New Vegas: Sheason's Story

Chapter 90: Lost Causes

The bunker. I'm at the bunker.

This... this wasthe entrance to the Brotherhood bunker, wasn't it?

Was it?

I can't tell, there's too much dust everywhere. Is that camouflage system of theirs active? I thought they only activated it at night...

So, what's that light I'm seeing?

I started walking toward the light as quick as I could manage... no easy feat, thanks to all the sand, grit, and wind blasting me in the face. The closer I got to the light, however... the more I realized that it definitely wasn't the light of day.

Before I knew what was happening, the sandstorm cleared, and in its place - surrounding me on all sides - was fire. All around was just the biggest blaze I'd ever seen, burning out of control and belching ash and smoke into the sky.

I shielded my face from the heat, but I noticed something strange about the fire... something inside the fire. Bodies. People. Dozens of people. Maybe hundreds, I couldn't tell. All of them encircling me, completely consumed in fire... I couldn't make out any details about who these people were, or why they were just standing around, indifferent to the flames.

And yet, somehow, one figure right in front of me was instantly recognizable.

"Veronica!" I shouted, finally forcing my mouth to work.

I rushed forward, looking around for something - anything - to put out the flames. But it was no use. There was nothing. I couldn't do anything but watch in wide-eyed horror and stunned silence as Veronica stood there, completely still and expressionless, as the fire consumed here. The flames licked higher and higher until she (and the rest of the people around her) dissolved into nothing but ash.

The flames snuffed themselves out instantly, and darkness flooded my senses. Instinctively, I dropped to the ground... and was surprised when I felt cold, smooth steel beneath my feet, rather than the sand and grit I was expecting.

I felt around, trying to get my bearings, and my hands unexpectedly ran into a wall. Above me, I heard a familiar beeping. Was ED-E around here, somewhere?

I looked up, trying to find the flying robot, and realized that I was in a tunnel, or a hallway... somewhere. I didn't know where this tunnel was. All I could see was that it was long, and there was...

Was that someone at the other end of the hall? Who is that? It's definitely not ED-E.

I got up and started walking to the feminine figure, backlit by the light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn't make out any details from this distance, but I... there was a nagging sense of familiarity tugging at the strings in my mind.

Wait a minute...

I know those curves.

Just as that went through my mind, she turned to look at me over her shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of those green eyes beneath her raven hair.

"Hey! HEY!" I shouted and started running. She just turned away from me, and kept walking. "Wait! No, come back!" I poured on the speed as much as I could muster, but no matter how fast I ran, she just didn't seem to get any closer.

"You'll never be able to catch her," a familiar voice said behind me. "Because she isn't really there..."

I came to a screeching halt without really thinking, and sure enough, the woman ahead of me disappeared into the light at the end of the tunnel. My heart sank... and a hand was placed on my shoulder. A familiar black and white checked suit slid into my peripheral vision, accompanied by the distinctive smell of cigarette smoke.

"You've lost her, Courier," Benny said, flicking his cigarette onto the ground. "You lost her years ago, and you're never gonna get her back. Be gracious about it."

That's when the ground fell out from beneath my feet. Everything went black.

I tried to move, but I quickly realized that I was lying on my back, with my arms and legs bound by... something. Metal? What was...

"We have been waiting for you! Long have we watched, waiting for a visitor! " A male voice cut through the darkness. I didn't recognize the voice, but it almost sounded... synthesized. Like it was a robot voice, or it was pushed through a filter. "What confused us... is why you were still wearing your skin. So, we stripped that away! You weren't using it anyway."

"Vivisectors online," I heard a second voice - a female - but just as synthesized, and still unrecognizable. "This will only sting... for a decade."

I heard a mechanical whirring sound above my head. It sounded like a buzzsaw, and that was the exact opposite of encouraging.

I felt myself tumble. It was like the table flipped over, and dumped me off. My hands and feet were no longer bound, but I couldn't appreciate that for very long: almost as soon as the sensation of falling started, it was brought to an abrupt halt as I smashed face-first right into the ground.

