Fallout legends: The Chimera-Claw!
By:RisingGear
[Alaskan Warzone - United States Military base]
James "Jimmy" O'Reilly is a frontline infantryman in the 108th. A twenty-five-year-old drafted soldier who is fighting in the trenches of Anchorage during the conflict with China. He served three tours of duty with some friends he made in the 108, The Jefferson twins Johnny and Olivia. A pair of young twins from Connecticut. Johnny is a vertibird pilot, and the best one ever if you believe his boasting.
Olivia fought on the front line alongside him, becoming the closest to him in the unit. During some downtime, the three sneak off with smuggled in booze. "So what do you guys plan to do when you get home?" Jimmy asks while taking a swig of whiskey before passing it to Johnny.
"Who knows, work as a commercial airline pilot? Provided America doesn't turn into a police state or a fucking nuclear wasteland." Johnny snarks, his dark sense of humor at work. "The only thing I really want is to go home."
He passes the bottle to his sister Olivia, who is a foot taller then he is. "I don't know, I might stay in the military! Kick ass and taking names but...~" While she takes a swig of whiskey she pinches Jimmy's ass. Jimmy was taken by surprise jumps but trips in the snow. She helps him back up "...I might settle down someday if I meet the right guy!"
A year later, the three gone home to live their respective lives. Jimmy returned to his wife to meet his newborn son. The happy little family was headed for a brighter future ahead of them.
Then the unthinkable happened, The United States got bombed with nuclear warheads. Jimmy and his family were placed inside a vault, which in turn cryogenically froze them.
But that is a story for another day.
[The Castle - Boston Massachusetts]
With the Minutemen under his control, James O'Reilly all but stabilized the Boston area as General. Regular patrols becoming the norm and raiders almost gone from the area. With peace and prosperity returning to the people with every threat taken out. Under his leadership, the Minutemen even defeated the biggest boogeyman of the Commonwealth, The dreaded Institute. One day James is filling out paperwork in his private chambers when he gets a knock on the door.
"General O'Reilly sir, you have two new recruits that request an audience with you." One of his Commanders says to him. A man in X-01 power armor with the Minutemen logo on the chest, A rifle crossing a lightning bolt.
"Great thinks Danse let them in." James says bored from the paperwork, rubbing his blue eyes. "I could use a break anyway."
Two Ghouls walk in, a man with a woman in military fatigues. As soon as they see him, they react with shock with mouths hanging open. The female of the duo looks like she is about to cry but also smiling. "No fucking way, Jimmy is that you!?" Unlike most other ghouls, her voice isn't raspy. In fact, her voice is that of a youthful woman.
James, after looking at them long enough to see people he seems to recognize. The woman's cornrows over her left eye. She has a curvy Amazonian build, broad-shouldered and slightly muscular with a slight six-pack showing under the tank top. Then the surprise hits him when he remembers who they are. "Olivia? John?" Hearing him say her name confirms he knows her.
"I-it really is you? When the bombs dropped we thought you died!" Olivia stutters in total disbelief. James hugs the two, overwhelmingly happy to see old friends from his pre-war life.
"You three know each other, Sir?" Danse asks with confusion.
James pulls an old photo of himself from his days in the pre-war US Army, Standing next to him are the two dark-skinned twins. "Danse I would love for you to meet some war buddies of mine, the Jefferson twins. Olivia fought alongside me in the 108th infantry during the great war! I remember she took out a Chimera Tank once with just a single grenade."Olivia high fives James, proud of the good old days. James notices the slimmer male ghoul is wearing an Avatar Jacket and a red scarf. "Johnny here was the best pilot in the air-force, Selected to test-pilot Vertibirds when they were still in the prototype phase."
Danse shakes hands with the two, being careful not to crush the hands of the two. "You two sound like promising Minutemen. If the General approves of you then welcome aboard."
"Oh right I forgot, Guys this is Heavy-Captain Danse. Founder and Commander of the Minuteman Heavies, Our Power-Armored heavy assault unit." James says proudly exclaims.
Danse takes a look at two of his men in the other end of the courtyard, guarding the front entrance in T-45 armor with a smirk. "As a former Paladin with the Brotherhood of Steel, I thought it best to capitalize on the Power Armor frames we always find out in the wasteland and on dead raiders. Sir, I'll return to my duties, you take time to catch up with your old comrades."
"Thanks, Danse, I owe you one!" James says with a salute, Danse nods and walks away.
