AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi Everyone! This is my first posting, I hope you enjoy it. Some of you will notice that some of the spelling is wrong eg "Polarised" instead of "Polarized" The reason for this, is I'm an Australian, and we use an 's' instead of a 'z' in "ised' or 'isation' type words, so i apologise (See!) if there's any confusion with the crossover of English/American - English/Australian Grammar.
This story, like many of my others are the product of dreams, including my first published novel, and many of my works on other websites.
I'm working on a few stories, including another Fallout universe fanfic, which i will post soon as I;m satisfied with the first chapters
I hope you enjoy Daughter Of Steel!
Daughter of Steel.
Olivia Romano couldn't wipe the grin off her face; the recently promoted Junior Paladin was finally going on her first patrol outside the Brotherhood of Steel's hidden bunker in Hidden Valley. After years of being cooped up in the hulking metal bunker, and she was finally going to feel the sun on her face, or rather, the sun on her T-51B Power Armour helmet.
Head Paladin Hardin and Elder McNamara had stood proudly before her at her promotion ceremony, and she was surrounded by friends and comrades as she received her Junior Paladin Rank.
"Your parents would be proud, Olivia, I know I am. I have watched you grow from a shy young initiate, to the confidant young soldier who now stands before me. Steel Be with You." Elder McNamara had said, smiling at her.
"For the Brotherhood!" she said, saluting her Elder.
Only days before, the Courier had helped the entire chapter by convincing the Elder to lift the lockdown. Olivia's patrol would be the third in as many days to go out and scout some nearby areas for technology, food sources and other items that could be of interest to their chapter.
She stood resplendent in her refurbished T-51B power armour, only the second set that she had worn. Her first set was for bunker use only. Her laser rifle was slung behind her and she held her helmet in the crook of her arm, while she waited with the other three Paladins in her patrol.
Head Paladin Hardin gave them their mission briefing in the command centre.
"The Town of Nipton was recently savaged by the soldiers of Caesars Legion, we have information that there may be pre-war tech in some of the abandoned houses, there are also several areas in that region that may contain other technology which may be of interest to our Scribes. You are to locate and retrieve any tech. We are not anticipating any combat situations, but we are aware of a group of petty raiders who call themselves the 'Jackals' that operate in the Nipton area be on the lookout, and stay sharp."
He nodded to each of the Paladins before him, his eyes staying on Olivia for a few seconds more, noticing the eagerness in her large, hazel eyes. "Take it easy rookie, Listen to your senior Paladin and keep your eyes open."
Olivia nodded, eyes shining with excitement, "Yes Sir." She said enthusiastically, grinning like an idiot.
Hardin dismissed the patrol and they marched through the bunker to the entry. Paladin Ramos met them and checked over their weapons, he went over every piece of their Armour, checking for faults that the paladins may have missed in their excitement at finally getting out of the Bunker. He thumped each paladin on their Armours shoulder pauldron as they passed his inspection.
"Go get them kid." He said to Olivia as she passed, she turned to him,
"Thanks Ramos." She said, still grinning as she put on her helmet, completing the Power Armour.
She was sealed in, the 'heads up display' activated. Compass, time, longitude and latitude information, personal dosimeter and friendly/enemy displays all played over the bullet-proof glass lenses in her helmet. The suit was fully powered and easy to move around in. much easier than the compulsory dead-weight suit training that she had undergone about six months ago.
Olivia took a deep sigh, trying to calm her nerves and excitement.
The door opened and the light of sunset broke through the dust momentarily blinding her before the lenses in her helmet polarised. She was the last to step out of the Bunker, the door closing behind her with a sense of finality. She held her laser rifle at the ready, and marched behind her fellow Paladins.
They departed Hidden Valley in the artificial sandstorm that camouflaged their home.
The lights of the NCR correctional facility shone to the southwest of the gates that led to the bunker complex. The Paladins marched through the dark, past the large prison which was now empty due to an NCR operation to take back control of the place. They followed the old Railroad through cuttings of high rock. Olivia keeping a sharp eye on the rocks overhead, aiming at anything that would make a noise.
Senior Paladin Reske looked at her, "Easy Kid, Its nice that you're alert, but don't go shooting at shadows, trust your equipment, conserve your ammo." he advised her over their in-built communication system.
"Yes, Sir."She replied over the comms
There was a landslide that had covered the tracks, and a small number of Bark Scorpions were scuttling around. Reske and Gomez cleared the road with their Gattling Laser and Minigun, taking out the offending scorpions with ease. They passed a Coyote and her young, but left them alone. The animals growled at then fiercely as they passed.
Nipton was quiet. The bodies of crucified Powder Gangers stood as a testament to the brutality of the Legion. Olivia looked up at one man, He was serene in death, clad in the blue simple uniform with his arms lashed to a crude cross.
It seemed such a harsh punishment for someone to endure. She looked closer, reaching up to the side of her helmet, activating the zoom control, she noticed there was a bullet wound in his chest. She reached up to touch the wound. Someone had shown these men mercy in ending their suffering, and she had a feeling it wasn't the Legion who had given them their mercy.
"Romano!" Senior Paladin Reske called to her, his voice sounding tinny with the enhancer on his helmet. "Leave him be, these Wastelanders are not our concern." He turned back to the abandoned house he was about to enter.
