Yeah... still running out of disclaimers so, this is it. Consider yourself disclaimed.
"The difference between engineers is that Mechanical engineers build weapons, Civil engineers build Targets." - Unknown
"So… that's it?" Christine mumbled in disbelief. "He's trapped down there? It's over?" Her mission, everything she had been working towards these last few years, all the hardship she'd experienced tracking Elijah down was just… over?
"Yeah, it's done." Ruby confirmed wearily, absently stepping over a pile of debris as they navigated their way back to the elevator. "He sealed his fate the moment he tried to detonate my collar; if there was even a sliver of a chance of him getting out of that bunker it was in that computer." She chewed her lip for a moment. "He'll survive for a while, I'm sure; there were enough supplies in there for a single person to last months… it's what it was built for after all."
"But he can't get out? You're sure?" Christine seemed desperate about this.
"That place was designed to take a hit from a high-yield warhead. He's not getting out." Ruby affirmed, resolute on that particular detail.
She wasn't expecting the vicious scowl that broke out over Christine's face. "Good. Then he has a lot of time to reflect on his mistakes before he dies." Her tone was vicious.
"He really did something bad to you, huh?" Ruby asked quietly. "I mean, beside the whole bomb collar slave stuff." There was obviously something a lot deeper than that and Christine looked distinctly uncomfortable as soon as she brought it up.
"He… he separated me from somebody I cared deeply about a long time ago." The knight admitted slowly. "I mean, I really do have… I did have a mission to track him down and eliminate him." She looked down at the ground and massaged her brow. "I let it become a lot more personal than I should have, and I'll bear the price of that." Her hand subconsciously found its way to the winding scar across her neck.
"I didn't know the Brotherhood were so… dogged, about their elimination of deserters." The thought made Ruby pale a little, thinking about what kind of impact her escapades could have on Veronica's standing in the organisation.
"Well, not usually." Christine clarified. "People are actually allowed to leave if they like." Ruby's eyebrow raised at that. "They're warned not to reveal any secrets, but other than that they're fine. People like Elijah though… Elders are more dangerous. When they took the position they understood the commitment they made, trying to leave equals an automatic target on their head."
"I guess Elijah was the worst case scenario for that, huh?" Ruby imagined that with his technological prowess and his predilection for old-world WMD's he would be viewed as a serious threat to the Brotherhood. If only they'd known.
"Exactly." Christine agreed. "I'm actually from a small faction of the Brotherhood that's designated with handling such… problems. We're called the Circle of Steel and… that's all I'm really allowed to tell you." The former mute blinked, surprised she had even said that much already.
"That's alright." Ruby assuaged, raising her hands with a small smile. "I'd rather not have to worry about assassins with big guns and stealth-boys coming after me."
Christine smirked. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that too much." Her expression quickly turned pensive though. "You uh, you seem to know quite a bit about the Brotherhood." Ruby quirked her head somewhat as Christine became oddly… withdrawn; that was saying something considering when they'd met she couldn't even speak. "And earlier you mentioned a Veronica…" She looked up with an indecipherable expression. "That wouldn't happen to be Veronica Santangelo?"
Ruby blinked. "Small world…" However certain cogs were already spinning in her head. The familiar story of Christine being separated from somebody she cared about, her knowing Veronica, her being in a vastly different section of the Brotherhood, and Elijah's role in all of this…
"So um, how is she?"
There it was, the nervous glance with the eyes that wouldn't quite meet her own. Ruby knew she had nailed it in one; Christine was the girl that had been separated from Veronica when they were kids. An inexplicable heat rose in the girl's chest at the thought and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. All of a sudden she wanted to give this girl the wrong idea, that herVeronica was not her Veronica.
"She's, um, fine." But she couldn't. As soon as she felt that fire in her chest, it faded again, leaving her oddly empty inside. "So you two knew each other?" She couldn't help but stress the past tense of the question though.
"Yeah, when we were kids we were… good friends." The conversation had just gotten about three times more awkward, especially as they had finally reached the elevator. They stood there in silence as the small metal box wound its way down to the lobby, occasionally glancing at one another and trying to think of what to say.
