Cainesland wrote:
Hill Air Force base
parade square
4 groups of 60 enclave soldiers (total 240) stood in gaggles on the corners of the parade square. The men chatted about a whole variety of topics from the weather to theodicy of hurry up and wait to most anything else. Suddenly a piercing yell filled the parade square as the RSM yelled out. "Form up!" The men needn't be told twice for they knew that that was the RSM asking nicely, even if he wasn't asking. All 240 men flew to their respective positions in ranks. Each platoon warrant officer took up his position at the front while his second in command took his position. Within a few minutes of each other each platoon had been called to March in an open order position, creating a gap in ranks through which their officers could walk and inspect them. Nothing changed since the enclave declined as far as quality was concerned. Platoon one and 2 had formed into Alpha company while three and four had formed bravo company. The company sergeant-major, Colonel Carl Von Switz stood confidently in his enclave officer uniform In front of 120 subordinates, most of whom rested inside their issued power armour.
The RSM called out "CSM Switz what's your count?" The Csm came to attention and yelled at a blood curdling level "120 sir" before returned to an at ease stance. The parade went on as normal until an hour had passed and they were dismissed back to their duties.
Radio shack
The Colonel walked back to the radio shack. It was his turn to supervise the radio operators. Immediately after entering the operators went stiff as a board until he said "relax". "Report" he demanded. "Sir we have received a communication from a Tailyn Markov". The news was surprising and welcome. "Go on" he nudged. "She wishes to speak with you". "Finally, good news." He snatched the communicator and began to speak. "Hello ms.Markov. This is Colonel Carl Von Switz. What do you need?".
Taliyn
The girl was taking a distracting break from communicating on the radio and trying to get ahold of this colonel person when she heard the transmission on the radio. Naturally,having been distracted and caught off guard by the squeaking sound radios make when someone speaks into them, she briefly freaked out in shock and surprise and tumbled to the floor along with her office chair she had been falling out of at the time.
After she had regained her wits about things and managed to sooth her minor injuries sustained from falling over out of shock and surprise and had reoriented herself and everything that had fallen over, she fiddled around with the radio a bit and, once she got it to where she needed it and had tuned it correctly, she spoke into it.
"Greetings Colonel. This is Taliyn Markov speaking. I am glad I finally caught you. I have been trying to get ahold of you for awhile.
We have several things to discuss. First off, I recall you wishing for a missive regarding zion canyon once I managed to come back from it.
I now have done so, and I have to say... that place is a deathtrap. I do understand we wish to return the united states back to it's former glory, but I got to say... that place just isnt worth it. All it is, is a bunch of rocks and some multi-colored trees that bear no fruit and dont seem to have any enstringic value aside from being chopped down for wood.
There are a few clean, non-irradiated rivers there mind you, but unless there is a plan to build a aqua pura manufacturing and bottling plant there, even that would be a pointless endeavor. The rivers and other occasional water sources are often hidden away or just plain difficult to get to, the place is crawling with cliffs and other high up drop-offs that would either kill you or just cause you to break your bones if you fall off them, which is easy to do if your too distracted by the scenery or by someone shooting you, to see where your going. Plus its as dark as pitch out there are night. Dark enough that even a flashlight has difficulty shining into it unless it's one thats super high powered. Good luck not falling off a cliff when you cant see anything.
Then theres the other disasters. There are cracks and fissures in the upper hills that you dont really notice untill you fall into them, which range from being small enough to sprain or break an ankle in them, to being deep and wide enough for you to get stuck in and die or in the case of the ones near a cliff, fall down and out of and plummet to your death. There are landslides, wild animals that would as soon tear you limb from limb as look at you, poisonous plants, not to mention one that looks like a giant venus fly trap that spits acid at you... dont want to relive that again..
And if the natural dangers werent bad enough, there are too many different indigenous backwards tribes in there to count. I mean really backwards. wearing animal skins, speaking in some incomprehensible gibberish language, wielding axes and throwing spears and attacking you on sight. And thats just the traditional ones. I dunno if there used to be a military outpost down there pre-war or something but I ran across several animal skin wearing tribal people with machine guns or submachine guns, and they were not friendly in the slightest, lemme tell you..
