\111/
Leaving Diamond City, they made it past Hangman's alley when they turned the corner and at the end of the block were two super mutants, one carrying an active mini-nuke in his hands, and the other was a brute carrying a laser rifle. By their side was a mutant hound.

The mutant fired before Nate could even relay anything to Piper. Meathead charged forward at the hound, wrestling with it in the middle of the road as the first four blasts hit Nate in the chest, leg, and arm.

"OW, ow, Fuck! OW!" Nate yelled firing back with Kellogg's pistol. Two black welts appeared on his chest, bleeding through the burnt cracks in his skin.

Piper shot the super mutant suicider, dashing at them when the mini-nuke exploded a few steps away from the brute. Everyone was suddenly blinded and their ears were ringing. Nate fired twice into the hound's side, killing it while the brute fired six more times, missing four of them while one hit Piper, and the other hit Nate again.

With the dogs and the suicider dead, they all combined their forces to shoot the brute mercilessly until it was dead.

Nate offered stimpaks to Meathead and Piper, she took it gracefully and said, "The Vault is just on the other side of the suburb.

Breathing hard, the burn wounds on Nate slowly healed and scabbed over as the stimpaks took effect. "Good. That's good."

The suburb was quiet, and the birds weren't chirping, only watching them walk down the sidewalk, onto the road. The houses were missing walls, roofs, or windows. Trees and vines were growing out of living rooms, and up the storm windows. They came to the shore of chestnut Hillock Reservoir, and Piper pointed west.

"Right up the hill."

Steam wafted off the reservoir pond, the stagnant stench of trapped water and algae was repugnant. Nate stopped at the waters edge, pulling off the dip-stick from his Pip-boy, crouching down, and placing it into the water. His Pip-Boy ticked away, and he pulled it out, wiping it off on his leg and sticking it back.

"What's that?" Piper asked.

"It identifies just how bad the water is."

"How bad is it?"

"Well...you could drink about a gallon before the water cooks your insides. So...Not good. Meathead, note to self. We need to pick up a water filter."

The group climbed the hill and came upon an abandoned construction site, with parked cars around the edge.

"A Vault Tec Van, yellow and rusty construction equipment, giant piles of dirt, another Vault Tec van, a parking lot filled with rusty cars, scaffolding, skeletons caught dead running towards a rock wall, and a massive gaping hole in the rock wall, and thing on my wrist says it's Vault 81." Nate listed off the things he saw, keeping his head pointed towards the cave, and sharing a cross glance with Meathead. He nodded, and the dog nodded back.

"I could've told you that." Piper said, leading the way.

The cave was lined with metal catwalks, clipped together like giant puzzle pieces with large steel beems bolted into the ceiling to support the weight. Like Vault 111, there was a yellow dust covered console with only a few buttons devoid of dirt standing illuminated by a shop light. Off too the side was a red toolbox, and beyond them, down a ramp was the massive tonnage door to Vault 81. The stamped numbers were in the center, embedded with the rest of the metal.

"They might ask for something. They're scrimping by on supplies last time I was here." Piper said.

Nate went to the console, pulling out the extension cord attached to his Pip-boy and plugging it into the terminal to power it up. A few lines of text scrolled across his Pip-boy and he waited as he was given the OKAY to open the door.

Flipping open a clear plastic box, he tapped the square plastic button marked Ignition. Smiling as the yellow and orange spinning lights activated and the alarm blared in bursts of three, the vault door was about to open. Smiling wider, Meathead also wagged his tail as they could hear the giant drill on the other side moving into position. The drill inserted itself into place, winching in and making plenty of noise as the door shifted a centimeter.

Then all the lights cut out and things went black.

Nate frowned, "Oy! What gives!? Hunk'a junk!?"

A little speaker on the console responded, slightly marred with background static.

"Hold it. Vault 81 security. I don't know how you got a working Pip-Boy, but you better start talking."

Nate licked his lips and leaned down to speak into the microphone. Pressing the recall button, he said, "Vault Tec. Calling. I got the Pip-Boy up in Vault 111."

"Also," Piper interjected, "It's Piper, the reporter? I've got a guest with me."

The guard spoke away from the microphone, but was still audible, "'Vault 111? Where the heck is Vault 111?" "Vault 111, huh? Never heard of that one...what type of business are you looking to accomplish here in Vault 81?"

"A few things, you got a bed and a hot shower in there? I got some salvage to trade. Also, if it's convenient, I'd like to set up an appointment with your Overseer if they're available."

There was a brief silence, and a woman's voice came over the speaker, "This is the Overseer of Vault 81. I'm sure you understand our need for caution, for newcomers, we like to operate on exchange. You help us, we help you."

"What do you need? I'll handle it."

"Fusion cores. Three to be exact." Meathead nodded and warped three fusion cores from his pocket dimension into the Nate's backpack. "You find the fusion cores, we grant you access."

Nate beamed, "Alright, well, let's get this show on the road! Open 'er up! I got 'em right now!"

Her surprise was audible from her reaction over the speaker, "Oh. Really? Well then, I should say, Welcome to Vault 81. I'll be down to meet you in person."

The vault door sprung into action again and the spinning lights glowed again.

As the door lurched from it's holding place, Nate grit his teeth and Meathead bowed his head as the grinding screeching groaning metal on metal echoed and compounded in the small cave. Curling his fists inward, he shook his head and tried to bear it as the grinding stopped, and they both exhaled.

"God, that thing needs some oil around the edges...Huh Meathead?" Grabbing the fusion cores out of his bag, Piper took her hands off her ears.

