Tales of the Terran Starship Command (Fallout)

[Panzersharkcat]

War. War never changes. Six months after the defeat of the Enclave at Adams Air Force Base, a band of Enclave deserters, who had seen the destruction of the mobile base crawler as their chance to leave an organization they felt was corrupt and inhumane, had reemerged in the Capital Wasteland, led by the one who had defeated them and stronger than before. Through the capture of an alien vessel orbiting the Earth that they would christen the Olympus, they made a vow, their mission, to rebuild humanity under the banner of the Terran Starship Command and take it beyond the stars. Through their excellence in diplomacy and inheritance of the first-class combat training of the Enclave, the TSC quickly brought most settlements of the Capital Wasteland under their flag and expanded rapidly into a power that could rival the New California Republic. This swift rise to power attracted jealous eyes.

The Brotherhood of Steel, interested in acquiring this treasure trove of alien technology, sent an emissary, Inquisitor Lydia Rose, in an attempt to sneak Brotherhood scribes on board the Olympus as spies under the guise of assisting the TSC in reverse-engineering alien technology. Already wary of Rose's dismissal of Owyn Lyons as an idealistic old fool and her declaration of loyalty to the "true" Brotherhood of Steel and its Elder, Ragnar Irons, the Wanderer sensed a trap and had her escorted off the ship. It seemed to be the last they would hear from her and the Terran Starship Command moved on.

In an attempt to recover an intact generator as a basis for the repair of all the generators destroyed during the Wanderer's escape, the Wanderer led an expedition to the Moon to investigate a piece of the other alien vessel that had been flung there. Though Artemis Team, the first unit of the newly created elite Thunderfist troops, succeeded in finding an intact generator, it proved too fragile for removal and exploded, causing much of the ship's remains to go with it, along with Artemis Team's initial entry point. Seeing no other choice, the team leaped into a mass teleporter near the end of a corridor they fled down. It transported them to a deserted underwater base built by the aliens in the Pacific Ocean. It was discovered that the aliens created an army of beasts, named Tyranids by TSC biologists, to retake the Olympus. The Tyranids turned on their masters and slaughtered them all. There, they fought their way through in an attempt to find a way back to the Olympus. In the process, they recovered the blueprints to the generators in an alien supercomputer and made their way to the base's teleporter room. Though a mechanical failure by the machinery attracted the attention of what seemed like every Tyranid in the base, they were soon rescued by a team of TSC Marines sent after receiving Artemis Team's distress signal and brought back to the Olympus.

Seeing great potential in the base, the Wanderer ordered another expedition to clear the base entirely and refurbish it. Within months, the base was ready to accept new residents as the new capital of the TSC, Poseidonis, with strict immigration policies allowing only the best and brightest of the TSC to reside there. This, however, engendered a sense that the TSC was neglecting the settlements of the surface. To quell those sentiments, the TSC organized a massive gala in Rivet City, where citizens would get to hear the Wanderer speak and even have a chance for some brief face-to-face meetings with the head of state. Further increasing the attraction was the presence of Artemis team, who were to receive their official commendations for their discovery of Poseidonis. There, the Brotherhood of Steel struck.

Though the assassination attempt was foiled, the Terran Starship Command was faced with the prospect of waging a war against an organization with a massive force multiplier in their stocks of pre-War T-51b power armor. As the deserters who formed the nucleus of the TSC were forced to abandon their suits of power armor due to them being in a horrible state of disrepair, the TSC did not have anything similar on the ground to match the Brotherhood. Though the TSC was developing their own power armor, it remained in the early stages of prototyping. Through the wizardry of Archangel, the head of TSC Intelligence, and his Seraphim, it was revealed in the council meeting following the attack they would potentially have access to a source of completed power armor. The next day, the Wanderer left for Moscow, capital of the Reborn Coalition of Soviet Nations, birthed from the remnant of the Soviet Union. The meeting with General Artyom Orlov, Marshal of the RCSN, went well and the TSC acquired a suit of the legendary Hammer Head armor to form the basis of their own power armor. It appeared that the tide would turn in the TSC's favor, despite the initial successes of the Brotherhood.

