FALLING STARS CHAPTER 20- MOTEKKE! BACK
Well this is it and I can't help but feel a little sentimental about the whole thing. Falling Stars started off as an idea for a manga I had which quickly fell apart when I realized I can't draw worth a damned, then it turned into a fan fiction which turned out better than I had ever imagined it would.
DAWN OF BATTLE
Dry lightning cracked in the distance in the early morning, the sun had barely risen and everyone was awake and tense for the upcoming events of the day.
"So what exactly is Liberty Prime?" Kagami asked Konata, who was dozing in and out of sleep while sitting down. "All I know is that it's some sort of weapon, will it really help as much as everyone says it will?"
Before Konata could reply there was a large screeching sound behind Kagami, it stopped and the ground rumbled.
"Look behind you and see for yourself." Konata said smugly.
Kagami slowly turned around, all she could mutter was, "Metal Gear…" In front of her was a fifty foot tall bipedal robot, the very one used in the battle of Anchorage. It felt unreal looking at something like that and knowing it was going to clear a path for her. Using some leverage system it was raised up from the labs and workstations underneath the courtyard.
"I'm not so worried about dying all of a sudden." Kagami said, feeling relieved that something that could take on several Chimera tanks at a time was about to blast its way through to the Jefferson Memorial.
Konata stood next to her admiring the metal beast before them. "So, if you could have any song in the background playing to get you pumped for this what would it be?" She asked conversationally.
Kagami thought for a second then answered. "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band/A Little Help From My Friends by The Beatles. Not so much the Sergeant Pepper part though, in fact get rid that song all together."
"Really?" Konata laughed, "I thought you would say something like, Who cares, this isn't the time to be joking around blah blah blah" She said in her best Kagami impersonation.
Misao walked up the two of them with her gauss rifle slung over her shoulder, "I don't know about you two but I'm stoked to kick some Enclave- Jumping Jesus on a pogo-stick is that Metal Gear!?"
"No just Liberty Prime." Konata assured her, "Kagami made the same mistake too, so you're not alone."
Akira joined them a few minutes later, she looked particularly unenthusiastic about this whole thing. "Ahem my father Elder Lyons has instructed me to give all three of you gift of becoming Paladins of the Brotherhood of Steel." She said in a monotone voice, "I was also told to offer you each, excluding Shorty McBluehair, a suit of power armor."
"I got this far without it thank you." Kagami said and shooed her off.
"I wanted power armor!" Misao whined, "I don't know how to wear it but I still wanted it. I never get anything!"
"You have a gauss rifle, that things blows people in half regardless if they have power armor or not." Kagami reminded her. "It is kind of odd that the only one out of three of us wearing power armor is the one who should be to small to wear it."
"It's fate's way of compensating." Konata decided.
"That reminds me, Misao has a gauss rifle, I have plasma rifle, what are you going to bring Konata?" Kagami asked.
"I'm glad you asked Kagamin, be right back." Konata trotted off and returned a few minutes later with a metal assault rifle that was bit larger than the FIN-FAL model rifle she had before, and it had a rounded clip. "This is a Chinese assault riffle and I got armor piercing rounds to deal with Enclave so I should be all right."
"I have to admit I'm pretty confident about this, at first I was unsure, but I think we really stand a chance." Kagami remarked sounding sure of herself.
"You sound pretty sure of yourself." Misao said, feeling confident herself as well.
"When you think about it, this is another in a long line of things people said we couldn't do." Kagami said, "Remember Konata how all throughout school they told us that we could never survive out in the wastes?"
"Yeah, sure proved them wrong." Konata replied.
"Then everyone here said you couldn't get into Vault 87, I did it and escaped Raven Rock. The way I see it this shouldn't be any different." Kagami continued.
"Let's hope so." Konata said smiling. "Oh yeah and Kagami?"
"Hmm?" The lilac haired girl replied.
"It's good to have you back, not just in body but in mind too." Konata told her and hugged her. Kagami blushed since there were a lot of people around but allowed it.
AN UNEXPECTED CONFESSION
The three of them had been given radios that were around their belts, in unison the three of them went off. "All members of Team Spearhead please report outside the gates of the Citadel." It was Minoru's voice.
"That's us!" Konata said and they jogged over to the meeting place, each feeling a sense of excited anxiety.
"Hey is that armor hard to run in? I know it's missing quite a few pieces but still." Kagami asked as they were heading over.
"A bit." Konata answered. "I'd much rather prefer a sailor suit."
"If I had my little way I'd eat peaches every day." Misao added.
"What the hell is wrong with both of you?" Kagami asked, already getting exhausted from Misao's antics. The three of them had been scolded yesterday by a Sentinel after she stole one of their target dummies. How Misao was allowed to say here was beyond here, none the less be on the Spearhead team.
They met up with a large group of soldiers outside the gates with Akira and Minoru included.
"Unidentified targets closing in!" A Paladin yelled and pointed at two people walking towards them.
