AN: Sorry that this took so long to make, this is what I get for trying to keep track with four stories at once. It's like an anime with a harem plot: good and all in theory, messy and often murderous in reality.
Nevertheless, this story is not dead and is, in fact, still alive. Sorry if I couldn't update any sooner.
Comments:
Guest: Well... it was already part of the game when I wrote this.
edboy4926: Fallout 4 is good, but not great. Compare it to the other two and it is easily dwarfed in terms of plot and lore.
King Edgar: Goddammit Edgar, not again.
The Baz: James won't just abandon the Capital Wasteland just to catch up with his brother. To James, duty comes before family.
And you're right, gotta include Lily in there somewhere.
Betabomber: Pretty much, and sure.
Now, onto the story!
AD VICTORIAM!
I own neither Fallout or RWBY.
"A strange game... the only winning move is not to play."
-War Games (1983); on the subject of total Nuclear War.
Chapter 3: Two Sides; Same Coin
September 30th, 2284.
Enclave Vault, somewhere in Delaware.
James watched as the vault door before him slid back before slowly revolving open, revealing the first room of the base. The man cautiously stepped into the vault's entrance, the boots of his power armor touching cold steel as his eyes scanned through the dusty area around him. The Lone Wanderer lowered his laser rifle before raising his hand and flicking his hand forward, two fingers raised and pointed to the hallway, "All clear."
"Hmph, was itchin' for a fight, Jamie-boy," Butch replied, lowering his 10mm submachine gun and holstering it on his hip, "Now what? We just mosey on in and hope for the best?"
"Doubt it," the Lone Wanderer responded, handing Butch a Radaway pack, "But even if there was, we have to be careful for any unwanted surprises. Understand?"
The 'Tunnel Snake' paused for a brief moment before nodding, "Yeah, I gotcha. Want me to get the others while you're snooping around?"
"Yes, just be careful with Clover, she can be a bit... handsy."
"Buddy, I ain't complainin' with 'handsy'," Butch shook his head before walking away.
After he had gathered all of his companions, the man had made his way to the Citadel to be debriefed on his mission. What both surprised and unnerved him was when he got there, seeing the changes within management. Many had grown used to seeing Fawkes walking about the place, though some were a bit on the twitchy side as they were revealed to be Brotherhood Outcasts. Eventually, James found out that Sarah Lyons had been killed in battle, replaced by a younger, more driven leader, one he had known when the boy wasn't even a teenager at the time.
This boy's name was Arthur Maxson.
Arthur had explained that a vault had been discovered just on the outskirts of Delaware, sending a distress signal that used terminology that was awfully similar to Enclave code. Before any measures could be taken, Arthur had instead decided to use someone with a... special skillset in dealing with the Enclave. Presumably one who had led the Brotherhood on an assault against the soldiers who had taken residence in the Jefferson Memorial, leading a giant nuke-throwing robot alongside him.
With an individual with such influence as that, he would be a suitable candidate to investigate this anomaly. With Jay out of the question, James was chosen, as well as those that accompanied him throughout the twins' journey throughout the Capital Wasteland.
After their conversation had ended, Maxson had left him with one last thing to say before James could leave.
"Ad Victoriam," the boy had said, the jagged scar across his face making him appear much older than he seemed to be.
In all honesty, James had a feeling that the Brotherhood would prosper under his leadership. It seemed that Arthur had an air of command surrounding him ever since his accomplishments had been brought to the Lone Wanderer.
Nevertheless, they had been given two day's worth of preparations before they can depart, so they made the best of scrounging about the wasteland for any ammunition that might serve well on the trip. Though the eight-day journey was tough and perilous, they had managed to make it with little injury, having to face the occasional raider or feral ghoul every now and then.
James looked down to see Dogmeat beside him, the canine panting before yawning and closing it's mouth, looking up at the man with curious eyes.
"Come on, Dogmeat, we got work to do," he said, the servos in his suit whirring as he treaded through the empty room and into the next, having to first hack into a terminal and input the correct password. The man waited as the rest of his group finally caught up with the two.
The first to greet them was Charon, with the rest of the group following close behind, shotgun clutched in both hands, "Alright boss, what's the plan?"
"You and Cross'll scout ahead of us. If there's anything hostile, shoot it. If there's anything that looks even a bit important, you bring it to me," James motioned to the ghoul.
"I don't mean to question your plan, boss," Charon responded, motioning to the Star Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel who was standing nearby, "But I doubt the smoothskin in the tin suit'll play nice with someone of my... appearances."
The Star Paladin only stepped forward, glancing at the ghoul before turning to the Lone Wanderer, "Don't worry, James, I'll work along with the ghoul. As long as he can keep up."
"Good," he said before turning to the rest of the group, "Alright, this applies to all of you as well. Each of you will be split up into groups before heading deeper into the vault. Dogmeat and Butch will follow after and take an alternate route, along with Fawkes and Jericho, and Clover and RL-3 doing the same. Is that understood?"
There was a short murmur across the group, though some didn't bother complaining.
"I'll take that as a yes," James turned and headed towards a flight of stairs heading up, "Once everything's said and done, we regroup at the entrance and explain our findings. If there's anyone still living in this vault, do not open fire unless they attack first... unless one of them has a Fatman aimed at you, by all means, go right ahead."
Even Jericho had to stifle a laugh at that little humorous bit.
"What about you, handsome?" Clover's lips parted to reveal a set of teeth to match the grinning smile of a bloodthirsty raider, or Jericho for that matter, "While the rest of us are poking about like it's nobody's business, what're you doin'?"
"I have to head to the Overseer's office and see what info I can pull from this place. If I'm right, then their office might be the most fortified as well," the Lone Wanderer shifted his rifle in his hands slightly, "Someone's gotta do the hard job."
"Good luck, James, I hope you come back safe," Fawkes nodded at the man, who returned his action with a mock salute.
James watched as the group disappeared further into the tunnels. The Lone Wanderer brought up his Pip-Boy to eye level and switching to the map of the Vault, this assumed safe haven for the Enclave. The map seemed to have only shown a long zigzag of hallways, an intricate maze to rival that of the Greek protagonist Daedalus' Labyrinth, but in reality, it also revealed a shortcut to the Overseer's office, a hidden walled off area marked only by a set of dotted lines across a narrow hallway.
If he finds the hidden path, he'll find the shortcut.
