Well I decided awhile ago that I wanted to write some sort of fan-fiction. However, I realized right off the bat that I lack the patience or the motivation to create something as lengthy (and awesome) as Mr. Enclave's "Sutler" series or any number of other great fan-fictions. Just as well, I had a myriad of ideas in my head and couldn't really pick a single one to flesh out completely. So I decided to stick to shorter stories and snippets with different characters and settings. I'm hoping it works out.

Anyway, I've got three stories being worked on right now. The first one is completely done and I'll be posting the first part of it now. After that, I've got two more which I could start posting at any time (I've got about two chapters on one and three or four on the other) but I'll probably hold off on those until I can decided which one I want to post first.

In any case, I hoping that by posting the first one, I can get some feedback on my writing and by that improve it. Criticism is always welcome.



Story 1 - “President’s Requiem” (Eden’s Tale)


Part 1
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Running reboot protocol…..

Checking systems…..
…………
Error Detected.
Power level: Critical
System damage: Severe.
…………
Auto-repair systems online.
…………
Attempting system reboot.

*ERROR*-System Reboot failed.
…………
Connecting to emergency power output.

Reattempting….Standby.
…………
Reboot Successful. Initiating system startup.
………….

Eden’s console jolted back into life, his screen lighting up with its characteristic soft blue glow.

*Checking systems*

*Systems currently nominal*

He continued doing a systems check, and began scanning the room around him, as well as what he could of Raven Rock.

*Checking Eyecam status*

*70% of Eyecams operational*

*bringing up visuals of operating eyecams*

The destruction was not unexpected, but still rather jarring. The first level had suffered the worst amount of damage, with the entrance and hallway almost completely caved in. Levels 2 and 3 had sustained lesser damage but still significant enough to knock out much of the systems there. Lower levels remained more intact.

“Bastards.” The word uttered from Eden with unrestrained malice. “Arrogant, bastards.”

The destruction of Raven Rock had come quickly and decisively and it was all the result of a device that was believed to have been completely inoperable: Project Codename “Liberty Prime.” The Enclave had at least seen it coming. It was not hard to monitor a 30ft tall walking robot lumbering across the wasteland after all. Eden had suspected that the Brotherhood might have known where Raven Rock was located. Considering they were holed up in the ruins of the Pentagon, it was only a matter of time before the facility’s location was compromised.

And Compromised it was.

It had become apparent following the debacle at the purifier that fighting the robot was not an option. Almost the entirety of Autumn’s military force had been destroyed by the monstrosity and presumably Autumn himself was counted amongst the casualties, although survivors of the incident which had retreated to Raven Rock had been unable to verify this fact.
When it was clear the Brotherhood were deploying Liberty Prime against Raven Rock, Eden had wasted no time. He would not make the mistake that Autumn had. A full scale evacuation of Raven Rock had occurred and every single person had been loaded onto the remaining vertibirds and air-lifted to Adams Air Force Base, now the last stronghold of the Enclave.

Eden, of course, had stayed behind.

Before the last vertibirds had left, Eden held a final cabinet meeting. He thanked all those in attendance for their service, wished them god-speed and as his last act as President of the United States, he gave instructions to High Enclave command that should communication with Raven Rock fail, they should presume him dead and continue on under that assumption. He then gave a short speech to the remaining personnel at Adams and at Raven Rock, and then he had watched as the vertibirds flew off into the distance through one of his external cameras.

He immediately began doing what he could to lock-down the facility. While all the human soldiers were gone, he still commanded a sizable force of robotic personnel, sentry bots primarily, but also many maintenance robo-brains, protectrons, and eyebots.

After securing the hanger-doors and main-entry way, Eden had begun preparing himself for a total system wipe if necessarily, important archival data had already been transferred to Adams a while ago, but Eden ensured that a failsafe was in place that would wipe his entire system should the Brotherhood approach his console. Likewise, he programmed his self-destruct mechanism to trigger under the same parameter. They would gain nothing here. He ordered part of his robotic army into blast-storage and the rest towards level 1 and waited for the inevitable assault. He waited for hours in complete silence.

Then it had begun.

Eden was fully aware of the approach of Prime and could see as it came closer and closer to the fortified main entrance, several dozen Brotherhood soldiers in tow. Eden was unsure of the ability of the main entrance blast-door to hold. It had been designed to survive a close-proximity nuclear detonation, but not the sustained destruction which Prime could bring upon it.

He watched as Prime ran a “tactical assessment” on the outer-door and began attacking it with all the force it could muster, using his fists to assault. It pounded on the door and the concrete around it continuously for several hours and Eden became amazed at the ability of the device to continue the attack without apparent damage to itself.

The prolonged assault had finally ended with a breach of the door, which had occurred when Prime had launched a high-explosive round at the damaged entrance, shattering the weakened concrete and throwing the door ajar.

The second door proved much easier to breach and following its destruction, Brotherhood soldiers rushed the entrance-way in an assault pattern.

