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Guest
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Here goes:
EAST COAST
Prologue
The landscape flies by underneath them, dead trees, sand, destroyed ancient cities, sand, giant craters and more sand. William couldn't imagine anything surviving under these circumstances, even though he knows that the west coast was exactly like this less then a hundred years ago. His code name was John Dark, shamelessly ripped of from an early 21st century computer game or so he was told, not worth remembering though since it already is printed on his dog tags. At the left side of the vertibird the scientist, Henry, was looking down at the wastes, diligently taken notes on vegetation and geography while at the right side of the vertibird this teams commando, Fannon, was looking down, taking notes in case an army would ever have to cross this part of the wastes, 'you never know' was his credo. In front, flying the vertibird, was Chitsa, the diplomat, named after her mother, New arroyo's best negotiator and rumor goes that she was one of the candidates for Chosen One 35 years ago. All of the sudden a loud "Yes!!!" rolls through the cabin. Everyone looks at Chitsa with the same question in their eyes.
"I'm picking up something on radar, about 3 minutes east, I think this time it really is a settlement" she said. "Sure you do" is Fannons answer, clearly meant sarcastically "You thought that four times before this week alone! What makes you think…" A bright flash blinds everyone in the vertibird for about two seconds. " What the… the controls don't respond anymore, all the instruments are going crazy! We're going down!" Noise. Darkness.
Chapter 1 Crashed
'Heat, basic training: get away from It!' William carefully, yet as fast as his hurt limbs allow him, crawls away from the smoking wreckage. Then he realizes he wasn't alone in there. He 'runs' back to the vertibird and looks around and sees the motionless body of Henry. Quickly he drags the body away from the wrecked vertibird. He was about 50 feet away from the damn thing when it suddenly bursts into flames, seconds later the fire reached the fuel tank and the vertibird explodes in a great ball of fire, throwing the debris over an area of 100 feet at least. William, coming back to his senses looks around him, at let's say 120 feet from the wreckage lies the body of Fannon, twisted in some angles no body with intact bones in it could imitate, he can't still be alive. It was only then that William noticed the body he was lying on, it was dead too, it was Henry the scientist… and his younger brother. 'That better was an accident!' Soon his rage diminished and he could think clearly again.
'If Chitsa was right and there is a settlement nearby, they might have seen or heard the explosion, or at least see the smoke' William decided to travel east, 3 minutes in a vertibird is an awfully long distance by foot, even though he has walked longer distances. But first he should bury the bodies. Two hours later there were 3 little grave hills, with nothing but a stick with a little flag on it to mark them. In the first grave he buried Henry his brother, in the second grave lies Fannon and the third grave was empty, he couldn't find Chitsa, she must have been trapped inside and burned and after that explosion there wouldn't be much left of her anyway. He had searched the bodies before burying them, but came up with nothing except a pipboy 2000 and some jet, Fannon must have been addicted.
He walked for almost half a day when he saw some kind of brahmin with carts behind them close in on him. 'Thank God, survivors!' The caravan stopped and a man jumped of one of the carts, that what had appeared to be brahmin from a distance turned out to be thinner muscular animals with dark-brown hair all over it and a hint of green of the animals skin was visible through it. The man himself didn't look like he knew what shaving is and two large scars just above his right eye-brow.
"Hello, I'm Karl, leader of this caravan, who are you?"
'He doesn't seem to care about small talk' "I'm" 'mission briefing: try not to give away to much info, not even your name, until you know how and who to talk to' "eh, I'm called John Dark"
"Where are you going to, Mr. William? Have you gone to see where then smoke came from?"
"Ehm, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me where I'm going, and as for the smoke, it's nothing special really, you'd do better to save yourself the time"
"Well now, you really don't know where you are, do you? Well, right now you are only 3 hours away from Last Stop, it's named that, cuz if you'd go west from there you won't come across any civilization ever! And as for the source of the smoke, thanks for the tip, but these kids really want to see for themselves, I already tried to talk them out of it, but now I promised so…"
It wasn't until now William saw the children in the carts. "Isn't it a long trip to take with children?"
"Not at all, these horses are pretty fast, especially since they mutated and grown stronger, or at least, that's what my granddad used to tell, now if you'll excuse me, I wanna be back by diner time"
William saw the caravan start to move again and he noticed that these 'horses' really are strong. Soon the caravan was out of sight, William turned and started walking again, while trying to get the pipboy working.
Chapter 2 Last Stop
It was about 3pm as William walked through the gate. The town mostly consisted of tents and buildings made out of scrap, plating, whatever was at hand, these people must be scavengers. William wandered around town for a while, mapping it with his mind, since his pipboy still wasn't operational. There were only few public buildings, something that appeared to be a general store, a supply store that probably sells medical supplies and foods. No sheriff's office or government building. There was only one building that was made out of brick, all the way to the back, it had another building attached to it filled with carts and horses, that must be the stables. There's a big sign above the door: 'Last Stop Inn' 'How catchy, not. Well, that seems like a good place to start anyway.'
The first thing he noticed once inside was that the place was almost entirely empty, except for the bartender, a drunk at the bar, two guys sitting at a table in a dark corner and a young girl, probably the bartenders daughter or waitress, or both, there was no one there. William never being a people-person walked at the bartender, trying to ignore all the eyes looking at him. Part of him was happy he had found civilization, while the other part thought: 'Why the fuck did she had to crash-land next to this shithole!? There is hardly anyone in town and no one seems to be trustworthy, then again, to me no one ever does. And why didn't I see a sheriff's office? And why am I so paranoid!? Oh well, I guess the barkeeper will be able the answer most of these.'
"What'll it be, stranger?"
"Huh, whah?"
"Ya've been standing here staring at the wall for 5 minutes now"
"Eh? Oh, yeah, ehm, anything"
"Ya look like a troubled man to me. Go ahead, tell me, what are bartenders for?"
"Ehm, you don't happen to know someone who's good at fixing things, you know, antiquities, pre-war stuff?"
"Not in this town, stranger, but maybe someone down south would be able to help yah. Scooter they call him. Yah ever been to the Crater?"
"The what?"
