Chosen One

Context

This character profile is part of a chronological series, and is intended to be read right after the second profile.

Said chronological series goes :

• We suggest first reading the Jolene Hassan profiles, in no small part because they have the setting information. Also, there’s a continuity between FO1 and FO2.
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #1 – Arroyo).
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #2 – Vic).
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #3 – Safe in Vault City) — this here profile.
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #4 – Biggest little city in the world).
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #5 – Take California).
• The Chosen One (Alessa-Maria Hassan) (Profile #6 – The trouble with the tribal).

It follows a typical Fallout 2 playthrough in good but not overwhelming details. This is meant to give readers a decent second-hand knowledge of FO2’s setting and general storyline.

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• This profile features a sample or customized Player Character. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile assumes a specific video game playthrough. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features tabletop RPG mechanics about the video game’s gameplay. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features non-canon hypotheses about in-game events and mechanics. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.

Background

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Powers & Abilities

Alessandra-Maria continues to improve and adapt her existing skills, particularly her survival and navigation know-how. She’s also a bit sharper, faster, harder, meaner than before.

But the bulk of her learning during this time is about medicine and technology.

This is based on her sharp intelligence, a considerable body of books and holodisks, and two pre-War teachers (the ghouls Lenny  and Skeeter ). With all these resources she’s making steady, even aggressive progress. This is particularly true of her medical skills, an area in which she had pre-existing interest and independent study.

(In game this is a mix of levelling and skill books, particularly from the Vault City Citizens-only store.)

The beauty of our weapons, part 3

The Chosen One still relies on a .44 magnum revolver and a 5.56mm semi-auto rifle. However, the Dragunov was equipped with a Meopta x8 scope sight (a pre-War Czech import) by Skeeter, turning it into a sniping-capable weapon.

The magnum is a different one, though it reuses parts of the old one. It is a one-of-a-kind project assembled by Skeeter, based on pre-war shooting magazines given away by a Vault City technician. The gun magazines documented Police Pistol Combat shooting competitions, and how revolvers could be optimised for this.

Downtown Gecko, I guess. It’s not lively, in any sense. Click for a larger version. The clickable banners in this entry will extend rather than just embiggen – try it to see.

The new revolver has a 6″ barrel with a huge steel weight underneath, to facilitate weapon control even when chain-shooting its powerful round. The old laser sight (which is more like a thin-beam red flashlight, really) was installed within, the trigger pull was greatly reduced, and the weapon is fed using speed-loaders from Vault City. It can still be drawn quite quickly using a custom holster.

(In Fallout 2 the .44 magnum revolver is considerably faster to operate than the default, way less powerful, more controllable-looking, semi-automatic 10mm pistol. All that made-up stuff about ill-calibrated laser sights, Police Pistol Combat modifications, etc. in this and the previous writeup is there to justify this alacrity.)

The beauty of our weapons, part 4

Finally, there are two “oh crap”, situation-specific weapons in the arsenal :

1. An AK-112 5mm assault rifle, and a pair of matching dual C-Mag magazines sold by Skeeter. It will be invaluable for heavy combat… once the Chosen One has a good stock of 5mm rounds. For much of this era it’s better to function with the Dragunov and its ample stocks of .223 ammo. The 5mm stocks only grow fat as this chapter closes.
2. A CAWS assault shotgun, but this one sits on an entire sports bag filled with buckshot shells. It’ll come in handy when the Chosen One has to enter a nasty CQB  situation, such as clearing a house or a cave filled with monsters (or something). However, ‘lessa soon realises that she doesn’t quite have the body mass to absorb the recoil from this weapon (Teal’c, she’s not), and loans it to her wingman Cassidy.

After Hakunin gives her a vision of Kaga being still after her, Alessa keeps two frag grenades in a fanny pack. Over several days, she trains for hours, on and on without rest, to quickly use them.

The road warrior

Ms. Hassan has acquired an important asset – a working automobile. It is a Chryslus Highwayman, a large and particularly robust motorcar.

Normally these have an atomic engine, but repairing such an engine using Wasteland tech seems impossible. Instead, this Highwayman has been hacked to run on standard high-density batteries (the sort also used by military energy weapons) using power adapters. It has been equipped with power regulators looted from another wreck to greatly improve its mileage.

Roads are at best in a sorry state and the car is a tad low on the ground. Nevertheless, navigating the Wasteland with it is vastly faster than being on foot. And the large trunk can hold even more gear than a pack oxen would.

