The Road

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There was a road. Gapped and cracked and half-fallen in places, the remains of civilization long gone, but still a road. Cross had spotted it hours ago when she'd come up to the roof and the three of them had gotten their bearings. It stretched eastward for miles before turning and vanishing into the south. Where it went beyond that none of them could say for certain, but it seemed as if it might be the elevated road that came to earth somewhere around the old Temple of the Union. If nothing else it offered a vantage, one that might be needed with the Enclave roaming the Wastes; and so they'd come down the escarpment from Fort Constantine, clambered up a collapsed section onto the elevated road-bed that remained, and started on their way.

---

They found a truck, once, or the remains of one, anyway. Ellen climbed into the back to search for supplies. She found them- first-aid kits, suitcases, bottles of water- and then she found the bones. They were nothing new, ancient and blackened as any she'd ever seen in the Wasteland, but she did what she could to straighten them out anyway. Some of them were missing, but there were seven skulls, all in all. Well, eight, if you counted the one among the even more charred pile she found when she prised open the driver's-side door and peered into the cab. Why people would be riding in the back of a truck instead of some bus or other more practical vehicle she didn't know; once she'd taken the driver's bones out to pray over him, she couldn't help but search through the remains of the cab for clues. All she found was a wisp of ancient paper in the glove compartment that nearly fell to pieces at her touch:

USMC Private Contract PRVMIL-3482b
Official orders from Department of Defense
Contractor's Eyes Only Under Penalty of Treason
In accordance with Executive Order 99066, transport specified civilians to WRA site PA-32. Use of non-lethal force is authorized only when required to enforce this contract. Transport Arrival is required by October 29th, 2077. Present these orders to Chief MP at WRA site perimeter for admission and unloading.

Y.Guo
A.He
H.X.Ming
M.Pang
M.Pang Jr.
R. Chong
H.K. Tsen

... oh.

---

There was a dark heap on the horizon, rising up from the ruins of the road. It had no guards along the top, nothing moving in its vicinity at all. On painstakingly careful approach, they found it to be a heap of ancient cars, dragged from this or that part of the highway and stacked one on top of another into the walls of a crude but impressive fort.

None of them, Fawkes reported, had any of their engine blocks or power plants left. That was fine as far as it went, but that many cars in one place still put Ellen on edge. If Fawkes and Cross wanted to search it for usable supplies that was their business. She'd go on ahead to check for impending trouble, just in case.

Cross found the corpses of the raiders who'd been living in the fort at roughly the moment Ellen's armor screamed "LET 'EM EAT LEAD!". Seconds later, the fire began- courtesy of two Enclave troopers with combat incinerators who'd been stationed behind the chunks of masonry just down the road.

By the time the fire stopped there wasn't much of a fort left. Then again, there wasn't much left of the Enclave troopers, either, so Ellen supposed they were probably about even.

---

Cross stumbled suddenly; Ellen and Fawkes darted to the Paladin's side at the same time. "Are you all right, friend?" Fawkes asked.

"I- no." Cross's breathing was ragged. "I don't think those stimpaks I used back at Fort Constantine did the trick, Ellen. Something's wrong."

Ellen winced. As far as she'd been able to tell at the time, the stimpaks had fixed up all of Cross's visible injuries, and the older woman hadn't indicated any kind of broken bones. That meant something considerably worse was going on than she'd imagined. "How long do you think you can keep going?" she asked.

"I need to sit down soon," said Cross, leaning on Fawkes as best she could. "It's my lower legs. It's been a long time since I've had this kind of pain for anything short of a bullet. Walking is... going to be a problem."

"Crud," said Ellen. "Can you make it to that ramp up ahead?"

"I think so," said Cross. "If Fawkes helps me. Why?"

"Because I don't know what I can do up here, but if we can get back to ground level I've at least got a chance of finding a building with a door."

Cross thought for a while, finally nodding. "It's better than nothing,' she said. "All right. Fawkes?"

"I can do it if you can."

Comments

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu has never stepped into a world so terribly wounded before. Poisoned, torn apart, twisted into something it was never meant to be.

She takes a breath to steady her nerves at the Feel of this place, picking up on a stench whose origins are best left unexplored.

The space between the metal walls is mostly filled by Fawkes. Kreyu glances up at the mutant, but does not seem especially disturbed. "Is this your friend that was injured?" she asks Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've taken no harm," says Fawkes, his voice strained but controlled. "Nothing worth mentioning, at any rate."

