Chapter 77: Chapter 74

Sarah Lyons did not like being Elder, as honored as she was by the trust of her brothers and sisters. She was far better suited, in her opinion, to lead at the front amidst a storm of bullets and lasers, not endure the burden of holding the chapter’s existence in her hands.

She had to admit to using the reconnaissance mission as a means of escaping some of that burden, but Sarah knew better than to take the trip beyond the Capital Wasteland lightly. This was to be a scouting mission as well as a potential diplomatic one, which would mean flexing the new elder had rarely used, especially with outsiders.

The information collated by the scribes had painted the Nexus Severalty as a caged utopia where everyone in it enjoyed a life of luxury in exchange for a complete obedience. It also was known to be one of the few places in the wider wasteland where passing travellers had utter surety that they’d be able to pass through the lands without any danger to their lives.

Assuming they kept to the rules, of course.

Sarah could easily imagine some self-styled warlord realising his ideal kingdom through the wonders of a discovered trove of pre-wasteland tech. Force fields were a known, though still not understood, thing after all that the Enclave had possessed, and everyone knew that the super mutants were meant to be a tyrant’s personal army. Owning a legion of robots and stronger laser tech was par for the course compared to the other scenarios.

Her Brotherhood had endured the many weapons of the Enclaves and had triumphed, shattering the shadow organization. She was sure that her brothers and sisters could take on the lasers and robots of the Nexus. The cost might even be higher than the clash against the Enclave, but if push came to shove, Sarah was confident of their victory.

It shouldn’t have to come to that, of course. That was why she was part of this team, to make the final call directly should negotiations occurred with the Nexus.

The team was making good time clearing through the ruins and blasted landscape. The vertibirds the chapter had stored would have made the trip faster, but bitter experience had taught the Brotherhood about how vulnerable the fliers could be to ground fire. With pockets of enemies still scattered throughout the Capital Wasteland, it’d be likely that any flier sent out would eat at least on missile before leaving the city limits.

So they stuck to marching across the cracked and worn highways, thankfully the amount of power armor in the group deterred even the most rabid raiders from getting in their way.

Unfortunately for Recon Team Heracles, the super mutants that appeared halfway in their expedition were far from intimidated.

“Hostiles spotted.” Knight Taggart reported with rising panic through the comms. He and Knight Esteves had been ranging ahead of the main team amidst the standard haze of the radioactive wasteland. “A horde of super mutants, four hundred yards. Fuck, they’ve spotted us!”

Sarah barked her orders immediately. “Regroup, now! Recon Team Heracles, prepare for a tactical withdrawal! Secure our scribes!”

Super mutants were often just as strong, just as tough, and worse, just as fast as a Knight in power armor. Trying to fight them off was not an option. The best they could hope for now was that the distance didn’t close in too much as they retreated.

Tactical sense suggested that Sarah sent her two scouts off in another direction in hopes of leading the brutes away from the rest of the recon team. She discarded that notion as soon as it flashed through her head. Callous sacrificing was never her thing.

Non-essentials were discarded, the scribes carried in one arm by knights, and Sarah waited for the scouts to appear through the haze before sounding the retreat. Their armors strained as they stomped across the wasteland at full speed.

Gunfire and laser beams flashed in their general direction, most of the shots going wide. Sarah could hear the growing jumble of roars and laughter behind her. She stamped down on the fear brewing in her guts and refocused her attention on getting out of here alive.

A series of hollow explosions went off from the unseen horde, but Sarah didn’t let that distract her or her team. “Keep moving! Don’t stop!” Standing to gawp at whatever was coming at them would be a shitty way to die.

The earth around them erupted in puffs of dirt and electricity. Sarah’s eyes went wide as she recognized the threat from how her HUD fritzed out as dirt showered her. “Pulse munitions! Don’t fucking stop!”

Recon Team Heracles tried to outrun the storm of fire, but ultimately failed.

