[OOC: My god, you people are funny.]
Since William had basically instituted a 'Ladies first' response, Natsuki led him off to the requisition point where he could get Incinerators or Flamethrowers as he liked for this situation. One thing of importance that he would note was that all of the weapons were pristine. They made them here. There was no sign of wear and tear, and that requisition place looked to be STOCKED, lots of stuff with good soldiers guarding it, Heavy Troopers with Plasma Vulcans. After he got armed up and the girl was up ahead, Alice chimed in.
Alice: It should be safe for me to talk inside the suit, and for you to respond if you turn off the mic before you do. They have weird shit going on down here all the time now. That girl is called a Diclonius. Satellite feeds showed them as beings from Japan who could slice anyone apart that was nearby. Look at her back. The suit's filter should show them, the vectors. They're a sonic-vibrational force in limb form. Stay well out of her way. I'd love for one of their experiments to get out of hand like this one and kill the ones who are against us, but it's too indiscriinate and it'd probably never work...
She went silent, and they arrived at Bio-Lab 3. Only uhhh...well, it seems that the party was already starting. Natsuki cursed under her breath, suddenly looking decidedly...pissed. Why? Because she saw what they were handling, and that there were a few other soldiers already here. Big monster plant, right? Large monstrous stalk, like a prehensile neck leading down to brown roots that were thick and acting as a great amount of limbs for movement and leading up to an impressively-large mouth with teeth. Between all that, a helluva lot of thick vines that splinter off into more vines and are all over the place. They looked...strong. They looked like...they have big thorns, full articulation, and budding mouths of their own. This was one big ugly monstrous plant. But uhhh...you know what else was up?
Soldier: The plant talks!
Plant: No
shit, Sherlock! Tell me somethin' I
don't know!
Soldier: The plant's gone sentient. Fucking burn it!
Oh shit... No sooner had the song started up, then a number of the vines whipped around and knocked the Enclave soldiers right off their feet and against the walls or floor. The bastard was taking on the offensive, and looks like it wanted to get out in the worst way! And to top it off, it was trying to take the plasma rifles off the soldiers!
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Evan: You know, sometimes...I really wish I weren't so good at this. Fortunately, I have your knife.
Dudley: You be careful with that thing. That knife could slit my wrists faster than you could imagine.
Evan: I may be a light-weight, but I'm not clumsy.
Dudley: Well...I mean, I DID sock you a few times.
Evan: ...I'm on Med-X.
Nevertheless, he was able to get him untied and up on his feet. Geez, that was some fight last night... However, as they were getting ready to leave, Evan noticed a smoketrail. Something was heading East, vaguely in their direction. Evan was no fool. He and Dudley were in a so-so condition, mentally or physically, and they had to make some sort of report and get the Brotherhood to DO something. Because they DID learn something here. They had where, and they had increasing numbers, and they had a way in that obviously led to William getting killed, but he was one man and a team of Paladins could go in and do some damage. They had to get back, and that meant safely, or safety in numbers. So, he tried to flag over whoever that was.
The person in question was Hayes. Well, that's what people called him. Anyone saying different could go to hell. He was in his refurbished Flea, heading East while keeping some of the action away from himself like, you know, bombs when he would notice a kind of pulling-out campsite and a couple of guys trying to get his attention. Didn't seem like there was much around for an ambush, but hey...only he could decide. Risk it? Or screw it and keep going?
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"MUTANT'S LOG, NUMBER...UHHH...DUNNO. FORGOT."
"THEY MADE ME GO BACK TO THE DOC, AND I WANTED TO TASTE MAN-FLESH TONIGHT!! IT'S ALL THE STUPID WALRUS-MAN'S FAULT, 'CAUSE THEY CAUSE HE LOOKED FAMILIAR... I DON'T CARE!! I WANT MEAT!! BASTARDS SAID I COULDN'T EAT HIM OR HIS FRIEND, ONLY HIS GHOULS, AND THEY TASTE NASTY!!"
"DIS JOB SUCKS SOMETIMES... UHHH...FINISHED."
He had to run them back, all the way back to the Bethesda Ruins in his shopping cart backpack, and deliver them to him, the Doc. When he hollered, Doctor Bastion came out and the cart-pack with the walrus and Abe was lowered towards him. He grinned wildly.
Doc: Crawver! You're back! I missed you! So...how was the wasteland?
Abe? Crawver? You're at Bethesda, surrounded by Behemoth super mutants and the Doc is here. What will you do? What WILL you do?
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In the chaos of things at the Citadel, the black Vertibird made to leave with some precious cargo. It hadd Barry, Lucy, FalloutBob, and our surprise passenger...Shifty McGee! Shifty had attempted to Morse Danielle to not shoot at the thing, but she decided not to listen to him and instead aimed for one of the propeller motors. She took careful aim, letting the vertibird pass into her line of fire, she squeezed the trig-
The barrel of Danielle's gun sagged.
