Chapter 7

The First Strike

Vault 101 was about to be struck like a bolt of lightning, with the lightning bolt being known as Lyon's army. John was helping train a recruit with his accuracy by making him shoot a small tin can on a stand. But, his lesson was stopped dead in his tracks to be alarmed by Torres running down the hall screaming down each room to alarm John's Army.

"They're here, they're here. The Lyons Pride army is making their way to Vault 101. John you need to get everybody in the vault ready." Torres shouted.

"What, already? Get every man and woman out there send out the alarms and power up the robots. We're going to war." John ordered.

Each member of the army marched towards the armory to grab their weapons and ammo. Butch picked up a Fat Man, but Fawkes, with ease, ripped the nuke catapult out of his hands and gave him a combat shotgun. Eric began powering the robots he had built the past two months, and Torres ordered the soldiers to hide and get ready to ambush them. John took some tactics out of the old war playbook and made the soldiers hide inside the buildings of Springvale and ambush the army from all corners.

John kissed Sarah goodbye, for he didn't know if he would see her again. But, he promised himself he would stay alive because he didn't want his son to be born and live a life with only half of a family like he did. John ordered ten of the best soldiers he had to guard her in a worst case scenario. He looked back one last time at his wife, for they were married a week earlier. John bolted out the door putting on his helmet to meet the soldiers at the main gate of Vault 101. Butch pulled the lever to open the door and one by one as each soldier walked out, stealthily like a thief in the night, John ordered the men to a designated position. He ordered about a quarter of his soldiers to stand and guard the entrance. And ordered about half of his soldiers to stand back and wait for the first shots to be fired before raining bullets at Lyons's soldiers. The men John ordered to ambush squatted patiently, hidden within the destroyed buildings of Springvale, ready to pounce like a jungle cat.

After ten minutes of patiently waiting, over one- hundred soldiers were seen coming over a hill next to Megaton and began to cross through Springvale. When the soldiers' backs were turned to the first wave of John's men, John's soldiers opened fire at the backs of Lyons's soldiers. The bullets were fired upon them like a tsunami of iron, leaving the soldiers little time to breath. John took the gunshots as his queue to send his troops into the battlefield.

"Alright men, this is where we make our stand and fight Elder Lyons and his soldiers. Your orders are, to rain hell!" John yelled.

John's wave of soldiers let out a strong war cry and busted out the wooden gate, breaking the hinges. The Lyons Pride soldiers heard the war cry and immediately split in half, one firing at the ambush soldiers and the other half fighting off John's main infantry. With bullets flying back and forth the Lyons Pride soldiers within seconds began dropping like flies. Blood splattered on the floor from both armies. John's men were wide open and were being dropped. The Lyons Pride used the bodies of the fallen soldiers as shields. The tides were slowly turning, for the ambush soldiers had finally been finished off and now all focus has been turned to John's main infantry. John ordered his men to fall back to the Vault entrance. John's numbers had slowly begun to fall. Four hundred of John's soldiers became three hundred soldiers within a few minutes since the initial ambush. John ordered for the big guns to come out and to send out a wave of Mr. Gutsy robots. Men carrying missile launchers burst out the door and opened fire on the Lyons Pride soldiers like meteors. The Mr. Gutsy robots merely lasted a few seconds after being quickly shot down by either missiles or bullets.

John ran at to the front of his men with a large fat man in hand. But, before he could pull the trigger and end the battle, a missile shot the rock he was standing on, launching him three feet in the air and making him fall on the cold hard dirt. John ran out in the middle of the battle and pulled John inside the vault where it was safe. Torres, in rage, picked up the Fat Man and finished what John had started. In one pull over the trigger, the battle had ended.

Butch and Cross picked up John's numb body and rushed him to the infirmary. Sarah saw John being carried by Butch and Cross. Her heart sank, and a million thoughts ran through her mind. Would her child be born without a father? She only thought the worst. She sprang from the bed and ran out of the room and down the hall and caught up with Butch and Cross.

"What happened?" she screamed with horror.

"John almost got shot by a rocket. Any closer he would have lost a leg." Butch replied.
"Is he going to make it?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry."

Sarah dropped to her knees in the middle of the hallway and cried. Her tears ran down her cheeks like a waterfall with no end. Her breathing could come to being steady. She stood up and ran to the infirmary to see her husband. When she got there John was lying on the bed unconscious.

"John, you bastard you'd better not die on me."

John's heartbeat monitor became slower, and slower. It finally came to a full stop. Sarah's cries only got worse. Nothing could make her smile at that point. Her tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto the floor. Other doctors came in and began to give John shock therapy to try and jumpstart his heart back up. Cross came to Sarah's side to help calm her down like a mother would do for her child.

Finally, when all hope was almost lost, a sharp beep was heard. Sarah stopped crying and looked at the screen with tears still on her eyes. John's heart rate beat faster and faster. John sprang from the bed, gasping for air. Sarah sprinted to his side and gave him the biggest possible hug she could.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, you asshole." She cried. Though she called him an asshole, she still loved him.

"Sarah, it's okay. I'm here, and I'm alive. Now please stop crying, you're going to upset the baby."

As the words left his lips, Sarah dropped to the ground screaming in agony. John had a shocked look on his face. But, then he realized it had been a few months. The baby was due. John jumped out of the bed he was in and lifted Sarah onto the bed.

"You… just had to mention it!" she screamed.

John took off her pants so she could give birth.

"Push, Sarah, Push." John ordered. He knew how to operate on a woman in labor.

"What do you think I'm doing?" she screamed.

After a long hour of constant pushing and breathing, a healthy male baby boy had been born. John wrapped up his son into a soft, sky blue blanket and handed him to Sarah.

"What should we name him?" he asked

"James." She responded. John's eyes opened wide.

"Yes, let's name him James, after my father."

The two agreed upon the name, James Mars. John thought it would fit him and so did Sarah. John found it odd enough that his baby was born on the day that he had died. He thought it was his mother kicking him in the ass and making sure that his son wouldn't have the life he did.

John went to the entrance of Vault 101, and when he turned around he was greeted by his army giving him a salute. John gave a salute back.

"Congratulations Commander John Aaron Mars, you are now officially a father." Cross said.

Life had just begun for baby James. For John's prayers weren't answered, he was still where he always wanted to be. Home.

Note: Hope the story gets better and better for you guys. I know I'm not an A+ author, but i still hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Baby James had been born and i haven't decided how the story would turn out since the baby is now a character. But anyway more chapters are to come. And please if you are going to give me critiques send them to me via PM so I can get a direct message. If you have compliments then please leave them. I'm not one to care for people being rude and negative. I can handle criticism, but I don't need to hear how much you think my story sucks. If you don't like them don't read them. All I can say is if you do have critiques please don't be snotty or uptight about them. I don't have time for that B.S. I only care about the fans and the people who aren't assholes. All in all hope you guys enjoyed, this note was a little long but i feel i needed to get that out to you guys. Thank you, Chapter 8 will be up tomorrow