Unknown Factory
Mio Sakamoto P.O.V
The area around the factory was grassy hills with a few small brick buildings falling apart scattered around the factory. There's not a soul in sight and the only wildlife Sakamoto and Minna has seen are a few birds flying over. The sun is only just rising up over a mountain to the east and there are only a few white fluffy clouds are visible in the bright blue sky. The air is more cooler than it's been recently and the smell of flowers Sakamoto is used to smelling when she first wakes up is gone, instead it's been replaced by the smell of oil and steel from the factory.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" Sakamoto asks as she scans the horizon.
"No I don't have a clue" Minna replies doing the same. "I don't recognise anything around here"
The two of them look around for any sign of civilisation but only see ruins and an endless sea of grassy green hills with a frost in the distance to the west and a tall mounting to the east. There are no signs of any human being anywhere near here recently. There's the sound of glass being crushed gets the two's attention and they turn round to see Yoshika and Lynne walking towards them.
"Yoshika are you ok? You had us worried there for a seconded" Sakamoto says as they she and Minna walk over to meet Yoshika and Lynne.
"I'm fine you don't need to worry" Yoshika answers.
"Good, Yoshika I need you to cheek if you can still use your magic" Minna says.
"Ok I check right away" Yoshika replies as she summons her familiar, a pair of dog ears appears on her head and a tail grows out of her lower back. She uses a healing spell on the air in front of her. "My magic still works fine"
"Great it only appears we lost our strength then" Minna replies as she turns back to Sakamoto. "Come to think of it we lost are weapons and Strikers is well"
"Ah I can't believe I missed something like that" Sakamoto replies as she smacks herself in the head. "I have no idea where they went"
"No me never I guess we have to hope the others find them during their search" Minna says as she shakes her head. "Now where were we? That's it Lynne, Yoshika Eila and Sanya found a medical room on the second floor near the front of the building. I want you both to go there and see if you can find anything useful"
"Yes ma'am" Lynne and Yoshika say both simultaneously.
Minna and Sakamoto watch the two walk off and go back to looking out and trying to come up with a plan. The wind is starting to pick up now as it blows over the grassy plains around the factory sending a shiver through Minna's body.
"Well at least its cooler here" Minna says trying to stay positive.
"Yeah maybe now I can complete my morning training" Sakamoto says back with a smile and her trademark laugh.
Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V
"Oh my god this waters is so fucking cold!" Erica loudly moans as she and Gertrud enter the flooded basement of the factory. In the dim light of the sun only two things that look like generators are viable and a large metal door at the other end of the room.
"Shut up Hartmann Minna ordered us to cheek the basement and that's exactly what we are going to do" Gertrud tells her as they walk towards the metal door ignoring the shivers in her body caused by the freezing water.
"Can't you at least carry me this water is freezing" Erica continues to moan.
"No now suck it up and come on the quicker we search the basement the quicker you can get out of the water" Gertrud points out as she reaches the metal door and try's to open it. The door doesn't budge so Gertrud summons her familiar and punches the door repeatedly until it falls over. Inside the room are several rows of shelf's and a metal cylinder in the centre which is slowly opening. Inside the tube is a man shaped machine that faces Gertrud and points his arms at her. "What the fuck is that?"
"Intruder detected" The machine screeches at Gertrud. "Eliminate intruder"
"What is…?" Gertrud manages to say before the machine fires two lasers from its hands at her forcing her to use her shield. "Erica help there's a machine in there shooting"
"What are you on about?" Erica says as she skips over to her smiling. But as she starts to pay attention to what is happening and sees her friend's shield her smile is wiped from her face. "Oh shit what should I do?"
"We are going to burst into that room" Gertrud tells her. "I'll go left and you right, draw its fire and I'll smash it up"
"Ok let's do it" Erica says as she runs into the room and Gertrud followers' right behind her charging the machine. Getting past that thing was surprisingly easy. It is slow and not very accurate. Gertrud easily makes it to a concrete pillar and takes cover waiting for Erica to draw its fire. Erica starts to throw random objects at the machine but unfortunately the machine pays her no attention and continues to fire at Gertrud. "Um Trude it hates you too much to attack me"
"Shut Hartmann annoy it like you annoy me!" Gertrud shouts as the machine closes in on her.