"We're even, sweetheart!"
She wouldn't have to guess whose voice that was. Obviously, the Enclave sniper had noticed Shifty's signal too. Yes, it had been aimed at Danielle, but when it was not... Well, you get the idea. Meanwhile, on board the vertibird itself...
"It was one of your men, that took my vision."
FalloutBob: Ummm...whoops?
"Nevertheless Sir, thank you for bringing me home...my new home."
FalloutBob: Well, you know... Priorities change, stuff's going on, and I need some time in the sick tank, otherwise I'll get addicted to hulking out, and we do NOT want that.
There seemed to be some issues with Barry from the girl, though. Why be so hard on the man? He was awesome!
"One more thing, Sir. You told me find out any information on the Brotherhood's next move? Bethesda Ruins. That's where The Brotherhood have narrowed down The Doc's location. We were going to be sent in to deal with him. They were preparing a huge assault to serve as a distraction while we made our way inside."
FalloutBob: Bethesda? BETHESDA?! I need to send out word to the BOX if that's the case. That man will pay...
Barry and Lucy knew nothing of Metal Gear Box, the stealthiest automated nuclear launch platform ever built, a self-motivated war machine.
FalloutBob: Huh, that's weird. I point a signal back there and all I get is GNR...
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And here's our autonomous boy now, the MGB! Currently, it was in an inert state after shooting down Gilford. Now...the MGB does not have a voice to speak with, but it has a brain, a mind. Let's peek in on its thoughts, shall we?
[HEADING=1]MGB STATUS - GOOD[/HEADING]
(Self Defense Mode)
(Radar System Jammed)
(Communications System Jammed)
CURRENT DIRECTIVES:
{1} Discover/receive evidence of Behemoth center of activity and/or Dr. Bastion. MISSION: Destroy.
{2} Destroy all attackers that attempt to destroy this unit.
{3} Re-establish contact with home base.
Waiting. Waiting. Still waiting. No new orders. Radar and communication inoperable. Attempting to re-establish contact. Negative. Full signal jam originating from point 'GNR'. Activating nuclear warheads. Denied. No authorization. Authorization cannot be granted without communication with home base. Origin of GNR signal not currently in line of sight for targeting. No current opposition.
Brotherhood of Steel member sighted.
BoS agent taking non-threatening posture. Continue processing decision. No orders to engage, but no orders will come while jamming is in effect. NOTE: Jamming from GNR cannot be ordered to stop remotely. If this was done as a ploy, nobody can tell them to stop without going to the station. Destruction would appear to be the logical means of ending the jam.
Unknown Impact: Top.
Remove offending attacker. Cannot locate. Target has moved.
Gauss Impact: Rear Port 2.
Frank was beginning to cause a bit of a problem, and the Box deployed those tendrils to get him the hell off of its back, but unfortunately it was having a helluva time with him, even ended up standing while trying to remove him.
MGB MENTAL NOTE: Request creators to install device to electrify armor surface.
This led to Frank dangling, though. And then...a jeep! A jeep driven by an army ghoul and rode in by a few BoS scouts and Gilford came drove into the area! Gilford was aiming a rocket launcher at the tendril-port that our boy Frank was stuck to.
Gilford: Hold still, Franky!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FIVE MINUTES AGO...
He had come across a few of the scouts along with a ghoul in a jeep. Gilford had been preparing to hoof it back to base, but he'dd seen down the street that Frank was blue and in a bit of trouble. He addressed the jeep driver now.
Gilford: You're the one that reported that giant machine, right? Well, one of our guys is stuck on it and he needs a hand. Let's get him out of there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jackson Badass Murphy was back. He was driving the jeep by the rear of the big bot at high speed, allowing Gilford to blast the tendril and get Frank to fall right in the back of the vehicle, where the scouts began to cut the machine's limbs away from him. A load of dynamite from the driver himself also exploded underfoot as the machine stepped down. Seemed to give it a trip-up, but they were on its shit-list now. They could see it sitting on its treads and following now. For now, Gilford was giving it rockets to think about, which it actually placed its arms in front of to protect itself.
Gilford: It's got a big freakin' eye there. Can only be a complex targeting system. We should take it out if we can, but not yet. We have to get this thing away from the Citadel.
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We now pause for station identification and go back for a moment to FalloutDavid, Wayne, and Stan. David Davidson had just remarked on the awesomeness of seeing Nukezilla blown up, and now he was kinda' watching Frank mess about with the MGB, chuckling at the man's antics.
"Sure was. Enclave huh?"
FalloutDavid: Yyyup.
Hang on, there was this...annoying light that...HEY! His favorite vertibird was leaving! And that BoS girl was aiming at it. Well, we can't have that! David suddenly fired over at her gun and watched it sag like his sniper rifle had before.
