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"Yes mam..." Responds Chib, rather unenthusiastically. That wasn't exactly what he was trying to suggest either, but he decided further discussion would be unneccessary. For him, the whole ordeal was rather routine, the only difference being that he now has a rather unexperienced squad leader to keep watch over. Feeling more like an instructor then a squad member, Chib pulls his poncho hood back over his helmet before grabbing his rifle and sliding out of the vehicle, slinging it over his sholder. Keeping his head low, Chib looks back for a moment at York and Keebs before following Fina at a distance, as ordered.

York opened the door and alighted from the vehicle, prepared for combat both mentally and physically. He followed Chib, just as Fina had said. Although Fina was inexperienced as a squad leader, York trusted her judgment and knew that the other three squad members could help her out if absolutely necessary.

York stayed side-by-side with Chib as the advanced on the objective. He was excited to fight the super-mutants, but he was a little nervous. York was used to that, though, and the nervousness never bothered him much. He stored that emotion, among others such as fear and sadness, in the back of his mind for the most part in order to stay positive. The adrenaline was pumping through his body now, and he was ready to do some fighting.

From a distant sand dune Chib stands, watching the squad zigzag before finally deciding upon a direction. Being well versed in wilderness survival, its very unusual for Chib to be seen atop a dune. The perspiration lost in climbing is too much of a waste, compared to the option of skirting around a dune and, if the dune is tall enough, perhaps staying partly in it's shadow. Nonetheless, upon catching sight of the soldiers, Chib decided he needed a better look. Chib, alone, had just wrapped up another trip to a nearby trade outpost to pick up a shipment of his specialty ammunition. The ammunition, having come by way of brahman caravan all the way from the Hub, was for his multipurpose canister rifle that he so very prized. Despite being a mere three hours from the base, Chib decides to shadow the group, perhaps hoping to evaluate the quality of the new recruits. From such a distance he is not able to recognize the combat armored figure, but assumes her just another squad leader. He himself, though possibly visible, has no chances of being identified unless his poncho is recognized... just as he wishes. Slowly slinking back down the dune, he proceeds to follow loosely.

Chib notices the storm as well... or more correctly, had noticed the storm already, as he had been watching it carefully as he traveled nearer to the base. Chib would be fine. Not only was he equipped with these kinds conditions in mind, but he also had the benefit of much experience, having already judged the storm as relatively tame and easily avoidable. It was the soldiers who seemed to be heading straight for it that he was worried about. Hopefully the CO knew what he was doing, Chib thought, or else those recruits might be in for some serious trouble. Quickly he decides that if necessary, he will intercede.

The sound of labored breathing filled his helmet; rubber tubes came out of the front end and extended to the air pack on his back. The dark visor blocked most of the sun rays that blasted the desolate landscape. He was too far away from the base, too far. The heavy material of his Environmental Armor did not make movement any easier, though the design of the armor did make survival a possibility. Each step cracked the dry surface of the wastelands, a tiny cloud of dust rose and fell within minutes. He no longer bothered with stealth or covering his tracks, there was no energy left for that.

A loud pip broke the silence of his journey; his pipboy sounded a signal. Lucimorth raised his arm to look at the device, it signaled some energy readings north or his position. “The Brotherhood is in the same general direction,” he thought “I suppose it is possible that there will be some supplies near the energy reading.”

Lucimorth lowered his arm and kept going. He now had a closer destination, with some minor hope of supplies and possibly shelter. Soon, the charred ruins of a once operational facility appeared on the horizon. There was no roof anywhere, only some lone walls, mostly destroyed. A single door frame stood ominously on the highest area of the facility. It was almost funny.

That’s when he heard a low growl. His arm darted for the trust plasma rifle that was secured to his back, the other hand was a weapon in and of itself, a power fist. He looked around for the source of the growl; at first he could see nothing. And then, not even thirty feet away behind a large boulder was a wild Death Claw. “Great,” he thought, “as if I was not in enough of a predicament.”

Lucimorth swung the plasma rifle, generating some momentum that had allowed him to turn faster towards the beast. He was not sure whether it was a hostile animal or not. A low rumble emanated from the rifle, followed by a high pitched ascending tone that ended in a click. The weapon was armed. Lucimorth did not generally like to kill anything unless he had to. The gun was aimed at the beasts shoulder, enough to neutralize it, he hoped.

