So, this is my first fanfic ever, the idea just got to me..and yes I know, there are similar stories out there, I don't care. As for now, I have the first two chapters finished and the third one is WIP. Dont really have a full mental picture yet, on where this story in the whole picture will be going, guess I'll have to figure that out on the way. ;)
The Lone Wanderer is based on a Fallout 3 ending with very good karma. The Courier will be introduced a bit later.
Rated it M for language and to be on the safe side, never know what might come.
Reviews are welcome and I'm always open to critics and suggestions. Just try to be gentle, it's my first story after all... :P
Oh and as for the title, I really only have a problem with two things when writing anything: essays and titles. So please excuse me if it's kinda dumb, the explanation to it will come in one of the following chapters...hopefully, that is.
Ashley, the Lone Wanderer of Vault 101, or simply "101" for short as most of the Capital Wasteland knew her, groaned as she suddenly woke up, finding herself on a cold, metal floor, everything around her shaking and some sort of alarm blaring. First she thought she was back in the Vault on that fateful day of her escape, but after her mind was finally fully awake, it all came back to her. She was on a Brotherhood of Steel Vertibird on the way west, to re-establish contact with the Brotherhood there. Altho nobody could really tell her, where exactly "west" was, she figured it would be California, since that is where the Brotherhood had its origins and probably its headquarters as well.
With all her senses now fully awake she got on her feet and walked towards the pilots in the front "What the fuck was that, can't you fly that thing straight?" she asked them in an accusing tone.
"Well Ma'am," the pilot began his answer "right now I'd love to admit that I cannot fly this bird properly, but the truth is, we were just hit by a missile, power is dropping fast, I'm afraid I gotta set her down somewhere here."
Ashley took a moment to fully realize what the pilot just told her. "What? How the hell can that happen? Where are we anyway?" she asked and went to look out of the small window to her right, seeing nothing but sand and rocks, she turned back towards the crew, waiting for an answer.
"We are over the Mojave desert, or Mojave Wasteland, as it's called now, Ma'am." answered the pilot.
'Great, another wasteland, didn't have enough of that back home, huh? But at least it's not that far from California, could be worse.' Ashley thought while looking out of the window again, seeing a little town below the bird, but she could not tell if it was populated.
While still managing to hold the bird in a steady flight the pilot turned towards his co-pilot "Options? I don't really want to set this thing down in the middle of nowhere or worse, in the middle of an Enclave outpost." he asked him.
"Well Sir, according to the data we have about the region, there is…or was...a Brotherhood outpost in a place called Hidden Valley, I don't have any idea if it's still there, but I guess it's the best shot we have. It's only a few clicks further west, I'm pretty sure we can manage to…." he was interupted by a rumbling sound from the bird, as the first engine went out "…get there" he finished rather baffled.
"Well fuck me!" the pilot cursed out as the engine went dead and the vertibird started losing altitude, the alarms blaring again "We are so going down." he stated.
"Damn! You think you can manage to get us down in that Valley place?" Ashley, now holding on to the seat she was standing behind, asked the pilot, hoping for a positive answer, the last thing she wanted to happen being crashed in the middle of an unknown wasteland.
"Positive Ma'am, but you better take a seat and put on a seatbelt, it's gonna be tough." the pilot answered, briefly looking back at his superior.
Ashley patted the pilots shoulder briefly, saying "You can do this man, you're the best pilot we have." before heading back to her seat and fastening the seatbelt tight. What she just told the pilot was a flat out lie, she didn't know him, for all she knew he could be a rookie that just finished the Brotherhoods pilot training, which wasn't so good in the first place, but she couldn't stand there saying "Great, now we're all gonna die!", gotta stay optimistic after all.
Just about a minute later, the second engine failed, with the bird now basically falling instead of flying, shortly after that, Ashley heard the landing gear being deployed under him. "Hold on to something!" the pilot shouted back to her seconds before the vertibird connected with the ground, hard, the landing gear not doing much besides getting ripped off the machine. The vertibird slid a good hundred meters through the soft sand, crushing a few chain-link fences in the process before it came to a halt.
On the inside it looked like a battlefield, everything that wasn't attached to the bird went flying through the crew compartment. But other than that, everything was alright, Ashley looked towards the cockpit, seeing that the pilots also appeared to be unharmed but kinda stunned, just like she was.
After sorting herself she opened the seatbelt and walked up to the crew, asking "You alright?", after both crew-members gave a positive answer she looked out of the front window and, again, saw nothing but sand, they crashed right into a sandstorm, she turned to the pilot again, who was working to open his seatbelt "Where are we? And what's the condition of the bird?" she asked him.
The pilot checked one of the screens on his dashboard, before looking back up to Ashley, answering "According to the data we are spot on Ma'am, Hidden Valley, guess we had a bad timing with that sandstorm. As for the bird…I don't know, diagnostic-systems are out, can't say before I seen it from the outside, but judging from some of the sounds it made during the crash it's pretty fucked, Ma'am." he answered.
"Great. Well okay, lets get some wepons and head out, no point staying in this tin can, gotta check out where exactly we are, leave everything else, we're gonna come back." Ashley said before turning around and heading to the big trunk that contained all her gear, she had to use the big trunk since she decided not to wear her power armor during the flight and the bulky thing didn't fit in a smaller one.
And yet again, she decided against putting it on, she just took out a combat helmet that went with the set of medium armor she wore right now, Lincolns Repeater, a powerful, gold plated lever-action rifle along with some .44 ammo for it, a pair of goggles and a bandana to wrap around her face, there was a sandstorm out there after all. She had more gear in the trunk, but she thought that should be enough for now, she just wanted to have some eyes on the surroundings, they would have to come back to the bird anyway, it was their only ticket home. She turned around to see the pilots were ready too. They weren't unarmed as well, they had new-looking laser carbines in their hands, weapons the Brotherhood only recently found in an old military bunker outside the D.C. ruins and which proved quite useful for Brotherhood pilots and supply-units due to their compact size.
"Ready?" Ashley asked, looking at the pilots. They nodded in response and she opened the rear hatch of the vertibird, she had to kick it a little cause it got stuck, probably damaged from the crash. When it was lowered she slowly stepped out, looking around but not able to see anything but sand in the storm. With the pilots following close behind her and checking in all directions she slowly walked away from the bird, heading north, according to the compass on her Pip-Boy. But after a few meters they came to a halt as a voice called out to them "Stop right there, put your weapons down and your hands up, do it now!"
Yes, I actually finished the first chapter with a cliffhanger, wanna give my readers a reason to come back for the second chapter.
Read and review please, would appreciate it. ;)