Chapter 4

The location that Preston had given him was just on the other side, and up a small slope, of a small dam. The dam seemed to be okay, no signs of cracking or leaking. There were a couple bandits on the top, but when he unslung the minigun, they decided they could move along after all. It had taken Juan a good 4 hours walking to get to the site from the Abernathy farm.

The site was obviously someone’s idea of a rural retreat. There were a number of cabins set in a rough circle in the small cleared space. There was a larger structure in the middle, with a unicraft station setup inside. Someone had also set up another crafting station in there as well. It looked to be a little older, and less ‘professionally’ crafted, but he could see it’s function pretty easily. This one would specialize in crafting drugs, or refining chemicals.

That made sense based on the ramblings of the mr. Handy that was wandering around the building. Someone had adjusted his base programming to say the same lines over and over, ‘ah man’, ‘far out’ and ‘cool’. It wasn’t harming anything, and frankly he found it entertaining, so Juan just let it wander.

The buildings had some ghouls inhabiting them, but nothing that the combat shotgun couldn’t deal with. Once he was sure that the site was clear of enemies, for the time at least, Juan exited the armour and spent a few hours straightening up the location.

The unicraft station made short work of the debris around the site as well as the ghoul bodies. Juan was able to setup a small power plant and had it hooked up to a rudimentary broadcast tower, as well as a small automated pump that he managed to setup. It wouldn’t put out too much water, but it would be enough for about a dozen people.

Juan was able to craft some rough walls to fit between the buildiings, creating an enclosed space, with the only opening being the road that came up to the site, about 15’ across. He had just enough components to build 2 automated turrets, these used 5mm ammunition, a little weaker than he would have preferred to use, but the best he had on hand.

He was setting up the last turret when he noticed a couple of people walking up the slope to the site. They were being cautious, but did not have the look of raiders. He had kept the assault rifle with him while working around the site, so he unslung this and walked out to see what they wanted.

“Are you the one that set up the beacon?” the one in front, Juan could tell from the voice that it was a guy, the light having gotten dim as evening came on.

“Yes I did. Are you interested in settling in here?” Juan kept his voice neutral.

“That depends. Why are you asking for settlers?” the second one had stopped behind the guy, and Juan couldn’t tell if it was a guy or not.

“I am with the Minutemen. Part of what we are trying to do is help people get setup in a safe and stable location. We want to set up communities where it is possible. The more people that are in ‘safe’ situations, the more they will be able to help each other. Eventually we will take control of the Commonwealth away from the raiders, ghouls, super mutants and anything else that wanders by.”

Juan had given some thought to the answer this time. The first time he had been asked that, he had stumbled his way through an answer and could tell that it had not been very reassuring. This time he did a lot better.

The 2 of them walked closer, coming up to him now. He could see they were both men, their clothes were a little ragged, showing some rough living, but essentially clean. Definitely not raiders.

“Then we would like to take you up on your offer. This looks like a good setup, definitely a lot better than other places we have seen.”

Juan put the rifle back on his shoulder and smiled at the 2 men.

“Then let me welcome you to Sunshine Tidings Co-op! The name comes from it’s pre-war origins. Keeping that will make it easier to find it on any older maps. I have added a fair amount of material to the unicrafting station, and I have setup some corn, mutfruit trees and tatoes already. There should be some more in the station, if you want to expand the garden.” Juan gave them a rundown on the layout, how the turrets were configured and the settings to adjust them as new settlers showed up as well.

He explained that the idea was to let each settlement grow to accommodate a fair number of people, their numbers being part of what would protect them from attack. Juan also informed them that he and other Minutemen patrols would be by from time to time to check in, but if something should happen, they could use flares to catch the attention of any nearby patrols. Otherwise, just let a caravan know that they were looking for Minutemen help and someone would be by as soon as they could.

Juan set them up with some of the armour and weapons that he had stored on the site for the new settlers to use, and they confirmed that they would be careful. Juan decided to spend the night at the new settlement, chatting with the two guys, getting to know them. There had been a half dozen beds spread around the different cabins on the site already, so Juan picked one and crashed for the night.

In the morning, Juan got back into the armour, and headed out. One of the new settlers had let him know that there was a small cabin, just off the road, to the south of the Abernathy farm that he had walked by previously and had seen a number of ghouls there.

With this information, Juan decided to take a look for himself. He found a few of the disgustingly over-sized flies along the way. He was very grateful for the power armour when they were flinging their irradiated maggots at him. Hearing them impact on the armour was fuel to his imagination to what that would have felt like without the armour.

He was able to recover some meat from them, so a small silver lining to that mutation. It was amazing that he could see them as a food source. His time spent in south Asia, eating whatever was available off the land there had opened his mind to new food possibilities. Though he was still fairly sure that he was never going to enjoy eating raw grubs. Something about the texture just put him off.

Striding down the highway, the asphalt cracked and weathered, showing all the signs of winter exposure over a couple centuries. He couldn’t help but admire the view though. The trees were all tall, with full branches of leaves. The green was overflowing with colour. He had always loved the outdoors, and could see the rugged beauty that was all around.

The grass that grew up to the side of the road was knee high and thriving. All it took was one global nuclear war, and nature was given a chance to take it all back. The future he was in had it’s own horrors, but looking down the road, the sunlight dappling the street, he had to admit that somethings were improved.