THE CHORNICLES OF MAVERICK: CHANGED LIVES

by hypn0s

War, war never changes, is a fact everyone has accepted, what can change however, is the life of a man, and the path he walks in life, he who was meant to reach a town never made it, but this deviation was just the beginning.

12. 11: Virtual rage, real pain

hello my faithful readers, it is I, Hypn0s, returning with another chapter of the chornicles of Maverick, and mind numbing pain.

I apologize for the delay for this chapter, but I have been very busy working and studying, but i have been taking small breaks to end this chapter, and so far I have been very satisfied with the result, and i have also been playing mass effect 3 like crazy, so you can imagine how much time that ate up.

regardless of all that delay, I was able to give you all another chapter, since people were already wanting more, so i cna't deny them that, it would be mean, so without further delay, i give you chapter 11, enjoy my friends.

---

CHAPTER 11: VIRTUAL RAGE, REAL PAIN

'Back in the day, justice was handing a bad guy to the cops so they could beat the shit out of him on jail, then toss him to a judge so he could be send to jail, where the prisoners would either beat the crap out of him or leave him be, depending of what he had done, usually rapists and child murderers got that treatment, they never got out of jail alive, these times are different however, old wild west justice, you and your gun are judge, jury and executioner, all rolled into one neat package, it might sound barbaric, and it is if you turn your gun and shoot randomly, but when done righteously, it's just another chore' Sally House.

Morning…

Elder Lyons surveyed the damage done to the Citadel, at least on the courtyard and the hole done by Prime on his way out; suffice to say that he was now both thrilled and wary of Liberty Prime.

Thrilled because now they had an edge, THE edge, the Enclave might have numerical advantage, but Prime's heavy ordinance left that a mute point, not to mention that not many things in the Wasteland can hope to match the raw strength of a 50 foot tall machine, that packs nuclear bombs and God knows what else.

Yet he was also wary, he knew that the outcasts had actually made contact with the brotherhood back at Lost Hills, and surely were observing the battle, or better said massacre, this robot could easily make any faction in the American Wasteland all powerful, and he knew the elders would want…no, demand Liberty Prime to wage war against the New California Republic, and eventually with the Legion, the less people contenting for technology the better for them.

He was wary of course, he knew them, he also knew that some people who were there would not abuse Prime, they would outright flaunt its power, others…others like Elijah…

He was clearly surprised when he learned of Veronica that she was Elijah's protégée, it might explain why she was so good, Elijah was an old world tech hound, but a little unbalanced, even before Lost Hills cut them out of support, he had heard stories about Elijah, some good, most of them bad, he didn't buy the story that he had fell during an attack of the NCR to a solar power plant called Helios One, Elijah was that stubborn to die like that.

"You are thinking too much" Owyn slightly smiled as he looked at the small girl Maverick had brought, at first he had his reservations for Maverick and his methods, they weren't refined, nor subtle, but when you have the strength to rip an Overlord in two and crush a Deathclaw's head with his bare hands, being subtle is a mute point.

"Am I?" he asked, rather amused, "Duh, can read it on your face, you're worried" Sally stated.

"I am" Owyn confessed, "While we scored a victory here, and surely we will gain even more in the following days, I am worried for the future" ha admitted.

"Lost Hills" Sally stated, catching his attention, "Veronica told me, Sarah confirmed it, you're worried those jerks back there will want Prime as their own, after all this is a branch of their power" sally summarized, "Regardless of being cut off, this is still part of the brotherhood, you're still an elder of the brotherhood, the soldiers here are knights of the brotherhood" Sally added.

"You're correct, and it worries me, we already lost many to the outcasts, they left, I let them because is not my place to force them, but I fear that Liberty Prime might trigger a Civil War among the brotherhood" Owyn admitted.

"One you would win, Liberty Prime has no equal in firepower, I admit it, Maverick would get killed by that robot even" Sally admitted, "The point is of course you don't want that"

"Of course, but what one, tired old man can do against such odds" Owyn stated, "Simple, you change them" Sally said, turning around, "The Brotherhood Of Steel is old world, this is a different world, either they change or die, Veronica told you, they might hold the numbers, but you hold the heir, and Excalibur" she finalized as she walked away, her words and meaning not lost to Owyn.

"…What a scary child"

---

"So…this is why you left me eh?" Maverick mussed, running his hands on the glass that separated him of a muck of dirty water, if he squinted his eyes hard enough he could see the statue of Jefferson right in the middle of it.

After the battle, which had lasted less than he had expected, and surely the Enclave expected, he had went straight to Project Purity, exploring the place, oddly he felt he should go first underground, this place had to had a basement, it had one, and he could see firsthand how his mom and dad had started, literally, out of scratch.

Of course he had seen telltales of the Enclave hand on some part, the infirmary was brand new of course, cleaned, stocked with medicine and blood packs on small freezers to preserve them, he found an odd sensation, like if the room was familiar to him.

As he had advanced, he saw that the place had been used before, as the bunk beds could attest to, they were clean, well, clean enough to sleep on, with several magazines and some grey jackets and hats laying around, mostly tossed around in panic it seemed, it looked like the evacuation had been too sudden and had caught them all by surprise.

The rest of the rooms were the same, either were bunks, or crates full of plasma and laser rifles, sometimes a Rocket Launcher or what seemed a laser minigun.

One room in particular caught his attention, this one had actually a safe, one that seemed had been repeatedly beaten with something heavy, and it's lock was blown, amazingly enough, it didn't open.

Well they couldn't, he could, it was just a matter of gripping the edges where they try to pry it open with a crowbar, and pull.

The door gave in almost instantly, making him fall on his butt, inside the safe he found two things, a holotape and a picture, when he had picked the picture, he was clearly surprised when he saw a black and white picture of his father alongside a woman, both clad in lab coats, his dad was missing his beard, and he looked…younger.

Out of curiosity he pressed the holotape play button, and for the first time he heard the voice of his mother.

He had repeated the recording several times, the voice of his mother…it was melodious, it was…as pretty as the picture of her he now had, albeit he could do without hearing her mom and dad prior to his making, and some of it, they forgot to turn the holotape off before his dad realized of it and turned it off, but it was enough to traumatize him, no kid in Vault 101 had been unfortunate enough to walk their parents while they are at it, he was unfortunate enough to hear them, and his brain did the rest.

After that, he just made his way upstairs, up to the Rotunda, up to the hall where most of the cables converged into, where most of the pipes were connected, the control room of project Purity, there he could see his dad's work, his vision, and ambition, he wanted it to work, he wanted the thing to work, but something was amiss, like his mom had stated, small scale experiments yielded positive results, but that was like purifying a glass of water, they wanted to purify metric tons of water, a task impossible, even before the Great War and all its advancements.

Yet his parents had got close, closer than anyone could ever get, the Enclave was here, just updating some parts, fixing parts that got damaged by abandonment, after all this place had been abandoned as long he has been alive.

"Was it worth it?" he wondered himself, still looking at the inside of the control room, dad hadn't left a clue, nothing to be traced, he was smart, too smart, the only clues he had were…

"Depressing, isn't it?" Maverick turned around, only to spot a woman in a lab coat, her black hair as messy as her looks, she looked like she hadn't slept, or ate.

"This is our dream…and our shame" she began, "I worked with your father and mother here, a dream we slowly realized piece by piece…but we still lacking one piece" she hissed.

"Uh, who are you?" Maverick asked, looking at the disheveled woman.

"Oh, sorry" the woman apologized, "These had been hard times for us all, and honestly repairing Prime before you brought your friend was eating a lot of my time" she stated, "I am Madison Li, I heard you were looking for me" she stated with a small smile, the smile being accentuated by the grime on her face, it was obvious she had been working non-stop on Prime and whatever else she could help.

"I was, still am, kinda forgot you, sorry" Maverick apologized, tucking the holotape and the picture of his parents on the trench coat inner pockets.

"I understand Maverick, your arrival was as surprising as your little friend intelligence, and it is truly scary" Madison admitted.

"Yes, things…were done to us, she is a savant supreme and I am a juggernaut" Maverick shrugged his shoulders, as accepting his condition, "Has helped a lot" he added.

"I know, I think the Enclave didn't expected your intervention, or the fact you could easily kill all they can thrown at you with ease" she stated, "but I'm not here for idle chat" she corrected quickly.

"Sarah told me you were looking for your father and Three-Dog guided you to me, to be honest at first I didn't want to help you" Madison admitted, drawing a look of shock of Maverick.

"Then I reminded myself that there are bigger things in this world, and if I didn't volunteer to help you, you would force me, and I had little doubt I could stop you" Madison began, "Besides, James would never forgive me if I didn't help the boy I helped deliver" she added, shocking Maverick.

"Yes, I delivered you, I was there when Catherine gave you birth, she was so happy, and your father was so proud, then she had a cardiac arrest, and she died, the equipment we scavenged for the birth was not suited for actually restarting her heart, I'm sorry I couldn't help her, James was devastated, the rest, I guess, is history, you can clue what happened after that" Madison said, Maverick nodded, the final piece of the puzzle in place, why his father left, that was complete.

"He told me a lot of things, comes with the territory of being his equal on mind" Madison stated, "He wanted to restart Project Purity, I told him no, to let go, he didn't, instead he told me he would look for the only man who could actually help him, a superior, a wizard of technology from back the day" Madison stated, "Does the name Stanislaus Braun rings any bells?"

"Can't say it does" Maverick confessed.

"Of course it doesn't, he is old world celebrity, he barely makes it to our days as someone worth mentioning in a trivial conversation" Madison stated, "But his name was something your father found on the Overseer files back in Vault 101, or so he told me, also, something I didn't mentioned to Lyons was that your father was looking for something else" Madison stated.

"And what could it be?" Maverick asked.

"The final piece of the puzzle that is Project Purity, he is looking for a GECK" Madison affirmed.

"…My dad…is looking for a lizard?"

"Not a Gecko, a GECK, Garden of Eden Creation Kit" Madison snapped back, "I can't believe you don't know of that, I thought you dwellers were more intelligent" she murmured.

"Well excuse me for not knowing" Maverick scowled, making Madison smile.

"Think nothing of it, I believed also that the GECK was a myth, but trust me, after today, I am open to believe every bit of crazy shit the wasteland has in histories" Madison offered.

"The GECK…that's a name you can trace back to the roots of this conflict, it is said that New Navarro was born out of the GECK, a truly terraforming device, capable of transforming dead matter onto something else, a miracle" Madison said.

"You have information of my dad and the GECK?" Maverick asked, whatever his dad wanted, the GECK was involved.

"Of course, even better, I know where they are located, but we should talk this on a more…private and secured place, this was last night, and Enclave facility" Madison stated, moving aside and motioning Maverick to follow her.

Maverick didn't had much to lose there, in fact he had little to nothing to lose, his father was close, he could feel it, he could actually count the minutes when they would meet again.

Then…then he would answer him, one thing is hearing the story from several sources, different visions of the truth, he wanted to hear the truth out of the source itself.

---

"It was a massacre!" Autumn screamed, staring at the images of some of the cameras mounted on several Enclave soldiers, those who were alive and those whose bodies were recovered, in some way.

"That Maverick is a monster!" Montgomery stated his eyes wide in shock, he wasn't staring at some sort of super-human, he was staring at the Grim reaper itself, scythe and all.

"You think that kid is bad, they have a freaking robot that tosses nukes like footballs!" a soldier snapped, the man was as shell-shocked at the rest of the soldiers who survived this battle, yes survived, they retreated as soon as Autumn gave the order, Liberty Prime was just…there was no word to describe how utterly stupid would be to try and fight that thing off.

"The president tried to talk him out of fighting, we lost George to him, Susie had to get skin graft to cure the burns on her cheeks, not that it will help, and Freddy is traumatized, not to mention this" Amata growled at the side of Autumn, an eye patch on her right eye, a raw wound still visible on her face after her face-off with Sarah.

"This was a waste of recourses, we lost too much, we lost men, we lost vertibirds, we lost guns, and we lost Project Purity" Boon snapped, tactically, Operation: Broken Steel should be called Operation: rip-off, that's what happened to them, they got rip-off, bad.

"We need to regroup; we can't fight the brotherhood with that thing now!" De Castilla didn't like that suggestion, especially since it was her who gave it, but without the orbital platform, there was no way to stop Prime, nuclear ordinance was out of the question, they were saving those for their enemies on the other side of the pond.

"We have no other option, we have to move our forces to Raven's Rock and Adam's air force base" Boon stated.

"What about Vault 101?" Amata asked, concerned by the fact they didn't included the name of her home.

"Vault 101 residents, all of them will be moved to Adam's, if the brotherhood decides to attack that place it will be worse than a massacre, it will be a slaughter" Boon replied, much to the ire of Amata.

"We won't abandon our home" she stated firmly.

"Is not a matter of abandoning it, is a matter of preservation, Maverick told you himself, he is coming, he will go to Vault 101 and kill your father and the guards that killed many residents during his breakout, and I am most certain that he will, and anything that opposes him" Autumn stated.

"I don't like it" Amata snarled, her hate for Maverick was slightly clouded for the utter hate she now felt for Sarah, the bitch who gouged one of her eyes, "I can take him out if you want, give a week and he will be dead" she added.

"He has a gun that killed two Deathclaws with one shot, not to mention that axe, the bodies we could recover show that their armors were…fried, that axe damaged the armors beyond repair, the fission batteries were burned, burned!" Boon snapped, "Do you have any idea how electricity is needed to actually fry a power armor?" he asked to Amata.

"Don't know don't care" Amata replied.

"As we stand, we only can defend one vault, our supply of clones and raw material for many of our experiments" Autumn began, cutting whatever Boon was going to say to Amata.

"Then we forfeit one vault, so we save many people" De Castilla stated.

"Correct, 108 is too valuable to lose, 101 can be lost and regained later on, 108 can't, especially its equipment" Boon said.

"Then take a page of the wastelanders and scavenge everything out of 108, then abandon it!" Amata screamed in outrage.

"Is not that simple, the amount of equipment is too much to transport in one day, let alone a week, a month would be required to do so, and I must remind you that our defeat at Project purity will be a clear sign to raiders to attack us" Autumn snapped to Amata.

