FALLING STARS CHAPTER 1- VAULT 101

Hello dear reader, tis I the almighty and powerful (and mostly egotistic) Tastychainsaws. This section here was previously filled with me being all like, "This is my first story, I'm about to piss myself with anxiety, don't be surprised if it sucks." But since I'm rewriting this I decided to replace this authors note section with one that has a bit more confidence, and make it written in past tense. (You can skip to the next bold print to skip all of this if you see fit)

Yeah I realize the idea of a Lucky Star and Fallout crossover is strange (Yet strangely awesome) but I somehow made it work and more than one person liked it so that's cool.

Anyways the gist of this story is that I took all the characters from Lucky Star and dumped them into the Fallout 3 universe. So every character takes the place of another character from Fallout 3, some roles are major, (Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, ect…) while some characters only appear periodically, (Minami, Misao, Yui ect…) then there are a few that appear maybe once or twice. (I could of swore Patty did something, I just can't remember what…)

One other maybe important thing. I don't own Lucky Star or Fallout, I shouldn't have to put this here since you're more than likely reading this off of fan fiction. However, if this somehow ends up on a different site by some sneaky story thief, I just want every to know that I don't own this. Which reminds me, you people can do anything you want with this story. Post it on a different site, draw a manga out of it; I don't care just credit me if you do. But if you do draw a manga or something would you please show me? 'Cuz that would be awesome. In fact I urge you to do that, just don't be bad at it.

Continuing my wordy intro. If you're just now starting to read this then congratulations you get to read the better version of this story. When I first typed this all up I fired away at about 80 words a minute with lots of mistakes. Many of which I did not correct, I promised to do so over many chapters and now I'm finally doing so. I also may expand on some conversations, some thoughts and also clear out some of my useless adverbs.

Think of it this way, there are two versions of The Stand, the original then an extended one with some bonus content that really isn't all that important. This is like the latter.

So how will our Lucky Star heroes fare in the harsh apocalyptic wastes? Probably not very well, still read on and discover the adventures of Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and everyone else!

2267, JULY 13th. AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

"War…War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."

"In the year 2077, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation. But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world - but war, war never changes."

"In the early days, thousands were spared the horrors of the holocaust by taking refuge in enormous underground shelters, known as vaults. But when they emerged, they had only the hell of the wastes to greet them - all except those in Vault 101. For on the fateful day, when fire rained from the sky, the giant steel door of Vault 101 slid closed... and never reopened. It was here you were born. It is here you will die. Because, in Vault 101: no one ever enters and no one ever leaves. "

Mr. Brotch took a seat after lecturing his nine and ten year old students with his favorite speech. It was a good way to start the school year for these students of his. After a day of explaining to the young children what was expected of the of their next seven years of schooling, the kids sprinted out of their class releasing all their pint up energy after a day of listening to lectures and being told what they were going to do and blah blah blah.

"Ms. Izumi!" He called out to one student, one tiny girl with blue hair half way down her back, who was lingering behind the rest of the pack. The little girl turned around quickly and greeted him in the hall outside the class.

"Yes sir?" She cheerfully answered. Today was her 10th birthday and she assumed Mr. Brotch was giving her a gift. Gifts were hard to obtain in Vault 101, however, buried in storage there were all kinds of things to keep the residents entertained. Prewar books, movies, videogames and plenty of other things. For kids it was great but once into their twenties the residents quickly found out how redundant those things became.

"I need you to stay after class and clean the desks." He told her.

Little Konata Izumi's birthday dreams were quickly crushed then and there. "But…but…but, it's my birthday today!" She whimpered.

"I can't give any students favoritism. The overseer would take away my job." Mr. Brotch explained, he seemed distracted by something but Konata didn't focus on it. She just wanted to go back to her dorm and open presents and eat cake with her friends. Konata knew the overseer was strict but she didn't really think she was THAT strict. She had only seen the overseer once or twice, generally caught up in her duties, Overseer Takara didn't make many public appearances. Konata's father said that behind the public opinion of her, the overseer really wasn't that bad of a person. A bit of a klutz and an airhead, just like her daughter, but over all a good soul.

