Fallout: Bullets, Blades and the Boston Skyline (IC)

[kittenofdeath]

Things were shaping up to be another long day of walking and not much else for Caito, he had lost count a while ago for how long the trip had taken so far, at this point he was starting to wish he had just taken his chances and tried to cross the glowing sea rather than skirt around it like this and double the travel time. He took a moment to drink from a stream as he crossed it, ignoring the clicking of his Geiger counter as he did, better to die next year of radiation then die in two days from thirst. In the process he caught sight of himself, god it had been a long trip, he needed a shave, a proper bath and after a quick sniff test of his underarms he decided he needed a new set of underclothes as well.

No point dwelling on what couldn’t be changed, he checked his weapons and armour, a paranoid habit he had never kicked from when he was on the run proper, and was happy to see it was all in order. A snub nosed 10mm pistol with a hair trigger on his right hip, well used machete on his left and a big fuck off hand cannon of a .44 tucked in to the holster under his left arm. His armour needed a few straps tightened though, thinking about it the straps could do with a replacement as well, but again, can't fix that now, besides, apart from the combat armour chest piece it was all just leather and makeshift metal plating anyway, not like it was a full suit of power armour he had to keep maintained.

Secure in the feeling that he was ready to fight whatever came his way, he set off again, walking uninterrupted for a good two and a half hours over rocky uneven ground until eventually, he crested the top of a hill and the air caught in his throat.

Civilization.

Or at least the remnants of it, he quickly fished the binoculars out of his bag and put them to his eyes to survey his findings. Three locations were on offer, a small cluster of broken houses, no defenses or other signs of habitation, probably been picked clean and ignore by others, second was a red rocket gas station, smart money was on it being in the same condition as the first. The third and most tempting target was a small town of ruined buildings, if he was going to find anything close to another living soul it would be there, the best he would get at either of the other options would be a dog or robot or something, and with his luck they’d both try to kill him.

Without another thought he headed off, practically sprinting across to the town he was so eager to talk to something other than a tree. Once he started hearing distant gunshots however, he slowed, drawing his 10mm pistol as he reached the outskirts of the town and switching to a much more cautious method of moving, pausing at corners and checking for potential ambushes as opposed to just charging in blindly.

His mind briefly flashed back to his first fight as a legionary, screaming at the top of his lungs as he charged forward with a pipe wrapped in chain and barbed wire, no thought to cover and even less to stealth. A lot had changed since those days, the him from back then would have just joined whichever side of the coming fight looked like it would win, now? Now he felt like being the good guy for a change, a bit of charity every now and again never hurt anybody...

Well, this charity would, this charity was likely to kill people, and as Caito peeked his head round a corner, he learned charity would be killing raiders today, even if he ignored the ragged way the bastard was dressed, his profession was an easy guess when he yelled that he was going to skullfuck the face of whomever he was shooting at. Raiders, just no class. Caito couldn’t yet tell who was being attacked, but they had at least one laser weapon by the sounds of things, good enough indication that they were more worth saving as far as he was concerned, someone with a laser generally paid better rewards then people with shitty cobbled together guns.

Not one to delay once there was killing to be done, Caito rounded the corner and charged, with all the gunfire he managed to stay undetected all the way up until he burst from the alley, and by the it was too late to stop his big, meaty left fist from connecting with the raiders face, sending the man to the ground with what was likely to be a shattered jaw. Instantly he raised his pistol and fired, snapping off three shots and clipping another raider in the arm before pulling back in to the alley as a volley of return fire chewed through the air around him.

Yeah, that was Caito alright, punch first, shoot second and ask questions later, maybe, if there’s time.

 

[darkpsy1986]

"Hmmmmmm they said the vertibird was this way." Zeke said to himself as he walked the broken path towards the devastated town of concord. It had been 10 months since he reaches the commonwealth. He was started to get bored of waiting so he began to venture in the wastes. Trading his brotherhood suit for RobCo overalls to not draw attention to himself, he ventured to diamond city in search of jobs. He heard people talking about stories of pre war tech scattered all over and decided to take a look.

Walking up to the outskirts of the city he noticed the vertibird crashed into a building in the center square. "Ahhhhh there she is." he says as it comes into view. He begins to survey the structure and how to reach his target when he starts to hear fighting behind a building. He rushed to get into cover, eyeing up the fight.

He noticed a group of raiders taking shots at a window front. "Must have someone cornered." he said to himself. He weighed his options and realized he had to rid the area of them otherwise he wasn't walking out with the gear from the wreck. Taking his laser rifle off his shoulder and preping it for battle he muttered to himself "why do I do things?" before breaking cover and firing a volley of laser blasts at the raider force.

 

[Aliceinchains36]

"Fuck!" Lizzy gasped as she fell coughing to the cold concrete floor of Vault 111. She waited for her vision to clear before getting unsteadily to her feet. "It was just a dream. Please God just let it be a bad dream." She prayed as she opened her father's pod. "No!" She cried as the pod opened to reveal her fathers frozen corpse. Lizzy turned to her mother's pod, already knowing what she'd see. She remembered the man with the scars. He shot her parents, and kidnapped her baby brother. Lizzy sank to her knees in front of her mother, shaking with sobs.