"Wait, I know them…" Akira said squinting her eyes to get a good look at them. It was Ayano and Minami.
Ayano started sprinting towards them while Minami kept her steady pace walking. The orange haired girl sprinted past everyone and tackle hugged Misao.
"Misao, I heard you were going down the warpath. Please don't do this you'll be killed." Ayano cried.
Misao jumped in surprise, "I…I can't back out on these people now, we're doing something great here and I'm helping. Now no one can say that I'm selfish.
Ayano looked up at her still crying. "Is this what this is about? Misao, I don't care if you're selfish or can't remember anything about me or love Konata, just come home with me."
"Why would I love Konata?" Misao asked, confused but a little flattered that Ayano cared so much.
"I saw you two kiss, it hurt to watch, but I don't care anymore. Misao don't do this…" She pleaded.
"What?" Kagami said not sounding thrilled about what she just heard.
"Aya-chan, I don't love Konata, what happened was an accident when we were drunk." Misao told her and cradled the distraught girl against her chest. "Is that why you left?"
"Y-yeah." Ayano said with a sniffle.
"What about you two kissing?" Kagami asked again.
"I don't want to talk about it." Konata said, shaking her head.
"Misa-chan don't go, I… I love you." Ayano finally said after years of keeping it hidden, now seemed like her last chance.
"You…love me?" Misao whispered, hardly believing that. Ayano grabbed the front of Misao's shirt and pulled her into a kiss.
Several Paladins "awwww"ed at this and Kagami and Konata couldn't help but smile. Minami walked up behind the, she looked extremely pale and tired, and her wrist was bandaged too.
"It's going to make her death even harder on Ayano now." Minami commented.
"What is with you? You just pop randomly to demoralize everyone." Kagami sneered, getting rather sick of Minami.
"I'm the only realistic one here. The three of you aren't soldiers, Kuroi spent the last decade honing her combat abilities. You have been fighting for what, a couple months? Face it she's your superior in every way, this isn't a fairy tail where the good guys win." Minami said, sounding impatient, tired, and more bitter than anything else. "I'm trying to do you two a favor, just run away while you can. The Brotherhood won't care and you know it, just leave the Capital wastes with your family and live happily somewhere far away."
"You don't get it do you." Kagami said nearly growling. "This isn't about me, this is about the entire Capital Wasteland and possibly beyond. Yes, Konata and I might die, sure that's a possibility. But at least we're dying for something that means something, just what the hell have you done with your life that means anything?"
That struck home, Minami's face distorted a bit. "I gave people hope and a home without having to send anyone out as cannon fodder to do so. Also, just who the hell are you to judge me on nobility?"
"I know all about what you did to those people in-" Kagami tried to say, her words were cut off by a swift slap across her cheek from Minami.
"Those are awfully brave words from someone who wasn't there, and it tells me a lot about your personality, using it as a weapon for your little pissing contest." Minami hissed at her. "If you want a pissing contest then I'll give you one. Should I be the one to tell the Lancaster family what happened to their daughter, or were you planning on it? What about Shrapnel? I'm sure he'd love to know just where is best friend went."
Kagami slapped her back, she didn't need Minami bringing what she had to do to get pass Little Lamplight in front of Kagami. That turned out to be a mistake, Minami threw in Kagami on the ground using her leg, and had Vampire's Edge out in a second. The sharpened blade was held against Kagami's neck, with the flick of her wrist Minami could end Kagami's life.
The Paladin's all drew their weapons and aimed them at Minami. The kensei removed her katana from Kagami's neck and resheathed it. "You're going to be cannon fodder and nothing less. Kuroi is my better in combat and I could have slain you without a second thought."
"Go to hell." Kagami said stomped off, Konata eagerly followed her. Minami, who was getting uncomfortable from daylight, walked back the way she had came. It was like nothing had ever happened.
"I was right." Konata said to herself.
"Right about what?" Kagami turned to ask her.
"When I was in Vault 112 I thought that once we got started with Project Purity that you would get all gung ho and put all your effort into it." Konata giggled, "You're so easy to read my little tsundere."
"If you say so." Kagami replied and shook her head. If you know so much then why don't you come out and say what I feel?
Overhead a crane lifted Liberty Prime and place it near Spearhead. He was activated remotely and shuttered once before his blue eyes electronically lit up.
"Red Chinese forces detected." Liberty Prime spike in a deep booming voice. "Possibility of mission hindrance… Zero percent!"
"He still thinks he's in Anchorage, but at least he seems enthusiastic." Kagami noted.
ON THE DEFENSE…
In the Jefferson Memorial, the Enclave wasn't completely oblivious to the Brotherhoods doings.
"General, you may want to take a look at this." An officer said and gestured Kuroi over, he showed her the screen of a terminal that showed the topography of the surrounding areas, from across the river a large mass of red was moving slowly towards them.
"What am I looking at?" Kuroi asked.
