Helloooooo everybody! Hope you all have been doing good. Here is another chapter for you guys. I've been loving the reviews you've been giving me, Keep them coming.

Reviews:

Caesar35: Thanks for the support man, really appreciate it.

Oddliver: Nope

CyberJordan: Thank you. I'm glad you like the betrayal of Talon Company. Plus these warriors are pretty vicious, but they'll get what's coming.

Guest: Thanks!

Chazzen01: Yep things have been hectic.

shamedwolf34: Thanks, and thanks. I was wondering when someone was going to guess my name.

Chapter 4: Unfinished Business

Sniper's Nest Outside of Grayditch: June 9, 4:16 A.M.

Everything was calm and quiet in the Capital Wasteland. The sounds of gunfire echoing across the horizon had ceased and it seemed as if it was completely void of life…except for a group of power armored soldiers spying on the refugee camp at Grayditch.

"Warrior Three this is Warrior Two. We're in position and have a visual on the target." The commander spoke into his radio.

"Roger that Warrior Two. Be advised, Marshes wants this one alive. What you do with the rest of them is up to you."

"Copy that."

The five soldiers were lying in wait to capture the Lone Wanderer. These soldiers were the elite of the elite. They made the Enclave Hellfire troopers look like a bunch of raiders, but today, they were about to learn what happens when you mess with the Brotherhood.

"How're we gonna let this play out?" The radio officer asked.

"Once they get to the Anchorage War Memorial, Warrior Three will ambush them from the front and we box them in from behind. Just watch your fire. We need him alive."

"Yes sir. They won't know what hit'em."

"You sure about that?" A new voice came popped up. All five soldiers whipped around to see who was there but saw no one.

"Who said that?"

They were only met with silence. The radio officer was reaching for his plasma rifle until he was met with a combat knife being jammed into the back of his neck, followed by a gauss charge decapitating the soldier next to him. The soldiers were overtaken by confusion as they began firing their plasma rifles in all directions. A second gauss charge penetrated through the chest plate of the commander's power armor. The two remaining soldiers tried dragging their commander away, but didn't make it far as bolts of plasma slammed into them from behind.

A barely alive commander tried reaching for his plasma defender. As he grabbed the energy sidearm it was kicked from his hand and was met with an unknown figure deactivating the stealth field on his armor. A second figure appeared with a gauss rifle pointed at the commander's head. "Who are you with? The Enclave?" The stealth soldier shouted.

The commander laughed mockingly before responding. "Do you honestly think we'd be a part of those spineless bureaucrats?"

"Then who are you with?"

"Who I'm with is not important." The commander was nearing death as he started gasping for air. "What's important (Gasp) is that (Gasp) our empire (Gasp) will rise." With that, he took his last breath.

The stealth soldier took off the commander's power helmet and checked for a pulse, but was disappointed when he didn't find one. He sighed in frustration while the other soldier stepped in front of him, looking down at the refugee camp. "Gallows, we have to warn Eric." He turned to see that the Pride's Spec Ops officer vanished. "Gallows?" Kodiak realized he must've activated the stealth field on his armor. "Fuck I hate it when he does that." He said to no one in particular.

Grayditch: June 9, 2279. 4:20 A.M.

Eric and Jericho came back to the camp after taking in the view of a demolished Megaton. "Donovan!" The Rangers lead Technical Specialist turned to face him. "Tell Gob to give you and your engineers a round of whiskey. Put it on my tab."

"Thanks." The Ranger said, feeling proud of the work he and his team accomplished.

Eric walked over to the former vault residents to see how they were all doing now that they were no longer living in Vault 101. Most of them were just as scared as Eric was when he first left the vault. Some of them were handling it better than the others. His brow furrowed when he noticed someone was missing. "Where's Amata?"

Alphonse pointed to her standing by Doctor Lesko's shack. "She said she wanted to be left alone."

Eric chose to ignore Alphonse's words and went over to his closest childhood friend. "You alright?"

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, but quickly looked back down and shook her head.

"You wanna talk?"

Amata turned to face him. "Look, I know you came over here. You're still mad at me for exiling you from the vault and I understand that you're mad."

