Chapter Five: The Unexpected Martyr

On this icy winter evening I am sitting in a ruined chair my saloon carved from old sheet metal, I take a sip of his drink and load my aged revolver, spinning the chamber with my fingers. I sigh and turn on an old holotape recorder and begin speaking into it.

" My name is Colin Moriarty. I have spent the last 50 years of my life tending a bar in a barren wasteland along the east coast. My father came over on a boat and a small fortune from his days as a mercenary and a merchant when he grew older. He brought me here from Europe in search of a better place when I was ten and died shortly after we got settled into my current settlement. These are my final words to my family."

I put my hand over the microphone momentarily to cough,

"During the spring when I turned 16, I began a saloon in one of the few settlements in the area. We had steady supply with the caravans that carried equipment around the wasteland to other places. Most of the original group died out on the trail, the second generation of the traders knew where to go and how to get there for the best business. I have seen my share of people come and go, even sadly witnessed people die in my saloon, close allies and enemies alike. But aside from those who came and went, my saloon was always a place of crazy drunkards and merry; and that was fine with me, always was. My saloon was the definition of wasteland living; no clean water, booze, chaos, and people of all places in it. We didn't look down on anyone, the door was always open and a bed open for a nap, if the price was right."

I smiled happily upon reflecting of my past and all my pleasant times behind the counter.

"This rust brown city in the middle of the desert was fine, I never saw a need to go out there. Everything eventually ended up in our city, including the closest things I would ever have to a brother, son, and grandson. James, Steven, and Jack were and are my family. The people in this city are my family, even though they don't live in the actual city anymore. While the city may have been busy twenty years ago, I am now the city's last inhabitant."

I looked upon my once very busy saloon to the now empty and dusty saloon, with only the floors being clean.

"13 years ago, the so called government rolled into the wasteland and started overtaking settlements. Everyday, a man who had access to a working radio station informed of us of which settlement had been taken down next. We ignored it at first, simply sending out scavengers as our eyes and ears in the wastes. Once we lost our contacts out there, we decided it best to work to build a new town."

"Even after we got the new city built,it was along the river, underground, getting everyone to put their problems behind them was, well, problematic. We had constant fights and we were having an even harder time uprooting some of the people from their homes they had inhabited for decades. As much as I hate to say it, when the Enclave, as they had named themselves, bombed Rivet City down towards the basin, they did us a great favor, as it killed relatively few and gave a clear signal to the people of the wasteland. Everyone needed to work together or accept being in a grave by the end of the month. Divided factions put their differences behind them in the hopes of survival but even so we worked hard to keep them in separate sections of the city in order to avoid conflict."

"Unfortunately, we had a problem. If the entire town right to the northeast of the new city just went off the radar, they would be suspicious and start snooping around and at that point we would be doomed because eventually they would find us and even when we came together as a group, we were still horribly outnumbered. Me and my makeshift family would pay the price. Steven staged a massacre in the town, with only myself, at the time, 6 year old Jack, and lastly Charon; being the survivors. They hauled Steven and Jack away to the prison sector of their base to the north for the past 13 years."

"Now they're finally home and I saw them for a few hours before this time has finally arrived. In all of my 65 years on this earth I have never lifted a finger without a price, same as my father, probably the same as his father. Now I prepare to pay the ultimate price to give the ultimate gift to the people of this city, to MY family; survival. These are my last words most likely so I am recording them on this tape recorder for those who I consider close. So they may know why I died, I, Colin Moriarty, The Unexpected Martyr. The likelihood I will survive the next few moments is slim to none. Well they're here. Goodbye Boys."

Vertibirds roared overhead and additional troops stormed the gates and made a great deal of racket. The upper floor is covered with explosives all rigged for when the tape recorder stops.

"The truth is, as Steven put it to me a long time ago when we first met, the only easy day, was in fact, yesterday."

