Post-War Men and Pre-War Legends

I awoke lying face down, my hands bound in handcuffs behind my back, and inside a rocky cave. I heard a soft buzzing sound, and turned my head to see a clear blue electronic force field and Old Man Grevsky lying face down beside me. We still had our clothes on, but our packs, guns, and various survival or hiking equipment was nowhere to be seen. I heard the old man let out a loud snore, so I gave him a swift kick in the side with my bound legs, and he woke up shouting;

"Who!? Wha-!?"

The man settled himself down and turned his head to me. I said, "Hey man! You okay?"

He suddenly winced in apparent pain and said, "Yeah, slight headache… You?"

I realized that I felt the same way and agreed, "Yeah, same here. I think we're in their base?"

He suddenly darted his head around and really took in where we were. He broke the silence with a look of child-like glee and shouted, "HAHAHA! We did it! We found the Lost Dutchman's Mine! HAHAHAHAHA!"

I gave the old man another sharp kick and whisper yelled, "Keep it down, Old Man! We don't want them coming in here for us!"

He ignored my suggestion and spoke again in his overly loud and raspy voice, "Yeah we do? We wanna talk to these creeps, remember?"

I managed to stand myself up and waddled towards the forcefield. On the other side and several feet down the hall, I saw a tattered black flag nailed to the cave wall. The flag had a large E in the center surrounded by 13 stars.

I said to the old man, only half expecting an answer, "Who the fuck are these guys? Did they ever say who they were?"

Then, I thought out loud by asking, "And why does that flag look familiar?"

Old Man Grevsky responded, "The creeps just said they were 'US army' but I didn't buy that crap."

I thought to myself momentarily and wondered why the "E" symbol looked so familiar before we heard the force field buzzing halt. Turning towards the entrance, in came a man wearing an olive drab green jumpsuit looking thing with tall black boots and a black cap with the "E" emblem on it. Following the man were two of those giant black armored soldiers with glowing green weapons.

Grev and I both figured we were dead in that moment, but the suited man in the cap had an overly cheery grin as he said, "Good evening, mutants! Have a good sleep?"

Grev and I looked at each other puzzled, and then back at the man before I said, "Mutants? We aint no stinking mutants?"

He responded gleefully again by saying, "I see why you'd think that, but if you were born on continental America, your DNA has been 100% corrupted by the background radiation from the Great War. This means; as much as you'd like to think you're a pure human, you are most certainly not…"

I didn't think I was kidnapped to discuss whether or not I was a human, so I shot in, "Nobody cares, guy! What do you want from us, and who are you?"

Without changing his joyful expression, the strange man said, "Where are my manners, I am Captain Taylor of the Enclave."

I asked, "What's the Enclave?..." but then I thought really hard back to things I'd long since forgotten from back in California. I remembered visiting the Hub with my Pa and brother when I was 10 or 11. I recalled an NCR propaganda poster I saw with the "E" symbol and the headline read; "Enclave Defeated at Navarro!"

Captain Taylor interrupted my recollection by saying, "We are the last remnants of the United States Commonwealth from before the Great War, but that's not important right now. You're probably wondering why you are alive and not a smoldering pile of ash. Is that correct?"

Grev and I were both wondering that very thing, and simultaneously said, "Yeah."

Captain Taylor resumed, "Well, we need an outsider's help, and since the two of you were brave or stupid enough to track us down; you won the lottery. Congratulations, muties! You have been selected to assist us."

I was relieved that we weren't going to be turned into a "smoldering pile of ash" and curious about why. So, the two of us responded with, "Sure, I guess?… What do you want with us?"

The Captain gave a nod of acknowledgement and said, "Perfect! I'll have the Major explain. Follow me, would you? Also, bear in mind not to try anything… or you'll be killed."

We got up and the two armored giants un-cuffed our legs. We started following the Captain, and I looked over the facility. It was definitely an old mine, but the place had terminals and control panels bolted to the rocks connected by long electrical cords. There were more soldiers in that black power armor all marked with the E symbol walking the halls and carrying large energy weapons or miniguns.

As we walked, the Captain began to speak, "I take it you guys have heard the story of the Lost Dutchman's Mine?"

Grev said more enthusiastically than I would have, "You betcha. Been an Arizona legend for hundreds of years. Bout the old miner that disappeared in the 1800s."

Captain Taylor glanced back and nodded in semi-astonishment, "Wow, you muties really know your stuff. Thought that story woulda disappeared in the bombs… Anyway, in the year 2040, the US sent a geological team to survey the Superstition Mountains for Uranium. Though they did find some traces of it, they came across the wreckage of a pre 20th century mine. So, in 2042, the Arizona state government began to build a secret government shelter in the old mine and covered any press wanting to see what the geological team found. They said they found nothing, and instead focused their Uranium survey on the Grand Canyon. So, after we found records of this installation in some old databanks from back California; we moved here. However, this installation is only a temporary outpost for government troops to rally at…"

I interrupted, "Why are you telling us this?"

He said, "Because if you help us; we will move on our way, and you guys can say that you found the Lost Dutchman's mine! Isn't that exciting!?"

I wondered about the Gold Canyon townies the Enclave initially captured over a year ago, but asked, "So, why monitor the town of Gold Canyon?"

