“Excuse me director,” An intern adds approaching with a parcel.
“You two go ahead, I’ll meet you at the teleporter.” You add dismissing your courser escort.
“This is for you. We just finished the first batch of the experimental grenade you requested. They’d like you to field test them. Please use at least one in the vault so we can see if they can overcome general signal loss.”
“I can do that. Thanks.” You add dismissing the intern as you make your way towards the teleporter. You’d debriefed your courser escorts earlier with what you knew of vault 75. This included the keycard system which thankfully you still had the cards for~ somewhere… It took a few minutes to sort them out from among your collection of digital cards but thankfully you tended to label such collectors items after each mission. The site was previously occupied by Gunners and you went back once more when sweeping the commonwealth for Brotherhood remnants and slaughtered the two factions fighting each-other for control of the complex.
There was a chance you’d left behind more than enough lesser guns or armor to generally outfit a reasonably sized fighting force. Admittedly you were thorough last time since you made several trips to acquire the power armor frames for parts even if you didn’t keep all the armor components. So the enemy would be in an entrenched position with decent armor and backup weaponry available.
You wait until the intercom crackles. “Asset Delivered. Sweeper teams deployed and checkpoints are being established.”
“Time to drop the hammer.” You add spinning Atoms judgment and resting the Head between your feet as your escorts take up positions facing two opposite angels so when you arrived you’d be viewing most directions at once. On arrival the two coursers take out their institute pistols at the sound of distant gunfire.
“Not our job.” You say hefting the hammer and signaling for them to follow. Things were starting to calm down in the area by the time you’d reached the school grounds. “I’ll head for the vault entrance. You two sweep the surface and second floor.”
“Transmissions Jammed, we’ll be relying on voice from here on out.” A55 replied.
“Noted. Code phrase is spit shine. If I say spit, you call shine so we don’t mistake each other for enemy agents if we get separated.”
“Acknowledged.” A55 and E88 say and rush over to the building in concert as E88 spins about and makes a foothold with his hands to fling A55 to the upper floor before they breach the ground level. You burst in from the boarded-up entrance and tromp your way to the secure cage door leading to the basement. You lean bend through and start to head downstairs closing the door behind you in the hopes of hearing someone sneaking up behind you.
You take up position at the bottom of the stairwell and ready your Kiloton radium Rifle while locking your Super sledge into its weapon mount. You Aim at the stairs leading to the vault as you wait for your team to clear the surface. After two minutes you hear a gentle ‘creak’ from the door behind you. “Spit.” You whisper.
“. . .Shine” Is replied. You begin the advance towards the entrance. A narrow killzone. The Coursers would wait for you to clear a certain distance before moving in.
As you approach the stairs you hear the oh so familiar sound of a Turrets ‘alert’ noise it subtly denotes after locking onto a target. “Shit they found us~” Someone adds from behind a barricade as they get their laser rifle ready and the other agent gets into position.
10 mm rounds slam into your frame and you return fire to the turret causing it to burst. The railroad agent is pushed out from behind their barricade to the side from the explosion.
In your mind you imagined giving them terms of surrender, but you still needed to process the trauma and you would be doing that with violence. Laser fire slams into your leg plate and you gaze at the agent as you advance but extend your rifle towards his fallen companion and shoot your explosive shell sloppily. The shrapnel tears the back of the grounded agents neck and radiation burns sizzle the flesh. The doormans eyes are locked on you as they continue to try and back pedal and raise their laser weapon to a more vital target.
A55 see’s enough space has been cleared as you near the end of the bridge and rushes forward flipping in a barrel roll over the railing bar to the right with a series of blasts from their institute pistol into the Railroad door guards leg, groin, chest and finally head as the weapon raises slightly between each shot. A55 lands on the lower level and moves up the stairs as the agents body disintegrates to powder. You don’t waist another round as E88 rolls over the opposing bar and delivers a coup de grace against the prone doorman by dropping to one knee.
Everyone looks around. “Clear.” You finally say.
“Patrols can probably catch anyone that escapes but why leave things to chance. E88, will hold the elevator below and deal with any retreating railroad. E88, A55 go down the elevator first.” You add just in case the railroad had rigged the elevator to either explode or emergency stop in the shaft. Worse case you could always jump down the shaft in your power armor or exit it and climb down the rungs of the shaft.
