Point Lookout?
The Captain had woken with a start, he had no idea where he was, well that was a lie he knew exactly where he was, he simply had no idea why he was there. The grey skies and smell of irradiated salt water (has a distinctly worse aroma than a healthy sea would) was the first and defining clues as to his whereabouts, and the sight of the rotting wood which made Madam Panada's pathetic little store was the definitive proof that he was officially in hell. The Captain calmly looked around and took in his surroundings... and then began to laugh with a horrifying expression on his face, as he did so the ground began twist and move around as it turned into a sickeningly soft pink fleshy material and enveloped him whole, he simply sunk, cackling like a maniac into the abyss and then the Captain was no more.
Space
Olin nervously looked over to the Captain who was sleeping in the Co-pilot's seat and gently shook him awake. He woke up with a sharp grunt that surprised them both, the Captain quickly regained his composure and was smiling his deceivingly innocent smile.
"I thought you would like to be awake for the grand release" Olin said mechanically, ever the ice queen.
"You thought right, your powers of deduction are as splendiferous as always" The Captain replied cheerfully.
"That's not a word"
"I'm sure it is"
"I don't believe you"
"And I find that hurtful" The two continued on like this for the few minutes it took for Olin to finish typing her commands into the modified computer in the orbital-bird or "ORBI" (as the modified verti-birds had been dubbed by Sally). With one last hit of the enter button an extremely modified artillery bot had been detached from the under side of the ORBI, with tiny thrusters it moved itself in front of the bird and maintained it's position.
"Congratulations sir, the WRM now own and operate the only functional satellite in the orbit of earth, I'm sure you're... friend Three Dog will be happy"
"A whole space ship to explore and all he asks about is when he can be back on the air" The Captain chuckled light heartedly, he had a soft spot for Three Dog, this seemed to put Olin at ease as she saw the Captain relax.
"If you don't mind me asking sir... were you having a bad dream?" The Captain grew very quiet for a long time before he spoke.
"Do you have any family Olin?" The Captain asked softy.
"Probably... back east" she managed to mumble in response.
"Good memories?"
"Of course"
"I... lost mine... they were taken from me, apparently I had a father but... he's gone now, truth be told I don't even know how old I really am, my boyish charms make forever 19 of course but..." The Captain didn't continue and Olin didn't push him to, she simply set a course back to the ship, which was cut short when the engines suddenly went off-line along with communications.
ZETA
Sally had been quite proud of her latest feat of engineering and more importantly matchmaking brilliance, the girl had to bypass four security protocols in the ship and another three in the docking computer to make sure her former sabotage wasn't discovered. She smiled smugly at her kill switch, a modified C4 detonator which activated a small EMP device stashed on the ship which would result in an hour of what she hoped would be a romantic, possibly life threatening drift through space.
Ever Glow National Campground
Pitt had spent the last four hours walking in the wasteland with nothing but Bittercup's company... life as he knew it had lost all meaning.
"Sooooo what do you think?" she asked in her high toned annoying drill through your skull voice.
"No one is going to let you paint the ship purple... where the fuck would you get that much paint anyway?" Pitt replied in a monotone plea for death.
"Something in the wasteland has to bleed purple right?"
"I hate you" Before this bonding session could continue Pitt saw proof of WCB's madness. Four super mutants piled up, all dead from energy weapons, it was to far from any WRM outpost or route and no one else came out here any more, the WCB was moving for little lamplight, and the FEV held in the vault, it was the only thing that made sense. The two had give Ever Green a wide birth lest they walk smack dab into a WCB patrol but even so they should have seen signs of them, around, a scout here, a dead waste lander there, but the wasteland seemed nice...er which means they were throwing everything they had at the vault, an act that left them far to vulnerable for far to small of a prize, why? Pitt had a very bad feeling.
"Uh any particular reason we're staring at dead mutants?" Bittercup whined, Pitt had a very bad feeling and the fact she was his backup made everything much, much worse.
ZETA
Commander Lyons as she now went by had been getting acquainted with her new home, and boy was it a shit ton better anything else she ever dealt with on earth. She and the rest of the Brotherhood had spent more than a while gawking at the food materialisers, actual food, an indulgence more decadent than a thousand orgies, at least that's what she though as she devoured more steaks and pudding than humanly possible... seriously it should not have been possible, Elliot forced her to take a full physical before she could continue her tour. After her trip down pre-war lane with Elliot as he ran test after test she decided to wander into robot assembly to see Bigsly... and watch him squirm.
