Fallen Flames
Chapter 4
At sunrise, the people of Diamond City were gearing up for an assault. The Blackwings will be showing up today and they won't find a settlement of helpless people to mow over.
This was a big day...in more than one way. The end of over a year of assaults by the mutant-led raider alliance. Of course, there were some sacrifices to make, such as the person in front of him.
Commander Jakobs was the current leader of the Gunners, a group Alex thought was a step above raiders only cause they sometimes helped people who brought their services. Alex hated them and the feeling was mutual given the repeated engagements he'd had with them after leaving Vault 111. Jakobs had only agreed to help the Minutemen cause the Blackwings had attacked the Gunners as much as the Minutemen.
"My men can cover the left flank easily enough. Plenty of rooftops near the hospital there," Jakobs said, all business.
"You do realize there are some people who would object to you being anywhere near the hospital," said Alex casually.
"It's just ghouls there. One good thing those Blackwings did was chase off the super mutants in that area," said Jakobs, before smirking, "Now...we need to discuss payment..."
Alex sighed. He always hated the haggling part of this business. "You really want being paid to be a hero?" Alex said icily
"Listen, hero credit is fine, but it's not actual currency," said Jakobs, "Besides, if people hear that we do the 'right things' for free, we'll lose business."
Alex glowered at that, "I repeat...you're low enough to want payment?"
"Not a high price," said Jakobs, "We'll discuss how much this job is worth after these raiders are dealt with."
Alex glared at that. That all depended if there was an attack. His spy had been cut off and so far was impossible to reconnect to. He was starting to fear the worst; that Cynder found him out and did something to him…
Cynder smirked, looking at the plans laid out.
"Uh, you really sure about this?" asked one of the Blackwings.
"Why shouldn't I be?" asked Cynder.
"This is literally an all-or-nothing plan," said the Blackwing, "As in we'll lose it all if we lose."
Cynder glared at the Blacks, several of their operators behind them. "And what would you know?" Cynder snapped.
Mags Black smirked. "This plan could backfire badly. It's close to several Minuteman outposts," she said, pointing.
"Then we can take out a huge swath of them," said Cynder.
"I think you're seriously overestimating us," said Mags.
William said, "Our operators can do it but we're about a tenth of your force. The rest are lunatics or drug addicts or both."
Cynder snarled, "Are you disobeying me?"
"We're pointing out your 'army' is a less cohesive force than you think," said Mags.
"Fine...if I can't trust you, you and the operators are on reserve," said Cynder icily.
"We've got plenty of might to finish this anyways," said a dark voice. The operators gave Spike an annoyed look. Whatever Cynder did to him, they didn't like it. It took away his common sense. It was pretty clear Cynder had done something to him. Not only were his scales a darker purple, but he had yellow spikes on his elbows and yellow ram horns on his head. The yellow eyes were pretty obvious too.
The Blacks looked at one another before at Cynder. "You know, Cynder. If there's one thing we learnt from the Nuka World fiasco...it's when to cut our losses," said William.
"And if there's one thing I've learned from leading the Blackwings..." said Cynder before suddenly pinning him against the wall, "It's that people listen better to threats."
William gagged before Mags said in an urgent tone, "Fine, fine!"
Cynder released William who coughed and said, "Fi-fine...we'll be as reliable as you." before he was helped out by Mags.
"You know we'll have to kill them, right?" said Spike.
"Oh, in due time, but the Minutemen go first," said Cynder.
Milton was a small hamlet south of Boston, home to an old automated hospital as well as, till recently, dozens of super mutants. Now it was a staging post for the Blackwings, where Cynder had her army preparing to sweep into Boston. Cynder and Spike were sitting on the steps of the town's department store. "Think...in 24 hours we'll rule this dump," sneered Cynder.
"If it's such a dump, why do we want to rule it?" asked Spike.
"Because take a look. These humans wrecked their world. We can do a far better job," said Cynder.
"'We' as in 'just us two'?" asked Spike.
"Oh no, I had the operators play with the programming in the hospital," said Cynder, a few panicked yells heard.
"What programming?" asked Spike.
He turned and jumped to his feet as a humanoid...lizard man walked into view, twice as tall as a normal human. "What the hay's that?" snapped Spike, he and several raiders aiming at the smirking mutant.
"My secret weapon," said Cynder smugly.
