Nekoholic

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

Basil apprehensively watched the exchange between the Brotherhood of Steel lady and Jace, remaining silent as he instead took mental notes on what she said. She seemed rather confident; from what he knew, all Brotherhood of Steel members were, considering that they had every reason to be with their heavy suits of metal, top-of-the-line energy weapons, and hordes of hidden technology that they had amassed and hid from the common people for many decades now, but even the most arrogant and conceited of people could have their ego trashed and scattered in the tenser moments.
He sighed softly, and said as he turned around, "Let's leave, Jace."

Leith, despite wishing that Kaye would just remain in this one room until further notice, hurried after her. It was then that he also detected the noise. It vaguely sounded like vermin, ones that they could easily squash underneath their boots and forget about, but he knew that if that was truly the case, they would have heard it long ago. No, it was more likely that more raiders lied in wait elsewhere in the vault, preparing either a sneak attack or an escape.
"Kaye, let me go first," he whispered, pushing past her to stand in front. He gestured towards her knife as he removed his revolver from its holster on his hip.

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

Kate rolled her eyes, and inquired, "What even makes you think that one is here?"

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

"Ah, on the contrary," Kate said vaguely. She then straightened up, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "But you're mere citizens, leading primitive lifestyles. You have to scavenge for food, scrap together rusted parts for the most basic of machines and medicinal practices. How could any of you be educated enough to properly utilize a G.E.C.K.?"
"We're not animals," Basil snapped, "In fact, we must be smarter than the rest of you combined, considering that we've managed to survive out here without the help of past technologies."
Leith smirked at that; the kid really had fire in him at times.

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

"Don't shoot, Jace," Leith snapped, narrowing his eyes at her.
Kate peered at him curiously, lips curved in a smirk.
Back before the war, there had always been corruption; everywhere one looked, there were knives been shoved into people's backs. The government would annex otherwise friendly nations, would wage war over resources, and CEOs would sink other businesses in order to stay afloat themselves, and even neighbors who just so happened to make a few more dollars than the other would suddenly be seeking methods of eliminating potential competition and would flaunt about as if they owned the world, as if nothing could touch them. Judgment would be passed, but it was always flawed. The world remained the same, even after two hundred years. No one would ever learn lessons from history. Organizations who thought that they could and would stomp down others persisted.
And one that he had been acquainted with, to an extent, even before the war, was one of the strongest out there.
"She's one of the Brotherhood," Leith said, voice quiet.
Kate grinned, "What an entertaining puzzle it has been."

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

Kate only laughed again, and said, "Well, at least one person in this group has initiative."
Leith hurried over to Kaye, taking her from Jace's hold; he assumed that Jace wasn't too pleased with having to hold down the pint-sized devil. He then murmured to her, "Easy there, Kaye. Words won't hurt me as much as her laser pistol will you." That was a weapon wielded only by those of class; he recalled that was how he would have phrased such a thing, back in the old days. He then began to piece it together, the realization dawning on him with impending horror.
Oh, shit.

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

Kate slowly clapped, her applause gradually increasing in tempo and volume. She then grinned from ear-to-ear, and said, "Aw, he understands now. I think your friend caught on a long time before you, though." She looked at the shorter, dark-haired one. "Didn't you?"
Basil narrowed his eyes, and replied, "Why do you want the G.E.C.K.?"
She rolled her eyes, and responded, "Why, to save the world, of course!" She stood, tapping her chin with one finger. However, before she could continue, she was surprised to hear the ghoul in the back interrupt.
"People who are alone seldom care about more than themselves, much less the state of the world," Leith said. He knew; when he'd lost his family, he simply ceased to care.
Kate was silent for a moment, but then laughed, "Perhaps you are just envious because it's too late for such a device to save you, no?"
Leith felt a muscle twitch in his jaw at that remark.

