Chapter 1: Prologue: You May Find Yourself
Notes:
---PROLOGUE NOT TECHNICALLY REQUIRED---
---PLEASE SKIP STRAIGHT TO NEXT CHAPTER---
Chapter Text
“One day.” The words were so simple yet meant so much.
“You have one day all to yourself.” Faraday was explaining the regular dos and don’ts of the day ahead. “Don’t get into trouble, don’t do anything you wouldn’t normally, don’t pick fights with people…”
Well, more don’ts.
The excitement was too much, she couldn’t wait to go outside and see her friends again; confined within Acadia’s monumental observatory had been a rough couple of weeks.
But now, CASSI was gone, and it was just Chloe.
I have one day all to myself.
“…remember to always stick to the roads unless there is a fight in the area and- “
“Faraday, you know she has traversed the island many times, she has grown up outside of Far Harbour.” The old synth sat up from his modified chair, finally coming into view of the eager young synth.
“DiMA, you have no idea how much this means to me.” The joy radiating from her words.
He acknowledged her with a nod before standing to say his goodbyes.
As they embraced, she held tightly to the sprockets of his modified back. The metallic, fragile nature of them was something she had come accustomed to whilst staying here.
“Thank you DiMA.” The old synth chuckled in response.
“Now, go have your day.”
With that and a ‘good luck’ from Chase, Chloe was out, free from herself for one day.
The journey down the mountain and back to the relay pad was, for once, a pleasant experience. No more were those intrusive thoughts laid by CASSI devastatingly close to becoming reality. No more were the nightmarish daydreams haunted by the destruction and chaos she reigned.
With every step Chloe took, it felt like the weight had been well and truly lifted.
As she neared the corner, towards the small outcrop where the relay pad lay in wait for her return, the fog had parted immensely, showing the clear sky above and the sun, shining ever so brightly overhead. She would be happy this day. Happy to venture back into the Commonwealth and onto her desired destination.
As the relay pad lowly hummed under her, she entered the final command that would send her where she wished to go.
I have one day.
It was time to go meet some old friends in Eaden.
Chapter Text
A flash of light slammed down in front of the mainframe, the wires hanging above swaying lightly as electricity crackled around them. Another of the teleporters had been successfully linked and had given the two men a floating green ammunitions cache.
“MAX AMMO”, A demonic voice declared from above.
“Ammunition for all comrades!” A jovial and drunk-looking man stated towards the other that had joined him down in the main courtyard, stepping off the mainframe.
“Much appreciated Nikolai,” The man reciprocated with a nod in return, “How ‘bout we go get somethin’ to eat; I’m not doing watch on an empty stomach.” The younger man said whilst he checked his weapon’s clip and stepped down.
“I’ll drink to that, hell I’ll drink to anything,” He replied as another man joined the two from the side ramp.
“Richtofen is requesting us to meet for what is to be done next”.
“Thanks, Tak,” gesturing for the drunk to follow, “c’mon Nikolai, guess food will have to wait a bit longer huh?”
The drunk, begrudging to join the others in favour of food, agreed on the condition that they would be eating something descent tonight… and that he would get more vodka.
So, the three men went off, making their way through the facility to listen to what The Doctor had tasked for them to do.
A clock loomed over the main courtyard. In the eerie stillness of the night, it incessantly ticked in the background, never moving past 1:15.
…And 45 seconds.
Nothing.
Unnervingly quiet.
The exposed overhead wires lightly sparking in the silence.
Slowly, energy running through them; A snake towards the mainframe, the wires creaking as the current lazily twisted around.
Life traversing the cables, branching out across the facility in search for its target.
Finally...
The teleporter whirred to life as electricity pulsed through it.
The raw energy dancing around, flashing as electrical currents reached out into the air, grasping at nothing.
A figure began to form.
With a flash of light up to the heavens, Chloe had arrived.
Not where she wanted to be.
The P.A system rang out across the facility, “Teleport successful.”
The sound was heard from where the men were walking; the P.A. system telling them a teleporter had been recently used didn’t help their nerves nor did the fact that there were only the three of them at this point in time.
Had Richtofen used the teleporter?
Yeah, he would do that considering how many times he had called them all useless in the past few days.
The youngest man of the three decided to speak up, “Hey guys, do you think we should go back and check if Richtofen hadn’t just used the teleporter?”
The two men in front turned to face him. The idea was ludicrous, yes. But there was no denying The Doctor’s patience ran thin at the lack of co-ordination between the three to link all the teleporters; it had been only two days, and they had only just connected the third one.
“He does not like when we take too long that is for certain, but he had just told me to find you both!” The older man retorted.
“And how long did you go running around facility trying to find us Takeo?” The drunk sneered towards the older man.
“You disappoint me Russian; I ran as soon as I was told.” Confronting the drunk.
Before any more bickering between the two could escalate further, the younger man suggested that they could at least see if anything had happened and check if it weren’t a false report by the P.A. “Let’s just go and check. I’m sure the kraut can wait a few minutes.”
With that, they started their journey back to the mainframe, in search of the answers they hoped to find; Richtofen waiting for them, then immediately chastising them for being complete morons before telling them what they needed to do. They really hoped it wouldn’t be something else.
The Doctor was in his office, mulling over the papers he had managed to gather from around the facility. It wasn’t much considering he had simply taken documents of interest to himself, but the pile was rather large, nonetheless.
“Teleport successful.”
He slowly looked up from his formerly engrossing work. Something very big had just happened.
What had those imbeciles done now? An unauthorised teleportation? Of course they would.
He got up, taking is visor from the side of the desk and neatly stacking the papers he was reading,
He walked out of the office and down the corridor, as readied himself for his soon yelling at the incompetent group.
A bit dazed from the previous excitement and the realisation still dawning, Chloe suddenly began to panic. Methodically:
Okay... not Eaden. Nor anywhere in The Commonwealth.
The teleport was not unsuccessful, so it must have been hijacked. How? Who would be advanced enough to do this?
The Enclave? Dead and gone on the eastern side; it cannot be them.
The Brotherhood of Steel? They do take anything technological... A scouting party maybe? They could be of Arthur Maxson's order unless they were from Lyons.
Could it be an off shoot? A rebel group? Deserters?
She paced around the pad, hoping to figure out just what had gone wrong.
Not one group has this kind of technology! How in the world did the Brotherhood of Steel gain access to a teleporter?
I mean, this place is more industrial than I thought. Definitely a good base camp for them.
Yeah, they would do this wouldn’t they?
Looking at the sides, she decided to at least tackle the glaring issue of reading the console.
Wait, footsteps? They’ve decided to come greet me already.
Considering they hold a grudge against me, guess they've also come to kill me. Figures I’d end up in a BoS base of operations.
Without turning around, she addressed the brotherhood soldiers with a simple explanation, "I seem to have gone to the wrong place, please excuse my arrival and continue whatever you were doing before I was here…”
Her attention firmly on understanding the crude non-existent labelling of the console.
"I'll be off now."
Don't do anything stupid.
Attempting to set the controls for the actual destination she wished to be right now.
As it whirred to life beneath her, lighting up the surrounding area, the P.A. system again, sounded over the facility, “Teleport unsuccessful. Teleporter link lost. Re-link the teleporters.”
Unbeknownst to Chloe, who had not a care in the world to deal with Brotherhood soldiers at this minute, did not notice that the men, seeing that this mystery woman had not left, had approached cautiously towards her and the mainframe.
