AN: I don't own Fallout or Halo. They belong to Bethesda and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.
Chapter Nine
Captain McNeal, Pentagon interior, city of Washington, DC. 1741 Hours, September 06, 2552 (Military Calendar)
'You guys are serious, aren't you?' Hullum said, arms folded across his chest.
McNeal nodded, his face grim, and said, 'We are, which is why we need to access your historical records.'
They were stood to one side, Sarah Hullum and Rothchild facing McNeal, Scott and two ODSTs while around them, the UNSC doctors were quickly setting up their equipment and beginning the process of evaluating everyone's injuries, determining who would be given treatment first.
'Provided, of course, that they survived the attack,' Rothchild said darkly. 'Most of our archives are stored near the Great Hall, and the blast that took it out could have damaged the mainframes as well.'
'They survived being nuked,' Hullum said. 'I'm sure a few pounds of C4 wouldn't do much damage.'
'James would have said much the same thing,' Rothchild said. 'But, checking them for damage will have to wait until after the Citadel is repaired.
'And if they're too broken to get anything off?' McNeal said. 'We need those files.'
'Then you'll have to find somewhere else to get them' Sarah said, cutting in rather abruptly. 'Right now, we have more pressing issues to deal with like the fact the Brotherhood has been attacked and we need to seek out the ones responsible.'
She pointed at the wounded and dying and said, 'Talon Company killed a lot of good men and women, and they wounded my father, and they're going to pay for that.'
Her eyes flickered to where her father lay in the makeshift triage, Hullum unfolding his arms to place a comforting hand on Sarah's shoulder.
'And they will, Sarah,' he said. 'But it's going to take us time to get back on our feet. We've got around fifteen combat ready Knights and Paladins who can go out on combat operations but we need to guard the Citadel and rebuild it. Plus, we don't even know where Talon Company is based. Going out in this state will just weaken us even more. Until then, it wouldn't hurt to work with the UNSC. Okay?'
'Okay, Liam,' she whispered, gaze lingering on the medical staff as they worked their way through the mass of wounded, placing different coloured pegs on them, ranging from green to orange and red to black. Most were given green and orange with half as many getting red, while a select few were given black.
'What do the pegs mean?' Rothchild asked, following Sarah's gaze.
'They help designate which patient needs the most care,' Scott said. 'Green means minor wounds that need only basic treatment, like abrasions and mild fractures, and orange means more serious injuries like non-lethal bullet wounds or plasma burns, or where a bone has broken through the skin.'
'And red and black?' Hullum asked.
'Red pegs mean the injuries require immediate attention and black pegs are for patients that are too far gone or to operate on them would cause their bodies to give out due to shock.'
The Spartan finished, remaining stood at ease behind McNeal and the ODSTs and the naval captain glanced up at the mountain of metal beside him, feeling intimidated by the sheer size of Scott in comparison to him and the faceless nature of his helmet, only to turn his head again when he heard Sarah take an involuntary breath.
'No,' she whispered, moving towards the doctors with Hullum and Rothchild close behind. 'No!'
'What's happening?' McNeal asked, the two ODSTs shrugging back at him. 'Commander?'
'Elder Lyons was given a black peg,' Scott said, heading after the three Brotherhood soldiers. Sarah had grabbed the arm of the doctor that had given Elder Lyons a black peg and grabbed it tightly while Hullum and Rothchild were trying to make her release her grasp.
'Why did you give him a black peg?' Sarah demanded as she ignored the efforts of her cohorts. 'Why?'
'He-He wouldn't make it through the operations,' the doctor kept saying, wincing as Sarah upped the pressure around her arm, McNeal recognising her as Anna Farnsworth. 'His body wouldn't be able to handle the strain.'
'You give him a red peg,' the Brotherhood commander ordered as Hullum tried unsuccessfully to uncurl Sarah's fingers from Anna's arm. 'Now.'
'He'd die!' Anna yelled, more from pain rather than wanting to get her point across.
'Sarah, let her go,' Hullum said as he tried to get his own fingers beneath Sarah's for better purchase while around them, a crowd began to form, the ODSTs all reaching for their weapons at the sight of one of their own being threatened.
'Stand down, Alpha Squad,' Scott said to the Helljumpers as he moved to position himself behind Sarah, slipping an arm around her neck in a headlock.
On reflex, Sarah let go of Anna and drove her elbow into the Spartan's midsection. It slid off his shields and did negligible damage, the Spartan not even grunting as he dragged the struggling soldier away from Anna and the wounded.
'Get a sedative ready,' Scott said, straining slightly as Sarah redoubled her efforts to break free. 'I'll restrain her.'
