Part 39: Semper Fidelis

Update 39: Semper Fidelis



The conference room opened up into a small office, indicating that the person inside wasn't important enough to rate the dignity of an enclosed space. Speaking with him made it pretty clear why that was the case. Within thirty seconds he'd asked me if you spelled subtle with a "b" and told me that if we didn't succeed we ran the risk of failure.



They must have been REALLY short on political candidates after 80 years of living on an oil rig together. I decided to move up the chain.

The sad part is that I'm old enough to remember the guy they're mocking here. This is Dan Bird, an extremely thinly veiled stand in for the first George Bush's VP: Dan Quayle. Many of the quotes listed here are actual things that Dan Quayle said. Dan Bird has the excuse of being an FEV test subject, while the real life politician did not (presumably).



"You could tell me just what the hell is going on here. Uh… your Presidency?"

"You really don't know, do you? Let me tell you about mankind's salvation. A little history first… there was a great war long before we were born. Our gallant soldiers fought from the Yukon to the Yangtze."

"I'm not going to ask how long it took you to find two place names that began with the same letter. Anyway, I already know this part."

"Well, we were winning too! And then those damn Reds launched everything they had. We barely got our birds up."

"And that did something good?"



"Yeah, how's that working out for us? We probably should have spent more money on missile defense than on ballistic missiles. We're right back in the stone age with them!"

"Well, no. No… not quite. You see, we had planned ahead. We were ready."

"You mean… the Vaults? This oil rig? Because it's been more than a century and they haven't accomplished much."

"We certainly had a number of sanctuaries that would enable the glorious American civilization to endure. THese facilities - the vaults - were part of the great plan."

"Except for the minor fact that a lot of people in the Vaults died."



"This is another one of those things that's going to make me sick, isn't it?"



According to the Fallout Bible, there were as many as 122 Vaults constructed. A partial list includes the following:

Vault 8 - control vault intended to open after 10 years. Result: Vault City.
Vault 12 - radiation effect test with a door that wouldn't close. Result: Necropolis
Vault 15 - intended to open after 50 years, multicultural. Result: Shady Sands
Vault 27 - deliberately overcrowded with twice the normal pop.
Vault 29 - nobody over the age of 15. Result: Harold
Vault 34 - overstocked with weapons, no lock for the armory.
Vault 36 - food extruders would only produce a watery gruel.
Vault 42 - no light bulbs of more than 40 watts.
Vault 53 - all equipment designed to break down repairably every few months.
Vault 55 - all entertainment tapes removed.
Vault 56 - all entertainment tapes removed except one bad comic actor's. Sociologists predicted failure before Vault 55.
Vault 68 - only one woman
Vault 69 - only one man
Vault 70 - All jumpsuit extruders fail after 6 months
Vault 106 - Psychoactive drugs released 10 days after the Vault was sealed.
And as for our own Vault...

"You mean they were never designed to actually save people? What was Vault 13 for?"

"Well… every experiment needs a control group. They were the only ones who were supposed to stay sealed."

"And it all fell apart because some idiot sent a box of replacement water chips to the wrong location. If my ancestor hadn't gotten them that chip they'd have died out and ruined your plan."

"Yes, that was an unfortunate accident… but it worked out for the best, in the end."

"I don't like where this is going."



"W..why?"

"For The Project. It's almost ready. Humanity's salvation is almost at hand and the United States of America will be the progenitor of that rebirth."

"Great. Just great. And it only took you a century and a half. But what do you mean by rebirth?"

"The only way for true humans, and democracy, to be safe is to cleanse the mutants from the globe. We humans will take back that which is rightfully ours."

"That's… kinda drastic. How am I not a true human?"

"I'm sure you think so. But tests performed on your tribesmen have all shown that you are guilty of mutation. It's a damn good thing the Project is ready."

"You say guilty like it's something we chose to do… and what kind of changes?"

"Oh, some of them are very interesting. If the danger to humanity weren't so great I would think about studying them, but you can't have everything."



"So how does 'The Project' kill everybody?"

"We found a research facility in operational shape about 70 years ago. A former military base that had been used to research a special virus…the F.E.V. virus, in fact. It wasn't very useful for producing super-soldiers, although we have been continuing that line of research, so we altered it instead."

