"Are you Kenji?"
Some guys with very good equipment asked me when I exited Rivet City and downed at the base of the boarding platform. The one looked like the leader had his gun out, but pointed to the ground.
From my experiences, these guys looked like the type of mercenary or such.
"Yes. Can I help you?"
"Wew, finally found you, the little saint from the vault. Someone put quite a price on your head. You think you can walk around the Wasteland being a goody two-shoes and there isn't going to be someone_"
Before he could finish his line, I grabbed my AR in front of my chest and immediately killed his two buddies.
The one who was talking was trying to point his gun up and shoot me, but was a bit late as I had already pointed my AR at him and accurately shot at his hand to disarm him.
"Ahhhhh! My hand!"
"Oh quit whining you third-rate merc. Very stupid of you to announce that you're hired to kill me and not expecting to be attacked like that."
I slowly walked toward him while continuing.
"Alright. Now you're gonna tell me everything you know about this contract to kill me."
"Screw_"
I grabbed his head with my right hand, at the same time blocking his mouth so he couldn't continue talking, and lifted him up and held him in the air.
"Oh I know. You're not gonna spill the bean, not betraying your contract, protecting your client etc. Yada yada. We should skip to the point where I cruelly and sadisticaly torture you, and only after you're about to lose your mind, I obtain the information I wan, capiche? "
— 10 minutes later —
I finished with the merc and got everything, including a note, out of him.
Hmm. No information of who hired them, just who they are. Talon Company. Never heard of them. Guess I should do some digging and asking around when I get the chance then.
I noted that down, continued on my way and arrived at the Jefferson Memorial just down the road.
Wow, they really changed the Jefferson Memorial. This Project Purity must be huge. Look at all those pipes and the huge platform.
Jefferson Memorial's outside has tons of pipes going into and out of it. There's a huge platform, likely an observation platform, surrounding the front of it.
After looking around a while for an entrance, I found only the door leading to the gift shop, so I entered through it.
Super Mutant, and a lot of them too. This is bad, dad arrived here quite a while ago already according to aunty Madison. Let's hurry.
In the big hall room, there's a door to the left that leads to The Rotunda while the other door at the back, opposite of the entrance, leads to the basement.
I searched around the basement first, but found no sight of my dear old dad,only a bunch of Super Mutant though, which worried me even more about what could happen to dad.
Leaving the basement, I headed to the Rotunda.
Throughout my searches, there was no sign of James,but I found a bunch of his holotape about Project Purity journals.
The last one, #10, give me the information I need.
Dad was already left in search of vault 112, somewhere west of Evergreen Mills, in some sort of well-hidden garage.
His research led him to a device called G.E.C.K, a terraforming module, capable of producing life from complete lifelessness.
Put it simply, it's like you wave a magic wand to create life.
James betted on vault 112 to still have something of Braun. Journals, holotapes, computer records, maybe even experiments, anything that could help him complete the puzzle of Project Purity.
He was really lucky to avoid the Super Mutant like that. I guess they came and occupied this place after he had already left.
At least now I know dad's still safe. I should inform aunty Madison first of dad's situation, head back to Megaton and plan what to do next.
— Megaton —
That was a good sleep. I'm fully recovered now.
I arrived at Megaton at midday yesterday. I've gone for almost one week already. Beside the room I rented in RIvet City, I haven't had a good sleep on a good bed for a while. I even stayed up all night at some point too.
That's why I ignored everything and just went to bed immediately. Sleeping one and a half days does wonders to your fatigued body.
Oh, looks like Moira got me the workbench I asked last time.
After doing the morning routine and having breakfast, I started organizing my items and loots.
Silenced 10mm pistol, silenced AR, sniper rifle, Lincoln Repeater for when stealth fails. I'm low on 5.56 mm, .308 mm. I also need .44 rounds for the Lincoln Repeater. Hopefully Moira has some in stock. Let's start repairing and do maintenance on my equipment.
After I spent a whole morning doing maintenance on my equipment, I headed to Craterside Supply..
"Ohhh, if it isn't my favorite assistant. You've gone for quite a long time this time. Something happened?"
Ian, who was organizing items at the back of the shop, heard Moira and turned toward me.
"Hey Kenji!"
"Hey kid. Doing good?"
"Yep. Moira asked me to organize her shelves and items today."
"Alright. Keep up the hard work and good luck kid."
I then turned to Moira.
"Yeah, lots of things happened. I need you to repair my clothes, again, and also this."
I gave her a paper containing the list of all the items I need to restock.
"Alright, I have everything you need in stock here, just gimme a moment."
Moira then asked Ian to bring her the items she told him,in the meantime I laid out all the items I intended to sell on the counter.
After finishing all the trade, I brought out the notes containing all the information of River City's history for Moira.
"Wow, that's a lot of information you've got!"
"Yeah. You should organize them all though."
"No worry, just leave it to me."
"Aight. I'll be on my way then, hopefully on the next trip I'll finish both objectives for you."
"Alright. Good luck out there."
I left Craterside Supply and went to find Lucas.
I found him leaning from the railing just outside of Moriarty's Saloon.
"Hey there chief."
"Oh, hey kid. Doing alright?"
"Yep. Everything's fine. Although I could use some help though. You know anything about Talon Company?"
