Robert MacCready

Status: Deceased
“And what about you? How do I know I won't end up with a bullet in my back?”
Robert Joseph "RJ" MacCready is the former mayor of Little Lamplight in 2277 and a mercenary operating in the Commonwealth in 2287. He is a potential companion of the Sole Survivor.
Background Early life Born in 2265 in the Capital Wasteland to parents he never knew, MacCready became the head of the Little Lamplight children's colony in 2274, when he was only ten years old. After Princess declared herself the new Mayor and renamed the position after herself, her rule lasted about five minutes, until MacCready punched her in the face and stated that Little Lamplight needed a leader, not a princess. MacCready's coup resulted in him becoming mayor. The other residents respected him for his smarts, toughness and the juvenile lack of fear of anything – be it monsters, adults or using his rifle on anything that looked at him funny, not to mention the ability to maintain Little Lamplight as a viable community.
However brazen and foolhardy he might have been in his young years, MacCready was not devoid of imagination. Children are always at a disadvantage in the wasteland, so he chose a sniper rifle as his weapon of choice, teaching himself marksmanship from the ground up. According to MacCready, engaging targets at long range meant one did not take too many chances in the treacherous Capital Wasteland to stave off death for another day.
Adult life In 2281, MacCready turned sixteen and left Little Lamplight. He took to wandering the wastelands as a gun for hire. In the course of his travels, he met a woman named Lucy, and the two fell in love. Lucy always had MacCready's back and helped him through the darkest of nights in the wasteland. With her at his side, he could press ahead no matter the horrors that faced him. He told her that he was a soldier, out of fear that he might lose her if he revealed that he was a stone-cold killer. She never learned the truth. She gave him a carved toy soldier in return, something he always kept on himself regardless of where he went.
However, the Capital Wasteland was still a treacherous place. Lucy and MacCready were nomads and their son, Duncan, was born on the road. Their happiness was bluntly interrupted by tragedy one fateful night when they set up camp in an abandoned metro station. They were unaware that the place was infested with feral ghouls who set upon them in the darkness. Lucy was ripped apart before MacCready could get a shot off. However, her death bought enough time for him to make a fighting retreat out of the station, with Duncan in his arms. The sight of Lucy torn apart by the clawed, rotted hands would plague him for years to come.
It shifted MacCready's perspective on life and himself. Up until then, he was a killer, shooting people for a living, but now he was determined to change himself. He made a promise to Duncan to clean up his act and be a better person, starting with swearing off cursing. He settled down and built a homestead. Everything was peaceful for a time as MacCready worked the land and Duncan grew. His almost idyllic life came to an end when his son was exposed to something in their fields and the next day developed a fever accompanied by blue boils all over his body. The disease sapped his strength, and by the time MacCready decided to hit the road and find a cure, Duncan was almost too weak to walk. He entrusted his child to the care of his friends and departed. Every doctor he talked to had never heard of the disease and was at a loss as to how to help the child.
The Long Road Ahead Leads and job opportunities proved scarce in the Capital Wasteland, with the Brotherhood of Steel becoming a potent force in the wake of Arthur Maxson's rise to power. Around 2286, MacCready took his rifle and headed north, making a name for himself and searching for a cure. When he arrived in the Commonwealth, the Gunners were recruiting sharpshooters into their ranks and MacCready joined up to amass money for his ultimate goal. Though the caps were plentiful, the Gunners' lack of scruples and indiscriminate approach to collateral damage were at odds with MacCready's personal code and the promise he made to his son. MacCready broke ties with them in summer of 2287 and resumed his career as a freelance contractor.
Shortly after ditching the Gunners, MacCready met Sinclair, a fellow contractor who was looking for the same thing: A cure for the mysterious blue boils for his partner. He found information that indicated Med-Tek Laboratories was experimenting with a universal cure at its Medford facility and MacCready joined his exploration party. Equipped with security codes to breach pre-War security, they only made it a short way in before feral ghouls pushed them back. They never made a second attempt, as Sinclair's friend died before they regrouped. MacCready clung to the codes in case he found someone he can trust and who would help him get through the facility's defenses and hordes of feral ghouls. He set up shop in Goodneighbor, unwilling to tangle with Diamond City's security force or wandering the wastes alone. Hancock let him set up shop, so MacCready started searching for clients. However, Winlock and Barnes were not willing to let a former Gunner operate in their territory. For three months, they hounded MacCready and drove off his customers. Nobody was willing to work with a former Gunner, no matter how talented or soft-spoken. One of the few people willing to overlook his former affiliation was Daisy, the ghoul proprietor of the general store in Goodneighbor. MacCready helped her manage unfriendly customers on repeated occasions and the two became fast friends.
However, the Gunners never let up. In the end, they confronted MacCready at the Third Rail, demanding that he cease doing business in their territory or suffer the consequences. MacCready found himself in a bind. If he tried to pay them off, they would likely take the caps and kill him with the small army of Gunners they had at their disposal. If he ran, there was no guarantee they would relent. Alone, he took no chance at wiping them out to send a message to the Gunners to back away. It is at this point that the Sole Survivor can encounter MacCready and the Gunners. With their help, MacCready could make enough of a dent in the Gunner bottom line to force them to back away. Personality “I know students thought school was torture, but this is taking it a little too far.” — Walking through the set of torture rooms in the East Boston Preparatory School.
Though notoriously foul-mouthed and belligerent in his younger years, the 22-year-old MacCready is far more reserved and polite. Years of hard living turned him into a hardened warfighter, coping with adversity through liberal use of sarcasm and humor. However, he is not totally immune, as pre-War atrocities can inspire anger from him and he is not a fan of people from before the Great War, on account of them bringing the nuclear holocaust down on Earth.
MacCready isn't averse to violence but doesn't revel in it either. If possible, he will bluff his way through to minimize danger to himself and others. The latter includes eating fish, which tends to make him less-than-pleasant company. On a more personal side, MacCready misses a lot of features of living in the Capital Wasteland, including Galaxy News Radio with Three Dog and the monuments of downtown D.C. He also collects old Grognak the Barbarian comic books, picking through the ruins in search of issues to complete his collection. As of 2287, the collection is almost complete, only missing the issue where Mastadonald and Skullpocalypse teamed up to fight Grognak.