New Vegas: Sheason's Story - Chapter 160: Cut Off One Head

We stand now at the dawn of a new era – at the very precipice of destiny! The Enclave built America up from nothing, and our sweat and blood is as much a part of the United States as the air we breathe! And yet, despite all our efforts, our once great nation is still polluted, my brothers and sisters! Tainted by foul mutants, murderers, and deviants without number! They trespass on our beloved American soil, and they think they can do so without consequence? They are either fools or madmen! That is why, my brothers and sisters, we shall soon fight with renewed strength, and reclaim our sacred ground! We shall wipe the slate clean! And once the filth has been washed away, we shall return our beloved America into its rightful place as the greatest nation on Earth!

“I think we lost them…” I said, the visor of my helmet pressed up against the metal grate. “For now, at least.”

It had been maybe an hour since we saw Prime and the Patriot trading blows and used them to cover our escape. I honestly wasn’t sure, because it was surprisingly difficult to keep track of time on the Moon. However long it was, the time had been quite harrowing. Every time an Enclave patrol found us, we’d fight them off briefly, escape, and just when I thought we’d given them the slip, another patrol would appear.

The only reason our current surroundings seemed relatively safe was because it was physically too small for them to get inside. Thanks to Sue’s therm-optic camouflage, Cass and I had managed to duck into… well, quite frankly, I’m not sure where we were. Part of me – the part that had seen too many action holotapes – wanted to say it was an air duct, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that. It was probably something like a maintenance hallway; a way to service systems on this Moon base between decks.

Whatever it was, there was barely room to crouch, much less stand up, but on the plus side at least three patrols had passed us by so far without any of them pausing to check. We’d been making so much noise and causing so many explosions, I don’t think they expected us to try a sneaky approach.

We couldn’t stay here forever. We still had a job to do, and we had maybe five minutes before they wised up and figured out where we’d gone.

But that was five minutes the two of us desperately needed.

“Fuckin’ hell…” Cass muttered, slumped against the wall with her AA-12 in her lap “These fucks just don’t give up, do they?”

“Well, it is their home turf,” I said, still keeping watch through the access grate. “I think I’d be insulted if they didn’t at least put some effort in.”

“Jesus Christ, dude!” Cass finally muttered with her head in her hands. “Would you fuckin’ sit down for a minute? You’ve gotta be fuckin’ exhausted!”

“I’m fine,” I lied. Cass shook her head and chuckled grimly.

“Fuck sake, man. How th’ fuck’re you even still standin’?” she asked.

“Because there’s still a job to do…” I said. “And there’s no one else.” Cass grumbled again, and reached behind her for something.

“You crazy sumbitch, I swear…” I looked down and realized she was unscrewing the cap on… oh fuck.

“You brought your flask?” I asked, a bit needlessly. It was obviously her flask; even in the dim light, I could see the indentations from the rose picture engraved on the metal. She shrugged, pausing just before bringing it to her lips.

“Yeah, well…” Cass let out a single weak laugh, and lowered the flask. “I’ve kept this filled since ah gave up whisky. Y’know… just in case things ever got bad ’nuff. An’… well… we’re fightin’ space Nazis on th’ Moon, with no hope’ve gettin’ back t’Earth. At this point, who really gives a fuck, right?” She chuckled again, and raised her flask at me in a toast. “Cheers.” Cautiously, I reached out and grabbed her hand softly before she got the chance to drink; she looked up at me with a curious eyebrow.

“Tell you what,” I said, kneeling down in front of her. “I’ll sit down for a drink with you, if there’s enough in that to share.” Cass smiled and nodded, setting the flask down to help me with my helmet.

“Fuck yeah, now yer talkin’!” I unclipped my helmet, and she grabbed it on either side to pull my helmet free. I let out a sigh of relief as the cool air hit my face like a splash of ice water… but the really shocking thing came when I opened my eyes, and saw Cass looking at me in horror.

