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I woke up to Cpt. James Eden, our party leader in the expedition. "Get dressed, Mechanic. We are going in 2 hours and I want everyone to listen to the briefing I will give in 20 minutes, get a good breakfast and take these." James said giving me a combat knife with Mechanic engraved on it, along with a 9mm pistol with the same engraving on it. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and sat up taking the two gifts, I had saved James' daughter from a group of rad roaches awhile back, he must have been repaying me for that.

"Hey thanks man, I was kind of worried about going out there without a real weapon." I said.

"Don't worry about it, I don't want a man on my team without a gun, makes the whole unit weaker. I'm gonna head to the cafeteria and I expect you to do the same, meet you there." He said.

"Aye, sir." I replied.

After dressing and picking up my duffel bag's straps around my right shoulder so it held to the left and holstering my new gun and putting the combat knife in a sheath hidden under my Vault jacket. I walked out of my room heading for the cafeteria I couldn't help but to think that in just a few hours I would leave the safety of the vault… I was frightened but strangely…. Excited? 'I must be crazy, this is probably a suicide mission! I mean what if we die? No one wou-' my thought process was interrupted by a beep on his Pip-Boy, he had received a message stating 'Martin, head to the armory first and stock up on ammunition and grab a flak jacket with elbow and knee pads, never know what's gonna happen out there so I don't need to drag your half dead body back to the vault! – Cpl. Jones' I sighed and headed to the armory, it was just the opposite turn from the Cafeteria so it would be a short detour. I arrived and did as I was told, I grabbed a box of 9mm rounds and two spare clips which I stuffed in my jacket pocket, I took off my jacket and put on the flak jacket, it was the lighter version and offered less protection but was more flexible and had a few extra pockets. I strapped on Vault Security knee pads and elbow pads, I slipped on my jacket back on over my flak jacket and headed to the cafeteria feeling a hell of a lot safer.

I got a nice inch thick steak with an ice cold Nuka Cola, my favorite drink and meal filled my belly well, I spotted James after eating and sat next to him, he was talking with Jack.

"What do you mean we can't take more then 5 people!?" Jack yelled at the Captain

"I mean that the vault needs as much security as it can get right now, we can't close the door so we need more posted guards. We won't need more then a small squad anyway. This is a scouting mission not a invasion." James replied in a cool voice.

"What if we run into those fucking zombie-lookin' freak cannibals again!? We barely handled them with 15 of of us blasting at them. It was a miracle none of us were seriously injured!" Jack shouted again being hot-headed as ever.

"Enough Corporal The decision is final, it will be You, Bishop, Jose, Jones, and myself. That is the squad I have chosen, if you have a problem with it then I'll find someone else." James said getting strict.

"Yeah whatever 'Captain' but I'm gonna haunt you if I die." Jake replied cooling off knowing that he had to calm down.

"Well wasn't that friendly?" I said, jokingly.

"Ah, hey Martin I didn't notice you sitting down, the Overseer has enlisted you as a temporary security force member, and in light of your history as a mechanic and run ins with the little buggers I have promoted you to Specialist. Sound good?" James said in a happy tone.

"Are you serious? That's crazy… I'm astounded I'm even a Temporary member but the rank of Specialist? Where does that put me in the chain of command?" I said astonished.

"Your rank puts you technically higher then corporal, but lower than sergeant, Specialist-Corporal means that you are specifically used for tasks that normal security forces can't handle such as lock picking, terminal hacking, that sort of stuff. Though depending on your usefulness on this mission you will become a full-fledged security member… Meaning that your rank will put you at Specialist-Private, then Specialist-Private First Class, then Specialist-Corporal, then Specialist-Sergeant, then Specialist-Captain. The specialist classification puts you Technically above each sub rank you are put in but lower then that sub rank's superior, so you when you become a full member you will be below Jack again. but higher then any other Private. Though that doesn't stop me from promoting you again based on your combatic skills and your nerve during, before, and after any skirmish we encounter. Understand?" James explained.

"Yeah I think so, but I still don't understand all the special treatment… I don't really deserve it, do I?" I responded still in disbelief.

"Haha call it me returning my debt to you, you saved my daughter's life and I owe mine, The least I can do is do this for you." James said with a big grin, James was always a very good friend to me but after I saved his daughter, he always was seemingly devoted to me, it was strange but welcome. After that we all gathered to the entrance, Jose was last to arrive and James gave the briefing.

"Alright boys n' girl. Now that we're all suited up this is the plan, we will head to the closest ruins we can find, scout out the area and collect any usable salvage. After that we'll keep exploring and find shelter and camp there for the night. Any area or building we find suitable to set up a forward base for the Vault we will mark it, map out an area of where that area or building is and then get back to the vault and explain our findings, Sound good?" James explained in a superior tone, I always thought that he was a good captain, If he ran for Overseer then I would definitely vote for him. I shouldered my half empty duffel bag, everyone else had one discluding Jones who carried an ammunition case, she had a Sniper Rifle and would keep at a distance in any combat, she carried ammunition for the whole squad but it was mostly filled with .108 rounds. "Understood, Sir." we all chimed together, we headed off into the unknown…. The Wasteland.