Fallout: Origins

Chapter 10: James

The pod hissed as the door opened, and the frozen body thawed instantly, and fell to the floor, the man coughing and gasping for air. He got on his knees and slowly managed to get up. Once on his feet, the man turned to his pod to check the date. He was almost 200 years overdue to wake up. The man was clad in a green military combat uniform, freshly out of cryo. The nametag said Dorien. James Dorien.

James' memory was foggy, one of the side effects of cryo. Then it all came back to him, 100 times the speed at which it actually happened. He used to be in the US Military, and served in Anchorage, Alaska, when the Chinese invaded back in 2067. He was one of the best shots in the military, despite still using outdated rifles, like the World War II Springfield. It was his favorite weapon. He, and about 14 others, were selected to go into cryogenic stasis just after the liberation of Anchorage. James looked around at the pods. 10 were empty, and 4 still had the bodies in them. But those guys didn't make it. Something went wrong with the pods, and the 4 soldiers were frozen to death, as they weren't flash frozen. Horrible way to go. James went towards the door, and saw his old rifle, still there, with plenty of ammo waiting.

"Whatever happened all these years," he said to himself, "No one came looking for us. And no one found us in here."

He grabbed his old Springfield and hit the lock on the door, which made it open instantly. The cryo chamber was built much like a Vault, for obvious reasons. Guess Vault-Tec wanted to make sure that these boys made it. They could have easily have cloned them, but cryo was the trick of this place.

When he got to the exit of the facility, there was a sign with sunglasses hanging from them. "Protect your eyes, soldier!" it read.

James put them on, and pulled the lever for the door. Must have been Vault-Tec; there was the gear shaped door that slid open very poorly. Knowing he was the last one, he left it open after grabbing what was left of gear.

The door opened, and the sun nearly blinded him. Technically, he hadn't seen the sun in 200 years. For him, however, it was about 3 hours. As he walked out, he could literally feel the radiation on his skin from the bombs. Turns out, there was an unexploded one on top of the bunker, and it was feeding radiation into the surrounding area. If that Vault door hadn't been closed, everyone in the facility would have turned into ghouls.

James moved out into the forest by himself, and heard the distant sounds of a firefight. There were bullets and lasers flying. But the one thing that made him pay attention, the one thing, was the unmistakable sound of plasma weapons being fired. In his mind, that meant that there was military, seeing as back in 2077 only they had access to plasma technology. He estimated that it was at least a day's walk, and the sun was already around 3:00. He grabbed his gear and moved towards the sounds of fire, until the sun set, and he set up camp for the night.

James awoke to the sounds of guns cocking. Startled, he reached for his gun, only to hear someone say "Leave it." Once the groginess wore off, he examined the people pointing rifles at him and his heart lifted. They were wearing US military power armor.

"Soldier, stand down." James said.

"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?" The group leader said to him.

"Sergeant James Dorien, US Military, served in the Liberation of Anchorage. How about you?" He said with a cocky smirk, only to recieve a rifle butt to the face.

"One thing I can't stand for is a liar. Now tell me who you are exactly, and if I don't like the answer, my men will unload on you."

"Let me explain then, you asshole. See that rifle there?" he pointed at his Springfield. "That wasn't even standard issue back then. I had to get permission to carry that rifle. You know who I killed with that rifle? More than you men combined. Not to mention I killed General Jingwei."

"Who?" One of the other men said, confused.

"The guy who killed over 500 US soldiers with that goddamn shock sword of his. We never did figure out how it worked. But I put a bulled in his skull from 100 feet away. Chinese SOB had it coming."

"So, how the hell are you still alive? The Anchorage Campaign ended in 2077. You'd have to be a Ghoul to survive that long."

"There's a bunker a little bit East of here. It was another one of Vault-Tec's experiments. This one had cryogenic stasis for 15 of the best soldiers the United States military had to offer, in case we were needed again. Guess we got nuked before that happned, huh?" James said, looking around at the irradiated landscape.

"Yeah. Look, we're out looking for our squad leader, any chance we could get a hand?" The soldier who hit him extended a hand.

James took his hand and stood up, then asked the soldier to remove his helmet. When the soldier did, James clocked him square in the jaw.

"Nice hit. Guess I deserved it, huh?" The soldier looked at him, and James noticed that he had a scar over his eye. "Name's Riker. I'm a Corporal in the Enclave military, Omega Squad, to be precise."

"Enclave, huh? Hey, you said Riker? I knew your great great grandaddy. Johnny Riker." He chuckled a bit. "No one ever thought that kid could get laid, but guess you're proof he did, huh?"

"Yes sir." Riker smiled slightly.

"Please don't call me sir. I'm not in your military, and my army is all dead. I'm just James Dorien to you now."

"Well alright then. We heard a firefight on the horizon yesterday and were heading there. Do you need a suit of power armor?"

"Not at all. I survived Anchorage without it, don't need it now."

"We'll see about that. Omega, move out." Riker called to the squad and they walked onwards toward the base on the horizon, unaware of what was going to happen.