Part 11

ONE YEAR LATER


*Audio Log Transcript*

*Conversation dated 15th August. '43. Informal debriefing of President Tandi by the Mr. Gunther, recently appointed Minister of Espionage and External Affairs, in regards to the Navarro incident*





Pres. Tandi: Well c'mon in Gunther! Don't just stand there; grab a seat!

Gunther: Thank you Madame President, I appreciate the opportunity to...

Pres. Tandi: (Interrupting) Can the formalities and horse shit, Gunther. I'm too old and too long in the tooth to bother with that anymore, and I've been runnin' this place long enough to know that the longer you stand there kissin' my ass, the worse the news is going to be. What's the damage.

Gunther: (Muttered) Quite. Madame President, as you are well aware, over the last ten months we've been picking up a lot of... (Pause) activity in the areas to the immediate North and North-West of our borders. It seemed sporadic at first, but quickly became noticeably more organised. At first we didn't even know that any of the incidents were related, but then they became so high in number...

Pres. Tandi: (Interrupting)... that even the superstars you had working for you couldn't ignore it any longer. Right. I've read a few preliminary reports. It started with bandits turning up dead.

Gunther: Correct. At first it was just the occasional bandit or highwayman... Well I can show you some uh... surveillance after the fact.

*File Photo: Remains of suspected Bandits, taken outside the North-East borders of the New California Republic*



Pres. Tandi: (Chuckles) Well, someone's been doing us a favour.

Gunther: Naturally, the deaths of such miscreants barely registered on our radar. These people have made a fine art of being invisible to the authorities, and when they turn up dead, not that many get reported as such. In fact, it's only in light of recent... developments that we believe that this pair in particular has anything to do with the... situation at hand.

Pres. Tandi: And those developments would be?

Gunther: Our first sign, Madame President, that these deaths were connected in any way, shape or form was that they were occurring, over the course of about two months, in a more or less straight line. Those two you just saw were the first that we reasonably suspect were involved, but then the strikes got... bigger. Larger and larger bands of bandits and highwaymen were being hit, and all along a straight line heading North Nor' West.

Pres. Tandi: Well that's all very impressive, Gunther, but it doesn't very well explain the time and manpower you've devoted to this now, has it? A bunch of lowlifes got shot. It looks like someone was bein' systematic about it, which makes me think that those sanctimonious prigs in the Rangers got tired of just going after slavers and have broadened their appetite. More power to 'em, I say. I just might give 'em a medal myself.

Gunther: I understand your sentiment, Madame President, and would agree with you if not for the fact that my man in the Rangers hasn't heard of any such activity, and... well, I'll show you. This photo was taken by an operative who stumbled upon a tunnel network to the East of New Reno. It turns out that it led to a base of operations for raiders that was rather... large.

*File Photo: Underground Raider's base. Northern wastes*



Pres. Tandi: (Low whistle)

Gunther: Quite.

Pres. Tandi: That many raiders... Gunther, I don't care about these people. They operated too far North of out borders to be worth a second thought, unless you're one of those yammerin' fools on the council who think we should up an' expand out to Vault City. But the people who did this to them...

Gunther: Have been walking through our Republic completely undetected. The word from Vault City is that several months ago the systematic raiding of their outer defences simply stopped overnight. If these raiders could cause that much trouble for Vault City...

Pres. Tandi: Then how much trouble could the fellas that mopped them up cause for us? (Annoyed Grunt)

Gunther: More worrying is what else we found at this site. We tried to get an assessment of the casualties of whoever did this to the Raiders. We came back with nothing.

Pres. Tandi: Nothin'?

Gunther: Nothing. No bodies. No blood. No shell casings. No evidence of any ordinance they used. In fact, the most puzzling aspect is how every last individual involved in these incidents has died.

Pres. Tandi: Well?

Gunther: Blunt Trauma. No visible entry wounds from projectile weapons, and no cuts from edged weapons. Every last one of these people was bludgeoned to death.

Pres. Tandi: Clubs?

Gunther: No wood fibres, but we found residues of some sort of machine lubricant. We sent it to Buster, the proprietor of the weapons shop in the Bazaar outside the city gates, and he said he might know what it was.

