I did mean for the adult settlers to have personalities, but the kids kind of stole the show. These three are the only ones with backstories so I figured they should at least get to have them on screen.
Begin Recording
Settler Stories
Recording by Scribe Ellison
I know we're waiting for the next part of the story, but the General headed out this morning loaded down with extra guns and cursing about raiders kidnapping people.
Shiloh says, "Ooooh, Mom's mad she's gonna have to kill people and she hates that. Wanna come shoot mudballs with us, Scribe?"
"Sorry, I'm assigned to scoop fertilizer today."
"Aw, I wanted to beat a grownup!"
I laugh. "I'm sure you'll get a chance to beat me later."
To keep the crops growing, fields are cleared and left fallow on some schedule I haven't asked about yet. The empty fields need to be enriched with brahmin manure and ground mirelurk shell. The shell comes already ground from Coastal cottage and I'd hate to think how it smells there because it smells plenty bad here. My job along with a few others is to spread these smelly substances more or less evenly across the field. Then I get to put on the settlement's power armor frame and pull a plow to turn the soil and get everything mixed together. It's going to be a long day.
I'm surprised to find the settlement's doctor reporting to the manure pile, wearing road leathers and heavy gloves instead of her usual labcoat. "Nobody's in the hospital, we're good on supplies, and I've read medical journals until my eyes crossed. Let's do some hard labor!"
So we grab shovels and wheelbarrows and dig in. The doc and I are working with a young woman named Bella who smiles vacantly and doesn't speak much. Bella's face is oddly shaped and she's probably simple but she seems to understand enough to get by.
Doc Jenna catches my look and says, "I think her mum took psycho while pregnant, but Bella turned out all right."
Bella lives in the yellow house with Sturges and his apprentices, and I'd assumed she was Sturges' sister.
I say as much and Bella says, "I am!"
The doctor adds, "She came to town and fell for Sturges. He's no cad so he offered to be her brother instead."
We've got wheelbarrows full of manure and a few more full of bags of the mirelurk shell. Bella suggests we spread the shell first because then it'll be covered by the less smelly brahmin muck. That seems like a good plan so we park in the middle of the field and I cut open the bags with my knife and get spreading from the inside out.
After a while Bella stops, wipes her forehead and asks, "Does this really make the carrots grow more?"
"Sure does. This stuff puts nutrients in the soil that goes into the plants. Just like we feel better when we eat good food the carrots grow better when they eat good dirt."
Bella laughs.
We get everything spread out so the field is covered and in spite of our center-to-edges strategy so are our boots. The next step is to plow it in which means me in the power armor frame and the other two guiding the plow. Doing this with brahmin would be easier; power armor is designed for fighting not for dragging.
We take a break for lunch first and because I'm happy to put off more work I ask the doctor if she's like to record her story.
"Sure. It's not too exciting. Grew up in the Capital Wasteland some fifty years ago, in Little Lamplight. How I got there is a mystery to me, though I did come with a full name: Jenna Michelle Anderson, so whoever brought me into the world cared enough to give me three names.
"I learned doctoring from the doc in the caves and that was my job. Making sure nobody ate the wrong mushrooms mostly. Then about the time I started banging my head on the ceiling and the mayor was looking at me like it was time for me to go, a ghoul doctor came and knocked on the door. Doc Burt McCreen, with half a dozen apprentices and looking for a few more. He's a traveling doctor with a brahmin hauling books and medical supplies. He wanders around healing people and picking up youngsters to train to be doctors. I think he's been doing it since the bombs fell.
"Burt had stories about being an 'emergency medical technician' before the war. That's a kind of doctor specializing in treating wounds so it's good to know. He taught us to be traveling doctors, how to fix up folks without a lot of equipment.
"And that's what I did once Burt declared me graduated. Wandered all over, sometimes with others, sometimes alone. I hit the Commonwealth and a Gunner patrol grabbed me and hauled me back to headquarters to fix up their soldiers. They treated me well enough but it was clear this was a lifetime position whether I liked it or not. They literally cuffed me to a bed at night. But one of my patients was grateful and slipped me the key one night and I ran like hell. I made it to Diamond City and hid out at their surgery center but one day I heard the radio broadcast, our fearless leader sounding very young and idealistic calling for settlers. So I came here and Em gave me a whole house to make my own hospital. Anyone who values medical that much is worth working for so she got my loyalty. I think Em wants to track down my teacher and put him in charge of a medical school."
"Sounds like her." I say, smiling. "Now we'd better get out and finish this."
So I get into the settlement's power armor frame that they keep around for heavy lifting. I should mention for my non-Brotherhood listeners that most scribes don't wear power armor. It's mostly saved for the paladins. But I did attend the class and was given an old suit so I could protect the Arlington Library in emergencies sparing the paladins for more important tasks. I don't have a lot of experience in power armor but enough that I can pull a plow without injuring myself. Lucky me! At least a frame isn't as hot to wear as a full suit.
I've heard of raider bosses here in the Commonwealth who find suits of prewar power armor and I wonder how many would-be gang leaders have to retire after wrenching their knees out by trying to run in power armor without knowing how to move properly. Without proper training power armor is quite dangerous to the wearer as well as their enemies.
So I hitch a plow to my waist and haul the plow across the field as Bella and Doc Jenna lean on the other end to keep the plowshare in the soil. This takes all afternoon and leaves us all achy and tired and heading directly to the bar.
With some space left on my holotape I ask the bartender Tom if he'd like to tell his story as well.
"Hah, you think future generations want to know about me? I'm Tom. No fancy title, just a plain Tom. Thomas Atterly. Lived on a farm with my family, turned to brewing since that pays better. Moved to Goodneighbor but that town has more brewers than it needs so there wasn't much market. So when we heard on the radio about a new settlement we moved up here, I and my parents. I know how to make beer and distill spirits, I can keep a still from exploding or producing poison, I can cook and I can shoot. It's a fine job to have in this fine settlement and I support my parents so they can do some easy farming work. I've done quite well, thank you for asking."
In time for dinner the General is back, much happier than she left because she was able to free the kidnapping victim unharmed and most of the raiders ran away.
