MEGA Spoilers for Fallout 3's DLC/Add-On "Operation: Anchorage"

When people are unconscious, they say everything goes black just before it. When people black out, they say the same thing. For Juliet, when she was hit by that radiation wave, her brain felt like it was on fire for just a brief moment before everything went black... permanently.

It was dark. That's all she saw and felt. She couldn't speak. She couldn't think. It was eerily too much like Tranquility Lane.

Wait.

She wasn't supposed to think. The reminder of that black and white world she was stuck in for so long was vivid in her mind. So vivid... she was actually there. She blinked, staring at her black and white self in the mirror of her bedroom.

Her blue- no, there was no color here. Her eyes widened in horror. Why was she back here?! Was... was her mom back here too? Alive? Excited at the possibility, she got up from the chair and fled her room, flying down the stairs and turning to the kitchen to disappointment - empty.

Mom wasn't here. Mom was dead.

"That was for my dad! And Juliet's mom!"

She twitched. Who had said that again-? She gasped. It was the cute little blonde girl! Where was she? Juliet turned her entire body around prepared to walk outside when she was startled by a voice behind her.

"I wouldn't go out there. It's not safe."

She quickly turned back around to see an old, sad looking man. He wore a Vault 112 jumpsuit. His hair was short and white, skin slightly tan and crinkly, and his eyes... were the same shade of blue as Juliet's. She couldn't see it in this black and white world, but somehow she knew. She recognized him, but she didn't know why.

"You know who I am." His accent. German. Strong.

"Braun," Juliet realized. "You're my real father."

This is what her mother had told her. Braun gave you his DNA. You are a miracle. A hybrid. Half human, half... Vault-Tec.

"You were Betty, weren't you?" Juliet also noticed.

"I was," Braun answered. "I imagine you have many questions."

"Why am I here?" Juliet asked first, getting right to it. Find out why she's here and how to get the hell out.

"That I'm not really sure of," Braun admitted. "As part of your creation I added a technological link to my simulations. When you first arrived here, I specified it to Vault 112."

"What does all that crap mean?" Juliet spat.

"I see you've inherited my temper," Braun appeared rather amused. "It means that you have a connection to myself, and my simulator world. That is how you are able to talk to me right now. What I don't know is how you managed to connect yourself. You may even be starting to understand more of who you are better than I."

"So this is real?" Juliet acknowledged. "I'm talking to the real you? How do I know this isn't some kind of pre-recorded simulation you put in my brain?"

"Look outside, child." Braun simply said. Juliet narrowed her eyes and turned around to do just that. She barely moved a window curtain over and peeked out, and gasped. There were Chinese soldiers patrolling the entire Lane. "They haven't thought of actually going inside the houses," Braun continued. "Thankfully they can't ever hurt me."

Juliet stepped back. "How do I get out of here? Why did you create me? What else can I do?"

"Child," Braun spoke. "I'll answer any questions if you help me get out of here."

She huffed. "Fine. How do I do that?"

"All you have to do is-"

"Juliet?"

"Charon-?" She recognized. When she blinked, Braun and Tranquility Lane were gone. She didn't return to the darkness either. She saw white, followed by little green digital squares everywhere. "Where are you?" She asked.

"I'm right here," he answered. "You're in a simulation pod some Brotherhood soldiers found. They said it would help you wake up. Are you okay?"

Simulation pod? She must be linked to it, which would explain how she was able to put herself in Tranquility Lane...

"I'm okay. Can I get out now?"

"Not yet. You have to complete the simulation first. You have to stay alive or you'll go into cardiac arrest."

"Oh, that sounds... bad." Juliet whimpered. "What's the simulation?"

"It's the lib..." Charon's voice faded. The digital squares disappeared and the flash of white overwhelmed Juliet. The next thing she heard was a man telling her to wake up, to snap out of it.

She was also shivering half to death.

"I didn't think you were gonna make that fall, watching your parachute bunch up like that." The dark haired man continued. "I don't think they heard us so we can still get the jump on them. We'll still meet at the rendezvous point to blow those artillery guns to hell. Be careful, the Reds don't take prisoners up here."

Juliet stood there, failing to process anything he just said. "Who are you?" She asked.

He chuckled. "Did you hit your head when you fell? It's me, Benjamin. Look, I'll see you at the rendezvous, okay?"

Benjamin took off to the mountain wall left of them and began climbing it.

"What the..." Juliet shivered. She touched her face, discovering she wore a matching combat helmet with her armor that covered her entire face. It was different shades of grey. She looked up to watch Benjamin climb. "I guess he wants me to go a different way." She muttered, deciding to walk forward, wary she was on the edge of a cliff covered in snow and rocks.

It was so damn cold.

When she made it over a small hill [DANGER] flashed in her mind. She dropped down as low as she could and reached for any weapon she may have. She found a trench knife and a silenced pistol. She crept a few steps further and saw him.

A Red. A Chinese. A Commie.

By God she hated those bastards for ruining the world.

She blew her cover and screamed as loud and angrily as she could. The Red jumped around and pulled out his weapon to shoot, but she naturally beat him to the punch, thanks to VATS inside her brain. She obliterated him before he could even land a shot.

