The sole survivor of Vault 111 raised his hand to shield his eyes, the light from a sun too bright to be normal blinding his sensitive eyes. His ocean blue orbs blinked away the blurry haze as they adjusted to the harsh rays of the sun. He gasped quietly when he saw what was left of the town he once called home, Sanctuary. Everything was in ruin, the vegetation having grown and overrun the town.
He was trying desperately not to look at the place where he last saw his beloved Artz. She had been standing on the opposite side of the fence, smiling at him like nuclear bombs hadn't started dropping across the country. He could still remember the flash followed by the mushroom cloud typical of your classic nuclear warhead. He had glanced away just as the elevator began to lower, Artz had been looking towards the blast. She had simply closed her eyes, a look of acceptance and peace on her features. That was the last time he ever saw the woman that had claimed his heart so long ago.
Despite his better judgement, he glanced towards that very spot. He frowned slightly when he noticed the lack of remains. It was possible that her body had been dragged away by any number of hellish creatures, but considering that there were a plethora of skeletal remains that were completely undisturbed, he highly doubted that she was singled out. He shook his head, trying to clear away the nightmarish scenarios spinning through his grief stricken mind.
He needed to get away from here, he needed to at least get back to his house. The reason was that Artz had informed him that the Mr. Handy robot called Codsworth was still functioning in the game and it was highly probable at this point for that to also hold true in reality as well. He made his way away from the vault elevator and explored the area within the fences, picking up several items and stuffing them into a duffle he had snagged from a nearby supply crate.
He had no clue how the storage and catalog system of the pip boy actually worked. He never had one of the blasted contraptions before and even his beloved Artz hadn't the foggiest idea as to how it functioned. She had said that it was one of the many questions about the game's mechanics that were not answered in the lore, quests, or guides. Once he had a moment to sit down without being attacked at any possible moment, he would explore the functions of the portable wrist computer and essentially poke at it with a stick until he could make the ones and zeroes do what he wanted.
He sighed softly, really hating his own ignorance. He should have taken the time to study up on all the skills and know-how he needed to survive in a post apocalyptic wasteland, but a part of him hadn't believed the love of his life. He had served in the military and had honestly believed that something so drastic would never occur. How foolish he was, complacent too, but just so incredibly stupid overall.
Eleanor, on the other hand, had jumped into the insanity that was Fallout 4 and had attempted to prepare for any and all eventualities, even going so far as to actually accept the invitation from the Vault Tec representative into Vault 111, but also to team up with an old friend of hers that was working on some super secret project that was supposedly going to be of great help in the future. This friend worked for CIT and her name was Jane Mobius.
Her husband, George, had become a regular at their place, mainly to attempt to beat Artz at poker. He lost every time. The irony was that his love didn't actually have a poker face which George assumed to be a lie, believing that no one could be that bad at playing poker. Didn't help that Eleanor encouraged this ruse because it meant that Artz won a fair bit of cash from the poor sap which made her happy because she didn't have to rely so heavily on Eleanor and himself for financial aid. He hadn't minded of course but his wife knew just how much it upset their love to not be able to contribute more to the household expenses.
The sole survivor of Vault 111 finally explored the entirety of the fenced area then made his way to the path that led down the hill and towards the town. He stopped short when his gaze fell upon the dozens of skeletal remains of the townspeople that once inhabited Sanctuary Hills. These people had been his neighbors, many were even loosely considered friends which was mainly Artz's fault. She had such an infectious personality that seemed to attract people to her like moths to a flame.
She always possessed an aura of understanding, her eyes shining with kindness and compassion. She often exhibited a rather hyper energy and an insatiable curiosity to match which endeared the citizens to Sanctuary Hills to her. They enjoyed her child like wonder and awe filled expressions. That woman just knew how to wrap people around her little finger.
Eleanor always joked that Artz possessed a special kind of magic that was capable of bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses. The faces she would make in response to that comment were so comical that he often teased her by calling her Puff the magic dragon, something she herself had told him about. It was so silly yet how he wished he could see her again. If only he could tell her what was truly in his heart, the love that both he and Eleanor had for her.
He was distracted by the sound of fluttering wings and he glanced away from the bones to nearby trees. He spotted the birds, but the way they moved seemed wrong to him. He vaguely recalled something Artz had said in regards to something called The Institute.
'Keep an eye out for strange birds. They are glorified surveillance drones for The Institute, the creators of advanced robots called synths. They'll be watching how you will react after being let loose from the vault after two hundred years.'
Even that was true, the sentinels of technologically advanced isolationists with a really bad superiority complex which means that the mysterious man known as Deacon from The Railroad was undoubtedly lurking nearby. He probably thought that he was an agent of the Institute. He'll just have to prove him wrong because he was no one's bitch. The only person that could command him was the woman that was his soul and she was long gone. He couldn't even give her a proper burial, but he could create a memorial for her and Eleanor. He would make certain that they would be remembered. They lived on through him and he will honor their memory even if it killed him.
