Hey guys. It's been awhile. I've been preparing for college, and things just keep coming up. But I've been slowly whittling away at this, and here is the result! I hope it was worth the wait. As always, I ask you to review my work, because otherwise I can't improve.
"Holy shit! You're going to get us killed!"
"Jesus Christ do you need to tilt this much?"
"Stop complaining or get the hell off my vertibird!" Derek shouted to his ungrateful passengers. On the ground, the raider gangs of northern Pennsylvania were doing their best to blow the aircraft out of the sky. "Where the hell did they find SAMs?" he asked Olivia, who was too busy watching the radar and telling him where the missiles were coming from to answer.
Adam, James, and Carl were holding onto the safety bars next to their seats for dear life. None of them remembered flying being this bad. Justice was a bit calmer than his fellow Regulators, but his knuckles were still white from gripping the metal so hard. Sven was having the time of his life. He was listening for more explosions from the missiles, cackling madly with each new burst of noise.
"Ashur, Ashur, this is Sparrow, we're nearing the corridor. Confirming trajectory along the Allegheny, coming south with the ground hot," Derek yelled into his radio over the noise of the explosions and the rattling vertibird. James and Adam locked eyes when they heard the name: Ashur, the leader of the Pitt, and the man whose finger was worth a fortune. Why was Derek calling him at all?
The voice that answered the radio carried a sense of confidence, even over the crackling speakers. "Your route is set, but you're cutting it a little close. I almost pulled my men out."
Derek breathed a sigh of relief. "There was some trouble up in New York, and we didn't get off the ground as fast as we should have. Thanks for waiting, we'll be above you momentarily." The vertibird's evasive maneuvers subsided a few minutes later as they left the hostile skies behind. Derek flipped a switch, putting the aircraft in automatic pilot for the moment. He unbuckled himself and slipped through the entryway into the back, where everyone else was sitting. "Anticipating unfriendly locals, I asked for a route to be secured for us over Pennsylvania. We're past the worst of it now, so you can all relax."
"And you trust the Pitt not to shoot you down more than the rest of the raiders around here?" Adam bluntly demanded.
Derek sighed. "I don't suppose you've ever met Ashur, have you?" He looked at the Regulators, who all shook their heads. "No? Didn't think so. Well then, I'll fill in some details for you. First, he's an ex-Brotherhood of Steel Paladin." James' jaw just about dropped, and Adam's eyes widened. Carl looked like he was about to protest, but Derek held up his hand. "He was, in fact, part of the original force that took down the Pitt before moving into Washington. You know that as the Scourge. But I'm sure you've all heard that story." The Regulators nodded that they had.
"Well, what you don't know is that he was left behind. Abandoned, as it were, due to an exploding building. Some locals dug him out, and decided to worship him as a local god." Derek continued the story, explaining how Ashur had decided to help the locals get the Pitt "producing," as he called it, once again. He also explained the sickness that ravaged the whole city, and how it prevented any the inhabitants from having any children. "That's why he needs his workers. The Pitt can't produce its own, so he gets them from wherever he can. Yes, even by buying them from slavers."
Finally, Derek told the Regulators about how Ashur's own daughter, Marie, was a miracle: a baby completely immune to radiation and the Trogladyte sickness. He told them how, once Ashur used her to find a cure, he planned to free all of his workers and allow the city to run as it should: no forced servitude.
The vertibird shook slightly as the Regulators processed what he was saying. "Ashur isn't a bad man," Derek insisted. "Yes, there are bad people who work for him. I've met some. I've killed a few. Some even tried to muscle in on Sin'Nati; they were behind the Talon attempt at a coup. But Ashur does his best to keep them all in line. He punishes the men who are too abusive to the workers. He doesn't allow rape. And he truly wants to see humanity prosper once again. If your boss knew him as a person, instead of the monster everyone else thinks he is, he probably wouldn't accept his finger."
"But he's sent hit-squads out for us!" Adam protested. "He's tried to have us killed!"
