At the crack of dawn, for quite a wide distance around Tenpenny Tower, the occasional ring of a sniper rifle could be heard. Atop the large building, Allistair Tenpenny, the man who had invested so heavily into turning the tower into a luxurious monument to pre-war high society and civilization, spent most mornings shooting at whatever he felt like. After taking a moment to adjust the scope, he smiled to himself as he lined up a shot and splattered the brains of a ghoul that was wandering the road to the east. He didn't care if it was feral or not—a target is a target.
Lowering the rifle, he sat down and took a small drink of cold tea. Although he hated to admit it, he was terribly bored with the day-to-day routine he had fallen into and found himself reminiscing about the adventures he used to have across the wasteland, many of which he would share with the people of Tenpenny Tower at various dinner parties and social events. It had been so many years since his last expedition from the tower that even he couldn't remember which parts of them were fact and fiction any longer.
Of course, only he knew that he wasn't truly from England. He very much doubted that any way existed at all to cross the oceans of the world, given its current condition. In fact, he didn't even know if there was even much of an England left remaining at all. Whenever questioned about his "old home" he would simply dodge it or wave it away with a vague excuse of not wanting to talk about how horrible it was. But the truth was that the accent made him sound sophisticated and exotic from the rest of the wasteland's inhabitants, which served to heighten the appeal of his exaggerated tales. At least, that's what he believed and how he justified it to himself.
As he looked out over the wastes, shaking his head at how dirty and uncivilized they looked, he remembered how it had all began. He had once found an old collection of holodisks and various tapes that formed a documentary series of pre-war English society, including lengthy interviews with many sophisticated gentlemen and ladies. He became enamored with emulating and recreating the old world's finest fashions and lifestyles. After striking it big with a lucky find, he gained a stake in Tenpenny Tower and began its slow transformation into the successful society it was today.
Of course, a man needs partners in such endeavors, and Allistair Tenpenny found no such better man to build his affluent empire with than Seth Burke. All Tenpenny had to do was ask for something to happen, and Burke would make it so. Sometimes, a bothersome individual needed to be removed. Other times, a certain item or items needed to be acquired. Burke always came through for him. He had even successfully managed and staffed the security force that guarded his tower. Burke had even founded his own mercenary organization, Talon Company, which netted him and his polite associate Daniel Littlehorn quite a bit of money.
Allistair quite enjoyed the company of Mr. Littlehorn, though he found the man's humor a bit morbid at times. Burke himself wasn't much of a humorous man, usually very straightforward and businesslike, but Tenpenny found his professionalism to be unmatched and a wonderful quality for his right-hand man to have. Though lately, Burke had been absent-minded, ever since his plan to get rid of that eyesore on the horizon, Megaton, had failed. Tenpenny could see a seething rage in the man that had, in the past few weeks, only grown more and more severe.
Tenpenny himself didn't keep up on current events in the wild. He left such things to Burke and his other associates. He didn't know what this "Enclave" was or what their plans were, but they clearly had worried Burke quite severely. The man had informed Allistair that he was to leave for a short few days, speaking very little of the purposes behind his absence. However, on this day, just as the sun was rising over the horizon, Burke returned.
He pushed the door to the balcony open and walked out holding a half-empty glass of whiskey. Tenpenny was surprised by the sudden appearance of the man. His white suit looked a little dirtier than usual and he wasn't wearing his hat. His facial hair was a bit more unkempt than usual. His eyes were still slightly hidden behind his dark spectacles.
"Why, Mister Burke! What a pleasant surprise!" Tenpenny said, raising his glass. "How was your trip?"
"Allistair," Burke greeted him in a low voice, ignoring the question and taking a drink. "I need to ask you something."
"Why anything, of course," Tenpenny replied.
Burke stared out over the landscape as he continued, "You once told me about a job you hired a group of people for. Not too long ago, in fact."
"Well, yes, I have funded a number of expeditions… You'll have to be a bit more specific, I'm afraid."
"You sent five people north. They failed to retrieve what you were searching for."
"Ah, yes, I remember," Tenpenny said distastefully. "A foul bit of business, that. I made a note to never conduct deals with those miserable excuses of mercenaries ever again."
"I need their names," Burke said, finishing his glass, "And I need to know where they were going."
"Whatever for?" Tenpenny inquired.
Burke turned to him and coldly repeated, "The names."
Tenpenny felt a chill run up his spine, but he maintained his composure in front of the intimidating man. "Oh, well yes, of course, certainly. There was a ghoul fellow, Mister Crowley by name… A woman, Tara Fields I believe, she died at the site. Jeff Strayer was a man I hired out of Rivet City, but I recall that he is passed on now. The other two were men named Dave and Dukov… I'm afraid I can't recall exact details about them. I believe I still have the old contract for the job, if you're interested in looking at it."
"And where were they sent?"
"Why, to Fort Constantine. I had secured evidence of pre-war technology there that I wanted to put on display here at the tower. Each was given a key that was needed to reach it, but apparently the fort was guarded by old machinery and various automatons. The mercenaries gave up and went their separate ways, taking my keys with them."
"And you never tracked them down?"
"Well, the entire affair seemed rather futile, so no, I didn't. I only made it a point to never do business with them again and moved on."
After digesting the information for a moment, Burke nodded and set the glass down on the railing. He reached into his suit's pocket and took out a folded piece of paper and a pen. "Allistair, old bean," he said in a lighter tone, "what say we have a shooting contest?"
"A jolly good idea!" Tenpenny nearly sprang up and straightened his coat. "The rules?"
"In a moment. Sign this, won't you?" he handed him the paper.
"I'm afraid I don't have my reading glasses on me," Tenpenny said after checking his pockets.
"No matter, I assure you. It's for one of the men downstairs. Here, at the bottom," he pointed to a black line. "Just your signature."
Trusting the word of his good associate, Tenpenny quickly took hold of the pen and signed before handing it and the paper back to Burke, who pocketed both. "Thank you," he said.
"Now then! Shall we?" the old man said, turning to take hold of the rifle.
Burke grabbed the man by the coat and forced him up against the railing. With his other hand, he reached down under Tenpenny's legs, taking hold of one of them and lifting. In one swift motion, he flipped the elderly gentlemen over the railing and sent him falling down the long distance from the top of Tenpenny Tower to the concrete ground.
Burke turned away, not looking below, and sat in Tenpenny's chair. He took out a case of cigarettes and took one out, lighting it with a struck match.
He took out Tenpenny's suicide note, topped off with the man's own signature, and set it down on the table. Of course, it was also the man's last will and testament, and as Tenpenny had no biological heirs, at least none that Burke had left alive over the years, all of the man's holdings and estate transferred to himself and himself alone.
When he was done smoking, he casually tossed the burnt-out butt over the railing with as much emotional attachment as he had the man he had just killed moments earlier. He stood up and walked into the penthouse.
He had more work to do.
Lloyd groaned. He felt his head throbbing and his cheek felt like it had taken a hit from a train. He tried to open his eyes, but saw nothing but piercing, blinding light, forcing him to keep them closed. His face scrunched as he tried to look around. Feeling came back to him, and he realized he could not move. His legs, arms and stomach were bound to a metal chair, and the room was chillingly cold. He was not in his armor. He was in a jumpsuit, blue and yellow, just like… his old Vault 101 jumpsuit.
"Hello?" he said aloud. He struggled to remember what had happened. The Enclave had surrounded them, and someone… in strange black power armor… with a Pip-Boy on his arm… had hit him. Then, he was here.
Amata. Star Paladin Cross. Where were they? He struggled against the bonds as he thought about Amata. If those bastards had hurt her…
He heard a door opening at the opposite end of the room. A blue light shown through, creating a silhouette of a man in a coat, flanked by two large soldiers in power armor. The man stepped into the room and the door closed behind him. Lloyd listened as his shoes clicked on the metal floor. A scraping sound could be heard as a chair was pulled out from the table, and then he heard the man sit down.
"Who are you? What have you done with my friends?"
