Part 7: Lootership Zeta

Hey hi hello, sorry for the delay, folks. A thing came up all of the sudden last night. But hey, it's yesterday somewhere, am I right?


What thread, if I may be so nosy?

Lootership Zeta


Last time, as you may recall, I recounted how I was abducted by strange beings.



This time, I have a gun. Sally led me through what she called the Steamworks. I can see why.


Quite all right, Sally.


It's not that I don't appreciate the offer.





It's just that, y'know, I got this.
It's worth pointing out that I used VATS here for a very good reason. If you land a direct hit with a grenade through VATS, it goes off almost instantly. It's insanely useful, especially if you're the kind of person who's not fully acclimated to shooters.


Interesting. The shape reminds me of a soul gem, but the little handle on the end suggests that it's clearly designed to plug into a specific device.


But I'll have time to figure it out later. Right now, I need to focus on defending myself.


And looting the place, of course. Most of this stuff looks like shiny dwemer crap, but these crystals should be worth something.


There are a few rooms scattered about the place with those weird tub-like chests.


Crystals, some squid in a goopy sauce, and what appear to be two forms of suppository. Guess I can't be picky about supplies right now.
Keen eyes will ontice that I don't have the Alien Power Module from before. I died a few times in the Steamworks, so there may be mixed screenshots.


Anyway, back to the assault.


Thank Azura these guys have large heads. Well, proportionately anyway.


Now, let's see what we got here.


Well, hello there! I think I've found a partner for those funny tubes I keep picking up. I've only got a few, though, so I think I'll save them for now.


Besides, there's nothing wrong with using my regular guns until I accrue enough exotic ammunition.


Whoever owns this airship, they've got a lot of centurions.


Fortunately, I have guns.


Like, a lot.


Speaking of which, they seem to have their own automated gun thingies. They're kind of a hassle. Just gotta keep my eyes peeled and shoot first.


Well, lookie here! It's like a rifle version of that other gun I found.


After enough murder, the ammo problem is taking care of itself. Still saving it for when I really need it, though.


And my money problem, too.


Oh, right. Sally was telling me about this teleporter that we could use to get to other parts of the ship...


...which our hosts were smart enough to turn off.


She had an idea, though. Led me to this room full of...well, we'll get to that.


It is pretty science.
I never had the courage to wake them up, but I think you're going to need to. The spaceman has a suit, and we need him to use it.
Why do we need a "spaceman" to help us?
Well, because he's got a spacesuit!
Can't go into space without one. And if we're going to escape, we need to go outside. If they turned off the elevator things, that's the only other way to go. So we need a suit. See? Simple!
Well, if we need a spacesuit, we need a spacesuit. So what's with these pod things?
I've seen these all over. They put people in them, and the people go to sleep. They stay asleep for a really long time, too. Be careful if you touch them, though. They're really cold.
Oh dear. We should let 'em out, then.




No clever in-character explanation for this level-up, folks! Sometimes you just get experience for reaching certain points in questlines. I have just enough points to bump myself up to 50 Lockpick, so I do.


I also take this perk. Money seems like a good thing, but we probably won't see the effects until we're back in the Wasteland proper.


Let's see here. We've got some kinda warrior...


Knight with a rifle...


Dude with a great hat...


And this fella. He's got an outfit that looks a lot like my environment suit, so I'm guessing he's our spaceman.


Rise and shine! Now's probably a good time for introductions.


Elliot here is kinda jumpy. Turns out he was a medic with the military, and then these guys got him. Oh, and the word for them is "aliens". He took a look at my suppositories, and figured that of them was medicine. He added some chemicals, and apparently it's safe for humans now. Free medkits, I guess!


This guy wasn't much use.


Paulson, the guy in the hat, was pretty grumpy. But he's on my side, so whatever.


Mr. Spaceman...well, he was dead. Figured I could make better use of his spacesuit, so I took it.


Oh, I'm way ahead of you on that.
They'll be waiting for you, but you can suck out all the air in part of the ship so they won't get in your way. They have these generator things that power parts of the ship and make sure it has air. You'll have to turn some of them off.
If you say so. You're the alien ship expert, not me.
There's one in the Cryo Lab, one in the Hangar Bay and one where they make the robots... the Robot Assembly area.
(Guess I get to learn what those are today.)
Once they're all broken, you can get through that door to the outside. And then once you get to the top of the ship, you can turn the teleporter thing back on, and I can catch up to you!
So, just to be clear, the plan is to disable the three generators, go up via the outside, and turn on the teleporters so we can regroup?
Pretty much. Oh, you might want to take one of the grown-ups with you. It's dangerous!
Not a bad idea.


