Mac

Mac (Made with HeroForge)

Android that took on the name and title of the deceased Sergeant Joseph Macmillan after his awakening at Dugway. He became a member of the New Wells Six and is currently dating Dick Mortem.

## History

### Arc 4: Shadows in Dugway

On September 24th, 2081, the day after Judgement Day, Mac awoke in the lower level of Dugway Proving Ground's main facility. He had been a robotic laborer, but now carried memories of a man named Sergeant Joseph Macmillan. He took the name, his gear, and his orders, guarding the base from scavengers.

On March 5th, Mac was scouting out the Motor Heads' camp when he spotted a teenage girl following him. He turned to her, motioning for her to stop, and followed through, giving him a wave. An unusually tall man followed soon after, and Mac gestured for the two of them to get down. He approached them, and questioned why they were there. The girl, Gregg, quickly told him her and Atom's names and what they were doing there. He shushed her before turning to Atom and asking if they were friend or foe. Atom replied he was a friend to anyone until they proved otherwise. Mac responded that the base was U.S. property, and their group shouldn't be there. Despite that, he agreed to meet with their allies.

He was led to Jenny, and asked again if they were friend or foe. Jenny replied that was relative, and assumed he wasn't there for the government. Mac told her he was under orders to defend the base, orders from his superior. Jenny told him they were investigating the grounds, and had run into the Motor Heads. Mac said he didn't think he could take them on, that they all appeared to have cybernetic enhancements.

Jenny convinced him to tell her what was in the base, what they might be after. He told her they tested tanks, new weapons, and new types of weaponized gas and chemicals there. He mentioned he was the only one here, besides Commander Keen, who hadn't spoken to him in years, so he was the ranking officer. He introduced himself as Sergeant Mac.

The other members of the NW6 began to approach, Addie and Choc, and just as they did, movement came from the shadows. A strange creature that appeared as large, featherless bird with massive claws and a plague doctor mask rushed out of the dark to slice at Gregg. A fight ensued, with Mac aiding the group as they took them on. After the fight, Choc pointed his bow at him, and Mac, incredulous, aimed his gun in response. Choc spoke to his suspicions of Mac, noticing something off, and Mac admitted he wasn't human. The orders he'd received technically weren't his, but he claimed them now. He used to just be a robot laborer on the base, but he woke up one day with different memories, found sergeant Mac's armor and weapons, and took the name.

Mac told the group he'd seen those creatures before, but didn't know what they were. He called them bio-freaks, and they were likely made of the people that had snuck in. In the aftermath of the conflict, the group attempted to clean up the mess the creatures had left and burn the disease-ridden corpses. Mac helped Gregg move some Motor Head corpses, stacking them. Gregg set up a ramp with a plank leaned against the bodies, intending to do a flip over them. She set the bodies on fire, rode her board on the ramp, spun a 360, and landed. Jenny chastised her recklessness in giving away their position before shaking her head and letting off.

He later followed Atom, Addie, and Gregg as they went off to scavenge an infantry battlesuit. He walked up behind Addie and Gregg as they spoke, startling them. He told them when he woke up, he had orders to defend Dugway. He only woke up the day after Judgement day, and couldn't move more than 20 miles outside the base because of his programming. He expressed a desire to explore beyond the base, and to make connections with civilians. He took up Atom's offer to try and alter his programming. Atom warned him that people aren't usually fast to accept those unlike the rest, but Mac responded that the mission was all that mattered, and he had to try.

Addie questioned what his mission was, besides protecting the base. He told it was to rebuild the US government and retake all of its military assets. She told him it would be a daunting task, and he confirmed he already knew. They then met up with Jenny, who asked Mac to help bury the Motor Head skulls in the ground. She told him she wished to try and see into his mind, as she'd looked into cyborg heads before. He permitted her, and she warned him of potential discomfort and possible hurdles. He agreed despite them, and she continued. She gave him prompts to keep his mind busy to make it easier to find a point in his thoughts she could keep speed with. She probed his thoughts, trying to find out what kept him tethered to parameters. Mac sifted through his memories, Jenny watching them. She told him to focus on his place in a shared human narrative, even if the memories weren't quite his. She urged him to watch that life in order: youth, growing up.

