Author's Note:
Chapter 3: I ain't seen the sunshine
Arielle's eyes opened to the soft yellow rays of the rising sun through the windows of the office she'd fallen asleep in, grumbling she stretched and set the shotgun in her lap aside before standing up and dialing through screens on her Pip-Boy to materialise a meal and fresh clothes before she got back into her Power Armour and hit the town.
The meal was same as it ever was, some grilled brahmin, maize and a sasparilla.
With that finished she went through the loadout she was comfortable with using in the Mine-
"Shotgun, Sequoia, plasma 'nade… uh.." Setting each piece of equipment down on the table in the room she wondered aloud what would be safe to use.
She didn't exactly want to set the place on fire and die to backblast cooking her inside the armour, fire and heat resistant as it was; she didn't want to find just how much it could take.
However she figured she could treat it like the many places she'd deal with gas leaks though without as immediate a threat of firing her weapon blowing the place up as much as hitting something buried in the walls or still in mine carts as she'd been forewarned about the volatility of the stuff in the mine even if she didn't really know what it was.
Kristina had called it Dust, but said it was crystallised? Which left her with so many questions, but she said she'd deal with this first so the Courier would have to ask about it later when she was done.
At any rate, she wasn't about to take an automatic weapon into the mine where the spray could send her to Jupiter.
Once armed and armoured she headed down the Mine entrance and made her way around the traps she'd set and went into the darkness flicking the headlamp of the helmet on and grinning to herself as she started another mixed holotape of music.
"I hear the train a-comin', it's rolling 'round the bend And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when." Checking the slide of the shotgun she walked into the abyss.
A shot echoed down the tunnels as light flashed from the muzzle of the shotgun as she blasted a bone faced bear killed it as it rose from the darkness, roaring deeper in the tunnel made her grin wider as she felt a rush of adrenaline course through her arms and hands twitching with excitement as she ran in further.
"I'm stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin' on But that train keeps a-rollin' on down to San Antone"
Heavy thunking of her armours footsteps thundered down the corridor of the mine.
"When I was just a baby, my mama told me, 'Son Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns' But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry"
On rhythm with the strum of the guitar Arielle slam fired her trench shotgun into a pair of monsters as they lunged at her from a side path, ducking under their corpses she slid to a stop and pulled shells from a satchel on her hip and loaded the gun before pushing further into where she could see glowing iridescent colours much deeper in the tunnel.
Her whole body tensed as she failed to react in tine as a huge wolf tackled her from behind sending her crashing forward into the ground and managing to roll the suit and spin around whipping up the Sequioa's barrel and pulling the trigger-
The huge round eviscerated the monster's head, a spray of dark goo exploding across her armour as she stowed the revolver at her side before checking the shotgun she'd dropped in the attack hadn't gotten damaged.
'Still in good nick' Her eyes flickered up to a bungling mass of four more bears each nearly seven feet at the shoulder as they barreled toward her.
"Fuck" As the words left her mouth Arielle prayed to Fortuna her rounds would put them down fast enough.
Boom!
Boom! Boom!
Boo-
Four shells were kicked out of the gun but only three hits as the last slug shredded the back of the last bear hitting the wall behind it and she was forced to dodge out of the way as it threw itself at her and swiped-
Coming around with a boot of armoured steel Arielle kicked the monster so hard in the side her foot went into its chest before the force crashed it into the wall of the tunnel kicking up so much dust she could barely see in front of her as the monster struggled back up-
Bang
Firing another slug directly into its head she breathed out a sigh and began loading again hoping to be ready if more swarmed her like that, it left her worried about fighting so deep in the tunnel as well. They'd shown to be fairly unintelligent but powerful enough to throw her to the ground and come in pairs or quadruplets making them very difficult to deal with.
It was also now a concern that they could probably peel her out of the armour if they were given half a chance at latching on to it so she'd need to keep them at bay.
If it weren't for how much PTSD she'd gotten from the tunnelers on her way to the Divide she might have equated this situation to fighting them but making it Deathclaws instead.
