[HEADING=2]I Am The Madness Today.[/HEADING]
He is mysterious and highly-intimidating, that seven-foot-tall powersuit of black and red. He sits inside of his chambers, the lights dimmed and the room quiet at most times. Nobody knows what he does when people are not looking. And even despite moments of unexpected guests, they still have no clue as to the happenings and goings-on of...
"NUMBER ONE!!!"
The door slammed open, and a commander with a chainsword in his holster marched on in, followed by his subordinate. Both of these men were Enclave regulars in powersuits, however the one with the sword was, in fact, a commander by right. He looked... Okay, expressions are meaningless when everyone's in power-armor, but he certainly
sounded pissed. He stopped before figure sitting in the raised metal chair.
"Ah, #461 and #273. How are you gentlemen today?"
#461: I'm pissed! That child of Isaac is a fucking traitor and was the whole time! She just crashed the vertibird, killed the pilot, and announced the fact!
"Gasp. Shock. Amazement. 'How could this have happened?'."
The two soldiers stared at the big leader for a moment as he went through the most deadpan performance of surprise ever.
"Am I doing it wrong?"
#273: Uhhh...you trying to say that you knew...all along?
"Well, of course I am."
#461: What do you mean...you knew? You mean to say that you knew this whole time AND YOU DIDN'T DO SQUAT ABOUT IT?!
WHY NOT?!
"Because a good gambit must be played very carefully, with all the suckers made to think they got away scott free. The Asset Program isn't a means to test and recruit people for the Enclave. It's a group of trumped-up patsies we send into fire like canaries testing for poison gas. Lucy Black shall aid the Enclave in its endeavours whether she wants to...or not."
#461: You should have informed us, Number One. At least those of whom you chose to lead others! Those people are a menace and-
GFFFFLLLLBLBLBLBE!!!
Suddenly, #461's suit imploded. #273 saw this and jumped back, startled.
#273: Uhhh...I think it's a great plan! Have I ever told you how much I admire you, sir? I think you've lost weight!
Number One looked at him, to the space previously-occupied by a suit, then back to him again, and shrugged.
"Wasn't ME."
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No, it was not Number One who did that. It was something else. All over the wasteland, strange phenomenon - bizarre disappearances, in fact - were occurring, and it all stemmed out from one location...though only a map and a box of thumbtacks might tell you that. What was happening, exactly? Well...
In Rivet City, one of Morgan Blooms' bodyguard screamed and disappeared, his body pulled inward, seemingly into nothingness.
Just south of Talon Company's base, a patrol of their men felt sick, like a pulling on their stomachs, and then they all contracted inwards and were sucked away with a rather loud slurping sound.
Several ghouls vanished from the Underworld, none of whom happened to be babbling nonsense like so many others.
Other members of the Enclave imploded as well, suits and all, though one of them EXploded from the live grenade he was holding.
A survivine part of the Legion escaping the area infested with the Enclave's cyber-zombies were suddenly reduced by half, several of them claiming to have seen weird appendages at work when it happened.
Sarah Lyons personally witnessed a Scribe she was talking to grasp his throat like he couldn't breath, a bone-crunching sound following as he self-compressed somehow and collapsed into nothingness.
At GNR, one of the Brotherhood's guards also vanished, something that Three Dog would no doubt report as soon as he got the chance, satellite dish or not.
A good number of the Heads and other less-intelligent raiders also vanished, generally without a trace.
Emerson Estabahn, the man who was still in ownership of the Nuka-Cola Factory, lost half his staff and a small shipment of Nuka-Cola, the only clue as to what happened being a VERY large belch.
Johnny Truant was suddenly gripped from behind by something in a black cloak with three clawed fingers, trying to choke him, but a few seconds later whatever it was disappeared.
Other sightings occurred.
Something was happening here, something decidedly wrong. The population of the general areas were being properly decimated, and by some accounts they were being
devoured, people claiming they saw
teeth or mandibles or something. At the Dunwich Building, the chants continued...
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Meanwhile, at the Chinese warship, FalloutJack had a problem. While he WAS kicking ass with his weapons and causing damages to the ship and its glowing ghoul crew, there was a...small problem.
