The Life of the (Waste)Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness [Andrew Mumford OPEN]

The Enclave were a weird group, perhaps because they were the only ones that truly fought to remain pure while the rest of the world became corrupted and twisted. They knew that modern humanity was a failure, a deviation from their true potential. Humanity would continue evolving with their newly irradiated and mutated DNA eventually humans will turn into something that doesn't resembles humans at all, hell, that was already a reality; Ghouls, Psykers and Super-Mutants were as real as the air.

Their fight was literally them against the world. They were incredibly outnumbered and in the past had suffered great losses but they were humans, true humans, and what humans do best, survive. On their side they had the advantage of possessing the best technology in the world and countless of military secrets that gave them access to bunkers and bases pretty much anywhere in the world. Thanks to their cunning intelligence Humanity once arose from a world filled with beasts and made its position as ruler over nature, and that would happen again, the Enclave with the help of their tech would conquer a world filled with beasts.

You were sent from the mainland to the islands of Hawaii. Several fragmented radio messages and reports reached your bunker and since some of them were contradictory the higher ups suspected of sabotage, spies and perhaps, only perhaps, that what they said could be true. You never truly new what those messages said but a few snippets of info reached your ears, something about the Brotherhood being present here and them ruling in the Shadows? Whatever that was you were designed as the agent who would be sent in there to speak with the Enclave members stationed there and truly confirm if they and their mission were at risk.

During the beginning you were incredibly nervous, you hadn't explored much of the world before this and all you truly new about it was thanks to Pre-War books and old pictures. Your hands were even shaking the instant you put the seatbelt on. What was at first excitement quickly turned to boredom. From the window of your vertibird all you could see was miles and miles of repetitive and grey wasteland in all directions, and when you thought that things couldn't get worse you reached the sea, at least on land there was a mountain or a settlement here and there to spice things up, now you were surrounded by blue as far as you could see. There wasn't anybody you could talk to either, the other passenger spaces had been occupied with plastic fuel barrels that were needed to make the long journey and chatting with the pilot was completely forbidden, she had to be focused in piloting at all times. With several hours of journey left and unable to do anything else you simply relaxed your muscles, closed your eyes and attempted to sleep.

You didn't knew when or where it happened but a sudden explosion awoke you up. You were glad to discover that most of the plastic barrels that were carrying the fuel were now empty, otherwise the explosion would have been way bigger. You looked down and saw a crude ship spewing black smoke as it followed your vertibird, on top of its deck several persons wildly shooting their guns at your position. By the way they shot it was obvious that they lacked any real military training but still some of their bullets and rockets managed to reach and impact. You unzipped your seatbelt and walked towards the case where your trusty weapons were stored but then it all changed.

The left engine violently exploded, the vertibird wasn't unable to sustain itself in the air anymore, crash landing was now inevitable. The vehicle started spiraling out of control, since you weren't using your seatbelt you started bouncing all across the walls but luckily for you the empty plastic barrels stopped you from hitting any surface way too hard. And then...darkness.

By the time you recovered yourself from the impact the vertibird was almost half sunken into the sea. The pilot was trapped upon his seat, his seatbelt damaged and unable to be unzipped, next to him you saw several precious items like your biggest weapons sinking down upon the crystal clear waters. You attempted to help the pilot who looked at you with fear on his eyes but in the end, the two of you knew that he was doomed, soon enough the entire vertibird sank down and dragged down the still alive pilot with it who with its last breathes gave you a military salute.

The pirates were also affected by the crash, part of your vehicle ended crash landing on top of the pirate ship and doing massive damage to it. Both wrecks were destined to sink into oblivion and the surviving pirates knew this as they started to open fire upon each other to gain the use of their apparently single life jacket, completely ignoring you due to how dire the situation was. In the meanwhile you grabbed one of the many empty plastic fuel barrels, as the floated pretty decently, and saw in the distance the fight while recovering your breath. Seeing this scum kill each other was entertaining and even kind of poetic, they lacked morals and honor and they acted like radroaches, this was all the proof that you needed. At the end nobody won the prize, all died from their wounds or blood loss and sank along with the lifejacket, who ended so damaged by the firefight that it ultimately lost its only valuable property.

