The Wanderer: Chapter 11
- Amata Almodovar -
Butch DeLoria lay on top of her in the darkness, shuddering in the final throes of passion. He rolled over onto his back, still panting slightly from the sexual exertion as tiny beads of sweat formed on his naked body. She studied him from the corners of her eyes, watching his chest rise and fall in the half-light of his bedroom chamber. She assessed him, sizing him up much the way a snake sizes up its prey before swallowing it whole.
Butch noticed her looking at him and mistook it for affection. He wasn't particularly good at reading people – but to be fair, Amata knew she wasn't particularly easy to read. He rolled over onto his left side to face her, tracing a path across her naked breasts and stomach with his fingertips.
She noticed a single lock of hair fall across his forehead. It was rare for even one strand to be out of place on Butch, and she smiled as she reached up and put it back into position, knowing he would mistake that gesture for affection also. Butch did have nice hair. In fact, he kept his entire body in good physical condition. She could respect a man that paid attention to such details – her father had taught her the importance of that, and Amata had become nearly as detail oriented as the Overseer.
Besides, for a bully and a thug, Butch had turned out to be quite a gentle lover. Seducing him had been necessary, but his reputation had given her some cause for concern. As with most bullies, she was learning that his bluster was all bullshit. He was all bark and little bite, but that was better for her plans. She just needed him to do her bidding – she had Beef for the bloody work, and Beef O'Brian had enough bite in him to go around.
In spite of her reservations, Butch DeLoria had been an inspired choice as her latest patsy. Things were heating up in the vault and it was time for Amata to keep her friends close and her enemies closer. The DeLoria family had been good to her. Without that drunken fool Merle she would not have been able to obtain her position of power so quickly. Not to mention, Ellen DeLoria was her father's secretary, which provided another possibility for access to information – especially if Amata were dating Ellen's son. And, of course, Butch himself was a member of the Tunnel Snakes – a gang her father liked to employ on occasion to do his dirty work.
All in all, the DeLoria's were useful weapons to add to her arsenal and she intended to deploy them when the time was right. That time, she knew, was drawing near. She just needed a spark to start the fire…
With those thoughts in mind, she glanced at Butch again. He had returned to lying on his back, staring at his bedroom ceiling as his breathing returned to normal. A troubled look disturbed his post-coital reverie.
"What's troubling you, Sweetheart?" Amata asked, hoping it was something useful.
"Did you know your father spies on people?"
The sudden question was so unexpected that she nearly gasped aloud as she drew in a sharp breath. She did know, of course, that her father had a secret surveillance program. What shocked her was the fact that Butch knew!
"What are you talking about?" The quiver in her voice was actually authentic, but not for the reason that Butch would assume.
"That geek, Floyd Lewis, down in the Server and Maintenance Control Room found some sort of hidden video feeds buried in the mainframe architecture. Apparently he started asking questions and gathering evidence. He claims it all points to your old man and the vault security goons."
"Did Floyd tell you this himself?" Amata could barely get the question out. Her mind was already racing with all the implications. She had to know how many people knew about this. She had to know what evidence the software technician had collected. Most of all she had to figure out how to use this to her advantage.
"Nah," Butch muttered, still looking at the ceiling. "He filed some report with his supervisor that got reported to your father. Now the Overseer wants the Tunnel Snakes to pay ole' Floyd a visit and "convince" him to drop the matter.
"You mean kill him?" She knew how far her father was willing to go to safeguard his secrets.
"Nothin' like that," Butch yawned. "Just sake him up some. You know, remind him that the vault can be a dangerous place. Remind him that an accident could happen to him at any time…"
"What about the evidence?"
"Yeah, we're supposed to gather up all Floyd's data and deliver it to your dad."
Amata agreed that the information needed to be confiscated, but not by Butch and certainly not by her father. In fact, she thought it was high time that her father's dealings with the Tunnel Snakes became public knowledge.
This task had Beef O'Brian written all over it. Hell, if they played it just right, Beef could become the next Chief of Vault Security. The junky cop had proven both useful and loyal, and those were qualities that the girl could definitely appreciate.
Amata had been astounded when Beef had given her the news about a secret lab in a secret dungeon containing the secret monstrosity of a man the entire vault thought to be dead. Although all of the events pertaining to James Prescott were incredible, the most startling to Amata was the fact that her father had been able to keep it from her for all these years. Amata had convinced herself that she knew all of the Overseer's secrets. Discovering that he still had some tricks left up his sleeve had shaken her a little.
