Chapter 16: A House Divided
Jane sprints past Nick through the doors to into Freeside. He makes not attempt to stop her. It has been 12 hours since Luther died and Nick declared war, and in that time she has managed to gather as many of her allies as she could. Boone and Raul she already sent back to the 38, now she has Arcade and ED-E with her. Nick seems to be un-concerned about the fact that numbers are on her side. After all not only does she have her people, but also an army of securitrons as well. She had hopped that the NCR or the Boomers would be able to send support, but to no avail, both are tied up in the war effort and refuse to get involved in what Hsu calls, personal matters.
She flies past the Securitron checkpoint and runs full tilt into the Lucky 38. As soon as Arcade and ED-E are inside she slams the entrance shut and locks it. "Victor!" she shouts as they begin to construct a barricade, "contact House! If he does not already know warn him that we have enemies coming in fast!"
The robot rolls up to her with and bounces on its wheel. For a moment its screen goes blank, but is then replaced by the image of House. "Am I to understand that our former employees have turned against us? All of the ones you brought in out of the goodness of your heart? I did warn you about trusting that madman." Jane huffs, not this rant again.
"Yes, I realize now that I've done fucked up alright! Just do something to slow them down! We need time to fortify the tower!"
"I am already on it, I have mobilized a detachment of my drones. They should be coming up on them now."
Jane's heart skips a beat for a moment. This is for real. They are about to get into a battle with people they have been working with. They are about to fight a man who she was once very close with. "Just, don't kill them if you don't have to."
"Of course." House's face vanishes from the Securitron. A radio transmission is sent to the drones standing guard at the Vegas Checkpoint. Orders. House Protocol Override. Eliminate all organics that approach current location. Use of Deadly force Authorized. Kill on sight.
Tyler drops behind cover as a barrage of bullets tear apart a homeless guy in front of him. "Son of a bitch!" That bastard House is targeting civilians! He loads his sawed off and makes his way towards the checkpoint, moving from cover to cover in between barrages. He throws himself against the side of a building and looks across the street to where KC is kneeling behind a mailbox. "Hey," She looks over at him, "distract them!" Without any regret he throws a vial of psycho to her. She catches it out of the air and a wicked smile appears on her face. As she starts to shoot herself up, Tyler pulls some Ultrajet from his pocket. "I was saving this." He mumbles with a shrug.
The hit from the drug rushes through him like a tidal wave of radioactive water! Time seems to slow around him as he steps out from cover. The sawed off in his hand rises up and the trigger is pulled. He watches in fascination as the bullets streak through the air before colliding with the nearest Securitrons armor. Sparks fly as the machine was turned to the side, aiming at the spot where KC has opened fire with dual submachineguns. The drone he hit shutters and the tubing of its arm blasts apart in a shower of parts and flame.
He pulls the second trigger and the other round is loosed. This time two drones are hit. The first has its face plate shattered and falls to the ground. The second takes the hit and turns to him. It raises its gun arm and its fingers open to fire. Tyler jumps forward, to close for the thing to shoot, and grabs the bots arm. With a heave he flips it over then curbstomps its face until it dies. "Fucking Kill!" Something blurs past him. He looks up to see Nick thrusting a long slender sword through the body of a drone. The last of the Securitrons falls and Nick motions them over.
"We go in, incapacitate the others, then take out House. I don't want Jane or any of her people harmed." He gives Tyler a pointed look. "You understand?"
Tyler gives a small shrug of his shoulders. The UltraJet is still coursing through him, so he isn't really pay that much attention. "Sure, no killing. What about maiming?" KC nods vigorously. Nick gives a glare that leaves no questions. Killing will not be tolerated by him. Tyler crosses his arms and shakes his head. "Fine, you lead the way. This is your show." Nick turns and approaches the gate with that hooded girl he has been traveling with. KC and Tyler follow right behind.
As they enter New Vegas, it is clear right away that the people there knew they were coming. The usually busy streets are empty. There are no hookers or patrons outside Gammorah, and the city is eerily quiet. Tyler turns to KC, "keep close to me." she nods and lifts her dual SMG's to show she is ready. They turn to make the approach to the Lucky 38, but a gunshot cracks through the air. A spray of blood spurts from Nick and he is whipped around with a cry of pain. The group surges forward! Tyler and Veonica grab Nick and drag him to the door. They throw their backs against it, eyes watching the rooftops around them. "Nick, you alive?"
Nick stands, rolling his shoulder, he lets out another cry of pain and punches a wall. "I'll live. Bastard got me good though. Not going to be able to use a rifle."