She delivered another elbow to Scott's stomach but it produced the same results.
Hullum made a move to help but Mitchell placed a hand on his shoulder, shook his head, and said, 'Spartans are pretty badass when it comes to fighting. He can take her.'
McNeal joined the pair, watching as Sarah dropped to her knees and tried to flip Scott, managing to throw him off but he grabbed hold of a small handle set high onto her armour's chest with one hand, using to pull her down to him, while the other shot up to deliver a short jab to Sarah's nose, whipping it back amidst a faint spurt of blood.
'See what I mean?' Mitchell muttered though his voice held a small amount of respect and admiration as the supersoldier soon had Sarah in another headlock, his movements a blur as blood trailed from Sarah's nose.
She tried to flip him again but the Spartan was ready for it, lifting Sarah up off the floor to prevent her from using the same move twice as a doctor handed a syringe filled with a clear liquid to the Helljumper's medic.
'Sedate her, corpsman,' McNeal said as Sarah began to kick, Leo moving to Scott's side and injecting the sedative into the Brotherhood commander's neck.
She continued to struggle and strain to break free but within seconds her movements became more and more sluggish as the sedative in her system took hold until she fell limp, still held aloft by Scott who eased her onto the ground.
'How long before she wakes up?' McNeal asked.
'About four or five hours, maybe more. Depends on her metabolic rate,' the doctor who had prepared the sedative said as he went to check Anna's arm for damage, pushing her sleeve up to reveal a nasty looking bruise while eliciting a faint whimper of pain from Anna. 'Doesn't look broken.'
'Good to know,' Anna said as she applied an icepack to the bruises. 'Hurts like hell, though.'
'Why did you give Elder Lyons a black peg?' Hullum asked as he crouched down next to Sarah's inert form, Scott standing only a few feet awake.
'The man she was talking about?' Anna asked back, wrapping a bandage around the icepack to keep it in place.
'Yes.'
'He wouldn't have survived the surgery,' she said. 'His body is too weak to cope with the strain and even if it he survived, he wouldn't have long to live anyway.'
'What makes you say that?' Rothchild said as Hullum and Gallows picked Sarah up and placed her onto a nearby bed while behind them, the doctors began seeing to those with red pegs while Leo and a few of the more junior members started on those with green and orange pegs.
'Well, his physical health for starters,' Anna said as she pulled a medical scanner from her pocket. 'Scans of his body show it to be weakened by a combination of old age, poor diet and poor hygiene, further exacerbated by stress and exhaustion. The simple fact that he's still alive today is nothing short of a miracle.'
'What kinds of wounds does he have?' McNeal asked, his gaze shifting to Owyn.
The Elder had been placed with the others deemed unlikely to survive the operation, a single scribe whose stomach was torn open by an explosion plus two soldiers, either knights or paladins with well over a dozen bullet wounds to the chest alone in both cases. By comparison, Owyn looked relatively unhurt with just a bandaged head.
'Head trauma mostly,' Anna said as she read from her scanner. 'It's put him into a coma. He has swelling on the left side of the brain, bleeding on the right, and three separate skull fractures. Pieces of bone have become lodged within the outer tissue of his brain alongside what can only be shrapnel or debris. Then we moved onto his chest and abdomen.'
She hesitated then handed the scanner to Hullum and Rothchild, the former of the two taking it to begin with and stared at the screen with incomprehension.
'Initially, the scanner only picked up some broken bones and mild internal bleeding but it quickly picked up on some more, unhealthy irregularities.'
'I don't understand this,' Hullum said, passing the scanner to Rothchild who, for a brief moment, seemed absolutely fascinated by the device itself before sharing the same look of incomprehension at the readouts on the screen. 'What kind of irregularities?'
'Cancerous tissues in his lungs,' Tara said before Anna could, broadcasting from the Spartan's armour's speakers. 'It's just entering the final stages and has spread to his lymph nodes. Several other organs are beginning to show signs of cancerous growth as well, including his stomach, liver and pancreas. Combining this with his old age and physical health, Elder Lyons would have, at best, six months to live.'
'Cancer?' Hullum whispered, yanking the scanner from Rothchild to once again scrutinise the display. 'Can you treat it?'
'Unfortunately, no,' Anna said, holding her hand out for the scanner which Hullum eventually gave back, his gaze shifting to Owyn. 'The cancer is too far along for chemotherapy to be off use and there's simply too much to remove surgically. The stress and strain of the operation would kill him. I'm sorry.'
'Can't you do anything for him?' Rothchild asked. 'Anything at all?'
'We can try to make him as comfortable as possible, pain relief and the like, but that's about it,' Anna said, adjusting her icepack slightly as silence fell across the cavernous room.
