Thirty-four hours later….
As the sun set on the Legion base the thousands of Legionaries around it's perimeter prepared to switch patrol shifts and fastened supports to the myriad of mechanical Mantis vehicles. Those coming off patrol barely noticed the wind kicking up and small dust devils forming all around them, as they made their way to mess tent or their sleeping tents. Their compatriots who were beginning the night watch and work shifts all noted the large sandstorm approaching from the west. Commanders ordered all tents sealed and vehicles covered against the coming onslaught of sand and wind. Just as the storm reached the camp the Legionaries sealed the massive doors leading into the complex built into the rocky plateau. None of them noticed a small rolling form darting across the sand and through the blast doors as they sealed.
One Commander stationed at the door guardhouse did notice that the mug he left on a barricade had vanished.
/
Rex had been returned to his room just after sunset, and was currently whistling to himself. It would be any day when Vein and the Mojave would spring their trap. Of course if Vein was going to betray the Mojave it may hamper escape. Trying not to think about that Rex heard a sound like a laser powering up and then a soft thud outside his door. When he reached the door and opened it instead of seeing the guard assigned to his Rex saw a corpse with a smoking rectangular hole in his chest wires and burning red metal where blood and flesh should have been. Jittering in front of the corpse stood Muggy, who held a laser equipped Toaster in his tiny hands and had a mug sitting on his forehead. Rex looked down the hallway both ways before dragging the synth into his room and gesturing for Muggy and Toaster to follow.
When he had stowed the body in the closet Rex looked to Muggy who placed Toaster on the ground and rotated around and opened his back hatch. In the hatch Rex found a small tool kit and a rectangular box the size of a pack of cigarettes. Realizing the use for the tool kit Rex quickly opened his arm up and found the bug and removed it before going to the bathroom and turning on the shower. He left the bug in the shower before returning to the bedroom.
"FINALLY I MAY SPEAK! BEWARE ME FLESHLING I HAVE AQAUIRED AN ACTUAL LASER ARRAY AND AM NOW A GOD! BWU HA HA" the toaster said before Rex kicked him across the room.
"Shut up you idiot" He whispered leaning down to Muggy "What's the plan?"
"You use that Transportalponder there to bring the extraction team here" Muggy whispered "You can extract your special cargo while the assault teams begin the siege"
"How long do we have?"
"They'll start once you hit the button" Muggy explained "you might want to trigger it in the hallway though"
"Why?"
"WE got some big guns coming through" Muggy said before rubbing his claw hands together "Requesting permission to take any mugs I find sir?
"Granted, just as long as you keep an eye on toaster" Rex said grabbing the toaster who had been quietly fuming.
"AIM ME AT SOMETHING LIVING! I WANT TO SEE THE LIFE LEAVE THEIR EYES AS I BURN THEIR TESTES TO ASH"
Rex bashed the toaster against the wall to shut it up and exited the room. He placed the toaster on the floor and clicked the small red button on the square bathing the hallway in blue light. Suddenly six figures stood around him: Thane, Sally, Lily, Kasumi, Veronica, and Jack.
He almost got a greeting out to Veronica when a fist collided with his face. Jack had rushed him and decked him with a powerful fist, but when he raised his hand to stop another punch she grabbed him and kissed him deeply. When their lips parted Rex stared a little shocked.
"I'm getting some very mixed messages here" Rex said.
"Get used to it carrot top" Jack said smirking at him.
Rex smiled back and was about to speak when Lilly wrapped him an iron strong hug.
"Oh grandma's so happy her favorite grandson is safe" Lilly said loudly as she constricted Rex.
"It's great to see you to Lily, but please stop hugging me so I can breathe" Rex said as Lilly released him form the hold and patted him on the head.
After regaining his breath Rex noticed a large green pack slung over Veronica's shoulder.
"Is that for me by any chance?" Rex asked.
"Yep, I know how you hate to start a war underdressed" Veronica said placing the pack on the ground and undid the strap opening the pack.
Rex pulled out his modified stealth armor, a bundled leather duster, a pair of red glassed goggles, and a modified pistol slightly newer than his old one, a belt of shiny metal spheres, and a long bundled pack.
