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 Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:11 pm
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Redundancy, yes. But it sounded catchy. Quite frankly, I will be making this up as I go along, so I have no idea if the title will even apply to the story. Trying out a traditional writing style here. Not my strong point. Just wanted to see what y'all thought about it so far.
Feel free to comment. As I said, I want to see if this goes over well before I spend all my time on it.
The setting for the first part of the story is a fictional building close to where the Pitt would fit in geographically. The outcasts don't help the slaves because, let's face it, they don't care about them.
I am hoping to break out of a hole of mine with this story here. I have never written a story longer than 15 pages or so, but then again, I have never written something for other people to read. I'm hoping that knowing someone is reading will help me actually write it out. Rest assured that I will try to make a real ending to this story. Of course, I might pull off some semi-cliffhanger ending, but I will try to avoid that. It all depends on how long I can keep my focus on this. (Which I believe will be longer since I actually have at least one person reading.)
That being said, I could go I am Legend on you guys and just kill everybody off part way through. I will stress again that I am making this up as I go along, freggin' anything could happen.
Part 1:Posted
Part 2:Posted
Part 3:Posted
Part 4:Posted
Part 5:Posted
Part 6:Posted
Part 7:Work in progress
HIATUS! Sorry 'bout that, folk(s). Turns out I can't focus on this right now. Trust me, though, I will be back to writing soon. See you in a couple weeks reader(s).
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:14 pm
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"Never let your guard down!"
The instructor was extremely intimidating. Roane had never met a woman that scared him as much as she did.
Protector Dalasin was rough, but she only wanted what was best for everyone. Of course, as an outcast, her opinion of what was best for everyone was the recovery of technology.
"If you have to die, at least wait until you bring your loot back to base." She shouted above the group of trainees in front of her. All of them had grown up in the company of the outcasts, and each of them knew that they were replacable. The rumor around the Fort was that the last trainee group was wiped out by a deathclaw because their sentry got careless. Regardless of whether it was true or not, the thought made everyone do their jobs to the best of their ability.
"We're packing up early. Our scouts are returning today and I am not going to miss out on their reports because of a bunch of trainees."
Everyone turned to follow the instructor. They had been on one of the final training missions. A group of protectors had hidden some low level tech in a metro system, and it was up to the trainees to recover it.
However, nothing was as important to anyone as information from the scouts. They would report buildings that looked promising, and the next day they would take a recovery group to the area.
As the trainees got to the Fort, they could see that they had already missed part of the report. And from the sound of things, it had been an important part.
"Are you sure?" Protector Casdin asked the scout in front of him. There were two others next to the one being addressed, but they remained silent. This was Roane's first warning. Scouts went out in groups of five.
"Yes sir," the scout, who Roane recognized as Defender Daniels began saying. "Where else would we have found this armor? The Enclave are back."
"This is bad news." Protector Casdin turned to the group assembled behind him. "Most of you are too youn to remember, but the Enclave were a group that attacked us when we were on the West Coast. We're sticking to our original mission, though! Just be warned that the wasteland has become a lot more dangerous. I suspect that Lyons and his pack will be taking the Enclave head on. We just need to keep aquiring tech. It is why we were sent here, it is why we are outcasts." He turned back to the scout. "That being said, did you discover anywhere promising?"
The scout shook his head. "We saw a building with a strange structure in front of it, but these Enclave guys attacked out of nowhere when we got close. I wouldn't recommend sending anyone in there."
Casdin looked straight at the man. "Do it anyway. Take three groups with you, make sure everyone is on their guard. They may have better armor than us, but they're still just humans. Now, take that armor down to the scientists, they'll surely want to check it out."
With that, everyone assembled began to go back to business. The trainees all went down to their bunker and took off their their combat suits.
"The instructor doesn't need to be so rough on us." One of them, Richard, said.
"I don't know, I think it's good to know that we'll be doing something useful." Another one of them, Cassandra, mumbled.