Surprisingly it was Ruby who broke the tense stalemate as the ping of the elevator announced their arrival. "I think she mentioned you once."
"Really?" Christine looked genuinely surprised.
"We were talking about… past romances." The redhead's cheeks flamed up as she gave an anxious sort of laugh. "I can't even remember how it came up." Now she was just blatantly lying; she remembered that night vividly. It was the closest she had been to another person in years.
"Oh, she told you about that?" Christine didn't look much better. Gone was the stoic Brotherhood knight and in her place remained a somewhat awkward twenty-something woman who looked to be remembering something with embarrassment. "We were young and, well…"
"So Elijah separated you two?" Ruby cut in somewhat rudely, finally deciding to stop skirting around the issue. She didn't know why it was making her so flustered to begin with but she didn't like it.
Christine was only caught off guard for a moment before she straightened her features. "Yes. I don't even think Veronica knew about it and I never wanted to tell her because she idolised him so much. It was always a… contentious point between us." Ruby almost wished she had stuck to the nervous skirting of the issue; the straight-laced way Christine talked about it made it all the more real for her and it sent odd pangs through her chest.
"She didn't… know, that is. She never knew who did it." Ruby affirmed quietly, making Christine nod. "She's actually been searching for him, all this time." That made the knight quirk an eyebrow. "It's what we were doing before I got captured and taken here. We tracked him to a bunker near the Colorado where I got gassed. I imagine she's still there now actually."
Christine looked curious about that. "You agreed to help her track down a four year old ghost?"
The redhead shrugged. "She helped me out with something, I wanted to return the favour." She chuckled at the memory of her first meeting with the scribe. "Actually, she didn't give me much choice; she basically forced me to let her stick around."
The knight smirked fondly as she walked up to the main doors of the casino. "Yeah, that sounds like her; always sticking her nose into other people's business." She pushed against the doors only to frown as they remained stubbornly closed. She shoved it harder only to get the same result. "Ah, I think we may have a problem."
Ruby blinked at the locked doors before blanching. "Oh, right… I forgot about that." She bit her lip nervously as Christine turned to stare at her.
"Forgot about what?"
"Um, well…" The redhead chuckled anxiously. "Remember how I said it's usually a really bad idea to wire an unprotected terminal directly into a power grid?"
Christine nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing. "You said it might cause a system crash; that was why we had to run for the casino."
"Yeah… I forgot about the system reset that it might have caused." She furrowed her brow. "Basically it's as if the gala event never happened, according to the power grid anyway."
Christine slumped as she followed the girl's train of thought. "So the security's back up and the casino's locked up tight again…" She leaned against the door only to slide down, letting out a humourless chuckle. "Great, after all that and we end up getting trapped in here anyway; we're no better off than Elijah." She flinched though when the redhead swatted her on the arm.
"Oi, there'll be no underestimation of the resident fix-it-all today thank you." She demanded, showing more confidence than she felt. "Who said anything about trapped?" She turned and looked around the lobby, her eyes immediately resting on the reception terminal. "Now that I'm actually inside the place, there's a whole lot more I can do." She hurried over and quickly scanned over what was present; nothing immediately obvious, but that wasn't an issue.
"Okay, there was something we did back in my Vault that might work here." She muttered as she plugged her Pip-boy into the computer.
"You're from a Vault?" Christine questioned incredulously, making Ruby stare at her blankly.
"Priorities here." She shook her head. "I'm going to momentarily overload the local area with a kind of programming 'white-noise'. We used it to reset entire sections of the Vault when too many systems were in the red. If I'm right, it should unlock the doors long enough for us to get out."
"And if you're wrong?"
Ruby grinned brightly. "We really shouldn't look at the negatives here, now…" Her finger hovered over the Pip-boy's screen "…ready?"
Christine went wide-eyed at the sudden announcement. "Wait, wha-?"
"Too late." Ruby hit the button and all of a sudden the air became alive with the crackle of overloading electricity. The speakers went nuts, blasting out a high-pitched, maddening whine as the lights all suddenly blared as bright as they would go. Christine tumbled backward as her bodyweight pushed open the now suddenly unlocked doors, causing her to collapse backward in an ungraceful heap.