“Holy shit! Yer bleedin’ man!” She reached out to grab my face in concern, while I just sat there like a lemon, utterly bewildered.

“I am?” I asked honestly. “Hadn’t noticed. Here.” I reached behind me and pulled out my medkit, handing it to Cass. The leather pouch I’d gotten from Doc Mitchell was certainly starting to look a little care-worn from all its use. She opened it up, grabbed some gauze… and then picked up her flask. She looked at it mournfully for a second before letting out a sigh and dousing the gauze in alcohol.

Shit, this was gonna hurt, wasn’t it?

“Ah, fuck,” Cass said, dabbing the side of my face with the booze-soaked gaAAUGH FUCK! Yep, I was right, that really stings. But I just grit my teeth and kept quiet. “I think y’broke open that same cut y’got from that rooftop fight with Tuera a week ago. You sure there’s not somethin’ sharp inside yer helmet?”

I didn’t answer, because a horrible realization had just hit me like a .45 slug to the back of my skull. I hadn’t had a chance to stop and think about it, since the two of us had been running for our lives for the last hour. But now that we had finally stopped?

“Shea! GO!”

Tuera’s words echoed in my head. Immediately, there was a part of my brain that was trying to rationalize leaving Tuera behind. At the time, all I’d been thinking about was just getting the fuck away. Nothing in my arsenal even seemed to faze Panzer; hell, the Alien Blaster had disintegrated people, and he didn’t even seem to notice. Even the tank had done fuck-all. What the fuck could I have done if I’d stayed? He would have just turned me into a bloody smear.

But ever since our chat under the 38, Tuera had been looking for a way to die on her feet. And I’d just left her behind.

“Shea! GO!”

A sharp pain shot through my chest and wouldn’t go away… and at the same time, I felt completely numb. It was like my insides were being eaten from the inside out, and it didn’t take long for me to feel… hollow. I just sat there, stupefied, while Cass saw to mending the wound on my head. I saw her mouth move, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Everything was muffled.

“… what?” I asked softly, trying to compose myself.

Focus. Compartmentalize. You’re not done with the job yet. Work now, guilt later.

“Y’alright?” Cass’ voice finally snapped into focus.

“Shea! GO!”

“Earlier… you said…” I coughed out, trying to will my brain to focus more than anything else. “Do you really think we’re not gonna make it back?” Cass grimaced, continuing to treat the wound on my head.

“Yeah, well… S’not lookin’ good. Ah did an ammo count b’fore we ducked in here…”

“And?”

“I’m down to two,” she admitted. I was hoping she didn’t mean what I thought she meant.

“Mags?” I asked, hopefully. She shook her head.

“Nope. Shells.” She finished tending to my head wound, and slumped back down against the opposite wall. “Ah tell ya, I love this thing,” she grabbed her shotgun by the barrel, giving it a shake. “But it burns through ammo like a motherfucker. And with no ammo, I’m kinda fucked, y’know?”

“No,” I grunted, shifting my weight. “You’re not.” I shrugged the Jury Rigger into my hands, and then handed it to Cass. “Here. It’ll need to charge up if you use it too often, but this’ll never run out of ammo.” Cass looked at the weapon – and me – curiously.

“Y’sure?” I nodded back at her, urging her to take the rifle. She grabbed hold of it gingerly, and I pulled out the Alien Blaster, checking to make sure it was loaded.

“I got plenty of weapons, don’t worry about me. Just be careful when you fire that thing. The LAER setting overpenetrates like nobody’s business – so just make sure I’m not behind whatever you’re shooting, alright?” Cass nodded. “The holorifle setting is probably the most like a shotgun. Pulse will fry anything electronic, especially power armor.”

“An’ sonic?” she asked, hefting up the rifle and looking down the sights.