You grabbed upon the barrel with all your forces and became dragged by the currents, you don't know for how long you were like this and it could even have reached the entire week but ultimately the seas were merciful and a fishing tugboat ended finding and rescuing you. The fishermen took you towards their dormitories where you slept for what seemed like an eternity. When you were recovered you slowly arose from your slumber incredibly hungry and thirsty, an old ghoul sat next to you with a steamy cup of soup on his hands that he gladly gave to you.

"Name's Saltgut, seems like you had a rough day eh champ?" He said with a voice that sounded like two grinding rocks.

Andrew sees the rotting man-like corpse that has saved his life standing before him.  Feeling conflicted, Andrew reaches for a cigarette and a lighter on the table next to him, he finds that he is barely able to grasp these items.  Saltgut puts a cigarette in Andrew's mouth and lights it for him.

    Many options stand before him, wondering what approach to take with this creature.  He decides not to expose his hand just yet, as the ghoul may not yet know of his Enclave affiliation.
"Do you know who I am?" asks Andrew to the macabre face of the ghoul.

"Oh yeah, totally, you are a fallen angel aren't you?" He says half laughing, showing you a smile with surprisingly good teeth.

"He, he, he...I used to pick up girls with that cheesy line before, you know the bombs fell. No, I don't know who you are, there was some kind of dogtags around your neck but they display strange letters and numbers, I think the thing's busted. But judging by your appearance you are from the Brotherhood aint you? We can perhaps ring them with hour radios and tell'em about you, who knows, they might give us a nice reward."

After saying this he stood up, his old bones and joints creaking as moved and then put on his sailors cap before using the same lighter that you used to light his wooden pipe.

Andrew lets out a small chuckle. On the fly, he responds, "No, actually they are my great-great-great grandfather's dogtags, he fought in the Sino-American war". He then explains that he is "actually" a mercenary.

"Where are we, anyways?" asks Andrew casually, as he takes a long drag from his cigarette, glancing over to the creature standing beside him.

Andrew's lies were convincing enough for the Ghoul to believe, it seemed like he had also been a soldier in the past and even showed him an old tattoo that emblazoned a Pre-war military symbol, even if the ink was faded away and his skin now looked damaged and diseased the tattoo was still recognizable for someone like Andrew who had studied not only the history of the Enclave but also all about the many branches of the Pre-war military forces.

"We are about two hundred miles from the coast of Oahu, we usually dock and sell our fish in 'ere. Yer lucky slavery is illegal in there, on another port we could get some pretty penny for you...just kidding, or not, who knows. " He says with another grin.

He filled his lungs and then exhaled all the gray smoke from his mouth.

"We still got a couple of weeks in here before we manage to fill our cargo hold and head to port. If you have somebody in here capable of hauling you up feel free to use my radio, if we can always return sooner...but of course you'll have to pay us generously to compensate for all the expended fuel and all the hours of work that we will lose. Your last option is to work with us, you seem strong and sturdy, you could make a good fisherman, we'll pay you of course."

Andrew could tell that the ghoul was smart, but also compassionate. He also knew that he would never grab a ghoul up from the waters, much less offer him work.

Still weakened from the incident, Andrew decides it world be more than difficult to capture the ship. "i'll work, but, could I have one more day of rest?", he asked, buying time to think of a better solution.

With one last puff of his tobacco smoke the Ghoul looked at Andrew, then smiled and nodded, giving him a proper military salute before standing up and going away from the room, his bones audibly cracking even after he left the room.

