The Vault Dweller (Old Version)

by Whenyathima

Summary:

Jane Parker was a simple soul, spending her days in the Vaults Library working to keep the ageing computer systems working and her nights failing to flirt with girls before retreating to the comforts of the computers. but when the vault faces crisis as its water purification system fails she is sent out on a mission to find a replacement and save the vault. armed with a 10mm pistol that she can barely use, a knife, the years of playing role-playing games with friends, and the location of a nearby vault she steps out of the only home she has ever known.

Chapter 1: First steps of a million miles

Jane’s first impressions of the world outside the vault was not a good one, a dark cave filled with rats and a skeleton right next to the door. Of course given the circumstances even if the outside world had been the literal garden of Eden she probably wouldn't have been impressed; one minute she was happily fixing one of the computers in the library, the next she was dragged in front of the overseer, told the vault was dying because the water chip had failed, told it was going to be her job to find a new one, had a gun and some ammo shoved into her hands, then finally practically pushed out the door into the wastes. At least she had the location of another vault to start her search, assuming she could get out of the cave without shooting herself with her gun.

Thankfully she had also been given a knife, something she knew how to handle thanks to her overprotective father insisting she learned to defend herself from the scary boys, so at least she could fall back on that if she couldn't get the hang of the pistol. Taking a deep breath, Jane thought about how she was in this situation. The overseer had said that the assignment was random, but that didn’t make any sense at all; why leave the fate of the vault up to chance? Maybe due to her technical skills, giving her a better idea as to what she is looking for? Still doesn't explain why a more senior maintenance worker wasn’t sent.

Then it hit her, the time she had been caught making out with Beth in the back of the library. Of course she was being sent out on a near suicidal mission, kill two birds with one stone; deal with the water chip problem and get the girl who had seduced the overseer’s niece out of the vault for a while. And she was definitely not the first either, she had noticed a couple faces disappearing in the last few months and the body next to her was devoid of flesh due to the rats rather then the passage of time, tattered remnants of a vault suit scattered around; at least the supplies they where given where still mostly there, something she quickly grabbed. Due to the weight of the issue however she wasn’t sent out here just to get out of the way, the overseer obviously hoped that she could deal with the issue. Getting her away from the vault was just a bonus.

Double checking her gear, Jane draws the pistol she was given, turns of the safety, points it at the nearest rat and pulls the trigger. She, of course, misses. She hadn’t expected anything about the shot, the recoil, the weight, the sound, not even where to aim. Thankfully she is a quick learner, and having overly large rats running at you is a great incentive to learn. By the time she had emptied the clip she had hit at least half of her shots, even if some of them where a little too close to comfort. By the time she was through her second clip the rats had either been reduced to bloody piles of flesh or had scurried away, leaving a slightly dazed Jane alone.

Reloading her weapon, Jane paused to look for any more movement coming out of the darkness; sighing with relief when the only sounds she could hear where the distant drip of water somewhere in the cave. She holstered her gun and brushed her hand over the handle of the knife to reassure herself it was still there before slowly making her way out of the cave. She tried to be quiet about it, she really did, but a lifetime of walking on metal doesn’t lend well to being quiet on loose stone and dirt; she was just thankful that the rats seem to have left. At least the cave was straight forward enough, despite there seemingly being multiple paths the largest one led to the exit and blinding light.

And it was blinding, where she not better informed Jane would have worried that she would never see again; as it was she berated herself for rushing for the exit when she first saw the light, instead of slowly getting used to it. Thankfully she could eventually see out into the wastes, although the desert that lay beyond did not inspire much confidence for her survival, nor did the pile of animal bones right outside the cave. Taking a long drink from her canteen full of precious water, she squared her shoulders and headed east towards the vault.

 

Jane looked in awe as she stood at the top of a hill. Before her lay a town, civilisation, people. Of course it wasn’t anything close to the sprawling metropolis of the world before, just a collections of farms and adobe buildings; but it was civilisation. It wasn’t even out of the way to the vault, and a chance to resupply and learn about the surrounding airier wouldn’t be a bad idea. Although basing survival skills off of old novels and games played with friends over nuka-cola rations late at night might not be the best idea, it must be better then nothing; besides wasn't the old proverb ‘knowledge is power’?

So she approached the settlement, cautiously and as non threatenanly as she could. Of course she realised this could be a terrible idea that would lead to her being shot, she had no idea how friendly these people where, but her gut told her turning away now would be a bad idea. Although that could just be her being too stubborn to change her mind.

“halt, stranger” calls out a bearded man, tan from a lifetime of hard work in the sun, “what brings you to our town?” he is obviously appraising her, taking in the pistol on her hip and vault suit, but he holds his rifle casually putting Jane’s mind at ease, he obviously doesn't want to shoot her yet, nor see her as a threat.

“well ahhh…” she says, berating herself for her poor social skills, “information I guess, and supplies” okay maybe her mum was right and she should have gone to those school events rather then mess around with the computer.

He looks her over once again before nodding, seemingly satisfied that her words where sincere “well then, let me be the first to welcome you to shady sands. Names Set, I am head of the guards here. Don’t cause trouble and we wont have any issues you hear?” Jane nodded as she walked towards him “I s’pose you better talk to Aradesh, our leader, if your gonna be in town. Follow me, I’ll take you to him”

she just nodded, not trusting herself to not make an idiot of herself with words, and followed him through the town, weathering the curious and guarded glances of the towns folk. Seth led her into a building and indicated for her to wait just inside the entrance while he walked over to a side room giving Jane a chance too look around the building. It was furnished with simple wooden furniture, with some townsfolk sitting around talking. Most of them ignored her after a glance, but one young woman stared at her from the corner, curiosity burning in her eyes.

Before she could really think about it Seth was back and led her into the room where an older man wearing brown robes was seated, looking at her and gesturing for her to sit opposite her.

“Greeting, wanderer. Please do not be offended if the gentlefolk about seem rude. As Dharma said ‘Tough times tan the human hide.’ your business in shady sands might be?”

well this conversation was already off to an interesting start, who the hell was Dharma? Something to look into later, maybe, for now it might be best to answer the man currently staring at her instead of saying nothing like an idiot. “I’m from a vault, to the west. Vault 13. our water chip has died and I have been sent out for a new one” he regarded her for a moment.

“and how, wanderer, can you prove your story hmm? Tell me of this vault” ok so hesitating was definitely a bad idea, at least she had the truth on her side. “well for one I am wearing a vault suit, although fair I could have stolen it off somebody. The Vault itself is far to the west, built into the mountains and hidden in a cave. It has been sealed for the last 80 years, and would have remained so if not for our trouble with our water chip.”

“very well wanderer, I will believe you for now. But know Seth and I will be keeping our eyes on you. Now, you said you wanted information, about what would you like to know?” well at least he seemed willing to talk now, even if he was a little withdrawn. “nothing super important really, just if there where any settlements nearby, if you knew anything that could help with my search thank kinda thing”

“unfortunately wanderer I cannot help you on your quest, though I wish you best of luck, as for settlements; Junktown lies south of here, though there is little in way of visitation. From stories I am certain there are cites south of that. We are an isolated community, however, and we prefer to keep to ourselves so more I cannot say.” Jane thanked him and received a respectful nod in return.

“was there anything else wanderer? There is still much for me to do before the day is out.” Jane mentally took inventory of her inventory, and while she had some things that she could trade she doubted it would be enough, perhaps she could do some work for the supplies instead. “anything around town that I could help with? I find myself in need of supplies and lacking things to trade” at this he practically beamed at her, it was almost creepy the sudden shift in expression.

“oh my yes. Great packs of radscorpions are killing our herds. We don’t know know where there from, and no matter how many we kill, there’s always more!” well shit this sounds bad “and now the monsters are attacking my people! Razlo is trying to find a cure for there poison, but I’m not sure how it goes.” the smart thing here would be to run away from this, say she was sorry but she couldn’t help them but the thought of leaving people in need left a bad taste in her mouth.

And that is how she found herself sitting at the table with the towns doctor, a man in a turban of some sort, with glasses and a neatly trimmed beard. “so, can you do it?” that was the question wasn’t it, it seemed straight forward enough; go kill some radscorpions, preferably killing as much of the nest as possible, and bring back some poison glands so Razlo could try making some anti-venom to help the town fight off the rest of the pests. The table between them was covered in notes and diagrams, showing what exactly she needed to get from the scorpions as well as potential week spots in the armour.

“well, I guess I am about to find out. You said Seth had a lead as to the location of the nest?” Razlo nodded “yeah, he and his brother tracked them the other day. Unfortunately Jarvis got stung so they where forced to pull back to the town, but he should be able to get you there.” Jane nodded “well, no point in waiting around here; time to head off” nodding politely to the doctor she left the house, only too walk almost directly into the young woman that had been watching her from the corner of the room before.

“oh hi! Sorry for running into you like this, and following you around, and the starring from across the room. I don’t mean to be creepy or anything, its just we don’t get many travellers around here and well… I got curious” Jane just stood there looking at the woman, stunned by how… attractive she was this close. She once again cursed her poor social skills when she couldn’t quite form the words to reply “umm... my names Tandi, what's yours?” she asks a little awkwardly.

Shaking herself from her stupor she forced herself to speak “hey Tandi, my names Jane. Don’t worry about the staring, I would have done the same actually.” she frowned “actually I would have run away by now, so your doing better then me” Tandi laughed as they moved away from the door, causing Jane’s face to flush in embarrassment.

“so how do you like our little town, bored yet?” she asks, her own feelings on the matter clear from her tone. Jane chuckled “not yet, still getting over the fact that there is a town like this out here. Don’t worry though I’m shore it will set in when I finally get a chance to actually look around.” Tandi smiled broadly at this, a sight that made her even attractive; a thought that Jane should really push down, now was not the time to look at the pretty girls.

“finally! Someone else who sees!” Tandi says, obviously pleased with her response “of course you must have been everywhere, so this must be hell for you”

“not really, only just left home myself.”

“really? Well I hope I can do the same one day. Gotta figure out a smart way of doing it of course” she glances around the town square before turning back to face Jane “so ahhh, I couldn’t help but overhear that your gonna try and deal with the radscorpions?” she asks and waits for a nod before pulling Jane down the street “great, I know its not much but I have something that might help; Seth gave it to me after a raider attack to show off when my dad tried setting us up” she grimaces at the memory “anyway, this should help to keep you away from the tails” she finishes as she passes a spear that was hidden behind some boxes.

“oh thanks, this will be super helpful. Wasn’t looking forward to fighting off giant mutated scorpions with only a knife and a pistol”

“don’t mention it, least I can do for you if your going too help out around here. But really, don’t mention it; as much as he isn’t my type, I don’t want my dad going all overprotective father on Seth for giving me this”

“Don’t worry I’ll keep it to myself. I know the feeling all too well. Wish I had something to give you for this, doesn't feel right just taking it”

“ah don’t worry about it, just tell me about the radscorpions cave when you get back and you can consider us even ok?” Jane smiled “works for me. Plus all the more reason to make sure I come back alive, cant leave a pretty lady waiting after all.” and with that she quickly walked away, walking to the gate where she hoped Seth still stood guard, hurrying more out of embarrassment then any real feeling that she needed to rush towards a cave full of giant scorpions.

Chapter 2: Scorpion's Grasp

Summary:

Jane heads to stop the Radscopions who have been harassing the town of shady sands.

The directions Seth had given her where fairly easy to follow, a good thing too as when he saw the spear that he had given Tandi in her possession it was suddenly too dangerous for him to leave the wall with one less guard. Well this might be the better outcome if he was going to be this much of a pain about Tandi helping her out she really didn’t want to weather the glares on the hike to the cave. The cave itself was rather unassuming, if not for the surprisingly large amount of cow, or brahma as the locals called the mutated cattle, bones scattered around the entrance.

She checks over her equipment one final time, holding the spear loosely in her left hand, her pistol in her right ready to fire, now loaded with armour piecing rounds. Breathing in to calm her nerves she slowly walks into the cave, illuminating her path with the light from her Pipboy. Mere meters into the cave, just out of the sun, she came face to face with her first radscorpion.

There it stood, tail raised threateningly, waiting for an opening to strike; Jane kept pistol pointed at it, spear held to bring to bare if needed. There was no movement for a beat, both combatants waiting for the best time to attack, broken by the loud sound of Jane’s gun. The shot hit the scorpion just above where the legs joined the body, causing the creature too emit pained clicks and lurched forward to strike with its tail. Jane let off two more shots, the first hitting the cluster of eyes and the second missing entirely. Thankfully the armour piercing round did its job, hitting something vital enough to cause the radscorpion to collapse.

She doesn’t get a break however, the sounds of scurrying coming from deeper within the cave, heralding the impeding arrival of more radscorpions as the body of the first stops moving. Jane pivots to face the new threats, seeing two radscorpions rushing her, although there will likely be more on there way.

There was no time, nor adequate lighting, for Jane to take proper aim, so instead she brought her gun to bear and let out a wild volley of shots into the approaching forms. While nearly half of the shots hit the ground and walls of the cave, causing small explosions of rock to fill the air, the shots that do find there mark do there job. The first radscorpion goes down with four bullet wounds scattered over its body doing enough damage to kill it. The second only gets hit once where its right pincer joined its body, blowing it clear off; a feat of luck more then skill.

The creature screamed in pain and stumbled as a light blue liquid oozed from the wound, unfortunately the only sounds Jane’s gun was making was the click of an empty gun. Swearing she shoved the pistol back into the holster and took the spear in both hands and waited for the radscorpion to strike, knowing that if she where to be the first to attack she would basically be jumping on the stinger.

Thankfully for her the arachnid is enraged and lunges at her as soon as it recovers, still unstable. Jane quickly ducks away and at the same time thrusts the spear into the oozing wound where its pincer once was, twisting it and holding the monster back while it twitches in its death throws.

Yanking the spear out, Jane took the chance to catch her breath when she noticed there where no other dangers in the immediatevicinity.She reloads, biting her lip as she realised how this is the last of the armour piercing rounds, and how she needs to be more careful with them if she wants to survive this. She checked her spear for damage, thankfully finding none, and then made her way deeper into the cave.

Up ahead the cave split into two paths, the right path led to a small room empty but for the bones of some unfortunate wastelander, still dressed in tatters of cloths.This must have been where those radscorpions had been hiding before rushing at her. She looks over the remains for anything useful, however it had all been torn past usefulness save for a leather belt. She opted to leave it behind, and turned to face the other passage deeper into the mountainside. Tightening the grip on her pistol she stalked forward ready to deal with the rest of the scorpions.

Just around a corner she saw several things; the first was the tunnel narrowing to a choke point, wide enough for a single radscorpion to approach with some room too move, but not enough space for two to attach at once. The second was a surprisingly vast chamber, the roof to far to be illuminated by her dim light, leading into two additional paths. The third, and most terrifying, was the four rad scorpions that where wandering about the chamber, light glistening on there hard shells.

Thankfully there was no sign that they had noticed her presence, or if they did they didn’t seem to care. She carefully made her way to the choke point and, thinking back on the times she had watched her father at the firing range, lent the spear against the wall and steadied her pistol with both hands. She studied the four scorpions, taking aim at the closest. She thought about the three she had already fought, how there seemed to be something vital a little behind the eyes; perhaps its brain or whatever, biology wasn’t exactly her best subject.

Taking aim at that region of the body she shot twice, the first hitting the beast in the “shoulder”, again biology wasn’t her strong suit, and the second finding its mark causing the creature to collapse to the ground. The sound alerted the other three, however, and they began to rush at her, tails bent back and ready to strike. Jane forced herself to take aim and not let panic make her fire wildly, instead taking more calculated shots. The closest took three shots to take down, her aim worsened by the moving target; its companions kept coming, crawling over its dead body. The two remaining scorpions stood side by side, leaving no obvious target; grimacing Jane took aim at the one on the right, slowing it with a shot to the side before finishing it off.

The fourth radscorpion had taken the time that she took to take down the third to get close enough to strike, forcing Jane to leap too the side to avoid the dangerous stinger. Slamming her shoulder into the wall Jane tried to shoot her opponent, however only managing a glancing hit. The scorpion once again moved to strike at her, so Jane leaped at the tail, avoiding the stinger once again but hitting the hard shell would definitely leave some bruises. Before it had a chance to strike again she twisted and took a shot into its brain.

Not letting herself relax yet she grabbed her spear and searches the two tunnels, the one to the right is fairly shallow and she finds nothing in there but old bones. At the end of the right tunnel however she finds the last of the radscorpions and takes aim and empties her clip into it before it has a chance to do anything. Her solders slump with relief at finishing the job, holstering her pistol she draws her knife and sets to work extracting the venom glands from the corpses; putting them into a bag that Razlo had given her that sat on her hip.

Too focused on her work she didn’t notice a last radscorpion creeping up behind her, by the time she had made her way to the first group of scorpions it attacked; stinger piercing through the leather of the vault suits left arm. Crying out with pain Jane pulled away, getting some distance between her and the venomous creature; her spear now in both hands and pointing at her opponent, knife cluttering to the ground. The scorpion itself moving back stinger once again at the ready.

Jane knew she had to move fast, the venom already affecting her, so she waits for it to strike again before lunging forward herself, throwing all her weight behind the spear. Her strike was true and cracked through the exoskeleton, and although not a killing blow it was likely to be a mortal wound as it oozed the same pale blue fluid. The beast hissed in pain, its giant pincers slamming into her knocking her back and the wind from her body, the spear shaft shattering at the shock. The scorpion strikes again, Jane barely having a chance to roll out of the way; she hears the clattering of her knife and gropes for it blindly.

Finding the handle of her knife just in time, Jane sliced at the oncoming stinger cutting deep from the combined force of the combatants; jarring her arm and spilling forth a viscous clear liquid. Not letting the scorpion retreat Jane pulled herself up and wedged the blade into the wound made by the spear, desperately twisting the blade to finish it off. When the final scorpion finally stilled Jane searched desperately for something to use to try and slow the venom, remembering a passage from the Vault Dwellers Survival Guide, before remembering the belt. Scrambling she makes her way to the opening the body was in, desperatelytightening it above the wound before making her way back to shady sands.

The journey back was way worse then the way there, the sun was suddenly too bright, the world too hot, her clothes too tight. Her head spun as she stumbled her way back towards the town; no amount of water she drank helped, instead making her feel nauseous. She doesn’t remember most of the trip, barely making it in sight of the gate and collapsing to the ground, she hears voices calling out but she cant make sense of them as darkness takes her.

Notes:

another chapter! I hope you enjoy it, even if its a little shorter. While i don't have an update schedule yet I am just going to upload when I am a few chapters ahead.

Chapter 3: Rest and Restocking

Summary:

Jane recovers from her fight with the radscorpions and continues her search for the water chip.

Jane awoke to the feeling of a cool, wet cloth being placed on her forehead, she groans and she shifts despite her complaining muscles. Her eyes flicker open so see a mud brick roof, dimly lit from sun through the windows.

“oh your finally awake” Tandi’s cheerful voice startles her “people where starting to worry that the great hero wasn’t going to wake up, despite Razlo’s reassurances” her voice pleasant and her smile even more so.

“wha’ happened?” Jane mumbled, her throat dry and head throbbing. “well; the guards saw you collapse just in in front of town, so they brought you to Razlo. Took him a bit but with the glands you got him but he got the anti-venom made, but it worked. You’ve been out cold a couple of days, but Razlo said you would be up soon so I offered to watch you while he worked on more anti-venom.”

Jane rubbed her eyes with the pals of her hands despite her muscles protests, only to push the cloth off her head. She pulled herself up to a sitting position and looked around the room; it was nothing special, just a small mudbrick room with a bed, a table, and the chair Tandi was sitting on. The most notable thing was that she was now wearing a brown tunic and her gear in the corner, vault suit neatly folded on top.

Jane coughed and gladly drank the cup of water that Tandi offered her, thanking her as she did. “so any radscorpion attacks while I was out? I’d be disappointed if I went through that for nothing”

“oh don’t worry about that, the guards have only seen one since you left; and there have been no attacks on the brahmen so my father’s happy. He even got you the supplies he promised you, probably wants to thank you in person too.” Jane sat up and turned to face the other woman, her back resting against the wall.

