You dreamed of fire, rising high into the sky: a great burning cloud, expanding over the city that lie before you, consuming it. All around you, you heard the scream of man, woman, and child as people futilely attempted to escape.
Those closest were luckiest, vaporized by the white wall within moments, leaving behind only shadowy imprints on the wall. Those who weren't in the blast radius close enough to be obliterated were instead burned to death, skin, muscle, and organs flash frying, then burning, then boiling, even as buildings found themselves demolished by an invisible wave of force emanating out from the wall slightly quicker than the flames, shattering them into splinters.
Unable to move, you helplessly waited for it to consume you, your vision going white…
_____________
Gasping, you started up, woken by a combination of your nightmare and a strange beeping noise. Looking around, disoriented, you realized you weren't in your cabin: you were-this was-
A hospital? Blearly, you realized you felt the sort of hangover you only really get when someone shoots you with a chem-tranquilizer.
"Good, you're awake," Came a familiar voice, causing you to blink as you realized you weren't alone, next to your bed a familiar looking woman sat, one who you hadn't seen in years meaning, the only reason you couldn't immediately place them, though unfortunately that wouldn't last long.
Blinking slowly, you frowned as you realized who it was, and your mood soured as you realized you had not in fact finally been black bagged in the middle of the night by the nefarious agents of the state. Or at least not the ones you had been expecting. "Clancy," You hissed, eyes narrowing as you realized you seemed to be handcuffed to your bed: typical. You began to scan the room for pencils or any other long, narrow object. "You want to tell me why you kidnapped me?"
"What, no hel-"
"Cut the fucking shit Clancy, if I wanted to hear the mouth noises of a fascist goon I'd talk to the person who killed Rog," You said, venom dripping from your voice. "Oh wait, I guess I am!" You said, causing Clancy to rear back, shock and hurt evident on her face, if only for a moment. Good.
She took a deep breath, reasserting her iron composure. "Charming as ever, I see," she said in a voice that most people would think toneless and neutral, your familiarity with the person across from you the primary reason you were able to recognize the slight tremble in her voice. "Alright, I'll get to the point then. I have good news and bad news. The good news is, you've been pardoned for possessing seditious material. The bad news-"
"I'm under arrest for possessing seditious material," You finished, causing her to frown. "Let me guess, someone sent the cops an anonymous tip that there was a cabin in the woods full of communist literature, someone who SOMEHOW knew exactly where said cabin was despite there being zero foot-paths and being two days walk from the nearest road."
"...I didn't sell you out, Edgar," She said, frustration openly leaking into her voice. "Christ, I know you hate me, but do you really think I'd screw over my only remaining brother?"
"Yes," You said flatly. "I think you would do so in a heart-beat, especially if it benefitted you. Besides, I'm not stupid, Clancy: no one else knew where I lived except Rogers wife, and we both know she wouldn't snitch. Plus, y'know, I know you well enough to tell when you're lying through your teeth."
"...Believe what you want," Clancy eventually conceded. "Still, if it wasn't for me calling in some extremely heavy favors, right now you'd be facing down the barrel of a work camp-"
"Get to the fucking point."
"Fine!" Clancy finally snapped, filling you with a surge of satisfaction. "I have a facility that needs a manager, and as part of your pardon and me erasing the fact my brother is a goddamn Pinko, I expect YOU to do the job."
"Thanks, but no thanks."
"You don't have a choice here, Edgar," Clancy emphasized. "Its either you do this to me or no deal and no pardon. No is not an option." For a moment, silence reigned between you…
Broken by you giving a derisive snort. "Not an option my right ass. Unlike you, Clancy, I'm not a fucking coward," You said, slowly enunciating and taking some small degree of satisfaction in the look of shock on her face. "I'm not going to roll over and work for the people who murdered Rog just because the alternative is a gun to my face."
"Do you hear yourself?" Clancy demanded, incredulous. "You're going to kill yourself the exact same way Roger did, and for what? Fucking meaningless goddamn spite! You dying isn't going to accomplish anything, Edgar!"
"You should have thought about that before you ratted me out," You said flatly, causing Clancy's eye to twitch in frustration. "And if the alternative to death is serving as the cog in the fascist death-machine that is the USA, yeah, I'll pick death, because again, I'm not a fucking coward."
An expression you didn't recognize passed over Clancy's face. "Alright, Edgar, fine, you win," she admitted, voice sounding exhausted. "I'm the one who sent in the tip. I didn't have any other option: you won't answer my calls, you won't respond to my letters, and when I sent an agent you literally chased them off with a shotgun."
"Oh gee, I wonder why," You responded dryly.
"If I could leave you out of this, I would. I don't like this any more than you do," Clancy admitted, and you were grudgingly forced to note she was probably telling the truth here. "Unfortunately, you are literally the only person available for this that I trust."
"My answer is still no. You aren't going to get me to work for you, Miss Patriot, pardon or no pardon," You responded.
"No pardon is off the table. I'm serious here, Ed: you don't get to say no to this," Clancy emphasized. "If you won't accept the stick, I'll have to use the carrot, it seems." She steepled her fingers together. "I have ten SPD tickets. You, Rogers wife and kids, and seven other people of your choice."
You paused. Fuck. If it was just you you'd probably reconsider: all things considered, atomization wasn't the worst way to go. But if you could help Andy and Clara… "Really fucking cold using your own blood as a bargaining chip," You said dryly. "Fine, I'll bite: what exactly are you wanting?"
________________________
War, war never changes.