She was helped up moments later as Ruby sprinted out the doors, not even asking for permission as she grabbed the knight's hands and dragged her out. Just in time too as the doors slammed shut a moment later with terrifying force.
"Wooh!" The redhead cried brightly as she looked down at the villa below. "Glad that worked."
"And out of curiosity, if it hadn't?" Christine asked as she picked herself up off the grimy floor.
"The system would have locked down on the interference, blocked me out and sent the system into a kind of safety-mode, essentially sealing me out." Ruby waved her hand airily. "No point dwelling on the might-haves though, right?"
The knight's only response was a twitch of her eye.
"I should say though that… well, that's it now." The redhead glanced back up at the casino, quiet once again. "The place won't fall for my tricks again… for all intents and purposes that place is closed forever." The engineer didn't seem all that sad about it.
"That's fine." Christine admitted slowly, also taking the opportunity to look back at the place that had haunted her for weeks now. "My mission's done now. There's nothing left for me here anymore."
"Oh, right." The small smile Ruby had been wearing faded slowly. "So, what are you going to do now?"
Christine was surprised at how quickly the redhead shifted gears. "Well, now that my mission's complete I'll need to be getting back to the Brotherhood." She glanced down at the villa, noticing how different it seemed when it wasn't completely bathed in the Cloud. She could almost see why this place had been a luxury resort before everything went to hell. "Actually, now that the Cloud's cleared I might be able to get a signal through to my superiors; it's been a while since I contacted them."
Ruby just nodded slowly. "Right." She chewed her lip for a moment. "Do you… do you need help setting up a radio?" She asked hopefully.
"I set one up when I first got here, it's already keyed into the right frequency." She was a little hesitant to just leave the engineer though. The girl couldn't be there when she made the call, for security reasons, but the redhead just looked so… fragile, at the moment.
"Oh… okay. I'll… I'll just wait for you by the fountain then." Ruby stated after a moment of awkward silence. The walk down to the plaza stayed that way and the two separated without another word, each carrying their own brand of worry.
Christine felt she was right to be anxious when she came back to find Ruby listlessly tinkering with one of the villa's many vending machines. There was no spirit in the motions, none of the vigour and excitement she had seen in the switching station. The girl was just absently taking the thing apart and staring at each component in turn like it was just something for her hands to do. It looked as though her adrenaline had finally run out.
"You okay?" The knight asked with trepidation.
The redhead paused, the wrench she was holding swaying slightly in her hand. She sat back, looking up at the red tinted sky and wearing an unconvincing grin. "Of course; why wouldn't I be, right?"
"You don't look okay." Christine stated bluntly; the girl's eyes were red and watery; it looked like she had been holding back tears for a while now.
Her words seem to be the final straw on the camel's back, as Ruby suddenly threw the wrench across the street. The clang startled the former mute, but not as much as Ruby balling her hands up and slamming them into the ground. "I'm just so sick of it!" She panted for a moment after the outburst before curling in on herself. She wiped at her eyes fruitlessly but just couldn't seem to stem the sudden flow of tears.
"Sick of what?" Christine asked when it became clear Ruby wasn't going to continue. The knight moved slowly over to the girl and crouched down next to her, unsure of what to do from there.
"Everything." The redhead muttered. "Elijah, this stupid casino, these things…" She petulantly thumped the vending machine only to wince when it didn't prove as yielding as she hoped. "I'm just sick of all the reminders of how pointless all of this is." She shook her head and wiped more furiously at her eyes with her arm. "They were so close… fusion power, creating food and medicine from scrap… so close."
She tried to curl in to herself even further only to find a warm hand wrapping around her own, pulling her back out again. "Didn't you tell me not to dwell on the might-have's not ten minutes ago?"
The engineer just scoffed. "Hard not to when we have to live in their mistakes 200 years later."
"You're alive aren't you? We're through this nightmare right?" Christine smirked. "What about me huh? I have to live with the fact that my beautiful voice is gone forever; singing in the shower's never going to be the same."