"The Crater, yah ain't 'xactly the smartest one are yah? It's a town, what'm I sayin, a city build in one of those bomb craters, they use the edges of the crater as walls, got only one opening in it. I don't know why it has no real name, just guess the bastards were to lazy to think of one."
"Sounds like the place to be, how do I get there?"
"Well, a caravan is passing through town in a week, maybe yah can tag along with them, saves yah alotta time, especially if yah ain't got a map."
"Thanks and before I forget, isn't there some type of law enforcement around here? I didn't see any."
"That's becuz we don't need any around here. And no one is stupid enough to actually risk getting lynched by an angry mob."
"Thanks for the info, I'll be going now, take a look around town, maybe I'll see you, maybe I won't"
Back outside William decides he'd stay here to wait for the caravan, but no caravan would take him unless he had some kind of weapon, so priority number one right now is to get one. 'How would the Chosen One have solved this?'
'I feel like a thief, what, I am a thief!' William thought to himself ravaging through the shelves of one of the homes he saw on his way in. But all he found until now was some meat jerky and a kitchen knife, how is he supposed to kill someone with that, no, he had to get his equipment somewhere else. His standard issue sniper rifle, hunting knife and combat armor were still in the vertibird, and besides, those wouldn't be very useful by now, probably burned and all. Well then, he had to make some money, or whatever it was people use for currency around here.
Six days had passed, it was only four days ago that the vertibird was found, 2 of the caravaners and 3 of the children lying dead next to it, probably beaten to death, because most of their bones were broken, the rest missing. The townspeople sent out an expedition to salvage whatever they could, after all, these people were scavengers. William almost attacked one of the expeditions when he saw that on the back, lying on top of a pile of debris, were Henry and Fannon. It was that same day William discovered that he was getting careless, a girl asked him about the drawings on his sleeves, he then quickly tore the New Arroyo Elites insignia of them, his stripes and nametag were treated no different.
The caravan was to arrive by the afternoon, he really should go to the general store about now. In the last week he gained some understanding in this society, prices and hierarchy, which in this case wasn't present. He made enough money and 'found' enough other stuff to trade and so he bought a leather jacked and a knife, at least it beats what he had. During the weak he also found something that functions like the stimpacks do in the West, they heal a little less and are taken like yet, the color was a little greenish. The caravan arrived. Joining the caravan proved quite simple, he just offered to come along for less than halve the normal fee and of they go.
Chapter 3 the Crater
Sundown. They encountered hardly any trouble, even though William did find out that raiders 'and' rats are the hardest to extinct during a nuclear holocaust. Now, they were almost there and William could see it already. The crater was huge, with a big gap in the surrounding wall, even from this distance William could see that the entrance was guarded heavily. There were several small buildings outside the walls, mostly stables and warehouses plus the occasional guardhouse, you'd probably have to pay tax for whatever animal or excess baggage you take into the city.
When they arrived the sun was down, it was dark, very dark, but all through the 'outer city' campfires were burning. The caravan stopped and the men were being paid, finally the caravan master stepped up to William.
"So, we're there, here's your money, have fun with it."
"Thanks"
"Will you be coming back with us? We're leaving in a couple of hours."
"No, I have to get something fixed and I have no business back there, for now at least."
"Well good luck to you, don't you know they charge ridiculous amounts of money for non citizens and people without any other kind of authorization? This part of the wastes is crowded with raiders and it's a miracle we only encountered 5 of them. You got easy money this time. So, you must understand that these people do anything to protect their city. You'll never get in."
"We'll see, so, gotta run."
'I didn't learn to sneak around this well for fun, well, maybe a little. Only a rat can sneak in there easier then I can.' He started walking towards the gate and then stopped at 30 feet from it, there was a fire burning in the middle of the road, illuminating the entire passageway. 'Shit! Sneaking by is out of the question, I've got to get something to get me past that checkpoint'
"You wanna get in?"
"Huh, what the…" He turned around to see no one, or at least, so he thought, cause suddenly he felt something pulling down his sleeve and as he looked, he noticed a little boy looking at him, probably not even 10 years old.
"And now how would you be able to help me? Your not even 10 years old!"
"11, I'm 11." The boy said, somewhat agitated. "And I can help you, to get inside, if you can give me something I want in exchange."
"Like what?" William answered, trying to hide the sarcasm.
"Get me inside. I'm trying to get inside as well and I already have a plan, but I need a partner to do it."
"Let's hear the plan first, then I'll decide."
"There is another way in, through the barracks, I know where it is, but I can disguise myself as a guard, simply because of my age. But you could, so I need you to get inside the barracks, open the back door for me and then follow me. That's all."
"Pretty good, plan, certainly for someone your age, I'll do it. Lead the way and what was your name again?"
"I didn't tell you and you didn't tell me either. So mine's Suli, now what's yours?"
"Joh… William."
After looking around a bit William noticed one of the guards walking the same route over and over again. He took position at one of the small buildings the guard passed and waited, and waited, and waited. Just as William started thinking the guard wouldn't show up he saw the guard pass by, in a hurry. 'Well, well. It looks like somebody's gotta go to the bathroom.' He followed the guard, who walked several yards away from the outer city before disappearing behind a pile of rocks, they looked dangerous just sitting there. He closed in on the rocks and he could already hear a small stream of water hit the ground follow by a sigh. He picked up a club that was lying against a rock, probably the guard's club, who put it there so it wouldn't 'interfere' with his 'bathroom experience', to bad for him.
The water stopped and only a few seconds after that, the guard appeared from around the corner, only to have a close encounter with his own weapon. The guard rolled his eyes and looked like he was going to say something, but then went through his knees, without making a single sound.
"And you call yourself a guard?"
William checked the body 'He won't come to for at least 4 hours.' and then searched the guard. It didn't seem like you could talk of a uniform, all the guards simply wore the same colors, dark-brown and a badge. William put on the guards jacked over his and pinned the badge on and turned around, that's when he saw Suli.
"I didn't hear you."
"And he didn't hear you, or so it looks."
"No, now, how do we go on from here?"
"Follow me."
