I know, I know…where have I been? Author's note at the bottom explaining my absence. Nevertheless, I do not own Fallout or its characters, ideas, ect. If you have a criticism or critique, please leave a review. Special thanks to The Enclave Assassin, Kenny ZeWolf, mercyspace, DeathDealerInc.; CrimTheSoleSurvivor and LobsterMonster420 for submitting OCs. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! I'm not sure if I'll be able to hit the level of quality the last one was at, but we'll see.
God bless, JPLegends
CHAPTER SIX: Our New Battering Ram
Austin couldn't help but stare at what was right in front of him. Here it was, a suit of T-60 Power Armor. Slightly rusted, with heavy adjustments. Austin drops his pistol on the floor with a loud clang and he runs over to examine the seven-foot tall armor. The metal is course and rough as he runs his hands over the coating. The left arm and right leg are more and less the same with some polish and-somehow-rust. The right arm was bits of shredded armor and bone mounted on it, but is mostly frame. The left leg's armor is replaced entirely with new, mostly rusted metal. The chestpiece is built specifically for super mutants: large, rough, and bloody. And the head was still there, but it was practically untouched. Yuwan must not use it in combat that much.
Austin could see the metal door that was separating angry super mutants from them start to melt from the plasma. Alison wasn't very impressed at the armor, and was more concerned about the fact that the door was about to melt. Austin took a few steps back, thinking about the situation they were in. This is it! This is how they win against the Spear! Quickly, he takes his combat rifle and his sniper rifle off, as well as his rucksack with all the ammunition. He slides behind the power armor to see the slot in which the power cell goes inside and….
It's empty.
Austin punches the armor in frustration, and instantly regrets his decision. He takes a breath and looks at the door. It's starting to vaporize. The steam emanating off the steel as well as the red glow is a bad omen, and the super mutant's stream of plasma bolts isn't letting up. He slides in between the wall and the armor again to look around the room. He sees the desk he checked earlier, as well as a cupboard, two more bookcases, and a navy military case. He runs over to the military case, which has the dulled out inscription 'Her Majesty's Armed Forces.' He opens it and finds a minigun. Perfect, but not what he needs. He runs over to the cupboard next. Inside is an assault rifle, a combat shotgun, and what looks like a long necked rifle with lever action. Under these is a shit load of ammo, or each weapon respectively. Next he runs to the desk. He passes Alison, who is watching him work intensively.
He checks each slot, and when he doesn't find anything other than paper he throws it onto the floor. He checks every single slot until the desk isn't a desk anymore, and it's flipped over thanks to Austin's frustration. He sees the door starting to form holes. It's red hot. He looks around the room one last time, and out of the corner of his eye, just lying on the bookshelves, is the power cells he was looking for. He sprints over, grabs five, and slides back behind the power armor. There isn't much time, so he has to make this quick. He takes a cell, its blue glow radiating brightly off of Austin's skin. He inserts it into the slot where the power armor goes, and uses his fist to hammer it in. He turns the wheel and the power armor opens up each piece of metal splitting or moving to reveal an open place where the body goes. Austin grabs a shoulder frame and puts his foot on a platform, and makes his body fit the form the armor is in. After three seconds, the armor closes around him and Austin looks out of the helmet he is in. He sees everything perfectly and he steps out of the compartment, the metal grinding against itself and the hydraulics pumping.
He looks down at Alison, who looks both terrified and baffled. Austin smiles, completely masked by the full-face covering helmet. He grew an extra foot in the armor and looks completely imposing. Austin picks up his rucksack as well as his pistol, combat rifle, and sniper rifle. He then walks over and pulls the assault rifle, shotgun, and lever-action rifle out of the cupboard, slinging them over his back. And then he reaches into the military case, and pulls out the minigun and holds it in his hands. He has a gun filled with five hundred bullets, and five more barrels to boot. He walks over to the door and aims his minigun haphazardly, at the door. He looks at Alison before he does anything.
"Stay behind me, and tell me if anyone comes behind us," Austin says, his voice sounding like it was coming out of a radio. "I'm going to kick these fuckers where it hurts."
"You actually think this'll work?!" Alison asks, her voice anxious. Austin smiles stupidly.
