The battle was short and sweet, nothing either Phineas or Tyler haven't done before. As the rats fell one by one Phineas began to notice something: these rats were abnormally aggressive. Rad rats were an incredibly successful species because of their cowardice but these seemed to fight lions backed into a corner. When the final blow was dealt to the queen ear spitting screech before falling to the ground limp and oozing a thick black blood from its mouth.

Before you could even catch your breath you hear Max call from up the stairs
"Oi you guys okay down there? Seems like you had more trouble taking care of those things than you should have."

"We're fine, Max!", Phineas called out in a gruff and out-of-breath voice, "If it was easy, you'd have come down here and dealt with them yourSELF, you old librarian!"

He chuckled to himself.  Max and he went back far enough that the storekeeper would have known that Phineas was teasing him.  He deliberately downplayed the unsettling nature of the encounter.  He couldn't quite put a finger on it yet, but something about this subtle turn of events was beginning to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  Something had set these creatures to burrow and nest in a danger zone and then strike out at lethal human aggression with no sense of self-preservation.  Not natural.  He turned his attention to the far end of the room where Tyler was stomping on a twitching corpse and nursing a wound of some kind on his left arm.

"Are you okay, kid?", he called out.

"Yeah im fine. Just a scratch." Tyler collapsed his staff and puts it on his side. "Well what's next?" He said after wiping off blood from his boot with a rag and throwing it on the ground. He didnt really notice that the rats were more aggressive than normal. He just assumed that it was just another scrap that needed his brawn. He walks up to Phineas and pushed past him and looks back saying "where to next. This is just a pit stop after all."

"Hohoho, now's the time for your guy's reward." Max lets out a small chuckle, his big belly bouncing slightly.
"Come on up guys, I got something special for you." following him out of the basement the low light hit your eyes like a pillow after constantly going back and forth from the dark basement and harsh light of the lamp. Max led you to his workshop where you saw that synth. Upon reaching the top you are surprised to see it standing, seemingly powered on but not moving allowing you to get a much better look at it. He was shorter than you previously thought, only coming up to your waist. He looked like he had once been incredibly advanced but, through Max's brilliant engineering, was a mish mash of robot and synth parts making him look round and sturdy. A light blue glow came from his chest which seemed to contain a large Myste Battery.
"Here it is boys. I've been working on this little guy for a while. A couple of scavs brought him in about a month ago saying they found him in some rich guys house. Got him in exchange for fixing their drive shaft on their runner, damn near robbed them hohoh! all they needed was a new coupling. Anyway he seemed to be perfectly okay save for a little bit of minor internal damage and some pretty bad dings to the outer casing. Until today I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I installed a brand new battery and replaced that old dangerous Nuclear engine inside it but nothing worked. I damn near gave up on it till it woke up not two minutes after you guys starting fighting those rats."

For anyone else this would have been an impressive feat of engineering but for someone like Maxwell it was a normal Tuesday. Maxwell had been the head engineer of the M.A.S
(Mutant Assault Squad) was has been on countless missions with an unknown number of Mutant kills (Due to the secretive nature of the MAS) but rumors put it in three-hundreds and Max himself keeps changing the amount every time someone asks. As an MAS engineer it was his job to work with the scientists to build anything needed to take down three to four star mutants, all while the mutant was attacking. He was tough despite his height and old age but recently he had seemed like something was wrong with him. He was a kind soul and spent his off time with the survivors of the Mutant attacks, making basic toys and helping rebuild what was destroyed.

Maxwell stood over the synth like a proud father and that's when you notice the letters painted on the side of its arm: GENESIS. All of a sudden it spoke saying
"My sensors were set off by the combat, are you in need of any assistance?" Taken back by the sudden response you quickly gather yourselves and begin to grow curious. before any of you could respond Maxwell response with
"Well, glad to see you usin those voice synthesizer you got. You say your sensors picked up the battle? Interesting. Synth, give me a designation and full report on all internal systems."
Understood. I am G35e2-12, but my human designation is Genesis. All systems functional. Nominal damage to chassis and outer armor. Programed purpose: assist in the extermination of mutated and or infected."
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:49, Thu 17 Feb 2022.

     Phineas approached the device slowly, appraising it and feeling in his well-trained gut any warning that might pop up.  It was elegant, if patched together, a remnant of a bygone age when men had more precise tooling, more ambition, and less wisdom.  These synthetics were exceedingly rare.  The scrappers who passed it to Max must have wanted to part with it to let it go so easily, and that made him nervous.  What secrets did this machine hold in its memory?  Who were its prior owners and what were its prior missions?