Every thing went according to plan, William got in easily, no questions asked, the backdoor was there, Suli was there, but one thing that wasn't there was… the other route. Suli had this map showing him a tunnel leading from the Barracks through the wall, but there was not tunnel, the boy had been lied to. William couldn't help smiling, he should have known not to trust a child with matters this important, one way or the other, he already had a new plan. He grabbed Suli at the arm and dragged him into the main room of the barracks.
"What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!!"
"Hey, what's with the kid!?" One of the guards shouted at William.
"He ran away from home and I chased him all the way here. Someone left the backdoor open so he ran in. Go close it, I'll take him home."
"Has he got an ID?"
"No, you really think kids carry these things around al the time? He didn't take it so that we wouldn't be able to send him back."
"Well then kiddo, your little plan failed. Go ahead, bring him back."
Suli walked along quietly, until William pinched him, knowing what he meant by it he started screaming and resisting again.
As they just went through the gate William stopped to look. It was enormous, the entire crater was filled with buildings, mostly made out of scrap, but a lot. There must be almost as much people living here as in New Arroyo, only under much worse conditions. The entire town was lighted by fires in old oil drums standing at the sides of the streets and even at this hour the streets were crowded and the bars were swallowing and spitting out customers non stop.
"guess it's payday." Suli said smiling. "Well, gotta go, maybe I'll see you again sometime."
"Uh, yeah, bye."
He knew this town may be his salvation, cause once he had his pipboy repaired he would not only have access to his mission data, encyclopedia and map, but also be able to use his communicator and send a message to NAE headquarters. At this time of the night it would probably be hard to find an open repair shop, so William decided to take a look around town and then finding a place to sleep, he hasn't slept for 3 straight days, because the route the caravan took was so damn dangerous, even though he didn't notice much of that.
The streets were even more crowded than it had seemed from the edge of the crater, people were walking from one bar to the other and if he had to guess he'd say over 60 per cent of them was drunk already. He threw the dirty clothes he took of the guard in one of the burning barrels, yet kept the badge, you never know. He talked to a lot of people to find out some more about this town and since most of them were drunk they didn't really notice that the questions he asked wouldn't be asked by a citizen. It turned out that at this day it was exactly 200 years ago that the first bombs dropped and this day was used to celebrate the protection the crater provided these people, the day was called, you can guess, 'protection day'. In this town there is police, but he already knew that, he knocked one out not even an hour ago. The police in these parts seem to focus all there efforts on a cult that believes there is some being in the wastes controlling these people, without them realizing. Cults seem to be of all times. As he informed about antiquities, he got several reactions. This town was build on a crater of a nuke and William already knew that, but what he didn't know is that there was a big city at the spot of the crater before the war already. The entire town lived of the 'artifacts' they dug up an sold to traders, pre-war artifacts. There weren't many people in town who actually understood the technology, but there were a few pseudo-scientists living in a pre-war structure at the excavation site who spend a lot of time taking the artifacts apart and reassembling them again. His hopes went down after hearing this, but he probably shouldn't have expected anyone with the skills his brother or any of the other California scientist have. Yet he'd still try. He'll find out more tomorrow, no his first priority is finding a place to sleep, since it is unlikely he'd find any open stores at this time of the night.
The next morning the first beams of light falling through the window awakened him. The crappy excuse for a hotel he stayed in was named Echelon. The bartender told him the hotel was named after a pre-war facility that used to be one of the biggest espionage agencies ever, because his wife always had all the latest gossip, pretty twisted, but what the hell. After paying his bill with the money he made on the caravan he stepped outside to see… Junk, junk lying around everywhere, besides tons of empty beer and booze bottles the was metal and wood lying against the sides of the building. One of the people 'in charge of' cleaning the place up stepped up to him and told him this stuff's been lying around for ages, so to speak. To repair the houses and stuff like that.
After looking around for a while William saw a general store. It didn't have anything special, at least compared to what's available in the black market and illegal weapon shops around New Reno, but compared to what he already had that 'junk' was very, very useful. He talked to some more people, but none of them really told him anything new, except for some people who thought this cult he heard of didn't think of itself as a cult, but more considered themselves to be some kind of resistance against some sort of (imaginary) being that tries to control everything. Same crap anywhere.
By the afternoon he arrived at the excavation site, in the back, as far from the gate as you could possibly get. Out of the side of the site, which looked like a quarry, was a building sticking out, it obviously was built before the war, so this had to be where the 'archaeologists' are. In from of the building there was a small piece of a wall, with on that wall a brass plate saying 'Vandewater Institute'. William entered the building, the hallway was poorly lit with flares attached to the walls, the way it was lit strongly reminded him of the temple of trials, which used to be the temple where the possible Chosen Ones were tested, nowadays it's just another part of the New Arroyo Memorial park, filled with art and monuments. When he reached the end of the hall he saw two doors, one of them was locked. 'At least that keeps the choice simple, for now.' He entered the open door and came in a room filled with workbenches and tables, shovels and other tools were standing next to the door, and across the room sitting at one of the benches and apparently working on something was one of the 'scientists'. The scientist heard the door open and turned around.
"Who the fuck are you!? What makes you think you can just barge right in here!? Don't you see I'm working on something here!?"
"What the fuck makes YOU think you can speak at such a tone to me!? I've walked along side with a caravan for over a week just to find someone who understands pre-war tech and the first egghead I meet tries to byte my head of! Forget it! I'll find someone else to repair it!"
The tone in the man's voice changed dramatically and his eyes clearly showed curiosity.
"I'm sorry, I've been trying to figure out what that thing is for days and I still don't have a clue, now what did you say you need repaired?"
"Why that thing? Ha, that's a holodisk, a data storage cassette, which you could access if you had a working pipboy, which I don't have, I have a broken one, that's what I needed repaired."
"A what? You mean this thing of yours can tell me what's on that disk? Where did you get this kind of knowledge anyway?"
"Different places. And yes, it can, it also has a cartographer in it and archives, at least, it would if it would work properly and the holodisk isn't to severely damaged."
"And what exactly would I get for repairing this thing?"
"How about the unique opportunity to study it and the information on that holodisk?"
"Hmmm, plus 500 bucks?"
"200" William said after quickly counting the money he had left from his caravan drive.