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

Kate laughed, shaking her head. Once she'd calmed down, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye with her index finger, she said, "Do you really expect me to believe that you're mere scavengers? No one risks their lives to come into a vault for just spare parts and mangled pieces of electronics. No, you come here for so much more." She looked pointedly at Basil; he was obviously the smarter of the two. "You come here for a G.E.C.K."
Leith looked down at Kaye, steadying her after she bumped into him. "Wait a minute, Kaye." This woman wasn't to be trusted; she had the eyes of a hawk, a carrion eater who was prepared to pick at their remains the moment that they had their backs turned. If she knew how to operate even the most minute segments of the vault, there was no telling what she could do to them. Vaults could be hiding anything within their walls.

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

"Listen, we're not here to bicker about something as trivial as junk, especially when it's compared to the prospect of what we could find here," Basil snapped, glaring between everyone in the room, excluding the two corpses. He focused on Jace first. "Okay, you can't give away belongings that are not yours. That's theft and we're not thieves." He then looked at Kaye and Leith. "I thought that you two fully intended to be on your own once you arrived here. You've got your plans and we've got ours. We brought you here, so our end of the bargain has been fulfilled. What you do from here on out is up to you and not our fault or our problem." Lastly, he lingered on the new girl, who smiled at him once she received his attention. "As for you, if your ankle is truly injured, then you wouldn't have been able to have jumped out of the locker without losing your sense of balance and aim. Endorphins would have long-since lost effect if you have been here before the raiders arrived and you even have the time to apparently bring back power to the entire vault, and you were not in combat before in order to have the time or stimuli to generate enough adrenaline to not focus on the pain. So which part of your story is the lie?"
Kate blinked in surprise, then huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "Well, well, well. Looks like I picked on the wrong one this time." She sighed dramatically, kicking one leg back-and-forth in the air as she contemplated on her next move. "True, I am not injured. I came here with more purpose than to simply lie low. However, I did restore power. That is why the bottom levels of the vault are now unsafe. Oh, the rest of the raiders are dead; these gimps up here were just waiting for orders that would never come. I could have taken them out, but then I saw you four coming and thought, 'Well, I don't want to get caught in the crossfire, so I'll hide and try to convince them that I'm not a raider.' As for the true danger of this vault, however..." She trailed off, smirking. "I can help, but it'll cost you. As does everything else in life."

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

"Gimme, gimme, gimme," Kate said, waggling her fingers eagerly, "And I shall be on my way-ee."
"Um...I'm just here for science," Basil murmured, lowering his head, "I don't know how to...handle this sort of thing."
"I do have to admit I'm with Kaye on this one," Leith said. He narrowed his eyes at Jace, "If you think that you can just take our gear and give it to someone else for free, you've got another thing coming. You'll pay us back with compounded interest."

Atomic Rain (Fallout)

"I like this girl already," Kate laughed.
"If she was a raider, then she wouldn't have shot them," Leith said, leaning against one of the long tables. There were crushed tin cans littered everywhere, as well as plastic trays and empty boxes of sweet cakes and instant foods. "But what are you doing here by yourself, anyways?"
"Well, you see, I'm just a scavenger," Kate explained. She took a seat in a nearby folding chair, laser pistol hanging limply from her long, bony fingers. "I wander all about, gathering old parts, electronics, Chems, you know, whatever sells and is worth lugging around. But then I sprained my ankle, and I couldn't just keep going like that, which was when I happened upon here. I figured it'd be a smart move to rest, but I could also look around here. As long as I'm careful, it should be relatively safe. And it was. As long as you stay on the top two levels of this vault here, you're perfectly safe and I even got the electricity running again for the lights and what-such. But I don't know, I guess that somehow attracted the attention of these raiders. Didn't think it would, since it's underground, so it's hard for noise to get through all these layers of rock, and there aren't windows for them to see the lights. But I had to hide. They found my stuff, though. Ate the rest of my candy. Was quite the loss, still in mourning." She heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Anyways, I just want to get out of here, but that's hard to do when I kinda need supplies. I can't just go out there with nothing at all. You can get yourself killed that way."