Suffice to say, the place is a tribal warzone and a deathtrap for any unwarey travelers. I cannot see any strategic advantage to taking over that pile of rocks, military, societal or otherwise. The canyon walls are too narrow and close together for any tactical advantage... if your men got blocked in one of those passageways, it would be a massacre. The cliffs are unsteady and often enough not clear enough to notice untill your allready on or near the edge of one of them, the few pre-war structures there are mostly abandoned look out towers or the occasional allready looted shop... anyone trying to eek out a living there is liable to get themselves killed, and I can say that from experience, feeling the need to help out some locals fed off a yao gaui or some tribals, just out of hope that if they survive long enough, they might be appreciative when and if the enclave might decide to march in and take back control, which I might point out seems like a futile endeavor.
I went in with 3 other individuals after our last comminque... only me and one other made it out alive as far as Im aware. I did manage to make some notes and snap some pictures of all the locals I could find there. Luckily not all the tribals are hostile, but given the fact that the ones that are outnumber the ones that are not, Im surprised the peaceful ones have survived this long, and I dont expect the peacefull ones to last much longer. Or anyone else that isnt a overly zealous gun tooting tribal willing to massacre anyone that isnt one of them. I am honestly surprised I managed to escape with my skin intact, sir.
I do not recommend trying to take over that place unless we have no other choice.
Now with that being said, I do believe there might be a good enough reason to head back in, if I had enough equipment and some armed guards with me. There was an inaccessible ridge that I spotted with something on it that I was only able to detect one of the last days I was there due to the glint of light bouncing off it. Even my high powered binoculars could not fully make out what it was. But it was big and round-ish and did not appear to be something we can make now adays. I do believe whatever it was, to be some sort of pre-war tech or structure. The part of the canyon that lead to where this object or structure was, has long since collapsed on itself and sealed off the only way I could see from my vantage point, to get to whatever it was on the other side. I couldnt be sure whether or not that is true though, given that whenever I tried to get close, some hostile tribals that had set up camp nearby, were constantly shooting at me. Im not fully sure what it is, but I do feel it might be important and certainly pre-war. I just cannot gain access to it at this time. I felt you would be interested in knowing of this circumstance.
Now, onto more pressing matters and why I initially tried to get in touch with you.
I have recently come into possession of a notice from one General KL-04. That alone baffles me. That is not a person's name.
Thats a cereal number for a product, which makes me wonder if the rest of this is a prank.
The message reads as thus.
[Greetings, Miss Taliyn. I was informed recently that your
Enclave superiors in the east have given us permission to give you a free transport over to the capital wasteland.
Please report to New Vegas for transport. (Please be aware, testing for this type of power source is in it's alpha stage, so we apoligize for any injuries.)
We will be giving a escort of 4 Robobrains and 4 Mister Gutsys. We will drop you off in the Capital Wasteland, near D.C]
This message in of itself makes no sense to me. So I was wondering if you knew anything about it or could get in touch with anyone who does.
This message gives no indication as to who this general is or why he or she is giving me a transport to the other side of the country. That alone is cause for alarm. Just a random note from a courier giving me instructions to go to new vegas and get a ride to the capital wasteland. No explanation as to why or how.
Which brings me to my next point. The power source. This message just randomly mentions a prototype power source part way through, out of the blue. Does it mean the note itself has a power source? Is it going to explode like in some pre-war spy movie?
Do these robots that are accompanying me or the vehicle I am riding in going to have a volatile power source? It gives no explanation to this.
Just that some obscure thing having to do with me going to the capital wasteland, is going to have a new power source.
Then there is the comment of the robots themselves. The message speaks of robots known to often be used in battle.
Meaning whoever is trying to send me to the capital wasteland clearly expects me to be shot at. This concept concerns me greatly.
As I have stated to you before, I am not a soldier. I only learned how to use a gun out of necessity. I am quite not thrilled at the concept of someone feeling the need for me to go somewhere where I have such a high probability of getting shot at that I need several armed military robots defending me.
I guess in the end, its just that this whole concept,this entire note makes no sense to me.
And even less that someone bothered to come out to my home in the middle of the desert, surrounded by rad scorpions, to give it to me.
Do you know about this or know anyone who could explain what is going on, to me? Whatever this general is trying to portray in this note is lost to me.
I dont understand the meaning behind this note or why I should go to the capital wasteland just to get shot at.
Anyways, I will just take a breather now and let you speak colonel. This is taliyn markov, waiting to hear your response."
