Greetings from Big MT

Chapter Twenty Six: Transportalponder

The whole thing took a few hours to set up, mostly because of how hard it was to climb back up the crater from the inside to where the pylons of the radar fence were located. Now that Dr. Mobius had temporarily shut them off, seeing as the members of the Think Tank were huddled together inside of the dome, waiting for a delivery that would never come, Tonya was able to begin work on her plan to escape the Legion, along with Julius, once he had reached the Forbidden Zone.

It took a while for her to make him understand what was really going on with Big Mountain, along with more time to convince the Legionary that massacring the brain tanks was not worth it, with even still more time for the Courier to explain to him what Dr. Mobius' Transportalponder thing was supposed to do. In the end, Julius just went along with everything, beginning with having to connect a special cable and sensor onto the nearest pylon.

The whole plan was actually pretty simple, once all the backbreaking work was finished, that is. These connections and hookups to the radar fence would turn the whole thing into a giant Transportalponder, set for its energy pulse to react to anyone who was wearing Legion armor, since it was all so similar. Once that was done, all Tonya had to do was stand in front of the tunnel that the train had crashed through, and have the force field lowered.

Hopefully, Aurelius of Phoenix would lead his entire unit through the tunnel and into the crater, where the Transportalponder would be activated, instantly sending every last one of them to that old drive-in theater near Nipton that Dr. Mobius had described. After that, the Courier, Julius, and Gleeson would walk out of the crater, the radar fence and force field would come back on, and the Think Tank would remain trapped.

Of course, this in no way meant that Tonya wasn't scared out of her mind as she stepped into plain view, as far from the tunnel entrance as she could, knowing that her forced husband and all his men were right on the other side of that glowing wall. There was no other option, however, unless she wanted to stay inside of Big Mountain forever, while leaving poor Gleeson at the mercy of Aurelius. No, that was not going to happen.

With Julius waiting behind cover nearby just in case the pulse missed a few of them, the Legionaries on the other side of the glowing wall were just starting to notice her through it, when the barrier fizzled out. No going back now, she thought as the guards ran back out the other side of the tunnel to alert their commander… then silence for a few minutes… followed by what sounded like thunder as what looked like a wall of angry men suddenly came pouring into the tunnel.

Like a wave from the California ocean at high tide, they came surging through the tunnel, spilling out into all directions like a cloud of giant insects, and making Tonya want to run for her life as… wait a second… where was Aurelius? Looking around at the faces of the men who were now charging at her from all directions, she was unable to locate their leader, but it was too late to do anything about that as the last of them came through the tunnel, and the radar fence came back online.

As soon as the pylons activated, a shockwave of blue energy was released in all directions from each one, filling the whole crater with such a brilliant burst of light that the Courier was forced to cover her eyes… finding that the crater had become silent again as everything powered down. Slowly opening her eyes as the light faded, Tonya found that every member of the Legion was gone, just vanished as if they had never been there in the first place, leaving only where their boot prints had stopped… a whole three feet away from where she was standing.

Letting out what must have been the longest sigh of relief in the history of them, she nearly fell over from the shock of it all, along with the feeling of things finally being over. Julius was there to catch her, thankfully, and the two of them shared a kiss, before looking over at the open tunnel leading to freedom. The radar fence had resumed normal operations, but the force field was still down, allowing the two of them to run toward it… which felt like it was taking forever.

The whole time they were running, Tonya was scared that the barrier would come back up, but it didn't, at least not until right after they were through. Well, that was it; goodbye Big Mountain, goodbye Think Tank, goodbye untold troves of weird shit that they used to work on before the bombs fell… hell, if this was the kind of thing they did back then, maybe the bombs dropping was a good thing.

Moving through the tunnel, and out into what used to be the Legion camp next to where the train had crashed, the only things left to do were to find Gleeson, and get out of there… but then she saw the bodies of Fretwell, Layla, and Junior lying on the ground. Okay, they needed to give their friends a proper burial after finding Gleeson, and then it was time to go. Julius picked up a discarded machete gladius as they moved through the camp, discovering that Gleeson was still alive… although looking pretty traumatized by the whole experience.

