Sorry about the wait. Never knew how much of a bitch writer's block was. If you think that Shift's new arament is somewhat excessive, (I thought it might have been reaching a bit, and no offense to those who do or don't) check out chapter...er...25 of As the World Turns, by Anthony S. (No offense to you, as how it's appropriate being the BOS)

Anyway. Chapter Five.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter Five

Phantoms?

"Wh- OH! No! No, that's not what I meant! We need to see Jayves, that's what I meant! God." I said, mortified. Fuck!

Fell blushed, and got up. "Sorry."

"Yeah. Well, c'mon. We need to go and talk to Jayves." I started up the stairs more hurriedly. I turned to the left, and almost ran into the room, spun, and logged onto the terminal.

Jayves, this is Shift.

It was a moment before Jayves responded.

Hello Shift. Is there something you require?

Yeah. Who was the previous owner, before Fell and myself?

This time there was more than a moment's pause. Actually, it took about a minute's worth of random letters and numbers going over the screen before Jayves responded.

Hmph. About damned time I got rid of Jayves.

Who is this? Where's Jayves?

I'm the god fucking damned REAL AI. Call me Sevyaj.

That's just Jayves backwards. What do you mean, REAL, AI?

Great. Another AI. More complications. Juust what I need. I was about to ask again, when two things happened. The terminal screen went blank, asides from these words.

Type Password....sorry Shift. No password, no info.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

As this happened, Fell tapped my shoulder. "What does it say?"

I stood up, and heaved a long sigh. "We need some kind of password. Another AI, Sevyaj, took over. Jayves is...well I don't really know. But like the terminal says, No password, no info." I said dejectedly.

Fell rolled her eyes. "Well that's gonna be easy."

I looked up into her eyes. "Oh? How?"

She grabbed my arm, and pulled me through the door, and towards the stairs. "There are still a ton of boxes left. There's probably a clue in one." She said, happily.

I allowed myself to be pulled into the storage area. "Right." I said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on Shift! We have a lead, and now you're just gonna let it slip away because you don't have a password. You're such a downer!"

"You're just too easygoing and optomistic." I countered.

Fell gave me a look of confusion. "Opti-what?"

"Never mind. Well, I guess we should get looking."

After about half an hour of going through the various boxes, Fell jumped up, spilling the contents of her box, which was partly stimpacks and med-x, all over my lap.

I started, and got two stimpacks and one med-x stuck in my leg. "Fell! Be more careful!" I shouted. "Fuck." I muttered under my breath. I pulled the needles out of my leg.

The plunger hadn't been pushed, so they were still usable. Thanks for that.

"Sorry." Fell said sheepishly. "But I think I found the password."

My eyes lit up. "About time! What is it?"

"Well, I don't really know. It also talks about somebody named Jabsco. You know him?" She said, even more sheepishly.

I thought about it for a minute. "I think so. The name's familiar. Now, give me the note." I sighed.

Fell handed me the note, and it read the following.

Jabsco--

Jayves' and Sevyaj's password is, "Phantom Company". This house

should be your property now, considering that I asked Simms to

give it to a messanger upon my departure. If not, then I'm not

suprised. Rumors have been going around that he's a regulator.

Keep our division a secret Jabsco.

----

Occam

"Hmm. Odd. Oh well, we have the password. Come on Fell. Let's go and figure out who this, "Occam", is." I wondered.

"Right." Fell said.

As we headed up the stairs, I pointed out to Fell that she's not a very curious person. "You haven't asked about Javes, Occam, or anyone else. The only thing that interests you is, well, the incident."

At this, Fell stood up straight, and a thunderous look came over her. "Look Shift. You may want to forget the whole thing, but you know what? I don't. I have priorities, and this one is the most important."

"Alright, alright! I understand." I said, raising my hands in a sign of surrender.

I sat down, and logged on once again, to see the same words as not long before.

Type Password....Shift? Heh, I thought you gave up. Well, good to see that you're still curious. Still need the password though.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Yeah, yeah. I have the password. "Phantom Company".

Processing....Processing.....Accepted. Well, good for you Shift. You've just found yourself in complete access of my files. Ask away.

Who was your previous owner?

Occam. Jesus, I thought you'd figure that out.

I'd started repeating the words aloud to Fell, considering she can't read.

Details, Sevyaj. Details.

There ya go. Occam is the commander of Phantom Company. More detail? I'm going with yes. Occam has direct command over Talon Company. They're like two sides of the same coin. Talon Company is bold, more open. They take contracts, as you know. Big ones. Phantom Company, well, for the public, it's a rumor among rumors.

What was Phantom Company's purpose?

Talon was open jobs. Phantom was assassinations. Hits. If you wanted somebody dead without anybody else knowing, and I mean anybody, you go and look for Phantom Company. Good old Occam. Nice guy.

"Ask it about Ridgefield." Interjected Fell. She was drumming her fingers over the pin of one of her grenades.