"Even more so, Talon Company is still hunting for Maverick, waiting for the moment he walks away of the Citadel" There Autumn snorted, "Poor fools, they are walking to their own deaths and they don't even know it" he added with mirth laced on his voice.

"It is not important, we have to start counter-measures against Maverick and Liberty Prime" Amata snapped.

"And what do you suggest, the last Tesla Coil was taken by the brotherhood, they don't have use it or don't know how, and the APC's engines are still not updated to accept EC packs, well at least two do, the rest are still on work" Boon said.

"We lost 25% of our forces in the assault, we would have lost more if we didn't order that retreat, we lost power armor sets and a lot of weapons, plasma mostly" de Castilla murmured, "The attack was not done without FULL force, otherwise we would seeing different numbers, bigger numbers" she added.

"We lost George, morale on the vault is gonna take a deep dive, even more" Amata growled, the dead of the team she led by hunting Jackie, then Wally, Paul Jr. then it was Christine, now this, morale was going to take a deep dive, and the kids would cry for hours, George and Maverick always hanged with the children, they idolized them, now they idolized George and feared Maverick, with George out…it was going to be a nightmare.

"Do it" was all Eden muttered, looking at the assembled with a critical gaze, "I believed that Maverick could be swayed, I was wrong, relay these orders, Maverick Hartigan and his companions, Sally House and Sarah Lyons are to be gunned down on sight, once he has lead us to his father" Eden ordered coldly, turning around of the table and walking away.

No one objected these orders, Amata didn't, she knew the dangers Maverick, Sally and Sarah posed as a whole, they had to be killed, they had to be stopped, it didn't matter if it was a little child of an elder, and any obstacle to the Enclave's goals had to be removed.

No matter the cost.

---

Sally stared at the damaged boomstick with something akin to frustration, so far every big weapon she has given to Maverick has been broken beyond repair, or blasted away, the boomstick situation was a little bit of both.

She knew she could fix the massive weapon…back at the ship, where she had the parts, the machines, and of course privacy, here it was another story altogether.

Suffice to say that Maverick wouldn't be using the Boomstick much until she repairs it.

"Hey Sally what Whoa!" Veronica called, clearly surprised by the sight of the damaged boomstick, "What happened this time?" the punching scribe asked.

"Some knights told me Maverick was too near when a howitzer shell fell, he was blasted of his feet, and the boomstick took the brunt of the blast" Sally said exasperated, Veronica wasn't the first person to ask her what happened to the boomstick, or as some knights had 'intelligently' called 'You aim, they go boom' gun.

Owyn, Rothchild, Sarah, the guy called Gunny, and the insomniac scribe who seems to hate Maverick just because his mere presence doesn't allow him to sleep, had asked what happened to the gun, she has always answered them, "Maverick got to close to a shell" and she let their minds work the rest.

"Damn, he got blasted away and all that got damaged what his gun?" Veronica wondered out loud.

"I know, sometimes he being nigh invulnerable pisses me off, honestly" Sally snapped, "I mean don't get me wrong, he still duck and cover out of custom, not of necessity, but he should learn that even when he is nearly unbreakable, those around him are not" Sally added.

"You know I can hear you" Sally jumped away in sheer shock when Maverick's voice sounded behind her, looking back she spotted Maverick, arms crossed and a amused look on his face, and a dirty looking female doctor behind him, looking at her oddly.

"Dammit Maverick don't do that!" Sally snapped with a pout, turning around and looking again at the boomstick.

"You're not angry because the boomstick got damaged?" Maverick asked.

"No" Sally began, "I'm mad because the weapon we put effort in making was broken with just a howitzer shell" Sally snapped, "It should have hold more, guess didn't account stress in the frame every time it was shot" Sally mussed.

"Anyway, I can't fix the boomstick here, I didn't put in account you would break it…like the last one" Sally drawled.

"You're never going to let me live that one out are you?"

"No" Sally answered, "I don't have the parts, or the time, The Enclave might attack again, and with both of us being their targets" Sally let that one sink in.

"Both of us?" Maverick asked.

"Of course, I was there, the president saw us together, and he knows" Sally began, "He really does, he knows what is really behind my brains and your brawn, not only that, I burned one of the dwellers face off with the Novasurge and knocked her out cold, by this point Amata must have told him all what happened before your arrival" Sally stated seriously.

"Great" Maverick muttered, a little angry, mostly to himself, "Should have killed them all when I had the chance" he added.

"No point on crying over spoiled milk" Sally said, looking at the woman behind Maverick, "You found something in Project Purity?" Sally said, not missing the smile on Maverick's lips.

"I did, a picture of my parents and the voice of my mom on a holotape…alongside the first five minutes of them making me" Sally cringed at that.

"Also, Doctor Li has some clues where my dad might be" Maverick said, motioning Sally and Veronica to follow him and Li towards one of the ends of the laboratory, the one with the map of the Capital Wasteland.

"These are the vaults that were built here in the Capital wasteland, Vault 74, 76 and 77 are confirmed complete loses, they can't sustain life, and are more like gigantic tombs" Li began.

"Vault 87, according to recent recon, is a Super Mutant base, perhaps a breeding ground, its far, its entrance was hit by a nuke, irradiating the zone until these days, and since Little Lamplight fell to raiders and most of its inhabitants were sold to 101, this theory took force" Li continued.

"Vault 92 and 106 are lost as well, one is a breeding ground of mirelurks, the other, according to some scouts, has some sort of odorless drug running in the air, causing hallucinations, Vault 100 was abandoned a long time ago, all of the residents left the vault and settled in the Capital wasteland, 101…you know" Li said, taking a deep breath, "Enclave's base of operations, the third one"

"108 is a vault housing a cloning facility, the Gary clones come of there, then we have vault 112" Li said, signaling the vault in the map, "James is there, he must be, Braun was accounted as one of the many dwellers of that vault, as for the GECK, it is listed as part of the equipment in vault 87, so that one is gonna be a pain in the ass to recover" Li ended.

"Garden of Eden Creation Kit? That thing exist?" Sally asked, then shook her head, "Better yet, you just said Braun, as is Stanislaus Braun? Vault-Tec's wizard?" Sally asked again.

"I have, how do you of Braun?" Li asked.

"The guy was a genius, no doubt about that, head of Future-Tec, a division within Vault-Tec itself, but he was full of himself, so much that in one interview he nearly attacked the host for actually contradicting him, then he was send to jail, then bailed out an hour later because he actually attacked the host, by running his car over the guy, on repeated occasions, the guy barely made it out alive" Sally replied, much to Li's shock.

"And my dad went looking for that lunatic?" Maverick asked in shock.

"It seems so, he was crazy, no denying, but he was really smart, smart enough to create a terraforming device capable of disassembling matter and turning it into something new, your father must think that the GECK might hold the final piece for Project Purity" Sally stated.

Maverick by his part stared at the map, focusing his sight on both vault locations, "If I go now, it will take me…a day, maybe two non-stop to reach 112" Maverick said, "Make it less, you could ask someone to give you a ride with a vertibird, drop you in the wasteland mid-way and make the rest of the trip on foot" Sally began, "Also don't forget I will go with you" that made Maverick look Sally oddly.

"Don't look me like that, if this Braun guy left something useful that your father can't decipher, then I can help him, two brains are better than one" she added.

"Make it three brains, Father Elijah taught me a lot of Pre-war tech lingo and all that, I could help as well" Veronica added.

Maverick wanted to say something, but bit his tongue and just sighed, "Can't talk you of this" he muttered, "Okay then, I'll talk with Sarah and see if she can get us a vertibird, get ready" was all he said as he went to look for Sarah.

One hour later…

"This is as much I can help you now Maverick" Sarah called, just like Sally and Veronica, Maverick and Sarah were al standing in front of the map of the Capital Wasteland on the labs.

"I was able to convince dad to lend you a vertibird and a pilot to get you, Sally and Veronica out of D.C. ruins, and a little close of Andale, a small town on the edges of the Capital Wasteland, from there you can walk your way towards vault 112, it is a longer road, but it bypasses the need to even pass Evergreen Mills, a Raider hotspot" Sarah said.

"What are you going to do Sarah?" Veronica asked, looking at the sentinel straight in the eyes.

"We got an advantage, we gotta capitalize it, we are gonna start attacking the Enclave outposts, pronged attacks led by the Pride, Liberty Prime will be deployed as well, D.C. has to be liberated first if we want to make any progress, from there we will advanced north, hitting several bases hidden in the wasteland, until we make our way to Raven's Rock, and turn that place into scrap" Sarah snapped, "We will save 101 and Adam's according to the Enclave's resistance, to last" she added.

Maverick wanted to comment on that, but held himself, the residents of vault 101 were in too deep now, honestly the best thing he could do for them was kill Alphonse and Amata, and severely cripple the rest so they think twice about doing that again, it won't make him friends with them again, but it was that or total annihilation by the hands of the brotherhood.

"Just…promise me you will tell me when that happens, I want…I have to be present" Maverick stated, Sarah didn't comment on this because she knew what he meant, he wanted to be there, to make sure that things didn't got out of hand if worse comes to worse.

"Okay, right now they are licking their wounds, you weren't exactly gentle in your last encounter" Sarah began, "The dweller you incapacitated, Big George you call him is on the infirmary, two guards on the room and we moved anything sharp out of his hands, just a precaution" Sarah assured, "If you want, you can talk to him before you go" she added.

"Sure…I guess, don't know if will help" Maverick said, "Can you tell me where is the infirmary?" Maverick asked to Sarah.

"Better yet I'll show you, I deploy in one hour" Sarah said, motioning Maverick to follow her.

"See you on the courtyard" Maverick called to Sally and Veronica, both girls glanced at each other, then smirked.

As Maverick left the labs with Sarah, he wondered how he would talk with George, hell what he would talk about, he and George, while shared a common ground with the youngest of Vault 101, didn't exactly talked each other much, the vault wasn't big enough to avoid each other, it was just awkward, especially since George was a Tunnel Snake after the G.O.A.T. and with Butch as leader, and Maverick as their bully target, it got worse.

"We're here" Sarah called, breaking Maverick of his memories, looking up he saw a pair of knights flanking a door, on the top of the frame the words 'Infirmary' were set on a neon sign, one that had stopped working a long time ago.

"I'll wait here Maverick" Sarah called, placing a hand on his shoulder, then squeezing in assurance, "Don't worry, he is fine, despite you shattering his knee to nothing, he will walk with a limp, and Rothchild placed a special device on his Pip-boy, so no, he can't communicate with the others" she added.

"Whatever happens, you got a home here, in the Citadel, with us, a friend of the people is a friend of the brotherhood" she added as she let go and one of the knights opened the door, allowing Maverick inside.

Once inside Maverick noted that just one medic was inside, besides the bed ridden George, "Oh, hello, here to talk with our friend?" the medic asked.

"Sort off" Maverick called, walking towards George's bed, and standing bed side.

"Hello George" the man didn't said anything, despite being awake.

"The ice treatment only works when we are children" George didn't answer.

"You know…I found my father" George didn't seemed actually concerned by this, "A vault of all places, but unlike last time, he went there to find answers, to end what he started 19 years ago" Maverick continued.

"I don't hope you understand this, you are with the Enclave, they want people dead, all of them, I won't allow it" Maverick said, "My father's work…my mother's and father's work is for a good cause, and altruistic cause, I won't let the Enclave corrupt it and turn it into their new killing weapon" Maverick said, looking at the doctor, then glancing at George.

"You can ignore me all you want, but you can't ignore this, they can't stop me, no one can, not you, not Amata, no one" George's hand twitched, the first sign of activity since Maverick entered, "I really don't know what happened that night six months ago, how Marcus ended up dead, I might have an idea as of why, but that's not enough to turn Amata into a sociopath killer" Maverick said, finally turning around and walking towards the infirmary door.

"It wasn't" George suddenly said, his grave voice echoing in the infirmary room.

"Marcus death broke her, she went into shock, then into coma" he continued, "She really loved him, his death hit her hard, add that to the fact you were gone, her crying stone, without a doctor to help her or a friend to console her, she…was as good as dead" George said, "Then the Enclave came, and brought her back…but she was changed…her eyes…were full of rage, she lusted for blood, your blood" George added, turning his head to Maverick.

"No one really knows what happened to her, her extreme change took everyone by surprise, Butch, Susie, even Monica was caught off guard by this new Amata…she is more scared of her than she is scared of you" George stated.

"The only person who really knows what happened to her is her father and the president" George finalized.

"I know…I will pull the answers out of them" Maverick stated, turning around, "What I don't understand is why you allied with them, was the radroach infestation and the fires that bad?" Maverick asked.

"No, it put a strain on the Water Chip, but it wasn't enough, they came, with people, new blood, new life for the vault, we joined out of gratitude, because you and your father left death enter our home that day"

"You should watch those words Bigalow, I broke your knee with the same effort I need to step on the ground, I could easily rip your head out of your neck, it would be like opening a soda bottle" Maverick snapped, "My father didn't started this, it was the overseer, he ordered Jonas killed, the lockdown was beyond his authority, he ordered the guards to kill on sight anything that was outside the rooms, I saw a couple gunned down, my dad didn't started that, it was Alphonse and his paranoia that doomed the vault, under his rule nothing will live well" Maverick snapped.

"We keep the future safe" George replied.

"By killing families? Breaking homes? Burning towns? You can lie yourself, but you can't lie to me and the harsh truth of all this is that the Enclave are the bad guys, they murder anyone who they deem 'impure' anything that is not 'pure human' is trash to them" Maverick finalized.

"The Enclave will fall, Project Purity won't fall on their hands and be used as a weapon of mass destruction, I won't allow it, I won't" Maverick hissed walking away…

"You won't win alone" George snapped, there Maverick snorted.

"Who says I'm alone" with that Maverick walked away, leaving George and the medic in the room.

In the courtyard…

The vertibird was already waiting for them, already on, its fans spinning at a moderate rate, to warm the engine, Sally and Veronica already inside, the little child was somewhat excited to ride a vertibird, but after being on a spaceship, most vehicle riding lost its appeal compared to ride in the endless void that is space on a real spaceship.

