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[Let's Play!]Fallout Tactics - Great Bend Part 1b (and 2!): Poor Rage (NSF56k)
themocaw
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Registered User regular
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics is kind of the redheaded bastard stepchild of the Fallout Series. Unlike its more famous big brother and big sister, Fallout and Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics was designed as a tactical combat game, not an immersive RPG. For this reason, it kinda tends to get a bad rap: gamers who picked up the game expecting Fallout 3 weren't exactly thrilled by the linear storyline and emphasis on combat over roleplaying.
But unlike Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (Xbox Console "Action RPG"), it's not a retarded redheaded stepchild. Fallout Tactics, for what it is, is quite good. It's something of a halfway point between X-Com and Fallout. Like X-Com, you control a squad of soldiers on missions against enemy targets, issuing orders and seeing your squad develop and improve. Like Fallout, you play in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with retro styling, straight out of Mad Max or other post-apocalyptic pulp sci-fi.
So, here is the thing: I will be reserving the rest of this OP as my jumping-off point: links to chapters in the LP, etc. And for those of you who are wondering, here are the parameters of the game:
EPISODES
Weaboo animu sketches:
But unlike Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (Xbox Console "Action RPG"), it's not a retarded redheaded stepchild. Fallout Tactics, for what it is, is quite good. It's something of a halfway point between X-Com and Fallout. Like X-Com, you control a squad of soldiers on missions against enemy targets, issuing orders and seeing your squad develop and improve. Like Fallout, you play in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with retro styling, straight out of Mad Max or other post-apocalyptic pulp sci-fi.
So, here is the thing: I will be reserving the rest of this OP as my jumping-off point: links to chapters in the LP, etc. And for those of you who are wondering, here are the parameters of the game:
1. Turn-based. I started off Individual Turn-Based, then realized how annoying it is to wait after every turn and switched to Squad Turn-Based, to make it more like X-Com.
1b. Having (FINALLY!) gotten the hang of the CTB system, I'm now playing mostly CTB with occasionally changes to Turn Based when things go to hell, or when I need a little more precision.
2. Normal Difficulty. I'd normally play on Hard, but I want to get through the game more than challenge myself: as Gabe might say, I'm here to show you the game, not beat it.
3. Max Blood, all the profanity stays, etc. etc. We're all adults here, and if we're not, we can act like adults, yes? Good. Bring on the gore and the cussing.
4. One note: some parts of the LP contain profanity and references to prostitution, cannibalism. . . and well. . . things that make Fallout Fallout. So yeah. You've been warned.
1b. Having (FINALLY!) gotten the hang of the CTB system, I'm now playing mostly CTB with occasionally changes to Turn Based when things go to hell, or when I need a little more precision.
2. Normal Difficulty. I'd normally play on Hard, but I want to get through the game more than challenge myself: as Gabe might say, I'm here to show you the game, not beat it.
3. Max Blood, all the profanity stays, etc. etc. We're all adults here, and if we're not, we can act like adults, yes? Good. Bring on the gore and the cussing.
4. One note: some parts of the LP contain profanity and references to prostitution, cannibalism. . . and well. . . things that make Fallout Fallout. So yeah. You've been warned.
EPISODES
Prologue: What you should Know
In Which We Create a Character
In which we are introduced to the heroine of our story
CHAPTER 1
Intermission 1
CHAPTER 2
Intermission 2
CHAPTER 3
Intermission 3
CHAPTER 4
COMING SOON: LOL ROBOTS!
Misadventure Theatre
OTHER
In Which We Create a Character
In which we are introduced to the heroine of our story
CHAPTER 1
In which we hear about Cindylu Hu's most un-fabulous adventure
In Which A Little Reloading Goes a Long Way
In which Cindylu Hu goes Recruiting
In which Cindylu Chooses her Squad
In which issues of Bonding and Bondage are Discussed
In Which Cindilu Does Some Reading
In Which Cindilu and her Squad take on the Duke Boys
In which Cindilu has some choices to make
In Which A Little Reloading Goes a Long Way
In which Cindylu Hu goes Recruiting
In which Cindylu Chooses her Squad
In which issues of Bonding and Bondage are Discussed
In Which Cindilu Does Some Reading
In Which Cindilu and her Squad take on the Duke Boys
In which Cindilu has some choices to make
Intermission 1
CHAPTER 2
In Which We Head South
In which Cindilu goes for a Drive
In Which We Discuss the Possibility of Court-Martial Proceedings for Rage Wolcott
In Which Rage Gets Off the Hook. . . For Now
In Which Cindilu Takes on the Beast Lords of Quincy
In Which Cindilu Crashes
In Which Cindilu Takes a Trip on a Yellow Submarine. . .
In which Ghoulish Concerns are taken into consideration
In Which Cindilu Gets in Bed with Strange Bedfellows, and No, It's Not Dirty at All, You Perverts
In Which We Say Goodbye
In which Cindilu goes for a Drive
In Which We Discuss the Possibility of Court-Martial Proceedings for Rage Wolcott
In Which Rage Gets Off the Hook. . . For Now
In Which Cindilu Takes on the Beast Lords of Quincy
In Which Cindilu Crashes
In Which Cindilu Takes a Trip on a Yellow Submarine. . .
In which Ghoulish Concerns are taken into consideration
In Which Cindilu Gets in Bed with Strange Bedfellows, and No, It's Not Dirty at All, You Perverts
In Which We Say Goodbye
Intermission 2
CHAPTER 3
In Which a Rescue Is Required
In Which a Rescue Attempt is Carried Out
In Which We Go Farming for Green Drops
In Which We Take A Ride in a Jefferson Starship
In Which We Attend a Kansas City Barbecue
In Which We Assassinate A Leader Without The Aid Of A Grassy Knoll
In Which We Return to the Bunker and Prepare To Move Yet Again
In Which a Rescue Attempt is Carried Out
In Which We Go Farming for Green Drops
In Which We Take A Ride in a Jefferson Starship
In Which We Attend a Kansas City Barbecue
In Which We Assassinate A Leader Without The Aid Of A Grassy Knoll
In Which We Return to the Bunker and Prepare To Move Yet Again
Intermission 3
CHAPTER 4
In Which We Discuss Matters of American Politics
In Which We Go Hunting For Supplies and Get Our Next Mission
In Which We Explore The Function of Conjunction Junctions
In Which We Get Back Our Suits From The Underserving
In Which a Paladin Is Born
In Which A Party Is Thrown, Crashed, and Pooped
Great Bend, Part 1
Meanwhile. . .
Great Bend, Part 2
In Which We Go Hunting For Supplies and Get Our Next Mission
In Which We Explore The Function of Conjunction Junctions
In Which We Get Back Our Suits From The Underserving
In Which a Paladin Is Born
In Which A Party Is Thrown, Crashed, and Pooped
Great Bend, Part 1
Meanwhile. . .
Great Bend, Part 2
COMING SOON: LOL ROBOTS!
Misadventure Theatre
Stumpy and the Shotgun Fist
The (Mis)Adventures of the Deathclaw Grenade Brigade
Junction City Through the Eyes of Alicia "Ice" Oliver
The (Mis)Adventures of the Deathclaw Grenade Brigade
Junction City Through the Eyes of Alicia "Ice" Oliver
OTHER
Weaboo animu sketches:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5362/cindilupy9.jpg
Cindilu in Metal Armor saying Merry Christmas
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9581/phatlewtfh1.jpg
Cindilu and Babs procuring supplies.
Cindilu in Metal Armor saying Merry Christmas
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9581/phatlewtfh1.jpg
Cindilu and Babs procuring supplies.
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I'd read it, though it'd rely on you bringing most of the commentary, as the game doesn't give much while in combat.
Man, that happened to me right when they started going lolrobotslol and in the process making every skill that wasn't named "energy weapons" or "big guns" entirely useless.
I still beat it. Lovely game until that point though.
Not sure if that was ever fixed but at times it could ruin the game for me.
The multiplayer demo was a lot of fun, though. Is there a way to add proper balancing to the retail game's multiplayer? Every time I tried it I was sniped from across the map by a railgun totting mutant. If not, a Game On thread for the demo would be most excellent.