Hey, mustache, you wanna go fuck up the Hangar Bay?
Now you're speakin' my language. Hell yeah, I'll come with you.
For this part, each of the three captives (we're not counting the samurai) will help you with one area. They've all got one and only one area they can help you with, which is a bit of a shame. It's not strictly necessary, but it makes things go a little smoother.


Off we go, then.


Oh hey, it's that little ship I came across. Maybe they found it just when I did. Small world!


Can't argue with that.


Scuse me, fella. You're right where I need to be.


I'll just take these.


And hey, this is nice: they marked the switches.


I wonder if this means there's a lower literacy rate among- oh, forget it.


Ooh. This is a fun little machine.


I tried to open that last door to the generator, and, well...alarm.


Guards came running, and it was a simple matter of picking them off from our vantage point.
The game intends for you to use those lightning towers to kill the waves of aliens here. However, savegame setbacks forced me to do this again, so I decided to try shooting at them instead, since using the towers doesn't give you any XP.


You said it, mustache.


Just lemme grab a few things.


Generator goes up, cooling units go down...


And I think you know the rest.


Two to go! But first, I think it might be nice to see what cargo the aliens are carting.


As expected, there were crystals and ammo. I also got a chance to take a good look at that other alien goop. And I realized something - all of the alien guns I picked up smelled faintly of it. It looks like it's for weapon repair. And lemme tell ya, it's potent stuff! I'm taking as much of this with me as I can.


Centurions aplenty too, of course.


What I wasn't ready for was the scads of human paraphernalia on the lower level.


Apparently, the Wasteland is pretty fascinating.


I admit, a few of the "exhibits" were pretty neat. I decided to help myself to that little scoped pistol, and the heavy cannon thing.


Not to mention this science rifle. Doesn't look like it takes energy cells, but I found a few rounds nearby.


Plenty of meds, too, so that was nice.


Some mines...


Pretty sure this is for the porta-cannon...


Ooh, armor.


Look out, world, I've got pauldrons again!


There was this armor, too. I tried it on, but it was heavy, and it felt like there were a lot of moving parts. I have no idea how to use this, and besides, it looks kinda junky. I'll just leave it here.


No way in hell I'm leaving without one of these, though.


I can hardly walk with all this stuff. TOTALLY WORTH IT THOUGH.
Ah, overencumbrance. Unlike Morrowind, which locked you in place for for going over your carry limit, Fallout 3 simply limits you to a slower speed. You can go as far over the limit as you want, though, so in for a penny, in for all the pounds! This comic sums it up pretty well.


Oh hey, they captured one of the aliens. Mustache seems to want to kill him, but Elliott thinks they could-


...well that took care of itself.



To the Cryo Lab, then!


Hope you're ready to fuck up aliens AND do science things, Elliott.


Yeah that about sums up our time in the Cryo Labs. No lightning towers or anything.


I mean, there were a few jerks frozen in the pods, but that's about it.


Oh, and I guess we freed his army buddies too.


They kinda got caught in the generator explosion.


Welp that was fun. Not really. Somah, Robot Assembly?


Woo!


Oh, so those are robots! I feel a bit silly now.


Let's see how they like porta-cannon!


Less than I do, apparently.


Ooh, control panel.


...I can't read any of this. It's all like, , and shit. I'll just try pushing all the buttons.



Well this is hardly ideal.
Despite the apperance of the screenshot, I did not lose an arm. It's just crippled. I honestly don't know why it showed up like that, but I guess I failed to capture the red dotted lines at the right time.


Kinda hard to aim like this...


So I guess I'll just use my other cannon! I got it off one of the robots. It shoots a bouncy light thingy. Sort of a grenade laser.


Anyway, we shot some more dudes and blew up the last generator.


Now, I've got a walk to take.


Hm. This thing has a...tube? A mask, I guess? Goes over my mouth...


Again, Sally, I'm way ahead of you on all spacesuit-related matters, okay?


When I pushed the switch, there was this odd...hissing sound.


Oh. I think I get it. The suit gives me air. ...wait, is there no air outside?


Just where the hell IS "outside", then?


Oh my god.


We're in nighttime itself!


Hey, what are you doing sticking out?


Get down in there.


There we go.



You too, buddy.


Oh, hey, that light just came on. Guess I just fixed a thing. Wonder what it does.




Here we go again!


