Mission
Greg stared into Joe's faceplate, the red colored lenses hid his eyes but he knew Joe was squinting. Crickets churned, restless in an awkward silence as the wind howled benevolently whilst sapping excess heat from their bodies. The moon began to grow dim as the sun was just below the horizon. Rays of lights began to illuminate the peaks of hills and mountains far to the east.
"I'm assuming we have the right to decline this mission?" Greg crossed his arms over his chest. He really didn't feel like helping this guy, and just wanted to be on his way to see Elizabeth.
Joe chuckled, which sounded muffled and strangulated behind his faceplate. "No, you don't. Not if you ever want to leave Frisco."
"You're incredibly annoying. How do you plan to keep us in here? We'll find a way out." Greg looked around, figuring how easy it would be to sneak around the large city.
"You could, if you wanted the Brotherhood to hunt you. You've been labeled as possible spies, trying to steal technology from us. It is now up to you to prove your innocence." Joe, and his smug attitude. Greg really wanted to just hit him.
Greg sighed, the trouble he was getting himself into over women was beginning to make it seem unworthy of his time. "And I suppose you don't need any evidence to make such accusations?"
"Espionage is a serious issue. While you are not guilty as of yet, you cannot leave Brotherhood controlled land without your name being cleared. You can clear it yourself, or you can wait for our investigators to clear you. That may take a few decades." Joe was feeling quite proud of himself.
"Only a few decades? I'll wait." Greg yawned, and instantly became uninterested.
"Well I sure as hell wont!" The raider apparently had great speed and had Joe by the throat. A boot knife, which she apparently hid in the sole of her boot was pressed to his jugular. "I should kill you where you stand!"
Joe seemed unworried, he must have anticipated this type of behavior. "While I may not be a true Brotherhood member, yet, they still consider me their own. If you were to kill me, every member of the Brotherhood will come after you. Your tortures would be severe, and slow. Did I mention, all of you? We do practice guilt by association." And Joe broke into a hysterical laugh. "But don't hate me, I'm not the bad guy here. I'm not the one who recklessly assaulted an initiate of the Brotherhood."
"Blah, blah, blah. Get a little more self important there, will you? While I'm nowhere near as intimidated by the Brotherhood as you are, I do have an important schedule to keep. I don't feel like dealing with pesky children who couldn't survive a day in the wilderness by themselves. Much like you, Joe." Greg gave it a second, for Joe to try to make a come back. As soon as Joe did, Greg continued. "So, I'll do this silly little mission of yours. Explain the details here and now so we can get started on it as soon as possible."
"Gr, you should watch your tongue. Your mission is to infiltrate a slaver camp. You are to confirm if a certain person is in their possession. If so, buy that person, or kill all the raiders and take that person. Nobody else matters." Joe pulled out a folder, with a picture of a person in a white lab coat with thick glasses.
"Oh, a scientist. He should stand out and make this all kinds of easier. Kill the scientist and save the slavers, got it." Gary was now just trying to get a rise out of Joe.
"I never did think ghouls were very bright. Apparently, you're the dimmest bulb so far." Joe, thinking he insulted Gary, let out a small laugh.
"I'm not very bright am I? It's a good thing I designed that battle armor you're wearing. As well as the T-51B power armor, most Brotherhood wear. Oh, did I mention that railgun Greg made you wet yourself with? Yeah, I designed and built that one all by myself. Glad to see they made the battle armor in a size to fit pigs." Gary then proceeded to stand behind the super mutant.
"I'm not a shield, ghoul." Kelvin kept things simple.
Joe clenched the picture in his hand, wrinkling it. "Just do this, and get out of my face!"
Greg snatched the picture, and walked out the gate followed by his "team." They collected their weaponry and kept on walking. As Joe watched them walk off, his frown turned into a grin and began to think about the terrible things those slavers would do to them.
"So, Gary. Should we just kill the slavers indiscriminately without even talking to them?" Gary had no intention of trying to talk to slavers.
"Well, that's the logical thing to do. Try and buy the scientist? Bullets are far cheaper." Gary snorted at the thought.