Fallout Tactics demo
Tumblr
I wholeheartedly support this endeavor, with the request that you include one member of every race in your squad, thus forming some kind of postnuclear Superfriends-slash-press-gang. :^:
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Ahhh, Interplay logo. Beloved ripoff of the Universal Studios logo, how much of my childhood was spent playing games with your little rocket ship stamp on it?
This is the point when die-hard Fallout fans burned the CD. Unlike Fallout 1 and 2, Tactics was not made by Black Isle, but Microforte and 14 Degrees East.
Brian Fargo presents. . .
Fallout. . . Tactics. I love how there's that little pause in between the two words, as if they're trying to fake you out and make you think you bought the original Fallout instead of the tactical squad-based shooter. Oh, 14 Degrees East, what tricksters you are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kxq3Rmq1ho
Someone else already youtubed the opening cinematic, so I won't bother telling you about it. Tl:dr summary: some guys pull up to a tourist information stand and ask for directions to Chicago. A post-apocalyptic Chicago.
War. War never changes. But you can read about it in books. Again, you can see it at youtube below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFV1QvnLVsM
tl:dr version: After a nuclear holocaust, a bunch of guys in powered armor create a Knights Templar-like organization called the Brotherhood of Steel, based on the preservation of scientific knowledge. A while back, a bunch of Brotherhood of Steel members got annoyed that the majority of the Brotherhood didn't want to share their toys, threw a hissy fit, and got assigned to go away and fight mutants. After their zepplin crashed (oh the humanity!) they started throwing their weight around and annoying the local tribes, making them give them food and raw recruits in exchange for medicine and technology. So far, things are good.
But this is Fallout, so it won't stay good forever.
And here we go, title screen. w00t.
So the original Fallout was supposed to use the GURPS system, but Black Isle and the GURPS people got into a fight and decided they didn't want to share toys. Instead, Black Isle came up with their own RPG system, called SPECIAL. Because it was originally based on a pen-and-paper system, the RPG system is quite open and can, in fact, be played as a tabletop variant: I've done it myself. It's pretty fun.
The basic system is based on eight stats: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Perception (read the initials, and you'll see where they got the name SPECIAL system). These stats are used to derive hit points, skills, and other sub-stats. Characters are further able to select up to two Traits, that alter the character in significant ways: one provides more Stat points by sacrificing Skills, another improves your night vision but blinds you during the day, another lets you shoot people and watch their heads pop open like watermelons. It's pretty fun.
Now, I could do the SA thing and ask you what kind of character we should create, but I think I'll do something else instead. Meet our hero:
"Hi, I'm Slab McGurk. I'm a big, tough sonovabitch who likes big guns and crushing people with my bare hands. I'll be your hero for today. . . hey, what the hell are you doing with that mouse?"
"All right, so I'm a chick who likes big guns and crushing people with my bare hands. That's fine, so when do I get to. . . wait, why are you still moving that mouse?"
"Holy shit, what the fuck did you do to me? I've got pigtails! I'm white! I'm a redhead! I'm. . .
"I'M WEARING PINK! FUCKING PINK! WHAT ARE YOU. . ."
"YOU ASSHOLE! YOU'RE TURNING ME INTO A FUCKING WEAKLING! WHAT THE SHIT DID YOU DO TO MY STRENGTH, MY ENDURANCE! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU GIVE ME FUCKING 8 CHARISMA!? GET THE FUCK OVER HERE AND GIVE ME MY STRENGTH BACK, OR I'LL. . .
"Tee hee! I was just kidding! I couldn't do something so mean to you! I'm too good natured for that! Here, let me patch up your booboo, then we can go shopping."
I'll give her one concession to combat by tagging her Small Arms skill (highlighted in white). Tagging a skill gives you a starting skill boost, and it lets you raise it much more cheaply later on. I was tempted to tag something else like Science or Repair instead, make her even more useless in combat. Hell, I could still do that, and I might go for it if enough people clamour to make my life even more difficult.
So there you have it. Slab McGurk becomes Cindylu Who.
So I figured that as long as I'm going to do something stupid, I may as well go for it 101%. Behold the heroine of our story.
For those of you who don't habla SPECIAL, here is the lowdown:
Now in Fallout and Fallout 2, this could actually be a decent setup: you can talk your way out of a lot of situations in the RPG Fallouts, even with the final boss.
But this is Fallout Tactics. The combat game.
We could be in a bit of trouble.
And now, the actual Let's Play. Everything in the next Spoiler block is written in character, RP style.
Monday, xxxx
So like, I totally got in trouble with my dad today. I don't know what the big deal is, he acts like gas is hard to come by or something. Hello! It comes out of the ground! It's not like fruit, ya know, you can always get more. Besides, what's so bad about taking a jeep out for a joyride? I put it back, ya know, and it's not like I scratched it or anything. Military property my butt, they weren't using it.
But then, that's the story of my life. No one understands me, diary. I'm like, the daughter of a tribal princess and a Brotherhood Elder. I'm too beautiful to be cooped up in this underground fortress with nothing but smelly soldiers for company. I should be making movies, like Rita Hayworth or Marilyn Monroe. I should be living the life of a star in Hollywood. It's all the nuclear bombs' fault. Stupid nuclear war, ruining my dreams of stardom. Why couldn't my great-grandparents have been more considerate of people other than themselves? Thanks to them, I'm stuck here in the middle of this stupid city of Chicago with a bunch of smelly, sweaty soldiers for company. It's so unfair.
At least there's Liam. What a fox! I love his eyes, they're so dreamy, and I can tell he's like, totally into me, I can like totally tell by the way he smiles and nods at me when he's on duty. Maybe I'll flirt with him tomorrow. Who knows? It's worth a shot.
Love and kisses,
Cindylu.
Diary Entry, Tuesday, xxxxx
Disaster! It's terrible! My heart's going into palpitations, I don't know where to start!
So, like, after I finished yesterday's diary entry, I like, went down and talked to Liam, and like, totally flirted with him, it was AWESOME (squeal!) I was like, wearing my best pink dress, and well. . . one thing led to another, and it turns out he's totally into me too! So we were in the closet, and we're like, totally making out, and then suddenly the door opens up and the janitor interrupts us just as he's taking off my top. How rude! It's like some people have no sense of privacy any more!
Well, after that, it just became this big ol' deal, and suddenly there are big old men in big suits of powered armor standing around yelling things about dereliction of duty and AWOL and stuff like that, and in the end it turns out that I'm grounded and Liam's on KP duty for a month, whatever that is, which totally sucks because, ya know, if it hadn't been for that stupid janitor none of this would have happend. It's all his fault! I'm like, totally gonna get back at him, once this is all over. I know my dad is saying I'm grounded for life, but ya know, he's always saying stuff like that, so it'll be fine. I'll give him the puppy dog eyes, and pout and cry a little, and he'll forgive me. He always does.
Love and Kisses
Cindylu.
Wednesday xxxx
Well, this sucks.
So I came downstairs and I was, like, totally tearing up and crying and promising my Dad that I'd be good, but it's like, he said no anyway, which like totally pissed me off, because it's so unfair, it was only a little kissing, right? So I got totally mad and told him what I thought of this stupid place and these stupid soldiers, and this stupid Brotherhood, and he just flipped OUT! Started yelling about how I was an ungrateful little brat and I didn't appreciate the things that people do to keep me alive, and the upshot is, I'm not only grounded, I'm confined to my room until he tells me otherwise. This sucks, diary. Why is life so unfair? I should run away, that's what I'll do. They'll be sorry then.
Totally Persecuted,
Cindylu.
Thursday xxxx
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, my Dad came up last night and told me that I was out of the house. He said he was sick of putting up with my ungrateful attitude. Whatever! The one who's being ungrateful is him, I do so much around the house. I like, totally remembered to take out the trash last time after he asked me three times, and I hardly ever trash the house with my parties any more. You'd think he'd be a little more grateful.
Anyway, to make a long story short, he made me join the militia! I had to stand there in front of this old Paladin in a suit of powered armor and listen to him call me names and yell about how if I damaged or lost any of my gear, I'd be thrown in the brig and stuff. Whatever! I'm beautiful, I don't need to put up with this nonsense! I was demanding to know my rights, and he just laughed at me. He said I didn't have any rights in this man's army and stuff like that, and honestly, diary, it was enough to make me cry. They took away my clothes too, made me dress in this icky green and grey camouflage thingy called fatigues. Like, hello! Bloused pants are totally last season. They're not even capris! That would be something at least. I look hideous. It makes me want to cry.
