Lines of Operation
A Fallout 4 Spanking Adventure
Having woken up from a cryogenic freeze, two hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse, our main character Nate has to find his way around this post nuclear wasteland. In and amongst the ruins lies some humanity, and it is by slowly exploring the ruins of Boston and the outlying areas, that Nate finds friends and a purpose in life.
Nate has settled in with his three companions to their new place in Diamond City. Whilst its domestic bliss at home, out on the road things are way too chaotic for Nates liking.
This is a story of a developing relationship between a group of friends and how a simple solution becomes the glue that binds.
Chapter 1 - Home Plate
Home Plate was quiet. As Nate stretched out on the double bed he had taken as his, he listened to hear if the girls were up yet. What a find Home Plate was, he thought as he grabbed another pillow to prop himself up. Since waking up in his underground vault to discover the world a very different place, Nate had wandered the wasteland that was his new home experiencing the best and worst of humanity. He had worked his way down from the vault he woke up in, through the towns of Sanctuary, Concord and Lexington to finally arrive in Boston itself. This was only his fourth visit to Diamond City but he liked the quirky community that had grown up here in the old Fenway Park stadium, and now that he had the girls with him, he needed a base of operations.
Home Plate was the name given by the Mayor to a small three story property just off the main market. The previous occupant had furnished the house to a fairly high standard and although it cost a small fortune, it had everything that Nate and his companions would need. Set out as an L shape, wrapping around one corner of Market Square, there were two main entrances, both into the middle floor of the house. One came into a living area; a small alcove with Nate's double bed was off to the right, raised on a slight platform, and a fireplace and settee was directly to the left. Stairs down to the basement were tucked behind the sofa and through the living area was a small office, kitchenette and four-person table and bench seat, obviously scavenged from a local diner. The kitchenette was finished off by two bar stools tucked in against a breakfast bar.
The main floor then took a sharp left turn where there was a sliding door to a corridor that went through to the workshop and armoury. Both sides of this through space opened up to accommodate the shower and toilet to the left and the laundry area to the right. Carrying on through this small, wide corridor brought you to the armoury. This large, tall ceilinged room had two power armour stations, three workbenches, weapons racks, ammo storage, a chemistry station, a reloading bench and lockers for clothes and armour. This was most definitely Nate's favourite room.
Downstairs took you to an open plan area with a second larger kitchen, another office area under the stairs and a small snug to watch TV. To the far left were two small alcoves each with a bunk in, complete with lockers and drawers. To the far right of the room, tucked into the corner was a metal door through to an indoor grow room, with three rows of planters, a dark area for glowing fungus as well as a hydroponics system. The generator was housed down here as well and barely hummed when in operation.
The top floor had another two bunks and a ladder up to the roof terrace with some quite spectacular views of the city. Overall, Home Plate could accommodate ten if Nate was to give up the other half of his extremely comfortable double bed. He stretched out again and thought about that, maybe not quite yet.
"Morning Handsome."
Nate was pulled from his reverie by the site of a red headed Irish girl padding past him wrapped in nothing but a towel. Just a little shorter than Nate, Cait's previous life was as a cage fighter and although she was all muscle, it wasn't of the overbearing bodybuilder type. She had a slim frame and feminine curves but there wasn't a great deal of softness about her. Not that this was particularly surprising to Nate given the life she had lived before joining his team.
"Well, top of the morning to you too." Nate responded in a very poor attempt at an Irish accent.
"Awful," was all Cait threw back over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner, heading for the shower.
"Hey Blue, sleep well?" asked a second voice as Piper, another of Nate's team, appeared climbing the same stairs from the basement. Blue was a term of endearment used by Piper ever since she had first met Nate and learnt that he was from a Vault Tech vault. The colour blue referring to the jump suits worn by residents of all these underground communities run by Vault Tech. This morning, Diamond Cities' roving reporter was dressed casually in a pair of black leggings and a white crop top, looking all set for a home day.
All three of Nate's companions had chosen to bunk down in the basement, which was a great relief to him as he was really keen for the girls to get on and so far, fingers crossed, they seemed to be doing just that.
"Too well, thanks Piper," Nate yawned and sat up, "You're not planning on making a coffee anytime soon are you?" Nate asked, beaming a ridiculous smile over to Piper as she took a seat at the kitchen bar.
"You know I would Blue, but.." she holds up her own coffee mug "I already have one." and she returned an equally ridiculous smile right back.
