Fallout: Storm Over The Mojave

[Macman253]

Jace smiled but his helmet shielded it from view. He checked the charge on the defender and tucked it into his holster. His HUD lit up with warning signals and showed a passive heat scan of the nearby area. REPCONN was giving off extreme amounts of body heat, Jace knew this meant they were forming for a second attack. He took the plasma rifle from his shoulder and started walking towards REPCONN. He looked over to a scared local. "Go tell your defenders to setup a defense in the apartment, the battle for Novac isn't quite finished..." The citizen nodded and ran off after the Jason and the Ghoul.

 

Jace checked his cell count, they were all charged and ready but he was worried more about the town. He shook the fear off and took off at a run. The exo-suit built into his armor giving him greater speed and dexterity. The short couple of miles would take an average person a few hours, he did it in twenty minutes. He dropped down and snuck his way up to the billboard by the road block entrance. He could hear them...hundreds if not thousands of ferals.

 

He peeked around, his HUD showing well over five hundred ferals tightly packed behind a barrier. There were maybe half a dozen pre-war cars in the road they were hanging about at. The GLF had fortified the front entrance to REPCONN heavily but they used Ferals as watch dogs. On the overpass above he saw two guards playing chess. He looked around, using his built-in camera to snap pictured of the ferals.

 

"Damn, not going to get through the front door." He said to himself but he noticed the rock wall along the side of the small ravine the entrance was built into was jagged, perfect for freehand climbing. He shouldered his rifle and jumped up and grasped a chunk of the rock, finding a foothold with his toe he started the slow journey. Hand over hand, foot over foot it took him hours. Once he was finally there it was nightfall.

 

Out of sight of the ferals he knew that for him to even make a dent in these ferals he would have to detonate the various pre-war cars they all packed around. He moved silently up to a small sandbag barrier. The two ghoul soldiers sat at the table smoking and drinking.

 

"Hey pete, whats the first thing you gonna do when we take Novac?" One asked. They both sat with their backs to him and their rifles not far away. His HUD scanned the rifles and showed they were 5.56mm rifles. He knew they wouldn't penetrate his armor but they would indeed rouse the others.

 

"Dunno Phil...but I haven't had some smoothskin tail since we raided that refugee caravan a month ago...figure ill drink all the booze I can and get me a smoothskin girl and lock up in a room with her." He said with a smile, they both laughed.

 

Jace seethed with hate and contempt. "These men call themselves soldiers but they are just bandits." He thought, he could feel his body temperature rising as his temper flared. He stood and walked over to Pete and tapped him on the shoulder.

 

"Hey Carl where you been, shift change was an hour..." he said as he looked back onto the striking visage of Jaces armor. Jace punched the ghoul with every bit of strength and hate he could muster, the ghouls half rotten body spun out of the chair, his head whipping around his neck with a sickening snapping noise like a machinegun going out of bullets as the vertebrae in his neck disintegrated. Phil stood up and reached for his rifle but Jace grabbed him with one hand and lifted him up off his feet and over his head, he brought him down spine first on his knee and the ghouls spine shattered.

 

He looked around and saw a belt of frag grenades laying on the ground nearby and rigged them to the injured man. Jace took his rifle off his shoulder and aimed, he fired one shot into the each car, the silence of the night was broken by six large explosions that devastated the ghouls. Bits and pieces of feral ghoul flesh went skyward, only to fall to earth miles away. The alarms of REPCONN came to life and the men started pouring out of the facility.

 

He turned to the crippled man and removed his helmet. "See me, I'm a smoothskin and my name is Jace Winters...tell your bosses I'll Kill You All!" The ghoul looked terrified at the stranger that just wiped out all of their ferals. Jace stepped up on the sandbags that lined the Overpass and put his helmet back on. He dropped down and hit the ground hard, the concrete spider webbing around his feet, he took off at a full run back towards Novac.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Macman253

[BaldurAnthology]

Greebo continued towards the Regulator HQ, ignoring the sounds behind him, still partially dragging the furious Jason along.

 

"My dear boy, there is no use going back there and killing one Enclave sod. Kill one, you get more after you. You have to look at the bigger picture. Besides, if those were ghouls I just heard, let Enclave boy deal with them." He slowed down a bit and stated,

 

"Boy, I don't know whether what he said about you and the Brotherhood of Steel is true, but quite frankly dear boy I don't care. If you were Brotherhood, I see no fault in that. You are a decent man, with strong morals, and one I would consider my friend. Now, what say we cash in my claim for this bounty, and go get some ammo, eh? I think better on a full ammo belt, eh what? Haha!"

