hello readers! Hypn0s is back, and yet again with another chapter of the chornicles of maverick.
i must say I'm actually surprised how well the story has been recieved, even more than my first fallout fanfic, in either case tyhis motivates me to make eve more chapters than ever.
now for this chapter you will notice that some characters are acting very diffrent than from the game, or that some characters know others, or other storylines come across, like New Vegas storyline, like I said before, this is all part of my stroy before, I believe that Fallout 3 would be big, even more than now with some New Vegas stroyline, some characters of there, changed of course, after all this is all AU, and Fallout New Vegas was admitted to be a story with no relationship whatsoever with Fallout 3.
so without any delay, I give you all chapter 2.
CHAPTER 2: PROJECT ZETA
The room they found was perhaps the closest they would ever find of something human, or at least human made and human decorated in this god forsaken place, really what kind of being would control an Overlord to track down a little girl.
The little girl, Sally if Sarah heard correctly, was also an abducted, like them, who had escaped her cell about a month ago, the time Sarah had been in captivity, and had been trying to make her way to the hangars where the aliens had their spaceships, hijack one and fly as far as possible of them, along with stashing enough supplies to last her for a lifetime.
Thing was that she got lost on the way, kept insisting she should have turned right, the place was so huge that you actually needed a map to find your way around.
In any case she got lost, ended up crossing paths with a group of aliens, got away of them easily, according to her she had been escaping them a long time, but this time the aliens seemed tired of her, and send the controlled Overlord against her, to capture and to kill her, which had her spooked beyond any reason, that was until Maverick and Sarah had crossed paths with her and saved her.
Now the room they were was in fact a secret room where she had been hiding and not even the aliens knew about, taking stuff and stashing what she could find, mostly food and aliens gadgets, she also, somehow was able to drag a mattress so she could sleep as well, and also stole alien weaponry.
Sally was basically, in Sarah eyes, a very curious girl with an unhealthy appetite for adventure, if several of her exploits around the place were to believe, according to Sally she actually once led a wild goose chase for over two hours, and only ended when she got hungry, and twisted her ankle.
In any case, Sally was currently sitting on the mattress, resting while Sarah checked the little girl of any visible wounds and checked her torso for any broken ribs, after all she had been manhandled by an Overlord, wounds made by those monsters are not to be taken lightly.
As she finished examining Sally, she turned her sights to Maverick, much to her surprise he had disassembled several of the alien handguns Sally had stole and stashed around, and was picking the pieces of the disarmed weapons, and putting them together on a new weapon, she found odd that he disarmed That Gun as well.
"Oh, you're using the super-coilers and magnet barrels to make a gauss handgun?" Sally asked, "Yeah, I disarmed the first alien gun and saw it used magnets and super-coilers attached to a barrel to propel extremely fast and hot plasma like rounds, is both solid and energy at the same time, true plasma weapons, and so I decided to mess with That Gun, since is big enough and compatible with some of the parts" Maverick stated as a matter of fact, and so he began to talk with Sally about the newly improved That Gun
Sarah could only blink as these two began to talk all scientific mumbo jumbo like if it was discussing the weather, which to her it could be so to her, the only things she got of their conversation was 'enhanced firing' 'shots 20 rounds per alien battery' and 'A badass weapon to kill badass opponents' oh and who can forget the last line 'can punch a hole through 5 inches of titanium'
Now she knows that when you say Gauss you relate it also to Rifle and ridiculous firing power and penetration per bullet, a Gauss Rifle round, shot close range, not point-blank, but by at least five meters between target and barrel is guarantee to punch a clean hole in that target, regardless if it wears a Power Armor, Enclave troopers learned that the hard way, also the rifle, since it was semi-automatic and had a sniper scope, acted as a very overpowered sniper rifle, only met in power with the NCR anti-materiel sniper rifle.
Now that they had time, and a shelter of sorts, she could wonder one thing in particular.
What in God's name those aliens did to Maverick?
Super strength could be easily explained, at least to her, she is no doctor or something, but heavy doses of Buffout are enough to overpower anyone, yet it doesn't match even in a dream the unnatural strength of Maverick, not the resistance he displayed, after all he was grabbed by an Overlord and tossed to a wall like a ragdoll, and was still good to go, nor the fact he was able to rip the arm of an Overlord like if it was nothing.
Not to mention that she knows by experience that Vault Dwellers, while smart, are not as smart as Maverick is showing now, he's basically making a gun out of scrap, and while most wastelanders have made weapons out of scraps, the dart gun, railway rifle and the dreadful Deathclaw gauntlet being examples, he was making a whole new gun out an alien weapon parts and adding it to a human handgun like if it was nothing.
Soon she saw him finish, and smirked at his own creation, whatever the hell he had done to That Gun, she did noted however that he did not remove several parts of the gun like the cylinder where the rounds were stored, or nothing of the exterior, the only thing that was added outside the gun was that now he added one of those alien batteries and such battery was now added inside the grip of the gun, like if loading a standard handgun.
Maverick, now noticing the gaze of Sarah on him, simply smiled, "Hey Sarah, want me to thinker with any of your guns?"
"Uh…no thanks" she said, while she had to wonder what That Gun could do now, past experience has taught her that mod guns, especially mod guns that made it to her hands end up broken or nearly take her hands in an explosion, not so nice, no one knows why this happens to her, but Rothchild keeps insisting that he will never hand her anything remotely moded.
"Okay" Sally began, "That should be able to punch trough their inertial fields" she began, gaining the attention of both adults.
"Inertia fields?" Sarah wondered out loud, "Yeah…think of them as personal energy shields"
"They have of those?" Sarah asked in clear shock, "Yeah, but only their elite security units and their elite combat shock units wears them, I can tell you this however, those shields can take a pounding before failing, I have seen them taking a whole magazine of a minigun point-blank" Sally stated, making Sarah gulp at that.
"The good news is that kinetic rounds propelled at max speed will be able to punch trough the inertia fields, the bad news is that their shock troopers are…too mechanical" Sally stated, standing up of the bed and looking at both adults.
"Great, now we are dealing with robots, and I don't have pulse grenades to deal with them" she said, "I doubt it will work" Sally stated simply, "While their bodies are of that of a machine…their brains are purely organic" Sally stated, making both adults frown at that.
"Reminds me of the Robobrains that usually wander around, guess is aiming to the head then" Sarah stated as if she was discussing the weather.