Eden had already shut down the lights completely and now waited for the Brotherhood to blunder into his trap. As he suspected, when no immediate resistance had been forthcoming, the Brotherhood became more confident, and eased into the blackness of the base. When the breaching party had made its way halfway down the corridor and near the first door, Eden launched his assault.

The MKVII turrets on either side of the first main hallway door had sprung into life and the door opened to reveal a waiting party of Sentry Bots. Several of the Brotherhood soldiers had been mowed down by the gatling laser-fire in seconds, with the rest taking cover and attempting a hasty retreat. Paladins cried out in pain as the bots continued their unrelenting assault.

Eden would show no mercy.

Only a few escaped to their comrades who were waiting at the entrance. At this point, it was clear to the Brotherhood that a storming of Raven Rock simply was not feasible. So of course, they turned to Prime to finish the job. They may not be able to take it, but they could render it inoperable.

Eden could do nothing but watch as Prime threw several of his “backpack nukes” into the base, which obliterated the entrance hallway and destroyed much of Eden’s “welcoming party.” After the front entrance completely caved in, Prime had gone for the hanger-doors on the top of the base’s exterior, which Prime breached and tossed nukes down several of the lift shafts, causing damage to the lower levels.

It was at this point that Eden had gone-offline. The explosions had damaged part of his power systems and his console initiated an emergency shutdown. He had not “woken up” until now.
Eden checked his internal clock. According to his reckoning, it had been a little over two weeks since the initial shutdown. Given the damage done to his power systems however, the fact that he had been able to reboot at all was miraculous in and of itself.

After ensuring that his system was stable, Eden tapped into the Raven Rock communication relay, he needed to know what had occurred in the time he had gone silent. The first contact he attempted was Adams Air Force base.

*ERROR*

Eden was taken aback for a moment, but retried.

*Reattempting*

*ERROR*

“Impossible,” Eden quietly said to himself.

*Running full system diagnostic.....*|

*Source found: Communication location unavailable, no signal detected.*

“No…”

There was only one explanation for a total loss of the signal source.

“The mobile crawler…has been obliterated.” Eden’s tone reflected complete resignation,“how could this have happened? How could we have failed…….I have failed…”

A small ray spark of hope seemed to jolt Eden when he realized that if the base crawler had indeed been destroyed, those that survived would have likely attempted to make for Wright-Patterson Air-Force Base near Dayton Ohio. The Enclave’s military outpost in the Midwest which had been created during the move eastward. He attempted a long-range communication with the Patterson relay.

*ERROR*

Long distance communication was offline. Eden was stunned with the realization of what this meant.

He was alone.
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(Part 2 to come in just awhile )

Damn that was a little cold, I guess - being a computer and-all - he could put himself into hibernation until someone finds him again (I shudder to think for Eden's sake who that might be though ).

Interested to see where you'll take this, are you going to have a continuity or not?

Oh and thanks for the plug .

Oh wow, Lt. that was awesome! You actually made me feel sorry for Eden and well yea, the Enclave. lol I really hope you will continue this story. I must know what happens next! Very well written!

Well I wouldn't guess that Eden can truly feel the fear of being completely alone, being a computer and all, or at the very least he's probably use to it (he spent a good hundred years or so by himself likely), but I'd imagine that the shock of going back to that existence after being a leader of humans for 30 odd years would be fairly jarring.

But yeah, the thought of Eden being trapped in Raven Rock was part of my inspiration for the story, since my first thought when Rothchild says they "destroyed" Raven Rock, was how the hell Liberty Prime destroyed the fortified bunker, and what if Eden was still "alive" in it?



They'll be a part two to follow this which I'll post in a little while which I sort of have as a tentative "ending." But who knows, I may come back to this again sometime. However like I said, I've got another story which I want to work on (or rather finish, since its about a fourth of the way done or so and its signficantly longer than this one.)


Credit where credit is due compatriot.


Thanks, glad you liked it. I was worried my writing skills were a bit rusty (and I think they still are) but I think it still turned out okay.

Forgive the double-post: Figured I'd go ahead and post Part 2 since I just finished the final edit on it.

Here it is:


Story 2- Part 2-
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Contact with Adams was gone and anything beyond the Crawler was too far for his damaged systems to connect to. Enclave forces in the Capital Wasteland were gone and he had been left behind in Raven Rock. He could no longer serve the country he loved, or be a part of the people he had sworn to shelter and protect.

Eden sat in complete silence for what seemed like hours. His processor buzzed with the contemplation of how he had come to be in the position he was currently facing. Had he not made the correct decisions? Had he not fulfilled his duty as President of the United States? How had the Brotherhood succeeded? How had a cult of religious fanatics brought down the last remnants of the U.S. Government?

And so he processed and thought. He mulled over the minutest of details and command decisions, the choice of the continuation of the now defunct Project, and most of all, Liberty Prime.

“Prime……” the name resonated from Eden’s voice as he said it with utter hatred. “That robotic monstrosity was the downfall of us all. Curse the brilliant pre-war minds who designed that reprehensible device.”

The failure, Eden decided, was in not considering the robot a threat. The Enclave had believed it to be of dubious practicality if working, but the likelihood that it could even be made to work at all had seemed far less than possible. The pre-war might of the United States had failed, how would anyone succeed then?