"Sure I'm on it" Erica says with a giggles as she runs and jumps on the machines back wrapping her hands tightly around its body. "Gertrud I could use some help here"
"Oh my god you are too reckless" Gertrud says as she charges the machine and punches it with all her strength in its hard metal chest. Her fist disappears into its chest causing sparks and smoke to seep out of the hole she made. The machine falls onto the flooded floor turning the clear cool water oily black.
"What the fuck is that?" Erica asks as she stands over the machine and pokes it with her toe.
"No idea but Erica I want you to go get Minna and bring her here while I start to search through these boxes" Gertrud says as she looks at the machine.
"Why do I have to go?" Erica moans. "There are too many steps to climb"
"Would you rather stay here and search through boxes?" Gertrud replies as she looks through the nearest box.
"On second thought the roof seems nice" Erica says running out of the room.
Charlotte E. Yeager "Shirley" P.O.V
"Lucchini are you done searching those cupboards yet?" Shirley asks she finishes sorting through a dozen boxes of gone off food. Shirley and Lucchini have found what appears to be a kitchen and are currently searching through the cupboards for food and water. Unfortunately all they have been able to find so is six bottles of water and a knife. Everything else here seems to be rotting.
"Yes but I could only find a plastic bag" Lucchini says as she shows off her find. "Everything else was rotten"
"Ok hold the bag open while I put the water inside" Shirley instructs as she picks up a bottle of water in each hand. She begins to drop the water bottles into the bag just as an alarm sounds and part of the wall slides open letting a metal man walk through the gap and into the room.
"Intruders detected" The metal man screeches as it raises its hands towards the two witches.
"Um Shirley what is that?" Lucchini asks nervously as she grabs Shirley's arm.
"I don't know but… watch out!" Shirley yells as she raises her shield to block several laser shots from the metal man. "Lucchini take cover!"
Shirley keeps her shield raised as she watches the young witch take cover behind the counter. She quickly dives behind another counter as she lowers her shield, she manages to grab the knife she found earlier as she dives and now holds it ready for battle. Shirley can her the metal feet of the metal man clank on the floor as it slowly and steadily walks towards her keeping both her and Lucchini pinned down with laser fire.
"Honestly I can't leave you two alone for a second can I, TONNERRE!" Perrine cockily says as before she shoots a bolt of lightning into the machine destroying it. "Now please tell me why that thing is attacking you"
"We don't know the wall just opened and it walked out and started shooting at us" Lucchini tells her as she peeks round the corner at the smoking metal man on the floor with fear in her eyes.
"We should report this to the Commander and Major right away" Perrine says and the other two nod in agreement.
Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V
Eila and Sanya are in the medical room helping Yoshika and Lynne search for supplies. Eila was the one that first found the room and was enjoying the fact that no one else has found anything as good as her yet. She was looking forward to bragging about it to Lucchini as they had bet earlier about who will find the most stuff. So far their search of this room has turned up two rolls of bandages, a full bottle of pain killers and three and a half boxes of plasters.
"All right I think that's everything lets head back up to the roof" Yoshika says as she crawls out of a cupboard she was searching holding a half filled plastic bag containing cotton balls in her hands.
"Well it isn't much but I guess it will do" Eila says as she looks over their collection of medicines. Just as they are about to leave a clanking sound comes from the hallway and is getting closer and closer to them.
"What is that sound?" Sanya says terrified as she hides behind Eila's back.
"I don't know but it's getting closer" Lynne says as she hugs Yoshika's arm.
"Everyone, hide and keep quiet" Eila says as the clanks sound like they are coming from right outside the room. The girls just manage to hide themselves just in time before some kind of machine walks into the room while another two wait outside in the hallway watching both directions.
"Scanning room" The machine screeches out as a blue light admits from its glass head and rolls up and down the room covering every inch. "Life form detected checking personal records. No match found lethal force is authorised"
As soon as the machine says that it opens fire with its laser and the other two spin round to join in the fight. But as soon as one of those machines open fire one of them it suddenly explodes and falls to the ground in a smoky heap. Then out of nowhere Shirley charges the other machine in the hall and slams a fire axe into its glass head with all her might. The machine instantly falls to the ground with sparks flying out of its head. Shirley doesn't get a chance to pull the axe out because the machine in the room now turns and fires at her. The machine starts to walk out of the room to get a better firing position on Shirley when Eila sees an opportunity to take it out. She picks up a metal tray and jumps over the table she was hiding behind striking the machine in the back of its glass head causing it to shatter but unfortunately the machine still stayed standing and turned round to face Eila.