Little Izumi spent the next thirty minutes scrubbing desks that had been in service for a solid 200 years. She managed to make them look a little less like something you'd get tetanus from touching, and something more resembling a school desk.

"There Mr. Brotch, done!" She exclaimed happily with a victory pose. Mr. Brotch hung up the phone he was on and addressed her.

"That was your father; he says he wants you to stop at the cafeteria instead of going straight to your dormitory." Konata nodded in approval and marched triumphantly towards the vault cafeteria. The cafeteria was fairly small since it didn't get much use. Vault residents could eat in their dorms and generally chose to do so. It was mainly used for social gatherings, like today, and people just stopping for a quick bite before going to work.

When she opened the door she was assaulted with a blinding light from a camera flash, she swung her arms around violently and barely avoided backhanding someone.

"Happy Birthday!" All her friends, father, and his friends shouted in unison. Her current best friend and overseer's daughter, Miyuki, stepped up and greeted her.

"Happy Birthday Konata-san, did we surprise you?" She asked earnestly, Miyuki was only ten years old but was already well through puberty, already a foot taller than Konata she already had a decent bust.

"No…no, you didn't! I mean I totally knew you were planning this." Konata lied; the lie wasn't hidden well through her shortness of breath and racing heart.

"Oh, is that so." Miyuki replied quietly, she knew Konata was lying but didn't want to steal her thunder. She was the nicest person Konata knew by far and probably the prettiest ten year old in their class. Not pretty in the traditional sense but in a more subtle way, with pink wavy hair only a little shorter than Konata and wide circular glasses she didn't stand out instantly like other girls like Suzy Mack did. Instead her beauty grew on people, in Konata's opinion she was probably really easy to fall in love with.

"So what did you get me?" Konata shook Miyuki back and forth and repeated several times while smiling with her catlike grin.

Miyuki muttered something and passed her a wrapped rectangular box from the table next to them. Konata immediately released her from her grip and took it.

"Aww Yuki-chan you shouldn't have." She said trying to sound polite; her eagerness sort of ruined that though. Konata tore off the paper and through it and the boxes lid aside. Her face was an expression of pure bliss.

Grognak the Barbarian, first issue, mint condition.

"Miyuki." Konata muttered after a few seconds of staring at it. "I think I love you."

"Oh well it was nothing." Miyuki replied modestly. "My mother helped me find it with her old things." She laughed softly. "Can you imagine our parents reading comic like that?" Konata barely paid attention as she leafed through the pages detailing Grognak's raid on the lair of the Virgin Eater.

"Happy Birthday Konata!" Her dad happily shouted and placed a red and yellow striped birthday hat on her.

"Hey dad, look what Yuki-Chan gave me!" She shoved her new comic in his face, letting him bow before its glory. He didn't get a chance to properly bow though.

"Attention everyone it's time to cut the cake!" A robotic voice shouted across the room, interrupting Konata's father from saying anything. The crowd of people looked over towards a bar table where the floating Mr. Handy model robot, named Andy, began descending downward on the cake with a rotating saw.

Before anyone could react the high power buzz saw came down and obliterated the cake. It splattered frosting on a security officer and Konata's other friend Tsukasa.

When the commotion and widespread dismay calmed down, Konata was approached by the overseer herself. This woman was obviously Miyuki's mother, with the same build and wavy pink hair the resemblance was shocking.

"My, already ten years old." Yukari Takara said to herself like Konata had accomplished some impressive task. "Do you know what that means?"

"Unrestricted vault access and a master key!" Konata answered eagerly.

"Umm. No." Yukari replied not understanding that she wasn't being serious. "Ahem, as overseer of Vault 101 I am proud to give you your very own Pip Boy 3000!" She tried to sound serious about it but it came out awkward due to her extremely calm nature. She handed Konata the Pip Boy, a computer device that slipped over her wrist and most of her forearm. Konata winced as a series of needles punctured her arm and her vitals became to show up on the small screen.