Veronica was treating the vertibird ride the same way she did with the first one, excitement upon taking off, dullness when flying and utter fear upon landing.

That's how Maverick found them both, sitting inside the Vertibird and ready to fly, Sarah behind him.

"Okay Sally, last chance, do you really want to go?" Sally simply rolled her eyes then nodded, "You know this is a very different world, like the Wild West, you know what must be done if you get attacked, right?" Sally's answer was just making a motion of using a gun, and shooting it at Sarah, it pretty much eased Sarah, and at least Veronica and Maverick were with her.

"Okay guys, be careful, that area is raider land, keep your head down and shoot anything that looks homicidal" Sarah began, letting Maverick inside the Vertibird, "And Maverick" she called, catching the attention of the dweller.

"Bring back your old man…and then we can talk…about that, yeah" Sarah said, slightly nervous, much to the shock of the girls, even more as Maverick blushed.

"…Did you did her?" Sally asked the blunt question, Making Maverick pale and stares at her oddly, "Because if you knocked her up, then her dad will have Liberty Prime step on you and…"

Maverick was glad the vertibird took off, as the engine drowned every word that came out of her mouth, not that it helped with the ever present smile of Veronica that resembled that of the now extinct fox.

The ride for them lasted seven minutes; the pilot had told them that they had to still implement some security measures so they didn't end up on the end of a RPG and meeting the ground.

Still the ride was far smoother than the one that led him to Paradise Falls, and as before, the pilot warned them.

"Hey guys, A word of warning" he began, "Word has it, that whole zone, out of Andale up to the Yao Guai caves has some sort of fucked up raiders" the pilot began.

"That so, how messed up?" Veronica asked, considering that the Mojave Wasteland had the Fiends, raiders that were basically swimming on chems, and made them rather violent, not to say downright sadist and crazy, what could be worse than the Fiends?

"Well, for starters several scouts found several bodies nailed to wooden cruxes"

Veronica paled.

"Some of them were alive, they begged to be killed"

She began to sweat.

"The few women found were raped and killed, their heads stuck on pikes"

She lost all color on her face.

"Same with some guys…including the raping, god I puked on that one"

"Oh…shit" To Maverick and Sally, who had endured the horrible experiments of the aliens, especially to Sally, who had 200 years to basically tune out of the carnage the aliens usually partake in their experiments, it didn't bother them, Maverick seemed to be close to do the same, as he was basically a human juggernaut, little could stop him, and much that tried got mauled badly.

Veronica however, knew otherwise, this had Legion print all over it, the crucifixions, decapitations and placing their heads on pikes, violation of the survivors followed by murder, not to mention enslavement of the very few that were considered worthy of such 'honor' now there was no doubt, the legion was the capital wasteland, surely a small detachment, or the results would be as bad as the ones of the Mojave, if not worse.

Question arose of course was what the hell they were doing this far, besides Project Purity, and apparatus that Caesar would surely send to dismantle and use its parts as bases for their many knifes and armors, the Capital Wasteland held no strategic value, something was up.

It seemed Maverick and Sally had come to the same assumption, but chose not saying anything, after all they didn't want to scare their pilot.

After that revelation the vertibird landed, when the trio descended, Sally was the first to note how bad the fallout had been, the bombs hadn't destroyed the world, the nuclear fallout that followed the two hour nuclear bombardment did it.

She could hardly recognize the capital of the nation to this deformed shell, as she knew the several ravines and small mountain formation around were not natural, but where in fact a byproduct of the detonation of so many kilotons of nuclear ordinance, something she was certain, was repeated in every part of the world where the bombs fell.

As the vertibird flew away, kicking a generous amount of dust, Maverick couldn't help but to comment drily how this would surely draw attention to them currently.

"Relax" Sally began, "Better go to this Andale town, we can orient ourselves better from there" Sally said.

"Sally, in case you forgot, I got a map attached to my wrist" Maverick reminded, bringing his pip-boy to bear.

"Yeah, I'm surprised that thing has a map of the current look of D.C. cliffs and all" Sally began, "But let's be honest, guiding ourselves by a landmark is a little better" she added.

"And since when you became a survivalist expert of the wasteland?" Maverick asked.

"Could ask the same about you" she countered, Veronica by her part sighed, then tapped them both on the shoulders, catching their combined attention.

Sally simply pointed at the horizon; her finger pointed at a cliff, or rather the person on that particular cliff.

The man that stood there was clad in a similar attire to the one Maverick had, but the duster was on a desert color, and unlike Maverick, the man had a full face helmet on, a combination of a polished combat helmet with a gas mask with red lenses, on his hands the man held what seemed an oversized sniper rifle.

What caught their attention of course was the emblem on top of the helmet of the man, if Maverick saw right, it seemed like a two headed bear, in chalk.

The man stared at them, then actually motioned them to come to him with his left hand, his right hand holding the rifle.

The trio stared at each other, not knowing what to do, well Sally and Maverick didn't knew what to do, but Veronica did.

"NCR rangers…what the hell is going on here?" she wondered, shyly making her way to the ranger, Maverick and Sally followed her, since she was the only person who really knew what was going on in the Mojave Wasteland.

The trio didn't took too much time to reach the ranger, now up close they could see him in detail, noting the amount of abrasions on his armored torso, and the small camera mounted on one side of the helmet.

"Glad you three could join, one helluva entrance, be glad no legion was here to see it" the ranger began, slowly walking to them, then turning around, making his way to the other end of the cliff, then kneeling.

"See that town over there?" the man said, Maverick joining him and kneeling at his side, seeing on the riff of the cliff, down, a small town, surprisingly, two houses were intact in a block of over ten houses, the rest was destroyed, either by the blasts, or time.

"Yeah, see two perfect looking houses, wait, make that three houses" Maverick began, Sally and Veronica joining him, "And…is that a shed?"

"Yep, and let me tell ya, there is some weird shit down there" the ranger began, "I arrived here last night, after the message of the guy who blew up and Enclave base with their own toys…gotta hand it to him, he knows how to hit them" the ranger began, "Anyway, I set up a small camp here, to rest, nights here are cold, but not as cold as the ones of the Mojave, then I saw two couples emerge out of the houses, down to the shed, then they came out a half an hour later…with meat on plates" the ranger then turned to Maverick, surely not knowing who he was talking to.

"I don't know you, but I think we are dealing with cannibals" Maverick there groaned, and turned green.

"Please tell me that was a joke" Maverick said.

"A joke is Kimball's balls, a joke is McCarran's lack of a proper chef, I am deadly serious here" the man said, "Furthermore one of them actually left with a hat on, and he had entered the shed without one" the ranger said.

"What makes it so…disturbing; besides the fact they are cannibals?" Sally asked, catching the attention of the ranger.

"…The hat belonged to one of the patrol rangers, highly trained soldiers that can survive some of the harshest conditions in the wasteland, they are also stealth experts, you want something done, call a ranger" the ranger began.

"Hell why there is even NCR presence here to begin with?" Veronica snapped, the ranger regarded her oddly, and then answered.

"We were send here on some rumors about the presence of one of Caesars most trusted Fummentari, Vulpes Inculta, a spy, an assassin who has led sever blows to our position in the Mojave, the fall of Nelson is attributed to him, furthermore there are rumors that Caesar is considering him the next legate, after the disappearance of his last one, Legate Lanius" Sally, Maverick and Veronica shared a look, this Vulpes sounded like someone you didn't want to cross.

"Lanius was a beast, I admit it, I once saw trough my scope how he cut down one of the troopers down with less the effort that it takes to swat a bloatfly" the ranger admitted, "But Inculta is also an enemy of care, what he lack in strength compared to Lanius, which is much, he makes up with cunning and a spy network that is very well intricate in New Vegas" Sally perked at that.

"Las Vegas still stands?" she asked.

"Yes, but now it's called New Vegas, or so its owner, Mr. House says" the ranger said, missing the look of utter shock on Sally's face.

"Listen, I know you are not one of the rangers, but I see you don't come here to pick fights with us, so let's do this" the ranger said, pulling a two-way radio out and handing it to Maverick.

"I can't leave this post, I'm a sniper, you call them or I see them and they drop dead, I'm not much of a hand-to-hand fighter, and I don't do well sneaking around, and while I would love to shoot those cannibals down, I can't, I saw a pair of children and an elder huddled on the third house, a gunfight will spook them off, so let's do this, go to that shed, enter and…confirm me if my friend…a female patrol ranger is there…dead or alive, then you call me, whatever you do don't fight the cannibals, I don't know why or how, but cannibals tend to be a little stronger than the average wastelander" the ranger called.

"Maverick is not exactly the average wastelander…and what do we get from this?" Sally asked, for a moment the ranger looked at her, then turned to Maverick.

"When we were deployed here, we were five, a trooper, a patrol ranger, me, and two first recon snipers, the trooper died, ironically, mauled by a Yao Guai, a bear" the ranger began, "The patrol ranger…Jessica, said that she would scout the south, her last message was an hour after the bombardment to the Enclave's base, so I was send to her last know location according to her last night, this place is hostile I tell you, it's raiders are vicious, but they are not Fiends" the ranger continued.

"When you confirm me what happened to her, and we deal with the cannibals, I will join you in whatever you are doing, for a short time, my mission still stands, Inculta must die" the ranger finished.

"Sounds like a deal, besides we here are not friends of the Legion, a while back we fought a Decanus…Severus" the ranger nodded, "Suffice to say that your enemies are my enemies, I really want to know too why they are here"

"Severus eh? Looks like a name first recon will have to chalk out of their hit lists" the ranger mentioned, "Anyway, there is a path you can use to…" whatever the ranger was going to say died out when Maverick stood up and made a leap out of the cliff, down to the ground, the ranger would have screamed if it wasn't upon seeing Maverick land hard on the ground, on his feet, then rise up, and actually vanish away out of sight.

"How the-" whatever the ranger was about to say was silenced when Veronica forced him to him to kneel again, and basically taking a prone position on the cliff.

"Dammit Maverick, he had to take the noisy road" Sally hissed, the ranger, knowing that the fall of Maverick had surely drew the attention of those inside the houses, peered over his scope and saw the two cannibal couples emerge out of the houses, he knew the children were with the old man in the third house, surely he wouldn't bother getting out, he just came once, just to open the doors for the children, and armed with a single handgun.

Whatever Maverick had done, made the couples walk towards his landing zone, finding absolutely nothing but dust, of course he, being a trained ranger and tracker, could easily see the footprints he had made in the dust, something the couples noted, but he found odd that the trail ended close to one of the ruined houses, but not close enough for him to do something…

Then one of the women was flying away towards a damaged wooden wall, crashing on her back and her head impacting on the wood, leaving a slight trail of blood, the partner of the woman was already rushing to her wife when he suddenly was lifted as well, then was viciously slammed to the ground, face first.

The other couple didn't knew what was going on, and didn't much either when the woman cried in pain as something slammed her on the chest, sending her towards the cliff wall and sliding down, unconscious.

The last standing man just pulled his gun and began to aim around, like crazy, not knowing what was attacking them, it wasn't until he felt something wrap around the back of his neck that he actually stopped, when he tried to scream all he could manage was a soundless garble as he was flipped over and slammed to the ground, face meeting ground first.

Then Maverick materialized, looked up and waved, then began looting the four fallen.

"…Holly hell" the ranger whispered, "Who is that guy?" he asked to Sally.

"Maverick? The Enclave's worse nightmare, come on" she said, slowly standing up, "With those four out we can actually look around without fear" she added.

The ranger seemed to have perked at the name, and with a silent 'shit' he followed the two girls down, there they found Maverick a while later, pulling out of one of the unconscious women a set of keys and brandishing them.

"If you want I can break the door as well" Maverick said to the ranger.

"Nah, let's keep it subtle…or what you call subtle" the ranger said, motioning Maverick to the shed.

Once there it was just a matter of using the keys to open the three locks in it, even outside they could feel a putrid smell.

"…Rotten meat, in large quantities…and blood, coagulated" Sally said, earning her a look of the ranger.

"This is not place for a little girl" the ranger called, looking at Sally, the girl didn't found intimidating the red like gaze of the ranger's mask.

"Maverick and I…we have seen worse" she said without missing a beat, the ranger was appalled with the cold tone she took, she looked like ten years old, but her eyes…those eyes were haunted, for a sole second he saw a very haunted woman instead of a little child.

"Do it"

Maverick obeyed Sally's order and opened the door, immediately regretting it as the stench of decayed flesh and blood hit him full force, Sally grimaced because of the smell, all while Veronica, shocked by what she was seeing, bended over and vomited her breakfast.

"Dear god" the ranger said, entering the room and thanking whoever fixed his mask, the sight alone was revolting; the smell should be unbearable to Maverick and the other two girls.

Yet Maverick and Sally entered, Sally's expression was just disconcerting, she seemed unfazed by the macabre sight, Maverick on the other hand did reacted when he saw a pair of heads, peeled of its skin and part of its muscle, alongside their eyes.

"…What's the punishment for cannibalism in your government?" Sally asked, looking at the shaken Maverick.

"Execution" the ranger replied, seeing where this was going, honestly this little girl was scaring him more than an Alpha Deathclaw.

"Maverick, do it" was all the little girl said as she extended her hand and Maverick deposited the keys in her hands, then he walked out of the shed, a grim look on his face.

"…Good god" the ranger said walking around, then stopping when he felt the floor a little too loose, looking down he found, much to his surprise, a trap door.

"The keys please" he asked Sally, the little girl gave them without hesitation as he looked a keyhole or a place where he could insert the key.

Finally finding a keyhole, he inserted one by one the keys until one them fitted, then he twisted, and smirked under his mask as the inner mechanism clicked.

Lifting the trap door, he sighed in relieve when he saw an African woman tucked inside, he could see she was alive due to her short intakes of breaths, she was on her underwear, and had bruises on her whole body, it was obvious she had put a fight, but four on one is hardly a fair fight.

The ranger had to force his body to lift her up, while lithe due to her training as a ranger and survivalist training, which burned a lot of calories, he was not exactly the strongest ranger physically, the only reason he could use the Anti-materiel rifle he had was because he had invested two month salaries on custom parts to lower its weight and recoil, all out of the Gun Runner factories.

