Atomic Renegade

by Shaneman17

When the hearts of men grow as black as the void and no hope can be found, sometimes all it takes is a single spark to banish the darkness. When a man from a forgotten time returns home he finds a war torn galaxy waiting for him. What is a man to do for those who live in such grim darkness but to drag them kicking and screaming into the light.

This is what you get when you watch both The Storyteller and If The Emperor Had A Text To Speech Device at one in the morning.

As for the specifics of this story, well most warhammer Crossover first I've read tend to involve someone from the warhammer universe being dropped into another world but there are very few that do it in the opposite manner. I decided to do one of those myself.

Now I am not a warhammer junkie and my knowledge of the setting mostly general with me looking up details when I find something interesting so don't expect me to go listing off these obscure references to something that happened in this one book or manual or whatever. I am willing to look up something you guys deem important to the story. Oh and there is no set date for this fic, only that it is in the forty first millennium.

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only WAR.

And WAR…WAR never changes.

Chapter 1: Into the Grimdark

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"Is this thing on? Oh wait there's the light." A young male's voice says. The camera focuses on a tall and very well built young man looking no older than twenty one. His skin is of paler complexion than usual, with short brown hair coming down to his ears with stubble along his jaw and cheeks. His face was some what more symmetrical than average with only a slightly crooked bottom left incisor to offset his image. The only true oddity about him being a strange set of silver armor covered by a black duster and his unnatural bright green eyes.

"Hello Milky Way Galaxy! Wait shit do you guys even remember that name? Ah doesn't matter." The young man says with a shrug. "Look, most of you don't know who I am and those of you who do either want me dead, my skull or my soul. So let me introduce myself. The name's Albert, Albert Grimm." Albert said with a small grin.

"Now you all might be wondering how you are watching this video right now. We'll that's because I hijacked your systems and I can only imagine just how pissed those mechanicus assholes on Mars are. Especially since this is currently being broadcast to the entirety of the galaxy." Albert said as he pulled up an odd white chair to sit on.

"Just how am I doing this you may ask? Well it involves using a magnetar as a power source and broadcasting this via multidimensional waves that are being reflected off of ships currently traveling through the warp and being filtered through a plane of existence that's a few degrees to the left of reality that I have dubbed the Mirror. But on to more important matters than how im broadcasting throughout the materium."

Albert's smile drops with a sigh and is replaced with a much more somber look. "I'll be honest with you all, this galaxy sucks, but recent events have made it just a bit less horrible. Now your superiors, your leaders and your holy men are probably all spinning their own tale of what happened, but I'm going to give you something you have all been denied." He leaned forward in his chair, his bright eyes narrowing as he seemed to stare into the soul of every single man, woman, child and abomination that was watching.

"The truth."

Lifting up his left arm, Albert pressed a button on some wrist mounted device and with a wrist mounted device. With a flash of green light, a small model of some planet appeared In his hand. It had detailed images of oceans, continents and the terrain.

"This model right here? This is Earth, my home. These days however it goes by a different name, one you are all probably familiar with. Holy Terra." He snickered at this. "Holy, yeah right. You see once upon a time Holy Terra was once a place of beauty and prosperity, not the ball of gold and idiocy it is now. Your probably wondering how the hell I know this, right? Well you see I am old. Very, VERY OLD. As in one of the few people older than me is the Emperor and I don't know if he really counts as alive anymore. Just goes to show what the right genetics and exposure to FEV will do. Granted I was frozen or most of that time but the point still stands."

Reaching behind his chair, Albert pulled out a bottle full of a glowing blue liquid and took a sip before resuming. "Let's start at the beginning. At about three quarters of the way through the twenty-first century, twenty seventy-seven to be exact, we humans were confined to our own little planet of Earth. In the grand scheme of things we were low tech compared to now but we were making massive strides in advancing technology and science. Hand held computers, cold fission, the beginnings of interstellar travel and completely terraforming inhospitable environments. Then we blew ourselves up." Emphasized this by opening his fist while making a boom sound.

"You see we had rival countries instead of planets back then and the two most powerful were America and China. Now you obviously can't build all this tech without securing the resources needed and at the time Earth was running low on just about everything. Those two nations went to war and promptly nuked the world in a way not unlike Krieg." He said this as he grabbed a Death Korps gas mask from off screen before throwing it over his shoulder.

"The planet was turned into a bunch of radioactive wastelands and transforming Earth into a Death World. After two centuries of the survivors killing and murdering each other over the scraps, I was born. Grew up in a Vault, an under ground nuclear bunker until I was forced out at nineteen years old. Then I went and changed world." He grinned.

"I emerged to find America's capitol to be a charred and irradiated wasteland full of slavers, killers and mutants. I killed so much and had come so closing to dying so many times that I started thinking of death as an old friend. In that barren land I watched my father died but his dream lived on. His dream to bring back fresh clean water for everyone and in turn give the land a nudge towards recovery and jump starting the environment. Then I traveled to a place called New Vegas, a city state that was mostly in one piece and where civilization was beginning to make a comeback. I seized power and took control of the city. Then I conquered the Republic in the land of California and then the land west of the Mississippi. A year later I had control of Boston and the entire east coast. Three years later I had all of North America and in five I had the western hemisphere. In ten, the world." Albert had a wide smile plastered on his face, though to careful observers it seemed tinged with sadness.

"I was the king of Earth and the ruler of humanity long before your emperor came around. I ruled for about three centuries. During that time I rebuilt civilization and advanced our technology past the old world's. The world was green again, the water was clean and the nastier monsters were hunted to extinction. We were on the cusp of taking too the stars en masse when the xenos attacked. They were nothing like the Eldar, Tau, Orks or Tyranids. They weren't some massive fleet or empire, but desperate refugees from another galaxy. Apparently they were running from what their texts called "the Insectoids" that devoured all biological life. Not too hard to connect the dots there.

They saw earth as the perfect garden world to set up shop, the only issue was getting rid of its low tech inhabitants. To bad for them they were already on their way here when we nuked ourselves and couldn't turn around.

So there I was starring down a few thousand alien ships while I was manning the only interstellar spacecraft we had. Thankfully their species valued amoral scientists and put all their resources towards running their experiments rather than put together any truly effective military. They came in with their energy shields down, not expecting us to know they were coming. Then a few hundred thousand nuclear warheads came streaking towards them from all around the globe and lit up the sky. It was beautiful in its own horrible way, the way the vacuum almost seemed to burn."

Albert had a far away look in his eyes, lost in the memory before shaking his head. "Sorry about that. Anyways the nukes destroyed almost all of them save for their flagship. It was a massive thing, about the size of a continent with several very big guns. To bad it got horribly damaged by nuclear fire but it was still kicking so I decided to destroy it myself." He said shaking his head.

"Really that's where it all went wrong. You see my ship was coming around to blow it to hell after I destroyed a good third of the thing when the ship and it's surrounding area started glowing white, and since I was close enough to be in spitting distance, that included my ship. Then there's a flash and the next thing I know is everything starts buzzing before going back to normal. I don't notice anything wrong at first so I just did what I set out to do, wipe those Zetan bastards off the face of existence. A few minutes later and there I was watching the last of an entire alien race die by my hands. Sure they were planning to kill us all but genocide still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. So I turn the ship around to head back to earth when I realize…it wasn't there. Not sign that it had even existed and no familiar star to let me know if I was even in the right system.

