Chapter 2, Buried at Sea

As I heard the train's wheels continue to turn and the whistling of the wind against the exposed windows of the train, I took some time to think about the early part of my journey and how it started from leaving the safety of Vault 101. I spent 19 years in the vault and I was able to have a somewhat simple life you could say. I was born on February 21, 2259 and I lost my mother due to childbirth and my Dad did his best to raise me without her. I remember my 10th birthday party and how it was such a big moment for me. I got my Pip Boy which was a monumental thing when living in the vault as it marked a transition from being a kid to being more adult. I remember how hard Amata had worked with everyone else in the vault to make the celebration a thing and I expressed how grateful I was for it. She was always a good friend to me and I even had a bit of a crush on her as we were growing up. I received some Sweet Rolls from Old Lady Palmer. She was always such a nice old lady and always made me food. I remembered one of the Mister Handy Robots tried to cut the cake but made such a giant mess that the cake was , Butch, a childhood bully of mine, started to whine he had nothing to eat and demanded that I give him my sweetroll. I told no and he tried to start a fight with me over it. Really was pathetic. Thankfully Office Gomez stopped him before he could throw a punch at me. I remember after the party settled my Dad had a surprise for me in that being a BB gun for me to practice and test out aiming with. I even took out a radroach after getting familiar with it.

Another memory hit me as I remembered when I was 16, I had to take the G.O.A.T to find out where I would go and work in the vault. I tried to talk my dad out of doing it even going so far as to say I was sick. My old man, as always, knew I was lying and tried to coax me to still take it. As I was on my way, Butch was harrassing Amata and I told him to properly piss off. And once again, the smug prick didn't listen and wanted to fight. So I fought him and I was surprised that my first ever fight ended with me hitting him in the nose so hard he ran off with his cronies. Amata was grateful I had intervened, though she said she wished it hadn't come to a fight and I agreed. I went into the room to take the G.O.A.T and after we were done and turned it in, Butch was ahead of me and got the job of hairdresser and I almost laughed out loud. Considering the guy put so much product in his hair, it didn't surprise me. Then I was up next and I remembered that my result was such bullshit. Waste manager, what a fucking joke and I had answered it to the best of my ability. Mr. Brotch, the guy who gave out the exam, and he said he could make out whatever I wanted it to be since he agreed it was all a ruse anyway. So I chose out of the options, Vault chaplain, which was better. Such simple memories compared to what I have now and honestly, I partially miss the life I had in the vault. We didn't have to worry about surviving. We expected to live in the vault and die in the vault. And I expected that for myself.

But then it changed in August of 2277, when I woke up to find out my Dad had left the vault and Amata was telling me the Overseer, her dad wanted me dead for causing a disruption in the vault and security was after me. I had no idea why my father left at the time and was so confused as to what was going on. She also told me they killed Jonas, one of my fathers friends and I was shocked to learn that given how much he had helped both my father and myself. He was one of the people that helped orchestrate and set up my 10th birthday party. Amata gave me her fathers pistol and though she hoped I did not have to use it, I had no choice as Officer Kimball and others tried to kill me, so I returned fire. As I was making my way to escape, I found the Overseer harassing Amata, and I stepped in before Officer Mack was going to hurt her. Amata ran off and I had to kill Officer Mack before he tried to kill me and her. The Overseer refused to just let me leave and I told him I would get out my own damn way. I found his password to open the vault door and started to make my way to the door and had to take down two more guards. Amata was right behind me and in a nutshell wished me luck and said she would convince her father to not attack me or come after me. I was reluctant to leave her there, but given the situation I had no choice. As the vault door opened I made my way outside and experienced the blinding flash of how the world was outside. Everything just was so different to what I thought it left me shocked for a bit.

Before I could continue to reminisce every detail, I heard the train begin to stop and I got ready to jump off. As I made my way out of the train station, I opened the door and looked outside to see a new mess of a city. A destroyed train bridge, buildings destroyed with nothing but rubble left, and the familiar air definitely felt like D.C. Where, I could not tell you. I continued further, ran into a ghoul and rightfully put him down quickly when I noticed an old destroyed gift shop and an old supermarket boarded up with no option to enter. The real shock was the giant crater right in front of the store. I can only imagine the size of the bomb that dropped right there. As I walked around the crater, I noticed a pitstop boarded up as well, however the sign was so horribly faded, I could not tell who it used to belong to nor the name of the pitstop. I turned the corner, I saw at the end of the road a makeshift complex with sheet metal boarding up the fences. I made my way towards it and a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel greeted me. He asked what I wanted in a very thick accent that I could not recognize too well. Sounded Russian but it could be some other accent for all I know.

