Author's Note: Holy lack of updates, right? I blame a lack of inspiration and the recent acquisition of Fallout 4. Holy fuck, that game is probably the best thing I have ever played. On a side note, I'm incredibly disappointed in FF dot net. They have not added any characters from Fallout 4 to the Fallout character listing; not only does this make it difficult to find stories pertaining to favorite characters, its frustrating as an author. Properly categorizing a fic and listing its characters are a major part of the posting process. I've already emailed them a few times about this, so I'm asking you guys for a small favor.
If you'd like to help out the entire Fallout fanfic community, email FF dot net's support at support fanfiction dot net and tell them which characters from Fallout 4 that you'd like to be added! It'll only take a few minutes of your time, and it would mean so much to me and every Fallout fic author out there :)
Wasteland Survival Part 27
Carmen agreed to help, on a few conditions. She wanted to retake her former HQ; or more specifically, a cache of C-4 and other various weapons that she had stashed away at her former HQ.
The area would likely still be swarming with Talons, if they hadn't picked the place clean and moved on. It was a heavy risk, but the prize was a large amount of weapons; weapons that Sarah would need to dole out to her enslaved friends. She didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of this mission; she just needed to get those guns.
Carmen was more than willing to share the weapons with the Sentinel and her friends, stating that her men no longer had need of them. It was evident that the heavily tattooed woman was in pain from her loss, but her mind was clouded with thoughts of revenge. She was very vocal about her bloodlust, and Sarah couldn't blame her; she couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose an entire squad like that. She had the fortune of never losing an entire team, she had sure as hell cut it close, but most of the original members of Lyons Pride were still alive.
Yet another part of the Sentinel wanted to warn the auburn haired woman to calm down, but she felt that Carmen would not react well. Thoughts of revenge were dangerous; if you went into the act guns blazing and with pure rage, you were likely to get yourself killed. But it seemed that Carmen did not care for her own life, having stated before that she had lost everything and now had little purpose to live. Her only current goal was killing every Talon that she came across.
The bizarre mercenary had also shown an interest in Ray. She hid it very well, but Sarah had noted how the woman got that strange, almost psychotic smile on her face when the Wastelander was mentioned; it was unsettling, and made even more so by the scar at the corner of her mouth that made its way onto her cheek in a twisted half Glasgow Smile. Adding to this was her appearance; she was basically a female version of the man, albeit with auburn hair instead of jet black.
The Sentinel would be keeping a close eye on the merc.
Aleksey, on the other hand, was quite agreeable. He vowed to aid Sarah in whatever her goals were, as long as she didn't mind him being around. He was similar to Carmen, in a way; minus the macabre blood thirst and add in a contemplative sense of meditation and silence. He had lost those who were the closest to him as well, although he wouldn't say how his daughter had met her fate. He just made it known that he had failed her, and he was trying everyday to make up for this sin.
So that made up Sarah's mind; she had two new allies to help her rescue Ray, Jericho, Clover, and of course the other slaves. And she had a cache of weapons waiting for her.
That was how the newfound trio found themselves on this pile of rubble, overlooking the ruins of some sort of building. It hadn't fared well, and Sarah was able to determine that this level of damage had been recent. It looked like the fucking building had been shot with a mini-nuke. There were no walls to be spoken of, save for the part of the third floor that they were facing, and there was hardly any floor left. One massive concrete support beam still stood, black shoots of rebar sticking out of the thing like thorns, and the floors around this beam still stood, barely. Concrete stairs connected each floor, and as you looked at the lowest level of the ruins, it was slightly sunken into the earth, like a sort of trench, but not nearly as deep.
The trio watched as Talons meandered about, toting weapons and occasionally stopping to chat with one another; there were a lot of the men, Sarah counted twenty one. A Sentry bot trundled about, its wheels squeaking loudly and its hydraulics hissing.
"Carmen, how many Talons were there here originally?"
The woman scratched at the dragon on the side of her head, thinking quietly for a moment. "Well I didn't have time to count obviously, as I was concerned with getting my ass the fuck outta dodge, but I'd say at least forty. They really did a fucking number on the place…shot it with a mini-nuke and came in with all kinds of firepower."
"I guessed it; figured there was no way the place always looked like this. Anyway…how should we do this? I don't even have a weapon, and you and Aleksey aren't exactly prepped for heavy assault work." Sarah responded, eyeing Aleksey's crossbow and .44 before looking at Carmen's Sniper, 10mm Submachine gun, machete, Deathclaw Gauntlet, and rather strange gun that she couldn't give a name to.
