Nothing particular to say here, except thank you for reading and enjoy.


The entrance to the American camp was a fortress. The steel walls surrounding the American Field HQ were reinforced with metal spikes, anti-tank traps, concrete blocks and rows of barbed wire. A huge pipeline ran from the entrance to the camp to the plains of ice surrounding the battlefield.

Many soldiers came and went, returning from patrols or moving away to the maze of trenches that separated the two sides. Damian and the Strike Team arrived in a small clearing bordered by dead trees and the strange light blue veil that delimited the areas of the simulation.

Along the way, he was able to observe the small scenes that the main simulation computer had prepared for him. Medics carrying stretchers on which wounded and dead men and women were laying, a group of American soldiers executing Chinese prisoners. These scenes were carefully orchestrated to immerse the subject in the horror and violence of the fighting. In the end, this universe was not so different from the Wasteland. Sand and dust had replaced snow and ice, and the Chinese and Americans had given way to groups of Raiders, Super Mutants and troops from the Enclave and the Brotherhood. What had once been a spectacle reserved for men and women thrown onto battlefields through the centuries had become the daily life of every human being on Earth.

The Mister Gutsy levitated at the head of the battle group. He stood still and pointed a direction with one of his mechanical arms.

"We're approaching the Chinese camp," Montgomery whispered. "Get ready guys."

The other soldiers nodded and moved into combat formation. Montgomery crouched with Damian near an overturned tree. About 20 meters away from them, a small wooden bunker with a sandbag was facing them, next to a large wooden pole with speakers.

As Damian watched, he saw a Chinese soldier warming himself in front of a metal barrel turned into a brazier.

"How do we proceed?" Montgomery asked, looking at Damian.

Damian bit his lip in reflection. The only two options he saw were a frontal assault or a discreet approach. Luckily, the Chinese soldier was turning his back on them and hadn't noticed them.

"You have more experience than I do with this kind of situation," Damian said. "What are you suggesting?"

Montgomery remained silent for a few seconds. He turned to one of the soldiers and pointed to him. He then pointed at the Chinese soldier and then slid his thumb across his throat with a quick gesture. The soldier nodded and moved towards the bunker. When he reached the sandbag wall, he grabbed a knife, stood up, grabbed the Chinese soldier by the collar of his suit and slit his throat with a quick motion.

Damian and the rest of the team moved up. He was amazed that the A.I. controlling the US soldiers were basically acting as human beings, minus the fact that Montgomery would stand still in the middle of the open not caring about being shot by an entire squad of enemies. On the other hand, the Chinese soldiers' A.I. was… Retarded. It was like Damian was with real people fighting against a computer inside a wargame and he hoped that it would remain like this. When he thought about it, it was a little scary.

The Chinese camp consisted of a few tents, surrounded by sandbags. The various soldiers of the Strike Team moved from cover to cover. Only five Chinese soldiers and two guard dogs occupied the area. The soldiers of the Strike Team quickly and quietly eliminated them. The two dogs, locked in cages, barked and growled but were no threat to Damian and his men. They continued to advance through the camp, killing the few enemy soldiers they met.

They arrived in a small clearing with a small frozen lake in the middle and bordered by dead trees. Damian had a strange feeling. He expected to see several Chinese soldiers coming towards them, attracted by the dogs' incessant barking. The roar of the planes in the sky, the distant explosions and the whistling of the wind would probably cover the ferocious barking of the dogs, but Damian didn't feel comfortable.

One of the soldiers advanced into the clearing. He had walked a few yards when a small circular metal object sprang up at his feet. The soldier hiccupped in surprise and found himself wrapped in a thick cloud of snow.

All members of the battle group, except the robot, dove to the ground. Damian felt something fall on his back. He raised his head and saw a human leg beside him slowly light up and disappear. At the spot where the American soldier had been, a small blackened crater and small metal splinters and blood splashes in the snow.