The room itself wasn't bad by post-nuclear standards. It was a very small room whose all furniture consisted in a single bed next to a small nightstand and some drawers under the bed to keep clothes or any other item. A huge metallic door separated him from the rest, who knows what else could inhabit in a ship full of degenerates like this one...

Resting now or exploring the room and the rest of the ship, that was his utmost priorities.

Andrew decided to get up and go outside to investigate the vessel. When he tried to stand up he fell back into the bed, after trying again he was successfully on his feet. He searched the nightstand, it's handles smooth from years of use. The many drawers yielded nothing worth taking. He then walked over to the great iron door and upturned the handle of the door with a deep groan. Using all his limited strength, he managed to push the door open.

After stepping out to the starboard, the first thing he felt was the breeze and the air, the breeze swept over him the way a tsunami envelops a city, and the air was so thick you could take a bite out of it. He just froze for a moment to take it all in, absorbing the sight and smell of the ocean. He was snapped back to reality by the sight of another fisherman, who looked at him and then back at his work. Andrew walked up to the front of the boat and cracked open the door there and stepped inside.

The room moderately sized and contained multiple cots with footlockers at the end of each. The walls were steel with peeling red paint that has long since been fresh. In the corner there was a bookshelf containing books about sailing and boat repair. One that catches Andrew's eye is titled "Dean's Electronics". Andrew leaves the book be for now. He walks over to the cot closest to the door and begins to search the footlocker at its end.

One of the ship's worker catches Andrew rummaging across his locker.

"Hey you, stranger! What the fuck are you doing?"

The sailor was a big man, muscles forged from a life full of hardships and challenges. He was dressed with a leather armor that was reinforced with broken fishing nets and decorated with several fishing hooks and baits. On his belt several primitive knives, some of them still covered in fish guts and blood.

"Get out of here if you know what's good. This is my first and last warning."

Before getting up, Andrew carefully weighs his options, this man is incredibly strong so trying to go hand-to-hand with him would only lead to Andrew's body being used as shark bait. Another option would be to talk his way out of this precarious situation, the fisherman didn't seem very intelligent so perhaps a lie would allow Andrew's actions to continue.

Andrew stands up carefully and says, "Saltgut sent me in here to get something out of his locker. Could you show which it is?".

OFF ROL: Alright, the man isn't the sharpest tool in the shed but neither stupid, he mistrusts you because you have been looking at his stuff and because you are a foreigner so it's a pretty challenging roll, get a 80 or more to succeed.

Do 1d100 dice roll and add the +16 bonus you have on the diplomacy dice rolls. Good luck!

roll

The member 'Andrew Mumford' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'1d100' : 6

"That's the biggest piece of brahmin crap that I've ever read. Saltgut might be old and half cracked, but he isn't a lazy fuck, if he wants something he gets it."

The sailor then readies his muscles and lands a punch right in your jaw. Since you were still weakened from being recently awakened there was nothing that you could do to avoid it. The punch sent you against the same locker that you had recently opened and then straight to the ground. Your head ringed and you felt blood coming out of your nose. Pain you could take, but what would come next would be a hard earned lesson, something so humiliating that you would never forget it. A quick zip and the mariner dropped his pants, then quickly proceeded to piss on you, a yellow stream of hot and steamy liquid that smelled strongly and tasted like a mix of vinegar and beer. Before you had the chance of striking back he grabbed you by your clothes and painfully shoved you into the locker and locked the door, keeping you trapped in a minuscule space all while soaked in human waste.

"And be thankful that I don't throw this onto the sea. We don't take thieves kindly upon here..."

It was in that moment that Andrew felt the rage building inside, that he swore he would seek restitution in blood and suffering never before seen in these wastelands, that he would slice this man until he begged for death and the only thing he would receive is salt in his wounds and salt water in his mouth, and only after would he leave the man destitute on some godforsaken island to die alone and without hope.

