The Return Of These United States of America. A Fallout tale.
The end of the beginning had been more or less 45 years ago by the time of our story, with the destruction of the Enclave controlled oil rig on the west coast. Since then every major campaign the Enclave had begun failed spectacularly, from the oil rig itself to the defeat at Adams Air Force Base. On the west coast, even OLD MEN with ties to the Enclave were hunted town like animals to be tried, convicted and inevitably executed. All stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and this story is no different, but ends can be beginnings in disguise.
This is the story of the enclave, and this is what happened after the end. Our story revolves around Andrew Clackson, commonly known as the "Solitary Soldier," and the Enclave's last glimmer of hope.
Chapter 1.
Andrew woke up, it was not a particularly pleasant morning, though there rarely were pleasant mornings out in the wasteland of the Midwestern commonwealth. They had been on the run ever since the Brotherhood of Steel had decided to blow them up at Adams Air Force Base. It was a real bother trying to outrun someone who had air superiority and power armor, but they had managed so far. Andrew went into formation with the other soldiers, the colonel had informed them of their intentions, to make it to the last great base of operations for the Enclave: Chicago Illinois. They marched for what must have been hours, not many more than a hundred of them, nowhere near the numbers that had been at Raven Rock. At last they got to the prewar city of Williamstown, West Virginia. They spent the rest of the day looking through the prewar maps, having gone on The old interstate highways from Adams Air Force Base, trying to find a route that they could safely use to get to Chicago.
When they camped at some prewar houses, which they had to clear of some feral ghouls, they were able to clear some space to sleep for the night. Andrew sat with the rest of the troops. Everything was silent, it had been this way ever since the orbital blast that destroyed Adams Air Force Base, but more and more voices that would have sounded were silenced, either by the pain of loss or the hand of death. Finally one voice broke the silence, "What will we do next, after we get to Chicago?" After some time had passed, the colonel answered, "We will watch, wait, and continue to advance our technology and prowess to rebuild America." This was enough for the person who spoke up, and he quieted down, the night was quiet from that point on.
The next day held much in store for the Enclave remnants, though they hardly knew it waking up. The morning air was as refreshing as it could be in the wasteland, but no matter how good it was it was time to march. The problems began after noonday meal, when they ran into a pack of super mutants, the battle lasted much longer then it should have, depleting their daylight and slowing them down. The next event that happened was the short exchange of fire they had with some members of the BoS, though they won, this meant they would have to tread carefully from now on. The rest of the day was double time marching, and none of the soldiers enjoyed it, not that the idea of being slowly tortured for information and then being murdered for no other reason than that they were immoral was particularly pleasant either. They finally stopped for the night in an old shack, and most of them turned to the thought that the radiation scrubbers in their power armor would eventually fail, filling the suits and occupants with radiation, this however, did not happen and the rest of the night went smoothly.
The next day went a bit more smoothly, though they were still doing overtime marching, many were unhappy, but none grumbled, they knew this could be the last hope for them. A few days after they left the shack, they got to the prewar city of Dayton, and the next few days were fairly stable. As they approached Chicago a few days later, it became apparent that getting to the base would be hard, they saw something completely horrible.