notalldead | Generator Maint. with Blaze & Ghost

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rekindledtitan

Generator Maint. with Blaze & Ghost

A meeting of the gang was called the second Jesse was back underground. He then filled them all in on what was up there; some weird new place full of grass, electricity and running businesses. They nearly had a harder time believing that than Jesse's next story about how he met a robot and she was going to come down with another robot to take a look at their generators.

But other scouts soon went topside to confirm the same and came back, mute with disbelief. Granted, few of them wandered far from the subway, just like back home; habits die hard, especially ones that keep you from dying hard. But they all the saw the same thing; a place with no zed, bright and clean and like some kind of park or mall from the times before things fell apart.

When the day finally arrives for Blaze to visit, Jesse's waiting for her topside, using his tongue to wet down a fresh cigar. Well, fresh at least that it hasn't been lit yet. It looks a little crumpled, but these things are hard to get, darn it.

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"We got a couple of fellas who can make a wall soon as y'all drop a hat and say go. Know just how to make 'em to either make you ignore it or keep out a horde o' zed who are lookin' for a meal. Granted, they don't bother us much; but if we set up camp to close to some livin' folk, they're gonna start tearin' things down all indiscriminate."

He steps through the opening first, then offers a hand if Blaze needs help doing the same. Inside, it's dark except for some buzzing, flickering florescent lights overhead. The graffiti goes all the way down, and there are some spots where things have been broken; railings off their bolts, cracks and buckled impacts in the cement walls. Jesse seems to be taking this in with fresh eyes and mutters an apology.

"Sorry it ain't much to look at..It's better down where we live, at least some."

Edited 2015-08-18 20:34 (UTC)

With those big old shoulder guards, getting through takes some ducking and twisting. This seems to be something Blaze is used to, but there's a bit of clanging off the side nonetheless. Since she's not expecting it, she quite misses Jesse's offered hand. She looks around eagerly as soon as she straightens, her optics bright in the gloom.

His unexpected apology draws a puzzled headtilt. "Looks a lot like our Earth, honestly. Was there a fight down here?"

She nods toward those impact marks in the walls. Her Ghost is already scooting over to scan the graffiti.

"The zed took over a couple'a years ago. There's stuff like this everywhere. People who were panickin' and fightin' to survive. We figure with what we've found, the subways weren't the best place to be when the sick started to spread." He rubs the back of his neck, looking briefly uncomfortable thinking back on it. "Enclosed space and people packed in subways? Yeah. Weren't pretty."

He starts jogging down those steps. "Got the generators runnin' right now, but as you can see," he points upwards at those flickering lights, "it ain't all it could be right now. We gotta ration the gasoline we dump into 'em, so they're not optimal."

As they get further down, there are candles. The place seems cozier for it, with its orange glow casting a warm light on things. Plywood and tin are propped up here as well, but instead making shacks and lean-tos. Now is when the other zombies start showing up, though they all stay safe in their makeshift homes, peering out curiously at their visitor. There are sometimes hurried whispers and points, obviously calling over others to see the robot! See, Jesse said there was one!

"Hnnh. I understand." She can imagine it too vividly for comfort. At least it sounds neither Jesse nor his friends were there. That's no memory to carry with you. It's more pleasant to contemplate the electrics.

"Gasoline, huh?" She lifts her head unconsciously as they descend, as if scenting for something familiar in the air. That stops when she's distracted by the jury-rigged village. Despite her assurances, her combat instincts heed the stirring in the shadows, sensing all those eyes on her.

Yet there's no sense of hostility here. Just nervous people, and that triggers a very different reaction. Her Ghost sticks very close, but that's just a response to the new environment. It hasn't fled to her systems as it would if threatened.

"How many people are down here?" she asks. Those zombies whose eye she catches get a friendly nod. Can't complain about them gawping a bit. After all, she's doing it right back.

The one who gets a nod goes wide-eyed (with just his one eye) and then hurriedly whispers to a companion. Did you see that?! She saw me! And was friendly!

Jesse, meanwhile, moseys through their shanty town, where even subway offices and standstill trains have been converted into homes, labs, a clinic. "We've got about 25 of us down here at present. We're all spread out between here and the rest of the subway into other cities; we've only just settled this homestead kinda recent. Month or two, I think?"

He stops when a much smaller zombie runs over to him, dragging a dirty doll. Once in front of him, she jumps up and down, wanting to be lifted. Laughing, Jesse bends down and obliges, putting the undead girl on his hip. She looks about 10, if one looks past the rot and missing lower half of her face. "Hey, Julie, y'all gonna say hi to our new friend, Blaze? She's gonna fix stuff and make the power work!" The girl gives Blaze a timid wave, then buries her face against Jesse's shoulder, which gets another laugh from him.

"She's shy."

It's a fair guess that interacting with children hasn't featured much in any of her lives, but seeing the little girl so maimed, that's genuinely unsettling. Her optics widen, then narrow in a concerned frown. There's a moment where all she can think is Light, that must hurt. Jesse sparks some of the same feeling, it's true, but his injuries are less obvious and perhaps less cruel.

