Fallout: Black Mesa 001

S 4

P 1

E 1

C 10

I 10

A 1

L 1

Mods: Alternate Start, Craft Everything, Universal Workbench 

AN: This is an Int/Chr story with an emphasis on Science! If Corvus is a master of stealth, then Ferrus (this MC) is a master of power armor, robots, lasers, chems, physics, etc. 

~~~~~~~~~~

In the middle of clicking “start” after making his character in Fallout 4, a green light splashed him in his chest, and Ferrus found himself in a serious situation. 

Teleported into some factory or weird science facility, he blinked his eyes, and saw all sorts of people wearing lab coats running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Red lights flashed in a low-light environment, fresh wet blood stains littered the floor, the acrid tinge of smoke entered his lungs, and the sound of screams were on the horizon. 

Ferrus was slow to respond to this sudden shift in perspective, and noticed that he had a HUD in his peripheral vision. 

Taking in his surroundings it all felt so surreal, Ferrus imagined he was in some sophisticated prank or VR abduction, however, everything seemed too real for that. 

The sights, the smells, the sounds, they all pointed towards something catastrophic having taken place. 

As much as he wished this event to be fake, the pipboy strapped to his wrist, and the plasma pistol in his hands held a level of weight indicating that whatever was going on was very real, and very dangerous. 

Passing by some shattered glass, Ferrus caught a peak of himself, and it only confirmed his suspicions. He looked just like the character he had created just moments ago!

Glancing down at himself, Ferrus discovered he was sturdier looking than he normally was. Like all Fallout men, he was caked out like a beefcake, and was also dressed in a white lab coat. In his estimation, he looked something like a hunky nerd. 

Using the Alternate Start mod, he had started a different backstory from that of the typical Vault Dweller, and had the backstory of a Field Scientist. 

With his current build, he started with a lab coat that gave +2 int, a plasma pistol, and the Perk: Elementalist: Attacks with Electrical, Cryo or Energy damage do 25% more damage.

Whilst he was inspecting himself, he noticed the ammunition counter in the corner of his eye. It read as: 16/48 meaning he had 16 rounds in the chamber, with 48 more to go…

Thankfully he had a crafting mod that allowed him to make any item-ammo included-from any Fallout game. He also had a universal workbench mod, which let him spawn in a workbench that could be used for armor, chems, robotics, settlement buildings or any other type of work station. If it could be crafted, this workbench could do it. 

Ferrus's initial plan in the game, was to farm exp in Sanctuary via construction, and reach level 10-15. 

By placing perk points into Nuclear Physicist, Armorer, Science, Robotics Expert and combining these four, alongside the crafting mod, Ferrus would be able to craft/upgrade energy weapons, ammo, and construct a suit of T-45 power armor. 

Wherever he was now, a set of power armor sure sounded nice right about now. As soon as he could scrounge up some materials, he would bust out the workbench and get to it. 

Leaving the main hallway, he entered a corporate office. Peeking his head in, he pointed his gun all over the place, and frequently entered VATS trying to scout out an enemy. Thankfully it was free of anything dangerous, although it did look like everyone had left in quite a hurry. Unfortunately for him, the door was ripped off its hinges, so this wasn't exactly a great hiding place, but it could be worse. 

The room was relatively closed off from the main area, and was chock full of computers, and other personal affections. Ripe pickings to scrap miscellaneous items for crafting.

Ferrus touched all sorts of things, like soda cans, clipboards, pens, computers, calculators, etc. These items would be useful to be broken down into aluminum, plastic, copper, and other crafting components. 

While he was behind a desk, Ferrus heard a woman's shriek growing closer from the hallway. 

Ducking low behind the desk, Ferrus gripped his plasma pistol tightly, and felt his palms begin to sweat. 

Running for her life, a woman in high heels and a lab coat moved past his position, and a second later, a fleshy alien monster the size of a pumpkin leapt at her. 

Moving agilely like a cat, the monster latched onto her head like a face hugger from Aliens, and she collapsed to the floor, dead. 

By this point, Ferrus had forgotten how to breath, and watched on in horror as the woman-still with the monster attached to her face-rose like a zombie. 

Ferrus felt like vomiting, it was so disgusting. 

What was so horrifying about this event wasn't just the parasitic nature of the monster, but that Ferrus recognized it for what it was. 

It was an alien from the planet Xen, colloquially known as a Headcrab. It was a creature originating from the Half-Life game series! 

The bright green light that teleported him here was starting to make sense. Ferrus had somehow been caught up in the Resonance Cascade at the Black Mesa research facility! It was an event where portals from Earth randomly connected to the planet of Xen. Over the next couple of days, a portal storm would rock Earth, and turn large swaths of the planet into a wasteland. 