It is probably not the only working motorcar on the West Coast, but it is still a very rare sight. Previous generations of cars would be even harder to get running as they require petrol, and the war was preceded by years of, at best, fuel rationing. As to high-tech groups such as the Enclave or the Brotherhood, they operate Wartime military equipment such as vertibirds .

Early on, Hassan and Cassidy had a hard time coping with the sickening, dizzying speeds (say, 20 mph). They gradually adapted, though of course it took much longer for Cassidy.

(A commercial about “atomic cars” like the Highwayman seen in the first Fallout lists performances for those that are… physically impossible. Our game stats assume much more ordinary performances. And driving at high speeds would be impossible over ruined Wasteland pavement anyway.)

Motion detector

In Gecko, Ms. Hassan is shown what a random electronic gadget she found does. It is a Wattz Electronic C-U radar pistol. This is essentially a motion detector tuned to ignore background movement and concentrate on irregular sources, such as life forms. It is meant to be plugged into a PIP-Boy computer.

It occasionally gets used in combat. It is wielded like a sort of flashlight, with the motion sources appearing on the PIP-Boy screen (which can be awkward to read). When she made heavy use of it, Alessa taped it to her CAWS shotgun, with her left hand tightly gripping the carrying handle so she could both shoot (at close ranges) and see her PIP-Boy screen.

More often, it is used in Open Area Mode, as a sweeping radar, while travelling. While Cassidy drives Alessandra shimmies up to the roof through the open passenger window, walks down the windshield and on the hood and sits on a salvaged seat affixed to the hood. With thick motorcycle glasses and a face scarf on, she then tirelessly scans ahead for movement and warns Cassidy using gestures.

OAM has proven pretty good at detecting danger from travelling across the Wasteland. Especially since the Highwayman is fast enough to drive toward movement then swerve away if it doesn’t look good.

Video

Official soundtrack for this character profile – You don’t wanna (by Tricky based on Eurythmics) (feat. Ambersunshower).

Available for download on Amazon .

History

Modoc  seemed condemned by the ongoing drought, even with higher tech at their disposal than Arroyo. However, the sheriff/mayor told Alessandra that he knew about the G.E.C.K.. He would volunteer information about it if the two hardened, expandable and well-armed tribals would help.

Mental organism designed only for cow-herding

Alessandra and Sulik investigated around Modoc. The village was almost entirely dependent on mutant cattle – for meat, leather, milk, tendons, etc.. Along the way they took quick, minor mercenary contracts (such as gunning down a pack of wild dogs attacking the cows).

More notable endeavours included :

• Blowing up a outhouse from beneath using explosives, thus peppering a surprisingly large area with the sort of things found under a outhouse. Yes, it was entirely necessary.
• Looking for little Jonny, who had gone missing. ’Lessa and Sulik were helped by his faithful dog Laddie. And yes, the conclusion was reached that little Jonny — bark bark — had fallen down the well .
• Investigating a supposedly haunted farm, about which Alessandra had already heard at Mom’s in the Den. The farm held supplies that had become invaluable to Modoc’s survival with the drought. The locals were terrified of what they had witnessed there. Howbeit, the supposedly primitive and superstitious tribals didn’t mind, seeing ghosts as just a part of the world.

Nothing sweet about me

Hassan determined that the farm was owned by a secret subterranean community . They had clumsily attempted to scare the locals off without killing anybody. The spectral and gory features at the “ghost farm” were obvious fakes.

The underground survivors were amenable to trade, as they had a fair bit of food but were low on other supplies. Furthermore, they had rescued little Timmy Jonny after that well thing. A deal was struck between the two communities, ensuring that Modoc would survive even this drought.

However, the mayor/sheriff then had to admit that he had lied out of desperation. He had no idea what a G.E.C.K. was.

Sensing where this was headed, Sulik moved in. He hurriedly explained that Modoc should compensate Alessandra to the best of their abilities, right *now*. Getting the message, the locals offered a perfectly cured and badass-looking suit of leather armour, an assault rifle in pretty good shape, a box of 5mm JHP rounds, and a lot of Rose’s Famous Omelet™.

Modoc was thus saved twice in about 10 minutes.

The sheriff also weakly volunteered that he knew about a town called Gecko, which might have a relationship with the G.E.C.K..

