Rivet city, a large hulking carrier ship, beached long ago. A combination of nuclear warfare, and a direct strike by a cruise missile had left the ship split in two, with strange creatures infesting its bowels. And yet somehow despite the ravaging of the world and its resulting state, life thrived. And nowhere more so than in rivet city, people ate traded slept, and ,if they were lucky, lived all over the old ship.
Not far away from Rivet city, a man was dying. James gasped and crawled towards the glass of the airlock door, on the other side of which his son, Robert, watched his fathers face with horrified despair.
"Run, Run!" yelled James at his son, fearing the enclaves retribution for the supposed death of their colonel. Robert just stood there gazing down as his father let out one final sigh, and died. Madison Lee, a fellow scientist working on Project Purity with his father. Tugged at his shoulder.
"Come on we can't stay here" she said to him. She was also saddened by the loss of James but had always been of a rather stiff and pragmatic nature. The lone wanderer just waved her away, and told her to gather the other scientists and get to the Taft tunnels. She scurried away and as she reached for the door of the rotunda was almost killed by the burst of a plasma rifle of a enclave trooper down on the walkway. She let out a small scream before running through the door and closing it behind her. Robert, almost half heartedly, pulled out his custom hunting rifle Old Painless, swivelled on the spot, and let loose a shot that hit right between the helmet and chest piece into a small vulnerable spot. The enclave trooper let out a sigh, a small gurgle, then fell over. Robert shook his head and walked down the stairs. He walked over to the enclave soldier soldier and picked up his plasma rifle. He took out the clip of micro fusion cells, glared at the rifle, the snapped it over his knee.
Doctor Lee was impatiently awaiting the lone wanderer in the Taft tunnels with the rest of the team, or at least what was left of it. She was still waiting when she had a splashing in the murky water by her feet. She looked down, it was a plasma grenade.
Robert heard Madison's scream from the rotunda and sprinted out in the main room. He turned left and head for the small manhole only to find an enclave trooper standing on top of it. The soldier took Robert by surprise knocking the custom rifle from his hands. Reacting swiftly he used a trick Protector Casdin of the outcasts had taught him in return for the batch of plasma rifles Robert had given him.
Casdin admired the plasma rifles for a second before giving them to Defender Morgan to take to the armoury.
"Well thank you outsider, what can I give you for these then?"
Robert thought about it and said "Ill take stimpaks and Grenades" the leader of the infamous outcasts nodded and handed over a sizeable pile of both.
"Some rainy day toys for you, hey tell you what kid wanna learn a trick from an old veteran?"
Robert nodded, excited. Casdin was well know for being a master of hand to hand combat.
"Well kid this little trick has been especially useful to us when ever we run into Lyons mutts in the field. Its a way to take off a power helmet from your enemy, you see what you gotta do is get both hands in the slot where it connects to the rest of the suit. Then you just pull forward so the top of their little head is facing you. Once you've done that, shove your fingers in the seal in the back of the helmet and pull again, it should pop out. Then whilst you have them exposed I recommend a good upper-cut"
Robert thanked him for the lesson and headed out, desperately looking for someone in power armour to try his new-found trick on.
Robert remembered every step of the manoeuvre, front, pull, back, pull, uppercut. The man went out like a light. Robert bent over and picked up his hunting rifle, shifting in his combat armour as he did so. He reloaded the rifle, shoved it in the enclave soldiers face, and fired.
Wiping giblets of grey matter off of his body Robert looked down at the headless body of the young man he had just killed, he felt no remorse. In fact he didn't feel anything any more. He would get the science team out of there and go hunting for enclave, killing the black clad soldiers was all he could think about.
He opened the manhole and climbed down.
As Robert turned around at first he thought the team had gone off without him, until he looked down. No bodies, just green sludge mixing in with the scummy water. Robert suddenly looked up and saw the enclave soldier responsible for the death of the Project Purity crew. The soldier was a man who didn't believe in giving up a winning formula, so he primed another plasma grenade and threw, Robert grabbed his hunting rifle by the barrel and swung. There was a Thunk! Noise as the butt of the gun connected solidly with the grenade which flew back and landed by the power armoured warriors feet.
"Oh Bugg-" the man failed to finish his sentence as the grenade exploded in a brilliant flash of green which hurt Roberts eyes as he looked upon the scene. the enclave soldier was turned into a pile of goo himself and floated in a drain and was sucked away. Robert then turned to the lack of bodies of the science team. As he looked upon their mortal remains he was filled white white hot rage, which he tried to direct at someone. The enclave. But he knew they weren't truly responsible. His father. He brought her out her, but he still couldn't remain angry at him. Madison herself, for not being careful enough, but no she was not to blame. He finally turned his anger at the real culprit.
Himself.
He should have stayed with her, he should have told her to stay with him, he should have directed her somewhere else than the Taft tunnels.
As he sat there, surrounded by his greatest failure. Robert Carazack, the lone wanderer, the hero of bigtown, slayer of vampires, son of James, began to sob.
