Silence
I find it increasingly bizarre that my Pip-Boy's map doesn't have a marker for Vault 95, considering it was the very place I started my wasteland life. I mean, I've lived there my whole life, so it definitely exists. My map hasn't failed me yet with markers for towns and monuments. All I can do is head west with the First Regiment and keep my eyes on my short-range map, which continues to fill out as I pass by rocks and trees and other crumbled fixtures. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I can't complain.
After several hours of walking—we take our time so as to not wear ourselves out—the sun sits high in the sky. I was apparently unconscious all through the night, standing in that prison cell. They probably drugged me as I left All Soots of Fire. Either that or I should have one hell of a concussion! We're finally reaching familiar land; a tall cliff stretches upward in front of us. I recognize it from the panicked flashes of memory when I first left the Vault with Officer Michael.
Before long, the tag on my map that represents me passes between two thick lines and into a brighter shade of green. My Pip-Boy's recorded this terrain before, meaning I've been here. As I relay that message to the Knights behind me, Senior Paladin Clayton takes point.
"You claimed the Vault was roughly a mile from your Cliffside cave. Any idea which direction?" He scans my map as I zoom out on it. For a short-range function, it does stretch quite a ways. Two miles at least.
The zoomed out screen shows dots of rocks and other obstacles atop a green landscape, all ending at a specific point to the west-southwest of our location. "I assume the Vault is somewhere in the filled in area. Most likely on the south edge of the field." I can't know that for sure, but there really are only two directions I've been: west to whatever waits there and east to Redfield and White Bluff.
"Let's go then," he commands, and his Knights take off without question. Baldwin slaps me on the shoulder as he passes, offering no words. "I'm trusting you, Local, because I don't want the man who helped honor my fallen Brother to die a traitor." Clayton leaves me with that solemn message.
I take it and bottle it up inside my head, knowing he's being genuine, and hurry to keep up with them. My legs are burning from struggling to keep pace, but I refuse to fall behind. If I want these people to trust me, I need to stay strong. If something happens in this Vault, I might end up dead, whether by Brotherhood or Enclave hands. I can't let that happen, not after everything I went through yesterday.
We walk along the cliff facing south. Eventually we come upon a cave in the side and my heart sinks in my chest as I recognize the scent still pouring from it.
"Dog meat…" I groan, not even wanting to consider what else might still be inside. I notice a strange lack of Spike and Bruiser's bodies, but I chalk that up to wasteland favors. Baldwin recognizes the scent as well and stops beside me. Scribe Fields and Knight Ewing join us. This was the place where I first realized just how bad off I was. I became a prisoner. And now I'm taking my captors to the very place my life took a turn. I shake any temptation to enter it out of my head and rejoin the rest of the regiment, not wanting to see Michael's head in the wall.
It's only been a day since he died, but it feels like an eternity! So much has happened; I've changed so much. I've killed people. I've tried to save people. I met a crazy old man that people let run the gun shop. I wonder what the Overseer would think of me.
We follow the cliff ever further south until we reach the edge of the recorded terrain, finding nothing but rocks and dirt. I begin to panic as I imagine the Vault simply disappearing into thin air, leaving me a liar in the eyes of Elder Wallace and sentencing me to death.
I feel the eyes of the Knights I don't know tearing into me. They don't trust me as far as they could throw me, I can tell. Clayton keeps his chin up, however, and laughs, "There's a chance it took your wrist computer a while to connect to satellite feeds. Maybe that's why your Vault isn't there." I was wondering just how it knew all of those old world locations' names. Satellite feeds makes sense, I guess. Then again, how could they have been maintained if everyone trained to do so was dead?
And then my Pip-Boy lets out this intense screeching sound, sending my head pounding and causing every last Knight to rip their helmets off and jam their ears shut! I try to move my arm but it's as if the Pip-Boy has hacked my body, paralyzing me. I feel something in my head, something sickening. The sound stops as quickly as it started.
The Knights glare at me again, this time even less trusting as they wait for me to explain myself. But I can't; I don't understand! I stare at the screen on my wrist and see static where the map just was. Not a minute ago I had a fully functional map! I switch to other functions and they all seem to work properly—excluding the Radio and Radiation tabs. Anything to do with my surroundings, it seems, are disabled.
Out of nowhere, a bright orange light bursts from the cliff side about half a mile south of us. It's bright, even against the sunlight, and calls to me. I feel like I recognize it, if only for a fraction of a second of memory. The Vault!
