I expected Ashur to be just another dumbass raider, but he was worse than that. He was a Brotherhood ofSteel asshole and he saw right through everything. Maybe it was the pip-boy or my lack of scabs; he knew I wasn’t a slave. This wasn’t good for me; I was high on med-x. If he decided to kill me in that moment, I wouldn’t have felt it, but I was pretty much drooling while he spoke to me. It didn’t help that he was wearing power armor you would only find in the fifth circle of hell. “Who the hell are you?” “I’m a slave.” I slurred. “Bullshit. I ought to kill you right where you stand, but I know that you were sent by Werhner. You see, I don’t leave too many loose ends and he’s one of them. So, you’re going to help me. I’m going to give you the chance to earn your place here; you did survive the Hole afterall.” “Is that so?” I said sucking the drool pooling in my mouth and nodding off. “I’m going to show patience because you had a long day. We’ll have this discussion again tomorrow. You shouldn’t be gone on med-x next time we speak.” “I’m not promising anything.” I smiled lethargically. I then dropped fast to the ground. If it weren’t for my neck cracking, I wouldn’t have known that a Raider smacked me down with a baseball bat. I didn’t feel shit, but I had the spins pretty bad, so I just closed my eyes. They must have thought I was unconscious, because a woman’s voice entered the room and had a full conversation with Asher. “Do you think he was here for her?” “No, judging from his state, I don’t think he even knows about her. It’s like Wernher to leave out important details. It’s why I had to do what I did.” “What’s his plan?” “He thinks he’s deceived me. Now he’s going to need to make contact with his informant. We just wait sweetheart. We’ll just let his spy lead the way. He may have survived the Hole, but he can’t harm us, or Marie. I’ve got everything under control baby.” “Ashur, they know she’s the cure! They wont stop until…” Her voice trailed off as I was dragged away. I let myself pass out.” I woke up to Reddup splashing beer on my face. “Rise and shine snitch bitch.” He laughed. I looked around and saw that I was still in Uptown. I was surprised to be unchained and uncaged. “I bet you’re wondering why we haven’t killed you yet. Well at some point, you’re going to have to go to Wernher. Then we’re going to break all his limbs and throw him to the Trogs. Boss, says if you’re helpful, you can stick around. But don’t expect that to be a comfort, we all know what you are. We’re going to play nice for now, let you drink and shoot up. Just in case that fucking cyclops is watching. We don’t want him to think his plan has failed already, now do we? We’ve thought of everything.” “Okay, let’s go to the Steelyard.” “Why the fuck would we do that.” “That’s where Wernher told me to meet him.” “Where?” “I’m not sure, I’m supposed to look out for a smoke signal.” “Fine, I’ll grab O-Dog and…” “Are you stupid? If he’s watching us and we show up with a mob, he will know something is up and not signal me. Fuck, he’ll just leave me with you guys, and if I can’t bring you Wernher, then I’m good as dead.” “Do you think, I’m stupid? I’m not letting you out of my sight.” “Then you come, maybe one more guy if you’re scared.” “I don’t fucking trust you.” “Well you have an assault rifle, I have a slave tool.” “I’ve seen you use that tool.” “Yeah, on slaves. Look, without Wernher, I’m dead. I have no reason to not give him to you. You think, I’m going to risk it all for that jerkoff?” I shot up a med-x and felt right again. Reddup escorted me alone to the Steelyard. He even bragged about how he was going to get all the credit for bringing in Wernher, and how he kept our arrangement to himself, so the other Raiders don’t fuck it up for him. I’m sure he felt really smart when I strapped a stealth-boy around the trigger to my Man-Opener and triggered VATS to give it a good toss right at his chest. He literally didn’t see it coming, I didn’t think the stealth field would activate around the power tool, but it was welcome. He was confused before his torso was mutilated by the invisible blades. It was all a risk, I didn’t even know I could use VATS to throw objects like that. It dislocated my shoulder. I popped it back in painlessly, as the med-x was still coursing through me, strangely making me feel at ease with my situation. He was still alive, though he wasn’t in any condition to call for help, or pull his weapon; he instinctively put his hands to his wounds and didn’t realize the cloaked blades were still whirring about. He basically had no hands, they were chopped up unevenly. I only knew where the blades were now because a thin layer of blood now coated them. I retrieved by weapon and took off the stealth boy; I was very uncomfortable with an invisible weapon like this. I always knew where the blade was on my shock sword. He gasped and trembled, trying his best to hold on. I relieved him of the Chems he had and used a stimpak while I pulled up my loincloth and relieved myself on his twitching corpse. “I can see you’ve been affected by your time in the Pitt.” Wernher, that fuck, he was here, he was watching and I couldn’t see him. “Why don’t we discuss my progress in person.” “Because I’m pretty sure after what you’ve been through, you’d want to kill me.” “Well, unlike our friend Reddup here, you have the drop on me. Just keep your gun aimed at me, and let’s talk.” “Okay, but put down the auto-axe.” “Really?” “Yeah, I don’t want any of that invisible meat grinder shit.” I put it down. He stepped from the shadows to where I could see him. “Did you find the cure?” “Did I find the cure? Does it look like I’m carrying a fucking baby with me in here. Seriously, what the fuck. You hired a fucking regulator. Did you think I’d sign on for killing slaves and kidnapping children?” “No one would sign on for that.” “So you fucking lied to me.” “I did. This place needs to be brought down. You’ve seen it firsthand. It’s worse than hell. There was no other way to get you on the inside. It’s awful and dirty, but someone’s got