Unlike the last big trip, the trio of humans talked a bit more as they walked toward The Hub, with Dogmeat occasionally giving a bark to include his opinion on things, or growl at things that none of the men could see or smell. Jack and Ian started, each one telling Tycho their respective stories. Ian went first and then Jack, whose story surprised Tycho, though his mask wouldn't show it. "So, you're actually from a Vault? Those things are real?" Tycho asked with disbelief in his voice.

Ian interjected before Jack could respond. "It's true, he even lead me to another Vault himself to look for the Water Chip. I didn't believe him much at first either."

Tycho whistled, which sounded strange with his gas mask. "Well I'll be damned. We got an actual Vault Dweller on our hands!"

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, I didn't know Vaults were so hard to find. So uh, Tycho, you said you were a ranger, right? What exactly does that mean?"

"Well, we're basically an unorganized group of people that take out thugs and help people in general." Tycho said. "As of now we don't really have a leader of any kind, though sometimes small groups of us form that has a leader. I've always worked by myself, though."

Jack nodded. "I see. So, how did they even get started?"

Tycho shrugged. "I have no idea, they've been around for as long as I can remember, and I never concerned myself with their origins. I guess it just doesn't really matter to me."

The rest of the day was spent in moderate silence, the group sometimes stopping to eat some food or drink water, or just rest. The following day, Tycho showed Jack how to use his shotgun and hunting rifle, as he never used either before.

Three days after the group left Junktown, they arrived in an open town, not a gated one like Junktown or Shady Sands: The Hub. There were some groups of people around caravans being pulled by red cows with two heads. Apparently there were mutated animals that weren't violent and blood-thirsty. "Well guys," Ian said, looking around with an almost nostalgic look. "we've finally arrived at The Hub. If there's a Water Chip anywhere in this Wasteland, it's gotta be here." He noticed Jack staring at the two-headed cows. "Those are Brahmin, by the way." He said, answering Jack's unasked question.

"That's a pretty odd name for them. But either way, where would we find a chip here?" Jack asked, petting Dogmeat behind his ear.

"Just follow me, I'll show you where the merchants are." Ian answered as he led the rest of the group through The Hub. There were several shops on the sides of the street, along with men and women in green armor and large guns watching the quartet make their way through the streets. Occasionally someone wearing shabby clothes would wander by, muttering to themselves and staring at something that apparently only they could see. "Stupid junkies." Ian muttered as a balding man passed by whispering to himself about "the terrible shapes". "They just walk about, high off of God knows how many chems. Just ignore them."

They soon came across a trio of armed people standing in the middle of the street, right in their path. Two of them were wearing the green armor while one had metal, spiked armor on. The one in metal nodded at the group as they got closer. "Hey there, folks. Haven't seen you guys around here before, you new?"

"Yeah, Jack and I here are new." Tycho responded, then nudged his head at Ian. "He's been here a few times though. Who are you, exactly?" He asked not unkindly.

"Oh, of course! The name's Depute Fry, I try to keep order around here as best I can. I just wanted to welcome you guys and give you a warning about some dangers, particularly Decker and the Maltese Falcon."

Ian looked grim. "Decker. I've heard that name before. He's a crime lord or something, right?"

Depute Fry nodded, also looking downdraught. "So the rumors go, but we have no proof that he's up to anything so we can't take him down."

Well that sure seemed familiar to Jack. Did every town in the Wasteland have that problem? "I see. Well, we'll make sure to avoid that place then, thanks." Jack said. "Say, are there any Water Chips here, by any chance?" He thought me might as well try to ask while they were there.

"Mmm…I don't know. You'll have to ask the Water Merchants about that, they'd know." Depute Fry then suddenly seemed like he just remembered something. "Oh! Also, be careful when you head out back to the Wasteland, some caravans from the Far Go Traders have gone missing recently and we don't know what the cause is, so keep an eye out there." With that, the Depute and his two companions walked away.

"Does every place have this much trouble with it?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Tycho replied. "That's just how the Wasteland is. Oh, and we should probably check out the other merchants and get some supplies before we check out the Water Merchants."

