Fallout: Last Spark

Fallout: Last Spark by Bananon
Chapters 1-9 on sup/tg/ archive Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12
Discussion

“ Even when the fire of hope burns low and all seems lost to the cruel winds of fate, even in these darkest of times, we must remember: all it takes is a single spark and a little courage to start a roaring flame.”

War. War never changes...

In the post-apocalypse ruins of Seattle, an isolated node of a once city-spanning AI flickers back to life. Its mission: Restore order to this broken city.

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Major Characters

Seattle Automated Recovery AI (SARA)

The main protagonist of the quest. Part of a distributed AI network meant to coordinate emergency response efforts throughout the city. Her node has been cut off from the rest of the network and left on standby for the last few hundred years, but a leak in her reactor core has greatly shortened her shelf life and caused her to reactivate.

Fred

A juvenile Deathclaw tamed by a local farmer. Tends to wander off and get into trouble. She became rather attached to SARA after she treated the young deathclaw's injuries from fending off feral ghouls.

Sandra and Shadow

A scavenger from a nearby island and her dog. The classic wasteland duo. She happened to be treating Shadow after a raider attack in an old veterinary office when SARA had the idea to try the same thing with a deathclaw. After the initial misunderstanding, SARA saved both animals' lives and it has proven marginally profitable to hang around since then.

Johnny

SARA's primary rival. A Jet-addicted psychic that leads a raider gang with his sister. Distinguishing features include a light blue mohawk and being one step ahead of SARA.

Aria

A SARA node that has been active since the bombs fell. She spent a while in a bombed out fire department basement before being cannibalized for spare parts by scavengers. Her processor unit spent a few decades operating a casino, until Lucius won her in a game of chance and restored her to a slightly better working condition.

Sarge

A SARA node that was part of the Enclave's security network. She maintained radio silence for years guarding the Department of Homeland Security office, despite the Enclave's downfall in other parts of the country. SARA convinced her to reestablish contact with the greater Seattle network, adding her small but capable cache of military-grade robots to our resources.

Supporting Characters

Jeremy

A Mr. Handy that keeps the RobCo HQ running as best he can. Always willing to trade for spare parts to maintain himself and bring more employees online.

Matilda

A medical Mrs. Handy in residence at RobCo HQ. Jeremy's only other coworker at the moment. Brings in a few caps by treating patients.

Rex

Ghoul sheriff of the Metro. Rides a motorcycle that's much older than he is - he's actually a spry lad of thirty.

Lucius

A modern day Einstein. A well-traveled man of science with an ironic plan to clean up fallout by harnessing the power of the atom. His accent seems foreign.

Red

Johnny's older sister, the other head of the Lurkers. Vicious and capricious, like any raider worth her leather.

Joanne

A Metro citizen captured by the Lurkers. Rescued from an untimely death by bomb collar.

Sparrow

A young Golden Sons mercenary that tried to make a name for herself with an unauthorized assassination attempt. She was captured and sent back to the company alive and mostly unharmed.

Background characters

William Abernathy

A Pre-war scientist who tried to flee to Tahiti with his super spider specimen. It's unclear whether the bombs or the biomutant did him in first.

Matthias Grey

A dearly departed ghoul, the previous owner of Rex's venerable motorcycle.

Locations

RobCo Corporate HQ

The main Seattle facility of the RobCo corporation. Notable inhabitants: Jeremy, Matilda, and a "tamed" colony of guard molerats.

The Metro

A merchant settlement based in an old subway station. Notable inhabitants: Rex, Lucius, Aria.

Century Link Field

A stadium converted into a farm and guarded by remnants of the old National Guard. At least, until the Valkyries conquered it and conditions there became much worse.

Wilma's Diner

A roadside diner eking out an existence serving gruel and coffee.

Mercer Island

The settlement Sandra comes from.

The Trainyard

A disused rail depot the Brotherhood of Steel has rebuilt into a fortress using the readily available boxcars. A fallback position after their defeat by the Valkyries.

Plot

Chapter 1

SARA comes out of standby due to reactor breach. We are beset by radroaches below the surface, and ghouls above. A rifle shot from an unknown party scatters the mutants chasing us. Our first destination is a RobCo HQ, where we meet one of the few surviving employees, a Mr. Handy. We greet them in the voice of the Silver Shroud - and are startled when he replies in the voice of the Mechanist! Jokes aside, he has a package for us that was never delivered, consiting of two disassembled eyebots and some military power cells. We set out on our first quest to find more power cells for RobCo's robots at the Department of Homeland Security.

Chapter 2

We come across a young deathclaw that's been injured by ghouls and manage to befriend it. It turns out to have a pet collar and a name tag already. We detour to find medical supplies and run into a scavenger, with an injured dog of her own to care for - Sandra and Shadow. We accidentally catch a long dormant virus from the vet's terminal but manage to patch up both beloved familiars. We scare off a horde of mirelurks we accidentally alerted using recorded mama deathclaw roars. We see a thunderbird for the first time. And the Lurkers.

