The group duck under the half-closed door and enter the room. Suddenly as if they were being watched the speakers hidden in the corners of the room crackle to life.
"Congratulations, martyr, your fantastic journey is only just beginning. Please proceed to the light. The light is calming and puts your mind at ease. Go to the light. Welcome, please sit in the chair. The show is about to begin." a pre-recorded message states loud and clear.
...
The group glance at each other before looking at the chair...
"Who wants to take a seat?" he asks but no one answers.
Karl walks over to the projector, "Wonder what'd happen if we destroyed this?" he wonders aloud. He's about to give it a poke when the speakers blare to life again.
"Should you touch the projector, the sacrifice will be expedited by laser fire. Followed by immediate disintegration."
...
"Please take a seat, martyr!"
Afton sighs, "Fuck it, it's not like we'll be stuck sitting in it?" he says, finally sitting on the chair, now noticing that it the suspicious red splotches covering it seemed to actually be blood.
"Greeting, martyr, and welcome! If you're here now, it means you've been offered up as a sacrifice so that your vault can continue to thrive. Currently, you may be feeling sad or angry. Perhaps you never got to have grandkids, or to enjoy the pleasures of a fresh cigar. But march with your chin held high, soldier, and remember that each of us has an important role to play."
Afton stands to see if the room would realise he was no longer sitting, but it just continues with its tacky message as if he hadn't left.
The message itself seemed to be some kind of motivational speech about giving your life in the service of humanity. Or some other dogshit, Afton wasn't really paying attention.
He looks around the room and notices that the two walls on either sides of the chair seem to have a groove in the middle of them, indicating that they might open up? The room still had to kill them, and there weren't any bodies down here either...
By the warning they'd received earlier it meant that there were energy weapons ready to be fired at them at any moment. There needed to be something to remove the corpses of the sacrifices, and there didn't seem to be any mechanism under the chair, which meant there must be robots or something else still operating down here.
With all that information, it was fairly obvious what was about to happen. he doubted people forced to become sacrifices would go down without a fight. Meaning the method was likely quick and forceful. "So, we should probably start getting ready to fend off against robots." Afton says.
The other two ignore the slideshow that was still going and raise a brow at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, the walls will probably open up and allows robots in. We should set up some traps before that happens... Karl, can you rig some tripwires next to the walls?"
The man nods and quickly starts creating the traps, using the many grenades they'd found around the vault as the explosives. Afton and Boone leave the room via the half closed door and wait for Karl to finish.
Afton urges the man to work faster as it seemed like the slide show was about to finish.
"Almost done!" Karl says, pulling the string through the grenade rings and tying them to the tripwire.
"Close your eyes now and imagine what joys await you in the next life - the afterlife. Can you see them? Good." the slide show ends and a mechanical whirring could be heard. Karl finishes the trap and dashes for the door, sliding underneath it as Afton kicks the metal jamming it.
He was just in time too as the walls opened up to reveal many protections, mister handy's, and roof-mounted turrets. The mister handy's float over the tripwire's, but this isn't the case for the protections which don't seem to even bother recognising the fact that many grenades were about to go off around them.
The door slams shut just as the robots begin firing at them. Afton and Boone pulls Karl away from the door, just as the grenades erupt.
*BOOM!*
The floor shudders as many grenades all explode at once. The door itself violently trembles, but luckily doesn't allow any sharpnal through.
"You guys alright?" Afton asks, doing a rain check.
Boone nods and Karl just rubs his back, "I'm gettin' too fuckin' old for this shit." he mutters.
"You're not even that old though." Afton retorts, the man sending an exasperated glare in return.
"Whatever, let's just check to see if those robots are dead." Karl says as he stretches his back out, preparing to lift the door.
Afton readies Lucky as the Boone and Karl lift the door... Taking a peek inside reveals many destroyed robots, the walls, roof and floor seem almost undamaged aside from the large scorch marks, this is probably due to the reinforced steel they were constructed with.
Ducking under the door he takes the pipe and props the door open to allow the others inside.
*Bzzt* "H-ooold it right ther-bzzt intrudbzzt-"
Afton quickly turns as he hears the robotic voice. The one responsible is a protectron with only its upper half undamaged... Its legs were completely missing and its noodle-like arms seem to be missing their hands. Not wasting any time, he pressing Lucky against its light-bulb like head and fires.
*Bang!*
That definitely puts it out of commission as its head explodes, the robotic voice abruptly stopping.
"Heh, all in a days work." Karl says as he appreciates the damage his traps had caused.
Hope you bois like the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Now that the two walls had opened up, the group was able to see the adjacent hidden rooms. They contained some sort of communications system, along with the ports that were required to charge and maintain the robots.
