John

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens from Milliways onto the tumbletown ruins of what used to be an industrial area on the fringes of Arlington. The temperature is summertime-warm, the air dry; the last rains to pass through here are long since gone. Overhead, a scavenger bird or two circles, visible only to people who know what they're looking for. A breeze listlessly stirs the air, kicking up brief dust-devils along the shattered ruin of the local roads. Beyond that, the place is quiet in the way that only emptiness can bring.

"This is where I came in," Ellen says over her shoulder. "Like I mentioned the other day, it's about a day's travel to the Fort Bannister region from here. There's still some pre-war asphalt laid down here but pretty soon it all gives way to open sand and scrub. The nearest radiation source is a hundred yards northeast of here, and we're not going in that direction, so unless my Geiger counter goes off without warning we should be all right."

Comments

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

"Lead the way, ma'am."

John follows, carefully analyzing the landscape, picking out possible ambush positions as a matter of habit. He kept his eyes and ears wide open for anything that might betray a hostile presence.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. She's got her own armor on this time- a bulky, crude-looking set (with absolutely ridiculous shoulder pauldrons) by comparison with the MJOLLNIR armor, but at least it's functional. And it doesn't seem to impair her movement to any great degree.

"This isn't too bad of a day so far," Ellen says. "I don't think anyone's shot at me yet today. If you have any questions, let me know... oh, and if we pass any car wrecks, don't be near them if someone opens fire on us. A lot of the old cars still have sealed fusion plants under the hood and they tend to explode if the casing is breached."

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

The Spartan is much lighter on foot than the heavily armored Ellen. Ellen's power armor makes her more like a walking tank than a woman on foot. John suspects the power armor is probably more capable of taking heavy fire than his own, and adjusts his spacing and movement patterns accordingly. Weapons were always a step ahead of armor, and he had no intention of testing his own in this universe. He would have to play to his strengths--agility and precision--when they encountered hostiles.

The desolation of Ellen's world is much more apparent to him now that he's traveling under the sun. There are buildings and vehicles everywhere, the hallmarks of civilization, yet there's no one in sight. Ruins and rusted hulks.

John checks his rifle again. It's weather worn and a little archaic, but perfectly functional. It wouldn't do a thing against his shields, but he wouldn't be engaging anything with shields here.

"So your father is working to purify the drinking water here?" He was capable of silence, but it seemed in this case that the benefits of speaking outweighed its drawbacks.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"He's been working on it since before I was born," Ellen says, peering up ahead for any signs of incoming movement. "He had to put it on hold after my mother died, to get me to someplace safe to be raised. He's gone back to it now. There's not really a lot of farming around here, since they can't irrigate land with radioactive, filthy water... so you can see why they haven't developed or recovered much."

Briefly, she starts to raise her rifle to her eye at the sight of something moving in the distance; then she lowers it. "Never mind," she says. "It's just a Brahmin. They're harmless- they're cows, mutated ones."

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

The Spartan had noticed the animals a while ago with his superhuman eyesight, but had come to the conclusion Ellen had just confirmed.

"What about that one?" He asks, pointing with his rifle at what appeared to be a very large scorpion scuttling over the craggy hills in the opposite direction.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Those are dangerous," Ellen confirms after a moment's squint. "Snapping claws and a lot of venom in the tail. Dogmeat, stay here."

The last was warranted; Dogmeat had lowered his head and started to growl.

"He'll attack anything he thinks is a threat, but those are best taken out at a distance."

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

"It's not coming any closer," John observes. Sure enough, the scorpion disappears under a distant block of rubble and doesn't emerge. He continues walking for some minutes in silence.

Under the glaring sun, John casually memorized the patterns of fur on Dogmeat, just in case he had to quickly identify the animal later in low visibility conditions. He proceeded to do the same with Ellen's particular posture and the small unique scratches, scrapes, and markings on her armor. Her powered armor lacked a friend-or-foe identification tag that his suit could easily latch onto. He would have to ask later about that. He might be able to modify its existing system so his suit could pick her up.

After another while of observation, John breaks the revere. "You mentioned something about a vault when we first met. Is it some kind of bunker?"

Approaching the Fort

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Come the morning-

No, that's not right. Morning would imply that there was light out. Ellen is used to underground living, and used to dimness if not the outright dark, so almost as soon as John's guard shift ends she's on her feet. So come the point when she's awake, then, it's time to go looking for a door. And, well, this is the Capital Wasteland. There are enough former houses scattered about the landscape that she finds one eventually, before the sun's even made its way up- and Milliways is on the other side...

(OOC: Tyler/Moon Shadow's player is affected by a computer virus until somewhat later in the week but may be able to tag a bit from the library. We'll see what can be done about that.)

Re: Approaching the Fort

[aeons_crackshot]

Milliways being on the other side means that Annabelle is on the other side.

She's wearing the body armor that Ellen gave her, and carrying the sub-machine gun, the sniper rifle, the combat knife, and ammunition. Lots of ammunition.

"Morning," she says in greeting to anyone who may be present.

Re: Approaching the Fort

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Annabelle, this is John-117, a soldier from a very different timeline than my own," Ellen says. "John, this is Annabelle Newfield. She's come to my world and fought very nearly every kind of enemy I know of in the Wasteland along with me more times than anyone else I know."

Re: Approaching the Fort

[aeons_crackshot]

That's a nice introduction. "Pleasure to meet you," Annabelle says, extending a hand to the Spartan.

