It was actually easier hiking than we expected. The ash wasn't as deep as the stuff we've been hiking through before, though the landscape is just as cracked and broken as before. We're camped on a ridge above Cheyenne. Which is actually quite a ways away from Cheyenne mountain and Norad. To be fair the map we have is kinda falling apart and we read Cheyenne and a few other road markers and jumped to a conclusion... you're think Rogan would have noticed something like that being from this area in the first place.
As an added bonus, there are people in the town... not a lot, but enough that we're actually pretty wary of just walking into town out of the wastelands... so we're just going to sit up here and watch a few days and brush up on socializing.
So, where I left off earlier in the week. The weather. Our first experience with a lightning storm was one of shock and awe. Eivan and I were up topside trying to get the radio antenna sitting rightside up when the first bolt of lightning dropped from the sky about a mile away. Brilliant blue against the orange and black of the eternal twilight. It was blinding, and we stood there watching as another strike occurred. It finally hit us that we were in a very exposed position, trying to wrangle a massive lightning rod and we quickly headed back to the blast door. No rain fell from the storm as it whipped over our location, but the wind howled and the raw static buildup seemed to charge everything, and after a few minutes as quickly as the storm had arrived it settled and dispersed. That seemed to set the score for our time above ground, we'd always keep one eye on the sky as it could turn foul rapidly and send us running for cover, lightning and wind for one storm with relatively clear skies for a few hours and then a sudden downpour of firebrands and ash that would light wood, and clothes alight as well as the thankfully much rarer hail storms of pumice that were thankfully few and far between. After a month of this all of us had sort of picked up on the subtle cues and could almost time a storm's approach minutes before the first wind or thunder reached us.
Our first long trip from the bunker occurred about a month and a half of emerging from the bunker. By this point we were beginning to have to ration our supplies, and so we had to seek something out. It wasn't far though. Without the ash and other hazards it would have only been a couple hours of hiking down the mountainside, but it was nearly a full day out and back to where we found the resupply truck. It appeared that it had been knocked over on its side from the pressure wave of a bomb, or possibly had wrecked if the driver had panicked when he saw missiles launching in his side view mirrors. We didn't find his body though, and most of the dry goods were still intact however the refrigerated section had the dried remains of rotted food. We took what we could carry and returned to the bunker. With the realization that rescue wasn't coming we started making plans to eventually leave the bunker. It had served it's purpose, but if we didn't leave, it would eventually become a tomb.
Our initial plan was to try and fix a vehicle and build a makeshift plow onto the front of it, however with that failing, we ended up walking out having made sleds using sheet metal and carrying only what we needed, we set out for our first long term trip to the nearest town of Sherridan to our northwest.
This is where I'll stop for now, Eivan and Leishey asked me to append a set of letters home that they wrote once we found we had an internet connection.
This one is from Eivan:
Дорогая сестра,
Я надеюсь, что вы и ваш ребенок сделал это в московском метро, как мы были обучены, как дети делать, если сирены называется. Я также надеюсь, что ублюдок Сидорович споткнулся брусчатка на дороге, и вы оставили его позади. Я живу, как и моих товарищей. Есть три среди нас, что я могу доверить свою жизнь. Я, Leishey, и американский доброволец, который решил помочь бороться с китайцами. Тем не менее, я жив, и наша группа двенадцать сильным. Я надеюсь вернуться в Москву весной следующего года.
Ваш брат, Eivan.
and Leishey:
Мать,
Я не знаю, как вы добились, так как я оставил Донецк. Я надеюсь, что все будет хорошо. Я путешествовал далеко, так как я ушел с двоюродным братом Eivan бороться китайцев в Америке.Площадь мы находимся в является частью Вайоминг, я хочу отец жил знать, что я сделал это здесь. Я прошу вас хорошо и дом в порядке и кузине Анне сделали это к метро и является безопасным.
-Ваш сын
Leishey
The rest of the group hasn't decided yet if they want to make a letter to their loved ones or not. I however am going to get some sleep now, since the hike was exhausting and I have watch in a few hours.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
Continuing from where I left off.
A word from the writer: Presently I have 8 as of yet named characters. 3 of which are airforce, 4 of which are regular army, and one of which is a conscript/volunteer like the protagonist who was part of the "B-team" to keep any Chinese Intel teams confused as to what the hell was going on with the group headed east. I am accepting Name and character archetype suggestions at: blogwiththeblastwave@gmail.com
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A wire broke and it took me a few days to fix the satellite transceiver.
