Escape!

Of course this scene started with Amata waking me up, alarm klaxons blaring in the back ground. I will not repeat the conversations as i do not remember all of the specifics, and most of them can be found in the various Fallout 3 walkthroughs and guides. I kept to my 'good' side (i.e. not making crude remarks, etc.) and even when Amata offered me her 10mm pistol i turned it down. Not sure that was a great call in regards to my overall success in getting out of the vault, but since she seemed to be in jeopardy i just let her keep it. Once she left i moved around the room trying to me careful to look in/around everything. I collected up my baseball bat and hat. There was a medkit on the wall and picked up a few "stimpacks". I also collected up some extra clothes since i felt i might need them outside. Once outside my room i was accosted by one of the security guards who wanted to take me into custody. Orginally i was going to just move around him because he was immediately assaulted by some radroaches, but they blocked off the end of the hall and i hesitated too long. The guard managed to fight off the four radroaches by himself and then turned his attention to me. I was forced to fight him off with my trusty baseball bat. After stripping the officer of his helmet, etc i moved on. I didn't get very far i meet up with Butch who tells me his mother is being accosted by Radroaches and asks for my help. I chose to help him of course and managed to fight off the three bugs. Butch then gave me his Tunnel Snakes Jacket. Before i left the apartment i took the liberty of taking all of the booze laying around. 1) She doesn't need it, and 2) i might be able to use it to barter with. Moving on from there i came upon Stanly and Andy also fighting off Radroaches. Andy managed to dispatch the pests before i was able to help out. I tried to interact with Andy some but he moved off into my father's offices, so i follewed him. There Stanley was working on trying to repair the robot (Andy) and i could not get into any dialog trees. Since it seemed like i had some time i moved around the offices and picked up miscellanious junk to sell once i was outside. I managed to scoop some more stimpacks and clipboards. The prize though was a "Medical Bobblehead". These things are like 'easter eggs' that help give the charecter a one time boost to a stat or skill. In this case it was for the medical skill - especially handy since i was heading out to a dangerous environment. :) I then moved on trying to find my way to the atrium as this was the intermediate goal of the quest. At one point there was a guy banging on a window screaming at me, something about my father causing all of the problems. It didn't really do anything to provoke me, but it did draw my attention to investigate the room. There was a guy dead on the floor. He had a pair of sunglasses which i took. When i found a set of stairs heading up to the atrium i was shot at by a pair of security guards. Since i had let Amata keep the pistol earlier i didn't have anything to shoot back with. After trying to figure out how to get down the hallway i just gave up because it was obvious they were not going to pursue me. Eventually i ran across a room that had the overseer's voice coming from it. I thought i heard Amata's voice as well, but when i entered she was no where to be found. This confused me but i didn't have time to reflect on it as another guard attacked me. After i dispatched the guard the overseer stepped up and i thought he was going to attack me, but instead we entered into a dialog. I tried to convince the old man to give up his password and key to the outside. He was not going to release it short of killing him, or threatening Amata... which i was not going to do. When we moved back to game time he began shouting for guards to come to his rescue and i just went back to searching around. After that i turned left and found the overseer's office. I ran into Jonas's body. Yup, he was dead as a doornail. I searched his body and took the note from my father and his lab coat - hey, it gives me +5 to my science skill. Searching the surrounding area i found some "prewar" money and more stimpacks. Sitting in an adjacent area of the lab Amata was sitting holding her head. There was a brief interaction before she ran off again... From here i managed to find the overseer's office. I had already discovered the key so i didn't need to pick the lock. A nice clean space, using browns instead of the steel blue of the rest of the vault. Several monitors and terminals lined the back wall, with a pair of lockers in the back right corner. Without delay i attempted to hack into the terminal. Since I am fairly new it took me a little while to figure out exactly what to do. But one thing i did know was that if i failed all four attempts, the terminal would lock down and i would not be able to proceed. After three miscues i backed out and searched around the room some more. In one of the lockers i discovered some more ammunition for the pistol, and the terminal password. Going back to the terminal i was able to log in and review all of the files. There were several "security" files of vault dwellers. Interesting that "Big Brother" was keeping so close a tabs on so many people. There were files of a scouting party sent out into the wastes which was interesting... and information regarding a nearby town called Megaton. Once I had read each of the files i went ahead and opened up the "secret passage" to the entrance way. After proceeding down the stairs i ran into Amata again. Here i invited her to come with me, but she declined stating that she needed to be there to keep her father in check. Once i opened the door to the outside i was set upon 3 more security guards. I am a complete novice when it comes to first person shooter games, and i am still learning my way around the keyboard for the V.A.T.S. part of combat. One valuable lesson i did learn was you do not get your action points back very quickly - especially since i did not tool up the character to be combat oriented. It took a little while, but i managed to dispatch all three of my oppressors. Looting their bodies for more things to sell was easy, but again - my weak strength stat limited how much i was able to carry. Heading out into the wastes i turned to look back and the vault door was already closing. No turning back now. Stepping out into the world beyond it was night time. No blinding light, and no enemies ready to pounce upon me. Even through the dark i could see the outline of the Washington Monument and the The Capital Building - very cool! It was here that i saved the game and turned in. I played up to this point in two sittings for a total of 2:04. I was deliberately taking my time... searching, playing with the various things like the Pip-boy and exploring the conversation trees. I have played since this point, but the next entry will have to wait for another time...