Lucas raised his eyebrows at that.
"Talon Company? Those psychopaths who would do anything for caps? I don't know much about them, just some of their nasty exploits."
"Do you at least know where their hideout is or someone who knows about them? I have some beef with them."
Lucas looked serious at that.
"I advise you not to mess with them, kid. They're much more dangerous compared to your typical raiders. Highly skilled, good equipment and organized, that's why even though they're a menace to good folks, not many people want to attract their attention."
"Thing is, they already target me, so I need to settle things with them. Don't worry, I know my limit."
Lucas looked at me for a bit and sighed.
"Alright kid, I trust you do. Talon Company does not hide so most people who know about them know where to find them. Their headquarters are at Fort Bannister, a pre-war military base just north of Evergreen Mills."
I noted down that information on my Pip-boy.
"Alright, thanks Lucas. I'll try to settle things peacefully with them if possible, don't worry."
Lucas just nodded at me.
Already got the information I needed, I left Megaton and started my next trip.
Let's start with Jury Street first.
— Jury Street Metro station —
I swear, after this place I'll go straight to Fort Bannister. These Talon guys started to get really annoying now.
I grumbled as I finished dealing with another group of three Talon Company mercs, just outside of the diner opposite of Jury Street Metro Station.
For some reason, when I arrived here, they're already waiting for me. Either they were lucky or Talon Company has a really efficient network all around the Capital.
Anyway, let's focus.
According to the note, this diner should be the place Prime asks Jigg to meet him.
I entered the diner and immediately saw a fresh corpse just behind the counter.
Uwah, that's nasty. He definitely got shot directly and point blank on the head for his head to explode like that. Guess this is Prime, as I don't see anyone or any corpses other than this. Those Talon guys must've got him before meeting me then.
Well, at least I don't have to be angry at him anymore.
I stood up and intended to leave, but then I noticed something underneath Prime's corpse.
Rolling his corpse away, I knocked a few times on the floor and my suspicion was confirmed, as it sounded hollow there.
There was a secret space.
I smashed the floor tile and found a chest there.
Ohoho, Prime you sly dog, hiding your stuff here huh. Don't mind if I do.
Around 500 caps, a bunch of meds and chems and lots of 5.56mm bullets. The most valuable thing I found though, was a modified Chinese Assault Rifle named Xuanlong. The name was carved onto the handle.
I tried it out with a few shots in the air.
Hmm, this thing was modified to have more firepower in exchange for a bit worse recoil and accuracy. Good for killing tougher things compared to my AR, but the cons are not worth replacing my gun with it. Oh well, Moira should be interested in this then.
Seeing nothing else of value here, I left the diner.
Alright, time to settle things with those fucker of Talon. Their base is a bit west of here.
— Fort Bannister —
Two on each lookout outposts, two patrolling around inside the camp, three in the middle of the camp drinking and eating and one patrolling around outside the camp with a guard dog. Decent, but nothing much.
Finished scouting the camp, I started my operation 'Fuck with me and I'll take everything you have' and stealthily approached the one with the guard dog to take them out silently. The dog almost noticed me, but I put him down first and then the patroller.
Even though there were a lot of them, the camp was so big and spacious that taking them out one by one was easy.
For the party in the middle of the camp though, I thought they could use some fireworks to accompany their party so I donated two grenades to them, right at their feets. Suffice to say, the firework was quite beautiful, especially with all that limbs scattered all around.
Alright. There's only the bunker here so the leader of this bunch should be down there.
Entering the bunker, I first focused my sensing ability to detect the enemies down here.
There were many more of them down here. I could already sense a total of 7 already from the entrance. This bunker should be much deeper so there should be more of them.
Sneaking around and killing them is easy, the difficult thing is the auto-turrets here.
I need to find the terminal controlling the turret here to redirect the target system.
Luckily for me, after taking a few of the mercs out and a long time waiting for the turret to faces the other way for me to run past them, AND a few hallways and two rooms, I found a terminal and it's the one controlling the turrets.
Alright. That should make the turret recognize only me and shoot all other mercs who come near the turrets.
And it did. After a while, I heard gunshots, shouting and screaming. Unfortunately though, there were only turrets near the entrance and not deep inside the bunker. Have to do the rest the old way then.
Maybe because deep inside there were no turrets, the Talon Company installed many traps there.
The grenade bouquet was especially bad though. Who the heck thought that dangling a bouquet of grenades on the ceiling, right in front of your eyes where you could easily see them, was a good idea? Well, I guess many raiders and wastelander were stupid enough to trigger that trap.
Continuing on my way deep inside the bunker, I found their kitchen, full of food, and also their armory, but I ignored them for now and focused on dealing with all the mercs first.
After a long hallway and lots of rooms, I arrived at the end of the bunker, where a big door was there and a terminal beside it. Three presences were behind this door.
Unfortunately, this door is a sliding door just like in the vault and can only open by the terminal beside it. Opening this door will cause loud noise and they'll notice me immediately.
It is what it is. I opened the door.
I immediately pointed my gun toward the last three men in here when the door opened.
"What the…"
Immediately upon seeing me, the two mercs beside the one that should be the leader pointed their guns at me.
The leader seemed to panic at first, then looked and saw his two bodyguards and calmed down, looked toward me and asked.
