Fallout Play-By-Post

[Songbird]

Robin

Robin lets go of the shoulder bag, listening to the audio and the following discussion in silence. She stares at her feet to avoid their gaze. Only when the talk turns to disease and body bags she speaks, quietly at first. "Prions last virtually forever. But..." She shuffles in place, her voice a little louder. "It didn't sound like they found signs of an epidemic, just acted with extreme caution to avoid any potential disease. What they did find was the infestation of cockroaches.

"We should check the staff quarters as planned but not disable the generators. The terminals are rigged to them and the doors are operated through them. We'll be locked and finish off anyone still asleep. We need to get to the Overseer terminal to see the status of the people in the room below."

She gets behind Charlie, reading the terminal over her shoulder.

[Mirasol]

"Wait, what do you mean by turning off? Aren't they powering the cryo-pods?" Faust asks.

Oh yeah, shit.

"I hope there´s an option to just get them under control..."

Nine

Nine hears the tape. In the silence that follows he sits, grabs a pencil and a sheet of paper. He's about to ask Charlie to play it again when she does exactly that, making he smile briefly. As the log plays he takes some notes and tries to connect the information.

"Ok, that's a lot. Let me see if I got it right." Everybody looks at him, making it a bit uncomfortable. But somebody must do it. "These people called this place a wreck, fixed the elevator and collected the useful gear near it, at the entrance, waiting for pickup and, most relevant, decon. They talk as if there's a chance of some disease brewing here. So the entrance is, indeed, the place we want to reach, and let's be extra careful, just in case, particularly with bodies. I suggest no one tries to open body bags or touch bodies in any way, unless it's really necessary. Also, anyone understood what they meant by "surface-dweller interaction"?"

"They also cleared the bodies and..." He stops for a moment, flooded by the memory of dozens of body bags containing his comrades after they were ambushed. It wasn't even a combat mission, they were there just to train local troops... He notices that everybody is looking at him. "Sorry, bad memories... And they curtailed the radroach infestation. I suppose cockroaches did their best to deserve the fame of being so hard to kill. But how dangerous were those critters? Are some still around?"

"And what they meant by people acting like idiots? They started to fight each other? Anyway they decided to move survivors out, and some where at that buried room. Then this doctor Ryan tells they will open priorities first, including the baby and John Doe. Connecting it with the logs we saw before it means that this log is also 60 years old. And then... Then things went downhill very fast."

Nine raises from the chair. "Unless we find that overseers terminal we have no way to tell if those people in the buried room are still alive in their pods, so we must be careful about what we do to the generators. It seems that we can control them using this terminal, so maybe we can just reduce power levels to make it safer to cross the room, or turn off just one of them, since they are probably redundant... I don't know."

"Anyway that's a lot of things we don't know. I suggest we check the other logs, and then move to the kitchen and residence area before deciding anything. We can also try to look through those windows again. Everyone agrees? Any suggestions?"

Charlie looks very concerned at Faust for a moment. But as Nine quickly gives him an all-clear, she focusses on the screen again.

"Already opened the next log. The rest is in text."

She steps a bit to the side so Robin can read it too, as well as anyone else who wants to.

< Back | Refresh | N/A

CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY EYES ONLY | VIOLATION VTP-01011

Vault 111 is designed to test the long-term effects of suspended animation on unaware, human subjects. Security staff are responsible for maintaining installation integrity and monitoring science staff activity.

Under no circumstances are staff allowed to deviate from assigned duties. Insubordination or interference with vault operations are capital offenses. Security staff are authorized to use lethal force.

OPERATIONS PROTOCOL MANUAL

Resident Admittance
Upon Activation Notice from Vault-Tec, all personnel are required to report to the Entry Area and assist with admittance of Vault Residents. Security Personnel will maintain order and ensure that no personnel or residents attempt to evacuate the Vault.

Research staff will be responsible for resident intake and escort each to the designated cryogenic pod. Residents not accounted for in the manifest should be asked to step aside and detained forcefully by security if necessary.

Once all residents have been sealed into their preservation chambers dispose of any detainees. Vault entryway must remain sealed under any circumstances.