In the months in the wake of NEXT's attack on the pentagon, the DoP would see a period of expansion and contraction, as funds ebbed and flowed, reallocated to other departments seen as more needing with only some of it to be partially re-acquired by the diligent work of the Departments head, Clancy.
At some point in the Spring, however, she would contact her estranged younger brother, Edgar, a man who had contented himself to spend the last days of civilization in an unknown corner of the wilderness only to be dragged back kicking and screaming into the machinations of his sister, the Director of the Department of Preservation.
Little does Edgar know that his sister has more secrets than he realizes.
Welcome to Eve of Destruction Part Two: We Didn't Start the Fire. For those of you who were with us during Part One, welcome back, everything is how you left it, slowly exploding as the world sits on the brink, just the way we all like it.
For those of you just joining, salutations. You're likely wondering what to expect: Eve of Destruction is a quest set in an AU of the Fallout Universe, set prior to the bombs dropping where you play as someone who hates America tasked with saving it.
A post-atom punk political thriller meets biting satire of Americana in various stripes, Eve is a quest that deals in multiple themes, like the slow decay of jingoism and capitalism into base american exceptionalist themed authoritarianism, the ethics of terrorism under a fascist regime, and the societal nihilism of a world where the Bomb dropping isn't an if, but an increasingly close when, among several other topics. It also deals with the future, what comes after the world ends, and how the actions taken in the present can affect, for good or ill, the lives of people centuries later.
I'm going to go ahead and disclaim: this isn't a game where you can save the world. It isn't a game where everyone is going to make it out alive. Your actions WILL hurt people, either directly, or as a consequence of your decisions causing thousands of small butterflies. All you can do is try to save what you can, and attempt to prepare for the future in the hopes your legacy might be able to save whoever comes after you.
Unlike the first game, we're going to have a generally smaller scope here. Instead of running the entire department, you're going to be tasked with overseeing a particular piece of infrastructure and it's management and growth, at least to begin with.
First, let's narrow down what region we're going to be stationed in.
[ ] New York: Boston, New Jersey, New York: merely three of the cities of importance in the new england region. Most of the development had been focused on the Commonweath sub-region, though apparently the Department's Logistics Division and ACME Transport were both looking to expand.
-Start with an additional Business dice, a [CRIME] Dice, and +5 to Business.
-Major Themes: The Machined Apple, Morte De Cosa Nostra, Urban Collapse
-Employment Options: ACME Transport, DoP Logistics, New York City Government
[ ] Louisiana: The DEEP south, containing not just New Orleans, but also a large amount of wetlands. Apparently, the EPA were working on dealing with dumping and pollution clean up while ACME and the CIT were also investing in the region for as of yet unknown reasons.
-Start with additional Civilian dice, +1 [GOVERNMENT] Dice, and +5 to Civilian.
-Major Themes: Mother Earths Wrath, No Good Corporation, Science Can't Save You
-Employment Options: Environmental Protection Agency, Cambridge Institute of Technology, and ACME Realty
[ ] Oregon: A heavily forested, sparsely populated state. That made it a natural place for the DoP to begin expanding it's less savory departments, like the weird science cryptid research divisions second major installation. For some reason, ACME Entertainment had also been sniffing around, buying various plots of land throughout the state.
-Start with additional Construction dice, +1 [MEDIA] Dice, and +5 to Construction.
-Major Themes: Small Town Apocalypse Blues, Weird Horror Tales!, the Men In Black
-Employment Options: C-Files Division, ACME Entertainment, AlviCorp
And, since you didn't get to pick what character you played (the original plan was a selection of people Clancy had burned, but I decided Edgar was the most interesting option), you get to pick what exactly makes Edgar McCoy so interesting.
For a little context, unlike his sister, Eddie here isn't a spy. He never served with the company: much like the late Roger McCoy, he went a more intellectual direction. Unlike Roger, however, he isn't some stuffy political academic. No, our friend Edgar is what you might call a mad scientist, emphasis on 'Mad', a graduate of the CIT itself. And not the happy go lucky kind of mad either, but the kind of pissed off, angry mad that comes from being a communist living in a degenerating fascist dystopia.
Your choice, instead of character, is instead what field of technology that character specializes in. Each offers a handful of specialist dice.
[ ] Genetics: You specialized in genetic modification and veterinary medicine. Back when you still worked at the CIT you had been on some of the projects projects for the envirobiology division, like Silverback Gorilla DNA Preservation. You still had some of your old research notes for the project: you weren't sure if Cambridge was still running the program, and even if it was, there was no harm in redundancy when it came to species preservation.
+2 [Ecology] and [Chems] dice. +1 [Genetic] Dice
-Start with Gorilla DNA Library special science project
[ ] Robotics: You were a robotics expert that had been put on Cambridges General Humanoid Labourer project. Before you left, you had successfully developed a working prototype for a simple, theoretically cheap to produce variety of robot. You had called it the Model MSL-12 Android: the battery life was awful and it wasn't much smarter than your average protectron, but it hadn't been perfected.
+2 [Prototyping] and [Programming] Dice. +1 [Robotics] Dice
-Start with MSL-12 Factory special construction project.
[ ] Engineering: Cambridge was on the cutting edge of most technologies, and that included fusion, but did not include power armor. The latter had been something you had been attempting to rectify at the Polymer Labs, using the former to design a high performance, if high power cost set of power armor. The prototype was still probably in a shelf somewhere in one of the archives, but you still remembered the schematics.
+2 [Fusion] and [Gear] Dice. +1 [Power Armor] Dice
-Start with Personal CIT Ultrafusion Power Armor Suit special military project
Oh, and four hours moratorium.
