144 It's my trap!

Now that the two walls had opened up, the group was able to see the adjacent hidden rooms. They contained some sort of communications system, along with the ports that were required to charge and maintain the robots.

Though, most interestingly they contained a couple corpses. Perhaps these were the Vault Tech staff in charge of this facility? Upon further inspection, Afton had found a holo-tape in a room that seemed to contain the server for all the terminals.

He decided to first see what was on the server, perhaps he could find the name of the bomb maker?

There were only a few logs that he hadn't seen before... These were also given the highest security measures so they seemed to be the most important. Clicking on them he was immediately greeted by the Vaults speaker system blaring to life.

"Congratulations, citizens of Vault 11! You have made the decision not to sacrifice one of your own. You can walk with your head held high knowing that your commitment to human life is a shining example to us all. And to make that feeling of pride even sweeter, I have some exciting news. Despite what you were led to believe, the population of Vault 11 is not going to be exterminated for its disobedience. Instead, the mechanism to open the main vault door has now been enabled, and you can come and go at your leisure. But not so fast! Be sure to check with your overseer to find out if it's safe to leave. Here at Vault-Tec, your safety is our number one priority."

...

The trio just look at each other in disbelief. This was incredibly fucked up, the residents of the vault ha all but exterminated themselves to gain the right to pick who was sacrificed... Yet, in the end all they had to do was put their foot down and refuse the sadistic command.

Rubbing his temples, Afton picks up the holo-tape and goes to listen to it. Hopefully it'd contain some answer to how the Vault was unlocked, and if the Bomb Maker had managed to escape, or was just a scavenger who'd somehow not triggered any of the traps placed here... He might've actually be the one who created them to be honest...

"All right, I know you can hear me, so listen up. There's five of us left. Five. Out of... I don't know how many. So... it's over. We've talked and it's over. We're not going to send anybody to die anymore. So shut off our water or gas us or do whatever it is you're programmed to do. But we're done listening to you."

...

That's it. So five people must've escaped the vault after refusing to sacrifice anyone... One of them might just be the Bomber. Examining the holo-tape closer he found some letters scratched into the back of its casing. H.J, S.T, P.W, A.R, A.H.

They seemed random at first, but judging by the fact that five people had survived, these were probably the initials of those people. So, the bomber might be one of those.

This was probably the best information he was going to get about the man in this place, so it was best they just loot whatever else they could and leave. They'd done what they needed to and decided that it as best they leave, set up camp and head out tomorrow.

They didn't encounter any more giant rats on their way out, the group had all but exterminated the colony of them. Boone sighs as they reach the giant vault door, "Are all of these places going to be this fucked up?" he asks.

Both Karl and Afton nod at him, "This isn't even the worst of it." the former states ominously.

"Whatever, I might just sit back while you two do the next one... I'm not an 'indoor' kind of guy." Boone says.

As the group approach the make-shift door that leads back into the Mojave waste, they stop as they can vaguely hear distant voices...

Afton immediately scowls as he remembers that his bike is still out there. "I swear, if any of them touch Dirt-Bird I'm going to skin them alive." he growls.

"Hey, they might just be wantin' to explore the Vault." Karl says unconvincingly.

Afton opens the door and the spots a small group of people making camp outside the cave entrance. Immediately all eyes are on them, hands slowly reaching for their weaponry.

Karl shows the palms of his hands in a non-threatening manner and slowly approaches them, "Hang on, don't shoot."

...

Afton uses VATS to stop time and plan out what he'll do should the group turn hostile, there's around twelve people and they're all currently sitting down around a fire. It's now night time so it'd be fairly easy to escape into the night should they be forced to do that.

The reason he hasn't immediately opened fire on them is two-fold. The fact that they'd ignored his motorbike, and because their clothing doesn't seem to belong to raiders. The look more like a group of mercenaries than anything, plated combat armour with some wearing bounty hunter dusters. Their weaponry is nothing to scoff at either, hunting rifles, assault rifles, and even some grenade launchers... Yeah, he was fucked if they were hostile.

Stopping VATS one of the men stand and begin walking towards them, he's taller with a slim build, stubble on his face with greasy-looking black hair. He gives a friendly smile as he begins to talk, "Hey there, name's Mark Dowager of the Dowager Mercenary Group. Funny you boys seem to be stalking around our next job."

Karl raises a brow, "Dowager Mercenary? Never heard of you."

Mark just shrugs, "Yeah, that's a problem I been tryin'ta fix, can't do much work if people don't know who the fuck you are... It's fine though. More importantly I'd like to know who you lot are." he asks, the friendly smile on his face not faltering despite his commanding tone.