THE CHORNICLES OF MAVERICK: CHANGED LIVES

by hypn0s

War, war never changes, is a fact everyone has accepted, what can change however, is the life of a man, and the path he walks in life, he who was meant to reach a town never made it, but this deviation was just the beginning.

10. 9: This is War, part 1

Hello my readers, it is I! Hypn0s, bringing you another chapter of The Chornicles of Maverick!

Now before we start, i want to confess that this chapter was originally going to be long, way long, i mean twice as long as any other chapter in this story, but I decided you guys might get tired of reading too much, and let's face it, the way I broke this is going to make you drool for me, as it stands, the second part of this chapter is half-way of being completed, must finish up some touches on the battle scenes, and then, surely by the end of this year you will be readiong part two.

now, without any delay, i give you all, part one of this long chapter, enjoy.

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CHAPTER 9: THIS IS WAR, PART 1

Morning rolled out in the Capital Wasteland, at least to the wounded and wastelanders who had a place to sleep and was well protected to both the environment and creatures, the night on the wasteland on general is cold, all things considered.

This rule remains the same on several structures, when one is looking for shelter, a bed with a lot of covers and a sturdy roof with equally sturdy walls and that can be easily defended.

The citadel was in fact like that, easily defended, sturdy enough to take any kind of assault, regardless if it was by land or air, and the very few entrances to the Citadel could be used as chokepoints to actually ambush their opponents, few defenders could easily, with the proper weapons, hold ten times their numbers.

Also this was a place where one could actually oversleep, most wastelanders had made a habit of waking up half an hour before dawn, brotherhood knights and Enclave soldiers doing this one hour before dawn, for Sarah and several scribes however, they never went to sleep.

For Sarah it was the return to the routine, never sleeping, and working on caffeine alone, like most scribes, but this was different however, she had been looking on the map files she had got from Jackie out of Wally's pip-boy, alongside the data Maverick got out of their server, now she grinded at that, those guys were surely pulling their hair out, trying to think of a way to counter Maverick, she betted a backpack full on caps that they would send the vault dwellers, after all what better way to deal with a vault dweller that with another one.

Problem was of course that none of them were as strong of sturdy as Maverick, even with a power armor on, they would stand little to no chance against him, even less when she trained him.

True, when she brought this idea after her little meeting with Maverick in the reservoir to her father and some knights present, they went ballistic, her father not so much, the other very much, she understood their apprehension, Maverick was perhaps the very first vault dweller to ever lay foot on the citadel, also he was the very first vault dweller to not perform any kind of depraved act like many of the other dwellers had done, raping, killing, murdering, slaughtering, drugging and basically marauding their way out of Vault 101.

She did point them out that he was a modified man, that the armor on him just provided a controlled stealth field without the side-effects, they didn't believe her of course, bringing a dweller back to the citadel had shot down her credibility down several notches, not to mention that some people got wind up that Maverick had contacts with someone that could actually repair Prime's IFF, the same person that had hacked the Enclave's orbital platform.

So here she was, looking around in the map of the Capital Wasteland, selecting a target so Maverick could prove his worth to the knights, she needed something that everyone has wanted to attack, something that everyone could celebrate its destruction.

Then it hit her, rather hard she might add, besides the Enclave and the Super Mutants, slavers were one of the main problems the Capital Wasteland had to deal with, hell this was a national problem, not local, and thankfully it was not organized that well, New California had to deal with the Slaver's Guild, perhaps the only organized slaver faction around, besides Caesar's Legion

It was a solid mission, one her father and others would accept, they weren't too thrilled on sending a vault dweller against the Enclave, even more with the connections he had with half of them, as he had admitted he didn't knew what to do with half of them, with some of them she agreed with the idea of introducing them to a bat to the face.

Now, however she had the means to help Maverick gain the trust of the Brotherhood of Steel, and by extend the people of the wasteland, a display of strength, of good will, what better way that to level the city of slavers and free many slaves, the fact that many of the children the vault dwellers had currently came from there and would by default cripple them was also a plus.

Let it be known that Sarah Lyons can multitask, help a friend while at the same time crippling her opponents and inflicting rightful revenge.

"Sentinel Lyons?" Sarah smiled at the mention of her name, not only that, but because of who had say it, no one else but squire Arthur Maxson, last of the Maxson line, rightful leader of the Brotherhood of Steel, not those stuck-up elders, he was the leader, she would follow Arthur to hell and back, of course the kid still needed training, lots of it, after all a true leader is not only adept in the arts of war.

"Squire Maxson" Sarah said, looking at the boy who had grown during the war and during her month away, the boy still looked as nervous as usual, but now he looked more mature, a little more confidant of himself, it was good, before the war he was a bundle of nerves, now, while he was still nervous whenever he was around her, he carried himself with some extra confidence.

She noted of course the thick leather like apron covering most of his torso and his legs, and the big gloves on his hands; also she saw several parts of energy weapons on the pockets of his apron, immediately recognizing what he had been doing after he was gone.

"I see you finally decided to put something into the war effort" Sarah said, motioning his apron, "Yes Sentinel, the knights needed an extra pairs of hands working with the laser rifles, the scribes were up against this, but Knight Gunny said to them that everyone would pull their weight here, even the heir" Arthur said, she also noticed that he was not longer speaking in a shuttering way and quoting parts of the codex.

"Good for you Arthur, I know there are kids helping with the weapons, I hope you made some friends" Sarah stated, looking again at the map, Arthur joining her.

"It is, most of them are tribals, but it matters little with how things are" Arthur said, then looked at Sarah, "I heard from some of them, well more of Chalkhand's daughter, Morning Sand that a vault dweller currently resides here" Arthur said, Sarah detected immediately some anxiety out of Arthur and she couldn't blame him, nor the fact Morning Sand, Chalkhand's equally gossiping daughter had told Arthur about Maverick, she was surprised that he wasn't saying 'that vault dweller with that big gun' as she had heard many knights speak of Maverick, mainly due to the size of The Boomstick and the ease Maverick carried it.

"Don't worry about Maverick, Squire Maxson" Sarah stated, Arthur actually blinked when her tone became serious, "He is perfectly harmless" she stated.

"Say that to the Enclave soldiers back at the Capitol" Sarah snorted at that, "Speaking of the devil"

"Hey Mav-the hell are you wearing?" Sarah, just like Arthur and several scribes had their eyes slightly wide upon seeing Maverick, some of them having been used to see him with just a shirt on covering some sort of hi-tech skin tight armor, this was however different.

For instance now he had pants and shoes, the pants being military grade black pants with three pouches on his left thigh and kneepads, with equal military black boots, there seemed to be some sort of three belts attached to his waist, if she believed correct, two of them were belts for holsters, while the third was more to keep his pants on, the torso was covered in what she believed was a grey colored bullet proof chest plate, flexible enough to actually bend onward, with a small protuberance to cover the neck and collarbone, she didn't knew if Maverick had something underneath the chest plate, besides the stealth armor, all thanks to the black duster he had on, the left sleeve removed to allow his pip-boy in, his right hand was covered of course in a black glove, while his left hand was covered by his pip-boy glove.

Sarah gave Maverick an once-over, looking at the armor for the lack of better words, it gave him and intimating look, and it oddly reminder her of the Desert Rangers, a group like the Brotherhood of Steel, that could trace their roots back at the Great War itself, but that had chose to help people, roaming the wasteland and tracking any and all evil in it, let it be raiders, slavers, Super Mutants and even Enclave soldiers, after all the Desert Rangers were trained in survival on the wasteland, unlike Enclave soldiers.

"The hell you got those clothes?" Sarah asked, "Don't know, I found them inside a duffle bag in the room I was sleeping in, it had a note of course, kinda polite if you ask me considering the era we live in" Maverick replied, making Sarah narrow her eyes, "Hardly" Sarah muttered, "Anyway what the letter said?" she asked.

"It said 'I hope this set last more than your last clothes, MS' I might have an idea who gave it to me" Maverick said, then turning to stare at the map in front of Sarah.

"Already planning the downfall of the Enclave?" Maverick asked, Sarah simply smirked and turned her attention to the map once again, "The data we got from Jackie's data on her pip-boy, alongside Wally's and the data you got I was able to update the map, take a look" Sarah said, pointing at the map.

"The Enclave has 75 communication outposts scattered all over the Capital Wasteland with crews of over three to four people, they act as small safehouses for squadrons and have enough supplies for them, ranging from weapons to armor and ammo, medicine and food included" Sarah said, the 75 safehouses she said being highlighted in green, suddenly 5 more were shown in red, "Those red ones are actual bases, three to four vertibirds are stationed there, they act as staging points for attacks, they have over fifteen to twenty people inside, mostly for guarding, one of their bases however is too damn close to my liking to the Citadel" Sarah said, then three more dots, this time in black appeared, Maverick noted that one of the dots was just in the location where Vault 101 was.

"I assume those are their bases" Maverick stated, "You assume correct Maverick, Raven's Rock, their main fortification, Vault 101, a secondary base and home of the Vault Dwellers and possibly place where critical Enclave personnel and families are located, and a newly discovered, thanks to Jackie, Adams Air Force Base" Sarah said, pointing at a point far on the north of the Capital Wasteland.

"As we stand now, we have little to no chance against them, even with you mauling them all" Sarah said, Arthur didn't knew why she said that, the Vault Dweller looked like any other person he knew around.

"So what you plan on doing?" Maverick asked, "Simple, we gain the people's trust"

"Don't you guys have that already?" Maverick wondered, looking at Arthur and hoping the kid had some answers, the kid had none.

"It is hardly like that" Sarah, Arthur and Maverick turned, Sarah smiling upon seeing her father walk in, a cup of coffee on his aged hands, and as usual his trusty laser pistol on his hip.

"Father" Sarah acknowledged, Arthur doing the same, but saying "Elder" instead of father, Maverick by his part smiled at the old man, nodding his head at the Elder and leader of the Brotherhood chapter, the man doing the same, but with some caution.

"Sarah, I assume this is the information Maverick and Veronica had on their possession" Sarah nodded, "It has, I'm just checking what targets to attack first, I recommend the communication outposts first, they will yield the best results wise in equipment and territory" Sarah suggested.

