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.

11. 10: This is War, Part 2

Hellio my readers, it is I! Hypn0s, back with you with another chapter of the chornicles of Maverick!

Now i know i promised this chapter last year, sadly the last day I had to help my dad bakc in his shop, all day, by the time I came back i was tired as hell, as you can imagine, everyone waited for the last second to buy, so the shop was packed, I aplogize to those who waited the chapter that day, and I think I was a little bit ambitious by trying to upload the new chapter just two to three days after the last one.

In any case I give this chapter, the last for the month, I'm planning to take a little break of this one to retake Ichigo the Inferno and actually finish it, God knows I should.

Now, let's us begin.

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CHAPTER 10: THIS IS WAR, PART 2

The moment Sarah emerged out of the Den, her father in tow and with part of the pride behind her was the moment several scribes wheezed past in front of them, all in a hurry.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Sarah asked, one of the scribes stopped, Sarah noting he held a computer on his arms, rather hard she might add.

"The vault dweller brought…some sort of genius, she has already worked Prime's IFF problem, sabotage" was all the scribe said as he began to jog away, he would have run, but the computer on his arms impede him greatly.

"Sabotage" Owyn intoned, it was too ominous, and made him frown, "A spy" Sarah hissed, looking at the pride, then at her father, "Let's go to the labs, it seems Maverick brought our mutual friend" Sarah said with a smile as she walked away.

Soon the group was in the labs, staring at the amount of scribes working on the computers, among them Rothchild and Maverick, a little girl standing on a platform behind Prime's head.

"Okay people we have a small margin of mistake, who mess up in the operation gets my feet up to his ass!" the little girl snapped loudly, "Huh…super genius and drill sergeant" Sarah mussed with a smirk, crossing her arms, "Double check those readings, I'm spotting several program lines with glitches, check parameters 24, 86 and 55" the little girl snapped, "Maverick, Rothchild, keep up checking those readings, I really don't want to be here if Prime powers up" she added as she focused on something behind Prime's head.

Some knights went to look what she was doing behind Prime's head, shock came when they saw she was working on a computer as well, her fingers barely blurs as she typed like a girl possessed, several cables connected to Prime's exposed interior.

"Okay run the programming lines, double check everything, give me an A-OK!" the little girl stated, before their eyes, the knights saw how every single scribe began to call programs or something they couldn't understand, giving OK's to the blonde girl.

"Nice, Maverick, Rothchild, final check-up, is the core stable for powering it up?"

"Indeed it is, although I recommend powering Prime without its weapons first, just a precaution" Rothchild stated, the blonde girl seemed to nod at this, typing in the computer, and some sort of confirmation sound emerged out of the computer.

"Alright, weapons offline, Rothchild, power it up, mavi, come here" Sarah openly chuckled at Maverick's nickname, sure as hell beats 'bastard son' or vaultie.

"That girl is Sally, certified genius whenever you look at her, she helped create the boomstick and That Gun, she helped me and Maverick escape, whatever was done to her, it made her a genius, a super-charged brain" Sarah stated, seeing how Maverick joined Sally on the platform, also noting a female knight behind them, looking at them oddly.

"Father…who is she?" Sarah asked, pointing at the female knight behind Maverick and Sally.

"…I don't know" That bothered Sarah, maybe her dad was old, and maybe the chapter had gotten a lot of new blood, but if one thing her father prized himself was his memory, he could remember the faces of every knight, scribe and initiate with ease, something not easy she admits, all things considered.

"Okay, powering Prime up, cross your fingers people" Sally stated, it was that moment that Sarah eyes widened when she saw the knight pull her laser rifle and advance at the duo, then take aim with such ease…

The moment the first shot was made Maverick was already covering Sally with his body, he could feel at least two hot sensations on his back before a barrage of lights emerged from bellow, and then all went quiet.

Looking up, Maverick spotted a dead female knight, burning holes on her armor chest plate, her face reduced to ash, exposing her skull, her laser rifle on her hands, barrel smoking, pulling himself up he checked Sally, the little girl shook her head, dusted herself off, and then turned to the computer, checking everything.

"Well…where we left off?" Sally asked to no one in particular, Sarah, who was lowering her RCW tommy gun, simply sighed, "Also she is rather…umh…she doesn't…uh, ah…violence barely shakes her off" Sarah stated awkwardly, there was no other way to explain that a ten year old girl was less than phased with violent attacks, or assassination attempts against her, not even wasteland born children where that hardcore.

After the attempt on Sally, and the apparent demise of the spy and saboteur of Prime, Sally finally descended of the platform, Maverick on tow.

"Okay, it's done" sally finalized, "I thought it would be bad, for what you described me, I thought it was a software problem" Sally stated, looking up at Sarah, then at Elder Lyons, "Oh, hi there, Sally House" she presented herself, then turned to Sarah again.

"It was not a software problem to begin with, pure sabotage, our little spy, who I assume was the one you turn her head to ash" Sally began, "Had planted a virus on Prime's main CPU unit, it was more like a tumor, whenever Prime was powered up, the virus would go online as well, and start growing up and feed on Prime's RAM memory reserves, that alone caused a glitch of monumental proportions, had you powered it up once a day for the next week, short words, it caused Prime's targeting unit to be offline, gyroscope as well, so it would not move as well as without the virus" Sally said.

"Then why it identified everyone as enemies?" Owyn asked softly, greatly surprised by the girl's incredible intelligence, and how fast she had found the problem, "Oh that? Well super spy there put some sort of control device on Prime's secondary CPU unit, Prime is as complex as it can gets, it needs a main CPU unit to coordinate main process, like a human brain, the secondary CPU however acts as glands controlled by the brain, well the moron placed the control device on the secondary CPU, that caused a conflict, thus resulting in the 'kill everyone' mode" Sally said.

"It was so well concealed that no one would have noticed on first glance, after all it would look like a software glitch rather than outside interference" Sally finalized, "I am…amazed, and troubled, that act alone means that the Enclave knew of Prime's existence all along" Owyn muttered, crossing his arms and rubbing his chin under his beard.

"If they are part of the old government they must surely knew a lot of secrets, Liberty Prime included, I'm actually surprised they didn't try to get it before" Sarah stated to her father, "Indeed, nevertheless I am pleased to know that Prime is fully operational, and we have rooted the spy, I say a good day" Rothchild stated happily, only to hear Maverick and Sally snort.

"Don't count your chips yet buster, this day ain't over, before I got here I intercepted an Enclave signal, they are mounting a strike, with everything they have, here" Sally stated to the high scribe, Rothchild didn't seemed troubled nonetheless.

"We knew this day would come, sooner or later they would grow tired of this stalemate and try to end it on one strike" Rothchild stated, "Indeed, but now that we have Prime, and we have Maverick as well, alongside Sarah, we have a fighting chance" Owyn added finally.

"Sarah, gather the knights and paladins, prepare them for battle, we will defend the Citadel, with our lives if so, tell the initiates to mount guards and barricades in the reservoir, I won't have innocents getting slaughtered" Owyn commanded, turning to Sally and Rothchild, "It's Prime ready for combat?" he asked.

"In theory yes, we still need to test the weapon and calibrate how much energy they will draw, not to mention how it will move" Rothchild began, "Let the calibrations to me, I work faster" Sally demanded, making Rothchild actually bristled, "Oh don't puff out like a proud bird, you know is true, instead focus on calibrating the outside turrets, so they attack the incoming soldiers and vertibirds, if what Maverick told me is true then we must expect a pronged attack on both air and land" Sally stated.

"The child is right Rothchild, as much it pains us to admit, she broke the problem of Prime faster than we could have ever anticipated, but I disagree on some parts, Rothchild, you're my head scribe and my best strategist, start outlining defense positions for everyone, Sally, deal with Prime and the turrets if you can" the little girl smirked, "Want me to do it blind folded?"

"Sally, don't be arrogant" Maverick stated, "When you have it flaunt it"

Sarah simply rolled her eyes, "Never mind her, geniuses are arrogant by nature"

"Hey!"

"Maverick, you'll be on the front gate, if I'm right, they'll use the dwellers as usual, as human battering rams to break our defenses, you will be our ace in the sleeve, I doubt they will be able to actually take you down with less than nuclear ordinance" Sarah stated.

"Please don't jinx it" Maverick muttered, "Do you know when the attack will commence?" Owyn asked Sally, "Don't know, tonight, tomorrow at dawn or midday, they are amassing all they have for this" Sally stated.

"Very well, everyone knows your positions, get on to it" with that Owyn walked away, "I will inform whoever I pass by" he added along the way.

"Mavi, follow me, I got to give you something before I start working…I'm glad I came here, I feel useful" Sally stated while skipping, Maverick raising an eyebrow as he followed her.

Maverick followed Sally, mindful of the looks the scribes and knights were giving them, none of them were hostile, but it made him uncomfortable, "Don't mind them" Sally stated, reaching the second floor of the lab, right where Maverick had placed the backpacks, he never came to ask her what she had in them.

"Well, I have been working with some things back…up" Sally said, minding the ears around them, "It was quite easy to make in a day, they had the pieces, I had the idea, I just had to assemble them, this" she said, opening one of the backpacks, pulling out of the backpack what seemed a black baton of some sorts, not bigger or thicker than his forearm, then she pressed a button and the baton expanded, now a rectangular slot emerged from one end alongside two capacitators.

"By the way, I like the new clothes, I remember the LAPD SWAT units used the same attire, but in grey and sometimes in green with camouflage pattern, your just missing the helmet and you would look just like one" Sally said.

"Really? Did SWAT units actually wear trench coats?" She nodded, "Remember that back in the day things were done differently, the trench coats might not stop high caliber bullets like the chest plate or the helmet of the armor, but they provided protection to minor caliber weaponry, shotgun pellets even if shot far enough" Sally stated.

"Anyway mavi, that's not just a simple metallic baton, this bad boy here is something one of the probes found while I was scanning around" Sally said, "Found it in the middle of a crater of what used to be a mountain if I remember correctly, the images of the probe showed me an installation, some sort of base…or laboratories, anyway the probe found this lying around on the ground, near a body that was being dragged away by one of those big flying bugs, I think Veronica called them Cazadores, by the way how is she?" Sally asked.

"Doing fine, haven't talked much with her honestly" Maverick confessed, "Considering all that has happened I understand, maybe we should talk to her after I finish with Prime and the turrets, it won't take me more than two hours, anyway" Sally said.

"Originally this couldn't fold like this, and couldn't be turned off, so I opened, tinkered with it, added some originals of me and we have this, swing it" Maverick did as told, once he swung it once, the capacitors began to glow red, and out of the rectangular slot, a curved, red energy like blade emerged, just like the one of an axe.

"Meet the kinetic proton axe" Sally presented, "Originally this axe was always on, thanks to a small fission battery placed inside, it could cut trough robots and people like if they were made of paper, and the body is made of a incredibly strong ceramic alloy called Saturnite, now that brings me back" Sally said.

"Mom bought a pair of Saturnite alloy made kitchen knives, she was always complaining that her knifes would dull or chip, now the cosmic knife, made of 'space-age alloy' were the solution, they were advertised that would never dull or chip away, and would retain a cutting edge, mom tested one and found out they were speaking the truth, so light, so sharp…sharp enough to cut your hand, a T-bone and the cutting board in one stroke with sufficient strength behind it and if careless enough" Sally said.

