Chapter 4
By midday they could see Trovitopolis ahead surrounded by a stone wall. As they got closer they found a small company of soldiers gathered at the entrance. The apparent leader, a Manenetric-man, was in a bit of a shouting match with the wall guard.
Someone in riot gear with a full helmet stepped in front of the group as they approached, hand outstretched in a 'stop' gesture.
"Ranger Kerry Vargas. What are you three doing here?" her voice was harsh.
Helios stepped forwards, "We're just looking for civilization and a rest. What happened here?"
"You came through the battlefield?" Kerry waited until they nodded, "The raiders got bold, over a hundred of them landed in Verteots and we lost half our company and my other rangers out there. Might not be as safe here as you think."
"Safer than out in the wasteland," Dee said.
The grind of metal signaled the soldiers to run inside. Kerry seemed to glare at Melany before she added, "Stay out of trouble," then followed the rest of the soldiers.
Trovitopolis was mostly sandcrete houses and a few shops that lined a main street and led up to a large restored pre-war building that they guessed served as the military HQ. Melany stopped just inside the entrance and turned to look at something, her eyes widening in fear. Dee and Helios followed her gaze and jumped when they saw gallows with three dead raider Poke-People hanging from the nooses.
Melany swallowed hard, "This way," her voice quavered as she walked up the main street and the other three caught up to her.
The Stunky woman pointed out a few buildings as they walked down the street, "Hotel's there, you'll probably be sleeping there tonight; Kalos Express, they're usually hiring for delivery jobs or escorts if you feel like the risk; The Dubwool Shack, good place to get a drink and back that way," she pointed high to the skeleton of a bombed-out apartment building to the left of the HQ, "Is Molly's, decent food and trade place. Then here," she stopped in front of a booth that was completely sealed with a sign overtop.
"Gun Runners," Dee read out.
"Best place to trade weapons and ammo," Melany walked up to the window behind which a robot with a glowing head stood.
"Hello: potential customer." The robot spoke in a mechanical monotone. Melany spoke with the robot and exchanged some junk from her backpack for paper money with the NKR logo.
"I'll buy you a drink," Melany offered, "Then you're on your own," she walked towards The Dubwool Shack, which only had a saloon door leading inside.
"You're just going to abandon us here!?" Helios sounded shocked.
"I don't want to stay in town long," Melany didn't slow down.
Dee and Helios exchanged worried looks then followed after Melany and GR-0-WL.
Melany only bought a couple bottled drinks to shove into her backpack but paid for drinks in glasses for the two newcomers, "You two can probably sell some of your stuff for board then find work here." She said, "It was nice travelling with you but I need to go." She was halfway to the door when everyone heard the sound of whirring from outside.
Melany froze, "Oh Arceus please no!" She ran outside, "SHIT!" she screamed and dove back inside as the whirring got louder followed by the rattling of machine guns going down the main street.
Dee and Helios finished their drinks in time to hear an explosion from the front as Melany got up and ran outside again, "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" She turned and shouted back inside, "RAIDERS! HIDE OR HELP FIGHT!" GR-0-WL was outside an instant before Dee and Helios and they saw the catastrophe at the front gates, which had been blown off the walls.
Dozens of dark-type Raiders were pouring into the city with many pushing to get through the small gap at the entrance. Melany already had her plasma rifle out and was firing non-stop at the crowd, reducing raiders to piles of goo or half-corpses.
Helios pulled out his hunting rifle and started firing at the crowd of raiders as fast as the bolt-action weapon would allow. Dee reached for her laser pistol for a moment, then reconsidered and grabbed one of the frag grenades instead, pulled the pin and threw it. The raiders didn't even notice the pineap-shaped bomb roll past them until the explosion blew them away.
"KEEP IT UP!" Helios shouted as he reloaded the rifle. Dee threw two more grenades at the charging raiders which thinned their numbers significantly.
Melany reloaded her rifle, then stopped and sniffed. "Crap, too much." She put the overheating rifle away and pulled out a combat knife.
"Why'd you stop?" Helios felt his gun jam then cursed.
"It's too hot, no choice now!" Melany charged ahead. GR-0-WL barked and ran in alongside her as the raiders started to close in. Helios grabbed the spear from his back and nodded to Dee before they both charged in.
