I’m in civilian clothing but fortunately on a bike, and spotted it from far away.
A red “&”? There shouldn’t be a gas pump there… Oh a “mi-go scout”… Let’s kite it to the Z’s!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Left arm gone! Right arm gone! Torso at half health! Backpaddling away at full speed.
My horse archer started out at a horse ranch, with another ranch and a dairy farm nearby. After using a wagon from one of the ranches to haul all she could to the dairy farm and set herself up in relative comfort, she went out exploring.
A few hours horseback ride down the road from the dairy farm was a run down motel and just past that, an apartment tower. She rode circles around the motel zombies, firing on them with her recurve bow, leaning down in a feat of acrobatics to snatch up arrows as her horse trotted past whenever there was space enough to make such a pass.
After clearing the motel of the undead, she rode back to the farm to rest up craft some more arrows and grab the pickaxe she gathered up along the way while looting the horse ranches and dairy farm she now lived in. That following morning, after a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, she set back out to the apartment tower. A quick scout upon arrival didn’t produce any sign of undead wandering around, so she tied her horse up a healthy distance from the garage entrance and approached it on foot.
Pounding on the doorway with the side of her hand was met with the sound of people on the other side. Survivors! She’d found other survivors! Steeling her nerves, she took up her pickaxe and began bashing holes into the large garage door until a section was so weakened she could push it in and form a hole. She poked her head in for a quick glance before entering. No guns leveled at her and no hordes shambling in her direction. Perfect. She stepped through.
One of the door sentries was so happy to see her, he all but jumped at the chance to get out of this place and hole up in the fresh air at an actual farm. The other sentry was more skeptical and decided to stay back. With her new friend guiding her through the garage, a few zombies were laid low and the pair made their way up the steps to speak with some of the others stuck in this building. All in all, ten people agreed to come back to the farm with her while at least that many or more decided to stay where they were, at least for now.
With the farm suddenly very full and both nearby ranches stripped down practically to the bare walls, she saddled up a horse snd rode out alone to find a place with room to grow and flourish.
Aimy stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow before grabbing the sack and continuing to drag it, she eyed the surrounding swamp with undisguised malice, unfortunately nothing volunteered to be shot. God she hated this place, what moron builds a bunker in a swamp?
The outpost had mostly been a bust, she’d been hoping to find some fellow soldiers or some clue where to head next but the place had just been filled with more reanimated dead, out of control support bots and turrets.
Alternating between cursing and dark mutters she continued until she was standing beside her vehicle, still the trip hadn’t been a complete loss she thought to herself as she peeked into the sack at the stacks of various recovered “hacks”. Aimy cackled darkly, she’d defintely find a use for these…
Aimy had always hated doing Lab duty, the places had the distinct smell she’d come to associate with hospitals, the work was boring and the egg heads frankly unnerving but for once she was willing to give them a pass. Dealing with Labs in the past had never netted her such interesting toys before!
Her eyes sparkled as her gaze swept over the polished matte black finish, she resisted the urge to drool at the sight of the massive intergrated sniper rifle. This just might be the coolest thing she’d ever seen!
I’d actually seen a broken one of these before and the construction one but finding a working one? and since it turns out that livestock carriers do work for them there was no way I could pass it up! I’ve already got a couple of batteries stocked up, pain in the ass to haul them out of labs but damn I’m glad I did, so I should get some decent mileage out of it!
Jess, my horse archer character, went out scouting for a place big enough to house herself, the survivors she recruited from an apartment tower, more than a dozen head of cattle from a dairy farm and a pair of horses from two horse ranches.
She rode for about a day, following roads mostly and with the occasional side trip into the brush when something at a distance caught her eye. After passing another dingy motel, a mega store and a gas station/garage, she hit a fair sized stretch of plains before reaching the outskirts of what appears to be a huge city (can’t see all of it on the revealed overmap).
Only guessing at what kind and how many monstrosities await in town, she rode back the way she came and into the surrounding fields. There was nothing interesting in the fields, bushes and rocks and a pack of Chihuahuas that made her laugh, but the northeast edge of the field ended in a perfectly sized grotto, nestled in the beginnings of a stand of woods.
She rode back to her dairy farm and the other survivors waiting on her and told them of the spot. Everyone seemed agreeable to moving up there and making camp, so they packed up a wagon taken from a nearby ranch, hitched the horses and all eleven of them piled on as best they could manage. The trip was slow and the horses protested having to pull such a load, but eventually they all made it up to the clearing she described to them and began work on building temporary housing. Fort New Hope was officially born.
There was a good supply of canned and dry goods to start them off, but it was decided they’d soon need something more sustainable. Jess let the horses rest overnight then at first light, so saddled one and rode back toward the dairy farm. The trip there was uneventful, a few unfriendlies here or there, but all at a safe distance from the road. She got back and untied all the cattle, rounding them up in the grazing yard before opening the gates and setting off for their new home - the great cattle drive of the apocolypse was under way!
