Fallout: Resonance
April 21, 2260
Journal Entry 87
We finally reached Chicago. Isn't as beautiful as it was made out to be. Those armored nuts called it a "Utopia among the rubble." Shows what people know these days. I guess I set myself up for a fall, what would people whom sport big clunky armor and that horde technology know anyway? Nothing that's what. They call themselves the "Brotherhood of Steel." The brotherhood part of it is spot on; they're not friendly to anybody but themselves. Obsessed with technology too. Especially stuff from before the war. I wouldn't have learned that Chicago existed were it not for that old bot in the barn. Those Brotherhood crooks said it was property of the "pre-war United States Army." I wasn't about to give up something that valuable for free. They asked what I would take and I said land. There isn't an acre in or around Junction City good for crops. They all just dry and wither away into the sandy dirt. They said they couldn't give me land but could tell me of a place to the East, ripe for settling and a good place to raise a family. The place sounded like a paradise compared to Kansas. Well that was until we got here. The sky is dark and gloomy, there are always storms, and the city itself looks like a place you wouldn't want to hang around in too long. The area around the city is where people seem to settle. Maybe we should check there.
Journal Entry 88 April 23, 2260
There are scattered tribes and villages here and there, but Meredith and I haven't decided yet on whom to trust yet. Some of the tribes seem to be the friendly type, but I'm not so sure about the others. There are the men in the dark robes; we haven't seen them except the few times we've come near the city. They seem to come from deeper into the city but there's no reason to go that far in. I don't trust them and Meredith doesn't either. There are the tribes and small gangs that live around the city. They 're mostly friendly, but every once in a while there will be the armed and dangerous types we steer clear of. I haven't had to use my old AEP7 pistol and I don't intend to anytime soon. I don't like using it anyway. When I touch it I get these strange chills down my spine… like its done things. Horrible things. When I get the chills I tend to just push it out of my mind, but they've gotten more vivid lately. Awhile back, on our way here from Kansas, I asked one of those brotherhood people for directions on the way here from Kansas and as I walked away he grabbed my arm. I felt a chill when the metal touched my arm and I had a flashback of some sort. I saw fire. Lots of fire. And these big guys in metal power armor. Just silhouettes though, nothing was clear. I could see their outlines really well. I thought they might have been brotherhood but the armor look different. Sleeker, more advanced. The helmets seemed to have horn-like protrusions at the top. Not any brotherhood armor I've seen before. But the shapes seemed so familiar. One seemed to yell something like "Hey! Hey!" over and over. Then I came back and the brotherhood of steel guy was tugging on my arm and pointing at my canteen. I must have left it. I picked it up and thanked him then went back to Meredith to continue east. She asked what happened but I didn't really know myself, so I just told her I was just a little dizzy from the air. She shrugged and we continued towards the horizon. It's something about the warm metal of an energy weapon and the cold hardness of power armor. What does it all mean?
Journal Entry 89 April 29, 2260
They're here too! Those Brotherhood lunatics are here too! I'll die a happy man when I can go at least a year without seeing one of these creeps, much less an entire colony! Something about people in power armor just makes me feel like I'm being watched or something. I don't know why. I saw one the other day when I was helping a tribe to earn some caps. I was minding my own business, picking maize for one of the tribals, and one of the armored fiends came out of the ground! No kidding! I heard a grinding noise and turned around to see the dirt parting about twenty feet to my left. After it had opened one of the, (paladins I think they're called, paladin seems to be some kind of rank), climbed up some stairs beneath the ground. I asked one of the tribals where he had come from but I could hardly understand the man beneath his deep accent. From what I could understand, they all seem to live in some kind of underground tunnel system. Like those old bomb shelters…vaults I think they were called. From the way they were described to me they aren't actually a single vault, but a bunch of close-knit vaults that were attached to each other by blowing through the walls with bombs. I finished my job and got Meredith's mire lurk meat and Nuka-Cola,(pregnant women and their cravings), and then I went back to the small shack we were now calling home. I told Meredith about my day and about the Brotherhood of Steel in the area. After I told her about the vaults, her eyes lit up. She thinks we should ask the brotherhood here if we could stay inside the vault. Doesn't seem safe to me, but what choice do I have anymore?
Journal Entry 90 May 3, 2260
I finally found a member of the brotherhood to ask about the vaults. He wasn't a high-ranking paladin he was called a knight. Apparently, brotherhood knights are paladins in training. They are given lightly armored leather suits until they pass the training necessary to wear the advanced power armor of the paladins. Despite his low rank, he was very helpful. He told me that the vault systems were actually a large city of vaults,(no relation to Vault City back west in California, same concept though.)They call it New Chicago. Not very creative but at least it makes sense. He told me that they have food, water, and even electricity. There are thousands of people down there but there is still plenty of room. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea.
Journal Entry 91 May 8, 2260
We've spent the past five days packing up our small shelter and the little things we had in it. We got up this morning and headed out to the resident station, a small building we had to go through before we could go down below. There were several other families that were waiting to apply; they all sat in what resembled a makeshift waiting room while they filled out various paperwork. I walked to the front of the room where the others were getting the papers. A bored-looking brotherhood scribe behind a desk asked me to fill out some resident filing. He looked up and a startled look crossed his face. He asked my name and I told him. He began looking for Henry Richardson on his clipboard of names. He pointed to a door to our left and I thanked him. For some reason he was shaking. I didn't really care. I smiled to myself with content as Meredith and I descended down the staircase to the city.
Journal Entry 92 May 10, 2260