Chris Liam, also known as the Lone Wanderer, is a half-Caucasian half-African American male. He was a former Paladin of the DC Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel and is currently the Mayor of Megaton. He is the Captain of the Mothership Zeta crew. He is married to Lucy Liam, with whom he has two sons: James and Davis.
Background
Chris' parents at Jefferson Memorial
He was born on July 13, 2258 to James Liam and his wife Catherine at the Jefferson Memorial in the Capital Wasteland. His mother died in childbirth, due to cardiac arrest. This prompted his father to end the project that him and his wife had been working on and take him to Vault 101, with the help of his friend Star Paladin Cross. He was raised in the vault, unaware of his origin in the wasteland.
Events of Fallout 3
Chris when he left Vault 101.
Chris lived in Vault 101 without incident for nineteen years, growing up alongside the other kids of the vault. His father was the vault's doctor and physician. While he was growing up he was close friends with, and had a crush on, Amata Almodovar, Overseer Alphonse's daughter. He was didn't get along well with the other kids of the vault, especially Butch DeLoria and his friends. When he was 10, he was given a BB gun from his father and his friend Jonas, giving him some experience in shooting a gun. He also played baseball with the other kids in the vault and his performance was good enough to almost become an MVP. After he turned 16 he got a job as his father's assistant at the vault's clinic, where his father teasingly called him Nurse Chris. There he learned from his father skills in both medicine and science. He would often step in to defend Amata from Butch and his gang's, the Tunnel Snakes, harassment. Their close relationship eventually turned into a romantic relationship in their late teens, much to her father's disapproval.
Everything was going well, but in 2277 James disappeared without any explanation while Chris was sleeping. It was Amata that woke Chris up and told him of what happened, how his father had escaped and that the vault security was now searching for him. She lent him her father's gun and gave him some information to help him escape the vault. He left his quarters to find the vault descending into anarchy as the vault security force attempt to find him, contain the radroach infestation and stop any vault dwellers from escaping. While he was leaving he ran into Butch, who begged him to rescue his mother from the radroaches. Chris agreed and rescued Ellen DeLoria from the mutant roaches, which made Butch thank him with his jacket and honorary membership in the Tunnel Snakes. He was able to escape the vault with little bloodshed, only having to kill a few security officers that ran into him. He later encountered Amata being interrogated by her father and Officer Mack. Chris intervened, letting Amata escape but getting Officer Mack's attention. The two fought, resulting in Mack's death. Amata thanked him for saving her. Instead of confronting Overseer Alphonse he chose to continue on his way. He ran into Jonas's corpse where he found a note from his father. Despite James not wanting his son to follow him, he had no choice. He made it to the Overseer's office and went through the tunnel after finding out the password. When he made it to the vault door, he was forced to fight two officers barring his way. After the fight Amata came after him to say her final goodbyes. He tried to convince her to come with him but she refused, saying the vault was her home, so he gave her a kiss before he left. As the door were opening more guards appeared, but Chris was able to run out before they caught up to him. None followed him outside and the door was quickly closed.
Once outside of Vault 101, he began searching for his father. He first came across Megaton, a nearby settlement located southeast of the vault made up of parts of ruined pre-war airplanes. He talked with the town's sheriff, Lucas Simms, who mentioned seeing his father go to the town's saloon. Chris headed there and talked with the Irish owner, Colin Moriarty. The owner offer to tell Chris where his father when it he gave him 100 caps. Unaware what he even meant at first, Chris learned of the currency of the post apocalyptic world. However, the 19 year old didn't have any caps to give Colin. So Chris left the saloon and talked to the citizens around town to see if any of them knew where his father went. Sadly none did and so Chris returned to the saloon, where Colin was now asking for 300 caps. The boy tried to convince Moriarty to lower the price but was unable to. Colin mentioned that one of his prostitutes, Silver, had recently run away and stole money from the saloon. Chris agreed to go after her and return the money to Moriarty in exchange for the information.
Leaving Megaton, he headed northwestward to Springvale where Silver was hiding out. He confronted her inside a ranch house. After hearing her story, he decided to let her go and tell her former boss that she was gone and he was unable to find her. However, Chris now had to come up with another way to earn caps. He once again asked around town, this time searching for jobs he could do to earn money to pay for the information. He talked with Sheriff Simms about the atomic bomb present at the center of Megaton, and how it was still active. The Sheriff offered 100 caps as a reward to disarm the bomb, but through some convincing Chris was able to get him to offer 500 instead, for he needed at least 300 to pay Moriarty. The boy tried to examine the bomb, but despite being rather intelligent he didn't know anything about explosives. He knew he would have to learn more about them before attempting to disarm the bomb. And so, Chris continued his trip around town. Due to it getting dark, Chris headed back to the saloon to rent a room. The saloon's remaining prostitute, Nova, offer her services to him, but he declined due to his relationship with Amata. When he woke up the next morning he came across a blonde woman sitting in the saloon. He introduced himself to her, learning that her name was Lucy West, and asked if she had something for him to do. She said that she hoped "something to do" meant a job, otherwise to talk to Nova. Chris cleared up the confusion and asked for a job.
Lucy West hired him to deliver a letter to her family, her parents and younger brother, in Arefu, a small town northwest of Megaton. She marked the location on his Pip-Boy and gave him the letter. Chris set off and after a while came across the town, that was built on a bridge. As he walked up the bridge a man tossed a grenade at him. The man, Evan King, then apologizes and explains that the town had been under repeated attacks by a group named the Family. Evan, who was the town's mayor and only guard, asked Chris to check the Ewer, Schenzy, and West residences to make sure everyone was all right. When checking in on the residents, he discovered that the Ewer and Schenzy families were safe, but he found the dead bodies of Lucy's parents. He was saddened from the discovery but further examined the bodies. He found that they had bite marks on their necks, which seemed very strange to him. He reported back to Evan, who asked about Lucy's brother Ian. After he discovered that the boy was missing, he mentioned seeing Ian talking with Vance, the leader of the Family. King suspected that the Family took the boy, but he didn't know where Family's hideout was but had his suspicions. He marked three locations on his Pip-Boy. Chris headed to the closest of the locations, the Northwest Seneca Station. There he encountered a ghoul named Murphy living there and asked him about the Family. The ghoul told him to follow the tunnel in the back of his place. Chris headed down the tunnel, encountering numerous traps and mutant crabs as he made his way to the supposed hideout of the Family.
He found the front gate of the hideout near the end of the tunnel. It was guarded by a Family member named Roberto. At first he wouldn't let Chris in, but after he mentioned the Lucy's letter he was let through. Once inside, Chris talked with Vance. He informed the lad that Ian was there and was in isolation, the only way to him was through a terminal locked with a password. In exchange for the password, Chris agreed to learn the rules of the Family by asking other the members and reading from the terminal in the main lobby. After speaking to them he reported back to Vance, telling him that he understood the Family. The Family were people who hungered for human flesh but quenched their hunger by drinking human blood, like fictional vampires. Vance gave him the password, allowing Chris into Ian's meditation room. He talked with Ian and learned that he was not kidnapped, but voluntarily joined the Family after killing his parents. After a childhood encounter with a threatening wastelander, Ian had begun craving human flesh, even that of his own mother and father. Chris was able to convince Ian to return home to Arefu after showing him Lucy's letter. Before they could leave, Chris had to confront Vance. Chris asked him to stop attacking Arefu for its town's blood, and instead make a deal with the town to supply them with donated blood packs in exchange for protection. The Family leader agreed and gave the lad a schematics as a reward. Chris and Ian then returned to Arefu, where the former vault dweller told Evan about the proposed deal. The mayor agreed to it and welcomed Ian back to town. After reporting back to Vance about Evan's decision, Vance dispatched Alan, a member of the family, to Arefu to fulfill their end of the deal. Evan gave the lad some alcoholic drinks as a reward.
Chris then left Arefu to return to Megaton, where he reported the news to Lucy. She was saddened by her parents' deaths but relieved that her brother was still alive. She thanked Chris for his help and paid him 100 caps for delivering the message, as well as helping her brother and the town. As he was leaving the saloon, Lucy told him to stop by and see her again if he was ever in town. Chris' cheeks blushed a little and he said he would, though outside he shook his head. He was still dating Amata, or so he thought at the time. Despite selling the alcohol he got from Evan he still didn't have enough to pay Colin. However his adventure to Arefu gave him time to learn more about explosives. Thinking now, that he had enough knowledge on the skill to attempt to disarm the bomb, was heading to the center of town. However, by the saloon he ran into a well dressed man named Mr. Burke. Burke told him that his employer wanted to rig the bomb to explode, for he considered the town a blight on the landscape, and that he would pay the lad 500 caps to do it. Chris didn't agree to rig the nuke, instead he quickly headed to Sheriff Lucas to report Burke to him. Lucas was angered by this and told Chris to follow him while he dispensed Wasteland Justice. The two headed to the saloon where Burke was and confronted him. While the two were talking, Chris saw that Burke was going for his gun. He acted quickly and bashed him in the head with his baseball bat. Giving the sheriff a chance to kill Burke before he was shot. Lucas thanked the lad for his aid, Chris then headed down to the center of town to disarm the nuke. He was able to do so and received the 500 caps reward from the sheriff as well as a key to his own house in Megaton.
