I don't want to set the world on fire; I just want to start a flame in your heart...
Fallout Chronicles
Chapter II
Let me tell you now the story of how my ancestor came to follow the Vault-Dweller, and why the end of their quest was only the beginning of their journey.
My great great grandfather, whom we remember as Tycho the Righteous, was just called Tycho then. He lived in a bad place called Trash Town, where the people were caught between two men vying for control of the city. One man was the self-appointed sheriff of Trash Town, and fancied himself its chief, while the other was a greedy criminal who ran the local gambling den. Tycho had once been a Desert Ranger, part of a band of fierce but honorable warriors, but the group had been disbanded years before. Though Tycho considered his home to be the Hub, the largest settlement of that region, he had been living in Trash Town for nearly a year when he met the Vault Dweller.
As my ancestor told the story, he was enjoying a quiet drink in the local tavern one evening when he noted the entrance of a pair of strangers -- a middle-aged ruffian and a soft-looking teenager. Tycho had seen the elder's kind a thousand times before, but the young man was a curiosity. He seemed new, his features free of the scars and blemishes that came with the hard life those people lived. Even the young man's sun tan seemed a work in progress. All strange, but Tycho was inclined to mind his own business and let others do the same. He had other things on his mind.
As expected, those other things arrived not long after the curious pair. The Skulz gang was local to Trash Town, and although the rumors that the gambling kingpin used them to carry out his dirty work was not wholly false, the truth was that nobody really controlled them. Tycho had chosen this tavern on this evening because he had been expecting them. About a week earlier he had listened to the tavern owner tell him a story about how his wife -- whose ashes now stood enshrined behind the bar -- had been claimed by the Skulz' violence, and the previous night he had heard tell that the Skulz were tired of being refused at the door. These scoundrels forced their way in that night, intent on being served drinks or else putting the place out of business. Tycho, who would have been the first to admit that he would always be a Desert Ranger, had been waiting around for them to show up.
As expected, the tavern owner greeted them with a brandished shotgun, so the Skulz' guns came out. There were five, and they obviously expected to have the upper hand. They weren't paying attention to Tycho, so they did not notice that he had drawn a weapon until one of their number fell dead.
What Tycho saw then, he thought was very strange indeed. It was as if the young stranger had been expecting the conflict as well. Though the boy did not shoot with much confidence, the speed of his reaction and the precision of his aim took another member of the Skulz unaware. The tavern owner discharging his shotgun claimed a third, and the young man's scruffy companion caught up with events in time to take a fourth. The sudden and inexplicable loss of his companions seemed to paralyze the last man, so Tycho held his fire, but the tavern owner was giving no quarter. Tycho thought, as the last of the Skulz dropped, that he could not blame the man.
Afterward, Tycho approached the young stranger who had reacted so quickly to the situation while his companion lifted bullets and coin from the bodies of the dead. He offered to buy the young man a drink, but the tavern owner was busy dragging the bodies out into the street. The stranger introduced himself as Diaz, and his friend as Ian. Diaz asked whether Tycho had ever heard of a water chip, and Tycho had to admit that he had not. He told Diaz that the Hub would be a good place to look if such a thing existed, and if the young man was not interested in waiting for the next caravan to pass through he would be well-advised to make the journey with Tycho, as the Wastelands only grew more perilous toward the south. Diaz asked what was keeping Tycho in Trash Town presently, so Tycho explained the village's situation. Though things had been peaceful for some time, in recent months the tension between the sheriff and kingpin was building, and Tycho did not want to leave before it was resolved. A turf war like that could destroy this town, Tycho said. And with so little humanity left in the world, we got to keep the peace.
Though Tycho had his reservations about the self-serving sheriff of Trash Town, he was inclined to favor law and order over the kingpin's chaos, so Diaz suggested approaching the man directly. Tycho had already disagreed with the sheriff over his implementation of law in Trash Town more than once, so he let Diaz do the talking, and was surprised at the result. The sheriff had been reluctant to fire the first shot for fear that it would weaken his hold on the moral highground of the situation, but Diaz managed to convince him with even, measured logic that the kingpin had to be removed swiftly and permantently for the good of the village. The sheriff agreed, and with a few cronies plus Tycho, Diaz, and Ian backing him, he marched off to confront the kingpin.