Clayton understands my train of thought before I even voice it, as he waves his hands in some sort of pattern that I assume is military code. The Knights retrieve their helmets and set out toward the source of the light. It flashes again as we approach. Once every two minutes for exactly five seconds. The static on my screen stays there, clearing every once in a while as if escaping whatever's jamming it.
Jamming it? A jamming signal! Something inside the Vault must be sending out a jamming signal to keep scanners out! Has it always done that, or is it new because of the invasion?
As I dig further into my thoughts, I find myself standing at the mouth of a massive, steep cave. It leads directly to a solid steel gear with the number 95 pressed into it with some other kind of metal. The gear isn't completely pushed into its frame as it had been before Michael opened it. That could be the cause of the light: a warning that the door hasn't closed. I wonder if any other Vault had to make use of that light…on the day the bombs fell… I shake the thought from my mind and step toward the gear. Clayton follows a few yards behind me, cautious and alert.
I hear a faint beeping start to call out. Beep…Beep…Beep.
The others either don't hear it or, if they do, they don't mention it. It gets faster. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Clayton lunges forward and draws me back to him with a careless hand. I hear my shoulder pop as the combat armor takes time to adjust to the movement. BeepBeepBeep.
An explosion. In the exact spot I would've been standing had Clayton not stopped me, a small circular piece of metal explodes. Other explosions follow it, orange lights popping to life just in time to die out. Frag mines. Shrapnel flies throughout the cave, a few shards crashing against and bouncing away from my armor.
How many times does that make now? How many times have I gotten lucky in this wasteland? Not enough to make up for losing my Vault. I open my mouth to thank Clayton, but nothing comes out. A silent squeak, and nothing more. I realize just how shaken I am by the experience. And the Knights continue on into the cave, quickly approaching the entrance. A small console sits beside the entrance with a keyboard and a lever.
Two of the Knights I don't know attempt to force the gear inside the Vault, aware of the hydraulic piston inside that's meant to pull it in. When it doesn't budge, Fields steps up to the console and sighs, "Do you happen to know the password, Local?" She still calls me Local.
I think back. I know the Overseer told us it as we fled. We needed it to get outside. I want to say 'brotherhood,' but that seems too convenient considering…who I'm with…
Did the Overseer…know?
No.
There's no way he could have known about the Brotherhood! It's impossible! It's literally impossible!
It's…improbable.
But… He was so ready for Michael and me to flee. He wasn't too panicked by the attack.
Oh no…
"Brotherhood," I state bluntly, beginning to question the events of that morning. It never occurred to me even once that things weren't as they might have seemed. How did the Enclave Imposters even find a weakness in the cafeteria storage chamber? Was there even a weakness to begin with? "The password is 'brotherhood,' believe it or not."
"Convenient," she scoffs, typing it into the console and pulling the lever down.
An alarm rings out, drowning out any other words that might have been exchanged. With a loud metal-on-metal screech, the gear leaves its threshold and rolls off to the side. I peer inside the entrance chamber and shudder as I notice a lack of fluorescent lighting. The inside is dark, hollow, and painfully silent.
As I follow the First Regiment inside, spotlights built into their helmets power on. I turn my Pip-Boy's light on to accompany them. For the first time I realize just how much I miss the hum of the Vault's electricity. It was always there, constant and steady; the hum of the vents and the buzz of the lights were a reminder I was still there. Now there's no sound, not even the shuffling of papers or whirring of computers. It's just silent.
There are three doors leading from the entrance, not counting the way we came. The one to our left, I remember, leads into the Overseer's secret tunnel. I'm not certain about the other doors because I've never been to Level G before, but I assume the central one leads to the elevator at some point. The one to the right could hold anything behind it. I hear Clayton splitting his Knights into teams.
"I'll be in charge of Alpha Team; we're taking the western door. Head Knight Baldwin will take Bravo Team to the north. Senior Scribe Fields and Delta Team will take the east." As Baldwin and Fields take their positions, he approaches his door. "If this one is anything like the others in the region, each path should take us to the Atrium on Level 3. You're with me, Local!"
I can't say I'm upset to be stuck with him; I want to go to the Overseer's office. I have some nagging feeling in my gut, some odd curiosity that only his office can satisfy. I don't know what I expect to find, but I know I probably won't like it when I do. But I need to know. There has to be something somewhere in his chambers that will tell me what I want to know.
Why was he so ready for the invasion? Why did he really offer to stay behind? Why did he choose Michael and me to be in his office at that specific time? He could've called me at any other time, or let my scores go to my quarters. Why didn't he, then?
