New Vegas: Sheason's Story

Chapter 38: Assault

Hello ladies and gentlemen, Mr. New Vegas here. You're all so great and we're gonna keep you listening all day. Got a news flash that was just pushed across my desk here. Apparently, an anonymous source in the NCR has reported Great Khans using trained deathclaws up in the foothills of Mount Charleston. I've heard a lot of wild stories in my day listeners, but I gotta tell you - that one takes the cake. Got some Pete Thomas and Gerhard Trede coming up later on in the program, but now it's time to ask the question: "Where Have You Been All My Life?"

After we got back from the Gun Runners, we spent the rest of the afternoon going over the plans, and taking inventory of all the equipment we'd acquired. Cass was especially proud of what she'd picked up from the armory: an AA-12, an incredibly rare and powerful fully automatic shotgun. According to Raphael, that shotgun was capable of firing 360 rounds a minute... which seemed a bit on the overkill side, since the drum magazines that it came with only held 32 rounds each.

While we were going over the plans, I'd managed to convince Boone to help us assault the Silver Rush... but only the Silver Rush. He wasn't going to help us storm the Crimson Caravan to kill Alice. Apparently, the difference was that the thugs working for the Van Graff's were mercenaries, and he had no problem killing mercs; most of the people working for the Crimson Caravan, on the other hand, were civilians - NCR citizens - just trying to make a living. He didn't really cotton to the notion of killing his fellow countrymen. He said that he'd turn a blind eye this one time so Cass could get her revenge - but if it turned into a habit, well... things could get nasty with him very quickly.

Cass and I were wearing the riot gear Raphael had given us from the Gun Runner armory, and Boone was wearing his USMC armor. From a distance (and in the dark) we could probably pass for a couple of veteran NCR Rangers wearing Black Armor... or people who worked for the Gun Runners. Which suited me fine, honestly.

Before we even left the 38, I made sure everyone's helmet radio was synced up to the same radio frequency, and had everyone (including myself) cycle through the various vision modes on the helmet - low light, thermal, IFF spotter - just to make sure they worked. Cass found all the checks and the preparation a bit boring, but Boone was doing all the checks with practiced military efficiency. If I'm honest, I didn't enjoy wearing the damn helmet that went along with the armor. It was way too hot and stifling. I didn't see how Boone was able to wear it so easily.

It was well after dark when we finally left. I was driving my Corvega, Cass was in the passenger seat, and Boone was in the back, sitting next to a veritable mountain of weapons and explosives. Because this was a pseudo clandestine operation, I turned off the headlights on my car as soon as I left Vegas Boulevard for a side street and was driving using the night vision from my bionic eyes. Certain that no one had seen us (and no one was following us) I pulled us next to the building I'd used to scout out the entrance to the Silver Rush the other night.

"Boone, you've got three minutes. Radio us when you're in position." I said, my voice oddly muffled and with a slight reverberating quality as it passed through the helmet's respirator. I got a nod from Boone as he grabbed his rifle and a length of cable, and exited the car. Without a sound, he slipped into the building and disappeared.

"Alright," I said to Cass, driving away from the building. "I'm gonna drive us around the block, give Boone some time to get set up on the roof."

"You sure this s'a good idea?" Cass muffled voice sounded next to me. She clutched at her auto shotgun tightly as I drove us along in total darkness.

"Don't tell me you're getting cold feet?" I teased.

"Fuck no!" she practically yelled. "It's just... this plan've yours seems t'need lot more precision than we usually ask fer."

"What, you don't think we can pull it off?" I asked. Cass shrugged.

"I'm jus' smellin' a lotta 'if' comin' off this plan, tha's all..."

"Don't worry about it, Cass," I said, turning a corner. "We've got this."

There was a crackle of static in my ear as the com system in my helmet came to life. I heard Boone's voice, and could tell he was whispering, but his voice came over the internal headset as clear as if he was right next to me.

"This is Boone. I'm set up here."

"Understood," I said, killing the engine and parking the Corvega in an alley behind the Silver Rush. "When I give the signal, open up." I reached into the back seat, grabbed one of the rifles, a few spare ammo magazines, a few grenades, and turned to Cass. "Alright, get military. It's go time."