Anyway, he told us that our first assignment was to go and recruit other tribals to join the militia. He's sticking me with some ugly blonde girl and this scraggly guy with a bad goatee who calls himself Stitch. This sucks. I wanna go home. I hear there aren't even bathrooms out in the desert. How am I supposed to do my nails? How am I supposed to wash my hair? What about my protein-coat shampoo and cucumber facial masks? I like totally had a spa appointment for tomorrow, too. This totally sucks.
Maybe when I get back home I can apologize to my dad, and he'll let me come home. I guess I was kind of a bitch to him. I'll like, totally apologize and stuff, and then things'll be fine, right? Sure they will.
Totally Persecuted,
Cindylu.
First mission is completed. I'll do the writeup at some point tomorrow or Saturday, when I have some time to go through the screenshots.
Also, does this RP-esque format work for you, or would you prefer a more cut-and-dry LP?
That said, I liked Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. I'd played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath previously, and it's basically the same game engine, just with shotguns, swearing, and porking prostitutes. How can you not love the game when there's a stage in which your fucking arm gets cut off?
Looks good, if you can keep that kind of rp up. But wow, good luck with that character.
From: Joachim "Stitch" Josephs, Brotherhood of Steel East Initiate
To: General Barnaky, Brotherhood of Steel East
General,
Thank you for agreeing to accept this letter off the record. Given the subject's political connections, I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't want word of these events getting back to Elder Hu.
I have to say, I wondered what kind of military regulation I'd broken to merit punishment detail with Initiate Hu. The trip out to Brahmin Hills was possibly the worst I've ever experienced in my short tenure at the Brotherhood. Initiate Hu spent the entire trip complaining about the food, the discomfort, the sleeping quarters, and the lack of full-time maid service. By the time we reached the village, nerves were frayed and all parties involved were on the brink of violence. The fact that Initiate Hu had spray-painted her armor the most eye-wrenching shade of pink imaginable didn't help.
I had hoped that a weekend in the Tribal town wtih some kind of modern amenities like hand-pumped water and straw bedding would be helpful to Initiate Hu's bad mood, and help soothe the furrowed brow of Initiate Farsight. I'd also hoped to accidentally leave her behind when the mission was complete. Unfortunately, things were not that easy.
Upon arrival at the target village, we discovered that raiders had kidnapped several villagers beforehand. Upon consulting with the village elder, we were informaed that the kidnappers were being held in a nearby raider camp. The village elder insisted that we rescue their tribesmen. In the interests of maintaining good relations with the nearby tribes, I agreed.
This was when we hit our first snag.
I'm not sure what method Octavius used to issue Initiate Hu's equipment. Rumor has it that he literally just threw a random gun at her and told her to get out of his hair before he killed himself and her with him with her yapping. In any case, it was not until now, three days out of Alpha Base with hostile raiders a few hundred yards away, that Initiate Hu discovered she did not have the strength to draw back the bolt on her submachinegun. In attempting to do so, she not only nearly dropped the weapon into a nearby cesspit (which would be bad), but apparently also broke a nail (which, from the volume and vigor with which she announced this, might as well have been as good as being gut-shot.)
I ordered Initiate Hu to exchange her submachinegun for Initiate Farsight's sidearm, and we proceeded with the mission.
(Author's note: this pretty much sums up my feelings at this point in the game
Upon crossing the bridge to the Tribal camp, we discovered a patrolling guard to the east of the main gate. In order to prevent him from flanking us, I gave the order to engage and eliminate him with extreme prejudice.
Here you can see our order of battle. Initiate Farsight (Green) took up sniping position in the tall grass and awaited my signal. I, armed with pump-action shotgun, took up position to the right and approached slowly. Initiate Hu was assigned "rear echelon protection" and kept way the hell back where she couldn't screw things up.
Or so I thought.
As it turns out, the guard was accompanied by a large Rottweiler. Upon seeing the dog, Initiate Hu let out a loud squeal of "PUPPy!" thus blowing our cover. Her squeals of delight turned into cries of dismay when the guard let slip the dog's leash and set the hundred-pound canine upon her.
I instinctively dispatched the dog in response. It wasn't until later that I wondered whether it would have been better to let her become dog chow, and write a very sympathetic letter to Elder Hu on the demise of his daughter.
By this point, the guard was returning fire. I ordered Initiate Hu to find some cover while Initiate Farsight and I engaged the enemy.
Initiate Hu misunderstood my orders and ran out from behind a wall mere yards away from the enemy. Strangely enough, this wound up diverting his attention enough for me to rise up from behind cover and terminate him with a buckshot facial.
This farce was later repeated when we attacked the main gate. Here, you can see Initiate Farsight (circled in green) laying prone in excellent cover, ready to engage the enemy at will. I am to the left, circled in blue, ready to provide fire support. The pink circle is where Initiate Hu should be. The pink arrow is her current position, where she moved to get a better view of what was going on, incidentally exposing herself to enemy view.
It was then that I overheard this conversation.
Raider 1: "Hey, Travis, looky here. Some stupid bitch just wandered right into our laps."
Travis: "She shure got a purty mouf, Cletus. Wonder how much we could get for her."
Cletus: "Probably a hundred caps. Maybe two hundred if we kick her teeth out first."
Travis: "Shee-it, that ain't bad at all. Gimme the rope, Cletus, I'm gonna go lasso me a bitch."
And that was how a heavily armed raider with a rope in his hand and a grin full of rotten teeth walked right up to my position - practically put his temple up against the barrel of my shotgun - trying to kidnap the Elder's daughter. And that was how I saved Initiate Hu from being kidnapped and sold into slavery in New Reno for six caps a trick.
Travis' inbred brother then opened fire with his handgun while trying to call for backup. As Initiate Farsight and I closed in on his position, Initiate Hu went into a frenzy.
I'm still not sure why she decided to start running through the firefight straight towards the open desert, screaming and crying, but that's what she did. It must be true what they say about God protecting idiots and small dogs and children, because she wasn't hit by all the flying lead.
Here you can see Initiate Farsight and I engaging the enemy. Please note the absence of Initiate Hu.
Instead, Initiate Hu's panicked run carried here here, to a small group of tribals camped out and hiding from the raiders, where she proceeded to drop her gun, trip over her own weapon, and fall down, crying like a baby, at the foot of an older Tribal wearing shaman's robes.
The remaining guard was easily dispatched by a point-blank shotgun blast, but Initiate Farsight took some hits to her armor before we could do so. I applied first aid for cracked ribs and bruising and proceeded to retrieve our wayward soldier.
Hawkeye, the Tribal shaman, returned our little lost lamb to us and asked if we'd already spoken to Charon, the tribal elder. I explained that we had. "That's good," he said. "You must hurry now, for my kinsmen are in danger."
He took a moment to examine Initiate Farsight's wounds and pronounced her ready for combat. Initiate Hu seemed a bit subdued as she returned to formation, and her normally airheaded attitude seemed. . . muted somehow. I asked if she were all right. "She will be fine now," the Shaman said. "She simply needed to hear some words that only a stranger can tell." He would not extrapolate further."
This next part didn't go well. Farsight wasn't happy about getting shot, and she was less happy to see that Hu had survived. Harsh words were exchanged. Cruel aspersions were made about the parentage of both parties. Angry words were shouted. I had to restore order by firing my weapon into the air. "ALL RIGHT, YOU TWO! Just SHUT the hell up and listen to me!"
I won't tell you what I said next: needless to say, I made use of choice phrases learned from my drill instructor, and even more choice profanity taught to me by the same. I ended by telling them that if it were my call, I'd abort the damn mission right now, put them both on report, and call for a Brotherhood strike team to finish up the mission. But we didn't have time for that. We'd already killed several guards, and now the raiders were alert to our presence. If we didn't end this now, within the next few hours, the raiders would move the prisoners somewhere else. . . or worse.
Initiates Farsight and Hu eventually saw reason. Insincere apologies were exchanged. The mission went on.