"Brotherhood soldiers amassing towards our position." He answered, "There's more though, they have something big with them. I mean really big."
Kuroi growled in frustration. "Scramble everyone, get defensive positions set up the highway. Order the attack Vertibirds to take whatever is with them down, also get all our turrets online."
"All turrets offline." The officer replied immediately, "Looks like sabotage."
Nanako pushed him out of his seat to look for herself. "That's impossible, none of our tech specialists are on site and someone would need an IFF transponder not to set them off…" She wracked her brain for answers, "Iwasaki… Get a hold of Talon Company, give them the profile of Minami Iwasaki. Ten thousand caps for her and the rest of her little club. Dead."
"Yes ma'am!" The officer replied.
"One last order, get Captain Ambrose and Johannes and tell them to suit up in Hellfire armor and meet me in the Purifier room. They're going to my personal honor guard."
DEATH MARCH
Sadly Ayano failed to convince her love to stay, in the end she thought maybe it was best that Misao did this. She could tell Misao was trying to prove herself and it didn't feel right to take that away from her. Most of her worries were ceased when Kagami gave her outline of their plan and setup, it actually sounded like it could work.
"Please promise me that if you get into any grave danger that you'll run." Ayano said firmly to Misao, "Don't play hero or do anything stupid.'
"You worry too much." Misao replied and kissed her on the forehead. "It's not like I'm going out there alone."
"I know…but still." Ayano said nervously, she untied her red bandanna and tied it around Misao's forehead. "When I was an initiate for the Brotherhood of Steel I never once got shot while wearing it. Maybe it'll bring you luck too."
"See now I have even less to worry about with a bullet proof bandanna." Misao joked. "Does it come with unlimited ammo?"
Ayano was going to say something else when Akira walked up behind her, "Hey, remember me?"
"Sort of, Sentinel Kogami right?" Ayano turned around and replied.
"You remembered!" Akira cheered looking less like a honed warrior and more like a child. Her voice turned dark instantly. "You walked out on us, that's punishable by death."
"No it's not!" Minoru interjected. Akira unleashed her wrath upon him.
Konata and Kagami watched and couldn't help but laugh. Everyone's radio went off at once.
"This is Rothschild, I'm here with Dr. Tamura. We'll be keeping you all informed." Rothschild told them. Liberty Prime stirred again. "Operation Take It Back is a go, I repeat Operation Take It Back is a go!"
Everyone scrambled into six man groups and followed behind Liberty Prime as he lumbered forward step by step. Each footstep shook the ground beneath them.
"This is it, man I'm so freaking excited!" Misao screamed nearly exploding with energy.
Kagami had to give her props for her energy, she felt nervous and the atmosphere felt almost surreal. "You sure are hyper."
"That's because I did a whole bunch of Jet before we left!" Misao screamed in reply and jumped up and down.
Their merriment was short lived as someone pointed out three Vertibird helicopters flying towards them from across the river.
Liberty Prime turned to face them, the three aerial craft began pelting him with their guns while hovering in place. Liberty, hardly fazed by the on coming assault, shot forth a cluster of blue lasers that obliterated the three aerial vehicles, sending them tumbling into the river.
"Communism is a lie!" He boomed in victory and kept on marching.
"Yeah we won this." Konata said, looking at the wreckage sticking out of the shallow waters of Potomac. They began crossing a large bridge that spanned the river, in the center of it was a large blue force barrier nearly fifty feet high. At its base were several metal barriers set up with Enclave soldiers situated behind them.
Green bolts of fire whipped past Konata and Misao as they jumped out of the way to avoid the plasma weapons being fired at them. Unlike the lightning speed and precision of laser weapons, plasma weapon fire was possible to dodge at long distances, so the Brotherhood was able to press on without suffering hardly any damage.
The retaliation fire from the Brotherhood was nearly deafening, the roar of gun fire drowned out the sounds of Liberty Prime marching on, even with the sea of bullets the Enclave still managed to fire back. There was loud Crack! next to Kagami and she watched at one of the barriers was blown back and the men behind it thrown aside, one of them was missing their legs.
She turned and saw Misao reloading her gauss rifle, this made their chances of winning seem even more likely. Liberty Prime kept lumbering on, ignoring any fire directed at him. He stepped in front of barrier and grabbed the two metal spires on other side of it, electricity pulsed through him as the two devices overloaded and blew out, causing the barrier to fade.
Both Kagami and Konata hadn't had a chance to fire their weapons yet, Liberty Prime's lasers incinerated nearly everyone, and the survivors were picked off by their allies with sniper rifles, or Misao's gauss rifle. They crossed the bridge to the east side of the river and began marching south where the Jefferson Memorial was. More Vertibirds flew overhead, but were shot down before they even had a chance to use their guns.
Everyone had hope for Liberty Prime, but his capacity for unstoppable destruction was almost laughably ridiculous, nothing could halter his progress in the slightest. The Memorial began to appear in the distance as they continued down the road smashing through every Enclave blockade without a second thought.