"Let's do it," Cass said, slapping the drum magazine in place, and pulling back the charging handle on the top. I went first, and Cass fell in behind me. We moved away from the car, and hugged the walls, until I came to the corner. I peered around, and saw the entrance of the Silver Rush at the opposite corner. There were two guards standing on either side of the door, just like last night, and everything within 15 yards of the entrance was illuminated.

"Bring the noise," I said, touching the side of my helmet to make sure the radio was transmitting. Almost immediately, things started exploding. There was a bang from a muffled sniper rifle, and one of the street lights exploded in a shower of glass and igniting phosphor. Another bang, and a second streetlight was vaporized in a flash. A third bang, and the light above the Silver Rush door disappeared in a shower of sparks. A fourth bang, and one of the guards - who had been looking around with his plasma rifle frantically, trying to figure out where the fire was coming from - collapsed in a heap. There was one final bang, and the head of the last guard was thrown back, his whole body spasmed, and he smacked into the brick wall with a heavy thud.

"Good work. Alright, let's move in." I set off around the corner, practically running toward the front door. I scanned the surroundings with my night vision - so far, I didn't see anyone running toward (or away from) the noise. I heard Cass' footsteps behind me, and when I looked up at the building where Boone had fired from, I saw him start to rappel down the side of the building. Amazingly, the three of us ended up at the front door at practically the same time.

"Alright, time for the second hurdle. Switch to the spotter." I said, pulling two of the large tubular grenades off my chest and handing one each to Cass and Boone. I tapped a button on the side of my helmet, switched the vision mode to the IFF spotter mode, and almost immediately Cass and Boone were surrounded by a faint green outline. I pulled out a third grenade that had large circular cutouts on the top and bottom, and put a hand on the door handle. "On three. Ready?"

"Ready," Cass said, clutching the pin on the grenade, and eagerly anticipating the imminent violence. All I got from Boone was a nod.

"One... Two..." I knocked away the pin with my thumb and twisted the door handle. "Three!" I opened the door a crack, tossed in my grenade, Boone and Cass tossed in theirs, and I shut the door as quickly as I could. There was a muffled whump from behind the door - which meant the flashbang I'd thrown in had gone off. Hopefully, that would incapacitate the half a dozen Van Graff thugs inside... and if not, then the two canisters of tear gas Boone and Cass threw in would turn anyone not rendered blind and deaf by the flashbang into a crying, dribbling, mucus filled mess.

I readied my rifle, and when Cass and I kicked in both sides of the double doors, it was like we were acting as one. A billowing cloud of semi-opaque tear gas flooded out of the doors. I'd never seen tear gas fill a space that quickly. The three of us were completely unaffected since we were all wearing gas masks, and I could see faint red outlines of all the Van Graff thugs clearly through the smoke thanks to the IFF spotter. There were seven hostiles in total, and they were all staggering around, completely disoriented.

This was so easy, I almost felt sorry for what was about to happen next.

Almost.

"OPEN UP!"

The air was full of the sound of rifles discharging and bullets flying through the air as Boone and I fired at every Van Graff thug in front of us. With VATS, it meant that every three-round burst from the rifle dropped another Van Graff Thug. Because they were all wearing combat armor (but not helmets), I didn't bother aiming for anything except headshots. Boone was equally as efficient at killing the mercs... but if I'm honest, our efforts were completely overshadowed by Cass' shotgun.

Most shotguns, when they fire, bark like an angry dog. This thing absolutely roared. I've never heard a shotgun that sounded quite like that. It was so damn loud, and fired so fast, it sounded like a fucking deathclaw! If it wasn't on my side, this thing would be pants-soilingly terrifying. I only got a chance to kill two of them, and by the time I swung around to kill a third, all I saw was the last merc's head explode in a shower of red sausage.

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"Damn, that thing's loud!" Boone said once the gunfire died down. If even he thought it was loud... I scanned the room: only the three of us in the doorway were still standing. The gunfire had displaced the tear gas slightly, but it was hanging thick in the air, settling around the floor.

"Alright, Boone, get this door sealed up," I said, moving deeper into the room. "Cass and I will open up the back and clear out the upstairs. Once you're done here, ready the surprise that's in my car." He nodded once, and Cass fell in behind me.

