» Sat May 28, 2011 5:34 pm
Sorry Semper Fi, but the BoS canonically die if you side with House, and I'm trying hard NOT to retconn anything X_X
@kjdanext- Wait, Did you just Britishly tell me Cool Story Bro? XD
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So here is chapter 5, this one is a doozy, but I felt if it was short, it would not do the story much justice. I'm hoping it turned out alright. I'm not really one to brag, but I think this one was the best yet
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Chapter 5: Humanities Renewal on Ancient Wings
February 15th, 2282
5:00 A.M.
The television set in Justin’s living room of the Lucky 38 flickered in black and white as he lay on the cream white couch, watching old Pre-War movies, shows, and news programs on Holotape. A show Justin had really come to enjoy was ‘The Adventures of Captain Cosmos’. Mr. House didn’t understand why Justin had come to enjoy such, as he called it, ‘childish and meaningless’ shows, saying how there were far more important things to do with ones time. But when Justin was officially off the clock, this was his drug; he came to truly adore the Pre-War world for what it was. But looking at the clock above his television set, he heaved a tired sigh and walked over to the television set and pushed to switch to turn it off. He needed to bathe and get ready; for today was a day everyone had been working so hard for.
In the past month in a half, they had accomplished much at McCarran. Using old brick cement, they mended the gaping hole in the north side of the gates of McCarran. After contracting the old NCR quarry workers for their pre-war construction vehicles, they had repaved the asphalt ground of the parking lot and set up various stands, intended to be filled with vendors. The interior, it was so gorgeous even Mr. House was truly appreciative of its renewed splendor. When they first brought Mr. House in after the battle for Hoover Dam was over, he lamented that in the old days it was truly a sight to behold, and how the building had become a hollowed husk of its former days. But, thanks to Michael Angelo’s skill at neon lights, had fixed up some new lights. Now, the street lights in the parking lot and the overhead lights inside were brightly lit, the plane hanging over the main atrium was repainted, a vision and memory of its glory days. The airplanes however, were as stubborn as a Big Horner with a pack on its back. But after two weeks, they managed to get one plane running, they hadn’t tested its flight capabilities, but the fact that it was running brought up the spirits of everyone involved, and though he never said it, Mr. House was proud in his choice of employee. A man who shared his vision for a world anew forged from a world he once knew.
6:57 A.M.
Justin had put on his signature business apparel, a black suit with a red tie with white pinstripes, and his Lucky 38 insignia pin on his left lapel. He looked in the mirror as he parted his hair in the style of his boss (who he tried to emulate at any chance possible)
He greeted the Securitrons outside his elevator; they in turn greeted him back. Strolling along to the LVB Monorail station, he couldn’t help but set his briefcase containing his various documents, pens, and a book or two on the staircase as he sat down on a step to hum along to ‘Hallo Mister X’ playing on the loudspeakers, he had a deep fondness for the song. He was in no rush anyway; the testing didn’t begin until 10 AM. So he decided to by a Nuka-Cola from a vendor and listen away. After the song finished, he finished drinking his soda and threw it into a trash can before entering the Monorail station. The Securitron at the door to the Monorail registered Justin from his facial recognition software, so he didn’t stop Justin, instead greeting him with a ‘Good Morning’. Justin sat on ‘his’ chair on the monorail, it was for some odd reason, particularly more plushy than the other chairs in the small car. He listened to the radio (Which he had personally placed in the car) and listened to Mr. New Vegas giving the morning news. For some reason the ‘click click click’ excited him, like it was only the beginning of revival for humanity. He grumped in his head as he arrived at the McCarran station, his favorite song ‘Love Me as Though There No Tomorrow’ started when the he arrived. Sighing sadly he left the car, hearing Nat King Cole’s crooning voice as the doors shut on the car. Entering the Airport, he was greeted by the Securitron stationed at the door of the Monorail.
His brown and shined dress shoes clicked as he made his way to his office just next to the monorail, before he could get in the door of his office, he heard a “Good Morning sir” from a young man, a boomer, just about his age. “Good morning to you as well James. How is the Aviation team progressing?” The young man named James spoke a little more excitedly, “That’s what I wanted to speak to you about sir, we’re making a few more final adjustments on the navigation systems as well as a few minor tweaks before the testing.” Justin smiled; the Boomers were overjoyed to be working on the planes, and Justin was just as giddy when they reported good news.
