It feels so good to pull out a longer chapter here. Hope you enjoy it! As much as I enjoyed writing it!


Ghosts of Soldiers Past

April 24th 2076

Museum of Freedom, Concord, Boston Massachusetts

Second Lieutenant Nathan "Nate" Shaw

108th Fox Company Unit

U.S. Army

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The interior of the Museum of Freedom was an absolutely bittersweet sight to behold. From the Colonial Militia led by General Washington to drive back the British. Untrained farmers, immigrants, and drunks armed with poorly simple muskets and a little dream of freedom.

Thanks to Nate's career in the Army, he, his wife Nora, and Shaun were given a free pass to tour the exhibits. Including the invitation as guest of honor after Nate being declared a war hero from the Battle for Anchorage.

As the tour guide explained the exhibits of the American Revolution, Nate was able to mute the constant lectures and facts given to him and the tourists. Looking through all the exhibits of the constant struggle his country has been through.

No!

Not his country. His brothers in arms through the ages. His brothers who laid down their lives to protect what was theirs.

His entire family were from a long line of US military soldiers. To Nate the thought of what his ancestors have been through made him feel like there was no difference through the course of history.

And the idea of what he realized in that moment made him feel so puny in the course of this entire world.

Nate clenched his fists and quietly and breathed his way through the tour. A deep breath for four seconds, exhale slowly, and repeat. A deep breath for four seconds, exhale slowly, and repeat, etc.

Onward towards the upper floors, the first piece of art that was seared into Nate's mind was a mural over the course of the 20th century to the recent battle for Anchorage.

"While we're at this point let's have our special guest, Boston's own war hero, lieutenant Nathan Shaw step up and give his words on the Battle of Anchorage." The tour guide announced with the crowd applauding.

Nate opened his eyes quickly and his realization on where he's been started to realign with his senses.

"Ugh yes, yes! Excuse me." Nate made his way through the crowd to the face of the mural.

"I'm sorry, I'm honestly unprepared to share my thoughts on this. I guess for now I'll just wing it and speak from the heart."

The crowd applauded in return with his first words.

"This mural to me… In my personal opinion, it speaks more words for the people who have lived through the generations of history it represents than the words I can say for it now to all of you. When the later years roll on from today our kids will look at this same piece of art and they'll see us, their grandparents, and everything we've made of this world…"

Nate paused briefly at those last words. They didn't feel as good as he spoke them out loud. However the people before him seem to not have heard what he thought of.

"So let's make sure this mural has more to say through the next years to come… Ugh thank you." Nate went back to his family's side and vanished in the crowd.

Nora took her husband's hand and gave him a light peck on the cheek.

"That was so sweet, honey." Nora whispered to Nate.

Nate looked over at Shaun and he googly eyed his father. Looking super happy to see his daddy's face.

Nate was able to crack a subtle smile from his little guy.

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When Freedom Calls

October 23rd 2287

Museum of Freedom, Concord, Boston Massachusetts

Nathan "Nate" Shaw

Sole Survivor of the US Army

No Affiliation

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Everything from history to morality has gone to shit the moment Nate stepped back into this museum.

There were a pair of raiders on the top floor trying to flush out the settlers above. Nate raised his rifle up and used his last two bullets on the raiders.

Crossing through the American Revolution exhibit, Nate's amazed the lights and speakers are still working. The nuclear generators were definitely built to last. Nate could hear another raider bickering to himself and from the tension around his voice tell's Nate he's on edge with fear of what's been going on.

Nate took the moment to lay low and pulled out his knife to kill the unsuspecting hostile. Footsteps were coming into earshot range from around the corner. Creeping along the rugged wall, Nate kept his breathing low and silent. In the corner of his eye, he could see Dogmeat tucked behind a pile of broken mannequins. The shadow of the incoming raider was approaching quickly. Giving Nate a reason to squeeze the grip to his knife even harder with anticipation. The moment the raider passed the doorway, Nate wrapped his arm around his neck and stabbed the raider in the neck. With his life slowly slipping away, Nate lowered his body just as slowly to keep the kill quiet.

Taking a quick scan in the raiders pockets he found half of a pack of cigarettes on his person. He may have no lighter, but why not? It could be worth a good amount of caps, knowing it's effects. Taking a few more glimpses around the fresh corpse, Nate found something rather unbelievable to find these days.

"Where the fuck did this guy find a grenade?" Nate thought to himself while hooking it over jacket

Making his way to the next floor up, he passed a chem cooler with mentats and jet. Stuffing the chems in his pocket Nate dropped the empty mag in his rifle and replaced it with a fresh one, and made his way to the right side of the staircase. Leading to the same room as the mural.