"Ashur has? Or the Pitt?" Derek asked him. "Because there are a lot of people in the Pitt, and a lot of them want you dead. Ashur can't control what his lieutenants do with their money. If they want to hire hit-squads to kill, from what I'm told, the biggest threat to their profit, he can't exactly say no. How would it look if he suddenly told his men not to retaliate? It's like I told you about Raw Border: if he looks weak, he's out of the picture. Most likely in a very brutal fashion."
The vertibird was silent for a long time. Finally, James coughed for attention and asked, "How do you know all of this?"
Derek sighed and continued to explain private information to perfect strangers. He really hoped none of this would come back to bite him later. "For what's coming, I needed allies. I knew the Pitt had resources, as well as a powerful army. I used to think he was evil too. I thought long and hard about asking for his help, but in the end pragmatism won out. With my best men, I traveled to the Pitt and more-or-less demanded an audience. Things went about as well as they did with you four. Imagine my surprise when I found out that a decent human being was in charge of the Pitt, not some raider scum. He… showed me some holotapes that explained how he had come to be in charge." Derek looked James in the eyes and said, "He made them for his daughter. To explain to her why he had to do these things, in case he died before he could tell her himself."
James nodded and lowered his eyes. Carl shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with thinking of Ashur as anything more than a monster. But if Derek was telling the truth, then it seemed Lord Ashur was just a man forced to make difficult choices, as well as someone who was desperate to be a good father to his child. Carl could sympathize with that, at least. But to enslave people? He had a hard time seeing how anyone who cared for another person could rationalize that.
The vertibird was silent for a long time. Derek stood in the cargo bay, watching his passengers as they were absorbed in their own thoughts. He occasionally looked back to check the instruments, which earned him a swat from Olivia, who insisted that she was perfectly capable of flying the aircraft.
"Does this thing have a big fuel tank?" Sven asked out of the blue.
Derek shook his head. "The fuel sources around Sin'Nati have been dry for centuries. All our vehicles had to be refitted with rechargeable fission batteries."
Sven whistled. "That's an even bigger explosion than I thought."
"You're not going to be setting off our power sources, unless you want the entire city reduced to a crater."
"Don't tempt me," Sven said, giggling like a madman.
Derek was about to respond when Ashur's voice came over the radio again. "Sparrow, this is Ashur, do you copy?"
Adam's eyes hardened in disdain as Derek turned and picked up the mike. "I copy Ashur, loud and clear."
"I'd like to meet out precious cargo," Ashur said bluntly. Adam's hand drifted subconsciously to one of the knives in his belt. James' covered hand clenched into a fist so tight the leather glove creaked in protest. Carl shifted into a straighter position in his chair, turning his head as he did so to make sure his Supersledge was within easy reach. Sven didn't look like he was paying much attention to anything besides the motor, which he now knew was brimming with nuclear energy.
Derek watched all this as he responded. "I'm, ah, not sure that's a good idea Ashur. These men just learned they'll be working with you, and I'm not entirely sure they won't try to kill you if they meet you in person."
Behind him, James nudged Adam with his elbow to get his attention. Carl also leaned over to listen in, dragging Sven along as well. Derek could not hear what the four were talking about. Judging from their movements, Adam seemed to be the most agitated. James' hand moved in a series of motions as he moved from one point to another. Finally, as if breaking from a huddle, the four popped back into their original positions.
"If Ashur is as you say he is, then we might as well see for ourselves. We won't fire the first shot. Please note how I say my words." James warned.
"The reason we earned the name of 'Liberators' is because we shut down a massive slave organization known as 'The Wall' back in New York City. The four of us took on a whole army and, we managed to turn it around. Slaves tend to make a willing force multiplier if they've been treated badly too long and they smell freedom in the air," Adam said forebodingly, making sure the clip in his silence pistol was set.
"All that to say, if Ashur or any of his men have any funny business planned, they're in more trouble than they think." Carl explained.
"We're not going to start the fight, all right? We'll meet. Civilly. If he's straight with us, we'll be straight with him. If he's not, I'll nail he head to a wall," James said with a shrug, removing his scoped rail rifle from his back.