"Did we catch them surprised or something? I see their turrets but they're not shooting at us." Someone said over the radio.
"Who knows? Let's just keep moving before they change their mind." Someone else replied.
"Good thing they're not shooting at us." Konata told Kagami, "I heard they fire like fifteen thousand rounds a minute with bullets made from depleted uranium the size of wine bottles."
"Even it that was half true we'd be screwed." Kagami replied, feeling grateful at how surprisingly well everything was going.
Liberty Prime destroyed the last barrier and the Memorial was now only about fifty meters away. Several Vertibirds took off and were shot down instantly.
"Team Aftershock is moving in now!" A Sentinel from the second team said through the radio.
"Go Go Go!" A Sentinel in their group screamed. Since they weren't told what exactly what to do when they got their besides "take it back" Konata, Kagami, and Misao followed the Sentinel along with Akira and Minoru.
The six of them sprinted through the battlefield, dozens of Enclave soldiers were spread out and trying to take out Liberty Prime with no luck, bullets and laser shots whizzed past them as they ran through to the door that took them inside.
They emerged in the long hallway that Kagami, Tsukasa, and Konata came into a month and a half ago. Konata could even see where she and Tsukasa had been after the turret had riddled her with bullet holes. The six of them slowly eased down the hallway to the intersection. The Sentinel, whose name Konata had never bothered to learn, walked into the intersection and was gunned down by a flurry of lasers and an explosion of fire, killing him nearly instantly.
"How're we going to do this?" Konata asked, knowing that the lobby was heavily defended and Liberty Prime couldn't help them there.
"Take it slowly, Kusakabe you try and take out the one with the heavy incinerator first. The rest of us will give you cover." Minoru suggested.
"Got it chief." Misao replied with a sloppy salute. Without any regard for her safety, she stepped into the center and fired into the lobby. She jumped back narrowly avoiding a hail of plasma fire. "Two for one!" She cried and reloaded her weapon.
"Okay now we patiently wait for-" Minoru began to say before being interrupted by several loud thunderous cracks.
Misao walked back towards the rest of them. "Killed the rest of them." She said nonchalantly.
"Where can I get one of those?" Konata and Kagami asked in unison.
"I dunno." Misao shrugged and they moved into the lobby, it was pretty much the same as it had been besides a few Enclave terminals set up.
"Hey a little help over here?" Akira said in her cute voice, she was positioned against the corner of the doorway with her sniper rifle. "They followed us."
"Alright, umm…" Kagami said thinking out loud. "Okay Shiraishi and I will stay here and keep them from sneaking up from behind, the rest of you go and clear out the purifier."
"Alright that works." Minoru agreed, Akira rejoined Misao and Konata.
"You sure about this?" Konata asked, sounding unsure.
"Yeah we'll rejoin you once we know it's safe." Kagami assured her. "Oh yeah and one more thing…" She searched through her pockets and retrieved a metal vial. "Insert this into the somethingorother slot, it shouldn't be hard to find. It's just a finishing touch."
"Yeah I'll do that." Konata replied, and unknowingly took the FEV. "Just be careful okay."
"Don't worry I don't think many of them will get past Liberty Prime." Kagami said and patted her on the shoulder.
Konata regrouped with the others and stood in front of a narrow metal door. "Well what are we waiting for?" Misao asked and walked in.
"Misao, no!" Konata yelled, Misao turned around after walking in to see what Konata was yelling about. There was a loud gunshot and Misao's midsection blew outwards from the bullet she had taken in the back. Various internal organs were now exposed to the world and several strands of torn intestines hung grotesquely forward.
The amber eyed girl looked down at her stomach in surprise, she could hear a gattling laser revving up to the right of her. She turned just in time to see an Enclave soldier in his Hellfire armor begin blasting away at her. Misao's limp body flew against the wall and crumpled over, Konata could see her covered in burns.
"Misao!" Konata screamed and ran in, she tapped the VATS button on her Pip-Boy and watched the world slow down. With perfect precision she unloaded half her clip into the Enclave monster who had gunned down Misao, the armor piercing rounds obliterated their head, she turned as fast as VATS would allow her and shot down another Enclave soldier before he could fire his plasma rifle.
A bit of the concrete of the wall behind her exploded from a bullet. Kuroi was halfway behind a pillar with her gun trained at Konata.
"Drop it." Akira commanded, stepping next to Konata with her sniper rifle aimed at Kuroi.
Nanako reluctantly stepped into plain view and dropped her gun. Konata realized what Akira was about to do and pushed her guns barrel upwards as she was firing at Kuroi's head, the bullet went wild and hit the ceiling.
"What gives?" Akira asked, irritated that her kill was stolen.
Konata ignored her and aimed her assault rifle at Kuroi. "You know I really should just smear you across the floor with this thing…" She said, her voice as cold as frost.
