Chapitre 22: 22
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In Yellowstone Visitor Center inside one of the cabins, Barbie sat on the worn coach with the three kids who she's been taking care of for the past few weeks. All three are huddled together as they clung to the blankets wrapped around them, trying to keep warm in the freezing weather. On the ride to here, they were all huddled together on the bed in the truck and would all bundle up against her when she slept with them. Tom was sleeping on the floor at night and Barbie herself sleeping on the passenger seat but once they got to the cold northern area they joined Tara and Jade on the bigger bed. Tom because of how cold it got and Barbie to help the kids to stay warm thanks to her body heat. There was the heater but was used only when it got really cold to conserve the limited amount of energy of the truck. Barbie told Tom, Tara, and Jade about the time she and her daughter Sunset were stranded thanks to wasting too much fuel on the heater. It was only by X49 making the two day walk without stopping to the nearest town and getting a barrel of kerosene and a ride by wagon to the RV before, they froze to death. So she's not going to risk things, when they can just bundle together for warmth.
"Still not use to the cold?" Barbie asked them. She's fresh from getting out of the bathroom after a shower. They were given a cabin to stay in while they waited for more soldiers to come.
"How can it be this cold when it's summer?" Jade asked. She's watching with Tom and Tara a nature documentary on the cabin's tv. The 3 kids being use to having games and tv shows on demand thanks to the internet, had to make do with what they could find to entertain themselves with. Which is mostly what tv shows and movies that Barbie has for the tv in the sleeper truck and the books that she brought with her.
"The place where the animal machines come from has a different weather system is different from this one. So the either weather system is in chaos right now till it settles down," Lenny said who is sharing the cabin with them. Alice, Mila and Alloy are also sharing the cabin with the female rangers. Tom sleeps in the men cabin but comes to the women's cabin to be with his sister.
"It has happen before. Some places were in the middle of a hot summer in their world before a event put them in this world that's in the middle of a freezing winter," Mila said.
Mila and Lenny are sitting at a table with Aloy as she is sewing pieces of metal onto what she calls the Shield Weaver. Which is consists of a modified Nora Brave outfit with some armor on the head, chest, shoulders, and knees. Shortly after meeting with Diego's group, they came upon a hole in the ground where Aloy detected another of those metal flowers. The eyebot sent down found an old bunker of the old ones, where the Ultraweave power armor lay behind a sealed door and clamps. Aloy had found two power cells already and got the door unlock, as for the clamps that held the armor in place, the Mr. Handy and the eyebots lasers cut through the clamps. The original Ultraweave power armor suit consists of an exoskeleton with a full helmet, thick torso plates, and armor plates on the waist and thighs.
"There finish," Aloy said holding up her new armor.
"The datapoint text said that the flexible nano-fiber weave and the 400 eV hard light micro-projector, gives you the wearer a forcefield. It will be worn down by repeated damage but will recharge outside of battle," Lenny said.
"Sounds like the omni-tools," Barbie said. "Too bad the research department are still figuring those out."
"Mr. House has the data and the spare parts with the exoskeleton that couldn't be used," Lenny said. "The suit was made to be as cheap as possible while giving great protection."
"He's already having the people at Quark Industries improve on the power armor of his world. So he gave them the Ultraweave power armor data and samples to either combine them or make two lines," Barbie said.
"Are they going to be sending power armor here?" Jade ask.
"Yes that's what we're waiting for," Barbie answered.
"What does this power armor do?" Aloy ask.
"It makes a person very strong and powerful. Well not that strong and powerful, but it allows a soldier to wield heavy weapons that they wouldn't be able to carry into battle without a vehicle to mount it on. Like that Firespitter weapon that bandit used on us. It was so heavy that he could barely hold it up," Mila said.
"Oh that. It was so heavy and the recoil on it made my teeth chatter," Aloy said.
"At least we could carry it in the RV instead of you having to carry it around, with that backpack with all those weapons, clothes and supplies," Lenny said. (1)
"I always had to pick and choose what to keep and what to leave," Aloy said. Even with the Strider carrying her things, there was only so much it could carry.
"At least with the workbench all the junk you get from those machines can be stored away," Mila said.
"I still don't understand how that works," Aloy said. (2)
"You don't have to understand it just does," Lenny said.
"The me's who understand how they work tried to explain how it works but I like others got confused in what they were saying," Barbie said.
"I just go with it being very advance bag of holding like in a game," Jade said.
"Us too," Tom and Tara said at the same time.
"That reminds me," Barbie said looking at the 3 kids who she's been looking after. "When the attack happens I don't want to catch you kids doing anything."
"Anything?" the 3 kids asked.
"Yes, I don't want you 3 going off to try to help. I don't want to bury you children," Barbie said.
"Buried?" the 3 kids asked.
"When, I was going around on tour to gain support for being voted to be the empress. The other Barbie's traveled around and in some cases picked up some kids like I did with you 3. That's how I found my son Charlie, my other children were found afterwards. Some of the kids were just problems, others I helped to find a home for, but others... You kids should know of how in some shows there's always someone who goes out and because of their actions causes trouble?" Barbie asked.
"Yes," the kids said.
"There was a girl name Miko Mai who can from a world with giant robots that could transform into cars and such things. She grew on the Barbie who found her, even if she did charge into things without thinking things through first. That Barbie found a bomb testing site where the radiation had mutated people who lived there. Miko had tagged along with the Barbie without her knowing causing them to be discovered by the mutants who killed outsiders and ate them. That Barbie died trying to protect Miko, which after she died and came back to the hive mind we all learned what happen to her. Thanks to us getting her memories before she died. Some Barbies who could fight were sent to handle things and they wipe out the mutants," Barbie said.
