Chapter Twenty: Yellow
Despite my best efforts, all I could find myself doing at that moment was to stand and gawk at the mainframe as it sat before us. It was far larger than I ever imagined an electronic system could ever be, and as I continued to gape it only made it more apparent how large the machine was compared to me. I felt like a grape next to an apple, completely miniscule. Finally, I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the nerves away.
Finding that all was well now (or as well as they could be), I took the only course of action available: step by step, I drew upon the machine until I could run my hand along its chipped painted surface. Even if I jumped, I wouldn't be able to reach the top, yet, now that I was calm once more, that wasn't an issue – not that it should have been in the first place. As my hand ran along the crusted enamel I found that the texture was oddly pleasing, almost like eating some bloatfly meat.
"Woah," gasped Kyle, sidling up beside me, "This thing is huge!"
"Hmm." A quick peek toward Anton revealed he was feeling up the machine as well, gently running a palm along the cool, dark surface. "Hey, Miss, there seems to be a panel over here."
He was right, of course. Mostly blending right in with the rest of the painted texture, there was a small panel that could be popped open which hid a screen and keyboard. As we studied the thing, looking for a means to actually access the system – as mashing keys did nothing – we soon found a small port of some kind on one of the sides. And as we searched the rest of the machine, we couldn't determine any other source for interaction.
I'm just not sure what we could put into this machine's hole, nor where we'd get such a thing. But as I stood by the hole pondering what needed to be done, Anton made a suggestion, "Perhaps you found something on one of the floors above? It'd have to be an object that could fit inside the port."
As I thought about it, I pulled my bag out and began digging through; and lo and behold I found a holotape – the very one from the terminal on the second floor. It ended up being the perfect size too, sliding in with little to no resistance. At that the mainframe hummed to life, almost like a cat receiving belly rubs or a dog getting its ears massaged.
Headed back for the panel, even the screen had flickered with resolve. Thumbing some keys, the machine – the mainframe – was very much up and running. And as it finished its initial startup process, I discovered that it hadn't actually been shut down the last time it was used, but rather placed in some sort of standby.
I could tell as much due to the way the system hadn't actually needed to go through any of the usual interactions. Nor did it require a passphrase to unlock. The last person to use this system must never have had the chance to logout or shut the thing down, so it sat in sleep mode all this time. Oddly enough, though, the last user did have enough time to remove the holotape.
Turning my focus back toward the screen, I found multiple entries and logs. Each was dated. I skimmed through a few, but they were completely random from the lettering, which included numbers and even symbols, strewn about the screen in an indecipherable manner. I quickly grew absorbed in the task – looking through each page – that I couldn't even say how long I had been standing there, shifting through the jargon. Finally, after having spent potentially hours on the entries, I stumbled upon one that wasn't randomized: Insert *Cipher Key*.
It seems I was missing something. Perhaps it was located somewhere in the facility, or perhaps it was located elsewhere. I couldn't possibly know such a thing. I couldn't, yet...
"A *cipher key*?" Anton murmured over my shoulder. I found a shiver run up my spine, as it was all I could do from jumping. He smiled, but I couldn't be certain at what. My eyes grew wide when he pulled a holotape from... somewhere and handed it toward me. "Perhaps, Miss, try this?"
I turned it over, scrutinizing the surface of the object, until I found words etched into the casing: *cipher key*. Before I knew it, I was pouncing for the hole, and pounce it I did. My hands shook as I attempted to slot the tape, but it was only a marginal delay. The tape slid right in.
Despite my excitement, I was greeted with a truly horrendous scene: the lights flickered and the mainframe began to sputter. Then a mechanical voice, devoid of all emotion, announced, "Compromise detected. Source discovered. Tampering detected. Foolish. Mainframe sequence 6o1-33."
I cocked my head, but didn't have time to figure it out. The lights turned red and the mainframe began to scream. I'm not sure why, but my legs began to carry me to the door – practically tripping as I went. And by the time I reached the door, the mainframe caught fire and erupted. The floor shook, smoke billowed out, and I found myself hating explosions. Even from across the room I felt the heat, and even as I got pelted by stones I knew that I didn't want to be here much longer.
