Chapter 598 - Red Glare

After the ambush Tamia continued walking, quickly noticing that the radiation levels were steadily increasing the closer she got to the red light. She walked for two more days, occasionally running onto more of those flayed men, but easily fending them off.

After examining their bases, she realised that these men weren't hunting her, but hunting for prey outside the irradiated zone. Animals would stay away from radioactive areas if they had a choice, so prey within the zone was limited at best.​​

Still, that did not explain why they were attacking her... Perhaps they had a history with the Brotherhood of Steel? In which case she could understand if they were hostile, but still, that didn't really add up in her mind.

Eventually, she reached some sort of ruined city... The skyscrapers that hadn't collapsed leaned perilously against their foundations, and a small military camp was sitting just outside the city's boundaries.

She quickly notices the figures of more flayed men and has her troops on high alert to prevent any mishaps from occurring. Suddenly her radio starts activating, and Tamia sighs while preparing herself for another talk with her mysterious stalker.

"*Bzztch!* Welcome to Hopeville... Remind you of anything?" he asks, causing Tamia's brows to furrow.

"No... Should I?" she cautiously asks, wondering if she had a connection to this place... She couldn't imagine she did, as without her Power armour and troops, she'd find it incredibly difficult to survive out here... And that's not even mentioning the crap ton of radiation.

"You should... It's your history, and your home... Not the one you were born into, but, the one you gave life to... Same thing..." he trails off, only confusing her further.

She shakes her head, "No... I don't remember this place. I would remember... This!" she angrily gestures with her arm towards the desolate landscape.

The man chuckles again, only aggravating Tamia further, "You wouldn't remember it like this, it was different before... Now, it's just the remnants of your failure... Or your success."

Tamia grinds her teeth while racking her mind for any memory of this, yet nothing comes. "Stop with this mysterious stranger dogshit and just tell me what you want! Why you want me here!?"

"Heh, Heh. This is a nightmare of your own making, if you survive it, I'll tell you about your history here... Until then, keep walking, Courier.*Bzztch!*"

"You motherfuc-Argh!" she growls before kicking a nearby boulder, cracking it with her saturnite plated boots. "I'll find you, you arrogant prick!" she roars, inadvertently drawing the attention of the flayed men from the city...

Shadows begin popping up from the street, buildings, and military camp... She could even see some wielding hightech-looking rocket launchers... "Get into cover!" she shouts as she throws herself behind the boulder she just kicked.

The Ultimo-Bots and Cyberdogs do as she says, retreating as a large volley of missiles is launched in their direction.

*BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!*

Explosions erupt around Tamia as she attempts to use her wrist-mounted shields to block the shockwaves. Her armour protects her well enough, but by the time the explosions stop, the boulder she was hiding behind is completely decimated. She looks around and spots most of her troops still alive, but an Ultimo-Bots had been destroyed, seemingly having taken a missile to protect the Cyberdogs.

She looks over towards the city, where the figures seem to be reloading their weapons... Angrily, she tears an arm off of the destroyed Ultimo-Bot and fiddles with it for a moment, eventually tearing it apart to reveal the hidden missiles that hadn't been shot yet.

"Fire at the one's on the buildings!" she commands to the remaining three Ultimo-Bots as she throws the missiles far ahead on the path, intending to utilise the dust they kick up as a smokescreen that they can pass through.

The Ultimo-Bots thankfully fire before the enemy can get off another volley, their missiles zipping towards their targets and completely destroying the rooftops... The impact is actually enough to destabilise the desolate buildings, causing the lurching skyscraper to finally collapse. This ends up crushing a large portion of the flayed men who'd fired at them.

The chaos produced by this is a good enough distraction, she draws a revolver from her hip and fires at the missiles down the path, causing them to explode and kick up a large amount of dust. The flayed men finally fire another volley just as the group run into the dust cloud.

*BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!*

Tamia leads the group into one of the military camps bunkers as the explosions barely miss them, managing to get out of sight before the dust cloud dissipates.

"Fuckin' creepy red bastards." she grumbles, looking around the room for anything that might help combat this annoying enemy. She hadn't expected to meet such great resistance when coming here, if she had, she'd have brought way more forces... It was already too late to turn back, and she couldn't contact Bulwark due to the sand storm. Plus, the 'fireworks' the man had spoken of didn't sound good at all.

Fortunately, the bunker her group had entered appeared to be the armoury... Most of it had been looted, but she could see a cage that still contained weapons that those 'skinless' hadn't managed to get.

She walks over to it and easily opens it with her Power armour enhanced strength, afterwards grabbing the high tech rocket launcher that was inside. It had an American flag printed on it and wasn't able to take regular missiles? She glances over at a canister and realises that it's around the same size. She loads it and grins, dropping the weapon on her shoulder and adjusting its telescopic scope. "Alright, this'll probably work...?"