Nuclear Winter

Alex is a man accustomed to danger, reveling in it to be honest, but even he has limits…like now.

Too say the four girls weren't pleased at the new additions was an understatement, Cass nearly shot Asia at least thrice by now.

Not do to dislike mind you, no. More like Cass was always jittery and it didn't help that Asia had zero self preservation instincts, always jumping up behind Cass, causing the woman to jolt and swing her shotgun into the girls face.

Alex could swear Asia was doing it specifically to get a rise out of Cass, it was working.

Meanwhile, Ava and Sarah never took their eyes off of Keres. Who at this moment was off in her own little world, inspecting every rock and tree around them with wonder.

After a full day of travel they finally made it to the entrance of the Ruby hill mine.

Alex planed to stop and set camp here for the night, the girls would rest while he entered the mine.

If memory served him right, he'd be facing lakelurks. Not his favorite enemies due to their sonic attack, but considering the loot at the end of the mine, if it still was there… totally worth it.

"Gahhh! I swear I'm going to put you over my knee damn it!" Suddenly Cass yelled out loud drawing everyone's gaze.

Only to see Asia feeling up Cass's chest with a lewd smile. Ever since the girl saw Cass she had tried to get the woman's attention, Alex knew it was more or less a way for the girl to cope, so he ignored it.

Of course, other then a blush and yelling Cass also took it in stride, after Alex and Meyers told the story of what happened to Asia.

Sarah wanted to bring Eddie back to life only to kill him again, a shared opinion of all the girls.

They took Asia under their wing, to which the girl started to open up and show herself to be more mischievous.

Sunny was the most affectionate towards Asia, treating her like a little sister of sorts.

Yet Sunny still gave Alex the stink eye, to which Alex was still wondering what he had done to draw her ire.

All in all, some growing pains, but nothing the group of girls wouldn't get over.

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"Alright, camps all set up!" Ava walked over towards Alex as he checked his gear near an old mine entrance.

"Woah! Where did you get an R91 assault rifle?!?" Ava looked at the rifle in Alexs hands and couldn't help but shout.

The R91 was the old assault rifle that replaced the M series and then was replaced by the AER9 as the standard issue weapon for most servicemen by the end of the war.

The rifle ended up being relegated towards urban pacification units in Washington D.C, most others were scrapped. Leading to the rifle being quite rare and sought after outside of the capital wasteland. 200 years of wear and tear didn't help the rifles numbers either.

Alex had found three amongst the gunners in quarry junction, one of which was badly damaged and could only be used for some spare parts.

"You know this rifle?" Alex asked kind of surprised, this weapon never showed up after Fallout 3. It was disappointing considering it was his favorite gun to use in the early game.

"Mn, it's rare but a sought after collector item back home. Most don't see use, just put above the mantle as a show piece." Ava spoke as she snatched the rifle from Alex to inspect it closer.

Unlike her family's obsession with energy weapons, Ava had a love for the toys what went bang. A fact that got her in trouble more then a few times.

"It's beautiful, to think they replaced this beauty with a stupid ol' laser rifle. Old world deserved to burn for their stupidity." Ava mumbled out with adoration in her eyes at the rifle.

"You can keep it then, my treat." Alex spoke as he took out the second R91 from his inventory and started to strip the weapon for maintenance. Didn't want it to jam while facing the lurks.

He also pulled out some jet and stimpaks, just in case things got dicey.

"Never knew you to be one to use Chems?" Ava noticed the jet and raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm? Oh that? No not using them, little known fact that if you break open a jet inhaler at the feet of a lakelurk, the vapor will nullify their sonic ability." Alex picked up the inhaler and handed it over to Ava.

"Gets the bastards super high, got to give them a good throw to break them though." Alex got up and started to take off his heavy marine armor.

Ava was gonna ask how he knew he'd be facing lakelurks without scouting the mine but stopped that train of thought due too what Alex did next.

Ava blushed when Alex took of his armor and under armor, revealing his chiseled chest. "Why are you st-stripping naked…N-not that I mind" Ava blushed at Alex and asked him an important question.

"Just in case of flooding in the mine, can't go in the water with heavy armor. Also the lakelurks tend to stay at a distance and debilitate prey with sonic attacks. So as long as I stay hidden and at a distance I should be fine, if not? Then I got stimpaks to soothe my broken self." Alex winked at Ava who was still gawking at his bare chest.

Both unaware that Ava wasn't the only one staring at his chiseled frame.

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"I think I'm in love…" Asia whispered to Cass as both woman kept a laser focus on Alexs ripped abs. Keres behind them nodded her head in agreement before getting distracted and walking away.

Sarah simply wished she had a camera on hand, but fate was cruel.

Sunny was Sunny.

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After Alex had put on a loose black shirt with red Nuka cola advertising on the back, he began to load up with a few spare magazines, the jet and stimpaks, before slinging the rifle around his shoulder and heading off towards the mine.