"Alright, Vault 4," the Lone Wanderer said to himself, "Let's see what secrets you have hiding for me," the man made his way up the stairs, the steps creaking underneath the weight of his power armor before disappearing into the hallway.
-oOo-
September 30th, 2284.
Enclave Fortification, somewhere in California.
For only a matter of seconds, Arcade Gannon's hands danced across the keyboard of the security system's computers before entering the final command. The door creaked for only a few seconds before finally opening, "Alright, Jack, we're in."
Jack strode beside the doctor before clapping and hand onto the man's shoulder, "Nice to know I can always rely on your skills, Arcade."
"Oh really? I always assumed that you were just bringing me along for my good looks and flirtatious demeanor," the youngest Enclave Remnant deadpanned, though it was a bit hard to tell with his Tesla armor covering his body.
Good thing Jack was an avid listener.
"Well, that's one of the perks," the Courier snarked back before tapping a button on the side of his helmet, the lenses on his helmet flashed into a bright green, "And now you're sure that this is the place, right?"
"Have I ever been wrong?"
"I can count some of the mistakes you've made on our little misadventures on one hand, and those are only the errors you've made when you know I was directly watching."
"On second thought, there's always such thing as a human error," the good doctor hastily replied before resuming his previous composure, "But yes, I'm sure. We used the old Enclave base near Jacobstown, the geographical map on the Remnant's repaired vertibird, and a jury-rigged ham radio at the Enclave's old base near an oil rig to triangulate the position of the distress beacon. The beacon itself had gone a bit haywire and bounced all over the place, before we were able to pinpoint where it was coming from."
The Courier looked up at the building: a mid-sized two-story gunmetal grey building leading to an upwards floor. Rust lined the edges of the steel that made up the buildings structuring, exposed by dull ash-colored brick. Despite that fact that the building had a floor above the main one, Jack knew that there was more to it than that. Because as far as he's known for quite a while: the most valuable items hide away in the most hard-to-reach spots... speaking with experience due to Sierra Madre's gold, Randall Clark's armor and rifle from Zion, just about everything in Big Mountain and the Divide, seeing as the entire place had everything hard to reach anyway with just about everything wanting to kill you in that hellhole.
Besides, Enclave loved hiding things away in big mountainous layers of dirt, gravel, and rock. Take the Enclave Remnants' bunker and Raven Rock for instance.
Jack nodded as he processed what Arcade had told him, "Fair enough. While I go get the others, I'll need you to go inside and see if you can dig up any information on this place."
His only response was the man removing the plasma rifle from his back and holding the weapon in both hands, giving the Courier a subtle nod before progressing inside. Meanwhile, Jack spun on his heels and headed back towards an abandoned gas station just not too far ahead, meeting up with his other companions and a small platoon of Samaritan troopers.
When the Courier had arrived to the Enclave bunker near Jacobstown, the Remnants had explained that a distress call had been made just several days ago for unknown reasons. Jack, being the good Samaritan that he was, decided to take it upon himself to do their job for them. So he asked for Arcade's assistance in bringing together the rest of the group; Rex was already with the Kings, Boone was busy overlooking the rest of the Samaritans, ED-E was wandering Primm, Lily was herding bighorners in Jacobstown, Raul was in his shack repairing some appliances every now and then, Cass was at the NCR embassy in Vegas, while Veronica was in the old hidden bunker housing the west chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel.
Afterwards, Boone was ordered to bring a group of what he could consider the finest troops from the Lucky 38's security, choosing a total of thirteen just to play it safe.
What? It payed well to be overprepared for such a situation.
"Did it work?" Veronica, who had been sitting on a broken vending machine that had fallen on it's side, asked.
"Worked like a charm, Elder Santangelo," Jack winked at her before pulling off his helmet and setting both it and his rifle, Medicine Stick, to the side before straightening up and turning to the rest of the group.
The hooded girl inhaled sharply, glaring at the man with a look of irritation, "You really know how much I hate it when you call me that?"
Jack only proceeded to grin at her before turning to the rest of the group, "I'm sure you already know, old sport."
Though the Courier had his back turned, he already knew she was childishly pouting at his response, though that didn't matter right now.
Sometime after the Brotherhood of Steel's incident with the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, Jack managed to pull enough strings and favors to instate Veronica as Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel after treachery had been committed against Elder McNamara regarding an incident with Head Paladin Hardin. So far, there hasn't been much change, due to the Brotherhood's stubborn ideals, but she was making progress.
"So the area is secure?" Boone asked, standing in front of the rest of the platoon with his arms crossed over his chest and his rifle hanging from his back.
"As far as Arcade can tell, the place is safer than Sierra Madre's vault," Jack confirmed, motioning with his head to the aforementioned building.
"So what's the plan?" Cass asked, the dear Whiskey Rose of John Cassidy leaning against the wall, her rifle lying on the wall adjacent to her.
"Simple: we go in and see what's causing that distress call. If there's nothin' inside worth our time, we mosey on out of here; if there's people in there that need our help, we can oblige to assist them; if there's anything that we can benefit from, we take it if it don't belong to anyone; if it turns out to be nothing more than a raider den, well... Lily, you can explain what we do to raiders."
The Nightkin standing next to Boone only grinned maliciously, "I won't need Leo anymore to tell me who to chop with those bad people, dearie."
As soon as she said that, almost everyone, save for Boone and ED-E, decided to shift away from the Super Mutant grandmother.
"Well, aside from our friend's psychopathic intentions with raiders, your plan is pretty straightforward," Raul spoke up, the ghoul vaquero shifting his weight onto his other foot as he motioned to the building with a nod, "But I doubt that the place is packing anything interesting, if the building wasn't picked clean by prospectors already."
Jack turned and looked at ED-E when the eyebot gave off a series of blips and whirs within it's audio system, the Courier then responded to the both of them,"You both have good points, but I doubt that prospectors would find any use what they could consider pieces of scrap metal when they don't even know what to do with it or how it even works. As for you, ED-E, even if it's just a raider base, we'd be doing New Vegas a favor if we went in there anyway."
The Courier then turned to the group of Samaritans behind Boone, each of which had been doing their own thing until his voice had their attention, "Alright, ladies and gents, you have no idea how glad I am to know that y'all have decided to travel with us. Though I have to warn you, this place might be packed with anything that bring the hurt on any of us if we give them the chance. So I ask again, if there's anyone that wants the back out, no one will fault you."