Lizzy didn't know how long she was there on the floor, sobbing like a baby. It could've been minutes, or it could've been days. She didn't know. All she knew was that she had to find Shaun.

Lizzy stood up and made her way through the vault. She stopped when she heard an unfamiliar scuttling noise coming from down the hall. "What the fuck..." She gasped as she watched a cockroach the size of a dog crawl towards her. It pounced forward like a hungry lion, and Lizzy barely managed to dodge the terrifying creature. She scrambled down the hall way, and past more of the giant insects until she found herself in the Overseer's office. She grabbed the 10mm pistol on his desk before blocking the door with filing cabinets.

"What the hell is going on!?" She shouted out, unsure of who she was referring to. "I have to get out of here." She said grabbing some ammo and stimpacks from the Overseer's room before opening the emergency exit with his terminal. She entered the hallway to see more of the giant cockroaches. "Great. More bugs." She thought lining up the sites of her pistol with the nearest one. She squeezed the trigger and cursed as the bullet thudded into the wall next to the disgusting creature. Lizzy thought of the times that her father had taken her to the firing range, and she cursed herself for not paying closer attention. She fired again and cheered as her bullet caused the roach to explode in a splatter of green guts. "One down, four to go." She thought firing at the other approaching bugs.

Lizzy unloaded an entire clip on the roaches, but she managed to make it through the hallway unscathed. She snuck the rest of the way to vault entrance. She grabbed a pip-boy from the skeleton of a vault scientist and opened the vault door. She crossed the bridge and ran down the stairs, stopping in the center of the vault elevator. "Here we go..." She said taking a deep breath and raising the lift.

Lizzy squinted as she entered the bright sunlight. She looked around and gasped in shock at what she saw. Skeletons among random rusted metal structures, scorched and barren trees, burnt out buildings in the distance capped with smoke, brown and bare soil. What she saw was a dead world. "I can't believe it's this bad." She gasped in horrified awe.

Lizzy made her way through the strange, but still familiar, woods that surrounded her childhood home. She was in a numbed state as she made her way home, until she found herself standing in front of her burnt out childhood home. "Miss Elizabeth? Is that really you?" Came a familiar voice from her right. Codsworth! Oh my god I'm so happy to see you!" Lizzy squealed happily running forward and wrapping her arms around the first friendly thing she'd seen since she woke up. "What happened?" Lizzy asked the robot she grew up with. "Well, it's a long story..."

The Next Morning...

Lizzy walked across the old bridge that led away from Sanctuary. Her mind was swimming with what Codsworth had told her. The bombs had wiped out most of America... 200 years ago. Lizzy had been on ice for two centuries. And now she was in get way to Concord to look for leads on Shaun's whereabouts.

Lizzy passed by a Red Rocket gas station when she heard barking. She smiled as a healthy and happy looking German Shepard playfully ran towards her. "Hey boy. How're you doing? Hanging out at Red Rocket, huh?" She said smiling at the irony of meeting a dog at the location. The dog licked Lizzy's face, and she laughed for the first time since waking up. "I could use some help out there. Come with me?" She asked stroking his soft fur. She giggled again when the dog happily barked. "I'll take that as a yes. C'mon then." She said continuing down the road with her new friend.

Lizzy entered the ruins of Concord unaware of the firefight happening close by. She went down the street, but stopped when the gunfire reached her ears. She drew her pistol and continued forward, moving quietly and slowly. She crept down an alley to see a group of dirty looking people shooting at a building. "Why are they... SHIT!!! Lizzy screamed as she felt a metal clad arm wrap around her throat. Her gun clattered to the ground firing in the air once before settling in the dust. "Help!" She cried out to her dog, and anyone close by, trying to fight off the filthy arm. She could hear her dog trying to save her from the man, but she could feel her air fading fast. "Great. I haven't even been awake for a day and I'm going to be strangled by a guy who's never heard of soap." Lizzy thought as her vision began to blur.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Bullets whiz past Zekes head as he hides behind cover. "Got two of them. A whole lot to go." he tells himself as he readies himself for another round of shooting. He peaks out of the corner taking a glance at his next target. To his shock he sees a hulking man flanking the raiders with his charge. "Well luck be on my side today." He says as he about to pull the trigger. His focus becomes broken by a scream of help behind the building to his right "Me and my big fucking mouth"

He back tracks an turns the corner to see a beast of a raider lifting a person in a blue jumpsuit from her neck. His back towards Zeke. "Going to have one shot at this." he thinks to himself as he begins to run towards the two. Vaulting off some debris he screams as he slams the butt of his gun into the neck of the raider. A popping sound from the raider neck caused him to drop like a weight. Zeke stood over the girl hand extended "Get up and follow me. Got to help the other guy." He says trying rush back to the fight.

 

[Aliceinchains36]

Lizzy gasped as she fell to the ground. She rolled onto her back gasping for breath. Her blurry vision showed her a magnificent angel standing over her. His mouth moved, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. "Wha...?" She managed to croak out, but her savior had disappeared.