The more he gained a sense of self, the more control he had, and Jenny urged him to find his programming. To will it to change. She told him to build his own internal paradox, to find a place to go when his programming is difficult to overcome. She gave him a question on his orders, and his will to follow them: when he acts on his own agency, are his actions predestined by commands, or by breaking them. That question would serve as a tether to hold onto when those commands tried to take control.

He came out the other end feeling much more self-sufficient, and Jenny asked to walk with him and discuss their current situation. Mac told her eighty three bio-freaks were inside the base. She told him they needed to go, and he agreed. He asked what her group was after, and she told him Atom and Choc had the specifics. Mac told her the monsters were the result of normal people getting infected with a disease. If their blood got on a person, got in a wound, or they made a wound on someone, their infection spread. It started as flu-like symptoms, then attacked the immune system after a bit of probing. Then it started to change the person from the inside out. They were fast, but not much faster than a bullet, and preferred to gang up on people rather than striking alone. Jenny questioned if they should try diplomacy with the Motor Heads, and Mac said it was a question of morality. They could be a resource, but their leader was a selfish man. Mac told her that without his programming, he believed the base was better off destroyed. Mac agreed to help her and her group get inside, and describe any defenses he knew about.

Later, as the group was discussing stragegy, Atom asked Mac what he knew about the suit of armor he'd found. Mac told him it was an Advanced Warfare suit only worn by special operations forces. He told him about the features of the suit, how it connects to the user's medichip. While discussing tactics, Mac told the group that he'd found the bio-freaks seem to hate light and electricity. It seemed sound could also scare them off, and Mac volunteered to turn himself into a speaker for that purpose. He tested the sound, a screech coming from his mouth that caused the creatures to flee.

Mac went with Atom and Jenny to infiltrate the main base. He let out the screech again as they entered, driving out more of the creatures from their path. Jenny dug into the mind of one, getting an image of a harrowed Commander Keen. She disclosed what she saw to the other two, and they continued. Keen's voice then echoed over the base's speakers, questioning what Mac was doing. They continued on despite the man's ranting, and entered an office. They found Crank, the Motor Head group's leader, and the data Atom was seeking in one of the computers. Crank got sent outside, and Mac turned the outside turrets off, and Atom reprogrammed them to attack the bio-freaks.

They then descended into the base's lower levels through an elevator, and Mac remembered walking up there, in a hospital bed. They were attacked by bio-freaks there, with Mac annihilating a couple in the fight. They find a room with research on soul-tethering, reanimation, and stuff of the like. They also found an armory still filled with weapons. Mac helped haul the weapons up. He also told Jenny he didn't wish to fight Keen if he didn't have to. Jenny tried one more time to convince him. He resisted any attempt, threatening them, and Jenny gave Atom the go-ahead to blow the base.

After Crank was killed and the remaining Motor Heads headed off, Mac stripped Crank of his leather jacket and took it for himself. He agreed to head off with the NW6.

### Arc 5: Plague's Servant

Mac grew drowsy as the NW6 started to head outside the base. Atom asked if he needed a charge of some kind, and Mac admitted to being low on juice. Atom give him a handshake, using his Doomsayer abilities to charge him up. During the confrontation with a strange motorcyclist during the ride back to New Wells, Mac kept his gun trained on the man.

Upon arriving in New Wells, Mac told the group that this was where they parted ways. Choc brought Mac over to his bike and handed him the key (and a spark plug). Atom handed over a load of ammo, and Choc offered to get Mac a supply of spook juice. Before he could set off, the group saw a commotion in town and went to check it out, seeing Victor healing a bunch of new arrivals. Mac chose to stay the night, getting some work on himself from Victor.

