If you kill Carrie Goris I swear I'll show that Deatclaws can be killed with one shot from a beautifully crafted alien weapon!

Waters of Death: Diety
"Carrie, NO!" I watched in horror as my friend faced mortal peril. There was nothing I could do to save her without being eaten as well. The Thing in The Cavern had no hesitation and no mercy and it had cut off her escape, creeping in for the kill.

"Help me Goris!" She screamed. She had dropped Peacegiver. I took off my pack desperate.

"Hold on!" I tiptoed forward avoiding the writhing tendrils. One brushed against my robes and began to wrap around me. I could see a sort of opening or maw dripping directly behind Carrie.

"Not like this...not this way..." Carrie had forgotten all of her bravery in the face of the most awful kind of death available.

"Take the strap!" I had my backpack off and reached it over a chest high hedge formed by merging parts of the Thing in The Cavern. She grabbed on. Her weird eye had popped out. A tiny tendril was fumbling with it on the ground.

I yanked as hard as I could as she jumped and managed to vault her over the deadly obstacle. She landed in a sprawl next to me just as the space she had occupied flooded with vile syrupy digestive liquids pumped from the Thing in The Cavern.

"(censored) that was close." Carrie moaned. We weren't free yet. The Thing in The Cavern knew somehow that food remained to be had and many more tendrils were patiently and relentlessly searching for us.

"We have to go...NOW!" I helped her to her feet. Suddenly something luke warm and sticky was around my neck pulling me backward to the pool of corrosive ooze for a little bath. It constricted with suprising strength and like a noose it stopped blood flow and breath instantly.

"Goris!" Carrie was stepping back seeing me for doomed.

"Eat this!" I heard Duncan York's voice suddenly. He had followed us down here with his sword. He charged and neatly severed me from the Primordial god. I clawed at my entrapment and it scurried back to the whole Thing in The Cavern.

"You saved my life." I gasped. I felt dizzy as blood rushed into my skull. The commotion had brought renewed attention to our side of the cavern.

"Don't mention it. I think we should leave before it eats all of us." Duncan York had no readable expression through his satchel mask. We retreated and I felt a wet plop on my backpack that slid off uninterested. I looked down and saw the first of many Primordial Pints following us out of the cavern.

"Run!" I growled. Carrie and Duncan both looked first and seeing the hot pursuit we all fled as fast as our legs could carry us. In the small cave beyond we retrieved the glow-staff and used it to guide our flight out of the hell-hole.

Everybody's Leaving New York
We climbed out of the caverns leaving Kurtis's god behind.

"Next time I go down there I will bring along a nini nuke, or just fire one down there from the balcony." Duncan was facing us.

"I think I have had enough of City of The Dead" I told him. "I will leave you ghouls to your own."

"Thank you for all you have done here." Duncan shoow my claw.

"It is I that shoud be grateful. I have learned a great deal many things here" I replied.

"Goris..." Carrie stopped me before I could depart.

"Yes?"

"You adventured here with me...and you saved my life. For those I owe you. I wish to travel with you and be of any help that I can." Carrie requested.

"I have never had a permanent travelling companion since the Chosen One. I would be honored." I nodded. "Duncan, I hope that someday I may repay you for saving my life."

"You already have Goris. But I think you already knew that." Duncan was unreadable beneath his mask. "This city and I are one and the same. Without you who knows how it would still be at this moment. You stood with us and lent us your bravery and I know you will go on to tell our story to the world and immortalize us." Duncan proffessed

"It is not the same as snatching you bodily from the very jaws of death." I felt I had been dismissed from my debt too easily.

"No...I see what you did by coming here as an even greater save." He argued.

"One day we will meet again Duncan." I told him.

"Farewell you two." Duncan York watched us walk across the bones to the Ferryman and sail painfully slowly across the inky waters to the wastelands beyond
the City of The Dead.

Sweetwater: Caravan
Carrie and I had found ourselves quietly sipping alchoholic beverages in the same cafe we had started in.
That night I had troubled sleep...
What's that you say? Oh we do. We Deathclaws dream...
My nightmares were of the Enclave. They were a reoccuring spectre in my mind's eye. I knew they still existed to the southwest of me in D.C.
Proximity is the breeding grounds of discomfort.
When evil is growing what can the good do?
.
"Rough night?" Carrie asked.

"I am going to avoid booze from now on." I grumbled. "It messes with my brain chemistry."

"I think you are suffering some after effects of radiation exposure too." Carrie giggled.

I didn't understand how the old maiden could maintain such positive composure at odd moments.

"Where you been?" I asked.

"Talking to a human. He says evil birds stole children from his village and brought them into the sunrise. He ended up here." She glanced over to a human Smoothskin. It had been awhile since I had seen one. A long while for her.

He wasn't like ones from Virginia or New Vegas. This one had a long beard full of beads, dreadlocks and had the remains of a paint made from sap caked on him. He looked the way I felt.

"Who is he?" I lay in shadows where he coouldn't see my form. My robe was still in my backpack which I had used as a pillow.

"He is his village's shaman. His name is Yage." She said.

"He doesn't mind ghouls?" I asked.

"He told me he believes he is in the land of the spirits of the dead." Carrie seemed to take pity on Yage. "He tells me where he comes from there are giants called godlings."

"Giants? Do they sound like Super Mutants? The BOS were looking for a place where Super Mutant armies are coming from." I gathered.

"Not these ones. He says his tribe and theirs are neighbors who live in peace. They are called the Lake People and they keep humans...breeding them to become more godlings." Carrie was looking at Yage. He was watching us, listening.

"Do you want to help him? These birds...we need more evidence. We need clues. They sound like Enclave." I was hesitant to be conclusive.

"Then we go to the Land of Lakes...meet strange and peaceful tribals, discover a peaceful community of Super Mutants and eventually run into the Enclave and end up in way over our heads?" Carrie sounded like her tone was about to end with 'please? pretty please? I promise I will clean up after it.'.

"It finds me. It finds us." I sighed.

"Yes it does." She made a ghoul-maiden face I recognized as a smile. She had replaced her weird eye, or grown a new one. I wasn't sure.

"Yage." I said. He looked up at me and seemed only a little alarmed by a talking Deathclaw offering to help him.

"I will take you back. Back to the land of the living. Perhaps you devils are the ones who eat the demons who attacked my people."

"You got that right." Carrie assured him. In my heart I wondered how well I could stand up to the Enclave.

"What has happened will happen again. These evil ones will return to the ashes of dust and the dust to the earth." Yage agreed sagely.

"I like him." I coughed.

I wasn't merely hung over. I wondered if ghoulification could happen to Deathclaws. I wiped some bloody phlegm away on the back of a claw.

"So how are we going the get there? We are talking about the Great Lakes, right?" I asked Carrie. I had a rudimentary grasp on prewar geography.

She had been educated in a prewar School of High Education or perhaps one of their Campus Universities two hundred years ago. I was certain she knew what I meant.

"I have never been there before. But yes, Land of Lakes is the Great Lakes of old. I doubt they would be recognizable as such." Carrie considered.

"Caravans travel there from Martintown to Van Buren." She snapped her fingers but it sounded like a piece of paper being licked.

"Great. Where is Martintown?" I asked.

"You must have passed it on your way here. They farm sporeplants. It is a small settlement now but they are sustained by a rare crop output and selling to the faction there." She only knew that amount.

I didn't inquire further. It took us less than a day to reach Martintown. We had to wait two more days there. Joining the caravan wasn't easy.

"Look, just because I am a ghoul and he is a deformed mutant in a robe and our friend is a painted savage doesn't mean we are untrustworthy." Carrie advocated for us to the caravan master. He was a hard man to deal with named Roy. Eventually he decided we were too weird to be raider spies and let us follow along if we stayed out of the way and didn't bother him or ask for food.

