Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!
Sergeant Caelina Ashland: 75th Ranger Regiment Special Operations Combat Medic. Served 7 years in Alaska. Awarded Silver Cross for heroism at the battle of Willow Creek. Transferred to project SCHISM. Blew up lab on Oct. 23, 2077. Woke up in the Mojave Desert 204 years later in the body of a Courier who was shot in the head and left for dead. Very skilled. Very smart. Very confused.
WARNING: This story contains very, VERY crude language.
Chapter 1: Endgame – Rise against
A mechanical whirring sound filled the air when she threw the switch. Unstable electricity arced through the charged air.
"It's working? Shit! It's actually working!" Came a very feminine shout followed by maniacal laughter. "Now I just have to… wait… that shouldn't- Shit!" She didn't have a chance to finish her thought as the machinery exploded around her.
"Ow…" She whined. Something obviously went wrong. Big time wrong.
"You're awake. How about that." A gentle male voice greeted.
"Aye. " She agreed as she brought a hand up to rub at her pounding head. She finally opened her eyes and found herself staring at a wood ceiling in a dimly lit room. This was not where she expected to be. She should be in the base infirmary. "Sit rep?" She demanded as she sat up and the world spun around her.
"Whoa, easy there. Easy. You been out cold a couple of days now."
"Days?" She looked around at the dimly lit room; clearly a rudimentary doctor's office. It was not the well-stocked and sterile base infirmary she was expecting. "Where the fuck am I?" She said sternly.
"Easy now. You're in Goodsprings."
"Goodsprings?" She didn't know of any place called Goodsprings. "Where's that?"
"Uh… in the Mojave Desert."
"The Mojave?! In Nevada?" She shot to her feet. Geographical displacement was not the goal of her project! She had clearly gotten something very wrong. "How the fuck did I get here?!" She demanded, ignoring the searing pain just above her left temple.
"A robot dragged you in. Says he dug you outta a shallow grave."
"A grave?!" She looked around in panic and ran to the door. The man yelled something to stop her but she reached the door and threw it open. Outside was the desert. There were a few old houses and buildings, but the town looked pretty run down. The harsh glare of the sun was beaming down into her oversensitive eyes, making her headache even worse. She slammed the door and leaned against it. Ok, she was definitely in the desert.
"Are you alright, miss?" The kindly… doctor, she assumed, asked.
"No. I am seriously not alright. I need you to contact the nearest military installation." She demanded. "Something's gone wrong."
"Military? You with them NCR folks?" The doctor seemed to be taking this all in stride. She was almost panicking. This could be a monumental breakthrough! Geographical displacement! Teleportation! But what was this NCR he mentioned?
"What the hell's the NCR?" She asked in confusion.
"The New California Republic." He answered calmly.
"California has no jurisdiction in Nevada!" She shouted what she thought should have been obvious.
"Settle down now, miss. I think we got our wires crossed somewhere. Why don't you sit down and tell me who you are and what you think is going on and then I'll fill in what I can." The doctor motioned to the table she had woken up on.
She hesitated but she couldn't think of any better options, so she walked back to the table and sat down. "I'm Caelina Ashland. I'm with the US army's Research and Development department stationed at Borden in Ontario. I was working on a highly classified project when something went wrong and I woke up here."
"Well, Miss Caelina, when you say US you mean United States, am I correct?"
Ash's stomach dropped. Of course she meant United States but he didn't seem to get that right away. Where exactly was she that the US didn't mean United States to a person from Nevada?! She quickly back tracked to her original hypothesis: geographical displacement. With the new data she had, she tried to consider a new hypothesis. Nevada wasn't part of the United Stated before the United States existed. Could she have actually caused a temporal displacement? Could she be in the past? She looked around the office. Stethoscope, Stimpaks, syringes of Med-X, no leeches, herbs or bone saws. Definitely not the past. But she was onto something.
"Doctor…?" She prompted.
"Mitchell." He supplied.
"Doctor Mitchell. This may seem bizarre and outlandish but can you tell me what year it is?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
"Why, its 2281." He said without hesitation.
Ring-a-round the rosies; a pocket full of posies. Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!
