Helooooo Internet!
For those who found me writing Undertale, yes, I also like fallout, a lot. And this idea has been bugging me a fair bit too, what if two OC's just explore the wasteland? What would happen? I just realized while writing this that this could make an awesome plot for a Fallout Telltale game, hence the title basically copying Tales from the Borderlands.
Anyway, onto the story!
(Epic action movie music plays)
Tales of the Fallout – Chapter 1 – Outpost Gamma
Diamond City, 8:37 pm, 2287
Power Noodles, the one place in Diamond City that Jason actually liked, the fair-ground feel of the settlement was replaced with a tense yet welcoming atmosphere. It is was also the place where Jason took his contracts, after Kellogg disappeared for some reason, a big, well-paying job was left out in the open, perfect for Jason to take up. It payed well enough to have his own house, and he got a 20% discount at Arturo's Weaponry, which is always nice for ammunition, but he preferred the antique weaponry that he found in the field, his favourite being this 10mm pistol he found, it was dark brown, with a huge suppressor on the front, the name 'Deliverer' was etched in its side.
Today however, was a very unique day, not only was he strangely hungry, but he didn't get any contracts, at least not yet. Finally, a man sat down next to him and ordered a noodle cup before turning to Jason. Jason observed the man for a second, he was wearing a drifter outfit, with several obvious gashes, revealing cut and burnt flesh, fairly normal for a wasteland explorer, his hair appeared to be reddish, with streaks of blonde, except that some of it was ripped out, no facial hair at all, but there was many noticeable scars and bruises, one very noticeable bruise was almost in his eye, a dead giveaway that someone tried to gouge it out.
Suddenly, the man spoke up, "Your Jason, right?"
"Yup, that's me, the man, the myth, the legend" Jason responded almost sarcastically,
"Whatever" the man responded, surprisingly his voice was a little less gruff than he expected, "I need you to take out…"
"…a group of raiders?" Jason responded, seemingly reading the man's mind.
"Umm, yes actually… how did you know?"
Jason wanted to say that he knew by extreme observation, that by the way that the cuts were placed that they were given by barbed pool cues, and by bashes from pipe pistols, and the partial eye-gouge was from a switchblade, all distinctly raider weapons. But that would have given away his composure of a tough, assassin vibe.
"Just a lucky guess" Jason reluctantly responded.
"Oh, fair enough…" the man responded, "And that is exactly why I wanted you, to take 'em out"
Jason sighed, he was hoping for a more exciting contract, like an assassination or at least a run in with the gunners, the only good mercenary group in the commonwealth, "How much are we talking here?" Jason replied.
"About 30", the man answered.
"*sigh* I meant payment" Jason sighed, obviously this man hadn't met a real assassin before.
"Oh…" the man must have been putting it off, maybe he is smarter than he thought?
"I'll pay you 200 caps…" Fair price, "…if I can go with you" Now that was a line that intrigued Jason, he has never heard of anyone who wanted to go with him on his dastardly journeys.
"Why? I would imagine people these days don't want raider guts in their faces" Jason would have tried to get him to tell him why in a more charismatic way, but he never had a high charisma, opting for the intelligence and perception spectrum of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. chart.
"I know, I know…" The man quickly responded, "But, I've had a… feud with these guys for a while now, and I think I need some help"
"No kidding" Jason sarcastically commented,
"Hah, I'm dealing with a real comedian here aren't I?" He seemed annoyed, better move it along, "Anyway, if we're going to work together, I'll need your name" Jason said, trying to move the conversation along.
"Not important" obviously he wanted to keep some information a secret, Jason nudged the pistol on the table in front of him, "Well personally, I think it is very important to know my clients names, after all, if something goes wrong, I can call them by name before killing them" wow, that was the most threatening thing Jason had said in the past month, man he was going soft.
"Alright…" the threat actually worked, Jason imagined a cash register sound go off in his head, "My name… is Tim… Timothy"
Just to mess with Tim, Jason grabbed the gun, waved the barrel just pass his head, and put it in his holster, making him jump, "Now" Jason started, "Where are these bastards?"
The next day, Commonwealth, West of Oberland Station, Close to the Map Border, 08:12
After a quick sleep, Jason and Tim, the unlikely duo, just started there long and dangerous quest, Jason just thinks it's just an old raider settlement, however, Timothy seems to know more than he is letting on, possibly more than just raiders, no, there was more than that, there was something they had that timothy wanted back.
