What the hell is a Mirelurk!?
"Sir, you are now in the custody of the Enclave, so I highly recommend you answer my questions to the fullest and without hesitation. Non-compliance will mean ah get mightily irritated with ya and just toss ya out the back of this fine vessel."
Rodney gulped; the man interrogating him had what he considered a very intimidating southern accent. He was dressed in a long overcoat and was armed with a giant looking pistol. A pair of men in smocks worked beside him attaching all sorts of doodads and wires to him. They didn't look any friendly as they tore his clothing to get to his body.
"What did you do with my friends?"
The angry looking man in front of him made an unpleasant face.
"If ah knew what became of your so called friends ah would tell you, as their bodies would make a good motivation for you. Unfortunately it seems some of dregs of the wasteland got to them first and hauled them away. With any luck, they'll become slaves in Paradise Falls if they don't mutate into Ghouls from the ovah-exposure to radiation. Now answer mah question. Where did your ship come from?"
Rodney quickly took in his environment; he was strapped down to a chair with what looked to be a polygraph like machine attached to him, and several soldiers standing around. At least he assumed they were soldiers, the heavy armor they wore made them look more like mythical demons. He had no doubt that the man in front of him would make good on his threat to toss him out the airlock of this fast moving vehicle.
"I'm not sure you'll believe this, but it's from the ancient city of Atlantis."
Within moments of saying it, an electrical shock ran through Rodney's legs causing great pain. He screamed and tried to get free, but nothing budged.
"Do you enjoy insulting mah intelligence? Tell me how the brotherhood came into possession of such advanced technology or ah will drop your body into the irradiated rivah!"
"No no! Please! It's true! I'm a Scientist working for the Atlantis Expedition and we came to survey your planet! We didn't mean any harm! I don't know anything about a Brotherhood!"
The man in front of Rodney nodded to the side and another shock went through Rodney's legs, this time more intense. For the umptybillionth time in his life, Rodney wished he had a decently good sense of creativity as he screamed in agony.
"ah do not know how you ah fooling our machines, but if you do not start telling tha truth this conversation is ovah, and you'll be nothing moar than another irradiated corpse in the wasteland."
Rodney shook his head vehemently; he did not want to end up that way.
"Let me prove it to you! Please don't kill me! I can prove it! Just take me back to my ship and I can prove it!"
The man raised an eyebrow, and motioned for the scientist next to him to hold.
"Very well sir, when we land you shall have 5 minutes of my time to prove ah did not make a mistake in allowing your overly fed hide to survive."
The man got up and went into the forward section of the craft, every soldier and scientist saluted him as he went through.
In his mind, Rodney knew he was screwed, he only hoped that Sheppard and Vega weren't as bad off as the southern man imagined and were already planning to rescue him.
"Come on Vega, shake it off."
Vega rubbed her neck, and wondered if she had whiplash. The 'Lone Wanderer' man stood off to the side, holding a heavy and technical looking weapon. John knelt next to her and gave her a hand.
"Thanks Colonel, I'll be okay."
He nodded, and looked back over to the Lone Wanderer.
"Hey buddy, any chance I could ask you a few questions?"
The man took another moment to make sure the area was secure, and nodded to him.
"Make it quick, we need to move."
Vega pulled herself up, and looked around, the devastation was depressing.
"Well to start. What's your name? Lone Wanderer is cool and all, but it's kind of a mouthful."
The man chuckled, and showed a toothy grin.
"Call me Robert. And you?"
John held his hand out in greeting.
"I'm John."
He motioned for Vega to jump in too.
"I'm Alicia… nice to meet you I guess."
The man shook each of their hands, taking extra care in making a courteous bow to Vega that if she weren't so badly hurt, she'd be flattered, when noises nearby made him go completely alert. He went low and took a few steps out of the crater they were in; he kicked the floor softly and cursed.
"Fuck… Talon Mercs. Don't suppose you guys have any guns?"
John unholstered his sidearm and racked the first round, for some reason he didn't like the sound of 'Talon Mercs'. Alicia did the same and they all took cover near a large jutting concrete slab.
Robert looked experienced in this setting, he pressed his back against the slab and leaned out carefully, John crouched next to him, his gun pointed down and ready to raise and fire.
"Alright… looks like they didn't see us. They're probably just checking out that field the Enclave set up."