Olivia jogged up to cover his back while the other two Paladins checked another house.
It was soon evident from the computer terminals that there had been some pre-war tech in the form of two Mister Gutsy robots, one was inactive, having suffered severe damage and the other was nowhere to be seen. They marked the damaged bot for salvage with a tracking marker and continued to search the abandoned town.
The other houses, Nipton hotel, town hall and trading post had nothing else of interest, and the patrol moved on. There had been rumors of a crashed Enclave Vertibird past the hills, and an old Nuclear test site. The Enclave Tech was definitely worth checking out, and would be a great addition to the Chapter if they could salvage it.
The patrol moved quickly through the hills, past flocks of Bighorner sheep who gave them cursory looks before moving away. The countryside blended with the darkness around them, only the north shone lighter with the fluorescent hues of New Vegas.
On the way to the crashed Vertibird they were attacked by a large group of Feral Ghouls, Reavers and Glowing Ones swarmed over the four Paladins.
Reske's Gattling Laser and Gomez's Minigun made short work of many of them, and Olivia was fortunate enough to take out her first Kill. Sshe smiled from beneath her helmet as the ghoulified human, its body and brain so ravaged by the radiation nearby that it no longer thought as a man does, attacking anything in sight, but leaving its own kind.
As the bodies lay about them, their weapons cooling, Paladin Connors congratulated Olivia on her first kill.
"Nice shot, Romano, just the first of many I'm sure." She nodded her approval.
"Thank-you, Ma'am." Olivia replied, pride in her voice, she walked over to the pile of ash which had once been a radiation ravaged human, and poked it with the tip of her boot. The pile blew away on a whisper of wind to spread across the Mojave wasteland. Olivia felt no pity for the Ghoul that she had killed, they were getting a merciful end to their horrendous, insane existence.
They followed the base of the cliffs, searching for the downed enclave vertibird. They had not found it when the eastern sky became light with dawn. Reske called a halt to rest until dusk.
Reske removed his helmet and looked around with his eyes, "We'll camp here." Romano, secure the perimeter, twenty meter radius, standard observations, report back here asap."
"Yes Sir!" Olivia responded. She scouted around on his orders, checking the perimeter of their camp for any threats. "All clear!" she called, heading back down from the slight hill.
Reske settled on the ground, resting his back against a rock. his blonde locks had a slight streak of grey to them. He was one of the more experienced Senior Paladins on active patrol duty. He settled back against a rock and lifted a bottle of water to his lips. His blonde locks suddenly scattered with chunks of his brain and flesh across the dusty ground as his head exploded, a rifle crack was heard less than a second later.
Olivia looked in shock as Reske's body went slack and slumped to the side, no head left on his shoulders, his prized Gattling Laser pinned beneath his heavy armored body and unreachable.
Time seemed to slow as Olivia dived behind a boulder as bullets began to fly, ricocheting against the rocks that surrounded them.
"Stay put, Romano, use the cover!" Connors called to Olivia, who was now separated from the other two Paladins, and the only one who still had her helmet on, to stay down.
She risked a look around the rock that protected saw several figures in crimson Armour.
"Legion!" she called over the comm system to the others.
Connors fired her tri-beam laser at the enemy, risking a peek and aiming at one of the legionaries cost her dearly, she took a bullet in her neck.
Olivia watched as her comrade fell to the ground, twitching in agony as the blood rushed from the open wound between her fingers as she desperately tried to stem the flood.
Gomez reloaded, slamming another pack of 5mm rounds into his Minigun and firing from behind the cover, the casings cascaded behind him into a clinking pile.
Olivia took aim over the boulder and fired. She heard a hiss as a legionary disintegrated into a pile of ash.
It was when Gomez's minigun overheated that Olivia knew that they were screwed,
'Oh Fuck!' she thought to herself, breathing heavily, her heartbeat racing. She was on the verge on panic, 'My first patrol ends in my getting everyone killed, how could I be so fucking careless?'
The adrenaline pushed its way through her system, her heart thundering in her ears, her mouth dry and her hands began to shake. Her body's 'fight or flight' response had kicked in.
Gomez was trying to cool his weapon when the ground beside him erupted with the percussive explosion of a frag grenade. Without his helmet on, he was killed outright. The force of the explosion threw Olivia from the protection of the boulder.
She heard a shout and as she scrambled to get back to the safety that the boulder held, three small, cylindrical objects dropped into the dust beside her. With a tell-tale pulse of a blue dome, cracking with electricity, each pulse grenade detonated a second after the first.
Her Power Armour went haywire, the servos began to fail, they whined in high pitches and she found her arms and legs flailing out of her control. Her muscles screamed with the mistreatment from the Armour's dying motions. She cried out as he muscles and limbs were pulled in directions that they were not meant to be pulled in.
Her jerking motions caused her to throw away her laser rifle, it clattered away across the blodied ground to rest against a rock, out of reach and useless to her now.
As the pain got too much to bear, she began to lose consciousness. As the suit finally died, she lost consciousness. The last thing she saw before the darkness took her was the sandal-clad feet of the surviving legionaries before her helmeted head.