Carmen smirked, the scar on her mouth making the gesture sinister. "Don't underestimate me; that's been the mistake of many men and women, all of whom are now dead," she paused, looking over to Aleksey, "So Russia, how are you with a sniper?"
As soon as the man's Blastmaster Helmet gave a nod, Carmen had thrust her Sniper and several clips into his gloved hands. "Don't fuck up Luke, he was my ma's."
Sarah gave the woman a strange look. "You named your rifle Luke?"
The 10mm sub and a few clips were offered to her. "Well technically my mom did, and technically she wasn't even my real mom, but she was the best I got. Take Natasha, she was dad's so don't even think about dropping her."
The Sentinel couldn't help but smiling at the mercenary and giving a short laugh, which Carmen returned. She slid the Deathclaw Gauntlet off her hand and placed it safely near Aleksey before she took the strange gun from her back. The stock almost looked like a shotgun's, but the barrel was an intricate and thick crossing of metals and wires. It looked as though it had been jury-rigged. "What the hell is that?"
Carmen grinned at the gun. "This baby? This is the Railway Rifle; fires entire railroad spikes. I made her myself." The auburn haired woman spoke proudly, her finger itching at the trigger. "I can't wait to launch some spikes into the heads of these pricks. Let's get down there!"
…
Carmen and Sarah hustled their way to the building, keeping low as Aleksey covered them from the immense pile of rubble that they had been taking cover on. The two women took up positions at either side of the ruined entrance of the building.
The gun in Sarah's hands felt right. She had missed weapons so much; it made her think of her trusty Laser Rifle. It was no doubt in the hands of some fucking Slaver; the thought made the Sentinel clench her jaw hard. She brought herself back into reality by looking over at Carmen and giving her a nod to signal that she was ready.
Carmen held up a single finger, signaling Sarah to wait. The merc reached for a bandolier that she had draped around her chest earlier, the thing was covered in Frag Grenades, and she quickly ripped off three. The merc stooped down and leaned around the corner, ripping the pins out of grenade after grenade and throwing them inside the building with no hesitation. She braced herself against the wall as three explosions sounded in rapid succession. "Now!"
As they rushed inside, Sarah barely had time to take in a Talon's rather plain and panicked features before Aleksey's rifle cracked and the man's face exploded outward, and all over her shirt and face. She recoiled, but wasn't disgusted; she had been covered with blood so many times in her life that it didn't even phase her anymore.
The Sentinel rushed down to the lowest floor, following Carmen and wiping blood out of her eyes. They barely had time to jump behind a pile of rubble before the Sentry bot and six other Talons opened fire on the two. "Did you count how many were dead?" Sarah shouted over the ear shattering gunfire.
Aleksey's rifle gave another sharp crack and a man fell down the stairs to their left. "Grenades took out five, Russia has taken out two." They looked up just in time for the barrel of an Assault Rifle to kiss the skin right between Sarah's eyes.
"Hey there!" Carmen said jovially, the Railway Rifle firing with a dull thumping sound before the Talon had time to say anything. A railroad spike embedded itself between his eyes, a solid black dot on his forehead. The man slumped over the rubble, his rifle falling into Sarah's lap and his blood dripping onto the concrete.
Carmen gave a laugh, pulling another grenade from her bandolier and ripping the pin out with her teeth. "Take this, you cocksuckers!"
The gunfire stopped, shouts of panic coming from the men before the sound of many heavily booted feet came rushing towards the women. A thunderous explosion sounded, and Sarah heard the sound of a few bodies hitting the ground.
Three men ran past the rubble that the Sentinel and the merc took cover behind. Carmen stood with no hesitation, Sarah rushing to follow her lead. "Hey boys! Looking for me?" Carmen gave them a warm smile, toting the Railway Rifle in her right hand, and pulling out her machete with her left.
The Talons looked at the woman, momentarily dumbstruck. Carmen took advantage of their shock, rushing forward with a growl and swinging her machete hard at the lead man's neck. His head was removed cleanly from his shoulders, crimson spraying on the merc's face as the man's corpse dropped like a rock. "Get her!" One of the remaining two men shrieked in a high pitched, panicked tone.
He leveled his rifle at her, but didn't have time to pull the trigger before Sarah let loose a barrage of 10mm rounds into his skull. He fell atop the decapitated man, their blood mingling together in a swirl of dark crimson. "Bye!" Carmen grinned almost manically to the final man, her Railway Rifle thumping loudly and nailing the man to the wall of rubble his back had been pressed against; he hung there, the spike protruding from his forehead and his brown eyes wide.
The Sentry bot trundled lamely forward, its Missile Launcher arm missing and its heavily damaged Minigun arm struggling to rotate. Its head hung to its chest, dangling by several wires. "Do not attempt…to m-m-m-move," the mechanized voice paused, glitching as an error message played, "Additional voice data not found. Please insert voice data…holotape."