Absorbing all this information in an instant, Ferrus recalled that a nuke was set to go off at some point, and he had only two options to escape. 

Either become a servant to the mysterious interdimensional alien G-man, or to take the teleporter in the secretive Lambda Complex. 

As Ferrus was trying to make sense of this fucked up situation, and navigate his next move, he accidentally knocked over a soda can, which caused a rattling noise. 

The ‘possessed’ woman heard what had transpired, and she started running at Ferrus full tilt. 

Ferrus was panicking, and pulled the trigger to his plasma pistol over five times. Bright green orbs the size of a baseball rocketed towards the alien he was aiming at. 

Three missed, going wide, one scorched a perfect hole in her torso, and for his final shot, he went into VATS. 

Time slightly slowed down, and he saw the human body begin to collapse. It could still be targeted, however, so could the Headcrab. 

Ignoring the falling body, Ferrus knew that as its previous host died, the alien would just detach, and hop at him. 

So he did what he had to do, and targeted the beige colored, pumpkin sized alien. 

Unleashing the fifth shot, the ball of green plasma struck the Headcrab, and burnt a hole inside it. Shriveling like a shrimp, it never moved again. 

[+25exp] 

Exiting VATS, Ferrus gasped out a held breath, and collapsed into a nearby swivel chair. 

His knees were weak, palms sweaty. Heart going to the moon, he felt adrenaline fill his system. 

Finding his hands were shaking, Ferrus put down the gun, lest he fire an accidental discharge. 

Taking a deep breath, Ferrus stared at the alien corpse for a good minute, glad that the exp marker let him know it was dead. 

Glancing around the office, Ferrus saw a box of pizza, and grabbed a slice to calm his nerves. 

During his look around, he saw large painted letters on the wall saying Sector D. 

If memory served correctly, the access point to the teleporter was in the freight area, above Sector G. 

Pulling up his pipboy, Ferrus checked his map, hoping it would work, and it did! The map showed the different zones of the Black Mesa research facility, aaaand from where he was, he would have to travel through six more zones to reach Sector G. 

Black Mesa was huge. In the games it was huge, but like with every game, the location was larger in the lore, or in Ferrus's case, larger in real life. This place was literally dug into a mountain side, it probably went for dozens of miles! 

Ferrus shook his head, he couldn't allow himself to fall into a depression. 

‘Okay dude, just stick to the plan, disassemble this desk, and start farming. Anything enters this office space, blast the fuck out of it.’ Ferrus thought to himself, and gorged another two full slices of pizza. 

Wiping his hands off, he got to work, and started collecting everything his inventory would accept. 

Personal items, photo frames, nothing was sacred as he was on a time crunch. 

Whilst he picked things up, he always made sure to keep an ear out, and left his plasma pistol on hand. 

Thanks to his system, he found that when he had a weapon equipped, it didn't hinder his movement whatsoever, and holding it in his hands felt kind of natural. 

When he went to holster the pistol, it sort of magnetically stuck to his side. It looked weird as all heck, but Ferrus wasn't going to complain. It was some much needed qol. 

What had bothered him too, was that his  magazine was sitting at 11/48. Like any good gamer, he wanted to reload, but plasma cells weren't refilled like a regular gun's magazine. 

However, when he thought about reloading his gun, his body sort of moved on its own, and popped a new power cell in just like any FPS character would. 

Thankfully game logic worked in his favor, and he was now sitting at 16/43. 

After spending perhaps 10 minutes being silent yet quick around the office and collecting everything in sight, Ferrus summoned a workbench, and started to occasionally stuff it full of loot. As this wasn't a post apocalyptic wasteland, the items available were much more numerous. He also found a broken desk, and was able to store that within his inventory too as a source of wood. 

Having cleaned up basically every single item within the office barring the lights, Ferrus felt that he was ready to start farming exp. However, right when he was about to get to work and start grinding, he heard an announcement over the loudspeakers: 

[Attention. Gordon Freeman, report to military personnel for immediate security check.] 

Ferrus blinked. 

That voice…it was the announcer from the HECU (Hazardous Environmental Containment Unit), aka the marines! They were sent here to kill all the witnesses, but Ferrus already knew that. 

What startled him was this announcement. HECU only started to call out to Freeman directly once he started wrecking shit up. 

This was both a good and a bad thing. With Gordon Freeman (the protagonist) ahead of him, there would be less aliens to deal with, as he was sure to have massacred a good number of them. This would make Ferrus's escape a little easier.