Lizzy laid on the ground gasping until her vision, and eventually her breath came back to her. She sat up and looked around, her rational mind telling her a person saved her, not an angle. "Where'd he go boy?" Lizzy croaked to her dog who was looking at her with concern. He got up and ran to the end of the alley way, looking back and waiting for Lizzy to follow. She slowly got to her feet. She grabbed her pistol, as well as a rifle that looked to be made from a block of wood, scrap metal, and pipes. She crept to the alley way and peered around the corner to watch the fight. A giant man was dashing in and out of cover bringing the dirt people down with his bare hands, while the man Lizzy assumed was her rescuer, picked enemies off with a laser rifle. Someone else in the building down the street was sniping with a laser weapon, and the dirt people were beginning to thin. "I think we're going to be alright buddy." Lizzy wheezed stroking her dog's fur.

 

[kittenofdeath]

The raiders were as usual, sloppy and overeager, Caito prompted another flurry of bullets from them by blindly firing around the corner, then drew his machete and prepared himself for what he was about to do. When he heard the muted cursing and scuffling that indicated a few of them had run dry, he burst from cover and charged them, eyes quickly scanning for immediate threats, such as the one raider with a sawn off double barrel shotgun, he wasn’t busy reloading, so Caito put two rounds in his chest to keep him quiet and his trigger finger still. Unfortunately he wasn’t the only raider with a loaded weapon, a few off closer to whatever they were besieging turned and started firing at him, Caito felt a bullet graze the armor of his right thigh and winced, but didn’t slow, their aim was bad enough that they didn’t get a better shot in before he had safely put the reloading raiders in between him and them.

For those raiders, things did not go well, two were busy reloading, one slipping slugs in to a crude revolver, the other trying to clear a jam from his makeshift piece of shit rifle, but a third had wisely pulled a knife to receive the charge. His wisdom stopped there though, rather than showing any skill with the weapon he just swung wildly, a move Caito easily parried, lopping off two of the mans fingers in the process and sending him staggering back as his hand pumped blood in to the air.

The raider with the revolver gave up and just closed the weapon with however many bullets he had loaded, but he still wasn’t fast enough, he managed to get a shot off, but not before Caito deftly sidestepped away and plunged the machete in to the last raider, burying it halfway in to his gut and dropping it to free his hand. Mr revolver pulled back the hammer and tried to fire again, but Caito simply backhanded the weapon and sent it flying from his hands, then pistol whipped him to the ground and promptly stomped his skull with enough force to make the problem go away.

Of course, with that he had killed the last shield between him and the other raiders, but as he raised his weapon for suppressive fire and looked across the street the only raiders he saw were dead, replaced instead by a man with a laser rifle. Caitos pistol inadvertently lingered on the man for a second as he took in the sight of him, he didn’t look like a raider, and had a laser rifle which wasn’t exactly standard for their kind, so he lowered the weapon. Just as Caito was opening his mouth to talk and ask whether or not his assumption was correct though, a voice called out from the building he had accidentally helped save.

“Hey! If you're friendly you'd better get inside, there’s more of them coming and we could really use your help!”

Caito looked up at the window, he couldn’t make out who was in there, but he clearly wasn’t shooting at him, so that was a mark in the not to kill category. He grabbed his machete from the gut he had left it in and stepped over the one he had cut the fingers off of, poor bastard had passed out and was going to bleed out before he woke, what a shame.

“Hey you” Caito called out to the man at ground level as he walked towards the building “Mind filling me in on what I've just walked in to?”

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke and the other fighter locked eyes for a second before hearing another plea for help from the center square. On the balcony of his targeted building was a man with a hat and laser rifle. "Fuck someone beat me to it" he thought. Always willing to give a helping hand he started to jog towards the building. "Oh shit." he exclaims stopping before turning around.

Zeke runs back to the girl, still trying to gather herself. "Let me give you a hand." he tells her offering his hand again. With the fighting died down he had more time to examine her thoroughly. She looked clean, too clean to him and he recognized that style of jumpsuit from anywhere. The royal blue with gold trim was a vault suit. He had seen people in it in the capital when the brotherhood retook the Jefferson memorial. But nobody told him of a vault anywhere in the commonwealth. He tried to hide his blushing as he also noticed how tight the suit hugged her body. "Let's get inside before they decide to come back"

As he helps her to the door the large man held the it open for them. "Good work big guy" Zeke says as they pass. He helps the vault dweller to a chair before turning back to him "Got an idea if they are coming back?"

 

[kittenofdeath]

“Coming back?” Caito parroted the question “well the guy upstairs said” mid sentence Caito cut off and quick aimed his pistol at the side door, just before an Asian man with a long face and a dusting of scraggly fluff across his jaw walked though it, his weaponless hands raising as he saw the gun pointed at him.

“Hey whoa, I'm unarmed” he quickly pointed out, flinching away from a gunshot that never came.

“Well that’s rather silly of you given the situation” Caito mused as he holstered his weapon “I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're not the one in charge, take me to whoever is so we can sort all this out.” It was an order the man was clearly eager to follow, he lead the three to the upper level and let them in to the room the supporting fire had been coming from.

The room was populated by four more people, an old woman sitting calmly in an old sofa, a younger and clearly more agitated woman pacing and two men talking by a computer, one a dark skinned man with a serious look on his face, in a curiously antique looking get up with an equally odd laser weapon, the other a much happier looking and probably younger man with a mechanics overalls and a rather well groomed pompadour. “And here they are” the first man said, turning to the new arrivals and taking his hand off the grip of his rifle to hold it out “Preston Garvey, minuteman, and damned happy to see some friends out here”

Caito took the outstretched hand and shook firmly “Caito, I wouldn’t call me a friend but I'm a step or two above the raiders out there, Id introduce the other two” he turned his head to look at the others “but I have no idea who they are.”