Staff Duties

Science Staff
Members of the research team must daily monitor the vital signs of cryogenically preserved residents. Cardiopulmonary and cognitive activity in particular must be recorded hourly.

Life-saving intervention is only permitted if greater than 80% of the resident population has perished while in cryogenic suspension, and must not interrupt suspension.

Independent research is encouraged, and left to Overseer discretion.

Security Personnel
Security patrols are to be carried out on a constant eight-hour rotation. Security priorities include:

- Monitoring for signs of intrusion
- Checking for atmosphere leaks
- Settling disputes among personnel
- Enforcement of regulations set forth by the Overseer
- Enforcement of regulations set forth by Vault-Tec

Facility Services & Maintenance
Due to the nature of Vault 111, personnel will be expected to perform duties outside of their normal qualifications, such as janitorial duties and food preparation.

The exact distribution of these roles is left to Overseer discretion.


All Clear & Evacuation

All-Clear Message
Following a nuclear event, Vault-Tec will monitor hazards such as radiation levels, enemy invasion, subsequent attacks, and other factors. Once conditions are deemed safe, this terminal will receive an all-clear notice.

Upon receiving the all-clear notice, Vault-Tec personnel may be evacuated at Overseer discretion. Disregard any notices from organizations or individuals not associated with Vault-Tec, including government and military. Residents are not to be disrupted or evacuated. Vault-Tec will attend to their needs remotely once Vault 111 staff has been evacuated.

Mandatory Shelter Period
Vault 111 is classified as a short-term assignment. Non-resident personnel are expected to carry out research duties and basic maintenance of the Vault while awaiting the All-Clear signal to evacuate.

In the absence of an All-Clear message from Vault-Tec, the Overseer may elect to evacuate staff after a mandatory shelter period of 180 days of containment. Under no circumstance may Vault 111 staff evacuate during this shelter period, unless receiving the All-Clear message from Vault-Tec.

Her head is spinning. So someone was supposed to get them. After a few months tops. And somehow they didn´t do that for two centuries. It seems they were very lucky that the cryo-pods kept working.
And also...!

"Uhm, was it something generally known to you that this stasis they put us in was an experiment? I thought this was just a fallout shelter. Did any of you sign up for this? I can´t tell, my mom got me the place here."

She can guess the answer already. It says 'unaware human subjects'.

"... Is that even legal!?"

[thegreyarea]

Nine

Nine gets closer to the terminal. While he reads carefully the log. His anger raises until the silence inside the room is broken by the pencil snapping loudly in his hand, prompting everyone to look at him.

He speaks in a harsh, controlled tone, but there's rage underneath. "Guinea pigs! Those mo*********** bastards turned us in guinea pigs! Lock at that part." He points at the screen. "Life-saving just after 80% of us died! And meanwhile they were free to do their fu***** research with us!"

Nine listens to Charlie's question and turns to her. "I knew nothing about any experiment, and neither of you, by the look on your faces... Legal? LEGAL?" He walks to the other corner of the room, trying to calm down. "I'm sure not. But I don't think they cared. It looks like they were ready to go rogue, ignoring government or military orders... What kind of monsters are... were these people?"

After taking a few deep breaths Nine returns to the group. When he speaks again his voice is almost back to normal. "We need to move ahead. Let's see the next one?"

[Songbird]

Robin

There's no shock or anger or pretty much anything else going on with Robin besides a striking lack of surprise. "They're the kind of people that annexed my home and executed protesters on the streets," she states somberly at Nine's rhetorical question. She knew better them and their laws, only applicable when it was convenient for them. That's how she, her family, wound up here. They did their best to navigate the situation, and it was all for nothing. Everything they went through didn't matter in the end—

She scowls, pushing the thought away and nodding. "Let's see the logs."

[Kitty]

"Amazing" Faust says. "Fantastic. At first I was pissed because I was too drunk to know what they were doing to me, and now it turns out they didn't ask anyone. Grand."

Stay cool.

"We should try to get the door open... That's the only way to get out, since we don't want to mess with the reactor room..."