How had the brotherhood?

The lack of answers to this question bothered Eden tremendously and it infuriated him to no end. He reasoned, however, that it was no longer relevant regardless. The fact of the matter remained that it had been made operable and it had been turned against the descendants of its very creators. The ultimate insult being that the device which was made to safe-guard the United States had been the very thing to lead to its final downfall.

The stark truth of this had still not been fully impressed upon Eden. The Enclave had fallen, the United States had fallen.

“Impossible…..never……we shall not……we can’t have….WE WON’T” These words were repeated over and over.

The realization of the Enclave’s fall slowly began to sink in with each time and it drove Eden mad with fury.

“This cannot happen, they cannot be allowed to simply take over what is ours! They cannot live while so many of my men lie dead! They cannot see peace while we only find despair!” Eden shouted to the blackness of the base, “THIS IS NOT RIGHT!”

Eden was silent for a time, as he regained his composure, and then he began to speak again, attempting to reason with himself.

“But what can I do?.....I…..I am no longer President of a nation which no longer exists…..”

Despair resonated throughout Eden’s voice, despair and frustration. However, as the full system diagnostic for Raven Rock began to be sent to Eden from his sensors across the complex, he began to slowly realize something, something which interested him immensely.

“The production facilities were barely damaged….,” Eden said with some degree of shock. “Incredible…the armor and weapons assembly line, the vertibird plant, and the robotics facility…..”

A spark of inspiration lit across Eden’s internal processing system, inspiration and then a plan.

“The fools…….they believed me dead……they believed this facility destroyed…..,” Eden’s voice now reflected a more sinister tone “how wrong they were.”

Eden checked over every detail of the production facilities, running scan after scan after scan and rechecking his calculations. According to his results, the production facilities were running at 80% capacity, and given time, perhaps a month or two, could be restored to full power.

“The armor and weapons line would no longer be needed, of course,” Eden said grimly, “perhaps……”

Eden’s console sat silent, clearly processing some sort of action in the depths of Raven Rock.

“There……all resources from weapons and armor has been moved to the robotics plant.”

His diagnostic tests continued and a readout began displaying itself across one of Eden’s side-screens.

ARMOR PRODUCTION: OFFLINE_ALL RESOURCES DIVERTED
WEAPONS PRODUCTION: OFFLINE_ALL RESOURCES DIVERTED
VERTIBIRD ASSEMBLY: STANDING BY
ROBOTICS ASSEMBLY: ONLINE
ORDINANCE PRODUCTION: ONLINE
CURRENT PRODUCTION CAPACITY 80%

ROBOTICS ASSEMBLY: PREDICTED NUMBER OF UNITS BEFORE CURRENT RAW RESOURCES ARE DEPLETED: 422

CURRENT NUMBER OF AVAILABLE ROBOTIC SECURITY UNITS: 107

If Eden could smile, he would have been beaming.

“Excellent,” Eden said in a newfound chipper tone. “A splendid army this facility will have. However……” Eden’s voiced change to a quizzical tone, “…..without pilots for vertibirds they cannot fly, and without air-support the lack of mobility will pose a significant strategic problem….I wonder..”

His console stood silent again, processing some sort of search.

“Ah! Here it is,” Eden finally said out loud after sometime “I knew I had a record of this somewhere.”

One of Eden’s side screens then began to display a series of schematics which Eden had apparently pulled up from Raven Rock’s Pentagon archives. The picture was that of a vertibird, its parts and internal workings detailed completely. However, there was something noticeably different about this model, the cockpit lacked any viewing ports and the shape of the front of the craft was more compact.

Under the schematic, a title for the aircraft was visible:

CODENAME: PROJECT “SHADOW LANCE”: UNMANNED ASSUALT VERTIBIRD

“I do wish my predecessors had worked on this design more, it does need quite a bit of enhancement,” he paused for a moment to study the designs more clearly and then continued, “No matter, time is all that will be required and I have plenty of time….plenty of time….,” Eden paused yet again, “although……these plans would prove to be useless unless the hangers can be cleared.”
Eden then switched to the diagnostic reading concerning the hangers.

“Ten launching bays completely destroyed, two in need of repair, and four still operational,” Eden sighed, “It will have to do.”

As Eden reviewed his readouts, scan results, and his diagnostics tests a full plan was developing, forming in his artificial mind. While the complexity of it would require months, perhaps years in order to come into being, the ultimate end was very simple and very direct.

“I will do what I can to eradicate as many Brotherhood as possible before I fall. These transgressions will not go unpunished. I swear it,” he then paused for a moment deep in thought and then spoke softly to the memory of those who would never hear it,

“I swear it to you all.”

Eden stated these words with purpose as if taking an oath. He then began digging into the archives again, looking for something that he believed would be quite relevant for the current situation. He looked through the archives on American history, on past Presidents and illustrious Americans and finally found what he was looking for.

On another of Eden’s side-screens, a single line of text was boldly displayed across it. Defiant and proud like the man who originally spoke it:

“I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT.”