"Those bases must be linked, so when we attack one the rest will know about it, and they will be prepared, maybe a coordinated assault?" Maverick suggested, Owyn was clearly surprised by this, till this moment he hadn't seen Maverick up-close, at first glance he can see the resemblance he had with James, the eyes and hair color, of course the rest he gets it of his mother, an outstanding woman who deserved to see his son grow up and see her dream come true, but people hardly get what they want these days.

"We don't have enough people to launch such an assault" Owyn reminded, looking at the map and the amount of bases and outposts around.

"Then we pick them up one by one" Sarah said, "No, too risky, unless…" Maverick said, rubbing his jaw in contemplation, "What you guys know about the blitzkrieg?" he asked.

"A pre-war method of offensive, it focused on massive assaults combining air and land mechanized offensive, basically going all out and crushing any resistance, being faster than your opponent, not letting them have a moment to breathe" Owyn stated.

"Exactly, it worked, to an extent, problem was that used too often, the enemy gets to know it and how to counter it, predetermined defensive points, strong ones, something the Enclave lacks" Maverick stated, "The communication arrays are our first targets, they must be on high points, or inside damaged houses, places that can be both easy to protect and easy to hide at plain sight" he added.

"Indeed, problem is we don't have mechanized forces" Owyn said, "Yes you do, Power Armors were originally designed as walking tanks, with the proper tweaks and proper weapons they can be so, also you have vertibirds, which I hope are armed, besides we have that" Maverick said, pointing at Liberty Prime.

"Maverick knows people dad, the girl that helped him create the Boomstick helped us escape, certified genius, can crack onto the most encrypted computers in no time, she in fact is the reason we turned the Enclave's orbital platform on them" Sarah said, Owyn by his part stared at his daughter with some caution, he knew what she was suggesting, question was the rest would accept it?

"I know also no one will trust Maverick, even if he is allied with us, so here's the deal, today, Paradise Falls at the hands of one of their main buyers"

The look of Elder Lyons was simply priceless, and in a way he understood her plan and the message she wanted to relay with this.

It was time to fight back, and they would start by crippling the Vault Dwellers main source of people.

Paradise Falls would indeed burn today.

---

Changing the gauzes that covered her body was as painful as the burns that had caused her to wear them in the first place, yet this had to happen, her wounds were still fresh, it would take time, a lot of time before her skin would properly heal and scar, if it ever healed to begin with, even the Enclave's advanced medical technology couldn't help her much, it helped to ease the pain, before they came removing her gauzes was just plain torture, sometimes some stray wind would blow and she would cry in pain, the smallest breeze would cause her unbearable pain, at least with the sedatives she would come out of the Vault, but it had the side-effect of numbing her, making her basically immune to pain.

Rubbing her bandaged hands, Christine stared at her room, then at the gun near her nightstand, it had been a gift of her father John after they lost their mother, Monica was still shaken by that event, and didn't helped that Vault's 101 black sheep had returned.

Susie had been shaken to the core when Amata had reported the death of her brother Wally, not only that, the group that had been with her had been reduced to half its original number, Jackie had escaped, all thanks to Maverick, and he had not only killed Wally, but also he had killed Paul Jr. these loses had aftershocks everywhere in the vault, not only because Maverick was the reason those two died, but because Amata fought him, and lost.

Butch had been present the moment Maverick was about to finish Amata off, according to Butch, Maverick was changed, not personality wise, but body wise, stronger than anything around, bulletproof skin, with the DIAMOND implant on his hardened skin and to boot fast and as usual, fast learning and high morals.

Anyone would blame that to his dad, the man had made sure that Maverick was never exposed to the grey morality of Alphonse and several adults, whenever the end justified the means, whenever it was good or bad; the black and white view of the world was dead before the bombs fell.

"Dear, you got a mission" her father suddenly said, entering her room, seeing her examining her pistol, a simple 9mm pistol, a simple gun that had lack of ammo in the Capital Wasteland, but no one could deny its incredible accuracy, surpassing the 10mm and even a plasma pistol, there was still nothing that could match the accuracy of a laser pistol, especially with the lack of recoil.

"Cat?" her father asked her, using her pet name, "Dad…can we really win this?" she asked, looking at the handgun on her bandaged hands, "The brotherhood was one thing, but can we actually win with Maverick now on their side?" she asked.

"Don't say that" he snapped, looking at his daughter worriedly, "That boy was nothing but trouble the moment he came here" he added.

"You all lied to us, I wonder why there wasn't a rebellion" she wondered out loud, "Because you all were smarter than that, unlike him" John said.

"If he wasn't that smart, then how the hell he was able to turn the Orbital Platform against Raven's Rock?" she simply asked, "His message was not someone boasting" she added as she stood up, "It is of someone who is very confident of what he is doing" she simply stated as she reached for her pockets, pulling a simple clip for her handgun, and loading the gun.

"I will be surprised if he doesn't comes here…after all this is his home, regardless of what he has done in the past, everyone returns home at one point" she added, holstering her gun and turning to her father.

"I know my mission already, usual run to Paradise Falls, three males, five females, and two children, nothing new" she added bored as she walked away.

John simply stared at the back of her daughter, and sighed, all was Maverick's and James's fault.

Once the Enclave is done with them, Vault 101 would begin their torture.

---

"Okay Maverick let's run it again!" Sarah screamed, exiting alongside Maverick the labs and heading straight into the courtyard, there a lone vertibird with the emblem of the brotherhood of steel waited.

"Your mission is simple! The vertibird will get you close to Paradise Falls, then drop you, once close all you need to do is slaughter them all and let God sort them out!" Sarah stated, "You decide how, you can go there silent and put a smile on their necks or smear their remains on the ground, in any case I don't care, just get it done" she stated, Maverick just gave Sarah a grim look, now he understood why she was sentinel, you had to be the meanest, most fierce warrior to attain such rank, not only that, she had come up with a plan in less than an hour.

"You're going solo, so no you don't get backup, neither you get the boomstick, too big to use on such place, you'll use your trench knife and That Gun, alongside any gun you come across" Sarah said, stopping in front of Maverick and handing him a backpack.

"This backpack contains specially crafted explosives, tactical demolition semi-nuclear charges" she said, pulling one of the charges out, to Maverick it looked like a metallic lunchbox sealed up and with a sensor placed on the top.

"The soldiers call it Nuka charges, the outside might not be catchy, but the inside is what truly matters, turpentine and soda fluid mixed with Abraxo Cleaner holds an isotope found only on a special drink, Nuka-cola Quantum, won't bore you with details, suffice to say this thing will make all your problems vanish in a refreshing semi-nuclear cloud of soda, we use this one to blow shit apart" she said, packing the Nuka Charge and handing the backpack to Maverick.

"You got a dozen of them and a detonator for all of them, turn on the sensor on the charge and place, then use the detonator in the backpack to activate them all, do so after you rescue the slaves, your secondary objective" Sarah said, "If you happen to come across one man called Eulogy Jones kill him, we have a hit order on him, slaver leader, dark skin, dressed in sharp clothes and accompanied by two crazy whores, you'll recognize him easily" Maverick nodded at this.

"Remember, once you complete this the vertibird will pick you up, good luck and steel be with you" she said as she stepped away, "Uh…metal be with you too?" he half-said, half-asked, making Sarah blink.

"…Right" she slowly said, looking at Maverick and how he entered the Vertibird, the doors of this one closing once he stepped inside.

"That's a bad idea whenever you look at it" Sarah rolled her eyes, turning her eyes to stare at the woman who didn't had the courage to stare at the son of the man she once loved from afar, and whose massive purifier was just a reminder of the things lost.

"Says the woman who didn't have the courage to face the boy she helped deliver…Cross told me the story" Sarah stated, seeing how the vertibird ascended with its only passenger on board.

"He didn't come looking for me" Madison Li stated sourly, "Because I kept him preoccupied with other things, asking him this and that, and seeing his unnatural ability to drink Vodka like water" Sarah stated, "He would have come looking for you, I assure you, but I had this feeling that you would berate him for looking for his dad, he has a surprising short fuse regarding his family, worse come to worse, you would be dead, how? I wager a broken neck, a broken spine, a broken skull, or his usual ripping his opponent's arms off and bashing them to death with them" Sarah said, much to Li's shock.

"He what?" Li asked, there Sarah sighed and looked at Li straight in the eyes, "Things…were done to us where we were held, some were minor, others major, Maverick got alive of it out of a sheer miracle, his spine was replaced by a mechanical one, he has robots on his bloodstream, and he is bulletproof, and that just scratching the surface" Sarah said, turning away.

"Ready your gear Doctor Li, after he comes back I will try to convince him to bring a mutual friend to fix Prime's IFF" Sarah stated, turning around, "Fix-do you really know someone who can do that?" Li asked, "Of course, who you think made the Boomstick? It wasn't me that's for sure" Sarah added off-handy, suddenly stopping and looking at Madison.

"You don't know where Maverick's father is don't you?"

"He came to me of course, asking for help, to restart the project, I told him flatly no, without proof I couldn't lend him the science team he needed, not that I have one anyway, most of them stayed in Rivet City after I left…and now" Madison trailed off.

"I know" Sarah sympathized with Madison's pain, she had also lost too many people that day, "In any case he said he would return with proof, he just needed to find this guy, Stanislaus Braun" Sarah furrowed her brow at that.

"What he meant by that?" Sarah asked, "Don't know, all he said besides that was that he was on a vault, and he would find it" Madison said, "The name does ring a bell, but I never bothered to check it out" Madison said, "Maybe you should, we got databases dating from before the war, maybe there is something detailing this Braun guy in there, if it is on a vault, maybe he is listed in one of them" Sarah stated.

"We can rule 101 out, if James didn't found him or any data that helped him there, then it must be outside, that's the only reason he would leave the vault and his son behind, to end what he started" Madison mussed, looking at the sky and the already grey dot that was the Vertibird, far away.

---

Amata kept a steady gaze as Christine's vertibird took off, she had arrived just in time to see the burned woman board the vertibird and leave to Paradise Falls for some buyout, after what happened and the lost of so many people, some new blood would do good.

Amata groaned in slight pain, bringing her hand to her head and gritting her teeth, "Dammit not again" she hissed, shaking her head she made her way towards the vault door, ignoring the guard around it, ignoring the residents as she made her way to the atrium, ignoring the little children that ran around, eventually she made her way to her room, there she headed straight to her cabinet, opening the drawer she pulled a small container, opening the lid near her mouth she let a single red pill go down her mouth.

