Level 24 (2 Perk points floating)
S-3 Armorer 1,
P-(+)10 Rifleman 1, Awareness, Locksmith 3
E-2
C-6 Lady Killer 1, Local Leader 2
I-6 Gun Nut 1, Hacker 3, Science 1
A-(+)6 Gunslinger 3, Action Boy 2
L-3
(Astoundingly Awesome 8, Barbarian 5, Covert Operations, Gift of Gab, Junktown Vendor 2, Massachusetts Surgery, Tesla Science, Tumblers Today, Wasteland Survival 7 and 9)

Piper greets me with a “Hey,” and I head downstairs to don my power armor. I step outside and spam my VATS (I click it every so often as I move from area to area to spot any enemies or mines) to find a group of supermutants traveling on the road. My new laser gun performs admirably and I take little damage in the fight. I find it interesting that my VATS information has changed, and I now see resistances, though there is really no indication of what any of the symbols mean. I can only assume that higher numbers mean more protection, that the shield probably means basic physical damage resistance, and a lightning bolt probably means energy resistance. The water droplet things I have no idea about. This is another example of how this game’s interface goes largely unexplained, and is hardly friendly towards experienced gamers, much less new gamers.

As we’re looting the corpses, Piper says “You know mutants take prisoners… I can’t imagine a death that’s worse than that!” It is almost as though she’s making herself feel better about our slaughter. I’ve already come to think of supermutants and monstrous beings and hardly feel anything killing them at this point, though a big part of this is compounded by my experience with previous games. Whether in a series of games or in a case like high fantasy, which recycles archetypes, experience with previous texts can shape your ethical and emotional approach to certain subjects.

It’s still dark outside, just before 6 am, so I have my headlamp on as we move on the road through and away from the town. I could easily fast-travel to MedTek to pick up where I left off, but I elect to walk it instead. I have to be careful though. I spot another frag mine that wasn’t there before and shoot it from afar rather than taking a chance disarming it. Who keeps placing all these traps? It would be interesting if I could somehow track them down, but I have a feeling it is probably some glitch or random spawn.

As I’m headed out of town my VATS catches a man down the road. He is simply labeled The Scribe and seems peaceful, as well as completely unarmed and unarmored. I put away my gun and approach. When he notices me, he turns around and approaches, saying I look like the kind of person who can appreciate good armor. An understatement, to say the least. Also, quite odd, considering this man doesn’t appear to have anything more than a strange sort of jumpsuit on. Unlike other traders, he doesn’t have a brahmin nearby to hold his gear, so I can only assume he has the same extradimensional backpack that I apparently have. He doesn’t really have anything good, but I sell him a couple of guns (though without my extra Charisma bonus from when I take the time to get in my formal wear) and he parts without a word. What a strange interaction.

I come across a bus that I first think to be a place where some poor settlers lived with their dogs before being killed. Soon, I realize the truth is much more grizzly. There’s an explosion outside, and I step out to see a raider. The raider is in cover, but there are three attack dogs running straight towards me. I feel a bit bad, but I kill them each with a shot (except the last one, which I finish off after Piper gets the first shot in). I consider getting the perk that allows me to turn animals to my side by aiming at them, if nothing else than for my own moral edification. There’s an explosion and I’m on fire. Apparently the raider through a molotov cocktail at me. I approach and finish him off easily, then eat a hubflower to regain my hp. So I suppose the truth of the matter is this is the raider’s home, and these poor settlers are folks he has killed and fed to his dogs.

I leave the gruesome bus behind and head on down the road. Around a bend in the road I see large structures on the horizon, perhaps the city of Boston. Surely further away than the settlement I’m heading towards after I investigate the National Guard training center. The quest marker on my HUD indicates that I’m close so I head off-road for a bit that direction. Just a couple of feral ghouls spotted a fair distance away so far.

I post up on a hill so I can snipe them. Interestingly enough, ghouls are actually more resistant to energy weapons than regular weapons. I suppose that makes sense. There is also a machine gun turret on top of a nearby building. The ghouls are lying down at the moment and in a bit of cover, so I decide to blow up the turret first, then take the ghouls down when they stand up. I’m liking this new incendiary sniper rifle. Seeing the ghouls running towards me on fire in VATS is quite the thrill. Unfortunately, the extra burning damage isn’t enough to take them out so I have to fire two shots anyway.

I blow up another turret, then prepare to approach the seemingly abandoned facility (noting that there’s a land mine outside one building which I can’t hit right now). Another distress signal is found as I approach, and I begin tracking it. I pass an outlying building that seems to have some power armor in it, but it looks like I’ll have to open it from somewhere else. There are corpses outside the main building, and another door I can’t open.

As I go around to an outlying bunkers on my left at the NE end and on my right at the SW end, I lose the signal. It’s clearly coming from the central building. There’s a crashed chopper down here. I wonder if this is from the before the bombs hit, or more recent.

I pick of a couple of more turrets as I work my way around but don’t go all the way to the front. I like to look for less obvious entrances to catch enemies when infiltrating a building. There’s a cooking station near a destroyed building, nothing but a tattered American flag remains inside. I climb the rubble and come around to another spot where I can spy the front lot. I snipe a ghoul sleeping in a bus before heading to the roof. There’s quite a view, but not much else here.

Finally, I resign to going around the front, sniping a landmine before approaching. I have a feeling our national guard training centers aren’t decorated to be nearly as cool as this one, with it’s two gigantic heads out front.

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I crouch down and go inside. Only a dead ghoul at first. But the next room hides more, and they’re just sleeping. They rush me, but my 10mm is quite efficient here. Only the legendary ghoul gets to me. I can hear one left and try to find it, but it’s actually Piper who roots it out. It rushes her and tumbles past her, so we both shoot it down as it stands. This legendary doesn’t even have a special item. I feel a bit cheated and consider reloading, but I hate doing things over again.