About to make some sarcastic comment about respect and authority in his team, Nate was interrupted by a call from the basement.
"Breakfast is ready!" called the soft voice in the most delicious of French accents, which always made Nate smile. Despite all the team insisting on dividing up the chores around the house, Curie was always up and in the kitchen early and because she made the most amazing breakfast and coffee ever, no one complained.
"Well at least someone appreciates me around here" Nate huffed in a not very convincing show of grumpiness and pulled himself out of bed. In just a set of trunks, Nate began to do a few stretching exercises which he did most days, oblivious to the appreciative sideways glances he was receiving from Piper.
"hhmm not a bad view, eh?" a quiet voice murmured over Piper's shoulder, making her jump. Cait walked past, still wrapped in the same towel but with her shoulder length hair tousled and wet.
"Well, I don't know about you two, but I am starving," she continued, in a louder voice as she headed for the stairs. Passing Nate, who was reaching down to touch his toes in a lower back stretch, Cait swung a playful slap on Nates backside, making him start.
"Better cover up handsome before you get us girls all hot and bothered."
Piper laughed, making a poor show of stifling it when Nate gave her a look.
"I swear, one day…." Nate exhaled, slipping on a set of sweatpants, a t-shirt and following Cait and Piper downstairs. If Cait was lean and hard edged in her physique, Piper had a softness about her and a great ass, one of the first attributes Nate noticed when they met. Keen on fitness and yoga, Piper was super fit but gifted with a more hourglass shape than her Irish team member.
Downstairs and dressed in what looked like just an extra long t-shirt and a short apron, Curie was busy dishing out the breakfast onto four plates on the sideboard. Cait stood next to her collecting up the first two to bring them to the table. Piper went to the picnic bench table that was in the middle of the room and began pouring the coffee.
"Cait?" Piper called out.
"Oh yes please," replied Cait, seeing Piper about to pour some coffee into her mug.
Nate smiled to himself, they had only been in the house just under a week but already they had all taken and kept certain places at the table, a little thing he knew, but homely and comforting nonetheless.
"Curie?" Piper continued.
"Oui s'il te plait, mon cheri," came the response as Curie hung up her apron, grabbed the last two plates and headed to the table.
"Just you keep pouring Missy," Nate growled in a mock serious tone as Piper moved to place the Luxobrew Coffee Pot down on to the tabletop.
Sporting a cheeky grin, Piper said "Sorry, didn't realise you wanted any."
"One day, young lady, you and I are going to have a discussion."
"Oh good" Piper responded, "You've agreed to give me that extended interview then."
Cait laughed at Nate's comment, "You sound like Becky Fallon," handing him his breakfast as he sat down. Becky Fallon was the prudish and rather sharp-tongued owner of the clothes store in Diamond City. Nate gave Cait a look which she completely ignored and then, taking hold of the coffee mug, he held the cup under his nose savouring the smell as a sommelier would a particularly good bottle of wine.
"Thank you, Curie, spectacular coffee as always," smiled Nate as he offered her a toast with his coffee cup "and the breakfast smells divine."
"It is," mumbled Cait with a full mouth.
Nate shook his head, "Sass from one side of the table and awful manners from the other, what am I supposed to do Curie?" asked Nate putting on an exasperated tone and a wildly exaggerated look of concern.
"Naughty behaviour should always be punished," responded Curie in that matter of fact tone that Nate just loved to tease from her on occasions like this. "If you do not punish these transgressions, then you will encourage repeat behaviour," Curie continued, no doubt reeling off some best practice manual from before the war.
Despite Curie having been created as a Miss Nanny domestic robot to fulfil a scientific role before the war, on discovering her in Vault 81, Nate took her to Dr Amari and her lab in Goodneighbour where she had her consciousness transferred to a synth body. To all outward appearance she looked and moved like a human but her logic and much of her speech remained that of the matter-of-fact domestic robots that were extremely popular just before the bombs fell.
"And what punishment," continued Nate in a fairly poor, over dramatic impression of a university professor "would you recommend for such BAD behaviour," he finished, over emphasising the word bad.
"Ok, so before Curie ends up getting us two sat on the naughty step or writing lines," Piper interrupts waving a hand at herself and Cait, "What's on the cards for today?" as she turned to look at Nate. Caught with a mouthful of sausage and egg, Nate grinned at Cait and finished his mouthful before responding.
"As some of you have already decided to have a home day," he looked at Piper who was sat next to him "We can do some theory this morning and then collect our suits this afternoon."