"If we are going to escape, we are going to need to work together for this; you say that this place has a hangar, right?" Sally nodded at Sarah's question, "Good, I hope you know how to pilot a ship, because you're coming with us" Sarah stated, Maverick didn't say nothing, but it was obvious he was against the idea, but it was either this or t alternative, leaving Sally behind with the aliens.
"And the other abductees? We can't just leave them behind Sarah" Maverick stated, making Sarah sigh, "Okay Maverick, another lesson on the wasteland, rule three, the only life that counts outside is one own, no one else…"
"BULLSHIT!" he snapped, making Sally basically jump behind Sarah and so said woman to cringe, "I believe the first two 'rules' because they have fundaments, but the last one? It does not, we are humans Sarah, not animals, we can't just turn a blind eye to the problems of others just because we can!" he snapped, making Sarah blink.
"Is how things run down there, there is no law, no order, no rights, is not like your vault Maverick" Sarah snapped back, "Well Lyons, excuse me for having morals, but that's how my dad raised me, to believe that everyone has a chance"
"And how about the aliens here, do they have a chance of change?" she asked back, "This is different and you know it, they drew the line when they started using us as animals, I believe since they were all superior minded they would have a higher set of morals, but no, they are less than animals for doing this to a sapient specie, and they will pay the price for it" Maverick stated.
"Then why should we worry about the others?"
"Because we can Sarah, that's why!" he stated, "I thought you would understand that, all soldier and fighting for a reason besides survival, freedom, the right to choose our leaders and to live…guess I was wrong" he stated as he took That Gun and walked away.
"Maverick, Maverick! Where the hell you think you're going!" Sarah snapped.
"Do make a difference here Lyons…unlike you" he said as he opened the door of the secret room of Sally and then this one closed automatically behind him.
Sarah just stood rooted on the same spot she was, looking at the door Maverick had left, then heard Sally huff.
"Nice going" Sally began, "He was our best chance to escape and you just chase him away" Sally chastised the Sentinel, Sarah just rubbed her nose bridge.
"Dammit, this god forsaken spaceship is crazy, I'm getting snapped by a little girl" Sarah stated tiredly as she collapsed on the mattress.
"This is no spaceship Sarah, is a space station" Sarah eyes were wide at that revelation, but not at much as the next one, "And for the record, I'm over 200 years old"
"…oh hell no" Sarah moaned as her brain tried to process those two things Sally told her, the last one might be comprehensible, after all if the aliens gave Maverick superhuman strength, it was not too beyond to think that the same aliens might have found a way to stall or outright stop the aging process on a person.
But the first one had her worried, not because they were on an alien space station, but because the Enclave had a satellite from which they had been overseeing the DC area and had used to coordinate their most devastating attacks yet.
What really stopped them of turning the satellite and finding this place?
"Sarah, come on" her wonders came to an end when Sally tucked her hand, "We got to find Maverick!" Sally exclaimed, "Why should we, he made it clear he doesn't want to escape"
"No" Sally stated, "He said he won't leave no one behind while you, he and me escape this place, is not fair for them" Sally stated.
"What is fair Sally? Trust me on this, nothing is fair in life" Sarah muttered, "I know that, I lost my parents to the bombs, and my sisters to the aliens, even Maverick knows this, whatever they did to him makes him feel lost and desperate, I can see it" Sally stated, making Sarah furrow her brow.
"In any case he is not my concern; he is not one of my fellow brothers in steel" Sarah added, "Dammit that doesn't matter here!" Sally snapped, making Sarah bristle like an angry Yao Guai.
"Doesn't matter? The chains of steel are all I got in my life, is what makes me who I am, I don't expect you a relic of the past and a vault dweller to understand this!" she snapped, suddenly going eye wide when she realized that once again, her rage had gotten the best of her.
Sally just looked at Sarah grimly before turning her back on her, then slowly walking to a box, opening it, it revealed a heavy looking plasma handgun, now armed, Sally proceed to leave Sarah.
"Sally…Sally wait!" the girl didn't heed, she just walked away, leaving Sarah alone.
"…FUCK" Sarah exclaimed as she tossed around and began to throw anything that she came across along the room, finally when she had nothing else to throw, she collapsed on her back, and sighed.
"Why? It always gets the worse out of me" she sighed even more, wondering how she would remotely fix this mess she had started.
Thinking it hard for a minute, Sarah made her choice, standing up she left the room as well, ready to apologize to those two.
She had crossed the line with them, and she needed to at least explain them why she had done it.
Maverick kept advancing, trying to make as much distance of him and Sarah, thing was that he was unable to.
No matter he tried to justify his actions, she was right, not only here, but down there, on Earth, on the ruins of DC, on the Capital Wasteland, how could one person made a difference?
"You know…leaving like that made you like a jerk" turning around, he spotted Sally of all people, what seemed an energy handgun strapped to the belt of her pants, "Sally? What are you doing here?"
"You think that I'm going to let you wander around and get yourself killed because you had an argument with your girlfriend about morals?" she asked bluntly.
"Sarah ain't my girlfriend" he deadpanned, "Riiiight" Sally began, rolling her eyes, "And I'm not 200 years old, oh come on you discuss like an old married couple"
"We do not…wait, 200 years old"
"That's not important, what matters here is that like it or not, we are in this, together" she began, not missing the incredulous look on his eyes, "200…years old"
"Yeah" a third voice made the duo turn, and to Maverick to narrow his eyes, "I got the same reaction when she told me here age" Sarah stated as she made her way to them, only to stop some inches of them.
"What do you want Lyons" Maverick snapped, Sarah grimaced, but steeled herself, "I…wanted to apologize" Sally and Maverick rose an eyebrow at that, Sarah doesn't look, for them like a woman who apologizes often, or apologizes at all.
"I know I went over the line with you two" before Maverick could ask what she meant by that she continued, "Sometimes I forget that other people have other set of ideas that will rub me the wrong way…and…" she hesitated at the last part.
"Is just…you…you remind me…of me…before the war" Sarah confessed, looking at Maverick straight in the eyes, "Before the war we had it easy, you know? My routine was more focused on patrolling the DC ruins, shooting every single Frankenstein-I mean super mutant on sight, every centaur on sight, help every scavenger we found, keep GNR plaza and building on one piece…but war…it changes you, even more than living in the wasteland" she confessed.