Anyway, for the first two days of the exchange we cowered like rats in the bunker, muttering prayers in our respective languages to our gods, and others hoping that we would be spared a long death. On the second day of the exchange a roar shook the bunker as our worst fears took shape that a retaliatory strike had been targeted at the command structure of this facility. The lights flicked off, the electric hum replaced by silence. After what seemed like an eternity I spoke. "Are we dead?", a clang of someone knocking over a pot and a curse in Russian was the response I got, followed by laughter from everyone in earshot. Slowly the hum of electricity returned and the lights, their dim amber hue blinding despite how it had been only moments that they had darkened. Then a massive quake jolted the bunker from the east, knocking us all to the floor and the lights died once more.
It took us about an hour to fix the generator. The quake that had shook the bunker had knocked part of the watermill loose and it was a feature Leishey had not seen during the cultural exchange so, it took a bit of monkeying to get it working right.
To bide our time and keep our minds occupied, Eivan spent a lot of time running us through drills, partially to keep us active, and partially to keep us from thinking too much on what might be waiting for us when we cracked the seal on the bunker through pure exhaustion. He told us of what he had seen during his training in The Ukraine, especially in and around Pripyat, how nature had reclaimed the city and of strange creatures that wandered the ruins, a curious hybrid of plant and animal that seemed to mend the environment wherever they wandered. I honestly feel that he is what helped us get through this whole year. We owe him our lives, even though he would never take credit for it.
3 and a half weeks in Leishey had started to go a bit stir crazy.... honestly we all were by that point. Commander Rogan spent most of his time dissembling and reassembling the bunker armory and finally he just decided to walk out, radiation be damned. It was the door seal alarm that woke most everyone up, once we knew what it was we joined him at the door... what we saw was terrifying. Black ash lazily raining down like snow on a shattered and alien looking landscape while a cold wind whipped in from the northwest bearing an ominous orange glow. We returned to the bunker one by one as reality set in.
After another week the radiation had died down enough for us to actually leave the bunker for a few days at a time and not worry about getting sick and thankfully the wind direction had been fair for us so we weren't buried in irradiated dust and dirt. Also working in our favor nothing had hit the facility that had a cratering depth deep enough to damage the bunker enough to make us leave. One of the first things I learned once we began poking around on the surface properly was the proper use of a Geiger counter. The government paperwork that had come with the one I used after the first strike so long ago not only was confusing, but also had me adjust the settings on it so fine that anything above normal background radiation would have made me run fearing for my life with the machine clicking like mad. Apparently I could have been outside and grouping up with the other people that had evacuated Reedley for the nearby national park after only about 7 hours. So... I didn't actually need to spend over 2 weeks cooped up in my apartment like I did.
Perhaps... but it's pointless to mull over what could have happened had I done that.
Anyway the weather. the weather was.. odd. Thunderstorms and violent wind would pass through in a matter of hours before the sky would return to it's hazy red overcast, nature was in turmoil like never before. It was mid-november when we had started spending more time on the surface, except when the weather turned foul. The bunker was our refuge and shelter from the worst of it. Commander Rogan, a Wyoming native, his theory was that the nukes had broken the weather cycle in such a way that it would not be predictable for some time. I however had a theory that the war had awoken a slumbering ancient and that the weather, at least in this region would no longer be fully habitable for at least a few human lifetimes. It wouldn't be until earlier this year that my guess would be proven right and we found that Yellowstone had in fact erupted.
We're going to break camp tomorrow. We've been comfortable here for a few days, but we'll never find any other survivors just by sitting here, unless of course we're camped overtop of a bunker, but that's beside the point, though this close to Cheyenne mountain that's a very good possibility. Despite how well we've adapted to hiking through the ash, with the unfamiliar terrain, not to mention geological uplift it's been slow going. We might actually be at Norad if we keep this pace by next monday, that and there certainly is less ash and more dirt out here...so the ashfall isn't that bad as we travel south. Eventually we'll be able to head west.
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A wire broke and it took me a few days to fix the satellite transceiver.
Anyway, for the first two days of the exchange we cowered like rats in the bunker, muttering prayers in our respective languages to our gods, and others hoping that we would be spared a long death. On the second day of the exchange a roar shook the bunker as our worst fears took shape that a retaliatory strike had been targeted at the command structure of this facility. The lights flicked off, the electric hum replaced by silence. After what seemed like an eternity I spoke. "Are we dead?", a clang of someone knocking over a pot and a curse in Russian was the response I got, followed by laughter from everyone in earshot. Slowly the hum of electricity returned and the lights, their dim amber hue blinding despite how it had been only moments that they had darkened. Then a massive quake jolted the bunker from the east, knocking us all to the floor and the lights died once more.
