Containment Breach

Fallout NewYork

A Fallout and Ghostbusters Story.

Chapter One

Projector Purity had managed to do something amazing for the world. It had brought fresh, clean, and radiation free water to the various settlers and tribes of the wasteland. In doing so it had given people something they had never expected to have. It gave them hope. The design of Project Purity had been copied, and the Brotherhood of Steel looked toward instituting this life giving miracle across the wasteland that had once been the United States of America. Among those that helped implement it was the head of the Lyon's Pride Sentinel Sarah Lyons.

The choice to spread fresh and clean water across the wasteland wasn't lost on anyone. And the next obvious choice came in the decision of setting up the next project on Ellis Island. New York would be the most obvious choice, and among those chosen to help in setting it up was someone given the rank of knight. He had been the son of one of the scientists that had been instrumental in creating the miracle project to begin with. Like with Sentinel Lyons he also survived the massive blast of radiation that had been vented into the chamber.

The end result was that he had suffered some minor mutation, but nothing that would kill him. What he had was a set of glowing eyes. Some called them ghoul eyes, and it wasn't an inaccurate description. Most ghouls had eyes that glowed faintly from radiation, giving them limited ability to see far more clearly in the dark than others could. It was much the same for him. With that decision made the trip to New York began. While the scenery changed there were things that remained the same.

One of those was raiders. Those so lost to the madness of the wastes remained a constant thorn in the side of any who would bring law and order into the world. They were the wasteland itself made human. Merciless, cruel, and sadistic to a fault. They enjoyed the idea of attacking those that had no defence, they lived for the destruction of those that were unable to defend themselves. They were in essence a living blight on the world. Those that could be saved, that hadn't sunken so far to the insanity that seemed to spawn them were saved.

Then there were those that were simply too far gone. They seemed compelled beyond simple wants and desires to destroy all around them. It didn't matter if what they were destroying was something recently built, or something left over from two centuries ago. One thing that Adam, the Lone Wanderer, noticed was that the raiders here in New York actually seemed to be worse than the raiders in the Capital Wasteland. He noticed that they didn't just attack to take. They seemed to take a special sort of glee and joy in simply killing, slaughtering everything, and then leaving behind whatever it was that the people might have had.

They found a full settlement, maybe three families, that had been fallen upon by raiders. The Brahmin had been slaughtered, there were at least three acres of crops, and a few slaughtered animals like dogs and cats. The smaller animals had been mutilated to the point that it looked like their skin covering their chests had been peeled back, revealing their ribs, and then pinned to the ground. Their muzzles had been skinned revealing the bone and teeth, only to leave the eyes and skin on the top alone.

And that was just the animals. The normal human torture had been taken to another level inside of the various buildings. Parents were tied to chairs, a child was placed between them, and it looked as if that child had been cleaned and dressed while they were alive. The parents had plates full of various cuts of meat pulled from the children, and then their heads had been beaten in. Each building had a similar setting, and mostly everything had been left. There was food, broken weapons, some ammunition, a few books, and a few acres of food.

That night every single body was buried, the settlement was used as a temporary campground, and the food that was left behind was checked before it was gathered. For Adam it was about as close to Hell as he'd ever seen. There had been pictures in some of the religious books that existed in Vault 101. Those books had pictures of a place of torment where people were tortured like this, and he remembered that it was surrounded by fire. He shook it off, and the group settled in for the night. The cabin Adam picked out reminded him of his home in Megaton.

The once empty home had become a place that he traveled to quite often. It felt odd leaving the place behind, but he understood that there wasn't much choice in the matter. He didn't have to come with the Brotherhood to New York. He understood that, but at the same time he felt that it needed to be done. He needed to see his father's work continued. The idea of free clean water reaching the entire wasteland was ambitious, but it was the next logical step.

He looked toward the suit of power armor that he had been given by the Brotherhood Outcasts. It was a set of T-51b Power Armor, and of course the Brotherhood had given it a paint job for him. No longer was it the pure white it had been, but instead it was now Vault Tec colors, and on the back was the number of his Vault. Good old Vault 101 had been the world that he had grown up in. The place where he believed he would have spent the rest of his life, and finally the place where he set all of his friends free.

