//------------------------------// // Day 4 Part 2 // Story: Dark Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Day 4 Part 2 The screams of the Talon Company mercs and the angry shouts of the supermutants filled the air as the Ethan and Twilight approached the capital building. Ethan had long ago put away his gauss rifle and instead he’d retrieved a short black carbine with a scope attached to the top. They stepped onto the battlefield unnoticed by either side and began to stealthily make their way closer to the right side of the steps of the capital building. Suddenly a red lance of light shot out from the mutant ranks and impacted against Ethan’s chest. Ethan grimaced and raised the rifle in his hand before pulling the trigger and unleashing a tight three round burst into the offending mutant’s head which reduced it to a bloody pulp. “You ready for this Sparky?” Ethan shouted over the din of combat as both lines suddenly became aware of their presence. “Not really!” Twilight shouted back. “Good, people who think that they’re always prepared annoy me.” Ethan replied as his rifle flared again and a Talon merc dropped. Twilight nodded and raised her own plasma rifle and began to add to Ethan’s already withering wall of lead. It wasn’t long however until they were forced into the cover of several large pieces of fallen marble. Even with his armor and his strong skin Ethan couldn’t survive the combined fire of the mutants and the Talons simultaneously for very long, or at least not in his current armor. “Sparky you’re a magic unicorn, is there any chance that you can do more magic then telekinesis and teleportation?” Ethan asked Twilight. “I can do almost any spell given the right time.” Twilight replied with a nod. “Well is there any way you can make a one-way shield that’ll protect me from bullets and lasers and still allow me to fire out of it?” Ethan asked with a gleam in his eye. Twilight’s eyes lit up and she smiled at him. “Yes I can do that, although I won’t be able to hold it for very long.” She told him. “How long are we talking here?” Ethan asked as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a few plasma grenades and his plasma pistol. “Maybe half a minute, it might be less though. The shield works by absorbing the energy behind each attack and distributing it over its surface instead of just one point. Theoretically I could hold off one beam of intensely powerful energy forever but judging by the amount of enemy fire that isn’t an option.” Twilight replied with a frown on her face. “Good enough for me; tell me when you raise it.” Ethan told her with a smile. Twilight’s horn glowed briefly and Ethan suddenly found himself looking at the world through a crackling purple energy. “Go.” Twilight told him simply, Ethan nodded and rose to his feet. The Talons and the mutants opened up immediately and Ethan felt bullets and lasers bouncing off of the shield but he ignored them and focused on the task at hand. He pulled the pin on one of the plasma grenades and threw it with all his might. The grenade arced over the railings that the mutants were using as cover and just when it reached height level Ethan entered VATS and shot a single bolt of plasma into the grenade causing an explosion that cleared the area around it of mutants. Then he turned to the Talons (one of whom was lining up a shot with a missile launcher) and let fly the grenade. Just as the grenade and the missile met each other Ethan shot the grenade causing a large explosion that obscured the Talon’s view of him and took out a few of their members as well. That’s when Ethan felt the hot burning sensation of a gatling laser impacting against his chest cutting through his duster. Ethan ducked back down and gave Twilight a smile. “Thanks Sparky, I would’ve been toast without you.” Ethan told her. “Sorry that that laser got through, it was going to fast for me to distribute effectively.” Twilight apologized but Ethan only chuckled. “Don’t worry about it Sparky, I’m fine.” Ethan told. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get all of them.” Ethan said with a slight frown. “Are there few enough for us to make it through?” Twilight asked. Ethan tapped his chin thoughtfully before he reached into his back and withdrew several long tubes which he began to rapidly assemble into his new anti material rifle. When he was done Twilight’s eyes were bulging and Ethan chuckled. “This is meant to take out tanks and powerarmor, want to see what it does to mutants?” He asked her with a smile. Twilight nodded and Ethan rose to a crouch so that only the barrel of his rifle was visible from behind the marble barrier. The mutants and the Talons had gone back to killing each other and Ethan focused the scope’s reticle on the overlord with the gatling laser’s head. With a soft explosion of air the mutant’s head exploded into a fine red mist. Ethan worked rapidly and took down the other two overlords in the same fashion before the remaining supermutant masters noticed that they were gone. Then he ducked back behind cover where Twilight was giving him a quizzical look. “Hey Ethan?” She began. “Yes Sparky?” Ethan asked as miniguns fire ripped into their cover. “Are you compensating for something?” She asked nodding