Sorry for the long wait Finals and Whatnot.

Fallout 3 property of Bethesda and Interplay

10 years later. Vault 101: The Commando is Born

10 years had passed since the death of his beloved wife. James was satisfied with his life if not completely happy. He still missed Catherine greatly…her gentle touch, her beautiful laugh, and his bed was so cold these days. But it was not about him…it was about their daughter Verea. (Pronounced Vary-ah)

Ahhh…Verea, their little girl she was growing up so fast. She looked like a perfect blend of father and mother. She had his hair but she had her mother's face and eyes. And personality…she was almost the spitting image of Catherine. She was pretty, lithe, and very smart. She was also feisty. Occasionally when she and James would get into fights, James would smile despite himself because Verea reminded him of how fiery Catherine was when they were younger.

Verea had a tendency to get into fights; of course it was almost particularly with Butch Deloria and his little gang of troublemakers. It was probably due to this tendency that Verea developed and interesting personality quirk. She was extremely interested in violence. While other girls were reading old pre-war cookbooks for the soldier's wife. Verea was reading about the soldiers on the front lines. Guns and ammo, offense and defense, swords and spears, karate and boxing, Verea ate it all up. Combat was her med-x. Not that Verea was a violent person. Oh no she was very compassionate. One time she helped Old Lady Palmer with cooking and cleaning for two weeks when she sprained her ankle. Of course the next day after that she single-handedly beat a security guard who was mocking Palmer by sweeping his legs out from under him and putting him in a headlock. Overall…most people in the Vault, except for the Overseer and Butch's gang found her to be and intelligent, likable, child who was just fascinated with the art of war. In fact Sun Tzu's The Art of War was one of her favorites.

Yes James loved his daughter. And like a good parent he tried to encourage his daughter's interests. He thought that now was a good time for Verea to be introduced to combat.

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy B-day!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Verea stood smiling a she saw the balloons and streamers. Yes, it was her tenth birthday. She suspected it the minute she stepped into the dark cafeteria. "Wow! Thanks everybody" She looked around and saw all of her friends both young and old. Amata Almodovar her very best friend, Old man Stanley who could make anything from anything, Officer Gomez who taught all she wanted to know about martial arts, as well as the rest of the Vault Children. Last but not least her father James, the Vault Physician. Verea was sure it was his idea for this party all along.

"Happy Birthday Honey! My, my ten years old if only your mother could see you now!"

"I know Dad I know" Said Verea smiling sweetly.

"Happy Birthday Youngster!" Vault 101's Overseer, Alphonse Almodovar strode over. "10 years old! This is a very special day for tomorrow you begin your first vault responsibilities." He said in a very no nonsense matter. Verea forced herself to listen. She and the Overseer had had a, shall we say a mutually antagonistic relationship. The same seemed to be true for her father as well. It had been going on for three years ever since her third grade science fair when she added a tad too much ethanol to her science project and burned the Overseer.

"Today's also the day you receive your own pip-boy 3000." Now Verea paid attention for she always wanted her own pip-boy.

"Here you are miss"

"Thank you Overseer"

When Alphonse Turned around a few minutes later his smile was replaced by a scowl.

Verea eagerly accepted the Pip-Boy 3000. She then placed it on her wrist and immediately felt the Biometric Fields seal it to her wrist permanently seal it to her skin unless she and she alone decided to remove it. The tiny computer immediately began to monitor her health, radiation level and location. Another interesting feature of the device was inventory. It showed that she was wearing a Child's Vault Suit, had two pencils in her pants pocket, and a bobby pin in her shirt pocket. She walked over to her cake continuing to fiddle with the inventory feature. The pip boy suddenly detected one of the party hats and the words "select item to be stored." Verea scratched her head. "How can this thing store items?" She shrugged and pressed the button. Suddenly a green laser shot out of the end of the device. It surrounded the party hat and it disappeared. "Data Scanned" appeared on the screen and the hat was displayed in the inventory. Awesome.