Armored troops broke down the door and charged in, behind them followed the man who forced us into the rabbit-hole, and brought us together; Colonel Augustus Autumn. The colonel and I, much to my dismay, knew one another on a first name basis. The tape recorder has 7 minutes left until it runs out of space and stops. The colonel and I exchange angry looks and shake hands hatefully. The soldiers are in a full metal armor that has a dark green tint to it, while the colonel wears his aged and worn black overcoat. I am in my old blue and white suit.

"Good god Colin that thing looks like it hasn't seen the light of day in twenty years!" The Colonel says to me quite rudely.

"And yours looks like it hasn't been washed since it was made." I retort back with a smile. "So what do you want Augustus?"

"Right to business today? Alright then. Where are they?"

"Who?" I ask halfheartedly.

"Jack and Steven, they escaped this morning. Oh and Charon. The old boy has been missing from his house near the gate."

"Haven't seen them, you really should keep better track of your prisoners up in that base of yours and Charon escaped." I snickered at him while he turned red from embarrassment by his troops' ignorance.

"Cut the crap I know you know where they are Colin."

"Sorry Augustus, but our time is up." I said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Augustus asked with anger in his voice.

"See you in hell you slimy bastard." I heard the tape recorder click and the explosives detonated above, and fire poured over the rails on the second story and engulfed us all. When the fire cleared, my vision was blurred and I was in agonizing pain. Both the soldiers were dead, but the colonel's body was missing. I was leaned up against the side of my counter looking around frantically for him and I saw him throw a body of one of the soldiers off of him and pick himself up with his pistol in hand. I still had my pistol in my holster but he had the advantage of distance on me. He staggered forward, also quite dazed from the explosion, and tumbled down to my level. He looked me in the eyes and said,

"No matter where you are, no matter how hard you try, you can never fix your mistakes, and you will never kill me."

He shot me twice in the lung and once in the neck. I was bleeding out quickly and used the last of my strength to whisper, "I might not be able to fix them, but I can repay them, and I sure as hell can kill you." with that, I fired my revolver 5 times, all 5 went through his skull and should have killed him individually. While I am positive he died, he has a penchant for living beyond the grave. I glanced at the tape recorder to see it was still recording, and laughed, "That's the wasteland for you, there is always something left, whether it be a bullet, a few minutes worth of audio, or anything else. There is...always something left..." the world began to fade to black and I felt water on my nose, it was raining.

Chapter Six: The Citadel that Laid Under the Earth

An explosion and gunfire was heard above. We all mourned in silence for the old man who died to protect the city. I knew better than anyone that to mourn for an extended period of time was to leave yourself defenseless, but a few minutes wouldn't hurt us. I was the first one to speak

"I know he was a good man, but we need to get moving." Both Moira and Jack were in a mix of feelings of shock and despair. But something out of the ordinary happened, a Brotherhood of steel knight came up to us and required I.D.

"All of you bumbling twits down here should know me by now for crying out loud I helped build the place!"

"We heard gunfire in Megaton. We're running emergency checks on everyone, my apologies sir, but your I.D.?"

"I don't have it kid."

"Then I have to take you to the Elder. Direct orders from Paladin Gunny himself."

"Fine. I need to talk with him anyway." I groaned as I agreed to follow the Knight. The soldier punched in a code to the door but it failed to work. I pushed him out of the way saying, "Move initiate. I have this." I punched in a code and the Knight said

"Hey! That's the wrong code!"

"No, it's the right one." The door opened with my name appearing in the I.D. Registry part of the key-code. And as that blast door opened, I saw mine and Steven's handiwork, a giant city under ground, it reminded me a lot of Rivet city now that I look at it from this perspective, but in truth it was a subconscious thing. Steven and I spent a lot of time in Rivet City because of a facility we uncovered nearby that was hidden strangely enough in a Pulowski preservation shelter of all places. I guess we must have inadvertently designed the architecture on rivet city.

