Waking up the next morning was amazing! My head was feeling better, and my vision wasn't blurry! Heather definitely knew how to use her remedies.
"Morning!" I greeted Wiseman as I came out of the house. "I'm guessing the border of the area extends beyond the pavement."
For the most part," Wiseman confirmed, "except for the end where the workshop is. Barely extends past it, right at the rock wall."
"That makes this easier. I'm going to make some plans for walls and guard towers so you guys can defend yourselves in the events of an attack on this place," I explained.
"Just leave them on the table inside, and I'll check them out when I'm on a break."
"Well, I'll let you get back to work. I'm gonna head inside and get to work on 'em."
When I sat at the coffee table they had, I pulled some paper from my bag and got to work. The wall, for the most part, was simple, going around the pool and farm, though there would be one wall separating the farm and pool area. I also had to make a plan for a building that more settlers would be able to sleep in since the building they had wouldn't be able to hold too many people. All in all, it took about an hour and a half to do, so after setting the plans down, I pulled more paper down and started writing down what had happened the past couple of days.
"Hiya," Heather greeted as I was finishing up the paper. "You ready to go?"
"You stole my line," I grinned. "But yeah, let's grab Curie and Dogmeat, and let's go."
When Heather went to get Curie, I went to find Dogmeat and found one of the farmers playing with him, both having fun.
"Howdy," I greeted him. "Mind if I grab Dogmeat? We'll be heading out soon, and I can't leave him here."
"Of course, General. Been a while since I've seen a dog."
"Well, if he ever has pups, I'll send one here."
"Really? You'd do that?"
"Yep. Dogs raise people's spirits most of the time. Besides, you enjoy his company. I'll send the next dog I find here."
After telling the ghoul that I'd see him around, Dogmeat followed me, and we met Heather and Curie by the cooking station they had. When we started walking, I turned on the Diamond City Radio and danced as we walked. When we neared Breakhart Banks, we took a right on the road where I noticed a little farm off to the side and walked up to see if they needed any kind of help.
"We could really use your help," a woman said as I approached her.
"Of course. What seems to be the problem: Raiders, Super Mutants, Feral Ghouls."
"It's these raiders in Dunwich. They keep demanding food and tribute, but we can't keep this up. If you can take care of them, we'd be grateful."
"We'll take care of it, ma'am," I assured her. "We've fought worse things."
Before we left, I handed her husband one of the combat rifles we had and a couple of bullets in case anything attacked while we were away.
"Do you know where the place is, Mason," Curie asked as we walked by the Slog as we headed east.
"May not be on the map yet, but I know where it is," I confirmed for her. "It's near the old Museum, which is the only reason I know the location."
While we walked, I spoke to Heather about what to do about repairing the armor when we got back to Sanctuary. Probably retire it due to the damage done to the helmet, and the armor didn't look right without it. May have been more practical to wear it, but with all the combat armor we'd found so far and the materials at the place, I could probably turn it from light to sturdy, making it better than the armor I currently had, though I still didn't have a helmet for it.
When I realized we were nearing the quarry, I quickly turned the radio off and commanded for the others to be quiet and wait. There was a building on the top on the side we were on that had a raider in it, and I had to wait for him to leave. When he did, I grabbed the edge of a window and pulled myself through it, making sure he didn't hear me as I stepped to the ground. When I heard him coming back, I took out my knife and hid behind the corner of the doorway and waited for him to step into the room.
"Night night, mère baiseur," I said as I thrust my knife into his throat, cutting off the air to his lungs. When he fell to the ground, I put my knife away and went over to the terminal and found it connected to some turrets.
"Don't I have a holotape for this," I muttered as I dug through my bag, sure I had found something like this a while back. When I found it and pulled it out, I stuck it into the terminal. Using it to override the targeting parameters, now using them to take care of the raiders so I didn't waste any energy. After making sure the turrets were operational, I took my helmet out and strapped it into place.
