First contact

a raiding group was assembled and was coming closser to were the last readings were on the signal.

coming up over a rige they saw wrekige. "what is it." the smoke still emintating from the broken hull. "evidently one of the other factions have gotten more orginised then us. probably Newyrokian." the east coast with its fractured governing partys and low servival rate, it being pummled in the explosions. our tribe was waiting till they settled there diffrences. the last thing they needed was random tererist attacks from kentucky or NH.

"look for survivers, figure out who made it." the gaggle emerged like wolves onto the carcass of the broken reckage."

Franklin O'Meilli

I ran as fast as I could through the shredded landscape of Houston, Texas. I couldn’t help but awe at the beautiful contrast of blue and orange that the magnificent sunrise cast over the city. The gray rubble and the gray, broken people rushed by me as I sprinted down the corroded streets and into a dark, dismal alleyway. Purplish Red bolts of plasma illuminated my path as the heated matter left scorched cement and melted metal.

I glanced back at my tall, three-legged pursuer, who offered a collection of recorded commands to compliment the blazing plasma. “You have entered the territory of New Europe. Termination of your vital readings must be achieved before further patrol protocols can be reestablished. You have entered the territory or New Europe. Termination of…”

I whipped around and unloaded several shells of my side arm, but it couldn’t puncture through the armored capsule where the vital hardware was enclosed, so I turned and continued to run. My Explorer unit was close, but I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to out run the Terror Drone much longer.

I saw an open doorway to an intact hotel building and sprinted inside. The Drone stopped at the doorway and lowered its plasma weapon to fit into the opening. I was nearly decapitated by a thick plasma beam that tore through the entire first level, but luckily the Drone aimed too high. I shot through the emergency exit just seconds before the building lost stability and collapsed.

I saw my explorer unit sitting on Interstate 610 and I raced for it. I glanced briefly behind to see what had happened to the Terror Drone and to my great terror (Ha Ha) the Drone was galloping at full speed in my direction.

When the drone was fifty yards from me I could see that the plasma chamber on its weapon was steaming. It was probably from that plasma beam back at the hotel. Most plasma weapons can conduct a constant stream, but there is no faster way to fry a chamber.

My observation was confirmed when the drone’s microphone went active again. “Plasma Chamber in need of replacement. Terminating hostile through other means. Plasma Chamber in need of replacement. Terminating hostile through other means.”

I really didn’t want to experience those other means. I unclipped my remote explorer controls from my belt and tried to punch in instructions, but running and clicking in my override password, which is a sixteen-letter code, is a difficult feat.

I leapt down onto the interstate and was just about to my explorer unit when one of the terror drone’s legs came crashing down inches in front of me. I smashed my face into the leg and fell to the ground, dropping my remote. I rolled to the side as another leg came down where my head had been. I reached for the remote and grabbed it by the harness strap. I then jumped up and stumbled to the side as the whole body of the Terror Drone smashed the ground where I had lain. I punched in the last two override codes and moved toward my explorer. I activated turret controls and adjusted them to attack anything with a NE transponder signal.

The Terror Drone rose again to its full height and charged back after me as I ran into my Explorer unit through the bottom entry ramp. I hit the interior door controls, causing the open doorway to slam shut. The Drone started to beat against the explorer causing some unfortunate damage. I could hear the exterior plasma turrets click on and begin to unload on the Drone. The clanging on the explorer’s hull moved to the top of the vehicle, then stopped. Everything was quiet for a moment then the recorded voice of the Terror Drone went active again. “Severe external damage. Internal hardware corruption detected. Self-destruct activated.”

I stood for a moment in disbelief and then jumped into the Explorer’s port side lab. The roof of the command deck vanished as the whole Explorer blasted apart.

Travises Jurnal log

The radiation resistance strain was working. Fixing all the damage the radiation had done for the next generation. Though most of the top dwellers lived through things I’d never want to experience. Many of the city dwellers had no way of procuring food became scavengers and anarchy broke out with the government.

…

Thank goodness it only was neutron bombs. And there is an estimated seven years till the land was good to live on again.

I’m Travis Full. From the library gang our tribe has survived on a form of democracy and fighting off thieving tribes and trying to organize with reasonable people. We made alliances about three years ago with a naval base one of our most beneficiary allies. Exchanging food for ammunition and there most favored attribute if the Radiation resistant Virus, saving humanity for at least one more generation.

 

The library tribe started from the runs of East Matagorda Bay, saved all the books then headed to the mines (to minimize the radiation).

 

Who knows what happened to our beloved US of A… My father still remembers hearing the blasts when he was 12, and feeling the shockwave-

 

At least there is some organization ant the Navy Branch is exited to reestablish the old ways but for now, my mother’s coming, got to get back to the fields…

 

See you later journal 6 years 3 months twenty-four days since the explosions.

Travises father in the background listening in on the homemade radio. "somethings coming in" puseing to make sure "what do you think?"

(correct any inconsistencies please, thanks.)

Explorer Unit 024 Audio Broadcast

To any member of the U R N that might receive this broadcast entry, my name is Thomas Kenneth with Explorer Unit 024. This is my final report on the Dallas/Forth Worth area. Air tests look good, but water and other ground contaminants are still reading high on my equipment. I think it will still be a while before we can establish a stable settlement here.

Predictions where dead on regarding the damage done to the areas surrounding Dallas’ ground zero. Most of the larger buildings in downtown have been leveled, along with whatever was underneath em’.

What I wasn’t expecting to see, though, was the number of survivors. I encountered several raiding groups similar to the ones reported in most other urban areas. After the explorer unit’s defensive turrets killed most of the aggressors, I was able to take several radiation samples from the bodies. The levels varied from pre-mutation to nearly unaffected.

I also found a mutant compound two days ago while exploring downtown Dallas. It was… inspiring in a way. Though physically they were as loathsome and ugly as I’ll get out, they seemed to have a fairly structured and affectionate community. They had ample pre-holocaust weaponry to defend themselves with and they looked like they had everything they needed in terms of food and water. I was also surprised to find several children in the compound, who seemed to have none of the radiation mutations exhibited by their parents.

I burnt out another cloaking mantel today. Luckily I was close to my explorer unit when I became visible, but I think I startled a group of scavengers I had been observing. I probably would be scared too if an eight-foot biomech-suit were to suddenly appear a few yards away.

Sorry for hogging the air waves. I’m almost done. Just my shopping list is left.

I hope to meet up with cowboy-four pretty soon, if that is possible. My explorer is running low on water and my urinary filter is totally clogged. As much as I love spam, I would sure like to get my ration pack resupplied. My ammunition is running low, also. Most of my plasma chambers have fried, so I had to shut down a few of my a exterior guns to keep my primary turret tower active.

Umm… That’s about it for right now. I’m sending this message through an audio loop, so be sure to ring if you hear it.

Wasteland: Dead planet