Fallout: Yosemite

[tokyobiohazard]

Welcome to the RP thread for Fallout: Yosemite!

 

*There should be no OOC posts in this thread. Do not post in this thread without posting a character sheet and having it approved first.*

 

Please direct all OOC posts and character sheets to this thread:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/2689694-fallout-yosemite-discussion/

[tokyobiohazard]

Twenty youths stood facing the giant cog-shaped vault door, clutching the few possessions they would be able to take with them into the unknown. Each vault dweller held a filled canteen, a backpack, a single stimpak, a combat knife, and three days' worth of rations. After three days had passed, they would be encouraged to find a new food source. This was the first of many tasks that awaited them if they were to make it in the new world.

Each person also held another two items unique to each individual, which were deemed to be useful for their skills in the outside world.

=============================================

Caden Grayson, backpack slung over his shoulders, had checked fifteen times to make sure he had all his items. He'd decided to carry a medical book inside his backpack, which he'd pilfered for himself and his friend Alex, and a compass, so as to lead the party in the right direction. He took a deep breath, and steadied himself. He'd skipped working out this morning to make sure he had extra energy today. The decision had left him quite antsy, and he regretted it.

Izzy, however, was excited about the vault opening for some inexplicable reason. She'd woken up ready to leave for some reason, finding herself curious about the outside world. Hair braided over one shoulder, she checked her backpack.

Ten cans of food, a canteen, a stim, a standard combat knife, a bundle of paper money, and three grenades. Standard fare for one with her skills. Izzy zipped her bag back up, and unzipped a secondary pouch on the side of the backpack. Inside were five miniature bottles of shampoo, a bar of soap, and a small hygiene kit. She'd made sure to steal some of those this morning when she showered, feeling the wilderness would lack such luxury items. They may even prove to be valuable for trades in the future.

=====================================

As Izzy threw her backpack back onto her shoulders, a deafening buzzing that served as a warning to clear the way in front of the vault door filled the air, the lights in the room flicked on and off, over and over, and eventually, the vault door rolled aside with a hydraulic hiss and puff of steam.

The roar of rushing water filled the air, and a blinding amount of sunlight filtered in through the cavern that stretched in front of the vault dwellers. A powerful waterfall thundered at the end of the cave, and a pebble-strewn path led out of sight off to the right, hidden by the waterfall.

[Flipout6]

Jessica Springs stood at the front of the group of vault-dwellers, still garbed in her police gear and bullet-proof vest. She kept checking her gear; a loaded pistol with three spare magazines, her police baton, her Vault 32 canteen, a backpack with a bedroll attached and her rations inside, amongst some other survival gear....she knew she had everything she needed, but she wasn't sure if she was ready. She'd foregone her helmet, her head feeling bare without it, but she'd do better without having her head cook inside a black helmet. This "sun" thing they'd been taught so much about could give her something called "sunstroke" if it contacted her skin too much, but too much sweat from the heat that would be kept inside her helmet if she wore it could kill her if she ran out of water. She glanced back toward the small crowd, clad mostly in Vault-Tec's signature blue jumpsuits. Some of them looked nervous, a few didn't...though whether that was because they were purposefully putting off an air of confidence or if they were just eager to see the outside world, Jessica didn't know.

 

Alexander stood beside his "little" sister (in truth the age gap between them was perhaps five minutes) lugging a backpack that was too big for him. It had obviously been designed for someone at least half a foot taller than him, and while it was adjustable, that could only go so far. He could only imagine the kind of frustration it would pose Izzy if it was causing him this much of a hassle. Still, he took comfort in the knowledge that within that backpack lay a complete first aid kit and a small, portable science kit in addition to his food, sleeping bag, survival gear and sparse toiletries. Whatever lay outside the door, at least he had some of his lab with him, and he could help the other if they twisted an ankle, cut themselves, or anything of that nature.

 

"I'm....excited, almost." He told Isabella beside him. "Who knows what could be out there? The Vault only has so many things and so many ways to experiment and test. Out here, the long-term effects of the gamma radiation from the Great War could have caused an innumerable amount of quirks and changes in local flora and fauna, mutations that could have any number of effects...." His voice petered off as the door began to open. "Shield your eyes, everyone!" He advised. "The natural light is well beyond anything we'll have experienced beforehand!"

 

Jessica was quick to take his advice, cupping her hands over her eyes like all the handbooks demonstrated, creating a pair of make-shift shades. Even then, the overwhelming white that blasted them when the massive cog of a door rolled itself out of the way was enough to make her grunt and shield her eyes completely, spots dancing in her vision. And with the light came noise, a massive rumbling that seemed to shake the ground the ground and her insides. At first it terrified her, as she didn't know what it was...but when she adapted to the brightness enough to uncover her eyes, she saw plainly that it was water.

