New Vegas: Sheason's Story

Chapter 7: The Bright Brotherhood

Welcome back to the program. This is Mr. New Vegas, and I hope I'm not coming on too strong. More news is coming at you right now. Rumors persist about a super mutant refuge nestled high in the ski lodge at the peak of Mount Charleston to the northwest. If you should find it, do not, repeat, DO NOT belittle a super mutant for taking the bunny slope. Also, the Black Mountain radio signal is back after a long absence. Listeners say the new programming is, quote, less for outcasts, more for weirdoes. This section of the program was brought to you by Gomorrah: It'll be our secret. Got some more Sinatra coming up, asking you to Come Fly With Me.

"Well, let's try this again." I said to myself, as I climbed up the stairs to the dinosaur-mouth sniper perch. I knocked on the door, and heard an unfamiliar voice from inside tell me to come in.

The first thing I noticed was the red beret for half a second, I thought Boone was still here, and my ears were playing tricks on me. When he turned to look at me, the thing that caught my attention was his facial hair; the last time I saw a handlebar moustache that impressive was when I'd been shot. This wasn't the same man though this guy looked more hispanic than anything else. Plus, while it was similar, he wasn't wearing Great Khan colors; just a sleeveless leather vest over a red long sleeved shirt, and an ammo belt bandolier draped across his chest.

"What's goin' on man?" he said.

"You Manny?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "What can I do for ya?"

"I'm looking for a man in a checkered coat. I was told you could help me find him. Know him?"

"Sure, I know him," he said after pausing for a minute, as if he wasn't sure if he should answer. "What do you want with him?"

"Let's just say he has something of mine, and I want it back" I said. Manny raised an eyebrow.

"You talkin' about that chip?" I nodded, and he continued, shaking his head. "Man, I don't think he's giving it up."

"Maybe not. But do you know where I can find him, anyway?"

"Yeah I think I can help," he said with a smile. "But I got problems of my own. You do something for me, and I can tell you where you can find him."

I rubbed my temples, massaging the scar on the side of my head. Great, I thought to myself, just what I need another diversion. At this rate, I'll never catch up to him. But this was my only really solid lead. With any luck, whatever he had in mind wouldn't take too long or be too out of the way.

"Fine," I sighed, resignation in my voice. "What do you need?"

"This town, Novac? It's home for me now. I want that to be for good. I really like it here and I've left too many homes behind. But the only resource the people around here have is junk. Without that, there wouldn't be anything people could trade. They'd all have to leave."

"Not to interrupt, but I assume there's a point to all this?" I wasn't really all that interested in the why just tell me what you want done so I can go and get it done, I thought to myself.

"I'm getting to it. See, most of the junk comes from the old rocket test site up the road. It's sort of hidden in the Black Mountain foothills just west of here. But a few days ago, a bunch of ghouls showed up and took it over. Nobody wants to even get close anymore."

"If it's so important," I said with a shrug "why don't you just go up there and deal with it?"

"Trust me, if I could, I would." He said almost defensively. He pointed at his beret. "See this? Means I was in 1st Recon, same as Boone. It's shorthand for badass. I could clear out the place myself, but it would still take me the better part of a day, and I can't do that because I have to watch the road. As annoying as the ghouls are, they're not wandering, but Caesars Legion? They've been taking territory just east of here. Last I heard, they took Nelson. If we if I let our guard down, even for a minute, they might attack. All it takes for the Legion is for them to sense weakness."

"Ok. So you want me to get rid of the ghouls. What kind of ghouls are we talking about?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Well, are these a pack of feral ghouls that have wandered in, thinking there might be meat, or are these just ghouls who are squatting in an abandoned building, and I can maybe talk to and convince them to leave the place?"

"I don't know. I haven't actually been up there. I think its just ferals though, since everyone keeps talkin' about zombies. Personally, it doesn't matter to me what you do. As long as the ghouls are out of there, and people can go back to scavenging, that's good enough for me."

"Alright. I'll think about it," I said, despite having already made up my mind. "But if I do this, I expect you to tell me what I want to know."

"Thanks man," he said as I started to walk out the door. "It'd mean a lot to me."

"Ok, explain t'me again why we're doin' this?" Cass said as she walked beside me. ED-E was floating next to me on the other side as the three of us made our way up the road towards the rocket site.

"Well, I'm going up there to clear out some ghouls. I do this favor for Manny, he tells me what I need to know. Simple enough trade, just with a verbal contract and no caps involved."

"Well yeah, that's what I mean - why are we goin' through all this trouble? If he knows who yer lookin' for an' where he is, why don' ya just beat it out of him?" I had to stifle a snicker.

"I think maybe you've seen too many Pre-War holotapes. For one, beating a confession out of someone doesn't actually work. For two, he's ex 1st recon; he'd probably beat the shit out of me, rather than the other way around if I tried anything like that. And for three, I don't actually know why you keep saying 'we' about all this. When I knocked on your door to tell you where I was going, I didn't think you'd want to follow."

"I'm bored, an' got nothin' else better t'do," she said with a shrug. "B'sides, y'said th' people in Novac come up here to scavenge stuff. It's been a couple years, but I figure, couldn't hurt t'do a bit of honest 'prospecting.' With all that's happened, I could use th' money."

"So that's what the duffel bag is for," I said, pointing to the empty sack she had slung across her shoulder. She nodded with a grin.

"Gotta carry th'haul back somehow."

At that moment, ED-E started to beep excitedly. I was about to ask what was up, when the beeping was replaced by the familiar bugle music. I took a look at my Pip Boy's compass and immediately pulled Roscoe out of its holster.

"What's goin' on?" Cass asked. I showed her the compass: there was a mass of red pips on the compass, pointing to a place up the road and behind some rocks. She pulled out her shotgun, and the three of us carefully made our way to the bend in the road. The closer we got, the more I became aware of a shuffling sound, like bare feet scraping against pavement, accompanied by the occasional sounds of low growls and mutterings. ED-E hovered as low to the ground as he could; Cass and I moved behind an abandoned Chryslus Highwayman to get a look.Foll𝑜ow current novÊls on nov3lb((in).(com)

"You know," I whispered to Cass, "I asked Manny earlier if it was regular ghouls or if it was ferals. I guess I got my answer." All along the road ahead of us were 6 maybe 7 feral ghouls. The stench of death hung heavily in the air. They looked like walking corpses they were emaciated, and most of them had skin just hanging loose off their bones. Though, walking was probably giving them too much credit. Most of them were squatting on the road, but the ones that were up and about were shuffling along, dragging their feet as they moved.

ED-E beeped quizzically. The one closest to where we were hiding perked his head up at the noise. He motioned like he was sniffing the air except he had no nose. And then he looked directly at us with dead eyes.

"Shit."

The ghoul stopped shuffling, and let out a screech. I hated it when ferals screamed. The scream was raw, loud, and horrifically inhuman, like his vocal cords had been burned away to such an extent that this was the only sound they could even make anymore. But the real reason I hated it when ferals screamed was what happened next: every single feral on the street stopped what they were doing and turned as one to look at us. There were more screams, and they all got up and charged at us with a speed and ferocity that didn't seem possible from a pack of walking corpses.

I slipped into V.A.T.S., and instantly became aware that there was a lot more of them charging at us than just half a dozen. I squeezed off a few shots, trying to make every one count. I buried two slugs in the chest of the nearest one, but it didn't even seem fazed. I landed a third shot in its head and it went down with a sickening wet crunch. A few more went down to V.A.T.S. powered Roscoe, with help from Cass with her shotgun and ED-E with his laser. But just as I was reloading, a ghoul managed to slip by the three of us, and leap over the car right at me. To make matters worse, I heard that same mechanical female voice in my ear that I'd heard when I first discovered V.A.T.S.:

"We at Vault-Tec apologize for the inconvenience, but your Action Points have been depleted. Please allow them to recharge before using V.A.T.S. again." I could feel my eye twitch.

"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF -" the ghoul tackled me, sending me to the ground. I felt rather than saw Roscoe fly out of my hands and clatter to the ground somewhere behind me. I brought the arm with my Pip Boy up to shield my face, just as the ghoul lunged at me, as if to bite my face off. The ghoul scrambled and clawed at me, forcing me against the ground. Seeing it up close was not a pleasant experience, let me tell you. The flesh on its face was either hanging loose off the bones, or it was completely rotted away. One of its eyes, milky white like it had a massive cataract obscuring everything, was hanging loose in the socket and bulging out. It didn't have a nose, just an empty hole. Every orifice was dripping a black slimy ichor, and the smell made me want to vomit. I struggled against it, as it gnawed hungrily on my Pip Boy. I punched it in the side of the head, and it faltered enough for me to get my feet under it, and kick it solidly in the chest away from me.

