Chronicles from The Commonwealth: Riley Carter - 1
It was Riley's first day in the Brotherhood, and he was ready for it. "You sure you ready for this?" Said Conners as he ran the diagnostics on Riley's power armor. "Hell yeah."
"Good. Just, try not die out there. It's a pain in the ass to pry dead bodies outta these suits." Riley shrugged off Conner's advice.
"I'll try." He said sarcastically. "I'm serious. I hate yankin' bodies out of these suits. It takes, like, all day." He said as he ripped his gloves off and threw them onto the table.
Riley put on his helmet.
"Why's the Brotherhood in the Commonwealth, anyway?" Riley asked.
"It's a good jumping off point for rookies. Sure ain't as dangerous as the Capital Wasteland or Maine.
Conners shuddered. "Ughhh. Maine. Place gives me the creeps."
"Why?" Riley asked. "Come back alive, and as a reward for not makin' me rip your body outta this suit, I'll tell ya."
Carson and Alexis walked through in their suits. "Hey jackass, let's go. It's time." Said Carson. Carson and Alexis went outside, followed by Riley.
"Let's take the Vertis." They all got into the Vertibird and the pilot unlatched from the colossal Prydwen.
"See that building down there?!" Shouted Alexis over the deafening hum of the Vertibird's rotors. "Yeah?" Riley shouted back. "That's where we're goin'."
Alexis aimed her assault rifle at the Infestation. It was an office building. And there was a valuable cache of guns and magazines at the top.
And the only thing standing between them and it, was the biggest assload of ghouls you'd ever want to see.
"I gotta let ya off up here!" Shouted the pilot hovering a good hundred yard above the LZ.
"You ready, rookie?" Yelled Carson as he jumped off the Vertibird. "Holy shit!" Riley thought he had plummeted to his death, then Alexis jumped. "Let's go, rookie!"
"Well, shit. Here goes." Riley jumped out and after a few heart pounding seconds, he was on the ground.
He glanced behind him to see a second Vertibird at the LZ. It was backup for one of the biggest fights this team had ever been a part of.
The second team dropped down and was behind Riley's team within seconds. "Go!" Carson yelled as they stormed the building.
Ghouls came at the two teams from all directions. The paper-thin walls shattered under the pressure of the inhuman creatures.
Both teams charged forward, blinded by the waves of ghouls, filling the building like a undead fog. "We gotta get to the roof! That's where the cache is!" Yelled Carson.
Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed on top of Carson. The ghouls spilled through the hole in the ceiling like a slit vain. "Shit! Alexis!" He yelled. Alexis rammed through the sea of ghouls.
She grabbed Carson's arm and attempted to rip him out from under the rubble. "Shit! Damn, hang on Carson!" She turned to everyone else. "Keep the bastards off us!" Everyone turned to the rotting bastards and started firing.
Alexis grabbed Carson's arms and tried to pull him out. "Damn it!" She yelled in rage. One of the members of the backup squad yelled to Alexis.
"Hey! We gotta move! Hurry it up!"
"Hold on, jackass!" She managed to get him out. "Let's move!" They rushed up the stairs, with a mob of ghouls moving right up behind them.
"Ahh!" One of the backups was grabbed and pulled backwards. Riley pivoted and grabbed his hand. "Hang on!" The ghouls refused to release him. They tore and tugged at the armor.
"Shit man! Don't let go!" He screamed for fear of falling into the nightmare that was the ocean of ghouls flailing wildly up the stairs. Riley tried to pull him up, but fell short.
He dropped backwards. "Motherfu-" His screams silenced by the immeasurable amount of ghouls breaking apart the armor.
"There's nothing we can do for him!" Alexis grabbed Riley and pulled him up. They continued the siege and pushed through the ghouls. One by one the backup diminished, killed off by the savagery of the ghouls.
They finally reached the top, where a unfortunate surprise awaited them. A deathclaw. The biggest any of them had ever seen. "Where the hell's the cache?" Whispered Carson.
"Are you shitting me right now? The cache is behind the deathclaw." Whispered Alexis.
"That's it." Carson said angrily. He pulled out his shotgun and aimed it at the deathclaw. Riley's eyes widened. "Oh, shit." He said to himself.
Carson pulled the trigger. The shotgun fired with a loud bang. He hit the deathclaw directly in the head. It roared awake, saw them, and charged.
Riley dove out of the way. "Shit! Alexis, watch out!" He yelled.
Alexis dove backwards. The deathclaw barreled right past them and into Carson, destroying his armor, and sending him plummeting to his death. "Ahh!" His screams of agony would soon be silenced by the sweet mercy of death.
The deathclaw turned to see them. It roared as it geared up to charge.
Riley looked over at the cache and saw a missile launcher near an magazine crate. He rolled for it, grabbed it, turned, and fired the missile directly into the deathclaw's eye.
It roared as it stumbled backwards. It crashed through a frail wall and dropped to its death.
"Oh, shit." Riley sighed with relief as he dropped the missile launcher on the floor. Alexis stood up and radioed in. "This is alpha-one, standing by for cache pickup."
The pilot replied. "Roger that, alpha-one."
"Sorry about Carson." He said standing up.
"No, it's alright. He was a dick anyway."
After a day or two, Riley and a team were dispatched to deal with a growing problem in the Commonwealth. The Scavers.
Him and his team were dispatched to deal with one of the Scavers' post stations. They arrived at the post to see close to ten raiders milling about.
"Shit." Riley thought to himself.
One of the raiders had spotted the team. "Fuck! Everybody! We got prey!" He shouted.
The team attacked, decimating the post station, and killing all the raiders in a horrid fashion. It was almost sadistic, how much the Brotherhood enjoyed turning raiders into smoking piles of ash.
After all of the raiders were killed, the team set fire to the post station. Almost instantaneously, the building was engulfed by the red-hot flames.
It was unbelievable. The post stations, like the one Riley and his team burned, sure they were ran by raiders, but for a fee of one hundred caps, travelers could stock up on supplies here, and even rest here for a day or two.
Sure, the raiders ran on a power hierarchy, but that didn't mean the leader wasn't fair about things. Morris, the leader of the notorious Scavengers, or, Scavers, was an asshole, that was certain. But him instituting the post stations through the Commonwealth was an almost selfless act that helped many travelers.
And it's not like burning the post station helped get those raiders out of something they didn't want to do, in fact, many raiders were open to the idea of helping people. As long as they got something like caps in return.
Riley and his team left the decimated site. He felt remorse for the atrocity his team had committed. "I'm gonna catch up. See ya guys after while back at the Prydwen." He said to the team.
He needed a minute to think about things. Did he really want to stay with the Brotherhood. He thought long about defecting. Eventually he came across a bridge.
He saw two people crossing, and decided to talk to them. All of a sudden, they opened fire. After a hail of bullets shot through Riley, he dropped to the ground.
One of them, a woman, ran up and put her gun on Riley's forehead. She demanded his name. "Riley..." He said weakly. The man wiped the blood from Riley's face.
"Alice, that's enough." He said to her. "All right. But don't expect me to follow orders so well next time."
She leaned close to his ear. She whispered. "And if I ever see you again, I will pump your body full of so many bullets, you'll be a human ammo crate." She spat in his face.
They left him there on the bridge to die. After five minutes, everything faded.