The Institute
It was a normal day for Joel Holloway. He sat behind a terminal for most of his time down in the Monitoring Room inside the Institute's Synth Retention Bureau. Some said that he had a natural talent of staring at the boring, so it was no surprise to Joel when he received the promotion from watching one terminal to watching twenty of them. However, these weren't normal terminals. These were the cameras the Institute secretly placed around the wasteland to monitor its "citizens" as the previous director, Father, had described the filth that inhabited the world above ground.
He watched as the sun came up into the sky, a routine that didn't improve his day. He pretty much seen it all: the sun rising and setting, storms, murders, robberies; the whole nine yards. He had only been interested in the screens when the Brotherhood of Steel decided to float into town on their blimp.
'The Institute could easily take down that balloon of tin men.' he retorted silently.
Just as he was about to go for his fifth cup of coffee, one of the monitors caught his attention. He walked over to the terminal and stared at its screen. The area was designated as NWCA 2-1, or known simply as the road that borders Sanctuary Hills.
'What's going on here' he questioned to himself.
A lot of commotion seemed to be occurring at the scene. Many wastelanders gathered around a decently large crater that occupied most of the area between the road and the river. Out of the corners of the camera view, he could even spot a few BoS soldiers and a vertibird. Shifting his gaze toward the crater, a gray-colored pillar stuck out of the ground. A single wastelander and a BoS soldier stood in front of the strange object, trying to pull something out of it.
Joel scanned his desk. He pulled a fresh clipboard, with paper, out of a drawer and plucked a pencil out of a cup filled with writing utensils. He scribbled a few notes on the paper, keeping a decently detailed report of what he observed so far while making proper notations. He turned back to the screen to find something that made him stop. The BoS soldier carried a limp body over his shoulder, making a bee line to the nearby vertibird. He tapped a button on the side of the monitor that froze the camera recording. Deciding that he needed to make a proper report to the director herself, he plopped a holotape into the slot beneath the screen. After another button press and several minutes, the tape slithered back out, only to be snatched by Joel and placed in his coat pocket.
The Institute had made decent improvements in technology over the years, after the previous director died of cancer. Being able to freeze camera recordings and placing images of said recordings onto holotapes was barely scratching the surface of such upgrades.
Joel quickly scribbled a few more notes onto his clipboard and hurried out of the Monitoring Room. His section of the Synth Retention Bureau was overcrowded with extra scientists and a few synth prototypes made to assist the scientists in capture of rogue synths. He hurried past them, trying not to make too much eye contact with them. He had too much on his mind to strike up a conversation today.
"Today might be a big day." Joel muttered to himself.
Tasha
Unknown Location
Tasha struggled to keep her eyes open. Her head was exploding with pain, as with the rest of her body. She struggled to stay conscious as pain kept washing over her. She couldn't remember much from the drop, only that someone had obviously rescued her.
She heard footsteps coming toward her door.
'Plan A' she mused quietly.
She shut her eyes and relaxed her muscles as the footsteps grew louder. She heard them come toward the bed, but then stop right at the foot.
"I know that you're awake." a female voice proclaimed.
'Dammit' Tasha cursed in her mind.
Opening her eyes and turning toward the owner of the voice, she spotted a young woman, no more than 30, standing in the room. She had a red trench coat, though it was rather battered and torn, along with a press-boy cap on her head. The creepy part was that she had a smile that simply put Tasha at ease. Very few people could do such things. A dog also followed her in, a German Shepherd. It came up to the bed and placed its snout right next to Tasha's hand, sniffing curiously. Tasha chuckled slightly as the dog sniffed.
"I guess Dogmeat likes you then." the female softly replied.
Tasha shifted her gaze back to the woman, "Oh! I forgot to even tell you my name." the female rapidly said. "I'm Piper."
"Nice to meet you." Tasha responded weakly.
"Look, I have to go back and check on some things. If you need anything, just holler. Oh, and your stuff's in that chest over there." Piper said as she pointed to a green chest that clearly had seen better days.
"Ok." said Tasha.
Piper jogged out of the room, Dogmeat following close behind.
Tasha laid her head back onto the pillow and closed her eyes once more.
"She seems nice." she said aloud before she fell asleep once more.
Northeastern Commonwealth
"Hey, you see anything yet Cait?" Robert McCready asked the brawler crouched next to him.
"No. Just a bunch of crates and boxes. Looks like a few rifles on the ground. Might be interesting to try out." Cait replied smugly.
"Move up."
The two advanced slowly; Cait taking the lead while Robert stayed back with his sniper rifle. As they approached, the smoke from the object increased to the point of nearly blinding the two. McCready could still make out some writing on the side of the object.
"UNSC?" McCready wondered aloud as he came closer. "What does that mean?"
"I dunno. But there are a crapton of guns here." Cait answered with much glee.
"We'll get the guns later. For now, let's see if there's anyone still alive."
