In August of 2075, General Constantine Chase commissioned the construction of a mock military base called A.P. Hill Army Depot to be built in the wilderness of northern Virginia, to house something much more secret. A militray and research facility was built under it, never revealed to the public. Only SEC security clearance were allowed to enter. The researchers and scientists were forced to fake their own deaths, and never saw their families again.

The purpose of this facility was to house Project GAIUS, a GECK working on a massive scale. The nuclear holocaust was just on the horizon, and the US needed a backup plan to rebuild America when the time was right. GAIUS had the potential to completely rebuild life on the east coast through weather manipulation and terraformation. The project was a success and GAIUS was nestled away deep inside of the facility, protected by an intuitive defense system called IDOS.

A "Terra Cotta Army" of sorts was also created in honor of Chase, commissioned by Chase, in the form of robotic android "husks". They would activate simultaneously with GAIUS, under the command of whoever's DNA was entered into the activation system.


Note: Picture Raven Rock. That's this base. The Brotherhood will walk into the lobby and take an elevator to the lower levels, and the Outcasts willJust arrive by underground transit and step into an abandoned security checkpoint room.

The Brotherhood of Steel

The humming of vertibird rotors spinning echoed through the small shanty town of Way. Many bedraggled wastelanders peeked out from their sheet metal huts to catch a glimpse of the majestic bird. It soared through the sky and out of sight, towards A.P. Hill. The citizens of Way knew the dangers, and knew what they had come here for. They could only hope these would be the men to save them.

The landing gear slowly folded from the bird as dust and other debris kicked up from the cracked, concrete ground in front of the facility. The rotors slowed, ending the roaring sound. A small side hatch opened immediately letting lose several men and women. Most were clad in standard power armor with the usual weapons, though a few opted for a more lighter kit. A sharply dressed officer poked his head from out behind the gunner standing watch. The soldiers outside popped into formation and saluted.

"No need for that stuff here. You're not going to impress anyone. I'm sure you all understand what's going on here and why we're at this place, but I need to give you a quick briefing anyways." he said, hopping out of the vehicle. "We've received several transmission over the past few months from here. Now, these transmissions are centuries old, but the message is still the same. You are standing in front of A.P. Hill Army Depot. This depot itself is not important, what is important is what's under it. From the messages we received, there is supposedly a reusable GECK under here that could potentially restore the entire Eastern Seaboard. Your job is to find it and activate it."

The soldiers stood completely still, almost like wax figures. They were disciplined and the best the Brotherhood had to offer for this mission. The officer paced back and forth in front of them, looking at the all intensely, inspecting them up and down.

"We don't know what's in there. There's no way for us to figure that one out. we could hear the sound of a minigun in the transmission, but that's it. Electrical scans and surveys have, however, revealed an intuitive defensive system. It's going to give you hell on your way to GAIUS, but it'll shut down with activation. You're here for a reason. We trust you. Don't prove us wrong, and get this done right. Ooh rah!"

The officer stepped back up onto the bird as the rotors flared back up. He gave a quick salute just before the hatch closed and locked tight. The group of soldiers walked into the doors of A.P. Hill, ready for anything.




The Outcasts


A row of red and black armored soldiers stood in front of an innocent looking office building. "Manager" was written in bold, white letters on a dark blue door. In front of the soldiers were a duo of Outcast scribes, clad in the typical gray and red robes.

"Recon and prewar blueprints were able to specify a secret entrance into A.P. Hill. You've already been briefed on GAIUS, and you understand your mission. This transit system should take you directly to a security checkpoint. It's been centuries since the last known entry of any worker, so don't expect any resistance." one of the young women said.

Behind her piped another feminine voice. "We did, however, find several sources of artificial intelligence within the facility. Sonar was able to pick up the working brain waves of several robotic presences, hinting at surviving sentry bots," she bit her bottom lip in dismay. "but we've also found some very odd things. A large group of robotic beings were found on the brain waves scan. There were at least one hundred. Only three were active. All three showed signs of normal human activity, unlike many of the other prewar robotics."

The first woman continued. "We've also found another peculiar intelligence. Apparently, an experimental IDOS system was implemented, unlike anywhere else in the known uncovered bases. It was built on the Skynet platform, and like it, IDOS has become self-aware."

Several looks were exchanged between the scribes and the soldiers. There was an obvious confusion between the two groups. The shorter of the two women clarified.

"Basically, something's controlling the entire security system. You're under its watch at all times. We've traced it back to the GAIUS control room, that's where you'll be able to shut it off. Other than that... we don't know. Good luck in there... and please don't die on us. We'll wait right here until confirmation of GAIUS's activation. The transit system is just inside at the bottom of the staircase."

With that, the Outcast soldiers disappeared into the building and towards the transit system. IDOS awaited.

