I wanted a trophy from Ashur, and a finger didn’t seem to satisfy the itch. He was wearing a holotag, and I now I’m wearing the holotag. As soon as I kicked in the door to Haven, I was treated to the scene of a mother in a lab coat clutching her infant. The doors slammed shut behind me forcing her to shudder. The poor girl, just wanted to run and hide, protect her daughter. But she was frozen in place, the only movement I think she was capable off is shuddering and sobbing. I couldn’t sink any lower. What has happened to me? I spoke with my own voice, but it didn’t feel like me. “Ashur is dead. You have my word, that I will not allow any harm to come to your child. I could also make sure no harm comes your way, but you need to work with me.” “They’re going to kill her.” She sobbed pathetically. “They’d have to go through me to do that. I wish this weren’t the case, but I’m your only option.” “I can’t. You killed her father. I truly loved him.” She cried. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but this is not at all how this was supposed to go. I did come here to kill Ashur. But I didn’t come here to kill you. If you want to stay here and die, then fine, I get it. Just give the kid a chance. Ashur or no Ashur, this was no environment for her.” “I’m too scared to move.” “Ok, I’m going to approach you slowly.” As I started towards her, the power went off. Everything went black and then I felt a shiver run down my spine before I even processed what I was hearing. The symphony of guttural whispers. “Blood.” They echoed eachother. The doors swung open and I couldn’t even count how many trogs poured into the room. I quickly turned on my pip-boy and caught glimpses of an overwhelming mosh of Trogs. I ran toward the mother and child, before they could get between us. Suddenly the mother was dragged hard by her legs and she stumbled the baby into my arms. Screams and ripping were the last I knew of the mother. Just like that she was gone. I felt them surrounding me and felt a few swipes for my legs. With the child gently tucked away in one arm, I swung the Man-Opener around in circles. I was able to create enough separation to sprint auto-axe first out the door.
The buff-out decided to wear-off just as I needed to wave the tool consistently in front of me, to deflect and grind the Trogs. Just when it felt like they had overwhelmed me, I’d find a second wind. It was tearing up my shoulder, but VATS was able to sense them in the dark. My arm seized and twisted around me. The demand for speed, was too much for my one arm, I could feel the tendons ripping. It felt more like the pip-boy was using me, as it didn’t care about the condition my arm was in. I couldn’t care too much about that either, without VATS I wouldn’t have been able to chop my way to the Steel Yard. Somehow, this became the safest place in the Pitt, it was lit up with the same kinds of lights as the Pitt. I just realized that the only thing keeping the monsters from the dystopia, were those flood lights. There were slaves, or I guess former slaves congregated there. I was surprised that they offered me praise for their liberation. I held onto the child tight as I slumped to my knees. My arm was ripped up, my ribs didn’t heal correctly and I could still feel rib shards digging into my sinew. I was suffering severe withdrawal, from everything. There were bullets healed over in my skin, my muscle healed around. I needed surgery. I dropped my Man-opener and self-administered a stimpak. “Where’s Wernher?” I grunted. He stepped out from behind the crowd. “You did it.” He said training his pistol on me. “What the fuck Wernher? What’s up with the trogs?” “I had to make sure that no one in Uptown survived.” “Did it occur to you that I and the fucking child carrying the cure you all need, also wouldn’t have survived?” “Time was of the essence and I needed to take a chance.” “Because killing all of them is more important to you than this child, this cure to this plague. Is that what you’re telling me?” I said standing up, discretely tapping my Pip-Boy against my hip, secretly targeting Wernher. He cocks his gun and says. “The job is done, now giv…” I used VATS to throw a knife at his good eye. He did get out a shot but hit nothing but a metal trashcan in the distance. The slaves gasped. “This baby’s name is Marie. I don’t know when I will come back, but I will, within Marie’s lifetime. At least for your sakes it better be within her lifetime. If I return and I can’t hear from Marie about how great her people treat her, I will kill all of you. Don’t doubt it, I killed Ashur, I killed Uptown. Seeing the power dynamic around here, something tells me that they were tougher than you guys