Hey Guys,

Unfortunately I get less and less time to do the things I love as I get older, it's good to see such great RP's being continued on here even though we haven't had a fallout game for a number of years now (praying for that announcement in August). I don't have the time to join such amazing RP's, although what I do have is time to write fan fiction which there does appear to be a lot less of at the moment.

I've gone back to basics on this one, it's a West Coast BOS vs Super Mutant but with a slight twist. As ever constructive feedback and opinions are more than welcome. I've also written this on my Galaxy Tab and although it is a great device, it lacks spell check of which I had to be so I may have missed something. But hopefully not!

Anyway enjoy the below.


The Hand of the Master



"I intend to live forever, or die trying."



The quote was etched into the chest plate of Paladin McCready's power armour and even though I read it upside down it was something I'd heard before, which made it easier to read. It was the creed the short and stocky man lived by, I'd hear it everytime we left the citadel and although it was never something that he announced or used to rally the troops, it was a phrase handed down to him through father to son. Something of much greater importance, something to live for, something to die...



The pounding on the door took me away from my moment, reality swarmed my senses as my helmet became too hot and constricting. My left hand held McCready's plasma rifle and the other gripped the collar of my commanding officers power armour. The rifle was still humming from warm, fresh fire which I had used to collapse a few foundations to cover my escape.



Without further hesitation I dropped both rifle and friend to power down my helmet. Removing the pipes that connected it to my suit led to a small hissing sound before I took it from my head. I breathed easier and took solace at the welcome desk in the centre of the room. The pounding continued as my mind ticked over; years of training set in as I scanned the area.



Three exits, two main one fire exit. The fire exit had succumbed to rubble long ago, while I just laid a fresh lot in front of the door that led deeper in the building, that left me with the entrance to the capitol building. There was also a bunch of scattered pre-war crap and a welcome desk that encircled a lovely stone statue in the centre of the room. There was no real way out.



"Damn this deathtrap!" I cursed aloud.



The whole thing had been a mess from the start, it was all a trap and it made no sense how these creatures that were no smarter than a child could pull off advanced tacticle manoeuvres. They had thrown the weak supermutants at us, allowing us to carve our way through the trenches that lay in front of capital building feeding our hubris. We burst into the historical landmark guns blazing and pushed through to the centre not knowing that they had completed a pincer movement by flanking our troops from either side of the building, killing those that held the door. Meanwhile the rest of the super mutant population flooded out from the irratiaded metros under the trenches pushing back our reinforcements beyond the Washington memorial. By the time the radio pvssyr came through it was too late.



As we moved into the very high and iconic centre room of the capitol building we were ambushed by the heavy hitters. Overlords armed with missle launchers took us by surprise from the second floor standings, cutting our forces in half, I miss placed my laser rifle in the fray and was left with only a revolver and knife. Master Super Mutants then began to pour through every door they could taking cover behind rock and pre prepared sandbags, laying down heavy fire. As a result our numbers were cut down further.



We moved back, retreating through the corridors at pace. The once empty rooms all appeared to be occupied now as our attackers showed no mercy. The smell of fear coupled with death and smoke was too much, my thoughts of our treacherous run began to poison me and I couldn't allow myself to dwell in the past any longer, it was too over whelming and I couldn't afford that.



"Think, they aren't going to get that rubble any time soon which means they're going to come through the front door. There's no cover near the entrance, only towards the back of the room and even then it's just wooden desks. No this centre desk, circular to give me full range and it looks to be made of reinforced steel, well parts of it anyway. It would hold for long enough."



I paused,



"Long enough for what? I'm not getting out of here."



I heard the destinctive roar of the brute before I saw it, the noise shook the foundations louder than the furious digging through the rubble behind me. It burst through the front door in a bull raged state, he moved in a silhouette of moon light as I quickly picked up my masters rifle. Training held my desires to shoot wildly in check, instead I breathed out heavily, focusing on one shot. As I exhaled my finger clamped down on the trigger.



A single shot of rifle hit the beast directly in the chest. It screamed and charged even harder. The plasma melted away his chest revealing the super mutants rib cage. The green goo smouldered as he charged and I knew that the charge was all he had left.



