Gob swallowed hard. He was hungover, scared shitless, and trying to stuff himself into a set of armor he'd never worn before. He hoped no one would see him, because this was the second time he'd gone crashing to the floor in an attempt to stuff his legs into the stuffy metal.
"Here," a voice whispered, and then strong hands were pushing him back up onto his feet and guiding his various limbs into the suit.
"This is ridiculous, kid," he grumbled as she circled around and buckled him up into the armor.
"But it'll keep you alive, old man," Leah muttered back, "and if you die, Nova will skin me and make a purse out of my flesh."
"Ah, that's why I love her," Gob reflected with a dreamy smile.
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever keeps you warm at night. You'll see her soon enough, just do whatever Charon says, okay? He knows what he's doing."
"Yeah, and apparently so do you."
"Not half as much," she sighed, seemingly with regret. "All right. Turn around, lemme see you."
Gob obeyed, spinning on the spot to see Leah with her hands on her hips, in an equally stuffy-looking suit of armor. Of course, she looked like she was born to wear it. Surely, he looked –
"Totally badass!" she cried, patting him on the shoulder. "You'll have to try this on for Nova when we get back. She will lose her shit. Ready?" She slapped an assault rifle against his chest and then jerked her head over her shoulder. "Come on, everyone's getting ready to leave."
Gob followed her as quickly as he could in the clanky armor through the campsite – now devoid of tents; the initiates had been woken up at the crack of dawn to take them down and pack them up – to where the group had gathered in front of the truck. Leah took her place between Charon and Fawkes and Gob squeezed in awkwardly beside her.
"We will arrive in approximately twelve hours, my Brothers," Sarah Lyons was announced. She peered officiously down at them from the bed of the truck. "We strike as soon as we get there and set up. Leah's team goes in last, once everyone has had a chance to draw attention away from the base so she can disable that weapon. Now let's go kick some ass!"
There was a whoop of enthusiasm. Even McGraw and Rockfowl seemed excited. Casdin hadn't been the greatest leader and it was time to put him in his place.
"Let's load up and take off, teams!"
"What are you doing?" Fawkes asked as he walked alongside the truck.
Leah didn't even look up where she sat in the bed of the truck. Her fingers were busy wedging underneath the plates of armor on her recon suit, wiggling them side-to-side with the clear intention of ripping them off. "These are going to make sneaking around a bitch and a half," she muttered, crying out in surprised when the plate came loose, nearly shooting her off of the truck.
Charon grabbed her by the wrist and hauled her back, sighing with a reluctant smile. "Please do be careful. We actually need you for this battle. I recall her saying that your job is the 'most important.'"
"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled back, tossing the plate aside, "that's why I need to fix this armor. They'll hear me a mile away with all these plates on."
"This plan is not safe," Charon rasped unhappily, arms crossed fitfully across his chest, "it leaves you too vulnerable. I will not have you making yourself any less safe against bullet wounds, smoothskin. Put the plates back on."
"If I can take them off, they'll never even see me. I promise."
"Smoothskin."
"Charon."
They met eye contact, and more was conveyed in that quick meeting of the gazes than anyone else could have ever understood. Charon evidently caved, because he looked away first and did not say another word on the subject.
Leah brushed her fingers over his arm, a tiny gesture, and returned to adjusting her wardrobe.
Gob looked extremely uncomfortable in his armor, sitting across from them on a crate. Every bump in the road made him wince, dented metal jostling his body this way and that. "How the hell do you guys live like this?" he grunted, grimacing again as they rode over a large rock on his side of the truck.
Charon actually laughed, through the sound was gruff. "Don't be a baby! What would Nova say?"
"She'd say, 'Gobby, baby, get your ass home!'" he cried in a shrill imitation of his smoothskin's voice, "'If you get hurt, where the hell am I gonna find another ghoul who can make such a mean fuckin' mixed drink?'"
Leah smiled and her heart ached for her old friend, who was probably at home, trembling with worry for the love of her life. Leah jumped a little when Charon's rough hand stroked the small of her back. He seemed to be reading her mind.
"Nothing happens to anyone," he promised in a low voice.
"Nothing," she agreed slowly.
"We're coming up to the hill. Is that all, Rococo?"
"Right hand, then left. Remember that. You have until four o' clock, so hurry."
"Gotcha." Leah stuck her head into the cab of the truck, squinting past the wind whipping into her eyes. "The building's just over this ridge. Pull over here."
Vargas obeyed, driving the truck discreetly behind another bombed-out building on their right. Charon leapt out from the back just as they were slowing to a stop, Gob clunking clumsily out behind him, nearly falling onto his face.