 

She'd never seen anything like it. The few times she'd seen the Vault's water purification system in action were nothing spectacular, mostly the pipes clanging as the liquid rushed through them and into a tank to be scrubbed and decontaminated in a tedious and controlled practice. This? Hundreds of pounds of water slamming to the ground however far below? It was raw power, completely unrestrained. To someone who'd never seen anything like it before such as Jessica, it was both awesome and intimidating.

 

"I wonder if the water has been contaminated by the radiation....?" Alexander's voice was inaudible amidst the background noise of the spectacle before them. He wondered if it was at all safe to drink. Perhaps the ash that had been carried on the mushroom clouds had contaminated it beyond repair or recognition. If that was the case, they were in trouble. It looked clean, though, so he was reassured, for the moment. Then he started pondering the amount of acidic precipitation that could have theoretically fallen and his mind was off again. "Don't let the water touch you, we don't know what's in it!" He shouted, a rare occasion.

 

Jessica was tempted to bark at him to stop scaring people, but then she realized that Alex probably had a point. She didn't have much of an idea as to why the water wouldn't be safe, but if the Vault's resident egghead said not to touch the water just in case, she would heed his advice.

 

"This is what we've been waiting for, people!" She had to yell over the roar of the waterfall. "Get ready, because we're finally here! About to leave the Vault behind!" She closed the clasp on her pistol holster, not wanting any water spray to get the weapon wet.

[FreemasonGamer]

Standing out like a sore thumb among the numerous shorter youths gathering at Vault 32's entrance, Lancer anxiously shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he quickly takes into account the supplies he has. Along with the standard rations and equipment given to each one of them, Lancer specifically chose to bring along a small hatchet and a sturdy grappling hook attached to a coil of twenty feet's worth of rope. Hopefully that should be all he needs, for now at least. Excited conversation chatters on all around him irritably as he makes his way towards the front of the group, eager to leave. Suddenly the alarms go off while everyone prepares for the door to open. Bracing himself, Lancer quickly puts his back to the nearest wall, somewhat fearful of what might ensue.

 

Someone warns the group to shield their eyes from the incoming sunlight that would soon flood the fault, and Lancer quickly follows the advise. He holds his left arm over his eyes to protect himself from the blinding burst of natural light that floods over them; after several minutes of the painful sensation, Lancer's eyes finally adjust to the lighting. Beyond the now opened door of the Vault is a massive cascading wall of water that roars constantly like some great machine. The colorful light shining through the watery spray captivates Lancer for a moment until he is brought back to his senses. Off to their right, the group notices the pebbly path around the waterfall that now conceals the entrance to the Vault.

 

With a determined expression mingled with a slight scowl, Lancer rests his right hand on the handle of his combat knife before wandering towards the path out.

Edited March 22, 2015 by FreemasonGamer

[AurianaValoria1]

Angelique LeFavre stood along with everyone else in the first wave, waiting for the grand opening of Vault 32. She was halfway expecting it to be a letdown, halfway excited; on the one hand, she did not know why anyone would be at all eager to throw themselves into an alien environment that might or might not be hostile, might or might not live up to all the hype...and yet, on the other hand she was eager, herself, for the chance to get as much distance between herself and these bothersome morons as possible. At the last second, she double-checked her possessions - in addition to the supplies that everyone else had, she had brought along a heavy tire iron and a bag of spare parts and baubles that she had scrounged up and hoarded over the years. And then, the vault was opened...

 

The blinding light that followed washed over them like some wave of purification. Once over the initial discomfort, Angel dropped her hands and forced herself to follow the others, squinting so hard that her irises were barely visible. The waterfall was impressive, and she stood for a moment watching it...the mist creating a dazzling rainbow effect...before continuing on, careful to avoid the splashes and spray from the water itself.

[darkedge42392]

Morgan Dürer stood next to the side wall, toward the front of the group of youths. It was time. Vault 32 was opening. He was excited! He had been dreaming of this moment for weeks. Even though he knew of the horrible dangers on the outside of the Vault, he didn't care. He had been chomping at the bit for weeks for this day to arrive. It was time to leave this miserable confine of a prison and get out into the world!