“so, I guess I promised to tell you all about my adventures in the cave...” she trailed off, smiling when Tandi’s face lit up with excitement “Yes!” she exclaimed before blushing and continuing in a slightly calmer tone. “I mean ahh, if its no trouble I guess...”. Chuckling at her embarrassment, Jane leaned back and closed her eyes as she thought about how best to tell her tail to Tandi. Figuring that she had some practice with storytelling she leaned forward and began “so I followed Seth’s directions to the cave...”

the journey to vault 15 was more pleasant then the first part of the trip, having proper camping supplies and hiking pack made a massive difference. She was getting more used to walking long distance, her feet aching less and less each day; the fresher, non freeze dried food certainly helped her mood as well. She had had a few encounters with mutated wildlife on her journey, depleting her ammo some. Thankfully she had become a better shot due to these encounters, for as much as she was confident in her melee skills, it was safer to fight off some things from afar.

The vault entrance was further underground then Vault 13 was, being build under the mountain rather then into it. The information from the vault computer indicated that the main entrance too the vault was an elevator in the cliff side, however there was a secondary entrance via a ladder in an old building. Thankfully the outside elevator was working, if a little run down, and she soon found herself facing a familiar site of a vault door, this one with a large 15 proudly on display.

The terminal that controlled the door was barely functional, a bad sign for the state of the vault; thankfully she only needed the water chip to be functional. The console took a little work to convince to open the door, only a little rewiring was required to get it back to working order and the back-doors that she had found in vault 13’s systems where present here as well; a casualty of having no software updates in 80 years.

Once the great vault door moved out of the way it was obvious that the Vault itself had been abandoned for some time, rust clinging to most visible metal, every surface covered in a thick layer of dust. Some wildlife had obviously found there way inside somehow and had found themselves trapped, as there where piles of bones in a few places around the place. The computers around the top floor where powered off, unsurprising given the state of the door control terminal. The upstairs clinic was I surprisingly good shape given the circumstances, Jane even found a couple of stimpacks in a locker as well as a fully stocked field first aid kit.

The elevator didn’t respond to the button input, and when Jane uses the service hatch to open the door manually and shines her Pip-boy’s light down she finds the elevator itself resting at the bottom. The mechanism of the elevator seemed to be intact, although a more thorough look would be needed to be certain, and Jane suspected that lack of power was the issue. Jane set her pack down, taking the rope that was strapped on the side and tied it too a support beam in the shaft; the knot was clumsy but secure, although Jane doubted she could undo it.

The climb down was hard, harder then she thought it would be, so when she came to the first residential airier she was forced to open the door to take a break or risk having her arms give out and sending her to her death. The floors here where less rusted, although still obviously in a state of disrepair. It was eerie being here, the layout of the vault almost identical to her own home. She couldn't resist the urge to walk the halls of the vault, looking into the rooms, desperate for the familiarity of a vault. It was also a harrowing experience, seeing the familiar halls covered in rust, as it reminded her of the seriousness of her mission.

While most doors where closed and unresponsive, Jane took the time to explore the rooms that she could without manually opening the door. The residential rooms where surprisingly neat, the beds being made before the residence left the vault for the last time, if it weren't for the lack of personal items and thick dust it almost looked like they had simply left for work. The armoury and security office where locked down, but it was a simple thing too open the door manually. As she expected the armoury was bare, the guns being a prime item to take into the wastes, the gun safes emptied of all valuables.

The security office, however, was much more bountiful. While looking through the lockers for anything of use, she found a locker with a leather jacket just as she was about to give up. It was made of thick sturdy leather coloured black, and while it was missing a sleeve, likely the reason it was left, it was doubtlessly better protection then just her vault suit. The jacket had obviously been owned by a much larger burlier man, for when she put it on she was almost swimming in it; thankfully when she rolled up the remaining sleeve it didn’t hinder her movement that much, and when she fastened it all up it was almost more of a tunic then jacket.

An even greater prize lay hidden in the locker, the back wall had been tampered with; something she only noticed due to her maintenance training, and would have been easily hidden from a casual observer. Pushing the panel back reviled a small hollowed out compartment with a hunting rifle and some ammunition.Although covered in cobwebs and dust a quick inspection showed that it was in good condition, no rust marred its surface and a quick clean should fix any issues it did have.

Jane then moved to the maintenance airier too see if she could figure out the issue with the power, thankful for the signs as despite the initialsimilarities with her home vault it was less familiar the further she walked into the sprawling structure. When she got there it didn’t take long to diagnose the issue. The secondary generator was a different model form what she knew, but she knew enough to see the multitude of broken or misplaced parts. While doubtlessly there would be parts to repair in the vault and the job wouldn’t be a particularly difficult one, it would be a time consuming one; time she didn’t have.

Sighing she resigned herself to climbing down to the command centre, shouldering her new weapon she walked back too the main elevator shaft. At least with the elevator at the bottom of the shaft she only had too clime down another floor to get on top of it rather then all the way down manually. What Jane dreaded was having to clime back out of the shaft, although maybe she could rig something together down there. The access hatch was easy to open, as was the elevator door, and Jane soon found herself in the control centre.

Unlike most vault dwellers she was fairly familiar with the layout of the command centre, having worked in the library for the last couple years and sneaking down there as a child to learn what she could. The library here however was suffering from the same lack of power as the rest of the vault, and Jane didn’t want to risk the information stored on the systems by rigging power from an external supply. The commandcentre seemingly had the worse of the vault damage, the overseer’s chair was buried under some rock fall and had been crushed. Thankfully the rest of the command centre was in tact, if in a state of disrepair. The terminals themselves were not active, as she had grown to expect, so she simply ignored them and moved to find the water purifier.

As soon as she walked in however she knew there was going to be an issue; the room was laid out is a smiler matter too Vault 13’s, but the computer itself was completely different. Vault 13 used a series of specialisedcircuitry to control the vault life support functions, the reason why the water purifier wasn’t working in the first place was the control chip was broken and it was too complicated to make a replacement, work around, or even use the computers as an emulation. The control system of Vault 15 relied on a dedicated RobCo V-705 mainframe as well as a larger, more power consuming water purifier.

“shit!” Jane punched the wall, this entire trip had been a bust. Leaving the room frustrated she thought over her options, she had no idea where else to look for a compatible water chip. Her only lead was Junktown, given the name she doubted she would find a chip in working order but there was a good chance she could get information. If not of the location of the chip itself at least a the locations of other settlements or ruins. But information often had a price, even in the friendly confines of the Vault there where those who traded food and other items in return for information about there rivals to get an edge.

Jane herself had never partook in such a deal, preferring to remain in the background and out of the way; besides she would have no idea how to find them. But the issue was she had little to trade, even with the bags of bottle caps that Aradesh insisted was the currency used into the wastes. But by taking some of the more universal supplies from the storeroom, tools and the like, she would not only be able to barter for information but food and ammo.

Quickly she made her way to the storeroom and started looking about for anything light enough and useful enough to make good bartering fuel. She found books that would be useful reads, covering such topics as first aid and survival; skills she definitely needed help with. As she was sorting through some tools, choosing the best to take, she noticed a microfusion cell in the corner. Pulling it out she had an idea of how to ease her exit, now she was to be weighed down with all these new items she doubted she could clime.

She collected some final items, tools and spare electronics, and then moved too the elevator, opening the control panel. She looked over the control circuits as well as the diagram in the panel’s door before pulling out her personal tool kit and some spare wires she got to work adding in wires to the power circuit, intercepting the main power line, before powering it with the microfusion cell.

Quickly she entered the life and went to the top of the vault, not wanting to risk loosing power by exploring any more. As she exited the vault back into the brightness of the world above, Jane steeled herself for a long journey.

Notes:

well here is chapter three, i hope the cliff hanger was resolved satisfactorily. got this out a little later then planned but here it is. as always i love to here any feed back you have, especially if you find a flaw that i missed. enjoy!

Chapter 4: Junktown's garbage

Summary:

arriving in junk town, Jane finds herself in the middle of a town's conflict.

Junktown certainly lived up too its name, with walls made from cars, barrels, tires, and what scrap metal that could be scrounged together. The gate to the town seemed to be made from a shipping container or some such, with cars leaning against it for good measure; there was a guard posted at the gate who simply nodded her through with a “keep your gun holstered and we will have no problem stranger” his voice stern and no nonsense. Jane mumbled an agreement as she walked through the gate and looked around. The towns buildings where made of much the same materials as its walls, if somewhat shorter and more square.

The building just by the gate was impressively large given the materials given, and had the words ‘General store’ painted on the side. She opened the door and was greeted by an open room inhabited by two men, the first dressed like the guards outside; the other was a middle aged man, old world dog tags hung from his shirt. He looked at her as she entered “Welcome to Junktown stranger. The name’s Killian, Killian Darkwater. I’m the mayor of this fine town. Who might you be?” his tone was friendlier then Aradesh’s had been making Jane feel more comfortable.

“My name’s Jane Parker, I’m from up north.” he looked over her again “up north? Not much up there ‘cept shady sands, but you don’t really match what people say about its inhabitants.” he wasn’t openly hostile or accusatory as Aradesh had been, mealy sounded curious; allowing Jane to respond without too much difficulty “My settlement is an isolated one in the mountains to the west of shady sands, not surprised you haven’t heard about us.”

“well what brings you out here then? Want to do some trading?” Jane nodded “that and, if you wouldn’t mind of course, I would like to know about the town and its surroundings. y’know while we trade?” any semblance of confidence she had crumbling, even if she did better then last time. Thankfully Killian nodded “yeah, I’m not overly busy right now. Have a look around and ask away”she smiled at him and started looking over his wares.

“so, pretty impressive town you got here. What’s it like to live here?”

“well Junktown’s not much, but its home. Mostly we just trade with people, or act as a stop off for caravans. ‘course we have our share of problems.”

“Problems?” Killian nodded “yeah, from the outside we have the occasional to-do with the Khans, but they have been pretty quiet lately. From the inside we’ve had trouble with the Skulz. I’ve also heard of weird happenings from down in the hub, though it hasn’t affected us yet, knock on my mother-in-laws head.”

“the Hub is a town to the south I take it?” Jane asked looking at a leather jacket, while it had both sleeves she could feel that it was way thinner then her current one so she put it aside. “yeah, almost exactly due south from here. Don’t go south-east thought, you’ll run into necropolis; the ah… climate’s bad there, rain or shine if you get my meaning.”

After a period of bartering Jane exchanged some things she salvaged from vault 15 as well as some caps for some more ammunition and food. As she was waving goodbye and thanking Killian for his help a dark skinned man burst in the door, pushing her out of the way.

“Gizmo sends his regards!” the man yelled as he shot wildly at the mayor of the town, missing his mark but hitting the guard in the arm, putting him out of the fight. Killian jumped behind one of his tables for cover and Jane responded before the man could adjust his aim; drawing her knife and jumping at the man, driving the knife into his throat before he could do more harm. She twisted the blood and pulled out before backing away from the body that was now spilling blood.

Jane dropped her knife from her shaking hands, her breath becoming laboured as she looked down at her blood soaked hands. She had killed a man, and yeah he had been shooting at someone that had helped here. But she had killed him, sunk her blade into his throat and let out his blood and ended his life. She started when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but when she looked up she saw Killian looking down at her, concern clear on his face.

“you alright there kid?” he asked, Jane just nodded as she looked around the room, the guards from outside now standing in the room looking more alert. “first time you’ve had to kill a man?” again Jane just nodded. Killian nodded and passed Jane her knife “well, I don’t know if it will make you feel any better; but that man was Kenji, one of Gizmo’s men. We have been investigating him for months for murder but couldn't pull enough evidence together to convict him.”

Killian looked over the body for a moment before continuing “listen I know your feeling rough but I have a job if your interested. I know Gizmo’s behind this but I need proof. You interested?” Jane took some deep breaths and asked “what would I need to do?” Killian walked over too a shelf at the back of the store and threw Jane a rag “first of all might want to get some of that blood cleaned up. Then we need to get evidence against Gizmo, if I can get that then the townsfolk will run him out of town. ‘corse the problem is Gizmo will know something is up if I send one of my boy’s in. that’s where you come in, if you go in there and record him confessing we will have all we need.”

Jane considered it for a moment, obviouslysensing her hesetation Killian continued “look, I’m not gonna lie to you, it will be dangerous. But you do this and I’ll owe you one; and Killian Darkwater always pays his debts. What do you say?” Jane glanced at the body of the man she had killed, that she had killed, and felt herself feeling sick. However the same feeling she felt when she heard of the plight of Shady Sands. Gizmo had obviously sent a man to kill the mayor of the town, who also seemed to be a fairly important part of the towns economy besides given the fairly substantial stock he carried, left a bad taste in her mouth.

Its not like she was being hired to kill him anyway, just get a confession out of him. So taking a deep breath she agreed to the job and Killian smiled at her, pressing a small handful of bottle caps into one hand and a recorder into the other. “Thanks I owe you, here is the wire tap and some caps. Go calm down some and get yourself ready, and you let me know when your done. Oh, and good luck.”

picking up her stuff Jane left the building, the tape recorder safely in her backpack, and she headed to the local bar, the Skum Pitt. The inside was simple, just a few tables set around the back walls with a bar to the right. Behind the bar stood a balding man cleaning glasses, a younger woman leaned on the bar talking to him; both looked at her as she walked in and the man beckoned her over.

Jane went over and ordered a nuka-cola, not wanting to risk affecting her mind with alcohol with such an important, and risky, job ahead of her. She sips her drink as she ensures the tape recorder is in working order, and begins to get it set up for the sting op, taking her jacket of and hiding both the wire in the collar that will lead from her pack. As she is taping down the wire with some duct tape she salvaged from the vault a commotion distracts her from her work, three young men wearing leather jackets with a crude drawing of a skull on the back had cornered the waitress against the bar, the barkeeper himself nowhere to be seen.

Jane is already out of her seat when it happens, the waitress pushes off the most grabby gang member and he slaps her too the floor. Seeing red Jane leaps at the man, punching him in the nose producing a satisfying crunch as he fell. She already was in a fighting stance when the other two turned to face her in shock, and struck out at them wildly; letting her emotions run wild.

The men, unprepared for the attack, couldn’t put up defences in time before Jane landed some solid blows driving them back. While she stood there facing them she was suddenly sweeped from her feet, the first man had recovered and now the three men stood above her with a bleeding nose. Suddenly a loud bang rang from the back of the room, one of the men collapsing sideways, his head a bloody mess. The other two ran quickly leaving Jane to crawl away from the body, fighting down thoughts of her own kill.

The barkeeper walked over and helped her up “Thanks for your help there, those Skulz have been putting pressure on me for months now. I know Gizmo was getting impatient but I didn’t know that the Skulz would resort to harassing my staff” he shook his head and gave her some caps as a thank you.

As she walked back to her table she noticed a man watching her from another table, she hadn’t noticed him before but that was hardly surprising with the state she was in when she got here. He was wearing a long coat over some impressive looking armour, a gas-mask hung loosely around his neck; he was tan and looked as if he had spent a life out in the wastes, his face hard from the elements. He nodded at her and then went back into his drink, but Jane still felt as though he was watching her.

Shaking the feeling off she did a final check of the wire before putting the jacket and backpack on, heading towards the casino with its spinning neon light. The inside was made in much the same way as the rest of the buildings in town, wooden frames holding up the walls made of scrap metal, but the atmosphere made Jane feel uncomfortable.It wasn’t the more crowded interior, one could hardly live for 18 years in a vault without getting used too crowds after all, but the state of some of the people; half starved men and woman gambling away there meagre funds. There where more well off people in the crowd as well, but they had the look of travellers with the dust from the road clinging to there clothes.

Pushing through the crowds she made her way to Gizmo’s office, the guards at the door eyeing her suspiciously but still letting her through when she said that she had business with their boss. And now she found herself face too face with the slimiest, largest man she had ever seen. Gizmo sat in an impressive wooden chair behind a solid wooden desk, he wore a pre-war business suit, although Jane had no idea how he found one so large or in so good of a condition. The man was the girth of two men, his face was bloated and greasy, and most importantly he was the source of the towns issues.

“Get your butt in here and sit down. We got some business to discuss” his voice was throaty and as slimy as its owner, but Jane did as he asked, no use antagonising him until she got a confession.

“I’m here to tell you your assassin failed” she said, her voice flat in what she hoped would be taken as the voice of somebody who had little time for nonsense, rather then the voice of someone forcing themselves to have a steady voice when nervous.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” his voice was cold and hard like steal, a threat was obvious despite being unspoken. “look I’m going to be straight with you, your last guy fucked up big time; running into the store yelling your name and shooting wildly. I’m here to help you, you want Kilian dead, I need money, you need a more subtle assassin, and I am a stranger who looks harmless and wont be tied to you. Its the perfect deal” the lie was surprisingly easy to say, she just hoped it was convincing.

He looked at her critically “hmm… all right. We can do this. But you work for me, you better know that nobody ever double crosses Gizmo and lives to talk about it. You got me?”

“Of course, I’m a loner not a moron. What’s your beef with Killian anyway, if you don’t mind me asking.” the man smiles “oh that’s easy, I want him dead because he cramps my business. So, will you do it for me?”

“it’s a job, what do you want as proof of the kill?” at last she had the confession, all she had to do now was get out of here without arousing suspicion. “good. Return with the dog tags he wears around his neck as proof. And we never had this conversation, you don’t mention this to anybody. No one double crosses me. No one.” Jane nodded and stood up “yes sir” she said as she left the room, forcing herself not to run away.

After getting out of view of the casino she walked back to the general store and walked inside, pulling out the tape recorder and putting it on the table in front of Killian “well I got it, I also see why you want him out of town so much. That man gave me the creeps” Killian chuckled at her outburst “yeah well, at least we have what we need; lets have a look shall we?”

Jane shuddered as the tape played, her voice was strained and made her uncomfortable knowing it was her; although Gizmo’s was as disturbing as it was the first time. “Well that’s the first time I have been happy to hear his voice. Thanks friend, now for your reward...” he walked over to a locker and pulled out a police ballistic vest.

“I found this in storage after you left, its a little roughed up but it should help protect you from most small arm fire, given what I saw of how you fight, you might need it. Its not the best you can get, but its a good step up from what your wearing.” Jane thanked him and donned the vest, putting the leather jacket over to hide it. “now, I was going to take some of my boys and run Gizmo and his cronies out of town. I could do with an extra gun. You up for it? Might be good for a laugh.”

“oh, I’m in. I can't wait too see the look on his fat face when he sees me there as we walk him out of town. Plus just watching trying to walk will be worth this whole ordeal.” Killian clapped her on the shoulder.“good kid, lets get moving”

Notes:

hope i ogt across how sleazy Gizmo is, i cant see how anyone can stand siding with him.

Chapter 5: garbage day in junktown

Summary:

Jane works with killian to clean up the town and makes a new friend.

The group of armed men walked through the casino with no resistance, the hired thugs too scared to intercept them. Bursting into the room five of the party spread out, weapons out and ready, while the rest stayed outside the room to guard the exit. “Gizmo!” Killian’s voice rang out “you have been a surge on this town for too long, its time we kicked you out!”

“so it comes down too this, Killian. Well I never could put up with your stink, and now I am going to put an end to it!” he pulled a pistol from his desk and fired a shot at Killian, hitting him in the arm, before anyone could react. The man who had been standing behind Gizmo sprang into action, punching the closest guard in the throat before snapping his neck knocking him out of the fight. Jane jumped at Killian, the two of them fell too the floor in a heap as the shot rang above them.

The other two guards opened fire at the two opponents, although they too where taken down; one from a shot too the head the other a solid punch too the temple. As the body guard approached her Jane tried to point her rifle at him, but she hesitated for a moment giving him the chance to kick the weapon away. He picked her up by the jacket and held her arms painfully behind here while forcing her to face Gizmo.

“well well well, looks like we caught ourselves a snitch. I did warn you girl, nobody crosses me and lives. I think I’m gonna make an example out of you; your pretty enough, I think my boys will have fun with you.” Jane felt a chill at this, she tried to struggle but the man holding her was too strong. A gunshot rang out besides her and the man holding her collapsed, as she fell to the ground Gizmo pointed his gun at her. Quickly she drew her pistol and fired a shot, it hit Gizmo right between the eyes and he collapsed forwards.

Slowly lowering her weapon, Jane sat back on the floor and tried to calm herself. She had almost been killed and worse, all because she hesitated to kill someone. She had killed Gizmo to defend herself and it didn’t feel good, but it felt right; to end the life of somebody who had caused such misery was something she could live with.

