» Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:26 am
-Chapter Nine: Shi-
The VB-02 Vertibird.
Nothing else in the world sounds like one.
A quick series of pulses fill the ear; it's the wings of war, and you know what's coming when you hear it.
A man was yelling.
My crucifixion wounds were pulsing with the huge metal bird, producing a pain I hadn't felt in awhile.
I opened my eyes and found that I truly was on a Veebee, and a man was yelling at me.
"We're about to land!"
He was wearing full combat gear, and as I stood up I realized it was a Rivet City Security uniform.
"There was a man with me, what happened!" I yelled, hanging on to a cord hanging from the roof of the aircraft.
"Son, we got a lot to tell you when we land, but you ain't gon like it!"
The Washington Navy Yard was aglow, lit up by hundreds of ground lights and even floating lights aimed at the ship.
We descended to the deck, and the man pulled a gun out and aimed it at my head.
"Come with me and don't say a word."
I was taken to a small room, no bigger than a closet really, and sat down before one Mr. Horace Pinkerton.
I recognized the man.
We talked about the strain, which he claimed to already have.
At that moment I couldn't even remember if I had it on me or not, before the incident with the chief.
What had happened?
No one would tell me about Gustavo, and it was pissing me off.
I was introduced to Dr. Sandra Ballard, a fairly attractive woman who seemed maniacal about the corn.
King Fear had about one-hundred and fifty men headed towards the floating city I soon was told, and there wasn't much time to
develop this weird anti-rad virus or whatever that the doctor was making.
I was given quarters at the Weatherly, and told to stay out of the security forces way, during a battle that seemed imminent.
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A few days went by before an alarm was heard throughout the ship.
I ran to the deck, grabbed someone else's binoculars and saw to my estimate,
more like fifty men, one obviously King Fear with his black headdress, and maybe ten children, of whom about half where naked.
Seeing the man made me sick to my stomach, hell, I had already felt like I was in a dream since the chief shot at me.
Dr. Sandra Ballard approached me and said,
"A Shi walks with that group over there." and she pointed towards the east, across the water.
Sure enough, when I focused the binoculars towards the area I noticed something very strange;
a neon-green ghostlike appearance, which I assumed was a Shi.
I fell to my knees as I realized in horror that it was on closer inspection, the deadly evil remnants of my old friend Nameless.
I easily recognized the woman who walked with the spirit, Bhadrakhali, and two children, followed by what looked like about twenty super-mutants.
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Varuna's antler man had raised the Shi from the remains of Nameless, which he had been carrying, and the super-mutants were actually hollow, reanimated corpses.
Bhadrakhali knew of magiks not often spoke of anywhere, and raised them the day they reached the area near the floating city.
Tie-pal recognized through his own telescope, that Durga was with King Fear, but he wasn't afraid of his old leader at all,
he had faith in the rituals he and Bhadra had engaged in the night before.
Durga raised a black flag near the ramp that leads to the ship and an outburst of gunfire and yelling commenced.