Chris in his armored vault suit.
Happy that he finally obtained enough caps to pay Moriarty, Chris headed to his saloon. He gave Colin the 300 caps and learned that his father headed to Galaxy News Radio in the ruins of Washington D.C. He also learned how dangerous the ruins of D.C. were due to feral ghouls, raiders and super mutants. He knew that he was not ready to head to GNR, so he rested in his new home, where he met his Mr. Handy Wadsworth. He used the rest of his caps to visit the general store, Craterside Supply, to buy some equipment that he would need. He learned that the owner was looking for an assistant to aid in her research, so he decided to help her. She gave him three tasks to complete, but before he left she asked him about the vault suit he was wearing. Moria told him that 10-12 years ago she had met someone from Vault 101 and armored up her suit for her. She pointed it out in the shop and told Chris that if he told her about his childhood in the vault she would give him the suit. He agreed and told her pretty much everything. He then walked out of the store with his new armored vault suit. He did the easiest of the tasks first, getting large amounts of radiation poisoning to see its effects on the body. He drank the irradiated water around the disarmed bomb at the center of town until he his Pip-Boy showed that he had reached the level he wanted, at 600 rads. He made his way back to the shop, which was difficult because of his radiation sickness, and was treated by Moira. After he recovered she informed him that he appeared to have had a tiny mutation that accelerated his healing when he had high levels of radiation poisoning.
The former vault dweller then left to travel to Minefield, a town to the northeast covered in mines, and retrieve a mine from near its center. As he was heading towards the town, he came across a scrapyard where several raiders were fighting a dog. Chris protected the dog and killed the raider, causing the dog to begin following him. He called the dog, Dogmeat and accepted him as a companion. The two then continued north to Minefield. Due to the mines, Chris told Dogmeat to wait in the outskirts of the town while he headed deeper. As he was making his way towards the playground at the center of town he began getting shot at by a sniper. Chris hurried and made it to the center, disarming a mine and taking it with him as he ran out of town with the sniper still shooting at him. Back in Megaton he gave the mine to Moria and told her of his experience. He then set off to complete the last of the first three tasks, scavenging a Super-Duper Mart for supplies. Chris and Dogmeat arrived at the ruined supermarket and were met with hostile raiders. The former vault dweller tested his combat skills against the large group of raiders and came out on top, scavenging what little was left of the food in the store and some medical supplies hidden in the back. He then returned to Moria to tell her about his experience, as a reward he obtained a food sanitizer to remove the radiation from pre-war food. Ms. Brown then gave him another set of three tasks to accomplish.
Chris completed the next set of tasks all at once. He headed to the Anchorage Memorial where he placed the observer unit in a clutch of mirelurk eggs without killing any of the adult mirelurks, then headed to the Tepid Sewers nearby to use the repellent stick on 10 molerats. He returned to Moria without healing any of his injuries, even the crippled left arm he obtained with fighting the 10 molerats. The last set of tasks had Chris head to the Robco Facility to install the processor widget and hack their mainframe, and then head to Arlington Library. In the library he ran into the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization of power armor wearing soldiers that were inhabiting the Capital Wasteland. He talked with the Scribe Yearling, who is tasked with archiving all pre-War knowledge into the Brotherhood's central computers. She, after they talked, gave him access to the library's computer terminal at the front desk, where Chris was able to download the card catalog that Moria wanted. However he still needed to retrieve the complete archive so he and Dogmeat ventured deeper into the library and fought the raiders inhabiting the building. After getting the archive he returned to Megaton. Instead of doing the last task, he decided that he was ready enough to head to GNR. So with his dog at his side, he headed east into the D.C. ruins.
He used the bridge to cross the river, easily making it through the mines after having already done so in Minefield. As he headed to the Farragut West Metro Station he encountered super mutants and raiders. Inside the station he mostly encountered feral ghouls, which his dog helped him dispatch. From there he went to Tenleytown/Friendship Station. Following the tunnels south he exited at Chevy Chase, where more ghouls and super mutants awaited. Near the exit to Chevy Chase North Chris found Sentinel Sarah Lyons with a squad of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers from her unit, Lyons' Pride. He told her that he was heading to GNR and she allowed him to accompany her and her squad there, as that was also their destination. Lyons' Pride had been tasked with clearing out the super mutants that were attacking GNR. They reached the GNR building's plaza and fought the numerous super mutants attacking the building. Once they were all dead, a huge super mutant attacked. With the weapons they currently had the beast would have killed them, but Chris spotted a large launcher by the fountain and picked it up. He used the Fat Man to launch a mininuke at the behemoth, killing it. The Brotherhood soldiers thanked him for his assistance and told him to head to the intercom to the right of the door to get inside the GNR Building. Once inside, he talked with the radio's DJ, Three Dog. The DJ had met James and agreed to tell Chris where his father went if he helped put the radio back on the air.
The super mutants had destroyed the satellite relay dish that the radio used to broadcast, so they would need a replacement. Three Dog told him to head to the Museum of Technology, where one might be located. He traveled to downtown D.C. to reach the museum. Inside he checked a terminal in the Atrium for a location of a possible dish, finding out that one was present in the Virgo II Lunar Lander exhibit in the museum's west wing. Him and Dogmeat traversed the super mutant infested museum and reached the exhibit. He took the relay dish from the lunar lander and then left the museum. He had to travel to the Washington Monument, which was guarded by the Brotherhood of Steel, to place it at near the very top. Returning to Three Dog, he was able to get the information about his father, learning that he had gone to Rivet City to visit a Doctor Li. Three Dog was then able to resume the GNR's broadcast and began telling the wastelanders about Chris' exploits, calling him The Lone Wanderer despite him travelling with Dogmeat. He traveled south to the city, exiting the downtown D.C. ruins. He was amazed at the size of Rivet City and its nature, being a pre-war aircraft carrier. He didn't see a way across to the aircraft, but found an intercom and used it to talk with Harkness, the city's security chief. After a short chat he was granted access to the city, with a large bridge being extended to allow Chris into the aircraft. He headed to the science lab, where he found Doctor Li. She knew James from the days before he went to vault 101, so she offered details on Project Purity and told the lad where James ran off to: the Jefferson Memorial. Before he set off for the memorial he learned the history of Rivet City from Bannon, then learned its true history from Horace Pinkerton. He reported back to Moria so she could finish her guide. She gave him a copy and he grained plenty of experience, becoming a survival guru.
As soon as he approached the Memorial, he encountered a large number of super mutants. After dispatching them he entered through the gift shop. Inside there were plenty more enemies. In the very center, the Rotunda, he walked up to the auxiliary filtration unit near the entry way and picked up the Project Purity journals resting here. One of the tapes, number 10, indicated that his father had left for Vault 112. With renewed enthusiasm he headed westward towards the vault. Vault 112 was located underground of Smith Casey's Garage to the far west. He fought the radroach infestation inside the garage and then used the hidden switch to open the passage to the vault. He activated the vault door using the panel and then walked in. He spoke to a security bot inside and receive a Vault 112 jumpsuit. Next he went to some kind of lab filled with pods. He spotted his father inside one of them, but was unable to open it. Realizing that the only way to free his father was to go inside the unoccupied pod and heading into the simulation that all the pods were connected to. He told Dogmeat to wait by his pod and then entered the simulation.
In the simulation he appeared as a little kid in a suburban neighborhood. At the park in the center he met a little girl named Betty and her dog Doc. He asked Betty where his father was and told her that he needed to get them both free, but she said that she would only do so if he completed a series of violent tasks for her amusement. Chris refused and began searching around the simulated neighborhood. The other residents were of little help, as they seemed to be unaware they were in a simulation, unlike Betty. The only other one that had knowledge of this was Old Lady Dithers, who informed the lad that Betty was actually the creator of the simulation Dr. Stanislaus Braun. She told him about the Fail safe terminal that was located inside the abandoned house in the simulation and how it could get Chris and his father out, but would kill the others. He was reluctant to kill the other residents but upon learning that Braun had them trapped in the simulation for 200 years without being able to leave and kept tormenting them for all that time, he thought it a mercy to finally give them some rest. Within the abandoned house, he found a set of objects that make specific musical pitches when activated. He noticed that Braun was humming a tune and used the objects to replicate the tune. The Fail-Safe terminal appeared. In the terminal he selected the "Chinese Invasion" which summoned a squad of Chinese soldiers who proceed to murder the residents of Tranquility Lane, with the exception of Doc, Betty, and Chris. According to the notes on the Invasion program, this program disabled the fail-safes on most of the pods, meaning that dying in the simulation would kill the real-world person as well.
Chris then spoke to Braun, who angrily scolded him on what he did and lamented that he was now alone and trapped forever within the simulation. That didn't bother Chris, for Dr. Braun was an evil man and deserved this fate after tormenting the other people for 200 years. Dr. Braun then revealed that Doc was James and said he would be waiting for the lad once he left the simulation. Chris quickly left the simulation. Back in the lab he was finally reunited with his father. The two talked and James said he had intended to find some holodisks, memos, or even experiments from Braun related to the G.E.C.K., but what he found was a perfectly alive and insane Braun and got himself duped into Tranquility Lane as a dog. His father then said he would be returning to Rivet City to meet with Dr. Li and resume Project Purity. Chris decided to travel with him, the two catching up along the way.