"<Woof!>"

Going down the ramp and up a set of stairs, a catwalk extended from the other side. The lights in the room were both in front of the dwellers on the other side, and behind them, all aimed towards the door, creating shadows on everyone's faces.

One person stood out in the middle, leaning on her left leg with her hand on her hip. A man's jaw was moving, speaking to her, and she was nodding. Walking past the first row of lights, everything was well lit, and the half dozen people in the room were all actively busy except for the two security guards and the man who finished speaking and turned away.

Nate held the fusion cores in his hand, and the Overseer's eyes went immediately to it. Eyeing the stuffed bag and the straps around Nate's shoulders, she raised her chin up a bit and smiled.

"Greetings, I am Overseer Gwen McNamara. You soon see we're undergoing plenty of maintenance projects around the Vault, apologies in advance. We pride ourselves on maintaining a sucessful Vault for the past two hundred years. We like to be completely self sufficient, but there are resources we can't provide ourselves." She looked down to Nate's hand again, "If you're ready, I can take those from you now." She said, a security officer stepped forward and gestured with open hands, Nate passed them off and stepped back and was rewarded with five stacks of twenty bottle caps.

"Everyone here must be pretty capable to keep your Vault self sufficient."

"Yes, everyone here does their part, and the Vault stays active and alive. If there's anything more you need, I'll be in my office, I've got work to do. But, before I go, I'm going to ask you, why Vault Tec. Calling? What's it mean?"

"Oh, it's something salesmen would do before the big war. It was a means of advertising, much like billboards, posters, commercials on the radio, there used to be telephones and local call centers where people would call each person's house and try to get them to buy things over the phone. Vault Tec Calling was more personal way for sellers to get in touch with the consumers, and Vault Tec. would send out hired representatives to go door to door, selling spots in the Vault. I used it as moniker to show that I'm not a raider, or your average trader."

"Interesting. My great grandparents told me stories of how their grandparents were sold locations in the vault. I just didn't think it was so...common for Vault Tec."

"If you have a moment, there's something I need to discuss with you, something you should consider, a forewarning."

Her feet were pointed down the hallway, but she turned her heel back towards Nate. "A warning about what?" The security guards both leaned in.

"Are you aware of the Corvega raiders north of here?"

"Mildly. I know they exist, and that's the extent."

"They're planning on raiding Vault 81. Here. Within the next month or two, depending on how quickly they reclaim their numbers."

"What? Why? How did you come across this information?" The two guards behind her sneered, baring their teeth.

"I was in Concord and killed a good number of their men, one of their leaders unwittingly said they would move on Vault 81, after the man in charge, Jared, thinks they have enough men to hold Corvega in Lexington and lead a charge against Vault 81 at the same time."

"Why 81?"

"Vaults are a fortress, impenetrable. You close your doors, and they would be left waiting for years. But, you would lose all your trade runs with the outside world.

"That's not possible. And if that were the case, we keep the door shut no matter what."

"And lose your distribution system? You might go a month without traders, but then with Raiders sitting right outside that door, waiting and sitting, around you then have to contend with not getting fusion cores, or scrap metal, or tools, or seeds from the outside world. It might last one year, it might last ten, but sooner or later something will run out.

"If it comes to negotiations, they'll want everything you have. "

"What do you suggest?"

"Arm me, and I'll go after their leader, otherwise, protect your traders by setting up a defensive perimeter on the surface."

"We'll take it into consideration. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. If you need anything, I'll be in my office."

\111/

Austin Engill was in need of a bigger world. He was eight years old, and his entire world was 100 people. Painted to the left of the elevator doors to the surface, he knew that there was a larger room above him, and in that room was a giant, massive door leading to the outside world. The adults around him, and the other children in Vault 81 tell him that this outside world goes on forever. There's more to the outside world than the elevator to the vault's welcome room, and a main foyer.

The metal stairways were blue and yellow, same with most everything in the Vault. On the second floor was two long hallways, both wider than three people, with long orange pipes bearing warning signs meant that he couldn't play or stay in this hallway for long, especially with everyone working.

Everyone was fixing things, many panels along the walls and floor were pried up, those of the vault who were old enough, and were taught how to repair things, were able to take on projects like reinstalling supports, wiring, and electrical work. Things were going slow however, the tools they needed to do much larger projects were on the surface world.

Every adult told the children of the vault that things took much longer to find up there than down here.

It made Austin wonder, how big could this outside world actually be?

Inside the main foyer was a staircase leading directly down from the elevator. To the right was his Aunt's hydroponic farm. It was a 12X16 meter room, Capable of growing food for up to 96 people, rationing would be in effect, but the people would survive.

Across the downstairs area was also a dining floor and kitchen, where all the grown food could be prepared. Next to them was a barber shop and salon, it at one point was nothing more than a storage space until all the supplies were used up and the shelves inside were re-purposed. Now it was run by a man named Horatio. A man of true mixed races, he showed heritage of his Latino and African families.

Finally there was a shop, a requisition store inside the vault ran by the Combes Family, Alexis and Holt, with their daughter, Erin. With so this many people in the Vault, it was expected of the children to get along with others, and be their friends.

One small benefit to being friends in Vault 81 was being able to know all their secrets.

Up stairs, on the second level was a balcony that wrapped all the way around three-quarters of the foyer, with a hallway in the center of each wall leading to different parts of the vault. Overlooking everything was a large round glass window, reinforced with large steel bolts and frame. This was the Overseer's office on the fourth wall, on the third floor.

