Death. I'd experienced it twice now. First when I left Earth and was reborn into the Fallout universe without a system or any support because the system had crashed. That was to be expected however of a Bethesda based system. I'd struggled horribly to survive the wastes and finally died while trying to survive the capital wasteland. I'd been trying to get to the Appalachian Mountains but the enclave had taken the purifier and started killing anyone that got near. I unfortunately was on that list and was hunted by power armor troops and a vertibird. I'd managed to kill one of them but a ripper to the chest usually kills you. I died a second time with my chest split open and a crazy bigot in power armor standing over me.
That was when my system finally decided it was no longer crap and activated. All I could see after my life flashed before my eyes was the fallout loading screen. As the loading screen continued circling I eventually entered hypnosis and drifted while not being able to think much. I stayed like that for an unknowable amount of time before my sight faded black and the press start prompt appeared. Simply thinking (Start) triggered something and I suddenly felt like I was falling.
Existence faded in as I found myself shooting at the earth faster than terminal velocity. I went through the atmosphere into an alley of a massive city without resistance and fell onto/into a teenage boy. My eyes snapped open as I curled up and let out whimpers from the harrowing experience. I'd never done skydiving or anything like it so the massive drop to the ground after fading into the world was a terrifying experience. Suddenly after closing my eyes small green letters in dense lines started appearing and scrolling up my vision (Pip-Boy start up).
I slightly recognized the stuff flashing by my vision from my first life as a pipboys start up sequence. I'd tried to get one in my second life but most vaults had been looted or were too dangerous or inaccessible. A pipboy menu appeared when the start up finished and I started navigating as if it were instinct. The STAT page sat on status with the green pipboy in a walking animation. My health bars were all slightly below full with my HP showing as 55/60. My level was one with AP resting at 70/70. I went to my items to find I had nothing but ten dollars and basic clothing. Both my shirt and jeans gave 1 DT while my thin jacket, shoes, and belt, gave 1 DT each. I had a torn up hat on giving me +1 perception.
As I navigated my interface I tried to switch to data but got something I didn't recognize from Bethesda games. My interface was taken up by a large game show like wheel stylized to look like a vault door. At the bottom right of my vision was a box with the word spin in it. A single thought lit up the box and the wheel spun. I hadn't looked at the wheel very well before spinning it but I could make out the words on it easily and guess what it was. Bethesda game titles flashed by the small arrow on one side of the wheel. As it slowed down I could see games I recognized from my past life. Fallout, Elderscrolls, Wolfenstein, and Redfall. I could tell the wheel would stop among that group and I silently began praying to TOAA that it wouldn't be Redfall.
I'd played Wolfenstein when I was young but I couldn't remember much about it. Fallout and Elderscrolls were favorites and I easily remembered a lot about them. I understood that any of th three would be leagues better than Redfall so I was definitely hoping it got passed. As titles passed by and the wheel slowed and I felt a sense of impending doom.
The wheel was going to slow to get past Redfall and as it flicked from Doom and landed on Redfall my stomach dropped. However the wheel didn't stop. Relief flooded me and I splayed out on the floor of the alley as the arrow flicked to Fallout. "Thank TOAA!" I slurred as I gasped for air after finding I'd been holding my breath. As the a of TOAA left my mouth a sickening feeling washed over me and my vision past my interface twisted.
The world around me shifted and distorted till I was left in a destroyed city rather than an alley. I was running with an adult body covered in armor and carrying a weapon. In a split second I noticed others around me and a massive robot causing destruction in the ruined city around us. My next step was over a body with a gaping hole through the shoulder between armor with green goop slathered all over.
A flash of green lanced past my face and a small explosion of molten stone sprayed me. My next step missed the mark and I fell hard. My shoulder slammed into the ground as I instinctively protected the weapon I was carrying. As I turned and shifted to get up a metal hand latched onto my armor harness an I was lifted off the ground. The crane in human form that had grabbed me dropped me back to my feet then slung his Gauss minigun back to his empty hand. He nodded to me and continued as a fast jog while spraying gauss shots at the men in black with green flashing weapons.
I started running to keep up with the heavily armed man while checking myself over. I had some kind of BOS painted combat armor on and a nice looking laser rifle in my hands. On one hip was a normal laser pistol and the other some kind of medkit with a canteen behind it. On my chest was a pulse grenade and two frag grenades. As I ran to keep up with the power armored BOS member I rubbed multiple stone fragments out of the skin of my face.
My back pack was obviously packed full of stuff as I struggled to keep up with the paladin I was following. I didn't recognize BOS rank symbols but I felt it was obvious that a knight wouldn't wield a gauss minigun. Those things were definitely way to expensive for knights to have access to. The monster of a weapon was blowing apart concrete cover and steel armored Enclave members with equal ease as he charged forward.
