Fallout: Storm Over The Mojave

[BaldurAnthology]

After awhile, Shiori calmed down, and remembered Jason had asked if she was hurt.

 

"No, I'm uninjured, I've had training in acrobatics and other things, so the shove just caused that training to kick in. I was just so upset, I mean, Other than the old paint guns that my adopted Mother and I used for training, I've never had a gun or any weapon pointed at me before. I probably look worthless to you lot." Greebo suddenly looked stern, and he looked her dead in the eye, replying,

 

"No. You do not look worthless, you simply look inexperienced and young. You have nothing to be ashamed of, even though you cried. That was a trying experience for you, but you still tried to hold your own and shoot the man, until I intervened." Shiori noticed that in his agitated state, his normal verbal tics were gone. Greebo solemnly handed her back her Plasma Defender, and she decided she needed air, and went outside to see where Sheriff had gone. She saw the woman leaning on the wall, and glomped onto her, saying,

 

"I'm sorry. I must have looked so pathetic to you. I mean, sure I got the reflexes, but when a weapon was aimed my way.. all I could do was freeze, then cry. Even though I was going to shoot him, Greebo wouldn't let me, and then I just.. I don't know, crumbled. I'm sorry, I will understand if you don't want to teach someone worthless like me." Her face was one of shame and regret, her bangs hanging over her head which hung slightly.

[mythicdawnmaster]

Sheriff looked at Ronin from under the brim of her hat, still savouring her cigarette. Once he'd said his piece, she commented honestly "A monster? Huh, i don't think your a monster- And i've got no quarrel with your kind either, whatever you may be renowned for, i don't judge a book by it's cover, or it's opening paragraph." Sheriff blew out a cloud of smoke, and lifted her hat a little "I just think you acted on a situation that looked like something else, generally it pays not to ask questions around the wastelands, and shoot first, find out the one you shot is innocent after, at least that's how the story usually goes. But this one has so many twists i don't know where to start." She finished, before the figure of Shiori came running out of the HQ, and grabbing onto her leg. Sheriff listened to what the girl said, and replied "Don't want to teach someone worthless like you? You aren't worthless kid- No one's worthless. You are scared, which is natural... i think. You and i have grown up a little differently Kid, i wasn't aloud to be scared." Sheriff said looking away for a moment "But i'm not gonna let the fact you are scared in this hellhole of a place stop me from teachin' ya, because deepdown, we are all scared, be it from the dangers that lurk around this place, be it death, be it what we may become, but fear is there, however small or large an amount.." Edited November 1, 2012 by mythicdawnmaster

[Flipout6]

Jason followed Shiori out of the building. It seemed that both he and the Sheriff grew up in a similar fashion. Only with Paladin Gunny, Jason was taught to master his fear instead of simply eliminate it. Fear was one of the ultimate biological power sources so long as it didn't dominate the mind. Shiori. was latched onto the Sheriff and insulting herself. Calling herself a weakling. Jason's expression hardened a little bit. This was not something he'd allow to continue without some attempt to fix it.

 

"This cannot persist. You kill or be killed. I can help teach you these things."

 

 

Thames saw some activity out front, looked like a child, or perhaps a young teenager, was quite distressed about something. A few others followed her out, including a very stern and unfriendly-looking fellow, a regulator, with a German Shepherd trotting alongside him. That was the man Thames was after. He rose up from the crouched position he adopted near the trooper's grave and walked down a hill towards the headquarters. He kept his weapons holstered, nearly all of these figures looked like they could, even on their own, put up at least a fair fight. The two most able-looking that appeared to be sticking together, namely the regulator and a purple-clad woman, looked like they could beat him. The tribal didn't appear to be part of the same group, and he wasn't sure about the ghoul. There were numerous ranger Ghouls, and despite them not being as strong as a regular human they had experience to compensate. He was about 250 yards from the headquarters now, enough for him to get a detailed assessment of anyone outdoors. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd get, in particular from the regulator.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Flipout6

[Macman253]

A scent wafted to Ronin's nose...It smelled of kevlar and gun oil. "NCR..." He thought, he drew his bow and continued to sniff the air. The man was far out but he was upwind, a ranger wouldn't make that mistake normally so he wasn't thinking clearly. He slid an arrow from his quiver and laid it on his bowstring and pinched another between his forefinger and the bow itself.

 

"We have company..." He said to the rest, "Human, smells of Kevlar and gun oil.." He said as he took in a deep breath, "two hundred yards." He said as he ducked low and slipped behind a rock and quickly moved out of sight.

[Flipout6]

"I know." Jason said. Similar to how Thames had spotted him from far out, so too had Jason seen him. And judging from his stance, he was steamed about something. Jason stood up straight, keeping his hand near his gun, although not obviously so. "I can handle a ranger."

