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RaderOfTheLostArk
Well, I never thought I'd be posting in this particular subforum before now. But with all these ideas bouncing in my head of what post-Great War Florida would look like in the Fallout universe, I have taken to jotting them down and (hopefully) making a cohesive guide to it. I don't really write fiction, so I don't think I'll be writing actual stories like you all do, but I suppose we'll see. For the time being, it's really going to be a guide of sorts, somewhat like a wiki or what textbooks would say.

This will obviously attempt to adhere to Fallout canon as much as possible. I chose Florida as the setting not only because it is my home state (though that is definitely the biggest reason) but because, from what I can tell, so little about the Southeastern United States is talked about in Fallout lore, giving me a lot more room to operate in. And, of course, it's the state I know best and would love to see the most as a setting for a Fallout game.

So here's the plan for all this:
[*] I'm going to break up each section of the guide into its own post to separate it sufficiently. This one will be the introduction to the setting.
[*] I may include some incomplete information on here for several reasons. For one, it'll be an easy repository to refer to just in case the Word doc I am using has something go screwy or that my computer messes up or whatever. Two, it can be a little taste of what's to come. Three, I just want to get down as much content as comes to me.
[*] The tentative list of sections to have here include, but are not limited to (and not necessarily in this order):

[*] General overview of the setting and how I am breaking up the parts of Florida
[*] The Bestiary
[*] The Timeline
[*] The Factions
[*] Profiles of each of the regions I am making


Some of the stuff you see will definitely be subject to change if needed to make it cohesive. I'll try to document what I change to make it clear.

And most of all, I hope you all like it and I'd like to hear whatever feedback you have. Presenting and communicating information is one of the things I enjoy most, although I'm more used to doing so for real-life content (particularly political science).

First section of the guide coming up!

The Setting - Basic Overview


While not experiencing the same level of nuclear barrage as places such as Southern California, New York, and D.C., Florida was plunged into nuclear fire just like virtually everywhere else in the world. This was especially true of the Tampa Bay Area, Orlando and its surrounding areas, and South Florida, centers of great economic and political importance in Pre-War America. Being the 3rd-most populous state in the country, the Great War extinguished far more lives than average here and left plenty more to pick up the pieces in the post-apocalyptic, anarchic wastes. The exceptional biological, geographical, and human diversity of Florida led to a far more varied impact on the former Sunshine State when the bombs fell.

Nevertheless, many settlements started to crop up in the decades just after the Great War, even in those once-densely populated cities and metropolitan areas. In time, former towns and cities were beginning to be resurrected and reclaiming their old names, and brand-new ones started to form. But post-War Florida--and the rest of what used to be the country's Gulf Commonwealth, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi--was still highly fractured. In the 22nd century, the first of many ambitious attempts was made to reunite this once-thriving landscape. While extraordinarily difficult at first, a string of successes in reunification gave birth to the Gulf Coast Union, a nation similar in concept to the future New California Republic (NCR). The so-called Great Reunification--a somewhat hyperbolic title, at least currently--started extending through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and even some of southwestern Georgia, though it has yet to reclaim the whole of any of these former states.

The process is far from completed, however, and many other factions both big and small struggle with the Gulf Coast Union for dominance in the former Southeastern United States. Many of the conflicts take place in what used to be the Sunshine State. The Gulf Coast Union was successful in claiming virtually all of Northern Florida and has made inroads into the Central Florida wastes. Major and minor powers violently feuding with each other and with the Gulf Coast Union have made the GCU's grip on these lands somewhat tenuous, preventing any attempts at expanding into South Florida.

As of this guide, it is currently the year 2130, over a half-century since the world was irrevocably changed. To most easily understand the lands that were once called Florida, it is best to divide the area into ten distinct regions--even if the divisions are a bit crude, arbitrary, or too convenient. Each have their own set of conflicts being waged, major and minor players vying for power, and civilizations trying to carve out a life in these harsh wastes. Welcome to the Sunshine State's post-apocalyptic wastes.


The Ten Regions and Their Counties

County Map
Here's how some coasts in Florida got their nicknames, though not all are explicitly mentioned here


Though these broken-up zones are somewhat crude and arbitrary, it'll be easiest to understand post-apocalyptic Florida this way. However, major conflicts in one region can definitely spill over into another.

1) Panhandle (13): Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Liberty, Franklin, Gadsden
2) Big Bend (8): Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Lafayette, Dixie, Levy
3) North Central Florida (8): Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, Baker, Union, Bradford, Alachua, Gilchrist
4) The First Coast (6): Nassau, Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Putnam, Flagler
5) The Space and Treasure Coasts (7): Volusia, Seminole, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee
6) Central Florida (8): Marion, Sumter, Lake, Orange, Polk, Osceola, Hardee, Highlands
7) The Tampa Bay Area (6): Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee
8) The Gold Coast (3): Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade
9) Southwest Florida (7.5): Sarasota, De Soto, Charlotte, Glades, Lee, Hendry, Collier, Monroe (mainland only)
10) The Keys (0.5): Monroe (Keys only)


Just a quick side-note: The Panhandle West/East dichotomy is one I totally made up for my own purposes. They are, as far as I know, not referred to as such in real life. It is just the Panhandle, and the real-world Panhandle doesn't necessarily include all of the counties in Big Bend.
Renee
You are right about the Fallout series not having much to say about southeastern United States. As can be seen in this map, Florida hasn't got any vaults or towns or settlements mentioned at all. But that's just because none of the devs have gotten around to adding these areas into lore. Certainly, Florida would have its own Fallout locations going on.

I'd really hate to see mutant alligators. indifferent.gif Mutant manatees. ohmy.gif

SubRosa
Neat! I love to see good brainstorming at work.

I imagine there would be mutant anacondas in the Glades. Or maybe a mutant serpent-man race (Nagas?)

RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(Renee @ Jun 4 2020, 11:14 AM) *

You are right about the Fallout series not having much to say about southeastern United States. As can be seen in this map, Florida hasn't got any vaults or towns or settlements mentioned at all. But that's just because none of the devs have gotten around to adding these areas into lore. Certainly, Florida would have its own Fallout locations going on.

I'd really hate to see mutant alligators. indifferent.gif Mutant manatees. ohmy.gif


Right. Although there was a canceled game, Fallout: Tactics 2, that was to be set in Florida. I will be incorporating a few bits of what little we know about that game's premise.

Not sure what I'm going to do with manatees, but wait until you see what I've got cooked up for mutant gators and crocodiles. biggrin.gif Oh, if only I could draw, especially concept art.


QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 4 2020, 01:48 PM) *

Neat! I love to see good brainstorming at work.

I imagine there would be mutant anacondas in the Glades. Or maybe a mutant serpent-man race (Nagas?)


Oooh, Anacondas are a good idea. I have a name for a creature called a Gladewalker, but no idea for what it will be beyond that. Maybe that's what I'll make it...


And speaking of: The (work-in-progress) bestiary is next!



The Bestiary


The Great War was deadly for species of animals and plants across the whole world, especially so for the exceptional ecological diversity of former Florida. Still, many species made it through one of the darkest days in history, even thriving afterwards. But almost all of them were changed significantly due to the high levels of radiation, with all sorts of different mutations.
  1. Swamp Demons (Super Gators) and Rad Gators: Already a deadly predator, alligators saw major changes in their biology, but it was not uniform across the board. Some were changed so greatly that they became larger, had heightened regenerative abilities, acquired even longer lifespans than usual, and became bipedal. These alligators started to become known as "Swamp Demons" or "Super Gators." Some even exhibited a higher level of intelligence due to Enclave and U.S. Government experiments and the compounding fallout from the Great War. Swamp Demons (one of the two versions of the "Floridian Deathclaw" also gained more resistance to damage, particularly in their head, meaning headshots from weapons are not necessarily effective at bringing them down. Yet for reasons unknown, some gators continued to be four-legged creatures, though they still gained some resistance to damage along with regenerative abilities. These gators are simply known as "Rad Gators."
  2. Longsnouts and Rad Crocs: Similarly to alligators, crocodiles also diverged into bipedal creatures and those that still stayed low to the ground on four legs. The former came to be known as "Longsnouts," referring to their longer, narrower jawlines and snouts compared to their gator cousins. This mutation only elongated said jawlines and snouts, heightening their sense of smell compared to mutated gators yet making them more vulnerable to damage to the head. For reasons unknown, they also did not gain quite the regenerative abilities and intelligence that Swamp Demons did, though crocodiles were also experimented on comparatively less by the Enclave and the U.S. Government. Crocodiles that stay four-legged are simply known as "Rad Crocs." Longsnouts are the other type of "Floridian Deathclaw."
  3. Radfrogs: Plenty of species of frogs called Florida their home in Pre-War times, and while many species were wiped out by the bombs, many others survived and continue to populate the Sunshine Wastes. Curiously, not all frogs have become hostile creatures, but those that are are a force to be reckoned with. One of the defining differences between frogs and toads is that the former have moist skin, and mutations have given Radfrogs the ability to secrete and spray radioactive liquid onto their foes. They can also use their tongues as a weapon. Their skin gives them higher resistance to radiation and energy damage...but makes them more susceptible to regular ballistic damage.
  4. Radtoads: One of the defining differences between frogs and toads is that the former have moist, softer skin while the latter have tough, dry skin. This was also reflected in the difference in mutations. Radtoads tough, dry skin helps them run into enemies and cause bleeding damage due to how rough and jagged pockets of skin can be. They can use their tongue as a weapon as well to deal radiation and poison, just like the Radfrog. The tough skin makes them more resistant to regular ballistics damage...though they have a weaker tolerance for energy damage. [NOTE: Radtoads also appear in Fallout 76, though while they have many eyes in that game the Floridian version still maintains the normal 2 eyes.]
  5. Pouncers: In the real world, the Florida Panther is a heavily endangered species, with less than 150 left that are still alive. In the Fallout world, they were still endangered in the lead-up to the Great War, but less so than in our world. Many would survive that dark day, becoming what are referred to as "Pouncers." The radiation damaged their mental faculties to make them far more aggressive than pre-Great War. Their signature hooked-tail became a powerful tool in the Pouncer's arsenal, which it often uses to stun its prey before sinking its teeth or its lengthened claws into such organisms unfortunate enough to cross paths with it.
  6. Armadillos: While many creatures came to be (more) aggressive due to the radiation, the armadillo was an exception. Although becoming larger and gaining a tougher shell, armadillos are docile and friendly toward Sunshine Wastelanders. Some have even been tamed by wastelanders and used as pets.
  7. Mirelurks: Florida's Mirelurks are much like their Commonwealth and Capitol Wasteland counterparts, though the have some aesthetic differences due to being different species of crabs that live in the Sunshine Wasteland.
  8. Brahmin: Brahmin in Florida mutated more or less the same way as Brahmin from other parts of the United States.
  9. Anoles: These once-tiny lizards have grown exponentially compared to the original size, though the biggest ones aren't much bigger than a mole rat. They are also generally friendly toward humans, and have become pets for some Sunshine Wastelanders.
  10. Great Blue Herons: The Great Blue Heron just got even bigger in the Post-War wastes, growing up to 8 feet tall with a wingspan up to 10 feet long. They still generally mind their own business, though Sunshine Wastelanders should still take care not to feed them. Great Blue Herons have been known to get very upset and attack Sunshine Wastelanders when the latter feeds them but then stops doing so.
  11. Cicadas/Sirens: Fallout from the Great War has increased the size of creatures to about half that of an average human male. Known for their loud calls during the daytime, mutations have made them capable of emitting even louder sounds than before the Great War, giving them the nickname of "Sirens." Typically, these are only used when they perceive a threat. There doesn't seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to whether they are hostile or friendly. Some nests have been indifferent to or afraid of humans, while others are much quicker to provoke.
  12. Nutria: These semiaquatic rodents are similar to the Mole Rats that can be found in places such as Mojave Wasteland, the Commonwealth, and the Capitol Wasteland, and act in similar ways. Nutria, however, are found in more aquatic environments such as marshes and tend to be a bit more dangerous than mole rats.
  13. Rad Boas: Already a potentially dangerous creature to tangle with in the wild in Pre-War times, boa constrictors have gained more of a penchant for trying to wrap around its prey and squeeze tightly. Yet just as in Pre-War times, these snakes can be tamed, though it is tougher to do in the Sunshine Wasteland.
  14. Otters: These friendly fellows still manage to be mostly friendly even as their mental and physical faculties have been wracked by radiation, though one can find the occasional aggressive one.
  15. Flamingos: These birds didn't change all that much despite surviving the Great War. However, they rarely sport the pink feathers they were once known for, and one can see patches of exposed skin where feathers once were.
  16. Giant Iguanas: Green Iguanas were an invasive Pre-War species that first appeared in South Florida in the mid-20th century. Their enlarged Post-War iterations aren't necessarily friendly or hostile but are still invasive, and still destroying property and general infrastructure. Despite not generally physically threatening Sunshine Wastelanders, one ought to care to set up settlements or camps with these creatures nearby, as what you build may very well be tramped by this nuisance.
  17. Kolossus (Monitor Lizards): Cousins of the Komodo Dragon, Monitor Lizards garnered the nickname "Kolossi" (singular: Kolossus) for their immense frame and greater mass and weight than other creatures about their size, both results of nuclear fallout. Some Sunshine Wastelanders have somehow found ways to tame these creatures, though it is extremely rare. Still, they usually stay away from humans and are generally not quick to provocation with them, though curiously they are aggressive towards many other mutated creatures.
  18. Manatees: While a legally-protected animal in Pre-War times, no such protection is possible in these post-apocalyptic wastes. They simply traded the threat of boating accidents, etc. for threats from mutated creatures, particularly Mirelurks. They still retain a friendly but skittish disposition toward humans, along with a faint green ting to their body.
  19. Key Deer: This species of deer acquired a sickly green coat, extended antlers (for those that would have them), and yellowed eyes, though they are still skittish and docile.
  20. Spore Plants: Animals weren't the only organisms to suffer from the fallout of the Great War. This type of plant became capable of attacking humans and other creatures. Virtually any organisms that cross paths with a Spore Plant will be attacked by one--even giant creatures like Swamp Demons or Longsnouts. Spore Plants have the ability to spit poison projectiles. [NOTE: Spore Plants appeared in Fallout 2, which this version is more-or-less based on.]
  21. La Boca del Lago ("Mouth of the Lake"): Reports have surfaced of a strange, mysterious, and terrifying creature that lurks in the depths of Lake Okeechobee, but they conflict on what exactly the creature is. Some reports have suggested it is a giant, mutated fish, others saying it is a scaled creature, and still others that report it simply having regular skin. There isn't even agreement on whether it is one creature or several. Whatever it is, the reports generally agree on two things: That the creature is enormous and very deadly. Several destroyed settlements on the banks of Lake Okeechobee are said to be the work of this monster.
  22. Gladewalkers: Gladewalkers are perhaps the most dangerous creatures in all of the Sunshine Wastes, an impressive feat considering they have competition from other menaces such as Swamp Demons. Few human beings have seen these creatures (or at least who lived to tell the tale), but their reports are all generally similar: Some abominable, humongous, abhorrent mixture of creatures that should not exist. Due to few reported sightings and these sightings' limited geographical spread, many Sunshine Wastelanders who have never encountered a Gladewalker might be justified in thinking them to only be a myth--even in a Wasteland that is particularly filled with a wide variety of diabolical monstrosities. Unfortunately for them, Gladewalkers are quite real. Due to some unknown property in the Everglades' water, along with toxic waste, possible Enclave experiments, and fallout from the Great War, parts of the Everglades became a melting pot for walking horrors. The Gladewalker is one such beast, but there have been several different mixtures of creatures spotted--one being a combination of toadfish, anaconda, alligator, bat, and snapping turtle borne out of the noxious marshes. Gladewalkers can grow to as big as 15 feet tall.
More creatures coming soon, including some urban legends...
SubRosa
Aren't toads poisonous? I would go with them having a radioactive poison that damages anyone who hits them in melee, or whom they hit.

I love La Boca del Lago. It reminds me of a monster alluded to in The Call Of Cthulhu. The actual short story, not the rpg.

There were legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight, in which dwelt a huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous eyes; and squatters whispered that bat-winged devils flew up out of caverns in inner earth to worship it at midnight. They said it had been there before D’Iberville, before La Salle, before the Indians, and before even the wholesome beasts and birds of the woods. It was nightmare itself, and to see it was to die. But it made men dream, and so they knew enough to keep away.

TheCheshireKhajiit
Oooo! Looks like Big Crescent now has some trading partners down the coast to the east! Be expecting a visit from Désirée Devreaux soon! laugh.gif
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 4 2020, 09:02 PM) *

Aren't toads poisonous? I would go with them having a radioactive poison that damages anyone who hits them in melee, or whom they hit.

I love La Boca del Lago. It reminds me of a monster alluded to in The Call Of Cthulhu. The actual short story, not the rpg.

There were legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight, in which dwelt a huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous eyes; and squatters whispered that bat-winged devils flew up out of caverns in inner earth to worship it at midnight. They said it had been there before D€™Iberville, before La Salle, before the Indians, and before even the wholesome beasts and birds of the woods. It was nightmare itself, and to see it was to die. But it made men dream, and so they knew enough to keep away.


After checking up on it, it seems that they generally are poisonous though the toxins aren't always enough to kill predators. But good point. What I'll do is make their tongue do radiation and poison damage, though I still want to keep the rest the same to sufficiently distinguish Radtoads and Radfrogs.

Ah, good ol' Lovecraft. I was actually somewhat inspired by a boss in Resident Evil 4 called "Del Lago" but this would be right up Lovecraft's ally.


QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 5 2020, 10:48 AM) *

Oooo! Looks like Big Crescent now has some trading partners down the coast to the east! Be expecting a visit from Désirée Devreaux soon! laugh.gif


Haha, I guess so. Even though they are just our imagination I'll try not to make my Fallout concept conflict with yours too much. It would be pretty cool to get ideas from other people to flesh out the world I am building, or at least try to make them consistent. It may even indirectly make mine more cohesive.

Do you have your version of Fallout on these forums? I'd love to take a look at it if you want to share it. When is it set? And what is your concept of New Orleans in 2130? In my headcanon, I have it as being a warzone and fought over by a bunch of groups, though I haven't named them.


------------------------------------



And now, time for some factions! I've got a lot of working names in my document I am working on, so I may put them down here as well.