"Now while the axe's body was made of the same material, which was incredibly light for something of such size, it had a problem however, many of its components wouldn't survive more than a dozen of swings with the force you put behind it, so I exchanged many of the components with something harder, added some new ideas, replaced the energy source, and here you have it, an axe and a mallet" Sally stated, much to Maverick confusion.

"It will still cut anything electronic like nothing, robots beware, if you don't cut them down, the electricity in the proton blade will cause them damage in its internal components, fry them if you will, same with power armors, it will damage the servos and fry their internal fission batteries, I don't know if they will blow up after that, better steer clear, just in case" Maverick nodded.

"To living beings, now that's another story altogether, because of the modifications I made, the proton axe lost its ability to actually cut people down, all thanks to the new energy source, now instead of a fission battery powering it up, it has kinetic energy powering it up" she stated.

"So…every time I swing it, it will charge?" she nodded, "Not only that, the inherited kinetic energy behind the blow will transfer to anything it hits, meaning that robot or human, regardless, if you hit them you'll send them flying away, just like if you were using a sledgehammer" Sally said, "But with electricity added, you'll still electrify living beings as well" she added, "Press this button" she pointed a small button near the bottom of the axe's body, "To retract it" she pressed the button, immediately the axe retracted to a manageable size.

"That's for close range, now for mid-long range, now I know the boomstick is a weapon no one wants to get hit on, even you, and its rather big and cumbersome, I realized that against big targets this is the gun to have, far better than a Fat-man, provided you can lift it up and actually don't get blown away by the recoil, but against other things is pretty much overkill, and let's face it, I know you won't be carrying it all the time" Sally said, digging in the backpack, this time pulling something else.

"Meet my little friend" Sally stated, pulling out, much to Maverick's and many knights and scribes utter shock, a literal hand cannon.

Gripping it over the rectangular shaped cannon that was as thick and long as her forearm, she held the biggest handgun every person had ever seen, a revolver he knew at first glance, thanks to the loading cylinder and cocking hammer, the grip was ergonomic, and could fit his hand perfectly.

"How…how you did this?" Maverick said, taking the gun of Sally's hand, surprised by the almost non-existing weight for something that big and how flawless and new it was.

"That Gun, The Twin Boom, The Boomstick…all of them were jury-rigged weapons, we made them out of different weapon parts, how you made this one, it looks so new" Maverick stated, taking in the flawless material, the weapon was actually painted in a metallic blue color, the grip and being the exception, bearing a silver color, the rectangular barrel held the words 'Saturnite' and an emblem that reminded Maverick of Saturn, a massive gas giant planet with a set of dust like rings formed around it, the few images he had seen of it were of a satellite launched way into the 2002, some of the last missions to space before the space program was all but cancelled in 2005, and only communication satellites were launched into space to cover the demand of the ever growing humanity for faster communication need.

"You would be surprised what I can do with a computer, raw material and a assembly line" Sally began, almost in a whisper, knowing full well the people around her were curious of her and of the things she had, "The…place had a assembly line that could create nearly and infinite amount of whatever you wanted, as long you had the material for it, when I found the axe, I send the probe to scan a little more, it found a long ingot of metal as tall as you with the Saturnite emblem and name engraved in it, so I took it, I started to run scans in it, and saw it was a ceramic alloy" Sally began.

"With such material now I could work on an original weapon, thus this" Sally said, "I reprogrammed the computers and made them work on a unique model, specified by me, I asked some people what would work better on arid area, a pistol or a revolver, all agreed that a revolver, being simpler in firing mechanism and parts would be better than using a pistol which has more parts and is more prone to jam if not often cleaned" Sally said.

"Beyond that this gun is an upgrade to That Gun, magnetic coils around the barrel and inside the frame accelerate a .44 magnum round at supersonic speed, now since the barrel is longer, I added even more coils, meaning more speed, meaning more damage, even more so with access to our…former jailers tech, I was able to manufacture custom parts for this gun, I didn't add a scope because…honestly it would have been overkill" Sally confessed.

"I had to change the ammo you use because 5.56 rounds, while more easy to find than .44, are too big for the cylinder, if I did use it I would had to redesign the weapon, anyway" Sally added, taking That Gun of Maverick's holster, "You won't be needing That Gun anymore, also I got you some new ammo for this bad boy" Sally added.

"O…kay then" Maverick uttered, "…Any name for this particular gun?" Maverick asked, Sally simply smiled, a small, almost nostalgic smile, "Yeah, back in my day we had a word for those obsessed with the past so bad that they couldn't see the present, nor the future…Old World Blues" Sally said.

"I guess people these days also gets some blues trying to see the past, trying to figure what had been and not what it could be" Sally whispered, taking the gun of Maverick's hands and turning it to its right, exposing in the silver grip and a engraving there, the one of a falcon gripping a snake between its talons.

"My dad used to serve in the 34th mechanized unit back in Anchorage, the unit was nicknamed 'Snake eaters' for the way they dealt with the Cobra APC's of the Chinese, they knew were to hit them, one shot and those things would lit up like a Christmas tree, it didn't help either that they did that using heavily armored helicopters nicknamed 'falcons' due to the way they attacked, sweeping down to startled and defenseless enemies and laying fire with two miniguns mounted on each side of the helicopter and small rockets that were like directed grenades, the heavy plating of the helicopter allowed such daring move" Sally mentioned.

"When I was making the gun…I remembered that dad used to carry a magnum revolver back when he piloted the falcons, the magnum had the same engraving on the grip, it was given to him by Uncle House, along with the message 'don't you dare to die' with it" Sally said.

"…I…for a moment I looked back…and really hoped that I had died back in the war alongside Julia, it would have been humane, joining my mom and dad in whatever afterlife that existed…I looked back, and nearly forgot what I had in front of me, what was around me, I got the blues, and nearly stayed there if I didn't remind myself that my past was as gone as the world before, my sister was with me, I had friends, and one of them was waiting for my help" she said, handing the weapon back to Maverick.

"OWB, Old World Blues, remember what it means, you can look back, but don't dwell in it" she said firmly.

Maverick nodded solemnly, holstering OWB and slowly removing the 5.56 rounds out of the bandoleers tied to his waist.

"One more thing" Sally said as she pulled out of the backpack two small boxes that were surely full with ammo for OWB, "The Saturnite alloy, while strong and light, surprisingly retains heat like nothing I have ever seen, I estimated that every time you shot OWB some heat would gather around the barrel, after you shot six rounds, the barrel would be hot enough to actually burn someone's face if you hit them with it, to prevent this problem and damage to the coils, every time you reload, the accumulated heat will be expelled out when the cylinder is moved for reload, allowing cool air, well as cool as it can be in the wasteland, to enter the gun to cool its insides, in any case the gun is ready to go" Sally said.

"these two boxes hold 54 rounds, 48 when you load them into OWB, I know you will find more rounds" she stated, closing the backpack and reaching for the other backpack, this time slinging that one on her back, "You can keep this one mavi…okay I'm off to work, wish me luck" the little girl said almost casually, making him chuckle slightly, one would imagine that after all that had happened, one would steer clear of more conflicts, but apparently not him and Sally.

With a sigh, and knowing what might came ahead, Maverick set out of the labs, not knowing what the night might hold to him, or anyone else.

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"Operation: Broken Steel is in effect" Autumn nearly chocked when he said those words to President Eden, and it wasn't for anything else, this operation, kindly nicknamed broken steel was simply a termination order for every single brotherhood knight, initiate and whoever was with them, the Enclave would attack, and there would not be survivors.

The attack was twofold of course, Maverick was in the Citadel, if they wanted to lure James out, they needed Maverick, his screams of pain would surely make the father rush to whenever he believed Maverick was.

Yet this plan had to be executed flawlessly, this concentration of troops would not go unnoticed by no one, the brotherhood would notice, so would Three-dog, the main informant…for the wasteland, so would the wastelanders, besides everyone would notice a large concentration of black power armored individuals and vertibirds moving to a single spot.

It was ironic to him that Project Purity, once a holdout of Super Mutants, was now the assembling point of Enclave forces after the attack to Raven's Rock and the demise of Paradise Falls, two major attacks in two days, he felt rather…annoyed how a wayward vault dweller had put two damaging blow on them, at least the orbital platform had not been aimed to the Mobile Crawler.

The troops were both hyped and scared, the concept of going against the brotherhood and ending the war had them on high alert, but the simple thought of going against someone who killed to enforcers, bare-handed simply scared them, not to mention the fact that Christine, upon being found in what used to be Paradise Falls, kept muttering about Maverick, and how they couldn't kill someone who was basically death, now in the sense, but The Death.

Now there was something to think about, it was obvious Catherine had been delusional by the explosion, the trauma of her blown arm, even if she didn't felt it, and the slaughter of every slaver of Paradise Falls by one single man, but in the American Wasteland there existed legends that one could not simply ignore, the vault dweller of vault 13, slayer of The Master, and one of the most iconic figures of NCR, alongside the first president of that new nation.

From that point onward, you could trace a list of outstanding people that had become legends on the wasteland, like some sort of wild west myths, each one of them began to leave their mark on the world, for good or evil, The Vault Dweller, The master, The Chosen One, Frank Horrigan, Caesar, Joshua Graham and the Burned Man, each name as big as the legends of the places on the American wasteland, The Big Empty, The Divide, Sierra Madre, Point Lookout, The Glow, each one of them, sought by treasure hunters, each one of them with legends as amazing as horrible.

Autumn rubbed his eyes, wanting this operation to begin immediately, but this was not to be, their numbers, while substantial now, would do little against the Citadel, the place is a fortification, it held during the Great War nuclear bombardment, it would hold an all out assault of the Enclave.

That's why they would lead a pincer attack, one on the main gate, the other on the underground parking lot entrance.

A zone that Amata and her team were already scouting.

---

Veronica admitted that The Citadel, by far, surpassed anything that Lost Hills had, first thing, you could actually see the sky while inside the base, unlike in Lost Hills, a bunker can easily be an impregnable fortress or your tomb, and as things are progressing, it could be the second.

Elder Lyons was her new hero, she admitted, the man saw beyond the duties of the brotherhood, maybe High Elder Maxson had the right idea on keeping technology out of people's hands, at first, during the rise of the most vicious raider gangs ever know, but she had learned that when you don't have the technology, you fabricate it.

Project Purity was such an example, a massive water purifier of the likes never seen, NCR would pay an arm, a leg and their virgin daughters to have access to the massive purifier and its limitless source of water, after all the Tidal Basin was fed by the irradiated ocean, once Project Purity is online, the ocean waters would once again, help mankind.

Now as a member of the Capital Wasteland brotherhood chapter, she had to wonder, how McNamara would take the news of her departure and sudden addition to a brotherhood chapter on the other end of the American Wasteland.

Surely not good, McNamara is a good man she admits, but he is too tied to the rules and tabulations the Codex imposed over the members of the brotherhood in general.

Oh she had an idea what she would do after this war is done, she would ask someone to give her a lift back to the Mojave, and bring some of the Followers of the Apocalypse here, this place needed them, and she knew that Elder Lyons and the Followers of the Apocalypse would hit it off right on the start, after all they shared one goal, the survival and improvement of mankind by using pre-war tech, not hoarding it.

Her musings were cut short when she saw Maverick pass by near the courtyard.

