Alanya the Sole Survivor

So we all know the story of before the vault and whatnot and, unfortunately, I don't have anything in the way of backstory for Alanya before the bombs fell. So everything that comes is from after. I certainly hope you all don't mind such a thing. Also, I skip over a lot of side bits like the detective agency, a few platform jumpers I've built, and other random settlements. Instead, I focused on the story and I hope it's one you all enjoy. :)

Alanya the General

Coming out from the vault and seeing the world as destroyed as it was brought about the standard series of questions for Alanya. Who, what, when, how, and why. The where was obvious, I mean even as destroyed as the world around her was it still looked enough like Sanctuary Hills to her. Traveling to Concord, she would be relieved to know that the world was not only populated by robots but humans as well. People who needed help, people she was more than willing to lend a hand toward. They could have been enemies inside, but...the raiders certainly weren't shy about their feelings toward her. Pew pew went their lasers.

Upon assisting and further assisting this group, its stand in leader Preston named her General of the Minutemen. A title that left Alanya perplexed. Stunned. She had just come out of cryo sleep, her last memories were of her husband being murdered and son taken, the world was destroyed and now she was looked upon to rebuild it? She needed time alone. Time to think. So she wandered south figuring she could find something in downtown Boston.

Along the way, and after dealing with raiders harassing a cafe, she came to the Cambridge police station. She was merely defending herself against the ghouls but got dragged along through the barricade where she came to meet with Danse, who would later take her through a ruined structure. While going through she learned of the Brotherhood of Steel and heard the one word she thought she'd never hear in a world like this; order. Upon exiting, she agreed to enlist and began helping scribe Haylen with her duties all the while wondering where the rest of the Brotherhood was.

After a while, and once more getting carried away with her duties, she knew she had to continue on with her own quest. She was the General and she wanted to rebuild society feeling the Brotherhood would be a good asset to this. However, if there was order and if there was hope...perhaps someone already had put the two together to recreate a civilization. She recalled hearing from Mama Murphy about a city within the old city of Boston. Diamond City. If this place was still around and a safe haven then from there she could acquire her next set of potential resources.

Diamond City proved to be more than a hub of resources in how to rebuild society, it also granted her with the first person to actually reach their hand out to her, as opposed to expecting her hand for them. Piper was a reporter and as such did a sort of expose interview of Alanya before offering to continue her travels with her. It was certainly odd at first to Alanya. Why was Piper assuming Alanya would leave so hastily? Was there something going on with Diamond City? She would eventually, traveling with Piper who informed her of the only other major settlement around; Good Neighbor.

Arriving there, Alanya realized what Diamond City was missing. The ghouls she had been fighting, there were two sects. The feral and the non. In Diamond City she couldn't find a single one and this town's mayor, Hancock, was more than willing to divulge the reason why. The thought practically sickened Alanya. That even in this post apocalyptic environment, segregation was still alive and well. Alanya vowed that in her quest to rebuild society that she would do everything she could to make certain all would feel welcome. It was then she heard the term from someone “Except synths”.

She had heard the term of “snyth” before from Danse but thought they referred only to the hostile robots they were fighting together. There were some that appeared as...people? She needed to find out more and after much investigation traveled to the city beneath it all; the Institute. There, she met not only with her aged son but the creators of this new race. She didn't know what to think, it's not something she had to consider before. Robots that were not only alive but with thoughts and feelings? Of course, she was quickly talked away from such thoughts as down in the Institute synths were little more than autonomous robot servants. If that was the case, then why was there a fear up above? Surely if these robots were created to support humanity then they could come up and do just that. Support. Things, she was told, were not quite so simple as that.

Alanya was in need of some serious decompression of everything she's been finding out about the world as it had become. So she continued construction of the one location she could find solace, an old Red Rocket gas station she had converted into a place she called Fort Duck. A large, well guarded and lived in base with a giant duck looming overtop. It was indeed a silly sight to see such a thing, but silliness was exactly what Alanya needed. Something she began to find more and more out of Piper. Where others talked how Alanya had changed their own lives or their own exploits, she was one of the few who would help see her through it all. It didn't matter to Alanya the form of reporting Piper was undergoing, she was focused more beyond the job aspect of her to the person she was. Feelings of this nature would slowly begin to expand further.