I confiscated Initiate Hu's firearm, handed her a scratch-built gun carried by one of the raiders, and then ordered everyone to switch to close-range weapons and engage the last guard, inside the tent.
We did this by grabbing shotguns, submachine guns, and other close-range weapons and running in headlong, screaming. (Select your whole group. Set your sentry mode to Aggressive. Equip close-range weapons and run straight through the door. The only way to enter a house. :P)
It worked quite well.
We took the key from the guard shack and attacked the second building in much the same manner, first taking a moment to set up positions through stealth before opening fire.
A guard standing outside opened fire on us over the low wall. Farsight returned fire and injured him, forcing him to flee. Hu returned fire with her zip gun and missed. "Oh, sugar. . . oh, for crying out loud!" she exclaimed, threw down the gun, and ran out the gate fumbling with her sleeve.
"Catch that stupid bitch before she gets herself killed!" Farsight screamed. "Shit, catch her before she gets US killed!"
I ran out the gate in pursuit.
I caught up with Initiate Hu just in time to see her knock down the panicked raider with her purse and stab him in the throat with a nail file. A fucking nail file.
. . . if you've never seen a blonde teenage girl stabbing a grown man repeatedly in the throat and face with a manicure tool, trust me. . . it's pretty terrifying.
Afterwards, Initiate Hu claimed the guard's automatic handgun for herself and threw the zip gun away. Initiate Farsight and I were not inclined to argue.
After silencing a dog patrolling the area, we noticed a sleeping guard to the north. Apparently, he was so drunk he didn't hear the gunfire and screaming mere yards away. The decision was made to eliminate him by stealth.
We closed in on him by crawling through the tall grass, took up positions all around, readied our knives, and attacked at once. Initiate Hu, distressingly, chose to drive her nailfile into the target's crotch.
The guard died quickly enough, but his gurgling death rattle awakened the two attack dogs sleeping nearby. Initiate Hu charged them both, screaming, "Oh, I'll show you rhinestone collars, you mangy mutts!" She was immediately taken down and knocked to the ground.
Note to self: two hundred-pound rottweilers can easily take down an eighty-pound girl whose only real physical exercise to date has been lifting and carrying fabulous new outfits.
I immediately moved to assist.
So, is this the end of the story? Has Cindylu Hu's story ended ignomiously, blown to smithereens by the shotgun blast intended to save her? Is this the end of the Fallout Tactics Let's Play?
Course not. I just thought this was a pretty funny way to end the first half of the mission. I'll be coming back to give you the rest of the story later, in Mission 1 Part 2: "After the Reload."
Still, regular weapons could be useful. AP rounds and solid slugs for shotguns tore weaker 'bots a new one easily, and combat shotguns reigned supreme once you got EMP rounds. The grenade launcher had its uses, less so in direct combat than for lobbing grenades over and around cover (hand grenades were similarly useful; between the Jackhammer and EMP grenades, Harold killed more 'bots than any two other squadmates combined). Gauss rifles showed up kinda late, but were still useful and out-ranged anything else in the game. A wall of gauss and laser rifles will chew to pieces anything dumb enough to be seen, and a shotty with EMP rounds will knock a Behemoth down on each burst.
It does take some adjusting, and it could've been handled way better - having your squad fight just one of them earlier on would've been a good idea, just so you'd know what to expect - but it's not nearly impossible.
Also: I totally did not know about those tribals to the left of the starting position. O_o
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Good luck trying to do anything with cindy-lu,i presume your going to use stitch mainly? lol
Its also possible to do single character completes. It really makes those later mutant missions...interesting.
And robots are weak,just gotta be prepared. Most bots will shatter from a single burst of emp shotgun shells.
Eager to read this whole LP. I love fallout universe so much.
contd from prior
My first impulse was to open fire upon the dogs with my shotgun, despite the close proximity of Initiate Hu. Thankfully (for Initiate Hu, at least) I retained the presence of mind to switch to my Mark One Improvised Cranial Crushing Device and close in on them instead.
Initiate Hu immediately fell back and used a stimpak to ease the pain of her wounds, while Initiate Farsight and I finished off the dogs.
It was a short fight.
We quickly crossed the courtyard and took up breaching positions near this tent. Initiate Farsight silently crept into the doorway and used a mirror on the end of her bayonet to scout the interior of the tent.
General, I know that you like to say that a soldier must maintain coolness of mind even in the most trying of circumstances, but what we saw inside. . .
Slaver scum don't like to take slaves that won't fetch a good price on the open market. Kids, old men, anyone with a deforming or disabling injury, they're not worth the price of transporting. And a lot of them have some sick tastes, too. I won't tell you what we saw inside, but they'd killed three of them. And they'd. . . done things to them too.
I'll admit, I lost my head.
Farsight took down one of the guards quickly, but the other managed to get off a shot as I ran in through the other entrance screaming and firing my shotgun. Hit me right in the chest, knocked me flat and winded me. I was fumbling for a stimpak when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Hold still, I've got you."
Cindylu checked me over for injuries, shot me up full of happy juice, and told me, "You're fine."
"I thought I told you to stay outside!"
"I'm a lousy soldier, remember?" she muttered. "And my mother was a one-headed brahmin? Keep your head down, there's still one more!" She turned and opened fire with her handgun, striking the remaining slaver in the leg. How, I don't know.
He crawled into the corner, screaming in pain and clutching his thigh. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," he was yelling. There was a lot of blood pouring from his leg: femoral artery hit. A bleeder.
We made it quick for him. It was a mercy he didn't deserve.
I ordered Farsight and Cindylu to police the corpses for weapons and ammo and reload, while I set about taping up my ribs. The tribal prisoners seemed grateful to see us. A couple of them seemed grateful to see Cindylu especially.
The leering was shameless. One of them was going so far as to try and flirt with Initiate Hu in the middle of this bloody debacle. I was about to put an end to it (airhead or not, she's still a Brotherhood soldier), when Initiate Farsight hissed, "Get down! Shut up!"
We took cover.
There was a guard not more than ten yards from the entrance of the tent. Patroller, with a high-powered rifle, it looked like.
Initiate Hu silenced the tribals with an upraised hand, looking to me for instructions. I shook my head and indicated for her to wait. Meanwhile, Farsight and I held a quick conference.
Farsight: (touches rifle, mimes a sniper shot)
Stitch: (shakes head, mimes sniper shot, points at patrolling guard)
Farsight: (nods, unlimbers submachinegun)
Stitch: (draws Colt .45, counts down from 3, pumps fist)
Given the guard's high-powered weapon, I couldn't risk trying to engage her at long range: aside from Farsight's hunting rifle, we had no long-range weapons, and no other effective sniper. A prolonged sniping war would be too dangerous. We took the ambush approach: we waited for her to draw near the entrance and rushed out, firing.
It worked fairly well, but then there was a complication.
Another tent a little ways outside our tent contained another hostile, armed with a makeshift harpoon gun. Farsight and I rushed the tent and silenced him. Although his weapon was worthless in actual combat, we nonetheless took it with us: the Brotherhood is low on resources, and we might be able to sell it to some fisherman in exchange for part of his catch.
We silenced another guard in a guard booth by the simple tactic of approaching the booth by stealth, equipping close-range weapons, and rushing his position en masse. As you can see, it was quite effective.
The next nest of enemy resistance presented a slight problem: a wide open area lined with barbed wire, leading to a bunker with entrenched enemy positions. Initiate Hu was ordered to run for cover as quickly as possible, while I made an end run across the front of the enemy position to draw their fire. Meanwhile, Initiate Farsight laid down covering fire with her hunting rifle to cover our approach. Once the two of us were in cover, we attacked the enemy from the flanks while Initiate Farsight rushed the enemy position.
The end results were satisfactory.
I'm running out of time, so I'll speed through the rest of the report: we crossed the broken ruins by having Farsight climb up to this sniper tower and lay down covering fire while Hu and I engaged the enemy at close range. Upon climbing the tower, Farsight discovered that there was already an enemy sniper occupying the position: thankfully, she had her shotgun out just for this contingency, and dispatched him with a double-barreled blast.
We dispatched some patrolling guards lurking behind and to the far side of the final building by looping around the back and hitting them from behind
Horus, the slaver chieftain, regarded us with amusement bordering on disdain.