"Ugggghhh..." I grunted out slowly, trying to pick myself up. The ground felt strange. Almost... springy. I cracked open my eyes, running my hands through the... grass. This was supposed to be grass, wasn't it? It wasn't like any grass I'd ever seen. It felt strange... almost like strips of plastic, and it had a unnatural blueish-green color to it...

"Fuck... why is my head -" I brought my hand up to clutch my forehead, and immediately realized that something was horribly, badly wrong. About an inch above my ears, my head just... stopped. Frantically, I grabbed both sides of my skull with my hands, unable to fully comprehend what I was feeling. The top of my skull was... it was just simply gone. It was like the inside of my head was an empty bowl.

I couldn't make sense of this. I looked around, trying to get my bearings. Stretching out ahead of me was... I had no idea. It seemed familiar, but there was... a dome? A crater? Some kind of lights off in the distance, I think. I couldn't make out any details - the more I tried to focus, the more out of focus things became. I was so intent on figuring out where I was, I almost didn't notice when the ground dropped out beneath me, yet again.

I woke up with a start, and immediately banged my head against the wall.

"OW! What the f-" I grabbed my head, and subconsciously let out a sigh of relief that everything was where it was supposed to be. I blinked away the haze, and looked around my room. I was lying on the floor, my legs tangled in the sheets that were still half on the bed.

"Fuckin' a..." I muttered to myself, clutching my head and trying to disentangle my limbs from the sheets. "I thought I was done with all those fuckin' nightmares..."

I stared out at the Vegas skyline from the balcony outside my room. It was that strange time when it wasn't quite night anymore, but it still wasn't day yet, either. That time that only comes right before sunrise, when everything seems to move at a snails pace. Even the constant hustle and bustle of Vegas below me felt sluggish and weary.

Or maybe that was just me.

I raised the cup of coffee in my hands to my lips, pausing just long enough to take in the aroma. It was warm and acrid, filling my senses with a harsh bitterness that was a welcome relief to my cloudy and muddled senses.

"Ah, I wondered who made that pot of coffee in the kitchen..." I heard a voice off to my right. Arcade walked toward me, a coffee cup of his own in hand. "You're certainly up early."

"Oh, hey. Mornin' man." I took another sip, and set the tin cup on the railing. "Yeah, had a... bit of a... rough... night. You know how it goes." Arcade nodded, looking out at the city below us.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asked. I gave a weary nod.

"Yeah, somethin' like that. Thought some fresh air would do me some good..." Arcade just sort of... stared at me curiously for a few seconds.

"So, you thought you'd get some fresh air... by filling it with carcinogens?" He smirked, motioning to the cigarette in my free hand. I gave him a chuckle, taking a long draw... just because.

"Coffee and cigarettes," I coughed out roughly, flicking the spent cigarette over the side of the balcony. "All part of a balanced breakfast for a growing boy." I grabbed the coffee cup and finished it off. "So, what about you? What are you doing up so early?" You don't seem the type to suffer from nightmares, I didn't say. I walked past Arcade - back to the kitchen to get more coffee - and he just shrugged.

"The smell of coffee got me moving. I imagine everyone else will follow suit soon enough..." Arcade said, keeping pace right behind me. "So, what happened yesterday? I mean, all that trouble we went to, getting the parts for Veronica... did her plan work? I mean... if it did, she hasn't said anything."

I didn't say anything either, for a few minutes. I just stood at the stove, slowly pouring myself another cup of the bitter liquid.

"Yeah... things..." I took a sip, stalling for time. "... didn't... quite go to plan." Arcade shrugged.

"They never do."

"Actually, you know... I think you'll approve of what she's doing," I said, leaning up against the counter. Arcade looked confused. "She's gonna try and do what you did." That just made Arcade tense up.

"What... I did?" Arcade was obviously trying very hard to keep his expression neutral. I nodded.

