Pieces of a Puzzle
The red and white tile floor of the dark cafeteria sets me off worse than I had expected. Blood stains the walls and booths, evidence of the Imposters' initial violence. Even if they hadn't killed the residents in the Atrium, they started with much less restraint, much less discipline. The corpses of those unfortunate enough to be slaughtered from the destruction of the storage room door still lay cold on the ground. I'm guessing they were too battered to be taken with the rest.
But my brother's body is nowhere to be found. Neither is my mom's. So…
"They could be alive…"
One of the Knights that followed me down to Level 7 groans, "Are you sure you want to be here, Local? We can let the other teams scavenge this area." I can hear sympathy in his voice, even if it is fake.
"No, I have to know for sure how those bastards got in here." I shake the sobs from my nerves and stomp toward the storage room, my heart heavy in my chest. Of all the things that have bothered me since leaving the Vault, why would it be a few blood stains that shake my resolve? The storage room should hold at least one answer, and probably several new questions.
The light on my Pip-Boy barely helps me any, and by the time one of the Knights' spotlights illuminates the area I've landed hard on my knees. A large metal box sits in the center of the room, blown out of place by some sort of explosion if the scorch marks are to be believed. Opening it up, I see bottles of clean water scattered about without any sort of organization. I take one without a second's thought and down the contents.
A slight breeze hits me as I finish the bottle. My nerves are still shot, but at least I can keep it together. The Knights approach the far wall with weapons aimed cautiously. I follow them with my own rifle ready to blast anything that moves. The breeze feels good. It's like music against the silent Vault.
They let me take point as we squeeze behind a misplaced massive steel plate. I see a faint light break through a series of jagged rocks that stretches upward for what looks to be at least a mile. A mile upward from Level 7, past deadly rocks and out of a narrow chasm sits the outside world, radiation and raiders and death. Those monsters climbed down this chasm and broke into my home. To what purpose still remains a mystery…?
"We need to report this to Senior Paladin Clayton. I'll stay in the cafeteria until he arrives; the rest of you should go ahead with the Local." One of the Knights waves us back into the facility, past the steel plate and into the blood-stained cafeteria. "Be safe, be alert."
For the first time, I notice that the four Mister Handy robots that used to serve us food at every meal seem to have vanished. Those bastards stole Wadsworth and Penny! For some reason, that thought makes me angry. Maybe it was because my dad built Penny from scratch, or maybe it was because Wadsworth used to love telling stupid puns. Either way, another part of my home is missing, and that pisses me off!
But I return to my original goal: reaching the Water Purifier Chip on Level 8. If I get nothing else from this visit in terms of evidence or answers, I at least want something that can make the wasteland more bearable. We stomp our metallic stomps deeper into the Vault, following the signs that used to warn me not to go further. Now they stand as signs that I'm going the right way despite the twisted nature of my home.
And when we reach the locked door that insists the area is 'Inaccessible,' I know we've reached my destination. I dismiss the Knights to search the rest of the level while I fiddle with the lock. My dad used to tell me stories about how he would lock his keys in the restricted area and have to pick the lock. He'd relate my skills with a screwdriver-bobby pin combo to his own, saying it was genetic. Maybe it was. I open the old tool cabinet that used to be his own personal storage locker to find a screwdriver and several small packs of bobby pins just tucked away in the corner.
He was dead for five years and they never even cleaned out his locker? Respect. Or negligence.
For the first time in almost two weeks, I have the perfect opportunity to test out my picking skills. I've really been itching to do it ever since finding Matthew and Taylor's safe in the Junior High. I unbend the bobby pin until it's at about a ninety-degree angle and stick the jagged end into the lock. I gently place the head of the screwdriver against the inside edge of the keyhole and begin to push it.
The bobby pin catches and I draw the screwdriver back. I turn the pin clockwise slightly and try again. The lock continues to spin with the screwdriver until the keyhole lays horizontally, and I hear the door unlatch. Withdrawing the pin and driver, I lift the should-be-automatic door open before it has a chance to lock, the holding mechanism snapping it in place.
I leap back in fear and end up falling to the ground as the figure of an Imposter fills my view. The golden eyes look ready to fire lasers, the weird horn-like bulges on the helmet resembling demons from pre-war fairytales. I've never seen one of these monsters so close.
I expect him to aim his rifle and fire. Only, he doesn't seem to even realize the door has opened. I stand carefully and approach him with an outstretched hand. I touch the rifle in his hands and he tumbles to the ground with a disturbing metallic crash. A small bag lands with a thud as it spins around his back. He's dead?
My two escort Knights come darting into the room, weapons aimed. "What happened?" one of them calls as if itching for a fight.
I point at the Imposter and sigh, "He was hiding behind the door, must've died at some point." Reaching down to gather his small bag I add, "Startled me, that's all." From the bag I draw two holotapes, one with a small yellow '95' on one side. The other looks beaten and dirty, exposed to the wasteland elements. I hook each one up in turn and analyze the titles.
