Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 29: Peaches by the lake.
The two deputies happily returned to the Spread Eagle confident now that the Sheriff and Marcus had everything in hand. The bar itself was clearly winding down as Mary May was wiping down the last of the cleaned glassware for the night while Grace helped while nursing a beer all the while.
The two women looked up and returned the deputies smiles as they took their place at the bar counter.
"Well folks its official we are now back in contact with the outside world. It's by a thread so to speak but now things are moving and will be continuing to move in the coming days." He said with a massive grin on his face.
Mary May let out a happy laugh that even got Grace to smile more than he could ever have remembered her doing and Joey was trying helplessly to suppress the worst of her excited giggling. "Oh my God Roger... this is... amazing... just fucking amazing." Mary May finally said as she caught her breath. "This calls for celebration no matter how late it is!"
She quickly set out some heavy glass beer mugs and then ducked into the back liquor vault and came back with a small black steel oil drum looking container.
"This boys and girls is the freshest batch of corn based moonshine in the county. Even with us increasing our portions in the rationing and the feedstock, the corn harvest this year still had a lot leftover corn that was just going to rot well before making it to market after this war is over. So the farmers were kind enough to donate their corn to the local moonshiners to 'preserve' said overstock."
She pour generously into the mugs filling them with the clear liquid that quickly hit them all over the head with the scent of extremely high proof alcohol.
"Jesus Mary May what kind of rocket fuel is this?" Grace asked as she held up her glass for inspection.
"Oh boy Grace we are in for it this time... this has got to be what? 151 proof?" Joey asked with a smile.
"Oh hell no Joey this..." He said as he sniffed the vapors coming from his glass. "This has to be 190 proof easy, in fact I don't think even I have smelled a drink this strong and I do like to think that I know my spirits." He said.
Mary May screwed the cap back on the drum and held up her mug. "You got it Roger, 190 proof moonshine made by some of the best home distillers in the county. Made with love, care, and flagrant disregard for the ATF this stuff will disinfect everything from the glassware to your insides."
They all held up their mugs and Roger gave the toast. "To starting the third act of this war."
"To the third act." The women responded as they drank deep from their mugs.
The burn down his throat was almost comical like something out of cartoon but Goddamn did it taste good to him.
"Wow... ok this will wake you up and by the second shot make you drop dead from alcohol poisoning." He said as Mary May grinned.
They finished their mugs and bar snacks were brought out as the four of them talked about various oddball subjects that increasingly became personal as Roger and Joey took a few more shots of comparatively lower proofed whiskey with Mary May and Grace hitting bottles of vodka and dark rum respectively.
By now even Roger was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol on him and the ladies weren't too far behind them even if they were drinking at half the rate he was. So feeling particularly daring he remembered the question he wanted answered from the conservatory control booth.
"So Joey, what exactly happened on this trip to Vegas with Mary May and Grace?" He asked eyeing the others for signs of a reaction.
Grace took on a blushed tone while Mary May now had a toothy grin that the Cheshire Cat would be proud of. "Oh well... you remembered that." Joey answered.
"I won't force you to answer if you guys really don't want to but I must say I am curious." He poked again as Joey looked at her friend's looking for signs of protest. Seeing none from either woman she started.
"Mary May here won some drawing from one of her beer distributors, a 7-day Vegas trip for up to 4 people. Kim was supposed to join us but had to tend to her mother at the last minute so no fault of her own, anyway so Grace pretty much was strong armed by her father to 'go out and have fun for once.' and Earl was quietly muttering about my accumulated vacation time more and more so I certainly had to go. Even Casey seemed to be working behind the scenes to make sure that Mary May didn't find some excuse to not get away from the bar."
"You ladies aren't exactly found wanting in your work ethics so it doesn't surprise me that you need to be practically forced to take time off." He commented as Joey continued.
"So we get there and setup shop at Caesar's Palace and for the first day we crawled the strip you know: shopping, drinking, and some light gambling. Turns out Grace is a absolute terror at poker and nearly got ejected from two casinos for winning a bit too much for their liking."
He glanced at Grace who flashed a exceedingly rare grin at him. "Back in the service most guys would only play poker twice against me before learning their lesson."
"So next day Mary May signs us up for of all thing's pole dancing classes. Roger you should have seen the look on the instructors face when it was my turn, she clearly wasn't expecting a veteran stripper to ever attend one of her beginner classes. So for the rest of the class I was giving tips to Mary May and Grace even if my particular discipline of pole dancing is more... erotic than fitness based. The rest of the trip was similarly fun and eye opening." Joey continued as Mary May started giggling after taking another shot.
"I will admit I liked the class enough that I even installed a dance pole over by the stage and practice on some nights after hours. Had to tell Casey that it was for mounting lights and decorations to should we ever manage to find a band willing to play. In truth I figured that if things got tight then I would convert the bar into a small strip club even if I had to dance myself." The blonde said as her friends gave her wide eyed looks.
"Wow Mary May I knew you said that thing's were looking bleak as of late before the war..." Joey said as Mary May cut her off looking grim and down trodden for a brief moment.
"And even back then the cult's presence was cutting into the number of people passing through the bar. I could still take home a paycheck and Casey never went without pay but with how things were trending I wasn't comfortable with hiring another full time bartender or waitress. I will do anything to keep this place going, even if it means flashing the goods." She said as she jokingly cupped and jiggled her sizable chest.
Roger only glanced for a moment before turning and looking Joey in the eye.
"Good boy, you've passed the jiggle test and here is at least the first part of your reward for loyalty tonight." She jested then jiggled her own chest enticingly. He could only grin and leaned over to give her a quick but passionate kiss in return to the laughter of his friends.
He downed another few shots after the group had managed to stop laughing as the night wore on and a good time was had by all as bottles were drained and the black oil drum made a return.
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It was in the dim glow of the coming dawn when a old woman dressed in forest hunting camo limped toward the front gate of the Hope County Jail with a large cougar at her side.