Lack of control was a foreign concept to Amata Almodovar, and she didn't enjoy the feeling one bit. Her survival instincts were telling her it was time to rally her troops and prepare for battle. Part of those preparations had been the seduction of Butch DeLoria.
A bigger part, however, was to inform Director Stanislaus Braun of her father's resident guest. The research of James Prescott had always been an area of intense interest with the Vault Zero Director. Director Braun seemed to know that the mutant formula had come from Vault 101, and he had questioned her incessantly about the events surrounding the "death" of James Prescott and what became of his research.
As far as Amata knew, it had taken several years to decontaminate the Bio Lab and even longer to begin to piece together what was left of the brilliant scientist's research. Now she was learning that the restored Bio Lab was just a front to cover-up all the research being conducted in the secret lab beneath the vault.
These revelations infuriated her, but at the same time she was intrigued by all the secrecy. She suspected that Director Braun would be both furious and curious as well. She just had to make certain he realized what a valuable member she was to his team.
Once Amata controlled the vault she would ensure there were no more secrets that she didn't know about, no matter who was keeping them!
- Director Stanislaus Braun -
While not altogether informative, the request for a meeting he received from the Vault 101 girl was indeed intriguing. Her words made her sound anxious to tell him something important over the face-to-face communicator. In this particular case, Stanislaus rather enjoyed the face-to-face communications. Amata Almodovar was easy on the eyes.
Stanislaus knew he was easy on her eyes as well. He ran his video feed through a digital pre-processor that continuously updated his real time image to that of a much younger, much comelier man. To Amata, he was a strapping young man in his thirties, and he could tell through the video monitor that she found the image pleasing.
Not all of his vault spies found his image pleasing, however. Stanislaus used different avatars for different vaults. Sometimes he chose personas of attractive men and women, each appropriately tailored to properly manipulate the vault agents. Other times he just chose images for his own personal amusement. One of his favorites was that of a young girl he named Betty. He assumed this avatar with his Vault 106 operative just to drive the agent insane. They were all crazy in 106 anyway; and besides, Stanislaus rather enjoyed being little Betty.
But, today, he would be Director Stanislaus Braun. Although he projected a much younger image, he had used his real name once Amata took over as his Vault 101 operative. He rarely did so with his agents, but he enjoyed hearing his name spoken from that beautiful mouth of hers.
He sat at the console, slowly easing his ancient body into the reclining chair. He lowered the video monitor, made some adjustments to his screen image, noticing that the young man in the monitor looked especially handsome today. A web of fissures and wrinkles spread across the old man's face as it cracked into a smile. The smooth young face in the screen, of course, smiled back at him. Finally, with the punch of a button, that face dissolved into the face of Amata, and the Director's smile grew even broader.
He could see the excitement in her gorgeous hazel eyes and he felt himself getting excited as well. Suddenly he realized that he had anticipated getting her report just as much as she anticipated giving it, and he was most anxious to begin.
"Agent Almodovar," he began in a resonant, synthesized voice. "It is always a pleasure to receive one of your reports, my dear."
"Director Braun," she replied with a dazzling smile of her own, "it is always an honor."
Stanislaus felt a little light-headed and as giddy as a school boy. He knew he had to get ahold of himself and maintain his objectivity. He was certain the girl hadn't requested this conference just to indulge him with flattery. He needed his wits about him, especially dealing with the young beauty. She was one of his most capable and ambitious agents – a combination that could spell danger if one didn't remain on one's toes…
Even so, he couldn't resist a bit more indulgence in the flirtatious banter.
"My dear, please call me Stanislaus," his young image implored. "I insist."
"Well Stanislaus," she replied with just the right amount of sultry demure, "If you insist…"
His visceral response to her wicked charm was almost too much for his ancient body to bear, and he knew he had to get down to business before this girl gave him a stroke. He might be speaking with a thirty year old's face, but he still had a hundred and twenty three year old heart!
"That sounds much better my dear Amata, now please do tell me what is so urgent." He encouraged, smiling reassuringly, "As always I am at your disposal…"
"Thank you Stanislaus, as always I am flattered," she replied coyly. "There has been an urgent development in the Prescott matter…"
"The mother?" he asked.
"No," she replied, "The father…"
Stanislaus realized that the girl was going to take her time delivering this news. He found the process both tedious and intriguing. Were it anyone else, he would have surely become impatient and annoyed, but he always granted Agent Almodovar more latitude than his other operatives. She could take all the time she wanted.