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke chuckled as he heard Preston called them friends. "Been a while since someone called me friend." he said as he kept an eye on the girl and her dog. "The name is Zeke by the way. Pleasure to help drop raiders with you"

Zeke eyes up the group that were trapped in the building. For the exception of Preston and the guy in the blue overalls none of them had business away from diamond city. "So Mr Preston what brings you out this way? I'm guessing not the museum tour." Zeke asks.

"A place called sanctuary." Preston replied "Heard it was a safe place to build a settlement and start over."

"Sounds fun but there nothing but hollow husks for cities. Well except for diamond city but they aren't taking refugees." Zeke responded. He noticed the girl in the jumpsuit head perk a little.

 

[Aliceinchains36]

Lizzy watched as the two men finished off the rest of the dirt men, before following them into the museum. A tired looking Asian man met them at the door and led them upstairs. Lizzy listened in silence as the two men who'd been fighting, Caito and Zeke, spoke with the sniper, a man named Preston Garvey. She said nothing until Preston spoke of his destination.

"Sanctuary? I used to live there, but it's pretty bad now." Lizzy said. "You lived there? When?" Preston asked hopefully. "About 200 hundred years ago... Before the war." Lizzy said quietly. Preston looked at the other two men, silently asking if she was crazy, before returning his gaze to Lizzy. "Before the war?" He asked in disbelief. "Yea. I'm from Vault 111. They froze me and my family in there, and some bald guy with scars killed my parents and took my baby brother. I woke up just long enough to see it before he put me back under. When I woke up I escaped the vault and went home. My old Mr. Handy survived and told me to come here. Then one of those dirty guys grabbed me. Zeke saved me and here I am. But if any of you know the man, or have seen my brother, please help me. He's just a baby." Lizzy said desperately hoping one of these man knew where her brother was.

"Damn. That's rough. You've had it about as bad as us. I'm sorry, but I haven't see your brother, or a man that looks like that." Preston said. "What's your name by the way?" He asked. "I'm Lizzy, Lizzy S... Gunn. My name is Lizzy Gunn." She said, unsure of why she gave a fake last name. "And that is... Actually I don't know his name." Lizzy said pointing to the dog who was sitting at the old woman's feet. "His name is Dogmeat. He seems to have taken a liking to you." The old woman said with a smile as Dogmeat returned to Lizzy. "So he's yours?" Lizzy asked sadly, not wanting to give up her new friend. "No. He's his own. He'll follow whoever he wants to." She said with a kind smile. "Good." Lizzy said happily before returning her attention to the three men.

"I can lead you guys to Sanctuary, but after I get you there I need help finding my brother. And I'm not much of a fighter... I could use some help out there." Lizzy said biting her lip and looking up at the three men through her eyelashes.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke was shocked to listen to Lizzy story. He knew about her being a vault dweller from the suit, but the reason why she braved leaving her vault was something unheard of in this day. "So you are looking for your brother." he says with a sigh. He looked around the room looking for any ammo for his rifle. "Well I'm short on ammo but give me a minute I should find something to fend off any crap we come into. that vertibird on the roof got to have some energy cells or something."

"I checked the bird there no energy cells but there is a minigun attached to the thing." The man in the blue overalls told Zeke. "Its attached to the vertibird but in the cargo hold is a sweet suit of power armor. Find a fusion core and its all yours."

Zeke looked over the balcony down to the basement. "Found one." he says as he sees the generator in the basement. "Give me five minutes and i will get us ready to go." He tells the group as bolts to the basement to get the core.

In the basement Zeke handy work with the bobby pin opened the door to the generator and quickly pulled the core out. he then sprinted to the roof. "Finally to the prize." he says to himself under his breath as he makes it back up the flights of stairs and out the door to the roof. once outside fear crept up his back as he gazed onto the power armor. He slowly walked up to it, the pain from the scar on his back acted up as he flashed back to his last time in a suit. "How does that pre war saying go. Like riding a bike." He said trying to reassure himself as he placed the core in the suit and it began to hum.

As the suit opens for him he stepped in. The suit sealed him in tensing his body as he got familiarized with the power armor again. "Ok I'm not dead yet." he chuckled. It felt sluggish as he walked towards the vertibird and gripped the minigun. with a swift yank he pulled the gun off and walked his way back in the building. "OK which way are we going?"

 

[kittenofdeath]

Two hundred years, that’s how long the girl claimed to be 'frozen' for. Caito didn’t believe a word of it, you cant freeze people, and you defiantly cant live for 200 years and still look that young, or you know, be alive. Hell, the girl probably wasn’t even from a vault, just some loon that likes to go around making up stories to mess with people.

