À l'intérieur des Larmes de Pandora, parmi les patrons les plus normaux, assis une grande figure dans un coin obscurci de la pièce. Il prit deux sièges avec sa circonférence, ne portait pas de chemise, et buva d'un petit tonneau de vin, qu'il avait acheté avec la dernière de ses calottes. Un sac à dos grand comme vous l'homme moyen assis sur le sol à côté de cette figure, tandis qu'un lance-roquettes très avancé avec la peinture du drapeau américain de l'Ancien Monde accroché à son épaule par une sangle. Un gros os, un fémur d'un brahmin, assis attaché sur le côté de l'énorme sac à dos. La plupart ont détourné leurs yeux de cette brute hurlante d'un homme (bien qu'il prenne une grande offense à être appelé une brute). Pour ceux qui le regardaient, se tenant à lui-même, ils verraient un super mutant. Un des plus vieux super mutants encore en vie.
L'attention de Joshua fut prise alors qu'un vieil homme entra dans le bar, traînant avec lui un ghoul féral retenu. Le mutant a levé un sourcil sur cette scène qui avait complètement absorbé son focus, à tel point qu'il n'a remarqué personne d'autre entrer dans la taverne. Joshua écouta intensément ce qu'il qualifia de « bait » et lâcha un profond soupir. Se tenant debout, lance-roquette au-dessus de son épaule droite et baril de vin dans sa main gauche, il s'approcha du vieil homme et de son chien.
-- Pardonnez-moi monsieur, se mit-il à parler, sa voix profonde portant plus qu'il ne l'aurait souhaité, mais ne pouvait rien faire. "Mais je dois souligner les divers pièges moraux de ce que vous comptez faire avec votre captif. D'une part, ce ghoul est brillant. Le garder avec vous signifie que vous absorbez les radiations, et l'amener ici est un danger pour tous nos compagnons de service. Deuxièmement, c'était autrefois une personne, donc je pense qu'elle mérite ce respect. Plutôt que de l'utiliser comme appât pour la faune indigène, je pense que vous devriez mettre fin à sa misère. Qu'il se joigne à n'importe quelle vie en laquelle il croyait avant de perdre l'esprit. »
Il prit une grande balançoire de son vin, des gouttes de rouge qui coulait sur son menton et coulait sur le sol. Puis le mutant a essuyé son visage avec son bras, avant de regarder droit sur le ghoul brillant. "Je suis désolé pour toi."
Name: Joshua
Alias: The Megaton Mutant
Age: 192
Gender: Male, not that it's even relevant anymore
Race: Super Mutant (Mariposa strain)
Primary Skills*: Explosives, Big Guns, Repair
SPECIAL*: Strength - 1+7=8
Perception - 1+5=6
Endurance - 1+6=7
Charisma - 1+2=3
Intelligence - 1+6=7
Agility - 1+4=5
Luck - 1+3=4
Gear/inventory: Red Glare Rocket Launcher
5 satchel charges
Brahmin femur (used as club)
Tool kit
Backpack (sewn together from multiple smaller backpacks, looks like a backpack quilt)
Water Canteen
Sack of mole rat meat
Sack of brahmin meat
Welding mask (small fit, designed for humans)
Does not wear any kind of armor
History: Joshua was only 4 when his vault was opened and the horrors of the wasteland came to greet him. Life was pretty good until then, and to be perfectly honest, life was pretty good after that too. For a time, anyway. Sure, his human family was either murdered or transformed into super mutants thanks to the invading army of The Master, but on the bright side he had made plenty of new friends! Joshua was deemed too young to be dipped into FEV, and so he was raised as a human for a few years, living with the Order in their great cathedral. Thanks to this, he became a devout member of the Unity and follower of the Master. Once he had reached his teens, it was deemed appropriate that he be dipped.
Once he had made the transformation, Joshua was one of the lucky mutants that not only managed to hold on to his intelligence, but actually found his mind enhanced. Of course this was a blessing brought on by the Master, just one of the gifts provided by Unity. Those mutants that lost a few brain cells, he considered to have been heretics or non-believers that were being punished with a “lesser form” after becoming one with Unity. So for many years he served the Master and the Lieutenant as a loyal soldier in their army. While he preferred not to roam the wastes and instead focus on the infrastructure of their main HQ at Mariposa military base, occasionally directives came from higher up and he’d have to journey out. Finding smaller guns too impractical to work with, and most larger weapons too difficult to aim (for he wasn’t a trained combatant), Joshua found his niche with explosions. You know how the old saying goes. Almost only counts in horseshoes and high-ordnance missile launchers.