The guards on top of the wall had seen her coming but it wasn't until she closed that they recognized her. Wilhelmina Mable owner and operator of Peaches Taxidermy was a old graying heavyset woman of nearly 70 years... and considered one of the most fearsome women in the entire county. Her coarseness and absolute zero tolerance for anyone's bullshit was the stuff of legends as was her colorful language that could make the ears of the saltiest sailors burn.
"Will one of you fuckers get down here and open this goddamn door?! I've had to hike nearly 30 miles on one good leg to get over here to you folks and I'M NOT WAITING ANOTHER FUCKING MOMENT!" She screamed.
Peaches stretched her front paws out followed by the larger claws contained within. Having been rescued by Mable as a young cub she had been the closest thing to a child that could be associated with Mable and had become the name sake of her taxidermy business. She was long used to her mistresses loud yelling and more or less constant bad attitude. It just meant that people usually wanted to stick closer to her and give her scratches and the odd treat.
Dr. Lindsay walked into the medical ward having had just managed to wake up and down a quick mug of coffee before reporting to tend to the injured elderly woman.
"Oh great. Thing's must still be pretty fucked up if a veterinarian is my best hope of medical treatment." Mable muttered as Peaches regarded the new comer for only a moment before laying back down on the empty bed that she had claimed for herself.
"Uh... yeah Dr. Ferguson is back in Holland Valley for the moment now that most of the fighting is expected to shift up north and apparently a bunch of government scientists and some special forces soldiers crash landed over there as well. So what happened to you ma'am?" The doctor inquired as he started to examine her swollen left leg and ankle.
"Peggies is what fucking happened. After things kicked off with the cult they eventually came sniffing around my shop and wouldn't take no for answer, they still didn't get the point when I put a slug through a few of their more adamant... MOTHERFUCKER!" She yelled as the doctor moved her injured limb.
"Sorry ma'am but it looks like you broke your leg and twisted your ankle all in one go." Lindsay said as he wrote something on a nearby clipboard.
"Oh really? No shit Dr. Magoo, I had figured it was just a small splinter in my paw." Mable shot back as she returned to the rest of her story. "After I wasted the fuckers that came I knew that I had to get moving and took to the woods. Eventually made my way down to that whore Drubman's Marina down there and found it locked down and the cult dug in like a bunch of fucking deer ticks. So out of the kindness of my heart I tried picking off anyone that left the Marina, hunting parties and such. Eventually I figured that I had trimmed down their numbers and scared the fucking shit out of them that I could help free the folks they had locked up there."
"Well Mable if anyone beside Roger Rook or Joey Hudson could liberate one of the cult's outposts it would be you." Lindsay said as he started getting ready to set the broken leg. "But how did you go from about to assault the outpost to limping back here?" He asked.
"A fucking mudslide is how. I was setting up in the predawn hours and stepped wrong and fell damn near 40 feet into a gully. Funny thing is that at the bottom of that gully is a big ass storm water drain that leads right under the marina, much better than my original plan of going through that patch work excuse of a fence that Adelaide never seems to find enough time off of her back to get around to getting fixed." She sighed and looked at her rolled up pants leg and the wrecked limb. "At that point I knew I finally had to give in and let someone else do the work and I had heard Virgil jaw jacking over the radio about the jail having food and more importantly medical care. Kind of wondered if there was anything to come back to though after that huge ass explosion two days ago now, but I was almost here after all. Now you know everything." She finished.
"Well that explosion was Faith and all of the cult children getting blown sky high. Hell if you watch the TV you'll see Rook's speech and everything." The doctor replied.
Mable looked at him oddly. "Marcus?" She asked.
"No, Roger and Joey Hudson. Marcus and the rest of the resistance was stealing from Faith's supply cache before the explosion, I won't lie we got a lot of stuff that I wish we had earlier so we could have saved more people." The animal doctor mused.
"Lindsay, let me enlighten you with some life advice. Be grateful for what you can do and don't waste your time wishing for anything else. You'll never move on in life acting like that. Now that you have had your dose of your elders wisdom can we move this fucking show along? This bed feels good and I know I won't be sleeping until you set the bone and wrap the ankle." Mable half ordered.
"Ok I'll get started and I'll have word about that outpost passed along to Roger and Joey they'll probably want to speak to you before they go in though." The doctor replied as he begun his work and the medical ward was filled with seemingly impossible amounts of swearing.
Compared to the reactions of those in Jail, Peaches was unfazed by the yelling and only curled up deeper in her sleep.
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He had to admit that he wasn't nearly as hung over as he had honestly expected to be after last night, of course that wasn't the thing making him wish he didn't have to get out of bed anytime soon if the sleeping women around him were any indication.
He had wakened up enough to realize that last night events that followed their celebratory drinking did in fact happen. On his left he had Mary May pressed against him with his arm wrapped around her so his hand cupped her backside and likewise Grace on his right, on top as if in hopes of doing everything possible to keep him pinned in place was Joey tightly hugging his body in sweet content.
'I really should reevaluate my drinking preferences. Last time this happened in Kyrat it was only two girls now its three! Worse I can't say how any of them are going to react considering how much we had to drink last night. Still could be worse though if I am being honest. A handful of Mary May and probably being one of the elite few to get a handful of Grace and not immediately be shot and Joey is as she should be still the 'top woman' in our little group. If I have to die this morning then this is pretty good.' Roger thought as he let himself slide back into a light snooze.
It wouldn't last however because shortly after Casey's voice could be heard on the radio. "Mary May you copy? Mary May?"
The blonde in question opened her eyes and immediately closed them as even the slight glow of the morning sun coming from the drawn curtained bedroom windows was enough to make her grumble.
"Damn it Casey..." she said as she groped around for her radio on the nightstand blindly until she finally grasped the offending device.
"I'm here Casey what's wrong?" She asked doing everything she could to keep her eyes closed and her body tucked in to Roger.
"Well its nearly 9 AM and while you are clearly not the only one who decided to celebrate last night, sooner rather than later I'm going to be swamped with too many people to deal with on my own. Sorry Mary May." The beloved cook said apologetically.
She sighed deeply before answering. "It's ok Casey I should have remembered not to party so hard. Let me shower, freshen up, and I will be down." With that said she still didn't move from her spot immediately.
"So we have to go back at it don't we?" Joey finally said still not moving either.
