9th of November, 2288
"Private?" Ingram asked, looking to the monstrosity of a machine, a private from the Minutemen was working on.
"Yessir, Sergeant?" The private turned away from the control console to see Ingram who looked like a parent, staring at a drawing made by his own child that was something completely different from what it was supposed to be.
"...I'm gonna be honest, what in the fuck have you done?" Ingram asked, going over to the machine in the robot work bench, it was some strange mish mash of an assaulttron, a sentry bot, and a robo-brain.
"I.. I was trying to build a sentry bot, Sergeant. But it got out of hand." The private replied.
"Clearly. ...Don't touch a robot work bench. Ever. Get the hell away from it." Ingram said before the private backed off and went to go do something else.
"Alright, time to get this... Monstrosity set right." Ingram sighed and went over to the work bench's console and began tapping away, the work bench did most of the work anyway..
An hour would pass before the monstrosity was reconfigured into an actual sentry bot, Ingram would send the bot on it's way before letting out a sigh.
"...Amateurs..." Ingram said before he went to the command tent for the whole base which was renamed to Control Station: Bunker Hill.
Now all that was left was to figure out just what kind of world The Enclave and it's coalition were now in. Already it was clear this world was untouched by the curse of radiation unlike Boston, and the rest of the world. This world had rolling hills of luscious green grass, forests and mountains.
As well as an unknown presence of an East Asian type, it wouldn't take word of this to spread and instantly the decision would be made to bring a few of the salvaged vertibirds as well as more power armoured Minutemen through the gate as well as Institute synths. ...And the reclaimed, Liberty Prime, taken from the Brotherhood of Steel.
Ingram entered the tent, turning up the flap on it's entryway before heading to the furthest desk at the end, at it was sitting Corporal Fitzpatrick, the fourth person, Ingram helped out of the apparent, previously hidden Government wing of Vault 111.
"Corporal, any orders for me?" Ingram leaned his AER-9 Rifle on the table which temporarily made up Corporal Fitzpatrick's desk
"Oh, Sergeant. Yes, I have a few from the General himself." Corporal Fitzpatrick slid a piece of paper across his makeshift desk.
Ingram took the paper and looked it over. Advanced light recon of towns, villages, tribes which may exist in this world, scouting of enemy encampments, deployments... But what caught his eye was "Advanced light recon of unknown East Asiatic forces, and potential of making contact depending on nationality." Below that was of course "Red Chinese are to be engaged with extreme prejudice. Japanese, KMT/Nationalistic/ROC Chinese, or South Korean forces are to be examined for communistic influences. If not then make contact with upper echelons."
The mission was easy enough, of course General Ward was more concerned with the possibility of having to fight a menace like the Reds in this new world, that would require damaging the land with radioactive weaponry like the M42 Fatman.
"He also wants you to leave your suit of X-02 Power Armour here, for your mission, you'll be best with as little weighing you down, but you can still keep your issued set of combat fatigues, and armour." Corporal Fitzpatrick said.
"Alright, see to it, it gets to someone who will actually know how to best use it. Not anyone like the boy I caught tryna make a sentry bot and made the modern frankenstein's monster." Ingram said as he took up his laser rifle.
"No problem. Because I'll look after it." Corporal Fitzpatrick said.
"Alright, Corporal. Treat her right. She's in the motor pool, the left leg servo was acting a bit dodgy." Ingram said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.
"I'll bet. Oh, one more thing, Sergeant, General Ward has, with the revelation of another gate being opened elsewhere in our world, seen fit to promote you, you're skipping you from an E-5, to an O-5. His reasoning is that if you come into contact with any possibly friendly forces, you'd best serve as a liaison officer between Enclave forces or any Japanese, South Korean, or ROC forces." Corporal Fitzpatrick saluted Ingram and slid across the table a set of eagle insignias and a dress uniform with a visor cap.
Ingram gathered the uniform and the insignias then returned the salute and left the tent, Ingram put on his black helmet back on and packed his uniform and all away in his pack, then he started on his way. Usually a gas mask would be worn with the helmet but considering the environment wasn't likely to produce a radstorm, it wasn't needed, so it just sat hanging from Ingram's pistol belt with it's visors glowing yellow as per usual.
Ingram made his way through the ever growing base of tents and salvaged materials taken from the destroyed Prydwen and salvaged from military bases and checkpoints across the commonwealth. It was more of a shanty town than anything, possibly if these asians were Japanese, or ROC then they might be able to help out and get this mess straight.
Ingram went down the hill through the grass, taking in the sights before him, not too far off was a forest, he'd forgotten what a forest even was, in the wasteland one would be lucky to see green grass, let alone living trees. It was almost surreal but yet here it all was. A clean world.
Ingram silently continued on his way in and through the forest, hearing animals he hadn't heard in 210 or so years. The only animals that were still prevalent were crows, and all other mutated monstrosities. But here? He could hear all different types of birds singing and chirping, he didn't mind it one bit. This, this was more of a blessing for the wasteland and humanity than it could ever be anything else.
Off elsewhere he couldn't have known anything of what was transpiring that night..
Ingram found shelter in a cave and got the time to put the insignias on his dress uniform while he listened to the Enclave broadcast.
