WARNING: I posted Chapter 14 and 13 at the same time. If you have not read Chapter 13, please read that chapter first!
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Dakota Michelson
A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction
Chapter 14: Followed The Freedom Trail
The woman says, "You went through a lot of effort to arrange this meeting. But before we go any further, answer my questions. Who the hell are you?" There are two people at her side, one of them is aiming a detached vertibird gun at us.
Danse says, "We followed the Freedom Trail looking for The Railroad. We're not your enemy." The woman responds, "If that's true, you have nothing to fear. However, judging by your Power Armor, I'd wager that you're with the Brotherhood of Steel. Who told you how to contact us?" A man walks in through an opening behind the woman. Either his hair is a wig, or he has a stock of some of the best hair gel ever. I look at Danse, wondering if we should disclose our source.
"I'm afraid that's none of your business," Danse says. The woman says, "We'll find out, one way or another." She has a very smug, confident tone. "Last question. Why are you here?" Danse says, "We are here to find The Railroad to decode a Courser chip." She says, "You have what? This is not a joking matter."
Suddenly the guy that walked in says, "I didn't know we're having a party. What gives with my invitation? Oh, I see you invited the Vault Dweller. Nice." I look at the man, surprised and even slightly angered by the fact he knows that. "Deacon, you're late," the woman says. "Are you saying you know who this intruder is?" He says, "I have enough on them. But we need that Courser chip, boss." She looks back at us and says, "Show it to us." I pull the chip out and show it. "Hmm," she says. "Very well. I'm Desdemona and I'm the leader of the Railroad."
"Who are you people, exactly?" I say. She responds, "In a world full of suspicion, treachery, and hunters, we're the synth's only friend." The man with the immaculate hair says, "Dez, we need to let them in. They have a Courser chip for God's sake." Desdemona looks back at us and squints her eyes. "We're letting you into our headquarters. You're the first outsiders every to be given this privilege. We'll discuss the details about your chip inside."
We follow Desdemona inside and are followed by the three others. "Decoding a Courser chip is delicate work. A million things can go wrong, the least of which is losing the data. Fortunately, we have the right man for the job." We walk up to a man who has some crazy helmet-like thing on. "Hey Dez, you need something?" he says.
She says, "Tom, our visitor here has a Courser chip." "Whoa!" Tom says. "For Real? It's been ages!" Desdemona says, "Right. Some ground rules. Tom can get you the code, but once he's done, we get the Courser chip." I look back at Danse again, unsure if he is okay with that deal. He looks back at me, like it's my decision. I look down and think. All we really need is the data. We don't even have any real way of using the chip anyway.
"Why do you need the chip?" I ask. She says, "I'm not going to get into details. But that chip could help us save lives. Maybe throw a wrench in some of the Institute's operations. So… hand over the chip."
I look back at Danse and he nods. "Okay," I say and hand it over to her. She gives it to Tom and says, "Make it happen." The man says, "All right, little Courser chip. Let's have the circuit analyzer take a crack at you." He sounds crazy. He's likely high on some sort of drug.
He plugs it into a strange looking terminal and starts mumbling something unintelligible. After a while, he yells, "We got it! We got the code! Let me load that onto a holotape for ya!" and he laughs almost maniacally. He hands it to Desdemona and she to us. "We got lucky, Dez," Tom says. "I'm not sure our luck will hold up next time." She nods and says, "Start working on the rest of the chip." She then turns to Danse. "And you. You look familiar. Have we met before?" Danse says, "I don't believe we have." She chuckles and says, "Well, I'd love to work with you more. Let me know if you're interested." I suddenly feel a hint of jealousy and think that she is checking him out or something. She walks us to the door.
Danse and I walk outside and we head more towards the river, where it's not surrounded by the tall buildings and throws a Vertibird Signal Grenade and we wait until it shows up.
"What do you think about them?" I ask. He has a look of disapproval and says, "Anyone who helps synths is an enemy. If they weren't giving us that code, I would have shot them all down."
The Vertibird arrives and we board it. Once at the airport, we hand the code over to Proctor Ingram. She says, "I have put together the schematics and already started to get to work building them. Meet me here at the airport at 0600 hours." I nod.
In the morning, Danse and I meet up with Ingram at the airport. We begin to walk and she says, "Molecular transmission via encrypted RF waves. Even I have to admit, that's genius. This explains why we've been picking up anomalous energy readings all across the Commonwealth. This little beauty allows you to literally hijack a return signal. Instead of grabbing the intended target, it grabs you instead."
We walk around a broken down wall and I see a huge tower looking thing with a platform at the bottom. It's wired to some sort of command center and a satellite dish. Ingram says, "Let's wait for Elder Maxson to get here. I'm sure he'll want to brief you before he sends you in there." My eyes widen. "Me!? You want me to go in there?" "Well, yeah," she says. "Someone's gotta go in there." I want to argue against that, but I know that decision isn't coming from her. Maxson arrives and says "Well, are you ready to go to the Institute, Scribe?" My eyes still wide from shock, I say, "Why me, Elder Maxson? Isn't there someone more suited for this?" He just stares at me for a few seconds. "After much deliberation, I've decided you are the most suited for this mission. The rest of your unit is needed elsewhere."
My heart is pounding. I'm not sure what else to do. I mean, it's not like I can run away or anything. They'd probably shoot me down for treason. "So Michelson. Are you ready to go or not?" Maxson asks.
I guess I'm as ready as I will ever be. "Yes, sir," I say, with a giant lump in my throat.
He says, "Now when we throw that switch, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. God willing, you'll end up inside the Institute and the mission can continue. I want you to listen carefully. Once you've entered the Institute, we expect to lose contact, so it's imperative you remember everything I'm about to tell you. About ten years ago, the Brotherhood began recruiting civilian scientists from the Capital Wasteland to assist with various projects. During this process, we were able to obtain the services of Doctor Madison Li, a noted mind in the field of nuclear engineering. However, she eventually developed differences with the Brotherhood and exiled herself to the Commonwealth. We're fairly certain that her intent was to make contact with the Institute. Your mission is simple. Once inside the Institute, we want you to track down Doctor Li's whereabouts. If you find out that she's still alive, make contact with her and convince her to return to the Brotherhood of Steel. There's a special project we're working on, and it needs her attention. Listen, I'm well aware that you're risking your life going into the Institute blind. Just keep your mind on the mission, and don't let anything they say sway you from your duty."
I nod and say, "Understood, Elder." He salutes me and says "Good luck." I stand on the platform and face Ingram, who's at the control center. Danse is next to her. I look at Danse desperately, wondering if this will be the last time I'll see him again.
Ingram says, "Let's see… Relay's dialed in, beam emitter's warmed up. Everything looks green. Let me start scanning for the signal. Cross your fingers. I'm inputting the code now. It may take a minute or two to lock in. By the way, this little trip you're taking is a heck of an opportunity to find out as much as we can about the Institute and what they're up to. I put a clever little program on this holotape that'll scan their network and download anything it finds. If you place it in any terminal down there, it'll do the rest. Bring it back to me and I'll see if I can make sense of whatever it found."
I stand as still as possible, looking at the electricity bolts which occasionally surround me. I keep thinking one of them will electrocute me. "Well, well…" Ingram says. "Looks like we have a winner. RF wave capture complete. Raming the emitter." My heart feels like it is going to pound right out of my chest. "Sixty percent… Eighty percent… Ok now it's ready. All that's left to do is to throw the transmitter switch. Transmitting in three… two… one!"
In an instant, a blinding flash of electricity hits me and everything goes white.