"Yep." He says simply. Alison groans and pulls out her own assault rifle, hiding behind Austin. Austin takes a deep breath and raises his foot into the air, bringing it crashing into the door. The door flies off its hinges, sending it crashing into the stone wall across from them and sending a few shocked super mutants back. Austin pulls his new minigun up and holds down the trigger. He catches a few looks of fear from the super mutants, and he hears deep screams in fear as the super mutants start to run away. The gun spins up, and in a loud rattle a hail of bullets start pelting the stone wall, passing through a few super mutants, which splatter blood over the wall before being eviscerated and falling over. The blood and gore soaks into the walls, floors and hits Austin's armor a little bit. Still holding down the trigger, he spins around to his right, where the rest of the mutants started running. Screaming in fear, the mutants are quickly silenced through the sound of the rattling minigun and the sound of the hellfire of bullets ripping through thick flesh, tearing them into bits and spraying blood all over the wall and floor. After twelve seconds, Austin takes his finger off the trigger and smells the gunpowder in the air. Littered on the floor are bits of super mutant carcass, and a lot of blood and gore. None of them got the opportunity to fire back.
"Holy shit." Alison whispers, looking at the slaughter. Austin looks around, thinking hard. They have the upper hand now, but it'll only be a matter of time before the war-hardened mutants start thickening their defenses. They have to move quickly. But first….
"This is valuable loot they have," Austin says, moving forward. "Pocket any weapons that have plasma or laser properties." Alison takes a few minutes to grab both sidearms and rifles that have energy properties and hands half of them to Austin. He can carry plenty more, but they can share the burden. The move forward down the hall and thinks of priorities.
"Greene, Bryson, come in," Austin says. "We've procured power armor and are headed to your location. How are you holding up?"
"This is Greene," Greene's voice reports over the radio. "Bryson took a hit in the rib. Super mutants are starting to flood us. You say you have power armor?"
"And a minigun. Austin's a violent person." Alison says, her voice still shaky.
"I try. We're also headed your way with some powerful weaponry." Austin says, stepping through the pool of blood, guts and brain.
"Hurry the fuck up, then," Greene says. "We won't be able to hold out for much longer. Greene out." Austin and Alison start jogging back through the path they came from until they find themselves back in the mess hall and back into the foyer. The trip back was surprisingly uneventful. Austin figured this was because of the fight in the courtyard, and that they were also busy prepping defenses in the middle of the castle. Concerning, but right now, they need to get to Bryson and Greene. They make it to the front doors and Austin covers against the door, listening on the other side. Gunfire is heard, and the sounds of super mutants yelling at the top of their lungs. Austin looks at Alison and nods. Alison takes a deep breath and aims her assault rifle. Austin kicks open the doors and holds down the trigger to the minigun again.
Another hail of bullets exits the minigun, ripping through a horde of super mutants who were taking cover behind a large wooden palette, four of which hiding behind it and three in front of it. In about fifteen seconds, the screams of the super mutants are silenced as they fall torn to pieces in a pile of gore and blood. Austin and Alison walk past the seven mutants dead on the dirt floor, and take cover behind the palette. Austin sees three wooden towers in the center of the courtyard in a triangle formation, with the bottom facing them. On top of the towers is scaffolding leading to the different towers, and wooden walls inside the courtyard, and the scaffolding from those walls lead to the actual walls. And on the dirt and mud ground is more slabs of wooden palette everywhere. Yuwan must have prepared for a fight.
"More humans!"
"Robot man! Power armor robot man!"