A few days later I find out that the little green bastards had set up a way-station to fall back to in case of emergencies and had teleported themselves back there, with me tagging along. And do you want to know the best part!?" The man said with a bark of forced laughter. "I wasn't even in the right god damned galaxy anymore! Do you know how far away the Andromeda galaxy is? Two point forty five MILLION light-years. So what do I do? Well I cry, despair, drink all my booze, lament on how fucked I was, get angry at myself and the universe, buck up, prepare my auto pilot, say a quick prayer to God, no not that god, and settle down for a long nap."

Albert stopped talking and shook his head. He took a few more swigs of his blue drink before emptying it and chucking it off screen where it broke with a crash.

"I knew things would be different when I got back but…seriously? This is what I come back to? I mean I'm glad we're not considered an endangered species anymore but this corrupted tumor of an Imperium is not what I had in mind! I mean a God-Emperor? Evil and inane dark gods? Space Marines and magic elves? And it's FUCK not FRAK!"

Breathing heavily, the armored man closes his eyes and forces himself to calm down. With a long exhale he runs a gloved hand through his short hair. "Anyways, after arriving above Earth, no I'm not calling it Holy Terra, and see how much it has changed in nearly wept. Thankfully an Administratum ship was flying by and most of your cyber security sucks when up against a real genuine AI. Yes I have several, no its not evil so you cogboys can go shove a toaster up what's left of your ass. After about a week of research into things most of you probably don't know exist, I was reasonably depressed and just a smidgen suicidal, so I went where any sane man goes when horribly weighed down by life without access to a therapist. A place where my tale begins. In a shitty little bar."

…

With a thunk, I slammed the largest mug down on the dirty wooden table as yet another challenger collapses to the floor. With a mix of cheers of excitement and moans of disappointment, money changed hands and a not so small bag of coins was tossed in front of me. It was almost enough to get me to smile. To bad that for the past week my usual devil may care attitude had been reduced to the cold self loathing depression one gets when you realize everything you worked for, bleed for and killed for amounted to nothing.

Sure, humanity now had a galactic empire spanning millions if not billions of worlds, but it came at the cost of corruption, a religion deifying some emperor and an obsession with skulls. It seemed that the leaders of humanity souls had become so dark and twisted it would have given most sane raiders pause. Then again most raiders were sadistic and so black hearted they thought the best decorations for their bases were the corpses of their victims, so they probably would have fit right in. Then there were the not so nice neighbors that called the galaxy home. If I read the 'procured' information right, there were giant green idiots who seemed to love fighting and looting that somewhat reminded me of super mutants, scary metal skeleton things, an adaptable hive mind race that wanted to eat everything, blue space communists, arrogant space elves, arrogant space elves with a thing for sadistic and masochistic torture, and finally what could be best described as the forces of hell.

Now, I'm not one to discount a story as there was usually a grain of truth to be found, but if I hadn't had my own encounters with something otherworldly I world have thought it nothing more than ghost stories meant to keep the populace in line and dependent on the Imperium to keep them safe. Then again, if the records were right then the usual modus operandi was to 'purge' anyone who knew that these forces of Chaos even existed and weren't authorized to know. If that weren't enough they seemed to come in several flavors. Ones that were all about blood, killing and skulls, ones that reveled in excess of ever kind of act from drugs and sex to murder and pain. Another seemed obsessed with plots and nonsensical plans that make no sense and finally ones that were all about plagues and diseases that made my skin crawl, and apparently some of their diseases could do that in the literal sense.

Obviously I no better option than either wallow in self pity or try and ultimately fail to get drunk. Unfortunately I had drank all my alcohol on board some thirty-seven thousand years ago and was not in the mood to make more. So a few hours jump to a nearby system and teleporting down to planet V45-839's second largest city called Alfons, I started asking around for the nearest pub. Communication was a bit awkward but the Low Gothic that seemed to be the standard language was a mix of Latin, English and German. Thankfully I was fluent in all three as three hundred years of ruling earth had been plenty of time to learn most known languages.

The bar itself was easy to miss, what with it being in some back alley surrounded by these overly large Gothic style buildings and churches that seemed so common. If the architecture wasn't such an eye sore I would have considered them masterpieces. As it was they were so large and over the top it seemed ridiculous. The bar may have been small and had an unimaginative name, The Drunkards Club, but it had a good atmosphere. Dark enough to feel like you could relax, without worrying if someone was sneaking up on you. The yellow walls were decorated with old and faded propaganda posters for the Imperial Guard, though most were vandalized via marker ink with the ones featuring a well dressed officer in a peaked cap tended to have the highest number of alterations. Most were not very nice. The air was filled with smoke from cigarettes or lho-sticks as they were called now and every patron had a drink in hand while watching the local sports on a few TVs attached to the walls. Most of the men here were in some form of military uniform with a few still wearing their armor. The rest were either well muscled blue collar workers or the shifty eyed rats I pegged as the local criminal element.

I looked out of place compared to everyone else for several reasons. The first was the fact I could look down on everyone here, as standing at six foot six I must much taller than you average man. Most of it was natural but a couple inches came from some slight mutations and not so slight cybernetics. The other was that I was wearing clothes that looked liked had actually been cleaned in the last decade. Black steeled toed combat boots, grey jeans, a white long-sleeved silk shirt and a well made black duster. The duster had a circle bisected by both vertical and horizontal lines sewn on the back with golden thread, the old astronomical symbol for Earth. It had been the symbol for my old empire as a reminder of what we had to take back and care for, but now it was just an old flag to carry on my back. Of course the quality and colors of my outfit stood out amongst the worn green, greys, dark blues and browns of the other patrons.

I got a few glares thrown my way but I ignored it in favor of the bartender. Placing a few coins that I had shamelessly pickpocketed from a few random citizens down on the counter, I ordered a mug of something called amasec and downed it in one go. It reminded me of beer, if with a bit less foam. I then ordered another. Then another. The rounds continued like that until I started hearing mutters from the others as the seemed to notice that I hadn't so much as gotten a buzz.

I was on mug number twenty when one of the more sober guardsman seemed almost offended on my inability to get drunk and calling me a high born that who thought he could come into their hangout, trying to show how much of a man he was. I didn't really get what he was talking about but as long as he wasn't attacking he could yell me all day for all I cared.

Then came the man's challenge.

I almost missed it but when he when a started talking about the "Wolves Piss bet" everyone looked our way. It was rather simple, we both drink a cup of some specialty made booze and whoever didn't pass out first won. By the smirk on his face it seemed he thought I would back down and he could go back to his buddies and talk about how he publicly embarrassed some "highborn." The smirk fell when I accepted.