“That one disables force fields. Haven’t seen any yet, but I wouldn’t put it past that digital fuckhead, so keep on the lookout.” I holstered the Alien Blaster and grabbed the flask that Cass had set down on the floor. “We’re not licked yet. I promise. We’re gonna make it through this.”

“Shea! GO!”

The words echoed in my head again, and I paused, suddenly wracked by a dizzying wave of guilt. Next thing I knew, I had the flask to my lips and was pouring the burning amber liquid down my gullet. I gulped hard, and when I pulled the flask away I realized that my hand was shaking. I chuckled grimly, and offered the rest to Cass.

Cass paused, looking down at the flask, and then up at me. Without a word, she pushed the flask away, took my face in her hands, leaned in to me, and pressed her lips to mine. The two of us lingered there for a few seconds, just… holding each other in that darkened, dusty maintenance tunnel. Reluctantly, she pulled away, her hot breath caressing my cheek.

“We’ll get through this,” I whispered, holding her close.

“Whatever you say,” she replied; the next thing I knew, she was shoving my helmet in my stomach. “C’mon. We’ve gotta go…” I gave her one last smirk before putting my helmet back on and buckling it back in place. The lenses of my helmet flashed, and the heads-up display returned.

“Whatever you say…” I repeated.

About fifteen minutes later, Cass and I were hiding in the shadows, near some kind of service elevator. At least, that’s what I assumed “turbolift” meant. Cass was holding the Jury Rigger tightly, and I had my Alien Blaster drawn and at the ready, but so far we’d been able to avoid any confrontations and keep out of sight.

If I was reading the map on my Pip Boy right, we needed to use that elevator to get into the lower levels of the base to find the reactor – and a terminal close to Eden’s mainframe. But for the moment, we couldn’t get at it. Several Enclave soldiers and at least a dozen robots were milling around, keeping watch.

“Think we can take ’em?” Cass whispered; I tapped a finger to my helmet’s respirator, and tried to keep her quiet. We could probably fight them off for a while, sure, but that would only draw more attention. And I didn’t think we could afford to have them lock down this elevator… so I hoped we could pull off a stealthy approach. The closest soldier had his back to us, and a pair of fingers pressed to the side of his helmet. He was definitely talking to someone through his helmet radio.

“Yes sir,” the Enclave trooper said aloud. “Yes, we think they may be splitting up. We think they’re on levels five and six, now.” He paused. “Yes sir, I understand, sir.” He grabbed his rifle with both hands and then bellowed: “FIRST SQUAD! On your feet! Tactical column, double time it! C’mon, ladies! They ain’t payin’ us by the hour, MOVE!”

With thunderous military precision, the troops formed up, and started marching away: the power armored infantry in the middle, and the robots guarding the flanks. The column of infantry disappeared around a corner, and the heavy thuds of their footfalls got softer and softer, until we couldn’t hear them at all.

“C’mon,” I half-whispered, half-grunted, making my way to the elevator. “Now’s our chance! Go!” I scanned the area, and checked the motion tracker on my HUD. So far, it looked like we were the only things moving nearby. I hit the call button, and immediately a hiss of pressurized gas signaled the doors opening. The inside was a nondescript metal cylinder, and thankfully no one was in it. So Cass and I both backed inside – but with our guns drawn, pointing out the door. Just in case. As soon as we were inside, the doors slid shut.

“The fuck?” Cass asked aloud, inspecting the buttons next to the door. “The fuck is this?”

I checked around her shoulder to try and find out what she was talking about. And sure enough, at first glance, the panel looked confusing. It wasn’t set up in symmetrical rows of buttons, arranged in a box like I would’ve expected from an elevator. The two rows of buttons were arranged on either side of a schematic, connected to various points by lines that made it look more like a circuit board than anything else.

“… I think it’s a cut-away map of the base,” I said, tracing a finger across the diagram… and then the bottom of my stomach fell out. If I was reading the scale on this right, then this base was several miles deep, as well as several miles wide, and that was all manner of unsettling. I cleared my throat and tried to focus on what was immediately relevant before speaking again. “If these are all destinations, then this thing must be able to travel horizontal as well as vertical.”