Derek met the eyes of each of the so-called "Liberators," then spoke into the mike again. "They've agreed to meet. But they're on edge, so keep the escort light. How about just you and Krenshaw? You trust me enough to know that if they attack you, I'll kill them all myself." Behind him, Adam's grip on his knife tightened even more. James met Derek's eyes with a hard glare, but said nothing. Carl's hands went from fists to open palms and back again as he worked to ease his tension.
A minute of silence stretched to near-eternity in the vertibird as everyone waited to hear what Ashur would say. Finally, the answer came. "Krenshaw won't like it Derek, and I can't say I disagree with him. But I'm willing to put my faith in you if it means that we can all work together."
Derek breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Olivia in the cockpit. "We're going to the Pitt. You know where." To Ashur, he said; "Tell Krenshaw I'll owe you both big for this. We're coming in from the north to the usual place. I assume you're nearby."
"We're there now. I'm sending my men back to the Pitt, so we'll be alone when you land."
Derek hung up the mic and turned to face the Liberators. "You heard what I told him," he said. "If you go back on your word, I'll kill you all."
Adam practically leaped to his feet, a knife in each hand. "Now listen you little shit-"
"Adam!" James shouted, grabbing one of his friend's arms with his covered hand. "We gave our word we wouldn't start anything. I intend to honor that, even if it means tying you down and leaving you in the vertibird with Sven."
"Not me!" Sven complained from Adam's other side. "I want to meet this guy!"
Carl sighed. "Sven…"
Adam tried to wrench his arm from James' grasp, and failed. From what Derek could see, the man may as well have been trying to remove himself from solid concrete. The Liberators glared at each other for a long moment, then Adam slipped the knife in his free hand back into its sheath and sat back down. "I'll honor our word too," he mumbled sullenly, not looking at anyone.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, and before long Olivia was guiding the vertibird to land in a clearing of rubble on the outskirts of The Pitt. To the south and west were ruins of old skyscrapers, as well the center of Lord Ashur's empire. Derek noticed two figures standing in the shadows at the other end of the clearing as he and the rest of the group filed out of the aircraft. Derek stood between Adam and Olivia, with James on Adam's other side. Carl and Sven were next to James, and Justice was on Olivia's right.
Ashur stepped out of the shadows, dressed in his customized power armor, complete with the bones and designs added by the tribals in the Pitt. His face, as always, was covered with grime and dirt from the city, but it did little to disguise the commanding aura he exuded. His face was lined with premature age, yet his features were set with a grim determination that Derek found extraordinary, considering the obstacles he faced.
"Greetings," he said to the group as he moved to shake hands with Derek. Behind him, his lieutenant, Krenshaw stopped a few paces back and watched everyone in the line with open suspicion in his eyes. Derek nodded and smiled genuinely to return the greeting, and shook Ashur's hand firmly. He could feel Adam's glare on him, but didn't react to it. If Ashur noticed, he didn't either.
Ashur moved to shake everyone's hand in turn. Krenshaw never let his gaze rest for too long, always watching for a sudden, treacherous movement. When Ashur reached Adam, both Derek and James tensed, but the man kept his word and didn't try to stab the leader of the Pitt. But he never kept his eyes off Ashur, nor did James for that matter. Carl's eyes, which Derek now knew for certain were bad, were fixed in Krenshaw's general direction. Sven had a manic grin on his face, and quietly giggled when Ashur shook his hand.
When the man was through greeting everyone, he stepped back from the group to stand with his lieutenant. "You have my thanks," he began, addressing everyone, though he only looked at the four men with the "L's" on their dusters. "I know this can't be easy for you, and I'll do my best to keep you from having to compromise on your morals from now on, but I wanted to thank you all personally for your help in the days to come."
"Do they know about Unity?" Krenshaw asked, speaking for the first time.
Ashur and Derek both blanched and cast their eyes about for unseen listeners. "Do not speak of that so frivolously!" Ashur ordered, turning to his lieutenant and glaring at him.
"I'm going to show them, Ashur," Derek promised, putting his hands up in a plea for calm and civility. "They'll know just what's at stake soon enough."
Lord Ashur continued to glare at Krenshaw. "As you wish. This all hinges on Sin'Nati, which seems to hinge on you." The man turned to face the group once more. "I won't keep you further. Go, with my confidence."