But Caito couldn’t help but believe the last part, he had seen too much pain in her eyes to think her a liar when it came to the fate of her brother, he still didn’t buy her frozen for 200 years story, but he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

“Ok, assuming Zeke can get the power armour up and running this should be easy, Preston, got any more rifles?” Preston shook his head and frowned “Sorry, all we've got is this laser musket and a handful of pistols” Caito cursed under his breath “Alright, we can work around that, you two” Caito jabbed his finger at the man and woman in the corner “Make yourself useful, go outside and scavenge as much as you can from the bodies before their reinforcements arrive.”

“Who put you in charge?” The woman asked angrily, the man at her side clearly wanting to calm her down but not having the guts to stand up to her “we don’t have to do what you say, you just got here!” Her simple minded anger irritated Caito, for all its faults he rarely had to suffer such foolishness. “Fine then, if you don’t want to pull your weight on this then you can get the hell out of my sight and stay that way, I don’t have time for idiots without a survival instinct.”

Before things could escalate any further, Preston stepped in “ok everybody, calm down, Marcy, Jun, please do what he says, we could really do with some more supplies.” The woman mumbled something under her breath with what sounded like an alarming amount of curse words, but saw reason and did as she was told. That problem out of the way, Preston took the time to walk the old lady out to a different room where she had less chance of getting hit by a stray shot, leaving Caito alone with Lizzy.

“I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you don’t really know how to use that” Caito said, gesturing to the pipe rifle Lizzy still held “come over here and I'll give you some pointers before things get crazy, not like I need anyone up here other than Preston to hit the broad side of a barn, but it never hurts to put more bullets down range.”

 

[Aliceinchains36]

"Yea sure. I know the basics, but I'll take all the help I can get." Lizzy said approaching the giant man. She offered him the rifle, and listened intently as he explained how it worked. He told her about how the various parts of the rifle could be replaced or improved, and that pipe weapons were some of the most common and customizable weapons in the wasteland. He then taught her how to improve her aim, and to exhale before shooting. Lizzy practiced in some mannequins on the window of a store. She wasn't very accurate, only hitting the target about every fifth shot. "Guess that's as much practice as I'm going to get." Lizzy said pointing to the group of men who she now knew were called raiders. "Good luck out there." Lizzy said to Caito reloading her rifle.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke marched down the steps his armor clanging with every step. He saw the group as they shuffled through the leftover crap the raiders had. Mostly junk but a double barrel shotgun was the highlight of the pile. He noticed a chest protector and arm pads that were in good condition so he picked them up and walked to Lizzy. "Here this may look like shit but at least they can protect you from bullets or a bat." He says.

Zeke then turned to Caito and grabbed his lazer rifle. He then walked over to his bag and pulled out a engery cell and handed them to Caito. "We are going to need the best gear we have. Take this while I run with the minigun." Zeke says as they all gear up to move. "I figure we march in the front of the group and kick the crap of whats out there. Hell if we did it on accident imagine what we could do if we actually make a plan." He joked from inside his suit.

 

[SnowHeart]

The woman trailed behind the caravan, her face hidden beneath her hood and cloak. Anything to keep that blazing sun off her face. She pulled a canteen out from under her cloak and unscrewed the stopper, taking a drink to quench her burning throat. She shook her head and wiped some sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. Her leather armor did little to help with the heat, either. She would probably end up shedding some of her gear and stowing it in her bag if the heat kept up much longer.

Well, at least they're making some progress, she thought to herself.

She had been following them for what felt like hours since the sun had just come up, doing her best to dart from cover to cover and avoid their lookout's gaze. She felt like she'd succeeded, but one could never know. She liked to think she was the hunter, but perhaps they were leading her into a trap? Not likely, they seemed to be more like they were looking for somewhere to camp out. A cluster of buildings lay ahead, with one dominating the others and a crashed vertibird slammed into the roof. The group turned towards it and set down the path, so they were probably looking to take shelter there.

Their shadow slipped off into the cover of dark between buildings, glad to be out of the sun. She clambered up the side of a crumbling building as the group attempted to breach the large building with the crashed vehicle. She dropped through a shattered window, landing silently on the second floor of the building. Pulling over a chair, she settled in and watched the group from afar. From outside, it should have been difficult to see her, particularly with the sun cresting just over the building she was in and covering her angle with darkness.

Some gunshots rang in the distance and hit near the group. Pipe weapons, crude but effective, belonging to a party of raiders. One of the caravan took a hit and went down just as the group penetrated the building. A small-scale firefight took place over the course of an hour or so, with some other participants coming and going. A young girl, too pretty to be a common wastelander, a rather large and muscled gentleman who knew his way around a fight and a man toting a laser rifle. The woman had seen more variety and action in this small town than she had all week.

And throughout the whole deal, she had barely moved. She noted the vertibird shuddered and screeched as if something was torn from it, but she didn't have a good enough view to tell what had happened. Something else interesting, she would assume. Off in the distance, she spotted the remainder of the raiding party moving in. She decided to bide her time, figuring that she could probably gather something valuable in the aftermath.

 

[kittenofdeath]

The girl was now officially 'not bad' with the rifle, having shown proficiency with the basics fast enough, as long as she remembered to keep her rate of fire down to avoid jams she would be fine. Well, assuming she didn’t freeze up when it came time to kill something that is, Lizzy didn’t strike Caito as the cold killer type. But as long as she was putting bullets downrange and he stayed close enough to the building that she was unlikely to hit him by accident he didn’t care that much.

