Walking the Snow Chapter 3

Rock, Ice, and Steel

I don't own Fallout.

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Cold

It was very cold. It could get pretty chilly in the Capitol Wasteland during the winter months but nothing like this.

"Hey, hey wake up!"

"Come on pal, Wake Up!"

Verea grabbed her head, too dizzy to only vaguely notice that she was now wearing a helmet, and slowly stood on her feet. A man with brown hair stood in front of her. He was wearing white combat armor with an American flag on it. He had a kind yet hardened face. His nametag read Benjamin Montgomery and his insignia marked him as a sergeant. He screamed, "Soldier".

"That was a hell of a nasty fall you took. When your chute bunched up like that I thought you were a goner. I hope the other guys made it… I don't think their patrols spotted us coming in so at least we have the jump on 'em. You still have your gear so I'm gonna let you make the call. You can go in quiet or gun blazing. We'll still meet at the rendezvous point inside as planned then we'll blow those artillery guns to hell."

He raised a finger and pointed it at Verea.

"Just watch yourself. The reds up here don't take prisoners. Good Luck!"

With that he raced away from Verea and began to climb the cliff.

Verea was still in bit of a haze. It was like someone was explaining something complex, two minutes after you wake up.

"Wait! Where's the rendezvous point? What am I supposed to do?" But Benjamin was halfway up the cliff and didn't hear her.

"WHOOOOSH!" The wind picked up and she wrapped her arms around herself She never felt this cold before.

As she was trying to warm herself up. Verea finally had a chance to survey her virtual landscape. She was standing on a rocky cliff, with snow billowing around her. It was twilight, with stars visible in the sky but the whitish tinge of sunlight was still illuminating the cliffs, although it could be due to the simulation.

Her arms falling to her side, Verea let out a deep sigh. Placing her hands to her hips, she looked around. There seemed to be a path leading around the cliff, seeing no other way, Verea had little choice but to follow it.

She rounded the bend before quickly darting back behind it. A soldier was slowly pacing on platform up ahead. But was he friend or foe? He could be one of the "reds" that the other soldier mentioned but she didn't know for sure. It wasn't like she was given a mission briefing.

Her Pip-boy!

In her excitement, she had forgotten all about it. Wasn't all that surprising…she wore it virtually her whole, adult life, it was literally a part of her arm now.

Backtracking away from the potential enemy, Verea brought up her pip-boy screen…

"Where's my stuff!"

She immediately clapped her hands over her mouth; luckily her voice was carried away by the wind. It didn't, however contain her shock.

Indeed she had been literally stripped bare. She only had two weapons, a silenced 10mm pistol with 50 rounds of ammo, and a trench knife. Her clothes had been replaced with winterized combat armor and matching helmet. All her chems were gone as well, left only with a stealth boy.

Careful not to speak out loud, Verea nonetheless thought to her herself:

"With this puny arsenal, I'll double my weight in lead!"

"Of course I wasn't much better off when I first left 101" She thought with a small grin.

"Okay back to reality or simulated reality"

She also noticed that three explosive charges had been added to her inventory but she couldn't do anything with them. Shoving the thought aside she checked her radar. Sure enough the figure up ahead was an enemy "red" as indicated be the red tick marks on her radar.

Insert notebook stuff here-

There was a strange red tank sitting on a crate, it seemed to be glowing and making an odd, electronic chirp, she touched it and felt a small, warming station go through her. It felt like she had taken a stimpak only different. The red cross on the tank seemed to indicate that. Thinking it must be part of the simulation Verea looked up ahead. The path led to a narrow rock face, with several buildings built in to the mountain.

Making her way down some metal stairs Verea saw a metal bridge spanning the deep chasm, with a Chinese soldier waling on top of it.

Fft fft fft three shots and the soldier was down, its body disappearing.