In an attempt to keep the TSC off balance while the majority of its troops were busy fighting them, the Brotherhood of Steel contracted Commander Jabsco and the mercenaries of Talon Company to strike at the heart of the TSC. So began the Talon War, a sub-front of the Brotherhood War, noteworthy for its brevity and the fire-forged heroes its battles would create, for many Thunderfist soldiers would see their first action in the TSC and distinguish themselves in this war. One such soldier was Jeremy Darling. This is his story.
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"Captain Darling? I'm Professor Ann Morgan of the University of Megaton. I'm here for your interview."
Darling, eye at the peephole, let her in. "My apologies. Should have recognized you. You look very much like your mother. She was rather stuck up when it came to us Wastelanders but I suppose most of the Outcasts were like that."
"You have no idea," she chuckled in response as she took a seat in the living room.
"I hope the walk from the old Vault wasn't too far. Living in outer Megaton puts us much closer to the school but it makes visiting inner Megaton a pain, especially if we want to go to the New Year's Gala at the bomb."
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not far by bicycle."
"Still, you must be thirsty. Tommy, get down here and fetch the professor a Rocket Cola."
A lightning bolt came dashing down the stairs. "Is it war story time, Grandpa?"
He barely got a chance to say "Yes" before the bolt dashed back up the stairs and dragged down a squirming girl.
"Grandpa, Tommy got my character killed!"
"Who cares for that stupid game? Grandpa's stories are better than that stupid Moriella the Wicker -"
"Wicked!"
"Tommy, apologize to your sister."
"I'm sorry, Gertrude."
"It's Gerry. Gertrude is an old people name!"
"Tommy, get the drinks."
"Fine, Grandpa."
"My kids are the same way," consoled the professor as she guffawed. "I don't know how my husband handles them and writing for the Olympus Circular at the same time."
"Now that the drinks are here," said Darling as he removed the cap from his Rocket Cola, "are you ready to begin recording?"
She nodded in assent and pressed record.
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Just barely a week after I received a commendation from the Commander for my part in the defense of Big Town from slavers, I received notice that I was to transfer from 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company to 2nd Squad, 5th Platoon, Bravo Company, stationed on board the Olympus. I would miss Big Town, especially Kimba. (I spent much of my time off-duty teaching her to shoot. I even got her a proper rifle for her birthday, a refurbished M1 Garand with synthetic furniture. It was a beautiful rifle.) Still it was a good chance to see more action. My platoon may be stationed on the Olympus but it was hardly an easy duty post. 5th Platoon was one of the TSC's air assault units in the Capital Wasteland (the other was 4th Platoon) and we had to be ready to deploy at a moment's notice. That and the man responsible for making sure our platoon ran smoothly: Sergeant First Class Scott Dornan.

Old Dornan was a fifteen-year veteran of the Enclave's verti-assault teams prior to deserting at then-Major Harkin's behest and helping found the TSC Marines. It showed.
"Welcome to the Olympus. So, you're the new replacement. What's your name, private?"
"Darling. Jeremy Darling."
"What was that, private? Did you forget something?"
"Jeremy Darling, sir!"
"I am not a sir! I work for a living, you poozer! You will address me as 'Sergeant' or 'Sergeant Dornan.' Do you understand?"
"Yeah, Sarge."
"If I like you, you can call me 'Sarge.' But guess what? I don't like you! Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sergeant Dornan!"
"Now, the Olympus Circular here thinks you're a regular hero, rushing ahead and gunning down all those slavers. I say you're a danger to us all. This ends now. There will be no rushing ahead alone in my platoon. I don't care if the enemy raped your sister, burned down your town, and ate your dog for dinner. You will maintain discipline. You will remember your training. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, Sergeant Dornan!"
"Good. You will join your platoon for training. You will do a fine job. Dismissed!"