The effect was instantaneous; her headache subsided, becoming now a slight throbbing by someone hitting you rather than someone trying to drive a screwdriver up to your brain.

"I need more" she mussed to herself, every time she didn't take her medicine she would have flashbacks of the day Maverick escaped, the day she found her boyfriend's body, just meters away of Maverick's room after his escape, why she didn't saw him when she woke Maverick was beyond her…

Sitting on her bed, she let the medicine take full effect, she had to tell her father that she was running low on her medicine.

She started using the medicine after a week Maverick left Vault 101, apparently the death of her boyfriend and helping the murderer of her boyfriend escape had left her in shock, when the Enclave arrived she was on coma, it was at that moment the Enclave gave her the medicine that allowed her to recover consciousness, the side-effect of course was that now she was dependant of it, if she didn't take her medicine she would slip again into a coma, and it would be hard to break her of it again.

As the medicine took effect, she began to wonder now how to deal with the problem of Maverick, she was still sore of her last encounter with him, she admits he is strong, far too strong to take down alone, too sturdy, as the bullets that bounced off him can attest to, conventional weaponry and non-conventional weaponry would do little that annoy him, CQC was the only solution that she could come up to face him, but the fact remained that even with a Power Armor, he was too much to handle, trained soldiers lasted too little against him.

Of course the team she selected would do things nice, all vault dwellers, all had ties to Maverick in one way or the other, all knew him, all would struck a chord on Maverick's psyche, he was, even after all the experiments the aliens did to him, human, and a human is prone to make mistakes, she was hoping for him to make a mistake, just one.

Also she took in consideration the fact he has allies in the form of Sarah Lyons and the little brat that helped those people escape, the small super-genius was someone that she would have to keep an eye on, or kill, while Maverick was brawn taken to the extreme, the little girl was brains up to max, a genius that not even the brightest minds of this or the last era could hope to match.

There had to be a way to stop the seemingly unstoppable Maverick dead on his tracks, it had to be a way, he couldn't be unstoppable?

Shaking her head, and knowing that perhaps the only way to deal with Maverick was with the heaviest weapon she could find, miniguns, Missile Launchers, RPG's and a Fat Man down his throat, she stood up and made her way to her father's office.

Upon arrival however, she found herself staring at the barrel of a handgun, gripped by her panicking father, "Oh…it's you" he said with a relieved tone, Amata blinked owlish, then remembered that her father, besides her, had it worse when Maverick escaped Vault 101, he got beaten to an inch of his life, with a baseball bat, she figured that hearing the voice of the man who left him a month on a bed, in extreme pain was going to be traumatic.

Lowering his gun, Alphonse sends his daughter small apologizing look, then shakes his head, toying with the gun on his hand, "He is out there, but he will return, he will" Alphonse said, "And I will be ready"

"With that thing? Dad, I put two bullets on him, they bounced off his skin, you'll need something with a little extra to actually made him stagger" she confessed, and was distraught when she saw his dad blanch at that information.

"And yet you want me to let you take ten of the most promising people outside to hunt him…knowing full well he can kill you all without even sweating?" he asked, her answer was a simple nod.

"He will not kill us"

"Like he didn't kill Wally's brother, Amata, dear, please reconsider, let the Enclave deal with him, they have trained soldiers" he pleaded, Amata juts grew angry at that.

"No…NO!" she exclaimed hotly, "It was my mistake helping Maverick, MINE! He will die by my hand! Now approve the list and be done with it!" Alphonse narrowed his eyes at his daughter, just because she had a Power Armor on and was the Enclave's main asset didn't meant she could be like this.

Then again, he had forced her into that position and attitude, "I'll gather them, but you have to brief them of what they are going to face, I will not have their families asking me about their dead children, I'll have to talk with them too…ugh what a mess"

Amata snorted at that, everyone, even the children knew what entailed if they failed, if the Enclave fell, so would they, many enemies were made, and would take a chance of getting even with the vault dwellers, especially after all the atrocities they had committed.

Alphonse will be the first to admit that all the atrocities they had done were bad, but necessary, their home was dying, they needed new blood, the Enclave provided the new blood, but at a cost.

Sometimes he wondered if the cost had been too much, especially after seeing how his daughter had turned into some sort of blood carving machine of death.

He really hoped that Maverick was such an obstacle like they were being seen to believe.

---

"So…you're the rouge" more like a statement than a question, came the words of one of the pilots of the vertibird that was transporting Maverick to Paradise Falls, Maverick of course didn't say much, just nodding his head.

"Nice, heard your speech over the radio, nice way to rile people up, looking forward to see what you got planed to Paradise Falls" the pilot said, "Enough cadet, this is not a sanctioned mission by the elder" the other pilot, apparently the senior of the man talking to Maverick, snapped at the younger pilot.

"Who cares, we are at war, it is obvious we have to run some black ops mission once in a while, Gallows does it all the time" the younger pilot stated, "I swear runt, if you weren't such a good pilot" the senior muttered out loud.

"So what I have to expect inside Paradise Falls, Sarah was a little vague on that" Maverick piped in, not wanting to hear the rest the man could say, "Hell man, pure hell, slavers left and right, armed to bear, slaves are hold up on a underground pen made before the war here, so you'll have to enter the buildings and look underground for the pen, but that's not all" the younger pilot began.

"The place is crawling also with Enclave forces, alongside Talon mercs, is a beehive, one you seem eager to poke and anger" the senior pilot said, "No matter what don't let them hit you with the Mesmetron, one hit and it's game over man, enslaved or your head pops like a balloon"

"So I heard" Maverick said, slowly standing up and making his way to the cockpit, glancing at the exterior and how fast the scenery was changing, which was not much considering the whole landscape was dust and ash.

"The place is a loot paradise, it has a lot of food, medicine and guns and ammo to lot, so please can you bring something for us, for giving you this ride?"

"Sure" Maverick said, spotting at the horizon what seemed a massive kid made out of ceramic and plastic, holding a massive ice cone on one hand, "There it is, Paradise Falls, home of the depraved and sick, hope you brought something bigger than a pistol" the senior pilot said.

"I got more than enough firepower in me" Maverick said, noticing how they began to land, "Why are we landing here? I thought you would land me near Paradise Falls?" Maverick asked.

"This is as far we can go without alerting sentries and their RPG units, now come here, we need to hide the bird" the senior pilot said, following him, Maverick found himself surprised when he saw the two pilots pull what seemed a massive blanket that seemed colored to match the wasteland's ground, "I landed us on a small hole, we place this on top of the vertibird and we can be safely hidden, now grab that extreme" the senior commanded, within minutes they had set the cover on top of the vertibird.

"Okay, scouts reported a Vertibird coming out of the location of 101, so assume we got vaulties inside Paradise Falls" The senior pilot stated, "Must be buying slaves" the junior pilot stated, Maverick felt physically ill at hearing this, this was the last straw to him, buying humans like if they were cattle, killing them like cattle, it was beyond his understanding, and he realized the people he knew and grew up with had changed for the worse, and he had a hand in it.

"Damn it all to hell" Maverick whispered to himself, then sighed, "Okay guys, stay here, I'll go and free the slaves and then blow this place sky high" Maverick said, pulling That Gun.

"Hey kid" the senior pilot suddenly said, stopping Maverick from going a little forward, "Yeah?"

"Good luck, and oh don't forget this" the senior pilot said, handing Maverick what seemed a military walkie-talkie, "Two way radio, call us when you free the slaves so we can be ready to move them out" was all he said as Maverick began to make his way towards the entrance of Paradise Falls at a fast pace.

"Damn, looks like a Deathclaw running"

---

To enter Paradise Falls, you had to either walk or fly, most of the slavers and guards of Paradise Falls chose to walk, mostly because vehicles such as automobiles or trucks were either too damaged to use, or the roads connecting to their destination could only be crossed by foot.

To Enclave, air was the way to go, in the early days or their rise and sudden striking of deals with Eulogy Jones, Paradise Falls current leader, since they had a demand of human subjects for highly deadly experiments, most of them weaponry experiments they couldn't do with their own, slave buying became the way to go.

To the Vault Dwellers it was another matter entirely, while Enclave paid with weapons, hi-tech weapons and provided guards for the town, Vault 101 began providing water, pure water to pay up for their slaves, mostly women and children, Vault 101 had a great amount of males, even before Maverick and James arrival 19 years ago, and of course the problem became that there were lacking women, also alongside with fresh gene pool, thus children, most children came of the ravaged Little Lamplight, and many, if not all have already been sold to Vault 101, considering that many of them lived on a cave, living on Vault 101 wouldn't be much of a change, just a cleaner, safer environment.

Christine had been a regular among slave buying, ever since she was given clean bill to exit Vault 101 and see the sun for the first time by herself, she reminded herself that Maverick had been the first of their class to leave the vault and gaze on the sun and the ruins that had been once the Capital of the United States, and, unknown to them, it had become some sort of tradition, gazing for the first time at everything, a tradition, they hate to admit, Maverick had started.

The 'burned woman' as she was called among the slavers of Paradise Falls made her way towards the former spot of the slaves pens, with a lot of tech coming to them, they were able to expand the once small settlement, now the town of roughly fifty-five slavers, 3 Enclave guards and a dozen of Talon mercs, not counting the two medics, the trader, the bartender and the two hunter and 'chefs' Paradise Falls had become the largest settlement in the Capital Wasteland, gaining the title after the destruction of Rivet City, of course Rivet City had more space to offer, Paradise Falls had too many damaged buildings, and most of the important transactions were held on the underground parking lot that was opened with some C4.

The Vertibird, parked neatly on the secondary entrance to Paradise Falls, was already outfitted to set the new arrivals, no one could see her face, and it was good, because anyone would have seen the disgusted look she had.

She wasn't the only one that felt disgusted how things had turned out, how they had become, of course it was easy to pin all blame on James and his son, the easy way, the right thing to do was to take responsibility for their actions, but they were taught very early by the Enclave that the right way died 200 years ago, now the easy way was the only way to do things.

Slavers and mercs alike gave her appraising looks, they knew that a woman lay within all those bandages, and most of them didn't care if she was horribly burned, considering that the closest thing near a burned woman was a female ghoul, and no one does ghouls due to the myth they are actually dead and that would be like doing a corpse.

