Hello again, hope you guys are doing well.
Right now this story has 18 favs and 27 followers, and a lot of views. I know my writing isn't the best, I know that there are better authors out there and that I still mess up with the grammar a lot, but thank you, for liking my story and for your time, thank you.
This chapter was a chaos to wright, it's the fist time I wright a battle and I tryed to use the perspective of both protagonists, tell me what you think about it for future references, please.
Anyway, hope you like today's chapter, I'll talk to you later at the end of it.
"Move it!"
Moving with an accelerated paste, the brown hair soldier and his two new companions open the cellar in the kitchen, revealing a dark staircase.
The trio goes down the stairs, quickly reaching the floor, and the soldier boy activates his Pip-Boy's light to illuminate their surroundings, while the bartender guides them through the basement until reaching a brick wall with a bunch of crates stacked against it.
"Help me move the boxes." Said the unnamed bartender
They all start pushing the crates, they are large in size and heavy, so the crew must use all their strength to move them.
*Agh* "Since when do we have all of this down here?"
"Charles, shut up and push."
The crates slide enough for them to find a human size hole in the wall, the entrance to the tunnel. With no time to lose the group enters the tunnel, it's like Robert said, a narrow path, they had to go one after another and sheet their weapons to fit thru.
They go as quickly as possible, Blondie is in the front of the group, our DC resident in the middle, and the other grunt in the back. It's going to take them a while before they arrive at their destination, no matter how fast they walk, and so, the former Sentinel's mind has finally a moment to think things.
Questions came one after another, and almost none with a clear answer; If the Doctor didn't tell the Enclave about the GOAC, then how do they know about it? Does anybody else know? Who are these "Gunners"? They are clearly a merc group, but how much do they know?
He tries to focus on the task at hand, this isn't the moment for questions, this is the moment for actions. They must hurry and take out the troopers with Power Armor, with at least two of them down they should be able to take care of the rest.
"Freeze!"
The Mojave resident obeys and stops his approach, just a few feet away from the front door. His adversaries cocked and prepared their weapons.
"Easy there, pals, we can be civilized and not resort to our baser instincts."
He gives a quick scope of the surroundings; more dead bodies litter the floor near some barrels and chairs, two caravans were abandoned in the middle of the street, one of them was flipped and on fire. However, that wasn't the only thing on fire, looking past his adversaries, past the road, some houses and other buildings, Six saw a big orange glow emanating from the other side of the town.
So THAT'S the reason why the guards haven't show up.
Initiating disputes, accidents, or other types of altercations it's an easy way of distracting the local authorities (a tactic he's quite fond of), the bigger the distraction, the bigger the window of opportunities and time, but once that's over, you must disappear from the scene before they start pointing fingers and asking questions.
"Hey! Stop looking around, we are over here!" Demanded the head Gunner. "Show us her face!"
The lady in question, was motionless in Six's right shoulder, being treated like a bag of potatoes, he carefully turns around for them to see the Doctor's face.
"She's alive, in case you were wondering, just unconscious."
He turns around once more and faces the enemy, who were all the way across the corpses and the wagons. They spread out, covering more ground, their leaders are in the front center, next to each of them were two mercs, and the power armor soldiers were stationed one on each side next to the foot grunts.
"Where are her things?" Asked the older man of the group.
"You mean the GOAC?"
The two leaders exchange looks, and their gazes hardened.
"That's why you're here, right?"
"Where is it?"
"Right here."
With my right hand, I keep dear Patrician in place while lifting her shirt and cape with my other hand, showing them the artifact.
However, the mind of the Wanderer, does wonder on what to do after the battle is over; let's say they win, he would need to grab Ms. Stanly and get as far away from this town as possible, before either, she recovers conciseness, or Robert figures out what's going on. He planned for a quick escape just in case, leaving a hidden caravan outside the city, and paid some guards to go and patrol somewhere else, away from that part of the perimeter.
Then there's Julius, if both of us survive the encounter and safely get away, can he trust him?