"The dead father?" The Director replied. He had received a full briefing of the Prescott incident from that drunken idiot Agent DeLoria fifteen years ago.
"That would be the one," she replied, a hint of excitement creeping into her eyes. "But it seems the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated…"
The girl always controlled her emotions well, but he could see the exhilaration roiling just beneath the surface of that calm veneer. She was waiting for his reaction, and it pleased him immensely to keep her waiting for several silent seconds.
"How could he have survived?" the director finally asked. "As I understand, your father flooded the lab with radiation."
"That is true," she replied, "enough to kill a man ten times over. But also enough, as it turns out, to transform the forced evolutionary virus into an airborne mutation mechanism…"
Her words struck him with the force of a mini nuke, and the Director was glad he was seated in the reclining chair when she delivered the blow! The implications of what the girl had just said were staggering. A million questions flooded his mind so quickly that he couldn't focus on which one to ask. Yet, he was just as skilled as she was at keeping his emotions in check, and the young man's face on the monitor betrayed none of the turmoil that raged through the old man's mind.
Stanislaus Braun had seen much in one and a quarter centuries, and few things surprised him at this stage in his life. He had surprised many in the upper echelons of the corporation by becoming the Department Head of Future-Tec, a top-secret research and development division of Vault-Tec specializing in the investigation of advanced weaponry and sciences. Receiving the appointment in his mid-twenties had made him the youngest member of Vault-Tec Industries' Board of Directors, but it had also made him some enemies among the senior associates.
Before the Great War, his research on advanced life preservation and human aging had captured the attention of the U.S. Army and had earned him his position at Vault-Tec. It was his development of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, however, that had earned him the appointment of Director of Future-Tec and solidified his preeminence as one of the corporation's most valuable assets.
Even as a young man, Stanislaus possessed that rare combination of scientific acumen and superb leadership ability. When it was time to assign an administrative director to oversee one of Vault-Tec's most secretive and delicate programs, Dr. Braun was the obvious choice. As such, he became the first, and only, director of FIST – Future-Tec's Infiltration and Surveillance Team.
As the Great War became imminent, Dr. Braun's prominence as a government advisor allowed him to make certain that one of his FIST agents had a spot among the initial population of each vault load-out. Unbeknownst to the government, every vault was equipped with a hidden room that provided a means of communication and reporting for all FIST agents in the field. For nearly a century, Director Braun had kept this covert operation running smoothly, and more importantly, he had kept it a secret from the Enclave. The Board of Directors had insisted that Braun's agents keep close tabs on the Enclave as America's fledgling government tried to reestablish itself as a Super Power.
The rise and eventual success of the Enclave was, of course, in Vault-Tec's best interest. As the country grew stronger, so too did Vault-Tec Industries. Regaining their position as the world's most powerful corporation depended on the strength of the U.S. Government as a prominent actor on the world stage. The corporation never had, and didn't intend to run the country – at least not ostensibly. The Board of Directors were content to linger on the fringes, advising government policy makers on every major decision as they had done for centuries.
Stanislaus had always felt that his role in the rebirth of his corporation and the country involved the repopulation of the war-torn nation. As a young man, he had focused much of his research on elongating the lives of key politicians and Vault-Tec executives – though none had lasted as long as the German scientist himself. Even at one hundred and twenty three, Stanislaus felt as though he had another decade or two left in him before he turned the reins over to the next generation. Yet, he felt confident that the next generation was being properly groomed and would be more than prepared to retake the world when the time was right. And the right time for repopulation, he sensed, was drawing near.
His other major contribution to the scientific community's endeavor to repopulate the planet was the GECK. The concept of terraforming had consumed a vast amount of Dr. Braun's time and energy over the past century.
Initially the device, the size and appearance of a small, silver briefcase, was developed as a "societal starter kit". The kit contained items such as seeds, fertilizers, a cold fusion power generator, a basic replicator, and four-hundred and sixty holodisks full of enough information to prevent a return of the dark ages. The intention was to disassemble the device and use its various components to rebuild a community in the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. The replicator could provide food and clothing in the short term. The soil supplements and chemicals could transform the arid Wasteland into fertile farmland. The how-to holodisks contained schematics on basic force field and shelter construction. Some disks even instructed the vault dwellers on techniques to disassemble portions of the vault for use on the surface to establish viable new communities. It was really the intricate combination of disassembled kit components and re-usable vault components that displayed the true genius and forethought of Stanislaus Braun.