"Amata…"

"No, Eric let me finish! If you're still angry with me and don't want anything to do with me, then I understand, but please understand that I felt it was the right thing to do at the time and I thought that things would be better in the vault. Now I know it was wrong and if you wanna yell at me, go ahead and get it off your chest. If you don't want anything to do with me then I'll leave you alone."

Eric's mouth was agape after he heard those last sentences clearly. "Are you finished?"

She nodded.

"Good, because I'm not mad at you."

Amata didn't think she heard right. "Yo-You're not?" She asked in disbelief.

"No! So do you think you can stop your rambling for a bit and let me talk?" Now that Eric had her undivided attention, he explained to her. "At first I was mad at you for a while. I understand why you did what you had to do. I still wish you hadn't done it in the first place. I'll admit, I never thought you would actually exile me from the vault, so you kinda did catch me off guard on that one."

Amata looked down in shame.

"Eventually I realized I just couldn't stay mad at you." He ended the statement with a smile.

Amata returned a smile of her own, feeling a little relieved, but still doubtful. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes." He pulled her into a tight hug, alleviating the rest of her fears.

She whispered into his ear. "I missed you Eric."

Eric swore his heart did a backflip when she said that. "I missed you too."

"I'm so sorry for making you leave the vault. Can you ever forgive me?" She asked wanting to hear the words from him.

"Already done that a long time ago." He replied. Eric suddenly realized something was off and broke the embrace. "Go back to the others and tell Jericho to get over here!" Amata looked at him curiously, but he spoke before she could ask. "I'll explain later, now hurry!"

Amata ran over to the group and sent Jericho to Eric. "Da fuck you want kid?" The former raider asked with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Have you seen Lesko anywhere?" Jericho raised an eyebrow at the name. Eric pointed to the shack. "Egghead?"

"Ohhhh…" Jericho finally remembering who Eric was talking about. "Nope. Haven't seen him kid. Why?"

Eric knocked on Lesko's door. "Lesko….Lesko?" When no response came, he drew his M-16 and slowly opened the door. Jericho quickly followed suit and pulled out his marksman carbine. They kicked in the door and both stepped inside the shack only to find it empty. "You up for a subway check?" Eric asked.

Jericho winced at the mention of the subway. "The last time we went down in dat hellhole, we almost got cooked by a hundred fuckin' fire ants."

"What's the matter Jericho? Scared of a few ants?"

Jericho reached over and grabbed Eric by the collar. "I ain't fuckin' scared of nothin'! GOT IT?!" Jericho spat.

Eric smirked. "Then let's quit wasting time and get a move on for God's sake." He said releasing himself from Jericho's grip as he walked out of the house.

Every one of the vault residents turned to the two walking out of Lesko's shack with confused looks on their faces. Eric retrieved Butch, Harkness, and Dogmeat and went off towards Marigold Station.

Marigold Metro Station: June 9, 2279. 4:27 A.M.

The group made their way through the maze of collapsed subway tunnels to find Doctor Lesko.

When they passed by a specific room, an amusing memory came back to Jericho's mind. "Hey kid, remember when we found dat safe that had th-"

"AHHHHHH, DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" Eric interrupted, feeling the embarrassment hit him like a ton of bricks. He really hoped he would find something cool to find in that safe, but all he ended up with was a pair of naughty nightwear and a raider willing to kill him over it. Jericho didn't do anything to suppress his laughter at Eric's discomfort while Butch and Harkness just looked at the two weirdly. The same thought crossed their minds. 'What happened the last time they were down here?'

Flashback: Marigold Metro Tunnels, August 27, 2277. 2:18 P.M.

"Dis fuckin' sucks kid." Jericho was ranting and raving about Eric's decision to find the source of the fire ants and put an end to the menacing insects.

Eric rolled his eyes at every statement Jericho made. He was getting tired of him whining. Weren't raiders supposed to be tough and not complain? "Jericho, quit your bitching and man the fuck up already!" The venom in Eric's voice sealed Jericho's lips quicker than expected.

Upon searching the rooms, the duo came across one with a locked safe in it. Three broken bobby pins later, Eric managed to crack the lock on the safe. Once the door was open Jericho got impatient. "Well, what's in it?"

Eric pulled out a woman's set of naughty nightwear. Eric was too embarrassed to say anything and Jericho just burst into laughter. They were both brought back to the real world when they heard a gun click.