"Yeah. She's thinking of leaving the Brotherhood, and joining the Followers," Arcade seemed to relax slightly. "But you didn't hear that from me. Veronica seems to think you'll make fun of her for it." Arcade chuckled softly into his coffee.

"Nah, I wouldn't make fun. I'd congratulate her. The Followers always need new talent, and she is... quite brilliant." He paused, and then smiled slightly to himself. "But you didn't hear that from me. It's always good when someone from a..." Arcade cleared his throat. "From a technologically advanced faction joins the Followers. Helps to share the knowledge, you know?"

"Mmm," I nodded, taking another sip of coffee, and keeping my gaze fixed at him. The two of us shared the awkward silence. Until I decided to break it. "Alright, what's up?"

"Wh-huh?" Arcade perked up, confusion evident on his face. "Um... I don't... uh..."

"You just look lost in thought, man," I said with a shrug. "Something on your mind?"

"You know what?" Arcade set his coffee cup down, and folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah. There is something on my mind."

"Wow," I chuckled. "I wasn't expecting a straight answer. I thought for sure you'd dodge the question for another five minutes."

"Heh..." Arcade smiled, shrugging. "Yeah, well... sorry about that. It's a bit of a defense mechanism. I don't... I'm sure you've noticed, but I don't trust easily. I'm sure you've figured that out by now."

"Oh, yeah," I said, nodding profusely. "Yes, yes, I definitely figured that out. So what's up?" Arcade paused, as if debating with himself at the last minute whether or not to even tell me.

"Any day now, Caesar's going to try to march across Hoover Dam and kick NCR out of the Mojave. We're getting caught up in something important out here."

"Getting caught up?" I said with a chuckle. "Dude, we're right smack in the fuckin' middle of it." Arcade nodded.

"Fair point. Look... I know I'm just along for the ride, but it's... it's made me think about the past. And how I might be able to help out." I raised an eyebrow at Arcade.

"What are you getting at?" I asked. Arcade swallowed hard, and let out a heavy sigh.

"I... wasn't always with the Followers. Or with the NCR."

"Yeah, I kinda already put that together, man." I calmly took a sip of my coffee, and just relished the look on his face. "You're a terrible liar, and I'm not an idiot. So c'mon, let's hear it. If you think there's something you can do to help, I'm all ears." Arcade composed himself in a surprisingly quick manner.

"Well... My late father was..." he paused, cocking his head in the direction of the kitchen door. Immediately, he clammed up. A few seconds later, Veronica stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. "Y'know what? Uh... I'll tell you later." And just like that, he cleared his throat and walked out, giving Veronica a friendly "Good morning!" as he passed.

"Mmhmm... mornin'," Veronica waved weakly a few seconds after Arcade walked by. "Issat coffee? I smell coffee..." Veronica let out a huge yawn.

"Alright, so, I have to ask..." Veronica said from the passenger seat, a few hours later. "Why are you armed to the teeth? We're just going to the Followers outpost, right?" She looked out the window as she spoke, paused, and then looked back at me. "... right?"

"We are..." I said. "But things have been getting more and more dangerous, lately. No more than being prepared." Veronica looked unconvinced.

"But we're going to see the Followers. Probably one of the most peaceful groups in the wasteland. It's not like we're going down into another Vault." I coughed uncomfortably.

"Look, you know as well as I do that Legion is getting more and more aggressive. Hell, I've been ambushed by Legion hit squads at least twice in as many weeks - maybe more, I've lost count. I just think that it's a good idea to be armed whenever... I'm... not in Vegas." I kept my eyes focused on the road, but glanced at Veronica out of the corner of my eye. She sighed and shook her head.

Of course, the explanation I gave her wasn't quite the whole truth. But how could I tell her the real reason I was loaded up with guns? What the fuck would I even say? I had an ambiguous, half-remembered nightmare, and it was making me stupidly paranoid? I couldn't say that. She would think that I'd lost my mind. Hell, I wasn't entirely convinced that I hadn't lost my mind myself. Aren't only crazy people directed by their dreams?