"I'll be back in a few hours…probably."

Alex walked up to the old rickety door that blocked the cave entrance, gave it a knock before chuckling, then proceeded to open the door before quickly and quietly entering the mine.

"You think he's gonna die?"

Cass looked over towards Asia who had somehow taken her shotgun.

"Oi! You lil shit, give that back!"

Cass lunged at Asia in a poor attempt to grab the gun from the little deranged girls hands, she never even noticed Asia had nicked it till now.

Asia jumped up holding the shotgun tight to her chest before scurrying off towards Keres.

"Hehe, ya never gonna catch me!"

At that provocation Cass immediately hopped up and ran towards Asia causing the small girl to let out a squeal and run away. Sarah, Ava and Sunny all laughed at the back and forth between the two.

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Alex, unknowingly and uncaring of what Asia and Cass were up too, made it to the first large open area in the mine and was hidden behind a large pile of discarded rocks.

Thankfully, an old generator was still humming quietly along on a raised platform, giving energy to the many lights strung about in the mine.

Looking around Alex could see signs of a small scale battle, dozens of human corpses and….Nightstalkers?

Wasn't the mine supposed to house Lakelurks?

The bodies looked fresh, including the Nightstalkers. The battle must have happened within the last week, this caused Alex to go on high alert.

"Somethings wrong, I can feel it."

Alex slowly got up and walked towards the small incline leading up to an over hang that looked over the small open cavern.

Keeping an eye on both the bodies and the two paths further back in the cave, occasionally looking down when he made it a few steps to check for mines or trip wires.

Finally making it too the top of the over hang, Alex looked over the cave and counted the bodies.

All in all, almost 27 dead humans and 16 dead nightstalkers were littered about. Stranger yet was the obvious signs of encampment?

Sandbags and a few sleeping bags as well as a grill for cooking?

Taking in all the evidence, it didn't take a genius to figure out that these people had a camp in the mine that had been attacked by the Big Mountain rejects.

The question being is it before, or after the Lurks?

He had hoped it was before, maybe the lurks stumbled upon this feast and set up shop? Alex hoped so, he was here for a very specific item.

"Damn! That's convenient."

Looking down the corridor leading deeper in the mine, it seemed the water pumps were still working.

Taking out his armor and a couple mines, Alex tossed the mines down and started to put on his armor. Hopefully while he was doing it, anything that got the bright idea to attack would hit the mines.

After a couple minutes and a bruised forehead do to the armor's awkwardness, Alex gently deactivated the mines and continued down into the bowels of the mine.

Along the way, Alex stumbled into a few more bodies, including the nightstalkers.

After a couple minutes and a few moments of jumping at shadows, Alex arrived at a large open atrium of sorts.

Well lit with lanterns, lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling and a few candles.

One side had a dozen bunk beds lined up with foot lockers, a dining area not far from it with spoiled food, showing they were interrupted mid meal most likely.

This room housed the least bodies, peculiarly enough four of them seemed to have died playing poker? Two were lying near the entrance with NCR service rifles, spent casings all around them and six dead nightstalkers strewn about, one with its jaws around an unlucky bastards throat.

A ramp lead up to a ledge that snaked through the open area, staying on guard Alex slowly made his way up continuously checking for traps.

After reaching the top, he squinted along the ledge towards a pillar, seeing a black combat boot poking out behind it.

A sense of joy flooded in his heart, maybe the thing he was here for was still here?

Walking over slowly, cursing in his mind at the crunch of gravel under foot.

Alex made it to the pillar and walked around it.

*CLICK* "EEEEYYYYAAAHHHH!"

"Shit! Wait? Huh?"

Looking at the more dead then alive woman holding a very bad thigh wound Alex let out a very manly shrill scream.

He would need to check for a lumpy fart in his underwear later, but for now…

"What the fuck lady! Don't scare people like that!"

Looking at the worse for wear woman holding an old rusted revolver, that thankfully just failed to shoot, Alex decided to scold the woman.

"Thought you were one of them invisi-fuckers that killed everyone, my bad. Least it misfired?"

The woman weakly chucked before dropping her revolver.

"Mind telling me what brings a hot piece of ass like you too a hell hole like this."

The woman smiled through her bloody teeth at Alex, an obvious attempt at distracting herself from her predicament rather then a genuine attempt at flirting.

"Tripped and fell."

Alex's reply made the woman laugh and wheeze before coughing, Alex being a gentleman, took out some water and helped her drink some, her hands too weak to rise anymore.

"So, mind telling me what happened here?"

Alex asked and waited, seeing the woman's face scrunch up in both pain and anger.

"You know the Jackals?"

Alex nodded, hard not to know of one of the former largest raider gangs on the west coast.

"Yeah, we'll I'm probably the last of the main group."