Jack looked among the platoon of his makeshift militia to see the faces of men and women belonging to various backgrounds among the Mojave: people just looking for work, ghouls that had no other way of getting a job, Khans that couldn't part with the Mojave and joined the one who helped bring his old people to the metamorphosis of a great empire; hell, Jack even saw a Super Mutant from Black Mountain in the group.
He listened as the group shifted about uneasily before one stepped forward, an aged man with graying hair holding what many dubbed the "Cowboy Repeater", "Sir, I think I speak fer all of us when I say that we know that we were signin' up to get ourselves into a helluva lotta trouble. I say this for all of us when I say that we'd probably follow you into the gates of hell if it means comin' back out and sayin', 'Now I got a fine story to tell you back when I worked for the Courier himself.'. So no, I doubt that anyone feels like backing out, right boys and girls?"
Jack grinned proudly while Boone couldn't help but smirk as the men and women dressed in the armor of the Samaritans yelled enthusiastically, "Now, if that don't get the blood pumpin', I don't know what does."
It was a sound decision to have Boone train the Samaritans.
The man looked to the rest of his comrades, "Alright now, we have to catch up with the good doctor and help him find out what's causin' that there distress call, you with me?"
"Of course," Boone nodded, unslinging the rifle from his back and into his hands.
"Don't worry, I can keep up," Cass said, pushing herself off of the wall and standing upright on both feet.
Veronica stood up from the vending machine and started to readjust her power fist until the right modifications have been made, "Beats doing paperwork with the Brotherhood of Steel all day."
ED-E responded by playing "Ride of the Valkyries" for a few brief seconds before whirring in agreement.
"I've always wanted to go traveling, sweetie," Lily said, popping the bones in her knuckles, "We should do this more often."
"Though I'm sure pretty we're rushing towards our deaths, it's good to see we're doing this with enthusiasm," Raul sarcastically responded, checking the state of his revolver before spinning the chamber and holstering his gun.
Rex was the last to respond, barking ecstatically before pawing at the ground with his mechanical foot.
"Glad to see you guys are still as able as ever," Jack responded, placing his helmet over his head and picking up Medicine Stick before looking at the building ahead of them, "Now, let's see what's sending that distress beacon."
-oOo-
"So what's with the kid?" Jericho asked, his Chinese Assault rifle pointed directly into the dim hallway ahead of him.
"I don't understand your question," Fawkes replied, following behind the former raider.
"Huh, figures, never thought a mutie would understand," the man sneered before turning the corner, revealing another hall lined with several doors on either side. Jericho tapped a button on the wall and watched as the door on his left slid open. The man spotted cabinet and a set of terminals beside it, "This looks... important."
The Super Mutant watched as the man began to scavenge whatever was in the terminals, removing a holodisk and inserting it into the terminal. Fawkes glared at the raider, this former... wrongdoer, yet at the same time, he chose to assist James and Jay during their previous journeys. The raider was a complete paradox to what Fawkes stood for.
"Haha! Score!" Jericho cried out, pulling out a bottle of aged liquor from the cabinet, the man then proceeded to uncork the bottle with a knife and down nearly half of it's contents in only seconds, "Well, doesn't get any better than this."
Fawkes couldn't help but sigh at the man's actions, "Is there anything worth noting in that terminal?"
Jericho only shrugged, "Beats me, fuckin' kid didn't ask for specifics. All he said was whatever looked important, so I thought this looked important."
The Super Mutant only proceeded to kneel over to the terminal and read whatever was on-screen, "Hmm... Jericho, these are records for kitchen supplies to be transported to the Vault's mess hall."
"A what?"
"A kitchen."
"Hmm?"
Fawkes gave the raider an incredulous stare for a few brief seconds, "Nevermind."
"Whatever you say, a man's gotta enjoy the finer things in life," the man only continued to lean into the wall and down the rest of the bottle before tossing it aside, which then proceeded to shatter as soon as it made contact with the floor.
Fawkes tapped at the keys with his enlarged fingers, straining to read the small print in the terminal as he spotted the words 'Classified information' at the bottom. He then pushed the keys down until it hovered just over the words. Fawkes growled to himself as he tapped 'Enter', only to be locked out.
"Havin' trouble?" Jericho managed to stumble over next to the Super Mutant, "Here, lemme see, this is a little trick Jay taught me when we were hunting down ghouls in a locked down section of the Metro. Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks."
The Super Mutant took a step back as the raider began to type away at the keyboard, the screen began to jumble up into several lines of code before the icons began to light up in various orders. After some time, Jericho walked back to the wall he had been leaning on, "All done, read it and weep, mutie."
Fawkes leaned over once more to get a closer look at what Jericho had just unlocked, his eyes scanning quickly across the tiny text, "Hmm... interesting..."
"What the fuck is it?" the man complained, "Make it a surprise, why don'tcha?"
The taller of the two glanced at the former raider before responding, "These are schematics for some sort of transportation device, a machine meant to transport materials from this Vault over to a bunker in... California? Perhaps James could read into it better."
"So we're done here? All we gotta do is bring this back to the egghead and we're golden?" Jericho queried, raising an eyebrow in concern.
The Super Mutant looked away and held back an irritated growl before turning back, "I suppose so. I think that this would seem important enough for James."
"Alright, let's get to it then, mutie," Jericho sneered at the giant before picking up his rifle and walking back into the hallway with Fawkes following close behind, "You see how easy it was? Just one room and we find somethin' worth taking to the little tyke."
Fawkes' eye twitched slightly, his hands itching to reach for his super sledge... at this point, he's considering giving up and pulverizing the man's head with it until there was nothing left but a bloody stump and brain matter.
Though that would only make him appear as uncivilized if the Meta-human brained the man for just being a dick. Given the circumstances, it would only proceed to make the situation even worse, if there was anything hostile within the vault worth noting.
In the meantime, they had something important in their possession, and James needs to see it for himself.
-oOo-
Jack Fitz pulled open the casing to a nearby power box, running his fingers across the multi-colored knobs before getting to work on the lights. The Courier paused for a brief moment as he heard footsteps behind him, only to see Arcade walking back into the main room with the rest of the group, carrying a large radio with both hands.
[Repair 100/85] After a little bit of manipulation behind the electronics, courtesy of a few little tricks he learned back in his time in the Capital Wasteland, he managed to activate the power to the main floor.