She didn't show it, but Konata as extremely excited to get her very own Pip Boy. It could read all your health statistics, pick up radio signals, map the surrounding area, play holotapes and monitor all sorts of things. While she was inspecting her new present, Yukari said bye to her daughter, and then went back to attend her Overseer duties.

As far as birthdays went in underground bomb shelters with purely recycled goods, Konata had a decent one. A security officer named Gomez gave her a baseball cap, old lady Palmer gave her a sweet roll, and she also got a poem from a lady she had seen maybe twice named Beatrice.

"Hey, I'm hungry and that robot wrecked the stupid cake!" A kid shouted at Konata, effectively interrupting her conversation with her friends and fraternal twins Tsukasa and Kagami Hiiragi. She had been friends with them for about five years now. Personality-wise she was more like Tsukasa, but she was closer to Kagami.

"I saw old lady Palmer give you that sweet roll, I'm hungry and want it now!" Konata recognized this kid, Butch. He was only a few months older than her and up till now had been discussing names for his soon to be gang with his friends.

"Sweet roll?" Konata smiled, the crumbs and frosting around her lips were enough to set the kid trying to play "tough-guy" off. He shoved her against the bar stool and threw one good punch at her left eye. She stared at him in shock, tears already were starting to form.

"Now you're going to give me that comic you got from the overseers kid or I'm gonna rough you up even worse." Butch demanded. Konata glanced around. Where did all the adults go? She thought after realizing no one in this room was older than ten, all the adults had seemed to have left the kids on their own for the time being. It made sense, they humored Konata's dad then left to go do more interesting things.

"Never!" Konata screamed and tried to wiggle away. Butch brought his fist down but it was stopped mid air by someone else.

"Hey what gives!?" He shouted in surprise and looked his shoulder. There standing behind him was Kagami Hiiragi, who had stopped him mid-lunge.

"Picking on a girl on her birthday! What's wrong with you?" She growled and threw him aside. Butch's face was an expression of complete total awe, not only had someone stood up to him, but a girl none the less. A girl with lilac pigtails held together with purple bows. His friends were to stunned to react too.

"Come on guys lets blow this stupid baby party!" He yelled towards his lackeys and the four of them left shouting curses back at the girls.

"Are you alright Kona-Chan!?" Tsukasa, the smaller of the Hiiragi twins, said rushed to Konatas aid. She was technically the same height and almost the same weight as her sister, but she was still considered the little sister.

"We win this fight!" Konata cheered. "With the three of us, no one will ever mess with me!"

Kagami put a stop to her cheering. "Calm down, I just stopped them from picking on you, that's all. Stop talking like we're going to start a gang."

"A gang, that's a perfect idea!" Konata cheered again. "You sure are smart Kagamin."

"No, that's not what I meant!" She tried to explain what she meant but the damage had been done.

After several minutes of idle chatter between the three, Konata's father returned from wherever he had gone.

"Well it's ready!" He told Konata.

"What's ready?" Konata asked suspiciously.

"The present Dr. Jonas and I have been working on, follow me, he's down on the reactor level." He motioned for her to follow him. She trailed behind him imagining what kind of fun things were on the reactor level. Probably bombs and robot minions, because in the mind of an imaginative ten year, there was no reason for them not to be down there.

Surprisingly the reactor level wasn't exactly exciting. Some boring machinery and flashy lights No bottomless pits of electricity and guards with hazmat suits like the little blue hair girl imagined.

"So, ready for your surprise?" Her father asked trying to keep his voice level, the excitement was definitely there though.

"I don't like surprises." Little Izumi lied; she didn't know why she lied though, maybe to create a guise of order? Or maybe she was becoming a compulsive liar? It didn't matter though.

"Ha, since when?" Sojiro Izumi laughed, "Well here it is…" He reached over to a cabinet used for tools and pulled out her present. An old Red Rider BB gun.