At some point I'd begun firing at anyone that popped up after the paladin had done a sweep with his destroyer and scored some assists as most had been hit by at least one gauss round. Eventually things changed. A group of paladins and who was obviously a sentinel charged up to the massive robot I recognized as Liberty Prime. Among them was someone who blatantly stood out from the rest.
Bright contrasting white T-51b power armor with a bright green light coming from their left wrist. A gauss pistol in the left hand and some kind of flaming sword in the right. They looked like a heavily armored angel being escorted by a group of knights. Combat pressure dropped massively as the angelic figure annihilated any Enclave that survived Liberty Prime.
I slowly began to realize what was going on as I finally brought up my interface. I was in fallout as a BOS member fighting in the reclamation of the purifier. With Liberty Prime and the literal main character we cut a swathe of death and destruction through the Enclave defenses. The large energy shield on the bridge and the mass of hostile forces gave us lots of trouble before prime literally atomized them with a nuclear football.
Thing continued to go our way till a small flock of vertibirds descended and started bombing us. The paladin is been sticking to downed one as the rest were targeted by missiles and another was swatted by prime. As I looked back to the ground I caught a quick flash and a streak of smoke. My laser rifle bucked in my hands as I flicked to full auto and shot at the missile.
A thick blue laser hit the shooter like divine judgement as the explosion toppled the paladin and threw me into a comrade. We were both seen by medics before we got up as I had internal injuries and the guy I'd hit had a broken wrist. After we both got stimpacks I went to the paladin. Most of his insides were no longer inside as his armor was shredded and ripped open.
His gauss minigun lay to the side covered in dust and blood. The guy who I'd been flung into came over as I hefted the massive weapon onto my shoulder. He took as many of the large 2mm magazines for the minigun as he could carry and we began running to get back to the battle. As soon as we got to the frontline I slammed the minigun onto a concrete barrier and took aim as best I could while bracing my entire weight on the gun.
The barrels spin up nearly caused me to flop off the gun before a quick burst shook my entire body. Three power armored enemies practically vaporized as the short spray hit them and dusted the wall behind them in gore and metal. The lone wanderer and the group with them slammed through the defenses of the enclave and broke through the entrance into the purifier.
Cleanup of Enclave forces outside went incredibly well after they got inside. The defense looked like a pack of deathclaws had torn through them. I almost pitied the fools for the savagery the lone wanderer had inflicted upon them. At some point I found the paladin leading the forces outside the massive building and handed over the gauss minigun. I'd personally seen how effective it could be in the hands of someone in power armor.
Two hours passed before the Lyons pride exited carrying Sentinel Lyons with Fawkes hauling the Lone Wanderer by himself. I hadn't seen him show up in the battle but, I'd been pretty busy surviving and trying to paste Enclave idiots. As the actual main character and a major supporting character were carried past me to a vertibird my interface popped up.
[Mission Complete]
You have completed your randomized fallout world survival mission.
Your reward: 3,894 EXP and $300
Experience Points can be used to level up in your main world or to trade for specific items used in your survival mission. Money can be used to purchase Atoms to be spent on schematics and other complicated things such as [Fallout] knowledge and skills. All other Bethesda titles within the system have similar functionality and are compatible with each other as long as they are unlocked.
The moment I finished reading the notification from my system my vision began to blur and warp. I slammed back into my body in the alleyway and curled up again. After a few seconds I got up. I was completely alone besides my system in an unknown world. Less than a second after standing another notification popped up.
[World System Settings Deactivating]
You have just left a Randomized World Mission for the first time and automatic mental protections for your first mission are being deactivated. Please prepare for mental backlash.
Just like previously after reading the effects kicked in instantly. I'd just survived the Brotherhood of Steel assault on the purifier and had killed, looted, and killed some more. I could feel the injuries of the small explosion I'd experienced with the stone fragmentation still stinging my face. I could smell and taste the blood of a man who got nearly vaporized right beside me. Bone deep exhaustion dropped me to all fours from the stimpack that had been used on me. A dry copper tang sat in my mouth an my nose felt clogged by dust and ash.
I could feel the green goo from the paladin crusted on my gloves despite not having gloves on or any goo on me. The worst of it hit me after the physical sensations mostly left. I vacated my stomach onto the ground as what I'd done flashed through me. Multiple men splattered against a wall. Bodies falling with gaping wounds pouring ashes insides and steam instead of blood and guts.
My execution of multiple surviving enclave soldiers during the cleanup. I'd killed people in my past life. Military service had been rough but combat was distant. I'd shot and killed people from more that 100 yards away but in the mission I'd been in a city and could see everything I did. Still on all fours I continued to spit bile till I had nothing left. Without anything in my stomach I drug myself to the wall and leaned against it.
The first time I'd killed I had had nightmares and barely ate anything. Now however all I felt was a lump in my throat and normal hunger in my stomach. The pain and sense of losing something was still there but it was empty and weak. Gathering myself I stood and went towards the alleyways exit. I'd seen a bit of the city I was in from the sky and could see some from the alley but leaving it showed me how massive it really was. I was surrounded by a bustling city with skyscrapers in all directions. I slunk back into the alley and hid myself for a bit. I'd need to be ready for wherever I now was.
