(Vault 112)
Pitt felt the chill of the vaults cold wall surround him, it felt empty, wrong. Pitt had heard of the vaults of course, he had always figured that they were like underground kingdoms, but this place just felt like a crypt. The door had already been opened, an alarm blazing to warn the non-existent residents that their sanctuary was vulnerable to the world, this was good, masked their presence even more, but they wouldn't be able hear each other either, they couldn't use hand signals due to the stealth signals so they moved in signal file and focused on the shimmer in front of them, when the person in front stopped so did they. Pitt instantly knew something was wrong, the halls were clean and orderly, robo-brains roamed the halls tending to the systems and electronics, supermutants mark their territory with blood and bodies and they would have destroyed the robots on sight. Pitt's anxiety grew even further as he swore that a camera was following their movements. The team trudged on regardless, making their way ever downwards until they reached a room full of bizarre pods. The pods were completely blacked out and whatever was inside, if anything couldn't be seen, each pod connected to what seemed like a central computer system that spanned from the floor to the roof in a tangle of metal and cables. Jackson deactivated his stealth and the rest of Bravo followed suit, each member fanned out and examined one of the computers, just as they activated them the computers exploded in a bright white light. Pitt was launched behind one of the pods and hit the wall with a sickening crack; he felt a warm sensation coming from the back of his head and assumed that he was bleeding inside of his helmet, just perfect. He fought to stay conscious as he tapped his visor four times which sent an emergency signal to the Alpha squad, Pitt's last moments of consciousness was watching the darkened pods open to reveal troops wearing black and red tesla armour. They checked the arms of the stunned soldiers' suits to see the white stripes that determined rank. One of the soldiers checked Pitt and promptly yelled to another.
"Sir this one has the most stripes, he must be the commander!"
"Good, good, execute the rest and get back in the pods, they must have reinforcements, they won't be able to bypass the pod locks." Pitt fell into darkness as he heard the sound plasma weapons being fired only to be replaced by a sickening silence.
(One year prior, The Pitt)
The Pitt was full of screaming as the slaves enacted their bloody revolt. Gunshots and the whir of auto axes played like a deadly symphony of pain, the boy was only sixteen but he fought with a ferocity that only came from having nothing left to loose. He was covered in blood, raider, trog he didn't even care anymore; he just kept swinging his axe and running, always running. He had been part of the distraction for Werner and the stranger to do whatever it was that they needed to do to free the slaves. He had had a normal life once he and his brother, poor Billy, turned into a turned and slaughtered by some prick scavenging steel. He was too tired to feel anything, all he could do was hope that every fresh splash of blood on his face was another step towards freedom, not that he had anything left to go back to. Just as it looked like the raiders were going to win the floodlights all around uptown began flicker and shut off, and as darkness fell a sea of roaring crashed through the city as the trog crawled through windows and down walls. The boy laughed despite himself, the slaves were never going to win, but the trogs just might. He dropped his axe and fell to his knees, he couldn't move any more, too tired, too empty to go on. As a savage began to charge at him he closed his eyes and felt the darkness seep into him.
(The Bridge)
The Captain sat in his chair and looked out to the stars in silence, as did the rest of the Bridge, most of Bravo squad dead, and one missing; this was a disaster, a disaster that must have taken some planning. The Captain broke from his thoughts and saw that all of the eyes of the Bridge were on him, silently expecting a response, expecting him to be the leader they needed.
"There will be time to grieve later; right now we have a soldier missing and an enemy that needs to be taught the consequences of crossing the WRM. Bigsley tell me we had the tracking devices in the suits working before we sent them out." The Captain asked stoically.
"Yes but the boy's isn't functioning, I can only assume that they, whoever in god's name that is expected something like that and disabled it, needless to say they would have to have had some kind of experience with advanced technology to do that."
"Probably Outcasts" Olin stated coolly
"Probably" Bigsley agreed
"Okay if it's the Outcasts then they would base somewhere underground where the laser couldn't get them, and it would have to be able to accommodate their technology… oh they would be short sighted enough for that wouldn't they?" The Captain mumbled, obviously lost in thought.