I jumped, with ease thanks to my power armour, over the desk. I charged, ducking the swinging sledge hammer blow and ramming my shoulder into what was left of his chest. I heard a crunch followed by a wail, the beast fell without another wimper. There was no time for a victory dance, there were plenty more where that came from. I could hear the pounding of furious heavy footed beasts approach. I pushed the mutant from his left side to his right, melee super mutants often began the charge with a grenade before steaming in to finish whatever was left with the hammer. Sure enough as I rolled him over I found two grenades,



"Odd," I thought,



"What made this time different?"



Time was not my ally as I heard a rumble of mutants stack up against the door. An assault rifle reared it head and shot blindly my way. I ran back towards the centre desk amid the random bursts of gunfire. I felt a couple of bullets twang off my armour as I began to regret removing my helmet. Still it had helped my aim now that sweat wasn't pouring into my eyes. With a galliant dive I returned to my spot behind the desk just as I heard a few of the bastards enter the room under covering fire. I had promised my self not to waste ammo but I had to at least slow the relentless barrage or their forward squads would be upon me.



I lifted my rifle, not towards the gun fire of the door but to its right. I had a 50/50 chance that they'd either gone right or left when they entered and I just prayed they had gone left. I wildly returned fire, straining my hearing for an ounce of pain or fear, although I doubted either of those emotions touched these creatures often. I heard a high pitched roar after my 5th shot, which suggested I had wounded one of them. For just a moment a fraction of the gunfire held up, suggesting that comrades had gone to help their wounded friend.



Now was my chance, I moved quickly to my left to a spot where they hopefully weren't aiming. I reared my head up just enough to see the door. There were 3 mutants on my right, two brutes and one master, it looked as if I'd hit one of the beasts leg as the two brutes carried a severly limping master under his shoulders. Ignoring them my focus returned to the door of which the assailants were still shooting at quite a blind angle. Those three would have to get back to the door eventually so I returned fire. In all honestly my plan wasn't to try and kill any of the ones holding the door, I planned to cover my grenade throw.



My power armour ensured that the rifle remained steady in just my left hand as I continued to fire at a slow but consistent rate. I gripped the grenade with my right hand and shoved the pin into my mouth biting down hard. I removed the pin with my teeth and threw the grenade across the room. It was a near perfect throw dropping just short of the retreating three and rolling out the door behind them. I'm not even sure they knew I had thrown it.



I ducked down behind the desk, taking this moment to move onto my next power cell.



"3, 2, 1"



BOOM!



The explosion was loud and quick but it had done the job, I returned to a standing position with my rifle fixed at the door. As the dust settled silence came with it, although I could hear the faint cry of the super mutants I had wounded, something else had happened, something was wrong,



"The digging has stopped."



Just as my realisation came to light an overlord appear, whirring out from the left side of the door to the centre. Propped on his large yellow shoulder he held a missle launcher. The creature laughed hysterically as it launched the missile. I fired without care or hesitation because if it hit me or the statue behind me I was dead anyway. My training and sharp shooting skills paid off as I managing to hit the cackling beast 4 out of 6 times. Left shoulder, right rib cage, groin and finally face were all hit with the goo. It must have caused a chain reaction because I watched as that giant yellow thing melted into nothing more than a green acidy pile of liquid.



The explosion from the missile rocked me forwards but only a little bit. The beast had also hit his mark and as I turned I grabbed the grenade, once again removing the pin with my teeth. I waited long enough for the mutants to stack up along the adjacent wall but not long enough for the dust to settle. The throw wasn't as good the second time round, stopping just before the door getting caught in some rubble. It did manage to catch the first two muties entering the room though, flipping the first one forward as he lost his leg and sending the second flying backwards into the wall opposite to where the door had been.



My focus returned to the entrance of the building where I fired a couple shots of caution at the walls. I also removed my revolver from my hip and aimed it at the exploded door behind me. I gave a quick glance to my commanding officer, my friend Paladin McCready who lay dead against the desk. He had a reason, a belief worth dying for and for just a split second I wondered,



"Am I ready to die?"