KC hands him one of her guns and an extra magazine of ammo. "Right," Tyler says as he pulls at the doors, "seems we have another problem. They are likely dug in deep inside, we need a way in that will also give us some cover. Sounds like an explosive solution is in order." Pulling out a C4 charge, he quickly rigs the nearest door and stands. "We run down to the street, I blow the door, we run back up, and then hell breaks loose inside the casino. Sound good?"
Veronica gives him a wide eyed look, "You are crazy! All of you!" Tyler winks at her and sprints down to the road. The others let out yelps and hurry to catch up with them. The second his feet hit the pavement he detonates the package. The door blast out! Filling the air with smoke and debris. Wasting no time the group moves into the building. Immediately Tyler is hit in the chest with a ballistic round. Air rushes out of his lungs and he only just manages to slide into cover. His metal armor took the damage, but there will be a nasty bruise there, maybe a few broken ribs.
A mechanical beeping sound above him and he looks up to see an eye-bot charging its lasers! He reaches up and grabs the floating robot and pulls it to the ground. It lets out a distressed screech and blasts out several random laser bolts. Tyler holds it by the frame and slams an armored fist into its chassis, ripping out the core and sending it into shutdown mode. He kicks the now stunned bot away and gets his bearings.
Nick and Veronica have engaged two Securitrons in close combat near the bar. KC is pinned down behind an overturned pool table and taking heavy fire from the people defending the elevator. Tyler jumps up and blasts both rounds from his sawed off. The defenders take cover and he slides into position next to KC. "Miss me?" She grunts and lets off a burst of rounds. Quickly he reloads and fires again.
Across the room Veronica finishes off the last of the drones with her power gauntlet. She and Nick draw their guns and put pressure on the defenders position. "Fall back!" one of them shouts. "Fall back now!" Tyler stands and surges forward, shooting off his first bullet as the defenders back into the elevator. The doors close and Tyler lets off his second round, denting the metal of the door. He slams into the metal frame and digs his fingers into the crack. He struggles, barely making the doors budge. Nick appears next to him and together they pry open the doors. They are treated to a view of an empty shaft. Veronica pushes past them and does something inside the shaft. There is a loud crashing sound followed by the cables coming to a halt. "That should trap them," She says, "but we need to find another way up to House before they break out."
"Follow me." Nick growls through clenched teeth. He starts towards the back of the casino. They all follow. Tyler can't help but notice the way Nick is favoring his arm, and the large amount of blood staining his sleeve. Nick leads them to a back set of stairs. "Found this a few days ago, one of those times Luther vanished and we all had to look for him. He was wandering around in here with no idea where he was or what he was doing, or even how he got here. All he would say is that the House needed what he had."
They ascend the maintenance stairs quickly. They pass one section and Tyler is sure he can hear Jane and her people shouting at each other inside the elevator. Soon enough they emerge into the dimly lit penthouse. Quietly they move in. Tyler hangs back, he is no good with stealth. He keeps KC with him as well, not trusting her to understand they need to be quiet in her high state, not that he isn't still high, he is just more aware. He watches as Nick and Veronica approach a Securitron from behind and pull it down. How they manage to dispatch such a large bulky robot with such a small amount of noise is beyond him. Nick signals all clear and they move up.
"Fuck!" Nick growls as they enter the room with House's terminal, "he isn't here!" They fan out in the room. Tyler feels apprehension grip him, what if this was all for nothing? What if they killed there way up here only to find that House went and moved himself someplace else? "Veronica, see if you can find him," Nick commands, "Everyone else look for anything that might tell us where this bastard is."
Tyler starts to head into another room, but something in his pack suddenly vibrates. "What the..." He shrugs off his pack and digs around. Eventually he finds the object in question. It is a biometric scanner, Luther gave it to him before they went looking for Nick. He stands and holds the device out in front of him. It vibrates in his hands. He steps towards the massive terminal, and it stops. He frowns and walks towards the wall. The device starts vibrating again. It increases in strength until he is standing right in front of the wall. Now what? He is about to start in another direction, when there is a loud noise. It sounds like a vault door opening. The wall lurches, then slides backwards before lowing into the floor, exposing a whole other room.
The others, drawn by the noise, look in awe. "Found something." Tyler growls with a grin.
"No shit." Nick murmurs. "Good work." They move into the room. Inside are all sorts of old terminals and computer parts. "What the hell is this place? Some sort of command center?"
"It would explain how House is never seen, but not where he is." Veronica mutters. "Here, another room, I can get us in." She hacks a computer and another set of doors open, revealing a dark room with a strange glow coming from the far side.
"I don't like this." KC mutters. Tyler has to agree.
Nick grunts and moves past them into the room. Tyler looks at the others and nods, they follow slowly. They find Nick standing next to what looks like some weird metal cocoon or something. "It is him. He is in there." Veronica goes to another nearby terminal and activates it. Her fingers fly across the keyboard furiously.
