Hell my readers, it is I, Hypn0s, with another chapter of the chornicles of Maverick, which i might say, is looking good now.
Now my fellow readers and authors, i want to share something with you, for some time I have been toying with the idea of separating the story on two parts, one would be the current one, called the Chornicles of Maverick, changed lives, this one still has life, as i want to take it to a long ride for all over the fallout 3 world and many more things, mods included, i love them, the Pitt will be included, so will be Point Lookout, Mothership Zeta has already been covered and i won't cover the operation Anchorage because it is too short, Broken Steel would apear here, but as a butchered version, and i plan to include a small prelude to either Dead Money or Honest Hearts, your choice guys, as an ending for this story.
Then it would follow a second story, which title i have yet to work on, and will include the New Vegas events, Old world Blues, Dead Money or Honest Hearts depending of your former choice and Lonesome Road, all with the AU flavor I added for this story.
So without further adeu, i give you the next chapter, i have taken into heart some reviews, and i plan to make my chapters shorter, so i can get my ideas more defined, guess what? it works!
CHAPTER 12: JUSTICE FOR ALL
"The personal, as everyone's so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's they way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal."
-Quellcrist Falconer
The wasteland is an odd place, anyone living in it has seen their share of odd and strange things, most of these things tended to lead to horrible demises, since those odd things tended to be something too deadly for the viewer.
To James, this was a rule still standing, a little girl was basically scolding him, holding a heavy looking plasma gun while his son looked amused in the sidelines, not even bothered in helping him, and he was still too tired to even answer to the girl.
"And another thing" the girl seemed to go on and on without any kind of limit, that was until Maverick stepped in, placing a hand on her head, this stopped her altogether.
"What Sally means to say is that you didn't see the mummies on the pods and you entered one without knowing what was going on, you got lucky dad" Maverick said sternly, only in a post-apocalyptic world the son can scold the father in such a way and get away with it.
"Well son, you never saw me play poker and caravan, let's say the men there were angry to me for entirely different reasons" James stated with a cocky smile, one that slightly faltered when his son raised an eyebrow at his direction and crossed his arms.
"Oh, and here I thought it was because you had banged their wives" Maverick said.
"Weeellll…I DO have needs son"
Maverick just groaned as he palmed his face, only he could have a father who admitted had bedded married women, on a closed community living underground.
"…I don't have half-brothers or half-sisters?" Maverick asked.
"Of course not" James scoffed, slowly standing up, the little girl know as Sally stood up as well, holstering her plasma pistol, but still keeping an eye on him he noted.
"Good" Maverick said, and then before James could react, Maverick had grabbed him by the sides of his arms, and actually lifted him up, like nothing.
"With that cleared you might want to explain to me why in the name of Zion you left me with Alphonse the asshole and let in four dozen of radroaches?" Maverick asked sternly.
"Four dozen? They were just five when I opened the door, not four dozen" James said, "And even more so why you are outside, I left you for a reason, the wasteland is dangerous, the vault was the only safe place I could leave you, you didn't need your old man anymore" James said, Maverick just lowered him to the ground, but still held a stern look on his face.
"…dad…they killed Jonas" Maverick said, looking at James straight in the eye, "They…bashed his head open…I got the bastard who did it, I broke Alphonse's arm with the bat you found" James shook his head at that.
"Dad, things got bad, the guards were shooting at everything, and I mean everything, me, the radroaches…the Holden's, they didn't made it, then the fires, god dad, Christine was burned beyond recognition, if it wasn't for her eyes…and Monica, they lost their mother, and Amata…Marcus ended up dead and somehow I got blamed by it, not to mention Amata has completely flipped" Maverick said.
James blinked, several times, hard, trying to process all his son had said to him, "Okay son…let's take it back…slowly, okay?" Maverick hated when he said that, it meant that he would have to talk, a lot, explain, a lot, he hated it.
"Okay (sigh) but it will take a while…"
One hour later…
James blinked, when he asked an explanation he didn't expect his son to tell him in vivid detail how he had led a charge with a gigantic robot, or how he had caused an engine fall under a Legion legate who had been genetically and surgically altered to be strong, stronger than his son was.
He was still assimilating the fact that his son had been kidnapped upon exit of the vault, sold as a thing and experimented as a lab rat, turning him into a walking juggernaut, he was still reeling for the fact the little girl, Sally had been among those experimented, a true made savant, and that she had fired at Maverick when he didn't believe his son was bullet, laser and plasma proof.
Maverick didn't like it, he said plasma left his skin oddly warm and squishy, like if he was hit with a warmed up cram.
James was shocked of course, his son was…for the lack of better words, hounding for him, basically turning the Capital Wasteland upside down just to look for him, the fact the Enclave had been attacking and had seized Project Purity not long ago made his sick on the stomach, he knew about them, about their 'solution' their goals, he was glad Project Purity was free, he was not so trilled of the idea of his son killing and maiming any enclave trooper within striking distance with a, what Sally called it? Oh yeah, kinetic proton axe, a mace for anything living, a freaking cutting laser against anything robotic, or metallic.
"Dude, you killed Lanius!" James turned to the NCR ranger, the man, while had his face hidden, could swear was smiling from ear to ear, "You know you're going to be rich and famous back in California" he added.
"They are going to give you a medal as big as my head" the female ranger said, "Made out of gold kid, and the bounty, oh man, the bounty for Lanius is hefty, you and Sally are going to be very well accommodated financially" she added.
