OOC
Eagle Point Barracks
Interest Check
Eagle Point Cafeteria
Eagle Point Auxiliary Cafeteria

Anxious... It was the word that seemed perfect right now...first mission since being recruited by the scarcely rumored Eagle Claw. Whisked to an unknown part of the north into the frozen tundra and put into the most grueling training possible. He watched as more than a few recruits either died from the cold, exhaustion...or the poundings from the commanders. Any that could not handle the training was shot or used as an example to what would happen if the rest of us couldn't handle the training...But the reward...oh lord in heaven the rewards. Bountiful dinners in the cafeteria with foods he had never seen before, the finest sodas and alcohol available...truly those who earned their place in the Eagle Point camp got what they deserved.

Six months, two days, fourteen hours and twenty five minutes after arriving at Eagle Point camp the training had ended, we few that were remaining graduated and were placed into the Eagle Claw squad together. There were fifty of us when we started...and eleven when we finished. They had less than a few hours to rest after their training as they were given their first official mission. A way to test if they had become what Squad Sigma hoped to be.

They were placed in the care of the best pilot that the Enclave could find and train with nearly the same training as the Eagle Claw Company's own training. Codenamed "Wraith", Aria Hunter was hand picked by the commander of Eagle Point, the President Himself. From that description, she must be able to fly a Vertibird inverted without any rotors.

He had his mask and baklava off, sitting on his lap in the vertibird. He looked between the his squadmates, astounded at how varied they were. One, dressed in the new prototype N.A.P.A. suit. Made you stronger, faster, and stealthier. Able to cloak for long periods of time, it made him a formidable ally...especially with the Gauss Rifle he had in his lap. He shined it to a perfect sheen over and over again. Codenamed "Ginger" for his light orange hair. Shadowing him however was the giant of a man codenamed: Golem...for good reason.

He had no other way to describe him, he was like a Super Mutant but without the attitude. He sat there in silence, tinkering with his Proton Axe, his big ass shield on his back like it was as light as a feather. He wasn't sure which was bigger, him or the massive colossus armor he wore.

In the next seat, sitting next to him was one of the only two women on the squad other than the pilot. Most would be intimidated by the mass of meat that surrounded her, but with that laser rifle of hers, she hadn't anything to worry about. Codenamed: Archangel, she looked meek at first glance, but something about her stance said that she knew what she was doing. Her foot tapped a bit in anticipation, most likely from a caffeine addition. He had to admit though, she had cuteness written all over her as well. Unlike the literal BEAR next to her that sat, silent.

His eyes were like that of the president, that of a killer. He's read up on the President's dossier, he was one of the best soldiers of the war and went toe to toe with the Vault Dweller of D.C. and lived to tell the tale. Before they were horribly slaughtered at the hands of the training, a few rumors went around the other recruits of Eagle Point about "The Bear". One said that he once fought off two Super Mutant Overlords with his bare hands and came out without a scratch...other said that he was the one that put the bullet in Aaron Kimball's head and fought off the entirety of his personal NCR Veteran Rangers to retrieve his ear as a trophy. Either way, the man put a darkness in his heart that made him want to put a bullet in his brain.

Next one in line was Codename: Winter, spry young man that was brought in from the sticks. A great hunter. Said to have been one of those tribals from America that migrated up north as the 80s and the other powerful raider clans made short work of the independent towns...completely addicted to chocolate. One of the deaths of the recruits was due to him taking Winter's Hershey's bar. Man went without a cheek and both eyes for about five minutes before Winter chased him down and made him choke on dirt and snow.

The next size up from Archangel was Codename: Phoenix. Medic that he had personally seen recruited as the Enclave started to move north. Man was not as intimidating as The Bear or daunting as The Golem, but he was just as much as a threat as any of them. He was in Eagle Claw Company after all.

Last one in the lot was codenamed: Whisper. She had the same eyes as Bear...shifty, anxious, her foot tapped in anticipation for the coming targets. Her hands couldn't find rest, they moved constantly and she was constantly murmuring to nobody but herself. She was hands down the crazy one of the group.

"Attention passengers, attention. We will be setting down in the hell of hells any second now. Prepare your assholes for their beating by the super mutant horde in the city of Seattle. Remember, your target is the Vault in the middle of the city. FEV vats are there and your job is to neutralize it." The woman from the cockpit of the Vertibird spoke and reminded them of their mission. They were heading to Seattle as it had become the home of little under two hundred super mutants. There used to be a second vault in the area, but it too was taken by the super mutants, it's three hundred inhabitants being added to the master's army. Though it has dwindled in the time since the Master fell, they are still a formidable enemy. Reenforced with nightkin, floaters, wanamingos, and a Behemoth somewhere in the mess, this was truly a test of their skill.

He gave himself one good sigh before slipping on his Balaclava and slotted his high tech mask in front of his face. He felt the rebreather kick in and the night vision protocols activate, awaiting his command. The rest of the squad's actions reflected his own, final preparations. No words of victory or glory for America was shared. No brotherly or sisterly love hugs or exchanges of "good luck" or "break a leg". Just the humming of the Vertibird and the clicking of clips into guns and revving of energy weapons.

As they neared their landing zone, several tinks started to sound off of the metal. They were being shot at. Guess stealth was out the window, now the entire city will know they are there in just a few minutes. They had to move fast to neutralize them before they had a chance to report to their comrades. Thankfully they weren't that smart and would rather kill instead of report. "Setting down behind a few rocks, good luck, Eagle Squad! Kill a few muties for me!"

The doors of the Vertibird opened and they were introduced into a wasteland that was almost foreign to them, gray, bleak, depressing, United States of America. One by one they filed out and split up as the Vertibird took off to find a safer location to wait for the team to finish. The area was rocky outside of Seattle, the space needle still standing in the distance. It was a miracle that it was standing at all. As the team moved forward to engage the forty or so mutants that peppered the area. Andrew did what he did best and moved onto a large rock to have a good firing position. He lay down on his stomach and popped the tripod on his rifle. Accounting for wind, he recited his mantra to himself. It echoed in the comms of the squad.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor, My Bullet Punishes All Without Distinction"

Bullets whizzed by their heads just before they could reach their positions, Mutant heads started to explode into a fantastic mess as the mutant bastards screamed and blindly pressed forward.

Only a handful of experiences in his entire life, most of them having occurred in the past six months, had been more uncomfortable than this. He spent the first five minutes of the flight trying to size up his squad mates without making eye contact and the rest of the flight just trying not to make eye contact. (Not that he could actually see several of them thanks to the enormous Golem sitting next to him. He couldn't recall feeling this small before.) Was this a joke? Were these really the people the Enclave had declared the best of the best? Experts, geniuses, prodigies, monsters and cold-blooded assassins or a hodge-podge of ax murderers in need of psychotherapy? He took a deep breath, trying to keep it quiet so as not to disturb the tense atmosphere any more than the girl muttering to herself was.

The intercom crackled and a woman's voice dispersed the silence. Finally. As he listened a smile crossed his face and he was able to find his focus. Get through the mutant hordes and neutralize the FEV vats. Got it. He couldn't deny that the anxiety was giving way to excitement. There could not possibly be any better feeling than butchering mutants and God dammit if the prospect of bringing down a Behemoth wasn't making his trigger finger itch. It seemed that he wasn't the only one sharing in the sentiments as the squad stirred to life getting their equipment ready.

After a final check of his weapons (a legitimate check this time) he rolled his shoulders, tilted his head from side to side to pop his neck and slid his helmet on. This was definitely the most uncomfortable part of putting on his particular brand of power armor. The helmet initiated a "sync" of the mind and body to the suit via a module barely exposed at the base of the skull. The module tapped into the user's central nervous system and without it the prototype power armor would be completely unremarkable and in some cases completely unusable. With a quiet hiss and click the helmet, armor and flesh inside became a single entity. The dim lights on the visor flicked on looking like a grotesque set of arachnid eyes. His senses sharpened. His muscles tensed. The virtibird touched down. He was on his feet, gauss rifle charged.

"Good luck, Eagle Squad! Kill a few muties for me!" their lovely pilot gave them a farewell.

"It'll be more than just a few for you, sweetheart!" Ginger called to the cockpit with a grin under his helmet.

A damp and slightly rank breeze swept in with the opening of the doors. They were off and he was all too thankful to put a little more space between himself and the rest of the squad.

It wasn't long after he passed up Deathstroke, the squad leader, before a bullet ricocheted off the shoulder plate of his armor. That was plenty close enough for his tastes and he found cover crouched behind one of the many boulders that littered the area. He could hear the garbled voices and roars of the mutants from here. Little cross-hairs danced over his vision where the visor picked up moving figures pressing through the landscape. He lined up his sights.

A sound like an other worldly hammer striking an anvil bounced off the rocks and cliffs. Simultaneously a supermutant found itself engulfed in electrical discharge with a soccer ball sized hole punched through its chest. Chaos erupted. Ginger could hear the rest of the squad making contact. Gunshots, dying yells of inhuman brutes, wails of disgusting creatures, bodies hitting the ground. And over the top of it all through his ear piece he could hear the sniper chime in with an all too fitting phrase. It brought the smile back to his face.

Another charge through the barrel of his gun and another mutant met its fate minus a leg and a good chunk of its hip. After it fell Ginger noticed a distortion that warped the trunk of a long dead tree only for a second. It was enough that his visor placed a cross-hair on it, but that too quickly vanished.

"Watch yourselves," he spoke quiet and calm over the comms, "I've got a little son-of-a-bitch with a stealth-boy over here."

For a moment he thought about his new squad once more. Those strange people on the virtibird were now a team relying on each other to complete the mission and keep every member alive. This would be the supermutant extermination of the century...

...Or they would all die horribly.

Lucy (Hence forth known as Archangel) sat, the caffeine from her last cup of coffee still in her system. She didn't like to admit it, but she was already missing the luxury from surviving the Eagle Claw training camp. She wasn't raised softly back at the Vault, but what she went through was worse than when she got her arm blown off. But she could only blame herself for over-indulging. Regardless, once she stepped onto the Vertibird she made peace with the fact that she's going to live another few years eking out an existence in the wasteland. But she was no stranger to suffering, but that didn't mean she was a friend of it either.

As her jitters died down, she looked around at the others. She knew their names and their codenames, and some rumors circling around them. She wasn't really one to judge someone on rumors alone, but they did provide her some sort of reference to them. The first person her eyes went over was Tristan McBay, codename Ginger. She didn't have to do much research on why he was called that; the guy had orange-red hair. Not that most people would be able to tell once he puts on his Power Armor. She read up on some of it's specs, supposedly it's suppose to improve stealth functions, but she didn't really think it'll do much when you're a lumbering tank. She was more interested in his Gauss Rifle; she only heard of a very few in the hands of specialists in the Enclave, but she's seen Ginger use it. It was unlike anything Archangel has ever had the pleasure of using, it's high-velocity round capable of knocking a deathclaw into the skies. Supposedly at least, she's never seen Ginger use it for that exact purpose, but she wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

The next person she glanced over was Andrew Ryan Harper, otherwise known as Deathstroke. A bit of a mouthful for a codename, but she didn't pick them. Born in the Enclave, but doesn't use energy weapons. The Archangel simply assumed this was a preference of his. Not much else to say about him, though notably, he did wear a mask that Archangel has once read about; the Plague Doctor Mask, known for it's long beak. It was said to have been wore a long time ago during a plague, to protect doctors from the disease. The details of how it accomplished that was fuzzy for Archangel at the moment, but she was fairly certain that she was the only one who knew about it. Not that it would serve much use, unless she just wants to be insufferable.

The next person was Icarus Rose, also known as the Phoenix. He was the team's designated medic, and given his equipment, there wasn't much else he could do. He could always provide artillery support with his grenade launcher, or provide intimidation with his sword. She had to admit, it was quite ingenious; using a parts of a motorcycle as the hilt, a lawnmower as the blade, and a pilot light as spark source, he had a flaming sword. She wasn't sure how affective it would be or if the flames were just aesthetic, but at least they had a source of flame in the event they would need it. And where they was heading, she imagined that they would need it a lot.

The next person was Aria Hunter, Wraith. The team's pilot. A terrible shot, but pretty good with her blade. Archangel had hoped that she (Along with the vertibird) would stay around a bit longer, but she knew this would not happen. Even if Wraith had to pilot it alone, the Archangel knew the Vertibird was outfitted with many powerful weapons, and they could always use an eye in the sky. But it was just a fantasy.

Next was Alexander Callahan, codename, Bear. Lots of rumors from him, all of them about his prowess in battle. She didn't know how much of it was gossip and how much came form boasting, as she didn't bother to listen to any of it. As far as she could tell, he was certainly large, and his weapons suggested that he was best suited for dealing with either one large opponent, or many smaller ones. A Gatling Laser was good for either. The only thing she worried about was if this Bear wanted to get into nothing but fights. No doubt that he'll excel, but Archangel would like to save ammo.

The next person could compete with Bear for sheer mass. Ozymandius, codename Golem. She suspects that "Ozymandius" isn't his real name, but given the nature of the world they lived in, did it matter? Unlike Bear, Golem was more suited for melee combat; he wielded a wicked Proton Axe and a shield that may as well as been a vault door with plasma casters attached to it. Unfortunately, his only range weapon was a sawn-off shotgun, which itself wasn't exactly something given to a marksmen. However, unlike some others, Archangel did read more into Ozymandius; he was a tinkerer, and has visited a place called the "Big Empty" a sanctuary of science. This interested her greatly as a woman of scientific interests and because she wondered what the two could accomplish if they fused their abilities together. That, and she wouldn't mind having a hulk of a man like him in the midst of a fire fight; Archangel wasn't exactly built to take a mini nuke to the face.