'Could you, you know, end his pain entirely?' Hullum asked, bracing slightly in case of a severe backlash from the other Brotherhood members in the room but none ever came.
Anna glanced at McNeal, as if for permission, and upon receiving a discreet nod said, 'I could, but only if a family member allows it. That woman, the one who grabbed me, she's his daughter, correct?'
Hullum and Rothchild both nodded.
'Then she's the only one who can give permission,' Anna said.
'Which won't be for a while,' the doctor who had prepared the sedative said. 'Four hours at least, five at the most.'
'So we wait,' Hullum said as he walked over to Sarah and sat on the edge of the table she was lying on, grasping her hand. 'We wait for her to wake up, then we wait for her to make a decision, then we wait for her to say goodbye.'
'We'll all say goodbye,' Rothchild said as he placed a hand on Hullum's shoulder, the Knight shaking his head sadly. 'Together.'
Hullum just nodded vaguely as McNeal watched before the officer waved Scott over to one side, once again feeling daunted by the towering presence of the Spartan in his armour.
'Keep a close eye on her when she wakes up, Commander,' she said. 'I get the feeling that when she does, Sarah is going to do everything she can to keep her father alive, maybe even force Lieutenant Farnsworth to perform the operation regardless of his physical health.'
'I will, sir,' Scott said.
'Good.'
A low grumble from his stomach made McNeal look down at it, the Spartan too which made the senior naval officer feel a little uncomfortable but he pushed the feeling aside.
'Guess I could do with some food,' he said. 'How about you, Commander?'
'I wouldn't mind, sir,' Scott said, standing up straight to lead McNeal to a corner of the room the ODSTs had claimed for themselves.
A few were sleeping, slumped against each other and the cold brick wall for support, but the majority were awake, sitting or standing as they chatted to one another and ate MREs, their squad leader spotting the two incoming naval officers and holding two tins of lukewarm food out for them without being asked.
Captain McNeal, Pentagon interior, city of Washington, DC. 2201 Hours, September 06, 2552 (Military Calendar)
McNeal stared at the screen on his data pad without really looking at it, the small device displaying a slideshow of the various sights Scott and Tara had seen during their time on the surface.
Most of the images were just of burnt out and desolated buildings and darkened tunnel interiors, interspersed with pictures of the various mutated creatures the Spartan had fought. McNeal paid slightly more attention to those but they were far and few between and he eventually powered the pad down and stowed it in his pocket.
Next to him was Scott, the Spartan silently watching Hullum as he kept a vigil next to Sarah, the Knight occasionally glancing at his Pip-Boy.
'How long before you think she'll wake up?' McNeal asked quietly.
'Not long, sir,' Scott said. 'The doctor did say it would around four hours before the sedative wore off, less if Sarah's metabolic rate was high.'
'Are you ready to grab her in case she makes a break for Lieutenant Farnsworth?'
'Yes, sir,' Scott said, shifting his posture slightly to let his arms dangle freely by his sides while tensing his legs up, ready to sprint into action.
McNeal glanced back at Hullum and Sarah, the latter out of her armour after Hullum and the soldier called Gallows had removed and given it to a scribe for repairs.
'Got any ideas on what happened to the Earth, Commander?' he asked.
'A nuclear attack, sir,' Scott said. 'Sasha ran the simulations and having seen the terrain up close, I find myself concurring with her assessment.'
'That's not what I mean, Spartan.' McNeal ran a hand through his hair and let out an exasperate d sigh. 'I mean, how did a nuclear war happen? There's no sigh on the UNSC, the technology is all wrong and what's more, these people claim to have been around for years and that the exchange happened even longer before then, but it can't have. I was here mere months ago and everything was fine.'
'I don't know, sir,' Scott said. 'Tara and I had a similar discussion earlier but we couldn't reach an agreeable conclusion. Maybe somebody in the ship would have better luck figuring things out.'
'Maybe.'
McNeal hummed in thought for a second, crossing both arms across his chest, then brought out his data pad again, activating it and typed in a few commands. A few moments later the screen flashed in acknowledgement and he put it back into his pocket.
'Though whether we'll figure out what happened is anyone's guess.'
Scott hummed in agreement, still watching Hullum and Sarah. She was beginning to mumble under her breath and her limbs began to twitch as the sedative wore off, her brain likely testing the connections were still working.
'Sarah? Sarah, can you hear me?' Hullum said gently, shaking her shoulder. 'Say something.'
The Spartan stood, as did every ODST in the room and McNeal.
'Liam?' Sarah mumbled groggily as she tried to sit up. 'What happened?'