“you alright kid? That got rough” Killian asked, breaking her from her thoughts as she looked at him surprised “am I alright? Your the one who got shot!” she said, looking at the bleeding wound “this looks worse then it is, and well you...” she looked at Gizmo darkly before shacking his head “well at least that scum is gone now, hopefully now we can improve things around here. Here's your pay, with a little extra for saving my life yet again.”

Jane looked down at the pay “I can’t take a bonus, you saved my life first” she said but Killian refused to take anything when she pushed it at him “no kid, you keep it. After today I think you need a stiff drink, no?” Jane sighed “fine, okay. Need help taking the men back to the doctor?”

“well if your offering...”

later that night Jane sat alone at the same table she had sat earlier that day, this time sipping a beer and thinking over the day’s events. From arriving in the town she had killed her first men, not with out reason but it was still unsettling.And her hesitation with killing had almost got herself, and others, killed; she couldn't let herself be killed for such a dumb reason, the lives of the vault where on her shoulders and she couldn't let them down. But had there been another way? A way of stopping these men without killing them?

The sounds of somebody setting down a bottle and sitting made her look up to see the man who had been watching her after the bar fight. “you look like you have a lot on your mind, let me guess you killed for the first time today?” Jane looked at him stunned, was it so obvious. The man chucked “don’t worry kid, as much as it hurts to have killed its a good sign. Shows your still human.”

“how did you know?” he looked at her pointedly “we all go through it, after our first kill. There are few things that make someone look like that and you are green enough for it to be an easy guess.” he shrugged “it gets easier with time but it never truly stops, could I have saved them? Did I have to kill? Am I a murderer? Truth is it dosent matter now; what’s done is done. You did what you had too in the moment and there is no point worrying about it now. If you made a mistake learn from it, be a better person in the future and teach others how to avoid the same mistake”

He pored two shots from the bottle he was holding and passed one too her “umm thanks” she said before downing the shot, coughing as it burned her throat “crap that burns. Why do people drink this stuff?” the man laughed “you get used to it, and it can help people deal with things they can’t otherwise. Of course it can be all consuming if your not careful” he pored himself another shot and downed it.

They sat in silence for a moment before Jane spoke up “I’m sorry not to be rude but why are you talking to me? I appreciate the advice of course its just...” she didn’t know what she should say next, so Jane just let the words die off and looked at him questionably “well now, why do you think I am talking to you?” Jane considered this for a moment before answering “you started watching me after the fight, something to do with that then” he nodded “yeah, good thing of you to do, helping that woman. It was a little reckless but so was I when I was your age. Where did you learn to fight like that?”

Jane laughed “my dad. He’s head of security back home and took it upon himself to teach his ‘precious daughter’ how to defend herself from the ‘boys’. I am surprised I remember as much as I do, I spent most of my time thinking about computers before leaving home.” there was a lull in the conversation as they both had a drink.

“ah, but where are my manners, I haven’t introduced myself yet. Name’s Tycho, I’m from out east, what used to be called Nevada.” Jane thought back to her geography classes “that’s a long walk from here, assuming I am remembering my old world maps right. What made you walk out here anyway?” Tycho nodded “yeah you remember right. I’m part of a group called the desert rangers, we try and help people best we can. Why I’m talking to you actually, after your little display today I decided to keep an eye on you; there are plenty of travellers around these parts but few who would do what you did.”

Jane was a little taken aback at this, surprised she had caught any-ones attention “o-oh, thanks I guess. I didn’t even think about it or anything, although I guess its a little more personal being a woman seeing men harassing another woman and all...”

“well, I hadn’t thought about that. So what about you, I introduced myself only fair you do the same” Jane finished her beer before continuing “I’m Jane Parker, I come from a vault to the north. Our water chip is dead so I was sent out to find a new one before we run out of water.”

“ah, off to save your vault eh? A noble cause, but way I here it you helped take Gizmo out. So I have to ask why you decided to do that? Seems a dangerous job for someone who has a Vault to save” he now looked at her, as if to try and figure her out by looking into her.

“well it started after I was about to leave the general store, a man barged in and shouted about Gizmo before shooting at people. Now Killian had been really helpful and seemed like a good man so I kinda just reacted you know? I ah, stabbed the man in the neck before anyone could get seriously hurt. Then Killian offered me a job getting Gizmo to confess to his crimes so he could run him out of town, and I just couldn’t say no to helping make the town better.” she shrugged and looked away unable to continue.

Tycho pored two more shots and passed one too her again “well kid, I got a deal for you; you help me take out some of the remaining scum in this town, and I come with you and teach you. No offence kid but you really could do with some pointers if you want to get back home when you find what your looking for. And seeing as I was going to wander around the region anyway I see no reason why I cant go with you, bound to run into some folk who need help on the way.”

“well, I’m smart enough to know when to accept help. So what's your plan with the Skulz?” Tycho cocked his eyebrow “I didn’t mention anything about the Skulz, what makes you think I was talking about them?” shrugging Jane replied “Educated guess, Killian mentioned them as trouble and Gizmo’s group will probably deal with themselves, so that leaves the Skulz as the logical target”

“well your an observant one aren’t you?Yeah we’re gonna take down the Skulz, with both them and Gizmo gone Junk town should be able to improve; at least with people like Killian here.” Jane pulled a crude map she had found on Gizmo’s wall out of her bag, as well as some pencils found in Vault 15. “so I take it you have a plan? there’s gonna be a lot of em right?”

Tycho nodded and took a pencil, drawing a skull on the share house “this is where they hang out for the most part, and most of there members sleep there. If we had more manpower we could seige them but with just the two of us we are going to have to think of something more creative.” Jane looked around the map of the town looking for any inspiration, pulling out her Pip-boy she added detail to the map around the share-house while she thought. “okay what do you know about them, might give us some ideas if we go over what we know.”

Tycho rubbed his chin, his eyes looking off into the distance while he thought it over. “well I know they have a deal with Killian, he doesn’t bother the as long as they keep it low key. Clever way too minimise crime but it does mean that we can’t rely in the guards for help. However it also gives them a sense of security, after all if the Mayor isn’t going to step in as long as they’re being careful about there activities who else will?” Jane noted this down on the side of the map “how about the size of the gang” she said “do you know how many people we are dealing with?” he nodded and tapped the table, obviously thinking “around a dozen I would guess; although at least half of them will be poorly armed thugs.”

“so we are only outnumbered six to one” Jane said dryly “what kind of weapons do they have?” Tycho pulled out a 10mm pistol and put it on the table “this is what I expect most of them to have, or similar at least. The man here before was carrying that” Jane picked up the pistol and inspected it, it was the same model she had been given from the vault, however it was in incredibly poor repair and she expected it would jam an an inconvenient time just with a cursory inspection.

“while we are talking about equipment we should discuss what we have ourselves; might as well both know what we are working with.” Tycho said as he pulled his pack out from under the table, Jane nodded and copied him. They both laid their weapons out on the table, for Jane this was her hunting rifle, pistol, and two knives. Tycho’s collection was far more impressive, a hunting rifle with a scope, a semi automatic rifle, a revolver, and a combat knife.

“your weapons are in amazing condition, where did you find them?” Tycho said after inspecting Jane’s gear “I got the pistol from my vault, same with the knives. The rifle I found hidden in the back of a locker in another vault, hidden in a panel. I suspect it hasn't been used since the war.”

“That’s good to know, can hold off teaching you the nitty gritty of gun maintenance for a while. And I know you have a reliable weapon to fight with at least, not just some scavenged thing that will fall apart on us.” he pulled out a helmet from his pack, it would cover his entire head and looked as though it would also work as a gas mask, the eyes where tinted red and there was a light attached to the side.

“I am mostly covered from a protective standpoint, the Skulz will have a hard time getting through my ranger armour. It’s you who is gonna be an issue. That leather jacket will help against knives and wildlife, not so much against gunfire.” Jane shrugged off the jacket revealing her new ballistic vest, “Killian gave me this for my help in taking down Gizmo, not as good as yours but its something.” Tycho leaned in before nodding “not a bad combo for now, although we should look into finding you some metal or leather armour; combat armour would be preferable but your not likely to find a full suit in good enough repair near here at least.”

Jane looked over the map and notes as she pulled her jacket back on “so there are too many of them for an all out attack, we don’t have the man power for a siege, no matter how well equipped we are, and we can’t rely on the guards to help unless they do something to provoke them” she summarised. She leaned back in her chair as her eyes noticed the blood stain on the floor from this mornings fight when she had an idea, it was dangerous, and not to mention a little crazy but it might work.

“how many of the gang would be likely to harass a young woman walking the streets alone at night?” she asked. Tycho looked at her confused “well most of them I would guess, that encounter today wasn’t the first I had witnessed, although most of the others where broken up without a dead gang member.”

“and the guards haven’t held anyone accountable for the death this morning?” Tycho shook his head, eyebrows furrowed as he looked to be trying to figure out what she was thinking “well no, there where some questions asked but it was self defence, or at least someone defending someone who needed help.”

“so” she said “we weaken the gang by using me as bait to get some alone and deal with them. That way we take out some members, if we do this smart we could slowly take them out rather then face a large group. Ambushes I guess.”

Tycho looked at her with unreadable expression “are you shore about this? Seems like it has the opportunity to fuck up massively and get you killed.” he said, hesitantly “but… it could work.” Jane smiled and looked over the map and pointed on the map “here, if I stand here looking lost without a gun at least one group of gang members should come up too me, then you come from here when there distracted” Jane said as she pointed too an alley “using that distraction to get a jump on them.”

“you do know this entire idea is insane right? you’ll be totally exposed and vulnerable, and I cant promise you will come out unscathed.” Tycho said, shaking his head hopelessly “but… I can’t see how else we can do this alone; and if we take out some we might get them to retaliate and then the guards might help.” he sighed “I can’t believe you got me to agree that this is the best plan but...” Jane’s smile broadened, “so” she said “if we go here…”

Notes:

hope you guys enjoy this! as always i love to hear feedback and criticism. a quick warning that next chapter is going to get a little dark, but i will be shore to put all relevant warnings up.

Chapter 6: To catch a Gang

Summary:

Jane and Tycho put there plan into action

Notes:

TRIGGER WARNING: ATTEMPTED RAPE
skip the bold section if you want to skip, however it is going to be referenced for a while so caution is advised for the rest of this fic

Jane, for the umpteenth time, cursed herself for her plan; while standing lost in the streets was a great way to lure people into a trap on paper, and probably would work, each second just made her feel less comfortable then the last. Even after such a short time she felt naked without her gun, left with almost all of her gear with Tycho as part of the trap. All Jane had with her was her two knives, one hidden under the long leather jacket at her belt, the other strapped to her arm hidden from view by her sleeve.

She had been worried that she couldn’t play the part of being scared, knowing that she had help just around the corner, but in reality she didn’t have to play the part at all. She was terrorfied, this was nothing like being in the back rooms of the vault, fixing whatever needed to be done in the dim light of her pip-boy; she was used to that, but no this was different.

No this was no vault, she felt alone but at the same time as if every shadow was someone about to strike out at her. A dog had been barking earlier, a somewhat disturbing sound at first it had become a constantanchor in the night for Jane. However the bog had stopped some time before, now lying down just around the corner, presumably asleep.

Now all that she had for company where the creaking of rusted metal rubbing against each other, the rushing of the wind itself, and distant voices and laughter from the casino. Jane leaned carefully on a wall after insuring it could hold her wieght, and looked up into the night sky. She had often been too tired to look at them after a day’s travel, falling asleep before she had a chance to really look at the sky. It was unnerving to say the least, going from the confines of the vault to the wide open sky. She was less uncomfortable looking at the day sky now, the endless blue spotted by clouds now familiar from her weeks above ground.

But the night sky, the night sky was still new and unnerving to Jane; countless lights hanging in the endless darkness above. Unlike the day sky which was solid blue and seemed to Jane like a wall, the night sky had no end; just endless nothing populated by a few pieces of rock and gas and plasma. Jane knew it was entirely irrational, the difference between day and night skys was simply light bouncing around in the atmosphere. But she couldn’t help feeling insignificant under the night sky…

“hey there girly, what’s a pretty little thing doing standing all alone on a night like this?” a harsh voice broke Jane out of her thoughts, looking down she found herself surrounded by four Skulz all leering at her. Jane swallowed “n-nothing much. Just thinking y’know...” she said with a shaky voice. All four men where armed, Jane could see knives and a few pistols, but none had drawn there weapons. Instead they all crowded around her, preventing her escape and making her retreat further into the wall.

“well, maybe me and my boys can keep you company yeah?” the man who seemed to be the leader of this group said as he stepped forward. He was dressed much like the rest of the gang, leather jacket with a crude skull, but his eyes where filled with a predatory look. Instead of responding Jane looked around desperately; she had the men distracted, yet where was Tycho. Her face was forced back to look at the man by a hand to the back of the head. She should of screamed, shouted for help, yet the sounds died in her throat.

“now be a good girl, don’t want to cause a commotion do we?” he said as he opened her jacket and ran a hand up her sides. Her blood ran hot, all the tensionin her body exploded and she drew her knife, lunging at her assailant.Her first blow was to his gut, making him double over in pain; Jane then stabbed at his throat wildly, revelling in the sounds that he let out. The men all swore at her outburst, there leader crumpled to the ground dead.

However while Jane was distracted one of the men had gotten behind her and wrenched the knife from her hand before pulling her arms behind her painfully. “you gon’ pay for that bitch” he sneered at her before facing his two remaining companions “lets get ‘er out of this shit yeah? Can’t get to the fun bits like this.” The other two men walked forwards with there knives out, there faces held a mix of anger and lust.

A growl was the only warning before the man holding her cried out in pain as his grip loosened. Not pausing for a moment Jane pulled the pistol from the man’s holster and pointed it at the approaching men and emptied the clip into them. She saw Tycho run towards her as the men dropped dead, he was covered in blood and held his revolver. They both looked at the last man, who had been screaming in pain; the dog who had been resting nearby had attacked him, biting at his leg to topple him over and then trying to maul his throat. Somehow he manage to keep the dog off him with an arm, although he was pinned to the wall.

“off him” Jane said as she dropped the gun and grabbed her knife from the ground, the dog obediently obeyed and stood next to the man growling. “p-please” he started but Jane stepped forcefully on his chest forcing the air from him before he could finish. “fuck you” Jane said as she slit the man’s throat before turning to face her companion.

“shit, you okay kid?” Jane nodded but looked away playing with the knife idly, Tycho looked at her for a moment before continuing “well… if you say so. I’m sorry that I left you hanging there; a bunch of Skulz jumped me as I was moving in.” he goes to pat her on the back but stops as she flinches away.

The dog gently nudged her leg and Jane absently rubbed his head as she tried to gather her thoughts, but try as she might she couldn’t stop the images of the men surrounding her, grouping her, holding her. “c’mon kid, lets get you somewhere safe so you can get some sleep. Standing over the bodies of these fuckers isn't going to help you.”

Tycho walked back the way he came, matching Jane’s slow pace. The ally where the gear was stored was as blood soaked as the one Jane had been, four more gang members lying dead in pools of there own blood. Tycho said nothing as he gathered up there gear, glancing occasionally at Jane but silently leading her from the dead.

He led her gently into the share house and talked too the owner quietly. Jane followed passively, arms wrapped around her shaking body. Tycho led her into a room and set her stuff on the floor, and began rummaging through his bag and pulled out a bottle of clear green liquid.

“here kid, drink some of this” Tycho said as he passed her the bottle. Jane looked at it and took a long draw, swallowing before coughing at the burning liquid. “the hell is that?” Jane asked after she stopped coughing “I thought the whiskey you gave me earlier was bad, but that was just burning.” Jane passed the bottle back to a chuckling Tycho.

“oh just something from back home, traditionally given after a traumatic experience like yours tonight. Made from some cacti from back home, with this root that gives it the green colour and makes it a powerful sedative.” he put the bottle back and turned to face Jane “look I cant say I know what you are thinking or how you feel, but thinking about it now isn’t going to do you any good. Get some sleep and I will watch over you, in the morning we can go to Killian about this and deal with those scum.”

Jane nodded and started to feel odd, almost like being drunk but more floaty. It was a struggle to keep her eyes open, and while her fears where still there they where now distant and less menacing. She lay down and let her eyes close, she felt the dog, who she hadn’t notice following her, settle in next to her as she drifted to sleep.

The morning came quickly, for Jane it felt as though she had just closed her eyes when she opened them again. Sitting up on the pallet she had been sleeping on Jane saw an unfamiliar woman sitting and watching the door. Jane pulled away quickly, grasping behind her blindly for a weapon. The woman turned, the noise alerting her to Jane’s state, and Jane found the handle of a knife. The woman brought her hands up slowly as Jane pointed her knife at her.

“Easy there, I’m not gonna hurt you” her voice was calm and gentle, Jane lowered her knife but holds onto it. The woman smiles at her “Your friend told me what happened, he asked me to watch you while he goes to talk to the mayor. Don’t worry your safe here hun.” Jane looked away embarrassed, how helpless was she that she needed some random woman to watch over her. Maybe she should just give up her quest, someone in the vault would be a better candidate for this mission anyway; anyone would be better really, given how last night went.

Jane sat there stewing in her thoughts when the woman spoke up “listen hun… I might not know what you are feeling but some of the other girls do. But I heard what you did, that was mighty brave of you; and while it might not matter to you much right now I know at least half the town will thank you for what you did.” she pulled out a knife in its sheath “it’s not much I know but take this. I keep it hidden on me when I work in case a client goes to far.”

Jane looked at the knife, it was long yet thin, but looked to be well made “I cant-” she started but the woman pushed it into her hand “No I insist. With all the work you did on the Skulz I won’t need to rely so much on these things, and I have some more. Take it hun, and remember that you are strong.”

Jane looked at the knife and thanked the woman, putting it in her pack too keep safe for now. The woman smiled at her and looked back to the door and Jane couldn’t muster the courage to talk to her, not that she had any idea what to say as usual. She often found herself without words around pretty girls, not that it really mattered in the end the Vault wasn’t the best place for lesbians; there where other girls who flirted with her, but they all said they where just messing around or experimenting later.

Both of these things, as well as her usual awkwardness, led her to avoid situations where she was alone with girls. There where some exceptions of course, Beth for example was the first real relationship she had really had; not that it was much of a relationship, just stolen moments in secluded corners together. Then there was Tandi, she found talking to her was surprisingly easy given her experience. Jane thought idly about what Tandi was doing right now, was she thinking about Jane? Worried about her? What did Tandi think about her? she seemed not to be interested in men, although that could just be Seth, so there was a chance that she might be interested…

The door opening suddenly made Jane tense up and grab her knife, although she relaxed when she saw Tycho walk in followed by the dog that had saved her last night. The dog barked and ran up to her, and Jane pet him with a small smile.

“hey kid, how’d you sleep?” Tycho said, nodding to the woman as she walked out with a smile for Jane. “barely felt like sleep at all, one second I closed my eye the next I opened the and it was morning. What did you give me?” he looked a little embarrassed “we call it knock out. Useful for knocking people out for surgery and the like; gave it too you so you wouldn’t have to deal with what happened while you slept. Would’ve talked to you about it but you where pretty shaken up.”

Jane nodded at him, absentmindedly scratching behind the dog’s ears. “so, you talked to Killian?” she said, trying to force her mind from the events of the night before.

“yeah, he just finished rounding up the last of the gang now. Sorry I left you here but I wanted to get the scum out of here quickly. I wouldn’t have even brought you any closer to them if I didn’t know that the girls here wouldn’t be happy to help.” Tycho said, taking his pack off and setting it on the ground.

“so the Skulz are finished then?” Jane asked and Tycho nodded “yeah, this town will hopefully have a chance to get better without them. Oh and I hope you don’t mind but I bartered for your rewardwhile I was at his shop. Figured you would want to get out of town quickly.”

Jane looked at him and smiled thankfully “probably for the best anyway, I don’t think I fully get the whole bartering thing if I am being honest.” Tycho chucked and passed Jane an odd looking gun, the main body was blocky and square, the rest of the body was metal and included a stock, handle, and grip covered by a bar. There was a round compartment on the left side, it seemed to be designed to fit D sized micro-fusion cells.