She pressed select on the party hat and felt it materialize on her head. "Now I'll never have to lug my textbooks around again." She quickly proceeded to scan all of her presents into the pip-boy. Her Grognak the Barbarian, her baseball cap and various other trinkets, she decided to eat the sweet roll Old Lady Palmer gave to her on account of Andy the Robot ruining her cake. But just as she was about to take a bite she heard a voice cry out.

" I'm hungry and that stupid robot ruined the cake! Gimme that Sweet Roll!" It was Butch Deloria: Vault Delinquent and Nemesis of Verea.

"Its mine Butch" Ordinarily Verea would have done a right hook to his jaw, but it was her birthday and she was in no mood to fight. "Look the only reason I came to this stupid party was because my mom made me! Now gimme that sweet roll!" Okay now she was in the mood. "What's wrong Butchie? Did mommy drink up all the rations again?"

"That's it!"

Butch and his little club surrounded Verea…intent on teaching her a lesson. Unfortunately for them Verea's combat skills would make short work of them. The fight in sued, Verea landing punches before they knew what hit them. Fortunately or unfortunately Officer Mack intervened. "Come on Butch, fighting on the girls birthday." Under different circumstances Verea would have tried to continue but like she said…it was her birthday.

"You all right Honey?" James asked

" I'm fine Dad"

"Don't let people like Butch push you around. Once they start they never stop. Anyhow lets go down to see Jonas in the reactor room, we have another gift for you."

"Really another one!'

"Yes and you are going to love it. Come on now. I'll meet you down there"

Verea strode into the corridor, which by unfortunate happenstance, Beatrice the Vault Mentally Unstable Individual strode up. Verea tried to hurry past her hoping she was just taking a stroll. No such luck. "Oh hello dear I'm sorry I missed your party." Verea froze and turned around with a faked smile on her face. "Beatrice Hi!"

"Hear is your present, it's a poem! I hope you like it"

"Ahhhh Thank you!" She said still wearing that faked grin and turned around. Thankfully Beatrice turned around and left at that time. Reading the poem later on, she found it had nothing to do with her birthday and more about life in the Vault so to speak.

Running along the hallway, she stopped at the stairs just in time to hear the overseer speaking with a security guard one level up. "Give them a few more minutes, then clear them out and send everyone back to work. The only reason I even stopped in is because my daughter is friends with that brat."

Verea shrugged and muttered, "Yeah, Yeah love you too" and continued down the corridor.

When she reached the reactor level. She found Jona's shuffling through some crates. "What are you doing down here? Kids aren't allowed on this level."

Jonas had been his dad's assistant for years, and was like the brother she never had. "Very funny Jona's, Dad said that there was a present down here."

"As a matter a fact there is"

As if on queue James strode in. "Hello honey I suppose you want to know what that gift is?"

"Yes please"

"Well here it is your own BB-Gun, it was in pretty bad shape when we found it. Took as a long time to find all the parts. Good thing Butch 'misplaced' that switchblade of his. heh heh" But Verea heard nothing of this she was still staring at the BB-Gun as is she was looking upon the face of Christ. A gun of her very own, it was a dream come true. Reaching out very slowly, she managed to sqeak "Th-Thank you! This is awesome!"

"We have one more surprise for you" Jonas walked over to what looked like a storage closet but when he opened the door. Verea beheld a small shooting range. We set this up for you so you could…but Jonas didn't get a chance to finish because Verea had already disappeared into the closet/range. Chuckling James and Jonas followed her into the space

'Ptchoo' 'Clang!' Verea hit a new target with her Red Ryder BB-Gun. James and Jonas both applauded. "Good Shot" said Jonas

"Look out it's a radroach"

Verea smirked, she saw the cage to the side of the target range. Jonas must have caught it a few days ago. Nonetheless she swooped in for the kill and with three shots she disposed of the roach.

"Good job honey"

Verea then swung the gun around her waist and blew on the end of the barrel. You've been watching those spaghetti westerns again haven't you" James asked.

"Maybe" she said rolling her eyes innocently.

"Jonas can we get a picture with the big game hunter?"

"Sure thing James"

Verea holstered the gun and strode up next to her father "Smile!" As the bulb flashed Verea knew that this would be a birthday to remember for a long time.

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