It wasn't long until Alanya's exploits of going into and coming out of the Institute came back at her in the form of a group calling themselves the Railroad. Once more, Alanya was given another view of the world and, as she had with the rest, she gave them her ear first. She understood the plight and promised to do what she could for the synths around the Commonwealth. However, this only added to the stress. She was trusted to rebuild, to conceal, to restart nearly everything. Luckily, as with multiple times before, Piper was there with a suggestion. Nuka World.

Alanya the Raider

For the one fleeting moment she was first reminded of the place, Alanya convinced herself that things would be alright. However, upon arriving she was again reminded of the devastation of the landscape around her and how far people would go to find entertainment. But, different to how Piper had viewed it, Alanya saw the gauntlet as a great stress reliever. There were raiders at the end of this tunnel and she was going to kill every. Last. One of them. No Railroad, no General, no Brotherhood, no Commonwealth. Just her finger squeezing the trigger on multiple occasions.

After killing the overboss, Coulter, Alanya found her bloodlust fading. She was again met with questions running through her own mind. Questions that would be answered by a man calling himself Gage. Questions she'd also find answers to in the market place as well. It was here that she saw the workers, the scavengers, the collars. It was brutal but on that first monorail ride back home she began to contemplate. History had shown and proven on multiple occasions that society was built upon the backs of slaves. It was a horrific thought indeed, but if only one generation had to suffer for the rest...the math was there in Alanya's head. Not only that, but she had the ears of raiders. Along with the Brotherhood, Railroad, Minutemen, and eventually the Institute...she could reform the Commonwealth Provisional Government! Differing views and struggles certainly at first, but all government started first chaotic. Overtime, things would calm and settle. The Commonwealth would be saved and the people will be the ones to inherit it.

Upon returning with this to Preston, however, she was met with only anger and feelings of betrayal. He would work with the Railroad, even open ties to the Brotherhood, but the Institute and raiders were not a part of his vision of what the Commonwealth should be. Alanya would vacate her post as General and walk away from the Minutemen disillusioned with everything she had been doing. When she arrived back at Fort Duck, she looked up at the looming structure overhead and knew what she had to do. If no one would talk, then she would at the very least force them to listen. They all wanted her to save the Commonwealth, she would do better. She would rebuild it. On the backs of slaves if need be.

Therefore, she goes to Spectacle Island. If there were any location she could build in peace, it would be with vast quantities of water between her and the mainland. From there, she constructed a raider training camp. The raiders she developed wouldn't be the kind of raiders already terrorizing the Commonwealth. They would be raiders following her own ideals of order. Piper was understandably concerned with this change, but couldn't bring herself to leave Alanya as abruptly as said change.

Word of this new raider organization spread and it was only a matter of time until other gangs would take offense. One such incident happened outside Libertalia, coincidentally by a raider gang of former Minutemen. Alanya's entire patrol was slaughtered and she was beaten, raped, and forcefed the narcotic Jet until she became screaming more for that than the injuries she had sustained. As a final insult, one of the raiders took a knife giving Alanya a “Glasgow Smile” so that when people came upon her corpse they would find her smiling about it. They left her like this, wanting her final moments in this world to be in utter agony. The overboss crawling in mud before dropping face first into it.

Things didn't go down that way, however, as Alanya worked her way through Libertalia after regaining her strength killing every raider within its confines with whatever weapons she could find all the while taking every hit of Jet she could find. When finished, she dove off the top and began swimming back to Spectacle Island where Piper was still stationed. Along the way, Alanya had a moment of...clarity. She was floating on her back staring up into the sky wondering how she should work her gang back to the mainland. It would have to be as a conquering force, but as she had demonstrated to herself there were still ways in which even a fully armed army could be defeated. She was also taking on the Minutemen and the Brotherhood so she needed something better. That's when she saw it, a formation of birds flying across the sky. Something in that formation sparked a whole new inspiration within her and she began swimming once more.