The feral stood over me, readying itself to attack again. I started to get up and crawl away, to find where Roscoe had fallen, when its head exploded in a shower of gore.

" what."

All around me, ferals started falling from headshots. I looked around Cass (who had backed up considerably) looked just as confused as me, and even ED-E didn't seem to know what was going on. And that's when I saw him.

Taking careful aim from a vantage point above us was Boone, firing with an accuracy and speed I didn't think was possible. With every muzzle flash, another feral dropped dead from lead poisoning. In less than a minute, every feral had fallen. The road fell quiet as quickly as the violence had started. By the time I got up, wiped the gore off me, and found where Roscoe had fallen, Boone had come down from his perch and was making his way towards me, his scoped and silenced sniper rifle in hand.

"Thanks for the save, Boone. I didn't think I'd ever see you again." He nodded, saying nothing.

"Yeah, thanks" Cass said, walking up toward us with a confused look on her face. "Hey Sheason, who is this guy?"

"Cass, this is Boone," I said, gesturing to him. His face remained impassive, like a stone statue carved out of granite. "Boone, Cassidy. I uh, I helped him out with something last night." I turned back to him. "Like I said, I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Not to sound ungrateful, but what are you doing here?"

"Thought about what you said," he replied, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. "And you're right. Snipers should never operate without support. I've been down that path once before. Paid the price for it. Besides. I figured I owed you."

"Really?" I was genuinely confused. When he said 'I think our dealings are done here' last night, I figured we were square.

"Yeah. If you want, I'll help you out. Hang around till you find the man who shot you." He said, wasting no breath on unneeded words. I shrugged.

"Hey, having a 1st Recon sniper around is absolutely fine by me. Cass? Any objections?" I said, turning to Cass. She just looked around at all the ferals littering the ground with holes in their heads, slowly leaking black fluid onto the pavement.

"I think I'll be okay with it," she said with a smirk.

The road up to the rocket test site was much less eventful with Boone around. We didn't meet another large pack of ghouls after the first one. Boone was picking them off with his sniper rifle before they could even get close to us.

On the way there, though, we came across what looked like a makeshift bunker. It wasn't a proper bunker, since there was no roof; it was more like a dugout, since it didn't appear to be anything more than a few sandbags under a pedestrian overpass. ED-E beeped, I thought I heard Cass mutter something like "The fuck is this?" under her breath, and Boone continued to say nothing. When we got closer I could see a couple of chairs, a few bedrolls, and some ammo boxes. This most certainly didn't look like the work of ferals. The really strange thing though, was the pile of ash nearby.

"Energy weapons," Boone spoke up. I shot him a quizzical look.

"Are you sure?" I knelt down next to the pile of ash, to give it a better look.

"Yeah."

"How can you tell?" I asked. To be honest, it looked like it was probably the work of some kind of energy weapon, but I couldn't be absolutely sure. He pointed at a spot in the makeshift dugout.

"That ghoul has a laser rifle."

I got up and took a look. There was, indeed, a dead ghoul where he was pointing, but it didn't look like any of the ferals we'd run into on the way here. Quite aside from the boxy laser rifle still clutched in his dead hands, this ghoul seemed much more intact well, more intact for a ghoul, anyway. His skin was mostly see-through, but it wasn't falling off, and he even still had a bit of hair left. The really odd thing was the fact that this ghoul wore a dark green robe with brown trim. It almost made him look like a monk, or a scribe in the Brotherhood of Steel.

"This guy isn't a feral," I gave voice to my thoughts. Cass nodded.

"There's a difference?" Boone asked.

"Well sure," Cass chimed in, as she went around the dugout-bunker, looking through the ammo cans and metal boxes, finding stuff to put in her duffle bag. "Y'ever been ta Necropolis? Whole city fulla ghouls. Lot's o' them'r really nice, an' willin' ta trade. Regular ghouls'r just like people, y'know? S'th' ferals that'r all crazy flesh-hungry zombies."

"Hey Cass, think this'll fetch a good price?" I'd grabbed the laser rifle from the dead ghoul, and held it in the air for her to see.

"Looks good, toss it 'ere!" she said.

"Sure thing but if you find any microfusion cells, I call dibs. I'll need them for the car."

"Car?" Boone raised an eyebrow.

The first image we had of the rocket test site was a massive dome. It was set into the side of the mountain, and looked remarkably intact, despite being at least 200 years old. Nearby, also set into the mountain, was a mostly square four-story building, which looked much worse for wear than the dome. As we walked closer, we saw a sign by the side of the road. It looked made out of stone, and the "O" had fallen out of "REPCONN." Behind the sign and in front of the stairs leading to the building was a roundabout, with a rusted statue of a rocket ship with a yellow tip and five fins sticking out of the dirt.

Four cracks from Boone's sniper rifle later, and four more ghouls had fallen. I wanted to think that using my Pip Boys friend/foe compass was helping me be a good spotter for Boone, but frankly it didn't really seem like he needed my help all that much. ED-E zoomed ahead of us, flying up to get a good look at the rocket, and we made our way towards the dilapidated office building. All around us, we saw more sandbag barricades, more dead ghouls, and more smoking ash piles. Suddenly, Boone stopped, and held up his hand to get our attention.

"Hold up." He made his way towards one of the barricades, and knelt down to get a look at something behind the sandbag wall. I followed him cautiously, checking my Pip Boys compass again to make sure we were clear of any more hostiles. When I saw the figure lying on the ground that had caught Boone's attention, I stopped in my tracks.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked Boone.

"Yeah."

Sprawled on the ground was a body, which had to be at least 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It was a mass of veiny, solid muscle, with dark blue skin stretched taught. There literally wasn't a single ounce of fat on this creature. Its eyes were wide open, like it didn't even have eyelids; the eyes were set deep in its skull underneath a heavy brow. Its mouth was held open and pulled up in a permanent sneer by two leather straps attached to its lips on both sides, showing a mouth full of large, perfectly straight (and strangely white) teeth. It wore a brown cloth hood covering an incredibly thick and wide head, a brown tunic around its waist, brown leather boots, and there was a stop sign wrapped around its right arm, like a shield held in place by twisted metal rods bent around its arm. In the center of its chest was a gaping, cauterized hole the killing blow from an energy weapon that didn't turn it to a pile of ash.

"What is it?" Cass said, poking it in the arm with the barrel of her shotgun.

"It's a super mutant," I said simply. That's the only thing it could be. This one looked different from the other super mutants I'd seen in the past, however.

"Wait, this is a super mutant? Never seen one up close, 'fore" Cass knelt down to get a better look at it. "Ugly fucker, ain't he?"

"Hang on," I said. "You've never seen a super mutant up close before? Didn't you say you've been to Necropolis?" Cass nodded.

"I have, but Necropolis is pretty fuckin' big nowadays, an' I never went too deep into th' city. Only ever saw ghouls there. No mutants."

"Commando," Boone chimed in. "Different kind of mutant. Regular mutants have green skin."

"A commando?" Cass and I exchanged glances. I'd never heard of a super mutant commando before. Boone continued.

"They specialize in hit and run tactics. They're the only kind of mutants I've seen that use Stealth Boys. A normal mutant will run at you with a sledgehammer; a commando will sneak up behind you and bash your skull in."

"An' how do you know all this, anyway?" Cass asked, raising an eyebrow.

"1st Recon," was his only response. He walked up the stairs away from us, towards the building.

When we opened the front door to the Repconn building, we were greeted by a scene of erupted chaos. Smears of dried blood painted the walls, broken up by bullet holes and burn marks. Robed ghouls with energy weapons lay on the ground all around; a dead super mutant lay sprawled on the floor in front of the door, and I nearly tripped over it upon entering. There was a curved front desk behind the dead mutant, and above the desk was a model of a rocket, hanging from the ceiling. There were five doors two on the far left and far right contained stairs which presumably led to the balcony above, two doors behind the front desk that led to bathrooms, and a door directly behind the desk that was unlabeled.

"Hey!" I heard an unfamiliar voice cry out. It sounded filtered, but it was rough and raspy, like a ghoul that hadn't yet turned feral but who still had ruined vocal cords. I couldn't quite tell where the voice was coming from.

"Over here!" the voice sounded again. I looked around, and eventually found the source: an intercom speaker mounted on the wall to my left. I carefully stepped over the mutant and walked over to the intercom.

"Are you even listening?" he said again, sounding agitated. I reached the intercom, and pressed the talk button.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said into the metal box. "Who's this?"

