Hello everyone, hope you are doing well.
Today, we'll see how Damian negociates with Tenpenny.
Please enjoy.
Damian, escorted by the four Tenpenny Tower guards, entered the building. A gentle warmth enveloped him, as well as a smell of cleanliness.
A row of columns led to a lobby, lit by two large crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. Several potted plants were scattered in an orderly and regular fashion to bring a little life to the place. A large red and gold carpet decorated the floor in front of a large wooden desk. Several leather or fabric armchairs were set up next to small tables where ashtrays with cigars, wine glasses or cigarette packages were placed.
There were two staircases on either side of the lobby and a mezzanine bordered by a small balustrade, decorated with frescoes, leading to the other rooms in the tower. A little music floated in the air, the same kind of music that played in the cafeteria or the elevators of Vault 101.
The guards and Damian approached the reception desk, where a man in combat armor was sitting next to several walkie-talkies and telephones. When Damian and his escort arrived, he opened his eyes and stood up, unable to take his eyes off the young man.
"Is Mr. Tenpenny in his apartments?" asked the head of security.
The receptionist grabbed a radio and started talking into the microphone.
Damian looked around him. He understood what Simms had meant when he said, 'No one goes in unless their pockets are filled with capsules'. The place sweated with luxury and money. On the mezzanine floor, several people, men and women of various ages, watched the scene unfolding before their eyes with curiosity. Some were exchanging words in low voices. Damian noticed that they were all unarmed and dressed in new, clean clothes.
For a moment Damian thought that he had done a leap back in the past, that he had returned to the pre-war times. Women had make-up, lipsticks, wore pink, green or black dresses with heels, while the men were wearing suit, shirts and trousers that looked like they just came out of the laundry.
This whole place was a blot compared to the Wasteland. No ragged vagabonds, no groups of mercenaries armed to the teeth, no hunters with big bags of fur or meat, no billboards promising a reward for killing this or that creature in that place. No one with patched up clothes or looking sick or sad.
The inhabitants of Tenpenny Tower watched Damian with an unhealthy curiosity, tinged with disgust. The wealthy class of the Capital Wasteland seemed to have nothing but contempt for the rest of its inhabitants.
"Move."
The head of security grabbed Damian by the arm and led him to an elevator in the back of the lobby. Damian felt the pressure of the barrel of a gun in his back and entered the cabin. One of the guards pressed a button and the elevator started. The ride lasted a few seconds. The doors opened into a rectangular room with ochre walls. The ceiling was supported by two large pillars, surrounded by small marble saddles where vases and flowers were placed.
To the right of the lift, sitting on a chair, was a guard. When he saw the group arriving, he stood up and whispered something into the radio attached to his armor.
"Mr. Tenpenny is on the balcony of his suite," said the guard to his superior. "He's hunting."
The head of security nodded. He let Damian in through a nice wooden door. A small room with marble columns and a small space in the center, reserved for flowers, was on the other side. Damian heard a shot from behind a double blue metal door guarded by two armed men.
They opened the door to the outside.
"Forward," grunted the guard behind Damian.
The door opened onto a small terrace. From here it was possible to see the whole Wasteland. In the distance, the ruins of D.C. stood out on the horizon. A panorama that was both magnificent and terrifying at the same time. Damian could have found the view to his liking, if it was not obstructed by a small crowd of people dressed in three-piece suits or colorful dresses. A second shot rang out. It came from the center of the crowd. Immediately after the shot, a thunderous applause resounded.
In the center of the crowd, an old man, wearing white trousers, leather boots reaching to his knees, a white shirt under a red suit jacket and a small matching scarf around his neck.
He was about 75 or 80 years old and was holding a polished sniper rifle with a smoking barrel, a DKS-501 in perfect condition, the same model as Colvin's. The man turned to the crowd gathered around him, who were applauding him. He displayed a broad smile, accentuating the wrinkles on his face even more. When he saw Damian and his escort, the smile on his face faded slightly.