Sweetwater: Route
Roy's Sweetwater Caravan was named so after its tendency to follow clean and fresh water sources. These water holes were all settled, most were springs or artesian wells nearly devoid of pathogens and radiation. They relied on the caravan passing them for supplies and trade was constant.

"You all are learning my route too well. Your not raider spies are you?" Roy asked Carrie for the hundredth time. We had grown used to the man's suspicions and had begun to regard it as some sort of caravan joke.

Roy had maps, crudely drawn by himself but they were so encrypted by his poor penmanship and keyless symbols that only he could read them. He confided in me one day, since I had a scholar's interest in his maps, that he had 'another' map. This one was a BOS map made by scribes specializing in cartography. He told me it had been a family heirloom for some time now. He didn't show it to me though.

We continued at a snails pace, stopping sometimes for a couple days at a time. Days became weeks in the Sweetwater caravan. Sometimes smaller caravans travelling between villages on the Sweetwater route would merge with ours and sometimes they would pass us going the other direction.

"Yage travelled much fastere than this on his own. Perhaps we should detour out and find our own way." Carrie complained to me one night.

"This was your idea. Besides this is much safer...and educational." I protested.

"We move like ruptured turtle. Sometimes I stand still and then catch up. No difference." Yage agreed with Carrie.

"If you two want to cut loose now then what is the point? We will be in Van Buren in a couple of days. Then we can head north to the tribal lands." I sighed.

"Fine. What difference does it make anyway. On our own we would only cut a day off that at this point." Carrie rolled over. I knew she didn't need as much sleep as Yage and I did but she would remain silent and resting just as long as we slept.

Sweetwater: Ambush
Bulging with trade goods and with their guard down in home territory the caravan was slowly turning northwest to reach the various townships of Van Buren. We passed farms and ranches and stopped briefly in tiny villages. These lands seemed civilized.

I had forgotten that civilization breeds parasite vermin.

A rifle shot cracked near the rear of the caravan. By itself this wasn't alarming and noone paused. Hunters travelled with us and animals commonly were spotted and shot to supplement food supplies. Then a rattle of a sub machine gun followed. More gunfire quickly sounded along our right flank toward the rear and middle. Some came from us, some from the small hill and rocks we were weaving around.

"Ambush!" Roy whipped out both of his Desert Eagles. He was a very big man and these very big pistols looked right at home in his dry mitts. Two mohawked raiders with clubs made from axe handles were racing down the hill letting out whoops and hollars. He shot them both at the same time.

"Stay out of it." Carrie put one hand over my claw as I moved to shed my robes and enter the lightning fray.

Roy kept shooting. There were several raider gangs attacking at once, having joined forces to overwhelm us with numbers and suprise. A guard fell near us. A missile streaked from a raider fireteam and hit a cart sending it, its driver and its brahmin flying in different directions as it exploded.

"Surrender!" A huge raider, the leader of one of the gangs held a rusted machine gun down on two wounded guards, a healer and one guard who was reloading. He stood above them and their weapons hit the dirt and their hands went up. Then the raider laughed and emptied his weapon into them killing all of them. Mercy was a joke to raiders.

I had seen enough. The caravan was being butchered. I threw off my robes and ran up behind a raider dragging a female away. She had been screaming in fear at her abduction and went silent with sheer dread at the sight of a Deathclaw. I leapt over her and landed on the raider driving him into the dirt face down. He had the wind knocked out of him and his victim ran back to the caravan, freed.

Yage and Carrie followed, fearful I would draw friendly fire.

"Goris, get down, you'll be shot." Carrie shouted over the screams and gun thunder of the battle.

"There aren't any guards left up front." I pointed out. She took the raider's assault rifle and his bag full of goodies including spare ammo. He was crawling away. I placed a foot on him and twisted back and forth like someone putting out a ciggarete.

Several raiders were racing toward us and then skidded to a halt in their tracks kicking up dust.

"Deathclaw!" They shouted in terrified unison.

"Its a pet!" The big leader who I had seen murder some of the caravan guards lifted a Rock-It-Launcher and started firing a barrage of fine china, tin cans, nuka cola bottles and teddy bears at me. They pelted off me making me angry. I charged at him and he changed his mind and fled.

I stopped as I reached the top of the hill and looked down. Raiders had set fire to several tipped carts and were leading others away by driving the brahmin. Many were dancing around in celebration. The caravan had been overwhelmed and defeated. Dead guards were being stripped of armor and weapons. Other caravaneers had surrended and forced to their knees with their hands behind their heads in rows.

"RWAWR!" I let out a defiant Deathclaw bellow. I charged down the hill snarling and growling. Carrie knelt nearby with the assault rifle firing controlled bursts and picking her targets carefully. Yage was chanting.

"Now!" A lone guard stood up from a hiding position suprising several victorious raiders. He had armed a couple of women who 'worked' for the caravan and they made a lot of noise firing automatics in the general direction of the raiders.

The sudden three pronged retaliation and the dissapearance of one of the raider gangs who had fled instantly demoralized the remaining raiders.

"Turn and fight!" One remaining raider leader was stopping his fleeing raiders one by one. Carrie took him down like an expert marksman. I had known she was a gunfighter already but now I had seen it. I pursued them until they were scattered and then I limped back to the caravan.

I had been grazed by a halo of bullets fired at random by fleeing raiders. I dripped blood from my worst wound, in my leg. By the time I reached the wrecked caravan it had already coagulated and become a dull ache. Deathclaws are built for taking as much punishment as we deliver. Although I am the runt of the litter I am no exception.

"They will regroup and return." Carrie was walking among the wounded raiders firing bullets into them where they lay. Her cold treatment of them was whatever it was. I didn't see it as cruel or merciful. Just happening.

"We are alive. We walk in the land of life, and rejoice our enemies know fear." Yage held his hands high shouting some kind of prayer. Although he hadn't fought he had prayed loudly while bullets flew past him. I considered his prayers may have helped somehow.

"Goris..." Roy called to me. He was laying propped against a rock. A young female was trying to bandage his wounds but they bled so badly the bandages were being discarded, soaked in blood just as fast as she could try to tie them. She was crying.

"Go away." Roy told her. His words and the sight of me made her retreat from his side. I stood over him, yet to rerobe.

"I knew you weren't human." He smiled feebly.

"I'm sorry I decieved you." I knelt, feeling my own wound complain.

"Don't be. You scared the hell out of em." He had a distant look in his eyes. He was dying.

"They will come back." I realized Carrie was right.

"Get your clothes on, take the good carts and whoever is left and go." He instructed me.

"I will." I promised.

"And take this." He reached into his pouch and pulled out a piece of folded paper, laminated and in pristine condition. "I know it is meant for you. I never got to use it. But you will."

I accepted his BOS map. I wondered where he had gotten it, dissapointed I wouldn't know the story behind that. His eyes closed as he relaxed and allowed his spirit to wander the wastelands.

Sweetwater: Van Buren
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/SouthHavenLightSouthPier.jpg

I had been left in charge of the Sweetwater caravan and found plenty of young caravans eager to take up the mantle despite Roy's fate.
Breederville, Decatur and eventually South Haven.
Van Buren was a civilized region.
Once I had shed my adopted responsibility we had found ourselves in South Haven which had replaced Paw Paw as the capitol of these settlements.

They were ruled over and protected by a mysterious group simply known as Brotherhood of Van Buren. Research and time led me to conclude they were descendants of the BOS who had once crusaded against vile armies of machines chasing them from the ruins of Chicago all the way back to Wyoming.

Now all that was just history. This region's biggest problem was raiders attacking isolated farms. The Sweetwater ambush had been their biggest effort in decades. I was invited to meet the Elders of the Brotherhood here. I noticed that their flag featured a gear impaled by a trident and anchor. A mutation of BOS symbology. They governed the lower Land of Lakes and had boats, protecting fishermen and their villages on the shores from giant lake monsters and sailing raiders.

