Fallout 3: Vaults and Vagabonds

The robot begins playing music as it quietly tracks the movements of the vault dwellers. Atlas meanwhile finds a small stash of drugs in a dirty burlap bag hidden within a rusted blue mailbox, or at least, whatever passes for them on the surface. Inside, there's a grimy syringe of Med-X, an unlabeled bottle full of what appears to be chalky Buffout pills, and another, much more sophisticatedly designed and clean syringe filled with a strange substance he doesn't recognize. Digging further into the container to see what else was in it, he also finds a rotting ring of eight fingers and two thumbs with a tag that read in messy handwriting akin to that of a child, 'Boppo's chems, get your meat mitts off'.

SpaceDandy , Lonerfemale , Karcen , Seraph Darkfire .

Atlas found the stash of drugs in the mail box to his surprise. "Who uses a mail box as a dead drop, guess he was a postman?" he said laughing to himself. He gingerly pulled out the loot from the burlap bag making sure not to stick himself with the needles. Atlas slowly pocketed the different drugs making mental notes of what he has. He noted the strange clean syringe and will Alex about it later. He then got to the kicker at the bottom of the bag. He picked up a key ring filled with fingers and child's handwriting. Who in the hell is Boppo? sounds like a clown thought Atlas. He held the creepy find to the group. "This is some messed up crap, but well I think I found some future Skeleton Keys!" he said laughing out loud and tossing it to the ground. Atlas decided to continue to look around a bit more.

Angel looked at Atlas's find then at him 'how are the meds in the find, going to help us?'. She started to wander around the nearby area and looks around at what could be useful and helpful for the group. She wandered around making sure to stay in eyesight of the group as she looked around for stuff for them.

Asking rose to figure out what was and was not useful was most likely a pointless endeavour she didn't know what was the difference between a neat rock and actually useful goods. It didn't help that her ability to read was limited and she was unskilled in most everything. So she did what she always did when people told her to look and just pretended until somone else found something or they gave up. That was what she did in the vault and here didn't seem that diffrent really it was just as boring. Well rose would end up just waiting as the others searched and puzzled over a safe and she just inspected some kids toys.

Since the robot wasn't much of a threat, even more now so that he realized that it was a big floating radio still worth dismantling but not at this moment, Alex decided to check their immediate surroundings, especially after Atlas found what he did. It led to the thought that there must be other useful objects nearby. Car trunks, ruined closets of buildings, mailboxes, basically anything he could check he did.

"When we finish with this" he called out to Atlas "We should head towards that scrapyard. We need to find a place to set up camp and work from."

SpaceDandy

Morgan ran to catch up with the group that ran off, stopping in close intervals to catch her breath. How the heck can they run so fast, gosh dangit. Finally catching up to them she watched the robot hovering above them and listened to the recording. Atomic War? Baseballs? Rebuilding the World? What is going on? Morgan rubbed her neck in uncertainty and turned her head to hear Atlas tell Rose to look for useful things. She started looking around also, hoping to find at least something.

Atlas finds a surprisingly well preserved black safe inside one of the ruined houses. Locked, there was no immediately evident way to open it. Angel finds a damaged copy of Pugilism Illustrated. Neither Alex or Morgan manage to find anything in the immediate vicinity in their time spent searching. Further into the town, a heavily damaged school, much more ruined than any other building yet encountered in this town so far, could be seen nearby, a weathered sign on the street leading up to it identifying it as the, 'Springvale Elementary School'. On closer inspection, one could see layers upon layers of graphic graffiti defacing the structure. Near a Red Rocket gas station in town, one can see an improvised scrap metal sign labeled in bright yellow paint, 'Megaton', along with an arrow pointing down a road out of town that went off in the direction of the large smoking scrapyard that was witnessed earlier at the scenic overlook just outside of Vault 101.

Seraph Darkfire , Lonerfemale , Karcen , SpaceDandy , BlackOrchid02 .

Atlas looks at the well preserved black safe with a sense of annoyance. He knew he didn't have the skill to unlock it let alone the tools. He looked around at the group scavenging for things. He waved over everyone. "Anyone think they can get this safe open might be some good loot inside." he said continuing to look around. He saw a sign for Megaton and smiled. "Look like all roads lead to Megaton." he said chuckling to himself.