The man sometimes wondered what the Mojave would be like if he had just stayed in the Capital Wasteland. If he had to guess, the stalemate would be even longer than it should've gone on.
Sounded fun.
"To quote scripture: Fiat Lux," Arcade hummed as he looked at the flickering lights that proceeded to then give out, only for the Courier to lightly tap his fist against the power box and watch it come back to life again, "Well... sort of."
"Let there be light," Jack repeated before standing back up with Maria gripped in his left hand, "Well, that seems to be working well."
"So... how's this gonna work out? Are we going to be splitting up or what?" Cass asked, placing her hands on her hips and waiting for the man's response.
"On the contrary, my dear Whiskey Rose," the Courier spun around and faced the woman with a smirk playing about on his lips before hardening into a more serious expression, "We're all sticking together, if there's anything dangerous here, say... a giant irradiated alpha deathclaw, it would be harder for it to pick us off if we were in a large group, rather than just collection of smaller groups that could easily be picked out one by one."
"Are you just paranoid, or do we need Boone to keep you from watching slasher holotapes again?" Veronica asked, earning a look from the sniper not too far away, "Because there's a bit too much imagination going on in your brain for something like that to be lounging around in a narrow cramped hallway."
"Anyways," Fitz started, completely deciding to ignore Veronica's question, earning a small annoyed huff from the girl, "Arcade, did you find anything worth noting in the complex?"
"Hmm?" the man hummed in confusion before realizing that the man was talking to him, he then removed a folded bundle of laminated white paper from his lab coat, "Oh yeah, yeah, I found some schematics over in one of the lower areas' records room. They were locked within a safe, but I managed to get it open with extreme precision."
"What did you use?"
"A ripper," Arcade admitted, "Though only the safe was harmed, seeing as these plans were the only thing inside."
"So we basically came all the way here for paperwork?" Raul asked, "Sounds like my old job in accounting when I was a kid."
"No, the plans are secondary, we still have that distress call to worry about," Jack said, pointing at the door leading down further into the complex.
"Yeah... about that," the young Enclave Remnant started, scratching the top of his head, a nervous tic, "I kind of found the 'beacon'."
They watched as the man tapped a gloved finger on the radio he had brought earlier, "This is the device that was causing all of our trouble."
"Huh... I expected it to be bigger," Cass said.
"Is that what you tell all the men?" answered a dry and raspy voice.
Everyone froze as they turned to the source of response given to Cass with widened eyes (save for ED-E, Lily, and Rex).
No one would've expected Boone of all people to even have the regard to answer her, or even the dignity to reply with that statement.
"Wow... Boone, are you alright? Do you have rad sickness or something, because I think I can take care of that if you want," Arcade shook his head incredulously, refusing to believe that such a hard-assed soldier would even have a sense of humor.
"I'm fine," Boone said, his smirk disappearing into his constantly neutral expression.
And there it is again.
"Ouch, soldier-boy, I think I felt that one in my soul," the girl chuckled before clapping a hand onto the man's shoulder, "But to be honest, no, I don't."
The rest of the group was in an uproar of laughter as soon as they realized that Cass had decided to let the man's comment slide, deciding that what he had said was, in fact, pretty damn funny.
The Courier only shook his head in amusement before turning to Arcade, "Alright, humorous moment aside. If that radio was the cause of this, who turned it on?"
"That's just the thing, Jack. It turned on by itself," the Enclave Remnant responded, deciding to explain further as the Courier raised an eyebrow in concern, "My best guess is, whoever made the message probably set it to start after a certain date."
"Is there a reason why he would choose this date?" Veronica asked, "I mean, there has to be reason why he or she would choose September 30th of all days."
Jack only shook his head before walking towards the same place Arcade had just come back from, "There probably doesn't need to be a rhyme nor reason for why. For all we know, it just is what it is. And I reckon that if they would decide to play their message on an encrypted channel for all of the Enclave to hear, then it must be pretty damn important."
Arcade nodded before placing the laminated plans on a table for everyone to see, "You're right. The papers here show of a machine that can be used to transport materials between two places instantaneously. It's similar to those stories you told us about Big MT, you remember that, right?"
"Unfortunately," the Courier's hand traced along the lines of his surgical scars, "So it's basically the same?"
The scientist only shook his head, "No, it has the same concept, only this is far more primitive. From what I can tell, these can only transport materials between two fixed points in an area. And from the reports I've read so far, there haven't been any trials for transporting living organisms due to complications with scheduling."
"Really? And where is this other fixed point?"
"From the coordinates given on paper, I'd say it's on the other side of the old United States," Arcade answered.
The Courier flinched slightly at the revelation, knowing what the Enclave Remnant had just provided to him, "What a startling coincidence. Another Enclave base is on the other side of the world, otherwise known as Washington DC, or the Capital Wasteland, as I'd like to put it. That Enclave wasn't as friendly as the Remnants today, just wanted to tell you."
Arcade readjusted his glasses, "Makes sense, the Enclave would want another start, using a fresh slate for any of their projects by literally going across the world so the man who finished destroyed their old oil rig base would be as far away from them as possible."
Everyone was then taken by surprised when Lily decided to speak.
"I heard Marcus talking about that. A tribal from a place called Arroyo, named the Chosen One, right?"
Arcade shook his head, "I wouldn't know, honestly. But I guess it makes sense."
He then turned to the Courier, "Jack, I don't usually say this because I believe that tampering with super-secret Enclave tech isn't exactly a good idea, but just this once, I think that the Mojave, as well as any other wasteland in the United States, could actually benefit from this."
Fitz raised an eyebrow in concern, "If you don't mind explaining...?"
"Not at all," the man shook his head, "I was just saying if we can manage to get in contact with other civilizations that could've sprung up over the last two-hundred years, we could broker trading deals, possibly benefit from either exchange."
The Courier was starting to understand what the man was saying. It seemed a little ludicrous in theory, though it might be able to work if actually applied. Usually it's the other way around, but there were times when luck would decide to throw Jack a bone and flip it for his benefit.
Curse the damned 1 on his Luck statistic in the SPECIAL category of his Pip-Boy! He's managed to make it this far without Lady Luck looking over his shoulder. It was really liberating the more he thought about it.
