Chapter 165: Chapter 160

It was interesting to see how pieces of the past stubbornly held on throughout centuries of radiation, weathering and crossfire. Formerly the capital city of Canada, after annexation by the United States of America, the constant riots and partisan activity saw Ottawa being halfway turned into a prison city that was locked down by a heavily armed US Army garrison.

 

When the bombs fell, it wiped out most of the garrison, leaving the surviving city folk to tear into the rest and finally liberate their home. 

 

“...we did our best to rebuild after that,” Mr Howlett explained in the comfort of his new Nexus-sourced couch. “But many left, with how hard it was to find food in the first few years. Then we found our skins peeling off, and that we didn’t really need to eat anymore.”

 

The ghoul gave a deprecating sigh as he inhaled from his cigarette. “Heh... Those of us left decided to fortify Ottawa as best as we could, especially after having to chase off the first few bands of raving lunatics. No one would threaten us anymore. That’s the plan, anyway…”

 

I patiently listened to the ghoul, having cleared the whole week for interviews like this. It was an interesting peek into the dark side of pre-war Fallout America, and with Nora and a few pre-war ghouls of the American flavor, of course I had to sit in to enjoy their reactions.

 

Having the Americans enlightened to the shit that their government carried out that was so wholly covered by propaganda was well worth the time spent in Ottawa. Nora’s jaws dropped in shock at least six times so far after several interviews detailing how the Army clamped down on the city.

 

Slave labour, strict curfews, highly rationed food and goods… And of course there was a ghoul or two sharing of how the soldiers took liberties with them or their friends and family, and how the ‘communist terrorist’ label was often used by journos for women and their husbands or families being shot up for resisting soldiers’ idea of a fun time. 

 

Oh, Nora really squirmed at the last one. I found out later through Nick that she had lawyer friends defending the troops against ‘fabricated accusations in a clear attempt to sabotage the war effort’. And Nate might’ve done a stint or two in ‘pacifying commie sympathizers’ in occupied Canada, a term which now might have a different meaning to it.

 

Was it petty and scummy that I enjoyed the schadenfreude of a bunch of pre-war nostalgics realizing that they were the bad guys? That their ignorant, suburban luxuries came at the cost of parasitizing from occupied Canada? That their donations to Canadian peacekeepers were basically sponsoring the sort of atrocities their propaganda accused Commie China of inflicting on others?

 

Sure, yes.

 

But it’s nice to finally have something to shut the group up if they ever bring up returning to ‘simpler, happier times’ again. “You mean, like Canada?” I could answer back.

 

At least Howlett’s recollection wasn’t too awkward for the pre-war Americans, as it mostly concerned what happened after the bombs fell.  “...so thanks to the overstocked armories, we had plenty to work with. Ottawa became a bastion that kept the wasteland at bay for over a century.”

 

“And then the Ice Talons came,” I said.

 

The ghoul nodded with a heavy sigh. “And then the Ice Talons came. Fuckers came rolling in with their tanks a few decades back, and took over the city. We got pushed back, and then pushed out as the mercs set up shop in our home.”

 

Which explained the ghoul shanty town we had first encountered expanding north. The ghouls were wary of us at first, understandably. The Ice Talons and local raiders had been harassing them constantly. After hearing the story about how they got kicked out, I quickly had Ottawa captured by 2nd, 4th and 6th Companies, and then gave the city to the ghouls.

 

Having them wait outside the city to watch as my bots and troopers empty out the city of mercs scored me a lot of goodwill points

 

They happily accepted Nexus rule after that, and with some renovations and upscaling, all that was needed was to connect the new city hub to the rest of the Nexus’ infrastructure and we’ll have another happy populace to add to the census.

 

It was a much better fate than Quebec City, which was nothing more than a collection of atomic craters. There was barely anything to find there, but the fragments suggested that the an intercepted Chinese strato-bomber crashlanded there with most of its payload. Plenty of feral ghouls and irradiated fauna though, so we used the region for live-fire training.

 

We’ll eventually take over the rest of northeastern North America, as soon as we fully study the variety of local madness haunting the more desolate ruins and mutated forests.

 

Incidentally, it was one of the reasons I’m here listening to Mr Howlett. Before being chased out of Ottawa and getting stuck in a shantytown, he used to be a hunter. I let Nora and the American ghouls leave before going to that point.“So, Jim… Ever seen a Windigo?”

 

The ghoul froze for a moment and stared at me, his cigarette almost falling out of his slackened jaw. “Where’d you hear that from?”