(( OOC: Use your time on the transit system for character interaction. IDOS members, right now you're wandering the corridors of the facility. You won't become aware of any presence until the lifeforms enter. You will detect the heartbeats. I'll introduce myself in the next post.))

Boredom, such an interesting human emotion; but something that I never had really felt till about now. 200 years of wandering this damn facility had changed my mind about a lot of things, including what I saw of the world; I saw it as a place of absolutely nothing happening at all. I sighed lightly and looked forward to the hallway ahead, another endless metal expanse; one of many in this place. The defense systems had really started up recently but I'd been wandering the whole time.

Or at least... That's what I thought...

I lifted up my rifle a little as I moved the slightest bit quicker, it was a little weird that we were patrolling a lot more now; what had truly set us off? My mind wandered to the man who had been in the facility beforehand, surely we wouldn't just beef up everything because he started some things up? Or maybe... Maybe he was the one who started everything up. I shrugged my shoulders lightly and shook my head; continuing walking.

Naut walked alongside the rest of his soldiers, letting his laser pistol dangle from one hand.
He was whistling through his helmet, making a high-pitched note reverberate as they descended into the transit tunnels.
Around him, the other soldiers were getting annoyed, glaring at him whenever he turned his head there way. Taking the clue, he stopped and stayed silent...but not for long.
"So, what, we gotta bunch of robots in there or somethin'?" He yelled up the line of Outcast members, slightly ahead of the rest of the group. They moaned, practically going crazy from Naut's tendency to be obnoxious in the most inappropriate times.
As if surprised by the discontentment, Naut spread his arms out to his sides and went "Whaaaaat? I should know what I'm killing!"
That made him get shoulder bumped by a commanding officer, who shook his head at him angrily and told him to stay quiet.
Now, it was Naut's turn to be upset as the rest of his team started to relax. "No speakin' on a mission? Crazy, man, crazy." He mumbled to himself, politely ignored by all the other Outcast members walking through the transit.

OOC: Sorry about the short post, had to get the ball rolling so you can set up the story.

"This place gives me the creeps." Steffan mumbled as he surveyed the large room; the room was dark with only the dimmed neon lights of the elevators to illuminate the lobby. The others didn't seem to mind the darkness as they advanced toward the elevator, Steffan watched as William silently punched the security code into the elevator and waited for the doors to slide open. The large metal doors slid open silently which seemed odd to Steffan but he didn't know why, as the others piled into the cramp elevator Steffan looked around the room one last time and he hoped it wouldn't be his last.

William walked into the dark room of A.P. Hall.

"It's always a creepy, metal, dark, giant room. Isn't it? Where's the peaceful fountain, and carpeting?" He joked.

The squad walked over to the elevator, and William entered the security code. The doors split open, and the squad crowded inside.

William looked to all the men, and nodded. He was returned with a wave of nods, and he hit a switch on the elevator wall. The small metal box started to slowly fall to the lower levels of A.P. Hall. He could see through the chain-link fence walls, and watched the fans and lights go by every few seconds. After a few minutes, he started to get the creeps. Just how deep underground did it go?

((OOC: Edited because of story progression))

Brotherhood of Steel

The elevator ascended down into the underbelly of A.P. Hill. The creaking cables echoed through the empty space above the elevator, sending mice and cockroaches scattering. As the cables smacked into the sides of the corridor, sending loud bangs going off through the entire facility, the vibrations traveled into the elevator, shaking it and the soldiers inside. It took about a minute for the elevator to fully reach its destination.

As the doors split apart slowly, a bright light turned on in the foyer. Scattered around the room were stacks of papers and graphs with the occasional holotape. Surprisingly the facility had stayed in decent condition, albeit the clutter of the hardworking researchers.

A skeleton in a white lab coat leaned against a green metal door. Pinned to his chest was a laminated badge with what was once his actual face on it. A black bar code was inscribed on the bottom portion of the badge.

Water began to seep out of the wall mounted vent, darkening the green carpet and creating a large puddle traveling from the elevator to the receptionist's desk. Sounds of water dripping hinted at broken piping. In front of the soldiers, the large metal door was shut tight. A blue metal screen with several scrolling, cryptic messages was mounted on the wall next to it.

As the messages filled the screen, a moving line, similar to a heart beat monitor, appeared on the screen. As it began moving, a monotone female voice began to speak.

"Welcome to A.P. Hill Facility. Please provide identification. If identification cannot be provided, please see the receptionist for assistance. Have a nice day."


Outcasts


After a few minutes of walking, the Outcast's destination was in sight. A glowing blue sign with "SECURITY" in white lettering was handing above a glass room. Several bloody hand prints were smeared against the bullet proof glass. The glass was riddled with gunshots, but none of them had penetrated the glass.