“Acknowledged.” They both say in unison. They enter the elevator together and the door closes. You head to the door control and plug in your pip boy so you can engage the door. The elevator indicated it had arrived but was all but muted by the screeching of the blast door cog rolling into place. If the institute could set up a stabilizer pad here to overcome the interference this would make a decent surface base if only for the fact that there was no mechanism to open it from the outside. Thankfully the railroad hadn’t decided to seal themselves in or this would have been annoying.
You look back and see the elevator is back on this level and you perform a quick sweep to ensure there was no one hiding or intel to uncover. The only other room to check had a terminal. Old logs had been deleted and new one’s had been entered. Assuming they were accurate thirteen agents besides the door team and your infiltrator had checked in but hadn’t checked out yet and a group of five were out on missions. The level of manpower this cell possessed was surprising. Hopefully this meant this was the main base and thus this mission may well exterminate a majority of the cell entirely. There was a message from the lower terminals that teleporter activity was detected in the area prior to the doctors arrival and the compound was preparing to repel an attack. You exit your power armor and decide to take one last action on the panel before jumping back into your power armor.
You tromp over to the elevator and hit the button before stepping inside and going down to the vault. After a short trip listening to some copyright free jingles the door opens to a firefight. A55 had started making their way down the hall ducking between cover but was pinned down at a corner. Caution told them not to pass the security door with an armed guard potentially putting him in a position to get attacked from behind so it had turned into a laser light show. Otherwise the vault looked pretty clean and well cared for compared to the last time you had been here. You raise your Kiloton rifle and advance putting a few explosive rounds down the hallway. This shocks and confuses the defenders further on who call to fallback. “A55 halt.” You add as he stops with an irritated look.
“They’re probably drawing you into a killzone since the area ahead has lots of catwalks and some leftover gunner barricades.” As you say this the guard on the other side of the security door looks indignant.
“Good luck with that. Only one way in.” He adds and begins to laugh and gesticulate towards the pair of you.
You swap back to your hammer and resting it on your shoulder as you produce the security keycard with your off hand. As you swipe it, the mans laughter on the other side becomes more pronounced until it stops suddenly as he hears the pressurized magnetic seals release and the door slide up.
“Only one way in eh?” A55 adds curiously.
“Son of a~” He adds as he’s suddenly stopped for Hammer time, his head exploding like a Gallagher prop.
“The synths are probably on the lower levels.” You add remembering how this vault had elevated observation rooms for study. “Keep them occupied.” You trusted the courser to use the intel you’d provided to weigh the risks and develop a strategy accordingly. Hopefully you’d have the doors unlocked for him to sweep the upper levels with you by the time he’d push through.
“If you get injured feel free to fall back and swap out with E88.”
You add splitting up as A55 heads towards the atrium but not exposing himself recklessly. Meanwhile you make your way through the back halls towards the overseers room. Pausing briefly to shoulder push large crates and boxes in front of the door to the middle levels to cut off a segment of the facility from reinforcing the remainder or attacking you from behind. If your infiltrator was anywhere, it was either in the overseers office, or in the areas with the fluffies since they’d been invited to do a job afterall.
The door whooshed open after sliding the keycard through and Johnson stalked up the stairs pausing at the open doorway ahead of him.
“Shitshitshit~” someone added furiously click clacking away at a mechanical keyboard. “Almo~” They paused what they were saying and ducked back as they turned to face you as Atoms judgment ‘WHOOSHED’ just above them. Their eyes darted desperately back to the keyboard and then back to the blue powerarmor in front of them as they debated if deleting the information was worth more then a few more moments of life.
The blue butcher was on him before his fingers got within an inch of the keyboard and shoulder checked him away and onto the floor. “Tsktsktsk…” Johnson added standing over them.
“Wait please I sur~” they added before panicking and extending their hands in a defensive posture as the hammer was lifted and then came raining down with a ‘whooosh’ of exhaust that easily knocked the shattered hand and forearm bones aside before crumpling in the persons chest plate.