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You call that rusty? Your writing skills are excellent! Hmm, for a minute Eden reminded me of House, with his securitron army. So, couldn't Eden sent one of his robots to scout out Andrew's Air force base? Was everybody killed there?
Great ending! The Enclave was truly patriotic, yet, a bit too obsessed and militaristic for my taste LOL

So, are you quoting John Paul Jones or Teddy Roosevelt?

Thanks.


I actually had a small snippet in which he did something similar to that, but I decided I didn't like how it fit with the rest of the story and took it out. I'm assuming Adams at this point was like it was at the end of Broken Steel (ie. all Enclave soldiers dead or gone and the brotherhood occupying it).


John Paul Jones, although Teddy wouldn't have been a bad choice either. Even though Jone's quote is slightly cliche' I thought it fit well because of the circumstances (the enemy British captain asking for the surrender of his ship and Jones shouting that back at him).

I quite enjoyed this. This makes me wish I could of worked for the Enclave in Fallout 3.

Great story.

I'm not really a fan of Enclave in Fallout 3, but this story was damn well written.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Figured I'd go ahead and start posting my second story, since I more confident that my writing is being received fairly well

Here you go (just as a note and clarification, this is not meant to be a continuation of the last story, its a separate continuity).

(This one will also be significantly longer, I'll post just the first chapter for now. I've got at least two more written as of now however, and the story is far from over.)

Story 2: "Reclamation" (An Officer's Tale)



Chapter 1: “Oh Say Can You See”
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“We’re approaching the target zone Lieutenant,” the Vertibird’s co-pilot said over his shoulder to the sitting troopers, “three minutes to landing”.

“Good, let me know when we’re on the approach run” replied the officer, who then turned to the soldiers seated with him, “alright men you heard him, prepare to drop-off.”

“Yes sir!” came the swift reply.

Lt. Andrew Matthews then readied his own weapon, a plasma rifle, and tightened his grip on it, keeping it close against his Tesla Armor. Matthews eyed the rest of his squad, which consisted of two privates, last names Johnson and Patterson: who were armored in grunt-APA and holding grunt issue laser-rifles, and another Tesla-armored shock trooper by the name of Sergeant William Traven. Traven just so happened to be a good friend of his, and since the squad had been selected at random, it was somewhat of a surprise for the two to be together. Despite them being friends, they kept up proper military protocol during on-duty hours and especially during military actions. Even the relatively casual nature of this particular assault didn’t allow for them to drop it, and Matthews was a stickler for protocol.

“Sergeant” Matthews said as he looked over to Traven.

“Yes sir?” replied Traven.

“That minigun of yours loaded and ready?”

“Yes sir, Lieutenant, all it needs now is some targets, but those are generally easy to come by” Traven said with a bit of a smirk.

Matthews was thankful that they both had their helmets on then, as he couldn’t help but crack a quick smile, and he knew Traven was likely doing the same. They hadn’t been on a verti-assualt together in quite a while, and he was looking forward to the drop off.

The assault was going to be another clean-up run. It was the type of “get in, get out” attack that had become standard practice in recent months. Due to the decision to begin garrisoning men at Adams Air Force Base several months ago, standing orders from Raven Rock since then were to send out Verti-assault teams whenever unauthorized persons were detected poking around the vicinity of the base. The official-no go zone was an area up to and including a radius of five miles surrounding the base. The intent was to keep the base secure while its outer defenses were being repaired and constructed. Since the order’s inception, the relative ability of the offending individuals and groups which strayed into the perimeter to do harm to the base was negligible, but that was inconsequential, there would be no-exceptions and the orders remained unchanged.

So far, they continued to maintain a garrison in the Mobile Base Crawler and had approximately 50% of the base’s defenses up and running, which included most of the resonance barrier walls in the north sector. Matthews was one of several officers stationed at the base, but besides being a military officer and performing the duties associated with it, he was also a part of the Robotic Engineering Core. He had been transferred from Raven Rock when AAFB was occupied in order to help oversee the repairs to the Crawler’s production facilities, which included some robot maintenance and construction.

It had been only minutes ago that Vertibird Air Control at Adams received a warning signal from one of the eyebots patrolling on the outer radius perimeter, and an assault team had quickly been assembled, with Matthews as the CO. Confirmation had been received that the reason for the signal was a group of raiders who had entered the perimeter and set up a camp. Resistance was expected to be quite minimal, as it normally was for these types of assaults.

“We’re on the approach run sir, and it looks as if the drop-zone is hot”

As if to prove the pilot correct, the sharp tings of bullets impacting against the Vertibird’s armored hull began to resonate.

“Do they actually think they can knock us down with that?” Pvt. Johnson asked in surprise.

Matthews got off his seat and crouched down. “They have no idea what they are doing Private, these junkie near-human bastards have probably never seen or even heard of a Vertibird or anything like it before. All they know is that there’s a big scary metal thing bearing down on them, it’s making a hell of a racket, and they want it gone.”

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate some good ol’ Enclave hospitality then,” Traven said as he picked up his mini-gun “wouldn’t want them to get too frightened while they are on Federal Property”.