The next person was Harrison Churchill, who's codename was Winter. He was one of the team's sneaky types, wearing a stealth suit and using weapons fit for silent op missions. But even in an open firefight he had a carbine, so she wasn't worried about that. She was more interested in his chocolate addiction. She was concerned that it might be used to distract him or otherwise ruin the whole team, but that was mostly just an over active imagination. And it's not like Archangel was without her own weaknesses. Still, she doubt there was any chocolate in the area... And she hoped that she was right.

The last member she looked over was a bit of a mystery. Melanie Briess, code name Whisper. Archangel knew not to judge my appearances, but Whisper looked like a raider. Archangel was at least familiar with her look, so she wouldn't accidentally shoot her if they confront some bandit punks. Most of the talk about Melania painted her as a crazy one, but just about everyone here would fall under that category. Archangel looked at Whisper a bit longer than the others, fondling some eyeballs she swiped from an Enclave laboratory. They belonged to a deathclaw, and they were black and beady, but also sort of big, like tangerines.

Archangel herself took the time to examine herself mentally. Despite the grueling trials she faced during the Eagle Claw training, she was largely unchanged from before. Perhaps a bit stronger given what she went through, but any increase in power went unnoticed to her. She did a quick equipment check, making sure her Disintegratior had a fully charged battery, her Compliance Regulator was properly calibrated, and that her right hand was still operational. She flexed the fingers, made sure it was on tight, and loaded a fragmentation 25mm round in it. She was going to need it, and soon. Last thing she checked was her Pipboy; she noticed that she was the only vault dweller among the group, or at least the only one with a pipboy. She had her glasses hooked up to her VATS and made sure her radio communicator was properly synch, as well as other neat abilities granted by the machine, including a handy map of the area. She had a full map, compass and all, but it had no landmarks since it was largely uncharted territory.

Archangel's attention was shifted away from her pipboy when she heard some plinks off the vertibird. "Sounds like we're being shot at." She dully stated. Wraith gave the crew a brief summary of their mission and one last word of good luck, before opening the doors to allow the crew to get out.

As much as Archangel would like to take in the scenery, now was not the time. She had already synched her Pipboy (And extension her glasses) with everyone else biological signal, and marked all supermutant bio signal as hostile. And before she even got out of the seat her sensors went crazy with red, and she detected at least twenty ticks, so twenty super mutants, but likely much more. Clearing the Vertibird Archangel took a brief moment to face the enemy. Though the super mutants were certainly enemies to be feared, they weren't what you'd call well-armed. Most had rudimentary hunting rifles that could barely fit in their hands, though some had fully automatic rifles. She didn't see any with larger weapons like rocket launchers or Gatling guns, though she imagined if there was any around they'd already been fired upon.

She saw Deathstroke head for some rocks and lay down sniper fire, killing one mutant. Archangel aimed her gauntlet at two super mutants standing together, firing her explosive round at them. It armed through the air with a slight whistle before smashing into the kneecap of one super mutant. He didn't even get a chance to roar in pain when it exploded, blowing off both their legs and killing them. Archangel didn't have time to savor the moment however, as various bullets were coming much to close to her general direction than she'd like. Quickly loading her gauntlet with another round, the vault dweller went to cover behind a knocked over column, taking out the Disintegratior to cover the team's rear. When she spotted one mutant round the corner she squeezed the trigger, sending at least nine-beams of lasers simultaneously at the mutant. Though three of the beams missed their mark, six landed. One hit the mutant's hand, burning through it and into his rifle. Four went into his chest, giving him some sever burns that even his crude armor couldn't protect him from. The last laser hit his face, which was all that was needed to turn the mutant into a heap of ash.

"Three down, but we're not out of the fire yet..." Archangel whispered as she scanned for more hostiles.

The great Bear of the North sat on the vertibird, surrounded by the new squad he was forced to work with. They all looked... quite small. Except for that Golem fella. Now, there was a man. A big man with a big weapon. But, despite the grudging respect he had for Golem, the Bear did not trust any of them. They were Enclave, and the Enclave were the reason he was in this mess, instead of where he should have been. Where he should be. Beneath his helmet, his scarred, worn face turned into a fierce snarl, his eyes raking over the squadmates that sat in front of him. The hand gripping the gatling laser that sat next to him tightened, and it was all he could do not to just let loose right then.



But, there were more important things to do now. As their pilot had so eloquently put it, they were at the site. As much as he hated the Enclave for what they had done, mutants and ghouls were even more disgusting, and more worthy of his skills. As they all filed out, the ebony boots slammed hard against the ground, the Bear squatting under his own weight. As he stood, images flashed in his mind; snow covered fields, peppered with the burns of energy and the corpses of mutants, the lone, dark figure of the Beast standing over the fallen. A savage grin broke over his face, and he brought his weapon up to aim at the horde that was slowly approaching. As the comms linked up between them all, the gatling laser revved up. With a roar that could only be matched by a Yao Guai, the Bear let loose a torrent of destruction from his weapon at the incoming wave.

One upside to using a weapon with a lot of spread: Multiple enemies at a distance will likely all be hit at some point. Roars of pain and anger could be heard as they were peppered by the green beams. The Bear stood still, body barely feeling or responding to the recoil that his gun gave him. Several of the approaching mutants were felled by the onslaught, though the pair of rifles that kept dropping them must have done something to help with that.

At the mention of a stealth-boy, the Bear released the trigger and turned his attention in the direction of Ginger. A small shimmer moving across a few trees caught his eyes, and once more, a wave of green death sprayed the area. After a few seconds, he let go of the trigger, and the corpse of a blue supermutant was laying there. A growl left him, and he turned his attention back to the approaching numbers. "Nightkin with them, all of you watch your backs," he muttered into the comm, voice deep and gruff. "Deathstroke, you've got the best eyes. Watch for the bastards." Not his place to give commands anymore, but old habits died hard. Unlike the mutants that persistently shot at and charged them. A few dinks and clinks sounded as tiny bullets bounced off his armor or skidded off the sides.

A battle like this normally came once in a lifetime. The Bear had been in several like this before, and had come out of all but one victorious. This was not one he planned to lose.

In the vertibird that approached Seattle from the general direction of Canada, the young, thin yet firmly built man who sat next to his now known comrades was Harrison Churchill, codenamed Winter. He wasn't appreciating the weather of their new mission's destination, since he'd lived his entire life in the cold Northern parts of the US, along with Southern Canada. Next to him was his team, a group of people chosen to be the best soldiers of the organization who he now worked for, the Enclave. He was more or less ambivalent about the organization itself, although its propoganda had gotten to him, and he was now in support of their mission.

They had questionable methods, but in such an age, no method was ethical and efficient at the same time. He had pondered over the ethicality of the entire situation more than once, and he'd always come to the same conclusion, no matter what thought train he followed along the way, so it was futile to go over it again.

There was a mission to be completed, and it was Eagle Squad's first, so he had to have his head in the game. The carbon plating on his armor clinked into place automatically as he snapped the powerful straps together, and brought his chest armor together. He looked around, and took a final glance at his brothers (and sisters) in arms. He checked his mental notes that he had made on them, and felt comfortable enough about his team. Deathstroke the Leader, Golem the Giant Fuckin Brutalizer, Bear the Untrustworthy Fighter, Phoenix the Flamin Medic, Archangel the Damn Good Lookin Field Mechanic, Wraith the Cute Pilot and Ginger, the really good powersniper. And he couldn't forget Whisper, El Gas Masko Maniac, the only person whose capability he entirely doubted.

With his preliminary recheck complete, he was ready. He retrieved his carbine from the space below him, and reached for the cartridge. He pulled it out with ease, since it wasnt completely locked in, and he did a check on its bullets. Filled to the top with the 6.8x43 caliber that he adored so much. He clacked it into place inside the magazine well, and pulled the operating rod back, then let it smack right back, which produced a quiet click of a bullet being fed into the chamber. The noise was enough to inform him of its condition, thanks to the amount of time he'd spent with this rifle. He took a quick look through the holographic scope, and was satisfied with its condition. This was all the prep he needed at this time, because he'd disassembled and reassembled the rifle before they left, just in case there was something wrong with it. There wasn't.

He reached into a front pocket on his chest, and pulled out a thin stick of white chocolate, something quite rare, and stuck it in his mouth like a cigarette. While munching on this final treat of his, the pilot spoke something. It went through his head momentarily, but he already knew what she was probably saying. Something about hells of hell.

But when the vertibird approached its LZ, he took a look out. Far too many muties to count, really. There were probably around fifty or so down there, and that wasn't even including the nightkin! He chomped down on his little treat, and got up, with the entire weight of the carbine making the nylon webbed tactical sling press against the back of his neck. He grabbed hold of the handle at the roof of the vertibird, and grinned. This was going to be a long day of extermination for sure.

The cute pilot, Wraith, announced their imminent touchdown with gusto, and she bid them luck. With that, he waited for Deathstroke, Ginger, Archangel and Bear to jump out, before he let go of the handle and gripped his weapon, then ran forward out into the sunlight. His boots hit the gravel within a second, and he didn't pause to take a look. He ran towards the right, and clicked the comms. He said "Winter Is Coming" which was a well known code for him. It meant that he was on the prowl, and he himself felt that not only was it old, it was also the weakest mantra he'd ever heard of.

He internally dropped the matter entirely, since this was definitely no time to be thinking of such things. He slid to a stop, blowing gravel away from him. He dropped to a crouch, and immediately aimed into the crowd of mutants before him. He didn't TRULY have to aim through the holographic sight to hit something, but it was best if he wanted to hit something vital. The reticle clicked on, and immediately a red dot appeared, focusing on a yellow-ish super mutant in the crowd. They hadn't properly noticed him yet, but it was better that way. "Lets introduce ourselves, shall we?" he said to himself, making sure that the comms was off as he said it.

His finger slowly fell off the side, and came to rest on the trigger. He breathed in, and let the air out, making sure EVERYONE could hear him, just for the sake of it. He'd deny it was him if they said anything. As the last of the air left his lungs, and his entire body steadied, he squeezed the trigger, and immediately the semi-automatic rifle fired three rounds deep into the brain of the mutie he'd focused on.

'6.8, baby' went his mind immediately, as the mutant fell to the ground after a second rapid burst. The noise of the cases falling was unintelligible in the noise. He then pushed himself to the left, more towards the shadow of the rock, allowing his assassin suit to hide him better, and causing EVEN more confusion amongst the mutant ranks, if that was even possible at the state of disarray in which they currently were.

Next target was a greenish mutant, farther away from his original target, closer to where Ginger's x axis position was, but even further away on the y-scale. His eyes closed to slits, and focused on his target. Again, he squeezed the trigger like before, but again and again in quick succession, just to make sure he killed the mutant. Five squeezes, to be exact.

However, the bullets never reached their originally intended target. They were accidentally intercepted by a poor nightkin's chest and jaw. The fifteen rounds tore through its body immediately stopped, and fell to the ground in a puddle of blood. Harrison's eyes opened up brightly, and he smiled at his fortune. A nightkin kill counted twice as good as a normal mutant, although not officially, due to their deviously hard-to-kill reputation amongst the troops in the Enclave.

He clicked the comms, and said with a monotone voice that somehow managed to convey his exclamation, which was bursting through his barriers of dignity, "Two down, moving right-ways." But then he noticed the perfect oportunity to get close, and cause havoc. There were a couple of scattered buildings around, places where people must've lived a long while ago. "See ya'll, I'm taking the right sides. I'll draw them that way. Lets route these bastards like it was the Khans versus the NCR!", and with that, he jumped to his light feet, and made a run for it.

It is often said that War never changes, nations and faces fade but war always returns. The Golem sat in the vertibird, his fingers fiddling with the power source of his axe. Though his entire focus seemed to be on his weapon, Ozymandias' mind processed the events of the past few months and the faces around him. Surviving Eagle Claw training hadn't been difficult in the sense that Ozymandias didn't have the ability to preserver, but in that it had taken it toll on his view of the Enclave. He hadn't made many friends within the recruits, but those he did had been executed for various minor failures. Their deaths had served to remind him of the Enclave's agenda and priorities. If there was one thing that he had learned from that experience, it was to not get attached. All his life things had been taken away from him, anything he grew close to he lost either because of his own need to move on, or through the slaughter of those with greater power.

He spent the last minutes of the flight looking at the faces of those around him. Ozymandias was flanked on on one side by Ginger. The redheaded man sat in his Coyote armor, eyes flicking all over the Vertibird, never landing on anyone for more than a few moments. Ozymandias didn’t like how jumpy the man seemed during the flight, but if training was anything to go by Ginger was a deadly force with his Gauss rifle. With the enhanced abilities that the Ginger’s power armor allowed, Ozymandias was glad they were on the same side.

On his other side sat Archangel, in comparison to his immense size she looked almost like a doll. Something that Ozymandias would never repeat aloud for 1) He respected the small woman. He’d heard stories that she lived alone with none but robots for years on years; solitude something they held in common. 2) Ozymandias didn’t want to face her when she was angry. Something about the grenade’s that she shoves into her arm would make him fear for his life if he angered her.

Across from her sat Deathstroke, their squad’s “leader.” Golem wasn’t going to contradict any orders especially not from their plague doctor sniper, but Ozymandias couldn’t help but wonder if the man was just here to keep a constant eye on their little band of badasses. The giant reminded himself to keep an eye on the Enclave raised sniper.

The hunter Winter sat near deathstroke. Now this man, Ozymandias both respected and wondered about. It was said that he had a collection of flags like the one that he wore around his face, that if you touched his chocolate you were likely to lose the hand. Ozymandias didn’t plan on sneaking some of the man’s chocolate, and he was glad to have the assassin on the battlefield.

Phoenix sat next to Archangel. The man was said to be the squad medic, but with the grenade launcher and flaming sword that the man carried with him begged to differ. Only time would tell as to the extent of the medic’s combat efficiency.