That managed to earn her a quirk of the lips from the redhead. "I… I could probably fix that you know, if I got a better look at the auto-doc."
Christine just shook her head. "Don't you worry about me. Right now, worry about you. Now come on, I want to get out of here." Ruby sobered and the knight instantly followed her thought process. "Don't worry, I'm not leaving you yet, I can walk back to the Mojave with you at least." A more genuine smile found its way onto Ruby's lips as she allowed the older woman to help her up.
The two made their way to the gates of the villa, pausing only to take one last look back at the nightmarish place. "Do you think you'll ever come back?" Christine asked after a moment of contemplation.
Ruby, surprisingly, just shrugged. "Would I be crazy if I said maybe?"
"Depends on why." The knight asked curiously, only to receive a grin in response.
"Those vending machines are really interesting."
Christine sighed bemusedly. "You're so like her that it hurts, no wonder she stuck with you."
That quickly served to bring the mood of the conversation down. Ruby's hands began to fidget again as she cast furtive glances at the suddenly pensive woman. "She would be there you know, waiting for me. Why don't you come back?" Even suggesting the idea made her chest hurt in that same way as before, much to her confusion.
Christine just gave a forced smile. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about that… it's a long walk back to the Mojave."
"Right." Ruby quickly agreed, following the knight out of the gates. "So um, what do the Circle of Steel actually do?"
"I can't tell you that." Christine replied reflexively, only to sheepishly run a hand across her scalp.
"Well, the conversation's just going to be flowing isn't it?" The redhead quipped, drawing twin smirks from the both of them.
It was a long walk north back to the Mojave wasteland and Ruby was prepared for the long haul. However they weren't even walking through southern Nevada for an hour before Christine spotted something in the air heading towards them.
"Watch out, we have incoming." She warned, hands gripping a little tighter around the holo-rifle.
However when Ruby followed her gaze she only grinned. "Don't worry, these are friendlies." Well, unless a certain journeyman scribe wanted to knock her lights out for leaving without a word. She'd probably have time to explain… right? "Ah… on second thought could I have the rifle back?" She called nervously. Christine shot an odd look her way just as the vertibird came in for a decidedly non-standard landing, skidding across the loose sand.
Not ten seconds after the hatch was opened, Ruby found herself in a bone-breaking hug as Veronica sprinted the distance between them. "Ruby! Thank god you're okay! I was so worried!"
Ruby just flailed her arms awkwardly for a moment before slowly completing the hug, allowing herself to relax for the first time in days. "I missed you too." Boy was that an understatement, but she was tired and more than a little frazzled and couldn't think up anything better.
"What happened to you?!" Veronica practically yelled as she took a step back, taking in Ruby's haggard and dirty appearance. "And what are you wearing?"
Ruby just scratched the back of her head. "It's a really long story." Where would she even begin?
"But what happened?" The scribe continued. "One moment, me and Vince were looking around the bunker, the next some alarm goes off and the doors slam shut. By the time we got them open again you'd just disappeared and all of your stuff was dumped in a locker by the door."
At that moment Vince hovered over, having finally caught up. \I did attempt to track your Pip-boy's signal, however a great deal of interference was making it difficult. I only managed to pin-point a location around an hour ago thanks to an enormous burst of static that bore your computer's signature./
Ruby just nodded. "Yeah, that would make sense." She'd blasted a lot of the casino's systems opening the doors; with the weakened cloud exposure that signal would have definitely made it through. Good thing too; would have been a long walk otherwise.
"So uh, who's your friend?" Veronica asked, looking over at Christine who had been skulking around the back of the group for the most part, casting furtive glances at the scribe.
"Oh, that's, um…" The redhead wasn't sure how to introduce her friend's estranged lover, but Christine beat her to it.
"I'm Diana, an agent of the Circle of Steel." She cut in. "I met Ruby during all of this craziness and we've been helping each other to get out of it. Now that I see she's in good hands, I'll leave her to you." The woman smiled fondly at the redhead while attempting to avoid Veronica's curious gaze, rather unsuccessfully.