"I forgot!" exclaimed Cait, "Arturo should have the Sirius suits ready," she said excitedly.
"As long as he has done the ballistic checks and Becky has made the adjustments, they should be ready to pick up, yes," replied Nate, pleased with Cait's enthusiasm.
"The Sirius 12 Assault Suit was just about to come online when the war started," continued Nate "I remember reading about the specs when I was with the training battalion at Fort Bragg." Nate saw Pipers eyes begin to glaze over, whilst Cait loved learning about the weaponry and armour side of their job, Piper was less keen.
"It is an amazing bit of kit, did you know it has built in temperature control as well as servo hydraulic braces for the limb joints." Getting excited himself, Nate began to reel off the suit's benefits. Piper pulled a face at that.
"Servo what now?" she asked, with a look that was half confusion and half disgust.
Nate Laughed "Assisted knee and arm joints to make walking and carrying lighter and easier."
Now Piper was all smiles. "Ah, if it makes slogging around the Commonwealth and carrying kit easier, then that definitely gets my vote," she grinned.
Ever since pairing up with Piper on his first visit to Diamond City and then soon after having Cait and Curie join him, Nate had been keen to form his band of companions into something that resembled a well-oiled fighting unit. With his Green Beret background, including two years as an instructor at the Army Special Forces Command, Nate was supremely qualified to instruct Curie, Cait and Piper on unit tactics. Something that was evidently missing in most of the combat situations he had found himself in with the girls.
The Commonwealth, post nuclear apocalypse, was a dangerous place to live. Many armed and dangerous bands operated with almost complete impunity within the state of Massachusetts, law and order was non-existent. Some claimed a higher cause, others were in it just for the gain, but the one thing all these roaming groups had in common was that they were unhinged, ruthless and fanatical. In order for most normal folk to survive, people had to take up arms of one sort or another and death was a regular and everyday threat for most inhabitants of Boston and the outlying areas.
With both Piper and Cait having been born in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, the two of them knew how to handle weapons. Piper learning from her father who was a member of a local militia and Cait, who was sold to slavers when she was 18, had to learn quickly in so many skills just to survive. Curie had Institute training that came installed in her synth body and was well versed in armed and unarmed combat. This was all positive, however, the Synth Courser, which was her body type, were elite synth hunters and usually acted alone. She too was not used to operating as a team.
The issue that Nate had with each of his companions wasn't that they were incapable of looking after themselves in a fight, the problem was that they were untrained in any sort of cohesive unit tactics. The moment bullets started flying, all chaos broke loose and each of his team members went all freestyle on him, running and shooting wherever they pleased. When fighting an enemy band of more than three combatants, Nate often found himself dodging friendly fire as much as he was dodging fire from the enemy. This was particularly the case when searching the old military base, Fort Hagen for his wife's killer, Kellogg.
Explosives were no different, with the girls not appreciating who or what was in the way of a thrown grenade. Nate recently gained two small scars in his right thigh because of Pipers over enthusiasm with a hand grenade. Soon after that incident, Nate decided that he needed to train them to operate and fight as a single, safe unit. To their credit Cait and Piper accepted the premise straight away and Curie greeted the plan with enthusiasm. Saying that, since taking on human form, Curie was so keen to experience everything, that she would often get herself into unnecessarily dangerous situations due to her driving inquisitiveness. Each of his team members had individual and very useful skills when it came to combat, but each now needed to learn to use those skills as part of an effective military team.
Nate had decided that to begin with he would teach the girls the basic of small unit tactics. After breakfast and with the dishes cleared away, Nate had the girls take a seat back at the breakfast table as he set up a board and easel that he had bought from Myrna at the Diamond City surplus. He had also bought a yardstick, a meter long ruler, that he would use as his pointer.
"Welcome ladies to the Diamond City school of tactics," Nate opened with a smile.
"You are so sexy when you get all school teacher," Cait grinned, mimicking a shiver.
Nate pulled down his glasses to the end of his nose and looked over them, "Behave," he said sternly losing some of the effect as he found it difficult not to laugh.
For the next few hours he explained the theory of small unit tactics that he had learnt when he first joined the military. The basic idea behind this doctrine was that for each small military unit, when in a combat situation, that unit would brake down into a fire support element and a manoeuvre element. Fire support giving covering fire whilst the manoeuvre element moved in to engage the enemy. Nate showed how this would work by using examples of engagements they had experienced previously and geographic areas that they each recognised. Cait and Piper wrote notes from the beginning of the class and all three asked questions throughout. Even though he knew Curie would be able to assign everything he said to memory, the real test for all three of the girls would be when this theory was put into practice. But for today, Nate was really pleased with how the lessons had gone.
