Fallout, Second Life
Chapter 203 - 203
The groups all gathered their belongings, tents were taken down, bed rolls were rolled up, items were recollected and thrown into packs, and everyone began to prepare for the short walk to where this inevitable confrontation would take place.
As Adam was getting everyone he could back inside the APC and ready to move out a familiar face showed up out of nowhere. Someone he did not ever expect to see again. Mira.
However Mira was looking incredibly distinct. She looked geared for a fight. She was wearing a Chinese stealth suit, helmet under her arm, which is how he recognized her, a recharger rifle in her hand, and, interestingly, a big white symbol overlaid on top of the all black stealth suit.
The key features of the stealth suit remained, the giant full faced orange faceplate with integrated technology, the black wires that went up, or down, the full length of the body leading to a small control panel that hung around the neck held in place by orange tape looking material and the fact that the stealth suit itself was as skintight as ever. It hugged her body tightly, it could have been erotic if not for the fact this was the last thing on Adam's mind at the moment. However despite it clearly being a chinese stealth suit it obviously had been reclaimed as there was a giant white symbol on the chest, the same symbol that he had seen on the power armor in the sewer. A sword with wings that created a circle around a space the sword separated in half, in the space were 3 gears of different sizes. Adam still had no idea what the symbol meant but he understood now it must be something larger than he had thought. This was definitely an organization. But those questions could be left for later. After all, what caught him most off guard was simply that Mira was here.
"Hey Adam." She said with a somber, sheepish tone as she walked over, decked out in her stealth suit and looking ready to fight.
"Mira? What are you-" Adam began, confused, before Mira cut him off.
"I was going to leave… like I said I would… but as I was getting out of the area I began to hear… rumors…" She sighed and then walked closer, her recharger rifle falling to her side as she let it go with her other hand, now just resting it in one. "That you were doing something… incredibly stupid and I… couldn't bring myself to run away." She sighed. "All I've done all my life is run away, I'm tired of it." She looked into Adam's eyes.
"You are here to help us?" Adam asked. Though the question felt rhetorical he was caught off guard by the suddenness of her arrival so he wanted to be sure.
"Yes … I am." She said as she gained a more confident tone as time went on. "I will not slow you down. I am more than skilled enough to hold my own, and, if you are going to be facing an army of feral ghouls, you may need my expertise." She offered a half smile. Adam smiled back.
"I would greatly appreciate your assistance Mira, so long as you feel up to it." Adam said softly.
"I… have spent too much time running from my problems. I realized recently that at some point I stopped living and just was surviving. I do not want to be that person anymore, I plan to make a stand. To live again." She said with a resolute tone now. Adam nodded.
"Well as you might guess I have a ton of questions, but right now, none of them matter, I'm just happy you are here." He smiled and offered her his hand for a handshake. "It will be good to have you here." She hesitated and then took his hand and shook it.
"I'm glad I worked up the courage to come too."
"Alright, well the group is moving out now, we are heading to the site of the potential battlefield, there should still be a bit of space in the back of the APC, Grant should be able to fill you in on what is going on while we drive over."
She then looked over at the APC and nodded.
"I must say, I'm impressed. Getting those old vehicles running isn't easy." She said with a bit of admiration.
"It wasn't." Adam chuckled. "I can tell you about it another time, but suffice it to say it was literally a full day of work, and over 6000 caps worth of replacement parts. But more than that I simply got lucky that it was in good shape." He smiled. "Come on, let's get moving, we still have a lot of work to do." She then nodded and headed to the APC and stepped into the back. Once she was inside the door was closed and Adam hopped into the front where Deccanus and Salvatore were already waiting, ready to go.
The journey to the location Deccanus told everyone did not take long, though Adam drove the APC slowly to keep pace with the rest of the migration. He did even catch a glimpse of the Vertibird that the Colonel of the Gunners said they had, it now being parked near the location they had designated.
Once everyone had arrived Adam stepped out of the vehicle and looked around. As Deccanus said this was a good spot. It would make for a great field of fire assuming they could get the feral ghouls to come this way. Which was going to be a challenge in itself. However it was a mix of concrete and dirt and the space was large and wide open, easy for sight lines. In addition while the space to fire was wide the eastern entrance had only one way in as it was flanked by the two aforementioned large buildings and then the rest of the area around the parking lot was more or less blocked by rubble. It truly was a good spot to handle this problem.
Everyone shared looks of agreement upon seeing the spot. However, as Mira stepped out of the back of the APC she was spotted by one of the Talon Company mercs who pointed at her and got angry.
"Hey! What the fuck are the Brotherhood doing here?! No one told me those goddamn technophiles would be here!" He yelled. A few of the gunners looked at Mira now too, some with the same sort of scowl that the Talon Company merc had.
"Yeah! It's thanks to the Brotherhood and all those other schmucks that we were run out of Boston!" A gunner private yelled now too. The group seemed to be ready to hang her simply for existing. Adam had no idea what this beef was about nor who the Brotherhood was, except for the fact Salvatore had once name-dropped the Brotherhood of Steel, but nothing beyond that.
However, as Adam stepped in front of Mira, ready to defend her both Jericho and Colonel Harrison made moves to shut up the men in their ranks acting out. Harrison yelled at the man who spoke up with a drill sergeant tone and ordered him to do 40 pushups, inviting anyone else who had a problem to join their comrade. Meanwhile Jericho was less official with his response, hitting the merc who spoke up upside the head knocking his helmet off and telling him to 'shut the fuck up, and go do something useful'. Jericho then stared at Mira and Adam for a moment before waving it off and returning to the rest of his men. Colonel Harrison however approached Adam.
"My men were disciplined, I take responsibility for my men's actions. However, we should skip the blame and focus on the task ahead." He looked out at the open field in front of them. "We need to build defenses."