"I just can't wait to get some of that power armor. It looks so much safer than this stuff." Roane quickly said. Cassandra and Richard were always getting in to some sort of fight. He had once heard them fighting over which one of them a raider had been trying to kill after they were attacked during a training session.
"So," Richard started, "What do you guys think about this whole Enclave thing?"
"Shouldn't be too much of a problem. If Lyons is taking them on, then they probably wont be around us very much. What do you think, Roane?"
"I hear that they have some pretty cool stuff. Rumor has it that they've got some plasma weapons. And did you see that armor?"
"Figures that you don't even think about how easily they could kill you." Cassandra remarked.
"It helps when you know you can kill them just as easily. Well, maybe a little harder, but they die too. Everything dies."
Right after he said that, the lights went off.
"Well folks, guess it's time to sleep. Kind of refreshing to have a chance to get sleep for once." Richard rolled over in his bunk.
As they all began to drift off to sleep, there was an explosion in the distance.
"What was that?" Cassandra asked.
"As if we know." Richard tossed back.
"Guys, not now." Roane mumbled sleepily.
There was another explosion, slightly closer.
"It's probably just the raiders up in those ruins. We should really just go clear them out some time." Richard was now fully awake and listening closely.
"Sounds farther away than that. At least, the first one did." Cassandra was listening too.
A third explosion hit, and this one shook the bunker.
"Ok, that was too close!" shouted Roane as he jumped up and started putting on his combat suit.
"What are you putting that on for? It's not like we should actually get in to this fight. It sounds too big." Even as Cassandra spoke, Richard got up and started putting his on too. "Ah, whatever." She finally said, giving up.
A fourth explosion rocked their room around, and the whole building lit up at once with the red emergency lights. As the trainees started running toward the armory, the were intercepted by Protector Dalasin.
"You think we're gonna let you guys fight wearing that? Come on. I talked to Casdin, he says we need to get you on the field as soon as possible. Let's get you some power armor. Welcome to the Outcasts, Defenders." She led them to the armory, then through the actual armor room. "Hurry up and find a suit that fits. You all know how to wear this stuff, right? Of course you do. We had you try it on a few days ago. Faster!"
As she spoke, the explosions became more frequent, and the sounds of guns going off became clear. A soldier ran down the stairs, back in to the armory. Protector Dalasin looked straight at him and shouted "Who's attacking us, soldier!?"
"I don't know! We saw a few raiders running towards us, but they were shot from behind, and suddenly we have this army rushing us! I think it's the Enclave! They have flying machines and everything, they just keep coming! Casdin has ordered a full retreat!"
"Where are they going?"
"They're taking off out the front right now. He says they're going to fort Independence."
"Crap!" she turned toward the new Defenders, and the seven soldiers who did not make it out to the battlefield. "With Casdin gone, I am in charge here. He was probably trying to lure the Enclave away from us so that we could make our escape. If they get to Fort Independence, our soldiers there will be able to take out any Enclave following them. As for right now though, there's likely an Enclave presence above ground. If they attacked us here, it's because they want this base as their own. We'll have to fight our way out of here. Hopefully Casdin was right, and took their assault force with him. Suit up, take whatever we can from the armory, and let's head out."
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:48 pm
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:10 pm
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:28 pm
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"Alright then, head count?" Protector Dalasin had meant it when she said they were raiding the armory for weapons. She was now carrying a minigun and had two assault rifles strapped to her back.
"Twenty four, ma'am. Including Reynolds." Oscar had taken a laser rifle for himself. New defenders weren't allowed to use energy weapons, but because of the situation, Dalasin had bent the rules.
The man they had sent outside to check on enemy movements, Reynolds, came back down the stairs. "There are at least fifty out there. A small group is heading straight for us."
"Alright then. Let's get ready for this. Everyone get to the sides of the stairs. We're going to ambush the group coming down here, then rush out at the rest. Try to cut a path to the slavers. They're not exactly our friends, but they wont shoot at us." Dalasin gathered a small group with her on the right side of the staircase, the rest of the Outcasts getting on the left.