Though, most interestingly they contained a couple corpses. Perhaps these were the Vault Tech staff in charge of this facility? Upon further inspection, Afton had found a holo-tape in a room that seemed to contain the server for all the terminals.
He decided to first see what was on the server, perhaps he could find the name of the bomb maker?
There were only a few logs that he hadn't seen before... These were also given the highest security measures so they seemed to be the most important. Clicking on them he was immediately greeted by the Vaults speaker system blaring to life.
"Congratulations, citizens of Vault 11! You have made the decision not to sacrifice one of your own. You can walk with your head held high knowing that your commitment to human life is a shining example to us all. And to make that feeling of pride even sweeter, I have some exciting news. Despite what you were led to believe, the population of Vault 11 is not going to be exterminated for its disobedience. Instead, the mechanism to open the main vault door has now been enabled, and you can come and go at your leisure. But not so fast! Be sure to check with your overseer to find out if it's safe to leave. Here at Vault-Tec, your safety is our number one priority."
...
The trio just look at each other in disbelief. This was incredibly fucked up, the residents of the vault ha all but exterminated themselves to gain the right to pick who was sacrificed... Yet, in the end all they had to do was put their foot down and refuse the sadistic command.
Rubbing his temples, Afton picks up the holo-tape and goes to listen to it. Hopefully it'd contain some answer to how the Vault was unlocked, and if the Bomb Maker had managed to escape, or was just a scavenger who'd somehow not triggered any of the traps placed here... He might've actually be the one who created them to be honest...
"All right, I know you can hear me, so listen up. There's five of us left. Five. Out of... I don't know how many. So... it's over. We've talked and it's over. We're not going to send anybody to die anymore. So shut off our water or gas us or do whatever it is you're programmed to do. But we're done listening to you."
...
That's it. So five people must've escaped the vault after refusing to sacrifice anyone... One of them might just be the Bomber. Examining the holo-tape closer he found some letters scratched into the back of its casing. H.J, S.T, P.W, A.R, A.H.
They seemed random at first, but judging by the fact that five people had survived, these were probably the initials of those people. So, the bomber might be one of those.
This was probably the best information he was going to get about the man in this place, so it was best they just loot whatever else they could and leave. They'd done what they needed to and decided that it as best they leave, set up camp and head out tomorrow.
They didn't encounter any more giant rats on their way out, the group had all but exterminated the colony of them. Boone sighs as they reach the giant vault door, "Are all of these places going to be this fucked up?" he asks.
Both Karl and Afton nod at him, "This isn't even the worst of it." the former states ominously.
"Whatever, I might just sit back while you two do the next one... I'm not an 'indoor' kind of guy." Boone says.
As the group approach the make-shift door that leads back into the Mojave waste, they stop as they can vaguely hear distant voices...
Afton immediately scowls as he remembers that his bike is still out there. "I swear, if any of them touch Dirt-Bird I'm going to skin them alive." he growls.
"Hey, they might just be wantin' to explore the Vault." Karl says unconvincingly.
Afton opens the door and the spots a small group of people making camp outside the cave entrance. Immediately all eyes are on them, hands slowly reaching for their weaponry.
Karl shows the palms of his hands in a non-threatening manner and slowly approaches them, "Hang on, don't shoot."
...
Afton uses VATS to stop time and plan out what he'll do should the group turn hostile, there's around twelve people and they're all currently sitting down around a fire. It's now night time so it'd be fairly easy to escape into the night should they be forced to do that.
The reason he hasn't immediately opened fire on them is two-fold. The fact that they'd ignored his motorbike, and because their clothing doesn't seem to belong to raiders. The look more like a group of mercenaries than anything, plated combat armour with some wearing bounty hunter dusters. Their weaponry is nothing to scoff at either, hunting rifles, assault rifles, and even some grenade launchers... Yeah, he was fucked if they were hostile.
Stopping VATS one of the men stand and begin walking towards them, he's taller with a slim build, stubble on his face with greasy-looking black hair. He gives a friendly smile as he begins to talk, "Hey there, name's Mark Dowager of the Dowager Mercenary Group. Funny you boys seem to be stalking around our next job."
Karl raises a brow, "Dowager Mercenary? Never heard of you."
Mark just shrugs, "Yeah, that's a problem I been tryin'ta fix, can't do much work if people don't know who the fuck you are... It's fine though. More importantly I'd like to know who you lot are." he asks, the friendly smile on his face not faltering despite his commanding tone.
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.
Anda mungkin juga menyukai
Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
MENGERTI