"War. War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple psychotic rage."

Prologue

Unable to see where he was going Jacob was carefully lead down the narrow twists and turns of the metal corridors, with only the warm familiar hand of his father's guiding him.

"Dad, where are we going?" Jacob asked…for the fifth time,

"Just hold on Jacob, were nearly there." His dad replied

With his back towards his son, Jacob's dad couldn't see the smile slowly creeping across the excited boy's face. He new exactly where they were going.

Being a kid stuck deep down underground, Jacob found there wasn't much to do during your free time, except running the halls playing chase or hide and seek with the other kids. And so he had built up a pretty good picture in his head of the layout of the vault, which told him he was heading towards the cafeteria.

After another minute or so of trying not to trip over his own two feet, his dad finally brought them to a stop. "You can take the blindfold off now" His dad whispered in his ear.

As Jacob vigorously pulled the blind fold off over his head, it brushed through his brown hair sweeping it in front his eyes. Frustrated that his vision was now obscured by his wavy hair and desperate to finally see, he used his other hand to brush the thick strands away and was confronted by a unified booming of voices shouting the word "SURPRISE!" that made he jump.

He looked around the room where he had been taken, they were, as he had expected in the cafeteria. But what was usually a plain boring room filled with metal tables and chairs, had be decorated with balloons, trimmings and the words 'Happy Birthday' hanging from a pieces of string. A large gathering of people filled the room, all were dressed in their standard blue Vault 101 jumpsuits, but each also wore a red and yellow party hat on their heads. Everyone was clapping and cheering, drowning out the faint happy birthday music coming from the jukebox in the corner. Smiling from ear to ear he looked up at his father who was now not only wearing his usual white doctor's overcoat, but also a red party hat as well.

"Happy birthday son," His dad said returning the smile, as he bent down to give his son a hug. "You've finally made it, your tenth birthday. It's such a special occasion," his voice turned softer and the smile weakened slightly, "I only wish your mother could have been here to see it." Jacob hugged his dad tighter, hoping to remove some of the obvious sorrow from his father. Noticing the boy's efforts, his dad's smile returned as he cleared his throat and continued, "Why don't you go round and say hello to everyone?" he then whispered in the boy's ear, "Maybe they've all got presents for you?"

"Thanks dad!" Jacob replied. Then ventured off to say hello to each one of his guests and enquire as to whether or not they had brought along a present for him.

The first person Jacob came into contact with was a late-middle aged man with grey hair and a small goatee to match. Holding something behind he back he approached Jacob and said through an almost forced smile,

"Hello, Jacob."

Jacob clasped his hands together and bowed his head slightly as was common when speaking with this particular man. "Hello Mr. Overseer."

"I have a present here for you," The Overseer pulled out what he had hiding behind his back, "This is your Pip-boy 3000, now that you've turned 10 you get to wear one just like everyone else in the vault."

Jacob looked at the rather bulky wrist band. On the front was a large LCD screen that currently appeared to be switched off. He had seen many of the other people in the vault wearing one, including his father, and couldn't wait until the day that he would have his very own.

"Thank you, Mr. Overseer!" Jacob excitedly took the device from the man, slipped it over his wrist and tightened the strap. It immediately blinked to life, bring up a list of strange words that Jacob didn't quite understand.

The man smiled again, this time with what seemed to be a more genuine smile. "Enjoy today Jacob, tomorrow you'll get your first job to help the vault and become a hard working member of the community." With that the man turned and walked away, leaving Jacob staring at his first present of the day.

A few minutes later a young girl, the same age as Jacob, came rushing up to him stopping inches from his face causing him to jump slightly, suddenly realising who this whirlwind of shoulder length black hair was, he blushed slightly. "Hi Amata, thanks for coming to my birthday," he said shifting awkwardly on his feet.

The young girl looked at his pinkish face and giggled, "Of course! I'm not gunna miss your party Jake, silly."

Jacob smiled. She was the only one who called him Jake.

"I see my father gave you your Pip-boy?" Amata said, pointing down at the large screen on his wrist.

"Yeah, although it's a little heavier than I thought it was going to be" Jacob, placed his arm supporting the new device in the palm of his other hand.

Amata looked down at her own Pip-boy, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it." She began twisting her wrist back and forward, "I've had mine for almost a month now, and I forget its there!"

"Anyway, you're not wearing your hat!" She grabbed a red party hat with yellow spots off a nearby table and shoved it into his hands. "You can't not wear a party hat at your own party!"

As he began placing it on his head, being careful not to catch his ears in the elastic, Amata started up again.

"Hey, bet you can't guess what I got you for your birthday. Go on guess!"

Jacob thought for a moment, a crease running across his brow. "I have no idea," he said, genuinely unsure of what the girl had gotten him.

Unable to contain her excitement long enough to continue the guessing game, she pulled out a comic from behind her back and presented it to the birthday boy.

Looking at it in delight he read the words on the front "Grognak the Barbarian, issue 14! Thanks Amata!" He said and hugged the girl, slightly blushing again as he did so.

"Your welcome," she said, "I remember you said you couldn't wait to read the next one. I found it in a bunch of my father's old things. Imagine, him reading comic books!"

Letting go of the girl he returned his attention to the comic.

"Now you better go off and say hello to everyone else, I'll catch up with you later" She said, as she turned and headed back to the group of girls she was previously chatting to.

