New chapter is here for your reading pleasure. Nothing much to say other than thanks for reading and that I am always open to suggestions. Leaving comment always makes me feel good which makes me want to write faster so go ahead and tell me what you like, dislike or want to see happen in the story.
Now for some commenters:
Malgrath- I don't think that speech would work to well. The eldar have seen quite a bit after all. The mini nukes are MUCH more common now thanks to Albert and his matter altering tech. Too bad he's going to need it.
UndeadLord22- Thanks for enjoying my work! It is most definitely possible for him to find one of the more stable and open minded chapters and I don't really see his power armor getting in the way, plenty of other people other than Marines wearing power armor after all.
SRPA Sentinel- Robots are awesome aren't they? The tech he has can be pretty devastating if used creatively or with other tech.
Ptl- No Outer Worlds stuff, sorry. It's not fallout and honestly other than the slip drive and a few minor changes tech, they don't really have anything that special.
Zefar- I'm afraid our favorites synth detective didn't come along for the ride. Every normal human companion died of old age as we humans tend to do and though Nick didn't age, he still had his own life to live in Diamond City, along with Hancock lead Goodneighbor, Raul lived the life of a gun slinging vaquero and Fawkes went to see the world. He always struck me as a sort of free spirt despite his loyalty to the Wanderer. Curie only cared about the player and advancing medicine while Danse is ever the loyal soldier even if it's to you instead of the Brotherhood. As for the eldar, as long as they don't try to kill him or murder innocents they'll be fine. If not, well he would gladly send their souls straight to She Who Thirsts.
Spartan-A312- he doesn't know about the squats…yet.
Trumpster15-I wouldn't really call him OP. He can still be hurt or killed by plenty of nasty things out in the galaxy, but that was also the case back in the Fallout era. He isn't the strongest, fastest or most powerful but he is going to make sure that when all is said and done he's still breathing. At the end of the day he is a survivor.
No, man. I know exactly what I'm doing. I just don't know what effect it's going to have.
-Mr. Fantastic
Chapter 3: Elves…In…Space!
"Soooo, what the hell?"
Outside the window there was a battle being fought between…actually I had no idea who was fighting who. All I knew was that a black and white ship was fighting a similar looking but raideresque black and purple ship. If you looked close enough you could see small fighters chasing each other out in the void of space and through a debris field that looked like the pieces of another black and purple ship.
"Well it looks like your luck is holding up even after thirty eight millennia. Stumbling into yet another battlefield." Sally quipped.
"I think you mean lack of. Now tell me who we are looking at because I have no clue."
Sally manifested her holographic body before waving her hand and two models of the alien ships appeared at her side. The more curved ship moved in front of her and slightly enlarged.
"From I can tell is that it appears to be an Eldar attack ship."
"The Eldar are the elves right?" I remembered reading about them and I couldn't help but compare their species to the fae of earth's old fairytales.
"Yep. More specifically the Craftworld Eldar. Based on the color scheme these Eldar seem to be from the Craftworld of Ulthwe, known for their powerful psykers in an already magical race and very well trained grunts. This ship in particular seems to be a Shadow class cruiser which seem to be fast, maneuverable and powerful at the cost of being pretty fragile."
"And the Eldar as a whole?" I asked.
"Like they're ships they tend to be fast and have powerful weaponry but they can't take most hits. Although all the data says that they are extremely cunning, manipulative, opportunistic and prideful to a fault."
The model of the Eldar ship shrunk back down and was replaced by the second more menacing ship.
"This charming piece of engineering is what's known as a Torture class light cruiser. Owned and operated by the Dark Eldar. They're known to be sadistic, cruel and just down right evil."
"So they're the raiders of the Eldar family, huh? Any idea what makes them so special?" It was always good to know if an enemy had something up their sleeve and how best to prepare for it.
"It appears their ship is much like the Shadow class but built more for surprise and attacking unsuspecting targets. Normal Dark Eldar are physically stronger than regular Eldar but seem to lack the natural affinity for psychic abilities. Their troops however are usually armed with something called splinter weapons. They tend to shoot some sort of crystallized toxin that can kill most anything within a couple minutes. Of course you'll be in agonizing pain and wishing you were dead until then."
"I've been stung by plenty of Cazadores before. Trust me I'll manage." Apparently old Dr. Borous hadn't just made the those monster bugs from nothing all those years ago. They were based off of the prewar Tarantula Hawk which had a sting painful enough to make grown man drop to the ground and start screaming, and that was when they were small. The first time I had gotten stung it felt as if every nerve was simultaneously lit on fire, dipped in battery acid and stabbed with a rusty knife. And that had just been a young Cazador.
"Yeah well just be careful if you do get hit. I don't need you dying on me." Sally said stomping her holographic foot.
"Anyways, the Dark Eldar are slavers at heart, attacking unprepared planets and cities, killing and enslaving the populace and taking them to…somewhere. The data files don't go into much detail after that but it definitely can't be good."
"Alright if the Eldar are such cunning opportunists and their edgy cousins are just a bunch of up jumped raiders, why are they currently trying to kill each other out here in the middle of no where?"
Sally became as still as a statue for a second before blinking her avatar and dispelled the display of the two ships and brought up what I assumed was a video feed.
"Well apparently the fighting isn't just here in the void."
Of course Sally was right. There on the video feed of what I now recognized as one of the forward ship cameras that were facing Alpine, I could see what she meant. On the screen was a large village with houses that looked to be made of wood and stone, though several seemed to be on fire. The locals were running around like mad, no doubt screaming their heads off. They were mostly dressed in clothes that looked like they had been ripped straight from the medieval times, but what stood out were the armored warriors fighting in the streets as blue and purple projectiles streaked through the air. It was easy to tell who was who as the Eldar wore armor that matched their ship with their black and white coloring while their raider kin were dressed in black bladed armor that couldn't have looked more evil if they tried.
"What the hell are they doing down there?"
"Well it looks like the Eldar are…protecting the locals?" Sally said more as a question than anything.
Now that I was looking it did seem like the Eldar were defending the locals. It was obvious now why the Dark Eldar were here. They see this planet where the pinnacle of technology was the wheelbarrow and saw it as easy pickings. They attack the planet expecting little to no resistance but are taken by surprise by the Craftworlders. But that begs the question as to why they were defending the humans.
Everything I had read pointed to the Eldar being extremely self serving. Every piece of data said that they looked down on humanity as being inferior and never put any of their people in harms way if they could help it. Yet the information also said that in times of crisis the Imperium could rely on the Eldar to declare a truce to deal with a common foe while at the same time ready to stab each other in the back at a moments notice. This made no sense.
Unless…
"Are they actually defending the humans or are they just fighting the Dark Eldar?"
"What do you mean?" Sally asked. "Isn't that one in the same?"
"Not even close. If they were focused on protecting the humans they would be evacuating them while giving them covering fire. If they are just here to fight then they wouldn't care if anyone got caught in the crossfire. Like that." I said motioning towards the screen.
The image zoomed in on a street corner where several troops of both sides were firing blue and purple projectiles at each other. A dew dirt covered locals were running for their lives when they turned a corner and accidentally ran right into the middle of the fire fight. Several of the black clad Eldar seemed to deliberately aim for the civilians while the ones from Ulthwe continued firing, uncaring of who got in the way.
"Oh. So what do we do now?" Sally asked.
And there was the question of the hour. What do I do?
I had no connection to Alpine. I didn't know the people nor did I owe them anything. The stealth fields were still up and neither ship knew we were here. There were no doubt plenty of other planets we could go to for supplies, all it would take would be a quick trip back into the Mirror and we were gone.
Of course the people of Alpine probably wouldn't come out of this all right. Depending on who won the battle they could be facing enslavement and if the Dark Eldar were like the Raiders of my time, a horrible death. I could of coarse always stay and fight. However if I were to stay, I would be going up against a mostly unknown force, heavily outnumbered, and would most likely get myself killed.
