Anyway I digress, and have changed the AI coming with the protagonist from one based off an austrian bodybuilder to a robot dog.
Back to the Blastwave.
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The ecologist is back in the CR, Eivan stuck around to negotiate some kind of contract for a larger expedition next spring.... We're going to have to hunt down [redacted] to help us if we're going to be making this venture work, they'll be able to help organize things. One person was almost more than Eivan and I could keep safe at any given time. Well, one person who's more curious about stuff than is safe to be curious about.
Anyway... I'm currently contracted out as a guard for the caravans to and from Utah....I don't know where they found it all but the mormons pay surprisingly well for my services. 2 meals a day with fresh vegetables+ whatever the trail scouts catch when picking the route for the day, on top of the 50 rounds of pre-war sealed ammunition a day. I think they might have one of the folks who figured out how to manipulate plants like I did with fire. Which is surprising to me I guess, never thought their faith to be as accepting of that kind of change, much less outsiders.
Either way my everyday goes more or less like this right now:
- wake up before dawn and check my gear
- swing by the food truck and get something to eat for breakfast
- climb partway up the cattle trailer, or the largest rock near camp and check the horizon and surrounding area for anything the nightwatch may have missed, escaped horses, rabid bandits, herds of cows that were just over the rise and no one saw them or heard them, things of that nature.
- take my perch atop the cattle trailer and settle in for the day
- chew on jerky around mid-day
- stand up because I saw something odd, usually just an angry rabbit (seriously they have no fucks left to give and will attack a full grown man on a horse, it's comical but at the same time a person caught off guard will usually require stitches), and also because at this point in the day my legs have fallen asleep and I forgot to stand up and stretch earlier.
- help direct the traffic from up top of the trailer as they set up camp for the night
- get something to eat for dinner
- patrol first watch then grab some sleep under the dozer
And that's a normal day for me right now. Haven't had to shoot anyone, the one group that did pass by headed east to Salt Lake kinda got hushed and talked quietly among themselves as they passed the cattle-trailer. Afterwards someone told me that they apparently consider me otherworldly due to how my gear is stained from the ashlands. I seriously don't understand the superstition that's cropping up around those of us who have no problem wandering around out there. It's just ash, there's nothing magical about it, you just need to take the basic precautions and the right types of food, and something to filter water. Hell it's possible to build a community out there if someone wanted to. And it'd be worth it with all the old world tech hidden and preserved under the ash.
That's just my two cents anyway.
That's just my two cents anyway.
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Got to actually see inside the institute..... it is...the most impressive gem of pre-war tech I have ever seen. It is what legends are made of to be honest. Somehow here a remote technical college in Canada....actually honestly most of canada survived the exchange, so it really shouldn't be surprising. But still, everything in here is a weird melding of magic and tech, the likes of which the techmages in the Silicon Valley would either farn over in absolute adoration.... or declare heresey and attempt to purge is from the realms of man.
Yeah... no middle ground with them really. One of them fixed a night vision filter for my M4's scope and the guy next to him grabbed it and tossed it in the trash and it almost turned into a knife fight between the two of them....Techmages are weird...but they keep the internet running and create fantastic machinations, granted those machinations take constant maintenance to keep operational. Wonder if we'll be back to Vegas in time to see the launch of the Auk IV (whoever named it after a flightless bird needs to be slapped), first manned mission to orbit since the war. As Eivan put it "Is great momentous occasion, do not be of missing. It will be spectacular even if it is blowing up of launch pad and not taking off into space like majestic reverse meteor shower of last year"....and he kinda has a point.
So as I said.. We'll try to be back in Vegas for the launch. I have a companion now. One of the ai's from the institute, well a group of them. According to IDA-01 (Institute Design Ambassadorial model 1) it has about 9 times the programs of a standard institute platform, and 12 times the processing power allowing it to move around and hold an intellectual conversation on its own without need of the institute's wireless network. That and the platform's design is much more complex compared to the normal two foot four legged spider drones they use for moving around most of the campus. I mean it looks like a dog, to the point where it has synthetic muscles and skin with a self repair function as well as a very complex temperature regulation system involving fur made up of bundles of carbon nano-tubules. The only way one could tell it wasn't a dog, or wolf at first glance is the pattern welded teeth and claws, mechanical blue eyes that are backlit, and the fact it can talk.
Going to have to come up with a decent name for the dog though, IDA doesn't fit its personality since that just seems cold and calculating to me while the AI is naturally curious and inquisitive about its surroundings, pandora maybe? Anyway, according to the other AI's they chose a canine as the base for model 01 because of humanity's long partnership with them. I think it might be a longshot, but I'll escort their ambassador around the major hubs.... let's hope no more weird mythology about the ashlands stalkers crop up because of this. According to some we're ghosts of the old world, while others call us angels sent to judge the fate of the survivors of the war, while others call us devils, however none of the last group have openly tried to kill any of us.
Regarding that book. Still no idea what's up with it, and the institute drones would lose all power if they got nearer than 40 feet to it. They would reset once taken out of the area. the AI's made a consensus about this pretty fast and have decided to seal off the entire floor of the hotel just as a precaution, with monitoring stations with hardwired connections to keep an eye on things in the event the effect's area expands.
Yeah... no middle ground with them really. One of them fixed a night vision filter for my M4's scope and the guy next to him grabbed it and tossed it in the trash and it almost turned into a knife fight between the two of them....Techmages are weird...but they keep the internet running and create fantastic machinations, granted those machinations take constant maintenance to keep operational. Wonder if we'll be back to Vegas in time to see the launch of the Auk IV (whoever named it after a flightless bird needs to be slapped), first manned mission to orbit since the war. As Eivan put it "Is great momentous occasion, do not be of missing. It will be spectacular even if it is blowing up of launch pad and not taking off into space like majestic reverse meteor shower of last year"....and he kinda has a point.
So as I said.. We'll try to be back in Vegas for the launch. I have a companion now. One of the ai's from the institute, well a group of them. According to IDA-01 (Institute Design Ambassadorial model 1) it has about 9 times the programs of a standard institute platform, and 12 times the processing power allowing it to move around and hold an intellectual conversation on its own without need of the institute's wireless network. That and the platform's design is much more complex compared to the normal two foot four legged spider drones they use for moving around most of the campus. I mean it looks like a dog, to the point where it has synthetic muscles and skin with a self repair function as well as a very complex temperature regulation system involving fur made up of bundles of carbon nano-tubules. The only way one could tell it wasn't a dog, or wolf at first glance is the pattern welded teeth and claws, mechanical blue eyes that are backlit, and the fact it can talk.
Going to have to come up with a decent name for the dog though, IDA doesn't fit its personality since that just seems cold and calculating to me while the AI is naturally curious and inquisitive about its surroundings, pandora maybe? Anyway, according to the other AI's they chose a canine as the base for model 01 because of humanity's long partnership with them. I think it might be a longshot, but I'll escort their ambassador around the major hubs.... let's hope no more weird mythology about the ashlands stalkers crop up because of this. According to some we're ghosts of the old world, while others call us angels sent to judge the fate of the survivors of the war, while others call us devils, however none of the last group have openly tried to kill any of us.
Regarding that book. Still no idea what's up with it, and the institute drones would lose all power if they got nearer than 40 feet to it. They would reset once taken out of the area. the AI's made a consensus about this pretty fast and have decided to seal off the entire floor of the hotel just as a precaution, with monitoring stations with hardwired connections to keep an eye on things in the event the effect's area expands.
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