Through the effective use of cover and crossing fields of fire, we closed in and eliminated the resistance. Initiate Hu, although her fire was more exuberant than effective, nonetheless acquitted herself most admirably as a medic, quickly using stimpaks on her wounded comrades as needed.
Horus admitted some grudging respect for us at the end.
It didn't help him.
We found the key to the back gate on his corpse, policed the dead for weapons and ammo, and left the area. The tribal chieftain was most appreciative of our efforts. I won't repeat his words here, but hearing him exult at how the death screams of our enemies reminded him of the singing of angels was a bit. . . off-putting. More importantly, he pledged to uphold his agreement to provide the Brotherhood with raw recruits for training.
Initiate Hu insisted on seeing the Tribal shaman one last time before we left for Alpha Bunker. Although a bit taken aback, I agreed to her request. The shaman congratulated us on our victory, and provided us with some crude healing powders to take with us on our journey.
Before we left, though, he said something that, at first, took me aback. Before Initiate Hu and I left, he cleared his throat and asked, "So, little flower. Have you found your thorns at last?"
Initiate Hu was seen to visibly hesitate, before replying: "Yes, wise one. I think I have."
The shaman smiled. "Then no more have I to teach you. From here on out, the fledgling must learn to fly without the mother bird at her back."
And then he left, taking the tribals with him. Initiate Hu has not explained the meaning of those words.
The rest you know.
Now, regarding your last request, General: would I be willing to fight with Initiate Hu again? The answer is, I'm not sure. To be honest, I found her whiny, irritating, and completely incompetent in combat. Her marksmanship is a danger to her own squad, and her inability to think tactically is a danger in itself.
However, I will admit that there is something oddly magnetic about her personality. Despite being a complete and utter idiot, she shows a remarkable ability to communicate and interact with others. In a situation where the Brotherhood stands alone against the forces of decay and entropy in the East, that may be a greater asset than an entire squad of infantry: the ability to make friends among hostile forces.
In short: I just don't know. The best I can say is that she follows directions and she's eager to please, but I'm not sure that's what we really need in a soldier.
Respectfully Yours,
Joachim "Stitch" Josephs, Brotherhood of Steel East Initiate
We returned to Bunker Alpha without incident. Cindylu seemed really quiet the whole way there. She wasn't as bubbly and annoying as she was on the way out. Not that I minded, but it was a bit creepy.
It was good to be home.
General Barnaky had nothing but congratulations for us when we got there. "Great work, you three," he said, grinning. "We haven't had a squad of raw initiates do so well in a long time." He paused. "Actually, the tribals consider you three this side of local gods, as it turns out. They're singing songs about the Three Angels of Steel who delivered them from the hands of the slavers, and they've named a prize brahmin stud after you, too."
"They named it Stitch?!" I grimaced.
"Actually, no. . . they named it Cindylu." General Barnaky shrugged. "Don't ask. These tribals are a bit strange in the head, always going on and on about their brahmin god of sex. . . I don't want to know if that's a brahmin that's a god of sex, or a god of brahmin sex, and either way, it's terrifying to consider."
"Anyway," he went on, "down to business. We've got another mission coming up, and given how well you three did last time, I think it's right up your alley. Get resupplied and assemble your team, and check in with me when you're ready."
"Oh great," I muttered. "No rest for the wicked."
We headed for the lockers to change out of our armor. "Hey, Stitch?" Cindylu asked.
"What is it?" I replied. I tried not to look at her. I know unisex changing rooms are standard for the Brotherhood, but it doesn't make it any easier for a plain ol' tribal boy like me.
"What did he mean by assembling our team? Aren't squads assigned by the General?"
"Don't you know anything?" Farsight complained, on her way to the showers.
"No, I don't. I'm just a spoiled little rich bitch, remember?" Hu sneered.
"Cut it out, both of you," I snapped. As awesome as it would be to see those two getting into a half-naked catfight, it wasn't worth the time in the brig. "Look, the Brotherhood's not really a military group, no matter what they say: squad leaders have to recruit their squads from the Brotherhood themselves, kinda like a mercenary leader. You gotta be good to be a leader in the Brotherhood: gotta get your guys back in one piece and give them a cut of the loot, too, enough to keep them happy. So no, we don't get a squad, we gotta find one ourselves."
"That shouldn't be too bad, should it?" Hu asked.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," I sighed. "Look, Hu, you're a good kid, but us? We're Brotherhood scum. We're the bottom of the barrel. No one's gonna want to fight with us, and that's a simple fact. We'll be lucky if we get some raw recruits who can't pick their nose and walk at the same time to join us."
Cindylu just grinned and winked at me as she wrapped a towel around herself. "Leave that to me, Stitch."
I had no idea what she was talking about. Crazy bitch.
*** *** ***
So I'm laying down on my bunk later on, when Cindylu walks in waving her pip-boy at me. "All right," she said, sitting down across from me. "I've got a list of names of guys who want in. Not a lot, but it's somewhere to start."
I sighed and glanced over at her, irritated. "Don't you ever knock? What if I was reading a Cat's Paw Magazine or something?"
"Isn't that a brand of high-heeled shoe protector? Look, just go over the names, all right? I'm new here, I don't know any of these guys from Maxson."
"All right, all right, I'll do it," I sighed. I took her pip-boy from her and started going over the list of names.
"Looks like the usual recruit trash."
"These guys aren't bad."
I paused at the last four names. "Now, these I've actually heard of," I admitted. "Not sure how you got them do join up."
"I can be pretty persuasive, if I need to," Cindylu admitted.
"I'm not sure what you mean by that, and I don't think I want to know. . ." I paused before flipping to the last name on her list. "HOLY CRAP. You got ICE?!"
(Screenshot missing because I suck :P) Ice is Level 4, a Loner (does better on her own) and has tagged Small Arms, Sneak, and Outdoorsman.
"Is she good?"
"Ice is. . . well, she's got twice as much experience as most of us, I'll say that much." He shook his head. "Girl's a legend. They call her Ice because she's just like that, Ice. Vicious sniper, and she knows the outdoors, too. If you can get her to join, she's in. We can use her."
"All right, so then, that's two spaces left," Cindylu said.
"Actually," I admitted, "You've got four spaces left."
She paused. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean," I said, handing the Pip-Boy back to her, "that nothing says you need to take me and Farsight along, squad leader."
She paused. "What do you mean, squad leader?"
"General Barnaky's orders," I said, handing her the letter I'd found on my bunk moments before. "You're squad leader. Congratulations."
She stared at the note as if it were some sort of poisonous snake. "Like. . . oh my GOD! This is SOOOO stupid!" she whined, her old voice coming back in her distress. "Like, what the hell is that stupid General thinking? Oh my God, I'm about to have palpitations. . . how the heck did he make me a squad leader? This sucks."
"Don't ask. Ours but to do or die, ours not to reason why," I said sarcastically. "Anyway, there it is. You're squad leader. How you gonna do it?"
She hesitated.
*** *** ***
So, what's the word? How shall Cindylu divide up her squad? I'll let you bastards decide: best idea wins it. And please, don't try to make me do the next mission with Cindylu solo. That will be pain incarnate.
One last thing: we've got some leveling to do.
How shall I do this: shall I make her less shitty at combat, or continue the trend of making her a total noncombatant?
Mandy, however, is a hell of a medic with good sniper skills. I usually wind up keeping her for the rest of the game, later picking up Harold (master trapsman, grenadier and repairman), Sharon (CH8 for Divine Favor = A million times yes) and replacing Brian with Cookie as my main heavy gunner. Stein or Babs usually found their way into the party somehow, too.
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That being said, I loved this game. I thought it was really well done, though it could become mind-numbingly tedious at times.
Thats when you turn on Real time combat and watch your entire team get slaughtered in a matter of seconds, because in no way did this game lend itself to real time at all.
It is damn fun to set up ambushes, using snipers to draw out packs of enemies and lure them into a kill zone with your heavies, or have your grenadiers flank while the rest of the squad keeps the enemy pinned down. Nothing quite stops a pack of deathclaws or super mutants like a well-timed remote demo charge paired with C4 or mines
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Here's the player commentary
But not yet.
First, she's gonna raise her barter to 90% and her pilot and Gambling to 44% each.