"Hey Maverick!" Veronica called, the moment he turned was the moment a bullet sounded off in the courtyard, while this was not uncommon thanks to the firing range nearby and the initiates who used 10mm handguns to practice, this was different because the bullet was fired by a tribal, and the target was Maverick's head.

At other occasions, Veronica would had drew a horrified look because of the shot and the target, but since this was Maverick, the effect was different, the bullet bounced off his head, flattened like if it had hit a piece of a power armor, all while Maverick tilted his head to the source of the shot and uttered one single word.

"Ouch"

To one Crow Claw, that snapped him of the trance he was after seeing a bullet bounce harmlessly out of the vault dwellers head, without even a drop of bloodshed, or brain matter for that matter.

"You…are truly a monster" Crow Claw uttered, rising his handgun to fire again, this was in vain because Maverick was already on him and held him on a chokehold, lifting him off the ground upon the stupefied looks of the many tribals and knights seeing this.

"You moron, there are people here that were passing by, aim bad and that bullet might have ended in their heads!" Maverick snapped angrily.

Everyone looking could only wait for the inevitable death of Crow Claw, after all what they could do against someone who got shot in the head and the bullet actually bounced off his skin?

Shock came again when Maverick simply released Crow Claw, shaking his head, "Grow up" was all Maverick said to the fallen tribal as he walked away, Crow Claw didn't took that comment very well, he immediately took aim, on the ground, and fired, like last time, the bullet bounced harmlessly of Maverick's head, but the shot, near the base of Maverick's head made him stop and actually jerk his head to the front, a little.

Then he turned, and he looked miffed, and that was saying something, it seemed that Crow Claw needed more than being held in a chokehold by someone who could kill him by just sticking his finger to his skull or simply closing his hand over his neck.

Crow Claw began to fire the moment Maverick turned and began to advance at him, each shot met its mark, but did little to stop Maverick, there they noted that unlike the other two shots, these now didn't made him jerk back at all, they just bounced off and he kept advancing.

Soon Crow Claw had run out of ammo, and Maverick was in front of him, no one wanted to look away, or do something about it, it was like seeing two speeding Deathclaws about to crash on each other, head-first, an spectacle you didn't want to miss out at all.

"You…are not meant to be" was all Crow Claw uttered before Maverick sweeped his hand, taking the handgun of Crow Claw's out of his hands, then began to crush it, the sound of metal bending and pieces falling out of Maverick finger gaps was noticed by everyone, even more when he tossed it away, showing that only the grip had survived Maverick's grip, the rest was bended in a way that was not natural at all.

"You want to actually hurt me?" Maverick asked, reaching for his holster, then pulling OWB, many eyes, Crow Claw's included, grew in size upon laying eyes on the hand cannon Maverick was handling with one hand.

"You need something bigger" was all he said as he lowered the gun and took aim at one of the dummies near the shooting range, everyone was already moving away of Maverick and his target, in case he missed when he pulled the trigger.

He didn't, the moment he shot, everyone felt like if their insides were about to turn into jelly by the shot shockwave, and many actually screamed when the dummy, which had held both gunshots and laser shots, and was made of wool, pieces of concrete and metal, was reduced to dust, blown away of its base by Maverick's little friend.

All was silence after that, just the sound of pieces of the dummy hitting the ground, and then the sound of metal sliding into leather.

"I don't know what's your problem with me, but I don't care, I'm on the same boat as you are, they want me dead as well, so you either wise up and help me fight them off, or you get out of my way and let me do things without watching for someone of my team trying to shoot me on the back" Maverick hissed, slowly walking away.

"Your…team?" Crow Claw hissed, standing up, "You have no team here bastard son" Maverick kept advancing, "You are alone, forever cursed to wander these lands…alone…monster" Crow Claw stated, "You have no one to help you, you will die alone…just like everyone of my tribe" Crow Claw whispered the last part, yet Maverick heard it.

"Was Amata responsible for the death of your tribe?" Maverick asked to Crow Claw, still giving the tribal his back, "…Yes" was all Crow Claw said, seeing how Maverick shook his head, "…That's all I needed to know" Maverick replied, heading towards the main entrance and disappearing behind the door.

No one knew what to say after that, no one wanted to, Veronica wanted to, but she held herself, she held her tongue until she saw Crow Claw stand up, then she approached him, and gripped him by the neck.

"You are one lucky son of a bitch you know that?" Veronica asked to the still stunned Crow Claw, "Let me tell you a little story, one about a vault dweller that left it all, his home, his friends, his life, just to find his father, outside in a big world, alone, he escaped thanks to his best friend, a girl, the daughter of the overseer of that particular vault" by that last word, everyone had already connected what Veronica was saying with Maverick and Amata, there was no secret that Amata Almodovar was the daughter of the current overseer of Vault 101, and Maverick's sole presence indicated that he was the dweller that escaped, thanks to Amata, his friend.

The very concept of thinking that Amata had once friends was mind-bogging; no one could actually relate the mass-murdering sociopath that was Amata to a woman who had helped her best friend escape.

"The boy escaped, just to be captured by slavers, sold to mad scientists, and experimented like a lab rat, six months, six months of the most depraved experiments you can think off" Veronica stated to the tribal, "The scientists didn't counted on their experiment waking up, let alone helping other experiments to escape, among them Sarah" Veronica hissed, some knights now could actually say why Sarah looked five years younger.

"Then the dweller met his friend again, in that spot, also kidnapped and experimented, not like him, but enough to put her above any mercenary" she added, "But he knew she was changed, he was told about the war, the atrocities her friend committed, every death committed by her made him feel sick, then they crossed paths, you know what was the first thing she did after seeing him?" Crow Claw just stared at Veronica straight in the eyes.

"She shot him, twice, no measuring words, no nothing, she just shot him, bullets bounced off him, just like yours, but unlike this time, he fought back, he punched her, he kicked her hard enough to make her vomit blood, he broke her ribs with 'light' punches" she said as she released Crow Claw.

"She called him traitor, murderer, yet he is innocent, his only crime was turning his back to his home, for his father" then she walked away, "Be thankful he didn't decided to use you as a practice dummy…he is a tribal, just like you…a tribal without tribe" she then followed where Maverick had left, leaving a bunch of stunned tribals and knights.

Once she was on the other side, she saw Maverick, standing near the door, looking at exactly nowhere in particular, just looking upwards.

"You didn't need to stuck up for me" Maverick mentioned, Veronica slightly smacked Maverick on his side, "I'm the kind of girl who doesn't follow many rules, if I could I would rewrite the Codex…then again the scribes would realize of the change" Veronica said, looking at Maverick with concern on her eyes.

"Have you ever wondered…what's your goal in life?" Maverick asked, "Yep, mine's getting a dress" she said, "Yeah, a…a dress?" Maverick actually looked at her oddly.

"Yeah, something sexy, eye-catching, something that says 'I'm sexy' but also 'don't fuck with me' I always hoped I would come with something like that during my scavenging trips, but so far no luck" Veronica stated in a sad tone.

"…my goal…I don't even know what my goal is" Maverick stated, "I thought at first was to get dad, figure why he escaped, why he left me without even uttering a goodbye, but then I learned a lot of things of him, Project Purity, mom, then I saw what Amata and the others had become, how much…we had changed…they had changed…I have changed" Maverick said.

"I know because I would rather talk my way out of a fight than rather punch it away, I know it because Butch was never that collected and cold headed, like I saw him back on the ship, I know because…Amata was not a blood-carving maniac" Maverick stated, "I wonder what I will do…after this is all over…I promised Sally to end the trip life owes her, but then what?" Maverick asked.

"I don't know, fall in love, get married, fornicate like you were on aphrodisiacs high and have seven children so you can help with the repopulation of the world?" the way Maverick stared at Veronica told her that obviously, what she suggested was not high on his priority list, or in his list at all.

"You…have a dirty mind Miss Santangelo" Maverick stated, Veronica simply chuckled at that, "Oh you don't have no idea…my girlfriend found out about that on our second month of dating" Veronica stated with a fond smile, Maverick just shook his head, bringing his pip-boy up and started to press buttons.

"What are you doing now?" Veronica asked, "Oh, this?" Maverick asked, pointing at his pip-boy, "Well, RobCo made out two versions of the pip-boy, one was the 2000 series, a handheld device, kinda cumbersome to some people, but it was made like that because, according to Vault-tec, the west wouldn't get as badly hit by a nuclear war unlike the east, which held the capital of the nation" Maverick began.

"So the 2000 series were given to the vaults in the west, with some exceptions if I heard, and the east got the 3000 series" Maverick stated, "Are you going to tell me what are you doing or you're going to regale me with incredibly boring stories of how the vaults were made?" Veronica asked.

"Well, RobCo issued several, non-standard applications to the pip-boys, you could write a message in them…if you were patient enough, record messages and pretty much cause blunt force trauma to someone if you hit them hard enough with one of them, they are made to last, just don't try it with a 2000 series, I heard their chassis where eggshells, but the edges are pointy enough to pull an eye out" Maverick stated, Veronica simply shook her head slowly.

"Hell, you could even have your own diary in this thing, 1 terabyte of memory if I'm correct, it might explain how the hell it has a detailed map of the United States" Maverick stated.

"But there were two functions that only the overseer of each vault could unlock…that and my dad" Maverick said with a smirk, "The first one is Omega 13, is only available on the 3000 series, due to being attached to our arms, it basically means is a kill switch, it injects a very acid solution directly on our veins, we are dead within the minutes, dad disabled his and mine when he found out about it" Maverick stated.

"Might explain why Alphonse was so spooked with us, he must have activated the Omega 13 on our pip-boys and didn't work" he added as an off-comment, "The other one is non-lethal, more like a tracking device, with that I say a lot, every pip-boy is linked to vault 101 mainframe, it cannot locate us directly, it acts more like a beacon to interlinked pip-boys, simple words, is like a chain, you link one pip-boy signal to the other, you activate the tracking system and it will lead you to that particular pip-boy" Maverick began, Veronica nodding in real awe at the pre-war geniuses of RobCo and Vault-tec.

"Dad is a genius, not only in the medicine field, but in general, he ain't Sally, but to a normal man like him, knowing what he knew, and doing what he did, was something short than amazing, he hacked the mainframe of Vault 101 and linked our pip-boys with every pip-boy related to 101, a just in case he said" Maverick said, "Now let's see if this 'just in case' actually was worth it" he added, pressing a button Veronica saw how Maverick's pip-boy screen began to flash, several dots displayed on a bird's view map of The Capital Wasteland.

At the same time, Maverick and Veronica narrowed their eyes, seeing ten dots already inside the Citadel.

Looking at each other they began to move, they didn't mediate words with knights or scribes, some tribals stared at the vault dweller and the rag dressed scribe walk together, actually reaching the entrance to the reservoir in record time, using the stairs, and making their way to one of the oldest sections of the reservoir, at least to the tribals.

The parking lot had single entrance, a ramp, which entrance to the surface had been covered with a thin lair of concrete and junk.

Once there Maverick narrowed his eyes, Veronica couldn't see it, but thanks to his HUD and radar, he could see ten hostile signals behind the wall, hostile signals that walked away by some reason.

Maverick narrowed his eyes at that, it was obvious those were vault dwellers, but what they were doing? Recon? Paving the way for…

"Shit" Maverick muttered, realizing that Sally was right, this was an all-out assault, they wanted him captured, and they wanted the rest dead, what better way to do that that to attack a weak spot?

