POV Rio
Once I returned to Sanctuary, I put away the Power Armor and told Preston that we succeeded. He decided to promote me to the General, who is the leader of the Minutemen.
"Uh, Preston, I don't know how to tell you this, but I am not human. You know that, right?" I ask him with an incredulous look.
"I may have noticed that," Preston says with clear sarcasm.
"I am not exactly what you would call a good pick for a leader. Most people don't like non-humans. It would likely cause numerous issues. Least of which, causing most settlements to avoid supporting us," I caution him.
"Sigh. Look, I am going to be honest. The Minutemen basically no longer exist. I am likely one of the last ones, but I don't have the charisma to be the leader, nor do I have the mind for it. But I think you do. And sure, you aren't exactly human, but you have a good heart. If others are unwilling to support you or the Mintuemen, then they aren't the kind of people we want around anyway," Preston says with conviction.
"Sigh. Fine. I will take the job, but I want to make one thing clear right now. I will not do everything for the Mintuemen. I am willing to help you out now and do these requests for these settlements, but once you start getting some militias together, I expect them and you to start doing the work as well. If you can't agree to that, I am not going to help you. Understood?" I say with finality.
"What? Of course. I know the Mintuemen may have been lazy in the past, but I assure you I will not send you off to do every task... But speaking of tasks, I did hear some interesting things. Two settlements asked for our help. The issue is that they are in nearly opposite directions," Preston says with a nervous look.
"That's fine. Just give me the details of each so we can figure out which one to go to first," I respond.
"We?" Preston asks.
"Well, yes. You are coming with. I'm not going to do it alone. And Sturges and everyone else are safe here. They can also catch any news about other settlements while you are gone," I calmly explain.
"I guess you're right. Sturges should have no issue handling things here while I am gone. So on to the settlements. One is at a place called Graygarden. It was hard to tell what they wanted, but it sounded like some robots asking for our help. It's a bit different from what the Minutemen do, but since they asked for help, I figured we could go and check it out. The other is from a settlement to the East called The Slog. It's run by a ghoul named Wiseman. He requested help dealing with Super Mutants," Preston explained.
"Hmm, I think we should head to the Slog. Their problem is likely more urgent, and we've already been through the majority of the way there as is. And getting the support of a ghoul-run settlement would further spread that I am not an evil mutant. Now, do you want to use Power Armor?" I ask.
"No, my armor should be good enough," Preston responds almost immediately.
I raise an eyebrow and check his armor. I would have done a spit take if I had been drinking anything. His armor gave him more protection than even a fully upgraded set of T-45 Power Armor. It was on par with a fully upgraded set of T-51. But I couldn't wear it, and it was linked to Preston Garvey only. Not that it meant much, as Preston's main gun sucked. The Laser Musket was just not that good.
After we were ready, we headed East. Of course, it didn't last that long because just after we passed Outpost Zimonja, we ran into a large Gunner detachment. Now, it would be fine if we could get away, but you can't outrun a Vertibird. And by the time we took out the Vertibird, we were surrounded and pinned down in a cave.
"General, this might be it. There are too many of them. And even with the perks we get from being your companion, we just can't take them all out," Preston says with a grim look.
We did truly try to break out a few times, but I couldn't leave behind Preston, Codsworth, and Dogmeat. They don't teleport to me when I enter a new place, as there are no such loading screens. If you want to enter a place, you just do so. I could fly, but the distance I could get was not that great, and I would also have to avoid getting turned into Swiss Cheese by all the Gunners waiting outside.
"Sir, Rio, perhaps you should try to escape while we distract them. We won't die as long as we are your companions. I am sure we can play dead, or you can run and get help to rescue us," Codsworth suggested.
"No, I won't leave you behind. You may not be able to be killed, but each of you feels the pain of every shot and stab. Even if I get away, they will track me, and then I will have to defend Sanctuary from a siege. No, I know what I have to do," I say with a determined face.
I grab a Fatman and decide that if I have to die, I will make them suffer for it. Luckily, I knew for a fact that I don't create an alternative timeline each time I die. So it would be as if my mind were sent back in time.
"United we stand, together we fall," I say with a smile.
They all give me a nod and get ready to go down swinging.
"LEEEEEEROOOOOY JENKINNNNNNNSSS!" I scream while shooting like a madman.
And that was how I died for the first time. I woke up back at Sanctuary right before we began our journey. I decided to head back the same way to at least try and find out why the Gunners were so far north and away from most of the places I knew as Gunner territory. We did learn why they were in the area, but it cost me my life again.
From what I learned, they were hunting down a rogue Gunner group. The group had caused a sizeable rift in the Gunners and had made some allies; thus, the Gunner leader, Grand General August, had ordered the "rebels" to be hunted down and exterminated. So the area east of Tenpines Bluff was off limits until they dealt with that, as we couldn't sneak past, nor could we fight our way through.
But I at least explored a little bit around the area of Tenpines Bluff. We ended up saving a couple of settlers from a large nest of Mole Rats. In fact, it contained two legendary Mole Rats. I got a decent Caravan Shotgun and a Legendary Heavy Combat Armor Chestpiece. The Shotgun slowed time for a while when aiming. The Combat Armor reduced the damage I took while standing still by 15%. The settlers were also nice enough to pay me some caps for saving their lives. I then suggested they head north to Tenpines Bluff if they want a safe place to live. We also cleared out the Starlight Drive-in and claimed it for our own. Which was full of yet more Mole Rats.
I also made a small detour to the Drumlin Diner to resolve the disagreement between the Chem Dealer, Wolfgang, and the trader Judy. It was rather simple, as all I had to do was convince Trudy that fighting and risking injury was not a good idea. Even if they won, it could cause future issues with other Chem Dealers or even raiders. By resolving it this way, I got paid and ensured there were two friendly traders who could be used to buy and sell things. Mostly sell. I had a lot of Chems and no use for them.
After that, we had a quick rest before continuing our journey to Graygarden. Preston told us to avoid Lexington, and I was one to agree since I spotted a Super Mutant Behemoth causing chaos as well as some Synths and Raiders around the city. Not to mention the large horde of ghouls that took up the northern part of the city.
So we bypassed the city to the West and ended up finding a raider who was mourning someone, but they tried to kill us when they saw us. We killed them and at least buried them with their friend. We then moved on to a junkyard with what else but more Mole Rats. I was starting to get sick of dealing with these pests. They may give a lot of meat and be relatively harmless, but they are numerous and use up a decent amount of ammo, even if some of that ammo is collected from the corpses.
But I did get decent experience for killing them, so I wasn't that upset. Besides that, I had gotten a good amount of loot from this trip and also earned a sizeable amount of caps. Most of the caps were from selling random items and chems I found. As well as the absolute butt ton of Mole Rat meat I had collected so far. They don't sell for much, but when you are selling somewhere in the ballpark of 300 well-cooked steaks, it adds up. I was able to get so many steaks because I got anywhere between 4-6 chunks of Mole Rat meat from each Mole Rat due to the system and my own efforts to harvest any meat I could.