"Feel free to use your social skills any time now" Bigsley grumbled impatiently
"If I know Casdin and I do, he probably wants to make sure that if he doesn't have the tech nobody does, now what would you use to destroy what they probably think to be an orbital strike satellite?"
(Unknown location)
Pitt woke up in a dank metal room tied to an office chair; all he had on was his under shirt and boxer shorts, his head ached like a bitch and the bright light burned his vision. Stepping into the light a man in red and black tesla armour approached Pitt and grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look into the light.
"You're obviously not a commander like my men thought but you'll do. For an entire month my men have been scouring the wastes looking for your base of operations, we are not stupid or careless, so please enlighten me as to why we can't find it." The man said in a cold voice made even more daunting by the mechanised voice changer in his helmet.
"Maybe your guys need glasses; I mean they mistook me for an officer, how perceptive could they be?" Pitt offered innocently, a response which was rewarded by the man slamming Pitt's head against the metal wall.
"Let's try that again"
"Oh joy"
(Cryogenics Laboratory)
Elliot had heard the report and was just as nervous the rest of the ship, he was thankful that they had taken civilian passengers, attending to them was a full time job and one that helped him keep his mind off of the situation. He moved his small torch from one of his patient's eye to the next, satisfied that it's dilation and reaction times were normal, well normal enough for a ghoul he wrote a prescription and sent him, or her he had trouble telling sometimes, to the other side of the lab where a makeshift chemist had been set up. The advances that they were finding here was ground breaking, the advanced alien bio-gel that Elliot had learned to make so long ago was being perfected to take away radiation and heal most injuries and even some simple sicknesses, he was astounded at how self-sufficient the ship was, powered by space's natural radiation it could materialise everything a community could possibly need, he almost regretted that all of the ship's alien crew had been killed, such an advanced civilization could have taught them so much. Unless their reliance on technology gave them their fragile bodies, what if they were actually humans who had simply become too reliant on technology and they were actually experimenting on people so they could somehow regain their hum forms! Elliot shuddered and forced the thought out of his head, he had always had an active imagination; maybe it was due to his solitary childhood on his family estate? He continued treating his patients as he began to drift away on thoughts of his old life, vaguely hearing Sally complain about not getting a lollipop from him after a check-up. It wasn't until he heard a thunderous crash coming from the hanger bay that he began to pay attention to what was happening around him.
(Hanger Bay)
Olin had taken over the small ship analysis. She had managed to figure out how to engage basic systems such as life-support and gravity but for the life of her she just couldn't figure out how to fly the damn things. She had been sitting in one of the saucers as the crew had dubbed them that had been docked in between what she called the docking towers, large towers not unlike tesla coils which seemed to be able to keep the saucers in place through an electro-magnetic manipulation field. Sitting in the pilot's chair she examined the controls inside of the ship, which was nothing. The only thing inside of the saucer was a chair and a bright blue strip on what the techs called the dashboard. Despite her calm and cool demeanour she was becoming increasingly frustrated at her lack of progress, she could just picture Bigsley's snide comment's if she didn't produce anything soon, in an act absolutely unlike her she slammed her hands on the blue strip and pictured flying it right into that smug bastards face. To her shock, the saucer shot forward and violently hit the edge of the electro-magnetic field sending it back into place after the docking towers expelled some static electricity which sent more than a few techs flying into the wall and each other. Sitting in absolute shock she gingerly put her hands back on the thin blue strip and pictured the ship moving slowly up, an action that the saucer obediently copied. It was a full two hours before Olin stopped boasting at Bigsley that day.
