As a small town with a long history, Concord, located about twenty miles northwest of Boston, was the scene of the famous "Battle of Guns" on April 19, 1775. The people living here at that time fired the first shot against the colonial rule of the British Empire, marking the beginning of the American War of Independence.
Although it left a mark in history, the population of Concord did not exceed 50,000 until the nuclear war broke out in 2077 in the Fallout world. Therefore, the area of the town is not large. If you stand at a high place, you can easily see the edge of the town.
As the team of eight people moved along the disrepaired roads in the town, a four-story building that had obviously been repaired caught everyone's attention.
But what is more eye-catching than the white exterior walls is undoubtedly the fierce battle that is breaking out outside the small building.
After observing the battlefield situation with a telescope from a distance, Fritz discovered that those attacking the small building were a group of humanoid creatures that looked shriveled and looked like mummies. Not only do they make ear-piercing roars as they advance, but their running movements are no different from those of wild beasts.
As for the defenders inside the building, it was obviously not the first time they encountered this kind of creature. In addition to seven or eight soldiers holding unknown weapons standing on the balcony outside the building, shooting with continuous red lasers, there were also several people who were relying on barbed wire and Sandbags were firmly guarded at the door of the small building, not letting any creature that passed through the fire net enter the building.
Putting the telescope in front of Chad, and learning from the other party that those beast-like creatures were called "ghouls", Fritz's eyes flickered slightly, as if he was thinking about whether to help.
As the attacks of batches of ghouls ended in failure, and seeing that the battle outside the building was coming to an end, a ghoul appeared out of nowhere with a green light all over its body and suddenly joined the battlefield.
And around it, some zombies who instinctively wanted to retreat actually let out even more terrifying roars than before, and then joined the siege of the small building again. Under the green light of the luminous species, many corpses whose limbs had been broken and were pretending to be dead stood up tremblingly and joined their fighting companions.
"That's a glowing species! These people are dead!"
After taking a panoramic view of the battlefield situation through the telescope, Chad, who has extensive experience in wasteland survival, said firmly: "I once saw a group of ghouls led by luminous species destroy a forty or fifty people stationed in the fortress. These volunteers Their strength is good, but that’s it, they are no match for the luminous species.”
Realizing that if his side didn't take action, the volunteers might suffer casualties, the major no longer hesitated and ordered Hailey, the only female member of the team, to keep an eye on Chad. He immediately led the other six people to attack the group of ghouls from behind.
In the team's extremely precise shooting, more than a dozen ghouls had their heads shattered by the projectiles of the energy weapons in an instant, and Erwin also put the luminous species' head into the crosshairs at this time.
Just as he put his finger on the trigger, holding his breath and preparing to shoot, the head with green light in the scope suddenly exploded like a watermelon hit by a bullet.
"Huh? What a fast gun!"
Slightly enlarging the image in the scope, Erwin discovered that a woman in red was waving to him on the top floor of the small building. It seemed that the woman had just beaten the head of the luminous species first.
With the death of their leader, the group of ghouls that were only one step away from breaking through the defense line suddenly dispersed and disappeared into the shadows of the town's buildings.
Facing the well-meaning people not far away who were helping us fight off the zombies, a volunteer captain wearing an off-white uniform, a cowboy hat, and an old-fashioned pocket watch on his waist quickly came to the center of the smoke-filled battlefield and met with The leader, Fritz, shook hands and thanked: "Thank you for your help. My name is Vincent Clark. As you can see, I am the captain of these volunteers."
"Fritz Haus, nice to meet you."
Firmly shaking Captain Vincent's calloused hand, Fritz pretended to be happy and said: "It was really dangerous just now, those damn corpses almost succeeded! You shouldn't have any casualties, right?"
"Thanks to your help, we had no casualties."
After a few polite words, Vincent saw that several people were wearing tattered armor with a strong predator style, so he frowned and said: "I wonder if you are businessmen who come to Concord to do business, or..."
After hearing this, Fritz quickly waved his hand, pointed at the dejected Chad behind him, and explained: "Don't get me wrong, sir, we heard about General Nora's reputation and came to join the Volunteer Army. We just met a group of plunderers on the way here. , the armor happened to be about the right size, so I borrowed it to wear."
"What did you say?"
Fritz, who thought the other party didn't hear clearly, repeated patiently: "We met on the way here..."
"No, that's not it. Did you just say you wanted to join the volunteers?"
As if he heard something great, Captain Vincent excitedly put his arms around the major's shoulders and said enthusiastically: "That's great! You guys came at the right time! Come on, let's go in and talk!"
Leading the fully armed elites of the Immortal Army to the door of the small building, Vincent, who had been so amiable just now, suddenly came behind his companions with a quick stride. Without waiting for anyone to ask, the other party fetched a hound and made it pass one by one in front of everyone before the smile returned to his face.
Fritz, who was surrounded by more than a dozen armed volunteers, still looked calm, because he knew that Vincent would soon give an explanation for this somewhat offensive move.