Since their last batch of tests on the systems, the only injury reported that wasn’t a small cut was a young man who suffered an electrical burn on his leg when a stray live wire touched him. He recovered with nothing more than a mild feeling of uncomfort in his leg for a few days, apart from that, no deaths, no killings, no anything. All beautiful news in his ears, the best news was that since the deaths of the 4 major Fiend leaders, the Fiends were either integrating into normal life, or being executed, very few were sane anymore due to the brain damage most of them suffered, leaving them feral husks of men and women, so most had to be killed, but the minority of sane fiends that surrendered served jail time, they wont be out until October roughly. Not that it mattered to him, if they lived, they were lucky, if not, karma got them right back for their sins.
9:30 A.M.
Justin looked at his Pre-War wristwatch and saw that it was thirty minutes until show time, he was eager, as he sat in the cafeteria and ate a late breakfast, and he grinned as he overheard one of the building mechanics from Freeside talking to a Boomer, “Are you excited about the tests?” He heard the Boomer speak in an eager tone “Oh yes, I can’t wait to head out to the runway and see if that airplane will fly.” The Freesider said disappointedly “I wish we didn’t have to work man, I really want to see if that behemoth will take off”, to which Justin cleared his throat and spoke to the man, “I thought you heard the news? I gave express permission for all employees to have the hour off so they can either go on break or watch the tests, but in this day and age, I’d hope they’d watch the plane, the plane is by far a more momenumental thing to see occur.” The elderly man smiled and told Justin “Really boss? We get to watch them too? This is going to be amazing.” Justin smiled and raised an eyebrow “Amazing? That’s not even the beginning of how great this will be.” He stood up and brushed his suit jacket a little. “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I must head out to the tarmac and meet with Loyal.”
9:57 A.M.
Justin walked with Loyal to the control tower, his sunglasses on, as it was incredibly bright, in his mind it was a metaphor for the road being paved for humanities rebuilding. Before entering the tower, Justin and Loyal spoke to the pilots who had flown the B-29 during the Battle, giving strict instructions to the men. “Now listen men, we’ve put a lot of love into refurbishing these old airplanes. But be warned, I don’t know how much power from those Fission Batteries those will take, so for the sake of safety, do NOT attempt to fly any further than where we tell you to. We’ve already spoken to Nellis; they will not fire at the plane. That will be your destination. I want you to take this aircraft, fly it towards Callville Bay and swing her around to Nellis. Do you gentlemen understand your orders?” The pilots, almost militarily, stood at attention like Pre-War soldiers and said “Yes Sir.” and ran for the airplane so they could sail it onto the runway.
As Justin and Loyal made their way to the top of the control tower, Justin took Loyal aside and asked a little worried, “Do you think this will work? We’ve put so much into this.” Loyal took in a deep breath and said “Well, I don’t know, but we got that ol’ B-29 up and running, and that thing is over three hundred years old, and besides, I’ve got my best pilots and repairmen here, we’ve been eating, sleeping, and building that plane. That’s about all we do here, and we like it, and we like our work.” Justin smiled assuredly. He took a sip from a bottle of water at the top and turned on a microphone. “Attention. Attention. All non-pilot personal please exit the runway and stand at least one hundred feet from the runway.” Justin watched as the little specs below did as he told them, jogging off the runway. Loyal gave his pilots the signal to take off, the plane, slowly but surely, edged on out of McCarran, the blades on the engines humming loudly.
