Thought I'd tell another tale that happened during my travels.
I discovered Paradise Falls by sheer happenstance and wondered what the largest slave encampment on the Wasteland was like inside. Immediately I was apprehended and told I couldn't come in unless I pay up front 500 caps or bring some slaves. Neither option sounded appealling to me, and the guard just kept telling me to piss off. Now I don't like it when someone tells me that. Roy told me to do so after what happened in Tenpenny Tower and I shot him in the head. This guy told me more than 3 times to do so. I called him an asshole and told him to bring it, and by the time he got his lazy ass out of the chair I already slugged a shotgun shell in his head and watched his head fly off. I felt better. Failed to anticipate though that the guards posted outside didn't take too kindly to that so I had to shoot back and kill them all. I discovered a child slave outside, think his name was Sammy, who begged me to rescue his friends so I took the quest up. In the cover of night, I walked inside and sure enough, every slaver that could carry a gun was pointing them right at me. Rifles, miniguns, missiles. It got fairly hectic. I used the Mesmetron I picked up from the guard which seemed to work some of the time. Still was forced to take refuse inside where two more slavers were inside but a convenient frag grenade next to a boiler made short work of them.
It was in there that I had another little crisis of conscience. Was I doing the right thing? They were keeping slaves, of course it was wrong, but I wondered if a more diplomatic option could have been made. A barter to free the slaves in exchange for caps maybe or anything like that. I wondered if any of these slavers had families too. Then I noticed something in the corner of the room and investigated it and found a tragic sight. A skeleton within a miniscule cage wearing a party hat on his head. And I thought of how he ended up that way. His owners taunting him, tormenting him, abusing him. And something just clicked. Sure it's only a game, but in my head I knew these people wouldn't stop even through non-confrontational means. I would free maybe 2 or 3 people but they could go out the next day and get 5 more if they wanted to. They'd always take people against their will. Sammy never asked for this life nor did anyone else. It was a disgusting practice of human trafficking that I was morally set against and couldn't be tolerated in rebuilding the world. I became vindicated. And after taking all the supplies from inside the gun shop, I went back outside and, carefully, killed every last slaver. But hey, in my own defence, they shot me first.
I found "The Box", something clearly sign posted in the middle of the place. It was a preservation chamber and wondered what was inside to deserve such a billing. I wasn't so surprised to see another slave's body in there, nothing on him but the ragged clothes on his back. Again, I wondered what led him inside there, The Box surely being a form of punishment for slaves lashing back or wanting to escape from their hellhole. The Box was a form of solitary confinement, definately not good for those with claustrophobia and most certainly, permanent. I freed the slaves, all of them, apart from some old man warped senile that I couldn't reason with him to escape. Eventually found the boss of the whole encampement in his own place and saw him with a female slave and a giant lovebed in the middle of the hall. Again I did what I do best, decapitation by shotgun shells. I guess you could call it my unofficial calling card when I'm dealing with the Wasteland's lowest members of society. And as I walked outside and watch the sunrise against the Paradise Falls sign, I was left wondering what kind of impact I had in the Wasteland once again.
Hopefully you enjoyed reading my tale
I hope you all understand that it was another affecting gaming moment for me. It wasn't just some shootout in a stronghold just to get some supplies or XP. For me, there was a purpose in what I did, another level of storytelling that sparks my imagination in forming my own story beyond what's already laid out to me. It's something that Fallout seems to deliver so well.