"oh Veronica, you didn't" Rex said rubbing his hands together as he unrolled the pack and revealed a large metal arm much larger than Rex's current arm.
The mechanical arm was made from the same black metal as Rex's current arm, but it's fore arm was more cylindrical and diveted on the sides with small cut out sections in the metal. The hand was much larger and blockier with a small pad of a black flexible metal wiring tightly compacted into a sheet on the hand's palm.
"The Pitcher, eh? I would have gone with the Aegis, but nice choice" Rex said as he disconnected his older arm letting it fall to the floor as Lily and Veronica helped him attach the Bruiser.
"What's so special about this arm?" Jack asked.
"It has a small prototype mass effect field generator inside of it; if it doesn't blow up it should allow me to pull off some nifty tricks" Rex explained as the arm came online and let out a loud whirring noise as Rex flexed his fingers. When the arm was properly calibrated the Rex pulled the goggles over his eyes and the red glass glowed softly outwardly, but to Rex's vision the world was overlaid with readouts and diagnostics. He saw an ammo counter in the corner of his vision and a cross hair at the center of his vision. Experimentally he drew the gun, and found the cross moved with the gun's line of sight.
"You know I just love technology" Rex said smiling as he holstered the weapon and lit a cigarette.
"Thank Tali for those; she booted up an old V.I and modified your goggles" Veronica explained as she powered up her dual power fists "We have ten minutes until things "heat up" outside."
"Let's hurry then" Rex said remembering the layout of the tunnel system "This mission is a dual rescue and capture; We need to secure or eliminate Reximus before our forces outside breach the doors. Mirada, Penelope, and Rose are to be captured alive, but if you have to take them out."
The assembled group nodded in agreement and drew their weapons. Rex nodded to Veronica and Jack to take the front with him and instructed Lily to hold the rear, Muggy and Toaster would stay in the area and blast anyone who tried to follow them, and they moved down the hallway towards the heart of the facility, and Reximus himself.
/
Outside the facility the dust storm began to fade away and many of the Legionaries reluctantly resumed their duties. The night sky was clear above them with a thousand glittering stars shining down onto them. Suddenly the camp was illuminated with orange light as four dozen balls of fire ignited in the upper atmosphere and screamed downward towards the encamped soldiers. They scattered and took cover as all over the camp leaving flaming craters where tents and mechs once stood; now replaced by sleek whit monoliths. Then in a flash of orange light dozens of power armored soldiers streamed through followed shortly behind by medium armored troops bearing the markings of the Mojave and the Legion force under the command of Legate Vein.
The legionaries began to fight back but most were still stunned by the impact, and as laser fire mowed down the inexperienced and green only the veteran Legion soldiers managed to restore some form of discipline amongst the ranks. The scattered Legionaries drew their weapons and activated the massive Mantis like mechs and soon the power armored soldiers grappled with the Mechs as their comrades engaged the forces of the Legion foot soldiers. A second wave of assailants materialized in a flashes of blue and orange; instead of men in power armor thousands of Securitrons began their own assault targeting the massive Mantis like Mechs with rocket fire and the smaller fleshier targets with laser fire. The legionaries were divided and scattered as the enemy force surgically cut through their camp; destroying ammo and weapon depots as well as the camp's radio towers. The Legionaries who had been lucky enough to near the center of camp managed to call a retreat towards the facility. The Legion commanders not cut off by the attack ordered their soldiers to form up behind the barricades circling the facility and around the blast doors.
They tried to Radio other parts of the camp and command, but almost all frequencies were jammed with a man's voice:
"This is Dean Domino live from Mother Ship Zeta; singing all of my famous hits and some of my exclusive new music composed for all of those Legionaries who are music lovers at heart."
In the midst of this Chaos a group of a dozen vehicles materialized on the battlefield right in front of the compound's blast doors and began firing at the assembled Legion forces with Laser, Plasma, and conventional bullets before turning to their sides, metal barricades unfolding from their frames, allowing the foot soldiers to use the vehicles as cover. Their top mounted turrets began chipping away at the barricades forcing the Legion soldiers back to the walls of the Plateau that housed the facility.
