Twenty One Six
Chapter 1
The gunshot sang out across the wasteland. A super mutant's head splattered against the wall of the capital building. Click. Clang. Chuck. Boom. Had become a repeating noise in his brain. Over and over again. The sound of a rifle emptying a shell, loading another, and firing. Every bullet hitting a target. Be it a large orange foe, or a smaller combatant dressed in green armor.
"Goddamn," Sentinel, Sarah Lyons, muttered beside him. A few more noises of discomfort came from the Lyon's Pride behind her.
...
"Goddamn!" The young Talon Company mercenary screamed as blood and gore splattered across his forest green breast plate. He brought his arms up to cover his face. Not wanting to look at his friend.
The merc beside him, his friend, fell to his knees. Gasping for air, groping at his throat. Trying to stop the blood from draining from the hole in his wind pipe.
The younger merc. quickly jumped behind a fallen block of concrete. A 50. Caliber round chipped off a large piece of his newly acquired cover.
"Their's someone flanking us!" He screamed at the top of his legs. Trying to gain his commander's attention. Another Merc down the line from him waved to confirm that he had heard him. The other rushed forward towards their commander.
"Garrison! Garrison! Commander!" He called out in vain.
Commander Garrison, a middle aged, gray haired man, turned around to look for his subordinate. He spotted the man. One of the younger mercs. Nothing but a greenhorn on the team. Garrison raised his eyebrows as he noticed the boy's eyes widen and his mouth gape.
A roar echoed behind him. The Commander span around on his heels. The Super Mutant Overlord was already dragging a super sledge from space towards his head. He let out a silent scream.
The young merc watched as the sledge completely obliterated his commander's skull. Grayish and red unidentified matter flew everywhere. Coating the super sledge, the ground, and the Overlord alike.
A shiver ran down the boy's spine as another gunshot echoed through out the mall. And part of the Overlord's skull was ripped off. The mutant stumbled back, dropping the super sledge. Which landed on the Commander's limp body. The giant mutant let out a dying howl as another shell slammed through his chest. Sending reddish, green blood everywhere.
...
"Take the Pride, and wipe out any bastard with a talon on their chest. I'll take the mutants." The Lone Wanderer said firmly. Never taking his eyes from the sniper rifle's scope.
"Got it." Sarah nodded.
"Wait a damn minute. We've fought enough muties without you, we can take'em." Dusk, one of the Pride, pushed forward. He sniper rifle hanging loosely in her hand.
"Dusk." Clovin said, putting a an armored hand on her soldier. The young sniper turned her head away. Anger making her cheeks red. She slipped the helmet on and stalked to stand behind Kodak.
Sarah took a deep breath, and slowly released it after hearing the click of her helmet. Reaching over her shoulder, she grabbed the stalk of her laser rifle. The power armor's enchanted strength allowing her to pull it off of the magnetic weapon holder.
"Alright," She pointed towards the doors of the Capital building,"Move out!"
...
The young merc opened his mouth to scream, but a laser shot through his chest before the sound left him. A second Talon Company soldier brought his gun up and fired off a few rounds.
Bullets pinged off of Sarah's armor. She turned, bringing the laser up as she twisted. Two pulls of the trigger sent the soldier who had attempted to kill her, to his knees. Smoking holes in stomach.
She bit her lip underneath the steel helmet. How many lives had she taken in the twenty five years of her life? Sarah chalked down another "X" on the imaginary list. She hadn't killed them. The wasteland is just a hard place.
"AHH!" The scream came from beside her. Breaking her train of thought. Sarah turned quickly. Her Brotherhood training taking over.
The merc in front of her slashed with his combat knife for the unprotected parts of her armor. Near the waist. Without thinking Sarah jumped back. Narrowly dodging the blow.
A moment later the mercenary's head exploded. Launching blood and brain matter open Sarah's armor. Coating her visor.
She glanced at the glint of a sniper's scope. Gallows had saved her.
...
"Nice shot..." The Wanderer muttered. Firing again. Killing another mutant at the top of the Capital's stairs.
Gallows grunted in acknowledgement, before pumping another round into the chamber and rising the gun back to his shoulder.
...
The rest of the Pride were mowing down Talon Company soldiers. Gallows and the Wanderer seemed to keep most of the mutants at bay.
Sarah set forth. Slowly maneuvering through the bodies. Most of then had smoking holes in them, from being scorched by lasers. Even more had bits and pieces missing from the rifle fire.
She glanced to her left. Palivan Glade held his mini gun at ready. To her right, Vargas was picking his way around a couple of super mutant Master corpses.