"Surprise?" she asked as the two of us made our way through the chain-link maze of wire and metal, stepping over the slowly cooling bodies.

"You'll see. Just make sure to check your corners - there's bound to be more of them coming." Cass and I came to the end of the chain-link maze, and stood before the door leading to the back room and the stairs leading to the 2nd floor. Both of us took positions on either side of the door, and I gave her a swift nod. She took aim with the AA-12, turning the handle and lock into a mass of twisted metal. In a flash, I kicked in the door and scanned the interior of the room down the sights of my rifle for more targets.

"Clear!" I shouted, moving forward to the stairs. I pressed myself against the wall, and looked up the staircase. So far, nobody was coming, but I heard the sound of boots from above. "Cass, we've got incoming. Get that loading door unlocked, I'll cover the stairs."

"Got it!" I half heard through the helmet, and half through the speakers next to my ear. It was creating an odd sort of stereo sound in my head. I didn't have any time to dwell on it, though - the first of the thugs upstairs rounded the corner.

"Contact!" I yelled, squeezing the trigger as soon as he came into view. My assault rifle barked, and spat out a pair of three-round bursts. Some of the bullets sparked against his chest armor, but most of the bullets hit him in the neck and face. Ribbons of blood erupted from the impacts as he fell backwards. The radar on my Pip Boy beeped - three more were coming. I grabbed one of the frag grenades off my belt and thumbed away the pin. As quick as I could, I tossed the grenade against the back wall at the top of the stairs and watched it ricochet around the corner.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" I gripped my rifle tight, and braced myself against the wall I was using for cover. Less than half a second later, the grenade exploded. The walls shook, and a piece of plaster fell from the ceiling above me.

"Th' door's open!" Cass said, rushing past me up the stairs. "Let's go!" I didn't even get a chance to say anything. I followed her up the stairs as fast as I could, but I heard the unmistakable roar of her shotgun before I each reached the top.

I rounded the corner, jumping over the bloody and mangled corpses that had been hit by the frag grenade, trying to catch up with Cass. She was standing in the middle of the hall, firing her shotgun down the hallway. The gun went quiet, even though I could see she still had her finger on the trigger. The drum magazine fell to the floor, and Cass reached behind her for the spare...

There was a flash, and a beam of light cut through the air at around chest height. Cass staggered, and fell backwards. I couldn't tell if Cass cried out in pain or not. I know I yelled. I'm not entirely sure what I yelled, though.

I didn't know if Cass was alive or dead. I didn't have time to check. I rounded the corner past her as quick as I could, and was met with an image of carnage. The hallway was filled with maybe 3 or 4 bodies, and one huge man in combat armor at the end of the hall carrying a laser rifle: Jean-Baptiste. I leveled the rifle, switched from burst to full auto, slipped into VATS, and fired at the male Van Graff sibling as fast as I could.

He started running towards me as I fired at him, and another laser blast cut through the air. It must have missed my head by inches. Most of the bullets from my rifle either hit his chest plate and ricocheted, or shot wide. Right when I thought none of the rounds were going to find their mark, his laser rifle sparked, and the end of it exploded; the side of the rifle ripped itself open in a flurry of shrapnel. He dropped the rifle, but kept running at me. I aimed higher at his face, hoping he was distracted, when my gun finally clicked empty.

The two of us were less than a foot and a half away from one another now. I swung the stock of my rifle at him, trying to use it as a club, but he grabbed it before it could connect - and shoved it back at me, into my face. It connected with my helmet, which softened the blow, but it still hurt. He shoved the rifle away from me and I couldn't keep my grip, so it clattered to the ground.

I collected my wits long enough to register a massive fist heading towards me. I ducked, and could almost feel him miss. I looked up, and saw a gap in his chest armor, on the side of his torso under his arm. I summoned up as much strength as I could muster, and punched him in the kidneys. I didn't wait to see if he was affected by it, because I reached up with my entire body, grabbed the front collar of his armor, and pulled him down, smashing his face into the front of my helmet. There was a crack, and he staggered backwards, clutching at his face with one of his hands.

