"STOP STOP!" Sheriff Kane shouted at his men as they pushed passed him. "Hold the line! We need to hold the line!" He tried to step in the way of one of the engineers and was only thrown aside by the man's body weight and momentum for his effort. He struggled to catch his balance, knowing that falling now would mean he might never get back up. As he caught his balance he looked all around the Atrium at the battle which raged inside of it. The invaders had already overrun the first line of barricades on the main level, and now THEY were using them as cover from his own security officers' return fire. On the upper level he could see several of the invaders opening fire with automatic rifles. They'd already cut down the men and women he'd stationed up there and were now using his own tactics against him.<em>'We've lost the atrium'</em>he thought to himself with despair. The defensive line had fallen and Kane knew that there was really no way to form it up in the atrium again. He had to salvage what he could, as fast as he could. He needed to pull his men and women back as fast as possible and try to form up a new line or this would just turn into a giant rolling retreat until they all had their backs to the wall!<br/><br/><br/>The only exception to the general retreat, which was already taking place without Kane needing to order it,  was the small Café that Norbert ran. The crazy robot must have activated its security programs and now it was attacking any and everyone who tried to enter the Café. Kane winced inwardly as he saw one of his recently 'deputized' men, Bobby Carmichael, dive into the Café in order to seek cover behind it's tables. Only to have Norbert open up on him with his flamethrower and shout out "This is for Davey Crockett!" It would almost have been funny if it wasn't so horrible.<br/><br/><br/>"FALL BACK!" Sheriff Kane shouted as loud as he possibly could. He cupped both of his hands around his mouth in order to be able to be heard "Fall back on me!" as he shouted this Kane started to step back wards and to the side. His pistol in his hands as he opened fire and made his way to the stairs leading to the 3rd level. "Fall back to the 3rd Level!" he shouted hoping that some of his men might hear him and follow his orders.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>At the other end of the atrium The Marshal was taking cover behind the first barricades, to his right was the Officer in charge of the platoon that had come with him in the 1st wave. "Alright" The Marshal said to the officer, raising his voice to be heard above the chatter of the rifles being fired by the troopers all around them. "the next wave should be arriving within a minute or so. When they hit they're going to push past our position and storm the entrances to this room on the upper and lower levels. While they do that I need you and your men to pour everything you've got onto the enemy! I want them to be forced to keep their heads down!" The officer nodded in response.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>3 minutes later the next wave arrived. As the men and women charged passed the barricades and opened fire they found the resistance being put up before them to be quite less than the first wave encountered. Many of the Vault Security personnel had heard the Sheriff's orders and were already following him down the stairs to the 3rd level. This combined with the suppressive fire being laid down by the remaining men of the 1st wave meant that there was very little fire power being directed at the advancing troops.<br/><br/><br/>But once again, the exception to this was the café, Norbert was still operational and was proving to be quite the efficient warrior. 4 of the invaders attempted to enter the café. As soon as they stepped into it they were met by Norbert's fury. The robot shouted "Down with Santa Ana!" and let loose a 15 second gout of flames into the intruders. The front two men were killed almost instantly. The super hot flames both ruining their bodies and raising their core temperatures to fatal levels. As they fell to the ground, their brains and organs cooked inside their bodies, the other members of the squad tried to fan out and opened fire with their own weapons. Their .32 caliber rounds pinged of Norbert's metal skin as he almost instantly closed the distance with them. His saw equipped arm, the blade already red with the blood of the vault's invaders and defenders alike, let out a ferocious roar as it spun to life. Norbert swung the weapon in an upward arch, the blade cleaving through the closest invader's elbow as if it were not even there. Without pause Norbert opened up with his flame thrower again. This time launching a short 5 second blast directly into the face of the final invader. "I said this establishment is CLOSED!" Norbert said firmly. His statement was instantly followed by a loud metallic<em>PING</em>, those who knew about such things would be able to recognize the sound as a bullet striking and penetrating a metal target. Norbert's three ocular sensors first flickered then went dark. His arms dropped and his thruster shut down. He fell to the floor 'lifeless.'