That never happens! To be fair, this is a crackpot attempt at building a teleporter. The molecular de-materialiser must not be aligned properly for it to relay…
Her thoughts were cut short by one of the soldier’s voices, "Who the f*ck are you?"
Her attention still securely on the console made no attempt at conversing with the strangers.
"So, I am not drunk, there is woman here?" One of them stated.
“Good observation Russian, you are not as blind as you seem.” Another replied.
Coming to the realisation that they hadn’t shot her yet, Chloe decided on another method, just to make sure she had the right people before she could leave for good. With a little schhhhh sound and a sudden hyper-awareness of her surroundings only the Vault Tech Assisted Targeting System could provide, her V.A.T.S was online.
Pouring over the first soldier, his build was quite muscular, extremely short cut dirty blonde hair, a green shirt, the sleeves of it rolled up with a grey undershirt underneath, green trousers tucked into a pair of light-coloured lace-up combat boots, a couple grenades, a combat knife… These were pre-war army fatigues.
The next soldier wore a different uniform, bulkier. It was the clothing’s doing coupled by the fact the man looked quite larger in size than the younger. He wore a dark green scarf of sorts around his head, emblazoned with a ruby star in the centre. His belt also fastened by a star, contained a hip flask and a couple of side pouches… this man was what her grandfather would’ve labelled as a communist, though his features were not of the country her grandfather had fought against.
He third and final man was much thinner than the others. A small, thin moustache on his face, a military cap on his head with a small gold star. A dusty grey-blue uniform bar a few satchels attached to his belt. A sword of some kind hung at his side, familiar. Overall, a plain outfit in comparison.
These men were not from Maxson’s Brotherhood of Steel.
She checked the names to clarify but something was wrong. The names were a garbled mess, and the system was heavily glitching.
<tedmepsmetnadetnkayemoyt> <knilikeilikloeboninskaiskaip> <saklkaiaoibameastmkapin>
Shutting down her V.A.T.S, she decided it was now or never to leave, she addressed them the only way she could think of, “Bye!"
Pressing the large button on the console, she braced herself for the familiar blue light and instead got the equivalent of a lightbulb flickering before being blown out.
The three men stared on at the unusual spectacle before the scene was interrupted by the P.A. system, which had decided that it was a good time to activate.
“Power levels critical…shutting…down…teleporters…”
Turning back, the three men watched as this uninvited woman fiddled with the console in front of her.
Chloe, now holding on to the now power-less console, had completely given up on the deice in front of her.
Swivelling around to face the group of three oddly looking men, “I'm sure this is just a small mishap, nothing that can't be dealt with…”
An awkward silence festered between her and the three onlookers in response.
Slightly impatient, she continued, “If you’re going to just stand there, I could at least ask to speak with your superior.”
Just as the three men were about to continue their poor attempt at intimidation, Richtofen approached the main courtyard.
Knowing that the other three men would be here, he started the berated yelling.
“You imbeciles! Do you have any idea of what you have done! I task you with the simplest thing to do and you screw it…up.”
The scene before him was rather comical; the three men staggered on the steps up to the mainframe, guns in hand, and a woman standing atop it, all staring in his direction with mixed emotions.
“And who might you be?”, The Doctor stated loudly.
As Chloe stared back, she knew she’d found a potential source of information; He must be the one in charge.
Loudly, she replied, “I would like to speak with you, quickly please.” Stepping down, passed the three other men.
“Hey! Do you have a death wish or something?” The young soldier called out.
He was stopped by the older man, “There is reason to be cautious, let her go.”
Chloe did not bother to listen, holding her gaze with the man she presumed to be the leader.
The Doctor stared back at her, silent and calculating.
The young soldier raised his voice, anger radiating through his words, as she came to meet the Doctor on the landing.
“Sh*t you better not f*cking hurt her kraut!”
The Doctor glanced over to the three; they had no choice but to let her go. Glancing at the woman herself, he gestured for her to follow him.
“This way, if you please.” Smirking to himself, this he believed, was going to be quite an evening.
Notes:
First chapter done! Feedback is much appreciated on what I can do to improve.
Tell me if it's alright or just wait for the next chapter update if that's what you like.
This story has been planned out for a while now and it is just a matter of me writing the thing down properly with fancier words and story techniques rather than it looking like some b-grade movie script.
--This story was originally posted on Wattpad (by myself, don't worry), but I have caved and am porting it over from Wattpad (with little spelling & punctuation tweaks) to AO3 to reach a little more people.--
Till next time, Bye! :)
Chapter Text
The walk to the building was short-lived.
Pretty soon Chloe was being ushered into the office belonging to the leader of the three men.
He watched intently as she hesitated before entering.
The room was small compared to the Institute’s standards. Cluttered with various books, papers, files, and cabinets. The dark, cherry coloured rug on the floor added to the cramped feel of the room. Towards the back sat a varnished spruce desk with intricate carvings laid into the edges. A desk lamp to the right of it, acting as a reading light to the documents strewn beneath. The dim illumination by the cool overhead light in the room served to make it feel less inviting at least.
Moving into the room after her, he noticed the woman had already sat down… in his chair. He cleared his throat, glaring at her in accusation.
She looked up, confused by his sudden fondness of the chair she had sat down upon. She instead, awkwardly stood up and moved around to the other side of the desk before he seated himself in said chair, continuing to glare at her.
Chloe was now forced to remain standing, seeming quite out of place in the small space.
“Right. Let’s get this over and done with, shall we?” She stated towards the man, challenging his glare.
He abruptly interjected before she could speak, “How did you get here?”
For such a vague question, she went for a vague answer, “You walked me seemingly, to your off- “
“How did you get into this facility?” The question was poignant.
She directed the question back to him, “I do believe that is of your concern, Proctor. It is not a matter of how, but why. Why do you want me here in this facility?” She leaned forward onto the desk; the same glare reflected back on her face.
“Why else. You are obviously here to obtain information from this place, are you not?” He remarked, sinking into his chair, hoping his menacing aura would make his potential victim falter. It did nothing to affect her stance, so he moved on to the next logical question, “Who are you working for?”
He was struck with no response, though a response would’ve yielded more valuable information. He narrowed his eyes before continuing.
“I will ask again. Though if you refuse to tell me...” He smirked darkly
"Oh, I’m with Vault-Tec.” She cheerily replied, smiling sweetly. “Would you be interested in one of our state-of-the-art vaults?” Before he could question her statement further, her smile had fallen into a frown and she had changed her attitude, “No, I’m Jangles, the moon monkey! Who do you take me for Proctor?”
He was taken aback by this sudden mood change, though it didn’t show. His mind wandered, as did his words, “I would love if you co-operated… it would be so much easier if you answered less.”
“Would you like to tell me why I am here?” She asked sternly, disregarding his ‘menacing’ implications.
Unfortunately, it was he who made no effort in responding, realising they were about to go into a perpetual questioning loop with no straight answers. So, he pushed the conversation into a different direction.
“Well, you must have a name, don’t you?” He loudly exclaimed.
Luckily, he was given quite the detailed response.
“Indeed, I do.” Her glare turning into a bored expression. Laced with a professional tone of voice, she slowly started to walk around the desk in the small space.
“Chloe. Professor, Studies in Quantum Theory in the field of Plasma Physics, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Quantum Optics, Atomic and Chemical Physics, Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics and Plasma Physics.”
The list of highly scientific qualifications she was reciting; for someone who looked so young, he thought, she must be incredibly talented…
Chloe elaborated further, “Other studies include Genetic Engineering, Biophysics, Biotechnology, Botany, Engineering, Mechatronics and finally, Mechanical Engineering.”
