Talon Company had been after Jayck ever since he started working with the Brotherhood of Steel. Certain people had paid them handsomely to make sure that he was never allowed to work with the Brotherhood to further Project Purity. But now none of that mattered. By raiding their compound and killing Commander Jabsco, Jayck had made their job into a personal vendetta. The group of mercenaries that had been hunting around Megaton for him was made of scattered remnants that had escaped the assault on their home. Now they finally had his scent and had him trapped in the outdoor ruins of Springvale Elementary.
Jayck knew that the Talon mercs would be vicious, because they always were. What he didn't expect was for them to be exceptionally well armed and cunning in their attack instead of charging in head-first in a vengeful rage. Most Talon Company he'd engaged before had been armed with assault rifles, with the occasional sniper or missile launcher acting as support. This group must have salvaged every scrap of weaponry left over from the raid because they seemed to have all that and more. The icy chill in his blood came not from the arsenal he was facing, but from the obvious tactical planning that dictated their every move.
Normally, the mercenaries would have thrown everything they had into their opening volley, opting for shock and awe tactics over attrition. Instead, the two missile launchers hid in cover amongst at least two snipers amongst the rubble of Springvale. On the ground were four more mercenaries in front of a boarded up house, three armed with assault rifles and the fourth lobbing a constant stream of explosives at the wall of the school Jayck was hiding in. Occasionally one would make it inside through the fractured sections and would detonate with an exceptionally deafening blast that would echo through the exposed area of the school and chip away at Jayck's durable power armor bit by bit.
The way the entire group staggered their attacks told Jayck that there was a clear leader amongst them, but they were still amateurs at sustained engagements. They had successfully pinned Jayck in a corner of the rubble, but had given him enough time to notice a pattern in their volleys. They would fire from left to right, but still never gave him a chance to move. Jayck had decided to keep Dogmeat nearby and have him guarding the entrances behind them that led up the stairs to their position.
Jayck set down his sniper on the ground. He hadn't had a chance to get off a single shot and he was running out of time. He reached into his bag and pulled out a special Nuka-Cola grenade that he'd been saving for some time. He knew he would only have seconds after activating it to get rid of the explosive so he waited until he heard the whistling of the second missile and triggered it just before the jarring impact. Using the dust from the explosion as cover, Jayck burst up and hurled the grenade at the group of Talon Company on the ground, using his V.A.T.S. to ensure the throw was true. It exploded on contact with the ground in the middle of the group in a beautiful bloom of blue fire and radiation. The shack beside them shuddered from the blast and began to burn, a pillar of black smoke climbing high into the sky. The growing roar of the flames did little to drown out the screams of burning men.
One panicked voice remained after the others had succumbed to the flames before a second explosion silenced it. The eruption engulfed the side of the shack in a blinding flash of green, tongues of plasma consuming any perishable materials they touched.
An eerie silence fell over the skirmish as both sides waited for the other to make a move. He wind shifted and blew the smoke and dust from the fires up to Jayck's vantage point, blinding him as to what was going on below. Using the impenetrable smoke as cover, Jayck ducked out from behind the wall and made his way to the stairs down to the ground level. A silent gesture to Dogmeat and his companion followed Jayck down to the ground.
Dogmeat's ears perked up at noises coming from outside the battered concrete walls. Jayck reached for the combat shotgun he'd stashed below and thumbed off the safety, a shell already waiting in the chamber. A quick nod towards the empty window was all the instruction Dogmeat needed to bound through it and circle around the right side of the building, looking for survivors. Jayck watched out the holes in the concrete as four Talon mercs approached the blast site, two emerging from their cover on the sides of the burning building.
Suddenly, a blur of claws and fangs flashed out from behind the corner of the school building and had knocked down the two mercenaries on the right before tearing at their exposed throats. Time seemed to slow to a still for Jayck. He burst from behind the standing section of wall and focused on the two Talon Company to his left. He trusted Dogmeat to be able to hold his own for the moment.