Robert relaxed a bit, but kept his rifle ready to fire. Both John and Alicia were worried.
"Who the hell are Talon Mercs?"
"And why are we hiding from them?"
Robert gave them another confused look, the same kind one gives to a person who doesn't know what toilet paper is.
"The hell did you people come from? Fuck!"
He peered out again, and got a bit more nervous.
"You guys any good with those?"
John nodded, as did Alicia.
"Alright… I'm going out there, you guys don't have decent armor so try and give me some distraction fire once the action starts."
John reached out and put a hand on Robert's shoulder.
"Wait! Why can't we just get outta here? There must be somewhere safe nearby."
Robert shook his head, but seemed reluctant at the same time.
"Alright, I can take you guys to Rivet City, but these bastards are probably looking for me anyways. So like I said, wait till you hear fighting, and then open fire."
John didn't let go even as Robert tried to move off, but after a moment, Robert tapped a few buttons on his armor, and then almost magically became translucent. His voice came from seemingly nowhere.
"Trust me; I've dealt with these fucks before."
Both John and Alicia were too shocked to refuse. Robert slipped out from John's grip and went out of sight in the dusty and war torn environment.
"Goddamnit…"
John motioned Vega to take a higher position along with him behind a concrete slab; hopefully it would provide enough cover for them once Robert did whatever he was going to do. Stealthily, they climbed up and peered out, trying to blend in with the environment.
The Talon Company Mercs were moving in a broken formation, John didn't recognize any of the weapons they carried, but they looked powerful, he couldn't make out Robert anywhere and hoped he hadn't just abandoned them.
So it came as a big surprised when one of the Talon Mercs suddenly started jumping around screaming and cursing. A moment later, an explosion from his lower body tore his legs off and sent his upper body flying through the air. Both John and Vega looked at each other and waited.
The Talon Mercs went into proper formation then, realising that something was attacking them. But whatever it was they couldn't see it. John watched carefully as they scanned the area, trying to find what it was that killed one of their men. A few moments later. Another one of them jumped in shock and did a similar cursing dance before blowing up as well.
The 3 men left began to fire in the general direction of their fallen comrade. A combination of automatic rifle fire, and what looked like some kind of laser rifle. None seemed to connect with anything though and one of the men tossed a grenade as well, hoping to at least detect what had attacked them. It detonated in much a similar way as the two prior explosions, but nothing screamed or even showed up. Robert was evidently very good at what he did.
The Mercs got in close formation, swinging batons around to try and find anything trying to sneak up on them. They began to fall back, retreating from their unknown assailant.
A mighty whoosh suddenly tore through the afternoon air, and a bluish orb ripped through the sky and connected with one of the Mercs heads tearing it clean off. The Mercs left saw where the shot had come from, and opened fire, trying to hit their attacker.
John nodded to Vega and aimed, taking care to make sure he would hit at such a long distance.
The crack of their sidearm's alerted the Talon Mercs to their position, and even as they took hits, they returned fire trying to suppress John and Alicia.
"Damn!"
John ducked behind the slab at the same time as Alicia; a smattering of rounds had landed right in front of them and shot a spray of concrete dust up, blinding them. They heard another loud whoosh and a frenzied curse from the remaining Talon Merc. He said some rather spurious things about his attacker's mother, and despite now being outnumbered, he still charged towards the Atlantean's position.
John nodded to Vega and they jumped up, opening fire again.
The 9mm rounds from their berrettas shattered against the metal reinforced ceramic of the Talon Mercs combat armor, but he staggered under the impact of multiple rounds. He raised his laser rifle and fired off a trio of shots, one connecting with John's shoulder before going down from a headshot.
John had been shot before, and he knew that the biggest thing was to not panic. But the sheer heat he felt against his shoulder instinctively made him jump back and howl in pain. The laser blast had melted his Kevlar and Nylon vest into his skin causing an incredibly painful, if superficial wound.
Alicia gave him a moment of her gaze, and then turned back to make sure the Talon Mercs was down. John tried to peel away the vest but found his skin had adhered to the fabric and he'd need a doctor to safely remove it. He took a moment to let the pain subside, then got back into position and saw the 5 dead Mercs on the floor in front of him.
"Robert! You okay out there?"
From seemingly nowhere, Robert appeared above the last Mercs, examining his wounds. He waved John and Vega over and muttered to himself.
