Community:Fanfiction/Camilla on Ice

Camilla on Ice is a work in progress fanfiction by RurinGas.

Background
This story concerns the Svetlo & Co. Water Concern and begins in Appalachia during 2110.

Prologue
Camilla stood at the Water Concern's roundtable, pouring over the mass of papers strewn about the table. The other members of Svetlo & Co Water Concern's leadership muttering among themselves, waiting for her input. Eventually, Camilla sat down and sighed, massaging her temples.

"So." she said "What is this crackpot scheme you lot have thought up?"

One of the men at the table, a mohawked man named Seb, spoke up. "We've uncovered a Vault ma'am, just off Mount Pleasant." he said "The number on the front appears to be 113"

Camilla put her feet up on the table and reclined in her chair, her interest waning

"Yeah, yeah..." she said "So what? Water production is holding, and last week's raid on that little settlement they were trying to set up off of Berkley Springs gave us enough reserves..." Camilla then turned and glared at Seb "Why the fuck would I want to risk fucking with that pre-war Vault-tec mad science bullshit?"

There was a pause, all the other raiders at the table held their breath, fearing that intervening would lead to their deaths. Seb took a deep breath to compose himself before answering "Well, the door indicates that this one hasnt been opened, meaning everything inside is probably intact." There was a pause, Camilla still looked at Seb expectantly. Seb continued.

''"All Vault-tec Vaults come with an advanced water purification system, if we could rip one out of a Vault and bring it back here, We'd be selling the purest water available for miles, and we wouldn't have to rely on these scrap water pumps. We'd never have to worry about the water production again."

Silence filled the room once again. Camilla closed her eyes in thought. "A Vault's worth of water *would* bring in a lot of caps... And we'd be spending a lot less on pump maintenance..."

Camilla reopened her eyes, and sat upright "It's a worthy idea... but I don't like the idea of entering a Vault totally blind. Send out a party, see if there's anything in Vault-Tec Headquarters about Vault 113."

Another raider, a woman with patchy hair with metal, talon-like fingernails named Therese, chimed in. "I took the liberty of having a chat with our friends in Paradise Falls, after a little trade of merchandise, they ripped out the hard drive of some server at Vault-Tec HQ. Mitnik hooked it up to the terminal here, and it seems to be all the information they had on record about Vault 113."

Camilla turned to Therese and nodded in approval "I'm impressed, I'll have to add a bonus to your next pay, what did it say?"

Therese pulled some assorted papers and a holotape out of her pocket ''"Not very much, I'm afraid. It's not clear if the data was censored or just degraded over time, We've compressed the information onto this holotape for your personal review"

Camilla inserted the holotape into her Pip-Boy, she'd looted it off the corpse of one of the many wide-eyed and naïve Vault dwellers flooding into the wasteland as of late.

"Not much is there..." Camilla said, scanning the file, flicking buttons on her Pip-Boy to scroll up and down the file.

Therese rifled through the papers she had "Regrettably not, however I think they show well enough that we have nothing to fear from that Vault."

Camilla stopped scrolling her Pip-Boy and glared at Therese, who quickly cleared her throat and added "However it might be wise to send out a larger crew, just to be careful"

Therese looked toward Camilla expectantly, as did Seb and the others sat at the table. Camilla sighed and lowered her Pip-Boy "No..." she said, exacerbated "I'll head up a standard-sized team myself. I'd like to make sure first-hand that we don't fuck up..."

Camilla stood up, "Seb, Assemble a crew for me. Therese, ask Max to get us a Fat Man. I'm going to pull my Power Armor out of storage. I don't want to risk getting that close to The Pitt without being armed to the teeth..." she said "The rest of you; hold the fort, maintain operations..."

Chapter 1 - The First Step
Camilla began her final preparations. After a week of whittling down options, she had decided on a team of 3 others to accompany her. Camilla herself was going to take point in her set of T-60 Power Armor, behind her would be Therese who would serve as muscle, followed by Seb who would impart his knowledge as an ex-Vault Dweller, and finally Mitnik who would impart technical knowledge. The plan was to arrive at Vault 113, locate the water purifier within the Vault, and set up a temporary base there for Camilla, Seb, and Mitnik to appraise and dismantle the purifier, with Therese guarding them against any threats, after which they would purchase a Pack Brahmin, and use it to bring the supplies back. But first, they had to arrive there.

"...so make sure not to miss that.. Oh, and we have a meeting with Crater planned next Wednesday, they're not a hard crowd to please, just assure them their deliveries are coming on time and give them a chem or two in tribute if you have to." Said Camilla, finishing a long list of instructions to be performed in her absence.

Max nodded in response "Consider it done." he said, in his usual, almost serpent-like tone.

Camilla, finally assured that she had left the Water Concern in safe hands, stepped into her Power Armor. It was as uncomfortable as ever, the once soft cushioning that rested against her body had long since worn away over centuries of neglect after the war, leaving only the uncomfortable metal of the chassis to sit against her skin. It was a small price to pay for protection, she thought. The three waved their goodbyes and walked the small distance south to the main road, before heading due west towards Crater. Camilla had considered walking as-the-crow-flies towards Mount Pleasant, however she decided it would be safer to head from Crater to Mount Pleasant, considering the lands outside of the Appalachian Wasteland were uncharted, and walking through uncharted territory close to The Pitt was effectively asking to be attacked by some heretofore unknown mutant abomination. It was not long after departing, that the group found themselves at the Red Rocket Mega Stop.

