Prologue
“No, no, no,” he muttered frantically, his brown eyes wide with fear. He punched the code in again, 2-1-6, and pressed the enter key. Nothing; the water in the holding tank was still murky, and the alarm continued to blare.
“No, no,” he panicked, trying the code again for a third and fourth time, only to meet the same result. He gave the console a smack as he commanded fruitlessly, “Come on, dammit, work!” In a hurry, he pressed the enter key twice, hopefully to coax some sort of reaction, but nothing happened.
“Shit!” he cried out, clutching his black hair by the fistfuls. Project Purity should work. It had to work; his father died to make sure the Enclave wouldn’t get their grubby mitts on it. He died to make sure the Wasteland would be given fresh, clean water for generations to come. He died…
Tears formed in the young man’s eyes as he thought, ‘Dad died…for me.’
“William,” a muffled female voice called out, rousing the young man from his thoughts. Behind him, shielded by a thick piece of glass, was a woman only slightly older than he was. Her thick metal armor covered her entire body, save her head. Her bright blond hair was tied back into a messy bun, and her green eyes, normally blazing with confidence, were dim with worry. It was a look that William had never seen before in Sentinel Lyons.
“William,” she called out once more, banging her fist against the glass. “What’s happening?”
“Something must be disconnected in the console,” William cried out in urgency, and he could immediately see the flash of fear in the woman’s eyes. “I could repair it, but I’m not sure it’ll be--”
Before he could finish his sentence, a hacking cough forced its way out of his throat. He hunched over, keeping himself propped up on the console, as agonizing pain shot through his chest. He almost felt some bile rise up, and it took whatever he could muster to swallow it back.
Great, radiation poisoning; just another thing William had to deal with. He thought the Rad-X would last long enough, but he wound up putting too much faith in the last pill that he had. To make matters worse, he had used up his last pack of RadAway after getting the G.E.C.K. from Vault 87.
William lowered himself to the floor, the radiation sapping his strength. Another wave of nausea flowed through his body, spilling onto the floor in a puddle of vomit. His vision clouded over as another coughing fit forced its way out of his lungs. There was no denying it; just as it was for his father, Project Purity would soon be his grave as well.
“Sentinel,” he rasped out, just barely audible over the alarm. “You need…you need to get out of here.”
“Just give me a minute,” he heard her call out. He turned his head, to see her trying to get the airlock door open. “I’ll get you out of there and we’ll head back to the Citadel.”
“Listen to me--”
“I am not letting you die in there, soldier!” Lyons continued, and William, despite his confused senses, could just make out the sense of urgency in her voice. “We're getting out of here and--”
Gathering what little strength he could, William managed to shout at the top of his lungs, “LYONS!”
Lyons froze where she was as she turned to the teen behind, and she could truly see what horrible shape he was in. His skin was pale, tinged with a sickly yellow hue, and his eyes were bloodshot to the point where the whites of his eyes seemed completely red. William let out another hacking cough, and Lyons could see a coarse spray of blood spew from his mouth and leave a wide splatter of blood on the metal floor. From what she could see, he was struggling to keep himself propped up on his forearms. Nonetheless, there was still some kind of glimmer behind his brown irises.
Anger? Disappointment?
No.
Determination.
“I don't want you to die with me,” William groaned out, the metallic taste of his own blood still fresh on his tongue. He could see tears well up in her eyes - another thing he had never seen in the Sentinel - as he continued, “If you help me...the only thing that changes is that you die as well...”
Lyons stood there in silence, soaking in everything William had just said. Some part of her wanted to disobey him and actually try to help, but the look in his eyes wanted her to do otherwise.
'Putting his life above all others,' Lyons thought as a tear slid down her cheek. 'He would've been a great addition to the Brotherhood.'
Without another word, Lyons gave the young man a wholehearted salute. William, almost completely sapped of his strength, could only smile at the Sentinel. She stood where she was for almost a minute before rushing down the stairs and out the laboratory.
Once Lyons was gone, the strength had disappeared from his arms, and he fell face down onto the floor. The metal felt warm and oddly comforting on his cheek. He could feel the puddle of bile that he had left moments ago seep through the front of his jumpsuit, though this was far from his mind; he was moments from death, so staying clean wasn't really important at the time.
Rather, his thoughts turned to a lullaby, one that his father used to sing to him when he was young, and still living in the Vault.
Hush now,
Quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head.
As he sang the lullaby softly to himself, he soon found himself thinking back to the familiar faces at Vault 101.
Butch DeLoria, the resident “gangster” and leader of the Tunnel Snakes. To put it simply, William hated the guy with a passion, no matter the occasion. The only good time was when he had saved Butch's mom from a swarm of radroaches while Butch – the tough, fearless leader himself – hid in a dark corner. If William wasn't so weak and racked with pain, he would've busted out laughing right then and there.
Then there was Jonas; his father's friend and lab assistant. Jonas was a great guy, and he proved it when he and his father gave William a BB gun and a shooting range for his tenth birthday. He smiled at the memory, but the smile quickly vanished when he remembered Amata waking him up and telling him that Jonas was dead.
That's right, Amata; his best friend since he was just a baby. Though she was the daughter of the Overseer, William still saw her as just a friend. He still remembered the day of the G.O.A.T. exam, when Butch and his cronies were giving her a hard time. All it took were a few quick punches and a certain gang leader trying to still look cool, and they were gone.
If only he told her how he really felt before he left the Vault.
The last person to run through his mind was his father, the only person he could look up to in his crazy life. He was the one behind everything, from William's life in the Vault to the creation of Project Purity. He had known for quite a while that his father lied about their lives in the Vault and, oddly enough, he didn't care. In fact, he understood perfectly; if William had a child out in the Wastes, he would've done everything in his power to keep the kid safe, no matter the cost.
Hush now,
Quiet now,
It's time to go to bed.
The floor began to rumble underneath his cheek, but William remained still. He was dying anyway, but he was...content. He could never remember the rest of that nursery rhyme, but even those few lines were enough to keep him calm, placid, maybe even happy.
Pretty soon, the image of his father showed up in his mind. It seemed like so long ago since he died, and yet his face was still clear in his mind. Those caring eyes and that warm smile, things about him that just made almost everyone trust him with their lives.
A small smile curled up on William's lips as he quietly rasped out, “Dad...”
He closed his eyes, and the rumbling grew more vigorous. Suddenly, a bright flash pierced his eyelids, and explosive, burning pain seared through his flesh. The agony left as quickly as it came, lasting merely a second, and the searing light receded to pitch darkness.
“...I'm sorry.”
---------------------------
Okay, so this is the first chapter in my own Fallout/My Little Pony crossover. For those of you who aren't as Fallout-savvy as I am - no offense - here are some acronyms to shed some light.
G.E.C.K. - Garden of Eden Creation Kit, essentially life in a box.
G.O.A.T. - Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test, an equivalent to the CAT
Anyway, that's just the prologue, so I'll see you guys when I publish the first chapter