"Let's get to work!" I yelled to the others and ran out, pulling out my knuckles and putting them on as I ran down the steps, grabbing onto the railing at the turns. The first raider I ran into tried to say something but got riddled with bullets from a turret before he could.
"Good job!" I yelled at the turret as I stuck a thumbs up for some reason.
"Mother fucker!" another raider running up the steps yelled and stopped to fire his gun at me.
"I made the woman a mother!" I yelled as I grabbed the rails and launched myself at the man, feet hitting him on the chest, taking him down. "And don't forget, you're nothing compared to what I've fought." Before he could grab his gun again, I pulled my fist back before smashing it into his face, breaking his nose. I did this repeatedly, the man struggling to get me off as I did, though it proved fruitless as, after a few hits, his arms went limp.
"Who's next, gâteaux de merde!" I yelled as I stood up. I saw a man wearing power armor and grinned. "You and me!" I yelled as I ran at him. When he turned around, he tried to raise his gun to shoot, but I knocked it to the side before planting my fist into his face.
"Fuck!" the raider yelled as he stumbled back. "You bastard! I'll fucking kill you!"
When he swung his arm to hit my head, I ducked, going behind him and punched the back of his head.
"Could've sworn I felt the wind go by!" I taunted.
"Aagh!" he yelled as he brought his hands up before swinging them down, hitting the ground where I had been standing.
"Well, screw you too, connard!" I yelled as I slammed my fist into the top of his head, the top of his skull caving in, blood spilling from his head.
When he fell, and I turned to the next group of raiders, they were frozen, either paralyzed in fear or shocked by the display. Most likely paralyzed. When they noticed I was looking at them, they aimed their guns and started firing.
"Stay away!" one of them yelled. "Stay back, I'm warning you!"
I started walking towards them, most of their bullets bouncing off my armor, and when one grazed my arm, I crouched, a few bullets flying above me, and ran right.
"He's trying to run away!" one of them yelled. "Get the ass hole!"
"Not running," I grunted as I got beside the closest one, planting a foot on the wall. "Just getting good footing!"
Before they could figure out what I meant, I kicked off the wall, fisted ready, and punched the woman across her jaw, breaking and tearing bits of it off as I followed through with it.
"Violet!" the other raider yelled as his partner fell to the ground, then turned to me. "You're gonna pay for that!"
"Oh, really? I'd like to see you try."
The man dropped his gun and pulled out a knife and thrusted at me, clearly going for my arm. The blade hit my chest plate as I moved in front of it, the blade snapping on the armor, and jabbed his face before knocking him upside the head by hitting his chin.
When Heather and Curie came down with Dogmeat, I turned to Heather.
"This definitely isn't all of them," I told her. "This place is too big for there to be this little."
"Before we go in, please let the mademoiselle look at your arm." Curie pleaded.
After agreeing to her request, Heather got a pad and wraps and applied it to the arm while I held the armor above it, so it didn't get in the way, using one of her remedies for it. After thanking Heather, we started walking and found a door that led into the place, and entered the underground.
After walking for about two minutes, we ran into a room that had two raiders and a turret. With no way to get to the turret, I had to tell Heather to take care of it while I got the raiders. Before they knew I was there, I ran at one standing by a terminal and grabbed him by the head, slamming it onto the railing beside him. He crumpled to the ground, and I jumped over the railing, running to the next raider while the turret was firing at Heather and Curie.
"Ah, my leg," the raider yelled when Dogmeat bit her, holding her in place.
"That's a good boy!" I commented as I slammed my fist into the woman's head, knocking her to the ground, her skull cracking open on the stone.
I almost turn before hearing something explode and turn back to see the turret had blown up.
"Alright, search that body for ammunition," I commanded as I pointed at the first raider I had taken care of. "I'll check this one."
When Heather came over to me with what the raider had, I had gotten some bullets and a hunting rifle off the woman, thankful it had a recon scope.
"What we got?" I questioned Heather as I stood up.
"A combat rifle and bullets," Heather told me as she put the ammunition in my hand and put the gun into one of the bags Curie had strapped to her.