Andrew then turned to the prospect of escape. He could either yell for help, try to break the lock with his combat knife, or shoot the lock off with one of his few bullets. He decides to try to use his knife to break out, as it would be quieter than the other two options and it would preserve his precious 10mm ammunition. He begins to slide his knife into the lock.

Luckily for Andrew, years of rusting and being covered with salt had damaged to lock enough to be easily broken with a quick slash. The door opened heavily creaking but at the same time a great wave hit the side of the ship so nobody really heard you coming out.

The same mariner who had insulted and humiliated you was now backwards from you, resting on the ledge of the door, smoking a cigarette and apparently unaware of your presence. With the knife still on your hand it would be easy to kill him before he could react and who knows, maybe even hide the body on the locker or throw it onto the sea, nobody would ever miss someone as scummy as him. Or perhaps...well, you could simply memorize his face and name and return once you have reunited with your enclave peers, surely they will be glad of erasing this entire ship from existence.

Andrew figures his best chance of survival is to forgo his vengeance plans, as his query is easily within his grasp. Andrew sees the face of the man who just urinated not just on Andrew but also his pride.

Andrew decides to sneak up on the man and kill him quietly.

sneak attack rolls

The member 'Andrew Mumford' has done the following action : Dices roll

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#1 '1d100' : 29

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#2 '1d100' : 94

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#3 '1d100' : 46

Your steps were quick and precise but also...wet. What was supposed to be a silent running turned into a series of steps that sounded like "splotch" "splotch" "splotch" due to how wet and piss soaked your clothes were. The sailor noticed this and quickly turned around, punching you, again, straight on your jaw, this time on the other side. He then grabbed you by your neck and raised you several inches up, his grip seemed to be incredibly strong and if it weren't for the warmth of his hands you would have believed them to be hydraulic arms.

"Well fuck! This guy is dumber than a rock. Saltgut! We have a spoiled apple in this barrel."

There was nothing you could do to liberate yourself and the more you struggled the less precious air you had on your lungs. Saltgut came shortly after, but to you it felt like an eternity.

"Told you we should have left him on sea, nothing good ever comes from castaways..."

Saltgut looked at you, then at the busted locker and spit on your face.

"To the cage it is, and to think that I trusted him."

The marine smiled at you, winked once and then headbutted you so hard and so fast that you immediately lost your consciousness.

By the time you woke up you didn't knew how long had it been but you were on a different place, back on the surface of the ship, inside a metallic cage that was hanging down from a big crane and under you the unforgiving sea.

"Good morning sunshine!" Said Saltgut from the captain's deck, who was now only a few feet away from you. "We don't take thieves kindly in here. If you need to steal its because you aren't useful enough to get what you want with hard work, and in this world if you aint useful you are as good as a corpse, hell, corpses at least feed creatures, and soon so will you." And after saying that, with the click of a button the chain of the crane was released and you were dropped onto a sea filled with who knows what.

Deep, deep, deep. Even for one used to living in an underground bunker like you, the darkness is palpable and oppressive. You are suddenly very aware of the how small you are. What do they say? That you are a gear in the machine? You've long been used to that, but you feel it again now. Deeper still. Phosphorescent slugs the size of ponies pulse in the darkness. Sunk ships, countless of skeletal corpses and radioactive barrels glint in their light. Almost too low to hear, a deep slow rhythm throbs. The heartbeat of some immense creature or a feature of the last bubbles of air moving leaving your lungs?

What led to this moment? Was it his greed? His lust for power? He was here because he had sunk to the level of pirates and of thieves. Andrew silently made a pact to his god, swearing that if by some miracle he should be allowed to escape the watery depths, that he would never steal or kill in hatred again.

In one final act of defiance to the faceless waters, he unsheathed his knife which Saltgut allowed him to keep out of respect of his ancestry, and began to scrape at that lock which imprisoned him.

