Chapter 6: Another Days Pay
Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your support and feedback. I am glad you enjoyed my last chapter, and I hope you enjoy this next one. And apologies to Assozat for pronouncing Zachary as Zack not Zach, my bad.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout New Vegas.
In the Overseers office, Drake and Mike were reloading the empty clips with bullets while Skye hacked into the computer of the vaults mainframe. Zachary kept guard outside in case more of those things showed up, but was kept within earshot of Noah.
"The other day when I went back to Camp McCarran," He started. "I had myself a conversation with a doctor by the name of Thomas Hildern who believed he could turn the whole Mojave into vast valley of green plants."
Everyone looked at him in disbelief. They could never believe that the whole Mojave Desert could be a replaced a green plain of land or a forest or even a jungle. It was all a pipe dream.
"He told me about the data that should be kept in a server room down below."
"Found it." Skye announced. "It a few floors below us, maybe we can find Keely down there too, hopefully." Drake looked over at Noah, Noah could see the anger and mistrust in his eyes.
"I assume she is the main purpose why we're here?" Drake snapped.
"Hey, his assistant told me about the ghoul, I did plan on rescuing her." Noah said defensively. "The data was second on my mind so don't you think for a second I chose data over life."
"Then why didn't you tell us about that data?" Mike asked, pushing another 5.56 round into his clip.
"Because, I just didn't want to hear about how vault technology won't do us any good in the Mojave." Noah groaned. "The caps were good and the doc had a good point. This vault is evidence that life can grow and if we can somehow get this out there the Mojave could help a lot of people. The lands will be fertile for growing and our chances of survival will increase immensely."
"Yeah, except that those things out there, they were citizens of the Vault." Skye stated. Everyone including Zachary stepped in and waited for an explanation. "There are notes on the computer, they are scrambled, but I can make out most of it. It says here that a fungus that was meant to colonize the pest, but it only ended up spreading. These things were once Vault Citizens who got infected. They are now known as Spore Carriers."
"Are we infected?" Zachary asked.
"No, but these things do tend to spread like wild fire. Just shoot them before they can get you and we'll be fine." She explained. Drake looked back at Noah, who looked stunned.
"This is why the Vaults failed back then." Drake said. "They didn't care about the people enough to save them, they just locked them down here so they could run more test on them."
"Drake…"
"Stop, we have a job to do." He said. "You want the data you go and get it, but we are going after the girl and getting the hell out of here. You can have the reward for the data and split it with anyone else, but I don't want any part of it."
"Drake, I found her, she is hold up in some place called pest control." Skye exclaimed. "It's a few floors down. We can make it."
"Alright people, breaks over." Drake said as he loaded a clip into his .45 and grabbed his shotgun. "Let's go get the girl, Noah and Mike front, Skye switch to your side arms your rifle isn't going to do us any good close range. Let's get in and get out."
Everyone quickly made their way through the halls of Vault 22. Noah and Mike kept up the pressure by shooting at all the bundles of plants and the carriers as well. Drake had swapped his buck shots for dragon breath rounds. He lit up any plants that looked funny to him.
Zachary used his Multiplas rifle and turned them into goop and Skye picked them off with her dual 10mm handguns. They had finally made it into pest control where they found the door to the underground caverns. They tried to open it, but it was locked. Drake saw that the lock was computer operated.
"Shit." Zachary grunted. Skye whipped past him and swiped a key card in the slot and the red light above the door turned green.
"Key card, found it in the desk in the Overseers office." She said. She opened the door and gasped when she had encountered a few Mantises.
Noah sprayed the small cave with lead and watched as the little insects turned into green chunks. He waved his arm into the hall.
"The way is clear," He chuckled.
The team made it down the cave and Drake took the lead. He set fire to all the bundles of plants and listened to the dying cries of the carriers. He should feel bad for killing them seeing as they were once people, but at the same time he thought he was doing them a favor by putting them out of their misery.
Zachary threw an incendiary grenade at the corner of the hall and when it went off it killed two of the carriers. Once they got an understanding of how these creatures hunt, killing them has been a lot easier since that encounter in the common area.
They searched the whole damn floor for Keely, but to no avail she was nowhere to be found. Zachary walked down another hall and had found a busted down door. He cautiously stepped inside and saw a large dash board ripped from the wall.
"Hey guys, in here." He shouted.
The group quickly followed him inside and observed the dash board.
"You think she's down there, she could be one of those fucking freaks or in their stomachs for all we know." Mike snapped, aiming his carbine down the tunnel. Drake set his hand on his shoulder.
"Settle down, we just need to be calm and collected." He said soothingly. "We will go in and check the cave. If we don't find her then we get the hell out of here. Okay?"
"Okay." Mike nodded. "Let's get this shit over with."
Drake readied his shotgun and nodded in approval. The rest of the team made their way down the tunnel and after a minute of walking they made their way to the edge of a cavern. Drake looked down and saw that the cave was crawling with Giant Mantises and Spore Plants.
Drake looked around and saw that they were a few feet above ground.
"Okay, Skye time for you to take point up here and keep us covered." She nodded and readied her rifle as Mike and Noah both readied their carbines and Zachary stepped next to Drake. "Alright, let's finish this."
Drake and Zach jumped down first and take out all of the close ranged Mantises. Skye picks off any Mantis and Spore Plants she can find. Mike and Noah jumped down as well and scatter fire at anything that isn't human.