He smiled again at the crowd and placed his sniper rifle next to a small red cloth armchair and a coffee table in a box provided for that purpose.
"My friends," he said. "Please forgive me. I have urgent business to attend to."
The crowd passed Damian by, glaring at him intrigued and scornful, frustrated that they had to postpone their little bootlicker session. The old man waited a few seconds until all his courtiers had entered the tower. He quickly observed Damian, then moved to the small coffee table, where there was a crystal decanter filled with a brown liquid, probably scotch or bourbon.
"Mr. Gustavo, you bring me a choice personality," said the old man, helping himself with a glass.
He turned to Damian and slowly drank a sip from his glass.
"Allow me to welcome you to the magnificent Tenpenny Tower. I am Allistair Tenpenny, contractor and owner of this building."
He spoke with a strong accent that Damian had never heard before, suggesting that he was probably not native from the Capital Wasteland. Tenpenny sat down in the chair and lit a large cigar.
"So, what do you think of my building?" the old man asked, pulling out his cigar. "The jewel of the Capital Wasteland, isn't it? I'm quite proud of my work."
"It's a beautiful tower, yes," said Damian looking around. "Quite an achievement you made. Finding this building in the middle of nothing, instead of building it was probably a hard task."
"You're a caustic individual," Tenpenny hissed. "Making this place what it is today took a lot of work and manpower. But thanks to the dedicated help of Mr. Gustavo and his men, as well as that of Mr. Burke, it has become a reality."
He shot his cigar and blew out a foul grey smoke. Damian took another look around him. The man named Gustavo stood between him and Tenpenny. One of the guards was standing right next to him, and the other two were standing behind, by the door.
"You've met Mr. Burke, I believe," continued Tenpenny. "An extraordinary man, I must say. He's good at getting things done. I'd very much like to know what impression he made on you?"
"To be honest with you," said Damian. "Our meeting was so brief that I don't really remember."
Tenpenny wrinkled his eyelids and stared at Damian silently.
"What do you want?" he asked. "You've come to ask my forgiveness for killing my faithful right-hand man?"
"No, I'm here to ask you to stop sending killers after me."
Tenpenny took a sip of his drink and smiled. He looked at Gustavo and his men, who smiled in turn.
"You had the privilege of meeting my right-hand man, and you shot him down coldly, I'm told. Every action has its consequences, young man. Before I kill you, I want to know why you killed him."
"It was Burke who tried to kill me first, after I refused to blow up Megaton. All I did was defend myself."
Tenpenny put his glass down and turned his head to the Wasteland. He raised his arm and pointed to a spot in the ruins of D.C., behind a destroyed highway.
"You mentioned that... That fly shit in the landscape," Tenpenny said disgustedly. "Megaton is ruining my view, and dear Mr. Burke had offered to fix it."
"By burning the town to the ground?"
"What you, for unknown reasons, call "a city", is nothing more than a heap of metal polluting the view of my penthouse. The idea of blowing up this hellhole was really just a favour I was doing to the people living there. It was only a matter of time before this bomb exploded. I just wanted to... Speed things up."
A slight smile appeared on Damian's lips. Tenpenny and Gustavo frowned.
"Like I said, I'm here to ask you to stop sending killers after me. I was going to leave after that, but instead I'd rather kill you."
Gustavo giggled and Tenpenny chuckled. The other three guards exchanged glances and some laughter.
Damian smiled one last time. He grabbed the gun from the guard beside him and shot him in the thigh. Then he raised his gun to Gustavo and put a bullet in his head. He turned around and killed the two guards behind him who had not had time to move.
The door opened and the two men guarding it burst into the terrace. Damian grabbed the barrel of the first man's rifle, tripped him and pushed him to the railing. With the impulse, the man toppled over and fell into the void with a scream of terror.
