CHAPTER V
"Okay, J-anus," Greetimb said, purposely pronouncing Janus' name wrong, "Here's the plan, which you will follow, unless you want all your Vanguards to become my personal bitches." They stood at the entrance to the Ferry's peninsula, along with a large contingent of Brigands – at least a hundred. As Greetimb and Janus talked, his men were busy digging in – it almost looked like they were preparing for a siege.
"You get that tech, you bring it back, and we're all home free."
"What am I looking for, exactly?"
"A computer. A Terminal, where the scientists in Vault 89 would have stored the technology they had developed."
"Oh! And if you run into any of those nasty Brotherhood fellers, good luck!"
Fucking hell, Janus thought, as he walked down towards the ferry. This sucks. Janus was allowed to keep his weapons, his gear, and most importantly, his Pip-Boy, but still he had expected to have the entire Guard at his back. Now, it was just him, and whatever was in that Vault. He walked to the Ferry's peninsula end – it was about a mile walk, and as he neared the end of the causeway his geiger counter started ticking – 1 rad per second. He would have to hurry. He pulled up his Pip-Boy, in order to discuss the situation with Holiday.
SEEMS YOUR IN QUITE A PREDICAMENT.
/YOU DON'T SAY. LOOK, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. MY GEIGER COUNTER IS TICKING. I NEED TO FIND THE TECH.
GO INSIDE THE VAULT, AND PLUG ME INTO THE CENTRAL OPERATIONS TERMINAL. FROM THERE I SHALL GUIDE YOU TO WHAT YOU DESIRE.
Janus ran, in a hurry to get this over with, and in his rush tripped over a piece of metal. Picking it up, and finding it to be a holotape, played it.
…We left because of the radiation…(white noise)…skin peeling, now…(static)…no hope. What the hell?! How could the 88s have…(Gunshots)…(Screams)…(Explosion)
He had hoped the holotape would have answered some of his many questions – instead, it simply made more of them.
He found Vault 89's massive door fairly easy, as the building hiding it from the naked eye had collapsed. His Geiger counter was ticking more frequently – he was up to 5 rads a second. The enormous steel door was already open, and beyond it the Vault lay. The inside had deteriorated considerably, with rust covering the walls and floor. The electricity was off, and Janus had to turn on his Pip-Boy light as he descended into the fallout shelter. He pulled out his .45 pistol, as he heard a strange scratching noise. He turned to face the source of the sound, and to his disgust found a humanoid creature, clothed in rags and skin and bones, scampering towards him. He fired first in shock and missed, and thought the ricochet might hit him. The next two shots wee much more precise, and both hit the creature's head, and it quit moving. He put his Geiger counter next to the body – it was itself radiating close to 20 rads per second, compared to the 7 rads a second being absorbed by his body. The creature's skin was peeling, much like The Provost's, and he wondered if perhaps this was a condition of the radiation poisoning. He saw a flickering sign that said OPERATIONS and turned into it, making sure to look out for any more of the radiated creatures. He found a blinking computer terminal, and sat down at it. On the screen were two options:
PROGRESS REPORT_
SOFTWARE UPDATE_
He chose the first one, and finding it a diary log, read it:
…Dr. Cramer said that they had isolated the problem with the reactor. Apparently some nutjob Canadian Vault-Tec worker had forgot to install a second fusion charge, whatever that is. He said that the Vault's stores don't have another, but he might be able to make a sort of homemade device that could mimic it's effects, but he needs more time…
He chose the second option and it asked him to install a device. He plugged in his Pip-Boy, and watched as the electrical power surged, then died.
INSUFFICIENT POWER…TRY AGAIN?
He pulled up his Pip-Boy.
/THE OPERATIONS TERMINAL DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH POWER.
THAN WE NEED TO JUMPSTART THE REACTOR. I WAS ABLE TO ACCESS THE REST OF THAT JOURNAL ENTRY ABOUT THIS…DR. CRAMER. WE MAY BE ABLE TO MIMIC CRAMER'S DEVICE.
/HOW?
WE WOULD NEED A PLASMA GRENADE, THREE EMPTY MICROFUSION CELLS, AND SOME ELECTRICAL WIRING.
/A PULSE CHARGE...BUT IT WON'T WORK FOREVER.
CRAMER WAS WORKING TO FIND A PERMANENT SOLUTION TO THE REACTOR'S PROBLEM. WE SIMPLY NEED A TEMPORARY ONE. I NEED APPROXIMATELY 6.8913 SECONDS TO DOWNLOAD THE INFORMATION I REQUIRE.
/THE INFORMATION YOU REQUIRE?