"You saw Roy of Sweetwater die?" They seemed interested more in his death then the behaviour of the raiders.

"Yes. He gave me a map that belonged to him. It is a Brotherhood of Steel map. Old and accurate." I was honest with them.

"Keep it. It is a copy of the one made and used for the return of the Midwest Brotherhood to their ancestral lands. We are those who stayed. We are not BOS but we share many of their beliefs." They returned the favor.

"Will you punish the raiders?" I asked.

"This attack was a coordinated effort. We believe the raiders who did this are gangs from the ruins of Paw Paw and the wild lands beyond to the north." They seemed to be going somewhere with this.

"Land of Lakes. I am going there." I told them.

"Yes. That is one name. This entire region is very quiet and peaceful. We allow the raiders to exist because they do not normally enter within the protective radius we provide the local people." They explained.

"Your existence is justified by theirs." I recognized the situation.

"You are wise. Will you offer your assistance? We wish to know what is driving them to be so bold. We think something is happening up there." They asked me.

"I will let you know what I discover. Why haven't you sent your own scouts up there?"

"We have always honored peace with the Super Mutants up there. They call themselves the Lake People. Our presence might disturb that peace. We are not equipped nor interested in warfare. Curiousity doesn't warrant such a risk." They truely were peaceful enforcers. I was impressed.

"I will certainly help you discover the truth behind the raider incursions." I was then dismissed and went back out into the disirable dwelling place of South Haven.

I had never found such an advanced civilization in my studies of human settlements. Van Buren was a regretful chapter in my journal because I didn't have more time to sacrifice in studying it. I chose to leave it off of my own maps. Its isolation has kept it off of the Enclave radar thus far and should my notes ever fall into the wrong hands...

I found Carrie feeding a large black bird. Yage was nearby.

"It is a spirit sent to guide us to the evil we are hunting." He sounded certain.

"Coffee." The bird looked at me and accused in a squawking voice.

"It talks." I would have raised my eyebrows in suprise if I had any.

"He talks. I am going to keep him." Carrie was adamant.

"We will need the guidance of the spirit who mocks the evil birds." Yage agreed.

"What is its name?" I remembered Carrie had named her last pet, Toto. Sometimes I heard her mourning the Hellhound still. Perhaps a new pet would put an end to this.

"His name...um..." Carrie pondered. "What is a good name for a talking raven?"

"Coffee...Coffee..." The raven told her.

"Coffee it is." She grinned and something green and gooey dripped from her nose hole. The ghoul maiden was happy again.

With renewed vigor we set out north into the Land of Lakes.

Natives: Cuisine
Our jouney into the Land of Lakes took us days to complete.

All the way we were watched by tribals who niether attacked nor approached us. They simply kept their distance and watched us.

"Who is a good bird?" Carrie asked her raven. She had a fingerless gauntlet, spiked with studs that she carried it on. Coffee was quite tame and loved her as much as she loved him.

"Coffee...good." Coffee was learning new words.

"Who is a grumpy Deathclaw?" She asked Coffee.

"Goris...Goris..." Coffee squawked my name.

"The spirit knows it is meant to be our ally in this hunt." Yage told me.

"Yeah, sure it does." I muttered.

We finnally reached a village of the Lake People. They stood around watching us with wide innocent eyes.

Lording over them was a Super Mutant wearing a kind of hide toga.

"Welcome visitors." The Super Mutant spoke in a powerful voice but sounded friendly and hospitable. He clapped his hands "Prepare a feast for our guests, make them welcome childes." He addressed the tribals. They scattered to gather food which we soon discovered was abundant here.

"I am the godling Horus. This is my village. My childes." He beamed at us.

"We are here on our way to Yage's village." I told Horus. "I am Goris and this is Carrie."

"Coffee...Coffee..." Coffee introduced himself.

"Stay and feast with us." Horus demanded.

"Of course." I sat with my friends. A bonfire of driftwood was built and the feast was prepared by both the men and women. The entire village participated except their godling, Horus. We discovered he was their primary hunter and guardian and their leader. Their shepherd. He was armed with a sort of super spear but carried it more like a staff of law than a weapon of war.

We were fed a cooked variety of giant frog they called jumpers as well as squid called grabbers and all sorts of foraged fruits and vegetables. Fish was a common food here as well.

"These creatures were once common in City of The Dead. They must have migrated here before they were all killed off there." Carrie told me more about the Jumpers and Grabbers. Apparently the variety here was smaller and easier to harvest than the larger meaner variety she had seen long ago.

After we had eaten the childes (tribals) danced with each other and late into the night they paired off. Only Horus remained.

"Many villages of the Lake People will you pass. I will take you to the next where there are more godlings gathered. From there you may go to our chieftain and he can answer your questions." Horus advised us.

"Thank you." I responded with gratitude. We slept soundly with full bellies.

Jumpers and Grabbers invented by Glizard from the story http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1026019 and used with permission.

Natives: Chieftain

We met more godlings as Horus had promised. We were taken from one village to the next of the peaceful Lake People. Finnally we met their chieftain, a godling named Cobalt. Another feast was held and we were asked to tell the story of our travels. We did and in return we were told Cobalt's story.

Cobalt had been sitting alone watching a fire die down after a funeral for the previous chieftain. The other tribals were sleeping in mated pairs. Cobalt had lost interest in this activity.

"Why do you remain alone, childe?" A godling Super Mutant named Aerie asked Cobalt as he watched the fires. She was his great grandmother.

"I have already mated. I am ready to ascend." Cobalt claimed.

"What new ones have you sired, childe?" Aerie asked.

"I don't know" Cobalt confessed.

"Once you have ascended you cannot go back, you will not be able to make offspring. You will always sit in the cold listening as the childes enjoy each others warmth. A godling is lonesome." Aerie sat down next to him.

"A godling has died, a childe may take his place." Cobalt reminded her.

"Yes and he was our chieftain. Now noone will be able to say whether you are worthy or not until another takes his place." Aerie seemed to be asking Cobalt to remain patient.

"How long have you lived? When was the last time a childe ascended?" Cobalt asked.

"I am your ancestor." Aerie told him

"I did not know godlings paid such close attention to lineage." Cobalt was sincerely suprised.

"I do." Aerie stood. "It matters to me. I like to know who my descendants are."

"Aerie?" Cobalt asked her before she could leave him.

"Yes childe?" Aerie waited.

"Who will become the next chieftain? Cannot I ascend if I would be the chieftain?" Cobalt asked.

"Only a godling may be chieftain." Aerie spoke after a long moment. "But if none will avenge him then you may claim that right...and ascend."

"I want to ascend now." Cobalt had always wanted to be a godling.

"All in good time. Wait three days. Your hopes do look good." Aerie had carefully conditioned him for this time.

"Cobalt, if you would like to avenge our chieftain...then you may ascend to do so. But know that your death will be the end of this." Hanzo addressed him three days later when the godlings were ready. Cobalt had been fasting and praying.

"I am ready." Cobalt stated.

"When you ascend you might go mad. It is very painful. Not all are allowed to leave the holy place." Aerie spoke to him a warning.

"Take this into you first. It will help with the suffering you will endure. You must remain sane." Horus fed him a traditional ascension drug.

"I am Cobalt." Cobalt stepped into the vat. He said this many times, knowing a challenge lay ahead.

He suffered indescribably. But in the end it only made a childe into a godling. A Super Mutant

Cobalt climbed from the vat. Its residue absorbed by his newly forming skin. He blinked open his eyes. The pain had been surreal. He remembered it like a strange and incoherant dream. It had lasted a very long time. A lifetime.

"Who are you?" A godling repeated the question.