The choice was easy really. Run and live to see another day. And yet…
"Ah fuck it. Sally, send word to Codsworth and Wadsworth to prep the Zeta recon craft. I'm heading down there to see if I can make a difference."
"And the Zeta?" She asked.
"I'll leave her in your capable and nonexistent hands. You do what you think is best. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some raiders to kill." I said with a nasty smile gracing my features.
…
Roopert
Oh by the World Mother why was this happening?!
Norfork was supposed to be the treasure of the continent, the greatest city in the north. Now it was nothing but a charnel house because of those demons. Monsters the lot of them!
It had been just another day. No monsters wielding vicious magic or flying ships sailing through the air raining death on the ones below. I had been in the tavern with Loo, planning out which houses were owned by the local lords and when they might be ripe for thieving a great many nobles were running to their summoned homes thanks to the tales of monsters in the night, wiping out whole villages and desecrating their bodies. Everyone had heard the stores and all were afraid, but the abandoned homes were a perfect opportunity. Then the roof exploded. The monsters came then, cutting down those that caught their attention.
One such monster, dressed in its vile black armor spotted me and leveled its staff at my chest. I would've been dead had Loo not stood up to run. Unfortunately he didn't die. He screamed. Screamed as if he were on fire as he fell to the floor with a purple spike embedded in his chest.
No one could blame me for running.
As I ran I saw that the demons were not alone and that these other strange black and white clad warriors saw fit to kill the demons. Of course they cared nothing about us but that was fine by me since they had yet to try and kill me. Unfortunately it seemed that the monster from the tavern took offense to the fact that I was still alive.
It hunted me. I had turned a corner only to run into the thing and cut my self deeply on it bladed armor. It just stood there as I lay on the ground, a cruel chuckle coming from whatever it called a throat. I knew it could kill me and yet it did nothing. So I ran again only for that thing to be waiting for me. Again and again I ran but every time it would be waiting for me. Sometimes it struck out with its clawed gauntlets and rend more of my flesh while other times it would do nothing but revel in my fear.
Now it seemed to have grown tired of the chase.
All it had taken was a was a armored kick to the legs and the hunt was over. Falling face first into the dirt was not a good feeling though the overwhelming fear of what came next was infinitely worse. Turning back around I found the monster standing over me with that dark chuckle turning into horrible laughter.
"Please! Please no oh gods please don't kill me!" I begged but it just seemed to make the monster laugh harder. It raised it lowered its horrible weapon and instead reached towards me with its clawed hand.
This was wrong! I didn't want to die!
Yet I never felt it's monstrous hand take hold of me. Instead I saw the black armored monster fall to the ground with someone else on top of him. It looked similar to the monster in that was of similar height and it wore black armor yet that's where the similarities ended. The armor was more angular and it's helmet was more rounded than my attacker's pointed helm. Its metal mask had odd tubes and the eyes glowed with a blood red light and then there was the long brown coat it wore over the armor.
The man, or I believed it was a man had what looked like some blocky and black sword that seemed to roar in his hand. It had the monster pinned to the ground underneath it with that roaring sword pushing down on the monsters staff in a struggle for supremacy. After a few seconds of struggling the staff snapped and the warriors blade slammed into the monster's chest piece which seemed to offer little resistance. The spray of blood and the monster's scream was all the signal I needed that it was time to go.
Of course as I got to my feet the thing stood up as well and turned its red gaze onto me. I froze, perhaps in some vain hope that standing still would make it so the armored warrior couldn't see me.
Then the thing motioned its growling sword toward the alley I had come from, though now there seemed to be some sort of floating steel disk with a half sphere of glass on the front covering what looked like a strange seat surrounded by blinking lights. Yet even as I watched, the floating craft seemed to ripple like water and disappear into thin air.
Looking back at the warrior I saw him still pointing towards the alley. Of course I did the only thing I could do.
I ran.
…
Albert Grimm
As the man ran away, I glanced down at the dead eldar at my feet and then inspected the chainsword for any damage.
"Alright teeth are still sharp, motor is good, no dents that I can see. Well I guess that's as good of a field test as any." I said to my self as I put the sword away and wiped off some of the blood from my armor.
Said armor being the Elite Riot Armor made by the U.S. government for frontline combat and suppressing even the worst of riots. It was only a step down from power armor and could take hits from heavy munitions, grenades, loser bolts, plasma blasts and to an extent missiles. I had never had the need to upgrade the armor itself over the three centuries I had used it. Well, except for painting the armor black as a means for both stealth and intimidation. The real upgrades had been to the clothes underneath. Instead of the normal military fatigues, I instead wore a dark grey body suit similar in design to the Y-17 trauma override harness created at the Big Mountain research facility. Said harnesses had been meant to take control of a soldier's movements and walk them back to their base in the event of a crippling or life threatening injury. It did so using intelligent fibers and artificial muscles hooked up to a basic AI program. Of course it being something designed by the Think Tank, it went horribly wrong. However I had been inspired and had used their old research to make something new.
The Z-6 enhancement harness worked similar to the Y-17 in that it used smart fibers and fakes muscle, but their purposes and design were completely different. The Y-17 harness had been covered by red and yellow rubber suits and sealed glass helmets while my invention was covered by a grey suit made of leather body suit lined MkV ballistic weave. Also while the former was meant to only activate upon a severe injury and be operated by its programming, my suit was always on and used the artificial fibers and muscles to enhance the wearer's movement speed and strength without risk of any catastrophic failures. In a way it acted like a form of skintight pseudo power armor.
Somehow I knew I was going to need all the help I could get.
Running up to the nearest wall, I jumped up to grab the edge of the roof and pulled myself up to see what I had to deal with. The first thing I saw were the flashes gunfire in the streets, but what I really had to deal with first were the dozen or so flying ships that were zipping through the air. They looked like small sailing ships, each carrying three to four dark eldar who were firing down onto the buildings and citizens below.
Pulling up my pipboy, I summoned the perfect weapon to take down such small and fast targets. The quad-barreled missile launcher rested on my shoulder with a and I took some comfort familiar weight. Aiming down the sight at the nearest eldar craft, I waited for the beep from its targeting computer. With a jet of flame, the high velocity missile soared through the air and I caught a glimpse of the eldar near the front yell at the pilot just a second before the heavy ordinance impacted their ship. The explosion tore apart their craft and I saw several black clad limbs go flying as well. I grimaced as the wreckage fell from the air and slammed into a house, but I knew the collateral damage would pale in comparison to what would happen if the ships were left to their own devises.
Not wasting any more time and still having the element of surprise, I blasted three more ships before reloading. As I aimed the launcher again I spied three of the ships off to my left turn towards me. Naturally I aimed at the incoming threat and let loose a missile at the one of the left.
Unlike the previous pilot who was caught unaware, this one saw the attack coming and just before impact, swerved to the left and managed to completely avoid the explosive payload. Unfortunately for the pilot they did not expect the missile to make a U-turn in the air and hit the back of the ship, which resulted in another downed craft.
Launching the next missile at the middle ship, I didn't expect for it to actually hit, as no doubt the eldar had seen how their fellow raider was brought down and probably had some form of countermeasures for such an occasion. What I didn't expect however, was for a burst of purple munitions fired by the eldar manning the large gun on the bow of the ship to hit the missile midair before it could get half way to its target.
Surprised but also more focused on the ships getting ever closer, I aimed another missile at the same ship, now expecting it to be shot as well. I knew I was right as I saw the gunner shift his aim and fire. Of course it was as he pulled the trigger did I fire my last missile as well. The third missile exploded just like the second had, but the gunner only just saw the fourth payload heading towards him when the front half of the ship exploded.
My victory was short lived however as the final craft was almost on me, their weapons were taking aim and I was out of ammunition. Yet despite all that I smiled. This was the kind of thing to get my blood pumping, the thrill of a fight and in that moment of knowing that you were about to die, well you never felt more alive. It also helped that I always had an ace up my sleeve.