"That's as may be," Veronica leaned on the dash, looking out the windows. "But aren't you going a little overboard?"

"I'm not wearing the helmet, am I?" I said simply.

"I think the helmet is... the least... of..." Veronica trailed off. I was about to ask her what was wrong, but then I saw what she was looking at: a massive plume of smoke rising up from behind the next ridge.

I didn't need to check the map to know where that was coming from. That sinking feeling took hold in the pit of my stomach and wouldn't let go.

"Oh no... No, no, no, no, no, no..." was all I could hear from Veronica over and over again. I put my foot to the floor and poured on the speed. A moment later, my Corvega crested the hill, and the full extent of the carnage became clear.

I didn't know how, but the Followers outpost was still standing - despite being utterly consumed in fire. All around the burning, smoldering building, I could see signs of a struggle: bloodstained ground, scorch marks, a broken flagpole... Images flashed in my head - memories of Nipton, and how Legion sacked the town. But this didn't look like Legion work. There were no bodies anywhere. Nobody strung up on crosses.

"Who hit this place?" I yelled, practically leaping out of my car with my G36 in hand. "Was it raiders?" I scanned the area, trying to find some targets - something to shoot. And at that moment... I got one.

"Sharing knowledge with an outsider organization..." A deep, booming, and very unwelcome voice sounded off to my left. I wheeled around in time to see Cutter and the rest of his squad of Paladins march into view from around the burning wreckage, guns drawn and at the ready. "I knew Veronica couldn't be trusted. We tracked your movements a long way, but it was worth it to catch her in the act. What have you got to say for yourself?"

This was beyond bad. I may have been armed to the teeth, but the gun in my hands wasn't loaded with armor piercing rounds, and it would take time to switch out the magazine - time I clearly didn't have. They outnumbered us. There wasn't really any cover to speak of except the burning building, and that was behind the Paladins. And worst of all, every single one of them was armed with Gauss weapons. This is exactly where I didn't want to be.

"Catch me in the-" Veronica practically shouted, stepping between me and the Paladins, with Oh, Baby! in hand. "I haven't shared any secrets! You don't - what - you killed them! You killed them all! W-why?!"

"You've made your intentions plain!" Cutter growled, his helmet amplifying his voice. "We will not risk any further damage! In the name of the Elder, I hereby sentence you to d-"

I couldn't hear what he tried to say next over Veronica's roar. She charged Cutter in the time it took me to blink, and the next thing I knew the two of them went crashing through the burning wall and disappeared in a cloud of a fire, billowing ash, and splintering burnt wood.

"Sarge!" One of the Paladins yelled out after they disappeared out of sight, and the three remaining power armored behemoths turned their attention away from me. And that was just the opening I needed.

Quick as I could, I pulled the pin on the first grenade I could lay my hands on, tossed it in their general direction, and bolted. I hadn't bothered to check, but it was probably just a frag grenade. Wouldn't do much to hurt them, but I was hoping it would distract them long enough to buy me some time. I leapt over one of the last standing pieces of fence; I heard the explosion as soon as my shoulder hit the ground, and I rolled (hopefully) out of sight.

"What the - he's gone!" I heard one of the Paladin's shout over the sound of rubble and dust settling. I kept myself as low to the ground as I could, and dashed for a piece of decently solid cover: an un-burnt metal dumpster right next to one of the burning walls. I heard the Paladin start to shout orders: "Spread out and find him! He can't have gone far! Flush him out!"

Three against one in a straight fight is bad at the best of times. But divided... I can work with this. Maybe. I shouldered the rifle, and pulled the Pulse Gun out from inside my duster. I could hear the tromp of their boots all around me. Sure enough, the barrel of a Gauss rifle emerged from the far side of the burning building, raised and clearly at the ready.