With that thought in mind, he openly glared at the pesky mechanical birds, even going so far as to flip them off. Let them watch, watch as he reshapes this little piece of radioactive paradise with his own two hands. His eyes shifted from ocean blue to mirrored obsidian as he walked past the skeletons on the ground with a determined stride. He was already forming a working strategy, all he needed now was up-to-date information on all the factions and current political affairs. He made it the main street of the town.
"Sir, is it really you, Mr. Kincaid?" A robotic voice asked from a short distance away, making him look in that direction, "It is! Mister Liam Kincaid! You're alive!"
Just as Artz had said, the Mr. Handy robot called Codsworth was indeed still functioning and quickly met him halfway.
"Codsworth, you're still here." The sole survivor now identified as Liam Kincaid commented, barely able to fully believe his eyes.
Artz had been the one to suggest getting a Mr. Handy shortly before he and Eleanor had left on their week-long honeymoon at her insistence. When they had returned, they discovered that with a bit of help from the denizens of Sanctuary Hills, Artz had actually bought all the parts needed to actually build her own Mr. Handy and during the week that she had been alone, she had put him together and even programmed him though Jane had helped her on that bit.
Artz was quite the tinker, but had problems with the finer points of computer programming and the more advanced scientific issues. She was far from dumb and had quite the aptitude for learning, but her hyperactive mind made it difficult to stay focused on the boring stuff. Still, coming home and finding a talking robot roaming about at Artz's beck and call had been rather startling to say the least. Shortly after, Eleanor drafted the dark blonde into Jane Mobius' super secret project and the term Spoilers became a typical response when he asked about it.
"Well of course I'm still here. Surely you don't think a little radiation could deter the pride of General Atomics International? But you seem the worse for wear. Best not let the wife or Her Ladyship see you in that state. Where are they, by the way?" The Mr. Handy robot replied, drawing him away from the memories of happier days.
"They...they killed them." Liam choked out, his tone layered with quiet grief and rage.
"Sir...these things you're saying. These...terrible things…I…I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood. It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers or perhaps Charades. Shaun does love that game. Is the lad with you?" Codsworth said, trying to distract him but only making his heart hurt even more.
"Shaun's been kidnapped, but I'm going to find him. I'm going to get my son back." The sole survivor answered though he knew that he would never get his baby back.
His son was already an adult far past his prime, old enough to be his grandfather by now, but that still wasn't going to stop him from reuniting with his only child.
"It's worse than I thought. Hmm hmm, you're suffering from…hunger induced paranoia. Not eating properly for two hundred years will do that, I'm afraid." The robot replied, confirming Liam's worst fear.
It was true, it was all true. Just how much of the game was, in fact, the truth because more and more was lining up and it honestly terrified him.
"Two hundred years…" He breathed still reeling from the reality of the situation.
"A bit over two hundred and ten actually, sir. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished." The Mr. Handy confirmed.
Was it just him or was Codsworth acting a little odd?
"Codsworth, you're acting...a little bit weird. What's wrong?" Liam asked genuinely concerned about the robot's wellbeing.
The Mr. Handy was not only Artz's hard built creation, but someone that she considered to be a close friend despite him being an artificial being.
"I...I...oh sir, it's been just horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve. I spent the first ten years trying to keep the floors waxed, but nothing gets out nuclear fallout from vinyl wood. Nothing! Amd don't get me started about the futility of dusting a collapsed house. And the car! The car! How do you polish rust?" The robot moaned.
Captain Liam Kincaid felt truly wretched for just upping and leaving Codsworth behind. It's a miracle that the poor thing hadn't gone insane from loneliness.
"Easy, Codsworth. I need you to focus, mate." The black eyed man stated, bringing the robot back from the past and into the present.
"I'm afraid I don't know anything, sir. The bombs came and all of you left in such a hurry. I thought for certain you and your family were...dead. I did find this holotape." Codsworth informed while pulling out a holotape, "I believe Her Ladyship was going to present it to you. As a surprise but then, well...everything happened."
Liam took the holotape and thanked the Mr. Handy robot. Said robot sniffled and said you're welcome.
"Now enough feeling sorry for myself. Shall we search the neighborhood together? The missus, Her Ladyship, and young Shaun may turn up yet." Codsworth suggested.
He didn't have the heart to try and convince the somewhat oblivious or in a constant state of denial mechanical butler that Eleanor and Artz were dead and that Shaun was long gone, so he acquiesced to the robot's idea. He followed after the Mr. Handy and helped exterminate some rather large insects that the pip boy identified as bloatflies, stripping them of what little substance they had. He was going to have to figure out how to season this stuff or he wasn't going to be able to keep it down. It was even worse the ration packs that the military issued to their soldiers.
After exploring the nearby houses, he had to talk Codsworth out of a premature downward spiral. Fortunately, it didn't take much and the Mr. Handy ended up giving him a little bit of pep talk.
"You can't give up, sir. What about the city? Concord is nearby and well, the people there have only shot at me a few times." Codsworth suggested and he thanked him for his help, "Good luck, sir. You'll find young Shaun. I know you will. I shall remain here and secure the home front."