FalloutDavid: We're even, sweetheart!
"I had a friend with ties to the Enclave y'know, he loved all kinds of technology, mainly stuff that could help people though."
FalloutDavid: Hmmm, you don't say.
"Maybe you know him, his name is Arcade Gannon..."
FalloutDavid: Let me check my database. Hmmm...Arcade Gannon. Ah, here we go! Not on the hit-list, not considered a dangerous asset. Aha, that's why. 'Retired'. He don't work for us no more. Not in any official capacity.
From there, he attempted to contact a ride, but apparently all the radio channels in the area couldn't get contact for love of radio and god because of GNR right now. And then, the Box was attacked and it went off after the offending people in that jeep with Frank... David shrugged.
FalloutDavid: Guess I'm walking. If you guys have some business with me, let's get going. I'm heading north to the Empire of Dave.
Yeah...guess what HE finally annexed.
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FalloutJohn is sort of a laid-back kind of dude. He doesn't tend to yell or carry on. He's even-tempered, rather easy-going even. It's just that they put him in charge of a great deal of solid ammo weaponry and nasty explosions. He likes 'em, and he likes his Enclave Stinger hybrid-copter. Right now, Johnny Bo Drago - our man in the black powersuit with the blue highlights - is chilling against his chopper now, smoking a cigerette right through an open vent of his suit, which is normally used in the event of the normal air system breaking down. He was feelin' fine, having been informed that {A} the MGB was working now and {B} Bob had escaped. Nice day too.
[HEADING=1]
BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!![/HEADING]
FalloutJohn: Yyyup, that's a vertibird. They were right.
He'd received reports that a vertibird might've been abducted and then damaged by the people flying the thing, causing it to crash. Well, it'd appeared nearby, actually, so he was waiting for stuff to happen down in this here gully. The kaboom told him that whoever stole the machine wasn't going anywhere. They were either dead...
"Can we do that again?!"
...or close by. Yeah, funny thing. FalloutJohn had just watched three people rolling down the hill. One of 'em was on the Enclave hit-list, another had been observed by a slew of Eyebots as weird and dangerous, and the third was a dangerous elder woman. He dropped his cigarette, pulled out his Vindicator Prime gauss vulcan, and called over to the three.
FalloutJohn: Hey. Heeey. Aren't you guys suppose to be MY enemy or something? This is kind of awkward.
During this time, the whole affair had unexpectedly been made a John-A-Thon. We have Johnny Truant, we have FalloutJohn, and we have...this man! They called him John Smith, and he was a video game character. No, really! In as much as Barry was a superhero - THE FLASH! - this man is a character and his life is a video game. Where he hails from, we can only guess, but right now he had just witnessed a glorious 1000-point explosion, followed by a weird gathering of NPCs. The guy on the right could've been a hostile, but he hadn't quite gone red yet. He seemed to be in talk mode with the other three. Was this a cutscene? Could he interact with it? What was the plot? These graphics were so realistic too...
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The Eyebots were certainly going down faster now. It was all a rigorous application of Rule #37 in
The Seven Habits of Highly-Effective Pirates, which states that there is no overkill, only the open fire and the time to reload. They were cleaning up nicely, but unfortunately the Enclave had also read the book, and demonstrated so thusly...
11. Everything is air-droppable at least once.
The three vertibirds opened up from on high and dropped their super-sledge-wielding Replicants - android machines built directly into Enclave powersuits - onto the high walls of Megaton, where they attacked any person that was nearby, not caring at all how much the Lone Wanderer's weapon cache might tear into their armor if they could slam someone hard with a powersd freakin' hammer. There were at least half a dozen of them, faster and stronger than normall Enclave soldiers because they're all-machine.
4. Close air support covereth a multitude of sins.
The rapid-laser and plasma guns mounted on the vertibirds opened fire on the people inside Megaton. One of them was dedicating its full attention to Rose's Thorns, since - you know - they were the BoS and, therefore, enemies. However, there were things going on in other areas, such as...
3. An ordinance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
At the Springvale School, some Eyebots had tripped a number of boobytraps left at the supposedly-unoccupied school. Windows suddenly broke as railspikes and dynamite flew out and nailed the suckers before exploding loudly. This action would surely have stirred the owner of the boobytraps, a man by the name of Larry Hatchet...who was rather skilled with explosives, improvising, and so on. As it stood, these bots were toast, but there were more. Fortunately...
9. Never turn your back on an enemy.
12. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head.
13. Do unto others.
Several of the little buggers were being stabbed and slashed in half by a tall girl in robes called Oli. Between all of this happening out in the open, the remaining Eyebots around here didn't know who the hell to shoot, so they started shooting at uhhh...everything. Kind of silly, really, but they're simple devices. And one of 'em is jabbering on about space. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFgeustBpFk] Definitely gonna be one of those days...