[i][b]Steve Miller - The Hull[/b][/i]

Steve's blood froze as the restarted condenser cleared the fog from where Rose stood.....or had stood anyway. He'd seen some things in his short but active life...but nothing like this. She was gone, all that remained was the rifle that she had thrown to the ground in frustration. Steve's knees buckled for a moment and he was forced to steady himself against the parapet of the Hull. 

The Cultist leader turned back to Corrine once again, the simple mask he wore concealing his features with impassive blankness.

"Your town is living on borrowed time," He said, "Tell your people that they must make their choice soon. Far Harbor can not remain as it is. Someone must make them choose..."

With that, the assembled group of Cultists turned and walked back into the fog-covered ruins of old Bar Harbor, melting back into its forbidding depths and leaving only questions in their wake.

"Anyone else think that was staged?", James...the Enclave one...asked loudly. "They took that railroad agent too quickly and easily....did anyone see her arms go down when the fog approached her?"

“She seemed surprised, but didn’t move like the rest of us would have," Castner replied, shaking his head. "The cult must have some way of effecting synths with the fog. Maybe Rose was forced to go. I hate to say it, but it seems like some kind of magic.” 

"Oh and can someone help me get this off?" James asked as he backed into the power armorrack, "should go and see the doctor about my arm before the foggers come back." 

Castner sighed and helped the Enclaver out of his power armor. “My makeshift bandages from earlier will do for now. I’m going to talk to Corrine and Steve about our next move.” As Steve descended the stairs, Corrine rejoined him. Castner got out of his suit as well and went to Corrine and Steve.

“It’s good we got Avery, but we need to start preparing the town. That sounded like the last bit of diplomacy we would get. We should get all those projects we had in mind going with the vertibird stuff. Do you still have people good at working on the Hull and other engineering?.”

"Agreed", Steve replied, "We don't have much time, and a lot to do." 

Longfellow scratched his bearded chin a bit in contemplation, "Not sure really. The Mariner ain't around no more since she left to go find the Red Death. And nobody's really taken up the mantle to keep up the hull. I can maybe get a few strong backs together for lifting and the like, but we could use somebody who can tell them what to do and how to build it up better for protection."

"What kind of tools do folks have here?", Steve asked, "Does someone here have power tools for working with wood, metal and the like?" after a pause, Steve continued. "And I apologize in advance if it's impertinent to ask this....but where does this settlement get it's power from?" 

Steve then looked back at Castner. "Referring to what you said earlier...magic, James? That's not something I expected to hear from a man of science", Steve said with a chuckle, finding it ironic that magic had been the first thing that popped into his mind as well, silly as that may be. "Kinda odd though how the rifle, then the condenser, fail then Rose doesn't react how she should. But then...a synth is a machine. A far more complex mechanism than a rifle or that condenser, but a mechanism all the same. What could affect all three within such a short period?"

Castner paused abruptly and stared at the spot where Rose was. “Rose couldn't have just disappeared,” he said slowly “What if they somehow forced her to run off into the Fog? If she moved quickly, she could have run off in the short time we couldn’t see her. I’m going to check for tracks. They could lead us to the cultists. Can either of you help me?” James went over to the ground near where Rose stood and started looking for footprints or other signs."

Steve joined James and Corrine as they approached the spot where Rose had been standing. As tracking wasn't something he had any experience in, he let Corrine take the lead and stayed back so as not to interfere. Instead, he picked up Rose's cast off rifle, giving it a cursory examination [opening breech enough to see if it loaded (without ejecting the round) and making a quick examination to spot obvious problems that would have caused a 'failure to fire']. He then looked over at James and Corrine. 

"Find anything?", he asked.