The next morning however, the group had put pieces together and figured they were up against an Anti-Templar. Mac decided to stick around for a while longer and help out.

On March 14th, he traveled with the NW6 to Golconda, the base of their Anti-Templar enemy. He stood guard with Atom outside, watching for any of the Anti's allies. While Jenny, Red, Addie, River, and Choc were looking over the hospital, Mac spotted vehicles moving in from the distance. Mac and Atom drove their vehicles around the back of the building, waiting for the rest of the group to make a quick get-away. Once they met up, Mac sped out of town with the rest.

While preparing to deal with the Anti-Templar, Marcus, Mac deconstructed Choc's drug den and used the supplies to build up the other houses around it. He also helped train civilians to fight. He remained in New Wells while Atom, Gregg, Addie, Red, River, Jenny, and Choc left to see to the Convoy's distress call.

### Arc 6: Hell Riders

On April 12th, Mac sat in on the meeting with the rest of the NW6 while they discussed plans to take on the Hell Riders. Addie asked Mac to drive Gregg during the mission since Gregg was high. She asked him if he was able to drive, and he responded by questioning who couldn't. Addie looked away, and Gregg told him Addie couldn't. Mac, a bit embarrassed, agreed to drive Gregg and Addie.

During the attack on Burney, Mac and River were sent away from the gang's base to keep watch over the civilians.

When the NW6 left for Junkyard on April 18th, Mac set out on his own.

### Arc 8: Redwater

On April 27th, Mac made his way into Redwater, Utah. It was there that he met Noni, a syker veteran of Banshee and River's girlfriend. Shortly after, Combine troops invaded the town, roughly interrogating the town's residents. Mac and Noni fought them off, but took the able-bodied townsfolk in the scuffle. Mac remained behind with Noni to protect the kids and teens left behind.

On April 28th, Mac, while keeping a lookout on the roads coming into town, spotted people riding in. He confronted them, questioning who was there. Addie's voice responded, and he lowered his gun. He welcomed them into the shelter he and Noni had been holding out in. Mac told Addie that the Redwater military base was a former weapons lab that got bombed during the war by at least two raids. Nuclear weapons where held there, and supposedly a lot of radiation.

While most of the NW6 left to fight the Combine who'd set up at the base, Mac stayed behind to protect the kids. Once the NW6 made it out, he returned with them to Junkyard.

### Arc 9: The Goat, The Witch, and The Warden

Sometime during the group's stay in Junkyard, Mac developed feelings for Dick, and the two got close.

On May 5th, Mac left Junkyard with Noni and Dick to look into Mab's activities. The group ended up in a town called Bellcap, following a lead. On the 7th, Dick went missing, leaving Mac and Noni to track him down. They found him with Cassandra, who severed his connection with the abyssal Maw and stole the artifact. A fight ensued, with Cassandra seeming to slow time around them, and escaped with her quarry. Mac was able to detach one of his fingers and stick it on Cassandra to try and track her before she left.

With the Maw lost, the three left for Boise to meet up with the rest of the NW6. During the time between, Mac was able to make contact with a communications satellite AI named ComSat. With the AI's help, he was able to use his tracker and the satellite's perspective to get a map on Cassandra's location: a mountainous area in Montana. Arriving on May 11th, they found the town under siege from Combine troops, Wrecking Crew, and walking dead. They immediately jumped in to help, holding off the assault. The NW6 arrived later in the evening, in the middle of the attack. Mac pointed Addie toward Simon's position.

Gregg broke away from the main fight, tracking down Mac and Dick. Gregg confronted Dick, demanding his notes and the Maw. Dick admitted he lost the Maw, and Mac told Gregg about the tracker he'd placed on her. He firmly told her he'd disclose what they'd found out once the whole group had gathered.

Later, after the dust settled and their enemies were pushed back, Mac met up with the rest of the NW6 in an abandoned gas station a ways outside Boise. Mac showed the group the map he'd obtained on Cassandra's location, showing trees, campfires, and people moving around. They discussed plans on what to do with the information, and later decided to head for Sumpter for the night to think on it.