“That there is an AER9 laser rifle, pre-war it was bot used by civilians and military; although from what a friend tells me there wasn’t much of a market for them around here. Might need a little work but the AER9s tend to be fairly sturdy.” Jane looked over the laser rifle, she had seen it in Killian’s store but hadn’t known what it was, nor been in a position to buy it if she had.

“the way you gripped the gun last night reminded me of a friend who preferred energy weapons, so I thought we might as well give you a chance with them, see how you go. Here, some micro-fusion cells so you can actually use the thing.” Jane took the offered cells and put them in a pouch where she stored most of her ammunition.

Jane stood and collected her gear, getting ready for the long hike too the Hub “shall we get moving then?” she asked as Tycho did the same with his gear “don’t see any reason to stick around here, might as well get an early start.”

Notes:

this was a rough one, and the first real instance of Jane's life being kinda terrible. Just a heads up if you where looking for a happy ending you not gonna find it here, Jane has plenty of shit to go through in the future.

Chapter 7: A hub scum and villainy

Summary:

Jane and Tycho make it to the hub, Jane stumbles into the middle of another power struggle.

dark shapes surrounded Jane, hands grabbing at her, holding her down. She struggled to get away, lashing out with a knife. The shapes simply reformed where she slashed and pushed further together. The hands grab at her hands and arms, tearing at her clothes, holding her down.

Jane woke and struggled out of her blankets, her breaths laboured as she looked around. She and Tycho had made there way south towards the Hub; the journey was much easier with a companion, especially because Tycho obviously was way more experienced with survival. Already he had proven invaluable, guiding her away from packs of radscorpions and wild dogs.

Tycho lay on the other side of the remaining embers of the small fire, his head resting on his pack. The dog, who the two had taken to calling Dogmeat, was lying a short distance from where she had been while sleeping, he had made a little bit more room to avoid being jostled in the night. This was far from the first time she had woken from a nightmare.

It was still a couple hours before sunrise, but Jane knew she wouldn’t be able to get any sleep. She sighed and opened her pack, pulling out her tools, a spare blanket, and the laser rifle she had spent the early mornings after a nightmare repairing. It had worked when she got it, but the focus was way off and was mostly ineffective, and the power draw was higher then it should have been.

The insides where complex, circuitry, wires, and focusing arrays where neatly bundled away in the titanium case. The circuit that controlled the weapon was mostly fine, just a few components requiring new solder. The emitter arrays and the focusing arrays required a bit more work, a particularly daunting task as she wasn’t 100% of what she needed to do. So by the light of her pip-boy she slowly worked, making careful adjustments and cleaning lenses.

It was calming, working on this kind of thing; for just a couple hours she felt free from all her troubles, there was no vault relying on her for its survival, she wasn’t in the remains of a destroyed world, even the dark shapes that haunted her dreams faded away. It was just her and the work. Even if she didn’t get that much done each morning, she made certain that the gun would work before the sun rose, the few times she had used it where much more successful then her first attempts with conventional fire arms.

And something about the rush of power, the crack as the laser is discharged into the air, ionising it slightly. Just knowing she was responsible for the weapon working as well as it did just made her feel better about the whole thing as well. She knew it was more then a little silly, hiding away behind work, but it was better then the alternatives.

Getting lost in her work, Jane almost worked until sunrise; she was only just putting the case back together as Tycho woke up. “Bad night kid?” he asked, Jane nodded and he paused as if he was going to say something else, but he simply moved to pack his gear. The rest of the morning was mostly uneventful, although Jane felt as though Tycho was watching her more then normal.

They arrived at the Hub a little before midday, the city itself was built in the ruins of a pre-war city surrounded by a wall, although no were near the wall that surrounded Junktown it seemed sturdy enough. Outside the gates various teams fathered around carts made from the back half of cars, bars welded on the front with harnesses for brahmen.

The City itself was bustling, people from many different backgrounds all jumbled together; farmers, traders, and guards joined by workers, scavengers, and builders. The sight was overwhelming for Jane, it wasn’t even that crowded, the corridor to the cafeteria got more crowded then this back home. She felt her discomfort growing as she followed Tycho through the crowd, the ever present crowdpressing in on her.

She forced herself to push through, she was being ridiculous; she had never had issues being in the crowed heading to the cafeteria for meals back home. But this wasn’t home, she was in a dead city, stone faces watching all who passed the street.

“Tycho” Jane said over the commotion of the crowd “wanna split up and look around for information? We can meet near the gate in about two hours, should give us time to do some trading as well”

“well, might be a good idea kid. Take Dogmeat, I can deal with myself here. I’ll grab something for lunch. City like this is bound to have somewhere that will sell something hot to eat.” they waved as they parted and Jane made an immediate turn towards some side streets, desperate for some relief from the crowed. Once off the main street she started asking around for information and quickly found herself walking into the ‘library’.

“hi, welcome to the library. I don’t think I have seen you around these parts before. What might you be looking for today?” a middle aged woman asked as she walked into the building. “well I am looking for a water chip and I have been told this is the best place to start looking for anything” Jane said. The woman smiled “well, in my studies I have come across some references to such things. Actually...” she walked over to a desk that had a working computer terminal and was covered in papers.

She rummaged through a draw and then puled out a holodisk “ah here it is. I have a holodisk with information that you will find useful. Of course I cant just give it to you, information costs these days you know. How about 750 Hub bucks?” she said as she walked back over to Jane.

“hub bucks?” Jane said confused “do you mean these bottle caps? Is this where they get there value?” the woman nodded “yeah the water traders decided a while back too exchange a single bottle cap for one drink of water. While it hasn’t completely supplanted the barter system it has definitely helped stream line it.”

“oh that makes sense, speaking of bartering I actually have some good condition books from a vault that I am willing to trade. I’m also looking on books about energy weapons...” from there Jane traded the books she had taken from the vault, a couple of clips of ammunition, and some caps for the holodisk and a pile of new books.

As Jane left she thought over expenses; she might have been able to go without the books, but she could do with a better understanding in certain topics such as more serious medical care and how her laser rifle worked. However supplies for travelling wasn’t cheep, and if she wanted to get anything other then simply food she would have to find work.

She remembered a bar, the Maltese Falcon, that she had passed earlier and decided to start there. Walking in to the bar was nerve wracking, her entire body was tensebut she forced herself forward, jaw clenched with the effort of not running away. She walked up to the bar and ordered a drink and looked about wile sipping the cheep booze, the room was inhabited by a few other patrons as well as some guards and the bar tender.

“hey there sweet thing” a man who walked up behind her while she was looking around “what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this all alone?” he leaned closer too Jane as he spoke. Jane clenched her jaw harder and glared at him, fighting back the images of that night in Junktown. She pulled her pistol from it’s holster and held it casually in front of her “fuck off” she forced out, her tone surprisinglythreatening.

The man looked down at the gun and walked away mumbling to himself. She turned around and tried to calm down, downing the rest of her drink; her heart was racing and she clung tightly too the now empty glass. The only thing keeping her from running from the building was the fear that her legs would give out.

A glass is placed in front of her by one of the guards, the one who had been standing in front of a door behind the bar. He sat next too her and Jane glanced suspiciously at her drink before looking at him. “Suspicious one are we? can’t rightly blame you, being trusting gets you killed” he picked up the glass and took a mouthful before placing it back down; Jane watched him for a moment and took a sip of the drink, her right hand gently resting on the handle of her pistol.

“I saw how you handled that man before, my boss has been looking for somebody for some jobs. You interested?” the man was leaning towards Jane, and she felt her throat tighten so she finishes the drink in a single motion. “I came in here looking for work” Jane manages to force out and the man smiled, there was no joy too the smile just something that scared her. The guard led her to the door he had been standing in front of and opened it, beckoning her inside.

Chapter 8: knives of despair

Summary:

Jane fights another crimeboss

Jane was staring off into space when Tycho found her at the gate like they agreed with some warm meat skewers. They sat in silence eating the meal Tycho had brought them as Jane struggled to find the words she needed.

Eventually Jane stops eating and speaks “I was hired by the local crime boss as an assassin” she turns to face Tycho as she hears him choking on his food and patts him forcefully on the back. “holy shit kid” Tycho says when he catches his breath “I leave you alone for a couple hours and you end up tied up with the local criminals?” his voice was light and joking but Jane still felt she had to defend herself.

“I went looking for things that needed to be done, and I saw the bar so I decided it was a good place to start. I got myself a drink and whatever because it was intimidating and all, I was looking around trying too work up the courage to ask someone if there was any work that needed to be done. Well some ass-hole decided to come up and flirt with me or whatever so I pulled out my gun and told him to fuck off, and this must of impressed someone because next thing I know some guard is talking to me and telling me about a job. I was too scared to do anything but agree, so next thing I know I was sitting in front of this even more intimidating man who tells me he needs me to go kill someone for him and threatens so many things if I don’t and...”

Jane trails off fighting off the growing panic by taking some deep breaths while Tycho looked at her carefully. Jane struggled to get her breathing under control, but she found her efforts futile. What was she even doing here, she was a helpless girl who didn’t fit in; even in the vault she was isolated for the most part, especially when it was clear that she was only interested in women. And now she was miles away from her home, she was so out of place it wasn’t even funny. This was a world of hard people and here she was, a soft little thing barely holding on; by all rights she should be little more then a pile of bones in the vast wasteland by now.

Jane was crying, she didn’t know when she started but she did. Tears flowed and quiet sobs escaped, Jane cured into herself barely noticing Dogmeat nuzzling at her leg. She was so tired; her days haunted by the blood that stained her hands, the stress of her mission, the feeling she was expendable to the vault. Her nights where no better, spectres of that night chasing her, surrounding her, haunting every moment of her dreams. She didn’t fight the tears, no Jane had no energy for that, she just let them come.

“I hope you have a better lead for work” she forced out when she recovered some composure “because we do need the money for supplies and I’m not going to be someone’s assassin no matter how desperate we get.” Tycho looked at her with concern as Jane finished eating.

“well there are issues with caravans going missing, got pay locked down if we can figure out what’s happening. Not much to go on yet, although most have mentioned something about seeing a monster in the airier that they have been going missing in. Dunno how much stock I would put into them but its a start, even if its just a gang using trickery.” Jane nodded and stood.

“take dog meat and go see what you can find out, I’ll go tell the police about what I have been asked to do and keep an ear out for anything that could be useful.”

“you okay kid?” Jane looked away from him, afraid that if she looked at his sympathy she would break down again “no” she said “no I’m not okay, but we need money and can’t afford to be slowed down. Go; I survived a cave full of giant mutant scorpions, I will not let this kill me” looking back at him as she finished

Tycho hesitated before nodding, beginning to walk off and calling Dogmeat to his side; however he paused before he had gone far and turned back to face Jane “did you find any leads for your mission kid? Haven’t found anything yet myself but I can keep an ear to the ground if you have need me too” Jane shook her head “don’t worry about that, I have a pretty good lead for now. We just need to make shore we can actually get enough supplies to get there for now.” Tycho smiled at her and gave a wave as her turned to leave.

Jane waited for them to disappear into the crowd before turning and looking for the closest police officer; or at least what the town called police, they where closer to the guards she had seen in other towns then the pre-war law keepers. Not that it surprised her, the more militarised look was bound to be better suited for the new world then the one from her history classes.

“Excuse me” Jane said when she was close enough to the officer “I was wondering if you would be interested in information about the crime-lord who works from under the bar.” she was too tiered to actually think of how to do this subtly.

The officer looked at her for a moment before nodding “follow me ma’am, the sheriff will want to hear what you have to say” he said before turning and walking down the street, Jane followedclosely after him to a building with a metal sign with the word ‘police’ painted neatly on it.

“sheriff” the officer that had guided her called out as they entered “got a lady who claims to have info on Decker”

“well send her in, no need to waste her time” a somewhat muffled voice came form one of the side rooms, the officer pointed to one of the doors, gave a reassuring smile and left. Jane walked up to the door and opened it, stepping inside. A man sat behind a desk, dressed in a smiler manner too the officer that had lead her here with a sheriff badge on his armour.

The sheriff looked somewhat surprised at her appearance, thinking about it she probably looked more like the kind of person to work for Decker then to try and turn him in; an old leather jacket, two knives on her belt, her 10mm pistol holstered on her leg, a laser rifle slung over her shoulder, and a large travel pack. A heavy sprinkling of dust and grime over it all certainly helped the image. She certainly looked like a wastelander now, Jane thought, despite the Vault suit that she wore under her armour.

“well hello ma’am! The name’s Justin Greene, I’m the sheriff of this fine city. Now you have something you want to say about Decker?” the sheriff smiled at her as he recovered from his surprise, Jane nodded “he tried to hire me to kill somebody” she said. Justin smiled “excellent! I have heardsmiler reports from other sources, but you where just the thing I needed to confirm it for me. Now as for reward I was thinking 1300 script if you wanted to help take him and his lackeys out, 300 now and the rest after.”

“sounds like a good deal” Jane said, then paused before letting out a laugh “oh god this is the second town in a row that I have done this, better not become a pattern.” she finished darkly. The sheriff chuckled good naturedly “you wandering types always seem to attract trouble dontcha? Well at least it helps you prepare for the dangers out there in the long run” the two of them stood up and the sheriff gathered some of his men.

Jane burst into the bar, laser rifle held in her right arm her left throwing the door open, the group of police officers walked in after her. The patrons and staff turned to face the intruders in various levels of shock and the room fell into a brief silence.

“well well, looks like you decided to go to the cops there girly; that’ll be your last mistake. 1000 caps to whoever brings me her head” Decker’s guard said pointing at Jane. The room burst into motion as people scrambled for there weapons. Jane quickly aimed at Decker’ss guard but she was too late, he ducked behind the door before she could fire her weapon. Cursing she aimed at the patrons who had taken up arms.

The officers where armed mostly with combat shotguns, the only exception being a hunting rifle, but there where only five of them, including the Sheriff, and Jane. They all wore combat armour giving them an advantage when compared too the ragtag collection of armour and weapons of there foes. However they where massively outnumbered so they moved quickly to get to safety, killing a few who rushed forwards with knives and forcing the rest to get into cover.

Jane was careful with her shots, firing only when she had a clear shot and leaving most of the suppression to the officers. The fight was hardly a long one, the available cover turned out to be too flimsy to do any real good under sustained fire, and as the officers had the advantage of being better equippedtook out most of the opposition quickly. Some of the customers had retreated further back into the building, using the back rooms as cover, and the bar was proving to be adequateprotection.

Jane glanced around quickly, one of the officers lie on the ground motionless and two other where bleeding, but they certainly had the upper hand; however it was a big city and if Decker had a back way out he could get away. Taking a chance she turned back towards the door, took aim, and shot the lock. When she was satisfied she rushed towards the door and puled it open.

As soon as the door was opened the guard leaped forward, punching with a brass knuckle clad fist.Jane leaped back as soon as she saw the attack coming, her training letting her bring her left arm up in defence. While this was enough to stop the potentially fatal strike to her head, instead it hit Jane’s laser rifle, knocking it out of her hands.

Jane yanked a knife out of its sheaf and lunged at her opponent, ducking under his second blow and trusting her blade into his gut. The wound was shallow, and while it certainly would be lethal if not properly treated it was not enough to take down the man who fell back into a fighting stance, the only sign of pain a slight grunt and grimace.

Jane didn’t give him a chance to recover, feinting an overhead attack she pulled a second knife out with her off hand; when the guard punched at her gut she swung her first knife down, cutting a gush in his arm and turning the blow aside. Jane stepped into the opening, thrusting her second knife into the side of his neck followed quickly by the first into his chest, sliding past his ribs.

Letting the guard and her knives drop, Jane hurried down the stairs and pulled her pistol from its holster and held it in a sturdy two handed grip. She heard a loud bang and felt something hit her in the stomach hard and she fell over. Decker looked down at her with a cruel smile, holding his gun casually to his side, he stepped forward and kicked Jane’s pistol away before she could do anything. The sound of someone rushing down the stairs made Decker look up.

Sheriff Justin Greene paused at the bottom of the stairs to the sight of the girl who led him here lying curled up on the ground with Decker pointing a gun at her head. He had seen her shoot the door open and the resulting fight with the guard, impressive work he had to admit. A quick glance down confirmed the girl was still breathing, and he could hear slight groans of pain.

“Now hold up there Sheriff; this young lady is still alive, if you want her stay that way I would reconsider shooting me” Decker said as Justin moved to point his gun at him. Reluctantly he lowed his weapon slightly, enough to not be an immediate threat but still able to make a shot if Decker did anything.

“Alright Decker, what do you want.” as much as he wanted to just shoot this man, the girl deserved a chance to live.

“what I want is to get out of this alive, so here’s the deal I take this girl hostage and walk out of here, none of your men shoot me, and I leave her nice and safely at the gate so you can get her too those children of the cathedral or whatever.” his voice had a note of finality, he clearly was not up for negotiation.

The two men stared at each other as Justin thought about the deal, maybe he could get someone to track him down once he was free, ensure he didn’t come back…

a flurry of movement form the ground startled both men, somehow Jane pulled a knife from somewhere and launched herself up, knocking Decker to the ground. She had carefully hidden her movements by curling up into a ball as if in pain, and taken advantage of there confrontation. Decker fired off some shots desperately, but Jane had gotten close enough to be safe from harm and Decker’s aim was way off of Justin.

Jane didn’t give Decker a chance to do anything else, stabbing him in the neck a couple of times and kicking away his gun as she stood up. She grimaced in pain as she stood and opened her leather jacket to reveal a bullet proof vest.

“you alright there Jane?” he asked as Jane removed the vest and pocked around the airier, there was no blood so the vest must of done it’s job, before pulling a stim-pack out and injecting it in her abdomen. Jane nodded as she put her vest and jacket back on “yeah, might have a massive bruise come tomorrow though, but I’ll live.”

“that was some mighty fine knife work there ma’am, me and the boys couldn't keep up” Justin said, voice friendly like always. Jane shrugged as she walked past him to retrieve and clean her knives “dad was over protective, spent hours drilling me to use knives in case I had to defend myself” she said as she slid her knives back into the sheaves.

“well good to know a girl like you can look out for herself out there eh? Well here is the rest of your reward, thanks again for your help.” he said as he handed Jane a bag of bottle caps. “glad to know I helped clean up another town’s crime problem. I’ll leave it to you sheriff, got supplies to buy” Jane said as she accepted the caps and put them away, leaning down to pick up her laser rifle.

“nice working with you ma’am, try and keep yourself from ending up talking to another man like Decker eh? While we certainly appreciate the help in taking the underground apart you certainly need to break that pattern of yours, can’t be healthy” Jane laughed as she left, waving as she went through the door.

Notes:

so this was kinda longer then expected. hope you enjoyed the action, this chapter is the one that has had the most edits so far so I hope its not terrible.

Chapter 9: Old Town Ghoul

Summary:

in search of information on the infamous 'deathclaw' Jane heads into Old Town to find someone who has apparently seen the creature.

Old town was a ruin. It was the only word that fit, while the Hub had been made in the ruins of a pre-war city at least most of the buildings where liveable with few repairs; at the very least the streets where clear of rubble. Old town though was much less maintained. Multiple buildings where missing walls, many of them inhabited by hungry looking people or those with mutations. Jane watched the uneven ground as she walked as not to trip, shivering slightly at the sight of a screaming face that looked up at her half buried in the ground and rubble. She never did understand why the people from before the war decided that screaming faces where something you needed on your buildings.

She followed the directions Tycho had given her for a man, or a ghoul? Called Harold. He apparently had information on the creature that was attacking the caravans, Tycho himself was trying to track down someone who supposedly knew where it lived but they both agreed it was best to find out all they could before trying to face something that could take out caravans.

The house was as run down as the ones around it, the doorway was empty and there where several holes in the roof. A figure sat at the back on the room in tatted clothes, his face looked as though it belonged to a couple month oldcorpse rather then a living creature, green wrinkly skin covered his body where red inflamed flesh didn’t show through. One of his eyes was completely covered as though his eyelids had been fused and he almost had no hair left; Jane didn’t know how he was still alive but he matched the rough description of Harold she had been given.

Harold looked up “Spare change, old friend, old pal? Can you help a poor old mutant down on his luck” he rasped out before coughing, Jane pulled out a hand full of caps and passed them to him “Harold right? Here, I hope your luck improves” Harold smiled, well what Jane assumed to be a smile, and took the offered money.