Upon arriving at the lab in Rivet City, James convinced Dr. Li to reactivate Project Purity. After a short conversation, he asked his son to meet him and the scientists at the Jefferson Memorial. Dr. Madison Li, James, Anna Holt, Janice Kaplinski, Daniel Agincourt, Alex Dargon and Garza all headed to the Memorial with Chris. When they got to the entrance of the Gift Shop, James informed his son that he must clear the Memorial of the remaining super mutant threat before they could proceed. He had already killed most of the super mutants in the facility, but he was unaware that the Memorial had a sub-basement. So he and Dogmeat headed there and cleared the place out. Afterwards he reported to his father, who then led the scientists into the Memorial. He headed to the Rotunda, at the control room. He asked his son to carry out some maintenance tasks to bring the project back online. First he had to turn off Flood Control Pump power then get the fuses from James and replace damaged fuses. Lastly he booted up the mainframe and spoke to his father over the intercom. His father initially told him to return, then changed his mind and told Chris to clear out a blockage in an intake pipe. Once inside the pipe he turned the control. As he was turning around to go back he witnessed something flying above. A flying vehicle landed near the Memorial and dropped off numerous soldiers in a new kind of power armor, different from the one used by the Brotherhood of Steel. Instead of going back the way he came he continued through the pipes and made it to the basement. As ran back to the Rotunda he and Dogmeat fought the men in power armor.
Upon arriving at the control room, Chris saw that Dr. Li was locked out of the main area, while Janice, James, two soldiers in power armor and a man in a long tan coat were locked in. The man in the coat, who was Colonel Autumn, confronted James and ordered him to forfeit the Memorial and assist the Enclave with making the water purifier operational. James refused, stating that the Enclave had no control over such a private project, and asked the Colonel to leave. Autumn shot Janice through the abdomen, prompting James to accede to the Colonel's demands to avoid more violence. James instead overloaded the purifier, flooding the locked chamber with deadly levels of radiation. Colonel Autumn quickly injected himself with something and keeled over. James dragged himself over to the emergency bulkhead and told Chris that he loves him and to run, before slumping to the ground, dead. Chris banged on the glass of the emergency bunkhead, tears rolling down his face as he yelled for his father, despite knowing that he was dead. A stunned Dr. Li informed the grieving lad that the only way to escape the Memorial is through a series of underground tunnels that lead to the Brotherhood of Steel stronghold, the Citadel. She ran to a manhole in the floor not far from the rotunda door, Daniel, Garza and Chris followed. Once in the Taft Tunnel she told him that they must keep moving to avoid detection by the Enclave.
They had to fight their way through Enclave soldiers and feral ghouls. Once in the second section of the tunnels Garza muttered about his heart, saying that he must rest. Doctor Li explained that they need to stop because Garza's heart disease had gone critical, and he would not make it to the Citadel alive if first aid was not administered quickly. Chris nodded and handed her five stimpaks to alleviate his condition until he can see professional medical care. After dealing with the Garza situation, they continued on their way. Eventually, they reached a Brotherhood of Steel checkpoint at the end of the tunnel. The BoS soldier wasn't too happy to see civilians running through his checkpoint. A horde of feral ghouls poured from a near door. The Brotherhood of Steel soldier used his flamer to deal with the ghouls with Chris aiding him. Once topside, an exasperated Dr. Li argued with Paladin Bael for entrance into the Citadel to no avail. She then ran to the intercom and yelled at Owyn Lyons to open the "goddamn" door at once. The door immediately opened. Inside the Citadel, which was the pre-war building known as the Pentagon, Owyn Lyons confronted Dr. Li and the surviving science team. Owyn Lyons, who was the father of Sarah Lyons, questioned Li for a few minutes on what transpired at the Memorial, and Li breathlessly told him about James' plan and the Enclave's intervention. Chris followed Doctor Li and Elder Owyn Lyons to the courtyard of the Citadel. She asked for the Brotherhood's help.
Chris talked with Lyons and the Elder gave him access to the Citadel's lab to search for clues to continue his father's work, as Project Purity still needed a G.E.C.K.. He went to the lab and asked Scribe Rothchild for pre-War computer access. He gave the lad permission to use the Vault-Tec computer terminal in the Archives, located in the A ring. When going through the information on the vaults in the terminal, Chris found out that Vault 87 was issued a G.E.C.K. under the non-standard equipment list. He returned to Rothchild and asked about Vault 87. He said that he would reveal where it is, prompting Chris to follow him. The two stopped in from of a wall map in the laboratory. There he stated that Vault 87 couldn't be entered through the main entrance because of lethal radiation levels. However he mentioned a back entrance through Lamplight Caverns. The map also showed the location of all the other maps in Capital Wasteland. He switched out his gun for a Laser Rifle, find more interest in them than regular guns. He also met with Star Paladin Cross, whom was an old friend of his father and had helped him take Chris to Vault 101. She agreed to follow him and aid him in his mission. Chris left the Citadel, intending to head to the caverns, however, on the way he received a message from Vault 101. The distress message was from Amata asking Chris to return to Vault 101 to help stop her father, the Overseer.
Chris after he hung up his vault suit.
Chris immediately headed there with Dogmeat to help his girlfriend, asking Cross to wait until they returned. He reached the vault and was let inside by Amata. There he learned that since his and his father escaped from Vault 101, it has been divided into two major factions. The faction led by Amata, holed up in his father's clinic, wanted to open the vault and interact with the outside world. The other faction was led by the Overseer and he wanted to keep the vault closed permanently, in accordance with its mission. Butch, however, wished to abandon the vault entirely and live on the surface; the rest of the rebels simply intend to remain living in the vault but wanted to be able to make excursions into the wasteland when necessary. Chris talked with Amata in the vault, finding out that she blamed him and his father for causing the downward spiral that killed many in the vault. He had been expecting a warm welcome from his significant other, but she had thrown him to the dirt. She considered their relationship over the day he left the vault. Even so, he still agreed to help her. He also informed her of his father's death, which gained him a bit on sympathy from her but didn't change their now ended relationship. Butch on the other hand, was now very chummy with his former rival, whom he treated like any other member of the Tunnel Snakes. Amata explained to her former boyfriend that one of the most essential reasons for having access to the wasteland and the remainder of humanity, apart from the obvious need for supplies and parts for the vault's aging life support apparatus, was to avoid collapse due to genetic stagnation and inbreeding. The number of Vault 101 residents had fallen significantly in the two centuries since it was sealed. She wanted Chris to convince her father to let the vault open its door, since he had lived for a few weeks in the Wasteland.
Chris went to talk with Overseer Alphonse, and tried to convince him to step down, using Amata's argument about the vault not surviving more than another generation. However that didn't work, so he began to look for another way to convince him. He accessed the computer in the security office by hacking into it and learned that security was planning an assault on Amata's group against the Overseer's orders. He then freed Mr. Brotch, who knew of the assault, from the jail cell. He then told the Overseer of this and was finally able to convince him. Alphonse, realizing that he failed his job as Overseer, stepped down from his station. Amata took on the role of Overseer. She showed excitement and amazement that her father stepped down without violence. However despite being grateful towards Chris, she told him that he was permanently exiled from the vault. Before he left Vault 101 for the last time, he went to him and his father's old room and gathered up their possessions that had remained in the vault when they escaped, the most important among those were the framed quote from the bible and his father's journal. When he left through the vault door, it didn't close this time and with him left Butch, who traveled to Rivet City. This time, the doors didn't close, but Chris could never return nonetheless as his ex-girlfriend had exiled him. Him and Dogmeat headed to Megaton, where he hung up his vault suit, never to wear it again. He was extremely saddened by the events and drank his sadness away in Moriarty's Saloon, where he was joined by Lucy West. She consoled him on both the loss of his father, where the two had common ground, and his ended relationship. After that night in the saloon with Lucy, the two would meet many times in Megaton. Chris would confide in her and share the stories of his adventure in the Capital Wasteland. This was the beginning of their friendship, that eventually turned into a romantic relationship.
After meeting back up with Star Paladin Cross, Chris headed to the caverns. Once he entered Lamplight Caverns he discovered that the caverns were inhabited by a bunch of children, who had a small settlement there. The settlement's Mayor MacCready stopped Chris and his party at the gates of Little Lamplight, the settlement. He told Chris that he would only let him in if he rescued some of their people that got taken by slavers. MacCready shared with him the location of the slavers' den, Paradise Falls. Chris, Cross and Dogmeat then headed there to free the captured children and the other slaves. As they walked to the slaver town, Chris talked with Cross. They both agreed that the slavers were terrible human beings and didn't deserve to live for what they had done. When they arrived at the town he talked with the guards at the entrance for only an instant, before ordering Dogmeat to attack. With Dogmeat distracting them, both he and Cross drew their Laser Rifles and killed the guards. The fight inside the town was hard and bloody, but the three of them mercilessly killed the slavers. Chris had thought about just trying to sneak the children out, but that would leave the other slaves trapped there and it wouldn't stop the slavers from capturing more people. He knew that there was only one way to permanently put an end to their operation. He even killed the town's leader, Eulogy Jones. He freed all the slaves, including the two women that had been with Eulogy. However, one of them, Clover was not happy that her master had been killed and tried to attack Chris. Cross was able to subdue her without killing her, but they ended up leaving her in the now dead town of Paradise Falls. With the children freed, Chris escorted them back to Little Lamplight and was let in by MacCready.
