Wow I am not making the goals I set for myself and updating, granted I work retail and this is the christmas season, speaking of MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL I hope you enjoy this little present from me and hope to give you all more often updates of at least any story.
GOW
Colwell saw red; the single color flooded his vision, but he was used to seeing red; it was his HUDS color, and the emanating glow from his armor complimented the shade in a royal purple. Abruptly, he blinked and then blinked again now clearly seeing what was in front of him.
He was in a grassland area with a Gatling laser in his hands. A quick glance confirmed it's been used a good amount with his suit's ammunition tracker confirming that he was running low in the fusion core on his laser. Another glance had him see suit energy core was at half-power as well.
"Shit, what happened…" As the words left his lips, his mind forced itself to remember what caused this, and the events of the meeting came back into his mind. Most importantly, Navarro is missing.
"Okay then, I'll guess that mother fucker isn't around here, or I'd have him with me by now."
As he was pondering his own predicament a loud growl flooded his senses, before his eyes could move, his body swiveled and pulled the trigger, shooting several bolts into the area the sound came from. With the smoke clearing, he could see a large creature of pitch black, bone-white scales littering its back. A moment later, it disinterested into black smoke.
"Weird, but not much of a threat." The General mumbled to himself. Before he could decide on his next actions, dots were pinged on his HUD, showing several hostiles. They seemed to be skirting around the edge of his scanner, but the grasslands gave him a good view around him so he didn't give a second thought before opening the local map.
There was a straight line between his location and where the map scanned, littered along it was little red blimps for hostiles, most moving away from him and towards the direction of his line.
"Where are you going, don't want a fun fight?" Colwell shouted to the open field, nothing attacked him as the creatures continued to move towards where Colwell had been.
'Towards Raven Rock, ' he realized. He stood frozen once again, Jose was still out there. He could be injured and need assistance. On the other hand, hostiles were making their way towards Raven Rock. He could see the mountain as the only landmark on his map and could see the creatures moving away from his scanner and towards the heart of the Enclave…
"I must have killed a bunch of them without even knowing it," Colwell muttered to himself.
"So you better be able to kill them with your beat ass, you scarred bastard. You always do." His heart steeled as he turned around and ran back home.
GOW
"So, this your camp?" Navarro asked.
"Yes, we've moved south for a bit in hopes to catch some new settlers or some of the traders from Menagerie," Raven explained, Navarro had no clue what Menagerie was but he took the information in stride.
"Not even going to pretend to be anything but a raider?" He asked. No one bothered approaching the two, steering clear from Raven.
"Why bother lie, you know it and I know it, even the children here know they're of the Branwen tribe. All that matters here is that you're strong enough to make it." She explained, lightly flexing her arm.
"That's why you're allowing me in because I killed three of your people in combat."
"In a three on one, make sure not to leave out the good parts of your story."
"I see, is there anywhere I can put my stuff where it won't be stolen?" Navarro asked.
"Charles's tent, he was the only one you killed worthy of his own tent and by rights of combat it's yours now, no one will bother going into another person's tent unless they want a fight. You can rest there for now, if there's anything you want feel free to ask but know you'll still need to prove strong enough for it, though since I saw you kill three of my own I suppose that shouldn't be too hard." She stopped at a tent, as she explained further and provided the offer of help.
"Just some maps and food if you could. I'll be here long enough to heal up and figure out where home is," Navarro said walking into his new tent. It was a simple thing with a futon, a few drawers, and a table.
"Don't tell me those weaklings did too much damage to you" Raven said with a smirk, following him into the tent.
"Not them. I fell hard and some monsters attacked me on my way here." He said removing his helmet. Giving Raven a good look at his face, it was pale and had more scars than actual skin. He fiddled with the suit a little more before cursing.
"Of course the auto open is jammed. That's going to be annoying to fix while I'm still in." Navarro thought in annoyance.
"Monsters? You mean the Grimm?" She asked, confused.
"Is that what those mutants are called? Got to say I'm surprised I haven't seen them on the way to DC the past few years." He said fiddling with the suit, trying to find the jammed piece at one of the joints.
"Mutants? Wait, are you telling me you don't know what Grimm are?" She asked in shock.
"Nope, first time seeing them today."
"How? They control more of the world than humans do."
"What are you talking about? I've been all through the American wastelands and haven't met a single one of those before now. Sure, mutants are all over the place but they're not all the same species." Navarro said, finally freeing himself from the suit to reveal the mess that was his body. His clothes were torn to shreds giving a clean line of sight to open wounds that looked, under her trained eye, like Beowulf bites but what truly drew her gaze were the countless scars that littered across his skin, more scar tissue than skin.
