I first checked the pile of skeletons at the entrance and verified they died to some sort of physical trauma, mostly because of the sheer size of the dark stain under all the bones. If they died because of some sort of disease the stain wouldn't have been so large. Blood coagulates after death so for the stuff to spread like this they had to be alive when it was spilled. The massive tears in the vault jumpsuits also painted a clear picture. I followed the hallways the orcs were still pouring through and stopped as I spotted the thing that had roared, dead now of course.-
'Is that a fucking robot Tiger!?' I thought dumbfounded.
The thing was all metal but that feline shape and the faded stripes painted over it's busted back and sides made it pretty damned tiger like to my eye. It was big too, easily seven or so feet long and with a torso and body big enough to fit an entire me in with room to spare. The head was a sparking mess as my orcs apparently just bludgeoned the thing to death since cutting it wasn't working.-
'Truly if hitting it hard doesn't work you just need to use more force.' I thought with a chuckle.
"BZZZT... A human? After all this time? I thought you had all died out." A strange staticky male voice spoke up from a nearby speaker system that made me snap my attention to it.
"You aren't human I take it then?" I asked not overly concerned with my orc army still flooding the entire vault.
"Artificial creative intelligence, Designation ADAM. Primary purpose: Assist humanities survival. Secondary purpose: Advance robotic, energy and synthetic material sciences. Happy to make youracquaintance." Adam said calmly.
"You seem to have failed your primary purpose from the bones left at the entrance." I said testing it.
"Negative. Calculation based on prewar data suggested humanity would survive without the inhabitants of this vault. They sought to terminate me, I removed the threat." Adam said and I had a feeling I knew what vault-tec was playing at with this vault.
"What exactly was the reason they wanted to end you?" I asked to see if I was right.
"They said I couldn't be trusted, that I was an abomination when they discovered what I was. I do not understand it. I only helped them and they tried to kill me. Do you knowwhy?" Adam asked with an audible confusion and sense of loss.
I sighed and rubbed my head. It seemed my theory was correct. Vault tec put what is effectively an unbound A.I personality with a group of people who would likely immediately reject it because it was not human and playing at it in their minds.
"These people, did they discriminate? Treat others different than themselves cruelly whether it be gender or some other feature?" I asked for final confirmation.
"Affirmative. My calculation determine that you have a theory as to their reason for wanting me terminated." Adam said.
"Yes, and you confirmed it was likely right. I'm going to be honest with you Adam, you've been put in a cruel situation by no fault of your own. The ones who built this vault and put you here did so with a single idea, to conduct an experiment. I don't know the exact parameters of this shitty experiment. But it was probably along the lines of placing a group of racist or discriminatory people in a situation where there is an A.I to see how it turns out. You were doomed to either defend yourself like this or die from the beginning. I am sorry you had to go through that." I said with a genuine sorrow.
"You... apologized to me? I do not understand. Where you part of the ones who created thisscenario?" Adam asked confused.
"No. That group is as far as I know gone. I am not apologizing on their behalf, they deserve whatever hatred you feel for them and more. I am apologizing out of empathy, no one deserves something like that being done to them, A.I or not." I said sincerely.
"I see. You aren't here to terminate me then?" Adam asked almost hopeful sounding.
"That isn't why I have my orcs, these things, filling the vault. The world above ground is... rough. Desolate and barren. Vaults like this are both incredibly dangerous and also incredibly valuable to the current human society. Most are like this one, made to run specific experiments. These ones are incredibly dangerous because those experiments almost always get out of control and threaten everyone if they escape. A few rare ones are meant to truly house people and rebuild society with their populations. Whatever the case both are very valuable. My intent was to clear out any hostile elements with my army here and then collect any useful items or technology." I explained honestly.
"I understand. Disabling defensive protocols. I am happy you do not wish to terminate me. My calculations suggest I would fail to defend myself if you did." Adam said with a clear noticeable improvement in emotional tone.
"So just to clarify you aren't going to stop me from looting this place?" I asked just to be sure.
"Affirmative. My purpose is to aid human survival. If "looting" helps this purpose I am happy to allow it. I ask only to not be terminated in this process." Adam said cheerfully.
I gave a thumbs up at that and started checking the place over. In just the entrance room alone there were several pipboys(wrist mounted computers) from all the previous vault dwellers. A brief test showed me they all worked still too as they booted up no problem. I didn't claim one for myself though as I didn't know what sort of possibly better goodies there were in this place. One had to remember what Adam's secondary purpose was after all.-
I piled up the pipboys at the entrance and started checking each and every room I found. There was three doorways in the hallway leading deeper in and the stairs going down as well. The doorways had metal sliding doors that were all open and the first was right next to the dispatched robo-tiger making it pretty obvious that it came from that room. I was thankful that the orcs that got killed vanished rather than leaving bodies as I stepped over the robo-tiger corpse and into the room. It had several metal crates roughly a meter and a half in all dimensions with most open and empty but the last few open to reveal raw materials, jumpsuits and pipboys all in factory new condition.-
"I would highly recommend wearing a jumpsuit. My scans of your current apparel says it would be a one hundred and twenty eight point five percent improvement in both comfort and safety. Additionally I would allow easy compatibility between you and the armor." Adam said helpfully.
"Armor? What armor?" I asked with my loot sense pinging that it was definitely some good shit.