"Jessica, Manuel, I don't think they will give Maverick a medal without a corpse to confirm Lanius demise" Veronica said.
"Who cares, Lanius hasn't been seen in a long time, now Maverick says that the guy was consumed in an underground reactor explosion that was ten times bigger than the one Sally made in Vault 112, if Lanius ain't dead then I'll eat my shorts, in front of President Kimball" Manuel replied.
Maverick just shook his head, and then turned to face his dad, James looked amused by the group, but of course concerned about NCR soldiers in the Capital Wasteland.
"Dad, did Braun confirmed it?" Maverick asked, James simply smiled, his son was well informed.
"Yes, if we find a GECK we can jury-rigged it to Project Purity, this will allow to bypass the problem we encountered on large-scale activation…it will work, it has to" James said with conviction.
"Then let's go, we know there is a GECK in Vault 87" Maverick began, "But we need something more…damaging" he added.
"Son, more damaging? I know the vaults have a history of housing nasty surprises…" James began.
"According to the brotherhood of steel" Maverick began, seeing how his father drew a surprised look at that, "Vault 87 is a super mutant breeding ground, basically a stronghold, I have seen them dad, big, ugly, dumb, but strong, not strong as me" Maverick said.
"Bragging much"
"Says the girl who fixed Liberty Prime and fried Braun's little world" Maverick said with a smirk, Sally just shook her head with a slight smile.
"So, another obstacle" James said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, "It seems this one needs brute strength rather than brains I see" James added.
"And a big gun dad, don't forget that, they might be having a behemoth or two guarding the entrance, I wish we had the boomstick now" Maverick said.
"We'll have to settle with OWB firepower mavi" Sally said, just to receive an incredulous look of Maverick.
"Sally, when I say behemoth, I meant the word, those things are as big as prime, pure muscle and bone as thick as they are as big, we need something with a little more 'omp' than Old World Blues to pierce their thick skin, trust me, I punched a hole on a corpse of one, it is thick all right"
James seemed to take the news in stride, "I might have a solution for this" James began, "Before I decided to go to Vault112, I might have taken some detours to a former military armory, it was filled with raiders of course, but at night you can hardly see, and they were drunk, I took all I could, which included a minigun and three backpacks full of ammo and a fat-man with two mini nukes, I stashed them in scrap yard, north of Megaton, we can make it there, get the guns and then storm 87" James said.
"Nice, heavy duty ordinance, just what the doctor recommended" Manuel said with a mocking tone.
"My dad IS a doctor" Maverick said, motioning James to let him look his pip-boy so he could see the map and the location of this scrap yard, and save it on his own pip-boy.
"He is?"
The advance had been swift, without resistance at all, it was simply roll and occupy, and it bothered her to no end.
Megaton by default had become an enclave stronghold when the vault dwellers began to pour out, this also triggered and exodus of some of Megaton's residents, some of them because they couldn't tolerate the Enclave, others like Moira Brown, eccentric, even to wasteland standards had to leave as well, not to mention the families that left with their children, suffice to say this triggered the need of the vault dwellers to have children, even if they weren't theirs.
In time Megaton had become a haven for Enclave families who wanted to feel the burn of a sun on their skin, to feel the sand on their fingers, to be dirty and to show that the enclave was willing to mingle with others.
Right now, however, it looked anything but a city.
Megaton, for the lack of better words was deserted, not a soul was on sight, and the bomb that had given the name to the town was gone from the center, that alone spooked her, a dormant atomic bomb, in the hands of the Enclave was bad news.
A deserted town lacking a nuclear device and an equally empty vault nearby was a mile wrong.
"Anyone, tell me there is a house rigged with explosives waiting for someone to touch anything to blow us to hell" Sarah snapped, looking at the many houses suspended above her, several charges on the bases could bring the whole complex on the heads of whoever was on the catwalks, or in the center of the town, and avalanche of rust and god knows what else.
"Sorry to disappoint you Sentinel, but it's clean" a knight called from above her position, "On another note, they left a lot of brandy and vodka" Sarah shook her head at that.
"Keep it, we might need it to celebrate" she called, truth to her word, things were looking up for them, less than a day and the DC ruins were theirs, along with a lot of shinning loot, weapons, armors, ammo, food, things everyone in the Citadel and the reservoir needed.
Both havens of the Enclave outside were devoid of all form of life, they simply picked up, packed up and left, everyone, no exceptions.
"(Sigh) send a team to Vault 101, tell them to pick that place apart, take their water chips, computers, blankets, clothes, anything useful, then rig the cave with explosives, I want that place closed for everyone, even the vault dwellers" Sarah said, marching towards the entrance of Megaton, taking a small detour to enter the once home of the sheriff of the town.
The home was as the rest, empty of almost everything essential or too big to carry for one person, yet she marvel with the place, made out of junk and plane and car spare parts, the people of Megaton had made their home, it was a far cry of what humanity was used to 200 years ago, but humans adapt, that's how they had survived so far, adapt.
She was sure Megaton would be picked up by the residents once the purifier starts working and word gets out there is a river out of pure water, settlements such as Megaton and Canterbury Commons will be abandoned just to have water, pure water at your side, Sarah knew that she was standing on a dead town.
Looking around she spotted, perhaps the only thing the former inhabitant left behind, a Vault Bobblehead.