"Then do it." Kuroi spat, she couldn't believe that all their defenses had been blown through and these two nothings had bested her Honor Guard. Everyone had to die sometime she supposed, or at least look for a way out. However, a way out was handed to her.
"No, I'm not like you. I don't have to kill everyone and everything to get my way, we won and that's it. Leave." Konata ordered.
Kuroi nervously walked between the two of them and out the door wondering what had just happened.
"You're just going to let her go?" Akira asked, disgusted at Konata's mercy.
"No, I just know Kagami wanted to be the one who killed her." Konata replied and went to check on Misao.
She was in bad condition, she had taken an explosive round the gut and it had shredded her intestines leaving a gory mess. Beyond that she was checkered with severe burns.
"Ow, ow, ow…" Misao whimpered, "Make it stop hurting Chibikko, please…"
"Don't worry Misao, we'll get help." Konata said and grasped her hand, truthfully she didn't think the amber-eyed girl was going to last much longer.
Misao said nothing and gave a disconnected smile, she felt pain but it was verbose and brief, almost subconscious. A wave of memories came flooding through her, all of a sudden she could remember back. Back further than she could have ever hoped.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MISAO
Now I remember, it was Pittsburgh, that's where I was born. Misao remembered, she could see her mother and fathers faces. She struggled to remember how she ended up in the Capital Wasteland. Then it came to her, she had been a slave in Pittsburgh. Brief images of her parents worrying and crying over something, she struggled to remember what it was.
"Face it Tsumugi she's going to die if she doesn't get out of this place!" Her father argued, Misao was around ten at the time and was in bed. She could hear her parents arguing in the other room.
"How do you think we're supposed to that, the guards don't care if she has the disease. Those bastards were the ones who made her work in the scrap yard and they knew it would happen." Her mother replied in despair, Misao had begun to cry. She knew something was wrong with her, she had started coughing up blood and weird black spots were starting to appear on her skin. Beyond that her left canine had begun to sharpen.
"I have an idea, I enter myself in the arena. If I win then I'll ask for Misao's freedom. It may not be too late for her." Her father said after a minute of silence.
"No, you can't risk yourself like that!" Her mother screamed back.
"I would gladly die if it meant my only daughter was saved from a fate worst than death. Come on Tsumugi what other options do we have? There's no cure for the troglodyte disease." He argued.
That was it, her father had fought in the arena and managed to kill every opponent but died soon after from his wounds and radiation sickness. That was still enough to buy Misao's freedom out of the Pitt, in another month she would have fully succumbed to the Troglodyte disease and become one of them.
She remembered hitching a ride with a caravan to the Capital Wastes and moving around with no money usually begging, stealing, or scavenging. Then she got enough money from that to buy a 10mm SMG, at age fourteen she joined a group of mercenaries hired by Alistair Tenpenny to clear out Fort Constantine. What happened after that though? Then it came back to her.
Misao felt her self being dragged towards the edge of an overpass overlooking Mirelurk infested waters.
"Come on man she's just a kid, this is going to far." Someone she couldn't see protested.
"Still I want her share of the money, and I don't need her coming back later for it." The man dragging her replied. "But if you feel that way…" She heard a plasma pistol shoot several times and her stomach ignite in burning pain worse than anything she had ever felt.
"Leave her for dead, maybe a passing caravan will pick her up." The man said again and dropped her. Misao laid there for what felt like days in burning agony unable to move. It was midway through the next day when she was drifting in and out of consciousness when rescue came.
"… Yes I know we need money but I'm not doing any mercenary work." A female voice said adamantly.
"Oh come one don't be like that." A male voice said, "Just swallow your pride just this once and make us a couple thousand caps."
"We don't even need money like that Sojiro!" The girl replied again. "I gave that money to my sister for a reason, money and power corrupt. I don't want any part of either."
"Kanata you never cease to amaze me." The man, apparently named Sojiro, said hopelessly.
"I'll take that as a compliment I guess…Hey there's somebody over there!" Kanata shouted and sprinted to Misao's aid. Misao saw a tiny petite girl with long flowing blue hair looking down at her, it looked like an angel.
She felt several pinpricks in her abdomen, "I think these stimpaks will do, now just have to bandage her…"
"Did you really have to waste stimpaks on someone random wounded person. I don't know how things were in California but out here there's more sick and wounded people than you could possibly help." Sojiro said from just out of Misao's view.
"Yes I do, how could you even say that!?" Kanata replied angrily, "Hmm, do you have a weapon miss?"
"N-No…" Misao managed to say.
"Take this, use it, sell it, I don't care, but it should help you." Kanata said and put a large rifle into Misao's hands. "I just don't want it anymore."
FIRST STAR FALLS
Misao smiled as she remembered everything, for some reason it felt uplifting and free. She wasn't horribly disappointed by her predicament, still it was sad knowing that she would never see Ayano again. Sitting over her was an angel with blue hair.
Konata watched in confusion and Misao handed her the gauss rifle.
