Fallout 4: Angel's Pip-Boy Diary #22 · 11:00am Jan 31st, 2016
art by Mozgan
Small amount of pre-break text this time. I wanted to dedicate most of this space to showing off that amazing art. It's a favorite, and I couldn't believe that I hadn't featured it already.
So, how excited is everyone for Season 6? I was very pleasantly surprised to hear that it is coming out this spring. 
(Particularly in contrast to another show I watch which is having their season finale and won’t start its next season for a full year.)
New installment of Angel’s Pip-Boy Diary below the break. Enjoy! 
Angel's Pip-Boy Diary
Day 41
Day 41 – Midnight
December 3, 2287I found the beacon left by the vanished Brotherhood squad.
Malden Center is a town of ghouls! There were so many of them. I didn’t even try to fight. I lead them on a merry chase, running circles through the streets until I finally lost them.
Seriously, how the hell are the farmers at Greentop Nursery worried about ghouls at the National Guard Training Yard, and not the virtual zombie apocalypse just down the hill from them?
There are bodies strung up from trees ahead. This is a bad sign.
Day 41 – Early Morning
December 3, 2287I was wrong.
I found half of the missing Brotherhood recon team. Their remains were in a crater that was soaked in radiation, their power armor fused. According to a holotape on the scene, they were ambushed by overwhelming forces. They scuttled their armor to prevent the enemy from getting ahold of it. The survivors then headed to a nearby military base.
I suspect they were hit by raiders, or possibly Gunner mercenaries. Nobody else could really make use of power armor. I can understand destroying their power armor. I’ve seen what a raider in power armor will do.
The only nearby military base is the National Guard Training Yard. Both my Minutemen and Brotherhood missions are pointing me to the same location. I didn’t believe that sort of serendipity still existed in the Commonwealth.
I’m headed to County Crossing to see if clearing out the NGTY will kill three birds with one stone.
Day 41 – Early Morning
December 3, 2287
This is County Crossing? There’s nothing here. Am I too late?
Oh, hold on. There is a tiny shack that looks like it’s about to fall over. And some plants. This isn’t a settlement. It isn’t even a farm. But there are people here, and they want the Minutemen’s help. And, to my surprise, they aren’t asking me to help them move somewhere else.
Although they are asking me to help friends of theirs move somewhere else. Specifically, to a much better settlement location called the Taffington Boathouse. Because their friends are smart enough not to want to move to County Crossing.
Of course, first they need the Minutemen for a bug hunt at that otherwise viable homestead. I told them I’d be happy to help. (I didn’t mention that happiness is contingent on an absence of legendary festering bloatflies.)
Note: I spotted a deathclaw on the road not far back. That was not a fight I was looking for, so I cautiously avoided the monster. It was headed away from here, but it is still best to tread carefully.
Day 41 – Noon
December 3, 2287Dear National Guard Training Yard,
Why do your turrets ignore all the feral ghouls and only shoot at me?
Sincerely,
The woman pinned against a wall with turrets trying to kill her from multiple directions.
Day 41 – Early Evening
December 3, 2287
I managed to get into the armory. I’m actually surprised I was able to so easily. Inside, I found a suit of power armor which made the ghoul hunt which followed survivable. Not that most of the ferals presented a serious threat. But in the heart of the complex, I encountered one of those horrifying glowing ghouls accompanied by a feral ghoul reaver with that “legendary” mutation. Killing them involved stealth, running very fast and a truly indecent amount of explosives.
One of these days, I am going to have to get some training in the art of the hand grenade. My throw is good, but my aim is poor. I find it safer to lay mines and lead enemies to them than trust that I can lob an explosive anywhere near my intended target.
While in the armory, I also took the time to add a silencer to Sweetness. On a similar note, I have decided that since Kellogg’s gun is mine now, it deserves a new and fitting title: Angel’s Revenge.
Upon exiting the armory, I was assaulted by a Sentry Bot. Breaking into the armory must have activated it. All my experience over the last month has made me a skilled and lethal fighter, but I am still just a civilian. Sentry Bots are top-of-the-line military death machines. I didn’t have a chance against it, and I knew it.
So I ran. I fled into the main complex, trusting that it couldn’t follow. If the heavy machine had tried, I am convinced it would have gotten trapped in the collapsing floor. Fortunately, it appears that it was programmed not to enter the structures.