She rose an eyebrow, she had heard that Vault-Tec had made several promotional objects out of their pet, the vault boy, a blond, always smiling individual that was prominent on nearly everything Vault-Tec had their hands on, vaults included, if she had heard well from Sally, two objects stood out the most not only for their current rarity, but for their rarity even back in the day, the Vault Bobbleheads, and the Vault Snowglobes.
Picking the bobblehead, she simply stared at the doll, and the head bobble from one side to the other with no concern in the world, the ever present smile on the plastic lips of the doll, then with a sigh she tucked it on one of her empty ammo pouches, Maverick was collecting the little buggers, as the two bobbleheads he had currently could attest to.
"Tell Elder Lyons the Pride and Prime are moving for operation: clean up, if we can't eliminate the Enclave here, then we settle for the second best" Sarah said to a knight at her side.
"It will be done" the knight said, saluting her, "Bring us a 108 jumpsuit" he added with a slight amused tone, one Sarah found oddly…perfect for this moment.
"Will do"
James found odd that her son was driving the enclave repurposed bus, but as things stood, his son behind the wheel was the least of his concerns, considering how things were, his son behind the wheel was a boon.
He thought the wasteland was bad, the badlands and the Capital Wasteland were hostile enough, the current war just made them the Capital Wasteland even worse, a three-way war waged by the Enclave, The Brotherhood of Steel and Super Mutants, raiders, slavers and wastelanders either caught in the middle or fighting against one side, or all of them, and to be honest, James thought he had a lot to be blame for.
Yet what's done it's done, there was nothing he could do, of what he had seen, Project purity had been a Super Mutant outpost before becoming Enclave property, so in a way he had something to thank them, they surely repaired several parts damaged either by the mutants or time.
"Hey Maverick, stop" James thoughts were cut short when Manuel, the ranger shouted Maverick to stop the bus, which the former dweller did so.
"This is our stop" Jessica added, checking her SMG and then holstering it.
"Your stop?" Veronica asked, clearly surprised as the rest.
"Yeah, we still have a mission, Inculta doesn't leaves this place alive" Manuel said, "We have to regroup with First Recon team and then…well, I don't know, we'll see" Manuel added, "If things go smoothly then we lend you a hand with the Enclave" Manuel said, he and Jessica waiting to Maverick to open the door of the bus, which Maverick did with a flick of a switch.
"Are you certain, we could surely use your help to recover the GECK" James said.
"To be honest I don't want to be close to another vault, I had enough with the last one, despite the fact the most dangerous thing inside it was Maverick and he was on our side" Manuel began, "Then again we will be going against a vault full of Super Mutants, violent Super Mutants, the kind that hasn't been seen since The Master, honestly I would rather distance myself from that" Manuel added.
"On the other hand, I have to inform my superiors that we found the man who killed Legate Lanius on combat, that news alone will boost the morale of troops back in the Mojave greatly, not to mention that will put a firm stamp that the Legion are not invincible, true Caesar will put a bounty on your head for killing his Legate, but considering you are bullet proof, then it means that he will be sending his assassins to their own demise" Manuel added.
"Whatever the case, you are more than enough against the Super Mutants, it is a vault, you would feel better inside, what's worse than a Super Mutant, a human size rhino rampaging inside the cramped halls of a vault" Manuel said, much to Maverick's annoyance.
"Keep the radio, call us when you need us, later" with that the two NCR soldiers left the bus, not a second later, Maverick was slowly speeding up, leaving the NCR soldiers who took another road to their destination.
"Well, they are gone" Sally said, James noted how she pulled a strange device that seemed to be like a hi-tech clipboard in size, and how she pressed several buttons in the device.
"Sally here, sis, send me my junk, I got work to do here, I'll give you the coordinates in five minutes" Sally suddenly said, then turning to Maverick, "You heard that Maverick, we are taking a little detour, call the Citadel and tell them to drop the Boomstick in our soon to be coordinates, we are going to fix that thing" she added, James saw how his son nodded solemnly.
"Uh, what's the boomstick?" James asked to Veronica, "And while we're at it, who she was talking to?" he added.
"On that order, the boomstick is a hyper-advanced jury-rigged gauss heavy rifle mounted on a heavy flamer frame with two sniper rifle barrels surrounded by enough magnetic coils to propel bullets fast and hard enough to reduce anything hit to less than shit that only Maverick can safely use because the recoil either sends you flying or rips your arms off" Veronica began, "And Sally was talking to her sister who is now on orbit on a alien mothership with a bunch of people from before and after the Great War who got kidnapped by aliens who held us in a space-station Maverick blew up" Veronica finalized with a small, innocent smile.
James blinked, several times, then turned to his son, "Maverick! What have I told you about lying to your father!"
Five minutes later…
James stared at the seemingly empty space his son had decided to park the bus, it was plain, devoid of all kind of rock formations that might work as an ambush, the only way to hide was inside the bus, then again a bus parked in the middle of nowhere is bound to gain attention, he knew, from back in the days Project Purity was just the Jefferson Memorial and the Brotherhood was just settling in, that these parts were raider devoid due to the lack of both hiding places and actually something to attack, it is a nice place to die, no one will find your corpse, and in the off chance they do, they will only find the bones, and whatever the two-headed vultures and the sand didn't picked off.
"Okay sis, we are at the location, send the probe with my stuff at least five meters off my actual location, I haven't lived this long to die 'cause my sister has a suck-ass aim" Sally suddenly said to the pad, Maverick at her side, looking at the sky, it seemed nothing would happen, then no less than five second later after she talked last, something seemed to come out of the sky, Maverick saw this and shielded Sally as something landed near them, hard enough to raise dust and rocks, James by instinct ducked and covered his head, Veronica simply covered her face with her armored hands.
