Chapter One
He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'
He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'
He keeps hackin' and whackin' and smackin'
He just hacks, whacks, choppin' that meat.
Clank was suddenly awaken as Butcher pete played over the radio. It was enough for him to jump up from his bed and hit his head on the low ceiling. "What the hell?" He almost screamed, holding his head.
"There you are." It was a woman's voice, Clank turned his head to see who said it. By his Jukebox was a woman. She was thin and small but had a wild look to her. Her hair was dirty, face nearly covered with grease and wore an old robco jumpsuit.
"Malice?" Clank said groggily. "What are you doing?"
"Just coming to wish you a happy birthday. Now how old are you now? Thirty, forty. Fifty?"
"Twenty six."
"Well you're almost there. Now come on, you need to help me open up the shop."
"Alright boss." Clank got out from his bed and stretched his body. Then he grabbed an old jumpsuit from a Red Rocket and put it on and head out from his home, a shack built where a old home used to stand, to Salem's beach wall. Hard to believe that almost three years ago this town was a shell of its former self, filled with Mirelurks, and a single crazy man. The minutemen, more specifically General Davison kept his promise on rebuilding the Commonwealth. Because of Salem's size and general romieness it ended attracting a lot more people. For various reasons of course, for Malice it was so place new, some place to lie low, for Rook he only stuck around because this was where he was born and raised, and for Clank, Salem acted as a port town, the dock was expanded so larger ships could come in and trade. That's what attracted him here. He's always been fascinated by the outside world, even as a child. None of the men had ever crossed the sea but it was interesting to hear stories of the other settlements and cites up and down the coast.
"You know the BoS capital ship came in today. Just before dawn."
"The Prydwen?"
"Yeah that's the one."
"Yearly talks are already begun huh?" Little over three years ago, General Davison left his vault and ventured into the wasteland, he wander around for a bit, and somehow became the general of the Minutemen. He help found and fix up a lot of the smaller homesteads all across the wastes. Rumor even circulate he joined every faction there was here, even a few raiders clans, he wasn't sure with the whole story on that one. But go figures the Institute being the boogeyman it was started to cause problems, so Davison and the Minutemen ended up destroying the Institute, revealing almost every synth spy and pretty much saving the world. The Minutemen did allow the civilians almost an hour to gather up their things before blowing the place to hell. For most of the survivors they ended joined together and settle down across the wastes, others fled to outposts and some just began their attacks, last minute revenge. Some damage was dealt but nothing anyone can't jump back from. For the Railroad and BoS they had a new mission, eliminate, capture or intergrate. Clank was pretty sure if Davison had sided with either faction most of the Inside would have died, maybe the Railroad would be a bit kinder but the Brotherhood would kill everyone. So for a few months the Railroad and BoS hunted for Institute members, or former members. The BoS went for scientists, specifically those who could create dangerous weaponry. They had the option to join or die, a lot of em joined for some reason. Railroad looked for synths on the other hand, and those who could help repair them. They still offered shelter to Institute scientists regardless of what they did, though this was probably so the Brotherhood couldn't get their hands on them. The only people that were a kill on site were the synth coursers. They didn't last too long one you have half of the commonwealth killing you on site. Once the last of the Institute were either killed or joined the two rivals looked to each other and open war began. The fighting was guerrilla tactics for the most part so no large battles ever took place but after a battle left a settlement almost completely destroyed Davison called for a cease fire or threatened to destroy both factions. He sat them down and let discussions run their course. After some time the two factions entered a periment cease fire. And ever since then the BoS and Railroad kept operating in the Commonwealth. Fighting still happened but it was more hushed.
"Yeah guess so." Malice said. The two kept walking until they reached a pre-war home with its garage fully opened. Inside was a mess, tools and commissions were scatter across various desks and tables. The only thing that wasn't a wreck was Clank's pride and joy, Dune rider. Cars are common in the waste, those that can drive that's a different story. It isn't easy to get a car up and running, you need parts, fuel and the know how to get them up and running. As such cars are a rare commodity but not rare enough where you don't see them. Most cars tend to be custom jobs, a frankenstein of various parts. Parts are easiest thing to find, just not for the right model. You could find pristine engine and turns out the car you want to get up and running takes a 75 model. So all parts that can't be put together have to be taken apart and made to fit with one another, or even made from scratch which is tough in of itself. Fuel is meh, you can get electric, fusion and fission, methane but most would rather have those power sources keeping the turrets and water purifier up and running so spare power is rare and the know how. Most of the time Pre war ghouls can be a lot of help but people don't like talking to them so no one learns anything. But if you have all of those things a car is easy. Most factions, lucky most raider gangs lack the resources to build cars and in times they do possess them they can only ever hobble together a car or two. The only factions that Clank can for sure say has a fleet of vehicles are the Gunners and the Brotherhood.
"God you really need to clean this place up." Clank said as he went to his work station and started to repair an old plasma rifle.
"Why would I? I like my mess."
"You live like a radroach." Clank shook his head and looked out the window to the docks. A ship was coming in. Large tug boat. Turrets were place on a couple of place. The people were what had him interested. They unloaded a few crates, broke em open talked to the dock master. His then ventured to Malice. "Have you ever wonder what's it like out there? On the open sea?"
"Oh this again." Malice put down the radio and looked at Clank.
"Hey it was just a question."
"Look you bring this up almost every other month, I get it. There's a hell of a lot more to this world and you want to see it. But it isn't going to happen. I mean when was the last time you went out and drove Dune rider? You can start now and see wasteland."
"I don't want to see this wasteland though." Clank said, Malice just shook her head and went back to working the radio.
"There's nothing stopping you from going out there."
"Yeah just I'm lacking the caps, support of large crew. Oh don't forget a ship."
"Well you made the Dune rider out of scratch."
"A ship that could travel such a great distance? That's also a hundred times larger than Dune Rider. None of the tugs or fishing vessels could handle the storms out there alone."
"Well then you should start looking shouldn't you?" Clank smirked at her words and returned to his work.
"Maybe one day."