<br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Good shooting son" The Marshal said to the trooper next to him. The man held a sniper rifle in his hands, a small trail of smoke filtering from the barrel. The Marshal couldn't help but smile. He'd always appreciated precision, and it amused him that a single man with a weapon and the ability to take his time was able to do what an entire squad wasn't.<br/><br/>That having been said.... The damn robot had stalled their assault! He couldn't have his men push any farther than the cafe while that thing was there. If they had to fall back it would have been a catastrophe. The defenders had more time to re-organize than The Marshal would have liked. The atrium was theirs though. The last resistance had either fled or been cut down. He had seen a number of the defenders head down one of the sets of stairs and he knew that they would probably have some sort of defense ready....<br/><br/><hr/><br/>On Level 3 Sheriff Kane halted his men at the foot of the stairs. Here there was a good defensive position where the corridor turned an angle by the door to the hydroponics deck. It was vital that this facility remain in their control because of the important machinery, food and water inside. Using spare blast doors from the stores and an arc welder from the engineers’ workshops Kane set about sealing the corridor off at the angle and punching weapon slits into the steel door his men were hurriedly securing in place.<br/><br/>Trooper Samuel Reemes was one of the men who had made it out of the Atrium in one piece although several of the other deputies were injured.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>In the restaurant and dormitories area things did not look good. The attackers were firing shots down the corridor from the Atrium forcing everyone behind the makeshift barricade there to crawl between it and the restaurant itself. The senior person present was the head of the science team Doctor Morrison and while he had a brilliant mind his tactical sense was sadly lacking. His age and approaching infirmity didn't help.<br/><br/>"We should counterattack!" He was shouting to Deputy Linda Akkermann, the most senior platoon leader of the security team present, "Counter-attack! Charge them now before they charge us! Push them back out whoever they are!"<br/><br/>"Charge? What with? I have four troopers here and a dozen plumbers and electricians armed with wrenches and table legs. We'd be shot to pieces before we got twenty yards, especially in a straight narrow corridor. No, we should make them come to us. We’ve still plenty of ammo and flame-bombs."<br/><br/>"You must attack! Staying here will only get us all killed!" Doctor Morrison kept taking his glasses off, pulling a cloth from his lab coat pocket and wiping them, then putting them back on, only to remove them ten seconds later and repeat the gesture. Linda watched his nervousness. The man was losing it.<br/><br/>"I am not going to ask anyone to charge back in there," Akkermann said firmly, "Besides the restaurant is full of women and teenagers - even some kids. Look, I'll watch the line here. You take care of getting the non-combatants down to Level 2. The barracks and armoury are down there so at least there's more weapons for those who can use them. Now go!" Akkermann turned to shout for volunteers to man the barricade. She did at least have the rest of the box of Molotovs and a couple of men willing to throw them. One was cast now up the corridor towards the Atrium where it shattered and burst into a splash of flame in the doorway. It helped keep the attackers away and the smoke gave Morrison cover while he ran back past the dorms calling for non-combatants and minors to follow him.<br/><br/>Over the next ten minutes the med-bay elevator made several trips shuttling people to relative safety and bringing ammo and more home-made firebombs up. Two of those who were sent down to the medical bay and who then bumped into Doctor Townsend were Emily Steele and Kenya Hamilton. They were sent into the science lab to clear space for the last few deputies who were not already busy or casualties to get supplies up to Level 1.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Overseer Blok came to his final decision. He had made several announcements over the Vault PA system calling for a ceasefire but the attackers seemed completely uninterested in negotiation. They appeared to want to kill or take prisoner everyone and then... what. He still had no idea what they wanted but the technology in the Vault must be of interest to them and maybe... maybe the women as well. It was clear they had no need of more powerful weapons; the attackers gave no sign of having a shortage of automatic rifles or ammunition.<br/><br/>No... it was time.<br/><br/>"Warren. I think we need to do what we have to do.” Blok switched off his computer and stood up from his desk. He addressed the thirty year old thick-set man in the leather jacket beside him. “You understand of course. I've kept you close in the past and allowed the Vault Rats to carry on under your leadership doing what<em>you</em>needed to do. Without me pulling the strings you and your gang would have been disbanded by Kane a long time ago. I stopped this from happening for the good of letting your boys vent their frustrations. Now you owe me. Gather the gang and escort me down to the reactor level. It's house-moving day."