"All yours." He said and handed it to his daughter. She stared at it silently for a few moments then stuck a victory pose with it.

"What do I get to kill!?" She squeaked and aimed at Jonas, her father's friend and main vault technician who had already been down there.

"Now, now, you can't go around firing at random. That would cause the overseer to come knocking down our door." He explained to his daughter. "This wasn't easy to make either, to get a spring that small for it we had to…" His voice droned off as Konata rapidly began daydreaming. If Butch gave her crap BAM, if Mr. Brotch told her to stay after and do extra work then BAM! With a gun she could conquer the entire vault and not have to rely on Kagami for homework and, like today, protection from bullies.

Her mind wandered on to Kagami as her dad went over more boring technical stuff. Although she was probably closer in the ways of friendship with her twin Tsukasa, she had a much deeper respect for Kagami. Even this young, Kagami was extremely independent, from what Konata had seen she was good at everything. She had such an unapproachable aura which in a way made Konata proud to be considered her friend, and she knew beneath her rough exterior she was actually really nice.

"…and anyways you'll just have to keep the BB gun a secret for now." Her dad finally finished.

"But…but how will I use it then?" Sojiro could see his little girl's dreams of vault domination shatter (Even though the entire twelve man security force was armed with 10mm pistols). He knew she could still have fun with her present without starting a riot and had planned ahead.

"Well, Jonas and I have set up a shooting range near the storage facility just for you." That eccentric spark reappeared in her eyes again at that news. Jonas and her dad led her to a stretch of a hallway that had multiple targets set up behind a small child sized barricade.

Konata quickly shot three of the circular targets and stood triumphantly, in the event of a zombie breakout in the vault she would ready…she would be ready.

"Radroach!" Jonas cried out, Jonas who had been invisible in Konata's mind up till now. He was right, a cockroach the size of a small dog scurried across the shooting range. A remnant of the nuclear disaster outside of her home.

Konata wasted no time reloading her new toy and firing at the unwelcome guest. Radroaches weren't dangerous alone, but there had been people who had died in the vaults history from radroach breakouts, if five or more got on you then it was game over.

Her first two shots missed and went wild, but the third manage to splatter its little buggy brains against the ground. She whistled a fanfare from a game over 200 years old and twirled her rifle.

"Ha! Well done!" Her father praised and patted her head. She smiled upward with her catlike grin. Best. Birthday. Ever.

"Jonas, get a picture with and the big game hunter here!" Sojiro said. Jonas, who had been apparently talking a lot with Konata noticing obliged and took a photo with the camera he had brought down to capture the moment.

GENERAL OCCUPATION APTITUDE TEST

Six years had passed in Vault 101. Konata Izumi, Miyuki Takara, and the Hiiragi twins had become best friends not long after Konata's birthday. Nearly every day after school was spent together until vault curfew, each day becoming a little bit closer. In the end that friendship is what kept Kagami and Konata alive in the trials they would face years later.

Occasionally Konata would look at them sleeping at one of their sleepovers and think I may be stuck in this stupid boring lousy vault for the rest of my life, but at least I have these friends to spend it with.

Konata hadn't changed much since her 10th birthday, she only grew about four inches and the rest of her body stayed the same. Emotionally, other vault-dwellers would compare her to a ten year old girl no matter what age she was. They considered her strange especially compared to her friends and family. Kagami and Miyuki were both incredibly gifted academically, but being the daughter of the overseer Miyuki only had one career choice. Konata on the other hand did not flourish well in school. She was smart but school bored her and studying just seemed pointless. "Why learn this stuff if we're never going to leave the vault and apply it?" was her motto.

Even compared to her father she was strange. Sojiro wasn't the most "normal" person in the world but he was extremely driven and focused on his work as the vault doctor. Miki Hiiragi, the mother of Kagami and Tsukasa, refused to let him do any physical exams on any of her daughters. Konata, compared to her father, on the other hand never seemed to be driven to do anything outside prewar games and comics/manga.