"I'm telling you man, let's just get the hell outta here. We got no reason to get shot."

Nate could hear another raider complaining nearby.

"Stop bein' such a fucking pansy. We hold out for the others. Like we're supposed to." The other raider argued back.

"What are you deaf? Somebody's out there, shootin' the place up. I ain't sittin', waitin to die…"

"Listen here, if you even think of making a break for that exit, your neck will be meeting the end of my boot. So grow some balls and-" The raider couldn't finish his threat with his partners head getting blown up with a single rifle shot. He followed his fate quickly after trying to find the shooter behind him, but a bullet met his brains first.

Nate stood from behind the wooden display case and took another quick sweep of any useful items on the raiders. Some .38 bullet rounds, a lighter, enough cigarettes to fill his current pack to full, and a loaded double barrel shotgun. Taking the two slugs out, Nate left the empty shotgun on the body of its owner.

Before Nate could progress further up, he had to take a moment to lay eyes on the same piece of art from all those years ago. The same mural he was invited to have a few words over was mocking him. It looks as if the mural was just made a couple of years ago under poor conditions. After all these years, it gave Nate an awful pain in his stomach. Everything he fought for. Everything his ancestors fought for. All burned to ashes in a matter of hours from atomic fire. Nate's heart rate began to race as the memories of Anchorage climbed further into his mind. Thousands upon thousands of painful needles punctured his brain in a matter of seconds. Shaking out those thoughts with the pain following, Nate continued forward to the settlers.

Taking the stairs up to the final floor, Nate could hear loud banging on a door from the other side of the wall in front of him.

"You either open up! Or I'm breaking down this door and i'm gonna skin every last one of you." Yelled the raider.

"Give it a rest man, they're not going anywhere anyway." Said another raider.

"You hear that you lucky sons of bitches, we'll give you some time to think."

One of the two raiders opens the door to find an angry german shepherd tackling him with his fangs biting out his throat with a menacing growl. The moment even made the other raider stutter at the sight. Which gave Nate the best shot at shooting him down with his 9mm.

"This way c'mon!" Yells the one from the balcony from the otherside of the door."

Nate tried to push the door inside, slowly, but Dogmeat just casually pushed aside to go lay on the nearby couch with some old lady in blue garments.

"Man I don't know who you are, but your timing is impeccable. Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen."

"Minutemen? As in the militia from... N-nevermind, I'm glad I could help. I'm Nathan Shaw, but you can call me Nate."

"Thanks Nate. Nice to know someone cares. Don't see that often here." Preston admitted putting down his musket. Feeling a sense of security from Nate's presence.

"So what's going on here? Who are these people?" Nate asked, hoping he didn't help the wrong people.

"Just folks lookin' for a new home. A fresh start. I've been with 'em since Quincy. Lexington looked good for a while, but the Ghouls drove us outta there. A month ago, there were twenty of us. Yesterday there were eight. Now, we're five. It's just me, the Longs - Marcy and Jun - that's old Mama Murphy on the couch. And this here's Sturges." Preston looked over at the man at the terminal.

"Hey." The man known as Sturges didn't look away from the terminal to greet face to face. He just weakly waved his hand.

"That sounds awful. I'm sorry. I know how this world can be. It hasn't changed one bit."

"Thanks, Anyway, we figured Concord would be a safe place to settle. Those Raiders proved us wrong. But... well, we do have one idea." Preston's expression lit up a smidgen with a smile. Whatever the idea is, it's something that just might pull them out of this tight spot.

"One good idea could make all the difference. What's the plan?" Nate asked with some added enthusiasm.

"Sturges, tell him." Preston looked over to the tinkerer of the group.

"There's a crashed vertibird up on the roof, prewar, maybe you've seen it. Well looks like one of it's passengers left behind a seriously sweet goody. We're talking about a full suit of cherry T-45 power armor. Military issue."

"Ah I like where this is going." Nate said with a sly expression on his face.

"I thought you might. You get the suit, you can rip the minigun right off the vertibird. After that those raiders get an express ticket to Hell. You dig?"

"Hm, full T-45 power armor, a minigun. Those raiders are already dead… Wait why haven't you done this yourselves?" Nate suddenly picked up his old power armor experience from the back of his head.

"Well that's why we're talking to you. Like I said, it's prewar, which means it's likely been out of juice for a good long while. There's a fusion core locked behind a security gate down in the basement."

"We don't need that, I actually have a spare in my bag right now." Nate remembered thanks to his good friend, Codsworth.

"Well alright. Once you jack that core into that armor, and get the minigun, and those raiders will know they picked the wrong fight."