"Ugh…Manuel" the dark skinned woman called, her eyes disoriented, but apparently able to recognize him.

"I'm here Jessica, don't move too much" the ranger named Manuel said, slowly lifting the woman out of the trap door and out of the shed, there Veronica, Sally and a grim looking Maverick waited, Manuel didn't need to see Maverick's face, his posture was enough to tell him that he didn't like the job of executing the four cannibals.

"…They claimed they did what their ancestors did" Maverick said, there Manuel understood, surviving the current wasteland was hard, not impossible, it tested you, but before it was nearly impossible to someone to live on its own, things were bad, and cannibals claiming they were surviving was one of those things.

"The last guy woke up, asked me if I was proud for what I was doing, killing survivors, that if I was proud by leaving orphans behind…god" Maverick muttered.

"It was the best thing you could do for the kids, better to grow normal than cannibal some say" Manuel said, he hadn't heard anything close to a gunshot when Maverick left, so that meant…Maverick had broken their necks, it was clean, it was easy, it was somewhat painless.

Shaking his head, Manuel helped Jessica to her feet, then looked at Maverick straight in the eyes.

"So kid…where to now?"

---

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sarah rolled her eyes, Order of the sword, Scribe Peabody, stated as he stared at the Boomstick; the weapon was left in the labs, as it was the only place it could be placed safely, and safely meant that no one stupid enough to not heed the warning of Sally of touching the gun and risking being vivisected was going to enter without authorization of Peabody.

Yet she was more worried about the man itself than any outside menace, he was in charge of the weapons, any weapon, experimental or otherwise was to be passed first here, the boomstick itself was a unique weapon, only knights with modifications made by Sally could actually lift the gun, no one knew if they would stand the recoil, as Sarah never fired it, the fact was that this gun was a 'portable' tank killer, portable being the term used loosely.

Sarah knew that the only reason Peabody was not disassembling the gun was because Sally had stated, quite graphically for some scribes liking, what she would do to the person that touches the gun that she and Maverick made, much of what she told involved a buzz saw and starting cutting from the anus, then upwards.

It seemed Sally had learned to be sadistic out of observing the aliens massive experiments, the girl was sound on her head, that was for certain, someone lesser would have broke in the circumstances she was put, yet Sally didn't, or perhaps she did, and she picked herself up, 200 years is a lot of time, she had enough time to get her act together, to be something else, yet she was still a little girl by heart, the fact she could scare grown-ups with her attitude didn't help in reducing her childlike behavior sometimes.

"You know you are warned" Sarah reminded.

"I know that very well sentinel Lyons" Sarah slightly smirked at the shudder Peabody felt, "I'm just saying, that for a little girl of her age, what she has done so far is quite amazing, I witnessed the power behind the handgun she gave to your friend Maverick, the blue gun, and the axe he used in the battle, not to mention what she did to Prime…she scares me" Peabody admitted.

"Good" Sarah began, much to Peabody's shock, "She suffered a lot, trust me, and in return she learned a lot of how to make people suffer, don't mess with her, stay in her good side and perhaps some of her genius will rub on you" she stated, turning around.

"How's the research with the other guns we salvaged?" she asked before leaving, eyes focused on the amount of guns set on several desks, most of them Enclave weaponry.

"Going well I dare say, I am more familiar with these guns and with the amount we got we will advance in our studies, perhaps we will be able to make our own, when we find an assembling line" Peabody stated, much to Sarah's amusement.

"Sarah" he called before she left, she noticed that his hands were resting on the damaged barrel of the boomstick, and slightly trailing the message written in the body.

"I might be trespassing my limits here, but please be careful, it is obvious the vault dweller consider you a good friend, if he lost you…" he let the sentence hang in the air, Sarah didn't need no more words to imagine what he wanted to say, Maverick is a juggernaut, a living tank, a sponge bullet, and that was when he was controlled, she did not dare to think what might happen if he lost control.

Well she did, and the images of a gruesome death of Enclave soldiers and vault dwellers were a little too much for the moment.

Shaking her head she exited the lab, immediately crossing paths with the Pride, the full roster of Lyon's Pride, all of them gathered to fight once again under her command, all ready to fight against a common enemy.

All of them knew she was friend with a vault dweller.

She knew her friendship with Maverick, coupled with what she did outside of Project Purity after he and Prime had send the Enclave packing had a lot of people talking, everyone knew that Maverick was with them because of Sarah and his father's project, nothing else, no one knew what would happen afterwards, most dreaded it.

Not her of course, she knew that he was a good person at heart, regardless of the chaos he could cause and death trail he left behind him, it wasn't his fault he was like this, he was turned into this, unlike most exposed to the wasteland, like the vault dwellers, his exposure was basically nothing until days ago, they adapted, they became, they turned, Maverick didn't, he was turned, given the tools to survive, yet somehow be able to remain the same.

She could safely say that the Maverick she knew was the real Maverick, not someone who got scared and changed by the wasteland.

"Is good to see you all again" Sarah began, her sight and thoughts focused on her people, her unit, her Pride.

"I know my disappearance was sudden, and so was my sudden appereance" she began, seeing how Dusk gripped her sniper rifle a little tighter than usual.

"You think I'm changed" she noted how Gallows moved his left leg a little to the right.

"And you're right" she added, if it wasn't for the fact all of them were wearing helmets she would see their shock, the only way she difference them of the rest was for their guns, and the little trinkets they added to their armors.

Dusk had five .308 rounds tied to her left forearm with a single belt, Gallows having two combat knifes tied to his chest plate, close for unsheathing faster, Vargas was easily recognized because the emblem of Lyons Pride was etched on his chest plate, not the shoulder plates, Colvin, like Dusk, had .308 rounds, but tied in a bandoleer around his waist, and her, back when she had her old armor, her whole left arm plate was painted black, some people came to call her 'the left arm of god' for that particular reason, not that she didn't help a lot with her reputation, whenever she went, things died, pretty much like what happened with Maverick currently.

"I…saw things that changed me, met people that changed me" she directed those words right into her unit, to remind them who she really was, "The place I was…the…things that held me, they were monsters, smart monsters that turned a little girl into a savant, who turned a vault dweller with no desire to kill into a tank" she stated.

"My armor and gun here belong to that place as well, and so does the old Sarah, she died there" she added, "Just like the innocence of Sally and Maverick, you're staring at a whole different person" Sarah stated.

"But one thing remains, I want revenge, but not because of Dan" she corrected, shocking her unit, "Dan died, and my sole reason in life then became to murder Almodovar, but now I see that was a mistake" Sarah added, turning around and facing her unit.

"If we are going to fight, we will do it to free the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave" Sarah said, "To make sure no more families get broken by this senseless war" Sarah snapped.

The pride there saw Sarah in a whole different light, she was right, at one time she was driven by bloodlust, pure rage, it had cost a lot of lives under her command, she didn't care in those times, her only concern was butchering Amata the same way she did to Dan.

Now, however, things had changed.

They had Liberty Prime at full force, she was back, better than ever, the Enclave had lost a lot of their forces and the momentum they carried, several dwellers were dead or crippled, Paradise Falls was a burned crater, all thanks to Maverick and Sally.

Those two had tipped the scale on their favor, now it was time to capitalize their efforts.

"Okay Pride, you all know what must be done, we will reclaim DC, then we reclaim the wasteland!" Sarah began, "And once it is done…what will happen next?" it was a question she always made to the pride whenever they charged against the Enclave, she hoped they remember.

"WE SEND THE ENCLAVE PACKING!"

"Damn right we will" Sarah bellowed, they remembered, even the part where they screamed at the same time.

"Okay Pride, MOVE OUT!"

---

Manuel glanced at Maverick and Sally, Veronica, the brotherhood scribe that looked more like a pre-war beggar than a post-war scribe walking at their side.

He had to hand it to Maverick, at first he thought he was a ranger, some obscure ranger with elite training and more kills on his name than blood cells under presidential orders only, send with the sole mission of eliminating Inculta and his entourage.

It was the little girl, Sally who told him that Maverick was vault dweller, an oddity on the wastes, most vaults were empty, filled with bones and ghouls, mostly animals, radroaches and molerats found the dark corridors of the vaults a home, especially safe to litters of molerats since very few people knew the location of the vaults.

The kicker was that while vault dwellers seemed to be one man armies, alongside their descendants, examples being the vault dweller of vault 13 and the chosen one, there were not records of bulletproof vault dwellers that could easily rip your heart out and beat the shit out of you with your arm.

The cannibals didn't stood a chance, if Maverick could actually kill a Super Mutant barehanded, and if he was led to believe, had actually tackled a Deathclaw away, with only the scars on his face, which were light as only evidence of his encounter with one of the wasteland fauna deadliest, then he obviously was more than a match for whatever humans had to pit against him.

"I tell you Maverick, we could have used someone like you back at the Dam, I can already see it, you with a minigun, no make it a Vulcan cannon, laying hell on those Legion bastards, all while stepping on the body of Lanius, it would be beautiful man" Manuel stated.

"I say it once, and I say it again, you got a sick mind Manuel" the dark skinned woman, Jessica was her name, said as she adjusted her park ranger hat on her head with her left hand, all while holding a 10mm submachine gun with her right hand.

"Was that battle…that bad?" Sally asked, the town, Andale behind them, they had left in silence, leaving the bodies hidden inside a manhole not far from one of the houses, after they had found the armor and gun of Jessica, the group had left, the old man had watch them leave, with just a nod and a small, sad smile on his lips, it was obvious the man was also a cannibal, but anyone could see the regret on his eyes, he had finally seen that what he had done was bad, horrible, and while he couldn't do nothing for the people Maverick had to kill, he could do something for the kids, life on the wasteland was hard, but they would endure.

"That bad, we lost a lot of good people that day, we had to actually dynamite a town to make the legion retreat, Boulder Town, but if we got bad out of that fight, the Legion got out worse" Manuel said.

"Centurions are the backbone of Caesars army, kill them and you kill the morale of the unit they lead, even more if you take down their flags bearers" Jessica began, "The battle began with Caesar attacking en mass"

"As usual he send his recruits first, the greenest first, the experienced behind, a strategy that the legate Malpais designed and so far had worked, but we figured it out, at a frontal charge we would lose, so instead we took high ground, and as soon the first Centurions began to show up, First Recon began to drop them like flies, that caused chaos among their ranks, and the rest was basically a close quarter fight, we lost men, they lost men, but we didn't lost our General, General Oliver led that battle with precision, on the other hand Caesar had his legate captured, covered in pitch and lit on fire, then toss him to the Grand Canyon down below, to show that failure was not acceptable, to anyone" Jessica there smirked, her split lip slightly opening and letting some blood out.

"But it seemed that not even that was enough to finish Joshua Graham, story goes that the man survived, and lives on as the Burned Man, the Legion's worst nightmare, once or twice assassins will turn out dead on Legion ground, camps razed, and a lot of shit done to their corpses that you think that they turned on each other, but they know different, the Burned Man walks, and he is pissed" she added.

Maverick just shook his head, it seemed like the worse of mankind was resurfacing alongside civilization, the worse of this was that Caesar didn't seemed interested in Hoover Dam, according to Manuel, it seemed he only attacked the Dam because NCR was holding it, the crazy bastard had initiated a war out to test his own army against something with equal might.

But it seemed the situation was something worse, because Legion and NCR were not the only players on his game of tug-of-war, according to Jessica, New Vegas was being hold by a man calling himself Mr. House, living in the Lucky 38, according to the locals, Mr. House had brought Las Vegas many tribal families and brought them together into a civilized group, no one knew who he was, or if he was in fact a she using the name of a pre-war figure, but no one could deny his control over the securitrons, his personal army, that while robotic, was still small compared to NCR, Legion or brotherhood.

In a sense Mr. House kept the status quo with his presence alone.

The walk had been silent after that, from Andale to their next pit stop was over two hours, maybe more since Jessica had yet to recover from some wound son her legs, obviously the cannibals didn't wanted her to run around, in short she was slowing them, and the sun was not so close of reaching its apex, in the wasteland, the midday sun is basically hell itself, most mutated animals can't stand it, reason why most creatures now lack fur, with the obvious exception of dogs, Yao Guai and Giant Tarantulas, and yes, giant in the sense they are as big as a car, not a nice prospect to witness considering that 'Radrantulas' the given name by wastelanders, had fangs of the size of your forearm and their venom could easily dissolve your organs, and your skin, and your bones, leaving its prey a mass of…something.

Their next destination, according to Sally and Maverick's pip-boy map was RobCo HQ and assembling line, while the place would offer little to nothing I regards of food, it had, in Sally's and Veronica opinion, a big loot of technology caches, mostly information that could be copied, blueprints, the sort of that, Sally had explained that RobCo had spear-headed the creation of the Fission Batteries, and while Sally could make several with her 'resources' meaning to Maverick and Veronica using the ship's tech, it would be wasteful because it would included trial and error, Sally had admitted that Fission energy, especially the one in Fission Batteries was an exact science, or in her words she needed the recipe of the acid used to suspend the isotope used in the batteries, without it her Fission Batteries might well be Molotov cocktails, fragile and always on, and who can forget with the power of a mini-nuke.

After a while, and as the sun began to rise even more, they finally arrived to RobCo HQ, in all its ruined glory, of course, like many important buildings, it was built and refurbished with the intention of withholding anything, from earthquakes to even a nuke going off right at their side.

Yet time was an unforgiving master, as Sally had admitted, she wouldn't remain young forever, and neither did the building, as 200 years of neglect and abandonment had taken its toll on the structure, like she admitted, nothing is truly indestructible.

"It looks like hell" was her first comment, not the most intelligent thing she has said in her long life, but considering that overlapping her memories of the building's former form to its current one, she couldn't help it.

"200 years and several megatons worth of bombs going off tend to do that" Maverick said, eyeing the building, then looking around and seeing just the destroyed streets and buildings around it, a lot of damaged trucks lay in the cracked road, their wagons all upturned and spilling a great quantity of mechanical components.

Veronica, once seeing this, rushed to the closest, and began to squeal like a little girl.