…Or this was all an elaborate act filled with lies on her part, which he hoped it would be.
Coming to a stop in front, he was addressed directly, “Directive leader of the Institute.” Followed by a small courtesy nod. “Of course, you’ve never heard of me; I figured you weren’t from Maxson’s order.” Placing her hands together, she leaned on the desk in front. This man did act quite odd for being part of the Brotherhood after all.
“Where are you from?” Another question filled with such vagueness fell from his mouth. And again, another vague answer she gave.
“The institute – ”
He quickly corrected his verbal mistake, “When are you from?”
And again, it was more specific. Though, her acclimation was unusually startling to him.
“How have you forgotten what year it is? Well, obviously, time zones are a major factor in what time of day it is. And I guess... ”
As the woman began listing out her questionable response, he thought getting to the point would be better – He decided to clearly lay it out for her as her continuous re-wording of his questions was getting on his nerves.
“I meant the time you are from. Your clothing does not reflect the fashions of this time.” Raising his voice to get her attention, “Therefore, I know for. A. Fact. That you are not from this time; You are from the future.”
Instead, her response was quicker but at least he was getting somewhere.
“And who are you to judge? Based on looks alone one could argue the same – ”
Thinking to himself, she was either incredibly intelligent or incredibly dull, he couldn’t tell. Though he had zoned out for a second, he was brought back by the tail end of her tangent.
“– You live in a wasteland for goodness sakes, man.”
Now there was an odd comment to him.
To Chloe, this was something of a routine. Her having been poorly interrogated in the last few months by the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel led by Maxson had made it easier for her to make these factually correct yet hurtful observations.
This time he paused before speaking. Formulating the perfect, to-the-point question that she could not avoid, “Does it concern you to know when and where you are, and what the date currently is?”
This time her response faltered.
“…I know the date… and I know I’m talking to someone who refuses to tell me what the Brotherhood of Steel is doing with a damn teleporter.”
She’d gone on the defensive again. And this brotherhood of steel he thought, seemed to be the underlying link to her odd choice of vocabulary and her refusal to give his questions a straight answer.
“Well, I would love for you to read the date out for me; clarify what day it is of course,” spinning the small desk calendar around for her to see clearly, “… Care to look?” He smirked, watching her eyes get ever so slightly wider and her lips part; She was in shock, and he knew her oncoming wave of fear would be delightful to witness.
Chloe couldn’t believe it, the date was no longer what it had been, the numbers had so drastically changed she wondered if it could even be true. And it was. She couldn’t deny the truth in front of her, that the clock had been dialled back almost three hundred and forty years.
This doesn’t make sense.
Where did I end up?
It can’t be 1945.
She tore her eyes away from the calendar to look up at him. The realisation had hit, hard. This was 1945, four months after the end of the second World War. The Brotherhood of Steel was not even close to existing let alone the war that had caused the world to turn into its apocalyptic state.
“You’re not Brotherhood, are you?” The meek response was exactly what he wanted to hear. His smirk grew wider and darker, envisioning the terrifying scenario that he soon wished to enact.
She steeled herself before speaking, “Who are you in relation to this?”
Such a brave question to ask considering the circumstances. He could at least give her some information before she died. As he sat up from his chair, readying himself for her agonising, drawn-out demise, he spoke, “Doctor Richtofen, Group 935 Scientist. And you–” …Until he was interrupted.
“In what?” Her head tilted slightly. Any small, wavering response he had imagined she would give instantly vanished in place of nothing but curiosity.
Taken aback by this, he paused, considering her statement. “Medical sciences.” He edged closer to the cabinet on his left – if he could get within distance of his tools…
“Look, if you have any information on the relay – teleporter, I would highly appreciate your help in fixing it.”
Keeping eye contact with her from across the desk, he didn’t answer. Whatever she was trying to do… it was certainly working to keep him in utter awe and bewilderment of her. She was odd. Smart and yet, it was a wonder how she had been so sure in her conclusions just earlier. The best course of action, he assumed, would be to keep her close, document and experiment with her curious actions… among other things.
However, this gave her some hope that he would be as senseless as the medical scientists of The Commonwealth; Just as easy to guide in the right direction.
Instead, she gave him a defeated smile, “You didn’t build it, did you? No, of course you didn’t.”
“I do not believe you are in a position to question any further, Frau.” His glare returned; she was starting to become an annoyance though. As much as he would have loved to find out what secrets she was hiding, he couldn’t deny the fact that he would much rather wait to experience her terror in person.
“Do you have any documents that I could use in that pile of yours?” She inquired before reaching out, only for them to be quickly snatched away.
“Nein. I believe you should stop talking before you get hurt.” As he placed the documents behind him on a low shelf, he knew he would have to act quick if he wished to keep her here, but as he turned around, she was already at the door.
“Since you have nothing for me, I’ll go find out for myself.” Her hand nonchalantly on the handle; She was going to leave him.
“You will stay in this room until further notice! I am not finished with you yet!” Desperation creeping into his voice as he spoke.
Now she was the one to smirk in response, “You have no authority over me.”
As quick as he was to process things, she had already left him dumbfounded. Cursing to himself for somehow, some way, so easily losing a valuable source of information, let alone a potential testing subject… it was frustratingly confusing beyond reasoning.
To calm himself down, he uncrumpled the papers he had moved before he continued to look and read through the pile he had gathered earlier.
Staring at the building across from the boiler room, sat the group’s resident samurai. It had been around half an hour since both the Doctor and the woman had left and he found himself struggling against endless waves of tiredness.
He was trying to remain attentive, watching the direction of the Doctor's office for anything that might indicate this mysterious woman was in distress… Or that the Doctor was in distress.
The drunk was of course, passed out by the fire. Grumbling and mumbling nonsensical words in his sleep. His nose screwed up in disgust for the attitude of the Russian, even in sleep he was a liability. The American was at least helpful and was currently out on watch duty: surveying the perimeter for any more threats that could potentially disrupt the volatile peace they had momentarily gained from this woman’s sudden unannounced arrival.
He decided to rest his eyes for a second – meditating was the only option he could think of rather than giving into sleep. Soon, the samurai had drifted off, his focused state of mind was just tired enough to let sleep take hold.
Unfortunately, he had missed the aftermath of the Doctor’s meeting.
On the other side of the door, Chloe let out a shaky breath. It could have gone better, it could have gone a lot better, but it was not the worst that could have happened.
It was not the worse meeting she had had to face.
Soon realising the many winding halls in the blocky office building were more or less debris filled to the point of no return, she decided to take the easy way out, finding the nearest office with enough of a broken window and a hole in it large enough for her to fit through.
She quickly found one a few barricaded doors down. The room was similar in style and layout as the newly known Doctor Richtofen’s office, however the main difference, other than the rubble and mess, was a little nameplate labelled with Dr Schuster Ph.D. She paid little attention to any other small deviances between the rooms; she needed to leave the confines of the office someway; else she get lost in the grid-like maze of the building.
After making her unconventional way out, she traversed her way across the grounds, scaling the building across the way to find a platform higher up. The cool October night air was refreshing, something close enough to the familiarity of Acadia’s high-altitude climate. It was somewhere where she could mull over her current situation in peace with enough of a vantage point to plan what she could do next. Laying down upon the roof next to a crudely spelt “help” written in sandbags, Chloe began to think about everything so far.
“What have I done?”
Notes:
Second chapter! Pretty dialogue heavy, though I would presume the meeting was a very bizarre experience for both parties.