Alex walked over to Altas, having found nothing in his scavenging. Nothing worth keeping and lugging around at least. Plenty enough junk around that he could probably make something semi useful...if he had the right tools. He knelt down and examined the safe "I could probably get it open" he said softly as he searched for anyway to access the mechanism "Wish I'd thought to bring some bobby pins with me" he mumbled. A bobby pin could get into anything, but unfortunately he was a man and a man carrying around bobby pins was strange...apparently. That was why the Tunnel Snakes had always used a large amount of grease to do their hair the way they did.

SpaceDandy

Alexander didn't notice any way to access to the locking mechanism of the safe with the tools available to him and Rigel, but he did notice several scratches, seemingly made by a knife, in its black paint near the keyhole, in addition to five white tally marks on it's right side. It appeared as if they weren't the only ones to have ever tried to get into it these past two hundred years.

SpaceDandy , Seraph Darkfire .

Christina Miller found the common house of Megaton to be a close knit community distinct from the rest of the settlement, albeit one more dirty and crowded than the rest of the bustling trading hub of the Capital Wasteland. Waking up to the flickering of exposed lightbulbs on the scrap metal ceiling above her head, she swung her legs one by one over the edge of the rotting couch she slept on last night and gathered her things. The time, she gauged from the sunlight pouring through the holes in the walls and roof, was early, sometime in the morning.

haku_81 .

Christina awoke with a yawn, as well as a sore back from her uncomfortable "bed". She swung her trusty sniper rifle over her shoulders, checked her 10mm pistol was still in top shape, then grabbed her bag and made sure she had everything. After confirming her things weren't stolen, she walked outside, taking out a cigarette from a pack she took off a raider that.... wasn't going to miss them. Not as much as he'd miss his throat at least, and then lit it up and took a few minutes to herself.

"Well that place was a total shit hole. Then again where isn't? Far or near from home, everything's gone to shit. Welp, enough sulking"
She stomped out her cigarette and then set out into the wastes, looking for whatever there was to find, and then hopefully sell.

Megaton was founded by traders back in the day who sought refuge from the dust storms of the Capital Wastes in the crater a defective nuclear bomb produced. Cultists styling themselves as the Children of Atom came shortly after, or so the story was told, and demanded that the danger sacred to them remain. Having no other option if they wanted to erect a wall around the fledgling settlement out of whatever was left of the airport scrap the majority of the structures comprised of, the enterprising settlers reluctantly agreed. Christina could see a man of their faith even now below her in the center of town, ankle deep in the radioactive pool of water surrounding the emerged warhead of the atomic weapon of their namesake, shouting to all those who bothered to listen. "Behold! He's coming with the clouds! And every eye shall be blind with his glory! Every ear shall be stricken deaf to hear the thunder of his voice! Come forth and drink the waters of the Glow, for this ancient weapon of war is our salvation, it is the very symbol of Atom's glory! Give your bodies to Atom, my friends. Release yourself to his power, feel his Glow and be Divided. There shall be no tears, no sorrow, no suffering, for in the Division, we shall see our release from the pain and hardships of this world. Yea, your suffering shall exist no longer; it shall be washed away in Atom's Glow, burned from you in the fire of his brilliance. Each of us shall give birth to a billion stars formed from the mass of our wretched and filthy bodies." Not far beyond him in the bottom of the crater, the Brass Lantern Bar and Restaurant run by the Stahl Family opened for business, a flashing Mandarin neon sign turning on above it local folklore said was for ghoulified Chinese soldiers who passed through town every once in a while that particularly enjoyed the establishment's noodles. Looking across the many scrap metal walkways near the top of town, Christina could also see the infamous Moriarty's Saloon and Brothel, in addition to the more reputable Craterside Supply, run by the eccentric Moira Brown. If she wished, she could also head out through the gates across town from the common house, heading down into and up out of the divots of the crater.

haku_81 .