It took us about an hour to fix the generator. The quake that had shook the bunker had knocked part of the watermill loose and it was a feature Leishey had not seen during the cultural exchange so, it took a bit of monkeying to get it working right.
To bide our time and keep our minds occupied, Eivan spent a lot of time running us through drills, partially to keep us active, and partially to keep us from thinking too much on what might be waiting for us when we cracked the seal on the bunker through pure exhaustion. He told us of what he had seen during his training in The Ukraine, especially in and around Pripyat, how nature had reclaimed the city and of strange creatures that wandered the ruins, a curious hybrid of plant and animal that seemed to mend the environment wherever they wandered. I honestly feel that he is what helped us get through this whole year. We owe him our lives, even though he would never take credit for it.
3 and a half weeks in Leishey had started to go a bit stir crazy.... honestly we all were by that point. Commander Rogan spent most of his time dissembling and reassembling the bunker armory and finally he just decided to walk out, radiation be damned. It was the door seal alarm that woke most everyone up, once we knew what it was we joined him at the door... what we saw was terrifying. Black ash lazily raining down like snow on a shattered and alien looking landscape while a cold wind whipped in from the northwest bearing an ominous orange glow. We returned to the bunker one by one as reality set in.
After another week the radiation had died down enough for us to actually leave the bunker for a few days at a time and not worry about getting sick and thankfully the wind direction had been fair for us so we weren't buried in irradiated dust and dirt. Also working in our favor nothing had hit the facility that had a cratering depth deep enough to damage the bunker enough to make us leave. One of the first things I learned once we began poking around on the surface properly was the proper use of a Geiger counter. The government paperwork that had come with the one I used after the first strike so long ago not only was confusing, but also had me adjust the settings on it so fine that anything above normal background radiation would have made me run fearing for my life with the machine clicking like mad. Apparently I could have been outside and grouping up with the other people that had evacuated Reedley for the nearby national park after only about 7 hours. So... I didn't actually need to spend over 2 weeks cooped up in my apartment like I did.
Perhaps... but it's pointless to mull over what could have happened had I done that.
Anyway the weather. the weather was.. odd. Thunderstorms and violent wind would pass through in a matter of hours before the sky would return to it's hazy red overcast, nature was in turmoil like never before. It was mid-november when we had started spending more time on the surface, except when the weather turned foul. The bunker was our refuge and shelter from the worst of it. Commander Rogan, a Wyoming native, his theory was that the nukes had broken the weather cycle in such a way that it would not be predictable for some time. I however had a theory that the war had awoken a slumbering ancient and that the weather, at least in this region would no longer be fully habitable for at least a few human lifetimes. It wouldn't be until earlier this year that my guess would be proven right and we found that Yellowstone had in fact erupted.
We're going to break camp tomorrow. We've been comfortable here for a few days, but we'll never find any other survivors just by sitting here, unless of course we're camped overtop of a bunker, but that's beside the point, though this close to Cheyenne mountain that's a very good possibility. Despite how well we've adapted to hiking through the ash, with the unfamiliar terrain, not to mention geological uplift it's been slow going. We might actually be at Norad if we keep this pace by next monday, that and there certainly is less ash and more dirt out here...so the ashfall isn't that bad as we travel south. Eventually we'll be able to head west.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Not dead yet.
The writer lives. And so the story returns.
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You could say there are a lot of things I am thankful for. For one, we're finally in an area where we have satellite coverage for the GPS unit, a second thing to be thankful for... my satellite phone machinations of the past apparently work still, though not the same way as before, this time I'm using the antennae and microprocessor from an Amorok Satellite radio out of a car, not to mention that there are authentication systems working, much less the internet exists.. even if it is slightly less... alive. you could say it is a shell of itself. Used primarily now by those that either could not forget what the world was like before the second strike, those that are looking forward, and simply those that have no other alternative way to contact the rest of the world. Latency sucks, and apparently some programmers and corporations saw....something on the horizon and prepared.