"And that concludes our broadcast day. Goodnight fellow patriots, god bless the Enclave, god bless America." The radio announcer said as the Star Spangled Banner started playing, Ingram let the broadcast finish and he packed the uniform away in his pack before he sat back in the cave, tipping his helmet back, he fell asleep as it started to rain outside.
The next morning, Ingram came upon an area of burnt trees and earth, it looked like the glowing sea had come to this new land, he took a second to pause and check his Geiger counter on his pipboy, it registered the same radiation levels as before, which didn't make any sense, just what the hell could've cause all this destruction? He asked himself, mentally as above, the rain clouds remained but it had stopped raining only just some time ago.
Koan Forest, 20 km away from Control Station: Bunker Hill..
"Look, the ground is still so hot, smoke is coming off of it, from the rain hitting it.. It'd be a miracle if anyone survived this.." Kurata said as he walked through the ruins and the burnt, half buried with limbs sticking out. He passed a pile of rubble, a burnt arm stuck out and he could feel whatever breakfast he had in the morning, trying to fight it's way up out of his stomach for a second.
"Uhm... Sir?" Kurata asked before Itami replied.
"I know, keep moving." Itami said, not even looking back to the hand.
The group was continuing to look over the ruins, searching for survivors as Ingram happened upon the area, hiding behind a pile of rubble, Ingram has put his gas mask on, the stench of death in the air was too much for him at the moment.
Ingram watched through binoculars as one of the soldiers in green removed his helmet and set it down in front of him, he took a seat on a what even Ingram would recognise to be a well, drinking from a canteen with his weapon at the ready.
Ingram hadn't seen any kit like this before but the weapons looked familiar, after the Chinese were kicked out of Alaska, the Japanese had rifles similar to that, if memory served him right, it was called the "Type 64 Battle Rifle", meaning it was a high calibre rifle, similar to the R91 Assault Rifles the US Army issued back before the war, though the R91 was 5.56, not 7.62 like the Type 64 rifle.
Ingram kept watching through his binoculars as a short woman came to the man with a piece of paper, the two started talking, about what he might guess to be a quarter into the conversation, just past them... Ingram saw it. Three armoured vehicles, all moving on their own. A sight he hadn't seen in a couple years since he emerged from Vault 111 as the only survivor.
Ingram watched as the male stood up and picked up a bucket by the well, he tossed it in and apparently something had gotten the two's attention as they looked into the well, and started yelling, everyone else of their group gathered around the well for a second before they had sprung into action, bringing a vehicle around with a rope, they tied the rope to the bumper of the vehicle, then around the man who originally had been relaxing by the well.
The man, as Ingram observed was lowered into the well, leaving Ingram only to wonder, just what the hell was going on? Ingram adjusted his binocular's settings to 10x magnification to see just what was going on, the vehicle slowly inched forward after a couple minutes and the man climbed his way back up out of the well. ...Carrying a girl with pointed elf ears, like in the old Tolkien novels with all that middle earth nonsense.
"What the fuck...?" Ingram said in mild disbelief upon seeing the elf through his binoculars, Ingram lowered his binoculars and slowly rose to a crouch as he kept low to the ruins, making his exit from the general area, back to the cave he found the night before.
Ingram set up a small radio transmitter, powered by a makeshift battery and began transmitting.
"This is Paul Revere to Control Station: Bunker Hill, come in Bunker Hill. Over." Ingram said over the radio, waiting before a response came.
"This is Control Station: Bunker Hill, anything to report, Paul Revere? Over?" A female voice said over the radio with a light french accent, he immediately knew who it was.
"Aye, report to General Ward, the unknowns are not, I repeat, they are not Red Chinese. I can confirm after observation they are instead Japanese, over. ..Oh there is one more thing, Japanese picked up a girl, I swear to god this girl has pointed ears, like an elf in one of those old Tolkien novels. Alright, that's everything, Paul Revere signing off, Command. Over." Ingram said before he turned off the radio, unaware someone else was listening in.
Off back at the Third Recon's brief stop point while Kurokawa and Kuribayashi were treating the elf that Itami pulled out of the well, Itami, Kurata, Kuwahara, and Tomita stood around the radio, listening to the broadcast, Ingram was speaking over.
"So they have eyes on us but we don't have eyes on them... And more importantly they have a base of operations." Tomita said
"What concerns me is this "Paul Revere" had to be close enough to have eyes on us to see the girl's ears so clearly." Kuwahara said as a fifth joined them, Leading Private Daisuke Tozu.
"Sir?" Daisuke asked Itami to get his attention
"Yeah, Tozu?" Itami asked, looking to his side to see the private there.
"I came to report that while I was looking through the ruins, I saw a man there, neither one of the locals or one of ours." Tozu said.
"You only just now came to tell us?!" Itami asked, almost slightly in a panic.
"He was just observing sir, and his equipment is... Unusual." Tozu said.
"How so?" Kurata asked
"He wore a uniform that was somewhat form fitting with black metal armour pieces on his torso, legs, shoulders, and his lower arms. He was also wearing a gas mask which had the eye windows glowing yellow, and a black helmet, seemed similar to ours, but he also had a pack and an unusual looking firearm." Tozu said.
"Did you see where he was going?" Kuwahara asked.
"Yes sir, he was headed south east." Tozu said.
"Alright, I'd nominally say we should pursue him and get some answers but we have that girl to worry about, first." Itami said.
Kurokawa came running to hear the latter half of what Tozu was describing.