(Robot Assembly)
Bigsley had been determined to upgrade the robots since Olin figured out how to work the ships (by accident Bigsley would argue) she had been nothing but an even bigger pain in his ass. The drones were pathetically weak with their rotating claws they were barely fit enough to mow a lawn, not like there were any of those left and the drones were too unpredictable, they shoot out a ball that bounces around a few times and explodes, unfit for field duty but not for much longer if Bigsley had anything to say about it. He toyed with the drones first as they held more potential, first he deconstructed the shell to examine the intricate electronics within, the first thing he learned that the cannon that fired the energy balls was actually a miniature reactor that powered the entire robot, after very carefully removing that he discovered that the rest of the robot was basically power distribution from the reactor with the exception of the head which acted as a friend/foe target finder. The real work was to be done on the cannon itself. Bigsley examined it carefully and looked for ways to up the power or make the energy output more stable, in some crazy sense of irony as Bigsley examined the cannon it slipped out of his hands and fell on a settings button, the result was instead of an unpredictable ball of energy, a deadly beam of blue light, not unlike the death ray shot out, nearly killing a passing scientist who quite understandably soiled himself. Bigsley looked at the cannon bemused and thought about many 'great' scientists really made their discoveries this way.
"Okay so the aliens really liked death beams, good to know." He sighed, the drones should be enough artillery support maybe he could make the others into robotic repair units. Well this should make things interesting for Casdin Bigsley thought as a smile crept across his face.
(Unknown location, three hours later)
Pitt was coughing blood out and couldn't see past the swelling of his left eye, his arms had been broken and he was pretty sure he had a few cracked ribs.
"H-hey I really didn't mean any offence by the mother crack, I'm sure she's a very expensive prostitute." Pitt weakly chuckled. Casdin who had taken off his helmet took Pitt's hand violently broke his index finger. Pitt's screams were soon replaced by weak laughter which seemed to aggravate Casdin even further.
"What the fuck's so damn funny you goddamn waste rat?" He hissed in frustration
"Y-you actually think t-that stupid little tesla armour can save you d-don't you? News flash you DUMB MOTHERFUCKER NOTHING CAN SAVE YOU FROM HIM!" Pitt snarled in an equally venomous tone
"You think you precious little wanderer, is going to what? Swoop in and save the day? He's left you to rot and even if he hasn't there's no way he can find you." Casdin sneered in a self-superior, and seemed to be thoroughly satisfied with himself.
"Oh Hahaha you t-think I'm talking about the Wanderer, oh you dumb bastard Hahaha, you got bigger problems than him, you got the Jackal nipping at your heels now." Casdin punched Pitt square in the jaw and even he was a little disturbed at the fact that Pitt just kept laughing. "He's going to tear you apart limb by limb and piss in your eye sockets as you're just about to die!"
(Six Months prior)
Pitt had been in the Capital Wasteland for a month now and he still couldn't believe how big the Mall was. He had been pickpocketing his way away from the Pitt and had found himself wandering into DC. One day he had tried to pick the pocket of a man in black combat armour, after taking a beating from the man he had been offered a job, apparently impressing him for getting so close unnoticed. Pitt didn't have any other options so he agreed. He was given a uniform a size too big for him and a shitty 10mm sub machine gun, Pitt assumed that the others were screwing with him, telling him that he was no better than the piece of shit gun he was using, he couldn't say he particularly cared at the time but after a while he began to see himself in the abused weapon, after two weeks of obsessive repair he had made it into a weapon to be proud of, and was so very proud. It was this weapon that caught the eye of a certain scavenger who seemed to have a stick up his ass about Talon and a temper (and gun) to do something about it. Pitt's fellows were down before they knew they were dead, but Pitt was always ready for some prick to try and drag him back to a life of slavery, it was a plus that it kept him alert enough to duck when somebody shot at him. For three days Pitt and the scavenger played a game of cat and mouse in the ruins of the nation's capital, if Pitt hadn't have sustained that wound from the savage trog in the Pitt he may have just won, but the little game ended with Pitt on his knees in front of the Capital building staring at some other kid in leather armour pointing a 10mm pistol at him. Pitt had been shot in the leg beforehand by the scavenger but he wasn't going to die from a 10mm pistol shot that was just insulting. Pitt threw dirt in his eyes and the two wrestled until they both fell down the concrete steps and had to run away, lest the supermutants take them both. Pitt had been enthralled by the stranger ever since, eventually he found him selling scrap at Rivet city and the dynamic duo of Jackal and Pitt was born. Pitt never spoke of the three day bout between himself and Jackal and Jackal never confirmed whether that was him or not but Pitt held those days as the greatest fun in his life, surviving just wasn't fun unless you had somebody to boast to about it and to hear you're witty quips.