She rode ahead, steering her horse with her knees and kept her bow at the ready. The cattle seemed more or less obliged to follow and she only had to circle back for stragglers a couple times, that is until they began moving past an area with an amoebic mold and another area with a few wolves. The cattle stayed way back and began to scatter each time, so she had to let them to their own devices for a bit while she rode ahead and dealt with each of the problems. Rounding them all back up, she continued on and -finally- made it to camp.
Now Jess is back at the new camp, the cattle are tied up with the wagon between them and the general direction of the city for whatever protection it might afford and now Fort New Hope has access to renewable supplies of milk to drink or eventually craft into cheese, once the rest of the supplies can be secured. Their only hope now is that they’re far enough from the city so as not to draw the undead while they raid for supplies and begin to build.
Basil was tired to his bones. Bad health had followed him closely for the past few months. And the children…the children that he could still see whenever he closed his eyes. Now he had found a seemingly quiet island in the middle of the river, and he was debating staying there or continuing his search for the promised refugee camp.
Seriously, influenza and the cold back to back, and clearing out a school, only to find that the former students had destroyed almost everything within it is taking a toll on his body and mind. maybe staying in one place for a while is what he needs? Thoughts?
If you can source some healthy food near there it might be worth it, work on getting your health stat up and if you have any book to read work though those.
I think the die has been cast. In despair Basil turned to something that he had read in one of the looted lab journals that he has. He decided that he needed to be a better, stronger man, and so the path towards what the journal called Alpha had been started. Though since he has his own ideas a few changes may be made to the formula.
Yeah, started brewing alpha mutagen, with plans to mix in a few other things once Robust Genetics has been achieved. The island has been noted for possibly future use though
Prozac wilk help with the bad mood.
This might be the single most useful thing I’ve gotten out of airdrop crates, there have been a surprisingly high number of playthroughs where I’ve found mutiple sets of each Power Armour but never found myself a frame to go with them so it’s defintely a nice change. I wonder if the game is telling me something, I might have to go full space marine at some point 
.
A blinding flash of light… and then it was over…
I got a new phone yesterday and my main character - a rancher and my 2nd main(?) character - a horse archer were both lost after we did the transfer of info & apparently cdda didn’t copy over. I didn’t notice & my old phone was wiped. I like to think in that little world, the blob decided earth wasn’t worth it & obliterated it in a huge explosion. They saw the flash & their suffering was over in an instant. 
Man, that sucks. Losing a save might be the worst way for a game to end.
The room was modestly furnished but past experience told her this was probably where the commanding officer of this particular bunker did their work, she looked at the body of the women on the floor and wondered if she was said officer.
She was near naked and had nothing in her possession but a gun and a bottle of spirits, a single bullet had been fired and a single bullet wound was visible at the temple, the door had been locked. The cause of death was no real mystery.
Aimy wonder what had driven her to this, had she posessed knowledge of the dire event that had brough mankind so low? Had the events been too much for her? Aimy wished should could of spoke with her fellow soldier, instead all she could do was salute the dead with a toast and continue her own journey.
I finally got to see the remodeled refugee center. The place looks a lot better than before and the food storeroom is actually filled with food now. In fact, the refugees seem to have an interesting taste for food…
Aimy studied the man current sat on the autodoc couch, he was, too put none to fine a point on it, a mess. Crude scars stretched across his body and face, failed bionics were grafted to and sticking out of his flesh, his voice buzzed robotically and periodicly the faulty systems would malfunction. The idea that the eggheads had been doing this type of experimentation, had inflicted this lever of cruelty on their fellow man sickened even the battle hardened soldier. Until recently, Denver as he called himself, had been an out of control cyborg.
Only good fortune and curiousity on Aimys part had saved him, while hacking the labs security systems she’d run across an unexpected signal. After disabling then backtracking it she’d run across the inactive cyborg, something, perhaps a touch of apprehension at her own possible fate, had led her to hauling the cyborg back to the labs Autodoc.
What she’d discovered had been horrifying, among the masses of inactive, corruped and just general failed systems had been one that stood out. A “Personality Override Chip”, the implications stunned her. She had little choice, with help from a hacked Nursebot, she’d programmed the Autodoc to rip that sucker out.
Aimy wouldn’t exactly consider herself kind, she’d done a lot of questionable things over the years but the all encompassing gratitude that had filled the scarred mans face when he’d realised that he’d finally been freed from his nightmare existence had both touch her deeply and, as she remembered all the other cyborgs she’d slain, filled her with guilt over all the innocent lives she’d unknowingly snuffed out.
There and then he’d sworn to protect her, a strange thing for the experienced soldier to hear but a sentiment she shared. There was still much work to be done, the removal of the Personality Override was just the tip of the iceberg on what needed to be undone and Aimy made it her mission to see him as healed and whole as she could manage.