"I apologize for my recklessness, my friends."
After confirming that his pet dog had no interest in Fritz and others, Vincent sincerely invited: "I know you don't understand why I want Elsa to smell you, but since the danger has been lifted, you might as well sit down first Come down and have a meal together, we can chat while eating."
Although the other party's secretive appearance is really unpleasant, Fritz, who is also a soldier, can understand the captain's excessive vigilance. This is not only responsible for yourself, but also for your subordinates.
As for the purpose of letting the hounds come up to sniff everyone, he guessed that he wanted to see if the team was carrying any dangerous explosives or addictive drugs.
However, when they came to sit down in the simple restaurant on the second floor of the small building, Captain Vincent took out his handkerchief and carefully wiped the dust on his gold-plated pocket watch from the battle while making a detailed explanation for his rude behavior just now. explain.
In addition to explaining, the eloquent captain also introduced the glorious history of the volunteers, fearing that Fritz would change his mind and stop joining the volunteers because of his previous unpleasantness.
As one of the largest forces in the wasteland called the "Confederacy", the meaning and concept of the Minute Man are taken from the militia organization formed spontaneously in Massachusetts to resist the tyrannical rule of the colonists during the Revolutionary War. "A hero who can arrive in a minute."
For this reason, most of the volunteers, like Captain Vincent, wear the off-white uniforms of the eighteenth century colonial style to show the justice and long history of the organization, thus attracting more wastelanders to join and strengthen the strength of the volunteers.
Regarding the standard weapons that Fritz was more interested in, Captain Vincent took a homemade firearm known as a "laser gun" without hesitation.
After skillfully removing the nuclear fusion battery, a unique product of the Fallout world that functions similarly to an energy magazine, he handed the gun to the opponent and began to talk endlessly about the highlights and shortcomings of this weapon.
First of all, the highlight. Ever since the volunteers got a batch of military laser rifle parts left over from before the war, the very creative designers used those parts as a basis to abruptly modify a model that only takes a few seconds. A flintlock-type laser rifle with only one important component and the rest replaced with wood and scrap iron.
This means that the cost of this firearm is relatively low, and it is very suitable for poor organizations like the Volunteers who start from scratch.
The overly economical materials and rough style make this volunteer-standard firearm look rather nondescript in appearance. Because it combines almost all contradictory elements in the field of weapon design such as high-tech and grunge, science fiction and classics.
The laser emitting component born in the highest-level weapons laboratory of the 23rd century is connected to a hand-cranked engine from the junkyard of the 20th century. At the position of the gun muzzle, Jingui's secondary optical focusing assembly is tied to On a stick that can be seen everywhere.
And all of this is fixed on a nineteenth-century flintlock-style stock, and even the trigger guard is exactly the same as the famous Kentucky rifle in the Revolutionary War.
In addition, the laser gun also has an extremely eye-catching design, which is closely related to the hand-cranked engine at the end of the butt.
"As you can see, as long as the battery is plugged in, we can charge the firing mechanism of the firecracker through this engine. The more turns you shake, the more powerful the firecracker will be."
Showing Fritz the ordinary-looking miniature nuclear fusion battery in his hand, Captain Vincent said that a fully charged battery could be used to fire the blunderbuss at full power for about ten times. Considering that under normal circumstances volunteers do not use full-power shooting, the price-performance ratio of this fire gun is actually quite good.
But after the advantages, the disadvantages of this firearm are also obvious.
The inflexible charging mechanism makes the laser gun's firing rate extremely slow in actual combat. The excessive weight and hand-cranked engine will devour the user's physical strength at an alarming rate, limiting the user's continuous combat time and on-the-spot performance.
However, it is regrettable that because the volunteers currently do not have the technology and ability to independently produce laser rifle parts, there are only a few of them. The spare parts required for daily maintenance are completely dependent on them in the wasteland. I can barely make ends meet by picking up trash.
Therefore, except for officers such as Captain Vincent and veterans who have joined the organization for many years, the vast majority of volunteers still use the most popular homemade gunpowder firearms in the wasteland.
As a large force with a large number of people and a coverage area as large as a state, the reason why the poor volunteers have not been squeezed dry by the huge logistical pressure is because the organization originated from the mutual protection of small and medium-sized settlements in the wasteland in the early years. promise.
Under the premise that most of the members were self-armed and self-supplied civilians, only a few elite volunteers were retained to serve as mobile forces. They overcame the difficulty of insufficient resources and grew day by day under the management of their leader, General Nora. .
It was only in Vincent's narration that Fritz heard the name of another force, the academy.
"Hmph, I get angry when you talk about the academy."
As if he thought of something outrageous, Vincent slammed the table and continued: "Aren't you curious before why I let Elsa get close to you? It's not because of those bastards from the academy!"
After another vivid narration, Fritz fell into deep thought and thought that he might have found a piece of very important information.