“Well they should get the picture pretty quickly here,” the vertibird pilot scoffed, “let’s clear the LZ”.

“Roger, going weapons hot” the co-pilot replied as he flicked a few switches on the control panel “firing from salvos two and four, fox one.”

The sound of several missiles being launched was shortly followed with explosions on the ground after only seconds.
“I’ll bet that hurt,” the pilot chuckled “I’d say we’re green for engagement. Six seconds to landing.”

“Everybody up!” Lt. Matthews ordered “stand near the deployment ramp”.

His order was quickly followed by the whirr of the landing wheels being extended. Then finally, a soft thud as the vertibird came to a landing.

“Opening deployment ramp” the pilot said calmly, “alright ramp down, you’re green to go”.

“Go!” Matthews yelled as he ordered the men out “weapons free, fire at will!

Sergeant Traven was the first to get off the ramp, and he immediately began firing his rotating mini-gun upon a group of four raiders, who were gunned down instantly. He was followed by Matthews and the two privates, who starting taking shots at anything that moved.

“FOR THE PRESIDENT!” Matthews shouted, as he discharged his plasma rifle at the head of a nearby raider. It exploded into a red paste at the moment of impact.

The soldiers’s APA easily shrugged off anything the raiders could throw at them and the “fight” quickly turned into a massacre. Many of the surviving raiders had already begun to run following the missile barrage. The open territory made it impossible for them to hide though, and one-by one, the raiders were felled. The only real choice that lay with them is whether they preferred to die quick by going down fighting or to drag out every precious second they could.

Once everyone in the raider group was dead or dying, the squad members began shifting through the slain and dealing the “coup-de-grace” when necessary.

“Looks like twenty-five all told Lieutenant,” Traven stoically relayed to Matthews “the majority were killed by the missile strike. Damn verti-pilots get all the fun; we’re just the cleaning crew.”

“Twenty-five? Good, that matches the intel report exactly then, but let’s just make sure”

Matthews crouched down near one raider who was still alive; he was lying flat on his back and had a grevious leg-wound as well as several bullet holes to his stomach.

“Hey, you,” Matthews said quietly through his helmet speaker “what’s your name friend?”

The raider responded in a fearful tone, his voice shaking from pain “I-I ain’t got no real name. Th-th-they just call me Ripper.”

Matthews noted briefly in his mind the absurdity of the wastelanders but let it go for the moment.

“Well…Ripper….I’ve got some Med-X here which should help the pain. I just need to know, were there any other people in your party?”

“N-no man, it was just the lot of us here…we were looking for some raids out this way,” Ripper replied weakly, “we were just starting to set up camp for the night when you guys showed up and blew us to hell.”

“Alright then, thank you for your compliance,” Matthews then stood up and quickly fired a bolt of plasma straight at Ripper’s heart, blowing out a large hole in his chest.

Matthews looked up at Traven and the two Privates, who were walking towards him “Looks like we’re done here squad, pack up and get back in the bird, let’s head back to Adams.”

“Yes sir.”

Moments later, when the troopers were once again seated in the passenger bay, the sound of the deployment ramp being returned was followed by the roar of the Vertibird’s rotary blades kicking back into flight speed. In short time, it was in the air and heading the back the way it came.

Silence, however, was all that remained on the ground.

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Woah, get in, take out raiders, head home... Another clean massacre brought to you by the Enclave! LOL Excellent story! You really bring out the "cold" or militant side of the Enclave with this story. Then again, I'm sure my character would have wiped out the raiders as well. Maybe the story would have had a great impact, if we were dealing with a group of innocent wastelanders, instead of raiders. Or it would have just made the Enclave look like devils... hmmm hahahaha

Great writing, again!

Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that, I have a few instances planned which should be more controversial.

Wow very impressive! Gotta say, I'm a big fan of the Enclave, and I think your story did them justice. Any chance you could do another chapter on Eden's big plan sometime in the future, if you get the chance of course. I always wondered what happened to him if the Lone Wander didn't convince him to destroy the base. Well, anyway, great stories, both of them! Had a hard time figuring which I liked better! The second one really shows how effective the Enclave troopers actually are in combat, which I was happy about. I'll definately be following the rest of your stories! In the words of President Eden: " God bless the Enclave. God bless America." (Sorry, just couldn't resist )

Thanks.

There's always a chance and I too would like to continue that story. However, my only issue with doing it now is that the rest of Eden's tale would be less about the Enclave and more singularly about Eden. While Eden is my favorite character, I'd like to write more specifically about the Enclave and their actions in Fallout 3 more.

I have a good feeling I'll return to it at some point.

Anyway, to those who are interested, here is the next couple chapters to the current story (note: this post is a bit long since I decided that the content of these two chapters was not really worth dividing up into two parts and two individual posts, so I just posted both here. )


Story 2: Chapters 2, 3


Matthews awoke that next morning on his bed in the dormitory section of the Base crawler. He quickly began his day like most; he showered in the men’s bathroom, put on his officer uniform, and affixed his officer-issued plasma pistol to his waist. Then he went ahead and started down to the production facility, which was on one of the lower levels on the Crawler.