"The girl's temperature is back up, and she's able to be moved, what happened?" Kurokawa asked.
"Tozu might've spotted an Enclave scout." Itami said.
"You mean those guys we picked up on the radio?" Kurokawa asked.
"Yeah, keep your eyes peeled for a black armoured figure wearing a gas mask with yellow glowing eye windows." Kurata said.
"Alright." Kurokawa said before she left, going back to see to the elf. She would wonder, just who these Enclave were and what might their intentions be, while making her way back to Kuribayashi and the elf.
Ingram, returned to watching the recon team through his binoculars, but still he kept his distance. It seemed they were packing up... Ingram noticed a woman climbing into the back of one of the vehicles. Long flowing black hair, tied in a half ponytail, she wasn't bad on the eyes, really... Ingram mentally slapped himself and shook his head.
"No, no, not right now you moron. You're on duty." Ingram said aloud to himself, confidant no one would hear him and he continued looking through his binoculars as he noticed the vehicles were getting ready to move out. He had to follow behind them so he waited until they were in motion, but kept his distance, following them as best he could from the woods and the plains.
It would be a while before Ingram would come upon the outskirts of a village, outside of it's gate, he would see all of the vehicles he was tracking, including one of the more heavily armoured vehicles with a Browning .50 Cal machine gun atop it.
Coda Village, 40km away from Control Station: Bunker Hill.
"Shit... Alright, alright let's see..." Ingram hid behind a cluster of trees and rifled through his pack before he finally found what he was looking for, a Stealth boy.
"Alright, this should do it." Ingram leaned his pack up against the cluster of trees and activated the device, it turned him invisible and he quickly rifled through the pack once more, taking a radio beacon from it, one he picked up in his early days while out in the wasteland, traveling. Taken from an old brotherhood recon team that was spread out due to various circumstances and met their ends in different ways.
Ingram made his way out into the open while he was still sure the coast was clear and crawled under one of the vehicles, attaching the radio beacon under it, he then crawled out from under the vehicle and made his way to the larger vehicle where he looked into it, seeing just the elf girl, wrapped in blankets.
Ingram opened the door and climbed in, he slowly made his way to the girl, closing the door behind him, quietly.
Ingram looked over the girl and gently pealed the blanket back from her head to look at her ears, just as he though, they indeed were pointed, like elf ears.
Ingram held his pipboy over the girl and his Geiger counter didn't barely click at all, so she wasn't a radiated mutant, then again that would make sense. The background radiation was standard for before the war, even with everything considered. So then how did this whole thing with elves come about?
That wouldn't matter much as Ingram climbed out of the vehicle, quietly and made his way back to the treeline, just in time too, apparently as a couple soldiers came back and got in the vehicle, Ingram had just left. Taking it into the village, a local and one of the soldiers looked into the back of the vehicle.
Ingram sat back at the cluster of trees, hidden as he took a moment to think, he turned off the stealth boy and weighed his options.
The Enclave had to know if these Japanese had intended on shooting at Enclave forces, but at the same time, there was the risk of the Enclave possibly starting a war against these Japanese, from what he'd seen, such a war would logistically, for the Enclave be a nightmare. But there was also to consider if the war did turn badly, the Enclave had the advantage with laser and plasma weaponry as well as with combat robots and power armour, after all.
The whole design of power armour was intended to be a bridge between a need for superior firepower to combat the Chinese, the US couldn't throw resources into tanks the Chinese could simply mass produce with them tossing more tanks and troops than the US could get out onto the field, in the case of Japan, they weren't even supposed to have a military, yet here troops were... And with better transport than anything the Enclave could hope for in the next five or so years, maybe longer.
There was no question about it. Ingram had to atleast try to make peaceful contact... But there wouldn't be a snowball's chance in hell of that if he strode in, in full armour, gas mask, helmet, and laser rifle in hand. Ingram felt like, there would be a possibility he'd regret it but he still had decided, he'd put on the uniform provided for him before he left.
So he went off into the woods with his pack and changed, taking his armour off, he removed the uniform and the visor cap with it, setting it off to the side as he packed away his gear and broke down his laser rifle, putting it into the pack. He then put on the uniform, starting with the shirt and tie, then the pants and belt, then the boots and the jacket, the belt with the jacket then he put on the cap, then he put his boots back on and took a deep breath.
Then he realised, it might atleast be well enough to have a side arm on him. So he reached into his pack and took out the laser rifle, he spent just a couple minutes re configuring the rifle into a pistol, setting it off to the side he closed the bag up and put the pistol in the holster on his belt before he slung the pack over his shoulder and made his way through the woods, and out to the village where he saw everyone packing up shop onto wagons which reminded him of old wagons used by those who traveled west when America was just a nation in it's infancy.
Ingram continued, about to pass a cart when he heard the Japanese yelling, just a couple carts ahead he'd see the Japanese running off to the other end of the apparent convoy line.
"Huh, wonder what's going on.." Ingram said as apparently one of the Japanese called on another and it was one of the women.
Just then infront of him, a young girl dressed in robes with blue, shoulder length hair, ran off in the same direction as the Japanese, he heard the old man who was next to the girl in the cart ahead yell at the girl which caused Ingram to briskly walk, following the girl.