Several strange creatures started appearing in the distance, their bioluminiscent bodies becoming more and more bright and clear the closer they got. In an instant a group of five Mermfolk jumped towards the cage, violently rocking it and using its claws to effortlessly attempt to open a way onto you, onto your flesh.

You had never seen these monsters before, to you they were only old tales from before the war but now they were completely real, and extremely violent. The violent rocking of the cage made meddling with the lock all but impossible and any attempt to get close to any of the walls was meet with several coral like claws violently attempting to tear you apart. It seemed like this would be your tomb, either drowning or being devoured by these mutant beasts, whichever came first, would kill you...

Just when the last bubbles of air came out of your mouth the cage began to be ascended, as quickly as it was dropped. The merfolk, not wanting to lose their precious prey blindly followed the cage and some of them even went as far as grabbing the bars and letting be dragged around.

With a violent splash the cage was raised and with it several merfolk that ascended into the skies. To both your and their surprise several of the sailors were waiting on the surface of the ship with shotguns on their hands. With a well trained signal the Captain ordered his men to open fire and soon all of the fishmen and women were blasted to death in mid-air. Some of the corpses fell upon the sea but quickly the men equipped with several long hooks proceeded to grab them by their tails and lift them up to the ship, only to immediately proceed to use cleaver knives to chop of any human like remain from their bodies.

"The guy is a nice bait, the blood coming from his nose attracts the beasts..." Said Saltgut smiling mischievously before extending his hand and grabbing some caps from the same sailor that had knocked you out, apparently thye had bet if you would survive or not and the captain won.

He then grabbed one of the shotguns and with another well aimed shot blasted the lock and liberated you.

"Get down here and lets talk... we might need some fresh blood like you on our crew."

The sudden emergence from the water made Andrew collapse on the floor of the cage in a violent coughing fit. Once he had recovered, he stood up and looked at Saltgut.

Andrew was flabbergasted and didn't know how to react. Andrew's god smiled upon him this day, so with a gaping mouth he just slowly shook his head yes.

The Crane moved and dropped the cage upon the floor, making Andrew fall upon a blood and guts filled floor. All of the mariners cheered and saluted you as they took you on their arms.

"Tonight, we feast!" Screamed Saltgut with a voice that sounded rough and incredibly intimidating.

With the exception of the sailor who headbutted you they all cheered at him and started grabbing all the fishy pieces of the mermaid flesh and taking it towards the kitchen, where the cook, a Super-Mutant, that seemed way too big for the kitchen where he had to work at, would turn all those pieces of flesh into something more or less edible.

Now that you were with all of the workers you saw that they were a cheery bunch, made of 20 workers, both men and women and of all races, but mostly human and ghoul. They dragged you towards a room that seemed like a common area for them to relax, eat and get drunk, a place with a big table with poker cards and chips, a jukebox and even a Nuka-Cola vending machine along with strange trinkets and treasures that they might have found on their journeys and on the walls the preserved remains of several captured pieces, some of them truly impressive.

"Welcome to the gang!" They all cheered.

"And here's your welcoming gift" A redheaded ghoulette told you with a wink as she handed you a geeki tiki glass with a revolving liquid that smelled strongly and emanated a greenish steam. She then took a blowtorch and light the drink on fire, a purple fire that launched several sparks on the air and filled the entire area in a sweet aroma. Looking around you could see that you weren't the only one who had it and with the exception of the cook and the robots around all of them had a burning glass on their hands.

"DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!" They all screamed in unison.

Andrew looked at the burning purple drink and drank the liquid in its entirety in one breath.

In an instant the world around him swirled with colour and noise as the others downed their drinks. Andrew felt unusually enthused and hyper, looking, to the room, like a man who had lost his regard for time and self-being.

Then, Andrew smashed the glass against his head and bellowed an unintelligible noise only partially understandable by those who had also drank the substance.

From there his night quickly eroded into the ground, leaving Andrew on the floor of the room.

He woke up the next morning with only partial recollection of the night prior.