"When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor."
Eleanor Roosevelt
There I was, in one of the Vault's security rooms, overlooking the many monitors giving live video feed of the hallways and rooms. Ocassionally, I'd switch some monitors to different rooms and hallways to appease my boredom. It's like this everyday, It makes me look forward for the rotation, when I get patrol duty.
I just sat there with my little office chair, staring at the console. Not sleeping, not blinking, just staring. I guess I was having one of those moments where I question my life and all that shit.
My name is Ken Mierson, and this is just an average day in Vault Omega 26
"Hey asshole, you awake?"
Said a staticky voice coming from the console. I jump out of my trance and turned my attention to the console to reply.
"What is it, Liam? I'm in the middle of something" I said with an annoyed voice. "Oh sorry Ken! Did I ruin your naptime again?" said the voice with great sarcasm."Fuck off, Liam. What do you want?"
"The Overseer wants to see ya in his office" Liam responded. I grunted and said "Alright, I'm on my way".
I'm not a special guy. I didn't make many friends in school because I was such a nervous little fuck. I'd get bullied and teased all the time. Luckily, Liam was always there, he's like a brother to me always watching my back. He would pick on the bullies that pick on me and keep me accompanied as a friend.
In vault O-26 ('O' being short for Omega since There are several other vaults that begin with that name) The Vault itself is made up of several floors of hallways and rooms. I'd say the current population is around 4,000 people. Thankfully there is plenty of room inside the Vault, we're as big as a small town.
Everyone here had to wear the Vault's jumpsuits. Basically a uniform we all wear that covers the neck down to the ankles, it's colors are of blue with yellow stripes and despite how it looks it's actually really confortable.
One size fits all, and there are several variations of the jumpsuit. Variations such as the utility jumpsuit which are more fitted for engineers and matainence workers, the medical jumpsuit which carries it's own med kit for the doctors we have here, and finally the one I'm wearing right now: The Secruity Jumpsuit.
Definitely alot heaver than the others, the security jumpsuit has a black, type III bullet proof vest attachment with a short wave radio and a holster for pistol firearms.
Strangely enough, our vault's armory is massive. With only about 4000 residence, we have a large quantity of weaponry that can cover more than triple our population, not to mention armor and ammunition. It's like, we're expecting a war to happen.
A war DID happen though, something around 200 years ago. Maybe the government that created the Vaults overstocked them with weapons, armor and ammunition to expect the worst.
Buuuut, it's been more than 200 years so with no real trouble. We don't really need them!
In Vault Omega 26 students who complete about 12 years of education, have to take a profession exam which determines the job you will have for the rest of your life in the vault.
Don't ask me how, but I got 'Vault Security' as my profession, I actually went to the professor to find out if this was a mistake. Me, the kid being teased for 12 years, gets security? Well, It turns out the test found out that I can memorize the vault rules (which is an extremely long list that may as well be a book) and that I know what authority powers should be used on, All that useless stuff.
So here I am as security, It ain't so bad, I think I get more respect this way, all the bullies from years ago now ignore me. Liam also got security, so if they do pick on me, they got Liam to worry about. (Or I can just bash their heads in with my baton) As security, we had to take weapon drills on a fire range. according to the statistics, I am the most accurate shot in the force, which I do pride myself with.
I marched into the Overseer's office and noticed 2 other security guards there.
"You asked for me, sir?" I said.
"Yes, take a seat ken, I have to address something to all of you"
In every vault, there is always an Overseer, the leader of the vault that 'Oversees' everything. I'm not sure how it is like on the other vaults, but the way we get our overseers is from an election through high ranking workers. Including high ranking Officers,Engineers,Professors, and so on. an Overseer is a position that lasts a lifetime.
From what I can gather based on what I see. the two officers including myself are the most "experienced" in the force. In the vault we're always issued a 10m pistol, when on patrols and such, but we hardly ever use them. The two officers including myself may be the only ones in the force that have ever fired upon a citizen, I remember months ago a citizen drunk out of his mind was going on a rampage and threatened to kill his wife. He forced me to pull out my gun and fire a shot into his leg before he ran to get a weapon of some sort.
Leo, one of the officers there, only fired a shot above a woman's head while she was high out of her prescription drugs, The woman took way more than needed from her prescription which is what caused her to try to charge Leo when he showed up to control the situation. Leo, I believe is the shortest man on the force, a slender 5'4.
Now Vance, the other officer, has a different story. Vance is a tall, muscular, ebony man who reaches the height of 6'5, making Leo look like a stick. Vance was called in as backup to control a small gang of troubling people who were robbing people of their ration coupons. One thing lead to another, and one of the gang members struck an officer unconscious with a chair leg, Vance didn't hesitate. He pulled out his 10m and shot the gang member in the head twice, and a few shots that missed the rest of the gang. The whole thing become a great controversy in the vault, but was soon forgotten.