Christine shook her head at that, she had seen ghouls up-close, both rational and irrational, and she had to admit, she is far prettier than them, her skin was burned, their bodies was basically rotting out, puss and other things she swore only saw in corpses oozing out of their exposed skin.

Shaking her head, Christine made her way towards the building that held the entrance to the underground pens, two enclave troopers behind her, holding two crates of water each.

Once she was inside, three minutes later, all went to hell, not that she realized until she got out.

---

Killing the two guards had been easy, activating stealth mode while running, a knife in one hand, he had cleanly decapitated the first guard with such ease, the trench knife wasn't so lucky as the guard, the knife blade snapped, leaving him with just the knuckle duster to dispose the second guard, something he did by slamming the knuckle duster on the man's face, still invisible, the poor bastard never knew what killed him in the first place.

From there his trek had been rather straight forward, while the two guards where heavily armored to dissuade anyone to try and storm the place up front, this didn't stop Maverick at all, a Minigun and a shotgun do little to scare him after seeing Super Mutants and Deathclaws.

The road was clearly marked, flanked by the remains of the cars once parked there, obviously moved by the current residents, if he looked around he could see several skeletons lying around, some of them were blackened, and obviously dated before Paradise Falls was taken by slavers, others held their milky white color, but lacked their heads up to their necks, meaning these ones were mostly fresh ones, picked off their flesh by the vultures and left to the sun to burn even more.

Those bones obviously belonged to those who tried to escape Paradise Falls, but nothing could explain the lack of a head and neck, maybe decapitation, but to that level?

Then he noted that one of the corpses had a similar collar like the one he removed to one of the tunnelers, he knew these collars could cleanly decapitate a person when activated, a controlled explosion with shrapnel shot as supersonic speed, shredding flesh and bone with ease, which might explain the lack of a neck, as the bones are basically turned to less than dust, it also helps that is shot at point-blank.

Maverick gave the bones pitying looks, then focused on his task, with a firm step he kept following the road, there he found, much to his shock a parked vertibird, he tensed up of course, but he was invisible, if there was someone around, then he would notice them, not the other way around.

Out of curiosity he peeked inside the vertibird, seeing no one inside, surely the pilots and cargo were inside Paradise Falls, with a small smile he made his way to the end of the road, a wall of over ten meters tall with a double door, the real entrance to Paradise Falls.

Now the question was how to enter?

Rubbing his chin, Maverick suddenly had an idea, one that was not entirely complicated.

Shock and awe tactics were often used during the Chinese-American war and pretty much any other war were gunpowder was used, the fact was simple, the bigger the weapon, the bigger the boom, make rain dead, hot, blistering, thunderous and loud dead on your opponents, those who survived would be too scared to even attack.

And he had just the perfect tool for it, reaching for his backpack, Maverick pulled one of the Nuka charges and the detonator, closing the back he activated the first charge and held it by the handle, then narrowed his eyes, he was going to launch the charge blindly, he could end up killing a slave instead of a slaver, which was bad on his book, on the other hand this was the perfect way to enter without them noticing and catching them all off-guard.

"Okay, God please guide this charge onto some bad guy's head" Maverick whispered, easily tossing the charge over the wall, and calculating the time the charge would hit the ground, he waited, and waited a little more, then he pressed the button of the detonator.

BOOM!

The moment he heard the screams was his cue to storm inside, pushing the doors open, Maverick advanced, still on stealth mode.

---

Christine never liked the underground pens, they were devoid of life, the smell shot her always back to the moment her skin burned, the smell of liquor also reminded her of the furious attempts of her father to save her life, after all alcohol was a disinfectant, and was used on her skin, the smell reminded her how much it hurt.

Then the room shook and the two guards within the pens, alongside her and the two Enclave soldiers looked up, seeing how the lamps moved according with the explosion that, while was muffled by the ceiling and walls, was still strong enough to be heard, that worried Christine.

"Do not worry" her host, Eulogy Jones, the man in charge of the sells and buyouts of slaves in the Capital Wasteland ever since the Pitt was confirmed to be destroyed, said to her, at his side, as usual, his two personal bodyguards/slaves, Crimson and Clover, both wearing the same pink dress, the slave collar and the two Chinese swords, attached to their hips.

She knew these two girls, their story, captured even before Maverick's escape, at least two months before, broken shells of what they used to be, apparently, according to Eulogy, the girls were usually on fights for his affection, that ended however two months after Maverick vanished, apparently, from the face of the Capital Wasteland, Eulogy was finally able to mentally break them, erasing any kind of trace of what they used to be, before and after, now they were submissive, to him and only him, they spoke when he ordered them to, attacked when he ordered him to, they were less than attack dogs, they were whores, degrading the female image, Amata agreed, and every girl in Vault 101 hoped that Crimson and Clover were put down.

"It must be the remnants of the Regulators, they always get past the two guards, but never beyond the doors" he added, Christine knew also of the Regulators, led by one Sonora Cruz, these cowboy style men and women hunted raiders and slavers all over the wasteland, no mercy given or asked, always taking the index finger of their targets as proof of their demises, something that hasn't diminished even when their base in the Capital Wasteland was attacked by Talon Mercs and slavers of Paradise Falls, it had been a bloodbath for both sides she had been told, but Sonora Cruz, the target of that attack hadn't been found.

Christine shook her head, anyone was crazy to attack Paradise Falls, and especially with the heavy slaver/mercenary presence inside, it was the hub of slaver operations and a 'port in the storm' for Talon Mercs, a small city that had boomed once the war had kicked in high.

Yet the shots, explosions and yells didn't seem to diminish at all, if else they got louder, and more frantic.

"You two" Christine said, turning to the two Enclave soldiers, "Go outside and assist those incompetent fools, God knows they need all the help they can get" she stated loud enough for the guards of the pens to hear, the soldiers chuckled naturally as the tugged away, after all trained soldiers were more that a match against anything the Capital Wasteland average raider and trigger happy merc and slaver could offer, and everyone knew that.

Eulogy didn't seem to mind, after all Vault 101 was one of his main buyers, and after caps, food and water, especially purified water was something valuable, even more in large quantities.

The transaction for the next five minutes went cleanly, albeit with its hitches because of the continued racked outside, and of course because Eulogy had to count the water bottles and the guards had the not so graceful task of actually picking the slaves that Christine believed were fit for life in Vault 101, besides there was no much to choose off to begin with, the exact number of slaves needed in 101 were the exact number present in the pens, with the exception of two kids and a ghoul.

After she was done, oddly enough to racked did too, it was a relief to Christine, she didn't want to spend more than the allowed time in the pens, the guards had to escort her and the slaves outside because the soldiers she send didn't returned.

The trip was uneventful truth to be told, most of the slaves were in jails, not improvised pens, why the hell Paradise Falls, a former mall had jails underneath was beyond her, maybe the Shino-American war and all that communist paranoia for one perhaps.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Christine opened the door that connected the exterior to the underground pens-

"GYYAAAHH!" and squealed like a little girl of ten years old seeing a radroach for the first time when she saw the headless corpse of one of the Enclave soldiers she send outside emerge of the other side, falling to her feet with a loud metallic 'thump'

Christine eyes were wide behind her bandaged face, she looked then up, right at Paradise Falls square, and felt fear, cold fear for the first time ever since she saw her sister about to be consumed in the fires on her room.

What used to be a square full of mercs and slaves, once alive, were now dead, they all had looks of horror, pain and a little bit of both on their faces, their bodies were riddle with gunshot wounds, upon looking even further, Christine saw, with horror that the now deceased had fired at each other, not at something, at them!

"That can't be right! They turned on each other!" she thought with some shock, looking around she saw the body of the second Enclave soldier, this one had, much to her shock and confusion, a hole of the size of a fist, right where his heart was, the armor seemed it did little to nothing to stop the attack that had caused the mortal wound.

She also noted that some of the slavers, while they didn't had the bizarre fist size holes on their chests or their bodies riled up with bullets or shotgun pellets, their necks were twisted, contorted in such a way that it was not natural.

She immediately related this killing to the one the stealth boys used, tribals and wastelanders were superstitious folks, they once believed that Deathclaws were vengeful spirits of the past, this was used by Butch's elites to take down small towns and camps with efficiency, after all Stealth Boys were not widely used due to their rarity and the need to recharge them, and Vaults were one of the few locations that had the energy to do so.

Her eyes darted around, not believing what was before her, this was simply not possible, even the Stealth Boy units were susceptible to getting shot, either by sheer luck or by someone's keen eyesight, she couldn't believe that whoever did this didn't come out unharmed.

"Who the fuck!" her musings were cut short as she saw Eulogy burst past her, Crimson and Clover joining him along the way, Christine saw how the man looked around in utter shock, basically staring how his slavery empire was destroyed, his men dead, horribly she might add.

"Who did it? WHO DID IT!" Eulogy screamed, asking to the win, daring to someone to answer.

"You Eulogy Jones?" And apparently he got his answer, Christine was frozen in shock, the voice she hadn't heard for a long time, hearing it recently on radio after the attack to Raven's Rock.

Eulogy didn't seem to actually remember the voice; he kept looking around like a rabid dog, waiting to see something to lunge at.

"You fucker I'll hang your head on the entrance of MY city!" Eulogy snarled, pulling a single revolver out of his expensive looking red jacket.

The next thing Christine knows is that a metallic disk flies to Eulogy at great speed, then passes Eulogy's neck, sticking itself on a wall, there she saw that the metallic disk was in fact a circular saw, morbid curiosity made her turn and see how Eulogy took three steps forward, the movement causing his head to fall out of his neck, and then his body followed suit.

"I'll take that as a yes" Christine began to shake, she knew Maverick was changed, but she never imagined he was this changed, he had been a pacifist back in the Vault, but when push came to shove he was the kind of guy you wanted on your side.

"Fuck!" one of the guards screamed, actually running forward, "Is the spirit of Lincoln!" the man screamed, Christine had seen and heard a lot of crazy things, but to hear of a slaver that the spirit of the great emancipator had caused this slaughter was just plain crazy.

Whatever she was going to say ended when something blurred in front of the running man, making him turn and actually began to fire, she and the slaves ducked out of survival instinct, but Crimson wasn't so lucky, his crazy shooting ended up on her chest, dropping her to the ground, dead.