As the dust settled, James dared to look to see what had been of Sally and his son, only to see his son huddled, Sally on his arms, covered head to toe in dust and rocks, dust that fell as he stood up, Sally peeking around and then making her way towards the object that had fell of the sky.
"…What…what the hell?" was all James could say, honestly there was little he could say at the moment, something just fell off the sky, barely missing his son and his young charge.
Whatever had fell soon was revealed when the dust settled completely, what seemed a child size spike of some sort, in silver, with glowing blue lights on some parts, it was obviously not of this world, or the Pre-War era.
The next thing James knows or sees is that the spike begins to glow, letting out a stream of yellow particles, particles that begin to take the shape of a box, he easily recognized it as an Enclave utility bunk, or EUB's as the soldiers had called them, they were light enough to be carried by a man alone, regardless of the things inside, it had special compartments for fragile materials, which were as scare as pure water, and in the off-case someone was able to lift it up above their head and swing it, it was hard enough to bash someone's torso off, no doubt his son would do more than that, he might end up bashing the poor sod to the sky and actually damage the carbon titanium bunk along the way.
Without delay Sally had already pressed something on the spike, and the thing actually began to fragment itself in the same yellow particles from which it had send the box, leaving soon a small crater where it had landed, one that was being filled with sand.
"Thanks sis, meet ya soon, hugs and kisses to everyone above" Sally said to her pad, putting it on the inside of her jacket and then turning to the box.
"A care package, let's see what Miss Fortune has for us" Sally said as she kneeled in front of the box and opened, instantly bringing a smile to her face, "Oh yeah, I have been a good girl this year"
"…" James simply stared dumbly at the scene, at first he didn't believe what he had been said, chalking it as delirium on part of his son for the horrible experiments he had to endure that granted him his unnatural strength and impenetrable skin, the story about aliens and all that he didn't believe…until now.
Still something was nagging him, he knew there were procedures to make someone to the level of Maverick's physical endurance, his son had claimed he had taken down a Deathclaw and the only wound he had was the scar on his face, which made people believe that it was rather a dull knife rather a Deathclaw claws that caused it.
Taking a Deathclaw on close combat is synonymous, alongside with radiation leak and raider on chems of death, horrible, painful and something you want to forget if you bear witness of it, and even in the event you want to fight a Deathclaw on close quarters you have to take into account that a Deathclaw is not only fast on their feet, despite their colossal size, a Deathclaw is fast on their feet, on their claws and heads when in combat, when a Deathclaw swings is like something akin to see a cobra pounce, a lighting strike you only feel after the thing backs away in preparation for the next strike, with a Deathclaw this was not usually the case as you were torn in two.
With a sigh he approached his son and Sally, both were examining the contents inside the box, the little glimpse he had made him nearly stagger, Project Purity, for being a structure made out of anything technologically advanced and basically scavenged from every hole in the Capital Wasteland, was the most advanced thing around, that included Liberty Prime, any moron can make a weapon, it takes a real genius to built something to help, to create, to sustain.
He knew without shadow of a doubt that half of the things inside the box could potentially boost Project Purity functionality, that or made it blow spectacularly.
Sally gave Maverick a look, something James noted, before shifting her gaze to him, "Something on your mind doctor?" Sally asked it had been a while ever since someone had called him a doctor without contempt or distrust; it was comforting to say the least, in the wasteland, the work of a doctor is close to that of a butcher, especially those who roam the wasteland doing anything they can to help and lack the proper equipment, despite popular belief, Stimpacks are not universal cures.
"Well…let's say I believe the story of aliens and spaceships and everything else" James began, Sally simply rose an eyebrow as Maverick closed the box and took it to the bus, his eyes focused on his father and Sally.
"If what have you said about your shared experience with my son is true, then I want to know exactly to what lengths you both were experimented" Sally bit back a retort to Maverick's father, one side of her wanted to tell him to shove it, for he knew nothing about the hell she and Maverick went through, Maverick at least was dozed off while he was being experimented, she didn't had that commodity.
On the other hand, there was the side, her rational and mature side that told her that it was the way James, a scientist wanted to confirm that in fact an advanced life form had done the things she claimed, and that advanced life form was now less cosmic dust thanks to a nova like explosion in space.
"Sure, but not here, on the bus, were we can actually sit" Sally said, then turned to James, "And don't worry about Veronica, she was there too" she added as she walked to the bus, Veronica on tow, leaving James there, he sighed long and hard, things just could not remain the way they are in the wasteland, they have to complicate themselves more.
Walking to the bus, James wondered what kind of story Sally would regale him with, this was after all, a girl who claimed to be related to Robert House, who was over two hundred years old and witnessed the Great War, only ghouls can actually claim to have actually witnessed the war itself, but one thing is hearing it of someone who was an adult and stayed that way after their ghoulification, another one was hearing it from a little girl who saw, grew and survived the aftermath.
As he boarded the bus and this one took off to their original destination, James pondered one thing, what would have been if his son hadn't been kidnapped by aliens right when he was exiting the vault?
Nothing good he supposed, especially since his son supposedly first stop after the vault was Megaton, and therefore Moriarty itself.
He should be thankful for the aliens at least; they spared Maverick meeting the guy and seeing the ugly face of the wasteland within the walls of a strong town with strong people.