"I called you all here because you're the best our security force has to offer. And for a situation this big, I'm unsure if its enough..."
Woah, it's that big huh? My heart beated a bit faster. This isn't a drill of any kind.
"...We've been intercepting transmissions from... Out there... and it looks like it wasnt try to contact me, but someone in particular inside our vault."
This was big news. VERY big news. So is there life out there after all? does civilization out there still exist? Are they even good willed? We all kept straight faces and continued listening to the Overseer.
"...Someone in our vault is contacting the outside world...and I want that to Stop."
We nodded.
" I believe our top engineer, Hark, may have something to do with this."
"What will you have us do?" asked Vance.
"I am authorizing all of you to raid Hark's work station, find evidence that he has made contact with the outside world, then kill him"
I gulped, and trembled a bit. but I said "understood" in the toughest voice I could do. Leo just stayed silent.
"The Armory is open to you men, take what is needed because I believed he may be armed."
Before we go any further, I want to explain something that every vault resident has. Its called a 'PipBoy 3000' A little computer attached to your wrist. The features on it are pretty useful, it has a virtual mapmaker, a small radar that can detect people around and even tell if they were hostile or not by indicating a red dot, and its even a radio that can pick up any frequency. I listen the vault's radio from time to time, but another feature the PipBoy has is a geiger counter, a sort of meter that tells you how much radiation you have absorbed and how much radiation is in the area around you. All of this.. The vault, the PipBoys, everything was made by a corporate company called Vault-Tech who made many inventions for the US.
Anyways let's get back to the good stuff shall we?
That evening, we were at the armory. I took up a 3rd grade bulletproof vest that might save my life if I shot in the chest with a shotgun. The 10m pistol as my sidearm along with a Remington combat shotgun, I was all set. Leo took up a 10m submachine gun with the same kind of armor as me, while Vance took a M4 Carbine with a laser sight.
Hark's workstation is a giant power room and likely had some people working for him so we had to take no chances for this operation. We were in position next to the entrance of the power room, the door was locked, Vance gave the signal, so I ran up to the door and shot at the door hinges.
Leo raced into the room and took cover behind a console from within where he was met with an engineer wielding a lead pipe charging at him. Instead of firing at him, Leo was quick and grappled the aggressor, disarmed him, and threw his head to the console where he fell unconscious. Vance and I moved in.
"Vault Security! Come out with your hands up!" Vance yelled, suddenly another engineer ran up to us with a revolver, but before he could raise his gun, Vance shot him twice in the chest. Wow, I do not hear that sound enough. two things were happening to me, the loud buzzing sound in my ears from the noise of the rifle and me attempting to swallow a bit a puke i made after seeing Vance kill someone. I was half panicking at this point, but I kept my shotgun close and pressed on along with Leo and Vance. These engineers are clearly working for Hark, why else would they attack us in his workstation?
We went up the stairs into a control room where we meet with Hark and another engineer.I shot the engineer in the kneecap right before he reached for a gun, then kicked his head in knocking him out cold. Leo quickly tackled Hark to the ground and grappled him into a hold he can't escape, Me and Vance looked into the control pad and his personal terminal to find any evidence.
"Heh, you wont find nothing here, it's all gone." said Hark. Vance quickly turned around and begins to interrogate him.
"Who were you talking to out there?" He said quite loudly.
"Bite my ass. man" Hark said in spite.
Vance quickly loses patience and punches Hark across the face, I was still on the control pad looking for any sort of evidence..
"Keep going, It's what the Overseer wants isn't it? To keep us locked up in here while he still has control over us?"
"Don't make me ask again asshole, who did you contact?!" I noticed something in the control panel... Power from the water filtration and food production units are suddenly being depleted.
"Our future... I contacted our future.. and they know where we are.. it won't be long.."
"Wont be long for what?!" Vanced yelled
Hark just laughed, "Until they get here, and liberate us all!"
"I've heard enough." said Vance, Leo released Hark, Vance aimed his rifle at Hark's head and fired.
Thank god I was looking at the control pad, I would have vomited from the amount of blood, skull and brain matter spread around the room. But I was busy looking at a specific power unit, and a specific security camera...
"uhh...guys?" I said awkwardly. When they came up to me I pointed at the power units.
"The power from water filtration and food production is being transferred into a different source."
"That, can't be possible...those units have power 24/7" said Leo
"Where is the power going to?" asked Vance.
The unit labeled 'Vault Entrance' is powered for the first time in centuries. I pointed at the security monitor and changed to the channel where it was looking at the vault door...
"My God.." Leo said.
Hark transferred power from filtration and food production to the Vault entrance, meaning someone from the outside can open the vault.. The great vault door was Opening...
My name is Ken Mierson, and this is not an average day in Vault Omega 26