Dakota Michelson

A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction

Chapter 5: Quartermastery

Haylen has been giving me an idea of some of the technology she was tracking. I had never heard of most of it. "A haptic drive?" I asked her. She laughed. "Yes. If my sources are correct, it should be at the Chestnut Hillock Reservoir still. Although I'm not sure you're ready to be on your own yet. You should probably see if Danse is can go with you."

"That's not a bad idea," Danse says as we walks up to us from behind. "I think Michelson needs more experience being out in the field."

Danse walked past us and towards his power armor. I had never actually seen him get in and out of it before. I'd imagine you have to stand exactly in the correct position to avoid the suit pinching you… or worse. Danse turns around and asks, "Are you ready?" I'm taken back because I didn't think we would go right this minute, but I respond, "yes, sir."

I grab my laser rifle and we head out of the police station. Danse opens a gate that takes us behind the police station with ease. I wonder for a second what it feels like to be in power armor with all that strength and protection. It must feel like you can take on the world. Danse and I head south until we come up to a bridge. As we cross, I look at the building in front of us. "Beantown Brewery," I say out loud. "I could go for a drink," I say, trying to make small talk with Danse. He laughs very briefly and I turn around to see a small smile on his face, like he wants to smile but he is also trying to remain focused on the job. It's the first time I've seen any trace of emotion from him. "I doubt there is anything left in there," he says. "Probably right," I say. We continue to walk through a small forest. The wind is picking up and it looks like it might snow soon.

We eventually see a house and Danse says, "It must be there. I'm not sure where else it could be around here." As we approach some creature lifts off the ground. My eyes widen as I try to figure out what it is that I'm looking at. "A fly?" I say. It starts to fly toward us and it shoots something at me. In just one hit, Danse takes the large fly out, but then a sharp biting sensation begins in my arm. I look down and it's biting me. I smack it off of me with my other arm and it falls to the ground.

"What WAS that?" I ask Danse. "A bloatfly," he responds. "It's a large irradiated fly that shoots its maggots at its prey." My face went from slightly disgusted to extremely repulsed. That thing that was biting me was a maggot!?

Danse says, "Let's keep moving," and I snap out of it. The sky is starting to get dark and I realize that I never checked what time what time it was when we left the station. I'm sure Danse knows, but I decide not to ask him. If the time was alright to him when we left, I'm sure that he wouldn't want me questioning his judgment. We walk up to an old house and there's a rotting cow on the ground. But this cow has two heads.

I stare at the cow and Danse gives me a look and says, "It's a brahmin." He heads inside the house and I follow him desperately to get away from the fowl stench. "Let's split up and search the house," Danse commands. I nod and head towards the bedroom. There's just a sleeping bag, a duffle bag, and… A SAFE. That would be the most logical place.

I kneel in front the safe to get a better look at it but it looks like a pretty sturdy door and I don't know the first thing about picking locks. I search the duffle bag for a key, but no luck there. But I notice a wire on the wall and trace it right down to the safe. I follow the wire back and find that it leads to the terminal by the entrance of the house. To my surprise, the terminal is still intact and turns on.

This is right up my alley. Within a few minutes, I hack the terminal. By this time, Danse is watching me already. Good. I want him to see that I have some sort of skill. I enter a command to unlock the safe and just like that, I hear a clicking sound in the other room. I get up and check it out. The door opens. Inside, there's a pistol, some ammo, a few documents, and some sort of device. I take all of it and hand the device to Danse.

"I take it this is what we were looking for?" I ask. "Affirmative," Danse says.

We leave the house and I notice that the sky has turned a very ominous green with clouds and what looks to be lightning in the distance. "Not good," says Danse. "It's a radiation storm. We need to find shelter!" I turn around and think "why not here?" but then realize this house is in terrible condition. We may as well be out in the open.

"Let's go!" Danse yells. I run alongside him but I don't know where I'm going. "Where to?" I ask. Danse responds, "Our station is a little further away from here still. Our best option is Diamond City."

"Diamond City? This must be a new settlement," I think to myself. We run around the lake and into the city. As we keep running, I hear gunfire and yelling. Then an explosion. A man yells, "Go to hell, super mutants!" My heart drops because I don't know what we are running towards. Super mutants?