"Alright, let's get moving."
We started heading deeper into the quarry, with a bit more pep in our step. Oh god. I sound like a parent with a walking kid. We soon came to a room, and when I looked at the enemies, I saw four people, one on a set of stairs that led nowhere, two sitting on a cran, and another just walking.
"Same plan as Breakheart," I told Heather. "You ready for this?"
"Let's do it," Heather smiled, and I grinned.
"As soon as the first one hits the ground, open fire."
I started running, tripping the first one I ran into. Before he could get up, I pulled off his helmet and held him up by the throat before Heather shot him in the head. I dropped him and grinned, and the others had started firing. I dodged and weaved my way to the one on the stairs, ramming my shoulder into her, knocking her over the rail, falling headfirst onto the stone, breaking her neck. The other two were now firing, though the bullets kept hitting the mesh flooring, and when they stopped to reload, I jumped down and forced them down, grabbing them by the back of their throats when I did. I lifted the heavier one in front of me, allowing Heather to burn him with lasers, and pulled my knife out and stabbed the other in the back of the head.
"We make an excellent team," I told Heather as we searched the bodies. "And you're amazing. I will not forget to say that."
"Thank you!" Heather said as she handed me a few bullets. "And, you're awesome."
I didn't know how to respond to that, so I started walking, putting it at the back of my mind for now. I never liked taking compliments, mainly cause I never knew how to react.
After a few minutes, we found a walkway that led down into a hole. And it was pretty deep too. After looking around, I found a switch and flipped it, turning on the lights. Did the raiders down there know we were here? Yes. Could we see clearer so we could fight better? Also yes.
"Alright, Heather, follow behind. Curie, you follow behind Heather. Dogmeat, behind me and in front of Heather."
When they got ready, I started walking down the steps, and got down one set and came to another, noticing a raider at the bottom of it.
"What the hell?" the man yelled, and I sat on the railing of the stair and slid down it. "Die fucke-"
Unfortunately for him, he got interrupted when I rammed my soldier into him when I reached the bottom of the rail. When I stood up, I grabbed him by the back of his armor and tossed him over the side, his body hitting the floor with a sickening THUD!
"Well, that worked," I commented as I ran down the steps to the next person. "Not the first, but I didn't think that would work. Agh!"
Right as I got to the bottom, I had to block an incoming strike from whom I could guess was the boss, considering they were wearing a helmet with what looked like cage armor.
"That wasn't nice," I told her as I pushed her arm back. "But I'm not either."
Using my free arm, I swung up, punching her in the chin, making her stumble back. When she regained her balance, I noticed blood had started to seep through the armor.
"Mother thucker!" she tried to yell, making me almost laugh. "I'll thill thou!"
She tried to swing at me again, but before she could hit, I grabbed her arm and punched her in the face, breaking the welding goggle she was wearing. She went down, and before getting up, I slammed my fist into her three more times, ending her like her friends.
"I think that's all of them," I told Heather. "Let's look around for anything."
I let Heather search the woman while I got some bullets off the one I tossed over, and found a magazine by a terminal!
"Sweet! Another one! I found another magazine, another magazine, another magazine! I found another magazine, and no one can take it!" I sang proudly, making Heather and Curie laugh.
"Monsieur, you are very childish."
"Well, let's keep exploring," I told Curie. "That way, I don't act like this. Eh, who are we kidding? I'll still do this."
After turning the radio back on, we started heading deeper into the place to see if there was anything useful further down. At one point at an open area, we stopped, and I gestured for Heather to fire her rifle. When she did, the area in front of us lit aflame, proving my guess that gas was there.
"How did you see that, Mason?" Curie questioned.
"Smelt it," I told her. "Now heads up, we got company."
Some feral ghouls were running up a slope towards us, and the first one to try to hit me failed, and I grabbed the second by the throat and held it up for Heather. I noticed more coming, and when they were near the bottom of the slope, I pulled a grenade from my bag, one of the last ones we had, and tossed it towards them. Right when it was by them, I pulled out my pistol and shot it, causing the grenade to blow and destroy the head of the ferals.
