Author's Creative Direction
It should be no surprise that this story was a work of "Fan Fiction" (Considering the site this is on) and that I do not own the Fallout series. My goal in these stories is typically to take the events of the Fallout Universe and portray them through the eyes of an ordinary person or "Average Joe" (In this story) by telling their own unique story within the universe. I also try to show these stories in a realistic way that is unable to be captured within the restrictions of a game engine.
My other works usually had no interactions with the "player character" (Chosen One) instead focusing purely on the canonical lore and an ordinary man's perspective on cemented or semi-cemented events. With that being said, I decided to make this story set alongside the events of "Fallout 2" and had to use my own creative design and story arch while trying to stay as close to the established lore as possible.
Since Fallout 2 is a Role Playing Game, the character can do whatever they want; from following the story as it's supposed to be played out, make different decisions to affect the outcome, or simply kill everyone. With the knowledge of Fallout New Vegas, which is essentially a continuation from the events of Fallout 2, I tried to make the "Chosen One" character behave in a way that sets up the events for the continuation in a relatively reasonable or realistic way. Although most of the canonical events are seen and more or less explained through the eyes of Sean Combs in the Continuation story (That I'll post later when I've finished), I had to work with some bits of contradictory or unclear parts of the Fallout 2 story to show Sean's story. Some things in Fallout 2 are again purely up to the player, or not even explained in later installments of the franchise, so that is primarily where my creative direction came into play.
To start, there is little to no evidence of certain aspects of my story within Fallout 2, but the beautiful thing about the Fallout series is that there are so many years between each game, so people like myself can use their imaginations to create backstories for people or places that have no mention in game. With that said, I tried to spice up the back story for Fallout 2 while trying to remain close as I could to established lore. Other parts were as I said in the start of this paragraph; up to my own imagining due to the absence of lore. I will elaborate a few examples where I improvised, but will first start with my portrayal of "The Chosen One."
The idea of the Chosen One was a difficult one to portray simply because who they are and what they do is almost entirely up to the player's desire. Unlike the character of Fallout 1, who's canonically male and certainly did X and Y, there is almost nothing to suggest what precisely the Chosen One did aside from a couple examples referenced in New Vegas. So, I based my portrayal of the Chosen One on my own personal playthrough, but due to the arch of Sean's story, I alternated the time-frames and some events ever so slightly in an effort to better explain some of the far later lore instances.
For starters, though it is true that the Chosen One could've been either a man or a woman, I chose to portray them as a man for the sake of literary clarification and a detail shown in New Vegas. For example, I initially toyed with the idea of only describing the Chosen One as "That person" or "The Chosen One" without using any gender specific terms. However, when writing this story, I found the narrative to be very clunky when trying to explain the Chosen One's antics by only referring to them as "That person" or "The Chosen One" or "They." So, for the sake of making the story flow smoother, I based the Chosen One on my first playthrough; a man. Also supporting that choice was the reference in New Vegas from Bruce Isaac about the Bishop son who is presumed to be the offspring of the male Chosen One after sleeping with one of the Bishop women.
Because I based this story on my personal male Chosen One, I also describe a number of their antics as close to canonical lore as I could do while bending a little bit of the timeline to fit the story. For example, the player has the choice to eliminate the crime bosses of New Reno, and much of their activities in New Reno have dire consequences for many NPCs. I hint at some of their antics around New Reno in the conversation with Vincent before the car job, and even bear witness to some of it at the prize fight, which I'll explain again as simply my own playthrough. Same situation occurred in the shootout at the Chop Shop. Though the player has the option to negotiate for the car peacefully or purchase it back, I chose the stance of making the event a shootout simply based on my own playthrough, to describe a cool potential scene unable to be captured by an isometric turn based game, and for the events of Sean's Story.
Lastly for the Chosen One, I will detail some of the miscellaneous events or portrayals. The end of the story you read is set in the first weeks of 2242. It is true that the Chosen One enters the Temple of Trials on July 25th 2241, so that meant that there was a limited time to do a lot in the story. If you're thinking that 6 months is a decent amount of time to do a bunch of things, you'd be wrong. In the game, going from town to town, location to location can take months at a time; thus making the idea of completing all those things in that time frame nearly impossible. However, looking at our real-world map shows that going from say, Reno to Redding takes about 3 days of walking. Sure, that doesn't take sleeping, resting, or battling mutants along the way into account, but the game would take several weeks to make that trip, not even to mention the fact that the Chosen One is on an urgent mission to save their village. So, because of the urgent nature of the Chosen One's mission, I deemed it possible to complete the entire game or story by early 2242. (I'm pretty sure I'd only gotten halfway through the main story by early 2243 in my first game). Regardless, much of what the Chosen One does in Sean's story, the reader can explain away as the author's personal playthrough as well as the idea that this is set in our real world as opposed to a fictional game world.