Skye picked off a Mantis that was creeping up behind Mike while Zachary blasted a Sport Plant that popped up in front of him. Bullets and fire spread across they cavern taking out anything that moved.
Drake was now out of Dragon Breath rounds and was using his .45. Mike checked the clip of his carbine and was upset to see it empty.
"Noah, you got anymore bullets or clips?" He asked. Noah shook his head.
"The only heavy ammo I have left is the shotgun shells, MF cells and Skye's rifle rounds, and those are almost gone too."
"You want my shotgun?" Drake asked, handing his weapon to Mike. He passed it off and pulled out his .44.
"Nah, I'm good." He said spinning the cylinder.
They all jumped when they heard a raspy voice from the darkest corner of the cavern. Everyone raised their gun, but kept their trigger fingers at ease as a slender ghoul stepped out from the darkness.
"Took your sweet time." She said. "I suppose the NCR sent you?"
"Yes, a girl named Angela Williams asked us to come find you." Noah said. Keely smiled.
"Ah, she's such a dear." She smiled with her crusty lips before frowning. "Not like that pompous little pedant she works for." She stood up and tossed a frag grenade up and down in her hand. "But that's neither here nor there. These plants have gotten completely out of control. I've got a way to deal with them, but I'll need your help."
"We'll do whatever we can to end this shit." Skye said. Drake gave Keely a 9mm handgun and a few clips as well and they made their way to a lab on the second floor, oxygen and recycling. They took out a few carriers along the way and made their way into a lab. Keely clapped her hands together.
"Good we're here, you guys ready to begin?" They all nodded.
"What do we need to do?" Drake asked.
"Time is of the essence so I'll make it quick." She said. "This place is filled with spores that are toxic to humans, and we need to get rid of them." She walked over to a console and pressed a few buttons.
"So we pump the place full of gas, ignite it and kill all of the spores." Mike stated. "Can we really do it?"
"Yes, but there is a problem." Keely admitted. "The gas becomes semi-insert on exposure to oxygen, meaning the gas will have to be ignited close to where it's being introduced."
"Leave it to me." Zachary said. "I can rig up a grenade and get the hell out of there before anything can happen."
"Alright, but be careful." Drake said.
"I'll go with him." Noah said. "There is a server room next to that busted down door we can barricade ourselves there."
Zachary nodded and made his way out. Noah used his 10mm's and kept the carriers at bay. Zachary used his Multiplas rifle to take out the ones he missed. Noah led Zach to the server room after finding the vents just around the corner from it. Noah stood by the controls of the door and Zach readied a grenade.
On sync, Zach threw the grenade and Noah closed the door. The grenade landed next to the vents and went off. Flames engulfed the halls and shook the whole damn halls. When the flames finally died down, the two stepped out and quickly made their way back to their group.
Once they had made it back Drake had ran up to them with a worried expression.
"Shit are you guys okay?" He asked. "We felt the whole damn tunnel shake."
"We're fine." Zach said. "Now if we're all set I'm gonna rig up some C-4 to the entrance and wipe this place off the map."
"Great and I'll have you know that Keely and I have created an access to the vaults backup system." Skye announced. "She can erase all the data and stop this madness from ever happening again."
"Actually I can't." Keely said. Everyone crowed over her so they could see the computer. "It says here that the files have been accessed recently and copied onto and external source."
Everyone looked at Noah, who had a stern face, but Mike could see it in his eyes. He went behind their backs.
"Noah, hand it over." Mike said, extending his hand.
"Guys, let's just…" He let out a sigh and reached into his pocket and pulled out a drive. "Here, this data isn't worth it. I'm sorry."
Mike nodded and took that data and set it on the table. He pulled out his .44 and smashed the drive into pieces with the butt of his gun. Drake stepped up to Noah.
"Noah, no more secrets." He warned. "We're a team and we can't have anyone lying to each other, otherwise we're not a real team."
"Right…" Noah muttered.
After Keely erased anything else that could be harmful they made their way outside. Zach had just finished setting up the rest of the explosives and had the detonator ready. The group stood at the far end of the canyon and watched as Zach pressed the button.
The rocky wall collapsed on top of the vault door and buried all the evil inside. Mike let out a heavy sigh and Drake laid his hand on his shoulder.
"You know after all of this it's no wonder why nukes went off all those years ago." Mike said.
"Yeah, its stuff like this is the reason the government seems like a bad idea today." Zach commented.
"You guys go ahead," Keely said. "And thank you for your help. I couldn't have gotten out without you."
The team said their farewells and made their way back to Camp McCarran. Drake walked inside and gave her the news.
"Keely just called," She giggled. "She cursed Hildren out for sending all of those people. I have never seen him so mad."
"Well he didn't exactly tell us about the dangers as well." Drake snarled. He watched Noah step into his lab.
"Thank you for your help, I owe you guys." She said as she handed them a bag of caps.
Before he could say thank you, he jumped when he heard a loud crash in his office. Noah walked out and was rubbing his fist.
"Come on guys, drinks are on me." He smiled.
"What about the doctor?" Skye asked.
"Well he was a bit angry that I destroyed the data and insulted how naïve I was." He said. "Then I brought up how many lives he wasted by sending people there and when he called me a coward my fist just shot out and struck his face."
"Huh, well that's unfortunate for him." Drake chuckled.
"I hope you brought your wallet because we are gonna get shit faced." Zach grinned.
"And how is that any different from any other night?" Noah laughed.
"Nothing like buying booze with an honest day's pay." Mike said.
The team left the camp and made their way back to their home back in New Vegas.