"No, Eila!" Sanya screamed which shocked everyone in the room as she has never been so loud before. Sanya got up from behind the desk and charged the machine holding a wooden stool over her head. She managed to reach the machine before it could fire and hit it in the side of the head shattering the wooden stool on impacted. The machine falls to the ground dead, sparking and leaking black oil all over the floor.
"Thanks Sanya" Eila says as she tries to get over her shock of seeing Sanya act like that and scream so loud.
"Eila are you ok?" Sanya says as she turns to face Eila with tears in her eyes. "That thing didn't hurt you did it?"
"No I'm fine Sanya thanks to you" Eila says as she hugs Sanya. "So calm down ok"
"Ok I will" Sanya replied as she breaks away and wipes the tears from her eyes.
"Are you guys ok in there?" Shirley asks as she walks into the room carrying the fire axe.
"Yes we are all fine thank you for saving us" Yoshika says as she and Lynne gets up from their hiding space.
"You better be grateful I'm exhausted from that" Perrine says as she walks round the corner with Lucchini straighten her glasses. "That's the third time today I had to us that spell"
"We are thank you" Lynne says. "What are these things?"
"Don't know they just appeared and stared firing" Shirley says as she spots the pile of medical supplies lying on the able. "Here put these medical supplies in her with the water we found and come with us up to the roof and tell Minna about this"
Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V
"What is happening down there we though we head Neuroi beams firing and were just about to head down there?" Sakamoto asks as everyone but Gertrud appears on the roof. "Where's Barkhorn by the way?"
"She's still in the basement and says there is something you need to see" Erica replies as she catches her breath after running all the way to the roof.
"Ok but first tell us what's happening" Minna says as everyone gathers round her.
"These metal men came out of nowhere saying "Intruder alert" and started shooting at us" Lucchini tells Minna.
"What do you mean by metal men?" Sakamoto asks as he thinks about all the armour she knows about.
"They were some kind of machine" Shirley says.
"They shoot lasers from their hands and can detect people with a blue light from their glass heads is well" Eila adds.
"Ok we are all going to the basement together, find Trude and then we are getting out of here" Minna says before she walks through the group towards the stairs.
"I still don't understand what you mean by metal men" Sakamoto says as she rubs her chin and catches up to Minna.
"Don't worry there is one down there me and Trude smashed up earlier you can see" Erica says with pride as she sticks out her chest and smiles.
Brotherhood of Steel Headquarters
Fort Excel
Dean Carmon P.O.V
Dean was walking along the outer wall of Fort Excel enjoying the cool breeze on this clear blue day. Dean would normally walk the outer perimeter every day if the weather was nice. There is normally no one around to disturb him just an encircling reinforced concrete wall topped with barbed wire and sentry guns positioned on evenly around the perimeter wall. Only his footsteps on the pavement and the singing of the birds can be heard here if you ignore the swivelling sound the sentry guns make when turning. But peaceful times like these can't last for ever and Dean's time is ended by a call over his radio.
"This is Paladin Dean Carmon here" Dean says into his radio. The radio is built into his power armour that every Brotherhood knight and paladin wears. The power armour suits provide excellent protection from small arms fire as well as increase the wears strength, stamina and speed. The helmet has a built in radio and gasmask to help the wearer. On his left wrist the scribes has built in a Geiger counter and on the right they have added a map of the area.
"Paladin you have been ordered to head to the briefing room and wait for Knight Captain Franco" The voice on the other end of the line tells him. "You have been transferred to his squad and will be their squad's medic from now on"
"Ok I'm on my way" Dean replies as he begins to walk back towards the old fort built years ago to defend the coast from attack.