will be when I return.” I said handing the child to an older woman in the crowd. I was sure that I would never come back to the Pitt and I couldn’t leave fast enough. Once, I got back to the Capital Wasteland I was able to trade some of the things I found in the Pitt to Lucky Harith, I found on the way back to Megaton. I needed rest, so I gave him a discount on the gear, in return for him carting me to the next town on a Brahmin. He didn’t disturb me the whole trip; I woke up outside of Megaton right on top of the Brahmin. I couldn’t let Moira see me like this, so I went right to Doc Church. “By Atom, what the hell happened to you?” He asked me. “I’d rather not talk about.” “Sure, your grandparents were asking about you. Someone said you became a Regulator. That’s an honorable line of work.” “Well, grandpa is a nut-job and I’m no Regulator. At least not anymore.” “They kick you out?” “No, it’s complicated.” “Alright, I won’t pry, but maybe you should have a chat with Lucas. He used to run with the Regulators himself before he settled down here.” “You mean Sheriff Simms? I guess I should have known from the duster.” It was a long and painful process, but I just told him where I felt a shard or bullet, and he’d cut me open and dig it out, and then stick me with a stimpak. He said that when I was scavenging for Moira, she donated a lot of stimpaks, so in a way, I already paid for the service. I followed Doc Church’s advice and sought out Lucas Simms. I almost expected him to gun me down after confessing my experiences, but to my surprise he became empathetic in a way I’ve never seen of him.
“One time, I came upon a group of slavers. They had their slaves fitted with these collars and ordered them to cut me down with some dull machetes. I was young, but an experienced Regulator. Nothing could prepare me for that moment. I was a good shot, I still am, and I shot those blades right out of their hands. But, they were fighting for their lives, one hesitated and his collar went boom. I had to. I had to put them down. I made the slavers pay for what they made me do, but one of them didn’t touch their weapon and just got on the ground and started praying to his God. I asked him what God would have mercy on him. He kept on praying. I watched him for a while, I thought it would be funny to make him eat a bullet after he ran out of things to say to his God, but he just went on and on. I told him, his God answered his prayers today, but in exchange he couldn’t run with slavers anymore and had to spend everyday helping people to make up for the shit he’s done. Regulating is easy, but not always.” I just wanted to unload the sack of fingers I had before I saw Moira, so I took off for the Regulator HQ after changing into some clean gear. I didn’t feel as naked as I expected without the stealth suit, and from handling the Man-opener for so long, it was nothing to tote my shock sword in my right hand and my Guass rifle in the other. I don’t think Sonora Cruz recognized me right away, until I dropped the sack of fingers in front of her. “I know you gave me a list of names, but I never had the chance to match them up. All of the Raiders in the Pitt are dead and all that remains are the slaves, although I’m not sure how much better off they are.” “I had a feeling you’d get the job done and you’re quite handsome without that bright orange helmet on. Did Wernher give you any trouble.” “He sure did, I have his finger too. He deceived you and by proxy put me through hell.” “I’m sorry, want to talk about hell?” “Not really. But I don’t think I can be considered a Regulator anymore. I do expect to be paid for these fingers.” “Without question, but I can get used to seeing you around here. What makes you think you’re not a Regulator?” “I hope this doesn’t change the vibe in this shack, but I killed and was responsible for the death of innocent people.” “Did you have a choice?” “I could’ve just refused and died.” “That’s not much of a choice. Listen here, Mr. Wasteland Mist. Regulating is easy, but not always. It’s unreasonable to ask of my people for justice to come before their own survival. I’m sorry I didn’t get more information from the one-eyed snake. How’s ten-thousand caps sound? For all these fingers, your pain and suffering and as a sign of good faith from one regulator to another.” “How can I be a regulator?” “That’s up to the girl with all the caps to decide.” Sonora opened her safe and pulled out a sack of caps which must have weighed about ten pounds. She plopped the sack in my hand and gave me a wink. “You look like you’ve been through a lot, why don’t you spend the night here in the shack?” “Is there a spare cot somewhere?” “My bed is more comfortable.”