For the next set of explanations for my creative direction, I will highlight a number of the world events and side stories in relation to established lore. Starting off, there is no evidence that slavers ever had an outpost in Klamath. That is also why I set that part of the story long before the Chosen One ever goes there. I lead up to the situation the player finds in Klamath by showing the slavers' demise, and leaving their former outpost as a crumbled mess/budding rat nest that the player sees in game. Along with the slavers in Klamath, I show the use of caps as a currency, but tell of the slavers' dislike of gold NCR dollars that the player and Fallout 2 playable world uses for currency. Caps are an integral part of the Fallout Universe's wasteland economy, but Fallout 2 is the only game where caps are worthless. I merely show the use of caps as currency in the first chapters of the story to later illustrate the wasteland's desire for gold used to make the NCR dollar when Sean is rescued from the mine by Paul (whose allegiance is to the NCR). I did that to contrast the value of gold in Redding and show Sean's obliviousness to the post nuclear world away from Idaho where civilization had finally adopted a currency more official than old bottle caps.
The other big part of the Klamath chapters is the arrival of that Vertibird that sets Sean's story in motion. When the Chosen One shows up, the canyon with the crash site is a place to avoid for the people of Klamath, but they do explain lights in the sky and a flying machine that was seen several months before the Chosen One arrives. All I did with the story is make Sean a witness to the Vertibird crash, and made the slavers already aware of the Enclave's flying machines as evidenced by Metzger in the actual game of Fallout 2 who slips that he was trying to contact them with his radio.
Another part of the story readers might point out in the Klamath part of the story is the fact of changing weather or rain and snow. In the game, the drought is affecting most of the North from Arroyo to Modoc, but it is never made very clear when the drought started or if Klamath was really affected by its impact, given their trapping-based economy. I didn't deem the snow relevant to the drought situation in Arroyo and made a point to highlight the drought's effect on the local tribals in Sean's conversation with the Arroyo hunters. They said how they wished the rain would come to Arroyo. I made the hunters' acknowledgement of the weather to again highlight the drought leading up to the events of Fallout 2 as well as the mysticism of the tribals (Their gods are punishing them by leaving their lands barren). In a sense, it is known that weather does change in the wastelands; rain falls in Zion, and in the Commonwealth on the east coast. I'm assuming the lack of weather in many of the Fallout games is largely due to the limitations of the game engines. Also, it is known that a nuclear apocalypse wouldn't destroy the earth's ability to create rain clouds, especially over 150 years after the bombs. I added weather to the story in order to create a changing landscape and keep to the realism of our world while staying as close to the canonical story as I could.
I already explained a bit about the stories and Chosen One's antics in New Reno, so I will then illustrate my take on the events of Redding. Most of the characters in Redding are my own creation, but some of the places and factions are my own take. When the Chosen One comes to Redding in late 2241 or later, Redding is still split between different mining companies vying to steer the town towards one of the other wasteland powers. What the Chosen One does there is largely ignored by my story, but later explained in the next one. This is why I was able to take some of the events I describe and make my own direction.
For example; there is nothing in the game that says the Morningstar Mining company ever inhabited the Wanamingo Mine in Redding, or used a purely slave mining force. But, I wanted to emphasize the effects of Jet and the effect it had on the people of Redding in the story by exaggerating the New Reno friendly Morningstar company and their use of the prevalent drug. That being said, it is shown in Fallout 2 that the Wanamingo Mine was swarmed by Wanamingos many months before the Chosen One arrives. Since Sean was a slave miner long before the Chosen One showed up in town, all I did was make Sean a witness to the mine's takeover by mutants and link him and Detective Paul to New Reno by having the Morningstar company be the previous inhibitors of it.
For my last bit on Redding, there is the reference to the VG caravan security company that employed Sarah and the merc crew. Though they were never there in the case of Fallout 2 (Or at least not shown *Wink, wink*), I added them as a reference to the "Van Graffs" (Obviously). Some perceptive fans mentioned the fact, and I of course added that reference since the Van Graffs were initially from Redding. According to Gloria Van Graff, they were established long ago by their mother, but were not a significant faction for the longest time. She says that the Van Graffs deal in everything from gold to weapons, and so I made the caravan security company under that name for two other reasons. Sarah's merc crew was all from New Reno, so I made them employed with the VG company to hint at their later takeover of New Reno after the events of Fallout 2. The final reason for making that the company was because I wanted to again tie in their numerous rackets with the Anderson Sisters' gold (As noted by Mac) while at the same time showing that they weren't an entity to look twice at during the events of Sean's story.
Lastly, I want to detail some of the miscellaneous events that may contradict some of the events of Fallout 2. One that some of the hardcore lore fans may notice was the presence of Marcus with the Chosen One (Big green mutant). The Chosen One needed to visit New Reno (Likely in the car by this point) to get the mine parts to even get Marcus as a companion (Where the car would be instantly taken upon leaving the first zone). However, I made Marcus one of the Chosen One's companions during the Chop Shop incident in order to explain Sean's first sighting of a super mutant. It is contradictory, but I did that for storytelling purposes and to emphasize the effects of the Chosen One's behavior at the Chop Shop as well as the crowds he attracts throughout his journey.
