chapter 9: Revenge
Giles has been called the craziest member of the NCR veteran rangers. He has volunteered for suicide missions, patrols through Legion territory, defense of hopeless locations, and has even spat in the face of a deathclaw, but this Nick guy is a whole level above him on the crazy meter.
That is what runs through the NCR veteran's head as Nick leads him, a ghoul named Tyler, and a junkie teen, right into the heart of Fiend controlled territory. Sneaking through Legion lands was one thing, no fear aside from a slow and painful death on a crucifix, but with raiders you never know what sort of twisted torture the bastards will cook up just for you. That said, Giles is glad he is on Nick's side and not the raiders. Within a few hours of declaring that he wants Motor Runner dead, Nick has already taken care of the other Fiend leaders. Cook Cook, Driver Nephi, and Violet have all been decapitated and have their heads swinging from their killers belt.
As if that isn't enough, Nick has even take the brains from all of Violet's war dogs and stuffed them into a bag. Years of working for the NCR means that Giles has been privy to some dark information and events, but this is the first time a job he has volunteered for has disgusted him within the first hour. How Nick doesn't seem to notice all the blood soaking into his pants is beyond Giles.
A gunshot echos around them and Giles looks up to see that Nick has yet again wasted another Fiend with barely any effort or warning. The corpse is just hitting the ground as Giles looks up. The head of the body is gone along with a large section of the chest. Maybe giving Nick back his original weapons was not such a good idea after all. He had hoped that it would build some goodwill between himself and the others, so fat it seems to have just made Nick all the more blood thirsty. In that regard, they have something in common.
There is nothing Giles enjoys more than a good fight. The more blood, the more damage, the better it is. Maybe there is something wrong with him, but he can't really get into a fight until he is hurt in some way. He needs to be knocked around a bit before he gets going. He needs his blood to be flowing. He needs carnage to have ensued. That or he takes a hit of psycho when no one is looking and then is is just straight up peachy.
Closer and closer to vault 3 they start encountering fewer and fewer Fiends. Strange, they must have heard of the death squad coming towards them and are staying low. That or...
"So," Giles states through his helmet, knowing it makes him sound awesome, "anyone else notice that the Fiends have fallen back?" The ghoul looks over at him and nods. "I think it is safest to assume that Motor Runner," Nick growls at the sound of the name, "is aware that we are coming and has pulled his forces back to the vault. Getting in there will be even harder than before."
"Vaults sometimes have more than one way in." Giles listens closely as the ghoul talks, anyone who has survived since before the war deserves some attention and respect. "A wall has fallen in, ventalation shafts, back doors, caves, you name it and vault tech probably added it to their design somewhere along the lines."
"What?" The junkie girl seems to be aware enough to listen to their conversations, Giles had assumed she was just following out of habit and hand no idea what was going on. "I thought vaults were supposed to keep people free from damage from radiation and shit." Graceful, she is a graceful little ray of sunshine.
Tyler shakes his head as a dark expression comes over his face. "The vaults were never meant to save anyone." His words are directed at Nick's back. Giles notices and immediately wants to know what their mad leaders history with the underground bunkers is. "They existed to test things. Diseases, social habits, weapons, all sorts of twisted experiments took place in the vaults. Only the lucky ones actually survived." Again his words are pointed at Nick, and Nick just ignores his words. Tyler sighs and shakes his head. Interesting, very interesting.
"I wonder if they will have something to drink." Giles thinks out loud. "I could really go for something right now. Maybe a stiff something alcoholic. Like beer, yeah, beer is good. Not that moonshine you get further east. Nasty shit, tastes like battery acid. Not sure how I know what battery acid tastes like, but that is exactly what the moonshine tastes like. Battery acid aside, where are you from. How do you know each other. Is this junkie going to try and lift my guns if I don't tie them to myself?"
"Yes." Tyler responds with a slight smile.
"Hey," the girl protests, "I am not a thief." Tyler fixes her with a look. "Not all the time..."
