The group followed Preston to a large bar across the street from the string of trading stands, where a sniper stood guard above the entrance and nodded his head to the newcomers silently. The outside of the bar looked like a large simple metal shack. The interior of the bar itself was cosy. Though the evening sun was still warm outside, the inside of the bar was pleasantly cool. Most of the hard wood floor was covered by a thick layer of different coloured rugs. A large bar was set up to the left of the entrance, with a large jukebox playing pre-war music. It was already packed, with the majority of the booths taken up by chatting customers, and even a few happy drunks dancing around the floor. Everyone greeted the group with varying levels of sobriety before they finally found a free seat in the corner of the room. Just as they sat down, a ghoul clad in simple clothes came over, giving everyone a friendly smile.
"What can I get everyone today?" she asked in a raspy voice.
"Hello, Deidre! I'll take a purified water please," answered Preston, before turning to the girls expectantly. "What about you ladies? I'll be paying, so don't worry,"
"I will take an atomic cocktail please," Yang answered politely.
"Whiskey for me, neat," Blake said simply, though with a small smile.
"I'll have a whiskey as well," Weiss ordered.
"Um…Nuka Cola and Vodka, please?" Ruby asked sheepishly, to which Yang broke out into laughter.
"Vodka?! HAHAHA! Who are you and what have you done with my adorable little sister?" Yang chortled, playfully ruffling Ruby's hair, causing her to blush out of embarrassment.
"Well…you guys are drinking alcohol…I thought I'd at least try it…"
"Don't worry about it, kiddo, my sister was exactly like that when I had my first drink." Deidre winked at the small redhead before making her way back to the bar, "I'll be back in a second!"
"Thank you!" All five customers retorted with varying volumes before turning back to the topic at hand.
"So what's this job offer you got, Preston?" Yang asked, her usually friendly demeanour dropped as soon as she mentioned business.
"Well, there is a settlement down to the south-west called The Fort. It's the centre of operations for the minutemen. We try to improve life for everyone in the commonwealth. Problem is, they've been under siege for a fortnight now. Nobody has been able to get in or out,"
"Raiders?" Blake asked.
"That's what you'd think, but whoever has got our guys seems to have plenty of resources. More than any raider party."
"Mercenaries?" Weiss asked, getting more and more invested in the conversation.
"They certainly got the firepower for it. The Fort is one of the most well protected settlements in the commonwealth. A group of Super Mutants would be gunned down before they ever reached the gates, but whoever is attacking them, they are holding their own without breaking a sweat." Preston stopped as Deidre leaned over the table to hand of the party their drinks, who all thanked the ghoul silently.
"That'll be fifty caps please, Preston," Deidre told the man, standing up straight patiently waiting as he nodded and rummaged about in his pockets for the money. Pulling out a small bag, he placed it gently in her hand. "There should be seventy five in there, feel free to check if you want,"
"Nah, you're quite alright, sweetheart. I trust you. Besides, I know where you live." She said the final few words with a mock threatening tone, before they both chuckled. Placing the bag of caps in her own pocket, she began to walk back towards the bar, calling once over her shoulder. "Give me a shout if you need anything else!"
"Will do!" Preston shouted back with a smile, before turning back to the girls. "So, anyway, the job is to try and push past the attackers by any means necessary, supply the defences, and push back the attackers. My superior would be the one to do this, but he's needed elsewhere in the commonwealth"
"You make it sound so easy," Yang half joked, before taking a drink and wincing slightly. "Let's just on walk on to this Fort! No problem at all! Not like there's bad men with big guns or anything!" She yelled out sarcastically. "Oh wait…hmmm…" Yang leaned on her elbow and stroked her chin, as though in deep thought.
"Pushing through will be the hard part. They have the land completely surrounded and forget trying to get supplies in by the sea." Preston said, ignoring Yang's snarky remark.
"Is there anyway we could get in by the air?" Ruby asked softly, sipping softly on her drink.
"I suppose that is an approach that we haven't tried, but how? We don't have any vertibirds and its not like we can jetpack our way in," However, as soon as Preston said this, a small idea sparked in the back of Ruby's mind.
"You know those power armour suits you got outside?"
"Yeah, they're my superiors-"
"Have you got any scrap metal? Would he mind if I altered them? I have an idea," Ruby leaned over the table, suddenly very excited. Preston shrugged.
"If it helps-"
Ruby leapt over the back of her chair and raced outside. Soon after, the sounds of building, welding and whirring came loudly from outside. Curious, Preston and the other girls were about to leave the bar and lean out to see what Ruby was doing, amazingly, she was just finishing the final touches on a final piece of power armour.
