"Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name, but what's puzzling you is just the nature of my game..." Morning Star sang to herself as she prepared breakfast in her Vault quarters.

"Good morning honey," Richter said, wrapping his arms around her. "What's on the schedule for today?"

"Well, I've got to get Moonlight to the Day Care," Morning Star said. "Then I've got my usual schedule until this afternoon."

"Right, its your turn to input the code," Richter said with a nod.

The code had always been one of the most important parts of day to day life of the Vault so every dweller over the age of 18 had been put in the rotation for entering the code.

"Well, I'm sure everything will be okay, its been seven years and we haven't had any problems with it," Morning Star said as Moonlight came out of her room and Morning Star picked her up with a smile.

"Is breakfast ready mommy?" The four year old asked.

"Just about," she replied with a smile and set the child down at the table and goes back to cooking.

She couldn't believe that things felt so, normal here even though they were underground. She still missed Windswept and her old life outside of the Vault, but at least she had made a new life for herself. Things were actually kind of normal for her in Vault 16, she was mostly in charge of entertaining the other dwellers with her piano playing.

She smiled as she passed out the plates of food and the family sat down for breakfast. It was just another ordinary day in the Vault.

00000

Morning Star ran her fingers across the keys on the piano that had been set up in the Vault's Diner after she moved in. She took a deep breath, enjoying the sounds and scents of the Diner, it wasn't quite the same as the Ninth Circle, but she at least enjoyed the opportunity to play music again.

"Hey Morning," the Diner's head cook Chocolate Chip said as he waved to the woman. "We've got a birthday party coming in here in about 15 minutes, are you up for it?"

"Of course," she said with a smile, she had come to enjoy playing at birthday parties. "Who's party is it?"

"Windy Day's 10th, so she'll be getting a Pip-Boy," Chocolate Chip said with a nod. "I'll get everything set up, will you be ready?"

"Yeah, I'll be ready,"Morning Star said with a nod as I turned back to flip through the sheet music. "I just have to find her favorite song."

Chocolate Chip nodded as he got back to work, leaving the woman to her work as she started playing the song to practice. She took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of the keys, it wasn't as fancy as the one she had back at her club but it was still good to be able to play and sing after the bombs had fallen.

After a little bit after everything was set up the doors to the Diner opened up and the children started to file in. She smiled and ran her fingers along the keys as she started to play the song, looking at Windy Day for a moment.

After awhile she took a seat at the counter and took a deep breath as a woman with light blue skin and dark hair moved up next to her.

"Mrs. Star, I just wanted to say thanks for playing today," Windy Day's mother Cloud Dancer said with a smile. "Windy is a big fan of your music and it really made her day."

"I'm glad to do it," Morning Star said with a smile as she took a bite of cake. "I've been playing at a lot of birthday parties since the Vault door closed, and I'm always happy to help."

"Well I know the kids love it," Cloud Dancer said with a nod. "How long have you been playing the piano?"

"Oh, I'm classically trained," Morning Star said. "I was born in Manehattan and went to the music school there."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Cloud Dancer said with a sympathetic nod. "Did you play in Las Pegasus?"

"Kind of, honestly I ran a bar before the bombs fell," Morning Star replied with a shrug. "The Ninth Circle outside of the city."

"Ah, I remember hearing about that but I never went," Cloud Dancer said.

They talked for a few more minutes before Cloud Dancer went to mingle with the other adults. Morning Star leaned back and watched the party for awhile longer before an alert went off on her Pip-Boy, when she checked it, it was telling her that it was time to input the code.

She got to her feet, said a final happy birthday to Windy Day and made her way out of the Diner and towards the Vault Door.

00000

As she approached the Vault Door she went past the two members of Vault Security who always kept guard who gave her a nod as she walked past them.

"Morning Star," one of them said.

"Steel Wing," Morning Star said with a nod, he had often come to my shows when he wasn't on duty. "Its good to see you again."

"You too," he said with a smile as she approached the terminal sitting next to the large gear shaped door of the Vault.

Sometimes Morning Star had to wonder why the Overseer had bothered to set up security to guard the door, it wasn't like anyone had ever tried to escape or enter the Vault, if there was even anyone alive outside.

She connected her Pip-Boy to the terminal and started to put in the code one number at a time. 4, 8, 1, 5, 1, 6...

That's when she heard it, there was a sudden screeching sound that made her cover her ears. It took her a minute to realize that it was coming from the Vault Door, it was opening!

"What the hell, why is it opening?" Morning Star asked as she backed up behind the two guards who were setting up a defensive line as Steel Wing called to get more security here.

"I don't know, you still have about 10 minutes to go," the other security guard said. "I think someone is opening it on the other side."

"How are they opening it?" Steel Wing asked. "That shouldn't even be possible, should it?"

Morning Star just shrugged as the door opened fully, the two security guards kept their pistols trained on the door as they kept their eye for anything that would come in.

"Was it just a glitch in the computer system?" Morning Star asked as she glanced at her Pip-Boy, strangely there wasn't the jump in radiation that they had expected. "Strange, I thought the radiation would've flooded in if the door opened..."

"We'll worry about that later," Steel Wing said.

There was a long tense moment before suddenly grenades were thrown into the room, letting out smoke. Then there was the sound of gunfire as dark shapes swarmed into the Vault, opening fire on the security guards.