"Maverick?" Veronica asked, "Veronica, go with Elder Lyons, tell him a recon unit of vault dwellers found a weak spot on the reservoir" Maverick said, "I'll stay here…the dwellers won't attack the main entrance, they will hit us from behind"

---

"Confirmed, the foxhole has been found" Amata called, a small two way radio on her hands.

"Excellent Almodovar, this is a great development, now we can focus our forces well"

"Indeed, I am still worried about those turrets; I swear a pair of those were trailing us, like staring us" Amata admitted.

"That is ridiculous, those turrets had limited range, even if they detected you, they wouldn't fire unless you slipped into their firing space, allowing them a firing solution"

"I know that" Amata hissed, "We also detected several hostile signatures on the other side, surely tribals, but one of the signatures was awfully close, like if it knew something" Amata replied.

"Irrelevant, focus on the task at hand, are they placed?"

"Yes Mr. President" Amata states, maybe someone would actually comment as of why the leader of an organization would be actually leading his people to battle, most leaders of the post-apocalypse world don't do that, mostly delegating to other people.

But Eden was different, lead by example was what he did, on some special occasions, his predecessors had failed to see that by actually being on the field, actually seeing what was happening, one could change things, to fight, to see, to command, there is one reason why the resident of each nation, back in the day, was the supreme commander of his forces.

Lyons had led by example, but age had hampered him, you don't expect an old man carrying a rocket launcher fighting these days, yet in a way Lyons had found a way to fight in the form of his daughter, Sarah, and her return, alongside Maverick's, had bolstered the spirit of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Well that ended now she summarized.

"Are the Satchel charges set?"

"Yes Mr. President, although I must state that you must not participate in this, the brotherhood is dangerous enough" Amata tried to reason with the man, the reason why was because he wanted to capture Maverick himself, the old saying of 'if you want something done, do it yourself' in full motion.

Problem was that he wanted to personally capture Maverick, he didn't knew how dangerous Maverick had become, he would end up dead, power armor was just a nuisance to him, power armored super mutants were obstacles that he could run into and tear through, the president…it would like putting a piece of paper to try and deflect a laser beam, Maverick would stamp Eden to the ground.

"I understand your concern, but this matter has to be ended personally, and definitely by myself, you told me Maverick can be talked, he is a man of knowledge, of science, like his father, a man who can be reasoned with, I'll talk to him, I'll explain my points, if he is as half-the man of words you once spoke off, he will see reason"

Amata didn't found a flaw in this plan, so far, Maverick had always tried to find a peaceful resolution to things, every time, but she also knew that Maverick would fight back when all other options were exhausted, Christine had pointed that out, the only reason behind the massacre of Paradise Falls was because every person there were slavers, and Maverick, being a moral person, saw slavery as an aberration, and those practicing it lined up for death row, for him.

"Sir…maybe you're right, but remember that Maverick will also fight if he sees the necessity of it, I recommend not pursuing this path, just capture him and that's it" Amata recommended.

"I have seen the security footage, I know what I am fighting against Almodovar, if you think I'm going there unarmed or unprotected you are clearly underestimating me, violence will have to be our last resort, many of my men had died already on the hands of Maverick, if I can prevent this by talking him out, so be it, if not, I am already prepared for this, now prepare yourself for battle"

Amata let out a long sigh, this was going to be one of those days she summarized, at least she had to escort the president on this one, the strike team she was forming was already on the front lines, every single one of them with some exceptions for this, it was her, Susie, Freddie, George, Sigma Squad, two controlled Deathclaws, five enforcers and a garrison of Gary clones, armed and armored clones.

One might think it was overkill, but against Maverick, she had long learned that against him, overkill is merely being prepared for the worse.

With a slight migraine, Amata prepared for the night hostilities.

That night, 8:23 PM, The Citadel…

Sally rubbed her hands as she stood up of her chair, her work done beyond anyone's capability; the scribes around her were too surprised, or too prideful to admit that her arrival had typed the balance to their favor.

She didn't mind this one bit, she had dealt with prideful arrogant before, her school had been full of them before, all boasting their parents were helping on the war effort, she had boasted once of course about her father being a pilot, and reason why many Cobra APC's were disable, but arrogance can run deep, even on a young age, if that wasn't enough, she had boasted that her Uncle was no one else that Robert House himself, the billionaire mogul and genius, that confession earned her being ganged up by five girls of her age, also rich girls with rich parents that couldn't tolerate the name House at all, she still bears scars of that day in particular, her torso was riled up with scars, scars only Sarah had seen and had the decency to not comment on.

Of course that wasn't the first time she was attacked in such a way, but it was the last time, she remembers well enough, the last week before the world went to hell, her dad had came back of Anchorage, her mother was packing up and getting them ready for the trip of their lives…then the bombs fell, and all went to hell.

She remembers clearly seeing in the following days one of her tormentors, laying on one of the streets near the school, dying, Radiation poisoning being the cause, just like her dad, a fissure had caused the girl to take on a highly radioactive dose, her still developing organism was not yet ready to deal with such poisoning, not even Rad-way could save her, Sally remembers clearly what the girl said.

She was sorry, so sorry, so afraid of being alone, the other girls had deserted her once she had been exposed to the radiation, and was left to die, Sally had stayed with her until she drew her last breath one hour later, her last words being "Arrogance…is not nice"

Sally, from that day onward stopped being arrogant, when Maverick chastised her for being arrogant she felt kinda hurt, she had seen where arrogance leads, she didn't snap back because he was right, she was being arrogant, gladly she was able to recover and redeem herself by working on Prime and the turrets.

That had allowed her some time to think.

This world, this land…it was not longer her world, her home, her land, to her the old world had died in a blazing glory of nuclear fires, nearly 10 billion lives snuffed out with a press of a button, she had been among the lucky million predicted by Vault-Tec to survive outside in case the bombs fell, and, if Maverick and Sarah were led to believe about the Ghouls origins and unnatural longevity thanks to the radiation, she was among the very hundred to have seen the war and survive its aftermath, her sister Julia among them.

The matter at hand was that this world, this time, this war was not hers, she had no business here, she could leave and Maverick would not hold her because of it, he understood all she had suffered, he really did, he was not someone who simply nodded and said yes every time, trying to imagine what it feels to have lost it all, they were so similar, their worlds rocked out of their feet, all they knew and loved, taken away in a blink of an eye, forced to become survivors, and then return, only to see that all they knew was no more.

If she was being honest, she was doing this only for Maverick , Sarah and Veronica, they were her only links to this world, she won't say that she has ulterior motives for being here, seeing Liberty Prime had stirred a lot of emotions, her long passed uncle had designed both Maximus and Prime as weapons, and while Prime was obviously the superior model to her uncle Maximus and securitrons, she knew that his greatest accomplishment had been something different, a revolutionary data storage device as small as a betting chip, he always told her that the chip was still being developed, and being the paranoid man he was, he would make sure that the chip would be safely transported, and in case someone were to acquire it, they wouldn't be able to see what it truly was because her uncle would hide it under the façade of a simple Platinum made chip.

She wondered why her uncle wanted that anyway, Liberty Prime had been the pinnacle of technology, warfare technology, but technology nonetheless, the proton beams and the photonic shielding was such an example, the energy to fuel one was, short to say, massive, to power them both, Prime's main servos, its processor and weapons, alongside the fact that the reactor was removable energy, made Liberty Prime the mixture of every imaginable technology that could, if properly used, could have helped the world avert the crisis that led to its destruction.

Of course she had heard some things of her uncle, before they didn't bothered her, she had photographic memory, but she was not exactly the brightest bulb on the box, after all she was ten years old before, her brain was one of a small ten year old kid.

But now it was different, she knew things, 200 years was too much time for her, she remembers clearly when Uncle House spoke about some 'security holograms' that Sinclair, a multimillionaire mogul of the industry of music and gambling, just like House, began building what would become the greatest casino ever, The Sierra Madre Casino, and alongside a Villa, she knew that her uncle was not bothered by another casino, and she wasn't bothered at first when she saw several copies of a shipping manifest of the US army detailing several weapons, not to mention the strange manifest of a place called Big MT, a place, she honestly says, doesn't know at all, but if her uncle was keeping tabs on it, meant it was something big.

Moving her neck around, Sally made her way out of the labs, there was nothing she could do for the turrets and Prime, unless they wanted her to make the turrets shoot down asteroids or make Prime actually skip his way onto battle while singing 'stars and stripes' and the song of captain cosmos.

Walking around and ready to leave the lab, she spotted the Boomstick near one of the desks, on the ground, she understood why the boomstick was on the ground, the thing was heavy enough to make any kind of table to break on its weight, she wondered however why two knights were trying to move it.

"Hey!" Sally called, marching towards the knights; both gave them a look, not really in the mood to deal with her, sadly they weren't given any kind of respite when she arrived, "What are you doing with the boomstick?" she asked, both knights just grunted, trying to lift it up again.

"You're going to pull something off" Sally said, approaching both knights and immediately working on their fission batteries, both knights nearly had seizures when she did that, usually when you tinker with w a T45-D, it is done when the guy is outside the armor, the risk of the battery going off is too great.

One of the knights was about to say something when he easily lifted the boomstick, well one part of it anyway, looking at the little girl who smirked at him, then turned to the other knight, doing the same and allowing him to lift the other part of the boomstick.

"One thing about power armors, the more energy, the more powerful the servos become, is just so you can lift the boomstick and tell me where are you taking it" Sally stated, arms crossed.

"Well…" One of the knights began, "Scribe Santangelo came and asked us to bring this gun to the vault dweller…Maverick" the knight began, Sally noted that while the knight mentioned Maverick's name in certain contempt, it was not open hostility, maybe his little mission to Paradise Falls was a success after all.

"He believes they will use a closed entrance in the reservoir to attack us while we focus our forces outside, in the courtyard" the other knight said.

"…a diversionary attack, the troopers are just cannon fodder, it's going to be a pincer attack alright, but they will attack a weakened rear-guard" Sally mussed, really intrigued by the plans of the Enclave.

"They must really want Maverick captured" she summarized, gaining the attention of both knights, "He is the only link to the creator of Project Purity, without him, they can't hope to complete it" Sally stated, knowing full well the story behind Project purity, a noble dream and endeavor, if only they could bypass the problem of processing such large amounts of water, she knows the mothership doesn't has nothing that can be actually used to do that, besides this was purely earth scavenged tech, the super-advanced tech of the aliens would cause a conflict and make the Jefferson Memorial go in a blaze…or blow a hole on what is the Capital Wasteland, she can't take that risk without knowing what Project Purity is truly made.

The trip to the reservoir was quiet, both knights marveled with the fact they could actually lift something so heavy as the boomstick, and actually wondered how Maverick could lift it with ease without a power armor on, all while Sally gazed o what used to be the halls of the Pentagon, age and abandonment, alongside the lack of proper care had made the walls crack, the paint was already falling out of the walls, and most of the doors were barely holding on their rusted hinges, if this was the state of every building on every part of the world, then there was a lot of work to do to return to it to its original state.

Then yet again, tearing every building down and making something new out of the scarps sounded like a better idea.

