Cait's words were still heavy on Tessa's mind as she stood at the edge of College Square, the small shopping district with a terrible feral ghoul problem and located directly next to the Cambridge Police Station that'd been acting as an outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel. The small party of Railroad agents and allies were hidden in one of the abandoned buildings. Tessa suspected it had once been a diner though it obviously hadn't served any customers in centuries, booths were left abandoned and plates unwashed, radioactive dust layering them. The three Railroad agents Desdemona had sent with them were over by the door, watching it carefully as patrols of Brotherhood went by on the far side of the square. They were just about to assault the police station, checking their ammo over one last time and waiting for the break in their security. Since the Brotherhood had come to the Commonwealth they'd done a lot to improve their position, and properly securing what they'd staked their claim on was certainly the first step.
As the patrol passed, Tessa fidgeting in her power armor and wishing she could wipe the sweat forming on her brow, Tinker Tom began to speak. "Okay, we take them out and we should be clear to get to the station," he said, and with a nod the nine of them prepared to fight. Tessa stepped out first, her gun lowered and she cleared her voice.
"Excuse me, soldiers," she called forward, the helmet making her voice sound off and funny. The three of them turned around swiftly, snapping their laser rifles up and glaring at the woman. In the pouring rain of night it was hard to tell who was who, and without the integrated systems of her PipBoy as well as the power armor, Tessa might have been afraid of shooting someone she actually cared about. Instead, as they stood their ground and started shouting at her to identify herself, she could only smirk inside her helmet as Cait, Tango and Whisper snuck up behind them. Before they could even blink their necks had been snapped, and the three dragged the bodies inside the diner.
"We've only got a small window so let's go," urged Tinker Tom, and the team quickly rushed out into the rain and down the ghoul corpse ridden street. Seemingly the Brotherhood had at least taken care of one problem. By the time they had gotten to the perimeter of the police station, no one had taken notice of them. MacCready went around the brick corner, low with sniper drawn, and scanned what was before them. The police station was encircled by a wall of barricades, a walkway on the upper half while they were still shielded from the wild wasteland. There were riot barriers and other sorts of barricades, various sandbags further in and other sources of cover to protect the on guard Brotherhood. There was as many as ten outside on the ground, while five more could be spotted on the roof patrolling back and forth. Just as Desdemona had claimed, a vertibird was on the top, ready and waiting for someone to steal it.
Creeping back around, MacCready nodded his head. "It's there," he whispered, "So are fifteen of the bucket heads, five on the roof, six in power armor total with three on top. We ready for the split?"
"There's a building on the north side of the station," said Tessa, "that's where the hole is. So long as you four get there we can keep them in a crossfire."
"Understood," said Tango with a smooth smile and wink, making Piper arch a brow at him while Curie giggled. He gave an awkward cough, and gestured away. "Let's move then shall we?" Whisper, Tinker Tom and MacCready all departed with him, careful in the downpour as they worked their way around the buildings towards their needed position. While they provided suppressing fire, the bulk of the attack team would head from the front and directly engage the Brotherhood. Their primary goal was to force their way inside, as they could handle whatever was on the roof thereafter while the sniper team would assist them. Once they'd secured the vertibird, Tinker Tom would move in and depart with Tessa, and with luck it would all go well from there.
Of course, Tessa had long ago learned few things went according to plan.
Checking her weapon once more, Tessa's armored head bobbed as she gave a firm nod. "Come on. Everyone make sure we stay close but not too close, watch out for each other and please no one get killed."
"Hey Tessa," whispered Cait, "ya sure ya can handle yerself without that shit in yer system?"