Due to the fact we were so close to the river, the cavern we blew open to be the main chamber of our new city was filled with water. So we were forced to actually use all of the ordinance we got from the NCR to open the cavern directly to river so the water levels balance and we could get something done. Even then, Steven, Harkness, and I had to go underwater so we could open up a cavern below us so we could drain some more of the water. Harkness was the one who got stuck down there resealing the cavern after we drained enough water, because we still needed a good deal of water so we could use boat transport for trade to Point Lookout and The Commonwealth and so we could purify water for the folks around here. It was the perfect place for the new city, because so few people knew all the exits, and even fewer people knew it was interconnected with vault 106 and 101. So, if the Enclave ever tried to storm the facility, the only way they could attack is by sea with the Vertibirds and that would be doomed to fail because of the Tesla Turrets me and Steven built once we got the frame work done. These were a couple of Mark VIII turrets we had salvaged from a base out to the southeast of the Capital Wasteland. We used pieces of a Tesla Coil to charge the laser of the turrets to deal enough electrical damage to take out a vertibird with one hit.

But, we seriously wanted to keep the Enclave away from the facility in general, simply because we'd be outnumbered drastically. They could keep bringing ordinance in from the oil rig in a nonstop onslaught. It would have destroyed the city and we would be forced into the open again and from there things would be over. Everyone in the city would either be dead or on the run and at that point they would be doomed to be in a grave.

The young knight escorted us to Elder Lyons. Arguably the oldest man in the capital wasteland, Elder Lyons' age has been lost with time, and the fact he could still lead or even breathe is inspiring. He was the model of health for his age and still the one of the best marksmen the capital wastes had ever seen. Elder Lyons' main office overlooks the entire city and leads back into the overseer's office in vault 101. We walked up to him and I started the conversation after a few silent minutes.

"Colin is dead Lyons. Augustus killed him."

"Why didn't you intervene? What were you thinking?"

"He used the switch to the emergency hatch into the tunnel system from the saloon, I tried to jump for him but I didn't reach him in time."

"Well_"

The intercom attached to Lyons' desk was going nuts all of a sudden. It was Casdin.

"Activate the emergency blast shields! The Enclave are about to carpet bomb Megaton!" He was panicking "I have already evacuated the above ground but dammit they have some big explosives, guys. It looks like 15 vertibirds headed Southeast towards the city! They're big enough to the point where one could level the city, if we don't think fast, the citadel doesn't stand a chance."

Jack spoke first, "Where can I buy a Sniper Rifle fast?"

Elder Lyons spoke to him as if he knew what he was planning all too well, "Jack, your money is no good here, Steven's son doesn't pay for equipment here. Knight Elliot, retrieve my Dragunov and armor for this man."

"Yes sir!" The Knight pressed a button on one of the computers and a shelf rose out of the floor, holding Elder Lyons' Dragunov. In Truth, it was far more intimidating than I had expected. The thing was camouflaged in a well made desert print and had a gillie suit to accompany it with similar colors. But from what I could see of it, I saw it had a silencer and extended magazines, very useful with one shot sniping. Judging by the look of anger on his face, Jack had been waiting to send this kind of message to the Enclave for a long time. He grabbed the Dragunov but declined the armor, and pulled out an armor I hadn't seen since we reunited the Brotherhood of Steel in New Vegas.

I remember that armor incredibly well in fact; when Lyons, Steven, and I had flown in to negotiate a rejoining of the two split factions of the brotherhood, it was in NCR territory, so the NCR had anywhere from 20-30 snipers covering each vertibird as they landed on the Dam. I remember I couldn't see but a few of them so I took out a clip and tossed it into the air to gauge their accuracy and how many there were. When the clip fell there was a sphere cut out of it. They had all hit it dead on and in such synch that they formed a perfect sphere out of the holes, whereas most would be cylindrical. I was stunned and Steven and I holstered our weapons for obvious reasons.

