I followed behind the other two as we made our way through the tunnels towards Hephaestus.
While Lady took point, I browsed through the holotape Meryl Sheep had given me.
The files on the holotape were filled with not only a note to me but all of her personal research notes for the last 50 years.
As well as some scattered journal entries detailing important events in the vault.
It seemed Maryl had planned to die no matter what and prepared this for me.
The note she left behind just mentioned the exact place the Poseidon access was in Hephaestus and also an explanation on the two syringes.
The red one was an Electro Bolt serum. This was the same power the mermen had and according to the notes it is only one of three that they have managed to develop with no negative side effects for humans.
The first time using a plasmid serum will cause a new 'network' to form within the host's body.
Like adding another set of veins all over that makes it possible to use 'plasmids' and circulates EVE.
In the game Bioshock, the player didn't naturally recover EVE, the energy needed to use powers, and except for some exceptions, required external means to refill it.
But apparently here, once the EVE circulatory system grows within the host's body, the host will generate EVE themselves over time to replenish their reserves.
The blue syringe wasn't a plasmid, but an EVE Hypo. To put it in nerdspeak, this was basically a consumable mana potion.
Since EVE took awhile to regenerate, they came up with a way to restore it instantly.
These were the reward for finishing the side quest to find the locket. I also got some XP and a small amount of caps.
All in all, I was satisfied with that.
As I kept reading about plasmids, I learned quite a few things.
The first was how plasmids affect the human body. In the early days of the vault, after much trial and error, they were able to refine the first symptom-free serum.
Before that, the subjects suffered disfigurement or psychosis and EVE withdrawal.
But they managed to fix those issues that were caused by the host's cells being devoured and replaced by the ADAM cells, and created three plasmids that were risk free to use and modified the body to produce EVE by converting nutrients.
But the scientists had hit a roadblock on developing new plasmids and decided the human body was just a sub-optimal canvas and decided they needed evolved bodies to accommodate more powerful plasmids.
This is where the mermen began...
The more I read, the more disgusted I became. Sure, I will probably do some pretty unethical things in the future. But I wouldn't do them to innocents like this.
What they have done here is different. They took innocent men, women and children and twisted their DNA to create a race of monsters.
According to Meryl, the ones we encountered before were the failures and the ones that were considered successes were still within Poseidon.
The failures were not disposed of and instead released because the Overseer wanted to see if they would produce any viable offspring out in the wild.
His motive for all this wasn't just to produce better test subjects for new plasmids but also to create an army that can traverse both land and sea. One that he could control.
The original Overseer of vault 120 was not the current one. The original was a man named Marcus Becroft. A man who was placed in that position by the government.
However the entire vault project was proposed by Dr. Aaron Wilson, the head researcher of AARI who is the one that discovered the special qualities of irritated sea slugs.
And when Marcus was placed as Overseer, Dr. Aaron was not happy. It was him who brought the investors to the table and had discovered the miracle of the ADAM sea slug. So why should he be under some government dog and have his life's work taken from him when the world outside was already dead.
He incited the other scientists and overthrew Overseer Marcus in a bloody rebellion.
After that, Dr. Aaron and his cohorts delved deeper into immoral research to develop more powerful plasmids.
Typical power hungry monsters.
But of course, that meant things got worse for the already agitated residents. And that lead to rebellions and the show of power that killed them.
Dr. Aaron and his scientists have altered themselves into mermen and kept their minds. Something they could have did for all their subjects but instead rewrote them to be less intelligent creatures that could be easily controlled.
And that's the situation of Vault 120. Scared and dying vault residents, loose and rabid mutated test subjects and a cabal of deranged scientists with a god complex.
Pretty standard for Fallout now that I think about it.
I awoke from my thoughts when we reached the Hephaestus entrance.
The three of us entered the area quietly, our eyes darting left and right for any movement. Hephaestus was a production dome split into four areas. The mines, forge, recycling and processing sectors make up those four areas.
The area we had entered was the processing sector. The place was lined with machinery and conveyor belts.
This place was used for the vaults manufacturing needs. Thing like plastic ware, parts and even children's toys. The raw materials used here to make that stuff would have typically been sent from the recycling sector.
We cautiously made our way through the area. There were plenty of places that something could hide and suddenly pop out to attack.
The place was quiet, eerily so. We remained alert, our every footfall echoing throughout the dark factory.
Lady pushed forward in the front, her helmet's lamp moving from place to place as she scanned for enemy movement.
A chittering sound froze us in our tracks and our lamps both snapped towards the sound the had already disappeared.
"Shit! What was that?" Jonny asked nervously.
We shined our lights but saw nothing.
I crouched low to activate stealth mode but instead of seeing [Hidden] I saw [Danger].
That meant we were already in combat...
"It's stalking us. Don't move, I'll find it..."
I activated VATS and began looking all around until I saw a green outline of a humanoid shape... multiple shapes... some clinging to the ceiling, others lurking behind corners. At least fifteen of them.
"We're surrounded, I count over 15. On my signal, we move to that corner and take a defensive stance. Jonny, stay behind us and shoot through the gaps."
The mermen were treating us like prey. They didn't know we were aware of their presence and waited like ambush predators.
'They're smarter than I thought. We weren't exactly silent when we came into Hephaestus but this sort of fast and organized response? Impressive.'
I had that thought but couldn't dwell on it. I didn't know why they didn't attack on sight like the last group we encountered, but I could think about it later after they were dead.
"Now!" The three of us suddenly sprinted towards a nearby corner and turned to face our back to it.
Lady and I, in our armor were shoulder to shoulder while Jonny was tucked in behind us, aiming through the gaps.
The mermen, realizing the prey had discovered them, shrieked and attacked.
I winded up the gatplas while Lady and Jonny fired their laser rifles.
Putting ourselves into a corner like this kept our backs safe while also allowing both of us to focus our lamps in front of us to shoot enemies easier.
The first couple mermen jumped down from the ceiling, my gatplas released torrents of plasma balls and practically melted the dropping mermen out of the air.
More spring up and charged forward, some getting hit by lasers, while others used their fallen brethren as shields so they could close the gap.
A few managed to jump at us from close range, but I hit one of them that lunged at me with a gun bash knocking him back but another manage to jump on me like a spider monkey. Its claws raked against my helmet.
But I didn't just let that happen. I swatted it with my power armored fist and sent it flying to hit the other.
Lady managed to keep the ones off her side in the same way. Even T-45 is strong enough to tank the hits from these things. These seemed to only be the weaklings though.
Jonny fired his rifle, focusing on the ones he can see. He managed to keep calm and take steady breaths as he fired.
The guy was starting to get into his element. Which made me start taking his recruitment seriously in my mind.
We cleared them in a manner of minutes. But the quiet end to the battle didn't stay quiet for long.
We began moving towards the exit but we could hear a chorus of chittering sounds coming from the next area. The recycling sector.