Inside of the room were two skeletons sitting on a wooden bench. Another was drooped against the window, obviously the creator of the hand prints. Laying next to the twin skeletons was a combat shotgun stained with blood.

The only other things inside of the room was a wooden desk, a typical metal door, and a large, overhanging monitor. A flashing red message repeated on the screen.

"Please proceed inside. I've been waiting for visitors for a very long time."

Suddenly, steam shot form several ports on the metal door. Pivots and locking mechanisms began to move apart as the door let out a deafening creek as it opened. A row of lights lit up in unison down a long corridor. Several doors with lights above them lined the walls. Each of the lights were red, indicating being locked. As the Outcasts entered the corridor, the metal door shut and locked behind them. At the very end of the hallway, the last door's light turned from red to green.

From the intercom system, a female voice echoed through the arrow passage.

"We have detected illegal metals on your person. Please proceed to the end of the hallway where our security force will provide you with a routine check for entry. Have a fantastic day."

(( OOC: Several people haven't posted yet, I'm going to speed it up a bit to get into the fun part of the story. IDOS members can proceed towards the heartbeats. Your choice of who you want to stalk. ))

Something jumped ahead in my mind, like I was trying to be communicated with... Soon enough I realised I was, the main system was broadcasting a message and tuning into a certain frequency. I realised I wasn't tuned in and quickly tuned into the middle of the small speech, "Repeating message again: We have intruders to the facility, we believe they are armed and could quite possibly be dangerous, all units report to your stations."

I gave a small grin and lifted up my rifle a little closer to my chest, this was going to be FUN I hoped. It was certainly going to be different from what normally happened around here, I quickly turned the corner; moving towards one of the locations popping up in my brain as an entry point for the intruders. There were two little bleeping spots and I was quite happy to chase after both, but I guessed at some of my closer brethren to chase after the groups as well.

I stopped suddenly and tuned into the android-only frequency, "Message to all fellow androids; believed intruders have infiltrated the facility, can at least one of you please take each of the intruder groups? We need to make sure this works out as well as we can, be quick as well; today was supposed to be our rest day!" I shook my head and gave a small laugh, then a cough; today could turn out to be better than rest day.

"Welcome to A.P. Hill Facility. Please provide identification. If identification cannot be provided, please see the receptionist for assistance. Have a nice day."

"I don't wanna know what could happen without an I.D. Card." William said to the men.

A skeleton wearing a white lab coat caught his eye, and he decided to see what it was. He knelt down, and pulled a plastic covered card off the skeleton's chest. He looked at it, and figured the card could get him anywhere in the facility. He turned to his squad, took off his helmet, and took on the role of leader;

"Alright, men. This seems to be a somewhat safe area, we'll make this a rendezvous point in the event of something going wrong. If you find any bodies, make sure to take their identity. We don't want a poor bastard to be lost because he can't get through the doors, or through security clearance. Our commanding officers don't want any casualties, and don't expect there to be any. Let's make the Brotherhood proud, and let's take the G.E.C.K. for the bettering of mankind! Ooh rah?"

He made sure the quick speech was as enthusiastic as possible, he wanted the men to be revved up for whatever they would run in to.

((OOC: My bad if taking leadership of the squad wasn't wanted, or needed. Everyone was stoked for this, but when it was posted they never did, so I just beat the other BoS guys to the punch ))

Frank walked slowly not wanting to trip anyone, looking at the walls of the tunnel he felt an odd chill there was something strange about this place not exactly a menacing but close to it. Frank knew that menacing would come later, what with the Thought capable building command had chosen to send a minuscule handful of men to deal with.

This was not to say he feared for his life simply that he felt inadequate for the job, Frank had survived improbable odds many times before just that now he would need to use the walls as his shield instead of gung-ho idiots. 'For the most part' he added, as a high pitched whistling cracked though his helmet's speaker clawing at his ears with electronic noise and the occasional pop of static followed by one of the men on the mission speaking about knowing his enemy and wanting to shoot stuff. The mental capacity of the man was obviously low as High Command had already informed everyone with the intel they currently had about the place.
Frank was broken from his mental brooding as the man in front of him stopped, nearly tripping Frank managed to settle himself back into standing the servos of his power armor whining at the sudden change of direction.
"What the hel-" Frank started before looking ahead of the man, there was a sign greeting them.

The entire group had stopped and there was a sign greeting them in cheery lettering .

Frank sighed this was already a bust, the skeletons and bloody hand prints were not exactly encouraging. The room became entirely demoralizing when the large steel door slammed shut with force that could have likely bisected someone. Looking at the row of locked doors the cyclopean lights on each looking almost mocking although it could just be his paranoia getting to him. "So," Frank asked slowly while hoping this group would not try to trample each other in search for an exit."Who knows how these doors work?"