Blaze lifts a hand on impulse, as if to touch the child, and then turns it into an answering salute because she really doesn't know the protocol. Which is a weird feeling itself.

"Hey there, little one. It's good to meet you."

Julie peeks back at the robot, then gives another shy wave before wriggling, wanting to be let back down. Jesse obliges, kneeling to get her back on the floor and giving her head a pat. "Lemme know when your pa's got dinner cookin'. I could eat a whole mule right about now." The girl giggles, kind of a strange and strangled sound with her vocal chords being equally ravaged, before she skips off, doll in tow.

Jesse sighs as he stands back up. "She's a good one. Come a long ways since I found her locked in a cupboard by her livin' folks."

Her optics narrow briefly as she looks from the girl to Jesse. But it's her Ghost which speaks, softly. "They thought she would be one of the zed."

"They didn't check," Blaze counters grimly. Not that throwing blame about is any use, but the implications anger her and she's no good at hiding that. Among other things. Most things. She's quiet for a second before she fixes her attention on Jesse, asks straight out: "Does it still hurt, where you're injured?"

"Nope. Either thought she'd turn completely or thought she already had. Either way, didn't have the guts to keep raisin' her or the heart to put her down. So they just locked her up and left her. The way she tells it, she was stuck in there a good three weeks or so. She was starved and half-crazy by the time I pulled her outta here." He gestures at his face, fingers drawn downwards like claws. Explaining where most of her face went. "Lot o' stories like that here with the Rotten."

He shrugs at the question, taking his cigar from his mouth to tap ash from the cherry. "Nope. None of us feel pain no more. Kind of a good thing, if you think about it. Makes us all one hell of a soldier when push comes to shove too. Makes repairs real easy too. Daisy put this back on me just last month." Jesse pulls aside some of his stringy hair to show there are stitches around one of his ears.

"She's a sweet kid. I'm glad she's got people she can trust now." For all the gruesomeness of the story, there is that. Blaze lets out a short chuckle. "Hell, she's shy and I'm all kinds of strange, but she's still not scared to come over so long as you're here."

There are more reasons than the Exo can explain why Jesse's answer comes as a relief - at least, more reasons than it would be good to speak of. But the relief itself is pretty clear in her voice, the easing in her shoulders. "Looks easier than my repairs are, that's for sure. Good to know you're all right. You can still eat, though?"

Some people might try to be circumspect about inquiring into someone's biological functions or lack thereof. Since the subject's come up, Blaze doesn't see any reason for dancing around it.

Jesse huffs a smoke-exhaling chuckle and waves for Blaze & Ghost to keep following him deeper into the subway tunnels. There's a room at the end marked MAINT. that has machinery chugging behind it. Must be the generators.

"Yeah, we still eat. Not the usual stuff like we used to. We kinda grew a taste for meat what's still raw. Not people or nothing!" Not if they can help it, anyways. "We know a gang of pig farmers who keep us in supply if we don't find stuff that ain't spoiled in stores, or huntin' in the hills ain't goin' well."

He steps over a fallen air duct, muttering how they gotta clean that up. "What about you? You eat? Sleep? Drink? And do they gotta order custom parts when somethin' on you gets busted?" Might as well have the questions going both ways since they've gotten comfortable enough to get them out there.

Blaze follows him with a will, her Ghost stopping now and then to inspect details like the fallen duct.

"Nah, no eating. No drinking either, unless you want to replenish coolant in a hurry. We've got other ways to get a buzz if we're in the mood. Sleep's just a sort of maintenance cycle - don't need it all that often. As for repairs, well, no-one remembers how we were built, so the only ones who can figure out our internals well enough to fix us are Ghosts."

All the more reason to recommend her little companion. The Ghost gets a proud look as it rejoins them. It seems eager to see what's past the door.

"Aw wow, so he's your doctor, kinda!" Ghost gets a fresh look of appreciation by the time they've reached the doors. Jesse pauses to stub out his cigar and stuff it back into his pocket; no good to have it going in a place full of gas fumes.

When the door is opened, there's three generators lined up, but only two are running at the moment. They're LOUD, chugging away at creating electricity. There's messes of wires and jacks running from them, leading to provide power to certain lights, their tech labs, places to charge electronics that are scavenged.

"If I recall correctly," Jesse hollers over the din the machines make, "our engineers say these babies can put out up to 5000 watts. 7 gallon tanks, but we feed 'em light, sometimes only got one or two runnin'. Never three at once, ain't got the fuel. If we manage a full tank, each one's got about 12 hours, I think. Fulla copper wiring, I do believe, and got intelligent auto voltage regulation so it don't blow anything with too much juice." He gives one a gentle kick, like you would to a car's tires to test its sturdiness.

"Best there is," Blaze agrees, and it's no exaggeration in her mind.

"I do my best." The Ghost spins, fluttering a little at the praise.

Blaze is a little taken aback by the noise inside, optics flickering as she looks around. Her Ghost doesn't seem deterred. For once, at least, the ruckus isn't explosive. It flies from point to point, examining the generators and the wiring, mapping the connections. It's listening to Jesse, too, and after a minute it darts back to him, the better to be heard over the noise. It can raises its voice, but yelling just isn't the little AI's style.