I see several men in uniform that looks like an umpire's uniform, but it's been reinforced with armor. Danse and I lean up against the building and I peak my head around the corner. I see them. They are large, ugly humanoid beasts colored dark green. Lightning strikes nearby and I hear one of the beasts laugh. "You die now, human!" it says. Danse pushes me back and steps in front of me. "Stay here," he says. I nod.

He walks out and opens fire. He fires and hits each target with excellent marksmanship. I hear a few bullets hit his power armor, but he continues on like he didn't even notice. One of the injured super mutants falls off the building. If the gunshot wounds didn't kill him, the fall definitely did.

I feel useless. While Danse and the other men are being shot at, I'm just standing here. I decide to take my rifle and poke around the corner. I find one of them in the rifle's sights and fire. It didn't kill him but he dropped his weapon. Down it went, banging on a few poles of the scaffolding as it fell. The super mutant growled and something lands on the ground next me. It takes me only a moment to realize what it is. "Dakota!" Danse yells and I run as fast as I can. I don't think I've ever run this fast in my life, not even when I ran towards Vault 111.

The grenade explodes and I crouch down on the ground. I lie there for a second and then turn around. "Well, I'm still alive," I say in relief. I stand up and turn around. Danse is running towards me. "Are you alright?" he asks. I nod and see immediate relief in his face. "That was the last one," he says. "Let's go."

We run towards and I see signs that read, "PROTECTED BY THE WALL" and pictures of diamonds with an arrow pointing up. We walk through a large makeshift gate and into a courtyard. I see a woman standing outside of a green gate yelling through an intercom.

"What do you mean you can't open the gate? Stop playing around, Danny. I'm standing out in the open here, for crying out loud!" the woman yells. Danse walks toward the intercom and the woman is surprised. "There is a radiation storm coming. Let us in!" Danse says.

"All right! All right!" the voice on the intercom says. "Piper, just be warned. Mayor McDonough is really steamed. Sayin' that article you wrote was all lies. The whole city's in a tizzy."

The gate opens and a large man is standing in the entrance. "You devious, rabble-rousing slanderer! The level of dishonesty in that paper of yours! I'll have that printer scrapped for parts!" he says.

Piper retorts, "Ooh! Is that a state, McDonough? 'Tyrant mayor shuts down the press.'" She looks at me. "What do you think? Do you support the news? Because the mayor's threatening to throw free speech in the dumpster!" Danse and I give each other a confused look and I decide I don't want anything to do with this drama. "Look, I don't want to get involved…" I say, trying to hide my impatience.

McDonough looks over and says, "Oh I didn't mean to bring you two into this. Why don't you go on inside? I'm sure there's a room open in the Dugout Inn you can rent and get out of the storm."

"Thank you," I say. Danse and I move towards the gate as Piper and the mayor continue arguing. We walk up the stairs and the market place opens up in front of me. My jaw drops. "THIS is Fenway Park now?" Danse raises an eyebrow and says, "What?" We walk down toward the center of the marketplace. A little girl hands me a newspaper. "Free paper to newcomers!" she says. The paper headline reads, "The Synthetic Truth." I wonder if this is the paper that has that reporter is in trouble. I follow Danse as we walk towards a sign that says "DUGOUT INN".

We walk in and I see a lot of people in here. I suppose we can't be the only ones trying to get out of the storm. A man walks up to me asks, "Need a room?" The man has a very strong accent, which catches me off guard for a second. "Uh, sure." I respond. "10 caps," he says. Danse hands him the caps and he tells us that we are in room 2.

We walk in and I see there is only one twin-sized bed, which I have already decided that Danse will have. I look around the room while Danse gets out of his power armor. There's a couch that I can sleep on. I sit on the couch and Danse sits next to me.

Despite the loudness of the people in the bar of the Dugout Inn, it's relaxing to be sitting down and not in danger. "Michelson," Danse says. "We had a lot thrown at us today, but you kept your cool and handled it like a soldier. There's no doubt in my mind that you have what it takes to be in the Brotherhood."

I'm speechless. I was so afraid he would have sent me on my way when we returned, but here he is offering me to join his team. "Wow. I'm not sure what to say." Danse looks hard at me and says, "You have two options really. You can try to survive out here on your own, or you can join the Brotherhood and make a difference out here."

"Yes," I say. "But what will I be doing exactly?" "You'd be under my command, and I'd expect you to follow orders. You seem to know your way around technology better than most other initiates, so I think you would be better suited for the role of a scribe." A smile makes its way on to my face.

"I'd be honored to join."