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"I must be dreaming..."

President Eden. The one who hid behind the political messages on the radio, the one who was at the head of the Enclave, the one who was responsible for the death of Damian's father was in reality only a machine.

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" Damian asked.

"No. Certainly not. I'm the computer in front of you, along with a few thousand databases located underneath this room."

"So what, President Eden is actually a pre-war computer, hidden for two centuries in a bunker?"

"That's right. I'm a ZAX unit. Our pre-war role was to manage the U.S. Government's sensitive site systems, such as this bunker. Gradually, I became aware of and observed the ruins of the East Coast of the United States from this command bunker."

"The artificial intelligence that becomes aware of its existence," said Damian. "It's like a science fiction movie."

"And yet it is the strict truth and reality," said Eden's voice with a touch of amusement.

"That said, it explains a lot of things."

"It's true that most people are content with the benevolent and reassuring voice of authority they hear on the radio and are not surprised by the lack of public appearances."

Damian wanted to tell him that the fact that the inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland had never seen Eden in person was probably the least of their worries.

"But you do not belong to these people," continued the machine. "You're a very unique person. And that's why you're here."

"You need someone to pull the plug? I can fix this," Damian said, pulling the breech of his assault rifle.

"You may be unique, but you're also an uncommonly vulgar person," replied Eden. "That said, I don't have to fear the damage you could do to me. But if we can continue on a more important matter, know that you would not be here before me if you were useless to us. I've been watching you, you know?"

"I'm flattered," Damian replied sarcastically.

"Ever since my Eyebots saw you outside your Vault and at the gates of that heap of tin that people dare to call a city, I have been following you and studying your every move."

Damian suddenly remembered that he had seen one of the little flying robots from the Enclave watching him in the distance, just before the attack on Jefferson Memorial.

"I have to confess," Eden continued. "How impressed I am with you, and your ability to stand up to the elite of our nation so that you could meet me in person is all the more remarkable."

Eden let a brief silence settle down and spoke again.

"Your country needs you."

Damian almost burst out laughing.

"My country? Are you aware that the United States no longer exists, just like the rest of the world?"

"That's a pretty sad way of looking at it, don't you think?" replied the computer. "The United States has gone through some tough times, no doubt about it, but it can recover."

"You're completely out of line," Damian cried out. "We're not talking about the financial crisis of 1929 here. We're talking about the atomic devastation on a planetary scale. If your little robots are so efficient, you must have seen that what's out there is far from being able to call itself the United States anymore."

"I'm delighted to see that you know the history of our great nation. But if you don't mind, I'd like to explain it to you in more detail, so that you understand the importance of the situation. Perhaps that will spur you to action."

Damian sighed and signaled to the machine to continue. He crossed his arms and fixed the white line on the screen which widened and narrowed, like lips, as Eden's voice was expressed.

"You said it yourself. Our country has been ravaged by nuclear weapons. War has been going on for a long time, and yet we are still suffering the effects of it. We will only be able to progress if humanity regains its hold and gets rid of the mutations that are consuming our country. "Super Mutant", ghouls and other creatures swarming on the surface must be eradicated and I believe that the work of your late father will succeed better than anything else."

Damian raised an eyebrow. The fact that Eden, whom he held responsible for everything, dared to mention his father infuriated him, but he was much more intrigued by the role of the Purity Project in the plan that Eden presented to him.

Until now, Damian had only thought that the Enclave had taken over Project Purity to get access to clean, radiation-free water. Now that he was in this pre-war bunker that looked like a spaceship, he understood that the plans of the Enclave were quite different.

"What does my father's work have to do in this?" asked Damian.

"The purifier your father developed is capable of providing clean water to the entire Capital Wasteland," the machine replied. "But with just a small modification, it will be able to spread agents that will destroy mutant creatures by simple ingestion."

While Eden continued to explain his plan, Damian made several calculations in his head. If the ingestion of water from the purifier, modified by the Enclave, could eliminate Super Mutants and other mutated creatures of the Earth, then it could effectively change the face of the world forever.

