The police had been extremely efficient when arresting me. They pulled up on me as I stood there and immediately poured a bottle of water onto the webs to dissolve them. Cuffs were slapped on in an instant and I was taken straight to the jail of the NYPD. While there I was simply forced to wait. I could easily beat any attempt at imprisonment as a self defense and defense of others. Sure I'd been a bit excessive in executing the madman piloting the Rhino mech but that could be easily shot down by a good lawyer.
In my few hours sitting in the jail I'd found out that I already had the public on my side as they recognized the crazy man needed to be eliminated. It was even better for me that he had been wanted by multiple governments and had killed multiple people both in and out of the mech. The only threat to me being judged was outside organizations wanting the tech I'd shown. My gauss minigun had sliced through the Rhino mech and into the streets it was on. My laser pistol was obviously a laser weapon and they definitely wanted it. Last was my ability to make them disappear. They didn't know how I didn't it but they did know about it as multiple policemen were right outside my little isolated cell, all armed to the teeth.
I'd gotten a call from a lawyer ten minutes ago that he'd be at the PD in an hour. I simply had to wait as they were confident in winning the case. I didn't really care. I'd spent close to thirty years in the Fallout world with wasteland justice on my side due to having intelligence on my side. The justice system of this world was inefficient and corrupt whereas if someone threatened another they had every right to shoot those that threatened them.
I slowly shifted to lie down and began going through my system. It wasn't horribly complicated. STAT had status, effects, perks, and SPECIAL. ITEM had weapons, apparel, aid, misc, notes, junk, and ammo. Finally DATA had main and side. My health sat at 60, my AP at 70, my DT was 16 due to clothing and my BOS under armor. My effects was completely empty. My perks were life giver, first aid, science!, born survivor, action boy, sneak, bloody mess, last laugh, mysterious stranger, and scrounger.
SPECIALs were:
S 5
P 5
E 3
C 3
I 7
A 4
L 6
ITEMs had my Laser pistol, gauss minigun, shirt, jacket, jeans, shoes, BOS under armor, and five fusion cells.
Last was DATA. Main held nothing, but Side had a single selection. Randomized Survival Mission. Upon selecting it a pop up blocked my vision.
CONFIRM SELECTION YES / NO
Mentally hitting yes caused my interface to disappear and my vision to blur and bend in vomit inducing ways. A second later I fell to my knees from a blow to the back of them. My hands were tied and it was nighttime with a massive, bright city in the distance. I'd taken a hard hit to my head before I 'loaded in' as my ears were ringing and a throbbing pain beat at my head. Along with my previous vision and me hitting the ground, I doubled over and puked.
I couldn't recognize anything in the vomit but there were a few concerning pieces such as some blood and small glowing specks. I'd seen specks like that in food I'd eaten in my second life from eating irradiated mutant creatures. Desperate times called for desperate measures and I wasn't about to pass up a fat, non-bloated molerat. Though it was easy on my psyche afterwards due to taking a rad-x before eating.
After voiding my stomach I straightened up to look around. Some pompous asshole was giving a monologue while talking to two obvious crack heads. My attention flicked to the pompous asshole however when he drew a pistol. He lowered the 1911 style pistol to my head and before I could even flinch, he fired.
RANDOMIZED SURVIVAL
MISSION FAILED
I snapped back to my body and flopped off the small bed of my cell and crawled to the equally small toilet. I then began another torturous voiding of my stomach before cleaning myself up some with the small sink I had and laid back down on the bed. I couldn't help but think that the group of heavily armed police outside my cell were judging me as if I were a druggy going through withdrawals or something.
I obviously wasn't. I'd died and been reincarnated or something alongside the fact that I'd been clean of psycho addiction for years due to advanced drug treatment and forcing myself through withdrawals after that. The chems of the Fallout world were crimes against nature with how addictive most of them were.
