Megaton

"Damn it" I cursed as I was momentarily blinded by the intense light "There was no avoiding this stupid cliché was there!"

As I slowly regained my sight I saw a unending barren landscape before me and felt an unimaginable sense of loneliness. I was on my own now and had to face the horrors of the wasteland with nothing but, the tiny 9mm Pistol I had strapped to my waist and a Security Baton.

Taking a step forward I was startled by a sound I had been looking forward to for decades, it was the level up sound!

Laughing I opened my Pipboy and scrolled over to my Stats but, no matter how hard I looked there was no button or flashing icon that said "Level Up!" for me to press so I was confused what I was supposed to do. Not a second after I wondered about it another green panel popped into existence in front of me.

"Oh, so I just to will it?"

It was weird but, it made just about as much sense as anything else regarding my powers so I decided to just accept it and move on.

___________________

Skills

Barter: 16

Energy Weapons: 15

Explosives: 30*

Guns: 44*

Lockpick: 15

Medicine: 95

Melee Weapons: 26

Repair: 76

Science: 87

Speech: 33*

Sneak: 17

Survival: 15

Unarmed: 25

_____________________

Some of my Skills had gone up a bit since the last time I'd checked my stats though there weren't really any groundbreaking changes.

Since I had over 10 Intelligence it meant that I could add over 20 Points into a Skill every time I leveled up instead of the usual 15, and I didn't hesitate a moment to all all 20 of them into my Guns Skill raising it to 64. It was the best choice in my opinion since from now on I could be forced into a fight at any moment and being better with my gun would be a literal lifesaver.

Next was my personal favorite part of leveling up which was picking my new Perk!

I already had a general idea of which Perks I would pick as I leveled up. First off I was going to ignore any Exp or Stat boosting Perks since I was sure I could max them out on my own especially with the Almost Perfect Perk and Bobbleheads. I was also planning on skipping the situational Perks like Lady Killer and Entomologist since they were only useful against specific enemies. My goal was to save up as many Points as possible to use for the higher level Perks that gave greater returns.

Of course if it was needed I wouldn't hesitate to pick a couple Perks early on if I felt I wasn't strong enough.

As the Skill Menu closed a list popped up showing all the Perks I was able to select at the moment.

Lady Killer

Confirmed Bachelor

Daddy's Boy

Gun Nut

Little Leaguer

Thief

Swift Learner

Intense Training

Friend Of The Night

Heave, Ho!

Hunter

Rapid Reload

Retention

"Hmm" I rubbed my chin "Just like I thought."

Some of the Perks I saw listed weren't available in Fallout 3 and were only available in New Vegas, which meant that I really did have some kind of hybrid system. But, I wasn't complaining since in general New Vegas had better and more varied Perks than 3 did. Though it did bring up the question of what happens to the Perks that were in both games but, had different effects?

Would I get the weaker or stronger version of the Perk? Take Grim Reaper's Sprint for example a level 20 Perk that was in both games. In Fallout 3 it instantly refilled your AP after making a kill in VATS but, in New Vegas it only restored 20 AP. Though I had a feeling I'd end up getting the New Vegas versions since they were more balanced but, a man could dream. Either way that was a problem for the future and right now I needed to focus on which Perk I should pick.

In the end I chose the Rapid Reload Perk which increased my reload speed by 25% because it seemed like the most useful one. Because reloading faster meant I would be able to defend myself again faster after running out of ammo.

Of course I was also interested in other Perks like Friend Of The Night which basically gave you night vision and the Hunter which let the player deal 75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals. But, they both had Skill and Special Requirements that I didn't meet yet and were both relatively situational and wouldn't directly increase my combat strength which was what I needed the most right now.

So after confirming my choice I reluctantly had to close the window and move on since I was on a schedule. But, as soon as time restarted a crippling migraine washed over me and I was on the ground writhing in pain. Things like proper shooting form and gun techniques flooded into my brain as I struggled to keep from passing out.