"So what you're saying is that you plan on using that there machine, reverse engineer it to make more, then proceed to place fixed points within certain regions of the old world where there's civilization, more than likely for trading purposes, I reckon?"
"Of course."
"Well, that does sound like an idea I can get behind..." Jack stroked his chin lightly with his thumb and index finger, "But there's a downside as well."
This time, Boone decided to finish the man's thought, "If this machine can transport people instantaneously, can't there be a chance that a transporter could be compromised before sending soldiers like, say... the Legion into another region without warning. They'd be easy pickings for anyone with that kind of plan."
"We can make the proper modifications for it to send non-living objects," Veronica piped in, "Another idea would also be for this transportation machine to be unable to move items such as timed explosives, active robots, or anything similar. I'm sure I can convince a couple scribes from the Brotherhood to begin helping for this should it ever happen."
Jack tilted his head to the side, looking up in consideration, "Alright, I guess our work just ain't over yet. We'll see if we can get that machine operational for a test run, strip it down piece by piece and haul it back to the Mojave for reverse-engineering."
The Courier then turned to the vaquero ghoul just across the room, "Raul, you ready to put those engineer hands to work, hombre?"
Raul only shook his head, "Besides your shit Spanish, I'd be more than happy to, boss."
"Then what're we waiting for?" the man looked to the rest of the people around him, "Let's get to it!"
Jack turned to see Lily cracking a devilish (though not intentionally malicious) smile at him, turning to the door and bouncing the over-sized knapsack on her back for better comfort.
"Ow!" the... bag said?
Courier Six looked at the aged Nightkin in concern, "Lily?"
She refused to look him in the eye, "Yes... sweetie?"
"What's in the bag?"
"Oh, nothing, probably just molerats getting into the bag again."
"I doubt molerats can just say 'ow'. Let me ask a different question: who's in the bag?"
Lily only removed the bag from her back and set it on the floor, loosening the strings before a figure rose out of the bag; revealing a young girl wearing an armored vault suit and a Pip-Boy 3000. The whole room was silent as they stared at the girl's sudden appearance.
"Uh... hey there!"
"Melody!?"
-oOo-
James looked at the plans on his Pip-Boy as soon as he had returned to meet up with the rest of his group, rereading the information given to him by Fawkes and Jericho. His eyes constantly scanning along the bright and small green text on the screen, a look of bewilderment and surprise ruling his expression.
This... this changes things! For the first time, long-ranged teleportation was actually possible. The scientific part of his brain, the one region that excelled the most in this kind of subject due to his father's personal teachings were firing off on all cylinders. Oh, imagine the possibilities that could be made with this kind of knowledge, with transportation of materials across vast areas of land being only the forefront of his mind.
His small group watched as he looked at Jericho, "And you're absolutely sure that this is legitimate?"
The man scoffed and looked to Fawkes, "How the fuck should I know? I only unlocked the terminal for big, green, and ugly over there."
Fawkes growled in irritation at the man only to then turn to the Lone Wanderer, "The notes only said something about this machine just a floor above this Vault's reactor room."
James hefted his rifle, "Then that's where we're headed."
"Commander! Requesting permission to speak!" the old Mister Gutsy asked, earning the attention of the robot's 'commanding officer'.
"You never needed permission, Sergeant," James deadpanned, but otherwise did not break attention. The robot continued to stay silent for only a few brief seconds.
"That means you're allowed to speak, numb-nuts," Jericho hit the top of hovering robot's head with the butt of his gun, only for the machine to then point it's flamethrower at him, but other did not fire at him.
"Thank you, sir! What I've been meaning to ask is: What about this distress beacon?" RL-3 queried, "You said that it was what lead us here? I want to know what happened to the sorry bastards that lived in this place."
James nodded, beginning a slow pace around the room, "Good question. I already searched for the Overseer's office to see that the beacon had been set on a timer before going off, so as far as I know, no one's inside. Turns out that the Overseer had planned for the Enclave residents to evacuate the vault as soon as the plans made by President Eden have concluded. Though since the Enclave failed in their mission, they turned to a more... alternative solution."
"Such as?" Cross asked.
"Well, there've been tales of the Enclave going all the way back to places such as California. My theory is that they've used their transporter, despite the lack of human trials, to take them somewhere else to reconnect with another Enclave chapter. Whether they're actually alive is unknown.
"My plan is to make our way to this machine and see if we can get it up and running. Since there have only been successes with non-living objects, I would send a machine to investigate. Sergeant, would you be up to the task?"
"I'd be more than dee-lighted, sir!" the Mister Gutsy snapped to attention, "Anyone lookin' like a devil-faced sunovabitch will be logged 'n reported back, then I'll be more than happy to warm up the guns for what's to come next, commander!"
James gave the floating robot a hidden smirk, "Love the enthusiasm, sergeant. Now, let's head on down and get a look at what we're dealing with."
-oOo-
Melody followed alongside Jack as they made their way down the complex, each of them clearing a room to make sure there wasn't anything particularly dangerous before moving onto the next. The young adolescent shouldered her modified hunting rifle (thanks to Boone) and carried on, listening to the steady footsteps of the Samaritans, the pattering of Rex's paws, and the heavy and sluggish thuds of Lily Bowen, her vertibird-bladed sword hefted onto her shoulder.
The girl was a little upset, but never reluctant to serve alongside her adoptive father. The man had taught her almost everything she's needed to survive: hand-to-hand combat using training from the NCR, Khans, and the Legion when he had gone to hear the words of the 'mighty' Caesar; surviving off of the land, training with almost every weapon he let her get her hands on (though she wasn't allowed to touch Maria or A Light Shining In Darkness for personal reasons), explosives was... still to be taken care of, knowledge in the study of Science! and medicine that would put the high school graduates of New Reno to shame.
The Think Tank was a little too enthusiastic with being given permission by Jack to teach her. She still remembers Klein getting his brain stuck in the latrine after being convinced that it lead to Mobius' Forbidden Zone, Borous treating her a little bit too... canine-y due to his only experience of relationships being with Gabe, Doctor 8 being all too eager to try to teach 'sound appreciation' (most of it being being an amalgamation of different harmonic noises), Doctor O- oops, Doctor 0trying to educate her in robotics (key word being trying), while Dala just kept referring to her as "the Teddy Bear's cub" (much to her embarrassment).