Instantly Tessa stiffened, glancing to where Piper was giving Curie one last check that she had enough ammo and healing items for the fight, and then glared at Cait. "Yeah." Before they'd departed, Dr. Carrington had approached Tessa about her ongoing chem situation. Much to her displeasure the whole Railroad seemed to be talking about it. He'd offered to help her the best he could as otherwise it might impair her in the field and this was not a mission anyone could risk failing. While he had assisted her with her physical needs, making it so her body did not crave the chemicals on their own, there was nothing he could do for her mind. As a precaution, Curie had confiscated all of her chems with the exception of a few med-x and of course her stimpaks. Watching her take them away had made her want to scream, beg for them back, and it was enough to show her she really did have a problem. Before she'd have easily tossed it aside but now she wanted it bad, felt as if she was doing something wrong with them near.
"Ya sure?"
Shaking herself, bracing for the intense battle that was about to erupt, Tessa nodded swiftly. "I'll be fine."
Before either of them could say anything else, the first shots rang out, signaling them to get moving. Tessa went around the corner first, her heavy steps covered by the return fire of the Brotherhood. They were able to get up to the barrier wall before anyone took notice of them, and lasers streaked across the enclosed walkway within the perimeter wall at them when they did. Curie muttered a few choice words in French before darting across to where she could fight but was still protected, gaps in the barrier on the lower half allowing them to shoot inwards while their enemy could fire out as well. Cait impatiently waited for a chance to move in closer while Piper fired off a trio of precise shots with her pistol. Tessa spotted a soldier in regular armor stagger, clutching his shoulder before she finished him off with a shot to the head with her hunting rifle. Valor gave a soft grunt as a laser lanced his chest, burning the upper layer of his armor but made no other noise as he rised a railway rifle and obliterated the first target that came into view.
The trio of power armor clad soldiers on the roof started firing rapidly down below, trying to use their height advantage against the attackers before a volley of gunfire started beating against their armor again and again. A small part of Tessa reveled in the sight of one turning to fire at their sniper team only for his head to explode in gore as spikes and bullets alike tore through him. That momentary glee faded as someone screamed from the side, and she could hardly keep her mind focused. The thought of a friend getting hurt made her want to protect them, desperate to rush to their aid and with a shot of psychojet she'd have easily sailed across to them. A hand moved towards where she normally kept the syringes, only for the armor to stop her and the reminder that she didn't have them on her anyways. Piper caught the motion, and Tessa could only hope she hadn't understood what it meant. Wanting to beat herself for that slip, Tessa missed the advancing soldier and was rewarded with a trio of shots to the shoulder. Even in power armor it still smarted, and she hissed as she returned fire.
"Ah fuck it!" Shouted Cait as she dashed outwards, ignoring Tessa and Piper's pleas alike to wait a moment longer. The redhead dashed across to the police station, weaving between laser fire like a snake before she sprinted up a pile of sandbags and jumped over the barrier in her way. Roaring fury, her right fist came forward and the deathclaw gauntlet tore the head clean off a soldier. Rolling with an unnerving skill, Cait was on her feet and attacking the next soldier in her way. Great streaks of red burst from their chest as Cait killed them, laughing with a sadistic glee. Before the fist fighter could get herself killed, outnumbered and with little protection thanks to her close fighting style, Tessa rushed forward to assist her, knocking over the soldier that had shot her earlier. He screamed as someone behind her shot him.
Gunfire danced around Tessa as she advanced towards the police station. She felt nigh unstoppable in her power armor, the systems keeping her informed of everything going on from hull integrity to the same things her PipBoy did. One of her favorite features, as always, was V.A.T.S. and as she approached a soldier taking aim at Cait, she slipped into the fancy piece of technology and queued up a few shots. Her rifle sang death as three bullets pierced the side of the woman's skull, blowing her brains out and the splatter covered the nearby wall.
It was a hard to see in the rain, making the firefight more difficult for both sides. Even with their integrated systems like Tessa's, the suited soldiers seemed to be having trouble identifying who was friendly or not and actually finding where to shoot. Unfortunately for them, it couldn't tell them elevation and several shots at the sniper team were entirely off, the soldiers assuming they were on the roof or poking through half boarded windows rather than the lower lying hole in the building. Tessa however, was well used to the tech by then, and as a red bar dashed across her vision she dodged just in time to avoid a savage attack and kicked away a power armor suited soldier.