Through this large hallway was the living area running perpendicular to this hallway. Twenty five rooms, including a class room large enough to seat sixteen students and taught by Katy Pinn.
On the floor below was a two room hospital, with practicing doctors Penske, Rachel, and Forsythe.

Through a large hydraulic door made of lead in the living area, marked by a bright sign that read "REACTOR" was of course, the reactor room.

This was maintained by Tina, Robert 'Bobby' De Luca, and Old Rusty, the Mr. Handy.

The robot is able to instruct others how to repair and maintain systems of the vault's reactor and generators.

Austin wasn't allowed to go in there, but he knew how to sneak in there without anyone knowing all the time. It was a big two story room, with a staircase leading down to the terminals and control panels for giant generators on the dirt floor in the middle of the room. The rocky interior of this room was because of time constraints. Now the machines that could carve out hard rock were rusting on the surface.

Below the staircase was a small storage closet Austin could sneak into if he wanted. He could watch the people and a few other adults he knew come down and take turns learning to fix and maintain the giant energy producing machines.

There wasn't much in this room except for a small computer sitting on the floor, plugged into the wall and a box, but from this hiding spot, he saw Bobby open a secret door he didn't know existed to a whole new part of the vault. Some thing that would make his world bigger than all the rooms he's ever been in his entire twelve year life.

\111/

Bobby De Luca was in need of a fix.

To those of you who do not know what a fix is, it's a call to arms, a call to clarity.
Focus, attention, a moment of inner clarity at a desperate time, and then a jarring return to reality coupled with a longing to return to the drug high.

Here was a man who knew of a much larger world, and imagined larger ones while under the influence of jet. While working, or being in such an important position, it was frowned upon to be under the influence. Being watched by his sister, who doubled as his bag man, to keep you from taking too much Jet at once meant that he couldn't really get to that peak high as often anymore. He wanted just a tiny bit more, something to really help him focus. That meant he couldn't go to his sister, but he knew someplace to hide the extra stuff in a place no one knew about except him. Pressing his hand to a wall panel, in view of the supply closet, the panel clicked in, and the wall broke apart down the seam, rolling backwards like elevator doors, revealing a white vault tec door, and on the other side, a dark hallway.

Reaching down, he grabbed a container of Jet and quickly closed the doors.

\111/

Austin was long gone by the time Bobby de Luca got his high. He was back in the main foyer, after hearing a new person was coming from the surface. The long elevator cables were bouncing through the shaft as the car clanged every ten feet of descent. It was a long elevator ride down, and Piper popped the question "You try to be on your best behavior, don't you?"

"I try my best."

"Seems like you do better than 'trying'. I appreciate it, to few people don't even try at all, even though your sense of humor is a bit outdated."

"Is that an age joke?" Nate asked, smiling back at her.

"Maybe, old timer."

As the doors parted, Austin Engill saw something he'd only read about. A dog.

The owner was wearing a blue vault suit, and next to him was a woman in a red leather jacket he'd seen before, but only once.

"Wow! A dog!" Nate smiled and Meathead wagged his tail as they stepped out of the elevator.

"Hi, Austin." Piper said, Meathead went up and put his paws on Austin, licking him on the face.

"Meathead, down."

Meathead sat down and lapped up the good will of emotions radiating off Austin, bobbing his head from Piper, to Nate, to Austin.

"Hi Piper. Hey mister, are you really from another Vault?"

"Yes, yes I am. But yours is a lot better than mine."

"Really?! What's it like at yours?"

"Yeah, Nate? What is you Vault like?" Piper asked.

"It's a bit run down, that's why I have all these tools with me, I intend to fix the generator. We had some problems a long time ago, and don't have an Overseer anymore."

"No Overseer? How'd that happen?"

"He tried hoarding food after they decided gardens inside the vault weren't viable."

"Well that's not smart. Hey! I can show you around the vault if you want. My gran grows all the crops for us. She's not really my gran though. She grows carrots, tatos, lettuce, cabbage, The tour will cost you five caps!"

"Do it." Piper encouraged Nate. Nate reached into his pocket and gave the kid five bottle caps.

"Yes! I gotta show you to Erin, she's gonna flip! We'll start over here." Austin led them to the left of the elevator, to the quartermaster station.

"This is the depot, it's run by the Combes family. Erin and I are best friends. Her Mom and Dad fight alot, so I don't like to go in there when they're around. But if you need something, they're the ones who have it."

"Good to know, Austin. Where to next?"

"The Overseer."

"Huh, was a lot less informative last time I was through here." Piper said.

"I bet you've killed a lot of strange things!" Austin said happily, Nate didn't know if it was a question or a compliment, so he played along.

"Yes-"

"Like what? Have you killed a deathclaw? I heard those things are ferocious!"

"I have, Austin, but-"

"That's so COOL! How big are they? How'd you do it?"

"Hey Austin, you know... I saw for myself Nate here stopped a deathclaw by singing. It came charging up to him, and then walked right past him. The deathclaw didn't even swing at him."

Austin's jaw dropped. "Whaaaaat?! No way! You sung a deathclaw down?! How did you do THAT?!"

"Confidence, Austin. I recommend you don't try it yourself."

"Yeah, Nate. How did you do that?"

"I sung with the confidence, knowing I couldn't run faster than something over twice my size, and would definitely kill me when I showed fear. I've fought only one deathclaw otherwise, but it did not die easily."

