» Wed Feb 16, 2011 6:18 am
Chapter One: Finding the Brotherhood
The Vertibird dropped me off a few hundred yards outside the Hub. I grabbed my hunting rifle and started walking. I looked back, but the flying mechanical beast was already leaving.
The blazing sun was intense. Advanced Power Armor had a special cooling and heating system that made even intense climates seem like nothing, but this leather was ‘lacking’. My sweat fused to the leather, making it stick to my flesh.
I forced myself to walk, as much as I hated to move. I finally saw some caravans getting ready to leave. They were using those weird mutated cows with two heads called, “Brahmins” I think.
A kid walked up to me. His hair was dark and wild. His skin was tanned and he wore a dirty long-sleeved shirt that was ripped and stained. His gray jeans weren’t any better. “Welcome, mister, I’m Ray. You’re new here, ain’t you?” he asked with a smile. “Listen, here in the Hub, its easy to get lost. I’ll take you to the people you want to get to know for five caps.” The little mutant wasn’t as ugly as some of the caravan guard, but the kid wasn’t handsome either.
“What’re caps?” I asked Ray. “They some sort of ‘slang’ for United States dollars?”
The kid cocked his head and laughed as if I told a hilarious joke, but he realized I wasn’t kidding. “Are you a tribal or something mister? Last time I heard someone who didn’t know what caps were, he was a vault dweller.”
“Listen—Ray, I’m looking for the Brotherhood of Steel, I heard they had a bunker here. I’m really looking forward to joining,” I lied. The idea of joining a band of mutated deserters of the United States Army made me want to puke.
“I heard rumors that there were Brotherhood of Steel here, but it’s so big here that to find one of them guys is to find a needle in a non-irradiated haystack.”
“I see,” I reluctantly stated. My voice was sour at the thought of actually having to talk to more of these brainless fools. Ray made a motion to follow him and he sprinted off. I managed to keep up with him, thanks to the training of Sergeant Dornan back at Navarro.
We reached a place with a sign on it. “Sarah’s Place” was what it said in big neon-orange letters. I took a step in and saw a bunch of men playing cards as they sipped their beverages. An attractive woman stayed behind the bar counter. She wore an outfit similar to mine and kept a .44 Desert Eagle strapped to her belt.
“Hey Ray,” she grinned. “How’re you? You still help out Damian in the Old Town?”
“I sure am, Sarah,” He nodded. “This is the new guy in town. He says he’s looking for some Brotherhood of Steel guys here.”
“What’s your name, Stranger?” She questioned. “You know I’m Sarah and this is Ray.”
“Kyle.”
“Well Kyle, I can tell you where to find those Brotherhood soldiers you’re looking for, but I need some help. Ray told me some gangers came to Old Town and started bullying Damian,” she stated. “I want them gone, they bully Damian and that just doesn’t fly. And I can guarantee you right now; you don’t want to mess with me. Ray, take him to Old Town.”
The Kid smiled and had me follow him. I had never seen so many mutants in one place before, even at Adytum there were only a few hundred. Here there were at least a few thousand.
When we reached Old Town, I knew it. The beat down structures reeked with feces and urine. I saw a woman with her hair dyed green put a ten millimeter pistol up to a tall, feeble old man’s head. I pulled out my rifle and pulled the trigger when it was aimed at her.
“Son of a *****!” she screamed. I saw her right arm start bleeding.
The rifle’s kick hurt like hell. I wasn’t used to the kick of a gun, because energy weapons had minimal and I was usually in power armor. Out of the buildings came several thugs that wore leather jackets.
I swore under my breath as I pulled the trigger again, this time it delve deep into her chest and she was knocked the ground. The green-haired woman started puking blood. Mutant blood forming a puddle on the ground, it brought much joy to me to see her die.
Bullets shot past me. “You skag!” one of them yelled. A spray of blood came out of the right side of his head. Damian shot the man before he could seal my fate. One of the children of Old Town ran up and stabbed one of the raiders in his stomach and sprinted off. The other scattered.
The old man walked over to me and smiled. He hugged me, “Thank you so much.” I heard tears drop from his eyes onto my armor. I faked a grin and tried to get away. Ray nodded with a look of joy and led me back to Sarah’s Place.
We walked towards Sarah’s Place several people waved. I was getting a name for myself in the Hub. It was amazing how fast gossip traveled in such a large place. When I walked into Sarah’s Place, everyone raised their beverages to me. They shouted together, “To Kyle! Savior of Damian, the finest man the Hub has seen since the Vault Dweller! Mutant morons loved me because I saved some old creep.”
“Wow, you really did it, Kyle,” Sarah hugged me. “Damian is a local hero. He used to be the sheriff and by god he was one of the best this town will ever see. He saved all of us when the Jackals attacked in 2218.”
“Were those—“
“Yes, remnants of the Jackals,” she interrupted. “I know you saved Damian, but we need some more help. A ghoul named ‘Fred the Red’ has moved into Downtown. He’s an ex-raider. We need him ‘gone’.”
“What’s a ghoul?”
“A person who has been irradiated so badly that they’ve become mutated into bald people who lack patches of skin.”