The two turned to find a lone raider aiming an assault rifle at them. "I'm only gonna say this once. Give me the naughty nightwear!" The man demanded.

Eric and Jericho both looked at each other then back at the man. "Who are you?" They said in unison.

The raider growled in frustration and raised his gun at Eric. "That's it. I warned you!" He squeezed the trigger, but it didn't fire. Jericho took advantage of this opportunity and unloaded his Chinese assault rifle into the man.

After the raider's lifeless body hit the floor, the two just stood there with blank looks on their faces and an awkward silenced filled the room until Eric spoke. "Did that really just happen?"

Jericho nodded, still not believing that it did. As a raider he saw some pretty weird things out in the wastes, but this pretty much won the award.

"Let's never bring this up again."

Jericho chuckled. "No promises on that one kid."

(End of Flashback)

On arrival to Lesko's lab, they knew something was up the moment Dogmeat started growling. "What's wrong boy?" Eric asked. That's when he saw the group of fire ant soldiers trying to burn a hole through the lab door. Only problem was, these weren't the same fire ants that Eric faced two years ago. The carapace on these ants was a red-green color and their mandibles were spewing blue fire. They turned their attention to Eric and the others and went into a frenzied state. Eric raised his M-16 and fired a couple rounds into the lead ant's head. Its body immediately went limp and to everyone's surprise, exploded sending balls of flames everywhere.

"HOLY SHIT!" Jericho shouted as he dodged the fire raining towards him. "WHAT DA HELL HAS EGGHEAD BEEN FEEDIN' THESE BASTARDS, NAPALM?"

Eric swapped his M-16 for his battle rifle and started firing at the ants. "I don't know. I don't care right now. What I do know is that I'm gonna kill Lesko when I see him!"

Jericho nodded in agreement. Dogmeat ran to the other side of the room and started barking to get the ants attention. The distraction worked and the ants focused their fire on the canine. Eric, Butch, and Jericho unleashed a hail of bullets on the mutated insects. The same outcome occurred when the ants were killed. They would explode and send fire in every direction. After the last of the ants were dead, the group looked around at the carnage to see the flames slowly start to die down. Dogmeat appeared out of the smoke and went to lie down at his master's feet.

Eric kneeled down and scratched behind the ears of his loyal companion. "Good boy Dogmeat."

'BARK' The hound replied.

Everyone was still recovering by what happened to notice that Jericho went ahead of them to inspect Lesko's lab and hopefully have a nice little 'chat' with the scientist. When he got to the door, he saw that the ants manage to burn a hole right through it. "Umm, guys? I think you should come have a look at this."

Eric was the first to see what Jericho saw, followed by the others. He stepped inside and saw the devastation of Lesko's lab. "Jesus Christ!" What really caught Eric's attention was the blood trail that led to the ant queen's lair. He took a couple steps forward and saw Lesko's arm lying limp on the ground. "LESKO!" When he managed to get a clear view of Lesko he turned pail at the sight in front of him. Lesko's arm was there, but the rest of him was nothing more than remains of flesh. He used all of his strength to keep himself from vomiting. 'God in heaven.'

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of Butch's voice. "Hey Eric. There's a note here. It's got your name on it."

Eric walked over and snatched the piece of paper from Butch's hand and read it over.

Eric,

I don't have much time left so I'll explain to you what I've discovered. A month ago, after performing several more tests. I finally found it! I found a way to return the ants to their original state. It takes at least 24 hours for them to fully return to their small size. I was about ready to pack up my lab and move on somewhere else, when something bizarre happened. The queen ant's eggs hatched and a new breed of fire ant was born. The flames they breathe manage to burn through the toughest of metals, including power armor. This event happened about a week ago, so I thought I'd try and find a way to resolve this situation and put a stop to them, before a second Grayditch massacre could occur. I went down to the queen ant's hatchery with my gun and shot the queen in the head, severely damaging her antennas. Then the most peculiar thing happened. All of her ants went into a frenzied state and started attacking each other, but they seemed to be immune to fire. Then they all turned to me and chased me back into my lab. I managed to seal them out, but the doors won't be able to hold them off forever, so please listen to me. There is a safe underneath my mattress, it contains the vials and the list of things needed to make more of the ant size reduction formula. The combination is 13-26-11. Keep it safe and put it to good use. They're almost inside. Thank you again Eric for all the help you have provided me with over the past couple years. Goodbye and good luck.

Signed,

Doctor Weston Lesko

Eric sighed and set the piece of paper down, knowing what he had to do next. He pulled out his M-16 and loaded a fresh magazine into the rifle, then turned to the others. "Guys, go join the others. I've got some unfinished business to tend to." He looked down and saw Dogmeat pawing at his leg. Eric patted the dog on the head, "Don't worry buddy, I won't be long." He looked up at the group. "Anyone got any explosives?" He asked.

Jericho already knew what Eric was planning so he pulled out a frag grenade and tossed it to him. "You better make it count kid!" The former raider told him sternly.

Eric nodded and made his way towards the hatchery while the others went back the way they came.

Once he saw the ant queen, he thought he was going to have a heart attack. The queen looked like it doubled in size and was spewing acid everywhere. "Great. Things just keep getting more complicated." He pulled out the grenade Jericho gave to him, pulled the pin and hoped for the best. The queen turned to him and howled in a high pitch roar. "That's right. Open wide you son of a bitch!" He releases the safety spoon and tossed the grenade into the ant's mandibles. A few seconds later, the queen ant's head was decapitated in a fiery explosion. Eric looked around to see the remaining fire ants rip each other apart.

Eric sighed with relief, knowing that the threat of the fire ants was finally over. Making his way back to others, he remembered about Lesko's formula and immediately unlocked it to find a briefcase containing the contents needed to reduce the size of the mutant insects. He took the case and dashed out of the tunnels to regroup with Amata and the others. The thought of his closest childhood friend made him come to a sudden halt. How will the vault residents be able to make a life out here? Since Vault 101 was compromised and the Capital Wasteland was under siege, there was no place safe for them to settle down. Eric had to think about that later, right now he had to make sure they would make it to the Purifier alive.

Regulator HQ: June 9, 2279. 4:48 A.M.

The law bringers of the wasteland were ready to meet up with the caravan's heading for the Purifier. More than half of their forces were killed protecting the northwestern part of the Capital Wasteland. With only thirty men left, Sonora Cruz was in a tight spot. She got on the radio and told all surviving Regulators to regroup at their HQ and then head to the only safe zone left in the wastes. The only problem was they weren't even going to make it out the front door.

Ten power armored soldiers all surrounded the HQ wielding miniguns and missile launchers. Once they were in position, the commander gave the order and the minigunners unleashed a devastating barrage of bullets on the HQ. When they needed to reload, one of the soldiers fired a missile into the front door, blasting a massive hole into the building. They all started pouring inside one by one. The sight of dead and wounded Regulators littered the first floor and the staircase. One Regulator came staggering out from upstairs, bleeding profusely from the bullet wounds in his chest. The commander pulled out a plasma pistol and aimed it at the injured man.

"NO. PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO!" The Regulator shouted before being silenced by the commander's sidearm.

The commander looked around at the dead then back to his men. "Check the bodies. If any of them are still breathing, put a round in their head!"

"SIR YES SIR!" The soldiers chorused.

The commander went upstairs and into the bedroom to find Sonora Cruz fighting to stay alive from the wounds she sustained. He chuckled at how weak she looked. "You know what? I find this all very hilarious." Sonora raised an eyebrow at the commander. "Locals like you try to bring law and order to this hellhole you call a wasteland." His tone went dead serious. "Weak, pathetic little insects like you. How disgusting!" He sneered at her.

Sonora mustered up what was left of her strength to put a smile on her face and say her final words. "Go fuck yourself."

The commander aimed his plasma pistol between Sonora's eyes and fired. "You first!" He stood up and holstered his sidearm. The sounds of guns executing the wounded Regulators could be heard. He made his back downstairs and his radio officer looked to him.

"Sir, Independence wants an update." He told the commander.

The commander took the radio from him and raised it to his ear. "This is Warrior One. Mission accomplished. The Regulators are no longer a problem."

"Job well done Warrior One. Report back here to Independence we have another task for you."

"Yes sir, on our way."

Well guys, what did you think? Leave a review and tell me how I did. Remember that constructive criticism and ideas are welcome.

NCRMC signing off for now.