In the entire squad, there were only two that truly worried Ozymandias. Whisper, a truly appropriate name for their little psychopath. Ozzy was pretty sure that she would kill one of them in their sleep one day. With her gas-mask and weird hair she just looked like a raider. And even then she was nothing in comparison to Bear. Bear was the only one in the squad that could possibly trade blows with him and even then with that hulking laser weapon he used it would be a challenge just to close with him, but it wasn’t The Bear’s ability to take him or the rumors that surrounded the man. No it was the briefest glimmer that entered the Bear’s eyes when he looked at anyone enclave. There was just something about that flash that chilled Ozymandias to the core. ‘He could be trouble’ was the last thing Ozzy thought before the pilot, a cute little thing with a temper and wit that burned, announced that they would be landing soon.

Already they were under fire. Why couldn’t he just catch a break, this was supposed to be relatively easy damn it! Sighing silently, he gripped the handle in the middle and stood from his seat as it touched down. Normally he would have been the first one out the door, shield covering everyone as they exited, but these badass fools just rushed the door. Sighing again, this time audibly he unslung his shield from his back and flicked the power on and off. Satisfied that he was ready, he exited the Vertibird to the sounds of various weaponry signaling the supermutants meeting their deaths. While the others took cover behind or on various rocks, Golem stood silently an unmoving mountain. His gaze was locked onto the Space Needle standing in the distance. Despite all odds the building remained a reminder of a world once lost. Lost to time and war, an age far from many’s minds.

“Ozymandias,” he said quietly as he looked away from the relic of the past. While the others had their war cries, the Golem’s words spoke of the constant that was the fall of humanity. All around him bullets and energy flew as the squad tore apart super and nightkin alike. The mutant’s return retorts slammed into the rocks all around him, some bouncing off armor and his shield, and yet he remained unmoving. The first mutant that got within range of his axe was met with a swift and brutal death. The foolish mutant had run at him with a large club, but it hadn’t expected such a speedy reaction from The Golem. His axe had split right into the Super’s skull, slicing through the mutant’s brain sending tendrils of electricity into the body. Raising an armored boot, he slammed it into the kicking corpse, shattering bone and giving the counter force for him to rip his axe out. Another mutant closed on him with a signpost in its grip. Giving a slight smile under his helmet, The Golem waited for the blow to fall before flicking up his shield and knocking the trajectory to the side. The mutant hadn’t been expecting it, but it wasn’t surprised for very long because as he stepped forwards Ozymandias slid his hand further up the axe and drove the blade into the mutants neck. The electricity cauterised the wound, but the damage had been done and the lifeless corpse hit the ground with a thud. Popping his neck, the Golem returned his hand hold to its original position and started advancing towards a group of super’s firing down onto the squad behind him.

They saw him coming as he drew closer and turned their fire onto him, but it was too late. He had closed enough to rush the last few feet and slam into the group. Most human’s would go flying when they ran into a Super, but sheer force and mass knocked the group down. Before he could even engage the mutants, several bullets from who knows whose gun tore into two of the fallen freaks. The third met a quick death to his axe, but before The Golem could remove the weapon and attack the last Mutant it shoved him into a rock. Leaving his weapon for a moment, Ozymandias slammed his shield into the grinning mutant. Smiling underneath his helmet, The Golem punched the stunned mutant in the throat. Satisfied with the sound of cartilage and tendons snapping he returned to his axe, leaving the choking mutant to its death. Grinning again, he turned to engage the next closest Mutant, axe crackling with energy.

Boom, click, boom, click, boom, click, boom, click, boom, click...click...reload.

He fired quickly and cleanly, each shot placing itself into a mutant's skull, exploding what little brains they had all over the battlefield. The operation was going very smoothly thus far and he had racked up at least fifteen kills. The squad pushed up quickly, as did he, and they were starting to near the city. He kept a close eye on the field as well, popping a nightkin or two every now and then. The squad kept marginally together, but Whisper was...insane. She continually rushed forward and forgot that she had a 12.7 rifle on her and jumped unto Supermutants, cutting their eyes out before they could react and destroying the brain. "Whisper, slow down. You're going to get yourself killed out there...WHISPER" She ignored him as she started to chase a couple mutants farther from the battle. He looked at where she was going and saw multiple ripples. It was both a good and bad thing that she was going out there, good because he didn't see the ripples moving a wide berth around the battlefield in an attempt to flank. Bad because that woman was an idiot.

She chased down the mutant that she was after and jumped onto it's back, stabbing over and over and over again. Andrew could almost hear her laughter as she stood up over the body. She froze as she turned as a bullet whisked by her head. She didn't turn to look as something dropped to the ground in front of her. It's cloak dissipated and revealed a monster: A Wanamingo It's head was blown open and still it twitched, trying to get up. Before she could run, five more uncloaked near her, growling, bearing their enormously long teeth. Deathstroke immediately spoke over all comm channels to warn the others. "Wanamingos, cloaked Wanamingos. Check your six and nines, they're trying to flank us!"

There was a sick smile underneath her mask as she switched to her rifle and started to unload on them with one hand and use her Machete with the other. She downed one easily, but the other four charged and she dropped her rifle and jumped to the side, stabbing at it's leg and slicing out the heel. It let out a high pitched screech and fell to the ground as she stabbed into it's mouth, cutting up her arm and it's brain at the same time. She yanked it out and went for another one, but it's "Head" exploded and it fell to the ground, a huge hole coming out of one side. She jumped to the side as the last two charged her and she dived for her rifle, turning to shoot. One more fell from her bullets, but the last one got on top of her. She tried to kick it off but one of it's legs pinned her stomach and it's tendrils snaked around her wrists and restricted them to the ground. She struggled and fought as it leaned it's mouth and wrapped it around her head, making her last few moments of life as horrifying as possible.

It slowly closed it's mouth around her head, it's teeth drawing blood from her neck, but it stopped, it's teeth still slightly lodged and her hands were freed. She pried open the mouth with her newly released hands and pushed it off of her. It had an enormous hole in it's body. Her heart was racing and she panted and felt her neck. Small incisions were all around it and she bled badly. She turned to look toward their sniper and saw him wave. Next to him, there were two Wanamingo bodies. He had been snuck up on and was nearly lost himself, if not for his .50AE pistol. She switched to his comm and, true to her name, whispered a "Thank you" before making her way back to the group.

The rest of the mutants retreated to their city, alerting the rest to their presence and giving them a few moments to reload. Andrew spoke over the comms and ran down the hill where he sat. "Phoenix, get a first aid on Whisper, now. The rest of you, start moving up." Phoenix did as he was ordered and went to patch up whisper and the rest of the squad reloaded and started to move up with Andrew joining them a few moments later.

They moved into the city and started to look around, trying to find strategic positions and finding out where the enemy was hiding. Andrew saw several places he could set up, most importantly, he saw a high rise apartment that was taller than many other buildings around him. That was where he would sit. They gathered in a small building and made sure it was clear before coming up with a plan of attack. They looked to Andrew far before they did Bear. "Alright, there is a high rise apartment where we can go. It looks like it was rather posh, so we may find some help inside. Bear, Golem, Ginger, and Phoenix. Start pressing forward slowly, make a lot of noise. Time to demonstrate what you can do with that shield and shotgun of yours, Golem. Form a phalanx and kill every last one. Stay out of the streets and move from building to building, make some holes if you have to. Phoenix, patch them up if anything tears through and keep a close eye on your six. Archangel, Whisper, and Winter. You're with me. We're going to see if we can find any assistance inside the high rise and program them to hit the mutants. Once we find some, we will split up, I and Whisper will head to the top of the building and provide support and eyes. Archangel, you and Winter will try and flank the mutants that are attacking the rest of the group.

Our goal is the space needle, that is where the Vault is located, first priority is to clean out the mutants as much as possible if for some reason there are no bots, fall back and join up with them and continue to push...however, Archangel." He turned toward her specifically and spoke. "You are not to go inside the vault. We do not know what traps are inside and you are a previous vault dweller yourself and the Mutants no doubt already know because of your pipboy. There might be FEV residue inside and because the FEV only makes super mutants of pure blood humans, Vault Citizens, you might be affected. When we reach the vault, Bear." He turn toward him now. "You take charge inside of the vault and take Golem and Ginger with you. Your power armor will protect you from whatever radiation is inside...and here." He reached into the satchel on his back and took out a bottle of rad-x, passing out two pills to each of them. "Down them now, just to be safe. You three will head inside and clear it out of mutants and sabotage the vats."

Once they were all in agreement they all nodded and went to work. Andrew's group fell back a bit and snuck over to the east while Bear's group started to have some fun.

Archangel kept vaporizing more of the mutants as they showed up, and only one of them managed to get a good shot at her, making a bullet pierce through her forearm. It was bleeding heavily, which she only managed to stop with a heavy bandage. It didn't stop her from being able to keep fighting however, taking out five more mutants as they came into her sights. When she heard warnings of the nightkin, she smirked. Most everyone was relying on just their eyesight to spot for them, but thanks to her Sensors, Archangel was able to detect the stealth boys when they were activated. Using her VATS, Archangel continued to lay hot lasers into the enemies, superheating their flesh and cause it to boil and bleed them to death. When she saw two nightkins trying to get past her, she aimed her gauntlet at them and used her VATS for the most optimal target; left leg for 85% hit chance. She launched it, watching it fly into the invisible duo. It did miss the nightkins, only for it to land between them so they were still caught in the explosion. One of the nightkins were killed while the other one was crippled, which allowed Lucy to finish it off with a few bursts from her Disintegrator.

Archangel heard some maniacal laughter over the comms and immediately she knew it was "Whisper", their psychotic little scrapper. Unlike the others (Aside from the Golem) Whisper didn't lay down fire and instead went into melee combat, stabbing her enemies with impunity. But unlike the Golem, Whisper was not clad in Power Armor, so that seemed like a really bad idea to Archangel. She didn't have time to worry though when Deathstroke alerted them of the Wanamingo. "What's a Wanamingo...?" Archangel soon got a chance to see for herself however, when from the rubble her sensors detected three of the beasts run towards her. They looked like giant mouths with legs and tentacles, not entirely unlike a centaur, but these things were in a category on their own in terms of freakishness. Archangel fired some shots at them, but even when all nine of her laser beams hit a single wanamingo, it didn't even so much as growl in pain! Archangel had to deplete an entire Microfusion Cell before one of the beasts fell, and that still left two that were coming dangerously close to her.

She calmly loaded another one and fired off a few shots before they were upon her. She rolled out of the way, careful to make sure she didn't leave herself exposed to the super mutants who were slowly beginning to retreat. She tried to fire another shot when one of the mutated monsters trapped her rifle with it's tentacle, forcing her and the beast into a struggling match. She conceded when the other wanamingo was running around to flank her. She ducked, causing the beast to fly over her. When it crashed into a wall she took out her Compliance Regulator; while far from being a "Non-lethal" weapons in her hands, the main use with the Compliance Regulator was to paralyzes targets in the event that they cannot simply kill them, such as people that needed to be brought alive or each other if for some reason they can't control themselves. She only fired one shot at the wanamingo that had her laser rifle and caused it to fall over, it's body stunned. She than loaded a round into her gauntlet and punched the beast right above it's mouth, sending the explosive round into it's head. It exploded spectacularly. Before the other wanamingo could get a chance to resume it's attack, Archangel also paralyzed it and killed it via manually inserted explosive round.

After taking care of the two monsters, Archangel noticed a sudden quieting of gunfire. She deduced that the super mutants had begun to retreat, but no doubt they'll come back in greater numbers. The crew would need a better position than here, preferably with the help of some proximity explosives and automated turrets. Deathstroke's voice crackled over the comms as he began to dole out orders. Their target was a high-rise apartment; unlike the rubble around it, it was only few standing buildings in sight. Bear, Golem, Ginger, and Phoenix would form the vanguard that would distract and occupy the attention of the local Super Mutants. In the meantime, she and the others would sneak towards the apartments and see if there was anything they could scavenge in there. Afterwards Deathstrole and Whisper would cover the high ground as she and Winter gave support to the vanguards. "Sounds good to me."

Deathstroke than made a quick reminder of their mission. They were to find the Space Needle, which is the landmark that the vault is located at. But there was a catch; she couldn't go. As one of the few Vault dwellers in this group, she was the only one most susceptible to FEV that was inside. Archangel shuddered at the thought of getting dunked in the stuff. During Basic Training she and about twenty other vault dwellers went through a "Simulation" that killed half through shock, and causing the rest to quit on the spot or as soon as they recovered. The only reason she didn't was because she blacked out the entire time and didn't know what happened until she saw the holotape. She never knew she could scream like that. "Roger roger..." With their objectives set, Archangel reloaded her weapons and followed Deathstroke to the apartments.

Harry dived into the small run down house as a couple of mutants fired at him. They had finally noticed him, huh? Well, he'd have to make sure they were. Maybe by a little game of bullet tap. He crawled backwards, towards the wall, and took a slight breath. He looked at his carbine, and intuitively knew that it required a reload. He quickly and surely reached for the operating rod, and its cold metal touch metal slightly awkward to his somewhat sweaty hands. "Damn this place" he whispered, as he pulled the rod back, causing the now nearly empty cartridge to fall to the wooden floor with a clack. A single round clicked out of it on the impact, and fell on to Harry's knee. He'd deal with that later. He reached for his chest pocket, pulled out a cartridge, and smacked it with practiced precision. He then pushed the rod back, which placed another bullet into the chamber.

He took a quick look out from his grounded position on the floor. It was only a second, and already a bullet whizzed by. There had been several, maybe a dozen or so. Even more was damn more likely. Perhaps leaving the team wasn't the brightest tactical move, but it wasn't too bad. He had the ammo for this. He grinned, and remembered his training. Luck had always been on his side, and he wasn't running out today.

