Daren strolled along the highway, bobbing his head to the music playing in his helmet (his father had added a holotape player in it and made several holotape albums), but always checking the built in VATS eneny compass and listening for those wishing to sneak up on him. Most, even animals, chose to leave him alone due to his sheer size alone, instead choosing to sneak up behind him if they wanted to attack him, something that invariably failed. Spinning on his heels, a powerful roundhouse kick from him slammed into the side of the head of a raider he let sneak up directly behind him, feeling the satisfying crunch of the skull giving way before moving with surprising grace for a man of his size, leaping into the air and slamming a foot directly into the face of the second raider, then giving the final a swift uppercut under the chin. It was hardly a fight. He merely strolled on.
Five bloodthirsty raiders circled around Edward as they laughed to themselves about how a single man could defend himself in such an adversary. All of these raiders wore little to no armour or protective clothing at all, and were armed with the most crudest of weapons. "Hand over everything you own!" One raider barked at the man in the coat. The five raiders had a sadistic grin etched on their faces. Edward just looked the raider dead in the eye and shook his head. "No." The head raider looked at his brethren and laughed in a mocking manner before putting his hands on the shoulders of two other raiders with nothing more then a tire iron and a pool cue. "Pigskin, Diesel, it seems that our friend here doesn't want to do what we say. Convince him why people shouldn't mess with us." The two raiders walked slowly towards Edward with their weapons in hand, laughing like animals in the process. The ghoul sighed before he suddenly took out one of his revolvers almost in a lazy fashion on purpose before shooting it at a car at a specific angle, the bullet hitting it to ricochet off the car and actually hit the two raiders in the head that dropped them instantly to the ground dead. The head raider looked in shock as Edward spun his revolver with impossible skill before aiming it at the Raider. "Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough" Edward told the raider filled with venom. The raiders, terrified at what they had just witnessed, decided to back away slowly from the extremely skilled man ahead of them before completely running away. Edward still shot the Raider leader in the back of the head while he fled, wanting to reduce the leadership, or lack of, these animals. To his displeasure, it seemed that he had to cull the herd in California.
Daren strolled down the highway when he noticed a person in the distance walking his way, but didn't pay him much mind as long as they didn't try to attack him. As they got closer, Daren saw that it was a ghoul heading south, but didn't look feral from the way he was walking. Still, Daren said nothing as they got within 50 feet of each other
Edward noticed the enormous man in power armour walk towards him. From what he could tell, he wasn't brotherhood. There was no emblem or any affiliation of any kind to the organisation. When they were about twenty meters out, Edward nodded his head upwards slightly in an expression that said "Morning" or "Hello" without actually saying anything before ultimately walking past him and heading down the highway
Daren simply saluted in return to the gesture before continuing on. Just a few minutes later, he ran into a large group of raiders, the "family" of the group that Edward had encountered. "Have you seen a ghoul around, giant?" one asked sinisterly, brandishing a hunting rifle. This group was surpisingly well armed for raiders. "Maybe. What's 'e worth to ya?" Daren replied flatly "We ain't payin ya to tell us monster, now tell us!" The leader demanded, now threateningly pointing his rifle at Daren, which he simply raised an eyebrow at (not that they could see it). "Monster am I? Y'all ain't seen nothin' yet." he replied before grabbing the rifle out of the hands of the leader and swinging it around like a club, slamming it into the leader's head before the raiders could even react. In one motion, Daren threw the rifle at a second raider in a tomahawk fashion and pulled out his gatling laser. It didn't take long before the rest of the dozen strong group lay dead or fleeing, but Daren felt no mercy for raiders for what they did to his dad, so he killed the runners too.
Edward headed down the graveyard along the highway, the former pre-war cars were completely covered in rust and heavily damaged. Those who tried to flee during the Great War found nothing but chaos amongst the heavily crowded highways as tens, hundreds or even millions of people desperately tried to flee the chaos that was the war. To those on the highways, their fate was already sealed as traffic literally stopped and some vehicles were abandoned entirely as the drivers and entire families fled on foot, even newborns didn't suffer a kind fate. All that remained of the once majestic highways was a graveyard of metal and the skeletons of old world ghosts who were climbing over another to stay in the sun. Edward walked past one of the cars where he seen five skeletons, all different from another in height, to get some rest. From what he knew, this was once the normal everyday car of a family of five. A mother and father and three children, the oldest being around 10 while the youngest looked to be about 3 months old. They were one of the victims of the billions around the world. The most chilling aspect was that their clothes were remarkably well preserved, if dirty nonetheless. The entire highway was filled with thousands of these skeletons. Out of respect to the deceased, he continued to be on his way
Daren continued north until he found a fledgling town by the name of "Sac-Town". It seemed respectable enough so he made his way into the ruins to find a place to spend the night,
Edward advanced towards the south to The Hub, a city larger then Junktown and the future city of Shady Sands combined. While it was one of the largest towns in the wastes, it was also one of the unfriendliest and was hundreds of miles away from where the ghoul was. In order to make it there, he would have to cross vast distances of nothing in Central California between smaller settlements, with the only large settlement being Sac-Town, before heading past the Lost Hills Bunker and stopping at Junktown before heading to The Hub. The other path he could have taken, although much more populated yet also much more dangerous was to head into Nevada into the fledgling Vault City, head directly downwards to Nevada into the Mojave before turning east into his former home of Necropolis then head to the Hub. Overall, the first path would take almost three months while the second path would take eight months. He went with the first path regardless, not wanting to sacrifice pointless time.