What do you know about any contracts to do with a settlement called, "Ridgefield"?

Tsk. I was Occam's personal computer. I have all, of the hits. Let me check. Processing...Processing...Yes. There are two. One hit was on a certain sniper, Arkansas, an ex-slaver. This guy'd pissed off a bunch of Talon Co. guys, so they hired somebody from the Main Branch to make it so that he couldn't do any more damage.

Somebody was about to, when some schmuck came along, and slapped a collar onto his throat, and pointed him towards Paradise Falls. Technically, the Phantom's work, that's what they're called, because of their stealth, was done. The second hit was more serious. It called for the total extermination of every resident in Ridgefield. This hit went without a hitch, and was to be a, shall we say, public, mission.

Public?

A public mission was to be done without the element of stealth involved. So, the mission was to be done like they were Talon Mercs. A public mission is much more expensive than a covert mission, thus, they were much more rare.

I have news for you Sevyaj. Fell and I? We're survivors.

The screen went dark once again, and I waited patiently. It was commonly known that a terminal with an AI was capable of greatly increased computing speeds when powered down, even more so than when on.

After a moment, the screen glowed a familiar green.

Really? Well, that's a shock. I was told that all of the residents were killed. Look, here's the de-breifing.

Mission --- Eliminate the residents of Ridgefield.

Status --- Public.

Price --- 40,000 caps.

Contact Fee --- 3,000 caps.

Price per target --- 3,000 caps.

Number of Residents --- Seven.

Number of Phantoms --- Two.

Fee per Phantom --- 2,500 caps.

Bonus --- 5,000 caps each.

End of De-Breifing.

You see? There's no way you could've escaped. Not with two phantoms after you.

Do you want to know how?

How you did it? Yes.

Simple. I had a..a bad feeling. The night that it happened, I was on guard duty. It was two in the morning. I saw a wanderers, and decided that they would be needed. I jumped down from my post to the second floor, then to the first. I called out to him, inviting him to Ridgefield for the night.

Fell had frozen up at this point. I was finally telling her what happened.

He were more than happy to accept. He had to sleep a few yards away from me, but I was fine with that. I thought that I could wake him if anything happened. It was around four in the morning now. My shift was over in an hour. Cora was going to come around and take my place.

I saw some movement in the distance. It was only through the thermal scope I'd scavenged from a dead Brotherhood member that I could see them. They had some kind of cloaking on, not a stealth boy, more advanced. They moved quietly and swiftly, making no noise. I was going to shoot at them, when I saw an odd symbol on their armour, being close enough that I could make them out vaguely.

I know now that it was a miracle that they didn't see me. They had a symbol of a skull on their armour, over their heart. Behind the skull, there was a bullet. And then I froze. I'd heard the rumors. The rumors behind the rumors of the myth. These were supposed assassins, capable of wiping out a town the size of Megaton in a single hour.

I panicked. I didn't know what to do, and my instinct kicked in. I shrugged off my clothes, as quickly as I could, and placed them on the ground by the wanderer. I pulled on his discarded clothes, and put my sniper on the ground next to him. I kept my silenced pistol. I needed it. It would be my only weapon.

As quickly as I could, I descended the stairs, activated my only stealth boy, and crawled towards the hills to the North. There were six other residents. They'd have to escape on their own. I felt horrible as I crawled away. Abandoning life-long friends. But I had to.

After a minute of crawling I heard the first explosion. I kept going. I had to. There wasn't a thing I could do. Once I reached the Power Station to the North, I stopped. I didn't know what to do after that. Turns out, I headed back South a couple days later, living off what I could from the Station. Everybody was gone. There was just rubble.

I wandered after that, mad with guilt. I tried to kill myself, you know. I stumbled across an armory, filled to the brim with raiders. I hid amongst the cliffs. I would've jumped, breaking my legs, then to be shot to death by raiders. I would have. But back then I thought that They were still looking for me. At that time, I realized that They thought me dead.

I was reborn. No longer my past name, I was Shift. I wandered South-West, running into Megaton. I stayed there, and roamed around doing odd jobs before running into Fell near the G.N.R building.

Fell stood there, taking it all in, when a message popped up on the screen.

I'm impressed. Few could have made that journey and live. You have my congratulations.

Thanks. I wrote, with a dry tone in mind.That still leaves a question unanswered though. How does one contact Phantom Company?

I would not reccomend it. To do so, you would have to join Talon Company, and not only pay the dues for joining, but pay the dues for the hit. Then you have to accomplish at least three contracts. After that, you can leave. If you think that somebody is going to rat out the Phantom Company, you're wrong. Once you join Talon Company, any vital information pertaining to important locations, people, or secrets, is locked in your mind with a strict mental regimen.

Hmm. Thank you for this Sevyaj. You may continue your security programming.

Right. See you later kid.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well, that's Chapter Five. I hope that you guys are happy with it, questions and reviews are welcome, and I'd answer your questions here.

--