"Yeah, good idea. We're running low on food." Ian noted. They still had about a day's worth left, but even if they got the Water Chip here they'd have to make a long trip back to Vault 13. The four made their way to the merchant area of The Hub and split up, with Dogmeat going with Jack. Jack traded two of his knives, his leather jacket, the Mauser and all the ammo for it along with one hundred and forty-five caps for Metal Armor, seven hundred and ten caps, and twenty shotgun shells. He also got some rope elsewhere for twenty-two caps. Tycho and Ian got ammo for their respective weapons along with food, water, and some Stimpaks. "Alright, the Water Merchants should be close by." Ian said after they met up again. "Let's hope they have what we're looking for, or I don't know where we'd look."

Jack tried not to think about it as they followed Ian to a building with a large storing tank in front of it. If he could save his Vault, what would he do? He couldn't go back and tell him he failed, but he couldn't just never come back either. The group walked into the building and saw a woman behind a desk, with some bodyguards at her side. She looked up from some papers and eyed the group, and seeming not to like the presence of Dogmeat inside her building. "Yes? Can I help you?"

Jack took a deep breath, might as well just ask outright. "I'm from a Vault, and our Water Chip has stopped working, and we need a new one. Do you have any here I could buy?"

The woman seemed surprised, she obviously wasn't expecting that. After a few seconds, she sighed. "Unfortunately, we have nothing like that here. And yes, I believe you're from a Vault, my grandfather was from one, actually."

The statement hit Jack like a ton of bricks. No Water Chip? How could there not be one here? Was there any one that existed in this damned Wasteland? "Are…Are you sure there's nothing like here? Or anywhere else in The Hub?"

The woman sighed again. "No, there isn't. Trust me, we'd know if there was. The best we can do is transport enough water to last a hundred days to it for two thousand caps."

Well, that was a start. It would give him plenty of extra time to look for a Water Chip elsewhere, or maybe some other alternative. He was sure these people were trustworthy, and it's not like Vault 13 wouldn't be able to defend itself if these people were bad news. "Well…I don't have that many caps…but I'm sure my Vault will be more than happy to trade some of their technology with you when you arrive."

The woman pondered the offer before nodding slightly. "Okay, that sounds fair. Now, where is this Vault of yours?"

After showing the merchants where Vault 13 was on a map and handing over a thousand caps, the quartet was on its way, and Jack gave off a sigh. Tycho patted his back once while Dogmeat licked his hand, sensing his master's mood. "Now don't look so down, Jack! There has to be a Water Chip out there somewhere. What do you say, Ian? Got any other leads?"

Ian rubbed his chin in thought and hesitated before answering. "Well…the Far Go Traders are the biggest merchant group here after the Water Merchants. If anyone knows, it'd be them."

"I guess it's worth a shot. The worse that could happen would be another dead end." Jack really sounded down over this, causing Dogmeat to whine lightly, to which Jack rubbed his dog's head.

Ian scoffed. "Come on, Jack, grow a spine! You're never gonna get that chip with an attitude like that!"

Jack looked offended for a moment, and then a slight smile appeared on his face. "Yeah…Yeah, you're right, Ian. Now, where are the Far Go Traders?" He sounded more confident now, and Dogmeat gave a happy bark, wagging his tail.

They soon arrived at the Far Go Traders, opening the door and going into the office, coming face-to-face with a bald, impatient looking man. Ian was the first to speak up. "You're Butch, right? You're the one in charge?"

The man, apparently Butch, made a "tsk" sound. "Yeah, I'm Butch. What do you want? Time is money. Chit-chat is not money. You here about the job or what?"

"Job? What job? You mean the missing caravans?" Tycho asked.

Butch nodded. "Yeah, several of 'em have gone missing in the past few weeks, and no one has been able to figure it out. There have been rumors, but…" He trailed off, looking uneasy.

"Say, listen." Jack interrupted. "We didn't come here about the job. We were wondering if you knew anything about a Water Chip."

Butch scowled. "What, you expect me to just fork over information like that? I may have some information that'd be interesting to you, but you gotta find my caravans first!"