Giles smiles under his helmet. "Got it, going to need some rope, a stick of gum, and a lot of leather. This whole tying down process is really way more complicated than you would normally think. You have to consider what you are tying, where you are tying, not to mention how you are tying. A lot of thought goes into it."
Nick speaks without stopping or turning around. "Ranger, I don't care about anything you have to say about tying down your equipment. If you so happen to have a alternate way into vault 3, then you may speak. Otherwise keep your mouth shut." Giles opens his mouth, thinks for a second, and then closes it again. "I thought not. The only way into this vault is through the front door. I can get us in, and then we are going to kill every bastard in that hole."
Motor Runner looks at the pathetic creature on its knees before him. The woman is babbling about some form of demon in human form that is tearing its way through their lands. This is not the first report he has received of this demon. When his forces were halted at the overpass, the few who survived to crawl back to him all claimed that they were held by two men, one of which was a monster drunk on blood. He dismissed those stories as incompetence and had the few survivors killed for being cowards and running.
Now, only a few hours from the failed attack on the infidels stronghold, there come more and more stories about the demon. Some claim that the demon is alone and killing everything that moves. Others that it is accompanied by the second warrior from the overpass. Still others say that their are five warriors, but that the demon is responsible for most of the death. Again Motor Runner dismissed the claims of a demon out to kill all, until word arrived that Cook Cook, one of his most trusted and feared warriors, had been killed and his head removed. Witnesses say that the demon tore Cook Cook's head off his shoulders with its bare hands and now wears it as an ornament on its belt.
These reports got Motor Runner's attention. He sent his disciples out to defend his other subordinates. To defend Violet and Nephi. Instead of hearing that the demon retreated at the sight of more battle, scouts returned with word that the demon cut through them as easily as before and that Violet met the same end as Cook Cook.
Now worried that there was indeed some form of warrior out to kill all of his disciples, Motor Runner sent a large force to defend Driver Nephi at his stronghold in the ruins. The battle that ensued there was close enough for those still within the sanctuary of 3 to feel the shaking of the earth. His warriors panicked, claiming that the shaking was from the demon's footsteps as it drew closer and closer. Motor Runner rebuked them and shot three to make a point. When the shaking stopped he proclaimed that Nephi must have been victorious.
Yet again he was disappointed. The scout sitting at his feet now having brought word that Nephi's head has been added to the demon's collection. Not only that, but the demon is on its way here. Motor Runner ordered all of his disciples back into the sanctuary to defend it. He does not buy the story about a demon, but there is a group of people out there hunting down his followers. With all three of his subordinates dead, he is the only leadership left for his followers. That means that whoever these killers are, they will be coming for him next.
"Motor Runner!" Another scout runs into his throne room and falls to his knees. Bonegnash and Gnashbone growl at the new arrival. Motor Runner reaches down and calms his two war hounds. "The demon... it... It is here!" Motor Runner stands and releases his hounds. With a single command from him the two massive dogs leap upon the two scouts in his throne room. Let this, 'demon', come. It will meet its end here.
Giles ducks under the swing of a bat and tackles his attacker to the floor. He wrestles the bat from the Fiend's grip and uses it to bash the bastards ugly face in. He has to admit, this is the most fun he has had in years! "This is the most fun I have had in years!" Nearby Kc, the junkie girl, slips up behind a Fiend who was preoccupied with getting ready to attack Giles and cuts his throat. That is the only downside to this fight. Somehow their group got separated and he ended up alone with the little thief junkie.
Despite her annoyingly dark mood and lack of self preservation senses, Giles refuses to let her ruin his fun. "Keep up junkie!" he shouts over his shoulder as more Fiends charge into the room, "I have almost twelve kills already!" He leaps into the crowd of Fiends and soaks up some damage. A bullet tears into his shoulder, a knife narrowly misses his face, and a fist connects with his stomach. A maniac laugh escapes him and he straightens up. All the Fiends stand around him, unsure of what is going on. "My turn!" he shouts joyously.
