Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 25 Part 1

He couldn't believe Patience had cheap-shotted him like that. Then again, thinking about how blurred and flexible that hero complex of hers was, he could.

Regaining consciousness, with his face in the dirt, he felt like leaving her to it. Damn the woman and her stupid ideas! As soon as the mushed feeling in his head cleared, he picked up the scope and tried to search for her in the twisting darkness of the trenches, lit only by the strips of lights and barrels burning at various points. He couldn't find her, not that he expected to be able to.

What he could see were the dozens of Super Mutants that the idiot was going to try to sneak her way past. It wasn't going to happen. Super Mutants may not be the brightest of individuals but neither were they completely stupid. Patience was going to get caught and, as much as he felt she'd deserve everything she got, for being such a fool, at the very least, he couldn't sit here and let that happen.

He pounded the dried mud with his fist as he fought with his instincts. Looking over his shoulder, he glared at the power armour. What was the point of getting the damned suit if she was going to throw the plan out of the window and go solo into enemy territory? Well, as his drill instructor always told him, stick to the plan until the plan got busted, then make another plan. He still had the power armour. He still had the mini-gun and he still had the charges, ready to blow.

Scrambling backwards until he was sure he was out of sight, he then stood up and ran, crouching towards the armour. He'd taped the detonator to the left arm of the armour. All he had to do was get into position and then light it up. He'd heard tales of a mid-year celebration, once, where people sent mini explosives flying into the air. Where people would gather, families and friends, celebrating together. Maybe, after tonight, they might restart that tradition in his name.

He couldn't let Patience hog all the glory.

The power armour folded in around him and he began to control his breathing, as his instructors had taught him. Things could get hot inside the armour, the enclosed space could cause some rookies to panic, but not him. Not tonight. He felt the electric thrill of the armour powering up around him. Servos resetting, pistons preparing, electrical systems powering through pre-combat checks. Everything was a go.

Bending one knee, he reached down, picking up the mini-gun, almost weightless in the grip of his armoured hands, ammunition bag attached to the rear of the armour. He tested the rotation of the mini-gun, the barrels whipping around with that unmistakeable whine that would be the last, worst thing anyone would hear facing the wrong end of the weapon. Satisfied, he piloted the armour back over to the area where he'd set the charges.

As he moved along the mall, his armoured feet crunching loose stone with each step, the sensors within the helmet brought up movement in various places on all sides of the trench network. More idiots, like himself, dragged into this foolish enterprise, but, he'd be damned if Patience hadn't got people out there. People, as Three Dog would say, willing to fight the Good Fight.

He reached the penetration point. The area where he and Patience had decided would be best to have the Super Mutants running to once all hell broke loose. He made the armour rest on one knee as he placed the mini-gun on the ground beside him. He was already sweating in the armour, through exertion or through adrenalin rushing through his body, he didn't know. Could be he was still feeling the effects of the StimPak. Either way, his heart pumping, he was ready to push the button.

"And what the hell do you think you're doing, Brother Vincent?" The electronically modulated voice came from behind and Vincent swivelled around towards it.

"Knight Captain Hazel?" The unmistakeable armour of the Knight Captain loomed over his kneeling form. Behind the Captain, Vincent could see others, Knight Foreman, Knight Bitterman, Knight Kowalski and three others, hidden by the other bulky Brotherhood of Steel members. "I can explain."