When things finally settled, I looked around; first to the spot the mainframe was located, and then for my friends – my allies. The mainframe's ceiling had now collapsed, now replaced with rock and smoke and flame. My friends, however, were in a much safer position. It turned out that they made it through the door quite a bit earlier than I and had even gone up the stairs some. The next thing I knew, my knees hit the floor and I did everything I could to hold back tears from flowing.
By the time we reunited with the rest of the party, we found Addison huddled over a display panel and Blake staring blankly at the wall – something was clearly on both their minds. Yet, if I had to describe the atmosphere, it'd have to be awkward. And the silence was tense, as if a pinprick was all it would take to pop and bring everything crashing down. Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for the worst, stepped up to Blake and placed my hand on his shoulder.
I'll admit, it must look odd for my much shorter stature to attempt to lead a comforting hand to the soldier; but I had to ignore that sensation. I had to focus. My friends needed me.
Blake, for all my hopes, seemed to snap out of whatever funk he had gotten into as his clouded gaze gained focus and he slowly turned to me. He opened his mouth but it hung open as he attempted to search for words. Yet nothing seemed to come to mind and his mouth slowly came to a shut. I tried to give him my best reassuring smile, but it might have come off far more hesitant than I intended.
That was when I heard a mutter across the room. Looking to the source, I found Addison staring at me – her eyes carried a great deal of drowsiness. As if she'd eaten too much bloatfly meat and sugar bombs and was coming down from the sugar high. I gave her a small, awkward wave, and she was able to garner the intent. She took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, before taking another and sighing, "He's my brother."
I'd be lying if I said a multitude of emotions swirled across my features, despite my best effort I was oddly at ease. But the thoughts floating around the room could best be summarized by Kyle, "Huh? The fuck?" I shot him a look before he could say anymore though.
Even Blake, the usually stoic soldier held a certain level of conflict in his eyes. My mind raced as thought after thought flashed and echoed in my ear; some petty, some intrigued, but most of all concerned. My left hand curled up into a ball, and then my fist descended against my left leg. Electricity shot through my nerves and my mind cleared of all thought – it was just the jump-start I needed to get my head in order.
I patted Blake's shoulder once more, figuring he wasn't wanting a hug, and felt as my lips tugged into a confident and reassuring smile – this time without mistake. At the same time, I pulled out a folded piece of paper from my backpack, finding it without issue. Then, without pause, I cleared the room to stand before Addison; yet, instead of giving her a hug, I also patted her shoulder, just as I had done with Blake. I wouldn't be a girl that took advantage of someone's emotional stress. Besides, I needed my friends.
At that, I turned my back to the pair and returned to Kyle and Anton's side, where they had been hovering near the door the entire time. My reassuring smile never having left, I closed my eyes and spun around, spread my arms wide and felt my lips fall flat as the emotion drained from my countenance. By the time I was done, my arms were outstretched and I had everyone's attention. That was when I spread out the piece of paper I had in my hand.
It read: I'd like to say we can stay here longer, but we need to leave immediately. Blake has an objective and it can't be put to stay much longer. People will die if we idle. I've already got the coordinates thanks to the auto-map feature on my Pip-Boy and will be headed there as soon as possible. You guys can join me, or stay here – the choice is yours and yours alone.
Blake's grey eyes grew wide for a brief moment before the shock was replaced with resolve and the corner of his lips tugged upward slightly. He gave a curt nod as his brain seemed to go into motion, and his body followed a moment later. His muscular body tensed for a brief moment, before he started toward me. It wasn't until he was standing next to me that he said anything, and he was brief but honest, "Thanks."
Kyle stepped to the side to make room for Blake to pass, but clicked his tongue, "Of course I'm joining you. I can't let you go yourself, you'd likely just end up hurt."
"You're absolutely right, Mr. Kyle. We couldn't possibly let her go herself, otherwise how else would you show your bold new attitude?" Anton commented from my right. Kyle instantly reacted to his words, but the both of them stopped when I lowered my arms and looked Addison in the eyes.