Carmen and Sarah looked at each other. "Shut the hell up," Sarah muttered, jumping onto the robot's back and grabbing its head with both hands.
"Do not…t-t-touch Talon Company Property. Termination…imminent." With a rough twist and a loud grunt, the Sentinel had ripped the robot's head off and thrown it at a Talon that came flying down the stairs. He tripped over the head with a cry just as Aleksey's rifle cracked, blood spraying onto the mostly white concrete stairs.
Sarah jumped off the machine, kicking it hard in the back and watching it tip forward slowly, before slamming into the ground with a thunderous metallic slam. "That was satisfying; haven't ripped anything's head off for too long." Sarah smirked, looking down at the bot.
"You and I are going to be great friends." Carmen grinned, her cheek scar lifting as she did so.
As they headed up to the second floor, no Talons were to be seen. "Where the-" Carmen was cut off by a man diving from around the corner. He was a scrawny thing, but the large Combat Knife he was toting was not. He hilted the blade in Carmen's stomach, but the woman just roared in fury, lifting him up by the front of his shiny black armor.
The last remaining support beam with its rebar thorns was looking mighty appealing, and she slammed the man onto the rebar with such force that it went through his back and stuck out of his belly. He gave a wet gargle of agony, blood dribbling from his mouth and making red specks all over his boots and the tile of the floor. Aleksey's rifle cracked twice in rapid succession and two hidden Talons fell, one of them actually falling from the second floor and smashing onto a table on the lower level.
Sarah rushed to Carmen's side, emerald eyes wide with concern as she saw the hilt of the blade sticking out; Carmen waved her off. "I know there are only three of you left. Come out and maybe I'll kill you fast."
Another scrawny boy rose from behind some rubble with his hands raised, he appeared to be unarmed, but the Sentinel and merc still didn't trust him. Sarah leveled the 10mm at him, her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Where the hell are the other two?"
The boy was at least 20, but he was even scrawnier than the boy that stabbed Carmen. He looked at the impaled boy with horror; his voice broke into a sob. "That was my brother!"
"Your brother helped kill my men and stabbed me!" Carmen ripped the knife out of her own flesh with a snarl, blood staining her shirt. She stalked forward surprisingly quickly for a woman who had just been viciously stabbed, and her heavily tattooed left hand grabbed the boy by his shirt. The blade that had pierced her flesh skimmed close to his throat, wiping her blood in a thin red line across his bulging Adam's apple. "If you know what's good for you, you'll tell me where your fuckboy little friends are."
"They're upstairs! Please, for the love of god, don't kill me!" His right hand suddenly began to move toward the merc, and with that, Aleksey's rifle cracked, popping the boy's head like an overripe melon. Carmen let him fall limply from her grip, and she saw the small .32 that the boy had been gripping in his right fist; he had been about to shoot her. She looked towards Aleksey, giving him a thumbs up.
Sarah came to her side, and Carmen pitched to the side, falling onto her left hip and catching herself with her left arm. She fished around in the pockets of her long, sleeveless coat, finally pulling out a Stimpak. "That little prick got me good." Her breathing was labored as she leveled the needle with her wound.
Sarah watched as the merc struggled to inject herself. "Do you need help?"
Carmen shook her head adamantly, auburn hair falling to the side and covering part of the dragon on her head. "I'm alright. Just head upstairs, I'll be there soon." Her breathing had become labored as she looked at the Stim shaking in her right hand.
Sarah gave a stiff nod; she wanted to help the woman, but she acquiesced.
…
As she headed up the stairs to the third and final floor of that building that was previously the Black Dragons HQ, her attention was immediately drawn to the part of wall that somehow still stood despite the nuking. It was taller than her by about two feet, but it was only about a half of the size and length of the wall had previously been there before the nuking.
There was a man sitting there, and as Sarah came into his view, he rose to his full height. He was taller than her by at least a head, but his head still did not peak above the wall. "Smart, you know we've got a sniper so you took the only available cover from him; no wonder you survived the longest."
He crossed thick arms. "You're impressed that I have some fucking brain cells, thanks. Where the hell is that other bitch, Carmen? I've got a bounty to collect on her head."
Sarah gripped the Submachine gun tightly. "She will be joining us soon, why don't we stop with the pleasantries and get this over with?"
"Your death wish, bitch." He gave a non-committal shrug, but rushed forward with a speed that took Sarah by surprise, producing a Ripper from seemingly nowhere and swinging it in a dangerous arc for her neck.
