I've learned a lot of valuable lessons in my life…many of them the hard way. Some lessons are better learned that way because they tend to be the ones that really stick with you. Things like standing up first in a firefight, looking at a pretty girl when you have one already on your arm and eating food that either moves, glows or both. These are the kinds of lessons that most people will benefit from in life. I'd just learned a new one recently: Don't deviate from a well-laid plan.
Codsworth and I had made good time after we set out. He told me where the nearest branch of the railroad track was and we headed that way. The route took us through Concord but that was still deserted. I checked it over briefly, now that I wasn't getting shot at or chased by giant lizard-monsters, but pickings were pretty slim. We headed for the Starlight Drive-In next because it was right in line with the tracks. There were a few molerats there and I learned that Codworth's buzz saw attachment was very handy for cutting meat. I made a mental note about all the scrap metal laying around and pressed on.
We found the tracks and turned south. We discovered a few wrecked train cars and, lo and behold, another suit of Power Armor. I shook my head at how much of this shit I was finding just laying around and wondered about how people had managed to live for two centuries without searching their own back yard for useful shit. The PA was locked inside a security cage and the terminal access code was a bitch to hack into. I gave up after half an hour and marked the location on the map for later. We encountered some lightweight threats along the way, mutant dogs, mostly, and we reached Graygarden by early afternoon.
This is where that whole 'deviate from the plan' thing came in. Apparently, the robots there had been programmed by some mad-scientist type back before the war and now three of them were running the place. They traded the crops they grew, but didn't eat, with the occasional passerby for spare parts and Mr. Handy fuel cylinders. However, their water supply had recently become contaminated and smelled worse than bad. If they didn't get it fixed soon the crops would die. I looked at all that food just going to waste and shook my head. Ms. White, the chief robot, said that their water came from the nearby Weston Water Treatment Plant and offered ample reward if I went to have a look. I sighed and agreed.
We followed the tracks south, crossed the river and walked into Oberland Station. Like the other settlements before, they were surprised to actually get help. Apparently, a raider gang operating out of a clothing store downtown had been giving them the strong-arm treatment and I added it to my growing to-do list. The treatment plant and the raiders were in opposite directions so I sat down to assess my options. I know nothing about how a water treatment plant works so I opted for the devil I already knew and headed for downtown Boston.
Codsworth and I made our way along the river until I could see the store from up the road. They had a guard outside, and a sentry turret in a shopping cart, so I told Codsworth to stay put while I did my thing. One sneaky stab and a couple of swings with a tire iron and the entrance was clear. I checked the guard post for ammunition and found, set as a trap inside one of the big sewer pipes lying nearby, a fucking rocket launcher! Preston had said that some folks had them and now here I was. I found two spare rockets at the guard post and carefully deactivated the trap. No sense in blowing myself up now. I motioned for Codsworth to join me and we quietly nudged the door open.
Our travels had taken us a while so it was well past dark by now. I saw a really bright light coming from underneath the door and that told me it would be bright inside. Good tactic…aiming a light at the entrance. Blind anyone coming in as well as making them visible and easy to shoot. The raiders at Corvega had done the same thing once or twice. I slowly turned the knob, made sure the latch was disengaged and then motioned for Codsworth to go in first.
Now before you all go crying about how cowardly that was, stop and think about it for a minute. I was going into an unknown situation, most likely with a guarded position, an obviously hostile force and no intel to speak of. Codsworth wasn't exactly combat certified but it would be easier to fix him than it would be to set a broken arm or heal a perforated liver on me. Plus, his eyes could adjust to the bright lights faster than mine could. All this being said, I sent him in and followed immediately after, using the bulk of his body to block the lights so I didn't go blind.
We were lucky enough to catch the guards flat-footed and that's what saved us. Codsworth charged straight at the nearest one while I crabbed low and to the right. I heard a shotgun go off, then another, and then a small caliber weapon. I got one of the raiders in my sights and dropped them. Codsworth was tangling with the other one but the light had them completely washed out. I heard a man scream and Codsworth emerged from the light with blood splattered all over him. Apparently, the first shotgun blast had been a crude trap rigged to fire at intruders but Codsworth had crossed the tripwire so fast that it had fired behind him.
I fished the shotgun from the vice, plus a few shells from one of the guards, and then looked around. We heard movement upstairs but nobody had the balls to come down and check. Some things never change…like everyone in an undisciplined group thinking that it was the other guy's job to go down and do the dangerous shit. Nobody stepped up so we had the ground floor to ourselves.
"You all right, buddy?" I whispered to Codsworth before moving on.