"Great. Not only am I not getting sleep, but my first real combat experience is going to be running away." Richard, who was now carrying an assault rifle with a missile launcher on his back, started to shift around.
"Just don't fire that thing off in here." Cassandra whispered to him. She had taken a sub-machine gun as her weapon, and had also filled a bag with every grenade she could find.
They heard the door at the top of the staircase open, and everyone went silent. They all gripped their weapons and waited, and then they heard footsteps coming down. As soon as the last one made it to the bottom, Dalasin shouted and everyone opened fire. The Enclave didn't stand a chance against the wall of bullets and laser blasts they had flying at them.
The outcasts started charging out, the new defenders in the back. Oscar bent over one of the Enclave they had killed and took his weapon, a plasma rifle. Inspecting it closely, he threw his laser rifle to the side. "It uses the same ammo." He explained to Richard.
"Man, you always get the cool stuff!" Richard exclaimed.
The two of them reached the top of the stairs stopped for a moment to take it all in. The sounds of battle were all around them, and it looked like both sides had suffered some casualties. The Enclave had already started erecting small black walls around the camp, but they had not prepared for an attack from within the fort itself, and were soon on the outside of their own defenses.
"Get down!" Cassandra shouted, tackling both of them as the wall they had been standing in front of was hit with several plasma blasts.
"Dangit, I actually owe you something now!" Richard shouted.
"Make it up to me by proving you can use that thing on your back." She said while pointing to a machine flying straight at the base.
Richard got up quickly as Cassandra and Oscar got in to covering position for him. An Enclave soldier turned around a corner of the base pointing his gun at the group, and was hit by several rounds from Dalasin's minigun.
"If you're gonna take the shot," Dalasin started while running toward them, "I suggest you do it now!"
The missile shot out, flying straight for the machine. It collided with one of the wings, blowing it off, causing the the machine to spin around and crash in to the ground with a violent explosion.
"Oh yeah! How many kills do you think that was?" Richard started to dance in place, but soon dropped back to the ground as more plasma shots pelted the wall.
Oscar and Cassandra moved around to one of the black walls the Enclave had set up. They looked through some eye holes, and saw a group of cages with an official looking person standing in front of them. The outcasts had opened up a hole in the Enclave troops and started pouring out through it.
"We're through!" Oscar shouted back at Dalasin who ran to their position. Richard followed closely behind her.
Just before the four of them left, they saw the official looking man open the cages one at a time. They all watched in horror as five deathclaws burst through the doors and, completely ignoring the Enclave soldiers, chased the group of Outcasts on their way out of the base. As they watched, several of their comrades were cut down by the creatures. One of the five had stayed behind, smelling the air. It suddenly turned its head to the four Outcasts remaining at the fort and began charging.
"Run!" Shouted Dalasin, firing her minigun. The creature's side split open and it stopped chasing them, but now several Enclave troops had picked up the pursuit. Richard's missile launcher suddenly flew off his back as it was hit with a plasma shot. Cassandra threw one of her grenades back at the group chasing them, taking one of them out. They made it to a group of rocks near the metro tunnel the Outcasts used for training.
"You three go in to the tunnel. Follow it as far as it goes. There's another entrance somewhere near the end. We haven't explored that area too much, but it's your only chance."
"What about you?" Cassandra asked.
"I have to hold them off." Dalasin pointed her minigun through a gap in the rocks and let it blast, cutting down an Enclave soldier and causing the rest to hide behind rocks as well.
"There's no way we're making it out in the wasteland without an experienced soldier." Richard popped up and fired a spray from his assault rifle at the rocks that the soldiers were hiding behind.
"If that's true then I sure failed as a teacher." Dalasin laughed. "Honestly, we cleared that tunnel out a long time ago. There are no ghouls in there to distract the Enclave as they chase you through. Now go, you'll need all the time you can get.
Cassandra pulled a few grenades from her bag, strapping them to her belt. She handed the rest over to Dalasin, saying "Give them hell, then."