Alex raised an eyebrow at the woman's admittance of her history. Said woman seemed to shrug it off and continued with her story.

"Little over 110 of us came up here too get away from the NCR, Legion and fucking fiends. Heard of an old ski resort for the old world rich, came to claim it."

Alex nodded, it was the very reason he was here in the mountains.

"Mabel, our leader. She took 50 of us at the time to go and scout the resort, rest of us set up shop here."

The woman uncomfortably shifted and had Alex help her drink some more water.

"After a couple days she never returned. Not her nor the 49 others, made a few of us worry. 10 decided to go look, three hours later only four came back, ranting and raving."

The woman gave out a chuckle.

"Told us there was invisible demons hunting us from the shadows and everyone who went to the ski resort had perished."

Alex started to feel a sense of dread, just how many nightstalkers were up in that resort to wipe out that many armed raiders?

"At first we thought they were just some Nightkin, so we set up a defensive position at the first cavern and took shift guarding it."

Explained the massacre Alex saw.

"Fuckers waited till we we're switching and snuck in, attacked from every angle. Didn't even cause that much damage with every bite, but that venom…"

The woman winced.

They bit most of us and ran away, after we calmed down many of us started to drop, that's when one son of a bitch who fell fired off his gun by accident and hit my thigh."

Alex could see the wound and how gnarly it had become, definitely infected.

"They moved me back here, few of them stayed back in the main cavern and tunnels, waiting for them to show again, six of us set up here and I managed to stop the bleeding."

The woman gestured to her leg.

Hour later we heard the gunfire in the main cavern, then the tunnels, loud and then sniffed out, the quietness was fucking eerie."

Alex watched as the woman's eyes began to shutter and close, her fighting to keep them open.

"The guys managed to fight them off when—-they attacked…"

The woman's voice started to grow quite.

"Two of them died and the other four got bitten, knew they were gonna die so decided to have a game before ending it on their own terms…"

The woman's eyes began to close and her chest rose and fell less and less.

"Waited, hoping my sister would come back from the ski resort a-alive… or until those thing's finished me offfff."

The woman slumped over, her last breath leaving her as she finished her story.

Alex reached out and gently layed her down, noticing a note beside her he picked it up and kept it, maybe he could find the sister alive, or maybe come back and bury it with her, either way…

Between the infection, pain, blood loss and weakness, the woman was a fighter too hold out as long as she did.

Alex could respect her for that.

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After passing the main cavern, stepping over the bodies with his rifle in one hand, and his prize in the other.

Alex made his way towards the mine entrance, a sad smile on his face as he lifted the Named Displacer Glove called Pushy up to his face.

In his melee build play through it was the glove he used before he got the Two-Step Goodbye. Later he gave it too Veronica, which he was planing to do again.

Hopefully she was still at the 188 trade stop, not moving around for the brotherhood.

If he could befriend her and get access to the bunker, he could maybe persuade them to join his cause, especially considering he now has Sarah as a companion.

8 foot tall walking tanks with Gatling Lasers are a very good bargaining chip in any 'civil' discussion after all.

Alas, future plans for future Alex.

Putting Pushy in his inventory, Alex left the mine and walked out towards his camp., yet stopped at full alert soon after.

Sarah, Ava, Cass, Sunny and Asia were all standing with their hands up facing away from him with Keres in front protecting them with a snarl.

Alex quickly moved past them and Keres , standing in front of everyone to face their new guests.

Their nearly 150 lumbering 7 and a half foot tall, green skinned, heavily armed guests.

Suddenly one of whom, standing at nearly 8 feet tall, moved forwards, his next gesture shocking everyone but Alex, as he raised his hand for a shake.

"Names Marcus, nice to meet you traveler."

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(Author Thoughts)

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, took a while to get to writing this one, plenty of other stuff I had to do.

Either way the next chapters are gonna be fun! Marcus joins the crew and they build their new town!

Decided to call it Haven.

After I get the town all set up, a bunch of chapters will revolve around Alex and occasionally one of the girls traveling to a random location to clear it and strip it of resources.

Also the completion of many side quests and a couple companions brought into the fold.

Around chapter 110 will be the first DLC start, dead money!

Most dlc arcs will be 40-60 chapters long, introducing some stuff you already know as well as some new original stuff I myself have decided to add.

After the DLC arcs Alex will have access to the Transportalaponder and can then gain access to a certain fort in the common wealth where in Fallout 4 we killed a man named after a cereal…

That's as much as I'm willing to spoil… for now.

Now on to why I've been so busy!!

I've started a bunch of works, some original and others a fanfic.

Basically just trying to find something I enjoy writing, if I find it good enough I'll keep writing it then mass release so you don't have to keep waiting for a bunch of chapters.

I'll add in a Authors thoughts chapter after this explaining each story so you can see if any interest you?

- Supreme cupcake overlord

-Shadow❤️