"Outpost Gamma eh?" Jason questions Tim as they walk across road, sidestepping a car, "Doesn't show up on any pre-war maps, must be a new place."
"Yeah, raiders set up shop everywhere… heh" Timothy knew he was lying, but no one would believe he saw a secret military outpost that wasn't on any maps, they'd think he was hooked on jet or something.
But turns out Tim didn't need to explain anything, "Get down!" Jason whisper-shouted, pulling Tim down with him into a nearby bush, pulling out 'Deliverer'. Tim looked out of the bush, seeing what creature was out to kill him this time. Something passed by the bush… not a yao guai or a deathclaw, but… an eyebot? The eyebot passed by the bush, humming a pre-war song, seemingly scanning its surroundings as it passed.
"That's… weird" Jason whispered to his partner-in-crime, "What's an eyebot doing out here?" Jason has seen eyebots free around the commonwealth before, but only to advertise job opportunities at Cambridge Polymer Labs, never actually doing their job.
After the eyebot passed, Jason and co walked out of the bush and started following the eyebots path back to where it came from, not much was said, but guns were drawn and stealth was enabled, eventually they reached a hill, a dead giveaway that something was on the other side, the two glanced at each other before adopting to a crawl as they reached the crest of the hill, what they saw was no raider base.
The entire area was concreted, not cracked, but brand new, the concrete acted as a parking spot for the seemingly hundreds of jeeps armed with machine guns and missile launchers, in the middle was a tower, similarly shaped to an airport terminal tower, coated in some sort of dark blue reflective metal, jutting out from the top of the tower was what appeared to be an office, underneath was a fountain. Surrounding the whole area was a large concrete wall, with towers on each corner. Human guards and turrets lined the towers and walls, and people were walking around the centre area.
Jason slapped Tim with the butt of his pistol.
"Oww… what the hell?" Tim reacted,
"This is what you call a raider base? This isn't even pre-war, it's fucking brand new!" Of course Jason was surprised, this design of building wasn't pre-war style, and was beyond raider capabilities, this was a faction building, a high-tech faction building at that.
"What gave you the idea that they were raiders?" Jason continued ranting
"Well I knew you wouldn't help me if you knew we were taking down a division outpost" Tim explained, he knew that Jason would react at what he called a 'division' outpost.
"Division?" there it was, Jason had never heard of The Division and hoped he never would have, but of course he never knew that he wouldn't want to know because he never knew they existed *mind blown*
"Alright, I guess you want an explanation as to what we're doing here and why we're trying to take down a faction" Tim started, "It's a long story, but the gist is that they took something of mine and I want it back, I've been spying on them for a while now but as you see…" he pointed to his bruised eye "I've been caught… anyway…" Tim was silenced by a combat knife being held against his neck,
"Are. You. Mad? You're trying to get me involved in taking down a faction? Not even Kellogg could do that and he was the best" Kellogg was Jason's hero now, why? Because he didn't get involved in crazy shit like this.
"I get that your… angry" Understatement of the year, "But I have a plan, you see that gate?" Tim pointed at a gate where vehicles enter and exit the compound, *Epic montage mode activate* "While I sneak down the hill towards the gate, you shoot that turret's motion sensor, when those two guards are distracted by the turret 'malfunctioning' I will silently kill the guard on the left, switch places and identities, all while you take out the second guard. After I get in, take a vehicle, and clear the courtyard, you will enter, get in the vehicle with me and help me 'negotiate' with the people inside. Whenever they agree with us or not, we will blow up the building and swag out of there. Sound good?"
"Or we could just go in that sewer pipe and move on from there?" Jason was pointing at a pipe in the ground a couple of paces away from the outpost
"You're no fun" Tim pouted
"Assassinations aren't fun, get used to it"
Underneath Outpost Gamma, 08:21
To be honest, Jason did think that Tim's plan was badass, anyone would take that over wading through whatever this is, but this method less complicated and more stealthier, after all, they were taking down a supposed faction outpost.
