The leader of Echo Squad was blasted back by an explosion. He got up and looked for any Brotherhood of Steel Paladins.
"Echo Two, what's your sitrep?" He received no reply. Echo Actual picked up his silenced G36c and looked for what could've caused the explosion. He saw a tripwire that triggered a shotgun to fire at an explosive barrel.
"Clever, they get more and more creative everyday…" He said to himself.
"Echo One, this is Echo Two, what was that?" Echo Two's muffled voice came over the radio. Echo One had forgotten what she sounded like with the voice changer. She sounded like a male… A scrawny little pubescent male, but a male.
"Nothing, just a little trap made by tribal hunters…" The Brotherhood of Steel had begun helping tribes across what was left of America. Enclave intelligence suggested that they were beginning to build a country. News was spreading from the Mojave Desert all around what was left of America that a courier had joined the Brotherhood of Steel and they kicked the NCR right back to California. They soon began absorbing communities and began sharing some technology with them. Now they seem to be teaching tribes in Zion how to be civilized. The Brotherhood had already begun absorbing certain tribes. Enclave spies sent Intel saying that the Brotherhood is already teaching tribes civilized enough to use Power Armor and Gauss Rifles.
"What's Echo Three and Four's sitrep?" Echo One asked.
"They've already cleared the back entrance and are moving in to secure the package." Echo Two replied. She seemed worried.
"Sir what if something happens? This seems like a setup to me. I mean come on, we've been sent to an irradiated Vault to pick up an unidentified package with almost no Intel on our mission, Seems a little suspicious."
"I don't like it either Sarah, but orders are orders."
"Well our orders suck, Sir." Sarah grumbled. Don't they always suck? Echo One thought.
"Hey sorry to interrupt the mood, but we could use some help here!" Echo Three yelled into the comm channel.
"I swear to god, if Marcus ends up being dead when I find him I'm taking his gun." Sarah remarked. Echo One ran towards the Vault's escape hatch and waited for Sarah.
"Hey, dude I found this old Vault Security Armor!" Sarah yelled as she ran towards Echo One.
"Try it on. See what it looks like." Echo One suggested.
"As if! You just want to see me undress, you pig!" Sarah said as she lightly punched Echo One's arm.
"Let's go help Marcus and Dallas. I want to know what's got them spooked." Echo One said as he opened the hatch to the Vault's first floor.
Echo One was disgusted by the sight of the Vault he was glad he had his Power Helmet on. He motioned for Sarah to come down once he was sure the hall was clear. Sarah dropped down and was shocked at the condition of the Vault. She thought they weren't supposed to open and stay in almost pristine condition. But clearly, this Vault had its door partially open due to the massive amounts of radiation she was reading on her Pip-Boy Readius.
"Hey Alex, I found an old book about the origins and different models of Pip-Boys!"
"I told you not to call me that! That was what my mom wanted me to be named! My name's Jason!" Echo One yelled. Sarah rolled her eyes at him.
"I still think Alex is better…"
"You know, you really should put on your gas mask Sarah." Jason said trying not to stare at her long auburn hair or her bright green eyes. Thank god I'm wearing my helmet! Jason thought as she put on her Enclave standard issue gas mask.
"That better Jason?" Sarah asked eager to show her dedication to joining Echo Squad. She was technically still a rookie after all. Sarah wanted to join Echo Squad for its prestige. She also was in love with Jason but wasn't sure how to tell him, so she planned to join Echo Squad to get to know him and maybe start a relationship. But her duties as an Enclave Remnant came first; she had to help expand the Enclave's power after the disaster at Washington D.C the Brotherhood had destroyed Raven Rock and taken over Adams Air Force Base. The Enclave were trying to control the purification systems in the Jefferson Memorial when the Brotherhood of Steel had heard that the Enclave were in the area, they decided that they should control the purifier even though the Brotherhood has little to no interest in things like farming and water technology. They only care about things like power armor and energy weapons, only things to kill and intimidate people.
The Enclave is the remnants of the American government. Their mission was to rebuild America in the event that the Chinese were to win World War Three or Nuclear Armageddon was unleashed. Thankfully most Atomic Missiles were destroyed before even reaching American soil by Robert Edwin House, the current ruler of "New Vegas".