"Come on! I need your help!"
Vega took the lead, jumping down off the slab onto the floor; she looked back to John and gave him a worried look.
"You gonna be okay Colonel? You look a little crispy."
He shook his head and followed her down.
"Just a little well done, I'll be fine."
Truth be told it hurt like hell, but John had long ago learned to dissociate pain from his conscious mind and focused on the situation at hand. They joined Robert above the dead Talon Merc who Robert was now stripping of gear.
"Whoa… What are you doing man!?"
Robert again gave them a surprised look.
"What do you mean? Help me grab all their ammo and meds. Take their guns if they still work, those popguns you've got don't have enough punch for this area."
John and Vega gave each other grim looks, and then nodded. Field stripping the bodies of fallen enemies was a gruesome task, but in this situation it seemed prudent.
John picked up the laser rifle he'd been shot with and looked at it.
"This thing looks like it's seen better days."
Robert, now completely frustrated looked at John and started yelling.
"I'll see what I can do with it later, Just move! Grab everything you can and take any armor that isn't broken, you'll need it! Move!"
If they weren't in such unfamiliar settings, John would argue back, but he nodded to Vega and got to the disturbing task.
"See! Even though most of the systems are pretty damaged, I can still access the database, so uh… you're not gonna kill me now?"
The now named Colonel Autumn waved a pair of technicians over; they went over the information on screen and after a moment gave him a thumbs up.'
"It seems for the moment you have bahgined for your life. But if what ya say is true, then our scientists will have many questions for ya."
Rodney had made sure to silently encrypt any important information in the jumper, but now he was worried.
"Uh… what kind of questions?"
Colonel Autumn shuddered as if he found the genius scientist incredibly annoying, which for all intents and purposes, he did.
"The kind you will answer or pay for it with your life. Now silence that apparatus you call a mouth and wait here for our chief of science!"
He stomped off, with a pair of the heavily armoured soldiers escorting him, Rodney looked to the Technicians but they said nothing, not even acknowledging him. He tried to step out of the jumper but walked into a solid metal obstacle, an Enclave Shock Troop in power armor.
"Don't try it."
Rodney backed up, the armor made the man inside seem almost demonic. He scurried back inside, well aware of the bulky looking plasma rifle now levelled in his direction.
"Ok alright! Please, I was just looking."
"Sure. Just don't get any ideas."
Rodney rubbed his hands together and tried to stretch his stiff muscles, the crash had left him incredibly sore and he was amazed he didn't break anything. He remembered being picked up and having something injected in him before fully waking up as he was dragged out of the crashed jumper. He had no clue what happened to Sheppard and what's her face? Vega!
He nervously stood between the mean looking technicians, and the terrifying looking soldier guarding the aft hatch. His only consolation was that he wasn't under the threat of being Wraith lunch, although a Yao Guai didn't sound any better.
Finally, a tallish blonde woman in a white smock entered through the back and stood in front of Rodney, seemingly examining him through her proper looking glasses.
"Uhhh... hi? I'm Dr Rodney McKay."
The woman didn't reply, and instead adjusted her glasses and began to take notes on a wrist mounted computer.
Rodney gulped, and despite knowing he was attracted to her, she'd probably be just as blood thirsty as her boss.
"Can you at least tell me your name?"
She stopped taking notes, and raised an eyebrow. She held her hand out courteously.
"My name is Dr Dephany Manning, I am chief of science for the Raven Rock facility, and I have many questions for you Dr Rodney McKay. To begin, what field of medicine or science do you practice?"
In stark contrast, she was actually quite civil… well... civil without the constant threats of dismemberment.
"Oh no, I'm not a medical voodoo doctor… my fields are astrophysics and mechanical engineering, real science."
He mentally kicked himself; he always talked too much when he was nervous. The strange and almost offended look Dr Manning gave him was similar to ones he'd gotten from Dr Keller when talking about the same subject.
"Uhh…Well of course….not that being a medical doctor is a bad thing, I mean, I've always had to go to doctors my whole life for one thing or another and if they were all voodoo priests than maybe I'd be dead already, not that I want to be dead! Actually, I love Medical doctors! My girlfriend is a medical doctor and…"
Dr Manning snickered, which was the last thing Rodney was expecting.