The ghoul hunt that followed not only finished the work that the Greentop Nursery asked of the Minutemen, and netted me some valuable reading materials, but brought me to the body of another one of the missing Brotherhood squad members. I collected the soldier’s holotag. There was also a recording. The trail leads now to the Revere Satellite Array.
I cautiously made my way out, hoping to sneak past the Sentry Bot… only to find the machine disabled. What took it down? Surely no ghoul could have done this. Did it critically overheat?
…or maybe it was that!
Okay, okay… that has to be dealt with. If the monster is wandering into the National Guard Training Yard and killing Sentry Bots, the fools camping at County Crossing don’t stand a chance. I have power armor, I have a silenced Sweetness, but I’m short on a squad of Knights with gatling lasers. I need a plan.
And I think I have one. There is no way that beast can make it up through the scaffolding. If I get on the roof, I should be able to draw it in and trap it where it can’t get to me.
Two months ago, I expected to be spending days like this watching bad soap operas while Shaun suckled at my breasts. Instead, I’m ambushing a wounded deathclaw.
Go Angel.
Day 41 – Evening
December 3, 2287
That was absolutely insane.
I need to catch my breath.
I’ve taken a quick look around. My exploration uncovered a second set of power armor. Since I don’t have the materials to repair the suit that I am in, I’m going to swap before moving on to the Revere Satellite Array. It is within line of sight. Otherwise, I’d try finding a place to sleep.
I’ve had far too many close calls. And to top it off, I’m still feeling annoyed with the criminal disaster that the General Atomics Galleria… wait. Was that this morning? No, that was yesterday morning.
I have gone over two days without sleep. This cannot be normal. I feel achy and exhausted, but I am only mildly sleepy. And mostly, I think, because I am thinking about it. Did… did cryogenic sleep do something to screw up my biology? Am I just going to be able to keep going and going until I hit some threshold and then collapse for weeks?
Humans don’t hibernate.
Ghouls apparently do, and they were once human, so I suppose that sort of alteration is possible? That seems incredibly unlikely though. On the other hand, I “slept” over two hundred years in suspended animation.
I have the sudden, screaming urge to run to a doctor and demand to know what is wrong with me. But what doctor has any experience with this sort of thing? Plus, I have a really good idea of what diagnosis any doctor in this new Commonwealth will give me: that I’m a synth.
Synths know that they are synths, right?
Day 41 – Night
December 3, 2287The Revere Satellite Array is a supermutant stronghold. After initially rushing me – an attack lead by a “legendary” ogre butcher wielding a heated super sledge! – they have fortified, taking to high positions where they can snipe at me if I approach.
If it wasn’t for this power armor and my combat shotgun, I would have been pounded into paste. I would probably be part of the ogres’ décor, hanging as part of one of those grotesque meatbags.
I’ve remained hidden in the woods, tending to my wounds and waiting for nightfall. I am banking on ogres not having superior night vision. If I can sneak past the perimeter, I can get into a superior sniping position to exchange shots.
Or that might not be needed at all. It’s the Brotherhood of Steel to the rescue! Woohoo! They rock so much.
Or not? That’s not good…
Holy SHIT!
art by Nukechaser24
Hey, don't knock it. At least somebody cared enough to do a bit of decorating; in the modern wasteland that's a rarity.
Hahah, yeah. Isn't that County Crossing's tourism slogan? "County Crossing: it may be a whole lot of nothing, but at least it's handy for the constant raider attacks!"
I think something went wrong somewhere in that sentence. Maybe "...Minutemen for a bug..."?
Like the little sign on the turret says: "No pulse, no skin - no service." Their bullets are reserved for living customers.
Oooh, I really like that. I've never been much into naming weapons (except in a utilitarian way), but you're making a really strong case for it.
That was pretty cool; using an unrealistic bit of game mechanics for story building. I like it!
I recommend Durable Vertibirds, to fix the ridiculously flimsy aircraft that can't survive a single engagement with common raiders, let alone
Super Mutantsogres.heh that happened to me a few times, heck one killed me!
3724650 Thank you! That was wonderful feedback!
3724650
Actually, I think the crash at the Revere array is scripted.
It's moments like that Sentrybot/Deathclaw encounter that make open-world games awesome and the players' stories unique.