 

I shrugged. “Heard some tales from some of the wastelanders we’ve come across while pushing up here. Figured you might know something, seeing how long you’ve been hunting the woods around here.”

 

Jim Howlett mumbled something as he leaned back into his seat, his melted face twisting into a grimace for a moment before he stared at me with apprehension. “Let me tell you first, they’re real, alright?”

 

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“Don’t worry, I won’t doubt you. The Nexus has had its fare share of...weirdness.”

 

He gave a second of silent thought before nodding and taking a slow drag of his cigarette. “What’ve you heard about them?”

 

“So far? That they’re either oversized ghouls or a bloodthirsty type of radstag… All hearsay, but supposedly there’s whole villages further north that got wiped out.”

 

The ghoul nodded slowly. “Yeah, s’about right. I’ve only ever seen one myself, and barely at that. But I’ve seen their tracks…and what’s left of their prey.”

 

Hearing how his voice was becoming shaky, I couldn’t help tilting my head to one side. “That bad?”

 

I got a wide-eyed stare in return. “Oh yeah, very bad. They only come down whenever the winter’s real cold, but… ” I tried not to get distracted by the loose nasal cartilage as Howlett shuddered. “There was a smoothskin scavenger camp a couple days north from here. About eighty years ago. Used to trade meat for salvage. One day I got there, the place was painted red.”

 

He let out a slow exhale before continuing. “And I mean really red. The tents and crates were soaked with blood, and it seeped through snow and soil before freezing over. There were about sixty smoothskins in that camp, but I couldn’t find enough human parts around that camp to reconstruct even one full body.”

 

That sounded…far more thorough than the super mutants. “You said you’ve seen one before?”

 

“Yeah, a few years after that. Another fuck-cold winter. Was tracking some ice hounds that were straying too close to Ottawa. I found the thing gorging itself on them.”

 

“What’d it look like?”

 

Howlett’s eyes stared off into space for a moment. “Huge…if it stood straight it’d easily reach the treetops. Looked all gangly and thin, but the claws on it snapped apart the wolves like they were matchsticks. I fucked off while it was finishing up its meal, so I didn’t get to see much more than claws, fangs and blood.”

 

“It’s still good enough for me,” I reassured him, and after thanking him for his time, I left the ghoul’s apartment and made my way to the nearest teleporter set in Ottawa’s public square. “Eva, assign some eyebots to cover the northern reaches. We’re looking for something larger than super mutants or deathclaws, probably only found in the colder areas. Also, maybe up the number of patrols in this region.”

 

While I filed my report on the Windigo for future study, I took the teleporter to the mostly untouched ruins that was Montreal. The place was a generic ruined city for the most part, but there was an unregistered Vault-Tec mega-vault there that warranted some investigation. We cleared out the raiders squatting in the facility as soon as we arrived, but the occultists were still studying the place.

 

Supposedly, there was enough lingering resentment, anguish and despair within the mega-vault to make the place a metaphysical reservoir of sorts. Thankfully there were no tainted artifacts or ghosts or mind-altering effects, but that itself was unusual from what we knew. Hence the occultists poring through the place.

 

“I’m told there’s something I should see?” I asked the first NOD researcher I met when I arrived.

 

The occultist gave a meek nod before guiding me down the mega-vault, currently nicknamed ‘The Big V’. “We found the source of the emanations,” the young woman hurriedly explained as she led me. “The quarry floor in the lower levels is actually a mass grave. The scans didn’t initially pick them up because of how…uh, compacted…everything was that they didn’t register properly.”

 

I blinked. To have our robot scanners miss skeletons and human remains had to mean some really fucked up level of corpse disposal. “Were the corpses crushed together or something?”

 

The researcher faltered in her steps and audibly gulped. “No, sir. They were ground up. Mr Valentine found the research files and recordings. It was…um, a method of mass execution, unfortunately.”

 

Holy fuck. “Any idea why?”

 

“Vault-Tec was running out of materials to finish Big V, sir.”

 

I blinked again as words failed me. “That’s…” I thought the Fallout universe was supposed to be sinister and stupid? What level of grimderp was this?

 

Thankfully, the compacted human remains everyone mistook for unhewn stone foundation proved to be harmless. No signs of sentience or hidden, writhing malevolence, so a few Tiberium spikes did the job of dissipating the eldritch energies. It took some discussion with Madison and some others to finally agree to allow for some chunks to be harvested for further testing. For all intents and purposes the rocky remains was inert metanatural stuff, nothing with any level of intelligence to be anywhere close to any ethical issue.

 

Now…do I want to tell Nora about this or should I let her find out about it herself?

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