But, of course, they didn't call Stanislaus Vault-Tec's "Sorcerer Scientist" for nothing, and his ego was not content to let his greatest contribution to mankind be referred to as a "starter kit". Over the years, he had thrown a considerable amount of Future-Tec's resources into the kit's improvement. He had even gone as far as establishing two competing divisions within the Future-Tec GECK Department. One focused on terraforming by chemically treating irradiated soil to produce viable farmland. The other was a more aggressive approach in which the very particles of the soil itself were subjected to a matter-energy replicator and replaced with a new molecular pattern. In Braun's opinion, if necessity was the mother of invention, then competition was its father! Pitting his top scientists against one another in a race to perfect the GECK had proven both productive and exhilarating over the years of Braun's reign.
These issues, however, were the least of his concerns today. The major philosophical difference between Vault-Tec's plans for repopulation and the Enclave's vision of world domination involved the Mutant Program.
For decades the Enclave had dreamt of a super-warrior. They had poured countless resources of their own into projects such as the domestication of the deathclaws, the production of robotic war machines, and especially the alteration of human soldiers. Even before the war, the U.S. Army's interest in Stanislaus's longevity research involved increasing their soldier's resistance to damage on the battle field. Since the war, the government had become consumed with the idea of mutants as next generation soldiers.
The research of James Prescott had many applications and far-reaching implications. One of these was the creation of a creature one hundred and fifty percent larger and stronger than its original form. This, of course, had piqued the Enclave's interests. Truth be told, it had piqued Braun's interest as well.
The Enclave's biggest problem with the Mutant Program at first was the fact that the painful process of the mutation transformation usually left the creature insane or severely intellectually degraded. Worse yet, a mutated creature would die within days of that transformation. Being that Dr. Braun was an expert in longevity, it was a matter that intrigued him as well on a scientific level. Unfortunately, much of Prescott's research had been destroyed along with the scientist – or so Stanislaus had thought.
The fact that the Enclave had been interrogating and studying the scientist in the bowels of Vault 101 explained how they had managed to make such progress with the Mutant Program over the years.
The Enclave had learned enough in the past decade and a half to produce mutants on a large scale who could not only withstand the painful transformation process, but who also enjoyed an extremely long life expectancy. The subjects, however, still experienced a marked decrease in intelligence. It seemed that what they gained physically they lost intellectually.
The big brutes were still useful to the Enclave, but they would never become the super-soldiers of the government's dreams if they were too dumb to carry out complicated missions or conduct coordinated attacks.
Still, the advancements the Enclave had made with Prescott's FEV research had impressed Stanislaus over the years. Even more impressive to the Director of FIST was the fact that they had done so in complete secrecy – right under his nose. Director Braun found it extremely troubling, especially in a vault where the overseer's very own daughter was his field operative. It definitely gave him a new found respect for the conniving capability of Alphonse Almodovar!
Now that Stanislaus knew Alphonse's secret, he had to figure out a way to get his hands on the mutated scientist and the man's research. Like the government, the corporation was interested in Prescott's FEV research too, although it had been for a completely different reason.
As far as the Vault-Tec Board of Directors was concerned, anyone currently living outside a vault was mutated in some form or another. Rebuilding a society of world leaders meant eradicating the impure population and repopulating the world with pure vault stock.
Initially Prescott was searching for a vaccine to prevent "pure strain" humans from experiencing any damage to their DNA due to ambient post-nuclear radiation. Stanislaus had always hoped to incorporate that into his GECK research to ensure the purest environment possible to the re-emerging vault dwellers.
As a bonus, Prescott's early virus, the strain of FEV that caused mutation and death within its mutated subjects, was just the type of full-scale epidemic the corporation desired to rid the world of impurities!
With thoughts of purging the American Continent of mutation, terraforming with the GECK, and building the mightiest nation on the planet from the vault inhabitants, Director Stanislaus Braun presented Amata Almodovar a rare and sincere smile of gratitude.
- Knight Captain Colvin -
Knight Captain Colvin extracted the medallion of St Longinus from underneath the collar of his black asbestos under armor. He brought the saint medal to his lips and kissed it as he silently prayed for his soul and the souls he was about to send to be judged by their maker.
