Part 28: Bunker Gamma And Mood Lights
Deadmeat5150 posted:
I don't really remember, that was when the game was still new. I think I did something to piss her off or purposely targeted her or something.
Ah, to be young again...
Post 28: Bunker Beta, Meet Bunker Gamma
Our heroes return!
The buggy sits in the corner, quietly collecting rust.
Flashman reaches the rank of shieldswordstardom. The rest of the group is stuck with the ones they started with. Brotherhood of Steel: you only advance rank because someone with a higher one died.
So yeah, we finally get to see some new recruits. Naturally, I don't change any of my own for them, because I'm boring.
Some of their bios are little... colorful. In Unreal Tournament/violent indie PnP RPG kind of way.
Here's a gallery of some notable new folks. Yes, Deathclaws can now be recruited.
Mother here is slightly different from Matriarch and ever so slightly too young to have taken part in war in Afghanistan
Check those healthpoints. And that skill rate.
Unpronounceable AND useless.
Why yes, Deathclaws can go prone.
And crouch. There some barely noticeable differences in height, I guess.
Medical Officer?! Who are you and what did you do to Celsius?
Oh... you seem to have inherited his shitty selection of stuff. Carry on, then.
The guys aren't spouting any jokes today.
Oh General Barnaky, you're so rugged and handsome!
I want to lighten the load before the trip, so I sell some stuff.
The AK nets me $12. It's a lot less than the machete is worth. Now, that would make sense in a real wasteland (where ammo is scarce and an AK is just an ornate club with the potential of being a rifle one day), but we are swimming in 7.62mm. You'd think they'd appreciat my efforts in arming Initiates with cheap guns that are likely to outlast them,
Aaargh, cutscene!
So yeah, due to one heroic squad destroying any sort of organized resistance found in the wasteland (I wonder what the others are doing), the Brotherhood grew and expanded south into an area know as the Belt. Neither Rust nor Bible - just the Belt.
For some reason, life is a little shittier in the Belt, so people there are hardier and less trusting. Plus, they have less time to decorate their camps with skulls. Some poorer families have to make do with only two or three skulls and skull thrones are virtually extinct.
Naturally, such people would be slower to trust the Brotherhood and likely be a little less impressed by guns and willingness to charge into certain death while in Power Armor.
That's why the tried and true tactic of "find the biggest source of problems and shoot" is going to be needed. Frankly, everyone in the Brotherhood is relieved that none of the settlements so far have had an unshootable problem.
The Belt is also the place where one of the great airships had crashed. Annalists believe that the probability of the crashed blimp having something to with future problems is 100%
So, where is this legendary region of hardship and crashed ships?
Just east of Mardin. Huh.
People are a lot chattier in Bunker Gamma, I'll give you that.
Being a mechanic in a world that's almost devoid of cars can have its sad moments.
No, I don't want to gamble, nor am I interested in the things you're selling. I'm off to enjoy the minty fresh bunker that comes with its own mood lighting!
Jeez, will you stop chattering.
*mumbles*Worthless good for nothing scribes...
A-roo-gu-la, OK, big boy, show me what you've got.
Also, everyone is strangely up for gambling lately.
I sell another classic SMG and TWO MP40s to boot. Stop looting museums, you vandals!
Holy shit, AKs outnumber any other weapon we've sold. Even UZIs, tho I'm certain I've seen more of the useless things.
And away we go!
But before getting to any further adventures in requisition, let's talk to the Matriarch.
She's... uh... a little hard to catch. Did somebody feed her candy?!
Imagine Flashman backing her against the wall and going "hey little momma, how's it going?"
She can barter. but has nothing to sell.
Such is life without pockets.
TMI, Matriarch! I'm not interested in Deathclaw pon farr!
Hey, lookie here!
Aw, Shauri wants to beat people to death with her bare(ish) hands!
I remember you as the tribal who didn't want his sister to fight. I'll have you know that some of the biggest if not all Brotherhood failures were (and will be) men!
Tiduk here has a sizable amount of scrip (buy better armor, you moron!), but nothing useful.
I wonder if the siblings were supposed to just ejaculate all their dialogue in one go, instead of spreading it through several mission interludes. Oh well.
Can I spend some time in the box with you?
Clearly your sister is better suited at killing people, telling other people to kill people, and getting people killed. So shut up.
Can I call you captain while we're "in the box"?
Don't judge me, it gets terribly lonely in the wasteland, Ice is an almost literal ice queen, and Mandy spends all her time trying to perfect black mascara
Ah, named characters that aren't immediately important! Not all RPGs master that!
New General? Seats?! This can't be good!
***
Nice going, Fang squad, your arrogance and inability to survive while wearing God damn power armor has cost us a general and... like... five to eight initiates! Seriously, it's hard to believe all the talks about "swelling numbers" and "massive casualties" when all you ever see is like ten dudes in the bunker.
OK, saving Barnaky is important, but not as important as finding the vanity tables in the new bunker (Mandy and Stein spend a lot of time there) and Celsius. Celsius gives us his canned greeting from Bunker Alpha.
We buy 7 First Aid kits and bug off!
But first, we visit the Merchant!
You, uh, might want to do something about those ghost civvies.
Naturally, he doesn't restock, nor does he get new stuff, so I just end up buying power cells.
We also go to see the Trader (different guy, no ghosts). His selection of goods is a little better.
Ah, the right arm of the Free World!
Used in over 90 countries, it never achieved the media popularity of AK-47 or M16, likely because it never appeared in famous action movies or video games.
When I first found out about it, I found the name very funny. FAL, phallus, get it?
...
It's funnier in Lithuanian
Anyways, FN FAL is a Cold War replacement for your AK-47 and HOLY SHIT IS IT A REPLACEMENT.
No wonder those things cost $12 a pop.
Finally squad makes it to St. Louis, all the while discussing the merits of FN FAL vs. H&K G3.
More briefing!
AAARGH! Super mutants!
Also, is that... is that a fucking radioactive river?
Forget it, the muties can have St. Louis!
*door slam*
*sounds of a Humwee speeding away*
On a more serious note,
There's an even handier workbench nearby.
Naturally, it contains stuff about fixing and driving vehicles. Just in case you came in with a squad of imbeciles/deathclaws.
Them's the muties.
St. Louis looks like an all caramel recreation of Verdun (there's bunkers and trenches and stuff) because I had the misfortune of starting the mission at 19:Something. This is what passes for dusk in this game.
Flashman charges into action! Muties fire their machineguns and miss!
However, they're deadlier at point blank
This is going to be a hard mission, isn't it?
Wouldn't a tribal urban legend be just a legend?
Anyways, that's it for this update! Tune in next time when we fight the vastly superior super mutants of FOTBoS!
Next Time: St. Louis Part 1: Going Over The Top... In An APC