"What's the plan here, Leah?" Sarah Lyons demanded, sliding to her feet from the cab.
"They're going to have lookouts staged all over that building. You send in a few of us, a small number, full recon, and we take 'em out before they can get word to the main campsite. If we get a few of our guys in Outcast armor, we can signal back that everything's fine. It'll give us time to set up shop in the building without rousing suspicion."
Sarah took a few seconds to digest that, eyes flickering back and forth, before she slowly began to nod. "Good, that's good. We do it your way, Leah. Gallows and Glade are your team."
"And I'll take them." She glanced over her shoulder as Charon stepped up behind her. "Charon, we're going in small and quiet."
"Whoa, we're going to need Charon back here," Sarah interrupted, looking back and forth between them. "No offense, friend, but I've known you long enough to know you're not the recon type."
A feral growl started in Charon's throat, but Leah stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Don't," she whispered. "She's right. You're six-foot-five-inches and two hundred pounds of badass, bangin' ghoul. They'll see you a mile away."
Charon's scowl slowly faded and he shook his head, pressing his mouth to her hand. "Only you, smoothskin, I swear. . . ."
"Yeah, she's all that and a box of Salisbury steak," Sarah snapped, "she'll be back in no time, and you guys can mush it up then. For now, Leah, I need you and your team to get this done while the rest of us get everything ready to set up."
"I've got a plan." Leah turned and scanned the men, cursing under her breath. "I still can't tell them apart when they wear their helmets, Sarah," she whined. "How do you do it?"
"Like this. GALLOWS! GLADE!" Sarah screeched. Leah and Charon winced and ducked away from her voice.
Two men in power armor stepped forward and pulled their helmets from their heads. "Yes, Elder Lyons?" Gallows asked.
"Come talk with Leah. The rest of you!" Sarah called to the other men, "bring it in!"
Leah led them away from the group at large. "We do this neat and tidy, okay? I've got enough stealth boys to spare for our group. The rest are for our main mission." She checked her Pip-Boy. "It's three thirty. We need to get this done by four. That's when the main base will signal us."
"Got it."
Leah lugged down a crate from the bed of the truck, nearly dropping it on her toes in the process. Muttering a curse, she yanked the wooden top off and threw it aside. A set of combat blades and silenced pistols lay nestled inside, beside Leah's entire inventory of stealth boys. She grabbed three of each. "Take one each of these. You've all done this kind of thing before. Grab a set of recon armor like mine, we'll stealth up, and take out the lookouts in the building over the ridge."
"Sounds good," Gallows said.
"You're the boss," Glade agreed.
"All right. Suit up. I have to see a super mutant about a distraction." She stole over to Fawkes while the three men watched her go.
"You know, I kind of love her," Glade murmured appreciatively.
"Yeah, you and everyone else. Just don't let Charon hear it."
"Don't let me hear what?" the ghoul demanded, passing by with a crate in his arms.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
Defender Franklin paced back and forth, glancing out of each window as he passed them. Sentry lookout was easily the most boring part of being an Outcast. He'd rather be walking the Wasteland any day, even if he did have to lug around a partner and one of those dumb sentrybots.
"Mutant, at the back door!" Nudson called from the next room.
Franklin ran for the back windows, pulling his plasma rifle from its clasp. He reached the windows and heard the familiar roar of a super mutant, but when he spotted the beast, it was running away.
"Where the fuck is it goin'?" he shouted to the other men, aiming his rifle. "Runnin' back to hell?"
A hand clamped around his mouth, he felt the prick of a blade at his throat, and a female voice whispered, "Let me know if you see him there," before the knife slit his skin.
Leah lowered the body to the floor, careful not to let the power armor make any noise against the tile. She caught the glimmer of refracted light at her side and moved out of the way to let Glade slink past her into the next room. She heard the muffled shots of a silenced pistol and started taking the Outcast's armor off.
"All clear!" Gallow's voice called from an adjacent room.
"Put on the armor! I don't know how much time we have until they check for signals, but we're gonna be ready when they do," she replied.
"Yes, ma'am!" they all responded at once.
Leah stripped off her own armor and dressed in the Outcast reds. She was just buckling the clasp on the helmet when a movement in the distance caught her eye.
"There's your sign, darling," Glade sang, voice muffled through the helmet, pointing off toward the main camp. Leah peered through the window and saw another Outcast waving up at them from the top of the ramp.
"Wave back," she ordered, waving as Rockfowl had said, "right hand, then left!" The rest of the boys followed suit and evidently that was enough, because the Outcast nodded and retreated back to base.
"We did it, boys," Leah sighed with a grin. "Sign the others. We have our new base."
