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Danse Cambridge, or what's left of it, is...well, it's not 'safe', exactly. Sporadic standoffs, with guns, can still be readily heard in the distance, as well as the occasional explosion and small mushroom cloud from automobiles caught in the crossfire. For the most part, though, that seems to be centered around the east end of town, in the direction of where the tip of the mostly intact Bunker Hill monument can just barely be seen peeking above half-destroyed buildings. The warp gate is helpfully centered close to the west end, where the more usual company are errant feral ghouls, or sometimes a pack of wild dogs that wandered in from the wastes. Regardless, it's quiet, compared to the rest.

    It also has those signs of recent and near-recent inhabitation. While this particular square appears to be abandoned, now, there are several wooden planks to allow access to the interiors of bomb-scorched buildings, where matresses and sleeping bags once gave rest to settlers. There is also a camp fire with a cooking pot suspended above it, but the char marks don't look fresh. More impressive is the presence of a decontamination arch, with several radiation and anti-microbial scrubbing jet sprays fixed within it, as well as a micro fusion generator fixed closeby to power the thing. It's not the most welcoming of sights, but it's definitely brought some peace of mind.

    The road seems to lead out of town, past the picked-apart remains of a 1950s-esque, retro-future diner, toward where the job posting was listed for. However, those that had been here previously would know it's far from the only point of interest in the vicinity. The pre-war police station, one of the few buildings in the area that actually has the lights on, is host to a recon squadron for the Brotherhood of Steel. It's here and its close proximity that Knight Rhys is currently on patrol, wearing his distinctive jumpsuit and armed with a laser rifle. Inside the station's garage, Scribe Haylen is trying to prepare something special. Namely, William Pauwel, into the suit of T-45 power armor that Elites had retrieved just a few days prior.

    "Once the pressure valves release, it opens like this," she illustrates, the back hatch popping up, while the other extremeties also open, like steel petals of a deadly flower, revealing the interior of the frame. There seem to be all manner of sensors and environmental regulation apparatus on the inside, and it certainly looks...cozy. "Once it senses you inside, it should work! If...uhm, that girl," she seems somewhat uncertain of calling her that, "What she did, didn't corrupt any of the systems. Oh, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about! I'll be monitoring things from here, just in case!" The door of the garage rolls back, allowing access to the streets outside. Only one way to perform a proper test drive. "It shouldn't take long before it's perfectly natural. You'll wonder what you ever did without it."
Evangeline      With her world experiencing an unusual season of peace, the little neuroi known as Evangeline has been spending a lot of time on this world. Mostly, she has been doing patrols herself, keeping the population of ghouls and super mutants in check. With her unique physiology, she is able to constantly except for those rare times where she has to stop and recharge. Everyone has to eat, of course.

     And many a mangled car has been sacrificed to the ravenous appetite of the neuroi after a particularly vigorous battle. It has probably helped improve the sightlines of the police station. So, when a new mission popped up, Evangeline returned quickly to the police station and has been watching Haylen and Will. "...it should be in identical - if not better - condition than when I found it..." she comments on the comment about corruption.
Rory White "Putting together a suit of power armor with HYDRAULICS and similar ancient technology as opposed to smart materials and microservos is quite a feat... I wonder how well it will perform compared to our other example here?" Rory ponders aloud, looking over William and the current procedure. She hasn't had the opportunity to switch to her Flexbot since the SCIENCE debacle at Will's homestead, which means...

    Which means that instead of looking like a surreal robo-sphinx with a vaguely human face, she's a white-robed lab-priestess- going by the aesthetics of the outfit anyways, it being a billowing arrangement of formal white fabric with plenty of pockets - and a soft-featured female face, complete with sky-blue eyes and a CERTAINLY strange-for-the-locale plume of long, luxurious blue hair.

    And to top matters off, she's carrying a laser rifle (of transhuman make) and wearing a belt that seems loaded with grenades, as well as several small pistol-sized weapons.
Kyle Katarn     Whistling sharply, Kyle openly hails Rhys with a wave as he arrives towards the garage. "Is Danse still here?" He asks, not wasting much time as he goes over to the doorway. He spots power armor and tilts his head, cocking an eyebrow at the sight.

#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE reminds him a lot of General Moch's prototype Gen3 Dark Troopers. A shudder runs up his spine, before he controls himself.

    Managing a grin, he claps Hayden on the back gently. "Hey Scribe, who's in the suit?" He asks, nodding to both Evangeline and Rory when they come by soon after his arrival.
William Pauwel     Will is a lot of things: explorer, tinkerer, amateur engineer. Today he adds another to that list of professions. 'Powered Armor Pilot.' As the hydraulics hiss and the old T-45 blossoms open, Will takes a moment to admire the interior. Miniature pistons add strength equivalent to hundreds of pounds of force to each limb. Thick armor surrounds a suit of padded, thickly woven cloth, all while all kinds of meters and gauges tick up and down all along the inside of the machine.

    "I'm sure it'll be fine," Will answers his fellow technician. "Iff'n anything is busted, we can always get ahold of her again anyway. And if we can't, it probably won't just start... runnin' off with me still inside, will it?"

"Now, let's just see..."

    Will takes a moment to slide his handcannon into the armor's hands before hefting himself into its hollow back. He slides his hands into its gauntlets and sets his heels down into spring-driven switches in the frame's heels. A hydraulically driven, steel skeleton hisses as it closes around him, his face peeks out of the visor, just a little bit... short for the fit. Only slightly, though- and the spring-heels help significantly with that.

    "Don't want to get TOO used to this," Will chuckles, opening and closing his hands and watching as the armor does the same. His fingers close around his gun, testing the weight. It's... unfamiliar. Like there's nothing there at all. "Huh. This thing's pretty fancy! Glad it's... almost one-size fit-all. Hope there's enough power to get me there n' back."

    Will bids the machine to stand straight and turns towards the others as he emerges from the garage. "Oh! Howdy y'all. Fancy seeing y'all here! Looks like we've got a nice, healthy posse going."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone was fairly quicl to arrive she'd been used to exploring this woreld and given the common traits in many ways with her own it had? She was eager to help, given her world had a bush with nuclear annhilation. So here was was again clad in the light stealth armour she's liokely most known for in the multiverse. The new decontamination was a very useful addtion given some of the things lurking int his world.

"It's pretty crazy to me to see a fully analog hard suit. It really is something though."

She's been helpng where she can with the suit but robotics isn't quite her area of skill back home. Still she's been enjoying the learning experiance.
Zwei     Standing out, Zwei has never been here before in any fashion. In fact, it's barely heard of the place, and even then only through information trickling through the syndicate network. For obvious reasons, this world doesn't seem to exactly have a lot of an online presence to research, and so it's up to good old fashioned exploration on foot; usually a nice break from the ordinary, to get out and figuratively stretch its legs in the next wonderful location, though the sight that greets it through the eyes of Weiss (for the time being) through the warpgate are . . . well, less than wonderful.

    "Oh, it's one of /these/ places huh." she asks rhetorically, not even two steps through the gate. She's made a minimum of effort not to stand out /too/ much, going for the usual fair/blonde/green skin/hair/eyes that is the smaller departure from her usual, more unntural default colouration, and wearing a very bland and genre neutral set of denim pants, leather jacket, tough boots, long sleeves and totally decorative utility belt with nothing even currently in the pouches. Equally generic is what ostensibly an AK-47, found goddamn everywhere in 90% of Earth-based time periods in the multiverse, in her hands, and a matchingly ubiquitous Colt M1911 in a belt holster, though neither of them are legitimate. "The figurative Geiger counter's going nuts too. Is this what you've been fabbing, Rory?" She jerks her thumb towards the decontamination gate.
Danse "Didn't mean anything by it, of course," Haylen laughs. She seems a bit more open to Evangeline's nature than Danse, or especially Rhys, even if they were willing to look the other way. It wasn't going to be easy to retrieve, otherwise. "Just, when something's been sitting out in the sun for two centuries, it can be easy to blow a few fuses, even in the best of times." She hasn't minded the neuroi's unusual appetite, either. If anything, she would have helpfully provided more variety via the scrap that traders have brought in, once the more delicate and immediately useful parts were salvaged, though getting rid of the automobile hulks is quite useful, for various reasons. "I did go over everything, though, with some help from Rory and Kotone here. You should be fine!" Scribe Haylen is ever the optimist.

    Knight Rhys is terse, as always. He just gives a sort of acknowledging nod of his head, before craning his head back to look in that direction from where he pauses in his patrol. "He's in the station, probably writing up more reports. You know how it is for COs." Well, Rhys *doesn't* know that Kyle knows, just he has a certain manner about him, maybe. There's a mixture of annoyance in his voice at the reliance on paperwork, but also relief in that he's not the one that has to do the bulk of it. Haylen is, also as always, basically Rhys' opposite on the team. She perks up at Kyle's presence, "Oh, this is..." Well, Will's slightly processed voice coming from the helmet's loudspeaker probably says enough.

    The Scribe barely keeps from applauding as he seems to quickly adjust to it. Machinery is machinery, at least. "Careful of the balance. The gyro-stabilization feedback on these earlier models isn't as advanced!" Yet, it's not too difficult. "On one of the fusion cores, a rookie should expect at least a few hours. I'll give you an extra, just in case. A pro like Paladin Danse, that doesn't have to 'fight the armor' as much, his cores can last weeks at a time." It's a good thing. They don't have *that* many. "Ah...actually, that brings up a good point. These designs were standardized, and used in a lot of pre-war devices. So, if you happen to come across any spare fusion cores when you're checking this place out, make sure to bring them back. But, don't risk your skin for them." She does pause, as she notices someone she doesn't recognize. Though, the unique colorations remind her of some of Rory's various permutations. "Are you a robot or cyborg, too?" There's so many kinds of life and otherwise out there.

    Meanwhile, outside the garage, Rhys has to step aside as that Mr. Handy from earlier, a spherical-bodied robot with three arms and optical sensors, hovers with a jet past where he's standing watch. "Hey, you dumb thing, watch where you're going!" This particular model is one of Graygarden's 'personality mode off' models, the worker drones. It emits speech, in the form of a series of buzzes, beeps, and other machine noises, that might remind Kyle of certain worker droid models. He groans. "That's somehow even worse than hearing the stuffy butler voice, but I think I get the idea. Hey! This thing's come to lead you all there. If you want."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "The fact it works after being left out there so long at all is a testiment to it's design. Don't worry will you should be a fine can of spam when we're done!"

Kotone seems in pretty good spirits though the talk of the Super Mutant's eating habits and the warning they have been given she will take that to heart once she makrew sure Will's all good to go with the armour.

"If we see them I'll make sure to pick them up if we can."