"Right as rain, Sir!" he replied, just a bit too loud. What the Hell…not like nobody knew we were coming, right? We stepped into the hallway and moved to the next room. Our tactics were the same, since they'd worked so well before. I opened the door a crack, Codsworth crashed inside to draw attention and then I backed him up to finish the job. The next room held two more raiders, even dumber than the last two because we found them struggling with the trunk that held their ammo and weapons. We came in and they turned to face us armed with a pool cue and a wrench. I smirked as I put one barrel from the shotgun into each of them and let Codsworth finish them off. It was grisly work but at least he felt useful.
More movement upstairs so that's where we went. I'd fished a grenade and a Molotov from the raiders so far but I didn't want to use fire. Setting a building in the middle of Boston on fire was bad enough but with no one to put it out, it might spread. More resources wasted and that rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't want to use the grenade either if I didn't have to. I didn't have the stuff to make new ones yet and my collection was small. So we climbed the stairs slowly until we reached the top. Same deal as before…he led and I followed. We killed the last two in the building and then proceeded to strip the place of anything that wasn't nailed down. I was glad I'd brought Codsworth with me or else I'd never have gotten it all out in one load. I was close to staggering as it was and after I thought about it I decided to leave some of the pipe weapons behind. Too much weight for not enough value, in my mind at least.
We stopped back at Oberland to give them the good news and stash most of our haul. If we were going to check out the treatment plant, then we were going to want to travel light.
"You don't want to go there," one of the folks at Oberland said as Codsworth and I made our plans. "Super Mutants live there."
Well…shit. According to Preston, one of those things could be bad news. Now I might have a whole compound full of them, plus more inside. Not fun. The folks at Oberland sketched out a rough map of the treatment plant while we talked and I decided to upgrade my apparatus a bit.
"Okay, Codsworth…I need you to run an errand for me," I said as I looked at the map.
"Proud to serve, Sir!" he replied.
"Take everything you can carry back to Sanctuary Hills and tell Preston what we've learned since we left. The PA suit at the train cars, the robots at Graygarden, and everything that's happened here. Let him know that I plan to try and clear the treatment plant but there are Mutants involved and I could use all the help I can get. When you come back, bring every land mine, grenade and explosive device you can scrounge from Sanctuary Hills."
"On my way, Sir!"
"Meet me a little way north of the treatment plant," I explained as I indicated a point on the map. "That way, you don't have to cross the river and go all the way around."
"What will you be doing while I'm gone, Sir?" he asked as he turned one eye stalk around to look at me.
"Scouting," I replied simply. "Now git. Sooner gone means sooner back. If you're not back by midnight tomorrow night, I'll assume something bad has happened and you're not coming."
"I won't let you down, Sir!" he proclaimed and headed off, nearly dragging from the supplies he was carrying. I was doomed, plan and simple. He'd get himself caught by some raider gang looking to scrap him for parts and I'd have to go in alone. Hope for the best and plan for the worst, my grandma had always said. With that as my only plan, I borrowed a bed from the Oberland people and grabbed some much-needed shuteye.
The next day I munched down some roasted animal of some kind (I'd learned not to ask as long as it smelled good) as I headed for the treatment plant. I wanted to scout the place by day and attack by night. I arrived and circled the place from a distance until I found a good observation point in the rocks overlooking the plant. The word 'fucked' was not strong enough to describe my position.
I counted six Mutants strolling around, doing whatever they were doing, as well as a couple of really big dogs. Well, not dogs really so much as gigantic dog-like things. More trouble. If the dog monsters could smell half as well as their normal-sized counterparts, I would have to be wary of shifting winds, food that I ate and taking a leak anywhere nearby. If they got a whiff of me, they could alert the rest and then it would become a lopsided game of 'Chase the Smith.'
I moved my position several times that day, double-checking the head count and watching what the Mutants did. They never seemed to sleep although the dogs seemed to sleep a lot so that was in my favor. The entrance to the treatment plant was easy to spot and it didn't look like the Mutants had gone inside. Trash and mud piled in the doorway made it look like it hadn't been opened in a while. Okay…so the equipment was simply broken down or the filters clogged or something. How tough could it be, right? I found a secure spot and cat-napped until well after dark. It was nearly midnight when I heard Codsworth's thruster moving closer and I went to meet him.
"I am so pleased to see you, Sir!" he said gleefully. He was toting several bags filled with homemade explosives, extra ammo for my rifle and a flare pistol with several flares.
"What's this for?" I asked as I held the pistol up.
"Mr. Garvey told me to tell you that when you were ready to attack the camp, you should fire that into the air." he explained. "If he managed to round up any help, they would strike then."
"If he managed to find help?" I said incredulously. "You mean he's not sure?"
"Mr. Garvey didn't want to bring, as he said it, 'Settlers to a firefight', Sir. He said that he would only bring those that he thought would be of good use rather than sending people to their deaths needlessly."
"Well, I can't argue there," I muttered aloud.
"Wouldn't any help be better than nothing at all, Sir?" he asked.
