Chapter Text
War. War never changes.
A phrase we hear all too often, and perhaps misinterpret. With each empire that rises and falls, we invent new ways to kill, conquer, outmaneuver and subjugate our fellow men. From spears to bows to swords to far beyond, the weapons of war change. The strategies of war do as well. Even the motives of war may differ from civilization to civilization.
The nomadic Huns plundered territories of the Roman Empire in their infinite thirst for gold. The Portuguese sailed south, in hopes of gaining gold in West Africa, and finding routes to Southeast Asia to gain access to the spice trade, in turn creating a wealthy empire of trade networks. The Dutch sought to establish a trade empire of their own; they clashed with the Portuguese for control of colonies, spice routes, and ports. The Japanese Empire sought to acquire new territory for resource deposits, hoping to create economic stability, and to increase its influence in Asia.
But war … war never changes.
In the year of 1945, the Second World War ended shortly after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because of that moment, the world was forever changed. History would take a drastic turn. We expected nuclear war to be imminent in the few decades, but instead of growing up in fear of nuclear energy, we embraced it. In the following decades, technology advanced beyond our dreams. These advancements only increased the demand for fossil fuels, a resource our planet was slowly running out of.
Eventually, by the early twenty-first century, prices for goods such as oil, natural gas, uranium and more, began to rise as they were further depleted. Tensions between nations became frisker. Hoping to appease its business interests and oil supplies, the United States launched an invasion of Mexico in 2051, seizing its oil refineries and infrastructure. Other nations began to follow the example of the United States, and caused a series of conflicts that would later be known as the Resource Wars. It didn’t help that an outbreak of the New Plague occurred during the 2050s, which would follow a second and later third outbreak in 2077.
The Euro-Middle Eastern war was the first of the Resource Wars. Being too dependent on oil exports from the Middle East, the European Commonwealth declared war to seize their expensive oil deposits. This conflict alone caused global oil prices to skyrocket to heights never seen before, bankrupting various smaller nations in the process. This international crisis grew far beyond control. Despite the best efforts of the United Nations to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict, paranoia among the nations caused most to sever ties with one another, each trying to fend for themselves. the United Nations was disbanded on July 26, 2052. The UN’s final Secretary-General, Sakugama Okiri, became increasingly worried about the fate of Japan. Fortunately, in a world where most were looking out for themselves, Japan managed to keep good relations with Australia; Japan was one of their vital export markets, and Australia was one of the few options left in the Pacific willing to export more resources, since China severely cut down on trade to conserve resources. Both nations became increasingly worried about the potential of China or America launching wars against them.
The European Commonwealth would eventually dissolve, its members turning on each other, as Europe became a free for all battleground to gain whatever final resources they had. Traffic worldwide stopped, since oil became too valuable to waste on cars.
China’s economy was far more dependent on fossil fuels than the United States was, making it vulnerable to collapse by 2066. To prevent government order from completely breaking down, China began annexing its neighbors for badly-needed resources, but all it did was delay the inevitable. Since the United States was unwilling to share the only remaining reserves of crude oil left on the planet, and given it had recently revealed the first fusion power cell to the public (which ironically, could have prevented the war that followed), the People’s Republic of China invaded Alaska in a desperate attempt to seize its oil reserves - by force. The Sino-American war would wage on for a decade, depleting more resources on both sides of the conflict. The threat of China gave the United States the excuse they needed to annex Canada, to transport soldiers to the front lines quicker. At first, the US fought a defensive war, deploying the newly produced T-45 power armor suits in 2067 as substitutes for tanks and vehicles reliant on oil and gas. Out of all the T-45 variants, the T-45d proved to be most effective in Alaska. While lacking the mobility of the later power armor models, it turned out to be very effective against Chinese infantry and tanks - yes, that is correct, tanks.
Then, towards the latter half of the war, the US launched an invasion on mainland Chinese soil in 2074. Even then, both sides were caught in an endless stalemate, until the T-51 power armor was introduced, giving the US a small but much needed advantage to drive China out of Alaska, and push slowly forward in their invasion.
Amidst all this chaos, fears of mutually assured destruction skyrocketed. Both the United States and China possessed arsenals of nuclear weapons that could easily destroy civilization if launched. For a while, Japan refused to build atomic weapons, remembering the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the government repealed its non-nuclear weapon policy out of fear of potential Chinese or Soviet action. Many other nations were worried that if the situation kept escalating, it would only be a matter of time until a full blown nuclear holocaust occurred. The big ol’ mushroom cloud sendoff, so to say, looked to be inevitable. And coming soon.