"Kill them all!" Austin knew that they couldn't stay too long. He gets out of cover to be greeted by lasers and plasma hitting his armor straight in the chest. He winces in pain, staggering back. He nearly fell, but kept his balance and looked to see where the barrages of energy are coming from. Two super mutants are on top of the towers facing them and one is on the scaffolding in between the two towers, and two more mutants on the ground-one wearing formidable armor with a melee weapon of some sort, and the other with a hunting rifle-coming straight for them. Austin takes aim with his minigun and holds down the trigger again. He sprays bullets at the super mutant on top of the right tower, killing him. He sweeps left, killing the next two mutants and sending them off the towers with the force of the bullets. As the middle mutant falls off the scaffolding, he tries to grab on and fails, causing the scaffolding to fall onto the ground. As he is still holding down the trigger, he finds that his minigun suddenly ran on empty. He sees Alison fire her assault rifle at the super mutant with the rifle in the neck three times. The bullets pass straight through the neck, causing the mutant to grab on to his neck, and gargle in his blood before falling over and…
Something hard hits Austin in the side of the head. Austin yelps in pain, the metal of his helmet ringing in his ears. He drops his minigun and falls to the floor, the metal clanging against the dirt. "Motherfucker!" Austin yells through his teeth, before he turns around to see what hit him. The super mutant in armor is standing over him with a sledgehammer, and he looks to be prepping for another swing. Austin tries to get up as fast as possible, but the mutant screams and swings the hammer again. This swing hits him in the side of his neck, and causes Austin to faceplant into the mud. Austin anticipates the next strike and when he pulls himself back up, he plants his arms on the side of his head. He feels something hit his forearm, and even better, he sees the sledgehammer snap on contact. Austin pushes himself up with his legs and shoves the broken hammer out of the way, prepping a hard slug to the super mutant's jaw. The punch lands, and the super mutant is pushed back from the force. He loses his balance, making him fall over. Austin takes the opportunity to walk over and drive his boot into the super mutant's neck. He hears a cracking sound, and with more pressure, the super mutant's eyes gloss over. Austin takes a deep breath, and picks up his minigun.
He reloads the gun, taking a drum out and putting a new one in, while walking over to where the reports seem to be coming from past the right castle. There, he sees Greene behind cover shoot a super mutant. The mutant falls over before more lasers and plasma force him to go back into cover. Austin runs up in between the two fighting groups and starts spraying at the super mutants. The mutants, startled, are forced to fall back and eventually fall out of sight. Austin counted at least five of them carved through by the gun that now lay on the ground in a pile of viscera. Austin turns at Greene's patch of cover, who is looking at him with a stupid grin on his face.
"Ho-ho-holy shit," Greene says. "A man after my own heart!"
"We have what we need to get to the refueling point," Austin says. "How's Bryson doing?"
"He's out cold, but he's stable," Greene says. "Ali, help me out." Alison runs over and helps Greene pick the large man up.
"I'll cover you," Austin says, rolling his shoulders. "Let's get in there and finish this."
"If we survive this, drinks are on me," Greene says. "You saved our asses." Austin moves forward, keeping in front of Greene and Alison as they carry the unconscious Bryson slowly across the courtyard back toward the entrance. Austin sees the super mutants appear and they start firing. Austin keeps firing the minigun, keeping the mutants suppressed, but also killing whoever tries to step out of their cover. Austin's armor is battered by plasma and lasers alike, and they keep hitting him with insane force. His armor is white-hot, and a lot of the chest piece in burned. But he keeps firing and keeping the others out of the way. They eventually make it back to the door, and as the others make their way inside, Austin keeps firing at the mutants. He kills about seven in the entire walk and uses two drums. He keeps firing, until Alison comes forward and hurls a grenade at the structure the mutants are hiding behind. It explodes in fire and shrapnel, and the burning wood and metal collapses on top of the mutants. A few got out, but with no cover, Austin makes quick work of them. With that, Austin closes the door and reloads his minigun. Two drums left.
He turns to see Greene and Alison standing over Bryson, injecting a stimpak and covering the bleeding wound. After, they back up and catch their breath. The fight isn't over yet, but they have a chance to breathe quickly. "Greene, here," Alison says, handing Greene a laser rifle. "Beam-splitted. A laser shotgun." She also hands him a plasma pistol. "And this is for when you run out of cells."
"Merci," Greene says, taking the weapons gladly. "So, what's next?"
"I saw the plan for the building where we got the power armor," Austin says. "The refueling point is in a common area deeper into the castle. And I'm willing to bet there are more mutants holed up in there. We get in, plant those charges, get out, and get back to Fudono. Simple enough."
"Yeah, except you guys apparently brought down the fucking roof." Greene says. He wasn't lying. It seemed necessary at the time to get away from the Spear while fighting in the foyer, but bringing the second story down now pretty much blocked all hopes of getting further into the castle. The only route that allows them to head where they want is the door to the dining room.
"We start moving through that door," Austin says. "Will we have enough time to carry Bryson with us?" Greene responds by taking a hunk of wood and banging it hard against Austin's armor. The loud clang apparently wakes Bryson up, and he is awfully startled.