"Fall in!" She called out to the others. The Mall had become deadly silent. Her voice seeming to echo in the quietness. Sarah felt a shiver run down her spine. Something was off. Very off. But there was no turning back now.
The Pride slowly filled into their spaces in a battle formation. Sarah took the lead. They walked up the stairs. Pushing pass the fallen mutant corpses. Not even the Talon Company had made it this far.
A shimmer ran through the air in front of her. Knight Captain Dusk brought her sniper rifle on par with the shimmer. The Lone Wanderer materialized in front of them. His dark green duster blowing slightly with the breeze. A scruff warped the lower half of his face, hiding it from view. His messy black hair hung in his eyes.
The young man raised his eye brows in question of the gun. Dusk begrudgingly lowered her weapon. Not intent on making the Wanderer angry. She had heard stories about people who made the Wanderer angry. And those stories never had a happy ending.
Spinning on his heels, the Wanderer started towards the entrance to the Capital.
"Wait! Where the hell is Gallows?" Kodiak question.
"He said he'll be up in a few minutes." The Wanderer said, opening the door and entering the Capital building.
Kodiak glanced around at the rest of the pride. Vargas shrugged his armored shoulders. Clovin and Glade both looked to Sarah for orders.
Sentinel Lyons nodded. "Alright, this is close quarters combat. We stick together and cover each other's backs. Move in!" She called to her Pride. They slowly advanced into the building.
Five corpses scattered the main lobby. Two Talon mercs laid spread eagle on the front desk. Something had penetrated their armor. Leaving a bloody, nasty looking hole in both of their chest.
Two more super mutant corpses lay thrown on the lobby floor. Each vasting in a pool of greenish, red blood. The one on the left neck was sliced open. It's orange brother had several gunshot wounds on his face, leaving it completely unidentifiable.
The fifth body sit at the Wanderer's dangling feet. The young man was perched atop a fallen stone pillar. Looking bored as the Pride came in. The merc body at his feet had a Chinese Officer sword protruding from his chest. The blade slammed through the metal and penetrating the heart.
Taking a deep breath, the Wanderer hopped off the stone pillar. He grabbed the blade's handle and yanked on it. It came free with a sickening sound of steel sliding against wet flesh.
After flicking the blood off the blade, the Wanderer nodded towards a large door behind the circular center desk.
"There should be a corridor through that door. After we navigate it. We should end up in the center of this building. We'll kill anything that moves. Once we make it to the center. Vargas will swipe the area with the Pride." The young man took another breath and stepped towards the door.
"You can't order us around!" Knight Captain Dusk, having pushed her way out of formation, snapped at the young man's back. He glanced over his shoulder at her. The color seemed to fade from the Knight Captain's flesh. She became quiet. The young man's unblinking blue gaze never leaving her. His eyes seeming to bare holes through her face.
She gulped and stepped back into the Pride's battle formation.
The Wanderer's unchanging eyes turned back, he pulled the door open. It squeaked loudly from years of not having it's hinges oiled. Without a second to waste, the dark haired boy stepped in.
...
Moving towards the door, the Pride took up the rear.
Sarah flinched in her armor as a grenade exploded on the other side of the door. The shock wave shaking the buildings foundation.
"Shit! We want this place intact!" Glade called loudly. Hosing the mini gun off his shoulder. Sarah glanced at the older soldier. He nodded back. The Pride pushed into the door.
All hell had broken loose inside the small corridor. Ten feet in front of them, a large super mutant Master casually ripped off one of the Talon Company's merc's leg. The beast, enraged, turned. Slamming his giant fist into some other unfortunate merc. The man had flew back with a yell. Hit the wall, and fall to the ground without another sound.
Farther down the hall, a group of five mercs were unloading their weapons at a super mutant Brute. Trying to gun down the angry abomination. Their attempts only pinging off his armor.
"Guns free!" Sarah and Vargas called simultaneously back to the rest of the Pride. Each bringing their laser rifles up and firing into the chaos.
The Master screamed in rage as a bolt of super heated light slammed through his left arm. He turn towards the Pride. Sticking one knee out in front of the other. And bending his head downwards, preparing to charge them.
Glade stepped out of formation. Coming to stand side-by-side with Vargas. He steadied the huge gun on point with the super mutant.
A hail of bullets littered the enclosed hall way. Hot lead piercing the mutant's makeshift armor. And ripping off parts of his body. Blood and gore flying everywhere.
Somewhere down the hall, a man shrieked at the top of his lungs.
"Alright, move in. Kill anything that moves!" Sarah yelled over the gun fire that echoed in the dome shaped building.