As life when on for her it only seemed to get more and more drab and dull. The General Occupation Aptitude Test was fast approaching, but still she didn't feel any excitement for it. The GOAT test was designed to quiz all 16 year old students with a variety of questions that would determine their future. Kagami was taking it very seriously and spent the last month on auto-pilot studying for it. She isolated Konata and her sister almost completely. Miyuki, although probably more intelligent than Kagami, had nothing to fear from the test, her job was sealed. Tsukasa had tried to take it seriously and to some extent Konata admired that, but she got to easily distracted. That worked for her though so she had someone to spend time with.

Kagami growled in frustration at all the notes in front of her, Mr. Brotch was apparently unable to give any information on the GOAT so she resorted to studying everything there was to study in Vault 101. Every last computer document and prewar book and been scavenged by her to be used in her furious studying. She didn't even realize how much information she had taken in, Kagami was now the closet thing to an encyclopedia her friends had. Miyuki was probably smarter but Konata felt it necessary to bother mainly her.

Two days before the big day and there was still so much to learn and take in, but just not enough time; and Kagami absolutely refused to be stuck in the service or security industry. She had heard loose rumors that a long time ago other vaults sometimes would allow students to become overseers if they scored well enough. But those records were nearly 100 years old. The vaults were designed to be independent with little communication to the others, but every single vault within at least 500 miles of 101 had gone silent over the years. That mystery still kept her awake at night; Vault 101 had plenty of supplies to keep them all live comfortably for the end of time. What went wrong? That was something she didn't want to think about.

Her train of thought was shattered by an onslaught of noise from behind her.

"Valentine Day Kiss!" Tsukasa sang along to the radio in their home, a lot louder than Kagami would have preferred. Not to mention Konata cheering her on wasn't helping.

"Shouldn't you two be studying for the test that determines what you do for rest of your life?" She groaned at them. Kagami had been over this before but they refused to listen, or Konata would steer Tsukasa astray again.

"Kagamin you've been studying for weeks now, they're going to make you Laser Jesus so just relax." Konata smirked at her. Laser Jesus was apparently her new thing, when ever Kagami tried to work had she was apparently aspiring to be Laser Jesus. Tsukasa giggled in the background at that.

"Well if you want to live out your life as a janitor that's not my problem." She retorted. "But Tsukasa, moms going to be pissed if she finds out you're the new person who gets to go and clean out the pipes when the sewage backs up." Her younger twin looked at her in shock.

"Do people actually have to do that, onee-chan?" She nervously asked.

"Oh yeah, they'd probably make Konata do it but she's to small and puny, but you're the right size. You have to be careful though, mutated crab people live down there; and they have foot long claws that can snap your head right off." Her lie worked. Tsukasa turned off the radio and sprinted towards her desk and instantly began reading. Kagami didn't have the heart to tell her that she was now taking notes out of the book Konata had left on that desk. The Zombie Survival Guide.

"I know a good job for you." Konata said in probably the most serious voice Kagami had heard from her all week. "You could be the new fun police."

"This is important Konata, you're my friend and I don't want to see you have to waste your life doing some terrible job every day. You've told me how boring our lives here are, this is your chance to try and make it better." Kagami had tried this argument before but nothing seemed to get through to her.

Konata said nothing and twiddled her toes. She hated it when Kagami pulled guilt trip arguments like that, yet at the same time it felt great to know her friend cared about her like that. It tore her up inside thinking about it.

"I'm going to see what Miyuki-san doing." She muttered and walked out.

OUR FATE IS DECIDED BY A FARM ANIMAL

Time flew by fast and the day of the test was finally here. Kagami had to struggle to wake her twin up on time, Tsukasa had insisted on staying up all night working on studying. Konata, however, had other plans on how to handle the GOAT.

"No dad, I'm sick really." Konata said in a low voice and faked two more coughs.