The second guard raised his gun and was shot in the head, before collapsing to the ground. The soldier guarding the door of Tenpenny's apartments appeared. He fired a burst towards Damian, who took cover behind the door. The man approached. When he saw the barrel of the gun sticking out of the door, Damian kicked it. The door closed on the man who fell to the ground. Damian raised his gun and shot him in the back.
He turned to Tenpenny, still sitting in his armchair, and approached him. Tenpenny had not moved. He stared trembling at Damian.
"W... Wait," stuttered the old man as he raised his hands. "I... I can pay you... I... I have money... I... I have money... I have..."
Damian finished off the guard wounded in the thigh and continued walking towards Tenpenny. The old man raised his arm to grab his sniper rifle beside him. Damian did not give him time to finish his gesture and put two bullets in his chest.
The great Allistair Tenpenny collapsed in his seat, dead. Strangely, Damian felt as if he had just done a good deed. He put his pistol back and grabbed one of the assault rifles from the floor. He returned to the tower and headed for the elevator.
The elevator doors opened on five armed guards. When they saw Damian, they raised their guns and opened fire. Damian dove to the side and returned to apartments for cover. He heard the guards approaching. He fired a few blind shots and grabbed the guard's chair next to the door. He closed the door and barricaded it with the chair.
He was trapped. Killing Tenpenny in his fiefdom had seemed a good idea at the time, but now he was trapped, with an army of mercenaries in front of him. The chair in front of the gate was not going to hold them for long.
Damian returned to the terrace. He closed the door and blocked it with the bodies of Gustavo and his men.
He looked around him but saw no way out. He leaned over the balcony. Below, the balcony he had seen on his way in, and which went around the building. From here, Damian could reach it, but it was too high. If he jumped, he would get hurt and could never leave the tower alive, and even if he did, he would not last long if he fell on Raiders or a mutant animal.
Damian looked around him. An idea came to him. He crouched down next to the bodies of Gustavo and his men and removed their belts. He hung one of them from the railing and began to tie the others together. He wasn't sure that his idea would work, but he was equally sure that facing Tenpenny's army alone with only this rifle and a half-empty pistol would definitely not work.
Damian threw his makeshift rope into the void and stepped over the railing. He preferred not to think about what would happen if he missed his shot.
He heard the penthouse door being knocked down. Damian grabbed the rope, took a deep breath and jumped. He rappelled down the façade until he set foot on the balcony.
Damian looked at his hands, which were reddened by the leather, and grabbed his rifle. He approached a door leading upstairs and turned the handle. He let out a grunt when he noticed that the door was locked. Damian stepped onto the balcony and found a window leading to a luxurious apartment.
Inside, he came across a couple of residents and a young girl, about his age. Immediately, the woman, grabbed the young girl and screamed.
"Who are you?" asked the man dressed in a grey striped suit.
"Room service," Damian said as he approached.
"Who are you? Please don't hurt my daughter! You savage! Guards! Security! Somebody! Help!"
The woman cried hysterically. Her husband grabbed Damian by the arm and tried to disarm him. Damian knocked him out with a punch in the face. His wife screamed and let go of her daughter to run away. Damian stopped for a second when he saw the terrified eyes of the young girl. Her legs were shaking, she looked at Damian, at the verge of tears. Damian could not help but feel sad, seeing her like that, looking at him in terror, like he was a Raider that was going to murder her parents and then rape her and kill her.
Damian saw two guards enter the room and raising their gun at him. Damian slammed the door to the bedroom shut. He flattened on the floor, just before the guard started firing through the door. Damian fired blindly at the door and heard a scream. The door opened on a guard who collapsed on Damian. The second guard entered and looked around. He saw the husband lying on the floor and the young girl, who had collapsed on the ground, shellshocked, staring at the dead guard.
The mercenary looked down and saw his companion, over Damian, and saw the barrel of Damian's rifle pointed at him. He uttered a surprised hiccup before the roar of the assault rifle rang in the room.
Damian pushed the corpse away and got up. He looked at the young girl, who was staring at the blank, shaking, blood drips on her face, tears in her eyes.