Not a good place for one such as she

Alessandra-Maria and Sulik soon reached Vault City . It was a fortified perimeter built around the entrance of an underground Vault. The affluent, comfortable, safe Vault Dwellers (now calling themselves “Citizens” since they live mostly on the surface) did let outsiders in. However :

• Those living in the courtyard of the Vault had to pay a sort of rent, and were routinely abused by the guards from the Vaults. Still, they were safe from outside menaces.
• A non trivial number of non-Citizens on the premises were simply slaves (or “servants”, as the Citizens preferred to call them).
• Only a tiny number of outsiders were allowed to become Citizens. Apparently, this mostly happened if they had remarkably useful skills.
• The life of the Citizens was highly, invasively regimented. Generations of Vault life had warped their culture. There was an obsessive emphasis on maintaining tight control of the population to survive with tight resources and space, and on conformity to prevent conflicts.

Alesa recruited a disgruntled bar owner named Cassidy, who was fed up with Vault City and wished to return to his life of adventure. She also met a soon-to-be-redundant librarian who explained at length what sorts of books existed, and gave her a few.

Though Alessa didn’t like Vault City, it clearly had invaluable information and perhaps even a G.E.C.K.. But as an outsider she couldn’t have access to it.

Radioaktivität, part 1

The Chosen One rummaged around, expertly chatted up people, and bullshitted her way into obtaining a pass for the surface enclave.

She eventually learned that Vault City was threatened by radioactive contamination of its water table, caused by a still-active atomic reactor in Gecko. Alessandra agreed to solve the problem in return for Citizenship. However, it became clear that the controversy about the Gecko issue was a sign of political infighting among the ruling Council of Vault City.

Gecko turned out to be a small ghoul community, with the prominent locals being reasonable chaps. They reacted well to her arrival, as Alessa didn’t show the faintest sign of disgust at the ghouls’ appearance. The local elder/advisor was one Harold . However, the Chosen One didn’t realise right away that this was the same person who had helped her grandmother decades before.

Gecko’s nuclear power plant. Click for a larger version.

The Chosen One spent much time with two other ghouls who remembered the beforetimes: Lenny, a physician, and Skeeter, a technologist/mechanic. Taking a mentoring interest in the mutant, they taught her a lot about medicine and technology, loaning her various holodisks for her PIP Boy for independent study.

Skeeter also talked for hours about pre-war automobiles, and explained what a motion detector did. Alessa had looted such a detector weeks ago, and kept the device under the notion it might be important since it looked much like her PIP Boy.

Lenny explained how he had — extremely briefly — met Jolene Hassan in Necropolis decades before, and wanted to accompany Alessa and Cassidy. However, Cassidy explained that a simple physician like Lenny would simply get killed as soon as things got serious. The ghoul renounced his unrealistic dream as Cassidy enumerated all the comrades-in-arms he had seen die, and how.

Radioaktivität, part 2

The Chosen One and the ghouls hatched a plan where Alessa would convince the more pragmatic and open-minded member of the Vault City Council, McClure, to hand over spare parts to fix and sanitize the Gecko nuclear plant.

This way the ghouls could stop irradiating the water table, and wouldn’t get destroyed by a military expedition from Vault City. That also encouraged them to keep taking time off to teach Alessandra.

On her side, the Chosen One would have more than enough leverage from the deal to have McClure make her a Citizen overnight, giving her access to the resources within the Vault. She could at least peruse their data banks about G.E.C.K.s, and investigate what Vault City had done with its own G.E.C.K..

The nuclear plant was correctly fixed. Though often brain-damaged and not having fresh parts, the ghouls still had the know-how to run a reactor from the beforetimes. However, by that point Sulik wanted out.

Say goodbye to Sulik leaving

Though he enjoyed the sex, the adventures and the fighting, the complete lack of affection on Alessa’s part left him yearning for a human relationship. This and being creeped out by ghouls made him yearn for Umbra turf after all.

The gate to the inner perimeter of Vault City. Click for a larger version.

The Chosen One and Cassidy agreed to accompany him back to the Den, whence Sulik could safely cross the desert with Grampy Bone’s guidance.

After all of Skeeter’s gushing about cars, Hassan and Cassidy also wondered if they could use spare parts from Gecko to finish fixing a car restored in the Den by Smitty, a friend of Mom’s. Skeeter greatly encouraged them to try. He even gave them a working fuel cell controller for that model after they did him a solid.

