Chapter Three: Public Transportation

Chapter Three:  Long Forgotten Sons

Upon observing the lack of escape craft  Cold fury filled me I was tired, hungry and aching for something other than short periods of Combat sandwiched between long periods devoid of anything resembling entertainment. The only thing keeping my head on straight was the need for vengeance on the person that took me and inserted things into my body. First things first I wanted to know why everyone here died.

Walking up to a terminal I spotted. Turning it on, I learned a crucial piece of the puzzle. The personnel were assigned to a specific evacuation pod But apparently the People in charge had  assigned a few hundred new personnel for this facility specifically project “Icarus”. Unfortunately the new personnel had not been anticipated when assigning  the escape pods. This led when to the mass slaughter around me when contingents of the  eleventh armored cavalry division (The new security people) massacred the other personnel. To get into the escape pods.

I years of failing at other tasks helping me at this moment. I try to avoid failure but when it does happen it doesn't make me freak out. I wonder what would happen if I met someone who freaked when they failed?

I spent the next half hour searching the corpses for anything useful. Now there was no questioning the fact that I found things. The question was of how do you define useful ?

in the small pile of things that I extracted from the corpses were a couple of stimpacks. “Is there even an expiration date for these things ?”. On the less utilitarian side of things was a couple of holodisks.  Long story short I entered them into my pipboy, the problem was that they were encrypted. Fortunately my Pip Boy had decryption software installed on it. The program estimated it would take two hours to unlock the encryptions code.

Thus I had time to burn and I didn’t want to spend it thinking about how I was getting home or even how I would go about escaping this hellhole. Interrupting my thinking about not wanting to think about things. Was a another predatory growl coming from my stomach. So while my pipboy was decrypting the data on those holodisks. I went about doing an equally noble task, finding the cafeteria !.

First I retraced my steps back to the map I found awhile back. Taking a moment to look for anything that looked interesting I spotted something that warranted taking a gander at. The Supply loading bays were located a great deal farther away than both the cafeteria or the evacuation dock. Leaving a marker in my Pipboy to go there later. Motivated by the possibility of food I started in the direction of the cafeteria.

Arriving there quickly sans distractions I stepped heavily onto the decayed linoleum floors of a ubiquitous location known as the american cafeteria. It deviated in no meaningful from the standard cafeteria. Striding into the pantries I gasped in awe at the vast assortment of Preservative laden food. Taking emptying a box of fancy lad snack cakes  onto a nearby table, I ripped the plastic packaging open and gorged myself on 200 year old junk food. Grabbing more of those and some sugar bombs.

While filling my stomach with things that may have been more preservative than food. I spotted an old vending machine selling Nukacola?  “The Hell”  the machine resembled a vintage cocacola machine.  Disassembling the machine was an arduous process but I was determined to get at this unfamiliar supply of caffeine. Finally succeeding at the task at hand I found about a dozen Nuka Colas. Prying the bottle cap off with my knife I tasted centuries old soda. Spitting the horrendous liquid out of my mouth.  That stuff tasted like battery acid. Looking around quickly for a bottle of water before I succame to the leftover nasty in my mouth. Eureka I lifted the recently discovered bottle of water to my lips. Never before had normal bottle of purified water tasted so divine.

Interrupting my reverie was a blast of laser striking near my head; immediately ducking down behind the counter I had retrieved the aforementioned bottle of water from. Feeling the disturbances in the air from the blooming effects of the lasers. I knew that peeking up to take at them would be tantamount to suicide. Grabbing the plasma grenades from my bag, I lobbed one in the direction of where the fire was coming from. Ears still ringing from the explosion, I jumped up Epilogue in hand to deal death to whatever survived that explosion.

What I didn't expect was another human being to wrestle Epilogue away from me; then cold cock me in the face. sending me sprawled on the ground. Quick as lighting the mysterious person, climbed on top of me. The person in question was a male who had shaved their head and was whispering in a playful tone you would use on a pet.

“You’re the best plaything I've had in a long time, but you broke my toys. So now i’ll break you.”

“I wouldn't do that if I were you” I stated in a condescending tone.

“Why ever would I want to stop this lovely game were playing” He said in a singsong voice.