"I lost so many people…so many brothers and sisters, I also had your philosophy, that one person could make a difference…but I was wrong, a lone person cannot make a difference" she stated bitterly.
"I learned that…the hard way" she said finally, Maverick just stared at Sarah, not knowing what to say, but Sally did.
"You lost…someone, right?" Sarah looked at Sally, then smiled sadly, "Yeah, that I did…in the Brotherhood is encouraged to marry inside the organization, dating an all that jazz, we are a very closed community, thank steel when haven't reached the point of marrying cousins, ugh" she shuddered at that, incest and cannibalism was above all, the most frowned acts a humans could do to another, even more than murder.
"We were dating for over two years, we were seriously considering marriage, that was until war came, the Enclave…they attacked an outpost that, while not important as strategic position, was usually used by initiates to train, they slaughter them" she said, "And we wanted revenge"
"What happened?" Sally wondered, "What happened? We got butchered, he…Jason…he was there as well, one of the recon guys, after the battle told me that there was nothing they could recover of them, nothing solid to bury at least, they had been torn apart, melted by plasma shots, burned alive and their ashes spread to the four winds…the only thing they could recovered, besides broken guns was his holo-tag…and a message from the murderers" she said darkly.
"…Be ready, the wrath of the true humans shall purify this wasteland…" Sarah hissed trough teeth, "I can't forget that message or the name who wrote it" she then glanced at Maverick.
"That was the first contact we had with both The Enclave and Vault 101…" she said, "Since that day I bowed to hunt down the dwellers that killed them, and I will" she said, staring at Maverick dead on the eyes, "Tell me…does the name Amata Almodovar rings a bell?"
By the way he paled like his armor, it seemed so.
"…Yes" he said softly, like not wanting to accept what he had been told, "Amata…what have you done?"
Sarah seemed to see his distress, with a intake of breath she approached him and Sally, "Listen…I know I did wrong back there, to both of you" she said, kneeling to meet Sally level, "The war down there, it changes you, it twists you…in my case I was in such a stress that I didn't care how many people died around me, all I wanted was revenge, you of all people should know this Maverick, I attacked you just because you were of vault 101"
He nodded solemnly, still not wrapping up the idea that his childhood best friend had been a murderer.
Yet, he had to remind himself he had killed as well, he who got his ass owned too many times by Butch and his gang, he is still trying to figure out how he was able to escape fully trained guards when he was unable to even lay a punch on Butch.
"Sally" Sarah continued, "I…listen, I was out of the line the way I treated you okay…is just that…things haven't been easier for me, and I can guess that they haven't been easier for you either" Sally slowly nodded at that, "And well… (Sigh) god is hard to apologize to someone older than me…what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry…and you're right" Sarah confessed.
"In a sense I mean, while you're right that here we have to depend with each other, but…the bonds…the bonds I made with my brothers and sisters…they are my family Sally, regardless of where they are, they are family, always will" Sarah stated finally.
"Okay then" Sally stated, "But don't do it again OK?" Sarah smiled at that, regardless if Sally indeed had 200 years; she was still a child at heart.
Slowly standing up, she gazed at Maverick, wondering how he was handling the news she had just given to him, it seemed he did knew Amata, and by the looks of it, he seems unable to accept the fact she was the person who led the butcher of several initiates, unarmed initiates she had forgotten to tell him.
"Maverick…how you're holding up?"
"How I'm holding up?" he snorted at that question, "How would You hold up when someone tells you that the person you have know since you were a baby, grew with and believed you knew suddenly turned to be a murderer and allied with elitist bastards?" he asked to her.
"I can say…mess up?" she answered with a question, making him to bitterly laugh, then sigh, "Sarah" he began, "Can you tell me the names of those in Vault 101 involved with the Enclave, and what the Enclave really wants?" she simply chuckled sadly at him, she knew that each name she would tell of those inside Vault 101 would bring him to despair, after all he should know them.
"From what intelligence and Reilly Rangers, a merc group that allied with us said, Vault 101 force is divided into two groups, younglings, and old sort, the younglings are less, but they are quite vicious, we don't have full names, but we do have their leaders pinned, the first is the Spec ops leader and commander, Amata Almodovar" Maverick winced at that name, making Sarah realize how really close Maverick and Amata were while on the Vault, before the war began.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised, Amata always had a knack of basically sneaking everywhere, hell she knew about a secret entrance and exit to the Overseer's office and into the vault 101 exit" Maverick replied.
"Well, yeah, I can imagine, mostly her Spec ops unit is formed by females of her age or younger, thus earning the nickname 'Femme Fatales' or so I have been told" Sarah stated, making Maverick groan, he knew every single girl of Amata's age range and below it, and realized her unit was over 56 women from nineteen years to at least twelve or ten.
"The other unit, well is more like a gang" there she heard him actually groan, "Stop there Sarah, let me guess, they are called 'Tunnel Snakes' and are led by a guy named Butch DeLoria, right?"
"Yeah…how do you know?" she asked, "Simple, Butch was my…personal tormentor back in Vault 101, a bully if you will, back then I was unable to flip people and beings ten times my mass and size and rip their arms off and club them to death with them, yet I managed to handle Butch for fifteen years, I still wonder how I was able to escape the vault" he said.
"Okay, that aside, there is also the old bunch, you could say that they are intelligence gathering and tech experts, pre-war artifacts they know how to use it, pretty much, they are glorified mechanics" Sarah stated, making Maverick smirk, he could imagine why the 'old bunch' as Sarah refer to, stayed behind.
"As for the Enclave, well, for what my dad told me, the Brotherhood clashed with the Enclave a long time ago, originally they were a shadow organization that pulled the strings behind the US government, or so I have been told, in any case when the bombs fell, they were already hidden inside their own private vaults, and waiting for the oncoming fallout" Sarah stated.
"Then they surfaced, apparently they didn't like too much the new world, and while it was lawless, it lacked some of the sins of the old world, regardless of that, the Enclave deployed on a small tribal town called Navarro, each one of its residents being descendants of former Vault dwellers, and began to experiment with them with something called FEV, or Forced Evolutionary Virus, for what we found in some ruins, it seems that the FEV is responsible for the Super Mutants, including the Overlord you killed" Sarah said with a sigh.
