Ground Zero
"Keep fighting the bastards! Pandora will never fall!" you shout as you mow down another dirt biker.
In all the fighting though you begin to worry where Marina is, you look around for her in the chaos, and then you see her fighting with multiple enemies converging on her position.
You rush towards her to back her up and then you're blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you're going to have you aren't harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn't moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she's in bad shape.
"Keep fighting to rebuild civilization its still worth it " she says before losing total consciousness.
Alex suddenly comes up to you.
"Hey! We got people firing on us; you need to get the fuck outta the open!"
"You! You're a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!" you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex's arms.
"Wha I " Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he just nods and runs with her to one of the few undamaged buildings.
You're blind with rage and begin charging into battle trying take out as many of these motherfuckers as you can. It's quite possible with your actions alone you turned the tide, but you are still just one man, and you nearly get yourself killed. Fortunately for you, Vivica managed to get a few people from Ashtown to help you out and arrive just in time.
Ophelia shoots a Combine soldier who was sneaking up on you. You turn around to see her, you nearly don't recognize her decked out in battle gear.
"Told you, you'd see me in the future." She says and runs off to clean up the stragglers running away.
The Combine is pulling back. You've won, but at a high cost.
When you return to check on Marina, you find her dead. Alex explains there was nothing he could do for her. You ask to be alone which he complies. You spend the rest of the night alone with Marina's lifeless body weeping and vowing revenge.
The next day, you come out with one focus. To assault Fort Justice. This will never be over until Harry is dead. You need to strike now when he's weak.
A lot of people are wondering if you shouldn't wait to regroup, but you won't hear of it, you're determined to do it now and everyone who's in fighting condition is coming with you.
In a couple days you and your small army arrive at Fort Justice. You half expect to die this day assaulting the place, but once again destiny is with you. Fort Justice is experiencing a minor authority problem. You can take the scum out of the wasteland, but you can't make them disciplined soldiers. The last defeat has shattered morale, and apparently some are starting to question Harry's orders, while others aren't willing to die for him. The gate is wide open and parts of the place are in flames.
You walk in relatively unopposed. Some fighting occurs, but you're looking for Harry and when the loud mouth shithead sees you, instead of confronting you, he runs for the trapdoor to the underground. You immediately run to cut him off and shoot him in both legs. He falls and grabs for his pistol, but you take careful aim and blow his hand off, he screams in pain when he sees his fingers all over the ground.
A kick to his face follows, and then a stomp, and another, and another. You don't stop until his face looks like tenderized hamburger. He tries to act defiant by trying to give you the finger with his good hand, but you take it and break the motherfucker along with the rest of his hand.
"This is for Marina and the rest of the deaths you caused." You say, before blasting his mushy bloody head into mushy bloody pieces.
Now its over.
You collapse by Harry's body, spent and drained. Alex goes over to see if you're alright, but Ophelia tells him to just make sure all the enemy are either dead or running. Ophelia takes you to a barrack and puts you on a bed and tells you to rest, which you do.
"I did it Marina I got him " you mumble while falling asleep.
The next few weeks consist of rebuilding. Rebuilding everything. Fort Justice. Base Pandora. All the damage Harry caused. Word gets out to the Combine occupied towns about their current situation, with no centralized authority figure anymore, the Combine dissipates as wasteland scum flee and return to the outlands where they belong. The townspeople of those places are very grateful for your help, and you're now in charge of everything but you take no joy in any of it, or anything. You're numb. You go through the motions, but you're basically in a daze. All your thoughts are of Marina, you feel empty without her.
If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't even be alive right now. You would've died in a big mushroom cloud death. You start blaming yourself for not being able to save her, you start thinking about suicide. Everyone gets a little worried about you. Vivica starts radioing in wondering about your condition, Alex (Who's quite familiar with mental breakdowns) attempts to talk to you, but it's Ophelia who turns you around, though not immediately, but it's her actions that become the turning point.
Late one night, as you wallow in the emptiness, Ophelia visits you. You expect her to tell you not blame yourself for Marina's death again, but she doesn't. Instead she talks about the time when you saved her from the cultists and how grateful she was that day and how she would've almost done anything to repay you for saving her life.
"Mm well you repaid it already. You saved mine back at Pandora." You say wishing to be left alone.
"No, I'm saving it now."
