15 July

I'd learned everything I could about the military base from the computers in the Operations Center of the Master's vault. Now, I was about to put it to a test. I had a number of allies now, and I considered calling upon them, but the plan I'd formulated would only work if I could slip into the Military Base without setting off an alert. If my plan didn't work, well, I'd have to back off and try another tack... and maybe a frontal assault would be the only option we would have. As it was, I had surprisingly little trouble getting past the first set of guards. The robe and the StealthBoy let me slip inside the gate, and I was able to kill one super-mutant with a swift, sudden burst of flamer fire from the back when he wondered off away from the rest. I found a radioon him and took it. One guard, though, just stood in front of the door leading into the face of the cliff. I knew I had to kill him fast to avoid alerting the base; two hard, full bursts from my flamer took him down before he could sound the alarm. The gate security code was on him, along with another radio and a laser, and I was able to slip in through the front door. I knew from my studies of the Master's computers that there were force fields in this base blocking off key corridors and positions. If the base went on alert, those fields would be up and I would find my movements sharply restricted. With the fields down, and my face and body comfortably anonymous within my purple robe, I made my way through the base's upper level, searching for the Computer Control Room. Eventually, I found it... and there I found the force field control console. With two radios, I was able to pull a quick Mr. Fix-it, by wiring one of the radios into the force field control console's input circuit, and setting the other to the same frequency. Now, even if the alert sounded, I should be able to toggle the base force fields on or off. Deeper into the facility, then, a high-tech wraith in purple robes. On the upper Vats level, I had to negotiate a security corridor, a fiendish piece of work that included lasers, explosive mines, plasma weapons, and strands of monofilament wire all set to wreck havoc on the person of any incautious intruder. I was more than cautious, however, and I'd been warned about what to expect. I took the security passage slowly and step by step, analyzing each patch of floor in front of me carefully before moving further. I passed through the security corridor at last, making my way to Security Elevator B. That took me down one level more, to Vats Level 2. The Lieutenant wasn't as tough or as weird as his now-defunct Master, but he was quite a piece of work. He confronted me just outside his room, and I had to open up with my flamer. No time for finesse now. I blazed away, sending a stream of crackling flames searing across his misshapen body. He fired back, a burst from his energy weapon leaving a smoking scar on the wall behind me as I ducked and twisted to escape his return fire. I fired again, and tossed a plasma grenade that staggered him with its blast, knocking him back a step. I fired a final time, emptying my shrieking weapon into his chest. And then the Lieutenant was dead. There was only one remaining task now. With the firefight, of course, the entire base was now on alert. A final force field barred my way into the Vats control room, and, down here, my jury-rigged radio control didn't work. There was another option, though. A great, hulking Mr. Handy maintenance robot stood inoperable in a passageway. Examining its control board, I soon got it back in operation. Its function was cleaning... and it had not finished its assigned task. Giving it the order complete its task, I then stood back, grinning, as it slammed into the force field, shattering... but opening the way! Inside the Vats control room, a dozen technicians or so were scrambling about in obvious confusion and disarray. I found one control that shut down every force field in the base —— a good idea if I wanted to sprint for safety when this was through —— and then I identified the control panel that controlled the Vats themselves, the tanks where so many pure-strain humans had already been "dipped" in the Master's FEV solutions and transformed into monstrosities like Harry or the Lieutenant. My last pack of dynamite went onto the control panel, with the timer set for six minutes. It was time to leave. I got into one firefight on the way out, when a particularly obnoxious super-mutant decided to challenge my right to run the 100-meter dash in under twenty seconds. I hit him with a laser burst and kept on going, slipping into the elevator just ahead of the answering burst from his minigun. I've never known an elevator to crawl so slowly.... I emerged on the surface just ahead of the rumbling thunder that announced that my handiwork had been executed. The Master was dead, and now his legacy, the lab where the super-mutants had been created, was destroyed. It was time to go home.

Day 242