"I never did get a chance to thank you, maybe helping you know was my way of payback. Still you can have the rifle back." Misao said, slurring nearly every word.
"Don't talk Misao, save your strength." Konata said and cradled her wounded friends face against her chest. "Just hang in there, we'll get help soon."
But her words went unheard. Misao Kusakabe had died.
FINAL BOSS
In the other room Kagami watched with sadistic amusement as the Enclave soldier in front of her melted into a green goo from her plasma rifle.
Beside her Minoru shouted and clutched his side where he had just been shot. Kagami looked around for the attacker, she was confused since they had cleared out the last of the reinforcements sent after them.
Standing at the door that lead to the Purifier room was the demon Nanako Kuroi. Kagami wasted no time and began firing at her with her plasma rifle at Kuroi. To Kagami's horror Kuroi managed to dodge every single shot taken at her, the plasma rifle didn't fire as fast as a laser rifle but still that was a near impossible feat.
Kagami tried to reload another microfusion cell into her rifle but had it shot out of her hand. It fell to the ground and a green substance began oozing out and dissolving the ground beneath. Now Kagami was afraid, she was unarmed against Kuroi. She tried to turn terror into rage but it was difficult, after what Kuroi did to her at Raven Rock, she just wanted to run and hide.
"That was from the guns I kept as a last resort." Kuroi said and tossed two small .32 pistols aside. "Only one bullet for one purpose, good to see it found a better use."
"Neither of us are leaving until the other is dead." Kagami snarled and unsheathed her knife from her boot.
"There are more glorious ways to commit suicide." Kuroi said and raised her fists up, "Hmm a knife versus my bare hands. Still not a fair fight for you, I'm sure I could find something creative to do to with that knife though."
"Don't be so confident, you haven't been in a fair fight in so long you've probably forgotten what it's like to not have an advantage." Kagami said. sounding sure of herself.
"Whatever you say Lilac Crotch." Kuroi replied with a smirk and lunged forward.
Kagami jabbed the knife forward towards the oncoming Kuroi, with almost inhuman speed her attack was blocked. Kuroi kicked the back of her knees causing her to lose her balance and stumble back. Still she had the knife.
Before she could lunge with the knife Kuroi kicked her sharply in the side of her head causing Kagami to stumble back even more. In a desperate attempt Kagami threw the knife, since she had never thrown knives before, the hilt bounced harmlessly off of Kuroi.
She stood up and charged at Kuroi ready to use her palm to drop her like she had done with that Super Mutant in Murder Pass. Her palm shot forward and was met by Kuroi's own palm, she felt a weird tingling sensation spike up her arm leaving it slightly numb.
"So you know that move as well, commendable." Nanako mocked and flicked her arm, trying to shrug off the tingling sensation. "Tell me Lilac, have you even engaged another human in hand to hand combat, or have you just stuck with dummies? You haven't have you? Well, let me tell you that it's a lot different in person."
Kuroi came at her again with a flurry of blows, Kagami struggled to fight off the oncoming blows. Kuroi's fists smashed into her chest repeatedly, Kuroi's hand went around Kagami's throat and she slammed her down into to cold concrete floor.
Kagami looked up to see Kuroi bouncing back and forth victoriously. "Come on you didn't even put up a fight."
Kuroi turned away and stretched, Kagami managed to get to her feet. She realized she couldn't win against Kuroi in a one on one fight, like Minami said she was just too skilled. It was probably impossible to get back outside or to the purifier room for aid. The only way out was back into the depths of station where she had restarted the generator, Kagami decided she would head down there and decide what to do next after that.
She scurried away as fast as she could muster. Kuroi was on her in an instant just as she was coming up to some stairs leading down deeper. She kicked Kagami causing her to tumble down the concrete stairs and fall into a wall. Kuroi stepped down after her and picked her up and threw her down the last of the stairs to the lower level.
In a burst of energy Kagami managed to get back to her feet, she ran down narrow halls and rooms, trying desperately to get away. Behind her were the omnipresent footsteps from Kuroi's black boots calmly following her, it was eerily reminiscent of the Dunwich Building.
Kagami finally found herself at a dead end, a room with several active fission generators and two rectangular pools of water that led to the filtration and purification. Kuroi ran behind her, breathing heavily.
"Stop running…good people don't run…" She said out of breath, "…Now just stop moving and die like an adult."
Kagami made a blind dash, attempting to run past her, Kuroi grabbed her effortlessly by the fabric at the back of her neck causing her to come to dead stop.
Kuroi threw her against the wall and punched her three times in the stomach, holding nothing back. "You and your friends caused a lot of damage today, nothing that can't be repaired though. Do you know how many desperate attempts the locals have made to overthrow us?"
"A tribal killed your last president." Kagami managed to say, despite having the wind blown out of her from Kuroi's punches. Blood trickled from her lips as she spoke.
