//------------------------------// // Under Attack // Story: YHaY: Set The World On Fire // by PastyWaffles //------------------------------// D.C. Wasteland, Fort Constantine, 1530 hours "We have more coming up on our right!" Knight Lucas yelled over the ringing of bullets and the shrieks of energy weapons. He was on the top floor on the left of the defensive formation, leaving him open to the Lyons' Outcasts bringing up on the right. Those forces fired upon them, joining their firepower with the one coming from the front. Paladin Vaughn knew this situation wasn't something they could get out of. There were too many Outcast forces zeroed in on their location and they wouldn't let up the rain of fire on them. This mission wasn't supposed to be this bad. Lancer-Knight Mooris had already contacted the Citadel and given them their coordinates, but their signal was probably being jammed and even if it wasn't the reinforcements wouldn't arrive in time. Vaughn leaned out from cover and laid down a barrage of lasers with his L30 gatling laser while several laser beams, bullets and shots of plasma pounded on his T-60 power armor and the area around him before he retreated back behind the tall concrete pillar he took cover behind. There had to be at least ten Outcast members coming from the front, the grey and blue paint scheme of their X-01 and X-02 power armor unmistakable. Vaughn was just glad a suit of X-03 wasn't on the field. The Lyons' Outcasts were a large group of traitorous bastards who left when Elder Maxson put the Brotherhood back on the right tracks. Well, a small portion of them are. The rest were, in the words of Knight-Sergeant Donaver, pansy savages who have no knowledge or respect for the technology they posses and can't see that helping everyone would get them all killed. Vaughn knew better than Donaver. Many of these so-called savages did have knowledge and respect for their technology and some knew how to use it pretty damn well, like the Outcast in X-02 armor that took out Knight Harris and Knight Saunya with a plasma rifle, a Knight-Commander as the rank that Vaughn could barely see on his chest depicted. That same Knight-Commander was leading the charge from the front, alongside several other troops and a fucking sentry bot. Vaughn was tasked with leading an assault squad of Brotherhood troops and seven vertibirds on a mission far north of the Citadel, towards an old prewar military facility known as Fort Constantine. From rumor and reports from recon groups, Fort Constantine was believed to be the Lyons' Outcasts' base of operation. The squad for this mission was composed of himself, Knight-Commander Gabriel, Knight-Captain Dells, Knight-Captain Stacker, some Knight-Sergeants, a load of knights and even a few initiates. He and his squad found that Fort Constantine was indeed the base of operations, to their dismay. As soon as they were spotted, their vertibirds were fired upon. Bullets, lasers and plasma whizzed past or hit their vertibird as they returned fire with the mounted miniguns and the rest with their own weapons. Paladin Vaughn ordered a retreat and the Lancers were more than ready to carry out that order. However, when they were almost out of range, missiles were fired at them. Mooris dodged the one heading for him easily enough, but he held his breath of relief as the missile turned around and came back at him. A homing missile. He tried to dodge it again and almost did, but the missile clipped the side of the propeller and exploded, rocking the vertibird and sending it spiralling out of control. They crashed with a tremendous shock of twisted metal and fire. The crash had killed Knight-Sergeant Frectin, Knight Merton, Knight Jackson and Initiate Turst. Missiles collided with the other vertibirds, sending them crashing down, killing many. Luckily, there was a ruin of a tall blasted out mostly collapsed concrete building nearby that attracted the attention of them and any other survivors of the crashes. They all flooded the building, garrisoning the building as best as possible. Vaughn went up the crumbling steps to station himself on the second level and the Lyons' Outcasts sent troops over the hill and down towards them. The vertibirds that were not shot down turned around and gave supportive fire, until they were shot down as well. Several of Vaughn's troops around him were missing pieces of their T-45 and T-51 power armor. Damn it all, why did Maxson have to take most of the T-60 suits with him when he traveled to Boston? Knight Lucas then died to the constant barrage of firepower concentrated on them, him and his broken T-45 power armor falling from the edge of the third floor and hitting the large amount of debris on the ground. Vaughn did not know the brave knight, but he would be remembered, if by him alone. Another knight was finally able to kill one of the numerous Outcasts in a suit of X-01 armor, only to be replaced by another. The Outcast sentry bot began slowing down as more and more lasers and bullets struck its thick armor plating, but it didn't stop its constantly spinning minigun. On it's other hand was a missile launcher that had just fired a rocket towards Knight-Commander Gabriel. He was able to get out of the way before the missile hit, instead striking the wall behind him, spraying concrete in a wide array. "Sir, we need to push out of here!" Knight-Captain Martison yelled to Vaughn over the firefight from the bottom floor. "If we don't, they'll just pick us off one by one!" He had a point. They were confined to this one spot, easy for the enemy to funnel their fire. When it came down to it, their options were move or die. This battle had no way of being salvaged. They had to cut their losses and run, all the while not getting blasted apart by Outcast forces. He began looking around for any solution for retreat available. There was only one option, but it was beyond risky. There was an open field behind their blasted out building that led to a cliff that he saw when he was in the vertibird. Down the rocky drop was a field filled with cover in the form of trees and boulders, with a town in the distance. If they could only... A small sound pierced through the background of Vaughn's hearing. It was small, almost unnoticeable. It wasn't ringing in his ears, it was coming from somewhere. It was a very small high pitched shrieking noise, unlike any energy weapon. He turned to look at the source, a small pile of dust in the cover of the second floor. Sitting on that pile of dust was a set of multicolored crystals. When he looked at them, the noise stopped. All noise stopped. He took a step towards the crystals. They were so transfixing that he could not take his eyes off them. Vaughn was never a man for collecting shiny things, but these were different. He stepped closer to them and they seemed to glow with a strange light. Then everything just... stopped.