The man was unable to say something else when Clover pulled her sword and sliced the man's neck open, the slaver gurgled and tried to keep blood out of the wound, but it didn't help at all, he was fighting a losing fight.

The next to die was the other guard, Christine was just standing up after seeing the insane guard being killed by Clover just to jump in fright when a shot ran near her, followed by blood and bones, she didn't need to look to know that the other guard had his head blown apart.

Clover was the last one around, looking wildly, Christine was the last thing Clover saw as something grabbed her chin, and Christine saw some invisible force make Clover's neck snap in a 180° degree angle.

As the woman dropped dead, a body began to materialize, Christine drew a sharp breath as she saw the form take shape, and her worse fears were confirmed.

"Hello Christine, let me be the first person to tell you honestly…you look like shit" Maverick stated, the burned woman looked at Maverick, clad all black, like some sort of post-apocalyptic Grim Reaper, he had caused all this, he alone had killed every slaver in Paradise Falls, and by the looks of it, he didn't get shot while causing the massacre.

Christine forced herself to stand up, pulling her 9mm and aiming it at Maverick, he did the same with That Gun, "You…how the hell?" she asked, it was not an exact question, just asking by the kicks of it, she wanted to ask so many questions, but her brain was frozen on the order of aim and hope the other guy doesn't shoots you.

"This? It was easy, I scare them with a bomb, busted in, invisible to the naked eye, began breaking their necks one by one" he began, "Then they panicked, I just began moving out of sight and around them, crossfire was assured, they did the rest, of course the two Enclave soldiers somehow began to see me, so I killed them, painless…far more for what they deserved for working with slavers" Maverick hissed, his eyes narrowed, Christine took a deep breath, she didn't remember Maverick being so intimidating before.

"We are doing all this for the good of mankind, sacrifices are meant to be made" she said, not sure if what she said had signed her death warrant.

"Mankind? Or just Enclave kind" Maverick stated, "I have not been around too much, but I have seen and heard enough to know that you guys only help only yourselves, so spare me the propaganda" Maverick snapped, Christine was taken aback by his hostile posture against the Enclave, and she knew talking with him would buy her time, after all Maverick had always been open for conversations and peaceful resolutions.

"For the history we got Christine, I'm letting you go, just this once" Maverick said, surprising Christine and the slaves behind her, they knew Maverick was a Vault dweller thanks to his Pip-boy, but they were at a loss of what to think of this man that while looks like a dweller, is not acting like one.

Christine by her part didn't know what to think, he was letting her go, just like that? She wasn't buying it; she needed to buy more time, time for the slaver behind Maverick, moving slowly and with a sledgehammer in hand to strike Maverick, enough time to place a shot at him.

"Awfully peaceful considering the carnage you caused" she remarked.

"Don't think too much of it Christine, I want to put a bullet in your head for buying slaves, they are human beings dammit, not objects you can buy, there are children in there too dammit, has the Enclave twisted you all you chose to be like this?" Maverick asked, ire was palpable on his voice, and she could feel it.

"We had to, you and your father-"

"Don't you dare Christine! Alphonse went over the line, he ordered the guards to shoot anyone, you hear me? ANYONE outside their quarters! The Holden's were shot in front of me, just because they wanted out! All those deaths, all that pointless chaos, the fires, everything could have been prevented if Alphonse had acted like a leader instead of a frightened child that is about to lose his favorite toy!" Maverick snapped, Christine was sure, he was as changed as the rest of the generation he had grew with, her included, yet she knew he was somewhat right, all that chaos, the fires…her mother, all could have been prevented if the guards had acted according as they had to, protecting the people inside the vault, not the vault, but also all that chaos had started the moment Maverick and his dad escaped, the guilt was shared.

"For what is worth…I'm sorry about your mother, Amata told me…I'm glad Monica made it, but it still doesn't justify what you all are becoming…raiders I think is the word" Maverick stated.

"Raiders? Don't compare us to those junkies, they are so drugged and crazy that they think going against an Enclave soldiers with a kitchen knife is a good idea!"

"And allying yourselves with a bunch of murdering sociopaths, slavers and blood carving mercenaries is the best idea since inner plumping?" Maverick shot back, "Face it Christine, you guys messed up big time, and unlike those times, neither me nor my father will be there to pull you out of that shithole, now you either leave by your own volition or I toss you out, either way you leave" Maverick snapped, Christine eyes narrowed at that, and also at the fact the slaver was just behind Maverick sledgehammer raised high…

It all happened so fast to her to register, one moment she is pulling the trigger, then she is flying away, seeing how Maverick easily seized the slaver by the neck, the sound of her body falling onto the ground was nothing compared to the one of a neck being crushed, not broken, crushed.

She tried to stand up and support her weight with her right arm, just to gasp when she looked at the stump that used to be her arm, her right hand and forearm, alongside two finger of her left hand and handgun had been all but blown apart, she didn't felt pain, the sedatives prevented that, but the fact remained she had lost an arm, and she couldn't felt it.

She felt like a monster.

Looking up she saw Maverick, already hovering over her prone form, she couldn't speak, just grunt as Maverick lifted her up with one hand like if she weighted nothing, then dragged her around, she didn't had the strength or the will to do something at all, she didn't knew why.

Then she felt something hard slamming to her back, and how the sun was obscured, looking around she saw that she was placed on one of the Pulowski shelters, aptly named 'the hole'

She felt herself being lifted by Maverick once more, and staring him in dead in the eyes, "I'm doing this to spare Monica more tears…God knows you and the rest don't deserve mercy, or another chance after what you have done" he snapped, she was left standing there, rooted on the spot as the chamber was closed before her and the only light source was the pip-boy screen light.

Outside, Maverick stared at the shelter with a sorrowful gaze, he didn't felt pity for the dead slavers, they deserved all he had done to them, but the dwellers, they were forced to do things, out of necessity, out of need, he didn't knew if he could do the same to the rest, Wally had died because he was stupid enough to think he would die with him, Paul Jr. had died because he didn't tolerate cowards who used kids as shields.

The only reason he didn't killed Christine was because he didn't felt like it, he could seen she had suffered enough, not only physically, but mentally, losing her mother must had been a blow like no other, he spared her just because of that, but sparring her didn't meant she would come out unharmed, her missing arm would remind her of what she had done.

Looking around she spotted the still frozen slaves, they looked at him with shock and fear, he understood it of course, in less than two minutes he had disabled their guards and had taken down a Vault Dweller.

"Listen guys…uh…uhm…" he took a deep breath, knowing he had to assert himself, "Grab whatever you can to store weapons, food and ammo, I'm going to blow this place up sky high, and you don't want to be here" Maverick stated, ready to pull out the Nuka charges, just to see the slaves still frozen on the spot.

"Uh…guys, did I just told you I have almost nuclear charges on my backpack? Which I'm going to use to blow everything up!" Maverick screamed, the slaves seemed to react to his screaming, but were still hesitant to move, it wasn't until one of them pointed the collars on their necks that Maverick realized that they couldn't leave Paradise Falls immediate area, not unless they wanted to be a head shorter.

"A computer must control those collars activation sequence and perimeter" Maverick mussed, looking around, "Eulogy's pad" a voice made him turn again to the slaves, seeing a female said that, she looked ill, well as ill a wastelander can look without washing.

"That place" she said, pointing what used to be a small theater, if Maverick was right, "He…used to sleep there" the female wastelander said, spotting the beheaded form of Eulogy, a pleased look on her dirty face, "There has to be a terminal there" she added.

"Okay then" Maverick said, looking around, "Listen, I know you guys don't trust me and all that, but I'm here to bust you out, but I can't do that with those collars and you guys not trusting me" Maverick said, looking at the slaves.

"I need your help, so we can leave okay, all of you" he said, the slaves just gave small nods, they weren't too vocal about being aided, or the slave life had taken its toll on them, Maverick didn't know.

"Okay then, first thing first, pick any weapon, ammo, food, anything you can get your hands, find bags were you can store them, fusion batteries, scrap metal, anything that can help, even new clothes if you want, strip this place of anything valuable" he added, that seemed to stir the slaves, they looked around, seeing the amount of corpses, the amount of loot.

"After I'm done with the collars and placing the explosives, we'll get out, I got some friends waiting outside, ready to pick us up" Maverick said, ready to walk to Eulogy's pad.

"What…about the dweller?" other slave said, this time a teenager asked; Maverick could see that the teen had been brutally beaten, as the bruises on his face could attest to.

Maverick gave it a good thought, Christine could get out at any moment, and the last thing he needed was the burned woman getting out and using one the slaves, perhaps one of the kids as meat shields.

Looking around he spotted a transit sign, the metal bar still attached to the sign, walking to it, Maverick yanked the sign out, then walked to the Pulowski chamber, then rammed the metal bar to one side of the chamber, the other end coming out of the door, "The fuck Maverick!" one could hear Christine curse inside the chamber.

"This should keep you inside, I don't want you outside for the time being, be a good little girl and stay put" Maverick stated, turning around, "Okay, time's a wasting, come on move it!" Maverick snapped, the slaves, upon seeing the man trap even more the vault dweller, moved at a fast pace, Maverick could see eager smile son their dirty faces, the children in particular.

Shaking his head Maverick began to do his thing, he headed straight towards the former theater, once he was inside he spotted that while the inside was greatly changed, and wondered how the hell you could find a heart shaped bed in the middle of the wasteland, it was still the insides of a small theater, a fast glance allowed him to find the terminal he was looking for, heading towards it he began to work on it, the terminal was not different from the one the Overseer had when he hacked it the first time, and while the Enclave computer he hacked had more encryptions and had taken him a time to hack, he did it, this one was like using paper to try and stop bullets.

Once inside he found the commands for the collars, immediately he deactivated them and unlocked the locks, he wasn't going to spend more time breaking them, no matter how easy it was.

With that out he reached for his backpack, putting it on the heart shaped bed and pulling two charges, the theater was big, and he had enough charges to blow Paradise Falls up to the sky, and perhaps a little higher, he placed the first charge near one of the support columns in the room, then walked around, second charge in hand, spotting a set of stairs he walked to them, or better said underneath, there he spotted what seemed two mats, and a wooden box full of glowing…was that soda?

Maverick actually blinked as he picked one of the glowing bottles, seeing that the glow was not of the bottle, but rather of the content inside, "Trippy" he muttered, and then smiled, Sally would surely love something like this, either to study or to drink.