Their timing was fortunate, as they caught up with the kingpin away from his den, having taken the afternoon to spend in the local brothel. Startled by the sheriff and his men, he took the whore he was with as a hostage. Once again, Diaz found himself doing the talking. Watch this, Ian muttered to Tycho. Tycho watched as Diaz negotiated with the kingpin, assuring him that the sheriff wanted a fair fight and that no one meant him immediate harm. Diaz talked to the kingpin exactly long enough to get the man to start to think that maybe he was telling the truth after all. And then, without a moment's hesitation, Diaz drew his pistol and shot the kingpin through the eye. Even Ian looked surprised.
Tycho had been listening when Diaz had spoken to the sheriff earlier, and had believed every word. As he and his new companions were escorted from town, he realized that the young man had taken them all for a ride. By lying publically about the sheriff's intentions to the kingpin and then coldly executing him, he had set the sheriff up as blameless. Because the kingpin was a criminal, the sheriff was not obligated to exact severe punishment upon Diaz, but he could and did instruct the young man to leave and never return to Trash Town. There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it; Tycho could tell he envied Diaz' skill in manipulation. At the same time, Tycho did not imagine for a moment that Diaz' exile was mere lip service, for the sheriff could never tolerate such a rival as this young man.
During their journey south, Tycho had much opportunity to learn about his young ward. Diaz was some bizarre bundle of contradictions: an idealist and pragmatist, an intellectual and an idiot. The young man was a student of human nature, and yet woefully ignorant of the ways of the world. He wanted a peaceful life, and yet he seemed almost too comfortable with violence. As they neared the Hub, Diaz finally spilled the secret of his quest, against the protestations of his bodyguard. Diaz came from a Vault which had somehow remained undiscovered, and the water chip he sought would save his home. As Tycho listened to this story, he knew he would have to help the boy achieve his goal, if there were any water chips left in the world. A sealed Vault meant that somewhere, a small pocket of humanity was protected from the self-destructive war for reasources still being waged on the surface. If the worst should happen, and the last uncontaminated preserves be consumed by fire, he wanted to know that humanity had an insurance policy. He said as much, and Diaz nodded and thanked him. Diaz came from a place where people helped each other, so he took for granted how rare a thing it was in the outside world. And yet even that fact made Tycho all the more determined to help preserve that place.
Upon arriving in the Hub, Diaz confessed to Tycho that he was in possession of a few trinkets which, Ian assured him, would make their journey much easier. Tycho helped find a merchant who could afford to take one off their hands, and they used the tidy sum afforded to outfit themselves. For Tycho's Hub contacts had heard of a water chip being used to run the water supply of the Necropolis, a city infested with ghoulish mutants tainted by years of radiation exposure. As the trio crossed the desert bound for this cursed city, Tycho also invested some time in teaching his companions some of the maneuvers Rangers used to coordinate their assaults. There were plenty of burned-out building shells along the way in which to practice, and spending a bit of their ample ammunition supply was more than worth the efficiency and accuracy it bought them. In the process Diaz discovered an affinity for shotguns, which would be of great value in close-quaters urban combat. By the time they reached their destination, they had become a team.
As such, their sweep through the Necropolis was quick and clean. They carefully avoided the mutant denizens of that place, engaging only where absolutely necessary and remaining undetected at all costs. Tycho was surprised by the complement of mutant soldiers guarding the entrance to the city's old Vault, for they were larger and more lucid than any mutants he had ever encountered. Those Super Mutants were also curiously well-equipped, a few even carrying laser or plasma rifles. The team put Tycho's training into practice, and the Super Mutants were overcome. Toward the end of the battle, however, the last few hostiles were proving especially resourceful and Ian let his bloodlust overwhelm his reason. He broke their sweeping pattern to charge ahead, and when a hostile appeared from a doorway behind him he panicked and fired back over his shoulder hastily, missing the hulking mutant and hitting Diaz instead. The situation emboldened the few remaining hostiles, making them careless, and Ian and Tycho cleared the rest without difficulty. Diaz' wound was not critical, but that did not stop Tycho from railing at Ian, and for some time after he could not help but watch the other man carefully.