FalloutJack: Hey, guys? My vulcan isn't working?
FalloutBob: No vulcan? That's not logical, captain!
FalloutJack: Be serious, Bob. I think something's wrong with it.
FalloutJohn: The tail itself is working. You think something damaged the control line?
FalloutJack: Maybe...
The fact is that Danielle Rose hit it from REALLY far away with a hot-damn-I-didn't-think-that'd-work shot. She had been trying to hit the tail rotor of Jack's Stinger from so far away that she probably couldn't even see that...Stingers didn't have tail rotors. Because they had the tail-guns, Stingers control directions via the jet engines on the side. As it happens, she disabled the biggest weapon on the vehicle this way, leaving Jack with a shit-ton of vulcan rounds in store and no means to fire them. Still, they were doing alright. They had the firepower to take this puppy d-
FalloutJohn: Hey guys, the weather's turning bad all of a sudden.
FalloutBob: Jack, I see something on-deck. I don't think it's theirs!
FalloutJack: How can you tell?
FalloutBob: It's green!
What Bob had seen was...the sudden appearance of a figure in a soaked black holocaust cloak, one stinking of the sea. The Red Ghoul China soldiers on deck pointed guns and shouted in Chinese, a couple of them even firing. The figure...grew right out of the cloak, tearing it apart as it began to fill the deck with its bulk. The three Enclave and numerous ghouls stared as it now exceeded thirty meters in height! It was...a clammy, sea-born body of dark green, its build somewhere between muscular and flabby. It had...black eyes that only became deeper and blacker the longer you looked. It was...
technically humanoid, in that it had two legs supporting a torso with two arms and a head in all the right places. It was, however, a
squid. Head large, tapering to a soft-edge point at the top and having a mass of squid tendrils overshadowing a mouth of mandible-like spikes that were its teeth. It had wings, massive wings whose muscles and build would enable it to fly, strong enough to take its bulk. The hands were suckered on the inside and ended in thick black claws, and the feet with ended with claws similar. The creature let out out a hissing, gurgling, shrieking roar...
FalloutJack: What the HELL am I looking at?
And somewhere out there, perhaps at the focal point of all the madness, the answer was to be found:
[HEADING=3]"All hail the paragon son of the Great One!"
"All hail Vorn The Unspeakable!"[/HEADING]
Ghouls of the Chinese armada fired upon the being from beyond with guns and radiation blasts alike, but the big guns they NEEDED to do it harm were already being torn from their moorings and thrown into the sea. Soon after, it scooped up several of the soldiers and ate of them, its body taking in their energy. Jack saw this and - as the one called Vorn punched out the ship's command bridge, killing its captain - the three of them concentrated fire. The creature roared as vulcan ammo, heavy machine gun ammo, and missles tore into it. Damage, there was, but of a curious kind. It was like the thing was not all here... It winked a few times in existence. Very peculiar... Before they could begin another salvo, though, it spat out a geyser of like a water cannon at them, destabilizing a couple of them for a second. This fiercesome beast came out of nowhere and was now raising hell! WHAT COULD THIS MEAN? well, put simply, it means...
[HEADING=1]I AM[/HEADING]
[HEADING=1]I AM[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]The REALLY Wild Wasteland:[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Season Four![/HEADING]
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Constance would be woken up by an abrupt static signal being picked up by her radar-sonar ears. Must've happened as a result of hitting her head. Soon, there were voices coming in that were patched through her eardrums specifically, which would be impossible to be heard by her guard.
...Scott ta' base! I've left the Brotherhood a warm reception at the technology museum and I'm en route to the...Yuuurrrrrggghhh...Bastion has not been properly eliminated. He's a giant mutant now and headed for the Empire of Dave...Wwwhhhhiiiirrrrr...Here's a message to everyone at the Enclave: You wanna mess with The Red Menace and The Gauss Girl? Bring it on!...Waaaarrrrrgggghhh...back to base, Stormy. I repeat, come back to...Ffffffzzzzzz...This is Jack! Phase One of Code Red initiated, but we have a bit of a problem here! Uhh...who summoned this giant fucking SQUID?! That is all, over...