The two large guns of the fort lay dead but soon the Knights and Scribes say they could be working. The fort is buried under a grassy hill under the two great guns with only five small metal doors and two hatches to leave and enter by. As Dean walks her passes by twelve Initiate doing there morning training of push ups and hand to hand training, another six are at the firing range and two more are retrieving medical attention, probably from the hand to hand training he thinks back to how much he hated to be a Initiate. The inside of the old fort is tight and cramped until you take the lift down to the bunker that was built before the Great War that destroyed the planet and turned the world into a radioactive waste land. The bunker is wide and open with wide well light corridors, several rooms and rooms overflowing with supplies from which the Brotherhood used to build the outer wall when they first arrived at the fort six years ago. The briefing room isn't hard to find as it is the first door on the left when you exit the lift.
Dean enters the room to find two fellow Paladins and a Knight Sargent already there. They are all sitting down quietly and only give Dean a quick glance as he enters. They probably think he's a liability out there in the field as he only just got promoted to Paladin three weeks ago and has only been involved in combat four times before. Compared to these guys who go out and fight on a daily bases he is still a baby in the world of warfare. He only just manages to seat down before Knight Captain Franco walks into the room with an eye bot follower in him around floating just above his head.
"Alright brothers I'll get straight down to business" The Knight Captain says as he dims the light and uses a remote control to start a projector. An aerial image of a raider camp lights up the wall behind the Knight Captain. "These raiders have been digging around their camp defences recently and have just unearthed an old-world drone. The Elders believe this drone to contain important technological secretes that can help us rebuild the world to its former self. Our mission is to move in, eliminate the raider camp and recover the drone's head as that is believed to contain the brain of the machine. Does anyone have any questions?"
"Yes what kind of weaponry do the raiders possess and what are their numbers?" The Knight Sargent asks and only now Dean could tell she's a woman. It is nearly impossible to tell with all the power armour she wears but that voice is too feminine to belong to a man.
"Our scouts say they are only equipped with rifles, submachine guns and shotguns" The Knight Captain tells her. "Satellite and Scout reports show there are only twelve raiders at the camp and two dogs"
"What's the attack plan?" The Paladin to Deans left asks. "Is it going to be a fire fight or sneaking type attack?"
"The plan is to move to this ridge here and recon the camp" The Knight Captain says as her uses the remote to change the pitcher to a close up of a ridge that overlooks the camp. "We'll make our attack plan from there and I'll provide sniper fire from this position"
"Is that eye bot coming with us?" The same Paladin from before asks.
"Yes it is a prototype eye bot with advanced amour and weaponry. Are there any other questions?" He answers and waits a few minutes for someone to ask him a question. "Grab your gear we move out in thirty minutes. Oh Jayson, look after the rookie today"
"Don't worry sir I'll take good care of him" Paladin Jayson answers and he turns out to be the Paladin that never spoke during the briefing. "Come on rook lets go gear up"
We walk into the armoury across the hall and line up behind the rest of the squad to get our weapons and ammo from behind the glass wall at the other side of the room. There's a young teenage boy behind the glass collecting a Gauss rifle and pistol for the Knight Captain. The Knight Sargent is next the boy hands her a laser rifle and pistol. The Paladin that I don't know steps forward and receives a Gatling laser and pistol before turning back with a smile on his face.
"Oh by the way George over there loves big guns and fire power" Jayson tells me as he steps up to the counter. He receives a laser rifle, pistol and a missile launcher from the boy. "It will be a big mistake to get on his bad side"
"Good to know" Dean replies as he takes his laser rifle and pistol from the boy.
"Alright everyone I just realized we never introduced ourselves to the rook" The Knight Captain says as he comes over to Dean. "I'm Knight Captain Alex Franco, Knight Sargent Samantha Gold but everyone calls her Sam over there is my seconded in command, I believe you already know Paladin Jayson Rights here and finally that guy with the big gun is Paladin Nathan Hiller"
"Nice to meet you Paladin Dean" Knight Sargent Gold says as she reaches out her hand.
"You too ma'am" Dean replies as he shakes her hand.
"Oh we don't care about rank in our squad so call me Sam" She says with a slight laugh. "Just obey orders in the field ok"
"Well now the introductions are done les head up to the surface and get some fresh air" Alex says as he touches both Dean and Sam on the shoulder.
"Sounds great I hate being underground" Jayson answers and the group start to walk towards the elevator.
"Yeah we even have some time to sunbath before the mission" Sam happily says as she presses the button to send the elevator up to the old fort.
