GREATER TURBINE-THE ARK(FORMERLY ARKANSAS PART OF THE PREWAR TEXAS COMMONWEALTH)

14-03-2543

It was his 16th birthday and the presents he was to receive weren't your usual cake and candles. Ol' Gran entered the shack and asked him sit down, she knew the news wasn't going to be easy to take.

"It's time for the truth" she said, his eyes opened wide "I was from a vault, the same as your parents, the same as you, Vault 59. That was a terrible place and you were far too young to remember the atrocities that were committed down there, I wasn't, I sat through it all, watched everyone's lives being torn apart by those, those experiments. How could they?" she wept, he went to comfort her but she shuck him off and carried on her story, "They were people too, people I had known all my life, but those scientists. They would take people on their 23rd birthday and take them through the process."

"What's the process?" he asked puzzled.

"The process," she took a breath, "was an experiment into the strength of the human psyche, they would strap the victims to a chair and expose them to images beyond compression for hours on end, those not driven insane were deemed suitable to carry on life in the vault, and those driven insane were put in the Underbelly to be forgotten. I lived with those images and the knowledge of the forgotten for 40 years before we decided to break out, to get away from the madness that had befallen vault 59.

You know what happened? You did, your parents and several others including me decided we had to escape, we couldn't let another innocent mind face the process, you were too precious. You were the beacon that led the breakout. But we were to naive we thought the world outside would be better, we were so wrong. The world outside was as mad as those in the Underbelly; we weren't ready for the creatures that stalked the wastes searching for the weak. We lost half a dozen people finding this," she explained slapping the wall of the shack, "this plane wreck was as good a place as any to start a community, this old girl has kept us safe for near 10 years now. Greater Turbine wouldn't exist if it wasn't for her. When we first set up Greater Turbine it was nowhere near as safe as it is now. We were under constant threat from the Bonecats, so-called due to their thin skin allowing all the bones to be visible and the malformed bone growth protruding through their thin grey skin. They would take us out in packs of 10 we needed protection and we thank the Great Turbine for the day that Shackles came along."

"Who is Shackles?" he interrupted.

"He's an ex-slave who escaped from the Devil's Den slavers to start-up his new life as a trader, he came to our aid when we needed him most, he had weapons and armour everything that we would need to fend of the Bonecats. He saw our predicament and gave them us for free, we offered him any service in return and to this day he has never returned and asked for that favour. We fought the Bonecats and near killed them all for the Den mother, a two-headed beast we called "Twice Wronged", she came in the night when the sentry had fallen asleep and killed five people before we put her down for good. Her twin skull still stands above the Great Turbine, from then on things got better we had escaped Vault 59 and were safe from the Bonecats. And here we are today 9 years later."

"Why is it called the Great Turbine?"

"As far as we can tell it was a pre-war super plane designed to carry hundreds of people across the world, this obviously didn't escape the bombs. The manuals left behind are most cryptic and reference a place called Brish Aiays. Even Jarrett couldn't make head nor tail of it. Enough chit-chat lets open your presents" she shuffled to the far corner of the shack and picked up a box and passed it to him. He opened it gingerly.

Eying the contents he grew quiet, a pistol, vault 59 jumpsuit, combat knife and a pendant with the picture of a woman inside. He put it all on and said, "Thanks Gran!"

"It's not me you should be thanking but your parents"

"My parents?"

"They were good people, but they were as naïve as they were brave, they risked their lives once too often for the group and we lost them after they drew of a group of Devil's Den Slavers, before they went they told me to give you this on your 16th birthday...

"They're alive, I have to find them," and with that he strapped on his Rob Co life supporter and was about to rush off into the unknown to search for them,

"Stop, don't be a fool, you'll never find them ,the wasteland is just going to swallow you too"

But he was gone and in the distance he could hear her faint cries and so he ventured further into the unknown.

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID,SIIIIIIIIIiiid,SIIiiiiiiiiiid ,siiiiiiiid.

War, War never Changes.