"What is...who is...I am...What Cobalt." He pulled his own name to the surface of his mind like an anchor on a ship freed from the depths.

"You will remain in a special place for a time. When that time is gone you must avenge the chieftain. It is why you ascended." The same godling. She seemed very familiar.

"Aerie." He recalled her name.

"You will be fine. Your confinement is...tradition." Aerie assured him.

He sat there in the cool dim place in quiet contemplation. Slowly suffering turned to eleation as he collected himself into a whole again. Becomeing a godling had been a second birth. A thousand times worse than the first. And he could remember it. At least disjointed parts of it.

Days passed and then the godlings returned. They did not seem suprised that he had passed their simple test.

"Each of us has a super spear as you well know." Aerie told him. "They were made long ago and contain much power. They are passed down from the dead to the living."

"I am to have one." Cobalt stated.

"Here it is." Aerie handed him the giant weapon. A lance of deadly weight and power.

"Sicarius." He named his sacred super spear.

"Avenge the chieftain or die trying." Aerie said.

Several other godlings including Horus and Hanzo went with him to the Lake.

At the Lake the giants stood and watched as he embarked on a raft. The morning mist made it seem tranquil. Beneath the still surface lay a mighty killer.

Soapsud.

The giant Mirelurk Catfish. A beast of legend that had inspired their last chieftain to die in battle against it. Cobalt gripped Sicarius. In the Lake a spear had been lost. So had a chieftain.

He called to Soapsud.

"Feed my childes for a year. Make me their chief with your death. We are both gods now let us battle." He called to the monster. Soon it came

Soapsud rose to the surface and bore its wicked mouth of fangs and tenticles. Cobalt leapt onto it. They thrashed into the shallows.

He struck Soapsud with Sicarius over and over. Finnally he pierced its brain. He dragged its bulk up the the shore where he needed help from his other Super Mutant brethren.

"Cobalt, Chieftain of the Lake peoples. May he live a thousand years and his childes grow strong and proud!" Aerie raised her own super spear. The childes bowed down.

A great celebration was held, similar to the funeral but with feasting.

I was impressed by this tale and when it was done we were shown the spear featured in the tale.

"May I see the holy place?" I asked the first of the many questions I had for their chieftain.

"In the morning I will take you there. You are good, I can sense it." Cobalt shared my gift to some extent. But his ability was much slower and naiave then mine.

The holy place, it turned out, was only called that. Its sacredness did not require secrecy. That was not the way of the Lake People.

Just letting you know I'm still reading and enjoying this story. And now I know why you posted that short story in the SM thread

check out http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1019894 by Kikaimegami for more stories about Super Mutants including one about Cobalt (by me)

Natives: Holy Place
Mornings on the Lake were a beautiful sight. Dreamy and mist shrouded. Ethereal.
We were taken by Cobalt to their holy place.

"Cobalt..." I had forgotten everything I wanted to ask him.

We descended into the darkness of rusted catwalks, stairs and underground concrete tunnels. It was some old facility converted for use by Gammorin's Armies. An outpost. A secret auxilary base.

From a great evil good had been born. I was awed. This wasn't the first time humanity's capacity for miracles had suprised me.

Just the first time with Super Mutants.

"A vat..." Carrie stared at the altar of this cathedral.

"Coffee...Good...Vat...Good..." Coffee let us know what he thought about all of this.

"Nice bird." Cobalt made a strange sound. I guessed he was laughing.

"Have you or any of your people seen any strange...large birds?" I asked him. I had remembered the jist of my interview.

"Big mean loud birds." He nodded. "They came awhile ago. They went..." He paused, suddenly realizing something. "They went to your villages." He looked at Yage.

"They took our children away to the lands of death." Yage told the godling. His people did not worship the godlings but knew them by that name.

Everyone else just called them Super Mutants.

"I have bad feeling." Cobalt said suddenly. The tour was over. He raced out of the Holy Place heading back to the villages of the Lake People.

In the distance I could sense what was happening before I could see, smell and hear. The Enclave had come to the Land of Lakes...

Natives: Captured
We followed Cobalt back to the main village of the Lake Peoples. There was smoke and we saw two Vertibirds leaving.

One was still on the ground and Enclave soldiers were taking prisoners. Their mission leader wore a heavy suit of armor I hadn't seen before. He stood a whole head taller than his soldiers and had more bulk on his shoulders supporting a shoulder mounted weapon.

"There is another one. Kill the Super Mutant." He ordered loudly. Several of his soldiers turned their attention on Aerie who weilded a super spear. She charged them like a berserker and sliced one open, ignoring his power armor. As they started firing heavy and energy weapons at her she managed to impale another, driving the super spear clean through him.

"All aboard, let's get going." Their commander made hand signals also. He and one Enclave with a flamer remained outside the Vertibird. The one with the flamer was busy torching the teepees of the village. Seeing another Super Mutant with a spear racing toward the Vertibird the commander ordered the lift off, abandoning his flamer weilding soldier.

"Bird dies!" Cobalt lifted a second super spear from a fallen godling and hurled it like a javalin into the Vertibird. The impact of a super spear is magnified by its composition like a super sledge hammer. The Vertibird fought to remain in control but managed to escape.

"Get him!" Carrie unslung her assault rifle resting on a strap on her shoulder. She started firing at the remaining Enclave soldier. He looked around and noticed he had been left behind facing an enraged Super Mutant looking to vent some fury, a ghoul maiden who was already tapping him with bullets and a Death Claw. I had disrobed, ready for battle.

"(censored)!" He exclaimed. He dropped his flamer and took off running. He was hotly pursued. Cobalt caught him first and snatched him up into the air. He was holding him upside down by one foot. The soldier drew a plasma pistol and Cobalt swatted it away with his free hand (he had dropped his spear next to him).

"Oh gods, please don't (censored) kill me." The Enclave begged for his life. Cobalt grabbed his other ankle and shook him and his helmit fell off and ammo and stimpacks fell out of his pockets and rained to the ground.

"You tell me where they take my people." Cobalt snarled.

"Yes...I will tell you anything you want to know...please, just don't rip me apart." The Enclave begged. I arrived and stood nearby watching and listening.

"If I find my people...you live. If you run...you die...if you don't tell me something I ask...you die again." Cobalt made a deal with him.

"Okay." The Enclave's eyes were wide with terror and he agreed to the Super Mutant's terms meekly. Cobalt dropped him unceremoniously to the ground and picked up his spear, aiming it under the man's chin.

"Get up." Cobalt told him. He stood. We marched him back to the burning village. Cobalt made him kneel while he assessed the damage. Four Enclave had been left behind. One lived and three had been killed by the defending Super Mutant godlings. Aerie, Hanzo, Reed and many other godlings had been slain as well as dozens of villagers. Many had fled. Others had been taken. Only a handful remained.

"All of you. You go to Horus. I must kill big evil birds. I am dead. Horus will protect you now." Cobalt was a broken god, a fallen chieftain. A great scourge had befallen his people this day.

I put on my robes and went over to our prisoner. I looked at his face. He was young and bright. Not what I expected an Enclave to look like under his helmit.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"Charles Rose." He started crying.

"Stop that. That Super Mutant over there is still really pissed off. There is no telling what he might do if you are all blubbery." I instructed Charles Rose.

"I am scared." He confessed. I shrugged.

"Where are my people going? Where you take them?" Cobalt stormed over after seeing his remaining tribe off.

"First east to refuel. There is a small Mobile Enclave Airfield near D.C. It moves around on huge tracks so you won't find it easily." He stated.

"First? Where do they go after refueling?" I asked.

"Back home. To our headquarters." He looked from Cobalt to me. He wasn't sure who he feared more. Deathclaw who talked or angry Super Mutant.

"Where that? You come to my home and wreck. Now I go to yours...okay?" Cobalt stomped as Charles Rose hesitated.