Christina avoided making eye contact with the deranged loon playing in irradiated water, not that she didn't scoff while passing.
"Damn psychos"
She walked through the town and looked around. She considered going into the brothel, but after checking her supply of caps, she thought it best to avoid big spending. She passed by and then opted to head out into the wastes, and search for an animal to hunt or some pockets to rifle through. Who knows, perhaps she'd find some princess loaded with caps that'd whisk her away to a grand castle. Though more than likely she'd get a handful of caps that wasn't really worth the trouble. Still, she set out to find a location that might have valuable salvage or hidden pockets of loot.
"Come oooooon gimme something good this time. Like clean water. Or a mini nuke"
She set out with her rifle in hand and her eyes alert and scanning the landscape.

Atlas shrugged giving up on the safe for the time being. He marked the location on his pip-boy if they ever came back this way. "Hey guys we should get going." looking at the group beginning to assemble. "I saW a sign stating Megaton, I would guess its some kind of human or intelligent life settlement." he said with confidence. He looked at the group. Everyone seemed a little surprised by look of the world. He didn't blame them it was rather odd to say the least. "Or do we have any other suggestions?" stated Atlas with a smile.

Seraph Darkfire , Lonerfemale , Karcen , Pat , BlackOrchid02 .

Angel looked at the damaged copy of pugilism illustrated then sighed quietly. She then spoke quietly to herself "this probably won't get much but isn't going to help us either". She then went back over to the group and wondered what they were going to do now. She looked around cautiously.

Morgan shook her head in response to Atlas' question as she rubbed her arm. All she knew was that she needed to stick with the group and stay safe, she didn't know what was out here and frankly, she didn't wanna find out. Morgan looked around at their surroundings again, taking in everything, was it like this before we were in the vaults? Or did we make it like this? She continued thinking her eyes along with her mind wondering around their area.

"Any place should be better than this place" Alex said sighing "Nothing here would be a good place to hide out in and we are too close to the vault. We don't need people finding us then our home" despite its faults, their Vault was their home and he'd rather not see it get destroyed because they stayed to close "Megaton looks to be relatively close and.." he squinted as he looked at the structure in the distance "...well fortified. If we need a temporary home, there are worse places to be"

The vault dwellers elect as a group to leave the husk of Springvale behind them to travel to the junkyard evidently known as Megaton as Christina Miller chose to leave the relative safety of the same city for the open wastes in the search of treasure. As they depart from the lifeless neighborhood down a broken prewar highway, the eyebot in tow, a light dust cloud rises in their wake, stretching upwards and then quickly dissipating amongst the wind whistling through the wrecked cars flanking the sides of and occasionally even serving as obstacles in moving forward. The further they went, the less old world automobiles they saw on and adjacent to the road. Some were dragged away, some were thrown, others still ripped into shreds; all done with great force beyond the strength of anyone and anything everyone witness to the awe inspiring or bone chilling display, dependant on the eye of the beholder, had ever personally known or dreamed of as possible in the comforting yet suffocating confines of Vault 101. As they pressed onwards through the cleared path, a small mound loomed above the party in the distance ahead between them and Megaton. Large insectoid shapes the size of dogs scuttled up and down the landmark in two orderly lines, seemingly ferrying bloody chunks of a massive prone humanlike figure to the top, appearing and disappearing over its crest like clockwork. All appeared oblivious to their observers and mindlessly executed their respective repetitive tasks. If the group wanted to stay on the roadway that curled around the mound instead of attempting to bypass the anomaly, they would have to come into proximity of the insects. Meanwhile, Christina Miller stepped outside of the city, shielded her eyes from the blinding sun with her hand, and overlooked the surrounding landscape. Below and before her was the Springvale ruins Boppo and his raider gang recently came from to attack Megaton, an assault easily beaten back by Sheriff Lucas Simms, his deputies, and the impromptu posse of townsfolk he assembled once Jericho, a retired raider, scored a headshot on the raider boss leading the charge. The bastards who managed to retreat with their lives intact were harassed by mutated ants on the way back to the elementary school they used as their hideout. Given the symphony of screams they made during the chase, it wasn't much of a stretch that not all of them made it. Beside her on the other hand, a few yards immediately outside the gate, a pile of a dozen or more human bodies stacked atop one another stinking of sweat and sex and blood and doused liberally in cheap liquor burned. The twin deputies who defended the gate, the pair of brothers who both refused to answer to anyone addressing them as anything but 'deputy' and 'stockholm', warmed their hands around the gruesome bonfire made of corpses and made idle chatter, each with a hunting rifle slung on their back and wearing worn dusters riddled with bullet holes and marked with countless and likely permanent stains. Neither bothered to show Christina much attention, having chosen to ignore her after giving her a glance. "Guess that's the last shootout we'll be having for a long while," the one on the right confided to his twin on the left. "Gonna be boring taking potshots now at critters too curious for their own good until the next one rolls around. That's the truth. For a moment it almost felt like it was the good ol' days again for a little while there, a better time when these sniveling townies paid us the respect we were due or suffered the consequences."