towards the enormous rifle. The Talon mercs and the supermutants were surprised when hearty laughing suddenly burst from behind their targets’ cover. *** “Where the hell did they all come from?” Knight Alex asked over the sound of the incoming mutant gun fire. “Does it really matter?” Knight Samuel asked as he hunkered down next to his partner. “No, but I’d really like to know!” Alex replied as he leaned over the wall and took a shot with his laser rifle. Spread out before the gate of the citadel was a literal green sea of mutants. They’d come out of nowhere and quickly overwhelmed the outer defense turrets along with the few men on patrol. Now that the main gate had been closed the Brotherhood of Steel had deployed squads along the front wall in an attempt to whittle away at the hoard. Knight Alex was not having a fun day… “Where are the Pride, shouldn’t they be out here?” Samuel asked before he rose and fired off another shot, a hunting rifle round pinged off of his helmet but he didn’t so much as flinch before he returned to his crouch next to his battlebrother. “I think they’re gearing up, the way I heard it they’re going to punch through the enemy lines.” Initiate Carmine said as he scurried up to the two knights and deposited a fresh supply of micro fusion cells. He was in normal recon armor but for some reason he lacked a helmet. “Thank you Initiat- keep your head down!” Alex suddenly shouted grabbing Initiate Carmine by the elbow and pulling him down into a crouch seconds before a bullet flashed through the space his head had been occupying. “I could’ve died.” Carmine said in shock. “Yes that usually happens during wars. Get your ass back inside Initiate!” Alex said before shoving Carmine in the direction of the door. “Why would he be out here without a helmet?” Samuel asked shaking his head in annoyance. “I don’t know, the kid is just asking for the Wasteland to bitchslap him.” Alex replied with a shrug. Suddenly the two knights heard the distinctive sound of a missile streaking towards them. Without a second thought they both leapt away from the edge of the wall. The missile impacted a few seconds later with a tremendous bang. “Well that was dramatic.” Samuel said before moving back to his place on the wall. *** Ethan and Twilight entered the capital building to find that it was oddly empty. “It’s qui-” Twilight began until Ethan grabbed her jaw. “That’s another thing you never say Sparky.” Ethan told her quietly. “Also this whole set up just screams trap, so when I tell you to teleport yourself out of here you teleport yourself to the museum without questioning it.” Ethan added sternly. “You don’t want my help?” Twilight asked. “If it’s a trap I’d rather it only be me caught in it, I’m hard to kill remember?” He told her with a thin smile. “Alright Ethan, are you sure you don’t want me to take you with me?” Twilight asked but Ethan shook his head. “No, I can probably get out regardless of what they have planned and I’ll be able to gather data either way. You on the other hand would be a burden.” He told her, Twilight looked hurt but she nodded slowly. “Okay Ethan.” She said quietly. “Good, let’s go.” Ethan said and they set off down the hallway heading towards the capital dome. They emerged into the great courtyard and Ethan let out a shocked gasp that was quickly followed by Twilight’s (although she was gasping more out of surprise where as Ethan was gasping in fear) Standing casually in front of them were two giant supermutant behemoths, sitting on a small throne between them was a large Nightkin overlord. “Ah there you are; I was wondering when you’d make it.” The Nightkin said in a surprisingly suave British accent. “Twilight teleport!” Ethan told her urgently. Twilight nodded and vanished in a flash of light. “So face to face at last Wanderer, how does it feel to look upon someone as glorious as me?” The Nightkin asked with a dark chuckle. “Have you ever seen brahmin shit, because I’d say that you’re somewhere between that and mirelurk shit but I can’t decide where?” Ethan replied and the mutant let out a satisfied chuckle. “There’s that wit that I’ve heard so much about, I suppose you’d like my name?” The mutant asked. “Well I’m going to kill you as soon as we’re done talking so I can’t see why it would matter.” Ethan replied with a cold grin. “Oh good show; defiant in the face of certain death just like I would expect from someone like you.” The mutant said with another dark chuckle. “You’re unusually refined for someone of your species.” Ethan said and the mutant let out what sounded like an annoyed sigh. “Alas you are right my brothers aren’t quite as smart as me; however I’m sure after I harvest the entirety of the Brotherhood of Steel I’ll manage to find some more intelligent conversation.” The mutant said with an evil grin. “Tough talk for an effeminate British mutant.” Ethan replied calmly with a slight smirk. “Oh is it? I believe that dispatched an army of my brothers several hours ago, by now your precious Brotherhood of Steel is surly breathing its last gasp.” The mutant replied, the blood drained from Ethan’s face and his eyes hardened. “Well then I’ll just have to kill you and every one of the mutants in your army.” Ethan replied with a glare. “I really