"I did not expect that to work," I admitted to Heather. "I honestly expected to miss that."
"Well, you're a good shot," Heather said as I flipped a switch, turning on some lights. "Why haven't you been using your guns lately, though."
"Don't want to talk about it right now," I told her as we approached a door leading to another area. "That's something for another day."
When I opened the door, the room suddenly went white, and when I walked forward, I saw something that looked like workers just hanging out, as though the bombs hadn't fallen. This was… odd, but nothing I couldn't handle. The room went white again, and when it dimmed down, I heard a yelping noise and turned to see Dogmeat getting hit by ferals!
"Get off my dog, baiseurs!" I yelled as I ran towards them, pulling out a grenade as I did. I punched one away before grabbing Dogmeat by his collar, pulled him out of the room, and slammed the door shut, the ferals beating on it to get through.
"How are we doing this?" Heather asked, and I held up the grenade.
"Blowing them back to whatever hole they came from," I told her as I pulled the pin, took a deep breath, then quickly opened the door and tossed the grenade in, shutting the door as soon as I could.
"And three…" I said as I held the door. "Two…" the ferals had caused cracks in the door at his point. "One…" I got sent flying forward and hit Heather's armor headfirst as the grenade exploded, knocking her over and landing weirdly.
"Well, that could've gone better," I groaned as I sat up. "You alright, Heather?"
"I'm fine," she responded. "Honestly surprised, the explosion didn't knock you out."
"Back of the armor took most of the force," I explained. "People rarely attack from behind."
After regaining our senses, we got onto our feet and continued moving forward. When I looked around the area, I found a bobblehead and held it up to Heather.
"It looks like a child sneaking," I laughed as I pointed at it. "Isn't that funny?" After putting it away, I looked through an explosives crate and found a mine with four grenades in it, bringing the total number I had up to seven. I almost tell the others to get ready to leave when I feel something… pull me? I don't know; something was drawing me down a tunnel beyond the area with the crate. I didn't trust it though, So after setting the mine down, I started walking down it, making sure to drop grenades in range of each other. The room turned white again, looking around I saw people surrounding a table and praising something before it turned back and I saw feral ghouls coming.
"Oh, screw you!" I yelled when one tried to bite, punching it in the head and getting ready. "Where are all your friends?" I questioned as more came crawling from a hole filled with water. "There you are."
I turned and started running, gesturing for Heather, Dogmeat, and Curie to back away. As they did, I pulled my pistol out, which wouldn't do much to these guys since radiation healed them, and waited. Right as they were near the mine, I pulled the trigger, pulling it three times after missing twice. The effect was immediate, as the mine caused the grenade in front of it to explode, which caused the next to do the same, which made the final one go to Hades.
"Okay," I said as I caught my breath. "There's… something down... that hole…" After catching my breath, I turned to Heather. "You got some Rad-X?"
"Here you go," Heather said as she gave me two pills.
"Well, down the hatch!" I said as I held up a bottle of water and used it to wash the pills down. After I was sure they had gone down and had started to work their magic, I went to the water pit and took off my helmet and armor, then finally took my shirts and pants off with my boots. I jumped into the water and began feeling my way around. I managed to find an opening and followed it down. I poked around for anything, and found a rusted blade or something and gripped it in one hand, and got a hold of two mini-nukes, holding the ends of them together with my other hand. I swam back to the surface and put the mini-nukes and blade onto the ground, then hoisted myself out of the water, heavily breathing as I got my air back.
"That… was tiring," I told Heather, who was hiding her face for some reason.
"Monsieur, can you put on some clothes? It seems your lack of clothing had caused her heart rate to rise," Cure explained.
"Eh, sure," I told Curie as I found a towel that was in her bag. "Give me a minute to dry off."
After drying off and putting my clothes on, I turned to Heather and let her know I had clothes on, and she helped make sure my armor was on correctly. When we put the mini-nukes away, I grabbed my helmet with one hand and held the blade, which seemed to have a name engraved into it, in the other, and started walking.