With that, the three least experienced outcasts ran for the tunnel. Oscar turned around when they got to the entrance. He watched as Dalasin cut down two more soldiers before being hit square in the chest. She looked in his direction as her body began to turn green. Then suddenly, she collapsed in the a pile of slime, vaguely human shaped. He stepped inside, closing the gate behind him. They all looked at each other for a few seconds, then followed orders and started to run.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:57 pm
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"Just face it, we're lost."
"I don't suppose you want me to go ask those mutants back there for directions, do you?"
"I was actually thinking you could ask the Raiders right there."
"Where!? Gah, don't do that to me, Cass."
"Haha! you should have seen the look on your face!"
"Yeah, shut it. You'll wake grumpy."
"Too late for that." Oscar rolled over to look at his companions. Out of all the Outcasts they had back at Fort, why did he have to end up with these two?
Richard sat down next to him. "You know, for someone who's all up to regulation, you sure do sleep in late."
"That might have something to do with me taking first watch every night."
"I still don't see the point, nothing really comes close to us at night anyway."
"I guess you're saying that I should have let that mole rat keep poking around your face a couple days back?"
Richard paled. He could handle a lot, but mole rats seemed to break him down.
"At any rate," Oscar stood up, "We had better keep going."
"Great," Cassandra walked up next to them, "maybe we'll run in to the guys back in California."
"According to the military records, Fort Independence was in this direction." Oscar had downloaded some pre-war military records on to his data pad before they abandoned Fort Calden. The data pad was far inferior to the Pip Boy model, but it worked with most of the computers still around, miraculously.
"I swear, every time you say that you point somewhere different." Cassandra put her helmet on, distorting her voice. "I think we're going in circles."
"She's right," Richard started to chuckle, "that shriveled up brown thing over there definitely looks familiar."
"Very funny. Look, let's just set a target and go there." Oscar looked around for a while before he saw it. "There. That bridge."
"Bridges are a good place to find raiders." Cassandra warned. "How about that building over there."
"Because buildings have been known to be filled with fairy dust and unicorns." Richard stated.
"Fine, building it is. Whatever, let's just go. Seriously, out of everyone back at Fort..."
"Heard that." Richard said.
"Yeah yeah," Oscar pointed at the ground a little to their left, "Mole rat."
Richard jerked to his right. "Stop doing that!" He shouted.
"Just keep going." Cassandra shoved him ahead.
"Keep it down back there." Oscar sounded mildly annoyed.
They continued to walk towards their new goal. Nothing appeared to be between them and the building, but that's just one of the tricks that the wasteland pulls on its victims.
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:56 pm
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The building, as it turned out, was a lot bigger than they had thought. There were several shops in the main room, which housed an indoor carousel. Several hallways shot out from the center, most of them leading underground.
"Well what do you know," Richard looked around slowly, "it is full of fairy dust and unicorns."
They made their way as quietly as three people in power armor can be expected to be. It wasn't long before they attracted some attention. A light swept in to a room, and the three of them ducked behind a counter.
"Who's there?" The voice was a lot calmer than would be expected from someone looking for intruders. "If Jack sent you, just get out of here. You aren't getting our food."
They couldn't find the exact source of the voice, but it was obvious which direction it was coming from. Oscar stood up and looked in the direction of the source. He saw a man holding a torch looking at him.
"You don't look like you're with the raiders. At least not the Lions. Who are you?"
"You can call me Defender Frye. I am with the Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts operating in Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas." Oscar walked towards the man. "Your turn."
Richard and Cassandra stood up and rushed over to Oscar.
The man, who was unarmed aside from his torch, looked at the three of them and held his right hand up, making a gesture. They heard the sound of several weapons being lowered, and saw the shadows of a small group of people head down one of the many hallways.
"Come this way, please. I'll answer any questions you have along the way. People around here call me Jim. We came up from Evergreen Mills a few weeks back. Found this place empty. Looked like the Mutants had cleared it out and left it, but we found a bunch of locked doors with food behind them."