"Yeah... responsibility is a bitch sometimes." Grace chimed in. "Hey Roger, thanks for the good time. You're already a lot better than the first, last, and only guy I was with." she continued as she tucked herself tighter against him one last time.
"Joey, I'm not joking you better hold on to this man." Mary May added running a finger along his jawline.
Joey finally slowly sat up her own mild hang over being ignored for the moment, drawing the blankets off of the group and letting the morning sunlight highlight her beautiful figure. "Oh I plan on holding on real tight and then some." She mused longingly.
Roger could only spare a quick glance at the other nude smiling women at his side as his focus shifted totally on Joey and that bright smile she wore. "You are the bar after all." He shot back with a wide grin of his own.
"Damn straight I am." She said before diving to kiss him one last time.
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Marcus sat in a booth waiting for Jessica to join him for breakfast. He had gotten done setting up thing's with Captain Foley's men and giving Dr. Niwa the immediate look at what they had found at her insistence.
'It made for a late night but seeing her reaction to the seriousness of Joseph's nuclear arsenal was rather priceless. I didn't think living humans could turn that white. Not that I blame her.' He thought.
Even as he sat here her people under the watch of Foley's men were 'dissecting' one of the warheads in Rachel's bunker to determine just what exactly Joseph's people had managed to pull.
"Here's your coffee sir. Just wave me down when Jessica gets here and I'll take your order. Mary May I believe was celebrating with Roger, Joey, and Grace last night so she's nursing a mild hangover." Casey said as he delivered a large mug and filled it with black coffee.
"It's not like she has had much to celebrate as of late anyway. I know she may give off a 'devil may care' kind of attitude sometimes but she is at least as hardworking and as reliable as her mother was. I know her old man always appreciated it in his own way especially when he was forced to contend with his sons own problems in that regard." Marcus said as the sound of footsteps drew their attention to the stairs leading to the upper floor.
Mary May lead the way with a clear and definite spring in her step in spite of the hang over she likely was nursing, just seconds behind her was surprisingly Grace who actually had something besides her normal mildly grim frown on her face and nearly was strutting as she slowly took a seat at the bar.
Joey then wrapped up the line of women looking like she was on top of the world at that moment as she tipped her hat politely toward the men as she too took her normal place at the bar.
Marcus traded a look with Casey as he too was processing what they were seeing as finally Roger's heavy foot falls drew their attention.
The two Rook's locked eyes for the briefest moments as father questioned son with little more than a quick glance at the three women who even now were speaking in shushed tones and a slight tilt of the head.
Roger matched his glance even as he walked by and flashed a shit eating grin in reply before he continued to take his normal place at the bar.
"Mary May? Ok, but Grace?" Casey muttered quietly but nonetheless shocked to his old friend as he pretended to top off his coffee.
"What can I say Casey? It's in the Rook genes to be the best and most attractive pedigree, why do you think Jessica decided to marry such a madman in the first place." He commented with a soft chuckle.
"Well they say a parent can be judged by the quality of those their children attract." Casey finished with a grin as he returned to his kitchen.
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After a large breakfast of stakes and eggs the three fighters were mulling over ideas on how to open up the campaign against Jacob when Dr. Lindsay's voice came over the line. "H-Hey uh... Deputy Rook its Dr. Lindsay here could I ask for you to come over to the Jail please? We found one of Rachel outposts that we missed. I kinda figured that you would want to know."
Roger turned to his parents who both were half way done with their own breakfast. "Well Dad I know you said to expect to rest until this afternoon but it sounds like we got work to do." He asked.
His father drained his mug of coffee before answering. "Well that's war for you, the enemy is just terrible about respecting R&R. You guys go out and do what you need to do, if Black Pope or Black Cardinal doesn't like it well too bad he will just have to make do with going through me. I'll stay in touch."
With promises to do the same the deputies and sniper piled into the 6x6 and raced off through the countryside back to the jail.
"So Roger these Delta guys are your old team?" Grace asked.
"Yeah you actually worked with Foley back in Kabul. I knew you needed a good spotter for that op and if he is good enough for me then he is at least tolerable for you." Roger commented as they past the first crashed plane outside of Lorna's Truck Stop.
"Yeah I don't recall having issues with him back then. So I take it they'll be part of the push against Jacob?" She inquired once more.
"Maybe." Joey answered for him.
Grace rolled her eyes and could already see where this might be coming from. "Let me guess they are attached to the scientists and any actual fighting is to be done by us until such time that the brass are willing to let them loose. How far off am I?"
"Pretty dead on Grace. Got to remember that we are US soil so there is a lot extra red tape involved as Black Cardinal, the man in the CIA that got Foley and the NEST teams sent here has his hands tied until bigger brass than he decide otherwise. DHS is normally at the head of these sorts of thing unless there such a clear major national threat that another agency such as the CIA who don't normally have purview to operate in the US outside of well established limits mind you, can act. But only so far as to gather more intel on the nature of the threat." He said as he pulled up onto the road leading to the jail.
"Sending Foley and his guys against Jacob is fighting the threat not directly finding intel on the nature of said threat. I can't say that we will have the 101st or 82nd Airborne being dropped anytime soon either so like it or not the war is still on us." He finished.
"Look on bright side Grace, at least someone knows that we are here fighting and if I am guessing correctly the harder it is for them to send equipment the less reason they have to complain about our methods." Joey said as Roger parked the truck.
"That doesn't mean of course the alphabet agencies won't rake me over the coals for my choices but if me making those choices gets us free of the cult and Joseph in irons then I will gladly keep making said choices." He finished as he lead the way to the gate.
Grace had to agree with his logic but she could see the flash of discomfort on Joey's face. She was obviously not wild about the idea of Roger bearing all the responsibility for how they fought this war especially now that the outside world would likely soon learn of just how brutal things had gotten.
'We didn't start this war, we didn't want this war, but the cult did start and did want this war. So who is to say that we need to hold back now? When we have limited resources and manpower? Roger was right when he asked me to look at what we gain by being merciful verses going in and getting the job done. See Peggie, Kill Peggie, Save the World.' The sniper thought as she trailed behind the other two.