Mac set up in a room with Dick at the Kirkland Cozy Inn. He was with Dick later that night when his familiar, Ellis, returned. Addie, River, and Noni met up with the two, telling them they'd gotten word from Cassandra through Ellis. Addie asked Mac if he had a way of dealing with Cassandra's illusion magic, and Mac admitted that even his mechanical capabilities could be countered by illusions, and she had tricked him during their fight just as readily as the other two. He expressed concern at Addie's desire to personally question The Warden, the Wrecking Crew's leader, and she brushed it off, telling him to leave the matter to her.

On May 12th, Mac was the first to greet Red as he arrived at the Inn, pulling him into a bro hug. He called for Dick to come down, the man still wearing his gas mask, and he greeted Red as well. Later in the day, Addie asked Mac to drive Red and Gregg near Moscow because they'd both gotten drunk.

Once the party made it a short ways outside Moscow, they stopped to prepare for their plan. Toussaint pulled Mac aside, asking him to help with welding a false-bottom on the weapons crate. He asked him about ComSat, which Mac confirmed seemed like a communications satellite with benign and friendly intentions. The news intrigued Toussaint, who mentioned he'd like to speak with them. Mac said he could give introductions, though ComSat was hesitant to speak with people. Toussaint expressed his understanding, mentioning he knew how awful humanity could be. The vampire questioned if Mac really believed the humans they worked with were on the right track. Mac told him he knew the horrors people were capable of, and questioned if Toussaint believed they couldn't close the power vacuum cycle caused by killing their enemies.

Toussaint told him they were dead man, that it wasn't their world, but that of their companions. They could thrive in the dark and corruption, but their human allies couldn't. Those like him and Mac, those outside humanity, needed to guide them on a better track to save the world, to do more than just kill the bad guys, to set up programs and stability that would turn people way from that path. Humans needed to build it, he told Mac, but they couldn't do it themsleves. Mac responded that it was the effort that mattered, that they weren't as outside everything as Toussaint believed. Toussaint replied that "a good effort" mattered little where progress was actually made. Toussaint told him he'd already made the mistakes Mac would, believing that killing people mattered.

Mac told Toussaint that maybe he was right, but he hadn't seen enough to pass judgement, and he was a soldier first, and turned conversation back to the matter at hand.

Outside the inner walls of Moscow, Mac and Dick peeled off to play their part. They moved toward the direction of the inner campus's recreation building, Dick burning a hole in the 2nd wall. They moved stealthily through, Gregg turning invisible and moving on her own. While Dick worked on disabling the Wrecking Crew's communications tower, Mac started setting traps in the building in case of resistance. Mac later tracked down Gregg, her having found where the collective gangs' slaves were kept: the library. Mac took out a cyborg guard, helping Gregg clear the way toward the cages below.

Mac headed into the basement, breaking the chain around cage doors with his hands. The slaves, including a teenage witch named Heru, were freed, and he told them to wait until their transport came. When Choc arrived, he helped the freed slaves get inside the vehicle.

After Anne arrived on a raptor, Mac rejoined Dick in the center field, taking shots at Anne and shaking her. He escaped the town with the rest of the NW6, later returning to Sumpter.

### Arc 10: The Summit

In June, before Choc left for New Wells, Mac and Dick pulled up alongside him to ask where he was going. Choc commented he was going to New Wells to try and pull off something stupid: recreating parts of River's arm with a living test subject. Choc specified that he had a metal arm prototype in his car and was working on how to connect it. Mac questioned why Choc was putting something on his body that he didn't have a good way to test yet, and Choc replied he needed a way to help people faster.

Mac read into the memories of the first Mac, telling Choc he remembered something similar from a cyborg attachment. He also mentioned to Choc he was trying to make something himself, showing him a schematic for a launching mechanism for a bike onto an open road. He told Choc he was heading to New Wells and would accompany him.

