"Just some Mirelurk with small bits of Brahmin steak, had a food sanitiser so it removes the radiation out of it. Spices help with the flavour." Taylor said having her water close by. "Careful, it's got quite a kick."
Jonathan nodded slightly, having not taken a big enough spoonful to really get the full kick, "Hm...You know...I was thinking last night...I..I need to tell you more about my past. So you can decide if you trust me, even though I've been through some very...rough spots..." Jonathan took out Pop fron jis pocket and set the little robot on the table and cleared his throat, "You see...I'm not truly naturally gifted with my knowledge, nor did I discover it on my own. I was born 20 years ago. In the Brotherhood of Steel. Right around when they Scourged the Pitt. I was raised by them, trained by them. I was one of the only boys to ever be put through both Scribe and Paladin training due to my intellect, strength, and fondness for energy weaponry. But, when I figured out what happened to the Pitt, and since by that time Lyon's was fully committed to trying to kill the Super Mutants and there were mumurrings of a possible civil war, I left when I was 17." He took a deep breath, "This is where my story gets...complicated. Got caught by some slavers, taken to Paradise Falls. I was well...I ended up being forced to fight for them. I made a deal with them, that i would fight with them for 2 or 3 years, and in exchange, I would get my freedom. So that's what happened. I was forced to do things...I am not proud of, things that will haunt me. Then, 2 years ago, I was out with my kind of "squad" when we were ambushed by a gang of raiders, they killed those I was with except for me and one other. From there, I managed to escape by essentially ripping apart the ropes they tied my wrists with then fought my way out with my bare hands.. I assume the Slavers consider me dead as I havent run into any one searching for me, and Slavers have a..."high turnover rate" if you will, so I doubt anyone remembers me...But...I thought you needed to know." Jonathan looked down at Pop, "Two years I spent hiding, from slavers, from my past, and from anyone out in the wastes who remembers Jonathan the Slaver, and didnt see the reluntance..."
Taylor couldn't help but feel sad for Jonathan, the wasteland did things to people. It changes them somehow. She didn't know how to respond, she didn't know what to say. She remembered being in the Pitt for a few weeks, one of the worst yet hopeful experiences of her life. Not knowing what it was like before the Scourge must have been terrifying. She tried to give him a warm smile. "You don't need to hide anymore. You can stay with me if you want?"
Jonathan nodded, "That sounds nice. Thanks for not freaking out." He paused for a bit before he suddenly got an idea, "Say, Taylor...You know, you want to make the Wasteland better, right? And I want to get rid of some old ghosts...So...I know this will sound crazy, why dont we take down Paradise Falls. Kill all the slavers inside, free the slaves, and burn the place to the ground?"
Taylor just nodded. "I've been thinking about doing that for a while. They have it coming." ----------------------------- (And.....time-skip!) Paradise Falls, the undisputed slaver capital of the Capital Wasteland. Business is booming this time of year, and more slavers have joined up to those it Paradise Falls. The slaves outnumbered the slavers roughly five to one, but the way they have been locked away and the ways to keep them in order are fairly amateur at most. If Paradise Falls is taken out, then slavers would be on the verge of near-extinction. Taylor and Jonathan looked at the camp from the top of a hill, easily out of sight from the slavers but high enough to see the entire camp. At least a hundred, maybe two hundred slavers, were inside.
Jonathan pulled off his back pack and slipped out something he hadnt worn in years, his old Brotherhood of Steel T-51B armor (it was his father's) and got himself inside it. "Alright Taylor, this thing will protect me from any and all small arms fire, while I do have an affanity for energy weapons, in this I prefer up close and personal, so if you see any slavers come out with anything bigger than an assault rifle, take them out. I can handle the rest." He said as he pulled out his adapted laser lance, an invention of his that was similar to a lance, only it had a plasma blade and a laser rifle atrached to it so he could use it in melee and to shoot. ""This armor can handle a lot."
Taylor nodded as she got her own weaponry out. A Laser Rifle she modified for maximum offensive power with minimal MF cell consumption. Another beast of a weapon was the 44 Magnum at her side. She slid down the hill as she began her attack run, which seen five slavers dead at the entrance within two seconds in a single laser shot.
