FALLING STARS FINAL CHAPTER- THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS
"A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow in the morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust" -T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
"And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been. We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been." -Tool, "Lateralus"
Dark clouds formed over the Capital Wastelands. Not rain clouds but clouds of ash from fires that burned centuries ago.
After receiving news that the Enclave was planning to mobilize, Konata and Minami had hardly time to breathe before leaving out again. The plan was a bit elaborate- The Brotherhood of Steel would charge in forward with all available troops to try and hold the Enclave off and keep them distracted. Konata and Minami would go through the Presidential Metro on Pennsylvania Avenue and take an emergency train from under the White House to Adams Airforce Base where the Crawler was at. Using a Vertibird, the Brotherhood would drop in a package containing the Tesla Cannon. Using that, Konata and Minami would hack their way though the base and into the Crawler to neutralize it. How? That wasn't exactly explained. Konata assumed it was just "Blow Shit Up", that was fine. She was good at that.
"Izumi, have you ever heard the term Suicide Mission?" Minami asked as they were preparing to hike through the ruins to the Presidential Metro.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"This fit's the description perfectly. Consider what's expected of us." She explained.
"So it's a bit of a stretch, nothing we can't handle though. How's your arm?" Konata asked.
"Serviceable."
"Do you think we'll make it."
Minami thought about that for a moment. "Not to the end, no. If we can make it to stop that PC that's working those orbital strikes then I can die happy."
"What about Yutaka?" Konata asked carefully.
"What about her?" Minami nearly hissed.
"Do you want to go to Megaton and say goodbye incase something happens?" Konata told her.
Minami shook her head and kept walking. "No, it would make it harder on her if we do fail."
"I don't think we're going to fail." Konata said quietly. "I this'll sound cheesy but I really do think love will conquer anything. It practically brought me back from the dead. You probably know this but I really do love Kagami."
"Then hope she's alive and the same person she was before." Minami replied blankly. A cute little ideology you have there. Think about this though- My father loved my mother enough to venture out into the wastes to do anything to make a better life for us. He was dragged off into the night at the Dunwich Building by boogeymen. Trust me, love is not enough."
They didn't make much more conversation as they trekked onwards through the ruins. A path was cleared for them ahead of time to avoid raider and Super Mutant interference to speed their journey. Within the hour they were at a manhole marked by two initiates.
"Right down here." One of them said and pointed at the open manhole. "Bear left and you'll find the Presidential Metro. Keep your weapons ready since we heard ghouls down there." Konata heard the first part of his conversation, but had wondered off.
She walked over to a metal fence and looked over at the crumbling burnt ruins of some mansion. It looked like someone had bombed the hell out of it; without nuclear arms. Konata vaulted over the fence and slid into the crater that was most of the building, she landed in the remains of some basement. The concrete steps that lead to the ground floor were still standing, useless now.
"Stop playing around!" Minami called from behind the fence. Konata ignored and climbed up the concrete stairs. The only part of the ground floor was a ten foot section with a bit of a wall left. Leaning against the wall was a skeleton groping a missile launcher. Minami called her again so she leapt down and climbed back onto the street.
"Sorry 'bout that." Konata huffed. "Just in case anything goes wrong, I wanted to visit the White House first."
"Why?" Minami asked as they were walking back to the manhole.
"I guess technically I'm American since I was born here. So it's part of my history sort of." Konata shrugged, plus it was just cool to stand there.
"Keep in mind that was where fat greedy men pushed the buttons that ended the world. The only history left from there is the hell we live in." Minami said cynically and climbed down into the sewers.
Konata followed her and couldn't help but think about what she had just said. Makes me wonder what it would be like if I had lived before the bombs were dropped. Considering my heritage, I'd probably live in Japan. I wonder if my friends would be there too? We'd probably go to the same school and do normal school stuff, and life would be a lot less bloody and messy. Then maybe Kagami and I could live together in a world where we didn't have to worry about dying. Would I still love her though? I mean honestly my feelings came out from the events in the wastes. I guess I can't really know since there are too many variables. For all I know we would come together through a stupid game like Truth or Dare.
Like the initiate had said, the entrance to the Presidential Metro was easily found just by bearing left. The two girls passed through a maintenance tunnel that lead to the Presidential Metro itself. The original passage to it had been buried with the White House, so they had to settle with this back route.
The bunkered subway had done wonders surviving the apocalypse. Konata could actually clearly see the white linoleum floor; that was unheard of the wastes.
"Warning, unidentified hostiles detected. All non-combatants stand aside while the threat is neutralized". A robotic female voice over an intercom told them. Konata readied her gauss rifle while Minami drew her blade; the voice was mostly likely referring to them. To their surprise, several Sentrybots rolled by them without a thought.
Down the subway, at a three way intersection, they could hear energy weapon fire and growling and hissing.
"Ghouls." Minami said and began walking in the direction. "Let's get going, maybe we can avoid the fight."
"It's cool that they're not trying to kill us for a change." Konata said cheerfully and matched Minami's quick pace. At the intersection, ghouls were throwing themselves against robots and sentry guns without any sense of self-preservation. The two girls kept following the path straight, the train that would take them to Adams Airforce Base had to be somewhere close by.
Just as the next part of the station was nearing, three ghouls sprinted towards them, growling and hissing the whole way. Konata fired off a 2mm round at one and sent it flying back, still in one piece. Tough little guy, She thought and reloaded.
Minami met their charge and brought Vampire's Edge down in an overhead cleave at one of the charging ones. The other sprinted towards Konata, the one Minami had stricken stumbled around aimlessly with her sword halfway through its head.
Konata gunned down the one charging her, it fell back as the one she had shot first was getting up. She also noticed that the one Minami had cleaved was still trying to grab at her.
"Hey, what's with these guys? They're not dying like ghouls are supposed to." Konata asked and shot down the first ghoul again.
"Reavers!" Minami shouted back and retrieved her blade from her opponents head. The ghoul was still thrashing at her, but the trauma to the head was definitely taking its toll. Minami swiftly decapitated it with a single swing.
"Reavers?" The blunette asked and slammed the butt of her gun down on the skull of the ghoul in front of her. Strangely, her blow met resistance. This was getting ridiculous so she reloaded and settled for shooting it at point blank. That kept it down for good.
Minami hacked down the third one and wiped irradiated blood off her burnt duster. "Reavers. They're prewar ghouls who've been around so long that they've mutated into these monsters. They're notoriously hard to kill, if it weren't for that weapon of yours you'd be dead."
Konata remembered a nightmare she had a longtime ago about Kagami being killed by just one of these. Here she was having just taken down three. "Hmm, I've killed these guys and Deathclaws. And I hear stories about how hard both of them are supposed to be."