Ash's world collapsed around her. 2281. 200 years. Well, 204 to be exact. She had somehow thrown herself 200 years into the future. She dropped her head into her hands as she considered that the United States may no longer exist.
"Are you alright, Miss Caelina?"
"It's Ash." She corrected automatically, lifting her head to look at the man. Correcting the doctor brought back her voice. "Seeing as you're a doctor, I'm guessing you have some education?" She asked hesitantly.
"Best education one can get in a Vault." He answered.
"A vault?" Ash asked in confusion. Then it clicked. "Vault-Tec's Vaults? You mean they used those Doomsday prisons?!" She shook her head briskly. "Wait. Wait. Wait! That means… they did it then?" She asked sadly. "They nuked the world?" She dropped her face into her hands again.
"Yes, they did. On October 23, 2077." He answered.
"Let me guess; now the world is a dystopic nightmare haunted by irradiated monstrosities?" She lamented.
"Pretty much." Doc Mitchell was no slouch and picked up on Ash's hints. "What year do you think you're from?"
"2077." Ash mumbled through her hands.
"That complicates things a bit, doesn't it?"
Ash sighed and looked at her hands, wondering if the lack of recognition of the lines and curves was just in her imagination. "How did I get here?"
"As I said, a robot dragged you in. Says he dug you outta a shallow grave."
"Did someone put me in that shallow grave?" As she said it, it came to her like an idea, a memory of struggling against bound wrists. The game was rigged from the start. The man in the checkered coat had said as he pulled the trigger. But that didn't make sense! She knew it was a memory but she also knew she hadn't experienced it!
A faint little voice in the back of Ash's head whispered to her. I did.
Who are you!? Ash shouted back.
I'm you. But the wasteland chewed me up and spit me out and now I got nothing left. A workin' body without a workin' mind. You were the opposite.
What? I was a working mind without a body? Ash asked in confusion.
Uh-huh. Will you take over for me? I'm done with this life. Ash heard the heavy sigh. Then the voice continued in a fading afterthought. Just be careful in the sun, you burn easily.
What? Hello?! Answer me! Ash got no answer.
"Doc?" Ash said shakily. "You got a mirror?"
The doctor silently handed her a mirror. Dull grey eyes stared back at Ash in a monochromatic portrait. Her face was perfectly familiar to her except for the color. She was albino. She wasn't before. And she had long white hair almost to her waist. Longer then she was ever able to grow it in her old life.
"Albinism: a congenital disorder characterized by the absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes." Ash recalled as she looked at herself. "I seem to remember it also causes problems with vision."
"It may." Doc Mitchell replied.
"I think I've figured out what's going on." Ash said as she stared in the mirror. "I was confused." She lied. "I explored a military base a while ago and read some old files. I must have been mixed up."
"Well, a bullet to the head could do that." Mitchell agreed, only somewhat believing her.
"A bullet to the head?" Using the mirror she looked at the large stitched gash above her left temple. "It ricocheted then, right? Just a superficial injury?" Ash asked earnestly.
"One did."
"One did?"
"The other pierced right through the skull. I had to go rooting around there in your noggin to pull all the bits of lead out. I take pride in my needlework but you'll likely still have a nasty scar." Mitchell explained. "So do ya remember who you are?"
"I'm a courier. Or I was. That man in the checkered coat stole my package when he tried to kill me." Ash pried into the dull memories. As it stood now, she remembered her past in 2077 with perfect clarity. She also remembered the past of a young albino wastelander. These memories were vague but she could pull them to the surface with concentration.
She'd lived in an albino tribe until she was seven when the tribe was attacked and mostly wiped out by raiders. She'd escaped with a few others but they had abandoned her in a small town. There she'd gotten a job as a courier, transporting items from person to person in town. People liked her unique appearance, it made he easy to describe and hard to imitate. She gained a fair bit of fame for being a trustworthy courier. A few years ago, the organization she had served came under new management. The new boss had like her. A lot. Rather than risk becoming someone's property, she had left town and found new long range courier opportunities. And now, it was time for Ash to take over.
"Doctor, I'm new to the Mojave region. Could you tell me a little about the area?" Ash asked curiously, trying to ignore the headache.
"How bout you let me run some tests, then we can talk? It's not every day I get to chat with someone who survived being shot in the head."
