As soon as James stepped outside the city limits of Vault City, James changed his direction and headed straight for what most people would recognize as the middle of nowhere. One thing that most people were unaware of was that his disappearance from the Capital Wasteland happened out of nowhere. Many speculated that he was on a secret mission to the West to destroy the remnants of the Enclave.
Some thought he had died searching for some lost Pre-War technology somewhere off the coast. Others hoped that he simply had found himself in friendlier lands and finally settled down to a land of peace.
Imagine the shock when stories started coming from the Pitt about the death and brutalizations of the Pitt slavers. Many in the Capital Wasteland had come to see the Pitt as a stable institution. Too strong for any party but the Brotherhood of Steel to take down. Instead, the Pitt was brought down by its own hubris, its own oppression of the slaves brought them to rise against the slavers and to take their auto-axes to the backs of the slavers as they had down to the poor working people.
What people in the Wasteland did not understand about the sudden turn of events was that James had disappeared not on any secret mission or something as grand and adventurous as that. Instead, he was caught up by alien technology and on a fight to survive for many long weeks. His trip back to Earth was what brought him to the Pitt and his enslavement was the catalyst for the fall of Ashur's regime.
Now, James headed back to the same place he had wandered to all those years ago. The only place that showed alien technology existed. He was never sure whether or not he should speak more about his experiences with the alien creatures. Would people understand? Could people relate to what he saw up there? What caused him to change as a person and as a man?
James pondered these things as he approached the crashed alien ship. At least, the fragments that were still visible from the ground. Years in the Capital Wasteland had caused many components to be eroded by sand and wind. Other parts were covered up by dirt and shrubbery. James was here not for the ship itself but for a critical component that led to his crash landing in the Pitt all those years ago.
The ship had a locator beacon that the alien mothership's teleporter was supposed to take him. It was supposed to bring him back down here. How was anyone aboard supposed to know that there were more ships spread out across the Wasteland? James having slotted the component into the device Allison prepared weeks ago now gave him access to the coveted technology from the ship. He had found his way back up and he was sure that the people that might still be aboard were owed an explanation for his nearly decade long disappearance. James reached for Allison's device and pressed firmly on its power source.
He had been gone too long from too many places, now it was time for him to return to all of them.