After lunch the team went to the market and to Fallon's, where they had booked an appointment to try on the new Sirius armoured suits Nate had discovered. He had found them whilst scavenging in an abandoned USAF satellite station east of Sanctuary. The suits had needed testing to ensure they were still serviceable and they needed adjusting to fit their new owners. To accomplish this Nate had enlisted the help of Arturo Rodriguez, owner of Commonwealth Weaponry, the main weapons shop in the marketplace of Diamond City and Becky Fallon, the sour faced martinet that owned the clothes store Fallon's.
As the team walked into Fallon's they were greeted by Arturo, "Hey, nice to see you guys, you are in for a real treat with these babies."
"They are not babies; they are clothes Arturo," Becky snapped. Arturo smiled and shrugged at Nate and the girls. Most people, including Arturo were well used to Becky's manner and often ignored her rudeness as she was extremely skilled when it came to tailoring.
"The weave on these is exceptional," Arturo headed over to intercept Nate, with one of the suits in his hands. He moved over to a counter in the store and laid the suit down in an almost reverent manner. Nate and his team following.
"I have tried" he continued "every calibre from the small 10 mil bullets through to the 50 cal. and these suits perform spectacularly every time. You will feel it when you are hit," he turns to look at the girls "but not one made it through the weave."
"Why don't you just let them try the suits on Arturo, rather than standing there spouting nonsense," Becky chided whilst shooing Arturo away from the counter.
Becky then dished out the suits, clucking over the girls as they each slipped into their all-in-one light weight armour weave. The suits comprised of a lightweight metal alloy weave, but to the eye looked a little like wet suits. That is where the similarity ended as the suits could be put on very easily and with little help. Each of the girls and Nate had unconsciously stripped down to their underwear to pull the suits on. The only involvement of a second person was needed when zipping up the back and clipping the neck piece together. This final act in the donning of the armour also acted as the on switch. Becky demonstrated by helping Piper on with hers. Just as soon as she had zipped up Pipers suit and switched it on, there was a faint hum and parts of Pipers suit started glowing.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Piper, stretching out her arms and examining her suit. "I feel …." She stammered.
"Feel what?" Nate asked.
"Weird," responded Piper wide mouthed.
"Now this is cool," Said Cait as hers was switched on by Becky.
Looking towards Nate, Becky signalled the zip lock and switch on the collar of Curies suit. "It is switched on by clipping the zip here and then snapping that into place," she instructed. Piper and Cait moved over to see her operating the zip on Curie's suit.
"See if you can do it to my suit," Nate looked at Piper as he turned his back to her. It was simple enough and once Piper had zipped Nate up and activated his suit, Cait had a try as did Curie.
"You have both outdone yourselves with these, I cannot thank you enough," Nate exclaimed looking at Arturo and Becky.
"Payment will be sufficient enough," Becky responded.
But Arturo was all smiles "Take care of these, as they will most definitely take care of you."
Heading back to Home Plate, the team stopped off at Arturo's shop to collect a number of other items that Nate had bought to compliment the new Sirius suits. These purchases included pairs of tactical Gloves as well as four tactical vests, each equipped with Kevlar armour and four extended magazine pouches. Nate also bought a dozen small personal radios and ear pieces that Arturo had acquired from the rather quirky Cricket, one of the travelling trade caravans that criss-crossed the commonwealth. Nate had also asked Becky to craft a collection of small Velcro flag badges which were designed to be stuck on the front of the vests, and which he gave the girls when they got back to the house. He gave Piper a US flag, and stuck one on his own vest, to Cait he gave the British Union Jack and to Curie he gave a small 'Made in France' label.
"That is so sweet, Blue," Piper smiled "You really know a way to a girls heart."
They spent the rest of the day working in the armoury, learning how the radios worked and practicing donning the suits and the extra pieces of armour. That evening, after having dinner, the team relaxed and had a few fun rounds of the board game Blast Radius, with Cait losing and having to pay the forfeit of doing the washing up. She took defeat graciously, even shooing Curie away from the kitchen when she offered to help. Nate had enjoyed himself throughout the day and he went to bed that night full of hope and expectation that his training regime would really work.