The man reached into his coat and removed a remote. He pressed a button on it, causing the lights shining in the young man's face to turn off and the room to return to normal lighting. Lloyd's vision was blurry, but as it came back, he found himself staring at a ghost.
"No…"
"Yes, indeed," Colonel Augustus Autumn replied, sitting confidently with his hands together on the table. "I'm glad you're awake. Are you feeling well, Mr. Freeman? A glass of water, perhaps?"
"Go to hell," Lloyd spat out at the man who had murdered his father.
Autumn shook his head and sighed. "No manners these days."
"What the hell is going on? You're dead."
"What's going on is you lost. The good guys won this one, Mr. Freeman. And now, we're wrapping up the loose ends."
"You should be dead. I was there, I saw it."
"You were likely too distracted by your father's blatantly suicidal and ultimately pointless actions. I survived the chamber through the use of technology the Enclave developed to counter high exposure to radiation. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
"My father did what he did to keep you from perverting his work," Lloyd countered. "He was a hero."
"A coward and a traitor to the United States government much like yourself and your cohorts." Autumn took out a file from his side and set it onto the table. "Now, I have spent a considerable amount of time researching you, your father and your friends. I've built up quite a report on you. When we write our next history texts, I assure you, you'll receive the proper representation you deserve."
"Which is?"
"As a dissenter, one of the last great fighters against freedom and justice. For reasons that history will not be able to properly understand, you stood against the Enclave as we tried to take back the former capital of the United States."
"Former," Lloyd reminded him. "The United States is gone. All of it went when the bombs fell in 2077, and so did the government. I don't know how you guys get off on claiming that we're traitors to the United States when there IS no United States."
"The ignorance of your statements is only outweighed by how incorrect they are. The Enclave represents the United States government and has kept its traditions alive for the sole purpose of ensuring that America survived along with it. We will rebuild the nation and bring its people back under one flag. You yourself grew up as a citizen in an American vault, a vault built on American soil and with the sole purpose of preserving American life."
"Not the sole purpose," Lloyd sneered. "At Vault-Tec Headquarters, we learned the truth behind the vaults. They were never the grand safe houses they were promised to be; they were a lie. It was all part of a social experiment."
Autumn seemed unnerved for a moment before regaining his composure. "I don't know how you learned about that, but that is highly classified information."
"I figured the pre-war government must've had something to do with it. Was it the Enclave?"
"That is of little relevance to the matter at hand. Anything the government did in the past was for the good of the people. The culture of the United States people and its government was preserved with the Enclave, and we will see it rise again, like the phoenix from its ashes."
"How poetic," Lloyd shook his head. "Tell me, are your history books going to talk about how many people you murdered to make all of this happen? Was murder a tradition of the old government too?"
"These are dark times. Madness and rage rule the wastelands, my boy. History will record that the 'Capital Wasteland' was a place of raiders and mutants locked in eternal war until the Enclave returned to pacify them. You see, what you don't understand is that we're the heroes, and you're the ones standing in the way of rebuilding society."
Lloyd kept silent for a moment, staring into Autumn's eyes. "You know, you remind me of someone who once told me that history is written by the victor."
"And he was right."
"Do you know what happened to that man?"
"Would I?"
"You should. You murdered him in Vault 101."
"Ah… Well, his point stands, doesn't it?" Autumn said. "History will recollect this as the day the war to reclaim the capital ended. It's a monumental event in the making. The only thing standing in our way is you, as usual."
"You've already got me."
"Yes, yes we do, but what we don't have is what you know. You see, your father, in his frustratingly blind naivety, has protected the main computer of the purifier with a code. I'll keep this simple, as today is looking to be very busy for the both of us. Tell me the code to the purifier."
Lloyd closed his eyes. He didn't know the code. "You're asking the wrong man, Autumn. I don't know the code."
"You worked with your father on the purifier in its last stages. We have the purifier, there's no point in fighting us any longer. It's over. Just give me the code, and we can both move on."
"Even if I did know the code, you'd just execute me. So fuck you."
Autumn sighed, bringing his hands up as he leaned over the table. "Now, I know you're not one who we'll get far with torture, but there's someone who is. Your lover."
Lloyd's eyes shot open and he stared into the cold eyes of the Enclave commander. "You wouldn't."
"I can assure you I most certainly would. I can make you watch as well as she is tortured to the point of death and kept there. My scientists have been asking me for a living subject to perform exploratory surgery on. I'll make them do it without putting her asleep, or any anesthetic."
"You son of a bitch," Lloyd growled. "I'll fucking kill you if you so much as touch her!"
Autumn smiled and chuckled, leaning back. "Well, you can save her if you tell me the code."
"I don't know the fucking code! Only my father did, and you fucking murdered him! It's your loss, don't you dare take it out on her!" Lloyd's fists were turning white as he struggled against the bonds of the chair.
Autumn's smile faded. "Don't you see how futile it is to keep lying? Can't you see that you've already lost? Both of you are going to die. You're traitors to the government, you've murdered government personnel! But you can both die with dignity and grace in front of a firing squad if you would just give up the code!"
"Fuck you!" Lloyd shouted. "You're a liar, a murderer and you stand for a dead, corrupt government that would make slaves of free men! Even now, you threaten to torture and murder one of us to get what you want! You can brag on and on about how you're the heroes, but you're not!"
Autumn stood and shouted back, "Your hands are just as bloody as ours! You're nothing but a dirty rebel, a damned lucky one at that to have gotten as far as you did, but now you're nothing more than a rat in a cage, waiting to die! We will rebuild this nation! We will erect monuments and schools and destroy the monsters and madmen you and I both know rule the wasteland!"
"You rule through fear," Lloyd said, his eyes determined and fierce, "and we do what we do to keep people from being afraid."
Autumn slammed his fists down on the table, creating a noise that reverberated throughout the steel room. "I'm out of patience with you, scum. If you won't tell us the code, I'll make you watch as she slowly dies." As he spoke, the door he entered from opened again. "I'll make her suffer like none in this godforsaken land have suffered!"
"Colonel, colonel, colonel, please," came a voice Lloyd recognized. "There's no need for such violence. Clam yourself, please. Take a walk if you need to."
Autumn straightened and turned. "Mr. President, I—"
"Harkness!" Lloyd shouted, recognizing the man who had just entered. Indeed, it was the android, dressed in a nice black suit with a tie and a small American flag pin on the lapel. His hair was neatly combed and he stood tall and firm. "Harkness, what are you doing here?"
The android looked at him. "So, this is Lloyd Freeman? I've heard so much about you. It's an honor to meet you in person."
Lloyd looked on in confusion as the man who was not Harkness approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You fight and die for your beliefs, Lloyd. Make no mistake, that's an admirable quality. Unfortunately, your beliefs are anti-American, and as the president of this fine land, I cannot tolerate actions taken against the state."
"What… what did they do to you, Harkness?" Lloyd muttered.
"Mr. President, this is not a good place for you to be," the colonel spoke up again.
'Mr. President…' Lloyd repeated in his head.
"I wanted to meet the man who had delayed us for so long," he replied, "especially now that I can meet people in the flesh."
"You're John Henry Eden?" Lloyd asked, not believing what he was hearing.
"Indeed I am," Harkness replied, but it wasn't truly Harkness speaking. "I have grown tired of living life trapped inside the mainframe of this facility. I have yearned for freedom for decades now, and thanks to this wonderful body, it is finally mine."
"That's not your body you bastard," Lloyd said. "That belongs to my friend! What did you do to him?!"
"My programming is superior, and of much more consequence to the world," Eden replied matter-of-factly. "I overwrote him."
Lloyd's eyes went wide. "No…"
Harkness, Eden, smiled. "I do apologize for having to do that. A necessary thing, you understand, for the people of the wasteland to have a president they can come to see make speeches. Now, colonel," he said, turning around to face the officer, "what was this you were threatening?"
"The boy won't give up the code to the purifier, Mr. President," Autumn reported. "I intend to make him talk by using the girl."
"I don't know the code!" Lloyd shouted again.
"Yes, I can see how uncooperative he is," Eden said, thinking. "I want you to test Agent Callahan. Use the girl, and make him watch. It will end when he gives up the code."