"Deal, come back in let's say, 3 hours."
"I haven't got anything to do right now, I think I'll stay."
For countless hours the scientist, who's name was Donald, worked on the pipboy until finally he thought it should work. William quickly pressed the 'On' button.
PIPBOY 2000 DELUXE - LIMITED EDITION
INITIALIZING ----------------------------------------
SCANNING SURROUNDINGS - AUTOMAP ACTIVE
UNKNOWN FINGERPRINT
INPUT USERNAME, PASSWORD AND SERIAL NUMBER
USERNAME: W I L L I A M A K A J O H N D A R K
PASSWORD: * * * * * * * * CONFIRMED
SERIAL NUMBER: B M O - 0 5 2 3 / 2 CONFIRMED
ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL - ALL SOFTWARE INTACT - NO VIRUSSES DETECTED
THANK YOU FOR USING VAULTTEC PIPBOY 2000 DELUXE
"It works! Yes!"
"Wow! Cool! Now, how about my holodisk and payment?"
"Here's the money and give me the holodisk."
"No!"
"Do you know how this thing works?"
"No, well OK, here you go."
"Look, you just put this end of the disk into this port here and…"
NEW HOLODISK DETECTED, SCANNING FOR VIRUSSES, NEGATIVE.
COPYING FILE --------------------------------------------------
ACCESS FILE NOW? Y/N
_________________________________________________________________________________
"FINAL REQUEST"
THE BOMBS ARE DROPPING ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY. I AM GOING TO TRY AND REACH THE SAFETY OF A VAULT BUT THE STREETS ARE SO CROWDED WITH PANICKING PEOPLE I DOUBT WEITHER I WILL REACH ONE. I LEAVE THIS DISK HERE IN CASE I DO NOT MAKE IT TO THE VAULT. IT HOLDS MY LAST REQUEST: PLEASE, NO BIOGRAPHY.
SMITH, J.
_________________________________________________________________________________
"That's all?"
"I'm afraid so, but if you have any more of these be quick with it, cause I'll be leaving soon."
"Where did you get this thing? You must have come from across the canyon."
"The canyon? Where is that? And what's on the other side?"
"So your not from over there huh? Well, I don't know where it is, but I do know that it's rumored that at the other side is a city with lot's of scientists and even more WORKING pre-war artifacts."
"Well, I don't think I'll ever be going there, but thanks for your help."
Once back outside William looked for a quiet spot and took his pipboy.
COMMUNICATIONS
ACCESSING ENCLAVENET [ERROR]
ESTABLISHING UPLINK TO NAE HEADQUARTERS [ERROR]
SEARCHING FOR CAUSE OF ERROR
ELECTRO MAGNETIC INTERFERANCE DETECTED
ATTEMPTING TO ADAPT [ERROR]
ADJUSTING FREQUENTY [NO EFFECT]
ATTEMPTING TO FIND BLIND SPOT IN EM FIELD [NONE DETECTED]
ABORTING OPERATION - TRY AGAIN LATER
ADVICED COURSE OF ACTION : USE STRONGER TRANSMITTER
"Shit! I can't believe they actually pay 20k for one of these! I guess I'll be going to the canyon after all."
William ran back into the building to find Donald, but then he saw the closed door again and he could no longer keep his curiosity in the background. The lock wasn't hard to pick and soon he was inside. The room was no more than a storage room. William looked around for anything useful, he didn't quite like the idea of stealing, but if he wanted to get home he had no choice. Next he went back to Donald, who was working on something again.
"Donald? I need to get to that city you told me about, do you really not know where it is?"
"No, but if you're going to look for it I want to come along, don't you think a scientist would be useful. The idea of finding this city is… it's…"
"No, I can't take you with me, believe me, I can't, good-bye."
"Why you son of a bi… Heh! Where are you going!? Get back here!" Suddenly William heard the sound of a weapon being loaded. "You can't just walk away from me, asshole! Your going to take me along or I'll shoot you!"
"Do you really think this is a good idea!?" William said, slowly turning around. "Would you have the guts to go to sleep at night if I'd take you along? Cause the odds are you won't wake up! And as for killing me, I don't think you can!"
"Why? You think I don't have the balls to do it!?"
"No, but you didn't take the safety of!" Immediately after saying this he grabbed the club he got of the guard and hit Donald on the temple with it, knocking him to the ground. Quickly William checked his life signs to find out that he was only unconscious. "Thank God, I can't afford to kill anyone right now."
He took the weapon and examined it. It was home made, sort of, I actually was a broken 10 mm pistol which had been repaired at the cost of some accuracy and range. He also had 12 bullets on him, one of those stimpacks and of course the holodisk. 'Maybe I can find some civilization out here!'
HOLODISK DETECTED
FILE ALREADY FOUND
ACCESS? Y/N
COMMAND?: CROSSREFERENCE HOLODISK DATA WITH CURRENT LOCATION WITH
ENCLAVE VAULT-BEHAVIORAL-PROJECT GEOGRAPHICAL DATA.
NOTE: ENCLAVE VBP IS INCOMPLETE, LOCATIONS OF 8 VAULTS WERE LOST.
CONTINUE Y/N
EXECUTING COMMAND ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMITH,J WAS MOST LIKELY SEEKING SHELTER AT VAULT 42, TRANSFERRING LOCATION TO MAP.
'Vault 42 lies at approximately 130 miles North West from here, 80 miles North West West of Last Stop. I think I should take a look over there. Perhaps there is a transmitter there.'
After walking around town, stealing some stuff from peoples houses and wondering why the hell people keep knifes and food in bookcases William decided to go exchange some of the junk he was carrying around for money and some ammo at one of the general stores. He got 24 more 10mm FMJ's and a little over 400 dollars. One of the shopkeepers informed about where he was heading and advised a place called Amityville, about 80 miles to the South West, which would be the local New Reno or the Hub, and the shopkeeper also warned him not to be fooled by the name. William inputted this towns location in his pipboy and went back to the outer city, for a moment it seemed like one of the guards recognized him somehow, but nothing happened. The journey continued. Trying not to think of any type of mutated beast he never saw before he stepped into the desolate wastelands.
