Part 34: The Magnificent

Update 34: The Magnificent



Returning back to the military base we headed straight down to the third floor, since the other two had nothing left to offer. The Enclave had managed to get this far as well, although judging from the burned bodies they hadn't done nearly as well against the Super Mutants.



A locker off in a side room had another strange computer component, which I added to the pile. Whatever these were for had a lot of missing pieces.



Unlike the second floor, the third was crawling with pig rats. I can't help but think that they were living by eating the rats, and weren't that far from running out… a problem I was solving in a couple of ways.



The rats were far more alert than the mutants, who didn't even react when we came around the corner. Marcus was able to walk right up to some of them, which made more sense a little bit later.



Eventually they figured out that we were there and came running. The flamers and power fists that most of them had ensured that they ended up as a pile of bodies a couple deep when they attempted to get into my range. Sulik was having a grand time of using his new sledge to knock them around.



I'd thought we were done, but there was a second elevator leading further down into the military base. If the Sierra Army Depot was any indicator, the real dirt would be down this way.



Turned out that I was expecting a bit much. There was nothing but a single short corridor and a body halfway buried under the rocks. If there'd been more to the floor it had been buried in some kind of rockslide.



Scrolling over shows this entire area here that's sectioned off. A secondary area that was meant to be accessible, but got cancelled? Just something they felt like putting in? Anybody's guess, really.



At the end of the corridor there was a single mutant standing amidst pools of radioactive goo. There was something very familiar about him…

"Heh. Marcus, I'm not one hundred percent on this, but I'm pretty sure that one of you has to go change and it's his house."

"Although the two of you might have to compare notes about fashion designers before that."

"Funny, guys. But those look like miner's clothes… and he seems a bit upset to really have a conversation with."

"Grampy bone know lots of etiquette. Say you don' gotta change since the bozar gun makes your outfit different."



After that the whole thing went kind of pear shaped. Turns out that miner was crazier than a shithouse rat. A pair of adult death claws came out of nowhere and started in after me, and these ones weren't interested in having a conversation.



Then there were a couple more, and the whole thing started to get ridiculous. Even in the power armor they were shredding into me almost as fast as I could patch myself up with stims.



They were tough enough to take a point blank burst from the Bozar and just keep coming, and over the snarls and sound of claws tearing into my armor I could hear the crazy bastard garbling something about fire pets between shooting at me with a laser rifle.



What came out to play were some shiny silver geckos, which had a nasty habit of acting like living flamers if you let them get close. They weren't nearly as tough as the death claws had been, though, and Melchior kept himself pretty busy letting them out.



After we shredded those little bastards he let out a whole new set of horrors, and I didn't even know what to think of them.



I couldn't see any eyes, and they looked like they had two mouths and a bunch of hanging extremities. Just like with the wanamingos I picked something that looked like it might be important and started shooting.



Eventually he started scraping the bottom of the barrel and brought out trained molerats, which were every bit as impressive as you'd imagine.



One final shot brought him down just as he ran out of pets, and his body sank into the goo. Kind of unfortunate, that, since I wanted to grab ahold of that laser rifle for the sake of curiosity if nothing else.

Killing all four waves of Melchior's pets and Melchior himself is worth more than 14,000 experience, making it probably the single biggest payout in the game for a single fight. In fact, there's only about two quest related payouts that give more experience.



There was a strange pistol with a full magazine in a nearby footlocker. I actually had some ammo for it from the stash in the Toxic Cave, but I wasn't quite ready to make a switch at the moment.



We picked up another level with all of that, so it's a good time for some more Small Guns, Energy Weapons, and a touch more Science. There's a couple of hacking events that Science can help you with later on, as well as a few important conversations.



When we came back to San Francisco, Flying Dragon 8 was selling Power Armor as well. Considering how much trouble I'd gone through to find a single suit, I couldn't imagine where they were getting these.



After stocking up on a few necessities and dumping anything extra in the trunk we headed for the Navarro location where the Enclave supposedly had a base. It was hundreds of miles from practically anything, out in the wilderness where nobody would see.



It was quite a surprise to find a gas station, especially since there couldn't be very many functioning cars and none that were likely to be out here. If they couldn't come up with a better cover story, I wasn't going to have as much of a problem getting in here as I thought.




Once he was convinced that I knew exactly where I was going and just had an escort he coughed up the password. I have a feeling that if I'd told the guys to head off they'd have accidentally run into a patrol within an hour or two.



Instead, I headed over to the narrow path behind the gas station. There were badly disguised explosives littered around the thing in case anybody came and decided to not walk on the clearly marked path.

"Okay guys, I don't think they'll buy anyone else as a recruit, so if I'm not back in a few hours…"

"Don't come in after you?"

"Keep your car and have a drink in your memory?"

"Make a spirit offering for your ghost?"

"What? No, just wait a little bit longer! I have no idea how long this is going to take. Buncha jerks…"



"Yeah, I'm a new recruit. You should be expecting me?"

"We were expecting a whole group, not just one. What's the password?"

"Er.. sheepshead?"



And just like that, I'd joined the Enclave.