"Your point?" Minami asked and climbed onto the train platform after the ghouls.
"Does that mean we're really good or the rumors are over exaggerated?" Konata asked and hefted herself up next to Minami. A slim, presidential looking, train was stationed on the rails. The two of them moved into investigate it.
"Both." Minami said, answering her question. "I know the best way to kill any target, and the stories are spread by wastelanders who have almost no combat experience." She sighed in frustration when she saw that the train had no power. The rest of the place was working fine on its fusion generators, just not the train.
"Let's go look for a way to power the rails." Konata suggested. "I'm not an engineer but if we push enough buttons something's bound to work right."
Minami shook her head but kept silent. Surprisingly it only took them a few minutes to find a circuit box with everything turned off.
"I'm amazed." Konata said and flicked every switch on. "No crazy side quest or boss fight. It's actually simple for once, I guess this a compromise for what comes next."
"Let's hope not." Minami muttered. Light overhead flickered on and the drone of machinery became abundant. In spaces that were shadows previously, ragged skeletal figures stood up clumsily. They hissed and growled at the light and turned to the two intruders.
"Are the rails working?" Konata asked and readied her weapon.
"Let's hope so." Minami replied and grabbed Konatas arm and pulled her along back to the train. More ghouls were starting to appear from alcoves and crevices, another group ran down a flight of stairs just out of view.
Minami practically threw Konata into the conductor spot of the train and hopped in after her. Ghouls were sprinting at them with hunger in their eyes in hordes now. Yellow lights were lit up down the subway tunnel, so Minami assumed the power was working on the rails. She started pressing buttons at random on the control panel of the train.
Konata slid the door close just as one irradiated fellow was about to climb in after them. "Any luck?"
"Not yet…" Minami muttered and continued pressing buttons one by one. Eventually the train lurched then began moving forward slowly. Above them the text "Destination: Adams Airforce Base" appeared in glowing yellow letters on a panel on the ceiling. The train started off moving quickly, but after a few minutes started lumbering along at a much slower speed.
"How long do you think it'll take to get there?" Konata asked, they lumbered past ghouls fighting security robots.
"At this rate…" Minami began than thought for a moment; they had passed the fighting now. "…Probably hours, it's midnight right now so we should be there before the sun rises."
Konata sat down against the wall of the small compartment they were in. She briefly considered sleeping the commute there, she hadn't really gotten any time to rest since the morning. "So Minami… Tell me about the Enclave."
"What about them?" She replied blankly and sat down next to Konata.
"I just don't know anything about them." Konata told her, she started fiddling with her weapon. The ghoul she had hit left a dent in the butt of it; it was shaped like a jawbone. "I know a bit about the Brotherhood of Steel, but I don't know a single thing about the Enclave. You rolled with them for a little while so I thought you might know a little about it."
"There's really not much to say about them. It's the people not the organization that are the problem." Minami replied without hesitation. "Believe it or not, they used to be a lot worse than they are now."
"Was that when you and Kuroi were together?" Konata asked.
Minami shook her head. "No it wasn't, it was about a decade and a half before I joined. They had a lot more power before they had their forces set up here, they were also a lot more tyrannical about it. Before they would usually shoot wastelanders on sight and raze settlements without any remorse."
"What changed?"
"Hmm, hard to say really. It was when they had their Oilrig base destroyed some twenty-five, thirty years ago. Since so many of them died they had to broaden their recruitment standards, so a lot more people from the wastes joined. Their president had been killed so they were in complete dismay and chaos, I think it was their pride that was damaged the most."
"That made them nicer?"
"Not really nicer, just less brutal. I guess they learned to pick their battles, especially after losing so much almost overnight. I only skimmed the report on it, but I can understand why it would really bruise their ego."
"What happened?"
"The Oilrig and president were taken out by a tribal. Some girl barely older than you too, the story is pretty amazing. She came from some extremely primitive tribal village, they sent her out to find a GECK to help with their quickly declining food supplies. The goal was to use it to grow more food or something, it's not important. Anyways, this girl travels up the coast of California and ends up finally finding a GECK. She comes back to the village just to find that the Enclave burned it down and hauled nearly everyone off."
"She did it for revenge I take it?"
"And to rescue her family." Minami nodded, "She managed to get this old oil tanker to work and drove it right up to them. The moral of the story was clear to the Enclave- Watch out which locals you piss off. After that they didn't involve themselves in the affairs of anyone outside of the Enclave unless it was necessary. They sort of tried to become the new government of the United States of America and make themselves seem less evil. Like when we stopped The Teeth from taking over."
"Kuroi kind of messed that up, didn't she?" Konata smirked.
"Her and everyone who didn't bother to question her. I really want to know what in her snapped, she used to be a somewhat decent human being. When you look back on it, there were so many different viable alternatives to dealing with Project Purity. Instead she chose 'Kill and enslave everyone'. And look what happened, another tribal ruined it for them again."
"Another tribal?" Konata repeated.
"Yes, your mother was from a tribal village right? Yutaka's parent, your mother's sister, was too." Minami explained.
"I guess that technically makes me one huh? Here I was being called a Vault Dweller this whole time." Konata said dreamily.
"I'm probably wrong though. I think that sort of thing is based on lifestyle, not blood." The kensei thought out loud. "Especially since some tribals are into some really weird stuff. Like believing that cutting out part of your brain expands your mind."
Konata had a brief flash of déjà vu, like she had heard someone talk about that before. Her mind conjured an image of Tsukasa, but she knew that couldn't be right. Besides where would Tsukasa have gone to get part of her brain cut off? Time to take a rest girl, you're tired. Konata listened to that trusty mental voice and dozed off while leaning against Minami's shoulder. Minami, who was used to long periods of time without sleeping, took this opportunity to draft a plan.
She needed a plan for when she confronted Kagami. Although she had proven herself useful, that girl was a complete menace to society. Minami knew that this woman needed to be put down for good. But if Konata was with her then things would probably not go so well. Minami figured she could kill Kagami then at least subdue Konata, she didn't want to hurt the blunette; but if push came to shove.
In the meantime Konata dreamt of another world. A world where no bombs had fallen, where she and her friends attended a normal school with a normal life. She dreamt of just the silly little things they would do- Like maybe a school sports festival, she pictured Kagami face planting in the long jump. Or maybe doing something like a big cheerleading routine for a cultural festival, although she wasn't sure how good at that she would be at it. But in the end they all still had fun, and everyone was alive.
Minami, on the other hand, was not enjoying the trip one bit. Konata had fallen asleep leaning against her and her smell was radiating off her in bittersweet waves. It had been two days since she had last fed, the hunger was starting to rise again and manifest itself. This was not the kind of place that Minami needed to lose herself, killing Konata on accident would not strengthen her leadership position in The Family. She went through her coat pockets and found her shattered knife, and a syringe with Med-X in it.