"Is there any fuel in the last one? The one that's not running?"

"Think it's only got a little in the reserve tank. Emergency stuff, if we had to run it quick-like if we got a big problem or another one fails. You need me to siphon it or fill it?" He's ready to do either! There's tin cans lined up outside with clear markings of dangerous flammables; the gathered gasoline dedicated to running these machines.

If the main tank is clear, that's fine. I might have an idea to increase its efficiency. I'll need to take a closer look.

" The Ghost flies over to the inactive generator, then disappears in a blue flash. This is followed by some rattling and whirring from inside the machine, although it's lost in the general din.

"Tell me if you need anything," Blaze yells after it, much more comfortable raising her volume. On second thought, she pauses and repeats it over internal comms before turning back to Jesse. "Will it be all right if we have to switch over generators? I don't want to interrupt your supply while Ghost's working."

"If we gotta kill 'em for a bit, that's no problem. We've had black-outs before and we're all kitted up with candles and flashlights." He jerks his chin back towards the settlement camp they'd passed through. "And if, uh, Ghost wants to be left to do his work, that's fine too. Whatever works best for y'all!"

"It'll need some help with switching over and stuff." Plus she just can't be convinced to go very far from her other half. "We can fall back a bit, though. Make it easier to talk. There a bench where I can set out some materials first?"

"Yeah, kinda rough on the ears over here, ain't it?" The fact he still has to raise his voice so loud is testament. He gestures towards a bench just over yonder, in fact! It's a subway, so it's full of them.

He waits until Blaze is sitting before he takes a seat as well, politely leaving a seat between them. He seems to continue having that aversion of getting too close to others, living or robot. Anyone not undead, considering he picked up and hugged little Julie earlier just fine.

"Thanks again for doin' this. Real kind of ya both. My people owe you a big one."

Settling back with a creak from the bench, Blaze takes the empty seat as a good spot to put out the upgrade materials her Ghost might need. She pulls them from various pouches and compartments about her person, unsealing a small stack of glossy plasteel plates from their pack, running a thumb over a couple of silver boxes and a cylindrical canister to check their integrity.

"Field repairs are part of the creed," she says, optics brightening in a smile as she looks up at him. "And helping people is what we're here for. Just don't usually get to do it up close like this."

"Yeah? That's a nice thing. This creed part of what the Traveller left you?" He still thinks about what she said about this entity; that it showed up and helped out to the point it had to go dormant or something. That it'll wake up again someday and help out once more. It's downright biblical and he likes it.

"You got any favours that might be done in return? We like to repay in kind 'round here, best we can anyhow. We like bein' good neighbours to those who treat us right."

"Not exactly. There're different kinds of Guardians, and we've all got our own traditions. Ways of following the Traveler's will. The creed I'm talking about is a Titan thing, passed down from the very first orders. Discipline and diligent maintenance." She works as she talks, opening one of the small boxes to reveal a few rough lumps of metal, rust-red and still glistening. Blaze finds a small plasma cutter to carve off some shavings of the stuff. Beneath the outer layer it's a very dark grey.

She pauses at Jesse's offer, though. "I don't really know. Maybe if you run across any technology or information that might be useful, you might pass it along. But I'm not gonna hold you to any debt just for doing what we ought to."

Jesse watches her work, intrigued by whatever that metal is, and the tool she has to carve it. Blaze's decline and his initial offer makes him suddenly feel very foolish and he laughs sheepishly.

"Dunno if we'll ever find any tech that's worth your time, aheh. Just busted up stuff from when the world went downhill a few years ago. Those generators are the best thing we got goin' in this base so far, so we must look like dang cavemen to you two." He nods back towards where they left Ghost to do his work.

"Guess I'll just have to keep that promise of a zombie movie night with ya. A life without Romero is a life deprived, friend."

"Any deal you get a friend out of is a good one." Her satisfaction is deep and genuine. "And I'd like that. Ghost says there's only a couple of his movies in the files back home." She sets the tool aside and pulls back for a second: the Ghost's just flown over again. It latches on to the metal flakes in what looks like a miniature tractor beam, and darts off again, intent on its work.

Blaze picks up as it departs. "See, most of the time we're just reclaiming things from the wilderness, same as you are. We've had a few extra centuries to search, but you're closer to your collapse. I'll bet you know things our cryptarchs would spend years figuring out."

"Yeah? Huh. I mean...we sure can make some mean bombs outta some gasoline, tin cans and wires. And sturdy walls. I guess, I dunno, if anything like our old tech is somethin' you'd want, things we don't need like old television sets or computers, we'd be happy to bring 'em up to y'all? And you don't gotta be scared none of telling me, 'Naw, Jesse, this is all junk, get outta here with that.' "

He laughs, feeling better after that brief spell of embarrassment. She thinks of him as a friend! He's friends with a robot! Two robots! This is the best.

Generator Maint. with Blaze & Ghost

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