Hello everyone, hope quarantine is going good for you. Yes you guessed it, in this chapter, Damian will meet one of Fallout's most trusted (and loved i think) companion.
Please enjoy.
Sarah had just arrived in Minefield. She had settled on a small rocky mound and was watching the town from a distance. As its reputation suggested, Minefield looked like a ghost town. With the scope she had mounted on her laser rifle, Sarah scanned the area. She saw no sign of Damian, but she was sure that someone had been here.
There were some fairly recent signs of fighting in the town and most importantly, there was this small group of crows circling slowly over the town. Someone or something had just died shortly before she arrived.
Behind the town, on a hill, Sarah could see the top of three factory chimneys. Her gaze turned to the West. There were reports from the Brotherhood that pockets of Super Mutants were in the area West of Minefield. As well, the town was not that far from Paradise Falls.
She decided to bypass the dead town and reach the mill and find a way to climb to the top of one of the chimneys. From there, she would have a great view of the Capital Wasteland and with the powerful heat vision scope of her laser gun, she could more easily spot Damian, if he was still alive. Sarah jumped off her position and began her ascent to the factory.
After several minutes, she reached the fence around the factory. Sarah looked around and prepared to enter. She adjusted her laser gun and removed the long-range scope to install an infrared sight. Just before she entered, she looked up to the sky. A faint ray of sunlight pierced the clouds to the North and ended up in the hills beyond. Sarah looked more closely at the beam of light. She turned around and looked at the sky. It was not yet noon and the sun were behind her.
She turned her head towards the beam of light coming down from the clouds. It was not a natural light. For a second, Sarah thought she saw the ray widen and then return to its normal size. Intrigued, the Sentinel walked towards the ray of light that was slowly disappearing.
(Alien UFO crash site, same time)
Damian was back on Earth. He looked around. Brown hills, dead trees, big grey rocks, destroyed farms and small towns in ruins on the horizon. No doubt about it, he was back. The beacon dropped by the alien ship during the battle was a big grey cylinder stuck in the ground, as big as he was, with a circle of white light flashing rapidly.
Looking around, Damian noticed that it was in the center of a small crater. At the rim was the corpse of an alien. The beacon had landed at the exact spot where the alien scout ship had crashed and where Damian had been abducted.
Damian felt something against his foot. He looked down and saw a metal object that looked like a gun. The weapon was incredibly light and emitted small blue lights. As Damian put the gun in his bag, he heard a small burst of energy in his back. Somah in turn materialized in the crater.
She looked around her and grimaced.
"Damn, I thought all that filthy brown and gray sky would be more welcoming than the ship."
She looked at Damian.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"Well, I've got a lot of important things to take care of here," Damian answered, his mind already turned to his quest for a G.E.C.K.
"I see. Well, if you don't mind. I think I'll probably go back to the ship."
Damian raised his eyebrows.
"No one's waiting for me in the Wasteland and with this war between the Brotherhood and the Super Mutants that goes on forever in the ruins of D.C. and those assholes of the Enclave coming to wipe out anyone who thinks differently than them, I guess the alien ship isn't so bad after all. Besides, poor Elliott's probably going to be transformed into that Jangle monkey by Sally. It'd be criminal to let him get taken advantage of by that little girl."
Damian chuckled. His gaze fell on the beacon that kept shining brightly.
"That beacon should be hidden. It's better that no one finds out what happened to us and stumbles upon it by accident."
"The last thing we need is a bunch of curious people coming to visit your ship," Somah agreed.
Somah approached the beacon. After inspecting it for a few seconds, she found a control box and discovered a small interface with a holographic button. She pressed one and a beam of light enveloped her with the beacon.
"Oh, I almost forgot!"
Somah quickly went through her pockets and threw a small object to Damian who grabbed it.
"What is it?"
It was a small box as big as his Pip-Boy with several buttons and extraterrestrial initials written on it.