She took a deep breath and looked at Konata's sleeping face, so at ease and innocent. Minami found a scabbed wound where shrapnel from Liberty's explosion had cut Konata. She took a deep breath and began her bloody work on the sleeping girl. Sadly, Konata would awake none the wiser.
AT THE EDGE OF A CLIFF…
Kagami hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night, how could she have? Tomorrow was going to be the day that she would bring down the sky on top of herself and those power armored bastards. Every last one of them. As morning came she found herself finally dozing off, that was when chaos ensued.
"Hiiragi!" A gruff looking officer barked. Kagami sleepily glanced up from the computer terminal she had dozed off on top of.
"Change of plans, our exodus has been temporarily delayed." He informed her. "The Brotherhood of Steel just launched began an assault on the Crawler. They're currently not gaining much ground but we don't want to take any chances."
"…And you want me to send them to hell if they get too close." Kagami finished. "Yeah, my pleasure really. I can get turrets firing on everyone without the right IFF tag and more."
"Good." The unnamed officer said darkly. "Get it done." Like many others, he didn't trust Kagami or her motives. You didn't just defect and start gleefully killing for the other side out of nowhere like that. Especially when that side had done some personal damages to you. Something wasn't right about any of this.
Kagami got straight to work as soon as the officer left. She turned on all twenty-four turrets on and began to look over anything else that would raise hell. One particular thing caught the tsundere's eye, Deathclaw Cage Functions. Kagami looked over it and read the memo associated with it.
To all faculty this may concern- The Deathclaw programs initiated by the late General Nanako Kuroi have been suspended indefinitely. The subjects are being kept in force field containers in Adams Airforce Base until further notice. General Kuroi's plans to domesticate them ended in disaster and the beasts are far from docile. Total liquidation recommended. Warning- Releasing the pens will also release the ones held in the Mobile Base Crawler. Standard safety protocol recommended when dealing with hostile creatures.
She smiled delicately and tapped enter while highlighting the "Cage Release" button.
"You know something Matsuri?" She smiled a macabre grin.
"Huh?" Matsuri said and turned around on her wheeled chair. She had been reading a book and had no idea what Kagami was up to.
"I love Deathclaws, they're kill everyone without distinction."
"Good to know?" Matsuri replied and went back to her book; she wanted to know if Roland ever made it to the Dark Tower. Kagami couldn't help but imagine the possibilities of sixteen Deathclaws running loose around the battlefield slaughtering without prejudice.
Her fingers briefly considered dropping the bombs then and there, but she knew the satellites wouldn't be arranged correctly for another few hours. She hadn't picked that date for her grand explosion at random. It also turned out that the Enclave had once uploaded the satellite coordinate to bomb Megaton and Rivet City. This caused Kagami a bit of confusion, Why did they make me do this when someone has already gone through here and left traces of their knowledge. Perhaps that person died or something and no one else knew how to use it. Strange indeed.
BEFORE THE SKY FALLS…
"Wake up."
"Five more minutes…"
"Wake up. Now." That cold demanding voice caused Konata to bolt up instantly. Her neck ached from sleeping at an odd angle, and her arm was strangely numb. She looked around, judging by the small subway station Konata assumed they were at the end of their trek.
"What time is it?" She asked and stumbled onto the pavement outside the train.
"Just after six." Minami replied. "The train stopped several times and it was hard to get it running again."
"Let's get going then!" Konata said and jogged up a flight of stairs that led to the surface. She passed through an ancient metal gate and into the sunlight. Although she wasn't sure what to expect, Adams Airforce Base was a lot different than what she had imagined. Instead of runways and hangers, there were tall stout buildings that gave it a cityscape look. With the roads paved between the buildings, the base looked like a remarkably well preserved city instead of a military complex.
"Place hasn't changed a bit." Minami said and crossed her arms.
Konata was about to say something about the lack of Tesla Cannon when her Pip-Boy announced that it had picked up a new radio signal. She looked at it and couldn't help but smile, it said- "Izumi's ears only".
The broadcast itself was only static, but when Konata moved it either got louder or quieter. It was essentially a game of Hot And Cold. Konata was expecting her new Tesla Cannon to end up being on the roof of one of the buildings or in the middle of a dozen Enclave soldiers…but it was actually in a box leaning against a fence about thirty feet away.
Konata eagerly shoved the parachute out of the way and opened the wooden crate. Inside was a remote HAM radio broadcasting the signal that had led her there; next to it was a massive weapon with a box of electromagnetic cell batteries along with it.
The Tesla Cannon was almost larger that Konata was. It was built with parts from a missile launcher and several other energy weapons. It had the same basic layout of a Fatman missile launcher, except the part that held the mini-nuke was replaced with a glass chamber. Inside electricity pulsed , weave, and waved, forming endless blue patterns. Konata used the strap on it to sling it over her shoulder like she did with the gauss rifle. The box of EC batteries also had a strap so she tossed that over her shoulder.
"Need any help?" Minami asked when saw that the blunette was carrying nearly sixty pounds of gear.
"Yeah…" Konata huffed and put the Tesla Cannon and EC batteries down. "You wanna use this while we're here? The Brotherhood didn't take my size into account when they made this thing."
Minami nodded and hefted up the Tesla Cannon and EC batteries. "The villagers seldom consider whether their sacrificial lamb is comfortable before being fed to the wolves."
Konata glared at her menacingly. "I'm not doing this for them, I'm not their war pig! I told you I'm doing this for a friend!" She shouted. It was surprising that no Enclave soldiers heard her. Come to think of it, this place is like a ghost town. Just as she was thinking that, two Vertibirds flew slowly above them.
"Excuse me while I ignore your nonstop whining and bitching for a moment and do what we came here to do." Minami said coldly and hefted the Tesla Cannon to her shoulder. She aimed it towards one of the Vertibirds as best as she could and clamped down on the firing mechanism. A bolt of blue lightning shot forward in a perfectly solid line and gave off no recoil. One moment the aerial vehicle was there, the next moment a fireball was in its place. It didn't just damage or cripple it, the blast destroyed it out right.
Konata walked past her to see if she could peer around one of the massive buildings to view the wreckage. She walked past Minami and heard the sound of machinery humming. Some primal part of her brain flashed a mental warning sign, causing her to jump backwards. The ground where she had just been exploded from gunfire, she glanced up and saw four turrets on every single roof top. She had managed to waltz into ones line of fire.
"How do we get past those?" Konata asked and grabbed her gauss rifle. However, there wasn't any spot for her to stand where she could aim without being shot back.