In the end, however, it was The Sink's personality modules (yes... even the Toaster, to her chagrin) that taught her a majority of her education more than those floating brains could hope to achieve. Funny that a bunch of everyday appliances with personality chips managed to teach her more about science than five people with actual degrees in Science!.
Now that she had thought more of Jack, AKA Courier Six, she had almost every right to call him her father. Though the Courier wouldn't have agreed to it and was instead forced into the role, he still did a hell of a lot better than a majority of parents in the wasteland. Sure, he can be a bit of a hardass, and a smartass... and a jackass, but she still looked up to him with pride.
As for what happened, when Jack had discovered that Melody had been stowing away in Lily's supply bag over the trip without anyone's knowledge (save for Lily herself), she had been given a stern lecture over the dangers of traveling outside of the Mojave, especially if it had anything to do with the Enclave. Immediately after, he asked if she had a weapon, Melody replied 'yes', so Jack told her to arm herself before telling her to stick close to him before descending further into the building's underground complex.
But nevertheless, she knew that he enjoyed the role of being a father and mentor, relying on the rest of his friends as a surrogate family ('Uncle' Boone and Arcade, 'Grandma' Lily, 'Aunt' Veronica and Cass, 'Cousin' ED-E, so on and so forth). So far, his only gift to her at the time was a weathered 10mm pistol that she had treasured ever since, while Boone had given her his old hunting rifle, instead taking up his old Gobi Campaign rifle once more in memory of his wife.
Yeah, it hurt Melody a bit too to see Boone do such a thing.
"Alright, we're here," Jack's low voice broke the silence. The entire group had slowly trudged through a dimly-lit narrow and cramped hallway before coming to a stop in front of a metal door, it was a surprised that she hadn't heard a single complaint from the group, "Alright, Arcade, what would we have to expect here?"
"I estimate around... four, maybe five sentry bots, and each corner set with an automated turret if I had to guess," the man ran his fingers across the side of his helmet in thought before raising his plasma rifle, "You got this?"
"We got this," Jack confirmed before wrenching the lever on his brush gun, ready for the ensuing fight.
Melody looked to Arcade, who then looked at her with a small grin on his face, before opening the door, watching as Jack immediately charged into the room, gun raised to eye level and pointed at whatever would be shooting at him in the next room.
Besides the sounds of his footsteps, Melody heard nothing from the room. Eventually, she watched Jack leave the room and look at Arcade, who was doing his best not to laugh at this point, "You're an asshole, Gannon."
Everyone watched as Arcade immediately burst out in a fit of laughter, leaning on the wall and trying not to fall over. They then turned to Jack, who had now removed his helmet and set his arm around it, glaring at the Enclave Remnant with a look that could kill a deathclaw if need be.
"Wait, what happened?" Boone asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"There are no robots here," he explained, "It turns out that the transporter had been used to move the machines to Delaware as one of the test trials before they had disappeared. I just decided not to tell Jack about it."
The Courier only proceeded to rub his temples with a gloved hand, listening as the rest of the group began to laugh at the revelation, before looking at the scientist, "Remind me never to hire you as my secretary, Arcade."
"Noted," he waved off before pointing a thumb at the door, "But on a more serious note, the machine's inside. All you need to do is give it a test run and it should work fine."
"Should?" an eyebrow raised.
"Yes, should," Arcade said, "Not everything is one-hundred percent."
Jack suddenly took an interest in his SPECIAL stats, glancing at the single Luck statistic on the screen.
'Why do I get the feeling that this'll fuck me over in the end?'
Forget it, he wasn't going to place his trust in an arbitrary number. He's made it this far, hasn't he?
"Understood, Gannon," Jack stepped back into the room, Melody and the others followed closely after.
Jack turned to the rest of the Samaritans, "Make sure to guard this area. Even though there aren't any killer robots in here, there sure as hell may be any unwanted guests in this place. I don't like the feeling of not running into at least a bit of trouble in an abandoned place like this."
The men and women before him nodded and did as they were commanded. Each of them taking different positions in the hallways to make sure they would have the advantage against whatever may come.
They were then greeted by a large room separated by two different sections that both took up half of the room. One side was a set of controls, panels, and blinking buttons in the room separated by a large pane of glass that Jack had to guess was most likely bullet-proof glass; the other side was a bare room, lacking everything but a steel ceiling and walls. The only thing that was even remotely different was the large bunker-like object in the center, which Jack had to guess was the machine. It was a small building with a front in the shape of a trapezoid. Red and green hoses jutted out from the sides of the machine, while vacuum tubes stuck out from the front; the top of the machine had a large metal pole that poked out from the ceiling hooked up to it.
"Welp, I think this is it," Cass said, "This is it, right?"
ED-E only gave off a short buzzing noise followed by a series of blips, then began to shake for a few seconds before turning towards the machine.
Veronica blinked at the eyebot in shock, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"I don't speak robot, senora," Raul chuckled, "But even I don't think that was very child-friendly."
Melody understood it perfectly, though she wasn't surprised at ED-E's vulgarity when the bot was angry.
"Arcade, you know how this thing works?" Jack asked.
The man in the Enclave armor nodded, "I think so. The architecture to this place is very similar to the Remnants' Bunker. If I had to guess..." he strode towards the terminal in the center, one that held a dim-blue screen and a red keyboard, "This would be it... and we're in!"
"Didn't expect that to be so short," Cass remarked, only to then turn to Boone with a fierce glare, "Don't you fucking say a word."
The sniper only ignored her, but Melody spotted the hidden grin.
Cheeky bastard.
They watched as Arcade continued to type at the keys at an almost excited pace, "ED-E, I'm going to need your help."
ED-E blipped to attention.
"I'll need you to see if you can power that generator. From what I can see here, the generator was what powered the machine before it went dark. Think you can do that?"
The eyebot hummed in confirmation before floating to the corner of the room where the generator resided. ED-E carefully approached the large, rectangular machine before he began to shake for a second, electricity then pooled out from the bot before sparking to life.
[Science 65] "ED-E, power's at sufficient level. We wouldn't want to have to drag you back to the Mojave as a steaming mess, now would we?" Melody asked. The robot then proceeded to stop and turn to the scientist at the terminal.
"She's right, you're good for now," Arcade waved off before turning to the girl beside him, "I guess Jack really did get you the best education money could offer."
"Too bad for him, he was dirt broke at the time," Melody giggled, stepping back as the Courier entered the conversation.