 

Morgan slipped his thumbs into the straps of his pack and allowed his ever present half smile to deepen a bit. His pack was heavy and full of supplies, but it didn't bother him at all. He flexed his broad, muscular shoulders, feeling the muscles tighten and ripple under the loose Vault 32 jumpsuit and the heavy bullet-resistant vest over it. Mentally, he checked over his gear once more. His pistol hung at his hip, and he carried three extra clips of ammunition in his belt. The survival knife he had been given hung opposite his pistol on his left hip, and a combat knife he had stolen was hung horizontally across the small of his back under his pack.

 

He relaxed and took a long glance around. So many familiar faces. He had grown up with, or known of, most of the ones gathered here today. At the front was Jessica Springs. A rascal of a woman, and one who hadn't taken lightly to one of his playful jests last year. It had resulted in a few angry words and his now crooked nose. He wiggled his nostrils slightly at the memory. He had kept two black eyes for weeks after the fact. And it hadn't helped the Docs couldn't set his nose straight. Moving on, his eyes fell on Caden Grayson, a sharply lean bastard of a fellow with a soft featured face, who fatherlessness had tormented him throughout his time in the Vault. Morgan had always felt bad for the guy. Next, his eyes strayed to the Evans twins, who he knew only very little about, as they were among the youngest of those leaving the Vault.

 

He laughed audibly as the Vault Door opened and sunlight flooded the chamber. Even though he was momentarily blinded, he kept laughing. The roar of the waterfall silenced him, or rather, it drowned him out. It was time!

 

"Don't be scared of what you're leaving behind, everyone! Be scared of what we'll find!" Morgan laughed as he jogged out into the cave entrance behind the waterfall, basking in the natural light of the midday sun. He couldn't stop laughing.

 

FINALLY! he thought. I'm free.

[josh900]

"We're all completely insane" Jimmy Owens thought to himself as the vault doors opened. He swore rather loudly as the burning light of the sun washed over the group. "Yeah this was smart!" He yelled out, his voice slightly muffled by the medical mask he wore over his face, his attempt at staving off the inevitable infections and viruses they were sure to catch out there.

"We're all gonna fry like Thanksgiving dinners out here! They couldn't have done this earlier in the day? When that giant, fiery ball of screw you and burn was just starting to rise? No wait, that would deny our overlords of one last "Eff you" wouldn't it?" He complained.

 

As his sight returned to him, he looked around at his fellow suicidal companions. Vault suits as far as the eye could see, (not that he could see very far at the moment but the point still stood.) He himself had decided to wear his finest of suits for the occasion. He wanted the destroyed ruins of the old world to see that there were still people out there that knew the value of proper attire. While he carried the gear that they had all been given, he had snuck along a few luxury items as well as an M29 revolver that he kept hidden on his person. None of these schmucks would know about it though, he wasn't about to go waving it about in their faces, nuh uh, with any luck it would never see the light of day. Thankfully it had been kept clean and well taken care of during it's time in the vault. Some old geezer had brought it in with him and had passed it down from father to son until it fell into Jimmy's hands after a successful poker game.

 

The waterfall outside the vault surely was impressive, though Jimmy wasn't the kind to stand around and look on in awe, so instead he shielded his eyes with his hand and moved forward with the rest of them.

[tokyobiohazard]

Izzy watched as most of her fellow vault-dwellers gawked at the waterfall, and rolled her eyes as her brother said not to let the spray touch them. She ran straight through the damp cavern, the eight foot ceiling causing her to look even smaller than usual. When she reached the pebbled path to the right, she shot her fellow survivalists a grin, before taking off down the hill. "What are you all waiting for?"

Caden, having grown up with the twins, took off after her, the contents of his pack shifting to and fro on his back. He pressed himself against the wall as the waterfall nearly sprayed him in the face. "Izzy, what the hell are you doing?!"

He caught up with her and snatched her back by the arm, knowing Alex wouldn't be far behind him. He jumped in surprise as his hand closed around her petite forearm, realizing her folly. She was soaking wet.

"Izzy... Oh man, this is bad. You weren't supposed to touch the water! What if it's irradiated!" Caden was panicking, and visibly so. "And as if it weren't enough that you got soaked with that water, I touched you with my bare hands!"

"Caden... Chill out," Izzy said, before continuing to descend the path. She reached the bottom, Caden following behind her.

"Izzy, stop!" Caden called after her, but it was too late.

Izzy was waist deep in the river. She threw off her pack and slipped under the water as Caden looked on in bewilderment, "Izzy, STOP!"

"Caden, calm down. If the water were irradiated, I'd have been dead already."

[Flipout6]

Jessica didn't manage to catch Isabella as she went dashing by and into the water. In spite of herself she held her breath, waiting to see what would happen as she lingered around the water's edge. It turned out for the best, however, when Caden found her alive and well, if a little wet. Knowing this, Jessica reacted sternly.