Minami said nothing and yanked the gauss rifle out of Konata's hands. She walked carelessly into the turrets line of fire and stood there while aiming. For some reason the guns didn't fire at her, or react in anyway. The green haired girl fired once and obliterated one turret, the recoil caused her to nearly drop the weapon. How Konata, who was a full one foot, five inches shorter and forty pounds lighter, managed to fire that thing without breaking her shoulder was beyond Minami. She reloaded the gun are shot down another one, then another, then a few more. Finally she glanced around then motioned Konata to follow her.
"Okay, what gives?" Konata asked as she reluctantly stepped out into the open street.
"Hmm?"
"Why don't they shoot at you?"
Minami unzipped part of her burnt leather duster and exposed her neck. She was wearing a metal collar that looked battered with a hint of rust. "Enclave IFF transponder, we call got these and I kept mine. It stands for Identify Friend or Foe and it pretty much tells the automated guns to not shoot at us. Mine's an older model, I heard that the newer recruits get microchips."
"I want one…" Konata muttered and dragged behind the kensei as they moved from building to building. Before long they heard gunshots in the distance, both material and energy. "Ooh, sounds like the Brotherhood of Steel is causing a diversion for us."
"They're not doing a very good job." Minami noted and pointed towards a few Enclave soldier pointing back at them. She tossed Konata her gun back, "Take them out, you're a better shot than I am with that thing."
Konata nodded and raised the gauss rifle to her shoulder. With one shot she managed to down both of them, she didn't know if they were dead but that didn't really seem to matter. They were out of the way and that was it. The two girls pressed on through the shadows of the buildings of Adams Airforce Base.
"More turrets." Minami said and pointed to several guns encampments at the corner of several buildings roofs. Konata traded the gauss rifle for the Tesla Cannon, there were several grounded Vertibirds that she wanted to take care of.
Luckily the Tesla Cannon had no recoil so using it was a cinch. Konata destroyed each of the grounded vehicles and one that was about to land near them. Minami dispatched the turrets like she been doing the whole time. Now that the turrets were gone, they emerged out into the open.
What Konata saw took her breath away. A massive building that was complete with landing pads, satellites, and all sorts of other militaristic features; and it was on treads.
"That thing is a fortress." Minami told her and kept on walking, Konata noticed that nothing ever seemed to make her stop. "I don't remember all the details but I think they're should be a ramp right there…" She pointed at a spot between two massive treads, "…and it's up. If I remember right there's a way to open it from the outside from right there." She pointed at a tall rectangular building at the edge of the airbase, the Crawler was at least hundred feet away from the airbase itself. Also there was a battle going on right on the stretch of land. Konata couldn't really make out the combatants, but could see the red lines of energy weapons zapping back and forth.
"So all we have to do is go up there and push a little button?" Konata asked, "Then after that we somehow find a way to sabotage The Crawler from the inside, while looking for Kagami?"
"Correct."
"No problem."
They didn't know how long the Brotherhood of Steel could keep the Enclave occupied, so they were jogged to that building as quickly as they could. "Run and gun" was the term that popped into Konata's mind; since every few seconds she'd have to take a shot at someone with her gauss rifle. Judging by the lack of resistance, it looked like the Enclave didn't really see those two girls as a threat.
Konata glanced into an open hanger to her left, it was the building before the one they were trying to get to. It looked like they had been using to keep Deathclaws imprisoned for whatever reason. In the chaos the Deathclaws managed to get loose and were now happily slaughtered their captors. Just from where she was standing, Konata could see at least ten. She hoped they would stay in that hanger.
"Run." Minami said, her voice startled Konata who was distracted by the Deathclaws.
"Huh?" She said stupidly and looked back towards their destination. The Enclave had a pretty elaborate barricade built. They were facing the other way but it wouldn't take much for the dozen or so soldiers behind metal barriers to just turn around and rain hell on them. So she followed Minami's command and went into a full blown sprint towards the building. While she ran she kept her body as low as she could to make herself a smaller target or possibly not been seen. But she realized that wasn't going to work since she had several feet of blue hair flowing behind her.
The two of them ran up a metal ramp and quickly slipped inside unnoticed. Konata closed the door and looked around. The outside of the buildings looked preserved, but the insides were just as decrepit as any other in the wastelands. Dusty air, poor lighting, piles of brick and rubble.
"I just wanted to say that I'm having a lot of fun." Konata said and smiled her cat grin, it was the first time in awhile she had done that. "Like running all close to the ground just now. It's like we're real soldiers."
Minami sighed and shook her head. "I'll guard our exit or something…you just go upstairs and open that ramp." She drew her katana and leaned against the wall.
"Right, gotcha." Konata replied quickly and ran up a flight of stairs that was directly in front of them. They went straight up to a command tower on top of the roof. Konata entered it and got a good look at the Crawler. She could see a huge landing pad with several Vertibirds on it, there was also a smaller one on top of some sort of command tower that was just a larger version of the one she was in. Konata shook her head and reminded herself that there would be time for sightseeing later. She found a computer terminal and entered the "Lower Ramp" command.
When she got back downstairs she saw Minami wiping blood off her weapon with a white rag. Several power armored bodies were strewn across the ground. "Did you lower the ramp?"
"You know it. We're almost done with this." Konata answered and sat down against the wall; she was completely out of breath after all that running and climbing up steep stairs. "So Minami, what are you going to do after all of this?"
"Start a Brahmin farm." She replied with a smile.
"You really are masochistic aren't you?"
Minami chuckled at that. "No, I'm just going to go home and pretend none of this ever happened. Way to many Deathclaws and suits of power armor for my liking."
"Well, I'm glad you came along. I wouldn't have been able to get this far at all without your help." Konata began, she was going to say more but Minami cut her off.
"Please don't give that speech. It's bad luck."
"Right. Anyways lets go and finish this." Konata said and stood up, she hoped that the speech hadn't had jinxed them. They walked back outside, Konata instantly realized they were going to have to plow through the twelve Enclave soldiers behind metal barriers. Even if they were going in from behind, it was still going to be difficult to fight a force that outnumbered you 6:1.
"How do we do this?" The blunette asked and tried to think of ways to get past this. Minami looked around for an answer as well.
"Run for it." Minami said. "Look over there, the Deathclaws are coming for some more revenge. They're provide an excellent diversion."
Sure enough fifteen or so spiny reptilian monsters were emerging from the hanger. One of the Enclave soldiers realized this and alerted the others. Konata took that as a sign and sprinted down the ramp in the same low posture she had done before. Minami was fast behind her, the two of the ran unintentionally ran at almost the exact same speed. Konata was sure that she could have beaten her in a race if it came to that.
They ran past the barricade, the Enclave gave them confused looks but none of them were sure if they were supposed to shoot or not. They were too preoccupied on the force of irradiated demons quickly closing in on them.