After binding Diaz' wound, they pressed on into the scavanged Vault and located the water chip. Before Diaz would let them remove it, he insisted on spending time affecting repairs on the water pump that had been in use before the chip's discovery. He told his companions that he did not know enough about mutants to decide with a clear conscience that they could all die for his Vault's sake. Besides, he added, I don't want them to come looking for this chip.
The young man's quest was at an end, it seemed. Both Tycho and Ian insisted on accompanying the wounded Diaz on the long trek back to his Vault, swearing an oath to never reveal its location to anyone. The journey north left much time for reflection, and Tycho could not help but feel that the Wastelands were losing a great asset in Diaz. Then again, he thought, perhaps it would be better if Diaz' progeny was kept safe. If any part of humanity should survive, it ought to be the best part.
Vault 13, Diaz' home, was like nothing Tycho had ever seen. It was clean and cool, but somehow disturbingly lifeless. He quickly decided that he could never live in such a place. Neither, it seemed, could Diaz. In meeting with the Overseer of that place, Diaz was told that his reports of the growing mutant population above were very troubling, and that it needed to be investigated further before the Vault's safety would be assured. Tycho knew, when he heard this, that the Overseer did not intend to ever let Diaz return permanently to his home. He did not have the heart to tell Diaz this. Perhaps the boy knew it too. If so, he showed no sign of despair.
There is much to be done, Diaz said to his companions when the great metal door sealed them out of the Vault once again. Will you walk with me a bit longer, my friends?
But he needn't have even asked, for they would follow this extraordinary man-child to the grave.
Chapter II
Let me tell you now the story of how my ancestor came to follow the Vault-Dweller, and why the end of their quest was only the beginning of their journey.
My great great grandfather, whom we remember as Tycho the Righteous, was just called Tycho then. He lived in a bad place called Trash Town, where the people were caught between two men vying for control of the city. One man was the self-appointed sheriff of Trash Town, and fancied himself its chief, while the other was a greedy criminal who ran the local gambling den. Tycho had once been a Desert Ranger, part of a band of fierce but honorable warriors, but the group had been disbanded years before. Though Tycho considered his home to be the Hub, the largest settlement of that region, he had been living in Trash Town for nearly a year when he met the Vault Dweller.
As my ancestor told the story, he was enjoying a quiet drink in the local tavern one evening when he noted the entrance of a pair of strangers -- a middle-aged ruffian and a soft-looking teenager. Tycho had seen the elder's kind a thousand times before, but the young man was a curiosity. He seemed new, his features free of the scars and blemishes that came with the hard life those people lived. Even the young man's sun tan seemed a work in progress. All strange, but Tycho was inclined to mind his own business and let others do the same. He had other things on his mind.
As expected, those other things arrived not long after the curious pair. The Skulz gang was local to Trash Town, and although the rumors that the gambling kingpin used them to carry out his dirty work was not wholly false, the truth was that nobody really controlled them. Tycho had chosen this tavern on this evening because he had been expecting them. About a week earlier he had listened to the tavern owner tell him a story about how his wife -- whose ashes now stood enshrined behind the bar -- had been claimed by the Skulz' violence, and the previous night he had heard tell that the Skulz were tired of being refused at the door. These scoundrels forced their way in that night, intent on being served drinks or else putting the place out of business. Tycho, who would have been the first to admit that he would always be a Desert Ranger, had been waiting around for them to show up.
