Alright EDNA. Just like we practiced.
*frantic beep*
EDNA. Begin recording.
*affirming beep*
It took me years to find this place; a lifetime of research and story gathering. The historians
in the New California Republic say that the NCR started at Shady Sands when Aradesh decided
to unite the surrounding towns. But the real spark of civilization came out of this cave
a little West of Shady Sands. The cave itself is nothing special; even people searching
for the place will walk right past.
But further back, out of sight, is the entrance to one of Vault-tec's Vaults from Project
Safehouse.
Had to be somebody's idea of a joke.
Vault 13. Unlucky for the folk who piled in there
in 2077. They were supposed to be in there for ten years, but got stuck for a hundred
and sixty. Then again, their bad luck was good for the rest of the wasteland. If they
hand't been in here making little Vault Dwellers for eighty years, then their descendant couldn't
have save the wasteland in 2161. And another of their descendants couldn't have saved it
again back in '41. I'd have been killed by the Enclave, and you'd probably still be a
pile of spare parts somewhere, ED-NA.
*Schadenfreude beep*
Each of the Vaults was designed to stay shut for a certain period of time, and this one
was supposed to remain sealed until they received a signal from the Enclave. That took about
a hundred and sixty years but, long before the Enclave arrived, this vault ran into another
kind of trouble. The computer chip that controlled their water purification systems began to
break down.
Like the other vaults, this one was run by an Overseer. A fella named Jacoren. Now, Jacoren
was put in a pickle when that water chip began to malfunction. It would be years before it
stopped working altogether, but he didn't want to wait until the last minute before
taking action. His goal as Overseer was to keep his people safe, and free from any outside
contaminants, but had to send someone out into the wasteland to look for a new water
chip.
But who? From the limited population of the Vault, he had to choose someone competent...
but also expendable. There were a few potential candidates, but the Overseer decided to send
a man named Talius out on this secret mission. Talius wasn't all that special. According
to his personnel record in the Vault, he was a bit on the slow side, but he compensated
for that by gobbling up the Vault's supply of Mentats. Once he had a few smart pills
in him, Talius would get all talky and pretentious. Maybe the Overseer sent him out just so they
wouldn't have to hear him make the yakkety yak yak all the time.
He searched for a replacement chip throughout the region that would one day become the NCR.
Probably talked the ears off anyone who would listen along the way.
Eventually he discovered the Ghoul city of Necropolis, which was built on top of another
Vault.
He would have been able to find a new water chip there, but he ran into some Super Mutant
Nightkin that had been sent to Necropolis. As a pure-strain human fresh out of a vault,
Talius was of particular interest to the Super Mutant Master. The Master believed that humans
with no taint of radiation would make the best stock for his mutant army.
Talius was taken to the Mariposa base, and dipped in the Forced Evolutionary Virus, but
that virus is like a genetic crap shoot, and poor Talius rolled snake eyes. Didn't get
the enhanced strength of a Super Mutant, or cool psyker powers. He came out of the vats
looking like a ghoul.
Even he doesn't fully remember what happened after that. The Master's henchmen left him
wherever they dumped his failed experiments. The do-gooders in The Followers of the Apocalypse
eventually found him, and brought him to their library in the Boneyard. He was still there,
last I heard of him. Still yammering away with his two-dollar words at anyone who would
pay attention to him.
A few years after Talius left the vault, that water chip finally gave up the ghost. It left
the vault with just a three month supply of drinking water, and it meant that Jacoren
would have to choose a another Vault Dweller to go out into the wasteland.
But that is -
*excited beep*
*curious beep*
Well, the Overseer's records do mention one other scout who was sent out after Talius,
but before the Vault Dweller. All we know about this pile of bones is that they were
once... a man named Ed.