The answer came quicker than I thought it would as they charged from both sides of the room. Mutants of all shapes and sizes squeezed their way through the door as I rained hell down upon them. The ones who entered from within the building dived behind the ancient wooden desks in the hope they would provide any sort of cover. In a way it helped as I couldn't get a concentrated shot off and my revolver only held 6 rounds. I gave fire none the less, hoping to hold them off for the left side of my body to finish the others off.



My left was fairing a lot better, they had no cover except for more bullets my way but that didn't slow me as I fired relentlessly into the hoard. My back pressed against the statue as my right cheek caught the glancing shot of a rifle, I could only feel the warmth of my hot blood ooze down my face as adrenaline dispelled all of my pain.



My revolver ran out quickly and I was forced to drop it before switching ambidextrously from side to side with my rifle. Before long though, that was out of ammo too. I dropped as quick as I could to reload my weapon. It was while I was close to the ground that I heard it, the beeping of a device behind me. I glanced around the circular corner of the base of the statue to see a little vault boy staring back at me. That smug little bastard was giving me the thumbs up while looking up from his lunch box right at me. It was a bottle cap mine.



"You son of a...."



I covered my face as the device exploded sending me up and over the protective walls of my desk and sliding across the floor in a twisted metal of mess. I struggled to remain conscious as my ear drums screamed out in deafening pain. I reached quickly for my sheathed combat knife but felt my arm crumple under the weight of a heavy boot and my knife being taken by a large hand. The blows came quick and seemed more ferocious each time, maybe it was just my senses coming back online after the explosion. A back hand to the face, a boot to the ribs, the pulling of my hair, why did the pain sense have to be the first to return?



Next was my hearing, shouts of triumph mixed with insults could be made out.



"Puny metal man! We will cut you out and eat you alive!"



A roar from the dimwitted crowd came forth.



Lastly my vision came back, my combat knife dangled about my chest with a white haze surrounding it. It made a quick b-line for my neck but stopped just short of my jugular. The knife wove it's way under the necklace that held my holotags and removed them with a small jolt. My eyes then adjusted to the large overlord that towered above me. He added my tags onto a key chain that held many more alike it.



"I kill tin can man, I kill friends,"



I smiled, "Just as I killed yours,"



His large boot moved from my arm and clamped down on my chest, I heard my hydrolics struggle under the pressure, he didn't like that. Reaching up and over his shoulder the mutant grabbed his modified laser rifle, the tri beam rifle which was essentially a laser shotgun, and lowered it right down to my face. I heard the low hum and felt the heat on my face as it powered up, this was it, my face was about to be burned from the earth.



All of a sudden the laser moved, up and away as I noticed a hand reach the overlord.



"Hand of Master coming," One of the creatures said and although I hadn't noticed it before the chanting had stopped. In fact I had never heard such silence.



The room was poorly lit from the beginning, whether that was a part of their tactic or just because the building was old I'm not sure but at either rate it did make the creatures hard to see. Not that their ugly mugs were a spectacle but it would've helped to see who was approaching. It was a hulking figure with the same type of build as the others but this one carried itself differently. The others hunched and blundered around while this one strode like it had a higher purpose. The overlord went grovelling.



"Master we capture metal man, we eat?"



A nod of agreements went out among the crowd.



"Quiet you blithering fool," the beast scolded.



"I told you I wanted at least one alive and I like this one, he has a little fight in him. Well a little more than his companions anyway." The mutant laughed but he laughed like a human.



The others laughed to not understanding what was going on. The beast made a signal and the others stopped. He knelt down next to me and closed in on my face. Despite the dim light he got so close I could detail his features. Although he appeared to be the same build as the others he was very different, his skin a green, a dark green of what I had imagined tree leaves to look like. The second thing I noticed was his hardware, metal plates lined the right side of his head with an assortment of wires coming out from his brain, I had never seen or heard of such a mutant.



"What are you?" I stumbled out,



The thing slapped me, hard,



"Who, my dear, that is the correct question. Who am I? I, Brotherhood soldier, am the Hand of the Master and I've come to recruit you,"



He looked up at the overlord,



"Get him back to 87 immediately!"



The beast nodded while reaching for his rifle. The creature bared it teeth as it turned the gun around.



"Night night metal man,"



The butt of the gun thrust down and everything turned black.