ATOMICA: Let Freedom Ring (Part 1)

ATOMIC TALES FEATURING ATOMICA!

LET FREEDOM RING (Part 1)

Allison smiled as Flak counted out her caps. Atomica hitting the Supermutants had helped clean up the area around Rivet City, and word had started to get out to Raiders. More often than not, her the trip to Megaton and back was free of them. Maybe they were finally getting the message.

On top of all that, Allison's scav business was bringing in so many hunting rifles and miniguns that Flak was starting to wholesale them in perfect condition to the Brotherhood of Steel to use against the ruthless Outcasts in their war on terror..

The Brotherhood of Steel. From all I have heard, this Lyons and his crew seem to be the successors to the heroes who used to inhabit this very ship before the war. I'll have to look them up some day soon. Shrapnel says good things about them.

Her thoughts moving forward to her plan to meet Three Dog, she nearly collided with the shy and quiet Mei Wong on her way to Gary's Galley for lunch.

Sorry, my fault. you know, we've never really talked. Can I buy you some lunch?

The small woman was taken aback by the offer, and eventually, opened up. She told of being a slave, about how she was terrified because she recognized Sister from Paradise Falls, and how she hoped to escape to a safe place up north soon.

I have been lax in my crusade. Supetmutants are awful, yes.. but the Brotherhood, the Outcasts, and the Talons all keep them occupied. Its time to tackle the real evil here.

- - - - -

Sister sighed heavily as he shrugged off his pack and locked his door. It had been a very long day. Rubbing his face, he began talking to a holorecorder.

“Mister Jones, I've made some progress locating the android, but there's a complication. There's this crazy girl who thinks she's some kind of comics...”
He trailed off realizing the room was bathed in a faint blue glow.

“Atomica. I figured I would have to kill you soon or later.”

He spun to face her, weapon drawn. She knocked him over with a palm strike to the forehead, the back of his head bouncing off his cot. She removed his weapon and emptied the chamber in a smooth flick of her wrist while he fell.

“OW! Hey.. How did you do that?”

Atomica frowned. “Tell me about Eulogy Jones.”

Sister pulled a concealed switchblade and aimed for her gut. The knife slid off the nanoweave armour. Atomica grabbed his hand, closing it hard around the blade.

“I will ask one more time, nicely. Then you can go see Doctor Preston about sewing up that nasty mutfruit-peeling accident.”

Sister rolled sideways, coming up with a shotgun from under the cot. He fired, catching Atomica with a blast close enough to cut her in several places beneath the armour and knock her back a few steps. Figuring the guard was already alerted by the weapons fire, Atomica grimaced.

“I was only going to ask nicely once.”

Her blaster came up, and she took his hand off with an overcharge pulse.

“You can get that fixed. If there are Androids running around loose, then there are damn good prosthetics made from the same stuff.”

Startlingly, Sister laughed. “You idiot! I AM an Android! I'm here to return A3-21 to the Institute! And when I am finished, I will use Euology Jones to infiltrate the Pitt itself! Pittsburgh's technological and cultural resources will be assimilated to serve us!”

Sister stood, his biological components dissolving as he shed his disguise. A shiny metal skeleton with glowing red eyes stood revealed. A murder machine that could pass for human. It lunged for her.

A blue flash filled the room. Atomica shook her head at the inactive abomination while tsking.

“It never occurred to you that my suit glow is the same colour as pulse grenades.”

“Interface and reboot in safe mode.”

WORKING.

Atomica hacked the machine, then re-enabled its camouflage.

“What was the name he gave?”

A3-21.

"Reprogram ID chip to match, and wipe his memory."

WORKING.

INTEGRATING UPGRADED TARGETING ALGORYTHMS.

“Awesome.”

Atomica scanned the holotapes while the suit worked, wondering if the guards had simply decided that bad noises from a slaver's room were none of their business.

Paradise Falls.. Euology Jones.. and to her horror, the Lincoln Memorial!

“Oh no. No no no. This is not going to do. At all.”

She learned that the visitor to the science lab was none other than the Institute's own man, and his bodyguard yet another android. Once Sister was rebooted, she spoke to him as he entered configuration mode.

“Randomize appearance.”

The features flowed and changed to those of an entirely new man.

“State designation”.

“This unit is designated A3-21.”

“Wait in the store room across the hall.”

The android went and stood by the filing cabinets in the unused room. Atomica taped a note to Doctor Zimmer's door. She knocked and slipped away into the shadows. Zimmer quietly left with the reprogrammed Sister and his bodyguard, never to be seen again.

- - - - -

Allison met Mei Wong as she was packing the next day. She explained that Sister was gone, and she was now safe to go and seek her friends. The women exchanged hugs. Mei Wong whispered in her ear. It was a set of coordinates. “When your friend Atomica frees slaves, let her send them there.”

Atomica would follow discretely to make sure Mei Wong got to her “safe place” unharmed. Her thoughts turned to the Paradise Falls, The Pitt... and especially, the Lincoln Memorial.

A brutal and bloody conflict ended slavery in this country four hundred years ago. And here we are again, the same problems, the same solution. They called it the Civil War... war never changes. But this? This is going to be a very uncivil war indeed.
 - - - - -

(This is where  my Fallout 3 died and took my save games with it. Everything past this point is fiction, pure and simple, based on Fallout 3, but all in my head. :D )