Packing the five bottles on the backpack with care, and after finding something he thought only existed in the vault, a small vault-boy bobblehead and taking it with him, he exited the theater, seeing the slaves discarding their collars, most of them tossing them far away.

"Are there more slaves?" Maverick called to one of the slaves, "Yes, two children and a ghoul, down in the pens" the slave said, "The kid is a dirty mouthed as I have ever seen, raiders don't curse as much as him, the girl is spoiled, let's leave it like that, and the ghoul…well she looks on the verge of going feral, slavery is not kind with them ghouls" the slave said, taking a combat knife out of a holster of a dead slaver.

Maverick didn't like that prospect, he had seen both sentient ghouls and feral ghouls, one could actually discern between friend and foe, the other could only recognize other ghouls as friendly, anything else was a target.

He fastened his pace to the pens, knowing that two children and a ghoul about to crack is not a nice mixture, the road to the underground pens was rather straightforward, it seemed Paradise Falls, in the past had an underground jail, maybe for thieves who needed to be contained before the police could arrive, obviously the slavers thought that keeping the slaves in well made jails instead of bar wired fences was more secure.

Once he made it to the room, he spotted the three slaves the other one mentioned, two kids huddled on one corner of the cell, while the female ghoul was on the other end of the cell, muttering to herself, he was glad they were separated by a thin wall, but a barrier nonetheless.

The kids noticed him immediately, both were eye wide as he entered the room, and slightly tapped the lock of the cell, "I don't have time for keys" he muttered, pulling That Gun and aiming at the cell lock, the shot made the kids jump, and basically opened a hole on the lock, the cell door opened smoothly after that, the kids kept looking at Maverick like some sort of monster.

"Eh…don't worry…I come in peace" Maverick said, truth to be told he had always wanted to say that phrase, but he imagined he would use it with some outside settlers, amazed by a vault dweller, not a pair of scared children.

The children by their part moved away of the cell, going to the entrance of the pens, seeing how Maverick advanced to the other cell, That Gun in hand, ready to blast the other lock, "Don't mungo!" the boy called.

Maverick looked up at the boy who just called him…whatever the hell that meant.

"Mungo?" Maverick asked, "That doesn't matter don't open that door!" the kid stated in panic, "Uh…why not?" Maverick asked.

"That bitch is crazy, that's what!" the kid snapped, "She tried to bite my face off when we were holed on that cage with her, she is crazy mungo, just one step of becoming feral" the kid stated, Maverick simply narrowed his eyes at the kid as he kept his aim at the cell lock, "And your point is?" Maverick asked.

"You would do better to point that thing at her head" the kid replied, Maverick just narrowed his eyes at the kid, "No one gets left behind" was all Maverick said as he pulled the trigger, blowing the lock away, the kid just gave Maverick a nasty look, shaking his head, "Stupid mungo, you're going to get yourself killed" he added, the girl didn't say nothing, but the look she was giving Maverick was neither friendly nor hostile.

Maverick just shook his head, holstering That Gun and opening the cell door, "Hey, Ma'am?" Maverick asked, approaching the female ghoul huddled on the corner.

"Ma'am, we are leaving, come on, get up, the collars are off, you can take yours off" Maverick said, "Oh, so that's what happened" the girl mumbled, tugging her own collar, then taking it off with a yank, the kid doing the same.

"You're free, you can leave" Maverick added, kneeling to the level of the female ghoul that it seemed didn't acknowledge him.

"Ma'am?" Maverick asked again, this time reaching and touching the female's ghoul shoulder, whatever the slavers had done to the female had finally taken its toll on her, because the moment Maverick touched her, she snapped, the little mental stability was gone, replaced by hunger.

The ghoul turned on Maverick, tackling Maverick to the ground and started to flair her arms at him, like punches or slashes, all at a frenzy, the berserk female ghoul didn't noted that her attacks didn't do nothing to Maverick, the kids did, reason why they were rooted on spot, seeing not even a drop of blood spilled of the face of Maverick.

Then Maverick reacted, with ease he pushed the ghoul aside, hard, the fresh feral was far more resilient than the average feral ghoul, so pushing her to a wall didn't kill her, unlike other ferals, but it stunned her.

Standing up, Maverick easily grabbed the still crazy female ghoul by the neck when she tried to attack again, lifting her up in the air, then slamming her to the ground, hard, this time the blow did kill her, as the floor cracked, so did every bone on the ghouls back, and skull, not to mention the pressure Maverick added to the neck, breaking it.

The kids stared with utter shock how Maverick stood up, looking with a sad look at the female ghoul, the reaching for her eyes, and closing them, "Rest, you are in a better place now" he added, turning to the kids, as he advanced the kids felt utterly afraid, but that fear slightly vanished when he simply grabbed their shoulders and turned them away.

"Let's go, time's a wasting" Maverick stated, not glancing at the dead ghoul, but stopping to place a Nuka charge on the cells, "Told you" the kid stated, adding "Fucking mungo" in a whisper, one Maverick heard.

"What in God's name is a mungo!"

---

"She's taking too long" John Kendall moaned out, usually a buyout would take ten minutes, fifteen give it or take, vertibirds allowed fast transportation without delay and obstacles such as broken roads, raiders of wasteland creatures.

Yet this was taking too much, she should had come about fifteen minutes ago, and scouts had reported an brotherhood vertibird flying also to Paradise Falls, while the brotherhood didn't had the means to reproduce vertibirds en mass, they had the means, just like the Enclave, to fuel them, these models used fusion powered engines, fusion batteries worked fine to help fly the vertibirds, Microfusion cells also worked, even more, but considering that the MF cells were used for the laser rifles and plasma rifles, no one wanted to use them, or waste them.

"Anything?" John asked to one of the only comm. Operator inside Vault 101, a teenager, born and raised in the Enclave, she was pretty, her name, and nickname was Madonna, with her long blonde hair and stunning blue eyes, she was eye catch to many men, and some women, and her body was nothing short of stunning.

"Nothing sir, no outpost has seen another vertibird take off" Madonna stated, rubbing her eyes, truth to be told the girl had seen more action in the past day than the last month, with Raven's Rock attack, the return of Sarah Lyons and Maverick, things had gone hectic, orders to capture Maverick, transfers, more orders, a logistical nightmare.

But nothing could be compared to this, a signal, any signal of Christine's vertibird.

Then it came, Madonna was already hearing over her headsets whatever what was being relayed to her by the scouts, if she couldn't get a clear fix of Christine's vertibird, then they would go to her last know location, Paradise Falls.

John waited with expectation anything of Madonna, a sign, anything, what he got made him dread and despair, then break when she spoke.

"Paradise Falls…is gone?"

---

Seeing that vertibird arrive, truth to be told, had been one of the most incredible experiences Sarah had ever experimented.

Seeing TWO vertibirds come had been utter surprise, if Maverick wanted to surprise her and butter even more his status as the black sheep of Vault 101 and not with the Enclave at all, bringing one of their rides was definitely the way to go.

The moment those two birds landed, and a bunch of slaves, carrying bags full of food, ammo, guns in hands, without slave collars, and wearing disbelieving looks, even more when Maverick joined them told her all she needed, the slaves didn't believe he would help them, yet here they were, on the Citadel, safe, alive, pretty much away of any slaver, not that many remained alive, Sarah thought with a smirk.

"Told ya he would" she said loud enough for many knights and paladins to hear her, many were actually shaking their heads, trying to get the fact a vault dweller had actually done something beneficial for the cause against the Enclave.

As she marched, she noted the small number of children with Maverick, with two vertibirds, the chances of transporting more slaves was increased, the fact there was two pilots accompanying Maverick before was purely coincidence.

It bothered her of course the small number of slaves, either this was all Paradise Falls had when Maverick arrived, or some slaves had got killed during the escape, by their looks it seemed the first, none of them had gunshot wounds, or any kind of wound that could be related to an assault, besides punches.

"Sarah" Maverick called, marching to her, she could see the backpack she had given him was full, of what she didn't know, of course it wasn't of the charges, maybe he found some toys back in Paradise Falls, even if the nuclear Armageddon came, one thing remain true, men like big toys.

"Mission accomplished, also Eulogy Jones is dead" Maverick added to Sarah, the sentinel let out a smirk play her lips, the slave trader Eulogy Jones had been a pain for the brotherhood and a nightmare for many wastelanders, in her mental check-list, he was the first of many to go away.

She knew this dead would not go unpunished by the Enclave, or the fact one of their main sources of lab rats was gone, location included, she expected retaliation by this attack, they would surely come in force against the Citadel, and they had to be ready for this.

"Maverick, call Sally, we need her now" Sarah stated, Maverick by his part looked at the sentinel with something akin to understanding and helplessness, she knew he didn't want to involve the little girl in this conflict, hell if she had her way, they would start picking every wastelander, one by one, taking them to the mothership, then after all they were gone, they would use the guns of the ship to lay hell from heaven against the Capital Wasteland and those remaining, Enclave and raiders.

Yet that would not happen, the Capital Wasteland was her home now, Maverick's father was still around, and so did Project Purity, if they could turn the tide of the war to their favor, then after victory they would use Project Purity to cleanse the Tidal Basin, clean water would mean people, grateful people, the Capital Wasteland chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel would receive the very needed new blood, and knowing her father, the security of the wastelanders, of Project Purity, and the possible new town built around it would become paramount beyond anything else, to be honest, she didn't felt like a BOS soldiers of Lost Hills now, she had gone native, just like the rest, unlike the Outcasts, and unlike the rest of the chapters and the brotherhood in general, they were making friends, powerful friends.

She also knew that calling Sally would, without a shadow of a doubt, bring suspicious, to her, to Maverick, to Sally, to everything they did, but you can't make and omelet without breaking some eggs, or so the saying goes.

"Yes Sarah, actually I have an idea of how to call Sally without drawing too much attention to us, tell the guards to let me out, I'll return in an hour" Maverick said, taking the backpack off and handing it to Sarah, the sentinel was surprised to hear bottles clanking inside.

"Careful, I found some glowing soda in Paradise Falls, and a bobblehead, so please don't break nothing inside" Maverick stated, slowly walking away of Sarah, "I'll come back with Sally as soon as possible" he said, Sarah knew that Maverick would try to walk as far of the citadel as possible, so he could call a beacon safely, out of prying eyes.

