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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tmart" data-source="post: 3613265" data-attributes="member: 11198">Day 290•    Hades Vault is far north•    Poseidon Vault is far west and underwater•    Zeus Vault is 130 kilometres southeast, which puts it past that random red-sucky-goo-wall but (we hope) north of the Restricted ZoneWe raided the computer lab, which apparently just has electronic versions of the paper archive here, for anything we could think of.  The “hey read me you idiots” file didn’t say much.  These Vaults were constructed pre-Drop as part of the Olympus Initiative to help rebuild society after the Drop.  Dexter raided old news headlines to figure out how the war started.  Timmy thought it would be “Pokemon Pokemon Pokemon,” but Dex said that China, a big country overseas, had a civil war, which caused a shortage in manufactured goods worldwide.  Russia invaded them for unknown reasons and the two countries used nukes on each other.  Then some other countries on the same continent got drawn in.  He said Japan was totally destroyed, which made Timmy Thane sad because now he’ll never know how his manga series ended.  Around the same time disease broke out in some South American countries which were newly rich due to gas deposits being discovered.  The European Union then raised allegations that the United States was behind the disease.  The record ends there, which probably means that the Vault was completed at that time.  The date of the last news article is April 17, 2031.  The Vault clock says today is September 20, 2113.We got some more on Ferdinand Sandoval too.  He was a philosopher as well as a physicist.  He was in charge of the Olympus Initiative along with his brother Miguel, who is the General that the present-day Sandovals said was their ancestor.  That would make Ferdinand their great-uncle.  He specialised in infantry weaponry R&D.  Miguel was in charge of research programs in the west.The library had nothing on the weird red walls.  We’ve seen references to a “Gor-Tech” company around here, so we looked that up.  They’re a non-military research firm specialising in climate and bioengineering.  They’re also a subsidiary of ATMA Corporation… we saw that name in the military base where the brain was.  We wanted to find out more from the library but there was so much stuff in it, we didn’t even know where to start.  Hopefully we can come back here from time to time when we think of something else to look up.September 22, 2113When we left the Vault we saw about 300 mutants blocking the road.  Their ranks opened and three of the smart ones came forward.  One had a shotgun, one had an assault rifle and the third had a stick with a white flag attached to it.  They were about a klick away, so Timmy, Dole, and I met them in the middle.  The dude with the stick recognised us, so he must be the one that got away earlier.  He told the others that we were the ones who killed “The Core,” which must mean the brain guy.  He said that because we did them that favour, they would let us go if we gave them the key and case to the Vault.Did I give the mutants free will?I told them we were disinclined to acquiesce to their request.  They said “We outnumber you.”  Timmy Thane blurted out “We out-awesome you!” which is probably true.  I had to think for a second, but I told them we’d destroy the key and case if they didn’t let us go, and stared the guy down real good.  He didn’t believe me, but the one with the shotgun said they couldn’t take the risk.  I told them that was our ultimatum, and we went back to our jeep.  Now the key only serves to open the case, and the case only has sheets of code pairs.  The Vault prompts you with a code and you type in its pair.  They probably don’t know this, so inside the jeep we take the codes and give them to the Mule.  McLeod then stuffs the case full of C4 and rigs it to blow if opened.  So Dex gets up in the jeep and holds a gun to the key, which is just a disc.  So we drive down the road slowly toward the mutants blocking it.  The smart ones don’t say nothing, and the dumb ones don’t move.  We get to within a few feet and Joe just keeps going.  They part at the last second to let us through.  It was intense.To make sure we weren’t followed, we kept driving into the night.  The guys dropped me and my brother from another mother, Dole Mule, off outside Blue Lake to talk with David Sandoval.  He woke up to talk with us.  I told him I was sorry for what happened to Adam, which I am.  I told him I have nightmares about it to this day, which I do.  I told him we parted ways with Hexagon Jack because he’s crazy and violent.  I told him that when we stole the case from them, we didn’t know what we were doing, and since then we decided we would try to rebuild civilisation.  And I told him we wanted to put the past behind us and work together to do that.  I started to tear up when I was talking about Adam, so he believed me and agreed that it would be best.  But he had me agree that the authorities would have to be on the lookout for Jack to bring him to justice.  I felt bad agreeing to that because he’s one of us, but he does need to be held responsible for what he did.  Timmy said it’s not his fault.  He’s a sociopath, he said.  He doesn’t understand right and wrong like we do.  Then again, they probably won’t be able to catch him.  He’s too resourceful.He suggested getting all the local towns together under one authority – Newver, Blue Lake, Trade City, Sandoro, and Haven.  Maybe we could add Couver and even the colony, depending on what the elders say.  It’s a great idea.  I also told him about the Vault and showed him the printout about Ferdinand.  He was surprised.  I also told him about the 300 mutants and how there were smart ones now.  That scared him.  If they all attacked at once, he said, they wouldn’t be able to defend the city.  Hopefully the rivers will keep them away.  There’s not much to be done about them at the moment except to get Haven trading weapons to Blue Lake.We called it a night and hammered out some details the next morning.  I’m so glad we decided to do this.  I feel like I’ve atoned in a way for what happened to Adam.  