“oh kind of ya, friend. Very kind. You know if my eyes weren't so gunked up you might find a tear in old Harold’s eye. The hubbers’ aint been kind lately” that much was obvious from where he lived and the state of his clothing, Jane was seeing more bare skin then she was comfortable with. He studied her with his lone eye “Your from one of them Vaults aint ya? Man its been a while since I’ve seen one of them suits.”

Jane perked up at this “Your from a vault?” she asked, excited for another potential lead in her quest. Harold laughed “yeah I’m from a vault, one of the first to open after the great war actually” he looked off into the distance and sighed “whew, aint that a long time ago. But that happens where your as old as me, I actually remember the great war dontcha know? Well the sirens at least, I was real young at the time.”

Jane’s eyes widened, she was actually talking to someone older then the wastelands “Don’t much remember where the vault was these days” well that was disappointing, but Harold seemed to be in a talkative mood now. “so what did you do once you left your vault?” Jane asked, trying to get the old man to continue talking

“I was a trader!” Harold exclaimed loudly “Did pretty good trading between groups of survivors. Things got rough with all the mutants about of course but we did our part.” a look of what could be contentment passed over his face “Ah those where some good times. Course the mutants where everywhere, seemed you couldn’t fart without hitting one. Eventually a man named Richard grey lead a small expedition of us up there, good man was that Richard” Harold coughed.

“well, we found ourselves an old military base. Plenty of mutants and robots tore us a good one, lost a lotta good people that day. By the time we found the centre it was just me and grey when we found some sort of sort. That’s when it happened. A robot arm knocked us into some kinda goo, next thing I know I find myself in the wasteland already changing.” Jane felt her eyes widen in shock at the ordeal he had lived through “How the hell did you survive all that?” she asked in disbelief. Harold began cackling “Didn’t. Got myself killed” His laughter was cut short with a coughing fit “ah, love that joke. Anyway I made my way back here eventually with caravans, and well, just been survivin’.”

Jane nodded in awe of this man’s story “thank you for telling me this” she said once she was certain he had finished, Harold began laughing again but was quickly overcome by a coughing fit “no problems youngster. Always nice to tell it” the conversation fell into a content silence

“so, I’m looking for info on something called a deathclaw, word on the street is you the man to ask” Jane said after she gathered the courage to break the silence, Harold just looked shocked “ooooh that thing. Friend that is nightmare city, why the hell you asking about that?”Jane considered what to say before settling with just being blunt “Gonna kill it”.

“Okay. Well, its like a damn big man, is what it is. Got spikes and claws that can rip through the hardest armour. But don’t let the size fool ya, its quick” Jane nodded “any weaknesses?” she asked and Harold thought a moment before continuing “I’d try the eyes, be careful tho its said that looking into the things eyes can hypnotise ya.” Jane smiled, handed another handful of caps to Harold and stood “well thank you Harold, been a plesure” Harold nodded and smiled “well good luck friend, your gonna need it”

The group decided that going after a monster that took down caravans without being well rested was a bad idea. Well Tycho decided, Jane just knew better then to double guess his knowledge when it came to staying alive. They found a hotel that reasonably priced and matched Tycho’s standards and booked a pair of rooms. Tycho wentto get something hot to eat for dinner, neither wanted to eat trail food while there was an alternative.

The room was simple, a bed with a small table, but everything seemed clean enough for what it was. Dogmeat sat watch at the door, or more accurately for Tycho to bring him food, but it served the same purpose for Jane. Pulling the small table to the bed she retrieved her tools from her bag and went to work on her laser rifle. The outside had some small dints on the casing from the brass knuckles, but she had no way of knowing if the important bits where damaged without looking. She could have tested to see if the weapons still worked but discharging it in public would probably get her arrested or something. Plus given the voltage the thing worked at if certain components had been damaged it might fry the whole thing beyond the point of being fixable without access to replacement parts.

Thankfully the actual weapon was fine; apparently the reputation of the AER9 was well deserved, that punch was probably enough to break bones and Jane took more damage then her weapon is seemed. After a second closer inspection of more critical components Jane was satisfied that the weapon was fine, and put it back together.

Jane reached for her bag, once again thanking god for stimpacks, and pulled out the holodisk that she had bought. Her pip-boy read it without issue, thankfully holodisks where fairly reliable forms of information storage if a little bulky. The disk was some kind of press releas on vaults in the region, including her own vault 13. It gave a rough indication of the vaults, there facilities, and thankfully, what kind of water purification systems was amongst the supplied information. Turns out that Vault 12 used the same system that vault 13 used, and while the location was only given as “under Bakersfield” it was certainly the best hint she had.

She tried to think back to some old maps she had seen at the vault, but she had no idea of where she was exactly so even if she could remember it would be useless. Thankfully Tycho walked in with food.

“Well there you are, took you long enough” she said good naturedly as he passed her some food “I’ve had time to check my gun and find a clue to find a working water chip” Tycho rolled his eyes as he sat next to her and threw some food to Dogmeat “You want to get the food next time be my guest kid, otherwise no complaining.”

Jane chuckled and the two began eating their meal “So you have a lead kid?” Tycho after a pause. Jane nodded “Yeah, there is a vault under a city called Bakersfield. Uses the same water purification system as back home, unfortunately I have no idea where Bakersfield is, especially in relation to where we are”

“There is a city to the east of here, or the ruins of one. Might be what your looking for, I can check some maps tonight of you want” Jane smiled at him and goes back to her meal.

Once they have finished eating Jane pulls some paper from her bag and puts it on the table in-front of them. “So lets go over what we know about this ‘deathclaw’. Apparently its humanoid, or at least bipedal, big, tough and fast. Oh also it has nasty claws but that seems kinda obvious given the name. Harold thinks that the eyes are its week spot, although apparently it has some kind of hypnotic stare, so we gotta look out for that. And again, its fast despite its size; so we have to be careful not to underestimate that.”

Tycho nodded as he looked down at the list “I know where it lives, cave not too far from town. It’ll be a bit of a hike but nothing too strenuous, especially.” he nodded to Jane’s laser rifle “All good kid?” he asked. Jane smiled “Yeah, only a couple of dents from where it was hit. Apart from that its holding up pretty damn well. Might want to buy a few cells when we get back from killing this thing but all good apart from that.”

“Good, seems our best bet is to keep away from the deathclaw and try and take it down before it gets close. From there we should try and keep separate and try confuse it, although that might be difficult if its fast enough.” he frowned in thought “About all I can think of, any ideas kid?”

Jane looked over the plan and the list of information and shook her head “Can’t think of much, might want to try and keep Dogmeat back and out of the fight until we can get it distracted. If he can get at the legs to slow it down it would help massively” she turned to face the dog in question “What do you think boy?” Dogmeat just barked.

“Well then, sounds like a plan. Remember to be adaptable, we don’t exactly know what or where we are fighting.” they sat there for a little more talking before getting an early night.

Notes:

oh hey look, its a new important character! while he wont have that much of an affect here Harold will definitely be showing up further down the timeline.

Chapter 10: Dungeons & Deathclaws

The hike to the cave where the deathclaw lived was mostly pleasant, especially as it was done before the sun got high in the sky, saving them from the brunt of the desert heat. Jane noticed Tycho looking at her a few times during the trip but she ignored it, putting more effort into pushing away the bad thoughts, forcing herself to focus. Dogmeat was his usual cheerful self, sometimes running ahead and looking back but never going too far.

The cave reminded Jane of her first real fight in the radscorpion cave, although this one had a wider entrance along with several surprisingly deep claw marks in the rock wall. Jane walked in first, while Tycho was reluctant too let her take the lead he was a better shot then she was, and she had the light so it made sense to obscure there numbers. The smell in the cave was terrible, musty with undertones of rotting meat, Dogmeat whimpered softly from besides Tycho as they moved in.

the cave was dark and quiet and Jane found herself holding her breath, the only sounds apart from there feet was some mumbled words from deeper in the cave. Jane moved forward to where a side passage intersected the main passage, she turned to the right to look down this side passage and froze. Standing there was a tall bipedal figure, at least 10 feet tall and hunched over. It had powerful muscles, big horns, and long claws.

And it was staring. Right. At. Her.

Jane struggled to move, shoot, run, anything, but her body was frozen in terror. Her body trembled and she struggled to breath, reminders of the night back in Junk town and the nightmares following drowned her mind. Jane felt terrified. Terrified and angry.

She was angry with the overseer for sending her out alone, she was angry with the old world for laving the world in such a mess, she was angry with the people who preyed on the survivors of a dead world, she was angry with the deathclaw that was making her so scared.

She was angry at all these things yes, but most of all she was furious at herself. Furious that she let these things affect her so much, putting her vault, her home, at risk because she was too weak to deal with what she had been through. She felt her body’s trembling lessen as a heat filled her chest, her blood was like fire in her veins and she forced herself to move. She took aim and fired.

The crack of the laser was loud in the quiet cave, red light illuminating the darkness for a split second. The shot hit the beast in the shoulder and it growled in pain, rushing forward; both Tycho, who must have been as frozen as Jane was before the sound of her shot startled him, opened fire at the deathclaw as it rushed forwards.

The thing was fast, faster then Jane had been expecting, and Jane had too run down the other passage way after only a couple of shots, all of which seemed only to enrage the deathclaw. Jane broke off into a sprint but she could hear the sounds of claws scraping the ground getting closer. Dogmeat growled and Jane looked back to see him latched onto the mutants leg, seeing the passage ahead was coming to a dead end she took the chance to run past the distracted deathclaw.

As she ran past she heard Dogmeat yelp in pain and as she turned to face the sound she felt a sharp pain in her stomach and was thrown back further into the cave. Her laser rifle flew over her head and clattered some distance away, in the dim light she saw the beast turn to face Tycho. She scrambled back, searching for her laser rifle, and looked back just in time to see Tycho get knocked off his feet. Jane fired at the deathclaw and screamed a wordless shout drawing its attention. She scrambled back despite the warm wetness and the pain she felt in her torso and fired as fast as she could.

Somehow, thankfully, by the time she had depleted the energy cell she managed to hit the deathclaw in an eye, it collapsed to the ground a few feet away from her. It lay unmoving where it fell;the shear amount of wounds the thing had taken was astounding, at least a dozen shots from her laser rifle had hit it in its final charge, plus the shots from Tycho. It was probablydying in that final charge based on the amount of blood everywhere, but Jane’s brain was having trouble thinkingso she just looked at the body until the mumblings beside her caught her attention.

“It was so fast… My brothers where gone… Could not help…” the voice muttered and Jane turned her head to find herself lying on a rock next to a large green mutant who looked up at her weakly, as if not really seeing her “who are you” she asked, voice surprisingly raspy.

The mutant scrunched up his face as if struggling to think “I, I’m… I can’t remember… Was the leader of… It… Maybe my holodisk...” he thrust a holodisk he had been holding close to his chest at her, it was covered in both dry and fresh blood. Taking the disk Jane asked “where did you come from?” she felt herself drifting into unconsciousness but for some reason this seemed important “We… We where scouting for primes… From the north west… The Master, Father he… he…” the mutant collapsed to the ground, eyes now lifeless. Jane lay there looking at him, clutching the holodisk to he chest as she fell unconscious.

Notes:

i hope the stupid title dosn't bother you, because all chapters to do with dethclaws are going to have a slimier title. i had the idea and i coudn't get rid of it.

Chapter 11: Deadclaw

The first thing Jane realised was that she was sore, her chest ached, and her arms felt like lead. She lay there and tries to remember what happened, she got shot, that would explain the pain in her chest, but then she went to talk to an old man-ghoul for information about… oh that’s right, deathclaw; scary eyes, fast, slashy clawed deathclaw. That would explain the being sore thing. She killed it right? Wait of course she did, she wouldn't be lying here on a… bed? Yeah this was definitely a bed and not the rocks she had been leaning on.

Oh that’s right there was a weird mutant guy there, mumbling something about scouting for some master? And being unable to protect his brothers? Again probably deathclaw, that thing was scary. Maybe she should get one as a pet and all the problems she was facing would be scared away? Oh wait then she would have to have a deathclaw around all the time, scratch that idea off then.

Jane opened her eyes and found herself looking up at a roof that reminded her of the hub, was she in the hub? Made sense, Tycho must have brought her here. Speaking of Tyche she could see him as she looked about the room, he was sleeping in a chair next too her bed, Dogmeat curled up at his feet. So that explains things, such as how she got here and wasn’t lying on the groundwith all her guts in the cave next too a dead deathclaw; a deadclaw if you will. The room was dark so it was probably night, and as night was for sleeping she did just that.

The next time Jane woke it was bright, and the room was devoid of her companions. She looked around and found herself in a rather clean yet small room, it reminded her of the infirmary back home. Of course clean was a relative term, back in the vault this would be considered filthy but compared to most of the rooms she had seen since leaving home it was practically spotless. She moves to get up. she doesn't feel the soreness of the last tie she was awake so Jane takes it as a sign that she is healed. As she moves a man wearing some kind of doctors outfit rushes in and pushes her down.

“By the Holy flame! I didn’t stitch you back together for you too get up and tear them all out yourself girl!” he tutted at her as he moved the sheets to inspect her. Jane was confused “but… I feel fine? Well not fine fine but like, drunk fine, or no that’s not right either. I feel… floaty” the doctor shook his head “that will be the drugs child, please stay still your companions where most concerned about you.” he was much gentler now she wasn’t moving so much.

“Tycho? That sounds like him. Worries to much” Jane mumbled as the doctor injected something into her arm. The doctor said something but she was already drifting back into unconsciousness.

Jane groaned, whatever drugs she had been given had worn off and now she ached. At least she was alive and well rested, better rested then she had been in a while. Maybe she should use that stuff Tycho had to help her sleep. The last… period of time had been a blur. She had two real lucid moments, apart from that it was a blur. The doctor probably gave her a stronger dose until she was able to move again, or something. Just wished he gave her some now.

“Well kid, you actually awake this time?” Tycho asked, Jane sat up and smiled at him “Hey old man, either I am awake or I am having a really weird dream” She said glad to be awake. Tycho chuckled as he sat down “good too see you awake kid, things looked bad for a while” he said before throwing some kind of military jumpsuit at her. Jane caught it and realised how heavy it felt, the material was think and unlike anything she had seen before.

“What’s this?” she asked him looking up to see him pulling out various pieces of armour from his bag. “That kid, is the body suit that you typically wear with combat armour. After the battle with the deathclaw your armour was shredded, so I decided to get you something so you wouldn't get yourself killed.” he pulled a helmet not too dissimilar to his own in shape but without the built in gasmask.

Jane stared at it all “How the hell did you get your hands on this?” it was obliviously some serious hardware, the body suit looked to be made of bulletresistantmaterials and, given the millitery pre-war, was likely effective. Tycho just waved it off “Don’t worry about it, bartered for it as the reward for letting the caravans move safely through the region now. With the money you got for helping take down Decker I thought this would be the better then just money. ‘sides the caravaners had just found a stock of these things so they where more happy to part with one.”

That made more sense, she had gotten her vest as a reward, and Tycho was certainly a better barterer then she was. “what happened to my vault suit?” she asked, realising for the first time she was only wearing her underwear with a blush.

“what? Oh its in your pack, its a little torn up but you can probablystitch it together. Your jacket and vest where unable to be saved I’m afraid.” well that was hardly a surprises if she was honest, that things claws where massive. “hows Dogmeat?” Jane asked looking around “Where is he by the way?”

Tycho shrugged “the doc wont let him in after he caused a racket, so I left him outside while I came to pick you up. He’s good by the way, the deathclaw knocked him away with the back of his hand but it was nothing a stim-pack couldn’t fix.”

“Thank God, so the doctor says I can leave? As much as I am loving your company this is nowhere near as pleasant as my last hospital bed visitor.” Tycho raised an eyebrow and smiled “Oh? And who might that have been” Jane felt her face flush “Not like that!” she cried out. Tycho just looked at her.

Jane rolled her eyes “Before my fight with the radscorpions I made a trade with a girl called Tandi, her ex-boyfriend gave her a spear to try and impress her. She gave it to me when she found out I was going to deal with the cave of radscorpions for her town in exchange for the story. Then when I was recovering we talked a bunch. It was nice if I am honest…” Jane looked away and smiled at the memory.

Tycho chuckled and patted her on the shoulder “well that is certainly a more pleasant visit then this one. I too would prefer a pretty young lady to a grumpy old man like me.” Jane looked back at him, snapping back to reality. Tycho thankfully didn’t comment on her lasp in concerntration and continued “Now I have had a good look at old maps and I think I know where this Bakersfield is, have you heard of the ruins they call necropolis to the east?” Jane nodded “well as far as I can tell they are one in the same, so we know where to look. So get up, get dressed, we have a trail to blaze.”

Jane frowned, hand idly scratching Dogmeat’s ears as she thought about the holodisk the mutant had given her. It was a recording of a conversation over a radio between members of ‘Scavenger Team two’ and a base. “We’ve collected four males, two females, and their supplies from the caravan” the voice had said “They’re not too contaminated. Tell the lieutenant that we’re sending them ahead, they might be able to survive the process.”

Jane felt a shiver run down her spine, what did they mean ‘survive the process’? But the recording went on to say why there where no sign of the caravans at the cave. “We’re going to wait here for a few more days and try intercept another caravan.” said so matter of factly it was chilling.

“Base, also tell Scavenger Team one that we’ve run across the same problem they had. One of our scouts did not return from his perimeter patrol. A few of our other scouts have reported seeing something big and fast seen near our camp last night. I’ll be checking it out personally at 0600 hours tomorrow morning.” so the team had run afoul of the deathclaw, explained what the mutant was doing in the cave with this recording.

“the Master would be very pleased.” the Master. The mutant in the cave had said that name, the level of awe that it was spoken with was smiler to what some of the more religious members of the vault when they talked about there God, perhaps even more so. Something was happening, something big. It reminded her of the story Harold had told her, of how mutants had been coming from an old military base. He never did mention where it was, but Jane had a suspicion that she knew where it might be; the north-east.

Notes:

I wonder if anyone can find the holes in Tycho's story, not massively important of course but i think it shows the character building I am trying to get.

Of course i have stumbled on my first massive writers block in necropolis, so I have one more chapter written and ready to edit currently rather then my usual 2-3 chapter buffer I tend to keep. we're approaching the rough mid-point in the story, so hopefully i should be able too get past this to get it all written in a timely manner.

as always, hope you enjoyed this and i love to hear what you think of it.

Chapter 12: a City of the Dead

Summary:

in search for a vault Jane and Tycho head into Necropolis, a mysterious place with more rumours then facts.

Necropolis was hands down the creepiest place Jane had ever seen; vault 15 was eerie for reminding her of what might be her own vault’s fate, but this was outright nightmarish. Necropolis, the city of the dead. Its probably the most fitting name she had ever seen, all around the city lay signs of the great war; piles of human bones lay everywhere, sometimes alone sometimes piled together that made Jane think of images of loved one holding each other as the world dyed around them.

But not even the bones that obviously belonged to children she sees under beds, curled in on themselves, was the worst of it. No, the worst where the shadows baked onto the remaining walls. Outlines of people in there last moments forever burned into concrete are everywhere they walk. Nothing moves in the ruins but the wind, and now the small party.

It felt like walking threw a tomb, the tomb of not just the people of the city but of the old world itself. While eight decades had passed since the bombs dropped the city looked untouched by time, through broken windows and walls Jane saw tables set for dinner and toys scattered about. Every now and again they heard the crackle of static from radios and TV sets, tuned to broadcasts that had stopped transmitting decades ago leaving the haunting sound to join the wind in a strange harmony of the dead.

Neither Jane nor Tycho said a word, even Dogmeat was silent as they headed deeper into the city. Jane gripped her laser rifle tighter then she needed as she glanced about the ruins nervously, just seeing more ruins and no signs of life. ‘dear God this place is unnerving’ she thought to herself as she looked around, seeing something out of the corner of her eyes she turns to face it to see nothing out of the ordinary. ‘I need to calm down, we haven’t seen another living thing since we entered the city, even the wildlife is scared of this place it seems’.

Jane looked to Tycho, he had decided to wear his full helmet into the city and something about his armour made him seem like he fit the city. His overcoat blew in the strong gusts of wind that tore through the dead city, contrasting the stiffness of his posture and armour. He seemed otherworldly, like some spectre of death that walked the earth; oddly fitting given the location.