Going deeper and passing empty minecarts she made her way to a massive cavern that opened up to be nearly a hundred yards wide and long with a huge drop off into a spiraling pit. All around were glowing crystals of vibrant colours she guessed were Dust, the crystals shimmered and radiated a haze of energy around them making it obvious they'd pop if something set them off nearby.
Scrutinizing the shadows cast by the Dust she didn't see anymore Grimm, at least not yet.
Taking the moment to keep her revolver topped up with hollow point she quickly checked her Pip-Boy for a glow light and tossed it into the pit, the eerie irradiated green light floated down the abyss catching hundreds of crystals before a soft clink echoed back up.
Nothing came of it and silence settled in the Mine, the soft mechanical clunking of the Power Armour filled the air as Arielle paused the music she was listening to and began the slow methodical process of clearing out the other tunnels that the cavern connected to.
[1]
The Courier had been in the Mine for nearly two hours now, she'd killed another twenty or twenty-five Grimm and was finally heading back to the main cavern where she would head back to Viviane where she hoped they'd take her Denarius or Aureus, they were universal currencies but there was a possibility they didn't have enough money to even offer anything worth it considering their food situation alone.
She figured caps were useless anyway, they weren't really even a viable currency in the Wasteland as it was, but now that she was in Europe? They'd probably be even more useless.
Though she should probably hook her Pip-Boy up to the local RobCo satellites and figure out where she is finally, she probably ought to have done something about it sooner but it was just one of those things she didn't think to do immediately.
At the least she figured it was probably worth checking to see if the device had been mapping the Mine.
"Oh that's good" The Courier commented as she looked at the screen showing all the paths she'd walked, even marking Dust deposits as an unnamed material.
As she entered the man chamber Arielle turned her attention to the pit before dismissing the niggling feeling that she should go down it. There wasn't a safe way for her to go down it and fight things in the darkness even with the night and thermal vision settings in the lenses of her helmet, not to mention if there was something like that snake head she'd seen in the town down there it would next to impossible to get out or let alone fighting it- strong as she was it would be insane to think she could fight a giant snake in the dark of a volatile mine.
With that in mind she left for the entrance noting the muck and goo with shattered bone masks in place of corpses making it clear to her the Grimm for whatever reason didn't leave bodies.
Not that it changed much for her, she collected a decent sized chunk of the mask from each of them and made her way to the town a question on her mind as she did-
'If there's a mine here, why isn't the town built around the mine the way they are back home?' Something she likely wouldn't find a satisfactory answer to.
It was a longer walk back to the town than she initially envisioned because she ended up getting lost and walking the wrong direction for nearly an hour before looking at her compass and realising she was heading the wrong way.
[2]
Arriving back at the palisade and main gate of Viviane, Sebastian called out to her.
"Rhea! You're back!" The man's voice excited and welcoming as several other men on the wall ran over to see her approached all in varying degrees of surprise.
Looking up, the armoured woman gave a wave. "I cleared the Mine out, all the tunnels too"
"Shit you're a Godsend- Get the gate open already!" He shouted back to the others on the walls and moved to meet her on the ground.
Thunking along the road she came to a stop inside the gate and pulled out the sack she'd filled with Grimm mask pieces showing them to the man, his eyes bulged as he saw her proof.
"Fuckin' Ghost of Oum- you really got 'em all?" Green eyes turned up to her as he asked.
"If turning to black goo means they're dead, then yes." Arielle replied with a shrug.
"Alright let's go see Kristina then and we'll see about that place to stay-" Leading the way the woman followed after him.
'I forgot about that, should probably ask what that really entails- I don't really want to live in a barrel and tell people to stop blocking the sun when they stand in front of it.'
Making their way back to the statue in the middle of the town they then headed to a large church where the leader of the Village was in prayer, Arielle admired the building as they entered it having mostly only visited destroyed wooden churches before whereas this one was stone and well kept.
It had five statues against the wall behind the altar and lectern that looked out on the pews, a man in robes behind the lectern with two women on either side of him each weaning a different colour. The statues were about six feet tall each and made of some kind of stone, though the paint over them made it hard for her to tell what.
Kristina was at the back of the pews by the door they entered as the small sermon being given went on, the older woman looking back as they entered- a slightly disgruntled look coming from the man speaking at the front as everyone turned to the sound of the Courier stomping along.
