Jack and Nora walked past the brahmin and were about to be entering some sort of old run down town, 'This place looks like it's been through hell,' Jack thought as he looked upon the ruined buildings that were ahead of them. Just then Nora quickly turned off and began walking up towards a house on the left, Jack snapped his head towards her and watched her walk into the old rundown two story house. 'What could she possibly be looking for in there?' he wondered as he waited patiently for her to come back out of the house.
"Hey big boy!" he heard yelled from above him, as he looked up at the second story of the building he noticed Nora hanging half way out of the window, "I could use some help with a safe up here,". Jack wasn't able to argue as she ducked back into the house before he could give any answer, so he simply shook his head slightly and walked into the house to help her with whatever it was she wanted now. As he entered the house however he could feel that the boards probably wouldn't support his weight for very long at all and knew this was going to be a bad idea.
However he walked over to the stairs anyway and began the walk up the tight and old staircase, which creaked very loudly at each step from the spartan. As he made it to the second floor he saw Nora standing in front of him on the other side of some kind of dresser, he walked close to the wall and easily slid the dresser out of his way so he wouldn't have to leave the wall and risk falling through the floor. When he was standing next to Nora he noticed a small wall safe to his left, "I can't get it open with lockpicks so I was hoping you could use some of that strength you seem to have," she said smiling at him. 'This is stupid,' he thought as he waved her back so she wouldn't get hurt by anything; Jack then got directly in front of the safe, being careful not to get away from the wall as best he could, and the tried to twist and pull the handle on the safe carefully, not using his full strength.
After the door handle not budging he figured it would be better to try and take the door off, so he grabbed the best hold he could of the middle of the lock and the knob and then yanked almost as hard as he could, but he immediately regretted it. When he pulled on the safe he had overestimated the wall's strength and therefore had pulled too hard, but when he pulled it clean out of the wall he wasn't able to catch himself on anything, except the second story floor. But the second story floor sure didn't catch him, as he fell clean through the second floor because of his almost 1000lbs of armor and body weight he cleanly punched a spartan sized hole in the both the second floor and the bottom floor, but just as he landed on the bottom floor and was about to get up the dresser from the second floor hit him in the chest before shattering to pieces around him.
"Oh my god are you ok?" Nora asked quickly running down the stairs, Jack pushed all of the debris off of him, not hurt at all just annoyed at having fell, "I'm fine," he responded trying to make sure he calmed her down. He leapt out of the hole in the bottom floor and landed on the outside deck and quickly stepped back onto the more solid ground that could hold his weight. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were that strong... or that heavy," Nora said, saying the second part a little quieter but Jack still heard it fine, he just shook the dust off of himself and dropped the safe onto the ground in front of him before he lightly punched the door, caving it in enough that he could pry it completely off from the safe. All that was in the safe was a couple of very old paper dollars and a couple of bobby pins, Jack looked up and stared at Nora while she blushed and shrugged her shoulders, "Good thing we checked it right?", Jack just stood up and walked to the road and waited on her.
After another ten or so minutes Nora came out of the house holding some sort of drink in her hand and a brown leather backpack looking thing that she currently had on her back. Jack motioned to the backpack with his hand, "I found it on the bottom floor, it was tucked away behind a chair," she answered smiling up at him, "Now I've got somewhere to put all the stuff I find,". Jack shook his head in his mind and was getting a strong feeling that even though she was a good shot he was going to have to protect her quite often. Jack looked at her for a second longer before turning and walking down the road a little ways before looking over his shoulder to make sure Nora was following him.
Jack noticed she now had the dog that they had just found at the station behind them was now walking next to her, he had completely forgotten about the dog until now. He looked back forwards and noticed he began to hear what sounded like gunfire from the town ahead of them, Jack then broke into a sprint knowing that he was going to leaving Nora behind, but he wanted to check out what was happening in case they would be getting into a firefight. He made it to the wall of the closest house and could see further down the street but didn't spot any friendlies or hostiles firing but he could hear now that it sounded like regular weapons and some sort of energy weapons as well, "Hey wait up!" he heard from behind him.
