Artemis Files (1)

Chapter 5

Once on the other side of the wreckage, Artemis, Zack, and Sarah and her group make it to the rest of the Galaxy News Plaza where they find even more Super Mutants in battle with what Brotherhood soldiers were already there before they arrived, Sarah checking up on her soldiers before moving on. The help of the Wanderer and Artemis prove invaluable however even this would not stop the untimely deaths of both Initiates that had been with them, Reddin and Jennings.

Once the group of soldiers catches a brief break the Lyons Pride and those that stood guard in the Plaza say their goodbyes to their fallen friends. Even Artemis' eyes have a downcast look to them despite only having just met and she can feel Zack placing a comforting hand on her shoulder which she appreciates. These two haven't known each other long, only a few days, but Artemis is glad they've become such quick friends.

That's when they hear it. An extremely loud grinding sound accompanied by what can only be described as a roar of sorts. Immediately everyone in the vicinity whips their heads around to look for the source of the noise which is hard to pinpoint with all these buildings clustered so closely together. The noise comes again, and again until finally an old pre war bus explodes from the eastern side of the Plaza.

And a Bohemoth steps out.

Artemis has seen them before, though not often. She can feel her heart hammering, usually she tries to avoid them but that can't be the case now. Not when other soldiers are counting on her to help keep this area safe. The massive creature roars another time before charging in for an attack. The group struggles against the beast, looking for blind spots, weaknesses, anything use to their advantage as they duck in and out of small makeshift shelters that used to be doorways, windows, the occasional rooftop or sunshade but it's area of attack is wide and it's proving difficult to get an edge.

That's when Artemis gets an idea.

"Sentinal!" She yells, and she has to a couple of times to really get the woman's attention. She explained her plan as quickly as possible. "If you and your people are alright with being used as bait for just a few moments, I can use the ruins to get to the creature's throat with my sword. My arrows won't pierce its thick hide."

"Are you crazy!?" Sarah spits. "Getting so close to that thing is asking to get swallowed."

"Sometimes you need to be a little crazy," Artemis fires back. "I know we just met, but do you trust me?"

Sarah is quiet for a moment, clearly thinking about her options, before she replies. "Alright. You better know what you're doing." Immediately, she gives the orders to her soldiers to draw the beast away from Artemis for a while. In the meantime, the red-haired woman looked until she found the perfect ruin to scale.

It's tough, finding the right handholds in what really is what was once the side of the building and is now nothing more then part of a shell, most of the rest of it having been blasted away 200 years ago along with the rest of this city, but eventually she finds a good position.

Her arrows don't pierce the Behemoth, at least not very deeply, but they still clearly annoy the thing. Most likely they feel like mosquito bites to the creature. So what she does when she gets into position is uses her arrows until it notices her.

"Come here you big ugly. Leave them alone," she yells practically spitting. If it weren't a life or death circumstance, it would look almost comical. Artemis, only resting at 5 feet tall, perhaps 5'2" at the most, was demanding a two story tall creature to come to her.

But it works. As the Behemoth takes bounds towards her and within a step or two of the things it's practically on top of her as it looks her in the face.

From Sarah and Zack's point of view it's almost odd. The Behemoth had been rushing Artemis...and then it stopped. It took a moment for everyone to realize there was a spray of blood before the head of the Behemoth lopped off and the body fell to the earth in a now dead slump.

Immediately the Wanderer and the Sentinel went running as soon as they knew the creature was dead. For a while there were no movements until they realized what they thought was a chunk of flesh from the now dead Behemoth was breathing and slowly got up revealing it to be Artemis. Her entire being covered in the beast's blood, only her blue eyes and general body shape were dead giveaways.

"I hope Three Dog has a shower in there because I'm not walking around the wasteland looking and smelling like a Super Mutants windpipe," Artemis said. Though the tone in her voice was teasing there was some ounce of seriousness too.

That was when they noticed the Behemoth had been decapitated. Sarah would have to make sure to ask Artemis how she managed to do that later when it seemed her arrows weren't doing much. In the meantime the smell was hitting her and agreed Artemis needed to bathe.

"Yeah," Sarah said. "I have some questions for you but they can wait."