He asked the child residents of the settlement about Vault 87 and learned that it was filled with super mutants. They told him about the back of the caverns, that led into the vault, which they called murder pass due to the super mutant presence. Chris thought it was highly dangerous for children to be living next to the super mutant hive like that, so he asked the Mayor for a key to access murder pass. With Cross and Dogmeat at his back, Chris cleared out murder pass and entered Vault 87. He ended up in the Reactor Chamber. From there, he proceed to the Living Quarters, then the Test Labs. There, Chris encountered a super mutant named Fawkes who asked to hold a conversation with him over the intercom. Fawkes explained his upbringing in the vault and how he had become intelligible and civilized through continued access to the vault's database. Fawkes promised to retrieve the Garden of Eden Creation Kit from the irradiated halls above if he was released from the room the other super mutants had locked him in. Chris agreed to free the super mutant and used the terminal next to door to his room to do so.
Once Fawkes was free, he thanked the lad and held up his end of the bargain. He proceeded to slowly walk to the room with the G.E.C.K., fighting any enemy super mutants along the way. Once he's was there he retrieved the G.E.C.K.. He then gave it to Chris and the two parted ways. As he was trying to leave the vault with his companions, Chris was incapacitated by a type of flash bang grenade. Colonel Autumn showed up with some Enclave soldiers and took the G.E.C.K. from him. Chris then passed out a few moments later.
Chris awoke behind a force field, in a prison cell. Colonel Autumn, who was outside his cell, demanded that he tell him the access code to the Purifier at the Memorial. Despite being disoriented, the lad thought quickly and told the Colonel the wrong password. An Enclave officer at the purifier tested it over the radio and got one of his men killed. Which infuriated Colonel Autumn. The Colonel left when President Eden, the leader of the Enclave, spoke through the intercom and asked to speak with Chris. Eden released Chris and the lad grabbed all his stuff out of the locker nearby. Shortly after Chris exited his cell, President Eden ordered the troops not to engage him. He met with an Enclave officer that was surprised he was free, though Chris was able to convince him that it was President Eden that freed him and he was going to meet him. Next to his cell he met Nathan Vargas, a resident from Megaton. He tried to help the old man, by freeing him, but he just stayed in his cell, scared to come out. He walked through the rest of the base heading towards the President. But as he approached Raven Rock Level 2, Colonel Autumn countermanded Eden's orders, turning the entire base hostile against Chris. The lad was then forced to fight his way through the rest of the base while heading towards the President. Along the way he picked up an Enclave's Plasma Rifle which was better than his Laser Rifle and began to use it. As he neared his goal he came across Anna Holt, one of Dr. Li's assistants, who was captured at the purifier and then chose to side with the Enclave. Chris was angry at this but didn't do anything about it.
He reached a room with two sentry bots finishing off two Enclave guards. The bots told him to continue on as the president was waiting. He enter the president's chambers, climbing the large staircase he encountered President Eden, who turns out to be a ZAX AI. He informed him of his plan to cleanse the Capital Wasteland of the mutation and disease which had gripped it, by using a modified version of the FEV, previously used in the creation of the original super mutants, in order to kill any mutated or irradiated people living in the Wasteland, and start the Capital Wasteland anew. Despite Colonel Autumn's attitude, Eden revealed that Autumn in fact disagrees with the President's way of thinking, and thought there must be a less extreme method of renewing the Capital Wasteland. With his knowledge in science, Chris was able to argue Eden into realizing his thinking was in fact a fallacy of circular logic, and convinced him to self-destruct himself and the base. However before he left, the President forced him to take the modified FEV. After he left Eden's chamber, the robots in the subsequent hallways turned on the Enclave soldiers, helping Chris out. Once outside he saw a fleet of Vertibirds leaving the base. The base exploded and the tunnel was blocked with rocks. The wanderer then saw Fawkes, who was armed with a Gatling laser and taking care of some Enclave soldiers. The super mutant told him that he took both Dogmeat and Cross out of Vault 87 and told them that he would rescue Chris. He said that the two were back at the Brotherhood of Steel base and that he would join the Lone Wanderer, as thanks for freeing him from the vault and because of his overall actions. With Fawkes at his side, Chris left the ruins of Raven Rock.
Chris in his Winterized Power Armor.
Along the way, Chris and Fawkes encountered some Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts and had to complete a simulation for them. The whole ordeal gave Chris a lot more combat experience, making him into a real soldier, and as well as Power Armor training and his own set of Winterized T-51b Power Armor. He then returned to the Citadel where Rothchild, Elder Lyons, Sarah Lyons, and the Lyons' Pride had assembled for a briefing on their upcoming mission. Midway through, Elder Lyons asked Chris for further information about the Enclave. The lad gave him the FEV virus Eden had gave him for proper disposal after the scribes have studied it. Sarah then made Chris an honorary member of the Lyons' Pride and offered him a full suit of either power armor or recon armor. However he declined as he already had his own power armor. Before they left for the mission, the wanderer also told the Elder about Vault 87 and how it is where the super mutants in the area originated from. Elder Lyons began to the operation and Rothchild raised Liberty Prime, the large robot the Brotherhood of Steel had in their arsenal, up an elevator shaft.
Scribe Rothchild objected to using Liberty Prime, as it was not ready for field use. He still had more tests to run with it before it was ready, however Elder Lyons ignored that fact and ordered it to be used in the battle against the Enclave. Chris met up with Star Paladin Cross and Dogmeat, Fawkes had chosen to remain behind when they approached the Citadel because the Brotherhood of Steel didn't like super mutants. Following the order to attack, Liberty Prime was hoisted out of the Citadel on a crane and the Lyons' Pride followed it. Prime crashed his leg on the wall in the bailey on the crane, however it didn't damage it. Once outside the Citadel, Prime began stomping his way to the fallen bridge, killing everything in its path. Chris and the Lyons' Pride followed the robot as they fought the Enclave occupying the area around the Jefferson Memorial. Liberty Prime took down the photonic resonance barriers set up by the Enclave, to stop the Brotherhood from advancing to the Memorial, by walking into them. Once on the bridge, the Enclave desperately threw everything it had at the Brotherhood's machine: soldiers, Vertibirds, and artillery. Their efforts were entirely for naught, and Liberty Prime annihilated everything thrown at it. In the confusion it missed a few ground troops, which Chris's party and Lyons' Pride took care of.
Liberty Prime could not be stopped, it cleared a bloody path to the Memorial. When they arrived at the Memorial, Liberty Prime stopped and held his position along with the rest of the Lyons' Pride while Sarah Lyons, Chris and his party dashed inside the Jefferson Memorial through the Gift Shop. There was light resistance inside the Gift Shop, so they were able to make it to the Rotunda with ease. Colonel Autumn was waiting for Chris and Lyons in the Rotunda, he was not surprised that the lad was able to arrive at the purifier. The lone wanderer and the Sentinel fought against the Colonel and his two bodyguards, managing to defeat them. Chris, satisfied that he got some revenge for his father, headed up the stairs to the control room. Dr. Li used the intercom to speak to him, she was panicking since Project Purity had sustained severe damage in the battle, and had become overloaded. It would soon self-destruct if the purifier wasn't finally started, but the control room had become heavily irradiated since James' sacrifice the last time Chris had been at the Memorial. Chris decided to sacrifice his life, like his father had done before, to get the purifier going and prevent the destruction of Project Purity. He still needed the purifier password to start it, he eventually realized that it was 2-1-6, referring to the verse from Revelation which his mother Catherine had loved. He entered the password and then slumped away from the purifier password panel as the radiation levels were quickly killing him. The central chamber was purged and a statue of Thomas Jefferson was revealed inside. He passed out from the radiation, thinking that it had killed him. As he closed his eyes he had no regrets and was glad that he would finally reunite with his parents.
Other Adventures
- Main article: Chris Liam/Side Quests
Events of Operation: Anchorage
When he was returning from Raven Rock, Chris received a distress call on his Pip-Boy. From the emergency signal, Chris learned that Defender Morrill of the Brotherhood Outcasts was asking anybody capable of receiving the signal for support at Bailey's Crossroads. The lad headed there right away. After fighting some ghouls in the metro he reached the crossroads. At Bailey's Crossroads a battle was taking place between super mutants and Brotherhood Outcasts. Chris aided the Outcasts against the mutants. The battle progressed through a building until the group reached the Outcast Outpost guarded by mark IV turrets, where they were able to defeat the mutants. Once there, Defender Morrill, who led the Outcasts to the Outpost, asked the Lone Wanderer to speak with Protector McGraw at the bottom of a freight elevator. At the bottom of the elevator was Defender Sibley, who was not too happy to see the Chris. He said to keep quiet and follow him. He lead onward to Protector McGraw who explained that there was some high-tech equipment locked away and only the lad, utilizing his Pip-Boy, could complete the VR program and gain access. The VR program was a simulation of the Anchorage Reclamation, an important military campaign from the Resource Wars. The simulation's safety measures had been disabled, dying in the simulator meant death in the real world as well. The Protector then said to follow Sibley to Specialist Olin. He found Olin in the room with the simulation pod. She handed over a neural interface suit, was required to be able to participate in the simulation. After putting the suit on, Chris opened the simulation pod, got inside and activated it.
