Predator Gothic
Part 26
DC Ruins. Fallout Verse.
Day was giving over to night as we all ventured towards the Lady of Hope Hospital and Statesman Hotel. My clan was going into battle together, a group hunt, not for trophies or technology, although we could end up getting plenty of both, but to save people. Well that would be the end result, it just wasn't the main motivation.
"So tell me again why are we risking our lives for these rangers?" Trost asked.
Trost was a pureblood Sith, although he never wielded a lightsaber, like me he'd been brought into a Yautja clan and when we'd escaped from that game preserve, he'd joined my clan. Now he was more or less my second in command, although it was never that formal.
Aside from being a hunter, he was also a pirate and a smuggler, not that I minded. As long as he served the clan's needs and followed the rules I didn't care if he used his scout ship for a few business deals on the side. I did mind he got back into slave dealing as that was forbidden, but so far the only slaves he'd brought were all turned into servants, and again that was fine with me.
"One because it's the right thing to do, and two because were getting paid" I stated as we came upon the hospital.
I didn't mind helping people as normally there was something in it for me, and this time there was.
"So we're just doing this for money?" he asked.
I shook my head.
"No this is for information" I explained "the rangers have been mapping the ruins of this city for a while now, and we need that information if we want to hunt here".
Hunting for my clan involved more than collecting heads, we sought technology, as well other things of value, and information always had value to someone. We could use information on this city so that we could find things of interest. Of course we could learn a lot from just scanning this city, but if we did that we couldn't come here and kill lots of super mutants. Besides making some new allies wouldn't be such a bad idea, not if we were going to return to this hunting ground often.
"Plus this area is thick with super mutants" I told the group "Plenty of chances to claim some new trophies"
By now I could see that a couple of super mutants were positioned on a crosswalk between two old parking garages, and I also heard when they opened fired with their hunting rifles. They couldn't see us, and I couldn't see what they were shooting at, but I assumed it to be the Dark Elder member of my clan.
She'd decided to scout ahead, and while she could be invisible if she wished, sometimes she like to let her prey glimpse her before she went in for the kill. To her the hunt was a game, a form of amusement, and while I didn't approve of her toying with her prey, I wasn't going to stop her from having fun as long as kept her sadism focused on valid targets.
Bloodrayne may also be with her as the half-human/half-vampire shared that habit of vanishing into thin air only to reappear later on.
"Stay cloaked" I ordered the group "And make sure you use the right vision mode".
Our masks had all been upgraded by Sparky Gothic, and while his services were not cheap, as he had a strong desire for new tech to play with, it was worth the cost. Our mask had many types of vision, and even when cloaked we could see each others outlines. Which was important as we wanted to avoid friendly fire.
We all moved on towards the entrance to the hospital and proceeded with caution as we entered. Within the large building we found what looked like a waiting room of the hospital and there were no mutants in sight.
Before long I moved towards a door. Then I slowly turned the knob and opened the door only to be ambushed by a disgusting creature. The head and torso looked like a man but the rest of the body looked like an animal. Oh and it had three tongues.
I jumped back as it raised its strange head at me, I slashed with my sword and cut off the top of its head. The creature was very odd looking, but it still required a brain to function so my move killed it very quickly.
The sword looked old fashioned, and while its handle could be hundreds of years old, the metal of the blade had been replaced with a material that was razor sharp as well as highly resistant to xenomorph blood. As such it cut through mere flesh with ease.
"What the fuck is that thing?" I heard Sarah exclaim as she de-cloaked.
Everyone else moved away, but not too far, they were keeping an eye out for danger.
"A centaur," I told her "They're pretty much dogs of the super mutants".
At least as far as I understood things.
"That thing, part of it look human" she said.
She walked over and examined the corpse, wanting a closer look.
"They were human, so were the super mutants, once" I said.
There was no time to discuss this more, and I'd destroyed the skull so no trophy here, the rest of its body parts didn't seem like they'd look good in the trophy case, as such it was time to move on.
Once in the main lobby I took out a brute who was carrying a minigun with my shoulder mounted plasma caster, just as three more came out and we all opened fired killing them with no effort.
"Okay we need to clear each floor." I said as I checked the minigun for ammo.
If this was like in the game the Rangers would need the ammo, and I could easily carry the extra weight.