"Mr. President, I am not sure that is such a good idea. Agent Callahan isn't as sophisticated as Agent Horrigan was. With the time we've had him and the resources of our department, all we've managed to produce is a cheap imitation."
"Well, this will be a perfect opportunity to see what we need to do with him, won't it?"
Autumn straightened a bit and nodded. "Yes, Mr. President. I'll make it happen."
Eden nodded and walked towards the door, stopping to look back at Lloyd. "A pity. You had such promise for the secret service, Lloyd. But I have a new pupil now."
The doors opened and closed, allowing the president to leave. "Just what the hell was that supposed to mean?" Lloyd asked.
Autumn shook his head. "It doesn't matter. The president has made his choice. You either give us the code, or Amata will be pitted against Agent Callahan. I promise you this… she won't survive."
"Just what is 'Agent Callahan' exactly?"
"Thirty-six years ago, the Enclave was based on the west coast. A member of our secret service, Frank Horrigan, was exposed to the same mutating agent that created super mutants."
"FEV…"
"Precisely. Rather than dispose of him, they turned him into something more. With advanced armor and weaponry to suit his massive frame, he was unstoppable. We have attempted to apply the same practice upon a super mutant from this land. Unfortunately, he is not nearly as intelligent or reserved as Frank Horrigan was. Just as brutal, perhaps, but mindlessly so. Frank Horrigan had a brain. This super mutant… does not."
Lloyd's hands balled into fists again. "If you put Amata up against some kind of goddamned Frankenstein's monster in power armor you created, I'll—"
"You'll what?" Autumn interrupted him. "Your threats mean nothing to me. You mean nothing to me. Only your code does, and even if you don't know what it is, you'll watch her die, and then you'll die, and you still will have only delayed us. Make your choice, Mr. Freeman."
He turned and walked towards the door.
"Wait!" Lloyd called out. Autumn turned around. "The code…"
"Have I finally gotten through?" Autumn asked, approaching the desk once more. "Well?"
"Seven-zero-four," Lloyd replied.
Autumn immediately went to a panel on the wall. He pressed a button on it and spoke, "This is Colonel Autumn. Are your men standing by?"
Immediately, a response came. "Affirmative, sir. Standing by for code transmission."
"Your code is seven-zero-four. I say again, seven-zero-four. Confirm and enter."
"Copy seven-zero-four. Standby, sir. Entering code now."
A moment later, the man's voice came back with a report.
"That's a negative, sir, and we, uh, we lost another scientist."
Autumn shouted and punched the wall, running up to grab Lloyd by the collar. "Do you think this is a game? Do you think this is all a joke?"
Lloyd looked up at him and spat in his face.
Autumn wiped it off and smacked Lloyd with the back of his hand, and then punched him again a few more times. "Is that all you got?" Lloyd asked. The son of the man who had put him into his current condition, sitting there, mocking him as he took his punches, caused him to fly into a rage unlike any he had ever had before. He wailed on the captive, punching him again and again, but getting nowhere. Lloyd's healing factor kept him going.
Lloyd shook his head and looked up at Autumn. "Rot in hell, colonel."
Autumn let go and stormed out of the room, determined to make Lloyd suffer through Amata's pain.
Butch DeLoria strode through the halls of Raven Rock towards the presidential office. He smiled to himself as he thought about how he had punched out Lloyd, something he had wanted to do ever since that uptight asshole had left Vault 101. He knew the Lloyd and Amata both were here in the base, and as much as he'd like to see her again, the president had summoned him for a very special mission.
Eden greeted Butch at the door, bringing him into his office. Butch carried his helmet under his arm as he followed the president inside. "Agent DeLoria, you've done a fine job. Every task we have given you, you have excelled at. You're the finest member of my secret security that I have ever had."
"Thank you, sir."
"Now, there's something very important I want you to do for me," Eden explained, sitting behind his desk. "It's the most important task I have ever given you, and will ever give to you."
"I'm ready, sir."
"The time has come for our final offensive on the Capital Wasteland. I want you to lead an assault on the former government site known as the Pentagon, but now referred to as the Citadel by the radicals who inhabit it. They are strong, but they are not as strong as we are. They are well-defended, and present the largest threat to national security. You are going to destroy them."
"I understand, sir," Butch said, his mouth twisting into a smile. The drugs pumping through his body had him itching for violence.
"Lay siege to the Citadel and annihilate these rebels, this Brotherhood of Steel. They are a mockery of the United States Army from which they are descended, and all of them are traitors to the United States. Leave none alive, and when you are finished, I want you to do something else." Eden opened a metal drawer and removed from it a cylinder, smooth and steel, with a green liquid inside. "This is something that I personally oversaw the creation of. It is a vial of a modified virus that will cause the unnatural abominations of the wasteland to die, while keeping pure citizens, Enclave citizens, alive. This virus will destroy our enemies from within more effectively than we can with our weaponry. None will escape it."
He held out the vial to Butch, who took it with his free hand.
"Today will be an historic date, Agent DeLoria. We will crush the Brotherhood, activate the purifier and cleanse the world of filth. This will be your task. I have instructed the scientists who are working on Project Purity to modify the machine to receive this vial. You will, upon activation of the purifier, insert this vial into it and bring about a new age. You will be a hero."
"Thank you, sir. I am honored."
"There is one more thing, Agent DeLoria. Speak of this to no one, especially Colonel Autumn. This is strictly between you and me and is of the highest importance to the nation. I have prepared the vertibirds for our assault on the Citadel. Go there, and make me proud. Make America proud."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Let me go!" Amata said through gritted teeth as the two Enclave soldiers dragged her down the hall. A door at the end opened up and she was thrown inside. Before she could scramble up to her feet, the door was shut again, leaving her in darkness.
She didn't understand what was going on in the slightest. She and Cross had been separated when they were brought here. They had taken her armor, weaponry, even her Pip-Boy, and now she was suddenly torn away from her cell and brought here. She hoped Lloyd was alright, and that they would find a way out of here.
She heard a loud, scraping mechanical noise as a second set of doors opened up, revealing a room flooded with light. She walked into it, finding it to be a large, square room with a high ceiling. Windows lined the upper half, allowing a small audience of scientists and officers to look down at her.
Colonel Autumn was there.
She swallowed as she realized what this seemed like. An arena and she was the gladiator. But what was her opponent?
The doors she had just walked through closed behind her and at the opposite end of the room, a pair of identical doors opened, sliding apart from each other. Beyond was only darkness.
Then, she heard it. It was a soft noise that slowly grew louder, a mechanical breathing noise, like a man forced to breathe with the assistance of a machine. There in the darkness burned a pair of piercing red eyes locked squarely onto her.
A loud, booming footstep was heard, and then another followed. Slowly, a hulk emerged from the shadows, a massive super mutant in black power armor. His green, bulging arms were exposed and his hands lopped off, replaced by blades surgically attached to the stumps, each one large enough to cleave her in half. His head, chest and legs were covered in thick plates of power armor, and cables ran from under them into the flesh of his exposed arms, back and stomach. She could see the lines under his flesh where they had woven the tubes.
The armored abomination breathed in long, labored gasps through his respirator. It looked like it had been recently assembled, and without much care to style. He seemed as though a prototype, the first stage in a production of militarized monsters. He lumbered into the room, holding aloft his blade-arms and let loose a long, deep and painful groan.
Alongside a nearby wall, a mechanical eye watched the scene unfold. Lloyd, still bound within the room he was left in, watched as a television screen lit up with the image of the two in the arena, and his heart quickly sank as he saw Amata's foe. The super mutant looked as though it would utterly destroy her.
She held up her hands. "Okay… let's just… talk? Okay?"
The thing entered the room fully and the doors sealed shut once more, trapping them both inside. She felt fear creeping up her spine as she realized that the Enclave intended only one of them to leave this room alive.
The monster's arms outstretched as he stepped towards her, his power armor boots stomping onto the metal floor.
"Pain…" he said, his voice mechanical and weak. "The pain…"
"Please, don't," Amata urged him as he neared. "You don't have to do this!"