Up ahead of the convoy there was a large gathering of locals, the girl made her way through the crowd, Ingram stood behind the locals, watching as the girl was checking on another who was laid out on the ground, then a familiar face emerged, joining the blue haired girl, knelt down on the otherside of the girl on the ground, she seemed to talk to the blue haired girl... Before her gaze met that of Ingram... And the cap he wore.
A visor cap with the insignia of the Enclave proudly front and centre on the cap, a black E, surrounded by a cluster of stars. It was then another soldier knelt down behind the blue haired girl and at that moment, a horse had started going mad, about to attack the four, Ingram pushed his way past the crowd of locals and pulled his AER-9 Laser pistol from the holster, pulling the trigger a blue bolt of light left it and hit the horse, causing it to disintegrate.
Right before the eyes of everyone watching, the horse disintegrated into naught but a pile of ash.
Ingram looked to the two soldiers and the blue haired girl, two of which looked to Ingram's left and there he saw three more soldiers gathered, one of them seemed to be the eldest, another hadn't trimmed the hair off his chin, and the other was another woman, short.
The eldest of the three had his rifle up, but the one with the untrimmed facial hair on his chin lowered the rifle, Ingram couldn't tell if the rifle was aimed at him or at where the horse was but it didn't matter as the short woman rushed forward and stuck the barrel of her rifle in Ingram's face, pointed square at his nose.
Surprisingly, she yelled in English.
"Put your hands up, now!" The woman yelled, quite aggressively.
"Woah, there, easy now, I'm not here to start trouble with you, just gave a helping hand." Ingram said as he put his hands up.
"Kuribayashi, knock it off." The one soldier with the untrimmed facial hair on his lower chin said as he forcefully lowered the young woman, now identified as Kuribayashi's rifle from being pointed at Ingram's nose.
"Yes, sir." The woman said, begrudgingly.
"Sorry about that, none of us have ever seen someone vaporise a horse before." The man with the untrimmed facial hair on his lower chin said.
"Vaporise? ...Sure, Vaporise, disintegrate, semantics." Ingram said.
"Right, uh... So who are you?" The man asked.
"Harry Reginald Ingram, Colonel of the United States Enclave Armed Forces." Ingram said.
"So, wait, you're one of those guys who have been blasting Stars and Stripes Forever on the radio?" The man asked.
"Well, yes, I am. ..Might I ask who you are, since we're trading names?" Ingram asked.
"Fair enough, I'm Second Lieutenant Yoji Itami, that woman that had her gun in your face is Sergeant First Class, Shino Kuribayashi, and the old timer, that originally had his rifle pointed your way is Sergeant-Major Soichiro Kuwahara." Itami said.
"Well, good to meet you lot." Ingram said as he held his hand out for Itami.
Itami took Ingram's hand and briefly shook it before letting go.
"I'm just glad it's you all running around and not those Red Chinese bastards, I guess we blasted those sons of bitches back to the stone age." Ingram said.
"Yeah. ...Wait, why would you blast the Chinese back to the stone age?" Itami asked.
"Cause of the Great War, after we kicked their asses out of Alaska and pushed them all the way back to the Great Wall during the Resource Wars. They decided to throw the biggest of tiss fits and launched all their nukes at the US because they were losing, but I guess we had more than they did, clearly." Ingram said.
"...Everything you just said has me genuinely concerned." Itami said.
"Don't worry about it, I'll explain the intricacies of that period of clusterfuckery, right now part of my mission is complete, now I'm supposed to stick with you guys and radio back to command that you guys aren't communists or allied with the communists." Ingram said.
"What would happen if either case were true?" Itami asked.
"Well if that's a hypothetical question, then the full might of the Enclave would be brought to bear against, what I'm guessing from memory to be, Japan." Ingram said.
"Oh, well. I was just asking because there are a few communist countries still around." Itami said.
"Ah shit... Here we go again." Ingram said with a sigh.
"What?" Itami asked.
"Nothing, nothing, don't worry about it... Got anywhere I can change into my gear encase we get attacked?" Ingram asked.
"Yeah, Kurokawa, show this guy to the vics." Itami said
"Yessir." A female voice, behind Ingram said, he turned to see the venerable angel, least she was looks wise, voice wise too, apparently.
"Alright, thanks, Second Lieutenant." Ingram said before Kurokawa lead Ingram back to the vehicles a bit further ahead of the line.
"Uh.. Mind my asking your first then? I'm sure you heard mine and all." Ingram asked as he followed Kurokawa
"My first?" Kurokawa asked, looking back over her shoulder to Ingram.
"Your first name and all." Ingram said.
"Ah, right. I'm Mari, Mari Kurokawa." Kurokawa said.
"Well, you can call me Harry, Ingram, or the Sole Survivor like some others do." Ingram said.
"Sole Survivor? Why do they call you that?" Kurokawa asked as she and Ingram reached the vics.
"Cause that's exactly what I am, the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, it was an underground cryo facility operated by Vault-tec, a corporation from before the war that made underground bomb shelters, called Vaults." Ingram explained.
"So what happened, if this was a cryo facility... Then... Wait. You were frozen?" Kurokawa asked.
"Yeah, I was, woke up around about the same time I went in, but just 210 years into the future, been out of the vault for two years so I've been living for about 234 years. Since I went in when the bombs fell, I was 24, then I was unfrozen 210 years after wards, so yeah, about 234 years old." Ingram said, shrugging it off.
