Begin Recording

Arena

Recording by Scribe Ellison

A door at the end of the maze brought me back inside again, into a dark room. On the other side of a grate I saw the raiders, crowded together in viewing stands around a big space cluttered with… cars? Toy cars, some still attached to the ceiling by long wires. It was a ride, part of the theme park. Kids would get in the bottle-shaped cars and crash into each other. The cars weren't moving but spotlights were on, shining red and blue on the audience.

There were so many of them. More than a hundred, more raiders than I'd ever seen together. I limped to a hole in the grate to get a better look and only then saw there were two people down on the ride's floor. A man and a hulking suit of power armor. A custom suit, big and bulky. And attached to a wire, the same fat cord that the cars hung from. It ran off electricity rather than a fusion core? What was the point of power armor that only worked in one room?

The men were closer to me than the hollering raiders so I heard, "You got me wired up yet, Gage?"

"Yeah, boss."

"Finally. Now go shut off that damn alarm."

There was an alarm, blaring somewhere in the distance. The man—Gage?-went off to do that and whoever was in the power armor shook himself, getting comfortable in his suit, and looked around. He spotted me looking down through the gap in the grating and came stomping over. "There's my next victim. That a vault suit? You gotta be kidding me. No wonder you needed to cheat, no vault dweller could've made it this far without help." He had an accent. English, maybe, or Australian. The suit's speakers distorted his voice enough that I wasn't sure. This must be the 'Overboss,' whatever that meant. "Here's a quick rundown of how this works. You go stock up, make yourself presentable, then we're gonna give these folks a show. A show where I decorate these walls here with your lovely brains. Thanks to this suit I'm the only one that wins this fight. Period."

The audience loved it. They shoved each other around behind more chain link that kept the spectators off the floor. This was the coliseum and we were gladiators. The Overboss continued, "Think you're hot shit getting this far? Think again. All right Gage, let her through. Something tells me I'm really gonna enjoy this."

A door beside me clicked open. Red Eye decided to chime in with, "It's almost time! After a run like that, this ought to be the best slaughter yet! Remember, longest survival time against Colter still stands at one minute, thirty-seven seconds!"

So raider entertainment meant putting injured people in an arena with a guy in power armor and calling it a fight. He would slaughter me.

The door led down some stairs through a few ruined rooms that must once have been maintenance for the park attraction, and into a locker room full of raider decorations. Barbed wire. Heads on poles, rotting down to skulls. The place smelled… about like you'd expect lots of rotting bodies to smell. Just inside the door a fresh body slumped on a bench, a woman with a hole in the side of her head and a pistol fallen beside her hand. She must've taken her own way out rather than die for the entertainment of the crowd.

And there were the rest of my possessions, left in an open locker. I scooped up my wedding rings, still on the broken chain, and felt that piece of the world go right again. The Pip-boy's screen was dark and I had a moment to worry that Dixie had broken it. But as soon as I put it on it booted up again. And informed me that I was suffering fatigue, a fever, and high stress along with various injuries. Immediately I put in the code to contact the Institute. "C'mon Allie, I think this counts as an emergency!" But there was no response. Whatever signal the Institute uses couldn't find me here.

The second shelf in the locker held a supply of Med-x and a small mechanical box, the purpose of which wasn't immediately apparent. I was looking at it when the room's intercom crackled. "Fits over the light on your collar. Slide on, pull off. I'll wait while you get it." Said the same voice that had spoken to me at the start of the Gauntlet.

I was ready to snap at him, but it did actually take me a few tries fitting the key into place. Over the small bomb that I couldn't see under my chin. But after a minute it clicked on, then the collar unlocked. I yanked the whole thing off and threw it across the room.

It would have been more of a relief if I wasn't about to be stomped into the ground by a lunatic in power armor. I keyed the intercom on and said, "Thanks for that. Who are you?"

"The name's Gage. Porter Gage. And I'm the guy that's gonna get you out of this alive, so listen up. We ain't got long to chat."

I sat under the intercom, felt my ankle, and injected more Med-x. I was really going to need a doctor after this. "Alive sounds good. I'm listening. What is this place?"

