After a long and intense battle, we finally succeeded in driving back the forces of the East Coast enclave. I cannot be sure if they have been destroyed. Still, the brotherhood and I managed to put up a strong enough defense to ensure the safety of the people of the Capital wasteland. I had managed to complete my mission of destroying the mobile weapons platform that was causing so much damage and destruction, the last thing the enclave needed was access to a mobile missile and nuclear warhead launching platform. Finally, I could take a moment to relax and let my guard down, as I sat back in the vertibird seat and felt the weight of my helmet hit the back of my head. It was a satisfying moment, knowing that this damned fight was over, at least for now.
"Nice job out there kid." called back a blond-haired woman who sat across from me. Her hair was tied up in a bun, to help keep it out of the way of her face while she was fighting, or when she rarely decided to put on her helmet. attire-wise, she was wearing a set of heavy, and admittedly a bit cumbersome mechanized armor. This was the standard issue BoS, T-45d power armor. Arguably one of the few best sets of power armor that can be found here out in the Capital Wasteland. At her hip rested a Plasma pistol, a recent acquisition from a fallen enclave soldier who had almost gotten the drop on her. "The Enclave will think twice before showing their faces around here again, Elder Lyons wants us to keep an eye on the borders in case they call for reinforcements, but I think it's going to be a long time before that happens."
"You'd think that they would learn after...how many defeats have they faced again, Sarah? All those years back at the oil rig out west, then their base in Navarro, Project Purity, and now this stunt? again, you'd think that they would have learned their lesson by now. I'm just glad this fight is over...I need a fucking break after all that.” I said with a sigh.
“...I'm guessing that Elder Lyons will be wanting a debriefing as soon as we arrive?” I asked after a moment, earning a nod from Sarah. “Right…no rest for the wicked and all that…alright, I'll fill him in as best we can...but I'm going to just…take a nap before then..we still got a couple hours before we get to the citadel.” I managed to say with a yawn, feeling myself starting to pass out from my fatigue.
(location: The Citadel, Talons Bunk room. Time: 23:50)
Grumbling to myself as I started to undress for the night, leaving my armor in its stand as I sat on my cot.
“Fuck, that took longer than I wanted…” I muttered with a groan as I ran a hand through my hair, pausing with a grimace as I felt the little ‘souvenir’ I'd gotten from my trip to Point Lookout. Sighing softly, I looked over to the mirror in my room. My normally well-kept black hair was a mess from today's events, framed against my lightly tanned skin from all these years out in the wasteland, while it hadn't been a kind place to me these past seven years, thanks to the ‘miracles of pre-war technology’ and Stimpacks, as long as the wound is treated fast enough or isn't too critical it shouldn't leave a scar. Yet a few are visible, each of them I've been able to explain away as something I'd gotten during my journey through this hellhole. Each scar and mark bore a story of my actual travels, each scar was a memory of something, someone, I'd never get back. A knife wound between two of my ribs, a large burn scar that covered most of my left arm up to my neck, lacerations along my back, a deep scar along my right cheek, and now the nasty scar that was along the back of my skull…that one, in particular, wasn't the proudest moment admittedly, but it reminded me of what had driven me to abandon the Capital Wasteland for Point Lookout four years ago…only to come back and finish what James…what my ‘father’ started… that's still something I'm getting used to with every time this has happened…then again, to my memory, this is only the second time id been reborn into the world, and still had a family up to a point. But this time…something was different.
See I've had either the blessing or curse, of being reincarnated into new lives as this world passes through the sands of time. Save for the first two times that this had happened, the first being me waking up in this world inside a prison cell in the Imperial City of Cyrodiil, and my second adventure being started when I crossed into Skyrim after a 500-year-long trek through the continent. After those two adventures, I'd wake up in a new time, with no memory of anything about those adventures. My only solace is that at some point during the adventure, I'd manage to get my memories back. Well…that, and during my second and third adventures, I had my ‘sisters’ to look forward to. However…during my trip through Albion, it was only Tia who accompanied me, for the life of me I don't know what happened with Lulu..she’d never say why…anyway, I'm getting off-topic.
Any time I tried to talk about this with someone, people dismissed my story as the ravings of a madman or the product of some sort of substance abuse. Despite the negative reactions you faced, you didn't give up hope that someone would eventually believe you. That opportunity came after an admittedly harrowing incident on an alien ship when I regained my memories, and my father finally took notice of my…change of personality. He listened to and believed my stories.