"…into what, pray tell? I can't believe I haven't shot you yet, but that can come later."

"We turned it into a staggeringly effective killer. Any humanoid that isn't inoculated against its effects before its release will die. That is The Project."

"That's insane. You can't mean what you just said."



"We'll just see about both of those things. Goodbye, President Richardson."




And then I jammed super stimpacks into his back until he looked like a porcupine and waited until the chemical after-effects tore apart his insides. Funny thing is that people don't actually make any noise when you do that to them, and nobody was about to walk into his office without being called. I helped myself to his access pass and moved on to the second thing on my agenda: stopping The Project.



After I nonchalantly walked out of the president's office I tried to play it cool and look like I hadn't just murdered the leader of the U.S. Government. Seeing a live nuclear bomb sitting in a nearby room made that really, really hard especially since everybody else was just ignoring it.



"Chemical Corps? I'm not who you think I am. I'm Luke from Arroyo and we've got something to talk about."



"First, I was never in a cell so I couldn't have escaped. Secondly, we've got plenty to talk about. Like genocide."

"I don't see that there's much I need to talk about with a mutant. Soon, when real humans retake the planet for their own, you'll just be another unfortunate reminder of the war."

"Yeah, the president mentioned something about that. I don't see it, since from where I'm sitting I'm as human as you are."

"Oh, your DNA is more than just a little different. It's quite different. If I weren't so pressed for time by The Project I'd be interested in running further tests on your people, other than the F.E.V. toxicological study of course."

"Ignoring that last part, just how is our DNA different?"



"the direction the changes are taking. All in all, though, the information is clear enough."

"I see you've mastered the art of the vague leading sentence. I'll bite… what information is clear enough?"

"Why, the information that you and your tribe are no longer human of course. Since your tribe has only been out of a vault (let's see, Vault 13 wasn't it?) for some eighty-odd years, anyone out longer is certain to have been even more mutated. You'll all have to go I'm afraid. Luckily we've got the F.E.V. to take care of that."

"That's the part I'm interested in. How's that going to work again?"



"Service agents with some success."

"I'm very happy for you. Now what does that have to do with killing everyone?"

"Oh, yes, well, I was getting to that… The F.E.V virus bond is species specific, it will only bond with human glyco-proteins. It only took a few years to tweak the F.E.V. virus to make it more lethal than it already was. Thanks to me it's a lethal toxin, and thanks to some mysterious genius named, rather dramatically, the Master, it only works on humans, mutated or not."

"So you really intend to kill every mutated human being on the planet?"



"I'd agree with you on that. Has it occurred to you that the mutants you refer to are just another type of human? How different can they be biologically as compared to pre-War diversity and standard variance within the population? If we were so different, wouldn't it have been impossible for the stock from Vault 13 80 years ago to have interbred with people who'd already been out for 80 years?"

"I hadn't ever stopped to think about it that way… please, give me a minute, while I think this over very carefully."

"By all means. It's not like I'm in a particular hurry here, considering that the ragged remnants of my entire tribe are locked up in your experimental cells."

"I hate to admit this, but you may be right. How did I miss that? I was so blinded by trying to overcome the obstacles that I didn't think about the morality of my quest. Or if even made sense in the first place."

"Welcome to team Luke. Now, how do we destroy the toxin?"

"We could.. no, they'd just start over. Even with me dead, there's enough data between here and Navarro to assure that they could replicate my work. Only something more drastic will be enough."

"Great. I like drastic."



"Ooh… can we use the nuclear bomb out in your lobby?"

"I think that the best way is to just release the F.E.V. toxin into the air-filtration system. Since the Enclave is a sealed system that should take care of everyone."

"That sounds great and all Doc, but what about me? And my people? And I guess you, for that matter?"



"Considering that you could have just had the guards come in and start shooting, I'll trust you… so what happens when you release the Toxin?"

"It's not pretty. You should leave as soon as possible. But I'd rather have the weight of a thousand on my conscience than several hundred thousand. Our time is through here. We had our chance."

"Doesn't that still leave my entire tribe stuck in the cells?"

"You should probably shut down the power. I know that the reactor is controlled by a large computer near the reactor bay but I don't know exactly what you'd need to do to shut the reactor down."

"Usually I just shoot or blow things up until I accomplish something. I'll just go down there and start doing that."



