Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 10 – What Deals Were Made For
Falcon and Tyler were dragged into their cells and thrown down on the hard concrete, Falcon receiving a kick in his side from one of the mercenaries. They were stripped of all their clothing except their underwear, so with no clothes or armour to soften the blow the kick almost took the wind out of Falcon's lungs.
The two of them had been beaten continuously and tortured over the past two days. In the past two years since Falcon had left Vault 101, he had more experiences then he'd like to admit in being beaten, tortured or just injured in general so he was use to taking a beating now. Tyler on the other hand wasn't. He didn't have anywhere near the experiences of the Wasteland that Falcon had received. Most of the experiences he had were all in training exercises or other scenarios where the risk of injury was controlled and minimal.
When the two of them wouldn't tell Commander Concord why they were really in the area, he began to torture them. Tyler took most of the beating as he was seen to be the weakest out of the two of them and Concord wanted to use that to unsettle Falcon as much as he possibly could.
"Urgh, this seems eerily familiar. I'm going to kill that motherfucker. Are you alright Tyler?" Falcon got up off the floor of the cell, struggling through the pain of what felt like at least one broken rib.
Tyler was unmoving, lying on the cold concrete floor, his face bloodied, swollen and bruised with blood dripping from his mouth and nose and tears from his eyes and blood still flowing lightly in some places from the cuts on his chest and abdomen where Concord had sliced him with his combat knife.
With intense fatigue setting in, Falcon could barely walk and collapsed on his knees. He started to crawl towards Tyler, somehow gathering the last of his strength to pick him up off the ground and place him on the bed in the cell, before collapsing on it next to him.
"It's going to be alright. Don't worry, I'll find us a way out of this shithole," he said in a quiet soothing voice.
Tyler rolled over on his side and began to shake because of the pain he was in so Falcon put his arm around him and held him tight, doing his best to comfort him while trying to control his breathing through the pain in his ribs and also the seething anger he felt for Concord. He didn't know how yet but that motherfucker was going to pay for what he's done to them.
The two of them were left to rest for almost eight hours when the door to the cells opened up and a man who Falcon recognised as Commander Jabsco was pushed into the cell next to them.
Except he wasn't wearing his normal Talon Company combat armour but instead what looked like dirt-covered rags as if someone made clothes out of bandages.
Falcon got up off the bed, making sure not to disturb Tyler as he finally fell asleep, and went to the bars of the cell, looking through them at Jabsco.
"I didn't think Concord actually kept you alive Jabbo," he said as he realised Jabsco was also wearing a slave collar around his neck.
Jabsco stood up and met Falcon as the bars, "Yes, well he took pleasure in making me a 'servant' for the company. What he really means is slave, to him, of all people. Eurgh, how I would love to kill that asshole."
"That makes the two of us. I guess when I left here last I actually did more damage than good."
Jabsco sat down on the bed in his cell adjacent to the bars, "Well, all was the way you wanted it at first. I made sure the company became more... Civilised. Though a couple of weeks after you left Concord devised a mutiny against me and turned Talon back to how it was. He considered me weak ever since you came in and killed half of us but spared me and I let you leave the fort."
Falcon sat down with his back against the bars and snickered silently.
"Well how about this. I help you take control of Talon if you go back to your respectful mercenary ways, and also help me out with something else."
Jabsco looked at Falcon with interest, "You have a deal for the first part but what is it you want help with?"
"First thing I want is medical attention for my friend. Concord beat the shit out of him more than me. The other thing I want is access to Bannister's military records if they still exist in the Fort's mainframe."
"Unless someone has shot the mainframe the records should still be there. We've had some success in the past accessing the restricted files but hacking isn't exactly our specialty and no one really cares too much about what is in a two hundred-year-old computer."
"No, killing people and blowing things up is your specialty," Falcon stated to which Jabsco just smiled.
"Anyway, that's all I need. I help you kill that fucker Concord and take control of the Talon again, you help me, I leave and if you're lucky you won't have me knocking on your door again."
Jabsco let out a devious looking smile, "You have a deal, so long as I get to kill Concord. That fucker is going to regret creating a mutiny and turning me into a fucking slave."
Falcon nodded in agreement as Jabsco spoke again, "Now that we have a deal, take this Stimpack and shot of Med-X. I heard the beating he was giving the two of you so I took them while they all had their attention on you two. If I want revenge, I need you in fighting shape," Jabsco pulled out the Stimpack and Med-X from the rags around his waist that were acting as a belt and handed it to Falcon between the bars of their respective cells.
Falcon took them and held them in his hands a moment trying to decide on whether he should take the Stimpack for himself so he can be in fighting shape in no time, or give them both to Tyler to help relieve the intense amount of pain that he was in.
"You going to use them or not?" Jabsco stated bluntly toward Falcon who looked up at him quickly before turning around and heading towards Tyler.
"Don't tell me you're going to waste those on your friend. If we're going to get out of here you should at least be using the Stimpack. I need you in fighting shape. Wasting it on him isn't going to help him much. He'll still need a few days rest and more then one fucking Stimpack for him to be of any use to us," Jabsco said with a quiet tone of venom in his voice.
