//------------------------------// // Chapter 68 // Story: Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends // by Sleepyted //------------------------------// She knew that Anne had gone forward without her, she hadn’t gone back to the Mojave, she knew that from the way she reacted to when her and Ulises spoke alone. That left the princess stood before a console in the entrance way of a bunker, the concrete walls and roof that would have once covered it gone long ago. It looked over a large hatch on a concrete cleared area with collapsed buildings surrounding it. “Can you power this up? The door is locked.” Twilight said looking over at the Eye-bot, the blast door to go further into the bunker sealed shut tightly. ‘Beep’ He said, floating over to the console and soon a spark of electricity shot onto the computers and the light came to life, a panel pulling back with a big red button coming out. After trying the door again she found that the door was still locked and she needed to do something out here to unlock it. Sighing, she muttered to herself. “Where could this go wrong?” Before pressing the button. An alarm started blaring out, a loud hiss coming from the hatch in the ground with steam spraying out for a few moments. As it opened a familiar looking warhead started to emerge from the darkness, attached to the rocket they once saw at the start of their journey. “Oh horseapples…” A roar went out through the air, ground shaking as the rocket started to go up, speeding up quickly as it launched from the tube and went into the air, flames bellowing from the end as it went high into the air and arched midflight. Twilight saw it start to rocket away, trail of smoke and fire left behind it until it seemed to rock on its path and with a bright flash that Twilight had to look away from it exploded high above the ground, the shockwave visible as it traveled out, and within a moment Twilight was knocked back. She had the air knocked out of her lungs as she landed on the ground, her robotic eye flickering on and off from the electromagnetic pulse, rubble that otherwise was unstable collapsing to the ground and sending more dust and sand into the air. The explosion was a lot bigger than just the warhead by itself, but Twilight didn’t really notice that as she was rolling around on the ground in pain, gasping for breath as it felt like she had been in the sun for far too long and her already sore flesh from the sandstorms. “Why does everything have to be bad?!” She groaned, ears still ringing as she rolled on the ground. The launch opened the bunker but as soon as she entered an explosion rocketed out throughout the building and the door slammed shut, sparks coming from the controls, she was locked on. The only thing she could see was a large platform with fences along the sides on a track that lead down at a semi-step angle and deep into the depths of the complex. “Guess there’s no other way to go…” She said looking at the little bot, going over to the platform and to a large lever which was the only thing she could see. She looked down the tunnel and heard another explosion, the force coming up the tube and slamming into her face. “I don’t trust this thing, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.” Twilight said as she stretched her wings, the gems on the robotic one glowing brightly as the Pegasus magic flowed through it. Jumping over the edge she glided her way down the tunnel, spotting the black shapes of the tunnelers crawling along the walls and looking at her with their glowing eyes with hunger. She shivered at all the staring eyes as she reached the bottom, quickly getting out of there before they thought they could go after her. And once inside and the bot had come through she shut the door behind her and took off her laser rifle, taking aim at the lock and just emptying the battery into it, the metal glowing red hot and bent into an angle that it wouldn’t open again from after a few hard hits with the butt of the weapon. She was inside a room that while it may have once had windows along one side to look into the tube that the missile was once inside they had melted into a puddle of slag, everything inside the roof scorched and blackened from the heat it was forced to go through. Pulling out Lucky she stepped forward, looking for any way to get herself out. “Hopeville, High Road, Ashton... tiny cracks in the Earth, nothing compared to the road carved ahead. Before you... this is the edge of the Divide.” Ulises said after Twilight left the building into the light of the sun, although she was at the bottom of a ravine, skyscrapers that once went up to the clouds now low in the ground. “You again, where’s Anne?” She asked glaring at the robot. “She has gone to find herself, you will see her again soon. But not the person you once knew…” Twilight knew that he would just talk in riddles, just looking at the landscape. “What happened here?” “She delivered a package. Had markings that matched those in the Divide. Not all... but enough. Military markings, from some place the Bear had savaged in the West. Maybe seeing those markings on it reminded her of home... made her carry it…” “What was the device?” “It was a device, a detonator. One I'd never seen before, or heard before. They carried that thing to the Divide. I know because I followed them as they walked the road, watched do it. They brought it here, to the community they built. And they are responsible for what happened after, when the device opened, started to speak. When it did, the Divide answered back. Those missiles you've seen, buried in their silos. They exploded beneath the ground, cracked the landscape. Sand, ash... the dead... the Divide skies became a graveyard.” Twilight’s rump landed on the floor under her, eyes going wide as she heard