Bullets and superheated lasers whipped past Konata as she ran across the battle field behind the Enclave. Several bullets pinged off her armor but she managed to make it to the Crawler unharmed, she climbed midway up the ramp then went prone. Minami joined her so they were juxtaposed.
"Oh man, those Deathclaws are going to kill everyone." Konata said grimly. They had killed every Enclave soldier at that barricade in less than a minute and were now moving into the main battlefield.
"Not our problem." Minami said and stood up.
"It is our problem." Konata snapped back. "The Brotherhood is supposed to clear us a way out. If we come back and everyone's dead then we're kind of stuck here."
"…and the train barely made it here." Minami added, she realized that Konata had a point. "There's no way it could make a return trip. Okay, I know what to do."
BITTER REALIZATION
"What are you doing?" Matsuri asked her sister who had randomly gotten up and sat down at one of the computer terminals. She had done it in an almost robotic trance. Kagami ignored her and typed something in, Matsuri read it and felt her stomach do a flip.
"Did you just enter coordinates to drop another orbital strike?" She asked nervously, she didn't know what the "The Citadel" was but it probably didn't have anything to do with what was going on outside. The two of them had received multiple threats about what would happen if they didn't do their job correctly. Randomly dropping one of the two remaining orbital strikes didn't really qualify as "correct" in Matsuri's mind.
Kagami typed in some more coordinate and pressed enter. Matsuri knew where the place she had just targeted for bombing was.
"Kagami that's on us!" She screamed and resisted the urge to strangle her sister.
"I know." Kagami turned around and smiled.
"Are you insane!?"
"Probably, if you start running now you could probably make outside the blast radius. It's really not that far actually." Kagami informed her with an evil smile. Matsuri didn't question why Kagami had lost her mind, she only ran. Since she and Kagami had seldom left the relay tower section of the Crawler, she didn't really know too much of the layout. Soon she was running across the large open landing pad, she darted between Vertibirds and soldiers. They were still scrambling to deal with the makeshift attack. She ran into a small building on the landing pad and followed the stairs down to the third floor. This was the research level.
It was eerily silent, like the battle outside hadn't reached this part of the Crawler yet. Matsuri wretched as she saw a scientists corpse, the poor guy looked like someone had taken a sword to him a few dozen times. She carefully stepped over the blood, all of a sudden she was extremely terrified. After stepping onto a balcony she got a full view of the main room of the research floor, all the energy barriers that kept the claw monsters had disappeared. Damn it, Kagami let them go. That was what she was saying about Deathclaws. Shit shit shit shit shit…
Matsuri knew she couldn't linger, she picked up her pace and hoped that none of those things would find her. She rounded a corner that led to a case of stairs leading down, she followed them then turned another corner.
In front of her was a ten foot tall monster looking down at her. She had practically run into it, she could feel its hot breath on her and smell the stench that came with it. It smelled like rotting meat.
"N-n-nice Deathclaw…" She cooed and slowly stepped backwards. Matsuri briefly forgot that there were stares and ended up tripping. The last thing she saw were two sets of massive bone claws flying at her.
LAST ACT OF CHIVALRY
Minami drew Vampire's Edge and stepped down the ramp.
"Minami…what are you doing?" Konata asked nervously.
"Go on, I'll deal with these things, we'll meet up later." She replied quickly and stepped back onto the battlefield.
"Minami that's not what I meant, let me help you!" Konata cried and ran to catch up with her,
"No, keep going." Minami nearly hissed. "I'll be fine, I know how to deal with these things and you know I have a good sense of self preservation. I don't think we have much time before another orbital strike gets dropped." Konata gulped and stepped back.
"Wait before I go…" The green haired girl said, Konata watched in confusion as Minami cut part of her hand with her sword. She used both hands to smear the blood across each palm equally; then she pressed her palm against Konatas forehead and left an orange-red smear.
"What…was that?" Konata asked nervously, that was the creepiest thing she had seen Minami do.
"It's supposed to bring you good fortune in battle or something." Minami replied, "It's Arroyan if what Yui told me is correct. You're mother was from Arroyo so it makes it relevant."
"Thanks?" Konata said awkwardly. It was strange how everyone seemed to know everything about her mother but her, even Minami seemed to be more knowledgeable about that. And she had learned this all from Yui too, Konata decided that after this was over she was going to interrogate Yui about her family.
"I'm leaving now."
"R-right, see you later I guess."
Minami didn't reply, she just plunged straight into the fray. Konata knew she should have pressed on, but she was mesmerized and couldn't take her eyes off of Minami. Instead of charging straight into the Deathclaws, Minami walked over to a wounded Hellfire soldier and helped him up. What's she doing?
"Sigma team right?" Minami asked, of course Konata couldn't hear her.
"Y-yeah…" The Hellfire soldier nodded and managed to get up with her help, he had taken a bad shot to the chest from a plasma rifle. "Do I know you? You look really familiar…"
"Sigma Squad Beta, it was 2271 remember?" Minami replied.
"Yeah, shit I was in that squad. I thought everyone died though." He said and drew his own laser rifle, he was going to need it with those Deathclaws closing in. "No it was me, Kuroi, and Iwasaki left in the end. Kuroi stole all the glory and got promoted, then she died a few weeks ago…that means you're Iwasaki."
"Good to see you again Brendan." She smiled. "We'll talk more after we take care of this." She was referring to the Deathclaws who had just begun their slaughter. Minami used her left hand to draw that strange pistol she had found in the power works. She tested it out on one Deathclaw that had gotten a little too close, the thing promptly exploded into ashes. I love having weapons that can do that…
The rest of the Deathclaws instantly turned to face her, with some rudimentary intelligence, they knew she was a threat. Minami had not been expecting to have to fight thirteen at once. She blasted away with the alien-like weapon, she managed to hit about half of them but only one dissolved into ashes like before. The weapon clicked empty and Minami threw it aside in frustration. Frustration at herself for wasting ammo like that.
She still had her trusty blade though, and it was going to be rough but Minami knew she could take them. The first one up did the Deathclaw signature claw lunge, Minami was a master at dodging this attack. She ducked right beneath the claw and jammed the blade straight into its skull. One down, twelve to go.
The second one came up so fast that she didn't have time to prepare herself thoroughly for its attack. She managed to avoid getting sliced in half by going prone and rolling out of the way. She on her feet in a second and leaped onto the Deathclaws back, she got a hold of it by wrapping her legs around its body. Konata watched from the ramp in amazement as Minami began slicing at its back.
The Deathclaw was too uncoordinated to swipe Minami off its back. She dodged its arching swipes easily.