As we sat around the table, I could see money changing hands and the small crowd got excited about the possibility of winning some quick cash on their chosen bet. The bartender brought out two cups of a dark brown liquor and on the counter of three we chugged. It was strong. Very strong and had I not had plenty of experience drinking Moonshine made from yeast, refined Punta fruit and fission battery acid I'm pretty sure I would have coughed it up. As was, I finished the drink just in time to see the other man finish his, stand up to boast of his success then promptly fall face first into an unconscious heap. The cheers victorious gamblers erupted immediately afterwards.

I was about to get up to leave when another cup was shoved into my hand and a different man took the seat across from me. Apparently it was tradition for the contest to continue until the winner was just as unconscious as the loser. So I took another drink while the other man joined the first on the floor if not as unconscious. Then it turned into a massive bet about how many swigs of the ale it would actually take to put me under while others joined in the drinking. After challenger number seven I actually started to feel a buzz coming on but I knew I couldn't stay here all night. I had to get back to my ship and figure out what I was going to do now that I was stuck in this god-forsaken galaxy.

"Alright boys, as much fun as this has been I need to get back home. I've got a existential crisis waiting for me and it's not going to solve itself." I said getting up and walking towards.

"Yeah leave you bastard. You cost me a weeks pay." A rather dirty looking man said with a scowl.

"Ah what's wrong Sig, can't lose with dignity? It's your fault you bet against a mini space marine." Another man said as he elbowed the scowling man in his ribs.

"Shut up ya idiot. The bastard's too small to be a marine."

"Who you calling an idiot you piece of grox shit!"

As I closed the door I gave a slight chuckle as I heard the wet thud of someone throwing a punch into someone's face. Walking along I wondered just what I could do with my life now. Before, I could focus my time on rebuilding civilization and improving the world. Now it was the galaxy itself that was screwed up and I was one man stuck between multiple different galactic superpowers that were each their own flavor of screwed up. Granted I was leaning towards the Imperium but it seemed that the entire thing was lead men who were either apathetic, idiotic, sadistic or a mix of all three. I couldn't even give them the blueprints to my gear as it seemed these 'Adeptus Mechanicus' priests would either consider my technology either so holy they would lock it away for safe keeping never to see the light of day again or see it as 'tech-heresy' that need to be destroyed with me along with it. I just didn't know what to do.

Most men while deep in thought would not have heard the faint footsteps while walking along at night, but I was better than that. I could hear multiple pairs of feet, six I believe, closing from behind.

I rolled my eyes as I heard the click of a switch blade. It was almost insulting. Turning around I was greeted by my correct assumption of six men. Their clothes were little more than rags and they had several pistols tucked into their pants waistbands and their faces were covered by dirty looking bandanas. The only one showing his face was the bald man with so many tattoos that I couldn't identify his skin color. His rather nasty looking smile was filled with dark yellow teeth and he was also the one who had pulled out the knife. Now that I had a good look at him I recognized his inked up face from one of the darkened corners of the bar, probably looking for an easy and drunk mark. Unfortunately for him he probably noticed me downing the drinks but not that I was still steady on my feet.

"Well hello there Mr. Fancy Ass. That's nice coat there, why don't you hand that and that neat little bag of Thrones over and maybe we don't carve you open and take your organs as well. Hell, you might just get a cut of the profit there, I mean you only need one lung, right?" Baldy said flourishing his (rather rusty) knife. His sarcastic remark elicited several chuckles from the others like the good little minions they were supposed to be.

I…was unimpressed.

"Ok, no. You are not robbing me and if you and your friends want to live you'll drop your weapons and walk away. If not than there be nothing left but charred meat for the rats as I turn you into a bunch of burning corpses. You have five seconds. Five."

Baldy's slack jawed expression would have been comical if his teeth weren't such an eyesore. He was at a loss for words, probably not used to his targets to actually threatening him.

"Four"

The minions were more vocal about their shock, mostly muttering things to themselves about all the nasty things they were going to do to me

"Three."

And that was as far as I got. It was always satisfying to pull a gun in the middle of a conversation. With experience born over three hundred years, I pulled out the Colt 6552 10mm pistol out of my shoulder holster in a fraction of a second. Taking aim at the furthest thug, I pulled the trigger and there was an explosion and sound of flames boiling away flesh.

Back in the Capital Wasteland, I had come across a prototype pistol called the Zhu-Rong v418. It had an experimental barrel and firing mechanism that coated all bullets that it fired with incendiary substances. It had taken a few years at the Big Mountain labs to reverse engineer the weapon, but the results were phenomenal. The same technology could be applied to just about any ballistic weaponry and with more than just incendiary rounds. Irradiated rounds, turning bullets into small explosives to even infusing plasma. And when massed produced they would have been legendary.

The 10mm bullet hit the man in the chest, right where his heart would be. He dropped instantly, but his dirty clothes caught fire and the flesh around the entrance wound was already catching. The next mugger caught a round to the throat. The third man actually got his pistol out and was taking aim when I put one flame covered bullet through his hand and a second between his eyes. The fourth went for his pistol as well, only to shoot himself in the gut. With a mental eye roll at him not putting on the safety, I turned to the fifth man and only saw his back as he tried to run away. He collapsed with two more bullets too the spine.

Despite his rather disgusting and unprofessional appearance, Baldy was quick to close the distance and attempted to cut me open even as his buddies died. To bad I had plenty of experience with psycho's wield pointy objects.

As he swung, my left hand lashed out and grabbed his wrist. Using his momentum against him, twisted his wrist so that as his body continued forward the blade was shoved to the hilt just below the right collar bone. Placing my right foot behind his left one, with a quick tug he slammed his back onto the hard ground with me kneeling over him. He grimaced as I simultaneously grabbed and twisted the knife while shoving the barrel of the pistol into his gut.

"You know something baldy? I was having a pretty shitty week and was trying to get drunk, if just to make myself feel better. Then you went and tried to mug me at least and chop me up to sell my organs at worst." I said smiling down at him. "Normally I would have been annoyed beyond belief at being ambushed by you and your merry men." I motioned towards the burning bodies and the one man bleeding to death. In an act of mercy, I put a round through his head rather than let him die a slow death by bleeding out.

"But you actually went and brightened my mood. Do you know why? Well its because as awful as reality is, me killing you makes it just a bit better. So…thank you for giving me that satisfaction." I was about to put a bullet into his skull when baldy broke into a fit of pained laughter.

"Wow, ya don't even just how frakked you are do ya? When my buddies learn what you did, they'll tear ya limb form limb. Put your head on a stick and wave it around for all the other cocksuckers to see. In the end, not even the Emperor will be able put your ass back together. Ha, if ya start beggin, I just might not have them ki-AH!" He screamed as I twisted the knife.

"Alright, I'm just going to ask this once and if you don't answer it the way I like, your insides will become your outsides. So say I wanted to say hello to these buddies of yours, where would I find them?" Emphasizing my point with the gun barrel pushing just a bit harder.

He was just about to talk back, when he took a look at my unwavering gaze and figured to not insult the nan who had him at gun point. "The old car factory. The one on Gutter Street, that's where they're at. Now, if you'll let me go I'll forget this ever happened."

I gave him a smile. One that I had used to calm down hysterical men and women, and smile that without words promised that everything would be alright. "No." Then I put the rest of the magazine into his gut.