On the back of five T-45d armoured frames were jetpacks.
Large jetpacks.
"Impressive, miss! The man has been trying to build jetpacks ever since he first got his hand on one of those bad boys!" Nodding his head.
"But that's not all!" Ruby announced, holding her hand out with her index finger raised in a "as-a-matter-of-fact" manner. "I took the original schematics and improved on them. The fuel tanks have an increased capacity, the jet system burns fuel at amore efficient rate, and I've altered the system for more controlled fight,"
"…All that in like, what, five minutes?" Weiss asked Ruby, who was still admiring her handiwork the same way a child would admire a drawing.
"Don't doubt Ruby's ability with a wrench," Said Blake, though going by her expression, it would've appeared that she too was rather surprised.
"Well, come on, don't just stand around there! Give it a spin!" Yang shouted out happily. As soon as she got this confirmation from her sister, Ruby leapt quickly into the opening frame and closed it back over quickly. Quickly, she checked out all the equipment to make sure everything was functional before testing. She didn't want to die in a fiery explosion because of a simple fault. Actually, that would be a pretty cool death, she thought to herself. Brushing the thought aside, she decided that now was the best time to take off.
When she activated the jetpack, she didn't realize how powerful the force was going to be. The full force of the engines and the countering gravity were a hell of a challenge to take, not to mention the slight rising heat in the heel of the armour's feet. It wasn't an unpleasant heat, but it was a point of concern for Ruby. Finally, the fuel in the large tanks ran out after a few seconds. Then the earth came rushing back down. Whereas most sane people would be terrified of the feeling of the ground zooming towards them, Ruby was laughing like a child. Finally, the heavy metal bashed into the tarmac, the shocks in the legs absorbing the full impact. Giddy from the adrenaline rush, Ruby slowly climbed out of the frame, and looked towards the surprised faces of her friends and Preston. Beaming with pride, she looked at the power armour, then back at the group.
"So… think it'll do the trick?" Ruby asked.
"I think so, how is it for distance though?" Preston retorted, intrigued by Ruby's idea.
Ruby shrugged and climbed back into a different frame. She noted that the tanks would needed to be refilled before they left. Again, she tested the armour, and activated the jetpack when she was satisfied that it was safe. This time, she leaned all her weight forward as soon as she felt her feet leave the ground. This catapulted her straight into the wooden shell of an old world building. Luckily, the power armour took the brunt of it, but it still shook her. Getting up and groaning, she felt wooden planks and dust slide off the power armour, and then she looked out to see Preston, Blake, Yang and Weiss sprinting down the road. Walking out, she had to steady herself as she stumbled out of the rubble.
"RUBY! RUBY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" She heard Weiss screaming.
"IF MY SISTER IS HURT, I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!" Yang shouted at Preston.
"I'M ALRIGHT! Just a bit shaken up," Ruby protested, dusting her power armour off just as the group pulled up next to her. Ruby climbed out of the frame, but stumbled when she stepped on a loose beam. It was only because of Blake and Weiss catching her that she didn't fall on her bum. Looking up at Preston, she smiled softly and rubbed her head shyly, still dizzy from the impact.
"Happy now?" She moaned.
"Very," Preston smiled. "We'll move out tomorrow,"
oo0oo
While most logical people would take the night before a task as a reason to rest, Weiss was instead watching a drunken Blake and Yang dancing in the bar. She preferred to have spent some time with Ruby, but the small redhead decided to make some final adjustments to the sets of power armour.
"You should have some fun with the guys," she had said to her. Well, I'm not having fun now, Weiss thought to herself. Draining the last remaining liquid, she put her glass gently down on the table, made her way to the bar, and promptly but politely ordered a bottle of purified water. She quickly made her out to the workshop, ignoring Yang's drunken cries to come and dance with her and Blake.
It was dark outside the bar. Night had fallen and the nearest source of light came from the workshop, where Ruby was working tirelessly. She was crouched by the leg of one of the T-45 frames, tightening a knob in the knee joint. Weiss walked up to her, making her steps noticeably heavy so as not to scare Ruby. Ruby only turned around when Weiss was right next to her, but smiled when she saw her.
"I thought you were in the bar with Yang and Blake?"
"And I thought you might be thirsty," Weiss said with a soft smile, handing her the cool bottle of water, which Ruby accepted gratefully.
"Thank you," she whispered softly, before draining the bottle quickly. Though the night air was pleasantly cool, the blaring lights of the workshops and the hours of manual labour left Ruby in a hot, sticky sweat. The cold water was a welcome relief. Gasping for oxygen, she screwed the cap back onto the bottle and placed it delicately at her feet. "I definitely needed that,"
Weiss nodded, and soon turned her focus back to the towering hunks of power armour.
