The next morning began with the alarm on the nightstand tuning into a very local radio broadcast from within the Vault town, and Mardy Bum by The Arctic Monkeys played softly signaling the day had started. Your tired eyes open, gaze fixed on the ceiling, they then move to the sleeping mass that was Catherine nestled up to your chest, her arms draped across you. There was only a thin sheet covering the both of you, body heat being the main thing keeping things comfortable. You roll her off of you and make your way to the bathroom for much needed relief, "It's fucking cold now you dick." comes from the other room faintly muffled through a pillow. Charming. You sound back "Good morning to you too."
	Not long after you and the poor example of a morning person are dressed and presentable, the loudspeakers crackle out "All residents please check your doorstep for a package, instructions are inside." this repeats twice more before returning the morning to its calm. Catherine looks at you and motions to the door, she then drops her head back to the table half asleep still. You just laugh to yourself and go to retrieve the package. Setting it on the table you peel away the tape to see what goodies the government had for little old you. Inside were two devices with Pip-Boy Tactical written across the top of a small screen, the included note read 'Congratulations brave service member! Before you is the pinnacle in handheld computing designed by none other than RobCo Industries, the Pip-Boy Tactical! Perfect for any and all of your operating needs, including but not limited to: inventory management, user health status, radio signal scrubber, Geiger counter and many more!' it figures that those would be the instructions, this elicits a sigh out of you and Catherine looks up to determine its cause, lazily scanning over the box and its contents then chuckling at the 'instructions' tossing them aside. She digs into the box and finds two wrist mounting setups for the Pip-boys, optional it seems should you desire to keep a glowing dull yellow back-lit screen off your arm. Navigated with a series of buttons on the right side of the horizontal screen you find an additional one on the side of the Pip-boy and hold it down until it sparks to life, displaying a smiling character giving you a thumbs up with a small loading bar below him. The screen changes again and displays your name and another cartoon character that bore a certain likeness to you, alongside basic medical information like heart rate and body temperature. "Looks like these things do what they say at least, maybe those instructions weren't so full of it." you remark. Catherine turns hers on and nods before turning off the screen, standing up and slipping it in her back pocket. You couldn't help but admire her ass, she caught your gaze and sent you a wink in return smiling all the while. Suddenly your Pip-boy blinked on and displayed a message ordering everyone to report to the depot for the next task.
	In the center of the town just a stone's throw away from the looming vault door sat a warehouse that dwarfed all the trailers surrounding it, with a paved road that ran directly in front and continued all the way to the vault's door. At the entrance a man stood with a clipboard was overseeing trucks coming in and offloading a variety of supplies, varying from ammo cans to large crates. You and Catherine walk up to a few long lines just inside that led up to a few desks and follow suit choosing the shortest. Speakers inside the warehouse sparked on, "The task at hand is to finish stocking the Vault with anything and everything it could need for the next few centuries, you being the intended inhabitants will be responsible for this, please approach the tables in an orderly fashion to further define what are where you are taking the supplies". Catherine turns to you "Centuries? Looks like we're in it for the long haul here, hope they have a few decks of cards mixed in at least." Not long after that you two reach the table and report your names, "Ian and Catherine then? You will be seeing that the reloading benches and distillery equipment makes its way into the vault, please plug your Pip-boys in here to download information about where the equipment is now and where it is going." You turn to Catherine in disbelief with it clearly showing on your face, she just shrugs and says "At least we'll have something more than cards to keep the morale up." You follow the information on your Pip-boy to a set of boxes in the corner of the warehouse and sure enough several boxes have 'DISTILLERY' stenciled onto the side. "Sure as hell is going to keep my morale up."
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	Shortly after finding the boxes you return to them with a pair of loadlifter robots to carry the heavy crates and begin to make your way to the vault's door. The massive scale of the door couldn't properly be admired from anywhere but right at the foot, easily 20 meters in diameter it could admit any hardware the military decided to stuff into the vault. Just inside the door were two lifts to drop things down to depths that were the true vault. You, Catherine and the robots patiently wait on the right side lift with other couples, their robots in tow. while the lift starts its descent to the second part of the airlock a couple hundred meters down. Just outside the airlock was a kind of open staging area with garages lined on either side leading up to the second vault door, smaller than the first but still 15 meters tall and at least two thick. After making your way through the second door and down to the level containing the mess hall and kitchens, a string of Slavic syllables can be heard from deeper inside the kitchen leading to a set of very confused looks between you and Catherine. Very carefully and slowly you creep forward, Catherine stays close behind you, you round the corner of a counter top investigating further. From off to your right a man comes out of a doorway looks at you and Catherine sneaking around in a crouch and the confusion was palpable he starts "What in the fuck are you doing" with an accent that would place him as the owner of the Slavic from before.