Her eyes were cast to the floor, even as she slumped against the console panel behind her. Those eyes were clouded and dark. Whatever she was thinking wasn't good. My left hand found Blake's shoulder as I slightly jerked him, and then motioned with my chin toward the woman before us. He was quick to pick up on my intent as he crossed the room and whispered something to her. Despite being too quiet to hear, I was certain it had to be a good thing. When Addison finally looked around the room, and then met my gaze I flashed her my most reassuring grin and took a single step toward her.
The pair then crossed the room until they stood before me, "I still need time to process all of this, but I don't think I can just leave you two right now. I don't really want to part with Research Post XJ-9 yet either though. I'm... conflicted."
"It's okay, do what you think is best," Blake offered as comfort.
I scribbled something out and showed the pair: I don't know what your true objective is with visiting this place, but there isn't likely to be too much here. Alternatively, it isn't safe. This structure might actually collapse soon – too many explosions and all that. So come with us, you two can talk things out whenever you find a chance.
This seemed to be what Addison needed to hear, as her eyes watered slightly and a small smile formed across her features. "Thanks," she began, "That actually helped."
I gave my instructions: I'll be back on the surface. Meet me there when everyone has their things. And without really waiting for any sort of response, I headed out the door and stepped onto the elevator, alone.
As soon as the doors slid shut and the button was pressed, I felt the weight of my thoughts and emotions snap. Just like that, tears began to trickle down my cheeks. And as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, I found myself walking on shaky legs and blurred vision. I couldn't even figure out why I was crying; but the flood of emotions felt as if a dam had burst and I was a shack only half a mile out. By the time I made it outside once more, my legs gave out and I just sat there in the dirt, bawling my eyes out.
Why did it come to that? How could I feel like this, when my friends were having a good time? All I could tell was that I wanted to curl up and sleep for a week and do nothing else.
But then a sense of anger overcame the emotions, my hands seized into fists and I began to pound the ground. Even as my fingers began to throb, again and again I kept pounding until it felt like I was unable to focus on anything but the pain. Before I knew it, I was back on my feet and pulling out a radaway and med-x. I jammed the needle into my right leg, as I twisted the cap off the radaway and downed the berry flavored liquid down in one go.
It wasn't until several minutes later that the others joined me up top. Either no one noticed what I'd been doing or no one simply said anything. Whatever the case may be, I was glad. At that, we were ready to head off. I checked my Pip-Boy's map and we headed northeast, toward the base.
After around two hours of traveling in complete silence, the only break being the death of any hostile creature that happened to cross us. Things were getting pretty tense, but before we could come to any sort of heads or tails we stumbled over a hill and discovered multiple plumes of smoke rising high into the air.
As we drew closer, we could make out distinct shouting and gunfire. Fighting, basically. Sneaking closer, we found a small group of raiders attempting to seize the assets of a small caravan. My compass told me there were four reds and one yellow, and then only two greens. Looking closer, there were a few bodies strewn about. Were we too late to help? Would we make things worse if we intervened?
I shook my head, pulled out my hunting rifle and emptied my magazine into the reds. I landed three headshots before they even knew what was going on. They didn't even have time to react, not because I was particularly fast but because they were oddly slow. The yellow shouted and curled up, dropping his weapon. I reloaded, stood, dropped the last red, and motioned for the others to hold off attacking the yellow.
Crossing the short distance, rifle in-hand, I arrived before the three men. The two greens seemed just as scared of me as the yellow. Out of all my time out here, I can't recall any other point I ran into a yellow on my compass. So I pointed my rifle toward him and he choked before a pungent smell filled the air. "I-I'm sorry!" he cried out.
The two survivors, both wearing matching uniforms, stood when they noticed my lack of hostility toward them. "Thank you, you saved us." The taller one smiled, picking up one of the discarded weapons, "Is there anything we can do to repay you?"
I gave a curt nod, and motioned for the others to join us. But the moment the smaller of the two survivors noticed the others, their color changed to red and they dropped into a combat stance. "You!" one shouted, pointing their weapon toward the others; but before they could fire, Anton riddled him with bullets and Blake shot the other.
I just shook my head, then gestured toward the things around the caravan. The others seemed to realize what I was asking and set to work looting the place. By this point, the yellow was crying and making pleas to some sort of deity, asking for redemption.