EAST COAST
Prologue
The landscape flies by underneath them, dead trees, sand, destroyed ancient cities, sand, giant craters and more sand. William couldn't imagine anything surviving under these circumstances, even though he knows that the west coast was exactly like this less then a hundred years ago. His code name was John Dark, shamelessly ripped of from an early 21st century computer game or so he was told, not worth remembering though since it already is printed on his dog tags. At the left side of the vertibird the scientist, Henry, was looking down at the wastes, diligently taken notes on vegetation and geography while at the right side of the vertibird this teams commando, Fannon, was looking down, taking notes in case an army would ever have to cross this part of the wastes, 'you never know' was his credo. In front, flying the vertibird, was Chitsa, the diplomat, named after her mother, New arroyo's best negotiator and rumor goes that she was one of the candidates for Chosen One 35 years ago. All of the sudden a loud "Yes!!!" rolls through the cabin. Everyone looks at Chitsa with the same question in their eyes.
"I'm picking up something on radar, about 3 minutes east, I think this time it really is a settlement" she said. "Sure you do" is Fannons answer, clearly meant sarcastically "You thought that four times before this week alone! What makes you think…" A bright flash blinds everyone in the vertibird for about two seconds. " What the… the controls don't respond anymore, all the instruments are going crazy! We're going down!" Noise. Darkness.
Chapter 1 Crashed
'Heat, basic training: get away from It!' William carefully, yet as fast as his hurt limbs allow him, crawls away from the smoking wreckage. Then he realizes he wasn't alone in there. He 'runs' back to the vertibird and looks around and sees the motionless body of Henry. Quickly he drags the body away from the wrecked vertibird. He was about 50 feet away from the damn thing when it suddenly bursts into flames, seconds later the fire reached the fuel tank and the vertibird explodes in a great ball of fire, throwing the debris over an area of 100 feet at least. William, coming back to his senses looks around him, at let's say 120 feet from the wreckage lies the body of Fannon, twisted in some angles no body with intact bones in it could imitate, he can't still be alive. It was only then that William noticed the body he was lying on, it was dead too, it was Henry the scientist… and his younger brother. 'That better was an accident!' Soon his rage diminished and he could think clearly again.
'If Chitsa was right and there is a settlement nearby, they might have seen or heard the explosion, or at least see the smoke' William decided to travel east, 3 minutes in a vertibird is an awfully long distance by foot, even though he has walked longer distances. But first he should bury the bodies. Two hours later there were 3 little grave hills, with nothing but a stick with a little flag on it to mark them. In the first grave he buried Henry his brother, in the second grave lies Fannon and the third grave was empty, he couldn't find Chitsa, she must have been trapped inside and burned and after that explosion there wouldn't be much left of her anyway. He had searched the bodies before burying them, but came up with nothing except a pipboy 2000 and some jet, Fannon must have been addicted.
He walked for almost half a day when he saw some kind of brahmin with carts behind them close in on him. 'Thank God, survivors!' The caravan stopped and a man jumped of one of the carts, that what had appeared to be brahmin from a distance turned out to be thinner muscular animals with dark-brown hair all over it and a hint of green of the animals skin was visible through it. The man himself didn't look like he knew what shaving is and two large scars just above his right eye-brow.
"Hello, I'm Karl, leader of this caravan, who are you?"
'He doesn't seem to care about small talk' "I'm" 'mission briefing: try not to give away to much info, not even your name, until you know how and who to talk to' "eh, I'm called John Dark"
"Where are you going to, Mr. William? Have you gone to see where then smoke came from?"
"Ehm, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me where I'm going, and as for the smoke, it's nothing special really, you'd do better to save yourself the time"
"Well now, you really don't know where you are, do you? Well, right now you are only 3 hours away from Last Stop, it's named that, cuz if you'd go west from there you won't come across any civilization ever! And as for the source of the smoke, thanks for the tip, but these kids really want to see for themselves, I already tried to talk them out of it, but now I promised so…"
It wasn't until now William saw the children in the carts. "Isn't it a long trip to take with children?"
"Not at all, these horses are pretty fast, especially since they mutated and grown stronger, or at least, that's what my granddad used to tell, now if you'll excuse me, I wanna be back by diner time"
William saw the caravan start to move again and he noticed that these 'horses' really are strong. Soon the caravan was out of sight, William turned and started walking again, while trying to get the pipboy working.
Chapter 2 Last Stop
It was about 3pm as William walked through the gate. The town mostly consisted of tents and buildings made out of scrap, plating, whatever was at hand, these people must be scavengers. William wandered around town for a while, mapping it with his mind, since his pipboy still wasn't operational. There were only few public buildings, something that appeared to be a general store, a supply store that probably sells medical supplies and foods. No sheriff's office or government building. There was only one building that was made out of brick, all the way to the back, it had another building attached to it filled with carts and horses, that must be the stables. There's a big sign above the door: 'Last Stop Inn' 'How catchy, not. Well, that seems like a good place to start anyway.'
The first thing he noticed once inside was that the place was almost entirely empty, except for the bartender, a drunk at the bar, two guys sitting at a table in a dark corner and a young girl, probably the bartenders daughter or waitress, or both, there was no one there. William never being a people-person walked at the bartender, trying to ignore all the eyes looking at him. Part of him was happy he had found civilization, while the other part thought: 'Why the fuck did she had to crash-land next to this shithole!? There is hardly anyone in town and no one seems to be trustworthy, then again, to me no one ever does. And why didn't I see a sheriff's office? And why am I so paranoid!? Oh well, I guess the barkeeper will be able the answer most of these.'
"What'll it be, stranger?"
"Huh, whah?"
"Ya've been standing here staring at the wall for 5 minutes now"
"Eh? Oh, yeah, ehm, anything"
"Ya look like a troubled man to me. Go ahead, tell me, what are bartenders for?"
"Ehm, you don't happen to know someone who's good at fixing things, you know, antiquities, pre-war stuff?"
"Not in this town, stranger, but maybe someone down south would be able to help yah. Scooter they call him. Yah ever been to the Crater?"
"The what?"