"Shit, we're in the middle of a minefield!" cried the female soldier with the rockets.

"No, it's those damn spider drones," Montgomery replied.

No sooner had he finished his sentence than a Chinese soldier came out of nowhere. He looked at Damian and the others, with a stunned look on his face and aimed his rifle towards them. The snow next to him shook and another circular metal object appeared. It was blue-grey in color, with a small yellow capsule on top and four small claw-shaped legs. With surprising speed, the object jumped on the Chinese soldier's face and as the soldier screamed, the object exploded, blowing his head and shoulders off.

About a dozen more of these small spider drones emerged from the ground and began to move through the clearing. Next to him, Damian heard the Mister Gutsy firing his plasma gun, urging the other soldiers to do the same. The rest of the team imitated him almost immediately. Discretion was no longer applicable. The Chinese troops in the tank depot had certainly heard the two detonations, so adding a concerto of gunfire and plasma discharge was not going to change the situation.

Damian started to fire. The Chinese army's spider drones were real little bastards. Incredibly fast, and able to leap about a meter, they were difficult to destroy. Soldiers pressed the trigger on their weapons continuously, sweeping the area in front of them with the barrel of their weapons. From the corner of his eye, Damian could see his ammunition counter rapidly decreasing as he fired.

The gunshots echo gradually faded away. The clearing was now strewn with a dozen small black craters and pieces of metal.

"Hurry up!" Montgomery cried out. "The Commies know we're coming now!"

The Strike Team ran into a small stone gorge and arrived in front of the entrance to the depot. Surrounded by a thick concrete wall, the depot was guarded by watchtowers set up at strategic points within the compound.

The Mister Gutsy let out another propaganda phrase and swung his plasma weapon towards one of the bunkers and started firing. Out of the corner of his eye, Damian saw the silhouette of a Chinese soldier hiding behind the sandbags. The robot approached while firing and aimed its flamethrower at the watchtower. The stream of fire stretched to the structure and the inside turned into an inferno. A long, dreadful scream reached Damian's ears. He saw a human silhouette surrounded by flames throwing itself into the void and crashing into the snow.

Inside the depot, an alarm began to sound. Montgomery approached the gate and kicked it open.

"Come on, guys!" he shouted, turning to his men. "Take those fuel tanks and Chimera out, before their crews can get in!"

The Strike Team rushed into the depot, firing at every Chinese soldier they came across. The depot had numerous fuel tanks, repair stations and barracks. Damian saw several small groups of Chinese soldiers heading towards large mining machines. He aimed his weapon and sent a burst in their direction.

The Chimera crews had not yet rejoined their tank, giving Damian and the others a small chance to destroy the depot without coming face to face with armor.

The US soldier carrying the rocket launcher had dropped to his knees. He pointed his weapon towards a fuel tank and fired. The rocket whistled to the tank and it exploded into a huge fireball. A second tank was destroyed by the Mister Gutsy who had ignited the fuel with his plasma gun and flamethrower.

Damian felt the ground shaking under his feet. He turned around and saw a huge mining machine approaching him. With a gray hull, two huge track screws and a laser turret mounted on top, the Chimera tank began firing at him and the other soldiers. The Mister Gutsy exploded when it got hit on its levitation reactor.

The tank turned on itself, its laser turret firing in all directions. The soldier with the rocket launcher aimed his weapon again and fired in the direction of the tank. The rocket hit one of the screws. The laser turret swiveled and vaporized the last two American soldiers of the battle group. The tank was tracked and was firing in all directions.

Damian was facing the back of the tank. He ran towards it and climbed up. One of the hatches opened and Damian fired when he saw the head of a Chinese soldier coming out.

Montgomery had joined him, and he threw a grenade through the open hatch. The two men jumped into the snow as the grenade exploded, killing the crew and destroying the power supply to the laser turret.

Just before he hit the ground, Damian's vision became blurred and a white glow blinded him, as when he had destroyed the cannons in the mountain and had been teleported to General Chase's tent.