In his quarters, Jimmy sets down with the old friends of his. The room is built like a small two bedroom apartment. Weapon racks mounted on the wall holding various kinds of rifles. Bookcases filled with classic literature next to a jukebox. Dogmeat is chilling on a dog-bed chewing on a Brahmin leg bone.
Olivia is lost in thought, confused about Jimmy's unchanged looks after two hundred years. "I still just can't believe it. When the bombs dropped I... we were afraid you died! I... we thought we would never see you again!" She can hardly contain herself from tackling him to the ground in joy.
"You look pretty good for a ghoul." Her brother John jokes as they all put the glasses together in a toast. "When we heard the General of the Boston Minutemen was named James O'Reilly we did not believe it was you." He admits in a Snarky tone, he then takes out a cigarette. "No offense Jimmy but how many O'Reilly's live in Boston, and we did think you were dead for two-hundred years." John laughs, making his sister and Jimmy confused.
Jimmy hands them a framed photo of him with his late wife Nora and son Shaun."I was cryogenically frozen in a vault, The last thing I saw was the mushroom cloud as I entered Vault 111." Jimmy just glares remorsefully into his glass thinking about the moment he lost them. How felt powerless he felt when he failed to save Nora. "I was the only person to make it out of that frozen hell." The twins show sympathy for there friend being a widower, Olivia especially. She hugs Jimmy, nearly crushing him in the embrace. Alongside her chest pressed into his, much to Jimmy's embarrassment. "I appreciate the affection Olivia, but any tighter you'll break my spine!"
Embarrassed Olivia drops him, he falls back in his chair. "Sorry, I don't know my own strength sometimes!" She rubs the back of her head and laughs. Jimmy follows suit, laughing so hard a tear escapes his eye.
"Hahaha! I'm glad you didn't change at all after two centuries!" The three friends empty another glass of whiskey, enjoying the burn as it goes down. All three having a good time before Jimmy's second in command Preston Garvey slams the door open in a panic. "General sir Quinsy is being overrun by raiders again!"
Jimmy immediately gets to his feet, putting on a tri quarter hat on his head with a cocky grin. "Hehehe! Duty calls guys?" He grabs a laser rifle off the gun rack. "You two still want to join the Minutemen?"
Olivia stands up and punches her fist together with the same cocky grin as Jimmy. "Bitch why do you think we are even here?" She boasts, catching a combat shotgun and a Minutemen hat. Her brother smirks with a lite cigarette in his mouth. "What she said!"
"Welcome aboard! Johnny can you still fly a Vertibird?" Jimmy asks grabbing a saber out of an umbrella caddie.
"Come on man, What kind of question is that to ask a fucking pilot?" An offended Johnny exclaimed before smirking again. "I can fly better than anyone!"
~Near Quincy~
A tall figure rests by a burning fire, roasting a mole rat on a stick. The figure's arm is covered in patches of red and green scales that turn brown, clawed fingers covered in blood. The tattered brown rags she covers herself in are slightly open showing slave rags on the woman's body. Her face is hidden under her hood but a pair of Deathclaw horns pointing forward. Big pillowy lips and a strand of blonde hair are all that's visible of her face.
Around the figure are dead or dyeing raiders, all of them look like they have been torn apart by a savage beast. But the figure looks like she is happily waiting for her molerat to cook, her tail wagging and stomach growling.
*VROOM!* The loud roar of cars and trucks are on the move into the nearby town of Quincy. Crude vehicles driven by raiders pass by the figure, who started hiding as soon as she heard the sound of the engines.
She decided to rip the door off a sealed-off building that turned out to be an old clothing store. Once inside, a black dress quickly gets her attention. "Humans wear clothes like this, right?" She jokingly asks a teddy bear that was laying on the counter. Her mouth twists into a grin showing large fangs. She takes the dress into a changing area, replacing the tattered rags.
*BANG!* Gunfire and screaming settlers are heard in the distance. The figure instinctively ducks for cover, the iron shackles on her ankles clank. She unboards a window to look outside. To her horror she sees the raiders shooting people left and right. "Grease Monkeys! Way too many for me to deal with." A stray bullet shatters a window, scaring her even more. The screaming from the settlers is too hard to ignore. "I-I n-need to do something!"
She extends her claw out as she runs out the door, ready to save people she doesn't even know or owe any favors to. Before she even can do anything, she hears one of the raiders scream, "Oh Shit Vertibird!"