I flicked my interface open again and went back to SIDE and selected Randomized Survival Mission again. The horrid transition wasn't as bad this time as I sat up from a bed in some kind of hospital. I was wearing a weird skintight black body suit with yellow wires fixed to it, black and gray gloves, and metallic bronze and silver boots.
On my chest however was a massive clue to my survival mission. And E surrounded by a circle of stars. I activated my interface and found that it was Enclave Secret Operative Underarmor with shielded lining. I only had one thing other than the suit. A holotag with my name, age, image, and rank.
Ellery Dornan
25
Tall, Well built, Brown Hair, Brown Eyes,
Tan Skin, Thick Brown Full Beard, Square Metal Glasses
Modus Appointed Colonel
My eyebrow raised at that. In my first life I'd been Ellery McKinnon. In my second I was just Ellery. Now I was Colonel Ellery Dornan. My rank had confirmed were I was. The Enclave Whitesprings Bunker. I could barely remember this place, but I could remember something. This place had been controlled by the AI Modus an all Enclave members inside had been killed by it after some kind of civil war.
A quick plan shot into my head and I stood. Swaying on my feet I stumbled around till I got out of the medical room. I needed to get to the armory and get into a suit of X-01 power armor. If I could do that I would have a chance to survive the incoming trouble. As I stumbled around I eventually found someone that wasn't a robot. A private was walking around on a patrol or something and a single order had him helping me to the command room. The private had to stop at the laser grid lock while I continued through. After a few minutes navigating the maze that was a life size military bunker rather than the small ingame crap, I stumbled into the military wing. It obviously wasn't restricted to only generals so getting in was easy.
I leaned against the armory cage and looked at the Modus terminal. His creepy face stared back at me as I looked at him. "Modus why was I in medical?" I asked the AI.
"Hmm, you don't remember colonel? Perhaps I should send you back to medical. General Santiago sent you to investigate the Presidents mutant experimentation projects. An accident occurred and you were exposed to many different mutative serums and two untested serums meant to make mutations permanent and reduce the negative effects they bring. Nothing should have made you forget this so it is likely that you need an in-depth medical examination to see why it is you've forgotten information like that."
That was very concerning for my survival. "Modus, what mutations do I now have?"
"Well colonel you have many. Electrically Charged causes massive amounts of
bio-electricity to build up and be released on impact, causing electrical damage to you and anything/one near enough to be hit. Grounded however is great as it reduces energy damage down to you including the electrically charged mutation. As a con you sap power from any energy weapon you use. Healing factor is what it sounds like. Your natural healing is no longer natural at the cost of chems being less effective on you. Marsupial make you jump higher but makes you less intelligent. Last is Speed demon, more speed in everything you do, but a need for more calories."
"And those untested serums? You mentioned them making the mutations permanent an dulling the negative effects of the mutations right?"
"Indeed colonel, they do as you said. They fortunately don't have any negative effects themselves so you're now quite safe from them hurting you."
"That's good. Modus, you were the one to make me a colonel right? Would you trust me if I told you that the president and general are going to go to war and likely destroy this bunker in the process?"
"If you could present evidence I would believe you however without evidence I can only investigate your claim and perhaps prepare for such an event."
"Then that's all I can ask you to do about that Modus. I do have another question for you though. Can I get a set of the experimental power armor as a colonel?"
"Of course sir. Is there any specifics you would like to have added to the armor. We have multiple sets and modifications for them. Of course the modifications will cost you Enclave Contribution Points. If you've forgotten about them, then I can explain what they are and how to use them."
"Uh, sure Modus go ahead."
"Enclave Contribution Points were implemented by the President in an experimental fashion. We are currently still testing if it is a viable system for us to use. ECP as the troops are calling them function as an Enclave exclusive currency given alongside pay as a reward for exemplary service. They can be used for most currency transactions and as currency for usually restricted items and supplies, such as power armor, weapons, or mutative serums."