"Napoleon once said that an army of lions, led by a dog, would die like dogs in battle," I paraphrased something one of my officers had said over and over in training. "But an army of dogs, led by a lion, will fight like lions."
"So, you would rather have an army of dogs, led by a lion, Sir?"
"Actually, I'd rather have an army of lions and forget the dogs altogether but that's not the point," I remarked as I checked the camp to make sure they hadn't spotted us. "If Garvey had just come alone, it would have been better than wasting time trying to gather a questionable force and arrive too late."
"Perhaps we should wait a while and give Mr. Garvey more time, Sir?" he suggested. It was not a bad idea.
"True enough. I'm going to sleep for a couple of hours. If anything happens, wake me. If not, wake me at 0200 hours and we'll go then," I explained as I found a decent spot to sleep. Apparently nothing happened because at 0200, on the pin, Codsworth woke me with a shake.
"No sign of Garvey?" I asked hopefully.
"None, Sir," he replied. "Perhaps we should wait a little longer?"
"No…no point," I said firmly. "I have to make some preparations anyway. If he shows up, then all is well. If not…well…it's not the first time I've faced impossible odds."
I left Codsworth to keep watch for reinforcements while I took the explosives and began moving around the outer perimeter of the camp. I laid a total of six mines, two of them my own creation, along the areas where I thought the Mutants were most likely to move. It was after four in the morning when I was finally ready.
"If we don't go now, it'll be daylight soon," I explained to Codsworth. "I'm going to try and lure them into the mines I placed around the camp. If I get hit and go down, leave me and try to find Garvey."
"You want me to leave you behind, Sir?" he sounded horrified. "I would never do that!"
"Codsworth, we're not just taking care of the house or washing the car this time," I said firmly. "We're on a mission. Your owner was in the military…he went on mission during the war, right?"
"Well…yes, Sir but…"
"Missions are important, Codsworth," I stressed to him. "The objective of the mission must come first…before all else. You understand me? Our mission here is to clear this place and restore water to Graygarden. If we do that, they'll give us food. They may be able to send us clean water too. This is important for everyone back home…not just us. If I die out here, and you don't tell Preston, then he might blunder into a fight and get more people hurt or killed. Make sure you tell him where I planted the mines so his people don't set them off by accident. Are we clear?"
"Very clear, Sir," he said sadly. He was my backup plan and I needed him to be able to get to Garvey if it all went south. Considering what I was up against, I pretty much knew it was going to go south but I had to try. I nodded to Codsworth and then moved into position. I checked my weapons, took one last look around to make sure nothing had changed, then fired a single flare skyward.
The amount of shit that hit the fan right then had to be seen to be believed. The Mutants were running around, pointing at the flare and shouting to each other. Having them clustered together like that made it easier to pick my target as I put the launcher to my shoulder and fired the rocket into the group of them. I was reloading before the echoes of the first blast had faded and the amount of yelling I was hearing told me that I definitely had their attention now. They charged from the compound like an angry green tide, except for the one that had been closest to the rocket, and I had to steady myself to avoid duffing the next shot.
The hounds reached me first, racing ahead of the Mutants with surprising speed. One came at me from the front while the other circled to my left. The one in front vanished in a red mist as he stepped on the mine I'd placed twenty meters in front of me and another blast took the legs off of the other one. Problem was, the body kept moving from the momentum and all hundred-plus pounds of him hit me like a linebacker flattening a quarterback on Saturday night. I managed to push the thing off of me but wasted valuable seconds doing so. The remaining Mutants were way too close and I started retreating under a hail of gunfire.
Bullets hurt. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot…or else they've never been shot. Two of the Mutants were spraying my position like madmen while two others closed in swinging pieces of wood over their heads. Great…I was going to be clubbed to death. Wonderful. One bullet hit my left shoulder and that was painful enough but a second one hit my right calf and that brought me down to a knee. Yep…impending doom. I was going to die right then and there. I heard a strange sound and noticed the last Mutant was carrying something under his arm like a football. It had a red light on it that was blinking and the sound it made reminded me of a timer.
HOLY FUCK! That guy is carrying a tactical nuclear weapon under his arm! HOLY SHIT! What kind of crazed, twisted creature would blow himself up in a nuclear fireball just to kill someone? The image of shaking hands with a nuclear explosion motivated me to run, like really fast, farther up the hill. I dropped a grenade over my shoulder as I went and that took out one of the board-wielding guys but the rest kept coming. I found a rock outcropping to hide behind while I unlimbered my rifle when I saw a laser blast hit one of the Mutant shooters in the back. He turned around to see who was shooting him and suddenly the air was filled with bullets and most of them were hitting him. He did one of those crazy dances they show in the movies sometimes when someone gets shot a bunch of times and then toppled over like a felled tree.