"I think I can open it, but It might kill him and possibly cause a meltdown of his network. Vegas would loose power for a bit and any information he has stored in here could be lost."
"Open it." Nick growls.
"If we do we will loose all of the work he has done. Everything he has stored here, all his knowledge, will be gone. We would be destroying centuries worth of information that could help hundreds of people out in..."
"He had his chance to help." Tyler interrupts her. "He chose to sit up here and not use it."
"Open it." Nick repeats.
Veronica hesitates for a moment, but then nods. She types in a set of commands, then stands back. At first nothing happens, but then the pod lets out a loud hiss and gas is vented from the sides. The seal breaks open and the pod slides back. A stand is raised and set upright. Tyler has to do a double take. The thing strapped to the pod barely looks human, let alone alive. Almost like himself, like a ghoul, the body is rotten. Only this thing looks to not have eaten in hundreds of years. All manor of tubs are attached to it, feeding it, keeping it alive longer than it should. The body jerks and shutters, pathetic, like a child. They eyes are blind and the mouth hangs open, limp. Tyler is about ready to think that just opening the pod has killed it, but then it speaks.
"Why have you... done this?... Centuries of preparation... so much good... undone." The works are spoken, but the mouth barely moves and it sounds like sandpaper scratching against wood.
"You killed my friend. You killed Luther after driving him insane!" Nick turns to Veronica, "He is wearing a neural interface, see if you can give him a shock." Veronica complies and archs of electricity spark across the skeletal body. It screams in agony, but keeps living. "You tried to kill me," Nick shouts over the screams, "You tried to kill my people! You corrupted and used one of the only good souls left in the world!" The electricity stops. Nick draws a pistol and shoves it under House's chin, "But most of all, I don't like you."
BANG!
Jane stops dead. She had managed to slip out of the small gap in the elevator doors they had opened and sprint up to House's control room. She had her gun in her hand and had it aimed at Nick's back, ready to shoot, but he beat her. He got there first. He killed House. "No," she whispers, "No!" Now it is a scream. Nick turns and looks her in the eye. The expression there, it does something. It unlocks her brain. All the memories come flooding back. All the things he did. All his madness that drove her away from him. She remembers it all. That look in his eyes, the same look of the murderer who killed all those people. She sinks to her knees, unable to face all the truths she had locked away in her own brain.
One by one Nick's people walk by her, until it is just the two of them. He stares at her, somehow she can tell that he is aware she has her memory back. "So," she says in a shaky voice, "you finally found me." He pulls the hammer of his gun back, but does not raise it. "You finally managed to track me down and trick me into your grasp." He approaches her, emotionless eyes glued to hers. "Going to finish what you started? Going to put a bullet in my head? They already tried that. It didn't work." He crouches down so he is level with her. "I'm a witness, is that it? You have to kill me because I saw what you did?" He tilts his head to the side. "Do it then, I don't have anything left to live for. Do it and end me. Kill that last person who knows what you truly are. The last person who knows you are nothing more and a murderer! Come on! Do it!"
His hand comes up and she flinches, but he just caresses her cheek gently. "It is okay." He says soothingly, "It is all okay now. I killed him. He can't hurt you any more, Jane." He stands. "Vegas is yours. Do with it what you please. I will not stand in your way. I am leaving." He walks past her. She is frozen in place by shock. "Hey," she turns to look at him. There is a longing expression in his eyes, "I am not sorry, If you need me," he points at her pipboy, "you know how to find me." For the second time in her life he turns and abandons her. Abandons her in the what is left of the ruin he created.
Across the wasteland, a man shields his eyes from the harsh rays of the sun. This is his first time back on the surface for two hundred years, but to him it is as if he were there yesterday. All around him is destruction. Death. Decay. Gone is the world he knew. Lush and green. Filled with life. In its place is this sun baked land where there seems to be nothing alive. "My God." he cries, sinking to his knees. How can one live in this world. Then determination fills him. He has to find his son. He has to. He stands and loads the pistol he took from a corpse. He is a soldier. He has a mission. He will save his son, no matter the costs.
Hello everyone! I know right, where the hell have I been? I would first like to apologize for my extended absence. I was in a position where updating, or working on the story at all, was impossible. Not to worry though, I am back. With this chapter, I am concluding this section of Nick's story, but don't worry, he will be back. That is right folks, we are talking fallout 4 and all its glory! Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like for me to do anything more with Jane's story, please let me know. Also, I do plan on giving Tyler and KC their own short spin off very soon. Please leave a review and a favorite if you liked the story! Until next time!