"So, what did you do to them?"
This question sent a new found surge of energy through Ruby, whose eyes, once dull with exhaustation, now gleamed with enthusiasm. She hoped back to her feet and started pointing at different parts on one with the frames.
"Well, I adjusted the shock absorbers in the legs for a more comfy landing. I adjusted the jetpack for longer and more controlled flight. The helmets have an advanced detection system, so we can see the bad guys long before they ever notice. I also added a little bomb compartment in the chest. When we fly over those mercs, we can pull this lever to drop them a care package of explosive. I reinforced the metal to take the full brunt of a mini nuke explosion just in case a stray bullet catches a payload as we drop it-"
"WAIT! Waitwaitwait…" Weiss said, grinding Ruby's words to a halt. "YOU'RE STRAPPING EXPLOSIVES TO OUR CHESTS!? DO YOU WANT TO GET US KILLED!"
"NO! Don't worry, the power armour can take the punch. Watch!" Without a second to spare, Ruby opened a single chest compartment, grabbed her beloved weapon and flipped it into its gun mode, blasting straight at a mini nuke sitting in the centre of the power armour. It exploded in a grand inferno, but despite some small radiation readings off of their Geiger counters, Weiss and Ruby surprisingly remained unharmed, as did the power armour frame. Preston Garvey, who was patrolling the small settlement as he usually did, heard the explosion and came sprinting towards the workshop, but before he could say anything, Ruby waved her arms about wildly and shouted her apologies.
"Sorry! Sorry, we were just testing out…stuff!" Ruby shouted, carefully hiding the fact that they were setting off explosives within a civilian area. Grumbling, an annoyed Preston seemed to buy it and went back to patrolling. Weiss, even more annoyed than the town's guardian, turned round back to Ruby and was about to lecture her about her foolish decision to set off a miniaturized nuclear payload in the middle of a town, if Ruby hadn't spoken up first.
"In my defence, the explosion would have been totally safe. I calculated the trajectory of the explosion and calculated that no one would get hurt," she said sheepishly, though her quivering tone said otherwise. However, Weiss groaned and simply shrugged it off.
"OO! I also have something for you," Ruby rushed to a weapons bench where Myrtenaster sat. Handing the blade over to Weiss with a twinkle in her eye and a large smile on her face, she launched into another excited explanation.
"So I took a look at Myrtenaster and thought of a way I could improve the firing mechanism. Go on, squeeze a few round off,"
Rolling her eyes, Weiss aimed the weapon high at the sky and squeezed off three rounds but nearly dropped her beloved rapier in surprise. The first projectile gave off a lighting fast laser strike, the second one was a plasma round, and the final one was an ice blue energy blast. She turned back to Ruby and raised a single eyebrow. While she was impressed, she wanted an explanation.
"Bit rude to tinker with other people's possessions as if they were your own, don't you think?" Weiss asked, though secretly she was rather happy with the new modifications Ruby had already made to her intricate weapon. Ruby smiled and picked up another rapier, which had metal cylinders sitting in the chamber instead of the energy cells that were in the sword Weiss held.
"That is why I made a totally different version. The reason why the power armour took so long to fix up was because I was working on this. I took a bunch of scrap and reforged as best as I could. Do you know how hard it is to make a furnace out of only energy cells?" Ruby laughed, though Weiss stared down at the weapon she was holding in shock. The weapon looked almost completely identical to the one Ruby put on the workbench. The weight, the feel of it, it was remarkable how alike they were.
"Do you like it?" Ruby asked timidly. Weiss smiled, and closed the distance between them, placing a soft kiss on Ruby's forehead.
"It's perfect, thank you," Ruby nodded her head softly with a small, almost apologetic smile, blushing the lightest shade of pink, and rubbing the back of her head. Finally, she spoke up, handing Weiss back the original Myrtenaster .
"Well, I need to make final repairs and adjustments to the armour,"
"Would you care for a hand?" Weiss asked politely, though she didn't know the first thing about these hulks of machinery. Ruby smiled.
"I'd like that,"
(Notes: GAHHHHHH! I cant believe it took me so long to update this story. I do apologize. I tried to make this chapter a bit longer than what im used to, and I think I did ok with this, then the file corrupted... just GAAAAAHHHH! TAKE WHAT I HAVE TO GIVE YOU! Tell me what you think! DO YOUR WORST! Ill try to post more regularly. Stay tuned, I've got big plans for this! Thanks again and ADIOS!)