"Alright, give me a list of the weapons I can get and the experimental power armor mods. Can you send some Mr.Gutsys up here as well. I have a little more trust for you than most of my colleagues and could use some help from the bots."
"Is there anything else you need colonel, or will that be all?"
"Send some food up with a Gutsy I don't know how long it's been since I ate last."
"Four days colonel. Everything will be up shortly."
With that his terminal flickered as his attention left me. I sat down at a console and leaned onto the table. I could remember very little about this facility but a few things had come back to me during my conversation with Modus. If I remembered correctly the fake president here in the bunker would release the scorch beasts on Appalachia and multiple other threats in hopes of getting automated permission to control the hidden Appalachian nuclear arsenal. General Santiago disagreed with his extreme methods and a civil war broke out, ending with Modus being severely damaged and him releasing a poison or something to kill everyone inside.
I needed the armor to protect me from the war and allow me to breathe if the poison was released again. Additionally I could even improve this world through the butterfly effect by my warning to Modus or if I survived long enough and didn't complete the mission, I use my Enclave resources to help the responders or Brotherhood of Steel in defeating the scorched threat.
A few minutes passed in relative silence as I sat and a Mr.Handy buzzed around doing whatever inane maintenance job it had. Eventually three Mr.Gutsys came in, one holding a thick Manila folder, and the other two with covered plates. While eating the surprisingly delicious double steak drowned in mashed potatoes and gravy, I looked through the contents of the folder. I found a pen and put marks beside anything I wanted, then sent for descriptions of things I couldn't identify.
The descriptions of the unknown stuff came as I was taking multiple large pills provided with my meal. The Nuka-Cola was good, if strangely satisfying. I knew the stuff was addictive but not this horribly. I'd never actually drank any in my second life as I knew they were irradiated and highly addictive. That however hadn't stopped me from downing the first Quantum I found of course.
After going over everything I decided to write it all down for Modus instead of telling him. While he wasn't the sheer creep he had been ingame I was still wary of him. I could tell him I trusted him but I never would. He was a large scale AI in the Fallout world. They never really worked out unless in some extreme case I couldn't remember.
After making some more notes I eventually figured out what I'd get on my X-01 power armor. Bright headlight, targeting hud, and internal database for my helmet. In game the amount of mods on an item were limited but as long as the design could get it to fit I'd have it put in.
Jetpack, core assembly, motion assisted servos, reactive plates, and Tesla coil for my torso. Tesla bracers in the arms, and calibrated servos with explosive vents on the legs.
The jetpack, core assembly, and explosive vents were all part of the jet propulsion system. The core assembly for it required two additional fusion core modules to reliably handle the power requirements.
Last was the Prism shielding and it cost a massive amount of ECP that the previous Colonel I was now had built up. I sent my completed and Modus edited list back to him and he began work on it. I'd have to wait a few hours so I began work on weapons. I easily had Modus cycle all the armory's weapons and ammo to me so I could later buy it in the Marvel world.
Within the massive list of things I could get was of course a pipboy. I didn't have the rank or ECO to get it but I did touch it to buy later. After the pipboy came all the drugs which I took from gleefully. I got plenty of stimpacks, rad-x, and radaway. I'd struggled massively to keep a decent stash of them on me at all times in the Fallout world and I now had good access to them. With that stuff sorted I finally got to my own weapons.
First was an Automatic Enclave Plasma defender. It was a sleekly designed plasma pistol and went well with me despite my grounded mutation hampering its damage capability. Next was a 308 caliber MG42. It was fully loaded with all mods and an Enclave paint scheme. Last was an explosive weapon. A sawed off M79GL filled the job as I couldn't really justify lugging around a grenade machine gun. I did of course cheat and steal everything I could with my inventory. I was even able to nab a Tesla cannon and for some reason a thirst zapper.