There was no way to know if this man could read, so I decided to just keep watch over him while the others worked. But I could hear a part of a heated discussion between Kyle (the one who was heated) and Anton (who was more than calm), "What the hell was that about, Anton?!"
"I assure you, I don't know what that was about, Mr. Kyle," I could just hear the smile in the tone.
"Sure, you don't. You're far too suspicious to me."
"How about we just focus on the task at hand, hmm? We can have as long of a talk as you'd like later, Mr. Kyle. I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you might have."
"Fine, you best stick with that – it's a promise."
By the time the others returned, we had a pile of goodies; food, water, ammunition, and a few weapons. I motioned for one of the others to watch the yellow, and set to writing a few things and going through the pile. I pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, five rounds for it, six rounds for my sniper rifle, one round for my hunting rifle, two stimpacks, a cram, three med-x, and a bobby pin. Then wrote to the others that they could have the rest, and there was still a lot to choose from. I probably could have asked before taking the loot, but no one even attempted to stop me, so that's how it went.
I then wrote asking what the yellow was up to, but when I showed it to him, he had a predicted response, "I-I can't read..."
"I'll read it for him," Anton said, coming up beside me. I nodded and showed him the page. "Right, of course." Then he cleared his throat, and read what I had written, "What are you doing out here?"
"We were just trying to get some supplies."
"What supplies?"
"Like, food and stuff, man!" Either he started getting a backbone, or his nerves were starting to come back to him. Whatever the case might have been, it certainly would make things smoother for conversing.
"Why were the men from the caravan slaughtered?"
"They put up a fight, we couldn't control them all. Besides, Frank seemed different, he wanted blood..."
While I was still thinking of my next question, Anton scoffed, "Right, what a farce. You had to know what was going to happen, yet you still attacked."
"It isn't like that, man! We couldn't let this opportunity slip! We were going to die!"
"What do you mean?"
"Reighfyl doesn't want to sit idly by any longer, he wants more territory. We were going to be next. We had to prepare!"
Anton's demeanor shifted, and he leaned in and whispered something to yellow. As he leaned back, something in yellow broke and he began to weep. My compass marked him as green. I shot Anton a glare as I wasn't done talking, but I also couldn't hear what he had said. He responded with a terse smile, stood and walked away to regroup with the others.
Without someone to be a middle-man, there was no way I'd get anything more out of the ex-yellow, so I had to give up and meet up with the others. Anton was looking off into the distance, his face unreadable. Kyle sidled up next to me, "Do you know who Reighfyl is? My Pip-Boy marked one of the guns as belonging to someone under that name – it was a Chinese pistol." I shook my head, then looked at him. A sheepish grin hit his face as he replied, "Sorry, I don't either. I was hoping you would..."
I gave him a flat look, and then headed over to the caravan cart and found a spot to sit. I dug out a bloatfly meat and began to devour it, like a lotus in a crop field. By the time I was done, the others had finished what they were doing. We met back up and were about to leave, when Addison reminded me about the yellow (not using those exact words).
Anton, however, answered for me, "Don't worry about it, Miss Addison. He'll have friends nearby that can come to support him here shortly. In fact, it'd be best if we move out of here and get to where we are going."
Reluctant, Addison agreed, and like that we were back on the road, now slightly more supplied. We wouldn't reach the base for another two hours, but the walk was silent and felt eternally longer as a result. By the time the two hours had passed, it felt like we'd been walking for days. And by the time we climbed to the top of a particularly tall hill, we had a plain view of the compound below.
Spread out around it was a large camp and innumerable mercenaries, yet even in the distance we could spot more moving in. It would appear both sides would be getting reinforcements. This would have to be the largest battle I've ever seen with easily more than a hundred mercenaries scattered around their camp. I turned to my allies beside me and saw their focus and determination, then set my sights on the compound below.
-Transmission in Progress-
-Quest: Addison's Arduous Adventure Complete-
-Level Up-
-Perk Acquired: Acclimated Skin; You're becoming acclimated to your situation, your skin offers 15% more damage resistance, but pain is far more numbed.-