"The Crater, yah ain't 'xactly the smartest one are yah? It's a town, what'm I sayin, a city build in one of those bomb craters, they use the edges of the crater as walls, got only one opening in it. I don't know why it has no real name, just guess the bastards were to lazy to think of one."
"Sounds like the place to be, how do I get there?"
"Well, a caravan is passing through town in a week, maybe yah can tag along with them, saves yah alotta time, especially if yah ain't got a map."
"Thanks and before I forget, isn't there some type of law enforcement around here? I didn't see any."
"That's becuz we don't need any around here. And no one is stupid enough to actually risk getting lynched by an angry mob."
"Thanks for the info, I'll be going now, take a look around town, maybe I'll see you, maybe I won't"
Back outside William decides he'd stay here to wait for the caravan, but no caravan would take him unless he had some kind of weapon, so priority number one right now is to get one. 'How would the Chosen One have solved this?'
'I feel like a thief, what, I am a thief!' William thought to himself ravaging through the shelves of one of the homes he saw on his way in. But all he found until now was some meat jerky and a kitchen knife, how is he supposed to kill someone with that, no, he had to get his equipment somewhere else. His standard issue sniper rifle, hunting knife and combat armor were still in the vertibird, and besides, those wouldn't be very useful by now, probably burned and all. Well then, he had to make some money, or whatever it was people use for currency around here.
Six days had passed, it was only four days ago that the vertibird was found, 2 of the caravaners and 3 of the children lying dead next to it, probably beaten to death, because most of their bones were broken, the rest missing. The townspeople sent out an expedition to salvage whatever they could, after all, these people were scavengers. William almost attacked one of the expeditions when he saw that on the back, lying on top of a pile of debris, were Henry and Fannon. It was that same day William discovered that he was getting careless, a girl asked him about the drawings on his sleeves, he then quickly tore the New Arroyo Elites insignia of them, his stripes and nametag were treated no different.
The caravan was to arrive by the afternoon, he really should go to the general store about now. In the last week he gained some understanding in this society, prices and hierarchy, which in this case wasn't present. He made enough money and 'found' enough other stuff to trade and so he bought a leather jacked and a knife, at least it beats what he had. During the weak he also found something that functions like the stimpacks do in the West, they heal a little less and are taken like yet, the color was a little greenish. The caravan arrived. Joining the caravan proved quite simple, he just offered to come along for less than halve the normal fee and of they go.
Chapter 3 the Crater
Sundown. They encountered hardly any trouble, even though William did find out that raiders 'and' rats are the hardest to extinct during a nuclear holocaust. Now, they were almost there and William could see it already. The crater was huge, with a big gap in the surrounding wall, even from this distance William could see that the entrance was guarded heavily. There were several small buildings outside the walls, mostly stables and warehouses plus the occasional guardhouse, you'd probably have to pay tax for whatever animal or excess baggage you take into the city.
When they arrived the sun was down, it was dark, very dark, but all through the 'outer city' campfires were burning. The caravan stopped and the men were being paid, finally the caravan master stepped up to William.
"So, we're there, here's your money, have fun with it."
"Thanks"
"Will you be coming back with us? We're leaving in a couple of hours."
"No, I have to get something fixed and I have no business back there, for now at least."
"Well good luck to you, don't you know they charge ridiculous amounts of money for non citizens and people without any other kind of authorization? This part of the wastes is crowded with raiders and it's a miracle we only encountered 5 of them. You got easy money this time. So, you must understand that these people do anything to protect their city. You'll never get in."
"We'll see, so, gotta run."
'I didn't learn to sneak around this well for fun, well, maybe a little. Only a rat can sneak in there easier then I can.' He started walking towards the gate and then stopped at 30 feet from it, there was a fire burning in the middle of the road, illuminating the entire passageway. 'Shit! Sneaking by is out of the question, I've got to get something to get me past that checkpoint'
"You wanna get in?"
"Huh, what the…" He turned around to see no one, or at least, so he thought, cause suddenly he felt something pulling down his sleeve and as he looked, he noticed a little boy looking at him, probably not even 10 years old.
"And now how would you be able to help me? Your not even 10 years old!"
"11, I'm 11." The boy said, somewhat agitated. "And I can help you, to get inside, if you can give me something I want in exchange."
"Like what?" William answered, trying to hide the sarcasm.
"Get me inside. I'm trying to get inside as well and I already have a plan, but I need a partner to do it."
"Let's hear the plan first, then I'll decide."
"There is another way in, through the barracks, I know where it is, but I can disguise myself as a guard, simply because of my age. But you could, so I need you to get inside the barracks, open the back door for me and then follow me. That's all."
"Pretty good, plan, certainly for someone your age, I'll do it. Lead the way and what was your name again?"
"I didn't tell you and you didn't tell me either. So mine's Suli, now what's yours?"
"Joh… William."
After looking around a bit William noticed one of the guards walking the same route over and over again. He took position at one of the small buildings the guard passed and waited, and waited, and waited. Just as William started thinking the guard wouldn't show up he saw the guard pass by, in a hurry. 'Well, well. It looks like somebody's gotta go to the bathroom.' He followed the guard, who walked several yards away from the outer city before disappearing behind a pile of rocks, they looked dangerous just sitting there. He closed in on the rocks and he could already hear a small stream of water hit the ground follow by a sigh. He picked up a club that was lying against a rock, probably the guard's club, who put it there so it wouldn't 'interfere' with his 'bathroom experience', to bad for him.
The water stopped and only a few seconds after that, the guard appeared from around the corner, only to have a close encounter with his own weapon. The guard rolled his eyes and looked like he was going to say something, but then went through his knees, without making a single sound.
"And you call yourself a guard?"
William checked the body 'He won't come to for at least 4 hours.' and then searched the guard. It didn't seem like you could talk of a uniform, all the guards simply wore the same colors, dark-brown and a badge. William put on the guards jacked over his and pinned the badge on and turned around, that's when he saw Suli.
"I didn't hear you."
"And he didn't hear you, or so it looks."
"No, now, how do we go on from here?"
"Follow me."