"Evergreen mills?" Oscar stopped walking. "We heard them calling for help over the radio a while back. The said that they were being overrun by raiders."
"That would have been us. Look, we're not proud of that at all. They weren't prepared for our attack, it didn't take long. I noticed all of that during the attack, and convinced Jack to take some prisoners who we could sell off to the slavers. Then I was able to get most of them out of there in the night. There were a few other people in our group who didn't like what we had done either. It was easy enough to get our little family together."
"How many of you are there?" Cassandra asked, stepping over a pile of rubble.
"About twenty or so. Only six of us were lions, the rest were the people we pulled out of there. They don't like us very much, and they have good reason not to, but we need each other to stay alive." He gestured to a room that smelled like ash. "There were around thirty or so of us. Jack sent a group to try and take us out.
"Who is this Jack you keep talking about?" Oscar had finally lowered his gun.
"Smiling Jack. He's the leader of the lions. Great with a shotgun. He's taken to selling trinkets and stuff in one of the rooms of the Mills. Great leader, horrible person. Never liked the guy, can't believe I worked with him for seven years of my life."
"I guess the real question here," Richard walked in front of Jim, "is whether or not you're going to kill us in our sleep."
"We don't screw around with people. If we wanted you dead, we would have shot you as soon as we saw you." He moved around Richard. "You can stay here as long as you like."
He led them to an empty room. "This is about the best we can do. There aren't any beds, but it looks like you people have been through worse the last couple of days. If you really need a mattress, you can go search the rest of the building, but we haven't checked some of those sectors. You'd be surprised how big this place is."
"Hey," Cassandra started, "Have you heard anything about a Fort Independence? We're trying to regroup with our companions there."
"Ah, lost are you?" Jim smiled. "I haven't heard anything about that place. I haven't heard about the Outcasts, either. Of course I know about the Brotherhood of Steel, but nothing about you guys."
"Why do you trust us then?" Oscar asked him.
"There's not enough of that going around in the wasteland. I guess it's because you gave up your hiding place to talk to me back there. Oh well, if you don't want to talk about these outcast people, that's fine. Do what you like around here, just so long as we get to live through it.
"You two go ahead," Oscar said, "if information is what he wants, he deserves that much."
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:39 pm
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:30 pm
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"No way I am sleeping on the floor again." Cassandra and Richard were standing outside of their new room. Oscar and Jim had been talking for quite a long time inside of that room.
"Aw, come on princess," Richard smiled, "we've spent the last three days in metro tunnels and under rocks. I'm sure you can pull it off again."
"Not when I have the choice to have a mattress. No matter how uncomfortable."
"You notice that we're probably not staying here very long, right? Mister Frye in there seems to think he's our leader."
"Well, that may have something to do with the fact that you voted for him instead of me."
"Oh yeah."
The door opened next to them, Jim and Oscar walking out. They looked at the two outcasts who were standing against the wall.
"We're going to stay here for a few days," Oscar started, "Jim volunteered to take us looking for beds."
"I'm all for that!" Cassandra shouted, kicking off the wall while grabbing for her gun.
"Guess it would be nice to get a good night's sleep." Richard walked up to the group.
"Be careful, you three," Jim warned, "we haven't explored the area I am taking you to. There could be anything down there."
"Not the first time we've heard that." Oscar looked at the others. "Wait, where are your helmets?"
"In the room. Those things itch." Richard was still smiling.
"It's worth it when you get a bullet between the eyes." Oscar looked at the ground shaking his head.
"Muties have horrible aim," Cassandra explained, "and most raiders aim for the chest."
Jim nodded. "They have a point. Still, it would be best for you to bring them.
Richard sighed. "Fine." He and Cassandra went in to their room and came back in a few minutes with their full gear.
Suddenly a large group of people with weapons ready rushed past them in the hallway. They were headed towards the entrance. "Well," Jim started, "I guess we have more company. Do you mind if we hold off the search for your beds? Only for a little while, I promise."