"That's the difference between you and I Jabby. I'm not in as much pain as he is and helping to relieve that is going to give me the good karma I need to do what we need to do to get out of here."
Falcon sat down on the bed next to to Tyler, rolling him gently so he was on his back instead of his side and saying in a quiet voice, "Tyler, this is going to sting at first but just try and relax, this is going to help you." He lined up the needle of the Stimpack with his abdomen and pushed it into him then he heard the all too familiar hiss of the Stimpack releasing its healing properties. Tyler winced in pain so Falcon took his hand and held it, "It's going to be alright, just rest."
Then he lined up the needle of the Med-X against the vein in his right arm and inserted it and watched the vial drain in to his body. Falcon turned his head to Jabsco who was now sitting against the bars that separated their cells, "Alright Jabbibbi, time to work on a plan to get us out of this situation."
"Do you have to keep calling me a different fucking name every time you talk to me?!" He stated aggressively.
"Yup. Now get the fuck over it and tell me things that I'll need to know. Like how many Mercs are here? What weapons do they have and are any of them still loyal to you?"
Tyler stopped shaking as much as he was. The pain he was in was immense but he could feel the Med-X dull the pain while the healing properties of the Stimpack started healing the damage done to his body. He fell asleep as he heard Falcon and Jabsco work on a plan to save them.
After a brief discussion with Elder Lyons to find out if they had heard anything from Falcon yet, May walked inside the infirmary of the Citadel to check on Sarah's vitals. She was hoping to hear that Falcon was on his way back with good news or with a more permanent way to save Sarah but the Elder said they hadn't heard from him and Tyler in a few days now since they left for Fort Bannister by foot. He did say that he had a Vertibird make a quick detour to pass as close to Fort Bannister as it could and the crew confirmed that the place was still crawling with Talon Company mercenaries but that they couldn't see or even contact Falcon by radio.
"Where are you Con? Sarah is running out of time," May thought to herself as she sat down at her desk and started going through the medical reports Sawbones had put together for her. Her biggest worry at the moment wasn't that Sarah was going to die from her injuries but that May wouldn't be able to keep Sarah in the medically induced coma she put her in. She only had about another 8 or so days left of drugs to keep her sedated. Then she would be conscious and in such an intense amount of pain given that part of her chest was exposed and attached to a machine that was essentially acting as an artificial heart. If that wasn't bad enough, the high risk of infection was also another factor she was more worried about then she was letting on. With all the the Brotherhood has been through recently, spreading all the forces thin to help protect as much of the Wasteland as possible was proving to be a logistical nightmare when there was already a scarcity of resources since their battles with the Enclave at the Purifier and also at Adam's Airforce Base. Granted, they recovered quite a lot of Enclave resources from the airfield but that still wasn't enough to balance out the deficit to achieve those victories.
While May was sitting in front of her terminal, letting her mind wander Elder Lyons walked in the door.
"May… Help me… Something is wrong," Lyons began to stumble, his words slurring as he held his left arm and collapsed on the floor.
"Sawbones! Call for help and help me get the Elder on a gurney!" May yelled out as she swore heavily under her breath. The last thing they all needed was for the leader of the Brotherhood to have a heart attack and die…
The sun had set on the Wasteland hours ago which was perfect for the two figures in black cloaks who threw a duffle bag each of equipment and weapons out in front of them before jumping out of a hovering Vertibird a couple of kilometres away from Fort Bannister. As the Vertibird took off and pulled away in the direction of the Citadel, one of the figures looked up at the moon which was set upon the background of stars and nebulae. All of which being the only real light this part of the Wasteland could see.
"We're not here to sight-see Raider. Let's get moving while we still have the cover of darkness," A soft yet authoritative voice said to their companion as she pulled out her sniper rifle, using its night vision scope to reconnoitre the area around them for potential threats.
"Yeah, yeah Tin Soldier, keep ya shirt on. I haven't been this far out in the Wasteland in a while. Not since I was travelling with the kid anyways. I forgot what the night sky looked like. You don't really see much of it in Megaton, there's too much light there," A rough and older voice retorted.
"Hmm, I forget sometimes how many of us have travelled with him since he left the Vault," she replied, lowering her scope and turning to face him, "It looks like we're clear here. No threats in sight for now. Let's get to the rendezvous point as quickly as we can. I want to scout as much as possible before our group makes its move."
The man picked up his duffle bag and swung it over his shoulder and cocked his assault rifle, "Sounds like a good plan to me. How many of us are actually going to be there?"
The woman picked up her duffle bag as well, "I'm not entirely sure to be honest. When word was sent out I only heard back three replies by the time we left. Two yes's and one no. Unfortunately, Fawkes was the no. Having a Super Mutant on side to raid a base full of Talon Company mercenaries would've been helpful but apparently Fawkes is off on some quest none of us, not even me, are to know the details of."
"Well that's a shame. Though means more killing for the rest of us which will be a nice retirement present for myself. Kill some mercs, save the kid, get back to Megaton and retire."
"You? Retire? That'll be the day. You'll get bored after a week of drinking and sleeping. Now, let's keep quiet and get a move on."
The two of them started off in a brisk pace for their rendezvous while quietly working out a strategy of attack based on the information they already had.