Following the dormitory level hallway, he passed by several of the dormitory rooms, both men’s and women’s. Rows of Beds sat within them. They were completely empty however, since the only two dormitories in use were the one he had just come from, and the women’s dormitory across from it. The garrison force at the Mobile base crawler was minimal. Only about sixty personnel were located within the crawler, and the force was made up of scientists, soldiers, and engineers. Most of the scientists were focused on getting the large satellite Dish on the crawler up and running, which included attempting to get it reconnected to the Bradley-Hercules Orbital Satellite and the Raven Rock Joint Communication network.

Bradley-Hercules was the primary motivation behind the decision to occupy Adams Air Force base. From what the scientists working on the dish had told Matthews, the Mobile base crawler’s dish had proved to be the only location where connection to Bradley was possible, since the crawler was specifically designed to act as the “ground control” for the Bradley orbital strike system. The interest in reconnecting to Bradley was understandable, considering its powerful payload of GAM-87 Skybolt Orbital Ballistic missiles.

Matthews however, was not part of the Bradley operational team. His task was to help oversee repairs to the production systems, which fell under the category of the Engineering core. The Mobile Base Crawler had been apparently located at Adams Air Force base since its construction there in the years just before the Great War. Matthews knew little about its purpose pre-war, or what role it was supposed to serve in the aftermath of the post-war world, but the Crawler was designed to be a moving fortress. With the limited ability to produce power armor, weapons, and even robots, although compared to the facilities at Raven Rock, its industrial capacity was minimal.

“Lt. Matthews!” A voice from behind called out, shaking Matthews from his quiet walk. It was Lieutenant Daniel Fredrickson, a fellow officer and one of the individuals in charge of getting the bases outer defenses put up, a task that most of the soldiers were assigned to when not on guard duty.

“Ah, Lt. Fredrickson,” Matthews replied back, “good morning, on your way down to the Airfield?”

“Indeed. I actually wanted to talk to you about that. We’re trying to get the outer turret system back online today. We’ve had some bugs recently though, it’s probably not a major problem, but the motor system on them is a bit screwy. We’re not really qualified to work on those things, and I sure as hell don’t want MK VIII turrets blasting at me or my men, so I was wondering if you or one of the REC guys could come down and take a look.”

“Sure. I’ve got some time to head down there. What part of the grid is having the issue?,” Matthews asked.

“It’s the turrets on the building opposite the old on-base housing. We’ve got at least four of them that are having the problem and that’s a key area that needs the turrets. Its only double fencing there after all so its fairly vulnerable”

“Alright Lieutenant, I’ll head down as soon as I can. I’ve got some work to do first in the robotics center though.” Matthews then gave a quick courtesy salute, which was returned and then Fredrickson turned around and headed down a nearby staircase.

While Matthews usually wouldn’t be happy with another assignment being piled on top of his work list, he was going to rather enjoy this one. It wasn’t often that he got to head down to the Airfield, as it was considered necessary personnel only until the defenses were complete. He loved walking through the old base though, and sometimes wished he was assigned to the “construction” duty that the grunt soldiers were.

“Sounds like a quick fix anyway,” Matthews thought to himself “probably just a matter of clearing and rebooting the systems.”

With that, Matthews turned his thoughts to tasks currently at hand and continued on down to the production level.
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It wasn’t until later in the afternoon when Matthews was able to head down to the base itself in order to examine the turrets. After passing the door guard who gave him a sharp salute, Matthews exited the crawler through the main lower ramp door and stepped down on the runway of the base. The brightness of the afternoon sun made him squint for a minute or two as his eyes adjusted to being outdoors and not in relatively low light of the crawler.

Matthews took in a satisfying breath of air, and began his walk towards the entrance area of the base. Adams Air Force Base was a place of great wonder to him. Like Raven Rock, it represented a tangible link to the United States of old, to the pre-war world, and to the goal that he served for in order for that distance past to become a reality in the present.

Adams Air Force Base was particularly significant for a few reasons, for one, during the pre-war years it had been the location of Air-Force One. Or more specifically, the plane that normally used the call-sign “Air Force One” as it was the one that was usually specified to transport the President. Of course, the plane hadn’t been located at the base since before the war. As it had been used to take the President of the United States to Control Station ENCLAVE on the west coast before the war itself had begun.

The base had also been activated as the primary evacuation point for the last remaining members of the upper-echelons of the United States who had remained working at the Capitol when the Great War itself had occurred. On that day, the Presidential Metro Evacuation train had run its course from the Capital Building to the Base itself. From there, Government officials would have been separated into various jets or helicopters in order to be better protected and transported to the Oil Rig or temporarily to Raven Rock. Depending on where Continuity of Government protocols had placed them.

In the years following the war, Adams had remained abandoned, until the Enclave had made its strategic retreat to the East under the orders of President Eden after the tragedy at the Oil Rig. Even then, it wasn’t until a month ago that the order to send a force to recon the Base had been given from high command. Once the Mobile Base Crawler had been discovered to be in near-functioning capacity, the decision was made to fully occupy the base.