The Factions
  1. The Gulf Coast Union: In 2110, four small nation-states controlling much of the Gulf Coast--New Florida, The Alabama Compact, Republic of Mississippi, and the Louisiana Union--agree to join forces and create one single nation after years of cooperation through trade and interpersonal relationships. Each of the former nation-states was led by a single executive at the time--Emilio DeSoto (Florida), Sarah Devereaux (LA), Frederick Gepford (Mississippi), and Bernice Jackson (Alabama). The resulting government still retains some elements of the old order, with each of the small nation-states having representation.
  2. Brotherhood of Steel - Midwest Chapter: Operating mostly of former Texas and Oklahoma, the Midwest Chapter had made inroads in lands east of their territory, cutting through Louisiana and knocking on the metaphorical doors of Gulf Coast Union lands. The chapter also displays a much more militaristic mindset, getting into direct confrontations with the GCU and other smaller groups controlling their own territory. In 2130, they have been heavily involved in the war-torn, highly fractured ruins of New Orleans (of which many groups are fighting for control in), as well as Hattiesburg and Pensacola, the last of which threatens to sever Florida from the rest of the GCU.
  3. Brotherhood of Steel - Southeast Chapter: The Southeast Chapter and the GCU in Florida and Alabama have been at odds for many years, though not always in direct conflict. Although the Southeast Chapter falls under an overarching banner with the BoS Midwest Chapter, the similarities mostly end there. While they both are militaristic and seek out the Brotherhood's ultimate purpose--to acquire Pre-War technology and preserve it in their organization's hands--the Midwest and Southeast Chapters have developed an interpersonal rivalry. It hasn't resulted in bloody conflict between them--yet--but it has become a particularly tense situation between the two groups, with each seeing themselves as the most capable of preserving technology and the other as incompetent at best.
  4. Conquistadors: In the years before the Great War, many Europeans sought to escape the political and economic turmoil following the Resource Wars, Euro-Middle Eastern War, and European Civil War. For Spaniards in particular, a popular destination was the First Coast of Florida, site of the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the United States-St. Augustine, which was also settled by the Spanish in 1565. The Conquistadors are descendants of these immigrants, taking on this name Post-War to evoke the real-life Spanish conquerors who set out all over the world to claim land for their home country. The Conquistadors have been at odds with the GCU for a long time, dating back to when New Florida still existed. More recently, they have also had to contend with the Southeast Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel and unrest within the Conquistador ranks--the intragroup faction El Bastin, which while not separating from the Conquistadors for fear of being too weak to take on either the GCU or the Brotherhood or even local raider groups, has certain sharp differences with Conquistador leaders.
  5. El Bastin (The Bastion): A minority within the Conquistadors, El Bastin has been at odds with the larger intragroup faction, such as regarding military conflicts. The Conquistadors favor a more aggressive approach with the GCU and Brotherhood, while El Bastin is concerned about spreading themselves far too thin. The Conquistadors also favor forcibly conscripting Sunshine Wastelanders unaffiliated with any group into their armed forces while El Bastin think a diplomatic approach is more practical, such as by agreeing to protect them from local raiders in exchange for more soldiers. Both factions try to keep said divide as under wraps as possible, lest the GCU or Brotherhood find out and try to exploit it.
  6. Buccaneers: A considerably large raider group has become perhaps the major power in the Tampa Bay Area. The Buccaneers take heavy inspiration from the pirate-themed culture of the area from Pre-War times--such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL team and the pirate-themed festival, Gasparilla. They operate predominantly from what used to be Pinellas County and are very active along the rest of the bay's coastline.
  7. The Scaled Legion: Swamp Demons and regular Rad Gators are a menace in many parts of Florida, but none are as fearsome as The Scaled Legion, a group of these creatures that have banded forces thanks to the efforts of a handful of intelligent Swamp Demons. Enclave experiments on this type of irradiated alligator produced several that could speak English and read, yet still communicate perfectly with other gators. Chief among them was Methuselah, who had spent a long time cooped up in zoo exhibits before the Great War. Eventually, the Enclave acquired him and started experimenting on him with FEV along with other mutagens and chemicals. Methuselah was the first of the experiments and became even stronger than he had already become due to mutations from nuclear fallout. At some point, Methuselah broke free from his Enclave captors and annihilated them, leaving behind mostly-eaten corpses for other Enclave personnel to find later. The interactions with humans he had and those he had witnessed other gators in deeply embittered him against humanity, with him vowing to wipe out all that we could. Breaking the few fellow intelligent Super Gators free as well, they grouped together and found others of their kind to create their own society, which would come to be known as the Scaled Legion.
  8. Alabama Dissidents: For many Southerners, the rebel spirit dies hard. Such is especially the case for this group. When the GCU was formed, not everyone in their former nation-states was happy, and the Alabama Dissidents are perhaps chief among them. Freedom fighters to some, insurrectionists and terrorists to others, and simply a nuisance to even others, the Alabama Dissidents have fought against the GCU (but so far, not the Brotherhood of Steel), seeking to create their own nation. The Dissidents see the GCU as some faraway power too beholden to interests outside of Alabama. Although the GCU have derisively referred them to as dissidents and such, the group took such names as badges of honor. Currently, they are heavily active in the Pensacola area, hoping to cut off the lands of Florida from the rest of the GCU. While on paper the GCU should win easily, GCU forces are strained by being involved in many different conflicts: They have been battling with the Brotherhood and other major factions active in Florida and they have had significant trouble brewing in the Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas over in Louisiana. If the strain proves too much for the GCU, the Dissidents may very well get their wish of their own independent nation.
  9. The Challengers: A mysterious group whose name is inspired by the space shuttle flights of the same name, the Challengers have gained control of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and surrounding area. While not violently hostile, they are very distrusting and suspicious of outsiders, especially the Hubologist cult that wants to access the KSC. One may wonder why they would call themselves the Challengers given the tragic Challenger space shuttle explosion. The Challengers' leader is Carrie McAuliffe--a descendant of teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died aboard the ill-fated flight--who decided to take the moniker both to honor her ancestor's memory and to signify that the group would "œchallenge" any obstacle to come their way. The Challengers are clearly more interested in knowledge and discovery than warfare or expansion, though what exactly their ultimate goal is is unclear to outsiders. Within the organization, there is some difference in opinion of what they should be striving for: To discover technology that can help rebuild the Sunshine Wasteland, or to one day escape Earth altogether and start anew on the moon or a different planet.
  10. Hubologists: This Pre-War cult managed to survive the "Great Deluge," their term for the Great War. Founded by Dick Hubbell, Hubologists believe that existence hinges upon the Great Wheel, with the Hub at the center. They seek to augment their spiritual power by purifying "neurodynes" in their bodies, believing that one day they will be called to the "Star Father" on the planet Quetzel. The contingent of Hubologists in Florida reside in the Space Coast area hoping to access what is left of the Kennedy Space Center facility, believing that the space travel technology there can help them achieve their ultimate goal of uniting with the Star Father. The Challengers, however, are a group that already has control of the facilities, putting them at odds with the Hubologists. [NOTE: Hubologists first appear in Fallout 2 and appear again in the Nuka World DLC for Fallout 4.]
  11. Keepers of the Glades: The Keepers are a cult that mostly reside on the outskirts of Everglades National Park. While others run in fear at the sight or sound of the giant Gladewalkers, the Keepers instead were awestruck and took to worshiping them as "living gods." They see it as their duty to protect the "holy ground" of the Everglades, stopping outsider "heretics" and "uninitiated" from entering their sacred place. They will not necessarily outright attack on sight and it is possible to talk to them, though they are mostly only interested in proselytizing and sometimes trade. Beyond that, they try to firmly get outsiders to leave. Anyone who tries to enter the Everglades or insults Gladewalkers strongly enough will be subjected to violent action from the Keepers. It isn't clear if Gladewalkers really do see the Keepers as allies...or that they simply haven't found them to try to make a meal out of them.
  12. The Collier Republic: The CR is a burgeoning nation-state based in what used to be Collier County in Florida. The president and founder of the Republic, Ezra Maddox, claims to be the grandson of the last Florida governor. While many CR citizens see him as an inspiring leader, others are suspicious of him and skeptical of who he says he is and what his vision for the CR is. It's hard to say what the full story is on him is.
  13. The Enclave: You already know them: The remnants of the U.S. shadow government who seek to rebuild the country according to their own twisted vision. The Enclave is still active in 22nd century Florida, with several bases scattered throughout. They also continued and improved on some pre-War U.S. government experiments, including the intelligent Super Gators that still reside in the state. The Enclave are bad news as always, though what their specific end goals are in Florida is unclear.
  14. Falcons: This mercenary group from Atlanta has traveled all the way from their home base in Georgia's former capital--the NFL's Atlanta Falcons' stadium, the namesake of this group--to the outskirts of North Central Florida, though who or what they are hunting down is unclear. Given that they have traversed such a long distance, their target(s) must be a highly important one, though whether they are good or bad (or somewhere in between) is unclear to Sunshine Wastelanders.
  15. Devil Rays: The Devil Rays are another raider group battling for supremacy in what's left of the Tampa area, developing an intense and bloody rivalry with the Buccaneers. The Devil Rays' namesake comes from the original name of the Tampa Bay Rays, the area's MLB team. Tropicana Field, said team's former stadium, serves as their home base.
  16. Seminole Indian Tribe: The Seminole Tribe hails originally from Florida, though in the lead-up to the Great War the majority of them lived in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma contingent's status is unknown, but in Florida they managed to survive. Despite being in conflict every so often with Florida's state government over the years, the Seminoles controlled most of the gambling industry in the state, even buying the Hard Rock Cafe brand of hotels, resorts, and casinos. When the bombs fell, two Hard Rock casino locations miraculously escaped total destruction: Immokalee in Southwest Florida and Coconut Creek along the Gold Coast. The Seminoles have rebuilt these two locations into well-known economic powerhouses, a sort of southeastern version of Mr. House's New Vegas.
  17. Miccosukee Indian Tribe: The Miccosukees were another prominent Native American tribe, having several reservations in South Florida before the bombs dropped. Being far enough away from the cities and from Everglades National Park made it less difficult for them to escape the brunt of the nuclear bombs, but it still certainly wasn't easy. They still mostly keep to themselves, though they will sometimes engage in trade. The Keepers of the Glades, however, have been giving them some trouble as of late.
  18. Veterans of the Second Cuban Missile Crisis -- Americans: The Cuban Missile Crisis in our world proceeded the same way as in this Fallout timeline, though in 2076 the Second Cuban Missile Crisis began. It was a far more protracted affair than the first iteration, being a full-out war in all but name. Cuba and China became allies in the 2070s. While they bonded due to similar political ideologies and their hatred for the U.S. government, Cuba also desperately needed military and financial backing to combat the U.S. (as well as supplies to help keep unrest in the Cuban citizenry to a minimum). Meanwhile, China sought to have another location for an offensive against the U.S. while the latter was also preoccupied with liberating Anchorage from China's control. Some American veterans from the Second Cuban Missile Crisis survived the Great War but turned into ghouls, although there are still human descendants of soldiers who fought in it.
  19. Veterans of the Second Cuban Missile Crisis -- Cuban Nationals: But trouble related to the Second Cuban Missile Crisis is still brewing. Some Cuban military personnel involved in the conflict also became ghouls following the Great War and there are still human descendants. Some of them have made it to the southern extremities of Southern Florida, apparently looking for some particular technology. In their minds, acquiring this technology and using it to destroy whatever they can of Florida would finally mean "victory," despite the Great War happening over 50 years prior. The Americans are trying to find this technology first to not only prevent the Cuban Nationals' goals but to employ it against the Cuban mainland, though there are a few dissenters in their ranks that want to simply destroy this technology without it claiming more lives. Whatever this technology was and why it wasn't used before the Great War isn't exactly known.
  20. Veterans of the Second Cuban Missile Crisis -- Cuban Exiles: Many Cuban refugees who escaped their homeland's government in the 2060s and 2070s would fight alongside the Americans in the Second Cuban Missile Crisis. And just like for the previous two groups, there are still ghouls from the conflict as well as human descendants of veterans. However, unlike most of the American contingent, they want to destroy whatever this technology that the Cuban Nationals are looking for instead of use it against their country. The Cuban Exiles are still hoping to one day return to their homeland, no matter what ruins are left there.
  21. La Familia: La Familia is a Cuban-themed faction that (mostly) controls Miami and some of the surrounding area, headquartered in Little Havana. While they are the largest proportion of the group, being Cuban is not a requirement and La Familia counts many other Hispanic and non-Hispanic members in their ranks. The citizens of post-apocalyptic Miami come from a wide variety of ethnicities as well, just as they did Pre-War. Lately, they've been having more trouble with local raider groups, Mirelurk and other monster attacks along the coast, and the conflict between those veterans of the Second Cuban Missile Crisis and their descendants.
  22. Los Huracanes ("The Hurricanes"): Los Huracanes are the pre-dominant raider group in the Keys, who have gone so far as to enslave several local populations on the islands. They have their eyes set on controlling the rest of the Keys...and eventually expanding their operations to the mainland, which would set themselves up for war against the Collier Republic, Second Cuban Missile Crisis Veterans, La Familia, and local raider groups. First, however, they have The Restless League to contend with.
  23. Apalachee Indian Tribe: In Pre-War times, only several hundred descendants of this tribe existed and all of them lived in Louisiana, but their ancestors came from Northwest Florida. In the 2120s, they returned to Northwest Florida, though no one outside of their group knows why they would travel back so far. They reside in the Apalachicola National Forest area, or at least what's left of it, in the Panhandle.
  24. The Restless League: The only serious challenge to Los Huracanes in the Keys is the Restless League, though the latter is at a disadvantage in numbers, weapons, armor, and organization. They are also based far into the extremities of the Keys to the west, making it significantly harder to seek out or receive help from would-be mainland allies and limiting their already-dwindling supplies. If their fortunes don't turn around soon, Los Huracanes may not have to engage in all-out warfare and simply just wait them out until The Restless League starves to death or capitulates to the raiders' rule. [NOTE: The Restless League is a direct reference to one of the two main factions in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard].
  25. The Old Guard: The Old Guard is somewhat analogous to The Enclave at the state level, being the remnants of the Florida political elite class. Yet make no mistake: The similarities to the Enclave mostly stop there. The Old Guard loathes the Enclave, laying much of the blame for the Cold War at their feet. The Old Guard seeks to claim (or in their eyes, reclaim) what they feel is rightfully theirs: The lands of what used to be Florida. They have mostly laid low, waiting for the right moment to kickstart their plans, but they have bases in multiple places around the state. Right now they are mostly involved in Southwest Florida...and may have already infiltrated the Collier Republic government's ranks.
  26. The Red Rangers: Recognizable by their distinctive red-dyed combat armor, the Red Rangers are arbiters of justice in the Sunshine Wasteland much like the Regulators become in the Capital Wasteland. Little is known about them by most outsiders, including where they are based and who they are led by (if there is even a single leader at all). Something that is known is that they operate in multiple regions of the Sunshine Wasteland, which may indicate that they are split into several major units.
  27. The New State of Florida: The NSF is an unlikely conglomeration of robots, feral and sane ghouls, and other monsters that dominate the ruins of "Old" Tallahassee. They are led by a brilliant yet unstable and megalomaniacal ghoul named Ezra Davidson, a scientist and Pre-War state senator with Florida gubernatorial ambitions. He established the NSF as the "true, legitimate, and rightful continuation" of Pre-War Florida's government, though certainly the Old Guard would have something to say about that.
SubRosa
So are the Falcons a raider gang based in Atlanta?
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 6 2020, 03:59 PM) *

So are the Falcons a raider gang based in Atlanta?


I was thinking about doing that, but after thinking about it a bit more, I think it is a bit hard to believe that a raider group would come so far from there to be involved in Florida (yeah, I know, plenty of unbelievable things happen in video game settings happen all the time). So I've just made them a mercenary group coming to North Central Florida for as-of-yet unknown reasons.

Fleshed out some more factions. Will finish later the other ones I have currently listed. I love coming up with factions and building them up.
TheCheshireKhajiit
QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 6 2020, 11:24 AM) *
Do you have your version of Fallout on these forums?

Nah man, it’s not nearly as... developed... as your idea for Florida is. If you want to look at my ideas for it check out the Khajiit’s Fur Brained Plots thread a bit further down here in the Fan Fic forum. Feel free to use any info from there you like (just be sure to give me credit for it tongue.gif ).
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 8 2020, 10:32 AM) *

QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 6 2020, 11:24 AM) *
Do you have your version of Fallout on these forums?

Nah man, it's not nearly as... developed... as your idea for Florida is. If you want to look at my ideas for it check out the Khajiit's Fur Brained Plots thread a bit further down here in the Fan Fic forum. Feel free to use any info from there you like (just be sure to give me credit for it tongue.gif ).


Well, if you do expand on it, I'd be interested in seeing it. I know very little about the real-life area. I took a look at what you had, and a couple of ideas you had were similar to mine, such as war-torn New Orleans and bipedal gators (though my development and name for them is different).



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Here's the first region profile I have (mostly) done. To make it more easily visualized, I hope to create a map of the area that delineates where all the locations are (especially the totally/partially fictional places, seeing as how...well...they're mostly or completely fake and therefore you can't even look it up on Google maps.

First up, the Panhandle.


Regional Profile #1: The Panhandle


Counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Liberty, Franklin, Gadsden

Brief Description: The Panhandle is the northwestern-most limits of Florida, bordering the state of Alabama. While sparsely-populated in comparison to the central third of the state and especially down in South Florida, the Panhandle was nonetheless very important to Pre-War Florida's geography, history, and culture. The region now serves as the GCU's gateway between the rest of Florida and the non-Florida land.

Alternate History Tidbits: TBD

Major Settlements: Pensacola; Panama City; Eastpoint; DeFuniak Springs; Crestview; Fort Walton Beach; Santa Rosa Island; Destin; Apalachicola;

Minor Settlements: St. Teresa; Lanark Village; Cottondale; Escambia Farms; Laurel Hill; Alpine Heights; Blountstown; Freeport; Mexico Beach; St. Joe; Walnut Hill

Other Points of Interest:
  • Environmental Areas: Apalachicola National Forest; Apalachicola River Wildlife and Environmental Area; Tate's Hell State Forest; Bald Point State Park; Point Washington State Forest; Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park
  • Landmasses: Okaloosa Island, Avalon Beach, Alligator Point; Dauphin Island; Walnut Hill
  • Larger Complexes: University of West Florida, Liberty Correctional Institute; Tyndall Air Force Base; Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport; Port Morgan
  • Smaller Complexes/Particular Buildings: St. George Island Lighthouse, Emerald Bay Golf Club; Duke Field Airport; Indian Pass Raw Bar
  • Other: Apalachicola River; Choctawhatchee Bay; Choctawhatchee River Water Management Area; Gulf World; Old Muscogee Cemetery; Muscogee Road
Totally Fictional Locations: Gulf Coast Union Outpost Gamma; Gulf Coast Union Outpost Iota; Brotherhood of Steel - Laguna Beach Bunker; Gulf Coast Union Government Center (Pensacola); Nuka-Cola factory; Benton House

Partially Fictional Locations: Apalachee Indian Village; Mart-Town (repurposed Walmart SuperCenter in Crestview, which has become its own little city)

Primary Factions Involved: Gulf Coast Union; Brotherhood of Steel - Midwest Chapter; Alabama Dissidents; Apalachee Indian Tribe

Main Storyline: The GCU is getting trouble from the Brotherhood of Steel and the newly-formed Alabama Dissidents. The Brotherhood and Dissidents have also been known to be hostile to each other, though a few GCU intel reports speculate that they may have brokered a temporary truce and are working together for the time being. GCU-held Pensacola has not yet seen a full-scale assault from either or both groups yet, but tensions are running high and war is considered practically inevitable at this point. Some citizens have already or are considering fleeing in anticipation of conflict. The GCU is not at full numbers in the area due to problems that have also formed on the east coast as well as trouble out to the west, which has spread their military presence thin.

The Apalachee Indian Tribe has also returned to their ancestral lands, though no one outside of the tribe knows why. There is some speculation that they may have been forced out of their homes in Oklahoma and wanted to at least go back to the lands of their forefathers and foremothers, though many suspect that there is also something specific they wanted to find. Whatever the case may be, the GCU didn't see any reason to oppose their resettlement in Florida and let them settle in the Apalachicola River Wildlife and Environmental Area since no GCU citizens had been living in the area, though the GCU also didn't want to have yet another problem on their hands. For their part, the Tribe has shown no interest in getting involved in the GCU-BoS-Dissidents conflict, though overtures have been made to them.

Other Storylines: TBD, but at least one I want to include involves the Mart-Town, the just-conceived idea I had for a Walmart Supercenter being repurposed into a little city. I guess that makes it somewhat like Rivet City in the Capital Wasteland.
TheCheshireKhajiit
QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 8 2020, 07:17 PM) *

Mart-Town (repurposed Walmart SuperCenter in Crestview, which has become its own little city)

Shouldn’t it be a Super Duper Mart instead of a Walmart? tongue.gif
SubRosa
Definitely a Super Duper Mart. Don't forget to sprinkle in some Poseidon Energy gas fission stations as well.

And maybe instead of a Nuka Cola factory, they have a Florida-based pop company with lots of orange/citrus flavors (locally sourced of course). The brand name might be Fusion! (with the exclamation mark in the title of course), and the flavors be Orange Fusion! Lemon-Lime Fusion! Grape Fusion! and so on.

The remnants of the Deepwater Horizon would be a great lair for a villain.
RaderOfTheLostArk
Update 6/9/20 6:30 PM EST: Added a couple more factions a day or two ago. Have several ideas for "real" mythical creatures to add to the Bestiary. Fallout 76 was sort of an inspiration in that regard with their inclusion of cryptids such as the Mothman and the Wendigo.

QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 9 2020, 04:26 PM) *

QUOTE(RaderOfTheLostArk @ Jun 8 2020, 07:17 PM) *

Mart-Town (repurposed Walmart SuperCenter in Crestview, which has become its own little city)

Shouldn’t it be a Super Duper Mart instead of a Walmart? tongue.gif


Haha, I thought about it, but I feel like Super Duper Mart wasn't quite as expansive a corporation as Walmart. I think of it more as a regional, strictly grocery shopping establishment, one that would equate to Publix. But of course, as a loyal Floridian, Publix is most certainly going to make an appearance later. tongue.gif


QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 9 2020, 05:14 PM) *

Definitely a Super Duper Mart. Don't forget to sprinkle in some Poseidon Energy gas fission stations as well.

And maybe instead of a Nuka Cola factory, they have a Florida-based pop company with lots of orange/citrus flavors (locally sourced of course). The brand name might be Fusion! (with the exclamation mark in the title of course), and the flavors be Orange Fusion! Lemon-Lime Fusion! Grape Fusion! and so on.

The remnants of the Deepwater Horizon would be a great lair for a villain.


I was trying to think of something more Floridian, but I've also been attempting to conjure up some background story about Nuka-Cola infringing on that company's territory, sort of like with Vim! in Fallout 4. I really like that name though--Fusion! Being Florida, one of if not the most popular flavor of theirs will be Key Lime (in real life, the official state pie--yes, that is a thing--is the Key Lime Pie).