The deputies and Grace gave Cheeseburger a quick head scratch before entering the jail proper and working their way back to the medical ward.
"I feel like I have been in here too often already." He mused as he pushed open the door to the ward and found the Sheriff and Dr. Lindsay standing beside a bedridden Miss Mable with a curled up Peaches on the bed beside her.
"Miss Mable good to see that the cult didn't get you." He said with a smile only getting a slightly annoyed look in return from the old taxidermist.
"Roger, Joey. Mable here has been the reason why Rachel's farthest north outpost slipped past our notice. She has been keeping them cooped up by herself until she fell and then managed to limp back here." The Sheriff explained to their shock.
"Yeah yeah, I'm bad ass. Do you want to know how to assault the fucking marina or not?" Mable grumbled.
"Marina..." Roger said allowed as he tried to remember which of the many marinas along the Whitetail Lake she could be referring to. "Borodin's Marina?" He asked thinking back to the old Russian sailor that had setup the largest one stop boat and RV service center in the county next to his home and an accompanying rabbit farm. He had been one of Roger's best customers when it came to hauling truckloads of parts and pulling the odd boat around the area, for that Roger remembered him fondly.
Mable shook her head. "No, haven't seen Borodin or his wife since everything started. No, I'm talking about Drubman Marina. I've seen Adelaide, her current man whore Xander, and a handful of other people still being held there at the marina. Probably only six peggies and five of those overgrown wolves holding them. From what Whitehorse here has been filling me in on how they likely lost connection with Faith early on and just kinda locked up, then my work only made them less likely to want to move from their outpost."
Joey could sense the spike in stress in Roger at the sound of the name of the Matriarch of the Drubman clan. For the last three generations the strife between the Drubmans and Rook's was a like a slow burning ember.
Growing up she hadn't just heard but seen the constant egging and needling that Hurk Drubman Sr. and more pointedly Adelaide Drubman had done to the Rooks. Twice Adelaide had stiffed Roger on paying for the services of his truck instead trying to seduce him, something that she herself had to be talked down from going after the older woman and giving her the beating of her life by Roger. She had also according to rumor repeatedly gone after Marcus as well to the point that Sheriff Whitehorse had to intervene.
Hurk Drubman Sr. had been going after the Rook's as his father before him since as long as anyone could remember certainly since the man had gotten involved in politics first local then county as he moved to make the family's life hell. Not unlike Adelaide he had tried to go after a 16 year old Jessica Thompson at some point, she had never heard exactly what transpired but she had a suspicion that Hurk Sr. got handsy and a teenaged Marcus had gotten involved physically.
Since then the two family's had been in a Cold War. The Rook's hunkered down and relied on keeping their noses clean so anything the Drubman's could throw at them would find nothing to stick. The Drubman's used their money and place in local politics to find new ways of going after the Rook's. The latest salvo in the Cold War had come from Hurk Sr.'s recent push to run for a US Senate seat.
Still she thought as she looked at the proverbial gears turning in Roger's head as much as the two family's disliked each other for many reasons the cult was the bigger threat and if anyone was going to be the bigger man it would be Roger burying the hatchet at least long enough to kill the cult and move on leaving any other disagreements for after the war.
"Ok so we need to liberate the marina, is the fence line still full of holes that might give me a different approach?" He asked finally.
"Oh yes but when I fell I found a better route, a big storm drain that even you could fit through that runs right under the property. Peaches knows exactly where it is." Mable said drawing the attention of the cougar. "Peaches! Go with them!" She snapped getting the feline to stretch and yawn widely showing off ivory claws and large teeth for a moment before she leapt off the bed and immediately went over and rubbed up against Joey and Graces legs.
"Peaches always remembers who gives her treats. Anyway you folks better get going, cult isn't going to fucking kill themselves you know." Mable ordered.
On that note they left the room following Peaches out to the truck, she leapt gracefully into the back the moment the truck came into view. The next thing Roger knew was Cheeseburger pushing past him and climbing into the truck with a fair amount less grace.
"Roger aren't you going to stop him?" Grace asked as she watched the animals load themselves into the truck.
"No point, Cheeseburger pretty much does what he wants and I will admit he is more helpful then what you might give him credit for." Joey said as she went ahead and started climbing into the cab.
"What is better than having a war bear? Having an attack kitty to go with it." He chirped as he started for the driver's seat.
'What kind of video game have I waken up in?' She wondered as she moved to follow.
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Dr. Niwa was holding some regrets about asking to see what her people were dealing with first thing last night after the team had gotten settled down in the school. She had regrets but those were nothing that unhealthy amounts of instant coffee couldn't fix, now the warheads that she and her people had just pulled apart were cause enough to warrant any fatigue or discomfort on her part.
It had seemed when the cult had recruited nuclear scientists from the various research facilities they were given virtually a blank check to develop the most powerful warheads they could conceive and conceive they did.
'A pure fusion weapon... using of all things nuclear isomers in place of the secondary charge. So now instead of dealing with 475 kilotons I'm looking at 150 megatons per a warhead!' She thought as she looked at the gathered up records from the cult explaining what they had built.
Making matters worse these MIRV's were redesigned to be longer and thinner meaning more warheads per a missile on top of the rearranged payload section and the greatly shrunk down flight and targeting computers using off the shelf computer hardware meant that the cult had upped the maximum throw weight of each missile from three warheads to twelve. Twelve of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever built by man... in theory at least.
'That's the kicker to all of this. This is taking all sorts of ideas and concepts and going straight from paper to production. Would the warheads even work? Would the rearranged reentry vehicles work as intended? Would the computers survive the shock of launch? Credit where credit is due they have done a lot of simulations and as much testing as could be hoped for and there is a clear chance that everything they have here will work as intended. Mother of God to think that a religious cult could get enough knowledge and a fraction of the funding to pull something that standing governments struggle to do.' She worried over until the satellite up link icon on her computer started flashing showing that the meeting she had been dreading all morning had finally arrived.
She hit the accept button and came face to face once more with Black Cardinal and several other representatives from the various interested bodies of the government sitting in a large conference room. She didn't recognize many save for her own superior Dr. Adam Ryans the head of the NNSA's response unit.