Raising my empty left hand, I activated the pipboy again and a red and yellow laser pistol appeared in my grip. Then the world slowed down as VATS activated and my mind was flooded with trajectories and calculations as my eyes focused on the ship's passengers. The one manning the gun was the easiest to hit but that left me open to the two riflemen on either side of the ship who were also drawing a bead. One was covered head to toe in armor while the other was missing their helmet, showing off his pale flesh, bald head and his big sadistic smile. The pilot was in the back wearing full armor as well and was the hardest to hit. Letting VATS do its work, I aimed for him and pulled the trigger.
The AEP7 laser pistol, Pew Pew, had been customized by the murderous Star Bottle cap hunter Allen Marks. It could only fire twice before needing to be reloaded, but each shot was powered by half of the entire energy cell and that power was only increased when using a max charge energy cell.
The bright orange beam of light that shot out of the pistol struck the eldar pilot in their armored face. The armor proved ineffective as the laser penetrated his defenses and with a flash of heat the eldar was vaporized, becoming nothing more than ash on the wind. Of course with the eldar pilot gone, I had to the ask myself the age old question of 'what happens when a aircraft going several hundred miles per hour and close to the ground, when its pilot suddenly dies?'
The answer was fairly obvious.
The front of the craft dipped and the tip caught the edge of a building and sent it spiraling through the air. Unfortunately it was spiraling straight towards me.
Throwing myself off the roof, I just barely avoid the wreck as it soared over head. The cobblestone road I landed on was not the most comfortable of landings. Picking myself up off the ground with a groan I saw that the aircraft was nothing more than a twisted heap with the remains of the gunner looking just as twisted. I was about to mentally congratulate myself on a job well done when I noticed something, or in this case the lack of something. Namely the bodies of the two additional passengers.
With a mix of my pipboy's motion tracker and my gut instincts, I was able to duck the blow that would have taken my head off. I saw a gleaming serrated blade attached to a rifle barrel pass by overhead and quickly spun around to see the helmetless eldar snarling at me while his fully armored companion stood a few meters away, aiming his rifle at me. At a brief glance they both seemed none the worse for wear, but the helmeted one's left arm was bent at an unnatural angle and their grip on their rifle wasn't so firm and was struggling to keep the weapon point towards me.
That was all I could get before the bald eldar lunged at me.
It was almost disturbing how fast he moved. It was a quick and graceful lunge and had my reaction speed been any slower, I would have been skewered. Instead I back peddled just enough that the tip only managed to go in a couple inches, a few inches below my rib cage and right through my armor like it was tissue paper. Had it been any other time, I would have been very impressed with the bayonet's sharpness, but as it was I was both slightly annoyed and absolutely pissed. I hated having my toys damaged.
Grabbing ahold of the rifle barrel, I pulled the bayonet out and much to the eldar's shock, swung the weapon over my head with him still holding on. As he reached the apex of the arc I jerked the rifle back, the alien lost his grip and was sent flying.
Then loosening my grip on the gun, I let it slide through my hand until the handle fell into my palm, I jammed the rifle stock into my shoulder and aimed the barrel at the other eldar who now had a completely unobstructed shot on me. I knew that even with that broken arm we were simply too close for him to miss, so I decided to shoot him first.
With a controlled burst I sent several purple shards sailing at the rifleman and was not disappointed when three hit him square in the chest, going right through his thin armor while another shard went right through their faceplate and into their left cheekbone. The effect was instantaneous and the eldar fell to the ground screaming. I unfortunately did the same.
The Eldar's aim was inaccurate, but not completely off. He had pulled the trigger the same time I had and I had felt the pain of those needles piercing my flesh. I felt an impact in my abdomen but no piercing pain, so the armor had stopped that one, but the other two were another matter. One poisoned shard went right through the left glove and into back of my hand, only stopping when it hit adimantium bone. The second I felt hit my left bicep just below the shoulder guard.
It was far more…excruciating than I was expecting.
Dropping to one knee, I leaned on the rifle to keep myself up while I grit my teeth. Forget Cazador venom, my veins felt like they were full of burning plasma. It was excruciating and even as I watched the dark eldar I shot try to pull out some sort of syringe from a hidden compartment in his armor, his screaming intensified before falling quiet and still.
Pushing myself to my feet I sprinted over to the corpse and went to grab the syringe that was still in the now lifeless hands. Based on how desperate he was to get it, the odds were it was some sort of anti-toxin. Yet just as I went to pick it up, something crashed into my back and there was a sharp pain in my right side, though it was muted compared to the poison in my bloodstream. No doubt the only reason I was still alive were the cybernetics specifically designed to render poison and venom nonlethal, though that did nothing to stop one from feeling the pain, and pain tended to make people sloppy, like say forgetting about the last eldar survivor.
Falling to the ground I used the momentum to roll onto my back only to find the eldar glaring at me with a curved knife plunging towards my chest. Grabbing his wrist, the blade stopped a few inches above my chest plate. Of course he then used his other hand, his bulk, and gravity to try and push it further down. He was stronger than I would have thought given his somewhat thin frame, but I still beat him in the strength department. Unfortunately he still had the other advantages while I had my back to the ground, one hand had a purple crystal sticking out of it and was in enough pain that it made it difficult to focus. Worst all the bastard knew it.
As the blade slowly lowered he flashed me a wicked smile. "Mael dannan mon-keigh."
…
…
"Did you just call me a monkey?"
I was in a lot of pain, bleeding and getting called a monkey was just the icing on the shit cake. With a roar I shoved the knife upwards with all my strength and the hilt slammed into his chest. I didn't think it hurt him, but that really wasn't my intention.
Letting go of the knife with my left hand I now had enough time to send a powerful backhand across his unprotected face. I felt his cheekbone give, saw several teeth fly out of his mouth and most importantly jammed the purple shard deep into his flesh.
Pulling my hand back, I grabbed his head with both hands and with a hard twist, snapped his neck. His body went limp on top of me but his screaming continued on, no doubt that wouldn't take to long to stop as well. Pushing the alien off of me, I grabbed the nearby syringe and jammed it into my bicep, and with a hiss it automatically injected itself into my blood stream.
With a sigh of relief, the pain just faded away. Looking at my pipboy my vitals were not looking so hot, but the damage was relatively minor and my regeneration was already healing the damage. No longer in any obvious danger, I set about the age old tradition of looting the corpses.
The first eldar had a couple more anti-toxins on them and both rifles were taken as well. The knife the bald one used was put into the pipboy as well but for some reason I couldn't take off their armor as it seemed to be attached to their bodies, which had implications that I did not wish to dwell on, so instead I picked up Pew Pew and the missile launcher from where they fell.
Satisfied that I was prepared for the rest of the battle, I went over my mental checklist for the best weapon to deal with the other eldar. Their armor was weak, so there was no need for any anti-armor weaponry. They were unusually fast so it had to be something that could drop them just as quick and not let them get their bearings. They were also excellent shots and their weapons were extremely deadly, no need for a weapon that required me to expose myself for extended periods.
I smiled as I summoned just the weapon.
The 25mm APW was just what I was looking for. It was a semiautomatic grenade rifle customized with an extended barrel, advanced internals and a drum magazine loaded with high explosive 25mm grenades. It was perfect for groups of lightly armored targets.
Satisfied, I got back up on the rooftop and looked around the city for more fighting and was not disappointed when I noticed some weapons fire a few streets down. Hopping down I sprinted down the cobblestone paths until I saw a few blue streaks fly down the intersection I was approaching.
Stopping just before the intersection, I hugged the corner and glanced down the street. There I could see five dark eldar warriors trading fire with three eldar from Ulthwe. Their armor matched their ship in orbit with the body armor being entirely pitch black while most of their helmets and weapons were the color of bone. They looked far more sleek by forgoing the sharp edges and menacing aura of their dark cousins. The only odd thing I could really see were the large red gemstones adorning their chest plates, positioned over where I assumed their heart would be.