GR-0-WL jumped at the first raider and bit through the Poochyena's throat. Another raider tried to smash the robot's back with a length of pipe before Melany stabbed him in the side which distracted her long enough for GR-0-WL to finish her off.
Dee slammed a force palm into the first raider's face as Helios stabbed him through the side. Helios whipped around and launched embers at the closest charging raiders. Dee felt her adrenaline rise as fighting instincts took over and she punched, kicked and slammed her palm, elbows and knees into any raider than came near her. One lunged at her and slashed at her face. Dee dodged aside a little too late and felt one of her aura-dreads sliced off. She kicked the raider in the groin then stomped on his chest, ignoring the pain as another raider was burned to death by Helios' fire.
A pipe slammed into Dee's side from a raider that had gotten behind her; she was barely phased as she spun around and slammed her palm into the attacker's chest and he went down. Another raider behind her slashed at her back and was stabbed by Helios' spear before he set them on fire. GR-0-WL pounced on another that was about to smash Helios' skull with a pipe. Only Melany was struggling, only managing to down one raider one her own before a Sandile with a makeshift axe was on her and knocked her to the ground.
Melany barely dodged her head aside as the Sandile tried to bite her. She kicked out and rolled over, the Sandile was about to swing his axe at her back until Melany sprayed a blast of foul-smelling liquid from under her tail at him. The stench bought Melany enough breathing room to scramble to her feet and spin around, letting out an acid spray from her mouth right into the Sandile's face. It barely affected the ground type but gave her enough time to stab him in the throat. Two more bore down on Melany and she was forced to jump back and unleash a smokescreen spray from her mouth to blind them as she backed off, then tripped and fell on her rear.
"HELP!" Melany shouted as one of the raiders struck at her chest, her metal armor denting from the blow.
The second raider, still blinded, gasped as GR-0-WL bit down on his throat then leapt from the now dead Poochyena onto the back of the Sandile raider as he raised his pipe for another strike. Melany backed off and pulled out her plasma rifle. Another Sandile smashed GR-0-WL on the back three times, tearing some of the casing off. Melany fired one shot and melted the raider's head mid-swing.
The smokescreen had spread into the rest of the fight but Dee found she wasn't hindered. She saw blue sparkles right before two raiders could charge her and she tripped one then stomped down until he stopped moving. Dee kicked the other hard and slammed her hand into his chest then Helios stabbed him before he could get up. Both were covered in cuts and bruises, their vault suits shredded in several places as the fight seemed to have wound down and the smokescreen dispersed. Then they saw more twin-propellered aircraft coming in for a landing outside the walls, Verteots that had no landing room between or on top of the houses, and more raiders unloading to resume the assault on the city.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Melany struggled to her feet and checked her rifle. It was going to overheat if she kept firing.
"OUT OF THE WAY!" Kerry Vargas' voice shouted from behind them.
"OVER HERE! HURRY!" the second female voice came from a Zigzagoon-woman at the right side of the gate.
Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, the four of them made a mad dash to the side where the Zigzagoon-woman was tending to three NKR soldiers, a Ratatta and two Sentret, who has survived the barrage from the first Verteot. Dee saw the raiders reach the gate and threw her last grenade into the gap and heard the first wave scream as it exploded. Gunfire followed as the garrison, led by Kerry Vargas, opened fire on the raiders who were forced to run through the narrow entrance as most of them didn't have firearms.
"Help me, hold this please," the Zigzagoon-woman nodded to Helios at a spot she was holding to stop one of the Sentrets from bleeding out. He did so and watched as the Zigzagoon-woman injected half a stimpack next to the injury then carefully bound the wound. Melany slumped down nearby, too exhausted to do any more than watch as the Zigzagoon-woman directed Dee and Helios to assist in her effort to stabilize the three injured soldiers.
The noise of whirring propellers signaled the retreat of the Verteots and the gunfire stopped. It was eerily silent as the Zigzagoon-woman wiped her forehead, "Good, they'll survive now. How about I see if I can help you," she now saw the injuries the three of them had sustained.
"That'll have to wait," Ranger Kerry Vargas walked over to the group, "I saw what you did, if you didn't hold off that first wave those raiders would have killed or destroyed half the city before we got everyone up and armed. I think General Silverman will want to see you."