Chapter 3

After a long rest, Sandra and SARA search for a waylaid military truck laden with arms. They find the parking garage it was parked in has been taken over by bloodbugs up top, and a nest of giant spiders below. The spiders are all descended from a military experiment brought here by a scientist's exodus cut short. Hauling their loot back to RobCo, they meet Rex. Suddenly, yao guai attack. One thrilling sled chase later, they are back at RobCo and drafting up plans for an experimental melee weapon.

Chapter 4

Upgrades are acquired: the Burning Finger for DAVID, mirelurk shell armor for eyebots, and a proper shell sled for Fred. We stop at Wilma's Diner for some gossip and food for our meatbag friends before going to the Museum of Living Computers. However, the Mirelurks beat us there and are currently carrying their loot out to their car. They get in a fight with each other and we move in after that. One impromptu interrogation later, we learn some useful things: one, the location of the Lurkers' base. Two, they were raiding a lab Lucius was using a while back. Three, They have two working cars and this is one of them. One reminder that morality is dead and we killed it later, we are left with three corpses and a jeep full of loot to clean up.

Chapter 5

While searching the hidden laboratory for anything the raiders overlooked, we make first contact with Johnnie. While we talk, he sends a retribution party out in the Lurkers' second jeep. A wild chase across the city and the airport ensues. In the end, we manage to make off with both jeeps and escape to the Metro. We find out Fred is a runaway from a farm across the river. We meet Lucius in person as well as the SARA mainframe he won in a game of cards. We lend her an eyebot to restore her mobility and name her Aria. After we return his research notes, he shows us the progress of his experiments in purging radiation, based on his research into plasma energy.

Chapter 6

As we start to finally head to the DHS, we find some Lurkers bearing a hostage and a message: they want their vehicles back, and Sara's head on a platter to boot. They've given the Metro three days to surrender both. After defusing their slave collar, we manage to shoot the messenger and rescue the trader. We send an envoy out to meet with the Brotherhood, trading one of the jeeps for their assistance in the Lurker raid and another Assaultron body. Then, using information gleaned from the Brotherhood's failed attempts to breach the DHS, we finally invade it ourselves. We find a hostile SARA controlling the facility, still following orders from the Enclave. After convincing her the Enclave is well and truly dead, she stands down and links up with our network.

Chapter 7

We continue our briefing with the DHS SARA, now known as Sarge. As we leave, Johnnie has another game for us to play. We chase him back to his sniper's nest, but he's already gone. He leaves us with a cryptic warning about another sniper getting ready to take out one of our allies. Abandoning the fleeting chance to kill him, we rush back to RobCo and stop the assassin before she can kill Lucius.

Chapter 8

We interrogate the sniper for information. Her diary tells us her name is Sparrow, and she is on an unauthorized sortie to try and impress her superiors in her mercenary band, the Golden Sons. The Sons have been hired to assist the Lurkers in getting back their jeeps in the attack on the Metro. She offers to tell us where to find them to talk if we take her with us, but we decline the offer for the moment. We divide our focus to rally what forces we can for the upcoming siege: delivering holotags of the fallen back to the Brotherhood with an eyebot, checking back in at town with our assaultron, and sending our main units on a reconnaissance mission to Vault 59, home of canine FEV experimentation. On the way, we learn about Project MJOLNIR, the thunderbirds, and the lake lurkers of Vault 37 from the Major, all Enclave projects in her database. At the approximate location of the Vault, Arya's eyebot is ambushed by surprisingly intelligent and well-armed radcoons.

Chapter 9

SARA negotiates peace with the radcoons though explosives fishing, and they offer to be our guides to reach the Vault. Tracks at the pond point to someone in power armor lurking nearby, however. When we find the armor, it seems abandoned, radioactive, and downright haunted. Leaving that mystery for another day, we return to hunting for the Vault. A yao guai den blocks the entrance to the vault. Lacking the firepower to confront irradiated bears directly, Arya prepares some bait to distract them while the rest of us get into the vault.

Chapter 10

Meanwhile, back at the Metro, Lucius is working on something he calls an 'aural amplifier' for the coming siege. Rex borrows Fred to do some digging. And SARA's Assaultron retrieves Sparrow from the RobCo facility - after dealing with an ill-advised hostage stunt. She handcuffs Sparrow to her unit to go make contact with the Sons. Negotiations to make the Sons back out stutter, then fail. We won't return the jeeps to their clients, and they won't back out of their contract with the Lurkers. At the very least, Sparrow is returned unharmed and our Assaultron returns from the negotiations in one piece.