"You said that you were the only survivor, weren't there others?" Kurokawa asked
"Others that went into the vault? Certainly. I went in with my wife and my infant son, they were frozen too." Ingram said.
"Oh.. I'm so sorry for your losses then." Kurokawa said.
"Losses? I only lost my wife in the vault. At some point between the whole 210 years I was frozen, we were unfrozen for a short time, I stood there and watched this mercenary bastard, Kellogg murder my wife and take my son. Then I was frozen again, let go after that and escaped." Ingram said, he'd been over it for a while but it still made his chest tighten, bringing it up.
"I see... If you'd like to talk about it, I'd be more than happy to listen." Kurokawa said, giving Ingram a reassuring smile.
"I'll think on it, thanks." Ingram said, smiling back to Kurokawa before he went and got changed, taking off his dress uniform, Ingram dawned his combat uniform and the armour that went along with it, leaving the gas mask off just attached to his utility belt on his armour, he also took a moment to reconfigure his Laser pistol into a laser rifle before he rejoined Kurokawa.
"Is that steel armour?" Kurokawa asked as she watched Ingram approach.
"Yeah, pre war former US military standard issue." Ingram said, Kurokawa didn't know what to make of it, this man came from a world with laser guns and all but yet they were using metal armour? ...Yet in the back of her mind it did make sense as it might deflect laser blasts.
"Alright, well, let's get going." Kurokawa said, just shrugging it off, this stranger was quite different from anyone she'd seen before. Yet that could be chalked up to the fact he survived a nuclear war, was the sole survivor of an attempt to preserve a portion of humanity via cryo freezing, and was apparently pressed back into service for his country by this... "Enclave" she'd heard about.
Certainly Ingram was head and shoulders above most in strength of will with all he'd been through.
November 10th, 2288.
The convoy would soon head on it's way, Ingram sat in what he came to know as a "humvee" which he would find would be of American origin... Which made him consider something he hadn't before. The gate that opened for these Japanese, might not even lead to the same world as Ingram came from, but another one, watching everything that went on, watching Itami check a flat device which Ingram would come to know as a "mobile phone".
Everything Ingram saw had pointed to this being a possibility, the US never made any vehicle such as this, at least to his knowledge anyway. The Enclave certainly didn't have any such vehicles..
"So, Ingram." Itami said from the front passenger seat of the humvee.
"Yes, Second Lieutenant?" Ingram asked
"I heard you're about 234 years old, is that true?" Itami asked.
"Oh, so Kurokawa told you about that.." Ingram said, unbeknownst to Ingram, the radio in the humvee was on and broadcasting so everyone in third recon team could hear the conversation.
"Sorry, he asked me if I had told him anything, I only told him a bit of what you told me." Kurokawa said.
"No, no, it's fine. Not like it's much of a big secret, most everyone I've encountered in the wasteland knows, and hell. My story's been front page news on a damn newspaper... But anyway, yeah, I'm about 234 years old, thanks to Vault-tec and a shitty joke of their's. Everyone went off before the war about how Vault Tec vaults were so safe, you'd live in the vault when the bombs hit and you'd probably die in the vault after the bombs hit, only for your children to repeat the process and the next generation, so on so forth..." Ingram said with a sigh.
"So, that clearly wasn't the case with you." Itami said, some hesitation in his voice.
"Clearly. It was because of Vault tec, I'm still alive. I got off the easy way by being tossed in a damn cryo pod, my wife, and my son too, but..." Ingram said, his chest began to tighten once again, remembering that day.
"Kurokawa mentioned a bit about that... What happened?" Itami asked.
"Second Lieutenant, mind my asking. ...You ever love someone? And you ever be stuck, sat there, unable to help them as they get shot square in the heart, then have your infant son taken from you?" Ingram said, the mood in the vehicle turned someone dark.
"No... I can't say I have." Itami said.
"Then you'll understand why I'd really not like to go over it twice in one day." Ingram said, somewhat slightly aggravated as his throat started to tighten and cause him some pain, he was holding back all he could. Kurokawa saw that, with one side look into Ingram's eyes, as Ingram was focused on Itami.
"Alright, I understand. I'm sorry I asked." Itami said as the whole vehicle went silent.
Everyone in third recon heard this conversation, and few could imagine how Ingram was still standing and going on, just a couple imagined they wouldn't have it in them to go on like Ingram had, especially, if the word was true, his world was still recovering, 210 or so years after a nuclear apocalypse.
Ingram remained silent, his Laser Rifle leaned up against his shoulder as he stared out the window directly across from him at the passing scenery, Ingram felt his eyes go heavy, he found it difficult to stay awake but he fought it as best he could before finally giving in.
Ingram closed his eyes and fell asleep, dreaming of the time before the war, the happy times he had, meeting the woman that would become his wife, enjoying the times they had together, the memories they made... Then the dream turned to a night mare.
One minute he was back home, before the war. Then the next he was in Anchorage, fighting the red, watching his friends, his brothers in arms die in the fight against the Chinese. The wounds he sustained every now and again, then the final victory, when they kicked every last red out of Alaska.
The nightmare only got worse as he relived the morning he woke up and the bombs fell, the morning routine, showing then shaving, leaving the bathroom for the kitchen where Codsworth held a morning pot of coffee, then his wife came out, sitting on the couch as that rep from vault tec showed up, he just wanted to slam the door on his face, hoping the war might not come if he did but Nora wouldn't have any of it.