<br/><br/>Warren Steinman was a nasty piece of work. He'd been an electrical engineer once but had been busted down to janitor by Sheriff Kane for constantly pilfering stores and doing God-knows what with them. Kane suspected he had friends in the security team too and was machining parts down to make weapons. Why the son of a bitch needed weapons Kane didn't know but he didn't like it one bit and he put pressure on Steinman and his unruly gang of misfits, thugs and time-wasters, always coming down hard on them when there were scuffles or disagreements in the corridors. Steinman’s gang called themselves the Vault Rats and they were a royal pain in the ass. Originally just teenaged layabouts and bullies he'd expected them to grow out of their thuggish posturing as they matured but they hadn't. Now the five of them - along with their leader Steinman they were Andy Oades, Kevin Mackerson, Bob Burnes and Angela Carling – would be of great use to Overseer Rameses Blok. In some ways Angela Carling was the worst of the lot. Kane was convinced she slept around for anyone who could be of use to Steinman and his boys. In return for sex she bribed engineers, science lab staff and probably his own troopers to get them<em>stuff</em>. It might be chems, it might be some of the A grade moonshine or worst of all it was probably guns. Kane however kept a tight rein on the armoury stores which is why he was convinced the Vault Rats were making their own guns from machined parts.<br/><br/>Steinman gave the Rats’ whistle – one long call and one short at a higher pitch. Right outside Blok’s office doorway Kevin and Bob; the one tall and blonde and wiry, the other shorter and bald with a broken nose - stuck their heads round the doorway.<br/><br/>“It’s time, Rats, we’re moving out. Plan B. Bob – go get the other two. Bob jogged off down the corridor his baseball bat slung over his shoulder. Andy and Angela were loitering about near the barracks entryway while two deputies kept an eye on them. Men more useful to Kane or Akkermann right now but wasted down here because Kane considered the Rats such a threat. Andy and Angela came running back with Bob. They understood Plan B well enough. The day had come.<br/><br/>Blok had always had a Plan B in readiness. While the Rats were useful as his own private security force he knew that one day he’d be voted out as Overseer and someone else voted in. Without his powerful position Steinman would then become as much a threat to him as he was to Kane; over the years Blok had let Steinman and his Rats get maybe a little too powerful. The reason so many fission batteries went missing from the door control consoles when they were being dismantled wasn’t because that bird-brained idiot Morrison stored them away and forgot where, it was because Angela had been busy on her back for two days and got three separate engineers to hand them over in return for her usual favours. What Steinman had done with that many fission batteries Blok didn’t want to think about. No, Steinman was only useful while Blok protected him. And now the Vault was lost it wouldn’t take even the slow-witted Rat’s leader long to work out that he was now top doggy around here with Blok – or without him.<br/><br/>So Blok called in his favours. Gathering up his pistol, some ammo, chems and pre-war money and stuffing them in a Karry-All, Blok moved to the exit of his quarters. Steinman and Andy Oades went ahead, pushing a path through the crowded hallway with the others bringing up the rear and giving fierce ‘you don’t want to know where we are going’ looks at those who stared as the small formation made it’s way down past the stairs to Level 1 and towards the medical bay and its vital elevator.<br/><br/>“Shee-yit!” Clive Webber cursed as Blok and the Vault Rats went by, “The rats are leaving the sinking ship!”<br/><br/>“Shut it, Webber, you asshole,” Bob Burnes snapped, pushing the security man aside. Webber fell back against Fred Jupiter and Sam Clarke who were helping defend the base of the stairwell down from Level 1, before falling to the floor. Herb Swann was nearby and saw the exchange too.  Blok stared at the three engineers, seeing that they had probably worked out what was going on. They were three good men and he knew they could prove useful. For now.<br/><br/>Blok addressed them keeping his voice low so as not to be heard by anyone else. “You each have a choice. You can stay here, help out these good people, and die gallantly for your efforts or you can come with me. Vault 111 doesn’t just have just one exit. There is a second, secret exit to be used only in emergencies by the Overseer and any he or she deems worthy. As far as I'm concerned that means you three, myself, and these fine 'gentlemen' escorting me. It’s your choice but make your mind up quick because time is short. I know you may consider simply telling everyone about the exit, but I implore you to do otherwise. If you tell everyone, well then everyone will try to use the exit, any chance of keeping it a secret will be lost, and we may be unable to escape. BUT if you don't tell anyone then....we should be able to escape while our Vault's good citizens keep these savages at our gates distracted.”