Jeez, it's been a while, but I'm back. I suddenly got the inspiration to write some more for this story. It'll be short and only explain the majority of what's in the bunker. Enjoy!
Part 3: The Loris Settlement
Chapter 10: Bunker B – A3
The reinforced bunker door was large, easily capable of fitting two to three of our trucks side by side if they went in one direction. On the side of the bunker door was the US Army Logo on it with B-A3 painted on the other side of the door. I was guessing that the letters and number were the Bunker's Division Number. There was an access terminal right below the Division Numbers. Of course, the terminal had to be hacked into. Everyone was eagerly awaiting whatever was inside.
"What did yall find boss?" Benjamin asked coming up from behind us.
"The Bunker we've been looking for," I replied looking at him, "Keep it quiet and stay topside. If anyone asks, we're exploring it to make sure it's safe. Once we've secured the place, we'll use whatever we can inside alright? I'm pretty sure we'll all be able to sleep soundly if the bunker is secure."
"Yes sir," Benjamin spoke nodding.
Everyone looked at me. "Well," I said, "Let's get going then. Weapons at the ready." After hacking the terminal, and pressing the switch to open the bunker. Immediately, a small spinning yellow light started flashing as the loudness of a larger reinforced bunker door sank into the ground revealing the dark interior. We walked in, each turning on a Pipboy light. It was completely dark in here.
"Well this just got complicated," Jordyn spoke up.
"This bunker's been shut down and abandoned for a couple hundred years," Angela spoke as I looked to the ceiling at where the light sources were. The interior walls and ceiling of the bunker looked vaguely familiar somehow, like I had seen a photo of such things before.
"Check it out guys," Jared said from the right. Inside a steel wire mesh cage was what looked like a series of breaker boxes. Of course, it was locked by a padlock. Jared took a pair of bolt cutters to the padlock then opened the cage. I walked up to the cage with him as he inspected the breaker boxes. "Let's see," He spoke, mostly to himself, "This is the power to the door, and this one's the power to the Entrance Tunnel Lights so….." He pulled a lever which immediately lit the entrance up. One by one, ceiling lights activated lighting up the place like a Vault. The interior architecture was made of mostly steel which in turn was like something I had seen in photos of Raven Rock. The tunnel descended deeper into the ground like a ramp going down. It went down at least a hundred or so meters. Before that was steel reinforced fence, which had gates that would act as a checkpoint for vehicles or anyone, entering the bunker. The gates had heavy duty steel barricades that rose from the ground while the gates were basically several steel poles that rose up from the ground as well. In other words, no vehicle could get through and any unauthorized personnel couldn't either without going through whoever was controlling it in the center guard station.
I inspected the checkpoint controls in the guard's post. The terminal didn't have anything on it save a description: Checkpoint controls offline. Please restore power via Main Bunker Generators down on the power level to restore all Bunker functions. Backup power is only online for T-minus forty eight minutes before general lighting goes offline.
"We're going to have to restore power to the Bunker," I spoke up, "We've got forty minutes to get the main generator back up in forty minutes otherwise the lights are going out. So let's keep the sightseeing to a minimum. And be on guard for anything that wants us dead."
With that, we all walked down the entrance tunnel descending further into the bunker. When the tunnel finally flattened out, there was a large spacious area to the left and right. It was blocked another checkpoint only the gates were closed this time. On a lit up sign, hanging from the ceiling it said, Motor Pool A while the left one said Motor Pool B. There were several military grade vehicles inside, most notably Transport Trucks like the ones we already had. I could see motorcycles, some kind of dune buggies, Hummers, and a large strange tank-like eight wheeled vehicle. There were numerous of each one, but we didn't have time to count them all. We had to restore power to the entire bunker. It did explain the large entrance tunnel though. A few more meters down the tunnel was a double sliding door. It was for personnel only. The door in question was wide open, probably due to the power being out. Walking through it, we discovered that the hall was narrower. A sign labeled the hall as Access Hall. Then the hall branched off into two different halls on each side. The two halls on the left were labeled, Personnel Division and Reactor Level, while the two on the right were labeled, Armory Division and War Division. At the end of the hall access hall was labeled Command.
We immediately made our way to the reactor level which was actually down a long narrow hall. It was nothing but a large turbine. Jared, Jordyn, and I inspected the entire area, learning that the entire bunker was run on oversized fission batteries that were still good for a hundred more years. It took three of us to push up and down on a large lever to begin the circulation of the fission in the batteries. In other words, we had to pump the electrical charge. Finally, the turbine started to turn, creating a loud humming sound. Faintly, over the sounds of the turbine, we heard a robotic voice over what I was guessing an intercom.