The Vault's reactor had been in steady decline for ages. It was something that the Overseer was hiding from everyone that lived in the Vault. Well, he hid that and the northern section of the Vault. Most didn't know that there was an entire section of the Vault that had been locked off. The reason why had been because of faulty shielding around the secondary reactor located in the Northern section. The decision had been made a century before the Overseer was born, but it was a decision he maintained.

Adam had learned about it only after getting into the Overseer's computer system. From what he understood there was still access to that section of the Vault, and if someone was potentially quick enough they could repair the faulty reactor and set it to working in the main reactor's place. Which was exactly what it was meant for, or at least that was what Adam believed. Still, after he left to find his father, Amata had sent a distress signal out for him. It was one that he ran to. Several of the Vault's systems were already shutting down, and a quick trip to the reactor had confirmed what he believed.

The reactor was days away from a massive malfunction. If he shut it down there would be no starting it back up. But if he let it malfunction there was a huge chance that it could cause a chain reaction that would result in the entire Vault being destroyed. In the end he made the best choice he could, knowing that potentially someone could eventually get into the northern section, repair the reactor there, and reopen the Vault. It came as a little too little, and a little too late. The Overseer saw the failure of the reactor as the final straw, asked that everyone be led into the wastes, and then he sealed the door behind them.

There was still a chance of getting back into the Vault, but it would take longer than the Overseer had. A few days later a few of the former residents of the Vault ended up at Megaton, others traveled further out. Some went as far as Rivet City, a few settled in Grayditch, and he learned that Wally Mack had decided to travel and apparently headed toward the CommonWealth. In all of this he tried to help protect his life long friend Amata, and he did manage to save her from the Enclave.

She was angry, upset at life, upset at Adam for not dragging her father from the Vault, upset at the fact that she was now stuck in a world that was so different from the way things worked inside of the Vault itself. The fact that she ended up following Adam to Megaton had been a surprise. When she moved into his house with him it had been even more of one. He'd known her his entire life, and honestly he wished that his father was still around to ask what all of this meant. He'd had something of a crush on Amata for a long time, and often he wondered if she felt the same.

The answer had come a few days before he left on this mission. He had been sleeping, and felt the bed move. His eyes opened to see a silhouette crawling into the bed with him. There was no feeling of a Vault Utility suit, but instead it was the soft feeling of nude skin. He felt the kiss, the way she lay against him, and over the hours they explored each other. He had expected her to have been with someone, anyone, before they got together, but he learned that wasn't the case. She'd been a virgin, and he'd accepted the gift of her innocence.

Claiming that their first time together would have been perfect would have been something he'd expected to see in one of those old trashy romance novels. Instead it had been awkward, clumsy, and a little painful. To her credit she didn't give up, and they tried multiple times. Over the next few days what had been awkward became seamless, what had been clumsy was done with purpose, and what was painful was nothing but pleasure.

She learned of the Brotherhood, what Project Purity was doing, and wanted to join. After learning that she was being groomed for a leadership role in the Vault, but she had learned about the medical field by reading and asking questions, Elder Lyons had accepted her as an initiate, and she was being trained as a Medical Knight. He knew about their relationship, and he explained to Adam that she would join him in New York after there was some semblance of law present in the city. Adam had agreed, and it led him to where he was. Amata was back at the Citadel, and she was safe. That was more of a blessing than anything else. He leaned back, and allowed sleep to find him, at least for a couple of hours before he took a turn guarding the parameter.

Sleep, what little could be had, was given up at five in the morning. Once again the group of scribes, knights, paladins, and a sentinel moved from the makeshift camp, and began moving further into the city itself. The idea was to push through, make their way to Ellis Island, and set up the new Project Purity. As they made their way toward their destination eyes watched. Eyes observed the new group, and slowly they tried to decide if any in this group would be able to help them.

Their master was trapped, stuck inside of an infernal machine that kept lessers trapped along with their master. Releasing them would allow their master to remake the world in his image. It would allow madness and chaos to spread throughout the world. Those that had entered potentially had the strength to make it to the place where the machine was located, but would they be able to shut it down? Finally, the decision was made, one of the lessers of the group would approach them, and tell them about the place, of the treasures inside, and of course of those that use the machine to trap others.