"So, what gave you the crazy idea to take down an outpost, eh?" Jason questioned the shivering drifter,
"I guess I haven't told you about The Division yet, have I?" Tim said, his face now pale from the cold, dark pipe,
"Nope"
"Well, prepare yourself for a long story, I've got a lot to tell you"
"Ooh, I love story time" Jason responded, a thick sarcastic accent in his voice
"Shut up and listen…"
Remember that huge explosion a couple of months ago at the CIT? Yeah, apparently that was the Institute being ended by the Brotherhood of Steel, apparently they was going to be a huge threat to our survival, and the Brotherhood was doing us a huge favour by destroying them, well they did the wrong thing, because from the wake of the ruined Institute came the force that will end not only the Brotherhood, but all of us, that force is…
"Just get to it already"
"I'm getting there, I'm just building up suspense"
Anyway, as I was saying… The Division was an idea that the institute had in mind for a while, why have one human operative on the surface when you could have an entire subdivision up there? That way, the surface subordinate could do all the surface jobs, like resource gathering, surface check-ups, patrols etc., all while the Institute could further stay underground, genius.
But the Institute only got to making one base before the whole plan went to shit, arguments happened, jobs were thrown around, synth rights was put on the line, all before the surface subdivision divided from the institute to go at it alone.
It all happened just weeks before the Brotherhood attacked, the Institute had it all planned out, the overwhelming force of the surface subdivision was supposed to attack the Brotherhood base long before they struck, but it didn't happen. The institute was left open, the Brotherhood attacked and the former was destroyed, leaving the subdivision by its lonesome. Deciding to take action, they named themselves The Division, created outpost's on the surface, deployed millions of gen 3 synths to take part in their armies, and ironically, they treated them much better than their original creators, giving them comfort, rights and a life inside The Division.
"So what you're saying is…" Jason questions after hearing that ridiculously long description, "Is that the institute has basically come back with a vengeance?"
"Yup" Tim said, puffed out from telling that story,
"That… is awesome, but what's so bad about them this time, you said yourself that they treat synths like normal people" Jason never opposed the idea of synthetic humans living side-by-side with people, at least they're not murderous bastards like half the commonwealth.
"Well, it's a long story" Tim sighed, Jason felt a strong need to speak a sexual joke but decided it wasn't the right time.
"Go on…"
"Well, they… burnt down my farm, killed my wife and kids and took my father, so I guess I have a reason to kill them in cold blood"
"Holy shit… I had no idea, I'm so sorry" Jason was actually sincere with this line, he had never expected to be dealing with someone who went through all that.
"It's fine, after I burn these bastards to the ground and get my dad back I will be fine"
Almost on cue, the dynamic duo reached the end of the pipe to see a dead end, above them was what appeared to be several metal bars, symbolising some sort of air shaft, how convenient.
"Alright, how are we gonna get this open?" Tim asked the thinking Jason, many ideas flashed through his mind, he considered blasting it open with a laser rifle, screwing it off with a screwdriver and even using a power fist to smash it open, but the last idea was the best,
"Got any frag grenades to spare?" Jason asked Tim, holding his hand out to him,
"Yeah" Tim passed one of the explosives to Jason, "But I don't think I'll work…" Tim said before Jason pulled the pin and jammed it between the two bars, "Well, there's only one way to find out, eh?" Jason took his sunglasses off as he turned around and started walking back down the pipe, Tim did the same, minus the sunglasses, several seconds later, the grenade exploded, just as Jason put his sunglasses back on, the shockwave of the grenade ruffling his hair as an ear piercing boom filled the pipe, it was like a scene out of an action movie.
"Well, that was pointless" Tim muttered, face down in the 'substance', must have been knocked over by the blast
"Hey, you gotta live a little" Jason said proudly,
"Wait, weren't you saying just 5 minutes ago that assassinations weren't fun?"
"Man, I love being out of character"
Outpost Gamma, B1 Floor, 08:32
The two climbed out of the pipe to arrive into some sort of stockpile, the room was filled with boxes of weaponry, ammunition, rations and synth parts, the trim around the ceiling was lined with pulsating blue lights, giving a nightclub feel to the room.
"Damn, look at this place…" To Jason, this style of room felt off, after all, the style was easily 50 years in the future (Taken from 1960's room design, not 2287 room design.)
"Yup, this is the supply level…" Tim mumbled, walking around the huge warehouse like room, "Wait… are those stimpaks?" Tim walked over to a box labelled 'chems' and picked up what vaguely looked like a stimpak, except it was black, and had some sort of release on it, maybe it was a refillable stimpak?