"This is the mother lode, robot parts and motherboards, this is enough to make yourself a robot" the scribe exclaimed in happiness.

"I bet you can do something else with it" Manuel added as he saw Maverick and Sally exchange glances, then nod.

"Listen guys, wait here while Sally and I go inside and find the mainframe, keep an eye opened" Maverick said, Manuel wasn't about to argue with the guy, sniper rifles, regardless of their stopping power, are not suited for narrow passages, corridors included, Jessica seemed relieved as she actually entered the upturn wagon where Veronica was currently looting and sorting, then collapsed on her butt, letting along sigh of relief.

"Are you sure Maverick, you could use some extra hands to crack a computer" Veronica called, her hands gripping what seemed a small generator of some sort.

"Nah, we're good" Maverick called, "Rest and be ready when we come out" he called as he and Sally made their way towards the building and vanishing on its entrance, leaving Manuel to basically look for a possible sniping position, or a place where they could be sniped.

Inside the building, Maverick immediately turned to Sally, placing a hand on her shoulder and stopping her before she could move at all.

"Okay Sally…spill"

Sally didn't answered outright, she just pointed at a closed double door.

"Okay, but I expect some answers, we agreed to be honest with each other" Maverick said.

"And we are" she said with a final tone as Maverick forced the locked doors out of its hinges, making an unholy noise.

---

"Did you heard that?"

"Surely another robobrain stumbling on the walls Olin, do not worry about it"

"Ugh, McGraw I swear sometimes if you weren't a protector and my husband…"

Protector McGraw and Specialist Olin, members of the Brotherhood Outcasts, and odd pair of lovers no matter where you look them, one a soldier, usually using brute strength to get his way, the other a technician, rather using brains than brawn, how they came to be lovers is a story that is a long as the story of the brotherhood itself.

To make it short, when they were scavenging for some tech, they decided that blowing the door was better that using the computer, on in this case, blowing the adjacent wall, at that time McGraw had at that time of six people, when they decided to blow the wall, this caused the whole ceiling on the underground bunker they found this cache of weapons and armors to fall on them, McGraw and Olin got lucky, they escaped with the loot, the others were crushed like pancakes.

After that, Protector Casdin, upon seeing their cache of technology, but the price paid for it, decided that for now on, heavily armed groups of soldiers not bigger than four would move around specific position in the wasteland, places where technology was most prominent, and since DC was still, at that time, a warzone, the wasteland itself became their roaming grounds, groups would find a place where technology could be found, fortified there and started to work, leaving only when the cache of technology was found, or food ran out.

In their case, their prolonged exposure to each other, and the fact none of them had got laid in quite a while led to one thing, and another, and another, and when they realized what they had done, they didn't dare to stop, they had lacked a constant in their lives that now they had it, they didn't dare to break that up.

So they eloped, engagement rings, let alone rings of any kind was a moot point, most of that got lost during the aftermath of the Great War, looted by crazies who believed all would be fine the next week.

So here they were, on a facility that held the secrets of robotics, how to made them, how to maintain them, and it was their duty to keep that knowledge out of prying hands.

"Protector, come see this" one of the defenders, Defender Stratton, green as grass where you look at him, motioned him.

Currently hold in a security room, with food, four mattresses for beds, a fission generator powering the several computers, and several boxes filled with ammo, this was a very well defended position, also this place had monitors connected to cameras that still worked, allowing them to monitor any kind of possible break-in, possible because the cameras in the entrance lobby were down, and so the same on the first floor, with the exception of one single camera on that floor, it had helped in fighting the rampaging robots.

McGraw approached the seating Stratton; the boy had been sitting in front of the screen all day, looking for any more rampaging robots, mostly robobrains and a pair of Mr. Gutsy models roaming around.

"Check this out protector" Stratton said, pointing to one of the screens, there they saw a man, clad in what seemed a black duster and armor underneath with a backpack on his back, besides him a little girl with a similar backpack, a plasma gun in her hand and a strange baton tied to her belt, walking around.

"They are in the assembling line" McGraw stated, from the lobby up to the assembling line it was a dead zone, out the assembling line and up to the cafeteria entrance, it was another dead zone, no cameras, no way to know who was there, five minutes of walk of that dead zone to the cafeteria.

If they were fast, and it was doubtful, since Defender Argos had reported seeing a Mr. Gutsy roaming around, while not packing the thick armor and a minigun with a rocket launcher arm of a Sentry Bot, they had still a sturdy armor plating and a plasma gun attached to them, along with a flamethrower, they had long and close range covered.

Still they waited, they wouldn't discard the visitors just yet, this war had hardened many people, and Casdin was clearly surprised to see once again the Enclave, just like anyone else.

Then they saw them again, inside the cafeteria, the man and the little girl, no less than two minutes later, looking around, trying to hear them would be fruitless, the cameras were very old models, back of the 2050, to that time cameras didn't had and kind of sound receptors, that was installed in 2065, yet RobCo HQ never got them, relying in the old fashioned inside the lights cameras.

There McGraw was able to see them even better, and his eyes widened, "A vault dweller?" he asked to himself, loud enough to the people with him to hear, "And the child, the baton tied to her hips is…rather advanced" he added.

"I can call defender Argos, tell him to incapacitate them both and take the plasma gun and the baton" protector Stratton said, knowing that this was a normal operation carried by the brotherhood back in Lost Hills, all kind of technology had to be retrieved of any kind of hands, even if it was the hands of a child.

"Do it, but tell him to do so with caution, there is a VD in the zone" McGraw stated, this was standard, for everyone, even Lyons brotherhood rogues, vault dwellers were very dangerous enemies, with an accuracy that was mythical, and downright scary.

Calling the defender was easy, all power armors had built-in radios, and things seemed to shape up for Argos, he was a room away of the two intruders, he had just to wait to them to pass and he would take them from behind.

The wait was killing them of course; they had to wait until the duo had made it pass the offices near the cafeteria, position where defender Argos was currently, when the duo did it, Stratton gave the Ok to Argos to move.

Stealth on power armor was an art, a newly developed one, back in the day no one would bother for that, after all power armors are tanks with legs and hands, moving silently with such armor is an art, a work in progress, but is effective.

They see how Argos raises his laser rifle slowly, moving easily, but slowly and without crashing with anything that might give his position, then when he was close enough he rose up to his full height and spoke, they could hear him, his radio inside his helmet allowed him to.

"Freez…"

He didn't go beyond that when the dweller turned, faster than anything seen, seizing Argos by the arm, then suddenly tossing him to a wall hard enough to crack it with the force behind it, as if it wasn't enough the dweller then grabbed Argos by the chest plate with both hands and tossed him to the other wall, much to their shock Argos went through the wall.

"The hell" Olin stated, shock was barely the expression that would help express her now, a power armored individual weighted as much as fully grown overlord or Deathclaw, to toss someone like nothing, through a wall, was nothing short of…shocking, let alone doing it twice.

They saw how the dweller turned his attention to the sober looking girl; they saw her speak to the dweller, pointing at the spot Argos was pushed away, then running her thumb over her neck, as a sign of 'terminate him' the dweller did not, instead he made it to the hole he made, turned Argos to his chest, and ripped the fission cell that powered the armor.

"Did that girl…just told him to kill Argos on cold blood?" Stratton asked.

"I'm more shocked by the guy who tossed Argos like a rag doll" Olin said, staring at the image of the two intruders, and her eyes, if possible got wider in shock, as she saw where they were heading.

"Dammit, there heading to the mainframe room!"

---

"Are you certain Maverick?" Sally asked, a little skeptical about Maverick letting live that armored soldier, if she had her way, the guy would be dead.

"I am Sally, he is one of the Outcasts Sarah told me about" Maverick replied.

"The splinter faction of Lyons brotherhood" Sally made a 'hum' noise of this, thinking it over, "They value technology above all else, even human life…they are a danger" Sally added, Maverick could basically hear her chiding to him to finish the guy off for that alone.

"You worry too much Sally, if Sarah is led to believe, even they had their share of tangles with the Enclave, they are not as numerous as they were once they left" Maverick added.

"Beyond the point Mavi" Sally snapped, "These guys are the kind we had back in my time, ruthless, heartless, reminds me of New York cops during the food riots, hell even Las Vegas cops had more control during those riots, those guys saw the mob and immediately opened fire" Sally snarled.

"Don't reminisce, eyes on the prize" Maverick reminded.

"Yeah…eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize" she said and repeated, it was becoming increasingly hard to not remember her past life, and that was causing her a migraine, last time she had a migraine of the kind she was about to have…

"What do you expect to find in RobCo's mainframe?" Maverick asked.

"Bless him" she thought, making her think of present made her migraine lessen, "I'm hoping to find files regarding uncle House, ever since those rangers told me what is truly going in Las Vegas I'm been wondering if Uncle House is alive, you can extend your life, if you're willing to break several natural laws and rape your body into a horrible mess" Sally added.

"You think you will find something, your uncle sounds like someone who likes to keep things to himself"

"He did, but he is also messy in some regards, he multitask, and that makes him sloppy, I wanna see if that works for us" Sally added, "The fact I knew about Liberty Prime was evidence of it" she added, "Besides, if he is indeed alive…I have to know why"

"Why what?" Maverick asked.

"Why he didn't do anything, and acts now, after 200 years" Sally said, "This way" she added as she pointed at a set of stairs that led them even higher, surely to the third floor where the mainframe was located.

"Must be something related to that OS, he spent a lot of money and time on it" Sally stated, stopping in front of a wooden door alongside Maverick.

"It has to be big, big enough to actually haggle the NCR into paying taxes, he is bidding his time" Maverick stated, "But for what is the question" he added.

"True, open the door" Maverick did it without hesitation, immediately stopping at the sight of a massive computer on the other end of the room, and the rows upon rows on cables and small computers on the sides of the room.

"Damn" he said as he stared around, "This is…overboard" he added.

"This mainframe controls every single bot in the Capital Wasteland" Sally began, "Every RobCo building had a mainframe of this kind on every state, this was to ensure a possible robot uprising would be prevented by shutting them down, whenever state they are" Sally said, "As it stands, I could give the command, and every bot in the ruins of Washington DC, barring those modified by the brotherhood and Enclave forces, along those with old army protocols, to shut down"

"Useful if you ask me" Maverick said, pulling OWB and advancing to the center of the room, "Okay Sally, work your mojo and I'll cover your back"

"The usual then" Sally answered with a smirk as she reached for her backpack, pulling what seemed an alien datapad, he had seen many of those near the aliens, most of them used them for…something.

"I customized this one for my personal use, besides the fact is on English and answers to my own DNA code, something standard on the aliens datapads, I can store incredible amounts of information, from any computer, and upload that info to the ship's own mainframe, whenever I am, this will take a minute" she said as she approached the mainframe and began working her magic.

"Okay, make it five minutes, half of the files here are encrypted with military protocols, the other half is corrupted, files incomplete and scattered all over the computer temporal databanks, it will take time to find them and put them back in place" Sally said.

"I assume five minutes is fast compared to human computers" Maverick said, keeping an eye on the only exit of the room.

"Yep, this kind of process would take a year, only in restoring the corrupted and incomplete files, downloading it all would take five hours, we don't have that time to spare" Sally replied, working on the datapad on her hands.

"If any of those outcasts come here, break them, but don't kill them…much"

"How can you not kill a person much?"

"You would be surprised of the answer"

Maverick shook his head, letting Sally work, highly complicated technological marvels and pulling miracles out of scrap metal and turn it into bloody, gruesome death machines was her forte, his was mostly based on wielding such miracles she made and turn them onto any fool who crossed his path.

The waiting for the outcasts storming didn't take long, if Sarah was led to believe, in the outcasts you could see what the brotherhood steel back in Lost Hills had turned into, valuing technology above all else, even life, either theirs of that one of wastelanders.

Soon three outcasts busted into the room, two of them wearing power armors, the last one with scribe robes, all with the colors of the outcasts, black with red stripes.

Maverick instantly leveled OWB to them, the trio did the same with their guns, Maverick wasn't concerned, laser weapons didn't hurt him, while in theory they should, plasma included, but that didn't mean Sally was laser and plasma proof as he is.

"Go ahead…give me a reason" Maverick said.

"That was so clichéd Maverick!"

"Not helping Sally!"

McGraw simply stared at the man leveling the gun at him and the girl behind him, working on the mainframe with a hi-tech looking datapad, surely downloading something from the mainframe databanks.

"Move aside wastelander, that's brotherhood property" McGraw snapped.

"Yours? I don't see your name on it" Maverick snapped back, "Last I checked this was RobCo, not brotherhood incorporated"

"The brotherhood of steel has the task of safeguarding all technology in the world" McGraw snapped.

"Then what?" Maverick asked, "Letting it gain a fine layer of dust? Let it rust?" Maverick continued, "Sarah told me all about the brotherhood of steel, their directives, their goals, I must say that at the beginning it was good, but now it's just selfish" Maverick replied.

"Selfish? You dare…" Olin began.

"We do" Sally said from the other end of the room, working on her datapad, "The brotherhood you guys support is useless, outdated and marked for death, nature and history have proven over and over that those who change and adapt the ever changing world are the winners, those stuck in old customs and never improving are doomed, simple as that, I hope you can tell that to the elders when you go to your hole on the ground, with my compliments and those of Elder Lyons" Sally said, then turned, giving each one of the outcasts a nasty smirk.

"You can also tell them that we will take good care of Arthur, I will especially take care of him…he look rather…yummy"

"You who-"

"Finish that sentence I dare you" Maverick pointed his gun at Olin, the woman knew that unlike McGraw and Stratton, she didn't had something that could stop a bullet in her body, besides her bones.

No one moved, no one dared, how could they, they had seen what Maverick had done, they were being optimistic of course, there was no way that they guy would take them all three down.

Yet they wouldn't take a chance, the outcasts, just like Lyons brotherhood was stretched thin, even more, Lyons accepted anyone capable of fighting and recruited locally, a complete reject to the codex main directives.