As he leveled his shotgun with the first mercenary's head, Jayck's senses took in everything around him. The acrid smell of smoke thick in the air, the sickening, sweet scent of burnt flesh, and the crackling of the fiery fingers that were slowly coercing the building into falling. He felt the minute muscle movement in his finger that pulled the trigger a fraction of a second before the shotgun blast reduced his target's head to a red mist. Blood, brains, and fragments of bone peppered the second mercenary, startling him and giving Jayck the split second he needed to sweep his aim across and fire again. The weapon roared and blasted the man in the chest, knocking him on his back. Knowing Talon Company's love for combat armor, Jayck sprinted over and unloaded two more shells into the man, reducing his chest cavity to a gory pulp.
Turning back to Dogmeat, Jayck was too late to dodge the missile that collided directly with his chest. The force of the blast forced him back, but he kept his feet. Alarms whined in Jayck's helmet, displaying the damage his power armor had taken from the impact. The sustained explosions before had done more damage than he'd thought and another hit like that would tear through the metal remnants of his armor as if they were paper. Stepping forward out of the smoke, Jayck saw that only one mercenary was still alive. His partner was lying in a pool of his own blood, his throat a shredded mess. Dogmeat was nowhere to be seen.
With no time to worry about his companion, Jayck hastily aimed his shotgun from his hip and pulled the trigger. He was horrified to hear the dry clickof the gun jamming in place of the metallic roar he had expected. The remaining mercenary grinned cruelly at his second chance and finished reloading his missile launcher before shouldering the hefty weapon and taking aim.
Jayck dropped the worthless gun and drew his pistol, aiming as quickly as he could. It wasn't fast enough. As the mercenary fired his vengeful round, a set of vicious fangs closed around his calf, causing him to roar back in pain. The rocket went wild and flew out of Springvale and into the hills beyond. Jayck took his chance and fired three rapid shots into the man's unprotected skull. Each round disappeared into a glistening crimson wound before the mercenary fell unceremoniously to the ground.
Jayck attempted to slow his breathing, but it was difficult to do with the adrenaline coursing through his veins. A quick count of the fallen around him totaled eight bodies, but Jayck couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't done yet. He kept his pistol drawn, moving from body to body and putting a final round into each of their skulls. Experience had taught him to never assume an enemy was dead until he was positive.
Peering through the smoke from the burning house, Jayck saw a scorched hole blasted through the side of the squat shack, likely where the mercenary had been storing the rest of his grenades. Jayck loaded a fresh magazine into his pistol and stepped through the dark room. He dialed on the light on his Pip-Boy to try to cut through the haze, but its effect was minimal at best. Any light in the room came in from the hole in the wall and between the pried-apart slats of a boarded up window facing the school.
Barely visible through the murky light lay a body half covered in shadows. Jayck raised his pistol and stalked towards the still form, his eyes burning from the smoke seeping into his helmet. As he neared, his Pip-Boy illuminated a dark pool around the mercenary's head, likely flowing from a hidden wound caused by debris from the blast. Jayck put two rounds into the man's skull, his heart racing once more after a loud yelp escaped the feigning man before he fell truly silent.
Smoke now filled the room completely and the ceiling was turning to embers, about to cave in. Jayck climbed outside the house through the hole and began searching the bodies for anything that he could use. He wasn't fond of looting the dead, regardless of who they were, but reasoned that they didn't need their gear anymore so why waste it. The fact that they were Talon Company admittedly helped some though. After he'd finished searching the corpses, Jayck began to toss them into the burning house. Sheriff Simms hated people leaving anything around that would attract scavengers to the areas around Megaton. Dogmeat returned to the road carrying Jayck's sniper rifle from where he'd left it in the ruins and waited patiently for his partner to finish his task before the two of them began the trek back to town.
Jayck's ears were still ringing from the explosion when he heard the building collapse behind them and felt the heat of the red fire on his back, even through his armor. He imagined the black plume of smoke growing higher and higher in the bright afternoon sky. The alarms in his helmet had gone silent, but there was no mistaking the damage he'd suffered during the fight. He would not be able to use his power armor to get to the Citadel, which meant it would be that much more difficult to protect Amata. Still, he knew they would find a way to make it to the Brotherhood's headquarters. They had no other choice. There were too many people depending on them for failure to be an option.