"Who the hell are you?! I explicitly told the others not to bother me until I told them otherwise, why the hell did they let you in?!"
I ignored his outburst and asked.
"Are you the leader of this Talon Company?"
Upon hearing how I addressed him as the leader, he smirked and looked proud.
"That's right! I'm Jabsco, the Supreme Overlord of the infamous Talon Company. The only combat veteran who has the abilities to lead this company to glory!"
I noticed that the two bodyguards of his gave a light snort upon hearing that, but still kept their focus on me. Looks like someone's either bragging too much about himself or talking out of his ass.
"Did you get hired to kill someone named Kenji?"
He thought for a bit and replied.
"Kenji? Ohhh, that greenhorn do-gooder from the vault that ruined the plan of Burke at Tenpenny Tower? Yeah, I received a contract to kill that bitch. What about it?"
I almost facepalm if not for the fact that there are two mercs pointing their guns at me. Is he born retard or is he just retard?
Getting what I needed, I immediately opened fire at one of the two guards and killed him with my Lincoln Repeater. Unfortunately, the guy's helmet did not cover the front of his face. He took the .44 magnum round directly to his face and lost a huge chunk of his head.
The other one immediately fired at me.
Jabsco panicked again, holding his head while fleeing to the back of the room.
I rolled to the left where there's a table and flipped it to make a cover, but not before some bullets caught me in the right arms.
Although it hurts, it does not affect me much. Good to know.
This was the first time I got shot by .32 caliber rounds. Due to my dense muscle, the bullets were stuck inside my arms, but not too deep. I also confirmed that my body could take a few bullets and still keep going like normal.
I wouldn't want to test bullets to my vital point anytime soon though.
Pulling out a grenade but keeping the pin on it, I tossed it over the flipped table, to the further back behind the last guard.
It worked. The guard was panicking and lunged forward and down on the ground to dodge the grenade. I took advantage and vaulted over the table and fired two shots at his head. One to shatter his helmet and one to kill him.
After I finished the last guard, my danger sense flared up so I dodge immediately, just in time for a red beam to fire past me.
"Fucking bitch, stand still so I can shoot you to death!"
Jabsco came back with a gun. A fucking laser rifle.
Where the hell did he get that frickin' laser rifle from?!
I rushed and hid behind a pillar just as the beam from the gun arrived at my last location. Luckily, Jabsco was one hell of a bad shooter.
The only time I saw laser weapons was from Sarah and Vargas who each got their own laser rifle and the one from Overlord Super Mutant, which I had to destroy.
That would tell you how rare and dangerous those energy weapons are. And now This fucker has one and using it to keep fireing at me, destroying the pillar bit by bit.
Taking a deep breath, I patiently waited until Jabsco walked a bit closer to me.
Now!
I tossed another grenade, still with the pin on, toward Jabsco. He saw it and panicked again, then stopped shooting his gun at me while trying to get away from the grenade.
I peeked out and shot at his legs, then rushed forward while he's falling to the ground.
Before he could grab his laser rifle again, I put a bullet right in his head and killed him. This fucker did not wear a helmet so one was enough.
I sighed in relief. I don't want to find out if my body could take a shot from the laser rifle.
The reason why I don't want to use the grenade was because grenades usually destroy equipment. I really want that laser rifle.
Also grenades don't guarantee to kill in the middle of the fight, as it can be easily dodge, best case scenario is wound the enemies only.
Nice, it's in good condition. Guess even that retard knows how valuable this gun is and maintain it regularly.
Beside the laser rifle, I got a few fully charged Micro Fusion Cells from Jabsco, including the more than half full MFC in-use in the gun.
For the annoyances that the Talon Company caused me, I'd say Jabsco redeemed himself in the end by 'gifting' me the laser rifle like this, so I pray for his soul to eternally burn in hell, if there's one.
Alright. Now this problem is solved, let's go and find my dear old dad in 112.
— Smith Casey's garage —
There's only this garage in this area, which should be the place where vault 112 is hidden.
Except for a few radroaches and mole rats, there's no hostile in the garage. I found a large hatch inside and a switch to open it.
After going down a level and through a hallway, I arrived at the blast door, entrance to the vault.
This vault has a panel to open the blast door from the outside, unlike vault 101. It required a Pip-boy though, which I have right here. How lucky of me!
After I activated the panel to open the blast door, I stood back and waited. The familiar sound of the alarm from the blast door was so nostalgic.
It's only been more than half a month, but I already feel like a long time has passed since I stepped out of vault 101.
Meeting new people, having my own house in Megaton, traveling around doing jobs and exploration. Also killing scumbags all over the place too.
If that's what I got from just more than half a month leaving the vault, my life will definitely get even more interesting moving forward from here.
Alright, door's open. Let's get inside.
Vault 112 was very different from vault 101, and strange too.
It's not big. There are only a few hallways, an Overseer's Office, a few rooms and a very big and spacious room in the middle.
There are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of servers here, all connecting to a big machine in the middle of the big room.
There're, for some reason, only 10 residents here, all of which were staying inside a pod-like box or 'lounger' as the robobrains called them.
That was another thing. Robobrain. Except for the residents inside the loungers, this vault only has three special caretaker robobrains going around back and forth checking things and doing maintenance.