"Yuriko good to see that you made it there safely." The old doctor said cheerfully clearly a lot more awake than she felt at the moment.
"It... was a rough ride sir. Gentlemen forgive me if I keep this meeting short but the scale of what we have found here in Hope County is well beyond our first estimates so allow me to get right into it." She said getting the attention of everyone in the room immediate.
"Ok ma'am lay it out for us." Yeller said as he leaned back in his chair.
"Thank you sir. We have confirmed that Black Reaper was telling the truth, that the explosion we detected that brought us here was indeed a massive underground chemical explosion. The main drug that this cult is using is nothing short of hazardous when pressurized and frankly might have a bright future as a part of rocket fuel and explosives production. However more pressing is the fact that we have also confirmed that we have a total of 48 nuclear warheads of a type and design never actually built beyond research papers, these are what we call 'pure fusion weapons' far more powerful then the normal thermonuclear weapons that are common today."
One of the men in the room held up his hand. "Doctor I'm Ben Alvarez with the DHS. How much more powerful of a warhead are we talking about? Double? Triple?"
She chewed on lower lip in thought and her fingers twitched like they were working a unseen calculator a habit that she had tried fruitlessly to stop herself from doing since childhood.
"About 316 times more powerful than the W87 Mod 1 warhead that we originally thought we were dealing with. That's 150 megatons which is three times more powerful than the Soviet Tsar Bomba that was tested in the early sixties. I would give you more information but my men who sat down to calculate the destruction potential of just a single warhead had to stop because our test software doesn't allow for yields beyond a 100 megatons and can't handle the estimated over pressure numbers that we did manage to hand calculate." She said watching almost everyone's eyes in the room bulge in shock save for Black Cardinal who to his credit held his impassive face well.
"How many deployable warheads does the cult have?" Ryans asked.
"Right now that we are aware of just a single missile of twelve warheads. The missiles are another situation altogether, they are Minuteman-III missiles however they have been modified with things like off the self computer hardware that is if nothing else far more compact than what is standard and has allowed alongside with longer and thinner reentry vehicles for these cultists to up the warhead payload from three to twelve. I can't say how many of these changes might work gentlemen but this is a very real danger we are dealing with. This cult has done things that no institution or government has done more than think about and often hasn't touched the ideas at play here since the height of the Cold War." She closed with.
"Well then I believe we have some work to start doing on our end." Yeller replied glancing at the shocked faces around him.
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Drubman Marina wasn't all that large of a property but the local terrain and forest surrounding it made for poor sight lines for sniping unless one wanted to take a boat which given how little they know about Jacob's forces at this time was a bigger risk then what Roger was willing to take for any Drubman.
Nick's air support was out of the question being so close to Joseph's compound and recent events would likely mean that any AA they might have would be quick to fire on anything that got within lock on range.
So that left them with following Peaches for nearly a mile through the woods beside Whitetail lake south of the Marina until they found the site where clearly someone had indeed fallen just short of a massive storm drain.
"Well now never knew this was here." Roger said as Joey peered into the darkness.
"Do we know if this actually leads somewhere useful?" Grace commented.
Roger just clicked on the light on his HCAR. "That's one question we will need to find out. But besides marching through the front door if we can pop up in the middle of the Marina it will likely give us the advantage."
Joey flashed her friend a smile. "Grace, honestly I think this is going to be fine. It's hand full of peggies scared out of their mind and without a guide. The fact that they haven't gone over to Jacob or Joseph areas just shows how out of their depth they are." She then brought out her shotgun and muttered about needing to remember to grab a second flashlight for it when they were next in town.
The sniper sighed and nodded more to herself then anyone else as she fell in behind with Roger and Joey ahead and the animals behind her.
The damp smelling interior of the drain pipe only got more rancid as they pressed on until finally they came to a cross section. Ahead northward was the faintest sign of light indicating an another entrance, to the left the pipe lead down into the lake and was already full of water.
'I'm not in the mood for swimming so swimming out to the dock isn't how I want to play this.' He thought as he eyed the eastern pipe which was dotted with points of light indicating more drains.
"This way." He gestured with rifle as he now set a slow creeping pace.
Through the smaller storm drain inlets they could hear now the baying of wolves and the peggies argue amongst themselves.
"We only have enough food for another two or three days without cutting our rations or switching to just fish. The Judges food supplies are almost out as well. We have to move out of here eventually." One man's voice said.
"Our orders were clear and just because Faith was murdered doesn't mean we can ignore them. We have to hold the Marina and make sure that the sinners can't start launching attacks on 'The Father's' own island!" A older sounding woman empathized before continuing. "We can cut the prisoners rations in half to buy us the time we need for Jacob's usual patrol to show up for fuel. After that we can let them know of our situation. Maybe they can take these sinners off of our hands for target practice. That's all they are good for probably."
"Can we just shoot the old woman? She alone could turn Eden into the 10th circle of hell on her own and I'm tired of her attitude." A young almost teenage sounding man's voice said angrily.
"I have to agree Priestess with William. The woman even now tries to seduce every man that approaches. 'Give me more food and I will suck you off.' What kind of woman is that brazen with her lusts?" The first man said.
Joey turned and looked at Grace and mouthed 'Adelaide fucking Drubman that's who!' who in turn nodded. Roger pressed on toward what looked like a larger inlet than the others and had an access ladder beside it.
The drain opened up into a settling pit around a massive cast iron grate through which he could see that they were next to the marina workshop and that the fencing immediately surrounding the area that he could make out was lined with green tarps hung off of it.
'I really wish I had a mirror or a camera...' He thought until he scrambled to dig out his phone.
Grace and Joey looked at him for a moment before Grace realized his idea. "Camera?"
"Camera." He said as he stuck the phone through the grate just enough so the camera lens cleared the top.
At first he didn't see anything until he spotted three peggies sitting up against the building barely moving causing him not to recognize them for what they were. They were each cradling it looked like dog food cans that were giving off a familiar dark green mist pouring out of their tops that they were subsequently inhaling deeply from.
