First things first, I would like to publicly apologise for my failed Rp. For those of you that remember I made an Rp not too long ago, unfortunately it never kicked off as I got terribly sick and then had some major real life problems. I've just had no time for anything, I even had to pull out of an Rp which is something I swore I would never do. Anyway those problems have become a thing of the past and I've managed to come up with another fan fic. Keep in mind there will be chapters, I just wanted to make a timeline so you guys are up to speed with where the story is. I also wanted to be different from the typical prologue. I attempted to put a bit of detail in to help fill the blanks. I'm hoping to achieve some feedback before I start the first chapter. Enjoy guys!

The Return of an Old Foe

Timeline of Events

2277: August 17, James disappears from Vault 101 and his son, the Lone Wanderer, journeys to the surface to search for him.

The Lone Wanderer activates Project Purity. Afterwards, the last vestiges of serious Enclave presence is destroyed once their base in Adams Air Force Base is eradicated, including the destruction of the Enclave Mobile Base Crawler. The Enclave is reduced to stragglers with no organized leadership.

2278: The Brotherhood turns its sights on the super mutant threat, the official war with the super mutants begin. A bloody and lengthy 50 year war ensues.

2281: Elder Lyons passes away at the age of 79, leaving his daughter, Sarah, as leader of the Brotherhood.

2282: Sarah Lyons falls pregnant with the Lone Wanderers son, 9 months later he is born. The child is named James Lyons in memory of the Lone Wanderers father and Owyn Lyons.

2292: Arthur Maxson, last of the Maxson dynasty, rises through the ranks of the Brotherhood, reaching the rank of Paladin at the age of 25. Arthur begins to prove himself worthy of the Maxson name. The young Paladin also takes on James Lyons as his squire.

2318: Paladin Maxson rallies together the factions of the wasteland under one flag, to help defeat the super mutants. The factions include, the Outcasts, Rivet city, the citizens of Megaton, the Regulators and even the Talon Company. Smaller factions such as Reilly's Rangers also join the cause. Soon after, Maxson is promoted to Sentinel for his military prowess at the age of 51.

Paladin James Lyons, bares a child with a fellow Brotherhood member, sadly, the mother is killed only a year later in a battle with super mutants. The child is named Roger Lyons, after Arthur's ancestor, the original founder of the Brotherhood.

2328: March 12, The war between humans and super mutants comes to an end with the destruction of the super mutant's final stronghold, vault 87. An aged Lone Wanderer sacrifices himself, using the atomic bomb from Megaton to blow up vault 87, thus ending the war. The wasteland rejoices as the war is over but at the same time, the entire wasteland mourns for the loss of the legendary Lone Wanderer.

September 23, Elder Sarah Lyons passes away at the old age of 81. Sentinel Maxson is regarded as the new Elder, a worthy leader. His first act as Elder was to promote Paladin James Lyons to Sentinel and the Elder's right hand man. Together the two bring in a new age of peace and prosperity to the wasteland which begins to flourish with life.

2329: The Brotherhood continues its search for technology and manages to make contact with original Brotherhood. With the leadership of Elder Maxson, both Brotherhoods reach a peaceful agreement and unite under the one Brotherhood flag. Contact is then made with the other divisions of the Brotherhood, Texas and the Midwestern. This strengthens the Brotherhood incredibly, with their vast amount of technology and numbers, the Brotherhood becomes seemingly invincible.

2337: Elder Arthur Maxson passes away at the age of 70, having bore no children; the dynasty of the Maxsons comes to a close. Sentinel James Lyons is promoted to the rank of Elder age 55. The wasteland also experiences a population explosion, with many immigrants flocking to D.C.

2367: Most of the city has been rebuilt and almost all of Washington D.C is populated. It has become one of the biggest and most powerful cities in all of America and perhaps the world. Elder James Lyons passes away days before his 85th birthday. A power struggle emerges between members of the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood. Some believe his son, Roger should take his place as he is a Lyon, while others believe he is too young and inexperienced even though Roger is 49. Another member of the Brotherhood claims to be a descendant of the Maxson family and attempts to claim himself Elder.