[Flipout6]

Jason listened to the explosions and screams coming from the GLF headquarters and decided there would be no attacks for quite some time. He nodded and said nothing, wrenched his arm from Greebo's grasp (old ghoul had a tight grip.) and began walking on his own. Guardian stayed glued to his side.

[Macman253]

Jace got back to Novac quickly, he knew it wouldn't be long before they retaliated. He checked the charge in his plasma rifle and fixed the tactical scope to the rifle, as he got back the two NCR snipers and an old woman stood there along with a man wearing a Ranger uniform.

 

"I am Jeanie May Crawford, this is Boone and Manny and that is Ranger Andy. Could you tell me who you are and what was the commotion over at Repconn?" She asked.

 

Jace removed his helmet, "Good to meet you, have your snipers post up in the apartment and get as many guns and bodies in the rooms as possible." He ordered, "You don't have much time...maybe till day break but they will attack." He said as he double checked the charge in his rifle.

 

Ranger Andy looked at him warily. "What gives you the right to order us around?" He asked. Jace sighed, he didn't have time to argue so he unlocked his forearm armorplate to reveal a NCR Ranger Tattoo. "Master Chief of the Elite Ranger squad." Andy looked at the tattoo and nodded, he grabbed his lever action rifle and cocked it. "Ok you grunts, get the guns and ammo into the motel and put the women and children into the dino MOVE IT!" He yelled to the militia.

 

After a few hours their defenses were setup, they placed wooden planks on the windows facing REPCONN and gathered whatever guns and ammo they could get.

 

"What about those two Regulators?" Asked Jeannie May asked Jace as he double checked the barriers.

 

Jace laughed, "Never count on vigilantes, they care only for their form of law and order...they won't help. If they do then they are better men then I thought." He said calmly as he finished his rounds with Jeannie May in tow. The townsfolk were nervous, the first attack had been fought bitterly and some of the ghoul corpses still laid about.

 

The GLF swarmed over the area around Novac, one of the snipers fired and struck a pair of the ghouls as they came around the McBride farm. Jace put his helmet back on and tapped the vision mode to low-light. He looked down the scope of his plasma rifle and waited. One of the ghouls came around a small shack in his view and he fired, the green bolt hit him in the chest and his flesh turned to goo, leaving a blackened skeleton behind.

 

The return fire was heavy, the barriers they erected provided some protection but the sheer number of ghoul soldiers was overwhelming. A scream came from the room next to him, one of the men got hit.

 

"I will not let these people die to bandits and murderers!" He thought as he fired a few more shots at a group of ghouls advancing towards the motel, one took it to the face and it vaporized the mans head, leaving nothing but a cauterized stump for a neck.

 

Ranger Andy sprung up and fired a shot that took a ghoul full in the heart. "They just keep coming!" He yelled over the roar of battle. Jace knew they were limited, this was the advanced party. If they break their back they won't send another at least not for awhile. "Keep fighting, these are the grunts..." He said as he popped up and fired again, a bullet hit his helmet and knocked him over, the round left a dent over the right eye of the Duraframe helmet.

[Flipout6]

As he walked down the road, Jason was thinking. Greebo was quite a bit more lenient than he was in a variety of different situations. He was beginning to see Greebo as a friend as well, but that was about it, as they didn't have much experience working together. He could probably figure out that Jason had mercilessly executed defenseless raiders before, even as they begged for their lives. If not, he should know that Jason was definitely the type to do so. He was merciless against those he didn't think should be spared, such as raiders, legionairres, or Enclave soldiers. He continued to walk for the Regulator HQ, long before the battle began, even before Jace got back to town.

 

One of the citizens from the town approached Greebo, apparently preferring to talk to the friendlier one. Jason wasn't surprised.

 

"That one Enclave guy, Jace, he says there's gonna be another attack soon." He said.

 

"We're not going far." Jason said. "We'll be back soon." He'd just head to the headquarters with Greebo and then stay in Novac for a day or so, just as a bit of a safeguard.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Flipout6

[Macman253]

A armor piercing bullet tore through the wall and blew away his plasma rifle, the weapon sparked as the electronic trigger kept firing off and sending sparks pouring out of the destroyed housing. Jace pulled the cell out of its holding and tossed the weapon away. Bullets raked the exterior of the motel and everyone inside kept their heads down.