She'll make ready to deploy with the rest of the group and she looks to WIll for a moment grinning.

"Hey you got a heavy layer of armour for once, right Will?"

She seems to be also checking out over the rest of the team.

"If your looking for snacks at some point Eve? I know a place where they might be willing to pay you to help clean up wreckage."

She'll also give Kyle goofy little grin.

"So Ready to get going Rory and ... woah Zwei? I didn't expect you here,but it's good to see you."
Rory White "That's correct! It should suffice for the local issues. Hopefully." Rory turns to address Zwei, smiling... but only until she replays what she said on entry in her mind. The bluenette frowns. "While worlds that have endured an apocalypse are distressingly too common, would you please show a little more consideration? It is not as though this is a casual thing to the rest of us." She sounds just sliiiiiightly huffy and disgruntled at Zwei. Just a bit.

    Then she translates for the bot after about ten seconds to analyze its blipping and squawking, "Rhys is right. The robot wants us to follow. Let's go!"

    She sets to following, laser rifle slung over her shoulder. But as she does so... she announces to Haylen, "If we have any extra, there's a chance that I might be able to renew or recycle them after they're spent, or develop a usable substitute. Probably not quite as much capacity... nuclear power's been taken to ridiculous levels in this timeline, somehow!"
Kyle Katarn     "Hey Zwei, Kotone." Kyle asides to the two cybergals that just arrived, along with the OTHER cybergals that have already been there since he made it to the garage.

    In any case, he gives Kotone a grin back. "I'll see what I can cook up after this. May be able to get you some gigs, sure." He says, winking to Evangeline.

    He doesn't have any fancy weapons beyond the Force, his lightsaber, and a blaster, but that's pretty snazzy in its own right. "Let's get going, then, where we headed?"
Evangeline      Evangeline tilts her head slightly at Haylen's response to her, but doesn't say anything further. She just watches Will work the armor until that Mr. Handy arrives. When it does, and she hears word that it is requesting they follow it, Evangeline salutes Haylen before she floats away to join the robot. She looks to Kotone at the suggestion. "...payed to clean up wreckage..?" she repeats, seeming intrigued by the offer. "...also...it is Eva..." she corrects lightly.

     Time for an exciting trek through the post-apocalytic wasteland? It seems that way, and as she did last time she was here, Evangeline floats up to about 15 feet above the group so she can scan the area ahead of and around them. "...keep vigilant..." she says softly as they prepare to leave.
William Pauwel     "Heh, yeah. Armor's about as sturdy as anything else," Will says, thumping his mechanical fist against his plated chest. "'Course, if this old girl holds up till we get back, I'm plannin' on doing a bit of... tinkering. Install some custom features and tune the locomotion a bit." Or rather, as best as he can. Will isn't quite ready to add 'Power Armor Technician' to his resume.

    He nods to Haylen as she finishes outfitting him. One extra power core. That should do to get him there and back again. And if they find any more, that's just gravy! "We'll keep an eye out for more," Will answers, flashing a quick thumbs-up. "If anything happens-- Well, I've handled my share of old machines, I'll do what I can. But hopefully t'won't come to that!"

And as for... balancing-- Well, that'll come with practice. Probably.

Thankfully you don't need a perk to /use/ Power Armor in the Commonwealth.

"So," Will says, moving up to the Mr. Handy, "We all ready to go, ladies and gents?"
Danse Scribe Haylen, for once, looks slightly uncomfortable with the idea of messing with the internals of fusion cores, or plugging them into things that expect them. Still, it's something worthy of consideration...in *extremely* controlled conditions. "Well, we'll give it a look, at some point," she allows. "For now, supply mostly keeps up with demand, especially with traders showing up. No need to rush things!" It'll be a lot easier to perform that kind of research, once the main Brotherhood force shows up, and they have some infrastructure set up that isn't essentially jury rigging it into the police station.

    For the moment, that Mr. Handy hovers closeby, apparently waiting. It makes some more of that buzzing, squelching kind of sounds, which Rory, having already decoded the format, would recognize as rudimentary geographic positioning coordinates. Ones that are Earth-like enough to point to a location down the crumbling remains of the road. It is actually somewhat close to where ArcJet Systems had been, though it's further south, down by the river. With that, and once the bulk of the Elites so-gathered appear to be ready to follow, it turns without word, pivoting effortlessly in the air on that jet propulsion unit, and begins hovering along the road out of town. It makes its way through the former mine field, and again past the Graygarden itself. This time, there is something slightly different, however. Two Mr. Handy model robots are hovering closeby to the dirt trail that leads up to it, next to the rusted mail box outside. These have paint jobs, however, somewhat like the Mr. Gutsy's, in contrast to the standard bare metal. Though they don't appear to be equipped with the military hardware.

    The one in white speaks up first, a prim and upper class lady's voice coming from the speaker, "Ah, you must be the hired help we sent for. Marvelous, simply marvelous!" The one in green is next to speak, "Wonderful prizes COULD BE YOURS. But beeee careful, choose the wrong door, and the game is OVER." He seems to speak in the same manner as a golden age game show host. Well, this is certainly...different, than the usual. The first one introduces herself, "I am Supervisor White. And this is Supervisor Greene. We are here to address any questions you have, unless," she adds playfully, "You are here to compliment my well-maintained paint. Quite well preserved for two-hundred and ten years, if I am allowed to boast." A robot with vanity. Despite any other questions, she volunteers, "Graygarden was an experimental facility before the war. Our creator, Dr. Edward Gray, wanted to see if a facility like this could be completely self-sustaining. He is also responsible for our, the Supervisors', advanced cognitive abilities."

    "We have managed quite well in all these years, but in the past few, the water quality has declined. I was willing to find practical work arounds, but our dear Supervisor Brown suggested we find outside help with the matter. Particularly, the Weston treatment plant, just down the road."
Zwei     "Aw c'mon Rory! I think it looks neat!" says Weiss, cheekily dodging the accusation. "Considering what everything else looks like though, and what I'm picking up, I'm pretty surprised to hear the words 'fusion cores' being thrown around like that. There's disposable fusion batteries littered around here and-" she looks pointedly. "smart robots, but otherwise everything's made of concrete and rebar and people drive sedans? Weird!" She waves to Kyle as she struts past, unsubtly taking a good look up and down the knight, and then Will's power armour. "You know, that look actually suits you. You could jazz it up a little to match the plasma gun, but otherwise it's got that kind of rustic, old world, ruin-punk spelunker look, don't you think?"

    Other than that, it's not hard to keep pace, most of the travel time being taken up with the idle activity of minutely adjusting walking gait for maximum wasteland swagger. The whole area is unfamiliar to Zwei, so where other people are taking it at a more leisurely pace, Weiss is on full sensor spam mode the entire way through, recording, scoping and surveying as much as possible over the wide, surrounding area. That makes it less of a surprise when the robots show up, but not any less at what starts coming out of their speakers. "Oh hey! These two are the contractors? That's kind of cool, in a weird way! Or are you guys here on Dr. Edward's orders? What's he like anyway?" She takes half a second to pretend to inspect White's paint job as if she hadn't already. "Huh. I wouldn't have guessed two centuries by looking at that. The wear looks more like twenty years at most." Weird robot age flattery? "And where's Brown? Is he another model like you two?"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa listens to Rory plan out an idea for salvaing power cells it's a good idea if they can pull it off.

She also takes note of Eva and looks abit ashamed. 5R
"That was my mistake Eva and yes. There's several sites I can think of back home who'd pay for help with cleaning up. There's several ruined cities being recliamed and there's still a lot of wreckagte to clean up."

She also seems amused to hear Sarge up on the radio. Still it's time to move out and she'll follow in line with the res tof the group as they make to head out following the old rbot.

"I getcha we don't want to pick the door with the goat."

She's vaguely aware of old gameshows like that, after all the net keeps old hilarious clips going and going.

"Tell me about it Zwei, but I come to accept it I'm starting to think my world is the oddball one given how our technological development has gone."

She returns her attention to their robot guest and nods.

"And it seems they did well, we'll see what we can do about the plant, safe water in a wasteland like this is worth morethan money."
Kyle Katarn     "Yeah, fits pretty well I think." Kyle agrees, before he folds his arms. "Looks like a lot of vehicles around here are basically bombs waiting to go off if you nudge one really hard. I'd be careful where I shoot, honestly."

    Keeping pace with the others, Kyle looks confused at the voice over he speaker. "Who the hell thought to still be running this thing after all this time." He mutters.

    Artificial intelligence, cryo storage, gene therapy? The possibilities over this are endless, but there's a chance of this voice being just a lousy PA system that hasn't been updated for apocalypses.
Rory White "It is indeed weird." Rory agrees with Weiss, lips pursing irritably. "As my Muse put it, it's as though this timeline decided the 40s and 50s should last forever and just focused on miniaturizing nuclear power over everything else. But some of the divergent technology's almost unbelievable to me. These aren't just smart robots. They use VACUUM TUBES instead of transistors." Is all she has to say on that subject. Because then marching.

    And arriving at Greygarden.

    A robot with vanity indeed. Rory blinks a few times upon taking stock of the quirky trio of Supervisors. If it truly had emotions, her Muse would probably be facepalming. As it is, Rolan's working overtime to provide a stream of cultural information surrounding the personalities present.

    Rory pulls out a small holographic projector after White's explanation's given. It displays a top-down 3D view of the Commonwealth, some of it updated in real-time - the area over the police department, anyways.

    "This installation matches the description..." She does bring up the water treatment plant, roughly rendered in lower resolution (to be described by Danse-player, if he so chooses!).

    "Improving the water quality would mean a lot for the entire Commonwealth, surely."
Evangeline      Water. Why does everything on Earth like water? But, a mission is a mission, and Evangeline isn't about to decline a mission just because it has an element she doesn't like. She is intrigued by the personalities of the robots, but she doesn't know about high class or gameshoes, so that is kind of lost on her. "...are we to restore the water purification systems...?" the little Neuroi asks as she floats there, just as effortlessly as the Mr. Handys themselves.

     "...Paladin Danse said that there are super mutants who claim the water plant for themselves...I assume we will have to eliminate them...if we cannot talk them down..."
William Pauwel     "Well, I ain't exactly an expert on appearances, but I reckon you might have a point, miss Zwei! Though it could probably do with some... alterations? I've got some bits I'd like to bolt on at some point. Make it a bit more like home, you know?" Will seems to be taking to the Power Armor's peculiarities quite well. There's definitely the tell-tale 'lurch' of a first-time Power Armor user in his gait, but the intuitiveness of the controls make moving... relatively simple.

...And then they arrive at Greygarden.