As I hurried down the corridor and past the armory, I nearly ran into a two and a half-meter-tall Super Mutant.
"Private First Class Jeremy Darling, I presume. I am Lieutenant Fawkes. I will be your commanding officer."
I barely registered his words as my jaw dropped and I stared for what seemed like an eternity in disbelief and terror that a Super Mutant, something I had feared my whole life, was now my superior officer.
"I see Sergeant Dornan has neglected to tell you what I am. It matters not. I am used to these stares. I have received many during my travels with my friend. My initial surprise that people trusted my friend's judgment enough not to shoot at me wore off after the first week."
"Sorry, sir. It's just unusual to see a friendly Super Mutant. Even how you speak is different. Why is that?"
"Speech lessons," he replied in his still gravelly voice. "I also request that you refer to my kind as meta-human. Let's get going. I will introduce you to the platoon."

There were a few interesting personalities and histories among us. CPL Robert Hull, my fire team's heavy gunner, claims to have been descended from a famous 20th century hockey player. PVT Rohan Singh and CPL Danielle Lohani both had parents who met on the Enclave's oil rig off the coast of California. They were among the very few in the Enclave with origins in the Indian subcontinent. CPL Butch DeLoria of 1st Squad was from the same vault as the Commander. He was apparently a bully when he was there and enlisted only when told the TSC was the biggest, baddest gang around that would squish any he'd make on his own. It's a shame nobody recorded it but I heard the sight of Dornan chewing him out over trying to show PFC Christina Fuhr his "tunnel snake" was legendary. She, in turn, got an earful when she got caught joking about how shouty Dornan's bedroom life was. 1st Squad's PFC Erik Bergmann and CPL Matthias Berner, both big strapping men highly skilled with big guns, are apparently a couple. Dornan was furious with them over "wasting ammo" when they shredded apart a few raiders near Arlington with their light machine guns. The way I heard it, they were damn nearly bisected. They insisted, whe I asked, that people just happen to die very messy deaths around them. "Invisible ninjas. It's the only way I could shoot a mutant in the face and have his legs fall off." That was Bergmann's theory, anyway. For some reason that he won't say, CPL Juan Cruz of 3rd squad would flip out if somebody mentioned the Hub or New Reno around him. About ten minutes of meet and greet later, we began our training in earnest.

Though the platoon missed PFC Morgan, the wounded Marine I replaced, I proved to be a good fit for the unit. In particular, CPL Brett Lee and I appeared to read each others' minds. No verbal communication was necessary between us during our drills. During one exercise in bunker busting, while the rest of the squad was pinned down by machine gun fire from an hunkered down Enclave gunner, the two of us, assigned by alpha team leader SGT Cassandra Clarke to take it down, rapidly moved between cover. We needed only the briefest glances to know when to move and when to cover our battle buddy's moves. We took it out in under two minutes, with me tossing in a frag grenade and Lee making sure he was dead. SFC Dornan, who was playing the Enclave gunner, gave me a curt nod during the after action report. Lee later told me that's as much praise as Dornan gives to anybody. I went to sleep that night feeling good about my future in this unit.
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"What happened between you and Kimba?"
"We continued to see each other on and off for about two more years before I was transferred to the 2nd Infantry Battalion in the Mojave. We had to break it off after that. We remained on good terms, though. We go to Big Town every year for Christmas. She returns the favor at New Year's Eve."
"The Big Bomb."
"Yup. You should have seen the look on her granddaughter's face the first time she got to see it launch. Lit up the night for almost a minute."
"I can imagine."
"It's a shame we removed the real bomb. The replica they put there just isn't the same. Not that it was entirely a bad thing. No more radiation leaking out of it. Cromwell raised a huge fuss over it but with most of his congregation gone, he couldn't do more than that."
"What happened to them, Grandpa?" asked Gerry.
"Talon Company. It's getting late. I'll continue tomorrow."
"But I want to hear more!"
"No, I will not have you getting nightmares. Go to bed."
"Shall I see you tomorrow, Professor?"
"Mhm. Will noon be fine?"
"Yes, it will."
"I'll see you then, Captain."

