The first few rooms are relatively uneventful. A few radroaches here and there, and soon they reach the entrance of the old military research facility. They pass through the old decontamination arches and enter the facility where they encounter the first robots. Marieke dispatches the rusted Junkbots with ease and soon the pair moves on to the Production Control Room.
"It is strange that this entire facility is back in operation." Emily reloads her weapon while Marieke collects a desk fan for later use.
"Didn't we deactivate the main reactor?"
"I thought we did. I mean, we didn't destroy it because of the crater and we don't want the Cambridge crater to become even larger, right?"
"Enough nuking for a while." Marieke just finished entering a few commands in a terminal and this opens the door to the Robot Storage Facility, allowing them to proceed after taking out some more robots including a larger robot of the Tankbot type. Emily is a bit too eager to eliminate the Tankbot and moves too close. Marieke manages to snag her girlfriend just before the Tankbot's central power supply explodes.
"How many times do I need to tell you that these things EXPLODE!" Marieke yells at her girlfriend who just escaped the fiery blaze.
"Sorry Blue."
The pair gets up from the ground and enters what used to be the Quality Control room. Suddenly Marieke halts and stops Emily too.
"I think there is an Assaultron in this room." Marieke unholsters her favorite shotgun, which tears through robots like they are cotton candy.
"Troubleshooter is joining the fight once again, my love?"
"Indeed, because I see the red glow of that fucking Assaultron upstairs." Marieke checks if she has enough shells in the magazine to eliminate the robot arming its head laser. She runs upstairs and after a few shots and a primal scream Marieke walks down the stairs with the Assaultron's head torn off.
"Why did you tear that robot's head off?" Emily gasps from the sudden display of strength.
Marieke shrugs. "I just put the head on a railing and gave it a good whack with an office chair."
"I didn't as HOW, I asked WHY you did it."
"That thing HURT so I wanted to keep its head as a trophy." Marieke held the head to a wall as if she wanted to fit it on a piece of wood like a hunting trophy making Emily roll her eyes with a loud groan.
"Maybe Sturges can make something cool out of it."
"We have to figure out this issue first." Marieke points at a locked door. "It appears that this door has been equipped with a lock."
The women search the room for any terminals and locks, but they are unable to find any unlocking mechanisms until Emily notices a familiar console in a corner.
"Blue! Check this out!" Emily points to said familiar console.
"That distinctively looks like a vault door console!" Marieke inspects the console for any other details that might tell otherwise. She fails to find things out of the ordinary Marieke plugs her PipBoy into the console and after a short while the cover of the button opens, and she presses the button. As expected the door opens and the women can proceed with their exploration. They enter the main assembly area and were again engaged by numerous robots which were dispatched easily with Marieke's new rifle.
"God dammit! Where are they coming from?!" Emily reloads her weapon once again. "They're crawling out of the woodwork!"
"Nothing a few .308 rounds can't fix." Marieke grins as she takes down the hulking Tankbot blocking the exit.
After the resulting explosion has subsided the pair moves on towards one of the workshop areas that surround the main production hall.
"Look Blue!" Emily points at a familiar metal suit at the end of the workshop. "Power Armor!"
"That is just the frame. It doesn't offer any extra protection and only grants better strength. Plus, I'm out of fusion cores anyway."
"Bummer, some power armor would be of good use here."
Marieke just shrugs and takes some ammunition from a lone ammo box, and hands rounds to Emily since they both are close to running out.
"Blue! Look!" Emily points at a closed of area with a security gate that appears to be connected to a terminal. "There are some more ammo boxes behind that door!"
Marieke heads over to the terminal and cracks its security with ease.
"PSH, a 4-letter password, amateur." Marieke grins cocky as she enters the command to open the door.
Inside they see indeed the ammo boxes ,a few first aid kits with an assortment of medical items and a fusion core behind a mop.
"Good, some stimpaks. I was running low on medical supplies." Emily huffs while stowing the items in her pouch. "You good on ammo, Blue?"