"Let me through, I need to speak with your superior." I asked.

"Why, what business do you have?"

"Well, I have some information you might want to hear that can help you acquire some lost Old World technology. "

"Very well, you will find him at the complex at the end there. Do not try anything or we will use force."

I know the Brotherhood of Steel all too well. Compared to D.C,the ones in New Vegas are a bunch of technology fanatics that refuse to share with the rest of the world and have been known to cause issues across the Mojave. They don't have much compared to D.C. and honestly they are not as friendly as them. And already, they gave off that vibe alone with how they have greeted me.

As I entered their Naval Base, I noticed a smaller complex to my left with a destroyed truck in front of it with one tent in front of me. I took a peak in the tent and they had just one doctor checking out a few patients. Clearly these guys have seen better days or they are just one installation here that did not matter to the overall brotherhood. Regardless, when I entered the complex next to the tent, I saw that it looked more sophisticated with lockers and office style space cubicles, and saw another Brotherhood of Steel member and approached him. He introduced himself as Paladin Kovalsky and asked what my business was here and much like the knight at the gate, he had a thick accent that I was really leaning towards Russian than before. Given I was going to an underwater city and this was a naval base, I put together they must have a submarine of somesort or know where I can find one. So I ask him if he knows of a submarine nearby I could use.

"Why, What are you trying to do," he asked.

"Well, let's just say I know of a place that has some very good Pre-War Tech," I replied.

"So you expect me to give you the submarine? How am I supposed to trust you or your information?"

I decided to show him the letter and evidence I had of Rapture's existence. He started to read it and as he read it, his look of puzzlement went to curiosity, and intrigue.

He gave the letter back to me, "That is an interesting read. However, I cannot organize an entire expedition there right now. I am on an important mission right now and I cannot spare the men," he said as he crossed his arms.

He continued, " I've lost one when we were fighting our way through the ruins, And the other two are still recovering from their wounds. So I cannot send anymore and holding this base and recovering pre-war data is our priority for now. Not to mention our submarine suffered damage."

"Well how about you send me instead and I will return with anything I am able to recover." I suggested..

"And why am I supposed to trust you with our submarine?"

"The possible reward can be huge and you are not risking anything but the sub that is useless for you right now. I can figure out a way to repair it."

"Very well, I will take that risk but you are on your own to figure everything out. There is a supply room in the back of the base with some spare parts you can use. Here is the Submarine docks key." He finishes, handing me the key.

"Do not disappoint me." He refutes, with a cold tone in his voice.

I make my way to the docks and there I see the submarine ready for inspection. I enter it and take a look at the engine and it looks like it needs some scrap metal, a new conductor, some wonder glue, so electronic scrap, and two fission batteries. I made my way all the way back there to gather the supplies, found what I needed on the miles of shelves, and started to make my way back. I then quickly realized how truly far the submarine was from this spare parts room as the weight of the parts started to feel even more heavy as I made my back to the submarine. As I entered the submarine, I worked to fix the parts of the engine and turned it on. Thankfully it turned on just fine and was almost ready to go. I punched in the coordinates into the computer and the submarine started up and got ready to go. I was genuinely surprised how easy it was to fix up since Kovalksy made it seem like it had more than just an engine problem. I mean the submarine wasn't going to win any awards, but it got its job done in taking me to rapture.

I decided to rest a bit since it would be a few hours till we reached our destination, but as I was laying in bed I pondered the idea of what could be there. Pre-war weapons were not easy to come by, but finding them can not only be valuable, but useful in my arsenal as I always would love to own something that is so rare and hard to find these days. There also could be technological advances that we forgot we had at Rapture or even new ideas we had not thought of. Man, I am starting to sound like the Brotherhood at this point. I shut my eyes and decided to catch some sleep before heading into Rapture.