     Phineas stroked his whiskered chin and stopped at arm's length from the thing, who sat quietly on Max's countertop. He started running risk/reward assessments in his mind.

   1) This thing would be VALUABLE.  Even seemed a bit too high a price in return for simply helping a friend.
   2) This thing could be DANGEROUS. Snap on us in an instant with speed and ferocity that could make for a very bad day.
   3) This thing could be IMPORTANT, is memory valuable to historians or even to the ministry for its tactical content.
   4) This thing could be HANDY, even integrate into the crew of the Argonaut and become an invaluable asset to their missions.

The possibilities washed over his mind in an instant as his heart filled with a strange mixture of avarice and apprehension.

     But, ultimately, Phineas was a soldier.  A loyal one at that.  If Max was trying to transfer the responsibility, what Phineas knew for sure is that he couldn't let this potential timebomb roam free among the good people of Wicks.  He had a duty.  The only way he could ensure the stability of this synth and the safety of his crew is to see it delivered to Chahayless to the north.  It was on their way, in any case.  The hi-tech facilities there would be able to perform a full diagnostic and, if necessary, wipe its onboard condition to factory mode.  In the meantime, he would just have to watch it carefully, as one would a suspected turncoat.

     He leaned forward and put a finger right between the synths optic sensors and tapped three times as if checking to see how hollow its head was.  "You sure you wanna part with this, Max Old Boy?", Phineas said to his friend behind him while not shifting his gaze from the synthetic.  "He's worth a bundle to the right people!"

 
This message was last edited by the player at 07:59, Thu 10 Mar 2022.

The sound was solid but only in the same way a concrete wall is. Whatever this synth was made for it was tough. Phineas thought back on the words the synth had spoken moments ago: My sensors were set off by the combat, are you in need of any assistance? Before he could think any further Maxwell chimed in
"Hah I was a soldier once and a damn good one if I do say so myself. I may not agree with how the officials are doing things now but my loyalty lies with Blackwall and it's people. Selling this thing would give me enough money to start my own settlement but nobody who wants to buy a synth is up to anything good. No, a couple of good friends who do scavenging found this thing in a robotics lab under a mansion in Idaho and brought it to me. Why they didn't just send it to a Synth Rehab Center in the first place beats me, they never have been the brightest, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to mess with some old world tech. Best thing to do now is send it with someone I can trust to a SRC and have it tested. All I have to do is write the papers in your name and when they're done they'll have you pick it up and he'll be yours to do with what you please. Of course I realize I'm basically asking you to make an extra run but as long as you're going to stay wherever you take that thing it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to do the whole procedure. I leave the decision to you though, worst case scenario for me I'll just have it sent to an SRC anyway."

Phineas had always known Maxwell to be a trustworthy person and someone who knew his way around a machine. If there was anything wrong with this synth he would have either fixed it or have sent it off. But still the thought of bringing on a functioning synth on board his vessel didn't sit right with Phineas. but the decision had to be made and soon, the mission wasn't going to wait forever. after careful consideration Phineas looked up at Maxwell and nodded
"It's a deal old friend. We'll drop him at the Chahayless SRC, it's on the way to our destination."
"Excellent, I'll have him delivered to the Argonaut."

several hours pass, the dim sunset slowly turns a pale blue and night approaches. Phineas, Tyler and Freya ate a delicious meal from a vender on the street that smelled of sweet spices and cooked meat. Though their funding provided for it they did not need to stay at a hotel or inn but instead slept in their respective cabins. Despite the Argonaut being fully functional driving alone at night even in something as well defended as the Argonaut was highly unadvised.  The dark roads are home to many beasts and monsters that possess power beyond that of any human much less a Mystic (Someone like Freya who possess an ability like telekinesis or pyromancy) Monsters like the Silver Ursa whose fur is thick enough to deflect bullets and whose roar would curdle the blood of even the strongest man. Or the Rubercanis a deadly wolf that could keep pace with even a Stingray class ATMB.

Daylight shone through the windows of the vehicle Phineas and his crew called home. His military days had hardwired his brain to wake up early everyday which didn't bother him much, more time to get stuff done though even he couldn't keep up with Tik and Tok. only needing four hours to recharge they were almost always up and active serving multiple purposes from maintenance to guards to assistants and always did their jobs well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:30, Thu 05 May 2022.