They made their way up the sloped hallway a lot quieter than they had been earlier. When they got to the top, they stayed in the shadow. In the middle of the room, talking to one of the people that had gone up the hallway earlier, was an Enclave officer surrounded by four soldiers.
"Identify yourselves." The man talking to them seemed incredibly calm against them with only a 10mm pistol in his hands. Oscar figured it must be because of the rest of the group with guns trained on the Enclave.
"I am colonel Augustus Autumn of the Enclave. We are here because this building holds a large supply of fresh water, and our soldiers drink only the best. We are also tracking a small group of fugitives, they would be wearing black armor similar to ours. Have you seen them?"
"Fugitives? What did they do?"
"They attacked an Enclave facility earlier this week, killing quite a few good men. You sound like you have seen them, tell me where they are."
"Autumn. I have picked up quite a few skills from my experiences in these wastes. One of those skills is the ability to know when somebody is lying. They did not attack your base, if anything then you attacked theirs."
Suddenly there was a loud crack as the man fell over. Colonel Autumn had drawn a pistol so quickly that the man had no time to react. The room filled with the sounds of gunfire as the hidden defenders opened fire upon the Enclave soldiers.
Autumn pulled a small device from his belt and began speaking in to it. "Things have gotten messy here. Have you located the facility? The Jefferson memorial? Good. I shall head straight there. Send a vertibird to my location."
The outcasts emerged from the shadow, opening fire on the Enclave soldiers still standing. Cassandra clipped the shoulder of one of them, causing him to drop his weapon and fall backward, exposing his head. Richard ran in close, finishing him off with a burst from his assault rifle. Two more soldiers were dropped by the hail of bullets from around the room. Oscar aimed his plasma rifle at Colonel Autumn, but as soon as he fired the last remaining enclave soldier jumped in front of the bolt. he immediately changed green, spraying Autumn with slime. The colonel made it to the door, then killed the two men who had stepped in to guard the exit. As soon as he left, the propellers of a flying machine were heard. They heard the sound leaving, and the doors exploded.
Lasers flew through the doorway, but nobody could see through the smoke. A man standing next to Oscar was hit square in the chest, falling backwards. Oscar jumped to the ground, a shot clipping his head and throwing his helmet across the room. The smoke cleared enough to reveal two sentry bots rolling in to the room. One of them turned, firing a missile. It collided with a pillar, destroying it and bringing a section of the roof down. There were metallic noises and flashes as bullets clashed ineffectively against it's shell.
"I got this one!" Cassandra yelled out while running towards the sentry bot still in the doorway. She reached down to her belt, pulling out a sonic grenade. The blast caused the robot to shut down momentarily, giving her enough time to shove her gun in to the mess of wires directly underneath the head, severing it from the rest of the body. After giving a final shudder, the guns fell off and the robot remained motionless.
Meanwhile, the other robot was wreaking havoc on the group shooting at it. The noise of the fight had attracted everyone else from deep inside the building, all were attacking it from different angles, confusing its programming. It could not lock on to a single target, its laser blasting in every direction. Jim was sneaking up behind it as it fired over a group of people in a corner of the room. He raised a sledgehammer high over his head, crashing it down on top of the robotic intruder. With its head destroyed, the gunfire coming from it stopped almost immediately. Jim hit it several more times before accepting that it was dead.
"Look for survivors." Jim gave the order to a group of his colonists that had gathered in front of him.
The search began. Rubble was thrown around, but only bodies were recovered. Cassandra saw a black metal hand sticking out from a pile of rubble near the area where the Enclave soldiers had been killed. She ran over, throwing piles of the stone and wood to the side. Eventually she uncovered a helmet and the top half of an Outcast's armor.
The helmet stirred and looked straight at her. "Help me out here," the muffled voice of Richard came through the speaker, "This thing really itches."
Cassandra laughed, grabbing the helmet and throwing it across the room. "You're such an idiot!" She exclaimed.
"Thanks for that. Now, I can't exactly move my arms, can you clear me out a bit more?"