He rolled out into the doorway, and was immediately in a firing crouch. The rifle was raised in milliseconds, and the reticle aimed on his first target, another green mutie. "Fuck you" he said, as he fired several times, changed targets, and spoke again "Fuck you too, you, and you all" as he fired several times into a different target. Ammo out, and not everything was dead. "Oho, how 'bout no, mates?!" he said, using his front leg to push him rolling back into the house. And not too late, either. Several bullets were whizzing past him again, and two even hit him. Thankfully, the first one tinged off his armor, and the second only scraped his shoulder. Well, scraped wasn't the right word, as Harry realized he was bleeding slightly. Wasn't too bad.

He reloaded again, and came the conclusion that he could not pull the same thing again, as there was now a near-continuous stream of fire going through the door. He'd have to get to a window. He crawled to his right as fast as he could, and got to his feet. A one by one meter window, surprisingly large. He jumped in front of it, smashed the window out with the barrel of his rifle, and fired without aiming. The bullets hit a couple more, but didn't kill all of them.

"Round two, bitches." he said, as he went through his ammo. When he heard the familiar click of a cartridge running out, he pulled the rod again, and let the cartridge drop. He turned away, and ran towards the backdoor, and jumped through the old rotting wood. He had lost the element of surprise, most definitely. They were also advancing too fast, faster than he'd anticipated. As he smashed through the wood, the first mutant must have run in with a rebar club, and roared. Harry let his rifle drop, but it wasn't going to the floor, thanks to the strap. He pulled out his .22 and combat knife.

He waited for the mutant to come out on his side, quietly. He didn't have to wait too long, as a rebar club wielding mutant burst right through where he'd come out through. He immediately emptied the pistol's cartridge into the mutant, who still didn't die. "Oh no" he throught, but the emotion he showed was a gritting of his teeth, as he tackled the mutant, and drove the knife into the bullet wound. It must've been the final blow, as the surprised mutant fell to the wooden ground, with a thud. He was now covered in mutie blood. Didn't matter. He noticed that in the small scuffle, he'd dropped his pistol. That didn't matter either.

He would have to reload the rifle immediately, and one handed. It would take longer, but he had his bloddied knife out, so he had confidence in himself. He was able to put the cartridge in, before the next mutant came through. This was ridiculous and unrealistically similar to a holo-game. He stabbed forward, and his knife pierced through the tough flesh of the mutant. "Luck, dammit" he thought, since this one wasn't wearing armor. He dragged the blade up through the flesh, only to be thrown back to the ground by the thing. It was wounded, and enraged.

"I need a bigger salary if this is the kind of things I have to do." he whispered, as the mutie jumped onto him, unto the receiving end of the upraised blade. It went through its skin, and must 'ave hit something vital, as the mutie squirmed on his, and died. The thing was a dead weight, pun intended, and was bleeding right onto Harry. He pushed the body off, and heard Deathstroke speak orders. He sighed after the man had spoken, and pulled his bloodied self up. "Covered in mutie blood, but ready to serve, sir. I'll get right to the meeting place, and be there in......." he looked out, and estimated the distance. "..... three minutes." That was all he said, and he consumed another stick of white chocolate as he left the house, breaking into a jog towards the building where they were meeting.

When he got there, he didn't say anything, and hoped nobody noticed him, covered in mutant blood. 'Flanking work? Fine by me. ' he thought, in response to his orders.

When he announced the presence of stealthed targets Ginger didn't quite know what he expected to happen. A "roger" or two, maybe some mundane gunfire in the general direction if someone managed to spot it. A rifle boom and a sudden appearance of a headless mutant, even. The sudden surge of bright green laser fire pummeling the field wasn't quite what he had imagined. However, it worked, and marvelously so. The dark skinned nightkin lay in a smoldering heap not far from him along with a few other unlucky smoldering heaps.

"Nice shootin' Tex," he quipped through to Bear.

Chatter over the comms was becoming intense. He had seen wanamingos, floaters and their like from a distance and he wanted to keep it that way. He would go toe-to-toe with your average supermutant any day, but those damn abominations were too far over on the scale of bad to just plain wrong. Everything about them, the way they looked, the way the moved, the way they killed, it made him shudder and his skin crawl. Disgusting things will stay back if they know what's good for 'em, he mumbled to himself.

Several times over he repeated his routine; load a charge, aim, pop a mutant. Everywhere, sins against nature met their end in pieces at the nasty end of an electromagnetic explosion. Before long the serene Seattle landscape was covered in mutant bits, the noise was dying down and his targets were becoming scarce. He was taking a second to re-adjust, check his ammunition reserves and consider seeking a better vantage point when Deathstroke's voice came over the comms again. Time to move. That was just fine with him. This spot was getting rather corpsey anyway.

"Yes, Sir," he confirmed.

Bear and Golem were hard to miss pressing forward toward the city. Ginger was on his feet quickly and made his way toward them as fast as his equipment would allow. Though it had the ability to make the user faster and stronger it came at a price and at the end of the day it was still power armor. The squad came together soon and they made for the buildings on the edges of the metro area. For just a minute they stopped in a badly damaged little building. Deathstroke had been watching the broken skyline intently and Phoenix double checked that Whisper would remain stable after her rampage. He kept watch, making sure they hadn't been followed, lay his finger beside the trigger of his rifle and watched the entrances. Looking away for only a second he rolled out his shoulders, took a deep breath and... what was that smell? Sniffing the air he turned to look over his shoulder toward the door. Where there had only just been nothing he found an absolutely horrific looking Winter standing among them. The man looked, and reeked, like he had taken a few laps around a supermutant blood swimming pool.

"What. The. Fuck..." he said slowly and deliberately, "What in the nine hells happe--"

Winter cut him off, before he could say anything more "Don't ask. I went hand to hand with a dozen mutants. Just... don't ask. But one thing you can know is that super mutants are really... really heavy," he said in a fast tone.

"No shit," Tristan was glad nobody could see his facial expressions under his helmet.

No time for banter. Deathstroke was already calling out orders. Despite that, he held up a fist for Winter. Winter grinned and wiped off the blood from his hand on the wall before he fist bumped Ginger.

"Good god, mate," he said, in the most Imperial British accent heard to date. Invisibly grinning back, Tristan decided the freaks in this squad might not be so bad after all.

He listened carefully to the orders being doled out to each of them, prioritizing, organizing and memorizing. It wasn't hard to understand. The four of them were to stick together and head for the Needle. They were to kill anything that moved, they were to destroy anything in their way and under no circumstances what-so-ever were they to be subtle about it. He was positively bursting. There was no way this day could get better. However, it could get worse. He didn't relish the thought of going down into a vault, much less a vault exposed to FEV, even if it was for the sole purpose of uprooting the supermutant population. His thoughts turned back to his training in Eagle Claw. When they... Just for coming from a vault... No. He wouldn't let himself think of that sick, twisted little test. Not right now. Needless to say he accepted the duo of Rad-X capsules from the squad leader with gratitude. Removing his helmet to take them gave him the last breath of "fresh" air he would have until the job was done and let him shake the sweat from his hair and face. He popped the pills quickly, pushed his hair out of his eyes and slid the helmet back into place, re-calibrating his armor and taking it's true weight back off his shoulders. Everybody understood what was to happen next and it was time to move out.

"Catch you guys back at the virtibird for smokes," he said with a casual salute to the squad members he was leaving behind. He followed Bear and Golem out of the building with Phoenix.

Wanamingos, Bear thought, the lone word managing to get through the red haze of war. The spinning barrel came to a slow halt, as the Bear narrowed his eyes, casting them about, head slowly turning to try and catch the bastards before they could sneak up on him. Already, Whisper was neck deep in them, and Deathstroke on his perch was dealing with some of his own. He turned to help the team leader, the insane wastelander cast from his mind as he figured she would be killed in a matter of moments, with or without his help. As the barrel began to slowly turn, the electron packs charging up, a small shimmer crossed over his field of view. With a savage cry, he turned his weapon down, beginning to gun at the cloaked monstrosities that seemed to believe themselves his betters.

A pair uncloaked and fell under his barrage, causing a bout of hearty laughter to escape him. This was the mighty wanamingos that everyone so feared? He was still laughing as he cast his gaze around, only for it to go dark as a loud thump! sounded and a weight was pressed on his back. The metal of his power armor groaned underneath the bite of the wanamingo, and his hands released the gatling laser, allowing the precious gun to hit the ground with a clank. His hands raised up to the lips of the monster, and worked his fingers between the razor teeth. With a groan, he began to pull, the jaws slowly loosening as he forced the monstrous thing to release him. Light began to surge in, illuminating the disgusting inside of the mutant. With a mighty roar that blasted over the comms and over the area, chasing after the fleeing super mutants, he brought the wanamingo off of him and slammed it onto the ground before him. His left hand surged to his hip, gripping the pistol, as his foot shot up, hooking beneath the beast as it squirmed to get upright. The force of the kick knocked it up in the air as his plasma defender was drawn, and with a shot, the underside of its jaw and most of its mouth was melted away. It let out a shrill scream, which he silenced with a second shot. From his other hip, he retrieved the thick knife, and held it before him defensively, the pistol held loosely by his side.

Of course, this challenge was met.

A growl behind him alerted him to the presence of one, and he turned to face it, pointing the pistol in the direction and firing. The blast skidding across its side, searing the thick hide, and uncloaking it. As he readied himself to fire a killing shot, a tendril shot out, gripping his arm and pulling it astray. The second bastard wrapped its other tendril around his forearm, and began to pull them towards each other. Rather than be defeated by this thing, this abomination, the blade in his hand was turned so that the blade pointed down, and it was dug into the first tendril, holding onto his wrist. It let out a cry and loosened its grip, allowing him to point the gun straight towards its open mouth and fire. It released it, screaming in pain, but not dead. So, they were tough. The first was now upon him, though, as he turned to face it again. It leapt up onto his chest, but the Bear was not keen on seeing the inside of a wanamingo mouth again any time soon. The tendrils wrapped around his neck and upper back, forcing him towards the open jaws. Unfortunately, it did nothing against his arms. The blade was brought up first, slamming down into the top of its head. Before it could even scream in pain, the defender was raised to fire a fifth shot, blasting right through its hide and skull. The corpse slid off of him, and he turned back, only to see the one he wounded before charging him, a new friend with him.

The pair split, trying to flank him. He cursed loudly, and turned to fight the fresh one. He readjusted his blade to hold so that it was held normally, and prepared himself for the inevitable charge or launch of tendrils. Unfortunately, it never came. From behind, a set of tendrils wrapped around his lower leg, and yanked it back, forcing him to drop down to his knee, the leg stretched out behind him. Another swear, and he looked up to see the one he had been facing charging him, determined to get the kill. Stupid, stupid creature. His hand held up and entered the creatures mouth, the barrel of the pistol shoved into it. With a savage grin and a laugh, he pulled the trigger, sending a surge of plasma through the thing's stomach and out its ass. Yanking his weapon from it and pushing it off, he felt something heavy land on his back, forcing him into a laying position. He dropped his weapons beside him, and reached up to grab the tendrils as the thing leaned down to chomp his head off. With a pull, it was yanked forward, slamming into the corpse of its fallen brother. As Bear stood, it slid off, and as it tried to stand, he did what any normal person would do. With gusto, he shouted "People's elbow!" and jumped into the air, and as he fell his thickly clad elbow slammed into the side of its head, the rest of his body falling on it. With a satisfying crack! the thing stop writhing, and he hauled himself to his feet.

He stood over the corpses, huffing into his helmet, a small memory coming back to him. A burning village, him standing over it, the bodies of countless men and woman before him as the blizzard raged around him, and his men staring up at him in reverence. As he opened his eyes, he received no such praise, only an order to move on.

It seemed that while he was busy, the others were finishing up their own scraps. Retrieving his weapons, he holstered the pistol and sheathed the knife, then hefted his gatling laser. Then he followed suit as the others took off after Deathstroke. He had expected more fight from the famed super mutants and nightkin, the so-called feared army that the Master had raised so long ago. These old monstrosities should have been able to take out a few humans, especially Whisper, who had charged their lines like a damn madwoman! But no, they had allowed themselves to be bested by them. It disgusted him.

He sat silently as the mission briefing was given out, the ebony clad giant thoroughly inspecting his weapon to make sure it hadn't been damaged by the drop. Satisfied that it was, he snatched the pair of rad-x from his commander and popped off his helmet. The man beneath was bearded, the black mass tamed by a series of intricate braids that allowed it to fit beneath the helmet. His cheeks and forehead were covered by countless tiny scars, weathered flesh that looked like it belonged in the heat of the south rather than the cold of the north marred by the white marks. The pills were quickly downed and swallowed, and he shivered at the sensation. He hated swallowing those things whole, and always had to resist the urge to chomp them into dust. Once the quick act was done in a matter of seconds, the helmet was brought back on and locked around him.

The Bear rose to his feet, gripping the gatling laser tightly in his fists. "Alright then, boys," he said, beginning to walk towards the exit, ready to be back in the thick of things. "Golem and I will take front, while Ginger and Phoenix stay behind us with supporting fire. No heroics from anyone. Now, let's move." There would be no time for questions or anything against his commands unless spoken over the comms as he headed out into the street, ready to begin the mission in earnest.

Blood spurted up a foot into the air when Golem tore his axe free of the mutants throat. Another came at him and the blow had cleaved downwards, splitting the mutants head all the way down through its larynx leaving Golem undefended from the charging mutant on his left. It slammed its sledgehammer into his side. The pain from the blow was annoying, but what worried Golem was the dent in the side of his armor. Ignoring the breach for the moment he backhanded the offending mutant, giving him just the time to turn his shield to intercept the next blow. The Muttie had some strength, Golem would give it that, and it's swing brought him to his knees. Resting his shield on the ground he knelt waiting as the Mutant stepped forward to bring a devastating downward blow. Grinning to himself, his hand grabbed the handle of his shotgun and swung his shield upwards as the Super raised its weapon above it head. The blow never fell as the mutant ceased to have a head when the close range shot rained bloody gore down on Golem's standing form.