There are at least five parties who want the GOAC now (himself included), all of them dangerous (and would probably need to be silence, one way or another), but at least he knows something about the Doctor or the Enclave, he doesn't know anything about his new companion.
The Wanderer lacks information to make a judge of character, the guy did recognize the danger of what would happen if the GOAC felt into the wrong hands, but then again, maybe he just won't let anybody else take his prize. Also, the false Gunner could be working with someone else OR for someone else, and an ambush could be waiting for him once they leave the town.
Focus.
He'll deal with those problems when they arrive.
"Snake, what's the plan? How do we kill these bastards?" Asked the man in the front.
"As I said; their armor has a big exhaust port in the back just below the core, that's their weak point, if we manage to do some heavy damage, we'll leave them without energy and without destabilizing the core."
"What happens if we destabilize the core?" Asked the man in the back.
"Explosion." The soldier responded deadpanned.
"That doesn't sound so bad -."
"He means NUCLEAR explosion, dumbass." Answered the bartender. "Those tin cans use fusion cores for energy, they explode and in the best-case scenario, the people we are trying to save, become ghouls."
A bit overdramatic, but close enough.
Although the explosion and consequent radiation wouldn't be able to turn anyone into a ghoul, it would destroy part of the building and possibly kill some of their "allies" by accident, this includes Ms. Stanly, and by extension, everybody else in the city.
Luckily, it's almost impossible for fusion cores to destabilize, this could only happen if either; you're master of electronics and you rigged them to do so, or if you cause them enough high critical damage (like dropping a couple of nukes on them), otherwise they are perfectly safe and won't cause any nuclear detonation.
"And how much damage are we talking about?"
"Either perforation by a high caliber sniper or overheat by a blast of a powerful energy weapon, once their energy is gone, they'll still be capable of moving but at a slow pace, basically turning them into stationary turrets."
"Turrets can still decimate our asses."
"They are powerful but not indestructible, and according to Robert, you guys stash all of your heavy weaponry in this safe house, you're telling me you don't have some rockets or explosives capable of finishing the job?"
Blondie, shutted up for a moment before answering.
"We have a couple."
"Good, two of us will snipe them, while the third bombards them, any other questions?"
"No, all clear, and just in time, here we are." Informed the man in the front, who pushes a wooden plank to reveal the entrance.
They look confused for a moment until their minds process the same thought that my mind did when I first saw the woman's back.
"What the f-."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, that was my exact reaction the first time I saw it." I cut the guy off and low the doctor's clothes back in place. "It seems our dear old Doc prepared some countermeasures in case anybody tried to cross her, a bit extreme if you ask me, and I would normally call her a nut job for this, however, you DID cross her, so, yeah, not that crazy after all."
They regain their stoic demeanor and take a step forward.
"Hand her over."
"Trust me, I would love to do that, end this and get my ass out of your sight, I really do, but here's the thing." I take some steps forwards as well. "How do I know you're not just going to kill me after we give her up?"
"I gave you my word." Says the Enclave Officer. "No harm shall fall to you or anybody else inside."
"No offense, but the word of a traitor doesn't work for me."
Okay, I'll admit, that felt pretty hypocrite coming from me.
But it's true, the Enclave at this point is just a bunch of desperate soldiers trying to hold and enforce their old-world ways, they'll do anything to get what they want.
Getting so obsessed with the past can only lead to more of the same tragedies the old world committed.
Apart from that, I actually don't have a bad view of the Enclave or at least; not a bad view of its people, it's true that they made some horrible actions in the past, but who hasn't? The Remnants showed me they are just like the rest of us, people who lost the game and are trying to live the best way they can.
That doesn't absolve them of their crimes, no, I believe everybody should pay for the things they have done, one way or another, it's just something we should remember before passing judgment on anybody.
At least the Remnants stopped singing their song years ago, but these guys? They are still singing their old blues.
"And how about a bullet? Huh, does THAT work for you?" Threatens the one-eyed man.
"Heh, nice come back, but I don't think you could land the hit." My taunting voice and comments appear to be working, as the man sheets his assault rifle and draws his revolver.