(OOC: Dornan is an obvious reference to the Enclave sergeant at Navarro from Fallout 2. Scott is Arch's nephew. I'll probably have him refer to "Uncle Arch" at some point. "Poozer" is a term Green Lantern Kilowog likes to use. Juan Cruz was a parody of Tom Cruise and his enthusiasm for Scientology from Fallout 2. Robert Hull was named after Bobby Hull, possessor of one of the most feared slapshots of his day. There's another guy, Anthony Esposito in 3rd squad named after a hockey player who hasn't been introduced yet. Alfred Norden, who's also a character in ECR's tabletop game, is named after a character in Hans Hellmut Kirst's The Nights of the Long Knives, as are Berner and Bergmann. Christina Fuhr is named for Grant Fuhr, the goaltender on the Edmonton Oilers from 1981 to 1991. There's more but listing them all would take a while.
Refusal to use gender pronouns for the Lone Wanderer/Commander is deliberate. This is roughly how I imagine the TSC's ground pounders are organized as of 2279, though it's likely it will change in the future as its population grows and armored vehicles, artillery, and warbots start being produced so that the TSC can have proper mechanized infantry and artillery battalions.)

[Panzersharkcat]

"Welcome back, professor. Have a drink."
"Thanks," she replied, settling down on her chair. "There's something I meant to ask you yesterday but forgot to."
"Ask away."
"If you are a Megaton native, how did you never notice Fawkes before?"
"The Commander never stayed too long when back in Megaton. Just long enough to sell scavenged goods and sleep for the night in an actual bed. By coincidence, we never crossed paths when the Commander had Fawkes as a follower. I've met Star Paladin Cross, Charon, and Sydney Nguyen but I never met Fawkes until that day on the Olympus."
"And the speech lessons? That was something I wasn't aware the TSC Marines had back then. I had always thought that was more recent."
"That was set up from the very beginning in case we ever recruited among tribals and foreign nationals. With all the different dialects out there, it was important that we be able to communicate clearly. P.C.K. Poor communication kills. That was something they'd drill into our heads. Thank you for that. I'm ready to begin recording."
"Alright. The war began the day after I transferred to my new unit. That day began with Dornan giving us a wake-up call."
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"Wake up, poozers! You have ten minutes to put on your gear and double time it down to the main hangar! Move!"
I wasted no time in getting my armor on and grabbing my weapons. As I left, I heard Dornan yelling at Private Esposito, "Poozer, Uncle Arch did not die at Navarro so I could baby your sorry ass. If I find you unable to lace your boots right again, it will be the sorriest day of your short life! Now move like you've got a purpose!"
I arrived to find Lieutenant Fawkes finishing the preparations for the briefing. When Dornan and Esposito came out of the teleporter a few moments after me, he began.
"Early this morning, a force of ninety Talon mercenaries attacked Megaton, overrunning the outer defenses and capturing our teleporter. Only swift action by Plishkin stopped Talon from boarding the Olympus. Our forces in Vault 101 found the entrance blocked and have been unable to reinforce the Megaton garrison. As we were wary of additional civilian casualties, we could not perform air strikes on Talon positions in the city. As it stands, our men are making their stand at Moriarty's Saloon and the Common House. We are to deploy at Moriarty's to reinforce the men there and break out. This ends the briefing. We go now."