"Let's go," I said as I passed Curie. "Daylight's limited. Let's head back the way we came, and we should be back to the settlement before dark."
As we walked, we passed by the corpse we left behind and picked up some more bullets that we missed. When we got back to the surface, the sun was starting to descend, and I turned my radio on. As we walked, we cut through a part of the woods that led by an old listening post and ran into a bear with minimal fur.
"This is great," I groaned as it charged, Heather raising her laser while I got the new blade ready. "What are these called?"
"Yao Guai," Heather told me. "You can usually smell them long before you can see them."
"Well, that's good," I said as the bear got onto its hind legs and prepared to claw at me. "Now, I know to keep a nose out for them."
"Monsieur," Curie exclaimed. "Be careful!"
When the bear slammed his claws down, I jumped back before flipping the blade over and plunging it through the bear's skull, something that looked like poison entering the body.
"Not my first time fighting a bear obviously, but doesn't make it any less annoying," I muttered as we kept walking before a laser hit my shoulder. "I forgot about the turrets!" I leaned forward to avoid another one, put the blade away, and my helmet on, then pulled my rifle out and started firing at the barrel of the turrets.
"We got a protectron!" I yelled over to Heather as one came out of the station. Three well placed shots, and it stopped its movements in its tracks when the joints got jammed.
After a few minutes of firing, the turrets blew up, and the protectron went down, allowing us to pass as Heather and I ate some mutt chops. By the time we got back to the settlement, the sun was setting, and I needed some rest.
"I took care of those raiders," I told the woman as I approached her.
"Really? That's great news. We've decided to support the Minutemen if that's alright."
"How do you know I work for them," I questioned since I hadn't told her.
"The paint on your rifle," her husband said as he came up. "Only Minutemen have that paint on it."
"Well, you'd be right then," I told them. "I'm the General. But don't go spreading it around."
"Of course," the man said. "Anything for you."
We left our junk at the settlement's workbench, gave the farmer I had given a gun to some armor, and gathered some materials together to make a bed for the night. When Heather laid down, I grabbed a jacket that was in my bag and handed it to her as I started taking my armor off.
"I'll join you in bed later, "I told her as I set the armor down on a table.
"Making plans?" Heather questioned, making me grin.
"Yeah," I confirmed. "I'd prefer leaving in the morning after we've all woken up and had something to eat. Can't do that if I have to make plans."
After telling her goodnight, I grabbed some paper and a pencil from my bag and sat on the chair in the living room, took my Pip-Boy off and turned on the radio, and got to work. For the most part, the walls would go around the greenhouse, with a gate that led to the main road, so there would only be one entrance when it was built. By the time I finished, it was midnight, and the moon was high in the sky, though I couldn't tell if it was in the first or second quarter of the cycle this time around. I don't pay attention to the moon every day.
After rubbing my eyes, I put the papers onto a table with mutfruit in it and went to bed. After lying down and making sure not to wake Heather, I closed my eyes and fell asleep for the day.
"We're already behind schedule a bit," I told Heather as we were preparing to leave that morning. "Make sure to put your armor on. Don't know if we'll run into raiders today."
"Where are we heading, Mason?" Curie asked as she hovered nearby.
"Northeast. We've covered most of this area except the Northeast and central region. From what I can tell, there aren't that many areas in the north left, so we'll cover that area then head to Malden."
"Is he like this every morning?" I heard the woman ask Heather.
"Most. There are some where he tells us the plans the previous night," Heather responded.
"Let's move out," I told Heather, Curie, and Dogmeat as I turned on the Diamond City Radio. After walking for a while, Curie spoke up,
Before long, we got to Breakheart Banks and were climbing down, me carrying both mine and Heather's bags, so she didn't have to worry about breaking an ankle. After we cross the river, we come up to a place with a giant tower with a siren on top of it and almost walk to it before seeing there are raiders there. I told Curie to get back, so the raiders didn't see her while I crouched low with Heather and Dogmeat.