It was mostly the Barbie with superpowers who wiped out the mutants with Helper Barbie releasing more to kill the survivors having been carried by the super Barbie. But even at her full speed the time it took for them to learn what happen to the fallen Barbie and where she was last, took time which Miko didn't had.
"What happen to Miko?" Jade asked.
"There are somethings, best left unsaid," Barbie said. What happen to Miko is a subject that she and the other Barbies didn't talk about. With only Sunset and Charlie who help them through the lost. "That's why I don't want you 3 going around thinking you can help. Leave it to us adults and even if you kids did got away in tagging along, doesn't mean it will all end well for you. Remember what happen to you, Jade when you thought you would be find by yourself and not going with the Spookhouse agents who found you."
"I remember," Jade said who is still skinny from her near starvation death state that Barbie had found her in.
"You kids can help by watching what the eyebots see and tell us what's happening," Mila said holding up one of the focuses that they picked up at the old armory. They're a small augmented reality device worn by human users that serves as a multipurpose neural interface. This device is responsive to the user's gestures and voice, and displays a visual 3D interface visible only to them, aiding in the operation of machinery and technology alike, as well as in communications.
"I had mine for years and never discovered how to talk to others," Aloy said.
"Well you were the only one who was wearing one," Lenny said as she taps the one she's wearing. "Now we all can keep in contact with each other."
"Tell me Aloy how has my son been treating you?" Barbie asked. She still has issues with her children leaving the nest, with Diego having just turn 18 this year. But seeing how well he's getting along with Aloy, she can't help but play match maker. Besides Sunset none of her other children have any boyfriends or girlfriends yet.
"He's been nice to me, showing me so much and teaching me how to do things," Aloy said.
"Don't forget me and the other girls showing you feminine things," Lenny said.
"Yes those pads are most useful," Aloy said.
"And showing you other things," Mila add.
"So you had no idea that Diego was royalty?" Barbie asked.
"He didn't look or act the part from what I heard," Aloy said.
"It's something that my father taught me by example. Yes he was only Emperor by his own words and the people who played along, with me the princess in rags," Barbie said pointing to a copy of the famous picture that captured the world's attention. "But it's what we done to earn our title. I went across this country helping people so that they would vote for me to become their empress, and have continue to help people since then. Which all of my children follow my example."
"Like how Diego has been helping me with my quest?" Aloy asked.
"Oh that's something that my children picked up from me. Helping people who needs help is something you should do if you can do something for them. And yes sometimes it's bad as there been plenty of times that I had helped someone who just threw it back in my face. But sometimes it does pay off," Barbie said thinking of all the lost children she had helped before with some of them being just bad while others showed they were worth the trouble and for the ones she adopted showed them something special that made her love them. She has to be careful in what she says around Jade, Tom, and Tara. There had been children who tried to be adopted by her in the past and them learning about how she picks her children caused them to ruin their chances.
"So he's been helping me just because it's the right thing to do?" Aloy asked.
"Yes," Barbie said.
"And not just about the machines?" Aloy asked.
"Yes that is also a very good reason as whatever happen to your world in the past, can effect this one. Those giant machines your people call the metal devils. Is troubling for us. Diego did told you how in some world machines destroyed the world?" Barbie asked.
"Yes he and the others told me about other worlds," Aloy said.
"The problem that we often see is how people in those worlds can't program the robots they build. There are several giant robots called sentinels who are programmed by racist bigots who see anyone who is a mutant is to be killed. Forgetting that humans are mutants which had them turning on their creators, because they follow their programming to the letter. Not to mention how often people who make the robots give it tons of weapons and can't ever be turn off and give them some way to always be able to refuel themselves so they don't all simply run out of power," Barbie said.
"Don't forget the default setting for the robots. Crush. Kill. Destroy," Lenny said.
"I wouldn't be surprise that something like that happen in your world Aloy," Mila said.
"Mr. House is making sure that none of his robots follow those plot points out of a story," Barbie said.
"You are a major share holder," Lenny said.
"So when will the attack happen?" Tom ask.
"It be nice to leave this place for someplace warmer," Jade said.
"And have something for us to do," Tara said.
"The attack will happen tomorrow so that the people who just arrived but rested and ready," Barbie said.
"Why don't you kids go out and have a snowball fight?" Mila ask.
"Outside with all of those killer machines?" Tara asked.
"And it's too cold," Tom said.
"They're right it's too dangerous for them to be outside," Barbie said.
"It's not that dangerous," Mila said.
A loud boom sound came outside causing everyone to rush outside with Barbie telling the kids to stay inside and look through the windows. Outside a Stormbird had been brought down by the stringer rocket fired by one of the soldiers helping to defend the camp. The Stormbird landed just outside the camp and is being finished off by the soldiers and robots while trying to keep it mostly in one piece.
"You were saying," Lenny asked looking at Mila.
"Oh right there are the flying ones to be worried about," Mila said.
"Kids you're staying here where it's safe," Barbie said to the kids.
"Yes Ms Norton," the kids said.
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Author's Notes -
1 - The supplies, tools, weapons, clothes and other junk that Aloy carries on her. In this fic she has a large backpack like those traders you see in the game. She just takes it off when she hunts and puts it back on when she's not fighting. As games don't really show how much supplies someone needs to be able to survive out in the wild on their own. Even survival games can only do so much for the sake of gameplay.
2 - Things like workbenches from Fallout can store tons of things inside it's bag of holding but few understand how it even works.
First appearances of fictions in this chapter -
Transformers Prime
The Hills Have Eyes Remake
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone