I Walk In The Shadows

Chapter 2: Collateral
(Didn’t bother to wait for a review, eh, here we go)

The last of the Brotherhood soldiers sat leaned up against the only cover large enough, the remains of whatever concrete building had been here that they had chosen to set up around, they had heard reports of a ‘Ghost’ in the area, something that killed enough that it made a virtual black hole in the environment, which meant technology, which meant the need to ‘Preserve’ it. She sighed, whatever it was could be left alone for all she cared, her team had been wiped off the face of the World by something that used technology she had only heard of from the Scribes in Archives, after watching Thomas melt, then Brian’s legs disappear and then the rest of him splatter across the tent, pelting her armor with bone, blood and some weird kind of shrapnel that hit like a sledge but left no marks, she felt whatever it was, was inhuman, no soul, and had every right to be left alone. The fact that they died within a second of each other meant a massive force that was hunting them, or one seriously underestimated bad ass with tech centuries ahead of theirs. And then she felt the arrival of what she knew to be her death, it loomed, as though something was watching her, but not, she heard movement behind her, faint, all training told her not to look, but she had to know what was going to kill her. She leaned and slowly rolled to her right, as quietly as could be in the bulky powered armor, then dragged herself through the soft dirt to the far edge of the wall. All she had was a short glimpse as this ‘Ghost’, something she barely could have seen if it weren’t for the grass at its feet, turn and fire, the smg made no sound, no muzzle flash, but she knew from the movement to use all her might to push back and up, forcing herself to go from prone to standing and back 6 feet from the edge of what had been a wall, now a series of holes being torn in it, dust kicking out from it, the adrenaline kicking in. She saw her fate in slow motion cutting a cluster fucked line in the wall towards her, three thoughts, that thing is way more powerful than it should be… wow I wish I had one of those… turn and run and attack from the other side you god-damn-fucktarded-moron… and she did, with a push off to spin left and run, the dirt kicking up as she went, one powered stride after another, her left hand digging into the corner to pull herself quickly around and down the other ruined side of a quickly disappearing building, the quick millisecond glance showing that the rounds were still coming. Two more strides and the next corner, another grab and she was around again, now charging to where she thought she saw the ‘Ghost’, the casings were falling from nothingness, it was there, her right fist shot out in front of her, all her weight forward, the casings stopped falling, and connection…

It felt like she had decided to run straight into a Mutie Behemoth wearing several tons of armor, oh the pain, but such satisfaction to slam a fist into this bastard that had killed, no, annihilated her team, she hated it, but she envied that power, and then the camo field shut off.. A sleek figure a good foot above her head was before her, never had she seen such fine armor, no bulk, no excess, everything in its place, and then realization, her fist was clenched in its hand, failure, that was all she saw, tears coming to the proud warriors eyes, it’s weapons slung, the other hand coming around and being placed on her shoulder, the left hand clenched down, tearing into the plate, she screamed with the sudden pain, then a jerk and what she thought was pain became miniscule, her right arm dislocating at the shoulder, then a slam into her left shin, she felt the plate shatter, air on her leg, and she collapsed, unable to support the full weight of the power armor. She watched, her head tilted left, as this thing stripped Chelsie’s armor for parts, the most valuable ones, the Fusion Battery, optics, some circuits, wiring, then sprinkle a powder across the armor.. a flame fell from its hand and Chelsie disappeared in a bright flash of plasma, and ‘it’, this thing she could no longer describe, turned and stared at her. A chill shivered down her spine, causing another shock of pain to register in her system…..

Ravenous eyed the armored heap below him, this ‘Brother’ had gotten closer than any he had ever faced, he wasn’t the type to normally dwell on such things, but the condition of the visible flesh made him ponder a bit longer, thoughts racing through his head as to all possible outcomes, his right arm moving on its own to his hip, touching a small ledge in it, a compartment pulling back, he pulled a small auto injector from it, he knelt, pulling back the plate from the left hip, then injecting two times into the area around the femoral, the shaking in the armor stopped in a few seconds, then went limp all together, he stowed his gear, and with his left armed shrugged the armored figure up over his shoulder, his right retrieving a light thermobaric charge from another slot on the back of his armor, set the timer and ran back the way he came.

As he crested a hill a mile off the charge went, a mild whump and the over pressure wave catching him, the camp being shocked out of existence, blending in with the already ruined landscape. He humped on and up another series of hills, gaining in elevation with each passing moment, he came to the remains of a military base, nestled in the hills to the north of the Capital Wastes, not much remained here, a few burned out buildings, a few defensive bunkers, but that was just the appearance he wanted when he first arrived here, ‘Nothing of value to search or try to loot..’ he thought, he made his way towards the mountains again, finding an opening, a cave, too small to look like any kind of shelter, until he found the keypad. A ten digit code and the wall before him opened to reveal a concrete hallway, ten feet tall and twelve feet wide, he made his way in, the blast door closing behind him…


(Ya, I know they’re short, but the ideas come in trickles and often, the next chapter will be longer and most likely a little more lemony for those out there waiting for it, but character in any case takes time to build and become something more than the ‘blah’ and the bland.)