"Wait, have we met?" The scribe asked, her brow furrowed. "You seem really familiar for some reason."
Christine adopted a strained smile. "Well, I'd say I just had one of those faces, but…" She motioned to the scars across her features. "I really don't."
Veronica just nodded, shaking herself out of her thoughts. "Right, right sorry. It's just… when you said you were in the Circle…" The scribe seriously seemed to be looked for something in the woman's face. "Do you know someone named Christine?" A short distance from them, Ruby felt her heart sink.
"There are a lot of agents in the Circle, we get spaced out quite a bit and I rarely meet many of our operatives." The scarred woman explained quickly.
"Well um, if you do ever see her, could you give her a message?" Veronica tried hesitantly. "Could you tell her I said, I'm sorry we had to part the way we did and that…" The scribe seemed to struggle with her next words even as both Ruby and Christine leaned in closer.
"Yes?" The knight asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly.
"Ah, nothing, just tell her I'm sorry." Veronica finally stated with a frown, causing Christine's smile to become that much more strained.
"I'll make sure she gets it if I see her." The woman affirmed, earning a nod of thanks from the scribe. "Now if that's all?"
"We could give you a lift, to where you're going?" Ruby blurted suddenly, making the knight smile fondly at the gesture.
"Thank you but no, it's better if I go my own way from this point." She turned and began striding off, causing Ruby to glance between her two friends before chasing after her, catching up a fair distance from the others.
"Why didn't you tell her?" She asked, causing the older woman to pause.
"What happened in the past, between me and Veronica, it needs to stay there. We were kids, but we both made our choices." She gave a queer smile. "I can already see that Veronica's made her peace with it; I need to make my own." She turned back to the engineer and relaxed somewhat. "Thank you Ruby, for everything; if you ever need help I'll try and be there for you. The Brotherhood has eyes in all sorts of places."
Ruby nodded a little awkwardly before going out on a limb and hugging Christine, catching the knight off guard. She separated a moment later, a little red-faced and teary-eyed, but smiling. "Thank you too; I'd probably still be moping around in the villa without you. I'll miss you."
Christine just nodded. "You too, take care Ruby." And with that the woman began making tracks, quickly disappearing into the heat haze of the desert.
By the time she walked back over to Veronica and Vince she had recomposed herself, waving off Veronica's demands for an explanation with a simple "air-conditioning", motioning to the vertibird. It was only when they were all settling inside that Ruby finally agreed to reveal what had happened to her. But first, she turned to Veronica with a sombre expression.
"Before I let you know what happened 'Ronica, I need to tell you something." She took a deep breath. "I… I found Elijah."
For a moment Veronica's entire face lit up, before she realised that Ruby wasn't sharing her enthusiasm. "You don't have that 'good news' expression."
Ruby just decided to go for it, like sticking in a stimpack. "He's dead."
"Oh." Veronica just blinked for a moment before her entire posture slumped. "Well, I mean… I always knew that would be a possibility. I just… he was Elijah you know, I thought…" She stopped rambling when Ruby placed a hand on her shoulder.
"That's not it." Her brow furrowed for a moment. "Maybe it'll just be easier if I explain from the start." Veronica nodded slowly. "Well, when I went to go find those tools…" Boy did that feel like a long time ago now "…I walked into some kind of trap and got gassed. When I woke up I was in a place called the Sierra Madre…"
Veronica was silent all throughout her story, even as her expression grew more and more horrified. Ruby afforded her the same courtesy as she sat across from the girl in the vertibird's hangar, allowing her to just soak in everything she'd told her.
"I just can't… I can't believe… that he'd… that he would ever… all those things…" Veronica mumbled, flitting between burying her face in her hands and pulling at her hair.
"I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you this." Ruby interjected hesitantly, stopping Veronica short.
"No… no it's fine I…" She looked down, clasping her hands together. "He was dead from the moment he abandoned us at Helios, I just needed…. The closure. I'm glad it was from you." She sighed. "I think I just need a moment to sort myself out."
