Becoming the Alpha
A nest full of deathclaw eggs. A dozen, maybe more. Smashed to bits. Except this one. No wonder they wouldn't tell us what was in that case. If I'd known, I would've personally told the Gunner bosses and that glorified liquor cabinet Wellingham to take those Diamond City caps and stuff 'em. Guess we know why that deathclaw tracked us all the way from Lynn Woods now. We stole her damn kids. Christ, maybe, maybe if we'd just returned the eggs... Oh hey Momma. You looking for this?
-Sergeant Lee's Holotape
Sarah glanced at the mangled body in front of her and at the only undamaged deathclaw egg in the corner of the room after listening to the holotape. What were those Gunners and the Wellingham guy that hired them thinking? Sarah had only been in the wasteland for a few days, and she has seen what deathclaws are capable of. She has seen them tear through raiders and she took advantage of the chaos to slip away undetected. Unless she has explosives, heavy weapons, or even a suit of Power Armor the best thing she could do is stay out of the deathclaw's way.
Why? Just why? Sarah thought to herself.
She walked out of the bathroom and into the main room where she killed the savage deathclaw that attacked her. She was lucky to be alive, if it wasn't for the missile launcher she picked up yesterday when she killed some raiders, she would've suffered the same fate. Now a realization washed over her. After listening to that holotape, she realized that not all deathclaws are mindless beasts, this one was trying to save its offspring from the Gunners. In a way, both her and the deceased deathclaw's stories are similar. For Sarah, Shaun had been kidnapped, Nate was murdered in the process, and she is trying to look for her son. For the deathclaw, its clutch of eggs has been stolen by Gunners, it went after the Gunners to save its offspring but got killed by Sarah. Sarah also realized that there was a chance that this deathclaw's mate might still be around and is also looking for the eggs. She felt bad for killing this deathclaw.
Sarah placed her hand on the dead deathclaw's head. "I'm sorry. Don't worry, I'll get the egg back to the nest." Sarah promised the dead creature.
She walked back to the bathroom and picked up the undamaged egg. The Gunners stole the eggs from a deathclaw's nest near Lynn Woods. She's got some walking to do.
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Sarah trudged through the pouring rain and strong winds with the pristine deathclaw egg in tow. The storm is getting pretty rough. Thunder boomed and lightning struck. She stumbled her way to a site that has a rundown garage and an almost destroyed cottage. She figured that she would use the garage as a temporary shelter until the storm lets up. When she got closer, she saw a raider trying to fight off two mirelurks.
"Shit!" the raider screamed as his shotgun jammed.
The mirelurks seized the opportunity and proceeded to tear him to pieces.
"Okay, maybe I should push on." Sarah muttered. She could take them out, but she is carrying precious cargo.
Taking advantage of the mirelurks' distraction, Sarah ran as fast as she could away from the carnage. She keeps running until she sees the old Parsons State Insane Asylum on the horizon. Lynn Woods shouldn't be too far. Though she did notice what appeared to be Gunner activity behind the asylum's gates and decided to take a different route. There is a creamery not too far from the asylum. She figured that she would head over there and down south towards Lynn Woods.
As she got closer to Parsons Creamery, she heard heavy footsteps and a roar. Sarah quickly turns to her right and sees two glowing deathclaws watching her. One of the glowing deathclaws looked different. The glowing deathclaws that she has seen glowed green. The second glowing deathclaw glowed a blue color similar to Nuka-Cola Quantum. The glowing blue deathclaw spots the egg in Sarah's arms and points it out to its companion. The two deathclaws looked at each other for a moment and walked down the hill to where Sarah is.
"I'm guessing that this is yours?" Sarah asked as they approached, surprised that these two did not attack.
When they got close enough, both deathclaws sniffed the egg and turned. The glowing blue deathclaw turned around and stared at Sarah. It took her a moment to realize that they wanted her to follow them. She followed them down the hill towards a path that she assumes leads to the nest. She hears another roar and turns to see an alpha deathclaw charging at her. Both of the deathclaws tackled the third to the ground and pinned him down. The third one let out some angry roars at the other two who scolded him with a hiss. The glowing blue deathclaw points at the egg in Sarah's arms. They got off the alpha deathclaw. The alpha deathclaw slowly moved towards Sarah and sniffed the egg. He let out a sigh and begrudgingly allowed Sarah and the other two deathclaws to proceed.
When they get to the nest, Sarah sees two more deathclaws. A short albino deathclaw and a deathclaw matriarch. The glowing blue deathclaw walked to the matriarch and they started vocalizing at each other. The matriarch looks at Sarah and then at the egg. Sarah walks to the nest and places the egg in it. The matriarch makes a happy grunt and nuzzles against the egg. She looked at the albino deathclaw and made a small roar. The albino deathclaw digs something out of the ground. A deathclaw gauntlet, the albino deathclaw presents it to Sarah.