"Merciless, just the way I like it!" The raider girl seemed to be cheering up now. "No plan, right? We just walk in and murder, murder, murder! Ooh, I'm excited!"
"Well, I was going to just shoot them from a distance, to preserve our numbers. But, I have a better idea now." Greg formulated a plan in his head. "They'll obviously recognize me as a scavenger. Scavengers don't buy slaves.
"Well why not? Scavenging would be easier with slaves to distract the things that want to kill them?" the others could feel the confusion sweeping across her face, despite it being hidden behind a gas mask.
"Well, it tends to be against our work ethic, I guess you could say." Greg was now trying to keep things simple.
"Oh, I get it, because it'd be easy for them to survive and get away. Then you'd be wasting money!" She clapped her hands together in front of her.
"Well, yeah sure." Greg decided to give up on explaining human rights. "So here is the deal, you and the mutant will approach the camp as you're the most likely candidates for purchasing the slaves." Greg pointed to the girl, and Kelvin. "Gary and Wesley, you will stay out of sight, but within range to attack when the trap is sprung." Gary and Wesley nodded. "As soon as I snipe my first target, you will all engage. Understood?"
The group seemed to echo in unison, "Got it."
An entire day had gone by, and they had finally located the camp. Greg pulled up his railgun, and the sights amplified his vision to ridiculous levels. He watched Kelvin and the girl approach the campgrounds, and the slavers drew their arms. Even from this distance, he could read their lips.
"So, we have a raider, and a super mutant. Got some wares to sell us today?" A slaver with a radical mohawk, who looked as though his hygiene was worst than a man deceased for a decade spoke to them.
Okay, now please, please say something to disarm them. Kelvin seemed to remain silent, and then the girl spoke. "No, neither."
"Great, what is she doing?" Greg became furious, and continued to read her lips.
"We're going to kill all of you and take your slaves so we can make a profit elsewhere." What was going through her mind? She apparently wasn't good at sticking to a plan.
She lowered her AK 47 to waste level and fired a burst of the 7.62x39mm ammunition. The muzzle of her rifle flared as 263 grain slugs ripped into the abdomen, neck and head of the first man, and through the legs of the second man dropping them both.
As she fired off rounds, several men in the camp looked over quite alarmed. Greg took aim into the center of the group as they ran at the entrance to the camp and fired a single round. This time, he managed to do it without being flung anywhere, though his shoulder took quite a slam. In microseconds, the five pound metal slug had reached it's destination and practically vaporized the men he was aiming at. The round continued through the group, and into a building marked "Slaves."
"Damnit!" Greg yelled as he stood up throwing the railgun down. The first chance he had, he was getting rid of it. He proceeded to run downhill as fast as he possibly could.
As he reached the entrance, it was a field of death and carnage. Mutilated slavers were ripped apart by his shot. The smell was horrendous and intestines were everywhere, as well as their contents. Many slaves seemed to have survived and had gotten out of the slave camp.
He saw Gary kneeling over Wesley. "No, did Wesley get hurt? Is he okay?"
"If I had functional tear ducts, I would shed tears over this grievous loss!" Gary shook his head as he spoke.
"He was just a child, he didn't deserve this!" Greg was almost in tears himself. He had never shed a single tear over losing somebody, so this was a new feeling entirely for him. As he pushed his way past Gary, he saw Wesley laying there. "No, no, no! This is all wrong!"
Suddenly, Wesley started laughing, them suddenly shut up at the furious look on Greg's face. "Uh oh. I'm sorry master! She told me to do it!" Wesley's finger quickly pointed straight at the raider, who was now in hysterics, her laughter uncontrollable.
This sort of disarmed Greg's temper. For some reason, it made him feel warm in his stomach seeing her so happy. Though it should infuriate him, he would let it slide.
"I found the scientist." That was Kelvin's voice. And there, Kelvin was, holding the scientist by his collar over his back.
Meanwhile!
"Elizabeth, what are you doing! You can't go out there by yourself. You'll never make it. I am pleading with you to stay." Rick was on his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks as he begged his daughter.