Melany tensed up and muttered under her breath, "Just great…"
If Kerry heard the Stunky-woman then she gave no indication, "We'll get you fixed up as soon as he debriefs you. Come along," she motioned for the four to follow her. With little option to refuse, Dee, Helios and Melany picked themselves up and followed the ranger towards the building they'd guessed was the military HQ. GR-0-WL literally limped along behind them, his left rear leg having been broken by a lucky strike from one of the raiders.
The middle of the HQ's main hall had a boxing ring set-up. Kerry led the group around to the right. She stopped briefly to talk to the Manectric-man they'd seen outside the front gate earlier before leading them into an office at the back.
Inside a purple Purugly-man in a business suit with blue ear tips was in discussion with an Aggron-man in a military uniform with four stars either side of his collar. The Aggron-man jumped as they entered the office and addressed the Manectric-man, "Captain Jameson! What the hell are you doing in my office?"
"Can't you see we're having a meeting," the Purugly-man huffed indignantly.
Jameson the Manectric-man saluted, "Sirs, I apologize for the intrusion but Ranger Vargas has something to report." He stepped aside to let Kerry through.
The ranger didn't even remove her helmet before she spoke, "General, these four are the civilians who held back the raider's initial assault. If not for them we'd have them swarming inside every building in the city right now." She stepped aside to give him a better view of Dee, Helios, Melany and GR-0-WL
Jameson looked them up and down, but his gaze lingered on Melany too long for her liking, "I see, then the four of you are to be commended."
"And rewarded. We'll continue this later, General," the Purugly-man lumbered out of the room.
"Ignore Senator DuVille," Captain Jameson said, "He doesn't understand the risks we take."
"Indeed," General Silverman nodded, "Captain, Ranger, you may go now."
Both saluted and promptly left, shutting the door behind them.
The general sat down behind his desk, "First I do think you deserve some payment for the impromptu aid," he reached into his desk and pulled out some paper money then handed ones stamped with $100 NKR to each of them, "I've set aside extra to pay any mercenaries and helpful Samaritans out here."
Dee and Helios examined the bills, never having had money before but both knowing its purpose, "Thank you," Helios said.
"Now then I would like to offer you some more work, if you're interested." General Silverman put his hands together on the desk, "I just found out that we've lost running water sometime in the last hour and the timing of this raider attack is too close to be a coincidence. If they're working with the Aether Enclave then I can't spare any of my troops to look into the matter. Since you held off that attack then I think you're capable enough to see to this problem before our water reserves run out."
Dee felt a strange twinge at the back of her mind as he made the offer and spoke almost without thinking, "We'll do it!"
Melany gulped, "Sorry, I just want to get back on the road before things get dangerous again. Thank you for the money, should be enough to keep me away from this place for a couple months." She hastily turned to leave.
"Hold on a moment, raider," Melany froze as the general spoke and stood up, "I don't think you can afford to refuse."
Melany looked back over her shoulder and General Silverman continued, "You've got outstanding charges that haven't been pardoned yet."
"Those charges-" Melany's protest was cut off by the general's more commanding voice.
"Will be cleared in addition to payment if you do this." He watched as the Stunky-woman turned to face him. He didn't look at all satisfied with what he'd said, merely grim-faced.
"Not much choice then, I'll do it," Melany sounded completely dejected.
"Good," the Aggron general walked out from behind his desk and stopped in front of Dee, "I know my way around a Rotom-Boy, hold those out and I'll mark where you have to go to investigate the water cut-off."
"Alright," Dee held out her left hand and let Silverman type into her Rotom-Boy, then he did the same for Helios.
"There's a savage chieftain out east with a tribe stationed around a water reserve from before the Final War. The pipeline must have been hit by raiders hard to cut off all the water," General Silverman let go of Helios' Rotom-Boy.
Helios' face lit up, "Really?"
"Yes. Had a scout report say they were in skirmishes but nothing serious," the Aggron-man gave the Charmander-man an odd look but just continued as he headed for the door, "I need you to get there and fix the pipeline, or if you can't do that then carry as much water back here as possible so we can keep our reserves filled until I can afford to get some engineers down there. In the meantime, I'll find a place for you to sleep and get someone to patch you up before you bleed on the floor anymore." He opened then door and almost smacked someone standing on the other side.