According to Captain Vincent, before General Nora came to power eight years ago, the Volunteers, who were already famous in the wasteland for several major battles, took the initiative to take the lead in trying to establish a new country using the territory of Massachusetts as its territory.
With the force of the volunteers as a guarantee, many wasteland forces responded one after another, and the beautiful blueprint for the founding of the country was slowly unfolding in front of the wasteland residents.
Among the many forces that responded, the academy was one of them.
Vincent didn't know much about the specific situation of this force. He only knew that the predecessor of the college was the Federal Polytechnic Institute, a famous university in Massachusetts before the war.
After the nuclear war broke out, the survivors, mainly teachers and students of the university, hid in a strong shelter deep underground in the school. They continued to develop technology and secretly expanded their underground base for two hundred years.
Among the many technologies mastered by the academy, the creation of synthetic humans is undoubtedly the most dangerous one.
For example, at the conference held after the volunteers called for the founding of the country, the college sent a synthetic human who looked just like an ordinary person to attend the conference. But in the middle of the meeting, the synthetic man suddenly went on a rampage and killed most of the leaders and representatives of the forces present, directly leading to the bankruptcy of the idea of founding the country.
Although the academy later explained that there was a problem with the synthesizer's code and that the massacre in the venue was not intentional, but in a wasteland with sinister hearts, how could such a pale excuse win people's trust?
The reason why General Nora has today's unparalleled status among the volunteers and even the entire wasteland is because she broke into the college headquarters alone a year ago and solved the root causes of various problems that plagued the wasteland by destroying the factory. The problem of synths that has persisted in the settlement for many years.
Although it is unclear how General Nora did all this, Vincent said that the general had signed a clear agreement with the academy after destroying the synthetic factory, permanently prohibiting it from entering the field of artificial humans again.
However, what shocked everyone was that just a few months ago, a wasteland settlement that had always maintained a good relationship with the volunteers was bloodbathed by unknown forces, and the survivors insisted that they had witnessed the entire process of humanoid machines killing their companions. .
For a time, the synthetic humans who were supposed to be extinct actually showed signs of recovery.
Although many people do not believe that the academy dares to risk complete destruction and make a comeback, with more and more reports of sightings of humanoid machines and Boston's Diamond City being attacked by a machine army, General Nora had already ordered the volunteers two months ago. The soldiers went into general mobilization, and more than a thousand soldiers were recruited to join patrols to prevent small settlements in the wild from being attacked.
In the report sent to the headquarters from the Boston front, there was mention of a special robot with machinery as its skeleton and human flesh and blood as its coat.
These robots are different from ordinary killing units. They will hide their identities and try to integrate into human society. In this way, they seek to approach and kill the top leaders of various settlements and volunteer armies, and create chaos in the wasteland.
Thanks to their rich experience against the academy's synths, the wise wasteland people quickly found ways to fight against this infiltration robot.
That is to use dogs with a sensitive sense of smell to sniff all residents entering and leaving the settlement one by one. Once the other party resists or appears suspicious, the volunteers responsible for monitoring the scene will immediately shoot the target.
After more than a month of experiments, this simple and crude method helped many settlements see through the robot's tricks and greatly reduced losses. Maybe a very small number of human beings with evil intentions fell at the gunpoint, but if they really had a clear conscience, why didn't they dare to accept the inspection of the volunteers?
After recording all this important information, Fritz was about to ask some other questions when a woman in red walked into the room, holding a large pot of fragrant meat porridge in her hand.
"Dang, dang, dang! Freshly baked Blade Valley fish porridge, one bowl per person, don't drink too much! Oh, yes, let me serve you a bowl first, Mr. Fritz."
While all the volunteers held their foreheads and sighed, Fritz first expressed his thanks, and then looked at Vincent with inquiring eyes. He obviously thought that it was rare to have such a meal in the wasteland, so why did everyone seem so resistant to it? Woolen cloth?
Vincent smiled helplessly after hearing this, pointed at the cheerful woman in red and introduced: "This is Miriam Lane, she was the one who killed that troublesome glowing species. Despite her carelessness, her cooking skills It’s actually quite good, but...”
"Clang!"
Milia, who tapped the edge of the pot with an iron spoon and filled the hot porridge for Fritz, stepped forward and explained in the same helpless tone: "Your Excellency, the General, got a lot of fresh sea fish from somewhere, and everyone has already I have been eating grilled fish for almost half a year, and the fish meat and fish are dry. If I hadn’t brought a few bags of razor blade grain this time, I might not even be able to drink the porridge.”
Staring at the flawless white fish porridge in the bowl, Fritz nodded clearly, took out the folding spoon from his pocket, and ate happily while the volunteers looked at him with envy.
Once upon a time, they also had the same voracious appetite as this gentleman. But after eating fish for half a year, no matter how good my appetite was, it was completely wiped out by the unavoidable light fishy smell in the food due to the lack of seasoning.
