Fallout NV fanfic: Old Man Courier chpt 16

“So you’re really a member of the Brotherhood of Steel?” Raul asked as they were walking.

“If by member, you mean a bunch of people trying to keep me as far away from Hidden Valley’s bunkers as possible, then yes. I’m an honorary member.”

All of them were walking south, maybe south west towards over where they came from the other day. A little beyond Black Mountain there was a little abandoned test site. A couple of bark scorpions lurked here and there. They weren’t too much trouble. Boone went ahead and scouted the area. There were four bunkers, all of which were hidden beneath a lump of sand.

“I’m a scribe,” Veronica said, “I was raised in the Brotherhood bunkers. Just like most of us actually. There is a strict code that only members raised from within our vaults and bunkers are allowed to join the Brotherhood. We’ve been upholding that tradition for a long time. I think that that strict law about our upbringing is one of the main reasons why we're in this predicament in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Sol asked. Veronica looked over to Boone:

“You can ask your sniper friend over there.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, I assume you’re familiar with what happened at HELIOS One.” Boone squinted his eyes at her before he said:

“With all due respect ma’am, not all NCR troopers were at the events that happened at that blasted power plant. We all had places to be and things to do.”

Veronica wasn’t mad at Boone though, she started to smile:

“I don’t blame you… but anyway, it all happened a couple of years back. Our old elder – Elder Elijah – found this place and ordered many of our best and most fearsome paladins to seize the power plant. Elder Elijah… where do I even begin? He was a technological genius, he saw things that no one on earth could see. He was the kind of guy that had our paladins bring in scrap parts and rusted robots from the junk yard and started to build a functional power armor or a laser rifle out of nothing but the bare essentials.”

“Clever fellow huh?” Raul said, with a little sarcastic undertone.

“Yup,” said Veronica, “Elder Elijah was an odd fellow. He was a little different from the norm. From his position in power to the way he operates. He defied convention and rose to the ranks of Elder despite it being a rank reserved for Paladins and Knights. People started questioning him once he started to go crazy over the power plant, HELIOS One. He acted like a child in a candy store. Said himself that the place had incredible potential. Nobody understood what, though.”

“Then what happened?” Sol asked.

“Well, I think you and your sniper friend knows what happened. You’re a ranger, are you not?”

“Not officially, no. I quit a long time ago.”

“Well, anyway,” she continued, “The NCR came like they always do, and took the place. Elder Elijah tried to hold the place for as long as he could, despite superior technology and armors, what the NCR had but the Brotherhood didn’t were training and experience. A lot of Paladins died under rangers’ hands that day. They came like a shadow… and here we are, a group of Old World worshiping, power armor wearing people hiding underground.”

ED-E started to make a lot of high pitch beeping noises.

“You said it buddy,” Sol told him, “If they don’t do something about it they’d be doomed.”

“Wait,” said Veronica, confused, “you can understand that thing?”

“Yeah, and what… you can’t?”

Raul, Boone and Veronica just stared at him in awe. Solmund never realized it until now.

“Oh my god, and you guys actually LET me talk to him all this time? Out loud? Why didn’t you guys say anything? I looked like a complete idiot talking to myself, jeez.”

Raul started to snicker gleefully.

 

 

 

 

“So… here we are… this is it.”

They arrived at one of the bunkers, it was located somewhere in the center of the test site. It was a rusty metal door and they all went inside. The interior was a large complex of metal stairs that led downstairs into an underground area where they ran into another metal door. But this time, with an intercom on the side.

“Wow, you sure this is the place?” asked Raul.

“Of course, I grew up here, silly man.” She said, “now all I have to do is greet the security guard, give them my password and…”

Just right before Veronica could reach the intercom a loud siren noise suddenly exploded throughout the entire facility. All of them started to cover their ears but to no avail. The noise was piercing through their skull. The metal door before them suddenly opened up. At this point. Solmund knew that all hell was about to break lose.