There were a total of 13 loungers but only 10 residents inside them. All the loungers were placed in a circle, with the big machine in the middle. Around the base of the big machine are 13 terminals, each for one lounger, that appeared to be monitoring the status of the occupant.
I found James too. He's inside one of the lounger. He, and the other resident as well, does not hear me or react to anything at all. Same with the Overseer inside his office.
According to the robobrains, my arrival was '202.3 years behind schedule'. They gave me a vault 112 suit, asked me to wear it then sit in the 'Tranquility lounger'.
After exploring every nook and cranny of vault 122, and found nothing else, I proceeded to do what the robobrains asked.
Hopefully this isn't a mistake.
If he did not get trap in there alone for eternity, I'd definitely torture him until he beg for death! That fucking scumbag psychopath.
And he is. Stanislaus Braun, the Overseer of vault 112, or 'Betty' as his name inside the Tranquility Lane, was a psychopath and not a human.
I'm not gonna go into much details, but to sum it all, Braun trapped every resident inside the simulation he created and could not leave it on their own. Braun then, for his own twisted amusement and sadistic tendency, tortured them.
For the past two centuries, yes, he and the other 10 residents were all people from pre-war, Braun was using his special access as the creator of the simulation to directly manipulate the simulations and impose cruelty and agony on the Vault's inhabitants as a means of alleviating his boredom.
They were routinely killed, resurrected, mind-wiped and killed again, and Braun does not have any mercy as he views them all as mere playthings.
Luckily though, a lounger of one resident, old lady Dithers, was somehow malfunctioned and she did not get mind-wiped like the others, that's why she knew she was in a simulation.
She also found out about the failsafe in the abandoned house in the simulation.
— Flashback —
"Please, child. Please end our suffering."
I hesitated for a bit.
"But if what you said is true, then doesn't that mean activating the failsafe will effectively kill everyone?"
Old Lady Dithers smiled sadly at me.
"We're already dead, child. Think. More than 200 years have passed. Even if for some miracle that Braun releases everyone, do you think we could live? Our bodies were sustained by the machine, if we're released and stand up we'd crumble to dust immediately. I'm sorry to have burden you with this action, but please, think of it as you release us from an eternity of torture by that madman."
— End Flashback —
I shook my head and got out of the lounger I was in. The lounger next to me opened and emerged from it was my father, James.
"I was afraid I'd be trapped in there forever. Thank you, son. But, what are you doing here?"
"Answer my question first. What the hell were you thinking, just going in a strange pod like that?! If I didn't have the idea to find you, you'd be dead, or even worse, totured by that fucker for eternity!"
James was taken back by my outburst.
"... Well I didn't expect Dr. Braun to be alive and insane. I thought I'd just find notes, or holotapes… I might've fared better if I knew he's still alive till now…"
"And here I thought that you enjoyed being a dog like that."
I took a few breaths to calm down.
"Sarcasm huh, just like your mother. And that temper too."
I sighed while scratching my head.
"Alright, things worked out so I'll forgive you for this. But believe me, if I ever catch you doing something stupid like this again, I'll make you regret it on behalf of mother!"
My dad nodded seriously at me, "Duly noted."
"Well? Did you at least get what you need from that psychopath?"
"I did indeed. Braun's work, the G.E.C.K., was designed to re-adapt environments for living after a nuclear war_"
"Stop stop. I am not stupid but I'm not as smart as a scientist, I also did not learn anything related to science so please spare me the technical details. Just tell me what you plan to do from here."
James thought for a bit and said.
"Well, now that I have the information, I need to get back to Rivet City to try and persuade Dr. Li to join me for Project Purity again. I need her and her team, as I cannot do this on my own."
I nodded.
"Alright, you do that. Don't worry, I'll bet aunty Madison will agree to your request now."
James looked at me, confused.
"... Aunty Madison?"
I waved my hand at him.
"Don't worry about it. Just get there safely and stay there for a while. After I'm done with some of my things, I'll come to find both of you. I swear you're a great scientist, but really reckless. Did you know that right after you left Jefferson Memorial, a bunch of Super Mutant came and occupied it?"
"Really?"
I sighed.
"Yes. So wait for me in RIvet City. After I finish my things, I'll help you with Project Purity. Well, as the muscle of course, I'll leave the technical work to you all."
James looked reluctant and worried at that.
"You sure son? Capital Wasteland is a very dangerous place, as I said to you many times before."
I stared at him.
"... Remind me again who just saved the ass that mom really loved?"
I took a breath and looked at him seriously.
"Look, dad. Don't worry about me. You might not know, but I've been secretly training a lot from a young age to prepare for my departure from vault 101 and into the wasteland. In the past half month, I've dealt with many dangerous things already. Just ask aunty Madison for details later and you'll know."
James seemed to want to continue, but then decided to drop it.
"Alright, son. I'll trust you on this. I really hope that you stayed inside the vault though. You were supposed to make a life inside there, not out here."
I sighed again.
"Look, dad. I don't wanna repeat everything, so just ask aunty Madison for the details later when you meet her, okay?"
James accepted that.
"Alright son. I guess it's time to get out of here."
I stretched myself and took a deep breath for the air outside of the library. All those ruined books inside there made it quite hard to breathe sometimes.