    Will blinks behind his visor at the two very spherical supervisors. "Oh wow. Y'all've really been active all this time? Whoever built you two must've really done a good job, makin' sure y'all've run so well for so long!" All while making sure the place didn't burn down or anything. That's pretty excellent. "So er, this place we're going to. What exactly do y'all expect us to find?"
Danse There is a tinge of sadness in Supervisor White's voice, as she first responds to Weiss. "My dear, the good Dr. Gray has been dead for over two centuries. When the bombs fell, we had hoped he somehow survived the calamity, despite the odds. It is through Bayesian analysis that we came to the conclusion that he did not, or he certainly would have returned to us." It soon passes, however, and she returns to her more cordial and jovial tone, "He was, however, good to us when he was here. It prepared us well for trade with the humans in this new world that we live in." Supervisor Greene interrupts, noting, "Many contestants come to play, and MANY leave WINNERS." He means the human caravans and traders. Even the raiders don't really come after them hard or often. Graygarden is about as close to a holy site as you get in the Commonwealth.

    "Ah, you flatterer," Supervisor White would probably blush, if she had the physical capability. Even though it was her that more than invited the compliment. "Supervisor Brown is indeed another Mr. Handy model, like ourselves. He prefers to lose himself in his work. We have our disagreements, at times, but we always bow to our collective reason, in the end." She also seems to dip her hover jet just slightly, to incline forward toward Kotone, in a semblance of a nod or bow. "Right you are, darling. Some will even spill blood over clean food or water. If Graygarden's continued operation can alleviate that suffering, if only a little, I believe Dr. Gray would be quite pleased."

    There are no specific personalities behind the personalities present as the welcoming party. White and Greene are somewhat like composite personalities created from Edward Gray's favorite television shows. Yet, the overall concepts they're modelled are easy to identify. Refined movie star, and game show host, in these cases. The water treatment plant's projection unfortunately shows a somewhat outdated reality, with the facility more or less intact and well-functioning. "Oh dear," Supervisor White says, "I'm afraid it hasn't been in that condition in quite some years. The pumps had been failing over the years, and when we last approached, it had become quite flooded. Do take care not to fall in." As Zwei's scans would have revealed, and others would already know, the local water is intensely polluted with heavy metals, soil granules laden with long-half-lived radioactive isotopes, among other unknown menaces.
Danse Will's question also involves the current condition. "Supervisor Brown has attempted to access the facility, himself. Unfortunately, some *very rude* land squatters have taken up residence, and he is quite fortunate we were left with many spare parts. It's likely you'll meet with a similarly chilly reception. Do take care, dears. We don't want anyone injured over this."

    With this, it seems the robots are ready to bid goodbye to their assistants. The road continues much as it had before. Those same skeletons piled up outside the Pulowski 'Preservation' Shelters, still there. They likely have no living family left to mourn them, if it's any small comfort. The remains of several buses and cars also litter the road, most having stalled along it, their skeletonized occupants either still at the seat, or those that survived the initial blasts, having abandoned their vehicle. Eventually, simply following the river would lead to the unmistakeable place. It once had fences all around it, but they've since mostly rusted away or become torn down. The entire facility looks flooded with stagnant water, almost covering even the original storage ponds. In addition, several additions not on the original hologram can be seen; hastily and poorly constructed wooden shacks and walkways criss-cross the exterior, as well as welded metal girders and poles, from which are dangling nets full of mixed flesh and bones. Smoke rises from garbage cans repurposed as fire pits. Yeah, this is definitely The Place.

    The occupants that had been mentioned before, 8 feet or even taller, green-skinned humanoids with massive muscle overgrowth, pace around the outside. One is seated in a roughly constructed 'watch tower', while another stirs what looks to be a massive vat of boiling fat over a fire. Near one of the breaks in the fence, what was once probably a dog, but is similarly over-muscled and grisly in appearance, shakes its head to swing around a teddy bear in its jaws.
Kyle Katarn     Kyle gulps as he sees the super mutants themselves. They're...huge, yes. And each of them looks like they could juggle a truck with ease in their meaty hands if they bothered to figure out juggling out of herculean patience and skill.

    He tries to ignore the stench of cooking flesh and blood, taking a dive behind something to hide behind. "Guess we found the land squatters." He mutters quietly, reaching for his blaster pistol while he takes a look at the mutants.

    They make Will in his armor look downright shrimpy by comparison, and they're certainly not to be taken head-on without some a serious trump card of some kind.
Evangeline      Evangeline is about to take off for her scouting and distraction run when Rory suggests they at least -try- diplomacy. Evangeline doesn't take cover, instead she moves out of sight, then her form seems to...squish? And she shifts from her humanoid look to a much more avian or plane-like design. Then, she takes to the sky and flies over the facility. To any casual observer on the ground, she would look like a bird high in the sky.

     She circles the water treatment plant slowly, trying her best to look like a regular bird in the distance. "...if your plane does not work...I can unleash ordinance quickly...unless you wish to set a trap and draw them in..."
Rory White After some debate and considerable travel...

    Something odd approaches the Supermutant camp from above. A flying saucer. The size of a small dog, wobbling and rotating in midair with no apparent source of propulsion. It looks flimsy, totally unarmed, and just slightly off-balance. People familiar with Saucers would know that it's struggling under a load, and some hastily sealed modifications on its casing would give a clear indication of why.

    It's been turned into a makeshift remote bomb.

    But the disk still has optics in all directions, and a speaker.

    Rory has chosen to make sure it descends from ABOVE, so it doesn't give away their position...

    Her voice emanates from the Saucer just loud enough to be noticed.

    "Hail, Super Mutants of the Commonwealth! My companions and I would like to repair the building you're camped outside of. If you would grant safe passage and we succeed, there will be fresh, clean water for everyone here to drink. Would that be alright?"

    If their response is 'no' or shooting it...

    Which Rory thinks is a fairly likely response...

    ... then the little Saucer will explode with a ferocious force, sending superheated fragments and an ear-shattering, screeching shockwave with thirty times more oomph than any typical frag grenade would have.

    She believes in pragmatism alongside idealism. It's more efficient that way.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "Then lets get to it shall we?"

She knows they got to deal with the Mutants but she's accepted that to be perfectly honest, it's just how it's going to go. The robots are quite intereswting though as they move out she might be curious and she does take heed of the warning.

Kotone meanwhile deploys some small flying Camera drones to help map things out. Kotone inwardly curses thr fact the treatment for cleaning up fallout from her world likely will not work here and that the protection Japan would require for such at thing likely coldn't be succesfully mustered even with the skill of groups like the Brotherhood.

She sighed so they'd have to do what they could went htey could here after all.

"Those 'shelters' are just a momnument to people preying on fear to make money it makes me sick."

Even if the ones who did it perished in nuclear fire long ago it does bother her. Still she'll see if Rory's plan will work ebfore they get into the thick of things wuith the mutants.
Zwei     Well it doesn't take super spacefuture scanners to figure out what happened to the dead people on the way to the plant. Carbonized skeletons sat all over the place in diorama-esque, picture perfect posture, along with all this background radiation, make the cause pretty obvious to anyone who has ever heard of a nuclear weapon. It also doesn't take a genius to figure out what those 'super mutants' (as opposed to just regular mutants? Are there 'ultra mutants?') are up to as well, or what's in those big hanging sacks of meat.

    "Gross" Weiss intones ever so helpfully; a purely token statement as Zwei has no instinctive or programmed response to organic viscera. "As always, you're welcome to try Rory, you post-singularity angel, but this looks like one of those places where it's a lost cause. I'm not even bothering to try and camo up. Considering the last time we came to a place sort of like this, I'm already halfway on the 'atomize' button." Obviously it doesn't look it, blending in with an automatic Kalashnikov and a WWI era sidearm. "If we're trying not to give away a position anyways, let's split up and spread around the perimeter. They've only got the one lookout with any elevation, and our objective is the plant anyways. These guys kind of look too big to be any good at cover-to-cover fighting." She then takes her own advice, splitting off from the group for the disgustingly radioactive waterbed. Pollution and heavy metals obviously aren't a danger to her construction, any more than they are to the radiation adapted green men. It's as good of a position as any to go low and wait for the boom.
Danse Getting a closer look, they haven't only mutated. Their ridiculously bulked up bodies are also covered with crudely fashioned armor, made out of any solid pieces of metal they could find. In at least some of their cases, it looks like it's slowly melded with their slowly, but ever-growing, bodies. This is the most fit species to rule the world, by their own collective thinking. The mutant in the watch tower, a sniper rifle slung across his back (how do they even operate them with those enormous hands), does momentarily crane his head up to that new avian shape. It's far enough away, and his depth perception not accurate enough, that it blends in well enough with all the crows that sometimes, similarly, circle in search of a carcass to feed on. The second shape is a lot less familiar, though. The supermutant sentry stands up and levels the rifle on instinct, before the thing begins to speak. What the hell?

    The other mutants in the camp similarly crane their heads. One, slightly larger and meaner-looking than the others, *somehow* -- it's probably because they've got on more metal plating, emerges from the wooden shelter closest to the ground floor entrance. "This is OUR place, stupid flying thing. There's NOTHING wrong with it." They *like* it looking miserable and flooded, and they can drink the putrid and irradiated water just fine, even if fresh is still always nicer. Giving a hand signal to the sentry in the tower, the one wielding the sniper rifle squeezes off a few rounds at the wobbly-looking disc. For a brief moment after, the immediate area is brightly lit with both the initial blast and the growing shrapnel from it. When the proverbial dust clears, a few of the wooden buildings are even on fire. But what of the occupants?

    After the initial shockwave passes over them, the presumed leader steps back out, his exposed, green skin pelted all over with fragments, bleeding profusely, but it doesn't seem to stop him from barking out orders: "Find where it came from! KILL any intruders!" He waves the rest of the camp out, as the Mutant Hound lets out a deep bellow more like a fog horn, more than a dog's howl, to further their alert status. "Find where it came from! KILL any intruders!"

    Yeah, they aren't the most gifted at diplomacy or subtlety, it seems. But they are already somewhat cornered, themselves, and they don't even realize it. They emerge from every part of the facility, beginning to move to the holes in the fences, most in similarly superficially bad shape, some with shards of the flying bomb still embedded in them, as well as a few with what would be bad burns on a human. Danse did mention their legendary pain tolerance, after all, so it's likely they *are* hurt, but just able to ignore it for the moment. The Mutant Hound, which had already been at one of the breaks in the fence, leaves its precious teddy bear behind to lead the charge, its rad-burnt nostrils sniffing at the air, trying to scent out anything unusual that's closeby. Some are armed with what looks to be improvised guns, made out of commonly available parts like pipes and screws. Others opt for melee weapons, like wood boards roughly fashioned into the shape of a sword, or sledgehammers. In at least one case, that of the 'leader', one of the hammers looks way too fancy to be a common tool; it's distinctively weaponized, with a miniaturized rocket engine.