Ophelia begins to remove her clothing, something that takes you completely by surprise. You feel you shouldn't, you know you shouldn't, but maybe it's feeling of loneliness, maybe it's the feeling of confusion, or maybe its just plain hormones, and you give in to Ophelia's advances. And for that one night, the emptiness within you disappears.
The next day Ophelia is gone leaving you a note saying she's going back to Ashtown and tells you that you shouldn't give up on life since you have so much more to change in this new world.
When you think about it, Marina saved you, so you could carry that goal out. She always did see the potential in you to do great things.
With this new perspective, you begin to return to normal, though there still was a little piece of you that died when Marina did. You'll never completely be the same. Life goes on though.
Five more years pass
It's been ten years since the bombs dropped and civilization is starting to rebuild itself again well somewhat.
Hard to believe you would've become any type of leader trying to rebuild civilization. Marina might not be around anymore, but obviously her influence on you still is and always will be as you follow her dream of rebuilding civilization again.
You're still running things from Base Pandora, which is now the unofficial head of the Atomic Alliance. The towns formally under Combine occupation are included, but are now treated as equals rather than glorified labor camps, though getting everyone to agree completely on anything still remains a problem. Fort Justice is now under Vivica's command and the Farmhouse, now known as Eden is a fully functional agricultural community. (It supplies food as well as biofuel for vehicles now) After that one night with Ophelia you don't see her anymore, but last you heard she had a baby and got married to someone in Ashtown. Good for her.
Other than political disagreements, everything has been going fairly well; raiders are still a problem, but much less than in the past. For the most part people are pretty happy living in your territory.
One thing that's been debated among you and some of other leaders, are the few GZS Shelters the Alliance has stumbled across over recent years. No effort has been made to open them, but they're all sealed shut by their main computers. From what you know by reading some of the GZS documents found in Base Pandora (and Alex who definitely has some knowledge of GZS protocols) the Shelters weren't supposed to open up until the central computer determined that sufficient amount of time had passed and the surface deemed safe. Apparently the computers still think the surface sucks. (And that assessment wouldn't exactly be wrong)
Most of the other Alliance leaders say that some sort of contact should be made with them. You get the impression some of them might've done it anyway, it's just you have most of the equipment that makes it a lot easier.
In all the fighting though you begin to worry where Marina is, you look around for her in the chaos, and then you see her fighting with multiple enemies converging on her position.
You rush towards her to back her up and then you're blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you're going to have you aren't harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn't moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she's in bad shape.
"Keep fighting to rebuild civilization its still worth it " she says before losing total consciousness.
Alex suddenly comes up to you.
"Hey! We got people firing on us; you need to get the fuck outta the open!"
"You! You're a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!" you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex's arms.
"Wha I " Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he just nods and runs with her to one of the few undamaged buildings.
You're blind with rage and begin charging into battle trying take out as many of these motherfuckers as you can. It's quite possible with your actions alone you turned the tide, but you are still just one man, and you nearly get yourself killed. Fortunately for you, Vivica managed to get a few people from Ashtown to help you out and arrive just in time.
Ophelia shoots a Combine soldier who was sneaking up on you. You turn around to see her, you nearly don't recognize her decked out in battle gear.
"Told you, you'd see me in the future." She says and runs off to clean up the stragglers running away.
The Combine is pulling back. You've won, but at a high cost.
When you return to check on Marina, you find her dead. Alex explains there was nothing he could do for her. You ask to be alone which he complies. You spend the rest of the night alone with Marina's lifeless body weeping and vowing revenge.
The next day, you come out with one focus. To assault Fort Justice. This will never be over until Harry is dead. You need to strike now when he's weak.
A lot of people are wondering if you shouldn't wait to regroup, but you won't hear of it, you're determined to do it now and everyone who's in fighting condition is coming with you.
In a couple days you and your small army arrive at Fort Justice. You half expect to die this day assaulting the place, but once again destiny is with you. Fort Justice is experiencing a minor authority problem. You can take the scum out of the wasteland, but you can't make them disciplined soldiers. The last defeat has shattered morale, and apparently some are starting to question Harry's orders, while others aren't willing to die for him. The gate is wide open and parts of the place are in flames.