Shaking her head, Jane looked back to the ruins trying to focus on looking for signs of where a vault may be. A glint of something in one of the buildings caught Jane’s eyes but when she looked there was nothing there. Frowning Jane looked at the building, it was some kind of office building if the desks visible from the holes in the wall where any indication. While there was nothing there now she swore that there had been reflecting off something up there.

It could be nothing, hell it was more likely to be nothing then something other then her over-active imagination. But there was nothing up in the hole that would reflect light, any metal had long ago been tarnished beyond being reflective and there where no terminals visible from this angle. However, metal from someone’s weapon or a scope could easily have reflected light as its owner had slipped into the shadows.

“Tycho keep moving, I’ll go see if I can find a map or something and then catch up” Jane said breaking the near silence of city, it was the first they had spoken since deciding to head for the centre to find official buildings to look for clues. Tycho turnedto her and nodded, gesturing for Dogmeat to follow as he continued.

The door to the building had long fallen off its hinges, leaving an empty entry way that Jane carefully walked through, attempting to avoid the shards of glass that where strewn about. However the door itself was resting of some shards, making an uncomfortably sharp crunching sound as she stepped on it. Grimacing Jane walked forward, hoping that she had been seeing things and she hadn’t just alerted a hidden watcher with a sniper’s rifle.

She walked past a reception desk with a ruined terminal, slowly making her way too the stairwell. As she entered the building the silence grew more pressing, the wind being muffled by the walls of the building, making her foot falls all the more noticeable.

‘shit, maybe I should have sent Tycho in, he would have been able to be quiet about this. Although telling him about it might have alerted whoever might be watching that they had been spotted, at least this way they think I am looking for a map.’ Jane smiled to herself, it had been completely accidental of course, she hadn’t mentioned what she saw so if she was wrong she could play it off without embarrassing herself, but it worked in her favour.

She did some quick calculations to figure out what floor she had seen the light from, honestly some of these buildings where too ornate for there own good, and looking at the signs next to the stairs she could see she was going to the offices of Radium Publishing if she was correct. ‘great, maybe I can grab some horrible novels while I am there’ Jane thought dryly remembering seeing the name of the cover of a horrific “romance” novel that was full to the brim with both racism and sexism.

Jane was used to stairs from her life in the vault, something that was helpful here as she had to walk up ten flights of them to reach her goal. Even then by the end her breath was coming out slightly more laboured then it had been at the start of the ascent, but it was nothing that would hamper her ability to fight.

She looked around at the floor she thought she had seen something, there was only one door to the stairway and it had been closed when she got too it so if there was someone on this floor they couldn’t have moved down the stairs given the loud creek it made when she opened it. ‘oh well, wasn’t like I was being sneaky anyway, might as well draw anyone out rather then have to look for them I guess’.

And draw someone out she did, as she approached one of the back offices a floorboard protested at the weight that had been put on it. Jane turned quickly to face the sound and heard a gun going off just as she faced her attacker. The bullet bounced off her combat armour harmlessly, she had the thank Tycho for getting it again, and Jane raised her laser rifle preparing to fire and paused. The man in frount of her looked more like a corpse then any living person should; she was reminded of Harold, although this man was less green more brown and red.

Actually he looked like someone with late stage radiation poisoning, however he was standing and pointing his weapon at her. His weapon was some kind of home made gun, the body being made out of wood with various pieces of metal making up its workings and was obviously of some low calibre given how it just bounced off her armour. The other noticeable thing she noticed was that he had a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck, so that must be what alerted her to his presence.

The man in question just kinda stared at her, obviously not expecting his attack to be so ineffective. Or maybe it had to with the fact the gun looked a little broken now, might explain why the bullet was so ineffective if the energy went into breaking the gun.

“So ahh… hi?” the man said with a gravely voice, Jane just looked at him “So this is the part where I say sorry for trying to kill you and you let me go right? No?” Jane just looked at him, unimpressed at the half hearted attempt. The man sighed “Look, I’m just a look out okay? Didn’t mean to shoot you, just spooked me when you came right up here looking for a map is all”

“You know” Jane said, trying to hide her amusement at the situation “Most people don’t really take kindly to being shot. Fortunately for you, I’m not most people; so how about you drop what’s left of your gun and we can have a nice discussion.” the ghoul glanced at his gun before dropping it as if it where suddenly red hot. Jane relaxed a little, the man appeared to have no other weapons; even if he had, Jane would be able to stop him from getting too far.

Jane gestured to a chair that looked like it could hold her hostages weight and he walked to it and sat awkwardly with his hands in his lap. “So ahh… what did you want to talk about?” he asked after a few moments of silence, growing visibleuncomfortable in the silence. “Why where you watching us?” Jane asks, for once feeling in control of a situation.

“Set told me too, gotta keep an eye on outsiders who walk into the ruins so they don’t find us. If you got too close we would start trying to scare ya off” he said then looked at her “well try. Dunno how well it would work with you smoothskin, you look like you’d be hard to spook” Jane forced back a laugh at his assessment. But he had given her some important information, there was a settlement in the ruins. The information they had gathered about the ruins had said all attempts to settle them failed, either people gave up or died from the lingering radiation.

But if the people who lived in a hidden settlement where ghouls that would explain how they got around the effects of long term background radiation exposure, most mutants where more resistant to radiation after all. And if they where willing to talk, well if they had been here long enough they might know the location of the vault. This Set must be some kind of town leader or head of the guard, or whatever they called it.

“so you where watching us to make shore we didn’t get too close to your home” Jane said bluntly “and where we getting close?” she asked. “well…” the ghoul started “kinda? I mean you where gonna get close but not actually run into it if you know what I mean” Jane nodded at this, the town must be particularly well hidden to have remained unknown to outsiders for so long.

“what do you do with outsiders who make it to your home?” she asked, the ghoul thought a moment before answering “well…” he started hesitantly “it’s kinda complicated. You see it depends who you are, if you’re a ghoul your invited to stay. Rest of you we try and kill or drive underground with the rest of the outcasts, gotta try and keep home a secret. ‘course things will be different now that those weird big mutants came in and took over. Set aint happy about that but they have both the water shed and the vault so they are in control of all the water so…” he trailed off and shrugged.

“Would these mutants be tall green humanoids?” she asked, with the man’s hesitant nod Jane frowned. “What are they doing here” she mumbled to herself, her hostage must have heard however as he shrugged and replied “well I don’t know too much ‘bout it, not important enough you know, but from what I hear they came here in search of our vault. Wanted a stock of ‘pure humans’. Kinda funny that us ghouls are the people from the vault, given we’re about as mutant as you get ya know.” the man chuckled at this before frowning “after that they took over town, Set obviously wants them gone but we don’t have the ability to fight ‘em so there aint much we can do.”

The sound of somebody running up the stairs caused Jane to turn around, Tycho ran up panting from the rush to get too her. Jane wasn’t that surprised, the gunshot before must have alerted him that something had happened, so it was only a matter of time before he arrived. “ah there you are Tycho, I have just been speaking to…” she paused and frowned at the man she had been holding hostage “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name”

“Oh ahh, its Spook ma’am. Well Wayne Grey is my real name but these days most people call me spook, ‘cos of my job scaring outsiders away ya know?” Wayne Grey? Definitely a pre-war name, unsurprising if they did come form the vault.

“well then, I have been speaking to Spook here about the ruins. He was watching us, cauret the glare off his binoculars.” Spook looked down at his binoculars in shock and Tycho looked impressed “good work kid, I shore as hell didn’t see anything. You told me to keep walking to provide a distraction then?” Tycho said and Jane shook her head.

“no I sent you on ahead because I couldn't think of a reason for us both to search a building in a city that, while being super creepy, had been quite safe. I didn’t want to risk giving away that I had seen him by telling you.” Jane said gesturing to Spook as she mentioned him. “wait, you knew I was here? Shit, you actually got me with that comment of your’s” Spook interrupted.

“anyway” Jane continued ignoring the comment “according to Spook there is a hidden settlement in the ruins, the residents come from the vault so I assume its close. He said that some mutants had taken hold of the settlement for some reason, and the leader is unhappy with the situation.” Tycho looked at Spook who just shrugged “she got all the important stuff I s’pose.” he said.

Tycho looked thoughtful, processing this new information before speaking “would your leader be willing to negotiate with us?” he asked the ghoul who considered the question “he aint gonna like it but, you look capable enough that he would be willing to talk” Jane and Tycho exchanged a look before Jane turned back to Spook “well then, lead the way”

Set, much like all the ghouls Jane had met, looked like a corpse who had started to walk again, he even had an eye covered in the scarred skin that covered his body. He wore a studded leather band around his head and was dressed in scrappy looking armour. He looked supprised and angry when Spook lead Jane, Tycho, and Dogmeat through the door.

“There better be a killer reason for bringin’ a couple normies into my shadow Spook, unless ya want a dirt nap.” well this was obviously a pleasant man Jane thought to herself and Spook visibly paused. “Ahh sorry boss, she kinda caught me watching them,” he said pointing too Jane “and well I thought you might wanna use her to deal with the ahh… mutant problem.” Spook looked away as he finished, shifting nerviosly.

Set narrowed his eyes at him before glearing at Jane “well normie, you betta have good reasosn for bein here ‘cos I’m getting hungry if ya catch my drift?” and now Jane was feeling nervous, all the confidence she could muster wasn’t enough to not be put off by this man giving that threat. Thankfully Tycho must have recognised her discomfort and spoke up.

“We’re looking for a vault-tec water chip, we found information that led us to a vault under this city.” Set seemed surprised at this reasoningand he looked over the two humans, obviously pleased with what she saw he smiled. It was unpleasant to look at, to say the least, but Jane took it as a sign that she and Tycho where not about to be eaten.

“well, I see some potential here… heh, I have some playmates for you, my sparkling normies. Punish the mutants in the shed for me. Then we can see about this chip eh?” it seemed like a reasonable deal, on the surface. But she found it difficult to trust a man who not five minutes ago threatened to eat her.

“how many” Jane said, thankful that her voice didn’t betray her nerves; although Jane supposed she was getting quite proficient at hiding her fear behind a forceful tone.

“five of em! All in the watershed, my ghouls don’t have the gear to give ‘em final rest but we’ve been able to keep ‘em out of the vault” Set replied, spitting on the ground he muttered “and now I have ta deal with you normies” he shook his head before pausing and looking at them thoughtfully.

“hmm, if I tell my ghouls to hold off on you the muties might here and know. Tell ya what, its favour time. I keep shut, got it?” the humans glanced at each other at this comment.

“what do we do if your ghouls attack us then?” Tycho asked. Set smiled as he replied “well either you shoot ‘em dead or you take a dirt nap. If one of mine cant deal with a normal they deserve it.” well that had too be the creepiest thing that Jane had ever heard. Tycho nodded hesitantly and glanced out the window to a courtyard outside. Jane followed his gaze and spotted a tall, green mutant standing in the centre and the pieces fell into place in her mind.

“is there a map we can use to get an idea of the layout to the town?” she asked looking back at Set, he looked taken aback and his face began to show signs of anger when Jane cut him off. “Look if you don’t want to get your people involved with directly fighting the Master; fine. But if you want those mutants out of your town you need us to succeed. We are unconnected to you so if the Master takes the town back you can point to us and avoid harsher punishment, but you hate him. You hate him enough to not try and kill us in the hopes that we can kill his soldiers, you might be doing your best to keep yourself from looking like you have part in this but your still hoping we succeed. You want us to succeed? Let us ‘steal’ a map, otherwise your tolerance of us will be for nothing.”

There was an uncomfortable pause and Jane felt her hands sweating as Set glared at her, she had said too much and now he was going to try and eat her. She and Tycho could deal with the ghouls in the room, but the noise would alert someone and they would have to deal with a town-

“Spook!” Set practically growled “take these normies to the underground, and keep yer yap shut if you don’t want final rest!”

Notes:

Well this was a pain to write, Set is not an easy character for me to find the voice of. At least i got to mess around with some atmosphere building at the start. A few fun facts about this chapter; I have actually never spoken to Set in game, I just go straight to the underground ghouls. My only information to draw on was the wiki page and the dialog file. The name Spook came about because I felt that some ghouls would begin to drop there old names for monikers, Set being an example, and I had just finished the Mistborn trilogy and i felt it was an appropriate name for the character. This is all i have written to this point, normally i would have a few chapters after the ones i posted so when i go back to edit them its had a longer time to sit.

anyway hope you enjoy this chapter

Chapter 13: the battle of the watershed

Spook led them back through the passage ways that he had led them through to see Set and into the old sewers under the city. Thankfully the sewers themselves where not currently in use, at least not the parts that Spook led them through; the channel under the rusted grates filled with other refuge which Jane suspected was a slightly more pleasant smell then raw sewage. Of course Tycho had his helmet on and Jane couldn't help but be jealous of the inbuilt gasmask, surely it must help with the smell.

At least she didn’t have the scene of smell Dogmeat had, poor thing was whimpering occasionally.

“where are you taking us?” Tycho said after they had been walking longer then there first trip down here, Jane couldn't pick out anything from his tone due to the modulation from the gasmask.

“the underground, buncha ghouls that ain’t under Set’s control, he lets ‘em ‘cos they give us some of the food they farm.” he led them around a corner “more friendly to smoothskins then the rest of us” he opened a manhole and started to clime down “ain’t much further either.”

Tycho and Jane glanced at each other, Tycho shrugged and shouldered his rifle so he could follow the ghoul. The ladder groaned in protest at the weight of two people, even if one is a incredibly light looking corpse-person, so Jane waited for the two men to reach the ground. Glancing around she saw something reflect from a pile of refuse, partially buried as though someone wanted to hide it. Jane walked over to it cautiously, it wasn’t the kind of thing you would just throw away, even buried as it was she could so that it was some kind of specialised mechanics in good repair.

Digging it out she found a collection of pump parts as well as a couple of large industrial valves, all of witch where in remarkably good condition if a little dirty from being buried. “Jane!” Tycho called from behind her, taking her off balance and almost toppeling her into the refuse pile.

“one sec, I found something worth picking up” Jane called back to her companion she pulled her pack from her back, giving Dogmeat a pat as he padded over to look in for food, and pulled out a rag and wrapped the pieces in it.

Jane turned back to the hole once she had her pack back on and frowned, the last decent had been via stairways but this ladder was going to be an issue. “We’re gonna have to leave Dogmeat behind, if something goes wrong down there we don’t want to be slowed down trying to get him up. Plus having him watch our back might be a good idea, don’t know how much I trust Set.”

There was a pause before Tycho called up “good idea, I see some light ahead so I think we are getting close.”

Jane patted Dogmeat on the head sympathetically “stay here girl, we’ll come back as soon as we can.” Dogmeat looked at her and then lay down facing back the way they came. Jane smiled at her and then climbed down to join the two men.

There was indeed light ahead of them, and it wasn’t long before the trio came face to face with a ghoul dressed in even shabbier rages then Spook waited with a spear in hand. “you lot ‘aint quiet ya know” he said too them, his posture relaxed. Looking closer Jane could see that the spear was made from a cattleprod, simply modified to be longer and a more practical weapon.

“’allo Kell” spook said “sorry ‘bout the unplanned crashing, these smoothskins came into town lookn’ for a water chip.” this seemed to amuse the other ghoul “what, ya face aint enough to scare em off Spook? Good thing ya brought ‘em here, Set’d have yer head!”

Spook grimaced, “Already been to Set Kell, the scary one basically stormed in an’ did the whole ‘take me to ya leader’ type thing. Was quite insistent about finding the water chip” the ghoul, Kell, looked towards Tycho before Spook interjected “Nah he aint the scary one. Well, he’s a scary one, but he’s a millitery man. The girl though, she’s a bright one. Scary like yeah?”

Jane was taken aback, Spook though she was the scarer of the two? She had been the one to find him and threaten him, but Tycho was way more dangerous then her, she was just a technician in over her head. Kell looked her over and nodded “well ya brought in quite a pair Spook, aint supprisin that Set let em go.”

“Actually, he let us go because he wants the super mutants gone. We just so happen to be his best bet at getting this done without implicating him.” Jane said “wasn’t happy about it though, probably going to double cross us.” Tycho nodded in agreement.

“Ha! Your right not to trust the basted. Come on the boss is expecting ya, he gets cranky if he’s kept waiting. He ‘aint no set don’t get me wrong, but he is old and cranky. Ya probobly want to avoid having ya ears talked off.”

“Kell, there aint no young ghouls ‘ere” Spook said to his fellow ghoul who let out a raspy chuckle. “Right ya are spook, but the old man is the oldest of us all”

Kell led them down a couple of passages into a larger portion of the sewer that had been turned into a hall via a wall made of scraps. The hall was filled with rough furniture, tables and benches at one end and sleeping pallets on the other. A door to the side was marked ‘farm’ with paint and another ‘workshop/clinic’. Ghouls dressed in scraps of cloth sat around, looking dirty enough to have all just come in from the farm save a handful of ghouls who must have been working elsewhere.

At the end of the hall raised with a chair, upon witch sat a ghoul who looked positivelyancient amongst a pile of books. “Hey old man, got ya some new ears to bore to death” Kell yelled out as they entered, causing everyone too look up.

“well, this is a surprise, we don’t get many smoothskins around here. Come closer, no need to yell over the crowd.” the old ghoul waved them over with a withered hand, as if on signal the others went back to there meal. The group made there way through the room, a couple of the occupants glanced at them as they passed but they seemed mostly at ease despite the strangers being heavily armed.

“so youngsters, what brings you here?” Jane nodded to Tycho to take over explaining as she looked around the room. It was a surprisingly well put together set-up despite being made from scrap, the main room could support at least twice the ghouls she could see in the room so they must work in either shifts or they had designed there community to be able too grow. The books around the old ghoul leader where old and burnt, there where multiple copies of each and it seemed as though he was trying to piece them together based on the workbench covered in recycled paper that he sat at.

When she looks back at the old ghoul himself she finds him sitting back, scratching his chin. Where a beard would be if his face hadn’t been fried by radiation. “so you need the vaults old water chip for your own vault to survive, must have been a hell of a journey to get here if you decided to walk into Necropolis to find it” Jane let out a bitter laugh drawing the groups attention.

“You have no idea, I was a simple technician before this, but now look at me” Jane said to the confused looks “should have seen my first fight, nearly got myself impaled by some radscorpions” Tycho nodded in agreement “she has come a long way since I met her so I don’t doubt that we can deal with the super mutants. What we dont trust is that Set wont turn around after we do it.”

The old ghoul nodded, had he said his name while Jane had been looking around? She would have to ask Tycho later “not a bad thing to doubt I’m afraid, he isn’t as ruthless as he tries to make out but he does whatever he can for us ghouls; including us outcasts. The two of you look like fighters not mechanics so he wouldn't have mentioned that the main water purifiers in the water shed where busted by the super mutants; we are currently using the vaults purifier but we only need one system running to survive.”

Jane nodded slowly “so you want us to fix the purifier in the watershed first before we take the vaults chip” she said “and deal with the super mutants so they don’t just destroy it again.”

the old ghoul smiled “that’s the meat of it yes, although we can do you a bit better then that. I can have one of us get the waterchip after you fix the purifier, Set would have guards and the like to try and protect it but one of our guards will be able to slip past them. This way you don’t have to deal with Set at all, you get the chip, and we don’t die of dehydration. Everyone is happy.”

Well Jane certainly trusted this guy way more, she nodded at Tycho who after a pause nodded back. “well then, sounds like a deal too me”

Tycho lay in the skeleton of a skyscraper looking down on the plaza outside the watershed with his rifle ready, ideally he would have a spotter but years working the field had taught him to work in less then ideal conditions. The underground ghouls had been able to supply them with a rough map of the city and Spook had said that there where only a handful of super mutants in the city, but neither had been able to tell them how they where stationed inside the building save the one posted in the middle of the square.

Like usual the plan involved putting Jane in the most danger, he didn’t even bother arguing the point this time because sniper support here would be invaluable and as much as he loved the girl she was not accurate enough to take the role. Also the girl was as stubborn as a herd of Brahman.

He knew that he should have a discussion with her about her about her tendencies to get herself into danger. Thank whatever gods survived the apocalypse that she was terrible at bartering so she let him organise rewards most of the time. If she knew how much he had spent on getting her properly equipped for the wastes he would get an earful.