The body digitally disappeared as her mind flashed [CAUTION] next. She growled and bolted ahead, promising to kill any Commie she would find. Her rush of adrenaline ended when she finished them off within the area. There was a glowing red assault rifle. Juliet touched it, activating it. She strapped her pistol and held the assault rifle.

"This could actually be fun." She admitted. Across from where she got the rifle was a glowing red bin, and it was telling her she could refill her ammo. She touched it just like the rifle and it digitally happened. "It's like I'm playing a computer game." She mumbled next.

Just outside of the corridor she was in was a giant white pipe connecting one side of the mountain to the other. She walked across the pipe and steered right, trekking down the cold, rocky cliffside path that led to stairs, stairs, and more stairs. There were two more Reds at the very top, guarding a red door. Juliet fought them to the death and cautiously went through the red door.

She was in a cavern like area now. From not too far away she heard Reds yelling in their language. Juliet aimed her rifle and went ahead, reaching a clearing where she witnessed a random body dropping from high up. She didn't know if it was a Red or an American. Regardless she kept going through the cavern, fighting any Reds she found. Inside a room further uphill the cavern, Juliet was about to shoot down another Commie but someone beat her to the punch.

Benjamin dropped down from a hole in the ceiling.

"Goddamn I almost didn't make it!" He hissed. "There's Reds everywhere!"

"But you did make it!" Juliet remarked. "So what now? Please don't leave me alone again."

"Ready to blow up those guns?" Benjamin asked. "I've got your six."

Juliet ignored him. This was a simulation. He was only going to respond to specific commands or words. Something like that.

Taking out the three artillery guns was... rather fun for Juliet. Mostly fun. She kept reminding herself that if she died here, her body in the real world was going to be in very bad shape. While traveling with Benjamin, she was finding holotapes of U.S. soldiers, such as Zachary Lloyd and Henry Hodges, going into depth of when the Chinese invaded Anchorage, Alaska.

Just moments after blowing up the artillery guns, Benjamin told Juliet they needed to report back to General Chase. As Juliet went to ask who that was, everything started going blurry. "What the-?" She covered her eyes until the blurriness faded. She had been moved somewhere. She was now standing in front of a stern looking man. Maybe it's General Chase.

He looked like Sylvia's Overseer from Vault 101 with bright white hair. It was freakishly weird. "Damn fine job you did taking out those guns!" The General praised.

"Yeah, yeah," Juliet replied. "Just tell me what to do next so I can get this simulation done."

Within minutes, General Chase appointed her the head of a strike team. She was told to use this to her advantage to take out her three primary targets: an armor depot, a listening post, and some kind of pulse field all ran by the Chinese she needed to figure out how to break.

"This is going way over my head." She sighed after it was all over. She'd used the computer they provided to assign a strike team. She chose a regular infantryman, someone who was good with grenades, and then a Mr. Gutsy solely because it would remind her of her Mr. Handy, Charlie.

She missed him so much.

Outside of the briefing tent, she was hit with a blast of cold. She shivered underneath her armor as she noticed her strike team patiently waiting in the near distance. She caught Benjamin standing nearby, speaking with someone who forgot to wear their helmet.

"Oh Benji, you're full of shit, ya know that?"

"I am not!"

"So you really managed to sneak up one of their chimera tanks, kill the Red inside and commandeered it for yourself?"

Juliet screamed as loud as she could at the man Benji was talking to. He was tall, with short dark brown hair and light green eyes that gleamed humorously. "DAD!" She recognized. "DAD!" She never ran so fast in her life. She wrapped her arms around her simulated father, and the sudden realization that he wasn't going to respond to the hug sunk heavy in her heart.

She ignored it and asked, "What are you doing here, Dad? Why are you in this...?" She lightly gasped as it came to her. Before the War. Before Vault 112. Dad was home for Christmas. He had mentioned this.

"They came to Anchorage."

"Who?"

"Vault-Tec. We were on early leave when they showed up, talking about making a-a-a simulation for the war."

"A simulation? Isn't that a computer program?"

"I don't know, I'm just a soldier. They said it would be important to the future. They used all of us. Me, Montgomery... fuckin' Benji. We stopped that Chinese bastard. The dragoons got some of us while we were sleeping. Thought they were sneaky sons a' bitches but I was awake. I waited until after they all came in the camp, after they killed my squad. Then I threw a frag 'cause our grenadier was dead. That robot was annoying but Benji was pissed that we were the only ones who made it."

In horror, Juliet looked over her strike team. A regular soldier, the grenade guy, and a Mr. Gutsy - a robot. Benjamin... Benji! How... what? How did she assign the squad her father described over 200 years ago?! Confusion flooded her but she pushed it aside. Was her father going to join her for the rest of the simulation?

She knew this wasn't real. Just made up computer crap. But still, she was able to see and talk to her father again. She was going to enjoy every second of it.

"Are you ready to kill some more Reds?" Benji asked Juliet.

She grinned at him and her father. "Yes Benji. Yes I am."