Chapter 72: Chapter 69

The conquest of the Glowing Sea was going smoothly for the ground forces of the Nexus. Sentinels swarmed in writhing clouds in the sky to swoop down on hostile targets, either to erase or capture them. The Eversors and Centurions kept pace with the Nexus troopers, tearing through any wasteland vermin, ghoul or the odd deathclaw. Glossu lumbered behind the lines, locking onto distant targets and disappearing them with the twin thunderclaps of its railguns.

Certain structures were cleansed and secured, like the nuclear silo, bunkers, and an underground facility hidden under a shack. Other sites were simply cleared out for future dismantling by the Sentinels.

Some Children of the Atom were intercepted on the way to the massive crater where Sev would be personally handling. Raving fanatics were all captured without issue, though Edward was happier wrangling deathclaws than listening to the lunatics cursing their lungs out.

The walk through the irradiated wasteland was a sobering reminder for him that life beyond the Nexus was utter shit. Thanks to the radiation swept up here, the radstorms that plagued the Commonwealth made surface life miserable and tainted even the cleanest source of drinking water.

Leave it to Sev to even consider cleansing this entire shithole, let alone carry out such an operation.

Speaking of, Edward wondered how his owner was doing. Was Sev trying to get the Children to cooperate, or would the ruler of the Nexus just smite them all for pissing him off so much? No one in Caladan would feel remotely bad if the crazy radiation lovers were wiped off the map, but maybe Sev might have some place for them?

His thoughts were interrupted by Cait suddenly speaking in his helmet’s general comms. “Keep to the advance, Eva’s asking us to get Sev.”

Edward frowned. “Is Sev in trouble?”

“It’s Sev, so I don’t think so. Maybe he just wants us to scare the loons into surrendering.”

That made sense. Sev had always preferred cowing the enemy, so sending over the death on treaded wheels would be a good way to get people shitting their pants.

Edward grinned. “Understood. Don’t worry, we’ll bag your share of kills.”

Cait chuckled on the other side. “Yeah, yeah, don’t spend too long frolicking here, I heard dinner’s some new kind of steak.” And then the comms switched to a private channel between Edward and the Glossu. “Don’t forget to wash the dust out of your asshole. Sev better not be using a sandy cocksleeve.”

Barking a laugh, Edward shook his head before replying. “And you girls try to not fuck the Glossu’s guns, eh? You know Sev likes his holes tight.”

With the friendly shittalking done, Edward watched as the Glossu revved up and left a cloud of dirt and dust as it broke away from formation. Shame he couldn’t follow along, but Edward knew his place. He switched back to the general network again with a sigh.

“Right then, boys and girls, let’s get back to purging this place.”

*****

“Holy shit, Sev.”

Piper and the other girls quickly scrambled out of the tank once they came across their man. It was the first time any of them saw Sev in a bad state. The Zippy Lid had landed close by, likely under Eva’s control. Around a pile of glowing ash nearby Sev, the ten slagged heaps that were once the Nexus’ new robots were still smoking and crackling.

“Good…” Sev croaked, blood spurting out of his mouth. Despite the charred body, what’s left of his features was grinning. “Took…your…time…”

“Shut up Sev,” Cait hastily replied as they rushed to him. “Fucking hell, what happened?”

Their armor’s radiation alert lit up as they passed the mound of ash, and more worryingly, as they neared Sev himself. Curie was the first to make it to him, working quickly with all the experience of her medical background to tend to their protector and benefactor.

“Killed…hah…killed me…a…god. Heh…heh…”

This time it was Curie who shushed him. “Shh. Save your strength. Your body is heavily damaged and irradiated.” She turned to Piper and the others. “Come, we need to get him to the arches.” Cait darted over to help.

“The Tupile’s safer,” Curie said as they got Sev up. “Less risk of collateral irradiation.”

As she processed what she heard and saw, Piper forced herself to keep calm before turning to her sister. “Nat, we’ll send Glossu back.”

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“But Sev…” Nat’s voice cracked as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Sev’s gotta take the Zippy Lid to go up to the Tupile. Cait can fly it up while Curie looks after him. We’ll join them once we’ve sent the Glossu back, okay?”