Joshua was out on one such patrol when a devastating event occurred. He returned home only to find that Mariposa… Was a smoking ruin. Joshua did what he could and managed to salvage just enough of the security footage outside the base to see a squad of Brotherhood paladins in power armor storming the front doors, but nothing more. With the Lieutenant gone and desperate for guidance, he made the long trek to the Boneyard to seek out the Master… Only to find the same. That moment broke something deep in Joshua. He had spent his entire life devoted to Unity, to the Master, believing that they were completely unstoppable in their perfect forms… But clearly that was not the case. Lost, Joshua took to roaming blindly about the wastes, searching for any of his mutant kin.
Over the years, the California wasteland changed around Joshua. Mutants were few and far between, but humans… They began to thrive. They got more organized, built an infrastructure, even a small country! This gave them great strength, and Joshua had to admit to the irony in it. The Master’s army attempted to force Unity upon the population, and they were destroyed for it. Now these humans were achieving a different kind of Unity, and while there was the occasional bloodshed, it appeared to mostly be by choice. Disillusioned, and seeing some of his brothers joining this New California Republic, Joshua decided to roam eastward.
His travels took him to many interesting locations, usually fraught with dangers (as the wasteland tends to be). One place in particular, however, stood out. It was a small town that occupied an old military base: Hopeville. The community was only just growing, but the resources they had were truly considerable. It brought Joshua back to his old days at Mariposa. The people were distrustful of him, and he of them, but as it turned out they were having problems with some of the machinery they needed to get their settlement up and running. So Joshua approached them with a deal. He would use his skills and experience as a mechanic and knowledge of old world military tech to repair their damaged equipment, and in return he would get some provisions and a specialty weapon for his travels. The citizens of Hopeville agreed to the provisions, but refused to place heavy ordnance in the hands of a super mutant. Disappointed, Joshua agreed to the terms, as he was not a negotiator.
It took a few days, but Joshua trained a few of them on the workings of the base, and together they got things up and running. Things quickly turned around when a deathclaw attacked, killing three of the citizens in a blitz before running off. Having grown attached to the people, Joshua decided to join the hunting party they had put together. To his surprise, they allowed him to go along and provided him with a treasure from the military base: a Red Glare Rocket Launcher. Over the course of four days they hunted the deathclaw back to its nest, but by the time they had arrived, the humans were exhausted and in no condition to battle one of the wasteland’s most dangerous predators. Joshua went into the cave alone, promising them retribution. Inside he found more than just the deathclaw. He found an entire chamber full of eggs, all surrounding a misplaced nuclear warhead. Daring not to engage the nest head on, Joshua used his extensive knowledge of explosives and fired his rocket launcher at the warhead, damaging the casing and triggering a contained explosion… Without setting off the nuclear component. The resulting explosion destroyed the eggs, killed the deathclaws, and caused a cave in. Joshua was regarded a hero of Hopeville and given the moniker of the “Megaton Mutant.” For the first time in a long while, he felt like he belonged…
Which meant he had to leave immediately. The last time he had belonged, he lost what he lived for. It was too painful, and he couldn’t bare to stand the thought of repeating it. His journeys continued, now armed with the Red Glare. Pressing forward, Joshua arrived in the midwest, where he happened upon by far the most peculiar and bizarre sight in his life. A small group of Brotherhood of Steel paladins approached, and among their ranks were two ghouls, a protectron, and a trained hound. Expecting a fight with his kind’s oldest and most hated enemy, he prepared himself, but nothing could prepare him for what happened next. The commanding officer there… Offered to recruit him. What? He couldn’t have heard that correctly, right? No, he did? Um, ok. Well then, uh… In any case, Joshua declined, but the encounter had been thought provoking. How long had he been wandering alone? How out of touch was he? Were mutants now accepted among humans? If the Brotherhood of all people could accept him… He still wouldn’t join anybody, but perhaps he didn’t have to remain as isolated as he was. That’s when Joshua decided to become a mercenary for hire. He heard tale that the East coast was in a great deal more turmoil than than back home in the West was, so that’s where he headed.
A week was all the time Joshua needed in the Capitol Wasteland to realize that no, mutants were not universally accepted now. Over there, mutants and humans remained in a constant never-ending war, killing one another uselessly. He had learned his lesson after getting shot at the first time he approached a group of humans. His first run in with the local mutants didn’t go so well either, as they had proven to be even dumber than the worst of his brothers back home, and twice as bloodthirsty. Actually, it was strange that there were other mutants at all when he thought about it. Of course, he didn’t know too much about the FEV or its origins, only what Unity and the Master had told him, and thinking back on it there was never a lot of practical knowledge or history in those sermons. Well to get back to the point, Joshua decided that while the Capitol Wasteland had indeed been in greater turmoil and thus a man of his talents and services would be in high demand, clearly his origins were a dangerous point of contention. He left, deciding to head South.
And that is where our tale begins, as the Megaton Mutant has crossed the entire country over more than a century, and now has found his way to the Florida Everglades, unsure of what awaits him, save for one certainty: war. Because war never changes.