"The Enclave however was defeated that same year by a tribal, their base basically leveled up, ever since we believed they were gone, and the Eye-bots around the wasteland were just remnants of the Enclave propaganda, giving a pre-recorded broadcast on a infinite loop, guess we were wrong" Sarah said bitterly.
"In terms of power, well they are in par, if not superior to the Brotherhood in both manpower and firepower, while the Brotherhood scavenges old technology for safe keeping an use if needed, the Enclave has developed their own weapons and Power Armors, they use Plasma based weaponry, similar to the weapon Sally has" Sarah began, making Sally blink, "Uh…I found this gun on a safe that was going to be dumped on a waste disposal area on the station" Sally stated.
"Their power armors are far more advanced that the T-51b models used 200 years ago, not to mention that their Hellfire models are tougher to penetrate, even with Gauss Rifles" Sarah said.
"We have an edge that is that we count with the support of the wastelanders to help us, but the Enclave is ruthless, there are rumors that they have Talon Company, a group of very depraved mercs on their side as well, also they have Vault 101 residents as their main hit force, found a way to clone cannon fodder, and use Deathclaws to deal massive damage"
"Okay, they are bad news, or so you say, until not seeing, not believing" Maverick said, making Sarah scoff, "That…might come a little earlier than before" Sally stated, catching their attention, "Listen, from here we can take two routes, one leads to a scientific area, we need to go there because, truth to be told I want to really know what they did to Maverick" Sally began.
"That is valid Sally, and the other one" Sarah asked, "The other one is a detention cells, the space station has several detention cells all around it, the one you two were must be the 'ones to be disposed off ASAP' Cell section, the one close to us is more used by new arrivals" Sally said, when seeing the look of both adults, she kept going.
"Well, about a week ago I went across that section, I assumed that since there was new people there, freaked people, they could help me, well turns out that the aliens kidnapped a bunch of jerks" Sally said with a pout.
"Half of them have the same uniform you wear Sarah" Sally began, making so said woman to go eye wide, "And well, three or four of them have the same wrist computer you have" she added at Maverick, making him sober, "The rest were on their underwear" she ended.
Sarah had already the gears on her head working overtime, the aliens had actually kidnapped Enclave members, now that was a new one, and could actually act as a boon for her, and she could get them to cough all the information about the Enclave, how? Well she could have Maverick punch a hole on one of the metal walls and scare them, telling them that she was the non-painful and most sensate choice over a guy who could rip your head off if you didn't tell him what he wanted to hear.
The thing was that there was also Vault Dwellers, and that could make Maverick take bad emotions, especially concerning those with the Vault Dwellers that were on jail.
But also she saw reason behind Sally's first option; she would lie if she told someone she didn't want to know what the aliens had done to Maverick, truth to be told, she was aching to know what the aliens had done to Maverick, what kind of drugs they had used to augment Maverick's strength to insane levels, not only that, his body, especially his muscles and brain had to be enhanced somewhat to endure the unnatural stress put to them.
"I guess…we should go first to the cells, I don't know you, but perhaps seeing me and Maverick around might cause those guys to lose their tongues" Sarah said, making Maverick and Sally to stare at her oddly.
"…What? You have any idea how hard is to capture and Enclave officer or trooper alive? They commit suicide on the spot" she commented, making both Maverick and Sally to sigh, while they didn't knew what the Enclave were truly capable, not seeing them beforehand, from what they had learned from Sarah, it sounded that they were bad news.
Maverick immediately brought the map on his Pip-boy and pointed where the cells Sally mentioned were, oddly enough, both the cells and the scientific area Sally had mentioned as well were connected as well, Sarah summarized that since the aliens saw humans as less than animals and more as things to be put on slabs and be dissected, it didn't seem odd that they had a lab close to a supply of fresh 'specimens' to be carried with less time and less effort.
"I…guess" Maverick stated, "But for the record I say is a bad idea" he added, pulling his hunting shotgun out, "Dully noted Maverick" she said as she turned around, then stopped and looked at the wayward vault dweller, "Trust me on this Maverick, once you see them, you'll see what I meant about bad news" she added as she walked away, leaving both experimented abductees behind.
Sally just looked at Maverick, then turned to stare at the retreating Sarah, "Come on Maverick, I don't like it either, but is better than nothing…at least she apologized" she exclaimed, making Maverick sigh with a small smile tugging on his lips, "Maybe…" he said as he followed Sarah and Sally onto the cells, "But it doesn't mean I like it" he said as he held the shotgun even closer to him, hammering the gun once, Maverick got rid of the empty shell he had forgotten to remove when he fired the shotgun once.
And as the shell fell to the ground, Maverick followed the two girls, really hoping that things could get easier this time.
Five minutes later…
Apparently, as he could see, life was not granting him a breather, even after he got kidnapped and experimented by aliens.
"Well…this is familiar somehow" Sarah muttered, staring at the scene before them.
The scene before them, at least to Maverick and Sally was not entirely familiar, not at all, in fact Maverick found himself frowning as he walked around.
"Watch it Maverick, maybe some of these bodies are booby trapped" Sarah stated, staring at the body of the Enclave officer who had its neck broken on an impossible angle, well one that only a Super Mutant or Maverick could achieve.
The trio had made it almost safely to the cells, almost being the keyword because halfway they encountered what seemed an alien robot, this one floated of course, and, according to Sarah, didn't hold a candle against a robobrain or a sentry bot.
That thought died the moment the robot nearly bitch slapped Sarah's head away, and made a neat gouge on one of the thick metal walls, of course what had in strength lacked it in resistance, Sally had reacted fast enough and had shot her plasma gun, one shot and the floating robot was done for.
That had been the only interesting thing they had found until they reached the cells, once they reached the cells, they saw that something had indeed happened.
At least a dozen of aliens, armed with shock batons lay dead on the ground, that wasn't odd by anyone's standards, considering the fragility of the alien's bodies, they were surprised that they didn't die by just having their necks crushed by the mighty weight of their big heads.
That didn't strike her as odd, what she found odd was the dead bodies of the Enclave officers and troopers on the ground, two of them sported some serious wounds on their bodies, to be more precise, on their necks and heads, abrasions and concussions.
"They killed each other" Sarah stated, looking at the corpses, seeing that none was booby trapped or something like that.
