10 September, 2284 - Mojave Desert (About 42.3 miles  from New Vegas)

"This is Director Phillip Collins, I am about 42 miles away from the city of Las Vegas, or what was Las Vegas, if you are willing, come to these co-ordinates to find the answers that you have been seeking."

It was this message that had a small group of Brotherhood of Steel Paladins and NCR Rangers searching the un-ending wasteland of the Mojave Desert for the co-ordinates that the message had sent along. They walked in silence, nothing much was needed to be said, as they searched and their dusty, trained eyes didn't take too long to find their objective: A small door set into a rock face to the right of the main road that they had been traveling on.

"Sir, over here," Paladin Reyes said. He pointed over to the recess in the rock and the group angled over there.

"I see it," NCR Ranger Beckman said, he was the de-facto leader of the group as he had the most experiance, "Let's go," He picked up the pace just a tad and the small rag-tag unit of 4 Paladins and 3 Rangers responded in kind. They reached the door and entered quickly and quietly. They were met with a surprisingly well lit tunnel which continued on until it stopped at a large metal blast-door.

"A Vault?" Logan, one of the Paladins asked. The Vault-Tec Vaults were doomsday bunkers that were supposed to keep large ammounts of the American population safe from the impending nuclear war with China and others. The only thing is, some of them worked, but most of them failed terribly, in the eyes of those who discovered them but wonderfuly in their dark masters who led their horrible experiments.

"Could be, any way that we can open it?" Reyes inquired. They all knew that they didn't have near enough the munitions needed to crack a Vault's Blast-door which was built to survive a direct blast from a nuclear weapon. Before any of them could reply to his question, a PA on the wall crackeled to life.

"Good to see that civilized people got my message. I see that some of you are even in Power Armour, very interesting. I'll open the door and de-activiate the security for you." the PA told them. Indeed the door began creaking open, setting the group on high-alert and the Paladins, in their heavy Power-Armour stepped forward, ready to intercept any threat. But none came as the doors opened revealing a simple entry chamber. Beckman used some quick hand-signals and they moved forward into the chamber. Just as the last man, Reyes, was inside, the door behind them slammed shut, locking them in.

"Too late to turn back now boys," Troy Speith, a Ranger Veteran, commented. He slung his high-powered hunting rifle over his shoulder and brought out his hunting shotgun to bear. The weapon would be much more useful in such conditions. The other members of the team did likewise switching to their close-range weapons. When they were done with this, they took a moment investigating the surrounding area, there wasn't much to look at, except for the two Mark V automated turrets that sat on the roof staring at the door but they were, as promised, un-powered.

"If you all are done perusing the atrium, perhaps you would like to meet me. If so, come to the Overseer's office down a level and near the back. The office is clearly marked on the maps and signs on the way. I can't wait to properly greet you." The voice said. The unit looked at Beckman who shrugged and made his way forward. He had a lot of questions and he hoped he would get some answers. He only worried about what kind of answers he would be getting.

Author guidance for This story

This is a Fan-Fiction story built off of the Fallout video-game series made by Bethesda Studios. This is not endorsed by Bethesda and is no way official cannon.

As such, if questions arise as to certain things within the Fallout realm by anyone, I will attempt to update this Guidance with the answers.

*In the chapter: 'At the Beginning of the End' and on from there, all italicised text is Dir. Collins telling his story. Any talking or actions from the Rangers and Paladins is going to be in regular text. This will help so I don't have to format every single paragraph for all the chapters.*

The Enclave is the designation for the American government after the Great War. As most of this is before the Great War, the Enclave is actually the official US government. I will note here if this changes but for all of Phil's story, the 'Enclave' is the actual government/military
(Thanks @FirestormInfinity)

updated Oct 28 '11 by Spockeh