Seraph Darkfire , SpaceDandy , BlackOrchid02 , Karcen , Lonerfemale , haku_81 .

Angel looked around as she followed her group towards where they wanted to go. She wondered about what it might have been like before they came outside. She then continued look around at the scenery.

Atlas shifted his weight from his left foot to his right foot while gazing at the grusom ballet of Ants. He looked back at the group. It was possible they could take the ants....unlikely but there was a slight possibility of success. "I say we go around the man eating ant mound. I believe there was a saying about kicking an ant nest that the Overseer use to say..... It won't end well. I say we avoid any conflicts possible until we get a better handle on where and what were doing." He looked around at the group waiting for a consensus. He looked back to the road attempting to see the safest route around the ants.

Atlas saw many outcroppings of boulders and groves of petrified trees ideal for concealment surrounding the mound of mutated ants whose passages twisted and turned as the ground beneath them swelled all the way up to the very apex of the hill, the seat of Megaton.

SpaceDandy .

Atlas pointed out the outcroppings of boulders and groves of petrified trees idea for circumventing the mound unseen. "Might be a good idea to use the surroundings over there to get by undetected, said Atlas with a smile.

Alexander nodded "Ants are swarm creatures. If one notices us, all of them will" he said softly "Damn though, hadn't expected such large ants..." he shook his head and looked towards the boulders "If it can keep us hidden, then I am all for it" radroaches had been the biggest trouble in the vault and they were still dangerous. He had no idea how strong or deadly these ants really where, but by the size of the things that they took into their mound, they had some decent heft behind their attacks.

However, ultimately, the ants couldn't be left to their own devices. Someone would have to come back and wipe them out eventually. Ants would continue to expand non stop until they either starved or consumed everything in their path.

The robot headed back to Springvale as the party entered the proximity of Megaton. The scent of burning and burnt flesh became more and more overpowering in the air the closer they got to the top of the hill. Turning a corner, they find two hunting rifles leveled at them with professional ease, held in the arms of two identical men clad in dirty and torn leather dusters between them and the scrap metal entrance. Silver badges attached to their vestments proclaimed them both to be 'deputies'. After a few tense moments, the pair lowered their guns and the man the right turned his head to speak a short command to his brother. "Get the Sheriff. Tell him the vault is open again." Nodding, he slung his weapon onto his back and knocked his fist on the rusted gate, which slowly opened and retracted into the walls before their very eyes. Returning his attention to the vault dwellers in front of him as his brother entered the city, the remaining deputy on watch addressed them in a clipped tone. "No sudden moves. Any questions you have, save them for Simms. I won't hesitate to squeeze the trigger to add as many corpses to the fire as I have to," he pointed with his free hand to the apparent source of the horrific smell, a bonfire fueled by the broken and battered bodies roasting within, barely recognizable as human anymore in their deteriorated state. Nearby, an albino bum in torn rags somehow in sorrier shape than the apparel of the alleged deputies sat next to an empty grocery cart, head tucked into, and arms wrapped around, his knees. A red haired and blue eyed woman peered down into the ruins of the small town the group came from by the end of the road it judged to be wise to bypass in light of the colony of mutated ants blocking it with the scope of her sniper rifle, a N99 10mm pistol holstered at her side. Her clothes were the nicest seen of the folk who were encountered living on the surface so far, but that wasn't saying much. She wore a faded cloth biker jacket with a full scarf wrapped around the neck, improvised fingerless gloves made out of boxing tape, and weathered hide boots that looked older than her.

SpaceDandy , Karcen , Seraph Darkfire , Lonerfemale .