America: The Second Beginning
ED-E shocked the door controls to Ulysses' Temple. Leaning against the wall next to the door, I tapped my hand against his little body. He turned to me and whimpered.
"Well, ED-E…I think this is it. What happens in the next few minutes may be…difficult." ED-E bounced in the air, blaring his determined music for a few seconds, at which I smiled at. "You ready, my friend?" ED-E made a nodding movement. I took a deep breath, and tapped the door controls, squealing them open.
I inspected the enormous room that Ulysses had set up as I walked in. ED-E floated behind me, turning from left to right as we moved forward. Nuclear warheads were lined up all along the stone walls, with the largest ones at the end of our catwalk. The ceiling was beginning to open, and on the platform in front of them stood Ulysses, tinkering on a terminal, his Old World duster on, the Old World flag hanging from the largest of the nukes.
Getting right in front of the steps to Ulysses' platform, he turned around slowly. We stared each other in the eye, getting our first looks at each other. The bottom half of his face was covered with a breathing mask, and his black hair fell loosely around his head. ED-E shuddered.
"Well…" he rasped, "Look what the Divide finally delivered to me." I noticed that he spoke very slowly.
"Ulysses." I said, bowing sarcastically, then rising, and said "I went through hell to get here. Tell me what your intentions are." I glanced up at the nukes.
"Fine, Courier...I suppose that with everything you have gone through, you deserve to know what I plan to do...the world…is not what it once was. And the people who have rebuilt it have done it incorrectly. Instead of making peace for the good of mankind, your…alliances, the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion…the double headed bear, and the bull...their mistakes must not continue." He shoved a thumb backwards, indicating the warheads. "I plan to be the cleanser of the world. If American is to be rebuilt, it must be done in the eyes of the worthy, and not the eyes of the greedy, and stupid. History is going to repeat itself today, Courier…today, you will know what it was like to live in 2077, the Old World, the only world. Today, America will be reborn."
I thought about this for a moment, then spoke. "I have a friend in the East. He lives in the Old War capital. He was born in a Vault, and when he left, he changed the Wasteland. He changed his home. He changed it for the better. And his father…he had a plan to cleanse the world of radiation damage to the water. They are rebuilding America in the best possible way. After me and him went our separate ways, I came to the Mojave with the hopes of doing something in the same way." I thrusted my index finger toward the nukes behind Ulysses. "THIS is not the way to do it! The people of the Mojave may have their flaws, but I have a plan to stop the fighting and to get them to work together. Destroying almost 300 years of rebuilding this country is NOT going to help, no matter what you think!" ED-E beeped and whistled in agreement.
Ulysses stared into my eyes. He looked at ED-E, then folded his arms and shook his head, sighing. Then, fast as a bolt of lightning, his hand went to his side. Immediately, I activated VATS, aiming for his head. Our guns rose at the same time, and we fired at the same time. There was a large spark in the air right in the middle of us as the bullets collided. ED-E backed up, frightened. Meeting each other in the eye again, we dropped the guns, and Ulysses cracked his fingers. "Come, Courier…let's finish this."
"Gladly." I charged him, and he charged me. Our Pip-Boy gloves collided, knocking us in different directions. He huffed, and charged again. I waited calmly for him to get close enough, and rose my foot for his chest to collide into. He doubled over and I rose my knee into his face, smashing it into his mask, knocking Ulysses to the ground. I went to stomp on his groin, but he rolled, twisting his legs around me and slamming me to the ground, running his fist across my face. Slightly dazed, I looked around quickly, and he was sprinting back toward the platform. I got up, running after him. But he didn't run up the steps…he grabbed my pistol, and turned, firing it at me. I raised my arm, and a cracking sound split the air, and my broken Pip-Boy fell to the ground, shattering the screen.
"What now, Courier? Your most valuable tool, destroyed." Infuriated, I drew my combat knife from my boot sheath, continuing to run, and right as Ulysses went to shoot again, I threw it. The blade split in half as the 12.7 mm bullet ran right down it, stopping at the hilt, and falling to the ground. But that was all the time I needed. I tackled Ulysses, knocking the gun out of his hand, and crouched over him, running my fists into his cheeks. ED-E continued to make beeping sounds of concern, but I yelled at him to stay away. Ulysses, who used this distraction to his advantage, punched me off him, ramming a very strong fist into my chin. He rose to his feet, but did not stay there, breathing loudly through his mask, falling to his knees.
"Are you going to give up?!" I yelled in his face, punching him. "You still want to kill everyone in the Mojave?" I punched him again, knocking his nose loose, snapping it. Blood splattered out. Ulysses yelled and fell back. I turned my back on him, unclenching my fist, walking toward the nuclear launch terminal opposite the master control one in front of the missiles. Halfway there, I heard a gunshot and flinched, turned, seeing that Ulysses had shot the master control, and a large siren began to wail.
"See you in hell!" Ulysses yelled, aiming at me. I closed my eyes, but the bullet never fired. ED-E fried him, his smoking body on the ground, dead. ED-E floated over, beeping and spurting obscenities at him, but I grabbed the little robot and hugged him. "We're not done yet, little guy."
I ran for the secondary control, ED-E close behind. Reaching the terminal, I began typing in command codes. A female voice came over the intercom, informing me that the missiles will launch in T-Minus 1 minute. And the terminal had a password lock on it.
"FUCK!" I yelled over the sirens, slamming my fists down into the desk. Then, ED-E prodded me. "He turned from me, to the terminal, to the missiles. I understood, and ED-E whimpered. "I'll never see you again, will I?" ED-E nodded, whimpering, then perked up, playing his brave music. I threw myself into him, hugging him once last time, and ED-E fried the terminal.
The sirens stopped, the lights stopped flashing, and ED-E blew up as he gave me one last look of assurance. I wiped a tear from my cheek, and walked over to Ulysses. I closed his eyes and slid his Pip-Boy off his arm. I reached inside his duster, and pulled a knife from his inside sheath, the blade made of chrome and the hilt made of pearl, with a note attached to it. The note read:
"To the Courier, in the hopeful event that you will defeat me. I hope you will use this blade to end the lives of those that prevent America from being reborn, and to welcome the lives of the good that shall rebuild it." I slid the knife into my boot sheath, storing the note in my pouch.
Then, I walked up his platform, reached out, and tore the Old World flag from the nuke, and wrapped Ulysses with it, setting it ablaze. "I'm going to help rebuild the world, Ulysses. Even if I have to sacrifice myself in the process." I walked the length of the cat walk, waiting to be attacked by Ulysses's back up. But the attack never came. And I began making the perilous journey back to the Mojave Wasteland.