I hope you liked it, hope it wasn't too jumpy between the two characters, and I'll see you in the next chapter.
Chapter Text
The American marine wasn’t the usual type to feel bad about a decision, but this one felt personal.
They had come into contact with another person, the only other living person he had seen besides his unconventional allies, in what felt like months... and he just handed her over to the sadistic, maniacal German.
It felt wrong; the thought of her screaming in pain, begging for the Doctor not to kill her. Scarred, bloody and bruised. His insane laughter echoing as she cried. And he would just be here, going about the same, routine practices since they had arrived here; patrolling the facility as if there was nothing wrong.
He knew that twisted man enjoyed other people’s suffering too much. And yet, he hadn’t heard a thing from the others on the woman’s condition.
The more he thought about her ill fate, the more it made him want to abandon the stupid patrol. He could run up and kick that bastard’s ass, get her as far away from him as possible. She’d be so grateful, probably just fall into his arms.
He’d be the hero that she wanted. No, needed.
But there was another feeling, gnawing at his insides…
It had been extremely quiet since they had linked all the teleporters. The silence of them after they had shut down, made it worse. It was too quiet. No stragglers, not even the stray crawler. Nothing to suspect that the world inside and out of this facility had been trashed, raided, and left in ruins.
There was nothing to deduce that any undead plague existed.
As he walked around from the animal testing labs to the main courtyard, he mentally recited everything he saw to make sure nothing would sneak up on the group: Fire, glass shards, dirt and gravel caked in old blood and sinew, rubble everywhere, the sight of someone sitting on the walkway next to the facility sign– Wait a minute.
He glanced up towards the sign facing into the main courtyard. There on the edge of the railing, legs dangling over the edge, sat the mystery woman.
From a distance, she seemed unharmed. The moon made her white skin glow unnaturally in the night; the light from above illuminating around her, giving her some sort of angelic aura. She was staring at something off in the distance.
“Hey lady! Are you that chick from earlier?”
She looked almost in a trance, before her gaze lazily fell on him, and nothing was said in response.
“Uhm. Well, I was thinking about coming to check on you.” He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand, looking away in embarrassment, “But I guess I don’t need to do that…”
He looked back as she stood up, walking off to the side to leave.
“H-hey, don’t leave! I didn’t mean to scare you away!”
Instead, she made her way, climbing down from above to meet him at the entrance to the engineering garage.
“You wish to speak with me?”
It was a startling introduction, and unfortunately, he fumbled through his words, “Uh … y-yeah, Hi!”
She again, didn’t respond back.
He picked up the conversation in hopes of something less… odd. “I Just wanted to make sure you were doing okay, you going off with the doc and all… just making sure he didn’t do anything terrible to ya.”
If this mystery woman had been hurt, she didn’t act as if she had been in a terrible situation at all, though maybe it was shock that was making her expressions hard to read. He sighed, “I shouldn’t’ve let you go with that freak.”
A blank stare was all he was given before she spoke again, “Do you know anything at all about this place?”
It was asked more as a statement disguised as a question.
This mystery woman didn’t seem to be harmful, and he could at least tell her what he knew.
“I mean, we don’t know much about this place – don’t get me wrong, we’ve only been here for a couple days – but I think Richtofen knows more about what’s going on than it seems. Guessing he didn’t tell ya, considering you’re out here. That shady son of a b*tch.”
There was a brief pause of uncomfortable silence. Not the most awkward conversation he had ever experienced…
Maybe that bastard had done something to her.
“Okay.”
With that quick resolution, she quickly turned and walked away from him.
He called out after her, “Hey, wait! I didn’t catch your name!”
He didn’t dare move away from his position to chase after her; He just hoped that it didn’t attract the attention of anything unwanted.
Chloe had decided to get back to where she had been sitting earlier, though opted to take the much safer, longer way around.
The conversation had gleamed no new information, other than the fact that the American man didn’t seem very fond of the sciences.
Through the automotive garage and up the stairs, she instead decided to explore the other side; walking up the non-broken staircase to the right, she turned to face teleporter room Z-B.
She knew that it would be better to find and question the others to hopefully gain a better insight on the facility, but the call of curiosity was strong.
Then, she heard an unusual tune start up from her left and a yellow light appear.
Suddenly the steel bridge had begun to creak and groan. Steam escaping from the sides as the hydraulics released, letting the bridge down as smoothly as they could. Sparks of electricity jumped from the nearby generator; the facility’s power supply was finally back online.
The one who had activated it stood at the bottom by the power switch, watching the bridge descend and connect. The Doctor had come out of his office.
Chloe ducked behind the large air conditioning unit to not be seen. As much as she wished to talk to the man, she really wanted more information before she faced him again; She still needed a bit more time to figure out her plan of action on getting home, along with how the teleporters worked. And what the others knew was crucial to having the upper hand.
That was when she spotted something inside.
Hiding on the inner side of the unit, visible through a cracked grate, sat a few books: Two laying on the floor, one closed and one laying face-down, with the other haphazardly opened and resting on the inside of the wall.
She reached inside, being as gentle as possible. Fingers carefully extending to wrap around the open book nearest to her. Slowly she pulled her arm back, book in hand, out of the decaying grate.
The front cover was white on a faded brown background, printed with the logo of a hand clutching the nucleus of an atom, the numbers 935 in the middle. Below it, the words ‘Field Operations Manual’ printed in bold, blocky lettering.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel beneath before a voice spoke up. “–The hell did you do that for? You could’ve just called a whole horde to our location! And what the f*ck have you done to the girl!”
The sarcasm was dripping from the Doctor’s mouth as he addressed the American “Stop crying American. It’s embarrassing. I was merely getting the power back on, that you turned off.”
Silently, Chloe snuck away from the two men’s bickering. Hoping she wasn’t noticed in the process, she headed into teleporter room Z-B to study what new knowledge she could gain from the book.
The Doctor’s look of utter disgust would’ve made anyone else feel uncomfortable, and yet there the American stood, challenging his authority yet again with stupid remarks.
“If I find out you’ve done anything to her, I swear I’ll-“
“You’ll what, American?” He glared at the man in irritation. “I do not think you realise how little of a difference it makes to our situation.” He turned his back to the man. Nonchalantly stating, “And if the Fräulein dies, she dies.”
Dempsey was starting to get angrier at the Doctor. Not only was he going to hurt the poor woman, but if she died in the process? The Doctor couldn’t care less. It made his blood boil.
“Stop playing around Richtofen, this place ain’t your lab! What have you done to her!”
If the sound of slurred speech, complaining about being woken up, and the inclusion of the samurai fixing both men with a stern look from the open window in the boiler room, a fight would have started, one which Dempsey knew he wouldn’t win.
He instead, backed down like the countless other times on their previous journey. The Doctor sniggered triumphantly before walking away, leaving Dempsey feeling defeated once again.
Finding a quiet corner in the teleporter room, Chloe inspected the book.
Flipping through, the contents contained menial information: Stating the group’s manifesto, the rules and regulations, among the list of other things.* The lack of disclaimers was astounding – though considering it was for a secret organisation, it made some semblance of sense.
So much for a hidden, secret place.
The more she skimmed through the book, the more unusual it became.
Swearing secrecy by lying about their identity?
Talks of capture by enemy troops?
Being thanked in the acknowledgements?
She read thoroughly through the contents a second time and eventually reached the middle of the book again, where the pages had been dirtied, torn and folded; Laid bare to the elements.
