So, here's chapter 2 of Battle for Eden,
Give thanks to doctor Anthony for proof readi'n this muck y'all… ;)
I was trying to practice my "Southern" accent that seems to be the dominant language in the Fallout games.
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Ben woke up suddenly in the dark and for a brief moment wondered where he was, there was movement and someone breathing close to him, he could feel warm breath on his face,
He fumbled in the dark on his other side, and then there was light and Tanya turned to look at him after finding the light switch on the small cupboard on her side of the bed.
She smiled at him,
"Ben, are you alright?" She asked with her soothing voice which made Ben's heart soar and his knees wobbly.
"Yeah, I'm fine, how are you, I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked with a small voice and worry in his face,
Tanya understood that he was still ashamed at what he felt that he had done and gently caressed his stern and yet kind face lovingly,
"No, you didn't hurt me." She replied smiling at him,
"I think they must have done something to us that made us more… well, eager for our wedding night." She tried explaining as she knew that whatever those people at Mariposa must have done it most likely increased their desire for each other.
She gently took his face between both her hands and looked him in the eyes,
"Don't feel ashamed my beautiful Bright Eyes." She said soothingly as she could clearly see Ben was wrestling with obvious honour issues about deflowering her before the wedding.
"But, I was so…" He started and were gently silenced by her tutting him,
"I was as much willing as you my love. Let's just see this as our unofficial night before the wedding." She said smiling and kissed him sincerely.
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Vincent woke up and could clearly hear the two youths were awake in the other room and rather than sitting on the couch and awkwardly pretend that he didn't hear what they were most likely doing from the sounds they were making, he decided on taking another patrol in the small bunker and rose to his feet,
He was rather hungry and for the very briefest of moments he actually contemplated trying one of those probably century old TV-dinners but quickly decided against it.
"Should have brought some MREs with me before I broke those two youths out." He thought and then it all came back to him, the realization that he had effectively broken with the Enclave and his family – not that it really meant that much to him – it was more a liberating feeling, his family had always looked down on him, his father he suspected even hated him after his mother died,
His mother, the only person that had loved him for what and who he was and for a moment after he had left the room he stood and looked sad – not that it would show through his helmet or armour – for anyone looking it looked like he was in dire need of oiling.
As he walked and checked the rusted door and could make sure it was secure he were satisfied, he could hear his com crackle as he had kept it active at the Enclave frequencies, he listened in without sending anything;
"Well, I've found the hummer, and I've also found some tracks leading to a rusted door to what seems to be some old bunker, I'll go and check it out." Came a voice in the com,
"Remember, the traitor may be armed and dangerous, be cautious. And orders are to bring the other two back unharmed." Came another voice.
Vincent quickly walked back to the quarters and knocked heavily on the door, he could hear them both yelping in surprise.
"Lad, Lass. We have to move." He ordered and then went back towards the door, he made it back just in time to see the door slowly swing open…
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Jim, Kono and a large group of their best warriors together with a few BOS warriors led by Paladin Solo had been out for three days looking for Ben and Tanya after the raid,
The tribe's best trackers had found a side trail leading to what according to Solo's maps was the location of a small pre-war storage bunker,
Kono was moving ahead of the larger group when he saw a man in one of those suits of armour worn by the warriors that had raided the hunting camp carrying off Ben and Tanya,
These armours while definitely similar was different than the armour worn by the Brotherhood of Steel warriors.
He quickly ducked for cover and watched how the strange warrior seemed to be examining a vehicle that Kono recognized from his old textbooks as a Humvee,
Kono carefully moved closer and picked up a small bag out of his medicine pouch in his belt, careful not to brake the fragile bag as it was a mix of radscorpion as well as brahmin dung making it very sticky and could be used as a weapon, normally it was used to drive away larger predators thanks to its rather pungent odour,
The strange warrior now moved towards what looked like a large metal door,
The strange warrior started to push the door open and Kono had this feeling that someone important to him was in there and whistled loudly from his hiding place not far away,
The Enclave trooper heard something whistling as he was trying to push the rusted door open and turned toward the whistling and….
*SPLAT*
His vision suddenly was covered as all he could see through the visor of his suit was some greenish brownish looking sludge that stuck to his helmet,
He tried to remove it with his free hand while shooting in the general direction the sludge came from.
Kono had to duck down behind the rock as the plasma shot hit the rock sending shattered pieces of superheated rock flying…
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Vincent's heart had skipped a beat as the large rusted door had begun to swing open when suddenly there was a whistling sound like a bird from the outside followed by another noise of something wet hitting hard surface.
He dared a careful look through the crack of the partially open door and saw one of his former fellow Enclave troopers trying to remove something clearly sticky from the front of his helmet while shooting almost wildly at some rocks further away,
Vincent started pushing the door open thinking he could sneak up on the other trooper but of course the door decided to be difficult,
*CREEEAAAK* The sound of rusted steel sounded loudly and caused everyone both outside and inside the old bunker to notice, but most of all was the Enclave trooper turned and had just managed to clear enough for him to see and fired…
The plasma shot hitting Vincent square in his chest…
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Kono noticed how the armoured giant fired at something inside what looked like an open door to one of those bunker thingies, another sound behind him made Kono look, and he sighed in relief as he could see Jim and Solo advancing followed by some of the Tribes best warriors,
Jim came running towards Kono who waved for him to duck down,
Jim gestured to the others to take cover as then another bolt of plasma hit the rock where Kono hid,
Jim crawled over together with Solo who was amazingly agile despite the powered armour,
"What in the name of the gods and spirits is going on here Kono?" Jim hissed as he and Solo now had joined Kono behind the rock,
"It looks like one of those warriors that attacked the festival a few days ago." Kono responded,
Solo took a peak before he quickly ducked back down as another plasma blast hit the rock.