"Traitor!" They shouted, a gatling laser in their hands. The barrels began to glow red hue as they spun, and with a shout of her own Tessa fired rapidly into their visor while strafing to the side. Then a trio of spikes joined her shots, and Valor whooped in triumph near the barricades. Grunting, they staggered to the side, spikes imbedded in their helmet while the tactical light blared out blinding white in Tessa's vision. Lasers shot out as they tried to kill Tessa, the blonde having to activate the emergency servos to move swift enough in the heavy armor to dodge the sweep of disintegrating death. Then with a loud wrenching sound, the soldier fell forward with Cait standing over them, the corpse bloodied with a deadly tear in their neck.
"Madame!" Screamed Curie just a moment before something exploded, sending Tessa onto her back. When her ears had stopped ringing and the world was no longer spinning, she caught sight of the missile launcher wielding soldier on the roof, and her heart nearly stopped. Knight Rhys, dawned in full combat armor, sneered down at her. He adjusted his aim, and Tessa scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could as another missile sailed down, striking the earth just inches from where she was. Propelled forward, the blonde woman crashed into the barricades, bending the metal supports and groaned softly. The sound of her slightly modified Brotherhood of Steel issued power armor administering a stimpak was a relief, the healing chemicals rushed through her veins and restoring her hearing. "Madame are you alright?" Curie asked swiftly besides her.
Gritting her teeth, Tessa pulled herself out of the warped barricade. "I will be," she hissed, "he wants me so stay-" she cut herself short as the whoosh of another rocket filled the air over the roar of rain and gunfire, and instinctively Tessa grabbed Curie, pulled her close and turned her back towards the police station. She'd been nearly blown up several times in her life, narrowly avoiding the blast, but this was a direct hit and hurt unlike any other. Fire engulfed the pair as they were sent directly into the barricade, Tessa's arms wrapped around Curie and she clutched her as tightly as she could. The synth cried out as they smashed the barricade, the second hit making that section collapse on top of them. Her mind was a mess of emotions and sensations, back burning and tingling while she thanked god for sturdy power armor. Already the stimpaks were pumping into her veins, desperately trying to heal the damage while system alarms warned her of severe damage to her torso. Then her thoughts all snapped into one, and she forced herself up best she could to look at the synth.
She'd seen Curie broken before, hurt and injured to a point Tessa feared she might die, various run-ins or the one time a deathclaw had gotten her. Despite having a synthetic body, Curie was fairly organic, only a few important parts of her not such as her brain. However she was more resilient than humans, capable of enduring far greater damage before something gave way, and often recovered quicker than one should. While she went out of her way to keep Curie safe, there were a few occasions where not even Tessa could keep her out of harm's way. Curie gasped in pain, fingers fumbling with her pockets for a stimpak. There was a lot of blood, burns having eaten up most of her clothing despite Tessa's attempt to shield her from the blast. "Doc! Blue!" Piper's voice pierced the night as she ran towards them, slipping on slick ground. "Are you- Oh... Oh no..." Her voice cut short as she took in the damage. One of Curie's legs was certainly not supposed to go that way, probably crushed and twisted by the armor or debris, bone sticking out of her skin.
Tessa couldn't get her mouth to work as she tried to help Curie, but the power armor was like wearing mittens, unable to use her fingers properly. Piper rushed in and administered the healing items their lover desperately needed, Curie groaning in soft pain as they took effect. "So much blood," muttered the blonde at last, shaking inside her power armor.
"Blue!" Shouted Piper, drawing her attention just enough. "I'm going to take her somewhere she'll be safe, back in the diner. She can't fight like this." Tessa stared at her through her visor, still trying to process it. "Listen to me, please, you have to finish this fight!"
"Can you stabilize her?" Asked Tessa softly, her voice echoing in her own ears which were still ringing. The power armor wearing woman offered her some med-x, a compartment of her armor sliding open, and the reporter took it with a grateful nod.