Baby you can drive my car

Smitty agreed to sell his repaired Highwayman motorcar when he was shown the extremely rare fuel cell controller. Finally seeing his pride and joy fully running, he emotionally offered expensive fusion batteries to fill her up.

Smitty also gave some basic driving lessons based on what he had gleaned in his car owner’s manuals, auto mechanics guides and piles and piles of car magazines. Sulik then tearfully parted ways with Cassidy and Hassan, who carefully drove back to Gecko. Once there Skeeter gave them much more hands-on lessons drawing from his pre-War experience.

Her Highwayman changed things for Alessa. Though emotionally unmoved, she saw the possibilities of her newfound freedom of movement much like you’d expect from an American teenager getting her first car.

As if on cue, her mentor the shaman Hakunin  appeared to her in a dream. He reminded her of the plight of Arroyo and implied that he was watching her and she’d better stay on track.

The pair then returned to Vault City. But in Gecko, Alessa had met an ex-Citizen nicknamed Lumpy. Like her, he was a seemingly normal human but in actuality a mutant. Lumpy could tolerate large amounts of radiation. This had led to his being expelled from Vault City as he wasn’t “pure” enough. He warned the Chosen One, who now knew that she had to have a plan around that.

Counterstrike, part 1

Looking to build more political capital with Vault City in case she was unmasked as a mutant, Alessa volunteered for a special mission. Raiders had been harassing the fortified town, and the Sergeant of the guard couldn’t catch them. He also suspected something was off, since these “raiders” were far too well disciplined and trained.

Near the secret entrance of the raiders’ base. Click for a larger version.

Alessa did track down the raiders using a bush trick taught to her by Sulik. The attackers were guided by a Western tribal, explaining how they could evade the Vault City soldiers in the wilderness. The well-equipped, well-trained men had set up shop in a easily defensible cavern complex.

After extensive observation, Hassan and Cassidy blocked the cavern’s escape route, and removed a number of booby traps set by the mercenaries. They then jury-rigged those into acrid smoke charges using chemicals from a long-since abandoned auto mechanic shop. Alessa used motor oil to make herself and her clothing completely black.

She carefully invaded the cavern, with Cassidy on overwatch at the sole remaining exit using the scoped rifle.

Counterstrike, part 2

Between the smoke, the darkness and the deafening report of automatic fire within caverns, it became extremely difficult to understand what was going on. For everyone except for Alessa, who :

1. Knew that everything moving could unhesitatingly be shot.
2. Could ignore the pain and sensory overload from the smoke and noise.
3. Had pplugged her motion detector into her PIP-Boy to obtain a key edge.

The firefight raged for more than an hour. Those few mercs who broke ranks to get out of the cave and breathe were sniped by Cassidy. Hassan spent the entire engagement crawling on her knees and elbows to stay under the bulk of the smoke, navigating and acquiring targets by motion detector.

Though that was imprecise, operating prone let her shoot her CAWS in a position where she could take the recoil. Bursts of 12-gauge buckshot did compensate for the low resolution.

(As with the Slavers’ Guild in the Den, this is actually done in-game by leveraging weaknesses in enemy AI during a straightforward, long-range fight.)

The Computer is your friend

Alessa determined that these men had been sent by the Bishop mob family of New Reno. She even proved this using the mercenaries’ accounts book. This earned her major brownie points with the First Citizen, allowing her to delve further into Vault 8 without fearing arrest as a mutant. Questioning the “heroine” of such a battle would have been awkward at best.

By poring over archives, she learned of a logistics screwup that had taken place almost two centuries before. Each Vault actually had two G.E.C.K.s… but Vault 8 had only received one, which had already been expended.

The entrance of Vault 8 (“Vault City”) follows the usual setup. Click for a larger version.

Instead of a second G.E.C.K., they had mistakenly received Vault 13’s spare water chips. This was what had ultimately resulted in the water crisis in Vault 13, and Jolene Hassan’s world-saving adventure.

On the other hand, Vault City was a clear proof that a G.E.C.K. could indeed create a bountiful, pleasant and clean area, and could save Arroyo. Right that night, Alessa had another dream visit from Hakunin, expressing his satisfaction and trust. The shaman also warned that Kaga was still alive and stalking her, with more and better-armed allies.