"What did you make him from?" asked Spike.
"F.E.V., a DNA sample, I learnt alot from the people who dragged me to this dump of a planet," said Cynder calmly.
"But that's...that's..." started Spike, twitching.
"Spike? Spike, are you ok?" asked Cynder, shaking Spike a little, before a whistling noise was heard. A second later, an explosion went off in the middle of a cluster of raiders.
"Artillery fire!" yelled a raider. Another shell fell at that, before a hail of laser and bullet rounds shot from the north, scattering Cynder's forces
"What? Now?" snapped Cynder.
"Ambush!" yelled a raider before a bullet went through his head. Spike's Pipboy was pointing out dozens of new hostiles. They must have been hiding in the ruins...in the long grass. The raiders were fish in a barrel
"Don't just stand there! Do something!" yelled Cynder at Spike.
"At who? I can't see anyone!" snarled Spike, yelping as a small caliber bullet bounced off his scales.
Cynder turned to her dragon-man and snapped, "You! Get them!"
The dragon-man let out a loud, ferocious war. The whistling scream of the shell could still be heard before it landed on him. Cynder and spike were tossed backwards by the explosion, the smoke clearing to show not even a bit of the dragon man left, figures seen at the edge of town, Spike frowning. One of them looked familiar.
"We can't let them get the rest!" snapped Cynder.
"Rest?" asked Spike.
"Just run, you meathead!" snapped Cynder, pulling Spike along.
The other raiders were getting over their shock and had picked up their guns to start shooting in the direction the shells were coming from. However, they were clearly outgunned as more fire came from the roof, green armored humans raining down fire.
Cynder glared back at the shooters before shooting several gobs of poison towards them. One of the shooters screamed, clutching his face before falling from the roof, the others firing before Cynder yelled in pain, a shot having gotten her in the shoulder.
"Cynder, we have to go. The battle's lost," snapped Spike.
"I'm not giving up my- HEY!" snapped Cynder as she was suddenly picked up and thrown over Spike's shoulder.
"Sorry, Cynder, but this is a battle we can't win. We fall back and wait for the operators," said Spike, before their radios buzzed.
"Having trouble?" said Mags Black's voice.
"We're being attacked!" snapped Cynder, "Where the hell are you?!"
"At this point? Approaching the western mountains. I warned you that this plan was dumb and me and William aren't in the mood to lose what's left of our gang on a fool's errand," said Mags.
"What?" asked Cynder flatly.
William's voice spoke next, "What my sister's saying is, we quit, mutant."
"You can't quit on me! Do you know who I am?!" snapped Cynder.
"You're a shortsighted raider who's too obsessed with their self-perceived superiority to recognize the flaws in your own plans and has only held your so-called army together by a combination of charms, threats, and exploiting a small niche of zoophilic fetishism," said Mags.
"When I get my claws on you-" snarled Cynder.
The Blacks' laughter cut her off before William said, "Oh we think you got your own problems." before the line went dead.
"Uh, now what?" asked Spike.
"We fall back, rebuild. The rest of my creations are back at the base," said Cynder.
"Is it safe to return to base?" asked Spike. "Are you questioning me?" snapped Cynder.
"No, but-" began Spike before Cynder snapped "Just fly."
Spike sighed before taking off. Cynder was hot, but her attitude was starting to outweigh her sex appeal.
Alex walked down the street, gunners and Minutemen checking bodies. Spike's info had paid off...using Milton as a staging ground was sneaky...military sneaky. This Cynder had skills. There was also something...else.
At first look, it might have been mistaken for a deathclaw. But a closer look at the body revealed something unsettling.
"Never seen a mutie like this before," said Jakobs, the commander having joined his men in attacking.
"I don't think this one was made by conventional means," said Alex, looking at stubs that might be vestigial wings on the back. Alex frowned before yelling "JONES!" A Minuteman ran up. "Take men, sweep the hospital, top to bottom for any sign the stuff there was used...and wear hazmat," he said, muttering, "Of all the time for Preston to be up at Nuka World to train their security."
"So then, about my fee," said Jakobs, "Considering all the difficulty my men went through..."
"What are you talking about?" asked Alex, "This was a rout and you know it."
Jakobs glared, his hand going to his holster, both sides aiming at one another before he smirked. "Maybe another time...plenty of ways to claim payment. Gunners, move out, drinks are on me in Goodneighbor." The other gunners cheered.