Good point about including Poseidon Energy. I should include more stuff about utility companies in general, alluding to some of the real-life political dealings that they have engaged in at the state government level.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was much, much closer to Louisiana, so I don't think it would work well to incorporate it in Fallout: Florida, even though it affected the whole Gulf of Mexico. But I could still maybe have some background reference to it if and when I start to write more actual stories here. That is a cool idea; it sounds very similar to the Enclave Oil Rig in Fallout 2.


See, this is one of the cool things about this whole thing: While I'm brainstorming and throwing out the foundation of this world here, I get feedback and suggestions that I can more easily take into consideration and possibly incorporate into my conception. This is quite fun!
TheCheshireKhajiit
I don’t know how accurate it is, but according to the wiki article, Super Duper Mart as a company had locations all across the Pre War United States.

*Edit*
Yeah, apparently there are advertisements For Super Duper Mart in New Vegas, which would indicate that there were some in the Mojave prior to the war.
TheCheshireKhajiit
Oh lawd, I’m having a thought! How about Sam Walton did establish a chain of Walmart stores as he did in our own timeline, but it didn’t make it out of the South for some reason. Now, imagine a clan of Point Lookout-esque Swampfolk dwelling in an abandoned Walmart! laugh.gif

If it were a game, the quest involving them could be called “People of Walmart”! rollinglaugh.gif
SubRosa
Back when I GM'd a Shadowrun pen and paper game I imagined that the Waltons conquered a South American nation like Guyana with a mercenary army. They then ruled it as their personal kingdom - Waltonia - and enslaved the inhabitants to make everything sold in the Walmarts in the UCAS and CAS.
TheCheshireKhajiit
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2020, 02:25 PM) *

Back when I GM'd a Shadowrun pen and paper game I imagined that the Waltons conquered a South American nation like Guyana with a mercenary army. They then ruled it as their personal kingdom - Waltonia - and enslaved the inhabitants to make everything sold in the Walmarts in the UCAS and CAS.

Lol that is gold! With John Boy as Minister of Foreign Trade! rollinglaugh.gif
RaderOfTheLostArk
I haven't been able to add much to Fallout: Florida for the past week or so, but I did have an epiphany about what the overarching storyline would be last week. I don't want to spoil too much of it yet, but what I will say is that it takes some inspiration from what the concept of Fallout: Tactics 2 would have been. The regional storylines would then all tie directly or indirectly to the main one. The excerpt from the Fallout wiki:

QUOTE
The basic premise was that a GECK had been irradiated, and thus, the "Garden of Eden" it created was full of mutant plants and fungi. The mutant garden begins to spread fairly rapidly, preying upon animal life and using them as carriers/fertilizer to spread its fungal seed. The player character is tasked with discovering the source and a way to put an end to it. The accelerated regrowth and nature reclaiming the wasteland and an irradiated GECK threatening humans, presenting moral ambiguity.


Also, I've thought some more about the discussions about Pre-War businesses, and I thought that would be a nice background theme for the alternate history: Detail on several different corporate and political competitions.
-Federal vs. State Government: I already had a working concept for dissension between the Enclave and the Old Guard. They're similar entities in their essence (i.e., shadow governments that are the real puppet masters), but while the Enclave is at the federal level, the Old Guard is at the state level. Many disagreements, especially the Old Guard blaming the Enclave for the Great War which directly affected other plans of theirs. To build off of that, I'm thinking of putting lore in that the Old Guard was even trying to get Florida to secede from the United States. Fallout 76 has something similar with a group called the Free States.
-National vs. Regional/Local Corporations: On the corporate side, we are going to have a similar and related battle, and on several different fronts. Since we see several national corporations in bed with the federal government in some of the lore, I'm going to carry it even further here with national businesses impeding on the territory of the regional and local businesses. While the federal government backed these national corporations (both through legal and illegal means), the state government backed the regional and local businesses (also both through legal and illegal means). This is another thing that creates tension between the federal and state government--and by extension between the Old Guard and the Enclave. I'm hoping to include terminal entries at some point that talk about all this.
-1) First, we have Super Duper Mart vs. Publix and possibly Walmart. I'm thinking I'm going to consider Walmart a southeastern corporation in the Fallout timeline, but the heart and founding of the Publix establishment here and in real-life is in Florida (although it, too, can be found throughout much of the southeastern U.S.)
-2) Next is Poseidon Energy vs. Local utility companies. I'm also partly inspired by the fact that, in real-life, Florida's major utility companies have a lot of lobbying power with the state government. Given that I have studied political science at both the undergraduate and graduate level, this is a natural inclusion.
-3) And finally, we have Nuka-Cola vs. Fusion! (h/t @SubRosa, I can't think of a better name for this fictional soft drink company).


QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 9 2020, 06:59 PM) *

I don’t know how accurate it is, but according to the wiki article, Super Duper Mart as a company had locations all across the Pre War United States.

*Edit*
Yeah, apparently there are advertisements For Super Duper Mart in New Vegas, which would indicate that there were some in the Mojave prior to the war.


I was going to say that it's vague just how spread out Super Duper Mart is, but see above for what I am thinking of doing. It also helps that I am doing (and have to do) anything Fallout-related for free, so I have a lot of leeway with what brands I can include (such as the inclusion of Publix and possibly Walmart in the lore).


QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Jun 9 2020, 07:25 PM) *

Oh lawd, I’m having a thought! How about Sam Walton did establish a chain of Walmart stores as he did in our own timeline, but it didn’t make it out of the South for some reason. Now, imagine a clan of Point Lookout-esque Swampfolk dwelling in an abandoned Walmart! laugh.gif

If it were a game, the quest involving them could be called “People of Walmart”! rollinglaugh.gif


I have a working concept for swamp people a la Point Lookout. Stay tuned. biggrin.gif

QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jun 17 2020, 03:25 PM) *

Back when I GM'd a Shadowrun pen and paper game I imagined that the Waltons conquered a South American nation like Guyana with a mercenary army. They then ruled it as their personal kingdom - Waltonia - and enslaved the inhabitants to make everything sold in the Walmarts in the UCAS and CAS.


Haha, nice.
Renee
RaderOfTheLostArk needs to get hired as a dev. I can just see his credit listed for Fallout V: The Panhandle.
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(Renee @ Jun 19 2020, 01:21 PM) *

RaderOfTheLostArk needs to get hired as a dev. I can just see his credit listed for Fallout V: The Panhandle.


Lol, I don't know about that but I appreciate the vote of confidence, Renee. And unfortunately, my vision of a Fallout: Florida is going to be impossible to implement fully into a video game. The technology couldn't do it. But it is still fun to think about.



Haven't been able to do much more with this project recently, but I finally finished up another regional profile.


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Regional Profile #2: Big Bend


Counties: Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Lafayette, Dixie, Levy

Brief Description: Big Bend gets its name from being the section of land that “bends” between the Panhandle and the rest of Florida. The main theater of action at this time is Tallahassee by far, which is sometimes considered part of the Panhandle. As the capital of what was once Florida, the place has all sorts of secrets and Pre-War treasures waiting to be uncovered. And that is exactly what the major factions in this region are attempting to do.

Alternate History: TBD

Major Settlements: Monticello; Perry; Madison; Williston;

Minor Settlements: Wakulla; Otter Creek; Homestead Ridge; Fish Creek; Morriston

Other Points of Interest:
  • Environmental Areas: Lake Talquin State Park; St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge; Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park; Mallory Swamp Wildlife Management Area; Twin Rivers State Forest; Goethe State Forest; Devil’s Hammock Wildlife Management Area
  • Landmasses: Cedar Key; Bonita Beach
  • Larger Complexes: Florida State Capitol Building; Florida State University; Museum of Florida History; Florida A&M University; Governor’s Square Mall; Florida Supreme Court Building; Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare; Taylor Correctional Institution
  • Smaller Complexes/Particular Buildings: Fort Braden Community Center; Leon County Solid Waste Division (Fort Braden); Donald L. Tucker Civic Center; Florida Governors’ Mansion; The Grove Museum; St. Agape Orthodox Church
  • Other: “Old” Tallahassee, Williston Highlands; Oakland Cemetery; Lake Rousseau Boat Ramp
Totally Fictional Locations: Gulfwatch; Sundown; Vault 100; Green Anole Ranch; Big Bend Lookout

Partially Fictional Locations: New Tallahassee; Fort Braden Ruins; The 98; Chief’s Land (Chiefland in real-life)

Factions Involved: Gulf Coast Union; The Old Guard; The Enclave; New State of Florida

Main Conflict: Most of Pre-War Tallahassee lies in ruins due to a direct hit from a nuke, and it is now referred to as “Old Tallahassee.” Displaced residents would set up a settlement outside of new Tallahassee as the old city was taken over by all sorts of dangers, and it was uninhabitable for some time anyway due to lethal levels of radiation. In recent years, the radiation has mostly dissipated but the Gulf Coast Union has kept the area strictly off-limits to its citizens due to the monsters and robots that still infest it. As a result, Old Tallahassee was not part of GCU control despite being within its borders.

Recently, forces from the GCU, Old Guard, and the Enclave have been seeking to access the city and recover secrets and lost information regarding the rest of Florida—but another faction stands in the way of all four groups. The self-proclaimed “New State of Florida” (not to be confused with the “New Florida” that became part of the GCU), a conglomeration of robots, feral and sane ghouls, and monsters that rule the city, have been very successful in keeping outsiders away. The NSF is led by a brilliant yet emotionally unstable and megalomaniacal man turned ghoul named Ezra Davidson. Davidson was a Pre-War state senator for Leon County (the county which Tallahassee resided in) and a scientist who had gubernatorial ambitions. Of course, that last part was thwarted by the Post-War. But Davidson saw an opportunity to build a new nation of his own: He has proclaimed his government the “true, legitimate, and rightful continuation” of the Pre-War Florida state government, and he has the resources to back his power up.

GCU hope to find lost information in Old Tallahassee that will help them expand throughout Florida and rebuild Tallahassee to bolster their economic, political, and military power. But it seems that both the Old Guard and Enclave have more of an idea of what they are looking for, something (or multiple things) more specific…


EDIT: After thinking about it some more, I'm going to remove the Brotherhood from this place. They are already involved in the Panhandle and I don't want to overuse them. Plus, the Midwest Brotherhood is going to be involved in places outside the GCU, so having them too numerous spread out too much isn't going to make sense. The Southeast chapter will make an appearance in a later region, however.
RaderOfTheLostArk
Regional Profile #3: North Central Florida


Counties: Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, Baker, Union, Bradford, Alachua, Gilchrist

Brief Description: This subtropical part of the Deep South was filled with many smaller communities prior to the Great War. The major exception to this was the city of Gainesville that was home of the University of Florida Gators, one of the top academic schools in the entire country and one of the most recognizable team names in college sports. The small community aspect is virtually unchanged even after the Great War, with few major settlements rising back up from the ashes.

Alternate History: TBD

Major Settlements: Gainesville (parts of it); Lake City; Lake Butler

Minor Settlements: Micanopy; Tioga; Macclenny; Worthington Springs; Starke; Waldo; Jennings

Other Points of Interest:
  • Environmental Areas: Osceola National Forest; Woods Ferry Conservation Area; St. Mary’s Shoals; Raiford Wildlife Management Area; Graham Conservation Area; Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park; Watermelon Pond
  • Landmasses: Island Grove; McCormick Island; Bird Island; Hixon Island
  • Larger Complexes: University of Florida; The Oaks Mall; Santa Fe College; Lawtey Correctional Institution
  • Smaller Complexes/Particular Buildings: UF Health
  • Other: Santa Fe Ruins; Lake Sampson; Crosby Lake; Lake Powell; Hawthorne; Lake Santa Fe; Newberry; Melrose Ruins; Roline Boat Ramp

Totally Fictional Locations: Fusion! Bottling Plant; Chasalatchkee; Falcon Outpost Alpha; Falcon Outpost Beta; Red Rangers base; Super Duper Mart; Publix Shopping Center; Toxic Waste Disposal Site

Partially Fictional Locations: Junction 23 (where State Road 23 crosses into Georgia, real life St. George); Jai Alai facility; abandoned Walmart Supercenter (Starke); The Burning Pools (a nuke just missed Gainesville, hitting the lakes SE of it and E of Micanopy)

Factions Involved: Gulf Coast Union; The Scaled Legion; The Red Rangers; Falcons

Main Conflict: The Scaled Legion, a band of Rad Gators, Swamp Demons, Rad Crocs, and Longsnouts (all mutated alligators and crocodiles, a few even being intelligent and able to speak human languages) have recently made headway into North Central Florida from Central Florida. They now control most of Gainesville, particularly the ruins of the University of Florida (the mascot of which, perhaps somewhat ironically, was the gator), killing and displacing humanoid residents. Outsiders are not sure what they are looking for, but what is clear is that they are highly organized and that they are looking for something specific in the remains of the university. The Scaled Legion is led by Methuselah, the First Super Gator and revered by his kind as “The Progenitor.” (The name is a reference to the longest-living person from the Bible, due to Methuselah being a particularly old gator).

Meanwhile, another new player has entered the fold: A mercenary group known as the Falcons. They take their name from the NFL team for Atlanta and have come all the way from said Post-War city to North Central Florida. Ostensibly, the Falcons’ mission is to capture a dangerous fugitive that they have hired to hunt down, though many GCU citizens have a hard time believing their claims. They have not incited violence or otherwise caused a real disturbance, however, and the GCU’s resources are stretched so thin that it is hard for them to drive the Falcons out. But the Red Rangers have also come to town, another secretive group but one that ultimately has good intentions. They are also not very forthcoming about their objectives for security reasons, however, but are trying to stop the Falcons for unknown reasons.
RaderOfTheLostArk
I actually decided to start writing a real story that will go through at least several of these regions. I'm still going to do the other stuff like regional profiles, world-building documents, referential info, etc. of course. That's what I am mostly focused on when I get to work on this project. The idea I have in my head is that I am going to have 5 or 6 regions tie into the main storyline and then the remaining regions will be "DLC"/"expansion" kind of stories. They will have their own separate main stories, but still have some sort of tie-in to the main story.

When I get some more free time later, I will also be adding some more monsters to the bestiary.
RaderOfTheLostArk
I am in the process of writing the synopses for each part of my story, which is project to be 5 or 6 parts. Each part will probably have 4-6 chapters if I don't rush it. I'm concerned I won't have the time to write out the entire story, so I may decide to release the synopses with a bit more added detail if anybody wants to read them. I finished the synopsis for the Panhandle (Part 1 of the storyline) and I'm going to think about what I want for the Big Bend region (Part 2 of the storyline).

I may also revamp some of the regional profiles in lieu of this development. A lot of the locations I put in them are not going to be in the main story. Rather, they are just to flesh out the world with some side stories, almost like if this were going to be an actual Fallout game.
SubRosa
TBH, I would cut out the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel. They don't have to be in every single Fallout game or setting. Those horses have really been whipped to death by now. Your original factions are much more interesting than those tired old retreads.
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 10 2020, 07:56 PM) *

TBH, I would cut out the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel. They don't have to be in every single Fallout game or setting. Those horses have really been whipped to death by now. Your original factions are much more interesting than those tired old retreads.


I get why you say that. Thanks for the feedback. Truthfully, that was one of my concerns when I was first formulating ideas for this story. It's why, for example, I'm not including Super Mutants in the bestiary. Yeah, BGS has found a way to make it work lore-wise for them to be on the East Coast, but it feels really shoehorned in. (And yes, they are in Fallout 76 too.) Deathclaws are another example that I am not putting in here. Swamp Demons and Longsnouts are the Floridian analog for them.

But with the plans I have, however, the regions I DO have them involved in will make sense for the stories I want to tell. For example, I want to expand on the bloody rivalry between the Enclave and the Old Guard, which is sometimes derisively called "Enclave-lite" because they are similar but for the state government. In fact, I'm going to actually remove the BoS from one or two of the regions I was going to involve them in because I am starting to feel that it would be shoehorning them in. Probably in the Big Bend region because I have the Old Guard and the Enclave there (the only delineated region that I am planning to have the Enclave play a heavy involvement in.) Once I amend BoS involvement, there are only two regions that I am going to involve them in.

Trust me, I will make their inclusions make sense and not overdo them. smile.gif
RaderOfTheLostArk
And here it is: The first chapter of the Fallout: Florida story. Kind of nervous about posting it, but might as well do it before I decide not to. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1: A Rude Welcome



August 4, 2130

Traversing the Southeastern Wastes almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

That is what Mariah thought to herself as the caravan she was riding through what used to the southeastern edge of Alabama, the sun blazing overhead. With her trusty 10MM, a large canteen of water, and a bag full of caps, she caught a ride from Mobile heading down to Pensacola, Florida. A thermometer in her caravan cart read a whopping 98 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mariah did not really give anyone a clear answer as to what the reasons for her travels were—in fact, she was not entirely sure herself. She had been a sojourner for a long time and the thought of her settling down in one place was a foreign concept at this point. Now in her late 20s, she had been all around the wastes of the former United States. But there were a few things that drew Mariah to Florida. She heard about some interesting opportunities to make caps like scouting out the wastes and mercenary work. She was a good shot with her 10MM. She also heard that her grandparents on both sides of her family had lived in Florida.

But that was before the War. The Great War. That fateful day that humanity, desperate to tear itself apart over the remaining resources on Earth, bathed itself in nuclear fire, plunging the world into a new, chaotic era. On October 23, 2077, the world’s major powers all launched nukes at each other in a two-hour span of mutual assured destruction. It may have been over 50 years ago at this point, but occasionally Mariah met a wastelander or two that lived before the War (or so they claimed, at least). It seemed more likely to be true whenever she met a ghoul, though even then you could not always be sure. It seemed so long ago, but the oldest living generations still seemed to bear fresh scars from the tragedy.

It apparently could be ridiculously hot in the summer months for much of the Pre-War southeastern United States, particularly Florida, as Mariah was told. Clearly, the bombs did nothing to improve the weather’s disposition, as indicated by the temperature and humidity. The distance was hazy. Looks like leather armor was a bad choice, Mariah thought to herself as she tried to cool herself off in the shade of the caravan tarp and sipped from her canteen. But the wastes could be a dangerous place, and the leather armor was the best protection she could get for now. If she had to profusely sweat in this heat, at least she had some defense in case of an ambush.

At least Mariah was not the only one having to suffer the heat. The convoy heading to Pensacola had multiple carts being pulled by Brahmin, with plenty of goods for trade in tow. The driver for Mariah’s particular cart, a Hispanic man in his 50s by the name of Gabriel, had been doing this for over two decades now. While she made conversation with him and did not want to be standoffish, Mariah also had a policy of being very careful about what she told people about her life story. Gabriel didn’t seem to mind though. Understanding, even.

“Ah, here comes the Alabama/Florida border.” Gabriel said triumphantly as they came up on a Pre-War sign indicating the approach of the state line. “Welcome to Florida!” the sign read, though the greeting and the state outline were heavily faded. The sign was beat up so badly at this point that the last Florida governor’s name was not readable at all.

“Do your travels take you here often?” Mariah struck up conversation with Gabriel again.

“Oh, plenty. The weather may be a mean old [censored], but there is a lot to like about Florida. Well, what used to be Florida anyway. Used to be one of the go-to tourist destinations before the world went to hell in a handbasket. You can even still see some remnants of that depending on where you go. But most importantly…” Gabriel paused as he turned his head to Mariah and smiled while patting his pouch of caps. “Lot of these bad boys to be made through these routes.”

“Have you gotten to visit much of Florida?”

“Sadly, no.” Gabriel shrugged. “I try to stick to GCU territory.” He was referring to the Gulf Coast Union, a conglomeration of states that arose from the ashes of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—parts of them, anyway. They used to be part of the Gulf Commonwealth in the Pre-War United States. Fledgling states managed to rise up some time after the War—an impressive feat in a relatively short span of time after the Great War—and they eventually made a compact that formed one nation, the Gulf Coast Union. Mariah did not know a whole lot about them, but she had spent enough time in their lands to have some familiarity with them. Gabriel continued. “You hear all sorts of crazy things going on outside the borders, and there’s already enough going on within them too.”

This topic Mariah heard more about. “Oh yeah, I’ve heard people talk about some of it, but I haven’t really gotten any clear information about them. You know anything about these guys making all this trouble lately?”

“Apparently you got a couple of troublemaking groups. Some hooligans from Alabama that got their pants in a bunch about the GCU. Think they’re being oppressed or something. I don’t know, the GCU has been pretty good to me. Making plenty of caps. I can’t imagine they’re having it that bad. Always got to have somebody complaining about something, I suppose.”

Mariah then suddenly remembered one of the names she heard about the groups. “The Alabama Dissidents, that’s their name. Or at least one of them. I remember that now. Heard about them in a bar in Mobile before the caravans left. Seemed like there were a few sympathizers in town, too. They call themselves freedom fighters or something along those lines.”