"Fawkes, this is-" Ellen pauses, blinks. "You know, I don't think I got your name."

[brave_kreyu]

"I am called Kreyu," she replies with a small smile.

She's extending her senses outward, looking for Ellen's wounded friend. (Fawkes tends to block the view a bit.)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "Okay, then," she says. "My name is Ellen. My green friend here is Fawkes-"

"A pleasure to meet you, Kreyu."

"And the person we need help with is Star Paladin Cross, of the Brotherhood of Steel," Ellen finishes as Fawkes moves aside. Cross, clad in power armor but with her helmet at her side, is stretched out on the rusty remains of some kind of bench or low-slung shelf. Her skin is paler than it ought to be, her expression taut, but she inclines her head at Kreyu's approach.

[brave_kreyu]

"Greetings to all of you," she replies as she moves to the Paladin's side and kneels down next to her.

Once she gets a good look at her patient, the trouble is clear as day. "The swelling from your injuries has pressed shut the vessels and nerves," she explains to Cross. "If the pressure is not reduced soon, both will be damaged beyond repair."

She turns to Ellen. "How long will it be safe for you to stay in one place?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen chews on her bottom lip nervously. "I don't- I don't know," she says. "We've got enemies- heavily armed ones- in the area, and I don't know where their nearest patrol is."

"Part of the reason I'm in this condition is because we escaped from their base yesterday," says Cross. "After Ellen here destroyed it."

[brave_kreyu]

"Best to do this quickly, then."

She gives them a wry smile. "My preferred method would take an hour, which I doubt we have. Therefore, I'll have to take your wounds upon myself, and heal them via methods I can not use on you."

Humans can't use Karma from their hoard to heal, unfortunately.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"What?" says Cross, doing her best to sit up, and "Excuse me?" echoes Ellen, equally alarmed.

[brave_kreyu]

"It will do me no permanent harm," she assures them. "I will not need to bear the wounds for more than a few minutes."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Cross would say something, but a look of pain crosses her face, necessitating that she clench her jaws against it. Ellen nods slowly instead. "If you're sure," she says. "I don't- I don't want to- as long as it's not permanent."

[brave_kreyu]

"I am sure," she says with a soft smile. "I have borne the wounds of others many times when need required it."

Kreyu coaxes the threads of Karma into the proper shape for the spell, gently tugging on the threads of reality.

"Be healed, Star Paladin Cross." There is power in those words that has nothing to do with sound waves.

There is a small hitch in her breathing when the spell takes, a tensing of muscles as the pain leaves Cross and becomes hers.

One breathe, two, three. The warmth of the Karma flowing from the necklace into her comes as a blessed, sweet relief. Karma mends flesh, heals nerves, eases pain. It is only a little more than a minute before she is again uninjured.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Cross's own breath hisses between her teeth. Losing pain can sometimes be almost as disturbing as acquiring it. She holds very, very still, watching Kreyu warily. "Are you all right?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu exhales one final time and opens her eyes. "I am well, Paladin Cross. How do you fare?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Cross doesn't answer at first. She's busy flexing first one leg, then the other, then pushing herself upright to swing her legs over the edge of the bed and test them again. "Well enough, I think," she says. "I should be able to reach the Citadel like-"

She freezes. They all do. Somewhere up above is a whupwhupwhupwhup sound, and it's growing louder.

"Enclave," Cross mutters. "Damn it. They're thick as thieves..."

[brave_kreyu]

"It might be best not to be in so small a space when they arrive," she remarks. "I do not think these walls will offer much in the way of protection from what is coming."

She's wondering if that's a helicopter, and whether it will taste as bad as those made by the Combine.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They're not likely to offer any at all," says Ellen. "There's a highway nearby, with fallen rubble- we'll have to get there first and use it for cover."

Fawkes hoists his gun from the floor beside him. It's a triple-barreled monstrosity easily as big around as a man's leg, and it's connected to the massive backpack he wears. "Kreyu," he says, "you have no armor to wear; shall I cover your retreat? I have an easier time withstanding fire than many."

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu ponders this for a moment. "I can deal with the issue of my not having armor once we are outside," she explains. "There will be trouble enough without you having to watch out for me."

She'd try and explain in more detail, but.....well, it probably wouldn't help much.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Very well," says Fawkes. "Let's go."