"I suppose." Ash capitulated.
Doc Mitchell provided Ash with a vault suit so she could finally put some clothes on. She went to the bathroom and got changed, eyeing the myriad of scars that stood out against her colourless skin. The brightly coloured vault suit made her seem even more colourless. Ash glanced in the mirror when she was done and inspected herself. She was tall, almost six feet and she would almost call herself beautiful, in a haunting sort of way. While in the bathroom, she cleaned up and got the remaining dirt out of her hair. She then braided her long, thick locks into a tight braid and curled the braid into an efficient bun that left no strands dangling. Years of life in the military, then a lab, made putting her hair up a feel very familiar. When she was finished, she headed out to take the doctor's tests.
The doctor ran his tests and Ash passed with flying colours. Other than the pounding headache and pain above her temple, she already felt comfortable in her new body. It was strong and lithe and quick. It possessed a hidden strength that reminded her of the strength she'd had during her deployment in Alaska. After the tests were finished, Doc Mitchell brewed some instant coffee, which Ash politely declined, and they began discussing the world at large. The way he explained things to her, Ash almost though he might believe her that she was from a different time. Either that or he simply thought the bullet damaged her memory.
"So some people in California resurrected the government in the years after the bombs fell and the New California Republic is now pushing into Nevada." Ash summarized their long conversation into a few words.
"Yep."
"And a man from these historical technophiles and dogooders, the Followers of the Apocalypse, decided to unite the warring tribes in the East under the banner of ancient Rome and follow a savage, Luddite philosophy."
"Assuming those words mean what I think they do; yep."
"And now the two are readying for another fight over Hoover Dam after the NCR barely held it four years ago?"
"Yep."
"God." Ash said, rubbing her face with her palm. "I just finished my time in Alaska a few months ago! And now I'm in the middle of another war."
"Alaska?" The doc asked.
"The most north western state in the United States." Ash answered automatically. She and Doc Mitchell talked late into the night, until Ash had a decent idea of what to expect in the area. Once they were finished, Doc Mitchell gave Ash the delivery contract for her package, which was a platinum chip. He then gave her a pistol, some ammo and a Pip-boy.
"So this is the gadget Vault-Tec kept hyping. Pretty cutting edge: biological monitoring, global positioning system, extensive database functionality." Ash said as she fiddled with the wrist mounted device. "I should probably leave tomorrow." Ash said looking toward the doctor.
"I reckoned you'd be moving on once you were able. Feel free to use the guest room while you're in town."
"Thank you for everything, doctor." With that Ash retired to the guest bedroom. There she collapsed on the creaky and dirty old mattress. At least it wasn't cold, that made it infinitely better her deployment in Alaska.
Temporal displacement. She hummed to herself as she lay back with her hands behind her head. Or maybe… reincarnation? This was weird. Too weird. She didn't understand any of it. But that didn't matter. She was here; part of this new world and a new war. What would she do when she left in the morning? She should probably track down the man in checkered coat and get some revenge and maybe finish the delivery. That sounded like a good plan. Until tomorrow then.
Ash stepped out into the early morning sun and immediately regretted it. The sun was so bright it was blinding and she could barely see. She waited, hoping her eyes would adjust but it didn't seem to be happening. Shielding her eyes as best as she could, she tried to get the lay of the land. Unbidden, a song came to mind and she whispered the oddly apt tune.
"And on that day they'll tell you,
That life hung on with no clue,
The warning signs were all just missed or shattered down,
So it goes,
The kings all failed to tell us,
The madmen failed to sell us,
Of what would then befall the only life we know."
She sighed and straightened her shoulders. Staggering and near blind she managed to make it down the hill and headed toward the largest building. Once she reached the shade of the building, she caught her breath. She'd have to do something about her hypersensitivity to light. She staggered her way around to the front of the building.
"Everything alright there, youngin?" Came a slow drawl.
"Everything is fucking fabulous." Ash laughed bitterly, already sweating in the hot morning.
"Well then, what can Easy Pete do for you?"
"Need some sunglasses or something. Guess I need money." Ash sighed.
"Head on inside, Sunny might be able to help you."