"Fucking mercs," muttered Alex, before seeing a raider playing dead. He could tell by the way he twitched. "Ok...up you get," he said, aiming, before firing a shot into the ground next to the guy's nuts. Needless to say, the raider jumped up to a sitting position with a scream.
"Now then, we're going to have a civil, coherent conversation about your boss," said Alex. The raider gulped before Alex said, "I won't ask again. You'll get 24 hours headstart if I like what I hear. Let's start with where Cynder's main base is..."
The two dragons landed in the courtyard in what Spike couldn't help but think of as a superhero landing. There was already a difference, a machine Spike knew in the courtyard, a vertibird with a very familier symbol...oh and alot of dead raiders. Every raider Cynder had left to guard the base it seemed.
"I don't think this place is safe anymore," said Spike.
The loudspeakers came on at that, a young voice saying, "Would Cynder and Spike please report to Cynder's throne room please?"
"Who's that?" asked Spike.
"No idea but I'm going to snap them in two!" snarled Cynder, walking into the main building.
Cynder was not happy when he found the intruders in her office. She was less happy when their apparent leader had her feet on Cynder's desk. Spike came in behind to see it was some human teen, wearing black tactical armor and smiling like Opal with a bowl of milk. "Subject Beta...you've been a naughty girl," she said.
Cynder glared and snapped, "Who do you think you are?"
"You've been ignoring our calls, Beta," said the human, ignoring Cynder's question.
"I don't answer to any humans," snapped Cynder.
The girl smirked, jumping to her feet. "And you brought the new kid too, Gamma. Delta talked about you all the time," she said cheerfully.
Spike tensed. "You know where Smolder is?" asked Spike.
"She couldn't be with us today but if you surrender you'll see-" began the girl.
Cynder snapped, "Spike...rip her apart."
"But-" started Spike.
"I said do it!" snapped Cynder.
Spike seemed to be struggling, just as compelled to obey Cynder's order as much as he wanted to resist it. "Hmm...you really need to treat your boyfriends better," said the teen. "This is gonna be fun,". Cynder glared and her eyes and the Blackwing mark on Spike glowing before he charged, only for the girl to roll to the side and chop him in the back of the neck.
Spike fell limp to the floor. "The doc wants you two back as unharmed as possible," said the teen, "But I know which parts of you aren't vital."
Spike snarled, getting to his feet again and slashing, the human ducking under it and spinning to kick him across the snout, followed by several rapid blows to his stomach. Spike heard his Pipboy complain of broken ribs. "It's all in choosing the right pressure points, kid," she sneered before dealing one final blow across the snout.
Spike staggered before falling flat on his chest with a nasty crack. The teen's smirk dropped and she muttered, "Uh oh, didn't mean to hit that hard."
She paused before her smile returned, "Oh well...he was just a backup anyway. Now then, Beta. Are you going to surrender or should I do to you what I did to him?"
Cynder snarled, "I'm never going back there."
"Hmm...'never' is such an ugly word, not as reliable as it used to be," said the teen.
"I killed every other agent that your Enclave sent after me. You're no different," Cynder snarled, running and aiming a blow that would take the human's head off, only for the girl to grab her wrist and hold her blow back.
"I'm sorry?" said the girl, Cynder noticing a small Omega symbol on her armor where the nametag would have been. The teen followed Cynder's gaze and grinned. "Ah, heard of my exploits, have you? Oh, wait, they were all covert or had no survivors. Kinda hard to spread a rep like that."
With that, she pushed Cynder's fist back into the dragoness's snout, pushing her back. "I was made to be the Enclaves best agent, designed to deal with troublesome vault dwellers, tribals...and escaped freaks," 'Omega' sneered.
"Oh yeah? Then how comes the Enclave fell?" asked Cynder.
"Blame upper management," said Omega, "That's what happens when a democracy's run by the best liars."
Cynder snarled, readying a blast before Omega punched her in the throat before headbutting her, Omega smirking as she collapsed. "Better make sure I didn't kill this one," she muttered before kneeling down and feeling for a pulse in Cynder's neck. It was a little to tell through her armor plating, but there was a pulse. "Good, the doc would be ticked if I lost her," she said before glancing over at Spike. It was quite likely he might still be alive too.