Turning, he brought his gun up and shot the second round into the rubble behind him. To many he would have looked insane; wasting a round on an empty space, but any of the team watching would have been rewarded with the flickering of the stealth boy as the Nightkin fell to its knees, it's unarmored chest blown open by the shell. Smiling to himself Ozymandias was glad that that particular night kin had been using the stealth boys for a wee bit too long. It had clearly lost control of it a mind as it was muttering to itself as it snuck up on him. His smile faded as he turned back to see a mutant rip his axe from the corpse of it's fallen brother. No one touched his axe. No one! In one fluid motion he had broke open the shotgun and slipped it into the handle on the inside of his shield. Thumbing a round from his leg bandolier, he loaded the gun and withdrew it snapping it closed. Fingering the right trigger he waited for the mutant to make a move.

The bastard raised his axe and started walking forward at a calm pace. This mutant was smarter than it’s predecessors that much was clear. It walked forwards slowly, closing on him, entering range of his gun, but keeping the axe ahead of himself. To kill the mutant he would have to shoot past his axe and the mutant was betting that he wouldn’t want to hurt his weapon. Sadly for the mutant Golem wasn’t that stupid. When it came close enough to swing, he stepped forward and slammed the shield into the mutant or at least he would have slammed the shield into the axe if the mutant hadn’t sidestepped him. Golem barely registered that the mutant had tricked him out before the bastard knocked him down while he was unbalanced. Golem lost the hold on his shield he would have been dead if the Mutant hadn’t stopped to gloat. As its mouth opened to say something offensive before bringing the powered axe down on golem’s head. This was the second time in the past five minutes that he had been knocked on his ass and at the mercy of a Super, it was unacceptable. This time though his smile didn’t return when shot the green shit in the chest.

Pushing back to his feet he reloaded, returning his shotgun to its holster. He grabbed his axe and started paying attention to the comms again. Everyone was getting jumped by wanamingos, but even when he was completely exposed, they hadn’t jumped to attack. Carefully, he began fighting his way through the remaining mutants he made his way back to the group keeping an eye out for any wanamingos. He took the pill and downed it, checking the dent in his armor while his helmet was off. The mutant had done a real number on his armor, opening a small rent in the side of the power armor. Luckily the blow had missed one of the power sources so there was no radiation leak, which was a plus.

Grinning at their orders he reattached his helmet and slung his axe over his back, he snatched a plasma grenade from the corpse of a fallen super before following Bear. “Hey Bear! Catch!” he called out, throwing the grenade over Bear’s head. He hadn’t pulled the pin and normally he wouldn’t throw a grenade around like this, but Bear was just always so serious. The man needed to lighten up a little.

The words from Golem made Bear let out a little growl, and he turned to see what the hell he was tossing around. His eyes widened a little when he saw that it was a plasma grenade. Adrenaline rushed through him and his eyes narrowed as he dropped the gatling laser for the second time today, and threw his hand up. Whether it was practiced skill or just plain luck, he backhanded the grenade away from him and out of a window. Not even waiting for an explosion, the ebony clad giant had unholstered his plasma defender and had shot at Golem. The fact that he had been rushing the shot is the only reason he missed the giant, and even so it was just barely, the green plasma surging over the space just right of his head.

The lack of an explosion was the only thing that caused him to give pause. With a huff, he lowered the pistol and shoved it back into his holster, and glared through the orange visor at Golem. Gently lifting up his gun, he quickly gave it a once over before allowing his attention to turn back to the man. With a tone that sounded much calmer than he felt, he simply said, "Do not fuck around out here like that." Then he turned back towards the door, heading back towards the objective, as if nothing had happened.

Next time, I won't miss.

Leaving first squad to their business of killing and murder, Second Squad, comprised of Winter, Deathstroke, Archangel, and Whisper, moved through the buildings as the first squad fucked with the mutants and drew their attention. Heading towards the high rise building that Deathstroke pointed out earlier, they were careful not to encounter any mutants on the way. No matter how careful they were however, they did find a couple small patrols that were executed quickly and silently by the talented Whisper and Winter.

They had come to the stairs where they would split so Winter and Archangel could scavenge for robots and join with the others while Whisper and Deathstroke found a higher ground to assist from, but they froze as a rumbling shook the building. They looked at each other for a few moments before the rumbling shook the building again and they rushed up the stairs together, finding a few more mutants that they didn't try to sneakily kill as they went up to a higher location to see what was shaking the building. Deathstroke had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Back in first squad, they did their jobs excellently. The super mutants were there in mass, trying to swarm the squad. They funneled themselves down a hallway and essentially doomed themselves to death. Their own comrades became their worst enemies as they tripped over them and fell into the hallway of lasers and gauss rounds, unable to penetrate the shield that was Golem protecting Bear and Ginger poking their weapons through to kill everything. Guns, Melee Weapons, Grenades, and even a few missile launchers piled up with them. They stopped coming and down the hall they could hear them retreating. They had no time to relish in their victory as the rumbling reached even them. They quickly retreated into a larger room to reload and try and find the source of the rumbling. They froze as the rumbling got heavier.

A deadly silence came over the squad as the rumbling also ceased. Quietly, Phoenix found his way to a window to look outside. His jaw fell and he went to yell at the rest of the squad to get back, but a Giant dark gray hand tore through the building and wrapped around Phoenix. It lifted him up and crushed him, parts of the building and the ground, killing him. Whatever had him dropped him to the ground. He made a large thump as the concrete and dirt mixed with his body. He was nothing more than blood, concrete, and skin now.

Right then, Deathstroke spoke over the comms. "Behemoth! Find cover and stay down!" A massive bastard, nearly four stories tall and with enough muscle to turn a vertibird into dust with a single squeeze. The Behemoth knew where First Squad was and started to wreck havoc on the building that they were inside. Second squad had made it to the top of the building and Mutants had started to file up the stairs. The squad was able to defend the stairs easily, but Deathstroke had taken a small position near the edge of the building and contacted Wraith. "Wraith, we need Air Support, now!"

Shaking herself from a dead sleep, she sat up in the cockpit and got her communicator. She put it on and heard Deathstroke repeat his orders. "Alright, alright. What's the hurry?" "Behemoth! We need a missile strike immediately! The squad is in extreme danger!" "Shit, alright. Keep an eye out for Anti-Air. I'm on my way." With her on the way, he got near the edge and set up. He popped a tripod and took sight of the area, he started shooting immediately, taking down targets on other rooftops and putting a few rounds into the Gigantic Behemoth as it tried to claw into the building to get at first squad. It stood and looked straight at him, it let out a monumental roar, nearly causing the buildings to shake yet again. It started to walk down the street to approach the High Rise and Deathstroke tried to slow him down as best as he could, he even put a bullet into the Behemoth's eye. It stalled just long enough, screaming as it tended to it's eviscerated eye, for Wraith to make a pass through the city. Several mutants tried top pop and attack the Vertibird, but they were nary able to fire as Deathstroke continued to put them down.

The Behemoth stood and roared again, it's remaining eye glaring down Wraith's Vertibird. It started to walk forward to knock it out of the sky, but Wraith fired first, firing her Salvo of missiles into the Behemoth. It staggered backwards for every missile and was knocked down as the last one came to rest on it's skull. It sprawled out, trying to grab onto something to hold itself up. The bastard wasn't even close to done yet. Wraith flew out and turned around, doing another run and delivering her second Salvo of missiles into the Behemoth's body, giving first squad a good light show as it had fallen just outside of their position. The missiles impacted nicely, taking out chunks of the Behemoth's weakened body. She mixed in the Vertibird's dual 20mm Gatling cannons and filled the bastard full of the deadliest bullets the Enclave could make and even then, the Behemoth squirmed, mortally wounded. She contacted them as she flew off. "Now's your chance! Execute that bastard!"

When the second squad had finally moved out, Winter was glad. He was actually beginning to enjoy this, although bloodlust wasn't something for him. That was Whisper. He just did what he had to win and survive. Yet, who wouldn't have fun in such a situation? He had friends here, he thought with a tinge of sarcasm, knowing well that they really think the same way. 'Oh well', he thought. At least Tristan was a cool guy with him, and Golem was a pretty good chap too. The others.... not so much.

When they got to a good building, with an overview of the entire place, Deathstroke gave the signal. Time to split up, he knew well. He was going with Archangel too, so it was going to be enjoyable, with all the flirting and such. He winked to Deathstroke, and made a mental note to buy him a drink for this, even if it WAS unwittingly. But this wasn't quite peaceful, since there were a bunch of ravening mutant hordes outside, which he did meet on their way here. He and Whisper had dispatched them quickly and silently, no problem, but even then... It was getting eerie. The vault, a place filled with FEV created horrors, was someplace he'd rather not go into. He had dealt with that sorta thing in training, a terrifying simulation they were all put through. He recalled every bit of it.

Lucy screaming all throughout the entire time, Tristan close to him, Bear and Ozymandias being the pillars that they were, and of course, Andrew doing his thing. He tried keeping it out of his head, but he always did have an overactive imagination that worked without him. All of those memories went through his head, which actually made him physically shudder. He looked at Lucy, and all he could see was her terrifyed figure from that day.

This was no time to fall into memory madness, though. He had a job to do, he grimly reminded himself, all notions of fun gone. It was like those memories actually drained him of happiness for a while. He decided to take a look out, maybe get a look at how Squad One was doing. Slowly, with his breath going through the tattered flag that he used like a scarf being the only noise to accompany the crunch of their footsteps, he advanced to a window. What he saw outside made his jaw drop. A bloody Behemoth. It swung its fist into the building, and a huge boom echoed around. Deathstroke yelled "BEHEMOTH", and that was all that was needed to snap him back. He ran towards where the Behemoth had struck, and was horrified to see a blood splatch on the ground, with bits of bone and meat everywhere, with pieces of what may have once been a grenade launcher lying there. But next to it, there was a flaming blade. Phoenix, his mind whispered.

Immediately, Harry felt a surge of an emotion he rarely felt. Rage, and tinges of sadness. He had known Icarus, and he was a good chap. Time seemed to slow, and noises became muffled. The first of you is dead. He was just barely aware of Wraith rushing down with air support, as wrath made blood rush to his face. Adrenaline began flowing, and Harry ran forward towards the flaming blade. Gehenna, Phoenix had called it. He grabbed it, and yelled ... something. He himself wasn't sure what he said, but it was different. The voice with which he spoke was unrecognizable. He raised the flaming blade up, and rushed the stairs.

He didn't even bother actually climbing down. He jumped down the stairs, skipping all the steps, each time landing with a thud. Once he had reached the first floor, he ran out onto the floor, and saw the Behemoth on the ground. It was trying to get up, and succeeding. The thing was wounded, but he didn't care. He ran up to the window, yelling in fury, which made the Behemoth look at him. He stared the now one eyed beast down, and jumped out the window, with his rifle on his back, knife and Gehenna out. "I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET YOUR VERY FUCKING BIRTH" was all he yelled as he landed on the beast's chest, both blade's just barely clinking into the beasts armor like skin, and didn't even GET to the flesh. He removed the knife, and stabbed above, as the Behemoth got up. He kept doing this, trying to climb up to its face. And he was succeeding. All that bottled rage that he usually kept inside was unleashed, drowning out EVERYTHING else.

He yelled again "D'YA FEEL PAIN ANYMORE, YA FUCKING SHIT? WELL, HOW ABOUT I MAKE YOU?", and continued climbing. Thankfully, he had been quite close to the head already, so it didn't take too long, or the Behemoth would have been able to get to its knees at the very least, and swat him away like a fly. He reached the head, and he simply made for the beast's last eye. He simply stabbed through the dirty white cornea of the beast, the flaming blade finally receiving the feel of actual flesh. It's former master had been slain by this thing, he'd avenge it. Phoenix had been one of his best friends, one of his ONLY friends in his entire lonely life spent travelling to Canada.

Apparently Bear had given him some help here, causing some major damage with a rocket. He couldn't care anymore. He simply stabbed, and then gave up. He left the sword in the eye, and let go, making him fall off. The impact shook him back, and he whispered through his mic "Ow. Wh-What." He realized what had happened, and tried to salvage the situation. "See you in hell, but I know you won't see me." The thing wasn't getting up. Was it dead? Possibly. He sighed, and realized what had happened. He must've looked like a guy on Psycho. Whatever. He dropped his knife, and tried to get up, only to hear an explosion, and get covered in raining blood. "Not again", and have Archangel help him up.

He winked at her, getting back some of his attitude, and said, "Yes Ma'am!". He immediately regretted it. Phoenix had just died, and this was no time to smile. The smile disappeared, and he ran after Lucy, while also replying to Bear "Thanks."

Once the crew was about to head out, Archangel did a rudimentary patchjob with her bullet wound and went with Deathstroke. She saw the little stunt Golem tried to pull with Bear which nearly resulted in friendly-fire, much to her ire. "Fucking idiots..." She muttered off the comms. She did pick up the plasma grenade however, as well as some other loot from the dead supermutants, including more grenades, ammo, and stealth boys,

Soon the stealth group gathered in a ruined apartment building; unlike the other piles of rubble that surrounded it, this place was still standing. Archangel helped the crew with their sweep, finding a few things that could help them secure the place, including a maintenance Protectron and a Mr. Handy. It didn't take her long to reactivate them, where she gave them the orders to patrol the main floor; neither were combat robots, but the protection had it's hand and head lasers (Which she programmed it to use all three at the same time, just to bolster it's meager firepower) and the Mr. Handy had it's flamethrower. She also made alterations to it's nuclear fusion battery for it to explode as it nears critical damage, since it's mainly a close-range fighter. Should it fall, it will take as many super mutants down with it.