Jack turned and saw Nora running after him trying to match the spartan's incredible speed, he put a finger up to his helmet where his mouth would be and put his palm up facing her motioning for her to stop where she was. He then turned and ran over to the house across the road making sure he stayed quiet as he did so; when he peeked around the corner of this house however he could see down what he assumed was the main street of this town. He could see about eight people in total, but Jack was confused by them as they seemed to have no armor on much less clothing on either.
Jack stared at the people watching where they were shooting and when he followed their fire he could see that there was one man up on a balcony on the far building at the end of the street from him. Jack turned back and ran back over to Nora, 'This isn't a planet I know maybe she'll know more about these people, if she isn't one of them in disguise,' he thought, he doubted she was as she had many chances to attempt to attack him and fail every time but she hadn't. "There's eight men and women on the main street firing at a man on the balcony ahead," he said as he stood in front of her pistol in hand.
"Wow you're fast," she said as everything he just did happened in less than a minute, "But I don't know anything about this place anymore, I just woke up from some sort of freezing pod,". Jack's mind began to put some of the pieces together as to why she was the way she was, but he also had some doubt still in his mind as to whether he should fully trust her or not. "Well stay in cover and stay far behind me, I'll draw their fire if it comes to it," he said before he turned and jogged back to the second building before getting back against the wall like before.
He peeked out again but this time raised his 10mm pistol and scanned the street for whichever of these people were the closest to him and Nora, 'Ought to keep things quiet until we're spotted,' he thought. "Stay here until I get spotted," he whispered to Nora before dashing out of cover to the other side of main street, before she could even react to what he said he was already gone. When he got to the other side of the street he was up against the wall of a two story white building, he walked around the back of the building making his way down an old alleyway. He turned back right staying next to the white house as he stepped back out to the main road and looked left seeing on one of the men who was currently shooting at the balcony.
Jack saw his chance and faster than the man could even have blinked Jack had grabbed him and drug him to the ground breaking his neck on the way down. Jack did a quick once over of the man and seeing no immediate supplies he reminded himself to come back and search him and the rest of them later, he then squat walked to the barricade the man had been behind. He was too tall to properly hide behind it, but it hid him well enough for the moment, He looked over the top of the barricade and could see that the man on the balcony had killed one of women of the group leaving only six left. Jack reached down for his pistol and pulled it off of the magnetic clamp on his thigh getting it ready, He took aim at the woman he was directly behind and planned to shoot three more of them that were basically out in the open before he ducked back behind the wall of the building.
Jack breathed out and as his breath hit its bottom he pulled the trigger and in less than five seconds the four he planned to kill were all dead, leaving the other two confused and extremely scared. This however left them open and the man on the balcony took this opportunity to shoot one of them in the head with his energy weapon leaving a large charred hole in the side of their head, Jack then sprinted at the last man and punched him in the stomach so hard the man immediately coughed up blood. Jack then smashed the man's skull in by kneeing his head as he was bent over in pain. All in all the entire thing only took about a minute and the entire group had been wiped out, "You have to teach me all of this by the way," Jack heard Nora saying as she came out of cover and walked over to Jack, he noticed she looked down at his chest armor, "Oh you got a little bit of...," Nora then covered her mouth and did her best not to puke as she realized what was on his chest plate.
Jack simply wiped everything off of himself only leaving some blood on his armor that he would have to wash off later. "Hey I'm real thankful for the help out here and all but there's more of these guys inside so can please help, I've got civilians in here with me," Jack turned at hearing this and nodded to the man. "Stay out here I'll help them and then come and get you," he said and again took off running before she could get a word in, busted the doors in so violently one broke off of it's hinges and fell about three feet from the frame while the other hung on with only one hinge.
Jack quickly scanned the area and noticed there were three floors in this building with enemies on each floor seemingly. Jack quickly drew his pistol and shot the two that were on the second and third floors as they had been standing up when he burst through the doors and were still in shock from his display of strength when he drew his pistol. He then tore the metal gate straight in front of him off of the hinges before throwing it out of the way and running towards the staircase, jumping at the last second as he just noticed the large collapsed floor in front of the staircase.