He swung at me again, and I was still able to duck... but what I wasn't expecting was his other hand reaching up to grab me by the neck. He pulled me up, but didn't quite lift me up off the floor. He looked at me with a face twisted up in rage and pain, blood pouring out of his broken nose. As he tried to choke me, I was reminded of my fight with Aurelius of Phoenix, back at Cottonwood Cove.

On the plus side, at least I learn from my mistakes.

Rather than fruitlessly trying to pry the hand from around my neck, I reached behind me, grabbed the switchblade on my belt, and plunged it into his forearm as fast and deep as I could. He howled in pain, let me go, and clutched his arm. I was just about to try kicking out his knees so I could tackle him to the ground, when something really surprising happened.

"Sheason..." Cass' voice sounded in my ear. It was barely above a whisper, and sounded strained, but it was still Cass. "Get out of the way."

I dropped to the floor as quickly as I could, clutched my helmet, and rolled away from Jean-Baptiste towards the wall out of the way. Cass' shotgun roared from behind me, and when I looked up, I saw Jean-Baptiste - or, the red, bloody, pulpy mess that he used to be - collapse backwards in a broken heap on the floor.

I got up, and looked backwards - Cass was still lying on the floor, but was holding the shotgun with one hand, and the front of it was propped up against her right knee. Her head rolled back, and she dropped the shotgun; I heard her let out a heavy sigh over the headset.

"Fucking hell, Cass," I said, getting up and moving towards her. "I thought you were done for."

"So did I," she said, coughing slightly.

"Are you alright? Need any stimpacks?" I said, standing over her and extending my hand to help her up. She chuckled grimly, grabbed my hand, and a moment later was on her feet.

"Nah, m'fine. Jus' clipped me, s'all." She brushed away her coat and clutched at her chest - the side of the armor seemed a bit singed, and there was a slightly smoldering hole in the back of the coat - and then bent down to pick up the shotgun. "C'mon, let's finish this." I nodded, grabbing my rifle and reloading it.

There was only one door in the hallway that was still closed - Gloria's corner office. I decided it was probably a good idea if I went first, so I readied my rifle and kicked in the door before Cass could get ahead of me... and was immediately hit in the chest with a bolt of plasma. The impact knocked me back what felt like five feet, and all the air was forced out of my lungs. I was in a bit of a daze, but was coherent enough to recognize the roar of the AA-12, and the sound of a woman howling in pain.

"Sheason? You alright?" I heard over my headset. I perked my head up as far as I could without actually getting up, and saw Cass pointing the barrel of her shotgun at Gloria's face; there was a red smear on the back wall, and I realized that Gloria no longer had a right hand.

"Just got the wind knocked out of me," I said, appraising the damage. There was a small, smoldering indentation on my chest armor about an inch wide, but it wasn't deep at all. I gotta hand it to the Gun Runners - they do good work.

"Who are you?" I heard Gloria ask hurriedly. "NCR assassins? Hitmen? I can guarantee, whatever they're paying you - I can triple it!" As I tried to pick myself up, I heard Cass start to laugh.

"This isn't 'bout money, bitch. This s'just good ol' fashioned revenge!" Gloria looked, for the first time, legitimately worried.

"So... who are you then?"

"Me?" I said, grabbing the doorframe and picking myself up. Gloria's eyes went wide; I don't think she expected me to get back up. "I'm just the monkey in the wrench, Van Graff. The fly in the ointment. The pain in the ass." Cass pressed the barrel of the shotgun into Gloria's forehead, pressing her further back against the wall.

"As fer me, I'm Rose of Sharon Cassidy. And you're 'bout t'stop bein' a major pain in my ass." A flash of recognition flashed over Gloria's face - for the brief moment she still had one. There was a boom, and everything above her lower jaw simply disappeared into a fine red mist.

For a minute, neither of us moved. I just leaned up against the doorframe, trying to catch my breath, and Cass stood over Gloria's corpse, looking ready to pump more shotgun rounds into her for good measure. You know... just in case she got up after having the top of her head blown off.

"So..." I said, pushing myself off the doorframe. "You alright?" I saw her nod.

"Oh, yeah. Trimmin' th' Van Graff family tree like this... I could almost hear th' dead behind me guidin' m'hand. Now that bitch is in hell, they'll have a shot at her, too. Now, let's go'n settle accounts with McLafferty."