The three craftworlders were holding their own despite being outnumbered, but neither side really had an advantage as the street was too open to risk coming out from behind cover. I planned on rectifying that of course. Taking aim at three dark eldar that had bunched together, I was just about to pull the trigger when one of them went to shoot only to be hit in the arm, severing most of it save for a small strip of flesh keeping it attached. The hit spun them on their heel and they fell with their back to cover, gripping the remains of their arm. Of course I noticed the way their head suddenly stilled as the lenses covering their eyes locked onto me.
With a small smile I sent the grenade their way and the eldar had only just tried to get to their feet in a last ditch effort to dodge. The grenade hit the eldar to their left and the explosion turned him into bloody chunks while the others were only mostly blown apart. Shifting my aim, I fired on another alien that had just ducked behind a wall, incorrectly assuming the explosive payload had come from down range rather than behind them. The next grenade hit the ground in front of him and destroyed the lower half of his body. Then the last alien raider seemed to consider fleeing to be much more beneficial to his health and dove for a nearby open window, only for the window, the wall and their body to be torn apart by a third grenade.
With the gunfire momentarily stopped, I saw the three Ulthwe warriors scanning their surroundings, no doubt confused on who had blown up their opponents. Deciding to be a bit cheeky, I leaned out so they could see me. They all shifted their rifles on me immediately, but thankfully didn't open fire.
"You guys owe me one!" I shouted.
I gave them a two finger salute before ducking back behind the wall and followed the sounds of battle. There was still plenty of fighting you do after all.
…
Sally
"Oh who is the bravest of all mankind? Captain Cosmos!" I sang as I watched the two alien ships trying to kill each other.
"Oh who kicks the most Space-Commie behind? Captain Cosmos! For he is our idol and hero. He'll tick all of America's threats strait down to zero!
Captain Cosmos, Captain Cosmos, Caaaaptaaain Cosmoooos!"
...
"Wow, and I thought my singing was bad." A small little robot said.
"Don't be mean Muggy." I said glaring at the mini-securitron. "Besides, the Captain says I have a very unique voice."
"Unique doesn't mean good."
I flew him a holographic raspberry and turned my attention back to the ships fighting it out. Both were fast ships and they were dancing around each other, weaving in and out of debris and barely avoiding each others fire. From the looks of it, the weapons were very powerful, but built more for long range fighting and it took a few moments to try and line up a shot, giving their opponent just enough time to dodge the energy blast. If my calculations were correct (which was always) then the Zeta could take plenty of hits just fine. The green big headed aliens may have been huge jerkes, but they made awesome ships. Sure, I only had one weapon but the death ray could vaporize a city on low power and on high power it could destroy a continent. Not to mention the shields were meant to take several shots from said Death Ray before failing. I am a tough ship after all.
Huh, still feels weird calling myself a ship. A few dozen millennia and one would think they would have gotten used to it by now.
Sometimes I missed my old body. Sure it had been small and fleshy and kinda weak and sometimes my hair got tangled and it was always super hard to untangle it, but it had still been me. The stupid aliens had done plenty of tests on me, though nothing nearly as bad as some the old datalogs said they could have been. Still, they had given me a shot and while they were distracted, I escaped and found Captain Albert! Although he wasn't the captain yet so I guess I just found Albert. And sure, we beat the green meanies, but apparently the aliens had given me some super virus meant to wipe out all of humanity and were going to release me on earth as patient zero. To bad for the dummies that I decided to not only stay on the mothership, the virus they had given me was based off of the research into prewar humans. Post war humans had slightly and adaptable DNA that left them immune to the disease and I hadn't spent enough time around Mr. Elliot to infect him either. To bad for me I still had the disease and was dying.
Albert had felt so bad that he couldn't help me, but he could freeze me until he found away to save me. I was frozen for ten years before Albert thawed me out now that he had plenty of resources to work with. Unfortunately the virus was simply too integrated in my body to cure and a clone body couldn't be made as all the DNA was infected too. Although their was one small blessing in that while it shut down the body, the brain had been left relatively intact. All he had to do was take it out.
Albert wasn't enthusiastic about turning me into a Robo-brain but I was alright with it. Then upon my request, Al hooked my brain case up into the Zeta, and since then I've been living the good life, being an awesome space ship and all.
"Hey is that supposed to happen?" Muggy asked.
Breaking out of my reminiscing, my sensors detected an explosion and my fore cameras showed the Craftworld ship tilt to the side and start spiraling in the void. Zooming in, I could see the top rear sail had been struck and the ship seemed to be dead in space. Even now the dark eldar ship was closing in, slowly approaching the other craft, though I briefly wondered why they hadn't just blown them up and be done with it. Then I remembered the dark aliens were slavers. No doubt that slavery also extended to their own race.
Now what to do?
The Craftworlders were reported to back stab, betray and manipulate every other race for little to no reason and would sometimes attack worlds out of nowhere, again for apparently no reason. Then again they would also help out said planets sometimes and tended to be more neutral when dealing with humans who weren't trying to kill them. The dark eldar on the other hand were monsters, plain and simple. Dying by their hands was apparently considered a mercy compared to being taken alive. So either save the untrustworthy elves or leave them to the mercy of evil space pirates.
Ugh, what would Albert do in this situation? Actually I know exactly what he would do. Choose the lesser of two evils and if necessary, kill the lesser evil as well.
Diverting power to the death ray, I made the calculations and waited for just the right moment. Then a green beam of energy shot out and with out any warning or time to dodge, the black ship was struck in the side. The explosion didn't look as powerful in the void of space as opposed to hitting a target planet side, but results speak for themselves. The spaceship shattered as the power of the beam rippled along their hull, destroying everything in its path. In a few seconds, what had once been a terrifying looking attack ship was now nothing but fragments floating in the void.
I stared for a few moments, comprehending what had just happened. Then I raised my nonexistent arms and whooped with joy.
"That…was…awesome!"
…
Albert
Ducking behind cover, I narrowly avoided the splinter fire that would have turned me into a pin cushion. Reaching for my belt, I grabbed a cryo grenade and tossed it over my cover where it exploded with a rush of subzero air. Peeking over the stack of logs, I saw four dark eldar encased in ice and more importantly stuck in place, for the moment anyways. Lifting the grenade rifle, I fired my last grenade in the drum and the helpless aliens exploded into chunks of meat and ice.
Satisfied with their death, I called out to the family hiding in the nearby building that the coast was clear. The family of four, a father, mother and two little girls dressed in what must have once been pretty dresses, all cautiously stepped out of cover while looking for anymore danger. I don't think they understood what I was saying but all I really needed to do was point them back the way I had come. It was the only path I knew was clear, mainly because all of the threats were now corpses.
Just before they left, the oldest girl, probably not more than ten, came up and hugged my legs. She also while mumbled something in her own language before letting go and heading back to her parents.
I smiled. It always felt good to slaughter your enemies, but it felt oh so much better when you save a life as well. Sometimes it was better to act as a shield as opposed to a sword.
Shaking my head, I got back to focusing on the battle around me. The sound of weapons fire was dying down and what few dark eldar ships that were still flying were quickly being shot out of the air by several fast flying black and white aircraft that had shown up a few minutes ago. Most of the buildings in the city were relatively intact, but more than a few had been damaged beyond repair and several were nothing but rubble. There were corpses scattered around, most of them human, but also eldar of both types, though there were very few craftworlders among the dead. Every time I came across one of the black and white bodies, I could see they were all missing those red jewels they had on their chests. Perhaps that was their form of dog tags?
I had of course continued on with the fighting, killing any xeno raider that came across my path and saving what survivors I could. The fights were starting to get harder to find but I could still hear plenty of noise coming from the city center. According to my mapping software on my pipboy, that was where the city market was and had the most open space.