There were ten of them, Sol counted in his head. Big Brotherhood Paladins wearing power armor model T-51b. It looked like it weighed about 60 tons. Each footstep was a loud thud to the concrete floor. All of the Paladins are armed with laser rifles, fully charged. There they were. Look at them. Their armor, their helmet shone like glorious steel. Their eyes, deadly. The Paladins started to spread out, five of them surrounded them on the left, the rest hemmed in from the right.

And last but not least, came through the door the last two Paladins, these two didn’t have a helmet on them. One of them was a well-built man, he had rough features on his face. He was nearly bald and had eyes that are sharper than an eagle. The other man was a man with messy hair and a goatee, he seemed somewhat dark and moody.

“EVERYBODY HANDS IN THE AIR!” the bald man shouted, “I don’t want to have to repeat myself, do it NOW!”

The ten Paladins started pointing their rifles at them. Sol was trying to think of something, but none of it seemed wise. So in the end they had no choice but to put their hands over their heads. The man with the messy hair suddenly shifted his attention over to Veronica.

“Hi Ramos.” Veronica said, trying to be cheerful.

“Veronica! What are you doing here?”

“What? Is there a problem? Am I not welcomed here anymore?”

The man called Ramos looked around the room before he grabbed Veronica over to a corner where they could talk.

“Veronica,” he said, “you’re not supposed to be here. Your mission…”

“I know what my mission is, thank you very much,” her tone suddenly shifted, “and did you not think that I wouldn’t notice you trying to get me to do a mission that is for one; over three years old and two; could be done by any Knight in the Brotherhood?”

“Veronica,” Ramos sighed, “you know… you know that Elder McNamara needs time to think of a plan. He’s under a lot of pressure… and the last thing he needs Elijah’s little cupcake going around and making a fuss of things…”

While the two of them were speaking in the back room, the bald man approached the rest of the crew.

“Good morning…” Raul said, “Lovely day isn’t it.”

“Put a sock into it,” the bald man said, “before I have my boys fire on your ass.” That made Raul swallowed a mouthful of fear.

“What should we do with them, Edgar?” One of the Paladins with the laser rifle asked.

“Well,” answered Edgar, “you need not worry my friends. We should just stick to normal protocols, nothing to worry about.” Edgar turned his head to one of the Paladins, “Search them.”

One of the Paladins slowly hung his rifle to the side and started to approach each one of them, he was patting them on their shoulders, their thighs and was looking through their clothes and jackets. He took away any weapons he found. Sol then looked over to the man called Edgar, he stared at the Paladin with a calm look which somewhat confused the Paladin. Edgar squinted his eyes as if he found something suspicious in Sol.

The Paladin then started to search Sol. He took from his duster, the Ranger Sequoia, a cigarette package, a lighter, a syringe, a bottle of Cateye, a case of Mentats, a bottle of Buffout and a syringe of Psycho. The Paladin struck him with a strange look.

“A man's gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” Sol smiled. 

The Paladin kept on searching, he pulled out a handful of .45-70 Gov’t bullets, a few .50 MG and .308 rounds which was odd since Sol didn’t carry around any rifles. He kept on digging through the duster to find more chems and also a journal which had a lock on it. The Paladin threw it all onto a pile on the ground. And a few minutes later, just as the Paladin was about to finish pulling out the last of the items in his duster, something inside caught his eyes. It was a tattered piece of paper. He pulled it out and unraveled it to look inside. At this point Sol couldn’t help but smile and then whispered into his ear:

“Live to fight another day… and to dare to do it… for the better part of valor…”

“Hardin!” the Paladin shouted at Edgar. Handing the paper to him. Edgar skimmed through the papers, looked up with a gaze full of rage, staring at him in disbelief.

“Where did you get this?” Edgar snapped, “Where the fuck did you get this?”

“I don’t know,” Sol shrugged, “It’s around here somewhere, hard to tell when they’re all dead.”

This time Edgar couldn’t hold in the rage. He shouted:

“That’s it! I want them thrown behind bars! ON YOUR KNEES!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Boone yelled at Sol.

“Smooth move, boss.”

But throughout all of this madness. Solmund did not care. His grin stretched across his cheeks.