As we walk down the narrow tunnel, I notice that the power armor is almost too large to fit inside. Occasionally one of the Knights scraps themselves on the sides of the passage and sparks go flying, but the walk is mostly quiet. Clayton flips a small yellow switch on the wall at the base of the stairs at the far end of the tunnel, and a mechanical whirr accompanies the opening of the secret door. Dim light meets us as the Overseer's desk lifts into the air.
The light glows green in contrast to the familiar fluorescent white, and I can't help but sigh as I scan the office. Not only do I not see the Overseer's corpse, but I also don't see any sign of a struggle. It's as if the invaders completely ignored the office—and I begin to feel as if I know why. I hope my hunch is wrong. I hope it isn't true. As the Knights begin to rummage through the officer and its connected rooms, I follow behind and scan their targets even closer. There's more than pre-war technology waiting in this place for me. There's more than just bad memories waiting in the cafeteria.
Answers are waiting somewhere in this Vault. Answers to questions I wouldn't have bothered asking until this morning.
I start with the Overseer's terminal glowing brightly on the back wall. It isn't password protected and doesn't appear to have any security measures. A single file sits on the screen, characters corrupted and written in gibberish. I connect my Pip-Boy to the terminal and download the file. If there's some rhyme or reason to it, I can study it later.
I follow Clayton into the Overseer's personal bedroom and watch as he kicks open footlockers and throws open dresser drawers. He ignores the papers that scatter about and tosses a holotape haphazardly onto the bed. He doesn't even care about the Vault. I take the tape and download it to my Pip-Boy just like the last message. Taking a moment to fish out Fields's earphones, I set everything up and hit play.
"November 30th, 2245, 9:14PM." I'm greeted by the Overseer's voice, though I'm not sure why that surprises me. He sounds out of breath and wheezes hard at the beginning. Three days before the invasion. "I've been to see them. They look just like the pictures I've been receiving—calling themselves the Enclave for some odd reason. I hope nobody noticed my absence." He speaks as if he's committed a crime and, as far as I can tell, he probably has. I begin to sort through the scattered papers as he continues.
"They have a base out in the pre-war chemical testing plant. They claim no connections to the government, but they've adopted the military's power armor. It's been tweaked a bit since the Anchorage holotapes—black instead of white and much creepier looking." Pre-war chemical testing plant…must be referring to the Arsenal. Anchorage, the battle against the Chinese. That was the first battle where T-51 units were used in majority, right? "There's another group of power armored soldiers making base inside the White Bluff energy plant; the Enclave's leader says they keep interfering in restoration efforts." 'Restoration efforts?' That phrase sets a fire in my gut! How dare those monsters claim to be restoring anything after murdering an entire Vault?
I follow Clayton slowly down the hall leaving his office as he continues, "They've given me a choice: I either allow them access to the Vault for their experiments, or they destroy the entire facility with a warhead. I'm not sure how they even could; we survived the Great War after all." He hesitates and the sound of shuffling papers scratches into the tape. "I can't take that chance. The world outside isn't near as bad as you would think. In fact, they have living, photosynthesizing plants in abundance at the Arsenal! I'm certain they have a G.E.C.K."
G.E.C.K.? What in the world is that?
"But I can't let them take everyone. What would be the point of that? No, I'll have to select a few of the younger Vault residents to go out into the wastes independent of the Enclave. Which means I'll have to stay behind. Who can I trust to survive?" The tape ends there, with a long sigh. It doesn't sit right in my gut, not really. He was willing to give the Vault to the Enclave Imposters just so they wouldn't destroy it? Some good that deal did…
"You have some nerve coming back here, you monsters!" A terrified voice rips through the now-silent hallway. I rip the earphones from my head and drop to the ground in a defensive stance. Clayton and the other Knights do the same, their weapons already aimed. I scan the area with my compass—which now works for some odd reason—and notice nothing but a bunch of blue tags in front of me. Three of them are obviously the Knights, but one sits apart from the rest. "Didn't get enough blood on your boots the first time?!"
A bullet rips through the air, missing all of us by wide margins and clanging against the Overseer's door. Clayton places a finger on his trigger and takes aim, a faint silhouette emerging from the shadows. It's glowing green, I notice.
"Wait!" I shout, slapping his arm down as tries to pull the trigger.
"What the hell Local!" He grunts, shoving me away and taking aim again.
I explain as fast as I can, "He's a Vault resident! The Pip-Boy, the gun. He's not Enclave!" Turning on his spotlight, Clayton illuminates the entire hall and a single frail figure falls to the ground in fear. Blue and yellow Vault suit. Pip-Boy on the left arm.