"Go to the big room on the east side of this building and take the metal staircase all the way up. And hurry," the raspy voice said, ignoring my question.

"That'll depend on who I'm talking to. Who are you?" I asked again.

"Who I am doesn't matter, smoothskin," he replied. "Stop wasting time and get up here! Find the metal staircase in the big room on the east side of the building, where they used to make rockets." With an audible click, the voice cut out.

"Ominous little fucker, ain't he?" Cass said, adjusting the strap on the duffel bag still slung across her back. ED-E beeped. Boone said nothing.

"Well?" I asked, turning to my companions. "What do you think? Should we find out what's upstairs?"

Before anyone could answer, a raw, loud, and horrifically inhuman screech filled the air. More ferals had arrived. I had just pulled out Roscoe when Boone leveled his rifle at a point up on the balcony and fired. A moment later, I saw a feral tumbling over the balcony railing, falling to the ground with a sickening wet crunch. ED-E floated up above the rocket and I heard a mixture of marching music and discharging laser blasts.

"Follow me!" I said to Cass, and we rushed to the stairs on the right towards the east side of the building. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Boone backing up, covering the rear. Suddenly, a feral rounded the corner and was about to charge but there was a metal snapping sound, and the feral's foot was caught in a bear trap. It howled in pain for only a moment; Cass put it out of its misery with a shotgun blast to the face.

"Keep an eye out somebody's set up traps," I said, cautiously peering around the corner and up the stairs. There was another feral at the top of the stairs, who had been snarling over the railing, but had turned and spotted me. I slipped into V.A.T.S. hoping my action points (or whatever they were called) had recharged and fired at the ghoul. The bullet went straight through its open mouth and out the back of its skull.

There were only a few more ferals between us and the metal staircase we'd been instructed to find. The building seemed like a maze; I kept us on track, thanks to the map making feature of my Pip Boy though in truth, I probably didn't need it: it only seemed like a maze because of the damage to the walls and the lights, not to mention all the dead ghouls and piles of ash everywhere. I had confidence enough in my own sense of direction, but better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.

When we got to the east side of the building, there was a fork. One way was a staircase leading down. The other way was into a large factory floor. The door looked like it had been blown off its hinges, and was lying on top of a dead super mutant that no longer had a head. In the back of the room, just like the ominous voice had said, was a metal staircase leading upward. ED-E flew past me, and up into the rafters, past a half-finished rocket. He returned a moment later, and beeped cheerfully at me.

"What d'ya suppose that means?" Cass asked. I shrugged.

"With any luck, he's saying the way is clear." As if to reassure me, the little robot bobbed in the air, almost like someone shaking their head. So, the four of us made our way up the twisting metal staircase until finally we came to a door with another intercom speaker next to it. I went up to the door, and tried to turn the handle; it wouldn't budge. The intercom turned on with an audible click.

"All right, smoothskin," the same voice as before said. "I'm letting you in. You better watch yourself. I'll sure as hell be watching you." The intercom turned off, and I heard a bolt in the door unlatched. I swung the door open, and was face to face with a human. He was a balding man with thick eyebrows and moustache that looked interchangeable with one another; he looked to be in his forties, and he wore a white lab coat over a shirt and tie.

"God, but are you ugly!" he said, revealing himself as the unmistakable voice from behind the intercom. "All of you yeesh! Get upstairs and talk to Jason before I throw up just from looking at you." I was confused, and looked to my companions, but was met with similar uncomprehending faces.

"Hang on," I finally said to him. "You don't look like a ghoul." He just raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your pranks won't work on me, smoothskin," he practically snarled, crossing his arms over his chest. "They won't work on Jason, either."

"Y'know, yer skin looks pretty smooth to me," Cass said, mockingly.

"Stop wasting my time, smoothskins!" he finally yelled, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Go talk to Jason, and leave me alone!" And with that, he stormed off in a huff.

"The fuck was that?" Cass asked me, trying to hold back a laugh. I shrugged, looking to Boone, who just silently shook his head. ED-E let out a series of beeps that I could swear sounded like a chuckle. The four of us made our way through the hallways and up a set of stairs, past banks of computer terminals, and ghouls in the same robes we'd seen before milling about. When I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a voice from behind me it was odd, and didn't sound like a ghoul, but it didn't sound human either. There was a weird sort of echoing quality to his speech that sounded almost alien.

"Hello, and welcome, wanderers." I turned to look at the man speaking and this man was most certainly a ghoul. He was wearing robes similar to the other ghouls, except they were a deep burgundy, and looked to be in worse condition, having burned and frayed in many places though that could be because this ghoul looked positively radioactive. Patches of his skin glowed with a bright green bioluminescence. Somehow, his eyes stood out as much as the glowing patches on his skin they were completely blue, with no iris, no pupil, and no sclera, just eyes that were a single solid color. His arms were extended in a welcoming gesture, and he was standing underneath a hole in the roof, bathing him in a shaft of sunlight that made him look otherworldly.

"Please, forgive us our humble surroundings," he continued, reaching his hands to the sky. "Our true home awaits us in the Far Beyond."

"Are you Jason?" I asked. He nodded, clasping his hands together in front of him and smiling at me; even without showing any teeth, a smiling ghoul is a distinctly disturbing image.

"Yes. I am Jason Bright, the prophet of the Great Journey. All the ghouls you see here are members of my flock. Have you and your compatriots come to help us complete the Great Journey?" he asked, making more sweeping motions with his hands. If nothing else, he seemed to love gesticulating.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," Cass spoke up, shaking her hands at Jason. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was trying as hard as she could not to laugh. "Yer last name is 'Bright?' Yer shittin' me! That's hilarious!"

"An auspicious name, don't you think?" Jason merely smiled again, seemingly taking no offense. "It was mine before I became as I am now. Before the Great War, even. Truly does The Creator author a destiny for each and every one of us."

"Listen," I said, motioning for Cass to quiet down. "I'll be honest. I don't know anything about this Great Journey, or this creator you're talking about. I'm here because Novac is worried about the feral ghouls wandering into their town." Which was true enough, even though Manny had specifically said the ghouls weren't wandering; I thought it more diplomatic to blame it on the ferals than to just say 'The people of Novac want you to leave, get the fuck out.' Jason closed his eyes, and he hung his head slightly, his voice taking on a melancholy air.

"And they've been shooting them down like animals, haven't they?" I stayed quiet; it was probably a bad idea to mention all the ferals we had to fight through just to get up here. "Those ghouls were members of my flock, even after the madness consumed their minds. We never let them wander free. We kept them safe on the first floor. We kept them contained! The Demons must have let them out, somehow And now they are lost forever, denied the salvation and healing glow of the Far Beyond"

"Tell me about the demons," I was surprised to hear Boone speak up.

"The Demons appeared from nowhere except it might be more accurate to say they never actually 'appeared' at all. The Demons are invisible. Where one of them stands, the most one sees is the air shimmering, like sunlight on water" That sounded a lot like the super mutants we'd seen on the way in; the 'commandos' Boone had talked about, using Stealth Boys. I looked to Boone, and he nodded, like he knew what I was thinking. Jason continued

"They set upon us as we were on our way to worship one morning. We had just entered the basement. My flock fought bravely, and killed a few, but at such cost. Nearly half of our number died or went missing. What you see before you are all that remains. Once we retreated, one of the Demons raved at us, but they have not tried to attack us since. Still, their demonic presence brought all progress towards the Great Journey to the Far Beyond to a standstill."

"Ok, you keep talking about it what is this Far Beyond?" I asked, my curiosity finally getting the better of me.

"I have glimpsed it only in visions, wanderer, but what I have seen is truly miraculous. It is a place of light and healing, and I know in my soul that my flock will be safe there."

"Well, that's unhelpfully vague," Cass chimed in.

"The means by which the Great Journey is to be accomplished and any details of the Far Beyond are articles of faith, not to be discussed with outsiders. I apologize, but that is the dogma passed down to me by The Creator."

"Alright, fair enough I guess. But to complete this Great Journey, you and all the ghouls will leave Repconn though, right? And will that include the ferals?" I asked, a thought having just occurred to me. Jason nodded.

"Once the way is clear, my brothers and sisters will gather any feral ghouls with us, and they shall accompany us on the Great Journey if there are any left."

I turned around, and motioned for Cass and Boone to come in close so I could speak to them (somewhat) in private. Even ED-E hovered in close.

"Well? What do you think?" I asked, quietly.

"I think he's nuttier'n a bighorner droppin." Cass said bluntly.

"There's commandos in the basement for sure," Boone said. "Don't know how many."

