Artemis Files (0.5)

Chapter 13

Early 2273 - Brotherhood Base/Chicago Outskirts

S9 stood on her feet and carefully walked down the hallway. Doktor, the main medic that had been caring for her since arriving here wasn't too far behind. Most of her problems, the exhaustion, the dehydration, the otherwise minor cuts, scrapes, and burns had healed for the most part. Leaving behind, at most, small pink reminders that there had been something there once. Her impalement injury was still giving her problems, though and she ended up having to sit down every few dozen feet when it started becoming too sore to allow her to move too much. Still though, with early spring on the way it seemed like Doktor would allow her to go outside in a few weeks. That idea made her happy.

In the meantime they were going to someone everyone called the High Elder, whoever that was, though the way people spoke of him, he seemed important. He'd apparently been curious about her and asked for her as soon as she was able to walk. With one final push she managed to make herself get to the room where this High Elder person was at. When she'd first seen him, her first impression was that he was clearly some kind of leader. Because of this she'd stayed standing despite the wound complaining and making her want to sit down. S9 tried to hide it, but not very well as this High Elder began to grow a slight smile on his face and pointed to a chair. "Go ahead. Sit. You'll be here for a while. Doktor," he said looking at the other man. "Go ahead and go back to the medical bay and see to your other patients. I'll call for you to help our guest when we're done."

Doktor nodded and left. For a while neither of them said anything. The High Elder looked her up and down as she held her pained left side. It really was getting better even if it didn't feel like it sometimes. Her breathing somewhat ragged from the exercise despite it having not being very far. "Doktor tells me you're not as human as you look," the older man finally said.

S9 wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't wrong, and she knew well enough now that this chapter, and only this chapter, allowed non humans to join. Since spending her time in the medical bay healing from her ordeal she'd seen humans, of course. She'd also seen ghouls, super mutants and sentient talking Deathclaws. S9 practically fell out of her stretcher the first time she'd heard one speak, and even now she wasn't used to it, though she was slowly getting there.

There were even these odd creatures she'd seen. The adults, from what she'd seen, were six feet at the shortest and eight at the tallest with blades at their elbows, wrists, and knees which were bent backwards, and two more at the ends of their long, powerful tails. Their necks were long and snake like and their mouths were more like the beaks she'd seen on birds of prey. On top of their heads were two or three more blades depending on the gender. Their feet were like those of a dinosaur. They looked like walking salad shooters... and they were the sweetest creatures S9 had come across, despite their fearsome looks. None too bright though, a bit like toddlers. Hork-Bajir they were called, and apparent distant cousins of the Deathclaws sort of like chimpanzee or gorillas were to humans.

Finally though, S9 shook her head. "No, sir. I'm something called a synth. I'm from the Commonwealth back East." The older man looked at her, eyebrow raised and she can tell he wants her to elaborate. She sighed and had to remind herself that this wasn't the Institute, that from what the farmer had said, that these people would help her, and it seemed as though she'd finally lost X6. She began to explain everything. "Technically I'm five years old. I was created in a place called the Institute. Synths aren't treated as people and are basically slaves so that's why I don't have a name. Not really anyway, and I'm not really sure yet what I want to call myself. I escaped only recently and eventually ended up here."

The High Elder thought about this information for a moment. He'd seen her a couple of days after she was brought in, unconscious from her condition and Doktor working around the clock to get the blood to replace what she'd lost in her accident. He'd seen the weapon she'd been carrying. Not a lot of people used a bow and arrows these days, making due with the guns and melee weapons that now seemed so common. "Artemis," he'd said suddenly. Clearly this confused the woman which caused him to smile. "By the way you speak of this Institute place it sounds like you never were able to have something you could truly have as your own. I'm willing to give you the first thing if you want to think of it that way. A name."