‘… comes the responsibility of absolute secrecy. No one is to know what you do, where you work, what our research had discovered, or what our purpose will be. You will have no further contact with your governments, or with your families. Your decision to fully dedicate your lives to Group 935 is absolute.
Attached is your field operations manual which will direct you should our manifesto get compromised. We cannot afford to let this power fall into the wrong hands, and therefore the field operations manual should be considered your bible.
Make your preparation now.
A new dawn is beginning for mankind. – Dr. L. Maxis’
The page opposite held a picture of a map; the likely location where the facility was situated, along with the surrounding area. None of it was familiar as it had been written in a syntax she couldn’t comprehend. Reading the text below, it stated:
‘In the event of any critical failure, you are instructed to take your cyanide tablet that is included in your field operations kit. In the event that you have misplaced yours, there are several methods that will accomplish the same task. For example …’
“You really shouldn’t be reading through those.” A sharp voice cut through her reading.
She had been caught.
Glancing up from her place under the desk in the corner, the annoyed glare of the Doctor stared back at her, and more importantly, the book she held in her hands.
Closing the book and placing it on the desk above her, she shuffled out from underneath to meet Doctor Richtofen.
The more she thought about the last paragraph she had read, the more unsettled she became, until an idea popped into her head.
“I was just researching about your little group.”
He seemed unamused.
Seeing as he gave no response, she elaborated her point. “Look. I just wanted to find anything that could link any of the research your bunch seem to have done, written in peer-reviewed journals preferably, to this teleporter here,” Gesturing behind herself out to teleporter B, “and those teleporters over there,” gesturing out to the map layout of the main facility teleporters behind him.
Then, her wrist was grabbed by the Doctor. His grip was tight around it as he spoke. “You will stay in my office until further notice.”
As he pulled her along, back out into the open air she spoke up, “I have one question.”
He abruptly stopped, staring at her in annoyance.
“Why would scientists need cyanide tables? Why would they even want to kill themselves?”
He stayed silent, yanking on her arm for her to start walking again.
As they continued walking to the steps of the office building, he faintly heard her voice, “…It doesn’t make sense…”
She seemed genuinely lost on any reason as to why a scientist, let alone an entire organisation would or even should purposefully and knowing in full conscience, take their own life.
And soon she found herself back in Richtofen’s office.
The man in question had managed to seat the poor woman on one of the nearby side tables.
Finally, something had gone strangely to plan for him.
“Why would anyone want to harm your family?” She mindlessly asked.
“My family?” He replied, looking back, offended. “I worked with colleagues in Group 935.” Putting away the last of the research documents into the nearby cabinet.
“It was never any sort of family. It was work.” As he turned, he was met with a rather angered woman.
“Well, I’ve never.” She began, rising from her place, “known a single scientist who would abandon their livelihood – even when faced with the threat of death.” Coming to stand right in front of him. “It is no wonder then, that they all chose to die so quickly.”
Brushing past him, she sat on the rug in front of his desk, folding it over herself.
From the warmth of her makeshift cover, she made one final comment, “We will continue this in the morning.”
It certainly was startling for Richtofen to be told such information from such an unconventional woman; knowing she hypothetically was the leader of a place known as The Institute, which the woman was fiercely loyal to, as she considered the group to be more of a family than work.
How quaint it was that she labelled her work colleagues as part of a family. It sounded borderline delusional, honestly.
So, he played along. Opting to take her offer of information tomorrow. For now, he would ‘sleep’ in his chair and would wait to see what she would get up to in the morning.
Hopefully, something interesting.
Notes:
*The full 935 Field Operations Manual list of contents (made for funsies because I just needed to write something for the book contents):
- Welcome!
- What is Group 935? (manifesto & goals)
- Why you should shut up about that lousy part-time job and join us!
- Why you've been chosen!
- What you can do to help support us!
- Rules & Regulations. (not R&R)
- Why the lack of legal, moral, and ethical disclaimers for you and your peers?
- What to do in the event of capture.
- Are you a spy? F*ck it. Tell now! (or kill yourself before others find out!)
- Acknowledgements and You!But anyways, what will happen next in this confusing tale of yet to be referenced content? I shall find out when I decide to continue writing the next chapter! Be ready for many zany, kooky and wacky times ahead!
Until I update... this has been your host, Alina.
Chapter 5: You're Probably Wondering How I Ended Up In This Situation...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chloe had awoken, unable to sleep and extremely bored.
She deduced if the Doctor had fallen asleep she would be free to take the documents and papers he had placed away the hours prior – Though she felt compelled to explore more of the facility before she came back for the documents.
As she quietly unravelled herself from the plush rug, she slowly stood, expecting him to hear the motion. She waited.
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
It seemed safe enough.
She carefully made her way to the door, slipping out after one last check behind her.
Now, she made her way through the labyrinthine halls opposite the way the Doctor had come in with her. She thought she would likely try to question the others, figuring that the two men she had not spoken to yet could potentially relinquish more information about the location and its research than the American had. Upon arriving at the ruined entrance doors to the building, the cloudy winter sky dappled sunlight onto the ground below. It seemed early morning chills in the air had remained from the night before.
The facility looked largely different than the night previous, more desolate and quickly abandoned. It reminded her of how lifeless her former home’s ruins were. The circumstances in which the buildings had found themselves in these states had been completely different, however similar
She found the other two men at the bottom of the automobile garage near the rather heated boiler. One was half asleep, possibly just recovering from the watch after the American. The more rotund man was heavily asleep as his faint mumbling could be heard. She quietly, place herself near the one that was less asleep.
Carefully, she whispered loud enough for the man to hear.
“Greetings, would you mind answering a few quick questions on the state of the world’s economy?”
The man jolted awake, quickly pulling out his pistol, aimed at her head.
She smiled back at the response given by the man; it had been a rare occurrence in the past month that her bizarre comments were met with such jumpy hostility. Then again, this man did seem quite tired. As much as she felt sorry for him, she really needed information.
“Hi! Are you good? Better?”
The man’s eyes darted around her face, puzzled.
Lowering the gun, he spoke. “You are the woman who arrived here?”
Nodding she replied “Yes. Exactly.” Before she could ask her question, the drunk man from earlier had begun to stir. He had woken up from a nightmare, loudly exclaiming, “My vodka!”, before rummaging around in his cloth bag for the liquid.
Both stared at the unsightly man as he gulped down the contents of the bottle, burping loudly in response to finishing the entire thing.
She heard the man next to her mumble something under his breath aimed at the drunk.
Seeing now that both men were awake and fit – in her eyes – for questioning, she decided to continue where she had left off.
“So, how much can you tell me about this place here?” Using a more upbeat tone when addressing the both of them.
She was given confusing looks from both men in response. Thus, decided to take a different route.
“Could one of you tell me your names?” Still remaining optimistic that she would be given the luxury of a response, she was rewarded by the drunk.
“I… am Nikolai. And this here is Takeo. And why should we trust you?” His speech was rather slurred as he spoke.
“Well, I’m Chloe.” Smiling a little more forcefully at the man to disguise her discomfort. She then inquired again, “Now, do either of you know anything at all about this place?”
The one named Takeo spoke up. “This place holds a secret; There are answers here. But beware of darkness – always brings great price.”
A bit bemused but knowing her theory was correct, she quickly nodded, saying a ‘thank you’ in return with a friendly smile before walking off.
The whisper of voices had strangely been absent in his head. Though he had barely slept all night, Richtofen was surprised when he struggled to open his eyes. When he finally regained awareness of his surroundings, he could hear the faint noise of paper rustling.