There should have been a backup from within the Facility where the Legions Power armored troops were stationed, but as the battle wore on there was no sight of the Armored Bulls. The night sky was orange as the fire of the burning camp illuminated the desert landscape with shifting orange light, and the smell of ash and death permeated the air. Still the Legion fought on even though their destruction was ensured as waves of enemies still streamed into the camp from the white monoliths like demons from hell. As the fighting went on the Legionaries hold up near the blast doors heard scattered reports from all over the camp through the ghoulish song:
"We…wi…not...fal"
"Prai….se Octa...ian"
"Fig…t…..broth...ers"
"ALL IS LOST"
The last message played out in absolute clarity and as the Legionaries heard it the sky erupted in flame as a massive disk glowing as bright as the sun appear above them. They stared at it for a moment, and then a lone legionary raised his gun towards the of Vehicles and screamed "Today is a good day to die Brothers". Then came shouts of agreement and the Legionaries began to fire at the line of vehicles with reckless abandon, and as their brothers fell around them a bloodlust took them. Fighting like men possessed when a legionary ran out of ammo he would rush the line of vehicles with knives or bayonets but were quickly gunned down. Those who kept slightly more level heads managed to hold their position and stole ammo off the bodies of their fallen brothers. They held their line bravely and with the abandon of dead men, but that could only hold so long and soon the only remaining resistance were a dozen or so ragged exhausted men.
A team of Rocketeers appeared atop the Vehicles and took aim at the doors and fired three volleys of small rockets that split into dozens of small cigar sized missiles that bore into the hard metal of the door. They sank in like hot stones into snow and the door began to warp and melt on its hinges as globs of hot metal flowed down at the feet of the retreating Legionaries. The assault vehicles parted slightly to allow large rockets to be fired towards the barricades smashing the weakened concrete and burying themselves into the sand around the door before releasing a thick green gas into the air around the door. Someone fired a gun and the gas lit up in a brilliant blaze of green flame that charred anyone in the blast radius and further dispersing the legion forces away from the door. The door finally collapsed into itself and opened the way into the facility, and a single armored tractor trailer materialized in blue light behind the line and sped towards the door in reverse through the gap in armored vehicles and lodged its back hatch to its trailer into the now open doorway. The Facility had been breached.
/
Reximus sat in the command center of the facility glaring at the monitors as he watched the Legion be ripped apart outside his doors. Slamming his fist onto the console Reximus rose and summoned his pawns. Octavian and Athena appeared behind him; their massive forms taking up the entire hallway. As he walked and Artemis saddled up beside him picking something out of her teeth with a knife. They reached the audience room where Octavian met with commanders and Legates. The room was bustling with servants and honor guard soldiers, and when Octavian entered the room they all froze and bowed deeply.
"Disengage shadow puppet protocol and engage siege counter measures" Reximus yelled at the assembled synths "I want the courier secured immediately and bring my Wife and Daughter here now"
They sprang into action at once and the throne room's walls shifted and split revealing lines of turrets that slid out to aim at the door. Mirada and Penelope were escorted in by a guard and after they were secured behind the lines of turrets Reximus ordered the massive doors to the throne room sealed. After the door locked behind the last synth Reximus went to the throne and sat in it. A bank of screens rose out of the ground and displayed video feeds of the facility; he typed commands into the small keypads built into the arms of the throne and switched the feeds until he found the hallway outside Rex's quarters finding it empty with the door wide open he scanned through the feeds until finding Rex working his way through the hallways accompanied by a small group of people and a super mutant.
"How the hell did they get in here?" Reximus yelled sending synths after Rex "It won't matter in a moment once my synths kill them."
"Oh brother let me kill him please" Artemis pleading.
He looked at her for a moment and then tossed her one of his revolvers "Make him suffer first"
"Oh I will" Artemis said leaving the throne room.
/
Shepard fired her gun at the Legionaries huddled against an upended set of power armor. Most of her squad and Rex's companions had already taken defensive positions further into the facility, but she had held back with the general Mojave troops participating in the breach. She ran to cover behind a fusion cell charging station and exchanged a nod with a female commander ordering the soldiers to advance.
