Disclaimer: I don't own fallout 3
1-9 The Storm
Butch's point of view
When we finally emerged from the dark tunnels I practically threw myself to the ground and kissed it. We had wandered down there for two days apparently. I guess you lose track of time in that place.
"Alrighty now I know you love her, but you gotta say bye-bye to the rubble." Quail said sarcastically. Tommy chuckled quietly.
"I just know I'm not going back in those tunnels if I can help it." I sighed.
"Why not? All you gotta worry about is a bunch of feral ghouls!" Quail grinned, "Besides its good fun to shoot 'em up!"
"Maybe for you, but I personally don't like stumbling around in the dark while looking for you!" I countered, "And you still haven't told us where you went."
"I told you I went to scout ahead." He assured, "If y'all would have just waited then our trip through the scary tunnel of doom would have been a lot quicker!"
"Bullshit no one takes that long to scout." Tommy interjected.
"So I got a little lost sue me." Quail argued, "You're lucky I'm bothering to help you."
"We're grateful and all, but don't just run off like that without us." I pleaded.
"Fine, from now on you come with me." He said.
BANG!
"Find some cover!" Quail shouted as he drew his Chinese assault rifle. I leaped behind an old lamp post. It was the largest cover I could find. I turned and saw Quail and Tommy crouched behind a large pile of rubble.
"What are we looking at?!" I yelled.
"Supermutants! Three of 'em!" Quail shouted back. I glanced briefly behind me and recognized the creatures for the monsters we had seen our first day out here. I drew my 10mm looking into the scope. The mutants fired. I ducked behind the lamp post. I heard the creatures advancing. Drawing the assault rifle, I fired blindly into them. They returned fire, and I heard the characteristic ping of the bullet bouncing off the lamp post. Leaning over, I once again returned fire into the trio. I managed to hit one in the leg a few times. The creature roared in a bloodlust, and charged blindly toward me. I started to run, but then the creature's head exploded in shower of blood and ash. The other two were swiftly taken out in a similar fashion.
"Whoa what the hell was that?!" I yelled excited. Quail however was a bit more cautious.
"Who's there?!" he shouted, "Show yourself!" He fired his Chinese assault rifle into several of the buildings.
"Calm down Quail." Tommy said, "Whoever fired just saved us. Why would they immediately kill us afterwards?"
"Listen kid, you're still a green vaultie." He warned, "I'll tell you one thing, trust no one. The only reason these people saved us, was probably so killing us would be easier."
"Don't you think you're being a little paranoid?" I asked.
"No I don't." he hissed, "I'm trying to keep y'all alive, so you'd best listen." We stayed quiet after that. Maybe Quail was right. But then again he did seem to be more than a little eccentric. In any case we looted the creature's bodies for what little weapons and ammo they had and headed on. We walked through the bombed out remains of a building and came to an alleyway. Suddenly, four people in what appeared to the power armor we had been taught about in the vault jumped out.
"Halt citizens." Said a woman in a partially synthetic voice, "What are you doing here?"
"Well we were trying to make our way to G.N.R." Quail answered for us.
"You three should know better than coming to the ruins, they're a deathtrap to anyone outside of the brotherhood!" another of the soldiers said cockily.
"Quiet Reddin, don't lecture them!" another man snapped in a un synthetic voice.
"Look, all we want to do is get to the radio station so we can ask Three Dog a few questions." Tommy interrupted, "We'll be out of your hair after that, we promise." The first woman who appeared to be their leader appeared to consider it.
"Fine," she said, "You can follow us to the station, just stay out of our way."
We continued our way into the alleyway, but were interrupted by more gunshots.
"Ambush!" the leader called out. Surprisingly they didn't look for cover but charged ahead around the corner of the alley. I looked at Tom and Quail, but they just shrugged. I decided it would be best to stick close to the brotherhood of steel, so I followed them. I immediately regretted it, as I walked into the fray of a massive assault on the ruins of a building. While the brotherhood appeared to be mostly protected from the bullets by the thick power armor Tommy, Quail, and I were completely exposed.
"Get down!" Quail shouted as he tackled me. A bullet whizzed by almost a second later. Quail dragged me into the cover of a pile of rubble.
"You hurt vaultie Butch?" he asked. I shook my head.