Also I'm thankful to be alive. That alone can be considered a miracle, or pure luck depending on what you believe. According to the clock on the GPS, now that it's sync up with the satellite arrays, and with corroboration with one of the clocks I was able to access online, it's been one year, three months, and 27 days since the world over got bathed in atomic fire...well as far as we know that's what went down.... To be honest, now that we've made it to the edge of a massive field of ashes, it actually doesn't look too worse for it. Granted we haven't seen another living human yet, and the animals we have seen weren't keen for conversation.
I'm going to take the next few posts, and summarize journal entries that I wrote down, since a lot of it boils down to "woke up today, still in the bunker, checked the air vents and the monitoring station, still too hot radiologically to leave."
For starters, you could say we were lucky in the first place that the missile command bunker we made out way to was open at all. The commander said so himself, if we had come through any other day, the doors would have been closed and sealed shut, however that day they had been being resupplied and when they went to seal the bunker, well the door fucked up and wouldn't move and they'd been working on it all day, when the two guys on missile watch came hauling down the main corridor saying the board just lit up and was doing precheck automatically, then the sirens and the missiles launched. We arrived about twenty minutes later, hoping for shelter. This is where our luck started. White Rock missile base happened to be a converted VIP bunker and not just a normal command post. Originally it was built to house 40 people comfortably like a small underground motel complete with exercise and entertainment facilities with a maximum allowable residency of 120. When the air force imminent domained it due to the proximity of the newly planned missile silos they kept most of the gear, but never staffed it with more than four people at the most.
Our second stroke of luck happened to be that Leishey, one of the soldiers from Eivan's group, was part of the cultural exchange with the U.S. during the 90s when we swapped missile engineers for training and understanding during the peace and disarmament talks and he'd actually trained here before. This is one of the reasons why he insisted we run towards the "comms" station when the missiles started flying, and not away. Anyway he actually knew how to manually override the main blast door, and with the combined work of 12 people we managed to manhandle the partially seized machinations into place and get it closed up.
Our third stroke of luck in this time-span, was the resupply they had received earlier in the day that led to the blast door seizing up. Normally enough food to last 4 men a full year (if needed) on very rich meals, when combined with the rations we had, we did the math and, if we wasted nothing, we could make it last 6 months for the 12 of us. Thankfully we only needed 4 months... not because of the radiation, that cooled down enough after about a week that we could go outside for about an hour at a time, weather permitting.... and god damn was the weather terrible.
That's enough typing for one night, Eivan and Leishey just got back to the camp and said something about a group of deer nearby and want to see if I can still shoot straight. We've got a running betting pool against each other, honestly I'd like to see Rogan shoot something off other than his mouth, he talks big about his training from the airforce, but we've yet to see anything come of it. Anyway, fresh venison sounds nice for dinner instead of more two year old canned food.
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You could say there are a lot of things I am thankful for. For one, we're finally in an area where we have satellite coverage for the GPS unit, a second thing to be thankful for... my satellite phone machinations of the past apparently work still, though not the same way as before, this time I'm using the antennae and microprocessor from an Amorok Satellite radio out of a car, not to mention that there are authentication systems working, much less the internet exists.. even if it is slightly less... alive. you could say it is a shell of itself. Used primarily now by those that either could not forget what the world was like before the second strike, those that are looking forward, and simply those that have no other alternative way to contact the rest of the world. Latency sucks, and apparently some programmers and corporations saw....something on the horizon and prepared.
Also I'm thankful to be alive. That alone can be considered a miracle, or pure luck depending on what you believe. According to the clock on the GPS, now that it's sync up with the satellite arrays, and with corroboration with one of the clocks I was able to access online, it's been one year, three months, and 27 days since the world over got bathed in atomic fire...well as far as we know that's what went down.... To be honest, now that we've made it to the edge of a massive field of ashes, it actually doesn't look too worse for it. Granted we haven't seen another living human yet, and the animals we have seen weren't keen for conversation.
I'm going to take the next few posts, and summarize journal entries that I wrote down, since a lot of it boils down to "woke up today, still in the bunker, checked the air vents and the monitoring station, still too hot radiologically to leave."
For starters, you could say we were lucky in the first place that the missile command bunker we made out way to was open at all. The commander said so himself, if we had come through any other day, the doors would have been closed and sealed shut, however that day they had been being resupplied and when they went to seal the bunker, well the door fucked up and wouldn't move and they'd been working on it all day, when the two guys on missile watch came hauling down the main corridor saying the board just lit up and was doing precheck automatically, then the sirens and the missiles launched. We arrived about twenty minutes later, hoping for shelter. This is where our luck started. White Rock missile base happened to be a converted VIP bunker and not just a normal command post. Originally it was built to house 40 people comfortably like a small underground motel complete with exercise and entertainment facilities with a maximum allowable residency of 120. When the air force imminent domained it due to the proximity of the newly planned missile silos they kept most of the gear, but never staffed it with more than four people at the most.