He watched the robotic butler wander off and despite Codsworth's optimism, Liam knew the truth. He would find his son, his baby boy all grown and near the end of life's journey. As much as he was grateful that the Mr. Handy was still around, it was a harsh reminder that his beloved Artz was still gone and that fact alone made him want to curl into a ball and just let himself die, but he knew that neither she or Eleanor would forgive him if he just gave up, so he would forge ahead and try to do something meaningful with his life.
He wandered around the ruins of this once quiet and quaint little town of Sanctuary Hills, making certain that all the critters were cleared out. He did stumble upon a rather formidable enemy in the form of a legendary radroach in one of the most distant houses. That pesky cockroach was even more of a nuisance than the irradiated radroach. He wasted almost two clips of ammo on the bloody thing and another on the handful of normal radroaches that were its escort. Still, it paid off because he got a fair amount of radroach meat from their carcasses.
He made his way back towards the homestead and caught sight of a work bench at the house across the street. The house once belonged to Jane Mobous and her husband George Smith. They had set up the work bench to store and break down items into base components and it held all the recipes for creating other items needed for a homestead. There was also a weapons crafting station, a cooking station, and even a power armor stand, but what caught his attention was the entrance to what appeared to be a cellar of some kind.
He had often seen Jane, Eleanor and eventually Artz go inside this particular cellar before. Was this location for that super secret project that Dr. Mobius had been working on? He opened the cellar door and descended the ladder, making certain to securely fasten the door so no one could get the drop on him.
He was greeted by the hum of what sounded like some kind of generator, a storage chest, and a door leading off to the left. His eyes widened slightly at the symbol adorning a panel next to the door. It was the symbol for infinity, the same symbol that he found on the key in the storage crate. He inserted the key and turned it. A display window slid up and it was asking for who was attempting access. Several profiles were listed; Infinitum, Librarian, Doctor, Poker, and Captain.
Infinitum was definitely Jane's profile. Librarian was the call sign of his wife, Eleanor. Doctor could only be one person and that person was Artz, given the fact that her name waa German for doctor. Poker was most definitely George which left only one profile, Captain. Did they program a profile for him to use? The rank he held at the end of his time in the army was Captain, so it was at least a possibility.
He chose the Captain profile and it asked for a password. What would they have chosen to be his password? He honestly didn't know, but after a few minutes of just standing there like an idiot, two words suddenly appeared on the screen, Jolly Roger. Wait, what? Did he type that in? He didn't recall doing that, but then again he had no memory of what had transpired with the irradiated radroach either. Besides the words Jolly Roger did make sense in this case given his resemblance to the fictional character named Killian Jones.
He tapped the enter key and the display changed, saying Access Granted. The magnetic locking system disengaged and the door slid open. To the left was a console and a terminal, and to the right and on the back wall as well, were various containers; toolboxes, safes, ammo boxes, crates, cash registers, lockers, etc. He systematically went through each one and he was stunned by what he found...and what he found was everything; ammo, cash, caps, weapons, armor, armor/weapon mods, items, medical supplies, food, drinks, alcohol, base components, and even the parts for every single kind of power armor, including the mythic X-01 model of power armor.
"Bloody hell, wench. This was what you, Eleanor and Jane were working on all that time?!" He commented to himself before turning around to access the terminal, "What the...this is a bloody infinity lab! You literally created a bloody duplication hack for real life! Bloody hell, you lot, just bloody hell!"
Further inspection of the terminal revealed a sorrowful truth, only George had made it here. Jane had been trapped at CIT and wasn't able to come home. Worse still, his old friend had died alone because he had found the skeletal remains of a man holding Nuka Cola Quantum and he knew that it was George's favorite though how he managed to get his hands on the stuff before it was officially released was still a mystery to him. Plus he had gotten Artz hooked on the stuff. She especially liked ice cold, almost frosty like soda slushie.
He turned off the terminal, unable to read anymore and continued his exploration. He found what the wench would call a player base with a cooking station, a weapon/armor crafting station, a chemical station, and another power armor stand but this one actually had a power armor frame docked and ready for customization. He will tackle that little conundrum tomorrow.
For now he sat down on the bed and started going over all the functions of the pip boy. After about an hour, he decided to conduct some experiments and through trial and error, emphasis on error, he finally worked out how to use the storage and catalog system on the pip boy. Apparently it scanned and digitized the items into a memory chip located inside the wrist device, but it was limited by the SPECIAL stats. He really needed to work on those because right now his carry weight limit was atrocious.
Fortunately, the infinity lab built by Jane Mobius with the help of Eleanor Kincaid and Artz Lanaria, there were several items that could permanently boost these stats. He chuckled softly.
"I can't believe you actually succeeded in making a real life cheat room, you bloody minded wench." He spoke quietly, shaking his head in fond exasperation.
She wasn't even around anymore and yet she was still trying to help him. Liam loved her all the more for this. Even though he hadn't believed that total atomic annihilation would never occur, she did and she planned accordingly. She enlisted the aid of her friends to make certain that their loved ones would have every possible resource at their disposal to ensure the best chance for survival. He really did love that woman, that absolutely brilliant and impossible woman.