These were Enclave transmissions, and on their encoded frequency! Had to be! Jack and Scott were in all likelyhood FalloutJack and FalloutScott, reporting in something about the Brotherhood and...giant squids? Okay, that was weird. Unfortunately, right then, two things happened. Constance stopped receiving transmissions and she realized there was no conceivable way right now to reply even if she still had the signal. She had to get out, though. Hmmm...what would Natsuki do? Well, she'd probably tear this place apart with her incredible vectors, but Constance didn't have that option. Now, however, there were voices from outside her cell.
"Okay, you're relieved. Go take a break, catch a snooze, whatever."
"Oh, thank god! This girl's been driving me up the wall. I'm outta' here."
The guards switched, there was silence, and then there was a note pushed under the cell door. It read...
Greetings,
I am Asset Five. I recognized your outfit before you changed into the one you have now. Not sure what a scout is doing here, but we can't have you in the brig. I've paid off someone to convince the people in charge that your attack was an accident. You should be free within the hour. Do not talk to me or even thank me, as I have been gathering intel and sending it back to base for months. Destroy this message as soon as you're done reading it.
-Five
Of course, the funny part of this was...could Constance read anything written on paper or signs on walls? Was she capable of perceiving images on screens or anything like that? If not, then she would probably find it weird that someone had slipped her a piece of paper like that.
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Brotherhood of Steel regulars had heard that the GNR dish was in the Museum of Technology, having been taken there by some agent of the Enclave. It was a six-man team, five with Laser Rifles and one with a Gatling Laser. They had proceeded inside carefully, disarming beartraps and narrowly-avoiding tripwires and mines, for the most part. Well, the suppression specialist stepped on a bottlecap or three, but he was okay. The most-difficult thing so far was a couple of malfunctioning Protectron guides, easily handled. Now, they came to the space room, which had a load of equipment, astronaut dummies, and tire tracks leading out of it. How weird. And there were spare parts lying all over the ground too. Actually, there'd been things like that all throughout the museum and its exhibits too. Weird... Well, they came to the Lunar Lander Module, and they could see in the window the GNR dish!
"Gentlemen, mission accompli-"
"Watch it!"
A series of rockets activated on the lunar lander as some of its extraneous parts fell off to reveal a flying battle pod with machine guns and electro-prods attached to it! The dish was still inside of it, and here it was flying around and shooting at them!
Cannibalized robotics and other parts were built into the thing now, giving it machine-life, and that wasn't all! The astronauts were moving as well! Animatronics were added to make them move and act, and so were Chinese Assault Rifles! The BoS squad took cover as best they could, entering the firefight and sending out a a radio communication:
"Yo, all points! This is Edwards at the Museum of Technology! The damn exhibits are coming to life and the Lunar Lander is flyin' all over the place with the dish inside! Requesting back-up!"
Outside, FalloutScott laughed as he rode away in his new ride: The lunar buggy outfitted with a large rocket engine, zooming across the wasteland with exceptional speed, flanked by his spider-sentries on board, he was laughing as he drove, mere minutes from the ruins of Bethesda.
FalloutScott: To infinity...and beyond!
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At this point, you may be wondering just what was becoming of the now Uber-Mutant, Doctor Bastion, as he headed through Old Onley. Well naturally, he was attacked by Deathclaws. The monster of a man was large enough, however, that they were not a huge threat to him. Oh, they DID claw at his legs, as well as leap to climb higher to get at more vital points, but there were two things wrong with that. First, he had a bit of bodily regeneration, and second...some parts of his body went malleable somewhat in the muscle department to crush them. So, while he was taking a little damage, it was not enough and it wouldn't last. That was when...a shot rang out! Sniper fire, but it wasn't directed towards him. Where did it come from and what exactly did it h-
[HEADING=2]
SMACK!![/HEADING]
Bastion was hit in the head by a falling piece of destabilized building.
"If you want to do something properly..."