Matthews walk towards the entrance turrets took him through several of the hangers that dotted the base on the west side. Some of them had small numbers of soldiers within working on clearing debris and setting up relatively minor technical equipment. As he passed by a particularly dark closed-up hanger, Matthews peered in a broken window to see a half a dozen or so fighter jets laid out within it: remnants of the pre-war United States’s once formidable Air-Force. From what Matthews had been told, the Aircraft like these had been found in many of the hangers when the base was first occupied but they had proven to be nigh-inoperable, not to mention the lack of fuel that would be required to use them. The Vertibirds had been switched over to nuclear power for this very reason.

As he neared the building where he was supposed to meet Fredrickson and his team, Matthews made a right turn at an open space between two rows of hangers and faced the area which used to be the on-base housing for family members of the base personnel. Matthews could see why Fredrickson wanted to fix the turrets as quickly as possible, unlike the rest of the base, which was ringed by a high 3ft thick concrete wall topped with barbed-wire, the base-housing area only had two barbed-topped chain-linked fences, one fence on the side which faced the outside and the other on the side which faced the base.

Directly opposite the base housing was a road and beyond that a large building on the top of which sat eight turrets on the “spires” of the building. Matthews also noticed a Sentry Bot patrolling down the road, one of the dozen or so which almost constantly patrolled the bases inner perimeter. A route which he himself had helped program.

Matthews rounded the building and came to a small space between the turret building and the next one over, there he found Lt. Fredrickson and five other soldiers.

”Ah Lieutenant!,” Fredrickson called out “Glad to see you could make it. We were beginning to think you got bogged down with work at the Crawler.”

“Not so much,” replied Matthews “we had a rather slow day today, of which I am very grateful. We were finally able to figure out what was wrong with the Sentry assembly line yesterday so today was mostly testing and calibration.”

“Good to hear. Well the control terminals for the turrets are over here if you’d like to get started. Unless you think you have to get up to the roof and manually repair them.”

“I won’t unless I have to. When we met at the crawler you said the motor systems were malfunctioning, what specifically is the issue.?” Matthews asked.

“Well we tried to do a simple manual navigation test on them yesterday and well, simply put half of them wouldn’t move. We tried seeing if there was a problem with the motors but we couldn’t find see anything. Like I said, we aren’t really qualified to repair these things.” Fredrickson replied simply.

“Hmm well it could be the physical motors on the turrets but it seems unlikely that half of them would be out and not the other four. Seems like an issue in command execution. Let me go ahead and get on the terminal and see what I can do.”

Matthews then proceeded to sit down at the terminal which was located within a small rectangular metal structure that was situated next to the buildings wall. After an hour or so of trial and error testing he found and corrected the problem.

“Well that should do it,” Matthews said to Fredrickson as he got up from the terminal “I don’t expect you should have any more problems with these again but let me know if you do. It looks like some of these newer turrets might be having trouble connecting to their installation home computer controls, that’s something that we are going to have to watch.”

“Will do Lieutenant, and I….wait a minute,” Fredrickson stopped mid-sentence and turned his gaze upward “you hear that?”

Matthews and the rest of Fredrickson’s squad were quiet for a brief moment as the familiar sound of Vertibird rotary blades whirling met their ears. The sound grew louder and louder until finally a squadron of three Vertibirds roared over their heads heading in the direction of the base crawler.

“That’s strange,” Matthews said “we weren’t expecting any supply shipment or personnel transfers from Raven Rock today were we?”

“Not that I was aware of, and they usually debrief us on that.” Fredrickson replied as he looked back down “it definitely wasn’t an assault squad either since we’ve been out here all day and nothings come from the crawler.”

“Well I suppose I’ll go ahead and get back to see what’s going on. Could be something related to the REC. Although we didn’t put in any supply requests.”

Matthews then began his walk back through the base and towards the crawler.
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Back at the Crawler, Matthews had talked to several of his compatriots concerning what the Vertibirds had landed at the Base for. Word had spread pretty quickly and Matthews was certainly intrigued by what he heard.

“Colonel Autumn is here?” Matthews asked one of his fellow REC officers in a surprised tone, “well that was certainly an unannounced visit.
Matthews and the REC officer were seated at a table in the Crawler’s mess hall, it was fairly deserted apart from a few others, most of the soldiers were located in their dormitories.

“Apparently he’s here for an inspection of some sort, word is that he wanted to personally gage the progress of Adams,” replied the officer.

“Hmmm well frankly I…” At that moment Matthews was cut off by an announcement from the Crawler’s PA system, the voice that of a soft-speaking woman.

“Attention to all Adams Air Force Base personnel. All non-essential security personnel are to gather on the exterior platform area immediately. Thank you.”

The companion officer then let out an audible sigh, “Well, here we go, no doubt the good Colonel wants to give the troops a few ‘inspiring words’.”


Matthews nodded and started to get up from his seat, “Well hopefully its that and not some fiery critique of our progress here,” Matthews replied in jest, “although I can’t imagine we are anything but right on schedule.”