Sadly, Deathclaws are not pack predators, they have no sense of community. Another one leapt forward and stabbed its claws through the one Minami was on. The claws only grazed her but she still stumbled down onto the pavement. She scrambled to grab her fallen sword but a clawed foot embedded itself onto her back.
Konata fired a shot from her gauss rifle and knocked it off of her. Minami stumbled to her feet and turned around… Now the other eleven were sprinting at her, and she was unarmed. Konata tried to reload in time but the Deathclaws quickly swarmed Minami like piranhas going after an unlucky cow who wandered into the Amazon.
They pushed and shoved at each other to get at the fresh meat, Minami drew her broken knife and took swipes at them and tried to push her way through them. At close distance they couldn't use their claws effectively, but they still could bite.
The blunette collapsed onto her knees and dropped her gun. She could feel hot tears burning down her face, another one of her friends had fallen. Another fallen star. Wait, there was still hope; she saw Minami miraculously climbing out over the shoulder of one of the Deathclaws. The girl stuck her arm out in some desperate attempt to escape the feeding frenzy that was taking part around her. She couldn't tell if it was blessing or not that the Deathclaws were too busy fighting over each other to pay attention to her. It didn't matter, one that hadn't made it into the circle happy bit into her arm. The last thing Konata saw of Minami was her slowly sinking back into the fray with the remains of her right arm sticking out. All that was left of her that was visible was her forearm; which had bee reduced to a sliver of broken bloody bone. In the end it took eleven Deathclaws at once to take her down. Well played Minami…well played.
Minami screamed for the first time in her life as she fell back onto the pavement, not like when she was yelling at Konata to stop watching her piss behind a rock, she was screaming like an animal caught in a snare. She screamed when she saw what was left of her arm, part of her was gone now. At least I used my left hand to masturbate…but my right was dominant. It was funny, in her opinion, the thoughts that flashed into her mind when she was faced with danger. Now how are you going to get out of this one ol' Minami? The Deathclaws were still busy trying to shove past each other so maybe she had a chance. Until one of them managed to breakthrough the crowd and head butt her in the gut with its horns. It bit down and tore through her stomach wall, it reared its head back and pulled back her intestines in a gory ball. No, no, NO! I'm not the one who's supposed to die, I'm the hero not Konata. NO NO NO NO NO.
She screamed and kicked her feet, panic set in and she tried to squirm away. Another one caught on and tried head butting her as well. One of its horns pierced through her cheek and destroyed most of her left eye, then bit a chunk of her jaw off with it. Minami could feel her teeth shattering against the Deathclaw's own. Soon more were catching on. Minami screamed as she was head butted and picked apart piece by piece, feeling each part of her body torn away as she died in horrible, agonizing pain.
Konata forced herself to look away, she picked up her weapon and reloaded it. There was still work to do, she still needed to find Kagami. She had to find Kagami. Her mother, her father, Misao, Ayano, and now Minami… Konatas heart wouldn't be able to handle another death related to her. She was going to find Kagami, and they were going to live happily ever after.
There was a thundering crack from behind her, Konata turned around to see that all of the Deathclaws that had torn Minami limb-from-limb were being reduced to ash from a flurry of blue electricity. Apparently they had broken the Tesla Cannon and caused it to explode. Minami wasn't going down alone. Konata took one last look at that blackened stretch of land and the ashy remains of the Deathclaws and her friend. She could only hoped that Minami had suffered a quick and painless death.
She stepped into the Mobile Base Crawler and wiped her tears away, now was the time to finish this. The first room she entered looked like an armory of sorts, there were energy weapons laying around everywhere. There was only one thing she found that looked like it would be useful- Six plasma grenades. Konata turned around when she heard the door that she had come through open again.
"Squad Sigma go!" A Hellfire soldier commanded. Konata lobbed a plasma grenade towards the doorway as more of them pile through. There was a massive explosion of green fire that scattered them, but Hellfire armor was built to resist heat. Konata knew this and lobbed in two more for good measure. That did the trick.
Konata passed through a door labeled "repair bay" and walked right into a man wearing a blue Robco jumpsuit, the very same kind that Yui had.
"Whoa, who're you and what were all those explosions a moment ago?" He asked and put his hands behind his head.
"Konata Izumi, I'm here to get my waifu Kagami back." She answered, her voice was as cold as ice.
"Oh, Hiiragi?" He stuttered, "Yeah, she's up in the satellite I think. I don't know who you are or what you want, but I'm going to give you a friendly warning. The next floor is a Deathclaw research facility that Kuroi had set up, a lot of them are running rampant. Oh yeah and there are robots patrolling everywhere."
"Is there anything you can do about the robots?" Konata asked and pointed her gauss rifle at him. Big guns tended to sway opinions.
"I can recalibrate them to fire at Enclave instead of intruders." He answered.
"Do it." Konata demanded and walked past him to a row of metal stairs ascending to the next floor. She didn't need to turn around to know that he had obeyed, he seemed too terrified to disobey.
She moved onto the next floor, the lights were dim and blue which gave the place an eerie vibe. Konata crept down the long halls with her weapon ready for action. She passed a few Enclave corpses and some Deathclaw corpses to go along with it. It seemed like she had missed a pretty big battle by a few minutes.
All the pens that had kept the Deathclaws were open and there were no signs of any life so far. She found another set of stairs leading to the upper part of the research level, someone had suffered a pretty grizzly death at the base of the stairs. It didn't look like the person had belonged to the Enclave, there wasn't any trace of power armor or white latex. Following standard Deathclaw tradition, the monster had done its best to smear its kill all over the walls. Bits of flesh, bone, and brown hair were splattered against the wall in a grotesque version of a child's finger painting drawing. Konata unknowingly stepped over the bloody mess that had once been Matsuri, and continued onwards.
By sheer luck she managed to bypass every single patrol on her way to the landing pad. Konata climbed another set of stairs that lead to a small hollow metal building on the edge of the landing pad. She stepped into the open stretch of concrete under the open sky. Sentrybots were happily gunning down Enclave soldiers. It looked like the engineer on the ground floor had kept his word and turned the robots against them. If he hadn't had done that, Konata knew that she would have probably been killed instantly. In the chaos of the infighting she sprinted low to the ground towards the satellite tower. A vertibird exploded from a wayward shot and the back draft sent Konata rolling into the door that would take her inside the tower.
(A/N- Fun fact, that part is REALLY GODDAMNED hard if you don't get those robots to fight for you, and for some reason you never have enough stimpaks there. Seriously having five heavy incinerators blasting away at you along with several gattling lasers sucks. If only you people could have seen my rage fits when I was doing the part on Very Hard difficulty. Even with a gauss rifle and Chinese stealth armor.)
