I...WAS...RUNNNNNNNING!

Today C and I were working through my BOS questline.  I had to track down some satellite devices in the most dangerous part of the map. 

C is more dedicated to questing than I am so he is now sheparding me through stuff he's done earlier.   We finally get to a stage where the plan is to activate the uplink and run to the next location to avoid fighting a scorchbeast.  Not that we haven't put plenty down, we just weren't feeling it this time.

We checked the area,  picked through some power armor at the camp and got ready to activate and run.

That was when we realized that there was a farm nearby we had not yet visited.  we headed over there so we could get close enough to get credit for having visited the location and the experience points that come with it.

No sooner did we get our precious XP and a map marker then we were set upon by Mirelurks.  Giant irradiated beetles you have to shoot in just the right place.

They were strong but at least none of them were Kings, a high level variant that can wreck you from a distance as opposed to the standard mirelrks which really just get in your face and slap fight you to death.

Not one king showed up.

Three did.

Well, said C, at least there's not a queen.  Oh there's  the queen.

The queens are pretty awful.  Huge and powerful, they are built to erase the I'll prepared and wreckless...  two words that describe me and C perfectly.

Luckily,  there was a barn and we could hide in the back of the barn behind some crates and have some protection on two sides, still finding ourselves vulnerable to the worst baddies and their ranged attacks thanks to holes in the walls and ceiling.

This is when it occurred to me I should help C more in the fight by being more assertive.

Most of our big fights involve me hiding while C dies most of the actual fighting.   He's fearless.   He gets that it's a game.

Me not so much.

But I want to help more and hide less.   And I had a dozen molotov cocktails that were burning a hole in my pocket.

Sorry.

So I equipped then and started hurling them at everything they came at us.  I basically was a disaster and set everything on fire, including myself, except the Mirelurks.

I hit C twice but since we have pacifist mode (can't damage other players) on he escaped my ineptitude. 

I set the barn on fire which luckily in this game doesn't burn down the barn but made it hard to move anywhere without sustaining flame damage.

Seeing that I was making things worse in the barn i went outside and started trying to hit the king's who needed to die but two converged on me.  I tried top run back in the barn but the Massive lumbering Queen had moved in front of the barn.   Blocking the entrance.

I tossed my last cocktail at her and scored a direct hit which also set me on fire. 

How did I survive, you ask?

Lots and lots of stimpacks.

By chance or by sheer force of will but really more likely thanks to C the queen moved and I got back in the barn  where I resumed my mostly successful strategy of hiding behind C and getting in shots with my sniper rifle where I could.

By the time we put down the Queen C had broken his best gun but luckily we still had our activate and run plan to finish this portion of the quest.

We got back and all hell broke loose.  The scorchbeast attacked along with a horse of minions and cam got booted of the server cause bathesda.

So I was on my own.

I was overencombered so after I activated the uplink I could only run short distances before I had to stop and wait for my action points to refill.  Needless to say, Our running away plan was out the window.   Plus i was on my own.

So i would sprint ahead of the enemy horde,  slow to a painful crawl and start swinging my melee weapon at the mass of enemies that swallowed me until I could sprint again.

When I finally got to the bunker there were three scorchbeast and an army of weapon toting sentient humanoids that all wanted me to be super dead.

In the shelter of the bunker I could avoid the scorchbeast but their bipedal minions kept pouring through the door.

C finally got back into the game and joined me but he wasn't alone.

Nope, he was followed in by our good friend the Prizebot.

Prizebot had something for me that could not wait.   And as soon as he reached me, I got booted off the server.

By the time I got back into the game C was down to a melee weapon that was about to break and my entire quest progress had been undone (thanks Bathesda) so I ran away (overencombered so no fast traveling) back to where it all started in order to restart the quest and C was left to make his way back to my camp, running like a mad person and navigating the most unforgiving terrain in the game.

It was nuts. It was aggravating.  It was fun as hell.