Chapter 1: The Red Sun Rises
July 1st 2283
The sun rose slowly over the mountains surrounding the Big Mountain Complex. Through the constant haze of a nuclear winter, not yet ready to relinquish its iron grip on the Mojave, the sun's rays were tinged with an offsetting vermillion tinge that did nothing to mask the death and violence that went on in the lands bathed by their light. But here, in the Big MT, all was quiet. Soon the Think Tank would start up their usual parade of scientific experiments that were as destructive and careless as they were pointless. And shortly after the cunning Dr. Mobius would implement some Mentat fueled plan to keep the bodiless brains at bay, and more importantly, contained.
However to the man standing on the ledge of the Little Yangtze guard tower, far from either the Klein led pompous parade or Mobius and his mechanical arachnid army, none of these things mattered. The old man stared out over the landscape that lay sprawled out from his perch. Once there had been a mountain here, but now only piping connecting abandoned laboratories, surprisingly well maintained railroad tracks and of course large craters left by various Think Tank experiments remained. As he scanned the hillside, his eyes passing from one ruined building to the next, he contemplated his situation.
Soon, though however insane as he might be, Mobius would locate him if only through sheer luck and resources. And while he had no doubt he could escape from the crazed robot Elijah saw no point to it. So he decided that it was time to move on. He had found the frequency he needed; now all he had left to do was follow the trail.
With a sigh he turned and headed back into the guard house, setting his laser riffle by the door just in case he needed to make a quick getaway latter. He stared around the small room for a bit before finally getting to work on his task. Quickly he grabbed his laser pistol as well as an old Pipboy he'd found on the arm of a dead lobotomite. Among the other things included in his hasty pack up were 20 or so metallic rings with a blinking light and clasp on each one. He stowed away these mysterious objects into his pack along with a few hundred microfusion cells and a Laser RCW. Satisfied that he was ready he turned to leave, still not sure what it was that had prompted this rushed departure, chalk it up to cabin fever he told himself and opened the door to the Big Empty.
After taking one step out onto the ledge Elijah knew he was not suffering from cabin fever-but was a benefactor of tremendous self-protective instincts. Approaching from the East was a group of no less than Robo-Scorpions. Dr. Mobius' voice boomed across the rubble strewn planes in a Psycho induced fury.
"I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, AND IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER MY SCORPIONS WILL TEAR YOU APART!" His voice came blasting from the pre-war prison camp's speakers. Elijah considered staying and holding his ground, but he knew Mobius had a seemingly endless supply of those mechanical arachnids, and even his combat experience could only go so far. So his mind set upon fleeing the scene he reached into his duffel bag and procured a Pulse Grenade, as a sort of going away gift for his robot friends.
But before he could toss the grenade a flash of light caught his eye from a nearby building to North of the camp and he instinctively threw himself to the ground. His instincts had saved him twice now today and the bullet meant for his head slammed into the cliffs behind the tower instead. However the still active grenade still lay beside him and it detonated with a brilliant burst of electricity.
Grounded as he was the blast didn't harm him, but it had upset something inside the Guard house, as evidenced by the loud beeping of a warning horn coming from inside. Intrigued but not foolish the old man quickly climbed down the tower and ran away from both the Robots chasing him and the retribution that would follow him everywhere he went.
Half a mile beneath this skirmish was a small room. This room was not on any blue-prints and would not register on any sort of resonance imaging devices. It was in essence hidden away from the world, lost in the darkness of the War's shadow.
But today the room wasn't dark. After over 200 years of inactivity an air circulating system came to life, blowing away two centuries worth of dust and dead insects. In the center of the room a single pair of florescent tube lights flickered on, their weak glow coating the room in a sickly yellow light. This room was not made to please the eye, it was made for war.
Along the far wall a computer stood, large and bulky it was missing more than a few buttons. It seemed as if the whole room had been somehow scrapped together hastily. In the far corner was a Silo. But unlike those found in Hopeville, this silo did not contain nuclear cargo. It was around 9 feet tall, stretching from floor to ceiling and as the lights grew brighter one could see that it was filled completely with a strange bright green gel.
The computer screen on the wall displayed what at first looked like a graph, but upon latter inspection is a heart rate monitor. A slow and steady blip accompanies the rise and fall of a small wave. Inside the gel a dark from comes into view as more lights around the room activate.
The mysterious computer emits a long sequence of beeping and begins to print out a long document. 20 pages latter and it is finished, a single word appears on its screen—draining. And the green gel begins to recede, revealing the very pale face of an Asian man. An Asian man with five stars emblazed upon his uniform. The Chinese are here..Two centuries too late.