 

 

"Were out of ammo!" Yelled Andy, Jace drew his defender and clicked the safety off. He turned towards the door and kicked it off its hinges. The door flew out into the courtyard, He lept from the second story railing and landed hard on the ground. When he came around the corner he caught four heat signatures...these men were covering the others escape. He leveled his pistol and fired, the bolt of plasma shot through the air and hit one ghoul in the chest, turning him to a puddle of goo. The others turned their guns on jace, the 5.56 round ricocheted off his armor but a armor piercing round found its way into his arm and one into the meat of his leg. The pain racked his body but he fired back, dropping two bolts into the ghouls torso. The remaining two began firing on the run. Jace fired back but to no avail, blood poured from inside his armor and pooled at the ground around him. He fell back after the adrenaline in his body subsided and landed hard on the ground. He removed his helmet and smiled.

 

"Their safe..." He thought as he removed the arm plates to reveal his right arm was cybernetic, the bullet at punctured the armor plating and tore through the primary rotor, oil leaked heavily and mixed with his pooling blood.

[Flipout6]

Several nights before Novac, Ranger Thames was on patrol around the Colorado River, not hearing the distant gunfire. He was fairly unburdened by gear, carrying what he needed in a regular bag on his back, which helped make up for the slight reduction in speed hoisted upon him by his Ranger patrol armor. He cradled his cowboy repeater in his arms, the load lightened by the maply stock. He also had a long tube attachment, meaning he could fire more shots before he needed to reload. Five NCR troopers followed behind him, happy to get out of the camp for a while. Two of them used scavenged weapons, since Forlorn Hope had been practically abandoned by the NCR.

 

Thames was the first to spot a small Legion patrol far below them, walking along the shore of the Colorado. He silently pointed to them and the troopers readied their weapons and got into position. Noticing the distance, one of the troopers absentmindedly thought that it was a lucky thing he'd gotten slug rounds for his scavenged shotgun. Everybody went prone or crouched.

 

Thames, with the most accurate weapon, took the first shot, and after careful aim, the rearmost Legionairre fell to a shot to the neck. The troopers opened fire, and caught off guard, the patrol quickly fell. The troopers silently cheered, they had gotten some sort of revenge against the Legion for all it had put them through at Forlorn Hope. The rest of the patrol remained uneventful, and soon everybody was safely back at camp.

 

When he retired to the barracks, he was deep in thought. He'd recently been to the 188 trading post and had observed a meeting between two people, a regulator and a young woman. The woman had a power fist on her hand, which was expensive, advanced technology, yet she herself was poor, that much he knew. The regulator was a stranger to her, but within minutes they had retreated to a quieter location to speak privately, and didn't seem any friendlier to each other after they parted. Both of them had had a similar stance, even when relaxed, that of an experienced, highly-trained fighter, who could leap into action in an instant. Thames had heard the Brotherhood of Steel brought up in the conversation (although he still didn't hear much.) before they had retreated. The regulator also seemed to have coerced the woman somehow. He was a hard man, possibly evil, from what he'd seen. And his dog wasn't there simply for kicks. It all came together in his head. The woman was with the Brotherhood, and the regulator had coerced her somehow to secure leverage or a reward. Thames would have to investigate, he'd probably take a little detour in his off-duty hours to travel there himself, probably tell someone to keep an eye on her. These thoughts in mind, Thames fell asleep.

 

Later during the week he ventured to the 188 on a day off. He discreetly watched the robed woman like a hawk, noticing that she didn't seem to do much. However, she did appear to wear dog tags of some sort around her neck. He spoke with the CO of the troopers at the trading post, and told him to have someone watch her in his place once he left, as he suspected her of being with the Brotherhood of Steel. The man was persuaded to once Thames mentioned everything he had observed, and the CO still remembered the regulator that came through, along with the tribal. That had been an odd day. An NCR heavy trooper would be watching her from here on out from anything suspicious. Thames returned to Forlorn Hope in the evening, three nights before the battle.

 

The day of the battle he was patrolling the Colorado again, with a different set of troopers. He'd heard of some tribal that had aided a group of NCR raiders a few days ago, maybe he was still around for Thames to thank personally. He may disapprove of anyone outside the NCR, but he appreciated any aid to it.

 

 

 

Jason continued onwards to the Regulator HQ. He reached it fairly quickly, but before he could razz anybody for not defending Novac, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

 

"I need to speak with you." Veronica said quietly, almost whispered. He nodded and she led him to a quieter area outside. He gestured for Greebo to leave him alone for a minute. "Someone's been following me, watching me. A few days after our meeting a ranger spoke with the Commanding Officer of the troopers at the trading post. I can't go to Hidden Valley without exposing the whole chapter. If I kill him I'll get myself killed. Any ideas?" Jason nodded. "Spit it out!" She spoke as quietly as she could.