James coughed for attention. Derek tensed, his grip on his crowbar tightening. "When were you going to tell us about the sniper in the old hospital to our west?" he asked, as calm as if he had been asking the time of day. Derek hadn't seen the sniper. If Justice or Olivia had, they didn't seem to care. He could tell Adam, Sven, and Carl hadn't known, because all of them whirled to look at the hospital in question. James remained still, staring down the two men across from him, his rifle strapped to his back.
Ashur rounded on Krenshaw, looking angry enough to start beating the man. "I told you to move everybody!" he hissed in contained fury. "How do you expect them to trust us with a gun to their heads?"
"A little insurance never hurt anybody," Krenshaw retorted, looking away from his leader long enough to glare at James. "Besides, no one started shooting."
"I just might!" Derek declared, advancing on Krenshaw. He shoved the raider and pointed his crowbar at the surprised man's middle. "I will not be treated like some hostile tribal come to beg for scraps! I am the leader of the Raw Border and will be shown respect, as will the men and women I command! If the Pitt doesn't want to trust its allies, it can face what is to come on its own!"
Krenshaw blanched. He was an exceptional marksman and had a firm grasp of post-war battle tactics. As far as raider bosses went, he wasn't that far behind Ashur in terms of sheer ability. But what put him a step above the rest was his pragmatism. Lesser men were likely to throw away resources and men to satisfy their own egos. But Krenshaw had that rare quality a true leader required: the gall to admit defeat. And right now he knew that he needed the Raw Border more than it needed him. It didn't matter that his motivation was just to save his own skin instead of the loftier ideals of Ashur or Derek. He needed both men to survive.
The raider looked down at his filth-encrusted feet and buried the frustration he felt about this whole situation. "The Pitt looks after its allies," he mumbled.
Ashur was glaring at his second-in-command, no-doubt fuming at being lied to. Derek nodded curtly, satisfied with Krenshaw's answer. He turned and started for the vertibird. "Let's go," he told everyone.
"This is getting ridiculous." Adam grumbled as they followed the others.
"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the sniper. Either way, we've certainly met others far more evil than these two, so could we just at least shoot for being civil? I'm not saying let's be friends, let's just try to leave a good impression." James offered quietly.
"This IS getting rather stupid, all the bickering." Carl agreed.
"Its okay guys. If anything goes really wrong, at least my backpack would take out everything the size of a city square!" Sven gleefully exclaimed, cackling loudly.
Everyone, Ashur, Krenshaw, Derek, Olivia and Justice included, stared at him with wide eyes. "...He's not kidding either." Carl added.
Derek hurried back to his four guests and pushed Sven forward, urging him to the head of the group and onto the vertibird before anyone else. "There will be plenty of explosions soon enough," he promised, slamming the cargo bay door shut. "Use the other side!" he told everyone else when they looked at him, confused. He didn't think it needed to be explained that a layer of steel plating between the crazy man and Ashur was a good thing.
Nothing much of note occurred during the remainder of the return trip. Before too long, Derek was guiding the vertibird over the skyline of his home , checking to make sure he was over the hanger doors before bringing the aircraft down. The Liberators were pressed against the windows, looking out over the ruined city that was to be their home for the immediate future. All except Sven, who was resting his head against the bulkhead that housed the vertibird's engine and humming in tune with the fission generator.
The inside of the aircraft dimmed as the light of the setting sun was blocked by the walls of the underground hangar. "Mind the Yao-Guai," Derek warned them as the vertibird thumped to a landing and its motors sputtered and died. He opened his door and slid out of the cockpit, groaning and stretching his cramped muscles.
"Yao-Guai?" Carl asked as he pushed open the cargo doors and jumped out of the vehicle.
"Panama!" Olivia exclaimed when Derek flipped the switches for the hangar lights. The beast was curled up atop a miniature nest of blankets and shredded clothing. Surrounding it were the remains of myrelurks and chimera, caught and dragged back to what was undoubtedly the she-bear-mutant's new den. Olivia skipped over the smelly carcasses and wrapped her arms around her large pet's neck, seemingly oblivious to its spines and greasy skin.