Was this guy serious? A little bit of information to find caravans that no one else has had luck finding? He didn't really have much choice, however. He sighed in an annoyed manner. "Fine, we'll do it. Do you have any leads on what happened to these caravans?"

Butch looked uneasy again. "Well…I was getting to that. Now, these are just rumors but…some say it was the work of a Deathclaw."

Ian grunted and Tycho scratched the side of his head, and spoke up. "Deathclaw? Aren't those just myths?"

"What's a Deathclaw?" Jack asked.

Butch looked annoyed. "Hey! I just said it was a rumor. But either way, Deathclaws are…well, no one really knows for sure. All we know is that if they're real, they're extremely deadly. Ask Beth for more information, she's the gossip around here."

So, the group left, with Ian leading them to Beth's, the owner of the gun store around. They stepped inside and walked up to a woman with brown hair in a ponytail with leather armor. "Are you Beth, by any chance?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I'm Beth. Can I help you with something?" Beth replied.

Tycho spoke up this time. "We were told by Butch to ask you about Deathclaws taking his caravans. You know anything about that?"

Beth's face went a bit pale. "Well, uh…I'm only passing on what I heard, but apparently no one has actually encountered a Deathclaw and lived…except for one guy, but he isn't pleasant to talk to."

"If it will get us closer to these caravans, we'll risk it. Who is this guy?" Jack asked.

"Well… I know this old mutant in Old Town named Harold. He claims he's seen one." Beth said, shifting a bit in place.

A…mutant? A mutant what? A mutant human? "A…mutant? What does he look like?" Jack asked.

Beth chuckled dryly. "Oh, trust me, you'll know when you see him."

And with that, Ian led the group to a part of The Hub known as Old Town. They looked around, seeing some folks in need of a good wash, but nothing like one would call a mutant. That is…until they got near the edge of The Hub. Shambling towards the group was the ugliest humanoid Jack had laid eyes on, even worse than his Ugly Uncle George from the Vault, and he was ugly. The figure that approached them was a sickly green color, whose flesh looked like it was melting off his bones, but stopped midway in the process. It had a slight hump as well. There was a hole in its chest where Jack could clearly see some of his ribs, which didn't seem to bother the creature much. The face was almost as bad. It didn't seem to have any lips, so it's misshapen, green teeth were on full display with the muscle showing on its face around the mouth, and no sign of having a nose anymore. Further up, it had a single, unblinking eye that was an unhealthy yellow, with a mass of flesh covering its other eye. The most appealing part of this being was the top of the head, which had a small patch of white, thin hair growing out of it. As the creature got close to the group, Dogmeat started to growl, but did nothing else. The men didn't draw their weapons. After all, this…thing looked like it could barely walk, so it didn't seem like it'd pose a threat to them. He stopped a few feet from the quartet and opened its maw and let out an awful, skin-crawling cough like an old chain-smoker would have. "Spare change, old friend, old pal? Can you help a poor mutant down on his luck?" It said, its voice raspy and sounding like it would lose it at any time. It shakily stretched out its hand to accept money. It smelled foul, like a rotting corpse left in the sun for a century. And from the looks of it, that just what it may have been.

The men stared at the pitiful mutant before them; none of them had seen anything like it before in their lives. It took about ten seconds for Jack to react. He fished around in his pack and grabbed a handful of caps, twenty-five to be exact, and deposited them in the mutant's hand. "Uh…sure, here."

The shambling mess of flesh let out a gasp at the money, staring at it with its unnatural-looking eye, then back up at Jack. He let out an odd rasping noise, which the group soon found out was a laugh. "Oh, kind of ya, friend. Very kind. You know, if I could clear the gunk out of there, you, just might find a tear in Old Harold's eye." The mutant, apparently Harold, said. He looked down at Dogmeat, who was still barring his teeth at Harold. "Oh…it's been a decade since I've seen a dog. Nice doggy…" He leaned a bit, which seemed to take a lot of effort out of him, and reached out to pet Dogmeat, who snapped at his hand, just barely missing it. Harold let out a gasp and retracted his hand.