"You wanna bet?"
"Miller!" Shouts the Officer.
"Tempting, but you won't shoot."
"And why not?"
"You may kill your paycheck." I shake the woman in my arms to emphasize my point.
*Chuckle* "I'm a good shoot."
"And I'm a fast man, let's say it's a fifty/fifty situation, do you really wanna risk it?"
(Speak check: Pass.)
The guy keeps pointing his gun at me for some time, looking at my eyes, both of us challenging one another, waiting for the other to make the first move, and he does it, silently bringing his gun down.
That's what I thought.
They go thru the new hole and get inside another basement, this one is smaller than the one under Dante's, but has a lot of more things; metal crates, lockers, etc.
"Alright, let's gear up, we have some heavy snipers and piercing rounds over here, grenades over there and a bunch of other stuff around there, take whatever you need."
While his two comrades took weapons and ammo from the boxes, the wanderer chooses to use a couple of his own, opens one of his bags, stashes the Hunting rifle, and brings out his Gauss rifle, some pulse grenades and Sydney's SMG.
*whistle* "Fancy weapon you got there." Said the bartender as he assembles parts of his rifle.
"I need ammo, do you have 10mm and microfusion?"
"10mm, in the locker to your left, microfusion, we only have around 25 over-charge rounds."
"Over-charge?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot, you come from the East, over-charge rounds make a bit more damage, at the cost of degrading the condition of your weapon faster than normal rounds." The older man takes a bag and tosses it to the soldier, who catches it. "Have fun."
Huh, helpful.
101 straps his rifle in his back, puts the sub-machine gun on the left side of his hip, makes sure his sword is in place, and prepares his ammo and grenades, while the unnamed man assembles the last part of his rifle and takes some grenades and a Sawed-off shotgun, and lastly, Charles grabs a Missile launcher.
Now with the group ready, they climb a ladder that takes them to the floor above, the first one to climb its Blondie, followed by the other two.
They appear in a small room, in almost complete darkness, the only illumination coming from the Pip-Boy, not wasting time, they move to the next room, and to the next one, and to the next one until reaching the front door, stepping out the house and encountering one the biggest fires they had ever seen.
"Then what are your terms?"
"Huh?"
"You won't give her to us until you're sure we won't attack you, so how do we convince you? What are your terms?"
Oh shit! My terms, uhhhhhhh, terms, terms, terms, uhh ...
"Half of your forces must go, tell them to leave, and wait for you outside the city."
"Ha! Yeah, right." The gunner raises his arms, laughs, and then turns to his fellow leader. "We don't have the time, that fire won't last forever, let's take her by force and leave."
"He has the GOAC."
They talk in a low tone, but luckily, I have a good sense of hearing (and a lot, a LOT of mechanical enhancements.) (Perception check: Pass).
"And he also has no support, he came alone, the people inside are scared, if we kill him, none of them will come to his aid."
"You don't know that for sure."
"Thomson, cut the crap, you don't care for these guys' lives, stop acting like a good samaritan, it doesn't suit you."
"Nor does it you being the voice of reason."
"True, but all I know is that if we attack right now, we'll only need to fight one person."
I give them time to talk it out and let them decide if they kill me or not before interrupting them.
"You guys know I can hear you, right?" They turn their attention back at me, with a bit of surprise plasm in their faces. "Okay, maybe I asked too much, how about this? You order the ones in the back to leave."
"That's nearly half our forces." Said the older man.
There's 14 of them in total (four in power armor), and there are six in the back, oh, yeah, that's nearly half.
"Then what about the ones in power armor?"
They went back to talking between themselves, and a moment later, their answer came.
"One power armor and two mercs."
(Options: Accept, draw weapon [Attack], or persuade them.)
"Two power armors and four mercs."
"One power armor and three mercs."
(Options: Accept!, draw weapons [Attack now], or keep persuading them.)
"Two power armors and three mercs."
"Oh! For fucks sake!" Said the Sargent. "One power armor and four mercs!"