The door opened at that, a black power-armored trooper walking in, a sledgehammer-like weapon across his back. "Rachel, half the Minuteman army's on the horizon. Command wants us gone before they arrive."
"It's gonna be hard enough to drag her off as it is," said Rachel with annoyance.
"They can't get a lifter here in time. Orders are to leave em for now. Doc said they're too valuable to kill," said the trooper.
"It would be easier if he could take a DNA sample and clone what he needs," said Rachel.
"Yeah, because cloning is so reliable," said the trooper dryly.
"Bite me. I'm not in the mood to fight the Minutemen today," said Rachel, looking at the two dragons.
Spike hurt...inside and out. Every bone in his body felt like it had been run over by a yak and his head...felt wrong. His arms felt particularly sore at the elbows. He reached over and rubbed his right elbow. He was suddenly aware that the elbow spike was gone.
He also realized he could think clearly again, a small part wondering if this was how Luna had felt after being released from Nightmare Moon, before someone injected him in the chest and his eyes shot wide open, a human in a stetson and long duster, combat armor underneath coming into his vision.
"Who are-" said Spike before gasping in pain.
"Don't try to talk," said the guy in the duster, "Your ribs are reknitting."
"I'd listen. Jones is a decent medic but terrible bedside manner," said a familiar voice, Spike turning his head to see Alex sat at the room;s console.
"Where-" started Spike.
"You're in the base. We're clearing the place out. Cynder had some serious firepower," said Alex calmly, standing up, "And her journal is...a mark of a seriously messed-up mind."
"Though arguably brilliant," said Jones, "Assuming that any of her projects were her own work."
"She was mind-controlling almost everyone. She even got me," said Spike with a wince.
"I suspected as much," said Alex, "You're lucky you didn't get more involved than you did."
"What happened to Cynder?" asked Spike with a wince.
Alex shrugged, "No clue. We only found you."
"There was...there was someone else..." said Spike.
"I told you not to talk," said Jones, "I'm going to have to sedate you if you don't quiet down."
"Jones..." warned Alex.
Spike said weakly, "She was just a kid...younger than you...but she was strong...and fast...real fast."
Jones pulled out a syringe only for Alex to grab his wrist. "Wait a moment," he said.
"She took me out in a few blows...almost..." began Spike weakly.
Jones snapped, "He needs rest now...and a proper doctor."
"Ok, fine, give him his nighty-night shot," said Alex.
Spike gave Alex an incredulous look. "Nighty-niiiii..." Spike's indignity petered out as the morphine entered his system.
"What kinda human could take down a mutant like this?" asked Jones.
"She sounds like a badass," said Alex.
"And not someone any of us want to meet," said Jones.
Vertibird V-631A
Status: In Flight
Rachel frowned as she looked at the new orders before at her team. There was 'Jackal'. The guy was all that was left of the Sigma team assigned to the DC operation and had been the only survivor of an encounter with the local 'hero' there. Then there was Sigmund, who Rachel was sure was a rogue courser, a combat synth.
"What are the orders, omega?" said Sigmund in a emotionless voice, her eyes hidden behind her preferred shades.
"The doc says that Beta is a lost cause," said Rachel, "But Gamma is still valuable to him."
"So we gotta go back in?" complained Jackal, his voice distorted by his helmet.
"Gamma's with the Minutemen right now," said Rachel, "We have to wait for our chance to snag him."
"Like hell. We're Omega Squad. We don't 'wait' cause our target's hiding behind some tribals," snapped Jackal.
"It isn't just tribals there," said Rachel, "The Sole Survivor of Vault 111 is there. And apparently he has some connection to the Institute."
"Crap...I hate dwellers," grumbled Jackal.
Rachel said, "We do this smart then..."
"What about the Institute?" asked Jackal.
Sigmund said calmly, "They have little interest in the surface. They will not interfere unless we directly impact their leadership."
"How would you know?" asked Jackal, accusingly.
Sigmund just smirked at that, Rachel snapping, "Enough. We'll just have to play this smart. Get the pilot to set a course for Jamaica Plains. We'll head north from there."
And there's the last chapter of this opening arc. It's shorter, but it's more action-packed and it sets up things for later. And believe me, Cynder's story doesn't end here. From this point on, things are going to be getting stranger and certainly longer. I'm not sure how often updates are going to be, but this is definitely worth waiting for. So keep an eye out for more updates and please review.