Once they arrived to the reservoir, she spotted a lot of tribals walking around, moving away, most of the males were pulling out lances and what seemed to be crude versions of Tomahawks, women were pulling their children away, and in one particular area, stood Maverick, looking at a wall.

The knights simply moved around, left Maverick's boomstick near him and walked away, giving Sally a nod and thanks for the small upgrade to their armors.

Sally by her part walked at Maverick's side, mindful of the amount of tribals moving away of their makeshift homes and leaving a lot of males there, armed males that seemed ready to repel an invasion…coming out of the wall?

"Maverick…what's going on?" Sally asked, slightly startling Maverick with her sudden appereance, he also noted the boomstick laying near, "A diversion attack, they want to attack here, and attack the non-defended rear" he stated.

"…Makes sense, classic movement" Sally said, "Battles like this are like chess, you need to anticipate you opponents every move, but even in chess, such a controlled game, a little of chaos and confusion can appear" Sally commented.

"They will expect you to be topside, not here" Sally said, "I doubt it, I guess they must be really desperate to do this, an all out assault is either sign of confidence on one's troops and victory or desperation to end a war of attrition with an equal footing opponent" Maverick said.

"Bet ya…uh…10 caps…I guess, that it's the second" Sally stated, Maverick rose an eyebrow at that, "Now…you think the elite force will come here, right?" he nodded at her question, "I doubt that you and a bunch of tribals with spears and hammers will stop them altogether, well you will, but with the consequence of the tribals demise" Sally stated bluntly.

"I know Sally, but they are not budging, they want to fight, to get even, the Enclave and the vault dwellers had taken too much of them, their lives, their homes, they want to pay them equally"

"Blood with blood, murder with murder…you know, there was an old saying back in the day" Sally began, "And eye for an eye makes the world blind" Sally stated, "Amen to that…but this is a different world I reckon, I dare say that I'm as old fashioned as you" Maverick stated with a smirk.

"Are you insinuating something?" Sally asked with a smirk of her own, "Maybe I am Miss House, are you going to do something about it?" Maverick asked.

"Why I am…uh…what's your last name?" Sally asked, Maverick was about to answer when he suddenly stopped, like thinking about it.

"I…don't know, dad never told me about it…in fact" Maverick began, "I think we don't have last names, I never found it odd truth to be told, everyone called dad 'doc' or 'James' or 'Dammit James' that last one was the overseer's favorite one" Maverick said, "Me? Well, most people called me Rick, a short for Maverick I guess, and until recently Mavi, by the way thanks" Maverick growled that, Sally simply smirked sweetly, if that's possible Maverick didn't knew.

"No last name…odd" Sally muttered, "I know" Maverick said, turning around and taking the boomstick on his hands.

"You need to go with the children" Maverick stated suddenly, "Like hell I will" Sally stated, "Sally" Maverick began.

"Listen Mavi…Maverick, I'm no longer a child, despite my current look, I have lived too long, and yes, in the past 200 years I have killed my share of aliens, they all deserved it, so I don't have qualms of suddenly pulling my gun and shooting a human, and by what I have heard of the Enclave, they deserve to be shot, so don't coddle me" Sally snapped.

"Is not coddling…is just…listen I don't want you to get hurt, these guys are serious"

"So were the aliens" Sally stated, looking around and seeing that just one old woman moving to the exit of the reservoir, they were alone now, no need to mince with words.

"Sally…they want me, and they will use any means to do so, if they got you…if they hurt you…I don't know how I can look myself in a mirror after that" Maverick confessed.

"Provided that mirrors still exist" Sally joked, "I'm serious Sally!" Maverick snapped.

"So am I! We stood against the aliens, against Lanius, against those abominations, against everything those aliens threw at us, we survived, I'm not going to let you fight alone, I came here for you, for Veronica and Sarah, accept it, I'm not going anywhere" Sally snapped, looking at Maverick straight in the eyes.

"(sigh) are you certain?"

"Positive"

"You know that we might not make it out"

"What's life without some risks?"

"This is not your war"

"Neither yours"

Maverick let out a long sigh, there was no way talking her out of this, she was as stubborn as…well him.

"If you're going to stay…at least you need some real firepower" Maverick said, not liking this at all, Sally just gave him a look as she pulled out her plasma pistol.

"I have been checking and comparing various plasma pistol models with mine, this baby here was made before the bombs fell Maverick" Sally began, enjoying the incredulous look of Maverick, "I know, crazy, but my time…there was a lot of conspiracy theories and secrets, the Enclave and aliens existence simply confirmed what many paranoids believed at first" Sally mentioned.

"For a pre-war piece of tech, even more advanced than laser weaponry and clearly experimental, this gun is rather powerful and stable, albeit a little heavy" Sally confessed, "The 'Novasurge' project', according to a terminal nearby where I found the plasma gun, was part of a covert project to create more advanced weapons, lasers were good, problem was that lasers can be reflected, they are, in essence light, plasma can't be reflected, so this came to be" Sally said.

"Plasma weaponry didn't saw much usage unlike laser during the anchorage campaign and the invasion to China, mostly for its experimental nature…then again power armors are experimental technology as well, and so its Prime…and pretty much every bit of pre-war tech people use nowadays" Sally mussed.

"Anyway, this gun is enough to put a hole in a power armor, so don't worry, besides" Sally began, "I haven't pulled all my tricks out of my bag of secrets" she added with a smirk, turning around, "I'll be back, you better be here" she warned as she walked away, Maverick by his part rose an eyebrow, then sighed, he could take on Deathclaws, rip the heads of Super Mutants, barely feel bullets and pull out someone's intestines and use them as a jump-rope, but he could never, never, be able to disobey an order of Sally.

11:56 PM…

"Contacts, lots of them!" the sole mention of contacts caused every knight, paladin and scribe to spring into action, Sarah, leading part of the Pride, as the other part couldn't catch up fast enough to rejoin in the Citadel.

"I want a visual, now" Sarah commanded, she was glad Gallows and Dusk were with her alongside Gunny, two of the best snipers the Pride had would thin whatever was approaching, not to mention what she had heard of the scribes, Sally had been good on her word (she hadn't doubted that for a second) and the turrets had been upgraded to a level no one expected, even better, they worked with the same energy output, to the scribes, this was unnatural, to Sarah it was not odd, she had seen Sally pulling out technical miracles out of her sleeves every time she lays her hands on a computer.

As she approached one of the monitors that was connected to a camera to the outside world, she gasped in utter shock, when Sally told them the Enclave was going all out she thought only soldiers and Vertibirds, maybe experimental weapons and vehicles, the Enclave seemed to enjoy pulling experimental vehicles out.

She didn't expect to see this however, the horde, crossing the bridge.

The name was fitting, it was accurate, and they were many.

Aptly called the 'Gary' horde, these individuals were equal in appereance to one another, all shouting 'Gary' in different tones and inflexions, whispers, screams, all they said was Gary, even in death, armed with whatever they could find, pipes, rocks, pieces of glass acting as makeshift knifes, sometimes handguns, and in rare occasions with military ordinance, and very able to use it.

It didn't help either they were on their boxers, the guy who gave the idea to Eden about using the Gary clones must have thought it would be hilarious to send and army of boxer clad clones against its enemies, psyche them up must have been his argument to convince the president.

Turns out it worked…bizarrely enough.

They were clones, made out of the genetic material of a man called Gary, this had lead to the death of every resident of Vault 108, when the Enclave found it, it was just a matter of cleaning house, in the most literal sense, when the clones were killed, they seized the vault, began using its installation and created Gary clones, grew them up to adult size and implanted god knows what crap so they didn't turn on its new masters.

The Enclave could make as many as needed, a hundred, a thousand, all were cannon fodder, and the first wave of attack of the Enclave.

"Prep the turrets; I want the Enclave pass over a road of corpses to get to us!" Sarah commanded, "Dusk, Gallows, get to the catwalks and start snipping them and anything that approaches trough the bridge, Rothchild, ready Prime!" Sarah commanded, looking around the labs and seeing several knights, leaders of their own squadrons, waiting for her orders.

"Everyone, get to your posts, they want us, they will have to work hard for it" Sarah snarled, that was enough for the knights, her order was clear, kill anything that was Enclave.

Looking at the monitors, she let a small smile play on her lips, the turrets were reducing the Gary horde to nothing else but piles of burned flesh and ash, sometimes a little bit of both, Sally had done superb on her job, those turrets wouldn't have done as much damage as they are doing now.

Still they had to see Liberty Prime and whatever the Enclave might be packing against them, she bets her armor that the horde is just the tip of the iceberg.

As if the world was proving her right, she began to see in the monitors several Vertibirds and Enclave soldiers marching on the bridge, passing the corpses of the Gary horde, it would surely disturb them to no end, and she admitted, seeing the soldiers being gunned down by the powered turrets from afar was satisfactory, it was giving them some breathing space.

"Sentinel Lyons" a knight suddenly called behind her, turning around she spotted the knight, looking rather apprehensive, as if afraid of telling her something.

"Yes knight Guile" she said, "Uh…well…you see…the vault dweller…Maverick that is, he is currently on the reservoir alongside with the child he brought" Knight Guile said, making Sarah raise an eyebrow.

"What is he doing there?" she asked, "We do not know but he believes that the Enclave might try to enter from the blocked ramp, so he evacuated the tribals there to the upper floors" Knight Guile said, expecting Sarah's outburst.

It never came, instead he received a raised eyebrow from Sarah instead, "Maverick wouldn't do things randomly, he always had a reason…he must know something" Sarah mussed, looking around and spotting Veronica, marching to the wandering scribe and tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Sarah? What do you need?"

"You know why Maverick is on the reservoir?" Sarah asked, it was a long shot, but of all the people around, Maverick only trusted her, Veronica, Sally and her father alongside with Cross, to an extent.

"Maverick picked some signals on his pip-boy, signals of other pip-boys, he followed them up to the reservoir, he believes that they might blow the wall and enter in force an attack us from behind" Veronica said, making Sarah nod her head, it was a reasonable strategy, and she had learned that the Enclave can be resourceful when they want to win.

"Star Paladin!" Sarah yelled, catching the attention of her father's left hand, "I need you to coordinate the defenses, Maverick thinks we might get blindsided, I think he is onto something, gonna back him up" Cross nodded at Sarah's request, seeing how Sarah ran away of the labs, her steps surely taking her to the reservoir.

Her pace was brisk, and even on the lower levels she could hear the sound of lasers being fired, then of missiles, and how the Citadel slightly shook, they were now aiming to the Citadel sturdy walls, they were serious on bringing them down, alongside with the Citadel.

Re4aching the entrance of the Reservoir she found herself surprised to see Sally alongside Sally, she found this odd because while the little 200 year old girl had been fundamental on their escape, was able to pull her weight in a fight and could fire without hesitation, this was a situation clearly different from the one back on the ship, that time Sally was on her element, and this was clearly not her element.

The bandoleer she was wearing on her torso and the plasma handgun on her hand, on the other hand, seemed to indicate that Sally was not willing to let this little detail stop her, especially if she was here to do something.

"Sally, what the…" Sarah began, only to Sally to raise her hand, her face still focused on the wall that had once been the parking lot entrance.

"They're coming" Sally stated casually, shifting her gaze to Maverick, "How many?" she asked.

"Seventeen…no, make that eighteen" Maverick hissed, lifting The Boomstick and setting the power to max, "eighteen? Not exactly an army" Sally mussed, "Are you sure those Betties will work?" Maverick asked, eyeing the ground, Sarah there noted that the ground in front of them had been recently moved.