She finished lacing up old leather combat boots. She had bloused camouflage fatigues into them with a weaver style belt around her waste. Her upper body was adorned by a green tank top.
"I don't have much of a choice, father. I decided I fell in love with him. When that vehicle blasted past Ridgeton, I knew, I just knew he was on it. I don't know how far it went, but I will follow it to the ends of the Earth for him." She finished talking as she tied her now shoulder length golden locks into a ponytail. Her bangs just above her eyes, she looked more determined than she ever had before. "Besides, I wont be alone."
"Oh, and just who is going to accompany you on this insane journey?" Her father looked skeptical.
"You, of course. Who else? You've accompanied me everywhere I've ever gone. And don't try to say the town needs you. The town has always functioned remarkably without you!" She wasn't even going to give him the chance to argue out of this one. She was a master merchant after all.
"Fine, but we should get supplies and come up with a plan first before we leave." Rick knew he wouldn't win this argument, but he would be as stubborn as ever.
"I've already got the supplies together because I knew you wouldn't object, much. I already have a plan as well." She was grinning with confidence, and ready to go.
She had acquired a nearly mint condition AR 15 in her last trip, and she had it slung over her shoulder with several magazines of ammunition on a load bearing vest. The ammunition, 5.56x45mm was common enough to find in the wastelands, and many people were now reloading the brass if not making new rounds entirely. Thus her backpack had even more in it.
"We're not waiting anymore, we're going. Right now." She brushed passed her father, who only had a short while to get his things together and catch up with her.
Her father sighed. Had his daughter finally lost it? She was going to go through all this for a single man? She was always a tom boy growing up. It was only in her early teenage years that she became more girlish. Though she still had the wild sense of adventure and would always be willing to leave town in search of new supplies.
"I suppose, I cannot persuade you. As my daughter, I have no choice but to protect you." He made the first move in climbing down the ridge, which surprised his daughter.
The tracks at the bottom were the only path they had to go by. He hoped his daughter was right, and that they would find Greg at the end. Better than remnants of the enclave, which is what he feared was responsible for the devastation of the city.
"Greg, I will find you."
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- Chapter Seven
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"I'm assuming we have the right to decline this mission?" Greg crossed his arms over his chest. He really didn't feel like helping this guy, and just wanted to be on his way to see Elizabeth.
Joe chuckled, which sounded muffled and strangulated behind his faceplate. "No, you don't. Not if you ever want to leave Frisco."
"You're incredibly annoying. How do you plan to keep us in here? We'll find a way out." Greg looked around, figuring how easy it would be to sneak around the large city.
"You could, if you wanted the Brotherhood to hunt you. You've been labeled as possible spies, trying to steal technology from us. It is now up to you to prove your innocence." Joe, and his smug attitude. Greg really wanted to just hit him.
Greg sighed, the trouble he was getting himself into over women was beginning to make it seem unworthy of his time. "And I suppose you don't need any evidence to make such accusations?"
"Espionage is a serious issue. While you are not guilty as of yet, you cannot leave Brotherhood controlled land without your name being cleared. You can clear it yourself, or you can wait for our investigators to clear you. That may take a few decades." Joe was feeling quite proud of himself.
"Only a few decades? I'll wait." Greg yawned, and instantly became uninterested.
"Well I sure as hell wont!" The raider apparently had great speed and had Joe by the throat. A boot knife, which she apparently hid in the sole of her boot was pressed to his jugular. "I should kill you where you stand!"
Joe seemed unworried, he must have anticipated this type of behavior. "While I may not be a true Brotherhood member, yet, they still consider me their own. If you were to kill me, every member of the Brotherhood will come after you. Your tortures would be severe, and slow. Did I mention, all of you? We do practice guilt by association." And Joe broke into a hysterical laugh. "But don't hate me, I'm not the bad guy here. I'm not the one who recklessly assaulted an initiate of the Brotherhood."