"That's beyond cool." Austin said, leading them to the Overseer's office, it was a short hallway that made a 90 degree turn and lead up stairs to the third floor. "This is the Overseer's office, they're busy up there and don't like to be bothered. She makes rules, but she's nice. I like her."

"Does she enforce the rules?" Nate asked.

"The security officers deal with people who breaks the rules, but she's in charge of all the security officers. It doesn't happen
very often though. Next stop, the diner."

Taking Nate, Meathead, and Piper downstairs, Austin chattered away. "Everybody eats there, sometimes it gets really crowded. The Summersets are nice though, you'll like them."

There was a display of fresh fruit and vegetables on buffet carts, and Nate's mouth watered for the healthy looking greens.

"Hello there, Austin. I see your showing our guest from the Commonwealth around."

"Yes Ma'am. This is the Sunshine Diner. Gran says they take all her hard work and turn it into slop." Maria Summerset frowned, not wanting to shoot the messenger, but kids were like drunkards sometimes. They didn't know what was offensive yet.

"Next stop, Horatio. He does everybody's hair. I don't like to comb my hair though, Gran makes me do it though."

They poked their heads into the former storage room, it was tiled with pink and green tiles that were faded and worn, some things just couldn't last two hundred years without losing their color. At the edges of the room, the tiles were red and dark green.

"If the reviews are good, I might pop in for a shave some day." Nate said, scratching his chin. Since the last time he shaved seven days ago, a decent amount of hair stubble regrew.

"Next stop is Gran. Let's go see her. I live with her. My parents died when I was little and she took me in. She's not really my grandmother though."

Nate frowned and nodded, trying to keep his thoughts to himself. "That's very unfortunate, Austin."

Directly across the bottom floor of the foyer was the hydroponics lab, inside it smelled like compost and fresh green growing vegetables. Nate took in a deep breath of the pleasant scent and exhaled happily.

"Austin, what are you doing here? Are you bothering these nice strangers from the Commonwealth?"

"That's gran, you can call her Dr. Penske. I'm not bothering them, gran. I'm helping them."

She cross examined Austin and looked at Nate and Piper.

"Do you have any tips for setting up a successful grow operation like this?"

"How big is your room you're looking to grow in?"

"About six times the size of this room."

"Spacing the plants apart appropriately and making sure the soil is deep enough for roots to expand downwards. Healthy roots and enough overhead space means the plant can expand in all directions."

"Thank you."

"Gran grows all our food, she pretends to be grumpy, but she's not."

"Says you." She replied.

"So you don't have anything coming in from the Commonwealth?"

"Nope. She's really smart."

"Dr. Penske. Is there any chance in the future I could hire you to build a setup in Vault 111? I need to dismantle a few things in Vault 111, first, but even design plans or a critical eye of someone who knew what they were doing for consulting while we get things into place would be extremely beneficial."

Dr. Penske rose her eyes, questioning and curious. "Take it up with the Overseer, but I'd need some exact measurements first. I don't know about actually going to your Vault, but I can come up with some blueprints for you to follow."

"Excellent, thank you. I'll have the room measured and be back here in...a few days or so? A list of whatever I would need to make it successful, and how to set it up properly coming from a professional like you would be more beneficial in experience than anything I've been able to make recently."

"Nice to hear some fancy words. Now, go get your measurements."

"Next stop, Miss Katy. We have to go to the other side of the Vault. I'll show you where I go to school." Austin lead them through the long red hallway, to the school by the residential rooms on the far end of the vault.

"I bet you didn't have to go to school," Austin said.

"Actually,I was in school for sixteen years. My wife was in school for nineteen years."

"Whoa. I bet she's really smart."

"Yes. She was a lawyer, but needed to slow down after Shaun was born."

"What's a lawyer?"

"She helps people understand laws and represents people who aren't familiar with legal proceedings."

"Huh?"

"So imagine you broke a rule, and the security guards said you broke this rule, but you didn't know it was a rule in the first place, a lawyer would help you get out of trouble by explaining to the guards and alleviate the amount of trouble you would be in."

"Dang. I need a lawyer." Austin said.

"Why, you getting into trouble?"

"Not recently."

"Better keep it that way."

\111/

Through an open hydraulic door, they came to a room marked classroom, with the teacher, Miss Katy sitting at the front of the room. It held twelve desks, and a large one off to the front right. "Miss Katy runs the school. It's boring most of the time, but Gran says I need to go anyway."

"You're Gran is a smart woman, Austin." She said, getting up and crossing the room to the tour group. She looked Nate up and down. "Good to see you again, Piper."

"Likewise."

"Any new news from the Commonwealth?"

"Plenty. More stuff happened in the last week that this man here is responsible for than I know what to do with all of it. We caught an Institute spy, and Nate here was the man who caught him."

"That's very interesting. What did you do with the man?" Miss Katy asked.

"Capitol punishment." Nate replied.

"Oh. Well, from the rumors about the topside, I should've guessed."

"You shot him, didn't you?" Austin asked, perking up. He wanted to hear about violence.

"No. No. He was sentenced for his crimes, and was hung. He was a very bad man, Austin."

"Do you have any other stories about the Commonwealth?" Katy asked, her tone indicating she wanted to change the topic of the conversation.

"Yes. Every day is a new chapter of life."

"Well, I'm sure my students would like to hear about them, do you have any other stories that might be age appropriate for eight to twelve year olds?" She prefaced the question, trying to vet out Nate possibly talking about capitol punishment and the death of Kellogg.

"I'm sure they'd love to hear the story of the U.S.S. Constitution and how I managed to get it flying."