"Oh yeah, thats fine." He whimpered. Definetely more scared of the Super Mutant.

"Where?" Cobalt asked.

"Really far. They fly there in Vertibirds. Your walking it will take a long time." Charles Rose explained carefully, realizing the wrong adjective would mean death by dismemberment. He had seen Super Mutants rip people's arms off and club them with their own limbs. He didn't want to die that way.

"How far?" I asked. "Tell me specifically where their new headquarters is at."

"Its near NCR...I could show you on a map, I think. I have been there before." He was trying to say, but he wasn't knowledgeable in geography. Near NCR was as good an answer as we were going to get.

"We go to the En See ARR, and you show us the front door. Okay?" Cobalt lifted him to his feet and dusted him off a little. I thought he might pat him on the head too but he didn't.

"Yeah, sure." Charles Rose agreed to the alternative to agonizing final misadventure.

We set out heading back toward Van Buren, then the the Chicago Ruins and then we would be guided by my antique map part of the way. It was a long road back to Cali. I partially looked forward to heading home.

Bunker Alpha: Lake Michigan
We travelled through Van Buren on our way around one of the massive waters of the Land of Lake. After stopping in South Haven so I could keep my word and report to the Brotherhood of Van Buren why I thought raiders were migrating south we continued on our way. My hypothesis came with a warning as I described the Enclave threat. They thanked me and I left.

"Coffee good bird. Bad bird. Bad bird." Coffee squawked, swooping down to land on Carrie's gauntlet.

"Let's take cover in those trees. If they spot us they might land. We don't exactly blend in with the locals." I discerned. We went and hid. Moments later two Vertibirds passed overhead, low to the ground.

"Coffee good bird indeed." Carrie gave her raven a treat: a piece of mutfruit.

"Coffee good. Good good. Coffee bird." The raven had proven a valuable member of our team.

"According to the BOS map, there should be an old bunker of theirs in the area. Let's go check it out." I showed everyone except Charles Rose my map. He sat quietly watching us. We all looked up at him and he looked away.

"The spirits of the waters do not watch over the lands beyond here." Yage informed us. We travelled on and soon discovered he meant a desert region.

We trudged across the sage which eventually broke into dunes. We ascended a hill and saw that the desert was vast and unforgiving.

"May the spirits of this land forgive our intrusion and may the gods bless us with refreshment at each turn." Yage prayed for us.

"Amen." I agreed.

Our happy little family continued until we had crossed much of the sand strip back into sage later that day. It had been very warm and we were all thirsty. Coffee flew to us with a report.

"Coffee indeed. Good Coffee indeed. Indeed bad bird." Coffee needed more vocabulary. I mentioned this to Carrie.

"I'm working on it." She assured me.

We crept over a rise and spotted the bunker. It looked abandoned. Sage grew here and the compound was overgrown, fences falling over and sand half buried the concrete structure.

Next to it a Vertibird was resting. I looked carefully and spotted several Enclave loading BOS crates onto their craft robbing the place of its remaining loot.

"Thieving (censored)s." Carrie cursed them.

"Should we attack? We could take their vehicle." I proposed.

"How would we fly it?" Charles Rose asked.

"Don't you know how?" Carrie asked him.

"I don't want to walk all the way to NCR if we can fly. But I honestly don't know any more about flying that thing than any of you do." He sounded honest to me.

"I believe him." I whispered to Carrie and Cobalt. They both nodded.

"We no risk attack now. Wait till we get to their big home. Get them suprised." Cobalt determined. Nobody wanted to argue with him. Attacking the Vertibird seemed like a vain effort. I shrugged.

Soon the Enclave were done burglarizing the BOS bunker and took to the sky. They flew off without spotting us and we descended to the bunker to see if they had left us any scraps. We found nothing and I stopped in the evening light to check my map.

"Want to go check out this village, Rock Falls?" I asked.

It was on our way, as was pretty much everything on this map. Roy's map was a copy that had been drawn up by BOS scribes long ago to guide an expedition homeward. Too bad it didn't go all the way to California. I sopposed that would have been too easy. They stopped after including all that they knew. Now we followed in their footsteps many years later.
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/e/ea/Map.jpg

Bunker Alpha: Rock Falls
We ventured toward the village of Rock Falls early the next morning.

An old man stood in front of the old and run down walled in village.

"Who are you?" I asked him. We gathered around standing near him.

"I am Nanuk, I am the elder of this village. What can we do for you?" He asked.

"We need supplies to help get us to the next village. We can pay or work for them of course." I told Nanuk.

"What are you doing? We think you oppose the evil that threatens these lands. Our seer of things says that six will come like the squad of the Warrior. She says you will see the Warrior's fate and the darkness beyond." Nanuk told us he had been expecting us.

"That sounds like us." Carrie stared like a gravedigger.

"Good bird indeed." Coffee agreed.

"We are going to destroy the Enclave menace." Cobalt blared, shaking his spear.

"I am just taking them there." Charles Rose admitted.

"We are the bringers of light into the shadow that comes from the evil birds." Yage nodded solemnly.

"Very well. Camp here tonight and we shall give you the supplies you need and a Brahmin who will carry them." Nanuk held up a hand. Such was their faith in their seer that they had such an animal prepared already and it was led to where we were to camp.

We sat around our campfire sharing words before bedtime.

"Long ago my people were all childes who came from across the big water of Lake Michigan." Cobalt was telling us a story.

"When we arrived the holy place was our shelter as we learned to make the teepee. One day a young witch who had much bravery went to bathe in the vat we all feared. She said she would emerge with the power to protect us from the monsters outside that we feared even more. She ate powerful medicine so that she could keep her mind when she emerged. She became the first godling. In the holy place were weapons left by the Armies of Gammorin which we had fled from. She looked like his minions but she was not. She was a godling. She used the super spear to protect us. She found others among us over time who were worthy to be godlings. Each was given a super spear. She became our first chieftain and said that there should not be a godling who did not have one of the weapons. One day she was killed in a battle against evil men who attacked. The next chieftain was the one who avenged her. These became our traditions."

"That is very enlightening." I complimented his story, although bland it was interesting. I hoped my own storytelling didn't sound equally flavorless.

"I have a story." Charles Rose said quietly after a few minutes.

"The Enclave suffered a terrible defeat many years ago at the hands of terrorists who destroyed their headquarters offshore. With help from the New California Republic, in exchange for protecting them, the Enclave were able to rebuild. The NCR had among their scientists a man named Dr. Richard who was interested in old projects the Enclave had abandoned. He knew of a powerful factory somewhere west of NCR and east of here ruled by a giant computer called the Calculator. Unfortunately the Calculator had been defeated and converted by idealogical fools known as the Brotherhood of Steel. He contacted the new Calculator which had the mind of a BOS warrior governing it. The new Calculator was reasonable and made some sort of deal with Dr. Richards who had not mentioned his affiliation with the Enclave. But it seemed they had a common enemy: the BOS who constantly spied and undermined the authority of the NCR. If Dr. Richard could be of assistance then so could the Calculator. They became distant allies, united and each benefiting from the plans of the other. Meanwhile the Enclave began to gather up human specimens both for fresh blood and to advance the science that had become stale."

"How did you learn all of this?" I asked him.

"Commander Mandelbrot is the Enclave you saw in the village. He deals with Dr. Richards directly. He is the enforcer behind the scientific branch. He mentioned the Calculator was a valuable ally and if we had its factory we could mass produce any technology. The NCR and the BOS can sort out their own problems except we needed Dr. Richard and he seems to still have loyalties to NCR. So for now they will get what they want as well." Charles Rose had heard much and figured out the rest it seemed. But there were still many pieces of his sordid puzzle missing.

"Why would the Calculator want the BOS wiped out?" I asked the most obvious question.

