The universe has many horrors yet to throw at us. This is not the end of our struggle. This is just the beginning of our crusade to save Humanity. Be faithful! Be strong! Be vigilant!- Warhammer 40k, The Immortal God Emperor.
As the sun set on Humanity, a glimmer of old world glory had survived. America's soul had sputtered, but did not die in the face of nuclear war, and now its descendants set their eyes on retaking their old home.
The President sat behind his desk, files and folders scattered across it, each detailing different operations and general reports from his staff. One was more important than any of the others, at least in his mind.
The Anchorage report.
He had sent planes to the north to survey Canada and what had become of it since the war.
Canada was nearly as bad as America, many of its cities reduced to rubble and dust, while the deep forests had nearly no damage to their imposing stillness. When America had invaded it before the war, the citizenry had been less than happy to welcome their southern neighbors. He wondered how they would react now.
He forced himself back on topic.
The planes had decided to fly farther north than he had ordered, but he was glad they did.
Alaska was intact. There were no visible signs of damage from the bombs, and once the pilots had come within radio range of Anchorage, they had been hailed by American forces within. All the infrastructure, all the troops, citizens, and Oil. All of it untouched by the bombs. A boon like this was almost too good to be true.
He was now to meet the General there face to face, to prove to the Alaskans that they truly were Old America.
His plane left in three hours.
Jensen was currently on assignment, helping to build a larger outpost near L.A.
After the disastrous mission to Mariposa, and the attack on Navarro, he was one of the few field assets that was allowed free movement. Every other soldier was wither guarding Navarro or the Oil Rig, with the obvious exception of the troopers in the E.P.A building. All air assets were busy fortifying Navarro, or moving supplies and people to the Oil Rig. So he was the only person capable of moving the supplies they needed into position.
Currently he was helping build a wall out of concrete slabs and wood. Not the most secure, but it would keep the Ghouls and animals out.
Ghouls still creeped him out, even after the surgery and the other mutants he'd seen. Not to mention that guy in the basement. He hadn't shown up on the cameras, and the graffiti was gone by the time Jensen had brought the troopers down to sweep the place. Goddamn weird.
But ghouls were the worst. Insane, emaciated, radioactive humans whose only goal was to kill and eat other humans. He had almost become one, if the doctors hadn't gotten to him first. He could still feel the sting of rad-away in his veins, though that might've been his imagination.
A trooper came up to him, and stood for a second while Jensen placed a piece of concrete the size of two men next to each other.
"Sir" The trooper said, saluting as best he could in power armor.
"Don't call me sir. What do you want trooper?"
"Enclave command just sent a message -They want you to scout out a facility"
"Did they say what it was"
"No sir, they told me to bring you to the radio so they could tell you"
"Thank you, you can go back to your normal duties"
"Yes Sir!"
The President was climbing into one of the new helicopter-like machines. Vertibirds, he thought they were called.
"Tell me again why I'm not just using Air Force Two?"
"This bird is faster and uses less fuel, Sir"
"Right."
His myriad advisors had given him several things to review on the flight. While the Vertibirds may have been faster than conventional aircraft, a flight to Alaska would still take a few hours at least.
From his military Advisor, the current status of fortification in Navarro. Concrete walls and metal gates now surrounded the community, while sentry turrets were placed at several places atop them. The gates were staffed by troopers in the Original t-51b armor, with the newer suits -designated APA-MKII- were being deployed in their forward bases in San Francisco and the newer one that was just being established near Vault 8. It noted that they had already been in contact with the Vault citizens, who had already agreed to serve as an outpost once Enclave soldiers could be allocated for their protection.
He hoped they wouldn't need too many, they were losing too many to their enemies as it was.
At that thought, he opened his scientific advisor's package, and began to read about the new laser capacitors and power armor marks. The president prided himself on having gone to college, but the things the reports talked about were so far over his head, that he could barely figure out what it said (the words meant nothing to him). He knew what a laser was, but all the numbers and specific terminology only confused him.
At least he had people to explain it, he supposed.
One thing did draw his attention, though. A new rifle that could attach to powered armor. It drew charge from the APA-MKII's fusion reactor, allowing it to fire like a Gatling laser, or fire a single shot with similar effect to a missile launcher, though much more concentrated. It attached to the trooper's back, but necessitated the removal of the protective shell around the user's head.
Several pages of technical specifications and numbers later, he reached the APA-MKII section.
The new armor incorporated all of the features of the T-51b armor, as well as several design adjustments from the APA-MKI that he'd seen before. All the suits could attach to the new laser weapon as well, though a note recommended that not all suits were issued the device, because it was too bulky for the trooper to enter buildings without some difficulty, as well as drawing enough power that the trooper would need to be relatively immobile while using it.
He was impressed by his scientist's ability to produce such technologies, even if he did not understand it all. He resolved to ask his advisor about some of these things in the future, if only so he could appreciate their work better.
He moved to his other advisor's reports, and settled in for the flight.
Jensen had received his orders from High Command- He was to go to the old Mariposa military base and report on what he found inside.
A truck had been dispatched from Navarro, and he would be driven to the facility.
A few hours later, Jensen had arrived, though for the last few miles he'd had to walk. The driver wasn't comfortable bringing his truck so far away from Navarro.
He climbed the last ridge to the base, and began to record data for later review.
Then he saw the mutants.
He'd heard stories about large, humanoid creatures stalking around the old West-Tek facility, but this place was crawling with them. He saw at least twenty patrolling around the parking lot, without any indication as to how many were inside.
He switched to thermal scanning, but it only revealed another in the guard booth. He'd need to go inside to find out what exactly was happening within.
He decided to wait until nightfall, and come back once he could sneak in.
Night came, and Jensen began the trek from where he'd made camp, to the facility. Once he arrived, he was dismayed to see that the mutants had gotten the lights up and running around the base. Sneaking in would be impossible.
But Jensen hadn't lived this long by refusing the impossible.
He crept down the hill, careful to avoid the sweeping searchlights of the mutants on the roof, and was able to reach the side of the building by sprinting the last thirty or so feet. He slid along the wall, watching for any sign of mutant awareness of him, and opened a side door.
He walked inside, and began to look aro-
A mutant grabbed Jensen by the head, and threw him against the wall, then smashed him onto the metal walkway below them, denting it with the force of the collision. Before he blacked out he heard the mutant call for others to get him.
He was about to learn exactly what happened inside Mariposa Military Base.