Suddenly opening his eyes and adjusting his vision to the light levels, there on the other side of his desk, cross-legged on the floor with papers neatly stacked into two piles either side, sat Chloe. She seemed entranced by the papers, but one question remained as to where she had –
“Yes. These are the documents from the cabinet you put them in, if you’re wondering,” As she simultaneously placed the next one in the ‘finished’ pile and picked up another to read. She stopped and glanced up to see the look of utter astonishment upon the Doctor’s face. Smiling to herself, she decided to explain some of what she had been up to.
“I went to visit the other two outside. They had nothing for me, so I came back here. I’ve been gone for…” there was a brief pause, “What time is it?”
Apprehensively, he pulled out his pocket watch to check. It was 10:05am. He recited the time back to the other in the room.
“Roughly, two hours then.” She affirmed.
Never once had she glanced up from the documents while speaking, even as she asked him questions on the role a medical doctor would play in the oversight, concept, and construction of a teleporter.
Soon the small office was enveloped in quiet, only the minuscule sounds of breathing, papers rustling, and repositioning of movement could be heard. The Doctor had watched in intrigue as Chloe read through the remainder of the documents in silence. However, what Chloe had failed to tell him was the few recordings she had found dotted around regarding the work undertaken at the facility.
As she walked away from the three men, she caught a glimpse of something under a loose brick in the automobile garage. She scanned the area around her before bee lining for the brick. Underneath sat a torn piece of paper with scribbled handwriting. She quickly pocketed it before continuing out to the main courtyard. Again, she noticed something she hadn’t seen prior. Another scrap of paper. And again, she picked it up. Scanning the area once again, she headed out.
Effortlessly climbing to the above walkway, she instead went back inside to explore teleporter room Z-B without suspicion from her new companions. Before entering the room, she however spotted an unfamiliar box nestled between the fallen cabinets.
Upon touching the device, it started playing.
““…Initiating test #3: Subject is within the test chamber, activate power…”
“Oh, oh mein Gott”
“Get a hold of yourself and clean that up! Test #3 unsuccessful. Test subject has been reduced to the same state as previous subjects. Clean up the test chamber and re-calibrate the system, let’s do it again.”
“Yes doctor –””
Clearly something had gone wrong to cause a death. Of course, no test was perfect the first time… or first few times. She heard one of them walking to the stairs and silently scurried away across the bridge. She hadn’t explored this part of the facility yet, looking in, it was more dilapidated than the other side. Many of the doors were barred, planks of wood covering them to stop anyone getting in or out.
Again, a glint caught her eye. Though the dim light made it hard to see, there up on top of a room wedged below an air duct, sat another box-shaped device.
As she reached up to pull it free, it began to play the same as the last:
““…Now you must be very diligent with her Samantha, owning a dog is a great responsibility.”
--it was the scientist from earlier--
“Yes papa. Oh, I love her.”
--and a young girl--
“You must feed her every day, and walk her, and be very careful when you play with her. You know she is going to have puppies.”
“Really? Can I keep the puppies too father?”
“We’ll see Samantha. One step at a time. –””
This recording… It reminded her of something she wished to forget.
The other teleporters she had yet to fully explore, and according to the map she had seen prior in teleporter room Z-B, this seemed to be the location of another. Rounding the corner, the overhead label confirmed her assumption.
Walking in, the room was much larger than she had presumed. With an upper platform hidden behind a glass wall, the teleporter stood in all its glory. In front, there remained a large generator, though different from the ones in her own time, she could still lowly feel the pulsating energy as they worked to maintain the powered facility. On the wall below the platform there were two cremators - if this facility was to be powered by electricity, it was undoubtedly running on fossil fuels from these reserves. They were black, charred and dirt ridden. And upon inspection, housed another hidden recording box.
“… [dog barking] “Edward, tie the damn thing down! [barking continues] We can’t have it running around during the test.” [dog whimpers]
“It’s tied down now Doctor Maxis.”
“Initiating test #5. Subject is within the test chamber, activate power…” [teleportation sounds]
“Searching for vitals, no readings doctor. The subject has…disappeared. Doctor Maxis, we’ve done it!”
“Don’t be foolish! Test #5 is unsuccessful. Subject has vanished, yes, but has not reappeared at the mainframe. Recalibrate the damn system, now! –””
By the fifth major test, they should have perfected the teleportation sequencing.
Though the obvious issue, she had gained some new information. As the previous recordings had been mostly from the same two people, she now had name confirmations. There was an Edward, and a Doctor Maxis, the same Doctor L. Maxis who had helped write the 935 Field Operations Manual.
Seeing as she was quite far away from every other person, she reached into her pockets, pulling out the two weathered paper scraps from earlier. Reading the first ‘…side effects of using 115. The power is undeniable but who can use such weapons without themselves turning…’
The scrap was odd. Out of place, even in the desolate factory. But how did it translate to the creation of a teleporter? Or the tests that were run?
The second scrap, for once, made much more and less sense than the first, ‘…is produced when bombarding an Americum-243 nucleus with a Calcium-48 nucleus. It then decays… after further decay a metastable isotope is formed. This leads us to believe that transference of matter is indeed possible, and even the re-animation of…”
Her mind was brought back to the present. She frowned recalling the paper scraps she had picked up before.
In truth, the 115th element on the periodic table of elements was Moscovium: a man-made element originally identified in Dubna, north of Moscow.
By bombarding the heavy ion of Americium-243 with the very rare light ion Calcium-48 – made with the help of a particle accelerator, accelerating ions to a fraction of the speed of light – the element correctly identified in 2010, was 20% heavier than anything naturally occurring. This unstable superheavy element had an extremely short half-life, coupled with the extreme radioactivity of the element and the low probability of formation, made any sort of testing exceedingly small or next to nothing.
This also vastly outnumbered the resources needed to produce enough for large-scale tests as the amount of power to produce only a few milligrams was tremendously high already.
“What are you thinking about?” The Doctor inquired.
After a few seconds she formulated a response, “I’m wondering how a miniscule amount of an unstable element is going to get me home.”
He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“You shouldn’t be sneaking around looking for information. You might get hurt finding something you wish you didn’t.”
Standing up and stretching out, she carelessly leant on his desk. Chloe knew that she had enough information to bargain with, lest the man refuse to help her past a certain point.
Nodding towards the door, she offered up her first insight into her findings. “How about we go take a look at those teleporters? I hear they’re powered by some sort of metastable isotope.”
A few minutes passed as an expectant Chloe faced off against a glaring, unrelenting Doctor.
This was another reason the Doctor refused to let her out of his office, though she had proven difficult already in staying there in the first place.
“Please sir, may I go see the teleporters?” Lilting her voice to make it sound more child-like.
They continued to stare at each other, neither of them wanted to concede defeat, as both had plans.
The Doctor eventually broke eye contact, relenting to her argument. Still irritated, he stood from his chair before walking out the room with a very satisfied woman trailing behind as they made their way to the closest teleporter.
Notes:
So, that's it. hopefully the ending of this chapter is alright...
Writing is hard... I'm getting there at least. :)
Feel free to leave comments! This story has no feedback other than one person, let's change that.
Both Dr Richtofen and Chloe will be working on the teleporters soon enough and Chloe will be finding many more of the radios around the facility.