For the last two objectives for Moira, there's not much to say.
Robco Facility has many radroaches and mole rats inside, but nothing I couldn't handle. The tricky thing though is after I put in the processor widget in, all the Protectrons inside were activated.
Well, I just redirect the target system of all the Protectrons to exclude me as a target and I'm good.
Arlington Library had a bit more trouble, as raiders were occupying it as their home already.
The Brotherhood of Steel was also there too. Some Paladins were escorting Scribe Yearling there to preserve what they could from the library.
I got lucky though, as some of them heard of my exploit at the GNR Building Plaza before and were very friendly toward me.
Two of them volunteer to come with me deep inside the Media Archives to clear out the raiders in there while I need to access the terminal there for the completed Library Archive.
I finished these two last objectives in two days. All in all, pretty good.
— Craterside Supply —
"And that's that. All three objectives for chapter three completed."
Moira smiled brightly at me.
"Thank you, Kenji. You're the best assistant I ever had. And that should be it. I have enough materials to write the guide now!"
I nodded at that.
"Well, congrat then. It was fun, but really time consuming to run around D.C. like that."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad. Thanks to you, now people have a guide to learn how to survive the wasteland, hopefully."
"Aight. Good luck with that. I'm gonna head out again, got stuff to do. Bye."
"Bye bye now, be careful out there."
— Rivet City —
I massaged my head.
I arrived at RIvet City just after dad arrived a few hours ago. Looks like dear old dad heed my words and take it easy to travel the wasteland slowly and safely to Rivet City.
By the time I went down to the science lab, dad was talking with aunty Madison.
Scratch that, aunty Madison was scolding dad for being reckless.
Now she's ignoring dad, but I noticed the relief in her eyes and tone that James was rescued and back.
"Alright, aunty Madison. I know you like James and was relieved as he's safe now. Stop pretending to be angry at him. We've got things to do."
Aunty Madison looked horrified at me while dad was confused and turned to me.
"What do you mean she likes me? She didn't hate me did she?"
I facepalmed. How the heck could my dad be this dense. I turned to aunty Madison.
"You have a lot of work to do, I see. Good luck aunty. Anyway, let's talk about work people, we have things to do, a project to complete and a wasteland to save from radiated water, don't we. Dad, what do we need to do now? Anything for me to help yet?"
"Yes. We need to get back to our old lab. There's an old computer there that could help us locate a G.E.C.K."
Aunty Madison sighed and entered the conversation.
"James, we will continue the talk later. Kenji, can you help check the Jefferson Memorial for any signs of danger while me,your dad and other people are moving our stuff there?"
I nodded at aunty Madison.
"Sure. I'll sweep the place clean for you. If there's no other complication, it should take about 15-30 mins. I'll go now."
— Jefferson Memorial —
After checking everywhere inside Jefferson Memorial and confirmed the place was clear, the team arrived just in time.
After everyone settled down inside, me, dad, aunty Madison was inside the control room.
"Alright, son, I'll need you to get to the Flood Control Pumps and activate them so we can clear out the water and reach the mainframe. In the meantime me and Madison will try to locate a G.E.C.K. from here."
"Where do I need to go?"
"The automatic doors were sealed when the flooding occurred, so you'll have to use the access tunnels to reach the pumps. Also the flooding shorted out some of the fuse boxes downstairs, including one that controls some of the automatic doors. Take these fuses. The box is back down in the sub-basement, near the eastern end of the level. There're intercoms down there if you need to ask for directions."
He took a breath and continued.
"After you do that, you should be able to access the mainframe. Enter the room and activate the power switch and you're done."
After confirming I understood my assignments, dad relaxed and talk more comfortably with me.
"I heard what you did in the past month from Madison and a few others. Did you disarm the bomb in Megaton and also donate some of what you earn to Megaton to improve the town?"
I scratched my cheek awkwardly.
"... Yeah, I did."
Noticing my awkwardness, dad smiled.
"I'm so proud of you son. You did good. I bet your mom would be too."
"Thanks dad…"
I looked around and saw that the others were already out of the control room and went down there. I hesitated for a bit and said to James.
"Dad… about mom… I know it's not my place to tell you how to live your life. I'm also not good at this so I'll just go straight to the point. I think you should move on from mom. It's been 19 years already, it's not good to continue to mourn her like that. I know mom would agree with me too."
James was silent and did not say anything. I continued.
"You've done a very good job in raising a strong, handsome and awesome son like me 's time for you to continue with your life. I know you're not as dense as you appear and know about aunty Madison's feelings for you."
"I always forgot that you're more like your mother than I thought, that perception of yours and her."
James sighed, "I don't know about this, son."
"Just try, please? You being happy would make mom happy too. That's how you should honor the memories of her."
After being silent for a while, James nodded at me.
"Alright son. I don't know if I could do it or how, or if things will even work with Madison, but if there's a chance, I'll try. I promise you that."
"That's all I ask. Thanks dad. Alright, I'll get to it now and get back to you guys when I'm done."
— 10 minutes later —
Alright, this should do it… Wait, did I hear the sound of helicopters up there? A Vertibird?
Wondering what was happening,I made my way back to the control room.
On my way up there, I heard the sound of heavy footsteps going down the basement and also the presence of one person.