"United States Military Army Response Bunker number B-A3 main power online. Lighting, Online. Automated Doors, online. Personnel Division Power, online. Canteen Ration Preservation system, functioning for two hundred years. All Personnel Division Power are online. Command Division Power, online. Archives are online. Armory Division power, online. War Division power, online. Entrance Tunnel, Checkpoints, and Motor Pools A and B are online. Security system, deactivated. Bunker Automated Turrets, deactivated. Bunker Robots, deactivated. Bunker B-A3 is on standby for general operations."
We walked out of the reactor level and into the hall where the hum died down due to the door closing behind us. "Let's head into the command room first," I spoke, "See what this bunker's all about." The double doors to the command division lead us up some stairs. The stairs opened out into another hallway that was like a ring, with the stairs being in the center. There were three different doors in a triangular fashion around the ring. One was marked Archives, another Command Room, and the last was marked Conference. We walked into the command room which led was a four cornered room. In each corner were computer stations on a slightly elevated platform. In the center of the room was a circular holo-mapper on circular platform elevated enough to where you could walk under it. It was actually amazing to come across. It turned out that each corner was indeed its own station and had its own function. They were for Bunker security, Personnel Mission Communications, Bunker general power overview, and General Communications. The center station's mapper showed a topographical map in a maximum of a one hundred mile radius. Everything that happened in the bunker and outside the bunker involving whatever means that it could, had happened on the array of consoles save the other stations.
"This just made things ten times easier before we even started operations," Jordyn spoke up.
"Yeah," I said as I inspected the control room consoles, "Let's check out the rest of this place."
The conference room was pretty much a given, with a large crescent-like table like you'd see in prewar senate houses. There was one large television screen above the door where you'd enter. The archive room had a lot of computer terminals and super computer towers that were nothing but memory banks. Angela would have a field day in this room probably. We continued our tour of our new base immediately. The next place we checked out was the Personnel Division. There were about ten large rooms designated as barracks A through J. There were also restrooms between each room. Then there was the Canteen which was fully stocked with rations for twenty years. There was a Rec room as well for leisure.
The War Division of the Bunker was probably the smallest other than the reactor level. There was a Medical Wing full of medical supplies and equipment, as well as three briefing rooms. But what was more interesting was the Chamber full of Simulation pods. There were twenty five in that chamber. It would be our priority to figure out what the simulation pods were used for once we finished our tour. Our next and final stop was the Armory Division. The armory division was exactly as it suggested. An armory.
The first room was where a Quartermaster would be located. Behind the Quartermaster counter was an armory stocked full of military grade weaponry such as assault rifles, light machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, missile launchers, and even a row of energy weapons. There was a shooting range near the Weapons room. Across the hall was known as the Armor room. There were several sets of Reinforced Combat Armor, around two hundred worth. The next room was labeled, Power Armor. That got us all excited. After seeing the power of the Enclave's Power Armor, we were eager to get our hands on some of it. When we walked in, there were five rows of ten suits in armor stasis chambers of army green T-45d Power Armor. These were definitely going to be put to good use. The last two rooms of the armory division were labeled Robotics A and B. The A room had multitudes of Automated Turrets that were dissembled. There were Two hundred Protectrons deactivated in the room as well. In Room B, there were a hundred Mister Gutsy's and fifty Sentry Bots.
All in all, this had elevated means to our cause. All this prewar military tech was astounding. It would definitely be of some use. After our tour, it was time to get to work.
"So what do we do now?" Angela spoke up.
I stood there gathering my thoughts. "We've had our tour of the facility," I spoke up, "There's no doubt that it will be our Headquarters for now. I want to go over all the information in the archives and everything about this Bunker before we touch any of the equipment."
"I'm more interested in those simulation pods," Jordyn spoke up.
"Me too," Jared agreed.
"Well let's get started," I spoke, "Jordyn, don't you have people topside to train up?"
"Yeah," Jordyn replied.
We all decided to get to work on checking out all the information on the Bunker. We learned through the Archives, the names of the soldiers that were stationed here but evacuated soon after. We learned the exact amount of supplies, rations, and weaponry this place had. We learned what the simulation pods in the War division were for. It was for training personnel and keeping their skills sharp. It went through simulations involving basic training, combat, survival, and operations. There was also Power Armor Training. It was the type of suspended physical and sublimal training that I had only dreamed about. But what really got me was tactical information on the Carolina Wasteland. There were more bunkers out there like this one, some of them better. I read through them.