Their time was coming, their master would be set free, and those meddling humans that called themselves the Ghostbusters would finally have completely failed. Their master would be released, he would unleash his will upon all, and they would rejoice. With that the eyes observed, watching, studying, and measuring each of those that entered into the new domain. How they handled the corrupted hosts of those that had died before would measure their standing with them.

Sentinel Sarah Lyons studied the terrain around her. For all rights and purposes the destruction of New York was about the same as Washington D.C. Although there were some larger differences between the Capital Wasteland and the mostly untamed wasteland that was New York. As they moved the sound of rapid weapons fire caught their attention, and they rushed forward to see the commotion. There was about fifteen raiders, and all of them were focused on a small building.

She could see random shots firing back at the raiders, but they weren't cheering and shouting about how they were going to kill them slow, rape them into submission, or if they just gave up maybe they'd let them crawl away after a few days. No, these raiders were acting like men and women possessed. She did like to give raiders the chance to surrender. If they were willing to surrender, become prisoners, and shown an actual interest in becoming something more than a pack of raping, killing, and pilliaging scum then she was all for them having the chance.

What she was seeing here wasn't even remotely close to that. She looked behind her to see Adam moving up.

"What's the game plan?" he asked, "We want to use their distracted attention to our advantage, sneak past, and continue on?"

She shook her head, studying the violence, "Something's off with them," she said, "I want to take most of them out, capture one, and see what might be causing it."

He nodded, and with that they began to make the decisions. There was no need to get in close, so Adam and Knight Jenkins moved around. They were armed with long range sniping plasma rifles, and they began taking shots at the raiders. At first there was no change in their behavior, but when about a third of their force was killed they began to split their attention between the building and the might of the Brotherhood of Steel. Their weapons were similar to most raiders that Adam had dealt with. Hunting rifles, hand guns, and one happened to have an assault rifle. At the distance they were standing the hunting rifles were the only thing that had any accuracy, and they couldn't penetrate the heavy power armor.

Another few shots and it was down to two. Neither did what raiders usually did and run, instead they remained split. One focusing on the building, the other on them. A quick shot ended the life of the one focusing on the building, and the raider focusing on them, strangely enough, turned her attention to the building. They moved toward the bodies, and Adam waited for the raider to turn on him, but she never did. He hit her, hoping it would just knock her out, and watched as she fell. She had lightly bronzed skin, her hair color couldn't be determined at the minute because it had been bathed in blood and spiked into a mohawk.

They lifted her, carried her back, and then Adam returned to look inside the building. Inside were two individuals, both of them were wearing what looked like Vault suits. He neared them and they hesitated to near him. It was understandable. After all, one of his first encounters after leaving Vault 101 had been the raiders of Springdale. He'd managed to get through it, and afterward he had collected several weapons that were in incredibly poor repair. Still, the weapons had been better than nothing.

He removed his helmet and gave them both a smile, "Good to see other Vault Dwellers out here," he said, "I'm Adam, and I am from Vault 101, near Washington D.C.," he said, "What's your names, and where are you from?"

The girl looked at him first. She stood, and he could tell that it looked as if she had missed a few meals.

"I'm Annabeth, and this is Joshua, and we're from Vault 113," she said, "We were sent out to see if there could potentially be any trade made with the outside."

He nodded, "I see, and your found Raiders," he said, "That's unfortunate. Did they learn the location of your Vault?"

She shook her head causing a few strands of her red hair to get loose and cover her eyes, "No," she said, "We think that might have been what they wanted, but then they just kept trying to shoot us. Joshua thought we should duck into this building."

Adam studied the brick building they were inside of. It had managed to survive the bombing, but he could see structural weaknesses in it. But structural weaknesses or not it had served the purposes of saving the two individuals. He studied them for a moment before looking back behind him.

"I'm not sure if we're going to be going in the direction that you need to go, but I am with a group called the Brotherhood of Steel," he said, "They can offer protection, and once everything gets sorted they might be able to help establish trade with your Vault."

They studied him for a moment, and finally Annabeth stretched her hand out toward him. He felt something, almost like a chill that went to his bones before she lowered her hand and there was a soft smile that crossed her face.

"We'll accompany you," she said, "Your spirit is good, and you seem to be determined to help those that need it."