 

He could tell that this had the potential to end badly....for the ranger. He walked with the arrogant, self-righteous strut of a flag-wearer for the NCR. This man was one of the ones who thought the NCR could do as they please. That meant he would be confrontational, would despise the regulators and definitely Ronin, and automatically think he owned the place. Jason was fully aware that the armaments the ranger carried rivaled or even surpassed his own. His skills in combat, however, were not so apparent.

 

 

Thames watched as the tribal disappeared behind a rock. Ronin was quite stealthy, and if Thames hadn't been watching the group like a hawk he'd never have noticed it. He reached the entrance to the Gibson Scrap Yard and walked in. He had already attracted the ire of Jason, who kept an open -if disapproving- mind. He had his hand close to the Cowboy Repeater on his back. Jason, whom he was after, was armed to the teeth just like Thames himself was. He could already tell he wasn't liked, or at least that was the impression he got from Jason's stone-cold expression and demeanor. This was the kind of man who could kill without remorse...and would have no problem overpowering a lone trooper.

 

"Regulator, come here. I have questions I need answered." Jason cocked an eyebrow and complied, staying a good two metres away. He took off his sunglasses. Thames moved behind the exterior wall, and Jason leaned against the corner. This ranger tried anything and people would know. "I know you know the robed woman. The one with a power fist. Don't lie to me about this." Jason said nothing, and was looking the ranger dead in the eyes. "Tell me what you know about her. Now." He emphasized. Jason shrugged.

 

"She's a scavenger. Nothing to tell." Even while lying he was cold and emotionless. Thames didn't like that answer, and put his hand on his gun.

 

"You're lying, regulator. Tell me what you know or there will be consequences." Jason rolled his eyes.

 

"Such as...?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

 

"Arrest and interrogation against your will." Thames said. He knew he was on to something, and his hatred for the Brotherhood ran deep. He usually had a far better temper than this. He grabbed Jason by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. They were of equal height and similar build. "Now, you going to tell me what it is I need to know, or am I going to have to hurt you?" His answer was a boot to the chest that sent him stumbling backwards.

 

"Self-defense. This is why your trooper is dead." He growled. "Threaten me, threaten Guardian, threaten my friends...it won't end well."

 

Thames was furious by now. He didn't bother with his gun, trying to kill Jason would result in every Regulator in the building shooting at him. Even against the Legion he had a far longer temper than he did here. He swung a punch, only to be easily countered by Jason's scribe counter. He could see now that this Regulator was not to be underestimated. "That was a Scribe Counter. That's Brotherhood training."

 

"It's a counterattack. One of thousands." Jason replied simply, moving in for another hit to teach this anger a lesson before he let him go. He hit the dirt flat on his back, his feet swept out from under him by the Ranger Takedown attack, something that Jason himself could emulate. Thames booted him in the face, bloodying his nose and sending his head flying back. Jason leapt to his feet. This ranger was a competent fighter as well. "You need to calm yourself." Jason instructed the Ranger. "A hot temper gets men killed."

 

Thames did clear his mind a little bit. "Whatever, murderer!" Jason shook his head, but was cut off by Thames. "That man you killed? The trooper whose throat you slit? He had a family. He had friends. And you killed him."

 

Jason nodded. "I did, no denial. However, he threatened Guardian and I, even after I warned him not to force my hand." Jason wondered how the others would react to this. He looked to them. "No need to interfere, any of you."

Edited November 1, 2012 by Flipout6

[Macman253]

Ronin stalked around the corner, his bow drawn taught and aimed at the Rangers head, the ranger was arrogant and loud. Something Ronin hated about NCR.

 

"The Bear has no business ordering people who do not belong to it.." He said as he came around, the arrowhead on his bow had a wicked barbed tip. "Think wisely Ranger, you draw you might kill him, but this place has well over fifty Regulators...you wouldn't survive it and we'd bury you in the desert." He said coldly, he hated NCR almost as much as he hated the Legion but the NCR wasn't bad they just cared more about expansion then taking care of their own.

[Flipout6]

"I have no qualms with you, Ronin. You saved some of my fellows, word spreads fast." Thames said. He even avoided the term "tribal" which, if it were any other, he would have used. "I don't wish to make us enemies. You, however, have already done so." He glared at Jason, whose moustache area was now smeared with blood from his nose. "Killing an innocent man in cold blood. Despicable. Like a raider, but worse, as you use your status as a cloak.

 

Jason almost laughed. Almost. "Oh, that was not on behalf of the Regulators. What you're doing now, threatening people, sending subortinates to stalk and threaten people, that is." Jason was on a roll today, not for arguments but for actually saying more than a single word per hour.

 

Thames' face darkened. "I do this for the good and safety of all! The Brotherhood is no more than a raider clan with advanced tech! They don't care for anyone but themselves! They'd kill all of us to achieve their goals!"