“Ironic isn’t it?”
“What?”
“Oops, these are mutants too,” I mentally scolded myself.
“Nothing, nothing at all Sarah.”
I started heading towards Old Town. As I walked, people waved to me eager to meet the ‘savior of the savior’. I didn’t care, they were just freaks. I saw someone who fit the description of ‘Fred the Red’. He wore a suit of armor crafted from metal plates. “Fred the Red, that your name?” I asked.
“No, my name is President Tandi of NCR, of course it’s Fred the Red, the bloodiest raider chieftain to ever walk the wastes. I led the Vipers, before I got irradiated and turned into a freak,” he sarcastically remarked. “Listen, either **** off or I’ll kick your *** up between your ears, you got it, Smoothskin?”
“Yeah, I got it you ******* zombie!”
“Guess you’ll be taking a permanent nap, six feet under you rat-faced scumbag.”
He pulled out a combat knife and I laughed at him. I aimed the rifle at him and pulled the trigger. It hit his armor, barely penetrating. “Wow, you got some serious stones, Smoothskin. Too bad you’re about to be dead.”
For a mutated freak, he sure was fast. He ran up to me and plunged the knife into my arm. To say it hurt was to say the Great War was a petty feud. It hurt like hell, but I pulled the trigger again, this time it launched a bullet right into his eye. A spray of blood launched out of the back of his skull. I ripped the knife out and screamed right after.
I walked towards Sarah’s Place and she looked at me with a scowl. “We said get rid of him, not kill him. When you’re doing my jobs, we try to find a peaceful solution first, and then if that doesn’t work out we go in guns blazing.”
“What about with Damian?”
“They were going to shoot him, Kyle. Jeez, I don’t know how they did things where you come from, but you’re going to need to learn the rules of civilized society…”
“Wow, a mutant is telling me how to act in civilized society,” I thought.
“Well Kyle, since you messed up that job, I have something else you can do. Ray told me about some drug dealers down town. You need to get rid of them, just don’t get in trouble with the authorities.”
“You got it, Sar—“ was all I managed to say before she kissed me.
“And please do be careful, I know you don’t know better, because you’re a tribal, but don’t be so quick to kill.”
I nodded and walked outside behind the bar. I stuck my finger down my throat to induce vomiting. I puked up my breakfast all over the ground, but I think it got her vile mutant bacteria out of my system.
Ray looked at me and asked, “Something you ate, big guy?”
“Yeah kid, something I ate.”
“Well, follow me; Doc Jet and Ross the Dealer are this way.” The kid was a good mutant, unlike most; I would regret killing him when I told the Enclave about this place. He led me like a man led his dog. I saw a man giving out small canisters the size of a woman’s fist.
“That’s Doc Jet, he controls all the dealings of the drug in these parts. So many people lost to him.”
I walked over and whispered, “Doc, could you hook me up?”
He grinned, “Sure how much?”
“Let’s do our dealings where no one can see,” I lied. “My girlfriend doesn’t know I do this stuff.”
He nodded and Ray walked off. When we went into an alley, I placed my hand over his mouth and slit his throat. No one would miss the drug pusher. The mutants who were addicted to his chems probably even hated him.
I wiped the blood off on his shirt and put the knife back in my pocket. Ray looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. “K-Kyle, I thought you only killed in defense.”
“Kid, I’m protecting people from him,” I lied. I didn’t give half a mutant’s *** if I saved a few more mutants, I just needed to find the Brotherhood of Steel.
“O-Okay, Kyle, whatever you say.” Obviously he believed me. He really thought I cared about these mutants. Shows how radiation has affected their intelligence over the years of exposure.
He led me to lanky, dark-haired teenager. “Yo, buddy, my name’s Ross, you looking for the hook-up?”
“Ross, get the hell out of the Hub…”
“You think you can talk to me like that?” he asked as he upholstered his desert eagle.
“Kid, look around. Look at all the lives you’re destroying. Look at how many people you’re killing.”
He scanned around us. The place was filled with addicts. All too strung out to distinguish reality. They all lived in dirty hovels cramped to the max. Feces and urine littered the streets, as well as empty jet canisters and empty hypodermic needles.
“Is your greed that serious to destroy so many lives to feed your own?”
“N-no man. You don’t understa—“
“I understand perfectly, Ross. Here’s a tip, get the hell out of here, buddy.”
He looked up at me with tears streaming down his face. The pale kid actually had a heart, when he leaves the Hub he’ll probably make it a few miles out before the Wasteland claims him.
I returned to Sarah and she handed me a map. “You’ll find the Brotherhood of Steel at the building with ‘B.o.S.’ on it. Best of luck, Kyle.”
“Same to you, Sarah.”
I walked out the door and sighed. They still lived in hovels and ruins and always would, because of people like Ross and Doc Jet. If they weren’t strung out addicts, then they were alcoholics. If they weren’t alcoholics, they were like the Jackals. These mutants would always be failures, at least until the Enclave wiped them out…
By the way this is in Circa 2242 (2241-2242ish). So this is pre Brotherhood-NCR War. So the Brotherhood is still strong and mean. 