He thinks for a few moments. "Do bunkers like these have ventilation...?"

[Songbird]

Robin

"It must have, a closed system or filtered one to withstand a nuclear fallout." She glances at Faust. "Why?"

[Kitty]

Robin

"It must have, a closed system or filtered one to withstand a nuclear fallout." She glances at Faust. "Why?"

"Just checking. Dunno" he says.

[thegreyarea]

Nine

"Hum... I guess our friend is considering if we could find some ventilation shaft that would allow us to bypass the generator room. Not a bad idea, actually. We should keep our eyes open for vents that can be large enough for a person." Nine looks to the ceiling. "Sadly from my experience most vents are too narrow for that."

Nine looks back at Robin, and points at the map. "But I'm sure this floor plan is just for orientation, There must be technical areas and galleries above or below us. So, who knows, we might be lucky on that, to compensate a bit for... all this."

"Anyway, let's see what the next log tell us."

[Mirasol]

Charlie nods, looking at the terminal with a mixture of anger and disgust. At this point she´s not even sure anymore whether she even wants to know what those sickos did to them. But if there´s any chance the files will reveal a way to wake up the other people or pass through the generator room, it would be worth it. She goes back to the main menu and clicks on "Security logs".

[Ragnarok]

Charlie nods, looking at the terminal with a mixture of anger and disgust. At this point she´s not even sure anymore whether she even wants to know what those sickos did to them. But if there´s any chance the files will reveal a way to wake up the other people or pass through the generator room, it would be worth it. She goes back to the main menu and clicks on "Security logs".

< Back | Refresh | N/A

October 23, 2077

    God. It finally happened. The world's over. Barely got all the residents inside. Not everyone made it...

    Now it's just us and the icebergs. I don't get it. Eggheads tried to explain to me that keeping them frozen is a big experiment. For a better future or something. I don't know. It just doesn't seem right that we were smiling at them all that time before putting them on ice. Shouldn't we have told them something?

December 25, 2077

    Christmas underground. Got together with the rest of the security boys and support staff and had a little party. Best gift that got handed out was a Fancy Lad Snack Cake that wasn't too stale.

    None of the scientists came. Overseer wasn't there either. I just don't get them. They hiding something from us? Another company secret only for the higher ups?

    Whatever. Just a few more months until the All-Clear is supposed to come though. Then we can start rebuilding.

March 14, 2078

    Only a few weeks left in our mandatory shelter period. Everyone's getting stir crazy. Some people are even saying the All-Clear Signal is never coming. We can't stay here much longer, that's for sure. It's not just the fact that I've been staring at the same break room and bunk bed for over six months. It's the fact that we only have enough food left for another few months. Tops.

    The Overseer keeps telling everyone to be patient, focus on work. He's definitely keeping us out of the loop. Something bad is going on. I just know it.

April 23, 2078

    The main door accessing the vault exit is malfunctioning. Now the only way out is through the Overseer's evacuation tunnel, how convenient for him. He has one of the science team watching the door into his office at all times from a little makeshift checkpoint.

    Got invited to a meeting tonight. Support staffers and security only. Sounds like I'm not the only one with an axe to grind.

LAST ENTRY

    No All-Clear from Vault-Tec is coming. We need to leave. We're all but out of food. I almost murdered Stanley for dropping a damn salt cracker on the floor.

    A handful of us confronted the Overseer about opening up the Vault. I never knew a man that small could shout that loud. Now he's locked himself in his office along with the rest of the science staff. We're supposed to hand over any food, weapons, and medicine we have by tonight, or there's "going to be consequences."

    I've talked to everyone. It's time. One way or another, we're getting out of this Vault.

[Songbird]

Robin

So that's what the doctor meant by people being idiots. Robin scratches her cheek, looking for the best way to express what had been eating at her mind for a while. Like all bad things saying it aloud would seal it as true, so she stalls for time. "Do you think the Overseer Tunnel is the emergency route on the map? It makes me feel maintenance passages would be shown in it too, but there are none.