ABOUT FORTY FEET ABOVE HER…
Kagami looked at the countdown, just another thirty minutes until the big kaboom. The Deathclaws had worked better than she had hoped, they had killed nearly everyone. Better yet, someone turned the robots on the Enclave. She was probably one of the last few souls left alive on the Crawler, she really hoped that Matsuri had made it far away though.
The sound of someone climbing up the latter onto the floor she was on broke her train of thought. Kagami silently slid over to the circuit box of that floor and killed the lights, the only thing that was illuminating the place were the pale yellow lights of the terminals. Kagami peered around the corner and looked to see if she could see the intruder, in the dim light she could tell it wasn't Enclave. This person was wearing ragtag mercenary style armor and some strange crescent thing sticking out of their hair.
The wall exploded next to Kagami as the intruder fired their weapon at her. Kagami went prone and drew her own plasma pistol, she had to be careful since it looked like this person was toting around a grenade launcher of some kind. She took aim and fired several shots that…
CHANGE OF POV…
…splattered against Konatas power armor. The green fire began eating away at the metal like fire on paper. Konata quickly unbuckled the straps that kept the armor on herself and let it fall to her feet. The Enclave officer who had done this was a woman that had hair almost exactly like Tsukasa's, only a bit shorter. In the shadows, she couldn't quite make out the officers face. All she knew was that Kagami was somewhere in this tower, and this was the last floor that she needed to explore.
Konata went to reload her gauss rifle, but she had just spent her last microfusion cell with that last shot. Improvising, she grabbed the gun by the barrel and charged at the officer. The Enclave woman was on her feet in a second and barely managed to dodge Konatas swing with the weapon. She swung it horizontally and tried again, the butt of the gun hit the Enclave officer in the ribs and she dropped onto her knees. Konata flipped her on her back with a shove of her foot.
When the woman fell on her back, the officers cap she was wearing fell off and in the light Konata could realize who it was. Konata felt dizzy and stepped back. "K-k-k…."
Kagami rose to her feet and clutched her ribs, in the dim yellow light she saw who had just broken two of her ribs. Her face morphed into a hysterical smile, and she sprinted over and hugged Konata as hard as she could.
"You were supposed to be dead!" She said excitedly, then let Konata go. "Ah, no! You were supposed to be dead!"
Konata was so surprised and overjoyed about seeing her friend that she didn't know which of the 80 million or so questions she had to ask first. Kagami paced around in circles quickly and pulled at what little of her hair she had left.
"S-something wrong?" Konata asked placed a hand on Kagami's shoulder. Kagami turned and shook her head.
"I thought you were dead so I infiltrated the Enclaves ranks and just launched and orbital strike that will drop here in just twenty minutes!"
Konatas smile faded. "That's not good is it?"
"No, I don't want to die if I know that you're still alive!" Kagami replied and struggled to hold back tears.
"Wh-what do we do now then?" Konata asked meekly and could barely stand. She had finally finished her quest and this was a "nothing can save us now" kind of scenario. Nothing was ever simple was it.
"I don't know." Kagami moaned and slumped against the wall behind her. "Go onto the last landing pad above here and watch the Falling Stars. Who knows there may still be one last Vertibird."
"Can you fly one?" Konata asked and began climbing the latter that would take them outside.
"Let's find out." Kagami said hollowly and followed Konata. No luck, there was no Vertibird there. Kagami looked over the edge and saw all the carnage she had caused with her turrets and Deathclaws. She didn't feel so good about any of it anymore.
"Kagami…" Konata whispered and put her hand on her friends shoulder again.
Kagami quickly turned around and dropped to one knee. They were going to die in just a little bit, so she thought of something that she should do before they went out.
"Konata Izumi." Kagami said with a genuine smile. "Will you marry me?"
Konata wasn't sure if she had heard that right, "Wuh?"
"I asked if you'd give me the honor of being your bride. Even if we never have a chance to get married." Konata cheerfully explained to her.
"Kagami, you pick the strangest times to joke about-"
Her words were cut off by Kagami's lips pressing against hers. Kagami lifted her up and Konata placed her arms around Kagami's neck. They both placed more passion in that kiss than anything else they had ever put passion into during their entire lives. It was everything both of them had ever dreamed it would have been. All those feelings Kagami had associated with romance didn't come close to describing what it truly felt like. Now I can die happy. I don't care what happens now.
A few minutes later they finally broke it off. "You're worse than I imagined." Konata giggled.
Kagami blushed, "It's not like I've had practice you know." Kagami kissed Konata again and felt Konata's less-than-well-endowed-chest beneath her black cotton shirt.
"Whoa, wasn't expecting my Kagamin to go that far on a first date." Konata gasped, the feeling was unexpected but not unwelcome.
"We're going to die in fifteen minutes." Kagami reminded her. "I reserve the right to do whatever the hell I damn well want to do." With that she unbuttoned her officers coat and threw it aside. She was pulling off her plain white bra when history repeated itself once again.
Behind them the sound of helicopter blades were deafening as a Vertibird landed on the concrete, they had been interrupted again. Konata and Kagami braced for the worse, both of them were unarmed now. Instead of a contingent of soldiers like they imagined, it was Akira Kogami. Kagami shouted in surprise and embarrassment and quickly went to putting her clothes back on, Konata was laughing the whole time.
"You guys want a ride?" She smiled and beckoned them to walk forward.
The two lovers ran to their exit vehicle, smiling and laughing the whole way out. It looked like this story had a happy ending after all. They found two seats inside the Vertibird and sat next to each other, hand in hand.
"Alright, next stop Citadel!" The pilot announced. Kagami recognized that voice, it was the cynical assistant the Enclave had issued her at first.
"Wilder, is that you?" She asked, she had heard that he defected. But joining the Brotherhood seemed a bit of a stretch.
"Sup Hiiragi!" He cried back, Kagami remembered him violently hating her. "Can you believe that the Brotherhood let me be a pilot for them. I didn't even pass all the flight simulations in Raven Rock either!"
"Sure…Hey, land this thing on one of the roofs at Adams." She replied. "You guys may want to watch this."
"Onwards to watch shit blow up!" He obeyed and landed the craft on top of the building that Konata had lowered the ramp from. They stepped out and crowded around Kagami.
"This is a good explanation as to why I was at that place." Kagami said and pointed towards the jets of flame arching across the sky. A dozen missiles rained down on the Crawler and obliterated it in a massive explosion that rocked the ground beneath them. Konata, Akira, Wilder, his co-pilot, and some Paladin all cheered for Kagami. They knew that it was her doing.
"Come on, lets all go home." Konata said happily.