"I'll do what I can. Be careful," replied Piper as she lifted the injured synth in her arms and started carrying her away from the heated battle. The moans of her lover made Tessa's heart ache, only for that ache to erupt into a fire of rage and destruction. Turning around, she realized why they hadn't been blown up an additional time, Knight Rhys laying dead on the rooftop with a bullet between his eyes, one hand draped over the edge of the building while his weapon was discarded to the side. She hoped it was MacCready that'd done it.
Valor had moved further up, fighting viciously with a pair of knights dressed in combat armor, ducking and dodging as spikes and lasers fired off again and again, narrowly missing each other until at last Valor shot one in the throat while a laser blasted into his shoulder. Howling with rage he dropped the railway rifle, unable to support it anymore, and rushed with a knife. Cait was tangling with another soldier in power armor, dodging back and forth around their attacks. The sniper team had finally been discovered, and the laser fire entering the gap in the building was enough to keep them from returning the offensive. Shuddering with rage in her armor, Tessa wished for the bliss of psychojet but discarded the notion. Her body might not have needed it, but that didn't stop her mind from thinking it did. Her friends and allies needed her, but not the raging bloodthirsty her.
At least, not a chem induced raging bloodthirsty her.
With a roar of rage as she pictured Curie's injured body and Piper carrying her through the rain, Tessa surged once more into the fight. There wasn't as many soldiers on the ground anymore, Cait and Valor making eery work of them while Tessa had been preoccupied. With a scream she slammed her elbow into a soldier that'd been trying to shoot Cait, and smashed his face in with her heavy armor. Blasting his chest for assurance, she drew her shotgun and started screaming as she fired at the last power armor knight on the ground. With their back to her, she had a clear shot at their fusion core and began to fire again and again until she'd hit it. The knight exploded in a ball of radioactive fire.
"Inside! Now!" Ordered Tessa, and with a nod Cait and Valor obeyed, running up to the side of the building. There was a pair of soldiers left on the ground level outside, but they were soon dead as someone on the sniper team came to the assault team's aid, Tango running up to join them and covering their rear. On the count of three Tessa kicked in the blue doors and slipped into V.A.T.S. as the interior of the police station exploded into chaos. Inside there was five Brotherhood of Steel enemies, only one in power armor but as her eyes settled upon the familiar paladin her heart grew hard. Though he wore his helmet there was no mistaking the rank emblazoned on him and the scars upon the metal frame she'd nearly memorized. Water was glistening on the metal plates, probably meaning he'd been among the soldiers on the roof, and with a soundless scream Tessa targeted him and a trio of rounds exploded from her gun and peppered everyone in her way with lead.
As time returned to a normal speed, a few soldiers staggering from her attack, Cait ran forward and shrieked as her fist met flesh and wrenched someone's head off with a gruesome snap. Tango pinned someone by their shoulder to the receptionist desk of the police station, various litter and junk strewn about that were scattered as the fight intensified. Valor charged at the nearest Brotherhood like a bear, smashing the small scribe Tessa recognized as scribe Haylen into the singular pillar within the lobby and filled her stomach with spikes. The woman groaned in pain, and Valor ended her suffering with a pair of shots to her head. The wall was stained red, but Tessa hadn't the time to admire it. Instead, she faced off against Paladin Danse and ignored the bullets and lasers pelting against her or the turret that had popped down from the corner of the ceiling by the doors on the far side.
All she wanted was him.
Danse brought his rifle to bare and lanced her chest with a trio of shots in the time it took her to cross the lobby and slam her shoulder into him, sending the suited man backwards and then brought her shotgun into his face and fired again and again. He slid back, rooting his feet and shoved her off into the doorway to the left of the main entrance towards the motor pool. Tessa shouted in fury as she found herself bumping into more soldiers, having to fend their attacks off. The stimpaks were pumping into her body at an alarming rate, more internal warnings coming that she needed to find proper cover. Whirling around, she started firing at those around her, bloody explosions all around her as death retorted in the police station. She could hear something mechanical explode, presumably the turret, and as she ducked to the left of a knight whom she swiftly killed with a burst of shots to the head and chest, Cait came rushing past.