"Dammit all to hell" Maverick muttered angrily, earning the attention of his two companions, "I know this pair of guys" he said as he kneeled and turned the bodies of two guys wearing Pip-boys, like him, "This old man" he said as he pointed at the dead old man who oddly had Butch's hairdo, "Is Butch's grandfather, Albert DeLoria, he was the one who put the idea of a gang on Butch's head, always carried a concealed switchblade, the one he gave to Butch and my dad 'liberated' for parts" Maverick said with a smirk, then he turned serious as he looked at the other corpse with revulsion.
"This guy whoever" he said as he pointed at the body of the dark skinned man with a shaved head, "Is Paul Hannon, security chief on the vault, I beat that guy so badly with my bat that I know I broke several of his ribs" he said as he stood up.
"Both died of unnatural causes" he said as he stared at Sarah, "Albert presents signs of suffering a heart attack, Paul however…oddly enough has blood oozing out of his ears and nose, I don't know what could have provoke it, but it think it was an aneurysm, but is odd, he never showed signs of having one, or headaches or a head tumor, dad would have seen it" Maverick added.
"Maybe they were experimented as you were" Sarah offered, taking several of the batons, along with what seemed a thick looking syringes filled with a metallic blue liquid inside out of the bodies of the aliens.
"Maybe the experiments they did to you are not exactly repeatable, and safe to another human to undertake" Sarah mentioned, making him nod, "Is a possibility, but I find odd something" he began, "Sally said there was three to four vault dwellers, where are the other two?"
Whatever Sarah or sally were to say to Maverick died out when the doors behind them opened, immediately the trio aimed their weapons at the intruder…
"Hey what the hell? I'm a human! Lower those things dammit!" only to blink, but keeping their guns aimed at the dark skinned woman who held a shotgun, a riot shogun to be more precise on her hands, unlike the other three however, she wasn't aiming her gun at them.
Sally and Maverick kept their gaze on the dark skinned woman, seeing that she had her head shaved, but was slowly growing back, but Sarah actually smirked at the woman as she lowered her laser machinegun.
"Well…I'll be dammed…Somah" Sarah said as she looked at the woman straight in the eyes, by her part, Somah looked at Sarah curiously, then smirked as well.
"Sarah Lyons, well I'll be dammed, you bitch!" Somah said as she advanced Sarah, the blond woman doing the same, in an instant both women where in what Maverick had seen as a 'manly hug' all strong pats to the back that could easily leave imprints of their hands on their own backs.
As both girls broke their hugs, Somah, the dark skinned one took her time to inspect Sarah choice of outfit, "Enclave? Girl what the hell?"
"Bastard aliens took my armor, I had to do with what I had" Sarah said as she broke the hug and inspected Somah as well, "And look at you, still dress in those rags?"
"Screw you Lyons" yet the way Somah had say it meant it on a friendly way, but it was soon that the dark skinned woman noticed both Maverick and Sally, and the number of corpses, both human and alien on the ground.
"Damn…you got meaner in these two years" she said as she walked and inspected the corpses, "That wasn't us" Maverick muttered, staring at the corpses, "Someone…or something got here before us" he added.
"I say someone" Sally added, looking at Maverick, then at Sarah and finally to Somah, "I told you that there were four of those guys with the pip-boys…two of them are missing" she added.
"Vault dwellers?" At Sarah's nod, Somah cursed loudly, "Dammit, here too? And here I thought this place was nice" she said with a sneer.
"Not very fond of vault dwellers aren't ya" Maverick stated, "Damn right I'm not, bastards butchered my crew back in the wasteland…dammit we have found a place to stay, we had food, water and even shelter…then they came and killed everyone, I survived because a grenade went off near my room, blew my door away while I was on the other side, got banged up so badly they believed I was dead" Somah stated as she hefted her riot shotgun.
"When I woke up I found my men crucified…crucified dammit!" she exclaimed angrily, much to the surprise of Sarah, "Crucified? The dwellers have never done that" Sarah exclaimed.
"They don't Sarah, I didn't explain myself well…there were more people with them that day" Somah explained, "Who? Talon mercs, chem addicted raiders, Sigma squad, the dammed Gary fodder?" she wondered.
"I don't know exactly, what I know was that I didn't just encountered my men crucified, but I also found the heads of those damn vault dwellers mounted on pikes, and a damn gold bull painted on the entrance of my place" Somah stated, making Sarah frown at that.
"Odd" was all Sarah replied, as she turned to Maverick and Sally, "Oh…they are my companions on this crazy trip, Maverick, escapee of Vault 101 just days before it went to the Enclave" Somah narrowed her eyes at Maverick, but considering that one, he escaped Vault 101 before they went all sociopath on everyone mellowed the feeling of wanting to shoot him, and two, if Sarah trusted him, so she…to an extent.
"And Sally…a 200 year old savant woman trapped in the body of a ten year old girl" Sally pouted as she crossed her arms and looked at Sarah, "Well, I am eternally young, anyone's wish…but all comes with a price, mine being young forever, but like a small girl" she said, Somah just blinked at that, really not believing if Sarah was pulling her leg with that last one.
"Okay guys, she is Somah, you can say that she is pretty much the example of a reformed slaver" Somah just glared at Sarah, "I am a mechanic dammit, I never had slaves, or captured one" she snapped.
"You worked for them; it made you a slaver to the eyes of others" Sarah pointed out, "Anyway, Somah here is a survivor of an early attacks of the Enclave on the first days of the war, she worked for us while hiding of them for over three months before she walked away, saying that she wanted some peace and quiet…guess that didn't work well" Somah nodded.
"Yep, the attack I mentioned you was over a month ago, I wandered around for over two weeks before I got kidnapped by the small greens, they healed my wounds and then tossed me to a cell, they should have checked if I had something else besides my weapons, I killed the two guards that entered my cell just a day ago and been wandering ever since" she stated.
"Well, good to have you around Somah" Sarah said with a smile, one the dark skinned ex-slaver/mechanic mimicked.
"Okay guys, I guess we can't wallow here any longer, let's go to the labs and see what the hell the aliens did to Maverick" Sarah stated, making Somah raise an eyebrow, "You'll see" was all Sarah said as the group, now with one more on tow, followed Maverick who had the only functional map around and went to the labs near the cells.
Scientific area…
The mechanical door opened easily, allowing the four humans to walk inside, Sarah taking the point, Maverick and Sally right behind her and flanking each other and Somah bringing the rear.