My interface appeared with a thought and I quickly spent 100 EXP on a laser pistol and holster with some ammo. Another hundred EXP disappeared as I bought a BOS combat underarmor suit. All my items quick equipped with my system and were all hidden by my normal clothes. The rest of my points stayed where they were as I still needed to learn my system and would likely need them for other items. I didn't even know how exactly I got them.
After giving myself a look over I left the alley and joined the slow flow of foot traffic. It seemed that the mental protection the system had given me had also instilled some survival instincts that didn't go away when it deactivated after leaving the mission world. The people seemed slow and I felt pity towards them as if the civilians were weak and needed my protection. Contrary to that feeling was my flinching away if someone got to close or my extreme awareness of everything around me.
I had the feeling I looked like a suspicious criminal trying to escape into a crowd or a strung out junkie looking for a high while out and about. In my first life I'd been to cities before and after the military but I'd never been like this. In my second life in the fallout world the biggest city I'd been to was Rivet City and it was the cramped internals of a broken aircraft carrier. This place was massive, loud, and full.
I felt like I'd taken simultaneous hits of psycho and jet while in the middle of Megaton or DC. As I walked I did my best to blend in but my last life had given me experiences that heavily opposed my ability to do that. Eventually I stopped after getting to some kind of park. I found a newspaper stand nearby and sat under a tree to read after buying a paper. For a few minutes everything pointed to the city being New York but I quickly ran into a problem.
One article spoke of Tony Stark as if he were a real person and at the back there was a small piece on strange meteorological phenomena in New Mexico. I quickly went over the paper again before going back to the old man at the stand and buying some older copies he still had. In one I found mention of a large green humanoid that had been reported at a college. The most damning evidence to my suspicions was that the meteorological phenomena and large green humanoid had been attributed to criminal mutant behavior.
My thoughts started spiraling after that last part as I pieced things together. I wasn't in New York in what was obviously the Marvel universe. Tony Stark at the very least existed. Thor had landed in New Mexico. The Hulk had been to that college. Mutants existed and were of course heavily discriminated against. These four things meant that I was in an extremely dangerous version of Marvel.
I was nearly panicking when I saw something. A red and blue blur shot through the sky between the buildings as sirens chased it. Below the red and blue blue was pure destruction and chaos. A massive grey form with a horn. I saw people realize that it was heading straight here as it charged down the road, spearing a taxi with the massive spike on its head.
As it got closer I finally got a good view of it. A massive rhino styled mech with guns and a horn the size of a man. Most people had cleared out or were on their way out so I was the only person left at the park entrance. I could seen Spider-Man panicking as he chased Rhino with cops following behind him. Rhino easily spotted me as I stood there looking at him. As Spider-Man came down from the sky to intercept a bright blue light shot him out of the sky. In less than a second Spider-Man was fighting Electro and I could see three familiar individuals standing on the side of a building watching the chaos unfold.
A thought opened my system interface and I spent 2,000 EXP on one thing. My entire body slumped as a gauss minigun appeared in my hands. I loaded a magazine into it and charged the gun. The spin slapped me against a tree and I propped the gun onto the trunk. Finally pulling the trigger caused the street, everything, and everyone nearby to freeze. Space itself seemed to rip open for a split second as hundreds of blue beams of light carved a small trench into the road behind the Rhino as the mech lost nearly half its body.
With my powers slightly revealed I decided to use them as best I could. My gauss minigun disappeared into my inventory and I yanked my laser pistol from its holster. I immediately unloaded the fusion cell into the opening of the Rhino mech. Spider-Man may have a no kill rule but I definitely didn't. I reloaded my pistol as ash spilled from the massive metal monster. The drained fusion cell disappeared into my inventory and I snapped my sights towards Spider-Man and Electro.
With the few points I had remaining I bought a frag grenade. It was th only weapon besides a knife I had that could hurt the electricity absorber. I pulled th pin and let I cook for two second before chucking it as hard as I could at him. Spider-Man's senses caught it and he flickered away with a shot of his webs at a building. His extreme speed distanced him enough that the blast barely buffeted his legs. The explosion itself barely did anything to Electro, but the fragments sliced him up. He got extremely lucky that nothing very vital had been hit as blood immediately started staining him from multiple spots on his stupid looking suit.
Before I could do anything else my hand and pistol slapped against my hip and were pinned by webbing. A ball of the webbing then slammed inbetween my feet and splattered on them.
"Look man I appreciate the help but I don't need a high tech punisher running around like he owns the place."
I look up to see Spider-Man thwip a string to a skyscraper and swing away towards sirens in the distance after shooting lots of webs at the downed Electro. I struggled with the webs as the police started getting close before putting my laser pistol in my inventory and simply waiting for help.