"Blah, blah, blah. Get a little more self important there, will you? While I'm nowhere near as intimidated by the Brotherhood as you are, I do have an important schedule to keep. I don't feel like dealing with pesky children who couldn't survive a day in the wilderness by themselves. Much like you, Joe." Greg gave it a second, for Joe to try to make a come back. As soon as Joe did, Greg continued. "So, I'll do this silly little mission of yours. Explain the details here and now so we can get started on it as soon as possible."
"Gr, you should watch your tongue. Your mission is to infiltrate a slaver camp. You are to confirm if a certain person is in their possession. If so, buy that person, or kill all the raiders and take that person. Nobody else matters." Joe pulled out a folder, with a picture of a person in a white lab coat with thick glasses.
"Oh, a scientist. He should stand out and make this all kinds of easier. Kill the scientist and save the slavers, got it." Gary was now just trying to get a rise out of Joe.
"I never did think ghouls were very bright. Apparently, you're the dimmest bulb so far." Joe, thinking he insulted Gary, let out a small laugh.
"I'm not very bright am I? It's a good thing I designed that battle armor you're wearing. As well as the T-51B power armor, most Brotherhood wear. Oh, did I mention that railgun Greg made you wet yourself with? Yeah, I designed and built that one all by myself. Glad to see they made the battle armor in a size to fit pigs." Gary then proceeded to stand behind the super mutant.
"I'm not a shield, ghoul." Kelvin kept things simple.
Joe clenched the picture in his hand, wrinkling it. "Just do this, and get out of my face!"
Greg snatched the picture, and walked out the gate followed by his "team." They collected their weaponry and kept on walking. As Joe watched them walk off, his frown turned into a grin and began to think about the terrible things those slavers would do to them.
"So, Gary. Should we just kill the slavers indiscriminately without even talking to them?" Gary had no intention of trying to talk to slavers.
"Well, that's the logical thing to do. Try and buy the scientist? Bullets are far cheaper." Gary snorted at the thought.
"Merciless, just the way I like it!" The raider girl seemed to be cheering up now. "No plan, right? We just walk in and murder, murder, murder! Ooh, I'm excited!"
"Well, I was going to just shoot them from a distance, to preserve our numbers. But, I have a better idea now." Greg formulated a plan in his head. "They'll obviously recognize me as a scavenger. Scavengers don't buy slaves.
"Well why not? Scavenging would be easier with slaves to distract the things that want to kill them?" the others could feel the confusion sweeping across her face, despite it being hidden behind a gas mask.
"Well, it tends to be against our work ethic, I guess you could say." Greg was now trying to keep things simple.
"Oh, I get it, because it'd be easy for them to survive and get away. Then you'd be wasting money!" She clapped her hands together in front of her.
"Well, yeah sure." Greg decided to give up on explaining human rights. "So here is the deal, you and the mutant will approach the camp as you're the most likely candidates for purchasing the slaves." Greg pointed to the girl, and Kelvin. "Gary and Wesley, you will stay out of sight, but within range to attack when the trap is sprung." Gary and Wesley nodded. "As soon as I snipe my first target, you will all engage. Understood?"
The group seemed to echo in unison, "Got it."
An entire day had gone by, and they had finally located the camp. Greg pulled up his railgun, and the sights amplified his vision to ridiculous levels. He watched Kelvin and the girl approach the campgrounds, and the slavers drew their arms. Even from this distance, he could read their lips.
"So, we have a raider, and a super mutant. Got some wares to sell us today?" A slaver with a radical mohawk, who looked as though his hygiene was worst than a man deceased for a decade spoke to them.
Okay, now please, please say something to disarm them. Kelvin seemed to remain silent, and then the girl spoke. "No, neither."
"Great, what is she doing?" Greg became furious, and continued to read her lips.
"We're going to kill all of you and take your slaves so we can make a profit elsewhere." What was going through her mind? She apparently wasn't good at sticking to a plan.
She lowered her AK 47 to waste level and fired a burst of the 7.62x39mm ammunition. The muzzle of her rifle flared as 263 grain slugs ripped into the abdomen, neck and head of the first man, and through the legs of the second man dropping them both.