"I found this in the ship when we got separated. Sally told me it was a remote control to call a transporter beacon. So, if you wanna come over, just ring the bell and we'll open the door."
The light from the teleporter was getting brighter. Somah took one last look around her.
"Good luck in the Wastes," she said as she began to dematerialize. "We'll try to keep an eye on you, and if you feel like a change of scenery, let us know."
The beam of light vanished, taking the beacon and Somah to the alien ship with it. Damian stowed the little remote control in his bag. He stumbled over something and looked down at the alien's corpse, still lying next to the crater formed by the flying saucer.
He grabbed it by the arms and pulled it away. He covered it as best he could, with dirt, debris and trash lying around. As Damian walked away from the crater, he noticed small fluorescent blue objects on the ground. He picked one up. The object reminded him of the energy cells that the aliens used for their weapons. He gathered as many as he could and put them in his bag.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Damian flipped towards the authoritative female voice that had just spoken. On top of a small rocky mound overlooking the crater, Sarah Lyons gave him a look of anger and relief. She put her laser rifle over her shoulder and joined Damian.
"It's been two days since anyone has heard from you! What are you doing in the middle of nowhere?"
Damian opened his mouth and closed it immediately. At first surprised to see Sarah in the middle of the Wastes, and especially without her imposing assisted armor, he hesitated to talk about what had just happened to him and thought quickly about an answer.
"Hey! Earth calling for Franklin!
Sarah snapped her fingers in front of Damian's face.
"Did you see that beam of light in the sky? What have you been doing for the past two days?"
"Uh... This... This is... I..."
"No, actually, you know what, I don't want to know. My orders are to take you back to the Citadel immediately. I'll explain on the way."
(A few minutes later)
"Is that right? Were you able to decrypt the computer?"
Sarah motioned to Damian to contain her enthusiasm.
"So, you know where to find a G.E.C.K. and where the Vault is?"
"We know a G.E.C.K. was supposed to be delivered to Vault 87, but we don't know yet if it was delivered or where that Vault is. Rothchild is still trying to gather intel from the terminal but if it fails, the Pride will be sent to Vault-Tec HQ in Vernon Square."
"Well, I guess that waiting a day more won't change much things," Damian sighed.
"I know you really want to find that G.E.C.K. but going to Vernon should be in last resort. After what you told us from the place, going in is suicide and I'm glad you did not go back there on your own."
Damian shrugged. The idea had gone through his mind, but he also felt that it was suicide, as he barely escaped the place last time.
Damian and Sarah had just passed Minefield. They arrived near an old scrapyard.
The scrapyard itself was of no interest. A simple pile of scrap metal and sheet metal, a mixture of wrecked cars, metro and train cars, surrounded by a fence and a concrete enclosure. The place had probably been looted many times by scavengers looking for spare parts to sell at Rivet City.
Sarah watched the north entrance, bounded by two metro cars, with the scope of her laser gun.
"A problem?" Damian asked.
"There was a shooting when I passed by earlier. Raiders and troops from the Enclave."
From the corner of her eye, Sarah saw Damian's face hardened.
"There was also another group, some Outcasts."
The word sounded familiar to Damian. He remembered meeting them at Bailey's Crossroad. He refrained from telling Sarah about it.
"They're former members of the Brotherhood. They decided to leave the Brotherhood shortly after we arrived in the Capital Wasteland," explained the young woman who had no idea Damian had worked with them.
The contemptuous tone used by the Sentinel made Damian realize that there was no point in continuing the conversation on this subject.
Sarah lowered her rifle and after looking at the concrete enclosure surrounding the metal cemetery for a long time, she walked towards the entrance.
"What are you doing?" Damian asked. "Shouldn't we head back to the Citadel?"
"If the Enclave and the Outcast fought here, the winner must have left the other one behind. Any information we can find out about either of them will be useful to the Brotherhood."