There’s some moderate loot, and a terminal nearby that apparently give access to the barracks, but I decide to check upstairs first. I like to clear an area before moving on. The top floor is beyond decimated, with most of the floor collapsed, but there are signs of more recent habitation such as sleeping bags. I also find a wall safe still intact with some decent cash and ammo. The other room looks to contain nothing, but on closer inspection has an officer’s password. I almost wish I hadn’t picked it up, because I’d rather hack whatever terminal it is for the xp.

The signal doesn’t seem to be coming from here, so I go to the barracks terminal, which the password unlocks. I go through and actually out into the yard again (though probably behind the maglocked door this time. I’m not where I expect to be though, inside what I had assumed to be some kind of fortified wall but is actually a corridor. I kill two ghouls inside with one shot each but notice one outside. It gets around with scary speed and seems to know exactly how to reach me, which is odd considering I just came through a door that’s been locked for awhile. It’s on me by the time I turn around and gets a hit in before I kill it. So enemies will apparently move through area transitions to chase me, which is new to me. This one went from the area I’m in into another area to then get back to my location. That’s probably what was responsible for the almost glitchy speed it navigated that space with.

There are more feral ghouls stalking the halls of this creepy ruined barracks, I kill one, and snipe another through a crack in a barricade, but I can still hear others moving around, the wet slapping sounds of them walking. It seems like I’m actually moving AWAY from the distress signal, but hopefully it’s just somewhere else I can reach through here.

There are more ghouls upstairs, and though they aren’t much of a threat anymore dealing with them is still creepy. In the corner office is another terminal, which is also unlocked with the officer’s password. I’ve never lost so much xp from picking up one item before. I use it to unlock a door, though I’ve no idea where. Hopefully to that power armor outside. I peer through the rebar of a cracked open wall and snipe three sleeping feral ghouls. Three more I won’t have to deal with later. The next room is so dark and dusty I have to turn my light on. There’s a huge hole in the floor that leads to an area I don’t know if I can exit, so I carefully creep around the edge. There’s a stealth boy here, which I have many of but rarely use. In the next room, I spot a glowing one on the floor below. I switch to my sniper rifle and get a perfect headshot that barely take a sixth of its hp. I get one more shot off before it is out of site and coming up a ramp I didn’t know about. It rushes Piper with another ghoul as I switch to my pistol, but she holds her own until I can finish it off. We kill the other one together.

I move into the bathroom and shoot some ghouls on the floor below through the collapsed floor (national guard architects are, at least, probably better in our world). My shots must ignite some oil or something because the floor is on fire for a little bit. I head downstairs through the ramp the glowing one used. It’s cool how you can see the glowing green footprints to trace the path it took. Reminds me of an old Disney channel movie I saw as a kid, Mr. Boogedy.

A ghoul surprises us in the lower floor bathroom and almost reaches me. As it thrashes around in its death throes it gets an arm stuck in the stall wall, and dies hanging like that. I move on and clear the area before finally seeing another exit to the training yard. I hope this one gets me closer to my goal.

It’s getting dark when I exit, and I’m finally at the other side of that maglocked terminal. But I still can’t find the beacon. I open the door and decide to go see if I’ve managed to unlock the power armor. Unfortunately not. And there’s still no signal. I’m getting a bit frustrated now and wondering what door I unlocked before. I sure hope it’s not some sort of timed unlock. I pass a door to the armory that I must have missed before, but I don’t think this would be it. Still, I go inside.

Inside, there are a lot of laser trip wires and a turret. Despite being marked red, i.e. hostile, it is not firing on me, nor am I able to destroy it after shooting it five times. This is a serious annoying and illusion-breaking bug that I hope they fix. Turrets, so far as I can tell, are the only things indestructible only so long as they are not currently hostile towards you.

I disarm the tripwires and try the terminal. It only opens the door. Inside, a withered ghoul is locked, which despite apparently being trapped here (and being labeled withered) is almost as tough as a glowing one. Before checking out the power armor I snipe the last ghoul. I find a10mm pistol that is a fairly big improvement, with the aid of the nearby weapons bench and cannibalizing some parts from my old pistol. I also improve my armor. Now to check out the real prize.

This is, unfortunately, not a complete set of functional armor. It’s a T-60, which is a fairly big improvement over what I’ve got, though. I’m not sure if I can mix and match power armor pieces like this. It seems that I can, but Minuteman paint is not available for it! I know it’s sentimental, but I want to do this mission in Minuteman regalia. I have to switch some stuff between Piper and myself, and ultimately drop some stuff that probably wasn’t worth much anyway, but I finally get within carry weight to take the new armor along.

There’s still the matter of that damned signal though. Outside, I am immediately attacked by a really tough sentry bot. I switch to my laser gun and backpedal, shooting is as fast as I can while it riddles me with bullets. It explodes in a fiery mess. Fortunately, I level up afterwards, which resets my hp, but now I’ll have to go back in and repair my power armor. Even better, the thing was powered by not one but two fusion cores and I was running low. I find there are just enough tools and bits of scrap metal in this workshop to complete the repairs.

I retrace my steps, wary of ghouls and robots, and finally I find the beacon in the back office of the first floor recruitment building. I must have missed it before. “Gah, would you look at how many of those things she took down!” Piper exclaims. The fresh corpse of a woman is propped against the wall. This, it would seem, is Knight Astin, of a Brotherhood of Steel recon team 429A. Apparently no one came to her distress beacon in time, though there was supposed to be a Paladin nearby investigating some satellite array on the coast. It’s not far, but I have a duty to the people of County Crossing first, and I’m almost there. It is almost 5 in the morning now though, so I head upstairs to one of the sleeping bags and call it a night.