He replied frankly, "Well, we originally just kept to ourselves, but when the scrappers found us; we knew that we couldn't have scavengers knocking on our doors all the time, and someone would be stupid enough to tell the whole wasteland about us. So, we locked down the town and cannot afford to waste the ammunition in obliterating everyone. The townsfolk kept their word for a while until we intercepted a communication looking for a mercenary army to assault us. So, the monitors were installed, and we had your little community keep our secret under penalty of death. Trust me, we'd love to get as far away from your filth and leave you all to carry on with your insignificant lives, but… We're sort of… Stuck here…"

I asked, "Really? How so?"

Still staring forward and leading the way, he said, "I'll let the Major explain that situation."

He used his keycard to open a hydraulic door and we entered a small command room with a crudely drawn map of Arizona on it. Sitting beside the table and sipping from a mug was a man wearing a near identical uniform to Captain Taylor, but with gold leaves pinned on the shoulders.

The Major saw us enter, set down the cup, stood from his chair, and said in the same fake polite way as Captain Taylor, "Welcome, Wastrels! I am Major Braxton, and you are going to run an errand for us… Understand?"

I knew the cheery or polite tone of these men was fake, but Grev answered by sputtering, "Uuuh, yes sir. What do you need from us?"

Major Braxton's fake smile grew wider as he said, "Good! I love when muties are willing to help and not just stew in their own filth!"

Then he added a clearly false compliment as he continued, "And well-mannered too!? By the way, it's good to meet you, Mr. Grevsky. We have a lot of intel on you."

Grev pulled at his beard and said, "Good to meet you too, sir?"

The Major went on, "Perfect! By the way, that fake conversation with your friend there was one heck of a hoot! You two and your code talk, Hahaha!..."

The two of us remained quiet. I knew Grev was feeling far less crafty than he previously thought. Major Braxton resumed, "Anyway, you muties actually won the lottery; but I'm sure the Captain already told you that much. We would've used the captives we obtained when we got discovered for the task ahead of you, but unfortunately they were executed a few months ago for being too rowdy, irritating, and uncooperative. So, you two are going to help us get out of here."

I asked the question Captain Taylor wouldn't answer, "How are you guys trapped here?"

He immediately said, "Glad you asked. So, we set up here a year ago after some time at a facility called Bloomfield Space Center. We claimed the place for a number of years following the fall of Navarro, but migrated here when circumstances changed. During the Battle at Navarro, our Vertibirds took a beating, and though they got us around for many years, Bloomfield lacked the repair equipment we needed to join our brothers in the east. Records showed that there was enough space in the hangars here and enough equipment to repair our Vertibirds. However, the supplies were redirected to Luke AFB before the bombs fell, and the inventory log back at Navarro was never updated. We found the shipping manifests here saying that the parts were sent to Luke Air Force Base, but initial scouting reports of the area show it's inhabited by a large group of wastrels saying they are connected to the US Army. After attempting contact with them, they could not give us the proper call signs; thus indicating that they were a rogue element unlike our initial outreach to the Hopeville Silo Complex in California."

I asked, "So, you want us to infiltrate the US Army guys at Luke AFB and get you the Vertibird parts? Any idea how the two of us are supposed to carry several crates full of aircraft parts back here?"

Major Braxton looked shocked that I managed to figure out the task, but ignored my last question by continuing his explanation, "Yes indeed. We want you to locate the boxes and tag them with an IR marking. At dawn, you guys will be flown to the base. Your task is to find the boxes, likely in their hangars, and mark them. The IR tagging will tell us where they are, and at dusk we will distract the whole base long enough for my troopers to cart them away. I suppose your main goal is to verify their location so my men aren't looking under every rug in the middle of hostile territory. They should still be intact considering the earlier models of Vertibirds were not delivered to Luke AFB… Also, we need you two to get us a crate of 'Fusion Cores.' Our power armor suits are nearly dry, and we will definitely need them for the flight east. The two of you should be able to carry a box of fusion cores together. Just head towards Phoenix, and a Vertibird will pick you up under the cover of dark. And before you ask; we do have one operational Vertibird; the other three are not flight ready anymore, and that's why you're doing this for us. Any questions?"

The two of us remained silent, but before he dismissed us, I asked curiously, "You guys said you are heading east, right? Where are you going?"

He sighed, "I suppose I can answer that considering it is practically impossible for the people here to ever reach us. Given the 2,000+ miles of merciless wasteland of course… Well, over a year ago, we left Bloomfield because we finally managed to establish comms with the rest of the Enclave. You see, just before the fall of Navarro nearly 15 years ago; a large percentage of the remaining Enclave's forces were dispatched to the east a while after our Oil Rig went up in flames. So, we found out that the Enclave re-located to a place on the East Coast called 'Raven Rock.' They don't even know if Navarro has fallen. We are the remnants that were cut off from the base during the initial attack. For all we know, it's an NCR or Brotherhood military base by now…. Anyway, you will be given your equipment back to infiltrate Luke just before you go. We can't have you wandering this installation, so you will have to be confined to your cell… Sooo, your task begins tomorrow. Do us good, and you'll get to walk away from this."