Chris was woken up by Sergeant Benjamin Montgomery. He was in Anchorage Cliffs. The two of them were part of a U.S. paratrooper infiltration team, and the objective was to take out the artillery guns located here. To do this, they needed to infiltrate the Chinese artillery outpost. Montgomery then proceeds to climb up the cliffs, while Chris took the long way up. Along the path he encountered Chinese soldiers. He had no choice but to kill the communists. He followed a winding catwalk around the exterior of a building and then headed through the small building. Fighting through more Chinese soldiers he eventually headed over some pipes and reached the Cave Outpost. Inside the cavern, there was a shootout between several more Chinese soldiers and an American paratrooper. The paratrooper died so Chris took his Gauss rifle and killed the Chinese. When he reached the room upstairs, Montgomery dropped from the ceiling and rejoined him. They headed towards the Chinese Artillery Outpost, which had two bunkers and one big Chinese flag. Two Chinese soldiers fired on them from above, and two Mark III turrets opened up from the left. The two managed to get past all the defenses and got into the Artillery Outpost. Inside they encountered heavy enemy resistance. Along they way Chris got a look at several Chinese Chimera tanks, which surprised him as he had never seen such vehicles in the Capital Wasteland. More foes barred their progress, until they reached an open room with several stairwells and many stacked shells. At first glance, the room is empty but within moments, they were attacked by three Crimson Dragoons, China's advanced stealth units, wielding Chinese officer's swords. It was a tough fight but they managed to kill them. Outside they arrived at the Artillery Overlook, right next to where the guns were firing. Though fought their way through numerous Chinese soldiers and planted the explosives on the Artillery guns. Once all of them were destroyed, Benjamin told Chris to report to General Chase in the U.S. Army field headquarters. He was teleported there by the simulation.
General Chase congratulated Chris on his success. He was promoted and put in charge of his own Strike Team. The General explained that 3 tasks had to be completed before the assault on the Chinese headquarters, a refinery, could begin. The lad had to destroy the fuel tanks at the enemy Chimera Armor Depot, clear a Listening Post of all Chinese presence, and disable their Pulse Field. Chase suggested completing the first two objectives first before moving onto the Pulse Field. He then referred the wanderer to his intelligence officer for this mission, Lieutenant Morgan, for the details. He found Lieutenant Morgan nearby sitting at a computer. He provided more detailed information on the targets, as well as why they needed to be taken out. Morgan also explained that Chris could get equipment by selecting it at the terminal and bringing the resulting requisition holotape to the Quartermaster. Now, in the U.S. Army field headquarters, the lad talked to Sergeant Montgomery to make him leader of his team. Chris would then relayed all orders for the team through him. He visited the Quartermaster and got some equipment for the operation. Chris told the Sergeant that they were going to attack the Chimera depot first, so the team headed left towards it. They fought their way through Chinese soldiers and their spider drones, reaching the depot and engaging the garrisoned enemies. The team destroyed the Chimera tanks, rigging the fuel tanks to explode, and completed the objective. After both tanks were destroyed, the simulation teleported them back to the U.S. Army Field Headquarters. The team then headed to the listening post.
On the way to the Chinese listening post, they passed through an area of abandoned mines and houses which was heavily infested with Crimson Dragoons, Chinese snipers and other soldiers. They killed the communists and reached the listening post. Inside there were more Dragoons and Chinese technicians. They killed everyone inside and made it to the roof where they fought a squadron of Dragoons. When they were dead, Chris and the team were teleported back to the camp. Chris left his squad behind and went with Sergeant Montgomery to disable the Pulse Field. The first line of the enemies' defense included scattered mortar fire followed by deep trenches. Once down in the trenches they fought various stealth units and snipers. After fighting through all of them they made it to the Pulse Field. The American's power armor soldiers weren't able to pass the field safely. Chris and the Sergeant headed to the field's generator to disable it. With the field was disabled, the Americans assaulted the Chinese compound, which was an occupied refinery. The power armored soldiers took out the enemy turrets and destroyed the front gates. Chris and Montgomery crossed the frozen field and entered the compound after the power armored soldiers. Upon entering the refinery Chinese soldiers and American Soldiers engaged one another. Amongst this fighting Chris witnessed General Jingwei, commanding officer of the Chinese troops at Anchorage, calmly executing an American captive with his infamous shock sword. Chris and the Americans fought fiercely against the communists and were able to defeat them and kill the enemy general. Once Jingwei was defeated, all the soldiers froze in place and General Chase appeared right in the middle of the final battle and told Chris that the simulation is over. He also congratulated the lad for obtaining all Intel suitcases scattered throughout the simulation and commented how much his skills had grown as a result of the simulation. The simulation then ended, and the wanderer found himself back in the real world.
Back at the Outcast Outpost, Chris was now able to proceed to the terminal at the opposite end of the floor and open the armory. Inside he and the Outcasts found assorted weaponry, ammunition and other supplies including some unique items. Defender Sibley and Protector McGraw started a dispute. Sibley didn't want to share any of the unlocked equipment with the wanderer whereas McGraw insisted that a deal was a deal. The disagreement resulted in a revolt by the Defender and most of the Outcasts against the Protector and Specialist Olin, with Chris ending up as a target for the mutineers as well. Chris fought alongside the two, using his new skill as a soldier to kill the mutineers and protect the friendly Outcasts. After the revolt was dealt with, Chris took his share of the unlocked equipment, a suit of Winterized T-51b Power Armor and a Gauss Rifle, and left the outpost, saying goodbye to McGraw and Olin and continuing to the Citadel.
Events of The Pitt
While traveling through wasteland, Chris came across a radio distress signal, from a run away slave named Wernher, who informed the Lone Wanderer that he needed help in retrieving a cure for the mutations plaguing the town developed by Pittsburgh's raider boss, and Ex-Brotherhood of Steel member, Ishmael Ashur. He had met with Wernher at a radio tower far in the northern part of the Capital Wasteland. Chris had helped the former slave defend himself from Pitt raiders. After helping him dispatch his foes, Wernher told the lad his story and asked for his help. He told Chris that there was a train tunnel to the west, and he would meet up with him there, and then bring the wanderer into The Pitt. Wernher suggested that he obtain a disguise from the slavers camping outside the train tunnel to ease gaining access to The Pitt. Chris headed to the slaver camp and their leader recognized him as the man who shot up Paradise Falls. He then had to fight and kill the slavers. After they were dead, Chris set the captured slaves free and took the clothes off a dead slave in the pen. Him and Wernher then used a hand cart to travel to The Pitt. Upon arrival at the train yard outside the Pitt, Wernher told him to hang back while he talked. He walked over to a Pitt raider standing guard. Werhner's diplomacy quickly becomes that of the shotgun variety, and Chris aided him in killing the raider group. After the firefight, Wernher walked to the northeastern exit of the trainyard and told Chris that he couldn't proceed any further. He informed the lad that the guards would confiscate his stuff upon entering, and to find a slave named Midea. Chris asked him if he had any weapon that he could conceal in order not to be defenseless inside, so Wernher gave him a small .32 pistol.
After exiting the trainyard, Chris stayed clear of the nearby building, as there seemed to be a band of raiders there as well. He went north to the Pitt Bridge. The bridge was filled with various vehicles and traps. He crossed it carefully, making sure not to set off any of the mines. He had to get past a sniper on a high ledge at the end of the bridge, which brought back memories from his trip to Minefield. After finishing the harrowing trek, Chris reached a right-turn on a street. A few runaway slaves ran by, and were blown to pieces by mines. At the end of the road was a roadblock. Chris approached the gate guards and pretended to be a slave. Mex, one of the guards, believed that the Lone Wanderer was a slave who was unable to cross the bridge. He then confiscated all the lad's gear except for the concealed gun and then told him to get back to work. Chris entered through the gates to Downtown. Chris headed towards Midea's house. Once inside, Midea informed him of her goal: to steal The Cure from Ashur. Their conversation was then rudely interrupted by Jackson, a Pitt raider, who interrogated Midea as to what they were talking about. She stammered out a lie about the Lone Wanderer being the new "volunteer." Jackson bought it and left them alone. She instructed the Lone Wanderer to go and gather steel ingots from the steelyard, because slaves that didn't work were not tolerated. He asked Midea about getting a better weapon and she told him to see Marco at the mill.