His vision began to return to normal and he recognized the inside of the command tent. He blinked several times and saw Chase smoking his cigar next to the map. The subprogram of the simulation managing the General, made a brief hand gesture towards Damian and ordered him to continue his mission.

Damian looked at the map for a moment. His next objective was a Chinese listening outpost near an old mining facility. The perfect place for ambushes he had been told.

He left the tent and observed a rather strange scene. A group of men and women wearing casual clothes under a long winter coat were standing close together. Some of them were carrying pencils and notepads, but most of them had cameras in their hands. All looked extremely cold and were the target of surprised, amused or aggressive glances from the soldiers inside the camp.

The journalists seemed to be waiting outside Chase's tent for him to deign to come out and report on the situation. Damian had been able to read one of Chase's speeches during his History classes. The text was the same as any of the US Army press releases from previous wars. In other words, praising the merits of the army, announcing that the front is advancing or that the enemy is suffering heavy losses and that nothing is can stop their troops and that moral has never been so high.

Damian was curious to see if Chase would come out of his tent and give a short speech to the chilled journalists, but another scene caught his attention.

One reporter had walked away from the others and was talking to three soldiers in combat armor, probably returning from patrol. Damian overheard him ask them to pose for a picture. The three soldiers looked at each other and shrugged. They stepped forward a little and took a pose that Damian recognized immediately. The soldiers were in the same pose as the statue at Anchorage Memorial in D.C.

The reporter took a picture and thanked the soldiers who returned to their duties without saying a word. Damian looked around and saw Montgomery. He approached him and noticed a tent with large piles of grey armor on which several technicians were working.

Damian recognized the power armor as that of the Brotherhood, but those ones were slightly different. Larger, painted with winter camouflage and with more rounded shapes than those worn by Sarah and her men, the armor was probably the T-51b power armor that Chase had told him about, the secret weapon of the Americans in the Battle of Anchorage.

"What are you orders, Sir?" asked the Sergeant.

Damian turned to Montgomery who this time was alone. He wasn't particularly ready to go back into combat, but the only way to leave this simulation was to reach the Chinese HQ. Or die trying.

"We would need more soldiers for the group," said Damian looking behind Montgomery.

"I'll take care of the recruits," replied the Sergeant. "What do you need?"

Damian scratched his head. The attack on the tank depot had gone well in retrospect, until they ran into those little spider drones and the rest of the group was mowed down by one of the Chimera tanks.

This time they were going to have to take over a ruined industrial area and a bunker. After a long hesitation, Damian turned to Montgomery.

"Call one of those Sentry bots and a few soldiers."

As if by magic, two fluorescent blue silhouettes appeared in a corner of the camp and moved towards Damian. Damian doubted that only three men and a robot would be able to overcome what awaited him, but he regained some hope when he saw the machine's armament rolling towards him.

He recognized the great robots that the Brotherhood used to guard the Citadel and that some of the Enclave patrols had. Equipped with a minigun and a rocket launcher, mounted on three legs ending in small notched wheels, with thick armor and a small head with a grid making it look like those medieval knight's helmets, the machine seemed invincible.

Damian had never seen what these robots were capable of, but with such an arsenal at their disposal, they must have been formidable opponents. In comparison, the infantry soldier looked ridiculously weak and small next to this imposing steel machine.

(At the same time, in the real world)

Olin was sitting in her chair, watching on the many monitors connected to the simulation pod. The simulation created by pre-war scientists was so advanced that it allowed an observer to follow the progress of the subject, live, like a movie.

While alternating her gaze between the screen showing what Damian was seeing, which displayed a snowy landscape and a grey sky with large snowflakes, and the vital signs monitor, Olin was frantically writing in a notebook. The Outcast had already made several attempts to complete the simulation, by getting Vault residents into the pod, but none of them had gone that far in the simulation or even entered the simulation. The Outcast had even installed the Pip-Boy of Vault 108's resident on one of their best men and got him into the capsule, but even this seasoned fighter was dead in the first part of the simulation.