"I dunno, I'd be careful with that" Jason walked over to the box, looking at the 'stimpak', trying to identify anything suspicious,
"Well, I do need one" Tim retorted, "that grenade must have hit me a little harder than I thought…" Tim held the stimpak high, breaking the seal, but then Jason noticed something in the air, the disinfectant smell of a freshly-cracked stimpak was missing, and was replaced by a metallic smell, a dead giveaway that corrosive acid was reacting with the metal…
"Look out!" Jason pulled out deliverer and shot the 'stimpak' out of Tim's hand, right before it connected with his skin
"Woah... what was that?" Tim said, obviously in shock
"Couldn't you tell?" Jason walked over to the fake stimpak and pressed the release, immediately, a side container opened and a vial of corrosive acid fell out into Jason's hand, "This is an offensive stimpak, designed to be used on enemy's… wow, these guys really are geniuses"
"Well…" Tim muttered, recovering from the shock, "They did evolve from the Institute…"
"I dunno, I can't choose" Tim whined, he and Jason were in front of a table with four weapons on it, a revolver pistol, an explosive shotgun, a semi-auto rifle and a razor-lined baton of sorts, since Tim was only armed with a stock-standard pipe pistol, he needed a better weapon if they were going to storm an outpost.
"Just pick one, but if you ask me, that pistol looks tight" Jason commented to the thinking Tim, after a while, Tim chose the shotgun, simply because it took explosive rounds
"Oh come on! Shotguns are for the inexperienced, you know what? I'm gonna take this pistol, just to prove how cool it is!" Jason picked up the pistol and several boxes of ammunition, he had to admit, it felt right at home in his hands, even without a suppressor, he felt he didn't need one.
Eventually the two musketeers found an exit, two large doors at the top of a mezzanine level, overlooking the warehouse,
"This is gonna be a long journey, isn't it?" Tim spoke to Jason
"Yup, I think it is…" Jason said before hearing the door open behind him, two guards in full black and blue armour talking to each other before noticing the two intruders
"So then I said… hey, who are you guys?"
"Just your worst nightmare…" Jason threatened, donning his patrolman sunglasses before spinning around, roundhouse kicking the first guard, then shooting the second guard in the arm with Deliverer, disarming him. He then latched on to the first guard's submachine gun and reamed it from his arms, delivering a severe bash to the back of his head with it. Jason finished by letting loose one shot from the submachine gun at the second guards chest, disabling some sort of radio to make sure he didn't call for help.
"Let's go, before people get suspicious…" The deadly duo ran out the door and straight into an elevator. "Ok, which floor is he on?" Jason questioned the quivering Tim,
"Umm… I don't know… but if we get to the top floor and access the PA system, we can call him up to us?" Tim questioned,
"That… is actually a good plan for once, let's go" Jason pressed the button for the top floor and waited…
…
…
…
Going up…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
*Light flickers*
…
…
…
*cough*
…
…
…
*shotgun pump*
…
…
…
*Pistol load*
…
…
…
Top floor…
"Finally" Jason muttered as the doors opened to a long glass hallway, "That took ages"
Outpost Gamma, Majors Office, 8:59
The two men stepped out of the elevator to observe the hallway, the only other doors were at the opposite end of the hall, possibly leading to an office of sorts. The hall itself was more of a covered bridge, separating the office from the rest of the compound, underneath people (or synths?) were walking around, wearing similar armour to the two that were left for dead in the basement.
Jason approached the door, relieved to find it unlocked, but before entering, both prepared for a breach, this was gonna be one hell of a fight…
Jason thought for a second, if these people had any sense, presuming there was a figure of authority inside, there would be four guards and the man/woman inside, totalling to five. For a regular person 2 + 5 = outnumbered, but Jason could call himself a tactician, so 1 and a tactician + 5 = equal playing field.
Instead of opening the door, Jason shot off the hinges and pulled down the door to cover a crouched Tim, as planned, several bullets flew over their heads, bouncing against the door and the glass behind them.
