Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 6 – Message In A Bullet Part II.
Elder Lyons rushed into the infirmary, seeing his daughter laying on one of the gurneys with May and Sawbones hovering around her, tending to her wound. Owyn noticed Sarah's bloodstained armour littered on the floor with the large hole, the size of an apple, in the breastplate where her heart would be.
Vargas was sitting down, head in hands next to another gurney that Connor was asleep on while the Enclave boy Tyler was standing next to them against the wall. Owyn walked to Vargas and essentially demanded, "What happened out there? And what is wrong with Falcon?"
Vargas sighed heavily before standing to face the Elder.
"We were attacked by the raiders there. It was all a trap to kill us. Sarah was hit by a sniper. As for Con, when we got here he was... well, I would say agitated but that doesn't even compare. He's angry sir. Very angry. I asked May to sedate him because he kept going on about how he was going to kill every single raider he comes across, regardless if Sarah..." Vargas choked up at what he was thinking, 'If Sarah died'.
Owyn lowered his head and looked towards his daughter. May turned and scrubbed the blood off her hands in a bowl of soapy water. "May? How is she?"
She reluctantly looked up at Owyn, seeing the fear and sadness in the old man's eyes.
"At the moment she's... Stable. When the bullet hit her armour it was slowed down considerably but it still hit her in the chest, penetrating her heart. Had the bullet not been slowed down at all then..." May trailed off closing her eyes and taking a breath before she continued talking.
"But it's still a major problem though. Her heart is damaged. At the moment Sawbones is the only thing keeping her alive, helping her heart beat like it should. At least until a machine that we have in storage is brought up to take over for him."
"She can't live the rest of her life attached to a machine. What else can we do?"
May shook her head, taking another deep breath.
"That's the thing. There is nothing we can do. There was some pre-war medical technology that acted as an artificial heart inside the body, completely replacing the heart and allowing the patient to live relatively normal lives. Unfortunately these days the only places that would have that technology would be a Vault."
Owyn's eyes lit up as he thought of 101. "What about One-oh-one? Falcon knows the Overseer of the Vault well so I'm sure they wouldn't mind letting us have the heart."
"I'm sorry sir but they don't."
The spark in Owyn's eyes vanished and sadness encompassed his face again.
"How do you know?"
"I've already contacted One-oh-one and they told us they were never equipped with that technology. I also checked the Vault-Tech terminal we have and looked at the inventory listing for all vault's in the area. The listing showed one record but the data was corrupted and classified."
May took a short breath as she continued saying, "I tried hacking in but because of the data corruption I could only find a small mention of the technology in a vault called M-Seven, but considering there is no M-Seven..." May trailed off again, turning and sitting down in a chair at the infirmary's desk as silence played its presence in the room.
The silence was broken when Connor groaned as he was starting to wake up, "Urgh, my head. Vargas I'm going to kill you later for drugging me," he started to get off the gurney but fell, being caught by Tyler. Vargas went over to Connor and helped Tyler lift him back on the gurney.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. Though how about you rest up first and don't get angry alright. You've had enough anger for one day."
He looked up at Vargas then over to Sarah, sighing deeply he began to lie down, waiting for the sedative to completely wear out.
Lyons looked to May and said, "I will consult the database of historical records to see if there is a place where the technology may still be. Hopefully I will be able to find something."
"I'll help you sir. There's a lot of history in that database to go through," Vargas offered to which Owyn nodded his head as the two of them walked out of the infirmary.
As if he was almost scared to talk, Tyler began by saying to Connor, "So, are you alright sir?"
A small, almost sarcastic smile ran over his lips when he looked at Tyler.
"I'll be fine Tyler. At least physically anyway... And don't call me sir. It annoys me enough when RL-3 calls me that."
Tyler looked confused at the mention of someone, or something he didn't know, then Con realised he would have no idea who he was talking about.
"RL-3 is my Mister Gutsy robot. One of many followers I had when I roamed the Wasteland last year."
A little more confident in his speech, Tyler continued to ask questions.
"Oh right; when you activated the Purifier. You said one of many you had. What happened to all of them?"
His followers were some of his best friends and some of them suffered tragedies. He also didn't completely trust Tyler. He could see the significant difference in him since he was injected with May's serum but even so, he wasn't going to tell him too much.
"That's a conversation for another time, when I'm feeling talkative."
"Okay, sure, sorry," Tyler said quietly. He was no real threat to the Citadel, anymore at least, but he wasn't allowed to roam around, he had to stay in the infirmary or with a guard in one of the barracks.
Connor got up and walked over to where Sarah was, several tubules sticking out of an incision May made around her heart which were attached to Sawbones pincer arm. He was pulling them together than apart as the tubules were helping Sarah's heart beat at its steady pace the way it should be beating.
"I know it might not mean anything but, I'm sorry for what's happened to her. Sawbones told me she is one of the greatest of the Brotherhood leaders."
"Oh Tyler she's so much more than that. Caring, compassionate, and so strong willed. And she's... She's my greatest friend. Hell, she's more than that."
Con turned around and looked at Tyler who was still against the wall.
"Are you hungry kid?"
"Yeah a little bit"
He walked to the door and stopped, looking at him, "Well are you coming or not?"
Tyler smiled and walked out with him towards the galley.
Owyn and Vargas were sifting through the records in Rothchild's office while Reginald was busy working on the Enclave communicator again, trying to tap in to the frequencies used by the higher command officers of the Enclave. He had found a few and taken note of the frequencies but he found one that striked the attention of all three of them in the room.