Reloading her shotgun as the fiery haired woman provided a grand opportunity, distracting them as the bloodied devil of a fighter swore and murdered without hesitation, Tessa caught sight of Paladin Danse once more. Unfortunately for her, he'd caught sight of her beforehand, and nothing but red filled her vision and she had but only a moment to close her eyes. Her visor disintegrated, red hot ash exploding onto her skin that further blinded her and the freckled woman screamed in agony, shaking her head as she retreated further into the offices of the station, finding herself in a holding area with cells. The sounds of fighting reached her ears just barely over her panicked heart, and she wiped futilely at her face to clean it only for the gauntlets protecting her hands to have trouble fitting into the cracked visor. Valor's primal shout as he was thrown into a wall reached her ears, erupting through what was shielding Tessa and revealing her to the heated battle. The Railroad agent landed at her feet and groaned in pain. She blinked rapidly, but the burns to her eyelids made it difficult to open and her panicked shakings had loosened some to fall directly in her eyes, making green orbs stream with pained tears.
Entering through the new hole in the wall, Danse stomped onto Valor's chest and sneered at the injured woman. "Do you see what you've done Grey? If it weren't for you none of this would have happened!" He shouted, ignoring the agent beneath him's attempts at getting free and slowly forced more and more of his weight onto Valor. Soon grunts of hate became gasps of pain. "If you'd just been loyal all of these lives would have been spared!"
"You'd have killed the Railroad anyways," uttered Tessa, gasping herself, the modified helmet attempting to repair the damage done to her with healing protocols and internal ventilation to eject the loose radioactive ash. The small shards of her visor that remained flashed warnings and alarms.
"But you'd be at my side, not at the end of my barrel," replied Danse before he aimed at the scarred man beneath him.
Surging forward with all the strength she had, Tessa tackled Paladin Danse and the pair of them went tumbling into a cage, bending the aged steel beneath them. She raised a hand and punched his face, repeating it twice before his own visor shattered. Dark eyes burned into green ones before Tessa went to strike him a third time. Danse caught her fist and returned the favor, the tactical light mounted on her helmet popping and fizzling as it was crushed. "Why dammit!" Shouted Tessa as she blocked his followup strike. "Why couldn't you have just not cared about the synths! You didn't have to like them but to want to destroy them? This could have ended differently! We could have beaten the Institute together!"
"Synths are abominations, atrocities in the name of science and progress just like what brought us the Wasteland and the end of the world!" Shouted Danse as he surged forward, overpowering her and throwing the woman off of him. Luckily Valor had gotten up already, else Tessa would have trampled him. Instead, the scarred man started firing into Danse with his railway rifle, ripping whole scores of armor from the man, sending damaged metal flying to reveal the frame below.
"He's mine!" Shouted Tessa, smacking away Valor's rifle. The man blinked at her in confusion, before giving a grunt and rushed to join the ongoing fight elsewhere. "Get up," she ordered, Danse spitting blood in response. "Get up!"
Slowly the man obeyed, rising to his formidable stature and glaring hate at the woman. "What you still have a scrap of honor left in you? Where was that when you butchered your comrades twice and now a third time!"
"You were my friend," Tessa said hoarsely, still having trouble seeing but it was well enough now, "I owe you that much."
"I don't deserve special treatment," he replied, "I'm just a soldier like the rest of them you slaughtered without a second thought."
"You were my friend!" Shouted Tessa, deactivating her damaged power armor and stepping out of it. Danse eyed her carefully, trying to see what she was planning, and she held her hands out as tears streamed down her face, both of anger and from the ash. "I don't want to kill you dammit!"
"Why not!" He roared back, stepping out of her power armor as well. It was too far gone to do anything but slow him down now.