"Bullet-proofing… these guys are smart" Jason remarked,
"Look, I dunno if you realise or not, but we are getting SHOT at here, so help!" Tim shouted over several blasts from his shotgun, satisfyingly ripping apart a soldier, revealing that they were in fact synths,
"I'm thinking here, just keep shooting…"
Jason watched as the bullets ricochet off the glass behind him, using that to judge which angle his newly-found pistol should aim, using this, he can shoot accurately without having to lift his head above the makeshift barricade, letting loose a shot, he knew he judged right after hearing the pained screams of a synth, and later hearing glass shatter, that wasn't part of it…
"H… how did you do that?" Tim said, looking at Jason in disbelief,
"High perception pays, that's all I'm saying"
Jason looked above the barricade to see the office, there was now two soldiers left, wait… now there's only one, thanks Tim, but to Jason's surprise, there wasn't a figure od authority in the room, or so he thought before something shot Tim's shotgun out of his hand, and it wasn't the soldier, Jason had just disarmed him, but the bullet came from… behind.
Immediately, something pulled Jason to his feet and pushed him into the room, landing face first on the black glass floor, Tim landed just next to him, groaning in pain.
"Well well… if it isn't my nine-o-clock, right on time to…" A gruff sounding voice spoke from behind, Jason felt the need to become friends with this guy, gotta love sarcasm.
"Sarcasm eh? My favourite humour…" Jason replied to the figure, he regrated it after the man picked him up from behind and spun him around to 'meet' him. The man himself wore a mean look, was balding with white hair, and had a noticeable scar on his lip. Jason also noticed his uniform, similar to the guards armour, except slightly more comfortable, on his arm he wore some sort of symbol, three diamond shapes in a vertical line, representing a rank, Jason could determine that he was a major, only because under the symbol there was the words 'Major Darius H. Cunningham', he also noticed there was a .44 pistol being held at his head.
"So…" Mr Cunningham continued, "May I ask why you are here?" The second guard walked over, almost on cue, and held a pistol to Tim's head,
"Were looking for a missing person, you see this man here?" Jason gestured to Tim, "Were looking for his father, apparently you killed his (Tim's) family and took his dad, so we want him back"
"What if I told you he's not here?"
"What if I told you, Mr Cunningham, you will direct him to us or you're a dead man"
"Fair enough…" The major threw Jason at the ground near the broken window and directed the guard to do the same, "I will tell you, but only because I am in a good mood, this person you're after has been taken into custody, but only because he is 'needed' by us"
Tim finally mustered the courage to speak up "Look, I don't know or care why you 'need' him, but you will give him back or this Faction will burn in HELL!" The major motioned to the soldier, who pulled out a stun gun and quickly put an end to Tim's rant, who fell on the ground, writhing in pain. Jason glared at this so called 'authority' figure.
"First off, call me Darius, it's my preferred name…" Darius started, "Secondly, we didn't take him because of some old blood feud, no, we are doing this for a reason. You see, that foolish man was withholding institute research from us, and since we are the offspring of the geniuses themselves, that would be stealing, no? So we will hold him until we have the information and let him go, capiche?"
"You're worse than the institute ever was…" Jason muttered underneath his breath, which got him a hard slap against the head,
"And what are you?" Darius retorted, "Some 'hero' who has come to 'save us all from the oh-so-terrifying Division'? Which side do you think you're on? We are here to take back what the Brotherhood of Steel took from us all those months ago. On a lighter note, I am willing to spare you for now…" Darius motioned to the soldier again, who brandished two backpacks and threw them at the injured duo, "These have some 'goodies' in them that may help you on adventures that do not concern Division operations, now, I will let you go peacefully and never return to us, or suffer the consequences"
"Please…" Tim choked out from beside Jason, "Don't give them mercy, make them pay for their actions… please…"
Jason clutched to his backpack and gun, and so did Tim, a million thoughts were running through his head… but only two stood out…
Side with The Division and go peacefully, pretend nothing happened and continue finding Tim's father with whatever was in the bag
Or…
Put the Outpost to waste, destroy the office and possibly Darius, fall out the window and hope they fall in the water, and keep fighting against The Division
Every choice matters, it just depends on your morale…
Next time on Tales of the Fallout:
*Jason and Tim shooting at something*
*A bomb ticking down*
*Jason loading a holotape into a pipboy*
*Darius crawling out of the Outpost Gamma ruins, insane rage in his eyes…*
Anyway, Josho OUT!