Chapter Seven
Rivit City and the Mirelurk's
Radar, Matt, Craig and Podray followed Dogmeat around Minor's Vault, killing off mutants and guals and purifying the air in each new, sealed area, if only for their own benefit,
"I'd love to know how you think we're all getting out of here, every subway route leads to another vault" Matt said at one point
"Or the main railway subway...underground" Radar said
"And if it's dark and we haven't found the right exit?" Matt asked
"We find a derailed train everyone can kip in" Podray replied, "Where are we taking these captives, because let's face it that is what they are"
"Rivit City, they'll take them in" Matt said, "We need to go there anyway, I know someone there, who knows everything about Vault Tech"
Radar, Podray, Craig and even Dogmeat stared at him,
"Rivit city is twenty miles back that way!" Radar yelled with a point
"But look at the people we're about to save, doesn't that feel good?" Matt said
At that moment the door to the room housing the still living resident opened and they watched as an alarm went off and every single one of them was gassed,
"Oh crap!" Radar yelled, shooting the mechanic to seal the door so the gas couldn't escape as easily,
Dogmeat was gone, he was searching for oxygen now and wasn't waiting around for anyone,
"That's one smart dog!" Podray said as they chased after him,
Dogmeat followed his nose and went a completely different route, one that kept going up to an entrance that actually made sense for a vault.
Matt scanned the door as Craig tried to stop the awaiting cylinders from going off,
"This door is a folly!" Matt said
Dogmeat was insistant, he clawed, barked and even attacked the door,
"Get this thing open!" Radar said
"I'm trying!" Matt snapped
"Try harder!" Radar snapped back
"I'm not one of your soldiers! I can't shut out what I saw back there!" He said, breaking down
"No one said you had to but this is not the time!" Craig yelled across the room
"Move! I'll do it myself" Radar said
"Radar?! No granades!" Craig said
"How about mines then? Three!" She replied taking one and fixing it to the door
"Radar! This is madness" Craig called
"Two! Back up now!" She called
Two curious mutants came through the door she opened and as they snuck passed and ducked behind metal crates the mutants walked up to the vault exit, they investigated the mines and along with the door were blown apart, affording them an escape from the vault.
Their troubles weren't over once they got to the vault because they came out of a porthole that lead onto a street where people still inhabeted the houses and they found themselves shot at,
They got behind a bombed out car for cover,
"We're not the enemy!" Matt called
"They're not listening!" Radar said before shooting a woman in the arm, "That was a warning, we're passing through, give us no reason to shoot, you'll thank us later, but if you don't stand down your weapons we will kill you all now!"
There was a silence and then Radar, Craig, Matt and Podray heard the sound of guns being lowered, one by one.
When the coast was clear they all climbed out and were met by a man, who clearly thought he was in charge around here,
"We know what that vault meant for everyone down there" He said closing the manhole cover over
"You didn't think to rescue them?" Radar asked
"They signed their own death warrent" The man said
"You're some bollox" Craig said, "Gamer and tag fan is about as far as this soldier goes"
"Where are you going? What's your business here?" The man asked
"Strictly need to know" Podray said
"I need to know, this is my town" The man responded
"Your town? If we don't tell you, you're going to what? Shoot us?" Podray said in question, somehow he made himself look really tall, "A special ops, a spy, a "Woman" and a marine?"
"Uh, no sir, as long as you don't mean us any harm we will say no more, you can pass" The man said
"That's what I thought" Podray said, slapping the man on his back
"Who's the Marine?" Matt whispered as they left
"You" Radar said
"No I'm not" Matt said
"You do something with water" Podray called back, "Sue me...actually don't I can't show my face in most duristictions anymore"
"Why?" Matt asked
"I don't think you want the answer to that question" Podray called back before laughing
"He's winding you up" Radar said
Matt shivered
It was a long haul but eventually they made it to Rivit City. Matt smiled,
"This is where I was born"
"What shall we do with the drunken sailer..." Podray began
"No!" Radar called
"Oh, what is it, a dirty version of the song?" Matt asked raised eyebrow
"He'll scar you for life" Radar said,
Matt lead the way around the ship, towards the lab his father worked in, their workforce had depleted thanks to the Enclave but since the water purification had been a success more people had joined. However their uncouth attitudes hadn't altered much,
"You even think about stealing anything we're going to have problems" One sneered
"One more remark like that I'm blowing this thing up" Radar replied
"No!" Craig, Podray and Matt cried
In the lab they were met a woman called Cavern, due to her being born in one linked to Little Lamplight. She wasn't exactly welcoming either,
"Who've you brought me?" She asked Matt
"What's the weakest part of this God damn ship?" Radar asked, Matt gave her a pleading look, "Asking for a friend"
"Are you threatening us?"