	The man introduced himself as Peter, he and his wife Naomi were immigrants from Poland selected by the government as vault dwellers here. "We're in charge of setting up that distillery you were kind enough to bring down for us, mind giving us a hand?" You and Catherine began to follow the instructions helping Peter and Naomi in exchange for answering any questions about their strange circumstances. Catherine opened with a simple "So exactly how did you end up here?" and Peter was the one to answer. He started to explain "Back in Poland I was JWK commando (most similar to a Polish Navy Seal) combat medic involved in operations against Soviet forces aimed at disrupting supply chains to start whittling down their forces, several months into the conflict and many successful missions later the squad I served with caught a lull in the fighting and was allowed to return home for a short amount of time. Two days into our rest one of my brothers was found dead in his home with his entire family slaughtered, his body nailed to a makeshift cross in the living room, It was a certainty that the Soviets were responsible and the rest of the squad feared it was the KGB having found our identities putting everyone and their families in danger. We all appealed to a commanding officer with our suspicions but were waived off until 3 days later when 2 more families were found slaughtered in a similar manner. With that the CO finally decided to do something about it and struck a deal with your General Mitchell for the inclusion of me and two other squad members with their wives in this vault project." You could understand the fear he had for his wife and squad members, all too well you understood after surviving multiple incidents the rest of your assigned squad would not. One of the incidents involved the Soviet Spetsnaz that you tried to forget to no avail as it still returned in your dreams. Catherine expressed her condolences for the loss of his squad members but Peter returned a solemn nod and countered "What about you Ian?" as Naomi moved to comfort Peter after he remembered gory details that rose once again. "Well not much unlike you I was a military man serving in Alaska against the Chinese in a counter sniping unit with Marine Recon. I was responsible for scouting enemy defensive lines, trying to find signs of an impending attack and reporting coordinates for ordnance drops on valuable assets to the Chinese. Then one day at the FOB I was delivered a letter with very few details that led me here. Speaking of details I still know very few about this vault." Peter replied shrugging "This is a classified project unknown to the public and most of the military and government. Its something very few, very special people know about including you, Catherine and anyone else selected to live here. Its the only reason I'm comfortable with speaking so freely, nearly everyone here has been involved in black ink operations." You looked at Catherine after hearing 'black ink operations' wondering what she could of been involved in, she met your gaze and understood its question.
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	"From the top then; my parents were emigrants from Italy fleeing a resurgence in mob activity in the south Calabria region, this was before I was born. They settled down in Pennsylvania where they ended up having me, Italian was spoken in the house and I learned English in school as I grew up. This gave me the unique position as a Italian girl that looks and talks like everyone in Calabria but was an american citizen, so not long after the communist revolution against the Mafia's rule started, Suits came to the house and had me drafted into an espionage division of the Navy. From 16 until I was 20 they taught me anything that I would need to know to operate undercover in the Mafia helping them resist the Communists. For a few years after that I lived in an environment where I could trust only Americans on the ships stationed offshore in the Mediterranean. I had to do a lot that I wasn't proud of to maintain my cover, anyone who got too suspicious I had to kill and frame communists for the act. Not to mention the countless hits I was sent on by the Mafia. It was a dark time for me. Being involved in the Vault here is the best kind of fresh start I could of asked for." as Catherine finished her head drooped down ashamed of her past. Your first thought after seeing this was 'I'm going to cuddle her so hard tonight'
	A short 2 hours later the distillery is finally set up, Peter begins running test batches as you and Catherine leave to deliver the reloading equipment to the armory Naomi shouts after you two "Come by our trailer tonight and help us christen the first batch!" Another elevator and a wide set of stairs later you arrive on the floor occupied entirely by the armory, fenced in and with multiple doors to enter there laid what you could only estimate to be millions of rounds of ammunition supplemented by gun racks that stretched back farther than your eyes could see in the spaced lights. After seeing the display Catherine remarked "This really reinforces what the General said about us being important and all that, I mean holy shit you could arm a small country with all of this and have plenty leftover to sell on the black market to fund an island." she wasn't exaggerating. It only takes another 10 minutes to get the boxes where they're going, they were not your responsibility to unpack and assemble, so you and Catherine start making your way back to the trailer to clean up before going to visit Peter and Naomi, the time on your Pip-boy read 1645 and you wonder where the hours went.
	The trailer door slams shut and Catherine collapses onto the small couch holding her face in her hands while letting out a dull groan of exhaustion. You take this as a sign that the first shower was yours and make your way to the bathroom the radio on the nightstand playing faintly in the background. You quickly clean up and start getting comfortably dressed "Shower is all yours" you yell into the other room, a minute later Catherine finally gets up and walks into the bathroom. As you're trying your shoes the bathroom door opens quietly until it lets out a small squeak near the end of its arc, this catches your attention and you look up to see your roommate wrapped in a towel faintly sobbing. She rushes over to you the force laying you flat onto the bed her arms tightly coiled around you neck. "Woah woah woah, Catherine whats wrong?" still firmly pressed against your chest she says "Nothing, that's the funny part." sobs still stagnating her speech "I'm just overjoyed with finally being able to relax and stop looking over my shoulder. I'm glad I have someone close that cares about me again, I'm ecstatic I can start over without fearing my past is going to chase me down, and I'm very glad I have you with me for all of it." she posts herself up on her knees, hands resting on your shoulders while she looks deep into your eyes giving you her trademark smile. Her eyes are still red from crying but you can see a genuine joy buried in them. You pull her into a kiss, one hand at the back of her neck, the other down on her now bare hip to your surprise, the towel must have slipped off at some point. Spurred on by your good fortune the other hand reaches down for a feel, she lets out a high pitched squeal muffled by your lips for your efforts. She pulls away "We were having a nice heart to heart moment and you just had to grab my ass!" she says rather amused and beaming with joy, any sign of her crying had been completely erased from her. You sit up giving her a final lingering kiss then stand the two of you up satisfied with your work making her so happy. "Peter and Naomi are going to tease us if we don't hurry over you know." gesturing for her to get dressed. Catherine obviously has other plans and pushes you right back down onto the bed, pinning you by sitting on your stomach and holding your arms down, she still completely naked. You were sure you could of got out, but why in the world would you want to? She leans over hovering her face just above yours and speaks softly with her sexiest voice "Let them do what they want, you're not getting away with just teasing me like that." dropping her head the final two inches she slips her tongue in you mouth confirming what you thought to be true. Peter and Naomi would be waiting on you two as long as Catherine wanted.

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