Here's Stitch: His Small Guns is now at 101%, and his First Aid is at 100%. As it turned out, First Aid didn't make much of a difference: in fact, I now wish I hadn't raised it (First Aid was really nerfed when they made it a requirement to have a First Aid kit: it used to be a free heal if you were good enough, but since they removed the passage of time mechanic, they had to nerf it somehow.) I was tempted to give him Here or Now, but I took Fast Pockets instead: the quicker Inventory time will make it easier for him to swap roles between fighter and healer
And here's Farsight. Not that it'll make much of a difference, for reasons you'll soon see.
And here we go! On to Freeport!
"Go to hell," Farsight said.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not fighting alongside that stupid bitch any more," Farsight sneered. "If I wanted fashion tips, sure. If I wanted advice on how to be a dumb twit, sure. But I'm not fighting alongside her, and you shouldn't either." She snapped closed the bolt on her hunting rifle. "Come on, Stitch. This is just some stupid Elder's Daughter trying to play toy soldiers. She'll get bored of it eventually, then we can get back to doing what the Brotherhood's good at."
"I'm not sure," I said dubiously. "Look, she's stupid and all, but she's got a good heart. Maybe if you two managed to talk it out. . ."
"Stitch, just shut up," Farsight sighed. "I don't want to talk it out with that dumb bitch. I just want to move on. Kevin's got a spot open for a scout sniper in his squad, and I've said yes, if you're willing to agree to the trade." She gave me a pointed look. "So, are you gonna agree, or am I gonna have to take it up with General Barnaky?"
"All right, you win," I said. "I'll let Cindi know. She'll be heartbroken, though."
"No, she won't," Farsight said. "She hates my guts too. She's just too polite to say anything about it." She waved me off. "Now get going, soldier."
"Sure thing, Farsight. Keep your head down. Semper Concordia."
"Semper Sodalitas," Farsight replied, snapping me a crisp salute.
I sighed as I headed to the recruiting office to give Cindi the bad news.
*** *** ***
"Hey there, Stitch," Cindilu said cheerfully, waving to me from the entrance of the recruiting office. "How'd it go?"
"Not good," I admitted. "Farsight's out. She wants a trade to Kevin's squad."
"I figured as much," Cindilu sighed. She muttered something under her breath that sounded a bit like, "stupid witch," then shook her head. "'ll figure something out. . . in any case, hold this for me." She dumped a massive canvas bag full of unidentifiable. . . somethings. . . into my arms.
"Holy Maxson, what the heck is in here?" I complained.
"That, my dear Stitch, would be eight suits of full Leather Armor," Cindilu said, grinning.
"I'm sorry, I must be misunderstanding, I thought you just said eight suits of full Leather Armor," I said, rubbing my ear with my pinky finger.
"Nope, you heard me right. Don't try and carry that alone, wait till the others get here," she said, kicking her heels and humming.
I hesitated. "And?"
"And what?"
"There are eight suits of full Leather Armor and. . . ?"
"And, well. . ." Cindilu sighed. "Look, it's a cutthroat world, all right? The Brotherhood's resources are limited, so what we have, everyone fights over, so you do what you gotta do to get more. Now, what we're going to do is trade in those eight suits of Leather back to Octavius, turn them back in for Quartermaster Scrip and use that to outfit the squad. Get it?"
"All right. . . and where the heck did you manage to get eight suits of leather to give back to Octavius in the first place?" I asked.
Cindilu just smirked. "Do you really want to know?"
"On second thought, don't question it, just accept it," I sighed.
"Good boy." Cindi gave me a wink. "Be back in a jiffy!"
*** *** ***
I was contemplating how a guy sitting on a giant pile of Leather Armor in the middle of the hallway was not very inconspicuous and tended to get a lot of strange looks when Cindi walked back out with four other Initiates with her.
I grinned as I saw a tall, bald man with a goatee walking towards me with a scowl on his face. "Rage, what's up?"
"I need to get the fuck out of this fucking fuckhole before I fucking strangle that bitch Jo," Rage snarled.
"Good to see you're as cheerful as always," I murmured. "What is it this time?"
"Awwwww, she got into some fucking fight with Ice, and the two of them aren't fucking talking any more. She didn't want in on your fucking squad, either. She's fucking going with fucking Kevin, for fuck's sake. Fucking Kevin. Fucking Kevin the fucking dickless douchebag fuckface wonder," Rage growled. He was always like that.
"Shut up," snapped the blue-eyed girl standing next to him. "It's your fault, anyway." She turned to me, hands on her hips. "Just promise me we'll head out soon, before Jo decides to come by and finish what she started earlier."
"Right, right," I sighed. "As you wish."
The last two members of the team were a rather plump, motherly woman with, and a nervous looking girl who kept wringing her hands and looking around her, like a mouse. I recognized them immediately: Mandy had become a bit of an in-joke among the medics for her squeamish attitude towards blood. If you've never seen someone trying to bandage a wound with the tips of two fingertips, while looking like she's handling a dead rat, you've never met Mandy. As for the other: everyone know Rebecca "Like Threading a Needle" Callahan. It was rumored that she had the best sniper's eye since General Barnaky, and she was a decent scout as well. I had to admit, the brat had a good eye for people.
"And now," she said, pointing to the direction of the armory, "Let's go accessorize!" She giggled and ran off, prancing like a schoolgirl.
The squad stared at her, then at me, then at each other, then back at me. "Hey, Stitch?" Rage asked. "Just a quick question. . . is that fucking bitch for real?"
I sighed again. "You know, that's a very good question." I grabbed one end of the Pile O Armor. "Here, help me with this thing before I throw out my back."
*** *** ***
I had to admit, watching Cindilu haggle was pretty impressive.
"Oh please, don't hand me buckhide and tell me it's a suede purse, Octavius," she growled, tossing a knife back down on the counter. "Look, I need five combat knives: high carbon steel, good temper and balance, and I'm not going to settle for this pot metal crap that you keep trying to foist off on me."
"I don't have the knives to spare," Octavius said, "and besides, you've got knives already."
"I have crap knives that won't cut butter. I need real combat knives, Octavius. Besides, you're getting them for a bargain price. I'm bringing in rifles, remember?" She gestured to the pile of captured raider weapons being cleaned and sorted out by the apprentice Quartermasters. "A dozen bolt-action hunting rifles, good quality, excellent working condition. That's gotta be worth at least ten thousand in Brotherhood Scrip."
"Ten thousand? Don't be ridiculous! Now, if you were bringing in G-11s, and not these damn Rugers. . ."
This went on for a long time. I won't bore you with any more details.
In the end, though it worked out pretty well: we'd picked out the best equipment from the raiders and kept them for ourselves, so we were all set there. Mandy and I wound up carrying pump-action shotguns as our primary long arms, with captured Uzis as sidearms. Rebecca and Ice were equipped as snipers: bolt-action rifles and double-barreled shotguns for close encounters. Rage got Cindilu's MP-5 submachinegun as his main, and a double-barreled shotgun for his secondary. Cindilu stuck with her 9mm: she couldn't work anything heavier, after all.
Each of us also walked out of the armory carrying high-carbon steel combat knives (thanks to Cindilu's yammering), except for Ice, who preferred punch daggers. We each had seven stimpaks in a belt pouch for emergency first aid. Mandy and I had our first aid kits, and I was carrying a full field surgery kit in my doctor's bag as well. We walked out of the Quartermaster's office armed for bear, looking like badasses and feeling like Gods. Cindilu, on the other hand, was counting and double-counting the sheaves of Brotherhood Scrip that Octavius had given her in exchange for the guns, and looking a bit peeved. "We could have gotten at least another hundred from those .45s," she told me. "I should have haggled harder."
"No point in worrying about it now. In any case, General Barnaky's waiting."
"It's the principle of the thing," Cindi complained, but she dropped the subject.
General Barnaky's news was grim.
"What's the anticipated resistance?" Ice asked curtly, once General Barnaky was finished with his initial briefing.
"Not sure. Probably heavy. And we're anticipating heavy weaponry, too," General Barnaky said, grimly. "Word is they happened upon a cache of Soviet Kalashikov rifles: you boys are gonna be outgunned, outnumbered, and outmaneuvered here. So don't try to be heroes: just run in, grab the Elder, and get the hell out of there. This is a raid, not a search and destroy mission."