Damn this game gets dark at times, well after a couple of attempts I managed to get the chip out of him and I’ve also managed to remove the leaky bionic, still lots more to work on. Makes me glad I’ve been hording CBMs and held on to the anethetic I’d collected even after getting the Sensory Dulling CBM.
I’ve noticed a lot of new (to me) options in regards to NPCs with bionics so it will be interesting to see what he can do once I’ve got him fixed up and geared up.
Also:
Merciless 
Edit:
Look at this poor guy, if its green it needs to come out 
Edit 2:
Did something (other then obvious stuff) get changed about bionic installations/removals? I’ve failed a few installs on my survivor and I failed a few removals on Denver but so far neither of them have taken any damage at all, have I just been REALLY lucky?
On the positive side after a few days of intensive surgery and burning though a fair bit of anethetic I’ve got all his negative bionics out!
“They huddle in their building and wait for the government to come and save them! Can they not see that no help will be coming? That it is up to them to save themselves? That outpost that they want me to visit is the only intelligent thing they have done!”, Basil ranted to Jadwiga as they ate.
Slows going down the Alpha path and the dreams of leading others are starting to be attractive. Maybe the outpost can be convinced to follow him instead of more distant leaders……. And thankyou to NPC’s with high skills that are difficult to raise any other way.
First encounter with a Mi-Go encampment. Myself being a dumbass, I think, “Oh, this will be some pleasant site seeing. Let me do a quick drive thru and see what’s going on.” I was expecting maybe a dozen Mi-Gos, but what I drove into was a horde of maybe 70 pink punks that quickly filled the bottleneck between two thick forested areas as they swarmed towards my Atomic Car.
Surpriaed but calm, I begin to weave througg them at around 24 MPH as one of the sly suckers sneaks into my sedan. He starts slapping me from the passenger seat like a Reverse Chris Brown situation. I stopped, take a breath. Look behind me at the horde. Look in front of me at what I assume is open roads. I can fix this.
I bring the car down to about 8 MPH to continue out-pacing the horde behind, let go of the controls, and pull out a H&K rifle in .308. I take a few hits in the process but the Car trundles along amicably as I begin to put some well placed shots into the Mi-Go.
“You are being laser targeted”
That’s… Not good. I zoom out and see the culprit–A big sexy tank drone just came into range, previously unnoticed in the frenzy of pink limbs and unwanted penetration. Another look at my belligerant co-pilot–Heavily injured at three shots. Well, in for a penny, in for a dime. I take a couple more potshots into the Mi-Go and drops dead just as the tank drone begins lobbying artillery at me. I grab the controls and steer hard right as the first shot exlodes, tearing about the left side of my vehicle. The second shot is over-shot, blowing apart my passenger side door and frame. A final detonation lands nearly inside the vehicle, throwing flames and shrapnel into my light body armor as well as tearing apart my dashboard and controls. Thankfully, before any further damage can be done, the cavalry arrives–The horde of Mi-Go has taken notice of the tank drone and have begone to swarm it in a heroic suicide charge. I hard brake before I ram into the labryinth of trees framing both sides of the narrow pass where this now epic battle will occur. I briefly consider staying to watch but reconsider as my stats bgiin to drop rapidly as my pain shoots through the roof–It turns out three explosive rounds worth of shrapnel and fire has a catastrophic effect on the human anatomy.
Miraculously, however, none of my limbs have been destroyed in the fire storm. I can’t say the same for my vehicle–I go to pull away from the carnage but it initially does nothing. I panic a little, dreading a slow crawl back to my base with maxed out pain, but realize I’m just fumbling with the controls. I finally pop it into drive and try to cautiously make my way back to base. Between my crippling pain and the nearly non-functional control, though, I end up crashing my atomic care into a river just outside my base. Good enough. I drag my sorry ass into my house, pop some codeine, and go to sleep. God damn Mi-Go encampments, man.
I know I shouldn’t laugh, but, a reverse Chris Brown situation? 
So I random rolled a character after having lost all my favorite saves to getting a new phone & not transferring over. It’s not something familiar to me but sounds like it could be fun.
She’s a novice necromancer who (thankfully) started in the basement of a house on the edge of a city. Using shadows & taking it really slow, she closed all the window curtains upstairs and has disassembled just about all she can. Made a duffel bag, grabbed any food and all the more mundane spare parts she could carry. No need for condensers or heating elements or whatever just yet.
After waiting out the noise and smashes in the distance, she peeked out all the windows to check the coast was clear then slipped out the back bedroom window into the woods beyond. After walking a safe distance she spotted a campsite up ahead a short way. She’s made it there, laid out a very basic work area to begin fashioning some essentials and even practiced raising undead once to bend to her will. This could be interesting.