With some more scavenging she also managed to find some Microfusion cells and a broken 9mm handgun, with a box of bullets (30). Instead of using the MFC for her rifle, she turned them into makeshift mines. With some duct tape she took from a janitor's closet and a some wires she pulled from a broken computer, she made herself a MFC Cluster, with a total of 12 individual MFC grenades. But she wasn't done yet. Using the rest of her duct tape and some cans she picked out from the trash, Archangel emptied out the powder of the 9mm bullets and made three improvised grenades. They weren't nearly as powerful as the bombs she had, but they would do good enough for a grenade bouquet trap.

As the rest of the crew took their positions, Archangel chimed into the comms. "Setting up traps on the second floor. Lots of explosives. Careful on your way out." It was mostly hidden proximity mines or tripwire grenade traps, covering only the areas where a supermurant could try to go through. She was about done when she heard the roar. "Behemoth." She noted. Soon Deathstroke assured that it was a Behemoth and that Wraith was coming in with fire support. She could already heard the Mr. Handy model scream out it's battle cry as it went to engage the supermutants, so it was only a matter of time before it was scrapped.

Archangel passed a window just as the Behemoth was bombarded by the Vertibird, forcing Archangel to take cover from the shrapnel. As she laid low, she saw that some mutants had managed to breach the building, though heavily wounded. If she had to guess, her bots were destroyed. A single blast from her rifle killed the first mutant, and a few more shots to take out the rest of his heavily wounded gang. As soon as the Vertibird stopped firing, Archangel made her way down the stairs, taking out any mutant that crossed her path. To her surprise, her robots were actually still together; the Mr. Handy was on fire, but the Protectron and Mr. Handy were still operational. From a quick scan they had taken out at least ten supermutants, but they were grunt fodder; no doubt if more experienced mutants had come through she'd see piles of scrap metal rather than corpses.

This made her think of something; surely now that their presence has been discovered, the leaders of the supermutants have come to lead their soldiers. Supermutants in general are stupid, but the older ones, they had the intelligence of humans, and cunning if they made it this long. Before they were lucky dropping into them while they were disorganized, but it wouldn't be long before their leaders rally their soldiers and they'd have serious threats. The fact that a behemoth showed up and attacked the building the Eagle Squad was in told her that there was at least one mutant leader around. If he dies, however, the organization of the mutants would be back to loose bands. Now she just needed to go kill him.

As the robots moved to help the Vanguard group, Archangel used her Sensors to pick out the supermutant leader. He had to be somewhere that was near the battle, but where he'd have the best vantage point. Likely another building, but whatever was a high point. It didn't take long before she saw some lasers shoot down from a building three clicks away from her position; it was a Tri-beam rifle from an Overlord. She cursed herself for not taking a longer range weapon, but she had the next best thing: Her gauntlet. "Archangel here, spotted an Overlord, top level of the ruined convince store three clicks from my current location. I'm going to mark him." "Mark" in this term meaning "Set him on fire"; loading an incendiary round into her gauntlet, she took only a few moments to calculate the trajectory and launched her round. It arc high into the skies, and for a moment she worried that she would be off her mark. More super mutants were coming, both in greater numbers and from different locations. And of course, there was still the behemoth to worry about. Luckily, as Archangel followed her robots to the vanguard group, her explosive round splashed the Overlord with flaming chemicals, setting him on fire. This should give Deathstroke or anyone else a chance to spot it and kill it.

As Archangel helped the vanguard crew fend off mutants, someone was screaming into the comms. Sounded like Winter, but she's never heard him scream like this. It wasn't out of pain so much as... Anger? She didn't have time to check when she saw him take on the behemoth. He climbed onto the beast as it was getting it, and before it could retaliate Winter stabbed it into it's eye using Phoenix's sword. "Wait, what happened to Phoenix than...?" Things happened quickly. Bear saw the situation that Winter got himself into and armed himself with one of the dead mutant's missile launchers, and used it to bring the behemoth back down. Winter fell to the ground, and Archangel assumed the worse. Without much thought or communication she ran out of the building to get his body back. She had to dodge gunfire from mutants who were stalking the building, and she saw at least two point their guns at Winter's body. She fired her rifle in their direction, but only a few bolts hit one of them before they took cover. Once she got over to Winter, she helped him to his feet, and put his knife back in it's sheath. "Don't be such an idiot Winter! At least keep moving!" He didn't seem too injured as far as she could tell. One last thing she took before the both of them ran back into the building was Phoenix's sword. While Winter was alive, inside she knew that Phoenix was gone. It was a hunch, with no proof yet, but she just knew. "No time for tears."

((Collab between Gravity and Lucius))

Archangel took Winter into one of the backrooms, her robots still busy helping the Vanguard group with the muties. In all the excitement her bullet wound was beginning to bleed out more severely, and she was going to need to patch it up better. She was also worried that Winter got himself hurt in his mad attack on the behemoth, and she wouldn't be surprised if he secretly had a few bullets in him.

Harry looked at her, and commented "You should get that patched up, really. I'm fine myself, so lets go on."

"Yeah, don't have to tell me twice." She rolled up her sleeve and removed the old bandage, revealing a bloody hole where the bullet tore through. Exposing it in the air made her wince.

"Well, thats getting worse by the minute. I'll deal with that." he said, ripping off his soaked flag-scarf, and revealing his lower face for the first time. He whipped it around, and dried it, before motioning for Lucy to stick out her wounded arm. "This should do the trick. Harry Churchill, the Medic, at your service."

Archangel extended her arm somewhat painfully, as the adrenaline in her system was dulling the pain. When Winter called himself the medic, Archangel became sombre. "...I guess Phoenix isn't here, huh?"

Harry sighed, and looked her in the eye, as he tightly wrapped the flag around her wound. "Sadly....... yes. He was a good friend." He tied the flag in a knot, and one could almost believe there was a tear in his eye. There definitely wasn't.

Winter verified Phoenix's death. "No time for tears." She reminded herself. Once Winter patched up her wound, she stood up and reloaded her laser rifle with a new battery. "Let's go. For Phoenix... For Icarus." And with that, Archangel walked out of the room and went to meet up with the vanguard crew, popping mutants as they showed up.

Harry followed her, and frowned. Thankfully, she didn't mention whatever happened before, and wouldn't, because it would affect his psyche profile a lot. Ah well, he trusted her and the rest of the group to not say anything. He pulled the rifle back to the front, from where it had been hanging, and clicked the trigger, just to check. It was gonna be a long day.

Propping the gatling laser against the wall, he turned and began to search for the proper equipment. Outside, he could hear the roaring of the beast, and the sounds of explosions and gunfire. Oh, how he wished he were able to see it! But, he would get his chance to inflict some damage soon enough. By the time the gunfire stopped, and the shout over the comms for them to finish it, the Bear was carrying a loaded missile launcher on his shoulder, with four more held under his arm. A savage grin covered his face beneath his helmet as he climbed up to an upper level of the building, and looked out.

Already, the damn thing was starting to get up. Though, there seemed to be something crawling over it... When the shout came over the comms, he swore loudly, and readied the launcher. Rather than hold his fire, he merely yelled, "Watch yourself, Winter!" Then he pulled the trigger, and a missile fired itself from the barrel. It flew through the air, letting out a small whirring sound following the trail of smoke left behind. After a small delay, the missile impacted, right into the Behemoth's left cheek. It's head tossed to the side, and a roar of pain escaped it, while the Bear loaded in another missile. A roar escaped him, and the second missile was fired, hitting the thing in the shoulder. Hopefully the splash wouldn't hit Winter, but at the moment, the only thing Bear could see was the red of rage and his enemy.

A third was loaded, and he lowered his aim considerably. "Stay down!" He roared, and the missile flew from the barrel, towards the creature's knee. He didn't even bother to check for impact before he had loaded in the fourth missile, and fired in the same direction. The missiles hit their mark, the first hitting the front of the knee and the second hitting the back, forcing the Behemoth to drop down onto his knee. The final missile was loaded into the launcher, and he slowly raised it up, finally taking careful aim. This one needed to count. The missiles had been a damn good distraction for Winter, but now that his little barrage was over, it would only be a matter of time before the bastard took notice of the little man crawling up him. Slowly, he aimed it up to his face, towards the eyes. Specifically, the ruined eye that Deathstroke had taken out. Now, he just waited for an opening that, hopefully, Winter would provide for him to finish off this damn beast.

Luckily, Winter was not some scrub with a knife. The skilled son of a bitch was able to force it back to the ground with a bit of gouging in its other eye socket. As the man began to walk off, he could see the blinded beast stirring. As it sat up, it gave him the perfect vantage point. "I told you to stay down!" he shouted, the final missile flying out towards the gaping wound Winter had left. The missile tore through the soft flesh of the eye, and entered the skull before exploding. Gore splattered out, raining over its chest and, unfortunately, Winter. Letting go of the weapon, he allowed it to clatter down onto the ground several yards below. As he turned to head downstairs, he muttered over the comms, "Your welcome." He retrieved the gatling laser on the wall, and headed outside. The Behemoth was dead, but there were still several dozen mutants running around out there. They were not given permission to live, and were not going to get away from him.

A ruined door burst open, the wood shattered and tossed onto the ground. A group of mutants were grouped away, staring dumbly at the corpse of the Behemoth, a god by their standards. And here was the Bear, the one who had slain it for good, the ebony giant that would carve out there gravestones. As they turned to check on the noise that Bear had caused, the gatling laser was already turning and a burst of bright green energy flew towards them, taking them out momentarily. It came to a halt, and he turned until he could see something else to kill. He still had a bit of rage to let out.

"Shh-" the rubble crushing down on him was finally starting to shift. He was breathing fast, violently wrenching his limbs free to get more leverage under his body. Images of the hallway suddenly bursting inward and the sword wielding medic being ripped from his sight flooded his mind.

"SH- SHIT!!" he screamed throwing the slab of steel and concrete from his shoulders, "PHOENIX!"

Ginger ripped himself out of what was left of the side of the building, hitting the ground like an iron sandbag, and scrambled to his feet. Missiles tore through the air above him streaking the sky with smoke and slammed into the enraged behemoth still quaking the ground and causing the city to sway and shudder in its rage. Molten lead spewed forth when the missiles struck. What he thought he understood of the supermutant threat was brutally forced into perspective and for a moment he couldn't be moved. A true monster. But as he came to his senses and registered the other squad member's positions in the fight it dawned on him that the thing was as good as dead. Dead. Blood. Blood and flesh and skin and bones. Strewn across the ruined ground. Pounded into the mud. Phoenix. More explosions and planet shaking roars of fury muted the voices coming through his headset. Gun. Need a gun. The butt of his rifle protruded from the rubble about ten feet away. In seconds he was there, carefully but quickly digging it out... along with a crushed severed hand dangling tendrils of flesh and splintered bone. Phoenix was gone. A solemn reminder that Eagle Squad was far from immortal, that they were human and that life could be taken so easily. Ginger surveyed the area for the group and his next target. In the distance, atop a single story building, a massive mutant, though not by behemoth standards, was howling in furious agony and wreathed in flames. The flames alone would not be enough to take it down. He could fix that. Life was easily taken indeed.

"NAPA command," he spoke as clearly as possible, bolting toward the burning overlord.

"Issue command," a quiet, computerized voice chimed in his helmet.

"Activate overdrive," he commanded.

"Warning, please be advised of health risks associated with--" the armor's system began to argue.

"Bypass warning," he grunted as he hit the ground after leaping off a retaining wall and continued running toward the animal voices of the overlord and its entourage, "Activate overdrive," he commanded again.

"Overdrive engaging," the system finally conceded.

Ginger took a deep breath and prepared for the shock.

"Sorry, man, wish I would have gotten to know you a little better," he whispered to himself, "Consider this a parting gift."

The armor screeched.

Pain.

---

The supermutant overlord bellowed at the frenzied subordinates under him. They scrambled around organizing what little was left of their numbers for a desperate offensive push. Some were trying to smother the chemical flames still trying to burn away at his flesh. However, the overlord did little to aid them as there were more important matters at hand. They were losing. He growled at a soft piercing whine that grew louder and louder and rang in his ears. Then the noise stopped just before it threatened to drown out the unintelligible noise of the low class mutants. A deep WHUMPH! swelled in the air, reverberated in the overlord's chest and was immediately followed by an ear splitting metallic KA-CHINK! Blinding blue light surged around the gang just as the mutant next to him was blown back and had its head and most of its torso sheared clean off. After a stunned silence the body hit the ground and sprayed gore across it's comrades. A dark figure dropped out of the air and penetrated their ranks in the blink of an eye. Click. BOOM!

The group erupted into angry confused yelling, shots from their worn rifles and lasers were fired in every direction. The overlord stumbled over something. A mutant body with a large bloody hole blown through its skull. The panicked mutants couldn't land a shot. This demon was gone as quickly as it came. The annoying mechanical whine faded in and out with the thing's movements. The overlord became livid, the sound driving him mad. The massive blood-soaked, hydraulic sledge hammer he carried with him was heaved to the ready, daring the demon to return. Something rushed past him with a scrape of steel on concrete like a foot fall. His massive muscles contracted as he swung in that direction with a deafening roar. All he hit was the roof.

It cracked and rumbled. It groaned and sagged. All at once he was weightless with a cacophony blasting around him and slammed into the impossibly hard ground. Plumes of dust blasted through the building and exploded from the windows. More dust rose into the air around the collapsed roof. Mutants growled, hissed and shouted as they climbed from the rubble. Visibility in the building was zero.

Click. BOOM! Pained howling. Click. BOOM! Cut short. The overlord swung his deadly sledge. It hit nothing but air. Again and again and again he swung with a terrible blind ferocity until he hit the solid, sinking, thud of flesh. Bone gave way under the pressure with a muffled splintering. The soon-to-be corpse of one of his own sailed into a wall where it choked and sputtered blood suffocating on collapsed lungs. It was growing ever quieter. The voices of the mutants became mute one by one. Click. BOOM! A solitary frantic voice of a lone mutant. Click. BOOM! Silence. He growled through tightly clenched teeth and listened only to hear his own breathing and that ever present high-pitched whine.