Feeling something fishy, I immediately went into stealth mode.
It was the correct decision, as emerging from the stair back up was a soldier wearing a power armor and a minigun.
The heck? Brotherhood? No, this power armor… X-01 type, which are mainly utilized by the Enclave?! The fuck are these fucker doing here?
To summarize it all into a simple sentence, the Enclave is a paramilitary organization and quasi-state dedicated to the project of an all-inclusive holocaust of non-members, whom they dehumanize as "genetic non-compliance offenders."
It is the direct continuation of a pre-War American deep state organization consisting of high-ranking political, military, and corporate figures. It claims to be the direct continuation of the United States and its government, despite seizing power by subverting continuity of government protocols and murdering non-Enclave government survivors in the name of continuing the war against the concept of communism.
If you want a simpler explanation, the Enclave is the Nazi.
Guess it's time to test this bad boy then.
I pulled out my laser rifle from the left side of my backpack where I kept it. I waited until the soldier turned away from me, aimed at the back of his left knee and fired.
The beam hit true and the soldier's left knee joint was penetrated cleanly, leaving only a sizzling hole in it.
As he was screaming and falling down, I took advantage and rushed toward him, ripped his helmet open to expose his head and finished him off with my pistol.
Power armor was strong, but not undefeatable. It just takes a lot of high power bullets to take one down or have the skill to pull off the stunt I just did, attacking its weak point of the joint, the neck and the eyes.
Also because of the narrow vision, it's very easy to sneak around power armor.
I found two more soldiers patrolling around on the main level of the museum and took them out the same way the other.
I arrived at the control room just a bit too late, as I saw the door to the control room was closed and locked.
My dad was inside of the control room with a scientist on the team, two soldiers wearing power armor and one more person that looked like a high ranking officer of the Enclave.
Aunty Madison was outside of the control room, so I asked her.
"What happened? Why is the Enclave here?"
"I don't know. They just appeared out of nowhere in those Vertibirds, came in here demanding to talk to the person in charge. James locked the door with them inside…"
"Damn it, is there any way to open this door?
Aunty Madison shook her head.
"I'm afraid not, at least not for a while as James locked it from inside."
Seeing as I couldn't do anything for now, I looked toward dad and the one in charge and heard their conversation.
"By the authority of the President, this facility is now under United States government control. The person in charge is to step forward immediately, and turn over all materials related to this project."
"That's quite impossible. This is a private project, the Enclave has no authority here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave at once."
"Am I to assume, sir, that you are in charge?"
"Yes, I'm responsible for this project."
"Then I repeat, sir, that you are hereby instructed to immediately hand over all materials related to the purifier."
"'m sorry, but that's..."
"Furthermore, you are to assist Enclave scientists in assuming control of the administration and operation of this facility at once."
"Colonel... Is it Colonel? I'm sorry, but the facility is not operational. It never has been. I'm afraid you're wasting your time here."
"Sir, this is the last time I am going to repeat myself. Stand down at once, and turn over control of this facility."
"Colonel, I assure you that this facility will not function. We have never been able to successfully replicate test results…"
The Colonel interrupted James by pulling out a gun and shot at the other scientist.
"No! Janice!"
Aunty Madison shouted in horror beside me.
"I suggest you comply immediately, sir, in order to prevent any more incidents. Are we clear?"
I could see dad was simmering with anger at the death of his colleague.
"... Yes, Colonel."
"Then you will immediately hand over all materials related to this project, and aid us in making it operational at once."
"... Very well. Give me a few moments to bring the system online."
James went to the panel and pushed some buttons there.
After Janice was killed, I knew things were gonna be bad so I was impatiently looking for a way to rescue James from those psychopaths. That's why I did not pay attention to what was going on inside there.
"James! Nooo!"
Aunty Madison was banging on the thick glass that separated us from the inside.
I looked back and saw the panel James was just pressing before overloaded.
"What's going on?! What happened, Madison?!"
"James overloads the purifier and floods the chamber with radiation, a deadly amount too…"
I immediately took out my Lincoln Repeater and fired repeatedly at the bulkhead while shouting to aunty Madison.
"Get out of here, aunt Madison! The radiation's gonna leak out soon!"
Aunty Madison, seeing as there was nothing she could do to help, nodded at me and escaped the room.
Damn it, the glass is so thick!
After a lot of shooting, the glass only cracked and did not shatter. Times like this make me wish I carried a sledgehammer or something.
The people inside were suffocating with the amount of radiation in there. James was choking and leaning onto the cracked glass.
"... R-Run, son… Leave m-me and r-run… "
He then fell down to the ground.
Having no choice, I put away my gun and then started pounding on the cracked glass.
"JUST BREAK YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!"
I shouted as I delivered the last punch to shatter the bulkhead. After a dozen punches, my knuckles were bloodied and bleeding really badly. I ignored it.
The wave of radiation hit me. Even with my enhanced resistance to radiation, I could feel it started to affect me very quickly.
I cleaned the lower shattered glass on the bulkhead and reached in, grabbed my dad on the ground and pulled him out.
James was unconscious, but at least he's still breathing and his heart was still beating, albeit very weak.
I immediately escaped the room with him in my arms.