He was quickly stopped however as a bullet hit the wall just behind him, and as he quickly turned to look he noticed there was a woman standing in the doorway on the first floor looking at him. 'I didn't check all the rooms, slow down Jack you can't help them if you're dead' he thought as he quickly took aim and shot her. Jack then moved into the room he was just about to enter, still moving very quickly but taking a little bit more time to make sure his mistake doesn't happen again, when he got to the end of a short hallway there were two men standing in a semicircle shaped room talking to one another, Jack noticed a large gas canister sitting in a case next to him. Before either of the men had noticed the large spartan he grabbed the gas canister and threw it with such force that it punched a hole through the first man and became lodged in his torso, and as he was in shock from the sudden attack Jack shot the canister killing both of the men in the explosion.
He then sprinted through a hole in the wall and went down another hallway and up some stairs before he was finally on the third floor. As he made it to the third floor he noticed a man was standing in a doorway pointed his weapon at the stairs Jack was currently on, 'shit, he must have heard that explosion,' he thought as he ducked back down the stairs quickly avoiding the man's wild shots. Jack heard the distinct click of an empty magazine after the man fired wildly for a few seconds and he lept up from the stairs shooting the man between the eyes and watching him slump to the ground. Jack then made his way to the door the man had been standing in and saw it was the third floors deck that looked all the way down to the first floor.
When he looked down the left side of the balcony he didn't see anyone, but before he could turn to look right there had apparently been a man waiting behind the door for him. The man then swung an old metal pipe at the very large armored spartan, hitting him on the side of the head with a loud pang. Jack simply slowly turned his head to look at the man who already knew his fate had been sealed, but there was just one question left on his mind before death, what is this thing?
Jack threw the man over the balcony edge and watched as he fell and hit the second floor edge on his way to the ground floor, he then turned to face the last unopened door to his right but from the small window in the middle of the large wall to his left he could see inside the room and see people that looked like they would be civilians. Jack then walked towards the door but it was opened before he could get to it, "Thank you so much friend you don't know how much this means to me," the man said. The man was a taller african american man who had on a tan duster and a brown three point hat with some form of laser weapon in his hands.
Jack nodded to the man, again unsure if he could trust him, "Where's your friend at? Maybe she would be safer up here too so that any other of those raiders lurking around don't kidnap her," the man said. Jack looked towards the door on the balcony and then back at the man hoping he would get the message, it took him a minute but he then finally understood and walked over out onto the balcony outside before Jack heard him yell down to her that the building was all clear.
After a couple of minutes of Jack standing in silence with his arms crossed at the door to the room Nora finally arrived, "You don't really know the meaning of subtle do you?" she said as she looked at Jack standing next to the doorway, he simply looked at her and then looked away not giving her any verbal response. "Your friend here really saved us with whatever that power armor he's got may be," the man said as he began talking to Nora, "Well I don't even know what it is, all I know is I'm glad he's on my side," she said turning and smiling at Jack, getting no response from the spartan. Jack then quietly listened as Nora and the man discussed his and his group of people's situation, "We're down to just our small group here and I can't take any more losses," he man said as he waved his arm towards his small group.
"Oh by the way, the name's Preston Garvey of the commonwealth minutemen," the man said as he introduced himself, "Nice to meet you Preston, I'm Nora," she said as she also introduced herself purposefully leaving Jack out of the introductions. "What about your large friend over there?" Preston asked as he pointed at Jack, "I dunno for sure, we just met not that long ago, but I guess you can call him Spartan I remember him telling me something about that," she said as she looked to Jack for confirmation and he simply nodded accepting the name. "Well nice to meet you spartan," Preston said as he looked over Nora's shoulder to Jack who was still standing with his arms crossed by the doorway.
Preston then went on and explained how they would need a fusion core down in the basement for some power armor for Nora to use to help Jack deal with the rest of the raiders that Preston had seen gathering outside. Jack went to go get the core by himself breaking down the metal door that closed off the generator from the rest of the building, but by the time he got back to the room it seemed like Nora and Preston had discussed all of the plan. "I promise that none of it is very important to you, just follow me and do what you do best," Nora said as she led him to the other side of the room and out a door onto the opposite indoor balcony. They walked down to the end of the balcony where there was another door that when Nora opened it he saw it led outside.
