Prologue: One Last Broadcast

Boys and girls of the wasteland, I'm back! Keep those tongues lolling like the good doggies you are! That's me alright, THREEEEE DAWG! Master of the waves and DJ extraordinaire, back to enlighten your dreary lives for one last time with the best music Galaxy News has to offer!

Loud and proud, just like we like it!

You might ask, "Dog, where have you been?" Well, kids, it wasn't muties this time. Papa Dog was given a choice by the new Brotherhood Elder: the Truth, or my baby. But how I say, how can you ask a man to decide between his right and left hand? How can you ask Three Dog which head to chop off?

Boy, that didn't go well. You might have heard their broadcasts in passing, calling out to the Outcasts and those other tin-heads. The propaganda spiel. All those lovely ultimatums and conscription lists.

But the Dog is back, thanks to our resident problem solver. My baby and I can hear you cry from here, my puppies. You thought I'd abandoned you to those marching tunes, the trumpeting coming out of our dear Elder's ass? Because one good ol' President Eden wasn't enough, right?

Don't worry; I forgive you all for doubting the Dog. It's been a hard few months for everyone out there, some of the hardest since the Old World went nuts and rained a thousand Megatons on all of us.

Those Frankensteins played one damn nasty trick on everyone, didn't they? Who'd have thought they had it behind their ugly mugs?

Don't let the propaganda fool you, kiddos. It wasn't the Brotherhood, our magnanimous overlords, that broke the Horde. It wasn't Talon for sure, nor those twisted things they keep on a leash.

It was you! Every one of you people! It was Sheriff Simms and the Megaton Volunteers. It was the Regulators, the people of Rivet City, Hood City, Big Town! Even those nutjobs all the way up in Canterbury and down in Grayditch, with their crazy bots and fire-breathing ants!

It was the Lone Wanderer, that kid the tin heads now tell you is a terrorist and a traitor, when he carried the Truth higher than everyone, in his way.

Ha, but don't recriminate, brothers and sisters of the wasteland. Old Elder Lyons had his heart in the right place, and so did his daughter. They gave us good years of Truth, courtesy of yours truly, and this may be the Dog's last bark, but not all good things have to end.

Open your ears wide and listen well now.

This wasteland has its ways to get under your skin. It makes you bitter, hateful and indifferent to the pain and suffering all around you, my dear friends, but until even a single soul burns with the Good Fight, hope won't fail.

I remember saying these very words to the kid, the Lone Wanderer you know, not the new Elder, not too long after he dodged a slave collar from Talon and came back from my old hometown. There was a fire in his eyes even then, and it told me, "Watch out Dog, this is one kid who can change things."

Boy, he did. No fairytale ending, but that's not worth a laugh in the world we live in. He took our corner of the wasteland on his shoulders for a little while, one man, and fought the Good Fight.

Now he's gone, he left, I don't know. He didn't tell me, you see. But even if he's gone for good, remember the lesson he taught all of us.

For better or worse, all it takes to change the world is one man. And I know that others like him are out there somewhere, listening to this mad Dog howling to the moon. Don't be scarce, my friends. Your wasteland needs you.

Ha! You hear that? These are the Vertibirds landing in the square. Sorry, Brothers. My baby has other plans for the day.

This is Guy Mitchell from the South West, our last entry at Galaxy News, with Heartaches by the Number. Let's enjoy it together, folks, and dream of better times.

It's been a fun ride. Now the Dog has guests to welcome.

AWHOOOOOO!

A small thing I typed last night. Consider it somewhere in medias res, a spoilerish trailer of the reboot of The Thin Line. I'll probably change the period of time Three Dogs mentions as I work out the precise timing of the various events in this storyline. Next chapter will go back to the chronological beginning of the story, but I thought I'd do something different than the thematic, but sometimes dull, 'War Never Changes'.

Anyway, thank you for reading; feedback is always welcome. Don't forget to leave a review.

Fallout belongs to Bethesda, blah blah blah, if I had the money I'd totally buy the rights, yadda yadda, come and get me you lousy Feds!