“See this plasma grenade( directing my eyes towards it) It currently is without a pin. You see right now the only thing keeping us from being turned into the stuff at the bottom of a barbeque grill is the fact i’m holding pressure on a little tiny lever.  If I let go of the lever, then within 2 seconds were both charbroiled”

Hearing this he turned white and tried to run away getting a few feet, only to be vaporized by the grenade that just seconds ago was being used to threaten him.

I never knew his name. The first human you kill is supposed to leave a scar on you. Some sort of dark spot on your soul, but for me it wasn't painful to realize I had just killed another sapient creature. I was filled with happiness at the time because of the fact I had just killed a threat to me and everyone who ventured into this place. That is how I still feel today about the event. Now I know this would not be the last person I had to kill.

Leaving the scarred cafeteria seemed like a good idea, so I did just that. Heading in the direction of the Supply bay. It was part way through this trek, that my Pip-boy told me that the decryption process was complete. One of the decrypted documents was an audio file. Letting the Audio file play I continued my lonesome trek.

“ At this auspicious occasion we open the horizon to new worlds ‘The energy requirements are too high’ they said and the ever present stigma of not working directly on weapons research.

Well today the twentieth of October, 2077 Icarus will be activated. (Indistinct clapping and cheers). [cuts to next audio file in the document.]

“Dr.Stone the machine is picking up what seems to be a receiver signal.” Says a female voice. “ Thats impossible there is no other receiver station in the world.” Replies Dr. Stone? in a disbelieving voice. “ The proof is right there Doc” says the female again.

[footsteps are heard]

“  *audible gasp* My god thats impossible”. “ Those readings are coming from the transdimensional teleportation array.” Stone states.”

“ This other receiver must have the ability to open gateways like us”  the female voice states in awe.

“Using the other facility as a conduit we could actually travel to the other dimension.” Stone states.

“Being able to visit another whole universe is a much bigger opportunity, than taking random samplings from random universes” the female voice says excitedly.

“Molly can you write up a program that uses that facility as a beacon for opening gateways.”

“I’ll get right on that sir”.

“While you're doing that I’ll be writing a report about these findings”

[audio cuts off]

I was getting ever closer to the resupply dock by the time those audio logs were complete. So I began listening to  the operating procedures of the conventional teleporter system. ( Conveniently contained on the holodisks in audiobook format).

By the time I had arrived at my destination, I was pretty sure that if worse came to worse I could probably work the teleporter. Seeing the large doors of the place I hesitantly opened them. Stepping into the small warehouse I let out a little gasp at the multitude of crates stacked on top of shipping containers. I kinda forgot about looking for a cargo submarine. I found a crowbar and went about cracking open any crates with military markings. Finding large quantities of M.R.Es and little else I became more and more disheartened.

Until the moment I found a crate marked with the symbol of the eleventh armoured cavalry division. Cracking open the crate like I had done to so many other crates, I was surprised to find small metal metal cases inside the crate. My lifting of the case was uneventful but the name on the outside of the case caught my attention.

Contents- 1 unit

Elite Riot Gear.

Opening the latch on the case I pulled out the contents, included with the armour was a owners manual holodisk. Inserting the disk into my Pipboy I Loaded the instructions on how to put it on. Following the instructions I was wearing the armour within five minutes. It had a hole in the recoil dampening gauntlets that let my Pipboy screen out.  Puting the Pipboy near my face I looked at the armor stats.

Elite Riot Gear V2 Dt:24  WG:23  Effects: Guns +10 Endurance +1 Critical Chance +5

Elite Riot Gear Helmet V2 Dt:6  WG:5 Effects: Perception +2 Nightvision

        Acknowledging this overwhelmingly positive development a devious smirk most certainly crossed my face.  Moving slightly slower in my armour I unpacked a couple more crates. Coming across an explosive ordinance crate was my other big find. I filled up my bag with frag mines.

It was only after I had a bag filled with high explosives that I remembered my original purpose here. Striding confidently closer to the submarine dock facility my confidence disappeared. No submarine was docked there. “GODDAMIT”

Losing my temper isn’t my favorite personality trait. I grabbed three frag mines and threw them at a box of cooking implements. I backed up about 10 feet or so and then unloaded my sidearm at the pile.

*Boom*

The resulting explosion that knocked me on my ass brought my anger to a point of stasis.

Getting up and brushing myself off, I took a deep breath and waited for my anger to subside.

Quest completed. Public Transportation

Level Up

Educated- + 2 skill points when you level up

End of Chapter 3.