System log: The Bunker, Site 3
Solar Calendar: Unknown, 2???
Current status: Active
Log 17
The tour of the mall lobby was, apparently, as equally shocking to the new humans as it had been to the original group of seven. Gamma watched on in amusement as familiar reactions and over-dramatic noises were made by much of new runners and the temporary guests. The vault divers were the most interesting of the bunch, as their reactions tended to reflect their comparisons with other ruins as opposed to new things. Given some of their comments, the style of the mall was rather close to the general style of a lot of the ruins in this part of the former united states, which of course made sense given that there weren’t many companies that had specialized in creating safe bunkers. Gamma had the civilian contract records on hand in its database since, after all, Site 3 couldn’t have been built and designed by the government and military alone.
The two captains had retrained themselves in the mall area, and had been mildly intrigued by the fabrication room. Their poor reactions there were likely a consequence to how bland the room looked, given how all the work was done within the giant machines out of sight. Ironically, it was the practice medical center that had warranted the greatest interest, especially after Hank lifted his shit to reveal the light scar that was all that remained of his supposed fatal injury.
“This, we want this.” Stonewall declared adamantly, his older body positively vibrating with uncharacteristic youthful excitement. “If we could guarantee this level of healing for our troops, we’d be able to ensure a greater number of trained men survived combat. More people would be willing to enlist; this would change everything!”
“And create a huge market for goo juice,” Teddy chuckled happily, poking away at the floor where the remains of Hank’s exit from the tube hadn’t been cleaned yet. “Those rich wallers would drool over this tech as well to keep them feeling young too. A liquid goldmine if I’m not wrong. And one that can only be supplied by this place.” The younger man gave a sarcastic sideways look at the boss. “Heh, even if you offered it to us now, I wouldn’t want this hot potato bird brain. Me and my breakers will be quite happy reaping the side benefits without the stress of managing this place I think.”
“I don’t doubt it,” the boss captain Donaldson noted dryly. When they were down, the original seven led everyone over to the temporary camp for what appeared to be a kind of brunch for the humans. It seemed the two new captains were eager to leave once their groups had rested to report back to their respective leaderships, but still engaged in the basic food pleasantries Gamma quickly ignored in favor of higher priority tasks.
The program’s focus returned to the ongoing repairs and maintenance going on in the facility. Of most importance, the electrical connections in the central hub module were being worked on by the maintenance bots and a few groups of construction bots, all using the cleared Jeffries tubes to get around without attracting the attention of the humans. They’d completed most of the temporary hardline connections for the program’s access, diverting the flow of electricity from the damaged areas to allow for work to commence. The most critical repairs would complete before the day was done, but ongoing repair work on the finer circuitry and less accessible wiring would continue for quite some time without increasing the workforce.
The other critical priority, the repair work underway on the hallways and tunnels connecting to the Factory and Hydroponics facility modules, was a different situation. While most of the construction bots were hard at work on these repairs, their speed was limited by the speed at which the fabricators could finish creating new panels, supports, and other building material. On top of that, as work continued further in, more significant cave ins were being found to impede construction efforts. The precariousness of these fallen rocks required even more so a safe path to move the rocks out of the way, and significant processing power to ensure the collapse didn’t worsen or endanger the drones. While the fabricator room was capable of constructing new drones now, Gamma had no desire in diverting resources to such an endeavor since that would slow down repairs even more.
It was looking more and more like Site 3 was reaching a bottleneck in terms of efficiency to the program. Gamma still had no inkling besides the vaguest of predictions on the condition of both facility modules, and even then, the cut off from the other memory banks ensured it was unaware of what was to be found in either module as well. The purposes of both could easily be assumed from the name, but purpose did not much inform realistic expectations and ability. And with the impending arrival of human commerce with the underlying threat of human greed, Gamma was in need of better security guarantees. Hence, the ongoing scout drones’ expeditions, of which the majority of the group was now returning from.
On the main screen in the central control room, the three-dimensional map of the surrounding area increased in size and complexity as map data was uploaded to the servers. The program examined the map, noted areas of interest, and sent out the scout drones again to investigate in greater detail those places. As the drones left with their new orders after a quick recharge, Gamma brought up an old map of the area and began comparisons of the modern map with that of the historical civilian and military one.
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Site 3 had been built on the south west side of the crater, originally farther from the edge before terraforming had shifted boundaries. The fake Site 3 had been built in the north west- though the drones had yet to reach far enough in that direction to scout. Of the historic total 3.47K miles squared (8.98K kilometers squared) that the crater included, Gamma only had the map data for several miles around the facility in detail. The basic scout drones it had modified were starting to hit their limits for grid-based searching, so until a better scout was made Gamma estimated a detailed look of 5-6 miles would be the limit of its spatial awareness.