"Thanks, sir." Ash headed inside and was immediately relieved to be out of the bright sun. As her eyes adjusted she heard a growl and a bark.
"Cheyenne, stay. Don't worry; she won't bite unless I tell her to."
"Trained attack dog. Handy. Looking for Sunny." Ash's eyes finally focused on the leather clad woman in front of her.
"Well, you found her. How can I help you?" Sunny asked.
"Need some money to get resupplied. Got any work?"
"Not in Goodsprings, no. But if you're up for a little scavenging, there's always the schoolhouse. Most of what's in there is junk, but there's this old safe that even Easy Pete wasn't able to crack with dynamite."
"Thanks."
Just then a loud, angry voice came from the other room. "I'm done being nice! If you don't hand Ringo over soon, I'm going to get my friends and we're burning this town to the ground, got it?!" Ash threw a confused look at Sunny who just shrugged. So Ash headed toward the other room only to walk straight in a man in an armoured vest. "What the hell is your problem?" He shouted angrily as he shoved by Ash and headed outside. The second room was a bar as Ash discovered. Behind the bar was a woman who was mumbling to herself. She stopped when she saw Ash.
"Well, you've been causing quite a stir. Glad I finally got to meet you. Welcome to the Prospector Saloon."
"Thanks." Ash replied as she sat at the bar. "Looking for a little information. Think you can help me?" Ash and Trudy spent the morning talking. Ash learned more about the Legion and the NCR. She also learned about the gang called the Great Khans who had helped the man in the checkered coat ambusher her. While Ash fixed the radio they broke, Trudy explained the problems the town was facing and told her about the Powder Gangers. As she screwed the innards back in place and cleaned the sand and dust out of the radio, she mumbled more of the song stuck in her head.
"The city lines are down,
The kerosene's run out,
The fact surreal,
We relied upon,
I shed this unclean skin,
And start to feel again,
'Cause all the shoulders I wish to cry on are gone."
"There." Ash said as she screwed the radio's casing back in place with the table knife. She flicked on the radio and music started playing.
"Thanks! Here are some caps for your work." Trudy said happily and spread a few dozen bottle caps on the counter.
Ash's jaw dropped. "You're fucking with me, right? Bottle caps? Really?!"
"Of course. It's the main currency used around here. Some of those NCR folks up in Sloan mentioned the NCR was trying to bring back paper money, but it's not doing too well out here." Trudy explained.
"Bottle caps." Ash repeated, shaking her head. Then she shrugged. "Think I could buy some sunglasses or something with this?" She asked as she gathered up the caps.
"Probably. Chet may be able to sell you some. He's next door."
Ash had a small problem. She had a pistol with a spare mag, a pile of caps and no pockets. When she voiced her problem, Trudy laughed and retrieved a small bag for the caps. Ash thanked her and headed over to the general store. The sunlight was still just as blinding. She staggered into the store, slammed the door behind her and leaned against the door.
"You must be the one Doc Mitchell was patching up. The way I heard it, I didn't think you'd be walking out of that office." The store's owner, Chet, greeted.
"If the bombs couldn't kill me…" Ash mumbled.
"What?" Chet asked in confusion.
"Nothing. I need some sunglasses or goggles or something." Ash said as she stood up straight and examined the store. Half the store was dedicated to mundane things like clothes, tools and knick-knacks, while the other half was dedicated to weapons.
"Let me see what I have." Chet said as he went into the back room. He came out a moment later with two items. Ash approached the counter as Chet laid out a pair of aviators and a tinted pair of motorcycle goggles. "I got both of these."
Ash liked the aviators but knew they'd let in too much light from the sides. So she picked up the goggles. "How much?" She asked, having no idea what to expect.
"Well, they're in pretty good condition, so…" Chet named a number higher than what Ash had.
Ash dumped her bag of caps on the counter. "This is what I have."
"Eh… I suppose that will do." Chet sighed and swept the caps off the table.