The beaten one comes up with the title 'Experiment Alpha-Gamma,' while the Vault holotape reads 'Trapped in a Fucking Closet!' I decide to give them a listen, ignoring my earphones in favor of being aware of my surroundings. I start with the old tape, hoping it actually plays all the way through without corruption. I hear a few more Knights enter the room as the voice begins.
…
"Listen up, you useless sacks of shit! This isn't some walk in a park, so you better keep your asses focused! This is the last Vault in the Mid-South, and we can't have a repeat of Vault 64, understand? We need what those snobs called 'pure humans' if we want this stuff to work. (cough)
We have a whole bunch of that FEV stuff stashed deep in our base, but no subjects to use it on. We tried some of the locals from White Hall, but all they did was melt into weird eight-titted dog things. Weird tongues, too. No, if I'm reading that info salvaged from the terminals right, we need some Vault Dwellers. That's your job.
I'm dispatching you lazy bums out to a Vault hidden in an artificial cliff that was built before the war. Even those Brotherhood dumbasses don't know this Vault exists, and they own the fucking Vault-Tec building! What a buncha— (cough)
Anyway, there's a small hole near the top of the cliff that should be just big enough to climb down into. From there, it's just a matter of well-placed explosives to blow open a weak panel on the Vault's exterior. Should be in the caf on Level 7 if the blueprints are right. Apparently the weakness was part of the pre-war government's 'Social Experiments' or some shit.
If the stuff on the computer is right—and considering it comes straight from the pre-war horses' mouths, it should be—then pure humans will give us an army of super powerful men that'll obey everything we say! So, here's the hard part:
You gotta take those sorry sons of bitches alive! Since that Overseer ain't cooperating with us, we gotta force our way in. Oh, and make sure the Overseer gets here in one piece. I wanna kick his ass myself.
If any of you go dying on me, you know the punishment. You've seen what the shit does to dead people. Have fun. Oh, and try not to damage the Vault too bad. We don't want those Brotherhood bastards receiving a distress signal like last time.
Dismissed, jackasses!"
…
As the tape ends, I take role in my head of everyone present. The silence is jarring. All of the Knights are counted for, at least the ones I remember, and Mr. Edson is standing in a corner next to Senior Paladin Clayton. The silence spreads, as if our hearts aren't even beating, the lack of sound disturbing and eerie.
"Oh God no!" Senior Scribe Fields screams in horror as the silence becomes overwhelming. Most of the Knights turn to her in shock, but Clayton shakes his head as if he understands. With her hand clasped over her mouth, she groans, "Not this again…"
"W-what? What's so bad?" I stammer, my heart rate increasing. This time, I know, it has nothing to do with rage, but true fear. Something in her tone seems piercing and despaired. My mind snaps to the 'FEV stuff' the voice mentioned. "What was he talking about? Super humans?"
Clayton roars to his Knights, "Attention!" Every Knight adopts a military stance, their guns held flat against their chests. He ignores me as he orders, "This information is critical priority as of this moment! We need to return to White Bluff and alert Elder Wallace that the Imposters are en route to creating another Super Mutant army!"
Super Mutant? Army? What?
"We may not have much time left to stop them, if any. Time is of the essence now. Dismissed!" The Knights share a loud grunt before pouring through the door leading to the stairs. One after the other, they all seem to instinctively head for the exit with haste.
Head Knight Baldwin places his hands tight on my shoulders and sighs, "I'm afraid your friends are in big trouble, Local. Those Imposters don't know what they're about to unleash." He turns to face Mr. Edson as if he was directing it to both of us.
Fields shakes her head as she asks, "How many residents were in this Vault? I know it was built for at least two thousand, but how many actually lived here on the day of the attack?" Her arms are crossed in concentration and most likely frustration, something about the situation eating into her psyche.
"I-I don't know…" Edson mumbles in confusion, lost in the dark just like me. "Maybe nine hundred, maybe more."
Walking toward the stairs, Clayton groans, "They haven't figured it out completely yet. Any human can become a Super Mutant, not just pure ones." He stomps his boot and shouts, "Move out, Knights!" Fields and Baldwin nod and rush into the stairwell. Edson and I follow close behind.
I can see the technician trembling as we jog up the stairs behind the First Regiment, his knees weak and teeth chattering. It seems they've abandoned their goal of scavenging tech. Apparently I have too.
I stop without warning and nearly end up tripping him. As he turns to question me, I wave him away. "You'll be safe with them. I have business to take care of." He doesn't wait for an explanation—he knows he doesn't warrant one. He hurries to keep up with the Knights and leaves me behind with what I hope isn't a second thought.
I've no business with the Knights, anyway. Other than the rifle and armor, I've got no reason to return to White Bluff. I've done my job, brought them to this hollow shell of my home and helped them search for tech. Once they report back to Wallace, I'll be officially free of their custody and able to do what I want. That was our deal.
I return to the dead Imposter and enter the small room he'd hidden himself in. I see why the power isn't on: the Imposter's sidearm must've made a connection with the generator and overcharged it. A small puddle of black goo coats the top of the sparking generator box, pieces of casing missing and the pieces that remain being scorched. The energy discharge must've killed the Imposter.