"That's true," I said. "But if we can find some way to get rid of the super mutants, then the ghouls will leave, too, and that's the whole reason I came up here."

ED-E beeped at me. I wanted to say something, but just shook my head instead.

"Will that compass work if they're stealthed?" Boone asked, pointing at my Pip Boy. I took a look at it, bringing up the compass. There was no way to tell from the bars on the compass what was being tracked, how far away it was, or if it could track someone who was stealthed; hell, if there were a lot of contacts, they tended to mix in with one another, so a lot of times it would be impossible to tell how many it was tracking. It was a very basic friend/foe indicator.

"I'll be honest, I don't know." There was a long pause.

"Commandos are tough," Boone said finally. "But they're not invincible. I'm game if you are." I nodded.

"Hopefully it won't have to come to that I've met mutants in Necropolis before, and well, to be honest, the ones that I met seemed decent enough. With any luck, we can convince the mutants to leave along with the ghouls." I turned to Cass. "Well? What do you think? Can we handle some mutants in the basement?" Cass pulled the laser rifle out of her duffel bag and loaded a microfusion cell in it.

"If we're goin' down there, I'm usin' this. Don' think my shotgun'll do fuck all if'n it comes to blows, but if all the ash piles'r any indication, they disintegrate like ev'ryone else."

"ED-E?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. The robot beeped happily, bobbing in the air as if nodding like it did before. Good enough for me. I turned around to face Jason again.

"Alright, I've talked it over with my friends, and we'll help you with your 'demon' problem, so long as you and the rest of the ghouls leave after we're done. Deal?" In response, Jason held his hands up to the hole in the roof again.

"Praise The Creator! Bless you, wanderers! Bless us all! Once again, The Creator has sent a human to help us across a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. As soon as the underground has been rid of The Demons, preparations for the Great Journey can resume!"

Jason had given us a key to unlock the door that led to the basement. When the door opened, the pungent aroma of sweaty socks and engine exhaust blasted me in the face. Only a few of the lights in the first room we entered worked. There was an odd mechanical thrumming noise reverberating through the walls that sounded like a generator of some kind or several.

The four of us made our way through the basement, as quietly as we could. I had Roscoe drawn, but frankly if we did end up running into any super mutants, I wasn't sure it would do any good. I was busying myself, checking my Pip Boy's compass. There were a few red pips, but because the tunnels in the basement seemed to twist and turn, I couldn't tell if the enemies it was picking up were stealthed or not.

Eventually, we came to a fork in the road. Left or right. Both led further down into the basement. Using a completely scientific method that wasn't in any way a random guess, I picked the right passage. We walked down the path for a bit, until we got to a door at which point a green pip flashed on my compass from behind the door. A friendly?

"Hang back a bit," I whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Watch the exit." I checked the door, and it slid open with a shudder and a clang. Inside was a super mutant! This super mutant looked like he should have been as tall as the corpses we'd seen if he stretched up to his full height, but because he was hunching over so much, he looked about 7 and a half, maybe 8 feet tall. He was blue skinned, just like the others, but covered in more furs and leathers, some of it dyed red. He was just sort of standing behind a desk, holding a brahmin skull in his hands. He was holding it so that it almost looked like it was looking at him. When I opened the door, he didn't seem to notice me right away.

"What's that, Antler? We have a visitor?" He spoke in a loud, gravelly roar, but not to me he was talking to the skull. It didn't sound like he could speak in a voice quieter than a yell. "An assassin, more like! I say kill it, Antler! For safe's sake! Huh? Okay, Antler. I'll ask." He set the skull down on a nearby coffee machine, positioned so the skull was 'looking' at me. He set a hand on the desk, and stared at me with bulging eyes. This time when he spoke, he spoke to me, and spoke slowly almost like I wouldn't understand if he spoke faster. "Uh Hi. Human. Why you come here?"

"Uh are you alright?" I asked, unsure what was going on. Cass and Boone had both rushed to see what the commotion was and were starting to raise their weapons at the super mutant, when I waved them off.

"I AM IN COMMAND OF MY FACULTIES!" He yelled even louder. He slammed a giant fist on the desk, denting it and making the skull bounce in the air a few inches. "IN COMMAND OF MY TROOPS!" He calmed down a little, and went back to his normal gravelly roar-speaking voice. "Antler guides me in all things! As I in turn guide my kin!"

Of the myriad emotions and thoughts swirling around my head, "Don't upset the crazy super mutant" seemed the most sane. So I decided to answer his first question.

"You asked why I'm here, right? Uh well, Jason Bright and the ghouls upstairs sent me down to uh, talk to you." I lied. He eyed me apprehensively.

"A human who is friend to ghouls? Suspicious. Antler used intercom, told them stay put. But they want to come down in basement anyways? I cannot allow. My kin are not right in head like I am. They attack you on sight. Ghouls too. THEY CRAZY!" As if to illustrate the point, the super mutant waved his arms about. "Your ghoul friends have to wait until we find what Antler brought us to get. Antler brought us here for reason! Er" He looked confused for a moment, then stared down at the brahmin skull. "What was that, Antler?" He paused, as if waiting for a response. "Right! A piece of paper! Shipment invoice! Hundreds of Stealth Boys! Sent here, long time ago! But Stealth Boys must be in the one room. One we don't search yet the one we can't search."

"Why not?" Cass chimed in, having been listening to the super mutant rant. It's not like she could've ignored him if she wanted to.

"A ghoul!" He yelled. "But not squishy like others! This ghoul is tough. I thought Antler said send my kin into that room, but three died. Ghoul is crack shot, and set traps too! After, I realize I heard Antler wrong. So I lock door to keep kin out, and wait for Antler to tell me what to do. Then YOU come along! Antler says you are solution!" He pointed a thick finger in my direction, staring at me.

I rubbed the scar on my temple. This is getting ridiculous, I thought to myself.

"If I find the Stealth Boy stockpile for you, will you and your er, kin, leave, and let the ghouls come back down to the basement?"

"Yes!" I couldn't tell if he was happy, since his face didn't change expression, but it almost sounded like he was happy. Sort of. "Antler says we leave here as soon as we get Stealth Boys! Let me give you key. Antler had me lock the door. The ghoul inside not expecting a human. Maybe he don't shoot you. Maybe he do. Now go! Find Stealth Boys!"

He threw the key at me, and it hit me in the middle of my forehead with a lot more force than I was expecting. I gave him a nod, a forced smile, and a friendly wave goodbye as I picked the key up off the ground and shut the door. As soon as it shut, my smile evaporated and I just let out a heavy sigh, leaning against the wall, and rubbing my forehead.

"Ok," I said finally. "So. What do we do?"

"The situation hasn't changed," Boone said simply. "You should've just let me shoot him."

"Thanks for that, Boone," I said, rubbing my forehead. "But frankly, I'd much rather not fight super mutants if I don't have to especially since all I have is Roscoe here." I held up my 9mm, to illustrate the point. Most reliable pistol I'd ever had, sure, but by no stretch of the imagination was it powerful; not to mention, I'd heard stories in the past about super mutants shrugging off bullets to the face from an assault rifle. What good was Roscoe going to do?

"Well hell, if y'needed more firepower, why didn't ya jus' ask?" Cass said, reaching into her duffel bag and pulling out a plasma rifle. It wasn't boxy like the laser rifle; this was all curves and pipes and tubes and bulges. It looked dowright alien compared to Roscoe.

"Where the hell did you find that?"

"One of th' ghouls on th' way up had it. Swiped it so we could sell it, but I figure, we can use it too. Or, t'least you." I holstered Roscoe and took the plasma rifle with a nod. It was a lot lighter than I was expecting. "So what's th' plan?" she continued. "We helpin' th' muties now?"

"Let's at least check out the room," I said with a sigh. "With luck, the ghoul will know if there are Stealth Boys, and hopefully we won't run into any cloaked super mutants on the way." ED-E beeped in conformation, and floated off, towards the other path in the fork. I followed, plasma rifle drawn; Cass fell in behind me with her looted laser rifle; Boone stayed in the rear. A few moments later, we were at the door. It had to be where the ghoul was: sprawled in front of the door was a dead super mutant: 2 bullet holes in its skull, and 5 in its chest. Cautiously, I opened the door, and kept behind the doorframe as it opened. There was a bang, and a rifle bullet embedded itself in the metal floor by my feet with a ping.

"Come and get it, you big dumb ugly -" the unmistakable gravelly voice of a ghoul yelled. I cut him off midsentence, yelling back at him from behind the doorframe.