"What on Remnant happened to you?" Raven asked, a mixture of impressed and surprised.
"A lot, thankfully I've been out of combat for a bit so nothing was fresh enough to reopen. The new ones though are gonna be a bit of trouble." He said examining one of the beowulf bite marks.
"Why didn't your aura help you heal those? How come it didn't prevent them?" Raven questioned, he surely had aura? The power and skill he displayed implied the level of training only a huntsman could receive.
"Aura?" Navarro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay now I know you're fucking with me, no way you beat three of my guys and survived all that without Aura." Raven arms were crossed as she spoke.
"Still not sure what you're talking about. Shit. Even my secret stash got trashed. I'll have to rest up the old fashion way." He cursed again, pricing himself with a syringe by accident as he slowly pulled out about a dozen broken needles onto the table.
Raven pulled her scroll out with a scowl opening the aura measuring app before tossing it at Navarro.
"What's it say?" She asked.
"Aura not found." He replied, moving the device up so she could gaze at the screen causing her to go wide-eyed.
"Bullshit! How? The way you killed them implied enhanced strength."
"What do you think this armor is for?" He said, lightly tapping on the thigh plate.
"Your armor? It gives you strength? And here I thought you were respectable."
"I'm frankly surprised you even understand the concept of respect." Navarro tapped his left thigh plate, popping his machete compartment open as he tinkered with more of the inner wires of his armor.
"The entirety of the Branwen tribe works on respect." She snarled back at him.
"Fear more like but it's just semantics in this context. Moving on about that mind telling me what the hell is aura?" Navarro asked one eye on her at all times. He was hoping to see some form of communications towers or devices in the camp but there was nothing. Knowing this he may have to fight his way out instead of trying to make use of their tech.
"An aura is the physical representation of one's soul. Once unlocked it provides Humans and Faunus with enhanced strength, speed, and more. Including a personal shield." Her words were sharpened by her scowl.
"OK, I've got to stop you right there. A physical representation of one's soul, seriously? Now I've seen the supernatural, dealt with it, fought it, and nearly died because of it. I still get nightmares on moonless nights but even I have to say that's something ripped out from a Grognark comic." The disbelief dripped from his voice.
"This is not a comic nor is it fiction. This is a proven fact and supported by science." Raven took a step closer to him. Navarro stared her down, eyes locked as silence greeted them for a moment.
"Prove it." He requested simply and in return was given a simple reply.
Raven grabbed the hilt of her sword in return Navarro grabbed his machete and readied himself in a stance. Instead of being insulted Raven smiled as she slowly unsheathed her sword. For a tense moment, nothing was exchanged until Raven slowly reversed the blade and stabbed herself with it, only for it to be stopped by a translucent shield of energy around her body.
Navarro's eyes widened before refocusing and examining her body searching for a possible device that could give her a shield like that. Raven noticed his stares.
"I'm not wearing anything that could create something like this. My soul protected me from the attack." Navarro only narrowed his eyes.
"I'll take it for now but I still don't believe it. When I get back to Raven Rock maybe our scientists can figure out if what you're saying is true. Till then let's just keep the peace. Deal?" He lowered his machete and reached out with his left hand, his right gripping the machete softly. Raven glanced at his hand and smirked before using her left as well, her right hand similarly gripped with her sword.
"Deal. I can't say I'm not curious about what your people are like. If they're anything like you I think I may enjoy them. I know I'm starting to like you." Their hands shook at her agreement.
"To be frank, the feeling is not mutual," Navarro growled back, Raven merely laughed.
"Even better." She finished with a toothy smile.
GOW
Eden, once more, approved of Autumn's leadership ability. After the public humiliation dealt to, and level of apparent disunity caused by, Razz, along with Colwell's bout of insanity when striking the General of the Army. Autumn needed to respond with a loud, precise, and powerful message to show those in attendance. To inform them, even when the leaders among their people bicker and fight, the highest head is still above pettiness.
"Razz, you're on shower duty till the end of the month."
"I'm what?! You can't do that I'm a-"
"Then start acting like it!"
"But what about-"
"Colwell's gonna get latrine duty."
"Furthermore, both you and Colwell will be put under combat drills to improve your wartime cooperation." Eden interceded capitalizing on their dual mishaps to force some form of situational relationship upon the two Generals.
Autumn may be the General of the Army but he, John Henry Eden, was the President, the Commander and Chief of the Enclave, the wayward son of the great United States of America.
His word should always be the final one.
Razz's horror spawned so powerfully that his sensors indicated his body temperature dropped several points.