"Dogmeat! Bad! Calm down!" Jack scolded. Dogmeat whined slightly and sat down, but still stared intensely at Harold. "I'm sorry about that, uh…sir."

Harold let out another laugh, sounding almost like a death rattle. "That's alright, it's my fault. I forgot animals ain't too keen about me."

Tycho finally came over the initial shock. "So…you're Harold, right? What was that about a tear in your eye?"

Harold let out a wheezy sigh, and Jack swore he saw bits of flesh come out of the disfigured hole that Harold called a mouth. "Rest of the Hubbers' been picking on me like a bad booger since I came back to town. I can't leave, though. When the deals are done it's still my home." He replied, wheezing as he spoke, as if he had run out of breath, yet he kept talking.

Ian spoke up next. "Really? The Hub is usually accepting of even the lowest kind of people."

Harold made a "hmph" sound, which he somehow made sound raspy. "I guess mutants just don't count, do they?"

"What exactly happened to you, Harold?" Jack blurted out without thinking.

Harold didn't seem offended though. He let out a wheezing chuckle, as if he's heard it all before. "Well, hand me one of those discarded chairs, and old Harold will tell ya." He pointed to a rotten chair leaning against a nearby building, which Tycho grabbed for the mutant, who sat down with a content sigh. "Now then…After the Great War, my Vault was one of the first to open. Whew. Long time."

Wait, he was around during the Great War? Wasn't that almost ninety years ago? Just how old is this guy? "You were there when the Great War happened? What was it like?"

The mutant before them shuddered slightly. "All started with the sirens. I was young, but ohh, I do remember that. Lotta terrible years followed." He stared off into space with his unblinking eye, a thousand-yard stare. Jack decided not to press the matter any further, though he was curious about how this war started. Harold shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. "Anyway, I remember walking outta the Vault late one morning."

"You said it your Vault was one of the first to open, right? What was the Wasteland like? What did you do?" Tycho asked. Jack felt envious of Tycho, chances are he didn't notice the stench Harold was giving off with that mask of his.

"Well, I was a trader at the start. Did pretty good making a circuit between survivors. Lost a lotta good people, though." He let out a racking cough which shook his whole body, to the point Jack was almost afraid the mutant would just up and fall apart before their eyes. He didn't, of course, and kept going. "As for the Wasteland, it was quite different from how it is now. Not many settlements, Mutants everywhere. Had to have an army of guards with, just to do a deal."

Mutants? There were others besides Harold? "Wait, Mutants? What Mutants? You're the first I've seen."

Harold gave a dry, scratchy chuckle. "Well, there were more of them back then. Couldn't spit without hitting one. They seemed to be coming from the northwest."

Ian was the next to speak up. "Did you investigate? Did you find out anything?"

Harold nodded, his bones audibly creaking. "We mounted an expedition. God, Richard. Richard Grey. Led a small group of us up there."

"Richard Grey?" Jack asked, idly petting Dogmeat's head, who was still staring Harold down.

"Richard Grey was a doctor. Little older than me, and friend was he smart. He found the source. We needed to see what was there. Maybe stop whatever was churnin' them boogers out. We thought we were prepared. Boy were we wrong." Harold said, a tone of dread bleeding into his voice.

"What did you find?" Jack pressed. What kind of source could there be for Mutants? A large pond of radioactive goo?

"Some sort of old military base. We lost a lotta folks getting in there. We knew it was the source because it was like someone went bargain shopping at mutantland! Geez! Cheaper by the dozens! Can't figure any other reason except that being the factory."

A factory that made Mutants? Just what the Hell was that all about? "What happened then?" Jack asked.

"We got pretty far inside. Wasn't a lot of us left by then. Grey, me and couple of others. There were robots there, defending the place. Surprised they were still working after the war. One of them robots got Francine. Mark was wounded, sent him back to the surface. Then it was just me and Grey." Harold continued, sounding a bit upset.

"What happened to Mark?" Tycho asked.

"To this day, I don't know. He never made it back here, and...well I...couldn't face the Wasteland again, so I...I never looked." Harold stared off again, another thousand-yard stare. He shook his head again and continued. "As for Grey and me, we made it to some sort of central core, like a plant of some sort. That's when it happened." He let out another sigh. "A robot crane crashed into us. Last I saw of Grey; he was flying through the air in-into some sort of acid bath. I was in bad shape and...well I passed out."

