The Survivor’s Guide to the Wasteland

"Well, you should thank your lucky stars because I've recently learned that there is an abandoned robot workshop underneath a certain RobCo building. Would you like to check it out with me?"

Hearing this, Isabel jumped and clapped her hands together in excitement. Then she stopped and looked at me warily.

"Who did you hear that from? You look like you are fresh out of a vault. No way you could have gotten that information." She asked.

Cursing internally at my appearance and admiring her attention to detail, I quickly lied on the spot.

"The vault I come from is next to a farm run by the Abernathy family. In return for helping them pick some crops, they told me about the wasteland. One of the things they told me was a new rumor that there is a hidden robot manufacturing plant somewhere in Boston."

Using my in-game knowledge of the pre-war events at the junkyard, I spun a tall tale about the "men in black".

"Next to the farm is the junkyard I mentioned. In the junkyard, I found a sentrybot and a holotape. The holotape stated the sentrybot was dropped off pre-war by some men in black suits, claiming to be from a RobCo sales and service center."

Seeing that Isabel hadn't voiced any further disbelief, I continued my bullshit story.

"Now, why would a civilian sales building dispose of military-grade sentrybots? I think it must be because it's a hidden manufacturing plant and that the rumors must be true."

Isabel stayed silent and mulled over what I said. Once she seemed convinced, she opened her mouth and asked me one last question.

"OK, I believe you. What about the vault you came from? Can we crash there?"

"No. I was put in a vault that experimented on the cryogenic storage of humans. I just woke up from a system malfunction pretty recently. Everybody other than me died, some kind of life support failure. I was the only one left. There are no supplies anywhere in the vault. I think an uprising occurred, and the survivors left with most of the supplies."

Isabel paled at my words. I was confused about why I understood that I had just said I woke up and found out everybody I knew had died. Before she could say anything, I spoke up to assuage her worries.

"I'm fine now. I had time to come to terms with what happened. I just want to help people. I don't have any ulterior motives. You seem nice, and I just want to help you so you can help others."

Isabel nodded at that and seemed to accept my story.

"Well, I'm sorry for bringing it up anyways. How far away is the junkyard you're talking about?"

I explained to her that it was a three-hour walk North East. But before we could leave for the robotics disposal ground, I needed to get the power armor I came for. I suggested that we loot the city before going to the disposal ground. Isabel readily agreed to this, and we planned to meet at this intersection in two hours.

I spent the next hour scavenging the surrounding businesses and dwellings. The random junk was nice to have, but what I was really looking for was a new outfit. Being called out by Isabel made me realize that my current getup marked me as a vault dweller and potentially painted a target on my back. I dug up some worn work jeans, an old leather jacket, and faded t-shirts. With a more appropriate outfit, I headed to the Museum of Freedom.

The museum was only a ten-minute walk from where I was currently, and getting there was uneventful. Walking up to the main entrance, I shook the door handle to find it locked.

Looking around, I saw large windows on the first floor with the lower portions guarded by railings. Walking over to one of the windows, I broke the glass with the stock of my rifle and crawled through it, careful not to cut myself.

Once inside, I found myself in a large welcoming room. I walked through the museum like I had done multiple times in the game. Everything was still as I remembered it. The creepy mannequins, patriotic room themes, rotting wood, and crumbling walls.

Finding the large cave-in leading to the basement, I headed down to the power generator protected by a cage and terminal. Similar to picking a lock, trying to hack the terminal caused the Fallout 4 minigame to pop up. Since it was an easy rating, only a little effort was required for me to get in.

Taking the fusion core out of the generator caused the surrounding lights to flicker and turn off. With the fusion core secured, I went upstairs to the door leading to the room with the crashed vertibird. Finding the door took a while since my memory of the museum wasn't as good as I thought. Eventually, I opened a door on the top floor and was greeted by the sight of a suit of power armor.

The room had its roof collapsed, and the vertibird with a loaded minigun was on the other side. Inspecting the back of the suit of T-45 power armor showed a round handle with an empty hole in the center. Taking out one of my fusion cores, I carefully slipped it into the hole and pushed until I heard a locking sound.

Grabbing the handle with both hands, I turned and spun the handle a quarter turn to the left. The armor shook, and I watched as the armor split apart in the back to make way for an operator to enter. I placed my left foot into the left boot foothold, and after ensuring everything was stable, I entered my whole body.

Around my hands were little rings, and I inserted my fingers into them. Once my fingers were connected to the gloves, I closed my hands into fists. This must have sent a signal to the suit as I felt the suit straighten and metal push against the back of my body and limbs.

The loud noise of metal and old hydraulics roared into life, the transparent screen booted up, and a basic HUD popped into my vision. The suit seemed to be in perfect working condition.

Excited and feeling like an iron demigod of war, I took one step and... face planted into the floor.