 

"I know you have trouble with this, Isabella, but for God's sakes listen to what you're told. Nobody knows what's out here and if you pull any stupid stunts like that again you could get killed!"

 

Alex's voice sounded out. "She's right, though. The water's not actually irradiated." He looked around, taking in what scenery he saw.

 

Suddenly he understood why the area before the war had been a national tourist attraction. Even after the war, it was spectacular. From their vantage point by the waterfall they could see the land for miles. Alex, sharp-eyed as he was, couldn't even spot any buildings, and instead a seemingly-endless supply of trees stretched in every direction until they hit the foothills and mountains. A few distant locations looked like they could be waterfalls, but he'd have to get closer to tell. The trees were....still lush and green, as was the grass and the bushes. Flowers even blossomed here and there, though it was nothing he recognized from the Vault's botanical records. Some talk circulating around the Vault for a few weeks had been speculation ranging from the Earth being turned into an unrecognizable plant world (he'd almost been hoping for that himself) to it being a blasted desert wasteland devoid of all life. But this? This looked....unchanged. Had the planet recovered so quickly, or had the bombs simply spared Yosemite their horror?

 

"Wow." He breathed.

 

"All of that, and no civilization in sight." Jessica murmured. She looked at the sky, but the incredible vastness of it made her dizzy and she quickly looked down again. "I don't like it."

 

Alex recovered his wits and turned to Isabella. "Don't do something like that again, Izzy! If that water was irradiated you would be dead! And you don't know if it has any diseases in it, you could get sick, catch a chill!"

 

"Or," Jessica added, frowning. "There could have been something in the water that was dangerous."

 

"Fauna, yes!" Alex added. "We still don't know if there's anything alive out here besides the plants! Stay within your limits, sis, I don't want to see you hurt." Then he looked at Jessica. "If we're drinking any of this we need to purify it first. Boiling should work."

 

"Noted. Sounds simple enough." She shrugged. "I'm not going to have us go stumbling through this tangle blind." She turned back to the rest of them. "I need someone with their eyes on their pip-boy map as we go along."

 

"There's a trail over there." Alexander noted. Jessica followed his gaze. It was faintly visible from here, but a brown road roped its way through the trees, leading to some unknown destination however-many miles from their current location.

She started to think. They were out and blind, kicked out and left to dry with no given objective besides survival. Given the mysterious nature of the environment at the moment she deemed it a last-resort option to simply pick a direction and go, since wildlife could be anything and anywhere. From their classes on the matter she knew that before the war the area was populated by various animals that could be dangerous if provoked, even to an experienced traveler. After the war now, with radiation (presumably) having been spread across the globe and shot up into the atmosphere...who knows what they could face?

 

At least if they took a road, chances were they'd eventually wind up somewhere civilized, or perhaps formerly civilized. If Yosemite National Park truly was as healthy as it looked....maybe there were even people around. If there were, they could learn a thing or two from them. If not...at least they had shelter.

 

"We're taking the trail." She announced. "It's better than hitting the bush and walking. Get yourselves ready and we'll move in five."

[FreemasonGamer]

Lancer found some slight humor as the Evans girl so quickly jumped into the water, sending the others into what seemed somewhat like a panic over her safety. Once she was dragged back out of the water, Lancer quickly focused himself before following the group towards the edge of the waterfall. Beyond the surge of water, he finally got a good view of Yosemite, and what a view it was. An endless stretch of sheer green carpeted the earth as far as the eye could see, at least up to the distant mountains and cliff-sides bordering the valley. How could such a beautiful place have emerged from the irradiated ashes of nuclear war, Lancer did not know. However, knowing that their new surroundings would likely harbor as much danger as it did beauty, he came back to his senses once more.

 

After hearing one of their members voicing their complaint of a lack of civilization, Lancer quickly snapped in irritation, "Then stay in th' civilized Vault."

 

He shook his head and scowled, sighing to himself. For the next few moments, he simply listened to the others converse among themselves about the potential dangers and courses of action to consider. Then the Evans boy pointed out a trail leading into the forest, and the well-beaten path intrigued Lancer. What would have made such a well defined dirt trail through the forest? Both somewhat curious and cautious, Lancer's thoughts were interrupted when that security woman, Jessica, announced that they would travel down that path in five minutes. So, he made his way over to her side.

 

"Lass," Lancer said as he approached Jessica, "I have a sneakin' suspicion that we don't want to meet whatever else uses that trail. Unless your plan is to run headfirst into the unknown, I'd suggest a bit of scoutin', at least."