Elara looked out across the waste cautiously. She could see the slumped form of the 'engineer' and the tracker on her Pipboy confirmed that the chip was still on his person, but something wasn't right.
This felt like a trap.
What had happened to the man?
If he had been grabbed by one of the many creatures than prowled the wasteland, the body would be gone. If he'd been got by raiders, the chip would be gone.
It didn't make sense.
Welcome back to my Fallout campaign using Five Leagues from the Borderlands and Fallout Wasteland Warfare to tell the story of my lone survivor Elara.
It's been a while since I posted for a variety of reasons (all good actually) but it's been even longer since I posted to this campaign and this is mainly due to getting sidetracked by other projects.
To cut a long story short, Elara and her sole companion, Robbin, made it to Haven City, but before going after the Super Mutants, they decided to search up some contracts to raise enough money to hire some help on their mission.
They actually turned up two very similar contracts - which I decided would have the same goal. The water purifaction chip used by the city had been absconded with by an engineer and the city authorities wanted it back quickly - they knew where it was, but the area was mysterious and dangerous, and no locals would risk it. Another shady individual was offering more for the chip and with more time flexibility. Elara opted to help the city, but having a fallback if she was delayed was helpful.
Travelling to the undiscovered location, Elara and Robbin tracked down the engineer's body lying undisturbed in the ruins of an old building.
***
Sensing a trap of some sort, Elara advance cautiously whilst Robbin covered her.
All she needed to do was get to the body, grab the chip and get away quickly.
Suddenly, a flash of energy shot through the air and Robbin saw small shape scuttling towards Elara.
He could only make out a silvery grey suit and a bulbous green head. What was it?
Whatever it was, Robbin decided it needed to die and opened fire. If he could keep its head down, Elara might be able to retrieve the chip quickly.
However. He quickly spied another green head popping up from the rubble. There were two of them, which meant the firefight was even.
Damn.
Energy blasts and bullets spat back and forth across the open ground where the chip lay. To entered the killing zone would be fatal.
Elara yelped and fell back as a splash of energy struck her arm. She dragged herself further into cover, but was out of the fight.
Almost simultaneously, Robbin's shot hit home and the enlarged cranium of one of the creatures exploded in a shower of green goop.
The second creature suddenly and inexplicably dashed forwards. Perhaps It sensed that it's blaster would be more lethal at close range, perhaps it wanted the chip.
Its thinking was completely alien to Robbin.
Robbin took a breath. The creature was getting closer and if he didn't get a good shot in, he and Elara were going to join the engineer in death.
He squeezed the trigger of his bolt-action pipe rifle...
The creature's head popped like a balloon and it's body slumped into a heap.
Robbin dashed over to where Elara was struggling to maintain consciousness.
After quickly administering a Stimpak, Robbin helped Elara up and they moved slowly towards the engineer, carefully scanning the ruins for more bulbous heads, but none appeared.
The creature's body was strange. It had spinly arms and weird three fingered hands. It was wearing an odd sort of hazmat suit and the blaster was of a design that neither of them understood.
The engineer was also strange. He'd clearly been hit by a blaster from the energy weapon, but his clothes bore a strange insignia of an 'E' surrounded by stars. Elara didn't know what that might mean and Robbin didn't have answers either.
Fortunately, the chip was still intact, and now they needed to get back to Haven quickly.
***
I don't fully remember all of the details of this game and the turns leading up to it. I do remember that I bought some armour which then got lost on the journey to the alien area. The journey took longer than expected and so Elara needs no delays getting back to complete her first contract.
I suspect that the second contract might be the Enclave, who I decided to start to bring into the campaign in a small way.
At least Elara has an alien blaster for her troubles.