Panama growled at the slowly approaching Adam, who had a knife in his hand. "You keep a Yao-Guai in your basement?" he hissed at Derek.
The other man shrugged. "Olivia likes her, and she seems to understand what we say. She's only killed the right people so far," he added to an incredulous Adam. "Panama, come over here and meet our new guests. Show them how civil you can be."
The Yao-Guai heaved herself to her feet and descended from her cloth nest, being careful not to disrupt the balance of cushioning it currently had. Olivia, who was cooing at her like a mother to her child, was half-dragged along, with her arms still around the bear-mutant's neck. Panama planted herself before Adam, then leaned forward to sniff him. She sneezed mightily in response to whatever she had discovered.
Derek tried his best not to laugh as Adam wiped phlegm off of his face and duster. "It means she likes you, I swear," he struggled to explain. Next she smelled Carl, who had been watching her with quiet amazement. She tried to lick him with her spiked tongue, but was held back by both Derek and Olivia. "It's the smell of mirelurk," Derek explained to him. "She does the same thing with the fishermen here."
James came next. Before anyone could react, Panama lashed out with a massive paw and tore through the sleeve of his duster. Derek was about to apologize and ask if James was all right when he noticed the complicated machinery that was where his arm should have been. "Does that thing shoot lasers?" he asked, hoping to defuse the tension. James simply shook his head and yanked off the rest of the sleeve.
Panama avoided Sven, probably because he smelled like he was about to spontaneously combust. The man wasn't really interested in the Yao-Guai anyways. Instead, he was eyeballing the fleet of vehicles stored in the hangar along with the vertibird. "And these all have fission reactors?" he demanded.
Derek didn't answer that question, for fear of what might happen if he did. Instead, he ushered the four men out of the hangar and shut off the lights. Olivia sang a goodbye tune to Panama and hurried after them. The beast simply curled back up in her nest and went back to sleep.
The group went into another room, this one occupied by various half-built robots and Mato, Derek's personal sentrybot. "Don't touch him," He warned the four of them, looking extra-long at Sven to drive the point home. "Now, Justice, Olivia, and I need to go make sure that we're the only ones down here. What we're going to show you is incredibly dangerous, so security is paramount. Wait here while we're gone, please. It won't be too long." With a nod from both James and Adam, the three of them left the room.
Sven immediately scurried over the inert Mato and began poking it all over to spite Derek's orders.
"Sven," Carl admonished him from across the room. "Is that really how you want to start things here? It's a long way back to New York."
The pyromaniac grumbled and heaved his gear onto one of the desks in the room. "I don't like him," he declared as he worked his sore shoulders. "He's too serious, and he talks too much. And he won't give me any fission batteries!"
"He does talk a lot," Adam agreed, sitting in a corner and facing the others. "And he still seems to think he can order us around."
"To be fair," James said calmly from his position by the door, "this is his settlement. We, that is, Regulators in general, are here because he says we can be." As he spoke, his metal fist absently clenched and unclenched. "And everything he says is said for a reason, even if it is a bit wordy."
The three men then looked to Carl, who was listening quietly. The big man shrugged his shoulders. "If he's being honest with us, then that means we're here to do something important. That's enough for me." Adam and James nodded, agreeing that this was a sane position. Sven shrugged in response and went back to poking Mato.
All four were startled when the door opened and a young girl slipped inside. She looked up at the three men with wide, fearful eyes and whimpered softly. She pressed her back against the door, too petrified by her fear of the strangers to try and get away. The four Regulators looked at each other, then back at the girl, who was doing her best to watch all of them at once.
"Carl, this is your thing," Adam said from across the room. The girl's eyes snapped to him as soon as the words left his mouth. Carl sighed and moved slowly over to her, trying to look as unthreatening as a six-plus-foot frame allowed. He moved so cautiously the girl took a moment to notice his advance at all, but when she did, she locked her eyes on him and backed into the far corner, huddling against the wall like she could fade into it.
"Careful," Sven warned Carl as he drew close to her. "She could have a grenade."
Carl stopped for a second to glance quizzically at Sven. "Why would she have a grenade?"