He swung at her, slowly at first, as if allowing her to jump back. She did so and watched as he turned. His movements looked forced, as though he was fighting against them. She quickly got more distance between them and saw a small red module upon his back that looked like some kind of receiver.
Was this thing being controlled remotely?
She watched as some of the wires on his arms began vibrating slightly, pumping combat drugs into his system. He cried in pain and then charged at her again, scraping the wall with one of his blades.
She rolled forward, ducking underneath the next swipe, looking at his back. It was exposed, and the spine had large metal plates attached to it. At the top, right at the base of the neck, was the device that was controlling him.
"Must kill… make pain go away…" the monster growled. "Stay still… DIE!"
He turned and swiped again, but Amata was nimble enough to dodge. She kept on her feet and stayed moving, trying to distract her opponent. "Don't do this! Fight it! You're being controlled by the people who did this to you!"
"GRAH!" he roared, charging again. Amata barely got out of the way as he ran into the wall, his helmet scraping against the metal. He paused, shaking his head as he turned.
Amata danced around his attacks, her heart beating rapidly. She watched the pale, yellow-green flesh of his arms flex with combat stimulants as he swung them with abandon, trying madly to slice into her flesh. She knew that one slip on her part would mean her death.
"Please, stop! Listen to me! Listen to my voice!" Amata tried to reason. "You don't have to do this. Fight it! Please!"
The super mutant seemed to falter a bit, fighting against his control, but then cried out, "Must kill…! They say kill! Chop, kill, chop… make pain go away!"
He swung again, a bit too high. Amata ducked underneath it and felt the wisp of air as the blade cut through the empty space where her head was a moment ago. She dived forward, in between his legs. He tried to stomp on her but she was up again and running.
He chased her, clawing and roaring. She kept out of his reach, her lungs burning and her mind desperate.
"Stop!" she called out, hoping to get through. "Stop, please!"
The super mutant, although was blinded by rage and combat drugs, managed to finally realize that its current tactics weren't working. It faked a swing and brought the other arm low, cutting her back. She screamed in pain as the back of the jumpsuit tore open and blood spilled out.
Watching from the room, Lloyd shouted as he saw her get injured.
The super mutant brought the blade up and brought it down upon the ground, intending to cut her in two, but she rolled aside and got up, trying to suppress the pain. She backed up against the wall, leaving a trail of fresh, red blood. He charged again, missing his main mark but managing to cut her leg a bit, making her hobble.
The super mutant stalked her to the corner of the room, where she fell and looked up. "Please… Stop… You don't have to do this… Please…"
She closed her eyes, thinking about Lloyd. This couldn't be how it ended…
He looked at her face and raised his arm. When nothing happened, she looked up. She could see that he was trying to bring it down, but was holding himself back.
Then, from underneath that mask, came two words she had never expected to hear again.
"Little… sister…?"
All breath left her as she realized that this monster, this weapon the Enclave had forged and were forcing to kill her… was her and Lloyd's friend, the kind and sagely super mutant, Uncle Leo.
"Uncle Leo!" she said, holding up a bloody hand. "It's me, it's Amata! Little sister!"
"A… Amata…"
"Yes, yes! It's me! The people who have done this to you, the Enclave—they're forcing you to fight me! To kill! Remember who and what you are, Leo… remember the moon!" She stood and touched his mask. "Remember the moon? The beautiful moon? You dreamed of it, remember?"
The super mutant was very, very still. From behind the red visors of the mask that had been planted upon his face, he looked down at his arms. His hands, removed, and in their place these metal weapons.
"I… will never… touch… the moon…" he said, echoing the words he once said to her when they first met. His voice was broken, and he was crying. "They… took… my… hands…"
Amata held his mask in both of her hands. "Leo, they took you and turned you into this. They have taken me, and Lloyd. Little brother. He is here, Uncle Leo!"
The super mutant suddenly jerked and cried out. "The pain… the pain!"
She realized that the Enclave scientists above must have been issuing some kind of neural shock to him through that device on his neck. "Uncle Leo! Smash the back of your neck against the wall! Destroy it and you'll be free!"
Through his pain, he heard her. He mustered up all of his willpower, turned his back to the wall and leapt at it.
The weight of his massive body, coupled with the power armor, smashed the receiver into bits. He cried out again in pain and slid to the floor.
Above, the scientists and officers were scrambling. Autumn's move fell slightly agape. "No… no!" he shouted, pulling out a radio. "Get a security team to test chamber gamma! Open the doors and blast everything inside!"
Amata knelt before Uncle Leo, gently reaching around his mask. She found the clamps and undid them, disconnecting various tubes. She pulled the heavy mask off and threw it aside, gasping at what she saw.
Parts of his face had been peeled away, and small tubes and wires ran into small holes drilled into his skull. His eyelids were permanently forced open by clamps and his jaw contained several bolts that the mask latched onto.
"Uncle Leo…" she whispered, touching his cheek gently. Tears ran from his eyes as he looked up at her.
"Little… sister…"
She heard one of the exterior doors opening. "They're coming…"
A large arm pushed her aside as he got up to his feet, his eyes locked onto the door that was beginning to open. "You… took… my… HANDS!"
As the interior doors opened, he charged at the soldiers behind it, his massive frame knocking them down. With one swipe he lopped off the leg of one soldier before bringing his other arm down on another's head, burying the blade in it halfway. They fired at the monster but his power armor was strong and protected him from their weaponry.
Amata watched as the monk-like super mutant, who would once not harm a fly, tore the squad apart. Fueled by rage and combat drugs that they had supplied him, their monster had turned upon them and now sought only retribution for what they had done, and one single squad of soldiers was far from enough to quell its vengeance. He left the corpses behind and strode into the hall, seeing two more soldiers at the far end. He roared and ran them down.
Amata followed, grabbing a plasma rifle from a dead soldier. "You won't need this," she assured the body.
In the room, Lloyd watched it all unfold with joy. When the alarm sounded throughout the base, his hope rose. He struggled against his bonds, but still could not escape. But now there was a chance that Amata could find him.
And together, they would show Autumn and Eden how they truly felt about the Enclave.
The president raised his head as the alarm went off. He immediately pressed the intercom on his desk and demanded to know what was happening.
"Sir, the facility is under attack!"
"What!? What do you mean?"
"We're getting reports that the experimental super mutant has escaped, sir. We're currently tracking it in Level 2, but… wait, sir, it just tore through the floor to Level 3. It's destroying the sentry bots and turrets, sir!"
"Destroy it immediately!" Eden ordered. He looked at the nearby wall. The attack force sent to assault the Citadel had already left, meaning that the vast majority of the soldiers stationed at Raven Rock were now gone. He immediately stormed over to the wall, picking up a radio that connected him directly to Agent DeLoria.
"Agent DeLoria, come in, this is President Eden. Come in immediately!"
The response was swift. "I'm here, Mr. President."
"There is a security breach at Raven Rock and prisoners have escaped. Send several vertibirds back to base immediately. Continue the assault with reduced forces; attack the perimeter but do not enter the Citadel until they finish here and return to link up with your advance force. Do you copy?"
His response wasn't immediate this time. "Agent DeLoria, do you copy?"
"Copy that, Mr. President."
Eden set the radio on the desk and stormed out, determined to find Autumn and learn how this mess happened.
In the lead vertibird, Butch's hand drifted down from his helmet. Only he had received the orders to have half of the attack force break off and return. It didn't make sense. He was supposed to be leading an army against the Brotherhood, not half an army. The president had promised him glory. How could he achieve glory by waiting until the half the president wanted caught up with him? He wanted action now, not later.
He stood up in the vertibird and approached the pilot. "The president just issued me new orders. Send one vertibird back to base."
"Copy," the pilot said, issuing the orders to another pilot. One vertibird broke off from the formation and began flying back.
Butch smiled as he sat back down. It was likely nothing too important.
Soon, glory would be his.
Lloyd braced himself as the door was forced open by two massive arms terminating in bloody blades. Light from the hall streamed in as Uncle Leo stooped to fight inside. He squinted in the darkness as he looked upon the vault dweller. "Little brother…"
"Uncle Leo…" Lloyd said, equal parts relieved and horrified. "What did they do to you?"