I particularly liked all the melee weapons I permanently borrowed. A plasma cutter, ripper, shishkebab, assaultron blade, super sledge, war glaive, and a power fist. With them were lots of explosives like, frag,
frag mirv, plasma, pulse, and a single orbital strike beacon. After looting I was forced into lots of paperwork by Modus then finally got to see my power armor. A massive, intimidating, jet black, green highlight, X-01 suit with extreme modifications. Modus made it like a show of it and seemingly displayed his superiority over other AI of this world. A golden Enclave emblem sat on a slab of armor that made up one part of the chestplate. I could still remember the manlet jokes about power armor in my past life but this completely destroyed those with sheer size an beautiful design. Even the tubes and filters of the helmet had armor.
Unfortunately I couldn't get in it. It seemed that, like me, the previous me of this world hadn't gotten power armor training. Modus immediately called in a sergeant he deemed trustworthy who gave me training with his own suit that Modus had brought in. The man made wearing power armor look natural. I could see and feel the power and weight behind his movements but they carried the elegance to make it look like it was flesh and blood rather than steel and machinery.
In just a few hours of teaching I could effectively move in power armor without falling or breaking lots of stuff. After learning that I gave Modus a single order. In less than an hour twenty men had been gathered, including the sergeant. Modus had secretly gotten them all into the production bay without anyone else knowing. All of them were people deemed trustworthy in some fashion. It helped that all of them were veterans.
Modus set up a small podium for me, made of steel, so I could easily look over everyone. Modus was incredibly useful and even helped me prepare my speech and answers for the men I hoped to recruit into removing the 'President' from office and establishing a proper Enclave. The AI had been fully behind my 'efforts' and his support was massive. Every man and woman that joined me would have access to what I had access to so we could 'save America' from tyrannical control.
The Enclave of Appalachia had had the ability to remake the world as a better place but a power hungry idiot had ruined everything. It had deteriorated and likely become just as bad as the main Enclave. My speech was short and to the point. We needed to eliminate the inside threats to the Enclave so we could push to build a better Enclave and future America.
They had questions, and lots of them. Many of them could only be answered with 'I didn't have the time to get the plans done and had no one at my side to help." I emphasized that we would establish a proper Enclave and bring in their families and friends. It was only logical that that happen. Numbers were needed despite the technology and AI support we had.
Over the next two days everything blurred by in a rush. Plans were made and remade. Training was fast tracked. Modus began production of lots of combat bots alongside his own personalized assaultron design. It was an amalgamation of power armor, humanoid bot, and large reinforced Mr.Handy arms. If my design wasn't already stuck to me I'd have wanted those arms. On the day of the take over, Modus and my forced silently took every key part of the vault with Modus guiding anyone that wasn't part of us away. His sentry bots closed of any room big enough for them as Sergeant Josephs, two privates, and I made our way to the large meeting room meant for presentations to lots of officers at once.
Inside was 'President' Thomas Eckhart, General Ellen Santiago, General T. Harper, LTC. Felix Parson, Major Ragnarsdottir, and multiple others beneath the rank of Major. Without a word I walked over to Eckhart and leveled my gun at him. The idiots still loyal to him drew their own weapons but quickly realized they couldn't do anything to me or the others with me.
I'd had Modus transfer them all under my command to ensure they wouldn't follow the orders of either General. In the tense standoff I spoke. "Modus, if I wanted to order Epsilon squad to abandon their current mission and get here ASAP, how would I go about doing that?"
"Well colonel, to do that you would need to be of higher rank than you currently are. The president and the two generals could do it with ease."
"Thank you Modus. If I wanted to order all members of the Enclave that have contact with us to come here, how would I do that? Another question, does the Enclave hold legal authority over vaults and Americas hidden gold reserves in vault 79?"
"Well colonel, the first question has the same answer as the previous question and the second is much more complicated. The President would have legal authority over the gold reserves with ease but the people in control of that vault may not accept the President we select. For vaults themselves, most are fully under the control of their respective overseers that is, until they open or their objective is complete. Most of that could be overridden, but that is only possible with the needed vault tech personnel who would have the knowledge to do that."