United States Military Files
Project: Carolina Tunnel Rat
Overview- Project Carolina Tunnel Rat was implemented to add security along the East Coast in the case of an attack on the Eastern Coast. Due to the fact that North and South Carolina takes up the majority of the East Coast, it was selected for the project. There are fifteen commissioned Bunkers in the project located in various locations in the Carolinas all having some kind of connection with a branch of the military or military funder.
List of Bunkers:
(Designation- Branch of Military- location- Function- Status)
B-A1- Army-Fort Bragg, NC- Experimental Robot development- Operational
B-A2- Army- Fort Jackson, SC- Weapon manufacturing- Offline
B-A3- Army- Loris, SC- Army Ground Response- Operational
B-M1-Marines- Beaufort, SC- Marine Response- Offline
B-M2-Marines-Parris Island, SC- Vehicular Motor pool-Offline
B-M3-Marines- Camp Lejeune, NC- Marine Training and Response-Offline
B-AF1-Airforce- Myrtle Beach, SC- Developmental manufacturing-Offline
B-AF2-Airforce- Seymour Johnson AFB, NC- Air Force Response-Offline
B-AF3-Airforce-Shaw Air force Base, SC- Air force Response-Offline
B-N1-Navy- Murrels Inlet, SC- Robotics development-Offline
B-N2-Navy- Charleston, SC- Naval Response-Offline
B-N3-Navy- Calabash NC- Naval Response-Offline
B-C1-Coast Guard- Base Support Unit, Elizabeth City, NC- Communications-Offline
B-NG1- National Guard- Myrtle Beach, SC- West Tek, storage facility-Offline
B-SP1-Special Forces- Charlotte, NC- Spec Ops response-Offline
I reread the file once more. There were fifteen bunkers spread out in South Carolina and North Carolina. Most of them were along the South Carolina Coast. The only thing that concerned me was the Bunker in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was marked as Operational. But it was indeed several miles away and across the state line as well. I would keep an eye on its status until we made it out that way. When I went through the files on the bunkers, I looked at the files regarding the simulation pods.
United State Army Response Bunker B-A3 information-
Simulation Training Pods
Overview: The Simulation pods have been commissioned to help aid Bunker Personnel in reviewing and perfecting their training and skills for general operations. Each simulation usually takes four hours to complete in real time.
Basic Simulations:
Army Basic Training Phase I(Conditioning Phase)-
-Physical Conditioning
-Core Values, Discipline, and Code of Conduct
Army Basic Training Phase II(Combative Phase)
-Firearms Training/Care
-Assault Rifle training
-Sidearm training
-Grenade launcher training
-Hand Grenade Training
-LMG Training
-Anti vehicular Training
-Explosives Training
-Hand to hand Combat Training
-Field Medical Training
Army Basic Training Phase III(Field Phase)-
-Basic Survival Training
-Field Course Training
-Combat simulation Training
Advanced Individual Training/Military Occupational Specialty Training:
EOD Training
Howitzer Training
Energy Weapon Trainining
Quartermaster Training
Motorcycle Maintenance Training
Humvee Maintenance Training
Bunker Electrician/Engineering Training
Communication Ordinance Training
Basic APC Operational Training
Basic APC Gunnery Training
Basic APC Systems Maintenance Training
Basic M60 Patton Battle Tank Operation Training
Basic M60 Patton Battle Tank Gunnery Training
Basic M60 Patton Battle Tank Maintenance Training
T-45d Powered Armor Training
T-45d Powered Armor Maintenance
The list went on and on. After I looked through those files, I came across information on the Motor Pools. There were thirty Military grade Motor Cycles, thirty Military Grade Troop Transport Trucks, twenty Supply Transport trucks, fifteen Humvees, twenty five Military Buggy Patrol Vehicles, twelve M60 Patton Battle Tanks, and twenty IAV Stryker APC's. Of course, every single one of them had been converted to use fission engines. There were various maintenance bays and storage for any munitions for each vehicle.
There was so much information in the Archives, I couldn't review every last detail of it in one day. In fact, after getting memorizing access codes to the entire bunker, we all closed the front door and returned topside to rest in the Hospital.
Lauren and I had fell asleep after another night of love making. Honestly, she was by far the best thing that had happened to me. We didn't show much affection in the public due to it being unprofessional, but I can promise everyone one thing. We made up for it in bed.