As she fired off rounds, several men in the camp looked over quite alarmed. Greg took aim into the center of the group as they ran at the entrance to the camp and fired a single round. This time, he managed to do it without being flung anywhere, though his shoulder took quite a slam. In microseconds, the five pound metal slug had reached it's destination and practically vaporized the men he was aiming at. The round continued through the group, and into a building marked "Slaves."
"Damnit!" Greg yelled as he stood up throwing the railgun down. The first chance he had, he was getting rid of it. He proceeded to run downhill as fast as he possibly could.
As he reached the entrance, it was a field of death and carnage. Mutilated slavers were ripped apart by his shot. The smell was horrendous and intestines were everywhere, as well as their contents. Many slaves seemed to have survived and had gotten out of the slave camp.
He saw Gary kneeling over Wesley. "No, did Wesley get hurt? Is he okay?"
"If I had functional tear ducts, I would shed tears over this grievous loss!" Gary shook his head as he spoke.
"He was just a child, he didn't deserve this!" Greg was almost in tears himself. He had never shed a single tear over losing somebody, so this was a new feeling entirely for him. As he pushed his way past Gary, he saw Wesley laying there. "No, no, no! This is all wrong!"
Suddenly, Wesley started laughing, them suddenly shut up at the furious look on Greg's face. "Uh oh. I'm sorry master! She told me to do it!" Wesley's finger quickly pointed straight at the raider, who was now in hysterics, her laughter uncontrollable.
This sort of disarmed Greg's temper. For some reason, it made him feel warm in his stomach seeing her so happy. Though it should infuriate him, he would let it slide.
"I found the scientist." That was Kelvin's voice. And there, Kelvin was, holding the scientist by his collar over his back.
Meanwhile!
"Elizabeth, what are you doing! You can't go out there by yourself. You'll never make it. I am pleading with you to stay." Rick was on his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks as he begged his daughter.
She finished lacing up old leather combat boots. She had bloused camouflage fatigues into them with a weaver style belt around her waste. Her upper body was adorned by a green tank top.
"I don't have much of a choice, father. I decided I fell in love with him. When that vehicle blasted past Ridgeton, I knew, I just knew he was on it. I don't know how far it went, but I will follow it to the ends of the Earth for him." She finished talking as she tied her now shoulder length golden locks into a ponytail. Her bangs just above her eyes, she looked more determined than she ever had before. "Besides, I wont be alone."
"Oh, and just who is going to accompany you on this insane journey?" Her father looked skeptical.
"You, of course. Who else? You've accompanied me everywhere I've ever gone. And don't try to say the town needs you. The town has always functioned remarkably without you!" She wasn't even going to give him the chance to argue out of this one. She was a master merchant after all.
"Fine, but we should get supplies and come up with a plan first before we leave." Rick knew he wouldn't win this argument, but he would be as stubborn as ever.
"I've already got the supplies together because I knew you wouldn't object, much. I already have a plan as well." She was grinning with confidence, and ready to go.
She had acquired a nearly mint condition AR 15 in her last trip, and she had it slung over her shoulder with several magazines of ammunition on a load bearing vest. The ammunition, 5.56x45mm was common enough to find in the wastelands, and many people were now reloading the brass if not making new rounds entirely. Thus her backpack had even more in it.
"We're not waiting anymore, we're going. Right now." She brushed passed her father, who only had a short while to get his things together and catch up with her.
Her father sighed. Had his daughter finally lost it? She was going to go through all this for a single man? She was always a tom boy growing up. It was only in her early teenage years that she became more girlish. Though she still had the wild sense of adventure and would always be willing to leave town in search of new supplies.
"I suppose, I cannot persuade you. As my daughter, I have no choice but to protect you." He made the first move in climbing down the ridge, which surprised his daughter.
The tracks at the bottom were the only path they had to go by. He hoped his daughter was right, and that they would find Greg at the end. Better than remnants of the enclave, which is what he feared was responsible for the devastation of the city.
"Greg, I will find you."
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