The hail of gunfire made the Mutants in front of me pause and turn to see what the commotion was. I took this as an obvious sign from God that I was supposed to start shooting but I knew I would only get a few shots off before they chased me down. Not knowing what else to do, I fired at the nuke and prayed. The explosion threw me back a good ten feet and made my Pipboy scream angrily. It also disintegrated the Mutant carrying the bomb as well as his board-wielding buddy. The last shooter was apparently busy spraying the tree line where the laser shot had come from. I took a few shots at him and likely hit him once or twice but the other shooters, whoever they were, did most of the heavy lifting. The last Mutant went down and suddenly the only noise was the ticking of my Pipboy's Geiger and some cheering from off in the distance. I was waiting for the Stimpak to get to work when Preston and Codsworth arrived a few minutes later.
"I'm glad you could make it," I said through deep, labored breaths. The bullet had gone through my leg and chipped the bone and the healing process hurt like Hell.
"So am I," Garvey replied with that stupid grin of his. "Sorry we took so long to get here but hiking in the dark sucks in the best of conditions." He indicated the clouded-over sky and I understood. With no moon to see by and not wanting to turn on lights and give away their position, Garvey and his people had had to slog through the underbrush in almost total darkness.
"I set off a nuke just now," I said absently as I added a dose of Rad-Away to the Stim mix. Oh yeah…I was going to feel like total shit for a while. "Does that sort of thing happen often?"
"Mutant Suiciders? Not really," he replied. "Just your lucky day, I suppose."
"Mr. Garvey, was anyone hurt?" Codsworth asked. "Other than Mr. Smith, I mean?"
"Two of the men took bullets from that last guy spraying all to Hell and gone but they'll live." he replied. "The other two are looking after them now."
"Other two?" I perked up. "You showed up with just four people?"
"All I could get on such short notice," he shrugged. "It was good luck we got that many. We had one each from Ten Pines and the Abernathy farm, one who had just arrived from Oberland and one of our own people. They were the only ones I trusted to be at our backs with guns."
"I can see that," I said as I laid my head against the rock I was propped up against and drifted off to sleep. When I woke up the sun was high in the sky, my leg and shoulder were bandaged and both felt a lot better. Codsworth was hovering nearby fussing over something cooking on the fire.
"What the Hell happened?" I asked nobody in particular.
"I am so glad to see that you're awake, Sir! Codsworth said with more cheer in his voice than I felt. "I'll have breakfast ready in a jiffy. It's a bit rough but we can't be choosy when camping in the wild, eh?"
"How long have I been out?" I asked as I flexed all of my important parts and found them attached and working.
"It's just past noon, Sir, so approximately eight hours or so," he replied with one eye stalk pointed at me and two on the frying pan.
"What happened to Garvey and the rest of his people?"
"Oh, they cleared out the treatment plant and then returned to Graygarden with the good news, Sir! They left about two hours ago, give or take."
"They cleared out the plant?" I was shocked. I was expecting to have to go in myself but I guess my tiff with Garvey had hit home and he felt bad asking me to do everything myself. "Did they get the equipment running again?"
"Yes, Sir…apparently one of the gentlemen from Ten Pines is very good with his hands. There was some trouble with the Mirelurks apparently and one of the men was wounded but I was told that he will recover in due time."
"What the Hell is a Mirelurk?" I just had to hear this one.
"Mirelurk is a somewhat generic term used to describe any of a number of mutated crustaceans, Sir," he explained as he plated breakfast. Having three arms sure could be useful. "Most of them nest in the mud where they lay eggs. They resemble large crabs, for the most part, although like most things in the Commonwealth the glowing variety are the most heavily mutated and radioactive."
"I saw one of those in the sewers underneath Concord," I remarked on the thing that I had killed down in the tunnels. "I forgot to ask Preston what it was."
"Yes, Sir. Apparently, several of the nasty things had nested inside various parts of the treatment plant, clogging the machinery and generally fouling up the place," he explained while I ate. "Mr. Garvey said that once they'd cleared them out and restarted the pumps to purge them of mud, everything ran more or less smoothly."
"You said one man was hurt but that he'll be all right?"
"So I was told, Sir. The man in question was cradling his arm when they returned from the plant but he was walking under his own power. Mr. Garvey wanted to get a head start since you were in no condition to travel. His plan was to relay the good news to Graygarden and negotiate trade deals with them before returning to Sanctuary Hills. He told me to keep watch over you and aid you when you felt ready to go."
"Well, after a good sleep, some great meds and an outstanding breakfast, I feel ready to travel right now," I said as I cleaned my plate and handed it to him. "By the way, how much do you know about computer terminals?"
"I know a fair bit, Sir, although I'm no savant," he replied as he cleaned the plate and packed it. Yep…very useful to take camping. "I can teach you a few of the basics though if you would like."
"Yeah…that would be great," I said with a smile. "I need to make a detour on the way back home. Something I need to pick up…"