I will be trying to upload two chapters to AO3 over every weekend, then hopefully both sites will be caught up with the latest chapters, and we'll go from there.Sources used for information on Moscovium (Mc):
| Moscovium - Periodic Table of Videos -- Periodic Videos, 15/12/2016
| This Superheavy Atom Factory Is Pushing the Limits of the Periodic Table -- Seeker, 10/11/2019
| #MyFaveElement: Moscovium -- Berkley Lab, 16/11/2019Source for Der Riese Radio Recordings:
| Der Riese - Radio Transmissions #2 - #4 -- Call of Duty: Zombies Library, 16/02/2015 - 18/02/2015
Chapter Text
Housed in one of the largest of the research areas in the facility, its towering presence only allowed for a more marvellous appearance.
It wasn’t trapped behind a wall of glass, elevated above the floor. It wasn’t jammed into the end of the building, situated behind large vats of liquid obscuring a person’s view of it.
Here, it was just the teleporter. In all its glory and wonder, all its scientific curiosity and research put on display for all to see.
She had not seen how large it was until now. Of course, the teleporter itself was quite small, the mechanisms that handled the conversions and intricate calculations were roughly the same size as it, and it had a demanding presence in the fairly empty room.
Though were it not for its excessive amount of noise… and the fascist insignia… she would label it a good attempt – for being constructed by a bunch of medical scientists pretending to be qualified physicists, chemists, and engineers.
Richtofen stood at the entrance, intently watching as Chloe cautiously made her way towards the machine.
He had given her what she wanted. Currently the only alternative to get her to say anything about herself seemed to be in this ridiculous manner. He hated it. But his immense curiosity towards her overruled any trace. She was too unusual and too smart for his liking.
Then an abrupt thought crept into his mind. He had yet to find a way to get rid of her.
He had been so focused on figuring out why she was the way she was, that he hadn’t considered a way to remove her from his plans.
He could not have her learning about his grand scheme… And now it seemed almost obvious.
He could get rid of her the way he got rid of all the other unwanted, unwilling scientists.
Well, it was just too easy not to do.
Yes, kill her now! While you have the upper hand; She thinks she is safe from you…
The undefined voices whispered into his ear; he hadn’t heard from them in some time since arriving at the facility.
Another voice soon wormed its way into his mind, countering the other.
If she gets home… she will not need to be dealt with in the first place…
We could just kill her now, she’s nothing more than a setback. Jibed another.
Yes, he could easily kill her.
But those idiots would soon find out… she had already seen them and without the presence of the undead, would make him a highly suspicious target among the others for the girl’s murder. Though he supposed, with enough time he could make them believe it was just a hallucination.
…You know what is waiting for you…
It was a calculated risk he was willing to take.
His focus and attention was brought to the present situation. She was speaking about the teleporter.
“Ours don’t look like this… it is beautiful to see this way though.” For the hours he had spent with her belittling his profession, he found it unusual that she had complimented him. The Doctor was slightly taken aback that he nearly thought about giving her a less excruciating death. Compliments aside, she was still a highly potential threat to his plans.
As for Chloe, without any of the constraining walls and low ceilings, it really showed just how massive the mechanisms were, though it didn’t show without age. A more compact, much more readable teleporter made travel easier and safer back in the Commonwealth. Keeping the designs as minimal and efficient as possible helped with the overall teleportation process after all.
If only she could see her own in the same context.
“Would you like a live demonstration of the device?” Richtofen spoke relatively from behind her.
It definitely seemed rather unsafe if this Group 935 had conducted – from what she knew – to only be five tests, with four fatalities before teleportation was even achieved, and the weird case of the missing dog, that she’d almost forgotten about its limited capabilities as a functioning teleporter.
She had yet to respond to the man’s query,
But he was already at the console to the teleporter and was looking rather annoyed with it.
The teleporter’s console, glowing buttons and whirring machinery aside, did not indicate that there was a connection to the mainframe. Only serving to displease the Doctor further.
Of course, the simplest plan in existence would have the most stupid interference ever.
If he were to carry out his impromptu murder, he would need her to stay put. Chloe had seemed interested enough in the teleporters that he could possibly just leave her here.
After all, those morons had clearly made no effort in reconnecting them to the mainframe… typical.
Along with the power disaster last night, he surprisingly did not expect any less. They were careless, boring, and incredibly ineffective when it came to non-combat related tasks.
If he could, he would give them a fairly good grilling of their incompetence, once again.
Turning away from the unsuspecting woman, he quickly waked towards the doors of the building.
“Where are you going?” She curiously asked.
However naive she seemed, it certainly unnerved him knowing how acutely aware she was of her surroundings.
“I’m sure you are capable of staying put for a few moments, aren’t you?” the Doctor sneered.
“I’d rather join you to be honest.” She replied, happily walking up to meet him.
As reluctantly as he hoped she would stay, his top priority was to link the teleporters, no matter how much the woman needed to be dealt with.
But first, the others needed a talking to.
The three men had decided to regroup. With no direction from the Doctor and countless protests from Takeo on why Dempsey should not bash down the door to Richtofen’s office and rescue the girl, they had met in the courtyard for a brainstorming session.
Throughout the time spent arguing, they had gotten nowhere closer in re-liking the teleporters.
The sun had reached past the mid-point in the sky by now, and the three men had begun to feel uneasy as to the lack of undead crawling around the facility. Since last night when the woman arrived, they had been sure that the zombies would return, but to no avail.
The facility’s unnatural silence made the situation worse when they heard footsteps echoing from the animal testing laboratory.
As they glanced around at the potential ‘spawning places’ as they were called, the men readied their guns, huddled by the mainframe.
…Before an unlikely pair ventured around the corner.
The men sighed in relief at the sight of both Richtofen and the woman; They seemed to have been discussing something prior to both scientists joining them in the courtyard.
“…All I was asking is why it needs to necessarily connect to this one point. Why can we not connect them a different way?” She spoke, gesturing to the mainframe pad.
They saw the Doctor’s face scowl in disapproval, not just from the apparent button-pushing by the woman, but also for their adamant nature in not connecting the teleporters.
Without warning, they all heard the mechanical whirring of the device from beneath their feet.
It was Richtofen in front of the console, “I have turned on the vessel. Now, you must link each teleporter to the mainframe. Dummkopfs.”
The Doctor announced to the group what they would be doing:
Takeo would run and link teleporter Z-A, Nikolai would link teleporter Z-B and Dempsey would be linking the last, teleporter Z-C. They were instructed to only push certain buttons in a certain order, otherwise there would not be an established link to the mainframe.
The Doctor cast an annoyed glare in the drunk’s direction as he was interrupted by said man.
“I get the feeling we’ve done this before.” Nikolai slurred, bleary-eyed towards the Doctor.
“The machines all need to be linked; the cables show us the way. It is simple Nikolai.” Chastised Takeo. The man in question muttered in Russian before taking a swig from his somehow filled vodka bottle.
Richtofen continued explaining the crucially important details about what the buttons did and what they should do if things were to go wrong…
This included if there was to be an attack on them whilst they completed this task.
However, it left Dempsey wondering one thing. “And what are you gonna do Richtofen? Stand around and do nothin’? Lemme guess. While we’re all gone, you’re gonna get rid of her, ain’t you?” pointing towards the woman in question.
The Doctor swivelled around to face the marine, impatient hatred in is glowering stare.
“Go away. Before you cause a scene, Dempsey.”
The marine went to retort but was stopped by Takeo, who placed a hand on the man’s shoulder signalling for Tank to leave it alone.
He sighed, clipping his gun back into its holster, “Alright, let’s go link up this terra- uh, telept-ujh, machine” Soon each of them were walking off to their respective tasks.
As Nikolai toddled off in the direction of the teleporter he had been assigned, the scientists heard him complain about his situation. “Ugh, so now I have run there and back to the mainframe to link it? So much f**cking running!”