"Sounds good to me. Let's loot the place." I gave her a thumbs up.

"Music to my ears." I could almost hear her smile.

When I suggested we loot the place, I wasn't kidding. In less than five minutes, the two of us had grabbed everything of value in the storerooms upstairs - along with the contents of Gloria's safe - and tossed it in my car. All the cash, tons of energy weapons, dozens upon dozens of small energy cells, microfusion cells, electron charge packs... not to mention the grenades and the mines. There was one thing that made both Cass and I pause, however. It was in one of the storerooms, and when I opened the container it was in, she and I just sort of... stopped.

"Is... is that what I think it is?" I asked. Cass looked over my shoulder, and let out a low whistle.

"Fuck me, tha's gorgeous." She reached out, and ran a gloved hand along it. "Yer grabbin' this too, right?"

"Fucking right I am!" I said, barely able to contain my excitement.

The weapon inside the crate was a gatling laser - imagine a minigun, but instead of shooting bullets, it fires lasers. But this wasn't an ordinary gatling laser. This was a Sprtel-Wood 9700. I remember seeing a replica of one in a museum in Shady Sands once. Apparently, these were the original prototype gatling lasers, and it was a truly awe inspiring, absolutely magnificent piece of craftsmanship. Only 10 had ever been made before the war... and only three survived the apocalypse. Part of me wanted to know how in hell the Van Graff's had even gotten a hold of a gun this rare and powerful... but the other half just didn't care.

By the time we'd gotten everything stowed in my car, Boone was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. His rifle was slung across his back, and in his hands was a black detonator with a red trigger. Behind him, I could still see pretty thick clouds of tear gas lingering in the main room.

"Are we ready to go?" Boone asked, handing me the detonator. In response, I tossed my car keys to him, which he caught almost instantly.

"Yeah. I think we should get very, very far away from here real quick." Cass was already out of the building and in my car. I got in the back, next to a very large pile of stolen weapons, and Boone got in the drivers seat. "Let's get the fuck out of here." He didn't say anything. He just nodded, fired up the car, and started driving us away from the Silver Rush.

"So," Cass turned around in her seat. "Y'never told me what th' surprise was."

"It's just a little something," I said, holding up the detonator. "Hey, Boone? Mind turning us onto Fremont Street? I want her to see this."

Next thing I knew, the Corvega was driving down Fremont street, pointing at the east entrance to Freeside; the Silver Rush was maybe 250, 300 yards behind us. I looked over my shoulder out the back window, hoped we were a safe enough distance away, and pulled the trigger on the detonator.

The ground rumbled and shook violently before I saw anything. A split second after the ground shook, every single window in the Silver Rush exploded outwards in a shower of glass and a mass of fire. Boiling clouds of flame and smoke surged out of every crack, and rose upwards, curling up into themselves like a small mushroom cloud. The top floors that were already mostly collapsed started to move first, and fell inward on themselves; brick and mortar crumbled like paper hit with a stiff breeze. The Silver Rush sign sparked and twisted in the heat, before being consumed by the fire and disappearing altogether. The bottom two floors crumbled, and disappeared beneath a giant wall of rising fire, smoke, and dust.

"Holy fuck!" Cass exclaimed, gripping the back of her seat. "What th' fuck was that!"

"While we were upstairs, killing Gloria and looting the place, Boone was lining all the support columns in the building with C-4." I tried to say as casually as I could. It was surprisingly difficult, if I'm honest - explosions always seemed to get my adrenaline up. "What did you think he was doing?"

"Boone, remember: when I give the signal, come around to pick us up at the rendezvous." He nodded, and roared away. Cass and I were on our own now, just outside the Crimson Caravan's walls.

"After th' Silver Rush, this ought 'ta be a cakewalk," I heard Cass say from behind me. I hugged the wall, and checked around the corner - there was only one guard by the gate, just like before.

"Don't get cocky. Remember - most of these people are civilians, so we gotta walk soft till things get loud. Don't kill anyone you don't have to." I heard her scoff from behind me.