They followed him out, and walked toward the group. Sarah watched as she noticed the two new Vault Dwellers. She doubted that Adam was really the standard of which to measure everyone that left the Vaults, but then again he set the standard fairly high. It was their mission to help to protect the people of the wastes, although their primary mission was to get Project Purity set up on Ellis Island.

She studied them a bit before she removed her helmet, "I'm Sentinel Sarah Lyons of the East Coast chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel," she said, "Who are the two of you?"

Annabeth looked at her for a moment before smiling, "I am Annabeth, and this is Joshua," she said, "We were asked to attempt and set up trade with the outside."

She studied her, "And you found a group of raiders," she said, "Where is your Vault located. If it in the direction we are going we will escort your back to it."

Joshua looked at her, "It is under the Sedgewick Hotel," he said pointing toward a direction was roughly east from where they were, "and would the Brotherhood like to set up trade with Vault 113?"

She gave a little smirk, "Let's see about getting you back to your Vault, and then we will talk about setting up trade."

They began leading them toward the Sedgewick Hotel. There were areas that just seemed to be nothing more than crumbling remains of what had once been, and they saw a few areas that had somewhat closer to normal raiders. They at least shouted the same threats that the raiders in the Capital Wasteland would shout before attacking. So, it wasn't that all of the raiders had become like the ones from earlier, but it did make Sarah wonder if that was where they were heading.

Moving they finally came to what looked like a huge hotel. From what could be seen it obviously had been something that at one time could have matched Tenpenny Tower. It looked a little worse for wear, but it was easy to see that once it had truly been something. The group of them moved toward it, into the front doors, off toward the stairwell, and then through what looked like a slightly discolored section of the wall. That section had actually been the door that opened into the pathway to the Vault itself.

Another twenty minutes and they found themselves before a huge gear like door. For Adam it was practically a homecoming. He watched as the door opened, and instead of security greeting them it was a few folks with flowers, a cake, and welcoming smiles. Adam looked at it, and knew that if it would have been his Vault the overseer would have made sure that security was there.

"Welcome to Vault 113," a man said as he stepped forward, "I'm Jamerson Bigby, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Sarah nodded, stepped forward, and stretched out her hand, "I am Sentinel Sarah Lyons of the East Coast Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel," she said, "It is a pleasure. We came across two of yours while attempting to reach our destination, and we decided to give them an escort back."

He gave a nod, "I see," he said, "They volunteered to search for people that would be open to trade."

She looked at him, "The Brotherhood would be open to start a trade agreement, but first we are here to complete a mission. As for the area, it appears that this Vault is mostly in an area that is inhabited by raiders," she said, "If you have a security team, and want to continue to open your doors, I would suggest that you station your security team near the entrance."

He grinned, "We have a small security detail, mostly it is honorific at this point."

She wanted to curse under her breath. How could security become an honorific? Adam had stated that even his Vault had an active security detail that would ensure to the safety of those inside. She steadied herself, "It shouldn't be an honorific," she said, "The world here is dangerous, and it is full of individuals that are willing to take everything you may have."

She cursed herself. This was part of their mission. They needed to get to Ellis Island, and they needed to set up Project Purity, but they couldn't leave these people with no way of protecting themselves either. She looked behind her.

"Adam, how do you feel about training some Vault Dwellers on firearms, protection, and basic security knowledge?"

He nodded, "Not a problem," he said, "I can help them get set up, but does that mean that we're stopping?"

She nodded, "We will establish an outpost in the Hotel itself. With any luck the generators are still in working order and may just need a fusion core. On top of that we can use the Hotel as a temporary base of operations. We'll clear the floors, ensure that we have no nasty surprises, and then we'll focus on continuing on once we're certain that they are able to protect themselves."

For Sarah this was the very thing that she was used to. She was used to giving commands, having her orders followed, and of course overseeing everything that had to be done. The truth of the matter was that she had absolutely no doubts that they would end up setting up a temporary outpost before reaching Ellis Island. She had hoped to reach it first, clear it out, and then set up the permanent outpost there. Years of leading the Lyons' Pride had taught her that while it was a great thing to have goals often compromises had to be made. She'd never compromise on her integrity, and she would certainly never compromise on the mission. But a compromise of where to set up a temporary headquarters was acceptable.