I haven’t seen him in my nightmares since.September 29, 2113Dexter and Dole went to the colony to talk to the elders.  Dole did a really great job of selling them the idea of going public and joining the new alliance.  They didn’t commit on the spot but they warmed nicely to the idea.  Apart from that they said that the elders nagged them about coming home more often.  Elder Mitchell, the eldest of us (73 I think) is in poor health and gave Dex an envelope to open when he dies.  They have tons of medical supplies from the stockpile we raided in Sandoro but the doctor said it’s just his time.  I think they might be making him an elder.  He is pretty smart.While they were there they also requisitioned another jeep and converted it to electric like our other one.  They tricked both of them right out.  They added body armour, an engine upgrade, off-road suspension and wheels for the wrecked roads.  And the second one now has a heavy machine gun on it.  Fifty cal.  This thing is sick.While they were over there Timmy’s voice lowered.  He sounds like a man now.  Plus he isn’t so pale anymore.  I don’t know if puberty comes in your 20s for Thane men, or if radiation exposure unblocked a blood clot or something, or if testing out the machine gun made him churn out more testosterone, but it’s strange, like we don’t have to talk down to him anymore.It’ll still be a while until we can have our first provisional meeting of the alliance, so we decided to check out the airfield we heard is south of Blue Lake (the lake not the city) and maybe Couver to scav parts for Dex and talk to them about joining.To do:•    Unify currency for all the towns•    Talk to Couver about joining•    Worry a lot about Mittlewerk, ask Dorn if they might consider joining (not likely)•    Find a cool name for the alliance.  Confederacy?•    Think about a capital•    Find cool nicknames for the different kinds of mutantsSeptember 30, 2113For the first time I think we may be in over our heads.We headed out toward the airfield, and just past the crater at the crossroads, we heard an incoming helicopter.  I’ve seen one helicopter in my life, and after it landed, Drago the would-be bandit king was shot dead with some kind of laser gun and then the guys from the chopper took the fusion reactor from the medical stockpile underneath Sandoro.  Not wanting to be the guys who get shot first and asked questions later, we took off into the trees with our two off-road armoured supercharged jeeps from hell.  Choppers are fast though, so they caught up.  Damon was driving our jeep and he managed to hit a rock.  While he was backing up ropes dropped in among the trees and two guys in black wearing shades zipped down to the ground.  They were the same guys from Sandoro.  They took the opportunity to quickly threaten us to stop what we were doing or we’d be killed.  Since they weren’t firing we stuck around for a bit to talk, but Joe and the other jeep were still taking off.  It’s probably best to split up in this situation anyway.  I stalled for time while my mind-reading power set to work.  I felt six in the chopper and then those two.  I couldn’t read the big guy but the skinny one was easy.  His surface thoughts told me they had orders to stop us from forming our alliance.  They told us to just find a farm somewhere and just… farm.  I told them even if we stop, the gears are in motion and the cities will work together.  They just repeated themselves again.  I told them the mutants were threatening us and we had to band together to defend ourselves.   They said the mutants weren’t a threat.  I couldn’t really believe that considering the 300 outside Blue Lake, but then they said the mutants were “under control.”  I used my power of suggestion on the skinny one and said “Look, if we’re going to abandon our project to restore civilisation to our home you’re really going to have to explain to us who we’re dealing with and why we should stop.”  He answered “Listen to me, you ignorant savages, the ATMA Corp –” and then he stopped, said a very bad word, and reached for his gun.  Dole floored it and took a couple pot shots at the helicopter.  I took shots with Moomba’s Boomstick and Dexter unloaded with the machine gun while a laser beam flew right over his shoulder.  We actually managed to damage the chopper enough that it turned and took off south from whence it came.  It was smoking and we probably nearly downed it.  We would have kept chasing but I spotted one leaning out the side with a rocket launcher of some kind, so we just held back and kept taking pot shots.  It got away, but we think it was a pretty big win for us.  The thing had two machine guns firing at us but we only took one hit to the jeep, and Dex said he can fix it right up.I’ve thought a lot since then and based on the guy’s surface thoughts and the word choice “under control” I’m beginning to think that ATMA might be behind the mutants.  After all, the Core / Brain thing was located deep inside the ATMA military base.  I’m also suspicious of Dorn.  He has a gun that looks just like a revolver but is actually some kind of plasma or laser weapon.  I’d like to ask him where he got it when I see him next, and I’m going to be using my powers on him.September 30, 2113, continuedJoe said while he was taking off in the Jeep somebody fiddled with the radio and they heard this broadcast:….Attention, please, attention.  The United States government is returning order to the pacific northwest.  All loyal citizens will be protected. Lawless brigands and those possessing illegal mutations will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.  Resistance will be met with force.  United states citizens in need of immediate assistance are advised to report to the US Army outpost north east of Seattle along Route 2, just off the I5.O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous nightO’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?And the rockets’ rad glare, the nukes bursting in airGave proof through the night that our flag was still there;O say, does that star-spangled banner yet waveO’er the land of the pure and the home of the brave?….….Attention, please, attention….</blockquote>

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