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Knight Anders was the first to fall, getting a direct hit from a pulse bomb that shorted his armor. He fell in a loud heap, the grunt of pain clearly heard in the open comms. Sarah turned over her shoulder in time to see the disabled Knight fighting against his seized armor to rise up. Then a fussilade of laser beams struck him, more joining in as the super mutants finally found a target to focus on, and Sarah heard the grizzled veteran scream as he was boiled alive in his suit.

An unlucky missile hit launched Knight Revik from his feet, sending him tumbling in the dirt. Sarah felt grim gratitude at hearing the resounding crack as he landed and saw his readings go black on her HUD. He had broken his neck from the fall, hopefully. It was better than a slow death.

Scribes Colins and Rills got shredded by air-burst rounds, their light armor barely offering any protection to the storm of shrapnel. The knights carrying didn’t discard the corpses, to their credit.

Another explosion, this time right between her feet, flung Sarah in the air. She landed on her front with a gasp and to the sound of cracked bones. It took her precious seconds before her mind broke from the concussive daze. With her armor dead, Sarah had to disengage from it, crawling out to find the rest of the recon team forming a wall of steel between her and incoming fire.

No, no, no… They weren’t supposed to stay.

Sarah got to her knees and began shouting, arms flailing in desperation. “Retreat! Brothers, retreat! That’s an order!” They ignored her, gatling guns and lasers and rocket launches defiantly returning fire. Scribes Halley and Bourke rushed to help their Elder to her feet, but Sarah knew the act of loyalty had just cost the entire team their lives.

She noticed that the shooting from the now visible blob of enemies had abated, and there was no mistaking through the haze of the giant silhouettes raising their arms, which meant that the super mutants were breaking into a charge.

Which meant that everyone in this team was about to suffer a messy death.

Everything became a blur to Sarah. She watched Paladin Lyndon’s gatling gun go red hot as a carpet of corpses grew towards him, and then he was dogpiled under green bodies. Knight Shen was hacked apart by rusty, oversized cleavers, her head rolling away, free from her helmet and neck.

As the recon team died around her, Sarah grabbed the sidearm from her armor and joined the last stand. She emptied her combat rifle’s magazine after only downing two super mutants, and had to scamper back to her armor to find the reloads. That attempt was hampered as a bloody arm barely missed her and thunked loudly against the burnt out armor.

A super mutant ran at her with a large spike, and she rolled aside to dodge. The giant’s head burst like a ripe melon from a well-placed beam from scribe Halley, who barely had time to celebrate that shot before he was pulped by a charging brute.

More super mutants entered her view, each bearing sadistic grins on their malformed faces. One of them picked up her armor and made a show of tearing it apart piece by piece, mockingly tossing the chunks of metal at her.

She was surrounded, she realised, and likely the only one left alive. Sarah grit her teeth, defiantly fighting off her despair at her impending doom. She didn’t see something slam into her from the side, a lazy blow that sent her sprawling to the dirt again. Sarah bit back the urge to cry or scream in pain, but she didn’t have the strength to get back up anymore.

Elder Sarah Lyons braced herself for her death, wishing her chapter all the best, and that they would avenge Recon Team Heracles as she stared up at the looming giants with their rusted blades.

A cry of alarm caught the super mutants’ attention, and they turned first to one side, and then to the skies. Sarah’s eyes saw what they saw then: several specks high in the sky above them, rapidly descending.

The super mutants didn’t hesitate and opened fire at the sky. They barely got a volley off before the specks grew in size, enough for Sarah to make out the glimmer of metal on each object before they slammed into the ground amongst the horde.

And then the super mutants began screaming, and the rank stench of blood and shit overwhelmed the smell of cordite and ozone. Sarah didn’t have the luxury of processing what was happening as a super mutant dismissively slammed a foot into her ribs, shattering her bones as she was literally kicked aside.

She remained conscious for long enough to see hulking metal things tearing through the super mutants with a cold mechanical precision. Sarah couldn’t hang on long enough as something else landed in front of her, her consciousness fading into the cold void despite her desire, her need to fight on.

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