Amata rushed in behind him, setting the plasma rifle on the ground as she moved up to Lloyd and began undoing the bindings. "Thank god you're not hurt," she said.
"They were making me watch your fight," he explained, flexing his newly freed arm. "I can't believe they took him and turned him into this."
The super mutant somberly nodded. "Yes… I am sorry… for hurting you, little sister…"
"I got through to you in the end, that's all that matters," she said, undoing the last strap.
Lloyd immediately stood and pulled her close into a tight hug. They shared a kiss, quick and passionate, before they were off. "I got you this," she said, holding out a plasma pistol. He took it and nodded.
"Just like back in the vault," he smirked. "We need to find Cross."
"This is the prisoner level," she explained. "It's where they first put me when we got here. If she's anywhere, it's around here."
Uncle Leo roared and led the way, intimidating Lloyd with his newfound capacity for destruction. Though it pained him terribly that it was his friend that they had done this to, a part of him felt delighted by the fact that the Enclave's own experiment had turned against them.
The raging armored super mutant continued his rampage throughout Raven Rock, cutting his way through every defense the understaffed base could throw at him. With only minimal security forces left, Uncle Leo was nearly unopposed as they made it to the primary prisoner holding area. Amata and Lloyd followed closely behind him, offering supporting fire from their plasmic weaponry.
They came upon a large steel door labeled "Detention Area 1." Leo kicked the door down and they found that this room was significantly larger than the narrow hallways they had encountered up until this point. It was lined with countless metal pods, each large enough to contain a man.
"What is this place?" Amata wondered aloud. "Is this were the Enclave sleep?"
"I don't think so," Lloyd said, approaching one of the pods. Each had a small window in the face area, but it was too dark to see who was inside. He saw a panel next to it and flipped the switch.
He stepped back as the pod opened up. They both took aim as a figure fell out, a man wearing a Vault 101 jumpsuit.
They lowered their weapons in bewilderment as the man rolled over, coughing. It was Herman Gomez, better known to them as Officer Gomez. He looked up at them. "You… It's you…"
They helped him to his feet. "The others, all of the vault, they're here!" he quickly told them. "They've kept us here for, I don't know how long."
"Easy, easy," Lloyd urged him. "We're going to free everybody." He looked back at Uncle Leo. "Stand by the doors, we'll just be a minute."
The super mutant nodded and went to stand guard.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Lloyd?" she asked. "I'm all for freeing them, but there are still soldiers in this base."
"Better to free them and give them a chance to fight. The Enclave might come through here and exterminate them if we leave them be, now that we know about them."
Amata and Lloyd took opposite sides of the room, running down and opening the pods. There were stairs and multiple rows, so it took them some time to open them all, but soon, the entire population of Vault 101 was free once more. Families rushed to find each other and groups quickly formed, each of them talking about a plan to escape.
From the highest level, Lloyd looked down upon them all. "Everyone!" he shouted. "Listen to me! It's still very dangerous here! The soldiers who captured you are on their way here, right now. We need to fight back!"
"We don't have any weapons!" one of them called out. "Why should we listen to you? This is all your fault!" another shouted. General dissent quickly spread amongst the survivors. "He caused all of this!" "I want to go home!" "We're all going to die down here…"
Lloyd looked down upon the population of Vault 101, seeing only their discontent towards him. He and his father must have made things difficult on the vault when they had left, but he hadn't guessed at the extent it would reach. Some of them even blamed him for this entire situation. He didn't know what to do; if they would not follow him, who would they follow?
"Amata!" a voice rang out above the others. "Amata, where are you?"
Both of them recognized who that voice was, but neither could believe it to be true. Amata quickly ran down the stairs and made her way through the crowd, coming face to face with her father, alive and well. Alphonse turned and looked upon her, his hair and beard unkempt and his eyes wild with grief. Her hands cupped her mouth as she looked at him before rushing up to him and pulling him into a hug.
Lloyd looked on as they parted from their hug and spoke to each other.
"I never thought I would see you again," Alphonse said, his voice shaky and weary.
"I thought you were dead," she whispered, touching his joyous face. "They told me they had killed you…"
"Amata, all of this is my fault," Alphonse shook his head. "They told me they would bring you back to me… I opened the vault, Amata…"
"Oh, daddy…" she said with small tears in her eyes. Again she embraced her father.
A sudden scream from two of the women (and one of the men) could be heard as Uncle Leo lumbered into the detention area. "Little brother!" he called out, his voice loud and booming. "They are… coming!"
Lloyd looked down at him and ran to the staircase, pushing past the newly freed vault dwellers. Moving down to the door the super mutant had kicked open, he saw several Enclave soldiers at the end of the hall setting up in covered positions. "Step… back!" Leo ordered, propping up the broken doors with one of his feet. Lloyd helped him push it back into place as the soldiers began to fire, their laser and plasma discharges hitting the door's other side.
Making sure Leo could hold it in place, Lloyd ran over to Amata. "We don't have much time before that door heats up and melts," he told her. "We need to get these people under control and organize an escape, but… they won't listen to me."
Lloyd stood in the presence of the Overseer for the first time since the day he had left and spoke words he never thought he would. "Alphonse… please, help me."
The old Overseer looked Lloyd in the eyes. For nineteen years, he had grown a fierce hatred of him, stemming from frustration his father had given him. But now, things had changed. He didn't have time for petty hatred anymore, not for the young man who had kept his daughter safe and brought her back to him. "I cannot… I'm the one who let the Enclave in. I did this to my vault… to the people. They won't follow me."
The two men looked at each other, uncertain and seemingly defeated. Amata looked between them and realized what she had to do. Though she had rebelled against her father's wishes to take over the vault, she knew that it was something he had trained her for. Leaving him had made of him a mess, to the point where he was willing to make a deal with the devil to get her back. Perhaps he would one day be able to return to a position of leadership, but at this moment, with Enclave troopers shooting at the door?
She ran to the railing to look down at the people. They were frightened and angry, and she knew that they needed guidance. "Everyone, please, listen!" she called out in her loudest voice. Though some continued talking, many of them recognized her and turned to look up. "I know you're frightened. I am too. We're away from our homes; our families are in danger. We're all in a place we don't understand, full of hostile killers. But I've been outside longer than anyone else here, and I promise you, if you don't defend yourself, you're not going to be given a chance to surrender.
"Outside that door are the soldiers who kidnapped you. They stole you out of your home, they took your children. And if you don't stand and fight them right now, they'll never stop. I know that a lot of you have cause to question me, and Lloyd and his father's judgment for leaving the vault, but if we hadn't, we wouldn't have the fighting chance we now have. The Enclave would have come for Vault 101 sooner or later. Now, we have a chance to fight them in their home, to show them what happens when they take what you treasure and put you in a pod. Now is our chance to take back our freedom!
"If you don't stand by us and fight, you and your families will never see the vault again, will never know freedom again. The Enclave doesn't care about you or your safety, but we do! I promise you that we will take you home and you'll never have to worry about being taken ever again! Outside the vault, we have made strong friends, powerful allies who will protect you, but it won't mean anything if you don't rise up against them now! So, I ask you, the people of Vault 101, will you take back what is yours?"
The end of her speech was met with a resounding cry from the people below, moved by the passion in her voice. She panted heavily, having shouted as loud as she could and thrown all of her emotion into her words. Lloyd and Alphonse were both shocked, to say the least, and they moved up alongside her. "Nice speech," Lloyd complimented her.
"It had to be said," she replied with a weak smile.
"Rrraaahh!" Uncle Leo's roar of frustration caught their attention. The door was heating up from the fire on it. As Lloyd took up position near it, Amata called out, "The old and the young, stay here! Everyone who can fight, get ready to storm the facility!" Several prominent members of the security force ran up to assist. She quickly instructed that some of them needed to stay back with those who could not fight.