When Jack stepped outside he saw the large and bulky armor that he guessed was the 'power armor' that they had been talking about. Jack handed Nora the core he had gotten from the basement and watched as she shoved it into the back of the armor in an open slot before turning a wheel on the back and stepping inside of the armor and it closing around her. "Wow this feels awesome! This must be what you feel like all the time!" Nora said excitedly as she moved all the parts of the bulky armor.
She then turned and slowly walked up the slope and into the crashed air vehicle that looked very similar to the falcons he was used to from the UNSC. when she got to the other side of the bird, she tore a minigun off of it's mount before continuing her march as Jack walked to her left with his pistol at the ready in case of any hidden raiders trying to get the drop on them. He then noticed some movement from the rooftop straight in front of them and he fired off a round killing the raider before they could even fully get out from behind the chimney they had been hiding behind.
Jack watched as Nora jumped off of the roof of their building before dropping down and holding onto the roof edge to try and lessen the shock his armor would take from the fall. When he let go he made sure that he tuck and rolled when he hit the ground and was up and back by Nora's side in a matter of seconds scanning the area of main street in front of them. Jack couldn't see anyone on the street until all of a sudden about 15 enemies poured out from alleyways and down the road, he quickly reloaded his pistol noticing he had run out of ammo in his first magazine and prepared for the fight ahead.
Just as he was getting ready to spring into action he heard the sound of Nora's minigun whirr to life before a stream of bullets came flying out of the weapon cutting down any of the unfortunate raiders that were standing out in the open road. Jack was impressed by her quick decision but his attention quickly shifted as he could hear a large pounding sound coming from the end of the street, and when he peeked out from behind his cover he could see a very large lizard dragon type of creature had crawled out of what looked like the sewers of the town, 'Everything terrible comes out of the sewers,' Jack thought as he watched the large creature begin to tear the raiders apart as Nora began to focus her fire on the creature instead of the raiders.
Jack understood that she was using them as decoys while they could weaken up this massive creature while it dealt with the raiders. "Deathclaw!" Jack heard Preston yell down from the balcony above as he stepped out and began to fire upon the creature as well. Jack wasn't sure what the hell a Deathclaw was but based off the name it sure wasn't good, he then quickly turned back to the creature and using as careful of aim as he could he emptied his new ten round magazine into the head of the deathclaw, this however didn't really slow it down and seemed to get it even more pissed off.
This caused Nora and Jack to recoil and begin to slowly back up while Nora continued to fire her minigun at the large creature as they both backed up towards the entrance to the large museum building behind them. As they made it to the steps of the building the deathclaw had killed all the rest of the raiders and while it was still moving quickly Jack could tell it was hurt from all of the blood it was losing from the hundreds of bullet holes from Nora's minigun. But just as he was beginning to have hope of killing this thing he heard the minigun click on empty.
Nora stood there pulling the trigger over and over again as though she would get more bullets somehow and before Jack could do anything the deathclaw was on top of her clawing away at her armor tearing chunks of metal off with each swipe of its giant claws. Jack didn't even think in that moment he simply jumped up onto the creature's back and with his knife now in hand he sliced it across the deathclaw' throat slicing back and forth until hit hit the spine of the giant lizard and it stopped moving.
"Thank you so much for saving me, again," Nora said as jack helped pull her up and get her out of the almost completely destroyed power armor. "Never leave a man behind," Jack said as he helped her over to the steps where he sat her down and looked over her wounds. Most of the wounds were superficial, 'that armor did a damn fine job,' he thought as the worst wound he could find was a small cut across her right arm that wasn't deep enough to need stitches but needed to be wrapped up to help stop the bleeding.
Jack walked over to one of the dead raiders that actually had clothes on and ripped off a long piece of fabric from their shirt before going back over to Nora and wrapping her wounded arm up and stopping the light bleeding. "Thanks again, for all this," Nora said as she looked up at her large savior, she couldn't see his face and couldn't tell his emotions but she assumed he was worried about her by the way he was staring at her. "Well I guess we ought to go meet our good old friends in here again," she said as she used her head to point towards the museum they were currently sat in front of, Jack nodded in agreement before helping her up the stairs.