Piper knew they had to keep this quiet, at least until they got a clearer picture and Sev was up and walking again. She’d have to make sure Nat didn’t panic or get her imagination too worked up. Curie and Cait would take care of Sev, Piper was sure of it.

Her sister glanced at Sev who was being carried by Cait and Curie into the shuttle, and then back at Piper before nodding. “I…Ok, Piper. Let’s go.”

Piper exchanged worried looks and a nod with Cait before joining her sister, waiting for the space shuttle to lift off before driving the Glossu at full speed back home. She had Nat man the guns as a distraction. It would be bad if her sister saw her own fearful tears.

*****

Curie was able to compartmentalise her fear and anger for the time being and focus on keeping Sev comfortable and alive. Unlike Cait, who was muttering a stream of curses as she piloted the Zippy Lid at far beyond the usual speed.

“Calm down Cait, getting reckless now will not do Sev any favors.”

Sev was thankfully still conscious, but his eyes had glazed over to the familiar ‘weird mode’, likely in an attempt to keep himself alive. The radiation on him was off the charts, already causing her armor and the ship’s structure around him to sizzle. She got a clearer picture on how bad things were once they docked at the Tupile and they put him under a healing arch.

It was the first time Curie had known the system to deplete its entire charge.

“What the fuck got to him?” Cait whispered, full of worry, and Curie didn’t give herself time to ponder that question. Sev needed to be better first, her own emotional breakdown could wait

For their safety, Cait and Curie had their armor on as they monitored Sev and brought him from one healing arch to another, emptying out their capacitors each time. In the end, Curie had to get Eva to install the healing emitters into the walls of one of the smaller unused rooms, focusing their beams towards the center where Sev was laid.

“Radiation levels are still high, but it is definitely decreasing,” Curie noted for Cait’s and her own peace of mind, about an hour since boarding the Tupile. Piper and Nat appeared shortly after, and she briefed the sisters on Sev’s condition. Their lover, their saviour, their master…he would get better. Curie didn’t allow herself to believe otherwise.

As they waited, Piper took it on herself to monitor the campaign by getting updates from Eva. Cait joined in half-heartedly while Nat fidgeted in her seat with worry. Curie held onto the girl’s hand to reassure her, even as she felt her own emotions finally getting the better of her and her sight became blurry as the delayed tears finally forced their way through.

*****

Holy shit am I glad I turned off my pain. Console helpfully showed just how fucked I was, with pretty much every part of me hanging around single digits, or even a fraction of that, HP wise.

The radiation was a bitch and a half to remove. I realised then that the console had a problem processing radiation levels that were this high. The old approach of ‘Ctrl+A’ + ‘Delete’ only brought down the value by ten thousand.

I was doused with a radiation value that was eight digits long.

Well, at least I know my limits now.

Thankfully, Eva was a smart enough AI to see that I was in shit shape and hovered the Zippy Lid close enough to pick up my damaged voice as I called for help. By the time the girls arrived, even with the time dilation the console provided, I was barely a quarter-way to bringing the rads down to zero. Would be nice if there was a ‘Set to 0’ button somewhere, but no…

The healing arches helped knock five thousand points off each round before the thing got emptied out and it became a trickle. It also looked like until I was cleaned off the rads the arches weren’t able to heal my body up, which, you know, sucks. The improvised room really helped speed things up though. If I read my timer right, it took a good two hours in there before I was cleaned up and was finally able to focus on actually healing by fucked up body.

I’d say it was a humbling experience to finally know what it’s like getting damaged, but it took an eldritch being to bring me down to that level at all. So, I was still quite OP I’d say.

Still, recovering to full health left me weak with a severely depleted stamina bar for some reason, and once I clambered out of the room, I almost got buried by the four girls. There were plenty of teary ‘welcome back’s and such, and I simply stood there and marinated in the outpouring of emotions. Admittedly, I was touched that they cared so much for me, and it felt good knowing my wellbeing was high on the minds of some people.

“So…what I miss?”

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