“Shouldn’t have blocked.” Johnson said with a sigh knowing their lungs were collapsing and filling with blood. Placing Atoms judgement over one shoulder and getting out a stimpack with their off hand they looked down. “You willing to answer some ques~” before he could even get out the words the railroad security agent spat blood at him in defiance.
Lifting the bloodied power armor foot up and over their head he dropped it with a merciful crunch. “I’ll take that as a no.” Two pile of dust in the halls, one dead in the airlock and one here. “Ten to go.”
Johnson wasn’t sure if he was being sloppy by not searching the terminals and rooms for clues and intel as he went like he normally did as a wasteland packrat/snoop ; perhaps this not being a solo operation and competing with the coursers made him want to rush. Hopefully he wasn’t forgoing some kind of secret that could make things a whole lot easier.
Through the door marked ‘overseer’ and around the corner Johnson advanced towards the stairs.
“I cant believe you’d abandon everyone and only save yourselves.” Came a female voice.
“And I cant believe I agreed to use the previous cells contacts knowing you were compromised from the inside…” Came one voice closer voice. “Dear god, they’re already in the atrium.” Came a second. Their spine ran cold as they heard the power armored greaves advancing up the stairwell.
“We’re a lot closer then you think.” Johnson added as their blue helmet came into view. The agent in the seat next to the infiltrator wasted no time and leapt sideways tackling the synth doctor and scrambling them to their feet from the floor as the leveled a weapon to her head.
“Put down the hammer and step out of the armor!” The hostage taker added.
Johnson blinked. “You do realize, you cant take a hostage from your own side right?” Johnson added setting down the hammer against the wall almost amused by the audacity. No sooner did Johnsons eyes notice an institute scanner tool on the desk did they respond.
“Can it, we know Amari has been replaced.” The railroad agent with the gun added as the one behind the desk was securing some kind of apparatus to their chest. To be honest if he gave the word he didn’t doubt Amari’s capability to potentially break out of the hold assuming the individual themselves wasn’t a gen 3.
“So what, you’ll break my toy to spite me if I don’t let you go?” Johnson added mockingly. “How about I do you one better. Es Dee Sea (SDC) Get fucked.” As you say the self destruct code they look confused for a moment and move the pistol from their hostage towards Johnson as he pulls out a grenade like weapon from their hip.
“Get away from her Smith!” The one behind the desk calls out too late. Cracks begin to form along Amari’s false flesh and their eyes glow as they flip around and clasp onto Smith causing their shot to glance off the power armor as they self destructed covering the wall in railroad brand chunky salsa.
The person in charge of the site was sent careening through the air and as they reached to slap the device on their chest they felt a cold metal object collide with their head increasing the force of their spin.
‘Target locked. Teleporting.’
The institute teleporter locked on and the man before he vanished in a flash of light. “Hope the cell’s big enough.” Unfortunately, as these grenades had originally been designated to test on the fluffy synths they were not. With a wet compacting crack sound and ‘sploosh’ of arterial blood spray as their limbs were shot out of the grated doorway as the wires tore apart there was a sudden and intense batch of panicked screaming from the nearby fluffy synths who were awaiting processing.
While it felt good in the moment, johnson sighed now knowing he had wasted a potential resource in the Amari synth needlessly. “Eight to go.” Johnson added picking up his hammer before heading down the stairs to swipe his card to the atrium as he saw the last of the Atrium team holding position in front of him on the catwalk firing at the gymnast like agility of A55. No sooner had Johnson smeared them did A55 sprang up the generators walkway a few feet away. “Five for me.”
“We’re tied then sir.” A55 added and if not for the coursers super serious at times monotone Johnson could have sworn he heard an implied ‘cherry picker’ in there.
“The remainder are trapped in the middle level or down below.” Johnson added noting a few minor scratches and tears in their uniform. “I’ll consider you two a team, fetch E88 and I’ll open the airlock to the door down.” Johnson added knowing there were three to go.
“Acknowledged.” A55 added flipping over the railing to the Atrium and proceeding down the hallway to the elevator.
Johnson followed shortly after and walked through the locker room and over to the airlock door and slid the card to open the way for the waiting coursers. “You two ready?” Johnson adds putting away the card for now.
The two share a glance. “Affirmative.”