"Is the machine ready?" Jack interrupted.
"Yeah, let me just fire it up," Arcade pushed his glasses closer before tapping away at the keys, "Aaand done. It should be activated now."
Jack diverted his attention away from the Enclave scientist and looked to the other side of the glass, watching as the machine's inner workings began to spring to life. The vacuum tubes lit up in a dim light, the colored hoses stiffened as pressurized gas began to swell up their form, while the tesla coils within the metal pole began to spark to life, long spears of electricity flickering across various portions of the room before disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.
"It's alive! It's alive! What? Nobody?" the Enclave Remnant looked around the room to see if anyone got the joke, "Killjoys."
Courier Six watched as the lights hanging from the ceiling began to flicker, but he paid it no mind. Though what really had his attention was the alarms going off after just thirty seconds of the machine's activation.
"Uh, Arcade? Is it supposed to do that?" an inwardly panicking Courier asked Arcade, who had been typing away quickly at the keyboard.
"No! It's not supposed to be doing this," the man only slammed his fist into the space beside the terminal, leaving a dent in the metal, "Dammit! The machine's about to overload, if we get caught in the blast radius, who knows what would happen to us?!"
"Then what're we standing around talking!" Cass yelled, "We need to go!"
"How much time do we have left?" Jack asked as the rest of the group started to leave.
Arcade turned back and made a quick glance at the terminal, about to give his answer.
Though the Courier never got his answer, as the machine engulfed him, Arcade, the rest of his companions, and the Samaritans in a bright haze of white light.
Immediately after, Jack's vision faded to black.
-oOo-
James opened his eyes to be greeted by the sight of green. The Lone Wanderer groaned slightly as he pushed himself off the floor, the whirring sound in his armor told him that the suit was in one piece.
The man had looked up to see a stunning sight before him: green grass, tall trees reaching up to the sky, a dark sky and a shattered moon... hold on a minute. James did a double take as he stared back up at the sky. His mind whirring with another thousand question buzzing in his mind like a hive of angry bees. There was something truly, very wrong with the sight of the moon being shattered into pieces!
He never received his answers, as he heard another set of groaning behind him. The Lone Wanderer turned around to see the rest of his group in the process of standing up, "Is everyone alright?"
Each of them claimed to be alright. Good, they needed to find out what had just happened to them. James only had to think back to what happened when they reached the room of the machine.
James remembered that they had found the machine, figuring out how to get it to work. Until suddenly, it sparks to life on it's own. Normally, this would've been manageable, but the activated machine triggered the vault's security systems, sending several sentry bots to deal with the problem.
They had managed to take out three of the bots, but at the cost of damage to both him and his team (stimpaks made it manageable, though) and the window that separated the machine and them, until finally, the glass shattered and several stray bullets had damaged the machine's internal workings, causing a malfunction. And then... and then...
He and the rest of the team ended up here, in some forest with a likeness to Point Lookout. And if that's taught him anything, it's be careful around this place. He decided to activate his Pip-Boy, turning the knobs on the small wrist-mounted machine until it brought out the map of the area.
It showed nothing... it only said that the Pip-Boy wasn't connected to any RobCo satellites. That didn't make any sense... weren't these supposed to operate anywhere?
"Any idea where we are?" Fawkes asked, lumbering over to the edge of the forest's clearing before turning back to James.
"No idea, but we still have to be careful here, we could be in uncharted territory for all we know."
"Are you just going to ignore the fact that WE JUST ENDED UP IN SOME OTHER PART OF THE WORLD?!" Jericho yelled incredulously.
"I know that, Jericho!" James countered, "Which is why we're going to be traveling more until we reach a safer place to rest. Because for all we know, this can be a perfect area for predators to surround prey for all we know."
Before the Raider had time to rebut, they turned to the sound of rustling nearby.
"They found us already," James looked to the rest of his group, "Be ready to fight incase there's conflict, understood."
Despite the team's diverse choices of character, they all managed to agree.
James picked up his rifle and aimed it in the direction of the rustling, poised to strike if their intentions were hostile. Though he picked up the subtle rustling surrounding them.
They had them surrounded, but they, whoever 'they' were, weren't attacking them.
Immediately, a figure in an old duster coat and armor emerged from the thick forestry, their face covered by a glowing gas mask and a helmet. In the figure's arms was a rifle aimed down.
Willing to talk, it seemed.
"Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel!" the man yelled, his voice muffled by the mask, "We do not seek to cause harm, I've only come to talk."
"Explain yourself," James ordered, his rifle still pointed at the man's chest.
"My group and I are not here to cause any trouble. I only wish for a ceasefire before one actually occurs," the man said, the end of the rifle tapping against his chest as he finally stopped in front of him.
James cocked his head to the side, "And how do we know that you'll fulfill that ceasefire? You have your men surrounding us already, don't you?"
The man in the duster nodded his head, "Just a precautionary measure in case you decided to open fire on first contact. Besides, the NCR is now on good terms with Brotherhood, so you should recognize that agreement."
"NCR? I don't follow," the Lone Wanderer said, not understanding what this 'NCR' was, "My group and I are from the East chapter."
The man stopped, "East chapter, huh? Were you poking around in a building, looking for some kind of teleportation machine?"
"A vault, actually, but yes," James nodded, lowering his rifle, "I suppose I can consider an act of nonagression."
"Good answer. Alright guys, we're on good terms now, you can come out," he turned over his shoulder and ordered. James then watched as this man's group began to emerge from the edge of the forest's clearing.
A young man in a red beret holding a rifle, a woman with red hair in a brown suede jacket and a diamond-shaped pendant around her neck, a teenage girl in a vault suit, another girl in a brown robe with a power glove around her right hand, an old woman wearing a plaid shirt, overalls, a and straw hat; and an middle-aged hispanic man wearing what appeared to be a... cowboy outfit? These were some the man's more... relatively normal companions. They were then followed by what appeared to be a dog with... cybernetic implants and what appeared to be it's brain being held in a glass case just above it's head, another figure wearing power armor, and an eyebot.
James' grip tightened around his rifle as he raised it at the man in the modified X-01 Enclave power armor, "You brought a member of the Enclave with you?!"
*Click*
The Lone Wanderer heard the sound of the man's thumb cocking back the hammer of a revolver, the barrel pressed against his head hard, "We had an agreement, tin-head. Put the gun down and no one gets hurt."