Jimmy and the Jefferson twins are right above the town in a pre-war military aircraft. Johnny lives up to his claims about his piloting skills, effortlessly dodging missiles. "My compliments to your mechanic! Haha, This baby can dance!"
"FUCKING HELL! Shoot that thing out of the sky!" !"The leader of the depraved motorists screams. The raiders fire their vehicle-mounted miniguns at the aircraft. *BRAKA! BRAKA!* Johnny skillfully avoids the incoming bullets. Olivia uses the Minigun mounted in the Vertibird to return fire. *BRAKA! BRAKA!*
"EAT LEAD YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" She screams in between the hail of gunfire, a gung-ho smirk on her face as she mows them down from up high. Her attitude quickly changes when a mini-nuke comes towards her, she gives it the middle finger. "OH FUCK YOU, YOU LIMP DICK PUSSIES!"
Jimmy opens the other side door and pushes Olivia out of the way. The mini-nuke safely passes through, leaving the aircraft unharmed. The radioactive explosive lands in an unoccupied patch of land. *KABOOM!* Jimmy sighs and lets out a relieved chuckle. "Jesus that was a close call!"
"Hay Jimmy not that I don't mind, but can you not squeeze so hard." Olivia informs him, biting her lip. Jimmy finally notices his hand is on her breast, unknowing squeezing pretty hard. "Enjoying yourself?~" She playfully teases with a lustful gleam in her eye.
Jimmy has the same look in his eye. "You tell me, that your hand on my ass?"
"hehe Maybe.~" She replies, removing her hand from his right buttock. Her brother in the cockpit gives off an annoyed grown. "Two hundred years later and I still have to hear this? Will you two just fuck and get it over with? Preferably when people aren't shooting at us!"
"You heard the man.~" Olivia teases Jimmy again, earning a chuckle from Jimmy. He unsheathes his revolutionary sword as he the deployment cable. " If you think you can handle me.~" What he is about to do make him have a demented grin."Time to unleash my inner Errol Flynn!"
Jimmy swings into the action like the hero in an old movie, glowing blade in hand. "Though Devil's iron makes this Blade, only he who Wields can make it Wicked." Jimmy's entrance causes him to land his boot in a raider's face.
"You're gonna pay for that motherfucker!" The thug behind him threatens, ruining a chance for a sneak attack. Jimmy just stabs him in the throat and shooting another in the head with a 44 magnum. *BANG!* Then rolls out of the way when a raider truck tries to ram him. The truck hits a building and then Jimmy shots the driver in the head.
"You think you're tough, big man?!"The Raider leader in the power armor charges at him with a Super Sledge. The mysterious figure blocks the raider's attack. While the guy is distracted, Jimmy pulls the fusion core out of the power armor. He then opens the suit up to stab the raider in the heart.
He turns to look at the unusual woman who helped him, quickly notices the Deathclaw traits and color changing scales. He should be alarmed but a humanoid deathclaw, but is too desensitized by the wasteland to care about that. "I don't know who or what you are but thanks for the help lady! Got a name?"
The deathclaw lady picks the armor up by the arm and slams it into another raider. Then rips the face off another. "It's Claudia!"
More cars come at them, but an unexpected barrage of laser fire gets them.
Preston and a small army of Minutemen forces surrounding the town. From Danse and his heavies to Robotic infantry units, The Minute-Bots. not to mention the Vertibird with the Jefferson twins circling overhead. The remaining Raiders drop their guns and surrender.
Jimmy proudly smirks at this victory, his strategy worked. "I can't believe that actually worked! Make the raiders so focused on me that they overlook the other men and women!"
He then gratefully pats a terrified Claudia when he notices her trembling at being surrounded by so many people. "You don't need to be afraid. You saved a lot of people by stepping in with us. Claudia was it, you are a hero and one of us if you want."
"Not very good with people." The frightened deathclaw woman says.
Jimmy notices the shackles on her ankles and removes them for her as an act of kindness. This makes Claudia confused at a human treating her so warmly, She feels so comfortable around him she removes her hood, showing the face of a young dark skinned woman with messy blonde hair. Her face leaves Jimmy froze in shock, a single tear.
He takes out the photo of his family and compares his late wife Nora to Claudia. The two look almost completely identical. "Not possible ... Nora is that really you?!" In the heat of the moment, Jimmy hugs her. "I thought I lost you!"
"Who is Nora?"