"Oh" Bigsly exclaimed as he saw Lyons enter in her black uniform (She thought a trench coat was a bit much but it was warm and soft so she didn't really care). "You out rank me again don't you?" Bigsly's face almost seemed to physically loose all of it's energy. Lyons knew he was throwing her a bone, he wasn't stupid, he knew damn well letting the brotherhood on the ship would lead to this, guess he still had a little affection left for the people he had spent his entire life with.
"Captain said my first order of business should be to get used to the ship, so I figured who better to get up to speed on engineering than you, so I'll expect a FULL and detailed report on my desk in oh let's say three hours?" Lyons purred as she eyed Bigsly like a lion who had spent the better part of a day ripping a small animal apart for fun "I know how much you love paperwork" Just because he threw her a bone doesn't mean she wasn't going to fuck with him.
"Of course, I'm so GLAD we brought the brotherhood into the fold"
"We missed you too"
"Kill me now" Bigsly muttered as he slumped into his office. Lyons found herself more and more disturbed as she moved through the ship, the brotherhood had spent hundreds of years trying to bring some order to the world, then some fucked up weirdo shows up, proves the existence of aliens, murders said existence and then creates a near utopia on a ship which then does in days what they had spent the last few centuries trying to do. She found herself leaving the assembly and on the lower deck of the main reactor room, the centre which connected the three main areas of the ship, the civilians dubbed it the plaza and it fitted it's name perfectly, the civilians had turned the lower deck of the plaza into the recreation area, shops, a bar even a dance floor styled to one of those old diners that dot the wasteland, people were happy, not just surviving, not just better off than the other town, actually happy, the whole vibe was more alien than the ship ever could be.
"Eld- ah Commander!" One of the dancers (it was a new thing for everyone, which is to say they all sucked) ceased their awkward twisting and turning and rushed towards Lyons. She recognised him as one of the younger recruits, probably joined up back when they looked like they had the Wanderer working for them.
"Broken anything yet?" She asked as she contently drank a nuka cola and leaned back to watch the scene unfold before her (a ghoul doing the peppermint twist was something not to be missed).
"Not for lack of trying" he chuckled as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Not sure anyone would notice in that... whatever that's supposed to be"
"Should probably play it safe and stick to killing super mutants"
"And I thought you were a soldier, get back in there and... do... whatever it is you're supposed to do on a slippery surface crowded with people deafened by loud music"
"Not you're best speech"
"Yeah I'll work on it" Lyons recalled the Captain twisting her about back on the surface, did that freak actually practice dancing?
Space
"Well... shit" The Captain yawned as he looked at the small EMP device "I do believe I know a little girl who's going spend a lot of time cleaning the inside of robots" Olin worked on the console powering up system after system until the automated process kicked in, mostly she tried to avoid eye contact with the Captain, it was surprising how virtuous an ice queen can be when she's trapped in a small confined space with the possibly mentally challenged object of her desire. The Captain toyed around with his pip-boy until he tuned it to the satellite's frequency, he was disappointed to miss Three Dog's come back speech but the waltz he was playing was his favourite and he wasn't going to let the occasion pass by without some ceremony and a memory. He moved to the cockpit and with a single fluid movement spun Olin out of her seat and into an impressive dip.
"If this is a murder attempt I'd rather take a bullet" Olin exclaimed in a mechanical yet ever so slightly flustered voice.
"We're back on the air! And if that's not something to dance to then nothing is." The Captain brought her back up and began move them in a slow methodical circle around the small space, Olin considered objecting but knew he probably wouldn't listen, besides he wasn't wrong it was a special occasion, they were back.
Author's note
Back indeed! Wow it's been more than a little while! I had almost forgotten about this but then the strangest thing happened, the story got another favourite! I don't know how many of you crazy waste landers are still reading this but for those who are and those who just started I figured I'd finish this chapter up and see if the holidays could produce some more antics from our favourite homicidal crew! Please feel free to dis me out in the comments for being such a dick and letting "real" life get in the way but for however long or little it is, I'm back! And for fun I thought we'd try a little something, if you like a particular character let me know, the character with the most votes will have a full biographical entry posted, if you want to know about an original character or how one of the game's characters fit in my universe and their history as I imagine it it'll be revealed. It's good to be back.