"Where the hell is everyone?" Shepard yelled "I thought this was the enemy stronghold."
They had only encountered small clusters of resistance, all synth, and had only been snagged by this defensive clustered amongst the remains of the power armor sets.
"Intel suggests the facility had a minimal staff, ma'am" the commander replied her face and head obscured by a combat helmet "General Cass ordered us to secure the labs just there beyond the power Armor" She pointed to a stark white set of doors just beyond the legionaries "Intel suggests there's a supply of chemical weapons inside that they'll vent on Reximus's orders."
"Well we better secure them then" Shepard said taking a grenade from her belt and tossing it at one of the clusters of soldiers. The explosion caught two as they fled and a third's back was pierced with a shard of metal and he fell. More grenades flew across the room and uprooted the Legionnaires to be shot as they fled. When a path cleared to the ab's doors Shepard and the commander dashed across the still smoking ground to the door where the commander stuck a device into the electric lock and sent a jolt of energy into the mechanics forcing the doors to pop open. They entered the dark laboratory with three other soldiers alongside them and quietly made their way through the labs.
At the back of the room an armored door stood open and when Shepard looked into the small room beyond she saw two Legion scientists carefully transferring a vial full of a greenish blue serum into a refrigerated cylinder.
"Freeze" Shepard said causing the scientists to pause only for their heads to explode a second later in a spray of sparks and oil dropping the cylinder. Shepard whipped around and was met with the commander pushing a damp rag on her mouth. Immediately she tried to fight but fatigue seeped into her muscles and she was suddenly dizzy. The commander lowered her to the floor and propped Shepard against a wall before removing her combat helmet and goggles. She had short red hair and a hard edged, but beautiful face and deep grey eyes.
"Sorry about this Shepard, but I really need what's in that vial" The woman said kneeling down in front of Shepard and running a hand across her jaw "Damn, do you always have to be such a looker?"
Shepard's eyes grew heavy and the last thing she saw before darkness took her was the woman grabbing the cylinder and blowing her a kiss before leaving the room.
/
Rex quietly crossed the hallways with his allies following close behind when an alarm sounded and the lights switched to red.
"Well, looks like they've started the party" Jack said joining him at a corner wall.
"Yeah, hopefully they'll draw some of the heat off of us" Rex said peeking around a corner only to be greeted by a hail of bullets "Okay, maybe not."
He grabbed one of the small metal balls from his belt and held it in his left and the arm began to emit a whirring noise as red bolts of energy spiraled around the orb causing it to begin a rapid spin. The orb began to glow and whistle as it spun and Rex gestured to Lily to lay down some covering fire. She drew a mini-gun up and began firing at the synths shredding one and forcing his friends to retreat behind a corner. When the stopped firing popped out of cover and with a pitchers throw pitched the orb across hall way and when it collided with the wall it released a massive amount of kinetic energy decimating a good five feet of wall on either side rupturing pipes and ripping wires out of walls. The legionaries who weren't killed by the impact were sprayed with hot steam and sludge, and Lilly made quick work of them.
"Holy shit" Jack exclaimed "What the hell was that?"
Rex grabbed another orb from his belt and held it up "Eezo core wrapped in pure tungsten; this arm is a miniature kinetic driver. The sheer force of impact is equal to that of a demolition charge."
"Oh hush now Leo you know how infirm little Rex is" Lilly muttered to herself as she walked ahead of them "We can't have too much fun or he'll get upset"
Jack laughed loudly and Rex sighed before waving them all on. They made their way through the halls of the complex slowly as scores of synths attacked them. For every one they killed it seemed there were two to take its place, and whenever Rex rounded a corner every synth seemed to lock in on him alone.
"You know I love attention but this ridiculous" Rex said ducking into an awning as a hail of gunfire and threw an orb into the turret chipping away at the concrete. The orb collapsed the metal outer shell and blew out it's back side shredding the body to bits. Across the hall Veronica just shrugged and tossed a plasma grenade at the hallway's opposite corner, and after it blew sizzling green plasma onto a waiting group of synths rushed forward and quickly caved in their metal heads with her power fists. Rex looked down at his arm and found it was smoking and it fingers were sluggish.