The figure peaks up from the ground cautiously. He must see my face clearly in the light because he sighs, "J-Johnny? That you?" He starts to unfold from his grounded stance, his hands trembling visibly even from my distance.
Clayton snaps, "He a friend of yours? You recognize him personally?" He doesn't lower his gun, much to my distaste.
"Yes, I know him…" I start to walk toward the frightened resident. He isn't wearing a vest or helmet, so I can only assume he's just a normal person. While I can't place the name to the face, he recognizes me, so we had to at least talk at some point.
As I approach, a red tag pops up over the blue. I instinctively draw my laser rifle and aim it at the resident. He doesn't fall in fear, but his face fills with some sense of betrayal—his eyes shine in Clayton's light and I see them staring into me. I try to be as nonthreatening as I can, but I don't lower my aim. He's a red tag for a reason, right?
He steps to the side slowly and reaches for the wall, as if trying to catch his breath or steady himself. The red tag doesn't move, but the blue one does. I dismiss the thought and chalk the dot up to some random radroach on the next level. That used to happen all the time with radroaches and children getting really frightened. The things may be tiny, but they won't hesitate to pick a fight.
Lowering my rifle, I finish my walk, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looks up at me and sobs, "Thank God you're alive, Johnny!" His arms wrap around me out of nowhere, face next to mine. He's hunched over slightly considering the height difference, but it doesn't seem to bother him. I finally realize how we know each other.
He used to hang out with my dad all the time; they spent hours tinkering with the Mister Handies and designing ways to make the Vault's power expenditure more efficient. My dad had always been concerned with conservation and recycling, considering we were in here until it was safe to leave. And Mr. Edson was right beside him every time he visited the Overseer to voice his concerns.
Mr. Edson releases me and mumbles, "I don't think there's anyone left, Johnny. I'm only alive because I hid in a storage locker in the Vault nursery…" The nursery? That is on Level 1, isn't it? Weird that the nursery would be so close to the Overseer's office. "I saw those monsters taking bodies to the elevator."
"Why would they do that?" I ask instinctively, the thought not sitting right with me. I could understand leaving the kills where they fell, but why go through the trouble of moving them? Senior Paladin Clayton steps up behind us with his weapon still drawn. "Mr. Edson, this is Senior Paladin Clayton. He's a part of a group of soldiers that happens to be at odds with the men who attacked us."
He gasps in fear as he notices the metallic style of armor and I can see in his eyes his desire to flee. He resists the temptation and reaches out a hand. He manages to keep it steady as Clayton takes it. "I'm Curtis Edson, one of the Vault technicians. I don't like the look of you guys, but if Johnny trusts you…"
"We aren't here to harm you, I promise. We hadn't actually expected anyone to be living, based on Johnathan's account of the events of that morning." Clayton's words are colder than I think he realizes, and as he draws his hand back, Edson stands in some sort of paralytic trance. "You said they were taking the bodies to the elevator. Any clue why?"
Snapping back to attention, Edson groans, "No clue. But while I was down on Level 7, there was a man not wearing metal armor giving commands. Something about research." He holsters his pistol and turns away. "I've been living in the Level 5 clinic, but I've been checking the other floors off and on all night. They left only a few hours after they showed up."
"They were gone before those raiders even attacked us…" I mumble out loud, trying to piece together some sort of timeline. I took the G.O.A.T. on the second, we were attacked on the third, and yesterday was the fourth. I glance at my Pip-Boy to confirm the date. Officer Michael and I had been in that cave for almost twenty-four hours…
"Is the Overseer with you, Johnny? Did he make it out?" Edson's eyes shine with hope, though why he cares about the Overseer's fate is beyond me.
"N-no," I start hesitantly, "he stayed behind so Michael and I could escape."
"And is Michael alive?"
"I wish he were…"
As the answer sinks in, we're ripped from our catching up by a voice in my ear. Senior Scribe Fields calls into her communicator, "Senior Paladin Clayton, sir, we're taking heavy fire on Level 3! Those Imposter bastards have made some sort of base down here! I repeat, taking heavy fire in the Atrium!" The voice cuts out as lasers rip through the air.
Head Knight Baldwin's voice follows close behind, "They've jammed the elevators, sir! One of my Knights was trapped inside on Level 4! We're heading up to flank the Imposters!" His communication ends with a loud metal-on-metal clang.
Edson is on the ground before we can even get a grip on the situation. His face is in his hands and his back is pressed against the wall. Short sobs escape him; I imagine he's considering the first attack and how many people died. Maybe he believes he doesn't have a chance at surviving this one.
