Waking up in what was very obviously a vault medbay gave me a gut punch. Both figuratively and almost literally. I curled up on the bed under a thin blanket and did my very best to not puke up my internals. With the horrid nausea was a crippling headache and a massive light sensitivity that nearly blinded me despite the low light level and the blanket over my head. I would not say anything about me not crying either. I'd suffered extreme headaches and nausea before but never to this level. With previous pain like this I'd always been able to resist, now though, the only resistance I had came from my stomach being too empty for my pain to force me to vomit.
I couldn't tell how long I was curled up in pain, but it felt like I'd fallen asleep a few times inbetween my first wake up and when a needle got jabbed in my ass cheek. I flinched at the sharp pain and reflexively turned in bed to see what did that. That was of course a mistake. I promptly spat up bile and curled inward. It wasn't till a few minutes? seconds? later that I realized what had happened. Someone had given me Med-X.
When the pain of my sudden movement finally cut off and the drugs kicked in I was suddenly not in pain. It was simply a very dull ache. My tense body was almost forcibly relaxed. The panic of recognizing that I was in a vault and crippled by pain, got calmly executed by a chill pill and I finally uncurled. Still closing my eyes I I spoke. "Can the lights be turned down even more?"
The croaking voice that was probably mine said. At the end of my question I gave a short, wheezing cough. No one replied but the lights did die down some. At that I finally opened my eyes. My left eye creeped open first, it had always been my better eye and it showed as the pain the hit me was only slight compared to my right eye. I easily ignored the familiar pain of light sensitivity and looked around with agonizing slowness.
I wasn't in the room I woke up in. This room looked like a room to dig into the guts of an experimental specimen. Fortunately the auto-docs in the room were all at the side as I was surrounded, at a distance, by vault dwellers. I suddenly gained a dull pain from my raised eyebrow and took another look around the room. I then took a deep and wheezing breath and asked. "I would like some water. I don't suppose y'all are one of them vaults that has a broken water chip?" Followed by a cough.
They in turn stared at me like I was an alien speaking an entirely different language. After a moment one of the older dwellers shoved his fellow to the side an a Mr.Handy floated over. In its well distinguished voice it spoke. "I'm not a Mister Orderly so don't ask me for drugs or any savage outsider medicines. If water is all you want then I can easily provide."
I nearly smirked at the bot. "Waters fine." Was my only response. It's manipulator pincer quickly handed me a bottle of cold water, condensation dripping from it. I struggled to remove the lid a bit and struggled even more when I took a small sip. Even that sip had been almost too much. My lips and throat weren't incredibly dry, so someone had been taking care of me. The sip was obviously too much right now as I immediately choked it back up.
Taking a bit to re-establish control of myself, I once again try to take a drink. This time I succeed in choking down some heavenly liquid. Following attempts saw much more success and all the while the dwellers around me stared. Once I finished the water I put the lid back on like a civilized person and looked at the people surrounding me. "So… what's goin' on? And why are you all looking at me like I'm some kind of inhuman creature?" I said while gesturing at them.
They all jerked back as I waved my hand and the Mr.Handy revved its buzzsaw. I dropped my hand at that as I could only attempt to look meek and weak for defense. They unfortunately didn't buy it as from behind the old man came a true specimen of humanity. Easily over six feet, the massive, heavily muscular man towered over me. "We want to know why the bots drragged in an outzider who was so eavily injured. Your biosinez indicated recent use of a stimpack and lots of minor unealed injuries. With all of zhat there was also a deecent level of radiation sickness and it required multiple rahdaways to cure." He said in the strange approximation of Arnold Schwarzeneggers voice.
I glanced down and then snapped back to him, a painful flare shooting into my neck at my double-take. Looking at him closer, past my blurred vision, I could see he looked like an off brand version of the man he was attempting to mimic. Thinking it over I decided that answering this guy was probably for the best. "Alright~ let's start with the injuries. I was in a fight with a big scary, humanoid robot with a laser weapon. I killed it after nearly getting my chest exploded and burned away by melting armor. A bit before that I got flung around by a cyber dog before it found that I was a friend."
The big guy gave a wince at my description of the bot and my thrashing by the dog. The group gave oohs and aahs at my description of nearly dying. Then the old man stepped forward and asked "And the radiation problems?"
I looked at him and answered with a question. "What is currently above this vault?"
He looked around at his fellow dwellers and the big man waved him back. "The rruins of a once great city?"
If I could snort without pain I would have. "The ruins of the city of Denver are covered in an almost unending radioactive fog. The streets are filled with dogs and a few cyber dogs. The outskirts and a few fortresses are controlled by Caesars Legion. And let's not forget the laser weapons of the big ass robots. All of that accumulated plenty of radiation in me and would have been solved by a few of my own radaways had a robot not nearly splattered my skull and brains across the pavement."