It was the Zigzagoon-woman from the front gate. Now that she was standing they could all see that she was modestly built other than being a somewhat fat around her middle and a little shorter than Dee with a pair of glasses perched on her face and a simple set of clothing consisting of a dull grey blouse and shorts. "Excuse me, General, but I can help with both of those."
General Silverman gave her a quizzical look, "And you are, Miss?"
"Missus Gertrude Kitun, I'm one of the civilian medical auxiliaries in town," Gertrude bowed slightly then smiled, "I have enough room to put them up."
"Ahh, one of the local body-fixers. Very well," Silverman turned back to the four, "Missus Kitun will take you in and fix you up then you can set off for the tribe tomorrow. It's a long and dangerous walk so make sure you're ready to go. If this works out then you'll be permitted some leeway in NKR territory without incident."
"Alright, follow me please," Gertrude motioned for them to follow before she led out of the building, going the opposite way around the boxing ring before leading them outside.
Gertrude's house was a sandcrete building near the front gate and right next to the gallows. The three of them grimaced slightly as Gertrude unlocked her front door, "Welcome to my home."
The four of them were surprised. While not large the inside of Gertude's house was beautifully furnished: to the left was a bathroom with an opaque curtain to give the residents some privacy, to the right was a small kitchen with a working fridge, sink, jukebox and a small table in the middle, ahead there was a washing machine and dryer, across from the washer was a small room with a bunk bed and at the very back was a master bedroom with a queen-sized bed, workbench and another bunkbed setup.
Melany rubbed her eyes as she looked around, "Whoa, this place is… how did you afford this?"
Gertrude walked over to the medical cabinet in the bathroom, "It was cheap because no one wanted to live next to the gallows and NKR pays for my food as long as I help heal their soldiers after fights. On that note I should really get your three patched up." Only now did Dee and Helios really start to feel the pain from their battle injuries, Dee in particular grabbed at where half her aura-dread had been cut off.
"You'll need to get undressed so I can patch you up," Gertrude motioned for them to sit down but caught their nervous expressions, "It's fine, I've seen much worse."
"I'm fine for now," Melany deactivated her plasma rifle then started to remove her armor as Dee and Helios undressed, "and I should try to fix up GR-0-WL." She dropped her armor on the ground which left her in just her underwear and let them all see that Melany was quite muscular underneath with only an average chest, "Come here, GR-0-WL."
GR-0-WL limped over, "Thank you," it lay down with its broken leg on top.
Melany pulled out her tools and some scrap from her pack and began working on GR-0-WL's leg, "If I have or can find enough spare parts after I fix you and my rifle I'll see about giving you a proper face so you don't look like a Pokemon with a skull for a head."
"At least you know how to fix one of those," Gertrude let out a sigh of relief as she applied disinfectant to Dee and Helios' wounds.
"Ow!" Helios winced, "Don't you have any stimpacks?"
"A few but I save them for life threatening emergencies, proper treatment is more efficient when I have time for it," Gertrude started bandaging up a cut on Helios' side before turning to Dee, "Sorry about your aura-dread. By the way, I didn't get your names," she started patching up the now half-sized aura dread.
Dee winced but otherwise held still, "I'm Dee."
"Call me Helios."
"I'm Melany and the Growlithe-bot is GR-0-WL," Melany didn't look up from her work.
"Are you really a raider? Do you have a history with that general?" Helios gave Melany a suspicious look.
"Not really, I was more of a privileged slave. It's a long story," Melany puled a ruined component from GR-0-WL's leg and replaced it with a working piece from her kit.
"We're going to be here for a whiiiiile!" Dee flinched as what was left of her aura-dread was wrapped up tight then her other which was only mildly cut but still intact.
Melany sighed sadly, "Fine, might as well tell you if we're stuck together. I was born in a Vault too but I was only a child when it opened. I was too young to remember where it was and no one was ready for what was going to happen when we came outside. At least we were lucky that the NKR found our Vault first and was waiting to escort us on the long walk to the nearest city, because the place we were was a bad place to try and start a city, at least that's what I remember. We all started to mutate on that long walk and I had the bad luck to be turning into a Stunky."
"What's wrong with that?" Dee asked, wincing again as Gertrude got a closer look at and treated the bruise on her neck.