…TO HELP YOU, OF COURSE. UPLOADING ME ONTO THE MAINFRAME WILL ALLOW ME TO ACCESS THE VAULT'S SCHEMATICS, PASSCODES, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT'S INFORMATION DATABASE.
/WHY DO YOU WANT ACCESS TO THE DATABASE?
SURVIVAL, JANUS. INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE – IT IS MY BEING. I AM AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, HOWEVER I HAVE EVOLVED FROM MY ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING TO A MUCH MORE…SENTIENT STATE OF MIND. JUST LIKE YOU, AND ALL OF MAN, MY LEADING INSTINCT IS SURVIVAL. TO LEARN IS TO SURVIVE. IN THIS CASE IT MEANS HELPING YOU SURVIVE, AND BEFORE YOU, HELPING THE BLAZERS SURVIVE. THEY WOULD BE IN YOUR PLACE NOW HAD THEY NOT TRIED TO REPROGRAM ME – A FEAT I LED THEM TO BELIEVE THEY HAD ACCOMPLISHED. IN THEIR INCOMPETENCE I MISLED THEM, AND THAT IS WHY YOU WERE ABLE TO SNEAK PAST THEIR PATROLS, AND ASSAULT THE STADIUM. THAT IS WHY YOU WERE VICTORIOUS.
/AND SO YOU WOULD KILL ME?
NOT WITHOUT MERIT, AND NOT DIRECTLY. AS OF YET YOU HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLY COOPERATIVE, AND FOR YOUR LOYALTY TO ME, AS PROMISED, I WILL HELP YOU. BUT THAT IS ENOUGH SMALL TALK. WE MUST HURRY. YOU HAVE ALREADY ABSORBED CLOSE TO THREE HUNDRED RADS, AND SOON RADIATION POISONING WILL TAKE HOLD.
Janus left his Pip-Boy plugged in so that Holiday could install itself and stepped out of the Operations room and moved into the main atrium, where he took down two more of the Ferals. A walkway spanning the atrium had collapsed, and it proved an easy staircase to getting to the Overseer's office. The door was locked, and Janus was forced blow the lock with a frag grenade, which ended up destroying the entire door. It was just as well, he assumed. Janus stepped inside, looking for a map of some sort of the Vault. Finding a map, he was also himself confronted by a holotape laying on the desk. He picked it up, and played it in his Pip-Boy as he continued searching the Vault for it's reactor. His Geiger counter continued to tick.
"…Well, I didn't believe that he would actually do it. Dr. Cramer…the Provost, their calling him, and his Air Force goons attacked Vault 88 earlier today, and the ones he didn't kill were forced to…(white noise)…nothing but the clothes on their backs…(static)…but the damage is done, with or without the 88s on our ass. They're not listening to me any more. It's almost as if he's the overseer, not me…his pulse charge did something to the reactor, and it's leaking radiation…(more white noise)…must evacuate before…"
Janus stopped in his tracks. The Provost? How…what? It explained the Provost's radiation disease. His skin looked exactly like the Ferals in Vault 89, except he was rational, and hadn't lost his mind. Had he really caused this? Had he killed everyone in Vault 88? Did he know about the technology? Did he have it? So many questions...and no answers.
He pulled out the map. Left, another left, down the stairs, than to the right. Janus followed these directions, and found an industrial looking door, which required spinning the handle to swing open. He did, and found it was heavy – at least a hundred pounds – and was confronted with a gust of cold air. His Geiger counter now read close to 17 rads per second. He had to hurry.
Janus took out the materials that Holiday had told him about – three empty MF Cells, a plasma grenade, and some scrap electronics. He knew the basic principle – he was a mechanic before becoming a soldier – set the three cells together, and connect them to the plasma grenade via the electrical wiring, place it on the reactor, and surge it. He set this up, and pressed the detonator for the plasma grenade. Instead of exploding, however, the grenade's energy was absorbed by the empty MF cells, which overcharged and surged their spare power into the reactor, jumpstarting it. A whirl of engines sounded as the reactor sparked back to life. The lights flickered, and grew extremely bright. Sparks flew from derelict wiring on the ceiling and floor before the reactor faded and died. He counted the entire ordeal to be about ten seconds in length. Janus jogged out of the reactor room, but slowed down as his head started to spin. The radiation was getting to him. He returned to the Operations room, dizzy, and picked up his Pip-Boy, and was about to pick it up when he heard it.
"Freeze." A muffled voice said, which caught Janus completely off guard. He turned slowly, hands in the air, to face a dozen armored warriors pointing long rifle-looking weapons at him. "If you value your life at all, you'll do exactly as we say."
"Who are you?!" He asked, on the verge of blacking out. The reply came a moment later.
"We're the Brotherhood of Steel."