ARCHIMEDES I

by Serebii201

What begins as a normal mission for Brotherhood of Steel initiate Marc, turns into a race against the clock when HELIOS ONE becomes operational.

Prologue

There was no telling how long he had been hunkered down behind the hill. Helios One was still nonoperational, and he hadn't heard anything from Paladin Ramos. From what Marc could understand, the NCR were far from understanding what Helios One was capable of.

"Data log 00265: June 24, 2281. From what I have been able to observe, NCR troops have yet to fully understand the potential of Helios One and discovered the whereabouts of the ARCHIMEDES weapon," Marc said into his holodisk. "Still no word from Ramos or Sarah, but it might just be interference from Helios One..." It was at that moment, that something quite unusual caught Marc's eye.

A man, mid 30s by the look of him, donned in full power armor was approaching the complex from the southern side. Marc could tell by the way the man walked that he had no fear. He was almost robotic with his movements and it was as though he was possessed by some ungodly force. "What the hell?" Marc said as he pulled his binoculars out of his ruck, "who does this guy think he is?" Marc focused the lens.

"I have just seen a man approach Helios One," Marc said into the holodisk's mic, "the NCR don't seem to have noticed him though." Marc focused the lens on a symbol on the man's right arm, "From what I can tell, he appears to be a paladin of some unknown chapter of the Brotherhood." Marc continued to study the man, as he slowly approached the building. As Marc watched, the man walked right up to the front, whilst slowly pulling what appeared to be a badly damaged calculator out of his pocket. Marc continued to watch the figure fumble with the device until all at once, he was gone. 'Now that isn't something you see everyday' Marc thought as he scanned the outside of the building for the figure. It was at that moment that an acrid stench greeted him.

Marc began to roll over, starting to mutter something about rotten eggs when he came to a stop. There, not even a foot away from him was a full grown Centaur.

Centaurs are about a third of the height of a full grown man, but three times as large. Its three tentacle like protrusions on its mouth were wriggling furiously, tasting the air. 'Fuck' thought Marc, ' Sarah was supposed to be watching my back' A little known fact about Centaurs that the elders had taught him in training was that Centaurs were blind. From what the elders were able to gather from their expeditions to Mariposa, the massive FEV radiation that the Centaurs were exposed to destroyed their sight. The only way the Cantaur was actually able to find a person, was by smell. During training, Marc was taught that the best way to get rid of a Centaur was to shoot it between the eyes. Marc couldn't take the chance that the NCR would hear the shot, so Marc tried something one of the Scribes had recommended to him. The scribe told Marc that he should try to blend into the wastes, that way it would be harder for the Cantaur to find him. Marc then began the tedious process of sprinkling sand all over his body. Thanks to the radiation resistance of the suits that the Brotherhood handed out, standard issue, Marc took next to no radiation poisoning during this act.

It takes the Centaur twenty full minutes before it finally gives up on finding Marc. As the Centaur crawled away, Marc slowly got back into his position at the top of the hill. Marc slowly raised his binoculars up to his face, muttering about the unreliability of Sarah. 'Now where was I,' thought Marc.

After about half an hour of scanning the building, Marc found the man at the top of the tower. He had already been spotted by NCR troops. The NCR were in a panic, many of the troops began firing on the figure, but to no avail. He was already to far out of their reach. Focusing his binoculars, Marc could make out the outline of a small gun in the mans hand. 'Does he honestly expect to be able to leave with nothing more than a small pistol?' Marc questioned. Using the binoculars highest magnitude of zoom, Marc could clearly see the Poseidon energy symbol and the words 'lid C-Fin' on the gun. Slowly Marc began to realize what was going on; Helios One was completely operational, and a small bead of light was lighting up the sky. The man planned on using the ARCHIMEDES weapon!. "Get out of there!" yelled Marc, completely abandoning his post at the top of the hill, but it was too late. With a blinding flash of light, it was all over.