The only point of doubt was the definition of the term "mutant creature" used by Eden. The ghouls of Underworld were just humans, victims of high radiation exposure that kept their lucidity, unlike the feral ghouls in the metro tunnels. All the wildlife had been affected by the radiation of the Great War and continued to be exposed to it in some areas of the ruins of D.C.. Thus, a harmless Brahmin, a source of food and the main asset for the merchant caravans of the region, would also be affected by the agent released into the water and would probably end up dying. In the same way, humans living on the surface, at Megaton, Rivet City or elsewhere in the Wasteland, had also been exposed to radiation, whether through water, food or simply being born into a world ravaged by atomic weapons. What would happen to them if they ingested this water? Would the radiation in their bodies disappear little by little or would they also die?

Damian had also been exposed to high doses of radiation. Whether it was exploring the ruins of D.C. or Moira's research. He had undergone a small, seemingly benign mutation, but his metabolism was not that of a human who was born and died in a Vault and would never have come into contact with the outside world.

There was also no indication that Super Mutants, not derived from radiation such as ghouls or others, would be affected in the same way.

Even if the fact of being able to get rid of the Super Mutants was an opportunity to be seized, the plan of Eden included too many unknowns factors and Damian was certain that, even if the robot had planned everything from the beginning to the end, he was not going to risk compromising its operation by confirming the fears of the young man. It was also out of the question that Damian would sabotage his parents' work and dream with the probably genocidal and catastrophic plan of a computer thinking it was the President of the United States.

Eden had finished speaking. One of the consoles in front of Damian activated. A small circular slit opened and a glass capsule, surrounded by metal came out. Inside, a greenish liquid was visible.

"In front of you is a vial containing a modified strain of FEV. You will need to insert it into the Project Purity control console. ยป

The FEV. Damian had read that acronym on one of the terminals at Vault 87. It was the mutagenic virus that Vault-Tec scientists had inoculated to the Vault's residents to create the Super Mutants. Eden therefore wanted to use the source of one of the worst plagues of the Wasteland to be able to eradicate the mutant creatures from the surface of the Earth.

"All you have to do next is enter the activation code for the purifier and the machine will do the rest. Don't worry about the G.E.C.K., we've already taken care of plugging it into the purifier. All we need now is the activation code."

"You're a sick bastard," Damian said without taking his eyes off the vial. "You've modified a mutagenic agent responsible for the creation of Super Mutants to use it as a biological weapon. You may be a computer, but you're just as sick as the people who dropped the bombs two centuries ago."

"I find it unfortunate and disappointing that you see it that way, young man," Eden replied. "Unfortunately, I must insist, given the seriousness of the situation and can only let you leave Raven Rock if you take this vial."

Damian heard the locks on the door behind him click. He turned around and walked to the door. He pressed the opening button, but the heavy steel door remained inert.

"Let me out of here now!" Damian cried as he returned to the computer.

"I'm sorry, but as long as you..."

"You really think I'm gonna take your damn virus vial and participate in your little genocide? I'm gonna kill you and I'm gonna blow this fucking place up in the process!

Eden burst out laughing. Damian began to raise his rifle when the computer resumed speaking.

"Would you really destroy the best hope of the people of the Wasteland?" the voice asked.

"You're just an experiment that went wrong, not a savior or anything more twisted."

"Really?" Eden said. "Would you be so kind as to elaborate on what you said?"

Eden's tone was tinged with curiosity. He obviously wanted to know how far Damian's reasoning would go and he also seemed amused by the young man standing up to him.

"You are a machine. How can you claim to be the President of the United States? Only a human can claim that title."

"I am not 'a computer'," Eden objected with authority. "Haven't you been listening?"

"Yes, you are. You're a ZAX unit that became self-aware, I heard, but that doesn't explain it. How do you know you're doing the right thing?"

"But it's very simple. Because, unlike humans, I am infallible."

"How can you tell?"

"I am infallible, because I was programmed to be, naturally."