The clanging sound confirmed to Caito that Zeke had gotten the power armour running, and sure enough a minute later he showed up in a rusted out suit of steel, the stuff was ancient, but it would stand up to what was coming to it. Caito checked over the laser rifle he had been handed as he listened to Zekes idea, it was simple, but not without merit, it would probably work too if the raiders don’t know basic group tactics or how to deal with power armour at a strongpoint.

“You are a nigh unkillable murder machine as far as those raiders are concerned, I speak from experience when I say they literally have a better chance at taking you down with sharpened sticks than with the guns they're packing, what we want is to take them down fast, hard and to a man and if we just advance on them they'll break before that happens. I say we pepper them with small arms fire until they're right on top of us, then you jump down from the roof and blaze away, they'll panic at a rage that people upstairs will be able to hit them at as opposed to where they'll just miss and waste ammo, in all that chaos the likelihood of any of them getting away is slim, and if any of them do get the bright idea of trying to get around behind you, I'll be down here to deal with them.”

Caito turned back to Zeke with a grin on his face “Trust me, people doing this exact kind of shit came close to killing me enough times back in the day, it works.”

 

[Aliceinchains36]

"Thank you, Zeke." Lizzy said strapping the leather pads on over her vault suit. She rolled her shoulders, getting used to the added protection. "They smell like shit, but they're better than nothing." Lizzy said, before Catio went over the plan. After he was finished speaking, Lizzy went back into the museum. She went to the second floor and joined Preston on the balcony. "Here we go." He said cranking us his laser musket. "Look alive guys! The raiders are moving!" Preston shouted. Lizzy gripped her rifle with white knuckles, and waited for the onslaught.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke want back to the roof to see the raiders trying to regroup in the square. There were very few guys and looked like this would be an easy push out of the museum for the group. At least with everybody on the same page. "Let's hope this is as easy as Caito said it be" he murmered to himself. He then got a running start and launched himself off the roof to the ground below.

He landed in the center of the road minigun glued to his hands. He adjusted his grip on the trigger as he moved the barrels to scan the area in front of him. "Alright boys you can either walk away now and live or we can have it out here and I can rip you apart with this." he yelled to the raiders trying to scare them off and avoid wasting the ammo. He watched as they his in cover looking around at one another for an answer. "Don't be stupid." Zeke thought as he tried to figure out what they were thinking. But a bullet into the helment of the power armor sealed the men's fate. "You know what fuck it." Zeke exclaimed as he let loose the minigun and began to push the raiders back.

As the bullets whizzed out of the barrels the raiders tried to retreat. With the support fire from the group Zeke thought they would have no problem getting out of town and onward to sanctuary. Moving up the street Zeke watched as the raiders scrambled out of cover and moved back through the bombed out stores trying to survive the counter assault. Amidst all the action a grate began to move at the end of the street. The raiders sprinted away from it eastward out of the town and out of sight. "What the fuck." Zeke exclaimed as he moved to the grate. Then without warning the head of a deathclaw popped up. Pulling itself out of the hole it towers over Zeke as it stood up in front of him. "Oh fuck you luc..." was all Zeke could get out before the huge hand of the deathclaw smashed into him sending him flying back to the museum, his body rolling through the streets.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow tilted her head slightly as she observed the group preparing in the museum. Someone at least had some idea of tactics. The pair on the balcony toted a pair of rifles, one rusted out pipe rifle and the other a laser musket. The raiders entered the town square, posting up inside the various buildings and behind clusters of sandbags on the street. Not very many, but enough to give them some form of challenge.

The sound of boots on the wooden stairs floated up behind her as a raider in a gas mask entered the room she was sitting in.

"Who the fuck are you?" He demanded, raising his pistol and moving towards her.

She waited a few moments without moving, then glanced over to him when he was a couple feet away from her. He asked the same question again, and after another second or so he slightly lowered the pistol.

His head hit the ground, followed by his body a moment later.

Snow cleaned the blood off her blade on the man's shirt, shaking her head.

"Never lower your guard, dumbass," she muttered as she sheathed her blade again.

She turned back towards the other group just in time to see a suit of power armor leap off the building. Alright, so maybe the raiders won't be a challenge after all. He shouted at the group to disperse using the armor's PA system, but a bullet catching him in the face seemed to throw diplomacy out the window. The hail of minigun fire following reinforced the fact, tearing through the raiders that remained below and in surrounding buildings. The sound of burrowing dirt and screeching metal came from in the middle of the square, right near where the suit had moved up to. A large, brutish figure burst from the ground and stood much taller than the man in the suit. A deathclaw.

Shit, she thought. Raiders are one thing, but deathclaws are another. No reason to leave their fate up to them alone.

She drew her blade and unholstered her pistol, getting a running start and leaping from the window of her building to the roof of the next one, then moving down the stairwell to the first floor. Just in time to see the suit of power armor literally flying down the street. So much for that. She peeked out the side door to see the beast walking down the street towards the museum and its downed prey, and she took the chance to dart out of the building and get behind it, sliding in and bringing her blade up behind its right leg, aiming to cripple the monster. She also hoped that she didn't catch any stray bullets. One strike wasn't going to do it and she didn't have time for another as she rolled under the massive claw that swung blindly around at her. Three rounds from her revolver hit the deathclaw in the side as she stepped into another building and out of sight.