"Calm down Doctor. I agree. The field of Medicine is quite boring; perhaps you'd like to share some of your knowledge in our lab?"
Rodney gulped, maybe he wasn't about to die, but he didn't like the way she so eloquently volunteered his help in whatever diabolical scheme this so called Enclave was working on.
"Jesus! What the hell is that thing!?"
Vega took cover quickly, as did the other two. She wasn't used to wearing such heavy armor and it slowed her down a bit. She tried to make heads or tails of the assault rifle she'd scavenged off the Talon Mercs when the 6 foot tall monster in front of them had scared the life out of her.
It looked like the crustacean version of a demon, a heavily armoured shell around a bi-pedal creature. A pair of very sharp looking pincers as well as rows of teeth on what looked like a face made Vega swear she'd never do drugs again.
"Mirelurk hunter... you guys really aren't from around here are you?"
John, feeling a bit strange since he took the stimpack Robert told him to take that he'd taken off the corpse of the first Talon Mercs, kept low and hid behind the corner of the building they were passing.
"Oh does it show? I'd have thought I'd fit right into this place."
Robert chuckled, and put something that looked like a battery into his rifle.
"Mind giving me a hand with our dinner?"
Vega shuddered, his words left a nasty taste in her mouth.
"You wanna eat that thing? It looks like it could cut me in half!"
Robert shrugged, and flicked the safety off his gauss rifle.
"Oh trust me, it could. But that's the thing about Mirelurks, they're definitely dangerous and quite deadly, but they're also incredibly delicious and nutritious!"
He didn't wait to hear their replies as he stepped out, and crouching, took a shot with the heavy rifle.
The now familiar whoosh sound was highlighted by the crack as the Mirelurk was knocked down, the shot tearing into its main body shattering it's crusty exterior. It struggled to get back up and Robert waved John and Vega forward.
"Come on! It's not dead yet!"
John nodded vehemently to Vega and both jumped out as well, laying down fire on the beast.
Robert reloaded his rifle, tossing the spent micro fusion cell over his shoulder. He slammed a new one into place, and taking careful aim between the volley of rifle fire from Vega, and laser fire from John, put another 2MM round square into the head of the Mirelurk Hunter.
It finally squirmed and died, its right claw torn clean off. Behind him, emerging from the river, a pair of smaller but equally deadly looking Mirelurks came out in full rage.
"Oh shit! Aim for the legs!"
Robert started to backpedal, and slammed another micro fusion cell into the ancient gauss rifle. John, now standing beside him, fumbled trying to reload the laser rifle.
"Who built this confusing piece of junk!?"
Robert fired, and knocked the Mirelurk on the left back and it slid down the gentle slope back into the water, it probably wasn't dead, but it wouldn't cause too much problems now, the other 'lurk was only a few feet away now.
Vega moved in and pushed Robert back, ignoring his words and instead aiming her now reloaded assault rifle to the face of the oncoming monster. She held the trigger down and 4 seconds worth of automatic fire poured into the Mirelurks face, completely stunning it as it stumbled around confused.
John finally managed to reload the laser rifle, and shouldering it, hammered shot after shot into the staggered Mirelurk, tasting the surprisingly delicious scent of cooked crab on the air from the impacts.
Robert on the other hand, pulled what looked like a sword out from his backpack and charged ahead, seemingly unafraid of the giant pincers. He spun the sword around and a great flame burst from it suddenly as he drove it into the 'lurk, both cooking and cleaving a deep crevasse into it. He swung again and again until the Mirelurk didn't move anymore.
The other Mirelurk, seeing what happened to his friend, decided to live another day and swam away in the irradiated murk of the river.
Robert shut the flames off his shiskebab sword, and used it to cut into the now dead Mirelurk. He sniffed the air and smiled at the taste.
"See what I mean? Deadly, yet delicious."
A/N: There's plenty of Fallout References so far and for those who haven't played the game, a Mirelurk is a giant mutated crab, and I'm assuming that the Lone Wanderer has already helped the Outcasts in the Operation Anchorage expansion, hence the Chinese Stealth Suit and Gauss rifle. I'll try and explain some of the factions as time goes on and in a non obvious way.
I've got some semblance of a plot already drawn up, but just like the game I can always add stuff if people want. I'm also sorta making it an AU but that won't come into play until the next chapter.