"This place…is awfully quiet" Somah said in a murmur, "…Stay frosty, Charlie can be anywhere" was all Maverick said as he kept his hunting shotgun pointed at the general direction.
"Red Falcon down?" Sally asked, "Yep, unedited edition, I saw it on my twelfth birthday" Maverick muttered with a smirk at Sally, "The unedited edition? Damn you Maverick…my dad nearly went nuts trying to find that one" she said.
"Shut it you two" Sarah said, her eyes scanning the odd, plain circular room, devoid of any kind of lab equipment.
"This is odd…for a lab" Somah stated, "We are not inside the labs per se, this is a waiting area" Sally stated, looking at the ceiling, "Usually there are a dozen of turrets on the ceiling along with an energy barrier around, keeping dangerous specimens or numerous ones separated of the real laboratories" Sally said.
"Right now is turned off, good thing, let's keep going, that way" she added as she pointed at another door, that one was more heavy looking than the last one, once they reached the door, they found out that the door was locked.
"Dammit, now what?" Somah asked, Sally looked around, spotting something that made her day, "Leave it to me" she said as she walked to a wall, then tapped what seemed a light metal covering, "Maverick, would you be kind to rip this off?" Somah earlier question was answered when Maverick, bare handed an all, punched two holes on the edges of the thin metal sheet, and rip it open easily, she also noticed that the metal sheet was as thick as the plating of a Power Armor.
"…Screw me sideways…he just punched a hole on that?" she asked, disbelieve etched on her voice, "You think this is amazing? You didn't see what he did to an Overlord" Sarah mussed, making Somah stare at Sarah oddly, "Do I want to know?" Sarah shook her head, giving Somah her answer.
"Okay guys, give me two minutes" Sally said as she entered the now open ventilation shaft and disappeared from view.
Oddly it took Sally less than two minutes to open the door from the other side, once opened, the group quickly made their way inside, what they found inside was something that made Sarah easily blanch and to Maverick to grunt in sickness.
The laboratory, while filled with cutting edge technology that would make any scientist drool, was also filled with body parts, human body parts.
"God almighty, those aliens are really touched on their heads" Maverick said out loud, now fathoming the idea of seeing human body parts and organs inside what seemed preservation jars.
"…they do the same to their own" Somah muttered, pointing at what seemed a large tube filled with green liquid, inside floated what seemed to be one of the aliens, just this one was different, beside the fact this one had a bigger head than the one they met, and its skin was actually gray.
While the group looked around, Maverick approached the tube with the alien inside, softly laying his hand on the glass, "What kind of beings these aliens are to do this on one of their own?" Maverick wondered out loud.
"I really don't know Maverick, I really don't know" Sarah said, looking at the alien on the fluid.
With a sigh, the group moved away of the conserved alien, and truth to be told, only one of them knew what they should be looking for.
"Okay Sally, we are here on the labs, now how the hell are we suppose to figure out what the hell they did to Maverick if we don't even know what half of these things do?" Sarah asked, Sally just rolled her eyes.
"You think the aliens just make me eternally young?" Sarah simply nodded, "Well no" Sally, oddly enough looked offended by the assumption of Sarah, "They made me smart, very smart, a mistake they didn't repeated until they came across with Maverick, and I bet all his knowledge revolves on weapons, warfare, combat, how to fight, how to maim, how to basically be a war machine, and to learn even more about combat" Sally began.
"Me, on the other hand, they made my mind like a sponge, pre-war theorist said that humans only use the 10% of their brain in their lives, that leaves a 90% of their brains untouched, left to waste, well, the aliens made sure I could use my brain to the 100%, and even more so, I am like a sponge, I take knowledge too easily, I remember everything, and can apply that knowledge in very interesting ways" Sally said.
"Also I happened to learn their language, both written and talked, and how to work on their consoles, I just need to find a console around the lab and then I will be able to access maverick lab profile" Sally said, looking around, the little girl happened to find what she was looking for, what seemed a computer, or a keyboard attached to console of her height, but without a screen.
"How we are going to see anything, this doesn't has a screen" Somah wondered, sally simply smirked as she pressed a key, and to the eyes of the group, what seemed a holographic display appeared in front of them.
"Okay, that solves that issue" Somah stated, feeling right now like a fool.
"Now I just need to find the profile of Maverick" Sally mussed as she typed fast and in an almost possessed manner the keyboard in front of her, in less than a minute she had already found what she wanted, and cursed instantly.
"Oh damn it all to hell!" she exclaimed loudly, making her companions to stare at her, "His profile is highly classified, they never do that!" Sally snapped.
"Can you crack it?" Sarah asked, "That I can, but it will take me some time to do so, just cover me" she said as she began to work, her typing being the only thing that could be heard on the silent lab.
"Damn, look at her go, is like she is possessed, I bet even the scribes back in the citadel can't match her speed" Somah muttered to Sarah, "Yeah…I doubt Rothchild or Doctor Li can hope to match her"
"Okay done…eww, now I regret this" Sally said as she looked at the holographic display, and soon she knew that the other grimaced as well.
"Is that…me?" Maverick asked, "Yep…" Sally said, staring at what seemed a holographic display of Maverick, clad in only his boxers; there were words, or what seemed words below his image, while neither Maverick, Sarah nor Somah could understand it, Sally did.
"Zeta Subject? Why it says that?" Sally wondered out loud, "I don't like how it sounded that" Maverick said, "Neither do I, let me see why" she began to type even more, and soon a list of things began to appear, all linked by a single line on several parts of Maverick's body.
Tentatively Sally pressed her index finger on one of the boxes attached to the line on Maverick's holographic display, then her eyes widened when several procedures and names appeared in front of her.
"Carbide Ceramic Ossification, Muscular enhancement Injections, nano-machine bloodstream enrichment, Occipital Capillary Reversal, nano-fiber cord, Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites…god almighty, just one of those procedures is enough to kill a healthy person" Sally commented, making all to blink.
"Uh…Sally, we know crap of what you just said, put it in dumb terms" Sarah requested, "Okay, in dumb terms, all this combined is a formula for a super-soldier, a very mean one" Sally confessed, seeing that they hadn't truly grasped what she meant, she began to explain.