    Then there's the one that was still on the watch tower. Being closer to the blast itself, his previously green skin, tough as it was, has basically turned red from a combination of burns and blood. He looks shaken, but still manages to grasp his rifle and fire off shots blindly in the direction of the roadway from Cambridge, the area it would be most likely for intruders to approach from.
Evangeline      The explosion catches Evangeline's attention easily, and her form squishes again before rounding out then forming into her more familiar humanoid shape. High above, she quickly dives and charges her sinister red beams, then as she rockets toward the group of super mutants she unleashes a steady stream of explosive, destructive, atomizing rays. She fires from behind to try and encourage the group to keep going that direction, then flies past them in plain view to further draw them out.

     After her first pass, she stays low to the ground, hoping it will both cover her and keep them coming in her direction since she is within ground reach. "...come and get me..." she says, loudly enough to be heard, but still in that rather demure voice.
Rory White Indeed, Rory is on the hill overlooking the plant, having placed herself behind a tree and some bushes. Bullets go whizzing by, some even striking the tree and splintering through - a few of THOSe even manage to pierce her synth and inflict some damage. There's no real 'bleeding' from such wounds, and no flinching from pain. She has no blood, and feels no pain beyond a light SHOCKING sensation to alert her to it. Because psychologically, pain is very good at getting your attetion.

    "Surprised they're still STANDING after that!" She exclaims after daring to peek out around her cover and take aim with her laser rifle.

    The weapon hums briefly as she raises it, taking aim through its cameras over her SmartLink. Vor a few seconds her world becomes one of math and calculated angles and prediction algorithms firing. She takes aim, lets her software handle the trajectory prediction...

    And lets loose with an (invisible) thick beam of punishingly hot LASER towards the sniper's heart.
Kyle Katarn     Well, there goes that! Kyle yelps in surprise when the Supermutants get aggressive, and he narrowly avoids getting his head shot off when the Muties begin to fire over and over all over the place, missing Kyle's head more than once.

    "Okay, kriff this!" He draws his blaster, and then pokes out from cover before firing upon one of the mutants, the blaster pistol kicking in his palm while he moves to another piece of cover before he moves to the watchtower, using cover here and there.

    "Now might be a good time for some cover!" he says over comms.
Zwei     "Good effort at least. These are those kinds of things that don't deserve to live, but do anyways just because natural selection doesn't really care." Weiss says over the radio, pausing cheerfully. "Until you factor intelligent beings with stick-rubbing IQ into it at least!" There's no reason to be unhappy about things turning out this simply. There's no juggling the Index on this one. Even the others seem to be in agreement that, humanoid shape and basic grasp of language or not, the ugly green bridge trolls infesting this vital infrastructure aren't worth sparing a second thought to. Some days it's good to just get to look around on a safari tour and shoot mission.

    With the mutants logically expecting human intruders from the road, Zwei has picked Weiss' position well, giving her ample opportunity to crawl up to the edge of the water trench and fire; specifically, 'blind fire', with nothing but her gun exposed, though it's hardly actually blind with ample heat signatures to go by. The AK rattles on fully automatic like a very ordinary AK, though what should be wild spray is effectively targeted bursts of ten or more rounds per mutant, with the recoil of auto-fire being a polite suggestion on accuracy.

    It's the ammunition that has been tinkered with, admittedly a little bit lazily. Weiss had come here with actually empty magazines, and after seeing the damage the suicide explosive had inflicted on them, crunched the data with preliminary scans and fabricated rounds straight out of the matter manipulator core and into the mag; smart bullets with memory metal fin guidance, armour penetrating jackets, and ultra dense explosive cores. Trying to punch enough holes into these mutants to put them down seems like a long and tedious exercise, and their exteriors are obviously highly toughened, and so she aims to fill them with lots of deep, narrow holes that then result in massive internal injury from hydrostatic shock and sprays of hard fragments into soft organs. She doesn't know which ones are probably redundant yet, hence why she hoses each one in sequence, going from those emerging from shelters on the waterfront side to keep them from forming up on their leader, while the ones out in the open can be shot at by the others.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is cloaked now as she' smoving to try to sneak in now under the effect of her optic cameo it's not perfect if there's an attentive hostie it might see hte ripples in the air or hear sounds of Kotone's pasisng but for now she's going to press on in trying to get past the guards. She doesn't say a thing as she knows there's other thing to watch out for she's suddenly glad she's not made of flesh anymore given the condtions of this place she would get ill from the flith in this place she's certain of that as she attemps to press onwards.
Danse The better part of a dozen supermutants, counting the one in the watch tower, come pouring out. The ones armed with rifles and submachine guns appear to realize that they don't have to stand out in the open, exactly, and instead they themselves also begin to shelter behind every available dormant tree and bare rock, sometimes walking between those points. The ones that favor melee weapons, including the leader, are surprisingly quick for their size, running full bore up the roadway to where some of the blaster, laser, and more conventional fire appear to be coming from. Well, save for the Neuroi Girl, that is purposefully trying to draw their attention away from the group. Two of their number, one riflemutant and one hammermutant, take the bait and either begin aiming back at her, or sprinting in her direction, before taking a sledgehammer swing. "What, ARE YOU," the one closer in range demands!? "Don't look like meat!" There's a tinge of disappointment and regret behind the anger, before those Neuroi beams bury deep into the tough hide. He howls with pain, as the seared flesh actually smolders, but it only urges him to take an even wilder and more powerful swing. His backup's cover, one of those half-dead tree trunks, slowly erodes from the strange beams. They've seen laser rifles before, but nothing like that!

    The one in the watch tower was not in a good place, even if by virtue of being a supermutant he could still move, and be reasonably dangerous. Most noticably, he's not really in a position or state to dodge something that is effectively invisible. Though the debris in and around the tower itself would present some hindrances for a normal counter-sniper, it isn't so much, in this case. He lets out a pained groan as he's shot through. For a moment, it almost seems like his innards are trying to actively seal the wound, before the amount of injury simply puts too much strain on even a supermutant's physiology. It isn't so much the wound that kills him, as serious as it is, as his whole metabolic stress becoming too much. As a result, rather than flopping over dramatically, he just slumps forward, still at his chair, labored breathing growing more shallow until it stops altogether and the rifle drops from his over-sized hand.

    Kyle's aim is true. It's just that the mutants are right tough bastards. A blaster bolt happens to strike one of the gun-toting supermutants that had peeked up, himself, from behind a rock. Right in the face, no less. Rather than dropping immediately, the mutant staggers back, holding one hand to the wound. When he removes it, the green flesh has been seared away, practically down to the bone. "Grrraaah," he growls, "You'll PAY for that, HUMAN!" And begins frantically spraying the advancing force user's position. To Katarn's advantage, besides the force that is, is the fact that the assailant only has one good eye left. Not exactly the best scenario for even a spray n' pray situation. A wooden board-wielding one also notices this, and charges on Kyle's position, intending to get up close and personal with a presumed gun-toting kind of human. Oh, if only he knew!

    Most remaining, including the leader with the super sledge (so super), advance on Rory's position, charging through the leafless trees and up the hill line. It's just how it worked out, in the end. The jet on the back of it fires up, as he lets it fly in his hands, in addition to his own muscle power. Whether or not Rory manages to avoid it, it instantly pumps a nearby tree that it happens to strike. Yikes. "Here you were," he calls, able to give a gloating kind of laugh, despite his flesh being shredded by the explosion earlier. "You ready to die, hum--" He pauses to hesitate and consider, before getting even angrier, "Whatever you are!" They can smell meat, and Rory doesn't smell quite the same. More like those metal men.

    Kotone might not be made of flesh, but while the supermutants ran right past her position, the mutated hound accompanying them senses something ami
Danse Kotone might not be made of flesh, but while the supermutants ran right past her position, the mutated hound accompanying them senses something amiss. It glances in her direction for a moment, with milky white eyes, and seems to sniff the air. Perhaps it was its hearing, even over gun and laser fire, that tipped it off, and though it doesn't quite smell anything, that in itself is a bit strange. Like someone using a Stealth Boy. The mutants stop and turn, as their guard dog give its alert howl, though that in turn makes them momentarily, ideal targets for Zwei's not-quite-blind firing. Pain tolerance can work against them, at times, as well, with it taking them several moments to notice that they're even shot. "--hey, you bleeding," notes one, almost disbelieving. Mostly because what is normally a flesh wound for their kind is practically a blood and gore visor, a few moments later, "Not, feeling so good!" The most badly wounded of that group kneels forward, clutching his abdomen. The others, without as much vitally wounded, still advance a bit more carefully. They didn't even see where the shots came from, clearly.
Kyle Katarn     Bad idea indeed. Kyle may be playing prey, but i's mostly so he's getting the mutant's attention. One approaching him with his board will end up having a bad day, as Kyle switches blaster out for something flashier.

    What's flashier than a laser pistol? A goddamn lightsaber, that's what. THe weapon hums to life as Kyle flourishes with it, blocking gunfire with ease before he charges the charging Mutant. His first strike is to attack the board itself, to sever it in half. Then he follows it up with a slash at the mutant itself, intending to split him in two before sending the parts flying.
Evangeline      Evangeline's hexagonal shield plates flare into view as that swing comes in, and she is sent bouncing back by the impact from the powerful sledgehammer swing. "...I am...one who defends worlds against mindless destroyers such as yourself...stand down...or you will be destroyed..." she says in that soft, near monotone of hers.

     Just before she levels an arm at the sledgehammer-wielders face, and a sudden burst of her Neuroi beam fires. This one is much like a shotgun blast, with each 'pellet' of energy exploding independently. "...creatures such as you are why my world was nearly destroyed...why I was taken captive and forced to be a weapon against my own kind...and such creatures deserve nothing but destruction themselves..." Despite her soft voice, her tone is resolute and fierce, and her posture clearly displays her disdain for thinking creatures that choose such destructive ways, even if their mental faculties might be in question.