Morning Star tried to get out of the way, but felt a sharp sting and she fell to the ground. As her world went black she looked up to see a gruff looking man dressed in a black leather jacket standing over her before her whole world turned black.

00000

When her eyes opened again, Morning Star wasn't sure what she was seeing, she looked up at the ceiling of the Vault through blurry eyes. When her vision cleared she struggled to get to her feet and looked around and frowned, Steel Wing and the other guard were lying dead where the intruders had shot them.

She looked at the Vault door, it was still wide open, the thugs hadn't even bothered to close it, or maybe when the code wasn't entered it didn't close back up.

She then realized that there were intruders in the Vault, and her daughter was in danger. She checked over the guards and found a 10mm pistol and ammunition and picked it up, she hadn't used a gun in years but she knew what she was doing.

She started back into the Vault, she needed to make sure Moonlight and Richter were okay, and if she had to, get the intruders out of her home.

When she reached the daycare area, she froze up, there were the signs of a struggle and more spent rounds. She hadn't seen any sign of the intruders, just some blood here and there.

But more importantly, there were no children in the daycare.

"Morning... Star?" A weak voice called out and she turned to see Nurture, the woman in charge of the area, she was bleeding from a bullet wound in her chest but she was still alive, barely. "Is that you?"

"Its me Nurture," Morning Star said as she tried to apply pressure to the woman's wound. "What happened in here?"

"They... took the children... all the children..." Nurture said weakly. "I'm sorry, I couldn't stop them..."

Morning Star clinched her fist, that meant whoever had come into the Vault had her daughter and all the other children. Why had they done that?

"Did you get a name from them?" She asked.

"The Sons... of... Tartarus..." Nurture said through the pain. "I didn't get... their names... I'm sorry..."

"Its okay Nurture, you'll be fine," Morning Star said, she hated having to lie to her, she had seen enough gunshot wounds to know she wasn't going to make it. "Did they say anything else?"

"They said... something about... a Coalition..." Nurture said as her eyes closed, with that she was gone.

"I'm sorry Nurture," Morning Star said, and she meant it as she laid Nurture back. There wasn't anything she could do anymore.

She just had to hope that she'd be able to find the children.

00000

Morning Star searched the entirety of Vault 16, all she found was the dead bodies of her friends. Not even Richter had been spared, he was lying dead in the Vault's reactor room. All the children had been taken from the Vault too, at least the ones under the age of 10, the rest had suffered the same fate as their parents.

When she reached the Overseer's office, she found him slumped over her the console. She sighed and checked him out, there was a key and a piece of paper with a password scrawled on it.

"Lets see if we can get some answers on here," Morning Star commented as she carefully moved the Overseer over and entered the password into the terminal, the screen switched on to show several options.

VAULT-TEC INSTRUCTIONS.
ALL CLEAR SIGNAL.
OVERSEER LOGS.
OPEN OVERSEER TUNNEL.

She clicked on the first selection out of curiosity, she wasn't sure what to expect, but she intended to get information. Something about all of this seemed weird, maybe whatever Vault-Tec had left for the Overseer would give her some sort of insight.

"Welcome to Vault 16 Overseer, if you are reading this then you have been selected to be the Overseer of this state of the art Vault-tec Facility. Your Vault has not been selected for a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, but you will be given the following instructions for running the Vault.

Vault 16's primary purpose is to serve as a population control experiment, a portion of the inhabitants will enter with children. The remaining adult population will be required to have children within the first three years. The population of the Vault is to be maintained until at which point the All Clear Signal is given or the Vault Door is opened by an authorized Vault-Tec representative.

In addition the Vault's door is programmed to open automatically unless a code is put into a terminal every day. This is to test the willingness of the population to follow instructions under unusual circumstances. If the door is opened nothing will happen and the inhabitants may leave if they so desire.

Good luck, you are the future of Humanity."

Morning Star blinked at that, experiments? What exactly did that mean? Was the Vault meant for experimenting on people? Why would they do that?

She kept searching around for more answers, but all she found was more ammunition here and there. She did a quick look over the Overseer's logs, but there wasn't anything of real interest, just some basic data on the day to day life in the Vault. She sighed and closed the terminal.

She had nothing left here, so she started gathering up all the supplies she could carry from the Vault's stores and went down to the Reactor one more time. She knelt by the corpse of her dead husband and sighed.

"I'm sorry Richter... I promise I'll find the people who did this and make them pay," she said in a pained voice. "I'll make sure our daughter is safe..."

She carefully took off his wedding ring and placed it in the pocket of her Vault Jumpsuit. She wished that she could bury at least him, but for now she had no choice but to try and catch up to the Sons of Tartarus.

She made her way back to the Vault door and takes one look back before heading out the door, and out of the Vault.

Character Creation Complete.

Morning Star's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Strength: 4
Perception: 6
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 8
Intellect: 6
Agility: 5
Luck: 7

Unique Trait (Morning Star)

Sympathy for the Devil: You have a bit of a reputation from before the war that some find unsettling. However recent events have lead to some sympathy for your plight. You gain extra positive reputation with friendly settlements and factions, but killing allies doubles negative karma and decreases reputation quicker.

Author's Note

I know its pretty short, but I just wanted to stop after leaving the Vault.

Also there are a few easter eggs in this chapter, can you recognize them?