“Ah yeah, right. I heard basically the same thing too.” Gabriel chuckled. “Well, in any case, I ain’t too worried about them. Now those other guys…”

“What other guys?”

“Call themselves the Brotherhood of Steel or something. I ain’t ever seen one, but from what I have heard they don’t mess around. Few enough sightings that some people don’t even believe they are around here. They got those guns that fire laser beams and their armor makes them look like machines. What’s it called? Power Armor, that’s what they wear. Apparently rolled out by the U.S. military before humanity decided to blow itself up.” Gabriel paused again, then sighed.

Mariah wondered aloud, “What would they be out here for? I heard a lot about them further west. They are apparently pretty active in the midwest. But Florida is way far out from where they should be.”

“Guess they think something big is around these parts. They got a lot of pre-War technology on their side, but they seem to think it’s their divine right to hoard it all for themselves. Supposedly, anyway. It’s what I’ve heard from some people, though I don’t know how they would know about it. Guess they’ve come up to one of those Brotherhood guys in person. But again, there have been relatively few sightings of them. Most people think it’s just some myth that has been cooked up to scare people more than they already are.”

Mariah was impressed by how much Gabriel knew about the goings-on of the land. “You’re really on top of things here, Gabriel.”

“Ha!” Gabriel turned back to her again and smiled. “My dear, when you have been doing this gig as long as I have, you hear all kinds of stories. I’ve heard about all sorts of creatures further down in Florida like these giant, walking gators, for example. Sometimes hard to tell what’s true, but this kind of stuff I have heard a lot around here. That’s why the caravan companies pay so well to carry cargo across these parts. It’s all that danger. Honestly, though, I don’t worry too much about it.”

Mariah was puzzled at that last remark. The Brotherhood certainly sounded like a force to be reckoned with, and the presence of the Alabama Dissidents must have only made the situation worse. “I don’t know, Gabriel. I’m fairly confident in my ability to defend myself, but these guys sound like serious business. I mean, energy weapons? Power armor?”

Gabriel simply shrugged again. “Can’t tell you why. I guess doing this for so long and having relatively little trouble makes you feel like you’re invincible or something. Like those people who think that bad things can’t happen to them but then they do. I suppose you got a point.” Gabriel took a swig from his canteen and then bit into some Squirrel Bits. “At the same time, I try to keep calm. Not just for myself, but for my passengers, you know?”

Gabriel sat there for a moment and then turned to Mariah again. “But you make sure you take care of yourself, you hear? I don’t want to sound like a creepy old guy, but you are an exceptionally beautiful young lady out here in these desolate wastes.” He was right. Mariah was a strikingly attractive woman, with a slender build, fair skin, and blonde hair that was straight on one side and had several slight curls on the other side. Some people called it ‘the seductress’ haircut. “I can tell you can defend yourself well, but there are a lot of creeps that roam about. And they will not hesitate to do…awful things to you.” He started tearing up at the thought.

Mariah suddenly became concerned. “Are you okay, Gabriel? Did something happen to someone you know?”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Gabriel regained his composure. “It’s just…I have a daughter right about your age. Fortunately, nothing terrible has happened to her. In fact, she lives in the city we are heading to now, Pensacola. But it’s something that comes to mind a lot and I’ve heard many horror stories about raider groups. I can’t help but think about some of these worst-case scenarios. Especially since my wife died several years ago. Now my daughter is all I have left. She’s a tough cookie like yourself, but…”

Mariah almost teared up herself. The only thing she could think of was to pat her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear about your wife, Gabriel. You’re a good man and your daughter is lucky to have you.”

Gabriel turned to her again and flashed a smile, clasping her hand for a moment. “Thank you, sweetheart. You’re a good kid. Whatever you’re looking for out here, I hope you find it.” He then pointed to a long box in the caravan to Mariah’s right. “There, open that box.”

Mariah did as he said and pulled out a sword from the box. It was a light blade, but she could tell that it could do some serious, quick damage when effectively used. “Wow, this is an impressive blade. How’d you come across it?”

Gabriel didn’t answer the question, but instead simply said, “It’s yours.”

“What? I’m sorry Gabriel, I can’t take…”

“Please, Mariah.” There was some urgency in his voice. “You can make much better use of it than I can. I don’t know if you have much training with melee weapons, but I think it will serve you well. You got yourself a firearm, sure, but if you run out of bullets or you are in close quarters, this sword will be your best friend.”

Mariah stuttered, not sure what to say. “I…I’m honored, Gabriel. Thank you for entrusting this to me. I’ll do you proud.”

“My pleasure. And hey, you can remember me by it, too.” Gabriel turned back and smiled at her. Mariah smiled back as well, but she wished she had something to give him in return. But he must have sensed it. “And don’t worry about giving me anything. It’s a gift. Besides…” He tapped his pouch of caps again and laughed. “I got plenty of these coming my way at the end of this. I can just buy another weapon.”

Mariah laughed too. But the touching moment was cut short when gunfire suddenly erupted. Chaos ensued as the Brahmin became frightened, carts were toppled over, and the protectors for the caravan were caught off-guard. Mariah was flown off her cart by the scared Brahmin pulling it and landed face down in the dirt as the cart pinned one of her legs down. She was disoriented for a moment and could not see what was going on, only hearing the exchanges of bullets between the caravan guards and what ostensibly was some roving band of raiders. Lots of words were being shouted back and forth too, but it was hard to make out what was being said in all the commotion.

When she regained her bearings, she pulled herself out from under the cart that was now her cover and whipped out her 10MM pistol. There was no gunfire coming her way, giving her the chance to survey the attackers and return fire. That’s when she noticed a particular patch on the armor they were wearing. She couldn’t make out all of it, but she did notice the shape of Pre-War Alabama with several stars around it.

These were no ordinary raiders. They were Alabama Dissidents.

Mariah then cocked her pistol and took careful aim, killing three Dissidents with as many bullets. But she hadn’t noticed the Dissident sneaking up behind her, who must have somehow lost his firearm since he was coming up to her with a blade.

Right as she noticed his presence, she gasped and turned toward him, fearing that she would not react in time. But as soon as the enemy was ready to plunge his blade into her, the caravan driver Gabriel yelled, coming out of nowhere and tackling the Dissident to the ground. They struggled, constantly changing position and preventing Mariah from taking a clear shot at the Dissident. But the Dissident had another dagger in his belt, taking it out and plunging it into Gabriel’s chest.

It was at that point that Mariah seemingly lost consciousness as rage took her over. She took Gabriel’s sword and charged at the Dissident, thrusting the sword multiple times in weak points in his armor. After several agonized screams, the Dissident met his end as she slashed his throat. He dropped to the ground, his face frozen in terror.

The Dissidents had decimated the caravan guard and were about to turn their attention to Mariah, when suddenly something else caught their attention. “[Censored]! Sentinels! Fall back!” one of the Dissidents yelled. They were referring to Gulf Coast Union Sentinels, an elite group of GCU soldiers, who were out on patrol near Pensacola. The Sentinels quickly made their way over to the caravan wreckage and made quick work of most of the living Dissidents, having far better equipment than the attackers. A few of the Dissidents made a run for it, and one of the Sentinels, clearly one of those in charge, sent some soldiers to chase them down.

One of them uttered in disgust, “Damn it, we were too late!”

Mariah was on her knees over Gabriel, who was drawing his last breaths. He turned to her. “Take care of yourself, Mariah. My daughter, Valentina…she works for the GCU in town. Introduce yourself…and tell her…I love her.” Gabriel bled out, the last casualty of the caravan. Over half of its members—travelers, guards, and drivers—had been murdered at the hands of the Dissidents. Mariah felt too much shock at all that had transpired to cry. It certainly wasn’t the first time she had seen tragedy in the post-apocalypse. But the same could go for almost everybody.

One the GCU Sentinels, an imposing Haitian man measuring 6-and-a-half-feet tall, approached Mariah. He only had a faint accent from his homeland, suggesting he had been born there but moved to post-War America a long time ago. “It’s okay. It’s over now. I’m Commander Bertrand,” the Sentinel said in his resonant voice. “Here, let me give you a hand.”

Mariah took his hand and pulled herself up. “Thanks,” she said in barely more than a mumble.

“Sounds from other survivors here that much of the thanks goes to you for driving them off,” Bertrand said, pointing to several of the living members of the caravan. “Hell of a job, from what I hear. I’m sure it doesn’t mean much, but…”

“Why did this happen?! Where was the GCU?!” Mariah blurted, cutting Bertrand off. She wasn’t in the mood for accepting some meaningless accolades.

Bertrand didn’t argue with her, simply explaining, “We were tipped off by one of our scouts that there was Dissident activity this way, though he was only by himself and couldn’t take them on. We tried getting over here as soon as we could. And we came late…again.” Bertrand turned to the corpse of the Dissident that Mariah had eviscerated and kicked it. “Son of a [censored]!”

Mariah was still fuming, but she at least appreciated Bertrand’s honesty and the fact that he didn’t make up some excuse. She toned her anger down. “I hear this has been going on a lot lately. How is the GCU not putting a stop to this?”

“It’s only recently that these guys have been getting this bold. But don’t worry, we’ll put an end to it.”

“It would’ve been helpful if you had already done it,” Mariah sniped back, apparently disregarding Bertrand’s huge size advantage. She was too angry to care about his imposing figure. But Bertrand still didn’t get upset at her attitude. Rather, he understood it.

“I know. I promise you we’re trying.”

One of the soldiers, a white man shorter than Bertrand but still muscular and tall, called out. He was one of the soldiers who chased down the fleeing Dissidents. “Commander Bertrand! We got a live one!”

Mariah and Bertrand turned to see one of the Dissidents wounded but not mortally. He was groaning, clutching his shoulder and having some trouble standing.

“Nice work, Jacob. Take his [censored] down to the station. We’ll get information out of him,” Bertrand said. He then turned to Mariah. “Look, maybe you can help us out. You helped defend this caravan. You might know something about these guys—the Dissidents—that we don’t. Anything you heard or saw. Anything helps. But first, let’s get you and the others to town. You can rest up a bit and then we’ll contact you.”

Mariah was still upset but had cooled off. She sighed. “Yeah. I can do that. This is my first time in this town, though. I don’t really know anything about it.”

“Very well. Jacob!”

Officer Jacob walked over to Bertrand. “Yes, sir?”

“Please see this young lady—”

“Mariah.” Mariah interjected. “The name’s Mariah.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mariah. Jacob, please see Mariah to town. Show her the ropes of Pensacola. We’ll need her at the station later but let her relax a bit. Everyone here has been through a lot.”

“Yes, sir.” Jacob said. “Please follow me, Mariah.”

//////////


The survivors were brought into Pensacola, though Jacob and Mariah departed from the group. They walked down one of the main streets, with him telling her a bit about the town and where some of the major establishments were. As per her personal policy, Mariah did not say much about her background, but Jacob understood. “Can’t be too careful, these days,” he shrugged. “Especially when you come to a new area.” Mariah appreciated his understanding. She did tell him a little bit about things such as where she had traveled, where she was coming from to Pensacola, and some of the things she had heard about pre-War Florida.

Jacob brought her to one of the bars in town called The Blue Angel. It was a reference to a pre-War U.S. Navy flight team based in Pensacola that did air shows around Florida. Posters for the Blue Angels could still be seen around the town, although they were mostly faded and worn away. Pretty impressive that they are still there at all, Mariah thought. The Great War was already over a half-century ago.

When they walked in, they both ordered drinks at the bar. As Mariah reached for her caps, Jacob waved his hand. “This one’s on me.”

“Oh. Well, thanks.”

“Yeah, well, you deserve it after helping push back those Dissidents from the caravan.”

Mariah relaxed some more, telling a few stories of her travels. Jacob, in turn, talked about some of the GCU missions he had been on. They had been talking for about half an hour, listening to each other’s stories so intently that they initially didn’t notice the beautiful Hispanic woman with a black-haired ponytail in GCU attire approach them. “Jacob, it’s time. We’re questioning the captive from the caravan attack at the station.”

“Great. Thanks, Valentina. I’ll do my best not to break the [censored]’s face.”

“Wait, Valentina?” Mariah said. “I’m Mariah. You must be Gabriel’s daughter. He was my caravan driver. I’m…I’m sorry for your loss. He wanted me to introduce myself and asked me to make sure you know that his last words were that he loves you.”

Valentina stood still for a moment. She was clearly trying to hold back her emotions. After clearing her throat, she said, “I appreciate that, Mariah. Thanks. And nice to meet you. Are you ready to come to the station?”

Mariah took a deep breath. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
TheCheshireKhajiit
Fun read Rader! Keep it coming!
SubRosa
A nice (well, maybe not nice introduction to the Gulf Coast wasteland. Tbh, it would be a good tutorial for one of games. Starting on the caravan gives you some background about the area, some action, and finally throws you out into a wilder world. While at the same time the prisoner and attack might form the basis for a good starting quest.
TheCheshireKhajiit
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Jul 23 2020, 11:29 PM) *

A nice (well, maybe not nice introduction to the Gulf Coast wasteland. Tbh, it would be a good tutorial for one of games. Starting on the caravan gives you some background about the area, some action, and finally throws you out into a wilder world. While at the same time the prisoner and attack might form the basis for a good starting quest.

I was thinking the same while reading it.
Renee
This intro makes me sad but also fascinated at the same time. My characters are often also in the habit of trying to imagine what life was like "before the war." You also consider Mariah's thoughts on weather quite a lot too, as well as seasons. Mine also do this.

QUOTE
Looks like leather armor was a bad choice,


My main New Vegas character had this same, exact thought as I gamed with her a few months ago. cool.gif In fact she was wearing leather at the time. But now in her game, it's December. Below freezing at night for sure, so leather is now appropriate.

Nice. He gives her a blade. And she's got a seductress haircut.

Damn. Gabriel already got killed. What the. Well at least she met his daughter. I have a feeling she'll play some part in the future.

What is the significance of Mariah? Any real-life influences?
RaderOfTheLostArk
@Cheshire - Thank you. I will certainly try to update as much as I can.

@SubRosa - Thank you. I didn't really think about it, but yeah, this could be a nice introduction to an actual Fallout game. Have something different than someone coming from a Vault, although I suppose Fallout has already done that multiple times (2, NV, and I think Tactics, for example).

@Renee - Thank you. Yeah, I'm trying to include little things to flesh out the characters but not too much to drag it on. As for Mariah, maybe there is something subconscious but I just really like the name. There is the goofy reference to the minor character of the same name in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (which I've posted before, but I'll put it here again because it is...certainly something), but that had no bearing on my choice of that name.


---------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 2: Old Wounds


Mariah, Valentina, and Jacob made their way over to the GCU station, just a bit down the block from the bar. It was a pre-War police station for Pensacola, making it a convenient location to convert for the GCU’s purposes. The sun was starting to set, and the station was getting less busy, but there were still plenty of GCU officers inside.

As the three of them entered the station, Commander Bertrand was talking to another GCU officer, who handed him several papers. “Well done, officer,” Bertrand told him. “You may return to your post.” Then he noticed the three of them approaching. Valentina and Jacob saluted their superior. “Ah, there you all there. Some of the others found some intel on the Dissidents from their bodies. Only problem is it seems to be in code. Figures…” Bertrand scoffed. “We’ll get the codebreakers on it after the interrogation.”

“Have you found anything else out? Motives? What they were looking for? Where they are holed up?” Mariah asked eagerly.

“Not yet. But that’s why we have the prisoner in there. We’ll make him talk.” Bertrand gestured toward the Dissident, the one captured from the caravan raid, sitting in the interrogation room behind him. “They’ve been more active in these parts as of late. We’re far from their land, which is up in the north of pre-War Alabama. So why a bunch of them are out here is anyone’s guess, but they must think there is something important here that we have. They’ll also have to have some sort of base set up that they are launching their operations from.”

Bertrand continued. “We’ve been able to fend them off no problem before, but they have been getting the jump lately, so we’re increasing patrols in the area. We have to be careful about overextending though, because our numbers are strained. The GCU’s got problems in other places besides here.” Bertrand was referring to the fact that the Panhandle of Florida was not the only place that the GCU was fighting with local groups in. It was not even the only place in Florida that there was trouble. To the east of Pensacola was Tallahassee (the pre-War capital of Florida), Gainesville, and Jacksonville, each with their own set of issues. But there was also a lot of trouble brewing over in Baton Rouge and near New Orleans in Louisiana. Then Bertrand asked, “Before we interrogate the prisoner, though, I need to know what Mariah saw or heard. Mariah, is there anything you can tell us? Anything you know can help us out here.”

Mariah thought for a moment. Then she frowned and shook her head. “No. They just came out of nowhere. I was knocked out of my cart and disoriented for a bit, but I couldn’t really focus on anything until I regained my composure. But these aren’t just some raiders. They must have been looking for something that they thought the caravan had, right?”

Bertrand sighed. “I can only speculate. Let’s go get some information out of the prisoner. Jacob, you come with me inside. Valentina and Mariah, you stay behind the glass and watch. Look for any sorts of cues he may unknowingly give, anything. Mariah, you can see through the glass but he can’t see you. Some sort of pre-War tech that many police stations used. Called them one-way mirrors.”

The four of them went to take their positions. The Dissident prisoner had been sitting there silently, looking down on the floor. When Jacob and Bertrand walked in, the prisoner finally looked up and simply laughed in a low register when he saw them. “And so the GCU dogs have come to squeeze something out me. Bark! Bark! Ha! Loyally serving your corrupt masters.”

“Can it,” Bertrand shot back.

“Can it? You want info out of me and you tell me to shut up? Seems contradictory to me,” the Dissident smiled smugly. “But I suppose no one ever accused GCU personnel of being smart.”

Bertrand dismissed the remark. “You’re going to tell us what we want to know.”

“And why should I tell you anything, lap dog? Why don’t you just…”

“I’ll ask the questions here. Not you. If you are not cooperative, I promise you we have ways to make you talk.”

“Oh yeah? Gonna pull another stunt like the GCU did in Birmingham? Remember that? How the GCU slaughtered some of our people because we were defending our land? We remember quite well.”

“Slaughtered? Defending?” Jacob said incredulously, his face turning red. Steam was practically coming out of his ears with how quickly angered he became. “I’m going to rearrange that face of yours!”

Jacob took a couple of steps toward the Dissident before Bertrand held his arm out. “Officer Jacob, stand down! He’s just trying to get into our heads.”

“Yeah, Officer Jacob. Stand down,” the Dissident said in a deliberately mocking voice. “You know, speaking of names, you never even asked me mine. Is that how you treat all your guests? My name is Gerald. Let’s see you get anything else out of me.” It seemed that this Gerald was full of smart [censored] quips.

“Okay, Gerald,” Bertrand said. “We pulled some information off one of your dead buddies. A coded message. Our codebreakers are going to decipher it soon. But why don’t you spare us the trouble, tell us what we want to know, and we’ll think about going a bit easier on your compatriots.”

Gerald’s playful mood started to dissipate. “What are you going to do to me, huh? I’m a prisoner. I have certain rights. Or maybe it’s different for you dogs. You gonna murder me like the GCU did to our people around Birmingham?”

“Awfully bold of scum like you to accuse us of murder after what you guys did to that caravan.”

“Call it retribution. You guys had it coming,” Gerald brazenly defended his organization’s actions. “You’ll get nothing out of me and nothing out of that scrap of paper you picked up.”

Bertrand pounded the table with a loud thud. For a moment it startled Gerald, but he quickly regained his smug smile. “Enough! Why did you attack the caravan?! You guys clearly wanted something from that caravan and we want to know what it is. Where are you launching raids from?”

Gerald simply disregarded the questions. “The GCU’s time is coming, bootlickers. We know all about the trouble you guys are having throughout your territory. Got too big too quickly. Thought you can take what isn’t yours by force. Like the Brotherhood. We’re here to regain Alabama’s sovereignty. The Alabama Compact threw away our self-determination, as if outsiders should determine what’s best for us. Well, they don’t represent us. YOU don’t represent us.” The Alabama Compact was a post-War nation that sprung up relatively quickly after the bombs fell, an attempt at a rebirth of pre-War Alabama. They eventually joined similar governments from former Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana to form the Gulf Coast Union.

“You want to play this game, you waste of oxygen?” Bertrand growled. “Fine, we’ve got a special solitary place for people like you. You spend some time there, and you’ll talk. Believe me.”

Mariah had heard enough and furiously stormed to the interrogation room door. Valentina tried to grab one of her arms but Mariah quickly pulled it away. She burst into the room to confront Gerald herself. “You stupid son of a [censored]! Answer the [censored] questions!”

“Damn it, Mariah!” Bertrand’s temper rose. He and Jacob grabbed Mariah as she was getting ready to pull out her sword and threaten Gerald.

