Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. I don't own any of the Fallout Characters other than my own two, Caliber and Trigger. Yadda yadda.

Fun Fact : This story is literally based off of the game play I experienced while playing my character, Caliber.


Radiation

Chapter One:

Radiance; Growing Up Fast

Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first.

I... I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going.

Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with...

Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you.

Caliber played the recording over and over, until her cheeks were wet with tears. The last she had ever heard of her father. James had left Vault 101 in ruin, his best friend murdered, and his daughter distraught and confused. She had just turned into an adult and her father leaves her with no guidance. Some bond...

That holodisk. It made her feel better just to hear his voice. It made her believe that her beloved "daddy" had no choice but to leave. And yet... Every cause has an effect. James was the cause. Jonas was one of the few... depressing, horrifying effects.

Jonas was a great friend to father and daughter both. The sight of his bludgeoned body, bruised purple and bloody... Every night she managed to sleep it haunted her dreams. He had been like... like a brother to her. Where James could not help, Jonas could. He was kind, understanding, patient, funny... Another tear for another corpse...

Jonas... Grandma Taylor... Floyd Lewis... Even more depressing is the fact that other effects were by Caliber's own hand. Officer Kendall, Officer Hannon, Officer Mack, Officer O'Brian, Officer Richards, Officer Park, Officer Wolfe. Caliber's only comfort was the fact that Steven, Amata, and Officer Gomez were safe...

It had been a year. A whole year since she left the comfort of the Vault, and since her emergence into the Capital Wasteland she's been forced to do some terrible things. It earned her the cold, distant nickname, "Caliber." Caliber, from the .308, the .32, even the 10mm shells that she left on her poor victims. With every body that dropped, she placed a single bullet on their chest. A bullet. A bullet and a prayer, really. "May you be delivered safely into the hands of the Maker. Forgive me."

Caliber looked up into the starry night sky, and sighed. It had been a boring day. A day where she sat against a rock and stared at the barren soil. A day of bad memories. There have been many of those lately.

"... I regret a lot of things..." she muttered absently. She got a soft, comforting, teasing reply.

"I know you do, lover. You tell me every day."

Clover sat not three feet away, rubbing her Chinese assault rifle with a strip of cloth. "I quite honestly don't care. What's now is what's now. Not what's past."

The red light of her collar was the only thing that shone that dark night, the fire had gone out hours ago, and her spiked metal armor was a little too dark and rusty to shine underneath the moon. "You regret every kill you score, every little item you steal. You say your stupid prayers when you blast the head off of some fucker who deserves it. You regret too much, baby."

The bloodthirsty bitch hummed to herself as she caressed her favorite rifle, given to her by her "owner" seven months ago. It was of unique make, found on the corpse of some poor sob who had been ripped to shreds in a Dot's Diner. Caliber wasn't one for automatic weapons, and gave it to Clover without a second thought.

The history behind Clover and Caliber is an odd one. Her dark reputation earned Caliber favor in the slaver outpost of Paradise Falls, where she came across a despicable man and a crazy girl. The despicable man, known as Eulogy, thought Caliber to be nothing but vile, and as such welcomed her with open arms. Caliber regretted everything she did to earn this bad reputation, but took advantage of the hospitality, if only to trade salvage and leave again. She'd been given a slave collar and some odd mesmerizing trinket by the guard, Grouse, but never bothered with it.

What caught her eye was the crazy girl. Clover, Eulogy's best slave, bodyguard, and lover. There were many things wrong in her head, but Caliber found her... intoxicating. She desired to be around her. She paid many caps to hold Clover's leash, and when offered freedom, Clover refused. The two have been inseparable since.

"Hell, honey. You've done so much to earn your... delicious name. I don't see how you could regret it. You single-handedly wiped that bomb-town off the face of the earth! I'd never regret doing something as glorious, as radiant, as that. Heh heh... radiant."

"It's not funny, Clover," Caliber replied, quietly. "I had no choice. I'm not proud of it. I told you, Burke had me under the impression that it was filled with scum. Later I found out it was because of a fucking whim. I killed good people... I know you don't care but I do." She took a huge chug of a Nuka-Cola, thinking to herself, keep count. Five more bottles and then a dose of Rad-Away... "One of the few things I enjoyed was putting a bullet through that despicable man's skull..." Burke was the only kill that Caliber had left without a bullet, without a prayer. The .308 shell that would've been placed on his chest was instead on a chain, hung around her neck.

"I'm going to go to sleep. I love you, Clover... and sleep well..."

"I'll make sure to do just that, sweet pea. You get your rest, you're always so worked up."

Caliber held the bullet in a clenched fist and remembered something that one of the Megaton residents had told her...

This world forces you to grow up fast...


Well, I hoped you like it. Unlike Eternal Beats, I intend to work on this one more often, more diligently.

Hmm. Here's some answers that you may have. Friends of mine, after proof-reading the first chapter, asked about this shit.

Caliber is not a lesbian. She's free-loving, so the fact that Clover's a girl makes no difference to her.

Caliber, despite having blown up Megaton, has "Good Karma."

Caliber's not as religious as one would think. She doesn't worship a God, she worships her gun, her food, and her companionship. But she's very sorry for every kill she has to make, and tries to appeal to what the general population believe in as a heavenly body. A.K.A., God.

My friends have teased be about this, but I'm a nerd to the hardcore. I literally leave one bullet on a corpse after I search it, and unless it's Power Armor or unique armor, I've never stripped a body down in Fallout 3.

In Game, Caliber's currently level eleven. She specializes in sneaking, thieving, hacking, lock picking, sniping, explosives, and some medicine. Her equipment is a Hunting rifle (.32 caliber rounds,) a sniper rifle, (.308 caliber rounds,) 30 frag grenades, and, for the sake of having a keepsake, the BB gun that James, her father, gave her. I know I'm a nerd, shut up. I also keep a teddy bear and about 10 bottles of Nuka Cola on me at all times, (with the food sanitizer the health is about half of a stimpak's worth, so if I lose little amounts of health I Just drink up.)

I didn't mention this in the story, but she wears a Merc Troublemaker Outfit, Lucky Shades, and a head wrap. She's Caucasian with suede-color hair in the Wendy The Welder style. If you didn't catch it, Clover wears her slave collar (as it's not a removable item in the actual game) and metal armor. The Chinese assault rifle that she uses is the Xuanlong assault rifle.

Clover's hair style's a little weird. I think it was called Punked? I dunno.