Every thing went according to plan, William got in easily, no questions asked, the backdoor was there, Suli was there, but one thing that wasn't there was… the other route. Suli had this map showing him a tunnel leading from the Barracks through the wall, but there was not tunnel, the boy had been lied to. William couldn't help smiling, he should have known not to trust a child with matters this important, one way or the other, he already had a new plan. He grabbed Suli at the arm and dragged him into the main room of the barracks.
"What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!!"
"Hey, what's with the kid!?" One of the guards shouted at William.
"He ran away from home and I chased him all the way here. Someone left the backdoor open so he ran in. Go close it, I'll take him home."
"Has he got an ID?"
"No, you really think kids carry these things around al the time? He didn't take it so that we wouldn't be able to send him back."
"Well then kiddo, your little plan failed. Go ahead, bring him back."
Suli walked along quietly, until William pinched him, knowing what he meant by it he started screaming and resisting again.
As they just went through the gate William stopped to look. It was enormous, the entire crater was filled with buildings, mostly made out of scrap, but a lot. There must be almost as much people living here as in New Arroyo, only under much worse conditions. The entire town was lighted by fires in old oil drums standing at the sides of the streets and even at this hour the streets were crowded and the bars were swallowing and spitting out customers non stop.
"guess it's payday." Suli said smiling. "Well, gotta go, maybe I'll see you again sometime."
"Uh, yeah, bye."
He knew this town may be his salvation, cause once he had his pipboy repaired he would not only have access to his mission data, encyclopedia and map, but also be able to use his communicator and send a message to NAE headquarters. At this time of the night it would probably be hard to find an open repair shop, so William decided to take a look around town and then finding a place to sleep, he hasn't slept for 3 straight days, because the route the caravan took was so damn dangerous, even though he didn't notice much of that.
The streets were even more crowded than it had seemed from the edge of the crater, people were walking from one bar to the other and if he had to guess he'd say over 60 per cent of them was drunk already. He threw the dirty clothes he took of the guard in one of the burning barrels, yet kept the badge, you never know. He talked to a lot of people to find out some more about this town and since most of them were drunk they didn't really notice that the questions he asked wouldn't be asked by a citizen. It turned out that at this day it was exactly 200 years ago that the first bombs dropped and this day was used to celebrate the protection the crater provided these people, the day was called, you can guess, 'protection day'. In this town there is police, but he already knew that, he knocked one out not even an hour ago. The police in these parts seem to focus all there efforts on a cult that believes there is some being in the wastes controlling these people, without them realizing. Cults seem to be of all times. As he informed about antiquities, he got several reactions. This town was build on a crater of a nuke and William already knew that, but what he didn't know is that there was a big city at the spot of the crater before the war already. The entire town lived of the 'artifacts' they dug up an sold to traders, pre-war artifacts. There weren't many people in town who actually understood the technology, but there were a few pseudo-scientists living in a pre-war structure at the excavation site who spend a lot of time taking the artifacts apart and reassembling them again. His hopes went down after hearing this, but he probably shouldn't have expected anyone with the skills his brother or any of the other California scientist have. Yet he'd still try. He'll find out more tomorrow, no his first priority is finding a place to sleep, since it is unlikely he'd find any open stores at this time of the night.
The next morning the first beams of light falling through the window awakened him. The crappy excuse for a hotel he stayed in was named Echelon. The bartender told him the hotel was named after a pre-war facility that used to be one of the biggest espionage agencies ever, because his wife always had all the latest gossip, pretty twisted, but what the hell. After paying his bill with the money he made on the caravan he stepped outside to see… Junk, junk lying around everywhere, besides tons of empty beer and booze bottles the was metal and wood lying against the sides of the building. One of the people 'in charge of' cleaning the place up stepped up to him and told him this stuff's been lying around for ages, so to speak. To repair the houses and stuff like that.
After looking around for a while William saw a general store. It didn't have anything special, at least compared to what's available in the black market and illegal weapon shops around New Reno, but compared to what he already had that 'junk' was very, very useful. He talked to some more people, but none of them really told him anything new, except for some people who thought this cult he heard of didn't think of itself as a cult, but more considered themselves to be some kind of resistance against some sort of (imaginary) being that tries to control everything. Same crap anywhere.
By the afternoon he arrived at the excavation site, in the back, as far from the gate as you could possibly get. Out of the side of the site, which looked like a quarry, was a building sticking out, it obviously was built before the war, so this had to be where the 'archaeologists' are. In from of the building there was a small piece of a wall, with on that wall a brass plate saying 'Vandewater Institute'. William entered the building, the hallway was poorly lit with flares attached to the walls, the way it was lit strongly reminded him of the temple of trials, which used to be the temple where the possible Chosen Ones were tested, nowadays it's just another part of the New Arroyo Memorial park, filled with art and monuments. When he reached the end of the hall he saw two doors, one of them was locked. 'At least that keeps the choice simple, for now.' He entered the open door and came in a room filled with workbenches and tables, shovels and other tools were standing next to the door, and across the room sitting at one of the benches and apparently working on something was one of the 'scientists'. The scientist heard the door open and turned around.
"Who the fuck are you!? What makes you think you can just barge right in here!? Don't you see I'm working on something here!?"
"What the fuck makes YOU think you can speak at such a tone to me!? I've walked along side with a caravan for over a week just to find someone who understands pre-war tech and the first egghead I meet tries to byte my head of! Forget it! I'll find someone else to repair it!"
The tone in the man's voice changed dramatically and his eyes clearly showed curiosity.
"I'm sorry, I've been trying to figure out what that thing is for days and I still don't have a clue, now what did you say you need repaired?"
"Why that thing? Ha, that's a holodisk, a data storage cassette, which you could access if you had a working pipboy, which I don't have, I have a broken one, that's what I needed repaired."
"A what? You mean this thing of yours can tell me what's on that disk? Where did you get this kind of knowledge anyway?"
"Different places. And yes, it can, it also has a cartographer in it and archives, at least, it would if it would work properly and the holodisk isn't to severely damaged."
"And what exactly would I get for repairing this thing?"
"How about the unique opportunity to study it and the information on that holodisk?"
"Hmmm, plus 500 bucks?"
"200" William said after quickly counting the money he had left from his caravan drive.
