PipLog 8 - Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto
Transcription Begins 08-18-2277 21:32
A lot has happened in the day since my last entry. I'm still trying to sort it out.
First, the pharmacy. I'm amazed they still have working terminals out here. I can see signs of repeated repair jobs, but this is still fundamentally 200 year old hardware operating in a radioactive wasteland. I assume this used to be an inventory database repurposed into a password lock for the pharmacy.
It's basically the same hardware architecture we used back in Vault 101. Simpler - this was for a grocery store's inventory accounting, and the terminals in the Vault were top of the line Vault-Tech stuff. Working in maintenance we had to get them to do all kinds of stuff they were never intended for, so cracking this was no problem.
The problem came when I heard more raiders arriving. They'd notice all the corpses and figure out I was the culprit. Without even thinking I ducked back into the pharmacy to hide. I was almost out of ammo at this point.
I was shocked by what I discovered.
A working protectron, still in its charger. I'd read about these, too... general purpose security work drones armed with lasers. This one seemed operational, so I hacked its terminal and got it running again. It immediately threw a few errors relating to its protocols as an office helper, and defaulted to security patrol mode - while they could be pressed to do any task, ultimately they were repurposed military drones, and that was the hardwired code they fell back on.
It made its way out to the supermarket floor, and the wastelanders immediately opened fire. It responded the way it was programmed to - with deadly force.
Formidible as it might have been, a single 200-year old security drone was no match for the half-dozen killers it faced, so I was forced into action myself. The last time I'd fought, it'd been reflex. They'd found me, so I shot back. This time I was almost as freaked out, but their attention was on the protectron. I attacked from the shadows, from hiding, taking my time and making the conscious decision to pull the trigger.
Or at least my body did. I felt strangely distant from it all. Like I was watching someone else control my body. I read about something called depersonalization in one of Dad's old medical journals and yeah... it felt like that. Or was it derealization? I can never keep them straight.
Maybe it was both.
The raiders took out the robot and noticed me, but I kept my eerie calm, just kept picking them off, one at a time, until I was the only one standing.
Still numb, I made my way out to the parking lot and just stared at the lights until I started feeling human again. Less like a protectron.
Then I went back inside, gathered up all the dead raiders' guns and ammunition, and finished my survey of the pharmacy. I should have enough to sell so I can pay off Moira, but I'm going to wait until dawn to leave. I need to sort my head out, and I don't want to walk through that hellscape in the dark.
Transcription Ends 08-18-2277 21:40