The war demanded sacrifices, and violating one of the codex directives seemed minor compared to the bounty that would be Enclave technology, yet…

"I'm done" the little girl called from the other end of the room, standing up and pocketing the datapad on her backpack, and walking at Maverick's side, giving a look reserved to annoying obstacles to the three outcasts.

"Let's go Maverick, we got what we came from" she said, motioning Maverick to follow her, the outcasts didn't dare to make a move on the girl, fearing that Maverick might go berserk on them, and as few outcasts left, they had, sometimes, forfeit their technology.

As Maverick, still holding them at gun point moved sideways with Sally, slowly making their way to the door, Stratton couldn't tolerate this, he moved to tackle Maverick…

BAMM!

He stopped dead on his tracks, paralyzed in fear as a super-sonic round basically shredded his right ear and opened a hole of the size of his head on the mainframe behind him, such was the blast that he was unable to feel pain for his lost ear.

"If I wanted it you would be dead by now" Maverick hissed, "You outcasts…you're no better than the Enclave, if you had your way you would kill everyone to get all the technology in the world and 'guard' it, question is of what?"

"Of you wastelanders, see the world, this was provoked by unmeasured use of technology" McGraw snapped, "We just make sure this never happens again"

"No, you're just greedy assholes playing cops of the world, and last I checked, that ended up bad" Maverick said, raising OWB and then holstering it, "Don't try anything stupid, attack me or Sally at your own risk" he added as he took several steps back, then reached for the door and closed it on his wake, leaving three disgruntle outcasts soldiers.

"…so…who get to say this to Protector Casdin?" Olin asked, really wondering how Casdin what going to take the fact they lost the only access to RobCo mainframe out to a little girl and a guy who shot the mainframe, and the ear of Stratton.

---

"Maverick fired a round…that thing sure makes a lot of noise" Veronica said as a matter of fact, pulling out a gyro out of the chassis of what used to be a Mr. Gutsy.

"I didn't see something big enough in him to cause such a sound" Manuel said, keeping an eye around.

"He has one, powerful enough to open a clean hone on a power armor chest plate, just because is not visible it doesn't mean is not there" Veronica reminded.

"Maverick and Sally, are they brother or sister? Or father and daughter?" Jessica asked, still resting near the truck, Veronica simply snorted, shaking her head.

"Maverick's nineteen, maybe twenty, Sally is ten" she lied on that part, Sally was over 200 years old, "That would mean Maverick had her when he was ten" Jessica snorted amused by this.

"I think they are like brother and sister, they bicker and fight, help and back each other up, when I met them it was like that, born out of necessity, she is smart, the smartest girl you'll ever meet, and Maverick is strong, strong enough to tackle a Deathclaw down and then break its neck with his bare hands, you can say that from the necessity of protection, the ancient war of brain and brawn ended with them" Veronica said.

"He is…that strong?" Jessica asked.

"Oh yeah, punched a clean hole on a Overlord stomach and neck, and used the corpse as a battering ram and shield"

"…You're kidding" Manuel said, glancing at Jessica, the girl could see some nervousness behind his helmet.

"Nope, saw it myself, kinda over the top, but against an overlord nothing is over the top, taller than the average super mutant, uglier too" Veronica said, of course she was not going to tell them how the fight between Maverick and Lanius had gone, Maverick was strong, she gives him that, but Lanius had outclassed Maverick and he had only won because Lanius was unarmed and unlike Maverick, was able to think and use his environment to his advantage, that and he got stuck as the space station blew up around him.

"And there back" Jessica said, slowly standing up and grimacing as she did so, Veronica looked up from her position, Manuel shouldering his rifle as Maverick and Sally made their way to them.

"How was the scavenging?" Manuel asked.

"Not bad, for a factory that made robots that was seriously lacking" Sally said, "Got the data I wanted, so we can keep on moving to our original goal" she added.

"Really, we heard a gunshot minutes ago, Veronica said it was Maverick's gun" Jessica said.

"It was, we encountered some brotherhood outcasts there, we didn't kill them Veronica so don't worry" so said girl took a deep breath at that, "They were guarding the mainframe, it was more of a warning gunshot, but it basically shredder the ear of one of those guys apart" Maverick said, then his visage darkened, "They are just as Sarah and Dusk described, self-centered and too focused on their goals to see the bigger picture" he added.

"Don't blame them for that Maverick, most of them were born inside the brotherhood, and were raised with the codex on one arm and an elder chewing their ears off about what is expected of them" Veronica said, slowly standing up.

"Then why you didn't end up like them?" Sally asked.

"I…fell in love" was all Veronica said as she dusted herself off.

"Fair enough" Maverick added with a slight smile, "If we start walking we will make it to our objective, so let's not waste sun, I really don't want to find out how cold the wasteland gets at night"

The group nodded at Maverick's idea, picking themselves out and started to follow him as they departed, not aware of the eye following their moves.

---

Sarah rubbed her forehead with her armored forearm, feeling the still cold metal taking away the sweat on her brow and cooling her off, in front of her lay the remains of yet another Enclave outpost, reduced to less that cinder and ash, two enclave troopers lay dead on her feet, their weapons not even fired once.

"This is too easy" She commented, slightly kicking the armored side of the dead trooper she had killed.

"You complain about easy?" Dusk muttered at her side, "You really have changed Sarah" she added.

"Don't make me punch you Dawn" Sarah snapped, looking around the small encampment the troopers had, just as she had expected this was a scout outpost, communication arrays lay around, alongside with a radio and dish relays, at least now Three-Dog wouldn't have a problem with a dish relay if he lose the current one.

"Hey I'm just saying, I know you wouldn't complain about easy when it comes to the Enclave" Dusk replied.

"Maybe" Sarah replied, "But that was before by kidnapping, now I know better, nothing is as easy as one believes, this is proof of it, they are backing away"

"Good, they are afraid"

"They are not" Sarah said, slowly taking a step and rising her rifle, "They are amassing their forces, getting ready for something" Sarah said.

"With Liberty Prime and that human tank of Maverick with us I really doubt it, they massacred the outside force during the attack" Dusk stated, clearly remembering how Prime had totaled the vertibirds of the Enclave, and any trooper Prime didn't blasted to pieces of riddled with bullets, Maverick did finished them off.

"They are going to the defense" Sarah added, "They are abandoning non-essential equipment and fortifying their strongest bases, Vault 101, Adams base, Raven's Rock…it's going to be a war of attrition, of who gives in first" Sarah said, she held no illusions of a quick, clean victory, the Enclave fought always to win, no matter the odds, it was rare that the Enclave would actually flee, very rare, they would die fighting, defending their ground.

"Good" Dusk said, kneeling and taking one of the plasma rifles that was on the hands of the Enclave troopers, inspecting it with great detail, she, after all had never seen one so close, or used one herself.

"You think that Sally girl could make me a plasma sniper rifle if I get her the parts?" Dusk asked, knowing that while plasma was a little slower that laser and bullets, was deadlier than bullets due to the molecular damage dealt by the plasma bolt, and also since neither wind or gravity acted against the plasma bolt, unlike a bullet, making a sniper rifle out of a laser rifle or a plasma rifle was a viable alternative.

"Please" Sarah began, rolling her eyes; Dusk was already seeing it, a big, fat, no.

"Sally can make you something far better" Sarah added as she padded Dusk's armored shoulder, her gaze focused on the marching Liberty Prime, the massive doomsday weapon tearing any Enclave defense, let it be human or mechanical, then shifted her gaze to the horizon, seeing how the sun began to set in.

"Times do pass fast when you're having fun"

---

"It's getting dark" Veronica mentioned, her eyes focused on the setting sun.

"No really Sherlock" Sally snapped sarcastically, looking around, spotting several puddles of irradiated water, at first glance she could say that not only radiation lay on those puddles, she bets that all kinds of nasty chemicals float in those puddles, there was no other explanation to the fumes coming out of the puddles.

"Your dad is surely aiming high Maverick" Sally said, gaining Maverick's attention, "I can only think what kind of water he and your mother must have been working on, is not just radiation they have to deal in the water, if those puddles are an example of many massive water bodies around" Sally said, pointing at the puddles, "Then Project Purity is needed far more than expected, there is more humans than pure water"

Maverick said nothing, he just kept walking, the group close to him.

It wasn't five minutes later when he stopped, pulling OWB with a sneer, they group could see why, not far from their position were what seemed a school bus, an armored one, just like the one the chimera was transported, this one was in perfect condition, and it didn't seem to have guards around, parked in front of what seemed a still standing car garage.

"The Enclave got ahead of us" was all Maverick said, already advancing, Manuel and Jessica gave Maverick a glance, then followed, close behind Veronica and Sally, the last one intrigued by the vehicle.

"Interesting" she commented, gaining the attention of Jessica, "Fossil fuel ran out worldwide in 2077, barely a month before the Great War, to the Enclave have a vehicle that relies on fossil fuel means that they stocked on fuel before the war, that or this model is one of the very few buses that had fusion engines" Sally said, the group approaching the vehicle.

"Maverick, open the hood and lift me up" Maverick wanted to protest, to tell her that was dangerous, but he did as told nevertheless, lifting the hood, then lifting Sally up, sometimes Sally cursed her young body, it limited her greatly, well at least she would grow up now, without the special drug that was injected to her once every two months her body would start to get old at a normal rate, the drug had tricked her body into believing that regardless of the time passed, she was still on a young state, basically it had stopped her internal clock altogether, thus stopping her growth altogether, a true to the form potion of immortality, albeit the term would be far better a potion of eternal youth.

Pushing those thoughts aside Sally blinked when she saw the engine, "My, a jury rigged fusion engine working on fusion batteries, I'm surprised this thing hasn't blown up" Sally stated, motioning Maverick to put her down.

"The engine was done on this time, I guess, what two to three years, a lot of testing I can see" Sally mentioned off handy, "Beyond that as I stated before, I'm surprised this thing is still working, let alone not a hole on the ground, I can work on it and make it safer, or trick it to blow itself up, your call Mavi" Sally said.

"Leave it be Sally, right now I care more for my father than Enclave killing" Maverick snapped, looking at the vehicle with some content, and some contained ire, they had now means of mobilization, but it as Enclave means of mobilization, only God knows what that thing has inside, and how many soldiers carried inside.

"They must be inside, be careful, they pack energy weapons" Maverick directed his words to Manuel and Jessica, both knew this already of course, the Enclave was an enemy of the NCR, rangers and soldiers had sworn to hunt down every enclave loyalist and supporter, until their name was just a whisper in the American Wasteland.

"I agree with Maverick, this could easily help us escape in a rush…uh, does anyone knows how to drive anyway?" Manuel asked.

"I do, dad pretty much taught me on his lap on a converga, I guess is the same with a bus" Sally said, "I can teach Veronica how to drive it, Maverick can be a little tactless when he wants to"

"Ha-ha, very funny, says the girls who needs my help to climb the stairs"

"Why you"

The trio of adults simply shook their heads, already used to the antics of Sally and Maverick up to this point.

"Did we arrive to our location?" Jessica asked to Maverick, the former dweller looked to his pip-boy, and then nodded.

"Yep, this is vault 112, or at least it is inside" Maverick said.

"But we should be careful, the Enclave might be inside already, if worse comes to worse" Sally trailed off.

"It won't" Maverick said, moving to the entrance of the garage and opening the door, the group following him immediately.

Once inside, the group noted that the place, once a mechanic's garage and workshop for cars had acted somehow as a small shelter to those unable to enter vault 112, or those who sought shelter after the nuclear fallout, after all anything with a ceiling without holes and four sturdy walls was a far better alternative that the collapsed ruins that was the city during the black rain days.

Once inside and on the garage itself, they noted that a metallic trap door was opened, exposing a set of metallic stairs up to the basement, surely leading to the entrance of Vault 112.

The group followed the stairs down, seeing at least five dead molerats, all with smoking holes on their bodies, evidence of energy weapon usage.

They kept pressing downwards, eventually reaching a small hall with concrete walls, a massive cog door lay open wide on the other side, Maverick slightly turned nostalgic, reminiscing the first and only time he had seen the vault door open, from both sides.

"It brings me back" Maverick said in a whisper, gripping OWB a little harder, then advancing, the group following.

It wasn't long before they reached the vault atrium properly, Sally had to admit, she was impressed, and the constructions of the vaults had been loud, now she understood why, she was also surprised by the sheer size of what was inside the atrium.

"Is this normal on every vault?" she asked.

"No" Maverick hissed, looking at the massive mechanical tower in the middle of the atrium, long, thick cables attached to the base of the tower, alongside what seemed…tubes of some sort, pods it seemed, each one of the pods had a computer on their right side.

"The hell is this place?" Maverick wondered out loud.

"Don't know Maverick, but we found a lot of medical supplies on the adjacent room" Manuel said, guiding Maverick and Sally to the room he said, there Maverick eyes widened.

"Holy hell, this is better stocked that 101 own infirmary" Maverick hissed.

"This is…troubling" Sally mumbled, "And we yet have to see the Enclave that came here" she added, eyes darting around.

"Fully stocked infirmary rooms, even more than in some hospitals, and some sort of…something in the atrium, with pods attached to it…I really don't know what to think" Maverick mumbled, making his way down to the pods, leaving the group on his own.

"This is freaky Jessica, far more than those vaults found in the Mojave" Manuel stated to the ranger at his side, catching Veronica's attention, "We need to get out of here" he added.

"Not yet, we need to find Maverick's dad, the enclave wants him, we can't let them have him" Veronica snapped.

"I know that, but right now we are in a ever bad position, an unknown vault with an unknown number of hostiles, this is an ugly scenario for every kind of soldier, even us rangers, besides vaults are known for housing…some fucked up shit to be honest" Manuel stated with finality.

"Way I heard it, some scouts stumbled with a vault in what used to be New York, the vault atrium was filled to the brim with zombies, god to honest zombies, not ghouls nor ferals, flesh eating brain chewing zombies, and that's just scrapping the surface on the vault issue" Jessica mentioned.

"Another scout team found a tiger skeleton of all things inside a vault" Manuel said, and then he began to mention a lot of strange, if not crazy things that made Sally actually blink.

"A…tiger skeleton?" Sally asked, as far as she knew, tigers were extinct, the forests on Asia were their homes, homes that got leveled during the crisis of 2070 and the Great War, only one thing could come to her mind at the moment she heard that.