"...welcome to war gentlemen. This message repeats: To the Brotherhood of Steel located in the old Pentagon building near the D.C. ruins. This is General Harman Turner of the Enclave Remnant. By being the cause of the destruction of Raven Rock, stealing the Purifier from us, attacking our Air Force Base and also seizing control of our Mobile Crawler and finally, ambushing and attacking our encampment at the remains of Raven Rock; you have hereby declared war against the Enclave. We have already made our first strike by hopefully killing one of your leaders and we will soon strike again. The Enclave always retaliates to any threat. Welcome to war gentlemen. This message repeats."
Rothchild turned the device off and looked towards Owyn. Reginald could already see the anger boiling behind the eyes of his old friend and knew things were about to speed up around here.
Con and Tyler were seated in one of the booths of the galley, Con watching Tyler as he dug into his Brahmin steak and then scoffed down some green jelly; well what Connor presumed was green jelly.
"So tell me about yourself Tyler. Where abouts in the world were you born and raised till you came here?"
Through a mouthful of food Tyler began to reply, "Well, I was born in a Vault Called M-One in Colorado where I was raised by my mother like every other Enclave kid till I came of age and was put in training."
A look of shock enveloped Con's face. "Hang on, hang on. You were born in a Vault?"
Tyler swallowed his food in one gulp looking at Con curiously. "M-One is in Colorado Springs just south of Vault Zero in Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Well, what's left of Vault Zero anyway."
'M-One? That M would mean it's a military Vault. Hmm, I wonder...' May who was walking past them to get something to eat before she slept overheard them speaking, when a thought came into her mind. She turned and walked over to the two of them looking Tyler in the eyes.
"You just said you're from a vault called M-One right? Have you ever heard of Vault M-Seven and do you know where it is?"
"Uhh, yeah, I think so. I remember reading about the military vaults when I was looking at a listing of all the Vaults once. I don't know exactly where it is but each major American city had a military vault built in complete secrecy where the generals and other officers of the army and their families were going to live."
A broad toothed, almost scary looking smile stretched across her face as she looked at Connor.
"What?" he asked.
May, Connor and Tyler went in search of Elder Lyons and Vargas so they could suggest a plan May and Con had just made up on the way to the lab. Now that they had knowledge that there may actually be a way to save Sarah, they were keen to start searching.
The three of them made their way through the Science Lab doors on the lower level, Tyler stopping in his tracks when he saw about a dozen people welding, banging or plugging things in on a giant black coloured robot. He could not believe his eyes. The right shoulder area and the entire left leg was exposed without any armoured protection showing the skeletal frame of the oversized robot but it was still an amazing site to see.
When Connor realised Tyler was struck with awe he grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along while he kept his eyes on the massive machine.
They found Lyons and Vargas in Rothchild's office, each with concerned looks on their face and discussing something. When they realised that May, Con and Tyler were there they stopped and looked at them.
"We have some disturbing news. We just heard a message from a General Turner being broadcasted from the Enclave. They've declared war against us," Owyn stated to the three of them.
"Honestly sir, I don't care at the moment. We may have a way of saving Sarah, thanks to Tyler here."
Owyn looked past Connor to Tyler who was standing behind him. "Explain yourselves."
"Tyler told me he was born and raised in a Vault that housed members of the military after the world went to shit. He also told us that in every major city, like here in D.C. a military Vault was created in secrecy. And as May told us that when she checked the Vault medical list the technology that could save Sarah was said to only be in a Vault named M-Seven right? Well, M-Seven is here somewhere. We just have to find out where, go there, get the tech we need, bring it back and May can work her medical magic on Sarah."
Con was smiling and happy at the thought they could save her. No, not happy, ecstatic like he hadn't been since before he left his home in 101.
"I'm more than happy that there is a way to save her but we have a problem. If the remnant of the Enclave has declared war on us, the people of the Wasteland are in trouble. We are still recovering from our losses last year and now it means we will have to spread our resources and troops thin in preparations for the defence of the Citadel and all other settlements."
"Well you know you'll always have the backup of Fawkes and RL-3, both of whom are damn good assets to have in a fight. I also still hold Charon's contract and I know he's been itching to kill something for a while so he can help you out too; and the same can be said for Jericho. He's one mean son of a bitch and even though he can be an insubordinate prick, he still follows orders. If you have them leading some of your forces you know you'll have a greater chance of winning a fight."
"I'll send someone out to collect them immediately if they wish to help us. Now, how are you going to go about finding where this vault is?"
"I'm going to go to the Vault-Tech Headquarters and access the mainframe there. I'll download everything, hell, take the memory core with me if I have to and bring it back here so we can access the information."
Owyn nodded his head in thought, "Very well then, but you can't go alone. Because we have been flushing them out of central D.C., that area has recently been taken over by the Super Mutants who have been retreating from us. Indeed a dangerous place to be."
"I can manage sir. I've gone up against Behemoth's on my own before so I think I can go up against a horde of them. But back up would be good."
Owyn sighed, a solemn look on his face, "I can't spare anyone. If we are to defend the Wasteland we need our brothers to be everywhere. I'm sorry."
"I'll go with you," Tyler said, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. "I have combat experience and I've gone against mutants before. You need help and I don't really want to be stuck here..."
Con turned his gaze to Owyn raising his eyebrow, a silent way of asking him if it was fine.
"If you wish it then so be it. But he will be your responsibility Falcon."
"Yes sir," Con saluted in a mocking military manner and turned to Tyler, "Come on then kid. Time to get you some armour and weapons. We'll have a few hours rest and leave as soon as possible."