“Whoa-ho! Well, hello there, sweet thing,” Gerald said, struck by Mariah’s beauty. “You know, Commander, you’re really no good at this interrogation thing. Should have sexy women like this doing the questioning. More likely to get me to answer.” Gerald creepily winked at Mariah.

“I’ll cut you up just like I did your friend!” Mariah shot back, facing him while desperately trying to break free from Jacob and Bertrand’s hold on her. They were far too strong for her to even get her hand to grab the sword’s hilt.

It was at this remark that Gerald dropped his sarcastic demeanor completely, getting visibly angry for the first time there. “That was you? Listen, you little [censored]. I’m going to get out of here eventually, and when I find you, we’re going to have some fun. Well, maybe just me. Mark my words.”

“You won’t do a damn thing!” Bertrand bellowed, still trying to push Mariah out the door. “Jacob, see to it that our prisoner gets put in the ‘special box.’”

“What the hell is that?” Gerald asked with some trepidation in his voice. He cleared his throat and regained his composure. “Well, you still won’t get me to talk! The Dissidents are going to bring the death knell to the GCU! And the Brotherhood will get what’s coming to them too! You’ll all pay!” Gerald was still yelling as Bertrand slammed the door.

Mariah had spent some considerable energy trying to break free from Bertrand and Jacob’s grasp and she was already tired from the day’s events. As she was catching her breath, Bertrand addressed her. The patience he had exhibited with her earlier was gone. “What the hell are you thinking, Mariah?!”

“That [censored] wasn’t talking,” Mariah said exasperatedly.

“And you thought that what you did was going to help? I let you stand outside the window there. We rarely let civilians this far into the station, and it’s not normally something we should be doing. But I did it because I figured you could help us and that your actions at the caravan merited that.” Bertrand paused briefly to let go some of the anger. “Look, I know you’re angry. We all are. Every single one of us here wants to end that degenerate’s life. But we can’t let this opportunity go to waste and we certainly can’t have our emotions spill over like yours just did.”

“Yeah, because the GCU is really doing their job well,” Mariah shot back sarcastically.

Bertrand finally had enough after she said that. “This discussion is over. Time to leave the station. Valentina, please see Mariah out.” Valentina gently placed her shoulder on Mariah’s back and gave her a slight nudge toward the station’s entrance. While she was still furious at the unsuccessful interrogation and Bertrand, Mariah didn’t want to cause Valentina trouble, and she obliged.

///////////


Mariah went back to the Blue Angel, exhausted from the day’s events. It was surprisingly quiet inside. The human bartender that was at the bar earlier must have left for the evening, as he was now replaced by a Mr. Handy. Normally used to help clean Pre-War homes, Mariah had seen some Mr. Handy models repurposed for other means like shopkeeping in her travels. She sat down at the bar with a heavy sigh. The song “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, a Pre-War favorite for many Americans and even for some people outside of the U.S., started playing on the radio.

The Mr. Handy floated over to her and cheerfully spoke in the trademark English accent typical of its kind. “Good evening, madam! You look lovely tonight. Can I interest you in a drink?”

“Just a bourbon, please,” Mariah muttered tiredly, handing over a few caps.

“One bourbon for the young lady coming up!”

Mariah sat there ruminating on the day with bourbon in hand. After all that transpired, she was not sure what to do from here. She wanted to find more on the Dissidents, what they wanted, and where they were based nearby. But after what happened at the station, she figured her chances of being further involved were slim to none. It was probably unlikely to begin with, given that she was not working for the GCU. Perhaps she could have done some mercenary work, though.

After five or ten minutes, Mariah heard a familiar voice call out her name. “Hey, Mariah.” It was Valentina.

Mariah turned around, perking up a bit. “Oh. Hey, Valentina.”

“You can just call me Val if you want. Rolls off the tongue much easier.” Mariah could see Valentina’s eyes were significantly red, indicating that she had been crying a lot. She must have finally had time to mourn her murdered father, Gabriel, now that her work for the day was over. “May I join you?”

“Of course.”

Valentina sat down next to Mariah at the bar with a heavy sigh and ordered a bourbon from the Mr. Handy bartender. After she received the drink and sat for a moment in silence, Valentina spoke up again. “Hey, uh. . . thanks again for telling me about my dad. It may seem like a small gesture, but it meant a lot.”

“Absolutely.” Then she gestured toward Valentina’s drink and chuckled. “Your dad seemed to see a lot of you in me. Judging by your drink choice, I guess he was right.”

“Ha, yeah.” Valentina laughed too, looking down at her bourbon. Then she looked straight forward and spoke somewhat wistfully. “Yep, sounds like him alright. He was very protective of young women in the wasteland. Easy to see why with his life experiences.”

“What happened?” Mariah asked, quickly adding, “Um, if you want to say, that is.”

“Don’t worry. It’s good to let it out sometimes. My dad seemed to trust you. He had a good eye for people, so I trust his judgment.” Valentina paused again then had to clear her throat. “He raised me by himself for quite some time. Mom died while I was still a kid. Raiders attacked our settlement where we were living at the time. And it. . . it wasn’t enough for them to just loot everything, or even to just kill everyone. Typical raiders had to go even further and do even more horrifying things to some of the people there.” It was clear what kinds of things she referred to. They were raiders, after all.

After another pause, Valentina continued. “A few survivors were able to push the raiders out and kill most of them. But the damage was done. Men, women, children—experiencing the horrors of the wasteland firsthand. A few of the raiders escaped but my dad and a handful of survivors tracked them down. And when they found their hideout, they. . . they found women and children imprisoned in cages. The women had barely any clothing on and the children were in tattered rags. My dad and the rest of them butchered the raiders and rescued the prisoners.” She was on the verge of sobbing again.

Mariah stayed silent for a while, but it seemed that Valentina was hoping she would say something. Valentina was having trouble speaking again. “I’m sorry, Val. If it’s any consolation, a lot of that is similar to what I experienced when I was young too.”

Valentina had been looking down holding back her tears, but she turned toward Mariah. “Really?”

Mariah cleared her throat. “Yeah.” She took another swig of her bourbon. “Raiders hit our settlement when I was kid too. Except it was my whole family—mom, dad, brother, and some extended family—gone. Back then, I wasn’t a fighter. Despite all the [censored] that goes on in the wasteland, mom and dad tried their hardest to shield us from it. I was a happy-go-lucky kid. . . until the raiders came. They came to our settlement and. . . razed it all down.” Her voice started to take a defeated tone. “I wish I could have gone and quite literally ripped them all apart. But I didn’t know the first thing about combat. I just ran, like my parents told me to. Still, I feel like I let them down.” Tears started streaming down her face as well. “Guess that’s why I get angry so easily. I wish I had the spine to go after those raiders and make them suffer. But I didn’t. I still feel like I have to atone for it.”

Valentina placed her hand on Mariah’s shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Mariah. No one would’ve expected you to face down all those raiders by yourself.”

Mariah turned to Valentina and gave a faint smile. “Part of me wants to agree with you. But it’s still a feeling I can’t shake. It’s good in a way, though. Drove me to learn how to fight, how to shoot a gun, and all that. I wouldn’t have been able to help defend the caravan otherwise.”

“That’s sort of like my dad. Wanting to dispense justice in the wasteland. He did for a while, but he told me that after a near-death experience he stopped. Said he really started to think about how I would’ve been alone if he was gone. So, dad stopped living the mercenary life pretty quickly. When I grew up, though, I knew that I wanted to protect people after that. Help bring justice and safety to the wasteland. So, when I was old enough, I joined the GCU. My dad wasn’t a fan at first, but he understood eventually. As much as he wanted to keep looking out for me, he saw that I wasn’t a little girl anymore, and he returned to caravan driving. Thought he could at least look after people that way, and his body wouldn’t have held up to the mercenary life. But he always made sure to check up on me periodically. Of course, now…” Valentina paused again.

Although she still wasn’t ready to spill her whole life story, Mariah was relieved that she finally found someone in Valentina that could be some sort of confidant. Something about Valentina immediately gave Mariah the feeling that she was trustworthy. Both of them had a similar trajectory in life, although Valentina seemed to have more of a reverence for (or at least adherence to) a real structure and rules while Mariah was more of a questioner about how things operated. Mariah couldn’t envision herself working for an organization like the GCU, although their basic goals seemed to be the same.

Still, Mariah wanted to change the topic. Something else was on her mind. “Val, the Dissident—Gerald—he mentioned “Birmingham” repeatedly in that interrogation and held it against the GCU. What was that about?”

Valentina was also relieved to change the topic. She took another drink from her bottle of bourbon and emptied it. “Well, I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard some of the others at the station describe it. Commander Bertrand was there, in fact. The way I understand it, Dissidents were violently revolting against the GCU there and claimed it was their land. Bloody fighting broke out and scores of Dissidents and GCU were killed. And as if that wasn’t enough,” she chuckled wryly, “the Brotherhood of Steel joined too. Out of nowhere. They must have thought they could take advantage of both sides weakening each other. There was a huge battle at an old, abandoned military facility that had just been discovered. We drove off the rest of the Dissidents and the Brotherhood, though we took some serious casualties. But Commander Bertrand was honored for his actions there and was promoted to his current post.”

“When did it happen?”

“Sometime in the past couple years. Can’t remember for sure, to be honest.”

“Hmm,” Mariah pondered what she said, but something about the way that Gerald had talked about the incident at Birmingham still bothered her. “Gerald seemed to really believe that it was the GCU and Brotherhood’s fault.”

“Are you taking his side?” Valentina joked. “You know how these types are. They delude themselves into believing that they are on the right side of history and they’ll do anything to justify their actions.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Mariah certainly didn’t believe that the Dissidents were right about…well, anything, certainly not after that day’s events. And those events seemed to finally catch up to Mariah as another wave of tiredness overcame her. The clock on the wall only showed 9:30 PM, but she was exhausted. She yawned. “Thanks for talking, Val. But I got to hit the sack. Where’s a good place to stay in town?”

“Oh, no no no,” Val shook her head and waved her hand. “You don’t need to spend some caps to get a room. You can crash at my place. I don’t have to go into the station until tomorrow afternoon, so I can show you some more around town in the morning.”
“Wow. Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude on…”

“Don’t be silly.” Valentina flashed a bright smile. “It’s been a long day and you’ve done a lot for me today. It’s nice to be able to just let things out sometimes, you know? Besides, you’re new to this area, right? I can show you some of the ropes, places to stock up on supplies, and all that. And I think—no, I KNOW—you can still help us. As long as you are still interested.”

“I sure am. But…I don’t think Bertrand will want my help now after today.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll vouch for you. I’ve known the Commander to be a reasonable man.”

Mariah was not so sure like Valentina. But she really wanted to help, even if only for Valentina’s sake. It was the least she could do for Gabriel. And Mariah wasn’t quick to let a chance at vengeance go. “You’re awesome, Val. Let’s get going then.”
Renee
I like that... "some sort of pre-war tech. They called them one-way mirrors..." It's like the difference between the Great Pyramids and those of later dynasties, which are oddly cruder in design.

Well anyway, that prisoner's in for it now. When that police station was built there were all sorts of laws. "I want my lawyer!" for instance. That would instantly cease a police interview. nono.gif Not now, though. Now there are no laws.

QUOTE
“Whoa-ho! Well, hello there, sweet thing,” Gerald said, struck by Mariah’s beauty. “You know, Commander, you’re really no good at this interrogation thing. Should have sexy women like this doing the questioning. More likely to get me to answer.” Gerald creepily winked at Mariah.


I actually agree with the Dissident! Gerald gets frazzled too easily. He's not very good at the mind games some interrogators employ. Mariah did a better job of getting under the guy's skin!

Let's see if some time in solitary will change Gerald's mind.

SubRosa
Well, that interrogation went well.

They delude themselves into believing that they are on the right side of history and they’ll do anything to justify their actions
Yep, seen that before. Gerald reminded me a lot of various White Supremacists.

I see Mariah and Val are definitely teaming up. It will be nice to see where this goes.
TheCheshireKhajiit
Looks like things are heating up!
RaderOfTheLostArk
@Renee - Indeed. The success that Dissidents have had lately is getting to Bertrand. Perhaps he'd do better otherwise.

@SubRosa - Yep, all sorts of people get caught up in what they believe and dismiss anything that even remotely challenges it.

@TheCheshireKhajiit - Yeah. It can be difficult to balance the need for action and the need for downtime. Too much action and things don't develop well. Too much downtime and it gets boring. I'm trying to balance it as best I can. Chapter 4 is going to really ramp up the action.


I noticed in SubRosa's writings that she made a Google map indicating locations in her story. I wasn't sure if you could do that before, but that is a really neat idea. Thus, I'm making a Google map of the world of Fallout: Florida. Of course, it'll be subject to many changes as it is a work in progress, but it will at least have the important story locations. I'm debating how much to include non-story locations as well, sort of like if it were a real Fallout game's map. I hope to also add notes to each location to give more background lore for each. I'll make the map available soon.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: Hatching the Plan


Mariah fell asleep almost as soon as she crashed on Valentina’s couch around 11:30 PM. When she woke up the next morning, a clock on the wall read 9:30 AM. Valentina needed the sleep too, as she woke up at about the same time. For the most part, she was holding her emotions in check over her father Gabriel’s death. Valentina and Mariah left not too long after, the former telling the latter more about the city of Pensacola and GCU territory in former Florida in general.

[Fallout Soundtrack: A Trader's Life]

That morning, one of the main streets have the city was hosting something similar to a farmers’ market, though many vendors were selling wares other than food. Merchants from out of town, as well as residents of Pensacola who didn’t have their own storefront, had booths set up on either side of the street. In a few stalls, chem dealers were toting their wares, though it seemed that the city government had many restrictions on what they could sell. One could see the usual Stimpaks, Rad-Away, and Rad-X, as well as Jet, Buffout, and Mentats, though the latter three had to be of diluted quality. Chem dealers were explicitly forbidden, however, from selling other chems like Psycho, Daddy-O, and Daytripper. Whatever the rhyme or reason was for these ordinances, Mariah was not sure. It seemed sort of arbitrary to her what chems were allowed to be sold.

There was plenty of variety elsewhere. Some weapons and armor salespeople were around as well, though there were several GCU personnel hanging around for extra security. A few vendors had tamed animals for pets on sale. The green anole lizard was a tiny creature in the Pre-War days that grew considerably in size due to radioactive fallout. Some were even the size of larger dog breeds. Despite the mutations, anole lizards remained mostly friendly towards humans and were a relatively popular pet. Some stalls featured Pre-War relics, from the relatively common to the harder to find. Mariah bought a hat that came with an advertisement denoting that it was a product from Florida-based Cooler Heads Technology, with the tagline of “Cooler Heads Prevail!” Apparently, the Pre-War company sold various accessories that were supposed to cool someone off in the hot sun by generating their own cool air, even more desirable in the Post-War heat. Surprisingly, the hat still worked.

Mariah and Valentina split up briefly to poke around the stalls that interested them. Mariah stocked up on some extra 10MM ammo for her pistol. She also looked at the anole lizard pets, though much as she would have liked to buy one, she figured it would be best for now to hold off on doing so.

Mariah finished perusing the stalls and went to find Valentina to regroup, but one last stall surrounded by a dozen people particularly caught her attention. Some of them were already departing when Mariah went to go check it out. The tarp had a symbol on it featuring what looked to be several buildings with sunlight shining down on them. Brochures and other paraphernalia were on the stall’s table featuring the same symbol.

[Fallout Soundtrack: Second Chance]

As Mariah approached the stall, she saw a man sitting on the other side of the table. His left arm appeared to be mostly bandaged. He sat with his hands clasped in front of him and sat upright, talking to some of the citizens that came to the stall. As Mariah started looking at a brochure, the man turned his attention to her, having finished with the other citizens as they walked away with brochures in hand. “Ah, well, hello there, young lady,” the man spoke in a resonant voice. “Can I interest you in a bit of a chat?”

“Oh, um, sure.” Mariah had not planned on staying very long, but her curiosity got the better of her.

“Wonderful. Please, have a seat, dear child,” he gestured politely to the seat on the other side of the table.

“Oh, please don’t call me child,” Mariah laughed nervously, sitting down. “My name’s Mariah.”

“Ah, my apologies, Mariah. I hope I did not offend. My name’s Jonah.” Mariah got a better look at Jonah, seeing some gray stubble on his chin and jawline. He appeared to be no older than his late 40s or early 50s. “Are you new to this city?”

“Yep, I come from . . . quite far from here. Far from Florida.”

“Indeed, something about you indicates that you are well-traveled. Traveling may be dangerous, but it opens your mind to the world around you.” The way Jonah spoke—his clear and resonant speech, the rate at which he talked, and his level of volume—his posture, everything about him indicated that he was talented at public speaking. Something about him made him very approachable. “Given that you are new to the area, I assume you have not heard of my organization, the Temple of New Life. May I talk with you about that?”

“Oh, uh . . .,” Mariah stuttered. She had seen her fair share of Post-War cults, both benign and malevolent. There always seemed to be something off about the people in them, even if they were not outright violent. Jonah did not seem to give off any of these sorts of vibes, but Mariah was still unsure.

“I understand the apprehension. Obviously, it is easy for me to say, but I assure you we of the Temple of New Life are not like any cult you may have encountered in your travels. We are not merely a religious organization. We are a way of life, a community, a shelter from the dangers that the Sunshine Wasteland and beyond have to offer.” It was one of the few times Mariah heard somebody refer to Florida as the Sunshine Wasteland. His words put her more at ease.

While Mariah was not exactly in the market for proselytization, Jonah’s words made her more curious about what this Temple of New Life was. “Well, that’s reassuring. So, are you a priest or something?”

Jonah chuckled. “I suppose you could say that, though I and my Templar Brothers and Sisters do not use that terminology. We prefer the term ‘Speaker.’ Speakers go out all across the wastes to spread our message of faith, community, and hope. Such values are in desperately short supply in these lands, don’t you agree?” Mariah nodded her head. “Well, while we aren’t so fanatical and abrasive, those values are ultimately what lead people to join these cults. To join any group. And those values lead to one overarching concept. Something endemic to the human spirit. What do you think that is?”

Mariah pondered for a moment, then simply shrugged and shook her head. “What is it?”

Jonah gestured with an open palm. “It’s purpose.” He paused as if to let the power of the answer fill the air. “Think about it, Mariah. What leads people to join these organizations you hear about? The ultimate reason, I mean. It’s a common thread whether you are a cult, the GCU, the Dissidents, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Temple of New Life, you name it. The goals and beliefs may all differ, but at the end of the day, human beings want to find meaning in their lives. They want to matter in some way. To feel as though they made some sort of impact. To be completely forgotten in the annals of history and by future generations is one of the most terrifying prospects for many people. And I believe that your journey for purpose is what brought you here to Florida.”

Mariah cocked her head, giving a slightly confused look. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You may not realize it, Mariah, but that is what brought you to these lands. Long-wandering sojourners and wayfarers that constantly move about do so because they are searching for their meaning in life. When the Great War happened, most of the survivors were left wondering what their purpose was. What the purpose of life in general was. When the bombs dropped, it led many people to abandon their faiths. Their values. They felt they had nothing to turn to, and so they had to seek out some sort of purpose. Many people from all sorts of religious backgrounds—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, tribal beliefs, you name it—abandoned their faiths when nuclear fire engulfed the world, though many of them certainly still survived. Many people turned to the numerous cults that sprouted in the Post-War world. Regardless of religion, many ostensibly, formerly, or would-be good, neighborly people turned to raiding. They felt that that was all they had. Attempts to recreate civilization have been made all around the world. And it all leads back to one thing: Purpose.”

“I . . . suppose so,” Mariah considered what Jonah had to say. She was not really sure what drew her to Florida, but maybe Jonah was right. Maybe she had been searching for purpose all this time.

“And that’s why the Temple of New Life does what it does. Sure, we have our religious beliefs. But more importantly it is to help people find purpose. Community. Hope. The meaning of life.”

As Mariah considered his words some more, Valentina came from behind. “There you are! It’s almost noon and I have to head down to the station. You’re still coming, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, Val.” Mariah turned to Jonah. “I, uh, gotta go, Jonah. But this was, um, interesting.”

“Of course, Mariah. I do not wish to keep you from your business. But please, take a brochure to learn more about the Temple,” Jonah handed her one. As Mariah took it, Jonah added, “And remember my words. What brought you to this table.” Mariah paused and then simply nodded her head.

As Valentina and Mariah walked away, the former teased the latter. “Looking to join a cult?”

“Haha. No, I was just curious about it. Seemed pretty popular over there earlier. He didn’t seem crazy, though.”

“The ones who are good at concealing the crazy are the ones you need to watch out for most,” Valentina half-joked.

Mariah chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.” But she could not help but think about Jonah’s words as they walked down to the station.