...you have to do it yourself. Standing on part of the taller ruins, able to swing from building to building with grappling guns, was none other than Mr. Cheekbones [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hncC_s6XlM] himself, David Davidson...AKA FalloutDavid. He was still without a suit, but he'd stocked spares of his favorite Sniper Deluxe at the Empire of Dave. Bastion hurled stones at him and he swung out of the way, into a window, shot several sniper bullets at him, and vanished...presumably with a Stealth Boy. Next thing ya know, a flagpole's been shot out and almost got Bastion in the eye. This was going to get messy, no doubt.
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Yup, Frank had his ride, his ordinance, his ready and prepared tools... They set off to go for the ruins of Bethesda to deal with the Enclave's giant robot, and were making good time. However, there were two issues that could not be ignored. The pilot was both receiving a distress call from Edwards - who totally sounded like Will Smith for some reason - regarding the Museum of Technology's exhibits 'coming to life' during a mission to re-acquire the dish for GNR. Right after that, she spotted a small white land-vehicle with a rocket engine streaking across the wastes below, heading right for their target. The dust it was kicking up made identification impossible, but how many people could possibly know what was under Rubble Pile #2? It had to be one of them, the enemy. But then, what to do? Edwards and company were surrounded by automated killers at the museum, but this guy was clearly going for the Box! Moral Event Horizon time, Frank. Help the boys of Steel or get in FalloutScott's way? Whichever one he chose would more than likely make things bad for whatever he left alone. Mind you, he COULD send other BoS members to whatever he didn't go for, but they wouldn't be specialists like Rose's Thorns, not unless he redirected Danielle and Marlon. They'd be regulars or maybe decent Paladins, which could help the situation...but resolve it? Who knows?
((OOC: Just a point of reference, Soup, dealing with Scott is as major as dealing with the MGB in terms of roleplay.))
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Meanwhile, there was another emergency at the front gates of the Citadel.
Evan: Open the gates!
BoS Soldier: Who goes there!
Evan: Scribe Ramsey, dammit! OPEN!!
The soldier rapped on the door and shouted open. He knew better than to test Ramsey when he was angry. They knew that he was all Nerd Rage, genius-bruiser, when he was pissed. The Citadel opened up and allowed him and Dudley to drive on inside. Most of the regulars there were looking at the
thing tied to and growing around Hayes' car, surprised that Evan had caught one alive. He called for medics to take the car's owner to the infirmary, where hopefully Hayes would recover and be alright. Wasting no time, the young scribe then headed inside to find a computer and began typing at about a mile a minute to recount just what had happened and WHY. Very soon, Sarah Lyons would know everything.
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Elsewhere...
There was the wasteland and the hills and the sand, and there was a man riding upon a horse.
...all flags set to negative. Landscape rending complete. Error located in grid 27-17. Deathclaw-19 moving laterally overhead at a rate of 50 MPH. Unknown processes engaged...
Ferdinand Com was some kind of Big McLargeHuge [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vb2U89EJG4] wastelander one his way from one place to another, no particular direction in his life at all. He seemed to only deal with situations as they come. At this time, a situation found HIM, though. He stopped as he found a...Mysterious Stranger. In fact, it was the most mysterious individual to be found in this place right now. It was...
"Howdy!"
...the glitch-man! How did he get from Megaton to here? No idea! It was a mystery! Also too was the way he hovered towards Ferd without actually walking. His arms stretched out at weird angles, which then proceeded to ensnare both him and the horse, whose last thought was
'Red flag!' before everything changed to weird! The world turned upside-down, he saw a Pipboy, he saw Vorn, he saw the ghouls, he saw Shifty McGee frozen in carbonite, he saw, Doc Bastion and David Davidson fighting, he saw William Knight, and then he appeared quite suddenly...standing right next to Evan, who panicked as he backed away from the computer!
Evan: AGH! What the hell happened?! I didn't do that!
Soldier: Hey, there's a horse out in the hallway!
Ferd? Welcome to the Citadel. You stand among well-armed members of the Brotherhood of Steel, many of whom are armed or even in power-armor. You got some 'splainin' to do, boy.