"This one for example, the muscular enhancement injection, basically is super powered anabolic steroids injected to the muscle tissue, increasing the tissue density and decreasing the lactase recovery time, in short words, muscles get tougher and get tired less, the downward however is that so far, every single person injected with this has suffered a very horrible cardiac volume increase, too much for a normal human heart to bear" she stated, slowly but surely her comments began to settle in.
"The nano-fiber cord is basically the most extreme so far, it involves opening the spine of the person, while removing the spinal cord and replacing it with a fiber that is filled with nano-machines, these nano-machines will increase the connection speed between brain and body and vice versa" she added, then sighed.
"I don't understand, of all the people subjected to each one of these, you have survived it all, hell I was put on one of these procedures, the Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites…and I bled from my ears for a week, yet you survived all the procedures, all that should have a 99% mortality rate…I just don't get it" Sally said as she looked at the screen, then cursed even more.
"For the love of God there is more!" she asked/snapped, typing even more she gasped in shock.
"Okay, the good news is that the only non-fatal procedure that Maverick was subjected to made his skin hard enough to take 10mm bullets point-blank and just leave an abrasions, the bad news is that they did the same to several vault dwellers"
"Say what?" Maverick asked, looking at Sally with concern, "Well, something similar, they tried to repeat the same procedure three times after your success in surviving…poor guys didn't made it pass the injection" Sally said, looking at Maverick for a minutes.
"After that the aliens began to use alternatives for the procedures, mostly drugs and cybernetic implants, as far as I can see here, you're the only one of all of them that kept most of him intact, your spinal cord and vertebrates being artificial, and the nano-bots on your bloodstream…god you can basically drug yourself with the strongest shit and you'll barely feel it" Sally mentioned.
"Okay, Maverick is a cyborg, well more human than machine, but a cyborg nonetheless"
"Sheez thanks Sarah that helps me greatly" Maverick snapped drily.
"And so it seems…how many vault dwellers are on board and subjected to this?" she asked, "From what I can see, counting Maverick and the other two dead guys, 21 vault dwellers, all mechanically and chemically enhanced" Sally said.
"Ugh, great, if we didn't had enough with their unnatural accuracy, now they are as strong as Maverick" Somah snapped.
"Make no mistake Somah, they will never be as strong as Maverick, his procedure was all about extremes, hell I'm surprised he survived, now you see the results, I doubt even the other vault dwellers can match him in strength, maybe they are as strong as a Super Mutant, if Sarah stories about them are led to be believed" Sally began.
"But I can safely say that they are not even close to Maverick in anything, yes some organs were replaced with mechanical counterparts, yes they are stronger than the average human, yes they are harder to kill now, and yes they are more machine than human thanks to the experiments of the aliens, but I can safely say that Maverick is far stronger than them, far deadlier, and the best is yet to come" Sally said with a small smirk.
"You see, the vault dwellers enhanced by this procedures have preset limits, they are strong now, but that's about it, they can't go beyond, Maverick procedure is all about learning to control them, to get use to them, as he gets more familiar with them…he will be far stronger than them, even more considering that they are already used to those enhancements from the start" Sally said.
"So…you're saying that while they are already familiar with their enhancements, they can't grow beyond that preset, but Maverick, who is yet to get use to them, can go beyond that?" Sally nodded as Sarah question.
"…Okay that does it, you're so going to help me bring down the Enclave, I doubt they have anything that can match you, at least anything organic and limited by our technology" Sarah said, making Maverick glare at her, "I'm no goddamn weapon"
"What Sally said says otherwise" Sarah said with a smirk.
"But…" Sally suddenly said, "It seems that beyond Maverick and the dwellers, there was a second person who got…an insane boost in strength an endurance" Sally said, "Apparently he got kidnapped at the same time as Maverick, and instead of using him as they did with Maverick, they gave him very experimental and dangerous drugs and enhancements, so experimental and dangerous that they didn't even considered on using it on you Maverick, not even by a longshot" she said, making all sober up.
"Is he…alive?" Maverick asked, "…Nah, apparently died, odd enough he seemed to have his entire face torn up even before they get to him, and was clad in…what seemed an armor, a gold one, with red cloth in it as well" she said, "Also he is tall, very tall, taller than the Overlord" that concept didn't made Sarah entirely comfortable, well at least he was dead.
"How he died?" Somah asked, "According to the notes, general failure, his lungs stopped working at the same time as his heart, his brain stopped sending signals to those two, no blood, no oxygen, no oxygenated blood, a recipe to disaster as my mom use to say" Sally said as she left the console.
"Until we don't see the corpse I won't believe shit" Somah stated, "Then you won't, they tossed his body to bio-disposal, by now he should be atomized" Sally stated, "Well Sally, here another rule of the wasteland, make sure it's dead, sometimes they just play dead…or are plain stubborn" Sarah said, directing her gaze to Maverick, "I get it Lyons, I get it" he said as he looked around, not noticing how something moved around.
"Okay, so now what?" he asked, "Well, from her we can go to several places, I would recommend the atrium, I lost track of myself there, we go there, then we turn right like I should have, help anyone who is not crazy"
"Or Enclave" Sarah pointed out, "Or Vault Dweller" Somah added, "Yeah, those two, we cause generalized mayhem, chaos, destruction, maybe let loose Maverick inside their quarters, hijack one of their ships, and escape, but before that we need to disable their external defenses, they have several turrets they use to blast rounding asteroids, and they can use those to shot down any spaceship that leaves the hangar without authorization" Sally said, raising an eyebrow when she swore she saw something move around.
"You're right, is the best we can do" Sarah said, fully convinced now that this team would pull the impossible.
CLANG!
Sarah and Somah immediately tensed up when several metallic objects around fell to the ground, the emptiness around made the sound even more tensing for both combat hardened woman, To Maverick and sally however, this was new.
"Okay, this is freaky" Sally said, looking around, Maverick doing the same, soon he caught something out of the corner of his eye, immediately he lifted his shotgun and fired, starling everyone on the room.
"The hell Maverick!" Sarah snapped, "I saw…a shimmering form…like…I don't know, like water ripples on the air" he said, keeping a sharp eye around, to Sarah, this description fit perfectly something she dreaded.
"Oh shit, Stealth Boys" she hissed, "What?" Maverick and Sally asked.
