Chapter 3: Arject
The trip from Cambridge to Arcjet was rather quiet and uneventful, well as quiet and uneventful as life in this post apocalypse Commonwealth could possibly be. A few wild dogs and a handful of raiders were turned into corpses before they managed to make it to the facility. Neither of the soldiers seemed particularly keen on talking at the moment, more than content to focus on the mission at hand. Once they arrived at Arcjet the paladin finally decided to break the silence that they had enjoyed on the trip.
"Once we're inside resistance should be rather light, mostly turrets and a handful of security robots. That said don't get cocky, stay in cover or use me as cover, pick your shots and we'll be done before lunch. Any questions?"
"Not really seems like a normal smash and grab. I did dozens of these back during the war."
"The war? You don't…" Paladin Danse was interrupted by the sounds of energy weapons discharging from inside the facility. Both men readied their rifles at the door, and when nothing came out, they headed in with the Paladin out front.
Once inside they were greeted by the acrid smell of burning plastics and smoldering metal alloys. Yet no signs of combat in their immediate vicinity. It wasn't until they moved out of the entrance hall and into a security station that they found the source of the acrid smells. At least a dozen robots and turret remains littered the floor, they all seemed to suffer damage from laser or plasma rifle fire.
"Damn it! What's the Institute doing here?" Paladin Danse asked.
"What's the Institute and how do you know it's them?"
"I don't know what rock you used to live under but you might want to move back there. The Institute are the boogeymen of the Commonwealth, they've perverted technology for their own selfish gains and created an army of synthetic creatures. Worse still is their latest creations appear completely human and they use them to replace people for purposes that only they know."
"Creepy." Nate replied a little sarcastically. "I assume they still die or stop working if you shoot them enough times."
"True enough. Look I know you didn't sign up to fight synths, if you want to pull out, I'd understand." Nate's only response was to ready his rifle and motion for the Paladin to lead the way. "Much appreciated. Ad Victorium"
Despite some recently 'deceased' robots they encountered nothing of interest as they searched the offices in their immediate vicinity. Most likely the transmitter they were looking for was further in, somewhere in the research labs or a storage facility below ground. Their path was blocked by a sealed door without a visible mechanism to open it. Despite being this far in the facility they still had yet to come across any synths.
"Let's see if we can't find a way to open these doors, I have some explosives but I'd rather save them for later." Danse said.
A quick peak at the computer on the center desk revealed it was way beyond Nate's mediocre hacking abilities. However, the terminal that had been stashed in a corner desk was completely unsecured, some people just had no sense of security. It even contained an automatically updated password for the main computer, a few keystrokes later and he was ready to open the lab door. As the door slid open it revealed a tall humanoid shaped creature with an expressionless plastic face, steel skeletal structure, and a white jumpsuit covering its clearly artificial body. It moved with an almost natural, if stiff, motion.
"Intruders detected!" Its synthesized voice cried filling the adjoining rooms with its cry.
Nate was completely caught off guard by the strange semi-humanoid creature before him. At least until it readied a pistol in his direction, his hesitation cost him as he took a glancing energy blast to his left shoulder before he managed to get fully behind cover. The smell of burning jumpsuit and flesh filled his nostrils, he'd check later to see if it needed any treatment right now he had larger concerns. Ignoring the pain he readied his pipe rifle across the top of the desk, quickly he aimed and fired three rounds into the chest of the synth. It merely caused the creature to stagger so Nate put another three rounds into its head before it could recover. This time the synth fell to the ground and did not get up so Paladin Danse charged into the next room and Nate followed using his considerable bulk as cover.
They immediately came under fire from three more synths. Nate and Danse focused fire as one by one the synths fell to the ground from their combined weapons fire. In quick order all the synths were down, apparently fights would be rather quick affair when one side refused to use any of the available cover and the other had a walking tank. Continuing their search revealed no transmitter but plenty of other useful odds and ends that Nate stashed away inside his bag.
Eventually the two made it into a room with a rather large rocket engine hanging in the middle of it. A flimsy rusty stairway was all that kept them from dropping down onto the burned-out ground below. Further up the stairs had already given way to the centuries of rust that threatened to bring the rest of it toppling down, preventing any easy access to the upper level.
"There's an elevator over here that has to go somewhere. If we can get the power online maybe it's still working." Nate said.
"If there's any source of back-up power it will be in that maintenance tunnel down there." Danse replied pointing it out to Nate. "Can you check it out. I want a closer look at this engine."
The tunnel definitely had all the ear-marks of a maintenance shaft; it was dark, dingy, and was a serious headroom hazard and that was before two hundred years of neglect and refuse build-up had gotten in the way. After pilfering a couple of toolboxes Nate found a circuit breaker and a fusion generator with an ejected core. A quick check of the core revealed that it was mostly charged and only ejected because it fell below minimum usage, the circuit box was in much worse shape with the main fuse completely blown and no spares in sight. A bit of scrap metal later and the fuse was bypassed so he injected the fusion core into the generator.
Immediately the bit of scrap metal in the breaker box flung sparks out but it didn't break, more importantly all the lights flickered on and Nate heard the sound of automated doors slamming shut. As he hurried back along the maintenance tunnels, he noticed an observation window that he had somehow overlooked on the way into the reactor room. On the other side stood Paladin Danse. "Nice work on the power but I can't open the doors. Is there a switch on your side?"