"Now why should I trust you?!" James spat, listening as the rest of his companions armed themselves against the hostiles that surrounded them, this... 'NCR' soldier's companions doing the same as well, "You're traveling with some Enclave bastard!"
"Hey, no need to be discriminatory, buddy, it's a long story," the Enclave soldier replied, but the Lone Wanderer ignored his idle remark.
James suddenly heard the pitter-pattering of steps making their way towards the two. He glanced down to see his familiar canine companion looking at the soldiers locked in a stalemate.
"Dogmeat, get back, this is between the two of us," the Lone Wanderer ordered, but the dog did not. Instead, it did the exact opposite, walking over to the opposing soldier and sniffing at his ankle.
The dog cocked his head to the side before uttering a single bark.
"Dogmeat? Is that you?" the other man asked, his attention turning to the dog before looking up at James, his mask frozen still for only a few brief moments.
He then watched as other soldier stepped back, "Let me repeat your question: Why should you trust me?"
James stared at the man, who had pushed the hammer back into the gun before holstering it. The man then pressed a button on the side of his helmet, the green lights that made up the bug-eyed lenses flickered off. The soldier then pressed his hands against the side of his helmet before pulling it off of his head, now holding it in his arm.
"Because that's not a good way to greet your brother," Jay replied, a playful grin plastered on his face in recognition.
"WHAT!?" everyone behind both Jay and James cried out in unison.
*Thunk!*
Jay looked down at the ground, "You dropped your rifle."
"Yes... yes I just did," James whispered, the man was still for only a moment before he too removed his helmet, "It's... it's been a long time, Jay."
"It's Jack now, brother. A lot has changed in just six short years," the man replied with a smile, only to reel back in back as James' fist smashed into his face.
"And for six years you've been gone!" James roared, Jay... no, Jack, as he called himself now, kneeling down and clutching his nose in pain.
"Should we do something?" the girl in the hood asked the man in the beret.
"Let them sort it out."
"It's good to see you too, James," Jack finally straightened himself out before injecting a stimpak into his neck, "But I've been busy with my own affairs, sorry if I couldn't give my brother the happy family reunion he was expecting," despite the healing wound, the Courier rubbed his nose to remove any soreness that still lingered, "Besides, I'm sure that rumors spread fast... I've gotten the eyebots."
The Lone Wanderer's hand clenched into a fist once more, "And what've you been doing that was so busy that you couldn't answer the messages I've sent you?"
"Sending messages of my own, hunting down my own killer, staging a war against a totalitarian de facto leader as well as an overexpanding republic and a brutal dictatorship reminiscent of the Roman Empire for starters," Jack only gave him a shrug, though noticing the intensifying glare of his barely-younger twin.
So it was best to change the subject before any more facial injuries could occur.
"It seems you also got rid of that scar I gave you when we were eighteen."
James had prepared to send the man another fist, but stopped himself, "What're you talking about? I never got rid of them."
"To remind yourself of what I did to you back then, I know," he said, rolling his eyes, "But that's the problem, it's gone."
The Lone Wanderer was then handed a small mirror by Jay- err, Jack. He stared hard in the mirror, tracing his finger at the burn scar that Jay had given him during their eighteenth birthday, "It's not there... In fact, I think I look a bit younger."
"That's what Arcade, my Enclave friend-" he pointed a thumb at the man, who gave a short wave, "-Had theorized. He thinks that the machine had somehow either reversed aging, or had aided in cellular regeneration. It's tough choice because that man in the vaquero suit-"
He motioned to the aforementioned man, "-Was a ghoul last time I checked. And that little old lady beside him was once a Nightkin, a... cousin of some sorts to the Super Mutants."
"That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?" James wondered skeptically, only to look back and see that, in Charon's place, was instead a young man with red hair, though Fawkes stayed the same for some reason, "I take it back, how the hell did they make this work?"
"Hey, I take what's given to me. How should I know?" Jack argued, "Besides, I'm missing a few of my old battle wounds during our time in the Capital Wasteland. So I have to guesstimate that we're now either seventeen or eighteen, give or take."
James shook his head, "There has to be a logical explanation for this. Where are we, anyway?"
"Beats me," Jack shrugged, "But I can tell we ain't in either DC or the Mojave anymore. The big clue is up there," he pointed a finger to the sky.
"Yeah, I noticed," the man deadpanned, taking note of his brother's slight, almost unnoticeable western drawl, "Now, we need to get to civilization, if there is any, or somewhere that's at least safer than this open space."
"You read my mind, brother," Jack grinned before placing two fingers to his lips and emitting a high-pitched whistle, "Alright, Samaritans, we're good to go!"
Immediately after, another group of people, all dressed in similar armor began to approach them, their rifles lowered as they had acknowledge the lack of conflict.
"Friends of yours, Courier?" one of the men asked.
"Something like that, but we're all good nonetheless," Jack confirmed, watching as the man hummed before joining up behind him.
"Courier?"
"The Capital Wasteland calls you the Lone Wanderer, the Mojave calls me the Courier," Jack explained. He then looked up as they heard the sounds of aircraft flying over their heads, passing over them and flying west.
"Vertibirds?"
"Not sure, they sound different," James said, looking at the rest of his group, "We're heading out, guys. Dogmeat, you're taking point."
"Huh, what a coincidence, Jamie-boy," Jack grinned, placing his hands on his hips, "I was just about to let Rex do the same thing."
"Shut up," James snapped with an irritated scowl, placing his helmet back to complete the rest of his armor, marching off with the rest of his group as Dogmeat ran ahead of them.
The Courier only grinned a wide and excited grin before he too placed his helmet back on, "Oh, I can tell this is going to be a fun trip. Come on, men, we're heading out."
And so the two brothers, reunited in a strange land, make their way further into the unknown.
What they didn't know was that, once again, they would make history in this new world.
For better, or for worse.
Disclaimer: And that's a wrap! Merry Christmas, everybody, sorry I'm a little (scratch that, VERY) late for this new chapter. But I just had to trudge through this piece of exposition, filler, dialogue, and lack of action.
"WHERE'S THE ACTION?!" You may ask. Well, my hypothetical reader. It will come in time, and it will be awesome!
Anyway, I wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, or whatever you guys celebrate, just enjoy your day.
And as always, stay beautiful, ladies and gentlemen.