Fifteen minutes later…
"…and they replaced your son's spine with a nanite composed one to enhance his reaction time and match his already impressive amount of modifications to him"
James was now regretting the moment he asked Sally about what the hell the aliens did to his son, for someone boasting 200 birthdays, she was as graphic as any child could be, he knew an adult would try to lessen the truth a little, but Sally didn't, she told him in perfect detail every modification his son was subjected to, explaining at first that Maverick by all rights should be dead, so far he and Legate Lanius had survived the extreme modifications the aliens did to them, and had witnessed how two super-enhanced humans had duke it up in the hangars, she had also explained what each enhancement had done to his son, and the odds of survival.
Lady Luck was indeed looking over his son that was certain, 99% were the odds of fatality to anyone subjected to every single procedure, but his son had somehow survived, turning a single digit number into the biggest thing ever.
"So…an übermensch" James commented.
"Hardly doctor, Maverick is not perfect, as you can see there was little the aliens could do to enhance his intelligence" Sally said with a smirk.
"I heard that you old gnome!"
"HEY THAT'S LOW!"
James slightly chuckled alongside Veronica, it was like seeing two quarreling siblings rather than two strangers brought together by chance and need.
"So, a super soldier…why the aliens subjected him to all that?" James asked to Sally.
"Beats me doc, I can theorize that they wanted an infiltrator within the world, currently our world do looks like their own, surely they wanted Maverick to act as their avatar, kill everyone, so they could take over, despite how advanced they are they are not exactly durable, a foot-war against us, something they were use to would end up bad, even with our depleted numbers, so they did a second best"
"Turn one of their own"
"Correct, of course they never went beyond installing the same compliance chip they installed on Lanius brain, or Maverick would have been another puppet, like Lanius" Sally ended.
"This is disturbing, but good, I hope the data that created Maverick and Lanius is gone" Sally tapped her head at James question.
"Is all here doc, not too thrilled with the fact I have the formula of the super-soldier on my noggin, but considering that only three procedures can be done with our current technology, and they are only meant to double speed and reaction time on a subject has to be of some consolation" she said.
"I guess" he said, then added something else, "I am surprised that you are accepting your inevitable puberty and mortality rather well, all things considered" James said, Sally simply shrugged.
"Immortality is not as cracked as they make it see it, 200 years put things in perspective for me, at least I got out lucky, with a lot of strings attached, the ghouls I have heard Veronica speaking, man I can't think how they can endure their bodies rotting on them, being unable to do anything to stop it, only to pull out dead skin and hair, exposing muscle and whatnot"
"It is the tragedy of war"
"The tragedy is that we don't know who was the asshole that pushed the 'screw the world' button" Sally snapped, "But we can't cry over spilled milk, humanity still endures, unfortunately so does war"
"A sad truth" James said, then looked at Sally, then at his son, "But something came up of all this I suppose" he said; now Sally was curious of his words.
"A father will always want the best for his son or daughter, this hasn't changed in 200 years, I left my son in the vault because I felt it was the safest place for him to be, no matter how old a son gets, to me Maverick would always be my top priority, it eases me that now he is strong enough to tackle anything the wasteland might throw at him, physically of course, the wasteland tests you in every aspect, I hope he is ready to handle that too"
"He is, up there…it wasn't pretty" Sally said, feeling, just like James and Veronica how the bus stopped, the trio looked at the front, spotting the outside, a lot of cars piled up, like ruined buildings forming dirty streets, not only that, there were also buses and vans set on the yard, most of them had cars on top of them, the windows covered with metal sheets, everyone could see generators connected to the buses and vans.
"We're here" Maverick said, turning off the bus and standing up, pulling out OWB, "The place…is not empty" Maverick mussed.
"What gave it away, the generators? The covered windows? Or the fact there are several toys on the ground?" Sally asked sarcastically.
"A little bit of all that" Maverick said with a smirk, "There are also a lot of footprints in the dirt, this must have become a camp of some sort after dad put his little stash and went to112" Maverick said, "Remain here, I'll scout around"
"Uh…son?" James called, "I might not know a lot of what you have done first-hand, but pulling a gun that can in layman terms, screw you up before firing is not a good idea" James reminded.
"What do you suggest? Talk them to death?" Maverick wondered.
"Remember how we dealt with problems back in the vault?" James asked, Maverick slightly nodded at that.
"You might have the strength of a behemoth, but might is not the universal solution for everything, remember, sharp mind"
"Sharper tongue" Maverick finished, holstering OWB and opening the bus doors, "Dad…keep the channel open" was all Maverick said as he exited the door, James closing the door behind his son.
"Still remembers" James chuckled as he brought his pip-boy up and began to work on it.
Outside, Maverick slightly cringed his nose, not because of distaste, it was common among newly exited vault dwellers to see junk made homes as 'ugly' and 'unsafe' but in the wasteland that is a relative word, besides he was by far the first vault dweller to not see a town made out of junk and see it as ugly, his very former predecessor, the vault dweller of vault 13, upon laying his eyes on the very first human settlement he came across, thought it was butt ugly and unsafe.
No, the reason Maverick cringed was because the smell of rotting flesh and spilled innards, the smell still haunted him, he might had left the space-station, but what he saw there didn't left him at all.
Grimacing he let his nose guide him, his senses were beyond sharpened, sometimes his eyes would fail him, and when that happens, ears and nose will always take over.