Our second stroke of luck happened to be that Leishey, one of the soldiers from Eivan's group, was part of the cultural exchange with the U.S. during the 90s when we swapped missile engineers for training and understanding during the peace and disarmament talks and he'd actually trained here before. This is one of the reasons why he insisted we run towards the "comms" station when the missiles started flying, and not away. Anyway he actually knew how to manually override the main blast door, and with the combined work of 12 people we managed to manhandle the partially seized machinations into place and get it closed up.
Our third stroke of luck in this time-span, was the resupply they had received earlier in the day that led to the blast door seizing up. Normally enough food to last 4 men a full year (if needed) on very rich meals, when combined with the rations we had, we did the math and, if we wasted nothing, we could make it last 6 months for the 12 of us. Thankfully we only needed 4 months... not because of the radiation, that cooled down enough after about a week that we could go outside for about an hour at a time, weather permitting.... and god damn was the weather terrible.
That's enough typing for one night, Eivan and Leishey just got back to the camp and said something about a group of deer nearby and want to see if I can still shoot straight. We've got a running betting pool against each other, honestly I'd like to see Rogan shoot something off other than his mouth, he talks big about his training from the airforce, but we've yet to see anything come of it. Anyway, fresh venison sounds nice for dinner instead of more two year old canned food.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Teasers from beyond the blastwave Part VIII
Just informing my readers that Blog with the Blastwave is going to be going on a short Hiatus, though this will only be for about a month or so. I'm in the middle of a transition hase in my career and so will be scurrying around prepping my gear to move out from my apartment and take one of two options before me, unless an unexpected third option presents itself
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Coalinga was a blast as usual. A weird mix of chaos and order at the stockyards as they sell off most of the cow calf pairs to the ranchers in the delta to winter on the last crop of rice hay. Apparently I missed my older brothers visiting by a couple days. Eh there'll be more chances down the road I guess, some more research into the solar array has been done since I was last there, between the heavy armor cache underneath it, and the missile defense system, it still has secrets it's keeping. Hard to believe that it had had a massive chemical laser built into the solar collector and the whole facility has capacitors built into it. The estimates from the techmages that are poking around the facility are that it could burn a 40 foot hole through a meteor about a hundred miles out of atmosphere. Not really that impressive, but the information in the computers and paperwork in the control center itself imply that there's more of these hidden around the country, possibly the world.
And now we know where all that money for Green energy went, Al wasn't squirreling it away to be just a regular thieving bastard white collar criminal... he was becoming a supervillain.
Also did some testing with my gear and it's anomalous properties, basically I found a couple friends from college that got dragged along with the Mennonites into kings canyon when they evacuated everyone in the area the second time. Anyway the breakdown goes a little something like this:
Me without my ash coated gear=No visual anomaly.
Me with gear I took into the ashlands that stained: Slight visual anomoly, dizzying to look at.
Me, with my ash coated gear (the stuff I had with me out there originally) but no cloak: Kinda dizzying to look at directly.
Me, with ash coated gear, with cloak: Dizzying to look at directly, hard to notice in a crowd, even just alone standing out in the open a person just overlooks my presence unless I actually want to be noticed.
Further tests:
Friend with the gear I took into the ashlands: No visual anomaly
Friend with gear I brought out of the ashlands: Some visual anomaly, not as pronounced as with me though
Friend with my ashlands cloak: Same as above, some visual anomaly, not as pronounced or dizzying.
Got a job as a guard on a train to the north, so going to stop in Davis, there's supposed to be some smart folks to the north that might be able to figure things out a bit better than I can.
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Headed towards Oregon, mostly due to snow blocking my way south, and the route through Idaho is clear as far as I can see. Haven're really seen to many people, and no one's really commented on the wolf. I guess most of the stalkers are strange enough one with a wolf as a companion isn't too much of an oddity, even if that wolf is a cybernetic creation.