You walk in relatively unopposed. Some fighting occurs, but you're looking for Harry and when the loud mouth shithead sees you, instead of confronting you, he runs for the trapdoor to the underground. You immediately run to cut him off and shoot him in both legs. He falls and grabs for his pistol, but you take careful aim and blow his hand off, he screams in pain when he sees his fingers all over the ground.
A kick to his face follows, and then a stomp, and another, and another. You don't stop until his face looks like tenderized hamburger. He tries to act defiant by trying to give you the finger with his good hand, but you take it and break the motherfucker along with the rest of his hand.
"This is for Marina and the rest of the deaths you caused." You say, before blasting his mushy bloody head into mushy bloody pieces.
Now its over.
You collapse by Harry's body, spent and drained. Alex goes over to see if you're alright, but Ophelia tells him to just make sure all the enemy are either dead or running. Ophelia takes you to a barrack and puts you on a bed and tells you to rest, which you do.
"I did it Marina I got him " you mumble while falling asleep.
The next few weeks consist of rebuilding. Rebuilding everything. Fort Justice. Base Pandora. All the damage Harry caused. Word gets out to the Combine occupied towns about their current situation, with no centralized authority figure anymore, the Combine dissipates as wasteland scum flee and return to the outlands where they belong. The townspeople of those places are very grateful for your help, and you're now in charge of everything but you take no joy in any of it, or anything. You're numb. You go through the motions, but you're basically in a daze. All your thoughts are of Marina, you feel empty without her.
If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't even be alive right now. You would've died in a big mushroom cloud death. You start blaming yourself for not being able to save her, you start thinking about suicide. Everyone gets a little worried about you. Vivica starts radioing in wondering about your condition, Alex (Who's quite familiar with mental breakdowns) attempts to talk to you, but it's Ophelia who turns you around, though not immediately, but it's her actions that become the turning point.
Late one night, as you wallow in the emptiness, Ophelia visits you. You expect her to tell you not blame yourself for Marina's death again, but she doesn't. Instead she talks about the time when you saved her from the cultists and how grateful she was that day and how she would've almost done anything to repay you for saving her life.
"Mm well you repaid it already. You saved mine back at Pandora." You say wishing to be left alone.
"No, I'm saving it now."
Ophelia begins to remove her clothing, something that takes you completely by surprise. You feel you shouldn't, you know you shouldn't, but maybe it's feeling of loneliness, maybe it's the feeling of confusion, or maybe its just plain hormones, and you give in to Ophelia's advances. And for that one night, the emptiness within you disappears.
The next day Ophelia is gone leaving you a note saying she's going back to Ashtown and tells you that you shouldn't give up on life since you have so much more to change in this new world.
When you think about it, Marina saved you, so you could carry that goal out. She always did see the potential in you to do great things.
With this new perspective, you begin to return to normal, though there still was a little piece of you that died when Marina did. You'll never completely be the same. Life goes on though.
Five more years pass
It's been ten years since the bombs dropped and civilization is starting to rebuild itself again well somewhat.
Hard to believe you would've become any type of leader trying to rebuild civilization. Marina might not be around anymore, but obviously her influence on you still is and always will be as you follow her dream of rebuilding civilization again.
You're still running things from Base Pandora, which is now the unofficial head of the Atomic Alliance. The towns formally under Combine occupation are included, but are now treated as equals rather than glorified labor camps, though getting everyone to agree completely on anything still remains a problem. Fort Justice is now under Vivica's command and the Farmhouse, now known as Eden is a fully functional agricultural community. (It supplies food as well as biofuel for vehicles now) After that one night with Ophelia you don't see her anymore, but last you heard she had a baby and got married to someone in Ashtown. Good for her.
Other than political disagreements, everything has been going fairly well; raiders are still a problem, but much less than in the past. For the most part people are pretty happy living in your territory.
One thing that's been debated among you and some of other leaders, are the few GZS Shelters the Alliance has stumbled across over recent years. No effort has been made to open them, but they're all sealed shut by their main computers. From what you know by reading some of the GZS documents found in Base Pandora (and Alex who definitely has some knowledge of GZS protocols) the Shelters weren't supposed to open up until the central computer determined that sufficient amount of time had passed and the surface deemed safe. Apparently the computers still think the surface sucks. (And that assessment wouldn't exactly be wrong)
Most of the other Alliance leaders say that some sort of contact should be made with them. You get the impression some of them might've done it anyway, it's just you have most of the equipment that makes it a lot easier.