Thankfully, many had thought of this ahead of time. In the event that a nuclear holocaust did occur, the countries of the world developed ways in which very small portions of humanity could survive the apocalypse. The Chinese developed the Dungeon Project and an ambitious Underground City shortly after the UN's collapse. The United States developed Project Safehouse in 2054, a massive national defense endeavor that would create underground fallout shelters to preserve a small population in the event of a nuclear war or an asteroid strike. Project Safehouse would be headed by Vault-Tec Industries, after their first successful demonstration vault in Los Angeles impressed US government officials.
These vaults were originally intended as a safe haven for a small number of people to survive underground amidst the radioactive wasteland and bombings outside. Provided with enough accommodations so inhabitants could wait out the horrors of nuclear devastation, and one day, maybe even recolonize the Earth. Of course, that… was only the marketed intention... Due to the tremendous costs of building these vaults, only 122 of them were ever commissioned in the United States.
However, the Japanese government received word of the creation of vaults in America, and considered the possibility of creating similar national defense bunkers across Japan. They were developing a Project Safehouse of their own: the Gopher Initiative. The Viosan Corporation, an influential robotics and appliance Japanese company, negotiated a deal with Vault-Tec in 2062. Of course, Vault-Tec representative Franklin Madison wanted Viosan to prove they had the resources and capability of creating a vault, by using similar blueprints to the test vault in Los Angeles. By 2065, Viosan had successfully created a vault in, fittingly enough, Hiroshima, which impressed Madison and other Vault-Tec investors enough to greenlight a deal with them. Despite the high costs of the American vaults alone, Viosan would be incurring the majority of the Japanese vault costs.
Development on the Gopher Initiative commenced shortly after. It would also catch the attention of Hope’s Peak Academy’s committee as well. Hope’s Peak had a reputation as the finest academic institution in Japan. It was an exclusive, government-sanctioned school where the bravest and brightest individuals of Japan and across the world, from every imaginable field, were brought and instructed to shape the economy of the nation’s fields for the betterment of society. Getting an invitation to join could set someone up for life. Hope’s Peak’s former headmaster, Kazuo Tengan, sought out a deal with Viosan’s investors to construct two privatized vaults for the academy in 2067. These vaults would protect their staff, but more importantly, their Ultimate students: Vault 222, located directly underneath the academy building, and Vault 223, supposedly located nearby. Hope’s Peak did not wish to put all of their eggs in one basket, so they wanted two vaults just in case anything went wrong. Each vault is equipped with Vault-Tec and Viosan state-of-the-art technology.
Among the members of Class 78-A was one of the last people you would expect to be an Ultimate. A simple, ordinary teenager by the name of Makoto Naegi. Selected at random by a lottery, Makoto was accepted by Hope’s Peak as the Ultimate Lucky Student. For this, Makoto and his family were given pre-selected spots in a special vault closer to where they lived. He better be feeling lucky soon, because unbeknownst to him, and billions of other people, life on Earth was about to change forever…
Location: [Unknown], Japan
Time: [Unknown]
Date: October 23, 2077
Flashes… sounds of screaming… confirmed reports in New York and Pennsylvania… we have to get to the Vault! …. Sounds of screaming, fear, despair… my memories are so fuzzy… Komaru… Mom… Dad… why can’t I remember what happened? Everything went by so fast. Barely had enough time to take it in. I remember we saw something on TV. Something about the news. The reporters mentioned something about attacks… a list of places were mentioned. Big cities. New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Dubai… then saying Tokyo was inbound. I don’t know what it meant, just that I heard it. All I remember next was Komaru fainting and us desperately driving as fast as we could to reach the vault. We were lucky the vault security recognized us and let us in. I don’t know what happened to everyone who didn’t make it inside… then there was a big boom… some doctors put us in these massive pods to do… I’m not sure what it was. Why is my memory all broken?
*These pods will decontaminate and depressurize you before you head deeper into the Vault. You will be released once safety protocols have been completed. Initiating cryogenic freezing procedures in five, four, three, two, one…*
I felt cold, very cold, but strangely peaceful, as I drifted off into sleep. That was the last thing I remembered happening as I hoped our future here would be alright.