We spent two years working together to fix up and clear out Project Purity, which was a very welcome change from the hell of the wasteland when I was all alone. But just when things were starting to look up, the Enclave arrived, putting us in a dangerous situation as they killed anyone who was not essential to the facility. James…no, Dad sacrificed himself so that the other scientists and I could escape. It must have been an unimaginable loss, leaving me alone once again in a brutal and unforgiving wasteland.
It’s…not that bad…I still have the few companions that have stuck with me…but…as the saying goes, even in a crowd, one can feel alone. I know they are friends who would help and protect me…but I'm still weary when it comes to sharing this otherwise outlandish tale about my life.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I flick the light switch before lying down. Relaxing into the comfortable cot, I began to drift off into dreamland… tomorrow will be another day…
(Location: ???, Time: ??? (Night))
‘Wake up Talon…'
feeling myself starting to rouse from my slumber, I can't help but notice that something felt…off about the room I was sleeping in…I could feel a bit of a draft, but I can swear for the life of me that I'd left the door to my room shut, and the AC units here in the Citadel had never been fixed as far as I was aware.
‘It's time to wake up, Child…welcome home…’
That voice again…I swear I remember it from somewhere but I cannot tell for the life of me. Vision blurred, I opened up my eyes to realize I was no longer in my room…in fact, I was in a place I'd never seen before. I was no longer in my cot, but simply laying in a bed of lush, green grass in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by tall trees with limbs that sagged with the leaves that burdened them. It was so…alive, not even the grove or the forested area of Point Lookout was this vibrant and…well…alive.
“The hell…where am I?” I wondered to myself as I looked about the cleaning, before peering up at the night sky. It too was different. As if the light pollution from pre-war days hadn't been a thing, the sky was alight with countless stars and nebulae, stars I didn't recognize. And stranger still was the moon itself, for one it was a bit brighter, bigger as well…or was it simply just closer? I couldn't tell. But the more notable changes was its light blue coloring, as well as the…for lack of a better term, emblem of an equine of some sort with a horn stamped along its surface.
‘Okay…this is VERY weird…was I moved to another time again? No, I can't have been…I can still remember everything clearly…and that voice, “Welcome home”? What did they mean?’
As he sat there, looking up at the moon deep into his thoughts, he gave a light shiver at the slightly warm night air. 'well…whatever the case, I know three things. There's definitely a time difference, because last I checked, it was mid-autumn when I was in the wasteland, this forest looks too alive and green to be that time of year. I'm in a new unknown location and need to be careful. And most importantly, I need to take inventory, and find a safe place to camp out for the night.'
With a task in mind, I picked myself up from my resting place on the grass and began to have a quick look at my surroundings. Seeing my old, beaten-up backpack hanging on a low branch of a nearby tree, I went over to see what all I had on hand. “Let's see…six bottles of purified water, twelve stim packs, combat knife, bandages, and gauze in the medical pouch. Food storage has…four brotherhood MREs, not looking forward to those, two bottles of Cola, a couple of cans of beans, a can opener, and…a bottle of Brandy?”
I paused as I held the light pink-ish purple bottle of liquor, before shaking my head with a sad smile. “Missed you too, old friend..” I said softly before putting the bottle back in the bag. “Alright…gear wise I have…the combat knife from before…” I pulled the blade from the makeshift sheath I had for it, taking a look at the slightly rusted blade. “Going to need to get this thing to a whetstone…” back into the sheath it goes, and onto my pants belt. “Next up is…my 10mm? Thought I lost this thing..” I gave it a once over, giving a small nod at seeing it was in decent condition, but winced a bit as I ejected the magazine. “Alright…going to have to use this sparingly and carefully, four shots are not the best I could be left with, but I've handled worse…”
Placing the gun back into the bag, and putting the magazine in a separate pouch to help prevent any accidents, I moved to the last compartment of the bag…only to pause at what I was seeing inside. Pulling out the objects revealed a battle-scarred suit and helmet that I had picked up somewhere at the beginning of my journey. Despite it being a light material, the gray and black suit was decently armored thanks to the flexible gray plating around the chest, neck, legs, lower arms, and back. Connected to odd little devices attached to the suit were thick wires that ran along the suit's frame. The helmet was not much to look at at a glance, it was designed to be tight-fitting, but still breathable so the wearer could have a more protective piece of headwear over it. It was mostly gray, like the armor plating, but for vision, a good half of the face area was taken up by a thick, protective, one-way orange visor.