///////////


As Mariah and Valentina came through the front door, Jacob and Commander Bertrand were talking to one of the codebreakers. Bertrand turned to them. “Ah, good, you’re here Val.” Bertrand then looked at Mariah. “And hello again, Mariah.”

“Hello, Commander,” Mariah nodded. It was still awkward between the two of them though tensions had significantly lessened since last night’s confrontation.

Bertrand held up a piece of paper. It was the coded message that was found on one of the dead Dissidents from the caravan attack. “Gerald may act like a tough guy, but one night in prison and he got talking. And now we know where they are holed up.”

Mariah’s face lit up. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!”

“Whoa, let’s slow down, Mariah. First of all, we are preparing to head out. This is not some spur-of-the-moment thing. This is a whole operation we are planning. We are figuring out how many troops we can and should spare. We need to get our Anole and Kolossi mounts together as well as . . .”

“Wait, what? Anole mounts? And what are Kolossi?”

“Oh, right, you’re from outside of Florida. You may have seen and heard of some amazing creatures across the old U.S., but I can guarantee that you haven’t seen anything like what Florida has to offer. It was arguably the most biologically impressive and diverse Pre-War state, and a lot of species made it through the War, though the radiation has caused some significant changes. Some of the Anole lizards are big enough that they can carry cargo or even hold a human or two as riders. The Kolossi—what used to be monitor lizards and sometimes mistaken for Komodo Dragons—are big units now and especially well-equipped for those duties, though there are many out in the wastes that are hostile. There is very little Pre-War technology like bicycles at our disposal that we can spare right now, so we often go a little more . . . organic.”

“That’s incredible,” Mariah said, her mouth slightly open in wonderment.

“It is indeed. Anyway, we are gathering up our resources and preparing to head out tomorrow. But secondly—and I know you do not want to hear this—we cannot bring you with us, Mariah.” Bertrand held up his hand before Mariah could object. “And before you say it, no, this is not because of last night. I think that would be petty.” He sighed. “Look, I know what you are capable of, Mariah. I appreciate what you did for the caravan and I know you can fight. But this is a full-fledged operation we are talking about. We cannot take civilians with us on something like this.”

Mariah was not the only one taken aback. Valentina apparently did not expect Bertrand to prevent Mariah from joining. “Commander, please, if I may.” Bertrand stayed silent for a moment, indicating that she could continue. “Sir, please reconsider your decision. We need all the fighters we can get, and I think Mariah deserves to have a shot at this after what she went through. Jacob, please tell me you feel the same way.” Valentina turned to Jacob with a look of hope on her face.

Jacob stood still for a moment and then simply sighed. “I’m sorry, Val, but that’s Commander’s orders. I know what Mariah is capable of, but the Commander is right. She is a civilian and not trained for anything like this.”

“Look, Mariah,” Bertrand added, “I know you want to help. I understand your desire for revenge. But this is not something you are ready for and your emotions may cloud your judgment.”

Mariah may have been defiant yesterday but now she could only feel disappointment. She knew that neither she nor Val could change the Commander’s mind. But she was determined to find out all the information she could about the operation. She was going to find some way to join even if she had to do so surreptitiously. “Well, can I at least know where you are going?”

“I’m sorry, but no. We must keep as many details under wraps as we can. I cannot just tell civilians all of the inner workings of what we do. Besides, something tells me that you would follow us. I’m not going to put you in harm’s way if I can help it.”

Dejected, Mariah responded, “Alright.”

“I’m sorry, Mariah. Please, go back to wherever you are staying in town. I need to brief Jacob and Val on this.”

“You can still stay at my place. Here’s a key,” Val said to Mariah, also with a disappointed look on her face.

With Val’s key, Mariah left outside the front door of the station and stood in place on the street, not sure what to do next. She pulled out the brochure that Jonah handed her earlier in the day and read the content inside. It talked about a city named Eden far to the south in Florida, though it did not give any specific location, perhaps for its protection. The brochure also mentioned someone simply called “The Redeemer,” which Mariah supposed was their god. But when she read further, the paper seemed to indicate that it was an actual person that was their spiritual guide. She was not really sure. Mariah was not exactly interested in joining, per se, but she figured she’d learn as much as she can about what goes on in Florida. After all, she wasn’t planning on leaving it any time soon.

As Mariah put the brochure away, she suddenly had an idea of how to find out where the GCU was going to attack the Dissidents. The GCU station’s jail stood right next door, having not only a connected hallway to the station but a separate door from the street as well. If Mariah was going to find out the information she needed, she needed to go straight to the source: Gerald.

As she stepped into the jail’s entrance, a guard stood watch over the cells. He looked up at Mariah as she walked through the door. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Hi. Can I speak to one of the prisoners?”

“I’m sorry, but the jail is not open for visitations right now.”

“Please, it’s urgent.”

Skeptical, the guard folded his arms. “Who do you want to see and why?”

Mariah thought the truth would not get the guard to let her go by, but she could not think of a convincing lie. The truth was all that she could go with. “It’s the Dissident prisoner. He attacked my caravan I rode in on the way here and I want to confront him about it.”

“Hmmm . . . I suppose Dissidents could always use a beating, even if it is only verbal.” The guard thought for a moment longer. “Fine, but only because I think you’re a good kid. Even though I shouldn’t be doing this right now. Just make it quick, okay? We don’t need either one of us getting in trouble."

“Thank you,” Mariah said with a sigh of relief and a hint of surprise. She wasn’t thrilled about going to see Gerald either, so she didn’t plan on spending much time there. But she needed to know what he told Bertrand and Jacob.

“He’s in the tenth cell to the right.”

As Mariah reached Gerald’s cell, she saw him sitting on a stool against the wall. But he looked far more ragged than before. His prisoner’s clothing was drenched in sweat and dirt and his skin was red from sunburns. He looked up when Mariah stood in front of the cell, wryly smiling. “I knew you couldn’t get enough of me, baby. Nice of you to visit. Why don’t you show me a little skin?” Gerald apparently amped up the sarcasm and creepiness from yesterday. His voice was as ragged as he looked due to thirst.

Mariah had to stop herself from vomiting. “You’re looking pretty awful right now.”

“Yeah, well, that ‘special box’ that your GCU overlords stuck me in can be thanked. Tied me up in place and gagged me and made sure to put me underneath a hole in the roof so I could be roasted like a brahmin by the sun. And some mirrors or something on the roof to make it even hotter. Anything goes in these parts including torture, it seems.”

“Not like you didn’t deserve it,” Mariah sniped back. The ‘special box’ seemed to have been quite effective at getting Gerald to talk.

“Oh, spare me your self-righteous drivel. What do you want, anyway?”

“I want to know what you told the Commander. Why you attacked the caravan and where your friends are hiding.”

Gerald leaned forward with an irritated look on his face. “You want me to tell you after what you did to Evan? Oh, that’s right, you don’t know Evan. He was the guy that you cut up at the caravan.”

“Oh, you mean the guy that murdered my caravan driver and friend right in front of me and thought he could kill me from behind? That one?”

Gerald was visibly angered. “Yeah, him, you [censored]. He was my friend. You can’t do anything to me here. You’ll get nothing out of me.”

Mariah then remembered she had a bottle of purified water on hand. With how parched Gerald looked, she knew he would want some. And she certainly was not going to give into any of his carnal desires. “You look thirsty, Gerald. But you know, I could use a drink, too. Maybe I’ll just drink this water right in front of you.”

Gerald’s thirst got the better of him and he switched to begging mode. “[Censored], please give me some, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know! You have my word," he said hoarsely.

Mariah understandably wasn’t confident that his word could be trusted, but she had no other choice if she wanted to get information out of him. “Very well.”

Gerald gulped down half of the bottle and let out a refreshed ‘ah.’ “As much as it pains me to say it, thanks. You may be a GCU dog, but I’m a man of my word. So I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

“I’m not part of GCU.”

“You work with them. Might as well be one of them. But fine, what is it you want to know?”

“I want to know why you attacked the caravan and where you all are holed up.”

Gerald lowly chuckled. “Oh, the Commander and his lackey didn’t tell you? Of course the GCU is going to be secretive. They don’t want anybody knowing anything truthful about them.” Gerald pulled the stool closer to the cell door and gingerly sat back down. His sunburns were clearly painful. “Do you like storytime?”

Mariah furrowed her eyebrows. “What does that have to do with what I asked?”

“Because it’s relevant. And you should know what the GCU is all about. What they don’t tell you.”

Mariah was going to have to hear what Gerald had to say and she knew it. “If the story is good, sure,” she said somewhat tongue-in-cheek. “Is this about Birmingham?”

“Ah, perceptive, aren’t you? Perception one of your strong suits? Anyway, yeah, it’s about that.” Gerald took a deep breath. “When the Alabama Compact became part of the GCU, us Dissidents weren’t thrilled with it. Downright angry about it. We didn’t need some blowhards in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana making decisions for us. So, we decided we’d go up north, distance ourselves from our fellow Alabamians that betrayed us and their new out-stater friends. Out-staters are what we call people from those three Pre-War states, and now we use it for Alabamians in the GCU because we are the true Alabama.

“Anyway, we go up north and separate ourselves, right? We are just a humble, sovereign, and self-determining people. We don’t cause much of a fuss. We just leave. Well, years later, GCU decides they want some of our land now. They got their panties in a bunch because we didn’t want to be a part of them. They come to annex some of our land and we fight back. In particular, they want this Pre-War military facility that we have over near Birmingham--or rather what was inside that facility. So, naturally, they decide that something that is not theirs belongs to them. And as we start fighting, you know who else decides to join in on the fun? The Brotherhood of Steel. The guys in the power armor and with the energy weapons. At first, we thought the GCU brought them along, but we realized quickly that the Brotherhood was doing it on their own. The Brotherhood ain’t about working with anybody outside of their group. Hell, they might be even worse than the GCU, but they just don’t have their own country. We knew about them being further out to the west, but now they start coming way east. They’re just like GCU in thinking they have some divine mandate to take anything they want and keep it away from everyone else.

“And so there is this big three-way battle between the GCU, Brotherhood, and us. Lots of dead bodies on all sides. Absolute massacre. And people living in Birmingham that had nothing to do with it also died. In the end, this thing that was in that military facility was gone. GCU and Brotherhood claims that the other had it or we did, but we know at least one of them is full of [censored]. Now we’re coming to reclaim that thing that was ours and to push out the GCU. Pay back the Brotherhood too and give them a taste of their own medicine.”

“And what is this thing that is supposedly yours?” Mariah asked.

“Some sort of prototype technology from Pre-War. I don’t understand it, honestly. But it’s something very important, I assure you. GCU and the Brotherhood wouldn’t have showed up otherwise.”

“You thought our caravan had this technology?” Anger started creeping back into Mariah’s voice.

“GCU’s got it. We know it.”

“You don’t even know! You attacked our caravan on a hunch! There was nothing to indicate that we had it and people needlessly died because of you [censored]!” Mariah felt the urge to pull out her 10MM pistol but fought it back.

“Look, I don’t expect a GCU lackey to understand. And I’m not going to reveal all our secrets and intel. But I’ll tell you where we are. You can find out more about us up close and personal. I did give you my word.”

“Then where are they?”

“There used to be a Pre-War town called Holt, right on the old U.S. Route 90. Obliterated in the War. In the town is an abandoned Fusion! factory. You know Nuka-Cola? Well, Fusion! was a Florida-based soft drink company and Nuka-Cola came to infringe on its turf, so there is an abandoned factory for Nuka-Cola not too far from there as well. But you got to find the one that is for Fusion! We are holed up in that area.” Gerald became thirsty again from all the talking. He chugged the rest of the water bottle and tossed it back to Mariah through the cell bars. “There. You got what you wanted. Much as I like you as eye candy, it also drives me crazy when I’m sitting in this cell. Unless you want to join me?” Gerald slowly licked his lips.

“Ugh, gross.” Mariah almost vomited again. “You’re lucky I don’t just pop you with a bullet or two, Gerald. Still, thanks for the info.”

“Sure thing, darling.”

Mariah turned and started walking away, but one more question came to mind. She turned around. “You know, you seemed pretty defiant yesterday. And then one night goes by and you start talking. Why? Was it that bad of a tough-guy act?”

Gerald thought for a moment. “I just . . . decided to change my mind.” It sounded like he wanted to say something else initially. He walked up to the cell bars and wrapped his hands around two of them. “Because you don’t know what you all are in for.”

Mariah pondered his ominous words, thinking about what exactly he meant. She then continued walking back out of the jail. She headed back to Val’s home to start hatching a plan to join the GCU raid on the Dissidents’ compound.
Renee
Hey, what month is it supposed to be in this story? I know it's always hot in Florida for 9 months out of the year. That Cooler Heads hat would be nice to have, especially if it were solar-powered. That way, sunlight would actually keep it running.

Daddy-O and Daytripper. wacko.gif Never heard of those chems. laugh.gif

Jonah's sermon is convincing.

Mariah is being told she can't join their operation. Similar to Buffy (Acadian's character) being told she can't go into the meatier parts of battle. She was put off to the side. But at least Mariah hasn't proven herself yet (not in an official sort of way) whereas arguably Buffy has.

Gerald is yucky! Even sitting in jail and all stinky and beaten, he's still making a pass at her. tongue.gif

Well that's going to be interesting. She's going to go to the Fusion! plant on her own, by the sound of it. Or maybe her and Val will go. Yicch, Fusion! sounds yiccky.

RaderOfTheLostArk
I keep meaning to add soundtracks to certain parts of the story to hopefully make it more immersive. I added a couple to the beginning of the chapter. It's mostly going to be from Fallout games, but if there are other tunes I find that I think fit the setting I will include them too.

QUOTE(Renee @ Aug 21 2020, 09:53 AM) *

Hey, what month is it supposed to be in this story? I know it's always hot in Florida for 9 months out of the year. That Cooler Heads hat would be nice to have, especially if it were solar-powered. That way, sunlight would actually keep it running.

Daddy-O and Daytripper. wacko.gif Never heard of those chems. laugh.gif

Jonah's sermon is convincing.

Mariah is being told she can't join their operation. Similar to Buffy (Acadian's character) being told she can't go into the meatier parts of battle. She was put off to the side. But at least Mariah hasn't proven herself yet (not in an official sort of way) whereas arguably Buffy has.

Gerald is yucky! Even sitting in jail and all stinky and beaten, he's still making a pass at her. tongue.gif

Well that's going to be interesting. She's going to go to the Fusion! plant on her own, by the sound of it. Or maybe her and Val will go. Yicch, Fusion! sounds yiccky.


Ha, try 11+ months out of the year, with 1 cold month's worth (and not necessarily consecutive days) at most. At the start of the story, it was August 4, 2130. Only one day has passed so far, so it is August 5.

Both Daddy-O and Daytripper first appear in Fallout 4 and they are also in Fallout 76. I think a couple other chems first appeared in Fallout 4 as well, and New Vegas brought some new ones as well, I believe.



EDIT: Here is the link to my Google Map. It's going to eventually include ALL of the regions of Florida and there are going to be A LOT of locations, though I am going to amend some later or take them out completely. Haven't decided yet how many locations outside of the story I am going to mark.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1yPQ...amp;usp=sharing
RaderOfTheLostArk
Background Lore: The Federal Versus Florida State Government, Pre-War and Post-War Iterations


Prior to the Great War, the federal government and Florida’s state government were constantly at each other’s throats and there was extraordinary hostility between the two. This had a significant impact on the lead-up to the Great War and will also play a big role when the Old Guard and the Enclave (remnants of the state and federal governments, respectively) are introduced in Part 2: Big Bend.

The start of the enmity is not known (because I have not thought it out yet, though I may just leave it ambiguous on purpose). But it manifested itself in many different industries and facets of day-to-day life. Here are some of the issues:
  • Nuka-Cola vs. Fusion!: Everyone knows about Nuka-Cola. They were THE soft drink in basically the whole country (with perhaps at least the exception of the Mojave, where Sunset Sarsaparilla was highly popular). In Florida, the soft drink king was Fusion! They had a large variety of flavors, one of their most popular being Key Lime, as Key Lime Pie was the state pie (and yes, that is the case in real life) and the Key Lime flavor is very Floridian. The state government also back Fusion! with tax breaks and other favors, having a very friendly relationships with the latter’s lobbyists which certainly led to some corruption. To spite Florida’s government, the federal government backed the expansion of Nuka-Cola into Florida with their own tax breaks and other favors. Fusion! was still the bigger of the two in Florida when the bombs dropped, but Nuka-Cola did make some major inroads into the market.
  • Poseidon Energy vs. Florida Utilities: In real life, Florida utility companies are a very powerful player in state politics. The same goes for the Fallout: Florida universe. As with Nuka-Cola, Poseidon Energy made attempts at expansion into Florida—but by buying out the competition instead. While Nuka-Cola only had Fusion! to deal with, Poseidon had a bunch of state and local utilities to play hardball against. They were more successful in buying out local companies, though they did buy out at least one state company. Some of Poseidon’s primary adversaries included East Coast Power and Gulf Electric and Gas Company. (NOTE: Neither of these are real companies. I debated whether to include actual companies in my story, but I decided to make them up instead. Gives me more freedom to decide what to do with them.)
  • Company Subterfuge: Companies backed by the federal government and those backed by the state government engaged in a lot more than market warfare. They routinely attempted to infiltrate and sabotage each other from the inside, and leak real and fake stories about each other’s shady, unethical, and downright illegal dealings to the public.
  • Secret Experiments: While the Enclave engaged in their own horrible experiments, mostly with the FEV, the Old Guard had been doing their own secret experiments. Despite the hostilities, both sides were able to mostly hide their actions from each other on this front. (NOTE: And look out, because later in the Fallout: Florida storyline these experiments are going to become highly relevant.)
  • Foreign Affairs: The U.S. federal government focused pretty much solely on China in the Sino-American War, annexing Canada for its resources in 2059 to fight China and then fighting to reclaim Alaska from the Chinese. But China would also ally itself with Cuba in an attempt to further pressure the U.S. and from a completely different direction than Alaska. Thus came the “Second Cuban Missile Crisis” (the First one being the one that happened in real life). It was mutually beneficial: Both countries had similar political ideologies, and China could use Cuba’s strategic location while Cuba’s struggling economy would be propped up by China. The U.S. left Florida mostly to its own devices, partially because it didn’t regard Cuba as a real threat and partially to spite Florida’s government. As you can imagine, this only deepened the hatred between the two governments. These events will play a big role in the Gold Coast storyline for Fallout: Florida, though it is a long ways away. (NOTE: The stuff about annexing Canada and reclaiming Alaska is all established as canon. All the lore about Cuba is from my own headcanon.)

Hostilities reached such a boiling point that some Florida politicians and citizens started openly advocating for secession from the United States. Some Floridian politicians even tried to coax the other members of the Gulf Coast Commonwealth to join them in seceding. It didn’t come very close to fruition when the Great War happened, but it would have been inevitable if the bombs had not dropped.

Many of the politicians and citizens who hated the federal government for its intrusions on state affairs did not push for secession, however. They were sympathetic to those who did support it, but they tried to find other ways to counteract federal actions. It wasn’t just about what they felt was the federal government eroding the state’s sovereignty, but not wanting to be associated with the federal government in the war. Aggressions with China were not in the state government’s interests for the most part, though the issues with Cuba did change that a lot.

And in the Post-War world, these long-standing resentments between the federal and state governments lived on and arguably became even worse. And that’s what you’ll start seeing when Fallout: Florida reaches Part 2: Big Bend.
SubRosa
I can relate Mariah's consternation over how some chems are legal and others not, like how oxycontin is legal in the US, but opium is not.

I love the cooler heads hat.

The Sunshine Wasteland is also a great name. It is like the apocalypse with added oranges.

So we got to meet Jonah Koresh. I suspect we will be seeing more of these Lifers in the future.

They have guar mounts!

I wonder what this macguffin is in Birmingham that everyone wants so badly?

Am I the only one who thinks Big Bend sounds pornographic?
TheCheshireKhajiit
Lots of words from our Alabama friend, and not even one “Roll Tide!”. laugh.gif

I love this! Having lived within about 4 hours drive of these places you are writing about all my life, it’s fun to imagine them in this universe. Also, the dissidents sound like some of the Alabama, as well as Mississippi folks I’m around on a daily basis, so it feels very realistic! Good work!

Also, I wanted to say that this chapter had a sort of cinematic quality about it that I really liked, no doubt thanks in part to the inclusion of the links to the soundtrack.
RaderOfTheLostArk
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Aug 23 2020, 06:48 PM) *

I can relate Mariah's consternation over how some chems are legal and others not, like how oxycontin is legal in the US, but opium is not.

I love the cooler heads hat.

The Sunshine Wasteland is also a great name. It is like the apocalypse with added oranges.

So we got to meet Jonah Koresh. I suspect we will be seeing more of these Lifers in the future.

They have guar mounts!

I wonder what this macguffin is in Birmingham that everyone wants so badly?