Before I really know what I'm doing, I slap him across the face with a metal hand. He falls hard to his hands and stares up at me with fear and focus. "Listen up, Vault Dweller!" I begin with an authoritative voice, "You survived these bastards once, and you sure as hell won't die today! Find someplace hidden and under no circumstances are you to leave!" I swing my bag from my back and draw the railway rifle and several stacks of spikes. "If a red tag shows up on your compass and you see something getting close, unload this bad boy into them."
I don't wait around for his response. My bag's zipped and on my back before Clayton gives the order: "Okay Alpha Team, let's go show these Imposters what pre-war tech is capable of!"
And we're gone. I remember Level 1 well enough to know how to find the stairs, so I take point. We wind our way down the stairs and through the tunnels of Level 2, until we find the other staircase. Laser fire echoes around the silent Vault as we head down, our weapons drawn. Standing just in front of us, in the wide open Atrium, stand at least a dozen of the black metal men, all illuminated by Brotherhood searchlights. Their backs are to us as they focus on Fields's and Baldwin's teams.
The Knights get in position and begin to fire, managing to blast several of the Imposters before they even realize they've been shot. Two go down before some lasers fall on us. Another four fall to the mixed fire of Bravo and Delta teams. About as soon as the fight begins it ends, the Knights cheering in victory. I don't even have time to fire a single shot before the Atrium falls mostly silent again. An anti-climax if I've ever witnessed one.
Senior Paladin Clayton cuts through the excitement with a stern, "Stay on guard!" The Knights fall silent at the command, most likely realizing that there could be more Imposters. I consider that possibility carefully. Where did these Imposters come from? They didn't follow us in, or they would've flanked us. Or did they show up just before us? Maybe they left those mines…
"They aren't organized like the real Enclave, but they still have firepower." He steps to the center of the Atrium with his rifle in hand, ready to draw at a moment's notice. "We found another survivor on Level 1, just outside the Overseer's office. According to him, the Imposters were taking the corpses somewhere. Can you confirm?"
Head Knight Baldwin steps forward. "We didn't find any corpses on Level 4—Residential. There were none on our way up here, either," he reports.
Scribe Fields offer up her own suspicion, "I find it weird that, considering the Imposters' use of energy weapons, there hasn't been a single ash or sludge pile anywhere we've scouted."
It makes sense. Out of the few people I've killed with laser weapons, at least two have turned to ash as they died. I find myself considering any alternative to the Imposters' murderous invasion of my home. Were the weapons used only meant to paralyze or stun their targets? Did they not hit any critical areas? Something seems too obvious about the whole thing, like I'm missing one small piece of a puzzle.
"Are you suggesting that they took the residents alive?" Clayton scoffs almost dismissively. I understand his lack of concern; the option seems almost idiotic. "At any rate, we need to scout the rest of the Vault for any salvageable tech."
"One of my Knights is still trapped on Level 4," Baldwin states bluntly.
Clayton nods, "See what you can do to free him. I'm going back to Level 1 to grab the survivor." He holds his rifle high in the air and shouts, "Knights of the First Regiment, our goal is still to scavenge this Vault. The upper levels have been searched, so proceed deeper below ground! Dismissed!" The Knights all salute in unison before scattering back into their teams. Clayton's Knights seem to gather back around me as he heads toward the elevator.
"We're with you, Local. You lead, we follow." One of the Knights takes point in front of the other two, and they don't seem to disagree. I'm not certain why they're willing to follow me considering my title, but it seems reasonable that I might need assistance if any other Imposters are waiting in the bowels of the Vault.
I nod in thanks and turn toward the far wall where all of the other Knights are headed. Beyond the room should be the stairs leading further down. I run through each level mentally as I consider my ultimate goal.
The level below us should be Residential, followed by Medical, with the Classes below it. The Cafeteria and Bar wait on Level 7. The lowest level of the Vault, off limits to anyone not on maintenance duty, should be our Water Purifier Chip, the Vault's Central Air Unit, and other life support systems. I consider the usefulness of a purifier chip in the wasteland, assuming I can find a device to attach it to. It would make living much easier, at any rate.
So that's my goal. The purifier. And maybe some evidence of what the Imposters actually wanted with the residents, if not to kill them.
And the Overseer…
Fuck him.
Footnote: Level Up!
Perk Added: Swift Learner
Effect: You're quick to pick up on things that don't quite make sense. You take information to heart and learn faster than others.