 

[kittenofdeath]

Everything was going swimmingly, the raiders were all in position, the lack of screaming from upstairs meant no one had been shot, ideally that Marcy lady would have taken one between the eyes, but Caito was willing to ignore that. And when Zeke hit the ground with all the shock and awe he could muster the raiders acted perfectly, staring at the metal titan with mouths agape and ready to be blown to shreds by minigun fire, which was gonna happen, any second, lotsa bullets, any time now, whenever you're ready Zeke just shoot the damned gun.

Instead, Zeke talked, why oh why does someone whos been trained in how to use god damned power armour think diplomacy is the next step in this encounter, the only words he should be spouting now are die raider die. But, Caito did his best to compensate, putting as many little bolts of light in to the fleeing masses as he could, his ability to do so was diminished by the buildings and debris they hid behind like cowards, but as long as they kept focused on Zeke he didnt have much trouble picking off anyone the minigun didn’t chew to pieces.

Then, a Deathclaw showed up... Caito was expecting many things, flankers, missile support, a rush of raiders with knives, a mother fucking Deathclaw? Not on the list.

“Well shit” Caito quickly started running through plans in his head, simplest way to deal with a Deathclaw is to not deal with a Deathclaw, it couldn’t get to the upper levels of the museum so as long as they all hid up there it would just murder the hell out of Zeke and be on its way, no muss, no fuss, easy win. Naturally, Caito dropped the laser rifle and skulked out the window, slipping in to the first building lining the street the Deathclaw was approaching from, disappearing from sight at the same time Zeke was casually batted about a dozen or so meters.

You don’t get to be the big damn hero by taking the easy way out, the easy way out makes you a long lived and boring coward, Caitos plan was simple, ballsy and had little chance of success, he was going to tape one of his last two grenades to a knife, climb on the big lizards back, and stab it in the face. Gotta give the legion credit, they knew how to train in the ability to ignore the survival instinct. Caito was dimly aware of the sound of a revolver firing and he franticly worked the roll of duct tape, a weapon he knew nobody was using, maybe a raider, he didn’t know, that was future Caitos problem, present Caito had much bigger and scalier problems to deal with.

His juryrigging complete, Caito exhaled, then broke from cover and charged, praising his lucky starts when he saw the beasts back, this just might work after all. He jumped off a pile of rubble and grabbed on to one of the horns for dear life, hoisting himself up with one arm and swinging in with the other, tucking in under the horn and driving the knife in to the Deathclaw with a wet squelch sound. Needless to say, the beast did not take it well, it thrashed, roared, and reached up behind it to claw whatever had dared to hurt it, a task in which it succeeded.

The Combat armour took the worst of it, but the claws dug in to the meat of his arm, ignoring the simple leather that protected it like it wasn’t even there. With an adrenaline fueled surge of strength, Caito yanked on the horn he had a hold of, simultaneously dragging the beasts head to turn, rolling off to the other side in to what was now its blind spot, as Caito discovered when he saw the improvised explosive knife sticking out of its eye socket, and pulling the pin on the grenade, which he was less than a meter from. Time to run.

He scrabbled to his feat, the sound letting the Deathclaw know that it had been duped in to looking the wrong way, but as it turned to bellow its challenge, Caito was already out of the street, sprinting in to a building. For the briefest moment he saw someone beside him, he tried to turn and see who it was as he ran, but in the half a second it took to cross the blown out shop floor and dive behind the counter all he could tell is that he was a she, and she didn’t look like a raider.

Caito didn’t even have enough time to block his ears after that, the shock wave washing over him and shocking him to his core, the boom making him hear nothing but that god awful ringing again. He pulled himself up and looked out at what he had done, the Deathclaw had half forced its way in to the building and now lay twitching on the floor, hopefully dead, there wasn’t any trace of the mystery woman though, which didn’t mean much since she could be right beside him with a shotgun right now and he wouldn’t have heard her past all the damn ringing.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke mind raced as he tumbled in the road. "Not again" he said to himself. He finally stopped on his side, looking at the museum. He saw Preston and Lizzy during as fast as they can. A bump in the back caused him to roll over into his minigun. As he picked himself up he noticed someone running behind the deathclaw. He adjusted himself to go on the attack when he saw Caito flying through the air and grabbing the horn of the beast. "What the hell." he said to himself as Caito stabbed the deathclaw in the eye. The monster thrashed and roared as he wounded. "Time to finish this. Zeke yelled as the minigun spun up again. Once his ally was cleared Zeke unleashed the gun on his target. The force of the minigun began to push it back towards a building cornering it. But before Zeke knew it an explosion caused the deathclaw head to whip and force it through the wall. Zeke continued to spray bullets into the deathclaw body. He didn't want to take any chances of it getting back up.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow was leaning up against the wall, rotating the cylinder of her revolver to replace the three expended shells when she heard the deathclaw roar in anger and then something heavy hit the ground just outside her building. She flicked the cylinder back in place just as a massive man tore through the door. Time slowed as she glanced down towards his hands and noticed the pair of grenade pins. Her eyes widened as she sprinted further into the building, hearing the heavy footfalls of the beast behind her. She dove over the bar, curling into a ball and covering her ears before she even hit the ground. Twin shockwaves tore through the building, rattling her bones. Her ears were still ringing slightly even though she had covered them. She opened her eyes and saw the man from before looking over the counter. Must not have noticed her curled up in the corner, disorientation from the explosions were most likely.