The crater of the ancient super volcano was massive in scope, with most of it having been turned into a national park some 200 years ago or so. Limited construction had been allowed in the later part of the twenty-first century for scientific research with the advancement of thermal energy usage technology, but it was the advent of war that had pushed the development of military facilities in the crater. However, it was clear that at some point after the Tomb Protocol had been enacted for Site 3, construction had been rapidly expanded. From the limited map information at its disposal, to Gamma, the crater had become not only a central military complex, but also one of humanity’s last stands in their conflict with the invaders.
Just within the current 2–3-mile range mapped out, the drones had already found no less than twenty unknown structures, mostly human in make. On top of that, there remained the large metallic corpses of unrecognizable machines sticking out from the sand like steel bones, including limbs, strange shapes, and ship parts. Whatever battle had taken place here hadn’t just been limited to terrestrial conflict, it would seem.
The destruction and damage wrought from time ensured most of these facilities were unrecognizable, but a few, notably the ones utilizing the advancements made by Project Bastion, appeared to be in relatively good shape. Gamma had its digital senses keenly focused on one structure in particular; the one with a large sealed garage door and an industrial aesthetic. As the humans would say, Gamma was itching to enter this place and confirm whether its suppositions were correct about its purpose, but not yet. The timing wasn’t right for now, and the distance from the facility raised the risk of encountering alien I.M.s in the grassy sand. The program would need a greater force in order to expand its influence outside the limits of Site 3.
With that in mind, the computation processing power of the artificial intelligence returned to the group of humans within the facility. It appeared that the tour was over now, as the group had moved back into the mall area and were enjoying a ‘brunch’ break, as they called it. The boss, the co-boss, the guard captain, and the vault breaker captain were in deep and serious talks about the deal to ‘share’ the bounty of the ruins, humorously enough, while the runner were swapping stories with each other as the group got caught up.
“So, the captain and you recognized those weird machines, Hank? Stalkers, was it? Never heard of them before,” one rubbed his chin in disbelief. “Were they really that dangerous?”
“I think we’d have been fine if we all still had ammo,” Ryan huffed in annoyance.
“They’d clearly been rusting in the sands for who knows how long, and the little ones went down with a good burst,” Hank considered aloud. “The brute was a pain and half, but it was weaker too than it should have been. Now, if that one scout hadn’t set up the blinker and cans, it probably would have cut our throats before we knew what happened. That’s why you put out the security perimeter; never know when something’ll pop out of the dark to snap your neck.”
“So Ryan got caught eating again?”
“Hey, it was free food! Wasting is a sin!”
“Sloan, how did you feel being on your own for once? When we put you in charge for the journey to test your training, we didn’t expect all this.”
“I ran into some hiccups in the ruins, but other then that your training proved its worth.”
“Good, then you won’t mind the nest step to becoming a full techie, right?”
“Uh . . .”
“Dina, can you actually see through this thing? How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Two middle fingers. Want to know how much I can lift with this?”
“Hey! Put me down! It was a joke! Lift Ryan instead!”
“Good point. Hey Ryan, lend me a hand here.”
“Hm? What’s up- ahhh”
It appeared the Roadrunner group was in good spirits after reuniting with their fellows. The small group of breakers and the two guard lieutenants were a little awkward in the group, but managed to engage in some polite conversation with some of the runners. Most of their interest came from the stories from the six runners of course, but it seemed that runners also served as an excellent source of other city gossip and news. Gamma filed all gathered information under its miscellaneous information server for later, but otherwise was uninterested in human superficial topics. Its attention was recaptured upon the return of the leaders to the group.
“Alright you lot, listen up!” the boss announced, silencing all conversation. “Here’s what we’ve come up with. Most everyone who came here will be returning to Old Jackson and await final agreements between the Runner’s Guild, the Breaker’s Guild, the Guard leadership, and the leadership of Old Jackson. Captain Stonewall and Captain Teddy will be taking their men with them, alongside Jamie and an escort of runners.” He cleared his throat and raised a hand as a collective of groans rang out. “You’ll be coming back soon enough you lot, and they’ll be plenty of work waiting. Both captains have graciously agreed to lend us who remain some weapons and ammo in case of another bug attack, so be sure to thank them later. The ones who’ll remain here are myself, Dina, Sloan, Ryan, and the twins, plus anyone else Jamie decides on. Hank, you’ll be going back with the group alongside a sample of that tube fluid for the geeks and nerds in their scientific labs to poke at as proof.”
“I’ll take that bullet now boss,” the older man said dryly.
“Maybe someday, but not today,” the boss shook his head. “It’s time you retired old man, and pass your suit down to your grandkid if she’s still up for it. Be thankful that wound didn’t cripple you for the rest of your likely short life, and drink yourself to death instead.”
Hank flipped the other the bird, but sighed in resignation.
“It may be awhile before I see most of you again,” the boss continued, “but we will see each other again, rest assured. Run fast, and finish the job.”