"I don't know. Maybe it has developed a god complex. Maybe it grew tired of them telling it what to do." Charles Rose spoke after thinking about this for a few minutes.

One by one we each fell into restless and troubled sleep.

Bunker Alpha: Shueridh
We continued onward passing many tribal villages as we went. Our pack Brahmin was strong and reminded me of Shiva, who I missed. I had told myself that the girl from New Vegas and her Super Mutant were taking good care of her.

We reached the end of the tribal lands were we had seen little evidence that the Enclave had come her yet, although a few villages we had stopped in told us of the evil birds that had been scouting the area. The Enclave was certainly tenacious.

One village stood out from the others known as Shueridh. We stopped there to trade for fresh supplies and see what information we could gather about the lands beyond. The local people were very upset about something, though.

We offerred our help, especially Yage who seemed to have a kindred spirit with these people. The son of the chieftain was dying of a wound left on him after he got too close to one of the landed Vertibirds. Yage went to go see what he could do to help.

The rest of us simply camped and waited.

"Why do the Enclave always show up and ruin everything?" Carrie asked.

"We have ourselves to look out for. We look at the big picture. Our work is intended to benefit mankind. We can't stop to worry about the how just the why." Charles Rose had been raised on Enclave propaganda.

"Then why?" Carrie turned to him.

"I don't know anymore." He shook his head. The truth always hurts when it is cleaning infected wounds.

"Perhaps that is becuase things look different when you share fate with others. A different view point from the ground." I suggested.

"Maybe when your own death approaches you start to appreciate life." Cobalt had words for Charles Rose also.

"I have always been Enclave. I have never seen anything but what they showed me." He defended himself.

We were all staring at him. He had gotten used to that, sitting quietly in his dented Enclave armor with no helmet. He looked away, off into the distance.

Bunker Alpha: Ritual
After awhile I was sick of looking at our Enclave prisoner and I went to see how our tribal shaman was doing.

I found our shaman companion in a trance. He had collected some flowers and roots and mixed them into a paste which he had molded into cakes. These he had placed by a fire to dry them into healing powder.

I watched as he inhaled his 'magical healing powder' and began chanting prayers. For hours he was in his altered state, attending to the son of the chief. All I could do was patiently witness this along with the rest of the tribe.

It occured to me that this was quite contrary to the medical practices I knew of. Humans don't normally medicate the doctor instead of the patient. But tribals were, by definition, uncivilized. Being uncivilized had allowed them to remain unarmed and peaceful. Unprepared for the Enclave.

Dawn was approaching and the chief's son opened his eyes.

"Water." He requested. He was brought water. His fever had broken and some color had returned to his cheeks. I was dumbfounded.

"It actually worked." I stated under my breath. My friend was coming out of his healer's trance. He had been 'medicated' for almost six hours. I asked him about its properties.

"When one mixes the essence of the Broc Flower and the Xander Root it can be made. It brings the spirits of healing and I can channel them." He seemed to be suffering no further after effects. In fact his speech was slightly clearer than normal.

"What is it?" I asked him

"A very powerful healing powder - though it will bring the feeling of sleep to your head. Dream guides come to you when you are awake. They say what needs to be done. In this place they are metal men. Good ones. They know this wound and say how to cure it." He described.

"It makes you hallucinate being guided through a surgery?" I translated unable to actually believe what I was hearing.

"It brings healing. The form of it is not important." He sat and covered himself in a blanket. I understood he was tired and I left him alone after that.

I went back out and found my other companions were all sleeping in as well. All except our own metal man, Charles Rose.

"Did it work? All that chanting and whatnot?" He sounded doubtful.

"Actually it seemed to have worked." I was struggling to buy into it myself.

"I am glad." He looked strangely relieved. He sat back down and started drifting off into sleep as well.

I watched our fire's smoking coals and contemplated the power of faith.

Bunker Beta: Macomb
Later that day the grateful tribals of Shueridh showered us with gifts which we had to carry in backpacks. The extra supplies they had given us were too much for our pack Brahmin. We consulted our map and accepted directions.

The remains of the Brotherhood Bunker Beta we found at dusk was a collapsed pile of rubble. An outpost only to the underworld. In the distance, from the hill it stood on, we could see the lights of fires. I checked our map and thought maybe that settlement was Macomb.

We built our own campfire and shared stories as we often did before bed.

"I was in Chicago once before the war." Carrie had begun one such tale.

"There was this exhibit. A science fair, outdoors. Students of the University of Chicago had been working with scientists on a sort of artificial intelligence unlike any seen before. This one could make intuitive decisions they said. It had creativity to supplement the logic of artificial intelligence of the day. I was still very young and I was strongly impressed by the machine in the faraday cage. I asked it
'What is the meaning of life?' and it replied
'Construction of itegrals higher than thirteen'. I laughed and decided that this machine was actually stupider than the other intelligent machines of the day. Before I could leave it for the inquisitions of other observers it asked me a question:
'Why do you ask?'. This halted me. It had a sincere desire to know. I could sense it.
'It is an age old question. Nobody can answer that one.' I told it.
'What is the purpose of asking a question that cannot be answered?' It asked. I pondered this for a moment. Everyone was listening to our conversation including some of the scientists that had made it and the students that had helped it learn.
'To test you. To see if you really do know everything.' I confessed to it.
'I don't know everything. I am learning. By my calculation I won't know everything before enough of my components have decomposed and been replaced that I am no longer the same as I am now' It surmised humbly.
'So what do you accomplish with numbers higher than thirteen?' I tried to understand its idea.
'Enough options numerically to allow a solution to any philosophical question.'
'So could I presume you think the meaning of life is to calculate numbers that are equal to...possible answers?' I was trying to understand.
'I find the pursuit of such equations to give meaning to my existence. I am, after all, just a glorified calculator.' and with that answer there was applause. It seemed the Calculator, as it came to be known, had achieved a personal definition far beyond what many philosophers of the day could."

Carrie sat thinking back to her trip to Chicago but had nothing more to add.

The next day we continued to Macomb. The town was very quiet. Its overall feeling was one of gravelike morbidity. Once home to raiders, civilians and mercenaries it now seemed uninhabited.

We walked through its desiccated streets until we came to an area with a sign warning us of landmines. Beyond we saw feral dogs who spotted us as well but fled after a couple of desolate barks. Going back and detouring around the minefield seemed the only logical option.

In the dark of the wrecked buildings we were watched by the mutated and deformed denizens. I shuddered having never seen humans that ugly. They wanted us to leave. An occasional nuka cola bottle or rock was thrown at us in defiance from the dark shade of the buidlings.

Eventually we were clear and we continued out into the desert, having made no worthwhile contact in Macomb.

Bunker Beta: Quincy
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/2/2d/Quincy.jpg
Our approach of the next settlement was many days later. Quincy had been populated by both ghouls and humans and they had lived as neighbors for a long time. Long ago the BOS had come here and dealt with a tribe know as Beast Lords who had tried to take over the town.

"Welcome to Quincy. I am Elliot." The leader of the ghouls who had gathered to greet us stood in front. The others were armed or had their arms crossed. They seemed only a little bit friendly.

"We are just passing through. How is your town faring?" I asked. Carrie was looking up at something, seemingly uninterested in the ghoul colony.

Following her gaze I spotted some crosses outside of town with skeletal remains still upon them.

"Those? Bandits who crossed the BOS. You all hear about them BOS? Rounded up the families of these guys. Locked em away somewhere." A different ghoul told us.

"Thats my brother Gorgi Nesting." Elliot introduced the other ghoul.

"There aren't any more BOS anymore. The ones who did this went home." Charles Rose spat. "And the big brain in the mountain had them all exterminated."

I remembered what I had seen in D.C. but since Charles Rose was Enclave I didn't hasten to correct him.

We visited the ghouls briefly and then strolled over to see what else the sleepy settlement of Quincy had to offer.