"Well according to this you're a perfectly healthy sixteen year old girl." Her father replied reading off a print out from his medical terminal. "Now go and take the GOAT, it's not that bad and we all have to do it. Not to mention it wouldn't do your mother any good if she knew her daughter was working as a janitor." He seldom brought up her dead mother, but this time he felt Konata need a bit of a push.

Konata was about to get up and leave when she asked. "Tell me more about mom." Partly due to her own curiosity, partly to consume more time.

"You know she died giving birth to you." Konata nodded silently. Soujio took a deep breath. He had to be careful when talking about Kanata with Konata, his late wife had made him promise that he'd make sure that Konata was never aware of the thing she had done. "Well, she never stopped loving you until the end. She was…so eager to meet you and make a place for you in the world." Most of the time he would entertain her with stories of the fun stuff they did before she was born. The vault sounded like a much more exciting place back then. However, no other adults ever mentioned Sojiro or Kanata or what they were like. It seemed to Konata they must have been invisible to the other residents.

Do they see me that way too? She thought grimly.

"Well, I'm gonna go take the GOAT now." Konata said in a near whisper and trudged off. She would like to hear more about her mother, but it almost didn't seem fair to hear how great she was when Konata herself had accomplished so little here. The thought almost brought tears to her eyes. Was she the only one who felt so insignificant in this cooped up little vault?

Before she could dwell on self pity some more something caught her attention.

"Why even bother showing your pretty little face 'round here if you're gonna just get to be the overseer when your old lady croaks over?" It sounded like someone was picking on Miyuki. By the sound of the voices it was Butch and his little crowd, they now went by the name "Tunnel Snakes." Konata secretly wished Kagami had taken up on her gang idea and called themselves the "Moe Drills"

"But why pick in Yuki-chan, she's the nicest person in the vault?" Konata wondered to herself. She rounded a corner and saw the three of them surrounding Miyuki, instead of the blue and yellow jumpsuits that everyone else wore they had blue jeans and leather jackets with their gangs name stitched. How they got a hold of the material for that was a mystery no one could solve.

"Leave Yuki-chan alone!" She yelled at them, it was more of a squeak but an intimidating one at that. For added affect she gave one of Butches minions, Paul Hannon a shove.

The three of them instantly turned their focus to her. Very suddenly she felt very small with the three of them towering over her, Butch looked down on her and laughed. His 50's greaser style hair made her insides boil with rage for some reason she couldn't explain.

"Well looky here boys little Izumi is trying to stick up for her gal friend." Butch mocked her and the other joined in with laughter.

Maybe I could get a job in security Konata thought as she brought her booted foot into the soft part between Butches legs. She silently thanked whoever was watching over her for making boots part of the mandatory dress regulations.

"Get her!" Butch choked through the pain. Then they were on her. Maybe one she could have handled, but all three was too much. Miyuki disappeared from the scene, Konata presumed she went to go get help since the class room as only a thirty seconds walk away.

After a minute or two of beatings all hope seemed lost. She took another split lip then decided to it was time to fall back and regroup, they weren't going to let her crawl away so easy. Maybe Butch had been having a bad day or something but Konata knew there was probably some reason for his merciless beating; he was always fighting people, but today seemed worse.

With a flurry of lilac hair her guardian angel had arrived.

"Get the hell off of her, she's half your size you fucking jerk!" That was the first time Konata had ever heard Kagami swear like that.

Butch practically flew off her as Kagami pulled him. It was hard to see from her angle but Konata saw what looked like her pigtailed friend beating the two others into a bloody pulp. It didn't take long for them to scamper off.

"Kona-chan are you okay?" It was a rhetorical question due to the fact that she had a split lip a black eye and probably a broken bone or two.

"Had…to…stick up for Yuki-chan." Konata muttered through her split lip, it hurt to talk, but that was her favorite thing to do and a little pain wouldn't stop her.

"Let's get you to Dr. Izumi." Kagami said got her to her feat. She collapsed back down instantly and winced.