Again, it wasn't much to look at, and admittedly it wasn't the best armor available, but what its strength truly lay, was in the devices on the suit itself, while wearing both suit and helmet, clicking a button found on the left hip will render the user of the outfit invisible save for a slight mirage-like shimmer in the air. “My stealth armor? Not my first choice but hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.” Shrugging I'd give the suit's device a look over before cursing my luck. “Alright so at best I have a half hour's worth of invisibility left before this thing needs to be charged. Great..” I grumbled to myself as I slipped the helmet back into the bag, and took a bit of time to pull the suit itself on so I'd have at least some form of protection. Slinging my pack onto my back, I turned back to look up at the moon, feeling a sense of…familiarity…before turning back towards the forest and starting to press deeper into it, hoping to find a safe place to camp for the night.
(Location: ???, dark forest. Time: ???, estimated two hours till dawn.)
It had taken some time, and a few close calls, but I'd managed to safely find a place to rest for the next few days if need be. Hopefully, the monsters I've run into so far stay far away from this place, I mean seriously, a pack of wolves made out of wood? Alright, fine, I can handle that. I've dealt with something similar before, so it should be easy enough as long as I don't get outnumbered. But a manticore? Fuck. That. I may not know much about them, but I've faced enough saber cats, and mountain lions in Tamriel to know that going after something like a friggin MANTICORE with only a rusted knife is NOT a good idea.
But, I digress. I'd safely managed to find a safe place to rest in the ruins of some sort of castle. The masonry was in shambles. timber, rock, and stone everywhere. Yet despite its abandoned and seemingly long-forgotten state…nothing seemed to grow along the stone, not even a single vine or patch of moss. From my times running around tombs, dungeons, and old ruined forts I got a sense that this place was very old. Most of the castle damage seemed to have occurred over the years…but as I got closer to, and finally entered what I'd assume to be the throne room, I could see markings and damage that could only have occurred during a battle of some sort.
Scorch marks, craters in the floor, broken windows, and holes blasted out of the walls and ceiling…one of Which perfectly framed the moon, letting its light shine into the dilapidated chamber.
“What happened here…?” I muttered and stepped deeper into the room while careful of the floor's damage. Looking about, I noticed at the far wall sat a pair of thrones, one of which was knocked over and bore the most damage of the two. The once-red fabric of the thrones cushions was ripped in places, while burned in others. The actual cushion itself, or what remains of it that were left, was nothing more than charcoal. The throne itself, if the other one was anything to go by, used to be a masterpiece, but now its once golden lacquered wood was scorched, splintered, and covered in soot. All signs pointing to whoever had been sitting here previously were the main target of this attack. The other throne, painted in a dark blue, was mostly intact if a bit lopsided due to a blown-off leg and missing armrest. Examining it closer, I could just barely make out the now faded emblem of a crescent moon stitched into the cushion with the help of the light that the actual moon provided. Getting back up, and having a look about, I gave a shake of my head.
“I can explore and investigate this place more in the morning. I need to get some rest if I'm going to be useful for anything.” I said with a sigh, the fatigue from the battle earlier today still fresh, added to all the running I'd had to do when the Manticore made its presence known. “But to do that…I'm going to need to find a room without a draft…wonder if one of those towers is a good place to start?”
(Talon PoV)(Location: ???, abandoned castle tower #2. Time: ???, why is it still night?)
I was startled awake by the sound of thunder, it had taken me a little bit to find the place to sleep I was after, and thankfully, somehow, it still had a perfectly fine bed. It could have been done with a bit of dusting, but in the wasteland alone, there were a lot worse places one could sleep. But due to how dangerous the wasteland is, I quickly learned to be a light sleeper to avoid getting ambushed by raiders, or the damned Talon company.
Quickly rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I took a look out the window of the tower…only to pause when I realized that the moon was still high in the sky, but this time, the ‘mare on the moon' was gone. “Well that can't be good...” I started to mutter to myself before noticing a bright flash of light coming from the tower across from mine. Eyes narrowing at this, I grabbed the helmet from my bag, pulling it on. I started quickly making my way to the tower, only stopping just outside the stairway entrance so I could activate the suit's invisibility function before continuing on.