Visibility was returning. He screamed out a challenge and carefully scanned his surroundings. The dust fell. He saw something move outside the window. There, twenty maybe thirty yards away, was that figure in dark armor laced with dimly glowing blue veins. The air around it seemed to ripple and warp like waves of heat. It was shoving some sort of charge into the side of a large rifle. Human bastard. He wouldn't give the worm time to shoot.

"CRUSH YOU!" the overlord spat. His hands clenched around his sledge and he rushed forward. The walls of the convenience store gave way easily against his brute strength. He charged out of the dust and rubble bounding yards at a time shaking the ground on each impact. He dreamed of putting a stop to that noise. Of how it would feel to watch the pathetic human suffer inside its smashed steel casing before he ripped it apart and strung it up. That worthless flashy equipment would make a nice shiny trophy.

It pulled up the rifle and hastily fired. WHUMPH-KA-CHINK!

Intense heat and pain flooded his senses starting from the side of his face and spread through his entire body to every extremity. He staggered from the force of the blow, screamed, howled and drooled blood, but didn't stop. His vision skewed like looking through only one eye. The human slung the rifle over it's back, wheeled around and started running. Fast. Faster than him by far. He was so close. He wouldn't lose it. He slammed the hammer into the ground with a tremendous force right on the human's heels. The human's footing on the city debris shifted and heaved under it. The overlord was upon it when it fell. With a blood-crazed yell, he rounded the sledge over his head and brought it down on the pathetic creature.

The sledge froze in place.

A dark gauntlet wrapped around the sledge tightly and held it in place just in front of it's helmet. It's arm shook visibly and the mechanical whine hit a maddening crescendo. A mysterious wave of heat emanated from the human. It threw the sledge away like casting aside a blanket. The overlord's grip on his weapon held fast but only left him sprawling on the ground when he was thrown with it. He got to his knees and met with glowing blue arachnid eyes... and the barrel of a .44 magnum revolver. Click. BOOM!

---

Ginger snatched the ejected case out of the air and crushed it to dust in his palm.

"Radiation exposure threshold and power output threshold reached," the little voice chirped at him, "Overdrive de-activating immediately."

His skin burned and his muscles ached. The deactivation felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. He gasped and fell to one knee. The arm he had used to bring an overlord's hammer to a dead stop shivered violently. He clenched the hand and opened it several times trying to relax the exhausted limb.

"Son-of-a-bitch," Ginger laughed and shook his head. "Overlord down," he confirmed over the comms.

Until he was able to catch his breath, he examined his handiwork: half of the mutant's over-sized face was nothing more than a bloody, exposed skull and the eye on the good side, a gaping hole. On shuddering legs he stood. It took another minute or so to fully recover from the overdrive, little movements, make sure everything still worked, that it was all still in one piece. Ginger started back to the squad covering ground quickly and keeping an eye out for straggler mutants. It would seem their task was all but completed as he looked over the barren cityscape. Next up, the vault.

He filled his mouth with air and took a deep sigh. He stood from his position as the guns of the world below him grew silent. The barrel of his 115A1 "Anna" glowed red and smoke rose from the mouth as it showed it's use. He pulled back the bolt and ejected the empty shell and the empty cartridge fell to the ground. He reached for a refill but found that he had run out of ammo. He cursed to himself as he slung the rifle onto his back and looked over the battlefield. The behemoth had fallen, it's killers enjoying the victory, but as he heard over the comm, young Phoenix had been lost. His mood took a hit, but he was not that affected by his loss. Death is not, and will not, be uncommon to Eagle Claw. It was a sad truth that many would find difficult to get used to, but they would have to if they were going to survive...he'd have to raise a drink in the boy's name, however. But not here.

A few crunches of dirt behind him made him draw his pistol and turn to see a Super Mutant sneaking up the steps as Whisper was preoccupied on the edge. He fired three times, each of the bullets making their home in the Mutant's skull, the third making it explode. They were weeding into the veteran mutants now, their skulls hardened from repeated battles and their aim...slightly better than their cousins. Whisper stood and looked toward him, nodding and making her way towards the stairs. He gave her a hand sign to hold her position however and she froze and furrowed her eyebrows, unhappy that instead of her leading the way into the blood pool below, it would be Andrew.

He approached the stairs and poked his head into the hole. He saw that there was nobody there and started to make his way down, Whisper a step or two behind him. They weren't out of the woods yet by any stretch, they must have had half an army between them and the vault. He switched his comm over to Wraiths to check on her. Wraith, how are you holding up? Did you make it out of the city?" "I did, thank you for asking. Took a few dozen too many bullets however and the right rotor is fucked. I'll be able to patch it up just fine as long as a deathclaw doesn't show up to eat mah babies." "The children's dolls that you keep on your dash are not your "Babies". They're inanimate objects." "Fuck you, Link and Zelda are awesome." He heard some chuckling over the comm coming from a third and fourth person and the smile that had started to grow on his face faded slightly. "Ginger, Winter. Get off this frequency." "Oh leave them alone you fuddy duddy. You guys took down a god damn behemoth, give them a moment to enjoy themselves...and if they want to spend that moment flirting with me, I'm okay with it.

He was about to interject and tell them to cease communications, but it was all interrupted by something smashing through the wall and knocking Andrew and Whisper across the room. They impacted against a wall and fell to the ground. They recovered quickly to see a Super Mutant Master stepping over the rubble wielding a damn bumper sword. Andrew looked around quickly to try and find his pistol, but it was nowhere to be found. He looked towards the mutant and saw it stepping over it as he approached the two. He put his rifle to the ground and reached to the sword on his back. He clicked a small button underneath the hilt and pulled it out, an electric arc following it as he whipped out his flat tipped electric blade. He ran towards the towering monster and, just as he got there, Whisper's Tomahawk flew by his head and impacted in the Mutant's face, causing him to scream out and pry the razor sharp axe out of his face and throw it to the side as Andrew closed in and swiped at the mutant's arm, cutting it deeply and filling it's blood with a powerful electric surge. It screamed again and swung it's bumper sword, narrowly missing Andrew's head and impacting with the wall, lodging itself into a wall, leaving it open to Whisper using Andrew as a spring board to jump onto the Mutant and stab her machete into it's neck several times, screaming like a banshee. It let go of it's bumper sword, switching to melee and knocking her aside. She on the stairs, her scream cut short by the impact. She found herself unable to move for a few moments as she tried to recover. As he did so, Andrew had backed up and took a running spring, slamming into the Mutant with all the force his body could muster and bringing it to the ground.

He put his sword to the side and took up Whisper's, jabbing it through the mutant's shoulder and running it though the other side. He pulled his arm back and slammed his armored fist into what was left of the Mutant's nose. His punch didn't do much at first, just barely cracking the nose. He pulled his arm back and slammed it into the Mutant's skull again, and again and again, each strike having more fury and anger in it. The mutant squirmed and tried to knock Andrew off, but with each successive punch fracturing the Mutant's skull, it found itself going blind and after the fifteenth or so punch, it went limp. Andrew slugged the head of the mutant several more times, eventually breaking through the skull, but he didn't care as a silent visage had overtaken his personality and he snapped out of it as Whisper touched his shoulder. He had hit it hard enough and long enough that the armor around his hand had broken and his hand was actually broken from the force. He looked down to see what he had done and stood, a little horrified that he had held down the Mutant and broken his hand smashing it's face in.

He didn't say anything, he just used his good hand to pick up his sword, sheathing it, finding his rifle and pistol, sheathing them, and tending to his hand. A nasty set of hives had already broken out on it and the fact that several of the fingers were misshapen and broken lead to several muffled screams as he snapped them back into place and corrected them. The others had already moved on and Whisper and Andrew were being left behind. They had no time to discuss his injury.

Much of the rest of the journey through the ruined city of Seattle was little more than cleanup as the squad moved through and decimated the disorganized troops. They had few leaders left and the Behemoth that they regarded as a god had fallen and their will was broken. They were of no challenge now, and soon, the remaining soldiers of Eagle Claw was upon the door, and Archangel was trying to get it open. There was a large "31" on the middle of the door. Their Geiger counters were starting to sound off a little as outside the door was a very low level radiation. The second the door was opened, the area would be flooded with radiation. Wraith was able to repair the Vertibird quickly and she flew in again, dropping off the C-16 charges to destroy the FEV vats, and taking off again. Ginger, Golem, and Bear gathered around the door and Andrew briefed them.

"Alright, once you're in there, take the C-16 charges that were given to you and plant them on the FEV vats. I'll leave it up to you to how much time you'll set on them. The walls are too thick for a remote detonator. When you're leaving, close the vault door behind you and destroy both consoles. We do not want the radiation leaking out any time soon. See these supports?" He motioned to the metal supports that lined the walls. [/i]"Use the remaining C-16 on them and cave this place in. Like it never existed."[/i] Next to them, Archangel yelled out that the door was ready to be opened and she made her way to the mouth of the cave to join the others. "Good luck. We will be waiting for you on the outside. Nuka Cola and drinks are on me when we get back...and an extra for Icarus." He nodded and ran out with Archangel and found their way into the Space Needle, taking over and fortifying themselves for the possible onslaught from the mutants as they organized for a retaliation.

Golem, silent as ever, walked over to the console and looked back to the other two. "Ready?"

Collaboration between Pyro/DemonTongue/Vash

Silence weighed in on the trio as the rest of Eagle Squad made their way to the entrance of the cavern and out of sight. They were almost done. After this one last little hurdle was jumped they could all head back and reap the rewards of a job well done. One last hurdle. Ginger turned his back on the daylight that shone through the cave and faced the vault door. He double checked his ammunition, running low on microfusion cells, and made sure his share of the C-16 charges were secure.

He nodded to Golem, "Ready as I'll ever be."

Golem looked toward Ginger and smiled underneath his helmet, nodding. He turned towards Bear now and spoke. "Bear? Ready?"

The big guy turned his head slightly to look at the others, and nodded in response.

"Alright," Golem turned back to the door console and began entering the proper commands, "In we go."

A deep, momentary humming rumbled through the cavern, but the near soothing sound was soon torn apart by an ear splitting shriek as the vault door shuddered to life. Slowly the great door rolled to the side, the noise a testament to its age and resiliency. Warm fetid air hissed out of the widening doorway and flooded around them. Their giger counters went off the charts as the radiation levels became lethal. The door halted with a heavy crunch and the silence returned even thicker than before. The opening to the vault beckoned like the maw of a wretched hell-beast waiting hungrily for those who would dare to step into it's throat.

Inside Vault 31 was dimly lit and visibility was low. It was obvious from here that many of the systems had failed over the years of war and misuse. Further down the path lights could be seen flickering out in places, doors stuck shut with rust never to open again, refuse and human remains piled along the edges. Over two hundred years worth of filth. However, one thing did stick out in the gloom. A single open doorway, decently lit, and a hulking figure that took up most of the doorway, though was clearly hunched over. Ginger raised his rifle to take aim, and Bear's gatling laser began to come to life, but neither were fast enough. A single shot pierced the gloom, the red glare of a laser flying across the room. It pierced through the inner control panel, searing the mechanics and destroying the mechanism. Instantly, the room was washed with a flashing red light, and the Vault echoed with the deep bellow of the alarm. As the first shots were fired by the squad, the mutant that had started it all had already run, the shots merely slamming into the ceiling and doorway where it had been.

Bear, with his very refined tact, let out a roar and let his left hand fall from the gatling laser, the weapon sagging forward as the barrels halted, and whipped out his defender. A burst of plasma destroyed the offending light, and the noise that had accompanied it quieted in the room, though they could hear the echo from down the corridor, and see the light. Shoving the pistol into its holster, Bear growled, and began walking down the hall. Andrew echoed over the comms, asking what happened.

Golem spoke first, "Mutant tried to ambush us and ended up destroying the inner console. We'll try and find the overseer's office to close the door when we blow the vats." "No need, Archangel's slice into the door mechanism outside in the cavern is able to close the door as well. We'll make sure that nothing comes in after you."

The further they sunk into the depths of the vault the more the place began to stink of disease and carnage. Human and animal remains had been strung up at random around the vault. Were the super mutants using this vault as a home base or meat locker? Several times they had to smash their way through obstructed doorways or even circumvent them entirely. At times it sounded like something was moving beyond the walls. Yet another doorway loomed up ahead. It was identical to all the others they had come across, but it was bigger. Much bigger. The sign above it simply read "Laboratory." There was a terminal on the wall next to the door. Golem and Bear took up defensive positions while Ginger got into it. He tried to open the door, but all he got out of it was a loud buzz and a small red light. The door wouldn't budge. He tried again with the same results. A little screen above the terminal declared that the access code was invalid.

"Shit!" he slammed a hand into the wall next to the panel, "I can't open it without the right codes."

"And just where are we going to get them?" Golem was still focused down the hallway keeping an eye out for mutants.

Ginger turned from the console and heaved a sigh, "The Overseer's office."

"Alright, change in plans, boys," Bear muttered into the comm. "The vats are taking a back seat. We need to find the Overseer's office and pray to any god there's a way to get those doors open." He turned his head slightly towards them, glaring through his visor, "Agreed?" With the squad agreeing, they contacted Andrew to keep him updated. He mentioned that all was quiet up top and that the Mutants had apparently abandoned the post and that his tea was tasting fantastic. The radiation however was starting to spread a little into the city and that their time here was growing short.