Kneeling before the east-facing window of the decrepit old shack, Colvin gently, almost reverently removed his sniper rifle from its carrying case. Not only was the Victory Rifle one of the finest weapons of its kind, to Colvin it was a holy artifact sent to him by the Lord himself. Just as Saint Longinus had the Holy Spear of Destiny, Knight Captain Colvin had his Victory Rifle.
With the loving hands of a parent, he fine-tuned the scope, peering down at the cluster of Enclave soldiers assembled at Rockbreaker's Last Gas, a ruined Red Rocket gas station that sat in the valley below the shack.
Perched high on a rocky cliff, the old shack gave the Knight Captain the perfect vantage point for the Brotherhood ambush. After scouting the location and quickly casing the perimeter, Colvin had determined that the derelict structure was abandoned. The only thing he found to the contrary was a cage containing two radroaches apparently named "Fluffy" and "Jitters" according to the cage doors. The Knight Captain had disposed of them quickly and mercifully – in his eyes none of God's creatures should have to live in a cage, not even radroaches…
With the place to himself, Colvin removed his power armor and stacked it in a corner near the window. He didn't intend on getting too close to the heat of battle and he needed the freedom of movement to effectively rain God's wrath down from on high. His fellow brethren were depending on him to provide them the necessary cover fire and the Pride's sniper intended to deliver.
With that thought, he tucked the necklace and medallion back underneath his armor and prepared himself for battle. As he did before every mission, Colvin recited a quiet prayer to his patron saint while he scoped out his intended targets.
Just as the Lord healed your blindness, St. Longinus, so too I pray you let the veil of delusion be lifted so that I may clearly see my enemies in their true forms. Let my sight be clear and my aim be true that I may deliver Victory for the Lord.
Based on the subtle movement of the scrub brush, he calculated the minor wind speed and direction, making several minute adjustments to his alignments.
The sun had completed its arc across the desolate eastern horizon and was nearing its noontime zenith. This position was favorable as it kept it out of the sniper's eyes and minimized shadows. There was a glare off the ancient Red Rocket structure that still stood as a rusty marker to the otherwise forgotten station, but it was nothing that impeded his line of sight. There were also minor glimmers off the Enclave barricades and the soldiers' power armor as well, but all in all the conditions were near perfect for his purposes and he knew the saints were smiling down upon him today.
Panning his scope in a wide swath, Colvin surveyed the surrounding area. Although he couldn't see them, he knew his brothers were down there hidden amongst the rocky outcroppings; Paladin Kodiak's team at the north and Senior Paladin Tristan's team at the south-west edges of the derelict station.
The station itself marked one of the northernmost points along the trade route. Isolated by the rugged terrain, the location seemed like the perfect place for the Talon Company caravan to deliver their precious cargo to the Enclave. To the Brotherhood of Steel, the station seemed like the perfect place to ambush that delivery.
The Brotherhood ambush was led by Senior Paladin Tristan. Given that they would have the element of surprise, the plan had been to divide and conquer. They would keep the Enclave forces dazed and confused with a multi-faceted attack from all fronts.
Paladin Kodiak would lead an attack from the northern boulders. His team consisted of an initiate, two sentry bots, and a robobrain. The idea was to allow the robots to draw as much initial fire as possible. Once the droids began their attack, Colvin would keep the Enclave off-balance by taking out the officers and providing cover fire for his brothers. This would open the door for Senior Paladin Tristan's team to flank the enemy from the southwest.
Senior Paladin Tristan's team consisted of two initiates and the remaining sentry bot. Colvin would have preferred to use more members of Elder Lyon's Special Forces known as the Lyon's Pride and less droids, but Tristan and Sarah Lyon's decided that they couldn't be spared. The Pride had stumbled upon a nasty nest of mutants near the GNR Outpost and they still needed bodies in downtown D.C. to root out the infestation.
The Enclave, however, hadn't skimped on personnel! Because of the valuable commodity, the Enclave had brought two regimens – over a dozen soldiers in all including two officers. As he tallied the Enclave troops, the Knight Captain couldn't help but worry for his brethren even though he knew the Brotherhood was accustomed to having the odds stacked against them – especially the members of the Pride. For years they had fought an enemy with greater numbers and better equipment. Colvin believed that it was their unity and the righteousness of their cause that allowed them to prevail.
But, with the schism between the Elder and Paladin Casdin's Outcasts, the Brotherhood had lost valuable equipment and irreplaceable warriors. These days the Brotherhood spent as much time recruiting Wastelanders as it did defending them! While Colvin still believed whole-heartedly in the sanctity of their cause, he constantly worried for the safety of those that fought for it – especially the initiates.