"Any dangerous creatures in the area?" I asked Heather.
"Probably some deathclaws, though I don't know how we'd attract any to this area."
"I got an idea, but it's a dumb one," I admitted. "Go get Curie, and on my signal, get ready to watch my back and get to the tower."
"On it."
When Heather had gotten by Curie, I waited until the raider outside the tower was walking in, before waving to Heather.
"Come on!" I yelled to them as I ran towards the building with Dogmeat on my heels, Heather and Curie not far behind.
"Morning," I muttered when the raider came out of the building, grabbing his face and slamming the back of his head into the doorframe. "Change your occupation if you survive."
I began to run up the stairs of the tower, pushing a raider over the rails about halfway up, making him hit his head on some rails as he fell. When I got up there, I saw the siren and found the switch, flipped it, and listened as the siren went off as I covered my ears and got in cover, the noise deafening. After a minute, one of the raiders had shot up and disabled the siren, canceling out the noise. I almost started to go down the steps to take care of them when I heard two roars in the distance.
"Deathclaws?" I questioned Heather as she was in cover beside me, peering over and shooting at the raiders every thirty seconds.
"Yep. How'd you know any were near?"
"Didn't," I admitted as a bullet hit the top of my helmet. "I just saw the siren and hoped for the best." Before continuing, I dug through my bag before pulling out the Gauss Rifle we had found with the ammunition. "Now, I get to piss creatures off. Not something I would advise doing most of the time."
After making sure the gun was loaded, I waited before hearing two giant creatures coming and started charging the gun. I looked over the side and noticed one of the creatures was white, and aimed the gun at its foot before firing, the recoiling knocking me onto my rear end, the Albino roaring when the bullet went through its foot. I charged the gun up again before aiming over the side, this time for the other Deathclaws tail, and pulled the trigger.
"I think I accomplished my goal," I told Heather as the Deathclaw roared.
"Monsieur, are you sure that was a smart idea?" Curie asked.
"Considering this most likely isn't the place for a deathclaw to settle down, after they kill the raiders, they'll probably leave."
I tuned out the raiders screaming as they tried to kill the deathclaws, turning up the radio to keep the noise away. After a while, I looked over the side and saw the raiders were all dead, the deathclaws had left, and the whole place looked like something out of a horror show.
"You see the deathclaws anywhere?" I asked Heather as she was looking through her scope.
"They're gone," she responded.
"Then let's go loot the bodies," I told her as I started walking down the steps. "There's bound to be ammunition on them, probably some more stuff in the buildings."
"Don't forget this," Heather said as she tossed me a set of keys.
"That's surprising," I told her when I caught them before looking at where she got them from. "I forgot to check the body."
When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I got some armor off the guy I had pushed over the railing, which was essentially useless, but the materials were better than nothing.
"Do you mind checking out that shack?" I asked Heather as she came out of the tower, pointing to the nearest one. "Take Curie with you."
"On it," Heather grinned, making me smile as I took my helmet off.
As she searched the shack, I looked for loot on the raiders that were dead, getting a decent amount of scrap armor off them. By the time I finished, Heather and Curie were both looking for stuff in the shack, so I went to a larger one further from the tower. When I was looking around, I found a chest that was locked and knew it would be too difficult for me to pick before I remembered the keys Heather had given me.
"Yes," I said as the chest opened, seeing two combat armor pieces, a chest, and right arm. Setting them aside, for now, I looked through the chest and got some ammunition and a pipe weapon that we could scrap later. After putting the stuff into my bag, I put it on and walked to where Heather and Curie were, Heather holding something in her hands.
"You guys find anything?" I asked as approached.
Some food and this magazine," Heather responded as she handed it to me. After looking through it, I put it away in Heather's bag.
"Nothing useful," I told her. "Just instructions on lawn flamingos. Now let's get going. There's an asylum and a graveyard nearby. Gonna mark them before we start heading to Malden."