As they came into the administration wing of the vault the hallway took a sudden turn, Golem stopped them. Bear was annoyed by the sudden halt, but made no noise as the man peered around the corner, and quickly whipped his head back. He motioned towards the area around it, then held up a single finger: One guard down there. Bear gently sat down his gatling laser, and unsheathed his knife. While the others might question the sanity of this, Bear didn't wait for them to say anything as he rounded the corner and threw the knife. The super mutant turned just enough to see the blade coming from the corner of his eye before it embedded itself into his temple. With a heavy thump, it fell to the ground, much quieter than it would have been if it had been shot down. Returning to his gun, he lifted it up and motioned for Golem to take the lead.

He did so without complaint, leading them down to hall to the door he was guarding. A plaque above the door read "Overseer", though the "seer" had been scratched out, and above on the wall, "lord" had been etched into the wall. The door opened with little resistance, and inside sat a single super mutant, quite small by the standards of his kind, watching a few screens, giggling like a child at whatever he was watching. Rather than go for the stealthy approach, Golem calmly walked forward, boots pounding the floor, as he raised his axe up. The small mutant turned, gave a look of horror, and reached for the rifle strapped to its back, but was no where near quick enough. The axe arced down, cleaving the green bastard's skull clean open. Pushing the corpse from the axe with his foot, Golem glanced at the screen the mutant had been watching. His face turned to one of disgust as Bear and Ginger appeared at his sides, both sharing his sentiment. The screen showed a woman, likely some raider, repeatedly being dipped into a vat filled to the brim with what was likely the FEV virus.

"Disgusting," Bear commented, then turned. "Ginger, find the codes or try to get the lab open from here. Golem and I will guard the door." Nothing more to say, he took up a position outside the door, staring intently down the hallway, hoping something showed its face so he could blast it off.

"Right," Ginger slung his rifle over his back and pulled up the large terminal. Hacking into a computer managed by super mutants didn't exactly put a strain on the mind. He couldn't open the door from here but within minutes he was copying the codes into the system in his power armor. During the upload he noticed a grenade on the belt of the mutant Golem had dispatched. With the most powerful terminal in the vault sitting right here in front of him he wondered if he shouldn't give the side mission a nice little send off. He contacted Deathstroke.

"Codes for the FEV vat room doors uploaded and ready to go, Sir. I'm not sure this terminal is necessary to our mission anymore, you?"

"No, but just in case, don't smash it until you set the bombs and get out of there. Once you head out, destroy the console."

Ginger frowned and glared at the console, "Ye'sir," he confirmed albeit disappointment in his voice, "Don't think this is a get outta jail free card," he pointed at the inanimate machine, "You're goin' down." With that he left the room to meet up with the others and get to the vats.

Golem entered the laboratory first, with Bear and Ginger following up the human shield, guns at the ready. A sickening chemical stench wafted over them. The room was huge, lit by a glow shining up from beneath the grated catwalks that spread across the room and surrounded the rims of three large vats. The vats themselves were all sealed with steel doors save for the third on the far end of the room. It was there that a small group of super mutants were submerging the captured raider girl they saw in the monitors.The girl hung helplessly in the air, covered by the virus, as the mutants turned to check on the intruders. They reached for their guns a bit too soon, the mutants quickly incinerated by the wave of green lasers, ash and corpses falling around the vats. The one operating the crane exited, only for the big gun to be turned on him. As the others began to set up the charges, the Bear headed up to the crane operation room, and set the girl down next to the vats, away from the corpses. She didn't look to be too mutated by it.. seemed to be mostly human, though she might get worse as she's left alone. The Bear grunted and went back down to set up his own charges, ignoring the girl, though Ginger and Golem were both perplexed by the lack of an execution. Once all the charges were set, Ginger and Golem headed towards the door to leave. Bear, however, stayed behind a moment longer, offering the girl a hand. The raider girl took it, and he hefted her up, and allowed her to lean on him as they headed out.

As the group headed out, the raider leaning heavily on the Bear, there was a small rumbling behind them. They turned to see a large dent in the metal wall. There was another slam, just as a door at the far end opened up. Bear turned, forcing the girl to stand on her own for a moment as he raised his gun to fire. A rifle shot echoed out, and slammed into the handle of his gatling laser. The thing dropped to the ground, the firing mechanism detached from the weapon. Bear let out a growl, and another rifle shot sounded out as a group of mutants led by an Overlord came from the doorway. The others, including the raider, scattered, but Bear stood his ground. The bullet skidded off his shoulder as he began walking in the direction of the owner of the weapon. He unsheathed his blade and took out his pistol, though he tossed the gun to the raider, who just barely managed to catch it. A few more shots sounded out, but they either missed completely or merely skidded off his armor.

By now, Ginger and the raider were firing back, causing the rest of the mutants to scatter and take cover. The Overlord, though, pulled a machete from his back and waited for Bear to get within ten feet, in which they both stood and stared at each other. Behind, there was a loud crash and the screech of tearing metal, but the Bear did not even flinch. His grip on the knife shifted, and he raised it up, the blade near his pinky. The Overlord held the machete at his side and readied himself. The pair let out roars at each other, drowning out the gunfire as they charged. The Overlord struck first, the blade of the machete clanging onto the power armor. The force of the blow dented the pauldron, but the section of the blade that hit it shattered, making the weapon nearly useless as a blade. In response, the Bear slashed upwards, cutting a long, shallow gash along the underside of the Overlord's sword arm. The mutant reared back, shouting something unintelligent, but Bear was not quite done. The blade was thrust forward, the blade embedding into the Overlord's chest. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near long enough to hit anything important, and so the Overlord was very much kicking.

The mutant threw Bear away, the heavy power armor crashing on the floor. The mutant stood over him, broken blade raised high in the air. The Bear winced even before the machete slammed into his chest, the mutant repeatedly chopping away. The machete was chipped away with each hit, each hit denting the chest of the armor more and more. Bear wheezed into the intercom, wincing as he did so, praying the others didn't hear. His foot reared back and slammed into the knee of the mutant, a satisfying crack sounding out. The mutant wailed in pain as the Bear rolled away and worked his way to his feet. As the mutant turned to face him, the Bear was upon him, the large man tackling the Overlord to the ground. The Bear now on top, he reached down and gripped the knife. He twisted hard, causing the Overlord to cry out in pain, the machete rising up to come crashing down on Bear's shoulder and back.

The blade of the knife snapped, leaving most embedded, twisted and abused, in the chest of the Overlord. He raised the broken knife up, and thrust it down, forcing it into the Overlord's throat. As he did so, the machete slammed into his head, sending him rolling off. The Overlord forced his way to his feet, free hand clutching the gash in his throat, as if it would hold the blood in. He glared down at the Bear as he laid on the ground, stunned by the blow. The Overlord's foot rose up to stomp the man into the ground, but it never came down. The mutant's foot dropped down to the ground without force, and soon after the Overlord fell to its knees, and knelt its head, the life gone from its eyes. Bear managed to look up and see the raider girl, his pistol in her hands, smoke leaving the barrel. The back of the mutant's head was melted in, the green, gooey plasma eating away at his brain. As Bear worked his way to his feet, he tossed the girl another clip, no doubt that she would be out soon, if not already.

Still asking for it were they? Golem didn't move when the mutants burst into the room. Perhaps they would soon grow tired of being mowed down at every turn. Or perhaps not, he thought after driving his axe through the collar bone and into the torso of the pesky mutant sharpshooter. Admirable as their persistence was it was beginning to grow tiresome. He raised his shield, deflecting a bullet from another enemy who fell quickly to the fire from Ginger and the lucky raider girl. He saw Bear struggling with the Overlord and began his march toward the pair, ready to be of assistance when the pounding from the wall opposite him grew louder. The steel couldn't handle what was on the other side any longer. It split and sheared open. Large humanoid hands with unnaturally long fingers slithered inside and peeled the wall open like it was opening a curtain and out from it came a disfigured face trailing a trio of long slimy tongues from it's ever gaping mouth. Multiple pairs of disjointed arms pushed it into the room like a giant snake. Golem frowned, immediately changing his target. Bear could handle himself.

The centaur was a freak among freaks. It reared up twice the height of a man when Golem charged, ax at the ready, shield positioned out front. A set of arms braced it against the destroyed wall. A retching noise came from it's guts. Golem barely missed the corrosive poison as it was sprayed across the floor. The monster drooled the foul smelling stuff, it's lifeless eyes locked on him as he lunged forward. With a great cleave he aimed to spill the entirety of the exposed bowels of the centaur. The proton axe whistled through the air with a momentum that could fell the largest of trees in one blow. It stuck not even halfway up the blade into the centaur's flesh. Golem's eyes widened. A massive tongue whipped into the shield and another slammed into his helmet. He managed to keep a grip on his axe until the monster threw itself from the wall and plowed him into the ground. Tongues and tail whipped around the room furiously as it smashed him against the grated floor and lodged him against the door of one of the vats. The things tongues thrashed into his power armor and visor, clouding his vision with the venomous slime. He snagged one of them as it landed. His body twisted and he shoved the powered up riot shield up into the beast hard. Another gurgling sound issued from the centaur as it got ready to spit again. Golem ripped the tongue in his grip clean from it's mouth.

An enormous weight was lifted from him as the centaur recoiled to the edge of the room smacking the wall and flailing it's limbs knocking cranes and throwing equipment to the floor in a frenzied racket. Golem rose calmly to his feet. The thing still had his axe. He pulled the shotgun from his back. Another stray tongue flew at him. BOOM. The centaur was down to one now. Still he strode forward with heavy footfalls echoing off the steel. Slime and blood pooled under the centaur threatening to begin eating through the catwalk. It sputtered and writhed then came at him again. He raised his shield. A satisfying THWACK resounded through the chamber as it's dead face bounced off the front with all the force that had been put into the charge. He was coming ever closer. BOOM. Another round of buckshot shredded through it's already mutilated mouth. The centaur's face was an unrecognizable bloodied mess. In a rage it threw itself at him again. Golem caught it by the neck remaining upright despite the force sliding him back several feet. A wave of the mutant's spit burst over his visor and oozed down his shoulders. He clenched his teeth, the foul smell near unbearable and the strength of the creature pushing him to his limits. The last tongue dangled limp and useless, unable to provide any resistance against the onslaught as Golem slammed the shield into the dead, once human face. Again and again and again. With each shock the creature's body flailed. Blood slicked the front of the shield and the arm that held the thing's neck. Soon the flailing stopped reduced to the occasional twitch. Golem dropped it. There was nothing left of it's face. He retrieved his axe with a sigh. No amount of showers would make him feel better after this.

Ginger put the last of his microfusion cells through one of the super mutant's belly, nearly tearing it in half, before retiring his guass rifle to his back for the rest of the mission. He pulled his .44 from it's holster and clicked the hammer back. He and the raider girl had taken care of the mutants save for the Overlord and the centaur. Being on the last of his ammunition and not exactly comfortable in close quarters he was just fine letting the big guys handle that mess, though a little envious. There was just one more mutant scum to go.

"We should leave," Golem said hurrying for the door, "there isn't much time left."

"Right behind ya," Ginger turned to the raider and put the barrel on her scalp. She didn't even have time to jump before he pulled the trigger.

Bear had moved on ahead with Golem, but the sound of the gun firing gave him a moment to pause. He turned to see the girl fall to the ground, the massive hole in her skull, and Ginger standing over her. Immediately, rage set in, but he forced it down. Bombs ticking, time to go. He retrieved his pistol from her, pausing for a moment over her before running after the others.

The Vault was eerily silent for the first time since they entered, and truly it was the first time there had been true silence since they had landed in Seattle. The trio exited the Vault, maybe a minute to spare. Bear waved the other two to go on, staying behind to give the command to shut the door. As it closed, he could feel the ground shake as the bombs went off. The door wasn't even fully closed as he sprinted as fast as he could in his armor, fire and death filling the space behind the door, the Vault shutting for the final time as the explosives did their work.

They all made it out alright, though Bear looked the worst of them, weaponless and dented all to hell. But, by the way he carried himself, standing erect and proud, it was obvious that he had no serious wounds. However, before they met up with the others, Bear had some business with Ginger. He called the man's name, and as his squad made turned around, a steel clad fist rammed into the front of his helmet, sending him reeling to the ground. A moment later, the plasma defender was in the Bear's hand, pointed down at Ginger.

An all too visible crack ran through his line of sight and an annoyingly polite warning chimed in his ear. He lay on the ground with the taste of blood in his mouth. Then he saw the plasma defender in his face and Bear looming over him. Now he was seeing red. His hand went for his magnum, but this was his squad-mate. Wisely, he stopped short of pulling it.

"What the shit!!" he screamed.

The Bear growled down at him, but hesitated on pulling the trigger. "Who the hell gave you an order to kill that girl?" he asked, rage filling every word to the brim.

Ginger pulled himself up on his elbows, one hand still on the grip of his gun. He paused for a moment trying to figure out just what this guy was talking about.

"Oh. Oh I get it," he smiled, "Y'see big guy, I don't remember needing an order to kill every individual mutated freak in the wasteland. What's goin' on, man, get a crush on her or something? She was fucking smothered in FEV in case you didn't notice!"

The grip on the gun tightened, the hand around it shaking with barely contained rage. After a moment, though, he turned and threw the weapon aside, to make sure he wouldn't shoot his ally. He walked a few steps away, before turning to face him.

"You think that this is about something as petty as that?" he asked, voice low. His hands rose, and the airlock on his helmet disengaged as he pulled it off. The scarred, weathered face no longer showed rage, but a melancholy look of someone who had seen countless things they shouldn't have. "That was one of the few people I had called friends. She did not deserve to die like that." He swallowed, then turned back to head towards the rest of the team. "Come, they're all waiting on us. Don't want to keep Wraith waiting."

Quietly, Ginger staggered to his feet as Bear walked away. "Got some weird taste in friends..." he mumbled. He pulled his cracked helmet off and spat one of his teeth on the ground then followed behind Bear. His stomach churned a little. If that hadn't been a walking murder machine waiting to happen he almost would have felt guilty.