"Positive, special Betties made by yours truly with a special flavor, courtesy of Elliot" Sally commented, seeing Sarah now at her side, looking not happy at all.

"Before you start chewing my head off, must remind you I'm your senior for over 2 centuries" Sally spoke casually, looking up at Sarah, "Besides, sooner or later this was bound to happen, The Enclave is old world organization, what better way to end with an old world hand" Sally stated.

Sarah just gave a long sigh, then pulled her Tommy gun, "They are coming for you" Sarah observed, "I know" Maverick replied, hefting the Boomstick and readying up.

"Whatever you do, don't go forward yet" Sally warned, "Something I should know about?" Sarah asked, "Yeah, minefield" Sally explained shortly, that was enough for Sarah who now waited with the odd duo.

Minutes seemed to drag on endlessly, waiting, but in reality just two minutes after Sarah arrived passed before the wall was blown away, the explosion was strong enough to make several of the make-shift houses to topple down, the debris covered the recently moved ground, Sarah had to admire that little boon, now whoever entered was not going to know of the minefield being laid there, thank god for small mercies.

Her good mood ended as soon as it came when she saw four figures emerge out of the hole, recognizing each one of them, just like Maverick did.

"Susie, Freddie, Amata…Big George?" the last one came more as a question than a statement, Sarah recognized the first three, the bitch who killed Dan, the assassin of ghouls Freddie, and who can forget his girlfriend, Susie 'big boom' her nickname associated to her tendency of using explosives in everything, emphasis on everything.

The other guy was new to her, apparently there were those in Vault 101 that didn't take many missions like the others, this guy, this 'Big George' made honor to his name, standing over 6.5 inches high, with a bulk comparable to the one of a Super Mutant, the dark skin, the bald head and the neutral look, alongside the Tesla power armor on and the minigun on his hands, the guy made look Maverick like a small fly, yet again so did Lanius, and Maverick blew his knees and made an engine fall on his head.

"You know the big guy?" Sarah asked, seeing how the four dwellers, Amata included, stared at Maverick and his attire, or his gun, or a mixture of both.

"George Bigalow, the nickname is kinda obvious, but don't let it intimidate you, he is the most pacifist vault dweller you'll ever met, sans me" Maverick stated, only to hear Amata snort.

"Pacifist?" she asked snarky, "When people are out for your blood…you become someone else out of necessity" Maverick said, hefting the Boomstick at the direction of the dwellers.

"If you think you four can go beyond this point you got another thing coming" Maverick snapped, "I don't fear your-"

BOOM!

Amata stopped mid-word when Maverick fired the boomstick, her hair was blasted back and some pieces of concrete fell around her, looking up, like the rest, she saw with wide eyes that a hole of the size of her torso had been made to the roof, pure concrete reduced to nothing in less than a second.

"I'm done playing games Amata" Maverick snapped, "If I wanted I could fire at you four, no mercy…no survivors, no bodies to retrieve either, you would be reduced to fine red paste of meat and twisted metal, so do yourself and your people a favor, turn back now, close the vault and lose the key in the process, this war has enough deaths to add yours and those on Vault 101" Maverick snarled, now aiming the Boomstick to the dwellers, just like Sarah and Sally where aiming their own guns at them.

"While I would hate to not skin you alive for what you did to Dan and my people, I agree with Maverick, you don't hold a candle against him, back off" Sarah snapped her gun trained to Amata's direction.

Sally simply stared at the dwellers, noting the Tesla coils springing into life on their shoulder pauldrons, she smirked, "You really think that little defense is going to stop discharges out of my gun or Sarah's or a 5mm round being shot out of a barrel surrounded by 25 magnetic coils separated by 1mm each propelling the round to untold ballistic speeds capable of turning any, and I mean, any target into a pile of nothing" Sally snapped, "Considering that he has the gun at full power and over 200 rounds on the magazine, I can say, you guys are screwed in so many ways is not funny" Sally ended.

"You're wrong, is so funny you actually forgot to laugh" Sarah joined in, actually smirking on how the dwellers looked so uncomfortable with the odds, maybe it was three to god knows how many, if Maverick's HUD was led to believe, to eighteen, it didn't matter anyway, a superhuman with a super weapon, a highly trained soldier with state-of-the-art (for their times) power armor and a prodigy with more aces on her sleeve than a cheater on a caravan game would surely do against anything they might throw at them.

"I haven't come all this way to get shot Mr. Hartigan" Sarah perked up, the voice was all too familiar, it should be, it was broadcasted almost religiously on Enclave radio, the 'radio of America'

Out of the shadows emerged a man, dressed in a clean Pre-war business man, with a red tie, his face was filled with wrinkles, Maverick gave the man at least sixty years of continued existence and stress, as the wrinkles could attest to, he was bald, and had blue eyes, eyes that were behind a pair of glasses, the man carried himself with pride, head held high, and Maverick wagered with some arrogance.

"Hartigan?" Sally wondered out loud, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"You have heard of the disappeared astronaut of Clarabella 7? I am impressed" the man said, much to Sally's shock and utter horror.

"Oh god, Maverick! You're descendant of an astronaut!" she exclaimed loud enough, "Of course he is, his ancestor was a colonel back in 1960s, vanished without a trace on a low orbit space flight alongside his capsule, Clarabella 7, left a widow and two children, your line stems out of the youngest of the good colonel, after his oldest brother crashed his own car in a illegal drag-race in 1967, at the age of seventeen" the man said.

"Not to mention that Colonel Hartigan was abducted by aliens, beaten to unconsciousness and then woke up without his arms, legs, spleen and his heart was beating 3 feet out of his chest cavity" Sally reminded herself grimly, it was one of her first memories after abduction seeing the aged man, begging for release of his tortured life, the first thing she did when she first broke out of her cell the first time was to do that exactly.

"A small world indeed" she thought, the odds of meeting a direct relative of that same man was astronomical, so were the odds of survival of many of Mavericks' enhancements, but here he was, alive, and related to the man no less.

"Ah…the niece of Robert House" Sally instantly tensed up, bringing her weapon to bear and aiming it to the man, "It is odd, you were ten the day the bombs fell, yet you haven't aged a bit" the man drawled slowly, almost amused.

"Amazing what some Xeno tech can do for you two" Maverick and Sally froze on the spot, and so did Amata, "Oh don't look at me like that, I am the president of this great nation, everything was open to me, even its darker secrets…do you want to know who killed JFK?"

Maverick and Sally breathed deeply, eyes burying on the man that called himself president, Sarah by her part could only be amazed how intense the stare of Sally was, if looks could kill…

"Who are you?" Maverick hissed, "I am glad you asked, I am the elected president of this glorious nation, John Henry Eden, and I come with a proposal to you, Maverick Hartigan" the man introduced himself, Maverick by his part kept his gun trained to them.

"I have heard interesting stories about you from your friend Amata" Eden began, "I bet, surely most of them of how I supposedly killed her boyfriend, who I guided to her in the first place" Maverick stated, the ground shook and dust fell of the ceiling, like thuds, gigantic steps.

"Yes, I bet it would have, in times past, made an excellent soap opera, and your current life one of science fiction of the likes captain cosmos writers would have envied" Sally slightly rose an eyebrow, how this guy knew all this, it was impossible, nearly…inhuman.

"I come, as I stated before, with a proposal, an olive branch if you will" Eden began; Sarah would have fired if it wasn't Sally shaking her head to her.

"You have great potential Mr. Hartigan, even before we honed the ones of the inhabitants of 101, your father might not have told you all the truth"

"I know I was born in the wasteland, I understand why he lied, all to protect me" Maverick stated, "Perhaps, but do you know that he is in fact a vault dweller, even before he came here with your mother?" That caught Maverick's attention.

"Vault 21 was his home, deep into the bowels of Las Vegas, a city of sin and decay, oh how I wished it was nuked to hell, but it seemed Robert House has his own ways to prevent its destruction" Sally perked at that.

"At the matter at hand, we need you" Maverick rose an eyebrow at that confession of Eden, "You, for the lack of better words, are the link, the chain needed to find your father, the creator of such magnificent project, altruist, magnificent, but incomplete" Eden began.

"He holds the key to the future, our future" Eden added, "Project Purity is the final solution to the rampant mutations that run across this great nation, I believe you have seen them around the wasteland, running rampant and uncontrollable, breeding like cockroaches, we have a solution" Eden continued, not minding the three guns aimed at him that could reduce him to nothing that could fill his shoes.

"Imagine Project Purity active, free water, for any and all…everyone drinking it, even the mutants" Maverick didn't like where this was going, "With just a small modification on the feeding system, it can distribute a modified version of the purified water, water to the pure, anyone would die within hours after consumption" Eden finalized, Maverick and Sarah looked horrified at this, while Sally sneered, something odd for her ten year old face.

"You're sick and depraved, your whole organization is sick!" Sally snarled, "That's not a solution, that's genocide!" Sally snapped.

"If some people have to die for the pure to rise so be it" Eden calmly stated.

"World War II started just like that, you can sweet talk it all you want, but the harsh truth is that you want to just kill…first I blow Project Purity that let you do that" Maverick snapped, seeing how Eden sighed.

"I see your moral compass is not updated, this time require harsh actions, what you might consider genocide is simply mercy killing, what you think is conquering is to us bringing law and order to the land, America was forged on the blood of both good and bad men, if that's what needed to bring back this nation back to its glorious roots, so be it, let history dictate who was right and who was wrong" Eden stated confidently.

"You all know that the winners always write history, right?" Maverick drawled off, a disappointed look on his face, "You four…you really want to follow through this?" he asked.

"It's the only way, our vault held the best…the superior, this world is for the strong" Susie said firmly, there Maverick saw that while there were those who didn't wanted to do anything with the conflict, still believed in this…ideal.

"So you musters your symbols against us" Maverick whispered, but in the empty place, everyone could hear him, "You changed…for the worse, war never changes…and when people don't learn of the past, so do they, remain unchanged" he stated, seeing a lone floating orb of metal with antennas around it.

"And eyebot" Sarah summarized, "You transmitted this to Vault 101…to show them that I could be reason with" Maverick hissed.

Eden just nodded at that, "That I have, and I'm quite disappointed with you, I hope we wouldn't resort to violence" the president stated.

Maverick's answer to Eden's plan was aim the boomstick at him, "Like Sally said, you disgust me, now fuck off, or I blow you off, and it's on that very sense of the word, I WILL blow you up" Maverick hissed, not missing the disappointed look of Eden and George.

"Maverick, please reconsider, this might be your only chance to return to the vault" George tried to reason with Maverick, "Back? To the lies? To the isolation? To a dull life where we will never make a difference? To a leader who overreact for everything? I don't think so George, the people there had made their opinion clear, they want me dead, they don't want me close of the vault, I'm an outcast, I don't belong to the vault…but don't worry" Maverick stated.

"I'll be back there" Maverick said, gazing at Amata, "I haven't forgotten what has happened there…I haven't forgotten what your dad did to Jonas, to the Holdens, he will pay, and so the guards that gunned them down" Maverick hissed, Amata's blood boiled with that remark.

"I don't forget, I don't forgive" he finalized, Amata would have charged and fired her plasma rifle hadn't been for the fact Eden began to walk away.