"We're not mutants! Hold your fire!" There was a long pause. Cautiously, I stepped through the door into the room. There was another dead mutant lying face first on the ground in front of me. All around the room, I could see traps trip wires, bear traps, disturbed gravel that looked like it could be some kind of disguised mines These were the same kind of traps I'd seen upstairs, obviously set by the same ghoul. Off in the far corner was another super mutant, his foot caught in a bear trap and half of his face was simply gone. Cass and ED-E followed me, but Boone stayed outside, watching the rear.

"Huh. You're not one of those things out there." The ghoul said, stating the obvious. He wasn't wearing robes like the other ghouls upstairs; his outfit was much more practical, covered with ammo and pouches. He was holding a rifle in his hands, and a pair of goggles hung around his neck. "Who the hell are you?"

"Jason sent me down here to get rid of the 'demons.' He didn't tell me there were any ghouls left down here." I said, looking up at him. He was on the 2nd floor of the room, crouched on a catwalk that not only gave him cover, but an elevated position. Smart. He let out a sound; I couldn't tell if it was a laugh or a cough.

"And I bet he told you it's the creators will for you to risk your ass, instead of him, right? Well, good luck with that. I'd give you a hand, but no thanks. I may look like a corpse, but I'm partial to living!" He spat on the catwalk.

"How'd you end up trapped in here?" I asked. I couldn't be sure, but I could swear I saw the corners of his mouth twitch when I asked.

"First off, I'm not trapped. This was a tactical choice, all right? I'm no match for those things out there, so I found a good defensible position, and I've been defending it, all right?" I said nothing, but continued to look up at him. He looked nervous, but eventually shook his head. "Aw, who am I fooling? I'm trapped, I admit it. Name's Harland. Pleased to meet you," he said with another coughing laugh.

"Nice to meet you, Harland. I'm Sheason. This is Cass, and er, ED-E." I said, pointing to my companions.

"What happened was, I was escorting folks down to work when those things attacked us. Most of the fight was upstairs, but some folks panicked and made for the basement and like a moron, I went after them. Turns out, there were even more of the bastards down here than upstairs, and things went to shit fast. I couldn't find the others, so I fell back to this room and set up a nice kill zone. End of story."

"Y'know, y'don't look like th' other ghouls" Cass said to him when he finished his story.

"Guess the outfit gives that away, huh?" He said, with yet another coughing laugh. "I never did buy into all that religious mumbo-jumbo with the robes and all that shit. What can I say, it gets lonely out in the wastes, okay? And I don't have to tell you that Bright's group has got some fine lookin' ghoulettes in it!"

There was a very, very awkward pause.

"Er" he finally thought about what he said. "I guess, maybe I would have to tell you" he muttered something about smoothskins that I couldn't quite make out, and continued. "Anyway, I helped them out, and they kept me supplied with food, ammo, and pleasant company."

"So, how the hell have you survived down here, anyway?" I asked.

"I'm not delicate," Harland stated, like it was just a fact of life. "Radroach meat for protein, condensation off the pipes for water, and I do my business over in the far corner."

There was another awkward pause.

"I wouldn't say it's been comfy."

"Look, do you know why the super mutants are here?" He shook his head, and I continued. "They're here, because they're looking for a cache of Stealth Boys. This is the only room in the building they haven't searched, and once they find the Stealth Boys, they're gone. Do you know if there's any Stealth Boys in here?" He just stared at me like I was stupid.

"Do you really think if there was anything in here that made me invisible, I'd still be here?"

"Can we take a look around?" Cass asked.

"No." Harland said forcefully. I felt my eye twitch.

"Why not?" I asked.

"For one thing, the room is still full of traps and I don't want them going off unless they have to. You can search the room to your hearts content when I leave." I suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach; somehow, I knew where this was going.

"Is there any way I can help you out of this room then?" I said, trying not to sound angry through gritted teeth. This had gone beyond ridiculous. A part of me wondered if it wouldn't have just been easier to shoot everyone who wanted to send me somewhere else and be done with it.

"Hurm," he growled. "Well. You're certainly polite, I'll give you that." I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"And if this was just between you and me," he continued, "I'd leave, but it's not. I had a friend with me when the muties came out of nowhere. She panicked and ran the wrong direction further into the basement. She's probably dead, but I ain't leaving until I know for sure. I'd have gone myself, except I wouldn't last a minute out there. All of you, on the other hand, seem pretty resourceful. Find my friend, and I'll get out of your way. You can search the room for non-existent Stealth Boys till your eyes burst after that." I looked to Cass. She just shrugged.

"Let's help th' boy out," she said. "We're already here, why th' fuck not?"

"Alright," I said with resignation, looking back up at Harland. "We'll help you find your friend."

"Thanks," he said. "Let me know what you find out." He paused, then added softly and mostly to himself "Here's hoping she's okay"

The path to the deeper parts of the basement was incredibly, unbelievably tense. I had my eyes on my Pip Boy almost constantly, checking the map and the friend/foe compass to make sure we didn't get lost in the labyrinthine maze of twisting metal corridors, and that we stayed clear of any super mutants.

Eventually, the four of us entered a fairly large room off one of the hallways; the room was dimly lit, and had a few banks of powered-down computer mainframes on one side. As soon as we entered, I heard a noise from the doorway on the other side of the room. It was a loud, rhythmic thumping sound, like heavy footfalls against a metal grate. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Boone practically disappear into the shadows made by the mainframes, and Cass swiftly (but less quietly) followed him; even ED-E stayed silent, floating into the darkness of the ceiling. I pressed myself flat against the wall, looking at my Pip Boy's compass. One of the red pips was moving in time with the footfalls, before both it and the sound stopped right near the door. Cautiously, I did my best to get a look outside the door without being seen.

Just outside the door, I could see the faint silhouette of a large figure completely filling the doorframe but it didn't look natural. For one thing, inside the silhouette, I could see the wall behind, but distorted slightly, like trying to view something through a piece of warped glass or through some water. But mostly, it felt unnatural because there was a green outline around the distortion, exactly like the kind of outline I'd see when V.A.T.S. would activate, except fainter. I could hear the figure breathing heavily, low and loud, growling like a deathclaw as it stood there or it could have just been me breathing that heavily, I'm not really sure. My heart was pounding in my ears, and I could feel a few droplets of sweat form on my face; I tried my damnedest to keep my breathing constant, staying as still as I possibly could. I heard the beast snort loudly, and the outline moved away from the doorframe. I checked my Pip Boy the red pip on the compass moved along with the visual distortion.

Ok. So. The Pip Boy compass actually could track a stealthed super mutant. Good to know.

Somehow, knowing that most of these red pips were most likely stealthed super mutants both calmed me down and set me on edge simultaneously. On the one hand, now I knew exactly what we were dealing with, and could avoid them that much better now. On the other hand, this just confirmed that the super mutants down here were invisible. Which, I'll be honest, wasn't an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination. There was one upside: because I'd been keeping such a close eye on the red pips, and the map maker on my Pip Boy was doing its job, I was able to take this new data and figure out that the super mutants down here were either milling about and remaining stationary, or patrolling hallways in patterns that I finally had all the pieces to see.

Finally, the four of us had managed to sneak our way through the corridors and past the super mutants, coming to a door that (according to my Pip Boy) led to the lowest accessible part of the basement. My compass registered a single red pip from inside the room. With any luck, I'd be able to get the door open without the super mutant on the other side knowing.

Unfortunately, it seems all our luck had been used up sneaking past the super mutants to get to this point. I barely touched the door, and the hydraulics kicked in, sliding it down into the floor and the walls with a screech of metal against metal. I heard a loud, low snorting-growl from inside, followed by heavy stomping footfalls coming towards us.

Before I could react, ED-E zoomed over my head into the room, triumphant bugle music playing over its speaker. From around the corner, a distortion much larger than the one I'd seen earlier came around the corner, roared, and balls of fire materialized in the air after ED-E; the robot just zoomed around the room ahead of the fireballs, distracting the mutant. I ran into the room not after ED-E, but to what was (I assumed) behind the mutant. The air shimmered around it as gouts of flame surged forth. I didn't know where Cass and Boone were hopefully, they were right behind me.

As quick as I could, I leveled my plasma rifle towards the distortion in the air. The plasma rifle fired agonizingly slow; much slower than I was expecting. I squeezed the trigger as fast as I could, but only a single burst of superheated green plasma exited the barrel and impacted on the stealthed figure. My nostrils burned as the air became flush with the smell of ozone. Lightning crackled, and the stealth field started to falter, making the super mutant barely visible. It roared and turned towards me, murder in its face. ED-E flew around and hit the flamethrower the mutant was carrying with a blast from his laser. The flamethrower glowed brightly for half a second, and then the mutant dropped it to the floor with a clang.