Alanya the Preacher

“We'll start the Church of Duck!” She would excitedly inform a confused Piper. She wouldn't go back to the mainland with a gun, but rather a new choice. A separate option to those seeking a path in life. The Church of Duck would be that path. All this time the duck above Fort Duck was there for guidance and a protective measure. People all across the Commonwealth knew of its existence and she would see to it that the ducks wingspan would grow.

Gathering points were eventually constructed all across the Commonwealth and certain past locations were given proper transformations to better suit the new path Alanya would see the Commonwealth in. Fort Duck was gifted with the First Church of Duck where it was clear Alanya's raider mindset was still present. Those who now attacked Fort Duck and were captured were taken up to the church and given two options. If they refused to let the Duck into their lives, they would be beheaded. If they agreed then they would go through what Alanya referred to as “Due Process”. This was to throw the individual from the highest point of Fort Duck and if they were accepted back, then the Duck would glide them down to safety. Otherwise, Alanya would watch as the mole rats rushed from their cave under the fort to feast upon the splattered remains.

Piper, once more, tried to be there for Alanya and suggested they listen to one of their other friends. A man who had helped them several times and so it was time to return the favor. The man was Nick Valentine and the favor was finding a runaway daughter who had run off to the misty island of Far Harbor.

Alanya's Holy War

Far Harbor was more than a center of intrigue, but also the grounds of new beliefs and fueled hatred. Upon arriving, Alanya first heard of herself being referred to as “Another religious whackjob”. From this, she would learn of the deeper existence in the Children of Atom. A religious group working out of the heart of the island. This obviously wouldn't stand but action wasn't a requirement. Not right away. At least not until their base of operation was thoroughly infiltrated.

After an extensive look from the inside, Alanya knew that the Children simply had to go. However, alone she knew she didn't stand in doing this. She needed new locations. The first was DS Bailey, an aerial craft that hovered high above Longfellow's cabin. It's intent, as Alanya informed the residents of Far Harbor, was to keep them safe should the Children venture too close to their borders. The next was the prison right across the massive lake where straight across was the Children's home base. Prisoners would be brought in and made to witness the fall of their beliefs before being taken back to the First Church for their resetting of beliefs and “due process”.

While Far Harbor was kept safe from Children expansion, this left the Commonwealth open and Alanya had sworn to protect that above all else. Therefore, she developed the mock Zeus Cannon at Zimonji Outpost, she demolished Starlight Hall (a gathering place she had picked for the CPG) and instead built an arena of conflict to execute enemies of the faith, and enslaved the entire family of the Warwick homestead turning the entire location into a military outpost. This wasn't all as she turned Croupe Manor into a gathering place for the faithful and even built a small base just outside the Glowing Sea at the Murkwater Construction site. She covered it in junk to make it appear like a landfill in the middle of a swamp but inside she houses her own prisoner of the Children and holds her for interrogation. Piper knows that she is just a normal settler who came looking for a home, however Alanya stuffed her in a Children of Atom suit and deemed her an enemy of the Duck.

The war swiftly grew as the Children didn't exactly ignore the presence of these growing structures. In response, they didn't build in the way Alanya had they instead built relationships. While sniping a patrol of Rust Devils, Alanya came across one wearing the clothe of the Children. Somehow, the Children had signed an accord with this raider faction and it made sense. Not long after, while seeking ingredients for the newly required Ultra Jet, both Alanya and Piper were set upon by Rust Devils only to be ambushed moments later by the Pack. This told Alanya that she needed to finally make a decision. A decision that brings us to the present.

Piper still stays by her side hoping that she'll see the light as she had once before. That she would focus on the Commonwealth's true enemies. At times she'll refuse to partake in certain elements of this religious fascination. For instance, she doesn't set foot in the camp located at the construction site. She's displayed disapproval of both the cannon and prison, and ultimately detests the idea of this war. But she loves Alanya and knows that in this world of too many questions for her...she can't simply leave her be.

May the Quack of the Duck be with you always.