Pres. Tandi: Amazin', Gunther, I didn't think you talked to folk who weren't pencil-pushers.

Gunther: Mark one power fist.

Pres. Tandi: What?

Gunther: Mark one power fist. Pre-war tech. 'Kinetic enhancement device', powered by energy cells.

Pres. Tandi: In English?

Gunther: It's a gauntlet that contains power servos and hydraulics that gives a punch the kinetic energy of a charging Rhino.

Pres. Tandi: These people were taken out hand-to-hand? With no losses on the other side?

Gunther: Essentially, Yes.

Pres. Tandi: So give me the good news.

Gunther: Well, shortly after the destruction of the raider's camp, whoever was doing this started moving further away. Due West.

Pres. Tandi: And?

Gunther: And the attacks continued. Never on civilians, but more or less constantly, and always in a westward direction. Of course now we knew what we were looking for: people die in the desert all the time, but large groups of people being beaten to death... that's another story. Do you remember the Morton Brothers?

Pres. Tandi: Sure I do. Bunch of assholes. Would like to see them hang.

Gunther: Here.

*File Photo: Remains of Robert Morton and unidentified accomplices*



Pres. Tandi: (Mutters) Good.

Gunther: By this time, Madame President, I had a team of trackers trying to follow the trail. It was impossible. A group of people large enough to do this kind of damage should have left a track a mile wide, but all we could do was follow the trail of dead. Then the deaths stopped.

Pres. Tandi: Stopped?

Gunther: It had to. By this time we'd reached the wasteland near the coast.

Pres. Tandi: An' no Raider worth his salt would be crazy enough to live in those parts what with the critters that wander around there.

Gunther: We didn't lose the trail though.

Pres. Tandi: Meaning?

Gunther: Meaning that we were considering turning back from the wasteland and returning, until we stumbled across some uh...

Pres. Tandi: Critters?

Gunther: Quite. We stumbled across some creatures known locally as Wanamingos. All beaten to death, quite horrifically.

*File Photo: Remains of Wanamingos found in coastal wastes*



Gunther: Whoever was doing the killing didn't seem to limit themselves to bandits and raiders.

Pres. Tandi: So you followed them?

Gunther: We followed them, Madame President. It was easy by this stage. The plains there are relatively easy to navigate, and we were able to see the... aftermath of several incidents every day that we travelled. Look at this.

*File Photos: Remains of creatures found in coastal wastes: Designations Centaur, Deathclaw*




Pres. Tandi: Big critters. Impressive.

Gunther: Then we came across this. Do you recognise these, Madame President?

*File Photo: Remains of creatures found in coastal wastes: Designation Floater*



Pres. Tandi: Nasty. Nasty little critters. Last time I saw one of these was a good 70 years ago, just after that business with the mutants. Seems their Master's pets escaped and tore up a few townships before they were hunted down by the biggest posse organised in years. Never thought I'd see them again.

Gunther: Killed, just like all of the others. Blunt force trauma, only this time...

Pres. Tandi: Yeah?

Gunther: No matter, Madame President; I'm getting ahead of myself. However, do you see the Floater to the top of the picture?

Pres. Tandi: Yeah?

Gunther: From its position relative to the others and the direction it was pointing, we think that it was trying to escape.

Pres. Tandi: (Expletive deleted)

Gunther: Part of the reason why we were able to penetrate so far into the wastes is that the creatures that inhabit that area seemed skittish, and loathe to approach humans. Something scared them.

Pres. Tandi: (Expletive deleted)

Gunther: This isn't all we found, Madame President. Here.

*File Photo: Remains of unknown military personnel*



Pres. Tandi: Looks like pre-war tech to me. That's some suit of armour. Did they finally bite off more than they could chew?

Gunther: No, Madame President. These aren't who we were tracking. They did run afoul of them however. Blunt trauma, no apparent opposing casualties.

Pres. Tandi: Who are they anyway? More of the Master's lot?

Gunther: We don't believe so, Madame President. In fact, we believe them to be some sort of patrol unit. We found a base.

Pres. Tandi: Base?

Gunther: A massive military coastal settlement, Madame President. Surrounded on all sides by the wastelands as it was, it could have been there for decades, and no-one would know about it.

Pres. Tandi: No-one would have the balls to get past the critters, eh? Clever.