I carefully step around the generator and examine the Water Purifier machine. It's smaller than I imagined, about the size of a refrigerator. In the center of the front panel sits a large box chassis with glass tubes and wires protruding from it. The machine's too large for me to carry, and I feel that the box is useless on its own. I remember studying the way the purifier works before I took my G.O.A.T. The 'Purifier Chip' doesn't do any actual purifying, but rather powers the machine that does.
But I unhook the chip and unfold its chassis—which acts as a functional carrying case—and place it in my bag. The box is large, but only adds about five pounds to my burden. On top of that, the chassis should be sturdy enough to keep it from getting damaged while I have it.
A new thought occurs to me.
What am I going to do with the chip? Unless there's a settlement like White Bluff that has a machine and no chip, what good will this do me? What good will it do anyone without a machine to power? I fear I didn't think this plan through.
I scan the rest of the restricted room in the hopes of finding something worth taking on its own merits. I find a box of sensor modules, good if you want to build a robot or mine, but otherwise useless. I stuff it in my bag. If nothing else, maybe Old Man Miller will buy them. Below the box sits a holotape that I don't hesitate to download onto my Pip-Boy. It looks old, but not beaten, so I assume it belonged to someone in the Vault.
There's no audio message on this tape, just a text document that loads. The title of the document is 'My Last Mistake.' I start to read it with curious assumptions.
"Jacob was right! He was! Five years ago, he said we needed some kind of defense systems, since people are so weak. I didn't listen. When we were building Penny, he kept trying to install weapons protocols and guns, and I wouldn't let him! I told him we'd get sacked if the Overseer found out, but now we're under attack! Five years later and he knew it was coming! I keep hearing the PA system go off, an officer or two calling for backup on Level Whatever. Metal men with energy guns!" Jacob was my dad, and the author helped him build Penny. So that means this message was written by Edson!
"I can't believe I'm going to die down here. I tried to find Penny and Wadsworth, but by the time I got to the cafeteria, they were gone. Now we're defenseless and I'm a coward. I think that's the last mistake I'll ever make, though it was five years in the making. Should've let Jacob go with his instincts." The message ends there, but I feel it was meant to be continued. Something about it feels wrong, empty.
The title of the other holotape I found on the Imposter catches my eye. I guess he was trapped in a closet. I start toward the stairs with my Water Chip in tow as I hit play.
…
"How the fuck do you make a closet that locks from the inside? Why would you? If they're already in the damn thing, I think you're a little late to stop them from finding whatever the hell you wanna keep secret! Whatever. Those pieces of shit will be down here any minute to let me out. I'm their captain, they need me! If they report to Walker without me, they'll be punished and they know it.
But I've been down here for about an hour now. I haven't heard any PA shouts. Or lasers. Maybe they fuckin' left me to die! Or maybe they don't notice I'm gone. Whatever. Their loss. One of them Vault Dwellers are gonna come running down here to hide from us 'metal monsters' and let me out on accident. Laser to the face!
That'd make me feel great! To just blast one of— (explosion)"
…
I find myself in the Vault elevator as the tape ends. I guess I'm not good at multitasking, because I don't remember how I got here. But the tape explains a lot, I guess. He went to loot the storage closet and got locked inside, then hit the generator and died. Simple enough. Stupid enough to suit those bastards. The elevator dings as I reach my destination.
Level G, the Vault entrance. The gear is still missing from the frame, not high enough priority to bother closing. After all, the residents are already dead… Or worse, according to Baldwin. I start my trek back into the wasteland and as I walk up the steep cliff-side cave I realize that the Knights really didn't wait around for me. They were gone as fast as they could be at the mention of the 'FEV stuff.'
As I step into the dim sunlight of the cloudy sky, I realize that I don't really know of any other settlements besides White Bluff. The voice on the first Imposter holotape mentioned White Hall, but there's no telling what kind of place it is. I can see it on my Pip-Boy's long-range map, which apparently has no problem working now for some reason. I notice the orange Vault light is no longer flashing.
Even in the short time I was inside the Vault, things have changed. Is that just what the wasteland is? A land of change and confusion? Sounds about right, really.
But there's so much I still don't know.
According to the voice on the first Imposter holotape, the Overseer refused to give them access to the Vault. So at least I now know he didn't betray us. They knew about us before he ever sought them out, even if the Brotherhood didn't. I know that they needed my Vault residents alive for their experiments, and that my mom and brother weren't corpses in the cafeteria. Which means they're a part of the experiment.
I know that my life is ruined as far as how safe I'll ever be again. I know that, in the right situations, I have the desire to kill people. I know that the Brotherhood is concerned about the Imposter's activities. I know that I don't owe them anything else, but I feel like I do. I feel as if I need to be with them, if only to help stop the Imposters.
I know they ignored me when I asked what Super Mutants were, or what they meant by 'army.' I know they don't care about me or my fellow Vault Dwellers, not really. I'm just a Local who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time.
So why do I feel compelled to return to that power plant?
Why do I feel like I'm being watched?
Footnote:
Quest Perk Added: Divine Intervention
Effect: Just when you think you're out, they keep pulling you right back in! 'Who are they,' you ask? Well, that's simple really…