Pleased, Eden returned to his monitoring of the bunker, internally and externally. Understandable, much of the base is in disarray with varying degrees of problems upon each level, the most impacted being the Medical Bay.
Despite these troubles the population, both civilian and military, have done an incredible job in responding to them. Unifying themselves in their fields of expertise to fix the problem they could and those who lacked skills offered themselves to areas that needed the most menial labor.
A ping caught his attention, and a message was sent to one of his secondary processors.
Something triggered his motion sensors.
All the external cameras surrounding the front entrance of Raven Rock glared towards its direction, searching for this intruder.
A strange mutant, in the shape of a wolf, its body pitch black and armored with bone, its head protected by a wolf-skull mask. It had scaled the mountain side and found itself a hundred yards away from the entrance.
More pings, dozens, then hundreds, when it reached a thousand the President decided to divide his attention.
"Generals, we have a problem." Eden's words cut the crowded air of the Command Center.
"Sir?" Autumn asked, looking up to a camera.
"Inputting video feeds and showing battle map."
The screen across the room showed the surrounding forest, once clear and clean, filled with beautiful floral, now filled till the sky was tinted black under the numbers of these strange black creatures.
The Command Board lit up with the battle map dotting hundreds of these creatures' hostile red. They surrounded the entirety of Raven Rock, leaving not one inch empty of the mutants.
It took only a moment before Autumn reacted, in full.
"Announce that we're under attack! Activate every squadron for the counter offensive, we need a buffer! Send the regulars to reinforce every entrance, I don't want them to sneak in where we aren't looking!"
Eden was pulled away from watching Autumn's orders when a new ping appeared on his sensors.
"Wouldn't that cause more panic among the civilians? We just got done calming them down!" Razz argued.
Eden quickly looked and double checked its authenticity. The ping now registering an emerald dot in a sea of red.
"Then direct their panic into doing something useful. We can't let-"
"Gentleman, General Colwell has returned."
The screen's scattered across the rooms shifted into a new image. At the center was a singular purple-glowing Enclave issued power armor sweeping through the army of mutants. His Gatling Laser cut through dozens with a few shots, the bodies turning into black mist soon after.
A lone wolf creature managed to close enough distance to leap at him. Instead of trying to use his Gatling Laser he quickdrawed his sidearm, a ridiculously large revolver, shooting it dead with a bullet to the head before holstering it within three seconds. Then returned to use his main weapon.
Even with his incredible skill and reaction time against the mutants they were slowly enveloping him, slowing his trekk to the mountain.
"Damn it Colwell and your recklessness! He needs support, signaling the gate guards and the Dogs at the main entrance!"
Eden then divided the screens, one half monitoring Colwell and the other half towards the main entrance crawling with the mutants. After a few moments of nothing, there were suddenly blots and slugs of energy weapons slamming into the mutants. More than a dozen Enclave soldiers, the two Dogs, easily recognized due to the colors they held, taking point. In short work, the mutants were cleared before two heavy soldiers, who wielded gatling lasers, neared the edge of the courtyard and aimed down.
The courtyard was a ways up the mountain, reached by following the steep inclined road leading towards it, allowing them, and the other soldiers, a clear view to provide extensive suppressive fire.
"Colwell is on frequency." A Comms. Officer called out.
"Oh, come on! I was starting to have some fun!" Colwell complained, imagery showing him cleared of holstiles allowing to briskly run towards the road.
"You were surrounded, Colwell!" Razz reminded him.
"That's a good thing! It means I can't miss!" Colwell responded with a cackle.
"Just get your ass in here! We need to organize!" Autumn ordered.
"Hold that thought!" Colwell requested, he stopped in the middle of the road up to the entrance, the fusion core from his gatling laser in hand. He twisted the cap before pressing a button then threw it into the horde of mutants following after him.
"Hope you like hot fusion!" The core went critical and exploded causing a small mushroom cloud to appear damaging the road but more importantly killing dozens in one go, vaporizing them into dust while others lost entire limbs before dying slowly.
"You were saying?" Colwell said cheekly, grouping with the other soldiers.
"Head to the Command Center, General Colwell, your input is imperative." Eden knew Colwell's expertise in offensive tactics would be crucial for the counter attack.
"Why? I don't need to! I know just what to do! Give me command and I'll lead the Enclave to victory!"
Autumn and Razz looked at each other for a moment before speaking as one.
"Fuck, no."
GOW
With that the seige of Raven Rock begins, still missing BG Navarro but he's not dead, let's see if we can keep things that way when we return whenever I finish the next chapter.
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