He pulled back from the grate and resisted the urge to growl in frustration.
"Got three peggies higher than kites top side. Problem is that grate is heavy enough that I would need to use both hands to push it up and out of the way. So I can't lift and shoot." He said turning to his friends.
Grace turned and looked at Peaches and Cheeseburger before turning back to Roger. "How about we spook them?"
Joey smiled at the idea and Roger had to agree if anything the peggies would hear but not see a bear which for anyone who had lived in the area long enough would know is an extremely dangerous situation to find yourself in.
"Ok, hey Cheeseburger let them hear you boy!" He said and for a moment regretted not covering his ears as the tight confines of the drain amplified Cheeseburger's roars to nearly a painful level for everyone. Even Peaches winced at the sound but it had the desired effect.
Above them he watched the three peggies scramble desperately to get away and toward the more open areas of the marina, all the while yelling "BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!". The moment they where gone he slammed himself against the grate and with a massive heave slid the hunk of iron out of the way.
"Up! Up! Don't know how long we got before they find their balls again." He said as he helped Joey and Grace up out of the pit.
"I'll get on the roof of the workshop!" Grace said as she dashed inside the open garage door.
Peaches leapt out of the pit with ease and snarled softly as Cheeseburger clawed and forced his massive body out of the drain.
"Ok Joey lets keep this simple, they are confused right so that means..." He started to say as Joey finished his statement.
"They are off balance and easy pickings. It's almost as if I have kinda done this a few times by now." She joked.
"Don't get cocky love, the war isn't over and I still owe you a shopping trip." He jested back when Grace called over the radio.
"Roger I got six peggies gathered on the far side of the property at the helipad looks like they are going to start working their way back. Three have AR's the rest just pistols, no sign of the wolves Mable mentioned." She said as he and Joey dashed around the fencing and made for the main marina dock office across the path from the garage.
They were about to round the corner and face the on coming peggies when something massive and white came bursting through one of the office windows, pouncing and forcing Joey to the ground.
It was a massive white wolf with a blood red cult cross painted on its head. The wolf's fangs were black as midnight and clearly sharp enough to make short work of any prey that got caught in the iron jaws that were the power behind the fangs. Fangs and jaws that were barely being held open by Joey's desperate efforts to protect her throat.
Without thinking and forgetting the approaching cultists he sent a full power kick with his steel toed boots that could be heard breaking and shattering the ribs of the offending wolf even as another one of the pack members jumped out of the same window and tackled him throwing him off balance.
He too fell to the ground as the wolf that hit him was sent barreling somewhere behind him, the next pack member decided to try and finish the job however. He lashed out with a open right hand and seized the on coming wolf by the throat before using its own momentum to send it flying as far as he could from his position on the ground.
The peggies hearing the wolves rushed forward and froze before the sight in front of them.
"It wasn't a bear you fools! It's the fucking 'Collapse'!" The Priestess finally screamed in shock as she tried to raise her rifle only to have Grace shoot out her throat catching peggies attention. From the workshop Peaches charged in finishing off the weakened wolf that Roger had caved in its rib cage on and giving the other wolves pause as the last of the pack actually jumped away from the two deputies and screaming feline.
Grace was tapping her trigger as fast as she could as the shocked peggies tried to decide what to do between the commotion of the sudden attack and now their own wolves seemingly almost managing to kill the two most high profile fighters against the cult.
The last cultist fell before her rifle and Grace wasted no time shifting over to her friends. Joey was still on the ground with Peaches covering her, roaring and yowling at two of the wolves looking for a opening. Joey for her effort was drawing her side arm but having the attack kitty on top of her limited her movements.
Roger was on all fours now staring down the other wolves waiting for one of them to attack him when Cheeseburger made his own appearance. The bear was already covered in somethings blood and was in no playing mood as he stomped toward the battlefield.
The wolves lost all interest in their original targets and instead focused on Cheeseburger. Both sides regarded themselves for a brief moment before two of the wolves charged trying to double team the raging grizzly.
The first wolf fell prey to hard swipe of a front paw followed by that same paw slamming down on the wolves head with a sickening crunch of bone, his brother didn't fair any better as it was caught midair by the neck in the grizzly jaws and was being flopped around effortlessly. The last two wolves tried to charge in only to be batted away with the body of their pack mate.
Roger had finally torn away his eyes from the fighting to locate where his rifle had fallen and bring it to bear on the remaining wolves cutting them down in short order.
Cheeseburger dropped the dead Judge he had been swinging around before growling happily and licking his chops.
"Well... it's always the simple missions that go tits up the most." Grace called out from the workshop roof.
Roger didn't respond as he helped Joey up. "Yeah that could have gone much better. Those wolves are something else."
"And Jacob has a lot more of those. I think we will be doing a lot less sneaking around when it comes to fighting him." She added.
He nodded in agreement before giving Peaches a good head scratch. "Good kitty."
Grace had come down from the workshop roof and was walking through the workshop only to find a massive dead smokey grey bear sitting atop a pile of life jackets that it must have been using as bedding. The bear had had its throat violently ripped out as evidenced by the sheer amount of blood everywhere.
The sniper wanted to kick herself for running so blindly and not noticing something like a sleeping cult bear.
'That explains why Cheeseburger was already covered in blood and late to the fight with the wolves. He was taking care of bigger game.' She thought as Roger and Joey came by looking for her and saw for themselves the gory sight.
"Holy shit..." Roger muttered as he examined the bear. It wasn't unlike the one he had fought back with the park rangers save for being a bit smaller. Still it was yet another wake up call that fighting Jacob's forces would require a much more measured way of fighting since now they had hostile wildlife that was far and above smarter than any Angel.
"Yeah I must have run right past this guy and didn't see him sleeping in the corner. I guess Cheeseburger must have smelled another bear nearby and went to make sure he wouldn't be a problem." Grace explained with a touch of embarrassment.
Cheeseburger now entered the workshop and rubbed up against Rogers side. The giant lawman bent down and hugged the bloodied bear. "You are best bear in the world Cheeseburger. I'll get you as much damn fish as I can get my hands on."