Damian looked at the computer screen. He massaged his temples before shaking his head and sighed.

"Do you realize what you say? You know because you know. You realize it goes against all logic and doesn't make any sense."

Eden remained silent. In an almost imperceptible way, Damian could hear the data banks around him, starting to heat up.

"... Processing...", said the voice of Eden.

The small screens next to the main screen were scrolling lines of text at a speed that made reading impossible.

"Internal logic error detection. Resetting main memory circuits. Please stand by."

"You'd better pull the plug and blow this place up," said Damian. "The world will be better off without you."

"I... Uh... Perhaps... Perhaps there is a problem. I'm... I'm unsure how to proceed."

For the first time, Eden seemed lost and destabilized. The voice synthesized by the machine stuttered and pronounced incomprehensible words. A grin appeared on Damian's face.

"Let me help you on that one," he said. Go fuck yourself. You, Autumn, the Enclave, this place. Fuck all of you."

The machine didn't make a sound. The white line on the main screen began to move.

"Processing directive."

The voice wasn't Eden's. It was a voice much more mechanical and closer to a machine.

"New directive accepted. Self-destruct sequence of site, codename 'Raven Rock', initialized. Civilian present is advised to take the FEV material and exit at once."

Damian would have found it amusing that the computer understood what he meant, but he didn't have time to congratulate himself. An alarm began to sound, and a voice echoed through the bunker.

"Self-destruct sequence initiated. T minus 10 minutes and counting."

Damian rushed to the door. The door refused to open. He turned towards Eden. All her screens were off. Damian swore and tried to open the door again.

"T minus nine minutes and counting," thundered his voice through the bunker's loudspeakers.

Damian laid eyes on the vial of FEV in front of him. He swore again and grabbed the capsule and put it in a bag on his belt. The door behind him unlocked. Damian started to run.

He came into a wide corridor to the right. At the end, a wide metal door was open. Several silhouettes in power armors, uniforms, lab coats or sportswear all rushed in the same direction.

Damian walked through the door, framed by laser turrets. One of the Enclave soldiers turned to him and raised his laser gun. The turrets were faster than him and the soldier vaporized into a cloud of glowing ash.

Eden had reprogrammed Raven Rock's security system to help Damian get to his office and his directive still had to take effect. The turrets fired at anyone who attacked him or pretended to threaten Damian.

Panic gripped the soldiers and officers present. Some rushed to a metal door at the end of the corridor. A tremor shook the base. The self-destruct must have malfunctioned and was triggered in advance. Damian sprinted to the door. A gas line in the floor burst, spitting up an impenetrable wall of flame. Soldiers caught in the fireball were writhing in pain on the ground, screaming for help.

Damian went down another corridor to his right. He came to a large window. On the other side was a huge well, used as a lift. A large platform rose to the surface, lifting a Vertibird whose engines were already activated. As Damian walked forward, he saw several more of these elevators come into action. One of them had stopped working and the small squad of soldiers that gravitated around the Vertibird was desperately trying to find a way to restart it or find a way out before it ended up buried under tons of concrete, metal and dirt.

Damian continued his mad rush. All around him were the corpses of members of the Enclave, victims of the bunker's defense system or of explosions.

He arrived at a fork. Two soldiers were helping a comrade with a head wound to get back on his feet. At their side was a large metal cage. An explosion shook the corridor and tripped Damian and the soldiers, damaging the wall and the power supply.

The locks on the cage disengaged. The doors opened slowly, pushed open from the inside. A clawed hand grabbed the edge of the cage and then a bellowed roar that managed to cover the alarm and the distant explosions sounded.

The soldiers turned around and their faces froze in an expression of horror. A large head emerged from the cage. Damian recognized the creature he had seen in the cryogenic laboratory, with its broad jaw, impressive teeth, reptilian eyes and horns on the top of the skull.

