Hello everyone.
I've been reading all the messages from a few of you asking me to finish the story and considering I've been off work sick I thought I'd get back into it and finish it off.
So here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it and also enjoyed chapter 7 considering it's the first chapter I've uploaded in a little while.
Hopefully chapter 9 will be finished and uploaded by about Wednesday and then 10 a few days after that.
I'm doing my best to write up all the future chapters and get to the end of it. It has been quite the fun piece of fanfiction to write and I'll be glad to finally finish up the final chapter. By the looks of it, there'll roughly be about 20 chapters in total and then the Epilogue which I've already written. And boy, did I enjoy writing that. When you get to read it, I know you'll love it.
Anyway, now, Chapter 8! :)
Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 8 – Step One Part II.
"There you go. Fort Bannister it is," Rothchild sighed as he scratched his chin.
"Oh yay. I can't wait to walk all the way over to Bannister just to piss of Jabby again."
Rothchild looked at Falcon curiously, "Jabby?"
He let out a laugh saying, "Yeah, the commander of the base is called Jabsco, but I call him Jabby. Not only does it piss him off but it reminds him that I own his ass!"
"Hmm, I won't even begin to understand why, but I'll go see Elder Lyons and tell him what we've found."
"Alright, well I'm going to go rest up before the long walk."
Falcon and Rothchild left his office, Falcon heading to his home to sleep while Rothchild went in search of Owyn.
On his way home, Falcon walked past the infirmary and made the choice to stop inside.
He was still heartbroken every time he saw Sarah now, her limp body lying there on the gurney in the corner of the room, a pre-war machine with tubes running into her chest where her damaged heart is.
Falcon took her hand in his and said softly, "Hello Sarah. I hope it won't be too long until I can get you the help you need. I didn't admit I loved you just to have you die on me..." the heartache was so present in his voice that even Sawbones who overheard him while he hovered in the room, gave him the boost in morale he needed.
"Sir, Knight Lyons is a strong soldier. She will make it in time for you to find the help she needs. You are as strong as her and I know you will find the help. I have the utmost faith in you Sir!"
Falcon wiped his watery eyes and turned to Sawbones and did something so unexpected that it gave the floating octopus a proud feeling in his emotional programming.
He saluted him.
Owyn sat in front of Rothchild and scratched his head in thought.
"So my friend, let me try and understand this. You found an encrypted file on the hard-drive Falcon recovered from the Vault-Tech headquarters, which can give us the location of this Vault M7?"
"Yes, although there is a problem," Rothchild sat next to Owyn.
"Falcon and I linked the drive to the Citadel's main computer and began going through the listing of all the Vaults in the area. We eventually found a file with series of classified records that Falcon was able to hack into. It holds detailed information of all the military Vaults that were built before the bombs fell. However, all the records, including M7 have their own variations of encryption. There was something interesting though. When we attempted to access the M7 file, a message appeared saying, 'Pentagon Priority Access Enabled – Secondary Access Codes Required: (Ft. Ban): Access Denied' so we still have no way of knowing where this M-Seven is."
"But you say you know what the computer means with it saying secondary access codes are required?"
Rothchild gave a half-hearted smile while a look of worry managed to make its way across his face.
"Yes you see, the file needs two types of access codes. It has already recognised the pre-war codes in the database of the Citadels computer but we need the other access code. Now all the military records we have in the Citadel have specific code names for all the military bases in the D.C. area. 'Ft. Ban' is Fort Bannister, which, as you know, is Talon Company's headquarters."
Owyn stood and walked to his desk, leaning against it.
"I often wonder if the Wasteland provides us with these challenges to test us, or just try to kill us."
Rothchild stood up and let out a small laugh. "I would go as far as saying it is both."
His friend smiled at him before letting out his own laugh. It's all they could do to try and keep their spirits up.
"Tell Falcon he may leave as soon as he wishes to, but he will have to make the journey on foot. All of our Vertibirds are elsewhere in the Wasteland helping to secure the smaller towns and other settlements."
Rothchild nodded his head and walked out of Owyn's room as the old man ventured into his bedroom and laid down on his bed. He had so many different thoughts, and fears, running rampant in his head.