"The Gauntlet is the Overboss' pet project. Lure in whoever we can, however we can. You made it this far, you obviously got skill. But this fight coming up is rigged, you get me? Overboss Colter, his power armor's set up to draw energy from the electric grid in the arena. Damn thing's invincible. You name it, someone's tried it. Minigun, grenades… not a scratch. You get what I'm saying?"

I nodded, my brain trying to think how that would work. I had a fair idea of the weak points of power armor, from hanging around while Danse fiddles with his, and the fusion core is what you want to go after first. "So he cheats. Sounds like a raider."

Gage chuckled. "You know us well." He sounded awfully calm about this since it wasn't his neck on the line.

"Since we're talking I assume you know how I can beat him?"

"You want to win? I stashed a weapon in the locker with your stuff. Get it."

That meant standing. Which didn't hurt, but the floor bobbed up and down a little. I was getting awfully stoned just to be able to walk. There was something else in the locker. A squirt gun. A toy, in the shape of a Nuka-cola bottle. It sloshed when I picked it up, so someone had been polite enough to fill it for this little prank on me.

Maybe it was the chems or the sudden loss of all hope but I was caught for a second in memory. We had one of these, before the war Nate bought one at a coolant station and came home and sprayed me with it and I told him now he'd have to cook dinner while I got out of my wet dress, but once I was out of it we found something else to do. The memory was there and gone, my kitchen before my eyes and then I was back at the intercom yelling at Gage. "Is this a squirt gun?"

"Yeah yeah. I know what it looks like. You're just going to have to trust me."

He still sounded totally calm. I snapped, "Is this a joke? This gun is a toy! it's not going to do anything!"

"Trust me, it will. I'm not that big of a dick. Once the water hits Colter's electrically charged power armor, the circuits are gonna short out. I think it'll kill his defenses, give you time to do some damage before they recharge."

I hissed, "You think?"

Gage pretended not to hear. "You take him out, it'll be worth every minute spent in this Gauntlet. I promise. Got an offer for you, you make it through this."

I snarled, furious but without a better idea. "All right. But if this fails, I'm taking you down with me." Somehow.

Gage chuckled. "If this fails you'll be too dead to do much, but fair enough. All right, it's time. I'll open the door. See you on the other side."

Somewhere another door clicked open. I took a minute, did the gun-checking ritual making sure everything was loaded and my gear was set for maximum maneuverability. Checked to see if the Institute had found me in the last minute. Then I limped down a short hall with more grate between me and the arena. Before the war employees would have come through here to repair the cars. Now I looked out and saw Colter in his hulking wired-up armor yelling to the crowd. My eyes followed the cord up, it was attached just like the cars were, and it was silver. Armored; I probably couldn't just shoot out the cord even if I could somehow make a shot like that. There was probably still a weak spot where the cord connected, and at the joints between the pieces. Not that I'd ever get close enough to shove my pistol into a joint, which is what it would take.

Colter raised his arms and hollered through his suit's speakers, "Disciples! Are you ready for blood? And the Pack? Are you ready for things to get wild? Operators! Are you ready to see me notch another kill?" The crowd roared. Howling and shrieking and shaking the chain link walls that kept them out of the arena. The colored spotlights made it hard to see how many there were but the noise was intense. I saw a glass-fronted booth on the other side, with people standing more calmly inside it. Was that where Gage was?

Colter saw me and waved a long rifle, "And you! Are you ready to die?" And the door in front of me swung open.

I was vaguely aware that Colter was laughing, his gun held high. Not shooting me yet. Making it a show. I ran right at him, aimed the stupid squirt gun and sent a stream of water at the gap between the suit's leg and torso.

I had not expected the burst of blue lightning. Colter howled and went down on one knee, clutching his leg. So I had a minute to get behind him, use my pistol to shoot out the spot where the cord connected and empty the rest of the water there before I fell against one of the ride's cars, panting.

Colter started screaming, the sound distorted by his suit's speakers. The suit was sparking and crackling with lightning and Colter went all the way down, thrashing on the floor as his amplified cries rang in the arena. The space slowly filled with the smell of cooking meat.

As the sparks faded I was back on the roof of the police station and Danse was saying, "The rubber seals aren't just for mobility in the joints. There are places where wiring gets awfully close to the metal frame. Our power armor is designed for safety but anyone trying to build their own..."