(Options: Accept you fool!, draw weapons [Kill them all!], or keep talking, you mad lad.)
"Three power armors! And five mercs! That's my last offer!"
"That's more than half our forces, you ass!"
"Three power armors and four mercs?"
"THAT IS HALF!"
"And?"
"This is just getting ridiculous." Said the one eye man annoyed as he runs his hand over his face.
"I agree." The Officer walks a bit further. "This is your last chance for a peaceful resolution."
"Uhhh..."
At my hesitation, they all raise their weapons one more time. As I try to come up with a convincing answer, I manage to see movement behind my enemies.
It's about damn time.
"Welp, I don't think neither of us has that option anymore."
As these last words settled in, the soldiers in power armor where hit in the back. I jump and take cover behind some barrels as all hell broke loose.
Bullets and lasers started coming from both sides, and I was in the middle of it all. I let the Doctor on the floor beside me, as I bring out my Ranger Sequoia and my Mysterious Magnum, I raise my head from cover, just in time to see a flying power armor, soaring thru the sky and crash-landing inside the building.
"Eat rockets motherfuckers!"
Shouted Charles, as he fired two rockets towards the trooper in the north side of the squad, sending him flying. While the merc next to him was hit by the wave of the explosion and felt into the ground.
Blondie and I concentrate our fire on the other trooper wearing power armor as Charles reloads his rocket launcher. However, our fire isn't enough to keep the soldier at bay; it turns around and starts firing its gun at us, we quickly take cover; Charles and Blondie behind a caravan, and I behind some crates.
The flying power armor went thru one of the windows on the first floor, bringing part of the wall down with himself.
I fire my guns at my enemies, who took cover behind the two caravans, but I can hardly take a quick look without getting shoot by the crossfire.
What was I thinking?!
This isn't a good situation for me, AT ALL, if I don't move, I die. Searching chaotically thru my stuff, I find my salvation.
The Courier throws five smoke grenades, two got shot in the air, blinding the snipers on the second floor of the building (sorry about that), and the other three landed near the caravans. As the smoke came to the battlefield, some brave idiotic bastards left their cover at the bar and ran towards the enemy.
Most of them got shot, of course, but they gave me enough time to take the doctor and move from my position. Unfortunately, as soon as I started running to get inside the bar, the mercs and Enclave forces from the back came running thru an alleyway next to Dante's.
"The Doctor!" One of them shouts.
Fuck!
The smoke distracts and blinds the trooper for enough time for me to throw two pulse grenades at his feet and immobilize it.
"Now!"
Charles gets up and fires two rockets, one was a direct hit, sending the trooper down and crashing into the burning caravan, while the other rocket missed by a few feet, blowing up one of the mercs instead, sending body parts and gore into the air.
"The ones cover in metal! You idiot!" Blondie shouted.
"This shit has a big ass recoil! The fact that the second rocket was off by only a few feet, it's a more than just fucking a miracle!"
We try to keep firing our weapons, but as the smoke got bigger, our targets nearly despaired from our sight.
Suddenly, thru my scope, I saw someone carrying someone else in their arms, jumping over the burning wagon. The reason for this action was a group of enemies coming from the left side of the building, who were now heading towards the smoke, in pursuit of the fleeing duo.
Oh no.
"There's are three more mercs and a power armor coming from the left side! Take care of them!"
I informed my allies and gave a couple of pulse grenades to blondie as I proceed to leap over my cover and run towards the smoke.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
My fall was graceless and painful, falling in my back so that the Doctor wouldn't be hurt, she was now on top of me. I move her, and we take cover as fast as possible in enemy lines, next to a fallen soldier.
Or at least that was I thought, as the presume dead wearing power armor, was now regaining consciousness. Luckily, the helmet had lost a lens, so I shoved my magnum through the hole and pulled the trigger until the pistol ran out of bullets.
"Where is he?!"
The same question appears to be coming from every direction, I can hardly look past the smoke. I can only see shadows and hear gunshots, not sure of where my enemies are.