     After her shotgun blast against the melee mutant, she turns her head toward the one hiding behind a tree. She raises both arms and both glow with her sinister red energy before a solid beam of energy nearly as wide as she is tall is unleashed on him and his cover. And possibly anything behind him as the beam carves its way into the landscape, causing an eruption of dirt and rock and splintered wood.
Danse Danse did mention that they believe themselves to be superior, in all respects. The strange flying girl thing gets a confirmation of exactly that point, as the hammer-wielding mutant that was attacking her pauses, if only for a moment, to growl back to her contrastedly gentle speech. "This is OUR world now! The humans had their time! Look around you -- it was not the SUPERMUTANTS that did it, but we will FINISH it--" It's probably not a good idea to try and make a counter speech in the middle of combat, as they're suddenly cut off by more of those strange, and in the switched mode, quite intense, lasers. But they're supermutants, they can only think of one thing at a time, here. The volley absolutely pummels its flesh, causing a stomach-churning hiss of molten flesh, which nonetheless tries to rapidly close the massive damage. In this time he's already lunging forward with the hammer again to take another swing, momentum carrying him forward even as another burst finally overwhelms him, just as it did the mutant in the guard tower. The one behind a tree is similarly bulldozed, along with his tree and most of the soil and turf in his immediate vicinity. "Rrrraaagh!"

    Kyle, similarly, gets an ugly green ogre right up in his grill, with his crude 'sword' that might be laughable, if it weren't still a thick length of dense wood being swung by tree trunk-esque arms. The mutant wasn't counting on a sword made of LASERS, though, much less being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by it. After the plank is taken care of, there's an 'oh shit' sort of instant. The lightsaber is quite adept at taking care of these kinds of brutes, since much like Evangeline's shotgun blasts, it basically damages them faster than they can absorb it. Not that there's much absorbing being *cut into two pieces*, even for their kind. He does seem to experience a brief moment of shock and horror, as it almost looks like his body is trying to mend itself, but there's no helping this. His body simply shuts down, after a few moments, eyes still open and staring.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is not made of flesh and she's able to avoid being spotted by tge mutans but there are other things with them aside from the super mutants, dogs in any form are always an issue with optic cameo in the first place. A mutan one with crazy amped up senses she could only guess but she's not very happy at all with this. She's going to keep moving trying to get away fgrom the dog but it's not going to work to wel as things are going. She however primes a few plasma grenade and gets ready to toss them thankfully the blasts are pretty focused given the aliens who made them intents to flush out humaninfantry from cover rather than annhilate everything but the things it does to things in not very heavy armour ain't too pretty and hopefully that will deal with things, if not she's going to have to run like hell.
Danse The mutants, at least, were mostly halted in their progress by Zwei's earlier shots. The mutant hound, on the other hand, has a lower profile, and had been previously grazed at best. With its jaws open and salivating, it's quite certain that it doesn't seem to care what Kotone is made of; it's going to sink its teeth in if it manages to catch up, and with its efficient gait and powerful muscles, that's almost a foregone conclusion unless she does something. That something turns out to be plasma grenades. The hound, perhaps on reflex of memories of its prior dog life, actually jumps up to snatch the grenade out of the air into its mouth as it runs. There is a moment when it starts to spit it back out, apparently having realized it made a mistake, before the detonation goes off. With a low and rumbling version of a yelp, it is blown clear, as well as causing further burns and wounds to the gingerly pursuing mutants.
Zwei     Funny as it is to admit, Zwei can't exactly say that the supermutant is wrong. He's clearly even dumber and more violent than the humans that came before him ever were, but that does mean a certain lack of being able to wipe each other from existence with atom bombs. Of course, that doesn't prevent Weiss from continuing the shoot 'em up. With a majority of the mutants wounded or dying, she stands up out of the trench, rifle braced and gaze ostensibly dead ahead as she marches forward at a steady clip like a more conventionally trained military ranger. Though she is technically firing in bursts, it's a point of note that she hasn't reloaded even once, easily up into the hundreds of rounds by now. She goes straight into the thick of it, slowly and steadily, swivelling back and forth to hose down anything that gets too close, aiming for head shots on the targets that don't seem to want to suffer severe enough system failure.

    "You know, that's almost kind of a point, but unfortunately, sharing doesn't work that way!" She chides, somewhat sociopathically.
Rory White This is mostly going to Rory's plan! Well, her contingency plan. A lot of them rely on sheer brute force and intimidating charges. It would be PANIC INDUCING if she were organic. Adrenaline would be coursing through her system, heart racing, survival instincts demanding RUN RUN against all reason - ultimately, a bad decision.

    Humans can't outrun monsters. Robots are challenged to do it too, especially when they're not terribly coordinated as it is.

    She leaps backwards, but not quite fast enough. The hammer snags on her ROBES, yanking her around with tremendous speed and swinging her hard at a nearby boulder. She hits with a sickening CRUNCH, and one and a leg spark.

    "Synth, I suppose the locals would say." She corrects. Her gentle face turns into a scowl of disapproval. "I'll applaud your kind's strength, stamina, and persistence... but."

    As it so happens, she expected this charge, and while she was controlling the drone earlier... she made preparations.

    One wireless signal's sent to a nearby device right as the monstrous mutant steps too close. DETONATE.

    ... That's when a SECOND colossal explosion rings out, this one sending a mushroom cloud PLUME of plasmafire straight up through the ground, far more focused than the previous explosion - most of its force goes UPWARDS, instead of every which way.

    "It's no substitute for tactics. Humans didn't dominate the food chain in the end by being the strongest, or the fastest, or the toughest... but by being the smartest. You're EMBARASSING."

    It is perhaps the most vehement insult she's ever given to something just based on their species. As they are probably blown in half.

    On the other hand, her one leg's malfunctioning and she's forced to get up and get ready to hurl herself away with one working arm and leg. She'll need a few minutes to repair after this, if her plan works...
Danse With that, it's somewhat turned into mop up duty, for Weiss. Most of the ones she had wounded so far are either already on the ground, either biologically dead or slowly getting there. The ones on the hoof, which had mostly been pursuing Kotone, just had their legs taken out from under them. They're similarly not difficult to hit now. Even with the rounds specialized for dealing massive internal injuries, it still takes a while for their bodies to truly seem like they're 'dead'. Headshots is probably the most merciful thing she can do in this kind of situation, and those that seem to stubbornly cling to life do indeed flop over far more quickly with that 'kindness' afforded them. That effectively leaves only their leader as an active threat, and the sole remaining live combat situation.

    "Metal men," the supermutant growls, it somehow becoming even louder due to the crudely fashioned metal helmet he's wearing!? "I *hate* metal men!" They had to leave their old camp because of those hated things. He's about to take another rocket-assisted swing of his hammer, fueled purely by rage now, when Rory reveals her trap card. While he might have rose to the top of their local pack by being a bit smarter, he still can be kited into traps with relative ease. "Grrrhhh," he grunts, pausing in one step in his advance? Something about the ground didn't feel right. An instant later, and the spot where he was is consumed in an inferno of an explosion. The most incredible thing is that he survives it. Well, at least for a few moments, since he's still brutally torn part from it, even his tough flesh ripped through practically to bones and organs. "Stupid...metal men...," he grumbles, more like a pouting child than someone that's dying. "I hope...the mirelurks, eat your eyeballs!" With a few more wheezing breaths, he finally stops moving altogether.
Danse The Supermutants that had set up camp in the waterlogged treatment plant are no more. They have been sliced, diced, cauterized, vaporized, and otherwise subdued. The evidence of their dwelling has not similarly gone away, however, and those entering through the several holes in the chain link fence would be greated by the foul smell of stagnant water, intermingling with flesh both decaying and fresh. As well as, well, even Supermutant have to digest their food, you know. The big greenies were intelligent enough to rig up some trip wires, as well: One at one of the breaks in the fence is wired to trigger an improvised explosive on a nearby metal support, part of the original structure. The others are a bit more insiduous, positioned at the entrances of what was a utility shed and administration trailer, respectively. The one in the trailer has a bouquet of grenades set to release, but the one in the shed actually has a quite-functional and loaded missile launcher positioned at the same access point.

    For those that want to waste time here, there are a few scraps of worth, and interesting specimens that the Supermutants had 'collected', from the local fauna. There are also a few caches of 'treasure' that happened to catch their eye, while they were pillaging the wastes. Mostly empty bottles, a few decorative objects, and a working example of the ubiquitous Radiation King (heh) radio set. As for the biological material, it's best not to write too many journals on some of the creatures in these netted bags of meat and bone, just yet, as they have been quite crudely butchered. It's also a good idea not to look too closely at some of them, since there are also fresh human remains, as Danse and Rhys had warned. Some prepackaged and canned food items are also stashed away, in what were the individual 'quarters' of those brutes.5r
    As for the mission, itself, despite the condition of the exterior, the main concrete building itself seems to be in decent shape. It doesn't look like the Supermutants bothered to go inside, even if they've left garbage cans full of burning trash next to the main entrance to illuminate it. Several of the ventilation fans, and now that evening is falling, even some of the exterior lighting, appear to be working, so there is at least some power source functional inside. A second building, with what seems to be a service elevator, is jammed completely shut, and sensor scans of the cables inside would suggest is currently lacking power, in contrast. It seems that first, larger, bunker-like place is the better bet.
Evangeline      The little Neuroi known as Evangeline has been circling the area overhead since the battle ended. Seems the treatment plant is completely sealed, making her flight capabilities of little use. Inside a building she will be only marginally evasive compared to out here in the open. And, her beams will be dangerous to everyone, not just whatever they might find inside.

     As such, she floats down to pick up the Super Sledge that the boss mutant had been carrying. She hefts it, gives it a test swing, then lifts it over her head and lowers it against her back, where it sticks before turning metallic black with sinister red glowing where the little jet engine is. "...let's do this..." she says in that soft voice of hers before she floats down to that front door lit by the firebarrel, then looks to the others.
Kyle Katarn     Danse and Rhys weren't kidding about the bags. Kyle makes a face with disgust as it sets in just wants inside of those 'gore bags', and he shakes his head. One can only imagine how many people these super mutants have devoured ravenously like cattle.

    He draws his lightsaber, but doesn't activate it, before he approaches the door. "Follow me."
Rory White Rest assured that in the wake of the gang's initial investigation, sterilization (well, disassembling the traps, nobody's going to 'sterialize' that mess), and subsequent turn to the actual mission...

    Rory has plans.

    When everyone shuffles into the facility, a brigade of a dozen small and medium-sized drones filters into the area and wordlessly spread across the Supermutant camp. Some take biological samples from the mutant remains. Others scavenge for anything remotely useful. Whatever the group didn't 'waste time' with will be seized regardless, particularly any weapons, no matter how shitty or primitive.

    Rory White doesn't want ANOTHER GROUP to come in after them and fortify the place! So her drones stand watch.

    As for Rory White 'herself' (and not the Delta Fork that's managing the drones outside), as she came in her Synth (indistinguishable from human, apart from the unlikely shade of blue hair), well... all of the action's left her Synth in a mess. Her Smart Clothing robes were torn and have only partially managed to repair themselves. Her ruined limbs took ten minutes to repair, but... repairing functionality doesn't mean anything close to perfect. The limbs WORK, but the synthetic mask of flesh and blood - literally only skin deep - is in tatters and has been roughly peeled away where it couldn't be tucked into place, exposing sleek and smooth metal flesh underneath.

