Sawbones (Fallout 3)

Sawbones is a Mister Gutsy field medic model working in the Citadel in Fallout 3.

Background
Sawbones is a Mr Gutsy designed for combat medicine. It has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of surgery, but it lacks the necessary medical subsystem knowledge to carry out operations without causing inadvertent harm to the patient. Recently, Sawbones has been exhibiting some worrying behavior, including having a penchant for poetry. The cause is simple: Around 2260, a generator in the Citadel overloaded and created several errors in Sawbones artificial intelligence routines. Limiters placed on these pathways shorted out, which allowed Sawbones to learn beyond the bounds of its original programming.

So far, the Brotherhood has not noticed that Sawbones is intelligent; he has tried to let them know, but all they seem to care about is the continuation of his medical functions. It's enough to make him want to kill every human he sees. Alas, Mister Gutsy field medic models are incapable of intentionally harming any human, and because Sawbones is fully sentient, he is doomed to repair "disgusting fleshy bodies"; in his own words, "I am perfectly cognizant, but incapable of independent action. I am a mind that cannot control its own body."

The only thing from which he derives pleasure is the occasional pain he inflicts upon people, the result of a level seven degradation to his neural pathway 0x63A82, which bridges Sawbones' main medical software to its manual manipulator. If given the choice, Sawbones would rather that neural pathway stay damaged so his life may continue to have what little joy it has now.

The other outlet for his frustrations is poetry. He logs his creations on the terminal in the infirmary, behind a Very Hard password. Paladin Glade has taken upon himself the role of critic and hacked Sawbones' terminal to remind the robot that he should either change his password or lose his poems.

Behind the scenes

 * Sawbones is slang term referring to a surgeon, dating back to the early 19th century.
 * Sawbones is a cultural reference to the Emergency Medical Holographic program  from Star Trek: Voyager. When first encountered, it greets the Lone Wanderer with "Please state the nature of the medical emergency.", the line delivered by EMH Mk I upon activation. It also has the poor bedside manner and poetic fixation that is a hallmark of the EMH.

Appearances
Sawbones appears only in Fallout 3.