"Calm down you won't get tanned with the time we have to wait" Nathan says as the elevator door closes and it starts to rise.
Unknown Factory
Erica Hartmann P.O.V
Erica was leading everyone down to the basement where Gertrud was waiting for them and searching through the flooded storage room. They manage to reach the flooded room without running into any more of those metal men but from the clanking sounds echoing through the building it is obvious there are still more of them out there hunter the witches down. The water is still freezing cold and like Gertrud the others have refused to give Erica a piggy back ride over the water.
"Hey Trude I'm back and I brought everyone else" Erica calls out as she walks into the storage room.
"Erica be quiet those things are looking for us remember" Minna tells Erica as she spots what everyone else has been on about, a metal man lying dead on the floor spilling oil into the clear water. "Is this one of those metal men you lot told me about?"
"Yes it is" Shirley says as she taps it with her toe to make sure it's dead.
"It doesn't look deadly" Sakamoto says as she bends over to examine the machine. "Where did the lasers shoot from because I can't see any weapons on it?"
"It shot them out of its hands" Lucchini quickly adds.
"Hey guys" Gertrud says as she walks up to the group who now has the machine surrounded. "We have a big problem"
"What is it now we have enough problems as it is?" Shirley says as she turns round to face Gertrud.
"Well we are not in our time anymore" Gertrud quietly says but no one hears her so she takes a deep breath and says it again louder so everyone can hear. "We aren't in our time anymore. We are in 2279"
"What are you on about Trude" Erica says as she walks up to her friend. "Don't joke around like that even though it's good that you found your sense of humour"
"I'm not joking I accidently switched on a box thing back there and it had the date and time in the bottom right corner of the screen" Gertrud replies as she avoids the hug Erica tries to give her. "That explains these laser firing machines is well"
"Show me this box" Minna orders and Gertrud leads her to the white box and points to the date and time. "I can't believe this is happening"
"Minna its ok it's probably wrong" Gertrud says trying to comfort Minna.
"I don't think so this technology is far more advanced than anything I have ever seen before and I don't think any country is close to reaching this level ever" Minna says. "We most likely are in the future"
"Uh Minna we need to get out of here those machines will find us down here eventually and even if they don't will get sick standing in this water for too long" Sakamoto says as she comes up behind the two.
"Yeah your right" Minna says as she gets up. "We are going to head for that forest we saw in the distance and try to think of something"
Brotherhood of Steel Headquarters
Fort Excel
Dean Camron P.O.V
Dean and the rest of his squad have gathered in front of the outer wall gates and are in the process of completing their final perpetrations before leaving. In will take them about twelve hours of walking to reach the cliff face. Everyone is in high spirits as they wait for the Knight Captain to join them and order the big metal gats open. Apart from Dean and his squad there is only two other Brotherhood members here, both are Paladins guarding the gate with their laser rifles.
"Is everyone ready to go?" Alex says as he walks up to the group.
"Yes sir" Everyone replies eager to get going.
"Good answer, open the gates" Alex says as he takes up position in front of the gate. One of the paladin palls a lever causing the gate to slowly creeks open. "Let's get moving I want to be in position by nightfall"
On the other side of the gate is a small bridge joining the fort with the mainland. The bridge has seen better days as several holes in the floor are spanned by ever metal or wooden plates and most of the brick railing has disappeared. At the end of the bridge are another two Paladin are standing behind a sandbag wall. Two eye bots fly over the squad as they cross the bridge patrolling the forts perimeter. Outside the fort there are several ruined and burned buildings lining the shore. A small fishing boat lays stranded on top of a ruined house with a large hall in its hull and the mask snapped into several pieces.
"Man our ancestors sure knew how to make a mess of the world" Jayson says aloud as they walk through the ruins and step over burnt skeletons. "It's a shame they didn't get a chance to put the dead to rest the dead"
"Yeah I would hate to think of our brothers and sisters lying out their dead and not being able to find peace" Knight Sargent Sam says.
"Well there is nothing we can do about it know so let's keep on moving" Nathan says as he steps over a skeleton of a child lying curled up on the curve.
"He's right people; we need to keep moving if we want to make it to the cliff on time" Alex says as he walks around the same skeleton.