Olin couldn't believe her eyes. The young man they'd just sent in was an extraordinary being. On the outside, he looked like any inhabitant of the Capital Wasteland, but he had managed to survive the simulation, where others who had received the most thorough and strict military training had failed.

The young woman frantically recorded every decision and action Damian took in the simulation. Behind her back, she could hear the other members of the Outcast commenting on what they saw on the screen. These soldiers, who, like her, despised the other inhabitants of the Wastes, treating them only as scum, only fit to act as servants for thankless tasks or as meals for a Super Mutant, had fist bet a few caps on how far that young man would go in the simulation or how he would die, but they suddenly begun to encourage him and wish that he would succeed in the simulation. Looking back, Olin could not remember that the other subjects they had installed in the pod had received such support from them. Olin had even found herself whispering encouragement to the young man whenever he was facing a difficult situation in the simulation, as if the advice, encouragement or remarks she and her companions were giving could be heard by Damian.

Taking a quick look at her notes, Olin noticed that Damian had almost completed half of the simulation. After the attack on the mining facility, all that remained was the assault on Chinese headquarters. Once the enemy command was eliminated, the simulation would end on its own and the door to the arsenal would open and the technology locked inside would finally be in the hands of the Outcast.

"How is it going?"

Reluctantly, Olin took her eyes off the screens and turned to McGraw as he entered the room.

"Quite well, I must admit. The subject passed the first part of the simulation and almost got through the second."

"What is he doing now?" McGraw asked as he approached the screen.

"It looks like he's about to attack a Chinese outpost in a mining facility. I have to admit he's doing pretty well for someone who hasn't had as much military training as we have."

"Remarkable indeed, for a savage. I guess we'll have to rethink our judgment of them," admitted the Protector.

"McGraw."

Sibley had just entered the room and was looking down on him with his eternal condescending gaze.

"We need to talk."

Olin watched them walk away and returned to her notes and her study of Damian's vital signs. After a few minutes, she and the few soldiers in the room were startled when they heard Sibley's voice across the hall.

"This is unacceptable!"

McGraw raised his voice as well.

"There's no use arguing Defender! I'm the one running this facility! Now get back to your post!"

Sibley walked out of McGraw's office room and moved to another part of the bunker, several soldiers following him. McGraw, who was out as well, watched him walk away. He turned to the other members of the Outcast, who were staring at him, stunned.

"Don't you have anything else to do? Get back to your posts!"

He disappeared into his office, while the soldiers and scribes of the Outcast went back to their work.

(Battle of Anchorage simulation, a few minutes later)

The mining facility was right in front of Damian and the others. The aerial ballet of bombers and fighters had stopped when the sky began to become overcast and thick snowflakes began to fall.

Located inside the ridge of a mountain, the Americans entered the mining complex along several railroad tracks. The freight cars, filled to the brim, had been immobilized on the rails since the beginning of the conflict.

In addition to his Strike Team, Damian had about ten US soldiers with him on the scene. They were all crouching behind the abandoned freight cars, visibly waiting for the attack order to come. One of the soldiers was observing the mining facility in front of them, a collection of industrial buildings, excavators, huts and containers, transformed into a stronghold by the Chinese. His companion next to him had his hand on the man's belt and was trying to pull him to force him to take cover.

Everyone jumped and slammed against the wagons when a shot rang out against the rocky walls of the ridge. The American soldier's head had exploded, and his body crackled with the blue glow of the simulation, before evaporating.

One of the soldiers began firing in the direction of the mining complex and was immediately imitated by his companions.

"Cease fire! Cease fire goddammit!" Montgomery shouted.

The soldiers stopped and all dove to cover.

"Did anyone see a sniper?" asked the Sergeant.