Kuroi's confident face distorted, Kagami felt Kuroi's fist connect with her nose, causing it to break in a flower of blood. Kagami tried to squirm away while coughing from the pain and lack of breath, Kuroi rewarded her with rough head butt causing her to fall to the ground.
The General (Or Colonel, Kagami still wasn't sure which) pressed her black boot down on Kagami's throat, cutting off most of her oxygen. "I told you there are more glorious methods of suicide, in fact I'm not even going to grant you the peace of a quick and painless death." She dug through one of her pockets and produced a Ripper knife and flicked a switch on it causing its whirling teeth to spin to life. "Yes, this is going to hurt a lot." She assured Kagami.
Kagami struggled to crawl away, the only way out was a corner near one of the pools of water. Getting her throat sawed out didn't seem like a very pleasant way to go out. Kuroi pulled her to her knees by her hair, there was an explosion of tearing pain in her shoulder followed by the most grisly sound she had ever heard.
She screamed as the spinning blades tore through her shoulder accompanied by the sound of her collar bone being sawed through. After only a few seconds of the most horrible pain she had ever felt, it stopped. Kuroi let her go for some reason.
"Stupid thing jammed!" Nanako complained and used her thumb to pry a piece of bone that had jammed the blades, Kagami felt a grim sense of satisfaction that had just managed to surface through the pain. The satisfaction was caused by the fact that Kuroi had never bothered to turn the thing off, as the bone was pried out the blades sparked back to life. She screamed as the blades sawed through half her thumb.
Kagami took the opportunity to scamper away as Kuroi was clutching her bleeding hand while swearing loudly. She made it to the corner, there was already a dead Super Mutant that no one had bother to remove just sitting there rotting. The smell was awful but she ignored it and tried to think of something that would help her since the situation was looking pretty grim. The Super Mutant had a hunting rifle but it was broken nearly in half leaving it useless.
She went through her pockets trying to find anything, all she could find was the rusty pistol Konata had given her. It was useless since she didn't know what kind of ammo it took. Kagami studied it for a moment and realized it wasn't a pistol, it was a stripped down rifle. She crawled over the dead Mutant and grabbed his broken rifle, luckily it still had a full clip in it.
At that moment she decided that she was completely and utterly 100% percent in love with Konata when the clip slid effortlessly into the pistol she had given her. Her hand twitched, and the pain wracking most of her body from Kuroi's seemed distant. She stood up and cocked the gun. Kuroi looked at her and raised the Ripper for another assault.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Kuroi stumbled back looking completely dumfounded and confused. Flowers of exquisite red bloomed in five different places across her body, one shot had blasted her left eye away taking a chuck of head with it. She fell backwards with the same look of confusion plastered on her face.
Kagami kept pulling the trigger over and over again even through the clip was empty. She threw the gun at Kuroi's body, feeling accomplished. The gun, the very same one that had killed the Enclave's last president, bounced off her head and skidded across the concrete.
That was it, they had won. The Jefferson Memorial was secured, Kuroi was dead, Liberty Prime would mop up the rest of the forces and Kagami could go home to her family and start a new life with them and Konata. Despite the flaring pain in her shoulder and nose she smiled. She looked at the water in those two pools feeling proud that pretty soon they would be drinkable, even though they were salt water, but we wouldn't tell her that since that would break her heart. Good people don't do that.
Behind her, Kagami heard something stir, she turned around and saw something she couldn't believe. Kuroi was actually standing up an smiling, Kagami was filled with horror when she looked at her. Most of her face was gone or red from blood, almost all of her coat was red with blood too. She quite literally looked like a zombie. The skin around her eye had been blown away and hung over her jaw in horrible fleshy tatters, Kagami could see all her teeth through that whole in her face.
Kuroi stumbled at her, muttering something Kagami couldn't hear, it almost seemed funny…Until Kagami saw she was holding a live grenade and was only a few feet away from her. Kuroi shuffled towards her and was laughing maniacally. "See you in hell!"
The plasma grenade detonated and Kagami dived into the water, the plasma fire burned most of her back, but she managed to dive under as the fission generators exploded.
UNINTENTIONAL SABOTAGE
Konata felt the ground beneath her shake, something near the purifier detonated cracking the glass.
"And just what was that?" Akira asked in her cute voice.
"I don't know, maybe Liberty Prime hit something he shouldn't have." Konata suggested, not really thinking about it, she was still trying to compose herself after Misao's death. The amber eyed girl laid there lifeless with her eyes closed looking at peace.
Her radio crackled, telling them what the explosion was about. "Spearhead, there was an explosion in the lower levels." It was Hiyori's voice, "The damage was extensive, you're going to need to start the purifier now or we'll lose it forever. I'm unlocking the door from here."
Konata jumped to her feet and ran up the several steps that lead to the Purifier chamber, she remembered what Kagami said and placed the metal vial in the chemical input slot. She stepped through the doorway into the spot where her father had died, it felt surreal.