Despite that, the mutant's attention was still firmly focused on me. I pulled the trigger again, but the rifle was still charging; I let out a short, violent profanity and started to run for any kind of cover. I cast a glance behind me, and saw it pull a blade off of its back which looked like the front bumper of my car. I rolled away, leveling the plasma rifle again, and fired another plasma bolt at it. Unfortunately it went way too high and impacted with a splash of melting superheated metal on the ceiling above the mutant.

There was a crack of a rifle, and the mutant's head was knocked violently to the side. Boone had gotten behind and to the side of the mutant, his rifle pointed square at the giant's skull. It turned to Boone with a roar, just as Boone fired again. The mutant staggered back slightly, clutching its face for half a second before swinging its bumper-sword towards Boone with a crash. Boone dove out of the way, just as the metal floor where he was standing buckled under the force of the mutants swing.

A pair of laser blasts cut through the air and hit the monster square in the back. ED-E was flying over Cass, and they were both firing their lasers. I fired another blast of plasma, striking the monster in the arm; a red hot disk of swiftly cooling molten plasma smoldered on its skin. It roared, not sure which of us to attack first, howling in pain.

It settled on me, and started to charge, with its bumper-sword raised in the air. I was about to fire another plasma blast, but quite suddenly the super mutant's whole body jerked backwards violently, and it dropped the bumper-sword. When his head rocked forwards, I saw a hand firmly grasped on one of the leather straps holding its mouth up in the permanent snarl. It hunched over, flailing its arms to try and reach Boone, who was riding on the back of the super mutant. His beret and sunglasses were not on his face, and the hand that wasn't holding onto the mutant was carrying a wicked looking bowie knife. With a shout almost as loud as the mutant, Boone brought the bowie knife down into the mutant's chest. The super mutant let out a howl, and Boone stabbed him in the chest twice more before bringing it up and stabbing the mutant under the chin, burying the knife up to the hilt. There was a wet gurgle, and even from where I was standing I could see the mutant's eyes roll and look in opposite directions. Dark red blood seeped out of its mouth and from the wound under its chin as Boone pulled out the knife. The super mutant wobbled in place for a good five seconds, before Boone jumped off and the mutant toppled forwards, dead.

If not for the loud thudding of machinery and generators coming from the level below us, the room would've been completely silent. There weren't any sounds of mutants coming into the room to see what all the noise was, so that was good. Cass and I were both breathing heavily. ED-E let loose a burst of victorious marching music. Boone merely walked over to the mutant, wiped the blood on his knife onto the mutant's tunic, and then turned to where his beret and sunglasses had fallen, picking them up without a sound. When he picked up his rifle, I pointed at the massive corpse.

"And that," I said, still gasping for air, "that is the reason I don't want to fight super mutants unless I have to."

Boone let out a soft, throaty chuckle and smirked.

We descended further into the basement. I didn't see any contacts on my Pip Boy this far down, so the four of us were much more relaxed than up above. The thudding we'd heard in the room above during our fight with the mutant was much more pronounced here, thanks to the massive generators taking up most of the space in these rooms.

The four of us spread out, trying to find Harland's friend. Almost immediately, Cass hollered something barely audible over the thump of the generators, so I followed her voice to see what she'd found, as did Boone and ED-E.

Lying on the ground in one of the side rooms was the body of a female ghoul. She wore a robe like the rest of Bright's religious ghouls, and her eyes had rolled back in her head. A large dark stain of dried blood covered the floor around her head, and when I knelt in to get a close look, I could see the top of her skull had been completely caved in. Boone and Cass said nothing, but ED-E let out a series of sad sounding beeps. I was just about to get up and leave, so we could tell Harland the bad news when I noticed something shiny out of the corner of my eye. She had something clutched in her hand; a small necklace, with a pendant made out of what looked like a tiny piece of scrap metal, crudely fashioned into the shape of a heart. An "H" had been scratched in the middle.

"Well?" Harland asked, as the four of us came back to his trap-filled room. "Did you find my friend?"

I nodded, grimacing. "I'm sorry," I said up to him. He was silent for a few moments.

"I see. Well spare me the details," he spat on the catwalk again. Then, he said under his breath "Damnit, I'm gonna miss that crooked, yellow smile" he turned back to me and continued, grabbing a few boxes of rifle ammo off the floor and shoving them into the pockets on his jacket.. "Alright. You did your part. Look around up here if you want. I'm gonna make a break for topside." He disappeared from view, and a few seconds later a door on the far wall opened, revealing a staircase to the upper level. Rifle in hand, he made his way past the traps and towards the exit. I held up a hand to stop him.

"Hey, before you go," I said, pulling the small necklace out of one of my jacket pockets. "She was holding this. I thought you might want it."

He took it in his hands, and looked at it. Ghouls are really hard to read sometimes. I think part of that could be because they no longer have any skin to speak of. He let a breath out of the hole on his face where his nose used to be, and looked up at me while placing it in one of the pockets on his jacket. He nodded at me.

"Thanks," he said in a whisper that just ended up sounding more like a growl. And with that, he rushed out of the room towards the surface.

"Alright," I said to my companions. "Let's check to see if this room has any Stealth Boys." We spread out ED-E and I took the upstairs, while Boone and Cass checked the downstairs. I was halfway up the stairs when I heard a rifle shot, followed by a lot of loud bangs.

"Boone got ridda' th' mines!" I heard Cass yell up at me. I just smiled and shook my head, continuing up.

I searched without success through a lot of crates in the upstairs of this room that looked like they hadn't been opened in 200 years. Eventually, I found a computer terminal sitting on a desk. It was plugged into the wall, and amazingly was still powered up. I set my rifle on the desk, and took a look, hoping it would give me any information about the Stealth Boys. At first, it didn't want to cooperate, but I gave a strong whack on the side; the screen flickered and then (with a little more prodding) divulged its secrets.

Mostly, the terminal just had messages between people working in the offices upstairs from before the bombs fell. Then I found three messages that looked promising. The first, labeled as "RE: Shipment Mistake?" looked like the message the super mutant with Antler was talking about. It was mostly talking about things that had lost all relevance over 200 years ago, but it did eventually make mention of "a bunch of crates containing two gross of devices called 'StealthBoys'."

The next message I saw was labeled "RE: Workplace Misbehavior" and was apparently sent to all Repconn staff, informing them that they needed to "give a thorough reading to Repconn's sexual harassment and workplace behavior policies," and that "while it is not explicitly stated in the Employee Handbook, unauthorized use of military hardware against fellow employees is grounds for immediate termination." I couldn't help but chuckle at the implications.

The last one, however, seemed the most relevant:

REPCONN Inter-office Correspondence #3486289

To: RobCo HQ Supply Department

From: Sanjeev Rajan, REPCONN Custodian

RE: Shipment Sent Back

Hi RobCo Supply:

We are sending two (2) crates of devices labeled "StealthBoys" back to you. According to the manifest, each crate contained one gross (144) of the devices. As a result of employee misbehavior (not mine!), one crate was opened and is missing five (5) Stealthboys. Sorry about that.

Sincerely,

Sanjeev Rajan, Custodian

I checked the side of the computer: I'd seen this kind of RobCo terminal model out in the wasteland before (when RobCo built something, they built it to last), and most of them had a built in printer. With any luck, it still had paper. If nothing else, I could try downloading it to my Pip Boy and showing it to the super mutant that way

With a button press, the printer activated with a metallic whir, and a printout of the message slid out of the side of the computer.

I knocked on the door to the mutant's room before opening it. It slid open with a hiss of hydraulics, and the mutant turned to look at me.

"Antler sings for Stealth Boys! Have you found them?" the mutant said to me.

"The manifest you found had bad information. There isn't a stockpile of Stealth Boys here," I said simply, the printout in my hand.

"LIAR!" he yelled, pointing a thick finger at me. "The invoice said Stealth Boys here! Antler read it out loud to me!"

"The Stealth Boys were sent here by mistake," I said, handing him the printout. "They were sent back, take a look. Seriously, just look at the timestamp." The mutant grabbed the piece of paper violently, and stared at it with bulging eyes. He then turned to a filing cabinet behind him, and pulled out another, much dirtier, piece of paper, his gaze shifting back and forth between the two.

"But invoice note said Stealth Boys were here! Why can't this note be true?" he said, holding up the dirty paper. He turned to the brahmin skull next to him. "What, Antler? But human could be lying! Stealing the Stealth Boys for himself!" There was a pause, and then the mutant continued. "Oh, Antler! You trust so easy" He turned to look at me, tossing the dirty paper aside. "Your lucky day, human. Antler believe you. Nightkin will follow the new note to find Stealth Boys. Better be there."