Joey smiled at the odd relationship thinking back to what Wade had said about it. "Ok so fuck ups aside lets go and find the prisoners and call this in."
They eventually found the prisoners sealed up in a shed by Adelaide's house.
Grace had been the one to unlock the shed door and was nearly tackled by a tall well built man in his twenties. "ADELAIDE WE'RE BUSTING OUT OF HERE!" He yelled as he recollected himself and tried to throw a hard but sloppy punch at Grace.
"Goddamn it Xander lay off! Its me! Grace Armstrong!" The sniper yelled as she dodged and blocked the attempts by the airhead to land a hit.
"Sweetheart, I think that really is Grace. No woman in this county can quite match that scowl of hers." An aged blonde woman said as she walked out of the shed and into the midday sun.
Adelaide Drubman was once what one would call a beautiful woman as the number of beauty contest awards decorating her walls could vouch for but now within throwing distance to being 70 no amount of yoga, super food smoothies, or skin care products could hide the sand blasting of time even if for her age she was better off then many women a decade or two her junior.
As the other prisoners came out to see their saviors Adelaide spotted Joey. "Hudson, sweetheart! So good to see you... what the hell have you been eating because I don't remember you being quite as tall or... as filled out."
"Yeah high amounts of Bliss exposure has a tendency to effect you even if it doesn't fry your brain or kill you outright." Joey deadpanned which apparently was missed by the older woman.
"Well darlin' you had to grow up eventually. You folks seen my chopper lately?" Adelaide asked as she made her way toward the helipad with Xander quietly in tow.
"Grace... I really want to kill that bitch." Joey muttered as she turned to leave as well.
"We have a bear and cougar I'm sure they could help us with both the bitch and her toy." Grace jested back.
.
Roger had checked the out lying buildings for more peggies and took a moment to wash the blood off of his furry friend and give both the animals each one of the large coolers of iced fish the cultists had been filling earlier that day.
He had already called the Sheriff to send fighters to hold the marina and they would be here in fairly short order, but right now he looked on from the marina docks towards Jacob's territory that laid beyond.
He had honestly thought he could sneak in here and take out six peggies with no issues, completely discounting the wolves as being any sort of creditable threat. Sure he could make excuses for not realizing that Jacob's wolves were the Bliss enhanced variety thus much more dangerous then the normal wolves that were more likely to run from gun fire usually and certainly far less aggressive.
But the image of Joey fighting to keep the jaws of one of Jacob's wolves from biting down on her neck made any excuses pointless. He got cocky just as he had warned Joey against doing and it nearly cost him her, and his own life maybe.
'Jacob's thing is training animals to fight for him. The wolves are bad enough but how many bears could he have also turned? Fighting a cave of Blissed up bears was hard enough when they were wild and we weren't also fighting men with rifles as well.' He thought as the sound of a coming convoy made him start to reach for his rifle.
It was for naught as at the head of the convoy was the Sheriff in his marked truck followed by his own father's truck backed by several rebadged cult prison vans that had been further converted into adhoc APC's complete with dual mount .30 cal Brownings attached to reinforced roofs.
He made his way over where the hardened fighters of Hope County quickly set to work unloading recovered .50 cal machine guns to mount in addition to what ever guns the cult had left behind, some groups looked to the moving and shifting of anything deemed suitable to build outer defenses out of much to Xander's confusion and Adelaide's annoyance though to her credit she held her tongue for once. She even held her tongue when they started hauling off the dead peggies for mounting outside the marina.
"Roger." His father called out to him and closed rapidly toward him. "When we get a chance we need to talk about what the NEST team found out that... might cause unforeseen issues I fear." He spoke in a low tone.
"Ok, why not now?" He asked though he had an idea as he saw Adelaide start to look around at the sudden hustle and bustle around her.
"Well boy, we are pilgrims in a unholy land." His father said doing a solid Sean Connery impression. He then bid them to join the Sheriff where he was speaking with Joey and Grace.
"Roger, good job taking this place. We just got word from Dutch, he actually managed to make contact with Eli Palmer. He's the man in charge of the 'Whitetail Militia' that has been trying to fight Jacob up north all this time." The Sheriff said with a smile.
"Well at least Jacob hasn't been running around unopposed. What's their situation?" He asked.
"Bad. Very very bad. In fact it makes our situation back at the Jail look like a cake walk. Dutch only had him on the line for about half a hour but they are down to only seven able fighters, seven wounded, and an estimated twenty known people captured their status beyond that is unknown though that's not the worst thing." The senior lawman continued. "Eli said that Jacob has some kind of brainwashing and conditioning operation. Some people that the Whitetail's have managed to save just need to hear some sort of trigger and suddenly they turn their guns on their friends. It's wrecked morale and made them paranoid of their own people. Maybe that's why they have lost so much ground to the cult. We have a rough description of where their last hold out is but Dutch lost contact shortly after." The Sheriff said with a heavy sigh.
Joey spoke up for the first time since her superior had started speaking. "Well shit, sounds like we're going to have our work cut out for us."
Roger could only nod in agreement. "Anything else we need to know?"
The Sheriff shifted on his feet a little nervously. "Yeah there is, Dutch has asked for us to rescue his niece."
Grace reacted visibly. "Wait... the cult actually managed to capture and then hold Jess Black?"
Roger remembered Jess Black from school though he had never interacted with her directly. She was back then a whirlwind of chaos from tagging walls and everything else one could hit with a spray can to dealing weed, even a few petty thefts were said to be her work and she once even torched the principle's car for reasons that he couldn't recall.
"Yeah just up the road here at the Baron Lumber Mill. You guys thinking of going tonight?" He asked looking at the three of them.
"No. We had a few too many close calls just taking this place. Fighting fully in Jacob's neck of the woods is going to require a lot more careful and likely more up front attacks. Between his animals and his supposed more militant leanings means that fighting him is going to be more like fighting actual trained soldiers instead of brain dead zealots." He admitted when a shout of alarm came from the docks.
"PEGGIES! PEGGIES ON THE WATER!" One of the fighters shouted as men and women raced for cover as a fleet of seven cult gun boats raced toward them and began blazing away with rifle and machine gun fire at a surprisingly long range.