The next morning, I was awoken from blissful sleep, naked, and spooning by a knock on my door. I yawned slipping out of bed and putting on my pants. I opened my door revealing Jared and Angela.
"You just getting up?" Jared asked before glancing at the bed behind me. You could see Lauren's naked back from here. "Good night?" Angela hit him.
"Yeah," I replied, "What's up?"
"We're all waiting on you two," Angela spoke, "You locked the bunker remember?"
"We'll be out in a minute." I closed the door before falling back into bed.
Thirty minutes later, Lauren and I were up, fully dressed, and looking out at Jordyn and the trainees from the office window with a few other council members. The two rescued women from Tabor had now joined the fray leaving us with fifteen recruits altogether.
"There is so much on today's schedule," I spoke picking up a clipboard with notes on it, "Going down the checklist we need to finish moving everyone to the hospital. The bunker is still on reserved access for the council. I want to pick every little bit of information clean before we decide what to release to the others. Jared said that he needs time to work on reprogramming the robots to recognize us as their new owners. All of us need simulation time in the simulation pods, especially on Power armor and the vehicles. You all said we need code names right? We're going to go over that now. Keep in mind we're going to keep it simple based on what our specialties are. Angela's obviously is The Archivist. Jared?"
"The Engineer," Jared spoke.
"Okay, Jordyn's name?"
"The Trainer," Angela said, "And Erika for Overseer. She can help head the civilian affairs."
"Jessica?"
"We haven't really gone over everyone else's roles in our upcoming nation Nate," Lauren spoke, "We haven't really done anything other than scavenge around the local area and make Loris our temporary HQ."
She was correct. "Fine then," I spoke nodding, "We'll move on to going into these simulations. Any objections?" No one did.
So that's what some of us did. There were three people who hadn't been involved in going into the simulations automatically. Jordyn, Jared, and Erika. Jordyn was still vigilant on training the thirteen men and women to become physically fit enough to be soldiers. It had after all, been a full three weeks since they joined the fray. Even Jordyn had to admit that constant exercise drills weren't going to cut it for much longer. Being confined to the walls of the Hospital parking lot wasn't helping either. We were going to figure something out for that. Jared would oversee the simulation pod observation room. For every pod, there was a computer screen in that room. Erika, was busy training the dogs. She seemed to connect with the animals to a degree that most of us couldn't.
In order for us to even be able to enter the simulators, we had to change into skin tight neural interphase suits which of course, the simulation room was stocked with. The simulation pods were manufactured and delivered by Virtual Strategic Solutions (VSS for short), Inc. The pods were high tech, and immediately upon entering one and it closing, a bright light began to encompass me. Beforehand, Jared had set all the simulations to Army Basic Training Phase 1. He also managed to put us all in sync with each other so that we were in a shared environment.
I opened my eyes as if I had taken a quick nap. I was in what I could tell was like a prewar school bus. Outside the bus was nothing but a white void. Every seat was empty except mine. Next thing I knew, others started to materialize in a blue shimmering effect. It was the rest of my friends save the designated three. The thing was, we were wearing different fatigues. We wore gray shirts with the word ARMY on it, a pair of black pants, and running shoes. So far it was pretty cool. I could feel everything that was going on here. We all looked at each other. "This is intense," I heard Zack say next to me. A square screen popped up in mid air like a portal or something. It was Jared.
"Huh?" He said as if he didn't see us at first, "Oh hey guys. I'm glad you're all synchronized otherwise I wouldn't be able to talk to you all at once. I've been going over some functions of the simulation pods and you won't believe what I found out."
"What?" Brooke asked.
"Well I guess I should already tell you that you've all been in the pods for an hour," Jared was a jumble of surprise from us. "Yeah I know," He continued, "When you're in the pods, there is a feature that allows you all to experience things in different time rates than in the real world. I can scale it to make phase one last three days in real time while it would last three weeks inside that simulation pod." He stopped for a moment reading something. "Whoa check this out. The medical technology will augment your physical condition based on results you perform in the simulations. Basically, your physical and mental capabilities will both be affected based on your effort and progress in the simulation."
"In other words," I spoke up, "What we do in here in three weeks, affects our bodies and mind in three days if you scale it that way."
"Correct," Jared replied.
"Badass," John commented.