The scary thing, however, would be that if Freeman pulled too far ahead, then Ferrus would miss his opportunity to take the teleporter out of here! 

Feeling the pressure to farm exp, and level up, Ferrus disassembled a desk he had stashed, and then remade it into a door. 

Taking it out of his inventory, he found he could enter builder mode despite not being in his own settlement. 

Eyes going wide, he was quick to capitalized on this, and snapped the door into place where the office door had broken earlier. 

Although it was made of wood, and wouldn't be of much help against the larger aliens, Ferrus believed it would be able to hold up to those headcrabs. At the very least, it blocked the line of sight from the main hallway, and offered some peace of mind. 

Getting to work, Ferrus spammed the construction of wooden planks for the cost of 2 wood, then disassembled them, returning 1 unit of wood. Moving like a game character, and operating from a menu he did all this automatically. 

Considering the exp modifier due to his high intelligence, Ferrus netted 50 exp per plank. Furthermore, it took him about 10 seconds to go through the menu to make one each time. 

That's 6 planks in 60 seconds, aka 300 exp a minute. After ten minutes of grinding, he netted 3,000 exp. 

In total, he put in a little effort, and reached level 10 with little struggle. 

Dumping a perk point into Armorer, Nuclear Physicist, Science, Chemist, and Robotics Expert, Ferrus had 4 free points remaining. 

As soon as these perk points went into effect, Ferrus felt as if his entire perspective on the world had shifted, and thousands of tiny factoids entered his brain. 

He suddenly had an understanding of chemistry, physics, science, robotics and the creation of armor that went beyond any game mechanism. It was like he was a real, bonafide super scientist! 

It was an awesome feeling knowing that he now understood some of the principles of the universe. Feeling a giddy high, Ferrus couldn't wait until he was a higher level, so that he could go from an initiate in these fields, and become a master. The crafting system was robust, but was limited to Fallout creations. With this newfound knowledge, Ferrus felt the drive to experiment, to discover, to create! To be more than the limitations of the system. 

It was an amazing feeling, however, he couldn't let dreams of grandeur weigh him down. He was still very much within the midst of a crisis, and would not allow his imagination to get the best of him. 

Before he was going to make any further decisions, he refocused on his number one priority, and checked out the materials necessary to build both a power armor frame, and a suit of T-45 power armor. 

Going over the helmet, chest, legs, and arms, each piece required: 

[Steel 25]

[Circuitry 25] 

[Oil 25]

[Screws 25] 

[Adhesive 25] 

[Fiber Optics 5] 

Additionally, thanks to his robotics perk, he could also construct a protectron or securitron robot at his level for a similar amount of resources. 

Checking out the workshop inventory, Ferrus noticed he wasn't anywhere close to achieving this number. He was practically drowning in circuitry after raiding the computers, he was also good on screws, and adhesive. However, he had very little steel,  no oil or fiber optics whatsoever. 

This didn't even mention the Fusion Cores necessary to power the armor in the first place. 

Those babies required:

[Nuclear Material x 5]

[Copper x 5]

[Plastic x 5] 

Unfortunately, it was looking like he wouldn't be able to make power armor right off the bat, and he had to move elsewhere to scavenge the necessary materials. 

‘Fortunately’ however, the next zone on his pathway out of here was designated as the High Security Storage Facility. 

Glancing at the door, and noticing the heavy silence that came from beyond, Ferrus wanted nothing more than to hole up behind a desk, and farm exp out, but that wasn't an option. 

He was going to have to sneak, run, and fight his way to his escape. 

Going through his available perks one more time before he set off into the unknown, Ferrus found a couple that interested him. 

They were: Lone Wanderer, Nerd Rage, Animal Friend, and Wasteland Creature. 

With how much the previous perks altered his very being, Ferrus wondered how these other ones might aid him. 

Animal Friend: Commune with beasts! With your gun, aim at any animal below your level and gain a chance to pacify it.

Wasteland Creature: Master the post-apocalypse! With your gun, aim at any Wasteland creature below your level and gain a chance to pacify it.

Lone Wanderer: reduced damage by 15%, and increased carry weight by 50. 

Nerd Rage: Genius. Is. ANGRY! 

When your Health drops below 20%, time slows and you gain +20 Damage resistance and do 20% more damage while the effect lasts. Activatable: Time slows and do 10% more damage for 6 seconds, 60 second cooldown. [While on cooldown, disables the passive effect]. 

Wasteland Creature, and Animal Friend might sound crazy, and they were, but if he was ever desperate, trying to tame one of the alien monsters might be an ace in the hole. 