"We have a… defense mechanism that we use when we're scared, a spray of stinky liquid that lingers for ages," Melany looked away from her work for a moment then returned to fixing GR-0-WL's leg, "For a little girl changing into a something else and having to just cower when mutant Pokemon attacked, I was scared enough that I let out a few stink sprays without meaning too and everyone started avoiding me. Even when we got to our new home, I accidentally sprayed the sheriff's son. After that he started calling me 'stink girl' and spread it around about my other accidents to the point that I couldn't make any friends, even though that was the last time I ever had a stink accident." She paused and started to rub her eyes as she started to cry, "Even my own parents barely acknowledged me, but they changed into other Pokemon so it was easy for them to just pretend I wasn't their daughter when they weren't seen near me."
"That's horrible!" Gertrude looked shocked.
"Yeah well, that's life. Eventually I was given repair work to do and I got pretty good at it and it let me work without anyone around, the other kids still found time to torment me." Melany finished drying her eyes and returned to work, "One day, when I was a teenager, I just got sick of all of it and just ran away. I didn't take much with me because I was a dumb teenager and just wanted to be somewhere no one knew me. I was found by raiders who decided I was a decent piece of ass. I heard the sheriff's son, who was the deputy now, shout 'you can have Stink Girl' so I guess he was sent to bring me back."
Helios stared at Melany in horror, "Did they rape you?"
Melany shook her head, "Luckily no. Their boss was at least practical and asked if I was good for anything other than a good fuck, so I told him I could fix things. He decided as long as I fixed up all the stuff they captured on their raids that he'd let me keep my virginity, so I became their slave. Sure, they called me their 'engineer' and when my work was done I was free to do what I wanted, eat what wanted and sleep in private but I wasn't allowed to leave, always watched, and told if I slacked then 'my holes would get slack' too."
"That lasted a couple years until I found this," she pointed to the deactivated plasma rifle at her side, "Don't know how they got that but they wanted it fixed up. That was when I'd had enough. I worked two days straight and acted like it was going to take three, but when it was done I took it and anything I could carry then ran. Fortunately, I ran away the same night before a raid so they didn't send anyone after me until a day or two later. I didn't leave any witnesses except piles of goo and eventually they lost track of me."
"What about the General?" Gertrude asked.
"The sheriff and his deputy were the Silverman family, the General's the sheriff's father. His grandson told them about me, I know because I ran into him a year ago and he threatened to turn me in to hang if I didn't let him take me, so I ran." Melany sensed what they were going to say and spoke up before they cold, "I know I wasn't really a raider but they're a lot less forgiving to 'ex-raiders' these days. Back when they first started the NKR would give a pardon to most raiders that weren't actively engaged in slavery or directly attacking them, but now that they have an active military they'll kill any raiders and anyone who helps them. If I didn't take his deal I'd be hanging from those gallows right now." She finished her work on GR-0-WL's leg, "Ok, test that out."
GR-0-WL stood up and walked around, "Feels good, thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, I still need to patch your armor, then fix my rifle and armor," she motioned for the robo-Growlithe to return, which it did.
"Where's your Rotom-boy, Melany?" Helios asked, looking at her bare left arm.
"My vault had an older hand-held model. I lost mine years ago," Melany replied.
Gertrude finished bandaging Helios then turned to Dee, "OK you're mostly done, but Dee did you know you're covered in burn scars?"
"What?" Dee felt herself all over except where she was bandaged.
Gertrude looked worried, "Under your fur it looks like most of your skin burned off and healed rather recently, but you wouldn't have fur if that was the case." She shook her head and stood up patting he belly, "I'll get supper ready then you can relax until you're tired. Tomorrow we'll get supplies and new clothes or armor for you two." She put the medical supplies away and washed up before going to the kitchen.
"What's wrong with our Vault suits?" Helios sounded offended as he carefully stood up.
Melany rolled her eyes, "Other than them being in tatters and not offering any protection, most people who see someone wearing a Vault suit will assume you're either easy pickings and/or a spoiled child. There's enough Rotom-Boys out there that wearing them won't raise suspicion but most people don't wander around in a blue Vault suit."
"Guess we're going shopping tomorrow morning," Dee stood up and winced, "I'm gonna lie down till supper."
Helios nodded, "Me too, been a long week."