As expected, the tavern owner greeted them with a brandished shotgun, so the Skulz' guns came out. There were five, and they obviously expected to have the upper hand. They weren't paying attention to Tycho, so they did not notice that he had drawn a weapon until one of their number fell dead.
What Tycho saw then, he thought was very strange indeed. It was as if the young stranger had been expecting the conflict as well. Though the boy did not shoot with much confidence, the speed of his reaction and the precision of his aim took another member of the Skulz unaware. The tavern owner discharging his shotgun claimed a third, and the young man's scruffy companion caught up with events in time to take a fourth. The sudden and inexplicable loss of his companions seemed to paralyze the last man, so Tycho held his fire, but the tavern owner was giving no quarter. Tycho thought, as the last of the Skulz dropped, that he could not blame the man.
Afterward, Tycho approached the young stranger who had reacted so quickly to the situation while his companion lifted bullets and coin from the bodies of the dead. He offered to buy the young man a drink, but the tavern owner was busy dragging the bodies out into the street. The stranger introduced himself as Diaz, and his friend as Ian. Diaz asked whether Tycho had ever heard of a water chip, and Tycho had to admit that he had not. He told Diaz that the Hub would be a good place to look if such a thing existed, and if the young man was not interested in waiting for the next caravan to pass through he would be well-advised to make the journey with Tycho, as the Wastelands only grew more perilous toward the south. Diaz asked what was keeping Tycho in Trash Town presently, so Tycho explained the village's situation. Though things had been peaceful for some time, in recent months the tension between the sheriff and kingpin was building, and Tycho did not want to leave before it was resolved. A turf war like that could destroy this town, Tycho said. And with so little humanity left in the world, we got to keep the peace.
Though Tycho had his reservations about the self-serving sheriff of Trash Town, he was inclined to favor law and order over the kingpin's chaos, so Diaz suggested approaching the man directly. Tycho had already disagreed with the sheriff over his implementation of law in Trash Town more than once, so he let Diaz do the talking, and was surprised at the result. The sheriff had been reluctant to fire the first shot for fear that it would weaken his hold on the moral highground of the situation, but Diaz managed to convince him with even, measured logic that the kingpin had to be removed swiftly and permantently for the good of the village. The sheriff agreed, and with a few cronies plus Tycho, Diaz, and Ian backing him, he marched off to confront the kingpin.
Their timing was fortunate, as they caught up with the kingpin away from his den, having taken the afternoon to spend in the local brothel. Startled by the sheriff and his men, he took the whore he was with as a hostage. Once again, Diaz found himself doing the talking. Watch this, Ian muttered to Tycho. Tycho watched as Diaz negotiated with the kingpin, assuring him that the sheriff wanted a fair fight and that no one meant him immediate harm. Diaz talked to the kingpin exactly long enough to get the man to start to think that maybe he was telling the truth after all. And then, without a moment's hesitation, Diaz drew his pistol and shot the kingpin through the eye. Even Ian looked surprised.
Tycho had been listening when Diaz had spoken to the sheriff earlier, and had believed every word. As he and his new companions were escorted from town, he realized that the young man had taken them all for a ride. By lying publically about the sheriff's intentions to the kingpin and then coldly executing him, he had set the sheriff up as blameless. Because the kingpin was a criminal, the sheriff was not obligated to exact severe punishment upon Diaz, but he could and did instruct the young man to leave and never return to Trash Town. There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it; Tycho could tell he envied Diaz' skill in manipulation. At the same time, Tycho did not imagine for a moment that Diaz' exile was mere lip service, for the sheriff could never tolerate such a rival as this young man.
