Hey guys, mainly a recap chapter but the wheels are turning, and the drums are beating, the next few chapters are basically going to be about preparations before the conflict, some bonding, maybe a bit ace-combat-eske dog fighting and some behind enemy lines shadow warrior recon by our favourite ice man Gallows. Reviews are always appreciated and read and would help move speed up the thinking process.
(The Great Hall, Citadel)
The den was far more crowded than usual that day, in addition to the pride Alexander's rag tags and Riley's Rangers filled the room, Alexander, Sarah and Riley were the only ones seated while their groups were squeezed in behind them, Sarah and the pride dominated one of the half circle tables whilst Alexander and Riley sat at opposite points of the other. Others among the crowd were Scribe Rothchild, an exceedingly aggravated old man Alexander introduced as a 'specialist' from Rivet city and another super mutant by the name of Uncle Leo. The crowd began to settle down as Alexander stood to talk.
"Alright so here's the situation so far sports fans, Burke whom we have discovered has been exposed to FEV the… whatever the hell it is that makes supermutants, and has not only survived a bullet delivered by yours truly, but has taken control of and from what we have seen expanded the remnants of Talon company they have become active all over the wasteland but mainly around the DC ruins area. Burke has taken civilian hostages, which include a child; obviously we need to be cautious in order to get the hostages back unharmed, thanks to the cooperation of a… acquired Ex-Talon soldier who has been released after providing us with invaluable Intel we know that Talon are under the influence of psychoactive stimulants hidden in their chem supplies, this means any and all Talon soldiers are basically going to go bat shit when encountered, well more so than before. Thanks to some hands on persuasion techniques we now know that Burke plans to infect the entire wasteland, we can only assume that this will mean an assault on the purifier or Citadel or infecting aqua pura shipments being delivered to the major settlements. As such we have upped patrols in the settlements and guard details on the purifier; Liberty Prime has been put on active detail to defend the Citadel, but the clear objective is to put an end to the source of the threat, Burke, now we have yet to confirm this but if Burke HAS indeed been infected by FEV then he may very well have control over the supermutants, no jokes or sarcasm, if this is true then we face a serious problem." Alexander stopped to let what he said sink in; the mood in the room was grim to say the least, a feeling that was becoming all too familiar here. After a few minutes of quiet mumbling Alexander resumed his speech with the acute attention of all in the room. "Now we are faced with three problems. One: where has Burke made his base of operations? All of his communications are done by Talon intermediaries and apparently all of his communications to them are done via radios. If he is controlling the super mutants then it stands to reason that by following super mutant activity we can track him to his base and seeing that the heaviest fortifications and number of the muties are in the city, Riley's rangers will be tasked with tracking them to possible base locations and before we go any further I have spoken with elder Lyons who is in full agreement, Riley you and your team have already proven your promise and we would be honoured to invite you into our ranks, as another elite unit within the Brotherhood of steel." Everybody showed a great deal of surprise to this, none more than Riley herself, she had never really thought much of the Brotherhood, but she also didn't think much of starving to death either, and with the way freelancing as a merc group was going that was going to be their likely end, looking at the faces of her team mates she could tell that they were thinking exactly the same thing, she stood herself and with a shrug and sly smile said
"Fine but we're keeping the name." Alexander chuckled and held his hands up in a defensive manner.
"Hey I'm not brave enough to argue with you, we've already prepared some armour for you, and I think you'll like some of the custom changes I made myself, oh and congratulations, star ranger Riley. Now that's our first issue the second is retrieval of the hostages, we make an active move and they're dead or worse." Many of Alexander's group grimaced at hearing this as they thought of their loved ones. "Now seeing as a frontal assault is out of the question we're going to have to infiltrate complex, seeing as we can't be sure whether or not Burke has informants or even listening devices inside of the Citadel, this phase of the operation will be handled by my team with the assistance of scribe Rothchild, uncle Leo and our specialist, once we have infiltrated the complex my team which for the remainder of the operation shall respond to the unit name 'Wanderers' for practicalities sake, are you quite done sniggering Brick? Thank you. As I was saying once we've infiltrated the complex we will extract the hostages and signal the Rangers for evac. From there the operation becomes simplicity itself, the Pride will deploy, neutralise any countermeasures in place to defend from Liberty Prime and pacify any and all ground resistance as Prime lays waste to the base and hopefully any hazardous materials inside, naturally we will have a hazmat team on standby for clean-up and destruction of any and all FEV. Okay all unit heads are to immediately begin their preparation; The Rangers are to report to the courtyard after getting refitted in the armoury." With that the crowd dispersed and the gears of war began to turn.
(Citadel Courtyard)
Riley and her team after a brief but brutal crash course in the use of power armour by an intense drill sergeant, they were fitted up and got up to the courtyard. As they filed out into the daylight, they were stared at by knight and initiate alike. Their armour instead of the standard steel was a mixture of black and yellow, instead of a left shoulder pad a Brahmin skull adorned them, and on the right pad the Ranger emblem was emblazoned, with one modification a blue sword ran through Riley's name, somehow making it seem more aggressive than it was before.
"Hahaha, I figured a more wasteland-y approach was more appropriate" Alexander chuckled as he admired his handy work "Truth be told It's actually based of a suit of armour I got of a slaver king back in the Pitt" Riley tried to avoid making eye contact with the staring eyes of the Brotherhood, Donavan constantly shifted about, unused to having a thousand mechanical parts shift around him, Brick loved everything about it, the feeling of indestructability, the sheer intimidation effect it gave as she wielded Eugene about, how freaking cool the skull was, she strutted about like she was an angel of death and as far as most the initiates were concerned, she was, Butcher just took one step at a time, focusing on its limitations, cautious that he may have to preform first aid on someone in the suit, the quicker he broke it in, the better.
"It's uh unique definitely, maybe a little flashy but not bad, Brick seems to like it" Riley tried to say confidently, she really didn't like all of the staring and the alien feel of the armour, maybe if she had a helmet and they couldn't see her face it would feel better.
"Yeah I was shy first time to, relax you'll get over when people start shooting you" Alexander said in a disturbingly bright tone. "But now for the really fun part, you're getting a new member! And before youay anything no it's not negotiable, you'll see when she arrives." As Alexander finished saying this a low chopping sound began to fill the air, it grew and grew until a vertibird roared over the Citadel, after a masterful turn it gently landed behind Alexander who stood with his hands behind his back, with his yellow visor off all that could be seen was his face, his broadly smiling face, a thoroughly disturbing sight. The vertibird sported the ranger's emblem also. A slender woman with fiery short red hair sporting a green suit of recon armour with the ranger emblem on her back stepped out of the vertibird and gave an awkward salute to Riley.
"Mam! Scribe, uh ranger Vallincourt reporting for duty mam!" Vallincourt said in her low feminine tone, one might almost call it sultry. Riley returned the salute just as awkwardly and did a double take when she saw Alexander had already left.
"Uh okay so you have any combat experience… ranger" Riley asked hesitantly as she gauged the girl in front of her.
"Does almost getting accidentally shot while examining a plasma rifle count mam?"
"No"
"Then no, uh, mam"
"How long have you been flying?"
"Just finished my training course top of my class" Vallincourt replied with a bright smile of pride
"How many others in the class?"
"Two"
"T-two? How long was the course?"
"Two weeks" Riley fought the urge down to shoot Alexander in the face with great difficulty as she and the rest of the rangers stepped into the vertibird to begin their first dry runs to familiarise themselves with quick flight departure and power armour combat, not to mention their new pilot.