The Pride set forth, gunning down super mutants and Talon Company alike.
...
The Wanderer grunted as he used all his upper muscle strength to hoist his body onto a support beam. The ancient concrete was firm enough to hold his weight. Or so he hoped anyway.
He had dropped his rifle somewhere in the chaos below. One of the mutants or mercenaries had probably picked it up. But that didn't matter.
Crouching, the young man moved down the beam. It hadn't taken much to find a way up. A couple grenades, and one fallen pillar later, had created a nice little path.
All that had to be done now was going to the main chamber. Well he didn't really have to. The Wanderer had only came because Sarah Lyons had asked him. Not for the good of the Brotherhood. But because of that damn blonde girl.
He sighed. Shouldered the Chinese assault rifle, and pushed forward.
On the ground floor, hell had broken loose. Mutants were fighting Talon Company, Talon Company was fighting Mutants, and both were fighting Brotherhood.
Was this damned building really worth the trouble? He had asked himself that over and over again. Each syllable ran through his head. The young reached up to tuck a noisy strand of black hair behind his ear.
Quickly, he made his way through the inter lapping beams, that held the building's roof up. Within a few minutes, the Wanderer had found the central chamber.
"Damn it." He breathed into the thick green cloth wrapped around the lower half of his face. It had been fashioned in the form of a scarf.
Down below him, the giant super mutant. A Behemoth. Howled. It's roar shaking the building like an earthquake.
The Wanderer grabbed onto the beam below him to keep from falling.
What the hell are you doing!? The dark haired man screamed out in his mind. Two Talon Company mercs were lifting up a Fat Man. Or a Miniature Nuclear Catapult.
...
ROAR!
Everyone stopped. The world seemed to freeze for a minute. Not even the super mutants were shooting back.
Sarah looked up. The building itself was shaking.
"Behemoth." She spoke quietly. Not sure if the others could hear her.
"Behemoth." Vargas agreed from beside her.
The building jerked as the rest of the super mutants crowding the hallway shrieked out in reception.
A light blazed at the end of the hallway. Blowing a hole in the concrete. Sending the two wooden doors, along with two Talon Company mercs, flying.
Seven men wearing the forest green of the Talon Company burst in. Six of them had shotguns. The men parted. Running through the rubble, they had just littered across the floor. Three to each side. They began to fire.
The shotguns doing extreme damage at close range. Blood and gore seemed to splatter everywhere. The smoke slowly cleared to reveal the last man. A mountain of a man at that. Standing nearly as tall as the super mutants. He had a Gatling Laser in his arms. His armor was patched worked. Probably because they couldn't find a standard suit to fit him.
The giant started to unload his clips into the mutants.
Vargas was shoved aside. Stumbling into Sarah as he tripped. She caught him in her arms. And looked over to see what had moved him.
Knight Captain Dusk had her sniper rifle planted firmly against her shoulder. She pulled the trigger. The report of the gun echoing in the halls.
The Gatling Laser touting man at the end of the hall's head exploded. His now decapitated body stumbled forward a few steps before, dropping the miniature looking weapon, well it looked miniature compared to him anyway, falling to his knees.
"Confídunt in ferro, Brothers!" Dusk called back to the Pride behind her. The small squad roared to life behind her.
Sarah smiled beneath her helmet, helping Vargas upright. Dusk may not like the Wanderer but she did know how to get morale up. Vargas laughed infront of her.
Reaching up to her helmet. She clicked the small button on the side, that allowed for the speaker to be turned on and off. It was to only be used in emergency situations.
Static crackled through each of the Pride's com-links.
"Confídunt in ferro, Brothers!" She called out, mimicking her comrade.
"Confídunt in ferro!" Every member of the Pride roared into their microphones.
Dusk glanced back her. Sarah nodded.
"Let's go!" She yelled to them.
The Lyon's Pride surged forward. Determined to make it to the center of the Capital Building.
...
The Lone Wanderer raised his assault rifle. Emptying the clip at the two men with the Fat Man.
But it was to late.
The mini nuke was already arching through the air towards the giant super mutant.
Those idiots! There would be hell to pay for this!
The explosion shook the building like it was judgement day.
So today is the day I finally delete "Fallout New Vegas: Betrayal of a Ranger." And start on this new series.
Btw "Confídunt in ferro" means Trust in Steel. I thought it was a nice motto for the Brotherhood of Steel, since I couldn't find out what "In Steel We Trust" is in Latin. If anyone knows how to say that in Latin, it would be gladly appreciated.
"Confídunt in ferro, Brothers!" is basically from the U.S. marine motto "Semper Fidelis, Marine!"