Chapter 4: Problem with Power

It seemed strangely unreal waking up in a bed, in a nice clean room. Just for a few short sleepy minutes, I was able to pretend that the past few days had simply some strange dream, then the nightmare reality, jolted me fully awake from the sound of manic screaming, and crash and bangs just outside my locked door.

By the time, I dared to peep through the blinds the fighting had moved, leaving three dead Vault Residents in the corridor, it is fairly clear that when there are no invaders to unite them, the residents spend their days fighting each other. I quickly nipped out get anything useful, and move the bodies into the morgue.

"Well, I had best get-up and going again", I declared to myself; so after a quick breakfast, and wash and brush-up, I starting work on sorting and cleaning my last remaining room to do, the 'Living Room/Lounge area'.

One of my earliest finds was a 'white-board' with some suitable marker-pens, this I quickly put up on the wall, and used it to keep track of what inventory I had, plus a Priority List, of things that needed to be done, such as 'Get more food and ammo'. I soon had the fallen shelving put back and all useful stuff packed in clearly marked crates, and all the lockers put back upright, and filled with the salvaged Vault suits and Raider armour.

With the room now restored to its gleaming pre-war state, which I had to admit was a minor miracle in itself, I decided to take a breather, and have a look at those books, that I had found on my first day, but I had not even had chance to open them. Looking at them closely, that both of them were apart on an ongoing series, which seemed to published semi-annual basis, which would of course why you would improve your skills, with every book found, as you learn something new every time.

Anyway the copy of the "Deans" that I had, contained a section on the "Vault-Tec's Revolutionary Ventilation system", giving a lot technical details about it, and how it could purify the air, of all dangerous/unwanted impurities, which should include the 'psycho-gas', but the detail that caused me leap out of my seat, was a series of photographs from the Vault-Tec's Demonstration Vault in Los Angeles; what was significant and made clear what had been bothering me about the vault since I had arrived, was the location of the air vents.

According to the photos and accompanying text, there should an incoming Fresh-air vent in the middle of the ceiling, and some extraction vents in the ceiling, in the corners of the room (for rising pollutants such as tobacco smoke), and around the room at near floor level to remove any dangerous gases such as Carbon Dioxide, or Methane that can accumulate in caves and underground spaces, as they are heavier than air. What was significant was that the floor level vents in Vault 106 were missing; instead these vents were mounted high up next to the ceiling.

A closer examination of the wall revealed that floor level, revealed that there was bulkhead panel, exact same size, as the extraction vent near the ceiling A quick use of a screwdriver, removed the panel exposing the missing air vent, and it only took about 10 minutes to quickly work around the room to swap the high wall vents with floor level panels, so that they were as they should be. Even within those few minutes, results were apparent, as the ever-present blue tint to the air began to clearly. Ironically, this did not make me feel calmer, but instead, I was filling up with rage, of righteous indignation. Those Vault swine, not only poisoned innocent residents with their psycho-gas, but were also cheap-skates, who had in their attempt economise, had deliberately made every room a deadly gas pocket, to avoid wasting any of gas. I gave vent to my rage with ranting rave at those who did this, but were beyond my reach to make them pay for their crimes against humanity.

To try regain some composure, I now turned my attention to my weapons, which since I was trapped in here would of vital importance, so using the various parts from what weapons, I had salvaged, I was able to equip myself with a fairly respectable initial armoury, which consisted of the following:

- a scoped .32 hunting rifle

- a .32 pistol

- a 10mm pistol (in poor condition, as I had no spares parts for it)

- a good Combat Knife.

I had about sixty rounds of .32, and about ten 10mm rounds, so I would have to conserve them until I had a lot more ammo; I also had about six Stimpacks.

I now turned to my priority list, which had food and ammo at the top, as I had at best only 3 days worth of food, "OK, now for a shopping trip." I declared, but then the lights dipped several times, and then went out for about a minute or so. "Or perhaps not" I concluded.

Clearly power had a much greater priority than food, after all you can live for 3 weeks, without food, but without power life in the Vault, would become a whole much worse hell, with no prospect at all of getting the door open to escape.

But to do that I need to know where to go, so I connected the working computer terminal, that I had found earlier, to the room's access port and logged in.

I was unable to get much data, because I didn't have a Pip-Boy, so the Vault Computer System refused to even allow me to attempt in as anything other than "Guest", but I was able to get a basic 'You are Here' indication, which told me that I was in the "Accommodation" Level, of the 'Maintenance' sector, and it provided directions the Primary Reactor room, which was directly accessible from my area, just 3 floors below me.

So after making some preparations, such as getting all my weapons, and my tool-box and a couple of bottles of water, I exited my quarters, and locked the door behind me, as I didn't want anyone else going in and messing up my nice clean floors.

I did pause briefly to put the vents right in the rooms opposite, granted those few vents would not have a huge impact on all the psycho-gas in the Vault, but I figured the removal of at least some gas would help.

I slowly crept down the first set of stairs to the floor below, the gas level down here was much higher, and I certainly started to feel very twitchy, jumping at every suspicious shadow or rattle. This level seemed to mainly comprised of store-rooms, but I was unable to confirm it as most of the doors were inaccessible, either due to the lack of available power, or damage or negligent over the past 200 years; but one significant discovery was a Medi-Centre, which had been intended to provide initial first-aid and medical care to injured personnel before they were transferred to the main Vault Medical Room.

As could be expected, the Medi-Centre was a mess, but I was able to find four Stim-packs in a battered first-aid kit, but of greater interest was working computer terminal next to a wall safe; a quick examination of the computer confirmed that it did control the safe locking mechanism, so I set about hacking it. It was surprisingly easy, as getting the password was identical to how it is done in the game.