"I am disappointed Maverick, I really am, I hoped you and your little friend would come, sharing your secrets with us willingly…I guess we have to do this the hard way" Eden said, his back given to the trio, "Kill them all, and bring me their bodies"

"With pleasure" Amata hissed, already advancing to the minefield as Eden left, Sarah was surprised when she saw Amata pass without harm the minefield.

"Don't worry, it's there for a reason" Maverick said, seeing how the four dwellers advanced, at the same time, Sarah eyes focused on the hole Eden left, and then at the incoming beings.

Two Deathclaws, five power armored super mutants and twenty Gary clones with leather armors and shotguns.

"Oh hell" Sarah said, already pivoting away of her spot alongside Sally, ducking on a makeshift wall, Sarah noted then the small detonator Sally pulled out of her pockets, and it dawned her, even more as why Maverick didn't move with them, and received the plasma bolts without even flinching.

Yet she didn't like it, they could take down those dwellers if Sally pressed the trigger.

"Wait for it" Sally stated, like reading Sarah's mind and intention.

The mutants and clones were getting closer, and so the intensity of the shots.

"Wait for it" Sally repeated, whatever plan those two had it better be good.

The literal army passed of the hole on the wall and sprinted full force, the Deathclaws taking head, leaving the clones and enforcers on an even pace.

Right in the middle of the minefield.

Sally then pressed the trigger, then out of the ground and dust, at least ten black mines jumped out, all whizzing out and spinning, Sarah was entranced by this, and so the Gary clones…

Then the mines exploded, letting out a white mist that expanded fast, covering the entire minefield.

"NOW!" Sally scream was punctuated when Maverick raised the boomstick and fired to the Deathclaws, the overpowered blasts tearing the beasts apart in two, their torsos flying away as their legs gave in and fell to the ground.

The dwellers didn't stop their charge and shot either, they only did when Maverick aimed the boomstick to the ground and began to fire at it, each shot making a crater and raising dust, the dwellers stopped their charge immediately once they lost visual contact with Maverick.

That lasted over two seconds before a heavy 'thud' alongside metal sound filled their ears, and then fast steps, looking up Amata and Susie had little time to move away when Maverick rushed past them, George and Freddie weren't so lucky, Maverick reached for them, hands bare of the massive gun, gripping them by the chest plate, lifting them up and rushing to the minefield, to Amata's horror, once the mist was dissipated, she could see what had happened to their reinforcements.

The Gary clones and the enforcers had been, for the lack of better words, frozen solid, right in their poses, Amata could only stare in shock at that, the little girl had play them, had always been her plan, cut the main force and leave just stragglers.

Her musings were cut short when several laser shots made her recoil, the Tesla coils on her armor absorbing some of the damage, but the fire rate of each shot overwhelmed the coils defenses, the plates now taking the brunt of the attacks, then her face did so when Sarah rushed at her tossed her rifle and punched her square on the nose, making her cry in pain as blood spurted out of her broken nose.

Susie looked in surprise at this, they had planned an ambush…no, the girl had planned an ambush, Maverick was just one of her instruments of destruction…

"AAAAHHHHHH!" Susie screamed as a plasma bolt actually brushed her cheek and burned the skin and muscles, reaching to cover her cheek she gave her back to Sally who was advancing at her, a silver baton clacking with electricity in her hands, then she slammed it on the back of Susie knees, an electric current that fried the servos of her power armor and made her scream in pain as she fell to her knees, there she was only able to see Sally actually jump at her, baton poised, and then her head burst into pain like no other, then nothing else.

George and Freddy could only gape at the scene before them, the leader of Lyons Pride was enacting her revenge on Amata, and a little girl had brought down Susie.

They had little time to ponder anything else as they felt their backs hit several of the frozen clones and enforcers before they were brought to the ground, hard, their armors groaning upon the impact to the concrete, then they were released.

Freddie was the first to stand up, only to gap when Maverick punched him on the gut, Freddy immediately doubled over and vomited blood, the metal bended on his stomach made the sensation a lot worse.

Maverick rose both of his arms and was about to slam them both on Freddie's back when George wrapped his arms around his torso, lifted him up and began to squeeze, "I will not let you murder more!" George bellowed.

Maverick just rose his feet and slammed it to the left knee of George, the crunch of metal and bone was coupled with George's scream of pain, the large man released Maverick a grave mistake as Maverick turned and slammed both his fists in a hammer like strike to George's armored chest, the 6'7 inch tall man was propelled to the air like if he was made out of rags and glass, and crashed on one of the houses, this one collapsing on him.

Maverick would have continued with Freddy hadn't been for the fact something tackled him, caught off-guard and off balance he was brought to the down, looking up he spotted an enclave trooper, clad in what Maverick identified as the Hellfire armor, with a power fist that had two cannons on top of the fist.

"Retrieve and retreat" the solider stated, raising his arm to punch Maverick, Maverick instantly rose his hand and grabbed the fist, crushing it along the way, the soldier screamed in pain, the gurgled in even more pain when Maverick kicked him away.

Standing up, Maverick saw five hellfire armored individuals, including the one he kicked away, one of them pulling an unconscious Susie, all while Freddy was trying (with no success) to help George out of the rubble, then abandoning him when one of the troopers moved him away.

"AAAHHHHH" his gaze then turned to Amata and Sarah, the sentinel had her face set out on righteous fury, and a small smirk was formed on her lips, her right hand was coated on blood, all while Amata was clutching the right side of her face, blood pouring out.

"My eye! You bitch!" Amata screamed stumbling around, this allowed one of the soldiers to move her away, guiding her towards the hole they came from, "No you don't!" Sarah snarled, she would have gone and attack them hadn't Maverick stopped her.

"Let her go! Is not worth it!" Maverick said, seeing how the enclave soldiers left, not second later rocks began to basically rain out of the hole, blocking the entrance and exit, surely explosives set to cover their exit.

Sarah simply snarled, shrugging Maverick's grip on her, "I'm okay, I'M OKAY!" she screamed, "I pulled one of her eyes out, that is enough…for now" Sarah snapped, Maverick didn't commented on this, simply walked to the boomstick and picked it up.

"Let's go topside, they might need us" Sally suggested, eyeing the fallen vault dweller under the rubble.

"Yeah, George won't go anywhere the way he is now" Maverick said, guiding both girls away of the reservoir.

Not a minute later they were gone, a lone eyebot made its way out of some rubble it was hiding, if it had a face, the eyebot would have a face of relief.

Not a second later after that the eyebot was blown apart, "I knew I was forgetting something" Maverick muttered as he turned away, this time for good.

Topside…

The moment they arrived to the labs, they noticed that Liberty Prime was missing, and so many of the knights that were there once.

"Someone can give me an update?" Sarah asked, grabbing the first scribe that she came across.

"We are holding on, Prime is proving to be a great asset, we tried to deploy it out of the Citadel but the crane was blown in the initial attack, it is trapped within the walls" the scribe said, only to hear Sally snort.

"You guys are hopeless, Maverick" Sally began, "Go outside, once near scream 'la-li-lu-le-lo, patriots override sigma 24' It will grant you control of Prime, tell him to tear the walls down if needed and carve a way up to the Jefferson Memorial, Eden won't commit genocide while we can do something about it" she hissed, the scribe was about to protest, but Sarah just shook her head to him.

"Let them do the work, let's focus on covering their asses" Sarah said, joining at Maverick's side.

Sally noted how silent the place was, surely the walls where muffling much of the sounds of gunfire and explosions, and while she could feel the thuds that Prime's steps made, it was nothing compared to the silence felt.

"I don't like this, is too quiet for a warzone" Sally muttered worriedly, "We know, they stopped attacking about two minutes ago, we shot many of their vertibirds down with the turrets and Prime has been a great help" Rothchild said with great pride.

"But as stated before, the crane is down, and I really don't endorse the option of tearing a section of the Citadel to do so" Rothchild stated.

"Is either that or let Eden carry his plans, you don't know what he is truly planning, we do, we heard him of his mouth…he came here" Maverick said, startling Rothchild and every scribe there.

"He was…here?"

"Yep, he tried to talk me into joining them and find my father for them, blew them up" Maverick said casually, "guys listen we don't have-"

BOOM!

If Sally was worried about the silence, they were well justified, because soon a cacophony of explosions began to rock everyone's ears and try to take them off their footing.

"They are shelling us!" Sally screamed, leaning on a desk for support as dust began to fall of the cracks on the ceiling and the steel beams groaned with an unholy shriek.

"They want to bring the Citadel down!"

"The hell they will!" Maverick screamed, instantly rushing to the outside, there he could see that the situation was as bad as it sounded.

Each time the Citadel shook, a huge chunk of it was blown away, and while he was on the inside, he could still see the flames going up on the outside walls alongside pieces of concrete…

BOOM!

Maverick was suddenly thrown away to a wall by an explosion, blood spraying around alongside gore, as he recovered some sense he could see that the blood and gore was not his, but rather of some knights that had been standing near him and by mere causality had been hit by one of the shells.

Standing up he saw Liberty Prime, in all its magnificent and frightening glory, shoot laser out of its 'eyes' to the entrance of the Citadel to the courtyard, and he soon saw why.

Several of those clones began to pour out of the hole that was suddenly made by an explosion when he was down, what disturbed him was not how they intoned 'Gary' like a war cry or a lullaby, but the fact all of them were nearly naked, attacking with nothing else but their fists, they were no match to the few knights inside, but that changed once Enclave soldiers began to enter.

Shaking his head, Maverick looked for the boomstick, seeing it lying near him, with one of the cannons blown apart and the trigger was basically non-existent now.

"Dammit" he growled, pulling OWB and opening fire on the armored enclave soldiers, two shots and two soldiers dropped dead with gaping holes on their chests, already he could see that firing both rounds in rapid succession had made the barrel slightly red, whatever this Saturnite alloy is, it absorbed heat like a sponge absorbs water.

Reaching for the kinetic axe, he activated it and swung it to the nearest clone he had in reach with his left arm, the effect was like Sally described the axe energy blade didn't sliced the living being, but rather, with the inherited strength behind the blow was transferred, sending the clone flying, all while covered in red small bolts covering his body, then crashed on a wall with a sickening 'splat'

Now armed, and slightly pissed as how this was turning, he began to advance, firing OWB one more time and dropping another soldier before holstering it and focusing on melee his way onto the entrance.

---

"Shell them to hell, send every shell to them, I want that place turned a crater!" Amata growled, turning her glare to the nearest crew working on the Howitzers, four M119 siege class howitzers, planted firmly near building roofs, the first three, the last one, the one near her was planted near the bridge and the beachside, like the rest the crew of seven was working overtime to keep up with the insane amount of fire they were ordered to fire, they wanted the Citadel turned a crater, but four howitzers wouldn't cut it, it would take them an hour of continued attacks to actually do such a feat, this was the Pentagon to begin with, and in 2020 its outer structure was reinforced to withstand nuclear attacks, the fact it was standing up showed those improvements did worked.

"Yes Ma'am!" but this was Amata the crew recognized, the woman had a temper, and no one wanted to incur on such temper, which had gotten worse ever since the other dweller had returned…

"Hey!" one of the crew yelled, "Look!" he shouted, pointing at the entrance of the Citadel, one of the shells of the howitzers had opened a hole in that precise point, allowing entrance to the clones and soldiers that were being butchered by the turrets on the top of the Citadel, not to mention the vertibirds that were being shot down by some sort of blue laser of immense power, capable of slicing them in half.