Anyway learned a few things about Pandora (great success, IDA finally decided that Pandora could actually be a better name to use since it's full designation of "Institute Design Ambassadorial" was a bit of a mouthful.) It can eat. Anything organic, wood, grass, meat....me, etc etc. It isn't because it has dietary needs, rather it's because it's power source is an advanced microbial fuel cell, and yes, what goes in must go out as well, Pandora likewise wasn't programmed to taste anything but it does prefer cooked food over uncooked, something that due to the whole "having paws and not hands" thing it is incapable of doing on its own. The AI is also naturally inquisitive about the world, considering the programs that compose it originally came from the institute, and have never left the campus it literally has no knowledge of the world beyond what information was on the campus hard drives, and what they've gleaned off the internet now that that's a bit more restored to its former "glory".
As well as being inquisitive of the world, Pandora is also extremely cautious. They found a copy of terminator on a hard drive and a few Asimov stories in PDF form and are, probably rightly so, afraid of humanity and actually were quite afraid of even sending out some kind of ambassador. It apparently was a huge debate among the various AI's there so huge that it lasted four days, an eternity to them before they reached a consensus and decided I wasn't enough of a threat and had me do their search and rescue work for them.
Anyway, idaho, + a light snow = a desolate place that's like they rolled the streets up and closed shop for the most part, at least for a person passing through. That's about it for this post. Should be into eastern oregon in a few days since I'm in no rush and the cold temperatures are keeping the deer I caught out in the open chilled with no risk of spoiling.
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Coalinga was a blast as usual. A weird mix of chaos and order at the stockyards as they sell off most of the cow calf pairs to the ranchers in the delta to winter on the last crop of rice hay. Apparently I missed my older brothers visiting by a couple days. Eh there'll be more chances down the road I guess, some more research into the solar array has been done since I was last there, between the heavy armor cache underneath it, and the missile defense system, it still has secrets it's keeping. Hard to believe that it had had a massive chemical laser built into the solar collector and the whole facility has capacitors built into it. The estimates from the techmages that are poking around the facility are that it could burn a 40 foot hole through a meteor about a hundred miles out of atmosphere. Not really that impressive, but the information in the computers and paperwork in the control center itself imply that there's more of these hidden around the country, possibly the world.
And now we know where all that money for Green energy went, Al wasn't squirreling it away to be just a regular thieving bastard white collar criminal... he was becoming a supervillain.
Also did some testing with my gear and it's anomalous properties, basically I found a couple friends from college that got dragged along with the Mennonites into kings canyon when they evacuated everyone in the area the second time. Anyway the breakdown goes a little something like this:
Me without my ash coated gear=No visual anomaly.
Me with gear I took into the ashlands that stained: Slight visual anomoly, dizzying to look at.
Me, with my ash coated gear (the stuff I had with me out there originally) but no cloak: Kinda dizzying to look at directly.
Me, with ash coated gear, with cloak: Dizzying to look at directly, hard to notice in a crowd, even just alone standing out in the open a person just overlooks my presence unless I actually want to be noticed.
Further tests:
Friend with the gear I took into the ashlands: No visual anomaly
Friend with gear I brought out of the ashlands: Some visual anomaly, not as pronounced as with me though
Friend with my ashlands cloak: Same as above, some visual anomaly, not as pronounced or dizzying.
Got a job as a guard on a train to the north, so going to stop in Davis, there's supposed to be some smart folks to the north that might be able to figure things out a bit better than I can.
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Headed towards Oregon, mostly due to snow blocking my way south, and the route through Idaho is clear as far as I can see. Haven're really seen to many people, and no one's really commented on the wolf. I guess most of the stalkers are strange enough one with a wolf as a companion isn't too much of an oddity, even if that wolf is a cybernetic creation.
Anyway learned a few things about Pandora (great success, IDA finally decided that Pandora could actually be a better name to use since it's full designation of "Institute Design Ambassadorial" was a bit of a mouthful.) It can eat. Anything organic, wood, grass, meat....me, etc etc. It isn't because it has dietary needs, rather it's because it's power source is an advanced microbial fuel cell, and yes, what goes in must go out as well, Pandora likewise wasn't programmed to taste anything but it does prefer cooked food over uncooked, something that due to the whole "having paws and not hands" thing it is incapable of doing on its own. The AI is also naturally inquisitive about the world, considering the programs that compose it originally came from the institute, and have never left the campus it literally has no knowledge of the world beyond what information was on the campus hard drives, and what they've gleaned off the internet now that that's a bit more restored to its former "glory".