We didn't need telling twice. On the flight down to Megaton, I said to Lee, "We got about thirty guys coming down and ninety of them. Good odds."
"You're forgetting our own boys down there and the PL damn near counts as a whole platoon on his own. I'm telling you, Talon is fucked."
"Yeah, yeah, ruin my doom-saying."
"We have this in the bag, even if they brought one of their elite captains with them. Talon are a bunch of morons. The Commander has lost count of how many Talon hit teams that have gotten killed by Thunderfist before they could bat an eye. And seriously, who takes contracts out on people for being too nice?"
"Guys, shut your mouths before I have you gagged," said SSG Garraty. "We're almost there. Get ready."
As I rappelled out of the Valkyrie, still chuckling at Lee's comments, I looked towards Craterside Supply. A Talon merc had pulled out a missile launcher and was pointing it at me.
"Shit" was the only thought in my mind as I braced for death.
Two shots cracked out on my left as the merc dropped the missile launcher and his head exploded. I saw Dornan drop down from his Valkyrie and motion to start loading supplies into Moriarty's and for cover.
"My, my, it's good to see you here," said Lucas Simms. "And you brought fresh ammo, too. Some of us were starting to run dry."
"Took you assholes long enough," remarked Jericho. "Let me at 'em."
Jericho started transferring ammo from the new magazines to the ones for his custom Type 93 assault rifle, rechambered for 5.56mm.
"Moron! Do not waste time transferring ammo to your piece-of-shit rifle!" yelled Dornan as he shoved an XM-586 assault rifle into Jericho's hands. I winced as I saw it came from Private Will Phillips, an old acquaintance. We entered basic training together as part of the same training company but in different platoons. We were never close but that hit me harder than the deaths of the civilians down there.
"We know which trooper this rifle belonged to and if it is not returned to us when this is over, we will haul your ass off to prison for theft of TSC property. Have I made myself clear?" Satisfied by Jericho's grumbled answer, he snapped me out of my reverie with a smack to my helmet. "Poozer, pay attention to the damn battle."
I took my position by a hole in the wall blown open by a missile launcher and started firing at the Talon position by Craterside Supply. At that moment, Lieutenant Fawkes walked in.
"Sheriff, Sergeant, give me a status update."
"We just resupplied the men here with ammo and reinforced our positions with sandbags, sir."
"I saw that. Anything else?"
"Stockholm was the first to see the attack force and started picking them off when they were in range. The two Marines stationed outside were killed trying to defend the teleporter. From what I can tell, they got it disconnected. Deputy Weld was destroyed while we were closing the gate," said Simms.
"We can rebuild him. We have the technology."
"Stockholm was wounded when one of them fired a grenade rifle at him. He was blown off his perch missing a leg. It's a miracle he wasn't killed. Doc Church only just stopped the bleeding. He and Moira are tending to the wounded upstairs. When the men had retreated to their positions, the Talon commander ordered us to give up our weapons and surrender. The dead Marine there," he said, pointing to Phillips' corpse, "yelled out something back. Mo lawn la bay. Something like that."
"ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ. 'Come and take them.' Appropriate."
"Ten minutes before you arrived, they tried to breach through the back door. Moriarty took out two of them with his shotgun before they smashed his face in. We barely got the door sealed before more started trying to come in."
Moriarty, missing a few teeth, nodded and lifted his old Winchester Widowmaker while clutching his broken nose.
"What happened to the officer in charge here?"
"Lieutenant Stein was killed by a sniper while trying to order the men to retreat," replied Simms, holding up her blood-stained beret. "After that and the attempted breach, they separated and went door to door in small units. We've been trying to pin them down."
Lieutenant Fawkes somehow grimaced more than he normally did at the sight of the beret. "Negating their numerical superiority. Foolish. We'll start clearing them door-to-door. Staff Sergeant Sidonia will lead 1st squad and clear out all buildings in a clockwise direction. Staff Sergeant Garraty will lead 2nd squad down the middle of the city and clear out all buildings there. Staff Sergeant Hayes will lead 3rd squad counter-clockwise. 3rd and 4th squads of 2nd platoon will stay and provide covering fire. Relay those orders, Sergeant Dornan."
"Sir."