"So I take it from that you're not coming with me? Well, you just keep doing your thing there."



Heading down the stairs I received an unpleasant surprise in the form of a number of power armored troops roaming around the bottom floor. Since the suits include chemical filters they weren't going to be disabled, so I was still going to have to be careful for a bit longer.



Some people had evidently already been immunized as well, especially high ranking civilians. On the plus side, since he wasn't gasping for breath and trying not to die the head of the Atomic Energy Commission confirmed in a roundabout way that blowing the computer would pretty much cripple their main systems.



After that it was a matter of waiting a few minutes for people to start exploding and then planting some explosives near the computer once there were no inconvenient witnesses.



You get 10,000 experience for blowing the computer, by the way, which is enough for us to go up yet another level. At this point I've just started rounding off skills so that they'll end in nice neat numbers.



After the explosives detonated the sirens started wailing and I could hear a voice over the loudspeakers saying that there was 10 minutes to evacuate. The weird thing was that nobody else reacted… I suppose the Doc was right about how often they hold emergency drills. At any rate, the blast doors on the emergency stairs were open so I had a shortcut to the top floor.



In less than a minute I was almost to the entrance…where to my surprise I found a group of armed Enclave troops standing right off the entryway.



"Oh… uh… you know, evacuation drill and all that. Gotta get with my guys, count 'em and do all that military kind of stuff. You know how it is."

"Well, you know that freak, Agent Horrigan, just stormed past here. He's waiting for someone to try and make a break for it."

"That's… interesting. I'll be sure to tell him if I see somebody like that. Who's Agent Horrigan again?"

"Cmon, man, you're not fooling anybody."



"That's a relief, I'm terrible at sounding military. That guy sounds like bad news."

"Oh, that he is, and worse. He's going to mop the floor with you. He's tough, fast, and just plain mean. I've seen what he likes to do to mutants and it ain't pretty."

"Okay, I just talked about this with a doctor and we agreed that I'm not a mutant. So what did he do?"

"I don't like to talk about it. It gives me nightmares. Let's just say that those walls aren't covered with rust."

"Sounds like this might be a bit tough… too bad I don't have any help."



"Pity me? You should feel bad for yourself. Your power plant's control computer got fried and now you're headed for a meltdown. You're all dead men unless…"

"Oh, yeah. Tell me another rome. If the reactor's scragged how come the lights are still on? Huh, smartie? Heh, heh, tell me another one."

"That's just the emergency lighting. I blew up your reactor control computer with about 10 pounds of plastique. It's gone, and you're going down for the count unless you help me. I've got a boat and I can get you out of here, but we have to get past Horrigan."



"Great. Let me go first, then follow in a few seconds. I've got an idea."



I finally got to put a name to a face… Horrigan was the monster who I'd seen gunning down farmers between Modoc and Vault City. I don't know what was going on behind that mask of his, but he just stood there silently waiting for me to do something. I don't know what, but I don't think he was expecting what I did next.



With the Presidential Access Key in my hot little hand I had full access to the entire computer network, including the Counter Insurgency program. I turned it on, and then sat back to watch the fireworks.



I'd like to say that Horrigan didn't know what hit him, but with that much armor even every turret in the room zeroing in on him and firing it wasn't enough to bring him down. To make matters worse, some of the turrets were inside each other's sectors of fire and winged each other with stray bullets as they were shooting Horrigan. On the upside, it distracted him and he started attacking the turrets rather than paying any attention to me.



Once he was busy I started firing along with Sergeant Granite's squad, catching him in a heavy crossfire. We had to stay pretty far back to avoid the turrets, but with such a big target it was kind of hard to miss.

You'll notice that an eye shot somehow compacted his chest plate. Horrigan's crit tables are a bit broken, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have an instant kill option. He also has 999 HP, so you need some serious firepower to bring him down.



It took almost a minute of constant firing, but eventually Horrigan went down with his upper body blasted from his legs. In some ways his insides looked more machine than human, and whatever they'd done to him gave him a monstrous vitality that somehow allowed his severed torso to keep moving on its own.




I put him down with one more bullet in what I assumed was his braincase, and we pried open the blast doors to where Sulik, Cassidy, and Marcus were waiting. Only just in time, as it turns out.

The End of the Enclave