It is unusual to receive a reward from a deathclaw, but she can't turn down a good weapon that can help her survive the wasteland depending on the circumstances. She takes it and puts it on, admiring the fit. Before she could leave and find some raiders to test this new addition on, she heard some gunshots rang out and a loud roar.
The alpha deathclaw rushed to the nest and let out three warning roars. It didn't take long to see the cause of the alarm, a large squad of Gunners, four of them in power armor. The alpha deathclaw came charging right at one of the Gunners. One of the power armored Gunners was holding a missile launcher and fired a shot in front of the alpha deathclaw knocking him off the ground. One of the Gunners pulled out a grenade and threw it towards Sarah and the other deathclaws.
"Look out!" Sarah pulled the deathclaw egg out of the nest. She and the other deathclaws barely managed to dodge the grenade which exploded and destroyed the nest. The deathclaw matriarch uses her claws to dig a hole deep in the ground and Sarah places the egg in the hole. The matriarch covers the egg with the dirt.
Sarah looked over at the horizon, the other four deathclaws were having trouble trying to stop the Gunners.
Sarah turns towards the matriarch. "I'll help them. You guard the egg."
The glowing blue deathclaw was knocked down to the ground by a missile that exploded right next to him.
"A blue glowing deathclaw? I think I want this one stuffed." The lead Gunner wearing T-60 Power Armor walked towards the deathclaw, pointing the gatling laser at his head.
"I wouldn't bet on it!" Sarah fired her saw blade launcher at the gatling gun, shooting it out of the Gunner's hands.
Sarah rushed to check on the glowing blue deathclaw.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked the deathclaw.
The blue glowing deathclaw nodded and let out a huff. The albino and other glowing deathclaw helped him to his feet.
"What the hell, why are you helping those deathclaws?" The lead Gunner asked dumbfounded that someone would be willing to help out a bunch of deathclaws.
"Because they went through what I went through!" Sarah slashed away at the Power Armored Gunner, knocking pieces of it off in her wake.
The glowing blue deathclaw used his tail to knock the lead Gunner down onto his stomach. Sarah finally sees her target, the fusion core. She slashed at it three times until she saw it start to glow.
"Everyone get back!" Sarah ordered the other deathclaws. She and the deathclaws move out of the way before the fusion core explodes, killing the lead Gunner inside the armor.
Two of the Gunners in Power Armor were using missile launchers, and one was using a minigun. Sarah pulled out her saw blade launcher and she shot at the missile launchers and minigun, knocking them out of the Gunners' hands.
"Now's your chance, get them!" Sarah shouted.
The four deathclaws proceed to tear the other three Power Armored Gunners to shreds. They and Sarah finish off the remaining Gunners. The final Gunner tried to attack Sarah with a baton. Sarah blocked the attack with the deathclaw gauntlet. She shoved him to the ground and finished him off by driving the deathclaw gauntlet through his stomach, killing him and ending the Gunner threat to the deathclaws.
She and the other four went to check on the deathclaw matriarch and the egg. Once she assured the deathclaw matriarch that the threat was gone, they dug up the egg. Sarah looked around the remains of the nest. Knowing that there were more Gunners at the Parsons State Asylum nearby, it was not safe for the deathclaws to stay here.
"I saw more of them at the old asylum on my way down, I don't think it's safe here anymore. I need to move you guys somewhere safe to a different location." Sarah told the deathclaws.
The deathclaws looked around the area and they began to vocalize amongst themselves and after reaching some kind of agreement, the glowing blue deathclaw tapped Sarah's shoulder with his large finger. They looked at Sarah expectantly.
At first Sarah was confused but figured it out quickly. "You guys want to come with me?"
All of the deathclaws nodded at her.
"Okay, let's go then."
The deathclaws all followed Sarah with the egg in tow, in search of a new home. They traveled down south until they reached Fort Independence which was crawling with mirelurks. They fought their way through the mirelurks. At the pier there was a bridge leading all the way to Spectacle Island, Sarah figured that it could be a good place to set up a new home for herself and her newly acquired deathclaw pack. After dealing with the mirelurks, Spectacle Island is now their home.
Sarah gave each of the deathclaws names. The glowing blue deathclaw is named Atlas, the regular glowing deathclaw is named Blitz. The deathclaw matriarch, the only female, is named Lulu. The albino deathclaw is named Ace and the alpha deathclaw is named Demon. The deathclaws accepted Spectacle Island as their new home, and Sarah as their alpha.
Author's Note: I've been wanting to write about how Sarah got her deathclaws for a while now. I figured that the Devil's Due quest would be a perfect story for that. Thanks to the Beast Master mod I have all five deathclaws in this story. Atlas and Blitz have already made their appearance in my previous Fallout fanfiction. This is Lulu, Ace, and Demon's debut appearance in my writing.