A solitary radio half-buried in the sand flickered to life, a soft and calming tune (http://youtu.be/9mveNICKH5c) lazily flowing out. Beside the portable radio, a burnt and charred skeleton rested on a towel sunbathing under the yellow skies. Further away, the shrivelled husk of a leafless palm tree offered shade to another skeleton reclining in a wooden beach chair.<br/><br/>In the distance, the wasted toxic soup of the Pacific cascaded on, waves tumbling over one another as they ebbed and flowed onto the beach. Past the beach, there was a debris-strewn road and boardwalk, vehicles stationary and lifeless, their occupants still skeletonized within. Rather than being obliterated and wrecked apart, everything was dilapidated and abandoned, rusted and degraded. It started to rain softly... The sound of the cascading ocean and pitter of black rain fought with the soothing music until it started to repeat, that melodious woman's voice unnaturally caught in a second-long loop until the signal abruptly tuned out.<br/><br/>All that remained was the sound of the waves lazily rolling forth from the sea before they retreated back to the ocean. That and the gentle deluge of acid rain that steamed on contact with the earth.<br/><br/>War. War never changes... In the year 2077, fire reigned over earth and humanity was irrevocably changed forever. Those who survived would never again live their lives as they once did, doomed to rule over the world that they destroyed. The end of civilization lasted only two hours. No one knows who shot first, but within moments the world was scorched. On the island of Oahu, those who survived did so in great, underground vaults. As they hid beneath the earth, China, only a stone's throw away, blanketed the island in a deluge of chemical and biological weapons, sparing Paradise the horrors of nuclear holocaust while inflicting upon it a much more insidious fate...<br/><br/>The grating sound of metal penetrating metal rang out through the cave entrance of Vault 9. Sparks flew forth from where the heavy drill grinded against the heavy Vault door. In the darkness of the cave, those shadowy figures had been working on prying open the shelter for a full day.<br/><br/>The Overseer watched them through the exterior camera, unable to make out who or what was trying to get in. She was in her late thirties, a a half-japanese, half-mexican second generation vault dweller. As the woman contemplated her plan, the Vault 9 PA system broadcast a message from the loudspeakers, "And now for your daily Vault-Tec hot tip. Remember - masturbation causes blindness and stunts the growth of adolescents. If you want to grow up big and strong, make sure you eat three times a day at our Vault-Tec Co-Ed dining facility!"<br/><br/>"Vault-Tec. Building a better future, today."<br/><br/>The older woman stood up straight and left the moniter to her subordinates. A man wearing a doctor's lab coat over his jumpsuit came up to her with a clip board. She scrutinized it for a moment, flipping the first few pages over before she handed it back to him, "Are you sure?"<br/><br/>He nodded, and after a long pause, the Overseer left him with a simple command, "Send her to my office."<br/><br/>On her way from the door control back towards the center of the Vault, the Overseer passed a couple blithely making out in the hallway before one of the engineers waved to her. The less people knew the better, she thought.