2373: The decision is taken to the High Elders over in the west to avoid a fight breaking out among the Brotherhood. They rule in favour of Roger Lyons as the other Brotherhood member couldn't provide sufficient evidence to back up his claims. Roger Lyons becomes the new Elder.

2377: Present Day. It's been one hundred years since the Lone Wanderer first stepped out of vault 101. Since that time a lot has changed. D.C is now surrounded by a wall, the Brotherhood guard the outskirts of the city, while on the inside a society is in full function. Government, emergency services, roads, banks, water/drainage systems, etc, have all come back from the brink of destruction.

Meanwhile the Brotherhood is attempting to expand to the north to find more technology. While their army is over one million strong, they still recruit as they have run into heavy resistance. Rumour has it that they have run into the last of the Enclave but the Brotherhood insists it's nothing but raiders and gangs.

Back in D.C our story begins with the massacre of Vault 101. Detective Matthew Jones has been ordered to investigate how the entire vault was killed.

Brilliant intro and great to see you back dude, on a side note my best mate is called Matthew Jones

Thanks mate, it's good to be back. That was just the first name that popped into my head, weird :blink: lol

Zomg, great story! Loved it to death! Write more, pleash!

Very nice intro!

It makes for a great story to be told, in a "alternative" timeline

love the idea! kudos to you my friend

Thanks guys, it's my alternative time line, within another alternative time line. Any who, enjoy chapter 1 and don't hesitate to inform me of any mistakes.

Chapter 1: Cult of Personality.

I svcked in a long drag from my cigarette; I felt it burn my throat as the cigarette itself neared the end. The sudden burn caused me to cough out aloud.

"I told you those things will kill you one day," A familiar female voice said as I coughed away.

I re-gathered my composure and turned around. It was my partner, Detective Michaels, she had the same smile as always when she caught me smoking.

"I thought you had quit?"

"I did, until I got this; take a look," I said as I threw her the file containing the details of our next assignment. I watched as her face turned from cheerful, to sour, to horrified.

"Oh God, what? what the hell happened?" I could hear the horror in Michael's voice.

"That's what they want us to find out, c'mon let's get a move on, there's a debriefing at the entrance, plus we'll need to sort things out before the press gets a hold of this. The last thing we need is G.N.R blabbering this across half of America." Michaels nodded and we moved out.

The Germantown Police HQ had been revamped, just like the rest of D.C, hell; they even managed to get a couple of phones working. We walked out and started down the road, unfortunately the fastest mode of transport was still walking, so it took a while. I took my time to look around; the sun burned so brightly, it felt as if it would scorch the land but as I looked to the ground I saw green. Not complete green, but patches, sure there was still desert and there were a few black trees here and there but the green was beginning to out way the black, grey and dull.

Rumour had it that there was some strange tree that the Lone Wanderer had helped grow so it spread throughout the wasteland. It sounded pretty far fetched but then again it was the Lone Wanderer, the biggest legend around. As we walked down the road, we almost had to push through the crowd, D.C had fast become over-populated. Everyday more and more immigrants showed up at the gates, eventually the Brotherhood began to turn them away. Even so, they still camped around the gate in hopes of getting in.

As we neared vault 101, I noticed a crowd around the barricade with the police holding them back. Most were shouting and yelling, while others were crying and wailing. I began to push through the crowd with Michaels close behind. When I reached the front of the crowd I was greeted with a hand in my face.

"Sorry sir, no-one is allowed past the barricade without proper authorization."

I felt around my pocket and found my rusty old badge. I flashed it to the officer.

"I'm Detective Jones and this Detective Michaels," I said as I pointed behind me, hoping Michaels was doing the same, "I believe we are here to lead this investigation, so I'd stand aside."

Suddenly, I felt the crowd quiet down around me.

"Investigate what?!" I heard someone yell, "If you're in charge, tell us what the [censored] is going on! We have a right to know!" The rest of the crowd agreed.

"I have family in there!" Another shout rang out, the crowd began to yell and push. Things were about to take a turn for the worse, we had to act fast.

I managed to slip quickly behind the barricade, just in case, "Alright, lets calm down people. Yelling, shouting and pushing will get you further from the answers you seek. Right now all my partner and I know is that there is a situation inside, we don't know anything for sure and we will be sure to release a statement to the public as soon as we know what's going on."