"How did you survive?" Ian asked.

Harold suddenly leaned forward and gave a loud cackling sound. "I didn't! I died!" He broke out into a sick sounding laughing fit as the men glanced at each other, with the fit ended by some coughing. "Oh, I love that joke. Really now, I have no idea. Woke up in the wasteland, barely hanging on. Got lucky and some traders I knew found me days later. Good thing, since I was already changing. They brought me here, and here I've been since."

That was quite the tale. A factory that made mutants, vats of acid, and something that could turn people into…what sat before them. "Well, thank you for the story, Harold."

The mutant waved his hand dismissively. "Nothin' to it. Just surprised you sat through it all."

Ian suddenly spoke up. "There's one other thing we need from you, the reason we came to you in the first place. We were told you knew about Deathclaws from Beth."

The mutant went pale…though it was hard to notice, his flesh just became a slightly lighter shade of green. "The Deathclaw? That's nightmare city right there. Why do you want to know?"

"We believe it's behind the missing caravans." Tycho said. "We want to kill it."

Harold brushed a withered hand through the little hair he had. "Well, I'll warn you now that this is a suicide mission, fellas, but if you really want to know I'll tell ya. A Deathclaw is a large lizard monster with spikes and claws, and a mean temper. I saw one in a cave that's about a three day walk from here."

"Can you show us where the cave is?" Ian asked.

Harold scoffed. "What, are you kidding? I can barely walk down the street. Ask Slappy over there." He raised a hand and pointed at a man staring at the sky. "He's a bit nutty, but harmless. He knows the way."

Jack nodded. This creature sounded deadlier than anything they've encountered so far, but with three men with guns, surely that stood a chance. "Alright, we will. Thank you, Harold."

Harold nodded, standing up shakily and shambled away, muttering to himself about normies with a death wish. Dogmeat seemed to finally calm down as the group approached Slappy, who didn't seem to notice them. Tycho cleared his throat. "Uh, sir?"

Slappy kept staring upward, his eyes glazed over and unfocused. "Hey! Slappy!" Ian snapped.

The bizarre man looked down from the sky toward Ian and simply stared for a few seconds. "Hello, talking shoe!" He blurted out.

The group exchanged glances, but decided to not even bother acknowledging that, this guy was clearly on drugs. "Uh, yeah. So look, Harold said there was a Deathclaw cave nearby, and that you could lead us to it." Ian said.

Slappy rubbed his chin for a few seconds, and then shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He said, as if Ian asked Slappy if he could spare five caps. "I'll take you there, but I won't go in."

"Fair enough, when can you lead us there?" Tycho asked.

Instead of answering, Slappy started to walk out of The Hub, stumbling every so often. "If this guy gets us lost, I'm gonna bash Harold's brains in." Ian muttered as he followed after Slappy, with the rest of the group following suit.

The next three days were uneventful. Slappy would lead the group through a seemingly endless stretch of desert, injecting some drugs into his body every so often. Tycho spoke up about it when Jack asked if they should stop him. "Take some advice from me, Jack. Never stand between a junkie and his chems." And so Jack left it alone. Any attempt to engage Slappy in conversation was met with Slappy ignoring it, or a non sequitur.

After three days of travel, they arrived at a large cave, jutting out in the middle of the otherwise flat landscape. "Alrighty-roony!" Slappy said. "This is the place. See you giant grenades later." With that, he made his way back towards The Hub.

"Well, at least we won't have to deal with him on the way back. My Pip-Boy can get us back." Jack commented. He stared into the blackness of the cave, and Dogmeat whined, seeming uneasy. Jack himself seemed nervous too.

"Well," Tycho piped up, "we won't get anything done just standing here. Let's get movin'!" He bravely marched into the cave with the rest of the group following him.

The inside of the cave smelled rancid, like it was full of dead bodies. There were large eggs the size of children along the walls. "I really envy that gasmask of yours, Tycho. It reeks in here." Ian commented. "I guess that means we might have the right place.