As johnson takes point heading back into the T intersection of the hallway the two coursers share a glance. It was unlikely there were any more major security deterrents so they couldn’t hope someone would create an opening for them that they might also suffer from. They had received their code orange when they had awaited in the teleporter before Johnson had arrived and had been awaiting the right moment.
As johnson reached for the button to the door with their primary hand and casually held the hammers hilt with their offhand over their left shoulder they struck. A55 leapt and grasped both sides of the hammer head with their hand and then pushed off Johnsons back with their legs. The force of the kick caused the hilt to scrape through the remains of the power armors grip at the very end of the handle as it began to clasp and A55 released the hammer mid air so it flew in the wall behind them.
E88 had moved in along Johnsons right side attempting an upward palm strike to the arm with their primary hand while their second reached for the knife on Johnsons hip. The blow missed and went under the arm and up the front of the chest as Johnson swept around to face the two synths. Realizing they wouldn’t be able to grasp the blade with the sudden turn of the power armor they pulling into a roll as they ducked under the sweeping arm and palm.
“This isn’t sparring. If you keep this up I wont go easy on you.” Director johnson added as they took up a defensive posture eyes shifting between the two. No sooner had he made the snap decision to go for the panel on his left bracer with the buttons for his series of power armor administered combat drugs that he kept pre-loaded for particularly difficult tasks had E88 leapt up wrapping their legs around the shoulder and biceps of the power armors right arm as their upper body and arms strained to prevent it from going beyond a 90 degree pose as they attempted to pull it to full extension.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way sir.” E88 added coldly as A55 dashed back in using the temporary distraction to blast the strap holding the Kiloton rifle in place before catching it on the ground and springing back with it. They had planned to use the explosive shells to slowly chip apart the power armors plate and leave the hallway saturated in radiation for their organic opponent. But no sooner had the rifle been leveled did A55 see the power armor barreling right for them.
Johnson had grasped above the boot under the calf and Wrenched one of E88’s legs free with their left hand which made the bracing for Johnsons right arm weak enough to pull them closer in as they held them in place and pulled them in front of their profile as a shield/cushion as they charged.
A55 dropped the weapon and sprang down the hallway back towards the elevator to avoid getting smashed into the wall. E88 was not so lucky and twitched as the full weight of the power armor leaned against them. The wheel spun and the back hatch of the power armor opened and Johnson got out grasping Throatslicer.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back for you.”
A55 became cautious. While Johnson no longer possessed the raw power and durability, they did in the power armor suit they were far lighter, faster and more mobile without it. “Directors password, AgentOrange69 answer. Is this a Code Orange?” Johnson added as the two of their footwork inched in ever closer to each other.
“Access denied.” A55 responded instinctively unable to suppress the tick. This could mean one of two things. Either the code orange was so amazingly bad that all the directors had voted and locked him out of ‘all’ of his authorizations. Or…
Johnson smirked “Im sooo~” Johnson added as they began to dodge the courser pistol beams as they closed the gap. “looking forward. To kicking~ Ayo’s ass for this.” Johnson exclaimed as the blade cut the tendon of the wrist through the armor and caused the pistol to drop but received a kick via a backwards flip to causing the blade to lodge itself in the pipes above them.
The two exchanged blows for a good minute, both of their armors were decent but it was clear Johnsons was superior at absorbing damage between them. The occasional slam and impact to the nearby surroundings had slowly but surely reverberated in the hallway. No sooner had Johnson figured out a way to end this did pure dumb luck step in for him in the form of pressure in the pipe jettisoning Throatslicer out of it and straight into the top of A55’s skull with a gout of steam.
“. . .I don’t feel like I earned that.” Johnson added with a sigh retrieving his blade from the slumped over corpse. Figuring their vitals couldn’t be monitored from here Johnson stepped over and lifted E88’s head to stab the blade upwards into their skull from beneath.
“Time to finish the mission.” Johnson added taking out their handkerchief from their belt pouch and wiping off their face and the interior of the power armor helmet before getting back in. True he could have finished without it but he had to play this in a ‘worst case scenario’ manner.
If the coursers had been victorious they would finish the mission so no need to potentially raise alarms prematurely. A plan was already brewing.