"Where are we?! Where'd the mu-HOLY SHIT, A ROBOT!" Alison's face looks bright red, trying not to laugh. Greene wasn't so subtle, he laughed with the enthusiasm of an evil lawyer. Austin shook his head, as Bryson quickly came to his senses. He stands up quickly and holds onto his stomach, grimacing in pain. The wound looked singed and cauterized, with blisters near the wound. Easy laser wound.
"Bryson, you missed a lot," Greene says, smiling devilishly. "You see, Austin here was brutally wounded and was forced to undergo surgery that made him into a cyborg!"
"Uh-huh," Austin says, his voice ripe with sarcasm. "Look, we don't have time. We have a shot to get to the fuel. We have to take it. Quickly!" Greene didn't argue. They all got to their feet and headed to the door to the mess hall. Austin took the front with the minigun so that he could provide both insane firepower and protection for the others. Bryson and Greene, with their insanely powerful weapons, were behind Austin and ready to take any shots they could. Alison was shoring up the rear, prepared to lob grenades at the nearest opposition. When they enter the mess hall, Austin looks around and sees a door off to the right, almost parallel to the staircase. They head over and Austin kicks open the door. They head through and Austin begins opening fire at the numerous tall, muscular, green psychopaths. Austin rips through them almost immediately, hearing the sounds of bullets ripping apart flesh and mutants screaming in fear. Bryson was also firing with his gauss rifle at any mutant he could see before they either get ripped apart by Austin, or someone other than Austin kills him.
"That's it, you ugly, green, bastards," Greene yells, jovially. "Run for your lives! We've got us a new battering ram, motherfuckers!"
"Dude, chill." Austin says, taking chinks to the stomach and face, protected by the armor. They keep moving forward, pushing the mutants back by murder. Austin was astounded at the absolute number of them, but was surprised that they were so lightly armed. They followed and slaughtered the mutants down a hallway and reach a door, which leads into a library of sorts. A library of sorts because there weren't many books, and most of the structures were destroyed. They were replaced by lounging areas. Beds, spits, the works. As they broke into the library, they found themselves on top of a second level to the library, with staircases that were supposed to be there destroyed and replaced by sprawling ladders and wooden scaffolding. Lots of super mutants are at the bottom, with tons of laser rifles and plasma rifles. Plenty of heavy armor was between them and they were hiding behind tons of wooden structures. Austin suddenly was hit in the chest with tons of lasers and plasma, and he was starting to feel the metal melting. He grimaced in pain and ended up stepping back, getting hit by even more lasers and plasma. Alison, thinking quickly, runs forward and chucks a grenade into the center of the room. Mutants scream, Austin sees a few bodies move before there is a ball of fire and shrapnel cutting through the wood. The fire being put on Austin stopped briefly and the group took the opportunity to start moving, while Alison kept throwing grenades.
The explosions kept crashing through the air in the center of the room, and Austin ran around the left of the second floor, taking shallow breaths while running. When he got to the side of the center room's encampment, he dropped off the level and whirred up his minigun. The bullets starting tearing through the wood and whatever super mutants Austin saw, with tons of screams running throughout the building. Eventually, the screams went silent and Austin guessed that the Super Mutants were dead. That happens when they take explosions and miniguns to the face. Alison, Bryson, and Greene join him at the lower level of the floor.
"You good, Austin," Greene asks. "That sounded like a bad hit to the chest." Austin felt like his chest was burning.
"The chestplate is melting," Austin replies, looking down at the white hot, practically liquid metal. "It'll break in a bit."
"We could stop for a second," Bryson offers. "I could that thing together."
Bryson's offer is quickly rendered null void by a super mutant screaming "I'LL WEAR YOUR GUTS AROUND MY NECK AND EAT YOUR EYES!"
"Charming." Alison says.
"No time to wait," Austin says. "Let's keep moving."
The reason is double. This was a really hard chapter to write and it was originally supposed to be MUCH longer. I spent a while writing while keeping up with my school schedule. But I could only get so far in the story before...giving up and that was making me care less about the chapter. It's already really long. So, I'll just finish up this battle next chapter. Deal? Deal. I'll be more inspired and in a better mood to finish out the fight.