    The damaged leg and arm also periodically whine and grind in protest when she moves around. There's only so much that field repairs can accomplish in ten minutes.

    "Following." States the tattered embodied AGI. "Wish I'd brought the Flexbot, but it's in for maintenance." She's attached the laser rifle - somehow - to her leg and instead pulled out a pistol - a more appropriate weapon for closed quarters.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is going to ahve to work on how to clean up much of the place, god this was nasty but Kotone seemed to be troopering on for the moment in the ruins of this place. She was suited up in carmou as normal and seeme dot be trying to keep her spirits up. She found a few things like the radio it does get her attention she'll scoop that up with her matter maniplator if no one stops her. However the remains she sights she thinks they may need to clean this place with fire but that's for later.

"LEt's not think about the meat here too much anyhow Rory? You got any ideas and damn what happened to your sleeve, Rory?"
Rory White "Supermutant with a rocket hammer happened to it." Rory White answers casually, taking a moment to again lightly shake the damaged arm. It sparks a bit.
William Pauwel SUDDENLY

    It sounds vaguely like a steel bull is charging up to the facility. Or maybe some kind of walking sedan. In either case, something big, heavy and metallic is on a rapid approach, though the sounds might be just a bit muffled by being inside a building, the noise of a heavy metal fist pounding against a steel door is definitely not.

    It takes a while, and leaves a couple of knuckle-shaped indentations where the fist has pressed into the reinforced metal, but with a final click, the door is unlatched and slooowly swings open, revealing... Someone in a set of Power Armor.

    "Y'all, there're sacks of meat outside, and I don't know what's in them." Oh, it's Will! He's finally made it over! "Uh. Have y'all found the problem yet?"

Well, it looks like the party's found its tank.
Danse Aside from the missile launcher, there were a few weapons caches, if they can be called that. A box of fragmentation mines, two grenades on a shelf that look like they're not designed to damage biological beings, but rather emit an electromagnetic pulse, and the ever popular assortment of improvised pipe guns of all kinds of configurations. And, of course, ammunition to make them work, which has been haphazardly crammed into old filing cabinets, desks, and anything that can hold them. Also located, amidst so many of the empty bottles, is one that is actually full. Labelled Nuka-Cola, it seems to have been intended for human consumption. Maybe the radioisotopes that a passive scan would indicate are inside were introduced later...somehow? Through the thick glass? Hmm.

    Otherwise, once the group has finished mending their wounds and damage, and has finished with the exterior, that quite obvious entryway beckons, helpfully highlighted by the prior occupants. The doors are unbarred and unlocked, leaving it as a mystery for why the Supermutants didn't bother taking shelter in this relatively intact facility, rather than creating their own little shanty town in the soggy exterior. Perhaps, as one had expressed, they really do abhor human civilization so much that while they are willing to make use of its failings and hubris, its relative triumphs are avoided. Accordingly, in stark contrast to the crackling of the fires, and cawing of crows that finally come down from power transmission lines to peck at the gore bags, outside, the immediate interior is like hitting a wall of silence.

    Once eyes and sensors adjust, a small lobby area, utilitarian and unadorned compared to its more upscale corporate some may have seen at ArcJet, is what greets them. Unlike that place, there aren't any unburied corpses that were instantly killed by the neutrons or blast of radiation, perhaps having been shielded by the resilient structure of the place. Despite that, there are signs of the people inside having evacuated quickly: Immediately behind the front desk is both an administration and combination shower/restroom/changing area. Several sets of pre-war clothing, and items such as hats and eyeglasses, are still tucked away in lockers, having been abandoned. The first, lone skeleton to be encountered is still in a cowering posture in one of the shower stalls, perhaps a nearby civilian that had futilely tried to wash away the burning sensation, in the aftermath.

    From here, there is a maintenance closet, with the usual janitorial supplies. Adjacent is a ladder leading up to the roof, but more vital, an elevator that seems to still be receiving power, and is hopefully, structurally sound. If there are any doubts even after a good scan of it, there also seems to be a set of stairs heading down. While the lighting has understandably seen better days, at least it isn't pitch darkness inside here, or seemingly even further down.
Evangeline      Evangeline leads the way inside and stops in the lobby to take a look around. That is, until that hammering can be heard against the doorway. She turns slowly, pulling her new Super Sledge down from her back. The door crashes in and she raises the hammer...only to stop when it is Will in the recovered power armor. "...you have not mastered your armor yet..?" she asks softly before turning to continue looking around. She has already claimed point, so unless Will speaks up she is going to stick to the formation. Such as it is. "...please provide rear guard..." she says to Will.

     Despite her apparent biology, Evangeline does not have sophisticated sensors that can scan within objects. She can make recordings, which she is doing, but to see if something has good items inside she has to open things. And as this is not an exploratory mission she just continues down the hallway once the others have indicated they are ready.
William Pauwel     "Huh? Rear guard?" Will blinks at the Neuroi, peeking out from the bottom rim of his armor's visor. He still isn't used to this thing, probably because it's still a couple sizes too large in certain places. Once he gets a chance to sit down and tinker with it, it should probably be fine! Probably. "Oh uh, sure. That's fine, y'all just leave the back to me. S' pretty dark in here though, inn't it? Hold on..."

    There's a soft 'click' as the headlamp on the T-45 flickers online, casting a long spotlight beam into the dimly lit facility. "There, that should be a bit better. Judgin' by the noise, what we're lookin' for is down below." Will gestures over to the stairs, "Should go down that way, I reckon."
Kotone Yamakawa She'll take the weapons EMP grenades if no one wants them. Then again she doesn't want anyone fooling about with those near her or Rory to b perfectly honest. She seems ready to go though the drink pings radioactive andshejust /stares/ at the drink. Givent eh glass she raises an eyebrow.

"Was this thing /made/ to be radioactive?"

She peers at the Coke-a-cola alike.

She will give her systems time to adjust as shemakes ready to push ahead. Kotone looks a bit chilled as she feels like she's wandered right into the Tokyo ruins or is walking through a simulation of what Berlin was like at the end of the third world war on her world.

"Let's keep frosty who knows what's lurking down here. William how's the armour holding ou for you?"

Kotone will tac net up with Rory and anyone else here whos able to do so even as they press on she'll even deploy a few more small drones to scout ahead.

"Drones, up."
Kyle Katarn     Kyle lets Neuroi Girl handle the lead, while William takes care of the rear. He nods to the both of them, providing security for Evangeline while they advance. "Gotta admit, that suit fits in close quarters better than I expected." He muses at Will, cocking an eyebrow.

    Not so scary now that he's gotten used to the sight of it, at least Will's on THEIR side right?

    "I got my own light." His lightsaber switches on, blue light illuminating the area around him helpfully while he wanders down the hallway.
Rory White "Who knows?" Rory White sounds a bit skeptical and yet... eerily non-objective to the idea that people were willingly drinking that stuff. Almost exasperated, but very focused. "Hello again, Mr. Pauwel!" She turns and offers him a nod briefly, but she's looking rather torn up -and caring nothing about it - so that's a bit on the creepy side.

    A certain detective of Diamond City might be able to relate.

    "Given that the place ceased operations and is FLOODED and left to rot, there's no telling what we'll find in the lower levels. Weapons check!"
Danse Power armor, even an early and rushed model like the T-45, was made to be used, after all. And since the Weston water treatment plant is fundamentally a government facility, it also makes sense that the corridors give him adequate room to move around. Besides that, while he's still getting used to it, those West Tek designed servos make it more like a proper extension of its wearer, rather than the cumbersome contraption it might first appear to be. On the inside, the suit maintains a comfortable homeostasis. It's little wonder how Danse seems to be able to scarcely remove his. In fact, for now, none of the visiting Elites would have seen him without it.

    The general notion is to follow the sound of that presumed, humming machinery down, and whether the Elites choose to brave the elevator (which works fine, by the way), or to take the stairs, eventually they arrive at the same location. This seems to be the still-beating heart of the facility. The more administrative parts of the building above give way to a somewhat labyrinthine section, which is geared purely towards utility. This is where the engineering nerds hung out, judging by the several computer terminals and patch cable facilities, as well as the exposed (but insulated) conduit and wiring panels. In essence, it's a place where Will would feel right at home, most likely. Besides the droning hum that's steadily grown in volume, and seems to be at the end of a short hall to the right, several short, digital-sounding squelches would alert others that they aren't alone here.

    Or, rather, that they wouldn't be, if the security system were active. The sound comes from a bank of several, armored turret housings that can be seen up and down this corridor. The cowling is pulled over the beam emitter, so they're currently in a standby mode where they wouldn't attack even intruders, even if they continue to passively monitor their environment. The end of that right corridor leads to a room overlooking the generator, which has not only one, standardized fusion core plugged into it right now, as a bootstrap, but three spares have been left on the table, among some standard tools like wrenches, screwdrivers, and machinist hammers. This looks to have also been a storage area, since several other miscellaneous items, like light bulbs and vacuum tubes can also be seen on shelves.

    The RobCo terminal in this room, if accessed, seems to have a direct link to the security system. Who knows if it's a good idea to switch it on.

    Elsewhere, there is another short corridor, that leads to a monitoring room with thick, blast-proof glass windows, as well as what looks to be a very heavy door which is activated by a large push button. It's here that less machinery-like sounds can be heard, and if one watches through the window long enough, something is moving in the goopy looking slurry that has congealed in the flooded pump station control room. Rounded shapes, like large carapaces, sometimes drift through the water, before coming up onto a clump of mud to tend what is likely eggs, a crab as large as a fully grown man emerges to re-arrange some moss and algae around the cluster.

    Despite how bad it looks at first, it *looks* like it was a simple cascade failure, and the machinery itself is miraculously still intact. If it can be reached to be re-started.
Evangeline      Evangeline floats her way down the stairs, since she isn't sure she trusts a big rusty metal box to carry herself and her allies. Once on the lower level she heads forward, checking doors and dark areas as she goes, that Neuroi-boosted Super Sledge ready to strike at anything that might try to hurt them.

     She looks up at the dormant turrets as they pass. "...try not to trip any sensors..." she advises as they continue forward. She goes until they reach that window. Where she watches silently as those round forms move through the water, and as they emerge to reveal that they are giant crab creatures bigger than she is. Possibly bigger than Will even in his armor. "...what are those...?" she asks, pointing with a finger out through the window. "...they look dangerous...and seem to have claimed the pump room..."
William Pauwel     "Yeah, it's actually pretty easy to use!" Will answers Kyle, his searchlight sweeping across empty hallways as he turns his head this way and that. "Looks like they designed it to be pretty ergonomic, just that I need to tune the size a bit." Or install interior stilts or something. Can they do that? Hmm.