He watched a hooded figure walk into sight, moving around the plaza haphazardly to the untrained eye, at least Tycho hoped that it would look that way. Jane was actually getting close to the super mutant guard and the water shed, get a read on the place before she attacks. Jane moved to a good position in the plaza and began to flash using a piece of reflective metal to message him. One… two… three… four… five. After a pause she repeated the number, and then once again. Jane’s idea, safetymeasure to ensure that the message got across.

Taking a deep breath, Tycho checked his gun one final time before setting up and waiting for Jane to make the first move. He watched her walk up too the super mutant guard in the middle of the plaza, through his scope he could see him talking to her before she pulled a thin knife out and jammed it into the artery in its neck and then his eye. Tycho shifted his attention back to the door and waited for the super mutants to exit the building.

A figure exited the building and Tycho pulled the trigger reflexively, he was slightly off, hitting the brute in the left shoulder instead of in the centre of the chest like he was hoping for but at least it would slow down one of them. He shifted his aim to one of the windows, scanning for any super mutant trying to use the building for cover. The sounds of gunfire down below caught his attention to a super mutant in a window firing is Jane’s rough direction; covering fire, cleaver. He might have been underestimating these things. Taking a moment to aim he took the mutant down with a single shot.

The cracking of laser rifle fire made Tycho spare a glance at the super mutant who had rushed out, who now lay face down next too a burnt out car that Jane had taken cover behind. Good; two down, three to go. He turned his attention back to the windows, seeing a third mutant poking his head out. Unable to get a good shot Tycho instead fired at the window frame to force him back.

For a moment there was no movement down in the plaza, but then Jane moved out from cover slowly, rifle at the ready. Tycho couldn’t help but smile at how much the girl had grown since he started to teach her, she might still a terrible negotiator but she could fight as well as a proper ranger, if not better. When she was about halfway between the car and the building a burst of laser fire erupted from the open door, a few hits catching her in the gut. Tycho swore, they had been too far in the building for him to see. At least the armour he had brought her was more resistant to lasers then her old stuff, she would probably still come away with a couple small burns.

To her credit Jane responded quickly, firing back a rapid burst into the building; from the looks of it not even aiming properly. It must have done the job however, as there was no more return fire from inside as Jane approached closer; Tycho still giving her what support he could, although that was quickly diminishing.

When she got too the door things went downhill fast. A super mutant leaped from beside the door, lunging at Jane with a large knife. Jane instinctively tried to guard herself with her arms, which did the trick and even disarmed her opponent; unfortunetly this was because the knife was now lodged in the side of Jane’s laser rifle, point coming clean out the other side.

Both the mutant and Jane stared down at the two weapons, now dropped on the ground, Tycho went to take aim at the mutant but was cut off when Jane leaped onto him with knives drawn, stabbing viciouslyat her opponent, driving him too the ground. Tycho was taken aback at the ferocity of her attack, he had seen people act like this before but he never expected to see the thoughtful girl to be one to succumb to it.

He wished he could do something to calm her from this dangerous rage but he needed to stay where he was in case Set decided to do something or more super mutants flanked Jane. They really needed too get some radios to stay in contact, file that under things to talk to Jane about.

A burst of bright flame shot from the building, catching the two combatants. Jane’s hair caught fire and she rolled away from the now burning super mutant and burst of flame. An armoured mutant walked out the building wielding a flamethrower and walked over too Jane’s crumpled form.

Jane’s face felt like it was on fire, which made sense due to the fact that part of it was. She rolled desperately trying too put herself out. She had dropped her knives somewhere but she couldn’t bring herself to care about that because the pain was just too much. She heard some shots from Tycho in the distance as she finally patted the flames in her hair down. She lay on her back with her eyes screwed shut, her lower right jaw and back of her neck where the worst of it but her entire face was burning. At least Tycho was keeping her safe for now, so she could take a breather-

Something grabbed her by the throat, not hard enough to suffocate her but enough to restrict her breathing. She finds herself looking down at the face of a supermutant dressed in a ridiculous amount of metal “armour”, who was grinning evilly up at her. A shot ricocheted off his armour and he span Jane around, using her as a human shield.He pulled Jane’s pistol from her holster, glanced at it, and put it in a pouch on his belt, well out of her reach.

“Well, you caused plenty of trouble didn’t you? Shame about the others, but they weren'tthe best examples of mutant kind. You though, I hope your a pure strain because, well lets just say we need people like you. Gotta wonder what reason someone like you is doing in a place like this, not that it matters I suppose. Now how do I deal with that friend of yours...” he said with a powerful, mocking voice.

Jane grabbed at his hand, fruitlessly trying to loosen his grip, as he walked back over too the door; she doubted she could deal with a regular man but whatever had changed the super mutants made her feel like an ant in his hand, only alive at his whim. One thing that she noticed while grasping at the hand was that there were gaps in the armour on his arm. His face, while currently shielded by her, was armoured currently, giving her a clear view of her face.

Jane could work with this, she might not have her first two knives but she still had the knife that she had been given back in Junktown. She had kept it in her boot, not the best place too keep it but it was hidden from casual view, and her captor would have no idea it was there.

She kicked out uselessly at her captor giving her a chance to pull the knife out and hide it behind her back as she drew her leg back for another kick when he bearly gave her a glance. She moved it about behind her, desperately hoping that Tycho would see the light reflected off it. She prayed to whatever god would listen and stabbed the Mutants unguarded wrist causing him to drop her with a shout of pain. Half a second later there was a crack of gunfire and the mutant dropped dead with a bullet in the head.

Jane fought to catch her breath quickly, struggerling to her feet despite the pain. She grabbed the knife from the ground as she walked to where she had hidden her backpack.She trusted Tycho to warn her if Set tried anything but with her laser rifle now broken, the feeling of loss pulled at her more then she would have expected, she was left with only her pistol and knives to defend herself with. A less then ideal situation, as she hadn’t been practising with ballistic weapons and was still fairly inaccurate.

She rushed back too the armoured mutant and retrieved her pistol, some caps, a holotape, and a radio; she put them away and entered the watershed, pausing for a moment before taking the remnants of her laser rife.

She held a knife loosely in her hand as she moved cautiously towards the back of the shed, where the purifiers should be. Her count had been accurate at least, there where no more mutants left in the building. The purifiers where not in the best shape, the attacked tanks had a few dents and the pumps where completely gutted and several wires had been torn out.

Jane felt almost relieved at the sight; this was a problem she knew how to deal with, something she was good at. She put her bag down, pulling out her various spare parts and scraps of cloth to lay them out on and clean them. Her collection of tools was next, it was not as complete as she would have liked for this but it should suffice; she could raid the underground ghoul’s tools if she really needed too.

She quickly checked the tanks, they seemed too be filled from pipes heading somewhere else as well as from these purifiers so they where mostly filled with water; she had no way of ensuring there where no leaks above the waterline so she moved on. The fusion core that powered the machines was still in the room, moved too a pile of mostly empty ammo boxes, so power shouldn’t be much of an issue. The power supply was a mess of wires and electrical components all knotted together, she had seen such a slap job in the depths of the vault once and had spent a month replacing it with a proper fix, but after a thorough inspection there was no visible damage.

Rebuilding the pump was the most daunting task, with no schematics and as busted up as they where she would have to piece them together only using her knowledge of how these things would work. At least she only had too get something that worked and not necessarily the original machine, and she knew she had enough parts.

It took her seven hours to get everything back in working order; seven hours of hard work, swearing, and, above all piece.

She knew it was probably a bad idea to let herself be drawn into her work while only nominally protected but she couldn’t help it. She needed this, to just let her worries drift away and have something to focus on; even her pain from the burn seemed less pressing. When she did finally get it working it was almost a shock to have no more work to do, the weight of her exhaustion and pain setting in all at once. Jane wanted to collapse too the ground and just not get back up, but she knew she had to go somewhere safer first.

She packed up her tools, spare parts, and the notes she had made while working; maybe the ghouls could make use of them. As she was leaving the body of a super mutant caught her attention, it was the one with the laser rifle that she had shot before her own was broken. The body was laying on top of the rifle, and while it looked a little scratched up it should still work. She rolled the body off the weapon and picked it up, it was heavier then her old one, probably would be slightly harder to aim too. But she could use it, it was a weapon and she needed one in a world like this.

The outside of the building was as she had left it, bodies of super mutants lay scattered in pools of blood in the moonlight. Apparently no one had been brave enough to enter the courtyard to clear it with the threat of a sniper. Or they just didn’t care yet, with how frail the ghouls looked moving the bodies would be quite a task to move them.

She made her way to a sewer entrance and back towards the underground ghouls.

Notes:

sorry it took me so long to update, I have been trying to build up a backlog and life keeps getting in the way. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, as always I love to hear feedback.

Chapter 14: Long Journeys, Dark Memories

Summary:

waterchip in hand, Jane finally can make her way back home.

The outcast ghouls where overjoyed when they returned, Dogmeat leaped towards from where they sat on the floor waiting for their return. As soon as Jane had her face patched up she made her way to the workshop to see if she could fix her rifle while she waited for the ghouls to retrieve the water chip.

It was an irrational move from a tired woman, even Jane could see that, but she had to try and fix it. She spent the next hour or so pulling it apart, taking note of the damage. The focussing array was completely useless, cracked lenses and compromised tubes left in a pile, but most of the circuitry at the back of the rifle was salvageable.

She felt numb looking at the piles of what was her weapon, something she had spent hours tweaking and cleaning after her nightmares, something she had pored herself into. It was gone now, even if it could be repaired it would feel different.

She glanced at a pile of rough, home made paper that sat on the workbench a while away along wit some drawing supplies. Hesitating only momentarily she pulled out a large handful of caps and placed them next too the pile before taking a portion of the pile, small enough for it to be somewhat reasonable but large enough to be easily noticeable.

She set one sheet aside, picked up a pencil, and began to draw the circuit diagram for her laser rifle. She had worked on it enough to know the rough design, if not the specifics, but with the parts there in front of her she managed to get everything down, including all her tweaks. The hardest part had been the focusing array, she decided it was important enough for her record that she improvised a blueprint next to the rest of the diagram.

It was messier then she would have liked, but then it had been a couple years since she had transcribed a circuit onto paper, a rare resource in the vault that could hardly be squandered on such things. She had taken some mentats that she had in the side of her pack since the vault about half way through her task, her exhaustion receding somewhat as the drug took effect.

“Oh hey smoothskin, didn’t expect too see you here.” a voice from behind startling her as she was going over resistor values. She turned to face a ghoul wearing a dirty jumpsuit with an armful of burnt, pre-war books. “Whatcha doing up? Your friend is already asleep. The dog too.”

Jane smiled at the ghoul “Sorry, I’ll get out of your way” she said beginning to clean up but the ghoul waved her down.

“Don’t worry about it smoothskin, just thought you would be asleep by now. Good work on the pump by the way; woulda taken me weeks to get that thing running.” he said as he set the books down on the workbench beside her “I am capable of getting lights and pipes hooked up but I’m a builder not a mechanic. What books we can get our hands on let me get by of course but It’s good to have a proper mechanic do it.”

Jane smiles tiredly “Certainly one of my more challenging jobs, I haven’t had a chance to deal with this kinda mess since I left the vault.” Jane said “So you’re the mechanic around here? What about the maintenance crew for the vault?”

“The Vault wasn’t meant to be a long term thing for us, so we just had some manuals for us handy people in case stuff went wrong.” the ghoul explains as he began to pull some machinery out from below the bench and set it out “Of course the damn door didn’t close, so it was all kinda useless anyway. Whole vault got cooked and now we all look like walking courpses; there where a few other technical minded folk of course but they’re gone one way or another, mostly just me and a collection of manuals now.” he waved over to a bookshelf with a few books in various conditions.

He set the last machine on the bench and turned to face Jane with a smile, “So would you like too learn how to make recycled paper and bind books? Not the most useful skill but its the least I could do to thank you.” Jane paused, considering the offer.

“Okay” she said as she packed her stuff up “Let me just put this stuff away” it was amazing how much Mentats allowed her to push aside the things she didn’t want too think about, allowing her full focus to be on learning what the old ghoul was teaching. For a the moment there was no weight of death on her shoulders, nor the vault’s problem, nor grasping hands of her dreams; simply work to do.

It wasn’t until three days from necropolis that Jane came up with the idea to combine the two laser rifles. The Wattz 2000 laser rifle was for the most part in working condition, even if it could do with some maintenance, while her old AER9 was more accurately described as spare parts. However the AER9’s microfusion cell loading mechanise was still entirely intact, as was the circuitry for dealing with the power. This would mean that in addition to E-microfusion cells the laser rifle could be run off C-microfusion cells, allowing for not only more diversity in ammunition but effectivelydoubling the ammo capacity of the weapon. And with the way the safety of the weapon worked, simply having a switch breaking the circuit when it was turned on, it would be a simple task alter it so the two power circuits could be switched between.

Of course this would make fully reloading the weapon a clunky endevar; but still allowing for partial reloads while in combat situations. The designing phase was longer then Jane would have liked, but as it also allowed her too complete the maintenance on the rifle she was hesitantly satisfied with her progress. Minimising how much sleep she was getting is favour of getting work done with the help of mentats also lessened her worries about having no working firearms.

The lack of sleep was certainly affecting Jane, she yawned more often and found herself less focused then usual; Tycho had even had to wake her up a couple of times now. The lack of nightmares was certainly worth it, as was the newly modified laser rifle that had, after a few shots of getting used to the new design, already proved its worth against a group of bandits.The weight of a working water chip in her pack was both reassuring and stressful, it reminded her how important her mission was too the vault and how fragile there existence was.

She found herself drinking the nuka-cola that she found along the way, it might be flat and irradiated but it was caffeinated, enough too keep her mostly focused at least. Combined with the comforting control the mentats gave her, Jane was able to keep herself from putting her or Tycho in any danger.

Tycho seemed to be picking up on her new habits, however, as she saw him giving her concerned looks as they travelled. She only ever just caught him but she could almost feel his gaze each time. She wished that he wouldn't look at her like that, she wasn’t the week girl that left the vault. She found herself gingerly rubbing at the remains of her short, uneven hair, wincing slightly as her fingers touched the tender flesh of her neck through the bandages.

Stim packs had healed the lesser burns on her face easily, allowing her too actually go into the sun without it hurting, but the deeper burns would have to heal by themselves. They had drawn a few odd looks when they met anyone on the road but as long as she kept them clean then things would be fine; an easy task when she was in the depths of mentats.

They where on the final stretch back to the vault, Tycho seemed happy to go to the vault with her and see how a vault ran. She was just happy to give him a chance to be rewarded for his work as she knew that he would refuse any payment that she would personally give him.

There was only Shady Sands left before they made it too the relative safety of the vault, and Jane would be lying if she wasn’t looking forward to talking to Tandy again. Maybe after everything that had happened the overseer would open the door for trade, the fault in the chip had certainly showed that they needed the outside support, and she could get herself a role in the caravans. But then she was longing to be back in the depths of the vault, surrounded by technology that she could keep together.

The pair came up on a ridge and Jane smiled, she could see the walls of Shady Sands in the distance; they would get to sleep under a roof tonight.

“Wanderer!” Seth’s voice called out, a mixture of excitement and panic, as they got too the gate. The guards didn’t recognise her in her new armour and seemed on edge but soon seemed to relax when she identified herself, leading to someone getting the head of the guard.

“We are so glad to see you wanderer. Come, Aradesh will want to speak with you” Seth said as soon as they where close leading the way at a hurried pace. Jane glanced at Tycho as she felt a sinking feeling in her chest before rushing after the guard.

The group is quickly ushered into the room where the leader of shady sands was sitting with a rough map, looking up as they entered. “Ah wanderer! It is good to see you, please sit, sit.” Aradesh said with a sense of urgency as he gestured at some chairs. As Jane sat she could clearly see that the man was tired and stressed, she hoped that she could ease the man’s troubles.

“It is good to see you wanderer, even in such dark times as these. I see that your travels have left you with the scars of conflict, both of the body and the mind. Where these better times I would not ask of you aid. Alas these are dark times wanderer, and I ask you to help us. My daughter, Tandi, has been takes by raiders that call themselves ‘the khans’.” Jane felt her blood run cold, she and Tycho had encountered some raiders in there travels and the visions of the night in Junktown creeping in from the depths of her mind.

Jane stood abruptly, startling the two men. “Where?” she growls with a white knuckled grip on the table “Show me.” Aradesh blinks at her for a second before pointing at a point marked on the map. Jane notes the location on the map and takes note of it on her pip-boy and turns to her gear. Shouldering her Laser rifle and grabbing a handful of medical supplies she trusts the pack into Tycho’s chest. “Here, if I don’t come back take the water chip to the vault. The password will be ‘oasis’, no capitals. And if they give you shit just tell them that they sent me out here so they don’t get to complain when I have to send someone else in with the chip.”

“Jane, slow down. Your rushing in without thinking about it. Lets take a step back and think through the plan carefully.” he said in a calming voice, carefully putting her pack on the ground. Jane shook her head “We don’t have time to plan, she is in that camp right now. I refuse to let her be there any longer then she needs to, you know what type of men that have her.”

“Well then, lets get going.” he said, reaching for his rifle only to be stopped by Jane “No, I need to you to stay here and take the chip to my vault in case something happens to me.” Tycho opened his mouth to reply but stopped when Jane held her hand up “Please Tycho. I can’t ignore this, I need to get her out of there as soon as possible. At the same time I can not risk the safety of my vault, they need the water chip to survive.” Tycho looked unconvinced.

“Tycho listen to me. I get that rushing in is dangerous and stupid, but that’s why I want you to stay. I get that you want to plan, but you have no idea what its like, being in her situation.” Tycho was taken aback at that, but after a moments pause he sighed “very well, we will do things your way kid. But if you don’t come back I am going to look for you after the chip is safely returned.”

Chapter 15: The Not So Great Khans

Summary:

Replacement water chip in hand, Jane and Tycho make their way back to the vault. What was supposed to be a night in shady sands quickly spirals out of control.

The lack of sleep was certainly affecting Jane, she yawned more often and found herself less focused then usual; Tycho had even had to wake her up a couple of times now. The lack of nightmares was certainly worth it, as was the newly modified laser rifle that had, after a few shots of getting used to the new design, already proved its worth against a group of bandits.The weight of a working water chip in her pack was both reassuring and stressful, it reminded her how important her mission was too the vault and how fragile there existence was.

She found herself drinking the nuka-cola that she found along the way, it might be flat and irradiated but it was caffeinated, enough too keep her mostly focused at least. Combined with the comforting control the mentats gave her, Jane was able to keep herself from putting her or Tycho in any danger.

Tycho seemed to be picking up on her new habits, however, as she saw him giving her concerned looks as they travelled. She only ever just caught him but she could almost feel his gaze each time. She wished that he wouldn't look at her like that, she wasn’t the week girl that left the vault. She found herself gingerly rubbing at the remains of her short, uneven hair, wincing slightly as her fingers touched the tender flesh of her neck through the bandages.

Stim packs had healed the lesser burns on her face easily, allowing her too actually go into the sun without it hurting, but the deeper burns would have to heal by themselves. They had drawn a few odd looks when they met anyone on the road but as long as she kept them clean then things would be fine; an easy task when she was in the depths of mentats.

They where on the final stretch back to the vault, Tycho seemed happy to go to the vault with her and see how a vault ran. She was just happy to give him a chance to be rewarded for his work as she knew that he would refuse any payment that she would personally give him.

There was only Shady Sands left before they made it too the relative safety of the vault, and Jane would be lying if she wasn’t looking forward to talking to Tandy again. Maybe after everything that had happened the overseer would open the door for trade, the fault in the chip had certainly showed that they needed the outside support, and she could get herself a role in the caravans. But then she was longing to be back in the depths of the vault, surrounded by technology that she could keep together.

The pair came up on a ridge and Jane smiled, she could see the walls of Shady Sands in the distance; they would get to sleep under a roof tonight.

“Wanderer!” Seth’s voice called out, a mixture of excitement and panic, as they got too the gate. The guards didn’t recognise her in her new armour and seemed on edge but soon seemed to relax when she identified herself, leading to someone getting the head of the guard.

“We are so glad to see you wanderer. Come, Aradesh will want to speak with you” Seth said as soon as they where close leading the way at a hurried pace. Jane glanced at Tycho as she felt a sinking feeling in her chest before rushing after the guard.