Right when I rushed through the door to the main lobby, I met aunty Madison and the remaining scientists.
"Kenji! You're out. Did James…"
I did not reply to her and lay down James onto the floor for a moment, reached into my backpack and grabbed a Rad-X, a Radaway and two syringes.
"Madison, start injecting him with the Rad-X and Radaway. Also we need to move, the radiation from the chamber will leak out here in no time! Is there any way out of this place without going through the main entrance? As I can't deal with those Enclave right now with James like this and you guys around."
Madison grabbed the meds I handed her and started administering them to James.
"Yes, actually. There's a secret tunnel down below that will lead us straight to Citadel, Brotherhood of Steel's base. I don't trust the Brotherhood of Steel though…"
"We'll leave that for later. The Rad-X and Radaway can only, hopefully, keep James barely alive. He needs immediate medical attention, and the Citadel might just have what it takes to save him. One of you please carry James while Madison administers him with the meds. I need my hands free to deal with any dangers that might come at us while on the move."
I then turned to Madison.
"Any dangers inside the tunnel?"
"That's the thing. I don't know. It's been a very long time since the tunnel was used."
I nodded.
"It's fine. Everyone, move out. Stay behind me all the time and don't wander off."
All of them nodded. Madison led us to a manhole cover that was hidden at the corner beside a machine in the middle of the room.
At first, there was nothing dangerous awaiting us. We continued deep into the tunnel and arrived at a big door that was locked. THere was a terminal beside it but someone needed to hack it to open the door.
"I'll handle the terminal. Can you guard the room there Kenji? Through there is another entrance to this tunnel. No one ever used it before, but guard it just in case."
I nodded and took out a few landmines, armed them and put them down inside the room, then took a guard post beside the door.
Two minutes later, I heard heavy footsteps and also sensed three people approaching us from the other side of the room.
"Let's go. If they wanted to escape from us, they should be going through this tunnel!"
Damn bastards.
I cursed and prepared my laser rifle, but still hiding beside the door.
I waited until one of them came near and triggered the landmines, which took their legs out, then I peeked out and fired at one of the remaining two.
Due to being surprised, the second one was killed after a few shots from me while the third recovered from the surprise and fired back at me.
The last one was using a minigun. They kept firing while advancing toward the door where I was hiding.
I waited until they were close to the door, then threw a grenade into the room, right under their legs.
THe grenade went off. Although it did not do much damage, it did do the job by making them off balance and stop firing.
I took advantage and killed the remaining soldier.
"Alright, done. Door's open now, let's continue."
Just in time for aunt Madison to finish opening the door too.
After the locked door though is the territory of the unknown as aunt Madison said.
Ghouls. Lots of ghouls here, even some glowing ones too.
After a while, we found an old, abandoned medical room so we took a break in there while I reloaded all of my magazines.
Hopefully we got there quickly. I'm down to one third of my spare ammo, not sure it'll be enough if this goes on for long.
Fortunately, After another encounter with two more Enclave soldiers and a mob of ghouls, we arrived at the destination.
"Here it is, the Brotherhood guarding post for this tunnel should be ahead_"
*ROARRR*
Everyone was frozen in fear, as many roars could be heard from deeper into the tunnel, just after the door leading to the guarding post aunt Madison pointed out.
"I'll hold them off for you guys! Quickly go!"
Everyone woke up from their states and listened to my words and rushed to the door leading to the guarding post.
"Shit, the door's locked! Is there anyone there? Please open the door, we have civilians and are in danger. We need to pass!"
No one answered Dr. Li while the door did not open.
"Fuck. Either they gone away or something happened that no one's there right now!"
While aunt Madison was banging and shouting at the door, I took out my remaining two landmines and set them down further into the tunnel, then I got back near the door but a bit further away from it and the scientists.
I took out two of my three last remaining grenades and placed them down beside me with my laser rifle and Lincoln Repeater.
My assault rifle was still in front of my chest and I held my sniper rifle in my left hand. Pistol in the hoster on my right leg while combat knife on my left leg.
"Keep calling out to them, aunt Madison!"
If someone just went away for a bit, they should be back and hear us. If something happened and no one was behind that door…
Let's focus on holding this horde of ghouls off.
I could sense at least twenty of them deep into the tunnel. Might be even more coming after those.
Even if I hoped these were just regular feral ghouls and no Reaver, I know I'm not that lucky in this situation.
Here they come.
I spotted the first ghoul rushing toward me from down the deep dark tunnel.
*BANG*
I fired my sniper rifle and took down the first ghoul. The others appeared right after it and rushed toward me.
I kept firing and took down a few more before they reached my landmine trap.
The landmines exploded and took out 4 of them. Combined with the three I got at the beginning, a total of 7 ghouls were dead, still many more to go.
I threw a grenade toward them, which took down one more and staggered some of them. Using that time I killed two more of the ghouls who were not staggered.
I repeated with one more grenade and killed two more of them. The last grenade I kept just in case.
Nine more to go.
The ghouls were a bit closer to my position so I switched to my AR.
A roar sounded out, accompanied by a burst of radiation and healed the ghouls who were wounded by my grenades and landmines.
I immediately picked up my sniper rifle and took a bit of risk to kill the Glowing One right behind the feral and roamer ghouls.