"Alright, I'll take care of the armor. Can I trust you guys to watch my pack… And my dog?" Nate asked.

"Don't worry, kid, your gear and Dogmeat will be safe under our care." the lady known as Mama Murphy said from the couch.

Dogmeat will be safe. Dogmeat. That's the name Nate gave the dog himself. How could she have known that?

"How did you know my dog's name?" Nate asked with Dogmeat laying down on the floor at her feet.

"Oh don't worry, I knew you were coming, thanks to the chems I saw it. The Sight, it's the Sight that showed me your journey playout the moment you left the nearby vault." Mama Murphy even knows about Nate being from Vault 111.

"Wow… That's… Just wow…" Nate was completely dumbstruck.

"Yeah, I've had the Sight since I was a little girl. I can see a bit of what was and what will be… Even now, all this chaos, and noise. It's drawing something dangerous… Something big, and it's… Angry."

"Don't worry, Mama Murphy, whatever's on the way, I'll keep you guys safe." Nate kneeled to Mama Murphy with consent in his voice.

"Oh I see… I see… Oh it's horrible, kid. Claws and teeth and horns. The very face of death itself." Mama Murphy's breathing started picking up faster as she finished her sight.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. I promise." Nate reassured the old seer.

Nate stood back up from the floor. He removed his backpack and stowed his cap, grenade, his 9mm, all of his ammo and sunglasses. He left his pack near Dogmeat after unstrapping the laser musket he picked up before entering the museum.

"Here's that laser musket, figured you guys'd want this back." Nate gave the weapon to Preston. Which he was glad to have back in his possession.

"Thanks for giving this back."

"Don't worry, can I trust you to keep my weapon safe in return?" Nate asked.

"We'll keep it safe, you have my word."

"Okay, thanks Preston." Nate left through the other door and up to the attic level.

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The entire room was demolished from the old Vertibird, and just beside the old relic was the T-45 power armor as was told. From the looks of the sky from the crash landing, the time appeared to be late in the evening. Nightfall is not too far away.

Beside the armor was a desk with a holotape. Nate looked at the tag to find the name, "SSG Michael Daly". Nate decided since this guy was another brother in arms of the United States military. He figured he should listen to this man's last words.

"Personal log. United States Army Staff Sergeant Michael Daly. This past Saturday, October 23rd while en route to West Stockbridge, our veritbird crashed into the roof of this museum. The cause: EMP following nuclear detonation. Several, in fact. From the intel I've gathered, this was a global event. The co-pilot was killed on impact. Pilot died of his injuries a day later. Day after that, Flaherty and Kanawa were shot by some scared, desperate, survivors. Then Proznanski took off running. Haven't seen him since. Now it's my turn to go AWOL, if that concept even applies anymore. My armor's fusion core is burned out, so I guess my soldiering days are done. I'm heading to Boston, on foot, to see if my sister survived all this. She's got an apartment on Boylston Street. This is Mike Daly, signing out. Good luck. And God bless America. Or what's left of it."

Nate took a good strong look at the old rusty power armor. He placed a hand on it's left shoulder guard and laid his forehead in awe.

"Brother, this armor will not go out in vain. Thank you for saving us, brother." Nate said to himself.

He walked over to the back, jacked the core in the suit, and stepped right along inside the suit. Even after all this time, a simple model of T-45 power armor still fits like a glove for this 200 year old lieutenant.

The HUD works just fine, on the side it shows the armor's condition has been through a few wear and tear mishaps. A vertibird crash can do that.

Nate walked through the vertibird and took the minigun like an overpowered commando from the old war movies.

Switching on the headlamp the first raider Nate saw was on the building roof across the street.

"Hey boss, we got something big up here, and it's really brigh-" The raider couldn't finish his sentence because he was turned into human swiss cheese from Nate's minigun.

Jumping off the building, the old power armor can still take a hard drop to the ground with no pain for the soldier inside.

Nate unleashed another barrage of bullets on the incoming raiders. They all dropped to the ground like shredded paper. Blood splattered across the cars, along the road and the building walls. Deep in Nate's mind, for once in his life, even as a soldier, he felt like one of those heavy duty action heroes from the movies. Like Howard Braunschweiger in the movie "Sports Hunter from Space".

As more raiders came pouring in from the streets a sudden quake from beneath his feet rumbled before him and the raiders. Following a guttural and blood thirsty roar. Further down the block the sewer vent began to shake and was straining to open up. Shortly after a hand of the Devil's work emerged from the hatch and revealed itself as Mama Murphy explained. If it didn't look as reptilian as it currently does, Nate could've mistaken that beast as a true incarnate of Hellspawn.