The entrance to the steelyard was through a small buffer zone called the abandoned area. The steelyard was an extremely large area, and was inhabited by feral mutated humans nicknamed trogs by the citizens of The Pitt. A door in The Mill lead to the abandoned area. Before going into the steelyard, Chris met with Marco and obtained an Auto Axe. As he headed to the abandoned area, he ran into Everett, who oversaw all work in the steelyard. He congratulated the lad on his misfortune of being chosen to do such a dangerous task. He walked with him through the abandoned area, and pointed out a trog scampering on a catwalk above. Everett stopped at the door and told him to proceed outside. Chris exited to the steelyard and had to fight numerous trogs. Along the way he stumbled into an emotional scene, a slave trying to reason with his brother, Billy, who was now a trog. Chris could tell that the trog was going to attack, so he killed Billy before he could kill his brother. The slave mourned the death of his brother and the wanderer continued ahead. He traversed all of the steelyard, fighting for his life as he collected the steel ingots to bring back to Everett. After a long time he was able to collect 97 of them and lugged them back with him to the Mill. When he passed through the abandoned area a trog attacked him, as it had broken through the fence protecting the passage. The opening in the fence let Chris into a larger section of the abandoned area, where he found 3 more steel ingots. He then met with Everett and gave him all 100 steel ingots, so that no other slave would need to go to the steelyard for a long time. Everett was surprised that he was able to make it back, and with so many ingots. He gave Chris numerous equipment as a reward for collecting so many ingots. The whole experience made the lad an expert in using the Auto Axe, as he had used it to kill countless trogs. With the job at the steelyard completed, Chris headed back to Midea.
Midea told the lad to prepare for a fight in the Hole, which she explained was one of the only ways a slave could earn their freedom, killing fellow fighters in order to be promoted to the ranks of The Pitt raiders. Outside, Ashur addressed his workers from a balcony above the square in front of Midea's house, talking about The Hole and asking for volunteers to fight for their freedom. Midea spoke for Chris, volunteering him, and Ashur accepted. The wanderer signing up for the battles in The Hole. Faydra was in charge of the fights, who informed the lad of the rules and the like. For the fights, Chris used the equipment that he obtained from Everett. There were three fights to endure, ranging from one to three opponents each time. When he defeated his opponents, Chris took his pick of their equipment. Once he has cleared the Hole, Chris was considered free and was given an audience with Ashur in Haven. He also re-obtained his gear that had been taken from him when he entered the Pitt. His time in the Hole also improved his resistance to damage and radiation, as he the Hole was covered in radioactive barrels. Krenshaw approached him and to told the lad that he was free and that Ashur wished to talk to him in Uptown.
Once there, Ashur asked him to kill Wernher because he'd been rallying the slaves and a riot would result in meaningless death. Chris tried to deny that he knew Wernher, but Ashur had already known for a while, so he confessed. Ashur then told the wanderer about the cure and even asked him to speak with his wife to know more. Chris was unsure what to do. He was against slavering but after experiencing the danger of the Pitt and seeing the infrastructure that Ashur had built up, as well as his plan to make a cure to give to the citizens so they won't turn into trogs, he was conflicted. He didn't know if the ends justified the means, but he was still against helping the Pitt raiders. So Chris talked with Ashur's wife and found out that the cure was his daughter, Marie, the first healthy baby to be born in the Pitt. That made Chris question his decision even more. The last straw was when he was searching around Haven and came across Ashur's diary and learned that he was indeed not a bad guy and was doing all this to help the Pitt. Chris left baby Marie where she was and exited Haven. Slaves were rioting all through The Pitt. The wanderer avoided killing them, letting them fight the raiders for the time being. He was after Wernher, so he made his way through the riots and to Midea's place. He talked with her and demanded answers after learning that the cure was a child. She admitted that the kidnapping was Wernher's idea and that she didn't think about what freedom would take. Chris then left her be and looked through her room for clues on Wernher's location. He was found in his hideout, located in the steelyard. Chris headed there to confront Wernher. After they talked, and Chris learned the full extent of Wernher's plans, the lad was able to convince him to leave the Pitt. Though the former slave did it reluctantly, he didn't want to leave his fellow slaves behind. The wanderer hadn't agree with his plan at all, for it required shutting off the floorlights that kept he trogs away and letting them infest Uptown once more, which would no doubt lead to more deaths in the future as the trogs would be extremely close to Downtown, where the slaves were.
With Wernher gone, Chris returned to Haven. The rioting had stopped, sadly after quite a few slaves had been killed. He reported to Ashur and for his service was given a prototype booster shot as a reward, as well as access to use the steel mill to cast bullets. While Ashur still offered him a position in his raiders, Chris refused and left the Pitt behind. He never returned there, as he was still conflicted on what had happened.
Events of Broken Steel
Chris Liam woke up two weeks after he had passed out at the Jefferson Memorial, at the Citadel's medical bay. He saw that Elder Lyons was by his bed. The Elder explained that he and his daughter Sarah were both knocked unconscious due to an energy spike in the purifier and were found and brought back to the Citadel. Sarah had not yet recovered from her coma and was in a bed nearby. Elder Lyons also explained what had happened in the two weeks since the lad had turned on the purifier. He then requested Chris to go see Scribe Rothchild for a more detailed briefing. He headed there and Rothchild explained how the Brotherhood systematically attacked Enclave camps with the help of Liberty Prime, which had proven to be far more effective than expected. The objective of the mission was to learn how the Enclave were still able to communicate and coordinate their scattered forces, even though Raven Rock had been destroyed. It was believed that the Enclave-controlled Satellite Relay Station might be able to provide answers. Chris, who was conscripted into the Brotherhood of Steel by Elder Lyons and assigned the rank of Knight, was given the order to report to Paladin Tristan at the Rockland Car Tunnel. Chris was also assigned to the Lyons' Pride unit, which Tristan was temporarily in charge of since Sentinel Lyons was in a coma. Before heading there, Chris met up with Star Paladin Cross and Dogmeat, which were both in the Citadel waiting for him to recover. They rejoined his group and headed to Tristan.
When arriving at Rockland Car Tunnel, Chris was briefed by Paladin Tristan. The Brotherhood began their assault and Liberty Prime took point with the Lone Wanderer and the other Knights providing support. In the first phase of the assault, the giant robot stomped implacably down a canyon, swatting Vertibirds out of the sky and crushing all "Communist" opposition in its path. When the Brotherhood forces arrived at the relay station, Liberty Prime analyzed it for weaknesses and then punched a hole in its wall, allowing entrance. Soon afterward, however, he warned that an uplink transmission had been detected and that an orbital strike was imminent. The Brotherhood soldiers were mostly confused by this. Liberty Prime was wrecked by the missile strike. It managed to drag itself only a few yards with its remaining arm before shutting down. In the process, Prime's head came off. The surviving Brotherhood soldiers regroup, and Tristan ordered the Lone Wanderer to enter the base and find out what just happened. Assisted by a squad of Paladins and Operations Officer Edwards, he fought through many Enclave soldiers before finally reaching a computer room. He downloaded encrypted codes from the mainframe terminal. Chris was ordered to return to the Citadel and gave the codes to Scribe Rothchild for further investigation. After lamenting the robot's fate, Rothchild took the data and directed him to Elder Lyons. After hearing debriefing Chris, Lyons ordered him to speak to Tristan.
Paladin Tristan briefed him on their next mission, which was to retrieve a pre-War experimental device called a Tesla coil from the remains of Olney Powerworks. The scribes needed the coil to finish a little surprise for the Enclave: the Tesla cannon. Upon arriving at Olney, Chris and his team headed to the sewer. Once inside, they found the ladder which lead to Old Olney underground. There, the Lone Wanderer was greeted by the ghouls Wint and Kidd who were the last survivors of a group of ghouls which tried to establish a settlement there - a plan the deathclaws apparently did not approve of. The ghouls left after conversing with the Lone Wanderer, deducing that it was safe to leave the way he came. From there on, the way to Olney Powerworks was pretty linear. He navigated through the deathclaw-infested Old Olney underground, and eventually reached a door to Old Olney S. Wilson Building. In the building there were a couple of Enclave soldiers and a door on the second level that lead to Olney Powerworks. Chris and his team killed the soldiers and moved on. The old power plant was guarded by sentry bots which Chris deactivated with a couple of security terminals. The team eventually reached the room with the tesla coil, which was inside the bright electrical chamber. Before retrieving the coil he headed to the adjacent room and turned off the power, then removed the tesla coil safely. Once done, they headed out the nearby ladder to a street north of Old Olney. After fighting their way through some more Deathclaws they headed back to the Citadel and handed the coil over to Paladin Tristan.
Paladin Tristan tasked Chris and his team with infiltrating the Enclave's massive base at Adams Air Force Base, and destroying it with an orbital strike. The team headed to White House Plaza. The Utility tunnel that lead to the White House had a connection to the Presidential metro, which should lead directly to Adams Air Force Base. The metro was crawling with feral ghouls, Mister Gutsies and sentry bots. They traversed the tunnels and came across M.A.R.Go.T., the protector and dispatcher of the metro. With his skill in science, Chris was able to get past the protector without fighting him and the robots. She even provided some extra information. Among other things, Chris learned that the train to Adams was offline, due to a security breach which has resulted in "the forced removal of a main fuse." M.A.R.Go.T could repair the fuse and train, but only if the breach was contained. According to her, the intruders had depleted 22% of the metro security units, have no internal body heat, and were emitting lethal levels of radiation. The wanderer and his team aided in containing the breach and the Presidential Sentinel Unit repaired the Adams tram for them.
