lighting up brightly, showing words. "DRINK" it says. Then, "NUKA" and "COLA", on a loop, like some kind of advertisement. Seft, herself, does her best to continue. "If you will provide me guidance and access to your fusion power generation facilities, we will not trouble you any further."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Alexis Maaka." She introduces herself to George and Seft before going all the way down, glancing over her shoulder for a second before she makes her way down the stairs fully. "I solve problems. I'll give you two my card when we get outta here."

    And suddenly she's interrupted by the PA. "...make that /if./" The cyborg glances at Six for a moment before she trails her pistol down the hallway, light flashed at the cultists for a second. Pausing for a moment, Alexis then gives George and Seft a very confused look as the human tries something VERY CREATIVE, and Seft is turned into a walking advert.

    "...Uhhhh." Lowering her pistol, Alexis kinda just looks on in confusion for a moment.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has heded sown and she just looks about she's seen places that are kinda like this to Coke a Cola and she pauses she wonder it htis a cult or has it become a full out relgion? She just kinda stares now dor a moment, she's also picking up the signal that Rory is and just shakes her head oh god popups. She remains silent as The Glitch is perhaps doing the best diplomatic effort of them all.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
"I'm Vruasa, by the way." Vruasa asides to Seft and George, as he CAPTCHALOGUES one of the mostly-intact corpses. There's absolutely no chance he's going to use this thing for horrifying ectobiology experiments. Not interested in cloning the guy back to life, though. That would be pretty boring. No, he's just going to make some soda-powered chess people and see what happens. While DIPLOMACY is being attempted, he sifts through his sylladex to see if he has anything relevant to this situation. There's really probably nothing he could produce that wouldn't make this situation worse.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The SPARTAN nods to George, "I am Noble Six." She replies, before she turns her attention to the announcement that was made, "This may be interesting." She says, as she frowns under her helmet. She was really hoping to not have to blast her way through dozens or more of these crazies, but that may not be an option.

    Spotting the man working on his robotic partner, Six tilts her head faintly until she sees what was done. She considers this, "Will that work?" She wonders, as she keeps her hand near her blade just to be on the safe side.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Seeing what George just somehow did to Seth has Rory wondering if having a Holoprojector right now wouldn't be a good idea. Oh she has one, but what to show? The entire situation has weirded her out so far she's just sort of frozen up. Simultaneously squelching advertisements from her Mesh inserts and furiously debating things with her Muse, she eventually just lets Rolan speak for her...

    Rory gives Kotone a hopelessly bewildered look and just clutches her weird weapon for... maybe comfort. Of a sort.

    Not that she likes violence.

    <<WHY>>

    She messages to Kotone.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has heded sown and she just looks about she's seen places that are kinda like this to Coke a Cola and she pauses she wonder it htis a cult or has it become a full out relgion? She just kinda stares now dor a moment, she's also picking up the signal that Rory is and just shakes her head oh god popups. She remains silent as The Glitch is perhaps doing the best diplomatic effort of them all.

She does shake George's hand in return he mind howver pauses at him for a moment wondering about what sort of guy he is but that can wait.

<<I...don't know Rory. I don't know...>>

Courier Six (32) has posed:
DOWN:

    Johnny's walking down the steps now behind the group, grumbling about Vault-Tec and Bullshit Sociology and Fuckers. He does whistle a little bit though at the room and chambers and people. "Goddamn, this is a thing." He puts the YCS away and sighs. "Well this is going to need a goddamn lot of untangling."
    Seft gets a look from the people in the chamber, and one young lady steps forward to hold up a Nuka-Cola bottle to her. It is fresh, newly capped and appears to be pristine. Another one murmurs quietly. "She bears the Marks." And there's a soft chant in the background. Drink Nuka Cola. Drink Nuka Cola. Huh.

    Johnny notes something offhand though. He starts pointing at people. "Ain't none of them got Pip-Boys. These ain't the original inhabitants. Not sure where they might be from though."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft takes the nuka cola, confusedly. She attempts to puzzle things out, then decides the best thing to do is to drink it. Better to practice what she's apparently preaching, after all. Glancing around, she sees a poster on the wall. Her mouth isn't actually used to speak, but she can totally drink and metabolize! So she does, and attempts to play along, by imitating the posture and pose -- to an almost robotic degree -- of one of the ladies on the posters with their glass bottles.

    "Knew I linked up with this tin can for a reason." George says, with a bright voice. "Alright gang! I think that oughta handle the chance of violence down here, let's push on! Gotta find that fusion. Where we goin', down? Can't be up, that's for sure. Hey, think it's down? Let's go way down, probably best shielded place around." He'll follow if Rory can guide, but otherwise, he's gonna look for stairs or elevators down and try to get to anything that looks like it might store the cold fusion tech he's here looking for!