"Those all sound quite promising Modus." I answered him while looking at General Santiago. Multiple expressions flashed across her face as I asked and Modus answered. She finally settled on a questioning eyebrow raise. Once again I spoke. "Modus, does an Enclave colonel have the authorities needed to judge and execute enemies of America and the Enclave?"
"Of course colonel. If they have been deemed an enemy of America or the Enclave you may execute any sentence you deem necessary."
"Modus can you list the major crimes Thomas Eckhart had committed against America, the Enclave, and its citizens?"
"Thomas Eckhart has committed various crimes against America, the Enclave, and it's citizens. Mass Terrorism, Terrorism, Genocide, Murder, Multiple Election Crimes, Illegal Human Experimentation, False Official Statements, Human Slavery and Trafficking, Federal Embezzlement, Unlawful Military Orders. I have also maintained a list containing a multitude of other crimes committed by Thomas Eckhart, all of which I ahve deemed 'smaller' than those previously stated."
Mouths dropped open, guns lowered, eyes narrowed. Only a few enemies now had their weapons ready and I deemed it time to execute the plan. In an instant the bunker went into emergency lockdown. My men throughout the bunker guarded the only open parts of the bunker as I delivered my statement.
"By the power vested in me by the United States of America I sentence Thomas Eckhart to execution for his vile crimes against not just America and its people, but against humanity itself." I looked down at Eckhart in his seat and flicked my bright headlights on. "Thomas Eckhart, you have been found guilty of your crimes and are sentenced to execution without peer judgement or possibility of survival. Do you have any last words disgusting scum?"
He began to speak but stumbled over his words in a panic when I charged the bolt of my rifle to finally load it, just to be extra intimidating. He pissed himself as he finally got something out. "You can't do this to me. I-I'm the president and leader of the Enclave. I'm you commander. What I do is-is for America and our revenge against communist China. What you're doing is illegal." He spun his chair to look at General Harper and spoke to him. "Harper order this traitor to the Enclave to surrender!"
My headlights flashed to Harper as he raised his small plasma pistol at me. In my vision I caught my sergeant and privates taking aim at the enemies as my gun barrel slowly leveled to meet Harper. My modulated voice crackled out in a terrifying grind. "General Harper. Drop your weapon and surrender for arrest. You crimes do not demand immediate capital punishment."
I briefly caught a flash of something in Harper's eyes before a green glow washed over my helmet. If vanished instantly due to my grounded mutation and my power armors modifications. Anyone without hearing protection was temporarily deafened as I split Harper open as if I had a chainsaw. Five other men dropped with him as they attempted to fight back.
The moment the firing stopped I bent over and put my hand through the table. I latched onto fabric and yanked up as I pulled Eckhart off the ground and through the table. "I've already asked for your final words scum. Give them before I execute you."
"You can't do this to me! I'm the president. You should be following my orders. I'm better than you. I'm better than all of you. Release me now before I order the general to have you court marshaled and tried as a traitor!" Before he could spout more nonsense I tossed him to the floor and blasted him with my LMG. Unlike Harper's clean split body, Eckhart splattered. Harper had likely been wearing some kind of under armor that kept him together better than the fake President.
I looked over at Santiago and spoke. "General, you and I are now the highest ranking officers of the Appalachian Enclave. However I do not have the authority to call back everyone under our reach. I would kindly ask you to do so and have them all quarantined for at least a month. Modus will subject them to tests while in quarantine to make sure they are not infected with something. You asked me to investigate the President and his projects some time ago and I discovered many disturbing things. I believe many of his living experiments have already been released upon West Virginia and will likely spread if we do not contain and quarantine it all."
She gave a nod while going over what I'd told her before answering. "I believe I'll do that. I want a report on everything you've found. After that we'll need more information to work with if we're to do anything."