“What, like a pneumatic tube?” she asked curiously. I shrugged.

“Maybe. Sure as hell isn’t gonna be a counterweight with a hoist.” I tapped a point at the bottom of the map. “I think… that’s where we need to go.” I followed the line with my finger, and hit the button; immediately, the whole thing shook.

“Well, we’re off…” Cass leaned against the wall, drumming her fingers against the outside of the Jury Rigger. She furrowed her brow, and pointed behind me. “Hang on. S’that a window?”

I turned around to look at the curved wall behind me. Sure enough, it was made of glass, and the wall was moving behind it; every second or so, a light would go by, from the bottom to the top. At least we were going in the right direction.

And then we weren’t.

There was a heavy clunk, and the whole elevator shook violently. The lights in the ceiling flickered, and I realized with a mounting sense of disquiet that we were no longer moving. Cass and I looked around, positioning ourselves back-to-back, both of us with our guns drawn trying to figure out what was going on…

“You have already lost, mutant,” a calm voice spoke through a speaker in the ceiling. “You know that, don’t you?” The venom in his words was almost palpable.

“Eden…” Cass growled unnecessarily. Suddenly, the elevator shook again, and we were moving – but it didn’t feel like the same direction as before.

Where was he taking us?

“Big talk from the man whose soldiers I’ve been slaughtering all morning!” I said at the ceiling, with a confidence I didn’t actually feel. But there was no need to let him know that. “It’s not even lunch, and I’ve already lost track!”

He chuckled menacingly. The sound was like ice water dumped on my head, but I stood firm, and gripped my Alien Blaster tighter.

“An insignificant loss, shouldered by those who are expendable,” Eden said. “You tear into an army of slaves, nothing more. Their lives only gain meaning in death, and they know it. They will gladly throw themselves upon you to enact my will. For every one of them who falls, ten more will take his place.”

“Then I guess we better find ten more, asshole!” Cass shouted. For a few seconds, Eden didn’t say anything. And then the silence was broken… by a heavy sigh.

“How long do you really think you can keep on fighting?” he asked, voicing a concern I’d asked myself earlier. “Eventually, you will make a mistake. Or you will run out of ammunition.” Next to me, I felt Cass stiffen up. “Or you will succumb to exhaustion. It makes little difference to me how you meet your end. So go ahead. Kill as many of my soldiers as you like. There is –”

The speaker above our heads exploded in a shower of sparks. Smoke curled from the barrel of That Gun, and I lowered it slowly.

“Fuck sake!” Cass lowered her arms away from her head. “Warn me when yer gonna…”

“Amusing,” Eden’s cut her off, in a voice that betrayed his lack of amusement. “But pointless.” The sound seemed to surround us, coming from all directions; I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from, or even see any of the speakers this time.

The lights flickered again, momentarily plunging us into darkness. It felt like the elevator altered its course, and the view outside the window changed yet again.

“What is…” Cass trailed off as she moved to the window and looked out. I couldn’t help but follow. This place kept throwing curveballs, and the view outside the curved elevator window was no exception.

The space beyond was vast, like the pseudo-cityscape in the levels above us. I couldn’t see the end of it; it just seemed to go on and on forever, receding off into the darkness. Filling this cavernous chamber were row after row, shelf after shelf of some kind of strange cylindrical glass tubes. Each one of the vat-like tubes was filled with a glowing green liquid and… oh shit, there were bodies inside each one! There were so many of them, I couldn’t possibly hope to count them all. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Like the room they occupied, they just seemed to go on forever. Machinery and people buzzed around everything, like insects tending to the inner workings of an enormous hive.

“Holy shit…” Cass muttered, pressing a hand against the glass. She looked as worried as I felt.