Justin, deathly nervous over the success of the take off, crossed his fingers in desperate hope. Pacing ever quickly to the runway, the plane slowly launched into the sky, flying for Callville Bay. He heard faint cheers below, but to him, it was not a success until they returned. The plane wobbled a little close to the ground during take off, but the initial flight was a success. He only hoped that they would return, fearing some crash would occur, he paced the tower, Loyal saying in a concerned tone, “Settle down youngster, burn a hole in them shoes if you keep on.” Justin gave a half laugh nervously, “I know, but I worry for those men’s safety.” Loyal nodded in understanding, “I know kid, but trust me, those boys know what their doing”
After an hour of nervous pacing, Justin looked down below with his binoculars. He could tell they were confused and were losing morale. It was a little after 11:15 and they hadn’t returned. Just as Justin was about to write this off as a failure in his notebook, he heard a very loud roar of cheering. With a leap in his heart, he shot up out of his chair and looked out of the broken window, to his joy; he saw a small green dot in the sky from the northeast. Without even saying anything to loyal, he ran down to the runway barricade where the workers were. As the gargantuan faded green plane landed gently on the runway, Loyal shouted loudly to the crowd “See, I told you my boys knew what they were doing”. As they shut the planes engines off, some of the boomer technicians rushed an old platform steps ladder to the side of the plane. The pilots leaped out with grins wider than the Great Divide. Justin and all the others ran up to the pilots. They shook his hand firmly; Justin turned around and announced loudly “Gentleman, I think we can safely mark this as a success!” He took pride in seeing the unification of so many people under one cause, cheering and throwing their hats into the sky.
12:30 P.M.
As everyone sat around the airport idly chatting excitedly about watching the airplane take off and return. Justin shut the door of his office, Loyal and the other pilots sitting in plush Pre-War chairs. “So gentlemen, how was the flight?” The young pilots eagerly started talking, “It was great, we flew over Lake Mead and turned to Nellis, and we landed and let the others back home see the plane and all the work we did into fixing it up. However, we did notice one problem. That small flight drained around 0.31% of the power from three fission batteries.” Justin gave a slight frown, “I’m a little disappointed in that, but we can work on finding out what’s taking up that much power. But that can start tomorrow morning; in the meantime, we’ll shut down work for the day. Come with me you guys. Justin walked over to an old intercom and announced to the airport, “Attention all personnel, please report to the atrium at once.”
Justin stood on the balcony of the atrium, Loyal and the pilots by his side, the Pre-War plane just overhead. As everyone had finished gathering, Justin spoke with a very eager tone on his face. “Ladies and Gentlemen. For the past few months, we have all been working vigorously to get this airport up and running. Our work is from complete. But today and tonight, I want you all to have 50 caps and a pass to visit The Strip tonight. Work of today will be placed on hold, and a party just for you fine ladies and gentlemen will be held in the Presidential Suite of The Tops Casino. You are not forced to go, but that will be the main party. Don’t party too much though, as we will resume work tomorrow.” Once more, the crowd cheered and rushed to the monorail station eager to see what The Strip was like; Justin had grabbed his hat and briefcase and went quickly to ‘his’ chair before it was taken.
8:15 P.M.
Mr. House was very pleased with Justin’s report, though not necessary as everyone on The Strip could see the plane leave McCarran, even Mr. House. “I’m very pleased to see you’ve made such great strides to reignite humanity, but I’d think it would be rude to hold a party, and not even mingle with the guests.” Justin took a small drink from his glass of wine. “I merely wrote up and signed contracts and paperwork, and directed them. The Boomers and Freesiders did all of the physical labor. I think it’s only fair after they have done so much, they experience a night on the town. I gave them all 50 caps and a passport, but I’m sure we’ll see a lot more than 50 caps being spent by most of them, only the party is on me, not the chips. It’s fair they be incentivized properly for all their hard work sir.” Mr. House said in a sheepish tone “Oh come now Justin, you’re always so coy about accepting praise.” Justin grinned a little “I’m not being coy Mr. House; I just don’t want to improperly take credit that isn’t solely mine.”
Everyone at the party was having a good time, playing pool, listening to Radio New Vegas, including Mr. New Vegas praising the workers from McCarran, and drinking as much as they could and eating as much as they could; every meal and drink in the suite was complimentary tonight. Yet, they noticed that Justin, the man who directed them in their work, was not at the party. The figured he was busy with paperwork. But in truth, Justin was sitting in his living room in the Lucky 38, watching Pre-War shows on Holotape, and playing with Rex. Tonight, he felt this was their night, not his.
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