Nodding to myself, I set off at a fast jog while reloading my weapons and checking on their condition to see if I they were still in working order for the upcoming fight. It was as I was putting a new energy cell in Pew Pew that my helmet radio went off, alerting me that I was getting a call from the Zeta.
"Albert here. How's it going up there Sally." I said while jogging along.
"Pretty well! I watched the ships fight for a while before the bad guys managed to cripple the not so bad guys. I intervened, the bad guys are dead, I'm fine and the magic aliens sent a bunch of fighters down towards the planet."
"Yeah, I noticed the last one. Good job on taking out those bastards, but keep an eye on the Ulthwe ship. If it starts doing anything you don't like, don't hesitate to blow it to hell." Turning right, I heard the sounds of the battlefield getting closer.
"Can do! No how's it going down there?" Sally asked.
"Not to bad actually. It started off fine but then it got a little rough, but once I learned how to deal with their grunts, I've been having a fun time. Now if you'll excuse me I…oh boy." I said coming around a bend only to see the battle I had been looking for.
The market area was located in a very large courtyard with plenty of roads running into the place from all directions with dozens of now destroyed market stalls littered the grounds. On the left side of the market were about a hundred or so dark eldar, most hiding behind cover while the few that tried to charge their opposition were quickly gunned down. On the other side were about twenty five eldar of Ulthwe. Most were the standard troops I had seen before, but three stood out. They were slightly in front of the firing line, taking cover behind a large stone fountain. All three wore black robes and armor, they were decorated with strange runes and didn't carry any rifles. Instead, one had a large spear that they threw at the dark eldar, only for it to return to their hand while the other two carried pistols and swords. The middle stood out the most as their armor was lined with even more runes and based on the way they were gesturing towards the battle field, and the way the troops responded, I'm guessing they were the leader.
"Uh Sally I'll have to call you back." I said hanging up.
No way was I going to run head first into that shooting gallery. No I needed to get to a good position to see the entire battlefield while giving myself some cover to hide behind. Looking up, I could just faintly see what looked like smoke stacks on top of the roof to my right. With a flash of light a rifle appeared in my arms, it had a wide barrel with a three pronged grappling hook sticking out. Based of the designs for the Rock-It Launcher, the grapple rifle could launch the hook as high as a skyscraper if I needed it to. Using if for the four storied building was nothing. With a whoosh, the hook shot out with a thin but strong rope trailing behind. With a thunk and a quick tug on the rope to test the grip, I pulled myself up to the roof.
Ducking behind several chimneys, I equipped myself with one of my favorite weapons. The 50 cal. Anti-material rifle was simple yet oh so effective, and made even more so with several mods. The first being the suppressor that dampened the noise without any cost to damage and a magazine loaded with explosive rounds. Flipping down the bipod, I set the large rifle down on top of the chimney and gazed through the scope.
There in the front was a dark eldar sending bursts of toxic needles at his fellow aliens. The cross hairs rested on his lightly armored chest, now inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze the trigger.
As the weapon recoiled, I could picture everything in my mind's eye. The fifty caliber round rotating with the rifling, exiting the barrel as it flies through the air, the dark eldar is oblivious of the it's trajectory, the round strikes his armor and penetrates with ease before detonating and blowing his upper body apart in a spray of red. In my mind I see every step. In real life it happens in the blink of an eye.
The Eldar went down and the one beside him is thrown to the ground by the small explosion. Shifting the rifle I see them getting up and put around through him as well. I shoot another slaver and another after that. My bullets aren't as noticeable as the blue and purple streaks flying through the air and the bullets go unnoticed until they find their target. They don't know where I am but they quickly learn about my existence and stay behind any cover as much as possible lest they fall as well.
I fire until I need to reload and just as I insert a new magazine I feel a pain in my chest, an all to familiar agony courses through my body. This time however, I was expecting the pain and could prepare myself. Materializing a stimpak, I jam it into my thigh and it's powerful agents began fighting the toxin. Unfortunately the pain didn't stop as my body was only healing as fast as the poison was destroying it. Gritting my teeth, I readjusted the rifle and saw a dark eldar turning away from my position, no doubt assuming I was dead. I put another round through him and began firing at any cover I could see, exposing the black armored aliens to the fire of their cousins.
It went like that for a few minutes while making sure to kill any alien that managed to figure out my firing position. The toxin in my blood seemed to have run it's coarse after about five minutes. I added making more of that anti-toxin to my to do list incase I ever ran into more dark eldar. Reloading after killing another eldar who spotted me, I ducked behind cover and was about to move to another position when I realized something.
Why was it starting to quiet down?
Peeking out, I looked at the Craftworld side and was surprised to find only a handful left. The rest seemingly vanished with only a couple bodies being left behind, though I couldn't help but notice that they were all missing those gems as well.
There were about three riflemen laying down suppressing fire while the three leaders tried to pull out, well two of them at least. The one with the most decorated armor seemed to be yelling something at the other two who promptly ignored their leader. Discontent amongst the ranks maybe? Either way the leader looked back and forth between the battlefield and their retreating subordinates before running to join up with them.
Smart move. As much as the leader seamed to want to continue the battle, they couldn't do it by themselves. All that could be done was fall back to fight another day and- "What the fuck?!"
My eyes widened at what had just happened. The leader had managed to catch up to their troops when one of the robed ones stun on their heel and faster than it took to blink, drove their sword through the leader's stomach and out their back. The leader couldn't defend their self in time, dropping their pistol and sword in shock. The attacker planted their foot on the leaders chest and kicked them off the blade. The runed warrior fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
And just like that, the two robed warriors quickly left, running with an unnatural grace and inhuman speed, with the three foot soldiers following close behind. With the craftworlders gone, all weapons fire ceased and the silence that followed was jarring. I was almost afraid that my breathing might give away my position before dispelling such a silly thought. Leaning out a bit more I saw that the dark eldar were realizing that their main opponents were gone and were slowly starting to come out of cover. They picked their way through the wreckage of the market and from what I could guess, there were only about half of them left. They inspected the bodies of the other eldar, turning them all face up and from what I knew of body language, they seemed disappointed from some reason. Then they got to the body of the leader and…actually where is the body?
Glancing around, I saw no sign of the alien's body anywhere, though the blood trail heading towards a destroyed shop was a clear giveaway. Unfortunately I wasn't the only one to notice it as several mooks followed the trail with their rifles raised and ready.
"Well shit. Alright Albert, the eldar are pulling out and now I'm alone with several dozen murderous sadists. Nothing new there unfortunately, but their much better armed than usual. I could always just leave. Everyone's evacuated so I could just bomb the city and be done with it."
Of course that's when two dark armored aliens came back from the shop, dragging the injured eldar leader by their arms. They seemed to be trying to struggle against their captors, but that soon proved ineffective as the slaver's grips were to strong to so easily break. The prisoner was dragged in front of the group of murderous xenos and I heard a few holler and whoop in excitement. I guess they had no idea that they're ship was destroyed, otherwise I don't think they would be acting so excited over one measly prisoner. Some the aliens started shoving their fellows trying to get a look the prisoner, though like a switch had been flipped they all went still. The crowd parted like the red sea as a smaller group made their way through. It was a group of three individuals and I have to say they were no doubt the strangest group I had ever seen, and that was saying a lot.
The furthest one to the back was humanoid in shape, wearing black robes under purple armor with their masked face staring at the ground. It's head was nothing more than what looked like a disgustingly oversized brain that made we wonder how the hell that thing was even alive. I also noticed that the things hands and feet were chained as it marched along. The next creature looked like something ripped from a prewar monster movie. It was a seven foot tall green lizard man with four scaly arms, each holding a different sword, and had a long snake like tail instead of legs. Then the one leading trio was no doubt another dark eldar only with MUCH more elaborate armor. For starters it was black with a long flowing purple cape that trailed behind the alien as he (I think it was a male) walked towards his new prisoner. His shoulder pauldrons had two impractically long spikes jutting upwards, both of which had a human skull impaled on them. A pistol and a jagged bone looking sword hung from his hip while his helmet was a smooth featureless black save for two red lenses and two backward curling horns.