The brunette Trooper was dressed in a ratty slave's smock with a collar put so tightly around her neck that it could be seen digging in, while bruises were forming all over the exposed parts of her body. Gleeson was lying on the ground, ankles bound and wrists tied behind her back, with a rag stuffed into her mouth, looking to be only partially conscious when the Courier ran over to her.

"Warning: Energy interference extreme." The stealth suit said, startling her as she knelt down with Gleeson. "Unable to properly scan."

Yeah, where were you when the Legion was closing in? Tonya wondered as she worked to get the brunette Trooper free. The bindings on her ankles were easy enough to undo, but the Courier was just untying her wrists when Gleeson suddenly woke up, yelling something into the rag. She thought that the poor girl was just scared from what had been happening to her, that is until Tonya looked back at Julius, and saw the movement behind him.

"Look out!" She screamed, pointing behind him. "Julius, behind you!"

It was Aurelius of Phoenix, coming out of hiding with a blade of his own for the kill, but thankfully the Legionary was skilled enough to be able to deflect the attack in time. Clang-clang, their weapons clashed as Julius backed away, trying to keep his former commander from striking a blow that could cripple or kill him. The Courier picked up a nearby metal bar that was lying against some supplies, and started running over to help the Legionary, but it was too late.

In a flash of skilled movement, Aurelius' blade made a long cut across Julius' hand, making him cry out as he dropped the weapon, but the commander wasn't done. Slash, slash, first hitting the Legionary across the shoulder, and then nearly cutting off his other hand when he raised it to defend himself, Aurelius continued to take the Legionary apart piece by piece, slicing the back of his knees so that he fell down, and then holding the blade to his throat to stop Tonya's advance.

"Drop the bar… darling." He said with a smirk, moving the blade so a little blood came from Julius's neck. "Yeah, once your friend Betty told me all about the crater you discovered, I figured you'd have some pre-war surprise waiting for us in there… now go back there and tie her back up just the way I had her… or your boyfriend dies, you cheating slut."

Her mind raced for a solution, but there wasn't one, not with the tools that were available to her, nor with the time it would take for Aurelius to make good on his threat. So there was no choice but to tie Gleeson back up, with the Courier trying to reassure her that everything would be all right, even while the commander was yelling for her to make the collar tighter… and tighter.

"That's better, you see how much easier things are when you obey me?" The commander asked taking out a pistol from behind his back with his free hand. "Now, get down on your knees, hands on your head, interlock the fingers, and cross your feet at the ankle."

"Aurelius, please." Tonya begged, getting down into the position that he wanted. "Please don't hurt Julius or Gleeson… I'll do anything you want, just let them go, please."

With tears starting to run down her cheeks, the Courier was sure that her forced husband was going to shoot Julius in the back of the head, but instead he just bashed the pistol into the side of his skull with a loud crack, so that the Legionary fell face first into the snow unconscious. Now not taking the weapon from Tonya as he grabbed some rope, Aurelius tied Julius up just like Gleeson, minus the collar, and then started walking toward the Courier once the ropes were secure.

"You fucked one of my men behind me back." He said, stopping a short distance from her. "That hurts, Tonya, but I had my way with Betty Gleeson until she couldn't move, so I guess that makes us even. So, just like in New Reno, before you screamed as I burned your home to the ground, you and me are going to fight."

Just like their previous match inside of her apartment, Tonya and Aurelius were going to fight one on one, unarmed, which he proved by tossing his blade and pistol away. If the Courier won, then she, Julius, and Gleeson were free to go, with the commander's word that he would never bother her again for as long as he lived. However, if Aurelius won, the Legionary would die, Gleeson would be his personal slave, and Tonya was going to have his children until her body wore out.

Right, like there was any choice in the matter at all, with what remained of her friends tied up, and no way at all to cheat in this contest. So she agreed to the terms, hoping that all her trials within Big Mountain had improved her fighting ability a little bit… given how horribly she had lost to him last time.