As he walked, the odor became worse, even more so, he could see he was not alone, he could hear whispers, shuffles of feet on metal, guns cocking up, being loaded.
If it was an ambush he was ready, and so had to be the others, "Dad, there are people here, surely inside the buses and cars, they are armed, I smell blood and rotten flesh, be very careful" Maverick whispered to his pip-boy.
"Will be ready son"
Maverick slightly smiled, it was good to hear his dad's voice over the pip-boy, another modification his dad made to their pip-boys, since the vault was big, it was usual to Maverick to feel alone, especially when Amata was being dragged around by her father, so James worked on a way to communicate with his son without the need of using the intercoms of the vault, the result was the built-in communicator in their pip-boys, one of a kind, no one else but them had them.
He kept advancing, crossing the lanes and 'streets' until he reached the spot the smell was the strongest, still after killing and seeing dead, he was not getting used to the sight of dead people, and surely would never would, and this one for a reason.
There, on the dirt lay the corpse of what seemed a woman, covered by a dirty blanket, approaching the corpse seemed like a bad idea, the body could be booby trapped, a tactic of the most cunning and thankfully, rarest raiders around, but he could withstand explosions well enough, a landmine would only tickle him, pity thousands upon thousands of dead people by landmines before and after the Great War could say the same.
Kneeling in front of the body, he removed the blanket, immediately grimacing upon seeing the body state.
"God…dad, I found a corpse, female" Maverick said, lifting the blanket more, and then gasping, "Pregnant, at least three to four months into gestation, cause of death, gunshot…executed" Maverick said, the cold medic taking over.
"I see, anything else"
"The vultures were having a feast with her, I see the fetus still inside her torn middle section, they covered her body to keep the vultures off her" Maverick said, laying the blanket down again, covering the body.
"…God, who could have done this? A pregnant woman"
"Son, this is why I left you behind, this world…is cruel, it hold no mercy for no one, not even the newborn, I really didn't want you to see this"
"Things can change dad, we just need something to rally behind, a reason to stay sane and not become…savages"
"Got that right partner" Maverick didn't tensed, not even when the cold barrel of a gun was pressed to the back of his head, not even when another barrel, now pressed to his forehead, this one being a laser rifle, and held in the hand of a kid.
"…tell the kid to move that toy of my face before he hurts himself" Maverick said sternly, his eyes locked on the eyes of the afro-American kid who simply scowled at him.
"Don't think I won't fire, I will scum" the kid said, tensing his body to fire the gun.
"You don't have what it takes…you are not a killer" Maverick simply said as he rose to his whole height, the kid simply looked up, his rifle still trained to him, but he didn't find the weapon nor the kid dangerous, neither the man behind him with the weapon trained to his back.
"You got some nerve coming here, after all vault dwellers have done to us" the man behind him said, pushing the barrel of the gun even more.
"I'm not with them" Maverick said, not raising his arms, despite the situation demanding it.
"I'm not buying that hoard of bull again" that did picked Maverick's interest.
"Again?"
"…you don't know…do you?"
"Know what? All I see now is a dead woman with a gunshot, and a man with a gun, for all I know you are lying and killed that woman, who was pregnant, that makes me angry" Maverick said, turning around, spotting finally the man, also afro-american, holding a Chinese assault rifle, dressed as some sort of bounty hunter of the wild west.
"You don't like me when I'm angry, things tend to die when I'm angry" Maverick hissed, "And no, is not false bravado, I can have you on your back be-" the man reacted instantly by firing his gun at Maverick point-blank, which made the kid to fire Maverick on the back.
This had not the desired effect the man mussed as Maverick's arm actually shot to the barrel of the gun, crushed it like if it was paper then pushed it backwards, alongside with the shocked man like sheriff who could do little but to stare in shock as the dweller he shot remained on his feet after getting shot on the head.
The kid by his part remained silent, only to scream when Maverick turned and seized his laser rifle, and broke it in two like dried wood.
"Enough!" Maverick of course was not going to attack a kid and a wastelander just because they fired at him, yet he had to make sure they would not attack him anymore, so he yelled.
This had the somewhat desired effect, the tall man stopped, but kept a warring glance at Maverick, while the kid wanted to disembowel him for whatever reason he wanted.
"I'm not here to fight but if you fire at me again I swear I'll feed you a knuckle sandwich with blood sauce" Maverick threatened to the man.
"…It won't be necessary kid, as long you don't hurt my people" the man said, tossing the now useless rifle away, and pulling a single handgun, Maverick frowned at that.
"A 5.56mm round did nothing to me, a laser did nothing to me, that pea launcher will do nothing to me…neither the dozens of people around us pointing guns at me will" Maverick stated firmly, crossing his arms and looking at one of the cars, spotting the barrel of a rifle out of the gaps of one of the doors.
"…Okay" the man said, "Lower your guns people, seems harmless enough" the man said.
"Harmless?" Maverick caught sight of a man clad with the same clothes he wore after his combat armor was damaged back in the space-station, he also wore a bandana over his head alongside a patch over his right eye, and a long goatee, unkempt.
"The kid just took two rounds point-blank, one to the head, and he crushed the barrel of your rifle, and pushed you back, all while breaking the toy of your son, so no offense Sheriff Simms, but to me he is as harmless as a Yao Guai, which means no, he isn't" the man with the patch said as he approached with a shotgun pointed at Maverick.