"Well, that would be wonderful. Could you stop in tomorrow..." She looked into Nate's eyes. "Or the day after tomorrow? Nothing too violent though, I'm sure they'll have lots of questions. Austin, are you all ready for tomorrow's test?"

"Yeeesss." Austin deadpanned.

"Then I expect some good results tomorrow."

"Okay, bye, Miss Katy." Austin said, grabbing Nate's hand and dragging him and then snagging Piper's hand and taking them both out.

"Well, I guess the tour is still on. I'll see you soon." Nate said.

"One of the final stops our the illustrious tour of vault 81 is the clinic, Doctor Forsythe and Rachel are okay I guess. I don't go there unless I have to, or unless Gran makes me."

"What type of doctors are they?"

"They know everything." Austin said, leading them downstairs. "They know medicine. They know how to cut people open and stitch them up too. This is our medical clinic." he said, pointing to a clear window that let people look inside the rooms.

"If you get hurt or sick, you come down here. Doc Forsythe said I can't bother him or Rachel while they're working down here." Austin droned the last bit, like he was told not to bother them more than once.

Nate was about to go inside when Austin told them, "Alright, now let's go see Erin. She's my best friend."

"Are there a lot of children here in the Vault?"

"No, the Overseer says we're under population control, whatever that means." Pointing every direction there was a lot the tour of Vault 81 left to be desired, but for the 12 year old Austin, this was one of the best tours he's ever given.

Austin lead them back upstairs and down the long hallway to a dorm room at the end. Austin knocked twice and walked in, opening the door and announcing to the Combes family, "Hey Erin, Look who I found! The stranger from the Commonwealth."

"Sorry to disturb your lunch." Nate said, seeing the parents sitting down and eating. They were surprised at the appearance of the newcomer, and looked to them for an explanation.

"Wow, are you really from another Vault?" She asked, looking at Nate's 111 on his chest.

"Yes. Are you Austin's best friend?" Nate noticed the motionless Giddyup Buttercup on the side of the room. There was a child's bed, and then a larger bed for the adults to share. Pointing to the Giddyup Buttercup, he proclaimed, "Does the Giddyup pony work?"

The parents and Erin shook her head. "We're best friends, there aren't many kids in the vault. And that's Daisy. She doesn't move much."

"You know, I can get her working, if that's alright with your parents."

"Really? You can get her working? That would be amazing!"

Nate bared his palms to her parents. "It would only take a minute." Nate said.

The parents shared a look, then nodded. "How long do you plan on sticking around, Mr. One-Eleven?"

"Not too long. The afternoon. Then we'll be off again."

"Good." Holt Combes said, "Vault 81 can take care of itself and doesn't need every stray traveler coming in through here."

"Hey, I'm only offering to fix your kid's pony because I'm trying to be nice. Have you ever seen one working?"

"No."

"No."

"Well, you're going to have a new playmate real soon, Erin. I've got seven more running a store over in the North End of Boston for me and they're all super nice."

"Seven more?" Piper asked. "How did I not see this?"

"You were at Goodneighbor when the ghouls hit. They were pulling the carriage and afterwards were asking for something to do. I'll show you the Constitution after we're done with Vault 111."

Nate pried off the side barrel piece, looking over the over the internal components. The first and foremost was the missing power supply, powered by a fusion core. "We had to use the Power Core for something better." Alexis Combes said.

"Well, lucky for you, I've got a few spares." Nate took off his bag, and dug through it again, setting his tools down and reaching deep into the bottom of the bag where Meathead placed another power core.

Placing it inside, he saw that most of the actual frame work wasn't very secure, everything needed to be tightened down. Taking out a socket wrench, he equipped a phillips head to the wrench and started tightening everything. Power was resupplied to Daisy halfway through, and she blinked twice then her eyes focused.

She smiled brightly and Erin gasped. "Hello!" Daisy said, looking around the room.

"H...Hi.."

"Daisy, this is Erin, she's been waiting a long time to play with you." Nate explained. "I just need to put your armor back on, and we'll get you situated so you can start playing together."

"That is going to be amazing!" Daisy said, shaking with excitement.

"Try not to move too much, I'll just be another minute."

Nate fitted the side panel to her again, and then he stood up. "Okay, Daisy. Erin, she's all ready."

"Whoaw! I never seen a live pony before!"

"I'm a robot, silly!" She beemed, "I don't need to eat, or drink water. I just need to make sure my joints are all limbered up every once and a while, and everything will be hunky-dory!"

Holt and Alexis Combes were surprised and on edge at Erin's toy come to life. "Would you like a ride, Erin?"

"That would be amazing! Can I ride her, Mom?"

"Of course...just don't crash into anyone." Erin was twelve years old, same age as Austin who migrated to the back end of the room, watching Nate fix Daisy.

"No worries, I'm great at making sure I don't run into anyone or anypony else! It's all part of my programming." Daisy said.

"Her cable connections were loose too, so no power was getting to her core. Just make sure Daisy get's a little oil every once and a while, and she'll explain the rest. Giddyup Buttercups were made to be pretty self sufficient with maintenance, and help owners step by step in taking care of her. Treat her nice, and Erin will have Daisy for a very long time."

Nate finished, leaving the room, and passing Austin. Erin got onto Daisy's back, and she trotted outside, then bolted down the hallway, her hooves clopping against the metal floor. Swerving and avoiding people transfixed by the sight of Erin riding a pony and the sounds of her gleeful laughter echoing throughout the vault. She cheered and giggled, her laughter echoing down the hallways as she held onto Daisy's neck, burying her face into the pony's mane.