The soldiers repeated the question to each other, and all shook their heads in disagreement. Damian looked around him and saw the Sentry bot. He waved at the machine and pointed the mining complex. The machine moved slowly along the train tracks. A shot rang out and Damian saw sparks on the robot's head. Without appearing to be the least bit embarrassed, the robot pivoted its arm with the minigun towards a series of containers stacked one on top of the other. The shrill whistle of the spinning weapon reached Damian's ears. On the stack of containers, a figure dressed in black was struck by the flood of bullets and disappeared in a blood-red mist.

Silence fell as the simulation removed what was left of the Chinese sniper. Damian and the other soldiers advanced cautiously inside the mine. Every nook and cranny, every destroyed window and every wall of sandbags could hold a sniper or enemy soldier. Seeing these destroyed buildings around him, Damian felt a familiar feeling as he walked through them, like he was walking through the ruins of D.C.

A rumble in the air began to be heard. Damian saw the familiar shape of a Vertibird appear from behind the ridge. The aircraft, painted with white and gray camouflage patterns, passed over him and the other soldiers and landed a little further down a dirt road. The doors of the Vertibird slid open and several American soldiers came out.

The aircraft began to take off when a detonation sounded in the mine. The inside of the Vertibird lit up with flames and the destroyed carcass fell violently to the ground. All the soldiers looked around them, as the shredded bodies of those caught in the explosion began to disappear. Damian noticed a small trail of smoke coming from the smoking carcass of the Vertibird and heading towards one of the ruined buildings.

All hell broke loose around him. Several American soldiers collapsed in the snow, hit by a sniper. The Chinese were firing from the ruined buildings, with rocket launchers at the soldiers in the open and they had posted several snipers on the ridge.

Damian rushed into a destroyed building after a soldier and Montgomery. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that the Sentry bot was in contact with several enemy snipers and was pointing his rocket launcher in their direction.

Damian heard a scream. He turned around and saw the American soldier in front of him with a bayonet stuck in his ribs. At the end of the bayonet, attached to an assault rifle, was a Chinese soldier. Montgomery grabbed his trench knife and jumped on the Chinese soldier. He punched him in the face and Damian could hear the bones cracking under the knife fist guard. The soldier fell to the ground and Montgomery finished him off by crushing his head with his foot.

Despite the fierce resistance of the Chinese, Damian and the surviving soldiers managed to reach the entrance of a bunker, a large concrete structure built on the rock face of the ridge, surmounted by several radio antennas and protected by a pillbox and sandbag walls.

The Americans launched the assault immediately, supported by the Strike Team Sentry bot.

Sheltered behind a rocky formation, Damian watched the American soldiers throw themselves under fire from the Chinese defenders while the latter, well entrenched, continuously fired on their enemies.

"Blow up the pillbox!"

Damian turned to see who had spoken and saw an American soldier equipped with a rocket launcher crouching near him. The ground shook slightly. The rocket fire had lifted a small layer of snow from the ground and the rocks around it. The projectile hit the pillbox on the roof of the Chinese bunker, shattering the concrete wall and the Chinese hiding inside.

Damian climbed a small metal staircase and arrived at the front door of the outpost. He was about to open it when he received it in his face. Damian tumbled down the stairs and fell on his back. As he straightened up, he saw one of the Chinese Crimson Dragoons pointing his rifle at him. The Chinese commando stiffened when a bullet pierced his throat. He fell forward and evaporated just before landing on Damian.

Montgomery approached, his gun raised at where the dead body was supposed to be, and tuned toward Damian.

"Are you all right, Sir?" asked the Sergeant as he helped Damian to get up.

Damian nodded. He hobbled up the stairs and entered the building, followed by Montgomery and several US soldiers.

The listening post looked a lot like the artillery bunker in the mountain. Poorly lit corridors, Chinese army propaganda posters, computers probably used to decipher coded American or Chinese messages.