"Deal, come back in let's say, 3 hours."
"I haven't got anything to do right now, I think I'll stay."
For countless hours the scientist, who's name was Donald, worked on the pipboy until finally he thought it should work. William quickly pressed the 'On' button.
PIPBOY 2000 DELUXE - LIMITED EDITION
INITIALIZING ----------------------------------------
SCANNING SURROUNDINGS - AUTOMAP ACTIVE
UNKNOWN FINGERPRINT
INPUT USERNAME, PASSWORD AND SERIAL NUMBER
USERNAME: W I L L I A M A K A J O H N D A R K
PASSWORD: * * * * * * * * CONFIRMED
SERIAL NUMBER: B M O - 0 5 2 3 / 2 CONFIRMED
ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL - ALL SOFTWARE INTACT - NO VIRUSSES DETECTED
THANK YOU FOR USING VAULTTEC PIPBOY 2000 DELUXE
"It works! Yes!"
"Wow! Cool! Now, how about my holodisk and payment?"
"Here's the money and give me the holodisk."
"No!"
"Do you know how this thing works?"
"No, well OK, here you go."
"Look, you just put this end of the disk into this port here and…"
NEW HOLODISK DETECTED, SCANNING FOR VIRUSSES, NEGATIVE.
COPYING FILE --------------------------------------------------
ACCESS FILE NOW? Y/N
_________________________________________________________________________________
"FINAL REQUEST"
THE BOMBS ARE DROPPING ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY. I AM GOING TO TRY AND REACH THE SAFETY OF A VAULT BUT THE STREETS ARE SO CROWDED WITH PANICKING PEOPLE I DOUBT WEITHER I WILL REACH ONE. I LEAVE THIS DISK HERE IN CASE I DO NOT MAKE IT TO THE VAULT. IT HOLDS MY LAST REQUEST: PLEASE, NO BIOGRAPHY.
SMITH, J.
_________________________________________________________________________________
"That's all?"
"I'm afraid so, but if you have any more of these be quick with it, cause I'll be leaving soon."
"Where did you get this thing? You must have come from across the canyon."
"The canyon? Where is that? And what's on the other side?"
"So your not from over there huh? Well, I don't know where it is, but I do know that it's rumored that at the other side is a city with lot's of scientists and even more WORKING pre-war artifacts."
"Well, I don't think I'll ever be going there, but thanks for your help."
Once back outside William looked for a quiet spot and took his pipboy.
COMMUNICATIONS
ACCESSING ENCLAVENET [ERROR]
ESTABLISHING UPLINK TO NAE HEADQUARTERS [ERROR]
SEARCHING FOR CAUSE OF ERROR
ELECTRO MAGNETIC INTERFERANCE DETECTED
ATTEMPTING TO ADAPT [ERROR]
ADJUSTING FREQUENTY [NO EFFECT]
ATTEMPTING TO FIND BLIND SPOT IN EM FIELD [NONE DETECTED]
ABORTING OPERATION - TRY AGAIN LATER
ADVICED COURSE OF ACTION : USE STRONGER TRANSMITTER
"Shit! I can't believe they actually pay 20k for one of these! I guess I'll be going to the canyon after all."
William ran back into the building to find Donald, but then he saw the closed door again and he could no longer keep his curiosity in the background. The lock wasn't hard to pick and soon he was inside. The room was no more than a storage room. William looked around for anything useful, he didn't quite like the idea of stealing, but if he wanted to get home he had no choice. Next he went back to Donald, who was working on something again.
"Donald? I need to get to that city you told me about, do you really not know where it is?"
"No, but if you're going to look for it I want to come along, don't you think a scientist would be useful. The idea of finding this city is… it's…"
"No, I can't take you with me, believe me, I can't, good-bye."
"Why you son of a bi… Heh! Where are you going!? Get back here!" Suddenly William heard the sound of a weapon being loaded. "You can't just walk away from me, asshole! Your going to take me along or I'll shoot you!"
"Do you really think this is a good idea!?" William said, slowly turning around. "Would you have the guts to go to sleep at night if I'd take you along? Cause the odds are you won't wake up! And as for killing me, I don't think you can!"
"Why? You think I don't have the balls to do it!?"
"No, but you didn't take the safety of!" Immediately after saying this he grabbed the club he got of the guard and hit Donald on the temple with it, knocking him to the ground. Quickly William checked his life signs to find out that he was only unconscious. "Thank God, I can't afford to kill anyone right now."
He took the weapon and examined it. It was home made, sort of, I actually was a broken 10 mm pistol which had been repaired at the cost of some accuracy and range. He also had 12 bullets on him, one of those stimpacks and of course the holodisk. 'Maybe I can find some civilization out here!'
HOLODISK DETECTED
FILE ALREADY FOUND
ACCESS? Y/N
COMMAND?: CROSSREFERENCE HOLODISK DATA WITH CURRENT LOCATION WITH
ENCLAVE VAULT-BEHAVIORAL-PROJECT GEOGRAPHICAL DATA.
NOTE: ENCLAVE VBP IS INCOMPLETE, LOCATIONS OF 8 VAULTS WERE LOST.
CONTINUE Y/N
EXECUTING COMMAND ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMITH,J WAS MOST LIKELY SEEKING SHELTER AT VAULT 42, TRANSFERRING LOCATION TO MAP.
'Vault 42 lies at approximately 130 miles North West from here, 80 miles North West West of Last Stop. I think I should take a look over there. Perhaps there is a transmitter there.'
After walking around town, stealing some stuff from peoples houses and wondering why the hell people keep knifes and food in bookcases William decided to go exchange some of the junk he was carrying around for money and some ammo at one of the general stores. He got 24 more 10mm FMJ's and a little over 400 dollars. One of the shopkeepers informed about where he was heading and advised a place called Amityville, about 80 miles to the South West, which would be the local New Reno or the Hub, and the shopkeeper also warned him not to be fooled by the name. William inputted this towns location in his pipboy and went back to the outer city, for a moment it seemed like one of the guards recognized him somehow, but nothing happened. The journey continued. Trying not to think of any type of mutated beast he never saw before he stepped into the desolate wastelands.