After confirming it was killed, I switched again to my AR and released the whole two magazines into the remaining 9 ghouls.
I could sense more of them were coming so the first 20 ghouls and one Glowing One was only the first wave.
Three magazines for AR, one for sniper rifle. Lincoln Repeater, laser rifle and pistol are still good. Let's hope it will be enough.
After reloading my sniper rifle and AR, wave two arrived.
Ten more minutes pass by, still no sign of anyone behind the locked door. I'm already out of magazines for AR and sniper rifle, Lincoln repeater only had 6 more shots, laser rifle only had one MFC that was less than half full, equal to only around 10 shots, two full magazines of 10 mm and a good condition combat knife.
The power armor of the Enclave soldiers before were eating almost all of my MFC and .44 magnum rounds for Lincoln Repeater and laser rifle.
The next wave of ghouls came, and this time, it had only three normal feral ghouls, two Glowing One and one Reaver.
I took a deep breath and prepared for what was about to come next. A hard battle.
There was almost nowhere to hide in this narrow tunnel. I also couldn't retreat back and need to hold them here, or the ghouls will slaughter the scientists behind me.
I took out my last grenade and tossed it at the ghouls. This time it killed two of the normal ghouls and also made the rest of them stagger back a bit.
I fired my Lincoln Repeater at the Glowing One. Only after 4 bullets, two missed, one hit the torso and one hit the head, did I take down one, as it was far from me and moving. I could see in the dark, but only a little so the vision was bad and I couldn't aim properly.
The rest of the ghouls recovered and rushed at me. The Reaver was speeding toward me quickly so I switched to the laser rifle and fired at the last Glowing One, trying to kill it.
The Lincoln Repeater was good, but its attack speed was a bit slow.
The Reaver was sometimes blocking the view on the Glowing One so I missed three shots, hit two on the Reaver's body and made it stagger a bit, missed another three more and one more hitting the Glowing One's head and killed it.
I used the last shot on the Reaver. It hit its right arm and luckily tore it off.
I roared as it was hurt, but kept running toward me while taking out a chunk of its body and threw it at me.
I shot at it with my pistol and luckily, after three shots it exploded in the air. I then took out my combat knife and prepared for a close combat with the Reaver, as 10 mm bullets has no effect on the Reaver.
The Reaver rushed toward dn clawed at me. I dodged by stepping back a step, then used its momentum and tripped it down. I then used the knife to try and penetrate its neck when it was facing down on the ground, but it barely got in by the tip.
Its skin was so tough and my combat knife was not the best, so I put it back in its holster on my left leg.
As it was struggling a bit to get up, I grabbed both of its legs with my two hands and lifted it up, then smacked it down hard.
This Reaver was a unique one though, as its skins burned my hand when I grabbed it. It's not bad, as I felt like being burned by a weak acid, but if I leave it unattended for long, it could potentially damage some nerves.
I wanted to repeat my action again, but was stopped by the remaining normal feral ghoul. I was too focused on the Reaver and forgot about this one.
It took advantage of my distraction toward the Reaver and grabbed onto my right arm and bit it.
The bite only tore through my coat though, but cannot penetrate my skin. I grabbed its head and smacked it to the wall hard and shattered its head, killing it.
By the time it was killed, the Reaver had already got up and attacked me from behind.
"Arghh!"
This time its claw attack hit me in the left arm and tore through both my coat and my flesh, deep. I can still move my left arm, but cannot exert 100% of its strength anymore.
I turned and grabbed the Reaver by its neck and chokeslammed it on the ground. I then pressed my right leg on its torso and pushed it down hard, used my right arm to grab hold of its right arm and used my remaining strength to rip it off.
I squeezed the fingers on the hand to harden them into some kind of a custom knife. Its skin was tough and its claws tore through me before, so it should be strong enough to be used against itself.
I then used it to penetrate right through its head.
Its flailing and attacks while held down by me still caught me though. Its left arm tore through my right leg a bit before it succumbed to its death.
Luckily nothing important was severed, as I could still use my right leg normally. Need to do something about the bleeding though.
I had no time to rest though, as there were still lots of ghouls coming toward me.
"Kenji! Quick! Come and let's get out of here!"
I turned toward the source of the voice, a bit further from where I was combating, and saw aunt Madison was there with two soldiers wearing power armor from the Brotherhood of Steel.
"Come quick, let us cover for you!"
One of the two soldiers said to me, holding up a minigun. The other was holding a flamethrower.
I immediately rushed back, grabbed my stuff and got out of there with aunt Madison and the others. I grabbed a stimpak from my pack and injected it to me. I felt it was slowly working and sighed in relief.
The two soldiers were slowly backing away while firing at the ghouls. After we all got through the door, they stopped and locked it up again.
We all went back up to the surface and the Citadel was right there, just up the hill from the manhole cover we exited from.
Aunty Madison asked for passage from the soldiers who were guarding the entrance, but was denied, stating that civilians cannot enter the Citadel.
She then shouted into the intercom beside him.
"Lyons! I know you're in there! I know you can hear me! You open this goddamn door right now or I swear I'll go in there and pull out your beard till the last strand!"
After a while of waiting, the big door at the entrance was slowly opened up.
I sighed in relief. At least we all can take a good rest now.