Just a Guy and a Gate to the Multiverse - Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Chapter 9 - Deinstitutionalized

— Sanctuary Defense HQ, 2288 —

And gathered they had. At this point, not only was Sanctuary one of the greatest settlements in the Wasteland, with several smaller settlements affiliated with us all over the surrounding Commonwealth, but we also had one of the biggest military forces.

There are even talks about founding a nation like the now-destroyed New California Republic at the West Coast, but those obviously have nothing to do with me. I won’t be staying in this Universe for that long.

Fallout is just a universe meant to prepare me longterm to enter some of my favorite universes and do the things there I always dreamed to do. Some of the technology here just has that much potential. I have no plans to stay here long-term.

While I am in nor rush, there is no point in me lazing here around. For that there are clearly more comfortable Worlds than a nuclear Wasteland.

The Sanctuary Security Forces were designed to protect our settlements, interests and people, but they also perform necessary missions I designate. In other terms, they are my private army.

To them, I am a walking, limitless G.E.C.K. A Garden of Eden Creation Kit, one of the major plotpoints of early Fallout Games. My ability to construct things very quickly with alchemy, using whatever materials are available, is just secondary. The important part is I can use alchemy to remove radiation from the ground.

In the Wasteland, that ability makes me a god to them. It secures fresh water, plenty of safe food, and a healthy environment. In exchange, I got the people’s unwavering loyalty.

“Everybody knows the plan and their role?” I asked as I stared at the hundreds of armed men, receiving unified shouts of confirmation.

These are not even my entire forces. But the mission is critical in nature, and not everyone qualifies for it. Besides, we need to leave defensive forces behind, too. Coming back to a plundered home would be tragic.

They were specifically hand picked, trained, and briefed for this mission by me and some people I trust. As for what qualifies them? None of them are synths, at least as far as I can tell to the best of my ability.

For team leaders, I picked the people I am one hundred percent certain are not synths. Experienced and named characters I have the wiki files on, like Preston Garvey, Cait, Ben Gibson, Ronnie Shaw, John Hancock, and so on. I put a lot of effort into recruiting them into my forces.

As for the rest of the soldiers participating in this Mission? The ones who would be nameless NPCs in the game? Well, I used the best method available to me. There is this place called Covenant in the Commonwealth, which has some unspecified relationship to Vault 101 from Fallout 3, but that isn’t really relevant.

Covenant is a gated community. In order to gain entrance, every visitor has to undergo a so-called S.A.F.E test. This test supposedly can determine whether a person is trouble or not, and it is pretty much the G.O.A.T. test from Vault 101, just with every reference to that Vault removed.

But the true purpose Covenant uses that test for is to determine whether someone is a synth. It supposedly never failed. Which as far as I can tell is the truth. Specifically, it relies on the question: Congratulations! You made it onto a baseball team! Which position do you prefer?

While most people in the Wasteland don’t even know what baseball is, a synth is predisposed by its programming to answer, Catcher. Yep, that’s the safest method I’ve got to find synths.

Well, everyone involved with this mission passed the test.

As for why I don’t want synths to even know about this mission? We are going to attack the Institute today.

“Yes, both teams are ready. They have memorized the blueprints you created. Every squad knows its job,” Garvey responded as my second-in-command.

“Good, but don’t be too fixated on them. They may not be as accurate as we believe. My intel is from a source that hasn’t seen the real Institute from the inside.” Or rather a video game that this world is based on. Maybe the other way around, a Video Game based on this World?

Unfortunately, some locations are bigger in scale, while others are the same. A video game simply has technical limitations, which harms realism, after all.

“We understand,” the men nodded seriously.

I gave them a serious nod. “But the key points and rough layout should be the same. This will be a two-pronged attack. I will lead the aboveground strike team.” I ordered before looking at Garvey. “Teleportation Relay Team, remember to wait for our signal. Your role is key, but if you attack too soon, you will be overrun by their own defenses.”

Just like in Fallout 4, I got the blueprints for a device to hijack the Institute’s teleportation relay technology. Teleportation is the only reason nobody has ever found the Institute. Those rats burrowed themselves underground and only send their synths out through that overpowered technology.

Cait nodded in response. She would be with the first team securing the Teleportation Relay room, one of the most important jobs since it is the only way out for the members of the Institute. “Don’t worry, we will wait for your signal. We know how important a coordinated attack is.”