With fire from 3rd squad, 2nd platoon keeping heads down, we hopped over the barriers in front of Moriarty's and made our way to the Church of the Children of Atom. When we burst through the door, we were hit with the smell of charred flesh. The source of that was apparent when Private Singh got lit on fire by a waiting Talon merc. It fortunately wasn't long as he simultaneously put a bullet in the merc's brain before dropping and rolling. We barely had time to let the sight of the pile of burned corpses sink in when the final merc in there popped out from behind the pulpit with a pistol to the head of a young girl with her clothes in tatters. She couldn't have been older than sixteen.
"Don't come any closer or I swear to fucking God I'll blow this bitch's brains out! Do you fucking hear me?!"
"Put the gun down, sir," pleaded Garraty. "I promise if you surrender, you will be treated humanely as a prisoner of war. Just put down the gun. There's no need for more violence."
"Like fucking Hell I believe you. Behind all the smiles and sunshine you show everyone, you're still the fucking Enclave underneath. It's not fucking wonder the Brotherhood had us take you assholes down a few pegs."
"The Brotherhood?"
"Yeah, those fucking do-gooders didn't have the balls to do it themselves so they got some redhead bitch to hire us."
After a pause in which all of us thought "Irons," Garraty spoke again. "If we really were the Enclave under all this, we'd have just perforated you, hostage or not. Either you really know we'd hesitate because we're not like the Enclave or you're kidding yourself about how useful a waster hostage would be in saving yourself from them."
Biting his lip in indecision, he tossed aside the gun and let her go. "Fine, I'm fucked either way if you're shitting me."
"You made the right choice. Could you put your pants back on, now?"
"What? Oh, right."
After securely binding him and escorting the girl to Moriarty's, we left for the clinic. The last two, seeing their buddies gunned down rapidly, dropped their weapons and surrendered. Burke's house contained only two holed up inside, both of whom committed suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured. I can only speculate that they also thought we were the Enclave under the "smiles and sunshine." That left us only the Brass Lantern to clear out.
Sergeant Wong got blasted in the chest by a shotgun immediately upon stepping inside. He got the wind knocked out of him but the armor absorbed the brunt of the impact. Private Cheung got him in the throat while he was loading the next shot. The three others inside surrendered after seeing their buddy choke on his own blood and drown. One of them even puked. I don't blame him.

With that done, we marched our prisoners to the center of town near the bomb, where one of them was killed trying to rearm the thing. The others started marching their prisoners down at the same time. 1st squad arrived after us, carrying a wincing Bergmann and a very bloodied Talon merc in T-45d.
"What happened to Bergmann?" asked SGT Clarke.
"As best we can tell, cracked ribs, courtesy of that merc captain. Hit him with a Super Sledge. Took all of us dogpiling him to bring him down. Even with his men dead around him and all of us on top, he kept trying to fight us off. He was finally knocked out for good when Kennedy ripped his helmet off and Norden whacked him over the head with a lead pipe he got off Walter's body."
"Shit. Walter's dead?" I half-asked.
"Yeah. So's Leo Stahl. Don't want to be the one to break the news to Jenny. He finally kicked his chem habit, too."
"Damn," said Lee as 3rd squad returned. "Is that Vasquez?"
"Yeah," replied Hayes. "We were clearing out the Commander's hose. We didn't recognize the significance of all those dead Talon mercs outside the door until Vasquez stepped through."
"At least it was quick," remarked Chavez.
"When she did," Hayes continued, "there was a quick burst of sub-machine gun fire. Following that was her," pointing at the power armored person holding Vasquez's body, "yelling, 'Shit! Don't shoot!' We almost did except I recognized the armor wasn't Talon black. After a quick talk, we found out she was Sydney Nguyen, a friend of the Commander met during a mission to recover the Declaration of Independence. She guards the place while the Commander is away. Today, she'd spent all day blasting at Talon mercs. She reflexively shot at the black helmet that came through the door. Vasquez had the misfortune to be person who walked into that."
"Well, I... I..."
"We'll deal with you later," said the LT as he entered the scene. "For now, we must interrogate our prisoners and treat our wounded."