"I'll let you try and work that out" Radar replied, "The Lone vault dweller has been taken to the Lincon Memorial statue, he left a message, the know how to control the sensors of the mechanical. Matt says you know everything about Vault Tech. Did this come across you at any point?"
"It did actually, what's he planning to do? Control the Synths?" She asked
"I don't care what he does with them, we need them to complete our mission, which is to seal every Atom bomb and nuclear powerplant the world over, starting with this one"
"You're helping them Matt?" She asked him
"Yes because the longer those things exist the bigger the risk to everyone and then purifyig the water was for nothing, the other countries around the world didn't deserve this, if one has knowledge to help save the people of another that's right" Matt said
"Where is his program?" Craig asked
"They hid it in the Crying Vault, it's void of children now, only the Mirelurks inhabit. They were moving in just as I was hiding the codes"
"Why did you hide them?" Podray asked, mad now
"I still believe in the positive power of nuclear enegery" She said
"I want the location of the vault, now" He replied, gun in her face
She backed up and then gave him the location of the vault.
The vault itself wasn't that far away, it was in walking distance to be exact. Matt' display within Rivit City had won him some respect,
"It's good to know you don't see nuclear energy to be positive" Podray said
"I've only seen the negatives, the pictures I've seen, this world was beautiful once and full of colour now it's a wasteland because humans thought that unspeakable power should be used to teach others a lesson while portraying to the world a false positive" Matt said, "I don't know what's worse, knowing they lied and knew they were lying, maybe even felt good about it, no reguard for human life or life at all or the fact that they hit that button"
As they reached the vault they were met by two emotionless teenagers with guns. They didn't shoot at Matt, Radar, Craig or Podray, instead they shot at Dogmeat,
Dogmeat didn't attack, this took them aback,
Radar loaded her gun but Podray held out his hand to stop her shooting,
"Who are you? What do you want?" One asked
"It's not you anyway, we need something that's in that vault" Radar called, "But you touch my dog once more you're dead, both of you"
"We thought he was one of them" A teen, who shot called back
"Does he look rabid or zombified to you?" Radar asked,
"We grew up in that vault" The same teen said, "We cried, no one came so we had to learn to fend for ourselves"
"Why're you still hanging around here?" Podray asked
"It's home, if you can clear out the Mirelurks while you're in there we'd be grateful"
"You shoot at my dog and then ask us to do what you can't?" Radar said in question, "I don't care how hard a start you had that's taking the..."
"Put it down to fear" Podray said reasonably, "Have you got any stealth boys?"
"No but we know where you can get some" The teen said, "In the overseer' office, he placed it, rather conviniently at the entrance but we've never been able to crack the code to get inside and the windows are blast proof. We hated this place for years but then look at what was waiting for us out here"
"It's bad now but it won't always be" Matt said
"You're dreaming"
"Better to be a dreamer than someone, who surrenders to the worst senario" Matt replied
The teens let them pass and though he didn't bite, Dogmeat did afford them both a growl before wrapping his teeth around the gun and tossing it.
The teens were stunned by this.
"You've trained him well" Poddray said on the way in, to Radar
"I haven't trained him at all, his last owner was a mine soldier" Radar replied
At the entrance to the vault, which was open there were three Mirelurks to deal with. Radar used three granades and blew them apart but this set alarms off.
They wouldn't have long to get into the overseer' office now.
Craig worked on overriding the password for this one,
"Whenever I hacked into a system before it was pure guesswork, what's the trick here?" Matt asked
"You're looking for a word that means the same thing but also has the same number of letters or actual letters" Radar explained
"You've been learning about computers too?" Podray asked
"Yeah, be prepared for anything right dad?" She replied, they got into the overseer' office and sealed the door as the mirelurk's arrived. Luckily they weren't spotted, "So we get the stealth boy', then what? They only work for a while and we've no idea where they hid the program"
"If we can get the Mirelurk' to leave we'll be fine...oh I have a brilliant idea, but can I do it from this computer?" Podray said in question
Craig laughed. He knew exactly what Podray had in mind, then Radar twigged on,
"You're going to send them to Nuka Vault Tech" Radar said
Podray nodded and winked before getting to work,
"We're still taking the stealth boy' though right?" Craig asked
"Why not?" Podray said
It took a while but Podray got it eventually and afforded them the time they needed to find the program for the Synths.
The realisation of what had happened down here in this vault was difficult for everyone to deal with. There were skeletons of children of all ages dotted around.
One was holding a bear, but the bear seemed to be interfeering with Matt' Pit Boy,
"What's in that bear?" He asked,
Radar grabbed a pool cue and poked it, it didn't go off so Craig grabbed it and stuck his hand in the hole in it's side.
When he took his hand out he had a circuit board,
"Part of the program?"
"Only part" Matt asked disappoined
"Where's the rest of it then?" Radar asked
A man stepped into the room and held up the other half, in his hand was a repellant stick for the molerats,
"I have"
"Dad!" Matt exclaimed