"What about backup, reinforcements?" I asked.
"None. You're on your own." General Barnaky hesitated. "Honestly, this is a make-work mission. What we're focusing on is the main raider base, but we can't ignore their kidnapping of the Elder, either. But if he dies, the village still lives on. If you die, the Brotherhood still lives on. So don't anticipate any help. Any further questions?"
No one had any. "All right then, dismissed. I want you to head out asap. Time's not on our side, and we need you back as soon as possible."
We headed out with the rising sun, the six of us walking through the blasted wasteland, leaving Alpha Bunker behind us.
That, that right fucking there is what made me stop playing. I was still delusionally thinking "oh it'll be just like fallout 2 and the M9 Browning (my favorite gun handsdown) will be able to take me through the whole game." Which is what I prepared for and then the robots stopped by to say nuh-uh while sassily clicking their cruel cruel robotic fingers. But this thread really makes me want to start another, non-gimped, play through.
Nice picks for squad mates. Rebecca is as good a sniper in the game as I found and snipers are good all the way through if for nothing besides rapetastic criticals. I know I used her the whole way through. Rage and Ice are definitly solid picks early. I never realized Mandy had gifted and skilled as her traits. Those are what I usually use for my main guy. I approve.
So about the time that Jo and Ice got into that hair-pulling contest in the mess hall, I figured it might be a good idea to leave the bunker for a bit. See the world, met interesting people, kill them, that sorta shit. Ice said that she was hooking up with some rich bitch needed a squad to go to Freeport and rescue some bone-carver chief or some shit like that. I decided to tag along. Mostly because of the high percentage of hot chicks in that squad. And because my man Stitch was there, so that was gonna be a good time.
Anyway, we're two days out and the rich bitch says she wants to try a little bonding exercise. I'm all, "Hell yeah, baby, I'm not into that freaky shit, but ya know, for you anything." She gave me a funny look. Turns out what she had in mind didn't involve black leather and ball gags, just everyone sitting around a circle talking about feelings and some shit like that. Fuckin' disappointment, although it was worth it to see the look on her face when Ice said she liked "Long walks on the beach, fine wine, and blowing people's brains out with a 7.62mm full metal jacket."
Anyway, we got to Freeport. Fucking Freeport
Used to be some nice town, I guess, then the raiders came in and fucked it to hell. Problem was, it was pretty heavily guarded. Three ways to get in: the stairs to the south, the bridge in the middle, and the ladder up north.
Ladder up north led straight to a still. Lotsa volatile chemicals and shit bubbling and brewing, getting ready to blow the shit up. . . fun stuff.
Close as we could figure, they'd be keeping the bone-face chief right in the middle of the whole fucking complex. We'd have to crawl through the whole fucking camp to get him. Swell.
There were a couple of guards and a dog patrolling this side of the bridge. Didn't want the party to start without us, so we took em' out nice and quiet-like. Ice, Mandy, and I were the best sneakers, so we took care of it. Fuckers musta been drunk, cause none of them heard a fuckin' thing.
Rich Bitch, Stitch, and Becca followed up once the coast was clear, and we headed to the southside stairs to meet up with our man.
It was tighter than a Hubologist's snatch in there, but I didn't mind. I was rubbing up against Mandy the whole time.
His news was both good and bad: the tribal chieftain was in the center of the camp, like we'd expected. Thankfully, they'd just gotten back from a raid, and they were all as drunk as monks. I even heard someone shooting a gun off into the air: that sort of shit went on all night long. Guess that's why no one noticed us ghosting the guards across the bridge: too drunk, too noisy, no one's gonna notice a few more screams and gunshots.
Still, this was gonna take some finessing.
Problem was, if we screwed up once, the entire camp was gonna come down on us faster than a Deathclaw on a Brahmin. We were good, but not good enough to take out an entire camp of fucking raiders. We were trying to figure something out when a couple of raiders walked past us, talking.
"You know, that blonde prisoner gives quite a ride," one of them said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. She's a screamer, that's for sure. Seriously, there were three of us going at it at once. She tried to run, but we managed to keep her down. Just took a few hits to the head, that's all."
"Fuckin' A. Shit, I gotta get in on that," the other said, chugging from his bottle of booze. "Boss has got me beating the hell out of that tribal chief. Fucker's pretty tough for an old guy."
"Hey, maybe you can. . . holy fuck!"
And that's when my man Stitch flipped out.
Thing you gotta understand about Stitch: he's a good fighter, but he's hotheaded as hell. Flips out whenever he hears shit like that, especially when fuckers start fucking around with women: guy shoulda been born in the fuckin' middle ages, I tell ya. One story about a couple of raiders fuckin' around with some tribal chick and he goes apeshit and nearly blows an entire covert mission, starts yelling how he'll give them something to fuck with, puts his shotgun up to that guy's crotch and blows his fucking balls out all over the sand. Fucker drops like a lead weight.
And it was ON!
Wasn't much of a fight: guys weren't armed with much more than huntin' rifles, and they were all half-drunk, all-drunk, or pissing their pants from fear. Stitch blasted away a couple of them with his shotgun, and the rest went down to rifle and SMG fire. He's in the middle of beating in some poor fucker's face in with the butt of his shotgun, when someone thinks to ask, "Where's the squad leader?"
Sure enough, the rich bitch had disappeared.
Turns out later that when the rest of us ran off after Prince Valiant, Rich Bitch decided to move on. Wound up nearly stumbling over some poor sap sleeping in a house next door, blasted most of a clip into his chest before he died. Spent the entire firefight cowering in a corner with her gun, waiting for someone to burst in.
Anyway, Stitch was all set off to tear off and go after her, when I grabbed him by the arm. "Hold up, loverboy, we're not done here."
"I've gotta get to her, she's all alone out there. . ."
"Shut the fuck up." I drew my shotty and put it to that fucker's head. "If you don't calm down right the fuck now, I'm gonna blow your fuckin' brains out and call it accidental friendly fire. You're a fuckin' liability right now, man. You're gonna fuck up this whole op."
That calmed him down. "Now," I said, "What we need is a diversion. It's only a matter of time before one of those drunk fuckers in the came comes out here and sees this little mess we made, and we've gotta be mobile before that happens. So. What's it gonna be?"
Ice had an idea. "That still, earlier. I can sneak across to it and set up behind it," she said. "When you give the signal, I'll blow it up. That'll draw some of the attention away from you."
"I'll go with you, babe," I said. "You'll need some backup."
"I work better alone," she said curtly. "Besides, it looks like you've already made friends here," she said, glaring at Mandy. And then she was off. Fucking cold, man. It's gonna take a lot of flowers to make up for that one.
Ice ran off to set up, and we waited for her signal. Mandy took a moment to police the dead bodies for guns and ammo before catching up to us.
Rich Bitch was hiding out in some other building by this time. I saw her peek her head out the door and give us a hand signal. Stitch was moving in when the two raiders saw her.
They ran up to her, grabbed her, started saying very unpleasant things and dragging her back to the campfire.
Stitch responded about how you'd expect. Poor fuckers.
Once we got loverboy and rich bitch calmed down, we told Cindilu about the plan. She seemed down with it. "We should check out that locker first," she said. "I saw one of the guards put something in there before he headed into the camp." Poor little thing was fuckin' terrified, shakin' like a leaf, covered in blood and guts from the guards. It was kinda sexy, actually.
What can I say, I'm a sick bastard.
Anyway, we headed to the locker, opened it up, and. . .
BOOYA!! God bless Mikhail Kalishnikov, patron saint of asskicking.
After a bit of discussion. . . and a forceful argument on my part. . . we agreed that Rage should get the fuckin' awesome gun. HELLS YEAH!
Then Stitch told me the other half of the plan.
Ya see, the raiders had these fuckin' air raid sirens set up in two places in the camp. If they saw intruders, all they'd have to do is get one fuckhead over to the siren and turn the handle, and that would wake everyone up way too quickly. So what we had to do was get to the sirens before they did.
Guess who got to cover the siren sitting in broad fuckin' firelight with no cover whatsoever?
That's right. Me. At least they got Mandy to keep me company.