During their journey south, Tycho had much opportunity to learn about his young ward. Diaz was some bizarre bundle of contradictions: an idealist and pragmatist, an intellectual and an idiot. The young man was a student of human nature, and yet woefully ignorant of the ways of the world. He wanted a peaceful life, and yet he seemed almost too comfortable with violence. As they neared the Hub, Diaz finally spilled the secret of his quest, against the protestations of his bodyguard. Diaz came from a Vault which had somehow remained undiscovered, and the water chip he sought would save his home. As Tycho listened to this story, he knew he would have to help the boy achieve his goal, if there were any water chips left in the world. A sealed Vault meant that somewhere, a small pocket of humanity was protected from the self-destructive war for reasources still being waged on the surface. If the worst should happen, and the last uncontaminated preserves be consumed by fire, he wanted to know that humanity had an insurance policy. He said as much, and Diaz nodded and thanked him. Diaz came from a place where people helped each other, so he took for granted how rare a thing it was in the outside world. And yet even that fact made Tycho all the more determined to help preserve that place.
Upon arriving in the Hub, Diaz confessed to Tycho that he was in possession of a few trinkets which, Ian assured him, would make their journey much easier. Tycho helped find a merchant who could afford to take one off their hands, and they used the tidy sum afforded to outfit themselves. For Tycho's Hub contacts had heard of a water chip being used to run the water supply of the Necropolis, a city infested with ghoulish mutants tainted by years of radiation exposure. As the trio crossed the desert bound for this cursed city, Tycho also invested some time in teaching his companions some of the maneuvers Rangers used to coordinate their assaults. There were plenty of burned-out building shells along the way in which to practice, and spending a bit of their ample ammunition supply was more than worth the efficiency and accuracy it bought them. In the process Diaz discovered an affinity for shotguns, which would be of great value in close-quaters urban combat. By the time they reached their destination, they had become a team.
As such, their sweep through the Necropolis was quick and clean. They carefully avoided the mutant denizens of that place, engaging only where absolutely necessary and remaining undetected at all costs. Tycho was surprised by the complement of mutant soldiers guarding the entrance to the city's old Vault, for they were larger and more lucid than any mutants he had ever encountered. Those Super Mutants were also curiously well-equipped, a few even carrying laser or plasma rifles. The team put Tycho's training into practice, and the Super Mutants were overcome. Toward the end of the battle, however, the last few hostiles were proving especially resourceful and Ian let his bloodlust overwhelm his reason. He broke their sweeping pattern to charge ahead, and when a hostile appeared from a doorway behind him he panicked and fired back over his shoulder hastily, missing the hulking mutant and hitting Diaz instead. The situation emboldened the few remaining hostiles, making them careless, and Ian and Tycho cleared the rest without difficulty. Diaz' wound was not critical, but that did not stop Tycho from railing at Ian, and for some time after he could not help but watch the other man carefully.
After binding Diaz' wound, they pressed on into the scavanged Vault and located the water chip. Before Diaz would let them remove it, he insisted on spending time affecting repairs on the water pump that had been in use before the chip's discovery. He told his companions that he did not know enough about mutants to decide with a clear conscience that they could all die for his Vault's sake. Besides, he added, I don't want them to come looking for this chip.
The young man's quest was at an end, it seemed. Both Tycho and Ian insisted on accompanying the wounded Diaz on the long trek back to his Vault, swearing an oath to never reveal its location to anyone. The journey north left much time for reflection, and Tycho could not help but feel that the Wastelands were losing a great asset in Diaz. Then again, he thought, perhaps it would be better if Diaz' progeny was kept safe. If any part of humanity should survive, it ought to be the best part.
Vault 13, Diaz' home, was like nothing Tycho had ever seen. It was clean and cool, but somehow disturbingly lifeless. He quickly decided that he could never live in such a place. Neither, it seemed, could Diaz. In meeting with the Overseer of that place, Diaz was told that his reports of the growing mutant population above were very troubling, and that it needed to be investigated further before the Vault's safety would be assured. Tycho knew, when he heard this, that the Overseer did not intend to ever let Diaz return permanently to his home. He did not have the heart to tell Diaz this. Perhaps the boy knew it too. If so, he showed no sign of despair.
There is much to be done, Diaz said to his companions when the great metal door sealed them out of the Vault once again. Will you walk with me a bit longer, my friends?
But he needn't have even asked, for they would follow this extraordinary man-child to the grave.