"Fuck I forgot about this" I cursed enduring the pain of my expanding mind.

Eventually the pain subsided and I shakily stood to my feet and wiped the sweat from my forehead 'That was even more painful that last time' I gulped. But, I guess that's just what happens when you get 20 points of knowledge and experience shoved into your brain all at once.

Shaking my head I just accepted that fact that this was something I would have to get used to if I wanted to survive. Because when you think about it a couple minutes of agony was a decent trade for superhuman abillities so I sucked it up and moved on.

Even though it was still early in the morning I didn't know how far I would have to travel to make it to Megaton. I knew where it was on my Pipboy map which still showed a map of prewar D.C. but, I wasn't sure exactly how long it would actually take to get there.

This world was a 'lot' bigger than the one in the game even the tiny Vault 101 had several hundred residents instead of the ten or twenty it did in the game.

With no more reason to procrastinate I readjusted the bag over my shoulder and set off into the wastes. Although my goal was to make it to Megaton by the end of the day there was a small detour I wanted to make first.

Springvale was a small neighborhood not far east of the Vault and I could easily see it from the scenic overlook when I came out. There really wasn't much there and the only person I knew of who even lived in Springvale was a former prostitute who was addicted to Jet. And the only reason I was even stopping there was for the three Frag Grenades and copy of Pugilism Illustrated that I was hoping would be there.

As I walked along the roads I couldn't help, but get an eerie feeling and not just because of how exposed I felt.

No, it was the silence.

Just like back when I used VATS for the first time the silence was killing me. Back in the Vault even if you were completely by yourself there was always something flickering, creaking, or groaning. Now for the first time in years I had to deal with silence and it was freaking me out! And it wasn't like VATS which I could turn off whenever I wanted.

"Wait" I smacked my forehead "I'm an idiot!"

I opened up my Pipboy and flicked to the Radio. I had completely forgotten that it existed over the years because the only station it could pick up in the Vault was the stupid Vault 101 PA System that the Overseer used to order me around. And of course there was only one station I could possibly tune in to.

"Your listening to GNR folks that's Galaxy News Radio in case y'all forgot and here's me Three Dog! Bow-wow-ow haha! Now I'm coming at you with the not so latest or greatest hits from the past two centuries, but you better believe that even though they ain't new they can still rock!"

"Ahh, that's better" I laughed as Three Dog started playing "Mighty Mighty Man."

It probably wasn't the best idea to be broadcasting my location like this, but I didn't really care right now.

As I walked I was constantly spamming VATS just like I did in the game to make sure no enemies got the drop on me.

Over the years I'd gotten a better understanding of what VATS was capable of and how it effected me. And one interesting thing I learned was that even though it used a huge amount of mental strength to actually attack with VATS just opening it for an instant to check for enemies wasn't all that draining. The only real problem was that since the vault was so small I didn't actually know its max range yet, which made me a bit worried that a raider with a good rifle and decent aim could shoot farther than I could sense.

So I would have to find a way to figure out it's exact range in the future to better protect myself.

After about an hour of walking I finally made it down to Springvale from the small mountain Vault 101 was on and reluctantly decided to turn off my Radio and start sneaking. In the game there was a raider group living in the elementary school nearby and I didn't want to alert them. I was still pretty far from the school, but I it seemed like a good bet that they would wander around a lot more than their in game counterparts did so I had to be careful to avoid being seen.

Thankfully it didn't take long for me to find what I was looking and to my joy the Grenades and Magazine were exactly where I expected them to be, even if it was a bit harder to find them with there being more houses around than in game.

The Grenades were hidden inside of one of those old school mail drop boxes not inside of the part where the letters were stored, but in the top part you put stuff inside that has a guard that stops you from reaching in to grab stuff. I was pretty sure one of the raiders probably left them here for some reason probably to stop them from being taken by other raiders. That didn't matter anymore though because they were mine now.