Her Geiger counter exploded with clicks signifying she was taking in about fifty Rads per second, she had to be quick about it. Konata stepped up to the main console, it was locked by some three digit numerical code. She had no idea what her father would put as a code, she had to think fast though or all would be lost.
Suddenly a vivid memory flashed in her mind…"It was your mothers favorite Bible passage, Revelation 2:16. I am Alpha and Omega…"
Konata tapped in 216, the console beeped in confirmation, she smiled and thanked her Dad, and hoped him and her mother were watching. She hit the activation command and the ground beneath her shook. Konata tried to walk out but realized she couldn't stand anymore, she felt pangs of fear form knowing that she had taken in too much radiation.
LIKE A ROLLER COASTER…BUT DIFFERENT
Kagami surfaced, wincing at the salt water burning her open wounds. she waded to the end of edge of the water and laid against it, not minding its minor radiation. The pool was pretty deep and filtered out into the ocean. From where she was she could see charred bones and cloth on top of a patch of charred concrete, this time Kuroi was staying dead. Kagami would never forget that horrible image of the skin that should have been on Kuroi's face hanging down beneath her chin as she shambled at Kagami. Or the grim look of satisfaction as she stole Kagami's purity.
Machinery around her began to stir as she was climbing out and something shook the entire Jefferson Memorial knocking her back into the water. Machinery hummed to life and she felt herself being pulled underwater. She felt her body dragged down like a rag doll, she smashed into something concrete before being pulled through the dark. Kagami felt herself smashed into several walls each time cracking more and more bones.
The wild underwater roller coaster of pain finally ended as she was blasted into the open ocean.
FADING STARS
Konata felt herself being dragged out of the Purifier chamber, she looked up and through her blurry vision saw Akira dragging her out.
She managed to get onto her hands and knees, she had critical radiation poisoning, but wasn't too upset. The Purifier had been activated, mission accomplished.
Her happiness was short lived as another explosion rocked the Jefferson Memorial, the remaining glass exploded sending jagged shards in every direction. Konata felt several sharp pains erupt across her body, near the door Misao had been impaled against the wall by several pieces of glass. So much for resting but in peace.
Reluctantly Konata looked down at her body to access the damage, there was a large pool of her own blood beneath her. A massive three foot triangular shard of glass had impaled her straight through the chest.
Konata's chest hitched and she found herself unable to breath, she collapsed over and passed out.
Outside the Jefferson Memorial, the Brotherhood were rounding up prisoners and cheering as water began pouring out through the pumps around the Jefferson Memorial.
Several hundred feet south down the coast, Kagami had finally washed up on the rocky shore. Every part of her body hurt and she struggled to keep conscious since it was hard to breath.
"Hey, you somehow managed to hurt yourself really bad. I'm talking really, really bad." Kagami's own voice from her Pip-Boy said, she had recorded that message years ago, and it was set to go off if her vitals were nearly flat lined. "I'm supposed to ask you for a voice command asking yes or no if you want to hear your injury report. It's just going to play since you'll want to hear it anyways, I mean I'll want to hear it since I'm you. This is confusing…shut up Konata no I'm not going to do that again! Anyways, yeah I hope I don't have to hear this anytime soon." Her voice was replaced with a electronic female one, which began reading off what was wrong with her.
"Critical radiation poisoning detected, fourteen major fractures detected, thirty-six minor fractures detected, skull cracked, internal bleeding detected in four places, right lung punctured, left lung punctured…"
Kagami didn't feel so hopeful about her survival outcome, tears ran down her face and she hated herself for not telling Konata how she felt and passing up that chance they had the night of the Deathclaw attack.
"…Major blood loss detected, third degree burns covering twenty seven percent of body, left arm dislocated…"
She struggled to move any part of her body, nothing would respond. She felt like she was covered in needles and every bone had been grinded into powder. Kagami prayed for a miracle so she could go see her family again, or for her mom to show and kiss everything better.
"User death imminent."
CONCLUSION
And so it was that Konata Izumi ventured forth from Vault 101 intent on discovering the fate of a father who had once sacrificed the future of humanity for that of his own child.
The Capital Wasteland proved a cruel inhospitable place, but Konata refused to surrender to the vices that had claimed so many others. The values passed on from father to child – selflessness, compassion, honor – guided this noble soul through countless trials and triumphs.
But it was not until the end of this long road that Konata learned the true meaning of that greatest of virtues – sacrifice. Stepping into the irradiated control chamber of Project Purity, the child followed the example of the father sacrificing life itself for the greater good of mankind.
Sadly, when selected by the sinister president to be his instrument of annihilation, Kagami Hiiragi agreed. Humanity will be preserved, but only in its purest form. The waters of life flowed at last, but the virus contained within soon eradicated all those deemed unworthy of salvation. The Capital Wasteland, despite its progress, became a graveyard.
So ends the story of the three girls, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101 and into the annals of legend. But the tale of humanity will never come to a close, for the struggle of survival is a war without end, and war – war never changes.