That left only two people stationed at the mainframe.
The silence that followed after each person had left was awkward to say the least.
She had barely spoken, though the men seemed to be reluctant to talk to her, or even about her presence.
Of course, there was for sure a reason why they hadn’t said much of anything. She just didn’t know.
Her limited interactions with them made her feel a lot safer standing beside Richtofen. At least with him singled out, she could inadvertently influence the others. The Doctor was much around the same intellectual wavelength as herself, though time periods restricted certain scientific discoveries from being told… before she caught the Doctor glancing towards her.
Impatient as he suddenly seemed to be, she understood how critical it was in getting her one step closer in going back home.
As much as she wished not to, she thanked him internally for at least doing something to help her. Albeit by her own persuasion and not by mere coincidence.
Until she noticed an unusual machine behind the Doctor.
From the height of the small circular window, she could see something inside of the protected casing. And it seemed quite odd.
Richtofen saw her gaze shift to the machine sealed behind a guarded door.
He thought he’d address her curious findings.
“That machine looks like fun, ja?”
She stepped forward, glancing towards the Doctor as she questioned aloud.
“What is it, exactly?”
He turned to stand next to her, “It is called the Pack-a-Punch.”
She slightly giggled at the name. It was certainly a silly name for a silly-looking device.
Suddenly, the PA buzzed across the facility.
“You have twenty-five seconds to link with the mainframe.”
First to come back was Takeo. The Samurai jogged around the corner as the PA counted down.
With much time to spare he walked up the steps before standing in the middle of the mainframe pad. He nodded towards the Doctor, who pushed a few buttons before the teleporter lit up.
A stream of light shot up into the air and the familiar sound of electricity spiked from the machine.
The PA sounded again indicating that the teleporter had been successfully linked.
Hydraulics sounded from behind the three as the door guarding the Pack-a-Punch device lowered slightly.
Electric sparks jolted along the overhead powerlines, hitting the pole on the opposite side of the courtyard before a lightning bolt struck the ground, producing an unusual green and gold floating object.
Takeo walked over, reaching out a hand towards it, the glowing hammer disappeared on contact.
A voice filled the air around them, “CARPENTER.”
Suddenly planks of wood were lifted from the ground, nailing themselves onto barricaded areas.
“All the windows have been repaired. Extraordinary isn’t it!”
A rather usual, paranormal sight for the men, it was quite startling for Chloe to experience.
The PA sounded again indicating the link time of twenty-five seconds for the person assigned. A few minutes later, Dempsey raced around the corner.
He ran back, sprinting up the stairs to stand in the middle of the pad. “Too bad there’s not a hot soundin’ chick counting down those numbers.” He remarked towards the woman, confidently exhausted from the run.
The Doctor instead, waited for the time to run down further. That caused the marine to glare in anger at the man and with five seconds to spare, he connected the teleporter.
Again, the teleporter flashed with light and the sparking of electricity, the door to the Pack-a-Punch opened to reveal more of the device inside and lightning struck the courtyard to deliver another glowing green and gold floating object.
This time it had appeared as a times two. Takeo touched it causing the voice to sound throughout the air once more, “DOUBLE POINTS.”
Which left the only person who hadn’t arrived yet being Nikolai.
A few minutes went past with no sign of the man coming back.
Again, the uneasiness found its way back into the group.
No one had said a whole lot in the drunk’s absence, not even Dempsey, who had wanted to speak with the woman again since last night.
He glanced over to her, stood on top of the mainframe next to the deranged doctor. The man in question looking between the woman, the facility, and unsurprisingly, eyeing him with disdain.
After more silence, Chloe volunteered herself to go looking for the drunkard. Her face did not seem to show much in the way of worry for the man’s safety, though she knew fairly well that she could possibly get first-hand experience in understanding how the teleportation link process worked - Having paid close attention to the Doctor regarding the activation and linking of the teleporters.
Dempsey wanted to join her in linking them, though only having met her last night and having barely talked to her, he wanted to protect her. She had seemed lost, small and distant sitting up on that walkway… Though her unusual way of speaking countered it slightly. At least if he joined, he could get her away from that psychopath.
No matter her strange behaviour, he wanted to know if she was okay, that she could survive on her own.
The Doctor however, wanted to keep her under his watchful gaze. If she had heard any of their argument last night, she could possibly weaken the control he had over them.
Since Dempsey wasn’t the smartest, he likely had ulterior motives for wanting to join Chloe in re-linking the teleporter. Typical. The American was infatuated with her the same way he was with that perk jingle woman.
If she had been able to coerce even himself to her bewildering requests, she could somehow coerce those imbeciles to do whatever she wanted.
Instead, to the Doctor’s surprise, she denied Dempsey of his request, making her way quickly through the facility towards teleporter room Z-B.
She checked for where the drunk could be and soon found him sitting where she had been the hours prior, next to the cork board laden with various pinned papers and photographs. He seemed to be passed out against the desk below, firmly holding onto his precious vodka bottle… bottles?
Seeing as he was fairly intact, she walked to the teleporter. Putting in the code sequence the Doctor had specified to the others, it became child’s play in understanding the rest of the console’s uses.
While inputting the final sequencing needed for linking, she felt a presence enter the room behind her.
She called out, not wanting to discourage herself from the task, “If I am to make it home, then I need to know how the teleporters work, Doctor Richtofen.”
There was no reply.
As she finished entering it, the man in question merely sighed. She kept her gaze firmly on the teleporter. He had joined her up on the small, raised platform.
“Step one: Activate the vessel. Step two: Link the mainframe. Step Three: Matter transference!” He announced triumphantly, pushing her onto the teleporter pad.
She turned to see him press the button that would initiate teleportation. In place of anything occurring teleportation wise, the PA buzzed for the final time indicating like the others, that she had twenty-five seconds to connect it to the mainframe.
“I would suggest you run.” Was all the Doctor snidely remarked before she took off.
Sprinting from the platform, she jumped from the small catwalk that linked the teleporter room to the automotive garage, twisting her body to deal with the impact. She turned and slid to avoid hitting the barricaded wall near the entrance, jumping from the raised platform in the courtyard before landing and rolling to keep her momentum. Rushing up the stairs, she ran to the mainframe console inputting the code sequence like the Doctor had done earlier – with the variation of which teleporter was being linked.
The others recoiled back as she came out of nowhere. Hearts pounding from the surprise adrenaline boost.
As for the Doctor, he had tried to keep pace himself, watching in awe as she nimbly moved across the facility grounds, expertly linking it to the mainframe on her own.
The PA for the last time, came to life, announcing finally that all the teleporter links were finally active.
And as with the other two times, the teleporter lit up, the hydraulic door finally opened to reveal the whirring machine that was the Pack-a-Punch inside, and the lightening crashed down into the courtyard as the group awaited another green and gold drop.
There was none.
Suddenly a guttural scream rang throughout the facility.
Notes:
Sorry this is a late update, I'd been playing around with how to change the text colour and do some other funky things on AO3's custom and basic work skins.
There's a lot more chapters to be shifted over and I am quite behind my own promises however, I got sick with Influenza type A, followed by my external storage drive suffering an incident that means it needs to be repaired or I lose the last 2 years of my creative work files among other important documents-
Welp, life can be annoying. Luckily this story was not saved on that drive, otherwise I would've thought about tossing my computer out the window.
Enjoy the chapter - Alina.
Average Slavonic Ultimis Richtofen Fangirl (Guest) on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jul 2025 08:18PM UTC
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