    Meanwhile, Seft "speaks up", replying to the PA system with her own silent radio broadcast back into the vault. "Respectful. We asked the people here, but they seem not to know. We do not wish harm upon your people or your cola. We seek access to your fusion technology." She pauses, and then does a sighing sort of buzz. "Capitalist. 'Nuka Cola. Drink like there's no tomorrow.'"

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    There's plenty of ooooohing and aaaaaaahing over Seft's depiction of GLORIOUS CAPITALISM. Some light applause too, before other voices in the corners. "She bears the marks!" "She comes in peace" "Maybe she shall challenge the SPAWN OF FESTUS!" Oh dear. Festus? Who or what is that?

    The overhead crackles. "You left us defensless from the Sunset Assault, raiders. Alow us to lick our wounds and we shall allow you to descend to the Holy Spigot. The Spawn of Festus shall not reach our sacred grounds, they must not."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Holstering her pistol, Maaka glances at Johnny's wrist before she takes a look at the locals. No, they don't have those wrist-devices he does. She moues her lips for a moment before she folds her arms, looking at the scene some more with mild boredom as she kinda follows George about, taking a poke about the place for a way towards the reactors or whatever.

    "So," She pipes up, "How'd you and Seft get together anyways?" the cyborg asks quizzically while kicking at a door, trying to see if she can jimmy it open. Hopefully it'll lead downwards.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Affirmative. I'll establish mapping and try to find the power stations... huh?" Rolan's already making guesses at who this Festus is and advising Rory to not ask about it without a great need. So she's not. But the other is...

    "Sunset Assault Raiders?" Possibly meaning the jerks from earlier? She just doesn't know anymore!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has no idea about Festus but if this is a whole cola relgion going on? It could be a rival brand of coal? Coke vs pepsi with a body count? Oi but she wisely keeps quiet and moves to holster her weapon at this point.

"Could be another group out there Rory."

She shudders inwardly at what this could imply however Johnny has some info over the comm.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
"Is an attack incoming? Is that why we were met with that level of hostility?" Noble Six wonders at the mention of the Sunset Assault Raiders. She turns back towards the stairs they had come down, "We may need to prep for a defense while these two get what they need from the reactor." She says, looking over at Alexis for a second, "Did you happen to bring any mines?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "That went well!" George says. He's looking up at that PA. Something's stirring inside him. Seft decides to help these people out, but George is feeling something in his blood. He'll let Seft do her promises. And he'll come back, with intents pertaining to that voice on the PA. His face is grim as he contemplates it. Something about him is kept very secret. And then, suddenly it's back to friendly, slightly silly words as he speaks to Alexis. "She got picked up on a space station I used to work at! Busted, rickety little ship she built for herself. Then the space station exploded before they could get it in proper shape. Mine's an emergency shuttle, and pretty busted too! So we kinda drifted a while, wound up here, and hey! Now we're getting fusion."

    Seft decides to become Robo Savior. "Bravely. Humans, I do not understand the nature of this challenge you face, but I will seek to defend you from it." She's also broadcasting back on the radio. "Please allow me to take the tools I need from your vault, and I promise that I will ensure the Spawn of Festus will not trouble you." Her face looks a bit silly, still doing those ads.

    George swaggers over to Rory and pats her back. "You get the fusion going, kid. I got the feeling you probably wanna be the one who gets a good look at it, right? Nab us some mats and there won't be any violence here!" A grin and a thumbs-up. He's trying to be encouraging here. Speaking of encouraging, he also uses his crowd-riling abilities as best he can. "See? Your Cola Champion is here! Let her take what she needs and she'll make sure you're defended! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!" he starts a sort of chant in here. He's whipped up a few lynchmobs in his time, so he knows how to get people into a bit of a frenzy, and a good frenzy always makes people forget about how he murdered some of their security.

    Seft tries to keep out of this, focusing on Noble Six. "Tactical. They have time to lick their wounds, defense is not immediate. But it will be required later. I have little to offer, but I will request assistance when I return to assist defending them."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis glances at Six for a second, "Newp. I kinda came light for this one." She says with a shrug, then listens to George a little. "I see. Not long ago we ran into some guys, an ape and a fish man, that managed to make landfall on another world. They called themselves Albert and Moonfin, and they mentioned something about a Big Ape-" And then Johnny manages that on the radio. Confused for a second, Alexis shrugs and moves along.

    "You two been together long?" She adds.

Courier Six (32) has posed:
    NEXT TIME, ON FLOTILLA ADVENTURES:
    A wounded Nuka cultist, bleedling slightly glowing blood, staggers to a radio and cries out her final message. "Mother Matron of Nuka... we weren't... strong enough." A gunshot rings out, and there's a glimpse of a man in the dark, silouetted, save for a string of blue-starred caps hung around his neck.

    GUNFIGHT AT VAULT 18.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is more than a bit chilled by thing but given the mess they helped make in some part she's willing to help protect them if the Glitch needs help with it she'll be happy to aid Seft when the time comes. She also wonders about George but is polite enough to nto comment. The whole affair of the valts however is just a kinda nightmare she fears her own world falling into.