"Alice, you and Sarah clear this floor, then work your way up. Trost, you and I will go to the roof and then work our way done"
With that we separated. Intending to met later and once this building was clear we could make our way across the building the rangers were in.
(Line Break)
DC Ruins. Fallout Verse.
I walked over to Trost as he finished used his ceremonial dagger to pry lose a tooth from a super mutant's mouth. The taking of skulls was more time consuming, and tended to reserved for more worthy prey, teeth and claws were normally taken as trophies from less difficult kills, as they were easier to carry and could be worn as decoration.
"You okay boss?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Yeah, is that all the super mutants?" I asked.
"On our floor yes, on the other floors I'm not sure" he said.
Just then there was an explosion on the floor below us. We ran towards the stairs as fast as we could trying not to trip over the dead mutants and centaurs. We arrived at another room that reeked of gas. Out of that room came Sarah and Alice.
"Nice going idiot, you almost got us killed!" Alice yelled.
She normally kept her cool, as such I was mildly surprised to hear her make an outburst like that.
"It's not my fault I didn't smell the gas" Sarah.
If any enemies were going to turn up, lured here by the noise, they would have arrived by now.
"What happened?" I asked.
Alice soon started explaining.
"When we separated, me and Sarah followed the mutants up the stairs and took down pretty much any that got in our way. We followed a few of them down here and...
"And fired a plasma weapon igniting the gas nearly killing us!" Connor chipped in.
Knowing that we didn't have time for these two to bitch I ordered Sarah to come with me and for Alice to go with the Sith. I was starting to wish that I'd brought Rayne with us, but she'd gone off on her own, to feed I assumed. I really didn't want to know.
"Trost you go with Alice" I decided, knowing that we needed to keep moving "I'll take Sarah with me".
(Line Break)
DC Ruins. Fallout Verse.
We all regrouped at the second floor and made our way to the bridge that connected the hospital and the hotel. We crossed over and proceeded inside the building and wound up at a staircase, I was about to walk up the stairs before Sarah violently grabbed my shoulder and almost slammed me into the wall.
"Watch your step" advised Sarah
Hanging from the ceiling were three frag grenades connected to the same string that I had almost stepped upon. Had I triggered the trap, the grenades would have dropped and I'd have been blown to bits.
"Thank you" I said to Connor.
Sarah let go of me, stepped over the string and proceeded up the stairs, but not before she defused the grenade trap.
As we walked a centaur blundered out into the hallway and I stabbed the creature with my sword. The monster let out a dying wail as it slumped to the ground. Sarah and I then aimed our guns down the hall waiting for any mutants to come charging in, but the hallway remained the same.
"What the hell, where are all the monsters?" Sarah asked.
That was a good question.
"They're probably still fighting with the rangers" I said as we walked down the hallway.
Sarah diffused another trap at the stairs and we proceeded to the next floor, and the way ahead looked clear, so it was shock when a super mutant master smashed through the wall.
A moment later I was busy dodging the swings of the mutant master's super sledge as we fought in one of the ruined remains of a hotel rooms. I kept dodging until the mutant got its weapon stuck in a wall, when it did I pulled out my 10mm pistol and tried to shoot the creature in the head, which I was successful at doing. Soon the monster lay dead beneath me and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"It was like it could see you" Sarah said as I used my knife to recover a tooth.
Yes it had seemed that way. Perhaps the larger versions of this creature had refined senses that allowed them to see or hear their prey, or maybe there was an imperfection with my cloaking device. I'd have to get it checked out the next time I went to the Citadel, but there was no rush as we had spares.
I then attempted to lift the mutants super sledge, thinking that it would look great in one of my ship's trophy cases, but while I could lift it, the weight made it took impractical to carry into battle. With that in mind I hid the weapon, intending to come back for it later.
We all regrouped in the middle of the hall and preceded to the next floor, we encountered the dead body of quartermaster Theo in the stairwell. I told Trost to pick up the ammunition crate as we walked up the stairs.
"There should be stairway that leads to the top of the hotel." I said as I turned to everyone. "No going back now. You guys ready?".
We all cloaked again and headed inside. I burst open the door and working together we all took down as many super mutants as we could. I shot two that were behind some kind of bar and I saw Alice threw a frag grenades at the ones near what I guessed be a janitor's closet.