Damian agreed silently and followed the young woman's lead. The scrapyard was deserted. A strong smell of rust mingled in the air with another, strange, unpleasant smell, and seemed to come from the many piles of tires piled up all over the scrapyard, and the brown or black puddles of water surrounding them.
In the middle of these fumes, Damian recognized the typical smell of energy weapons and burnt flesh.
A few meters further on, human figures, all lying on the ground and wrapped in a small cloud of flies, finished cooking slowly in the sun. The bodies that could still be identified were dressed in rags and metal plates for protection, the others were nothing more than a pile of blackened bones and cloth.
A little further on, other bodies, wearing power armor. Damian approached one of them. It was wearing the black and red painted Outcast power armor. Damian counted three other bodies wearing this type of armor.
Looking around, he saw Sarah bent over the body of a soldier from the Enclave. The Sentinel was searching inside on of the power armor, probably looking for documents. Not finding anything, she approached Damian and glanced dismissively at the corpse at their feet.
"Are they the Outcast?" Damian asked, feigning ignorance.
"Yeah. Those dirty traitors got away with a whole bunch of weapons and technology that would have been useful against the Super Mutants."
"I haven't seen many bodies in the Enclave. Looks like they've managed to retreat."
"I'm going to search this one," Sarah replied kneeling. "Go see if the others have anything on them. And try to find yourself a laser rifle. By the look of it, your R91 will eventually blow up in your hands."
Damian looked down at his rifle. The weapon had deteriorated a lot since he received it from Sarah's hands when they first met next to Galaxy News. Small traces of rust were beginning to cover the barrel, the marks on the sight were gradually fading and the wooden stock was threatening to break. In addition, Damian could feel that the trigger would jam sooner or later, and he had noticed that the cartridges were not ejecting properly.
The other Outcast members did not carry any objects of interest on them. Their weapons were in even worse condition than Damian's rifle. Damian sighed at the thought of having to part with his trusty assault rifle. He didn't like energy weapons, considering them too difficult to clean or maintain in good condition. The advantage was that microfusion cells could be recharged by being connected to a power source such as a fission battery. He had learned this method from a Brotherhood Quartermaster at the Citadel who had preferred to give him advice on energy weapons rather than sell him equipment.
"Did you find anything interesting?" Sarah asked as she approached him.
Damian turned and shook his head. Sarah grimaced. Her gaze fell over the young man's shoulder. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him to the side.
Damian stumbled and fell to the ground. He raised his head and saw that Sarah was standing with her rifle aimed up. Every muscle in her body seemed to have tightened. Damian noticed an expression of disgust and fear on her face.
Damian turned his head. A little further on, a dog stood in front of them. A grey and black fur, a long muzzle, pointed ears, the dog stared at the two humans without showing any sign of aggression or fear.
Damian stood up, dusting his fatigues.
"It's just a dog. There's no need to get excited," he said, looking Sarah.
"Have you ever come across a dog in the Wastes?" shouted the young woman. "These filthy beasts can be as dangerous as a Radscorpions."
The dog sat down and started wagging its tail.
"Yes, I can see that," Damian smiled.
"Just because this one's not as ugly as the others and hasn't jumped us already doesn't mean he's not dangerous," Sarah grinned.
"Damian looked at the dog. Sarah was right on this point. The dog actually looked like a dog, and not these hideous animals that looked like hell hounds.
"Are you afraid of dogs? Damian asked, a slight smile on his face.
"No," replied the young woman immediately, in a tone indicating the opposite of what she was saying. "I just don't like them, that's all."
Damian turned his attention to the dog. He was still sitting staring at them. He started scratching his ear and Damian felt Sarah stiffen even more. He rolled his eyes and slowly approached the dog.
"What are you doing?" shouted the Sentinel. "This beast will eat you!"
"You've got my back, haven't you?"
Damian could hear Sarah sigh and cursing at him. He crouched down a few meters from the dog. The animal wagged its tail, and opened its mouth, revealing a pink tongue and impressive teeth. The animal had two different colored eyes. One was brown while the other was grey. A typical case of heterochromia. Damian had already heard about it in one of his father's medical books, but he had never seen a case.