On the way, the group ran into a group of cars that followed them for a ways. Choc aimed the barrel of his tank gun at them, and they seemed to back off. They made it to New Wells unharmed.

Later on, Mac and Dick returned from New Wells with tools, metal wires, and assorted scrap.

A short time before the Summit, Addie met with Mac in his workshop he'd set up at the inn. Mac was working on a machine gun when she approached him, asking about defenses for Sumpter. Mac mentioned if she didn't want to build scrap walls, they could use Doomsayer magic to make plant life into barriers. He also told her he'd be willing to help build up the place, put barbed wire around the perimeter. Addie seemed hesitant on the idea. Mac then mentions how he put land mines around the perimeter, which Addie immediately jumps on him for. She asks him what would happen if her mom or one of the cats accidentally wandered over one, and he paused before telling her he'd take them out.

### Arc 11: Damocles

In the month after the Iron Alliance's summit, Mac had been helping Addie rebuild Sumpter. On July 25th, Mac was with Addie in Sumpter's kitchen chastising her for not eating. Addie mentioned she was too anxious to eat, uncomfortably taking a seat at the kitchen table. She commented they needed bigger tables for her, to which Mac replied he could get Dick to work on that. Addie told him she didn't want him distracted from the work she'd instructed him to undertake: making magical restraints. Mac told her he knew the research wasn't going well, on account of all the cursing he'd heard from Dick's work station.

Later, after Murphy was captured in one of Noni's net traps, Mac walked up to the man, a machine gun trained on the stranger. Mac scanned him with his eyes, telling Addie he was probably who he said he was. He told her he'd heard of Damocles before.

After Murphy was released, Mac went into the kitchen and later brought the group sandwiches as they interrogated the soldier. As Choc mentions his MRE soup, Mac snaps at him for making such an abomination.

### Arc 12: Tiger Claw

On August 16th, Mac was invited along on a mission to take out one of Ian's targets: Tony. Mac rode with Noni and Dick, following the main convoy of NW6 vehicles. He followed the rest of the group as they descended into the croaker's lair, looking over the repurposed armory's heavy machine guns.

Later, while the group was boating down one of the rivers leading into the Maze, Mac laid suppressive fire on their mutated croaker assailants.

He boarded the Temptress with the rest of the group, his entrance to the conflict lagging behind the others. After the fight had ended, he stood to watch over the battered and bruised Dick, eyeing him unhappily while Addie lectured him for his impulsiveness.

On August 18th, the group returned to Sumpter, and Addie proposed to River. Shortly after, Addie gathered Mac, River, Anne, Dick, Jennifer, and Noni together for wedding planning, which Mac offered to cater.

### Arc 13: The Denver Swarm

On September 1st, Mac was driving with River back to Sumpter when the two came across a car stopped by the side of the road. A young man in a mask was looking over his disabled vehicle while his partner looked under the hood. Mac parked alongside them, stepping out and asking if they were okay. The man told him they were okay, just having a bit of vehicle trouble. Mac replied he knew a bit of mechanic work, and he could take a look at it.

River chose then to step up behind him, telling the stranger they lived around here and didn't like visitors. Mac told River to stop being an ass and proceeded to take a look over the stranger's vehicle. After a short while of tinkering around, Mac told the stranger he'd gotten the car partially functional, but it wouldn't last too long without a replacement. Mac offered to replace the part needed for a tube of toothpaste, which the other person exchanged. Mac took it, saying he'd tow the car to the shop, and introduced himself. The man introduced himself in kind, telling Mac his name was Anya, and his partner was Anaazi.

Mac made good on his word, taking Anya's car to a garage he'd worked on in Sumpter. He was working on the vehicle when he was summoned by Addie to a group meeting in the Inn's kitchen. He proceeded to prepare soup and sandwiches while the rest of the group gathered and discussed Simon's news about Denver.

He remained in Sumpter while most of the others left for Denver.

### Arc 15: Chasing Coyotes

On November 23rd, Mac took care of most of the catering for Addie and River's wedding.