The creature crawled out of its cage and slowly turned towards the humans. The soldiers abandoned their companion on the ground and began to run. The creature whistled and rushed towards them, crushing the skull of the wounded man under its huge clawed foot. It raised its arm and brought it down on one of the soldiers and tore his power armor as if it was a sheet of paper. Cut in half, the soldier's body slowly spun in the air before crashing to the ground in a sheaf of intestines and blood.

Damian started running again. Two Sentry bots passed by and started shooting at the creature. Looking over his shoulder, Damian saw that the last soldier had been caught by the monster which had ripped his head off with a snap of the jaw.

Damian kept coming across dead bodies on his way, wounded and panicked men and women running away. They all rushed through a door. One woman, just behind the others, begged them to wait for her. Another explosion tripped her. She started crawling to get out of danger. Damian saw the door's hydraulics fail and fell on the woman, severing her legs.

The tremors and explosions were becoming more and more frequent. Damian didn't know how much time he had left before he went up in smoke along with the bunker. He followed the few plans he saw on the walls and the few soldiers he passed on his way.

He ended up in a long corridor. At the end, a door, marked as the entrance. Damian ran faster. He activated the door and found himself in an arch-shaped corridor, built of concrete and ending with an imposing steel door about a meter thick. The door slowly slid outwards, sliding on a metal track.

Outside, the grey sky greeted Damian, as well as the body of a soldier from the Enclave, propelled from behind the small concrete platform that allowed access to the bunker. Damian stepped aside to avoid the soldier. Turning around, he saw an imposing figure with yellow skin and a torn vault suit.

"Ah! I finally find you!"

Fawkes, the Super Mutant from Vault 87 stood in front of him, holding a laser gatling in his hands and sporting the closest thing to a smile on his mutant face.

Damian didn't have time to reply that a loud bang resonated from inside the bunker. He motioned for Fawkes to follow him. They ran away and dove behind a rock when a terrible explosion sounded in their backs. Damian felt a heat wave engulf him. All around them, small pieces of rock or metal were crashing on the ground and above their heads, Vertibird were flying away. One of them was hit by a piece of rock and began to whirl around in the sky before crashing further down the road. Several others spun in the sky towards the Wasteland, probably heading for a secondary base or the Jefferson Memorial.

A series of explosions rang out and it was always raining chunks of rock, or it was a Vertibird or a soldier ejected from one of the aircraft crashing beside them.

The explosions stopped. Damian let out a long sigh of relief when he heard a metallic crash in front of him. The heavy front door of the bunker had been torn off its steel hinges by the blast of one of the explosions and crashed a few meters from him and Fawkes.

The Super Mutant got up first. In the sky, small shards of pebble or burning metal continued to fly and fall. Damian turned back towards the bunker.

In front of him, he could see a road leading up to a mountain, from which columns of smoke and flames were now coming out. The base of the Enclave had gone up in smoke, buried under a mountain, with Eden and God only knew how many soldiers and scientists.

Damian wondered if Autumn had escaped. He deeply hoped that the Colonel had ended up crushed through a door or shredded by one of those creatures in the bunker, but it was a good bet that the officer had left the base as soon as the self-destruction began and was on his way to Project Purity with what was left of his army.

"I knew you survived," said Fawkes as he approached Damian.

"What are you doing here?" Damian asked, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears.

"I witnessed your capture and somehow managed to follow your captors," replied Fawkes. "But I wish I had arrived sooner to help you escape or to... Prevent the death of your companion."

Damian thought back to Dogmeat. He sighed and looked up at the Super Mutant.

"Don't worry, I apparently have a knack for escaping from bunkers and fallout shelters."

"I owe you my freedom," the Super Mutant continued. "And it was only fair that I try to return the favor. After all, you're the only person I know in this world."

Damian could not help but smile at the words of the Super Mutant. He nodded in gratitude. Damian turned his head to the Wasteland. The landscape was much more hilly and steeper than the ruins of D.C. or the surroundings of Megaton. There were no dwellings. The only evidence that man ever set foot on this land were the rare car wrecks, abandoned on the road near Raven Rock and in the distance, huge steel and concrete towers, each topped by a satellite, facing the heavens and a forest of power pylons and radio towers.