"What the hell Vault-tec was thinking? A tiger?" she mumbled to herself.

"Oh you think that's odd, two vaults found about…five years ago were the oddest, we found one where in the general population there was just one man in over a two hundred women during the Great War…lucky asshole" Manuel said.

"On the other hand, other vault had the situation inverted, two hundred guys for one single girl…I really feel it for that bitch" Jessica said with a shake of her head, Sally did the same, that girl surely was the un-luckiest woman in the world.

"Good God!" Maverick's sudden outburst made the group actually look to his position on the bottom floor, there he was, staring at the interior of one of the pods, face planted in utter shock.

"Guys! GUYS! Come here now!" Maverick called, panic flooding his voice, the group did as told, more out of curiosity, panic was a rarity in Maverick, taking in consideration the fact he is virtually un-killable by anything in the American Wasteland, very few things being able to actually hurt him or outright kill him, hearing his panicked voice made them rethink that, his body might be invulnerable, but not his mind.

When they arrived, they saw what had made Maverick panic; he didn't find his father inside of one of the pods, that was for sure, instead, once they arrived, saw what he had found.

Inside the pods was, what seemed to be, well preserved, mummified and alive humans, they could see the rise and fall of the chest of the mummified remains, what was scarier that anything was that the alive mummy had its eyes opened, moving and darting around, despite the fact that the eyes were basically a bubble of fluid and not receiving any kind of image.

"Good god, what the hell is going on this place?" Manuel said, gripping his Anti-materiel rifle a little harder than usual, Jessica was not far behind him, doing the same with her SMG.

"Odd" Sally said, scanning one of the consoles near the pod, working on the keyboard and her eyes dancing on the screen, "Incredible, this is really advanced tech" Sally began.

"How advanced?" Veronica wondered, seeing how Maverick to scan each pod, fearing his dad might be a mummy now.

"Advanced enough to keep people alive, even if they lack water, food and any way to breathe" Sally began, "These pods, whoever build them made sure they were made to last, not only that, the pods monitor the user's vitals, seems to supplement some sort of nutrient from which the user lives on, which might explain why they look like mummies, the nutrient forced the body to feed on its own body fat, which might explain why the first vital records of the user put him with a severe case of overweight, had they been fit they would have died a hundred years ago" Sally said.

"So…they are like, hibernating?" Jessica asked.

"Forced hibernation would be the words, but yeah, but this is different, animals usually hibernate to pass a season they know they can't live on if they were active, they eat a lot before hibernation and the body uses the body fat stored to supplement the body with the required nutrients, thing is that most seasons back in the day didn't last more than three months, four tops, in here we are talking about extreme in all senses, if I'm right, and I do hope I'm not, then the nutrient given to the people inside the pods not only forces the body to feed on its own body fat, but any kind of nutrient within the body, which might explain the lack of muscles and strong skeleton, basically their hearts and nervous system is working on a bare minimum, the rest is…non-existent, the body ate it up to keep on working" Sally said with a grimace, stepping away of the console.

"This is no way of living on stasis, is too extreme, whoever is subjected to this is most assuredly will not have a life to live if it goes beyond the year" Sally stated grimly, "Your dad is lucky we got out at the time we did, right now his muscles must be weakened, and might be a little thinner than you remember, but he will be alive" she directed that to Maverick, the frantic dweller slightly nodding, still looking for his dad.

"But…where is the Enclave soldiers, there was a vehicle outside" Veronica wondered.

"I just found them" Maverick answered, looking at five pods, each one filled with a still fresh looking enclave soldiers, their helmet-less head showing their faces, they still looked young and fit compared to the rest.

"This is not right" Maverick muttered, "It seems they entered…willingly" Maverick added.

"I doubt it" Manuel said, his finger pointing at what seemed a pool of dried up blood.

"It's a sizable amount of blood, whoever got wounded never made it beyond the atrium" Maverick muttered, his experience as a medic letting him immediately describe, much to the group's shock, how the man surely died.

"By the look of the pool of blood, whatever attacked him aimed to either the carotid artery or the femoral artery, surely the carotid, it must have been a shock for the troopers, there is no signs of scorch around, they didn't fire a shot" Maverick muttered, "I really don't understand what could have made five Enclave troopers wearing power armors and armed to bear, to back down?" Maverick said out loud, looking at Sally straight in the eye, hoping she might have the answer.

"Don't know, must have been something really mean to do so…or perhaps they entered, hoping to find answers, leaving the sixth guy alone to defend them in case something happened, then he got killed" Sally said.

"Makes more sense" Manuel said, "If these pods are for preservation" Manuel glanced at the still working Sally, the little girl suddenly narrowed her eyes, slamming her hands on the keyboard.

"Someone just blocked access to the console" she said sternly, making her way to another console, then grunting when she saw the same on that console.

"We are definitely not alone, someone just blocked access to all the consoles" Sally snarled angrily.

"Can't you hack your way back?" Veronica wondered, seeing how Maverick moved around, looking for his father in one of the pods.

"No can do, the consoles are attached to a main terminal, a hub, whoever did this restricted any kind of entrance to the consoles, if I want full access I need to find the main terminal" Sally said, gazing at the pods.

"Yet something rubs me the wrong way" she added, her eyes focused on the living mummies inside the pods, the eyes slightly focused on the monitors in front of them, what seemed needles attached to the flanks of the monitors and slightly touching the sides of the head of the…

"No" Sally whispered, immediately walking to Maverick, she found him looking at one of the pods, when she looked, she found herself staring at Maverick's father, he was old, grey mated his hair and unkempt beard, his vault jumpsuit was as dirty as his face, not to mention that he looked thin, but he looked better than the rest.

"I've found him" Maverick whispered, looking at his dad, tracing his hand over the glass of the pod, "I so want to break the glass and pluck him out" he added as he looked at Sally.

"Don't, this is alien tech" she stated, gaining Maverick's attention, "These are not preservation pods, these are VR pods" Sally began, "It was old tech the alien used, for torture, they put you on a pod, send your mind to a virtual reality shaped to make you feel comfortable, then they twist it, they kill you over, and over, and over, and the worse part of it, you can't get out" she whispered, looking at the pod with revulsion.

"If you break the glass you risk your dad into going into shock, you can kill him if you do that" she added, looking at the pod harshly, to Maverick, it seemed that Sally had some skeletons in her closet regarding her 200 years stay on board the space station.

"We need to find the main console, from there I can access the entire network, pull your dad out of whatever virtual reality his conscious is placed in safely, and then euthanize the others" Sally said, Maverick didn't objected with her plan, the poor people inside the pods were more dead than alive, killing them was an act of mercy, not murder, letting them live like that was the crime.

"Still" Maverick began, "I am worried to leave the main hub, you saw the amount of blood on the floor, and the lack of a body suggest that there is something inside the vault, beside us"

"I concluded as much" Sally said, tapping her chin, "It could be anything, all things considering, a robot gone rogue, a raider looking for, I can't believe I'm thinking this, meat, perhaps another robot under direct orders of whoever closed my access" Maverick could detect some hostility of Sally in that last sentence, it was obvious Sally didn't like that little stun of the guy that stopped her attempts to release her father.

"Whatever was, it's not going to live beyond the day if I have a say about it" Sally snapped angrily.

Maverick was about to say something about her sudden blood urge, but stopped, so far of what he had heard about the vaults, they didn't seem to have acted as safe guards for humanity, at least most of them, the zombie vault on New York, or what was left of the city anyway, the Mojave vaults, the Capital Wasteland vaults, the so called Necropolis that he had just heard in a passing conversation of Manuel and Jessica, all pointed to either neglect of Vault-Tec to make the proper preparations for the fallout that came, miscalculations that led to the current state of many vaults, either abandoned or overrun by something that came of the outside, like raiders, or perhaps something far worse.

Experiments within the vault, with the residents not knowing about it, it was something of a long shot, and he hoped he was wrong on that regard.

But if he was right, if the true purpose of the vault was not for safeguarding, but for experiments, then it meant that this vault was a huge ongoing experiment, one with human lives, one that had to be stopped, and whoever kept it going had to die, for the good of everyone.

"Okay Sally, you know where to go?" Maverick asked.

"Yeah, just remember this Maverick" Sally began, looking at Maverick, "We and your dad are the only ones who will leave the vault before it blows" was all she said, Maverick felt as little uneasy with that remark of Sally, most vaults used fusion plants to power up the many machines inside, other vaults used geothermic energy to work, granted those vaults were small and had to be placed near a natural lava river to take advantage of the heat, and he was most certain this vault worked on fusion energy, what Sally was suggesting was to set the reactor into overload and see from the outside how a big crater was made from an underground fusion explosion, surely a sight to behold, it is not a nuclear weapon with the ability to erase a city of the face of the planet or a death ray being fired from orbit, but it will be a sight to behold.

"Okay then, wait here while I talk with the others, then we look for the main hub" Sally nodded at his reasoning, truth to be told she didn't had a reason to, she was brain, he was brawn, her plan required brains, his brawn was just a little back-up if something went south.

She observed how he talked with the group, surely telling them that if someone made it inside, or if a robot appeared, they should shoot it, or so she gathered, the 'shoot first ask questions later' had become the norm in this new world, she wasn't surprised by this, many cops back in the day used to do this, they were punished of course, there were laws back then, now they weren't.

This was good for her, she hadn't told Maverick the whole truth about how her father had found her mother, she didn't lied about the fact some of her dad died the moment he found mom, the thing was with who he had found her…and her confession, the confession that killed him, the confession that tore her and Julia up, the truth that still haunted her, that now would find resolution.

When he returned, she bit her inner lip slightly, she hated lying to Maverick, he had been kind to her, and he had helped her.

"One more lie, just one more" she told herself, she needed this, to end this, after this…after this it was just closure, to see what it was denied to her, to see the country, then perhaps, the world.

"Okay Sally, lead up" he said, Sally took a deep breath, leading Maverick away of the atrium, logic dictated that the deeper you went, the safer you were, in a vault going down meant going to sub-levels that had hazardous materials, like the reactor, that also meant that Braun's little base of operation was on the deeper levels.

It didn't took much of them to reach the sub-levels, Maverick even told her this was by far a small vault, with just two floor and three sub-floors, while 101 had four fours and at least six sub-floors, the last one being the one of the reactor and water purification system.

They checked the first two sub-floors, nothing but spare parts for the pods, which was shocking since there was no visible thing that could actually do repairs to the pods if they broke, that ended when they reached the last sub-floor, the reactor room, it had also a water purification room as well, which apparently was standard on all vaults.

Of course water was a mute point to a vault full of mummified beings that could exit the pods, let alone move.

"Why they would put a water supply to a place where most of its resident would be dead?" Maverick wondered.

"It was not for the residents" Sally began, drawing her Novasurge, "It was for the only resident around…Braun" Sally hissed, Maverick detected a lot of hostility from her by just mentioning that name, before she hadn't done nothing that hinted hate against Braun, but now…

"Sally?" Maverick asked.

"It is a long, painful story Maverick" Sally began, "One I will tell you once I deal with Braun" Sally stated, to Maverick it was obvious the hate Sally had for Braun, if not for her voice, it was for her posture, the way she was acting, whatever Braun had done to her family on the past, it was finally catching up with him, question was of course, what he had done to warrant Sally's apparent wrath.

As they walked to the last room, frustration was visible on Sally's face, it was obvious she was about to explode if she didn't found Braun, and he was also getting a little edgy, because if they didn't found Braun or the console used to restrict Sally's access, then his dad would be trapped on the pod, for good.

The last room was, like the rest, empty, Sally was ready to pull her hair off but was stopped by Maverick who made it to one of the walls, then tapped it 'lightly' on one of the edges.

'Lightly' meaning ramming his fist three times on the wall hard, Sally saw how the wall bended upon the impacts, much to Maverick's surprise.

"It's a fake wall" Maverick said, motioning Sally to him, "All vault rooms have concrete made walls with steel reinforcements on the other end, it is so close to each other that when you hit them hard enough you can hear the metal sound, only upper floor halls have pure concrete walls and sub-levels are pure metal walls, I think we have him" Maverick said.

"Nice, can you open it?" Sally asked, Maverick seemed to ponder it for some time, then he reached for the bended edges, and began to pull.

Sally took several steps back as she saw Maverick open the fake wall forcefully, the sound of groaning pistons trying to keep the wall closed was music to her ears, now it was just a matter of Maverick adding a little extra strength and the pistons would give in, and then the only thing separating Maverick of opening the fake wall would be the wall's own weight, which was considerable, but not enough to stop him.

Soon she saw how Maverick forced the wall open wide, and turned to her, a small smile directed to her, one she mimicked as she approached him and entered the hidden room.

"Hot damn" Sally began, seeing the massive computer on the other end of the room that occupied a whole wall, easily making her way to it, ignoring the glass like floor on her feet, Maverick didn't, and noted how steam was trapped on the other end of the glass floor, cables barely visible and covered in frost.

"Sally" Maverick called, "You do realize we are walking on a glass made floor, right?" he asked to the small genius.

"It is not glass, is Plexiglas" Sally called, reaching the massive computer, "Glass would have shattered with the difference of temperatures on both outside and inside" she stated.

"So…we are walking on plastic, swell"

"You should worry with what's under the Plexiglas Mavi, you think it was cold when you woke up in the space station, that is nothing compared down there" Sally said, turning to Maverick.

"The temperature below us is minus 50, below the freezing point, you stick your hand and I assure you mavi, you will have to scrape frozen skin so new one can grow back" Sally stated casually.

"…I can grow my skin back?" Maverick asked.

"Yeah, in case you actually get wounded, cellular tissue is stimulated to a hyper-accelerated rate by the nanites inside you, the wound close fast, in the matter of minutes, in case of serious wounds it can take an hour, unless the object that caused the trauma still remains" Sally said.

"But I have scars Sally, right where the Deathclaw took a sweep at me" Maverick said, pointing at the tri-linear scar of the Deathclaw claw on his face.