He didn't die, not right away anyways. Gut shots tended to be rather slow painful deaths. Fortunately for the man he wouldn't have to worry about that. What he did have worry about was the fire burning him from the inside out.

I ignored the screaming, focusing on more important matters. Like where in the world was in going to find a map?

…

"You know those things will kill you."

The surprised sentry barely had time to drop his lho-stick and reach for his weapon before I slammed my combat knife into the base of his skull. As his body jerked and twitched, I carefully set the fresh corpse on the roof of his watch point and put my knife back into my boot's hidden sheath.

Finding the old factory hadn't been all that hard, I just kept asking around until someone actually answered my question rather than give me dirty looks and sneers. It was easy to notice the lookouts stationed on the nearby rooftops and was almost just as easy to put a blade between their ribs. This one being the last.

Now having time examine them without the risk of being discovered, I could see some similarities with the raiders of old. Thrown together armor that left much exposed, worn and near inoperable equipment and stupidly dyed hair. This one having a bright red mohawk. His rifle on the other hand was in fairly good condition as I picked it up and could tell it was much lighter than it should have been. Feeling the material underneath my fingers, I briefly thought it was made of plastic before tapping it and getting the ring of steel.

"Huh, neat. Better save this for later." I said as it disappeared with a green light.

Up on the rooftop across the street I was all but invisible with my dark clothes and the recently equipped shadowed combat armor. While not the best in terms of protection or stealth, it provided a good balance between the two.

With the press of a button on my pipboy, I felt the familiar weight of the Ratslayer materialize in my hands. The Ratslayer may have been a low caliber bolt action rifle, but it made up for it with a lighter build, night vision scope and built-in suppressor. It was perfect for picking off lightly armored targets from a distance without anyone noticing.

I settled the crosshairs on the head of some scantily clad ganger girl, I took in a breath and pulled the trigger. With a soft 'pft' sound, the ganger dropped and before here partner could raise the alarm I put one in him too. Another guard dropped as he rounded the corner and the last guard died with a splat as his body slid off the four stores tall warehouse roof.

Satisfied that all the guards were dead I leapt from my perch and landed with a forward roll and back onto my feet. Jogging over I dismissed the Ratslayer and brought out the Xuanlong assault rifle, though it was the Xuanlong in name only as all the parts had needed replacing over the years. Readying myself, I entered as quietly as I could be.

The warehouse was a very spacious building, or at least it would have been had it not been packed with rusted old cars and a few shipping crates. It seemed to be arranged in a way that turned the place into a small labyrinth. I slowed down as I heard a couple of voices from around the corner.

"I'm telling you Max, I swear I heard something outside. It was kind of meaty sounding. I swearing somethings going on." A nervous sounding voice said.

"Shut it Saul. There ain't nothing going on but business. If there was something, the guards would have called it in or at least shot the problem till it stopped being a problem. Now do you hear any gunshots?" The other much deeper voice asked.

"No?"

"Right, then there's no problem. Now come on we need to find the boss. She wants us with her we she deals with them Red Boys. Creepy bastards are already in the conference room."

I was about to turn the corner and fill the men with holes, but what Max had said caught my attention. If I started shooting now, these Red Boys might cut and run. But if I tailed these two I just might get a few more gangers in one go.

Lowering my barrel, I glanced around the shipping crates on saw the two men's retreating backs. Silent as a ghost, I followed behind while slung the Chinese rifle over my shoulder and drew the Deliverer. The weapon was now equipped with caseless rounds and a vibration dampening barrel that made the quiet pistol near silent.

Never being more than ten steps behind, I checked my corners incase the two men ran into a wandering ganger. There were no problems until coming upon a T-intersection as the two men turned right and just as I was about to follow, another man came from the left. He was average looking with a shaved head, dirty green shirt and pants, armored kneepads and pauldrons to protect him. To bad for him that they did nothing to top me from putting two rounds into his chest and one just underneath his nose. He was about to collapse to the ground with a loud thud before I caught him by the collar of his shirt. Dragging him along, I stuffed him into the first dark corner I could find. Thankfully it didn't take too long and was able to catch up to tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumb quickly.

With a few more turns I watched them climbed a set of stairs leading to what looked like was the top floor. Waiting a few moments, I let them climbed the stairs as no to see me before climbing after them. The top of the stairs lead to a door that assumed lead to this conference room Max mentioned. Putting away he suppressed pistol and rearmed with the Xuanlong, I decided that if someone spotted me here I would have to go loud. Though that didn't mean stealth was out the window just yet. Scrolling through my pipboy, I had a Stealth Boy materialize on my right wrist and with a small hum, light bent around me leaving me invisible to the untrained eye. Back in the day I would have used them sparingly as they were hard to come by and had a limited charge but reverse engineer my old Chinese stealth suit had allowed me to extend the battery life to last centuries without needing a recharge, though the device itself was still vulnerable and the stealth field deactivated if one to many object disrupted the modulating field such as bullets or lasers.

Now hidden in plain sight, I opened the door a crack to see if anyone was nearby the door. Finding no one, I slipped inside inching along the wall until I got to the left hand corner where I had a clear view of everything.

The conference room really wasn't one at all. If I had to guess it had actually been the work foreman's office, an actual conference room and a spare parts room turned into one big room by knocking the walls down. There were scattered prices of garbage on the floor, several sets of couches, a large television set, a couple dozen steel framed bunk beds on the opposite corner and a large fancy table in the center. Probably left over from the original conference room. What held my attention however was the some forty to fifty men gathered around the table.

About half were dressed like the gangers I had already seen with a much better armored women with bright green hair sitting at the table. They stood closest to me while the other half stood on the other side of the table. Now I had seen plenty of disheveled looking raiders in my time but these guys easily made the top ten. What skin could be seen was littered with both old and new scars with clothes that were torn, ripped, shredded and covered in what could either be red clay or dried blood. Fitting the name Red Boys, they each had on some sort red article of clothing store such as a jacket, shirt bandanna or ugly red tattoos. Then was their chosen of weapons. From what I had seen and read was the melee combat had made a huge comeback these past few millennium but this idiots had seeming abandoned all idea of ranged fighting. I saw several blades made of what looked like scrap metal, a few cleavers, some swords, kitchen knifes and what looked like a pitchfork that had been set on fire. Even their very large leader sitting at the table wearing nothing but some red pants and combat boots had what looked like a mix between a red chainsaw and sword strapped to his waist. Granted I planned on looting that from his corpse but I learned melee combat out of necessity not preference.

The Red Boss wasn't looking to composed. His muscle were tense and he looked ready to explode into action at a moments notice. His foot was shaking and his hand twitched towards that sword of his every now and then.

"Can we get on with this meeting now? We are all here and I grow tired of this waiting." Red Boss said angrily.

"In but a moment. We are waiting for my hired help to arrive before beginning negotiations." The Gang Boss said in a much more sultry sounding voice than I was expecting. "As much as I trust your word, I have heard of your reputation when you do not get what you want." She said clicking her tongue in a chastising manner.