"Best toy ever!" She shouted.

"I haven't heard laughter like that in ages." Piper said, Alexis approached them and agreed with her.

"I don't think I've ever heard Erin that excited since we actually got Daisy for her. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, Austin, why don't you see if you can catch up with Erin and Daisy? See what type of new games you can come up with. I'm going to look around the Vault a bit."

\111/

Nate went to the Clinic, knocking on the door and entering.

"Hello."

Doctor Forsythe turned around his his wheeling chair and stood up. "Hello, good to see a new face from the frontier. I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but I'd like to ask you a favor."

"Only if you can answer a few questions for me. What do you need?"

"Of course. I need medical samples, even just a blood sample for my research."

"What are you studying?"

"The people of Vault 81 have been genetically isolated from the Commonwealth for a many generations. I'm trying to determine what the genetic variation is between the two populations."

"You might get a misnomer with my blood, Doctor. I've only been out in the Commonwealth for a week. I've been cryogenically frozen since the Great War."

"Well, that makes the pool all the more bigger. Are you truly someone from the pre-war times?"

Nate nodded. "I've been on ice."

"If anything, that gives us a baseline control sample to compare to. What's your name?"

"Nate. Hook me up." Nate said, Doctor Forsythe directed Nate to a chair, where the doctor brought over a needle and vial he could take a blood sample with. Piper stood in the doorway and merely observed.

"What type of questions did you have for me?"

"What's your experience with surgery?"

"That would be Rachel's department, I'm primary microbiology and pharmaceuticals. Rachel?" Dr. Forsythe wrapped a plastic tube around Nate's arm. Rachel heard her name called and came from the patient's room.

"What's the damage?" Rachel asked.

"Just a few questions from a fellow vault dweller, he wants to know your experience with surgery."

"What would you like to know?"

"What's the most intense surgery you've had to perform?" Nate asked.

"Could you please make a fist?" Dr. Forsythe asked. Nate clenched his hand a few times, and a vein was more accessible to Forsythe's needle. Pricking Nate's arm, he drew in two liquid ounces of blood, then pulled out the needle and dabbed it with cotton.

"The most difficult procedure I've had to deal with is a punctured lung. It was a very long surgery, and was the result of a steam valve rupturing. Along with third degree burns, Paul Crowlink was hurt badly and it took him many weeks of intense physical therapy to recover.

"If I described a situation to you, would you be able to repair it, along with the aid of stimpaks, and unlimited time?"

Rachel and Dr. Forsythe looked at each other, Piper and Meathead were both waiting at the door to the clinic when they heard Nate describe what happened to Nora. "A patient shot through the Main Aortic vein with a .44 caliber bullet, from this gun-" Nate set Kellogg's pistol onto the table next to them. "Possibly suffering from fractured ribs, internal bleeding, and shock."

"A person like that, shot through the main aorta would die in minutes."

Dr. Forsythe untied the rubber tube and Nate reiterated his question. "I don't think you understand. My wife was shot through the main aorta, and is now trapped inbetween life and death inside a cryogenic freezer. I have enough liquid nitrogen to freeze her until civilization rises and falls again to keep her that way until I find someone experienced and willing to dawn cold weather gear and operate on her. Now. Given those constraints, if you had all the time in the world, can you repair her main aorta and close it? Can you do that along with reset the shattered bone fragments?" Nate asked, staring intently at the doctors.

"That is...unheard of. We've never been given a situation like that. We don't know."

"Well, come to terms that my wife is minutes from dying, and I'm going to make every second count. I can keep her body cold and her heart from pumping too much. All you have to do is say you're willing to do it."

"We'd need to see the patient first. X-rays. Full extent of the damage before we went in. This is something outside of our current experience, but we aren't saying that it isn't impossible to repair an aorta...just that it would be very difficult to do so. Your wife...obviously you can't move her. We would need a sanitary room, cold as you mentioned, to keep her heart rate from rising. The problem wouldn't be repairing the aorta, hypothetically, it's the amount of pressure the aorta exerts with each pump. You see, even though we could stitch it, and seal it, the seal might break around her wounds, causing internal bleeding in the chest. She would need to recover at a very, very slow rate for the damage to be healed naturally."

"You've got nothing to worry about then. Tell me what you need." Nate said seriously.

Dr. Forsythe and Rachel both looked at Nate as if he were mad, "You can't seriously have all this equipment."

"Doc." Nate said, tilting his head forward and to the side. "Do you know how to do the fucking operation or not?"

"Someone capable of performing the surgery...Nate, I can set broken bones, but this is far outside of my league. I can shove a balloon inside of a punctured lung and hook him up to life support, but I've never had to deal with a gunshot wound directly to the chest. There could be damage to the heart, and the patient would most likely go into shock."

Piper and Meathead both withdrew into themselves, very present in the moment when they heard Nate talking about Nora.
After he finished giving blood, he thanked them for their time, got up, and left.

"Hey, did I hear you talking about looking for a surgeon? Did you try the guys in Diamond City?"

Nate grit his teeth and walked past her. "Yes. Dr. Sun and Dr. Carrington. Dr. Sun works with plasticity, and says Dr. Carrinton's work is shoddy, that and I got a bad vibe from Carrington. Sun said he doesn't do those type of surgeries, and isn't willing to make a house call."

"Ouch...Well. There's still a few doctors out there who might have the experience you're looking for. Let me spread the word, get it out there. I thought your wife was murdered."