 

Jason was unfazed, but sorely tempted to show this ranger his dogtags and say 'they wouldn't kill me.' He didn't do so, however. The less people knew he was Brotherhood, the better, including his friends. "Ignoring Bitter Springs..." Jason countered slyly. "Ronin is right. You could draw weapons, but even if you killed me, my fellows would kill you."

 

"That man had a family to feed." Thames muttered.

 

"Are you here about the Brotherhood, or your soldier?" Jason asked. "Because you don't seem to care about your man so much as wiping out a society. NCR, alright." He added menacingly.

 

Thames was apoplectic by now. Only the risk of losing his own life stopped him from trying to gun Jason down. "We're enemies, Regulator. You're a Brotherhood sympathizer if I ever saw one....if you're not Brotherhood yourself. I'm leaving now...You'll hear from me again. Perhaps on even grounds, where you don't have all your buddies to back you up, like a playground bully...." He stormed off.

 

Jason turned to the group. "He's a fanatic. We'll run across him again." He was still curious to see how the group reacted to the murder of the trooper. Jason saw it as justified murder, but murder nonetheless. He felt a good bit of guilt over it. His face, as usual, showed nothing except blood trickling from his nose.

[mythicdawnmaster]

Sheriff by now had finished her cigarette and had 'Peace' firmly gripped in her right hand. Once the NCR ranger- Who seemed to have a stick way too far up his ass left, Sheriff replied to Jason's comment that the NCR guy would be back "And when he does he'll run straight into a hail of bullets. I don't let harm befall my companions." She remarked, looking at Shiori, and then Greebo and Jason. "So, where is it you are all headed? clearly i'm gonna be tagging along to teach the Kid a thing or two." Sheriff remarked in a more happy tone than her usual serious one, hoping her words would settle Shiori's doubts.

[Macman253]

Ronin slackened on the arrow and watched as the Ranger walked away, he spat on the ground and growled "I remember men like him from when I was a boy...Years ago my tribe moved west to settle for a NCR homesteading Loan, I was a boy, my father brought my mother and my two brothers and my sister along with five other families, they wanted to create more friendly association with tribals. A brahmin baron by the name of Gunderson didn't like tribals living near his ranch. My father who was a peaceful man went out hunting...he killed a bighorner when Gunderson was going to shoot it for sport, my father killed it to keep our tribe alive. Gunderson was furious and he decided the way to get the tribals off his land was to make it illegal to hunt within a five hundred mile radius of his ranch." He said as he watched the Ranger walk away.

 

He remembered the Ranger's enforcing Gunderson's laws on the tribes. "Anyone caught breaking that law was captured and put in front of a firing squad...My father resisted, they came for him in the night...I was out because I had an arguement with him and was angry. When I came back everyone was dead...I headed east and never looked back." He continued as he wrapped the bow around his leg and took the string off to relieve tension.

 

"I saved that Ranger because they got in the way of my targets, but because of a promise I made I will NOT hunt NCR even though they deserve to be so... Every Legionary I kill brings me one more step to avenging my tribe... Women, children, sick and old were butchered or enslaved. The men were forced into the legion and then butchered as the first to run into the NCR's fire at Hoover Dam." He said to Jason, He knew he was brotherhood but he didn't care. Ronin ran a hand through his braids and sighed, the adrenaline finally subsiding in his body.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Macman253

[Flipout6]

Jason listened sympathetically to Ronin's story. Looks like both of them had a rough past. Death, misery, schisms and arguments, both of them had that. His face softened....just a little. He wasn't willing to talk about his own past, but he patted Ronin on the shoulder sympathetically. Deaths happened all the time in the wasteland, especially in the Capital. Soon as the need for blind revenge was over the only thing left was grief. Jason, like anybody, knew this as from experience. He'd lost more close friends than Ronin, but never family....He never knew his parents. He was told he was an orphan, but that didn't stop him from wondering who they were.

 

"We've both lost people. That we have in common." He said. This time there was the faintest trace of emotion in his voice. A combination of grief and nostalgia. But it was a very faint trace.

 

Thoughts rushed through his head. Memories, mostly. Despite his attempts to cut them short-this was not the time- they continued to linger. He remembered one day where three of his closest friends died in a single day, that one day a Behemoth attacked GNR. Jason and them had been posted at the GNR complex that day. One died when a mutant ravaged him with a super sledge. The other two, Reddin and Torm, were killed by the behemoth. It took the entire Lyons' Pride and The Lone Wanderer combined to bring the beast down. This had been Jason's last year or so with that chapter, and also the most devastating. The war with both the Enclave, the mutants, and the schism with the Outcasts resulted in many casualties. Jason shook his head, and finally cleared those thoughts from his head. The last half hour before he went to sleep was the time to reflect, not the middle of the day. He had a child to watch over.

 

He turned to Shiori. "See what he did? How he knocked me over. That's what I wanted to teach you." He told her. "Offer is still open."

Edited November 2, 2012 by Flipout6