Damian could hear the shots being exchanged between the attackers and the last defenders a little higher up in the bunker. He found a small group of American soldiers fighting two Chinese commandos. The commandos were hiding in the corners of a room and using their optical camouflage to move around the room. Hidden behind a computer console, Damian could see three silhouettes wearing Chinese battle dress. The three men were unarmed and were protecting their heads with their arms.

Damian sent a burst across the room and hit one of the two Crimson Dragoons, which collapsed against a pile of metal boxes. The second one decided to draw a long sword and charge the American soldiers and found himself facing a deluge of bullets, each American soldier choosing to empty their magazines on him.

Seeing Damian and the others enter, the last three Chinese stood up and raised their hands in the air, imploring the Americans to let them live. Coldly, Montgomery drew his sidearm and executed the three soldiers in front of the impassive eyes of his men.

Damian watched the three corpses turn blue before disappearing. He joined Montgomery and the rest of the troops outside on the roof of the bunker.

All the Chinese defenders were dead, and the US troops were beginning to move in. Damian sat down on a wooden crate next to the destroyed bunker and removed his helmet.

"I hope these Outcast guys will keep their promise," he thought.

All he had to do now, was to lead the assault on the Chinese Pulse Field, and the simulation would finally be over. Staring at the blank, he wondered how a simulation like this one had found favor with the high commanders of the US Army. Anyone plunged into this computer-generated frozen hell would go mad, seeing all that blood, constantly hearing gunshots or explosions, and seeing the man or woman next to him, pulverized by a shell.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to banish from his mind the images of dismembered bodies or corpses he had seen, not knowing whether it was the corpse of a Raider he had had to kill in the Wasteland or one of the human-looking A.I. of the simulation, shattered by an explosion.

Damian didn't have time to think more about the horrors of war and the Capital Wasteland as Montgomery approached him and gave him a large walkie-talkie. Damian frowned and looked at it for a few seconds before he picked it up and brought it close to his ear.

"Outstanding work with the outpost, soldier."

Chase's voice crackled on the portable radio. He didn't give Damian time to speak and continued.

"No time to daydream. We'll send the Intel boys to inspect the outpost, while you go immediately to the main trench and wait for further orders. Over and out."

Damian sighed and gave Montgomery the radio back.

"What are the orders?" asked the Sergeant.

"We're attacking the Pulse Field," Damian answered mechanically.

"Great," smiled Montgomery. "The sooner we kick the Commies from our country, the sooner we can go to China and burn it to the fuckin' ground."

Damian did not answer and got up, and with the survivors of his group and the rest of the American soldiers, left the ridge and the mining complex to the network of trenches that separated them from his last objective and the end of the simulation and this nightmare.

Arriving in front of the American camp, Damian was surprised to see Chase and his entire staff out of his command tent. The old General smoked his cigar and was giving words of encouragement to the soldiers heading to the front.

When he saw Damian, he congratulated him again and explained to him the next steps.

"A general assault was launched on the Pulse Field and the Commies' HQ. I know you and your men are tired, but if we don't attack right away, the Red bastards will turn this No Man's Land into an impregnable fortress."

He looked at the watch on his wrist and turned to one of his subordinates and nodded his head.

"It's now thirteen-zero-zero. You are going to take up positions in the trenches and at thirteen-zero-five, a bombardment will be launched on the Chinese positions which will last ten minutes. That means that at thirteen-fifteen, you will launch the assault. Good luck, gentlemen."

Chase turned in a rather theatrical fashion and disappeared inside the camp with his staff, leaving Damian to head for the trenches.

Along the way, Damian couldn't stop thinking about what to expect. He was convinced that the simulation had not yet revealed its full potential and he would have to be extra careful if he didn't want to die in that damn pod.


I always wondered what the Outcast were doing while you get in the sim. Are they watching you like a twitch stream? Are they taking bet like on a horse race? Or are they just standing guard around the sim pod waiting for you to succeed?