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[calmhrtprevails]

The door opens on a vista of rocky landscape punctuated here and there by yellowed, rough-edged grass and low, scrubby brush. There's a hint of coolness on the breeze in the otherwise warming air, and a scent of distant rain. "We are," Fawkes rumbles, "some hours' distance from the Citadel. We're likely to stop at the town of Megaton first, and then make for the Arlington route the rest of the way."

Comments

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa does as he says: minding her head by looking up and focusing on the door as she approaches.

It's not her head that's the issue, of course, but the hilt of her oversized broadsword, for which she bends forward at the waist in order to step through.

Inside, she stands and looks around for a few seconds, waiting for the others before she chooses a place to sit.

[calmhrtprevails]

It's about a big enough space for eight humans to sit, unarmored; it just fits the three armored humans and Teresa and Fawkes. The walls are lined in some stuff Teresa probably won't recognize- padded vinyl- and the seats are covered in material that looks like leather cushions, but isn't. It's all been meticulously cleaned and repaired down to the smallest detail, even the little nicks and dents from the edge of armor-pieces and the grazes in the wall from the butts of guns.

The door closes behind Teresa, and a whup whup whupwhupwhup sound begins, as the whole thing starts to vibrate...

[cantdiequiteyet]

She sits down hard on one of the chairs, and remains in a formal looking upright position as the noise continues.

When the vehicle begins to move and to rise, her smile reappears.

"This is flying?"

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes nods. "If you look that way," he suggests, "you can see what our pilot sees."

The Vertibird is a tilt-rotor aircraft, and does not taxi as airplanes do. It rises upward, straight up past the Citadel walls, and then cants forward as the wings slide into position for forward flight. Teresa will briefly have an excellent view of the DC ruins and the river far below before Kodiak guides the vehicle into a half-circle course and steers out into the wilderness.

[cantdiequiteyet]

"That was a big city, once."

It's very nearly almost a question, pitched low for Fawkes' ears only, but not so quiet that the others can't hear her if they pay attention.

"Bigger than Rabona."

[calmhrtprevails]

"A city of millions," Fawkes agrees as quietly as he can- which is not very, but he's trying. "The capital of a nation of hundreds of millions."

[cantdiequiteyet]

Silver eyes widen, but she gives no other external reaction to show quite how significant this is to her.

Her entire continent might have a population in the millions.

"How many live in the Citadel now?"

[calmhrtprevails]

"Several hundred, I believe," says Fawkes. "There used to be more, but battles of the past several months have cut into their numbers."

[cantdiequiteyet]

She nods, and doesn't ask about the battles. That's a number more suited to the towns she's familiar with on her world.

Instead she turns back to the window, and watches the ground move beneath them.

[calmhrtprevails]

It rolls past at a ridiculous speed, during the short time that it's visible- Kodiak evens out the Vertibird's flight, and soon all that can be seen through the windshield is cloud and sky, and the distant horizon.

Some minutes later Kodiak announces, "We're coming up on Vault 87 airspace. I'll be dropping the surface support off just outside the hot zone. Then it'll be your turn- straight in through the front door."

[cantdiequiteyet]

"Straight in through the front door," Teresa repeats, and smiles at Fawkes. "That's my only method of attack anyway."

[calmhrtprevails]

"I'm not much for subtlety myself," Fawkes admits as the armored soldiers line up near the door. "And I have no love at all for those of my kind in this Vault. It's time for them to die."

[cantdiequiteyet]

Her smile remains, though it doesn't get any wider for that sentiment. Instead she places her hands on her knees and stands, joining the other soldiers in their wait to exit.

[calmhrtprevails]

The engine sounds change again as the rotors turn upward, the machine lowering itself slowly. Not all the way to the ground, though. Just far enough that when the door opens, the three paladins can recover from their jumps to the ground below and come up shooting. A keen ear will discern the sounds of gunfire almost the instant the door is open; Kodiak calls, "Get that door closed, fast! We don't have long before they bring out surface-to-air missiles."

The instant the door is closed the Vertibird tilts forward, speeding the remaining distance to a massive rock formation ringed in barbed wire and wrecked metal of all kinds.

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa stays standing now, watching the view out of the window in the front, and the approaching barricade.

"Who put up the fortifications?" she asks.

[calmhrtprevails]

"The others of my kind," says Fawkes grimly. "The oldest and the strongest. The younger ones man the barricades, and the older ones wait inside."

He reaches over his shoulder for the business end of the Gatling laser.

"I won't be using the hammer today. Some things call for fire."

"Drop zone in three," calls Kodiak. "Get ready."

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa would draw her sword, but there isn't room for it here, so instead she steps closer to the door to show willing about being ready.

[calmhrtprevails]

"Two," calls Kodiak as the Vertibird's forward flight slows, easing towards a hover again.

"I hope for your sake that the yoma powers you spoke of are ready," Fawkes says gravely. "The radiation levels below us are deadly to humans. They cease to be a hazard some distance inside the door. The only dangers after that are the sort we can kill."

"One," calls Kodiak, and the door opens. "Jump for it."

Fawkes leaps, and his high, half-mad cackle is swallowed up in the sound of engines.

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa turns her smile on him for that last second. Then she leaps out behind him, drawing her sword while in the air as she falls down.

She lands lightly, bending her knees so she's kneeling on one knee, and rises instantly.

"It tingles," she announces.

[calmhrtprevails]

"Then your senses are keener by far than a human's," says Fawkes, as the Vertibird rises and circles away. "All they would feel is-"

He never gets to say. One of the other mutants caught sight of the two of them and opened fire on their location- on Fawkes, primarily, but assault rifles are not always known for their precision.

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa didn't see that coming. She reacts fast, but not fast enough to stop a bullet going straight through her upper left arm, with an appropriate spray of dark blood.

Not that this slows her down. She just turns, her sword already drawn, and throws herself at their attackers.

And by 'throw,' we mean she races forward towards their assailants, her sword moving so fast it's a blur.

She stops ten feet behind them, still facing in the same direction, and it's only the arterial spray coming out of their shoulders that suggests that anything actually happened.

She looks over her shoulder, a faint smile on her face.

[calmhrtprevails]

The mutants blink. That doesn't usually happen.

Splud.

Also, their arms... generally stay on more than that.

What a mess.

[cantdiequiteyet]

With that smile still in place, Teresa swings her sowrd again and takes their heads.

"That's two."

[calmhrtprevails]

Fawkes stares a fraction of a second longer, then barks a great, thunderous laugh. "Well done!" he announces. "Well done indeed. Come now! There are others waiting in the dark!"

The door is frozen ajar, which is well; it's huge and thick and weighs who knows how many tons. Good thing the opening's enough to suit them both, eh?

[cantdiequiteyet]

Teresa slides her sword back into the sheath on her back and follows him through, pausing just in the door to let her eyes adjust.

The wound on her arm is already healed.