"But there must be a way to pass through the generators or that doctor and his team wouldn't have reached this side. They didn't want to disable the pods, that controller might power down areas selectively." She shuffles in place, visibly uncomfortable. "The... uh. There's just an issue. I don't think we'll like the surface."

[Kitty]

Robin

So that's what the doctor meant by people being idiots. Robin scratches her cheek, looking for the best way to express what had been eating at her mind for a while. Like all bad things saying it aloud would seal it as true, so she stalls for time. "Do you think the Overseer Tunnel is the emergency route on the map? It makes me feel maintenance passages would be shown in it too, but there are none.

"But there must be a way to pass through the generators or that doctor and his team wouldn't have reached this side. They didn't want to disable the pods, that controller might power down areas selectively." She shuffles in place, visibly uncomfortable. "The... uh. There's just an issue. I don't think we'll like the surface."

Faust reads what's up from the side. Just let the smarter people make decisions... until the smarter person says stuff like that, that is. "Dear, they clearly ran out of food. We'll die if we stay here. Radiation and whatnot should be gone by now, right? And there are clearly survivors, since they tried to come for us."

[thegreyarea]

Nine

"Humph! Better future... I wonder who's future they were talking about."

Nine strokes his beard while he listens to Robin and Faust. "I guess you're right. There must be a way. Unless the generator went rogue after the rescue team came. As for that being the tunnel." He points at the map. "I don't know... It doesn't look much like a tunnel to me. And I suppose an emergency exit should lead to another place, not to the main entrance, that could be blocked... I guess this map don't show everything."

"But that's on the other side of the Generator Room." He says, looking again at the map and shaking his head. "Right now I'd check the security and generator status, because they may have some important info, and proceed to the canteen. There's no food, but we may find water and more useful things before figuring how to cross to the other side."

"And Faust has a point here. If they came for survivors it's because there is some organization up there. And they had more than a hundred years to rebuild before that. Unless they had time to make another war, which wouldn't surprise me much, the radiation should be gone by now, except perhaps in a few places." Nine looks at Robin. "So why do you think we won't like the outside? If fate had left us some food we could stay and use this place as our base while we scout the area, but without supplies it's complicated."

[Songbird]

Robin

"I knooow we can't stay here," she retorts with some annoyance. What do they think she is, an eight year old? She crosses her arms. "Mom worked for West Tek. It's a defense contractor Vault-Tec. I've bounced around the country for a while with her as she worked on this or that project, and if there's something I learned from it is that this kind of corporation is deeply tangled with the government and that they're very zealous about their stuff. You can't just crash in and take what you want.

"I can't imagine them gone to the point people had to personally come down here to find out what happened without everything else crumbling. The guy in the recording sounded more like—," she searches for a word and shrugs, "—an archeologist digging up old records than a rescue effort by an organization as we knew. What if they came here to scavenge at first? What does this say about the situation up here? And they got ambushed. It's great they speak English, means we weren't conquered, but I-I think society collapsed."

[Kitty]

Robin

"I knooow we can't stay here," she retorts with some annoyance. What do they think she is, an eight year old? She crosses her arms. "Mom worked for West Tek. It's a defense contractor Vault-Tec. I've bounced around the country for a while with her as she worked on this or that project, and if there's something I learned from it is that this kind of corporation is deeply tangled with the government and that they're very zealous about their stuff. You can't just crash in and take what you want.

"I can't imagine them gone to the point people had to personally come down here to find out what happened without everything else crumbling. The guy in the recording sounded more like—," she searches for a word and shrugs, "—an archeologist digging up old records than a rescue effort by an organization as we knew. What if they came here to scavenge at first? What does this say about the situation up here? And they got ambushed. It's great they speak English, means we weren't conquered, but I-I think society collapsed."

Hmm...

"I'm more worried about the fact they got ambushed soon after entering. If someone is close by, keeping an eye on this place - which is by far the worse case scenario - we should figure out a way to leave as quiet and unnoticed as possible. As for collapsed society... well, I don't plan to just walk away from you guys. So we can worry about bad stuff when we encounter them" he says.