"It is strange that this is all restocked again, we did loot it last time, right? It really seems as if someone or something has moved in and made it operational again…"
Emily shrugs and leaves for the door. Marieke follows suit and soon the women see the main production hall again but this time they need to cross by using some kind of cable car.
"They need to find the one who designed this factory and tie them up to the highest tree." Marieke mutters along while she pushes the button to start the cable car.
"The one who designed this factory has most likely been dead for over two hundred years, sweetheart." Emily chuckles at the pre-war remark. "So, you just got your wish but with nuclear fire."
The cable car slowly creeps towards the other end of the large vaulting room and suddenly out of nowhere a group of synths appears on the bridge they just crossed and immediately open fire on the defenseless women.
"GOD DAMMIT!" Marieke unholsters her weapon once again. "I thought we were done with this shit!"
"How did they even use teleportation?!" Emily takes out one of the Coursers on the side of the bridge. "Watch it Blue! More coming in from below!"
Cursing the cable car for going so slowly, Marieke has had enough.
"Fuck this shit! I am nuking these pricks downstairs!" Marieke grabs one of the fusion cores she found a few rooms and drops it down below in the middle of a group of Gen2's and shoots the black control unit on top. As soon as the core starts beeping she commands Emily to protect her ears and to take cover.
"Take cover?! Where!?" Emily barely finished the sentence before the fusion core self-destructs and reduces the group of Gen2's downstairs to a smoldering pile of ash. After the explosion subsides and the cable car arrives Marieke jumps down on the bridge and breaks the last remaining synth's neck with the stock of her rifle, but soon realizes the mistake she made.
"Blue, why did you jump down?" Emily leans over the edge of the cable car, failing to hold in a giggle caused by the audible facepalm made by the blue haired woman down below.
"I don't know…" Marieke sighs and cleans her weapon with the fabric of her vault suit.
"Why did you wipe your weapon? Gen2's don't bleed…"
"No but they leak some gross fluid."
While they are talking the cable car arrives at the other end of the hall and Emily runs off, leaving Marieke alone in the pile of corpses and rusty water.
Soon Emily returns with what appears to be a length of rope. She throws down the rope and ties it to a railing. Marieke gives it a few tugs to see if it's safe enough to climb up and quickly joins her girlfriend who welcomes her with a kiss.
The women cross the bridge where the Coursers were standing on and enter the next room.
Suddenly both the doors behind them and in front of them slam shut.
"Blue! What is happening?!" Emily starts to panic and tries to find a way out.
"You tell me! These doors are made of heavy steel! Only someone with super human strength can rip these open!"
She hasn't finished her sentence or gas started flowing in the room, knocking both the women unconscious with ease.
When Marieke wakes up her environment seems eerily familiar. It takes her a few moments to recognize that she is in a glass cell, the same ones that were used to hold the test subjects for the robobrain project. On the other end of the corridor she sees Emily crying in a corner of her cell.
She feels cold and sees she has been stripped. All her armor and even her vault suit is gone, but Emily is still wearing all her clothes. She instinctively checks her pip-boy but sees that it is missing too.
"Why did they take all my clothes?" Marieke mutters to herself. "What do they want with us?"
"What do we want with you?" A voice suddenly calls from speakers in her cell. "You will see soon enough, M01-91." She hears another voice in the background call. "Is Project Omega good to go?"
"Why do you call me that and what is Project Omega?" She calls to the voice but gets no response.
Days pass but she has no perception of time and has accepted her fate. After she calmed down a few days ago, she got a communication device, so she can at least talk to Emily. They chat about what they think they are going to do with them, but soon they run out of ideas and the conversations start running thin.
After what felt like a week she suddenly hears a hissing coming from the speaker above her and immediately smells a familiar scent.
"Not…again…" she mutters while she feels her eyelids getting heavier. The last thing she sees before slipping into unconsciousness is Emily's tear-stained face.