Camilla stopped. "Wait..." she muttered, gesturing silently at the others to keep back and look. Over on the horizon, A lone sentry turret was scanning the area.

"Someone must've set up shop at the Mega Stop again..." whispered Seb, squinting to see if he could get a closer look.

"Yep... We should do a little reconnaissance, a base this close to home could be bad news for the bus-" began Camilla, before getting cut off by a single bullet pinging off her Power Armor's right arm.

"My reconnaissance says they're not friendly" said Theresa, putting her hip flask away and assuming her characteristic bestial combat stance.

Seb drew his rifle and gave an annoyed sigh "Wouldn't be the first person we've killed for being in our way...".

Mitnik stayed back, taking cover behind a nearby hunk of rubble, examining the area on his Pip-Boy for any possible edge he could give his comrades. Theresa ran up towards the Mega Stop, identifying and attacking the group of 16 enemies head-on. Seb was a short distance behind, firing his Plasma rifle from a medium range. Camilla was at a range, using her Lever-action rifle to take precise shots at anyone behind Theresa who might otherwise get a lucky shot on her. Mitnick lowered his Pip-Boy and picked up his radio.

"Camilla!" he said, his voice ringing out through the internal speakers in Camilla's power armor. "There's still fuel in the centremost pump, take a shot at it!"

Camilla smirked "You never fail me, Mitnik." she said, as she chambered a round and took a knee ot steady her aim.

Theresa was about to weave between the fuel pumps, she would take the shot once Theresa passed by them, and the enemies followed her. Camilla removed her Power Armor Helmet to take a hit of Jet, and held her breath. Time slowed to a crawl and she witnessed Theresa sprint past the fuel pumps. Camilla stared intensely. A little more, a little more, a little mo-NOW. Camilla squeezed down on the trigger, the gunshot echoing out as the bullet soared through the air, making a direct hit on the fuel pump. The explosion erupted out, blossoming out like a flower as the fire consumed the remaining enemies in one fell swoop.

Camilla lowered her rifle as the Jet wore off, blurring her vision and giving her a brief but shooting headache. She winced as she reflexively pressed against her temples.

"You alright Theresa?" she said, regaining her composure, "Didn't singe you did I?"

Theresa stretched in response "Hm? Oh yeah sure, think I chipped a nail back there." she said, mockingly. Camilla gave a wry smile as she rose to her feet.

"Well, maybe someone at Crater is selling a nail file." she joked. Theresa scoffed, and Seb rolled his eyes

"If you're going to be like this the whole journey, I fear for my sanity" he said, half-jokingly, as he holstered his Rifle and motioned at them to keep moving.

The team continued down the main road, snaking around a small cliff and passing by the Sunnytop Ski Lodge. In due time, they arrived at the most difficult part of this leg of their journey; the Palace of the Winding Path. Not because of any hostiles or rads, but because of one, large and sheer cliff-face. Each member of the team had devised their own way of traversing this obstacle. Camilla would simply rely on the hydraulics in her Power Armor's legs to cushion the fall, she had make sure to quadruple check the functionality and load-baring capacity of the hydraulics before departing, and was confident it would work. Seb would carefully climb down, being familiar with the hobby of rock-climbing from his days in the Vault, which had numerous rock climbing walls he would frequent every so often for his mandatory 30 minutes of daily exercise. Mitnik had bought a very torn-down Mr. Handy in his rucksack, the Handy lacked a large amount of it's internal AI circuitry, but was still fully capable, meaning Mitnik could use the Handy's thruster to offset gravity and gently hover down while holding him. Theresa would simply use her unique nails as ice-picks, breaking through and hooking into the rock-face bit-by-bit as she moved down the cliff. The whole process went off without issue; Camilla's Power Armor successfully cushioned the fall with only minor pain and no serious injuries, allowing her to touch ground in Toxic Valley before anyone else. After a short period, Mitnik floated down, his Mr Handy proved more unruly than planned, attempting to skew off to one side or the other, but was nonetheless successful. Theresa arrived next, her metal-composite nails covered in sweat and rock dust, but intact. Lastly, Seb meandered his way down the cliff and onto the ground, his "slow and steady" approach resulting in zero hiccups, minus the speed. The group could hear the Dick Shale monologue about Philippi Battlefield Cemetery in the distance, the button stuck presumably after years of blood and soot glued it down. They took a quick breather and drank some of the rations of purifier water they had bought, before taking the short path north, and arriving at Crater.

This wasn't Camilla's first visit at Crater, not by a long shot, and the same applied for the rest of the group. Some raiders walked upto Camilla and inquired as to the time the next water shipment would arrive, but she just dismissed them. The group agreed to take an hour to restock their ammo and other personal supplies, and to meet back up at the entrance to the Crater core to depart for Uniontown. Camilla stocked up her .45 rounds and took to patching up her Power Armor, purchasing miscellaneous supplies from junk merchants to do so. Mitnik purchased a bulk stock of blank holotapes scavenged from Sugar Grove. Theresa called in a few favours and had her nails imbued with Ultracite, which would give her already razor-sharp nails a deadly, radioactive edge. Seb simply purchased small items from each store as an excuse to strike up conversation and ingratiate himself with the store owners. After an hour, the four met up and, saying their goodbyes, left the Appalachian Wasteland for uncharted regions.

Next stop; Uniontown.