Tycho gave a, thanks to the gasmask, distorted chuckle. "Yeah, this is pretty much the exact reason I have this thing. Too many corpses out there. This one time, the day that set me on getting one of these, I came across a-"

Tycho's story was cut short by a loud, guttural growl coming from around a corner in the cave. Dogmeat, who had his tail between his legs up until now, barred his teeth and growled back. "Oh, shit…" Jack muttered as he drew his hunting rifle. Tycho and Ian followed suit, drawing a shotgun and 10mm pistol respectively. Loud, thudding footsteps started in the darkness, slowly making their way to the group. "Alright guys…get ready…" Jack whispered. He didn't want to admit it, but he was terrified.

The thuds got louder…and louder, as did Dogmeat's growling. After what seemed like hours, the Deathclaw showed itself. It was like something out of a nightmare. It had to have been ten feet tall, at the very least, and covered with dirty brown scales, a reptilian monster. It walked on its hind legs and had claws as long as Jack's arms, and curly horns on its head like some sort of devil. Its teeth were like jagged, rusty knives and it had milky white eyes, yet it seemed to be able to see as it looked directly at the group, and gave off another growl. "Holy fucking shit." Tycho muttered, raising his shotgun and aiming at the monster's face.

Before Tycho, or anyone else, could shoot, Dogmeat let out a fierce bark and charged at the Deathclaw, who let out a small roar of its own and attempted to swipe at Dogmeat as he got closer, but missed and Dogmeat sunk his teeth into the Deathclaw's leg, as far as the monster's scales would let the determined dog, at least. "Dogmeat! No!" Jack yelled as he fired at the Deathclaw, barely missing. This got Tycho and Ian to start opening fire as well, their shots hit but didn't seem to do too much to the Deathclaw, the wounds bled, but the Deathclaw didn't seem affected at all. It focused on Dogmeat first, swiping at him with its huge hand, knocking him into a wall who gave a yelp of pain. The beast then charged forward toward the men, who were shooting as fast as they could at the incoming wall of scales, their bullets either missing or not doing enough damage to slow the Deathclaw down.

When it reached the group, it made a wide swipe, large enough to slice all of them, luckily Jack and Ian made it out of the way in time, but Tycho got hit in the torso, causing him to fall onto his back while dropping his shotgun, three slash marks cut through his clothes and chest, bleeding out. "Fuck!" He swore, reaching for his shotgun as the Deathclaw readied another strike. Jack and Ian kept firing, however, and a lucky shot from Ian hit the Deathclaw dead in the eye, causing it to reel back and howl in pain, clumsily placing a huge claw over its destroyed eye. It was literally blind with fury and pain as it swung at the air, trying to hit the group, managing to backhand Ian into a wall and hit Jack with its tail, sending him to the ground.

Jack kept a hold of his hunting rifle as he fell, which was lucky as the Deathclaw quickly got over its eye injury, or at least enough to watch where it was going. It narrowed its eyes at Ian, who was dazed from his blow, the Deathclaw growled loudly as it approached the fallen man, Dogmeat was too dazed to help and Tycho was shakily reloading his shotgun. "Hey! Come over here!" Jack yelled, as he fired his hunting rifle at the beast. It hit the Deathclaw in the shoulder, making it growl again as it turned and charged at Jack, letting out an ear-splitting roar. "Wait for it…Wait for it…" Jack muttered. The Deathclaw, had its maw open, ready to bite Jack's head clean off. At the last second, Jack stuck the end of his hunting rifle into the Deathclaw's mouth and fired. The inside of the monster's mouth was apparently not as heavily armored as its scales, as the bullet went straight through the back of its mouth, and the angle also made a large hole in the creature's head and skull, destroying its brain and killing it instantly. The force of the shot made the Deathclaw's corpse fall backward, luckily not crushing Jack or anyone else. Jack stayed there, panting heavily and processing what just happened. That was his plan, of course, but he didn't think it'd actually work so flawlessly. After a few seconds, he called out. "Hey…you guys alright?!"