He instead carefully crawled so that he was slightly beside the rock and took aim and fired at the power armoured individual,
Now the Enclave trooper realised he may be in over his head and started moving into the bunker, which he soon regretted as…
*PUM, PUM, PUM* the shotgun blasts made him stagger from the sheer force even though they did not go through his armour…
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Ben had come just in time to see Vincent go down after being hit by some greenish looking fire in his chest,
Ben quickly gestured for Tanya to stay behind him as he carefully peeked and for a few moments there was some noise as if someone was firing a weapon, a weapon noise Ben had heard during the festival when those demonic armoured warriors had shown up.
A few more moments and now he could clearly see Vincent was moving but so was also the warrior that had shot him, the giant in the strange armour similar to Vincent's was now moving inside the bunker as Ben could hear other weapons fire from outside.
Ben quickly snuck closer to what he considered as point blanc range and readied his Pancor Jackhammer,
And then fired at full auto as the other warrior turned to look behind him…
*PUM, PUM, PUM*
The warrior did stagger backwards from the obvious force but as Ben suspected, did not actually seemed to be hurt,
Ben simply emptied the clip into the trooper that stumbled backwards into the open doorframe and fell down,
Ben sighed but then the trooper started getting up, and except for some scorch marks on its torso didn't seem injured in the least.
By now Vincent had come back on his feet and tried to get the trooper's weapon.
The Enclave trooper lifted the traitor up using his armour's strength and threw him into a wall, though he dropped his plasma rifle and fumbled for his ripper instead, but then the savage was upon him…
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Paladin Solo quickly approached the open bunker door with the others coming behind him,
And the scene that met him made even him gawk.
Ben jumped at the armoured warrior as he saw him go for yet another weapon that looked like a long combat knife or a short sword,
Ben managed to get the weapon first as he clung to the giant's back and without anything else to think of, he started stabbing at the neck or throat of this warrior that did everything he could to shake him loose,
Either by luck and/or maybe divine intervention the strange looking knife got through the neck or the Enclave trooper's armour and Ben using all his strength drove the knife into the giant's throat.
The Enclave trooper died almost instantly as the ripper went through his throat and into his spinal cord.
By then there was a shadow in the door opening and Ben scrambled to his feet ready to defend his future mate and his new friend.
"Easy kids, I'm on your side." Solo quickly defended himself as Ben was about to charge at him and Tanya had picked up what looked like a shotgun of some sort.
Now Vincent again got back up and carefully approached,
"Hold it, whoever you are shorty." Solo said warningly at the shorter warrior wearing a similar powered armour like the one that young Ben had just killed, by now Jim, Kono and the others had reached the opening and were pointing their weapons at Vincent…
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Both Ben and Tanya ran over and stood in front of Vincent as he raised his hands in a non-threatening manner,
"Stop, he's on our side!" Ben protested,
"Kids, get out of the way." Jim said harshly,
"Please, listen to us, if weren't for Vincent, we'd still be prisoners." Tanya argued.
The others lowered their weapons.
"What're ya kids on about?" Kono asked and looked at them,
"Vincent helped us." Ben and Tanya said in unison,
Paladin Solo had picked up the dropped weapons and stared Vincent down, Vincent stared back… Not that either could actually see the eyes of the other and least of all could anyone else thanks to their helmets.
"It's true, I did help them escape." Vincent said, still with his hands above his head,
Jim put his weapon away and walked over to Ben and Tanya as did Elisabeth and hugged them both,
"Half the tribe's been out looking for the two of ya." He said in relief,
"Are you both alright?" Elisabeth asked and started checking them both and just then noticed how Ben was looking at Tanya out of the corner of his eye while blushing as did she, though Tanya seemed more amused,
Jim then turned to Vincent that was still being guarded by Solo and a couple of his soldiers.
"Is it true, what Ben and Tanya said? That you helped them, why?" He asked sternly,
"Aye and aye, and finally aye, I felt I had to help them for what those crazy Enclave scientists were doing to them was evil and that woman is the worst of them." Vincent answered,
Jim then smiled,
"Well, you have my thanks and that of the tribe, we owe you a life debt for this. As far as I'm concerned, you will always be welcome in the Eco Tribe." He said with a smile of relief and gratitude and offered his hand which Vincent took in a brotherly handshake.
Solo and his soldiers lowered their weapons,
"You've saved the life of the tribal chieftain's younger brother and his fiancée who is also a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, you'll have to be debriefed on this Enclave's activities though." He said and Vincent nodded.
After having checked and taken what they found of use from the old bunker the Eco and their BOS friends returned to the Eco main camp, where Vincent was hailed a hero and a feast was held in his honour,
To Vincent this was the first time he had not only been accepted for who he was but appreciated on top of that…
The Brotherhood of Steel sent a heavily armed force to check out the place where Vincent as well as Ben and Tanya had said was the base of the Enclave but found nothing as the entrance of the now abandoned base blocked due to a recent explosion, and as the BOS forces in the region were needed elsewhere the matter was promptly dropped by the BOS leadership…
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When the leadership of the Brotherhood of Steel had found out about it they protested Elizabeth and Tanya marrying two outsiders and savages no less.
But the Brotherhood had other issues to handle and soon Paladin Solo was sent off together with a group of dissenters – that had actually blocked any disciplinary action against Elisabeth and Tanya and their mates – To the Midwest to ascertain what had happened with the remnants of the Master's Super mutant army.
Also at around this time another faction of the Brotherhood journeyed to the former Texas Commonwealth and both of these factions was simply abjured and forgotten by the Core Brotherhood of Steel that eventually came into other conflicts on the West coast, with the growing powers in the area…
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That was this chapter, I hope y'all enjoyed it and sorry for having taken so long.