“I hope so. After all, we don’t want to lose anything from the Institute. Their technology can save the Wasteland a lot of trouble and advance our society much further.” And I want their tech for myself too. “Remember to only kill the synths. The ones inside the Institute should be easy to recognize. You were trained for this. We need the scientists alive.”

Having made sure that the strike teams knew their roles and were prepared, I addressed the other people in the room. A bunch of doctors and scientists I had recruited from the Wasteland, currently under the lead of Dr. Amari.

She was a scientist working in the Memory Den until I recruited her. They offer a service for people to relive their own memories in a virtual reality environment, and the devices they use are modified versions of the same virtual reality pods I got from Vault 112.

But that is just the simplest of her skills. She is very skilled when it comes to the brain and virtual reality, and she will play an important role.

“Dr. Amari, is your team ready too?”

She sighed as she looked at me, but then gave me a nod. “While I get where you are coming from, I don’t like it. But yes, both the medical team and my own team are prepared. We have enough anesthetics to keep triple the number of people under control compared to what you are projecting to be present there.”

“Good. Aboveground strike team, follow me to the Vertibirds. Let’s head out. Good luck, everyone. Prioritize your own survival. There is no need to take any risks. The Institute built their own trap. Time to spring it.”

———

— Preston Garvey POV —

The tension was palpable. It had been three hours since the aboveground strike team had departed, but they had not sent the signal yet. That was no surprise, considering what they had to do first.

After the massacre in Quincy, Preston Garvey had not expected his life to turn out like this. At most, he had hoped that he would one day lay the foundation for the new Minutemen. A small but solid start.

While he had never given up hope, neither had he dared to dream big. Not until that fateful day when they met Matt back in Concord. He was a miracle on two legs. At first, his abilities had scared them, but the benefits outweighed the doubts far too quickly for that impression to last.

Whatever it was that he did, whether it was science or actual magic, nobody cared anymore. Why would they? He turned areas of the barren wasteland into fertile ground they could actually use to grow large amounts of uncontaminated food supplies.

Even the water in this region had started to show no signs of radiation anymore.

It was a miracle for them.

And that was how he earned their loyalty. Add to that the fact that he made construction an extremely easy affair, and they soon turned what had once been the hope for the revival of a small faction of the Minutemen into a potential new country on the level of the New California Republic. The Minutemen were history.

Something far better would take their place. A future for everyone.

Today would be an important milestone for their new country. A day that would be written down in their history books. The day when not only one of the greatest threats in the wasteland would disappear, but they would also gain its resources and technology, creating the technical foundation for the reclamation of the United States.

It would not happen this year or the next. But the thought was in every one of them. Maybe in the next few decades, or at most within a century, they could rebuild the country of their ancestors. Maybe they could even turn it into a better one.

Everything started here, with the solid foundation they had built and were expanding today.

Suddenly, a sound came from their radio receiver.

“It’s the signal. Cait lead your Shock Troopers, step onto the relay platform!” Garvey commanded the squad of soldiers in heavy T-60 power armor. “Go, go, go!”

Those Shock Troopers were their best soldiers, equipped with their best gear. Even for an organization of their size, power armor was a limited resource. But they had managed to create several trained squads of them.

Most used T-45 or T-51 models. But their elites deserved the superior T-60.

Moments later, they vanished in a flash of light. Good. The access code they had acquired that morning from an Institute Courser, one of their elite hunter troops, was still working. That had been one of the worries in their plans.

It was the main reason for all their secrecy. If the Institute had known about their plan, they would have changed the access code as soon as they lost contact with their Courser.

That would have forced them to rely on Plan B, requiring the surface assault team to acquire another code. It would not have been the worst-case scenario, but there would still have been a risk of some of their objectives failing.

“The Shock Troopers should have established the perimeter by now. Your turn, Hunter Teams. You know your job! Secure the elevator on every floor. Limit their movement!” Garvey ordered next, as the teams equipped in combat armor began to move, each carrying one lethal weapon and one stun weapon.

But Garvey did not rest. It was time for himself to move.

“Combat Engineers, get ready to go next. Secure the teleportation relay room with turrets and fortifications. Nobody is allowed to escape! Follow me!”

Moments later, he found himself on the platform, vanishing in a bright flash of light.

———

— Matt POV —

Everything was going according to plan. This is the advantage of having meta knowledge. A whole military operation working like a well-oiled machine. Before they even realize what is happening, things will already be over.