"Well, since you never let me finish before, The Tunnel Snakes, like the Femme Fatales have another unit on their own, for the Femmes they have the daughters of Hecate, their…elites, shock units to be more precise, and the snakes have the Stealth boys, who got their names of the devices that allows them to be…invisible" Sarah said, making Maverick frown.
"Are you saying that…"
POW!
Maverick head slightly shot to the left as the sound of footsteps echoed around, apparently their attacker no longer believed in stealth and opted in attacking, all while invisible, they knew he or she was there, question was were truly.
"I barely felt that" Maverick stated, looking around he was surprised yet again when another blow made him look to the right, and now he was getting piss.
"AHHH MY HAND YOU FREAKING WASTELANDER!"
And it seemed his enhancements had finally made their first contribution, besides the unnatural strength, also Maverick recognized the voice of the person who had sucker punched him two times.
"Wally Mack?" Maverick wondered out loud, "Someone you know?" Sarah asked, eyes darting all over the general area, "Yeah, one of the original Tunnel Snakes…also his dad is an asshole" Maverick said, soon he heard something of a hiss behind him, smirking he turned really fast, and slammed the butt of his shotgun on something, the fact everyone heard something being hit confirmed that Maverick had actually hit their invisible foe.
"AGGGHHH, Maverick you treacherous bastard!" they all heard, along with something hitting the ground, and gasps for air.
"As far as I can remember, I didn't betray the Vault, the Vault betrayed me…and it seems it also betrayed mankind" Maverick stated at the spot he could see a distortion of light, a distortion that suddenly grew a form and colors.
Then the form of a person of the age of Maverick was visible, the Vault Jumpsuit drenched in yellow and red blood, alongside the Caucasian features, his eyes and military haircut on his brown hair, and who can ignore the almost mad look on his eyes, or the fact he had Brass knuckles on both of his hands.
"Wally Mack…thought I saw the last of you alongside your father and mother; tell me, how does it feel to have a brother as sick as the Overseer?" Maverick asked as he hefted his shotgun to his shoulder.
"You…killed my brother!" Wally all but screamed as he launched himself to Maverick, only to recoil and fly to the left and land roughly on the ground, cheek burning in pain.
"Your brother was a sadist, and asshole, he killed Jonas, he had nothing to do with what had happened, yet he killed him on cold blood, he got what he deserved, I would have killed the Overseer too if it wasn't for Amata…for Amata" Maverick suddenly grew a scowl as he slung the shotgun to his back, advancing towards Wally, then lifting him up by the neck, making the Vault Dweller gasp in surprise and pain as his neck was constricted.
"I don't know why or how, truth to be told I don't care why Vault 101 would side with the Enclave, but I know for a fact that many people would oppose them, or just tell them that they would like to remain outside the conflict, Amata being one of them, she has never been keen for conflict, so you better start talking, what they did to Amata?" Maverick asked.
"Tsk, you think…I'm going to answer you?" Wally asked, "Yes, simply because is either me or Sarah behind me" Maverick said, Wally there noticed the Brotherhood soldier behind Maverick, and the scowl she carried.
"And if I heard correctly, she is eager to skin you alive for all you all have done" Maverick stated coldly, "besides, with me you at least know I will kill you fast and painless, so start talking!" Maverick snapped, Wally just sneered.
"You think you can make a difference here anyway Maverick? You're dead! Dead!" Wally snapped, a smirk on his face, "But I'll let you die with a thought in mind…Amata was quite disappointed she was unable to put a bullet on your impure ass" he said, neither Maverick or company noted how Wally reached for something behind him until they hear it.
CLING!
That sole sound made all tense, looking at the ground Sarah and Somah blood ran cold at the sight of a grenade pin.
"GRENADE!" Sarah bellowed, taking Sally away and using her body to cover Sally as she and Somah hit the deck.
"Shit!" reacting fast, Maverick suddenly tossed Wally like a rag-doll, Wally was clearly surprised when Maverick, instead of trying to use his own body to shield the others, had tossed him like nothing instead, rage and disbelieve came alongside fear as he saw the golden opportunity to erase the mistake of Vault 101 slip away.
"MAVERICK!" was the final words Wally Mack bellowed at the enhanced Vault Dweller before he got engulfed in a green light, then nothingness.
Maverick had covered his face when the green light and boom enveloped Wally's flying form, when he uncovered his face, he saw, much to his surprise, a green human skeleton that was wearing Wally's jumpsuit, and not far from it, a green pool of…goo like substance, not far behind, Wally's pip-boy.
"The hell happened here, grenades don't go boom and then pieces of people go fly around?" Maverick as he saw Sarah stand up alongside Sally and Somah, both of them staring at the mess.
"Yeah…but that's for standard frag grenades Maverick, that was a standard Enclave issue Plasma Grenade, healthy for the environment, for others no so much, basically it melts skin, muscle, boils organs and blood and then turns all that into a green goo like substance, clothes and other things remain the same, attached to the green skeleton, the only thing of the person, besides clothes and weapons that is not melted" Sarah said, walking towards Wally's skeleton, and picking his Pip-boy.
"You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy handing this to Rothchild so it can crack all the info inside" she added as she walked to Maverick, noting how he stared at the remains of Wally.
"What he said…god what the hell happened while I was gone?" he wondered, "Don't know Maverick, I guess is something you will need to ask to Amata yourself…" Sarah began.
"But remember, all she has done, she will have to pay, trust me on that" she added, making maverick frown as he kneeled and picked Wally's skull.
"Yeah…maybe" he said as he looked at Sally, the little girl had already opened a door, something like an alien elevator, Somah at her side, "Sally says that elevator will take us directly to a cryogenic chamber near the atrium" Sarah stated at the kneeling Maverick.
"So…are you ready?" Sarah asked.
"I'm not" he confessed as he tossed Wally's skull over his shoulder, then standing up, "Then again, who is really ready for anything" he stated as he walked to the elevator.
"Amen" was all Sarah muttered as she joined the group on the elevator, and as the door closed, she wondered what would await them on the upper areas.
and there you have it people, another chapter done and gone, now I know many of you wonder what happened to the residents of Vault 101 to basiclaly turn evil, well in the next chapters that question will be answered, alongside many others, also some characters of both Fallout 3 and New vegas will show up, I know crazy, but that's how my AU stories run, crazy and without a way to predict what will happen.
so until a next time readers, this is Three Dog...oh sorry, this is Hypn0s! signing off, review for caps!