"Ugh, fine."
McCready entered the back of the craft, keeping his pace slow and steady. There were a few overturned crates that must've held a the weapons that Cait found earlier. Additionally, there were bodies piled onto the side seats of the bay, all of them dead.
"Great, dead bodies." McCready moaned loudly. "Like that's a sight I haven't seen multiple times already. They have some cool gear though."
He examined an open-faced helmet that fell off of a nearby body. It was mainly black with a couple green stripes down the sides. Cait passed by him while he examined the rest of the gear.
"Oi McCready! Found a pilot!" Cait yelled to the sniper.
McCready dropped the helmet and rushed through a hatchway into a cramped cockpit of some kind. He found Cait crouched low next to what seemed to be the pilot. Unlike the soldiers in the cargo bay, the pilot had a closed helmet that was mainly jet black in color.
McCready pulled a stimpack out of his pocket and jabbed hard into the arm of the pilot.
"Cait, get that helmet off. I'll see if I can get some backup. Keep an eye on the pilot and let me know if she wakes up." McCready commanded before storming back to the cargo bay.
The Castle
Preston Garvey's day couldn't be any busier. With the patient of unknown origin in the Castle's makeshift clinic and with the Institute on the verge of claiming all of the Commonwealth, Preston didn't think that he could lead the remaining Minutemen to victory, even with the Brotherhood's support.
But he had to try.
"Preston!" he could hear Piper yell.
He turned to the Diamond City reporter, "Yes Piper."
"The patient is awake. But I don't think that she would be recovered for a while." she reported sadly.
"Yo, Garvey!" the radioman yelled from the radio tower.
Preston lifted his head to face the Minuteman, "What is it?"
"McCready radioed in. Said that he found another crash site. Found bodies too, one of them it barely alive."
Preston glanced at Piper with a worried glance before replying, "Well, better get Paladin Danse on it."
He turned back to the radioman, "Where did he find it?"
"Somewhere by Starlight Drive-In." he replied.
"Contact Paladin Danse and tell him about it. We have to tend to the other patient."
"Gotcha. Oh, almost forgot, he also mentioned that there were plenty of unknown weapons at the site. I'll tell Danse about it." the radioman responded.
"Ok." Preston tiredly replied as he turned back to Piper. "Let's go check on the patient."
The Institute
Joel slowed his pace as he approached the door to the Director's office. He had only been here once, and that was when he was promoted to the monitoring room. He had heard rumors about people not returning from this room, and it gave him nightmares every so often.
As he approached, the synth guard at the door held out his hand to stop Joel from advancing further.
"Halt, what is your purpose for meeting the Director." he said calmly.
"Hello X6-88, I have some intelligence from the monitoring room that might be very valuable to the Director's eyes." Joel replied smoothly.
"What kind of intelligence?"
"Intel that is so valuable, that I would be executed if I didn't present it to her immediately."
X6 paused before replying with his calm voice, "You may enter."
X6 stepped off to the side of the corridor as the Director's door slid silently open to reveal the most luxurious room in all of the Institute. Potted plants bordered the walls and a large balcony opened to a fabulous view of the atrium. However, that wasn't what attracted Joel's attention. What DID keep his head still was the desk that occupied the center of the room. A lone figure sat with her back to Joel, with a small trail of smoke floating away from her face. He had heard rumors about the Director herself too, especially the one about her coming form the Vault that the previous Director came from.
"Director..." Joel began quietly.
"Please, sit." she commanded firmly.
He quickly sat in one of the seats opposite of the woman.
"So." she said as she twirled in her seat, "What kind of intelligence do you have for me?"
Joel silently handed the Director his notes and the holotape with the picture. She took it without haste. Placing the holotape into her personal terminal, she watched silently as the image filled the screen.
"What am I looking at?" she asked.
"A few hours ago, the silver object fell out of the sky next to Sanctuary Hills. It must've been carrying the mysterious figure that I mentioned in my notes and in the pictures. The BoS and the Minutemen recovered the figure just a while ago. I'm not sure where they brought the figure, but my bets are on the Minutemen stronghold: the Castle."
"I don't need bets, I need direct answers Mr. Holloway." she cut in sternly.
"That is all I have at this time, Director, should I keep monitoring the situation?"
"Yes. If anything, these figures look like the fresh material needed for Institute's cause, and the downfall of the BoS and Minutemen."
"Understood." Joel firmly agreed as he stood up and turned for the door.
"Oh, and Joel?"
Joel stopped in his tracks.
"Call me Nisha." the Director called out smoothly.
Hello guys! Thanks for waiting for me to return with the next chapter in Feet First Into Hell. I know it has been a while, but I had been busy with Christmas and finishing my other stories at the time. Also, I just had some surgery done, so that might slow me down some as well. This might be a bit short, but it's something. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and I apologize again in advance for the long wait.
RNG OUT!