"Billy, if he wanted us dead he would surely do it, and would have showed no mercy…besides" Sheriff Simms said, motioning to the corpse behind Maverick, "The kid recoiled upon seeing good old Vera, I have seen my share of shit, and it leaves you without sense of pity for no one, and vault dwellers fill pity for no one, this one did" the sheriff said, "Besides he looked surprised upon hearing of the other one" he added.
"You mentioned another dweller…did he…" Maverick motioned to the body behind him.
"Damn right he did, orders he said, bullshit I say" the sheriff snapped, "Apparently Vera there was an Enclave scientist looking to get out of that bullshit, came here about a month ago with the story she was a pregnant widow of Andale, a town attacked by the Enclave" Maverick shook his head.
"Andale's only population is…were cannibals" the sheriff nodded.
"We knew that town was small, and filled with those guys, so we didn't believe her, but for the sake of her baby we made her believe we believe her" the sheriff said, "It was good, for some time, she was a medic, good, better than the last one" the sheriff added with a chuckle, "Hell I am sure she was on a relationship with Stockholm" the sheriff said.
"Then two days ago that dweller came, claiming he had escaped his fellow dwellers and was seeking refuge, we didn't believe that one either, it didn't lasted much, Vera lay eyes on that guy and she went hysterical, the guy didn't fare better, one minute he is in front of me, the next the asshole has his hands on her belly and then…shit"
"…there were not vultures…right?"
"Right, the moment he does that to her, everyone is opening fire at him, but he moved fast, it didn't helped that he was close to a car and ducked there, then Talon Mercs came, we had to duck and defend ourselves of those bastards, I can only guess Vera was still alive after that, but the guy got to her and executed her, we found her about an hour after the fight, just like you're seeing her now, minus blanket, we gunned a couple of mercs down, but this is hardly a place to defend yourself" the sheriff said.
"Now kid, what your name and story"
"I got your story, but not your name"
"Cheeky guy"
"Pleasantries didn't die in the apocalypse"
The sheriff smirked, "Lucas Simms, sheriff of this piece of land and once sheriff of Megaton, before we decided to leave that powder keg" Lucas said.
"Maverick Hartigan, outcast vault dweller of vault 101…I need a shorter title" Maverick mussed to himself.
"What you need is to die asshole"
"Harden!" Lucas snapped, "You'll have to apologize Harden…he liked Vera" was all Lucas summarized, Maverick saw that Lucas was holding something out about Vera, but said nothing else.
"Well sheriff, I won't take much of your time, my dad came here, surely before you took the place, he left a stash of weapons, mainly big guns, we need them" Maverick said.
"Oh you mean the guns Moira found, sorry to say this but she kinda broke them down for parts for a windmill generator, it does not generate a lot of electricity, but it keeps the water distiller up and running, well as long there is wind"
Maverick internally cursed, they could have used those weapons, but as they say, finder keepers, "Well, hell and brimstone" Maverick said as he prepared himself to leave, but stopped, gave the body another look, a long, hard look.
"The body presents bite marks; both the woman and the fetus were brutalized post-morten…"
"You point being?" Lucas asked, motioning the group in hiding to disperse.
"…Please describe me the dweller that did this" Maverick's words obviously surprised Lucas and Billy, but not Harden who simply scoffed.
"Sure…tall as you, pale as hell, with uh…freckles on his cheeks, lots of them, he has short red hair and yellow like eyes, more like sand like yellow" Lucas and Billy noted the pale look of Maverick, how pale he had become.
"No…can't be" Maverick said, "He is dead, it was all she babbled about" Maverick said.
"What are you yapping about" Billy said, lowering his shotgun, but kept it aimed at Maverick.
"I know the dweller, but the thing is that the guy is dead, hell his dead was being pinned to me" Maverick pointed out, "It makes no sense…where did he go?" Maverick asked.
"Took up to the southeast, to one of the vaults there" Lucas said, seeing how Maverick made his way towards the bus, mindful of the eyes following him.
"Tell your sniper to lower his rifle or I'll reunite him with Vera" was all Maverick shouted as he finally walked away, the sniper simply glaring at Maverick over his scope.
As Maverick made it to the bus, he saw his dad outside, Sally right at his side.
"We got problems" was all Maverick said, leaning to the bus, "Dad, it seems Marcus is alive"
"Excuse me, you said Marcus is dead" James said with shock.
"So did I, and apparently so Amata, you can't fake that kind of anger, hell it seems every single person in the vault believes the same" Maverick spoke, his eyes focused somewhere.
"I'm going there dad, I have the location, I can make a run and see what's going on" Maverick said, lifting his hands to stop his dad from speaking, "Let's face it dad, from us four, I am far more prepared for the wasteland, remain in the bus, these guys will try to shoot you if you give them a reason" Maverick added.
"I know…but I can't just let you go like that" James said.
"You don't have a say in this, just like I didn't had a say in your escape" Maverick said, walking away.
"Stay inside, stay safe" with that Maverick began to run away, James was clearly surprised by the speed his son began to run, even more so as he didn't seem to slow down at all.
James simply sighed, he didn't want to admit it, but his son was right, besides the fact they were stalling, but a part of him understood what Maverick wanted, his son was blamed for the murder of a man he didn't even cross, a man that apparently was alive, all that had happened so far had been, to James it was Maverick's way to find out the truth about what had happened the day he left 101, if this Marcus held the truth of what had happened to Amata, why she was so changed, Maverick would find out.
Question was what to do after the answer?