Jonathan charged in behind her, taking advantage of the initial confusion caused by Taylor to slam straight into the 10 slavers waiting outside with their day's "catch", hacking and slashing the slavers until he was at the gate to Paradise Falls proper. Then,felt felt a ping against his helmet. Turning around, he saw a slaver looking at him, the slavers face full of fright as he continued to hold the pistol with his left arm (having lost his right arm). Jonathan simply pulled a fist back and slammed it into the face of the slaver, sending him five feet back, Jonathan's strength combined with the power armor making for an almost power fist tier punch. "Alright Taylor, you ready for the real fight? The slavers inside are going to have all the best weaponry, and there will be far more of them, and it will be all the most exprienced slavers." He told her as she caught up with him, "Plus, the element of surprise is now over. So if you woulsnt mind, let me go in first to draw their fire."
"I'm ready." Taylor said before getting her Laser Rifle and aiming down the sights to target something along the line, something that appeared to be a generator. As soon as the two of them breached the main entrance, she went down onto her knees and shot at the generator as more slavers came around the corner. As soon as she fired her rifle, the laser slammed into the generator and turned it into an oversized frag grenade that tore roughly forty slavers to pieces. She ran to a wall of cars and took cover, taking down a sentry post and providing cover fire for Jonathan as she shot every slaver that came around the corner.
As Jonathan turned the corner, ready to take whoever faced him, when he ran into a familar face, standing in front of a firing line of two slavers. "Well well well boys, guess who decided to come back." Yzmir said chuckling, "Dont think I wouldnt reconize you? Your armor is as distinct as any thanks to your modifications ol' Brains and Brawn." Jonathan signaled to Taylor to not do anything subtlely, for her to do anything would result in his death. Taking off his helmet, he glared at Yzmir, "The hell do you want?" He spat "Oh many things, many things." Yzmir replied, "Eulogy will be glad to see his star slaver is back." "I dont intend to join you again." Jonathan shot back. "Do yoy think I was asking? I got the guns. You got nothing but you and that "Lone Wonderer". Unless, of cpurse, you want to make a deal. Your freedom, for her. We will never mess with you again, and we'll remove the 1,500 cap bounty on your head." Jonathan took a breathe and looked at Taylor before looking at Yzmir, "Or how about this. You, me. Man on man. No weapons." Yzmir burst out laughing, "You? Think you can beat me?? Ha! Fine, I win, we get the girl, I'm sure more than a few here want revenge for what she's done. But any interference, and we kill you both." "And if I win." Jonathan responded, "I'm going to get my reward in killing every last one of you bastards." Yzmir simply chuckled and tossed his SuperSledge to the side as Jonathan did the same, "Let's see how much you've improved Brawny." Yzmir teased, trying egg Jonathan into a fool-hardy attack, but Jonathan knew better and hung back letting Yzmir take the first move.
Taylor lowered her guard for a second and held her rifle in one hand, watching a fight about to take place. If Jonathan lost, she wasn't about to let these slavers take her easily.
Jonathan was right, Yzmir quickly lost patience and charged him, exactly what Jonathan wanted. As Yzmir came within a few feet of Jonathan, Jonathan threw himself at Yzmir's legs, instantly taking them out from under Yzmir and rolling up onto his feet before Yzmir could even hit the ground. The big slaver managed to flip onto his back just in time to see Jonathan slam a foot down onto his gut multiple times. Yzmir finally recovered enougb after 3 blows to desperately geab Jonathan's boot, flipping him up onto his back, and attempted to get on top of Jonathan to unleash a wave of punishing blows, but Jonathan knew this from his bouts with Yzmir so long ago, and had his legs raised in anticipation, just in time to slam them into Yzmir's chest, the sound of metal slamming against metal and a few ribs breaking sounded as Jonathan carried this momentum to his feet, lunging forward at the off balance Yzmir with a powerful punch right to the cheek the sent the slaver spiraling to the ground. Jonathan placed his boot on Yzmir's chest to hold him down as he picked up his lazer lance, "I've been studying Yzmir, and it seems you've let your guard down." The slaver started to emit a curse, but was silenced by the lance going into his throat. Jonathan looked up at the shocked crowd of slavers, and before they could respond, he put his helmet back on and charged them once more, lancing two instantly and swinging the lance from side to side, using the two-human shish-ke-bob as a hammer for a moment before kicking off the two dead slavers. Tossing his lance to the side as the slavers began to recover and aim at him, he pulled out his broad laser rifle and sent four shots through the crowd, and it easily sliced through them all. Jonathan took a deep breath and turned towards Taylor, "I've learned the best way to fight when outnumbered is to be aggressive to keep your enemy off balance." Leaning down, he picked the key to the slave pens off the body of Yzmir and tossed it to Taylor, "Hear, you deserve the credit for freeing the slaves, I've got some unfinished business with Eulogy."