"Got it. Modus will forward everything we have right now to you later. Our most pressing concerns are, the Brotherhood of Steel chapter here in WV, the scorch beast threat, and the secret Chinese base near the 7th hole of the golf course outside."
After that info drop everyone in the room simply gawked at me. I knew a lot of th broader info from the games and I'd played Fallout 76 a good bit. The amount to do had been overwhelming for me at that time as despite the loyal players, it remained a live service game with lots of micro transactions. It had never seen the love it had needed and had stayed an unstable mess for most. I had been a lowly production worker at the time and usually didn't have the energy to play.
I had however, gotten plenty of useful knowledge about it. In my second life I'd been going to the Appalachias despite the extreme danger they held. I'd wanted to get into one of the many large scale bunkers or a vault and set up a proper home. I'd even dared to hope to do the ingame process of becoming an Enclave General or the fake President myself.
As my new colleagues continued to stare with their mouths hanging open, I walked through them and out the door. I still had lots of stuff to do and I understood that I needed more power. The second I left I gave Modus th order to ready all the 2mm EC rounds the bunker had. I currently had a hex barrel, Tesla coil capacitor, and a gunner sight, gauss minigun.
I pulled it from my inventory out of Modus's view and set it down on a workbench. "Modus, I need this changed. A standard barrel, Tesla coil dynamo, and paint it black and gold, with an Enclave logo on its body. I want it to look amazing and intimidating."
As Modus assisted me in changing my gauss minigun, I told him everything I could about what I remembered of Appalachias current situation. I knew it had been multiple years since the bombs dropped so I figured that the responders were likely working on a vaccine for the scorched plague and Taggerdy's Thunder was likely at or near their end to the scorch beasts.
I knew the scorched plague was incredibly dangerous due to its extremely high levels of infection. So much so that an expert squad of Vulcan power armored enclave soldiers couldn't effectively fight it. I even remembered some of the ultragenetics stuff relating to Epsilon Squad. Alongside that were the four other expansions I could remember. The rust king and the horrible conditions of Ohio, Skyline valley and its storm robots and special ghouls, Atlantic City and its gambling, and of course the Pitt.
After hours of talking we finally finished up with my gauss minigun and moved on to me actually learning how to make stuff. This was started by testing my previous knowledge and skills. It took another five hours to complete the test Modus gave me and I passed out in a small side room Modus had put a bed in for me. When I woke it was to a small cell with armed guards outside it.
[Mission Complete]
You have completed your randomized fallout world survival mission.
Your reward: 8,461 EXP and $7000
Experience Points can be used to level up in your main world or to trade for specific items used in your survival mission. Money can be used to purchase Atoms to be spent on schematics and other complicated things such as [Fallout] knowledge and skills. All other Bethesda titles within the system have similar functionality and are compatible with each other as long as they are unlocked.
I skipped over most of the mission complete notification and went directly for my buy and level up options. Level up was filled with perks and buy with items I'd interacted with. I didn't need any stuff right now so I began looking through my perk options. I almost immediately locked onto the mutations perks. I quickly selected all I had had and bought them. The effects coursed through me immediately and I flopped around on my bed like a fish out of water.
My senses completely failed any description as I spazzed out. Only after the extreme sensations wore off did I realize my stupidity. They literally altered my genetics, of course it would do something. The police would obviously accuse me of being on some crazy drugs. I then got as comfortable as I could on my small bed then went back to my perks.
I easily made a list and bought them all with the improvements that came with leveling up. My health, AP, and multiple other facts shot up as I used 5000 EXP for everything.
Action Boy was first as it was a near requirement. Awareness to be aware. Educated, as the description have stated that it gave standard knowledge of all things at an college entrance level. Life giver for the massive amount of health it gave. Survivalist for none other than survival skills. And finally I got toughness to be naturally harder to kill.
I also bought armorer, blacksmith, medic, gun nut, Science!, Robotics expert, and Nuclear Physicist, all at rank one. I then passed out from the knowledge overload that hit my brain.