Ellen is the first one out the door, followed by Cross and then by Fawkes. There's a shadow on the ground not far away, growing as a thing like a hideous metal dragonfly lowers itself to the ground.

[brave_kreyu]

"Trouble indeed," she remarks to herself. "You'd best get to cover," she calls out. "I'm going to give them something else to worry about!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Cross hesitates. "Ellen, what-"

"Psyker," says Ellen to Cross. That seems to be enough. Cross just nods and sets out at a run for the ruins of the highway nearby. Fawkes does much the same, although he does so a little more slowly. This is because even with his legs one cannot really run backwards while training one's Gatling laser on the six heavily armored enemy soldiers hopping out of the Vertibird.

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu is not a psyker, although Ellen could be forgiven for making that mistake. She's already cast what magical protection she can on herself by the time the Vertibird has landed.

The sight of the soldiers, however, prompts a sigh. She can't count on the magical protections being sufficient, which means this human form has got to go.

There is no blurring, no real sense of transition. Kreyu's human form is just suddenly replaced by a smoke colored dragon the size of a commercial jetliner.

She watches the soldiers, waiting to see their response. She's not idle though, but thickening her scales and reinforcing her body to withstand extra punishment.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Enclave power helmets cannot change shape or offer expression cues in any way, which is something of a shame. The muffled cries of "Holy SHIT!" just aren't quite the same without the o__O faces to go with them.

However, it only takes a moment to cuss, and the Enclave soldiers already have their plasma rifles out before the expletives die away...

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu ROARS, the sound of a giant, angry predator probably sufficient to terrify even the kind of wildlife the Wasteland supports.

One forward leap is all it takes to bring her within killing range of the soldiers. Their armor might protect them from claws like spears and her razor sharp tail, but her deadly bite will rip through armor as if it didn't even exist.

Fawkes, Ellen and Paladin Cross are welcome to lend supporting fire, of course.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's enough red laser and green plasma fire from the direction of the rubble to indicate that, yes, Ellen and her friends are firing on any of the soldiers with wit enough to run. Those who aren't running appear to be of the 'I'm about to die, but I'm taking you with me' school of thought, judging by the way they're trying to attack the dragon's monstrous form.

If Kreyu listens carefully, she might hear one of them murmur, "I've... failed..." just before his neck snaps.

[brave_kreyu]

Some of them even manage to leave minor wounds on her hide, which is a testament to their weapons and their stubborn courage.

Respect and liking do not have to go hand in hand,even a mortal enemy may earn a kind of grudging respect. Although they die beneath her teeth and claws, those soldiers brave enough to stand and fight have earned that respect from her.

"They fought well," she rumbles once the carnage is over. Their dedication, their courage is admirable, even if their cause is not.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The Vertibird took off again almost as soon as the last soldier hopped out, so it's nowhere to be seen by now. Which is probably a good thing, all things considered.

Ellen is the first to creep forward, eyes very wide. "Kreyu?" she says carefully. "How, um... how did you do that?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu turns to look at Ellen. "My kind are shape-changers," she replies. "This is the form in which I first opened my eyes, but the human shape you saw is another facet of my Self."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen thinks about that for a moment. After a while, she shrugs. She's had aid from an immortal Amazon warrior and from an incarnation of the White Rider of the Apocalypse; a gigantic shapechanging dragon is about par for the course, really.

even though you can't really have eight ranks in the Mysterious Stranger perk.

"Okay," she says. "Um. Thank you? Do I... need to do anything? Get you something to eat, or...?"

[brave_kreyu]

Kreyu resumes her human form. (Thankfully, she's figured out how to do this without winding up naked.)

"You are most welcome," she says with a smile. "I will be well enough with a bit of rest, as I did not stay in that shape long enough to need to eat again."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right, then," says Ellen. "Ah... if you want, you can stay with us for a while, but we're traveling and I don't know when our next door is. I can... take you back to Milliways? If you want?"

Because seriously, what does one say to a giant dragon in human form?

[brave_kreyu]

"That might be best," Kreyu says after a moment of thought. "If I assume that shape too often I will need to eat, and I'm not certain that the local wildlife would agree with me."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It scarcely agrees with us, and we live here," Ellen murmurs. "I'll take you back, then. The same way I got you here."

[brave_kreyu]

"Thank you, Ellen. If you have need again of a healer, please let me know."