Although the Enclave's mission to rebuild America was destroyed soon after an unknown group destroyed the Enclave's original base an oil rig belonging to Poseidon Oil. The Enclave was struggling to keep a good foothold as a known faction in the California area, but the NCR almost completely demolished what was left of the Enclave. Most remnants either went into hiding integrated into the NCR or moved east toward Washington DC. But two Generals, few Colonels, and about two Platoons of soldiers moved over in the Midwest around Texas to gain their strength and come back to attack the NCR and Brotherhood of Steel. Then they will unite the Wastelands under an Enclave flag. Of course there were other branches of the Enclave around the world; Russia, China, Australia, England, Canada, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and many other countries but they lost contact with the main force years ago.
"Hey Jason, I found Dallas…" Sarah said as Jason was reading old logs on a terminal. Jason walked over to Sarah and was distraught when he saw Dallas' remains. Dallas looked like he was torn apart by rabid dogs his ribcage was ripped open with all of his internal organs all over the floor. His legs and arms were nowhere to be found, but there was a trail of blood leading to a different room.
"My god, what kind of monster could have done this?" Jason asked Sarah.
"Don't look at me, I found him like this!" Sarah yelled. Just after that an ear-piercing scream came from down the hall. Jason picked up Dallas' Beretta and checked the clip. Still a full mag, all right let's do this. Jason told Sarah to get her M4A1 ready and to be prepared for anything. A zombie-like creature lunged out from behind a corner and tackled Sarah. As she fell she hit her head against a table.
"SARAH!" Jason yelled as he kicked the creature off of her. Jason fired the pistol at the creature until the magazine was empty, all twelve bullets. The thing was a feral ghoul, a zombie strait from a horror movie. Ghouls were people who were exposed to massive amounts of radioactive material, but didn't die from radiation sickness. Eventually they go feral and lose all forms of communication and reasoning. Jason searched its corpse looking for something about its past. He found an old name tag that seemed to be a Vault keycard it said "Simon Riley" and then "Vault Scientist Pass". Bingo, now where's the Armory door? Jason checked on Sarah who seemed unconscious from the fall. Don't worry you'll be safe here rookie. Jason grabbed whatever he could find and barricaded the door. Must've been an old storeroom, which would explain the sandbags and wood boards. Jason thought as he closed the door.
Jason looked like a Pre-War soldier clad in camouflaged combat armor with a gas mask on. Normally a typical Enclave lieutenant would be wearing traditional Mark II Power Armor with a Mark II Power Helmet with a black paint finish like Marcus a few soldiers in Jason's platoon. But Jason realized ever since a few years after the events in DC forests were more and more common throughout the wastes despite the fact that nuclear Armageddon destroyed the world and only about thirty states out of America's fifty states remain. Jason convinced the technicians and mechanics to make all new power armor come with a woodland paint scheme to adapt with the changes in the environment. Now only officer-class soldiers wear black power armor.
Jason aimed his silenced rifle down the hall and heard a man crying. He walked down the hall until he heard the crying coming from a storage closet. Jason opened the door and saw Marcus in a corner of the closet. Marcus was surprised that a robust African-American man such as himself would be blubbering like a toddler in a corner, yet he couldn't help himself. Jason swung his rifle on his back.
"My god, Marcus what happened?" Jason asked him kneeling in front of him.
"They came out of n-nowhere… They r-r-ripped Dallas apart before he could fight back… Th-th-that was before I called for help I thought Dallas was alive I didn't believe he was dead I thought that was some poor scavenger…" He blubbered as he dropped his 44. Magnum
"Don't worry big guy, you did what you could." Jason said rubbing Marcus' bald head.
"Heheheh, r-r-rub for good luck…" Marcus sniffled.
"Yeah good luck, come on big guy I'll take you to Sarah. She'll help you make amends with… what's left…"
"I'd… like that…"
"After this I'll make sure you visit the Psychiatrist maybe she'll help." Jason helped up Marcus and led him down the hall thinking about how traumatic Dallas' death must've been for Marcus. He never was the friendliest guy but he was a good person to have watching your back. Jason remembered how they first met.