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For the record, Marlon and Danielle would have seen Evan and Dudley come in with an injured man as they were heading out. They would also have heard Edwards' radio call. However, behind them in the courtyard, Sarah appeared to be taking charge here.
Sarah: Listen up! We've got a man appearing out of nowhere in the lab, a direct report on the Enclave situation, and an attack at the museum of technology where all the exhibits are killer robots now! They're inside and out, shooting at anything that moves! Get me a bird with some soldiers in it and give them a hand!
Proper take-charge attitude for an Elder to have, most definitely. Question is...would they be able to help Edwards in time? True, those two and their enourage had a helluva mission to undertake, but meantime, lives were in danger. Already, Three Dog was giving reports of random people disappearing, and now Sarah was saying someone just popped right into the labs? What in the hell was happening to this world?
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The DC Ruins had always been a haven for the mutants of Vault 87, their numbers seeming ever regenerating. Even if you put down a couple dozen, replacements seem to arrive quickly. However, in this case, there was something different in the area. There was an armored foe...riding a robot horse. Super mutants with their various weapons, and at least two master-level mutants, were opening fire on him!
"Put that metal man in thah ground!"
Talion, as he was called as of late, was on sort of a mission. However, he had gotten slightly lost for not knowing the area quite so well. He hd seen what appeared to be the local chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel step into a building - The Museum of Technology - a short while ago, but he had not been able to immediately follow because a contengent of Super Mutants had assailled him from cover and were now taking shots at him. Worse yet, it appears that some sort of robotic dummies with assault rifles were now guarding the museum at all exits, even the roof! This might be a problem...
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Nicole had managed to shoot the leading Gary right below the heart, a very good shot! He clutched his chest, muttered something about Gary, and fell to the ground with a thud. All of the other Garys were suddenly turned towards the one who took the shot, and alot of them were quite armed too...
[HEADING=1]"GARY?!"[/HEADING]
Uh oh. Thaaat didn't look good. Then, all of a sudden, they bowed! What the hell?! Were they making her their chief? Seemed like it. They were chanting 'Gary' in reverance now, possibly waiting for her to assume the position of leadership. What in the holy hell...? Why? Just...why? Well, Nicole wouldn't know it, but the Garys were looking for territory to control because their old stomping grounds - Vault 108 - had a bit of a problem... Well, more on that later, if she managed to learn whatever the hell was going on. After all... Who can understand Gary?
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While Larry and Charlie were talking inventions and weaponry, Lucas Simms stepped over and cleared his throat to get their attention for a second.
Simms: I just wanted to come over hear and fill you two in on things, about the bomb. Several years ago, I asked the kid - the guy who lived in the house those Brotherhood boys are in now - to disarm it, make it incapable of exploding. It still serves the Church, of course, being still somewhat active and all, but it will never go off now. He said he took out vital components that ya probably can't replace. So...an accident of that level just won't happen. That's all now. Just wanted you to know.
The Sheriff moved to go about his rounds now. He knew everything about Megaton and the surrounding area. No doubt, he would be useful for information later.
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Well, what exactly could be said for Team Lucy - composed of Lucy, Sylph, Johnny, Beryl, Alice, and William - except that...it's raining men! One cannot say what form exactly the Widowmaker took, save for it being a short bus, but apparently...it was capable of lunching people over great distances. Thaaat was both sick and amusing at once. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only weird thing going on. It had only happened for few seconds, but a figure in a black and wet holocaust cloak that smelled
horribly of the sea appeared behind Johnny and attempted to throttle him. It had clawed and clammy hands, a black-eyed green squid-face, and gurgle-roared when it did so. And then, as mysteriously as it came...it was gone! Flying human ordinance continued to be flung from its origin point, though this time there was an important difference. Remember when we said there was an
additional Mysterious Stranger, one whose attire wasn't too different from Alice's? Well, that one was on a roof with a sniper rifle, and quite hard to see and probably harder to hit, firing at flying people with a reasonable success rate with a sniper rifle, thus altering their trajectories. Wasn't there a Mel Brooks film that had something like this in it...?