Sighing, the older woman got up from the seat and pointed Arielle and Sebastian back outside. "Better take this outside before Leon blows a Dust vial." She said and they all went back out to the statue.
"So you dealt with our problem then?" Receiving a nod from the guard and the Courier, the blue eyed woman let out a relieved sigh. "You've done us a great hand with that, thank you. Like I said before we can't offer you much, but if you're just looking for a place to stay the Lancasters place is gathering dust and not the kind we could do with right now."
"I'll get back to my duties then Ma'am." The guard dismissed himself and the older woman rolled her eyes.
"Always picks and chooses when he wants to show respect, c'mon Miss Rhea lets see if you can even get in the door first." Without giving any more indication the greying woman took off down one of the roads connected to the square.
As they walked Arielle decided to ask some questions while she had someone's ear.
"So where are we exactly? My arrival here wasn't entirely planned, I just sort of ended up around here."
"Viviane is on the eastern side of Mount Glenn, in the Kingdom of Vale. Doesn't surprise me you're a bit lost, but that armour is clearly good for something and you were able to help us so it worked out."
'Never heard of Mountain Glenn or Vale… guess it makes sense Europe would go back to being a place with Kingdoms at the end of the world.'
"What happened to the Mine before the Grimm moved in? It looked like the place had been sacked before they took over the place." Her question made the shorter, more normal sized woman stop dead in her tracks for a second before continuing.
"Noticed that did you?" Kristina let out a tired breath at the thought of it. "Must've been a decade ago now, things were different back then, every town needed to have a Dust mine or outpost needed a big industrial plant otherwise they'd get left to fend for themselves- survival of the fittest tripe. We didn't have good defences back then, barely enough men for the place and protecting home so when bandits came along and torched the place stripping it for all that was worth we couldn't defend the place…"
She stopped completely facing Arielle. "Grimm honed in on that hate, that sadness and especially the grief of the poor sons of guns that got slaughtered- started this sick cycle of death, grief and death and grief- just when you think you're finished climbing out they stab you in the gut and fucking twist" Sneering the older woman spat.
Tension slipping from her shoulders she held a disgusted look at a memory she failed to share before continuing to walk the direction they'd been heading.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't change much, but thank you."
The rest of the walk was in silence as Arielle mulled over the details of what was said and tried to piece things together to get a mental image of what happened, she'd log it in her Pip-Boy notes later that night when she was checking maps.
When they arrived at the house it was like many of the others she'd seen on the smaller side, a cottage style home that looked like it hadn't had anyone living in it for a long time now.
The white painted bricks were weathered down in places showing the red beneath and the small lawn it managed to have, although out of place looking was overgrown with grass and flowers.
"Cozy little spot, Denims are on your left, Vulcans across the way and Bards on their right so if you need something just say the word and they'll give you a hand or if you need something else I'm usually around the hall or the church helpn' the kids keep their heads on straight so they can get out of this place."
With that said the older woman left and Arielle stood alone in the path staring at the home before moving toward it as she approached the door it was fairly apparent she wouldn't be able to use the Power Armour indoors and so she moved behind where anyone might see her by the back of the property and dematerialised it so she was just in her shirt, pants and boots.
Finding the door unlocked she wondered if it was worth asking what happened to the previous owners.
Author's Note:
So this first Arc is around the town of Viviane and is somewhat slow as it builds through it's set up of Remnant to the dear Courier while she finds her piece and what it is she wants in this new place, the arc isn't especially long and hopefully once it's all out it's not too bad- I'm mostly planning to do chapters week to week unless something happens that makes it so I can't.
Something I'll add as well that while the arc is around the town it isn't about the Courier becoming a god messiah of the people or anything like that the town is mostly an example of what I want to do with the Kingdoms and their corruption as well as the Courier doing their thing and helping a few folks out while trying to get their bearings.
I'm hoping the different kind of story I'm bringing finds itself some interest in any case, I'm enjoying writing it and adding to the list of mentally unstable protagonists I seem to be amassing.
As always, thank you for reading today I really appreciate it, I hope you have a good rest of your day and that things are going well, if they aren't then I hope they improve soon.