After a quick ride on the train, the team wound up in the Adams Metro station. They continued through the tunnels, and encountered the first of many Enclave soldiers in Adams. They reached the surface, climbed the stairs, and took a left to find the "Resupply Crate" Tristan mentioned. Chris opened it and inside was a fully repaired Tesla cannon, 50 electron charge packs, 50 microfusion cells, and their orders, contained within a voice recording, courtesy of Tristan. They proceeded to the right, and began the long trek to the mobile base crawler. The path was full of Enclave troops, regular and Hellfire, banks of turrets, deathclaws and several combat ready vertibirds. Chris used the Tesla Cannon to destroy the vertibirds in one shot, and his team helped him against the soldiers. As they approached their next objective, Chris saw vertibirds gunning down the runway, lasers firing in all directions. They were firing on a contingent of Brotherhood soldiers, who were the "distraction" Tristan promised. It didn't work very well, though, as the Brotherhood soldiers were outnumbered, outgunned and held the low ground. Chris and his team used the distraction to head to the mobile base crawler. To lower the ramp to the crawler, Chris entered the Air Traffic Control Tower, and found the Main Access terminal. As he reached the terminal in the control tower, three vertibirds will appeared overhead, the last of which fired three missiles straight at the tower. The resulting explosions nearly killed Chris, and it would have if he had not taken cover on the stairs. The team headed back down to the runway, and headed on over to the ramp. There were several more Enclave troops, but a Brotherhood of Steel task force arrived and covered them. They ran up the ramp, and entered the final Enclave stronghold.
The first thing they came across was an Enclave Repulsion Field. Using the blue panel to the left, Chris deactivated it. They fought Enclave Squad Sigma after an alarm went off and then headed into the repair bay, where they met Stiggs, who fixes the robots. Chris talked with him and learned some useful information. The team headed up the ladder in the repair bay to the second level. In the center of the floor was the mainframe. Chris took a High Clearance keycard from an Enclave officer, using it to open the doors to get to the mainframe. He used it to unlock all the doors and deactivate all the robots. They headed to the Satellite Tower. Once inside, Chris headed to the top, to the terminal. He used it to target the crawler and fired the payload. After that they hastily made their way out, as the whole Enclave facility would soon be destroyed. A Brotherhood vertibird picked the team up and landed a little ways off from Adams AFB to watch the missiles strike. After hopping back on the vertibird, Chris was taken to the Citadel, where Elder Lyons was waiting with a heart-warming speech of thanks. After the operation, Chris' nickname in the Brotherhood became The White Knight, because of his Winterized T-51b Power Armor. The Enclave presence in the Capital Wasteland was destroyed and they no longer made any attempt towards it.
Other Missions
- Main article: Chris Liam/Side Quests#Broken Steel
Events of Point Lookout
During his travels, Chris came across the Duchess Gambit, that was docked at Riverboat Landing in southern downtown DC. When he arrived at the dock, he encountered a woman named Catherine and spoke about her missing daughter, Nadine. The Lone Wanderer agreed to find her. He then spoke to the boat pilot, Tobar, buying a ticket and traveling to Point Lookout. He slept on the boat during the journey. Once he arrived at Point Lookout, Chris headed to Calvert Mansion and went inside. When he entered, he noticed a ghoul in a white business suit and two dogs fighting several tribals. The wanderer aided in killing the tribals then speak to the ghoul, Desmond. He helped Desmond kill the rest of the tribals that had attacked his mansion. After all the tribals were dead, he follow Desmond through the mansion to find where the tribals had entered from. Once he got to the source of the invasion, Chris shot at a pressure vessel, causing an explosion that sealed the breach. While continuing to follow the ghoul, Chris fell down two stories to the basement of the mansion. Separated from the ghoul, he continued making his way to the next breach and sealed it as well. The wanderer then returned to the main room to speak to Desmond. Desmond informed him of an impending attack. He followed the ghoul's advice in preparing then they held out against large waves of tribals. After fending off the last of the tribals, he spoke with Desmond. Having fought against so many tribals during the whole ordeal, Chris became a superior defender.
Mr. Desmond Lockheart requested Chris to infiltrate the Ark & Dove cathedral to the north, the tribal's base of operations, to discover the reasoning behind their attacks. He headed there at once. Although the cathedral gates were locked and seemingly abandoned, a guard saw the Lone Wanderer from a distance and spoke to him via an intercom. Although he said that the tribals didn't "just take any recruit," he sent the Lone Wanderer to the rite of initiation. Chris headed out west into the Sacred Bog Entrance and take part in the Ritual of the Mother Seed. Inside the bog, Chris fought his way through swamplurks. At the final grove, the Mother Punga and its purple seeds were ready for the taking. While he tried taking the seeds of the plant, an incapacitating gas sprayed out of the fruit. The Lone Wanderer then awoke to a psychedelic hallucination. Giant bobbleheads appeared. Cryptic messages were written on them, ranging from expressing Chris' inner doubts and fears to making fun of his misfortunes. The hallucinations encompass the Lone Wanderer's experiences in a cryptic fashion. The first hallucination was a large red translucent bonesaw, which was randomly sawing into the ground. He saw Nuka-Cola Quantums that made baby sounds when they exploded, dolls on poles pointed the way ahead. Silver needles sewing stitches into the ground. Violin music was playing from instrument-shaped trees. Ghost ghouls attacked him, though they didn't hurt him. Journeying through an upside-down swamp lead to his mother's skeleton upon an operating table surrounded by party balloons, displaying the cruel point that it was giving birth to him that caused her death. Further on he saw the bodies of many of the people he met in the Capital Wasteland disintegrate when he got close to them, including: Lucas Simms, Moira Brown, Amata and Elder Lyons. The last thing he saw was a larger version of the Megaton bomb with someone similar to Mister Burke standing in front of it. Behind the bomb stood the Washington Monument. In Tobar's voice, the person congratulated him saying he was going to pull through and everything would be right as rain. Chris tried to speak but the man told him not to get up yet, as he would only hurt himself. The bomb then exploded and the wanderer found himself in front of the Sacred Bog, the hallucination having ended.
Chris could feel that his head was shaved and that a large scar was across his head. He headed to the cathedral to gain access to it. The tribals let him in, after seeing his scar. Inside the cathedral, he met with Nadine, the daughter that he was looking for, and got the key to unlock Jackson's sacred praying grounds beneath the Wrecked Seatub. After doing so he returned to Desmond and told him the news. Desmond chastised Chris for not interrogating the Tribals' leader first. The wanderer made his way to the Wrecked Seatub and entered the caverns. He followed the torches through the cavern to Jackson's inner sanctum. Upon entering the final room, he found Jackson kneeling before a table speaking to what appeared to be a holographic talking brain. After Jackson and the Brain finished talking, Chris spoke with the Brain. It didn't reveal who it was straight away but explained that it was using the local tribal cult as a means to destroy a signal jamming device that Desmond was using to restrict the Brain's broadcasting signal. The Brain was rather disappointed that the tribals took its instructions to mean destroying the mansion itself instead of the jamming device. The Brain told Chris to locate Desmond's jamming device, and find a way to destroy it, so the Brain could expand the range of its psychic influence beyond the sea cave. The wanderer reported back to Desmond in the Calvert Mansion with the information he obtained from Jackson and the Brain while in the cave.
Desmond Lockheart revealed that the brain was Professor Calvert, a brilliant pre-War scientist and the last remaining member of the Calvert family. Desmond had a long history of tampering with the Calvert family, going as far as staging a scandal between a Presidential nominee and a dog. He then instructed the Lone Wanderer to plant a cogwave jammer on the Wheel of Wonder that would disrupt the messages that Calvert had been trying to send throughout the Point Lookout area. Chris headed there and when he approached the Wheel of Wonder, Calvert tried to persuade the Lone Wanderer to side with him instead and destroy Desmond's device. Chris decided to side with Desmond so he installed the Cogwave Jammer on the Ferris Wheel. Calvert's signal was disrupted and a group of tribals attacked from the roofs and at street-level. When all the tribals were dead, Chris returned to the mansion, but as he got closer it was destroyed in a huge explosion that knocked him over.
After watching the Calvert Mansion explode, Chris went to its ruins and entered the Panic Room through a hatch that he discovered. He made his way to the Point Lookout Lighthouse where a section of the floor slid away. The final showdown took place in St. Aubin medical facility, in a secret underground lab. He found Desmond, who was fuming inside the panic room about Calvert killing his dogs Freki and Geri. Chris told Desmond that he was ready. The ghoul tracked down Calvert's signal to the Lighthouse, in the underground lab, and was ready to end the 200 year-old feud. Once inside the lab, they began making their way down, fighting turrets and several robobrains along the way. They eventually reached Calvert's room, where they saw the Brain himself in a massive glass tank surrounded by inactive protectrons and several fake protectron statues. Having come face-to-face, the Brain and the ghoul had a short angry conversation, each claiming to have Chris on their side. The wanderer sided with Desmond and shot at the Brain's glass tank until the glass shattered and had to fight off the protectrons. After the Brain was dead, the remaining robots were disabled and Chris talked with Desmond. He was overjoyed to have finally won and remarked that everything that Calvert stole from him was finally all his. Desmond gave the wanderer the exit key. Desmond told him that after he's done in the lab he would go north to confront another one of the "players". He referred to this contest as a "microcosm of the old world".