Didn't get to take much advantage of that, though, because the moment we set up near the siren, some knucklehead happened to hear me sneeze and started yelling. Not that anyone cared, because there was a lot of yelling going on. But then he started running to the siren, and we couldn't have that.
I introduced him to Lucille. Lucille made a very short, sharp argument. She argued so well the fucker's head exploded.
Some other guard tried to get to the siren too.
Lucille didn't like that either.
Meanwhile, Stitch, Rich Bitch, and Becca secured the other siren.
They also found that "blonde prisoner." She was locked up, or somethin'. They found a key on some guard, but I guess it wasn't the right one, so they moved on.
The guards kept trying to get at the siren. Lucille and I had other ideas. Mandy was checking behind us, too. Found some locked shed, but no guards.
Meanwhile, Ice was having some problems getting at the fuckin' still. Turned out there were more guards than she expected, and she had to do some quick thinking, wove in and out of cover, hit them from behind. Took out six guards with a hunting rifle and shotgun. God, I love that woman.
They found the chieftain. Turns out the raiders got him while he was taking a piss. Stitch told him to stay put, then we started wiping out the rest of the camp.
Knock Knock. Stitch is a fuckin' demon with a shotty.
By this time, my lady Ice was feeling the heat: she'd managed to blow up the still (for all the good it did), but there were a couple of guards giving her trouble. She saw us set up, and did an end run.
Dumb fuckers ran out to chase her, straight into the bullets of Becca and Mandy.
Met up with Ice. She said she'd loop around back and meet up with us in the center of the camp after she finished pulling the raiders' guns and ammo. On the way back, she ran into some other guard who started chasing her with a club. Fucker rounded the corner and found all six of us waiting for him.
He didn't last long. Wish I'd gotten a picture of it.
We found a prison key on one of the dead guards. Dunno what the raiders were talking about, that prisoner bitch was about as blonde as I was. Anyway, she thanked us, and ran off, saying we should look her up if we were ever in Grand Bend. Whatever.
Headed back and grabbed the Elder
And that, my friends, is how shit gets done.
Booyah!
Anyway, we came out of that mission with no casualties and a nice armful of guns, ammo, and AK-47s. HELL yeah!
Maybe hanging out with this rich bitch won't be so bad after all.
END
Name one of the guns Ricky and have the character yell "SAY HELLO."
In Which Cindilu Does Some Reading
I don't really know what to think of my new squad leader. On the one hand, she's good at what she does. On the other hand, she does it all so strangely.
I guess I should be grateful. I mean, there's no one else who'd want to take on a combat medic who faints at the sight of blood. But Cindilu doesn't seem to mind. She doesn't seem to mind that I'm just a scout who's a dab hand with a shotgun.
I guess that's a good thing.
The trip back from Freeport wasn't so bad. We did run into a small group of raiders in a patch of radioactive goo, but they weren't heavily armed or anything. We took them out pretty easily.
Anyway, we made it back to the bunker, and there were a lot of tribals there. Whole bunch of them. Turns out they all wanted to see Cindilu: seems like she's some sorta hero to them. That's fine.
I headed back to my locker room to take a shower and a nap. I met Farsight there. Guess Kevin's squad already got back first. "So," she asked. "How was the mission with Princess Pink?"
"It was fine," I said. "No one got killed and we rescued the Tribal Elder and some girl."
Farsight shook her head. "I don't envy you guys, having to put up with that stupid girl. Best thing to do would be to get her out of the Brotherhood quick. Don't know why she's even still around."
"She's all right," I said hesitantly.
"She's a liability," Farsight said grimly. "And she's a liar too. Look at those tribals, idolizing her, when all she did was stand back and let everyone else do the dirty work. I don't know how you guys put up with it."
I stood in the shower and quietly let the hot water run over me until Farsight got tired of waiting for me to respond and left. Truth was, I didn't know what to think of Cindilu. I mean, it was true that she was a terrible soldier, and she didn't know tactics from a whole in the ground, but she was nice, and she always did her part. I just wasn't sure whether that would be enough.
Anyway, I changed into my utilities and headed over to the mess hall to get something to eat. There was a light on in the barracks, so I ducked in to see what was going on there.
Cindilu was sitting on her bed, and she was wearing pajamas with pink bunnies on them. She was curled up with a magazine, flipping through it while she idly chewed on the end of her ponytail. I knocked on the door and peeked inside. "Dinnertime," I said softly. "Are you coming?"
"In a minute," she said.
That was when I noticed that the cover of the magazine was black: I thought she'd been reading Chicago Weekly (tabloid magazine printed by a couple of slightly crazy guys with a printing press, mostly about who was sleeping with who in the Brotherhood and what the Tribals were wearing this season.) It wasn't. She was reading Guns and Ammo. "Where'd you get that?" I asked.
"Bought it from one of the tribal girls," she said, underlining something in the magazine. "Traded it to her for some switchblades. Thought I should read up on this if I'm gonna, like, be a soldier and everything."
I hesitated. "Why?" I asked.
Cindilu looked up. "Why what?"
"Why are you still here?" I clenched my fists. "I don't know why you're still hanging around with us. If you asked, I'm sure General Barnaky would let you go with an honorable discharge. You're rich. You're not like us. You don't need to be here."
She paused. "No, you're right, I don't need to be here. But, well. . . I'm here." She smiled sadly. "And as long as I'm here, I might as well stay here."
"I don't get it."
"Neither do I." She sighed. "It's just. . . have you ever realized that there's something you need to do that you've never done before? Ever looked at your life and wondered. . . 'is this all?' I mean. . . it's funny. But until I was out there in the desert, I never thought about it that way. I never wondered whether there would be something more than what I had right now." She sighed. "I dunno. It's just. . . like. . . kinda like this sort of zen philosophical thingy, I guess."
I shrugged. "Maybe."
"Maybe," Cindilu murmured. She started humming.
"What is that?"
"Just some song my dad used to sing to me when I was younger. He said he learned it from his mom, before she left."
"She left?"
Cindilu looked contemplative. "It's a long story, and I've never heard all of it. I really should ask him about it one of these days."
I left her sitting on her bunk still reading. For some reason, that image of her curled up on her bunk all alone, reading by the light of a single bare bulb, wearing pink bunny pajamas, stuck with me all throughout dinner.
I dunno. Maybe it means something.
*** *** ***
We've got a mission today.
Some bandits picked up some piece of weird technology or something like that, and they're all gathered at one of their big camps at Rock Falls. Squad Cindilu's been ordered to go in and take them out. It's going to be half a dozen of us against about fifty of them. Good odds for any Brotherhood soldier.
General Barnaky had a surprise for us before he left. "Those stripes don't seem to go well with your uniform," he said to Cindilu. "Here, try these instead." He handed her a shoulder patch with two chevrons instead of one. "Congratulations," he said. "You're a Squire now."
Everyone clapped their hands and saluted Cindilu. She seemed embarassed by it, and said "Come on, you guys," a lot. I was shaking her hand when I happened to look over her shoulder and notice Farsight and Kevin's squad watching all this happen.
They didn't seem very happy.
END
In case you're interested, here are the character sheets as they were after Freeport:
For Cindilu's first perk at level 3, it was a tossup between Awareness, Here and Now, and some fluff perk. I chose Here and Now because the bonus level would go a long way towards making her actually not shitty, and because, honestly, the other perks weren't so great. Note that her small guns skill is now actually not shitty. . . for a level 1 character. :P
I'll post Rock Falls once I have a bit of time to do so.
I'm glad to see that people are enjoying this LP, and that it's encouraging some people to pick up this game again
Let me know if you've got any suggestions or ideas on how I can make this thread better.
Great stuff so far. Looking forward to the next mission :^:
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Maybe a man-hating woman.
Not abandonware (though you can download it if you know where to look), you can get a copy on amazon for $13 or in a collection with 1+2 for $24.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_i_5?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=fallout&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Afallout%2Ci%3Avideogames
I don't think even the Fallout RPGs are abandonware. Might be a copy or two lurking in a bargain bin somewhere - I've heard of someone else on the boards scoring the three-pack for about $20 at Gamestop - but you can probably ebay it for peanuts. I don't know of any direct distributors for the game, though; Interplay's got nothing and I don't think 14 Degrees East exists anymore.
Edit: Beat'd, but still true.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine