Chapter 4

Nora rose up from the floor and shouldered the rifle then rummaged through the pockets of the two dead raiders and found more Nuka caps and a box of .44 rounds that was about half full. She put these into her backpack and went through the door and nearly walked into a tall African American male in a yellow hat and trench coat, they both gave a bit of a start then the man offered his hand "Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen, I don't know who you are but damn if your timing wasn't impeccable" he grinned as Nora shook his hand. "I'm Nora...Nora Owens." "Well like I said Ms. Owens your timing was impeccable, we owe you our lives." He led her towards the open door at the end of the hall where she saw another man in blue coveralls typing on a computer "this is Sturges and over there are The Longs Marcy and Jun and this is Mama Murphy." "Nice to meet you all" Nora said but she could feel the tension in the room. The woman who had been introduced as Marcy commented "we're in here hoping for a miracle and we get a fucking Vault Dweller? just fucking great." Nora's temper flared "I could have just kept walking and left your ignorant ass to die but instead I risked my life and my dog's life to save your ungrateful ass so try showing a little gratitude why don't you!" the man named Preston stepped between them "Okay ladies Okay let's not start another fight here." he said and Nora backed down, he was right it was clear to her that these people had been through hell and she felt shame for yelling at this woman.

Preston started talking to her again "Like Is said your timing is impeccable we were in a very tight spot here." Nora looked him over "I'm sure you would have done the same if the roles had been reversed" as she spoke she looked around the room "who are these people?" "Just folks looking for a new home, a fresh start. I've been with them since Quincy, Lexington looked good for a while but then the Ghouls drove us out of there. A month ago there were twenty of us yesterday there were eight now were five." Ghouls? What are Ghouls" Nora asked "wow you really aren't from around here are you?" Preston replied "Ghouls are people that have been heavily irradiated but haven't died, their skin fell off and they lost all their hair but gained near immortality. most of them are just like you and me but some of them have turned feral because of the radiation rotting their brains, Feral's attack anything that doesn't look or smell like themselves." he explained. "We thought Concord looked good after we left Lexington but those raiders proved us wrong but...well we do have one idea" "let's hear it then" Nora stated, it seemed like she was in this for the long haul she thought to herself.

"Sturges tell her." The man named Sturges looked at Nora and began to speak "There's a crashed vertibird on the roof old school pre-war, you might have seen it." "Well it looks like one of its passengers left behind a seriously sweet goody. We're talking about a full set of cherry T-45 power armor, Military issue" Nora smiled to herself and remembered Nate telling her all about Power Armor after he had returned from the war "Sounds good to me" she said "heh heh heh heh Yea i thought it might, protection with an added bonus, get the suit and you can rip the vertibird's minigun right off the mount" "do that and those raiders get an express ticket straight to hell you dig?" "Mini gun? now were talking" Nora replied "I know, right? only there's one small hitch the suits out of juice probably been dry for a hundred years. It can be powered back up again but were a bit stuck" "I'll help if I can" Nora said but there was doubt in her mind. Preston chimed in "what you'll need is and old pre-war F.C. a standardized Fusion Core. It's a high grade long term nuclear battery used by the military and some companies a way back when and we know just where to find one.."

"But we can't get to the damned thing its down in the basement locked behind a security gate, look I fix things I tinker bypassing security isn't exactly my forte, but you could give it a shot" Nora remembered seeing it on her way up the stairs and told them she would be back once she got it. Back down the stairs and into the basement and there was the core just behind the gate. she looked at the terminal affixed to the cage and saw some bobby pins on top of it. Nora didn't really know her way around computer terminals but she felt good enough about picking the lock on the door so she grabbed the bobby pins and fetched her screwdriver, and after a few broken bobby pins and some rather colorful words she opened the gate and ejected the core from the fusion generator. "All set" she stated as she walked back into the room where Preston and his group were all waiting. ""Well all right" Preston commented "maybe our luck is turning around for a change" "well that remains to be seen" Nora said "I've heard of power armor but I've never used it" "I have faith in you" Preston replied "once you get that core into the armor and grab that minigun those raiders will know they picked the wrong fight, Good luck"

Nora was still thinking about her talk with the old woman as she stepped out onto the roof and saw the power armor that her husband had talked about with a hushed sense of awe in his voice. She could see why as she looked at it herself she thought it would take a miracle for any bullets to penetrate the tank like suit. She inserted the core into the slot on the back and turned the metal wheel and the armor sprang open, she stepped inside and the armor closed around her as it beeped and interfaced with her Pip-boy. she saw a heads up display in her peripheral vision that showed the status of the armor the power level of the fusion core and even a stress monitor linked to her heartbeat. "No wonder Nate talked about this armor in amazement" she thought to herself as she took a tentative step forward and felt the armor do most of the work for her.