Having finished his business with Desmond, Chris headed to the Cathedral and met with Nadine, telling her about how her mother was worried about her. After speaking to Nadine, Chris discovered that it was the boat pilot Tobar that had performed the surgery on him and took a small piece of his brain, as he had with all the tribals and Nadine. The two then headed to the boat and confronted the pilot for revenge, with Nadine locking him in the engine room until he starved to death. Nadine then took command of his boat and ferried the Lone Wanderer back to the Capital Wasteland.
Events of Mothership Zeta
While traveling through the Capital Wasteland, Chris received an unintelligible radio transmission which led him to an alien crash site, where he was abducted. After being abducted, Chris was probed by the aliens. He woke up in a cell, stripped of all his gear, with a woman from the Capital Wasteland named Somah. She suggested staging a fist-fight as a ruse to attract the attention of the guards, so that they could overpower them and escape. Chris agreed and once they exchanged a few punches, two aliens entered the cell and they beat them up. Chris picked up a shock baton from one of the dead aliens and followed Somah through the ship. As they left the prison of the ship they encountered more captives, including a Rivet City guard. Not long after they escaped, they came across a caged cell holding a young girl named Sally. She asked that they free her by overloading and overheating the module near her cell. Chris did so and once it exploded, Sally opened the previously sealed door by climbing through small ducts in the walls. She offered herself as a guide and help lead them throughout the ship. Somah said she would be staying behind to watch his back and that she'll catch up later. Chris found his gear in a nearby container. He made his way through the path with Sally helping him along the way. Not long afterwards they alerted some alien guards, but Sally told him to wait. She asked for a grenade and sneaked up on them from behind the walls and hit them with the grenade after Chris began shooting to distract them. She killed them with the grenade. Sally continued offering Chris assistance as he continued through the ship, such as unlocking doors or creating distractions to make your trip easier. During their escape they encounter alien workers. Sally informed him that it would be better to leave the harmless aliens alone, so he did.
Chris, Sally and Somah reached the engineering core with the objective to destroy three of the ship's generators located in the hangar, the cryo facility, and robot assembly areas, in order to gain access to the decompression chamber to proceed further. The three of them freed the stasis frozen people in the engineering core and they began aiding the escapees. Chris headed to the Cryo lab first and one of the new escapees, the pre-war soldier Elliott Tercorien, went with him. Upon entering the labs, hostile aliens attacked from the right. They fought through the aliens and their drones. As they made their way through the lab they thawed out raiders and ghouls to create chaos for the aliens. They entered the next room and observed an examination room with some aliens conducting experiments. Elliott shouted out that the aliens were experimenting on the members of his former squad, and proceeded to hit a control under the window. This sealed the doors and released freezing gases into the room, killing all aliens inside. The room contained two pods with Elliott's former comrades: Private Beckett and Sergeant Daniels. Before they revived the soldiers, Elliott checked their status and learned that they must restore their memories, as they were no more than animals now. Chris did so and Elliott safely revived his comrades. The two soldiers joined the party, but Elliott learned that they were being slowly poisoned to death due to substances that the aliens injected them with, so they would not survive for long. Still, both men wanted to aid their comrade. They fought the aliens and after all the enemies were destroyed they headed down one of the corridors on the upper level. At the end of the corridor they found the generator and destroyed it. Afterwards, they headed back to the rest of the group. Along the way, the two comrades of Elliott sub-came to the poisons and died.
Somah went with Chris to the robot assembly area. She disappeared through a teleporter, telling him that she would try and fiddle with the teleporter controls. Thus Chris continued alone. He follow the stream of partly assembled robots down to the end of the room. Somah suggested blowing a hole in the assembly line's casing to proceed to the next room. Chris caused an overload. The resulting explosion was rather large and forceful. They entered a new area through the resulting hole caused a confrontation with several guardian drones and support drones, as well as a small number of aliens. After killing the aliens, they proceeded forward down the stairs and on to the generator. They destroyed it and then returned to the others. Paulson, an abducted cowboy, followed Chris to the hangar bay area. The generator was located at the top balcony, in the hangar. They killed all of the aliens in the hangar area as they proceeded to it. After clearing out the bottom level they took the elevator to the top balcony. They walked through the corridors and fought against drones. While opening a blocked door they set off an alarm that triggered an alien retaliation. Many hostiles came into the hangar. Chris activated the five pylon controls and obliterated many of them. Once everyone was dead they continued to the generator and destroyed it. The two then returned to the others.
Once all three generators had been destroyed, the decompression chamber opened up. Chris entered the chamber and put on the spacesuit looted from Colonel Hartigan. He pressed the room's single control switch, which decompressed the airlock, allowing the Lone Wanderer through several doors to the exterior of the ship on a space walk. During the space walk Chris activated three exposed panels to activate the large teleporter in the middle. Once all three panels were activated he continued on his way. Chris exited the space walk in an airlock on the observation deck. After repressurizing the airlock he took off his spacesuit. He activated the teleporter in the next room, allowing Sally and the others to join him. Sally then crawled through a duct to power down the energy gate leading to the next part of the ship. After the door was open, they headed down the hallway into the room with the glass floor. Below they could see the Earth. After a short talk, Sally opened another door. Immediately afterwards, a hologram of an alien appeared over the glass floor, and Chris learned about the death ray. Once Sally returned, they proceeded through the newly opened door. They found a deactivated teleporter and Chris was tasked with finding the other end and turning it on.
Upon entering the weapons lab Chris faced heavy opposition. After defeating them he followed the hallway to the second floor of the Weapons Lab and straight up the stairs into the experimentation lab. He quickly made his way past it into the biological research lab. He walked straight across the platform to the teleporters. Chris fought his way through the Death Ray Hub to the Death Ray control, where he faced a room full of hostile aliens. Once they were defeated, he pressed the button with the cylinder graphic above it four times, causing the four generators to rise. He repeated the same pattern to overload each one. After the wanderer destroyed the second generator, another wave of several aliens attacked him. Once all four generators were destroyed, the door across the way opened to the living quarters. Chris fought past turrets, aliens and the occasional abominations to reach his final destination: the teleporter to the Bridge. The other survivors went with Chris to the Bridge, where they fought against the alien captain and his crew. Once he was dead, a large holographic alien head spoke to them, but it was impossible to understand. Once he was done talking, another alien ship passed by theirs, and attacked the Mothership with its Death Ray.
All the survivors were on the bridge. Sally remarked that the control room looked exactly like the one from Captain Cosmos, and that she knew exactly what to do. She ordered everyone to take a specific position on the bridge. Paulson, however, was asked to guard their backs so he remains in the area with the teleporter. Chris took command of the Mothership, ordering the crew of survivors as they balanced power from the shields to the Death Ray. The attacking ship landed a hit which caused the mothership's generators to go offline. Chris quickly went to reactivate them. While the generators were offline, Elliot was not be able to use the teleport jammer. This resulted in aliens teleporting into their ship and attacking. Paulson and the samurai held them back while Chris did his job. With the generators back online, Elliot once again jammed the teleporter. The two ships continued to exchange fire. The mothership took a blow and a panel exploded in the bridge. Somah said that the shields and Elliott were down, he was knocked to the floor by the explosion. The shields came back almost immediately, though the teleport jammer was no longer active at all, and aliens teleported into the ship more frequently. Elliott used the teleporter to head to the engineering core to try to fix the jammer. A new jammer was not needed, as the enemy ship soon exploded after the mothership landed another hit.
After the hostile ship was destroyed and the fireworks have ended, Elliot returned to the bridge and the survivors celebrated. They talked and decided that now that the mothership was under their control they would keep it and formed a crew: Chris, Elliott Tercorien, Paulson, Sally, Somah and Toshiro Kago. They named the ship, Mothership Zeta, and Chris was made its captain. They flew back to the Captain Wasteland and landed there for a time. Some of the crew decided to explore the wasteland for a time, as they had been abducted many years ago, but eventually they returned to Mothership Zeta. The Zeta Crew spent its time keeping a lookout for any alien ships that came to Earth and hiding out in the Capital Wasteland to not waste fuel. They scavenged the remains of the destroyed alien ship after having discovered its crash site.
Trivia
- James was 32 and Catherine was 39 when Chris was born.
- Both Chris and his father married older women. With Catherine being 7 years older than James, and Lucy being 6 years older than Chris.
- Chris is highly intelligent and perceptive, he is also proficient in charisma. His best skills are: Medicine, Science, Energy Weapons and Speech. Though before his adventures in the Capital Wasteland, he wasn't that charismatic nor that good at speech.
- Interestingly, in the vault his best skills were: Medicine, Science and Melee Weapons. As he was a pretty good batter in the vault's baseball team.