A Thousand Feet Of Terror

A Thousand Feet Of Terror is the fourth main story quest $$

Quest Objectives

 * Defend the settlements attacked by the gigapede and learn where it will strike next.
 * Discover how the Children control the gigapede.
 * Rally their allies for a final battle to defeat the gigapede.

Detailed Walkthrough
As the winter coldens, the Last Children try to keep wastelanders occupied by attacking settlements in order to distract from their excavation efforts in the Glowing Sea.

Scene One: The Gigapede Rises
As the player characters explore a settlement, alarms and other sounds of panic begin to ring out, as wounded civilians rush past them, stating that the settlement is under attack. As they do so, one of the settlement's walls collapses with a large bang, and a large insectoid creature climbs over the wreckage, flinging rubble aside effortlessly. Accompanying the creature is a small group of Atomites, aiding it in its goal of striking fear into the settlers. Should the player characters interviene the Last Children will fight, but eventually flee, followed shortly after by the creature itself. Regardless of if the player characters take steps to do so, they or the settlement will have succeeded in capturing one of the Atomites as a prisoner, whom they can interrogate. The prisoner will stand by the strength of his beliefs, and if encouraged to will begin to preach that the creature, called a Gigapede, is a holy weapon of Atom, and that the Commonwealth will soon face a great trial where Atom will present infinite universes of paradise to some of his most faithful servents. He will then claim that this first attack was merely a celebration of the Gigapede's power, and that the next attack shall be a true demonstration of all it can do. The prisoner will then go on to tell the player chatacters which settlement the Gigapede will attack, before refusing to say anything else beyond that. News of the attack travels fast throughout the Commonwealth, placing every community on edge as they wait for the Gigapede to strike.

During this time, problems in various communities become worse due to the stress, allowing the player characters to either participate in side-quests, or to begin preparations for the upcoming battle against the Last Children by petitioning armies from various settlements, or following leads to weapons, equipment, or other materials which may turn the tide of the fight.

During this preparation time is when the side quests We Need Bigger Guns and The Blow-Off take place.

Scene Two: Signs Coalescing
After the preparations (If any were made) are conclude, the battle begins with a deafening explosion from the Children of Atom to announce their presence, as the Gigapede burrows out from the ground. Using the Gigapede's resistant chitin as cover, the sizeable group of Atomites slowly approach the settlement's walls, attempting to take out any waiting guards as they do so. The Gigapede itself attacks with an acidic spittle, landing on fleeing settlers and melting the skin right off of their bones. If the player characters prepared effectively, the Last Son's forces will be thinned out by the time they breach the settlement's walls. Observant player characters will be able to notice that one of the Last Children seems to command the Gigapede through some obscure hand symbols, which can lead the player characters onto the side quest Higher Learning later. Should this Atomite be killed, the Gigapede will rampage uncontrollably, making it easier to strike. The fight continues to the death, until either the player characters die or flee, or until all the Atomite forces are destroyed. Should the Atomite forces fail, the Gigapede flees by burrowing underground and collapsing its tunnel behind it; however should the player characters flee, the attacked settlement will be left a ruin with its surviving settlers fleeing to other communities. This time, any Last Children captured will be unhelpful, and act like caged animals until killed or freed. Regardless of the outcome, not long after the second attack, the player characters hear news of where the Gigapede will strike next, leaving them with time again to prepare for the upcoming battle.

The preparation time can be spent a variety of ways; should the player characters endevour to discover more information on the Last Son's forces by attacking Last Son of Atom camps, they will simply discover that the Atomites are spread throughout the entire Commonwealth, and plan to assault from all sides. The player characters can also again request aid from nearby settlements in defending against the attack, however they would require a high settlement reputation rank to be convincing enough for the settlements to agree.

This preparation time is where the side quest Higher Learning takes place, should the player characters have observed the Atomite giving hand signals to the Gigapede.

Scene Three: Showdown
Once the Last Son's final attack begins, the Children of Atom waste no time in their attack, immediately openning fire upon the settlement. A large army of Atomites, along with the Gigapede, begin striking from all directions in what seems like an endless swarm. Snow so irradiated that it glows green covers the battlefield, the Last Children seeming unaffected by it's radioactivity. Should the player characters have completed Higher Learning, they may at this point kill the Gigapede's handlers and attempt to sieze control of the creature themselves. In the event that the player characters happened upon or built a large robot to fight the Gigapede, it will be able to enter combat with and damage the creature, but will ultimately fall. However if the player characters elected to illicit help from nearby settlements, each settlement who provides aid in the battle shall bring their own resources to the table, for example; Beatsville will create grenades of paint and shrapnel, Diamond City will throw baseball grenades with great range, and Mirage will drag the mobile gambling den over the enemy forces and crush them.

The player characters will succeed in the battle if all the Atomite forces fall, and the Gigapede is either slain or brought under their control. Should the player characters lose the battle and flee however, the Sisters of the Forge from Mechminster Abbey will take point, and its leader Reverend Riviter will allow herself to be devoured by the Gigapede before detonating a powerful Mini Nuke strapped to her chest, sacrificing herself to destroy the creature. The Gigapede's radioactive innards are spread over a large distance by the explosion, rendering the settlement uninhabitable and likely killing any settlers covered in the waste. Any surviving Children of Atom flee back to the Glowing Sea to reunite with The Last Son.

The Fallout
Should the player characters have succeeded in defeating the Atomites. the Commonwealth will begin feeling hopeful once again, granting 1 rank of settlement outlook to all settlements, and settlement reputation by 2 for any settlements that participated in the final battle. If, during the battle, the player characters succeeded in taming the Gigapede also, they can keep it as a companion, however it requires a great deal of care to keep healthy, and still refuses to attack the Last Son's forces out of its loyalty to them. The creature can be instructed to not attack innocents, but without a large radioactive diet, the creature will not survive the winter, and aiding the creature may cause settlements to begin losing trust in the player characters.

If the player characters lost the final battle and fled, leading to the Sisters of the Forge having to fight the battle, their leader will sacrifice herself to destroy the Gigapede. Their settlement reputation rank with any settlement that aided the battle will decrease two ranks, and the Sisters of the Forge abandon Mechminster Abbey and leave the Commonwealth. In their absence, the location becomes overrun with feral ghouls and ambitious raiders, and the settlement the Atomites attacked becomes uninhabitable thanks to the Gigapede's radioactive entrails poisoning the area, forcing the settlers to either die from the radiation or flee to other settlements.

Enemies

 * Gigapede
 * Children of Atom Soldier
 * Children of Atom Protectron
 * Children of Atom Fanatic
 * Children of Atom Sentry Bot
 * Children of Atom Shock Trooper