Ian groaned and got up, rubbing the back of his head. Tycho shakily got onto his feet, starting to rummage into his pack. "I've had worse." He said with a light chuckle. Dogmeat gave out a whimper and limped over to Jack, licking his face gently.

"Ehehe, easy Dogmeat. Glad we're all okay. Let's use our Stimpaks and make sure that was the only creature here." Jack said. Tycho and Ian nodded as they got out needles with red fluid in them. Each man ejected one into their arm; Tycho used two, while Jack used one on Dogmeat. Over the next five minutes, they felt right as rain; Tycho's wounds closed up, Ian's head stopped pounding, Jack didn't feel sore, and Dogmeat could walk on all fours again. "That's some fancy technology they had back then." Jack commented, patting Dogmeat's head.

"Thank God for that." Ian agreed. "Now let's go see what we're dealing with." He got his pistol ready, while Jack and Tycho got their respective guns out and ventured further into the cave. It was silent at first, and then they heard a groaning noise. "What the Hell is that? Doesn't sound like a Deathclaw..."

"We should still be careful, just in case." Jack commented. The quarter rounded the corner and saw something they did not expect. On the ground, bleeding heavily was a giant green man. He had to have been eight feet tall, and with muscles beyond belief, while wearing leather armor. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, and groaning. "What the fuck is that…?" Ian asked as the group got closer, guns at the ready just in case.

The large man looked up at the group as they got close, and swallowed heavily before opening his mouth to speak. "It was so fast...My brothers were gone...Could not help..." He choked out; sounding quite close to death.

The group looked at each other, not sure what to make of this. What was this thing? A mutant like Harold? He looked very different from one. "Who are you? What are you?" Tycho asked.

"I'm...I can't remember...Was the leader of...It...Maybe my holodisk..." He seemed confused, unaware of his surroundings. He reached into a pocket of his leather armor and got out a bloody holodisk, holding it out and Jack reluctantly took it. "We...We were scouting for primes...Came from...From the northwest." He continued.

Jack's eyes widened. "Wait, northwest? From a factory? Who sent you?!"

The creature looked up at the ceiling, seeming even more out of it now. "Father... Where are you father? Yes, Master..." He reached upward before seizing up, letting out one last guttural breath, and going limp.

"I…I think that thing is dead." Ian commented. He looked at the holodisk that the giant man gave Jack. "See what that that says, maybe it will give us more information."

Jack nodded. "Right." He inserted the holodisk into his Pip-Boy, which made a few whirring sounds. After about ten seconds, audio came from the Pip-Boy.

"Base, this is Scavenger Team two come in. Over." A voice rang out, it sounded like the giant man that just died before the group.

"We're reading you loud and clear, go ahead. Over." A second voice said, it sounded similar to the first voice, but a bit deeper.

"We've collected four males, two females, and their supplies from the caravan. They're not too badly contaminated. Tell the Lieutenant that we're sending them ahead, they might be able to survive the process. We're going to wait here for a few more days to try and intercept another caravan. Over." The first voice replied.

"Roger that. Were any casualties accrued during the acquisition? Over." The second voice asked.

"Negative. Another clean sweep. Base, also tell Scavenger Team one that we've run across the same problem they had. One of our scouts did not return from his perimeter patrol. A few of our other scouts reported that there was something big and fast seen near our camp last night. I'll be checking it out personally at 0600 hours tomorrow morning. Over." The first voice said, probably talking about the Deathclaw.

"Copy. We'll be awaiting your report. If possible, try to capture it. The Master would be very pleased. Over." The second voice finished as the tape stopped.

The group looked at each other in grim silence. Base? Scavenger Team? Lieutenant? Master? "Just what the fuck is going on?" Ian asked breathlessly. "These…things have been attacking the caravans? How many of them are there?!"

Jack shook his head. "I don't know, but we have to get news of this to The Hub, and fast."

Tycho nodded. "Damn straight, this sounds like the start of somethin' big, just a bad feeling I have." He commented. Dogmeat let out a whimper, seeming to sense the mood of the group. With that, the four of them quickly left the cave and headed back towards The Hub to share this disturbing news.