Within a whirl of seconds the Fiends are left on the ground in varying levels of togetherness. Kc saddles up to him and looks over the carnage. "And I thought that Tyler knew how to make a mess." She falls quite as an explosion rocks the vault. "Think that was our side or theirs?"
Giles smiles wider beneath his helmet, "Does it matter? Explosions!"
Kc looks at him out of the side of her eye, "Why do I feel like you are enjoying this?" Giles starts to answer, but spots a group of Fiends and is off again before he does. Kc stands back and watches as he slices, guns, and somehow bombs, his way through the ranks of Fiends. She moves to join him, but is grabbed from behind! She lets out a scream as a knife is jammed into her side! She struggles to break free of her attacker's grip, but they hold on, driving the knife further and further into her.
She jerks her head back, smashing something, and causing her attacker to finally release her. She falls to the floor and attempts to crawl away. Her leg is grabbed and she is pulled backwards. She turns over and looks up at the Fiend standing over her. His face is covered in blood from his broken nose and his skull helmet only makes him all the more frightening. She screams again and throws up her hands as the Fiend brandishes his knife. A gun cracks and the Fiend is thrown off of her. She scrambles to her feet, clutching her side as blood wells between her fingers.
Giles leaps onto the Fiend and begins to beat in the dying man's face. He starts speaking, punctuating each word with a fist to the face, "Do, not, fuck, with, my, people, you, fucking, piss filled, son, of, a, fucking, whore's, slut, mother!" His last punch breaks the Fiend's skull and his hand sinks into the mesh of brains beneath. "Ew!" He stands, flicking bits of brain off his fist. "Damn, I knew they were brainless!"
He turns to Kc and grabs the hand clutching her side. "No," she shouts, pushing him away, "don't touch me!"
Giles grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her violently. "Listen junkie! If you like it or not you and I are on the same side here! Now stop being such a stuck up little bitch and let me fix your fucking side before you bleed out all over the floor!" Kc stares at him in shock. Luther and Tyler were rude and often times mean to her, but the never told her off like that. Without realizing that she is doing so she removes her hand and lets the Ranger she barely knows examine her side.
He looks over the wound. It is short, jagged, and deep. He is no medic, but even he can tell that it is very bad. Taking his medical box from his gear he pulls out a stimpack and jabs it into her without warning. She cringes, but does not complain. A slight foam forms around the wound, stopping the bleeding. Hopefully the stimulant cells will close off enough of the wound to keep her alive until they can get her to a real doctor.
The vault shakes as another explosion goes off deeper in. He is unsure if Tyler and Nick are still together, but he hopes they are still alive. "Don't worry about your friends," He says aloud, more for himself than Kc, "they will make it out. I know Nick won't stop until he does what he came here for. Haven't know either of them that long, but I know that Tyler isn't the type to abandon his..."
He trails off as Tyler comes running towards them. "Don't stand there!" The ghoul shouts at them in a panic. "Run like hell!" Giles does not think, he just acts. He scoops Kc up in his arms and takes off after Tyler. The girl lets out a shout of surprise, and at first attempts to wriggle out of his arms, until he maybe on purpose but accidentally hits her head against a door frame.
Motor Runner revs the engine of his chainsaw as gunfire starts up outside his throne room. He is sweating, and not because of the fires raging throughout the vault. He hadn't believed the reports of a demon coming for him until now. What else could it be? No man, no single man would be able to make it this far on their own. No mortal creature would be capable of cutting their way through all of his disciples! The thing that is after him, the thing that has slaughtered his people, is indeed a demon. A beast conjured up from the deepest blackness!
The gunfire stops outside and he readies himself. On either side of him Bonegnash and Gnashbone growl low and menacing, ready for blood. This demon may be here for his soul, but Motor Runner is not a coward. He will not beg for his life. He will not run. He will stand here and fight the beast that comes for him. He will make this demon know that it has been a battle. Motor Runner will die with his weapon in his hand. A final act of glory!