to do it, and the people who are capable don’t have the stomach for it. The people who have the stomach for it, are sitting in uptown.” “So what, you want me to go kidnap that kid?” “That kid won’t be harmed, we just need her to develop a cure. Bringing her to me, means that sea of slaves stands a chance. Here, I brought you some more stealth boys.” He said tossing me a dozen stealth boys ringed up on a belt. When you get the cure, meet me here and don’t have an army following you.” “Give me your fucking clothes.” “What?” “I’m tired of being almost naked, it’s hard to sneak around with my balls smacking around under the loincloth. I need more supportive clothing if you want me to do this.” He wasn’t happy about it, but he complied and with his outfit and stealth-boy I shouldered my Man-Opener and re-entered the Pitt. It was night, I was a night person, so this can only work to my benefit. I began my purge with a combat knife. I snuck around, slitting throats while they slept and taking fingers. I was able to take out the guards as they patrolled on their own. As I slayed them under the stars, I couldn’t help but take pleasure in knowing that my next victim had no idea how many other’s I’d killed, but it got to a point where it was too many to not be noticed. “It’s too fucking quiet.” A raider commented. “Yeah normally Squill is snoring.” “Can you fall asleep on Jet without snoring?” “Shit, I’ve never thought of that. Let’s ask Phantom.” She says walking towards the bed of someone, I know I already killed. Fuck. “Phantom’s dead! Oh shit! Spook is dead! What the fuck is going on?” At this point Raiders start to crowd around and I hear voices coming from all over Uptown. “Trouble man got shanked! Mex is fucked! Hammer is dead!” A group of five made the mistake of grouping up. “Feel the wrath of the Wasteland Mist!” I growled stupidly; I blame the chems. I just mowed through the group with my Man-Opener unseen. They shot at nothing, and even hit a lady raider, running to see what’s going on. “Fucking stealth boy.” One of them shouted. Then all hell broke loose. Normally my battles were over before anyone realized stealth technology was at play. It was a different game when they knew to look out for subtle refractions of light. It was a sprint on the scaffolding. Slaves looked up to see their masters exploding in a bloody mess. I was eating shot after shot, but I was again held together by the chems. I must have swallowed a whole bottle of buff-out while I was taking cover. But then it was back to business. They could see me now, but not well and so most of the bullets missed. As they were cut down, the bullets became less and less frequent until all that was left was a stumbling raider in metal armor. Too bad for them, I had a metal cutting tool. My stealth boy wore off and I stood there, all the slave’s eyes were on me. Watching me hold my modified auto-axe. The raiders on night-shift in the Mill and Downtown must have figured out the ruckus, because they were trying to light me up from below. But to my surprised, that all stopped when the slaves turned their tools on them. The sea of slaves became a sea of carnage as raiders came outside to see what was going on, only to be pulled and grinded up by the angry hoard. Eventually the slaves poured into the buildings and stormed into the doors raiders were peeking out from. But then a rocket whizzes passed my head, and I see standing in front of his “Haven.” Ashur power-armored, helmet and all. It passes me and lands into the rallying slaves. It took me a moment to realize he wasn’t holding a rocket launcher. Downtown exploded and half of the steel and concrete that made Uptown along with it. He just nuked the hoard, and, in a moment, they were broken again. He was loading up another mini-nuke into his shoulder mounted catapult. I picked myself up, being thrown around by the explosion and activated another stealth boy. I hauled ass and sprinted towards Haven. He tried to hit me again, but he missed and punished the slaves again. At this point, I reasoned they should know by now, that if they can duck and cover, they should. I got too close for him to load a third one. He dropped it and one of his raiders handed him a super sledge. Instead of going right for him, I made my rounds with the Raiders surrounding him. I dodged his super sledge, which he was swinging oddly accurately at someone using a stealth-boy,while I swung my Man-Opener around wildly. There was just him and I, and my stealth-boy wore off. I was about to activate another after creating some distance. “Don’t bother. I can see your heat signature. This is a T forty-five D, you don’t stand a chance. That auto-axe won’t cut through, and you can only avoid me for so long.” He declared. I didn’t listen to his advice and so my tool bounced off his armor. I dodged, but I was off for one moment and he took a full powered swing at me in the gut, and I went flying. It knocked the wind out of me and I could feel that every bone in front of my spine was shattered. I was lucky my spine held up okay, and I could still feel my legs, but I felt like my innards and bone shards would come spilling out of my ass.
He stood over me and laughed when I pulled out a Stimpak and shot myself with it. “Fucking idiot, now this is just going to hurt more.” He snickered as he brought his super-sledge over his head in preparation to smash my head like a mut-fruit. I just grabbed my man-opener pressed it on the brahmin skull resting on his left shoulder. Finally! Blood! I was able to get onto a knee to add some power. “Did that brahmin skull come standard with the armor bitch?” I said as I pressed. He dropped his weapon, and tried to fight me off, but he couldn’t stop the blades, not even with his power-armor gauntlets. He was only half right about the man-opener. Smacking him with it was futile, but if one was unusually strong, which I was from the buffout, then it’s possible to fight the ricochet and steady the tool. It took what felt like forever, but I sawed him in half from his shoulder to under his right arm.