These mutants could see us it seemed, which supported the idea that the older and powerful mutants had senses sharper than younger ones. Perhaps something could be done about that in the future.
We all took the stairs and walked outside , and I quickly noticed the pile of mutant corpses that were littering the ground. We followed the sounds of gunshots and yelling as approached another set of stairs.
"Let's decloak" I said "there's no sense letting the natives know how advanced our technology is".
I was about to round the corner when someone opened fire, and I only just avoided getting shot.
"Reilly's Rangers!" I yelled. "We were sent by Reilly to rescue you"
I waited a few moments for a response before someone spoke.
"Well then move your asses before they send in the next wave!" a man shouted,
As we moved to where the rangers had hunkered down I noted there were mutant bodies laying all over the place, the fighting here must have been very intense.
Next I looked over the rangers. One was a big man with a brown hair and a 10mm SMG, the other was slim guy with a combat helmet and a Chinese assault rifle, and the last was a woman with dark skin and had a minigun on her back.
The big guy approached us and we neared them.
"I'm Butcher the team medic" he introduced.
"I'm Donovan the team engineer" the slim guy said.
"Howdy I'm Brick and this fine weapon here is Eugene" the woman told us.
I introduced us, just giving names, there was no time for anything else. Which was good because I didn't want them asking questions about our weapons and armour. The Wasteland was a very strange place, but even by its standards we seemed odd.
"What's the situation?" I asked.
To me it looked like a bad one.
"The situation is that were screwed" Butcher told us "Were nearly out of everything, food, ammo, and water".
I motioned the only other guy in my group to give them their ammo pack and they all cheered.
"Alright now we have a chance" Butcher said as he and his men reloaded their weapons.
"What's the plan?" I asked next "I assume you have an idea of how to get out of here".
My memories of this mission in the game were vague.
"If we had a fission battery we could power up the elevator and take it straight down to the ground floor" Butcher explained.
I immediately took off my bag and dug around until I found what I was looking for. I'd collected a few odds and ends while in this world, and I kept them in a small bag I had slung over my shoulder.
"Like this?" I asked holding up the small but heavy battery.
His face lit up as he snatched the battery out of my hands.
"Perfect!" he exclaimed as he ran over to the elevator.
He fixed it up in a matter of seconds and all the rangers cheered.
"Okay, our headquarters isn't far away" Donovan said. "You guys are more than welcome to bunk at our hideout till morning".
We wouldn't need to, but the offer was a kind one.
(Line Break)
DC Wasteland. Fallout Verse.
"Thank you, all of you thank you" Riley said when we returned her people to her "My whole crew would be dead without you".
Indeed they would be.
"Nah, it was all in a day's work" I said, as if it was no big deal.
She chuckled.
"Cocky huh? I like that.
She then got down to business.
"Now about your payment" she said.
The woman handed over the payment, and spent a moment looking very thoughtful.
"Actually, wait here" she said as she walked into another room.
When she came out she held a green suit of combat armour with the symbol of Reilly's rangers across the chest.
"You've earned this" I was told as she gave me the armour.
I didn't need it, but it might look good in my trophy case back in my apartment, which was in the Citadel.
"Thanks" I said before turning to leave.
(Line Break)
The Citadel of Gothics.
With a wave of my hand a sensor was triggered and the wall began to slide down. The new trophies, weapons and armour all taken from recent hunts, that I had decided to store at my apartment here at the Citadel, soon vanished from view.
This was much like what would happen on a Yautja vessel but for different reasons. The Yautja seemed to simply dislike clutter and for the most part they weren't a material lot, they lived rather simple lives for such an advanced people.
Here it was different, humans, and most of the people living in the Citadel were humans, didn't mind clutter so much, in fact we seemed to delight in filling our living spaces with useless junk. No the reason for these hidden compartments was to hide things.
That didn't mean dangerous things were being hidden, or that people wanted to hide something they thought was shameful, it was just that some thing were private and didn't need to be shared. Also somethings thing were personal, and needed to be secured.
Not that these apartments were that secure, perhaps the Citadel should invest in some highly secure, underground vaults of some kind. The sort of place were things both possible dangerous, priceless and private could be safely put away. I'd suggest it next time I saw someone from the Council.