"Shot once, square in the chest, and frozen immediately afterwards. Her brain is still active, she's just dying. She's got four minutes of brain activity left, at the most, before her brain dies, or she bleeds out before then." Nate said coldly, there was plenty to consider around Nora, Nate didn't want to take the chance. Meathead bowed his head and looked up at Nate with big sad eyes, whining so softly, that Nate didn't even hear it at first.

"Is there anything I can do to help, Nate?"

He shook his head. "No...there's a few more people I want to talk to before we leave, then we'll go."

"Who?"

Nate put his hand on the rail and walked up the stairs, "They've got a reactor. I want some tips on repairing the thing before I go in and try it my self on the one at Vault 111."

"Hey, Blue." Piper reached out and caught his sleeve. "Listen, I know you're dead set on avoiding Diamond City, it's a place of real danger that I've been trying to warn people about, but every issue I publish, I hear 'Why can't I write anything happy? Why can't I write anything nice for a change?' It's dealing with a lot of rejection some days, and there's been times where I just want to hang up my hat."

"I'm not giving up hope, Piper. I can't. Not for Nora."

"I understand that. Sure it can be scary, knowing what's really out there. A night doesn't go by I'm not afraid some Institute drone decides today's the day to come after Nat and myself...But everything is worth it. I know the truth about Diamond City, and that's what protects us. I know what could happen, and a lot of people just don't want to admit it. It scares me."

"Why?" Nate asked her.

"Because, I don't know how they operate. Some guy comes along, hunting down what is apparantly the Institute's number one spy, and interrogates the living shit out of him, but then doesn't tell anyone a word of what happened! I've been scared of the Institute for as long as I can remember, and he doesn't even get a wink of sleep over what's happened, he just takes off and goes. Honestly, I'm more scared for my sister. I don't know what I would do if something happened to her. People deserve to know what's out there, good or bad."

"Good or bad, Piper? You really want to know what I believe the Institute is like?"

"Yes."

"Holt Combes over there is a pretty good example as to what the mentality of the Institute might be like right now. Imagine every person here screaming 'Fuck you, surface dweller. You deserve to be compost for our plants.' That we're the barbarians, savages, mindless animals, and need to be wiped out. Piper...do you get that mentality?" Piper was squinting her eyes at Nate, shaking her head. Not understanding it at all.

"Another person like Holt Combes expressing his fear over people who came into his vault, could be even worse for the Institute. He wants to kill you, grind you up into mulch, and fertilize his plants with your bones and blood because he thinks you don't deserve to exist, and the only worth you have is to exist as a slave for them, catering to their will, or die and be useful...so they can consume your body. So they can consume your energy, and take from you what they couldn't in life. Have you ever faced a person or a group like that, Piper? I have."

"That's terrible."

"No, Piper. It's not terrible. It's the way they were raised, in the place they were raised. In a vault. In a bunker. Underground. No contact from the outside world, unless it was from a few people they only dealt with because they absolutely needed to. There's two ways to combat this. Kill them with Kindness-" Nate said, quieting down and putting his hand to his ear so he could listen to the sound of Austin chasing Erin and Daisy around. "Or. Starve them out. How can you protect you and yours if you don't know what your facing?"

"Most folks though, they'd prefer to live a comforting lie. Not me. Not my sister. We grew up in a tiny settlement way out in the Commonwealth. It's not there any more. Our dad was part of the local militia, the Minutemen. 'Keeping Raiders off our backs, and Mirelurks out of our latrines'. He'd say. Well, one day my dad turns up dead. His captain, Mayburn, claims that Raiders got him on watch. I didn't buy it though, Nate. I talked to everyone in our little town and asked questions. Turns out the captain sold out. He thought he wasn't getting paid enough to babysit the town. So...So when you tell me I didn't hear about the Quincy massacre, that some asshole sold out, and that the fucker was a Minuteman who did the exact same thing, and how history repeated itself in the worst fucking way possible, it fucking tears me up inside, Nate!" Piper was on the verge of tears, and her eyes were wet.

"Mayburn was going to leave the gates open one night, let raiders sack the town, and take a cut of their profits. My dad found out and was going to turn Mayburn in, but he got to him first. I wasn't going to let that motherfucker get away with it. I tried talking to our Mayor, but he wouldn't listen to a word I said. So I papered the entire fucking town, posters everywhere that read 'Wanted for Gross Dereliction of Duty. Captain Mayburn.'" She raised her hand, showcasing the title with three bolt movements. "Yeah, I got my ass chewed out, people sure wanted to talk about it then, but, it got Mayburn thrown out, and we were dug-in when a group of surprised raiders finally showed up."

"So what happened?"

"It was just Nat and myself after that. Mom was out of the picture, so...we scraped by and saved up for passage on a caravan. We booked a trip to the big city and called it home ever since."

"So, was it you who saved those people? Or was it you saving them from themselves?"

"They saved themselves because, they knew the truth." Piper replied.

"Let me tell you, Piper. Knowledge is power. It's not a weapon. It's what you do with knowledge that protects you.. Can we both agree the Overseer was nothing but kind and accomodating after we were allowed in?"

Piper nodded. "Yeah, sorry. Sometimes I just get fired up."

"That's perfectly normal for anyone to feel that way, Piper. Going on, we've got to consider who the Institute is, and how they're not just some boogeyman, Piper. They're someone you can touch, who you can feel, someone who you'll be able to wrap your hands around their throat and choke them out."

She nodded, "But your son might be one of them. It's nice to talk to someone who actually seems to get it, you know?"