"It is different, I really don't know what the claws of those monsters are made, but they are sharp enough to cut you up and make think the nanites is too much of a wound to close, to scar tissue is made instead of healthy new tissue, fascinating"

"Well I guess they are Deathclaws for a reason" Maverick said, standing at Sally's side.

"That they are, I guess a Deathclaw and a cosmic knife are the only things that can outright hurt you, alongside gauss rounds" Sally said, working on the computer keyboard.

"Just three things?" Maverick asked.

"Yeah, radiation makes you stronger, the nanites feed on radiation, and we live on a really irradiated world, a mini-nuke would only make you stronger, I don't know if a EMP grenade would hurt you, since part of you is cybernetic" Sally added.

"I guess I don't wanna find out with a spinal cord made out of nanites" Sally nodded with a small smile on her lips, still working on the console.

A small silence descended over as Sally worked on the console, the typing of a keyboard being the only sound made.

"Sally" Maverick began, breaking the silence, "You seem to hate Braun, and don't try to deny it" Sally stopped working altogether, "What he did in your time that made you hate him so much?"

"…Do you really wanna know?" Sally asked, still looking at the massive computer, and resuming her work, "You have helped me in ways I can't even begin to thank you Maverick, you gave me back my freedom, my life…I guess is fair you know what Braun did to my family, to me" Sally said, stopping working again, and turning to face Maverick.

"Remember when I told you about mom? How we found her" Maverick nodded, "Buried under our home, barely holding herself to see us, thing was that she wasn't alone" Sally stated.

"That day we found another person in the house, his head crushed like an egg over the TV" Sally began, "That person was Braun's personal assistant, that asshole…that…bastard" Sally seemed to redden at the invocation of that day, growing angry, Maverick swore her blue eyes darkened and turned purple, if just for a second.

"Mom…mom told us that guy was there on Braun's behalf, looking for me and my sister" Sally said, "Before we were born, mom and dad had a turbulent relationship, apparently dad, on a night of drinks with his friends, ended up sleeping with his sergeant, a woman at that time, nothing happened, drunken one night stand, yet the guilt tore him, he told mom, and she…well at that time she worked on Vault-Tec, and she worked under Braun and…"

"Say no more, I get it" Maverick said.

"No you don't, you see, mom did slept with Braun, but neither Julia or I were product of that mistake, eventually mom and dad patched things up, then Julia was born, and three years later I was born, all was well, until Braun came one night, when I was eight" Sally hissed.

"Bastard basically demanded me and Julia, claiming we were his children, you see Braun is sterile, even if he wanted to he couldn't have children, eventually the Braun line ended with him, which was good for the world, but apparently the heads of Vault-Tec didn't like it one bit, they didn't want their wizard scientist lineage to die out, so they cooked this bullshit that Julia and I were his daughters, born out of two relationships with my mother, I would be bearing the name Braun if it wasn't for uncle House intervention" Sally said.

"Have you ever heard the term 'never bet against the house' well uncle House sure reminded them, DNA samples showed that we were in fact not the daughters of Braun, at that time I was small, I didn't give a damn about it, but Julia was big enough to understand, she explained to me once mom died, anyway" Sally continued.

"Back to my mom, we found her, her legs crushed under a support beam of the house, partially naked, with signs of struggle, and a bullet hole on her stomach, radiation, dust and general wounds had made her condition bad, the bastard, on Braun's command, went to our home, armed, hoping that with the end of the world, he could kill us all, then turn his attention of uncle House, the assistant however wanted more, he tried to rape mom, mom resisted, he shot her, and as she fell, the house fell on them, he died, mom agonized, when we found her she confessed, she confessed it all, and something else, something that killed us all, mom was pregnant again" Maverick grimaced at that, Sally slightly chocked on her words.

"I was going to be a big sister too, somehow Braun knew it, and got himself sure that not another House was born, and he succeeded, he killed my brother or sister, he killed mom, he killed dad" Sally there snarled, and turned to the console, working even harder than ever.

"And I want him dead for what he has done"

Maverick simply stood at Sally's side, eventually letting his hand rest on her shoulder, Sally sighed, slowing a little on her work, "Whenever Braun is involved, lives seem to be snuff out, the people he hates end up dead, or worse, broken, I can't let that happen again, if that man is truly alive in stasis…I have to end him, for the sake of the world…or what's left of it anyway" Maverick chuckled at that.

"I'm with you on this Sally, I hold him while you beat him up" he joked, Sally slightly smiled, then turned serious again, looking at the console, and narrowing her eyes.

"He know we are here, expect company, show no mercy" she said, immediately Maverick had turned around, pulling OWB and aiming it at the only entrance of the room, Sally working on the console behind him.

Eventually the company in question made itself know, two securitrons, they seemed new, surely also on their own charging stations and preserved until activated.

The two bots turned to Maverick; they didn't last long when he let out two shots at them, their torsos being torn apart by the super-sonic rounds.

"I'm in" Sally said.

"I dealt with the problems" Maverick added as he turned to Sally, looking at the console.

"I heard…well Braun is here, still living" Sally snarled, looking at the console and the amount of info appearing on the massive screen in front of them.

"Braun was the overseer of this vault, but some mail suggests he was involved in some sort of project outside the vault allotted parameters, an experiment of some sort" Maverick cursed when Sally spoke this.

"Dammit, I knew it, it couldn't be such a coincidence so many vaults failed and had odd ends, it was all an experiment…but for what" Maverick said, leaning to the console and resting his hands on the board itself.

"Don't know, the mails don't go into detail, but I see that Braun was directly responsible for the activations of the vaults, hell he even chose were to put them, but he seemed to take more interest on 112 and its residents" Sally said, suddenly bringing a mail on the screen.

"See this one, this is dated two years and a month before the great War, Braun demanded that every future resident of 112 were to gain at least 250 pounds of fat or they wouldn't be allowed entrance, so he knew about the side-effects of the pods" Sally muttered, brining then another mail, this one however was different.

"How odd" Maverick began, reading the mail, "It seems that Braun actually commissioned a fail-safe for the project, a kill-switch" Maverick added, turning to Sally.

"Read it all, it says that all pod users will be killed, Braun won't because of his executive status special protection, we use that and only Braun will live, the others, including your dad will die" Sally said, "Even more, Constantine Chase actually gave it the green light to install it…but under protest and stating that officially it was denied, the wonders of military eh?" Sally asked with a crooked grin, Maverick just shook his head.

"Can you get my dad from here?" he asked.

"Easy as pie, give me a second…done" Sally said with a smile, "Your dad is pulled out of the simulation, it is safe to pull him out of the pod without causing him damage, besides the fact he might be thinner than you remember" Maverick gave Sally a grateful smile, "Now to free this people, and the Enclave soldiers inside, of this torment" Sally said.

"YOU WILL NOT REMOVE MY PLAYTHINGS CHILD!"

Sally and Maverick recoiled at the sudden booming voice that echoed on the room, next thing Sally or Maverick knows is that the door behind them is closed shut, by itself, and the wall on their left begins to open, revealing another pod, one that had some sort of dish on the front, a glowing blue disk, the inside of the pod was darkened by what seemed mist emanating from within.

"Braun" Sally said, pulling Novasurge and aiming it at the pod, alongside Maverick, "You don't have any idea how much I have dreamed with killing you now"

"YOU DELUSIONAL, PETULANT CHILD, YOU THINK YOU'RE MY SUPERIOR? MY EQUAL? I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU AND YOUR FAMILY PERSONALLY INSTEAD OF SENDING MY FOOL OF A ASSISTANT"

"You took everything from me Braun, I'm about to return you the favor, with just one push of a button" Sally said with some edge of maniac glee.

"YOU WILL NOT DO SUCH A THING CHILD, I OWN YOU! YOUR LIFE, AND IN EXTEND THE LIFE OF EVERY PERSON OUTSIDE THE PODS IS MINE! MY VAULT! MY RULES!"

"You sound like Alphonse" Maverick hissed, "Sally, pull the plug, make the bastard suffer"

"With pleasure" she said as she turned to the console and began to type, Maverick had to suddenly recoil in shock when the pod that surely contained Braun's body began to sizzle with electricity, and something began to shake inside, like if something tried to exit the pod, then seized completely.

"…" Sally simply stared at the pod in disdain, rising her gun and firing a single round to the crystal, breaking it and causing to whatever was inside to suffer a great deal, this was confirmed when the smoke settled in, and exposed a writhed, old looking mummy like body, a burned hole on its stomach, cables connected all over the arms, legs and neck of the mummy, its face twisted in pain.

"My…child…" it spoke.

"I am not your child, and you're dead" she added, lifting her gun, and then firing.

Maverick and Sally didn't bate an eyelash as the mummified body of Stanislaus Braun was reduced to a green paste, the cables falling freely at the lack of a body.

"…It is done" Sally said with a solemn tone, lowering her gun, then turning to the computer, "Activating the kill-switch" she added, pressing a single button, she ended the life of over fifty doomed and very grateful people who had lived the nightmare fabricated by Braun.

"…I just passed control to one of the consoles in the atrium, I will be able to overload the core from there, plenty of time to grab your dad and run" sally said stoically.

"Sally…don't act tough, we both know that one thing is killing in self-defense, other is killing cold blood" Maverick said, seeing how Sally took a deep breath, it was ragged and slightly cracked.

"…it's not easy okay" Sally said, "You might think that I enjoy killing, considering all the shit I have seen, the aliens were butchers, the Great War was brutal, I saw too much, I guess at one point, killing someone would not affect me, I mercy killed of course, whenever I was able to leave my cell I would put down whoever I crossed my path, men, women, children, I became…a pint sized grim reaper, no feelings, no nothing, I became detached" she stated, turning to Maverick.

"I lasted a hundred years doing that, releasing anyone I crossed out of their misery, hell even some aliens, they weren't picky with who they experimented with" Sally said, slowly walking away.

"Then what changed?" Maverick wondered.

For a moment, Sally stopped, her hand over the closed door, "…I killed a baby" Sally said, her eyes haunted, Maverick could easily see the pain she held, the suffering, the agony of that action.

"It was held in tubes, tubes on his nose, mouth…under his skin, every time he cried he bled, every time he opened his eyes…there were only sockets…that baby was experimented with the same procedure that gave you the unbreakable bones, on an adult, fully developed, it is either life or death, but on a baby…developing, growing, it was agony, pure agony" Sally, much to Maverick's shock, shed just one tear.

"He was hooked to life support, it was just a matter of…disconnecting and tearing the cables, to ensure he wouldn't suffer anymore and no one would connect him anymore" Sally whispered, "It was my last mercy kill…until today" Sally added, feeling Maverick's hand on her shoulder, she leaned on him for comfort, the one thing she never had during those days.

"Let's get out of here; I'm sick of this place"

---

Pain, his body was not indifferent to pain, a life on the wasteland, between raiders, scavengers, super mutants, the physical, and the ache of seeing colleagues and loved ones die in front of him without being able to do nothing to stop it and seeing how his dreams slip away like the sand of the wasteland on his fingertips, the ones of the heart and soul, it was a wonder why he never turned to be a drunk and beat his son just to let some steam out.

But he knew better, he was better, he was raised on a vault before, but was forced to leave it, but the lessons inside went with him for life, and Catherine's own influence alongside his son own morals had cemented his own moral standing, but not the habit of gamble it all on a last, dare roll of the dices.

Apparently, like last time, it had nearly killed him, but it had paid off, Braun had confirmed his suspicious, a fully functional GECK would be able to complete the missing link that prevents the dirty water to become pure water.

Then Braun captured him in a dog's body, a dog's body of all things! While it surely gave life a new perspective, and he enjoyed the life of a dog, licking himself included, he had a mission to complete, but Braun was like a god on his VR simulation, he was pretty sure he was trapped for life there, until he felt himself slip away, and see Braun's avatar in the VR, a little girl, being torn apart by invisible forces.

That's the last thing he remembers anyway, as for now he felt in pain, but fine, he did felt a little lighter, but overall he was alive, which was good, with a groan he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the dull grey roof, with pre-war propaganda stuck on flaps on the sides of the roof, with rails on the ceiling as well, second he felt motion, like jerking, the third was the slight hum of a sound, something he tried to pinpoint, but was unable to remember well, groaning he slowly sat up, holding his sides in slight pain.

"Maverick! He's awake!" James groaned as he heard that scream, it was feminine and obviously of a child, he groaned even more when the jerking motion stopped abruptly, alongside the small hum of the sound of an engine, something he hadn't heard for a long time, back in his childhood.

As his sight focused well enough, he turned around, spotting a small blond girl, seated on a worn out bus leather seat, looking at him directly on the eyes, a small smile on her face, looking even further he saw two…NCR soldiers? They were seated on the front of the vehicle, one sleeping apparently, the other looking outside via the window, a large sniper rifle held on his hands.

Then he looked even further forward, seeing a woman in ragged robes, he could see the outlines of armor platting under her ragged robes, she looked like a pre-war beggar, if you ignore the power fist on her hands, then he saw the last person on the group, seated on the driver's seat, and as the man stood up, James felt elation and dread.

His son, his little maverick, there he was, clad in the same uniform a desert ranger, but black, his face bore a tri-linear scar like claw, but he was still Maverick, the same eyes, the same hair, the same smile.

"Dad" Maverick spoke, approaching him with some trepidation, James didn't blame him, he had pretty much left him without any kind of info or good reason, of course his own son was anxious but wary of welcoming him.

"My son" James said, slowly standing up, but before he could even move, Maverick was on him, hugging him, he sensed that Maverick was holding on his hug, usually he could feel how the blood on his arms to stop when he hugged him.

"Dad" Maverick said, slowly releasing of the hug, and holding him firmly by the shoulders, looking at him squarely in the eyes.

"You got some explaining to do mister" the blond girl said, slowly pulling a plasma gun, and holding it loosely.

James felt he should have stayed in the pod.

---

there you go people, another chapter done and gone, longer thatn took me, and taking some examples of other writers, i was able to correct some of my most glaring mistakes, like the one people didn't knew who was talking.

anyway I hope you have liked the chapter, the small button under these words is meant to you guys let me know what you liked and didn't like, so use it with abandon, don't hold back, let me know what you think.

till a next time people, Hypn0s signs off.