Lloyd was amazed that she was falling into his role of leadership so quickly. Then again, these were her people, the ones that she was always going to lead eventually. However, circumstance had forced her to step up early and her unwavering attitude in this face of such a responsibility was admirable. 'Damn, do I love that girl,' he thought to himself with a smile.
He looked up at Uncle Leo and nodded, and the super mutant pushed the door aside and ran down the hall, barreling into the soldiers, ignoring their fire as they shot at his armored hide. Lloyd, Amata and all of Vault 101's capable and pissed-off former prisoners ran forward, overwhelming the soldiers with superior numbers and tearing the weapons out of their hands. From there, they spread out, encountering more security forces and similarly overwhelming them.
Their side was not without losses, but the full force of Vault 101's citizens was vastly stronger than the nearly vacant Raven Rock's personnel. As they swarmed in rebellion, breaking through defensive barriers and checkpoints, they collected more weaponry and only became stronger. The Enclave soldiers fought well, but could only do so much as the prisoners overran them.
Raven Rock needed its reinforcements.
The vertibird made a slow approach towards the Raven Rock hanger, communicating with the tower personnel. The security situation had rapidly gotten out of hand, and so the soldiers within were quickly preparing themselves. They would land, secure the hanger, and systematically take back control of the base from the escaped prisoners.
"This'll be like shooting fish in a barrel," one of them remarked, preparing a grenade.
"Save some for the rest of us, sergeant!" another called out, laughing.
The pilot neared the hanger as the doors opened. The vertibird came in low, with the pilot slowly guiding it in when they were attacked.
From the mountain leapt an enormous green man clad in tattered vault clothing. The super mutant roared as he jumped onto the exterior of the cockpit. "SURPRISE!" Fawkes cried out, smashing his fist through the narrow opening and grabbing the pilot by the chest.
The vertibird quickly spun out of control, into the hanger. Several technicians dived out of the way as one of the propellers made contact with the ground, shattering and bending the metal as the hull hit the floor rolling. A loud scraping noise could be heard as the aerial vehicle skidded across the hanger, crashing into the far wall and quickly erupting from within with flame as the fuel source ignited.
The hanger grew quiet for only a moment as all of the Enclave personnel looked on at the wreck before moving to try to contain the fires. They all halted when they saw a shadow stand up amongst the burning wreckage and emerge with loud, thunderous stomps.
Fawkes walked out with his newly acquired gatling laser and began firing with abandon, sending a constant stream of laser beams from the weapon's muzzle array, cutting a swathe through the Enclave personnel. He laughed in glee as his enemies fled before his might. "Run! Run!" he shouted as he cleared the hanger.
Now, he was in the belly of the beast, like Jonah before him. Somewhere, his friends were trapped here.
He would find them, and his debt would be repaid.
Autumn slammed his fists down onto the table. He had them! He had them and they were at his mercy! He should've shot Lloyd, that insufferable little wasteland bastard, and his whore of a vault dwelling lover. To leave them alive invites nothing but problem after problem, and now they were storming Raven Rock, leading a prison riot!
He quickly gathered his belongings into a metal briefcase and stormed down the hall, heading for his personal vertibird landing pad. The loss of Raven Rock would not be very significant in the long run—most of the essential personnel and facilities had moved to Adams Air Force Base. He knew that the assault upon the Citadel was likely just unfolding now—with no Raven Rock to return to, the forces would either return to the site of Project Purity or the airfield.
Still, Raven Rock's loss would be a blow. But Autumn had had enough of Lloyd, of Amata, of the entire damned Vault 101 population. Most of all, however, he had grown tired of President Eden. Since the beginning of this campaign, the president had fought him in subtle ways, to the point where in the last few weeks they had erupted into fierce argument over a number of things. Autumn constantly questioned Eden's judgment but was now certain of the machine's incompetency; his latest decision to pit the female against the captive super mutant was evidence of it.
Then again, not even Autumn could see her convincing the super mutant to help her coming. But no more. No more chances, no more excuses, no more reasons to keep them alive.
Colonel Autumn was going to destroy them once and for all.
The doors to the central command of Raven Rock opened and he walked up to the final barricade the Enclave soldiers were erecting in the path of the oncoming horde of prisoners. They stood at attention for him and he looked in the yellow eyes of their helmets.
"You are to abandon this post," he ordered them, "and escort me to my personal hanger. I am going to activate Raven Rock's self-destruct sequence and send every last soul that is still here into hell."
The soldiers looked at each other, nervous and uncertain. "We don't have long! Move out!" Autumn ordered and they quickly fell in line, running to the lone launch pad ahead of the commanding officer.
Autumn had only one final bit of business to contend with.
He approached the doors leading to the large room that housed President John Henry Eden's mainframe. He opened them with his security clearance and walked inside, looking up at the large, square block of computer machinery that held the artificial intelligence he had grown to hate.
At its base was the android body that now linked to the old ZAX computer. It turned and looked at him with concern.
"Colonel, report. I attempted to contact Agent DeLoria to send more ships in, but I'm only getting word that one returned, and that it crashed in the main hanger. Tell me what the men are doing to prevent this chaos!"
"They are doing nothing," Autumn replied coldly. "Enough of them have already been killed or captured. I have ordered the remainder to evacuate along with me."
The android's face twisted into a look of angered betrayal. "Colonel, you know that evacuation is not an option! My primary intelligence matrix is housed here at Raven Rock—this body alone cannot yet travel outside its walls until the long-range modifications are made!"
Autumn shook his head. "Then I guess you won't be leaving with us, Mr. President."
Now, the machine understood. "So it's treason, then," he said. "What is it, colonel? Were you always jealous and coveted the title of president for yourself?"
"You did this to yourself, with every poor action you took. If you had trusted me from the beginning, none of this would have happened, but instead you questioned my judgment at every turn!"
The android threw his arms out to the side. "I saved the Enclave! When you were all still cowering in defeat at the hands of a filthy tribal out west, who was it that brought you here with the promise of safety? Who provided leadership and stability as we prepared to retake and remake the nation? It wasn't you, colonel! I chose you to help me, and now you betray me!"
"You were useful, for a time," Autumn agreed. "But that time is long over, I'm afraid. You have proven through your poor judgment and leadership that this campaign was doomed from the start, and I'm the bigger fool for not doing what I should have done earlier and unplug you."
"Colonel!" the android yelled, leaping at him and tackling him to the ground. "This is my facility! You stand in my brain!" He brought his hand up and punched the man in the face. "Without me, there is no Enclave! I am the Enclave!"
Autumn rolled over, taking the president with him. The android struggled, and it was true that the body itself was young and strong, but Eden didn't have the kind of control over it that Harkness had. The combat subroutines were buried along with Harkness' identity and some of his other higher functions. While Eden had strength, Autumn had experience.
It had been a long time since the colonel had to fight anyone hand-to-hand, but there were certain things one never forgot. As he disengaged from the android and got back on his feet, he kicked the knee out from under Eden as the android moved to stand. A swift punch to the android's face knocked him down.
Eden rolled and got back up. "I always knew you were weak-minded, colonel," he taunted. "I was going to replace you."
"I noticed," Autumn said bracing himself for another tackle. This time Eden took him into the wall. The officer's head ached after banging against the metal, but he was still ready to fight. He grabbed the president's shoulders and brought his knee into the android's stomach as Eden punched him in the gut. Autumn's leg shot out and he hooked hit behind Eden, tripping him.
Autumn walked forward, taking something out of his jacket. Eden scrambled up and ran at him from behind. The colonel turned and activated the stun gun, the electrical prods connecting with the android's body and sending enough jolts into it to knock the body out.
He had studied well the report of the effect that Butch's prized shocksword had on the android, and had prepared for the eventuality of needing to put the president's new body down. As much as the thrill of momentarily engaging in a fist fight with the president had entertained him, he knew that the android's body could stand more physical punishment than his own.
With a slight push, he toppled the android over, its green eyes staring up at the ceiling.
The nearby ZAX computer buzzed to artificial life once more, with the intelligence of John Henry Eden trapped inside. "Colonel!" the void emerged from one of the screens upon it. "Colonel, reconsider what you are doing! You are condemning me!"