Lone Wanderer was kind of self explanatory, and something Ferrus dumped a point into without needing to think. 

Lastly, there was Nerd Rage. On the surface, Ferrus never intended to get hit if he could help it, but he couldn't account for accidents. 

Placing a point into Nerd Rage, Ferrus noticed something different about it, it was the activatable! Being able to slow time whilst uninjured?! 

‘Sign me the fuck up!’ 

Ferrus was ecstatic when he read that text, and felt like he could enter a Nerd Rage at any moment now! 

Calming himself down, Ferrus had two more things before he had to finish before he ventured out into the research facility. 

Make a crowbar, a shotgun, a 9mm pistol, and some chems. 

He didn't have too much in the way of resources, but based on the recipe, he could squeeze a double barreled shotgun out. If he wanted to make anything more fancy, he would need to put points into the Gun Nut perk. 

Double Barrel Shotgun:

10 Steel

20 Wood

10 Adhesive

10 Screws

9mm Pistol: 

5 Steel

5 Adhesive

5 Screws

Crowbar: 

3 Steel 

From within his pipboy, he had an option to set up to four weapons on his quick swap bar. 

Doing this for all his gear, Ferrus found that all he needed to do was think about switching weapons, and his hands would lower themselves for a second, and a different weapon would appear in his hands. 

Crafting some ammo, Ferrus moved on to making some chems. 

Unfortunately, with his limited items, he couldn't really make anything that would make him stronger or faster. However, stimpacks-an item that healed thirty percent of missing hp-only required blood packs, and antiseptic. 

He had plenty of antiseptic from the office, as for blood packs, they required blood to manufacture. 

Glancing down at the rapidly cooling female scientist's corpse, Ferrus grimaced. 

‘All for the sake of survival. You can save yourself and others, it's just like a blood transfusion.’ Ferrus rationalized to himself. 

Gritting his teeth, he approached the corpse, and allowed the system to collect the blood samples. 

Feeling disgusted, Ferrus was quick to go to the workbench, and made 5 stimpacks. Placing them in his inventory, Ferrus didn't want to waste any more time here, and was ready to go. 

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Ferrus opened the door to the main hallway, and stuck his head out real quick.  

Looking both ways, he saw a pack of three Houndeyes, then returned to the office, hoping they hadn't spotted him. 

They were quadrupeds that stood at the height of a medium sized dog, they had wide gaping circular/oblong mouths full of creepy bulbus black balls that resembled giant fly’s eyes.

What was so dangerous about these aliens, was that they had access to a sonic attack powerful enough to break apart wooden crates. If Ferrus took this attack head on, his organs might rupture. He didn't know exactly how his HP stat would translate into this situation, but with an Endurance of 1, he knew he didn't ever want to get hit. 

The only silver lining in this scenario, was that the Houndeyes required about 5 seconds to charge up this sonic attack, leaving them vulnerable for a brief window of attack. Additionally, a single Houndeye wasn't very powerful, it was only when they sang in harmony that an attack strong enough to destroy a crate was unleashed. Finally, they were a pack type creature, if Ferrus could kill the alpha first, it would disrupt their pattern, and make them temporarily flee. 

He wished he had a point in Demolition Expert, because a grenade would absolutely slap right now. However, it wasn't meant to be. 

Ferrus knew that if he camped out here, they would eventually find him via sonar, if he was going to come out of this on top, he'd have to seize the initiative! 

Psyching himself up, Ferrus squeaked the door open once more, took a knee, and took aim at the Houndeye leading from the front. 

Entering VATS, he got a couple shots off. 

Green hot tennis balls made of pure plasma rushed through the air, and collided with the alpha. Searing holes burnt themselves into the creepy quadrupedal alien, and it dropped dead. 

[+100exp] 

Ferrus ignored the exp notification, and saw that of the remaining two enemies, one was beginning the 5 second charge up for an attack, whilst the other one was turning away to flee. 

Exiting VATS, Ferrus aimed at the more threatening alien, and shot out a burst of five shots. 

Three went wide, but two hit, killing the damned alien almost instantly. 

[+200exp] 

Blinking his eyes thinking he misread, Ferrus looked up the hall, and noticed the third Houndeye was a smoking mess. He had accidentally killed it with his missed shots. 

Shrugging his shoulders at the accidental hit, Ferrus double checked his pipboy's map, and started moving towards the High Security Storage Facility. 

Pumped full of adrenaline, Ferrus checked every dimly lit corner, and looked to the ceiling on the lookout for any nasty buggers. 

Escape seemed unlikely, but he would get his power armor, and he was going to live through this crazy encounter.

In fact, the aliens had better kill him soon, because if they didn’t, he was going to grind his exp over the next couple weeks, and unleash a robot army on their asses!