With a crackle of lightning and belch of ozone, the mutant grabbed the brahmin skull and disappeared, his shimmering outline walking past me, Cass, Boone, and ED-E, and exited out the door. His footfalls resonated against the metal grates as he left. For some reason, my mind had latched onto something he'd said that confused me.

"Nightkin?"

"Hello, wanderers," Jason Bright said in that odd, echoing voice of his. "Is the way clear?"

"Yup," Cass said before I could respond. "Th' 'demons' downstairs'r gone."

"Praise the creator! And bless you, wanderers!" he said, reaching out with a smile to shake our hands. I put on my best poker face as he shook mine; his skin was both disturbingly cold and clammy and uncomfortably warm at the same time. I heard the Geiger counter on my Pip Boy click twice. "Really, bless you all. The way is finally clear. I will lead my flock through the basement to the sacred site!"

"Sacred site?" I heard Boone ask. Jason nodded.

"I hope you will all come and find us there. There is still much work to be done." And with that, he bowed, walking past us and saying in a loud voice so all the ghouls could hear: "Come, my brothers and sisters! Our Great Journey into the Far Beyond is imminent! Let us make our way to the sacred site!" As one, all the ghouls stopped what they were doing, and followed him down the stairs and out the door.

We ended up following them back down to the basement. Thankfully, the super mutant had made good on his promise to clear out and the only mutants we saw on the way down were already dead. We followed them through the basement, into the same room where we'd talked with the crazy mutant that had the brahmin skull; turns out, there was a hidden door behind him in that room that led to a separate part of the basement. We followed the ghouls as they made their way through the tunnels (this part of the basement looked more like a disused sewer of some kind, as opposed to an actual basement), and finally, we found Jason who was standing at a glass window, looking out into another room. Most of the ghouls had descended into a hatch on the far right of the room, which shut just as we entered. Jason turned to greet us with a smile.

"I wanted to speak with you one last time before I descended to the launch pad, wanderers," he said.

Launch pad? A sense of dawning comprehension was looming over my head.

"I want you to know that we will remember for all eternity how you delivered us to the threshold of the Great Journey. Our preparations are nearly complete, but the rockets that will carry us to salvation are yet missing a vital component." I walked further into the room, and I got a look at what was on the other side of the window: there were three decently sized rockets, pointed up and with ladders leading up to hatches on the side. He continued. "If you would still help us, wanderers, speak to Chris. He can tell you what is missing. There is no way that we can thank you enough. Your arrival here was a blessing we will remember you always!" Looking at the rockets, I was dumbstruck.

"Are you seriously going to make your great journey on those rockets?" I said, voicing my disbelief. He merely nodded, as Cass and Boone came up to the windows to look at the rockets as well.

"Yes. The rockets will convey us to our promised land in the Far Beyond. Vision upon vision has confirmed it."

"Those rockets'll convey you'n yer flock straight into th' fuckin' ground!" Cass said, her own disbelief matching my own. Jason merely smiled again.

"I understand your concerns, friend. And I thank you for voicing them. But The Creator's will for us has been made manifest."

I rubbed the scar on my temple. I couldn't believe that this was what we'd been building up to. I just hoped that if the rockets even left the launch pad, they wouldn't come down in a populated area, like Novac for instance. In any case, the ghouls would at least leave, and I could get what I needed from Manny. But first, I wanted to ask him a question.

"Alright. Before we help you get whatever it is you need to leave, I have to ask: what's the deal with Chris?" Jason nodded solemnly.

"After all that you have done for us, I suppose you deserve to know everything. When Chris came to us, we tried to convince him that he was human. But this only angered him. He seemed" Jason seemed to struggle for the words. "lost. We decided to let him stay with us for a few days, over the course of which we learned that his technical skills far surpassed our own. It became clear that The Creator had sent him to us, to ensure the success of the Great Journey. Equally clear was that Chris should labor in blessed ignorance of his humanity, and his inability to make the journey himself."

"Inability" I repeated, a new piece falling into place. "You're just going to leave him here, aren't you?" Might not be a bad thing, I thought to myself, if these rockets were going to end up plummeting to the ground.

"Such is The Creators will. Vision upon vision has shown me that, were Chris to accompany us, he would surely die. The radiation around the launch pad alone would kill Chris in minutes. The radioactivity of the Far Beyond is much stronger. It is my belief that The Creator sent you and Chris to expiate the sins of your kind against mine. You are all redeemers, and Chris shall be declared the Saint of the Great Journey before we depart. I hope this will ease his sadness" Jason turned from us, making his way towards the hatch on the far right of the room.

"There is no way that we can thank you enough, wanderers. Your arrival here was a blessing, and we will remember you always." And with that, he descended through the hatch into the launch pad. I just stared at the rockets on the other side of the glass for a minute, before I heard a hacking cough from behind me.

"Alright smoothskins, here's the deal," Chris said entering the room, looking annoyed as ever. "Jason says that I am to cooperate with you on the final task necessary to launch the Great Journey. Its taken months, but I've nearly gotten the rockets in working order. I was close to finishing before we were driven into hiding on the top floor. Luckily, I'm only missing one thing: a set of Repconn thrust control modules. They were custom built for the rockets, and they won't even launch without them."

"Ok," I said, shrugging. "So do you know where I can find them?" Chris just continued to look annoyed.

"Feh. Repconn has been ransacked so many times by scavengers, I have no idea where the components might turn up. But, when you find them, bring them back here, so I can install them into the launch panel." He paused, staring at me with a raised eyebrow. "Well? What are you waiting for, smoothskin?"

"Fine," I said sighing and rubbing my eyes. "Whatever." I turned and walked out, Cass, Boone and ED-E following me. I turned to my companions, and said in a mocking, incredulous tone "Well, does anyone know where I can find a set of Repconn thrust control modules at this hour?"

"Gibson's scrap yard," Boone replied immediately. I stopped dead in my tracks, bringing everyone to a halt. The three of us even ED-E just stared at him, and he looked back at us from behind his sunglasses with a blank expression.

"What?"

I checked the clock on my Pip Boy as we made our way through the north part of Novac. It wasn't even noon yet. For some reason, it felt like it should've been much, much later.

"Ok Boone," I said as we got close to the scrap yard at the north end of town. "Why are you so sure we'll find it here?"

"Novac's been scavenging Repconn for years," he said as we made our way to the garage. "Everything ends up here sooner or later."

The entrance was two cars holding each other up in the shape of an upside-down "V" with a wooden sign that had "Gibson's Scrap Yard" scrawled on it in crude white paint. There were rusted hulks of cars inside the fence, most of them stacked on top of one another. The concrete building in the center of the yard, surrounded by piles of scrap metal and barrels and boxes looked like it used to be a garage where people would get their cars fixed before the war. There were at least three dogs in the yard. I'm not really a dog person, so I couldn't really tell you what breed they were, except that they were big grey and brown mutts. One of the dogs was sleeping near the front door of the garage, another was sleeping on top of one of the rusted cars, and the third was sitting on the roof, staring down at all of us.

I pushed open the door, a rusted bell tinkling above me, and was instantly greeted by two more massive dogs. They barked, bounding out of nowhere towards me, and looked up expectantly, panting heavily at me.

"Reina! Colmillo! Heel, girls!" I heard a female voice yell at the dogs. The dogs ran to the owner of the voice an elderly woman with short grey hair and a grey-brown dress who was standing behind a counter inside the room. Behind her stood a fridge and a Nuka-Cola machine that flickered occasionally. She smiled at me, and waved.

"Hi there! I'm Old Lady Gibson or, at least, that's what the townies call me." She smirked, and continued. "I've got odds and ends for sale, and I'm fair handy with a wrench on occasion. What can I do ya for?"

"I'm looking for a specific piece of tech. I was hoping I could take a look at what you've got for sale," I said. She looked thoughtful for a few seconds.

"You're not thinking of trying your luck at HELIOS One, up to the north, are you?" She asked. From behind me, I heard a few odd beeps that sounded like it came from ED-E. "The last couple yahoos that came in had just come from there, looking for medical supplies, of all things. NCR's taken that place over, so it's off limits to prospectors or people who value their limbs."

"No, nothing like that," I said, shaking my head. "Repconn tech is what I'm looking for. Thrust control modules have any?"

"That's a real specialized piece of kit you're asking for. And, as it just so happens, I think I do have some thrust modules in back. Some prospectors brought them in a few months ago, before the ghouls moved into the test site but they're expensive. 500 caps worth of expensive."