    As they proceed deeper into the facility, Will hears a familiar and utterly telltale noise. No matter what world you go to, the sound of turrets coming online have some aspects that are just utterly universal. The Solano's barrel glows bright blue as Will slings it out of its new holster and lines up a shot, only to notice--

They're... Offline?

Huh.

    "Hey, do y'all think we could reprogram these things? Get some actual security at this here facility, instead of just... Letting it sit?" Be a waste to leave perfectly good turrets, after all."

    Speaking of being a waste to leave, Will eventually wanders over to the fusion cores, recognizing them immediately from when Scribe Haylen powered up his own suit. "Hey, anyone got a pack or something?" Will asks, sweeping the cores into his arms. He leaves the one in the generator be for now-- they can grab it on the way out. "There's some stuff over here we should bring back. Some fragile lookin' stuff too, don't want to risk trying to pick that stuff up."

Vacuum tubes tend to shatter easily, after all.

    Will moves on soon enough, though, taking that fresh set of tools with him. He figures that they're probably the kind he'd need to use to repair the equipment, anyway. You don't want to try to use a poorly sized wrench on a vital bolt! What he sees when he leaves the office, though...

His inner engineer squeals with delight. So does his outer engineer. Swiggity swooty, look at that sweet ass pump equipment.

What do you mean that doesn't rhyme?

    Will cranes his head over the catwalk with giddy delight. "Oh wow, look at those gear pumps! Those things must be able to move a river of water on their own! They all look like they're intact, too. Maybe all we need to do is reboot the system, and it'll all be dandy?" Will's spotlight sweeps across the water below as he gazes downward. This might be a problem, if those Mirelurks are at all light-sensitive.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa looks to see the turrets but it seems they are not active atr the moment. She keeps moving on with the rest of the group until she fins the terminal. She'll take a look at it an see if there's anything else she can pull off it without turning the turrets on. If there's nothing else she's going to leave it back and shr tilts her head a bit.

"With time I might be able to do so, William and if we want to keep this up and running it might be a good idea and ... I have nno idea what those things are, but ... we'll likely have to drive them off or clear them out..."

This planet had space Vodoo radation and she just come to accept the insane mustants though Danse explaining the FEV made her mind hurt less at the nature of the world as that did explain some of it.
Kyle Katarn     "Uh...huh." Kyle eyes the inactive laser turrets while this is going on. He switches on his flashlight and extinguishes his lightsaber, letting WIlliam and Rory and other techies handle the SMART PEOPLE stuff!

    "Probbaly a good idea, yeah. Kotone, take a crack on the turrets." He says, nodding to William's suggestion before he wanders over to watch Will at work, studying the Chaser's technological methods curiously.

    Also Kyle senses TROUBLE, or at least senses FOR it. He might notice the corridor, and begins to wander down that way, careful and alert...

    "Uh, guys? I think we might not be the only life forms here..."
Rory White Rory decides to take the stairs, messed-up leg or not. Better than having to tear her way free of a possibly malfunctioning elevator. Who'd trust such a thing after two centuries of neglect?

    Rory opts to station herself near the generator with the fusion cores and the Terminal and beginning examiing everything. "Exactly my thoughts, Mr. Pauwel. And Kotone, we shouldn't continue unless we at least verify that these things won't start shooting us without warning because we step somewhere it doesn't like."

    So regardless of what the rest of the group does, Rory sticks with Kotone and offers some help with the security system configuration...
Danse To actually enter the pump room requires opening the door to it. The mechanism for doing so is obvious enough, even if it leaves one to wonder why a heavy, hermetically sealed blast door was necessary for a water pumping station. Yet, Danse did say that the pre-war government was quite serious about these kinds of matters. Even as the T-45's heavy boot steps metallically ring on the walkways, the crab creatures don't seem to be immediately bothered. But shining a light down into their sensitive eyes after they'd been so accustomed to the dark? Well, that is just a bridge too far, my friend. The crab creature lacks a neck, so it pivots its entire body up on its four walking legs to stare with its compound eyes up at Will, in return. It gives a warbling, screechy kind of sound, and begins scuttling up the ramps and maze of half-collapsed walkways toward him, with its body lowered (so that its softer bits present a smaller profile), and its pincers extended.

    This same action also seems to have awakened the sleeping giant. Several other upwellings of bubbles and slight bits of movement suddenly burst with mud and silt, as the other creatures, similar in size and body, emerge from where they had been sheltering, or sleeping, or whatever it is that crabs do in filth. They're soon clambering along the same walkways, in ever greater numbers as more filter in from further back in the pump room, intent on guarding the nest against the obviously ill-willed intruder. Some seem to have remains of old fishing nets and other debris that were lodged into, and became part of, their shells as they grew, but they all seem quite capable of snipping off large pieces of flesh, or entire limbs, if one isn't careful of them. They also move ridiculously fast, and their sidling movement is quite confounding.

    Will's question is resoundingly answered, whether he originally wanted to or not.

    As for the computer. It will take a bit more time. Archaic programming is one thing, and overcoming almost two dozen decades of data corruption is another. Given the industrial design of this particular Earth's pre-war culture, it's likely that the factory default would be to simply shoot anything that moves, or that doesn't have a built-in failsafe built in. It's wise for Kotone and Rory to take their time to dot their i's, because as it soon becomes clear form their work, there is at least two dozen of these turrets placed around the facility, and unlike the pumps they are all quite functional. In fact, Will would be able to spot some placed further back in the pump room, if he can look past a face full of crab. If they're going to make use of it, setting it to 'crab' and hoping for the best might be the way to go.
Evangeline      Will opens the door, and the crab creatures immediately react...badly. Evangeline perks, then quickly flies around to flank with him and hefts that hammer. "...they do not seem happy..." she says. She waits at the door, giving either the creatures a chance to stand down or Will a chance to close the door. Evangeline used to be one to strike first and ask questions later, but after an encounter in the Digital World she actually gives the crab creatures a chance. "...please...we mean no harm...but if you attack us...we will respond with overwhelming force..." she says, her voice still demure but her volume turned up so that it echoes a bit in the enclosed pump room.

     When the creatures do not respond, Evangeline rushes in, spiraling to add that much more power to her first jet-powered hammer strike. The flat part of the hammer head starts to glow in that sinister way Evangeline's beams do, but rather than firing a shot it causes a minor explosion on impact with one of the creatures.
Kyle Katarn     "Oh here we go." Kyle sighs. There goes the peaceful exit, he supposes. He reactivates his lightsaber, charging in with Evangeline to cover the Neuroi Girl. "I got your back, Eva, let's get this done!" He says, leaping into action as he tries to reach out with the Force.

    He opts to try and shove the creatures back, taking one and 'pushing' firmly to hold the horde back. Hopefully with that super sledge strike, it'll jostle these guys into backing off despite the attackers. All the team wants is to get this mission done...
William Pauwel Will is a Chaser, it's his job to run boldly into danger and steal back the works of the ancients from the slow, crushing grind of history. The lure of GIANT PUMPING MACHINES is too much for him to resist, drawing him deeper into the facility, further into the murk, and face-first into...

Crabs.

GIANT ENEMY CRABS.

    "Uhhh. Uhhhh--!" Will stammers as one Mirelurk turns into a dozen, turns into two dozen, turns into even more. There are enough mirelurks in this place to host a crab-bake for the whole town of Gale. And they're all coming right.

For.

Him.

    Thankfully, he's not alone. Kyle and Eva, both far better at this whole 'stand up front and axemurder things' than he is, even in the T-45, take point. This leaves Will free to take the full situation into account. These things are bulky crab creatures trying to trample through narrow catwalks. They're too broad to get through more than one or two at a time, that gives them breathing room.

And... out of the corner of his eye, he can spy those laser turrets, behind the crab swarm.

    "Rory! Kotone! Get those guns online! I see a bunch overlookin' this infestation! We can sandwich 'em between us, that'll do 'em!" After all, these things are just crabs! Not people. It's perfectly fine. Will has no trouble at all taking aim for what soft bits he can target and letting loose with bolts of white-hot plasma with the Solano. He goes for joints and exposed bellies and faces, primarily-- those shells look to thick to penetrate with plasma bolts.
Danse Despite their upright posture and a tendency to a more 'advanced' type of body plan, the mirelurks are only slightly smarter than the average crab. Certainly they can process some information and sounds about their environment, but unless there is something supernaturally calming, or super-scientifically calming, about a given stimulous, they're going to respond to it as animals would. In this case, it's bum rushing Will as well as those immediately behind him, trying to sidle around so that they can surround the intruders. Or perhaps, to forgive the term, forge the conditions of a pincer attack. Two that are forming the vanguard are intercepted by Evangeline before they can put their rudimentary plan into action, though. They seem to hesitate, but only for the briefest of moments, before they're surging forward gain. One of them gives a screeching yelp as it ducks, the rocket hammer solidly impacting its thick shell. The extra explosive force gives some extra oomph to what normally would likely be a dulled strike, and actually splinters off a piece of its shell. All the while, claws try to swipe, club and cut any part of the neuroi girl, and Will's power armor for that matter, that they can.

    They back off just slightly, as Will responds with plasma bolts, somewhat ducking back into the relative safety of their shells. Those shells, both from the looks of fracture from the Super Sledge, and what is being vaporized by plasma, is intensely thick and built up in layers, probably over several years. In that respect, and the fact they keep ducking low as well as, in the case of one that raises a pincer to guard against Will's bolts. Kyle's efforts are similarly half-effective. There's just so damn many of them that it mostly just causes a pile up on the walkways, which leads to the image of several sets of pincer claws trying desperately to grab onto anything from a wall of shell and jointed legs. It becomes certain that they'll have to slog through it, unless a more elegant solution presents itself. Every so often, one screeches and retreats as a limb is blasted off or crushed, but another comes up to take its place. I mean, eventually they'd be able to prevail, but this isn't Optimal(tm).

    Even worse, these aren't the only kind of Mirelurk in the facility, it seems. As opposed to the crab body plan, one that looks more akin to a heavily mutated crayfish or lobster emerges in the 'back lines' of the group, on a walkway across from where the traffic jam is occuring. It begins to make a grotesque sound, like someone clearing their throat of phlegm and gurgling it, before it shoots a jet of highly acidic fluid across the room. It's not enough to eat through the metal of the walkways just from that much, but the metal does visibly corrode where it contacts.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is now taking her time with the programming, the code is an utter mess and she works with it, she's moving to jack in and she thankful about she's not turened them on right away. Factory standard would likely been shoot anything that moves, that doesn't have the right IFF at best. Or more likely anything that moves. She works away at the code and finds there's a number of the turrets all over the station.