The crowd had gone silent, gaping, and Colter screamed and screamed. I got back on my feet and limped over to nudge the armor with the butt of my pistol. The power had cut out but I could feel heat rising. I realized what must have happened. Custom power armor, if the frame hadn't been insulated right…

In the suddenly quiet arena RedEye's voice blared, "Holy shit! I don't… I don't even know what this means! Colter's down, man, he's down!

I wrestled the helmet off and saw the moaning ruin inside. Maybe he could've lived, with help, but he'd been set up. There was no doctor on the way. I put my pistol to the man's temple and delivered the only mercy that Colter had coming.

The crack echoed and the crowd was talking again, sounds of disbelief I couldn't make out. If they'd liked Colter this was when they'd tear me apart. I looked towards the booth where the people in charge seemed to be as Redeye blared, "Gage, what the hell just happened?"

And that would be Gage over in the glass booth, holding a microphone up to his face so he could address the crowd, "You saw it. We all saw it! Colter's dead! We got ourselves a new Overboss." And he grinned at me through the glass.

Someone else, from another part of the arena said, "This chick? Are you sure, Gage?"

And a woman's voice, "You better know what the hell you're doing."

Gage snapped, "Hey! We talked about this! She survived the Gauntlet. She was smart enough to take my advice and strong enough to kill Colter. She's what we need. So how 'bout we show some respect for our new leader, huh?"

Both voices protested, but more quietly now. The crowd, cautiously, began to cheer. I forced myself to stand, and lifted the helmet of Colter's power armor over my head like a trophy. They loved that. They roared. The spotlights wavered as my brain tried to give in to exhaustion and I shook my head to clear it. I'd collapse later.

Gage sounded quite happy as he said, "All right, all right. Now get the hell out of here. I'll show the boss around." and I could drop the heavy helmet and stagger over to the glass booth. Gage put down the microphone and said, "What'd I tell you? Worked like a charm. Better than I expected."

He looked like a raider. Fuzzy Mohawk with threads of gray, weathered face that currently wore the smile of a cat in cream. He was wearing armor, strange metal bars that surrounded his torso and came over his shoulders. It looked like some kind of medical brace, and he also wore a metal eyepatch over one eye.

"So… you really wanted the Overboss dead."

"'Dead, 'out of the way,' what's the difference? Either way, good riddance. The plan was a success." If Gage felt the least bit queasy about how dramatic and painful the death had been, he didn't show it. "I get that you have no idea what's going on, and everything is coming at you real fast, but you need to listen."

"...you always say that..." I mumbled, but Gage didn't hear.

"Taking out Colter wasn't a last minute decision, it was something a few of us here have been working on for a while. Now that he's actually gone we've got ourselves a vacancy in the Overboss department. And guess what… you just got the job. All I'm asking is that you trust me on this and give it a shot. I swear it'll be worth it."

"You drag me in here in a collar and now you want me to run the place?" I asked, squashing down an inappropriate urge to laugh.

"Dixie dragged you here in a collar. I picked you to run the place. Important distinction. Now listen up because there's a lot to explain. There are three raider gangs that run the show at Nuka-world: the Disciples, the Operators, and the Pack. And yeah, if the names don't give it away these ain't your typical raiders. These morons don't exactly play nice with each other. Thanks to Colter this place is a powder keg just waiting to blow sky high. One wrong move and we're gonna have a bloodbath on our hands. I think you have what it takes to turn things around and keep these gangs from tearing each other apart."

And none of this was making any sense and what came out my mouth was, "You know I kill raiders? For a living? Right?"

Gage just chuckled, "Yeah I know who you are. Now I'm sure you got a lot of questions, but you're in no shape. Get to the market, let Doc Mackenzie patch you up. The Overboss quarters, your new quarters, is the restaurant on top of good ole' Fizztop mountain. There's an elevator outside, ya can't miss it. I'll meet you there and we can talk. I'll open the door for you."

Then there's a confused memory of getting out through some big dark rooms and then a blast of afternoon sunlight and the big red arch was right there and the colors were too bright. I got a confused impression of sunbleached cement and faded paint and piles of trash, and people in facepaint and bladed masks and slave rags. They whispered and pointed and I think everyone was looking at me but I didn't have the energy left to pay attention. Which was really dangerous; I'm surprised I wasn't mugged on the walk to the market.