(In-game the dream visits are actually less frequent. But in this version of the story, Hakunin is aware that Ms. Hassan needs to be… managed if there’s no rational incentive for her to save Arroyo.)

The Chosen One also struck a deal with Dr. Troy , Vault City’s head physician. She procured a dose of Jet combat drug for him to analyse, which he paid for in cash. Hassan agreed to never mention that to anybody, and Troy agreed to destroy any future medical tests results for her.

Southward !

From the database, Alessa learned the exact location of Vault 15. It likely still had its G.E.C.K.(s). However, Alessa did remember her mother telling her that her own mother Jolene had found Vault 15 in ruins decades before.

On the other hand, she knew that Vault 13 wasn’t far from Vault 15. Alessandra had heard many many times how Jolene Hassan had walked from Vault 13 to Shady Sands then to Vault 15. And how she had found a Colt Rangemaster hidden in a Vault 15 bathroom, as Maeve Hassan would unfailingly narrate.

Vault 15 was hundreds of kilometres to the South. Even with the Highwayman, it would be quite a trip across the Wasteland. But by that point Alessa had good geographical data in her PIP Boy, including settlements located more or less on the way.

Description

Alessandra now correctly wears her ancestral sunglasses when appropriate.

The item icon of her new leathers looks tougher than the old one, but there’s only one character sprite for all leather armour. Something like this  from this mod  is a possibility.

Personality

Little change on that front – her personality cannot really evolve.

Her knowledge and understanding of the world is growing though, and she clearly gets the advantages of reading and studying. Which she does a lot, making her increasingly sophisticated and able to draw from a broad knowledge base.

After Gecko especially, the dirt-poor tribal girl is, ironically, far more knowledgeable about the world than most “civilised” wastelanders.

Quotes

Sheriff Jo (very nervous): “It’s… it’s an AK eleven-two, it’s very well kept, our best gun… we thought you’d appr… you’d like it.”
Alessandra (takes the gun with a frown and inspects it, having obviously never seen an assault rifle).
Sheriff Jo: “It can fire single shots and burst and big burst. You use the sele…”
Alessandra (puts the gun on the table and takes it apart surprisingly quickly, starts examining the receiver)
Sheriff Jo (even more nervous): “… the… the selector on the side…”
Alessandra (quickly reassembles the rifle. Quickly disassembles the rifle. Examines the chamber, the selector. Reassembles it very quickly. A weird grin grows on her face as she works.)
Sheriff Jo (sweating bullets): “… it shoots five mike-mike… we brought you a box of those…”
Alessandra (big grin): “Give.”

The PIP-Boy 2000 on Alessa’s wrist, in mapping mode. Better than nothing.

Cassidy: “Saints girl, you need first aid at last. Let’s get back to the car.”
Hassan (shrugs): “Mostly their blood. Crawled over several bodies. Buckshot tore them apart. This is a good gun, too bad the recoil is so heavy.”
Cassidy (looks at Hassan’s terrible state and the cave): “I ain’t a religious man, but these caves and that fight… that looked and sounded like Hell itself. I can’t help but be damn glad I wasn’t in there, lass, and I’m damn sure I’m no coward.”
Hassan: “Don’t know about ‘hell’. But yes. Lots of pain. Confusion. Tears. Choking. Very loud. Terror. Death. Tripping on their friends’ corpses. Darkness. Friendly fire. Hell for them, probably.” (shrugs) “Wouldn’t know. They all dead, anyway.” (looks at her CAWS) “This is a good gun.”

About adapting Fallout characters

Like her grandmother, Ms. Hassan is heavy on the Fallout Small Guns skill. It and most other approaches to combat in the game are quite reliant on achieving critical hits, which inflict both significantly more damage and status effects. Non-critical hits tend to do but minor damage on robust targets.

She thus has a in-Fallout build that focuses on those. High Luck, weapons choices, high Small Guns skill and especially Perks choice (Finesse, Better Criticals and determinedly working toward the extremely powerful Sniper).

The criticals-centric combat doesn’t quite carry into either DCH or DCA. The stats make a generous nod in the direction of criticals (Called Shot Schtick in DCH, Increased Criticals Ranks and Power Attack in DCA, and rather high accuracy scores in both), but that should be sufficient.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Fallout 2 (1998 video game).

Helper(s): Darci, Roy Cowan, Peter Piispanen.

Writeup overhauled on the 24^th of January, 2017.