"Yeah," Jared said, "What you all are in right now is nothing more than something akin to limbo. You haven't entered the simulation yet, but you are prepared to any time I start the routine. Everything you all experience in the simulation, I control. I can enable or disable various programs in the simulation including the drill sergeant A.I's training routine, to the virtual world around you. There is a safeguard that requires three different passwords, which I will give to you Nate, that disables safety protocols. If those were disabled. You all could die or become brain dead. Apparently, these simulations were designed not only to train soldiers, but also to give the soldier's a refresher course. It's really quite ingenious. But enough of that, I'm going to run the first week in the simulations for you guys. Don't worry. The life support pods will keep you all nourished and healthy. Don't worry about food or water. And you….really don't want me to go into detail in how it deals with your digestive system. I'll also be monitoring all your vitals via screens up here and it'll alert me if anything begins to get out of hand….you know, in case I fall asleep. I'll let Jordyn know what's up if he comes snooping around too. Good luck guys."
With that, his screen disappeared and immediately two people materialized. One was a man in an Army Combat Uniform (ACU for short) and he was behind the wheel of the bus. The other wore the same uniform only with a drill sergeant hat. "Listen up recruits," The drill sergeant spoke with authority, "I am Drill Sergeant Alan. You will refer to me as such. You have all begun the simulation for Phase One of Army branch of Basic Combat Training. In this simulation, everything you experience will be replicated from real training and exercise routines used by the U.S Army Basic Training Regime. Do not disappoint and refer to your Commanding Officer if you have any questions about this simulation. Am I clear?"
We all nodded.
"What the hell was that!?" Drill Sergeant Alan yelled, "You will all speak to me in standard military address. That means Yes Sir!"
"Yes Sir!"
We learned how real the simulation was going to be, especially when the world outside the bus began to materialize. First came the road we were currently driving on, then the grass, then the shrubs and trees. Then after that, a compound was forming out of thin air along with the sky. It was then, we began our virtual week of basic training.
Phase one was known as "The Red Phase or Patriot phase". It was constant physical training while learning standard military procedures and formations. It was basic stuff. Marching in formation, standing at attention, learning facing, and basic military commands. We would work with weighted rubber ducks. Rubber ducks were fake M16 assault rifles. It was quite the experience. Phase two involved learning about different weapons, which was mostly a waste of time as we all had this training before. Also we went through hand to hand combat, learning a few tricks we didn't know before. We would also pretty much go over field medical aid, again, we already knew that much. Phase three was by far the most fun as it involved Field Training. Field Training was broken up into three sections. The first was survival, something we were familiar with. The second was general Field Tactics such as unloading from an APC or rappelling down from a helicopter. Another was using cover and suppressing fire. After those exercises, the simulation ended in Urban Combat and Wilderness Combat Training.
The Simulations gave us a little advice. But me in particular, thirsted for more. The others were the same, only they treated it like another day in school. I treated it as an essential. EOD training was something we had touched on in the Vault but never got in depth. Howitzer Operational Training was interesting, but as far as I knew, we didn't have one down here. The vehicular training was amazing all rounding out at about ten hours each course in real time. Quartermaster training was pretty much an advanced version of weapon maintenance training and cataloging them. We also learned how to maintain the Bunker and use its systems to their full potential.
Finally, the thing I had been waiting on was the Power Armor Training. When the simulation was activated, the setting was pretty simple. It was nothing but a room with an instructor wearing something like the neural interphase suit but gray in color. We were taught that wearing one was necessary to use the T-45d Power armor so that the movements that the armor made, matched the wearer's. It also prevented the armor from making movements that would shatter a bone or tear a muscle of the wearer from power assisted servos. The usage of this particular power armor would give the wearer superior protection and strength but hinders the mobility of the wearer. Most bullets wouldn't dent the power armor unless armor piercing or higher caliber bullets from a sniper rifle were available. It was also resistant to laser weaponry. Its subsystems included a purifying air filtration system, an LED search light, and optical lenses for recording and zooming in on distances.
When I finished with the Power armor training simulation, I knew right away that the T-45d Power armor wouldn't be used for general operations. With everything I had just come up with, all the knowledge and virtual experience I had just gained, I would outfit any future troops and proceed in future operations quite differently than I originally planned. Because of the nature of the Power Armor, it wouldn't do us any good if every soldier was wearing it. It was meant to make the wearer a walking tank. Not to mention the use of new vehicles. I was itching just to get out and drive one of the motorcycles. I would keep my wishes under control for the moment. After all, we had to give the others a personal tour of their new home. After that, I'd see where we'd go from there.