Ingram reluctantly signed for the vault programme, he knew, it was all unavoidable now.. The day proceeded as it had before, Ingram went to Shaun's room to calm him down and Codsworth yelled from the living room, that's when he saw it... The nukes were coming.
The next moment, Nora grabbed Shaun and the three went running to the vaults, the three were let through as per usual, Ingram's heart started racing, but then something happened, the elevator down to the vault wouldn't start.
It would be then the bombs would come raining down and he stood there, helpless as his wife and his son were vaporised right before his eyes.
"What'd you say?!" Ingram heard yelled by the driver of the Humvee in English.
Ingram woke up sweating, he took off his helmet and sat it on the floor before he noticed Itami and the humvee driver were watching intently at someone infront of the Humvee, Ingram got up and moved to Kurokawa's left side with his own binoculars to see what the fuss was about.
Ingram saw a little girl, about probably 12 years old with a giant, fucking poleax or some type of polearm that Ingram didn't know anything about, dressed in clothing that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
"What. The. Fuck?" Ingram asked, Kurokawa looked to her left to see Ingram watching.
"Don't tell me you're into that kind of stuff too...?" Kurokawa asked, disappointment clearly present in her voice.
"Into what kind of stuff? I'm more scared of that than anything else. She's like a minature deathclaw, just... Less with the face of Satan himself and claws, and more of an attempt at being cutesy and all.." Ingram said
"Uhm, what's a deathclaw?!" Kurata asked, deeply concerned.
"Something you don't have to worry about." Ingram shut down the conversation as the little girl came walking to the humvee.
"I'll admit, she... Looks like trouble." Itami said.
"Oh, good. I'm glad I'm not the only one with the temptation of running back to Vault 111 and sealing my ass back inside that failing freezer." Ingram said.
"...You use humour as a coping mechanism?" Kurokawa asked.
"That's what I've been told." Ingram said as the kids in the humvee climbed out of it and ran to the girl with the large polearm.
"Well... The maids around here sure are young, regardless." Kurokawa said as the kids flocked to the girl.
All the while Ingram heard the kids yelling something in the strange local language that was prevalent in this new world.
"Oracle?" Itami asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Oracle? You know what they're saying?" Ingram asked Itami
"Yeah, we got these... Translation books, had them made up after the locals attacked Ginza on our side of the Gate... By ourside I mean the Japanese side of the Japanese Gate." Itami explained.
"Oh no, I figured that's what you were on about." Ingram said, watching the kids and some of the older people gather around the girl and start praying.
It seemed the kids and the older locals were talking to her, it would be then, Ingram swore she either saw him or Itami, she'd come straight to the vehicle and to the best of Ingram's interpretation, from trying to follow the conversation that would ensure, she was asking about the humvee, one of the kids would likely be trying to answer it.
Almost in a flash, the door was opened and the girl jumped up on Itami's lap, it was clear to even Ingram he was trying his best to keep his cool, Ingram just sat back down in his spot, Kurokawa sat next to him and over the next couple minutes or so, Ingram would have his view on Itami quite drastically changed as even Ingram could tell, he was really trying his ass off to keep his cool and he was ever so mildly failing.
It wouldn't be long before the vehicle would start rocking and Ingram just rolled his eyes. Even he knew how it rocking might be interpreted so he just let his thoughts wander elsewhere while this scene would be going on.
Thankfully it wouldn't be long before it would be over, it would be about halfway in, Ingram realised he should radio to command, but he waited until the whole event with the small girl was over before he would even bother with asking.
"Second Lieutenant, I've something to ask of you." Ingram asked
"Go ahead, Colonel." Itami said.
"I've not radioed command yet, today and I was supposed to radio them last night. Might you allow me to use your radio to get ahold of them?" Ingram asked.
"I'm not sure..." Itami said.
"It would be best if I did. If anything happens then we could possibly get Enclave troops here faster than Japanese, last I heard our Vertibirds were in the final steps of being assembled." Ingram said.
"Vertibirds?" Kurokawa asked, looking to Ingram.
"Vertibirds, VTOL helicopter gunships developed during the resource wars, we salvaged some specialised models from our war with the Brotherhood of Steel along with power armour and weaponry so I'm sure a verti-assault team could be sent to help us if need be." Ingram explained.
"Power armour... Alright, I guess you can." Itami said.
"Thank you, Second Lieutenant." Ingram made his way past Kurokawa and fiddled with the radio before getting it to the channel he needed it to be at.
"Control Station: Bunker Hill, this is Colonel Ingram, come in Bunker Hill, over." Ingram said, letting go of the microphone, waiting a few minutes before a reply was sent back.
"This is Control Station: Bunker Hill, I read you Colonel, how goes your recon, over?" The familiar voice of Preston came over the radio.
"Hey Preston, listen, I made contact with the Japanese, they're friendlies. Listen there's a radio beacon in operation right now. We're deep in enemy territory, escorting civilians away from, and I shit you not. A flame breathing dragon, over." Ingram said before Preston replied.
"Uhm... Gen- I mean Colonel, can you repeat your last? It sounds like you said you're escorting civilians away from a flame breathing dragon, over." Preston said, somewhat quite very confused.
