FALLOUT: War for Vegas {WattyAwards 2013 Contender (Did not make Finalist) }

Chapter 15

After what felt like an eternity, Jackie awoke. He looked around the New Vegas Clinic, seeing that it was night time. He saw that his arm, instead of it being in a metal bandage, was now robotic. The ‘skin’ was made from what looked like steel and tubes ran from the forearm to the bicep area. His PIP-BOY was now part of his arm, now a touch screen instead of buttons and switches.  He flexed his cyborg arm, feeling it move unnaturally fluent and clean. Dr. Usanagi walked in with a clipboard.

“Oh, you’re awake. Good.” She said with a warm smile. “How’s the new arm doing?”

“Feels real enough.” Jackie said. He got up and moved synthetic arm around in a circle. “Pretty lightweight too.”

“Since you’re up I’d want to try and do the experiment with your father’s consciousness”  Usanagi said, “When you’re ready could you please follow me to the underground level.” She walked out of the room and to the entrance. Jackie made sure he was all set, and then he rushed after her. Usanagi was heading through what looked like an underground Vault under the building. Jackie relived him going under Smith Casey’s Garage to reach Vault 112 to find his father, who was in a simulation to find someone that knew of the G.E.C.K.

They entered the small Vault; the walls covered in panels, devices, and corkboards covered in notes. In the room in front of him was a sight Jackie had never seen before. There was a silver man, made completely from computer work, sitting in in an Android pod with computers and moniters connected to it.

“Is that. . . Is that my dad?” Jackie asked.

Usanagi shrugged. “Could be, have you heard of the “Replicated Man”? You might of it was an android in your area.”

“I heard a few holodisks about an android, but never really found one.” Jackie said.

“Well this is the skeleton of a “Replicated man.” I can put synthetic skin on it to make it more real looking.”

Jackie nodded. “If you could make it look more like my father, that would be great. I’d rather speak to a fake version of my father that looks like him rather than a silver droid.”

Usanagi nodded and insterted the disk into a computer.

“Ah shit.” She swore.

“What?” Jackie asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s password protected. Would you know it?”

Jackie walked over and saw that it was password protected, but it had a specific amount of spaces to use. He counted them. Eight spaces. What was related to his father that was only eight letters? His name only had seven, so it couldn’t be him. Maybe. . .

C_A_T_H_R_I_N_E

His mother’s name. The screen flashed green, then the android blipped and struggled in its retraining pod.

“The things gone haywire!” Usanagi said as she started pressing buttons on the pad on the pods left. “This thing was meant for AI’s not actual human consciousness’s!”

Jackie looked at the screen and saw millions of images. Everything from James’s birth to his travel to Vault 112 flashed on the screen. The door to the pod blasted off an the Android fell on it’s knees. Jackie walked over, his hand on his .357 Magnum. “Dad?”

The android looked over at Jackie, it’s eyes a bright blue. “Ja. . . Jack. . . son? But? How did you get. . .?”

Jackie knelt down and helped his father (he joked it was version 2.0 in later years to come) up. “Yes dad its me. I want to tell you everything, but we don’t have time, we’re at war.”

“With who?” said James.

“Enclave and Legion.” Jackie said as he handed his father his magnum.

James stared at it, twisting the gun in his hands. “What happened to me?”

“It’s a long story, but I-“ before Jackie could say anything, an explosion was heard overhead. “What the hell?”

Usanagi rushed over to a vid screen and saw power armor clad Enclave soldiers and Legion soldiers figting Brotherhood of Steel, the New Vegas Army, and other groups that joined. “The battles already here.”