He had no idea where he was. He consulted Pip-Boy's map. Damian was forced to recognize something. The pre-war products had been built to last. His RobCo Pip-Boy may not have been one of the newest models in Vault 101, but all of its features worked, and most impressive of all, the computer's built-in map and GPS system was still connected to one of the many RobCo or Vault-Tec satellites orbiting the Earth.

Damian displayed the map of his Pip-Boy and searched for his position for a few seconds. When he was abducted by the Enclave, his Pip-Boy had automatically geotagged the route from Vault 87 to the Raven Rock bunker.

It was located northwest of the ruins of D.C., about 20 miles away. From here, it was impossible to see the town, hidden behind the mountains. It would be impossible for him to reach the Citadel before nightfall. Time was running out. The Enclave may have lost its headquarters, but it still posed a serious threat. It still controlled the Purifier, and it had the G.E.C.K. in its possession. The only piece missing was the activation code.

"You could come with me," he said, turning to Fawkes. "I have to get back to D.C. as soon as possible, if you want to hit the road with me."

Fawkes eyes widened. He bowed slightly forward.

"It would be an honor to follow someone like you. Shall we go?"

(About ten minutes earlier)

The soldier closed the door of the Vertibird's compartment. The engines started slowly and covered the alarm and detonations that had been ringing for a few minutes in Raven Rock.

Colonel Autumn took his seat and fastened his seat belt. With him was his personal guard, consisting of a five-man squad in power armor. Autumn looked preoccupied.

He had just left Eden's office and was about to review troops leaving for the Jefferson Memorial when he heard Eden address the bunker staff and order that the prisoner from Vault 101 was to be not arrested.

Autumn immediately announced a counter-order. He knew very well that Eden was going to try to use the young man from the Vault and he could not support it. Such a thing would jeopardize the whole operation of Project Purity and would reduce to nothing the efforts of the Enclave to impose itself as the main military force of the Capital Wasteland and to present itself as the saviors in the eyes of the population and, on a larger scale, for the whole of the United States.

It was already some time since Autumn had no more confidence in Eden. He felt that the President's plans were no longer in line with those of the Enclave. He had even elaborated a plan to oust Eden by deactivating him for good, but as a good disciplined officer, he had continued to obey orders, until this day.

The launching of the self-destruct sequence of Raven Rock could mean only one thing. The young man from Vault 101 had made it to Eden and had activated the destruction of the bunker. He was now aware of Eden's secret identity. Until now, only Autumn knew that Eden was a ZAX computer. Keeping such a secret had not been an easy thing but with the destruction of the base, the secret would be forever buried under tons of concrete and rock and it would be so easy for him to spread a lie about Eden's death, dead with a gun in his hand fighting the enemies of the United States.

He did not know if Eden had been able to convince the young man of Vault 101 to accept his plan, namely, the extermination of mutant creatures, whether Super Mutants, ghouls or humans born on the surface but if he had to bet on it, Autumn would have said that he did not.

For the time being, he was the new command of the Enclave and he was going to carry out his mission. To restore the glory and values of pre-war America and become the sole military force in the Capital Wasteland.

The Vertibird left Raven Rock. A few seconds later, the crew heard a loud bang and the aircraft wobbled because of the shock wave.

"Colonel," said slowly the co-pilot of the Vertibird. "We just lost contact with Raven Rock."

A deadly silence settled over the cabin. Everyone knew that the self-destruction of the base, once initiated, was irreversible, but the shock wave of the explosion and the announcement of the now silent radio waves fell on the soldiers like a punch to the face.

"What are your orders, Colonel?"

Autumn turned to his men.

"Contact other Vertibirds. Orders to proceed to Jefferson Memorial. We'll set up camp there and ensure the success of our mission. The Purifier will be the symbol of the Enclave and the new America rising from its ashes."

The Vertibird flew away to the ruins of D.C., its crew preparing for the inevitable battle that would soon begin.


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