"You heard me right, Preston. Listen, keep a verti-assault-team on standby for me. Enclave, not Minutemen, will send out SOS if we get that dragon on us, over." Ingram said.
"Well you're in luck, we got one Vertibird up and operational and some men itching for a fight, I'll keep them on standby for you, Colonel. Over." Preston said.
"Roger, thanks, cheers, over." Ingram said before he hooked the Microphone back onto the radio.
"Right, that's been taken care of." Ingram said, taking his seat back with Kurokawa.
"Hopefully we won't need a verti-assault-team to come running." Itami said.
"Amen to that." Ingram said as he looked out the window behind him and saw the scenery changed, reminding him someone of the wasteland.
"Huh, reminds me of the glowing sea a bit, just no rad storms, deathclaws, rad scorpions or the odd cluster of ghouls." Ingram said.
"I wouldn't know, old timer." Itami said, looking out his window to the rear of the convoy.
"Just because I'm 234 years old doesn't give you the ability to call me old timer, son." Ingram said, jokingly.
"Don't call me son, you old coot." Itami said, a smirk developing on his face.
"There's Ghouls older than me, dammnit." Ingram said with a chuckle as Itami went quiet for a moment and turned around yelling.
"Contact!" Itami yelled and Ingram immediately rushed for the radio.
"Bunker Hill, this is Colonel Ingram, Japanese and I are under attack, get that Verti-assault team airborne now!" Ingram yelled as he heard the dragon screech as it started spewing fire, Ingram dropped the microphone and pulled his combat knife from the sheath, he cut a hole in the window and stuck his laser rifle out, taking aim he began firing on the creature with Itami and the rest of third recon.
Ingram heard something along the lines of "Verti-Assault-Team dispatched, en route ETA 15 minutes." That wasn't good enough.
"We're gonna become Charcoal briquettes before your guys get here, Colonel!" Itami yelled, continuing his firing on the dragon.
"Tell me something I don't know! The useless bastards!" Ingram yelled as he spent his microfusion cell, putting it in his ammunition pack before exchanging it for a new one.
"Just keep firing! This bastard will die eventually!" Ingram yelled as he watched while villagers were burnt to death as they ran from the flame dragon. Ingram was pissed, for everything that he'd done in the wasteland to try and restore the world as it used to be, it didn't matter here.
Then the elf girl woke up and rushed to Itami, saying something in the local language she pointed at her eye. Itami must have a better understanding of the language, or it was real easy to see what she was suggesting as he yelled.
"Aim for it's eyes!" Itami yelled, Ingram had an idea of his own.
"Kurokawa, take this." Ingram handed his Laser rifle off to Kurokawa as he ran for the rear of the vehicle, the little girl with the giant axe must've had some similar idea as she beat him to the door and jumped out of it, he could hear her on top of the Humvee as he jumped out, narrowly avoiding the two other vehicles.
Ingram looked to his pipboy and materialised the one weapon he knew might get him a court martial when this was all over. An M42 Fatman.
"What the hell is he doing?! And what the hell is that?!" Itami yelled.
"It doesn't matter, cover him!" Kurokawa yelled as she started shooting out the hole Ingram made in the window he was previously firing his laser rifle out of.
"Right! Everyone cover the Colonel!" Itami yelled, it was apparently heard over the radio as the other vehicles began firing on the dragon's eyes.
Ingram took a kneed and angled the fatman, taking a couple deep breathes he launched the football sized nuke at the dragon and loaded another, a loud whistling sound would be heard as the previously launched mini-nuke made direct contact with the flame dragon, severing it's right arm and leg.
The dragon fell over for a minute but got back up and started trying to fly away to the best of it's ability, it fell onto the ground and got back up multiple times as Ingram lowered the M42 Fatman... A sigh of relief left his lips as he heard the familiar sound of a Vertibird in the distance. Ingram quickly dematerialised the Fatman as all who saw him just stood, frozen and stunned at what Ingram had done.
"Did... Did he just shoot a football sized nuclear bomb at that dragon?" Kurata asked.
"I... Believe he did." Itami said, fairly shocked.
Kurokawa herself couldn't also believe the sight she saw, just what had this world that Ingram had come from, created? Energy based weaponry, football sized nuclear bombs, launched by shoulder mounted catapults? What were both this world, and Japan to expect from the Enclave.
Soon enough their questions would be answered as the Vertibird that Ingram has dispatched, arrived. As it landed, out came four soldiers dressed in what the JSDF would come to know as "Power Armour".
The soldiers piled out of the Vertibird along with a few others clad in the basic armour that Ingram wore, they started tending to the wounded as the troops secured the area. What would further surprise the JSDF were the heavy ordinance each soldier in power armour carried, one carried a mini gun, another carried an apparent multi-barreled rocket launcher, another carried a weapon that looked similar to Ingram's laser rifle but it was more of some sort of "Gatling gun" version of it.
Another carried a strange looking rifle, the other soldiers that were with them carried laser rifles, like Ingram's.
Ingram stood off to the side, seeing the damage that had been wrought, it was awful, simply put. Ingram noticed Kurokawa, she rushed to a young woman's aid and he ran to join her, Ingram took the spot opposite to Kurokawa took his helmet off, setting it under the woman's head to elevate it.
"Shit, she's losing blood, fast." Ingram said as he reached into a utility pouch on his utility belt.