this. ‘Anne did this?’ she thought to herself. “Y-you don’t know it was Anne…” “No, I’m certain.” He stated. “What I didn’t know was if she survived like the other one…” “You keep talking about another person. Who are they…” “Anne.” He said. “I’m talking about the other person.” Twilight stated. “Who was Anne with!?” “Michelle.” “Who is that? I heard it in a recording.” “You don’t have any idea do you of who you travel with. Of who she had hurt to move ahead in the dying world…” “I don’t care what she might have done before I met her, she can’t remember the entire time I’ve known her and all the good she has don has changed the lives of so many people for the better! If she did do this she wouldn’t have done it on purpose. And while the damage is done, you, who speaks of the past and how we need to learn from it needs to move on.” “Will you keep this view if you knew?” He asked before he cut himself off. Twilight continued to walk along the roof of a building, a peek over showing the easily 20 story fall below with a large metal support crashed through the side that could be used as a ramp down if needed. She could see the movement of the marked men in a makeshift camp they had made, the rubble used to make small igloos of sorts and wooden crates broken down for firewood. The princess spotted a warhead half buried into the ground right next to the camp and she looked at her side at the bulge in her pocket from the detonator. Pulling it out she pointed it down to the explosive, making sure to look down the length of it so she aimed it correctly before pulling the trigger and sending a constant beam of light down at it. Fire burst from the seams after a few moments and with a familiar sound it exploded out into a mushroom of flame. The igloos were sent flying away, shattering against the ground and one very unfortunate ghoul who had his head crushed flat from the force. Limbs were torn from bodies, flesh burnt from the bone and this was all just with a ‘small’ explosion. She understood how horrifying the day the world first ended really was. A flare was shot up into the air with a soft hiss as the flaming projectile was sent high. Twilight knew that it was a call for help by a survivor of the explosion, but the flame into the air and the shockwave itself would have done that just fine. Putting the detonator back into her vest she took her laser rifle off her back and laid herself down along the edge of the building, bracing the butt against her shoulder and got ready for the onslaught of marked men that would come. She saw one come out from what was once the top floor of a building with a large Gatling gun mounted on his shoulder. Taking aim down the boxy barrel of her gun she pulled the trigger with her magic, a beam of heat going down and missing him by a few feet and alerting him to where the princess was. As he took aim up at the princess and the barrel started to spin up she started to pull the trigger in rapid succession, just hoping that any of the shots would hit and a few did but he didn’t go down. Bullets came sailing at the sniper, making her pull back to avoid it as the lead tore into the rock ledge and showered against her. Pulling out the old battery and loaded another one in before peaking over the edge, watching as they showered the area as they tried to hit her. She made sure to keep her head down until she saw him lower the gun and pull out a large box from the side. Taking advantage of him reloading she quickly assumed her position again and took aim, sending more shots right down to him and a lucky one to the neck sent him down to the ground. Before she could celebrate the ledge of the building exploded out, a massive hole getting ripped from it. She yelped and pulled her head back just in time for the ledge to get torn apart again. Peeking through a hole in the building she spotted two snipers with the extremely oversized guns that Anne had managed to loot and knew that she didn’t want to get hit with even a single bullet from them. They brought the guns back up to their eye after they racked the bolt of their gun to load another bullet into the chamber. Twilight was thinking of a plan to get around this but she didn’t get the chance as more, smaller caliber bullets, impacted against where she was. Moving herself away from the spot they were all zeroed in onto, and peeked over again to see what she got herself into. There were at least a dozen of them, all aiming up at the building she was huddled behind, all types of guns, all of which things that Twilight didn’t want to get hit by if how large they were was any indication of how deadly they are. “This isn’t looking good…” She said to herself as she floated her rifle away from her and poked it out from an area she wasn’t huddled behind and opened fire in the general angle that they were in, not really aiming at anything and just wanting to keep them at bay but she knew that it wouldn’t stop them forever. She started to take deep breaths, she would get through this, she wouldn’t die before she got home again, she would see her friends, her family again. She looked over the edge again and saw someone prepare what looked like a rocket launcher, not really clear from where she was but she knew that it would tear through her cover very quickly. She closed her eyes as she pulled herself back, trying to reassure herself that she would get through  this but deep down she knew it was futile. Opening her eyes her heart froze, three barrels pointed right against her muzzle, three very angry looking Marked Men glaring down at her. ‘This is the end…’ She thought, eyes refusing to close at what was about to come. What she didn’t expect was a fourth member to step forward with his rifle brought back and brought it down on her head and instantly all she knew was black.