Rivet City

Holotape: 23

Time: 19:46

Date: September 25, 2279

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These past few days have been a long way past the term "interesting" and have completely changed my objectives. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever find at least the location of Raven Rock. It is odd such a large facility would be so carefully hidden....as if we didn't even want our staff to know where it is located. Could explain a lot and the reason why I don't even know. Maybe for this exact reason if someone like me got stranded...they wouldn't want us blabbing about its location to the Brotherhood or some other evil.

Either way I still find it odd that the only evidence I have found of their existence is an abandoned outpost with a crazed trooper hiding inside. It is as if the entire Enclave has been erased from existence. With all the stories of wars against the brotherhood and their giant robot to the stories of the beasts we helped create in DC....I expected a lot more enclave Troopers around the wastes.....

Today made me realize that I have to stop focusing on getting back to base and becoming further focused on my needs and what I want to do in this world. I guess I am meant to wander until I find my true calling...funny...I always thought it was science. Bah.

The automated vertibird controls worked like a charm and I had no problem with it further. The in-board map labeled Rivet City showed it south-east of my current position and far into the city on the shores. Makes sense since it is supposed to be a docked carrier. Funny though that on the same map a large "X" is present in some mountains a long way north-west from here. I'll have to look into that later.

The flight was long and frivolous. Nothing really happened and I sat back and read a book titled "Ender's Game". It was stashed away in one of the storage boxes and its condition was quite destroyed. Enough was left to properly read the book, but I feel some parts were missing. Either way it was an outstanding piece of fiction titling the horrors of humanity and how war like we can be. Funny saying this as I look around a barren wasteland as a personification of that exact point.

It makes me rethink my entire life and the way I handle situations. I guess people are really that malleable with the right words at the right time can change history drastically. I wonder if someone like Locke and Demosthenes was around the entire Great War could have been avoided. Is this what actually happened? Did the world plunge into conflict after a great battle with an outside source, but instead of someone rising up to unite us....the world just plunged further into conflict and death? That's silly of course, there is no such thing as Buggers or even aliens!

Rivet City was indeed exactly as it was described: A giant, docked carrier ship filled with people and old equipment. I was in awe of how they constructed a rotating bridge from a old piece of walkway and a crane. The crane would be moved by and operator to swing the walkway into its position to allow travelers into the city and their enemies out.

I was greeted by what appears to be the Chief of Police around here, but never did catch her name. She just yelled a lot, while I argued against her claims. It mostly boiled down to her not trusting me and me trying to explain why I was here. It ended with her grounding my Vertibird for the time being and me to prove that I am not a threat.

The inside was filled with clutter and rust, but that was easily suspected to be after such a long time. I walked through corridor after another until I came to a flight of stairs with directional signs labeled clearly for me to find my way to the Science Lab. "I am finally here" was my thoughts until I actually got into the science lab.

It was a cleaner place then the rest, but that's not saying much. Pipes weaved in and out of the area like a dense spiderweb of hot pressure. Tables organized around a central water processor layed out most the room where random assortments of equipment and junk filled the empty gaps. Women in lab coats hustled around trying to do many things at once....I wasn't even noticed until sometime.

At this exact point was when my hopes of finding and joining and intelligent community of scientists died. It was a long period of time that me and the head scientist, Dr.Lei, spent chatting about the current ongoing events around town and the wasteland.

The conversation had a two points worth noting right now that made the most impact on me. the first was that the Enclave is hated around here. Just saying I was one of them made the doctor almost seem to hit me. She told me she wouldn't tell anyone, since I was a nice guy apparently, but never to tell anyone else of my alliance. I don't get it...the Enclave is there for its people. Right? Why hate those trying to rebuild this great nation? The one thing that disturbed me was when she said, "I didn't even know the Enclave was still around." Did we go into hiding while I was gone? Has something happened? Either way I didn't push it...

The other fact was that the scientists were not doing great experiments and research like I thought. They were simply trying to grow fruits and vegetables without the radiation. A noble cause, but that won't help us fight the super mutants or other threats plaguing this land. We need to focus on shaping this land to be safe enough for children to wander around and then focus on recolonization!



Either way it seemed like something I just couldn't focus on right now and told the good doctor I would be around if they needed help, but that was just out of courtesy. A man named Zimmer came up to me after our conversation about a missing Android. He talked down to me like I was some sort of savage, but his proposition intrigued me. He had a missing android and needed someone like me to find it. Imagine! A working android to study and save for the massive amount of pre-war tech that things holds inside of it! Zimmer promised Commonweath technology and caps. I just wanted to find such a amazing example of pre-war tech. I told him I would look into it.

I headed next to the marketplace to trade and chat with the locals. Some seemed to be happy with a traveler, but others seemed to try and ignore me. Funny how the shop-keepers welcomed me with a smile, but the others seemed to resent me. I wonder how many travelers actually come through here? I guess it would be many, but from the way they look at me it might be much less then I first thought.

I stopped at a local restaurant of sorts and got some old pre-war food called "Jack Link's Beef Jerky". It was a lot better then most the stuff I have eaten lately, but seemed a bit stale. I guess you can count on that with pre-war food. It was still delicious and I wanted more, but seemed that was that. The owner mentioned his world famous Murlirk cakes....I turned him down for now.

The rest of the day was spent learning all I could about Rivet City and its citizens. I talked to a girl named Angela who is in love with a priest. I learned from A woman named Vera Weatherly that a man named Paul is addicted to chems. Quite handy when his wife owns the local drug emporium. Flak and Shrapnel own the local gun store and seem to be better then friends. A suicidal old man, a ex-slave, a slaver, a church, a historical items collector, a city council....the list goes on.

I got a few snacks and rented out a room in the Weatherly hotel to sit around and just think. Today has given me a lot of fuel for that and I simply ponder what I should do next as I sit here talking into this mic. *sigh* I guess I'll sleep on it for now. This is Devs, signing off, the most pondered man in the world.

"Still waiting on that check to clear Ritz....."