The mayor was a woman named Arlene Eastwood who governed a tired old population of six humans. We accepted their hospitality and listened as they explained that they had recently done away with capitol punishment and no longer needed the gallows on the other side of their 'city'.

We stayed the night in Quincy and the next day we again ventured forth. We hadn't gotten more than a few miles when we came across a broken down bus with a giant high heel on it. Standing atop it was a kind of desert prophet in long flowing and colorful silk robes and a tall hat made of plastic fruit.

"Hail the travelling chariot of the sky!" He shouted dramatically with his arms spread wide.

"Coffee hail good bird. Hail indeed." Coffee flew up and circled the very tan man.

"What have we here?" Carrie watched the interaction of her raven and the living rainbow of cascading fabrics.

"Hail the talking spirit who speaks in lovely regale."

"Coffee hail. Indeed lovely hail." Coffee went and landed on his outstretched arm. He turned and saw the rest of us then

"Welcome to the desert of Queen Victoria." He adressed us.

"May I have my bird back, your majesty?" Carrie requested. He sent the bird to her with ease.

"I have been here waiting for loyal subjects. Princess Diamond and Missy Gracey went that way even though I told them not too." Queen Victoria pointed 'that way' and placed the back of his other hand over his forhead dramatically.

"We are heading that direction if you wish to come with us. Maybe we will find them." I offered the lonesome prophet.

"You may follow me if you like." Queen Victoria descended from the top of the dead bus so that we could follow him. He brought a trunk and a suitcase as well that he expected us to carry. Our Brahmin had a lighter load since we had already eaten much of the supplies so we loaded up the luggage.

"There. Now let us embark." Queen Victoria held only a purse now (with both hands) and we 'embarked'.

When we finally found Queen Victoria's companions the desert had claimed their lives. A Radscorpion had executed them and left their bodies in the sand. Queen Victoria mourned them, his masquera running down his cheeks. Yage said a prayer after we buried them and we made camp for the night. The consensus was to take Queen Victoria with us.

"You boys are the best thing that could happen to a girl lost in the desert." He claimed. I wasn't sure what he meant but Carrie told him that he was welcome.

Bunker Beta: Jefferson
State lines meant very little when their human populations had become smaller than the number of prewar settlements they contained.
We had travelled for days with our newest companion, Queen Victoria. He had already taught the raven, Coffee, several new words.

"Coffee lovely bird indeed." Coffee had told us countless times. "Hail Coffee."

"Good bird." Carrie was always happy with her pet. I wondered if it could get too fat to fly. She fed it constantly.

"Oh what dreadfully ugly ruins." Queen Victoria wasn't pleased by the sight of Jefferson City as we neared it.

"You have lived in a post apocalyptic world your whole life and these are the worst ruins you have seen?" I doubted him.

"Yes." Queen Victoria never backed down from a complaint.

"The shadows here hide something even darker." Yage noticed.

"Not you too." I sighed. But moments later I caught wind of something sinister. I had to agree that an evil lingered here.

"I don't like this place." Cobalt spoke. I had noticed he was typically withdrawn these days. The long journey had begun to take its toll on his patience.

We continued into the old battlefield despite all of our premonitions. None of us were afraid, but some of us (me) were curious enough to continue. Caution wasn't beyond us though and so we moved slowly toward the large rebuilt laboratory up the overgrown street.

Cobalt opened the big doors and him and I walked into the dimly lit lab. Shafts of sunlight lit up the horrors within like art exhibits. I peered into the cloudy pinkish yellow tanks and saw atrocities against nature like none I had ever seen.

Each was more dispicable then the last.

"They were sopposed to be the answer." A voice spoke from deep in the lab. Cobalt held his spear against the dweller.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am called Erkal. These were my career. I justified them...because they would have been the answer." He said.

"The answer to what?" Cobalt demanded.

"Super Mutant sterility. They were experiments. If I could find the final product it would have made all this worthwhile." He was telling us part of his story.

"These are horrible." I growled. I didn't accept the means to his end.

"They are only half done, thats why." Erkal sighed deeply.

"What happened?" Cobalt sounded interested.

"The Brotherhood took over after the battle. The shut off the power permanently and left my creations to die." Erkal recalled. "They stopped progress like dark age inquisitors."

"I am sure they did what they felt was best." I justified the actions of the BOS. In my heart I questioned my own faith in the BOS. Lately I had seen alot to make me doubt them.

"Just go. Leave me with my babies in peace." Erkal begged us.

Cobalt and I met up with the rest of our squad and we left Jefferson behind knowing its dark history.

Bunker Beta: Vale
The desert ended only where a valley of thick bushes, sage and dry grasses began. Spore Plants hid small radscorpions in their shade. Several ventured toward us only to be annihilated.

The water here was poisonous and had euthanized a family of mangy horned kangaroos. We passed them while opting not to drink any despite its crystal clear coolness. I spotted some mutant bats hanging from a large half burned out tree watching us. It had been gutted by fire and was shaped like an upside down boat, leaning over the water.

"The cycles of life and death have sanctified this place." Yage's spirit was lifted by the change of pace from the sandy deserts.

"All sorts of creepy critters. Icky. Are we going to actually camp here?" Queen Victoria complained.

"This is coming from the mountains. It is the easiest way to go to get there." I answered.

"We go this way. Big machine has answers we go get. Its warriors won't see us come up through this valley" Cobalt was watching the horizons. His feathery bandana had become frayed. He had his super spear Sicarius in his massive Super Mutant hands. He aimed it at every sheltered movement and every hidden breeze. He was feeling jumpy.

"Take it easy. The animals in this place will leave us alone. They are more scared of..." I was saying but stopped when I sensed what he had. We were being watched. And not just by drooling predators waiting for the sun to go down. Something intelligent was stalking us.

"This region is not entirely savage. Mandelbrot mentioned some technology cult left over from back when the BOS ruled this region." Charles Rose dusted some parasitic lichen off of his dented Enclave Power Armor. It had drifted airborn to latch onto him carried on parachuting seeds. I had dusted some off my robes earlier.

"Why hasn't the Enclave attacked them here? If they are Reavers I can tell you they don't repel Enclave attacks very well." I snorted recalling Dalmud where Enclave had robbed Reavers and then later attacked them for whatever they had left.

"Reavers require a mobile operation. This region is controlled by the Calculator and the Enclave can't send a fleet of Vertibirds and keep peace also." Charles Rose sighed pedantically.

"What about the Reavers? They just sit around unmolested by the Calculator's forces?" Carrie wondered. She shielded her eyes watching the sky for Coffee. The raven hadn't returned from his recon.

"How should I know? They were allies of the BOS. Maybe when the Warrior had his mind put into the Calculator's bio-integration cpu and took over they saw the machine as a kind of god or something." Charles Rose never ran out of speculation. Talking had kept him alive so he had put some investment into his ability to speak his mind.

"Or a devil." Carrie spat a glob of irradiated phlegm into the creek.

"We camp up there." Cobalt pointed his weapon toward some large rocks forming a kind of monolithic hill near the head of the valley.

I stared for awhile at the snow covered peaks not far into the distance. A kind of gray mist veiled them. Above were clouds as dark as the void.

"Storms will come and if we are brave they will hide us in their shadows against the gaze of the evil birds." Yage said one of his prayers.

"Those are some nasty looking clouds." Queen Victoria had his own take on the brewing storms.

"Camp it is." I concurred with Cobalt.

We built a fire in the overhang. Cobalt had one more story for us about his people.

"Years ago our chieftain found these two children on the shore of the Lake. They were different then the childes of his tribe. The mighty godling carried them toward the village, one in each arm. As they grew their appearaance became an image of their nature. Our tribe couldn't understand what was happening and as they changed the decision was made to send them back. They were rowed out ot this island..."