He and Joey ran behind a pallet of lumber and had time to watch Xander catch a peggie round to the head dropping him instantly.
"MY BOY TOY!" He could hear Adelaide cry out as he brought out his Barrett and looked toward the closest incoming boat.
The gunners were focusing their fire on those people closest to any mounted weapons, suppressing them completely so they could close on the dock and drop foot soldiers. If it was a off the cuff plan then it only spoke to the competence of Jacob's men to pull it off.
He looked through his scope and found a gunner and the helmsman lined up and sent a round screaming through both men causing the boat to heave to one side as the remaining men aboard now scrambled to fill in for their fallen comrades positions.
The other six boats closed the gap in their line as they moved within the Resistances firing range, it was there that their plan if there had been any started to break down.
Marcus and the Sheriff had been running from cover to cover back to the trucks that had brought the fighters and rolled them up so that both men could man a turret and pour heavier firepower on the cult boats just as they hit the docks.
The cultists rammed their boats trying to ramp up and over the low placed docks to get themselves as close as possible before they disembarked. One of the boats managed this but the shock of the impact tossed the men off their boat where they were cut down in short order. Others slammed at variously reduced speeds as their helmsman realized their impending folly but this only made them easier prey for either the Sheriff's .30 cals or the roaring and terrifying red laser like streams of Marcus's twin .50's that cut through man and machine with impunity.
The last boat, the first disabled by Roger turned about and burned hard to get away and likely deliver word of the marina's change of hands. For this act though all the cultists had done was wag the fuel tank in front of the sniper that had already killed two of their crew members.
Another moment, another breath calmly let out, and yet another explosion echoing through the local area and with it a black and red fireball signaling to anyone looking in their direction that something was happening.
After repelling the cultist lake patrol Roger suggested that they make controlling the lake a much higher priority than they had originally had considered. This would mean they would have to hit and hold all of the major docks and boat launches in the area: Clagett Boathouse and Marina, Elk Jaw Lodge, and Borodin's Marina and RV center.
By doing so as he stated it would complete the encirclement of Joseph's island cutting him off from Jacob's forces and vice versa it would also allow for some resupply and support from the lake. Joey then suggested if need be they could take smaller boats up the river to strike deep in Jacob's territory even though it wouldn't necessarily be to take and hold said territory.
In all the seizure of the Drubman marina was both the last salvo and first salvo against Rachel and Jacob respectively.
.
Elsewhere in the county Pastor Jerome pulled up to the defensively hardened brick and stone garage and storefront that was the Dearborn Farm and Tool shop. The family had been driven out of their home early in the war by John's men but they had at least managed to escape with their lives to their store where they were able to bunker down.
Even with the area liberated they chose to stay at their store and do what they could to keep the local farms running as their part in the war instead of stepping up for a front line position at one of the outposts.
"Oh Pastor! We weren't expecting you to come calling at all." Miss Dearborn exclaimed.
Jerome nodded politely at the dark haired and good natured matriarch of the Dearborn clan. "I'm very sorry for the lack of warning but I have something important that I wish to speak with you and your family if at all possible."
Sam Dearborn was a large man from years of tossing tractor parts around and his six sons were no smaller for similar reasons as they sat in a converted part of one of the garage bays. Him and his wife in salvaged leather lay-z-boy chairs from the office spaces and his sons sitting on boxes of tractor parts or stacks of tires arranged to be roughly chair like.
"Well pastor it's always good to see you but what has you making a unannounced house call?" Sam asked.
Jerome knew that this was the tipping point, the proverbial point of no return but for the thousandth time he told himself it had to be done.
"Sam I need you and your boys help in saving the... soul of Hope County. Deputy Rook has been instrumental in liberating us from the cult, but well you need only travel on the roads to see what he has actively encouraged. Impaling the dead like some modern day Vlad the Impaler, now I know that most people are at least mixed on that subject however his latest actions have simply gone beyond what could be considered reasonable."
"You mean him blowing up Faith and all those kids right?" Sam inquired.
Jerome nodded. "Yes it's one thing to kill men and women who raise their arms against us but to wholesale slaughter unarmed children is something that we must not tolerate lest we be no better than Joseph Seed."
Miss Dearborn hummed in thought. "Pastor while I agree that the concept is certainly distasteful was there really a different way to handle the situation given the position we find ourselves in?"
"Roger greatest weakness growing up was always a lack of natural empathy for others, but he was very good at finding solutions to problems. What I saw on TV and in the mushroom cloud that day was a sign that he didn't appear to even try to find a solution besides the first one that would kill Faith Seed. Worse still because of the goodwill his actions have earned him no one is checking him and balancing out that lack of empathy." The pastor countered.
"Ok so how my boys and I factor into your plans? I am not nor will I allow my boys to take part in a plan to kill Roger Rook. He himself has always done right by the family and his old man and I have helped each other many times over the years." Sam said sternly.
"Jessica has gone out of her way several times to help us with legal issues for free or even greatly reduced rates. I will not allow any talk of killing her son either." The matriarch demanded.
Jerome smiled widely. "Yes and I can fully agree with you, Roger even with his barbarism at times still has done more good than bad by the community. This is more of an 'aggressive intervention'. I am hoping that with your help I can bring not just him but the entire communities back to their good senses. There has been so much hate and anger because of the cult that people have been too quick to let their wrath overwhelm them and its becoming I believe close to the point of being uncontrolled." He paused to catch his breath and for a bit of added drama.
"When it becomes acceptable to kill a harmless child then we must ask ourselves 'Where does it end?', what becomes the new unspeakable act that is universally rejected by any good God loving person? Your family by din of your repair skills have been more removed from the war more than most, so it is my hope that your faith and perspective are clear enough to see the wisdom in what I am asking your help in." Jerome finished as he looked at the gathered family.
Sam and his wife traded looks as a unspoken battle waged between them. The boys shifted in their spots, the Rook's were one of those family's that was so often held up as examples to follow that being suddenly asked to even just go against them felt inherently wrong.
"God forgive me... ok Pastor I'll help and any you boys want to help then I will greatly appreciate it." Sam said to the obedient nods of his children.