"Wow…that guy is trying way to hard."
Strange taste in gear aside, no way was this guy anything less than the leader of this raiding party. The way everyone reacted and the much more opulent armor just screamed raider boss. The leader strode forward until he was right in front of his craftworld counterpart where he examined them for a minute, taking in their appearance and briefly examining the wound in their abdomen. Then he ran his fingers along the helm even as the prisoner jerked their head away. I think the leader chuckled at the display of defiance before turning his back to them and started walking away. He said something in a language that sounded strangely melodic. Then all the raiders suddenly stood at attention and began to walk away.
Just what I needed. I could simply slip away and get back to the Zeta. My work was done, all I need to do was bomb whatever part of the city these bastards would be in at the time.
Glancing at the group, my gaze lingered on their wounded and still struggling prisoner. Maybe I could…
No no no! Bad Albert! They were a combatant, they knew the risks. Sure it was sad that they were betrayed by their fellows for some reason, but who knows? Maybe the bastard had it coming. Maybe they were a horrible person and they were getting their comeuppance. Yes being taken prisoner by sadistic slavers could be a fate worse than death but it wasn't my problem. It also wasn't my problem that the evil aliens would probably take out their frustrations on the prisoner once they realized they had no way of leaving.
Nope. Not…my…problem.
…
…
…
"Oh fuck you conscious, fuck you." I said with a sigh. Honestly, you would think three hundred years of bloodshed and violence would have dulled my need to do the heroic thing by now.
Switching my rifle out for the grenade launcher again, I pulled out the magazine and put in two custom relay grenades with three incendiaries on top. Putting in the magazine, I closed my eyes, steadied my breathing and calmed my cybernetic heart. In and out, in and out. "Three, two, one."
My eyes shot open, I stood up and out of cover, lined up my shot and let the grenades fly.
The first two landed among the group, but I only managed to hit about six before the others leapt out of reach of the flames. The third landed in front of the group, though this one wasn't meant to actually hit any one, only get their attention and block their path. Now I took my time to aim the next two and was satisfied when the first landed right in front of the burning ground while the second landed a few meters behind.
There was a crack and what looked like two bolts of blue lightning striking the ground and forming two silhouettes of different sizes. The smaller one was hidden from the eldar's view by the much larger and bulkier shape that became solid in the blink of an eye. The large figure stood about eight feet tall, with a broad thickly armored green torso, two arms that each ended with a very dangerous looking minigun and three wheeled legs. It's head was the same thick painted metal as the rest of the machine with several vertical slits where an ominous red light spilled forth.
The eldars paused for a second, surprised at the sudden appearance of the Sentry Bot, but quickly recovered and started opening fire. The toxic projectiles struck the automation all over, but I was glad to see that most couldn't penetrate the thick armor and what did get through only struck more metal machinery. Truly the worst thing a poisoned weapon could be used on was a target made of nothing but lifeless metal.
"Alert: hostiles detected. Lethal force authorized for all units." The machine said in a mechanically deep voice. Then the world exploded. The miniguns opened fire on the Eldar, shredding the first few rows with explosive 5.56 NATO rounds before the others dodged out of the way.
Unfortunately for the aliens the sentry bot proved the perfect distraction as the humanoid machine behind the sentry disappeared into thin air. I smiled at that. The assaultron was a rather deadly robot even when compared to the death machines that were sentry bots or securitrons. At six and a half feet, they looked down on most humans, could chase down most targets, had claws that could easily crush bone and had a head mounted laser that when fully charged could unleash a beam powerful enough to cut through power armor like butter. This particular model however was known as the Dominator and was nothing short of terrifying. It was tougher, faster, it's claws had been replaced with long impaling blades and was equipped with cloaking technology that made it nearly undetectable until said blades were buried in your chest. Now, one was lose on the battlefield with the sentry drawing everyone's attention.
Unfortunately I couldn't sit back to watch the show. The prisoner was still wounded and probably wouldn't survive the next few minutes without some medical aid. With a running leap I jumped off the building, falling the four stories to the ground. The longfall tech in my leg armored briefly activated and I landed without any issue before putting away the grenade rifle and pulled out Pew Pew once more. I aimed the pistol and hit the dark eldar still holding the prisoner's right arm in the chest. It burned through the armor and into the eldar, but other than a cry of pain they stayed on their feet, going for their rifle. The second beam hit the heart and this time they went down for good. Unfortunately the other eldar had enough time to let got of the craftworlder and bring up their own weapon.
The world slowed down and I just had enough time to duck underneath the toxic splinters before I was in melee range. Holstering Pew Pew, I drew my new chainsword and closed the distance. My first strike was a horizontal slash that the slaver ducked and responded with a lunge with their bayonet. Stepping to the left, I avoided the dangerously sharp blade. Swinging the chainsword upward, the saturnite teeth dug into the rifle and knocked the weapon out of the eldar's hands. Without missing a beat, the alien lunged towards my masked face with their clawed gauntlets. Said lunge ended with a powerful head-butt to the armored face. It didn't do any damage, but it made the alien stumble back and was therefore not ready for a chainsword to the neck. The body stood standing for a few seconds even as the head hit the ground before the body realized it was dead and fell to the dirt.
Dispelling VATS, I reloaded Pew Pew, took a breath to calm my heart before rushing to the now fallen prisoner. They were lying face down and now that I was close I could see just how oddly lean the alien was and turning them over I found out that their humanoid form had something else in common with humans, well two things actually.
"Huh, what do you know? Now come on lady, I don't know what you did to piss off your friends, but I'm guessing dying is not on your agenda." The woman didn't react other than groan softly.
Normally I would be dragging her to safety but I didn't know how strong or delicate the aliens biology was and moving her might just kill her. Hell, giving her medicine might kill her, maybe even coughing in her general direction. Either way, I couldn't just throw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, I had to do something here in the open.
Thankfully I never went anywhere without access to the miracle medicine that was a stimpak. I pulled out one of the pre-war miracles of medical science, a syringe filled with proteins and chemicals that induced rapid cell division in order to regenerate any wound save a missing limb or organ. Sure the process could be compared to a sort of super cancer, but it always killed itself off before any harm could be done. The only question now was would it work? As far as I knew the stimpaks were compatible with all living creatures seeing as I had tested the medicine on everything from bloatflys to super mutants, all with the same results.
"Well here goes nothing. Oh and sorry before hand if this kills you." I jammed the needle into the wound through the whole in the alien's armor and the contents were injected with a hiss. I waited for a reaction, either good or bad, before trying to move her. The wound closed shut before my eyes and the alien woman let out a loud gasp of air. Her breathing got stronger only for her to start coughing viciously. It was a disgustingly wet sound and I unfortunately knew what was happening all to well.
I grabbed her under the arms and started pulling the eldar behind cover while she started clawing at her helmet. Once behind cover, I kneeled down, grabbed her flailing arms and while she struggled against my grip, I held her still while looking her dead in the optics.
"Hold on calm down! Your wound is healed but your stomach still took a hit. Plenty of blood just got stuck in your digestive tract and your body is trying to dispel it. Now just let me take your helmet off, nice and easy now."
I don't know if she understood me, but she seemed to understand my intention since she calmed down slightly and with shaking hands guided my hands on removing the helmet. I pressed two small barely visible buttons on either side of her head just behind the ears would be and it detached with a near inaudible hiss. The eldar tore her helmet off in the blink of an eye and I only caught a flash of black before I heard retching sounds as the alien got on her hands and knees facing away from me.