Carefully picking them up the Grenades I willed them into my Inventory. I'd had the Inventory for years ever since I first recieved the Pipboy but, I never really had anything to use it for back in the Vault. But, now that I was on the outside it was finally showing it's value.

Like just now with those grenades, if I didn't have an Inventory I would've had to carry them around on myself which would have been extremely dangerous. All it would take is a single stray bullet or bad landing to completely ruin my day.

Thankfully I had awesome superpowers and could store them in my own personal pocket dimension where there they were completely safe.

As for the Pugilists Illustrated I just looked through all of the neighborhood mailboxes until I found it.

I didn't keep it though and just skimmed through it really quick to get the +1 to Unarmed. It was basically completely useless and almost not worth the time, but hey every bit helps right? Besides it wasn't like I had to go too far out of my way to get it.

Once I had what I needed I started making my way out of the neighborhood and not a moment to soon because on my way out I actually ran into two different raider scouting parties. I didn't know if I was just lucky I didn't run into them before or if they only patrolled at certain times, but either way I was just happy I wasn't seen. It seemed like the raiders weren't particularly disciplined and were like they were stoned out of their minds making it easy to sneak past them.

I was tempted to try and take them out because they were only in groups of three or four and knew I could do it especially if I used VATS. But, decided against it in case something went wrong since I only had a single 9mm Pistol and in my bright neon blue Vault-Tec Jumpsuit which offered zero protection.

No I could deal with those raiders later, I needed to get set up in Megaton first.

I was a bit worried I might have a hard time finding the town, but my worries were pointless since it wasn't long before I saw a giant painted sign that said "MEGATON" in bold letters and had an arrow pointing down an old dirt road.

I guess it was there to help new traders and travelers find the place easier.

Not long later the giant metal walls of the city came into view and saying I was impressed would be an understatement. The massive 15ft metal wall was extremely imposing and extended hundreds of feet in either direction. I could only imagine the amount of effort that went into creating and maintaining something like this.

Even more surprising to me though was the amount of people who were around. I could see probably thirty to forty armed guards standing at the top of the wall and walking the perimeter and that was only on the tiny part of the wall that I could see. There were even a couple of what looked to be trader caravans coming in and out of the front gates.

I'd been constantly reminding myself that this wasn't just a game anymore and not to let my guard down, but this world kept finding ways to surprising me.

"Halt" one of the guards stopped me with his rifle drawn as I approached "State your intentions or leave immediately!"

"Whoa" I put my hands up "I just came out from Vault 101 and heard about a city nearby I was just coming to check it out."

The guard put his gun down after eyeing my Vault suit and Pipboy "Alright, you can go in" he said "And sorry about the hostile attitude we normally have to be careful of outsiders since raiders sometimes try to sneak passed us."

"So, I can go in?"

"Yeah, go ahead" he nodded "I'll just need to radio ahead to Lucas though since I imagine he might be interested in meeting you."

I left the guard behind and walked into the massive gates at the towns entrance.

"Thirsty partner? Try Moriarty's! Coldest drinks in the Capital Wasteland" Deputy Weld the rusted old Protectron who served as Megaton's gatekeeper greeted me as I passed.

The scientist in me was dying to go up and start examining him since he was the first robot I had ever seen aside from that bucket of bolts Andy in Vault 101. But, I held back since the people here probably wouldn't like me messing around with him not to mention that there were hundreds of other Protectrons out there for me to mess with.

The inside of Megaton was exactly what I was expecting in some ways but, completely different in others.

At first glance it was about twenty to thirty times bigger than in the games but, still had the salvaged metal buildings and dirt roads I was expecting. What I wasn't expecting was just how lively the town was. I was expecting the place to be a ghost town but, there were people everywhere going about their daily lives. I saw traders hawking their wares, children running around playing tag, and scavengers lugging around massive piles of junk.