"Because I'm weak!" She screamed. "I can't protect anyone I care about, I can't even stop myself from doing stupid and reckless things! Curie is out there hurt and I'm in here fighting because I'm too weak to do anything else! If I'd just been strong enough to let go of my son, if I'd have realized that this could only end in blood and fire, none of this would have happened. You'd still be my friend and Curie wouldn't be hurt and Piper wouldn't have been shot and-" She couldn't speak, hyperventilating as everything came crashing down around her. Despite being in the middle of a battle, though she hardly noticed that there was a strong lack of fighting anymore compared to what had been raging on earlier, her mind was swallowed with the thoughts she'd been suppressing. Try as she might, out of the three of them, she'd been unable to prepare for the task of killing Danse. The only one that had been a true friend to her until her journey had taken her down a different road than he'd have liked.
She knew she must kill him, that he was her enemy now and past relationships couldn't cloud her judgement. He was a threat not only to the Railroad, but to one of the two women she loved and Tessa refused to lose someone she loved again. Danse was as damnably stubborn as she, and if he was determined to remain loyal than there was no amount of sweet talking she could ever do that would persuade him otherwise. When she looked down at her hands all she saw was blood, her blood and others, more and more of it until she was certain she was drowning in it. Did the blood of a former friend taint her more, or would it be just as damning as the rest of it? All she wanted was to curl up and hide away from her problems, maybe take a hit of chems and ride it out with her lovers at her sides but that wasn't a possibility. The thought of chems made her crave them all the more, knowing how much easier it would be with the rage inducing drug swaying her behavior. She knew she could run away from the future no more and there it was before her, waiting for her to act.
She knew what she had to do, and as much as she was going to hate herself for it there was no other choice left before her.
Danse eyed her carefully, seeing a fraction of the woman he'd first met before him. "You lost me as a friend the moment your loyalties shifted."
With a broken laugh, she wiped her face, and gave him a cracked grin. "I know. I don't expect forgiveness."
"Then what do you want?"
"You dead. You alive. I'm not sure yet. I just... I wanted to give you one last chance for... something. You could run, leave the Commonwealth, go back to the Capitol Wasteland and never look back."
"My home is with the Brotherhood," he snarled, "You'll have to kill me if you want me to abandon them."
"I know," she replied with a sigh, "but I had to try... I'm sorry."
Time felt slow to Tessa as she slipped into V.A.T.S once more, pulled up her shotgun to set up the shots, and pulled the trigger. Paladin Danse had been just as quick, and red beams of light struck Tessa square in the chest while Danse's head was torn into shreds, ribbons of blood spreading everywhere. Her breath left her and she fell forward as his body did, only for pale hands to catch her. Cait pulled her up into a tight embrace, the woman whimpering brokenly as she buried her face in Cait's shoulder. "It's over," said Cait softly, injecting her with a stimpak.
"I had to do it," uttered Tessa as she closed her burning eyes. "I had to... He wouldn't have stopped. I-"
"Hush now," soothed Cait, not pulling back. "It's all over now, we won."
"We won?"
"Yeah, we won."
"Piper, Curie? Are they-"
"MacCready'll check on 'em," vowed Cait.
"I need to see them, I need to help them." Tessa attempted to stand but Cait's grip on her was firm. She struggled weakly, hardly able to move. "Please."
"Yer not going anywhere like that."
"Like what?" Tessa asked dumbly, pulling back enough to look down. She gaped at what she saw. Danse's lasers hadn't just struck her, but instead burned straight through her armor and into her flesh. Her upper skin was gone, and in its place was flesh and blood, cauterized slightly from the immense heat behind the attack. "Oh... Like that..." She whispered before her head swooned and the woman holding her steadied her. "They don't make armor like they used to," joked Tessa before her vision faded once more and her head fell to the side. The screams of the damned and slain filled her ears, Paladin Danse roaring the loudest and swearing he would take her with him.