"I actually like him more like that." Oscar walked towards them, holding his side. "Maybe he could stay guard here?"
"Very funny," Richard looked straight at Oscar. "Hey, where's your helmet?" He smiled.
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Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:01 pm
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There are many advantages and disadvantages to traveling through the wasteland in large numbers. On one hand, small raider groups and the odd animal avoided them. On the other hand, the mutants saw them as a mobile buffet. No matter how small the patrol was, mutants would attack whenever they spotted the group. Most of the attacks were ended instantly, but there had been some nasty encounters during their travels, whittling their numbers down slowly. They started each day with a head count. On day one, there were twenty six, all survivors from the Enclave assault. By the third week, they were down to nineteen.
"We're lucky that building was so well stocked with food. We've got enough for several more weeks of travel." Oscar had taken to guarding their supplies from risky rangers and greedy members of their own caravan.
"Are you sure we're headed the right way?" Cassandra looked out in to the horizon. The only definitive land mark she could see was a broken bridge with several fires burning on it. "We should at least see the city that Fort Independence is close to by now."
"It doesn't help that the metro tunnel we started this journey with went North. We need to go South to get to Fort Independence. But that is not our destination at the moment."
"What? That's the only place we know will be safe for us!"
"True, but there is no way Casdin will let any locals inside. Let alone this many of them."
"Oscar, you're mister regulation here. Tell me then, why aren't we scouring for technology right now? Why are we helping these people? Isn't this the sort of thing Lyons and his group should be doing?"
Oscar looked away from her. "Cass. It's true that tech gathering is our primary goal, but we can't ignore this many people in need. They helped us fight off an attack that would have surely killed us all, the least we can do is find somewhere safe for them."
"That's nice to hear." Jim appeared from the room next to them. "We've secured the area. Your man was helpful. Well, for the most part."
"Richard?" Cassandra pushed herself off the wall. "What happened to him?"
"He opened a door and came face to face with a mole rat. I didn't think he would ever stop shooting." Jim smiled.
"Sounds about right." Oscar shook his head.
"Anyway, Oscar, you got a plan for my people?"
"As a matter of fact." Oscar reached for his data pad, flipping the screens until it revealed a map. "I have heard of a settlement called Big Town near this area." He pointed to a section of the map. "Apparently they are easy pickings for muties and slavers. I think they would appreciate some more guns to help them out. Looks like there's only one way in to the town, too."
"Unless the Enclave attacks." Cassandra pointed upwards.
"Yes, well, it seems they only go to places that were of significance to the country before the war. Or places with supplies. Big town is neither."
"And you're certain they'll accept us there?" Jim looked hopeful for the first time since they had started traveling with him.
"Not a hundred percent, but the chances are good that you can use your guns and food as bargaining chips. They probably aren't doing so well in the supplies department either."
"And heading that way wont set you off course, will it?"
"It will actually be bringing us a little closer. Our original plan was to bounce around the sides on our way to Fort Independence, but with this way we will be able to make more stops in friendly areas."
"Then thanks." Jim stopped in the doorway. "You guys have really given us hope. We were doing okay for ourselves back at that mall, but we knew that eventually someone would find us."
"Not a problem. Let everyone know where we're headed. At the rate we've been traveling, it should only take two or three days to get there."
"Will do." Jim left Oscar and Cassandra, closing the door.
"You should have told him." Cassandra walked over to her bed.
"It would have done no good. If he knew the danger we would all be putting ourselves through in order to get to Big Town, he would have rejected the idea. The only other settlement they could have gone to is Megaton, and even then they would have to go through dangerous places."
"Yes, but a mutant controlled countryside? They should at least be prepared for more violent encounters."
"They're always prepared." Oscar moved over to the bed he had claimed.
"I hope you're right." Cassandra sat down and picked up her gun. Setting it on a table, she began taking apart and cleaning it.
"So do I," Oscar mumbled, flipping through his datapad.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:58 pm
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:08 am
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Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 3:51 pm
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