"What's wrong?" Sally asked him crawling out of a vent; she had been moving through some of the larger vents to give them heads up. Her attention was currently divided between rex and bobbing her head in and out of the doorway.
"The field manipulator is destabilizing" Rex explained as he pressed a button and vented a plume of hot air "That'll buy me time, but I need to wrap this up soon or all that'll be left of me is a smear on the wall."
"That sounds bad, Mister Courier sir" Sally said starry eyed.
"You okay kid?"
"Yes sir it's just you're sooooo cool" Sally said "Captain Alyssa is really cool too, but you're like way cooler don't tell her I said that though"
"I won't" Rex said smiling as he lit another cigarette "Where is Alyssa anyway?".
"Taking care of the wounded up on the mother ship" Sally answered before her face twisted into a shocked expression and a dribble of blood leaked out of her mouth "That really hurts".
She fell limp into Rex's arms and he saw a throwing knife imbedded into her back and barely had enough time to use her as a shield as another flew through the air burying itself into the now dead Sally's back. The others shouted as Artemis ran at him though the carnage of the hall. Veronica grabbed her with her powerful fists and wrenching her body like a javelin thrower and threw Artemis into a wall with resounding crack as she hit the wall.
Artemis recovered almost immediately and stabbed a blade into one of Veronica's arms making her recoil backwards before Artemis kicked her in the stomach forcing Veronica back a few inches. The assassin slid down the wall and kicked Veronica's legs out before slamming her head into the concrete floor before vaulting towards Rex as she drew a revolver. Jack raised her shotgun but wasn't quite fast enough and got the butt of the revolver in the face sending her into the wall while Artemis fired the revolver at Lilly's head. Rex heard her scream in pain as the bullet ripped through half of her face. Thane ran at Artemis as she grabbed a flash bang grenade off Jack and fired his pistols at her grazing her arm and landing a shot in her side while Kasumi cloaked and appeared immediately to Artemis's side to stab her with an electrical prod. Artemis in a blur of motion tossed the flashbang above her and Rex saw her eyes turn grey as It triggered sending both of her assailants reeling back in pain. This all happened within moments; she was fast, and still in the haze of the flash bang Artemis turned and flung herself at Rex. In the few seconds between her eyes shifting back to normal and her the start of her dash Rex raised his gun and fired two bullets at her legs, and when she moved to attack him she placed both her knees in their path. The bullets collided with her knees and they burst in a cloud of blood and sinew sending her reeling forward in a maelstrom of blood and screams.
When she slammed into the ground Rex ran forward and flipped her over; her legs were barely connected by thin strips of nerve and muscle. Rex took three stimpaks from his belt and stabbed them into her thighs causing them to heal over the wounds before drawing a knife and severed the ragged strips of flesh still connecting her calves to her thighs to prevent them from healing and watched as the stumps healed over. All the while Artemis clawed at him, and when her hands landed on the metal of his left arm they burned and cooked. Like a wild animal she fought and clawed at him through the pain even after skin of her hands began to cook. Rex stabbed her through the shoulder pinning her to the ground and grabbed her neck with his right hand.
"Stay down Rose" He yelled.
"I'm not Rose, you sentimental fool; she died a century ago" Artemis said spitting in his face barely conscious "You can never undo what you did"
Rex let her pass out and stabilized her. When it was clear she wouldn't die he rose and wiped her spit and blood off of his face. He drew the knife out of her shoulder, and let it go letting it clink on the floor. Then he sank back against the wall and put his head in his hands and screamed as loud as he could. Jack sat down next to him and gently placed an arm around his shoulders. When he was done screaming he looked at Jack and sighed before looking at the rest of the group. Thane and Kasumi were still recovering from the flash bang while Veronica helped Lilly bandage her face. Rex rose to his feet and went to light a cigarette before a feeling of revulsion erupted in his stomach and crushed the pack in his hand and tossed it on the ground. He zip-tied Rose's hands behind her back and locked her in the storage room, and when they all had recovered at least slightly Rex spoke:
"It's time we killed this mother fucker"
/
Reximus sat on his throne fuming as he watched Rex fell Artemis and make the final few hundred yards to the throne room door. He pressed a button dismissing the screens and aimed all of the turrets in the room at the entrance to the throne room their motors humming as a silence creeped over the room. Athena drew her chrome sub machine gun and Octavian grabbed bumper sword off the wall while Mirada held Penelope back in a corner.