Hired help. In this kind of situation that meant hired guns. Mercenaries. Shit. I don't think they would miss the bodies on the way in.

"There is no need for negotiations! In but a few hours you will tell your men to kill the city officials and raid the armory then this city will be yours. Even now my comrades take Aven as we speak. The PDF are being slaughtered by the dozen while the Planetary Governor is stopping all distress calls from leaving the system. He is on our side and at the end of the day when we control this planet you can either stand alongside us or die groveling at our feet!" The large man said with just as much anger as before.

I really didn't like what I was hearing. This world was mostly just barren rock with mountains and scattered forests. There were only about sixteen cities in all they were all positioned along the planet's equator. If I was remembering correctly then Aven was both the largest city and home to the ruling government. If it was under siege right now that either meant there was a revolution going on or more likely a invasion of planetary proportion. As much as I despised what I had seen about the Imperium, the other factions were either just as bad if not much MUCH worse. And now that I really looked at the Red Boys it started to click that these men matched the description of followers of a certain blood obsessed God.

Raising my rifle I was just about to open fire on my unsuspecting targets when the door burst open and in marched a group of well armed and armored men wearing that dirty green armor I had seen on guardsmen at the bar. These men however scratched out and removed any sign of the two headed eagle and any regimental markings. The mercenaries I presume.

The were lead by a rather intimidating man (I think) with a helmet and metal mask with orange lenses covering his face and what looked like a set of thicker full body armor, unlike the thinner ones that only covered the torso and shoulders that most guardsmen seemed to wear.

"Ah, hello Captain. I glad you finally made-"

"I'm sorry ma'am," The captain said with a voice that told me he was a regular smoker. "but the perimeter has been breached. We found all the external guards dead from gunshots too the head and all sentries killed either by a snapped spine or a blade to the skull. We also found another body hidden in a corner down stairs."

Gang Boss seemed speechless at first before she closed her jaw, anger blossomed on her face and turned back to Red Boss who seemed to enjoy hearing about the casualties.

"You son of a whore! You treacherous bastard you kill my men and think I'll work with you! You think you can try to get rid of me if I said no!? I hang you by you're entrails for this!" She said standing up while her men and the mercenaries readied their weapons and took aim. The cultists did like wise, though Red Boss seemed even more angry than before with no trace of vicious amusement.

"You dare to think I would have tainted myself with that kind of cowardice! If I wanted you and your men dead I would have done it already while and made you watch as I ripped out your guts with my bare hands!"

"Still here."

It was barley a whisper but it seemed it had caught everyone's attention as we all turned to look at a man step out of the group of mercs. He was scrawny, looked malnourished and couldn't hold still as he seemed to constantly shake and twitch his head to the side every now and then. His armor didn't fit him well and there wasn't a weapon on him. Yet for as feeble as he appeared, there was something off about him.

"Still here. Old thing come. Old thing kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill. Thing become ghost and kill. Ghost thing watches and waits, listening to plots and plans. Ghost thing here. Still here, here, herehereherehere." As he turned it dawned on me just what was wrong with the man. He was a psyker. Now I had dealt with psyker before and most of their powers had seemed more along the lines with telepathy, mind consoling animals or even seeing into the future. Now it seems that after several millennia theirs powers had expanded greatly, at the cost of most of their sanity since they seemed to rely on that hellish warp energy I read about. I'm not sure if the psykers of my time actually had had access to the warp at the time and had some form of immunity or it had just taken centuries for the warp energies to find them. Either way it didn't really matter. The only thing that mattered was that the skinny psyker was turning towards my corner and looking right into my still invisible eyes.

"There."

Uh oh.

Everyone was looking my way and as good as a Stealth Boy was I had fifty plus men and women looking at me. They would notice the slight distortion in the air and open fire. Now I was a tough man, I'm not bragging just simply telling the truuth. I had been shot, stabbed, skewered, blown up, set on fire, poisoned, had to surgically reattach limbs, my body could heal most wounds within the day, survive off of sunlight, my top layer of skin was as hard as tree bark, the bottom like iron and my bones were covered by adimantium. I'm pretty sure I could take a hit from a tank and survive, but that doesn't mean I wanted to press my luck. Tucking my rifle under my arm I deactivated the stealth field with my free hand resting on my hip, right next to the grenades.

Everyone tensed as they saw me appear out of nowhere. Every finger just waiting to pull their triggers.

"Wait a minute, this isn't the bathroom." I said with the most confused sounding voice I could manage. "Hey can one of you fellas point me to the toilets? Had some bad fish earlier and nature calls if you know what I mean."

I was somewhat surprised when flaming pitchfork guy relaxed and motioned towards a set of drapes blocking off one of the corners.

"Oh, thank you. Now if you'll just excuse me…" I took a step forward only to find a roaring chainsaw a foot from my face with a very excited looking Red Boss grinning at me.

"Oh you, your going to die screaming." His grin widening.

"Alright but if you allow me to just say one thing?" He seemed to think it over a moment before nodding. "Okay...catch!"

With a flick of the wrist I sent a now armed glowing green grenade flying into the middle of the crowd. I expected a lot of things, like some confused looks and people scrambling to get away. Not for pitchfork guy to actually catch the thing.

As the grenade went off in a flash of bright green plasma, I threw my self backwards and just as I wanted right through the window overlooking the work floor. I dropped several floors onto a shipping crates and while the impact was hard, it was annoying at best even as my head bounced off the top. Shouldering my rifle I aimed upwards and waited for the first unlucky criminal to stick their head out. It was only a few seconds and three gangers and a merc received several rounds through their heads for their efforts.

Getting to my feet I had just a moment to toss another grenade through the windows when a laser struck me in the chest plate and automatic fire hit the metal to my left.

The laser melted the top layer of my armor in an almost perfect circle, but save for a slightly warmer chest I was not hurt. Still, I dropped back down into the junk labyrinth as I heard another plasma based explosion and the screams of pain. Turning a corner, I ducked back into cover as a red bolt just barley missed my face. Leaning out behind the rusted car frame I fired a burst at knee height and was rewarded with a man in green armor falling to the floor with a scream as two machete wielding cultists ran over him and towards me. Aiming at the unprotected center mass I unloaded on him. I expected him to drop with the first few rounds but was surprised you see that it took the entire magazine for him to die. Honestly it made sense that a worshipper of a bloodthirsty war god would be hardier than your average human. Unfortunately that left the second one to close the distance unimpeded.

"Blood for the blood god!" He screamed as he raised his weapon high. I was moving before he brought it down. Stepping backwards I spun and sent a low sweeping kick that knocked his feet out from under him. As his back hit the floor I was over him and he barely had time to blink as I slammed my boot onto his face with a meaty thunk. Then just to be safe I did it again and instead got a loud crack.

Satisfied that he was down for good, I removed the empty magazine slapped a new one in and continued on. Another cultists rounded the corner up ahead and rather than dealing with aiming for the chest I put a three round burst through his skull and his head all but exploded. It went like that for a few minutes with me rounding a corner to find one or two gangers or cultists and putting them down with a well controlled burst.