"Got it." Taylor said as she caught the keys, quickly finding the fenced area where hundreds of slaves were locked inside. Upon the slaves looking at her, watching the battle unfold, the slaves almost cheered out in surprise as they were set free, and the transmitter to the signal on collars was permanently shut down with a laser its control panel. "Gather outside of the entrance. We will help all of you as soon as we are finished." Taylor told the slaves.
Jonathan walked into Eulogy's office, laser lance at his side as he saw Eulogy sitting on his bed looking at a body hung up by its feet and lit up by a projector. Creeping up behind him, he threw the lance at Eulogy, sending it straight through Eulogy's chest. He pulled the lance out of Eulogy's body, took out a lighter, and used a stick and Eulogy's bed covers as a torch. He then set it alit and started setting everything flammable on fire, going outside and doing the same for everything he could see that was the same.
Taylor set Paradise Falls on fire, while the rest of the Slaves roared loudly into the skies above. They were free, completely free. Taylor noticed Jonathan come to her side, as the Lone Wanderer remained still as the entire slave capital went up in flames. While the slaves celebrated their new freedoms while P.F lit up behind them, Taylor couldn't help but be impressed. "Hell of a good start." She said with a smile on her face.
Jonathan nodded in agreement as he turned off his laser lance and slid it onto its respective place on his back, "Though something tells me we'll be facing an even greater danger sometime soon in the future." He added, "For now, mind if we head back to Megaton to rest? I'm a bit weary right now, stabbing and hacking really takes it out of you." ****** "Again, we repeat, hand over the artifacts and no harm will come to you." An Enclave officer demanded towards the fort. Five Vertibirds had delivered a large number of Enclave troops to surround the Fort the mysterious new faction holed up in, with the Vertibirds hanging around to provide air support should the need for an assault arise. "You daft bastards!" A voice called back, "Fascist militaristic bastards! The hell do you want with what we recovered fair and square?" "These guys have been listening to too much Galaxy News." the officer muttered to the man next to him before clearing his throat, "Because, we are the US government, and what you have in your possession is property of the United States." The camp commander, centrarrius Navius watched as his men stubbornly tried to get the Enclave to go away or at least hoping to last longer than the fuel of the Vertibirds, but they saw the writing on the wall, if the Vertibirds werent removed from the picture, they had to do as asked, they had no way to hit back other than a single Elatian with a IMAT-P missile launcher, which wasnt enough to get all the Vertibirds before they inflicted serious damage, sighing, he gave the order, "Load up the recovered items in a box and hand them over." The men next to him nodded and did as asked, pushing a cart out of the gates to the Enclave, "Thank you for your...cooperation." the officer responded as they quickly secured the box and the Vertibirds landed to pick up the troops. Quickly, Navius ordered the missile Elatian to load up, giving him the single order of "Destroy the Vertibirds once they're at distance besides the one that has the documents, and destroy it too if it heads back." Then, when the Enclave thought they were safely away at a mile's distance, a missile suddenly took out the tail Vertibird, soon followed by 3 more, one after the other as the Elatian completed his orders. The remaining Vertibird never bothered to turn out of fright.
Jonathan and Taylor made it back to Megaton, both tired from a day of fighting. The second time around, the home seemed more comfortable. Taylor collapsed onto the sofa as Wadsworth greeted them again.
Jonathan didn't even bother making it to the coach, he just made the table his bed as it was closer, leaving Wadsworth to be confused(as much as a robot can) by the tiredness of the two humans in front of him. (You wanna start with the next day or shall I?)
(I will) Taylor woke up the next morning ungracefully on the couch, he legs pointed in all different places while her arms and hair was all over the place. Her entire blanket was on her right foot, which was in the air. By the time she woke up and sat upwards, her hair appeared like an Afro. She looked about to find that Jonathan wasn't awake, so she went up to her bedroom to get changed. (For the sake of simplicity, let's say that James has already died)
Jonathan stayed fast asleep splayed out on the table, which luckily didnt have anything on it in the first place.