Nate and the rest of the raiders redirected their fire on this giant reptilian beast. All the raiders hardly put up a fight. This thing just ripped them apart. Severed limbs, heads and guts of all kind flew all over in it's carnage. All that was left before this wingless dragon was the knight in old rustic armor, and it's steel barreled great sword.

Nate emptied every 5mm round into that beast. It started swerving side to side to give Nate some missed shots to the point he ran out of rounds, and there was not enough time to reload. He just threw the empty minigun at the monster's face giving Nate a window to dodge the monster's pounce for him. He raced for the minigun in hopes to get it reloaded, but after a brief look away from the beast to the weapon, he found himself on his back to the ground. The monster was staring straight through Nate's power armor visor while licking its chops. The monster was about to sink his claws into the armor, but Nate was able to catch its hand before it could make contact with his armored flesh. The struggle was near impossible, but Nate was able to hold long enough for him to land a hard punch to its face. Dazed for a moment, Nate gave this beast a hard headbutt, and pushed it off of him. Picking himself up, he found his minigun further away from him. It was too far for him to reach and hopefully reload so instead he got his hands on a sharp piece of metal shrapnel of a nearby street sign. The monster stood before Nate finally undazed. Gripping his improvised weapon, Nate and the monster sprinted straight towards each other wanting to end this fight once and for all.

From behind this entire fight Preston took a shot at the big monster. Luckily the shot was able to cause a brief distraction for Nate to land a solid stab through this monster's throat. It was killed briefly in a matter of moments, and was in as much pain as it roared in complete and utter pain.

Nate looked back up at the balcony to see Preston Garvey waving down at Nate. In return, Nate gave Preston a salute.

Picking up his minigun for reloading, he made his way back to the museum's front door.

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"This is Lieutenant Nate. Entry log number two. The date is October 24th, 2287… 3:47 hours. These last twenty four hours was a rather rough hustle, but it was worth the effort. I was able to bring a group of settlers to Sanctuary Hills and a local militia man who was a member of a group known as the Minutemen. Codsworth was able to clean out the garden and now the Long family have taken over the gardening. The water pumps produced enough for everyone to go around for the six of us. Assuming more people come looking for a new home here, we'll need more sources of water, and food. For now we're thriving well enough so far. Preston agreed to watch over the settlement for the first shift of the night. Currently I'm watching over on the second shift with Codsworth. I stashed Mike Daly's armor at the station, it's a miracle there's enough scrap metal to help patch up the suit. Once dawn arrives, I'm going to continue my journey. Mama Murphy who has the abilities of a seer when she's high off her gourd told me of a lead to my son in what she calls the "Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth", Diamond City. Once my shift is done me and Dogmeat are heading the Great Green Jewel… Today. End recording."

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Nate was just about to set out to resume his journey but the people and friends he saved couldn't let him leave before seeing him off.

"Hey Nate… I just want you to know, good luck on finding your son. And I hope you don't mind but I have a favor to ask. There's a farm settlement not far from here run by the Abernathy family. I figured with Sanctuary Hills starting to thrive, maybe a trade route could prove a great benefit for us. We need to show the Commonwealth that the Minutemen are still out there, trying to help the people. If there's anything you can do to help them with trading, I'd appreciate it."

"And where's this farm again?" Nate asked.

"Once you go past the Red Rocket Truck Stop just over the bridge, follow the powerlines east from there. Their farm is built around one of the towers for the cable lines.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Nate said, giving Preston some relief.

"Thanks Nate, also if you find anyone looking for a place to call home, don't hesitate to tell them about this place." Preston said.

"I will, Preston."

"Mister Nate, sir. I know I'm no Mister Gutsy, but after everything that's been happening, and with you back from the vault. I'd be honored if you'll have me along your journey across the Commonwealth."

"Alright, Codsworth… I guess I could use the help."

"Proud to serve once again, sir."

The Soldier, the Dog, and the Robot finally set out back into the Commonwealth.

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A:N In case no one noticed, in the old "Storyteller Series" when the Storyteller was talking about Vault 108 to a bunch of Gary's, there was the trailer for a Grognak the Barbarian movie starring an actor called Howard Braunschweiger. Knowing that Grognak is a spoof on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian, I had to reference Howard Braunschweiger in a movie spoof of the Predator franchise as "Sports Hunter from Space". Lemme know if you caught that easter egg, and now that you think about it… If a piece of the Storyteller's series is referenced in this series, you think maybe Nate will find our favorite annoying Brotherhood of Steel scholar out there?

Hmmmmmmm!