The Paladin barely emerged into view before he was hit with a discharge of blue electricity. He screamed and convulsed once before his joints seemed to lock up; the lightning and sparks practically exploded across his armor. I had to shield my eyes from the heat and smoke coming off the wall as I rushed forward. By the time I reached him, the lightning and sparks had disappeared, and he was standing still as a statue; I pushed up on the bottom of the Gauss rifle until the barrel pointed up right beneath his chin, and pulled the trigger.

There was a sound like a sonic boom, and a muzzle flash that practically blinded me. I looked up, and that had done it: the Paladin didn't really have a head anymore. The giant metal behemoth swayed for a half a second before plummeting backward with a thundering crash.

That's one.

"He's over here!" I heard one of the others shout. I grabbed the Gauss rifle, holstered the Pulse Gun, and ran in the opposite direction of the voice. I had to keep moving - if even one of them got a clean shot with these damn Gauss weapons, then it would be game over for me. I had to take them out quick. I checked the grenades I had on me as I ran. There was only one pulse grenade, so I'd have to make it count.

I rounded the corner, and came face to face with another Paladin. I'm just glad he was standing so wide. I managed to keep my momentum as I dropped to the ground and slid under him, right between his legs. There was a deafening boom from above me as he fired the Gauss weapon just a split second too late. I primed the pulse grenade, dropped it as I passed, kicked up off the ground, and kept running. A thunderclap went off behind me, followed swiftly by another yell and the sound of sparks coming off the Paladin.

I spun around, my boots sliding against the rough ground for a feet; in the same motion, I leveled the massive Gauss rifle at the Paladin. There was a lingering aura of blue lightning still hanging in the air, but he was standing ram-rod stiff, just like the other one. I braced myself, and pulled the trigger. A flash, a thunderclap, and a kick of recoil liked I'd been hit in the chest with a wrecking ball later, the Paladin had a hole in his back the size of my head. The power armored behemoth tumbled forward like a rag doll.

That's two.

"Myers!" The last Paladin yelled from the opposite end of the building. "Report! What's going on?" That's right. Keep making noise. I dropped the Gauss rifle, pulled a frag grenade off my chest, tossed it in the direction of the voice, and ran around the other side of the building as fast as I could. Sure enough, I heard the heavy thud of boots stomping after the sound once the grenade went off.

I jumped over a piece of fence, quiet as I could manage, with the Pulse Gun in hand. There was the last Paladin, standing with his back to me, scanning the area. I calmly leveled the pistol, and hit him in the back with a bolt of blue lightning. He yelled, his armor sparked, and after wobbling in place for a few seconds, he fell backward.

And that makes three.

I walked over to the collapsed Paladin, pulling the G36 off my back... and part of me wanted to get a bit paranoid. Dropping all three of them had been way too easy. But then I remembered something Hardin had told me when I'd met him the other day: "...many of our current Paladins haven't even seen combat outside of training simulations." Guess virtual reality training didn't help these guys.

Of course, I'm sure the pulse weapons hadn't helped their chances, either.

I knelt down and uncoupled his helmet after the sparks had subsided, G36 at the ready, and pulled it off him. Of course, when I saw his face... I lowered the rifle. His face was barely recognizable as a face anymore. It was blistered and bloody, like he'd been badly burned. And as for his eyes... I'm not really sure you could call them eyeballs anymore, since they appeared to have exploded. If I had to guess, the Pulse Gun had overloaded and melted all the electronics, and cooked him inside his armor. Nasty way to go.

Cooked...

Oh, shit! Veronica!

The building was still standing, but I didn't know for how long - the fire was getting worse by the second. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I held my breath, held my rifle close, and ran at full speed into the hole caused by Veronica and the Paladin in the first place.

The heat and the smoke was completely overwhelming. I could barely see anything. Why the fuck had I left my helmet behind? A piece of ceiling collapsed right in front of me, and I only just barely avoided being hit in the head by burning lumber and scrap aluminum.

"Veronica!" I yelled, trying my damndest to not cough from all the smoke. "V!" I shielded my eyes, and tried to squint away the ash threatening to clog up my vision. "Where are you?!"