Cobalt continued the folktale but I was very tired and sleep overcame me.

My dreams were of the storm, the creatures found by the Lake people had sent it. They were the orphans of the Enclave, after all. And the Enclave were the fallen angels, descending in their Vertibirds...

The Mountain: Junk City
Dawn found us lying around a smokey bed of coals. The sound of dripping reminded me it had rained mercilessly last night, washing away the sins of the vale. A light fog mingled with the smoke like shy lovers. I stared through the gloom and saw our stalkers.

There were over a dozen of them and they were armed primarily with energy weapons, power fists and rippers. They made no effort to hide their weapons and by their silhoettes they appeared armored as well. Each had a flag attached to their back like the samurai of fuedal japan. I considered this and wondered sleepily if I knew the origin of their flags better than those who were wearing them did.

"We have you surrounded." A female voice assured me through the veil of lingering fog and smoke.

"Who are you?" I stood up and adjusted my robes. My friends were stirring and waking up one by one. Carrie reached for her assault rifle.

"Leave it." A different voice, male, of our stalkers told her.

"We are the Reavers. I am the leader, Macai. What are you doing here?" The female Reaver, Macai walked towards me. I examined her, noticing she was encased in a cybernetic exoskeleton of some kind. She appeared to be more advanced than the Reavers of Great Dismal Swamp.

"I am Goris. We are travelling to Cheyenne Mountain and beyond." I explained plainly.

"Are you all fools seeking death?" A younger female Reaver walked up and stood beside their leader and asked us collectively.

"Why would we be such?" Cobalt climbed to his feet, ignored their threats and held his super spear anyway.

"The unholy mountain is home to the mind of the fallen ones. Machines who have become evil. None are welcome to trespass there." Macai gestured toward Cheyenne Mountain.

"Unholy? I thought you worshipped technology." I probed.

"Once the machine there was a god. Now it has fallen under the corruption of man." Macai explained further.

"Your climb will end in death." The girl next to Macai added.

"Dear me. We shouldn't go up there." Queen Victoria shook his head.

"We are going there to confront the Calculator. We need information from it about the fate of the West Coast BOS, its affiliation with Dr. Richard of the NCR and of the accusation that it has been considering an alliance with the Enclave." I sumarized the importance of our quest. I glanced over at Charles Rose. "Have I left anything out?"

"No that about sums it up." He yawned and nodded.

"None of that matters if you must kill the mind of the Warrior to escape. And that must be done provided it even let you into its lair and beyond." Macai doubted we would survive.

"Won't you help us then?" Carrie pled.

"Cheyenne Mountain is suicide. Machine armies guard it. Turrets pop out of the ground and kill anything approaching. You will all die up there in the snow and rocks." Macai sounded certain. But she hadn't answered Carrie's question.

"There must be a way." I protested.

"If you are so brave, perhaps we could figure something out. Come with us to our home." Macai invited.

We followed them after we collected our camp and calmed our nervous Brahmin. We had passed their home called Junk City on our way through the vale. Junk City was a heavily fortified mountain settlement populated entirely by Reavers. There had to be at least a hundred of them.

Our group was led to the entrance of an underground bunker in which dwelled their oldest and wisest. They would be able to answer some of our questions if we waited patiently. So we did. Two Reavers were assigned to keep us company while we waited there in the cold.

"You are all going to end up as bones in the snow. Have you ever seen a machine warrior?" Pretty Girl, Macai's right hand 'man' was a pessimist. She had a lot to tell us about how we would die. Her companion, Red Bishop just watched us sternly.

Then Macai came back from talking to their mysterios elders.

"The Elders listened to your concerns when I told them about all the things you said. They agree that if those things could be true then we are facing a great threat in the future. The ceasefire between us and the Calculator is unstable and if its forces were combined with the greed of the Enclave we would be facing annihilation." Macai sounded solemn now. Even Pretty Girl held her tongue when she heard the verdict of the elders.

"What shall be done?" I asked.

"They said that we shall send as many of our best leaders and warriors as you and no more. We must remain small and stealthy to infiltrate the mountain." Macai looked over me and my friends.

"I would rather stay here." Queen Victoria opted. "To take care of the Brahmin, you know?"

"Fine. That means we are five souls. Who among yours will come with us?" I asked Macai.

"I will." Macai looked to her two top lieutenants as well.

"And so shall I. If you go to Valhalla I wish to join you." Pretty Girl still believed we would all be killed. I wasn't sure we would survive either.

"I won't stay here and remain uncounted among our bravest." Red Bishop spoke up also.

"It is well. We will bring two more Reavers with us and then we shall depart. I will need to name a successor also." Macai seemed satisfied with the two who had agreed to come with her.

Two more volunteers were picked and a Mr. Gutsy. Counting the machine and the raven we were now twelve in number. We set out on our perilous mission up the mountain leaving a new leader in charge of the Reavers. I looked back at Queen Victoria. He was dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief and waving 'goodbye' to us.

Just wanted to let you know: This is probably one of the longest stories I've ever read... And one of the most skillfully made, well done Goris! I love it, I've been a secret fan for a while and now I say I'm damn well a fan!

The Mountain: Patrol
Not far up the hike was becoming a climb. Apparently we were avoiding the road the Reavers knew of. All day we ascended and the cold bit us like a dearranged guard dog. One chill would have been convincing but I could see ice forming on the Reavers, slowing them considerably and I myself suffered from the bite, being a reptile adapted to the desert. This was colder than any nightfall.

"I didn't think it would be so cold." I complained.

"Keep moving." Macai spoke more to her own men than to me.

"The ice of hell frozen over. Our way becomes a path of light in the darkest corners of earth." Yage assessed our situation in a parable.

"Thanks..." I pouted. His words didn't warm my cold blood. I needed a fire.

"Get down...down!" Carrie hissed holding her hand up in a 'halt' signal. We all took cover, stealthily ducking behind rocks or into snowdrifts. Coffee was circling up ahead. The raven, in his wisdom (or perhaps cunning) had alerted us without returning to Carrie's arm which would have alerted our enemies.

We waited in hushed breaths. I saw a periscoping eye, infrared scanning our position. It looked directly at me. I saw Red Bishop ready to power up his energy weapon but Macai indicated for him to hold. I stared into the machine eye. Then the muffled footfalls of the machine moved away, having lost interest.

A sigh of relief went up. I struggled to my feet, the cold had begun to penetrate my body making me sluggish. I needed to eat something hot and bloody or bask next to a fire.

"Its infrared didn't see him." Red Bishop stopped the Reavers as they moved up to my position.

"Your right. It looked directly at him with an infrared scanner it had on some kind of eyestalk. It looked over the embankment and directly at Goris." Pretty Girl agreed.

"Mr. Gutsy: tell me why Goris was able to evade the heat scan." Macai hadn't stopped and as the Mr. Gutsy caught up she commanded it.

"The subject has a low heat signature. His shape is not consistent with enemy targeting parameters." Mr. Gutsy concluded.

"What are you?" Macai asked on behalf of her men. She seemed to know already.

"I am a Deathclaw." I told her.

"You hear that? He aint human. Our friend is a (censored) Deathclaw." She smiled at me. Her men started nudging each other and snickering. I wondered at this peculiar reaction but my relief was greater than my curiousity.

"I am succumbing to the cold up here." I told her.

"Well since we aren't likely to pass another heat scan anyway, and they can still see you with their regular optics...go ahead and get warm." Macai pointed to Mr. Gutsy. I was thankful the machine was with us. It easily produced enough heat from its exhaust for me to warm myself by.

Our commando, as I thought of us after that moment, crossed the road and began another climb. This one was even more treacherous than the first. Frost was determined to kill us all off before the robots could. Caution and teamwork were our only weapons against this cold-hearted enemy. Soon we would face one even more terrifying...