Gunther: When we arrived at the base we were astonished. Masses of pre-war tech, as well as technology that seemed even more advanced than even Vault technology. Working flying machines. Weapons that used magnetic projection. We brought back samples, and to be honest our men are having a hard time trying to reverse-engineer even the instruments needed to analyse them properly. We...

Pres. Tandi: (Interrupting) Can the flim-flam Gunther. If this was a military base, how did you manage to just waltz in there and take what you liked?

Gunther: Everyone was dead, Madame President.

Pres. Tandi: Everyone?

Gunther: Everyone.

*File Photos: Military Base identified as 'Navarro Settlement'*





Pres. Tandi: (Expletive deleted)

Gunther: Beaten to death, every one of them. Those suits of armour are half an inch thick, and supported by a framework of hydraulics and a Kevlar underlay. They were crushed like tissue paper.

Pres. Tandi: Let me guess. Tell-tale residue.

Gunther: Actually, no, Madame President. That's what I was going to mention before.

Pres. Tandi: What?

Gunther: We, uh... We found a power fist in the desert wastes. Its charge had been depleted and it had been discarded by its owner. We assume that other members of the party we were pursuing did the same. None of the subsequent bodies found, including the Floaters and all of the personnel at the base had any kind of hydraulic or servo residue on them.

Pres. Tandi: (Silence)

Gunther: They were all beaten to death with bare fists, Madame President.

Pres. Tandi: (Expletive deleted)

Gunther: This is the point at which the trail grew cold. However, we do have something.

Pres. Tandi: Make an old woman happy and make it good news.

Gunther: An audio recording device seems to have been triggered a short time before the attack on the base, and we were able to salvage some of it.

Pres. Tandi: Well go ahead, Gunther. Play it!


*Audio Recording playback begins*

*Muffled Screams*

*Shouts*

Unknown Voice #1: Sarge! We just lost contract with the lower levels! The silent alarm has been tripped, and...

Unknown Voice #2: Corporal! Signal base-wide alert, and get your combat team assembled. Get Comms on the line, and find out what the (Expletive deleted) is going on down there!

*Loud mechanical sound*

Unknown Voice #2: Corporal! Secure that elevator! If those doors so much as open, your ass is gra...

Unknown Voice #3: (Unintelligible scream)

Unknown Voice #1: Sarge! Help, I...

Unknown Voice #3: This am for Trogg! This am for Gor-gor! And this am for Trogg!

*Screams, gunfire, metallic pounding*

*Audio Recording playback ends*


Gunther: So you see, Madame President, we have at least a small lead as to who... (Silence) Madame President?

Pres. Tandi: (Chuckling)

Gunther: Madame President? I...

Pres. Tandi: (Laughter) Gunther, you're going to want to take my advice now. Leave it be. Start worrying more about this base than the shadows you've been chasin', because it's more of a threat to us than a bunch of dead raiders and critters ever was.

Gunther: But Madame President, surely you must...

Pres. Tandi: Gunther, I'm going to spell this out so that it's plain as day. There was no force, or army, or militia group that managed to cunningly slip under your nose and operate in your own backyard, and we have nothing to fear from what you've been chasing. Thank your men for a job well done, and leave it be, Gunther. Just leave it be.

Gunther: I must protest, surely this...

Pres. Tandi: (Interrupting) Protest noted. Now git, Gunther. I'm a busy woman, and I've not time for any more of this.

Gunther: Mada... (Sharp intake of breath) Very well Madame President. If you've no further use for my services, perhaps counsellor Westin will...

Pres. Tandi: You'll do no such thing, Gunther. Now leave me be.

*Door opens and closes*

Pres. Tandi: (Sighs) (To Self):Well of all the things I never expected to come into my life again, you were top 'o the list. Seventy years. I told you alla those drugs and Rads you took would mess you up somethin' fierce, but I guess it musta just skipped a few generations. First time I saw him I didn't even notice the similarity, but now that I think about it... He's got the same fire as you; that's for sure.

*Sounds of cabinet being unlocked, liquid being poured*

Pres. Tandi: (Sighs) (To Self): The boy'll do you proud, ol' Smith. The boy'll do you proud.

*Recording Ends*