"Mirada come here my love" Reximus said no hint of warmth in his voice.
She did, but slowly. When she was at his side he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her face an inch from his own.
"You lying bitch this is your doing isn't it? I give you everything I make you immortal and this is how you thank me" Reximus said his other hand reaching for his remaining revolver "How about I give Rex your traitorous head as a gift, eh?"
Mirada said nothing, but her eyes held rage; a rage that gave Reximus pause. In those few seconds of pause Mirada reached behind her back and took a kitchen knife from the folds of her dress and stabbed it into his throat.
"Go to hell Rex"
Reximus grabbed at the blade and even as he convulsed in pain tried to pull the blade out. He sputtered out blood and in seconds went limp. Penelope screamed and Octavian and Athena turned to see their leader dead.
"Mom why did you do that? Why did you kill dad?"
"He was a monster Penelope you know it just as much as I do" Mirada said taking her daughter's face in her hands deliberately placing herself in between Penelope and the synths "You're free now baby; never forget that I love you". Then Mirada jerked forwards as a hail of bullets shot into her back and she fell to the ground. Athena had shot her.
"MOM!" Penelope yelled as she caught her mother. She lowered her to the ground and cradled her in her arms "Mom no please don't die."
Mirada raised her hands to caress Penelope's face and with a smile on her face said "Help the courier; he's the only one who can keep you safe."
Her mother's arms went limp and fell to the ground and Penelope looked up to see Octavian running at her with his bumper sword raised. She leapt to the console, dodging a hail of bullets as Athena took at aim and activated the throne's console still soaked in her father's blood and told the turrets to target Athena and Octavian. The turrets swiveled and riddled Athena with high caliber bullets the massive woman was torn to shreds as the bullets ripped through the artificial flesh and the circuits beneath it. The turrets tried to turn to assault Octavian but they weren't designed to fire directly in front of the throne not at the throne itself. So Octavian only suffered minor wounds and when reached the throne he brought the bumper sword down and Penelope barely dodged as the blade was buried into her father's corpse.
"Octavian stand down" She yelled backing up behind the throne "command sequence Alpha Epsilon Omega"
The synth looked at her for a moment and when his systems didn't shut down grinned an evil grin.
"It's time to join your parents, child" Octavian said pulling the bumper sword out of her father's corpse with a sickening squelch sound. Penelope backed up further and hit the wall as Octavian rushed her with the blade, and just as he brought the blade down his head exploded into a spray of sparks and artificial blood. She felt the wall behind her shudder and crack as it collapsed she lunged forward out of the way as a cascade of stone fell around her. When she looked up she saw Octavian half buried under the stone his arms still gripping the massive sword, and as she turned her head towards the entrance she saw the Courier standing there.
His arm was raised and bolts of red energy danced across the stone as his arm began to glow and smoke. When he saw the carnage inside the room his face changed from hardened concentration to mournful realization. He walked into the room alone and holstered his gun while detaching his robotic arm to smolder on the ground. When he ascended the dais and stood before her he looked at the grisly scene atop the dais before letting out a deep sigh. Finally, he looked at Penelope and said nothing as he sadly examined her face.
Rage filled her and she rushed at him to slam her fists into his chest as the tears began to stream down her face:
"you fucking bastard" she screamed as she punched at his chest "this is all your fault; you're the reason she killed my father and why they killed her. If we had never involved ourselves with you they'd be alive"
"why did you kill Octavian and Athena?" Rex asked coldly.
"What?" Penelope asked backing up a little.
"Why'd you turn the turrets on them?" Rex asked his gaze a harsh stare "You didn't have to realign the turrets and open the door, why did you?"