Colvin and Dusk were situated just beside the forward windows. Their rifles were loaded, crates set up full of ammo. Gunny was addressing his initiates, his booming voice keeping them strong as they waited at the ready. Sarah Lyons was talking close with Vargas, their heads bowed together.
Glade and Gallows leaned against the truck, arms crossed, waiting beside Gob and Fawkes.
Waiting, all of them waiting.
Leah slid her Blackhawk into the holster at her side and picked up her Gauss rifle. After making sure it was loaded, she slid it onto her back.
"Smoothskin."
She smiled and turned, leaning back against a nearby crate. "Yes, Charon?"
Her ghoul stowed his shotgun on his back, his face almost comically confused in a pout. "Do you feel strange?"
"Like we don't have a chance in hell of surviving without each other?" She smiled when he nodded. "Oh, yeah."
"Don't think it'll be getting any better until this thing's over with," he grumbled, crossing his arms. "So I guess we'd better get used to it."
"It might get better," she murmured, lips pulling up into a crooked grin. "How about seeing an old friend?" She hopped off of the crate and lifted the lid in one fluid motion before stepping out of the way.
Charon smirked, reaching forward to pick up the Tesla Cannon. He weighed it in his hands, put it back down to pull Leah into an embrace. "Love you," he rumbled.
"You should. It's all yours. Stay alive until I see you next, that's an order," she said, patting the side of his face.
"Only if you do, too." He kissed her fiercely, moaning under his breath. She kissed him back just as passionately before pushing him away, toward Gob and Fawkes.
"I'll see you when this is all over," he promised, putting the Tesla Cannon into the truck and pulling himself up into the driver's seat. "Vargas!" he barked as Gob slid into the cab. "Get your ass over here! We've got hell to raise!"
Vargas glanced back at Sarah Lyons, shaking his head. "That's my cue."
"Break a leg," she murmured back. Her hand fisted in his armor and she yanked him into a kiss. "Good luck."
Vargas leapt up into the back of the truck and pulled his helmet onto his head. "Let's go."
With a roar from its engine, the truck's tires dug into dirt as it took off over the hill.
"Let's get ready," Leah snapped, grabbing her bag; the stealth boys clinked against each other within it. "Glade, Gallows, we need to be ready to go as soon as they clear it out. Colvin! You let us know when!" she called up to him.
The sniper nodded dutifully back. "You bet."
"And everyone else," Sarah shouted, "Charon's relying on us to get his back when they come flooding out. Are we ready?"
"Yes, ma'am!" a chorus of voices replied.
"You'd better be," she responded coldly. "Let's go show these Outcasts what happens when you piss the Brotherhood off. McGraw. Rockfowl." She gestured them over.
The two men slowly approached her.
"I want you two on me at all times. You make a single move against the brotherhood, I'll kill you myself," she threatened, tapping the barrel of her laser rifle against McGraw's armor. "Bullets will be flying everywhere. It's easy for accidents to happen. Am I clear?"
McGraw's jaw was clenched. "Crystal . . . ma'am."
"Good. Now beat feet."
Rockfowl and McGraw exchanged a glance, before nodding dutifully and heading off to grab their guns.
"You sure about this?" Gob shouted over the squeal of the engine.
"Too late to go back now," Charon growled. "Hold the wheel."
"What?"
"God damn it, hold the wheel!" he snarled, reaching for the Tesla Cannon.
"Move, I'll do it," Vargas yelled, scooting into place past Charon. The ghoul pulled up the Tesla Cannon and leaned out of the passenger window.
"Watch this, Gob, and fucking learn," Charon hollered, taking aim as they crested over the hill. He spotted two sentries on the outer ramp and pulled the trigger. The gust of electricity zoomed out and hit right between the two Outcasts, exploding and shooting them both up into the air.
"Yeah-hah!" Vargas whooped.
Gob let out a nervous chuckle.
Charon shoved the Cannon at Gob, his face stern. "Blow a few guys up and grow a pair, 'Gobby.' Earn a couple stories to impress Nova when you get back."
"Asshole," Gob muttered, snatching the Cannon from him. "Fine. Let me at 'em."
"Up there, Vargas." Charon pointed the spot out. "We'll hit every one as they come up the elevator." He patted Gob on the back. "We get the fun job, Gob. I say we enjoy it." He kicked the door open and jumped out, simultaneously pulling out his shotgun and shooting down another Outcast that came running forward. He let out a cry of triumph, cocking his shotgun. "Let's clear the way for Leah!"