(Yep) After some traveling and encounters with raiders, Edward arrived in the tiny settlement of Sac-Town. While it was tiny with a population barely higher than sixty people, it was surprisingly organized and well armed. While the town was small, Edward would ultimately find himself at the same location over 138 years later defending it alongside five of his students in a siege against a collective force of 20,000 raiders and slavers. After convincing the guards at the gate to let him inside, he made himself comfortable.
Daren sat in the town tavern/hotel. He had set himself up a nice business of being a local mercenary, taking jobs to hunt out nearby raider settlements, defending civilians and trader caravans on short trips and the like. Had made himself quite a good bit of caps, the newest and so far best currency the Wasteland had ever come up with courtesy of the Hub traders, and the tavern was the best place to advertise himself while at the same time being paid as a bouncer by the tavern itself, so even if he got no contracts, he still got paid. Pretty sweet deal if you asked him.
Edward headed into the town, people around the town not particularly used to ghoul travellers due to their remote location in comparison to other settlements, especially such a well dressed and armed ghoul such as himself. Still, he was welcomed all the same. Edward headed directly across the town before getting some Information about the settlement from a local, and went towards the tavern to get something to drink
Daren looked up at hearing the door to the tavern open, seeing a ghoul walk in. Daren was currently leaning back in a chair with his feet up on a table with his power armor on and the helmet next to his feet, "Howdy there, don't go causin' any trouble and I wont have reason to cause you trouble, ya hear?" He gave the usual speel
Edward looked at the man in armour, remembering seeing him several weeks ago. "Of course, don't expect anything from me." He responded before heading to the tavern, only ordering a glass of Brahmin milk with some ice cubes inside.
Daren shrugged and went back to his casual gazing around the room, he had no memory of the ghoul, he didnt remember one time seen faces too well after all.
Edward was busy talking to the bartender of the saloon, a large man with flat reddish brown hair and a bushy mustache with a white and blue striped t-shirt underneath his apron. Despite the normal calm demeanor, the glimpse of a lever action shotgun underneath where he was sitting said otherwise. While the rest of the tavern was busy in their activities, some more drunken then others, the bartender began to laugh loudly over the music as he slammed his fist over the table, gaining the attention of some people. He looked at the ghoul while he had a dirty rag in his hand. "We don't get ghouls very often around here, yet alone company. I'm also the owner of this fine establishment, forgot to mention that earlier." The bartender spoke before cleaning a glass. "Especially ones as old as yourself, the ghouls that do appear around here come from after the war. We don't discriminate....as much, as the other settlements. Word around town says that you happen to be a gunslinger?" Edward finished his glass as he looked back at the bartender. "You could sum it up like that. I've won contests when I was a teenager before the world went to hell, 2015 was a good year from what I recall when I won the national championship. Fastest gun in the world. Good times...." "Wait....how old are you?" "I'm about 125, I was born in 2002." "Geez....you've certainly been around." The bartender responded before putting the cup away. "So...care to share a story about what the world was like before the war. What did you do?" "The story of my life is long and not as exciting as you'd think it would be, but I suppose. I was the director of the C-" Edward began before a drunken fight suddenly erupted between two travelers. Just as the two men drew their sidearms much to the sudden horror of a women screaming and several people in the tavern trying to duck or take cover., Edward already had his revolver In hand in an impossibly quick draw and with two shots, shot both of the drunken men's pistols clean out of their hands that soon hit the ground. The crowd was silent for a moment, even the drunken men completely stopped what they were doing and looked in shock and surprise. Edward turned at the bartender. "Pleasure doing business with you. I'll come back again later when things have calmed down." Edward said, handing over three caps to pay for his drink before getting down from his stool and went outside of the door.
(Alright) Daren walked out if the tavern after seeing Edward disarm the two drunkards with his pistol, though he still had to subdue the two as they tried fistfighting. "Hey, whatever your name is, where in the sam hell did ya learn ta shoot like that and that fast?" He asked, looking down at the ghoul he towered over.
Edward looked at his revolvers and looked upwards at the giant nearby him. "Experience, almost an entire lifetime of it. Been playing with guns since I was young, loved Spaghetti Westerns. I wanted to be like the heroes I seen on those old holotapes." Edward began. "Then took my skills as a gunslinger into the military and well...the rest is just ancient history to plenty of people around here."