Damian sighed and left the room, stepping over the bodies lying on the floor and headed for the elevator. On his way, he picked up the rifle magazines from the mercenaries. He entered the elevator and pressed the ground floor button.
When he reached the bottom floor, he would have to face the rest of Tenpenny's army. He checked his ammunition and felt the lift come to a standstill. The doors opened onto the lobby. Damian went inside, keeping an eye on the mezzanine. Only the guard at the reception was present, talking frantically into the radio attached to his armor. He turned around and was surprised to see Damian. He let out a curse and tried to grab his gun. Damian punched him and knocked him to the ground.
The front door of the tower opened on several mercenaries, who, on seeing Damian, immediately opened fire. Damian took cover behind the desk. The mercenaries fired short, precise bursts, unlike the Raiders or the bandits of the Wasteland, who emptied their magazines in seconds.
"Come on out, asshole!" exclaimed one of the voices. "And we'll kill you quickly!"
"Yeah, sure," Damian whispered.
He heard several of the mercenaries slowly approaching him, the soles of their boots resonating against the tile floor in the lobby. Damian switched his gun to automatic fire. He looked up at the ceiling and a slight smile appeared on his face.
He raised his gun and fired several shots towards the large chandeliers hanging in the lobby. The chain broke and the chandelier fell on three mercenaries who had come towards him. A small cry of surprise and fear escaped from one of them before he got crushed.
The receptionist was slowly coming to his senses. He started to get up and saw Damian's foot coming towards him. The mercenary stumbled backwards. A series of shots rang out in the lobby as the mercenaries fired at their companion, mistaking him for Damian.
"Fuck!" one of the mercenaries yelled. "Cease fire!"
Damian stood up and fired several shots at the remaining enemies. Two mercenaries were hit and collapsed to the ground.
"You motherf…"
"Fuck this! I'm out of here!"
Damian heard footsteps running away to the exit.
"Come back, you cowards!"
Damian looked over the desk. Only him and two mercenaries were left.
"Looks like your colleagues preferred to leave," he said.
"Fuck you!"
A burst hit the desk. Damian rolled to the side. He jumped out of his shelter and sent a burst, hitting one of the mercenaries who died instantly.
The last mercenary looked at the corpse of his companion and looked up at Damian.
"W... W... W... Wait... Wait...! D... D... Don't shoot!"
Damian stood up and pointed his rifle at the mercenary. The mercenary slowly came out from behind his shelter with his hands in the air. He threw his gun on the floor and raised his hands even higher, as if he wanted to hit the ceiling. Damian left his cover and approached the broken chandeliers on the floor.
"How many of you were there in all?" Damian asked.
"T... T… T… Twenty...," the mercenary stammered.
Damian had not kept track of the men he had to kill in that tower.
"Here's what we're going to do."
The mercenary stared at Damian, convinced he was going to kill him.
"I'm going to get out of here without killing you. In return, I want you to make sure Talon Company, or any of Tenpenny's other associates, stop coming after me. If you don't, I'll be back."
The mercenary nodded frantically. Damian kept him at the end of his gun until he came out of the tower. He retrieved his belongings from a locker near the tower's security door and ran away from the tower.
Damian stopped behind the RobCo factory and glanced towards Tenpenny Tower. No one had gone after him. He did not know if the Tenpenny mercenaries would try to get even or if the Talon Company would get the message. For a moment, he thought that he had made the thing worse. He thought about that young girl, and saw her terrified and shellshocked face, and could not help but think that he was responsible for that.
He sighed and ran his hand over his face before looking at his Pip-Boy's clock. If he wanted to get back to Megaton before dark, he would have to hurry.
Damian took one last look at the tower and got up before heading towards Megaton.
I removed the ghouls from the Tenpenny Tower quest, because I don't like this part of the quest. I just wanted to have Damian deal with the Talon Company hitmen, in a different way than going full guns blazing in their HQ and it's also a way to protect Megaton from Tenpenny.
Hope you enjoyed and until next time.