“This… this must be where they grow the clones…” I said aloud.

“Only one of ten gestation facilities we have within Lunar Station Enclave,” Eden corrected. My eyes went wide and the bottom of my stomach fell out again. But he wasn’t finished. “Now do you understand? Do you now see the futility of rising up against me, and the utter foolishness of trying to defeat America?”

“There’s just… so many…” Cass’ voice was starting to waver. Frankly, I couldn’t blame her.

“Do you feel it, mutant? Do you feel that sensation, taking hold of you now?” Eden kept on gloating. But while he talked, I was busy trying to figure out an exit. “That is your only reward, and the fate of all who dare stand against the might of America: absolute despair. The silent chill of the grave is all that awaits you. We shall cleanse the world of your filth, and your pathetic resistance shall be forgotten. Your deaths will be for nothing!”

I pressed the barrel of the Alien Blaster against the glass; Cass noticed what I was doing, and (very sensibly) stepped away and took cover behind me.

“You talk too much.”

There was a bright flash, a belch of ozone, and the glass exploded outward in a shower of superheated vapor. I grabbed Cass by the waist and held her close, whispering to her: “Grab hold of me.” In a single motion, I holstered the Alien Blaster and pulled out the grapnel gun.

PKCHOONT!

Cass and I sailed through the air, away from the elevator. All around us, sirens and warning klaxons sounded. In the background I could still hear Eden’s voice, booming now as it echoed throughout the cavernous chamber.

“You only delay the inevitable.”

“This is all your fault!” Cass yelled, sending a trio of LAER bursts down the corridor. The beams sliced into several robots each and bits of shredded metal went tumbling off in every direction.

“My fault?!” I had to duck as a cluster of blue plasma streaked through the air just over my head. I returned fire with a pair of energy bolts from the Alien Blaster, and the two power armored soldiers closest to us exploded into a cloud of vapor. “How could it be my fault?”

“We were almost clear, and y’just had t’drop that grenade on our way out th’ clone chambers, didn’t ya?” She yelled. A pair of robots started running at our cover; I heard a heavy clunk and suddenly a cluster of blue holographic cubes hit them like a wall, sending them flying.

“They were on top of us anyway!” I yelled, sending another pair of energy bolts down the hall. “And all those exploding clone tanks would’ve covered our escape, if you had just kept quiet!”

“Don’t you dare try pinnin’ this on me!” There was another clunk, and one of the robots suddenly found itself without a head after being hit by a particularly large cube. It tumbled end over end into the other soldiers at the end of the hall. I pulled out a plasma grenade – my very last one – primed it, and tossed it. The entire end of the hall erupted in green fire. When the dust settled, everything was quiet. Convinced that no one else was going to shoot at me, I stepped out of cover.

“Look, let’s not get bogged down with who did what to who…” I began.

“Well, no, cuz you did all’ve it,” Cass stood up, with a laugh and a smile to let me know she didn’t mean it. Hopefully.

“Never mind that. We’ve gotta get out of here before more troops arrive.” As if on cue, I heard more stomping of heavy boots off in the distance, getting closer. “Oh yeah, it’s time to go! C’mon!”

And with that, the two of us set off running. I had a… vague idea of where we were going. I think. To be honest, it was really hard to double check a map while under fire.

As we ran, I tried to figure out how much ammo I had left for the Alien Blaster. I’d already used 3 power cells, and the one still loaded had about two shots left. Subtracting that from the ammo Chris gave me, which meant… 62 shots left. My first thought was that I could make that work. And then an image of numberless rows of clones sank into my brain, hammered home by the swiftly approaching sound of boots behind us…

Fuck it. At least my arm will never run out of ammo.

“There they are!” A voice yelled out to our left. “Stop th –” He exploded into a cloud of blue vapor, as did the soldier next to him.