About two-thirds of today's strike force was made up of initiates and robots. Colvin feared for the newbies and detested the droids. It was heart and soul that won battles in the Wasteland, and sentry bots and robobrains had neither. Colvin couldn't put his faith in his fellow man when his fellow man was a machine. That was why he saved his faith for the Lord!
Looking at the enemy below, the Knight Captain thought his brothers could use some divine intervention today. Of the dozen Enclave soldiers scattered around the old Red Rocket station, Colvin singled out the two dressed as officers in the typical black caps and tan pants and jackets. Each one of them commanded half dozen soldiers clad in full Enclave Power Armor and laden with some heavy artillery.
Yet, none of the enemy combatants interested Colvin as much as the man who wore the tan leather trenchcoat and barked orders to officers and soldiers alike. According to Brotherhood intel, this would be Colonel Augustus Autumn himself. Colvin had never faced the Enclave's legendary Secretary of Defense and Supreme Commander of their armed forces on the battlefield, but he had heard all the stories.
That's why today was really about two things. Extracting the Brotherhood Outcast was definitely the top priority, but capturing Colonel Autumn was a close second!
Based on a dust cloud approaching from the southern trade route, it looked like the Brotherhood was about to get their chance to make both of those things happen.
The Knight Captain adjusted his position a final time, settling into a comfortable and stable kneeling posture at the base of the windowsill. Finally satisfied, he watched the transaction unfold through Victory's high-powered scope as he awaited the signal with the patience of a saint.
The caravan that approached Rockbreaker's Last Gas was good sized, but not large enough to attract any undue attention along the trade routes. Of the six men in the caravan, two were dressed as travelling traders while the remaining four were Talon Company Mercs. There was also one pack Brahmin and another that pulled a tarp-covered cart – presumably the cart that contained the Outcast prisoner.
The man in the leather duster approached one of the mercenaries as the caravan rolled into the station. They exchanged words, then moved around to the side of the wagon and peeled back the tarp. Colvin thought he caught a glimpse of a person chained to the wagon bed, but it was hard to tell from his distant vantage point. Either way, Colonel Autumn seemed pleased as he waved two of the soldiers over to the wagon. Each soldier carried a large bag that rattled with caps as the bags were tossed into the dirt at the feet of the mercenary.
The merc gave the bags a cursory inspection, was apparently satisfied with the content, and signaled for the driver to dismount the wagon and leave it for the Enclave.
While the transaction was occurring, Colvin noticed one of the Talon Company mercs fanning out from the group and heading for a cluster of boulders. The sniper knew that half the Brotherhood strike force was hidden behind the rocks, and he kept the mercenary in his sights and his finger poised on the trigger of the Victory rifle.
As he approached the boulders, the mercenary reached down toward his belt. Colvin thought he was going for his holster and nearly squeezed the trigger. The only thing that made the sniper pause an extra fraction of a second was the fact that this was not the plan.
The Brotherhood's plan had been to wait to strike after the exchange was completed and the Talon Company Caravan had departed. The strike force was already outnumbered, and adding mercenaries to the mix seemed like a recipe for disaster. Colvin desperately wanted to wait for the signal once the mercs were gone, but if the man went for his gun, the Knight Captain was going to take him out!
Instead, the merc went for his zipper. Colvin breathed an audible sigh of relief as he realized the man had just separated from the group to urinate. The sniper eased his finger away from the trigger just a hair as he once again waited patiently for events to unfold as planned.
Unfortunately, as the merc zipped up and was turning to rejoin his group, something caught his eye. Colvin had seen it too from his position high on the western cliff. The noonday sun had peaked out from behind a cloud just long enough to bounce a stray beam of light off the metal casing of one of the Brotherhood's sentry bots!
The reflected glare had lasted a mere fraction of a second, but it was enough to arouse the mercenary's curiosity. He began a cautious inspection around the boulders, this time placing his hand firmly on the grip of his holstered pistol.
Colvin's finger was brushing the trigger of his sniper rifle again. He could feel the pulsing of his elevated heart rate all the way down to the tip of that finger.
To calm himself he began to pray again: St Longinus with your help and strength I will receive the Grace of God. Console me in God's blessed presence and grant me the courage to persevere until I am standing with you before the throne of our Lord in heaven.