Interrogation of the prisoners confirmed that it was the Brotherhood that contracted them for the destruction of TSC settlements in the Capital Wasteland, though they didn't seem to be able to distinguish between Lyons' and Irons' branches of the Brotherhood.

We held the funeral for Vasquez and the others who fell that afternoon. The Commander made an appearance, expression regret over being unable to join the defense of the city, as the battle occurred during a visit of Vault 101. After a brief speech honoring the dead and talks with everybody attending, the Commander left. It was one of the few times I ever shook hands with the Commander and it gave me the impression the rumor that the Commander knows the face and name, and on occasion, a few facts about the personal life of every person on the Olympus was not so half-baked. We received Vasquez's replacement later that evening.

Though it wasn't her fault by any means, PFC Amy Ramos just couldn't fill the hole left by Vasquez. (For the others, at least. I knew Vasquez for only a day so I could hardly have gotten to know her well.) Where Vasquez was gung-ho and champed at the bit for a chance to fire her M60, Ramos was mousy and much preferred the quiet. (I have no idea how she ended up a heavy gunner, let alone an infantryman, what with her hatred of loud noises.) Where Vasquez could drink even Dornan under the table, Ramos was a complete teetotaler who preferred to spend her nights reading. Still, she was a capable fighter when needed. After a night of dragging her out to the relaxation deck to try to get her to mingle, I went to sleep that night, not quite so optimistic anymore.
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"What happened to the girl after that?"
"A friend in Civilian Affairs told me TSC psychologists and psychiatrists helped treat her trauma for a few years before she changed her name and relocated to the Mojave. She was required to keep mum about the patient's name. The last she knew, she joined up with the Followers of the Apocalypse before disappearing. She was last part of a caravan trying to head west towards California. It's a horrible thing to speculate, especially for somebody who had been through so much already, but her path did take her towards Nipton."
"My God."
"I can only hope I am wrong."
"And did you ever find out her previous name?"
"No. She was a newcomer to Megaton and interacted only with the Children of Atom. With most of them dead and the survivors under similar protection, my only recourse would have been Confessor Cromwell. The loss of his flock and the removal of the real bomb proved too much for him. He tied a boulder to his leg and leaped into the Potomac. I only found out after the war with Talon had ended."
"And the prisoners captured?"
"Nine of the fifteen captured that day were executed for war crimes, hostage-taker included. Most were. They were a nasty bunch of people."
"Any exceptions?"
"There was one merc captain named Josephus. He was a fairly honorable sort. As Fields testified, his men approached 4th platoon under a flag of truce near Takoma. Said his men were willing to fight the Super Mutants there together and then lay down their arms. Thought it was foolish to fight us and get his men killed."
"And fighting the Super Mutants wouldn't?"
"Said it was too dangerous letting them live. He kept his word, in any case. It helped get him and his men fairly light sentences."
"You said Vasquez could drink Dornan under the table. How frequently did he join you in off-duty events?"
"Fairly frequently. Insisted the NCOs below do it, too. Was supposed to help us bond. At the very least, he made it clear the shouty personality was mostly an on-the-job thing. I'm guessing it worked because he was never fragged."
"And Sydney?"
"She got sentenced to seven years for manslaughter. I thought that was excessive since friendly fire does happen. The Commander seemed to agree and got it knocked down to financial support for her family."
"Did anybody else you know die in that battle?"
"Yeah. A lot of the long-time residents were killed either fighting back or fleeing towards our position. Billy Creel was killed trying to hide Maggie. She survived. It seems Talon never thought to look in the fridge. Lucas Simms took her in. Manya and Nathan Vargas were gunned down inside their house. Wadsworth was destroyed, though he did get fixed. Same with Deputy Steel. There was also Maya."
"That's a lot."
"Just a small sample of the one hundred and fifty Talon murdered that day."
"That's all I have for you today, Captain. I'll see you tomorrow at the same time."
"I'll see you then."