"Right, we're trying to set it to not shoot us, give us moment!"

Kotone meanwhiloe trying to get the guns to focus on the strange crabs over them, she'll keep working and try to work in consort to get the guns not to shoot everyone else hell they could set it to just crabs for now and fix it in more detail later.
Kyle Katarn     Kyle grunts, trying to grab the Mirelurks into the air. It's not like physically lifting these guys up in the air, after all size is nothing to a Jedi, but Kyle strains from the effort anyways like he were deadlifting. "Might wanna hit 'em now!" He says, his lightsaber slicing at any of the crustaceans that draw too close.
Rory White "These targeting algorithms are not easy to work with!" Rory White complains mildly. She's able to work by providing text suggestions over the Mesh at hyper speed, having apparently figured out how to get a proper coding tool working for this messy old language...
Evangeline      Evangeline takes several hits, and her energy shield flares with each one. Hexagons of blue light appear in a sphere around her to deflect those blows, and a splash of acidic phlem. But, she has an advantage in this room. She cay fly! She floats up above the walkway, over the growing mound of dead crabs, and sheathes her hammer before holding up her arms.

     The ends glow, but rather than the heavy beams she starts strafing with beams more akin to Danse's laser rifle shots. Or, really, more akin to a gattling laser. Rapid fire beams start pelting the crab creatures from the air, causing small explosions as the anti-energy strikes. She also tries to distract the crab creatures as she did the mutants, flying low to the platforms and catwalks to try and draw them away.
Danse It's a bit like fitting a jigsaw puzzle back together, but once it's sorted back into place, a clear picture of the format of the targeting system falls into place. It mostly relies on biometric scanning to build up a target profile. While it's a bit of a dirty hack for now, designating 'more than two legs, with a shell', in not so few words, would be more than sufficient for a pattern match, and conveniently doesn't include Rory outside her more exotic Flexbot designs. With valid parameters in place and the checksum correct, the targeting system re-activates, the protective cowls on their beam emitters pulling back simultaneously across the facility, with soft shuttering sounds. The light beeping also grows slightly louder, to alert those in the area that the system is, in fact, now fully active.

    It's a considerable feat, even for someone with Force powers. It's basically a huge lump of crab meat and shells with pincers everywhere, and it's almost certainly someone's phobia out there, somewhere. Despite any difficulty, imagined or otherwise, they do eventually become Force levitated. It doesn't seem to immediately register with their limited capacity for thought, as their jointed walking legs continue skittering as though they would still find purchase and force their way forward. Kyle's light saber cuts deeply into a few of their exposed bodies, which like their heads is still far easier to cut than their shells, but he mostly whacks off legs and pincers.

    Evangeline's efforts add more crab bodies to the pile, as well as shielding her fellow Elites from the worst of the counter attacks. When the mirelurks have time to duck under into their shells the neuroi beams, surprisingly, almost seem to glance off, as strange as that may seem. Kyle might have noted it to, when his light saber happened to graze against a piece of shell. (Will's plasma seemed to be an exception.) They almost seem to have a property that grants them more resistance than you would figure for raw chitin. Regardless, though, when the explosions do happen to strike their unprotected parts, it is quite effective, often causing their movements to still entirely, instantly. That leaves several others to separate from the cluster and try to chase her around, including the one with the acid spit.
Danse Right about then, the finished targeting parameters complete their upload to the turret network, and the ones in the pump room open fire on the mirelurks. They seem to focus on the ones closest first, and after just a half a second of a warning signal, they begin spraying laser blasts at them at a ridiculously fast rate, more like a gatling gun than the typical laser Danse wields, even if it seems to be based on the same fundamental design. Most of the shots are either errant or deflecte off their shells, so this definitely isn't a completely safe fix, but when it does strike the soft parts it has a similar and instantly debilitating effect like Evangeline's beams. A few of them even are vaporized into ash piles -- so much for selling their meat and shells, in those cases.
William Pauwel     So these things are approximately as hard to kill as ACTUAL roachcrabs. Except about three times as big, and twice as aggressive, and lacking venom-spines (as far as Will can tell). The sheer number of the damn things makes it hard to tell, and he doesn't exactly have time to focus when he's at risk of being buried beneath a crush of crabs.

Especially when those crabs include an acid-spitting lobster.

    Will sees the globs coming. He immediately pivots his aim to shoot them out of the air, boiling away two or three acid bolts with deftly placed plasma slugs. But he can't shoot them all down and still keep the mirelurks back. One crab smashes into his chest and seizes the T-45 around the arm. Steel armor screams and begins to crumple as the mirelurk's deceptively strong claws squeeze into the plating.

But even the T-45 was designed to take more than a crab to tear down.

    Will yells, finding purchase his augmented strength. He twists his arm around to leverage against the crest of the mirelurk's back, tearing up at the point where its shell covers its face.

And then he shoves the Solano right up in there and pulls the trigger.

    One 'Lurk down, Will can focus on the others again... Just in time for the turrets to come back online. "Alright! We got 'em!" Will grins as the Mirelurks scramble under the beam-fire. He takes advantage, aiming for crabs that find themselves distracted by the shiny, painful light raining down on them from above!
Danse A critical hit! Right to its little face with the beady compound eyes. The mirelurk's grip on Will's T-45 is released, or rather...it begins to decohere, much like the curious reaction one of those feral ghouls had to the Solano, previously. For a moment it is a glowing shape of the giant crab it had been, before the molecular disintegration process completes and it simply oozes into a puddle, briefly, before beginning to drip through the grating on the catwalks. Well, uh...not like the water in here wasn't already a mess, but hopefully whatever system this place has can deal with it. The others don't meet quite the similar fate, but now caught between the efforts of three Elites, plus a bank of laser turrets, their numbers are already thinning considerably, and as a whole they're beginning to retreat to the back of the pump room, where it's clear the majority of the egg clutches are.

    A few of those egg clutches are beginning to hatch, into shrimp-looking, soft-shelled things about the size of a cat. They wander around for a few moments, before even with their unprotective, semi-translucent shell, some kind of deeper instincts kicks in and they rush up to try and futilely reinforce their brood parents. These things are really no threat, unless you're like...a small dog.
Rory White "... AMAZING work, Kotone!" Rory praises her friend with what can only be a look of complete triumph on her face. "Good. let's go and help the others!"

    Not that she can offer much besides a laser rifle, but she gets a move on to that room and once she's in range... she'll start firing and joining the operation at driving back the 'lurks!
Kyle Katarn     Kyle definitely knows where the gaps in chitin are after a thorough once-over, taking limbs left and right with precise and swift strikes.

    Having a lightsaber tends to make the cutting easier, since the heat of the blade does most of the work for you, after all. He slashes deep and hard at the head of one Mirelurk, before he stabs into another, severing a few legs before he sends it tumbling over. Once Rory begins layering into the crowd, Kyle backs off, tossing a few stun grenades over his shoulder before he braces himself properly for the explosions of light and sound. "Fire in the hole!"
William Pauwel T-that mirelurk just... disincorporated. It turned into a pile of awful green goo.

Will looks, briefly, between his gun and the puddle of ooze dripping through the catwalk floor. He grimaces visibly behind his helmet's bulletproof visor, but...

Well, a little squeamishness can't keep him from not dying to a bunch of crabs.
Evangeline      Evangeline helps clean up the parents until she notices the hatching sounds. She turns toward them, then tilts her head slightly as she sees...cute little creatures emerging from their eggs. She is a bit disappointed when they immediately take up a threatening stance. She also doesn't want to wipe out an entire population of native creatures just for defending their home. She looks around quickly and finds a large piece of fencing from somewhere, then heads off the hatchlings as best she can and tries to catch them in a shallow area off in a corner.

     Of course, any that can't be captured she will help exterminate, but that's about all she can do. Repairs and reprogramming aren't really her thing. She integrates machines, she doesn't fix them.
Danse What remaining mirelurks there are, after the tide truly turns against them, move to retreat into what looks to be the water inlet tunnel that they probably entered through in the first place, somewhere just under the murky depths. They are in full, skittering withdrawal now, at least having enough of a rudimentary logic to know when to cut their losses. A few seemed to gather up what eggs they could before they fled, but it still leaves several of them behind. It's not an easy instinctual impulse to overcome. Don't feel too bad -- it's likely that they would never have left if their casualties weren't high enough to trip some kind of primitive risk-reward mechanism inside them.

    The hatchlings that are fenced off still try to spit and look menacing, but unlike the lobster-like one before, their extrusions aren't acidic. They do give off a little bit of concentrated radiation, compared to the background levels of the room, but that's about it, and to neuroi physiology isn't likely to matter much. More importantly, the spot is sheltered from the view of the automated turrets, which unlike Evangeline do not care what age their target is: They coldly and logically follow their targeting objectives in each and every case, including the hatchlings they can 'see'.

    That leaves the actual reason the party came down here. Those pumps. A quick examination, as well as data that Kotone and Rory would have had access to, indicates that it's a multiple pump system, and the failure of one in particular caused the shutdown of the others, in self-protection. Restarting those in sequence would indeed begin draining the flooded room, as Will had expected, exposing more of the mechanics behind it, and finally allowing access to the main pump housings and assemblies, themselves. What Will, the most practical-mechanically inclined here most likely, would find, is that this pump was deliberately sabotaged.

    By whom? Well, the crudely butchered human femur that was jammed into the gearbox would give a clue. Did the Supermutants know that this would likely become a breeding ground after, or did they just do it out of spite? Regardless, it did mess things up quite well, but after cleaning it out and with a bit of reworking, it should be salvageable. The other pumps would be able to pick up the slack, as long as this one is at least partially working.

    ...
Danse Assuming all of that goes to plan, the water level begins draining to normal levels on the outside of the facility, as well, and the previously murky water, while not crystal clear by any means, does seem to be a good deal less polluted, at the least. One of the crows that hadn't joined the others in their feast on the abandoned meat bags watches this with interest, from its perch on an inactive high voltage transmission line. As it turns one of its eyes, a red light briefly blinks.

    ...

    "Don't we know who they are? We have the finest surveillance technologies the world has ever known, and we know nothing about these people," demands a gruff male voice?

    "It's tied to that temporal-spatial anomaly we discovered, isn't it? They could be from, literally anywhere!"

    "See if the SRB can spare one of their Coursers. We need to know what we're dealing with."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa Grins at Rory for a moment.

"Glad to help, I'm lucky Johnny had me along on some of his own jobs or I wouldn't know my head from my butt when it comes to Roboco code."

She still is pleased she got the guns back online and they could be used to protect the station long term.