The dwellers looked around and then backed off a bit to form a circle. They whispered to each other for a bit before they broke and the Arnold rip off came up to me. "The reason the bots dragged you in then?"
I raised my eyebrow at him like he was stupid. "How the hell would I know. They seem to be from the police occupation of the city pre-war. They were obviously programmed to suppress riots and eliminate target offenders. Why? Are they friendly to you guys?" I said as they looked between each other. "Oh! There's also the chance that my pipboy or police badge had something to do with it."
The big guy nodded at my words like he'd put the puzzle together. "You likely ran into one of the pre-war versions. We manufactured most of the bots up there, including the one that brought you here. Ours aren't programmed to be hostile on sight. The pipboy and badge theory was something we came up with as well. The cyber dog that was with you is currently in the cybernetics lab, I'm pretty sure it took the badge from your person before the bot dragged you in."
Before I could respond in any way some twat cut in. "He could be lying John. Those ignorant savages on the surface have always attacked our bots on sight. I've dug out more than a few scrap sword blades from their armor."
I snapped my head in the voice's direction and found a scrawny guy with too long arms. The big guy, John, spoke to the smaller man. "The cyber dog and his gear counter that theory. We discussed that. His gear doesn't match what we have on the surface dwellers. The cyber dog has a police badge that was likely newly printed from an old station. We already know that the savages that attack our bots don't use advanced technology."
As the idiot tried to argue I broke into the conversation with another dry cough. "More water please? Maybe some food if it hasn't been too long since I was dragged down here?"
At my words they all stopped talking and the old guy parted the seas by shoving people aside. Through the gap came the Mr.Handy and it dropped me another bottle of water and a single small bag of crackers. I sipped at the water before popping the crackers open. I waved the first one at them. "So… what was the experiment of this vault?" I asked before taking a bit of the cracker.
Complete silence met my question. The quiet of the dwellers made it so my crunching was the only audible thing besides the Mr.Handy jet. I pulled out my second cracker and waved it at them while squinting. "Y'know, the purpose? the overall goal? I doubt that this place is a control vault."
A single response was all I got from the group. "Experiment? Control vault?" A small voice whispered from the back. That gave me a slight pause before I popped the second cracker into my mouth. "Experiments yeah? Got to have a controlled test to compare the results. Only a select few vaults could be considered control vaults. Most of them, including a few control vaults, have experimental tests. Like the vault door being left a bit open to 'test' the effects of radiation on the residents. Or mass exposure to diseases to create a super cure for them all. Maybe one that was never to open but would have a water chip that would purposely break at some point. The control vaults were everything that Vault-Tec promised the people. Something like Vault 76 that would release its residents to reclaim and rebuild America 25 years after the bombs dropped."
Once I finished I took a drink and got back to eating. My stomach was empty and these crackers were the best I could expect while still hurt and under the effects of Med-X. While the group spoke in sharp whispers I looked to John. "Why haven't you guys dosed me with a stimpack yet? It wouldn't heal all the damage but it'd guarantee quick recovery. I should be on my feet already, despite the concussion."
"We had no guarantee that you wouldn't be hostile. We still don't have that now, but we're almost certain that you are not an enemy." An old crackly voice said. I looked to it and found the old man that had moved the crowd. "Almost? Y'all sure are cautious of me. Even if I were hostile, I'm practically crippled and surrounded. I'm unarmed and I pretty sure the big guy could snap me like a twig."
The old man smirked at me and waved the crowd away. At his wave they began shuffling from the room, John staying by my bed. "Now… how do you know about the vault experiments? Our information told us that all vaults should still be closed. Additionally you told us that you're from the west. That means that you shouldn't know about any vaults over here, especially specifics."
I narrowed my eyes at him and gave a question of my own. "Has this vault ever opened its door to any outsider before me?"
The old man looked it John with a wondering glance then back to me. "Why do you ask? Would that even matter?" I almost frowned at his slight, if unintentional, evasion. "It matter a lot. What if your vaults peoples were influenced by an outside faction that I'm hostile towards. If they have then they probably lied to you massively. And if it's one of the factions I'm hostile to, then this vault is practically doomed."
The old man sighed and John looked at him. He waved to John and he answered me. "To our knowledge only one outsider has ever entered our vault." He spooked at his pipboy before looking back to me. The old man began messing with his pipboy. Suddenly my own pipboy began a thumping notification. I'd only gotten that notification when a data download or scan had completed. "That should be your pipboy connecting to out vault web. Our pipboys are all connected to a massive super computer that had a network or web of radio routers that connects everything. With you connected we can show you the logs we have from the previous overseer about him."
That reminded me. "Oh yeah! We haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Kane, a wandering scavenger with a decent knowledge base and a mind for technology."
The old man smirked. "As I'm sure you heard, this is John, the man I'm training to take over as overseer." He said, gesturing to the mountain of muscle. "I'm Howard, the current overseer and only imortas of our vault."