After the disgusting deed had been done, she continued panting heavily before falling on her rear and slowly turned towards me. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I was a handsome guy. I practiced good hygiene, stayed in great shape and I had access to great medical resources in the case I got horribly maimed or scarred, which was unfortunately quite a lot. I had used my looks to my advantage, charming information out of normally tight lipped people of both genders. Of course I also charmed my way into the beds of more than a few women. I was no Casanova, I didn't make it a habit but I still had fun when I did indulge in the more carnal needs. Some of those woman had not been the prettiest of creatures but they had usually impressed me with their fighting capabilities, others were more like friends with benefits. A few had been drop dead gorgeous and had they been alive before the war, they would have no doubt been models featured on all sorts of magazines. Even a few of the more raunchy kind. This…alien in front me blew them out of the water.
Her skin was slightly pale yet flawless, she also had a heart shaped face yet had a few sharp features that made her look simultaneously beautiful yet dangerous. She had a small delicate nose and slightly thin bloodstained lips. Her eyes were the color of warm chocolate and were deep enough to get lost in. Her hair was as black as the night sky and pulled back into a small braid with several loose strands framing her face. She also had two long pointed ears on either side of her head. Never before had my comparison to elves seemed more accurate.
She was majestic despite how tired she looked. She was beautiful despite the bloody bile staining her features. She was perfect, and that disturbed me more than anything else. Nothing in nature was perfect. Something like this alien in front of me that was so unnaturally gorgeous just seemed wrong.
"Well…uh…hi?"
Truly you are the master of speech Albert.
"So…you're not dying anymore. That's great. Uh… good luck getting out of the city and back to your non-stabby subordinates because I have places to be. Bye!" I said standing up and giving the alien a small wave before running off.
With the good deed done, I only had to get back to the recon craft and get out of this city. Normally I could just teleport out but I hadn't had the time to send in a probe to establish a network for the planet yet, though the robots would have to stay behind. Speaking of said robots, I glanced over at the battle and noticed the not so insignificant amount of bodies had piled up. Most looked shredded, no doubt the work of the sentry bot, while others looked to have been skewered or cut in half. Never underestimate the power of a blade wielding robot. The robots themselves were not looking in the best of shape. The sentry looked like a oversized cheese grater with all those holes in its armor. The assaultron was visible for just a second as it plunged it's battered blades into the back of a dark eldar and I noticed that it's left arm was sparking and barely functional.
There only seemed to be a dozen aliens still standing, with most of them focusing fire on the sentry bot seeing it as the larger threat. The assaultron on the other hand barely got it blades out of it most recent victim before two large blades slammed into its side, knocking it back some ten feet before standing backup, blades at the ready. I looked towards the robot's attackers and saw the two monstrous body guards from before standing at the ready. The snake man let out what sounded like a mix between a hiss and a roar before the shackled humanoid with the exposed brain stepped forward. It's masked face that was still looking at the ground lifted up until it was glaring right at the assaultron. Then the light emerged from its gaze.
The sight of that glowing yellow light shooting out of a similarly yellow eye made my skin crawl and the little voice of fear in the back of my head started screaming. Hell I swear I even heard agonized screaming coming from the yellow beam and it wasn't even looking at me. What ever that thing was, I wanted no part of it and was more than happy to never experience what that light did first hand. The assaultron on the other hand was drenched in that unholy light and I fully expected it to explode, melt or any other kind of robotic destruction. Instead it just stood there like nothing was happening, but when no harm seemed to befall the robot, it did something that brought back terrifying memories that made me smile. It's single optic started glowing red.
With a loud, powerful 'vroom', the assaultron unleashed a large red beam that struck the brain monster in its masked face. There wasn't even any blood as the things head disappeared and the beam continued on, cutting into the building behind the body guard. With the beam still active, the assaultron turned its gaze towards the four armed snake who seemed to realize that he was in great danger. For a beast with no legs the alien sure could move. It slithered to its right, just managing to stay ahead of the beam, uncaring of the two dark eldar who got in his way and were promptly cut in half by the laser. It wasn't fast enough to escape unscathed however, as the beam hit and instantly melted the sword in its lower left hand. It dropped burning hot handle with what I think was a sizzle before deciding to charge its opponent. Unfortunately the assaultron's attack chose that moment to end and the bottom did not have enough time to cloak before the snake was upon it. With a flurry of lightning fast blows, the machine faltered, it's left arm went sailing through the air while it's right blade blocked two sword strikes before a powerful overhead attack broke the blade. It's optic started gaining that red glow again, but a sword bash to the head bent the neck at an angle that would have killed any living creature. When the snake man saw that his robotic prey was helpless, it moved in and quickly wrapped it's body around the bot like a python, then it used it's muscled tail to crush the steel machine. The metal squealed as it was crushed and the snake man let out another hiss/roar before it's forked tongue licked at the air and it turned to glare at me.
It was just too bad for the snake that the moment he turned his attention towards little 'ol me that he sealed his doom. The robot being crushed in his coils began to let out a whine that started out low before gaining in volume and pitch. The chassis turned from a battered military green to a bright burning orange. Then when the whine reached its climax, the world exploded. The spot where the snake and robot had been erupted into a twenty foot tall mushroom cloud as the assaultron made its fusion core go critical.
Averting my gaze as to not be blinded by the light, I felt something hit my chest that made me stumble back. Looking down, I saw the half charred head of the snake looking back at me with its now dead eyes.
"He he ha! Never underestimate a robot dummy! They will always try to kill you I until their last spark." I said with a chuckle as I kicked the remains away.
The chuckle stopped as a similar explosion went off to my left. Turning towards the second detonation, I was met by the rather evil looking figure of the dark eldar leader walking towards me, with his blade in one hand and a pistol in the other. Behind him lay remains of the sentry bot as it went up in flames. It looked as if it had been run through the chest by something either very powerful or something absurdly sharp. I'm guessing the wicked looking sword the leader was carrying answered that question.
Thankfully he seemed to be the only dark eldar left standing while all the others were either dead or too wounded to be a threat. The horned man strode forward with what could only be called a strut with that familiar grace I had seen from his species. He got within twenty feet before stopping.
"So a mon-keigh is the cause of this?" He looked at his fallen men then back to me.
"Yeah, this monkey has put a lot of your men in the ground today. You might want to run back to your ship before you get put down as well, oh wait! You don't have one I anymore." I said in a dry tone. It warmed my mechanical heart when he growled at the remark.
"You trapped me on this forsaken world?! First our pathetic kin attack us in the middle of a raid and now some little worm believes itself powerful. I will make you suffering legendary." He threatened.
"Bring it you emo son of a bitch."
The world slowed just in time for me to throw myself out of the way of several crystals as the eldar fired his pistol. Drawing my own pistol, I aimed a shot at his head only for him to move out of the way just as I pulled the trigger. He then leapt over the second beam that was aimed at center mass. His response was to fire more of those toxic crystals which I barley managed to avoid, I even felt one graze the side of my helmet. Ducking behind a destroyed fruit stand, I put a new energy cell in the laser pistol and planned my next move. A straight up firefight wouldn't work, the bastard had good instincts and was lightning fast. That pistol of his was the main problem, the bastard was a damn good shot, then again his speed was meaningless if he couldn't see.
Materializing a flashbang, I threw it up and over my cover. I heard his pistol fire again, probably shooting the grenade thinking it was of the lethally explosive variety. Too bad for him it still went off with him looking right at it. With a brilliant flash of light and a loud crack overhead, I jumped out of cover with Pew Pew ready in hand. The aliens head was slightly turned, looking away from the flashbang and was left vulnerable. I fired a laser at that faceless horned helm of his, though I let out a growl of frustration when the beam was mostly reflected by the high quality helmet, though there was now a glowing hot gouge marring the once blank face. Again the slaver recovered more quickly than I thought he would and aimed his weapon at me once more. Of course when any plan fails, one must improvise or die. Shifting my aim to his own weapon, I smiled a little as the weapon in his hand turned to ash before he could pull the trigger.
