» Fri Jul 30, 2010 3:50 am THE Paladin ran faster and farther than he ever thought he could, the carnage he now fled from making him too fearful to even turn his head to check if they were chasing him, stalking him like death itself . He doubted it, he would have been caught by now if they had even half heatedly attempted to follow him and what they would do then, he didn't want to think of it, even in the confusion and chaos of their arrival they had been grotesquely inventive in the carnage they caused. They had taken a child like glee in the horror filled screams and bloody tears of the battled brotherhoods hardened veterans. The Paladin put it to the furthest reaches of the back of his mind as he ran, the towering walls of the citadel and salvation the only thought on his mind. he pushed harder through the pain with the thought of his goal clear in his mind
THE Paladin's heavy armored feet kicked up thick clouds of dusts svcked through his ventilator and sticking to his throat like rubber cement or bad peanut butter making it even harder to breath than it usually was in his hot stuffy power armor. The Paladin coughed and hacked like a plague sufferer as he plowed onwards through pain and revulsion at what he had seen. His power armor clanked and banged around him as he ran with the notable exception of his right arm which was now miles behind him, one shell from the attackers weapons had ripped the limb straight from its socket. The pure adrenaline and the Paladins hand the only things stemming the flow of blood from the horrifying open wound. The Paladin's vision was getting cloudy and dim as he lost more and more blood his vision limited by the delirium caused by the huge loss of blood, he had already forgotten how far he had run with the only fear and the wind driving him forward to his only chance of survival.
AS he ran the Paladin began to try and recap the events that had lead to his current situation. They had been on patrol, looking for remnants of a pack of super mutants that had raided a brotherhood outpost. They had tracked the mutants far across the barren wastes to a plateau far in the south they were the best just below the pride. All were skilled veterans, battle hardened to the extreme and ready for the worst that the super mutants could throw at them. They massacred the mutants without a single loss, laughing and singing on their way back to the citadel. They were as prepared for what followed as the average mirelurk hunter when his pray is replaced with a pack of deathclaw.
THEY had come from the sky, it had started as a twinkle noticed in the peripheral vision by few of the squad as a pretty abnormality. Over the next few minutes it had grown to a small but terrible looking gas in the sky, it looked as if the sky had a septic wound festering in the clouds. Finally it became a pulsating mass of ephemeral gas like tendrils of purple and red. The Squad began to worry at this and moved with their guns consistently trained at the rip in the sky, many uttering hail Marys and crossing themselves, declaring the rift to be the work of the devil. Black solid shapes had started to appear in the turbulent sky, they started as mere dots in the center of the anomaly and grew as they descended until they landed. The beings landed a matter of a few meters from the patrol. The screams had started almost instantly, accompanied by horrible guttural, bestial laughs form the new arrivals blood fell like rain as fear, confusion and death ripped through the screaming ranks of the brotherhood. The Paladin shook the memories from his mind as he ran to the citadel, he did not wish to dwell on the previous events.
THE Paladin's heart jumped as the citadel appeared on the horizon, he was nearly safe . He set his story straight in his mind as he reached the gates. His arrival had drawn a small crowd of knights, Paladins and initiates, they were firing questions at him. "Where was the rest of the squad?" "What Happened?" "Were you followed?" eventually the head medic pushed his way through the throng of concerned people before laying the paladin down and pressing a vodka soaked cloth onto the wound, the pain of the alcohol almost maddening, the paladin writhed and screamed like his fallen comrades in their final moments. The paladin had little strength left before succumbing to the growing mist of unconsciousness, he had lost to much blood. The effort of the paladin had failed to save him but it may well save the entirety of the wasteland. As the Paladin breathed his Final breath he drew words in the sand hoping their meaning would be understood by his comrades.
Rift/Black Death/THEY TOOK OUR SKULLS