"I'm gonna have to use a little thing a friend of mine made." Ingram said, holding out a healthpak that Curie made for him.
"No, I'm not going to-" Kurokawa said before Ingram cut her off.
"Mari, do you trust me?" Ingram asked.
"I... What does that have to-" Kurokawa asked as she held her hand on the wound.
"If you trust me, then trust that when I say, this will work, this will work. I wouldn't do it otherwise if it didn't." Ingram said.
Kurokawa hesitated for a moment before she gave Ingram a nod, Ingram then injected the girl with the healthpak and waited, her wounds would scar up but they would heal right before Ingram and Kurokawa's eyes.
"Ingram... What, was that." Kurokawa asked, stunned by what she just saw.
"Nominally, I would've used a stimpak, it would've done the same but it wouldn't have been as quick. That was a modified version of a stimpak, made by a scientist friend of mine, Curie." Ingram explained as he sat back on the ground, using his right hand for support.
"Curie? Like that famous scientist from back when?" Kurokawa asked.
"No, Curie like a robot I found deep in a vault that Vault-tec planned to use to test diseases and cures on people, after a boy got bitten by a mole rat from an abandoned side of said vault." Ingram explained.
"That, leaves more questions than answers..." Kurokawa said, barely satisfied with that answer.
"Tell you what, after we get everything settled with these refugees, we'll sit down, have something to eat, and I'll explain the, previously stated clusterfucked state of the world and anything else you want to know, alright?" Ingram offered, holding his hand out for Kurokawa who took it and shook it.
"Alright, alright, fine." Kurokawa said, sounding somewhat tired.
"Here." Ingram unclipped the canteen that hung off the back of his utility belt and handed it to Kurokawa.
"This isn't irradiated is it?" Kurokawa asked.
"I wouldn't dream of giving you dirty water." Ingram said with a chuckle as Kurokawa took the cap off the canteen and drunk from it before handing it back to Ingram.
"Thank you." Kurokawa said as she handed the canteen back.
"No problem... We're gonna have a bit of work ahead of us..." Ingram said as he looked out to the field of burnt corpses.
It would take four hours for the corpses to be gathered and buried, by then night would fall as the JSDF, Enclave, and Villagers finished burying the corpses of the dead, and the power armoured troops stuck posts in the ground above the head of each grave before joining the gathered crowd, the spotlights on their helmets were turned off as they took off their helmets and bowed their heads, Ingram stood just a bit away from Kurokawa, he noticed Itami went to a small crying girl and patted her head.
Ingram was left to wonder, what would come of these people? But one thing was indeed clear to him. These people and the JSDF had seen the might of the Enclave, troops in X-02 Power Armour, the M42 Fatman, and the laser based weaponry the Enclave used.
It was certain to Ingram that at least the JSDF wouldn't test the might of the Enclave, especially with the unorthodox demonstration of the M42 Fatman. Ingram left the group and went to the edge of this hill which overlooked a small plain of flowers which strangely enough, despite a quick glance at Ingram's geiger counter, weren't giving off radiation despite the fact they glowed. ...So they just glowed naturally.
Ingram held back with all his strength any tears that might come of all this. No matter how badly he might want to help, he'd be unable to. The Enclave, in effect all of America was in no position to take any refugees.
Ingram looked back to see Itami talking with the same older man as before, it seemed the old man was regretfully refusing whatever Itami was asking of him.
Ingram stood up and went to join Itami, coming to his side as the old man left.
"So, what's the word then?" Ingram asked.
"Oh, Colonel. I'm surprised you're still here." Itami said.
"You'd better be used to it. My orders were to be a liaison officer between your forces and Enclave forces, at the orders of General Ward, desertion of duty is a serious offense. I didn't survive the past 210 years to just get a firing squad." Ingram said with a chuckle.
"I see, well. I suppose you'll have to talk to General Hazama about staying with us." Itami said.
"I expected as much, Second Lieutenant." Ingram said as he noticed the convoy started going again, this time it was much smaller. But apparently the JSDF wouldn't be following. Neither would the Enclave, if they could handle themselves then, there would be no need for Enclave support. But all that was left then was for Ingram to decided what to do next.
"Colonel." One of the power armoured troops came to Ingram's side.
Ingram turned and saluted the power armoured soldier.
"Thank you for coming, sorry about the mess, you just missed that damn flying lizard when you got here." Ingram said.
"I figured. So Colonel, what now?" The soldier asked.
"I'll be heading back with the Japanese to their base, put in a direct report to Corporal Fitzpatrick that Colonel Ingram made contact and will be meeting with the leadership of Japanese forces in this world. See that he gets it to General Ward as soon as is possible." Ingram said.
"Sir, yes sir." The soldier saluted Ingram before the group of Enclave forces boarded the Vertibird they came in on and left the area.
"So, you'll be staying with us then?" Kurokawa asked from behind Ingram, Ingram turned to meet her and smiled.
"Apparently it seems so, yes." Ingram said, Kurokawa in a way was certainly pleasantly surprised by this.
"I'm glad, then we can talk about your world. And I'll tell you of ours." Kurokawa said before she turned to go back to the Humvee.
"Sounds good, we'll do it when we get back to your base." Ingram said, following Kurokawa with his laser rifle slung over his shoulder.
No doubt to Ingram, this all might just pan out to be a good thing, meeting these people.