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A VERY LONG AND UNSPECIFIED AMOUNT OF TIME (Plot Twist Inbound) LATER…
*Cryogenic de-freezing procedures activated. Full deactivation may take a few minutes. Please have patience as you wait. Thank you for choosing Vault-Tec Security.*
I could feel something warm in the beige interior of the steel pod. I was starting to wake up from my freeze sleep, and I noticed three figures looking at me from outside the glass panel in front of me. The glass was still covered in frost, so I couldn’t see much out of it, but I did manage to see two of the figures in orange and white colored suits, each with some kind of shiny astronaut helmet attached to them. They looked like strange astronauts, in a way. I couldn’t see their faces. One of the two seemed wider than the other, holding some kind of… gun? I can’t really make it out, but it looks like a gun. The other looked much shorter, almost like the suit didn’t fit them. I thought the people in the suits must have been trying to open whatever I was trapped inside of. The third figure I couldn’t see much of, but I could hear them saying strange things to the other two. My hearing started to improve. There seemed to be a fourth figure... but it looked different than the others. I couldn't even see their face...
“There’s no need to be frightened. We’re here to rescue you,” a female voice I didn’t recognize said to me.
“You’ve been cooped up in that cryopod. We have no clue as to how long you’ve been in stasis for, but it doesn’t look like this pod has been opened in quite some time,” the larger of the two suit people said.
“Makoto, it’s me, Komaru! Please, if you’re still alive, say something! These people said they can help us! Just hold on in there, big bro! I promise I’ll get us out safely!”
K-Komaru? It really was her. I knew that voice from anywhere. What’s she doing there? Who are these people supposed to be? And why am I feeling so tired all of a sudden- AUGH! My head! It hurts! I wanted to grip my head so badly, but I couldn’t move my arms. Why am I having this painful headache? Oh no, my vision’s getting all twirly now. I think I’m losing consciousness…
“He’s awake, but the cryogenic restabilization process must have undergone an error. He seems to be experiencing some kind of side effect to it. We may need to perform a medical diagnosis back at the vault,” the female voice said again.
“What does that mean? Will my brother be okay?! Please tell me he’ll make it out alive!”, Komaru screamed, tears strolling down her eyes.
“Relax, he’ll be fine. He’ll just feel a bit janky when he finally wakes up. Same thing happened to me when I got out. Of course, we’ll have to put him in the med bay to check for any mutations. Same goes for you. Not to fear, it’s standard procedure” the male voice told her.
There was too much going on right now to process… I tried my hardest to stay awake, but the headache grew worse. I started getting dizzy, and before I knew it, the world began to fade before my eyes. I could only hear the sound of my sister screaming my name as I passed out.
“MAKOTO!!”
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Approximately 54 hours later…
Third Person POV
“Hey… are you okay? Can you hear me? D-Don’t be scared, you’re in s-safe hands now.”
Makoto found himself lying down on a hospital bed. Surprisingly cushy, too. The bright light of the room blinded him as he tried to open his eyes. Standing over him, he could see what he assumed to be a doctor of some sorts. Although, her dark gray jacket, combined with her white dress shirt and black miniskirt, was not what he would expect a doctor to look like. She had light, gentle purple eyes and short, pale gray hair curled over her shoulders, bearing a purple respirator mask over her mouth. The doctor’s complexion looked somewhat pale and sickly, perhaps a little undernourished. She placed one of her dark purple gloved hands down and cupped his face, as if examining him for any ailments. In her other hand, she held a small light, and turned it on.
“Oh good, you’re awake. I was wondering when you’d wake up. I would let you go see your sister, but your health check isn’t complete yet,” she told him. Her voice was surprisingly gentle, yet still held a serious tone to it. It felt out of place, yet so wonderful to listen to. “Okay, now follow the light. Don’t worry. You won’t go blind. The light is fine enough for you to look into.”
Makoto saw the light flash in his right eye, following it as the doctor moved it. He did the exact same with his left eye, before the doctor put down the light and wrote something down on a clipboard. Makoto looked around and saw that the scenery of the place felt very advanced. No windows were in sight, yet there was a heart monitor next to his bed, and a cabinet filled with what he assumed was medicine. It looked like a small hospital room.
“There seems to be no issues regarding your optical functions. That’s wonderful,” she told him, now facing him. “Congratulations, Mr. Naegi, you seem to be perfectly healthy and free of radiation and cryo-sickness.”
“Cryo what?”, Makoto asked, still trying to understand the situation. As he began to wake up, he noticed a syringe tube was attached to his wrist that extended to a plastic package containing some orange liquid, the words “RADAWAY” scribbled in black on it. What… What is this stuff? The doctor seemed to notice his concern.
