Rivet City

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens onto an afternoon of graying sky and greyer cityscape. Megaton and its buildings of metal were one thing; this is the ruins of DC proper, all tumbled-down concrete and metal rusted beyond repair. Here and there the occasional wall still stands, or rebar protrudes from a pile of rubble. Underfoot are the remains of what was once a street, but it's shattered more or less beyond recognition.

"According to my Pip-Boy map, we don't have much farther to go," Ellen says. "The river's up ahead, and then we just follow it to the boat."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It most certainly is. There might be something of a gurgling noise, but given that there's a crackling fire and a sobbing human not all that far away... well, that's one more mutant who won't be bothering anyone.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle makes sure that it's dead, and extracts the book from its position underneath the corpse out of curiosity. Huh, Ellen's world apparently believes in truth in advertising. It might be worth a few caps, at least.

With the mutant down, Annabelle and the book are headed back through the hole in the barbed wire to Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen is crouched in the same place Annabelle left her, waiting with her shotgun at the ready. "How's it look?" she whispers. "Can we skirt around them?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"We could, but there's a captive in there that's still alive," Annabelle whispers back. "There are five of them now, I took care of one that was sleeping out of sight of the others. I found this under it's head," she explains, holding the book out to Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen winces, but her expression at least brightens somewhat as she takes the book. "Well," she says, glancing it over and hastily stashing it in her pack, "we can't just leave the captive, can we? Although that'll make it a bit hard to use grenades."

[aeons_crackshot]

"That depends on where the grenades are landing. The captive is in a smaller enclosure with a mutant that has a really big gun. If I take that one out with my rifle, the enclosure should protect the captive a bit from debris and the like."

"I managed to make a hole in wire, but it's a tight fight. If you can get through the gap, you'll be able to come at them in a direction they're not expecting."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen considers this. Then she nods. "I'll have to leave my pack to fit through anything small, but I can do that," she says. "Let's get this done quickly."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods in agreement and motions for Ellen to follow her. Along the way, she'll be preparing the sniper rifle for use. "Do you want me to take the one with the big gun down before you go in, or after?" she whispers.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Before, if you don't mind? I don't really think my armor's up for the shredding," Ellen says and switches off her helmet's amplifiers. It's about to get LOUD.

[aeons_crackshot]

"I should be able to cover you from there," Annabelle whispers, pointing to a location near the hole in the barbed wire, "but if you need me to come in closer, just yell."

Annabelle moves into a position where she can set up the rifle and cover as much of the enclosed area as possible. She takes aim at the mutant near the hostage and aims right between it's eyes. There is one moment of utter stillness, and then Annabelle pulls the trigger...

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"AUUUGH!" the thing howls, staggering and clutching at its face with its free hand. "PAIN!" And that, there, that's the sound of all the other mutants roaring and readying their weapons as the blood sprays from the wound.

Ellen mutters something under her breath and scrambles to spray the nearest mutant with shotgun fire.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle isn't muttering under her breath. This would be because she is swearing, loudly, in multiple languages. This rifle sends bullets through the plates of lightly armored vehicles, and a shot to the skull didn't kill it?! The mutant is going to be getting another bullet sent in after the first one, at an angle that will cause it to fall away from its captive rather than onto it.

Once that one is down, its friends are going to be getting what the first one got, especially if they're harassing Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It goes down fast with the second shot. Whatever its mutations are, they're just not quite enough to stand up to that.

Ellen, meanwhile, is busily pegging whatever mutant comes nearest with her shotgun. They've mostly got some form or other of metal armor over the chest and abdomen, and the head's a small target, but the legs are simple enough... which may account for the following audio scenario.

"All right, you-"

BANG.

"KNEES."

BANG.

"ARE."

BANG.

"A."

BANG.

"PRIVILEGE!!"

BANG.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle may be cackling in glee at Ellen's diatribe, but it doesn't harm her aim in the least. *Bang* *Bang* One mutant that was trying to come up on Ellen from the right will never be getting up again. It collapses in a heap, it's metal armor scraping large amounts of paint off a nearby car on the way to the ground.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Another one crumples some distance off, and Ellen scrambles to her feet and skitters sideways just in time to turn what would've been a headshot into a nasty graze. She'll have to have it treated, of course, but that can wait- that's three mutants down out of what, four? Five?- and, well, the one she can see from here is armed with a sledgehammer rather than a gun, so...

[aeons_crackshot]

This is Annabelle's unhappy face, not that anyone is in a position to appreciate it. The one that nearly hit Ellen in the head? It's going to be getting two bullets in the skull one right after another. It falls over backwards and lands with a crash.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen stands up, panting, and looks around with wild eyes. "Was there another?" she asks. "Where is it?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"That was the last one!" Annabelle calls out as she scrambles through the gap. "How badly are you hurt?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I- think I'm all right-" Ellen reaches up to touch her cheek and comes away with a good amount of blood on her fingertips. "Ugh. Are you-"

"Help!" cries a thin, tired voice- the lone human up on that platform, still tied. Ellen winces. "Almost forgot. We should do something about that..."

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm alright, I wasn't in range of their weapons. Do you want to cut our friend over there loose? I suspect you look a bit less frightening in your armor than I do in mine."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh- sure," says Ellen, and darts forward. Needless to say, she's studiously avoiding those bags as she goes, and stepping over the dead woman in a brahmin-skin outfit- and the remains of a spike-wearing Raider- as she goes. The captive is a man with a short, scraggly beard, his shirt stained with old blood and his trousers in similarly questionable condition. As Ellen murmurs to him to hold still and produces a knife for the ropes around his wrists, he says, "Thank you! Whoever you are, thank you! The- things- they talked about doing to me..."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle approaches the platform and says grimly, "I can imagine. I suspect it's a small comfort, but they won't be harming anyone ever again."

Annabelle is keeping an eye out for anything that can be used to cremate the remains.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There's a fire in the center of the platform, though it doesn't seem to be particularly hot or volatile. On the other hand, there are several ammo containers nearby, and some of them contain mines and grenades. If nothing else, explosives might do the trick.

"It's something, at least," the man says. "Look, I don't have anything to offer you except these supplies. I don't know why they didn't take them."

The supplies in question are a bottle of only slightly cloudy water and what looks to Ellen, at least, like two syringes of Med-X. Ellen looks at the man, then glances Annabelle-wards and shakes her head fractionally.

[aeons_crackshot]

"We're set for supplies at the moment," Annabelle says with a small smile and a shake of her head, "and you're likely going to need them to get somewhere that's relatively safe."

"Ellen, how do you feel about experimenting with some explosives and ammunition?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"You'd know best, wouldn't you?" says the man, tucking the syringes into his belt and shoving the water into his pocket. "Again, thank you both..."

He takes off at a dead run before anything else can be said. Ellen watches him go in silence for a while. Eventually she says, "What did you have in mind?'