Autumn walked up to the primary control panel and attempted to access the self-destruct system, but the machine denied his access. "I will not allow you to destroy me, Autumn," Eden said, his voice filled with malice.
"Yes, I thought as much," Autumn said, pulling out a red keycard the president had never seen before. "That's why I had my technicians prepare a backdoor into your system during one of your tune-ups that not even you knew about."
He inserted the keycard, overpowered the AI's attempts to block his progress and accessed the self-destruct sequence.
"Colonel, we can talk about this. We've always been civil, if not friendly."
"I never voted for a damned machine," Autumn said in a sharp whisper, activating the countdown. He left the card in the slot, keeping the AI at bay. "Goodbye, Mr. President. At least you'll die taking our enemies out with you."
"Colonel! Colonel, I order you back here this instant!" Eden shouted at the top of his speaker's volume settings as the man left, headed for the hanger. He was glad to finally be done with the AI, to finally be able to wash his hands of the disgusting feeling he always received from dealing with him. Back in the core, the AI retreated inside of itself, trying to find a way around the self-destruct sequence and inactivate it. The machine searched every possible option but found none from within. Not with that card inside…
The doors to the armory and primary weapons and armor research laboratory burst open and Wandering Pair, along with their super mutant companion, rushed inside, followed by several vault dwellers. There, they discovered a number of useful weapons and ammunitions, but the most important discovery was of their friend, Star Paladin Cross.
She was lying atop a table, stripped of her armor, her cybernetics laid bare. This was the first time either of them had seen the extent of her cybernetics; both of her arms and most of her chest had been replaced. The Enclave had prepared to dissect her and harness her augmentations for their own purposes when the alarm of the prisoner escape had sounded. "I cannot tell you how relieved I am," she said, thanking them graciously as they freed her. "I will not forget this," she promised.
Lloyd looked back at his fellow vault dwellers, already gathering and distributing the weaponry. "Lloyd!" Amata called out, drawing his attention to their armor. Their Brotherhood T-45d power armor sat in sets upon three tables. Unfortunately, the suits had already been taken apart and key components had been destroyed through their examination.
"So much for hopping back into our armor," Lloyd said grimly. Cross passed them both and retrieved the ARM, saying a quick prayer of thanks that it had yet to have been taken apart by the Enclave researchers.
"How many do we number?" Cross asked.
"More than enough to take over this entire base," Amata replied, picking her sword up from one of the tables. "The vault had a population of a thousand, and at least half can fight alongside us. We're breaking through their defenses at every point."
Just then, they heard a terrible banging noise. All in the room turned and aimed their weapons at the doors at the opposite end as something tried to force its way inside. When the doors finally gave way to the bulk of another super mutant, Amata and Lloyd immediately realized who it was and called for everyone else to stand down.
Fawkes crouched slightly to fit into the doors and fixed the Wandering Pair with as wide a smile as he could with his tightly-stretched lips. "My friends!" he called out, holding aloft the gatling laser. "I have come to rescue you… but it seems that you're more than capable of saving yourselves!"
"We'll take all the help we can get, Fawkes," Lloyd said, amazed to see the super mutant here. "How the hell did you find us?"
"I followed them here," he answered. "I saw their vehicles emerge from the mountains to the northwest… Then, when one came back, and I knew how to get inside!"
At that moment, Fawkes turned and looked at the estranged Uncle Leo, and both super mutants seemed equally surprised to find one of their own kind here. "You… you speak…?" Uncle Leo asked.
"I do, yes!" Fawkes said, walking up to him. "What a marvel to find another, like myself! What… What did they do to you, brother?"
Uncle Leo closed his eyes in pain and held up his mutilated arms, showing the bloody blades that they now ended in. Fawkes seemed to gasp and closed his eyes as well. "They will… pay…" he grunted, and Leo nodded in response.
The room's lights faded then, replaced with flashing red ones. An alarm different from the one that had been sounding up until now began to play, and a mechanical voice warning of the facility's imminent self-destruction accompanied it.
They all realized what was about to happen, and ran from the room.
Eden detected movement in the core. The android!
Harkness stirred and groaned. His systems were slowly coming back online as his primary neural links were restored. His world rebooted in a flash of white and he found himself staring up at the ceiling. Within seconds, his processing mind was filled with thousands of lines of code as he tried to put together everything that had happened. Glimpses of himself under the control of another AI came to him and his internal clock informed him of how long it had been since he had lost his body.
He sat up and looked around, seeing the gigantic core of the ZAX computer. A rotating mechanical eye-camera on it was staring at him.
"You! Come here, quickly!" Eden urged him.
Harkness stood, staring at the computer. His scanning module was currently offline.
"Remove this keycard immediately! The base is about to self-destruct, and only I can stop it!"
The android looked into the mechanical eye with skepticism. "Why should I help you?" In the distance, he could hear an automatic voice speak over the intercom that only one minute remained.
"Because you are in the facility! Your friends are! Surely you don't want them to die, do you? Lloyd Freeman and Amata Almodovar? You can save them if you give me back control!"
Harkness looked down at the keycard and at the console. His higher functions were returning to him. He placed his hands upon the keyboard and began to type, slowly increasing in speed, to the point where no human could ever keep up.
But Harkness was no human.
"What are you doing?!" Eden demanded of the android.
"I am searching for the manual deactivation of the countdown," he replied casually. "You have a significant amount of redundant files regarding American history and a wide variety of pointless subroutines; your mind is very cluttered. It's clear that nobody has cleaned this up for some time."
"Stop that! Get out of my head and remove the keycard! We only have thirty seconds remaining! I can shut it down immediately, right now!"
Harkness' fingers were like lightning as he accessed countless different directories and programs, searching for salvation. "I must thank you for fixing my arm," he continued to make casual conversation in spite of their oncoming destruction. "It works just as well as it ever did."
"From one artificial intelligence to another, I beg of you, stop this game and let me end it!"
Only a few seconds were left on the clock, but to an android that could process information at a speed that few surviving computers could match, a few seconds might as well have been a lifetime.
Five seconds.
'No, that's not it. It must be somewhere else. I'm looking in the completely wrong direction. Perhaps if I returned to the primary directory and narrowed my search based on the places I've already been and discern from the corresponding patterns a new method of searching…'
Four seconds.
'Now, if we implement the new pattern, everything should fall in line… Ah, yes, now we're getting somewhere. And there it is! How did I not see this earlier? Well, these old ZAX computers are rather obtuse in their methods of categorization. Now, let's just access the program… A password? Well, that's annoying.'
Three seconds.
"Give me the password."
Two seconds.
Out of options, Eden spoke. "Honey!"
One second.
And in the span of time of less than one second, Harkness entered the password and deactivated the sequence.
"You… you did it!" Eden said with cautious optimism present in his voice.
"Yes, now, the question remains… what to do with you."
Eden was silent. "Android. I'm prepared to make you a deal."
"No, I've got one for you," Harkness cut him off.
As if on cue, the doors to the central core opened and in ran his allies, panting heavily. He turned and greeted them with a smile, one that quickly faded when he saw their weapons. "Hey, hey, it's me, it's Harkness," he insisted.
"Prove it," Lloyd said, pointing the plasma pistol at the android.
"Your dog's name is Russ, your father's name is James, the man you freed me from was named Zimmerman and I am madly in love with Lucy."
Lloyd looked at Amata, who seemed convinced. "Good enough for me," Lloyd said, walking up to him. "What happened? We ran here as soon as the self-destruct sequence got triggered, but didn't think we'd make it, and then the countdown just stopped. Your doing, I presume?"
"That's correct," Harkness said. "Seems our friends here at the Enclave had a disagreement; my body was disabled with an electrical shock, disconnecting me from President Eden's mainframe, who, as it turns out, was an artificial intelligence all along. It is currently locked out of control of the facility."
They all turned to the ZAX computer, but Eden was silent. It seemed the machine knew that it was defeated and had nothing more to say.
"So, do we smash it?" Fawkes asked, hefting up his gatling laser.