"They were going to kill me" Penelope said backing up further "I had to; they probably thought I was working with my mother"
"Don't kid yourself Penelope; your father probably had orders to end you if something happened to him" Rex explained "A man like him would rather have his empire burn to ashes then be under anyone else's control."
"No you're wrong" Penelope said backing into the concrete wall "My father loved me; I was his heir"
"He never planned to die" Rex said stepping forward "the man was immortal and planned to keep it that way; you know it just as much as I do."
"No no no" Penelope muttered as she sank to the floor. She began to sob into her hands as she collapsed into herself.
"If you truly believed he loved you then you wouldn't have opened that door" Rex said sadly before kneeling down beside Mirada's body. Her dead eyes stared up at the floor a smile still plastered on her face. He leaned down and closed her eyes before kissing her forehead before laying his duster over her body "I guess I couldn't save you this time either, eh Mira?"
Rex collapsed onto his knees and punched the hard concrete of the floor stifling a yell. Soon when he regained control of himself Rex stood with blood dripping from his knuckles, and took a deep breath. He turned to the bloody form of Reximus and pulled his corpse out of the seat and took a seat on the bloody throne. The others would reach him in a moment, but for now he overlooked the carnage of the room it's space as it filled with shadowy phantoms. The only noise in the room came from Penelope as she sobbed into her hands, and so they silently stared at him, his ghosts. Mirada stood before him, his Mirada, pregnant with the child that never lived hand in hand with the older alternate Mirada. Both smiled sadly at Rex and he noticed that tears were streaming down the older Mirada's face. So there he sat, a broken king on a throne of blood, until his ghosts faded to mist and the rest of his group arrived.
/
Alyssa wiped blood from her hands as she stepped back from the surgery table. The man on the table was one of the wounded teleported up to Zeta from the ground. He had been shot through the left leg, and had injected a stimpak sealing the bullet into the middle of his tendon. She had to cut into the man's leg and retrieve the bullet before it did more permanent damage to the nerves and muscles. When she had retrieved the bullet she had stepped back and immediately prepared for another wounded soldier, but as the fighting on the ground came to a gradual stop less wounded needed to be teleported to Zeta. She ordered more medics around the massive surgical area set up in one of the cavernous rooms aboard Zeta.
Alyssa had spent the last few hours operating on a never ending line of seriously injured soldiers full of bullets and shrapnel. Six had died on the operating table while eight had pulled through. She hadn't minded the work; it kept her mind off her people in the thick of the fighting down below. Sarah was leading her pack on the ground with Fawkes at her side while Sally was part of the team responsible for finding Rex. She hoped Sally would come out of it okay; despite dodging aliens for years the girl was still a bit reckless and careless at the age of eighteen. Of course Alyssa knew what volunteering Sally entailed, and she knew sending her into the heart of an enemy stronghold. There was a definite chance she wouldn't be coming back.
As she walked to a wash area a hub a bub started and she turned to see a commotion near one of the teleporters. She saw the courier step through the orange haze missing an arm with a nasty burn across his left shoulder. His normal intense aura was gone and his face was drawn in a contemplative frown as he shrugged off a duster and ordered personnel around as a nurse slathered stim-gel over the burn on his exposed stump of a left arm. The other members of the strike team materialized on the pad behind him, and in the arms of the big super mutant named Lilly was Sally limp and lifeless in the super mutant's arms. Alyssa felt like she had been punched in the stomach and placed a hand over her mouth as the Courier approached.
"Alyssa, she saved my life" Rex said placing his hand on her shoulder "If she hadn't been standing where she was I would have been killed by the blade, I know it hurts, but you should be proud."
Alyssa said nothing for a moment allowing her breathing to normalize "Thank you sir; I was always proud of her"
Rex nodded and lowered his hand before Lilly placed Sally's body on an operating table before turning around revealing the prone form of an unconscious woman. Lilly allowed some nurses to untie the woman and Rex ordered them to restrain the woman, and lock her in isolation. Alyssa looked down at Sally's body and folded her arms over her chest. She allowed herself a sigh before straightening to see the courier already moving away from the area towards the communications section of the ship.