Once logged in, I was able to unlock the safe, and access the last few diary entries belonging to a junior doctor, a Dr Paul Jones whose work-station this had been:

The majority of the initial entries were fairly routine, dating from prior to the initial gas release, and were usually complaints about how the majority of the scientists were 'out of touch with reality', and 'were stuck in their Ivory Towers', the last few entries reported the strange appearance of the air, and of increasing occurrences of unaccountable violence.

The final entry reported that he (Dr Jones) was trapped, having barricaded himself in this room, and was using the oxygen bottles as he had realised that the psycho-gas release had been deliberate. He reported that the Overseer was ranting at his staff demanding that food supplies be brought to his office immediately. Dr Jones last entry noted that "Only an ivory-tower idiot would be fool enough, to lock himself in an air-tight building, and then release toxic gas, resulting in hordes of lunatics, who had control over all the food, and weapons storage locations".

The safe did yield one treasure beyond price: A "Pip-Boy", it was completely unused, still in its original packing. It had note from Dr Jones, who sourly noted that it had been reserved by the Overseer, for the Overseer's kid, whenever he or she would be born. As it was very unlikely that its original intended recipient would need it now, I decided that I had a greater need for it.

It was a Pip-Boy 3000-B, so it looked a little different from Pip-Boy 3000-A, which was given to '101', whether he had got to now. It was a lot more stream-lined, and less clunky-looking, and had an additional gauge to the standard Radiation Geiger Counter, although I couldn't tell what, I decided to read the manual properly later, which was definitely a bad move.

I decided to strap it on, following the instructions in the manual; It closed with a faint hiss around my wrist, then the next thing I knew, my arm felt like it had been invaded by a swarm of writhing worms, as the various biometric probes deployed, and rove their way up my arm, and onwards to various parts of my body and brain.

If this was had been the 'Lone Wanderer's 10th birthday present, it must have been the 'Gift from Hell'; it took me at least a good hour before I could drag my pain-racked body up off the floor, and that only after I had managed to give myself a couple of shots of Med-X. For a 10-year old kid, this must have been a nightmare birthday party; the Overseer of 101 must have been a real sadist to do that to a kid.

I had a quick play with the controls, but the help menu informed me that most of the functions, such as the VATS, were off-line, until the Pip-Boy probes had time to establish themselves in their correct locations, and then for it to calibrate itself to my body. Its map only showed the immediate room that I was in, and no more. Clearly some data downloads are needed.

I now moved on towards the Main Reactor, descending the stairs to the next level down. Repeated checks of the Pip-Boy confirmed that its map was auto updating to include each new area/room, as I entered them; this level seemed to be primarily Maintenance workshops. The gas was even thicker down here, and I found it ever more difficult not to lash out at everything and anything that was in my way.

A sudden yellow blip appeared on my Pip-Boy, indicating that some-one or something was down here, a check of the manual showed that: Green blip = Friendly or Neutral, Red blip = Hostile and Yellow = Unknown. However this question quickly resolved itself, as Insane Resident charged out of one of the workshops, waving a large wrench over his head. A sensible response would have been for me to have simply dropped him with a quick bullet to head, but again due to high concentration of gas, the madness seized control, and I charge forward to meet him, waving my combat knife.

He must have been even more hyped up on the gas, than I was, as he kept doing extremely wild swings with wrench, so as long as I kept ducking, I was alright, of course if he did hit me, it would probably take my head right off. Fortunately, his wild swings meant that he started to tire fairly quickly, so when he did one swing too many; I was able to dart in with one quick stab through the heart, thus ending the fight.

I quick search of his body, didn't yield much, but I took his 106 Utility suit, which could come in useful, especially with its supposed repair skill boost, though in reality that is probably due to all the useful pockets and tool-loops, which make life easier for working in.

Again most of the doors on this level were jammed, and the one workshop that could be entered was so smashed up, that it could have been mistaken for a junkyard. So downwards to the final level, looking down the stairs, the gas was even thicker, so much so, that I could hardly see the foot of the stairs, and the effects of the gas meant that it was getting even harder to think straight; when I was about halfway down, there was an almighty screech of an alarm, that was such a shock that I literally jumped back up the stairs a few steps, the next surprise, was when I realised that the sound was inside my head, and that there was a light flashing light on my Pip-Boy, a closer look revealed it was coming from that second gauge, that was below the Geiger Counter, on the Pip-Boy, when I called up the manual on it, I discovered that it indicated oxygen (O2) level, and that the alarm was warning that I had been entering an atmospheric Death-Zone. And as I stared down, from my position on the stairs, I could now see the foot of the stairs, and the pile of bodies there: some had clearly been there many, many years, but others were clearly very recent. Just another step or two down, and I would have joined them, the concentration of the psycho-gas was so high that not only had it displaced all the available oxygen down there, but was now lethal levels.

I had had a lucky escape, but it also meant that I could not reach the Main Reactor room, without some kind of breathing apparatus, and Dr Jones had used up all the supplies in the only Medi-Centre I had found so far. Worryingly, from the way the lights kept dipping, I did not have a whole lot of time to go hunting for more supplies.

The option of fixing the ventilation on this level, with the hope that reduction in gas level here, would somehow reduce the gas in the lower level, was not really available, as (a) This was unlikely to work, (b) It would most likely increase the power demand from the air filtration system, thus making the whole power crisis worse, and finally (c) would take far too long.

All I could do was hurry back to my rooms, and see if I could get any more information from the computer. "It is only crisis after another", I fumed as I hurried back up the stairs.