But what they were seeing was beyond surreal, it was impossible, the walls began to cave in, something was pushing its way out of the Citadel.

Then they fell, massive pieces of masonry and metal falling and crushing clones and soldiers alike, mostly clones, the clones were replaceable, the soldiers not so much.

It was that came out of the hole that froze the howitzers crews and soldiers alike, it was, in layman terms, a massive robot, no words could describe it better, a 50 feet tall humanoid robot, taller than any behemoth ever sighted, and perhaps even stronger than a Behemoth.

"No" Amata stated, slowly walking away of the howitzers, "Fire…FIRE!" she screamed, and soon the howitzers where opening fire to the massive robot, each shell impacting on the robot's massive bulk…without success.

"COMMUNIST SCUM!" The robot bellowed, even upon the noise of explosions, its voice outshined it all.

"BETRAYERS OF AMERICA, FEEL THE WRATH OF A NATION!" the robot screamed, suddenly reaching for something behind its back, then pulling out a nuke, readying on its hands and taking the pose of a football player about to launch the ball.

"Oh, no way!"

"GOING LONG!"

As the robot launched the nuke with incredible strength, the crews of the howitzers and soldiers near could only stare numbly at the incoming nuke, and mutter one single, at the same time-

"Fuuuuuuu-"

BOOM!

Maverick stared with some satisfaction as the nuke Prime launched, exploited and caused the buildings where the howitzers were placed began to fall under their weight and power of the explosions, 200 years old buildings are not exactly the best place to be when a nuke goes off, then again nowhere really is.

As the buildings fell and raised a wall of dust and rocks, Maverick turned to Prime, and spoke loud.

"PRIME! TIME TO MOVE, MOW EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT FRIENDLY ON OUR WAY!"

"YES GENERAL!"

Apparently using the code Sally gave him, made him, in Prime's optics and advanced AI, a General.

Maverick soon began to jog his way towards the bridge, Prime following him, his gigantic steps covering easily the distance he was making.

"Hey wait up!" Sarah snapped, she and a small group of knights followed him and Prime, but unlike Maverick, they weren't going to join him in front of 50 feet tall war machine that could actually step onto them was not exactly their highest priority.

Seeing how Prime and Maverick would tear the place apart on the other hand…

As the massive robot and Maverick made its way to the top of the bridge, the knights and Sarah a little far behind, didn't saw what Maverick was seeing, the whole bridge length was full of metal barricades, soldiers entrenched there, ready to fend off Maverick, on the middle of the bridge two metal poles at half the height of Prime stood up, a blue energy barrier formed between them.

"TARGET ASSESMENT, 55 INFANTRY SOLDIERS ON UNKNOWN POWER ARMOR MODEL BEARING ENERGY BASED WEAPONRY, POSIBILITY OF HINDRANCE 0 PERCENT" Prime bellowed, if what it said was not enough to make the enclave soldiers bristle up, the next thing did.

"SECONDARY TARGET ASSESMENT, TITANIUM ALLOY POWERED BY PHOTONIC RESONANCE, CHANCES OF HINDRANCE…0 PERCENT"

"FIRE!" the ego of the soldiers was enough hurt, as they began to fire, the night was lit with the amount of lasers and plasma bolts discharged at Liberty Prime, some fired at Maverick, but since he wasn't such a big target most of them ended up hitting Prime or empty space.

"HOSTILITIES CONFIRMED, COMMUNIST SCUM, YOUR BODIES WILL FERTILIZE AMERICAN SOIL!" Prime screamed as it rose its arms, and out of the forearms, twin mounted Vulcan machineguns emerged out, then they began to spin at the same time.

"HERE'S SOMETHING! COMPLIMENTS FROM UNCLE SAM!" Then lances of fire basically erupted out of the spinning barrels, each round impacting the ground or a metal barrier and opening holes or burning chunks out of the concrete, the soldiers had it worse.

The incendiary rounds fired by Liberty Prime were fast enough and big enough to pierce the power armor plating with ease, not to mention the amount fired made this a deadly rain of lead, the soldiers were, literally torn apart as Maverick and Prime advanced, the knights and Sarah not far behind, seeing the massacre unfold before their eyes.

The surviving soldiers, in anger after seeing their comrades being cut down so brutally by the soulless machine, opted to attack its handler, Maverick.

The first one that made it past Prime's deadly lead rain was welcomed with a kick to the stomach of Maverick, followed by a blow of the kinetic axe at full force, the soldier's head cracked open when it met the ground, even with the helmet on, not to mention how his back was left after the brutal blow.

Maverick suddenly recoiled when a grenade was set off near his feet, it was more like a flash than fire, as it left his ears ringing and he saw spots on his eyes every time he blinked.

He recovered fast enough to see a enclave soldier leveling a plasma rifle to his face, point-blank, Maverick ducked of the shot at a speed that surprised even him, then brought his axe down, and upward to the groin of the enclave soldier, effectively lifting him up at least a meter in the air, then falling on his back, not standing again.

"Oh god…did I just killed him by busting his balls?"

With that in mind, Maverick and Prime kept advancing, both laying waste on anything that came across them, until they came across the barrier, some enclave soldiers chuckled, thinking that Prime wouldn't be able to pass the energy barrier.

That ended when Prime actually grabbed each titanium staff, and ripped cleanly off the ground, "AS STATED, COMMUNIST DEFENSE IS USELESS, YOU ARE ALL USELESS" Prime punctuated that by actually launching both titanium ally staffs like javelins, one to a building nearby where Prime was being fired by the enclave soldiers, the other was aimed to a vertibird that got obliterated by the sheer size of the staff.

"PRIME, DOUBLE TIME, WE WON'T LET THEM KEEP THE MEMORIAL FOR LONG!" Maverick swore that after that, Prime seemed to be more vicious on its assault.

"COMMUNIST SCUM! DISECRATING THE MEMORIAL OF A GREAT AMERICAN HERO, TRAITORS OF THE NATION YOU WILL ALL BE ERRADICATED!"

"Dear lord! Did that dweller just gave the robot a pep-talk?" one of the knights stated in horror, Sarah just shook her head.

"Welcome to my life knight…Maverick has that effect on anything allied to him…let's move out!" she screamed, that was enough for the few knights with her to join her in their charge seeing how the 'double time' Maverick called was having its effect, they were not running trough Enclave defenses.

They were flattening everything, and what they could not flatten, they blew it up.

Sarah had to suppress a gasp of surprise, this level of destruction, something not even the vault dwellers could not match, the gasp slowly became a grin, and this was shaping to be a wonderful night to see the Enclave fall, hard.

Advancing at a brisk pace, some rookie knights could only gag at the carnage, the burning bodies within the power armors made the scene much, much worse.

"Mighty Maxson, is the Great Steel beast and its acolytes" now Sarah had the urge to beat that particular knight to a pulp, while the Brotherhood was no religious, they did had their own legends, like any other organization on the wasteland, NCR had the Vault dweller of Vault 13 basically canonized for his actions and helping in the founding of their nation, the Chosen One, last she heard, was still alive, old, but alive, and still a celebrity on NCR and feared by the Enclave.

The Great Steel beast and its acolytes, well that was a legend itself within the BOS…

Another explosion rocked her thoughts out, "Move people, they are having fun without us!" she screamed, actually running on her armor, the knights could not blame Sarah now, the dweller and the robot were basically trashing the place, and the enclave with it.

As they finally caught up with them, they saw Prime grab a fleeing vertibird with its hand, then crush it like an egg, all while his gaze was focused on two vertibirds that were firing it, then it fired a laser out of its 'face' basically slicing the vertibirds down, on the night everyone could see how cleanly the cut was, and how hot the laser was to do such thing.

And on the ground was Maverick swinging that axe of his at every Enclave soldier close enough of him, or stupid enough to get close to him, it seemed rage had clouded their judgment, attacking blindly at Maverick, approaching at arm's length and actually not realizing that Maverick was as bad, if not worse than Prime was currently, both where tearing the Enclave apart.

But everyone could see the plain truth; these were last enclave soldiers, as the amount of vertibirds on the distance could attest to.

"We…we won" one of the knights whispered, not believing what he had seen, it was just too true.

Sarah advanced at Maverick, passing several corpses of several enclave soldiers, all horribly mauled, or flattened, she believed that Prime might had step on some of them.

The amount of weapons scattered, alongside some parked vertibirds and the armor part that could salvaged of what remained of the enclave soldiers was just enough to give them an edge, but this, this…

"You made them run away" Sarah said in a whisper, right behind Maverick, the wanderer turned around, spotting Sarah, looking stunned by this.

"Yeah, the wonders of having a 50 foot tall robot armed to the teeth" Maverick said, not missing how Sarah smiled, then such smile began to grow.

"You made them run away!" she exclaimed loudly, and in front of the knights she did something everyone didn't expect, not even Maverick.

She grabbed the sides of his head and gave him perhaps the sloppiest kiss ever witnessed after the Great War, it was short, it was fast, it was so sloppy and zappy that when she pulled out, Maverick had his mouth on a permanent 'O' shape.

"You" Sarah cooed loudly, "You magnificent engine of death!" she said, her smile by now had grown to a maniacal level.

"You…you!" she said no more as she broke and actually laughed, all while walking away, Maverick just stood there, true they had won, but this was unexpected.

"…just my luck" was all he muttered as he turned his gaze to project purity, then at the visible entrance.

Looking back at Sarah, he made his decision, he needed to see what his father had worked so hard for, had abandoned him for, he needed to see firsthand so he could understand.

"PRIME! GUARD THE PERIMETER!" with that final command, Maverick walked, to what seemed, was his destiny, his family legacy.

---

And there you have it people, another chapter, and the next one will be published on February.

now to adress some things it might bother you.

1) Sally actually getting bored and exploring the Big Empty with a prove, considering she is a genius, she will get bored easily, geniuses, especially one that has her brain amped out to work out at its max will get bored, so the reason she was so busy and in the lapse since Maverick left Mothership Zeta and he claling her, it was obvious boredom would get to her, and to not get bored, she began to multi-task, you think that was odd, think of the guys aboard the ship seeing her basically working on overdrive.

2) Prime's new speech, I really wished Prime had more words in ther game, i really did, the robot had such a bad-ass voice, and in Broken Steel they added several, so it was obvious I would take this liberty, let's face it people, I know you would do the same.

3) Maverick had to get a last name and a ancestor, to those who played Motherhsip Zeta, they will recognize the name, to those who don't the guy was an astronaut you find already dead right where you find Elliot, Paulson and Toshiro, yet he is able to help the group by providing his space-suit, from which he was frozen, now the reason why I gave Maverick a last name, it struck me as odd that even in game, you and James didn't get a last name, even more, there is a file where a picture of James and his wife can be seen, and it's only visible on New Vegas once you get to Vault 21, so I invented a story connector there about James and Maverick being direct relatives of the good astronaut, who is still dead in this fic.

4) the kiss scene, I really don't know if it was rushed or something, you tell me guys.

5) Eden, now i'm gonna keep that one a secret for myself, you trust me, this is going to blow your brains out.

okay, that's all for now, I leave you with this chapter, please read and review, let me know if you liked it or not, see you next month, Hypn0s signs off.