"Wh-what?"
I hear a weak and distorted voice next to me, we both turn our heads to meet our eyes, Miss Stanley is now awake.
"You fu-!"
I try to cover her voice in time, but the damage is done.
"There you are!"
The one eye man finds them and throws me a hatchet, Six leaps aside with the woman in his arms, just in time to miss the blade. Patrician breaks free of his arms, but another Gunner grabs her and punches her in the stomach.
Before he can stand up and act, a third merc comes and kicks him back to the ground and then shoots the Courier in the abdomen. It does hurt, but it doesn't kill him, thanks to Joshua's armor, so he pulls his Ranger Sequoia and shoots him back.
Activating VATS, I feel how time stops around me, and I carefully pick my three next shoots, two go to the merc's head, and the other one to Miller's arm. Time resumes, and all the shots hit their marks.
Running and shooting my SMG, I reach the smoke and ignore all the chaos around me, until reaching my destination and finding the duo being attacked by four gunners.
The Wanderer shoots the leader from behind, then Julius kills one of them and also shoots the leader, the other two react and try to fight back, one got shot in the head, courtesy of a sniper, while the one holding the Doctor gets a hatchet in the legs from Julius.
Before I could do more, a bunch of plasma was now corroding and burning parts of my clothes and skin, not long after I was tackled by an old soldier.
*panting* Breathe *panting* Breathe *panting*
I don't know what is happening; my head is spinning, I can hardly breathe, and I'm fighting the urge of vomiting my insides. I'm on the ground, in the street? There's fire, smoke, and the sound of bullets all around me.
I look around and see bodies on the floor and people fighting each other, yes, now I remember, Miller, Thomsom, the other two. More people are coming, I can hear them, I try to scape crawling in the ground.
All of a sudden, a grenade falls in front of me, I shield myself with my arms, close my eyes and wait for the worst, the thing detonates, but all I could feel was just my ears tingling, caused by the strange sound that came from the explosive.
It wasn't a lethal grenade; it was a pulse grenade.
"Activating the GOAC."
The robotic voice came from Patrician's Pip-Boy and made all the people around her stop their fighting.
Nonononono!
She uses her Pip-Boy and tries to stop the inevitable.
[Deactivate]
[Request failed]
[Fail safe code: 131016]
[Code failed]
[Redirect energy to the outer core]
…
[Request accepted]
[GOAC is now running at 60% of its max capacity, still active, have a good day.]
"Oh! You son of a b-!"
In the year 2283, in the Free City of Rojo, near the outskirts of Texas, a big ball of light consumed part of the east side of the city and its surrounding area. So big, and so bright, that the Legion patrols and nearby settlements saw it, and once was over, what was left was a bunch of different things in a crater; some found gold, others water, and others grotesque amalgamations of different things and what use to be living things.
Some of them were still alive, they didn't have any type of mouth, but if they had, they would most likely scream in pain. Don't worry, they didn't suffer for very long, fortunately for them, the other town residents had mercy and kill them.
No one knows what occurred that night, but as one chapter of the Wasteland closes, another of a different place opens.
"What is that?"
The younger brother asks as some forms of light emerge in the void, the space between realities.
"Mmh, mortals, trying to breach the gap and jump between realms."
This tends to happen from time to time, either by accident or purposely a mortal tries to reach the plane of the Gods. It's nearly impossible, and even when they do it, the God of that realm may not be too happy that someone has entered its domain.
That is, of course, if they entered it alive, there are plenty of ways for mortals to die; if they land in the core of a planet or no planet at all, maybe in the deep of space, near some asteroids, in a world not suited for them, where they'll lack any type of resources to live, food, water, light, air, etc.
Mortal ones are really fragile, and they need to learn that before trying to ascend to a higher plane.
"To whom you think they belong?"
"Let's see."
They extend their palms, and a certain world came to view.
"Interesting place, but who made it?" Asks the older brother.
"I see some influence of the old ones, maybe one of them?"
"No, this world has been influenced by different forces, it may be a world of creatio absque interventu."