He reached out his hand to the dog who stood up and went to sniff it. Behind him, Damian could hear Sarah mumbling and looking for a better shot.
"So, boy, what are you doing out here all alone? You know, I think you're the first dog I've ever met that hasn't tried to eat me right away. You're not going to eat me, right?"
As if he just figured out what Damian had just said, the dog barked.
"Franklin, get away from that animal right now!" Sarah said.
The dog sniffed Damian's hand again and licked it hard.
"You're not one of those wild hounds that roam around in this desert, aren't you?" Damian said, starting to stroke the dog on his neck.
He felt something around the animal's neck. The dog was wearing a small leather collar. A small medal was attached to it. Damian turned it around and was able to read a name engraved on it.
"'Dogmeat'," read Damian.
The dog's ears stood up on his head and he wagged his tail and barked happily.
"That sounds like your name," Damian smiled. "Have you lost your master? A good boy like you shouldn't be alone in there you know?"
The dog frantically licked the young man's hand.
"I think it's safe to come, Sarah. The beast has been tamed."
The Sentinel approached suspiciously, her rifle still ready. She cast a look of disgust at the dog as it was being petted by Damian.
The dog's ears rose up on his head and he turned his head towards the Wastes. He began to growl. Sarah took a few steps back and prepared to raise her rifle but stopped at the last moment. She turned her head in the same direction as the dog. The dog had felt something. Damian got up and prepared his assault rifle as well.
After a few seconds, they heard a rattle going crescendo. A black dot appeared in the sky.
"Damn it, the Enclave!" Damian cried out.
"They have to come and get the bodies of their men and the equipment of the Outcast's men. We have to take cover!"
"It's too late to leave! Quick, this way!"
Damian and Sarah rushed to a shapeless pile of metal. Damian found a small opening and rushed in, followed by Sarah.
"The dog! Come and hide!"
The animal began to bark at the Vertibird, which was getting closer and closer.
"Get out of there!" Damian yelled at the dog.
The dog finally ran away and disappeared between two cars. The roar of the Vertibird's engine and rotor blades became louder and eventually covered Damian and Sarah's breathing. The aircraft flew over the crapyard and made another pass. This time it flew over more slowly, lifting thick clouds of dust in its wake.
Through the small gaps between the metal, Damian could see the aircraft pass over them. The space where he stood with Sarah was too small and narrow to stand and it was stifling hot in their hiding place. They had to stand against each other, Sarah facing Damian, leaning slightly over him.
The Vertibird kept spinning around in the sky, a gigantic steel vulture looking for a carcass. Damien felt something against his temple. He turned his head and saw that Sarah's identification tags hung around her neck and grazed her head. Damian looked away from the young woman's cleavage right in front of him. He looked up and crossed Sarah's eyes. He didn't know if the red color on her face was caused by the heat or the uncomfortable proximity to him.
Outside, the aircraft stopped spinning and landed outside the scrapyard. The engine stopped. Damian heard Sarah counting in a low voice. Five soldiers from the Enclave had disembarked and were heading towards the center of the scrapyard.
"What's going on?" Damian whispered.
"Looks like they've come to retrieve the parts and fusion cores from the power armor and repatriate the bodies of their men."
Behind his back, Damian could hear shouts and footsteps. A bark echoed through the scrapyard.
"That damn dog again..." Sarah growled.
Damian heard the Enclave soldiers arguing over whether to shoot the dog or not, before their platoon leader could shut them up.
Damian and Sarah stayed for several minutes, looking at each other with nervous, embarrassed looks. The Vertibird took off and they stayed for another minute, listening to every noise before they went outside.
The dog was waiting for them in the middle of the scrapyard, wagging its tail merrily. The Enclave soldiers had removed some of the pieces of the Outcast's power armor and had left with their deceased comrades.