On the way across the bridge Verea risked a look over the side. Now Verea wasn't afraid of heights and she knew it was only a simulation, it still looked like a long way down…

RATATATATA! A Chinese Commando opened fire. A few bullets hit their mark, but so did Verea's. As the Reds body disappeared, Verea checked herself. Strangely there was no wound she only felt weaker, and the pain seemed to be spread over her entire body. Being nothing serious Verea continued across the bridge.

After reaching the other side she was now among the buildings built into the cliff. An odd chiming now filled her ears. She looked around and saw some stairs leading to the cliff. She followed them, as the chiming got louder. Sitting on a crate was another one of those weird tank things. But there was also a frag mine and a sniper rifle, all of which were glowing red. Verea cautiously leaned forward and to her relief the weapons did not disappear. She quickly stowed them in her pip-boy and then turned her attention to the tank. When she touched this time, she felt much better.

"These must be healing stations for the sim" This revelation arose mixed feelings in her. At first relief because, now she new she was not stranded with no medical supplies. However she found that she could not move the object, therefore she would have to be more strategic than in the Capitol Wasteland because she just couldn't heal herself after every battle.

Verea learned more about the simulation she was in when she reached the small room on top of the platform. There she found two more frag mines as well as two frag grenades, and to her delight, a Chinese assault rifle, but she also found a large machine sitting in the corner, which to her relief, relieved her supply of ammo, another problem solved.

There was an empty clipboard sitting on the desk along with the explosives. Normally she didn't give them a second glance in the Wasteland due to their minimal worth, however she wanted to know how the environment worked here. She found that she could pick it up. But she couldn't scan it into her pip-boy. She concluded that it was here mostly for decoration.

Tossing it aside, Verea summoned her assault rifle and headed out the door before suddenly darting back inside. A soldier was standing on the pipe traversing the chasm. Deciding her sniper rifle would be best in this situation, she put her assault rifle away and withdrew her sniper. Lining up the rifle, Verea was the last thing that soldier never saw.

As the body disappeared, Verea thought

"Boy this pipe looks slippery"

Having little choice in the matter, Verea decided to slowly and carefully walk the length of the pipe. Unfortunately the sim's programmers had other ideas, for another soldier on top of a platform descended to the pipe and opened fire.

"Okay NOW! I need my Assault Rifle!" Soon the red vanished to digital oblivion. But it was not over yet. One the other side, there was a cliff with a staircase running up it. And on top of the cliff were more soldiers, who wasted no time in opening fire. Verea was in trouble for they had the higher ground. She had to get to the top as soon as possible. Ignoring the pain that erupted over her body from their bullets Verea raced up the staircase, opening fire on any red she came across.

She was in pain but not the worst pain. Verea found herself standing in front of a door to an outpost. Steeling herself against her wounds, Verea journeyed into the Dragon's den.

(&)

Defender Morrill continued to scan the ruins. Ground Level clear, first ruin level clever, second, clear, third…

"Hey Defender!"

"Damn"

Another Outcast was emerging from the elevator. "How's guard duty coming?"

"Fine until someone interrupted me"

"Huh you wouldn't say that when you see I brought!" The female Outcast smiled from under her helmet.

From behind her back she revealed two steaming bowls of instamash and cups of purified water.

"Its chow time!"

Sighing Morrill moved his helmet, Lindsey was right, it was chow time. Sitting down the two of them started eating.

After a period of silence, Lindsey spoke up, "Did you hear?"

"Bout what?"

"The Brotherhood of Steel, I heard that Rothchild completed the giant robot in the Citadel and are using it against the Enclave."

"After only 20 short years"

"Liberty Prime is definitely a technological treasure"

"Its wasted in the hands of those traitor's! With Lyons and his soldier sycophants, he'll use it to plow fields for the locals instead of using it properly!"

"Like to spear his super mutant white whale!" said Lindsey with a grin

Both Outcasts laughed. They were so wrapped up in their little joke that they didn't noticed the cloaked figure who had been watching them from a ruined roof slowly move away and out of sight.

(*)

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