Sven shrugged. "It's what I would do."
The big man sighed and squatted down, trying to get to eye-level with the frightened girl. He was still a head-taller than her, but it would have to do. He reached out a big hand and smiled at her. "My name is Carl," he said in a soothing tone. "My friends and I are here to help Derek. Do you know him?"
Still fearful, the girl nodded.
"What's your name?" Carl asked, offering his hand again, hoping she'd shake it.
"S-Slave…" the girl answered, still cowering.
Carl's hand remained where it was, because he was stunned for the moment. At a loss for words, he looked to the others for help, but their looks of concern and confusion mirrored his. Carl, after a moment of thought, reached out and grasped the girl's arm. She shrieked and struggled like his touch was burning her, causing him to quickly let go. At that, Adam grunted and drew a knife from one of his many sheaths. Sven moved over to his pile of gear and started rooting through it for the right explosives. James' metal arm clenched into a fist. Carl stood and went for his hammer. "I've changed my mind," he decided aloud. "I don't like him."
Derek stepped into the room first. "Sorry, that took a little longer than exp-" was as far as he got before a large fist smashed into his face. His feet left the ground, and he flew a few feet before landing in a jumbled heap among some machine parts. Olivia, who was behind him, was about to protest, before noticing the large rifle James had pointed at her.
"One chance," Adam said in a dangerously calm voice. "Explain…" he had been about to say explain the slave girl, but his voice trailed off as the girl in question did the unexpected. A moment before, she had still been cowering in the corner. But she had cried out at seeing Derek get struck by Carl, and had rushed to his side. All four of the Liberators watched as Derek groaned and sat up, a large purple bruise sprouting on his face, only to fade just as quickly. The girl wrapped her arms around him and began crying into his shoulder. He hugged her back, not looking at anyone else.
"Did they hurt you?" he asked, the concern plain in his voice. Slave shook her head. "Did they touch you?" This time she nodded. "It's all right," he said, patting her back. "They're not going to take you away. I'm all right, I promise. Let go of me though, I need to stand up now." The girl, Slave, nodded and released him, still sniffling. He stood and rubbed his face where Carl had hit him, wincing. "You have a mean punch," he said to the big man. "Now where were we?"
"She's not a slave?" James asked, lowering his rifle.
"Who? Her? Oh, no, that's just the name she picked. Believe me, I've tried to get her to find a different one, but she has her heart set on it, for whatever reason," Derek explained, shrugging. "Isn't that right?" he asked the girl, who was now hiding behind his legs and glaring at Carl. She nodded furiously. "So that's why you hit me?" he asked Carl. "Damn, I'm going to be feeling this for days."
"You should be out cold for days," Adam murmured, staring at where his bruise had been.
"Anyways! We should really get on with the explanations. I know you're all curious about my strange taste in women, but it will have to wait. The basement won't be clear for long. You need to see what I have to show you." Without waiting for an answer, Derek turned and pushed past Carl, Slave hugging his other side and glaring at the large man. He led the way out the door, and the confused Liberators followed.
The group went through several dark passages, some flooded, others caved in at parts, a few without any lights at all. But despite the seeming maze-like qualities of Carew Tower's basement, Derek was sure of his way and led them confidently. Finally, they came to a dimly-lit corridor, at the end of which was an unassuming service elevator. Derek pressed the button to summon the elevator, and the lights in the hallway went out. "To everyone else in the tower, this is all that happens when you press that button. To us, however, pressing it again…" he did so, turning the lights came back on and opening the elevator doors.
Everyone filed inside, and soon they were traveling even further downwards. On one side of the elevator was a depth gauge, and from what James could see, they were over 1000 feet down already. Thirty seconds, and 500 feet, later, the doors slid open again. The Liberators were speechless at the sight before them as they stepped onto the long steel gangplank. "This is Unity," Derek explained. "This is why you're here."
The group was standing on an observation deck that overlooked a vast underground bunker, similar to a Vault. On the floor, far below them, the word "Unity" was printed in large, black letters. And on the opposite wall, huge metal beams securely held an entire arsenal of nuclear missiles.
As always, review lots and lots! I hope you enjoyed.