"Far's I care, all these fucks'r responsible..." She practically growled. I rounded the corner, keeping as close to the wall as I could. The guard was leaning up against the wall, seemingly asleep. I crept past him - literally, right in front of him - and he didn't budge. I was about to enter the compound in earnest, when I heard a sharp crack from behind me, like something large and heavy hitting a skull, followed by a thud. I looked over my shoulder and saw Cass standing over the guard, who was now collapsed in a heap on the ground, with a small red streak leaking out of his forehead.

"Yeah, that's subtle." She couldn't see me, but I was smiling behind the gas mask. She just shrugged.

"Hey, he's not dead. What're you complainin' 'bout?"

Things went much smoother after that. Just like last night, there wasn't anyone around... except a couple of brahmin in some pens at the far end of the compound. Everyone was asleep, I think... but I looked ahead, to the building that contained McLaffertey's office.

There was a light on somewhere in that building.

I turned to Cass and put a finger against my helmet's respirator. Hopefully, she got the message, and I snuck across the field toward the building, trying to keep myself from making any noise. The two of us eventually got to the same side door I'd broken into last night.

"Alright," I whispered to Cass. "I'm gonna check the door, see if it's locked. If it is, we go loud, blow the doors off, find McLafferty, and put two in her skull."

"Blow'r fuckin' skull off, y'mean." Cass leveled her shotgun at the door. I sighed... but leveled my rifle at the door, just the same. Very carefully and very softly, I grabbed the door handle, and turned... Amazingly enough, the door was unlocked.

"Let's go," I whispered. I pushed the door open, and crept into the office very slowly and very carefully. At the end of the hall, light spilled out of McLafferty's office. The closer I got, the more distinct the sound of typing became. I came to stop right before her office, and leaned against the doorframe, peering in. There she was, sitting at her desk and typing at the terminal on her desk. Her hair had much more grey in it than her pictures seemed to indicate. She was focused entirely on the computer.

This should be interesting.

I motioned with my hand for Cass to follow me, and rounded the corner as silently as I could. I aimed my rifle right at her head, but still she wasn't paying attention. So I decided to get her attention.

"Boo." I said, just loud enough for her to hear. She glanced with her eyes quickly over in my direction, and went back to the terminal... but then her eyes went wide, and she started freaking out.

"WHAT THE-!" She looked back and forth frantically between the two of us. "Who are you?! What are you doing here?" I saw one of her hands try and move beneath her desk. I just moved closer, pointing my rifle at her face.

"Ah-ah-ah. Hands where I can see them, McLafferty." She raised both her hands slowly, and kept looking back and forth between the two of us.

"Who are you?" She asked again, but surprisingly much more calm than before. "If you're mercenaries, I can offer four times what they're paying you to kill me to just fuck off."

"Four times? Y'hear that?" Cass said with a dark laugh, "Gloria only offered us three."

"Four times nothing is still nothing," I said, lowering my rifle; Cass was pointing her massive shotgun at Alice's face, so I went to guard the door. "It's funny how everyone seems to think this is about money, isn't it?"

"Not so funny..." Cass growled. "Everything th' two've them did t'me, t'was jus' fer more fuckin' money..."

"Did to..." McLafferty whispered. "Who are you then?"

"Don't ye recognize m'voice, McLafferty?" I heard a click from behind me, but it wasn't a click from a gun; I glanced over my shoulder, and saw her start to unbuckle her helmet. "Course, I don't imagine y'would... y'always send yer minions t'do yer dirty work, don't ye? Like when y'sent someone t'burn m'caravan... an' when they came t'buy it, y'didn't show up then, either..." Cass pulled off her helmet, and dropped it to the ground.

"...Sharon Cassidy..." McLafferty breathed. She cleared her throat. "How did you figure it out?"

"Wasn't all that difficult," Cass walked forward, pressing the barrel of her shotgun against McLafferty's head. "I jus' found th' trail've blood an' snake venom, an' followed that. Any last words b'fore I paint th' walls with yer brains?"

"You kill me with that," McLafferty looked up at the shotgun pointed at her face. "You'll wake up everyone in the compound. Everyone has guns. Two of you against 40 or 50 people? You'll never be able to fight them all and make it out alive."

"Yeah, because it's not like we have an escape route planned out, or anything." I said sarcastically. "C'mon Cass. Just kill her and be done with it."