As soon as our Vertibirds landed on the roof of the abandoned C.I.T. building, the former Commonwealth Institute of Technology, everyone began to move.

We cleared the building a few days ago of a Super Mutant and ghoul infestation, together with several other buildings, to avoid raising the Institute’s suspicion. After all, it was not a suspicious action from us.

Our clearing and looting missions were well known at this point. We often clear out dangers close to our settlements or along our trade routes. The C.I.T is directly on the way to Diamond City the Jewel of the Commonwealth and formely biggest City.

This time unbeknowst to everyone else, it had simply been preparation for a military operation instead.

Soon, we found ourselves on the ground floor of the building. Unfortunately, there was no direct path to the Institute here. While the Institute was founded by survivors of the C.I.T., they had gone underground centuries ago and sealed every entrance that ever existed after they got their fancy teleporter.

There was no trace of there ever being an entrance.

For someone to reach the Institute from above ground, it would take a demolition crew to dig their way underground. A project like that would take weeks, if not months, not to mention having to defend themselves from synth attacks the entire time.

We had no demolition crew, at least not one using conventional means, but we had something far better. An alchemist.

“Everyone, stay behind me!”

Wearing my fully modified and upgraded X-02 Power Armor, I stepped onto the spot where we believed the old entrance once led underground and touched the ground with both hands. Alchemical lightning flashed all around me as the hard cement beneath me began to reshape itself.

Matter began to move to the sides while a whole tunnel formed, with a staircase spiraling downward. I kept up my work for almost three hours, my men in Power Armor moving any rubble out of the hole.

Until we finally reached a white metal wall over a hundred meters below ground, which I recognized as the material the Institute used to build their facility.

Motioning for my men to be silent, I carefully began to open part of the wall. Just a small hole. I made it deeper and deeper until I reached a room.

“Send the signal!” I whispered quickly.

As soon as the signal was confirmed, we began to move. I transmuted a big hole into the wall that got us into one of the residential blocks of the Institute.

It didn’t take long for the first synth guards to notice us and open fire. But my men and I, as the strike force, were all equipped with Power Armor specifically modified to resist the Institute’s preferred energy weapons.

Being predictable is a strategic weakness. For all their genius technology, the Institute really lacked in a lot of other areas.

Our first objectives were quite simple, but they needed to be rushed. As soon as we identified which residential area we were in, we split into two teams.

The team without me would strike the SRB, short for Synth Retention Bureau. It was where the strongest of their synths, the Coursers, operated from and were gathered for the most part. Our first team’s job was to keep them busy.

Fortunately, the Institute even has nice color-coded path markings on the floor, which you can follow to find your destination. Black leads toward the SRB, green to the BioScience lab, red to Robotics, and blue to Advanced Systems.

My team, the second strike team, needed to go to the residential area between the BioScience department and the Advanced Systems department, or simply between the green and blue markers. So nice and simple.

Quickly taking out any synths blocking our way, we reached the second floor of that residential block.

As soon as we opened the door, someone from the inside shouted in shock, “Who are you? How did you get in here… Wait, it’s you! You abomination, what do you think you are doin—”

It was an old man, pointing his finger angrily at me, clearly recognizing me. I recognized him too. That was Father, the Director of the Institute. Or simply Shaun, the son of the Sole Survivor, who got kidnapped by the Institute as a toddler some 60 years ago, kicking off the whole main story, only to end up as a plot twist where he turns out to already be an old man and the head of the potential main antagonist of Fallout 4.

Not that it matters anymore. That story has nothing to do with this reality.

“Restrain him!” I ordered as my men captured him, while I walked toward the terminal in his room.

“I see, that’s why you are here. It doesn’t matter. I will never give you the Access Code. Even if you torture me, I would rather die. This is a foolish errand!” Father laughed at me while being held by one of my soldiers.

Sitting down in front of the terminal, I activated the option to shut down all synths inside the Institute and entered the Director’s access code, “9003.”

That completely shocked the old man. “What!? How do you know that? I am the only one who—”

“Stun him.” Sucks to be him, but I played the ending of Fallout 4 before, the one where one does get the access code.

And with that code, our primary objectives were complete. Every exit of the Institute is under our control, all the main defenses, aka the synth guards, have been deactivated in a single move, and our teams are ready to strike.

“Tell the others we completed our job. Time to capture the scientists. We want them alive.”

[ End of the Chapter ]