[quote=@Letter Bee] Eight men, chosen for their strength and health. Eight women, chosen for similar criteria. Thirteen Children between the ages of sixteen to six, and one old man who demonstrated his skills at writing, reading, and doing sums. 4450 Bottlecaps, almost one whole crate. Par and presumably Greg led the slaves - not that they would be slaves any longer if Par had his way - to the Army Truck that had been comandeered from Robo-Co. After that, Par then went to his own Solar - Electric Truck, before beginning his drive to the New York Public Library's main branch... [b][i]Timeskip[/i][/b] "We're here," Par said, gesturing to his mercs as they got to the dilapidated building. "Bring out the slaves." With a nod, the mercenaries did as the man wished, bringing out the slaves - who had been somewhat cramped in the army truck - delicately, which was what Par wanted it to be. The young man would notice that while all were shackled, only a few had bona-fide slave collars; apparently, Old Man's Corner's supply had ran out. Either way, Par took out a remote, pressed it...and the slave collars fell off. He then personally took a key and unshackled the rest of the slaves, starting with the children. "All right," he spoke, "you're free to go; all of you. If you want, I'll take you in my other truck to Liberty Island myself, where you can live as free people." The slaves were shocked, uncertain if this was real. Once they saw that Par was serious, one of them, a black man from The Pitt, spoke: "What's the catch?" "Well, just hear me out," he spoke. "You see, I'm conducting a salvage operation in this place in order to look for old books and tech, as well as preserve them. I'm willing to pay in food and purified water," he can see the slaves' eyes light up, "if you will help me. The job's going to be fairly easy, although you'll have to follow the old man," he gestured to the learned man, "and his lead here." "Also, I will be taking the kids under 12 to Liberty Island; they're not old enough for such dangerous work." "So," the man said, "which of you will accept my offer? Again, those who don't can come with the kids to Liberty Island." In the end, only one adult man and one woman chose not to take the job, opting to accompany the kids under 12 to Liberty Island. That left 12 adults and 5 children over 12, which was cool. Either way, Par would drive back to Liberty Island, leaving Greg, the Mercs, and the Robots to start the set-up for the salvage operations... (([@TheUnknowable], your turn)) [/quote] "Ok", said Greg as Par started to drive away, "Robots, form a perimeter. Stop any threat within 50 meters of the building. DO NOT, however, harm any of these people." He waved his hand at the former slaves and mercenary. "Also, don't hurt any human or brahmen unless they attack you or one of these people first. I don't want a caravaneer to get shot for trying to sell us stuff. Prince, protect me." The robots spread out and surrounded the building, forming various patrol routes based on their own programming peculiarities, all except for Prince, who walked over to Greg and stood behind him. Greg then addressed the former slaves. "Stay here while I lead the Mercs inside to clear any threats from the building. There are two cases of bottled water and one of Nuka-colas in the back of the truck, as well as a crate of blamco Mac'n'cheese. Get something to eat or drink if you want. We'll be back in less than an hour." He lead the Mercs inside and split them up into teams. They then went through and systematically cleared every room, killing every hostile creature, opening every door and disarming every trap. When they were done fourty minutes later they returned to the front desk. "Ok, now that the place is clear, I need you to get the bodies out of here so that the don't stink up the place while we're here. Pile the edible creatures in the break room, the non-edible ones outside so that we can burn them, and the robots over in that corner so I can look at them later." He pointed to a corner near the front door, beside the vending machines. He then went outside, noticing that several of them had eaten or drank already, and had the workers follow him back inside. "Ok," he said addressing them, "I need you to gather anything you can find that might be worth something and bring it back here. The old man and I..." "Lawrence" he old man said. "Ok, then, Lawrence and I will sort the books. If you find any books, just stack them here behind the front desk. If you find anything that isn't a book, but you think it is worth salvaging, put it in that office over there. We'll go through it later. I'll need at least one person to stay here and help us move books." A teenage girl stayed with them as the others left to look for salvage. He addressed Lawrence. "Ok, we're going to need to sort them into completely ruined, partially ruined, and good. We'll pile the ruined one's up and get rid of them later, but the partially ruined and good ones will need to be packed into crates so that we can ship them out of here." He then looked at the teenage girl, Sky she told him, "I'll need you to move all of the food and drinks into the break room, through that door and to the right." He pointed to the door's back room. "Then you'll need to bring the crates for them back in here so that we can pack book into them." She nodded and went outside to get the crates.