It was a risky, yet smart maneuver, the only one they had.

Going to the labs, Sarah immediately went to the comm. Attached to the wall, "Knight Augusta, open the gate, Maverick coming out, he'll return in an hour with someone, let them both in when they come" Sarah commanded, she could hear the man actually take deep breaths, trying to bottle up his anger against a vault dweller for all they had done, then she heard him sigh.

"Yes sentinel…under protest"

"Duly noted, carry on" she said as she ended the call, making her way this time to the lower levels of the Citadel, the halls, once filled with officers of the government, were now filled with power armored soldiers and tribals working around, even the members of the reservoir were pulling their weight, wanting to help as much as possible in the fight.

Finally she arrived at her destination, The Den, home of Lyon's Pride; it had been some time since she actually used the room/conference room to something else but to develop plans.

Before she could enter however, and arm grabbed her shoulder, stopping Sarah turned around, seeing Crow Claw standing behind her, a scowl on his face.

"You let bastard son live…with us?" he asked, "First off all I would not call him bastard son, I know for a source he had a mother and a father" Sarah snapped, "Second, yes, yes I did, got a problem with that?" she asked, knowing where this was going.

"That…man" he began, using the term man rather loosely on Maverick, "Is an offense to my people, we want, no, demand, his scalp for all the misgivings his people brought to us!" Crow Claw snapped.

"Just because he is the only vault dweller on miles around doesn't mean I'm going to actually cave in on your demands, besides, you nearly broke your hand by punching him alone, what chances you have to actually take his scalp, if something he would take your scalp…and maybe part of your skull along with it" Sarah said, realizing a little too late that what she was doing was only fanning the flames.

"We'll see about that" was all Crow Claw hissed as he walked away, Sarah bit a curse back, Crow Claw had been the finest warrior of his tribe, only to be defeated by a vault dweller during the war, his tribe was nearly eradicated if it wasn't for the brotherhood, but Crow Claw's pride was gravely wounded, just like him, also stories went that Amata had been the one who had defeated Crow Claw, and so far had been one of the very few victims of Amata who had survived her, among them Maverick.

She understood Crow Claw's very well, Maverick was the closest any tribal or knight would get to see a vault dweller and it doesn't involve combat or a life to death situation, and many people had bones to pick with the dwellers, and since Maverick was the only one around…

She rubbed her temples, trying to find a way to ensure that no one would try to attack someone as strong as Maverick, while she knew Maverick would defend himself, he would do so and would surely not kill his attacker, unless his attacker tries something really stupid.

She really hoped no one tried that.

---

"I'm going to eat your spleen!"

"These guys are messed up" Maverick muttered to himself, ducking under a car, it was not he was not bulletproof, but his clothes were so nice he didn't want to damage them.

Here he was, ducking on a old rusted car, bullets wheezing around like crazy, the source, raiders, the raiders, a woman and three guys were holed up in a makeshift fort not far of the library he passed on his way to find a safe spot to call Sally and the beacon, the fort seemed nice, that was until the guys started shooting him.

Knowing he had little time to spare, he turned around, grabbed the car sides and began to push, the tires of the cars began to skid around, doing little to stop Maverick from pushing the car onto the entrance of the makeshift fort, he could faintly hear one of the raiders actually cruse openly as he saw the car move to them.

As the shooting intensified, Maverick could feel some bullets actually pass the car's plating, some of them actually hit him, at simple glance he noted that their guns consisted on automatic 10mm submachine guns, with the girl actually fumbling with…what that a grenade launcher?

Confirming his suspicious when a grenade shell impacted the roof of the car, blowing a hole in it, that was just enough for him, now with a clear view of the raiders he pulled That Gun and activated VATS, then he fired.

The four raiders were dead before they could reload at all.

Now with the coast clear he made his way to the fort, and after he took ammo and the guns of the raiders, he began to toss them out of the wall one by one, he didn't want Sally's first view of the world 200 years later to be four dead raiders with holes where their hearts were suppose to be.

Once he was done he brought his pip-boy and made the call.

"Sally, Sally are you there?" Maverick asked.

"Yep, I'm here Maverick, good to hear your voice, want me to hack another orbital platform?" Maverick immediately chuckled at that, "Nope, just to let you know I'm ready to receive you, lay the beacon on my current position and you can come down" Maverick stated, immediately Sally squealed, he blinked at that.

"I have been waiting Mavi, I got bored out of my skull after you guys left and the orbital platform hacking just dissipated it a little, got caught up in some projects here, been working to not get bored, and seeing the world trough small probes, I picked some interesting things and just finished one of them and picked something that will fit you, I'll be down as soon as possible"

As soon as possible turned to be a minute later, the beacon landed 3 feet of Maverick current position, making him jump away in shock, then shook his head as Sally's form began to materialize, two heavy looking backpacks transported alongside her.

Once the transportation was done, Sally pressed the button on the top of the beacon and this one vanished, like the last one, Maverick gave Sally some time to adjust, after all she was just returning to her former home.

Sally by her part just looked around, a strange sense of nostalgia on her chest, then took a deep breath, and coughed.

"Ugh, 200 years later and a nuclear apocalypse didn't took out the smell" Sally commented, walking to Maverick, then smiling, "You have been busy mavi" Sally began, "I intercepted a lot of radio calls from the Enclave on their alleged bases, they want you and Sarah down" Sally stated.

"Can't say I can't blame them, Sarah is a symbol to the brotherhood, and me? Well they want my dad, I'm the chain they can follow to find him" Sally nodded at that.

"Not only that, I intercepted one last message before you called, they are mounting an offensive to the Citadel, is going to be big" Sally informed Maverick.

"How big?" Maverick asked, "Don't know, is not going to be like Anchorage or the invasion to China, but to these days standards, is going to be massive, what you did to piss them off?" she asked.

"Uh…blew up a slaver city" Maverick said, "Freed a lot of slaves and trapped one of my childhood friends inside a preservation chamber, after blowing her arm off" he added.

"Abraham Lincoln must be proud, your carrying his job of eradicating slavery…albeit he didn't blew towns apart, alone" Sally stated, crossing her arms, it supposed to be on a stern manner, but the smirk on her lips said otherwise.

"Anyway, the Enclave is not taking any chances now, you piss them off, they want to capture you and eliminate the brotherhood"

"Two birds with one stone" Maverick muttered, "Correct, the attack is still far, they won't attack until all their forces are mounted and gathered in the Jefferson Memorial, the closest landmark to the Citadel, it will take them two days, one if the press on and attack with what they got in the next 24 hours" Sally said, "I got a holotape recording of the orders, is general order, every soldier is called to battle" Sally stated, walking to the backpacks and tugging them to her.

"Really, what you did to piss them off that bad?" she asked again.

"Well humiliating them, but I don't think that's a cause for such an assault" Maverick stated, "You underestimate fascist leaders mavi, they don't tolerate such insults" she added, tugging the backpacks, but unable to move them more due to her small frame.

"Damn this ten year old body to hell!" she snarled, and then pouted when Maverick took both backpacks easily and slung them.

"Meaning to ask you, are you going to stay in that form, forever?" Maverick asked, walking slowly, Sally joining him at his side, "Not forever mavi, the drug used by the aliens was only found on the space-station, I'm going to start to age, I will not live forever as many think, which is a blessing, I couldn't stand being a kid forever, I want to grow up, fall in love, have children, age" she said, looking at the ruins around her.

"Is the same to you mavi, we are both experiments, brought to the peak of human evolution in both mind and body, neither of us can't get sick thanks to the nanobots on our bloodstream, you can't be killed by normal means, which is basically everything with two legs, but you can age, you can die of old age, natural causes, so will I, we will outlive a lot of people, but we will die in the end" she stated.

"Well, that's a comfort I guess" Maverick stated, "It is, I'm too old mavi, saw the war, saw my parents die, saw 200 years worth of horror, I want my next years to be well, I want to explore, go on adventures, visit a lot of places" Sally began, their walk approaching them to the library, and marked territory of the brotherhood of steel.

"Dad had made plans, you know? Vacations, all over America, we would visit first Zion National Park, camp under the stars, climb mountains, maybe get one of those vault-tec snow globes they were selling there and getting them to uncle House, he always loved snow globes, don't ask me why" Sally stated.

"Then we would have gone to Sierra Madre, a villa my dad made reservations, it pays to be hero of war you know, we would have spend the days walking on the beaches, the afternoons actually eating on massive lounges, with the best chefs doing food, and the nights, oh the nights, seeing the fireworks, or hearing Dean Domino and Vera Keyes singing in duet" Sally smiled fondly, "Mom was a fan of Domino, a voice as smooth as velvet she said, Julia once told me I was conceived when mom and dad heard 'something's gotta give' not a nice story but I can call that song my own for that" she stated.

"I could have do without the sordid details of how you were made" Sally chuckled at that, "Beyond that, the trip would eventually got us to Death Valley, what dad wanted there he never elaborated" Sally said, reaching for something on her jacket, pulling a pair of gleaming dogtags, Maverick noted that whatever had been written there was long erased by too much polishing.

"Dad died in front of me and Julia, rad poisoning, he never admitted it to me or Julia, a fusion engine fissure during the nuclear bombardment, he got a full blast of it on the face, we knew it could be bad but he put a brave face, but when we found mom…under the rubble of our home, some of him died, no matter how much Radaway we brought he never took a single drop, regardless of how much he insisted he took them, then as he died, he made me promise that one day, when I was old enough, or had someone I could trust to accompany me and Julia, I would go to Death Valley, to a zone called 'The Divide' and bury these tags there" Sally said.

"They were the only link I had to my dad after he died, I hid them of the aliens, and polish them regularly, of course the aliens never knew this, and kept experimenting with me, one of their experiments made me what I am now, but with one side-effect after it was done, I went insane, and I spend a whole day on my cell, polishing the tags with the cuffs of my jacket" she said, slowly bringing her left sleeve of her jacket, showing Maverick that indeed something had been rubbed there, hard, also he noted some spots of blood.

"I rubbed it so hard that I began to slice my own skin, it hurt a lot" Sally muttered, about to pocket the tags, only to be stopped by Maverick who grabbed the tags and slipped them over her neck, "Keep them close" was all he said, Sally simply nodded, tugging the tags under her jacket and shirt.

