Chapter 678 - Mature Retaliation...?

A week after Bulwark had received the Brotherhood Holodisk, a lone Knight in Powerarmour was patrolling the outskirts of the base nearest to the Mojave west border. It was incredibly hot, incredibly boring work, but someone had to do it, and such a duty fell on him for some reason...

Perhaps putting a depowered sonic detonator in his commanding officer's toilet hadn't been the greatest plan, but, it was certainly funny... The way the man was thrown from the bathroom covered in water and... Debris. Had livened up this shitty outpost like nothing else had.

And while this left him with almost every conceivable punishment, at least he had the recording of the prank stored on his holodevice... He pulls said device out and checks the screen, wiping off some dust and grinning vindictively at the reply of his commanding officer screaming while covered with waste.

Slowly, the heat of the desert sun seemed to be fading though... Confused, he glances around, noticing a large shadow being cast by something overhead... He follows it with his eyes, looking up and squinting against the remnants of sunlight as something slowly flies overhead...

"Whaaat the fuck...?" his mouth independently mutters as he finally spots it... A humungous canvas being flown by hundreds of Eyebots, what was depicted on it? Well, a giant hand flipping the bird... Why was this happening? He had no idea.

He points his holodevice up at it, beginning to record the events as a few eyebots separate from the group overhead and fly down towards them. He almost opens fire, but pauses when he spots that none of their weapon systems were active.

An eyebot finally reaches him, and a prerecorded message begins playing, in a similar fashion to how the enclave used to use them.

"I am Afton Parker, Leader of Bulwark, and I approve this message... The Brotherhood of Steel fuck their sisters, and can lick my taint. Also! Elder Gurren is a paedophile, and likes to molest little boys... That's all folks!... I am Afton Parker-" the message begins replaying, and the Knight stops the recording, storing it so he could report directly to Brotherhood HQ... And hopefully, get out of this shitty patrol position.

The giant middle finger and messages continue to travel unmolested, the Brotherhood fearing retaliation from the many eyebots present... Thus, unfortunately for the Brotherhood, allows the Bulwark message to be spread far and wide.

Elder Gurren didn't actually notice anything once the news had hit. He was just confused at why everyone was now sending him weird glances... This all changed a couple hours later when he was finally told about what'd happened...

"THEY DID WHAAAAT!?" He exclaims in complete and utter shock.

His colleague sheepishly coughs into their fist, "They... They accused you of being a paedophile... Oh, and also told the rest of us to lick Afton Parker's taint... Whatever that is?"

Elder Gurren shakes his head, "The taint is the skin between the balls and ass hole... Wait they called me a paedophile!?" he realises after a moment.

"They did... They also flew a rather well done giant middle finger around the Westcoast..."

Gurren growls, "THIS WON'T STAND!" he shouts, immediately alerting the other Elders to arrive at the council room. It was time for them to intervene in the fate of the Mojave!

Needless to say, Afton's actions were a clear and present insult to the Brotherhood, basically just asking for Bulwark to be attacked. The council almost unanimously agreed to wage war with Bulwark, regardless of the threat they may pose.

A couple hours later Gurren arrived at the Brotherhood research center, where a special guest was currently getting a checkup... Zachary Parker laid still on the bed as blood and other samples were taken. What they actually intended to do with said samples was up in the air at the moment, but the scientists were sure they'd be useful at some point... Not to mention making sure whatever ailment Zachary Parker had contracted wasn't contagious.

*Beep!*

Gurren presses the button to alert those inside of his arrival, entering the observation room and sitting calmly before it.

Zachary is given permission to take a break and speak to the Elder, sitting opposite him with the window in between them both. Immediately, Zach recognises the look in Gurren's eyes, inwardly sighing to himself, "Let me guess. My son?"

Gurren nods, sliding a holodevice with the events stored on it through the present gap. Zach looks at them for a moment, not showing any emotion in his deformed features... He lays it down and passes it back, "How is this related to me?" he questions, clearly having cut ties with his son.

"It's related to you, in the way that you are directly related to the person responsible." Gurren states. "I wish to make a request... To fake using you as a hostage to bring your son under control... I promise, I will do everything in my power to leave him unharmed when we retrieve him."

Zachary quickly shakes his head, "I refuse. I want nothing to do with Afton anymore. I wish only to perform my duties as a Paladin. That's it." he states, going to stand from his chair.

Gurren scowls, "Your duties as a Paladin are to follow my orders!"

Zach sniffs, "No. My pledge was to the people and my brothers, not to you." he remarks before leaving, lying back down on the bed.

Gurren beeps the button a couple more times, but Zach refuses to speak with him, only making the man even angrier than before. He eventually gives up, decided to channel his rage into the conflict with the Mojave.

"I will not be slandered by some uppity little bastard who's playing as a king! This will not stand!"