By the end of the day fifteen hundred Mojave troops had died with three hundred injured. Amongst the losses eighteen Capital Wastelanders died in the fighting. Without the added force from the Midwest brotherhood of steel and the turncoat legion the losses would have been astronomically higher. Exactly how Veronica managed to mobilize not only the forces of Midwest brotherhood, but the entire host of the turncoat Legion as well was a mystery to anyone not aware of the growing teleportation network the Midwest Brotherhood of steel had been building with support from the Mojave.
Alyssa walked amongst her people checking injuries and making sure they were fed and comfortable until they were cleared to return to New Colombia. Eighteen bodies would be returning with them in modified cryo-coffins until they could be laid to rest. Alyssa looked through the group and saw Sarah's power armor, a massive chunk of its chest plate had been melted away by a chemical weapon, standing over her pride members as they rested; Sarah herself was propped against a wall behind her armor topless saved for the bandages wrapped around her chest covering a chemical burn. The weapon barely touched her skin, but had caused deep red irritation to spread across her skin before it was nullified by the armor's emergency suppression system.
When she walked over to her friend Alyssa checked her bandages before quietly sitting next to Sarah. Sarah produced a flask from her pocket and took a draw before handing it to Alyssa.
"She was a good soldier" Sarah said allowing Alyssa to drink a gulp of the burning liquid "they all were"
"Yes they were, and we'll make sure they're remembered for their sacrifice" Alyssa said wincing at the strong whiskey Sarah enjoyed before handing the flask back "How's the burn?"
"Hurts like hell, but no worse than when they dragged me out of Purity" Sarah said taking another draw from the flask "That burned like hell; I'm still surprised I haven't sprouted a third arm or something."
"How do you think I feel; I was the one who had to go in there, remember?" Alyssa said taking the flask and taking a draw of the whiskey "My ass still glows in the dark."
They sat back against the wall and finished off the flask and let the warmth of the whiskey spread out from their stomachs. Alyssa watched her sleeping soldiers and let the intoxicating lullaby of the whiskey lull her to sleep. As her eyes closed she fell into Sarah's shoulder and let herself drift into sleep, and when her mind surrendered to sleep she heard a familiar voice.
"Alyssa, wake up"
She opened her eyes and found herself in a bed in the large bedroom of Vault 101's overseer. Alyssa sat up and pulled a blanket over naked chest and saw Amata slipping into a jumpsuit at the foot of the bed. She looked back and smiled at Alyssa before standing and strapping a 10mm pistol to her hip and winking at her.
"I know you're a big time space captain now, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you sleep in" Amata said tossing Alyssa her pip boy.
Alyssa sat up and smiled sadly. The bed sheet turned to ash and sterile light of the bedroom became harsh sunlight and she found herself sitting on the hard ground overlooking the remains of Megaton. She knew what was behind her; she had live this dream over and over, and as they began to whisper to her she clamped her hands over her ears as the voices whispered. Even with her hands tightly held against her ears Alyssa heard them; her father, Amata, Paladin Cross, and now Sally whispered unintelligible chatter into her ear piercing through to her core. With her naked back to them she closed her eyes and balled up as their footsteps drew closer and their whispering grew angrier and louder. Then the whispering stopped and she opened her eyes and saw silhouetted by warm sunlight stood a figure.
The figure was feminine and wore a long flowing red and black dress that seemed to accentuate her blazing red hair. Her deep grey eyes shined down like sunlight through a clouds, and her smile sent chills down Alyssa's spine. The woman reached out and offered her hand and when Alyssa took it fire spread out across her wrist and wreathed her in a flame. When the flame died away she stood in a long white gown free of dirt and grime and when she looked to the woman Alyssa saw a smile creep over her face and just a s she was about to speak she was pulled from the dream and woke back into reality.
A calmness had spread into her and sank into her gut like a weight had been lifted and her entire body was sighing in relief now that the burden was gone. She rose careful not to stir Sarah from her sleep and stretched feeling her muscles relax and loosen. In her euphoria she didn't notice the small spot of blood on her neck nor the Mojave soldier walking away from the sleeping troops. Alyssa certainly didn't notice her braided red hair or the spent syringe hidden in her hands that she threw into a trash chute as she walked away.