doubt that you can stop me, I’m Dominus.” The mutant replied with a wicked grin. “Master in Latin, you supermutants are really creative aren’t you?” Ethan asked while edged closer to the door. Suddenly he was hit from behind and forced to his knees Ethan rolled forward and returned to his feet while at the same time swinging his shock sword in a crackling silver arc at the invisible mutant behind him. There was a loud scream of pain and a severed head appeared on the ground. “I certainly like to think so.” Dominus replied as Ethan suddenly found himself surrounded by invisible foes. Ethan jerked his head back as an invisible bumper sword swung past and clanged against the floor and then rapidly shifted to the left to ovoid the slash of another. He slashed out with the shock sword but was met by the large blade of a bumper sword before he could get close enough to the mutant swinging it. Then he felt the horrible feeling of another bumper sword being jabbed painfully into his back completely shredding his duster and plunging into his skin before being quickly removed drawing a thin spray of blood. Ethan felt to the floor in pain and just barely managed to roll before another sword could impale him. Gritting through the pain Ethan slashed out desperately with the shock sword cutting through the leg of a mutant who’d gotten to close. Ethan scrambled painfully to his feet and jabbed a stimpack into his arm immediately feeling relief as his skin started to reknit itself. He caught sight of a flickering movement coming at him and paired the bumper sword gaining a grunt of annoyance from the mutant wielding it. Then he swayed to the side as another sword smashed through the air where he’d been standing. Another blade came at him and Ethan ducked underneath the blow. He heard the whistle of displaced air coming from behind him and crouched underneath it at the last minute allowing the blade to pass harmlessly overhead. Four, there were four of them. Ethan’s expression suddenly changed from that of a corned animal into that of a smug snake looking at a box of mice. With a vicious war cry he swept his sword out in a glittering arc blocking a mutant’s down stroke and closed the distance to the invisible foe. At the last minute he ducked and allowed one of the other mutant’s blades to stab into the targeted mutant’s chest. Now that the two were occupied Ethan slashed twice and quickly beheaded both of the mutants. That left him with two more invisible foes. The first slashed sideways but Ethan parried it contemptuously and sliced forward. His slash drew a thin line of blood across the invisible mutant’s chest which leaked onto the floor. Meanwhile Ethan had turned to confront the other mutant who was currently trying to slice him in half. Ethan swayed to the side of the powerful downward swing but he wasn’t fast enough and it slammed into his right shoulder sinking deep into the skin and muscle. Ethan mentally cursed but somehow managed to keep his grip on the sword long enough to switch it to his opposite hand. “You are doing surprisingly well; I always have liked a good show.” Dominus said from where he sat on the throne. Ethan ignored the mutant’s distracting words and focused on blocking the withering hail of slashes that the two invisible mutants were directing at him. Then he caught a lucky break and managed to disarm one of his opponents (literally). While the mutant screamed in pain Ethan rounded on the last mutant and shoved his sword into its stomach before pivoting and slicing through the one armed mutants chest. Panting heavily Ethan turned towards Dominus and began to walk towards him menacingly. With each step he left a bloody footprint and his breaths came in a slight rasp. “Is that all you’ve got?” Ethan asked as he put away his sword and pulled out his Novasurge. “Not at all dear boy.” Dominus replied with a chuckle. Ethan continued walking towards the mutant who was lounging comfortably on his throne watching the approaching hero with a small grin. “Or did you forget Brutus and Caphis here?” He asked gesturing at the two behemoths who had at this point been completely still and unmoving. At once the behemoth on the left charged forward faster than the eye could see and sent Ethan flying into the far wall of the chamber with a punch. Ethan’s body fell limply to the ground as the behemoth stepped closer. Through bleary eyes Ethan watched the behemoth approach. With an extreme effort of will Ethan pulled out his magnum and began to shoot the behemoth in the head as it made its lumbering approach. The bullets sank deep but appeared not do any significant damage to the towering mutant. It grabbed Ethan in its meaty grasp and began to squeeze, slowly increasing the pressure until Ethan felt one of his ribs snap, followed by another, and another, and another. Ethan’s world became a red haze of pain as mocking British laughter surged up to him. “You have a steel reinforced spine, how quaint.” Dominus called up to him from where Ethan had gone limp in the behemoth’s grasp. Ethan fought against the blackness of unconsciousness but the pain of his ribs breaking and then healing and then breaking again was too much for him to bear and his eyes closed to the sound of mocking laughter.