Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20170708203641/@comment-5543592-20181222233615

Tanner slowly approached the bomb and gingerly lifted the lid from the bomb.

What lay inside did not look complex. A few wires connected orbs of blue, gently vibrating metal to a large red plug, which was connected by a spring to an antenna. It wasn't complex but it looked mean.

"Oh boy." Tanner muttered, stepping back from it, and setting the lid aside. On the inside of the lid were elaborate, if slightly misleading, instructions on how to disarm the device, likely left there by Beacon.



"I hope one of you knows a thing or two about bombs."

"Perhaps I did infect you with some 'super virus.'"  Kheiro supposed. "Or perhaps I merely gave you a suggestion.  A powerful one.  So powerful that you would gradually make your way through the wasteland, taking action where you saw fit, risking your life in the most ridiculous ways to complete your assigned task.  And then perhaps, to make you unaware of your own predicament, I gave you a second, more powerful suggestion.  One that implied you were acting completely of your own free will, if only to preserve your life."

The street was alive with energy weapon fire. A Causer next to Abel screamed and fell to the ground holding his chest as a mass of plasma slowly ate its way through his armor.

“You three, fall back!” Abel shouted, waving off a squad that was too far forward. Knights worked their way down the street, the Causers retreated whenever they drew too close.

He began to step back himself, keeping up suppressing fire, even as a laser seared through his side and a plasma grenade melted his armor. He and the remaining Causers fell back in an alleyway, leaving the bodies of their friends scattered in the street.

“We hold here for the next several minutes.” Abel instructed, peeking around the corner at the encroaching Brotherhood, armor and weapons glinting. He turned back to the Causers, who attentively waited on his orders. “Then we advance.” Even in armor, their shock was clear. “If we fall too far back, the Brotherhood might let us go.” Abel explained. “We can’t have that.”

No one said anything. The officers fidgeted with their weapons. The gunfire in the street kept up as the Brotherhood laid into their position or finished off any stragglers.

“Is this it, chief?” One of the Causers asked softly.

Abel looked over at the man wearing a suit of armor identical to his own. He was quiet a moment.

“Yeah this is it.” He said with finality. “It’s been an honor to command you fine people. I thank you for your trust and loyalty, even though it’s brought you here.”

“No offense, chief, but don’t think we’re dying for you.” Another Causer said, even as several others stepped out of cover to exchange fire with the Knights. “Don’t put that on yourself. We swore an oath to this city. That’s gotta mean something.”

“It did once.” Abel agreed, leaning out of cover. A laser beam glanced off his helmet. The knights were close now, only thirty meters back. They worked their way down the street with meticulous, military precision. Abel turned away and lowered his head. “Now, I’m not so sure.”

They stood in collective silence, a morbid calm settling over them. A quiet whisper began. “One my honor, I will never betray this Cause,” Abel looked up. Others begin to recite the oath and the whisper grew louder, “my integrity, my character, or the public trust,”

They stepped out into the street, into the gunfire, cannons raised. Abel was shouting as the Knights bored down on them. The air was hot was electric death.

“I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions!” The Causers fell, died in droves, but the Knights fell in equal numbers. The outer layer of Abel’s armor had turned to liquid, an impossible concoction of molten metal and hot blood.

“I will always uphold the Cause, my community, and the men and women I serve!” Abel’s cannon stopped firing and clicked empty, but that didn’t matter because now the Knights were upon them, and he gripped the weapon in his two power-armored gauntlets and swung. The other Causers were with him and they screamed their oaths as the street was filled with metal, discarded weapons, corpses and blood.

Abel killed a knight, and killed another, and then he and a Paladin went to the ground, squirming and wrestling, jockeying for control. He tore the Paladin’s helmet off, grabbed the man’s head, and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

Abel shoved the corpse aside and saw that he was alone in a sea of dead, and as he rose a Knight walked up, pressed a tri-laser rifle to his chest, and squeezed the trigger. Abel’s ribcage was blown out his back and as he collapsed onto the pile of dead he hacked a final, wheezing breath out.

“To this, I swear and dedicate my life…”

The Knights and Paladins stood triumphant over the dead Cause. Vertibirds roared above, taking up positions around the Undercity Entrance.

“Shoot anything that comes out of there.” Their radios crackled to life, as Elder Christian Borsch’s voice gave them standing orders. “We will be sending forces down after them in a moment. We’ll— hold on, recon is picking up something on radar approaching your position. Be on alert.”

There was single sonic boom, shattering the windows of nearby buildings, as a figure dropped out of the sky, and crashed into the pavement.

The Knights approached the crater with trepidation, weapons raised.

A single, skeletal hand reached out and seized the craters edge. It dragged behind it a skinless body of exposed muscle and sinew that pulsed with a violent glow.

The walking corpse began to unfold as it stagger-crawled towards the Brotherhood line, growing larger and gaining limbs as it walked over the dismembered corpses of the recent fight. Severed limbs and pulped flesh crawled along the ground or floated up to the creature. Its ribcage opened, the bones twisting and contorting to accommodate the extra organs it collected.

The Knights scrambled over each other in their eagerness to get away from the monster, none thinking to use a single shot on it.

Empty sockets peered down at them out of a skull that grinned a rictus grin. A piercing shriek filled the air as the skull’s jaw, bloody and wrapped in sagging muscle, fell open. It spoke in voice that did not so much come from its malformed mouth as carried on the wind and found its way into the minds of all who stood too close.

'''“BEHOLD. I AM THE LORD. THE GOD OF ALL.”'''

A knight on the ground screamed into his headpiece, and the monster’s attention snapped in his direction. “Elder!” The knight cried as the monstrosity loomed over him. “It’s Hades!”

Hades lifted an arm high, and backhanded the knight. The Knight went limp and was launched down the street, landing in a broken pile.

Hades turned and raised his hand towards the assembled Brotherhood of Steel. '''“LET THE DYING DIE AND THE PERISHING PERISH! LET THOSE WHO ARE LEFT FEAST FROM ONE ANOTHER’S FLESH!”'''

“Open fire!” Someone screamed, and the Brotherhood unleashed with everything they had. The six machine guns of the three Vertibirds opened fired on Hades, and each also let off a salvo of missiles.

The mutant did not move as the bullets shredded its desiccated flesh, and raised a hand towards the sky. The missiles shuddered and immediately went off course, falling amount the ranks of the Brotherhood. The explosives shook street as most of the Brotherhood’s number was immediately wiped out.

The Vertibirds circled Hades, spraying him with prolonged gunfire. He screamed, shielding himself with an arm, and then swiped at them. It was a weak gesture, but one of the Vertibirds split in two with a metal crack. The two halves took on lives of their own and shot like bullets out of gun towards the remaining Vertibirds. Smoking debris fell out of the sky. Some of it shot of in different direction like knives, expertly spearing the surviving knights.

Out of the smoke a single Paladin in dented, smoldering T-60 Power Armor charged Hades. He barreled into the mutant, sending Hades skidding backwards along the pavement, it’s bare, flayed feet leaving twin trails of blood.

The Knight pressed the attack, leaping towards Hades in an enhanced jump with his fist raised high, and hung there. He hovered there for a moment in thin air before being launched into the sky.

His enemies defeated, Hades began plod in the direction of the Undercity’s entrance.

It had business with the entity that lied beneath.