The group is quickly ushered into the room where the leader of shady sands was sitting with a rough map, looking up as they entered. “Ah wanderer! It is good to see you, please sit, sit.” Aradesh said with a sense of urgency as he gestured at some chairs. As Jane sat she could clearly see that the man was tired and stressed, she hoped that she could ease the man’s troubles.

“It is good to see you wanderer, even in such dark times as these. I see that your travels have left you with the scars of conflict, both of the body and the mind. Where these better times I would not ask of you aid. Alas these are dark times wanderer, and I ask you to help us. My daughter, Tandi, has been takes by raiders that call themselves ‘the khans’.” Jane felt her blood run cold, she and Tycho had encountered some raiders in there travels and the visions of the night in Junktown creeping in from the depths of her mind.

Jane stood abruptly, startling the two men. “Where?” she growls with a white knuckled grip on the table “Show me.” Aradesh blinks at her for a second before pointing at a point marked on the map. Jane notes the location on the map and takes note of it on her pip-boy and turns to her gear. Shouldering her Laser rifle and grabbing a handful of medical supplies she trusts the pack into Tycho’s chest. “Here, if I don’t come back take the water chip to the vault. The password will be ‘oasis’, no capitals. And if they give you shit just tell them that they sent me out here so they don’t get to complain when I have to send someone else in with the chip.”

“Jane, slow down. Your rushing in without thinking about it. Lets take a step back and think through the plan carefully.” he said in a calming voice, carefully putting her pack on the ground. Jane shook her head “We don’t have time to plan, she is in that camp right now. I refuse to let her be there any longer then she needs to, you know what type of men that have her.”

“Well then, lets get going.” he said, reaching for his rifle only to be stopped by Jane “No, I need to you to stay here and take the chip to my vault in case something happens to me.” Tycho opened his mouth to reply but stopped when Jane held her hand up “Please Tycho. I can’t ignore this, I need to get her out of there as soon as possible. At the same time I can not risk the safety of my vault, they need the water chip to survive.” Tycho looked unconvinced.

“Tycho listen to me. I get that rushing in is dangerous and stupid, but that’s why I want you to stay. I get that you want to plan, but you have no idea what its like, being in her situation.” Tycho was taken aback at that, but after a moments pause he sighed “very well, we will do things your way kid. But if you don’t come back I am going to look for you after the chip is safely returned.”

Jane lay on a hill overlooking the camp, watching the movement of the guards. Despite her urgency she wasn’t going to run in blindly, but she couldn't justify to herself spending too much time here without action. There was no way that she could sneak into the camp, more a compound then a camp really. The raiders had set up in a surprisingly well preserved police station, a collection of tents set up around the front. A logical place when you wanted to hold prisoners, assuming the cells where in a good enough state to be secure.

Looking down at the crude map she had drawn in the sand next to her with her knife she stabbed it in frustration. She needed to do something, Tandi had already been in there for far to long for her liking. She was getting nothing from just sitting here, her attempts at guessing guard patrol patterns and counting the people present where pointless. Her thoughts consistently drifting back to the horror that Tandi must be feeling, the horror that Jane herself had felt. Apparently even mentats had there limits.

So she did the only thing she knew to do, swallowed a handful of mentats, waited a moment for the clarity and speed of thought that they provided, and stood up.

She could see movement out the corner of her eyes, where Dogmeat had been laying just beside her. She gestured for him to keep low and move around, the movement stilled momentarily before starting again, this time moving out of her view. One of the raiders seemed to notice her despite his drowsy state, he straitened up and grabbed his rifle from where it was leaning, crying out the alarm.

Jane was ready for this; she fired off two beams from her rifle hitting the raider in the chest and neck, dropping him instantly. Moving forwards Jane fires at another guard while making her way to cover. Guards started to move towards her position, bullets filling the air. A few found their mark, hitting her chest but bouncing off without piercing her armour. Jane emptied her Laser Rifle’s power cells into the guards, taking two down and wounding a two or three more, before ducking into cover to reload.

As she reloaded Jane took the time to better evaluate the situation, she was currently behind a pile of boxes on the edge of camp with no real cover between her and the police station that she could see. Of course there where the tents that she could hide behind but they would do nothing to stop a projectile. Glancing to the side she spotted Dogmeat creeping around to the side of the main group of guards, seemingly unnoticed as of yet. The laser rifle hummed quietly in her hands as the microfusion cell was inserted and Jane quickly moved to the side of the cover.

One of the guards was aiming where she leaned out so she shot him first, the mentats letting her think fast enough to take aim before he could get a proper shot off. She fired into the main group of guards a few more times before ducking back into cover, using the break in enemy fire to look around and locate other hostiles. She noticed two woman armed with spears moving between tents, so when she ducked back into cover she repositioned to get a better line of sight and then fired into the open tent they had been behind last.

Not waiting to see if her shot had connected with a living target Jane reloaded once again, hearing bullets crashing around her, her cover beginning to splinter. Taking a deep breath Jane leaped from her cover, dashing around the building and towards the raiders with her rifle raised.

Dogmeat lunged at the leg of one of the remaining raiders causing them to cry out, aim being thrown off and drawing the attention of two of his companions. Jane quickly took care of them, the detraction allowing her to take aim enough to hit vital points without wasting any shots. She rushes over to where the group had been taking cover behind the corner as more gunfire bursts from her left. Peering out around the corner she sees two men with SMGs, taking turns in firing bursts to keep her pinned.

Jane lent into the corner and gritted her teeth, from the quick glance she got she could tell that the weapons would be able to tear through her armour with enough effort; a task no doubt achievable between the two men had they enough of a chance. She idly patted Dogmeat’s head as she thought through the situation. She couldn’t stay here, they would outflank her quickly and she had no idea how many more raiders would be in the camp.

A sudden shift in the air caused Jane to throw herself forward just in time, the stopping of gunfire giving her the warning she needed to avoid the lunge from a spear at the cost of her balance. Cursing Jane turned to face the attacker only to be met by another spear in her lower gut, between the ridged plates on her torso and her hip, knocking the wind out of her. Jane doubles over, her weapon falling from her hands as she groans in pain, thankful that the advanced materials of the jumpsuit kept the blade from cutting into her flesh.

Jane rolled to the side, putting some distance between her and the woman with the spear “Where do you think you’re going dead meat?” the raider asked as she slams her foot down, pinning Jane to the ground. Dogmeat yelps in pain, and Jane could barley move her head to see the spear thrust in his direction. “Down Boy, down!” another voice snarls as Dogmeat whimpers causing one of the raiders to laugh “Yeah that’s right! we’re going to have ourselves some dog meat stew!”

Jane pulled her knife from its sheath, jamming it blindly into the meaty part of the raiders leg. The raider cried out in pain and flinched back, jerking the knife out of Jane’s hand but the removal of pressure from her back allowed her to move. She scrambled away, pulling her second knife out and falling into a fighting stance shielded from the guns by the building as she takes in the situation.

Dogmeat had a spear embedded in his chest, still held by the raider who had thrust it in, and had collapsed to the ground. The raider that she had stabbed was now on her knee, glaring up at her with a white knuckle grip on her spear. The other raider looked at her for a second and tried to pull the spear out, but the blade seemed to be lodged in Dogmeat’s side.

Jane steps forward, grasping the shaft of the spear near the tip and shifting it aside she steps around and into the opening she made with her knife already arching towards the raiders throat. “You bitch! I’ll-” was all the raider got out in the time it takes for Jane to move and her blade to slice open her throat. A grunt of effort and a whimper of pain are all Jane needs to spin to the other raider, her bloody spear now free and turning to point at Jane, the raiders face twisted into a wicked grin. Jane took a step back, over the gurgling raider, and turned towards her gun throwing the blade in her hand as she spun.

The throw was accurate enough thanks to her mentat enhanced mind to delay the raider enough for her to bend to collect her rifle and take aim before the raider could close the distance. She waited for a heartbeat before firing, the rush of power in her hands humming for another before the laser cracked the air and vaporised the raider’s head. Spotting a grenade hanging from the belt Jane stooped down and pulled it off as she approached the corner, throwing it blindly out towards the raiders had been standing as soon as she was able to get her had around the edge.

She doubted that the grenade actually injured anyone, but as soon as it went off Jane was around the corner, spotting her targets and taking aim before she was noticed. Not wanting to be torn apart but the gun fire Jane simply emptied her gun into the two men, tearing them apart with a hail of lasers rather then getting precise shots off. She moved back towards the knife still embedded in the raiders leg while reloading, collecting her two knives and slinging the now loaded rifle onto her back Jane moved to where Dogmeat lay whimpering.

She could tell from a glance that the would was fatal, although Dogmeat was still hanging onto life it was obvious that he would not survive much longer. Blood soaked the ground beneath him and he was struggling to breathe, pain filled whines and whimpers the only sound he made. Jane gently stroked his side, struggling to push aside emotion as her eyes began to tear up. The knife slid in easily, Dogmeat stilling a moment later.

Jane pulled herself too her feet, cleaning her knife on before putting it away and holding her rifle as she walked around the building. A group of four raiders stood outside the door, looking around the carnage that Jane had left. She didn’t hesitate in firing at the group, taking slow measured shots to aim for places between the armour plates; an easier task then would normally be the case due to the crude nature of the armour leaving vulnerable body parts unguarded.

Silence fell as the last raider fell to the ground that held for a few seconds before a roar of rage comes from inside the building, women screaming in response, door flying open. A man, muscle bound and angry now looked at her; his eyes burning at herwith the rage and subtly of nuclear fire. He aims a large calibre pistol at Jane “You bitch! You slaughtered my men!” he shouted as she hesitated when she saw that he was also wearing combat armour.

A shot rings out, catching Jane in the shin, making her fall too her knee. “YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! You know how hard it was to get them all under my control?” another shot hits her shoulder “I fucking killed my father to get control of those men, and some nobody bitch with a fucking laser rifle kills them?” Jane turns her body with the force of the bullet and fires her rifle, knocking the gun out of the raider leader’s hand. The man looked at his now empty hand in obvious shock, Jane levelling her rifle at him and firing several shots into the ballistic fabric between the plates. The fabric held for a couple of shots before looking singed, and another before it gave way, roasting the man’s insides.

Jane stood with a groan, bruisesalready forming as she reloaded her rifle and approached the door. The inside of the building had been completely gutted, what would have contained a reception area being turned into a throne room with a boxing ring in one corner. Two women cowered behind some furniture in the room wearing what could only be generously described as rags. Jane made an effort to appear less threatening, lowering her weapon she spoke as she searched for keys “Don’t worry, I am not here to hurt you.” she almost was surprised how flat and emotionless her voice was; of course it made sense with how much she was using the mentats to suppress them, and any surprise she had felt would have been suppressed along with the rest.

“There gone?” one of the women asks as she slowly stood up to get a better look at Jane. Jane nodded and the two women looked at each other “so, we can go? You’re not going to stop us?” the other asks hesitantly.

“Look I don’t care what you do, I came here to save someone from the Khans. I’m glad that you are freed as well and if you want to follow me back to Shady Sands you are welcome to, and any loot you can find here is yours; God knows you both need it more then me. Now do you know where the keys to the cells are?” the women looked at her with an expression of awe, standing still for a moment until one of them ran off to a draw and rummaged around.

“Here, this will work. We will gather up stuff while you free the rest of them.” she says as she trust a key into a Jane’s hands, who nodded and moved to the door at the side of the room.

The cells where half filled with unfortunate farmers and travlers, most of whom where women. Noticing that many of the prisoners flinched away from the door, hiding in corners and cowering behind what little furniture there was, Jane slung her rifle over her shoulder after a quick search of the room. “Okay I am going to let you all out now, you’re all free to do what you want from here.” she yelled before she moved to open the first door. The two people in the cell watch her as she walks to the next door, scurrying out as she gets there.

She moves quickly, opening door after door in quick succession, with the inhabitants of the cells moving quickly out. “Jane?” a voice asked from behind her as she double checked the remaining cells “Is that really you?” she turned do see a dirtied and tired looking Tandi. Jane smiles, letting her emotions creep back in from the back of her mind.

“Hey, I heard you needed some help so I decided to come pay a visit.” her smile fades as emotions start to come rushing back from the fight, “As soon as I heard what had happened I had to rush over and do something. I know what it’s like to be helpless and at the mercy of people like this, so I had to do something.” Jane leant against the wall, closing her eyes to try and hold back the tears.

“Are you okay?” Tandi asked as she lay a gentle hand on Jane’s shoulder “Ah damn it, please be okay. I really don’t know anything about medicine.”

Jane chuckled and slid down the wall, removing her helmet. “Don’t worry, nothing that won’t heal. The whole mission didn’t as well as I planned is all, or more my lack of planing fucking me up.” Tandi sat down opposite her

“Oh, well, at least you are doing better then after the radscorpions then. But well, you have gone a long way since I last saw you Jane. You where just a girl like me, out on a quest to save your home. And now look at you, man the stories you must have to tell.” Jane laughed.

“I missed you Tandi” Jane said with a smile “That sense of enthusiasm would have been wonderful out there in the wastes”

“Yeah well, I missed you to. You’re not like the other people who wander into town you know? You turned up in town and go out of your way to help us, there’s not many who would have done the same” Jane felt her face redden as her eyes met Tandi’s “I know my dad will thank you on behalf of the town and all, but I just want to say thanks personally.So thanks, Jane, for being you.”

“Wait, you have actually seen a deathclaw? There real?!” Jane couldn’t but help smile at Tandi’s excitement and awe, she had been telling her about her journey through the wastes and answering some questions. They where accompanied by some of the other prisoners, the ones who had no where to go opting to follow Jane with what they salvaged from the raider camp.

“Killed one actually, definitely a harder fight then some radscorpions. They look at you and can paralyse you with fear, bringing up all your worst memories. I can’t tell you how I escaped that, only that I was lucky that I managed to force my body to fire my rifle and startle us out of the trance. From there the fight was chaotic and messy, as always, and I ended up nearly dying. Got some nasty looking scars from it, I’d show you but they are hardly in an appropriate place for casual viewing.”

Tandi laughed at this, making Jane’s heart flutter. This trip may have been one of the best things to happen to her since she left the Vault where it not for the loss of Dogmeat, and the mentats where doing a wonderful job keeping those thoughts suppressed. Despite that she did enjoy the conversation with Tandi, it was a nice departure from the constant conflict that she had been facing since she left the safety of the vault.

“Wow, its amazing that you have done so much out there. I guess the wasteland is a little more dangerous then I thought huh? When I wished that the town would get more exciting this isn’t what I expected.” Tandi said “Well I guess its back to brahma farming, I am really not cut out for the lifestyle of a wastelander.”

Jane looked over at the tired looking young woman she was walking with “Hey, its not that bad. Yeah the town may seem fairly boring now but who’s to say that you cant make it exciting? You have the power to expand it now that the khans are dead, it might be a slow process but it is bound to be exciting in a way that is much safer then exploring the wasteland.”

“Wait, you really think that we will be able to expand the town now? My dad has given up expanding for a while, we just never had the firepower or the man power to deal with raiders.” Tandi paused and looked back at the other woman following her, all holding various things from the raider camp, before turning back quickly with a smile. “but one of the major raider gangs have been dealt with, and we have access to all the supplies they had. We can use them to help fortify the town and arm ourselves!”

Jane looked at Tandi and smiled wider, seeing that she was obviously thinking about the possibilities that had had been opened up by the shift in power. She left her companion to think for the remainder of the walk, keeping her eyes moving and watching for any approaching threats. Despite the relative safety of the region it gave her something to do other then focus on the woman walking beside her, knowing that she could get obsessive about people she was crushing on.

It really shouldn’t have been a surprise that she had been fostering a crush on one of the only girls around her age that she had interacted with since she had left the vault, especially as she had been one of the few positive things to have happened. But then again the subtitles of human interaction where a mystery to her, she was well aware that she had gotten to where she was because of Tycho and shear force of will. Of course now that she was aware of her feelings she felt awkward just standing next too Tandi, dear god since when had she been so tall?

By the time the tired and battered group had gotten close enough to the town to be spotted for the guards to get a good look at them Tandi had her face set with a determined expression, although her face was still thoughtful Jane thought that she had come to a conclusion. In the dim light of dawn figures could be seen moving out of the town’s gate, although she could not see them clearly enough Jane could tell that Tycho would be among them.

She felt a little bit of guilt as the thought of her companion reminded her of Dogmeat, and she pushed it away for later along with the accompanying sadness. She wished that she could have given Dogmeat a proper burial, but she hardly knew anything other then just burning the body. The guards from the town meet them well before they made it two the gates and helped the exhausted men and women back into the town. Tycho was with them, thankfully only giving her an appraising look before moving to help. She knew talking about what happened would be an emotional thing more suited for the privacy of a camp.

Basically the entire town was there to great them as they returned with a fair amount of cheer, given that one of the biggest threats in the region had been destroyed it was something that she should have expected. “Oh wanderer you saved her!” Aradesh cried out as he pushes through the crowd “A thousand thanks wanderer, there is nothing I could do to ever repay what you have done for me this day. Shady sands will always be open for you, and while I have little of value to give I have this to give you.” he hands over a full backpack “Supplies and what caps I could spare from the town.”

Jane put the bag on and nodded at the elderly man. “Now, there are many people to deal with, so I must take my leave. Wanderer, until we meet again.” he said before walking away to the rest of the group.

“I really should thank you again” Tandi said after her father had left “Not only did you save me but you inspired me to help out more around Shady Sands, so thanks.”

Thankful that her cheecks where already red Jane shrugged with a smile. “I don’t think I did much to help you with the town really, I am sure that you would have figured something out by yourself.” Tandi smiled at her, and Jane made a decision. “So, I know I don’t exactly live close by or anything but would like to get together sometime? Like a date?”

Tandi froze, her eyes locking on to Jane’s. “Listen” she begain “uh, but… I-I like guys, okay?” giving an audible sigh Tandi visibly relaxed, “um excuse me, I have… things to do.” Jane nodded dumbly as Tandi moved away into the crowed quickly, standing numbly as people come up to thank her.

“you okay kid?” Tyche asked after the last of the freed prisoners had thanked her “You have been standing here since the girl left the square in a rush, want to turn it in for the day? You’ve earneda rest.”

Jane pauses and looks over the crowd once more before shaking her head. “No. I think I am going to get the water chip home as soon as possible. You kept it safe?”

“Of course. Why, did you doubt me?” he asked with a teasing smile Jane let out a quiet chuckle and shook her head before his face turned serous again. “You really should sleep before we head out kid, you look exhausted.”

“I want to go home Tycho. I am so close to being done with my mission, the part that my vault needs to survive is in my hands.” she turned to face the rough direction of the vault “I am so close to saving my home, I don’t want to delay any more.” with that Jane left the square to collect her gear. Tycho followed her reluctantly.

Notes:

Oh ah hey, this isn't dead i guess? I have a couple more chapters written and i have been writing it on and off around my original work and uni. i want to finish this and my planned incorporation of wasteland 2 into the fallout timeline at the very least but we will see how that goes.

Chapter 16: Authors Note

So, its been a while.

 

Most of you probably thought this was abandoned, and being honest so did I. But I've finally finished university and have found myself floating while I look for work, add in a play through of Wasteland 3 and I find myself thinking of this story. So i blew the dust off my old laptop, pulled out the hard drive, and unearthed my original document.

I had a chapter, maybe two, of unedited stuff, and as I went through editing it I realized that I just cant write in the same style as I had been writing five years ago. Additionally the earlier chapters just read badly to me after five years of writing.

 

So I decided to rewrite the entire thing.

 

As of posting I have rewritten the first two chapters (linked in the series below) and hope to have more up soon.

 

Here's hoping the addition of ADHD meds help me actually finish this time.

Notes:

Thanks for taking the time to read my write up of fallout! the plan is to write the entire series in a similar fashion, however reworking much of the story of Bethesda's games and using more classic fallout lore. Some things that differ from the cannon here will have an effect on subsequent stories, such as Tandi having better memories of the vault dweller because there is no need to be ambiguous about them to suit everyone's experience with the first game.

a few things to note; firstly i purposefully have misused 'clip' instead of 'magazine' to show Jane's inexperience. secondly i have dysgraphia so while i will be editing this as best i can there will certainly be errors, feel free to point them out to me and i will do my best to get them fixed.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of The Vault Dweller