"What would you call a person who's lived past their father and mother?"

"I don't know, Nate. What?"

"Their own man." Nate put a hand to his face and rubbed both eyes. He was feeling very down trodden, and Meathead was there to put a paw on his leg, and ask him for a scratch on the back of the neck. Meathead sneezed, and licked his lips, silently looking up at Nate and Piper, asking for them to be happy.

\111/

When they knocked on the door to the reactor and went in, the loud thrumming of the machine made it clear that they weren't heard. There was a distinct stink of skunky smoke in the air.

"Jesus, Bobby, can you not do that here?"

"I' been working." Bobby replied, Nate and Piper walked down the stairs to the bottom floor, watching a Mr. Handy perform maintenance on the vault's reactor.

"Oh yeah, bossing old Rusty around, hard at work."

The Mr. Handy added, "You've no idea, Miss DeLuca."

"Hey, will you both just get lost? You're killing my buzz here." Nate was frowning more and more by the second.

"Fine. Get Caught. You won't have to make the choice to leave, because the Overseer will do it for you." Tina DeLuca replied.

"Get caught with what?" Nate asked, catching both Tina and Bobby unaware, scaring the hell out of both of them as they jumped and realized they were both unable to explain themselves.

"Fucking Ass!" Tina shouted out of surprise, she quickly tried recovering the words by apologizing, but Nate smiled deviously.

"Really?" Nate drawled, insinuating incestuous behavior between the twin siblings.

"Listen, outsider. Do me a favor. If my good for nothing brother asks you for Jet, tell him to buzz off." She raised a hand and looked over towards her twin to present Bobby. Both with black hair, their facial structures were the same, blue eyes, and more of an oval shaped head. Bobby gripped one elbow and gave a small wave.

"Look, my brother's a junkie, and he's getting careless. If he get's caught, we're both in trouble. As much as I want to leave this paradise in a can, it's not the way I want to go." Tina explained.

"You want to leave?"

"More than you know, you're from the outside, from another vault, so you gotta know there's more to life than just a few rooms all clipped together. But if I leave, I want it to be on my own terms, not because Bobby screwed up."

"You know, I'm looking for people to get Vault 111 up and running again, it suffered damage to it's main reactor, one of them blew out, or was shot a long time ago, it's sending out electrical discharges."

"Jesus! That's...you gotta shut that thing down! It sound's like the electricity is jumping the circuits and circumnavigating the capacitors, causing those flares! You gotta shut that thing down, asap."

"I've got a few cases of Addictol, Bobby. I found them while scavenging around. It takes the edge off addiction withdrawls while your on the road to getting clean."

"Now, I admit, I've got my own share of the blame here. Bobby get's his chems from me, and I keep him on a short leash."

"Why give in to his habit?"

"I'm cutting his ass off." Tina said, flashing Bobby a hard look. "But, Bobby, go do something useful. Check the electric grid or something." Forcing Bobby away from the conversation, Tina said. "He's my brother, and he's overworked. I give him a little Jet, and he perks right up. He seems happy, his work doesn't . Done. He just can't manage it right. Now that it's getting out of control, it's another story. If he wants me to put me at risk, he gets cut off."

"Meathead, do you remember where we put those Addictols? Did we put those in the boat, or do we have a few?" Nate said, taking off his backpack and digging through the pockets.

"<Woof!>"

"The roof? Are you sure?" Nate asked.

"<Woof, Woof!>"

"Okay, alright, here's one...and two. There's sixteen tablets in each of them, read the instructions, and slow his consumption way down. Ween him off. I've got jobs out there for both of you doing exactly this. if you want to explore the Commonwealth, and call someplace else your home."

"Thank you. This means a lot." Tina said, taking the cardboard containers. "I think he's got his own stash of Jet hidden somewhere, though."

"Trust me, he does. If he didn't, he wouldn't be asking it from you." Nate replied. "Before I go, any tips on maintaining one of these giant things?"

"They're built on a two power backup system relay. So if one fails, which it definitely sounds like one of yours does, the other one will handle most of the workload. Disconnect the main power from either a terminal or a breaker board. There should be two big panels with all the circuit breakers with everything written on them. Turn the non-essential ones off before disconnect the power, and make sure you don't disconnect the doors, otherwise you'll be locked in with a door sealing itself off with two thousand pounds of pressure. After one generator is off, the other one will take over. You do your repairs, and then flick everything back on. Simple right? The worst thing you could possibly do, and I know because we did it, is to overload the first generator and make it blow out. It sucks. It causes a blackout and makes all the systems restart, so make sure you shut down as many non-important systems as possible on for the first working generator before turning the broken generator off completely."

"Got it. Thank you. What was your name?"

"Tina."

\111/

As Nate, Piper, and Meathead were leaving the Vault, a security guard flagged them down.

"The Overseer wanted me to give you this." He said, offering a slip of notepaper to them. "It's the Vault 81 emergency broadcast signal. We use it to signal traders for what we need, or any resources that we're actively looking for. Overseer Macnamara wanted me to tell you she greatly appreciates you bringing in the Fusion Cores. For Pip-Boys, it'll make the device go 'ping' whenever we send out a new message, usually once a week or so. We operate that from the security station over here."

Nate took the note and held it up, "Thank you." He said. As they left the vault, Nate punched in the frequency to pick up on the Vault 81 broadcast.

Next Chapter: Halloween Alien Hoopajoop (Non-Canonical to story) Estimated time remaining: 24 Hours, 17 Minutes