 

"Try throwing him off. I'll kill him if it doesn't work." He said. She nodded, reassured, and left somewhat hastily. Jason walked back into the barracks like nothing happened. He didn't see any NCR troopers nearby, but he'd be keeping an eye out. He hoped that Veronica managed to throw him off the trail, he didn't want to have to murder somebody. The NCR troopers might be arrogant and discriminating sometimes, but that's because they were raised to be patriotic. At the end of the day they were still regular people, not innocent, but then again, nobody in this world over the age of 5 was.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Flipout6

[BaldurAnthology]

Greebo went to his commander to claim his prize on the bounty, 100 caps, and collected a new contract. He grabbed some sniper bullets from a locker he stashed ammo in, and then he set about doing some maintenance on his sniper rifle.

 

Shiori looked excitedly at the Regulator HQ before her. She had heard that the Regulators were defenders of Justice and people that protected others from Raider attacks, and hunted bad guys. Sandro, her guard, limped into the HQ ahead of her, looking around for threats, and called out,

 

"Hey, Smooth.. uh, I mean Regulators! I got a young girl who needs an escort over here. She needs to find her parents, and I need to get back to the Capital Wasteland. If somebody, Anybody is willing to keep her safe, let them step forward." Shiori blushed at the sudden stares that she was getting from the regulators around.

 

Greebo was polishing his rifle when he heard the door open. No surprises there, members were always coming and going. However, what shocked him so much he nearly damaged his rifle was the raspy Spanish voice of Sandro, his friend from the capital. Setting aside his rifle, he walked over into the main room and saw his friend, wearing some odd outfit, with a young girl at his side. He exclaimed,

 

"Sandro, old boy! I thought you would be in the capital! What brings you all the way out here old bean?" Sandro indicated the young girl, and an unspoken agreement went between the old friends. Greebo turned his attention to the young lady.

 

"Hello there, young lady! Greebo Jones, at your service. I understand you need an escort. I'd be more than happy to help you young miss, if you'd have me." Shiori smiled, and spoke for the first time since entering the building, her voice soft, slightly shy, but combined with her looks she was absolutely adorable.

 

"Thank you, Mister Greebo. Sandro has told me a lot about you. I trust you, since he trusts you. Lead on, Greebo. Finding my parents isn't a top priority, I can help with whatever you need too. I'm good at picking locks, I can use and maintain almost all energy weapons, except a Plasma Caster, and am good with a blade too." Her eyes were gleaming slightly, and she took her place at the Redcoat's side. Sandro nodded, thanked Greebo for the Cordial he had sent him, and returned to the capital wasteland. Greebo returned to maintaining his gun, and Shiori pulled out a doll and played with it at his feet. Greebo waited for his friend Jason to return, so he could explain.

[Flipout6]

Jason returned promptly to the front of the building, intent on attracting as little attention as he could. He looked first at Greebo, and then Sandro, and then he noticed the small figure playing with a doll. He looked at Greebo with a raised eyebrow, saying nothing. He was not lost to the fact that the girl had a plasma defender in that holster. Guardian approached her and gently sniffed her, before he licked her face a few times. He sat down and looked curiously at her. Jason smiled internally, he loved that dog. His face didn't even soften, though.

[BaldurAnthology]

Greebo smiled at Jason, raising from his seat and indicating Shiori.

 

"There you are, old boy! This is Shiori. I've been told to keep her safe until we can find her parents, eh what? Shiori, this is my friend and travelling companion, Jason."

 

Shiori giggled at the dog who licked her, looking to see the man who owned him. When Greebo introduced her to his friend, she stood up, stowing the doll away in her pack, and looking up at the man's face, which was only a couple feet up. Seeing the intense look on his face, she shyly hid behind Greebo, softly saying to Greebo,

 

"He's your friend? He looks really scary. He looks all angry and serious." Greebo gently placed a hand on her head, and said,

 

"Don't worry, I can assure you he won't hurt you. Ah, look! Here comes Diefenbaker. Dief! Here boy!" His husky dog, Diefenbaker trotted obediently over towards Greebo, and noticed Shiori, pushing his head into her stomach for attention. She giggled and scratched him behind the ears, while he sat there happily panting at her.