Let's just let the air back in...


That's better. Now just turn on the teleporter, and...


Everyone's here!


Go on and open that door, Sally. Mind the graphics bug.


Whoa, nice view. I can see the world from here.


And then some giant illusory head came in, yelled at us, and left. Sure, why not.


You all okay with that giant head shit, guys? Yes? Okay then, I'll scout ahead.


Not much to say here but pew pew pew.



Ding! Another level. I decided to bump myself up to 75 Science, and put the rest into Sneak. Hopefully the stealth will prove useful.


I also took Child at Heart, which does exactly what it says there.


Daw. Horsey. This'll make a nice souvenir.


The ones in red consistently run away from me. They must be civilians, so I try to leave 'em alone.


Some of them get caught in the crossfire, though. Shoulda dodged harder!
It should be noted that killing the Kif Krokers red-clothed aliens causes you to lose karma. Between this and other actions (such as burglarizing, and killing Dr. Lesko), my karma has changed from Good to Neutral, which will actually enable us to get a certain good thing later on!


Ooh. Piles and piles of stuff!


This looks a lot like the machine armor from before. Can't figure this one out either, but it looks like something special. I think I'll hang on to it.


I'll just take a couple of these...


This...


Not pictured: me grabbing the Metal Armor itself, because I'm a stupid idiot.


Oh my. Is this what I think it is?



HOLY HOT STREAM OF DEATH!


Okay, no time to get overexcited. Gotta keep moving.


Well, a loot stop couldn't hurt.


Ooh, more armor. No time to try it on at the moment, though.


...wait, hold on.


If I just redirect the bofomdads into the fonon matrix like so...


Scientastic!


Gross. I think I've stumbled upon some kind of laboratory.


Let's just deal with this generator in the usual, joyless fashion, and...


...the fuck? Oh well, door's open.


Nostrils? Teeth? Uh...


Oh dear. Well, good thing I killed them, I guess.


Huh. Laser room, maybe?


Whoa.


WHOA. Don't point that there, dude.





More sabotage. You know the bit by now.


Man, I'd better reach the top of this ship soon.


GOD. THANK YOU.


Then we had a space battle. I got to fire the laser cannon.


I admit it was kinda sweet.



I dare say I learned a thing or two about alien diplomacy in the process, too!


We'll be taking Intense Training again to bump our Luck up to 6. This way, we'll be able to see a very special perk later.


Elliott decided to bother me about some homing beacon. Kind of a "Mark" missile, eh?


Well, it DOES mean I can get off this thing now.


C'mon, boy.


Time for a nice, slow walk back to Megaton.
I can't fast travel like this either.


Hey Dogbrows, did I show you this cool gun I got off the alien captain? Look at that shit.


AGH


Is...is that a robot? Are robots just the normal thing in the Wasteland now?


Well, whatever. More energy cells for me.


Hm? A bridge?


A bridge to a house?


Well. This sweet old lady lives by herself in this house, playing her homemade violin over the radio waves. She'd like a better violin, though. Apparently her grandma, who lived in Vault 92, had a great one. Problem is, she doesn't know where Vault 92 is. We'd have to start by checking at the Vault-Tec Headquarters in the ruins of DC. Hell, that makes two things to do there.


Well, would you look at that? Traders!


I'm selling these fine alien firearms. (not to worry, folks, the Captain's Sidearm is just as good.) And that schematic is kind of intriguing! A heavy gun that can fire any old thing lying around? Sure, why not.


C'mon, Dogbrows, let's get movBEAR


Why did it have to be bears?


Sheesh. It was a hell of a walk...


But there's Megaton. And I got to break in that new armor, too! It's pretty great. Flexible, too.
The Recon Armor is almost as protective as the Metal Armor, and it gives a Sneak bonus, too. Yay to that!


First thing's first, I decided to stow my stuff.


The coolest things go in here! Then I decided to check in with the robo-butler.


What do you have in "wizard"?


...okay, less wizard than that.


That's the stuff.


Then I decided to stop by Craterside Supply. Offload some crap, get all the stuff I needed for that schematic.


But then, I thought better of it. Firing junk? Heh, what an idiotic invention. It couldn't possibly make combat trivial or anything like that.


Well, there's a lot ahead of me. I could venture into DC in search of Three Dog and Vault-Tec HQ. I could see what Rivet City or Canterbury Commons has to offer. Hell, with all this alien crap I could probably investigate that Tenpenny Tower place Mr. Burke mentioned. But for now...I sleep.