"Too bad we couldn't see which way their Vertibird had gone or came from," Damian sighed.
"Eventually we'll find their base and when we do, we'll show them that the Brotherhood should not be underestimated," smiled Sarah.
Damian nodded. They set off again and left the scrapyard. Damian looked over his shoulder and saw that the dog was following them. He stopped and looked at the animal. The dog also stopped and sat down.
"You want to come with us, boy?" Damian asked.
"Certainly not!" Sarah cried. "No way am I taking that dog back to the Citadel."
Damian didn't listen to her and leaned slightly forward and clapped his hands.
"Come on, dog, come on!"
The animal barked cheerfully and trotted towards them. They set off again, the dog walking between Sarah and Damian. The young woman walked behind Damian and stood beside him, giving the dog suspicious glances.
"Tell me, Franklin," asked Sarah after a moment. "What is it like to live in a Vault?"
Damian remained silent for a long time.
"Well, I think that's the best term to describe it, would be 'monotonous'. You get stuck in a routine. You get up, go to work, come home, and do it all over again the next day. You don't wonder if the water you're going to drink is going to give you stomach cancer or if the caravan hasn't been attacked by Raiders. You try to get into the Overseer's good graces and to stay in it to avoid the Security to come and visit you during the night. But in some ways, it's a bit like here. You take care of our own little person first and crush the others if we can survive another day, or, in the case of the Vault, be given a bigger room or double the ration ticket.
"You don't seem to miss it too much," says Sarah, looking at the wreckage of a monorail a little further on.
"I do miss it," sighed Damian.
Sarah turned her head towards the young man and gave him a surprised look.
"Well, it's not the Vault or the life inside it that I miss, although I'll grant you that sleeping in a real bed, not hearing your Geiger counter go crazy every five minutes and not getting shot at is very nice. Let's just say that thanks to some people it became bearable, to the point where I still consider Vault 101 to be my real home, despite the fact that everyone hated me there and the Overseer was a real dictator."
"Are you thinking of going back there when all this is over?" asked Sarah.
"I hope so," said Damian looking at the sky. "My father may not be there anymore, but there is still one person in this Vault who means a lot to me."
At these words, Damian pictured himself Amata. Was she thinking about him right now? Was she healthy and safe despite her psychopathic father? Why did she give him the picture Damian had on him? Was it so that he could remember her or because she cared about him as much as he cared about her?
Sarah didn't dare ask him any more questions. She looked at Damian, noticing that he was no longer the terrified young man just out of his Vault that she had met in Chevy Chase. She smiled and turned her attention back to the Wasteland.
"We're arriving to the ruins of Bethesda. Stay alert."
"Got it."
(Megaton, a few hours later)
"Good luck with his research!"
Damian closed the cabin door of Moira's shop behind him. He found Sarah and Dogmeat waiting for him on the metal terrace in front of the shop. The Sentinel and the dog were staring at each other, Sarah glaring nervously at the animal who was looking at her, wagging his tail and tilting his head to the side.
"Looks like you two are finally getting along," Damian smiled enthusiastically.
Sarah glanced at him. Dogmeat barked happily and approached her wagging his tail.
"Step back fleabag," spat the young woman. "Or I'll turn you into a bedside rug."
Dogmeat moaned and gave her a sad look, ears down and head slightly bent forward. The dog then looked at Damian.
"Don't worry boy, if you're not an ugly yellow Super Mutant, you're safe."
He looked at Sarah who gave him a sly smile and look, as if she has found a way to punish him for making fun of her unease with the dog.
"Well, at least I hope," mumbled Damian a little worried.
While on the way to the Citadel, Damian had insisted on making a detour to Megaton to give Moira the mine she had asked for. When he had entered the shop, he had made sure that Moira had not placed a mine especially for him. The shopkeeper had wasted no time in chit-chat and had asked Damian to describe the procedure for disarming a mine. Although he had thought to tell her to jump on it and admire the result, he had simply repeated what Donovan had explained to him. Moira had been frantically taking notes, interrupting him regularly to observe the mine and drawing it in her notebook.
