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This is Corporal Peter Tarzey. His mother's a scientist. His father's a soldier. He's twenty.
Pete was born in Colorado, in the Four States Commonwealth. He grew up in Maryland, Columbia Commonwealth. The lines aren’t there any more as far as most people know, but that’s their problem. This is still America. They’ll learn.
He’s one of the last pure humans, raised safe and tucked away, where the FEV couldn’t get them and the New Plague couldn’t find them and the radiation wasn’t an issue. The people living in the wastes around him are- well. They’ve been irradiated all their lives, from the first mouthful of their mothers’ milk to the last drop of water on their dying lips. That’s no way for a country to carry on. That’s no way for a species to carry on. From what he’s heard there isn’t a single one of them who hasn’t got something wrong with them- six toes, thirty-six teeth, genetic cancers, deformed kids. They’ve been poisoned, all of them, and it’s a poison that settles into the bones and lasts longer than generations.
He’s heard that the President thinks it’s too late to save the Wasteland, that he wants to cut the country’s losses and start over with a handful of known quantities. He’s heard that Colonel Autumn disagrees. There’s still a handful out there, Pete’s heard, that are worth saving; maybe one in eighty, maybe more, maybe less. They’ve got to be found and tested and verified, but-
Well. Colonel Autumn wants to find them and bring them over to the life pure humans deserve. The President… well.
Pete- Corporal Tarzey- is not privy to that plan. Colonel Autumn knows what it is, but Corporal Tarzey hasn’t got the clearance. He’s got the idea that it starts with finding the source of the supermutants and eradicating it once and for all. There’s no way the good people can carry on as long as there’s a chance of infection, of becoming monsters. Colonel Autumn agrees with that part of the President’s plan, and Pete knows that because he got called into the Colonel’s sickroom a while ago. Autumn was needles and IV tubes all over, purging the worst radiation dose anyone had ever seen a man live through, but he had enough of his wits left to give the corporal his orders before passing out.
The madmen who call themselves the Brotherhood of Steel took it into their heads to harbor an enemy of the President, Colonel Autumn’s assistant had said. A woman who’d aided and abetted the propagandist Three Dog, a known associate of ghouls and a thief of long-lost national documents. Oh, sure, she’d killed a number of the supermutants, but there was no way anyone out in the Wastes as long as she’d been could be anything but a mutant herself. She might look human, but she was as much a danger as the rest of them, and if she got her way she’d be holding all their plans to ransom in a heartbeat. The only chance the last few pure, real, true Americans had at clean water and a better life was in serious danger.
Colonel Autumn himself only had the strength to say a few words before his eyes closed. Pete’s pretty sure the Colonel went unconscious before he could see the salute offered him, but either way, it doesn’t matter. He went down to the quartermaster and spoke to him, and then down to the armory, and then headed out into the Wastes per his orders. Finding his target was hard. Sticking with it was harder. He’s managed, though, even if he has been going through Stealth Boys like they were gumdrops.
He’s seen the Wanderer from 101 and her Brotherhood bodyguard try and fail to enter Vault 87. He’s seen them wipe out a wave of mutant freaks, circle the place, test every angle, stagger away. He’s seen them disappear into the local caves and come out empty-handed except for some kid they had in tow. He’s seen them leave.
This is Corporal Peter Tarzey, and he has one job: get back to Raven Rock and tell the Colonel everything he’s seen. Now. Before America as they know it loses its last chance at revival.
Pete was born in Colorado, in the Four States Commonwealth. He grew up in Maryland, Columbia Commonwealth. The lines aren’t there any more as far as most people know, but that’s their problem. This is still America. They’ll learn.
He’s one of the last pure humans, raised safe and tucked away, where the FEV couldn’t get them and the New Plague couldn’t find them and the radiation wasn’t an issue. The people living in the wastes around him are- well. They’ve been irradiated all their lives, from the first mouthful of their mothers’ milk to the last drop of water on their dying lips. That’s no way for a country to carry on. That’s no way for a species to carry on. From what he’s heard there isn’t a single one of them who hasn’t got something wrong with them- six toes, thirty-six teeth, genetic cancers, deformed kids. They’ve been poisoned, all of them, and it’s a poison that settles into the bones and lasts longer than generations.
He’s heard that the President thinks it’s too late to save the Wasteland, that he wants to cut the country’s losses and start over with a handful of known quantities. He’s heard that Colonel Autumn disagrees. There’s still a handful out there, Pete’s heard, that are worth saving; maybe one in eighty, maybe more, maybe less. They’ve got to be found and tested and verified, but-
Well. Colonel Autumn wants to find them and bring them over to the life pure humans deserve. The President… well.
Pete- Corporal Tarzey- is not privy to that plan. Colonel Autumn knows what it is, but Corporal Tarzey hasn’t got the clearance. He’s got the idea that it starts with finding the source of the supermutants and eradicating it once and for all. There’s no way the good people can carry on as long as there’s a chance of infection, of becoming monsters. Colonel Autumn agrees with that part of the President’s plan, and Pete knows that because he got called into the Colonel’s sickroom a while ago. Autumn was needles and IV tubes all over, purging the worst radiation dose anyone had ever seen a man live through, but he had enough of his wits left to give the corporal his orders before passing out.
The madmen who call themselves the Brotherhood of Steel took it into their heads to harbor an enemy of the President, Colonel Autumn’s assistant had said. A woman who’d aided and abetted the propagandist Three Dog, a known associate of ghouls and a thief of long-lost national documents. Oh, sure, she’d killed a number of the supermutants, but there was no way anyone out in the Wastes as long as she’d been could be anything but a mutant herself. She might look human, but she was as much a danger as the rest of them, and if she got her way she’d be holding all their plans to ransom in a heartbeat. The only chance the last few pure, real, true Americans had at clean water and a better life was in serious danger.
Colonel Autumn himself only had the strength to say a few words before his eyes closed. Pete’s pretty sure the Colonel went unconscious before he could see the salute offered him, but either way, it doesn’t matter. He went down to the quartermaster and spoke to him, and then down to the armory, and then headed out into the Wastes per his orders. Finding his target was hard. Sticking with it was harder. He’s managed, though, even if he has been going through Stealth Boys like they were gumdrops.
He’s seen the Wanderer from 101 and her Brotherhood bodyguard try and fail to enter Vault 87. He’s seen them wipe out a wave of mutant freaks, circle the place, test every angle, stagger away. He’s seen them disappear into the local caves and come out empty-handed except for some kid they had in tow. He’s seen them leave.
This is Corporal Peter Tarzey, and he has one job: get back to Raven Rock and tell the Colonel everything he’s seen. Now. Before America as they know it loses its last chance at revival.