3724701 I don't believe so. I had saved the game just before the Brotherhood arrived on the scene. Due to some unfortunate dying, I had to play the first part of Revere more than twice. What happened with the vertibird kept changing. In one case, the vertibird banked a different way, ignored Revere altogether, and went off to fight something else (in the general direction of Saugus Ironworks).
Vertibirds engage hostile ground forces randomly and with great frequency. And quite often, that engagement ends with the vertibird getting shot down. The most interesting vertibird encounters (including shoot-downs like this one) that I have seen are ones that I know are not scripted because I've replayed the scenario and had different things happen.
Wrote this down while reading and forgot to post it when I was done:
There's a skill I love that can make throwing a grenade expertly though a small window above your head a breeze.
Hey Kkat, just out of curiosity do you have any favorite companions in Fallout 4? My favorites are Hancock, Piper, and Preston.
Damn, I hoped Angel would put The Lost Patrol on backburner until she'd get Danse as a follower. His comments make that mission 200% better.
I second this.
Oh for the sleep and eat I have found 2 mods. 1 2 I'm not sure how well they work since I generally just sleep and eat as a matter of course during gameplay myself.
Cue in Yakety Sax music and scene
Maybe they had additional motives...
....like a boat load of materials to collect! And Power Armor! Well... good thing that Angel gets first dibs.
Let's hope Angel can sneak her way in.
Yes! Backup is on the way!
And it's going.
Going. And it's gone.
Maybe getting in close like that isn't such a good idea. Especially if it's going to make them a better target, It certainly isn't a flying tank. Sure hope it wasn't carrying any ground soldiers. That would have been an incredible waste of ground support if they were carrying a knight or two.
3724652
One Vertibird also killed me. I fast traveled to The Castle, decided to re-loot the destroyed shop in front of the Castle for some frag mines, ammo and first aid and then walking outside the front door I was hit directly by a Vertibird going down. I was in a Hazmat Suit and it was instant death. I should of sprinted away but it was too late with saying "Oh Shit."
Speaking of Vertibirds, attacking Fort Strong with one during the Show No Mercy quest on Survival difficulty is try, try again. When I finally did wipe out the exterior hostiles the pilot hit the main building and I was too amused to be even mad. So i just lowered the difficulty so the Vertibird would not blow up as easily.
I had no idea it was coming out this spring!
I have missed pony for most of the time I have not been playing Fallout. Thanks for pointing out more info regarding season 6, I completely missed the post on EQD. 
Sorry to hear that. I know your pain. At least you have Fallout to pass the time.
I find that in the gaming world, there can never be to many explosions. Unless they aren't coming from me and my guns. In which case, I agree with you.
I love that fist picture! Also, I find it hilarious how the BoS comes in a vertibird then gets shot down shortly afterward. Guess they didn't bring enough to the fight.
Season 6 this spring? Well good thing I'm all caught up, now I just have to remember to watch it.
3724735
I believed so because the dish it crashed into seemed a little too custom-buckled from the crash. Of course, I never saw it with no vertibird crashed into it, so I guess I don't quite know :P
Quick question: if i were to make a replica of Li'l Macintosh, what would the barrel be? Between Snubnose, Standard, and Bull.
I am having serious doubts about wanting to watch Season 6... My headcanon is that alicorns come through ascension, and do not pop out of the uterus that way. Sadly, it seems that not only do they want to kill my core tenant to my headcanon, WTF did they DO to that thing? Seriously, the cake twins were cute. I have no clue what the hell that thing is. Looks like something I would expect on top of a wedding cake if Larson married Tarantino. (I'll probably end up watching Season 6... just wont include that monstrosity in any of my fics lol)
3724785 When I went there, I saw a pair of knights drop out at almost the exact moment it was hit by a rocket. They survived of course, since the Brotherhood are kinda ridiculous.
3724650
That seems like a case by case basis. If you ever end up going against the BoS for whatever reason you don't want their Vertibirds to be more durable. If anything in that situation you want some Vertibirds you can one-shot and then run for your life in hopes it doesn't hit you.
3725825 I suppose. After all, if your suit negates fall damage, then there's no reason theirs shouldn't... That is if they survive the blast of course.
Now thinking about Angel escapades in the wasteland this chapter and her potential of sneaking into a base full of green, massive and minimal vocabulary, I can't help but think about Scooby-Doo and the gang sneaking around a place while being chase by an army of Creepers.