“Oh, we had no idea if you were exposed to any radiation leakage in your vault. We weren’t expecting any survivors, though we brought an extra Hazmat suit in case we found one. Unfortunately, we didn’t have another one for you. B-But don’t worry! I made sure to inject Radaway into your bloodstream to clear any radiation you might’ve been carrying. It’s our standard health inspection we use anytime someone comes back from the Wasteland. You’re in p-perfectly capable hands” the doctor explained. She gently disconnected the tube from Makoto’s wrist, not hurting at all. Makoto sat upright, confused at every word she said.
“What the heck are you talking about? Radaway? Wasteland? V-Vault? What’s going on? W-Where are we, anyway? Is this the hospital?”, he asked. The boy noticed that, despite the mask, the doctor seemed surprised to hear him say that. Concerned, even.
“It’s a bit small to call a hospital. The word I would use would be ‘medical bay area’. It suffices, though. Wait… y-you’re being s-s-serious? You r-really don’t remember anything?”
“Well, I remember a few things… very little. I remember I was trapped inside something… there were two people trying to get me out of it, I heard my sister screaming for me… that’s all I can think of.” There was another thing that Makoto had realized. The doctor’s voice sounded awfully familiar to the one he heard before. “Those people… were you one of them?”
The doctor’s nervousness began to die down, breathing a sigh of relief. “Alright, so your memory isn’t entirely broken. But you may be suffering from cryo amnesia. Y-Yes, Mr. Naegi, I-I was there. You’ve been resting here ever since we extracted you from your vault. That substance I injected you with, Radaway, is a chemical solution. It bonds with any radioactive particles inside of your system and removes them from it. Hence the pun ‘Rad-Away’.”
“My… vault? W-Who are you? Wait, how did you know my name??” Makoto began to feel another headache, gripping his head in frustration. The doctor reached for the cabinet and brought him a cup of water and a few pills. Makoto took and swallowed them.
“Those should help with the pain. My apologies. My name is Seiko Kimura , and I am the Ultimate Pharmacist . I’m the vault’s medic and medical supplier. It’s m-my job to ensure every member of the vault is h-healthy and free of ARS and/or any genetic mutations,” she told him cheerfully. “You and your sister were found frozen in a cryostasis pod in Vault 262. When we tried to extract your sister from her cryopod, the de-freezing process had no errors. She told us about you. Yet, when we extracted you… something must’ve short-circuited. You passed out shortly before we opened the pod. Right now, you are currently resting inside of Vault 223.”
“We’re in the vaults?” The realization of that statement hit Makoto like a bus as it sank in. No, NO! That would mean… that would mean… oh my God… the world has ended? No, there’s no way that’s true! “Please tell me we’re going through some vault training exercises right now,” he told her, desperately trying not to break down.
“You really don’t know?” Seiko appeared to be hesitant to share the news with him.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I barely knew what had happened when I first woke up. What I’m trying to say, Mr. Naegi, is this… the world has undergone a complete nuclear disaster. The Most Bloody, Most Devastating, Most Disastrous War in Human History . We don’t know how long it’s been since the bombs dropped, but what we do know is that the outside world has been a nuclear fallout zone for years, and there must’ve been an armed conflict that caused it. It’s practically a Wasteland out there. A-As for who’s left and what remains of human civilization, we’re still searching for answers. I know it must be hard hearing this, Mr. Naegi, but that’s the truth…”
“N-Now hold on! Is this true?! Has the world really ended?! Is that why I… why I was found in the vault? Wait, Komaru! She’s here, too?! Is she safe?! Where’s Mom and Dad?! What happened to the vault I was in?!” Makoto started to hyperventilate, unable to cope with the revelation. Seiko placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Y-Yes, your s-sister is here with u-us. She’s perfectly fine, Mr. Naegi,” Seiko told him. “In fact, she’s been waiting to see you for a while. You’ve been asleep for the past fifty-four hours. As for what happened to your vault… I think there’s someone here who could explain that much better than I could. I was only able to witness the aftermath of it. We tried looking for any survivors, but mostly all we found were dead bodies. Yet for some reason, you and your sister were perfectly kept in cryostasis, untouched. You two were the only remaining survivors we managed to rescue.”
“Then tell me who can explain what happened to me!”, Makoto yelled, incredibly anxious and frustrated. It felt as if he was going to have a panic attack sooner or later.
“His name is Rantaro Amami . He’s our Wasteland survival expert. He witnessed the incident happen before we arrived to save you. If he’s available, I can get him down here to explain everything to you, Mr. Naegi. If possible, I will try to get your sister for a visit.”
To be continued…