Within the hour the basement, the path to the Vault, main, second, and third floors were swept and cleared. There had been a few ferals, but for the most part that was it. The generator was indeed in good shape, although it was surprising to see that the Hotel had two of them. The first was what was normally expected. A fusion generator working off of a fusion core. The core itself was at half power, and evidently that was because most of the power in the hotel had been shut off when the bombs fell. Adam had proven himself useful, again, by finding the fusebox, and then routing power back to the floors.

The next few floors proved to more of the same, some ferals, more than a few skeletons, but surprisingly most of the rooms and artifacts were in great shape. The placement of the hotel had ended up protecting it more than most would have thought. There was a huge collection of pre-war books that was gathered. Most of it was fiction, and most of it seemed to be books that the occupants of the hotel had brought with them.

As they checked the floors the hours continued to pass by until they made it to the twelfth floor. It was there that a strange feeling of dread seemed to fill everyone. It was almost as if something was reaching out and telling them to leave, to never return. Sarah walked the floor with the others and felt the unease around her. There was something else here, something dark and foreboding. Adam followed her, and the two of them turned the corner to see a floor that was crowded with people. It wasn't ghouls, it wasn't skeletons, but instead there was dozens of people talking to one another.

Adam moved slowly, watching, trying to understand what was going on here, and all around him he saw the collection of individuals that had to be long dead, or a ghoul somewhere. Most were dressed in expensive outfits, evening gowns, business suits, and the like. It was incredible, and insane at the same time. As they walked he heard the conversations between them. Talks about the Halloween Ball, worries about the war, and then he heard something else. It was faint, but it was there. He focused on that sound, listening to it, and soon the people around him began screaming. He felt the tremble of the floor, and then felt everything settle.

They had just felt the bombs going off two hundred years ago. But that was insane. There was absolutely no way that they could be experiencing something like that. The faint noise he heard became more pronounced, and he watched as the people rushed into their rooms, some ran down stairs, obviously attempting to get to the Vault down there, but he walked forward until they turned the corner and they saw it.

The hall with the people was gone, and what was left was a mostly empty hall. There was a lone cart, loaded with towels, cleaning goods, and a trash bag. He began to say something when it began to move on its own. It neared them, and then he saw it. The figure was almost transparent, and it appeared that it was stopping at every room. It stopped in front of them, and he noticed that it was a woman, african american, older, and she was looking annoyed. The faint sound he was hearing was his radio. He turned it listening to the sound and then after a moment it was no longer a faint sound. It was the sound of screaming echoing through him. He turned it off, and the woman stood there a moment longer.

"Need through," she said, "There's too much to do, and the both of you aren't making it any easier on me."

They moved, and the woman moved past them becoming more and more solid and real as she neared the section of the hall they had just left. He watched as she turned the corner, and then he looked at Sarah.

"Did you just see what I saw?" he asked.

She nodded, "I did," she admitted, "But I'm tempted to say that I didn't. What is with this place?"

They made their way back down stairs, and when they neared the ground floor there was a small group of people standing in the lobby on the main floor. The first of them was a young woman. She was roughly Adam's age, about a foot shorter than him, and from what it looked like she hadn't been subject to regular meals. She stepped forward, her dark brown hair cut mostly short. She swallowed a little before she looked at them.

"Is it true?" she asked, "Are the Brotherhood moving in?"

Sarah nodded, "For the time being, although our goal is not here."

The girl looked relaxed, "Would it be possible to operate a trading post from here?" she asked, "There's several merchants that sell really useful scrap, and we could use a safe place to sell from."

Sarah looked at the girl, and then at the small group of merchants and mercenaries that were with them. There were a few Brahmin with them, and from what they could see the Brahmin were loaded with scrap, weapons, ammo, food, and other goods. It would be a little more difficult, but having a trading post so close by would potentially solve the problem with the Vault, and it would hopefully also allow them access to extra munitions while they were here.

Seeing no reason to deny it, she agreed.

"We will allow you to set up a trading post here," she said, "But understand that first and foremost this is a Brotherhood command center. I will remain one until such time that we have access to our end goal. On top of that, there is a Vault that is willing to trade. Do not abuse their ignorance."