Re: Approaching the Fort

[basic_powers]

And since Annabelle's already through...no sense in not showing off a little.

At least as far as stepping through the door invisibly goes. Hopefully the Spartan won't be too startled when someone appears out of thin air just behind Annabelle, dressed in a heavy duty-utility belt with some odd objects hanging from it, one of which looks like some sort of scanning device.

"Moon Shadow, pleasure to meet a man of the armed forces."

Re: Approaching the Fort

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

"Likewise," John nods at the new faces. "I'm assuming everyone here knows what we're getting into?"

Team Alpha

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Fort Bannister was once a sprawling complex that spanned most of a significant rise in the landscape. These days, it still overlooks a nice swathe of the Wasteland, deeply cratered hills stretching away to the east- but the complex is not so much to speak of any more. The buildings left on the surface are wrecked shadows of their former selves, entire floors destroyed and walls blown away to ash long ago. At best, they're multi-storey watchtowers that overlook the ragged perimeter fence.

And they are manned. The Talons have men stationed in each one, and on the ground as well- black-armored, heavily armed, occasionally accompanied by dogs. One or two robots wheel or hover through the area as well, although those are few and far between, spending more time in the vicinity of the pitched tents towards the center of the old fort complex. In the distance is the sound of dual-voiced lowing- the pack Brahmins used by the Talons to carry their loot and supplies when their own backs aren't enough.

Showtime.

Re: Team Alpha

[basic_powers]

All that manpower is why Moon Shadow is hiding with his fellow warrior where they're not easily seen. He's got a mind to make sure some of those brahmin make it out alive, if for nothing else, to help Ellen haul back all the loot. Judging from the way the natural light is going down, now is as good a time as any to start in on his little idea.

"John, you mind if I use my trick first for distracting them and drawing them towards us?" He whispers, taking a tube, two eggs, and a controlling device from his pack. Cracking the two chemicals pouches inside of the tube and shaking it to create a strong eerie green glow. Which gets split and poured into each of the eggs.

Re: Team Alpha

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

"Do it," says John, "but stay low. Let's have them think they're hunting one man. Make them angry, not afraid. Keep an eye on the dogs--they're not fooled by stealth tech."

The Spartan has a pair of ragged assault rifles stuck to the magnetic holsters on his thighs, a number of grenades strung about his waist, and a chain gun slung over his back, along with a variety of scavenged miscellaneous items, such as long lengths of wire and dusty glass bottles. He holds a freshly assembled hunting rifle in his gauntlet clad hands.

Re: Team Alpha

[basic_powers]

One does not spend their childhood around Peter Venkman without picking up a few dozen things. Once the mix gets poured into each egg, the controller is getting taken out to double-check the settings one last time before each of the eggs is rolled quietly some distance away. Each egg cracks open making some faint noise of air being sucked in as the glowing mass inside doubles exponentially every second...before joining up together in what can only be described as a phosphurecent malace of ever-shifting eyes, psuedopods and tentacles upon the face of the earth.

Or as the good man Ray Stantz put it, a subway train of rage and blargh.

Moon Shadow is probably the only one smiling about this, jogging toward the behemoth of glowing putty and climbing up onto it's back. "I used this on a small band of them before...they'll recognize it and definitely get very pissed off with it."

Re: Team Alpha

[luckyspartan.livejournal.com]

"We don't want to break their morale just yet," says John, "but we can use it. Get their attention and fall back. Don't engage or they'll alert the entire company to deal with us."

The Spartan darts up the side of a nearby building, readying himself in the first ambush position.

Re: Team Alpha

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There are alert fellows on patrol around the more sensitive areas of the base- building husks that might offer entrance to the underground, a shallowly sloping area that leads off towards the animal enclosure, the somehow-still-mostly-intact water tower. They have not noticed the new arrivals yet.

There's one coming up from the animal area, though, and a man making his way around from the water tower....

Team Delta

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen's generally pretty good at patience, but she's never had to lay low like this and wait for an opportunity to launch an attack before. It's a little different from any other waiting she's done. Especially since there's Dogmeat to consider- the heeler isn't clear on what's going on, but he wants to start moving again, and Ellen keeps stopping him.

"I suppose we'll know it's time to move when the screaming starts," she murmurs.

Re: Team Delta

[aeons_crackshot]

"That's generally a good, clear sign," Annabelle says with a nod.

"The waiting is always hard for me too," she adds with a knowing smile.

Re: Team Delta

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Wish we didn't have to do this," Ellen mutters. "Even if wishing isn't going to make any kind of difference."

She checks over her belt pouches to count her supply of microfusion cells, the same as she's done a dozen times already.

"Dad always said you had to stand up to bullies, though."

Re: Team Delta

[aeons_crackshot]

"So do I," Annabelle agrees. That may be a bit surprising, but it's true. She doesn't like killing, even though she doesn't flinch when it's necessary.

"That's very true," she agrees. "If you let people bully you, they'll keep on doing it."

Re: Team Delta

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "They started it," she says, "and they escalated it. I would have left them alone if they hadn't kept coming back. This is almost as much their fault as it is mine."

She looks down at her hands and grimaces. Kind of hard to rub your face when you're in power armor and wearing gauntlets.

"Well, they won't be doing this to anyone else, that's for sure."

Re: Team Delta

[aeons_crackshot]

"It's not your fault at all, Ellen," Annabelle says quietly.

"No, they won't be," she says solemnly. "Remember that." Today is likely to get very, very ugly. Ellen may need that knowledge to deal with whatever happens today.