How Jack had gotten his hands on a Desert Ranger's armor, I'll probably never know. It was one of the most intimidating armors I had ever seen, it was so sleek, yet so strong and resilient. The second I saw that helmet go over his head and its optics glow red, I knew that things were going to be ended, very quickly. But something struck me as out of place; the helmet was missing one of its optical lenses, instead it had simply had a jagged crater missing where it should be, which was very strange especially considering how much damage those armors could take. Hell I heard tell that a long time ago, one of those helmets took a mini nuke right to the face, and the man wearing it picked himself up, cracked his knuckles and bludgeoned the raider to death with his own two fists even though he hadn't suffered a scratch. He gave the elder his thanks and leaped into the cove and swam out to the river from there he appeared to have swam from the citadel to avoid suspicion. He pulled out the Dragunov and radioed back to us as he shot the first vertibird's pilot over the river.

" You might want to close those blast shields that lead straight out to the river because most of these vertibirds are going to cause a good deal of splash damage when they crash."

"Ok Jack. We'll do things your way. Seal the doors Charon."

"Affirmative."

I activated a terminal and put the city on an emergency blast shield lock-down and we lost transmission with Jack. We could hear explosions outside, and I knew that Steven had no idea how much his son had learned before he met me. He didn't need my knowledge, my lay of the land, my weapon expertise. He had taught himself everything he ever needed to be a better version father in the wasteland before he stepped out of that prison yard. I might ask Lyons in a couple of years if he wants to send him out west to join the Desert Rangers, assuming if he isn't already one of them. I don't know who taught him, but I'd hate to meet them in a dark alley if I pissed them off. Judging by the fact he had taken down at least one of the vertibirds already, something told me he was going to be a valuable asset in taking back this wasteland from under Colonel Autumn's feet.

Casdin radioed to us from up above, "That kid is one hell of a shot. And he's a damn smart one too. Knows physics and explosives radius well enough to launch himself from a vertibird exploding. You train this kid Charon or was he born this good?"

"It's all in the blood Henry, its all in the blood."

Chapter 7: Jack's Message

The Dragunov felt good in my hands, like it had been crafted for me. The stock was adjusted properly with the armor, and grips fit nicely with my hands. The elder and I must have had a similar physique when he was my age. So far, 3 vertibirds were down, 2 had been smart enough to have landed, and 10 were still on course. I gripped the Dragunov tightly and shot at two opposite engines on two vertibirds and watched them run down the one in-between them. At that point I couldn't get a clear sight with the Dragunov and put it away and contacted Casdin.

"Casdin, Casdin? Can you here me? 8 vertibirds are down but 7 more are still headed your way. Over."

"Where are they right now?"

"That's what I need to know! It looks like they're over the Super-Duper Mart but they are out of range for the Dragunov."

"Flip the safety switch on the Dragunov. You'll be pleasantly surprised."

Sure enough, I flipped the safety switch, and these coils I hadn't noticed before started glowing blue. I took another shot with it, and I saw 4 vertibirds go down in one shot, the Dragunov had been modified with a Tesla Cannon's energy chamber. I smiled and ran to the landed vertibirds and shot them with a blast at close range. The blast flung me high into the air and for a split second, I felt weightless, and then I plummeted down to the vertibird below me shooting one adjacent to it down from above, and I landed the vertibird. I latched on to the side and pried the door open, throwing the pilot out the window and turned the vertibird around; crashing in straight into the other. I saw the vertibirds ignite and I jumped out of the cockpit and was pushed by the explosion right into the river. I looked around me and saw an enclave soldier desperately trying to scramble out of a destroyed vertibird that was sinking into the river. I swam over to him and helped him out of the vertibird and gave him a message to deliver to Colonel Autumn.

"Tell Autumn I'm coming for him. And I'll be the one to put him in his grave and any other troops that get in the way." I pulled out a few stimpaks for the gentleman and sent him on his way. I pulled out my radio and said, "All threats have been brought down, disengage the blast shields. Repeat. All hostiles have been grounded you are clear to disengage. We've sent our message. It's time for him send one back."

"Affirmative. Return to base. Nice work Jack."

I took off the aged helmet of my mentor and looked at the hole in it, remembering what he told me of the armor that he gave me.

'Only wear this if you want to make a bold statement, kid. If you don't have a message to send with this armor, or at least a few bullets, the only wasteland asshole it'll get killed is you.'