"Good then start kicking some ass!" he shouted before charging into the fray wielding his Chinese assault rifle.
"Crazy son of a bitch," I muttered as I drew my assault rifle. I aimed down the sights at one of the mutant snipers. Pop went his head. I aimed at another and down he went. The mutants clearly weren't masters of strategy. I saw Tommy shoot a pre-war car. The explosion was almost deafening. Quail was something else. He charged at the building firing three round bursts and very rarely missing. Then suddenly he staggered and fell. I feared the worst but only for a second. He crawled into cover and appeared to inject some substance into his arm. With that he drew his favored combo of double laser pistols and raised hell on the stragglers. When all was said and he wiped sweat from his brow and turned to us.
"Keep up y'all are missing the fun!" he yelled excitedly before charging into the building.
"Who are these guys ma'am?" a brotherhood member we just ran into asked.
"No one Colvin." The woman who appeared to be the leader replied, "They're just a couple of stragglers that we picked up."
"You all right Butch?" I heard Tommy ask.
"Yeah I'm fine." I replied. He tossed me a water bottle. I took a quick swig and tossed it back for him to finish it off.
"Come on," he urged, "Like Quail said, we're missing all the fun."
I laughed at that. From what I had come to know about Quail, was that you couldn't stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He followed his own rules and I admired that about him. Tommy and I followed the others through the building, which appeared to be a school. After making short work of the stragglers, we came to the doorway at the back of the school. We found Quail there crouched behind the wall that led into a courtyard. There were more sounds of gunfire coming from the courtyard.
"What are we looking at wastelander?!" the leader yelled over the sounds of gunfire.
"One hell of a party that's for damn sure!" Quail shouted back excitedly, "We got about twelve of the uglies! And if I aint mistaken, they're led by an overlord!"
"What the hell is an overlord?!" I shouted. Suddenly there was a huge roar as a supermutant that was even bulkier than the rest of the ones I had seen charged into the school. It wore a makeshift helmet, and armor that appeared to be made of scrap metal. It wielded a gun that was similar in appearance to the one that the brotherhood had been using, however when this rifle fired instead of just one laser, it fired three. It swiftly tore through one of the soldiers by ramming him into the wall with all its strength. Even the thick steel plating of the power armor offered little defense against the mutant's brute strength. We poured everything we had into the abomination, but it just would not go down. It fired its gun catching a soldier in the leg. Quail with expert marksmanship hit the creature's weapon with his laser pistols melting the gun's nozzle. The creature in response took two large sledgehammers of its back. It swung them with devastating efficiency. It caught another soldier in the legs. I heard a loud snap. The creature raised one of its hammers again poised for the killing blow. The man pulled a grenade from a belt on his armor and pulled the pin. He tossed it near the creature's feet and managed to drag himself far enough away from the explosion where the armor took most of the blast. When we came out of cover we found the creature's bloodied corpse missing both legs. The soldier who had been slammed into the wall lay still. The leader checked him and ripped a small chain from his neck. The other two helped the soldier who had taken the blow to the legs into cover.
"Definitely broken," one of the soldiers said, "Hang here Colvin we'll come get you."
"Whip some ass for me Reddin." Colvin said weakly.
"Will do sir," Reddin replied before charging out the door.
"Crazy initiate." The other soldier shook his head. We followed the soldier into the fray. Luckily, there was several more of the brotherhood there to help us. Between the reinforcements we had brought and the brotherhood already there, we managed to make short work of the remaining mutants.
"Five dead and three wounded." The leader said taking account of the losses.
"Sorry for your losses." I said sincerely. Quail and Tommy shared as much sympathy.
"Thanks." The leader took her helmet off to reveal the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, "You three handled yourselves pretty well for wastelanders. I'm Sentinel Sarah Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel. More specifically I lead Lyons' pride."
"What's that?" I asked.
"It's an elite squad of brotherhood soldiers assigned to take on the most important and or crucial missions." Lyons said curtly. A short distance from us Reddin was celebrating.
"Initiate Reddin," the man who appeared to be a mentor of sorts said, "Stop wasting ammo."
"Come on Vargas," Reddin pleaded, "We just kicked their asses!"
"You can have all the booze you want inside." He smiled, "For now go check out that area by the bus. Make sure there's no more muties left to take our heads off."