"Kagamin…" She said, wincing again.

"Yeah what is it?" Konata could see the worried look in her eyes and couldn't help but feel flattered.

"Don't call my dad Dr. Izumi, it sounds weird." Were her last words before she passed out.

SEPTEMBER 27TH 2277

In the years to come, Konata would consider the day of the GOAT test to be the worst day of her life. Later she would wish her bad days were that simple but for now that would suffice as a worse day ever.

Two days later she had to take the GOAT test alone. She did terribly, it may have been the pain or the anxiety or the fact that the questions were all hypothetical situations with multiple choice answers. The score she got back told her due to her extremely violent and reckless nature she would be forced into custodial duty to prevent a violent incident. At the time it actually seemed funny.

Tsukasa became a chef, the job suited her well and she was a good cook. Sometimes the GOAT did get it right.

Kagami, who was furious when she found out that her studying had been for nothing, did amazing on the test. Although the parameters forbid her to become overseer she felt like she could have had a shot at it in a different world. The score she got back recommended her to become the new chief engineer of all vault equipment. Not what she had expected but at least there was some variety, and also in the event that the doctor, pip-boy programmer, police chief, or teacher were absent she would be next in line for that career if she saw fit.

The four girls friendship faltered a bit after the GOAT, with no more school and plenty of work they didn't see each other nearly as much. But every morning Konata would stop in at the vault cafeteria to eat pancakes and discuss the latest happenings with Tsukasa. Generally there were no latest happenings.

Three years went by and the girls became adults and adjusted themselves to the lives chosen for them. In hindsight Konata realized that Kagami was probably right about taking the time to study.

INTO THE FLOOD AGAIN

Sojiro had been planning this for years but today was the day. He awoke at four AM and quickly gathered his things and woke Jonas too. Jonas would help him in all of this. He didn't regret his life in the vault but he knew his previous work was more important than anything he could hope to accomplish here.

"Are we taking her along too?" Jonas asked, breaking the silence in the dark halls as they walked towards the massive steel doors that led to the outside world.

"No." He replied quickly. "You know my reasons." Jonas nodded. Leaving his daughter here was going to be the hardest thing he'd ever done, harder than stepping away from the project him and Kanata worked on before she died. That project was worth sacrificing to secure a safe life for his baby girl. Away from the hell of the wastes. She probably wouldn't understand it now, but Konata was better off here.

They had expected complications with leaving the vault; Overseer Takara had a strict policy of isolationism after her husband died in a scouting party just before her daughter was born.

Sojiro typed in the password that activated the massive steel door and watched as it opened with a deafening rusty screech; but they weren't going to be allowed to just leave like that.

SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER…

"Hey Gomez, looks like Jonas and the Doc are making a break for it!" Chief Hannon called out as he saw the two figures begin make they way for the door. They knew their duties, Takara hadn't been clear one what to do if someone tried to escape but he knew what she meant. He grabbed and loaded his 10mm pistol.

THEN ABOUT AN HOUR LATER…

Konata bolted out of her sleep as soon as she heard her name being called.

"Konata, wake up, you've got to get up!" It was Miyuki and she sounded desperate. A quick glance at the clock told her it was five in the morning. Maybe one of her secret fantasies about to come true.

"Ah, Yuki-chan I was just dreaming about you." She blurted out without thinking.

"What? No Kona-chan this is serious." Miyuki looked like she had been crying, and her normally well groomed appearance seemed messy, and her glasses were gone. Konata knew something was wrong if her glasses were gone; her pink haired friend had the worse eyesight of any post apocalyptic survivor on the planet. Then the sirens going off confirmed that something was wrong.

"Miyuki, what's going on?" She asked slowly.

"Your dad tried to leave the vault and they shot Jonas and then a whole bunch of radroaches got loose and now the security team has gone crazy and shooting at people!" It came out as one jumbled crying mess, but Konata could make out most of it.

"Sorry, but they're coming for you next you have to get out of here!" Miyuki warned. Konata saw her pull something out of the large pockets of her Vault 101 jumpsuit and had it to her.