"Well, the last stop on our trip would have been Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps, and where everyone, even kids, are sinners on the making, were the stakes are high, and the hotel room are even higher, mom was religious, but she could mop the floor with everyone on Blackjack, and dad, well I never figured how he always won on the roulette" she stated, "Also we would have stayed with uncle House back in the Lucky 38, his casino and home, and watched the fireworks"

"Would have been some trip" Maverick stated, seeing how they passed the library, and some knights kept an eye on them, "Yep, I had saved my allowance of a whole year for the snow gloves I would buy on the road and ship them to uncle House, of course I would buy an extra pair for myself, and maybe if I was lucky, I would be able to get some bobbleheads, I found those things rather cute" Sally added, looking around the damaged streets, seeing two brotherhood snipers, following their steps trough their scopes.

"Maybe…just maybe" Maverick began, catching Sally's attention, "When this is all over, when I find my dad, when we beat the Enclave, and make Project Purity work, maybe I can join you and help you get that trip life owes you" Sally smiled at that, "Of course I can get your sister to join us too…"

"Nah, forget it, Julia is a couch potato, lazy to a fault, and while she is smart she tends to remain on one place rather than travel, she won't join us…besides she has always been the sensible one, she would break if I suggest this trip" Sally added, spotting the Pentagon walls, damaged, with metal walls around covering holes on some areas, laser turrets mounted high, out of the reach of anyone.

"Structure is sturdy enough to stand the attack" she mussed, "I really hope so, the vertibirds are going to be a problem, they can easily bypass the walls and drop soldiers inside" Maverick stated.

"If I get Liberty Prime online, then I guess it won't be a problem, I mean according to Sarah that thing is big" Maverick smirked at that statement, "Big is an understatement, it would have stepped on Lanius like one would step on a cockroach, it would crunch" Maverick stated, "But the IFF installed on Prime is an outdated version, it will see anyone as a target, or so Sarah said to me" Maverick replied.

"Must be a glitch on the AI network, for what I could gather, this is a problem general on every bot in the world, they began to act strange without their yearly maintenance, start snapping back at their owners after two years and then murderous after three years, it happened a lot back in my day" Sally said.

"Good thing is, I brought a lot of neat things from Mothership Zeta, included programs and circuits that, in theory should be compatible with Prime's AI network, and enhance several functions of Prime's combat directives, if worse come to worse, I'll have to erase Prime's AI completely and write a new one out of scratch, it will be hard, but not impossible" Sally said, Maverick didn't know how he would break those news to Sarah and Rothchild, the man in charge of Liberty Prime, Sarah would understand, Rothchild not so much, it was obvious the man had been working on Prime for a long time, and surely would not take the word of a little girl, no matter how smart.

"I hope you can fix it, if the attack is imminent, we will need Prime online"

---

"So…it was Maverick" Autumn muttered, looking at the images of what used to be Paradise Falls, seeing troopers pull out of a damaged Pulowski chamber the only survivor of the massacre, Christine Kendall.

But even her, the burned woman, the woman who could not feel pain was unable to stop Maverick from leveling Paradise Falls, free the slaves and basically run through the slavers like Yao Guai runs over radroaches.

A massacre, it was the only way to describe what had happened there, Eulogy Jones, or what was left of him after the explosions, was found, just part of his head, the explosions were kind to him, the other slavers were burned to a crisp, and even if they weren't, their bodies were torn apart by the explosions.

"Shut it down" he stated to the comm. Officers, he wasn't too thrilled to see what had happened, a massacre, a freaking massacre of the nastiest slavers, mercs and degenerates, after raiders, the Capital Wasteland had to provide, and one man had done the deed, alone, no support, just…some sort of super advanced stealth field and a ridiculously powerful handgun that blew Christine's hand and forearm cleanly, alongside two of her fingers on her left hand and her handgun.

"The attack has been approved by President Eden" the coronel narrowed his eyes, behind him was one of the dwellers, Amata was still on Vault 101, gathering her team for the assault, this one was just another kind of annoying.

"Ellen" August stated, turning to face Ellen DeLoria, the once drunk woman that, according to Butch himself, Maverick had saved from a horde of radroaches when she was on her worse, had shaped up after that incident, while he knew that she owed her life, and her new view of it to Maverick, she was also loyal to the Enclave, and surprisingly a strong advocate to their goals, she also stopped drinking altogether.

That didn't mean she was not annoying, especially if her only son was send onto dangerous missions.

"So I have heard that Maverick is truly back" Ellen stated, walking to August side, "Yes, we got him on tape back at the Capitol, a monster he is, he killed two enforcers barehanded, five of my soldiers, hacked and stole information from our mainframe and destroyed several projects along the way" Autumn stated.

"Not to mention that apparently he killed the Chimera and raised the commandos to the ground, and who can forget this now, Paradise Falls, a whole city…erased of the map, and he didn't even had a power armor on" Ellen said, narrowing her eyes.

"What do you want DeLoria, trying to find a way to steer your son away of Maverick? Or you just want company" Autumn stated, a small smile on his face showing up, alongside Ellen's, but vanishing almost instantly.

"A little bit of both, our spy says that Maverick has someone who can actually repair Prime's IFF and has left the Citadel to look for her, a person named Sally" Ellen said.

"She has proven to be a great asset, sabotaging Prime, delaying its deployment, outlying several caches of brotherhood weapons…supporters, she has done well" Autumn stated, slowly sliding one hand to Ellen's own.

"Indeed, I have already gave her last order, kill this Sally, without her Prime is useless, then self-termination" Ellen added, slowly gripping August hand with her own.

"Smart…was there anything else you wanted to say to me?" Autumn asked, Ellen seemed to hesitate for a second, then leaned and whispered something on his ear, something that made him go eye wide.

"Are you certain?" she nodded, "…I'll get my most loyal men, a vertibird, enough caps and wastelander clothes, if worse comes to worse…we shall leave, I won't risk your or my capture beforehand, not with what comes" he said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"August…that's so sweet of you" she said with a smile, "Butch can take care of himself, he learned all he could, like all vault dwellers he is tough, he'll endure" Ellen said, smiling at August, then walking away, leaving the coronel with a lot to ponder, the present, the future…his future with Ellen.

"…Murphy's law on effect"

---

The Citadel, Sally had to admit, was something worth seeing, even after the war, seeing The Pentagon actually stand the punishment of the Great War made her look in awe at the walls, at the floor, at everything, even the people.

She never imagined she would actually meet tribals, genuine tribals, albeit of the post-apocalypse, but tribals nonetheless.

"I gotta say, the place looks nice, all thighs considered" Sally stated, "Well, most bombs did fell on the city itself, on the suburbs around the city, or in the White House" Maverick stated.

"I know, I lived it remember, whenever I see a broken building, I remember the flashes, the quakes, the shattered glasses, the crashes of cars…the screams…I saw a man on the street, with my dad and sister…we saw him, then a flash came, hard, the next thing I know, I'm seeing the man burn without any explanation, his screams, how he begged for help…how a second flash reduced him to ash" Sally softly said, Maverick shook his head, "That's not a way to go" he stated.

"There is no dignified way to go Maverick, we just go, like that" Sally stated back, "Anyway" she said, taking a deep breath, "Besides all that, I was glad I didn't live too much of the black rain days" she said.

"I heard about them" Maverick said, opening the door to the labs, guiding Sally inside, fully aware of the stare of Crow Claw had on him and Sally, Maverick made a motion of 'I'm watching you' to Crow Claw as he closed the door.

"The radioactive material, dust, ash, chemicals, anything hazardous you could imagine was lifted during the Great War, it took time, a week to be exact, but it settled on the clouds, the first week after the war, black rain started to fall, radioactive rain, the true fallout of the Great War, a dog that was wandering when the rain hit died within minutes, so toxic it was that mere skin contact was enough for mild to grave poisoning" Sally added, "It was that same day, after the rain somewhat relented that me and my sister went out for some provisions, water, soda, anything drinkable that we could get our hands on, that day…the aliens kidnapped us" Sally said finally.

"Good, the black rain lasted four days, non-stop, according to some records on Vault 101, according to the records, it killed everyone, I can't believe we bought that shit" Maverick muttered.

"What else you could believe; it was the only version of the truth you knew" Sally summarized, Maverick simply nodded at her logic, it had been the only truth the overseer had allowed to everyone to know.

Any kind of musings died out when the duo reached the labs properly, and Sally laid her eyes on Liberty Prime, her eyes widened, and jaw going slack, she could only mutter one word.

"Fuck"

"Sally! Language!" Maverick snapped, yet Sally didn't pay him attention, she just stared at Prime.

"I can't….believe it…he did it, he actually did it" Sally whispered, some scribes noted her, and how she approached Prime, in fact many noted how she touched Prime's right leg with her hands, running her palm over.

"Saturnite alloy with titanium composite form the armor and chassis" Sally began, her voice a little louder, "RobCo industrial servo engines, hydraulics provided by Vault-Tec" Sally continued, now aware she had the attention of several scribes, knights and Maverick.

"Dual mounted Vulcan Machineguns in each forearm hidden within the chassis, .50 incendiary caliber rounds fired by the vulcans, each hand can extern a pressure of over 250,000,000 psi, enough to crush anything, diamonds included" Sally continued.

"Three nukes, each one of 2 kilotons of power, enough to destroy any building, vehicle or armored opponent, torso is equipped with an experimental cold fusion engine to power the proton shielding and photonic laser beams mounted on his head, overall a behemoth on the making, successor of Maximus Freedom" she finally stated, Maverick blinked at her, "Maximus who?" Maverick asked, a question Rothchild, one of the present scribes that could only stare at Sally with open awe and fright.

"How do you know about Maximus Freedom, that's classified info only found in RobCo terminals in the factory located outside the DC ruins?" Rothchild asked, Maverick and Sally just stared at each other, and then he nodded to her.

"Because I was present when Maximus was put online, I was present when the prototype engine placed on Prime was placed on Maximus and caused an explosive overload, I saw the blueprints of Prime before it was built" Sally called.

"I need full access to Liberty Prime, I am told its IFF is damaged, I'm here to fix it"

---

And there you go, first part of this two part chapter, the next one will be published, god willing, the 30 or 31 of december, noon surely, so stay posted.

I hope you liked this chapter, as usual, read and review, until a next time, and if i can't update to those dates then i wish you all a happy new year, cheers!