Am I the only one who thinks Big Bend sounds pornographic?


Yep, governments do nonsensical, arbitrary things all the time.

I wish guar were real.

Lol, I guess it does sound a bit dirty. It's the informal name of that rough area of Florida since that is the big curve around the Gulf of Mexico.


QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Aug 23 2020, 11:08 PM) *

Lots of words from our Alabama friend, and not even one “Roll Tide!”. laugh.gif

I love this! Having lived within about 4 hours drive of these places you are writing about all my life, it’s fun to imagine them in this universe. Also, the dissidents sound like some of the Alabama, as well as Mississippi folks I’m around on a daily basis, so it feels very realistic! Good work!

Also, I wanted to say that this chapter had a sort of cinematic quality about it that I really liked, no doubt thanks in part to the inclusion of the links to the soundtrack.


Thanks, Khajiit. Glad to know I succeeded on the realistic part. Didn't want to make just some generic Southerners. I often like playing a soundtrack in my own head for certain stories, so I thought it would be a good idea to include some here.



---------------------------------------------




Chapter 4: Subterfuge


Now that Mariah knew where the Dissidents launched attacks from and what they were looking for, she set about back into downtown Pensacola to figure out what to do next. Bertrand was not going to let her join the excursion and it might not be feasible for her to tail them the whole way. But before that could be determined, Mariah figured it was best to find out what information she could about this town of Holt. It was apparently obliterated in the Great War according to Gerald, which could make it much harder to find—and there were plenty such ruins in the wasteland. Yet if there were a couple of Pre-War factories still standing, it could make the search much easier. Since she was still new to Florida, Mariah sought out locals that could tell her what she needed to know.

Eventually, she was directed toward a cartographer in town. The cartographer had scavenged plenty of Pre-War maps of the Panhandle, which would still give a good sense of where locations still stood even though the Post-War landscape had changed so much. Somewhat surprisingly, the maps were not terribly expensive despite their age and usefulness, and they were fairly well-preserved.

But an antique map was not going to tell her everything she needed to know about the area now. After selling the map, the cartographer told Mariah how to get to the old Pensacola News-Journal building, the Pre-War local newspaper, where she may be able to find out extra information about what was there or any news coming from that direction now. The people there had been able to preserve old news stories on holotapes and terminals as well as their paper forms, which could indicate some of what to expect there.

When Mariah got to the PNJ building, an old and tired-looking woman sat at the reception desk. “Oh, hello there,” she said in a monotone voice when Mariah came up to the desk. The old lady didn’t mean to seem rude or disinterested. She clearly was just fatigued.

“Hi. I’m looking for some information on a town not far from here. I was told to come here to find out any news and such about the area. Could you tell me anything about Holt?” Mariah asked.

The old lady perked up a slight bit at the mention of the town name, but not for a cheerful reason. A little apprehension crept into her voice. “Oh, no, no, no, darling, you do NOT want to go there. Nuh-uh.”

“Why not?”

“New to the area, are you? Well, sweetie, let me just tell you right now that if you are planning go there—or even just through the road that way, good heavens—don’t go. There is nothing good that can come of that.”

“Oh? How come?”

“That place is notoriously bad news around these parts! Even GCU parties are reluctant to go around there. Sometimes it’s roving bands of raiders. Other times, it’s monsters like Sirens, Radfrogs, and Radtoads.” Sirens were mutated cicadas, obnoxious and loud insects from the Pre-War days. Mutations made them bigger and louder. It was a random chance that any you came across would be friendly or hostile, though why this was the case was anyone’s guess. Frogs and toads also sometimes (though not always) grew larger from radiation and could be vicious as well. Both could use their tongues to attack enemies, but Radfrogs also could secrete a radioactive liquid from their moist skin while Radtoads used their rough and jagged skin to cause extra bleeding. “And some people even say the place is haunted!”

Mariah wasn’t sure how seriously to take the old lady, wondering if it was just tiredness on her part or if she may have been somewhat senile. Maybe both. But she refrained from openly questioning her on those counts. “So, people don’t go by there often?”

“Not if they know what’s good for them! Traders usually take the old I-10 instead of Route 90 because of the dangers. Tends to be busier and better guarded. Just stay from Holt, young woman! It’s bad business!”

“For heaven’s sake, you’re going to give yourself a stroke, Hazel!” A younger man, though not much more so than Hazel, came up to the desk from behind. “Stop working yourself up! Go get yourself some sleep.” The man gently ushered Hazel to a room in the back that had beds in it. It seemed to be an establishment that the proprietors also lived in. He came back to the desk to talk to Mariah. “Sorry about that, ma’am. Ms. Hazel has had a lot of, uh, personal things going on. Anyway, I heard you say you were looking for information on Holt, correct?”

“Yeah. Is there anything you can tell me? Any news? Anything even from the past that might help?”

“Well, it isn’t often that people want to go directly to Holt. While it’s in the GCU, it has never been re-established as a settlement since the War. And Ms. Hazel’s outburst aside, there have been reports of dangers around there. If you really want to go there . . . well, why do you want to go there?” He gave Mariah a quizzical look.

Mariah could not tell him the truth, so she had to improvise. It was easier to come up with a lie this time, unlike with the jail guard and Gerald. “I’m . . . going relic-hunting. I just want to know what I can before going there.”

“Another adventurer, eh? Well, I’m sure you can find some lucrative treasures there. Ms. Hazel might seem a bit off her rocker, but she does have a point about the potential dangers there. I’d greatly advise against going there, but if you insist, I’ll help you out. Stock up on ammo and defense and stimpaks before you go. Now, let me see what old news articles there are that can lead you to some treasures.” The man went towards the back of the building, spending about five minutes going through terminal entries, holotapes, and preserved newspaper articles. He returned with a stack of some old newspapers and a small booklet. “Ah, here we go. Got some stuff on an old Fusion! plant right in town, including an article about Nuka-Cola coming to the area. Was a big deal back then. Nuka-Cola relics can fetch a pretty cap, but you can find those all across the United States. The real prizes are found in the Fusion! plant because that was the state’s soft drink corporation. Especially anything related to their Key Lime flavor, ‘cause Key Lime Pie was the official pie of the state. Then you got the usual stuff like an old church there, police and fire departments, and so on. Anyway, I’m sure you don’t want to hear me go on and on, so here it all is. And this booklet here contains some of the reports of dangers nearby.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Thank you.” Mariah tossed a few caps the man’s way for the service. She could not take any of the papers with her, so she was going to take a few minutes to comb through the information to memorize and take notes on before leaving.

“Sure thing, young lady. Oh, and one more thing: The GCU has an outpost nearby and there are a couple caravans heading out that way. They got some GCU troops helping to defend them along the way, at least until they are far from Holt. Not sure if they are taking U.S. Route 90 or I-10 though. You’d have to ask around at the caravan depot.”

Mariah’s eyes lit up. “You don’t say?”

“Yep. With the uptick in attacks on traveling traders, caravan guards have been in higher demand and GCU has had to provide protection as well.”

“Thanks a bunch for the help, sir. One more thing, though: Why is Holt so dangerous if there is a GCU outpost there?”

The man shrugged. “The way I understand it is that they have cleared the place out before. But it doesn’t stay empty for long. Raiders and monsters don’t exactly have respect for the law and civilization. And lately the GCU has been preoccupied with other issues. Just watch yourself out there, you hear?”

Mariah nodded. It certainly sounded like an intimidating place regardless of Dissident activity, but Mariah was not going to stop now. She wanted revenge against the Dissidents. Still, she thought it was odd that they would pick such a dangerous spot to launch operations from. It wasn’t like raiders or irradiated creatures would be very keen on having another occupant in town. Was it because nobody would suspect that would be where they are based? Was it the only place they could find that had the facilities they needed? Did the Dissidents even know what dangers lurked there? In any case, Mariah now knew that she could use the caravans to get to her destination.

The next item on Mariah’s list was to go to the caravan depot and ask around about who was heading in that direction and what kind of protection was being provided. She found that there were three different caravans going at 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 12:00 PM tomorrow. Each of these caravans was going to a different location: Niceville, some place called Mart-Town, and Defuniak Springs. But which of them was best for Mariah to go with? She did not know what time the GCU raid on the Dissidents was planned to be or how the GCU was moving troops. She primarily wanted to avoid Commander Bertrand and Jacob so they did not suspect her attempts to be involved, but would they help protect any of the caravans? They may not be with any of them at all. It looked like she was going to have to stake out the depots from a distance to see.

Afterward, she bought a few RadAways and Stimpaks along with some extra bullets for her 10MM pistol on her way back to Valentina’s house.

//////////


As Mariah was finalizing her plans on the living room couch that night, a dejected-looking Valentina walked through the front door. “Are you okay, Val?” Mariah asked, concerned.

“They aren’t letting me go either,” Val mumbled.

“What? Why not?”

“Commander Bertrand is concerned that my emotions will cloud my judgment as well.” Despite being GCU, the Dissidents were directly responsible for her father Gabriel’s death. “I’m going to be relegated to the office for the day. I suppose I understand but . . .” Valentina suddenly pounded the table. “Damn it, I should be going! They need to suffer for what they did to my dad! To all those people! I . . .” She burst into tears.

Mariah scooted over and put her arm around Valentina’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Val.” For a moment, she considered telling Valentina her plans for tomorrow. She quickly decided against it. Valentina may have felt similarly about the situation as Mariah did, but she was unlikely to go directly against Bertrand’s orders. It wasn’t her personality to be that defiant and it would jeopardize her employment with the GCU anyway. Mariah wasn’t beholden to such constraints. And Valentina might even try to warn Bertrand to protect Mariah from getting herself into danger.

“You’re a really good friend, Mariah,” Valentina said once some of the emotion subsided. “I know we’ve basically only just met, but I really appreciate you being here.”

“Same to you,” Mariah smiled. “So, what happens for you tomorrow?”

Valentina heavily sighed. “Desk work, I suppose. Hopefully they have something that’s actually engaging in town though.” Valentina reciprocated Mariah’s side hug. “It’s been a long day and I need to get some sleep. I’m going to the station early tomorrow, so ‘good morning’ if I don’t see you then,” she laughed as she got up off the couch.

If Valentina was gone early in the morning, that would make it easier for Mariah to execute her plan. It suddenly crossed her mind that she was, in a sense, going behind Valentina’s back. What would she think if she knew what Mariah was going to do? And Mariah didn’t want her to feel some sort of abandonment while going off to fight the Dissidents. For the first time that day, Mariah second-guessed whether she should really go forward with her plan. But she was a stubborn individual and she was determined to make the Dissidents pay. She soon went to sleep to make sure she was well-rested for the big day.

////////////


Mariah woke up at 8:15 AM the next morning, noticing that Valentina had already left. It was time to set her plan into motion.

Mariah arrived at the depot just before 9:00 AM, when the first caravan was leaving. Its destination was Mart-Town, a settlement that repurposed a huge building for an old corporation called UniMart for living and trading purposes. UniMart was not as big as some similar stores like Super Duper Mart elsewhere in the country, but it was a well-known corporation in the southeastern United States. Holt was basically right on the way to this Mart-Town, stopping at the GCU outpost nearby.

There were GCU officers standing ready to move out with the caravan. Mariah even saw a few of those Kolossi and Anoles that Bertrand had mentioned yesterday. Fortunately for her, Bertrand and Jacob were nowhere in sight. Looks like I get a head-start, she thought. She paid a fare to ride in the caravan, climbing on board a cart being pulled by Brahmin.

//////////


A few hours later the caravan arrived at the GCU outpost. The caravan was taking a quick break, so Mariah used the opportunity to hop off her cart and surreptitiously departed from the caravan. She was going to have to lay low for a while to avoid GCU detection. There were a few rundown buildings nearby that had nothing going on in them. Mariah checked them out and, having determined that they would be a good place to stay for the time being, started using them as her own makeshift base. The ruins of Holt could barely be made out in the distance.

Another hour or two later, another convoy arrived at the outpost with GCU soldiers in tow. As they filed into the main building, she overheard a conversation between two of the soldiers.

“Man, I’m telling you, I saw him! The guy with the yellow trenchcoat and dirty fedora!” The first one said.

“Dude, you’re crazy. Do you believe everything you hear?” The second one said.

“Nah, man, I told you I saw it with my own eyes. Nobody knows who he is, but he exists. Some Mysterious Stranger. Popped a couple raiders and then just left. He just vanished!”

“Why don’t you go get some water, my man. Heat’s playing tricks on you.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. I know what I saw.”

[Fallout Soundtrack: City of Lost Angels]

Mariah thought that was a rather curious conversation. It sounded like yet another legend out in these wastes. If there was a bottle of purified water for every legend, real or imagined, you could irrigate the whole wasteland and still have enough to sate everyone’s thirst. Mariah didn’t have time to ponder it, however, as she glimpsed Bertrand and Jacob. The time for Mariah’s revenge on the Dissidents was near.

The soldiers all entered the GCU outpost, undoubtedly to pour back over the raid’s plans to make sure this pre-emptive strike went smoothly. They soon came back out, armed to the teeth. As they marched toward Holt, Mariah tried to stay out of sight while tailing them, a tall task as there weren’t many places to hide and there were many soldiers on alert. Several snipers looked through their scopes to scout the ruins before signaling to move forward. The Fusion! plant could be seen not too far from the main section of Holt, surprisingly still in pretty decent shape considering the condition of the rest of the town. Most buildings were either completely leveled, had collapsed roofs, or otherwise showed significant damage.

Mariah, and some of the soldiers, could not help but feel some apprehension at entering Holt, regardless of the operation. No wonder the town’s ruins had its reputation. There was something about the atmosphere that just seemed eerie, more than your usual ruins. As the soldiers approached the road to the Fusion! plant, the snipers scouted with their scopes and signaled the all-clear once again.

It was then that a voice, not from anybody in GCU, suddenly bellowed “Open fire!”

[Fallout: New Vegas Battle Soundtrack]

Chaos erupted as various weaponry fired off at the GCU, who had to scramble for cover as Commander Bertrand barked orders. The Dissidents had ambushed them. GCU had to quickly return fire and find whatever cover they could.

Mariah was shocked as she found a wall to hide behind. How the hell did the Dissidents know the GCU was coming? Mariah wondered. The snipers had found no sign of activity. Holt was ostensibly abandoned. The scouts would have seen them coming out of the Fusion! plant but they practically came out of the damn walls. There should have been no way the Dissidents got the drop on the GCU, yet they did anyway.

As Bertrand kept yelling orders to his soldiers, Mariah noticed a Dissident with almost a clear shot at him. She reacted quickly, firing several bullets the Dissident’s way and killing him. Somehow, even with all the pandemonium, Bertrand was able to distinguish the sound of Mariah’s 10MM pistol from the rest of the noise. Nobody else was using that weapon. He saw where she was hiding, which was about 15 feet away from his position, and gave her an exasperated look. She could still hear his voice over the gunfire. “[Censored] damn it, Mariah! I told you not to come! What are you doing here?!”

“Sorry, Commander, but I was not going to miss this!” She yelled back with a determined look on her face.

“You’re going to get yourself killed! Stay down!” Bertrand returned to surveying the landscape and barking out orders. Dissidents and GCU soldiers seemed to be dropping dead left and right.

And then things got even more chaotic.

After a few minutes of warfare, nearby mutated creatures joined the battle, being drawn by the excessive amount of noise. Several people on both sides of the fight yelled out the arrival of the creatures. Sirens, Radfrogs, Radtoads came out of the woodwork, just like Mariah was warned about back in the Pensacola News-Journal office. There were many crazy monsters that she had seen traversing the wastes, but these three kinds were new to her. As if the guns weren’t loud enough, a couple of Sirens blasted an intensely loud shriek. It was so loud that literally everyone firing weapons had to temporarily let down their guns to cover their ears. Radfrogs started secreting a noxious liquid trying to cover any enemies nearby and Radtoads flicked out their tongues to try to strike prey. Of course, the monsters didn’t have any preferences for which side they wanted to win: They attacked GCU, Dissidents, and each other in an attempt at a meal.

Mariah was not able to find many clear shots, firing one every so often at any Dissidents or monsters she could see. But she needed to be careful about using up all her ammo. Suddenly, one of the Radtoads noticed her and started running toward her. In a panic, she gasped and unloaded an entire clip’s worth of bullets into it to down the creature as it was getting ready to lash its tongue out. She was so scared that she had to stop engaging in combat to catch her breath. The fear was especially unexpected given her singular focus on vengeance against the Dissidents, but these creatures were far more intimidating than what she expected. And these mutated animals were only for starters. Florida had a lot of diverse, mutated fauna to offer.

Mariah regained her composure and reloaded her gun. There was no end to this battle in sight—not for most of the combatants at least. Suddenly, a hand reached around her face, covering her mouth with a cloth drenched in some sort of sedative. She accidentally dropped her gun at the surprise and fought desperately against whoever was attempting to overpower her. But it was no use. She could not see the attacker. The sounds of battle slowly started slipping away as Mariah drifted off into unconsciousness.
SubRosa
Dissidents make me think of this song

Rad Toads, Sirens, Raiders... the Dissidents keep good company.

Niceville sounds like a nice place. I see it is even real! Well, if France can have Nice, then Florida can have Niceville.

That was a delightful nod to the Mysterious Stranger! smile.gif

I wonder if the Dissidents might be laired up in the Fusion! plant? It is mostly intact, so it would make a good base.

Oh boy, that turned into a real furball, real fast. Even the monsters are getting into it! Hope there aren't any Swamp Demons or Gladewalkers around...

Oh noes! Mariah has been taken!
TheCheshireKhajiit
This was a fun entry! Loved the MS reference and the fatal 3 way at the end! I wonder who could’ve grabbed Mariah? Seems to be a very premeditated kinda thing. Was she followed? Guess we’ll find out next time!
Renee
I'd vote for some Skynard or Allman Brothers as background music. Blackfoot. Some other southern rock band. Or, you also have country. Shania Twain, since our protagonist is female. Maybe even Taylor Swift. I'm just thinking out loud though. You're wanting to add actual Fallout games' music.

You really go into some detail here with the background! Poseidon Energy sounds like Enron. indifferent.gif

QUOTE
Hostilities reached such a boiling point that some Florida politicians and citizens started openly advocating for secession from the United States.


I can see this; it's not too far away from real-life at many points in America's history. Overall Rader, you are just like a real-life friend of mine (the one who introduced me to table-games when I was in high school). He also played all those Avalon Hill games (he's a Civil War buff, for instance) and he's very much into historical stuff. Unfortunately I've never been able to persuade him to play Elder Scrolls or Fallout games, although oddly, his daughter LOVES Skyrim and Fallout 4.

I like how Mariah must discern clues from several people. Very RPG-like.

Yicch, radtoads. tongue.gif I also can't imagine cicadas which are even larger and louder!

The Mysterious Stranger sure gets around, doesn't he? emot-ninja1.gif

Uh oh, Bertrand has spotted her. And those monsters have joined the fight. I recently did some Wikipedia reading on cicadas (what you call sirens in the story) and learned that they actually disable their own hearing when they make their annoying song. They have to. They'd ruin their own aural organs, otherwise.

I wonder who has chloroformed her at the end? Jeez.
SubRosa
QUOTE(Renee @ Aug 31 2020, 10:37 AM) *

I'd vote for some Skynard or Allman Brothers as background music. Blackfoot. Some other southern rock band. Or, you also have country. Shania Twain, since our protagonist is female. Maybe even Taylor Swift. I'm just thinking out loud though. You're wanting to add actual Fallout games' music.

Florida means The Outlaws
Renee
Yeah, there you go. I know that song from somewhere.

Also, The Dixie Chicks. Oh wait. They're just THE Chicks now.
RaderOfTheLostArk
I've almost got the next chapter ready. I'm just finishing the end of it and then making sure what I have makes sense.


SubRosa - I'm looking forward to when those two types of monsters are introduced, but unfortunately they are still a ways off. But don't worry, I got another extra special creature cooked up and coming in a few chapters from now. wink.gif

Khajiit - Dun dun DUUUUN!

Renee - Fallout gameplay music is going to probably be most of it, but I'm going to do more than that. In fact, this next chapter is going to have some dark ambient piece that I really like and think fits well with Fallout. There is also going to be a link to a song from the 1950s/1960s in this chapter as well.

Funny you should mention that about the music, though. I have been imagining what I'd like the intro to be if this were an actual, main title Fallout game that was published. The song of a choice would be The Lovin' Spoonful - Summer in the City. The intro would be like a mix of Fallout 1's intro and Fallout 3's intro in how it plays out.