"You don't have the guts to kill me," McLafferty said. "If you were going to kill me, you'd have don-"

She was cut off mid sentence by a shotgun blast ripping through her face. The back wall was splattered with a spray of red gore. McLafferty and the chair she was sitting in collapsed into a heap on the ground. I was expecting Cass to pick up her helmet so we could leave, but instead she stood over Alice McLafferty's corpse... and started firing her shotgun. She just kept her finger down on the trigger, emptying shotgun shell after shotgun shell into the corpse. I couldn't actually see her (because her desk was in the way) but I could imagine what she was being turned into, and it involved a lot of ground chuck.

Finally, the shotgun stopped firing... but she didn't. The AA-12 kept clicking, trying to fire shells that had already been spent. Outside, I could hear voices, and my Pip Boy's radar started registering motion. We had to get out of here, and get out quick. I grabbed Cass' helmet in one hand and clutched her shoulder with the other.

"Cass," I said, trying to turn her around. She shrugged me off, still trying to fire. "Cass, c'mon! She's dead. We gotta get out of here." Eventually I turned her around, and she seemed to snap out of it. She blinked a couple of times, looking around.

"Right... right..." She started breathing heavily, like she was out of breath. I shoved her helmet against her chest armor, and she grabbed it. Her hand was trembling slightly. While she was putting her helmet on, I moved off with my rifle at the ready, towards the front door of the building. I peered out of the window, and could see movement through the smoked glass.

"Cass, we've got incoming," I said, taking a pair of grenades off my belt. "You almost ready to go?"

"Yeah," I heard her say through my headset. "Let's just... yeah, let's get out've here." She came up behind me and I handed her one of the grenades.

"Alright then. On three. One... Two..." I pulled the pin on the grenade and shoved my shoulder against the door, flinging it open. "Three!" The two of us threw a pair of the same kind of tear gas grenades as before out into the courtyard. Trails of opaque smoke started to flood the area, and I tossed another grenade out, for good measure. I heard a few gunshots start to fire as soon as the smoke appeared - a few pistols, maybe a 10mm submachine gun - but none of the shots even came close to us.

"C'mon, let's go!" I said, rushing out into the clouds of tear gas. The canisters really did spread out the gas quickly. I switched my eyes to thermal, and saw the heat signatures of about half a dozen people around. Two of the thermal blobs were writhing on the ground, clutching at their faces.

"There they are! After them!" I heard a voice off in the distance yell. There was the bark of a submachine gun, and a few bullets impacted near my feet as the two of us ran towards the exit. We were maybe 15 feet away from the exit of the compound, and the tear gas was still thick. I urged Cass forward.

"Go! Go!" I backed up, aimed my rifle in the air, and fired off a few rounds; off in the distance, I could see the heat signatures of a few people duck their heads, and start to take cover. I turned back around and saw that I was almost at the exit, so I started running. Cass was running in front of me, her shotgun slung across her back. I grabbed the last flashbang off my belt, pulled the pin, and dropped it behind me. I rounded the corner just as it went off. With any luck, that would slow them down long enough for us to make our escape.

"Boone!" I said, tapping the side of my helmet and refused to break stride. "This is the signal! We'd really appreciate a pick up right now!"

"Got it," I heard over my headset. "On my way."

I looked over my shoulder as the two of us kept running - I didn't see anyone behind us. Before I knew it, my Corvega screeched to a halt in front of us. The two of us practically dove into the car, and Boone didn't even wait for the doors to close before he put his foot down and we roared off.

I discarded my rifle onto the pile of weapons we'd stolen from the Silver Rush, and started unbuckling my helmet as quickly as I could. As soon as my head was free, I gasped, breathing in lungful after lungful of air that hadn't been pushed through a filter.

"Fuckin' hell, Boone! How are you still wearing your helmet?" I asked, relieved to not have something pressing down on my head. "I mean, that's the most uncomfortable thing I've ever worn. Is there a trick to it I don't know about?" Boone nodded once curtly.

"There is. The trick is not minding that it hurts." I couldn't tell if Boone was being sarcastic or not, so I turned to Cass - who had taken off her helmet, just like me.

"Well, you killed McLafferty. Not a bad bit of work, I'd say. You ask me, I call this a win."

"Yeah..." Cass muttered softly. "We win."