“GO!” I yelled, urging Cass forward while I popped out the spent energy cell. By the time it clattered to the floor, we were already turning the next corner. Maybe I was hearing things, but I could swear I heard the glass crack when it was stomped on by so many boots giving chase.

“Damnit, where did they come from!?” Cass turned as she ran, snapping off a few shots behind her.

“Where do you think?” I fired again, but didn’t bother to check if I’d hit anything. That would’ve taken too much time. The two of us kept running, making our way through the twisting, winding corridors, until suddenly:

“Ah, FUCK!” Cass shouted. The two of us came to a stop as we realized where we were: a dead end. It seemed like a storage room of some kind, just without any storage. No way out of this empty room except the way we came, and we definitely couldn’t go that way, because who knows how many soldiers were bearing down on us right now? “I blame you fer this!”

“What?!” I asked indignantly, leveling the Alien Blaster back the way we came and pulling out That Gun as well. “How is this my fault?”

“Yer th’ one with th’ fuckin’ map!” Cass shot back, leveling the Jury Rigger at the entrance as well. The stomping sound of boots was getting closer, but also seemed to slow down; they must have figured out they had us boxed in, and could take their time.

I didn’t know if that made it better or worse, but as it happened? We didn’t find out either way.

The wall behind us exploded unexpectedly, pelting the two of us with debris; neither of us had time to react, but none of the chunks seemed to cause any kind of harm. Hell, it seemed to do more damage to the lighting than us, because most of the ceiling bulbs flickered and exploded, showering us with phosphor.

“What the –” I had both my guns instantly trained on the new opening, but soon brought myself to a halt. The massive figure silhouetted against the new, rough opening was definitely wearing power armor, but it wasn’t the horned-sort with ominously glowing eyes like the Enclave was wearing. And when I saw the green glow from the big fucking gun he was carrying, I realized we might actually make it out of this.

“Get down.” Chris said simply, leveling his huge weapon.

“What is –” Cass didn’t finish, because I was diving for the floor, grabbing her on the way down and doing my best to shield her with myself. For some reason I was reminded of The Divide, and how I’d grabbed hold of ED-E before taking cover from the nuclear blast. Chris stomped forward twice so he could stand directly over us, the gun whined as it charged up, and then…

There was noise, heat, and a small earthquake all at once. It only took a second, but a second was all it needed to feel like a bomb just went off.

“Are you two okay?” Chris asked, genuine concern seeping into his voice. I rolled off Cass, and helped her up; Chris was already offering one of his mechanical power armor hands, and Cass took it gladly, getting back on her feet. I pushed off the ground and followed suit.

“Fine,” I said, surveying the carnage and dusting myself off. Cass, meanwhile, let out a long low whistle as she looked back. “Never better.” Chris’ big fucking gun had blown quite the hole in the wall. And the floor. And the ceiling. Almost everything beyond where we’d dove to the floor was either melting or completely gone, and the damage went on in a vaguely cone-like shape for… quite a while. It must have taken out the troops giving us chase, because I couldn’t hear any more of them following us.

That said, how would they be able to? Most of the floor was reduced to molten, melted slag.

“Thanks fer th’ save,” she said, patting Chris on the side of his armor. Now that the dust had settled, I could see that it was no longer purely bone-white. Most of it looked like ours: dirty, dusty, marred, and occasionally flecked with splattered blood and intermittent plasma flash burns.

“Don’t mention it!” he said completely casual, like he was being complimented about a softball pitch. “I’m just glad I got here before things got too exciting. If you’ll pardon the pun.”

Cass and I both stared at him curiously for a few seconds. The only sound any of us heard was the slowly creaking embers of the rapidly cooling metal behind us.

“What pun?” I finally asked. Chris cocked his head to the side.

“Oh, wasn’t there one? I’m sorry.” He lifted up his big fucking gun again, motioned with his head for us to follow, and turned on his heel to go back through the crumbling wall. “C’mon, I think I’ve found a way to the reactor.”

And then there were three.