Or a world created without intervention of the Gods. Life always finds a way, and when these kinds of worlds are formed, they withdraw the power of creation from other greater forces in order to succeed.
"It appears they are going to succeed in their jump." Said the dark entity. "Anyway, I'm killing them."
"Wait!"
"If I'm not the one who interacts and destroys my own creations, neither will them!"
"Exactly, interact, intervene."
"What?"
"Neither us nor other Gods should intervene with Remnant, but what about mortals?"
The dark God stays silent for a moment.
"... An interesting idea brother, I'll give you that, but what could these mortals do to change Remnant?"
"I don't know, nobody knows, shall we see?"
This idea was really bad, random and chaotically, and would most likely fail, but something this chaotically is always so fun to see.
"Fine, this may be more amusing than our talks."
"We should give them a little message before they arrive." Said the older brother, referring to the mortals. "I just hope we don't get in any trouble with the other Gods."
"Well, there aren't any laws about mortals intervening with other mortals, are they?"
"No, I guess not."
Without the storage cards providing the necessary systems for the safe activation of the GOAC, nobody knew what to expect from the machine.
Would it destroy their atoms? Causing one of the biggest nuclear explosions since the end of the old world, or maybe it would mess with time itself, making them older and older until they were just bones and dust. One thing was for sure, it was going to hurt.
Oh! And it hurt indeed! Their bodies, their masses went from one place to another, merging with one another, they grew older and then got younger, they grew older and then got younger, it was an endless cycle of pain.
And the worst part was yet to come; the black void. They couldn't see anything, they couldn't feel anything, and yet somehow that was more disturbing than all the pain they endured. Fortunately for them, they were able to lose consciousness while being judged by two immortal entities.
Once they regain their consciousness, their situation wasn't any better. They woke up in the middle of a forest at night. Then they proceed to vomit their entire lunch along with some blood, both Six and One Oh One are shaking, their bodies feeling hot and cold at the same time.
After a couple of failed attempts, they manage to get back up on their feet.
A forest?
Thought the Courier.
Harold?
Asked the Wanderer.
The DC resident puts his goggles on and activates the night vision to get a better view, but the only thing he gets is a hit from a sledgehammer, courtesy of a Gunner, while the messenger gets stabbed by the combat knife of another merc.
As the hammer broke bones in the chest and the knife puncture organs in the stomach, their survival instincts kick in; both tackle their enemies and proceed to make them pay. Six tears out the neck of the man with his own hands, letting him bleed to death, and One Oh One burst the eyes of his adversary with his thumbs and then punches him until he stops moving.
With their enemies dead, they get off of the corpses and craw way from them. The two end up lying close to each other, looking at the skies. They no longer have the strength, they are at the mercy of whatever lives in that forest, it is not like it matters, they couldn't do anything anyway.
A shattered moon leans over them, and as that new image settles in their head, something in their brains clicks; they open the communication links in their respective Pip-Boys and scream.
"Who gave Clover control over the weapons?!"
"Damn it, Arcade! You had ONE job!"
After that, they fell unconscious again.
A couple of questions I wanted to talk about:
"Is Earth another "experiment" of the brothers but left after the nukes fell?" No, It isn't, but you are right, Earth has the same animals and plants as Remnant (or most of them at least), but this is because of the influence of multiple forces (maybe even influence from our two brothers.)
"What gear are the Courier and the Wanderer using?" Someone asked me this in a PM, I been trying to describe their attires and I may have confused some of you, they aren't wearing any "made up clothes", here's a list of their attires:
Wanderer:
- Wanderer's leather armor
- The Peepers (biker goggles)
- Tunnel snakes jacket
Courier:
- Joshua Graham's armor
- Rattan cowboy hat
- Pimp-Boy 3 Billion
- A brown duster (something like the Sheriff's duster)
Both their attire and weapons are going to expand in the near future, so any recommendations or further questions are welcome.
I'll also be using some of the cut content from both games and maybe some gear from other games (remember that both 6 and 101 have been traveling to different places.)