After a few more happy birthdays and a couple of other presents, including a yummy looking handmade sweetroll from old lady Palmer, and a strange poem from Miss Beatrice which Jacob didn't couldn't make head or tail of, but had said thank you anyway, a round metal robot with several arms floated out of the kitchen and declared that it was now time to cut the cake. The Mr. Handy robot, nicknamed Andy by everyone that had the unfortunate opportunity of meeting it, was one of a few robots that worked within the vault. But it was the only one who seemed to have a distinct personality far from that of the others. As the robot headed for the cake, it began revving up a small circular chainsaw, one of its many built-in attachments.

A sudden and loud, "ANDY, NO!" from Jacobs father came a little too late, as everyone in the cafeteria was showered in a coating of frosting and jam. Completely oblivious to the numerous annoyed guests, Andy the Mr. Handy robot returned to the kitchen, much to the pleasure of the people who had received a little more cake than they had wanted.

After cleaning himself of the small pieces of cake that managed to get stuck in his own hair, Jacob walked past a table of boys all around the same age as himself. One of them he knew as Butch, got down from the table and bold as brass, stood in front him planting his feet firmly on the ground whilst crossing his arms in front his chest. He was slightly taller than Jacob and a few months older. "What are we supposed to eat now that stupid robot has destroyed the cake?" Butch demanded in a rather unfriendly manner. Then noticing the sweetroll the young birthday boy was carrying in his left hand and, without giving him a chance to speak, went to snatch it from him. But Jacob was fast enough pull his arm back out the way and out of reach from the bully.

"Give me that sweetroll now!" Butch demanded again,

"No, it's my present from Old Lady Palmer." Jacob protested, "But I'll share it with you if you want?"

Unhappy with the compromise Butch demanded once more, "No way! You're giving it to me now!" And with that balled up his right hand and swung for Jacob, only to miss once again as Jacob preformed another successful dodge.

At seeing the behaviour unfold, a tall man with short black hair wearing a set of security armour came rushing over.

"Hey! Enough of that!" The man grabbed Butch's arm and told him to return to the table he was sat at. He then turned to Jacob and began walking with him to the other side of the room.

"You okay champ?" He looked down at the young boy with a slight hint of concern.

"Yes, thanks Officer Gomez" Jacob paused and looked back over his shoulder, "He missed." Then he smiled to himself over the fact that he had been quicker than Butch not once, but twice.

"Don't worry; I'll make sure he's punished for his behaviour." As Officer Gomez began to turn and head back to the troublesome youngster, he looked down at Jacob one more time and said, "Oh, and happy birthday!"

As the birthday boy continued his rounds, his father came up to him and knelt down beside him.

"Having fun sport?" From the still smiling boy in front him, he didn't need an answer. "Why don't you go on down to the engineering room and talk to Jonas? He has a present for you but couldn't make it up here for your birthday."

"Sure thing dad." And with that Jacob excitedly rushed of in search of his father's friend.

It took the boy a little under 10 minutes to get down to where his father had told him the scientist was. As he approached the room that held the machinery involved in supplying the entire vault with power, he slowed his pace to a walk, not wanting to seem too excited. At hearing the small steps of the boy on the metal flooring, the man who also wore a white coat like Jacob's father, looked up from a piece of machinery that currently had his attention. "Ah! Here's the birthday boy!" He exclaimed with delight at seeing the young boy.

"Hi Jonas. My dad said to come down here," He paused for a brief moment, "He said you had a present for me?" As he stood looking inquisitively at the tall man, his dad entered the room behind him.

"Here you go son," Jacob span round, not expecting to see his father. "This is our present to you." And with that he produced a BB gun and handed it the now puzzled looking boy.

Taking it Jacob looked up at his father, "Thanks dad, but…" he looked over his present from the two men. "But I thought we weren't allowed to use guns inside the vault?"

Smiling, Jonas reached for a switch and a large piece of wall began sliding away. "True, which is why made you a secret target room." The piece of wall finished grinding and clanked into place, revealing a narrow corridor with three painted targets at varying distances and heights near the far end.

Soon all three were at the entrance of the makeshift target range, with Jonas and his father each giving him pointers on how to shoot and aim. After a couple of misses and a bull's eye or two, Jacob's concentration on his next shot was broken when his father tapped him on the shoulder. "Uh oh, a radroach." He said, pointing to a large beetle crawling down at the far end fluttering its insect like wings.

Jacob moved his aim from the target and focused on the new arrival, taking in the pointers that the two men had given him; he squeezed of a shot and killed the insect in one hit.

"Nicely done!" His father jumped up from his kneeling position with the face of a very proud parent, "Hey Jonas, get the camera! Get a picture of me and the big game hunter!"

Jonas disappeared out the corridor and returned within a few seconds carrying a camera with a large flash bulb attached. "Okay, ready now, 3...2...1!"

CLICK.

The flash went off temporarily blinding father and son, as they both smiled and puffed out theirs chest in a heroic pose.

Thank you all for reading. As I mentioned in the summary, this is my first attempt at any sort of wrighting. I really enjoyed the game, I found it both deep and envolving, spending hours playing it through. So I decided what better place to start! Hopefully the majority of you will like it, remember feed back is more than welcome. I do realise some people may not like it, so feel free to leave constuctive criticism, I plan to take it all on board and with any luck improve as I go along.