She pulled herself up and looked over the countertop as well, seeing that the deathclaw, or the explosions, had blown the front of the building open. The beast twitched and she wasn't sure if it was fully dead or not, but it definitely wasn't going anywhere. She looked beyond the deathclaw to the suit of power armor, which was holding a minigun and advancing on the building. The barrels of the minigun began to spin and Snow swore under her breath. He must not have seen them through the cloud of dust.

"Incoming fire!" She called out and dropped into cover.

Bullets started to tear into the downed deathclaw and everything around it, including going past it and into the building. With the 5mm hellstorm destroying everything around them, Snow grabbed the man and tried pushing him towards the side. "Move!" She screamed over the bullets, though whether or not he could hear her over the bullets and ringing didn't matter, since he would probably have noticed the bullets piercing the burned out wood bar they were hiding behind. She shoved him again and ran off to the side, moving up the stairs to the second floor to escape the hail of bullets. A round caught her in the leg and she stumbled to the ground.

"Fuck!" She screamed, half crawling and half running up the stairs.

The bullet had gone clear through, so she should be able to just bind it and keep on the move. That would have to wait until the building wasn't being torn apart by gunfire, however.

 

[Aliceinchains36]

Lizzy watched the battle from the balcony. Zeke was like walking death, liquefying raiders with the mini gun, and shrugging off bullets like they were nothing. Lizzy hadn't fired a single shot, not that she needed to, and the fight was almost over. Then a roar sounded through the square and the street exploded as a... Lizzy didn't know what. A dinosaur? Whatever the thing was, it burrowed up through the concrete, and slammed into Zeke like a freight train. Lizzy fired at the beast, but the few rounds that hit barely even scuffed the creature's scaly hide. The monster tossed Zeke around like a rag doll, and Lizzy was sure he would be killed. Then a woman appeared out of nowhere, slashed at the creature's leg with a sword, and disappeared into a building.

"What the fuck is happening!?" Lizzy shouted to Preston. The Minuteman didn't respond, his focus too intend on picking off raiders trying to take advantage of the chaos. Lizzy turned back towards the fight to see Caito flying through the air towards the dinosaur. He grabbed its horn and stabbed it in the eye before disappearing into the same building as the sword woman. The enraged creature screeched in pain, and followed Caito. "Shit! It's going to eat him!" Lizzy cried out, feeling complete useless. But just as the creature reached the building its head exploded. Zeke was on it a moment later, spraying the monster with bullets.

After a few moments, Zeke stopped firing. The creature was dead. Lizzy gasped in relief as she ran downstairs. It was over. Most of the raiders had run at the sight of the dinosaur, but any who were dumb enough to stay had been picked off by Preston. Lizzy ran across the square and jumped onto Zeke, wrapping her arms around as much of his metal encased body as she could. "I'm so glad you're not hurt!" Lizzy said letting go of him. "What the hell is that thing!?" She asked, pointing at the creature's bloody remains with her rifle.

 

[darkpsy1986]

Zeke waits a minute before letting go of the trigger on the minigun. "And stay dead" He muttered to himself as he stood over the deathclaw corpse. Rage filled his vains as he looked it over. He was about to smash his fist into its skull but he felt someone wrap their arms around him. He looked down to see a fimilar royal blue jumpsuit with gold trim. He regain his composure before turning to Lizzy. Her smile made his blood warm up again.

"Nice to see you too Lizzy but a hug in the middle of this war zone is not the best idea." he said with a chuckle. She asked about what is that. "On that... That is a deathclaw. It's big, ugly and now it's dead. But come on we got to check if I accidently killed Caito. "

 

[kittenofdeath]

So Zeke was a fan of overkill, no one could say they didn’t know that now, Caito just wished he knew that a little sooner so he would have moved the hell out of his way sooner, if he had he probably wouldn’t have a gash on his hip where a bullet had skimmed across him before shooting right though mystery girls leg. Her plan to run upstairs had been a good one, which was why Caito was following her, they had just gotten unlucky, her a little moreso.

The impulse to step over her entered his mind, old him would have done it in a second, probably stepped on her instead, but new him was still trying to be a nice person, so instead of just leaving her there he grabbed her by the back of her collar, grimacing as he realized he was using the arm the Deathclaw had slashed, but stopping now would kill them both so he powered through the pain and charged up the stairs.

Once up there he dropped the woman like a sack of potatoes before falling to his knees and collapsing against the far wall, cradling his wounded arm and gritting his teeth until the gunfire stopped. “Dammit Zeke!” Caito yelled, slowly pulling himself off the ground for the third time in about a minute “you almost killed us up here, go tell the others to bring whatever kind of med kit they can get their hands on.”

He hobbled over to the mystery woman, offering his hand to help her up. “not a raider, and not one of their prey” he said, not yelling now, but still notably louder to compensate for his own inability to hear “so why are you sticking your neck out for this crap, because I really doubt there’s any profit in this one.”