Ruby nodded understandingly only to have Vince interject from where he had been hovering nearby. \I'm afraid we don't have the time, the vertibird's radar is picking up two approaching signatures/
That at least was enough to tear Veronica out of her funk as the scribe quickly scrambled through the craft to the cockpit where, sure enough, the radar was picking up two blips quickly approaching them. "More vertibirds, but that's…" Her eyes widened as she quickly hit the hatch release button, peering out at the two objects that were swiftly resolving out of the hazy sky. Veronica practically forced Ruby out of the vertibird as the two aircraft came in for a much more professional landing than anything the scribe could manage.
Almost as soon as their tyres touched ground their hatches swung open, released a small flood of heavily armoured soldiers. The steady clank of hydraulics filled the air as the power-armoured troops quickly formed up in ranks like a human corridor. Ruby kept shooting furtive looks at her friend but Veronica's eyes remained steadfastly forward. She saw why when moment later another figure, this time in rather esoteric, but still functional robes slowly climbed out of the vehicle.
He was clearly old but there was an air of respect about him that couldn't be faked. It helped that the soldiers all snapped off synchronised salutes as he walked the length of their ranks. In all it was a rather humbling sight; Ruby had thought she'd gotten a pretty good hang of the power armour. However watching these men, who wore the walking tanks like a second skin, made her realise she as just a kid playing around with things she didn't properly understand.
"At ease." The man's voice was wearied with age and gruff like a man who had smoked one too many in his time. He didn't walk like an old man though, he stood straight and even through his loose robes it was clear there was a strong frame there. The redhead was caught off guard when Veronica suddenly dropped to a knee before she was suddenly pulled down as well. Considering the number of weapons these guys had, she just decided to go along with it.
"High Elder Maxson, it's an honour." The scribe greeted, causing Ruby's eyes to widen. Not from the introduction, she had figured out this had to be some bigshot in the Brotherhood, but from the sheer deference in the scribe's tone. When talking about Elijah, at least before, there had been a sense of reverence and respect… but not on this level.
"Stand up, I don't have time for all the pomp and circumstance right now." He growled, making a small motion with his hand that had the ranks behind him break up. The armoured foot-soldiers immediately made for the Firebug, causing Ruby to let out an indignant cry.
"Hey, that's my 'Bird, what do you think you're –mhmmm!" Veronica planted a hand over her mouth, stifling anything else she could say with a desperate look. However the High Elder's eyes had already drifted to the redhead, taking in her scruffy appearance and the set of tools strapped to various parts of her body.
"So you're the nuisance engineer that's been causing all of this trouble." The man surmised. "Bringing the solar plant on for those upstarts not good enough for you huh? Need to start messing around with untethered artificial intelligences too?"
Ruby's eyebrows made their best attempt to escape into her hairline when he said that. "Untethered… what are you talking about?"
The Elder huffed. "Don't even have the decency to know what kind of fuck-up you've caused." He looked her over once more before making an absent motion with his hand. "Get them on board, and bring along that VB-02 of theirs. I'd quite like to know how they managed to get their hands on what looks to be original Enclave tech." With that said he turned and made his way back to his own vertibird.
Ruby didn't even get a chance to complain as she was suddenly manhandled into a very secure grip and frog-marched to the other craft. Veronica was taken too, but she was a lot more compliant about the whole affair. Moments later Ruby was roughly sat on the bench that ran the length of the craft, surrounded on all sides by the very intimidating sight of power-armoured paladins. She didn't quite have the nerve to make a complaint after that.
[Poseidon Systems Network]
¬Continued repairs for Ballistic Orbital Missile Base -001: Unavailable – Vital materials missing
[I already told you, cannibalise non-essential systems]
¬Define
[You know, those things the humans need. Habitation units, food extruders, waste management systems. The frills.]
¬Clarified
[I'm really going to have to work making you more independent, as an operating system you're useless. While you're up there split some threads into commandeering one of the old monitoring satellites. Some of the old military ones will do, they don't seem to be using them anyway. I want to know exactly what happened in the two hundred years I was asleep]
¬Estimated time until required satellite operational capacity: 155 hours