[There's just a slight pause, then Nick's tone is considerably lighter. Apparently, even he needs some encouragement sometimes.]
You're right, Oscar. Giving up won't get us anywhere, especially with the Null. We can't let some other machines just move in and take over the place, now can we?
More than most people realize. There are a lot of machines around the Commonwealth still working, even a couple hundred years after the bombs dropped. The Mr. Handy units, Protectrons, even some of the ones made for the military. They're mechanical, like us. However, the most dangerous ones are those that aren't, those who can pass so easily for a human that no one realizes it until it's too late.
[And even some of them don't realize they're machines. As much as Nick's inhuman status may bother him at times, at least he knows what he is, in a sense.]
[It defies explanation why anyone capable of creating something so marvelous would approve of its application in operations designed to bring harm to others. He is certain that Hans Voralberg would have felt the same about it.]
A place called the Institute. No one knows where it is or why they do it, but when a bunch of synths raze a settlement to the ground, you stop asking why and start looking for a way to keep them from doing it again.
[And if his tone says anything, it's that he's seen that scene time and time again.]
The trick is finding their suppliers and their sources when they seem to vanish into thin air every time we get a lead on where they might be. You'd think it'd be tough to move whole groups of people and synths around without leaving a trace, but that's been the case for years. Folks call them the Institute the 'The Boogeyman of the Commonwealth' for a reason.
[Except the Boogeyman scared mostly children; the Institute is a very real threat to everyone.]
Most folks try to fortify themselves, but they aren't trained with weapons, and the ones they have can't stand up to the technology the Institute is packing. The Brotherhood of Steel could handle it, but they don't take kindly to anyone who doesn't fit their definition of human. They'd probably let a town of ghouls burn and think the world a better place because of it.
[A technologically superior organization attacking settlements that are less advanced. Oscar doesn't much like the sound of this 'Brotherhood', either.]
[Right. Not everyone comes from a war-torn wasteland.]
I guess not everywhere has ghouls. They're what you get when you take one human, a heaping helping of radiation, and something in them that refuses to let the rads keep 'em down. Some lose their minds, their brains rotting away in their own skulls, but most are just odd-looking folks trying to get by. The Brotherhood, though, they don't see them as human anymore. Maybe they aren't. That doesn't mean they aren't worth protecting.
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[audio]
You're right, Oscar. Giving up won't get us anywhere, especially with the Null. We can't let some other machines just move in and take over the place, now can we?
[audio]
[Now it is Oscar's turn to pause.]
Mr. Valentine...
Are machines that are created for destructive purposes commonplace in your world? Machines like you and I, that is.
[audio]
More than most people realize. There are a lot of machines around the Commonwealth still working, even a couple hundred years after the bombs dropped. The Mr. Handy units, Protectrons, even some of the ones made for the military. They're mechanical, like us. However, the most dangerous ones are those that aren't, those who can pass so easily for a human that no one realizes it until it's too late.
[And even some of them don't realize they're machines. As much as Nick's inhuman status may bother him at times, at least he knows what he is, in a sense.]
[audio]
[It defies explanation why anyone capable of creating something so marvelous would approve of its application in operations designed to bring harm to others. He is certain that Hans Voralberg would have felt the same about it.]
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[And if his tone says anything, it's that he's seen that scene time and time again.]
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You try to locate the source. Failing that, you identify their suppliers and cut them off until they are forced to cease production.
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[Except the Boogeyman scared mostly children; the Institute is a very real threat to everyone.]
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[His tone says that's a resounding no.]
Most folks try to fortify themselves, but they aren't trained with weapons, and the ones they have can't stand up to the technology the Institute is packing. The Brotherhood of Steel could handle it, but they don't take kindly to anyone who doesn't fit their definition of human. They'd probably let a town of ghouls burn and think the world a better place because of it.
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What, or should I say who, are ghouls?
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I guess not everywhere has ghouls. They're what you get when you take one human, a heaping helping of radiation, and something in them that refuses to let the rads keep 'em down. Some lose their minds, their brains rotting away in their own skulls, but most are just odd-looking folks trying to get by. The Brotherhood, though, they don't see them as human anymore. Maybe they aren't. That doesn't mean they aren't worth protecting.
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[How ridiculous.]
Overexposure to radiation would do nothing to alter that.
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It certainly changed their physiology, but they're more human than I am. Not that the Brotherhood would take kindly to a fella like me, either.
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[If only everyone could be as reasonable as the two guys who are more machine than man. Alas.]