Entering the bus, he saw Sally simply leaning on one side of the bus, he knew she could take care of herself, she had experience in survival, 200 years in fact, he was an amateur compared to her, so he let her to her devices, for the moment, after all this place was hostile to vault dwellers and anyone with them.
Sally by her part remained leaning on the bus, arms crossed, eyes focused on the dark skinned kid holding a BB gun on his hands, glaring at James, and to an extent, Maverick, she knew a BB gun wouldn't hurt, more like annoy, the small pellets of the BB were like mosquito bites, that changed of course when she saw that the BB gun was modified to an extent, surely to make it more deadly to wasteland standards.
Harden glared at Sally, Sally glared at Harden, with a scoff the girl made her way towards Harden, soon standing in front of him.
"Listen to me you little bugger, and listen to me well" Sally said, knowing that there were eyes all around, and ears all over, hearing and listening to her, she didn't mind.
"You dare to aim that gun at that man, I kill you" she said, "You see this" Sally said, drawing a line on the dirt with her feet, "This is the line between life and death, right now you're alive, cross it" Sally said as she pulled Novasurge.
"And I'll reduce you to a pile of green goo and personally deliver it to your dad" Sally stated, and much to Harden's shock, and everyone watching and hearing, Sally slammed the Novasurge grip to his face, making him stumble.
"You're afraid to kill…I don't"
Reaching vault 108 was a piece of cake, considering it was some kilometers away of scrapyard, it was easy to reach it as well, the bus had helped them to reach scrapyard, but the road to 108 was too much for the bus, the remains of the road would not help as much as before, it was obvious much of the bombs launched 200 years ago were focused to the city itself, which held many important landmarks, both civilians and military, so the east part of the Capital Wasteland, both city and former suburbs were the worse to wear, with more cliffs, holes and debris that in the other sectors of the wasteland itself.
It also helped that there were two enclave guards on plain sight, basically highlighting the entrance to 108.
"Active stealth mode"
Now a shade, Maverick easily slipped pass them, they didn't even noticed him, the cameras on the entrance of the open vault didn't noticed him, no one did, he walked with impunity inside the vault, seeing scientists mingling all over the area, some working on computers, others on labs, test tubes of the size of a grown-up person, some of those tubes holding fetuses attached to tubes, other holding full grown-up men, all with a stupid smile on their faces.
Several labs held mass produced pip-boys, Maverick noted that most of these Pip-boys were the 2000 series, not the 3000, meaning the integrated VATS on the wrist mounted computers was not available, either they were trying to reverse-engineer the technology on the pip-boys or were repairing those and were giving them to high-rank officers and soldiers on the field.
That alone scared him.
But he wasn't here for that, he knew from Sarah that 108 was a cloning facility for the Gary clones, fodder he sees them, an army that could be manufactured and grown in the matter of days, trained in hours, outfitted in minutes, with the only objective to wear down your opponent, to bleed your enemy dry, why? Because the Enclave was weakened by several years of fight, migration and planning.
Focusing on his task, Maverick made it to the only place he knew he could find Marcus, where Marcus would go if he, as a vault dweller out of your vault and working with a genocidal organization using another vault as base, would go to report?
Go to the overseer office, Marcus was such an ass-kisser.
Besides the office was a big computer, it was linked to the vault completely, if there was a place to command and oversee the vault, to lock it down with just one push of a button, it was the overseer office.
So he went there, it was easy, the halls were unprotected, there were no soldiers around, it was scary in a sense, it reminded him of 112 and 101 at night, when not even the guards patrolled the halls.
The door to the overseer office was open, there he found him, Marcus, just as he remembered him, but clad in an Enclave officer uniform, leaning in front of the desk, behind him stood another enclave officer, this one was aged, Maverick toned down the conversation, approaching the aged officer, and when he was behind him, brought his left hand into a hook to the side of the man's head, the sound of bones breaking was satisfying alongside the sound of meat meeting metal, and more bones crushing.
Maverick smirked when he saw Marcus eyes widened upon this, obviously Marcus didn't expect something like this to happen, but he couldn't remain just looking at Marcus shocked face, he had questions, and Marcus had answers.
Marcus chocked when something clamped on his neck, lifted him up and slammed him to a wall, the same wall where the officer he was reporting now lay dead, with part of his brains oozing out of his cracked head.
Then he saw it, a hand materializing right around his neck, clamped hard, attached to it was a pip-boy.
"Hello Marcus" the man in question just gulped when he saw Maverick materialize like the reaper itself, ready to claim a soul, clad to the part of course.
"You and I have a lot to talk about"
Marcus shuddered, not only because the tone Maverick used.
Maverick smiled, his smile turning a little darker, it helped a lot that the lights flickered on and off suddenly.
Both men were unaware that the ceiling was basically caving in, that the scientists were running scared and how a metallic arm basically punched a hole in.
Yes, i'm evil, such a plot twister, the man is alive and his words will shock Maverick to the core, nto to mention i left it as a cliffhanger, and yes, i took lessons from those who did the same in their stories, they are as evil as me.
you will have not to wait much for what will happen next, i'm already working on the chapter, so don't worry, and just wait for MAVERICK's WAR.
in case you don't get it, that's the name of the next chapter, I told you i was already working on it.
have any ideas to make the story better, have anything to say, just want to feed my ego, then send reviews, I will read them all, and made me happy along the way.
Until a next time, this is Hypn0s, bidding you a good day.