It was all incredibly interesting but, I ignored all that for now because I wanted to make my way to the bottom of the crater that Megaton sat in to check out the legendary towns even more legendary nuke.

My goal was to complete the quest 'The Power Of Atom' and disarm the bomb it was actually the whole reason I picked the Tag Skills I did. If I remembered right I needed at least 25 in Explosives to safely disarm the bomb and the extra points in Speech were so that I could hopefully get an extra couple caps out of Lucas Simms for getting rid of his literal ticking time bomb.

After pushing my way through the scores of people I eventually reached the center of town and saw the bomb sitting in the center of a large shallow pond. It was kind of ominous how unassuming and small it looked sitting out there in the water and the group of people kneeling around it singing religious chants didn't help much either.

I hoped the Children Of Atom weren't going to have a problem with me disarming the bomb. In the game they didn't care, but I knew better than to underestimate a group of religious fanatics especially when it came to their object of worship.

As I was thinking about what I should do next I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Turning around I saw an older looking black man with a thick grey beard wearing a leather armor with a small golden star pinned to it and a cowboy hat.

"Nice to meet you" he smiled and put his hand out "You must be the newblood I was just informed about."

"And you must be Lucas Simms the head of security around here" I shook his hand.

"I prefer the term Sheriff" he said while adjusting his hat "Makes me sound cooler."

"Is there any reason you came to find me?"

"No reason in particular it's just my job to meet anyone of interest who comes into town, to get a read on 'em if you know what I mean."

"And what kind of read are you getting off me" I asked a bit curious?

"Well" Lucas rubbed his chin "from what I can tell you seem far more confident than most of the people in the wastes, most folk out here are fidgety and constantly keeping an eye out for trouble. Not you though that normally means one of two things either your skilled and can back up that confidence or you're too stupid to know how much danger your in. And seeing as you just came out of one of them Vaults your far more likely to be the ladder, but for some reason I can't shake the feeling that you're a lot tougher than you look."

I blinked a bit shocked by how well he read me.

"Don't look too surprised now" he chuckled "I've been around the block a few times and seen pretty much everything there is to see."

"That's pretty impressive" I admitted "Names Nick by the way and now that we've introduced ourselves, I have a bit of an offer for you" I smiled.

"I'm listening" he raised an eyebrow.

"As you've probably noticed I'm not really that well equipped to start surviving in the wastes" I motioned down to the small duffle bag and lone pistol sitting on my waist as well as my brightly colored clothes. So what I need right now more than anything is some caps to get myself some proper equipment."

"I hope your not asking for a loan" Lucas's tone became serious "Because Megaton ain't a charity."

"No" I shook my head "I'm not asking for a loan more like a business transaction."

"And what could you possibly offer? You said it yourself that you don't have much and if you're looking for a job I'm the wrong person to talk to."

I smirked and pointed behind me "As long as you pay me I can get rid of that for you."

His eyes widened before he cursed "Bullshit! That damn nuke has been here for centuries not one person has had the skills to try!"

I stared him down "I can do it. I've spent my life in a Vault learning from some of the brightest people around and I am 100% confident I can do it."

Seeing how serious I was Lucas flustered a bit "Can you really do it?"

"I would never mess around with my life like this unless I knew I could do it" I shook my head.

Lucas grit his teeth as he thought things over "That damn thing has been here forever and is a constant threat to our town and no one has ever been brave enough to try and move or disarm it before. And I know that bastard Tenpenny is up to something, ever since he's failed to buy us out of the town there have been suspicious people in town eyeing the bomb."

He eventually sighed "That stupid thing has been a threat to our town for long enough it needs to go, I'll give you a hundred caps if you can disarm it."

"You'll have to do a bit better that that" I shook my head "I might be new to the Capital Wasteland, but I know enough to know that 100 caps is barely anything."

He clenched his fist "Fine, I can go up to five hundred, but that's as high as I can go! Megaton doesn't have too much liquid assets right now because of those damn raiders down in Springvale scaring off most of the traders."