Next, there is no evidence that Mr. Bishop's mercenary captain, "Tuco" ever had a sister. Although, it never said that he Didn't, so I made Sean marry her to better paint the picture of Bishop's involvement in the regions outside New Reno through Sophia as the reference point.
Next, the death of the defecting scientist and his family took place on August 30th in Fallout 2, which was a random encounter when travelling the world map. But, I pushed it to a later date for the sake of tying in the event with Detective Paul's discovery of the mysterious "Enclave." There was no evidential tie in with the Salvatores proposed hit on the scientist, but again; there wasn't anything saying otherwise. All the game shows is a family that knows too much about the Enclave's plans getting whacked by Frank Horrigan. It never said that they "Weren't" escorted by an NCR Detective and guy named Sean Combs on route to a safehouse (That logic is what I use to explain most of the absent canon in my stories LOL)... I also believe that there was only one child with the doomed family shown in Fallout 2. I made there two kids simply because I felt like it, Haha. I think you can forgive me for that irrelevant detail.
Next, there are sources in the Fallout Bible that say the Enclave began kidnapping wastelanders to excavate Mariposa in the mid-2230s, but the kid in Redding, Melchior Jr. hints that the events happened much more recently. Although, I tried to keep as close as I could to the time frame of the Fallout Bible through Detective Paul's explanation of the kidnappings across the wastes long before he met Sean. It seems reasonable one way or the other, but I chose the "Long ago" option from the Fallout Bible for the purpose of Sean's story.
I will now explain probably the biggest creative deviation I made at the end of the story; the NCR military in San Francisco:
There is not even a hint of evidence that the NCR sent a detachment to San Fran in the game, but I added that because of the later canonical events. It is true that the NCR and Brotherhood both battled the Enclave shortly after the destruction of the Enclave's Oil Rig. I made the military involvement in the San Fran region a thing in order to set the stage for the later war. I explain the Enclave NCR war in the next story, but I wanted to emphasize the Brotherhood's intel about the Chosen One, and how the NCR was able to discover the Enclave through the story between Sean and Paul.
Finally, the reason I added the humanitarian effort on the San Fran Docks was based on the themes of Sean's interactions with the Chosen One, about the ordinary man's perspective on the legend's tale, collateral damage, and a humorous take on the cutscene where the tanker departs. The whole purpose of Sean's story, especially in those parts with the Chosen One, is to show what the legend did and who they affected through the eyes of the ordinary man with his own unique involvement in the grand scheme of things. Though the Chosen One ultimately defeated the Enclave and their evil plans, every action has an effect, which is why Sean and many other characters don't have too many great views of the Chosen One. Yes, the Chosen One got his car back, but he shot up a bunch of people simply following boss's orders. Yes, the Chosen One killed the slave holders outside Shady Sands, but then someone had to clean up the corpses. Yes, the Chosen One set out on their final quest to destroy the Enclave, but all the dock equipment holding the tanker in place likely fell on someone below! Or like in other medias, "The Avengers defeated the villain… But now New York is destroyed, and many lost their homes and livelihoods." (Think of that Spongebob meme "We saved the city!")
This story was difficult, but very fun to write. I hope whoever is reading this enjoys the story as much as I enjoy expanding on the creativity of the Fallout Universe. For the hardcore lore fans out there reading this; none of my stories are firmly set in canonical stone, this is simple fan fiction. I made this for anyone who loves the Fallout Series, anyone who's interested in it, or anyone who wants to read a fun post-apocalyptic story set in a universe so many enjoy.
As I said at the end of the Epilogue, there is more to Sean Combs' story leading up to the year 2277. As anyone reads my works, I hope the reader will take a few things into account. I am a huge fan of Fallout lore, and write these stories for fun and therapeutic reasons. Also, though I may get a few things wrong, there is a lot of contradictory information about the lore both on the wiki and in the games, so take my works with a grain of salt and look more into the story on your own if interested (There is a LOT of fun lore to read). I know I'm a broken record, but I again try to stay close to the canonical story as I can, and sometimes I might adjust a thing or two to make it work, or if I couldn't find solid enough evidence to completely conflict with my own narrative claims.
Thank you so very much for reading this far. Check out my other stuff if you like my style of writing/typing. The next story I release will be called, "Why We Fight" which will stick to my theme of the ordinary man's perspective, and will be about life in the NCR Army on the front line against the Legion (It will also have a reference or two to Sean's story ;) if you like links to other stories you read). I am also about to start on a story about New Canaan and its fate. That one will be heavily influenced by my own experience and faith in Christianity during the darkest hours of life and finding the will of God when your world is turned upside down (In case you were curious about my future projects). Again, leave a comment, favorite and follow, or shoot a PM if you wish to interact with me. I'm very approachable, and would love to chat with anyone who's enjoyed the Fallout Universe or the stories I've posted :D! Thanks, and happy reading!