He makes to inhale a vial of jet, but stops as the door to his throne room opens slowly. His eyes go wide as he beholds the demon. It is dressed in a ragged and torn overcoat, similar to those worn by the infidels best soldiers. His entire body is covered in bloodstains, both old and new. His face is devoid of emotion, his mouth set in a grim line. Eyes as cold and blue as ice bore into him, stripping bare his soul and judging him. Motor Runner takes a step back as all of his former bravado melts away in the face of this demon. He shouts a command and his hounds leap.
The demons sword moves so fast that Motor Runner barely sees it. It is no more than a flash of reddened silver as the heads of both his trusty hounds drop from their lifeless bodies. The demon advances into the room. Motor Runner snarls, charging himself up for a fight. He leaps forward, chainsaw extended. The demon sidesteps and whips the swords up, cleanly cutting off both of Motor Runner's hands. He sinks to the ground as blood spurts from the stumps of his arms. Now he cannot die with a weapon in hand. The demon has denied him a glorious death!
The demon flicks Motor Runners helmet off and tilts his head up. As he looks into the demon's eyes, a feeling of recognition hits him. He has seen this demon before. Only last time, their positions were reversed. This demon was his prisoner before he came to the Vegas area and built his empire. He killed the demon's companion, a dog. The demon leans down close to Motor Runner and whispers in his ear. The leader of the Fiend's last expression is one of total panic.
Giles is still carrying Kc when Tyler finally stops running. "What," he gasps between sucking in lungfuls of air, "is going on? What are we running from?"
Tyler shakes his head as he pants heavily. "You couldn't feel it? The earth pressing in on us from all sides? The walls getting closer and closer? The way the air seemed to be sucked right out of the room?"
Giles shakes his head, "No, I didn't feel any of..." He trails off as he realizes what Tyler is saying. "You are claustrophobic?"
The ghoul gives him a confused look. "What does that mean?"
"Claustrophobic. A fear of small closed spaces. I would think a ghoul would know enough to know what it means."
Tyler shakes his head. "I've only been a ghoul for a few years. Got it from a radiation storm back on the east coast."
Giles is about to let loose a snap about how he has been respectful only because he thought that Tyler was ancient, when he sees something that makes even him shut up. "What?" Tyler asks when he simply stops speaking. Giles nods back towards the direction they came. Tyler turns and also grows quite at the sight.
The entrance to the vault is aflame. The tougns of fire lick up out of the ruins surrounding the vault door and quickly start to spread to other nearby ruins. That isn't what they are watching. Emerging from the flames is Nick. He is covered head to toe in blood and there is smoke rolling off him. In his hand is the severed head of Motor Runner. The expression on the face of the dead Fiend can only be described as horrified.
Nick does not say a word to them. He walks right by them as though they are not there. Giles, Tyler, and Kc all exchange quick glances before following. Nick leads them out of Fiend Territory and back to McCarran. The NCR soldiers that they pass all stare in shocked silence at the procession of bloodied and gore covered people. Nick stops at McCarran's entrance. He walks up to several crumbled section of the wall and one by one mounts the heads of the Fiends he has collected.
Once done he sits down and waits. It does not take long for Colonel Hsu to arrive along with Major Dhatri. "I don't know what in the hell you are trying to pull Traveler," Hsu shouts at Nick, "but If I find out you had anything to do with..." The Colonel trails off as he notices the mounted heads. "What is the meaning of this?"
Nick motions at the head. "I saved you, again. That ranger and I," he points out Giles, "held off the horde that was on its way to decimate your camp when the attack started. Then we took care of the people supplying the Fiends with their weapons. After that, we decided it would be wrong to leave the job half done, so we took care of all the Fiends." He stands and lists out the Fiend leadership, pointing to each head as he does, "Violet, Driver Nephi, Cook Cook, and Motor Runner."
Hsu appears shocked beyond words and it is Major Dhatri who steps forward. Very carefully the Major examines each head. "He isn't fooling around. I can confirm the identities of each of these."
"In short, Colonel," Nick says as he stands and walks up to Hsu, "You owe me two thousand caps."
Giles can't help himself. "I'll be damned."