As well as being inquisitive of the world, Pandora is also extremely cautious. They found a copy of terminator on a hard drive and a few Asimov stories in PDF form and are, probably rightly so, afraid of humanity and actually were quite afraid of even sending out some kind of ambassador. It apparently was a huge debate among the various AI's there so huge that it lasted four days, an eternity to them before they reached a consensus and decided I wasn't enough of a threat and had me do their search and rescue work for them.
Anyway, idaho, + a light snow = a desolate place that's like they rolled the streets up and closed shop for the most part, at least for a person passing through. That's about it for this post. Should be into eastern oregon in a few days since I'm in no rush and the cold temperatures are keeping the deer I caught out in the open chilled with no risk of spoiling.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Teasers from beyond the blastwave part VII
I get less stares running around with my usual gear stowed in a pack. Apparently it is in-fact a visual anomaly based around the ash on my clothing... I may need to run some further tests
Oh right back in the CR, the caravan that I helped escort last week was the last big one for the summer especially with the snow starting to fall across the passes and no one wanting to invest too much work into getting a fleet of snowplows running again, at least right now anyway. Might do it when/if we're a unified country again but there's just too many differing opinions and fractured loyalties floating around right now, and too many people with those drastically differing opinions and loyalties that are employing small armies, however there are some signs of unity regardless.
For example: the California Republic and the Salt Lake Confederation, somewhat opposed ideologies: the CR having become extremely libertarian after the first election that was had, mostly due to shell-shocked folks just looking for some kind of flag to rally around and the idea of "spreading the wealth around" didn't hold to well with them. However some things never change and San Francisco is one victory parade shy of being Communist totalitarian, but that's a whole other story. Meanwhile the SLC's governance structure has faith intertwined into the highest levels, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just you wouldn't expect the CR whose leadership professes "No gods, no kings, only man" to be trading partners with a confederation whose ideals and politics are intertwined with that of the Mormon Church.
Now some of you reading this may be wondering, "but where is the military in all this? Why haven't they stepped in and acted as a nationwide unifier/police force? Why are mercenaries like you protecting caravans?"
Well it's simple, the remnants have described that as not in their job description as they are mainly for defending us from foreign threats, that and the bulk of the military was in the field and got hit by tactical nuclear weapons. So most of the ones that are still around that didn't retire and or desert are stationed along the Ravenwood/Alameda DMZ and various other Chinese military footholds still in the U.S.
Anyway, headed over to my hometown to check on things there and see how everyone is before considering what to do next. Might bother a couple of friends that are around on the east side and run some tests with my ashlands kit to see what's what with the anomalous properties.
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Snow, I hate snow.... well not so much hate... dislike being cold and wet is a better choice of words I guess... my own damn fault for heading north to Canada without much cold/wet weather gear, then again I didn't plan on spending a month or so up there's that.
Anyway, found a snowmobile store out here in between towns, IDA (trying to convince it that Pandora would be a better name, though my arguments on the symbolism of pandora's box and the potential chaos that the idea of autonomous artificial intelligence could bring to human society has so far fallen to deaf audio sensors) and I were able to get it running after monkeying around with it and stuffing the engine off a portable diesel generator into it in place of the gas engine making it a bit more versatile in the fuels department... and easier to deal with since it's just compression at that point and no spark, and no electronic ignition needed. Hell pulling the computer, engine, and other unnecessary components (block heater and battery is necessary) made the damn thing lighter and easier to drive even after stuffing a diesel engine into it, weird, but it happened. Anyway this is making getting back south towards....hmmm.. not sure if I should go near the SLC just yet... a robot hellhound could get me burned at the stake, Ashlands stalker or not...Oregon perhaps?
Eh this is just musings though. dunno where to go just yet.
Oh right back in the CR, the caravan that I helped escort last week was the last big one for the summer especially with the snow starting to fall across the passes and no one wanting to invest too much work into getting a fleet of snowplows running again, at least right now anyway. Might do it when/if we're a unified country again but there's just too many differing opinions and fractured loyalties floating around right now, and too many people with those drastically differing opinions and loyalties that are employing small armies, however there are some signs of unity regardless.
For example: the California Republic and the Salt Lake Confederation, somewhat opposed ideologies: the CR having become extremely libertarian after the first election that was had, mostly due to shell-shocked folks just looking for some kind of flag to rally around and the idea of "spreading the wealth around" didn't hold to well with them. However some things never change and San Francisco is one victory parade shy of being Communist totalitarian, but that's a whole other story. Meanwhile the SLC's governance structure has faith intertwined into the highest levels, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just you wouldn't expect the CR whose leadership professes "No gods, no kings, only man" to be trading partners with a confederation whose ideals and politics are intertwined with that of the Mormon Church.