He was out of luck, the best launched at him as soon as the rifle was armed, the thirty feet were quickly reduced to fifteen, he had barely enough time to fire off a shot to the beast’s shoulder. A sharp growl echoed all around him, Lucimorth was sure that it could have been heard for miles. The plasma charge hit the Deathclaw in the shoulder but rather than neutralizing it, the beats just became angrier. “s**t.” He did not have enough time for a second shot; all he could do was launch his power fist at the beast’s eye as it swiped at his rib cage. The Environmental Armor provided only partial protection from such a creature, the claws had penetrated the first few layers of the material, nearly getting to his skin. On the other hand, there was no armor on the beast’s eye, his power fist connected well; crushing the bone and liquefying the eye. Lucimorth assumed that some of the bone had damaged the brain as the beast started limping and acting disoriented. There was no longer any chance of neutralizing it, it would not survive anyways. Even in that shape, he failed to dodge one of the swipes and was hit with a heavy clawed paw sending him to the ground with a broken visor and some glass shards inside his face.

“Damn you…” this time the rifle was aimed at the beat’s head. The plasma charge hit the empty socket; the heat of the blast caused a chain reaction that blew up the Deathclaw’s head. The limp carcass fell the ground, blood gushing out of the neck stump.

“What a mess,” he said, standing up. Lucimorth was bleeding, his face was littered with glass

Brutus opened the gates of the bunker and strolled out a ways into the wastes, but not far. A good ten minute walk west resulted in a small pool of water with a small cave in a plateau's side. Neither the cave nor the pool of water was very deep, the cave only a couple of body lengths long and the pool only up to his chest. He had talked with Lyanah briefly and asked her to meet him here whenever she could. He was not wearing his armor, just his pants and suspenders. The only weapon he bore was his chainsword strapped to his lower back, his weapon of choice in most fights. Sitting in the mouth of the small cave, over looking the shallow pool of water he waited.

Lyanah set out into the wastelands a short while away, Brutus had come to her earlier and asked her to meet him at an area not far away from the base, said he had something he had to tell her. Naturally curious as to what her old friend would have to say she set out and arrived shortly at the place brutus had indicated.

"Brutus! There you are!" she grinned spotting him waiting not far away sitting on a large rock.

Ender awoke to gunfire blazing from the turret, hearing bullets whine off of metal. He bolted up and climbed into the driver's seat, switched the ignition over and stomped the gas pedal down, obviously whatever was around had a vehicle or vehicles, so he had to make a quick escape, he wasn't ready for an ambush since he was previously sleeping, the best thing was to save all supplies and retreat, it could even be a group of super mutants ready to tear the APC apart and the bullets whizzing off of metal could be off of their own personal armor since they were quite large. He hated leaving one of the turrets, but it kept spitting out rounds at an extreme rate, meaning the target wasn't destroyed...yet. The APC rolled through the empty landscape, leaving the turret behind, lighting up that area of the plains from the muzzle fire.

*Six hours later*

He felt bad for having to retreat, but safety was his first priority being out on his own, having to conserve his supplies, along with the vehicle itself, especially with being out of the Brotherhood's patrol ranges, which reminded him, since he was an Elder on his own, he no longer belonged technically as a part of this base's area and he should dump the GPS chips on the vehicles he took since he was taking what many considered the "Elder's Long Walk" to bring justice to untamed regions out of The Brotherhood's control, which was a vast part of the old United States, many Elders disappear, a few have returned from such journeys to resupply and go out again. With the respect he commanded and just taking off like he did, someone might come looking for him assuming he was kidnapped or missing and get hurt this far out and where he planned on going, which the East was a savage place to be compared to the middle east and the cleared west. He shifted gears down and put it in park, then got out and crawled underneath both vehicles, tearing off the GPS units on both the APC and Humvee, planting them under a rock, then climbed back in, turning the APC to the Southeast, planning on looping through the old North Carolina, to the old Virginia areas, then up to the New York region.

((Oh yeah, just for reference, I did sign off on the APC and Humvee on the post before yours in the Motor Pool, but put nothing about all the paperwork, just signing my signature on the check out form, should of been a clue on who took them.))