Moira had then told Damian about the rest of her research, which included studying the behavior of the Mirelurks, using a chemical product of her own invention on Molerats, and returning to her with a broken limb or a wound.
Damian had then grabbed his payment, a few caps and a mine of Moira's own making, which projected bottlecaps like shrapnel, and headed for the exit as quickly as possible, promising Moira that he would find time to help her before she decided to break an arm or leg.
He couldn't wait to get back to the Citadel to start looking for a G.E.C.K., and he suspected that Sarah also wanted to go back and put as much distance as possible between her and Dogmeat.
"Hello, Damian!"
The young man turned around and saw Lucy West coming towards him.
"It's good to see you," said the young woman. "We were beginning to wonder whether you were going to come home or not."
Lucy looked down at Dogmeat, who had taken refuge from Sarah's murderous look in Damian's legs.
"Oh, look at that cute little dog!" Lucy West said, crouching down to pet Dogmeat.
Damian heard Sarah release an exasperated sigh and saw her roll her eyes. Lucy petted Dogmeat's chin which swept the ground with its tail. She turned her head towards Sarah and gave her a distrustful look. Damian felt an electric current between the two women who were suspiciously staring at each other.
"By the way," Lucy finally said. "I wanted to thank you for helping me with my brother. I've been..."
"He's very busy right now," Sarah cut out. "Right, Franklin?"
She grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him towards the city gates. Lucy watched them walk away, biting her lip and sighing.
They made their way through the small crowd of merchants outside the town to the road that ran along the ruins of Springfield. Once there, Sarah looked at Damian for a moment. She then sighed.
"Come on, Franklin. We've wasted enough time already," she smiled slightly.
When they reached the top of the hill, near the destroyed electricity pylon, they had a bird's eye view of the Super-Duper Mart and the surrounding ruins. Every time Damian passed by, he couldn't help but recall the first time he had seen the deserted and decrepit parking lot of the supermarket, or the dried carcasses of the Mirelurks on the riverbank at Wilhem's Wharf, a roadside restaurant built in a tin shack by the Potomac.
They followed the road until they reached the river. An unpleasant smell still emanated from it.
On the right, a small parking lot, only occupied by a bus and a destroyed car, stood at the foot of a large concrete terrace. A large building with a cracked façade and many destroyed windows stood on the terrace. On the edge, a small black metal obelisk, topped by a yellow "M", indicated that a metro station was nearby.
To the left, a small bridge across the Potomac River led to Anchorage Memorial Island, with its imposing statue of three American soldiers. On the base of the statue was a bronze plaque with the names of the men and women who died during the Battle of Anchorage, and Damian wondered if Elliott and his companions were on it.
Sarah stopped dead and placed the back of her hand on Damian's chest to make him stop. Right in front of them, leaning against the bus, was a man holding an assault rifle in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other. With a shaved head, sunglasses on, he was wearing black combat armor over black fatigues and a grey T-shirt.
When he saw Damian and Sarah, he threw his cigarette butt away and a small grin appeared on his face. He turned to face them. On the breastplate of his armor, Damian recognized a white symbol, representing the talons of a bird of prey. He thought back to what Reilly had told him when he met her at Underworld.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little saint of the Vault," said the mercenary of the Talon Company, putting his rifle on his shoulder.
Initially, I planned to have Damian and Sarah have an argument, which was to start with Damian making fun of Sarah's fear of dog. I decided to delete it as I had no good idea about writting it and also because it was not really fitting Damian to make fun of someone about something they fear. So in one word, you can say that I made Sarah a cat person.
And as it it was not obvious enough, yes, the title is a reference to that movie/book, from the 70's 'A boy and his dog'
Hope you enjoyed and until next time.