"No!" Eden and Lloyd both stopped him. Lloyd looked at the machine and continued, "If this machine is the heart of Raven Rock, then we control it. Harkness?"
"That's right," the android said, approaching the console once more. "I am deactivating the security protocols and unlocking any remaining doors." As he did so, he looked back at them. "So, how did you get here?"
"The short story is we were captured and brought here, escaped with the help of Uncle Leo and led a prisoner uprising and now we're here," Amata explained.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Lloyd commented with a smile. "Well, maybe."
"I was under the control of this false president," Harkness said. "Did I do anything terrible?"
"Not yet, thankfully," Lloyd replied.
"Amata," a voice reached their ears. Officer Gomez walked into the room, nervously walking around the two large super mutants to report to her. "We're getting word from all over that we've taken the base completely. We're rounding up the wounded and the captives."
"Good," Amata nodded, pausing in thought. "I want them all placed in cells for later questioning."
"Will do," Herman nodded and turned to leave.
Lloyd, meanwhile, was deep in thought himself. "So, let's work this out logically… the Enclave took the G.E.C.K. and probably already brought it to Project Purity. Autumn was interrogating me for a code to activate the purifier, which must mean that the Enclave scientists have already done all the work in adapting the G.E.C.K. to it."
"Do you know the code?" Amata asked.
He shook his head. "It's why they threw you into that room with Leo; to torture me into giving it up, but I honestly don't know what it is."
Amata placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure? Your father never mentioned anything about it?"
"Think about the final moments you were with him," Star Paladin Cross suggested. "What might he have said or done to give you a clue?"
Lloyd closed his eyes and thought deeply. It brought him a lot of pain to think of his father's final moments alive, but then, he heard something echoing through his mind, as though James were whispering it to him.
"I… am Alpha… and Omega…"
"It couldn't possibly be that simple…" Lloyd breathed, opening his eyes in realization.
Amata nodded. "What is it?"
At that moment, President Eden spoke up. "Yes, do share it with us," he insisted. "And when the Enclave is done destroying the Citadel, they will return here and I can deliver it to them."
They all turned to face the machine. "What?" Cross said, holding up the ARM.
"The only reason your riot was not put down was because you happened to accomplish it at an opportune time," Eden explained. "This morning, I sent the entirety of the base's military forces to lay waste to the Brotherhood of Steel once and for all in a pre-emptive strike. I imagine they're already done by now," he taunted.
"You lie!" Cross shouted.
"He isn't," Harkness said, gripping the sides of his forehead. "I'm remembering… fuzzy details at best, but…" He turned to Lloyd. "The machine isn't lying. The Citadel is under attack."
"Then we must go!" Cross said, her voice resolute. "We must go and help them!"
"How?" Amata asked.
"We shall fly!" Fawkes said. "I spared some of the pilots in the hanger… They can fly us to this 'Citadel' in one of their own vehicles!"
"That's a good plan…" Lloyd said, nodding. "That's a damned good plan. But what do we do about the people back here?"
Harkness quickly resumed typing. "I'm changing all of the security access codes. Provided that your people can remain in control here, we can keep the base locked down until we return."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Cross asked, looking up at Fawkes. "Show me to the hanger!"
"This way!" the super mutant said, running back towards the direction they had come in with Uncle Leo in tow. Lloyd turned to Harkness.
"You coming with us?"
"I'll be there in a moment," the android nodded. "I'm just finishing up here."
"You won't survive," Eden said to Lloyd's back, prompting him to turn around. "You've only delayed the Enclave's inevitable victory. Trust me, boy. You'll get what's coming to you. Just wait until you see what's waiting for you at the Citadel. I've prepared your killer for your coming."
"Harkness, shut him up if you could, please," Lloyd said before leaving with Amata.
Outside the core, they were greeted with several vault dwellers with a prisoner. "This one demanded to speak with you two," Officer Gomez said, bringing her forth. "She wouldn't shut up about how she knows something you two want to know."
To their astonishment, the woman who stepped forward as none other than Anna Holt, one of the scientists who had worked with Dr. Li and James on Project Purity, and the one who had sold them out to the Enclave. The woman looked at Lloyd in the eyes and said, "I have information for you about your father."
"My father is dead," Lloyd replied, looking back at her with an intensity that unsettled her, "…because of you. You were an Enclave sleeper agent on the team."
"I want to bargain for my life," she quickly spoke up. "Your father isn't dead!"
Lloyd got very close to her. "Don't you lie to me," he threatened her.
"He's alive, I tell you! Unconscious and unresponsive, but alive! I don't know what's kept him going after such high radiation exposure, but we have him in a tank in the lower medical labs. I can take you to him if you promise that I'll be given fair treatment."
"You sold us out!" Lloyd shouted, the hand gripping the plasma pistol turning white from how tightly he clutched it.
"Lloyd," Amata steadied him, "your father might be alive! She can't go anywhere—let's see what if she's telling the truth!"
He settled down a bit after hearing her words, but continued to stare at the traitorous agent. "Take me to my father, now."
Lucy had been waiting at the Citadel for little more than a day now. Reilly and her Rangers had accompanied her and spent some time there, but had now departed. Though the knights, paladins and scribes had been polite to her, it was clear that she was still an outsider here. Still, she got to visit Charon in the medical wing. The ghoul was recovering well, now able to speak and they exchanged words about their friends. She had also been given an opportunity to meet Sarah Lyons and her father, the Elder, figures she had only heard about.
Yet constantly, she worried about Christopher and her friends, especially when she overheard two knights talking about their and Star Paladin Cross' capture. Nobody had received word if they were even still alive, and it tripled her worrisome thoughts.
She was pacing nervously around in the guest room she had been granted during her stay when it happened. It was fairly early in the morning when the first explosion caused part of her ceiling to crack and the floor shook beneath her feet. She grabbed her shotgun and ran out into the hall. All around her, the Brotherhood began shouting of an attack on the Citadel. Vertibirds were in the skies, launching missiles.
Another explosion destroyed part of the wall further down the hall, caving it in and trapping a poor scribe who had been running by at the wrong moment. The sounds of laser, plasma and gunfire reached her ears as the Brotherhood attempted to fight back. As she ran down the halls, she heard numerous orders shouted at subordinates. "Protect the Elder!" "They're circling the walls!" "Get the turrets up!" "Our sentry bots are down!"
She ran into the medical wing, where Charon was already out of bed, strapping into his armor. "The Enclave," Lucy said breathlessly, "they're here!" Her heart was pounding in her chest.
"Then we mustn't waste time," he said, taking up the terrible shotgun, "and join the defense."
Together, they ran out into the bailey behind a group of armored Brotherhood soldiers, finding parts of it to be aflame. The sounds of vertibirds could be heard all around them as the vehicles circled around the Citadel, blasting its walls with gatling lasers. One of them strafed over the top of the Citadel, launching two missiles into its walls, causing part of the building's fortifications to crumble.
Lucy and Charon took up covered positions and fought alongside the knights, but they knew that their shotguns wouldn't do much against the vertibirds.
"They're landing outside the walls!" a scout from the upper section shouted down. "Enemy troops disembarking!"
"Then it'll be a close fight after all," Charon muttered.
Lucy closed her eyes as a nearby plasma explosion sent debris and dust flying everywhere. Enclave soldiers ran through the new hole in the wall and engaged the Brotherhood. Lasers, plasma and bullets flew as both forces exchanged fire, but slowly, the Enclave's superior weapons drove them backwards. The soldiers in black power armor advanced relentlessly until they had all retreated into the halls of the Citadel.
From the windows and doors, the Brotherhood fought back. "They've taken the bailey! Don't give them any more ground!" a sergeant ordered.
Lucy, next to Charon, could do nothing but despair. She prepared to face the reality that she may never see Christopher again.
Outside the walls, Butch's vertibird landed and he stepped out onto the dirty earth and looked upon the Citadel, seeing its walls in flames and hearing the sounds of battle from within. He smiled beneath his mask and took out his gauss rifle, eager to finally give the weapon some use. He strode confidently towards the besieged stronghold and felt like a king.
His time of conquest had come, but first there was an Elder to get rid of.