BACK ON THE OTHER SIDE…
They climbed out of the Vertibird one by one into the front of the Citadel. Konata knew something was wrong before she even exited the vehicle, she could smell smoke and fire. When she stepped out she saw that the Citadel was gone. In its place was a smoking black mess of twisted burnt steel and concrete. A two dozen very unhappy looking members of the Brotherhood of Steel.
Kagami was the next to walk out. Oh…forgot about that. She mentally prepared a lie about how it wasn't her that had done this. But she would have probably been more convincing if she wasn't wearing an Enclave Officers uniform.
"That's the one." Minoru said and pointed at Kagami. "That's the one who did this!" Konata looked up at her and gave her a sad look that said, they're not telling the truth are they?
"T-this…this wasn't me!" Kagami shouted at them. "I was the one who blew up the Crawler, why would I do this too!?"
"You can stop you lies right there. Iwasaki left us a letter before she left, it told us everything about you." Minoru said and crossed his arms.
"Kagami…you…you didn't right?" Konata stuttered nervously, she didn't want this to be true.
"Minami's wrong, she got her information from Talon mercenaries or something. I don't know but this wasn't my fault!" Kagami shouted in frustration, It of course was her fault but that was a little detail that Konata didn't need to know.
"I don't care anymore about who set up who!" Minoru yelled back and drew his plasma rifle. "Brotherhood, at arms. Kill them all."
"Minoru you bastard!" Akira yelled, "They did a good thing and you're punishing them with death?"
He laughed a nervous shaky laugh. Kagami could tell that he had lost most of his sanity from along with the Citadel. "Just let God sort them out."
Konata found her old 10mm pistol from her bag and clutched it. "So Kagamin, it's about twenty of them and only two five of us. And all I have is a 10mm pistol. What do you think of our odds?"
Kagami gave her a confident smile. "If Akira hands us each a microfusion cell then I think it would be a fair fight."
"I think it's actually a bit unfair for them." Konata added with her own smile. Just one more fight… The two of the them stood back to back as Akira tossed them both each a microfusion battery. Under the dark ashy sky, they would fight to the death.
But it didn't have to end with death.
A WEEK LATER…
Konata smiled and felt the warm sun on her skin and the cool waves of the clean ocean water splash against her toes. She had her head of Kagami's lap and the two of them were enjoying the fun of the beach.
Behind them were several stone markers that made sure that no one who died in this would ever be forgotten.
"So what do we now?" Kagami asked and softly stroked Konata's hair.
Konata shrugged on her lap. "Go adventuring I guess?" She suggested with a tone of voice that Kagami picked up on.
"Somewhere you wanna go?" She asked, but she already knew the answer.
"Kind of." Konata admitted. "I did some asking around and finally got some answers."
"Answers about what?"
"My mother. You know how a tribal killed the last Enclave president about twenty-five years ago?
"Yeah."
"It was her. My mom was the one who did that!" Konata told her excitedly. "But she left Arroyo after all of that because they treated her like a god of death or something. She didn't want to be known as the woman who destroyed the American Government so she moved out here with her sister and her sister's husband. The gauss rifle I have was actually hers, but she gave it to Misao when she found her dieing in the wastes; I guess she thought that she needed more."
"Wow…" Kagami muttered, that was all she could say. "You really are you mothers daughter aren't you?"
"Yes I am." Konata declared proudly. "So I was thinking maybe we could visit Arroyo. I heard its still there and now it's a pretty big city, bigger than Megaton."
"I would gladly go with you." Kagami told her.
"But before that we have to get your fathers blessings." Konata reminded her. "If we don't then you can never become Kagami Izumi."
"Right." Kagami smiled. "Speaking of family…umm….how do you feel about…kids?"
Konata giggled, "Silly Kagamin, even I know that's biologically impossible."
"Don't be so sure, there were a lot of scientific breakthroughs in the 2050's. I know of a fairly interesting one that allows childbearing between same sex partners that allows the child to have the same amount of DNA from each parent."
"I'll think about it." Konata told her shyly. She had never thought of having kids, especially with Kagami. She didn't know how to react now that was a possibility. "Anyways we could probably get going, I bet Tsukasa would like to see you."
"Right."
"And Kagami?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you." Konata declared confidently. Even after proposing, that was the first time either of them had said it. "I began loving you when you saved me from Butch during my tenth birthday party. I loved you even when you hit me, I loved you even when I nearly died trying to find you again."
"I love you too." Kagami replied and took her hands. A tear of happiness slid down her cheek. "I started loving you when you believed in me when no one else did. Not even myself." Konata stood on her toes and kissed Kagami on the lips.
"Love me, Kagami." Konata whispered and kissed the soft flesh of her fiancés neck. Within seconds both their sundresses were off and lying in the sand.
An hour later they were laying naked together just enjoying the warmth of each others bodies and the cool waves that churned endlessly. Konata sat up and let the waves wash off the sand that clung to her body. She traced circles on Kagami's tummy with her finger and just enjoyed the view. Kagami looked a lot different that she had back in the vault in September. Her body was crisscrossed with faded scars and her famous tsundere pigtails were gone. Konata still thought of her as the most beautiful woman in the world.
"It's starting to get dark." Kagami noted. "We should probably get going."
They stood up and turned around to take one last look at those stone effigies that Hiyori had helped them make.
One for Kanata Izumi who devoted her life to bringing clean water to the wastelands. Kanata Izumi who had gladly died to bring her daughter into the world.
One for Sojiro Izumi who stood by his wife's side and did his best to follow her dreams with her. He forsook the future of humanity for that of his daughter, than gave his life so that his wife's dreams wouldn't be perverted by Nanako Kuroi.
One for Misao Kusakabe who didn't really do that much helpful stuff until those girls from Vault 101 showed up. She tried to make up for all her wrongs by joining them in the battle for Project Purity. Misao died happily knowing that she had made a difference.
One for Ayano Minegishi who couldn't live without her best friends childish banter and behavior. She didn't know how to go on without her Misao at her side after being with her for so long.
And one last one for Minami Iwasaki. The girl who never wanted to be a part of any of this. But she knew that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. Despite all of the Capital Wasteland's problems, it didn't deserve to be eradicated by one insane woman.
Konata and Kagami turned and walked down to the beach to Rivet City. Neither of them would ever forget those faces and the sacrifices they made, their contributions, or most importantly- The love and friendship between them.
With the two girls being targets for the remaining Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave, and with Kagami still hailed as a villain by the majority of the wastes... The future seemed uncertain, but Konata knew it would turn out just fine with Kagami at her side. Wherever the wastes took them, what ever challenges it presented, whatever stood in front of them. Konata would gladly charge into it blindly headfirst with her cat grin plastered on her face and with Kagami reluctantly being dragged behind her.
"Konata?"
"Yeah?"
"We forgot our clothes back at the beach."
"Oops."
THE END