Before Nate could reply several large thuds could be heard coming from behind the Paladin each accompanied by a cloud of ashen dust being kicked up by the impacts. From the dust clouds rose synths with raised pistols targeting the Paladin as yet more synths rained from the ceiling preparing to eliminate the cornered soldier. Nate ran to assist him only to find that the automated doors refused to open for him. An automated message filled the room "Warning! Engine test lockout. Unable to allow access until test fire is complete."
Back at the window Nate saw a big red button labeled 'Engine Ignition' which would likely do wonders to clear the testing chamber so Nate didn't hesitate to push the button. Only after did he consider that Paladin Danse was still in the test chamber, hopefully he wasn't wearing a suit of T-51a Power Armor that particular model had a bad habit of shorting out the thermal protection systems at the most inopportune moments. A roar filled the test chamber as the engine fired for the first time in two hundred years, despite the years of neglect it was an almost perfect firing with the bell housing of the engine creating an amazing set of shock crystals. Synthetics were flung against the wall and melted or shattered upon impact, meanwhile Paladin Danse was forced into a kneeling position while the waves of heat and force rolled over him.
As the engine finally quieted the doors to the test chamber swung open with an audible click, Nate didn't hesitate running into the room to check on the Danse. He was forced to put a few rounds into a still crawling synth but despite that he made his way to Paladin Danse unimpeded. Grabbing a Stim-Pack from his bandolier he injected it into one of the designated ports on the front of the Power Armor. "Up and at'em Paladin, we're almost done here."
Danse's breath was short and ragged but he was still able to speak "Did you know that my power armor would protect me or did you just not care?"
"Do you want the truth? Or one of those little white lies that will make you feel better and help you sleep at night?" Nate responded with sarcasm dripping from his questions.
Danse's laugh quickly turned to a cough as he still struggled to even out his breathing. "Shut up. Let's get up to that control room, the transmitter has to be in there."
"And at least a squad or town of synths no doubt." Nate said. Danse nodded and the two men loaded fresh clips into their weapons. Nate checked his side arm and the Institute rifle that he'd pick up from one of the fallen synths they'd killed.
Both of them entered the elevator and trained their rifles on the automatic doors, as the elevator slowed to a stop the doors began to slowly open to reveal…. nothing. Well technically not nothing it was another metal catwalk that lead up to a control room of sorts. Through the observation window Nate could just make out movement of what was most likely synths walking around the room. Nate signaled for Danse to wait at the elevator and snuck up to the open door of the control room.
Peeking over the top of the desk that had been conveniently placed to cover his entrance into the room Nate could just make out five synths moving about the room with one of them wearing some sort of composite body armor. As much as he would like to just chuck a bunch of grenades into the room and obliterate all of the synths that would likely damage the tech that they had worked so hard to locate. So instead Nate carefully set his rifle to fully automatic fire and gingerly placed it on the desk pointed at the synths taking careful aim at the nearest one. A quick pull of the trigger and half a magazine of ammunition saw the permanent removal one of the synths from the equation. He repeated the process on another synth that decided to fire on him instead of seeking cover and emptied his clip into it until it too fell to the ground. One of the remaining synths had decided to charge him with a baton that crackled with electricity while he had removed those first two synths. Just as it reached his position and began to vault the desk Paladin Danse came barreling into the room and with a mighty leap completely cleared Nate and his improvised cover. Four hundred pounds of man, armor, and weaponry crashed into the baton wielding synth completely crushing it into the ground. Danse pulled his laser rifle and with a cry of "For the Brotherhood" began firing on the final 'normal' synth in the room.
This left Nate with the elite looking synth of the group which seemed more intelligent than the rest of the rabble they'd faced. It was smart enough to take cover and had a much higher accuracy than any of the others. The two combatants traded fire back and forth with neither having a clear advantage, Nate's armor took a few more glancing blows and the same could be said for the Synth. At least until the synth got a lucky shot off that hit Nate in his left hand, causing him to immediately drop his rifle and duck back into cover. With his left hand now useless and adrenaline the only thing keeping him from experiencing the agony that threatened to crawl its way up his nerve endings Nate drew his 10mm pistol with his right hand and popped back up out of his cover. Only to see Paladin Danse on top of the synth firing point blank into its head and chest until it finally refused to even twitch.
Turning his attention to his injured hand he saw that the damage was rather severe, three of the bones on the back of his hand were completely exposed and any attempts to move his fingers or wrist too much resulted in absolute agony. Using a dose of Med-X greatly reduced the pain he felt and a Stim-pack would help accelerate the healing, finally he wrapped his hand with some spare cloth that he then poured vodka onto it to prevent infection.
"Found it!" Danse called from across the room. "Apparently the Institute was after it as well, found it here in this elite synths bag. How's your hand?" He asked after seeing Nate soaking his wrapped hand in vodka.
"It will need a doctor to be fully useful again but I should be able to use a rifle properly by tomorrow, day after at the latest."
Danse nodded taking in the information. "We've only been in here a couple hours think we can make it to those super mutants you wanted to eliminate before nightfall?"
Nate merely laughed. "It's just some genetically modified superhuman monstrosities. How hard can it be?"