Then things got quiet, unnaturally quiet. I went down several more labyrinthine and found no one around, though I could still hear their footsteps echoing in the large room but even those were starting to fade away. The first hint that something was wrong was when I came to a ninety degree corner where I vaguely remembered there should have been a T-intersection. Following the only available path I came to an abrupt stop when I came to a wall of car bodies that looked like had just been moved into place. I could almost feel the weapon barrels being aimed at my back.

With a sigh I turned around to see five mercenaries plus their Captain aiming those laser rifles at me, two gangers wielding a pistol and shotgun with another more focused on carrying his half burnt and only semi conscious leader. Which left the ten red themed cultists, with their shirtless leader standing in front of them. Apparently they had managed to predict where I would wind up, block my path and hide behind a false wall.

"Ha! I come here trying to get these worthless scum to rise up against their Imperial masters, yet instead I find a warrior of merit. How many of my fellows have you sent to Khorn tonight? Either way it no longer matters. I shall take your skull myself!"

With a roar from both him and his weapon, the cultist leader charged at me faster than I expected. He was fairly close already and at that speed I was only able to get a few shots off before dodging to the right to avoid the swords teeth. He was more skilled than his subordinates as he spun on his heel while keeping his momentum and attempted to saw me in half. Always attacking and never letting up, he almost cut me a few times but unfortunately for him I had tangled with far faster and deadlier opponents than him.

After making another attempt to eviscerated me, I had had enough of dodging and swung a fist into his face. He looked like the kind of nan that could easily take a punch but a punch from me was another thing. I was a fit man and had plenty of lean muscle with those same muscles being enhanced by mutations and cybernetics that helped my punch far above my weight class. Then with metal covered bones making up my fist and being thrown by that augmented strength it made a punch from me was the equivalent to being hit by a sledgehammer.

There was audible cracking sound and the man's jaw became unrecognizable as blood and teeth fell to the ground. Not waiting to see if that was enough to stop the fight I grabbed the wrist holding the roaring weapon, held it in place and with my right arm still cradling the Xuanlong, I jammed the tip of the barrel into his gut and open fired.

As the bullets tore apart his body is could still feel the man try to fight on as he attempted to wrench his wrist from my vise like grip. As the rifle clicked empty, I knew I wouldn't be able to reload in time before our audience decided to just shoot me before I turn my attention to them. Thankfully I now had a perfectly usable right in front of me. Tearing the blade from the cultists weakening grip, I spun on my heel and with a swing and mechanical roar, the metal teeth chewed through the man's large muscly neck and relived him of his head.

It was like that for a minute with me a now bloody mess standing over the fresh corpse of their leader and the assorted criminals, mercs and cultists staring at me. It was all silent save for the now low rumble of my weapon and my deep calming breaths.

That silence was promptly shattered by the cries of "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" As the remaining cultists charged.

All ten of them came at me screaming with weapons raised while the mercenaries starting put as much weapons fire down range as possible without care as two cultists fell to 'friendly' fire.

It was right at that moment that I closed my eyes, and when I opened them the world had slowed to a crawl.

My pipboy was a marvelous machine, being able to atomize items as digital storage and reassembling them in my hands, built in clock, radio, Geiger counter and VATS. The Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System allowed the devise to tap into the wearers nervous system and allowed them to fire a weapon with all the accuracy of a super computer while their mind's thinking processing exponentially increased. Then later came the Implant GRX that could apply a dose of Turbo directly into a person's system, boosting their body's reaction and movements speeds to superhuman levels while the world slowed around them. They were wonderful technology on their own, but put them together and give me three centuries to improve upon their design and you got something revolutionary. Now the effects could last for a week strait without any permanent damage to one's muscles. Still as amazing as it was, it was still a machine that could malfunction or break and didn't want to rely on it too much so I only broke it out when I needed an advantage. Like right now.

The eight remaining cultists were a few meters away and at this speed I could see the spittle fly from their mouths as they bellowed their war cries. Walking over to the first, his eyes were just able to follow me aside dragged the sharp chainsword's teeth across his neck. Turning to the second closest enemy I sent a quick and powerful jab with my free hand at her esophagus. The third and forth were close enough to each other that it only took one swipe of the blade to spill both of their innards. The fish man tried to come to as stop as he registered little ol' Albert cut down his buddies in what must have been a real world second. Grabbing his collar I threw rather than dragged his body in front of the mercenaries line of sight as the took aim at me. I saw several of the green armored men pull their triggers and beam of red light struck number five in the back instead of me.

Six, seven and eight were still coming but though didn't look quite as confident as they had been. To bad for them they wouldn't live to regret their decisions. Sprinting towards the three men I leapt forwards and with my body in the air I was free to put all my weight into a single punch. Cultist number six barely had enough time to widen his eyes as his face caved in with my fist. The seventh went down when I aimed kick between his legs and he crumpled as I felt two little somethings pop.

What can I say? I'm a pragmatist.

The last cultist tried to take a swing but a quick headbutt to the bridge of his nose followed by jamming the roaring chainsword into his ribcage put an end to that.

I turned to face the remaining threats and saw the surviving ganger members finally listen to their survival instincts, turned tail and ran. Half carrying and half dragging their dying boss with them. I decided to ignore them in favor of focusing on the more immediate threat, the six mercs currently getting a bead on me. Putting the cultist still impaled on my sword in front of me, I ducked as his body started to cook from the laser fire but a brighter laser managed to fire right through the corpse and hit the armor cover my lower abdomen. I felt the heat this time as I knew the skin underneath had just gained first or even second degree burns. A quick glance from my macabre cover showed that the more powerful laser came from the Captain's weapon, a slightly larger laser rifle hooked up to some sort of power pack on his back. Not wanting to be hit again, took a hold of my 'cover' and spun. As I completed the three sixty, I let go and the former cultist flew off my sword and into the group of ex-soldiers. Five of them were knocked down to the floor either by the flying body or trying to dodge it. Unfortunately the Captain stepped out of the way and put another beam into my chest. This time I KNEW it was second degree burns and a glance down showed that my combat armor was near useless as the chest piece looked half melted.

Not wanting to take another hit, I ran as fast as I could towards the mercenary leader in a serpentine manner as several more laser beams got uncomfortably close. Thankfully I was upon him in a few moments and took a horizontal swing at him with my new toy. The man had good instincts and reaction time, I'll give him that. As the buzzing teeth came towards him, he raised his armored forearm and though he stumbled a bit he took the hit like a champ. The chainsword's teeth may have been sharp but they couldn't cut through the tough armor. To bad for the mercenary I had something that could.

While keeping the pressure on the sword, I bent down, drew my combat knife and slammed it into the center of his chest piece. Now a normal knife would never have been sharp enough to slice through that armor, but one made of Saturnite could. The man made alloy developed by the Think Tank could absorb and maintain heat like nothing else and when sharpened there were very few things it couldn't cut. When I first rediscovered the recipe for the alloy, I had kept it a closely guarded secret, only making it for special occasions. Knives, saw blades, flechette rounds and artillery shells all were viable options but I made sure to never make enough for my enemies to have the possibility of reverse engineering the alloy.