Fawkes roared and stomped down onto the ground, pulling out his Gatling laser. "For Leah and my friends!" he screamed, grabbing another Outcast by the helmet and throwing him off of the edge of the cement into the square below. "Yes! Sometimes I can feel the primal part of me, pulling me away!" he informed them gleefully.
The other three men exchanged a brief, but worried glance.
"Fawkes, is that going to be a problem?" Charon demanded as he killed another Outcast. "I don't want to have to kill you, buddy!"
"Won't be necessary," Fawkes reassured him, hoisting up his Gatling laser. The jet of red light greeted three more Outcasts who came sprinting out of the elevator.
"Protector Casdin!"
"What the fuck is going on up there?"
"It's that ghoul! Two of them, a super mutant, and a Brotherhood paladin!"
"FUCK! Bring me that Vault-dweller! She's got to have alerted them or something! Put troops alpha and beta into getting rid of that scum! That fucking Vault-dweller greaser must have told them something. Get the rest of the men on defense. What the fuck are they thinking, sending four soldiers straight into our base?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Well go get the fucking girl! We need to launch the Reaper now! Teach that fucking Brotherhood what they are messing with. And kill that fucking ghoul. He's the one in charge. Maybe that will keep that fucking Vault Girl and her kind from coming around anymore."
Amata barely registered being picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder. Her hands hung limply over the man's back, bumping against his cold, hard armor. Her blurred vision twisted the world into gray and ice and steel. She shuddered through the pain and the cold, murmuring nonsense, her mind twisted into the lunacy of helpless rage.
The faceless soldier threw her down onto a flat surface, cool and impersonal. Her body trembled, beaten and broken, as she struggled to lift herself up on her quivering arms.
Boots clicked over tile, seemingly all around her, reverberating through her ears. She didn't know what they'd given her, or the last time she'd had food, or where her clothes were. She just wanted to know how much longer it would be until she died.
"If you've used that machine of yours to contact your hero Miss 101 . . . you will sorely regret it, Vault-dweller."
Amata swallowed hard, tasting blood. Her lips stretched and moved as she worked to form words. Finally, her voice seemed to come together as her mind cleared the haze long enough for her determination to solidify. She spat blood and saliva toward the direction of the voice that had threatened her. "I . . . I tell you nothing. I will not help you."
A ghostly chuckle, a deep and frightening baritone. "You say that now."
The Outcasts indifferently dragged the bodies of their fallen out of the elevator and replaced them, standing in perfect formation. They waited motionlessly as the elevator rumbled upward. When it came to a stop, they grabbed their plasma and laser rifles and lifted them, bracing themselves for what was waiting on the other side.
And then the doors opened.
"They've got more coming up!" Colvin yelled down to Sarah Lyons. "Two troops are coming out of the elevator!" He exhaled a small prayer and pulled the trigger, nailing one of the front soldiers right in the head.
"Kodiak, that's your team! Give them some back up and get Vargas's team to start leading them further from the base!"
"You mean Charon's team, Elder Lyons?"
"Whatever team, just hurry up! I need Leah in there as soon as possible, and the more soldiers within the harder it's gonna be for her!"
"On it, ma'am!"
"Fuck, that's a lot more than I thought there'd be!" Gob's fingers slipped on the Tesla Cannon as he attempted to reload it. The electron charge packs clattered to the floor of the cab. "God damn it!"
"Keep it together, Gob," Charon said through gritted teeth, nearly toppling out of the truck as Vargas made a sharp left turn away from the droves of Outcasts. "We've got their attention, now we need to start drawing them away!"
"I see Kodiak's group coming in," Vargas yelled back at him. "They'll cover us!"
"Good, then get us the fuck out of here!"
They passed Kodiak and his knights just as they were starting up their miniguns. The familiar, fearsome rolling clatter was a symphony of relief as their truck tore past the ramp and out into open Wasteland.
Gallows adjusted the three stealth boys hanging around his wrist, making sure none of them would fall off while he was moving. The recon armor felt insanely thin compared to his normal Lyons' Pride power armor, but it would hopefully help to keep him hidden – and alive. He felt a gaze on him and looked up to make eye contact with Glade, who looked equally out of place. The other paladin jiggled the stealth boys around his wrist and cocked his head to the side, a nonverbal question.
Gallows shrugged and jerked his head at Leah, who was turned away from them. She knows what she's doing.
Glade did not look reassured. He cleared his throat, drawing the Vault Girl's attention. "So . . . you ready for this?"
Leah shocked them both by bursting into a wide grin. "Boys . . . I was born ready."
Things are getting exciting! As always, thank all of you for your reviews! Especially Pattyn, as always :)
DaLover, I know the last chapter was a little short, but I figured it was just long enough to get the point across. Thank you for always reviewing. You rock!