It didn't take long before I got my answer. Above the sounds of the raging fire, splintering wood, and warping metal, I could hear another sound: something very heavy slamming into the ground over and over again. A piece of wall collapsed right in front of me, and there was Veronica. She was slamming Oh, Baby! into the ground over and over again, and she was standing over... well, I'm sure it was Cutter. But it wasn't a human being anymore. She was just slamming her super sledge into a pile of twisted metal and ruined meat, surrounded on all sides by fire raining down in chunks from the ceiling.

"V! C'mon! We gotta go!" I yelled as loud as I could over the fire, trying not to cough and hack from the smoke. She didn't stop pummeling. When she raised Oh, Baby! up again, I rushed forward, and grabbed her by the sleeves, trying to shake her back to her senses. "VERONICA!" That seemed to do the trick. All I could really see through the haze of smoke were her eyes - wide from shock. "Give it up, he's dead! This place is coming down around us!" As if on cue, a piece of ceiling near us gave way in a gout of flame. "C'mon!"

She nodded weakly - almost like she wasn't really there. So I turned her around and grabbed her by the back of the robe, doing my damndest to help lead her out of the inferno. She kept pace walking beside me, but not with the urgency that I would've liked in someone escaping a burning building.

I made sure that the two of us kept our heads down, navigating the maze of fire and falling debris until finally I saw sunlight in front of us. I know I practically leapt through the hole, and since I was still holding onto Veronica I knew that she was right behind. The two of us kept running and didn't stop until we got back to my car - where we both collapsed against the side, trying to cough the ash and smoke out of our lungs.

"You -" I hacked out a few more coughs, turning to Veronica. "You alright?" She just sat there, leaning up against my car, coughing with a blank expression on her face. She was covered from head to toe in soot and ash... not to mention the splatters of blood. She didn't say anything. She just leaned up against my car, staring blankly up at the sky and coughing occasionally.

We'd gotten out just in time. As I sat there, the ceiling finally gave up the ghost and collapsed in on itself. A gout of flame and smoke erupted as the roof caved in, and the walls rattled and shook as the flames licked higher and higher. All I could do as I sat there was watch... and cough. Fuck, that was a lot of smoke.

"God..." Veronica said suddenly. "God, I did this..." Her voice was soft and low, cracking like she was on the verge of tears. "This... this was my f-fault. Why didn't I s-see this c-c-" And that was it. She just buried her face in her hands and started sobbing. I'd seen her mask start to crack before, but I'd never seen it disappear so completely like this. She did her best to compose herself quickly, but...

"Of course they'd track me," she said, wiping her face with her sleeve and sniffing loudly. "Of course they'd assume the worst. Sure, I left them, but... fuck, I should have known that I'd never be free of them..."

"V, c'mon... you -" I coughed again, unable to hold it back. "It's not your fault. You didn't do this - it was Cutter and his cronies." Veronica just held her eyes shut as she shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

"I should have left a long time ago," she said, her voice cracking less and less. "Cut my losses before it came to this... If I did, none of this would have happened..."

I turned away, shaking my head. Just give her time. Once she lets it out, she'll realize that it wasn't her fault. It was Cutter and his squad of Paladins that had tracked us...

"We tracked your movements a long way."

"Tracked..." I said aloud, the word playing over and over in my head. "How did they even track us?" I thought back to yesterday - when Cutter and his team had confronted us in the antechamber. Why had they...

And then the light bulb went off. In a flash, I flipped around on my knees, and started checking underneath my car.

"Sheason?" Veronica spoke up. "What are you -"

"MOTHERFUCKERS!" I shouted. I couldn't help it. I yanked the small device off the underside of my car, holding it in my hand for Veronica to see. It was just a small box, but it was a foreign object that certainly wasn't supposed to be there. "They put a tracking device on my car! That's how those assholes found us!" I chucked the damn thing as hard as I could, straight into the burning building. Veronica just shook her head, and sniffed loudly again.

"I never stood a chance."