It begins centered on and zoomed in on a jukebox in a dimly lit bar. Suddenly, the jukebox lights flicker on, the styles gently comes down on the record, and that Lovin' Spoonful song comes on. The camera starts panning around, showing various Florida-themed posters and art in that signature 1950s and 1960s style; advertisements for companies such as Fusion!, state-based utility companies, and Publix (or maybe I'll make it a different name in-universe); and flashes of several Pre-War events such as the Second Cuban Missile Crisis and anti-federal government protests. And then, when the song ends, the ruins of several cities (such as Miami, Tampa, and Tallahassee) come into full view. After that, we come back to street-level and a Swamp Demon lumbers into full view, turning slowly toward the camera and growling.

Of course, we then get narration by Ron Perlman...



Well, unfortunately, I must be going. I'll finish this thought later.
RaderOfTheLostArk
Chapter 5: Lone Wandering


Hours later, Mariah began to stir. It took her a bit to regain her consciousness and get her bearings, but the first thing she was able to make out was a radio playing music. The song choice was “Red Rubber Ball” by the band Cyrkle, an enormously popular Pre-War tune. Mariah looked around the room to find it lit well enough to be able to see, though not to the point that everything was easy to make out. She also found herself sitting in a metal chair, but surprisingly not tied up by her captors.

As the song was approaching its end, Mariah heard a pair of boots walking behind her. She was still stiff and groggy from sitting unconscious it the metal chair for hours, preventing her from turning around fully to see who it was. “The one thing the GCU is good for: They play some damn good music,” a gruff voice said, belonging to the person who was walking in those boots thumping on the cold, hard floor. Right after the song’s final notes played, the man clicked the radio off. “Welcome back to the world, sunshine.” The man pulled up another chair and sat about five feet away in front of Mariah, turning it around to face her. It was then Mariah noticed the Alabama Dissidents patch on his clothing, though he was dressed somewhat differently than the rest of them. He looked much more authoritative, with a gray beard and hair, and some extra military-like patches that suggested he was a high-ranking officer. Maybe the highest-ranking officer.

“Where am I?” Mariah muttered.

The man took out a cigar and lit it up. The light from the lighter gave a better look at his facial features. A small scar was on his left cheek and the wrinkles on his skin were more pronounced in the light. Despite being an older man, he still appeared to be move around fairly well and his body was still somewhat of a solid frame. “That fight with the GCU got frantic. Of course a bunch of damn Sirens and Radtoads and Radfrogs would jump in. If we had a bunch of raiders hopped up on Jet and Buffout, that would’ve been a real party.” The man scoffed. “Lucky for the GCU, we didn’t get to deal the lethal blow we wanted to. They had to retreat and so did we, in case even more monsters came. But we nicked the Unies real good.” Apparently, Unies were another nickname Dissidents gave to the GCU. “Don’t worry, though. You’re in good hands now.”

“Good hands? You’re full of [censored]. You’re savages.”

“We are not barbarians or savages.”

“Really? Your men ambushed my caravan on the way to Pensacola and killed most of the people. People who had nothing to do with your conflict. You’re—"

“I did not authorize that attack,” the man cut her off. “My men did not follow instructions and they paid the price for it. It was supposed to be a recon mission. I’m not GCU, who likes to murder people that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

“You’re such a [censored] liar!” Mariah yelled at him, shooting up out of her chair. Apparently the stiffness had subsided. “You made a big mistake and I’m going to make you all suffer.”

The old man was not phased in the slightest by her outburst. “And what exactly are you going to do here? You’d be put down in an instant. There’s no need to tie you up. More of my soldiers are outside the room and tending to their own business, but they would be more than happy to give you pieces of their minds. And they would if it weren’t for me.”

Mariah knew he was right, despite her anger. After a moment of silence, she sat back down in her chair, but still incensed. “What do you mean?”

After another puff of his cigar, the old man spoke again. “Despite the consternation of some of the men and women of my outfit here, I told them to not kill you. I wanted to capture you.”

Mariah became less visibly angry, though she was still seething. “Why? Why not just kill me? What else did you to do to me?”

“It was just a simple knockout agent. Nothing more. And you’re much more useful alive. I wanted to meet you face-to-face. Have a little chat and tell you what we are really about. After all, you ain’t GCU. You would have gotten yourself killed out there if not for me.” The man took another long puff of smoke and finally introduced himself. “The name’s Russell. Captain Russell. I’m leading the Dissidents’ charge here in the Panhandle. And no need to introduce yourself. I know who you are, Mariah.”

Mariah’s fair skin grew paler. “How do you know my name?”

“I have eyes and ears everywhere. Places you wouldn’t suspect. It’s also how I knew the GCU was coming for us and that you were coming on your own. The GCU likes to keep things to themselves. They aren’t about the truth. But I’ll be forthright with you. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

“You expect me to believe anything you have to say?”

Russell took another puff from his cigar, not quite directly answering her question. “I just want to have the chance to tell you our side of things. The real side of things. Then you can determine for yourself. I think you’ll understand where we come from.”

Mariah was never going to believe what Russell had to say and the fact that he would try diplomacy after everything that had happened was crazy to her. But if Russell was going to talk and figured he could convince her of his mission, what else was she going to do besides listen? He might also let slip some information that would help bring down the Dissidents if she were able to break free from them. “Well, guess I have no choice,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air and letting them fall, slapping back down to her sides.

“That’s the spirit.” Russell took a longer puff from his cigar. “To understand what we’re about, I need to teach you a history lesson.”

Mariah rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “If you’re talking about Birmingham, I already heard what that creep Gerald had to say about it.”

Russell seemed unamused to hear that name. “Ah, yes, Gerald. Complete dunce. But damn, if he is not committed to our cause. And he’s still useful being holed up in that GCU, believe it or not. More on that later,” Russell held his hand up to stop Mariah from asking what he meant by that last comment. “But I’m talking way before then. Pre-War. Would you believe that I was actually born before the bombs dropped? I was, in 2072. Most people born before the War are ghouls now, but there are still a few of us old fogeys left that are still human. I may have been young, but I still can remember some of those days. What my parents taught me. I got to see what kind of monstrosity distant and selfish governments and powers can be.

“The Pre-War United States was made up of 13 Commonwealths, which 50 states were split amongst with their own governments. And then there was the overarching federal government for the country. Little by little, the federal government tried to strip away local autonomy from many of the states and their commonwealths and engaged in foreign affairs that were highly detrimental to the country at large. It warred with the other major world superpower, China, at the expense of its own people. It persecuted anybody who even remotely disagreed with them and those who sought their own well-being instead of what the government wanted. And it drove the Gulf Commonwealth—Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana—to start fending for itself. There were rumblings of the commonwealth thinking about seceding and making their own country, separate from the increasingly corrupt and selfish federal government of the U.S. But out of nowhere, Florida decided it didn’t need anybody else, and they start pushing to be their own entity. They threw the rest of the Gulf Commonwealth away. And then, Mississippi and Louisiana’s governments started bailing on it. It became everyone for themselves.

“And you know what that taught me? It taught me that far-away powers can’t be trusted. That was the case with the U.S. and that was the case with Florida. You can only put your faith in the communities around you. Those who share local histories with you. Those who deeply value our communities and their sovereignty and don’t swear allegiance to outsiders. But don’t mistake ideological uniformity for a lack of diversity. For us, nothing else about your background matters. Not your race, your gender, your religion, whatever. And we’ve got plenty of people from all sorts of walks of life. All that matters is that you believe in Alabama’s right to be independent and to determine its own course.

“But then our fellow Alabamians betrayed us. The Alabama Compact threw in their lot with those other governments that came to make up the GCU. Even when we left—peacefully, might I add—the GCU got their feelings hurt. They wanted more and more and stepped on our turf. They grew too big and too fast and now look at the trouble they are in. It’s what always happens when outsiders try to trample on others. That’s how countless Old World governments were: The U.S. and China were prime examples, but Florida also showed its true colors. And now the GCU wants to force us back into a new commonwealth of sorts. One where they run the show. And they have the nerve to be surprised when we bite back?”

It was a lot for Mariah to take in, and she did not know what was truthful and what wasn’t. “So, what really happened in Birmingham?”

“Whatever Gerald told you was the truth, I imagine. The GCU claimed a Pre-War military facility that was on our land was within their territory. Our civilians were slaughtered, and not just by GCU. The Brotherhood is arguably even worse. They don’t even have their own [censored] nation and yet they want to intrude on everyone else’s. They think everything Pre-War, especially technology, is theirs by divine mandate. They represent all the ills of the Old World.”

So far, the Brotherhood was basically just legend for Mariah, given that she had never seen them in-person, but she obviously knew they were real. “There was a specific technology that Gerald mentioned. What is it? What did everyone want so badly?”

Russell leaned in closer, finishing off his cigar. “It’s a prototype that never got to be truly tested. But it’s potential is greatly powerful. It’s called the ‘F.A.C.T.,’ the ‘Fabrication Accelerator for Combat Technology.’ It’s a 3-D printer of sorts. You know what those are? A fabricator capable of mass-producing weapons and ammunition—possibly armor—very quickly, and it can make them with far less materials than usual because of an algorithm that makes the most efficient use out of all the materials. It uses some sort of patented matter recombination process. But it needs a sufficient power source, some sort of particularly advanced technology, and a facility with the materials necessary to use it. We were hoping this Fusion! factory would provide the resources, but it does not appear to be the case. If we knew where this technology was originally supposed to arrive at, we’d know exactly to where to go. Some other military facility, I imagine. One that would have the power and technological input that we need.”

“But you don’t even have the technology. How would you even know?” Mariah interjected.

“That’s what our more tech-oriented people are here for. Some of the brightest men and women I have ever encountered. We trust their judgment.”

“You still need to figure out who has it!” Mariah flailed her arms in disbelief. “If you don’t have it and the GCU doesn’t, who does? The Brotherhood?”

“Both of them claim that they don’t have it, but one of them has to. Someone’s putting up a ruse and I intend on finding out who. My money’s on the GCU. They are just playing coy. Keeping it close to the vest and misleading everyone to save their own skins.”

The anger started rising up in Mariah again. “So that’s why you keep attacking caravans? You think this technology is going to be on some regular caravan? Do you have any idea how stupid that is? Why would the GCU keep something so important with ordinary civilians?”

Russell furrowed his eyebrows. “You don’t understand how GCU operates, young lady. It’s the perfect cover for something like that. And they are going to have it well-guarded. That’s why we scout these caravans.”

“And yet you still raid all of them! Even if everything else you said is true, you lied about not authorizing attacks on these caravans. I know mine wasn’t the first incident, and there is no way that many ambushes are ‘recon missions.’ [Censored] you!”

Russell demonstrated his own anger for the first time, rising out of the chair. “You listen here, Mariah. You don’t take that kind of tone with me. I don’t expect an outsider to understand, even if you aren’t with the GCU or the Brotherhood. And if you still think we’re the bad guys, know that the GCU or Brotherhood are far worse. We only want sovereignty for our land. If the GCU would just leave us alone . . .”

“Did you really think that you could convince me your cause was just?” Mariah asked incredulously. Apparently, Russell thought he could avoid her questions about all of the caravan attacks and other issues. “You people are delusional! You think all of your ends justify the means! You’re hypocrites! Monsters! I don’t know how much I care for the GCU, but I sure as hell will take them over you any day.”

“I gave you the truth, you little [censored]. That’s far more than what those [censored] would give you.” Russell growled and jabbed his finger in her direction, his teeth gritting. “You want to support the wrong side, that’s on you. But you aren’t leaving us. I’ll find a better use for you. Maybe you’ll fetch a nice amount of ransom money or something.”

“Why don’t you go to hell, Russell? Maybe you can find some land to call your own there!” Mariah shot back.

Suddenly, the factory’s PA system blared. One of the Dissidents was shouting on it in a panic. “We got company! Brotherhood inbound! And lots of them! Repeat: Brotherhood inbound!”

[Fallout 4 Soundtrack: Enough is Enough]

Russell kicked the chair he was sitting on previously. “Son of a [censored]! Brendan, watch over Mariah. Make sure she doesn’t try anything slick. Mariah, I’ll deal with you later.” Russell rushed out the door of the room.

“Yes, sir.” Brendan said, closing the door behind him. “Don’t worry, I’ll watch over you real good,” he laughed, turning to Mariah. He grabbed some rope and ran over to her, attempting to tie her to the chair. She had to think quickly about her next move. She noticed her belongings, including her firearm, on a table off to the side. It still seemed nonsensical to her that they would not tie her up even if she was trapped, and then they just left her belongings on a table near her? Mariah supposed it was a ploy by Russell to get her to trust them. But Russell seriously miscalculated Mariah’s threat and the possibility of convincing her that his side was in the right.

But Mariah could not think about that right now. She grabbed her chair and then slammed it on Brendan’s head right as he reached for her, disorienting him. Then she quickly grabbed her possessions and rushed for the door, but Brendan blocked her way. He started to pull out a gun from his holster, but she quickly shot him in the arm and chest to down him. Brendan, dropping his gun, screamed and writhed in pain on the ground as Mariah bolted out the door.

As she stepped out the door, Mariah started audibly hearing the sounds of battle, including the unmistakable sound of laser rifles. She was high above the ground, the metal walkway going in three different directions. She took the way that led her down to the ground floor, trying to stay as far away from the combat as possible. But she had no idea where she was going. She simply had to hope for exit signs or some other clue of where to get out of the factory.

As Mariah started going down one hallway, she had to quickly slide to a stop as a Brotherhood Paladin walked around the corner in front of her. Mariah ducked into another connecting hallway as the Paladin, decked out in damaged T-51 Power Armor, fired his laser rifle in her direction. Down several hallways she went, turning down them basically at random, when she finally noticed signs denoting an exit. Following the signs, she came out into the factory’s largest room. Dead bodies, both of Dissidents and Brotherhood, were strewn about the floor. Mariah quickly swiped up one of the laser rifles on the floor and some microfusion cells, figuring they could serve her well later. She was surprised that not all Brotherhood members wore Power Armor as some of the bodies just had combat armor or even lower-grade protection on. The rumors she heard about them made sound walking, mechanical juggernauts.

But the Paladin Mariah encountered before was still behind her and giving chase. She took cover behind a factory machine as he fired in her direction. Several grenades with the pins still in them were conveniently next to several dead bodies of Dissidents and Brotherhood, include a plasma and pulse grenade. She pulled all their pins at the same time and, after waiting a moment, lobbed them around the corner at the Paladin. He didn’t have enough to get out of the way. The collective damage from the grenades annihilated him, blowing apart most of his Power Armor.

Mariah had to stop to catch her breath, trying to hide in case any Dissidents or Brotherhood came her way. On the other side of the large room, warfare was still being waged. One of the other Paladins yelled toward the Dissidents. “Where is the F.A.C.T., Russell?! Tell me where it is now, and we can make your deaths much less painful!” Perhaps he was the leader of the Brotherhood in these lands.

“Maybe it’s in hell, Obadiah!” Russell shouted back, crouched behind cover. “I got a one-way ticket straight to hell with your name on it, so you can go find it there!”

Mariah wasn’t about to stick around to see the end of the fight. The room had the main exit from the facility, but as she stealthily looked out the windows, she saw a few Paladins waiting outside. No going out that exit. Mariah went back down the hall she came from, carefully stepping around the remains of the Paladin she killed. She looked for something, anything, that could tell her where another exit was. It was then that Mariah noticed that there was a map on the wall, indicating where several exits were. Memorizing them as best as she could, Mariah ran down several more hallways, finally finding a single-door exit. She gently opened the door and peaked out. It was very dark outside, but she didn’t notice any Brotherhood soldiers out there or make out any other figures in the darkness.

Mariah crouched down and moved slowly until she was sure it was all clear. When she made that decision, she started running as fast as she could away from the factory. Running blindly into the darkness certainly wasn’t ideal, but she couldn’t stay in the factory. Mariah had no other choice but to brave the gloom. She ran as fast as she could as far as she could as the sound of gunfire grew ever more distant.

//////////

[Dark Ambient Soundtrack: Sphäre Sechs – Achernar]

Mariah finally stopped to catch her breath after a minute or so of running. She felt she was far enough away that she did not have to worry about the battle between the Dissidents and Brotherhood anymore. Now she finally focused on where to go next after resting for a couple more minutes. But the darkness was so suffocating that it almost felt like it was weighing down on her chest. She was not able to see any landmarks of any sort to indicate what direction she was going. Not even the ruins of Holt could be made out in the darkness. She could not even find Route 90. These were completely foreign lands to her. Mariah just had to hope she was heading in the right direction, back toward Pensacola. Clutching her laser rifle tightly, she picked a way and walked it.

The more Mariah walked in the metaphorical and literal darkness, the more fear crept into her. It was a fear she seldomly felt since her settlement was raided and her family was killed when she was a young kid. She had to go live with one of her aunts and uncles for a time, but she still felt alone for a long time. She’d sometimes wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares in a cold sweat. Even now, she still had those haunting dreams occasionally. But this time the nightmare was real.

Mariah walked for what felt like hours—maybe it was actual hours—when she finally came across the ruins of a residential neighborhood. Was it a fortunate occurrence or was it a death trap? Sometimes you didn’t know with these kinds of places. It could have been just a home for ordinary wastelanders to live in or it could be a haven for raiders. Maybe it was completely deserted. But Mariah’s legs were ready to give out after running and walking for so long. Her heart was still racing from the events of the day. She had no choice but to take a chance.

The houses were still relatively intact. Luckily for Mariah, there were no signs that anyone lived there. One of the doors was unlocked. She treaded lightly through the pitch-black interior. No telling if someone set up traps for some unsuspecting wastelander. There were two bedrooms, and one of the bedrooms had two skeletons on it, suggesting that it was a couple that lived here at some point. The other bedroom had a bunk bed that fortunately had no bodily remains on it. She propped the room’s dresser in front of the door to prevent any intruders from rushing in. The windows were already boarded up. As tired as she was, the dread and anxiety Mariah felt was hard to shake. Yet after laying down on the lower bed for a while, she found a way to shut her eyes and fall asleep.

/////////

Mariah opened her eyes next morning to find light peeking through the windows where the wooden boards did not cover it. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief at making it through the night. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she got up out of the bed. What had before been beautiful, clean hair was now dirty and matted, seemingly a metaphor for her time so far in Florida. As she moved the dresser to exit the door and then leave the house, she still had her trigger finger ready.

Before she left, Mariah looked around for any supplies she could find. The cabinet still had some Cram and Dandy Boy Apples in it that were still sealed. It was far from ideal, but she needed to eat something. Then she found a couple bottles of dirty water. No purified water in sight. Hopefully these don’t have too many rads in them, Mariah thought to herself. It was then that she realized the RadAway that she bought yesterday wasn’t on her. Did she miss picking them up when she escaped the Dissidents’ clutches? Maybe they weren’t on that table with her possessions to begin with. In any case, dirty water was her only option. Steeling herself, Mariah closed her eyes and gulped down one of the waters. The impurities made it taste awful, almost like she could feel the rads enter her system, but her thirst subsided.

[Fallout Soundtrack: Industrial Junk]

Out into the wastes Mariah walked once more, walking in the direction she was travelling last night. As dark as it had been, she could remember the orientation of the house relative to what way she was going and continued that route. For several hours she kept walking through destroyed landscapes and residential streets. She passed through a few other small, deserted residential neighborhoods, her surroundings eerily quiet. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for some raiders or irradiated animals to attack.

The time had just reached noon. The sun was at its peak, scorching the already sunburned wastes. Mariah had to drink the other dirty water she had on hand in the oppressive heat. If she didn’t find civilization soon, she might have passed out and died from dehydration. But after about another 30 minutes, she caught the outline of another city, though there was no telling whether it was friendly and alive like Pensacola or some desolate death-trap like Holt. Mariah was going to have to take a chance either way.

As she came closer to the city, Mariah finally found an old Pre-War road heading toward it. A battered sign was still legible and indicated it was State Route 85. She remembered seeing the number on a map she was reading back in Pensacola, but not exactly where it led to. At last, Mariah got to exchange the dirt and grass trails she had been walking for an actual road, albeit one severely damaged by the Great War. She finally got close enough to the city to see a sign bearing its name: Niceville. Mariah recognized the name as one of those places that caravans at the Pensacola depot were heading to. She started thinking about Bertrand, Jacob, and Valentina, wondering if the two men made it out of Holt alive and how Valentina was holding up back in Pensacola. She undoubtedly knew that Mariah had gone to the battle on her own with the Dissidents at this point.

But it was almost as soon as Mariah read the sign that she heard gunshots ring out behind her. They were not aimed at her, however. A few merchants and their two brahmin were holed up in a broken-down building missing its roof just off the road. A gang of raiders was trying to murder them and take their belongings. Mariah was tired from her trip, but the sight of raiders was enough to give her a second wind. With a renewed energy and anger building inside her again, she checked to see a full clip of microfusion cells loaded in her laser rifle, cocked it, and rushed to save the merchants.
TheCheshireKhajiit
Mariah sure does know how to handle herself! I almost feel sorry for those Raiders; they don’t stand a chance!
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