As the knife sank into the flesh underneath, I heard the Captain release a small scream of pain as he reflexively put both hands on the knife handle in an attempt to follow his instincts. I.e. get the sharp stabby thing out of my squishy body.

In his panic over getting stabbed in the chest (wimp, I've been stabbed thousands of times,) he let go of that very interesting looking weapon of his at I dangled from the cables connecting to the backpack. Rather than just let that wonderful piece of technology get damaged in his struggles, I so kindly decided to take care of it for him.

Grabbing the handle, I took careful aim at the mercenaries who were finally getting up or still prone and pulled the trigger. There was very little recoil when superheated gas escaped the barrel as the fully automatic lasers still struck the downed men. Flesh was burnt and then cauterized as the bright beams of fun landed through the men until they all stopped moving.

Satisfied that the Captain and I were the only ones left looked him strait in the visor and gave him a small smile as the world resumed it's normal pace. Dropping the gun, I grabbed the knife handle and was about to pull it out when the last mercenary grabbed my wrist with a weakening grip.

"You..bastard…" He reasped.

"Hey now, no need for name calling. You and your boys lost fair and square. And my parents were married when they had me just so you know."

"May have got me…but my boys will tear you apart." He was trying not to let his head droop and stay on his feet even though he was clearly fading. Probably a punctured lung.

Glancing back at the smoldering remains of his men, I gave the man a raised eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I got 'em."

He let out a chuckle that turned into a wet cough. "Reinforcements you moron…You think this was all we had?...Selena was meeting with the Red Boys so she hired us…or protection or at least…retribution. We call for backup…the moment we fount the bodies."

Just then, I heard the roar of engines shake the factory and barking of orders from outside.

"Hehe, too late now. You can't…escape." I could feel the grim smile behind his mask.

I smiled right back.

"Who said anything about escaping?" Tearing the knife out of his chest I slid the blade along his neck as his precious red liquid escaped his body. It only took a minute for him to stop thrashing. Satisfied I was alone, I got to one of the more fun parts of a fight. Looting.

Most of the cultists had nothing of with on them save a few coins but the mercenaries weapons and armor were mostly salvageable. The Captain's armor was still in good shape save for the small knife shaped hole in the chest. His rifle, along with his armor, the chainsword and any other equipment I found went into the pipboy storage. After retrieving the Xuanlong from where I dropped it I eventually found my way back at the entrance. Peer out the slightly open doors, I saw a small army waiting for me. At least a hundred men with several vehicles with mounted weapons and a small gunship hovering in the air. There was no way I could take all of them on as it was. Thankfully I always made sure to have a trick up my sleeve. Well, in pipboy anyway.

Scrolling through my pipboy I went the apparel section and I smiled as found what I wanted.

With a bigger flash of light than the previous times and with a heavy thud it appeared. Standing at seven feet and eight inches tall, the power armor stood like a Goliath amongst men. The T-100x was modeled after the old T-60 that the Brotherhood used to use, though the shoulder pauldrons were more rounded like the X-01, the headlamp and hoses were removed and the harder edges smoothed out. It also had a locking armored panel on the back, covering the armor release and the TX-28 microfusion pack housed within. The usual dark eyepiece was changed out for a light green one that was both tougher and had several options for vision. What really stood out about it was just how shiny the metal was, seeming like glittering silver with not a mark on it.

Pulling up the locking plate, I gave the release valve a twist and the back of the armor split open. I took off my duster and atomizing it before hopping in, no need to get it caught in the armor. The frame closed around me with a snug but comfortable tightness as I slipped my hands into the controls in the arms. There was a brief moment of darkness before he HUD came on line showing the suits integrity was at 100% while health monitor said I had burns on my chest but were slowly healing. Activating the recon sensors, the screen was lit up with red human shaped figures on the other side of the wall and a large red mass in the air.

With a deep breath and quick prayer too…the universe I guess, I stepped out with thundering footsteps.

I couldn't see to well from this far away, but I swear I saw all their jaws drop and a few hand movements that somewhat looked like the sign of the cross.

"Holy shit it's a Space Marine. Everyone open fire!" someone shouted.

Then just like that the world turned red. Laser fire was everywhere, so much coming at me that I couldn't see a thing and yet there I stood. Honestly I couldn't even feel the heat that the laser must have been generating. Granted I felt the grenades and what I'm guessing were anti-tank missiles. While I was lying on the ground, I swear my innards were about to be liquefied as the impacts traveled through my armor and into me. It was only the mix of reinforced organs and the armor's medical pump.

Then just as suddenly as the weapons fire began, it ended. Managing to get to my feet, even if somewhat shakily. Now with the blinding light gone I could now see my surroundings, somewhat. The dust in the air made it more difficult than it needed to be but I could easily tell that I was now in a fairly deep crater and that the hostile were to my left, having been turned around during the barrage.

Glancing at the armor monitoring systems, I gave a victorious grin as the armor was still in perfect condition. Hell there probably wasn't even a scratch to be found. I really shouldn't be surprised though as T-100x or as the schematics had dubbed it, the Athena power armor was made completely out of adimantium. I had discovered the schematics in an old Enclave base out in the area that used to be Colorado. Designed by the Enclave to be the best armor to ever exist, but unfortunately for them it called for the extremely rare adimantium alloy, the same material I had covering my bones.

The bone idea had come to me during a drunken escapade (back when I could get drunk) and I had just read an old comic about some hero having a steel skeleton. It all worked out in the end though. Too bad the small amount I had stumbled across was all that was ever actually made. Thankfully the Think Tank had recipe just lying around, the only problem being the lack of the required materials. The three main components being titanium, saturnite, and something called ultracite. It wasn't until my empire had reached the Appalachian wasteland that I found the last one. Not a lot of records survived in that area seeing as how the region seemed to have been repeatedly been nuked to oblivion some twenty five years after the Great War. One recorded nuking had simply been because of a giant bat monster and another because some guy wanted revenge for his neighbor locking him in a homemade name with a Deathclaw. Honestly, were they that big of assholes? Still I had found the ultracite and now I could make my own adimantium.

Striding out of the smoke with an echoing thud with ever foot fall, I must have made quite the sight to the men. A silver giant that taken thirst best shot and found it wanting. I stood there for a few moments just letting the fear set in for a minute before I summoned a minigun to my hands. I spoke two words as the barrels started to spin and hade sure the volume on my speaker was as high as it could go.

"My turn."

The CZ57 Avenger minigun was fast, accurate and lighter than its other variants. It did however lack in stopping power as it fired the small 5mm and a reduced ammo capacity. The latter problem was solved with some good old fashioned tinkering by putting the magazine for the ammo belt underneath the weapon rather than using the backpack method. The former problem couldn't be solved without using another type of ammunition which would require a major redesign. Then one night I had had an epiphany. Use the Zhu-Rong technology only with something far more…volatile.

So as the first few armor piercing rounds left the barrels, an outside observer would have seen a streak of bright blue fly through the air and strike an armored man in the chest. Rather than watching him stumble back from the impact, get knocked down or even fall dead, hey would have seen him get blown to little meaty chunks as he was at ground zero for what looked like a blue, man sized nuclear blast.