"Throw in a place for me to live while I'm here and you've got yourself a deal."

"There is an empty house up near the entrance that's been empty since the old mechanic who lived there croaked a couple weeks ago. I suppose I can get you the keys if you really do disarm the bomb."

"Awesome" I gave him a thumbs up! "I'll do it later tonight when there's less people around, don't want anyone getting antsy when they see someone messing with the bomb."

"That's a good idea" he nodded "People around here can be a bit distrustful of newcomers. Talk to me tomorrow after it's done and I'll give you your payment."

Once we agreed on our deal Lucas bid me goodbye saying that he still had work to do today and left me by myself. At that point my stomach started growling and I realized that I hadn't actually eaten anything at all today so I found a secluded spot and opened up my duffle bag. I didn't actually need the bag but, I brought it with me because I needed a cover for my Inventory.

I didn't have much in the bag it was mostly just a couple changes of clothes and other unimportant odds and ends, which I only brought because an empty bag would look suspicious. Reaching inside I pulled out a small bit of food from my Inventory.

Food in the Vault was heavily regulated so I wasn't able to steal anything good before I left especially when I didn't even know when I was leaving, so I had to make due with what I could find.

And what I could find were Radroaches.

As disgusting as it was nearly everyone in the Vault had eaten Radroaches before. They were good at digging and there were always a couple of them sneaking around in the Vault and as scarce as resources were in there, there was no way the Overseer was letting them go to waste. Of course they never served them whole, the bugs were fed into a machine where they were dried out and crushed into powder before being added into the different pastes we were forced to eat.

Most of the people in the Vault weren't aware of that, but seeing as I was one of the people who helped fix the machine and that I had probably killed over a thousand Radroaches over the years I knew about it.

It wasn't hard to steal some of the bug powder and few supplements from my fathers office to make some 'bugbars'. They were chewy and had a bit of a smell, but didn't actually taste all that bad at least compared to some of the other stuff I'd eaten before.

There were still had hours left until night time when I could disarm the nuke and I wanted to make the best use of my time. And there were a couple of things I could think of to do to kill some time.

First there was a quest I knew I could take up in the towns water treatment plant and all I would have to do is fix a couple leaky pipes. I had literally done that hundreds of times before in the Vault making it easy caps.

Next was Craterside Supply I could go and talk to that mad woman Moira and start the Wasteland Survival Guide Quest which was one of the longest and most rewarding quests in the game. I wasn't sure about some of the stuff she would ask me to do, but I knew there were ways to avoid most of the crazy shit she wanted. I also wanted to see her wares so that I could buy some new clothes and weapons when I had the chance because it didn't seem like a good idea to keep going around as a giant blue target.

And finally I knew that there was a hollowed our rock somewhere on the far side of Megaton's outer wall that had a Stealthboy and Sniper Rifle inside. There was no way I could pass either of those up!

After finishing up my meal I asked one of the residents for directions to the water plant and met up with Walter the man who was single handedly keeping Megaton's water going. It didn't take much for him to hire me, all I did was let him know I did repair in a Vault and he jumped at the chance for some help. He gave me the locations of the leaks and some tools before sending me on my way.

The man couldn't fix the leaks himself because he could never leave the water pumps in case something happened and when he could leave at night it was too dark to actually try fixing them.

Far from the quick job I expected though I ended up working for hours fixing the two dozen or so big and small leaks scattered through the town. And when I finally finished and returned to Walter soaking wet and cold he jumped around and hugged me stating that the water pressure was the highest its been in years! He gladly paid me my two hundred caps and said he would call me again if he ever needed more work done in the future.

By the time I was finally finished it was already five in the afternoon and because of the massive walls around the city it was already starting to get dark.

I decided to call it a day and go buy a proper meal since I wanted to try some real food for once.