My apartment was series of room that took up part of one floor of a tower block which was on the second level of the Citadel, the lowest levels were on the first floor, but you couldn't travel from them to the higher levels, not unless you owned the entire block. The two levels of the Citadel's main dome were for the most part kept apart.
The reason for this was plain to see as I left my apartment and went on to what passed for streets within this great dome. It was different from other places I'd been, it was clean without seeming empty, really it was just new, yet it felt lived in. Which was thanks to there being more people here these days.
I'd only been gone for a few weeks, but things changed for those who noticed these things. There were more people here now, and not just alternate versions of myself, which was something I was still finding odd, but also a lot of woman of many different kinds.
You'd think that we collected them, yet not all of these females were in a harem, or whatever the group of woman called themselves, some Gothics just seemed to pick up strays and bring them home. This was part of the purpose of the Citadel, to provide a safe haven for Gothics and those that they cared about.
My clan was by the far the worst at this as we had a number of former slaves that we'd turned into servants, which was good for them, but it did mean that there were more females around and of course woman of all kinds like to shop, and we did pay our serving girls, as such a number of new stores had opened up on the lower level of the Citadel.
This entire reality had been made by men for men, and here you easily get all the clothes you needed from a Star Trek style replicator, yet somehow the Citadel had a women's shoe store. Which just made no sense to me.
On the other hand anyone who wasn't a Gothic was required to be branded, this was suppose to avoid confusion should there be two versions of anyone woman around here. But I suspected that this was really just an excuse made up by the ruling Gothics so they got to be all kinky.
While thinking about kinky stuff I entered the strip club that had been set up by Xander Harris, and soon as I got inside I saw how different the place had become since the last time I was here. It seemed less about the stripping now and seemed to be more of a club.
The club was softly lit, and there was music playing in the background, but it was calmer than before, and there lots more girls around, no just asari, but females of other races, and they were all in states of undress. A few were just wandering around naked.
There weren't many customers, however that didn't concern me as the club part was just a cover for the real business of my clan, which involved selling advanced weapons and other tech to some of the Gothics who made use of the Citadel. That was after all part of why the Citadel existed.
I was just about to go get when some woman in some sort of lab coat came rushing towards me. Either she was a stripper with a theme or Sparky Gothic had sent someone to talk to me,.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
The woman nodded.
"My employer wishes to met with you as soon as possible" she said.
I looked around at the club, and then sighed.
"Fine" I said "Take me to him".
(Line Break)
The Citadel of Gothics.
I didn't get much chance to look around the lab of Sparky Gothic, and that was a shame as it looked as if he had some cool stuff. I was quickly taken into a room, were a hologram was being displayed, it seemed to be some sort of landscape and some underground. If I was understanding the display correctly then there was a large metal deposit deep under the surface of some world.
"Ah good you're here" said Sparky Gothic.
This version of me seemed to have some sort of frantic energy about him, I wondered if he ever relaxed, or if he just spent all this time tinkering with things. Also I was amazed by the fact that he could pull off wearing a lab coat that was clearly made of some sort of leather, it should have looked very stupid, only it didn't.
"I was scanning the planet and found a large deposit of Mithral" I was informed "Its a precious metal often found in mountain ranges in certain areas of Faerûn and in the Underdark. It exists in this world because its design is partly on the Forgotten Realms, Planeswalker Gothic got part of the information he needed to make a universe from Lord Ao".
That meant very little to me.
"And?" I asked.
I was a Clan Leader and a hunter, as such mineral deposits were not my concern.
"Well the deposit is massive, but it's also deep underground, and I've seen Aliens versus Predator so you can see where this going" he answered.
Actually I could. In that film the Predators used the main weapon on their mother ship to drill a hole through the ice and to a pyramid.
"You want to make you a tunnel that leads to this mithral stuff" I said.
Sparky Gothic nodded, and then altered the hologram so that it showed a tunnel sloping at an angle from the surface to the deposit.
"With a tunnel at the right angle we'll be able to get to the mithril deposit and start mining right away" I was told "Well we'll need to put up supports for the tunnel and tracks for the carts, but with your help we'll save a lot of time, and I'll give you credit equal to ten percent of the value of the ore, which your clan can use to by technology and pay for repairs".
Since this wouldn't be much work for my clan I agreed to assist in this project.