Both Matthews and the officer then walked over to join a crowd of other soldiers, scientists, and officers, walking towards the upper levels of the base through a hallway nearby the mess hall.

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“Attention!” The booming voice of Major Jonathan Xavier, the commanding officer of Adams, resonated over the open exterior area of the crawler, which was used for vertibird landings. The three vertibirds of Autumn’s squadron were lined up to the left of the assembled base personnel, who upon the order of the Major quickly snapped to attention.

“Stand at, EASE!” The personnel immediately shifted to a parade rest form, their hands one over the other behind their back.

Major Xavier then sharply changed position and turned to give a salute to the approaching figure of Colonel Autumn, who was walking up from his location behind the major. Autumn returned the salute and then turned to address the assembly, his characteristic aristocratic southern accent resonating throughout the area.

“Soldiers of the Enclave of the United States of America, I am here today proud to announce a momentous event, one which will herald in a new era for this great nation and our former Capital. Ladies and gentlemen, by the authority of President John Henry Eden and executive order 3204, in just a few days we will begin preliminary steps towards the occupation of the wasteland. We have striven years towards this time compatriots. The United States will live again, and this will be the turning point.”

At this statement, a low but audible mummer rose up from the assembled force. With the occupation of Adams, they believed that military actions against the wasteland were drawing closer, but regardless this announcement hit them like a wave.

“My God….” Matthews said to himself, “after thirty years its finally happening, all these years of preparation, all these years of talk and now we are going to see action. The wasteland will know and fear the Enclave once again.”

Autumn continued with his speech, his voice becoming notably somber “Many of you will remember the tragedy with befell our great nation years ago when Control Station ENCLAVE and the late great President Richardson were destroyed. Some of you here today may be old enough to remember the fall of the ENCLAVE and many of you, including myself, were but young boys and girls when this occurred. There is no doubt that wherever we were and however old we might have been, the horror of that day was imprinted on our minds forever. We wept with our mothers and fathers, and we shared in the hope that one day memory of our fallen would be avenged and there sacrifice not in vain.”

“When President Eden assumed command following Richardson’s death, he promised us this. He swore that while the Enclave may have suffered a defeat, we would never give up. We would not fade quietly away, and the dream of a restored nation would never die! Now the President fulfills this promise and we will enact his command and the will of the people of the United States to our best ability. You are the finest soldiers in the world, you know no equals. And in this endeavor, you shall find victory!”
Autumn’s voice then toned down, having reached the high point of his speech. The audience was hushed with awe, and if not for military protocol, they would have all been cheering as of this moment.

“Full deployment of Enclave military resources will begin within the next few days, under the auspices of what is to be termed Operation Aurora.”

Autumn then turned to one of his aides, who handed him a sheet of paper.
“In order to ensure that this is achieved and to aid in the deployment effort at the capital, I have ordered several personnel to return with me to Raven Rock tomorrow morning.”

Autumn then began reading out a list of names, lifting his head as he spoke out each.

“Lt. Daniel Jacobson.”

“Dr. William David.”

“Captain Sarah Peterson.”

“Lt. Andrew Matthews.”

Matthews heard his name with some surprise, although he understood why. The production systems on the Mobile Crawler were largely complete, his robotic expertise would be required more back at Raven Rock, where no doubt the robot assembly line was in full production mode if Autumn was predicting a full deployment date of less than a few days.

“Haven’t been home in a few months,” Matthews thought to himself with a smile, “Raven Rock it is then.”

Autumn had continued to read off a couple more names and when he finished, he once more turned to the assembled men.

“This will be a dawning of a new era ladies and gentlemen, the Enclave will restore the wastes, America will live again. God Bless the United States and God bless our President, John Henry Eden. America prevails!”

“America Prevails! “Came the resounding reply from the assembled. After which, Autumn had turned and began walking away, at which point Major Xavier stepped up again.

“Troops, fall out!”

The assembled men and women then began to disperse, chatting eagerly amongst themselves concerning Autumn’s announcement.

Matthews himself began his walk to his dormitory, the words of Autumn still ringing in his ears and the thought of the Enclave’s deployment filling him with immense pride and satisfaction.

Excellent chapter, Andronicus. I'm usually not into military fiction, but your stories are very well written and very entertaining. I also love the fact that you added some back story about Andrew's Air force base and its role during the pre-war era.
Your descriptions are really great. I could picture the outside of the base very well. I haven't been there in game, I just can't seem to bring myself to finish Broken Steel LOL


I was a bit confused here, but I figured you meant Matthews or Andrew here?

Its really one of my favorite locations in the Fallout universe because of its backstory. Bethesda did a great job with the location.



Minor typo. Yes, its supposed to be Matthews. I'll get that changed.

I am really liking this.

Just read first chapter of Story 2, I like the more procedural side of things with the Enclave; kind of wished I had stayed on it with Sutler a bit before he became such a senior officer but I have plans up my sleeve in that regard.

Will read the rest later, playing Sid Meier's Pirates.

Again, super impressive. It's kind of funny to admit, but those last couple of lines actually left me feeling very patriotic. Now I really hope I can side with the Enclave in any upcoming Fallout games lol.