At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Hunted

The Commonwealth
May the 16th, 2289
8:37

The sight of nothing but dead gunner after dead gunner in the lobby alone of the former global headquarters of Greentech Genetics Incorporated was enough to give Nora Jacqueline Norwich hope they were, in fact, in the right place.

The rest of the building being littered with the bodies of gunners and the frantic shouts of, she suspected, their leader through the building's PA system quickly proved her right.

Feeling sick, Nora ran, anxiety grabbing her every time she reached a dead end. Confusing. It was the only way to describe the near labyrinthic layout of the decaying building. Every room in the place felt worse than the last; old papers, data, office supplies, and discarded weapons and bullet casings littered the floors and desks. Broken computers were almost as abundant as computers that had melted through, and the handful of working computers were covered in dust and grime. The inconsistent lighting throughout the facility, too, was disorienting. The deeper they went into it, the more she tried not to think about what research might have been done there. The few clues left on decaying sticky notes and lab reports were unnerving enough, and something about them brought questions to the forefront of her mind which were far too similar to those she had about Vault-Tec. About why the things done were necessary. About whom it was got hurt and whom it was that could have possibly stood to benefit from it.

Struggling to keep going as she fought to catch her breath when they reached another stairwell, she tried to count the levels of the building they must have already climbed to. Realising, among the chaos, decay, rubble, and death around them that they had only managed to reach the third floor, Nora let out an irritated cry when she slammed her right shoulder into the doorframe of one of the old offices as she pushed past the mess they had been struggling to navigate through. Helping her through, and still a bit too giddy with her new toy, Cait swung her AR-18 onto her back and, though the woman was a bit taller than her, heaved Nora through the half collapsed doorway and into the hall. Catching the fury in the former lawyer's eyes when she dusted herself off and sent Glory a dark look, Nick Valentine stopped short, briefly feeling uneasy. The feeling did not subside when he saw the almost flippantly amused look on the face of the enigmatic agent who called himself Deacon. Still, they kept going, turning down a few more corridors before reaching a part of the floor above them, partially caved in, climbable to get up to the next. As soon as they were all the way up onto the fourth floor, they kept going again.

Letting out a sigh of relief upon seeing the open air corridor connecting both sides of the floor together, Nora took a minute to ensure her gun had been reloaded before firing on a few turrets that looked somewhere between broken and barely functional. After a few shots and feeling sure they were disarmed, she quickly made her way across the open air corridor with Cait never more than a few steps behind her. Much more cautious and feeling paranoid at the sight of more dead or nearly dead gunners splayed out on the floor at almost every turn, Nick tried not to dwell on the discomfort. Glory and Deacon, just ahead of him, seemed well composed and methodical. Not hesitating to risk leaving them behind when she found another rickety, makeshift ramp, Nora kept running under the influence of anger and pulled herself up to the next floor, only swearing when she nearly slipped just before clawing herself the rest of the way up. Cait swore when she tripped over the body of another dead gunner only a few steps after making her way up behind the former lawyer, and, irritated, kicked it down to the floor below before dusting herself off and pausing a moment, surprised in the change in their surroundings. Noticing one side of the room in the, apparent, old laboratory had hastily constructed and retrofitted equipment, she let out a small, dark laugh.

"Guess we know what they were doing in here," She remarked, catching up to Nora. "And here I was thinking an old pre-War corporation would have frowned upon people turning any part of their facility into a meth lab."