As a side note, he also prayed that his brothers could take the merc out quietly, but if that merc pulled his gun, Colvin was pulling his trigger!
Neither man, however, got that chance. From behind the boulder, Kodiak's initiate panicked. Caught up in a moment of fear-fueled overkill, the initiate emptied an entire energy cell into the merc. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the man but a pile of vaporized ash.
For a split second, the sound of the laser pistol echoing off the cliff walls was all that could be heard. That single moment captivated all of them, and then the chaos ensued.
Events started unravelling quickly!
Mercenaries and soldiers alike all dove for cover behind the wagon, the barricades, and anything else they were near. One officer actually crouched behind the heavily laden pack Brahmin where, from that awkward position, he began shouting orders to his regimen.
Colvin had panned back to Colonel Autumn, but the Enclave Commander's reflexes were too sharp. The battle-hardened soldier had already taken cover at the wagon and the Brotherhood's sniper couldn't get a shot at him.
Instead, Colvin returned to the officer by the Brahmin and zeroed in on him. Usually taking out the officers left the regimens slightly disorganized as they regrouped under new command. The Enclave was good at reorganizing on the fly, but it did provide a small window of opportunity. And Lord knew, the Brotherhood strike force needed every advantage they could get now that they were fighting additional enemies.
"The idols of sin are lords of malice – corrupters of all good works…" The Knight Captain recited as he put a bullet in the Enclave Officer's temple.
The dead officer dropped to the dirt as his brain matter sprayed across the broad side of the Brahmin.
Colvin noticed Colonel Autumn looking in the direction of the shack, but the sniper still couldn't get him in his crosshairs! As the Enclave Commander continued to shout orders and direct his troops, the Knight Captain shifted his attention to another mercenary headed in the direction of the boulders.
The Brotherhood initiate who had started the maelstrom was still standing in the open, reloading his pistol. Colvin could see Paladin Kodiak rushing to pull the initiate back behind the relative safety of the boulders, but the big Paladin wasn't going to get to him before the mercenary did.
Colvin drew a bead on the merc, leading him slightly as the man sprinted toward the rocks. The mercenary, however, began firing before Colvin could get him lined up and the initiate performed a macabre dance of death as his body was riddled with bullets.
"…the enemies of chastity, humility, and bounty…" Colvin continued, taking down the Talon Company merc just as the man turned his weapon toward Paladin Kodiak.
During the midst of the initial chaos, Senior Paladin Tristan was attempting to flank the enemy from his team's position near the southwest corner of the old gas station.
Colvin caught a glimpse of Tristan's sentry bot charging into the battle and the sniper swung that way to provide cover fire. The other Enclave Officer was rallying a defensive stance against Tristan's attack, and Colvin knew he needed to take him out of the equation.
"They are the allies of all that is perverse, demeaning, and destructive!" The sniper uttered the final words of Saint Longinus' Prayer as he brought the officer into his sites.
The Victory Rifle coughed as it launched its .308 caliber hollow-point round right through the top of the black and silver cap of the Enclave Officer. The bullet traveled downward along the line of the man's spine, severing nerves and shattering cartilage until it finally lodged itself in his pelvis. The officer crumpled to the dirt like a discarded rag doll.
"Carry my prayer to our Lord, dear Longinus!" The Knight Captain concluded as he swung back around to see if he had a shot at the Colonel.
What he saw instead caused his blood to freeze. Somehow the Enclave Commander had gotten his hands on a missile launcher. Taking out a Talon Company mercenary and two Enclave Officers had definitely given away Colvin's position, and now he found himself staring straight down the barrel of a missile launcher pointed directly at his shack window.
Operating on instincts more than conscious thought, Colvin bolted toward the shack door as a missile streaked out of the launcher's muzzle. Cradling his rifle like a child, the sniper dove through the opening as the world around him erupted in flame and fragments.
The explosion rattled the rocky cliff to its core. As the echoes of the missile died away, a second wave of rumbling took its place. With a thunderous clap, several large chunks of the cliff wall tore away and tumbled down upon the battleground below. A deluge of boulders and debris cascaded down the hillside, sweeping right through Paladin Kodiak's position!
The paladin disappeared between two large boulders as all his droids were swept away in the rockslide along with several Enclave Soldiers.
Senior Paladin Tristan took the opportunity to signal for a retreat to the predetermined rally point, though at this stage it seemed unlikely that any of his Brotherhood Knights would make it there…