(Bridge, two days later)
Everybody on the Bridge stood at attention and waited for the Captain to give his orders. It was three simple words, but they invoked hell for the Outcasts.
"Make it so" The Captain ordered, and the next few minutes were filled with hectic activities. Pilots who had barely been trained were preparing themselves for full warfare, beacons were being launched with all of RA and their new artillery drones beaming down and ISO equipped themselves with gauss rifles, each of them thirsty for some revenge for their comrades, eager to bring back the lost lamb of their dysfunctional little family. It was war, and it was glorious.
(Fort Constantine)
The fort was in an uproar, out of nowhere beacons began to rain down from the sky and then a sea of lasers covered anything in black and red. RA stormed the fort in T51-b power armour with alien disintegrators, they took no prisoner's and never missed a shot, leading the assault was McGraw who called in the locations for the artillery bots as they were now known and kept the squads moving in perfect harmony, if he had any qualms about killing his former comrades he didn't show it, executing people who intended no harm was not part of the codex, not part of his morals. Morrill led the ISO as they sniped any elevated targets, rocket soldiers and other snipers fell like flies as the invisible reapers took their targets down, one shot, one kill, but it was the saucers who truly rained devastation, one minute they were shooting death rays at anybody stupid enough not to spread out, the next they were covered in a stealth field placing themselves in the right location to continue their destruction. It was exactly five minutes and twenty one seconds before the exterior forces of the Outcasts were obliterated. The saucers withdrew to the mother ship and all of the beacons were beamed back with another being launched outside of the CO's quarters for the extraction of Pitt.
(Fort Constantine, interior)
Pitt heard the explosions above and smiled contently; his face was covered in bruises and cuts where Casdin pushed his face in the chain link fence door, Pitt had discovered he was being held in an old reception desk or something in some kind of bunker. Outcasts ran up to the surface in a panic, something Pitt noticed with delight was that they didn't come back. Pitt decided now was probably time to leave before he overstayed his welcome, he began jump up and down bringing the chair he was tied to with him. After a while the chair broke and Pitt managed to slip his hands out, his hands were still tied behind his back but he didn't have the strength to do anything about it. With great strains Pitt got to his feet and made his way for the stairs when Casdin came bolting down, his armour had a burnt hole in it and he was bleeding badly.
"Just thought I'd put some drinks out for the guests" Pitt said with a crashing feeling in his chest. Casdin simply grabbed him by the hair and dragged him downstairs. The trip was short but violent as Casdin pulled Pitt into a ruined bathroom and closed the door. "Hey at least buy me a drink first Pitt said. Casdin was not amused.
"Just shut up!" Casdin yelled as he hit Pitt with the butt of his plasma pistol. Casdin held Pitt up and put the gun to his head as they faced the door. The sound of heavy footsteps sounded throughout the hallway, Casdin pushed the gun against Pitt's head even harder as the footsteps grew fainter and fainter, Casdin began to quietly laugh, and it sounded evil and pained. Casdin grabbed Pitt's hair once more and began to drag Pitt behind him. Casdin opened the bathroom door and was met by the butt of Jackal's rifle. Casdin shrieked and fell back, but Jackal descended on him like a vulture and tore off Casdin's helmet. Jackal began to repeatedly beat Casdin with his helmet, once, twice, three times and he just kept going and going, eventually Casdin stopped screaming and then his head just became pulp, meat and blood left for the roaches. Pitt was on his back staring at the ceiling as his friend came into sight; he had put his helmet back on and stood above Pitt like a sculpture.
"What took you so long?" Pitt groaned
"It takes time to look this good." Jackal responded running his hand over his helmet, Casdin's blood covered half of the winterised suit of armour, it was a beautiful sight for Pitt, who lost consciousness chuckling.