I looked at them; there was silence, almost as if it were a Mexican stand off. There were a few more shouts but they seemed to calm down. I nodded at Michaels and we headed up to the entrance of the vault. The first thing I noticed was a policeman outside vomiting; I looked ahead and noticed Commissioner O'Neil talking to another officer. The Commissioner looked quite young for his age; he was tall and skinny and had a crew cut with fuzzy orange hair.

"Detective Jones and Detective Michaels, it's about time you two showed up. We've got quite the situation here, unlike anything anyone has seen before. Follow me; it all went down in the Atrium." His raspy voice pierced my ears as we followed him into the vault.

The atmosphere of the vault was very cold and uninviting, I began to wonder if it was like this all the time or if was because of the tragedy that lay inside. Although it was so dull and grey, I didn't understand how people could live like that. We continued on through the halls until we reached the atrium. O'Neil was right; it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Bodies were strewn across the floor; some were attached to the wall, while others hung from the ceiling. It was truly a gruesome sight; strange markings were painted in blood on the floors and walls. I had to look away it was so sickening.

"Each one had their throats cut and their wrists slit. Everyone except for the Overseer, it's a strange situation but it appears he was in on all this," I began to choke and cough after the Commissioner told me this.

"What? No? how? I? I knew the Overseer and?. No," I coughed and spluttered the few words I could out.

Commissioner O'Neil looked down, "You need to see something then Detective."

Together we walked up to the Overseer's office. As we stepped into the office, I noticed the Overseer sprawled out in the middle of the floor. I crouched down and looked over him. His wrists were slit but his throat was left without a scratch, he was wearing no shirt and had the same symbol that was on the floor and walls carved into his chest. I took out my notepad and pencil and drew the symbol down, it seemed familiar but I couldn't work out where I had seen it.

I studied the body; it was definitely the Overseer. His name was Mark, a family friend from way back although we hadn't spoken in quite sometime. I didn't understand, I knew this man, he was a good man and I couldn't imagine him even contemplating something as horrifying as this. I shook my head and sighed, it was all a bit much.

"Jones, get over here, you need to watch this." O'Neil snapped me out of my trance.

I stood up slowly and shuffled over to the Overseer's terminal. The Commissioner had pulled up the security camera footage.

"As you can see here, we have the Overseer using his terminal to gather all the residents in the Atrium. Then we see him locking down the entire vault and finally turning off the security cameras. We've checked and re-checked the footage at least 20 times and the only person to go in or out of this room is the Overseer and we've also checked the footage from outside the vault, everyone who entered within the past 24 hours was a resident here."

I scratched my head and began to think, Mark wasn't the type of man to do something like this and even if he was behind all of this, there's no way he could have done it alone.

"Commissioner, have you managed to id all the bodies and check that every resident is here? I also suppose it's possible that more people could have entered after the security cameras feed was turned off?"

At that moment I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a quick flash on the monitor, the security camera turned to static once the feed had been turned off but I saw a picture flash quickly through the static.

"We have iden-"

"Wait," I said, cutting O'Neil off before he could continue, "Did anyone see that, on the monitor?" Michaels and O'Neil both looked at me with a puzzled face.

"Here, go back," I rewound the feed and attempted to pause it on the flash.

It took 4 attempts before I finally landed on the image. There was only one frame but it was enough to give us a clear idea of what happened. The image was of four hooded figures standing with their backs to the camera, they were standing over the body of the Overseer, each of them held curved daggers, dripping with blood. The cloaks they wore were all maroon but each of them had the same symbol on the back, the same symbol painted in blood and carved into Mark's chest. The symbol was a yellow colour but it appeared faded, most likely by time.

"I believe we are dealing with some sort of Religious cult Commissioner," I said while making some notes in my notepad.

"Well then," said the Commissioner, "I believe I have your first lead. A resident by the name of Gary Sanderson is the only unaccounted for resident. His apartment here is sealed up and the security camera feed for his room is still down, I suggest you two go check it out and find out just what he is hiding in there, or who."