A 10mm pistol.

"Promise you'll only use it as a last resort?" Miyuki asked,she trying hard to keep more tears back.

"Promise." Konata confirmed. That same feeling she got when she first held that BB gun nine years ago. For added firepower she grabbed her old Vault Little League baseball bat and headed out.

It was her time to leave this cooped up vault once and for all. Maybe one day she'd come back and grab all her friends too after she took over what was left of the world.

VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCE

"Tsukasa I told you a thousand times you have to turn your pip-boy off when you shower. It shorts it out and it's a pain to fix." Kagami scolded, this was the third time this had happened in the last two months.

"Sorry onee-chan I'll remember next time." Tsukasa sounded unconscious, after a full night of working on this she didn't know how she was going to finish her shift without falling asleep on the stove.

"Kagami Hiiragi!" A male voice shouted as the door opened.

"That'd be me." She greeted him; her job came with all sorts of random interruptions by people. This one was a security officer; she guessed he spilled coffee on a terminal or something. Kagami noticed this was one of the lackeys from Butch's gang; so they were coming to get her because someone stuck a fork in an electrical socket.

"Come with us, Dr. Izumi managed to get the vault door open and you're the only one who has the know how to close it right now." He explained.

"Get Jonas to do it." She waved him off.

"Jonas is dead!" That got her attention. With only a couple debriefing words she grabbed a bewildered Tsukasa and dragged her to the front gate.

She had no idea why Konata's dad had finally cracked and gone crazy, or why they shot up her boss; but she was going to find out for sure.

Kagami had to hive Soujiro credit, the password he changed the vault door controls to be was a hard one to crack. Luckily all Robco model computers were stupidly easy to hack with their poor setup. Kagami took advantage of it.

Just a few more minutes and she would have it.

Then all hell broke loose.

"Kagami, Tsukasa! I'll save you from them." And there was Konata sprinting towards them with…Kagami cringed…a gun.

Before she could say that the three security guards around her were not keeping her hostage, or wonder how the hell Konata had gotten a Tunnel Snake jacket; she opened fire.

The three guards dropped dead around her, their blood splattered against Kagami's white lab coat. Tsukasa grabbed onto her and buried her head to muffle a scream.

"Konata what the hell are you doing!" She screamed. For the first time in her life, actually screamed. Logic quickly took place inside her again and remembered her job. She spun around to the control panel and went to finish up the password.

"Ilovegirlswithglasses"

Before she could press the switch that would close the door, the unexpected continued to happen.

The guards who had arrived just now behind her decided to open fire on the three of them. The next thirty seconds were a blur, she remembered gunshots, screaming, Tsukasa screaming and running. Lots of running. They were running the wrong way though, her feet wouldn't work correctly and before she knew it…

Her, Konata, and her fraternal twin were on the outside of the vault. They had run up through a cave and out a rotting wooden door.

Out into the sunlight and wind. Behind them the vault door closed. For the first time the three girls felt warm sunshine and a light breeze touch their skin. This was the beginning, and none of them could have begun to fathom what would happen over the next few months.

If someone went back in time and told them what would happen; Kagami would have laughed in their face.

SO IT BEGINS

Well that's it for chapter 1. I hope I managed to weed out most of the mistakes I made, I also made a lot of grammatical corrections in order to make it smoother to read. Also, if you're a new reader don't let the 70+ reviews discourage you from writing one. I read and individually cherish each one like a baby made of pixels and text.

Also I dedicate the song Would by Alice In Chains to this chapter. Lyrically fitting from Sojiro's point of view I guess, at least the last part of it. I thought up a song to go with every chapter and as I go on editing them I'll include them at the end. Why? Because I can, and also if someone knows that song they might think, "Oh man I know that song, it does fit doesn't it?" And that's a cool feeling if you've felt it. Plus I never would have been able to write this without music, and some songs just really stuck with me when I was writing.