Ash took the goggles and fit them into place, immediately preferring her dimmed vision. "Thanks." She said and headed out to find the old schoolhouse. Stepping out into the sun wasn't painful anymore. The tinted goggles worked wonders. It was still bright, but not blinding. A quick scan of the area gave her a better idea of her surroundings. She saw Doc Mitchell's house on the hill and a dozen small houses. She saw a corral of what must be the Bighorners Trudy mentioned, judging by the big horns. Ash didn't know much about livestock, but she knew this must be a mutated version of something. Maybe a sheep? She finally picked out a large building on the hill with a rusted and partly broken jungle gym beside it. She headed up the hill.
"What the actual fuck?!" Ash shouted when the housecat sized praying mantis jumped toward her. Opening the school house door had disturbed a few of the mantises and they had immediately attacked. She struck out with the grip of her pistol and smashed the bug against the wall. Using her flimsy boots that had come with the vault suit, Ash stomped through the building until all the bugs were dead. She then approached one of the bugs that was mostly intact and inspected it. It was indeed a praying mantis. Radiation mutation, she assumed. This made her a little apprehensive of what else she'd find out here.
Ash looked around the one room building; desks, lockers, blackboard, the quintessential classroom. She started looking for anything useful. The only things of note were a safe at the back of the room and a terminal beside it. Out of habit, she flicked the terminal on. To her immense surprise, the terminal started booting up. "This must be fission battery powered! Rob-Co always touted a 500 year lifespan. I guess they weren't lying!" She smiled to herself. She then set to work. It was a standard Rob-Co operating system and while she had no formal computer hacking skills, military grunts learn all kinds of things during training. A few quick button presses and she was in. She found the program and opened the safe.
"Woah! A Stealth Boy!" She said aloud as she pulled the high tech gadget out of the safe. "This should be worth something." In the safe she also found some books in pristine condition. She took her haul and headed back to Chet.
"You're back! Got some more caps?" Chet asked, obviously not wanting to waste his time on her if she was broke.
"Nope. But what's one of these worth to you." Ash answered and set the Stealth Boy and books on the counter.
"Well now! That's some nice tech! You want caps or trade?" Chet asked.
"Trade."
First things first, Ash wanted out of the vault suit. She managed to find a pair of cargo pants and two t-shirts that fit. Then she found a long, tan, lightweight jacket with long sleeves and a hood. Next was a light scarf, a pair of leather gloves and a heavy, solid pair of leather boots. The full outfit covered every inch of skin when the scarf was pulled up and the hood was pulled down low. The last things she could afford were an empty backpack, a messenger bag and a few pouches for her belt.
"Chet. I need more money." Ash said as she practically drooled over the lineup of guns behind the counter. "Any ideas?"
"Well, there's a cave some people use as a makeshift shelter not far from here. You could check there. You might run into some nightstalkers though." Chet said.
"What the hell is a nightstalker?" Ash asked.
"It's like if a dog and a rattlesnake had a bastard child." Chet answered with a laugh.
"Sounds like loads of fun! I am so there." Ash laughed along, hiding a bit of fear, and then headed out to look for the cave. Stepping out into the sun, Ash was infinitely more comfortable in her new clothes. She murmuring the end of the song stuck in her head as she surveyed the landscape.
"All gone are the old guards
Gone are the cold, cold wars
Weightless we go forth
On wings of amnesty."
After surveying the landscape she headed toward the low cliffs to the east. She walked along the base of the cliff looking for the cave with pistol in hand. Eventually she saw a promising hollow except in front of it was a family of coyotes, complete with two pups. Ash didn't want to kill them if she didn't have to. She thought back to her survival training and how to deal with wolves. She wasted a bullet, firing up into the air, as she flared out her coat, shouted and waved her arms wildly. Making herself seem big and intimidating worked and the little family ran off.
Inside the cave was very dark. Ash pulled down her goggles so they hung around her neck and was astounded to discover that she could see almost perfectly in the low light. Just when it started to get it's darkest, Ash found a bottle of Cateye .She laughed quietly to herself as she stowed it in her messenger bag. After some careful investigating, Ash's nose picked up on something. The smell was foul; rot and decay. A smell she was all too familiar with. Something dead was down here. A few more steps and she found two obviously dead people. Ash sighed. She hated senseless death. It was one of the reasons she became a medic. As much as she didn't want to disturb the dead, they didn't need their supplies. Checking their pockets netted a few caps. She also sorted through the bag they had. It was all useful stuff so she grabbed it and headed out.