Wando Welch Terminal

Here we see RobCo brand robots doing the work of 10 dockhands. They can move millions of dollars worth of product through this port in a day, and never need a break - except to recharge their batteries. [The reporter grins]

As the industries of North Charleston expand at the speed of light, they need a logistical pipeline capable of handling the demand. But when the materials are there, who will be there to put them all together? Why, the friendly robots of the AutoStruct Corporation of course!

[Camera pans to the right]

At the AutoStruct headquarters, they prepare truck loads of robots ready to put together another factory, laboratory, or home. Whatever you need built, these busy bodies are sure to put together in short order. Unlike their human counterparts, these robots can maintain a 24-hour work cycle to make sure the work gets done on time and with mechanical accuracy.

It's clear that the presence of RobCo Industries has been a positive one on local infrastructural ....

[Shouting in the background, the camera pans away from the reporter to a crowd at the gates]

[A man shouting at the front of the crowd]: These robots ran us out of house an home. Do you know how many families you put on the street?

[The sound of a bottle breaking nearby]

Uh, ok well that's all for me, Mark Mulligan, reporting from the Wando Welch Terminal for WCTV news. [Looking slightly off camera] Jimmy let's get out of here.

[The camera pans back just in time to see the crowd starting to push past the gates]

[The reporter off camera]: Come on Jimmy get in the van we need to get out of here.

History

The Wando Welch Terminal was the premier connection for Charleston to global markets. With state-of-the-art container cranes, RTGs, IT systems and a team of experienced professionals on the ground in the yard, shipping containers flowed smoothly between ship and shore. The port terminal was South Carolina Port’s largest container terminal at more than 400 total acres and moved approximately 78% of the port’s annual container volume. Wando Welch handled container vessels of all sizes, but its cranes and wharf were specialized to handle three neo-Pamanax ships at one time with a maximum capability of handling vessels up to 20,000 TEU.

When production in the Charleston area started to ramp-up from injections of federal funding to support the war effort, the Wando Welch Terminal was purchased by Robco Industries, who used the port as a way to control the supply of building materials and goods into the area. If other corporations wanted to work in Charleston, they most likely had to pay RobCo Industries for the privilege.

When RobCo Industries purchased the port terminal, they fired 90% of the staff, mostly dockhands, and replaced them with robotic workers. Only administration and maintenance staff were kept on payroll. While this decision proved to profitable for RobCo, especially with their expansion into automated construction with AutoStruct Corp., but was much less popular in the local communities that relied on those jobs.

In the final decade leading up to the Great War, the port was under near-constant strikes and protests by former dockhands and their families, and as AutoStruct Corp. expanded the protestors were soon joined by former tradesman who lost jobs in the construction industry. This led to violent riot at the port, which ended with the protestors being massacred as the RobCo robots self-defense protocols were triggered.

The massacre was spun by RobCo Industries in the media as a violent communist riot, and portrayed the protestors as so weak and powerless the robots accidentally killed them with less-than-lethal means. Families of those who died were offered cash payments for their silence, and some who refused reported to the media that the cash payments came were being forced on them by RobCo Industries under threat of more violence. This was never reported by the local media, as news had turned to the war efforts abroad.

Now, the port continues to operate, as the robots continue an endless cycle of loading and unloading containers from warehouses, to the docks, do the floating ruins of a large container ship. Hand made signs written by sailors and scavengers of the years dot the perimeter and read: "Danger! Keep out!", "THE ROBOTS WILL ATTACK", and "they shoot on site".

Local Legends

Everyone from scavvers, pirates, and fishermen are familiar with the port, and plenty even tried to get a closer look. All reports indicate that the area is probably completely untouched, but also almost impossible to explore. The RobCo Industries robots shoot any unrecognized intruder on site, and the entire yard is constantly abuzz with robots moving containers and materials back and forth.

While the temptation of rare materials is strong, the deterrent of hot laser-y death has thus far proven effective.

Locations

The Wando Welch Terminal is separated into four main areas.

Docks

The terminal docks consist of three large cranes capable of lifting shipping containers out of ships to deposit in the loading yards. This area is the most familiar to passersby from the Cooper river. The semi-submerge ruins of a large container ships rest under one of the cranes, and each day the robot workers load then unload containers from the ruins.

Loading Yards

Directly east of the docks is the loading yards, the area where containers being prepared to load onto ships or that have just been taken off a ship are placed. This area is constantly active with robot workers moving containers back and forth from the docks to the storage yards.

Storage Yards

The northeast corner of the Wando Welch Terminal is the storage yards, an area for containers filled with materials waiting to be unloaded into the logistic warehouses and empty containers waiting to be loaded with goods and sent to the loading yards. The containers here form large blocks of towers forming avenues between them.

Logistic Warehouses

These warehouses are where goods waiting to be loaded into containers and materials waiting to be distributed by truck are stored. The warehouses are long corridors lined with loading docks.

AutoStruct HQ

The headquarters for AutoStruct Corp. were built into the facilities buildings of the terminal. Since there were far less human workers on site, most of the facilities were converted to robot storage and maintenance areas, with the top floors being converted into an administrative suite.

While there is very little activity in and around the building, the automated defense systems keep a watchful gaze over the surrounding areas.