The mercenaries started firing again once they saw what was being done to their fellows but by then it was too late. Sweeping my weapon along the firing line, men were reduce to what could best be compared to chunky salsa. Whatever cover that had was torn apart as even their armored cars were turned into scrap metal and we're turned into massive fireballs as their engines were ruptured and fuel exploded. The gunship hovering overhead rained down laser fire and two door gunners fire what looked like some sort of bullet-grenade hybrid at me with one even glancing my shoulder that threw off my aim for a second. Focusing on the biggest threat of me, I put a few rounds into its left wing that put holes in it bit enough for a man to crawl through. Another couple rounds were put through the pilot's windows and with a violent jerk the gunship came crashing down. Right on top of a few dozen mercenaries.

Turning my attention to last few men, whatever hope they had of at killing me had literally gone up in smoke. It seems that my green gaze focusing on the remaining dozen men was the last straw. Some lowered their weapons and booked it as fast as they could while others had much less dignity and dropped their guns with a scream as they ran like the devil himself was breathing down their necks. I snickered as a few of them seemed like they would need to find some new pants.

Unbelievably, two men were still firing at me. One nailed me dead center in the chest to no effect. I had once heard that insanity could be described as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If that were true then these guys were nuts. When the lasers finally stopped I thought they had learned their lesson, only to be proven wrong as they…fixed bayonets.

From there I mentally changed the state of mind from crazy to just plain suicidal. The last bullet in my weapon blew apart the one on the left which left the one on the right to close the distance. Only to have his head explode upon impact with a metal fist.

Glancing around at the carnage looking for any signs of another attack, I was satisfied that the fighting was over. Fort now. Though I didn't like the sound of the approaching sirens from the distance. The last thing I needed was to be thrown in jail on trumped up charges. Like vandalism. I did NOT want that on my record. Oh wait, I don't even gave a record. Shit. That was probably worse. Oh and the murders. Although most of them were self defense. Most of them.

Either way there was still some cultist uprising to deal with and I didn't have time to hash it out with the local authorities.

So with that I used my armor's HUD to lock onto the hidden frequency that only my pipboy boy was designed to pick up. With a tingling feeling and a flash, I was somewhere else.

…

As the tingling sensation quickly faded, I smiled when I recognize the whitish silver of the bridge on board the Zeta. Though their had been some personal touches added over three centuries. The bare metal floor was covered by a lush red carpet, a few small red crystal chandeliers and throne in place of the captain's chair was a throne. Well Veronica called it a chair, I preferred the term authority seat. I had finally found a purpose for those small green crystals the Zetan's had lying around. They were more transparent metal than crystal and had forged them into a custom fitted throne currently hovering off the ground. That came from small eyebot hover technology hidden in the seat. It was comfortable to sit in, durable, intimidating and best of all, it swiveled.

Ignoring all that I jogged over to the holographic display just as a light blue little girl suddenly appeared in the air above it. She was wearing one of those old astronaut jumpsuits frequently seen in those old prewar Comcast books and she snapped off a quick but sloppy salute.

"Captain on deck! Welcome back sir, how was your night?" She gave me bright smile before 'hopping' out of the air and landing on the floor without a sound.

"You know it wasn't too bad. Failed to get drunk, got mugged, took down a gang and slaughtered a small army."

"Sooo the usual?"

"Pretty much." I gave a shrug, or as close to one as I could while in power armor. "Hey could you bring us around so we're right over Aven? There's something I need to take care of."

"Aye aye Captain!" She gave another salute. The view outside the large windows changed as the Zeta sped off to the right and after a few minutes I was looking down on Aven, or what was left of it. The city was situated on its own little mountain island the size of the East Coast in the massive sea of stone. Even from up here in could see the fires as the innocents down there were slaughtered in the name of a dark god. It was disgusting to see such needless death and pretty soon they would move on to the rest of the planet.

I delicately adjusted the targeting coordinates into the weapons systems. No need to rush the shot and possibly miss, even as unlikely as that was.

"Hey ah Cap?"

"Yes Sally?"

The blue girl waved her hand and a flat plane of light appeared in the air, showing the image of a horribly scarred and bald man smilingly, showing off his teeth that had been filed to points.

"This is being broadcast to the entire world from down there." She said pointing at the burnings city.

"People of V45-839, I bring good tidings from my masters. For you shall all give you lives to the glory of the ruinous powers. Even now Aven falls and the blood flows. Join us, renounce your corpse god and you shall be welcomed with open arms. All that you want can be yours! Merely rise up and take it!" The man was screaming now.

Blah, blah, blah I'm an evil insane person and you should do what I say. I had heard it all before from much more charismatic people. Finished with the targeting, I diverted 25% power from the shields and ship wide cloaking to the main weapon. It would be a shame for the nan to be cut off mid rant by orbital annihilation.

It was then that I pushed the button labeled in faded permanent marker "DEATH RAY! DO. NOT. TOUCH."

With a loud 'vroom' that could be felt through the entire ship, a green beam shot out from the bottom of the ship and towards the burning city.

"…so stand with me! Fight for you true master! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! HAIL CHAO-" then there was nothing but static as the transmission cut out. Looking out the window I smirked as I saw the massive city was engulfed by a just as massive ball of fire. I could see the surrounding area that hadn't been blown up, shift and crack as what must have felt like an earthquake devastate even more land. As I watched the fire dissipate slightly, I watched as a wall of dirt and dust traveled outwards towards one of the closer smaller cities that hadn't been taken over by the blood crazed cultists. Another few minutes of silent watching revealed a crater several hundred miles long in diameter and who knew how deep.

Satisfied that there was no chance of the cultists attacking the other cities on the planet. Also considering what I had read on Khornite cultists I felt justified that there wouldn't have been any civilians left to save. Best to wipe them out in one stroke. Now to properly celebrate the victory with a drink.

"I wonder if that bar is still open?"

…

Personally I've always been a fan of playing as brilliant characters. It's one thing to play as a big muscle bound brute and punching out vicious mutants trying to kill you. It's another to play as some like that but still be brilliant enough to debate and outsmart scientists. Albert is VERY smart and in this setting had access to the technology of the zeta, the Enclave, 's Lucky 38, the Sierra Madre, Big Mountain, Vault-Tec experiments, Nuka World, the Robot workshop and every piece of experimental technology found in the wasteland. The Institute doesn't count, they were dumb.

Now give him three hundred years. The end result would be amazing/terrifying. Add in the normal toughness of a fallout protagonist with all the potentially game breaking gear that could be made and you have yourself a one man army. Not to mention the most important aspect of any regimental character, looting your enemies equipment for yourself and finding epic loot. Now take the above technology and throw in some 40k gear to reverse engineer. And unlike most of the people of warhammer he has something exceedingly rare. Common sense.

Now here's something I want you to do for me. Give me suggestions. All that gear I described? No way am I imaginative enough to come up with it all so I'm looking for suggestions on what new gear Albert can use and I'll even take suggestions for Mods to use so long as it looks like it could fit right in the Fallout universe.

That's all I had to say so I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a good day.