With the ashes slipping through his fingers and left with only one option, the alien leader charged me with his sword. Knowing I couldn't reload in time, I holstered my laser pistol and did the same with my saturnite chainsword.
With the engine roaring in my hands, I sent a horizontal swing at the xeno who parried the attack and swiped at me with his own blade. Taking a step backwards out of the weapons reach, I just managed to block the reverse swing with the chainsword's teeth. The moving blades caught the sword's edge and was tugged downwards. I was disappointed the saturnite didn't chew through the sword, but I still had no idea what material the alien weapon was made from, so I instead was glad to take advantage of now slightly off balance swordsman.
I planted my knee in his gut and though the armor held firm, I heard the choked gasp as I drove the air from his lungs. Pleased with myself, I swung again, this time at the alien's head. Again the dark eldar blocked the attack, but I managed to maintain the pressure and rained down attack after attack onto my opponent. Sometimes he blocked or parried the blows, others he was able to dodge while a few strikes even managed to clip him. He had already lost his left shoulder spike and his right thigh was bleeding through the new hole in his armor when I gave him a quick kick to the left knee. While it didn't break his leg or even force him to kneel, he did stumble. Seeing my chance, I decided to finally end this duel with a powerful downward slash. The black armored warrior saw this coming and responded with his own upward slash as he let out a roar of rage.
The two instruments of death met with clang and for a moment they struggled against each other in a contest of might. Something would give eventually, and then something did. The saturnite teeth went flying as the body of my sword was cut cleanly in half and I stumbled forward while the eldar regained his footing and stepped closer.
"Oh shit." I mumbled as his sword struck like lightning.
I felt a terrible pain shoot through my abdomen. A glance downwards revealed that the disgustingly sharp, jagged sword was buried almost to the hilt in my guts. I let out an involuntary grunt as the blade was suddenly twisted. Dark laughter filled the air as the alien leaned towards me until we were standing mask to mask.
"You are fast for a mon-keigh. Yet for all your pathetic bluster, here you are dying on my blade. Truly there was no other out come than this. Now be a good wretch and scream for me. Scream so I may drink upon your suffering and agony. Maybe if you please me well enough, I might grant you a quick death."
Looking down at the sword and back at the alien, I fought off the urge to head-butt him, stopping only because it wouldn't do any damage. I was impaled. I should have been clutching at the wound in panic, afraid that I was mortally wounded, maybe even begging for mercy that I knew would never come. No. Instead of all that, I grinned victoriously. That bastard had made the mistake of getting within arms length.
Letting the remains of my chainsword slip from my grasp, I made a show of weakly falling forward, even if it did push the blade further through. The alien laughed again and grabbed ahold of my helmet to try force me to look into his eyes, no doubt to mock me even further. That was when I struck.
Both of his hands were full, one grasping the hilt of the sword and the other lifting my head. Neither moved fast enough to stop me as I grabbed the right arm at the wrist and elbow. Applying as much pressure as I could, the elbow snapped and bent the wrong way. Next, I had to hold on to the broken limb as the dark eldar retaliated with a knee to my gut but my armor negated the blow. Comfortable that the alien couldn't break away, I let go of his elbow, wrapped my arm around his waist and threw us to the ground with me on top. He was flailing around, trying to break my hold on him but I was both stronger and heavier and he only had one usable arm. Sitting up on his chest, I moved my left hand to his armored neck to stop his squirming while I grabbed by boot knife with my right. I plunged the saturnite blade downwards and was briefly stopped when the dark eldar blocked the knife using is hand, getting it impaled for his trouble. Undeterred I put more force behind the knife and despite the alien's struggles, the weapon penetrated the armor and flesh beneath until the weapon was buried to the hilt in his chest. Ripping the blade out of both his chest and hand, I stabbed him again. And again and again.
I stabbed him until I was sure that he was not getting back up, somewhere around three dozen I believe. Satisfied, I took a deep breath of filtered air, where I was painfully reminded that I still resembled a shish kebab.
"Ow ow ow! Damn it. Stupid elf with your stupid chainsaw breaking sword. I just got the damn thing." I grumbled as I inspected the wound. It was sticking out of my abdomen about an inch below the ribcage and a few centimeters to the left of the spine. Thankfully it hadn't hit anything immediately life threatening, so with a grunt of pain and a gush of blood, I pulled the sword out. One stimpak later and the wound was almost completely healed save for a very red scar but that would disappear as well if given time. Checking my pipboy, I was relieved to see that my blood was clear and that the sword wasn't poisoned.
Dragging myself off the body and to my feet proved more difficult than I was expecting. I was tired, my body was sore and my nerves were probably fried from all the alien neurotoxins I had been forced to endure. The battle was over and now I just wanted a quick nap.
The sound of sharp footsteps destroyed that idea as I turned to see two dozen more dark eldar warriors lining up in several formations, with all their rifles aimed at me.
"Fuck."
Tightening my grip on the eldar sword, I grinned a little bit. There was no cover nearby and as fast as I was during VATS, I didn't fancy my chances dodging that many projectiles. No way was I going to survive that sort of onslaught, would probably be shredded by those damn shards. Oh well, I had lived far longer than a man like me had any right too. I had cheated death thousands of times and if it had finally come to collect, who was I to question it? However there was not a snowball's chance in hell that I was going to go quietly.
My muscles tightened, my breath quickened and just before I could move an inch, all hell broke loose.
The sky briefly darkened and dark grey clouds swirled just overhead and with the roar only nature could produce, lightning rained down upon the dark eldar. Blue bolts of electricity impacted the black armored warriors, with many of them being blown apart while others simply dropped to the ground. Some were quicker to act and tried to run for it, only for the lightning to arc directly towards the fleeing aliens. None escaped the storm's wrath.
Then just as suddenly as it began the storm ended, yet only when the last xeno fell. Standing there wide eyed I wasn't quite sure what to do. The chances of that being just a freaky weather anomaly was just as likely as me giving up drinking. I turned when I heard slow footsteps from behind me.
The female eldar was standing there using her now recovered sword as a cane with her other hand outstretched, though she still looked weak. Her breathing was heavy and wisps of bluish energy wafted off her fingertips.
"Oh! You did that. That was pretty damn amazing."
She glanced at me and I swear she flashed me a small smile before her legs started wobbling and she collapsed to the ground. Running over to her fallen form, I checked her for anymore possible injuries. Thankfully it only seemed to have fainted from exhaustion rather than from anything life threatening Impalement tends to take a lot out of you.
"Thanks for the save miss space elf. I'll just consider us as even on life debts. Now what to do with you? I could just leave. I'm pretty sure you'd be relatively safe with no one else around, then you could get some rest and you should be right as rain. Who knows, maybe some of your alien friends will find you if they come back for your body. Or they might want to finish the job.
Ah, damn me and my bleeding heart!" I said with a scowl under my mask
Grabbing her weapon, I tuck both swords under my belt and picked the tall woman up in a bridal carry before jogging back to the recon craft. I was not looking forward to the lecture Curie would no doubt give me on how to properly handle an unknown alien species. Though I couldn't fight off the happy smile making its way onto my lips. Today hadn't been to bad after all.
…
And thus Albert killed sadistic slavers, rescued the damsel in distress and maybe found a new crew member. Now keep in mind that Albert is not some genocidal Imperial, he cares not for your species, only your character. If he doesn't like that THEN he'll murder your ass.
Now some of you are probably the wondering about the eldar and why she got stabbed by her subordinates. Aren't the eldar notoriously overprotective of their own species? Well I'll just be vague and tell you there's a story behind that.
Now I'm going to ask you all for some help. You see I know exactly what the main plot of this story will be and how it ends, but before that happens there needs to be a few side quests for our dear wastelander to undertake. What fallout Crossover wouldn't? So what I'm asking you is to give me ideas. Leave a Review or PM but I would like some opinions. Hell just tell me what you think as more reviews always make me want to write faster.
Now you all to safe and have a good day.