The Sentinel dipped beneath the spinning blades with a gasp at the last second, the man really taking her by surprise. She spun to his side, adamant about shoving the barrel of the 10mm into his ribs and pumping his organs full of lead, but he anticipated the move; a sharp elbow cracked across her jaw, and Sarah stumbled back, pain exploding in her jaw.
Her foot caught some loose brick, and she fell backwards, emerald eyes going wide with shock. Hard stone caught her as she fell, landing flat on her back with a grunt.
The last Talon shook his head in disappointment. "And here I thought you were going to put up a fight. Pathetic." The Ripper revved loudly, its little engine spinning the blades of the saw disturbingly faster.
The blades of the Ripper suddenly darted forward with startling speed, heading straight for the Sentinel's stomach. She rolled to the side with a sudden burst of speed, and as she jumped to her feet she cracked the 10mm over the back of the Talon's head.
"Stupid bitch!" He roared as he fell towards the spot where the Sentinel had previously fallen. The furiously spinning blades of the Ripper hit the concrete and bounced up in a shower of sparks. His roar of anger suddenly became one of overwhelming agony as the Ripper buried itself in his gut. His full weight fell on the bloodthirsty machine and it tore through his organs mercilessly, spraying blood and viscera everywhere.
Somehow, the Talon found the strength to roll off of the weapon that was tearing his organs to shreds. As he rolled over, indiscernible bits of what used to be his organs fell out, smattering the ground with even more gore. The Ripper vibrated along the blood soaked ground, jumping about, eager for more flesh. Without thinking, Sarah put a single round through the groaning man's skull, and another through the motor of the Ripper.
…
"I'm pretty sure your weapons cache is long gone, Carmen. The Talons picked this place clean." Sarah stood on the lowest floor of the building, her arms crossed as she looked at Carmen.
The auburn haired woman shook her head. "There's no possible way they would have thought to look here." She crossed over to the table that a Talon from upstairs had fallen onto, grabbing the edge of it and flipping the whole thing over with a grunt. She pulled aside a small, threadbare carpet, exposing a hatch.
Sarah arched a brow. "A bunker?"
Carmen smirked. "More like a root cellar I guess. But I'm paranoid, I couldn't exactly leave all this shit laying around. I'll be right back, it might be a little too close in here for both of us."
Sarah crossed over to the hatch and peered inside, seeing the light of a flashlight jerking around, accompanied by the sounds of things being moved around. A few moments later, a bulging duffel bag flew towards her face; she barely had time to dodge the flying cloth before another followed it. She sat on the dirty floor for a minute, prepared to run if more bags flew out.
Carmen climbed out of the "root cellar" smirking down at Sarah with her hands on her hips. "Well Lady of the Steel, are you gonna check out this shit that I'm giving you guys?"
Sarah shifted onto her knees, pulling the nearest bag close and unzipping it. Several bricks of C4 were the first thing that caught her eye, but the bag was full of various sorts of rifles, pistols, and boxes of ammo. "Jesus fucking Christ…where the hell did you get all of this?" She looked up at the merc with wide emerald eyes.
The merc gave a non-committal shrug. "Well when you kill enough people, mostly Talons and Raiders, you gain a bit of an armory from taking their shit."
The Sentinel thrust a brick of C4 toward the merc. "Fucking C4 though? The Talons have access to shit like this?" That was definitely very worrying; the Talons were enough of a threat to the Wastes, but the fact that they possessed such powerful explosives was terrifying. The merc group was gaining more soldiers by the day, and with firepower like this…what was to stop them from taking down Megaton, or Rivet City? If they were stupid and power hungry enough, they could mount an attack on the Citadel.
Carmen nodded. "Yeah, but they only had it when they really were out to send a message and we stopped them," She fixed the Sentinel with a sharp look and crossed her heavily tattooed arms, "You'd think you guys in the Brotherhood would be viewing them as more of a threat instead of chasing around the Enclave and the fucking Muties. These guys have been plundering and murdering for a long time, plus they often get paid to do it. I'll tell you from experience, money is a hell of a fucking motivator."
Okay…that struck a bit of a nerve. "We try. We've got the Enclave breathing down our necks, threatening to completely take over the Wastes, and that equals really fucking bad for everyone; then we've got people telling us to deal with the Muties because they've all but taken over DC. Plus locals complaining around the Talons, Raiders, and Slavers; we're in deep shit up to our chins, okay? Why the hell do you think I'm out here on a covert mission to take down Paradise Falls and the Talons?"
Carmen arched a brow. "Okay; understandable. Damn, I guess we should get a move on Paradise Falls then, huh Blondie?"
Sarah smirked and zipped the bag closed. "I suppose we should."