Oh boy, I thought to myself. Here we go time for some haggling.

"Hmm I don't know 500 seems a little steep. I'd be willing to give you 150 for them."

"150 is absolutely out of the question," she said, firmly. "For that price, I might as well just give them away. But, if 500 is too rich, I think I might be able to drop the price to 350."

"How about this," I said, placing the plasma rifle on the counter. "250 caps unless you think you'll find another buyer soon for such a specialized part? and I'll give you this plasma rifle to help offset any losses. It's used, sure, but it should be worth at least 200, maybe 250 caps. Deal?" Honestly, I wasn't losing much. The damn plasma rifle fired so slow, I figured it was broken, but hey, she didn't need to know that. Plus, I figured we could more than make up the difference by selling even more of the crap Cass had collected after we got the rocket part. She regarded the plasma rifle on her counter, and then shrugged.

"Eh, fair enough. It's not like anyone's ever wanted to buy them before. 250 caps and a plasma rifle it is then. Just give me a minute it's in the back somewhere and I need to find it." And with that, she left the room.

When I turned to my other companions behind me, ED-E hovered up to me, beeping incredibly loud right in my face. Before I could ask what was wrong, I heard a series of four shrill beeps, and then a voice came from the speaker like someone was talking through it.

"Subject E: Diagnosis complete. Begin recording. My name is Whitley. I'm a researcher at Adams Air Force base. Until recently, I was in charge of the Duraframe reinforcement project for the combat model Eyebots. Eyebot Duraframe Subject E is both the prototype, and the last functional model in this test group. I was prepared to make several significant upgrades to the machines however, as the project was cancelled and all Duraframe assets are being diverted to mass production of the Hellfire Armor project, I am sending this model to the Navarro outpost. If you are listening to this log from one of our Enclave Outposts in Chicago, give this unit whatever repairs it needs so it can continue to Navarro."

And just as suddenly as it began, the voice ended. An uneasy silence fell over the room, as the three of us just stood and stared at the floating spherical robot. A storm of questions flooded into my head, the most prominent being "What the fuck did I just listen to?" There were unfamiliar names in that speech that I felt like I should've recognized why they seemed significant, but I couldn't remember why: Navarro and Enclave. I was able to infer that ED-E was, appropriately enough, an "Eyebot" and noted with a wry sense of amusement that "Eyebot Duraframe subject E" would end up being abbreviated to ED-E just like on the license plate. My thoughts, however, were cut short by Cass voicing one of hers:

"What's a Chicago?"

It only took Chris a few minutes to install the modules once we got back.

"So," I asked, "The rockets are all set to go now, right?"

"Yes!" he growled, sounding pleased for the first time since I'd met him "I'll tell Jason that the Great Journey can begin!" He rushed off towards the intercom, and I turned to Cass and Boone. I whispered to them, so Chris couldn't hear.

"Think we should tell him?"

"I think he's gonna find out anyway" Cass replied, as I heard Jason begin to speak over the intercom. I made my way to the window, standing next to Chris and looking down on the launch pad. All the ghouls even Jason were wearing what looked like radiation suits, with clear domed helmets. Jason's helmet was off, and he was holding it in his hands as he spoke, his words coming through the speaker.

"Gather all! May The Creator guide my words and help me speak true! The almighty Creator has seen fit to answer our prayers. The time has come for us to board the rockets and begin the Great Journey! Though it may seem that all humans despise us, The Creator has seen fit to instruct us differently. The journey ahead would have been impossible, if not for the intercession of Human friends some new the other, a long abiding companion. To our new friends, we say thanks and promise never to forget how you cleared from our path the Demons who sought to stay our journey. And to Chris we owe more than thanks. Chris? You have made this Great Journey a reality. From this moment forward, you will be remembered as the Saint of The Great Journey! We shall never forget you I ask that you forgive us, Chris, and give us your blessing. We bestow ours upon you."

I looked at Chris as Jason spoke. His expression had turned from elation to horror, and finally to sorrow. His mouth hung open as he pressed his hands against the glass, almost like he was trying to will himself down to the launch pad.

"Seekers! Board the rockets!" Jason continued. "Take your seats! The Great Journey awaits! To the promised land we go to the Far Beyond!" And with that, he put on his clear domed helmets, and the ghouls did as they were told. Chris backed away from the glass pane, merely staring at his now shaking hands that he held in front of his face. He looked on the verge of tears.

"D did you hear him?" He said, his voice still just as gravelly as ever. "My god you were right all along! I'm no ghoul! Look at me! I'm no ghoul they were just using me" I was really not the best person to comfort someone when they were going through an identity crisis, but I tried in any case.

"Look, Chris," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder in what I hoped he'd take as a comforting gesture. "They'd take you if they could. But you'd die from the radiation in minutes. They're just trying to protect you." He waved my hand away.

"And dying would be worse than this? Used up, and thrown away like garbage?!" He pounded his fist on a nearby control panel.

"Hey, look on the bright side," I said, cringing as I realized that probably wasn't the best choice of words only after I spoke. "They're going to revere you as a Saint! How many people can claim Saint as a title, eh?"

"Oh, so I've 'redeemed the human race,' is that it?" he said snidely. "What a crock! The human race can't stand me why do you think I left Vault 34?"

"Hey, c'mon Chris. Give yourself a little credit. You're an ok guy. I'm sure if you give civilization another chance, they'll give you a chance in turn. In fact, there's this little town called Novac just east of here. If nothing else, I'm sure the folks there will help you get back on your feet."

"Life among humans again," he said, bitterly. "That's what you're suggesting?" I nodded. "I guess I guess it's the only chance I've got, now. Maybe it'll be different this time. I mean, hell, I was never a Saint in the vault. I was just a Vault-Tec Reactor Technician." He shook his head, and sighed. "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this, but I'll give it a try. You go launch the rockets the control panel is in the observation booth up on the roof. I'm gonna head to Novac. And if I never see another ghoul again, it'll be too soon."

Chris sighed, and walked away, hanging his head. Cass broke the silence after he left.

"Y'know, if he's from a vault, why doesn't he have a pip boy?"

"I dunno," I said shrugging. "I didn't come from a vault, but I have one. So who knows what happened to his."

"Wait," Boone spoke up. "You're not from a vault?" He looked confused.

The observation booth on the roof was essentially just a box with a large panoramic window. The vista offered an excellent view of the dome set into the mountain. On the wall on one side was another intercom, with a note stuck to it that read "launch pad."

"Jason?" I asked, pressing the intercom button. "Are you there?"

"Wanderer?" Jason sounded confused. "Where's Chris?"

"He's, er it's complicated. He told me to launch the rockets how do I do that?"

"If I remember correctly, it should be the red lever in the middle of the control panel." He said. "And, again, wanderer, I want to th-" I cut him off before he could finish another one of his speeches.

"Yeah, got it, thanks." I said, clicking off the intercom. "Prat. Ok, you ready for this?" I said, turning to my friends.

"No time like th' present," Cass said. ED-E beeped happily. Boone just nodded.

"Well here goes nothing." And with that, I pulled the red lever in the center of the console.

Klaxons began to sound over the PA system. There was a giant rumble, as the dome began to open, giant metal doors sliding into themselves; the three rockets from the launch pad began to slowly rise, pointing towards the sky. Suddenly, I became aware of strange music playing from my Pip Boy's speaker. I took a look at the screen, flipping through the settings to find out what was playing. Apparently, it had picked up a radio transmission labeled "Launch Music" and started playing it automatically. Along with the name of the station, it also told me the name of the song apparently, it was "Ride of the Valkyries" by someone called Wagner.

There was a massive bellow like a nuclear detonation, and a giant cloud of smoke billowed out of the now fully opened dome. There was a bright flash, and two of the rockets shot up immediately, trails of smoke following them; the third rocket lifted off, but the boosters seemed to be delayed. It came perilously close to the observation deck, making me reflexively duck (not that it would've done any good had it crashed, honestly) before the boosters kicked in with a roar, and the rocket flew off and up in a completely different direction from the other two. I looked up as far as I could, and I could see the smoke trails of all three rockets keep going up towards space, quickly becoming nothing more than specks in the sky.

As I stood there, watching the rockets disappear, the full weight of just how absurd this day had already been finally took hold. It wasn't even 1 pm, and I'd already almost gotten eaten, talked to a super mutant that thought a brahmin skull was God, learned that there was much more to ED-E than I initially suspected, and to cap it all, I'd helped a cult of religious ghouls travel into space on a trio of space ships.

"When the fuck did my life become so weird?" I asked, not really to anyone but myself.