Now some of you reading this may be wondering, "but where is the military in all this? Why haven't they stepped in and acted as a nationwide unifier/police force? Why are mercenaries like you protecting caravans?"
Well it's simple, the remnants have described that as not in their job description as they are mainly for defending us from foreign threats, that and the bulk of the military was in the field and got hit by tactical nuclear weapons. So most of the ones that are still around that didn't retire and or desert are stationed along the Ravenwood/Alameda DMZ and various other Chinese military footholds still in the U.S.
Anyway, headed over to my hometown to check on things there and see how everyone is before considering what to do next. Might bother a couple of friends that are around on the east side and run some tests with my ashlands kit to see what's what with the anomalous properties.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Snow, I hate snow.... well not so much hate... dislike being cold and wet is a better choice of words I guess... my own damn fault for heading north to Canada without much cold/wet weather gear, then again I didn't plan on spending a month or so up there's that.
Anyway, found a snowmobile store out here in between towns, IDA (trying to convince it that Pandora would be a better name, though my arguments on the symbolism of pandora's box and the potential chaos that the idea of autonomous artificial intelligence could bring to human society has so far fallen to deaf audio sensors) and I were able to get it running after monkeying around with it and stuffing the engine off a portable diesel generator into it in place of the gas engine making it a bit more versatile in the fuels department... and easier to deal with since it's just compression at that point and no spark, and no electronic ignition needed. Hell pulling the computer, engine, and other unnecessary components (block heater and battery is necessary) made the damn thing lighter and easier to drive even after stuffing a diesel engine into it, weird, but it happened. Anyway this is making getting back south towards....hmmm.. not sure if I should go near the SLC just yet... a robot hellhound could get me burned at the stake, Ashlands stalker or not...Oregon perhaps?
Eh this is just musings though. dunno where to go just yet.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Teasers From Beyond the Blastwave Part VI
Bit of a short update for today. Like I said, Mea culpa Mea culpa.
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So I finally got someone to tell me just why ashlands stalkers, not some of the new guys, people who started off the apocalypse out there, get talked about like we're harbringers of the apocalypse and things of that nature.apparently there's a miasma about us that makes us and the air around us blurry, kinda like a heat mirage with a hint of shadow is how he put it. Apparently this only affects people who started out out there. Which I guess makes sense, that area is weird with anomalies and what some people are calling magic now, so it could be a matter of acclimation as well, which would explain why none of us are able to notice it and everyone else does.
I guess that could be intimidating to most people... I'll have to bring this to the others, so we can figure things out, might have the organize those of us into some kind of order since this apparently affects the ash too which is why people need us as guides...
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Weather sucks, trapped in a forest due to snow. Not much to say. IDA is having a blast running around through the snow with a "holycrapwhathehellisthis" reaction to the snow. Which is kinda odd for coming from Canada....but..yeah.
Well not so much trapped as it's taking a while to slog through all this snow, and I can only melt so much of it in a day with fire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I finally got someone to tell me just why ashlands stalkers, not some of the new guys, people who started off the apocalypse out there, get talked about like we're harbringers of the apocalypse and things of that nature.apparently there's a miasma about us that makes us and the air around us blurry, kinda like a heat mirage with a hint of shadow is how he put it. Apparently this only affects people who started out out there. Which I guess makes sense, that area is weird with anomalies and what some people are calling magic now, so it could be a matter of acclimation as well, which would explain why none of us are able to notice it and everyone else does.
I guess that could be intimidating to most people... I'll have to bring this to the others, so we can figure things out, might have the organize those of us into some kind of order since this apparently affects the ash too which is why people need us as guides...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Weather sucks, trapped in a forest due to snow. Not much to say. IDA is having a blast running around through the snow with a "holycrapwhathehellisthis" reaction to the snow. Which is kinda odd for coming from Canada....but..yeah.
Well not so much trapped as it's taking a while to slog through all this snow, and I can only melt so much of it in a day with fire.
Monday, September 29, 2014
My apologies.
In the last 6 days I've spent 30+ hours in the driver's seat, my mind is shot, I will be posting a double update this week, once on Wednesday and the followup on this-coming weekend.
I meant to make this post on Thursday but preparation for a camping trip distracted me.
My apologies.
I meant to make this post on Thursday but preparation for a camping trip distracted me.
My apologies.
-Blastwave
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