"Can do." Reddin said. With that she trotted off towards an overturned bus. I sat down on an old bench. Quail and Tommy sat on either side of me.
"So what was that thing that attacked us in the school?" Tommy asked.
"That my friend was a supermutant overlord." He said, "I need a smoke."
"So why wouldn't he go down?" I asked.
"Beats me kid," Quail replied, "All I know is that they're the strongest, fastest, and most deadly mutie in the wastes. That's excluding the behemoth of course."
"Well what's a behemoth?" Tommy asked. Suddenly there was a huge roar. We all looked up.
"Reddin!" Vargas shouted. He had to be held back by Lyons, "Get away from the bus!"
Reddin started to run. There was a loud crash and scraping noise. Then another one. Suddenly there was a deafening explosion, and the bus flew forward taking Reddin with it. From the smoke stepped a mutant of likes that I had never seen before, and thankfully have not seen since. The monstrosity stood at a height of at least twenty feet. Its muscles were of a gargantuan size. It wore a belt of skulls as well as a necklace of them. For a weapon it wielded a fire hydrant attached to the end of a large pole. It wore the broken shell of a car on its arm for a shield.
"BEHEMOTH!" Lyons shouted. The creature absorbed everything we fired at it. Most of the brotherhood, including Lyons retreated into the ruins of the school. They were not going to last long. The creature was slowly destroying the dilapidated walls. Quail, Tommy, and I were caught in the open. We spread to three separate sections of the courtyard and tried to distract the monstrosity as best we could.
"STOP SHOOTING IT!" Quail screamed, "LET US DIRECT ITS ATTENTION!"
Lyons saw what he was doing. As soon as the brotherhood stopped firing, the creature felt a new pain and it turned its furious gaze upon us. It charged fist at me. It was all I could do to dive out of the way when the creature brought the fire hydrant down on the place I had been a second before. The force of the shockwave sent me skidding across the pavement. I coughed and tasted blood. The creature turned its attention to Quail. It clubbed dangerously close to him. Again the shockwave sent him careening through the air. He hit the wall of the G.N.R. building and collapsed in a heap.
"GET THE FATMAN!" Lyons screamed, "IT'S IN THE FOUNTAIN!"
I glanced toward the fountain. I managed to crawl over to it. In it was a dead brotherhood soldier with a strange weapon. It looked somewhat like a missile launcher, but it had a large cage on the top of it. Beside the weapon were what appeared to be a smaller version of the bomb in Megaton. I loaded one of the bombs into the launcher, and turned to fire, but to my horror I saw that the monstrosity was to close to Tommy to shoot it. I had to put the incredibly heavy device down and fire at the creature to get a clear shot. With a roar the creature tore through the courtyard toward me. Throwing my assault rifle to the side, I picked up the launcher. I turned to fire.
SMACK!
To this day I don't know how I am alive. I should have died right there. I took the full force of the creature's fire hydrant to my side. I slammed into the wall of the station. I coughed and tasted blood. I saw the launcher not far to my side. I grasped it with my good arm. It was too heavy. With an excruciating cry of pain, I tried to lift it with my other arm.
"No Butch," Tommy whispered, "Let me."
He picked up the launcher. The creature roared and charged. Tommy fired. The explosion was deafening. It created it blinded me for a brief moment. When I finally regained my sight I saw the monster missing several limbs lying close by us. It was a miracle that the creature had not crushed us when it fell. I heard slightly muted cries from the brotherhood. They poured out of the school towards us. Quail too it seemed had regained consciousness. I felt Tommy carrying me toward the front entrance. I was hurt. I knew it. I heard snatches of conversation as they carried me into the dark interior of the building, such as "he needs help" and "hurry". The pain was excruciating.
"Hold on Butch." I recognized Tommy's voice, "Hold on." Then darkness.
Author's note: I apologize very much for the length of time this took to come out. I have been very bogged down by homework in this past week, so I haven't really had an opportunity to do this. But still I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks to Firpi for your kind reviews! They really mean a lot to me. This fic has been a lot of fun to write so far, so I think I'll be here for awhile. Also as you may have noticed, I changed the title. This story was originally called Through it all, but I really didn't like it that much. I like this new title The Pure much better. It also has greater relevance to the story, as you will eventually see. But for now its time for bed, so good night!