There in front of her was the minigun as she stepped towards it and after getting a firm grip on the gun gave a strong yank feeling it pull free from the vertibird frame. a new display came up in her visor showing the status of the minigun and an available ammo count. "Nice" she said and moved forward towards the edge of the roof. all of a sudden she heard a man's voice "Boss we got someone on the roof over here" and she heard the bullet impact on the outer shell of the armor and ricochet harmlessly off, she spotted the man on the roof opposite her and pulled the trigger on the miniguns handle a moment later the man was cut in half by a hail of bullets. "HOLY FUCK" Nora yelled as another voice rang out from the street below, "Power armor huh bring it on!" Nora turned towards the sound of the voice and levelled the minigun towards this man but slightly overbalanced and tumbled from the roof. "Fuck" she yelled as she fell figuring that the fall would kill her only to land on her feet and watch the ground crack as it shook from the impact. Nora didn't hesitate but instead stood up and pushed the trigger hearing the gun whine as it began to spin and moments later unleashed a hail of bullets into the street sending the raiders diving for cover.

Nora relished the feel of the weapon in her metal armored hands as one by one the raiders were cut in half and started to laugh as the last three turned tail and ran back towards the red rocket. she stopped and reloaded the minigun and as she was doing so she heard a fierce roar and saw the metal sewer grate at the end of the street fly up the three raiders stopped and started screaming in terror as the beast emerged from underground making Nora do a physical double take her un asked question answered moments later as one of the raiders screamed "Fuck! Death claw!" moments later the raider that screamed was impaled by claws that had to be at least four feet long. Fear was pulsing in her mind and her heart raced like mad as she watched this creature make short work of three people with guns like they were paper dolls. The creature looked in Nora's direction and growled then began to charge right at her, Nora instinctively pulled the trigger on the mini gun but the beast was amazingly agile for something so large and in moments the creature was pouncing on her knocking her to the ground it placed one massive foot on the chest plate of the armor and roared as it swung those massive claws at her. She felt rather than heard the claws scrape against the metal and alarms in the helmet went off warning of a breach in the chest plate. The creature seemed put out by the sounds now emanating from its latest prey and stepped back allowing Nora to get to her feet.

Nora didn't hesitate and once again pulled the trigger on the handle and felt satisfied when a hail of bullets slammed into the creatures side however her euphoria was short lived as this only served to further anger the beast and it swung at her with those massive claws, the display in her visor showed that her chest plate and now her left arm were compromised and her Pip-boy was making loud beeping noises as it took over the display showing percentages to hit and where the best place to strike would be. Nora let the gadget guide her weapon as it locked on to the creatures tail and she opened fire. Immediately the Death claw moved to defend its tail and ran back away from her in a defensive showing of surprising intelligence. Nora kept firing at the beast's tail keeping it from attacking her all while keeping an eye on her ammo count. As it sank below 100 rounds she dove into one of the nearby buildings and made for the upper floor so she could reload surprisingly the creature seemed to know exactly what was happening and dove after her now on the attack. It pinned Nora to the ground before she could even get inside the building and swinging its right arm knocked her helmet off. The creature roared again and at this range it was near deafening Nora's heart racing and thought that this was the end for sure, that she would die here never knowing what happened to her son when the beam of energy bored a hole into the creature's head and it fell sideways and remained still.

(in the following chapters I will continue to keep as close to lore as possible but I will rely a bit more on my own thoughts and feelings of how a post-apocalyptic wasteland should be. I will also delve out of lore friendly environments here and there by adding things that aren't part of the vanilla game. I.e. radio stations and the like. I hope you are entertained so far and that you have reached this part. any comments or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated as this is my first ever story)