Her arm gave out every time she tried to put any weight on it and Sarah gave up trying to get into a sitting position, resigning herself to lying atop the table.
'You were drugged by the UNSC's people,' Hullum said as Leo came over with a medical scanner, running it over her body and giving everyone a thumbs up when it flashed green.
'She's fine,' he said. 'Still a few traces of sedative in her system but it'll be gone soon enough.'
'I was? Why?'
Sarah tried to sit up again, managing it this time with help from Hullum who passed her a bottle of water while one of her hands went to massage her temple.
'Because you attacked one of their doctors when they gave your father a black peg,' Hullum said.
He tensed, as did Scott and the Helljumpers in case Sarah made another attempt to get at Anna but given her current state that seemed unlikely.
'Black peg?' Sarah repeated slowly, brow crunching up in concentration as she tried to think through a haze of residual drugs and it remained like that for a few seconds more before her expression shifted to one of worry and alarm.
'No,' she said, making a move to stand up but Hullum caught her arm and held her in place, Scott doing the same on Sarah's other arm within seconds.
'Sarah, they can't do anything to help him,' Hullum said, straining a little to keep Sarah in place. 'His body wouldn't be able to handle all the stress and strain of the surgeries.'
'No, he can,' Sarah said, locking eyes with Hullum. 'My father can pull through.'
'He wouldn't,' Hullum said. 'He has lung cancer. The doctors, they showed me bad it was, how much it had developed. All they can do is try and make him as comfortable as possible right up until the end.'
He trailed off and stared down at the ground before looking back up, adding, 'That, and they told me they could help Owyn slip away peacefully. But they need your permission.'
Hullum made a subtle motion to the Spartan that he should let go and he complied, Scott remaining close by just in case.
'There has to be something they can do,' Sarah whispered, a small glimmer of hope remaining in her eyes.
'Sarah, there isn't anything they can do for him,' Hullum said softly as he let go of Sarah's arm, his expression shifting to one of sympathy. 'They've thought of every possible way to save him but it can't be done. Your father wouldn't handle the stress of treating his wounds or the cancer. I'm sorry, but there's nothing they can do.'
He looked down again and grasped Sarah's hand, unhappiness creeping onto his face.
'I know it won't be an easy decision to make but, it would spare him a good deal of suffering and discomfort.'
'I... I know,' Sarah whispered, squeezing Hullum's hand back before standing, shakily, and made her way over to Anna, weaving slightly. 'You're the head doctor, right?'
'Yes,' Anna said, backing away fractionally.
'And you'll be the one who's going to give my father the injection?'
Anna nodded and said, 'Only with the permission of a family member. That is, to say, you.'
'Is there really nothing you can do for him? Nothing at all?'
'No, I'm sorry,' Anna said. 'His condition is too fragile for us to treat him. We can only alleviate the symptoms and not for long.'
Scott and Hullum took up positions behind Sarah, one on each side, just in case she went for the doctor but she didn't. Her shoulders merely slumped as she made her way towards Owyn, her father lying on a portable stretcher with a blanket draped over him.
'Give him the injection,' Sarah said without looking around. 'Get it over with.'
Anna nodded and quickly retrieved a syringe filled with a clear liquid then stood beside Sarah, uncovering Owyn's sleeve to reveal bare flesh as Hullum, Rothchild and the Brotherhood soldiers inside the room came to stand behind her and Sarah while the UNSC personnel stepped back to give them their space.
'You made the right choice, Sarah,' Hullum said as Anna pushed the tip of the needle into one of Owyn's veins.
'Doesn't feel like it,' Sarah said as she watched Anna inject the syringe's contents into her father's arm.
His breathing became laboured for the briefest of periods then stopped entirely, his entire body falling slack.
'Goodbye, father,' Sarah whispered as silence fell over the room, Anna removing the needle.
'Starting tomorrow we're launching a full campaign to track down and eliminate Talon Company from the Capital Wasteland once and for all,' Sarah said aloud, breaking the silence whilst her eyes remained locked onto her father's body, a faint glimmer of tears in them. 'They killed too many of our Brothers today and it's time we answered in kind.'
She raised her head and looked at each and every person in the crowd surrounding her.
'Track them, find the, kill them. Is that understood?'
'Yes, ma'am,' was the unanimous answer.
McNeal glanced at Scott and the ODSTs, nodding at them just once.
They nodded back and drew their weapons, checking them over.
'Any room for a bunch of ODSTs on this little shindig?' Mitchell asked Sarah as he pulled the charging handle on his assault rifle back.
'Of course,' she said.
'Good.' Mitchell let the handle go, the bolt sliding shut with a definitive clack. 'Alpha Squad, we're in business.'