I stopped at the Brass Lantern a small restaurant not far from the clearing the nuke sat in and one of the only two places in town to buy a decent bite to eat aside from Moriary's Saloon. There were actually quite a few options available at least as far as meat went there was Radstag, Mirelurk, Feral Dog, Yao Gui, Brahmin, and Molerat meat for sale. You could have it grilled, fried, or put into a burger and they even had some nice soups on the menu too.

The rest of their options were lacking quite a bit though as they had literally nothing to drink aside from luke warm water and Nuka-Cola, not that I minded since I always wanted to try one of those. And they didn't have any fruits or vegetables on the menu when I asked why I was told that because of all raiders and supermutants in the area no one is brave enough to try growing anything. Since it would just be stolen by someone stronger, so it just wasn't worth the effort to start a farm for most people.

By the time I finished eating my Molerat steak (Which was surprisingly good) and paid it was already dark. There were street lights placed around town, but they were dim to save power and were only just bright enough so that you wouldn't accidentally trip and break your neck. As opposed to the madhouse the roads were during the day now that it was dark the place seemed like a ghost town. If I had to guess I would say that all of the residents were either at home resting or off at the Saloon drinking and doing unspeakable things with the establishments... entertainers.

It seemed like the perfect time to disarm the bomb.

Taking a deep breath I stood by the edge of the pond and struggled to keep calm. I knew exactly how radioactive the water here was and I had to constantly remind myself that radiation probably wouldn't affect me the same way it did other people. I wasn't going to get cancer and all I needed to get rid of all the radiation in my body was a bit of Radaway, at least I hoped that was how it worked.

Eventually I stepped forward into the water and my Pipboy's Geiger Counter sprung to life clicking and chirping. I looked down at it and saw that I was taking a decent amount of Rads, it wasn't enough to make me sick any time soon but was enough to give me second thoughts.

Still I kept going since I was already poisoned, and it didn't make sense not to finish.

As I approached I somehow felt I knew exactly what I needed to do to disarm the bomb, I wasn't sure how I knew it was like the knowledge just appeared in my head when I looked at the bomb. I was always curious about how my Skills would effect me when I started raising them in huge jumps instead of slowly over time like I had been before, and it seems like as long as my skills were high enough I would just automatically know anything I needed to.

When I got to the bomb I turned on my Pipboy light which cast everything in a sickly green light and started looking around the bombs surface I was looking for a small hatch that led to it's insides. I saw it during the day it was about a foot across and near the bottom of the bomb just above the water line. It was extremely rusted and I was able to easily pry it off with my bare hands which made me shiver.

I knew I would be able to get the hatch off without any tools, but I didn't expect it to be that easy and I got even more scared when I looked inside.

The nuke was the old school kind that worked by pushing two lead shells around a sphere of Uranium 235 stopping any neutrons from escaping and starting a chain reaction. Once I looked inside I could see why the bomb never detonated in the first place it was assemble wrong and there was a screw blocking the track that let the two hemi-spheres of lead push together stopping them from moving. What scared me was that the screw was so rusted it may as well be dust and could crumble away at any moment making the nuke go off.

Even if everyone left it alone the bomb would most likely have gone off on it's own in less than a year.

I gulped as I took out a couple tools I stole from the vault and stuck my arm deep inside the bomb and got to work carefully removing one of lead shells making it impossible for the bomb to detonate. After a tense ten minutes of work I let out a sigh of relief and vanished the tennis ball sized chunk of uranium I'd just removed into my inventory. I was originally planning on tossing it somewhere outside of Megaton tomorrow after I got a good nights sleep. But, realized how terrible it would be if some rando got their hands on it.

So in the end I could only hold onto it for now. Hopefully I might be able to find some use for it in the future that didn't involve being completely vaporized.

With my job done I went and paid for a bed in the Common House which was basically just an inn. The mattresses were bare and disgusting, but I didn't care today was exhausting and I was glad just to finally be able to get some rest and sleep.