An Arctic Wolf on the Prowl [Under Planning]

Jessica was keeping an eye in the events as the resisting man finally got down in the ground. Her crosshairs were over his skull, and she rubbed the trigger up and down. Would John really mind if she killed him? Not enough to give her more then a tongue lashing. The trigger was so inviting, and then the man's head be a pulpy mess on the other side of the door. She controlled his fate right now. If she wanted to kill him, no one could stop her. She could always just shoot him in the leg though. That would work. She could say she thought he had a weapon. The crosshairs moved down to his leg on the ground. It would be quick. Just a simple pull...

"Ghost. Second floor. At the elevator."

She slipped her finger away from the trigger, moving the scope to the second floor and shifting her legs uncomfortably. She really needed to get back to Fort Halifax. Too much more of this and she was going to lose her mind and do something stupid. The man had surrendered, and she scolded herself for thinking about shooting him. She wasn't a savage after all. On the second floor, she saw the man in power armor kick his rifle away from him in her scope, with his hands high in the doorway. That was good. It might have seemed a good idea to hide at the time, but they would've found the man eventually. With his power armor, she wondered if this was an actual Brotherhood of Steel group or something. Probably not though. It was from a Brotherhood scout at GNR they had heard about the police station, and it seemed if anyone had been stationed here, they wouldn't have mentioned it as a possible location for the Reapers to check out.

She opened her comm, swiveling the scope back to the first floor. "Eagle One, this is Ghost Team. Your unknown on the second floor has exited the elevator an has his hands raised in surrender. Over and Out."

------------

John was slowly advancing on the man with the pistol when he started talking from the shadows. John wasn't sure if he had a death wish or was just cocky, but as Winters approached the man in Power Armor on the other side of the room, it seemed he felt the need to worsen his situation.

“So, you called my bluff-"

John wasn't about to let him get a word in. The man still had his gun up, and the moment for playing nice was long past. "SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" John yelled, motioning with the gun towards the floor. The man sighed, and John watched through his thermals as the man tossed the weapon, what looked to be a knife, and undid some buckles. John felt like the man was stalling as he pulled off his sunglasses, but his next words were at least ones John was willing to hear.

"I'm coming out. My rifle's on the back wall, and my gear's off. I am unarmed and not a threat."

As the man stepped out from the darkness, John switched off his thermals and watched him step out from the darkness. A threat or not, John didn't plan on being kind with him. All he'd done is dig himself a deeper hole, and John wasn't about to forget the gun pointed at any of them. John moved closer as the man lay down on his stomach, and put his hand behind his back.

"Y'all are a bunch of fuckin' assholes..."

John didn't much care for the mans opinion, and felt that his orders had been clear. "I SAID SHUT THE HELL UP" The man glared at John from the ground as John got closer, sighing audibly again.

"Ya know what? Fuck you, Tin Man."

John had just about had it with the man, and was beginning to regret not shooting him in the first place. Reaching him, John placed his armored boot over the mans neck, careful not to crush his wind pipe. At the least, it would keep his mouth shut as John let his rifle hang on it's strap and pull one of his own zip ties from his pack. Carefully, he placed it on the mans hands an pulled it a little tighter then necessary, causing the zip tie to dig into the man's chest. He grabbed his gun instinctually at the commotion on the other side of the room, shaking his head as he watched Winters slam her rifle against the brotherhood knights head. Did everyone in this police station have a death wish.

John removed his boot from the mans neck and began searching him for weapons, ensuring he had nothing he'd be able to cause trouble with, and he did not do so gently. Holding his rifle in one hand, John pulled the man to his feet and pushed him towards the others on the far side of the room.

Winters returned to dealing with the other Knight, after dealing with Mark and Knight Sergeant Alec, as John approached with the other. She situated the unarmored older man with James, as he had introduced himself, as something inaudible sounded from upstairs. She kept a steady eye on Mark while he dug in his pack, and nodded respectfully to John as he kept his gun on the resistors back.

John titled his head as Jessica's message came over their headsets, and motioned Winters toward the stairway. He had about had it with this lot causing them trouble. "Go get him. Watch yourself."

"Yes sir." Was her reply, and Winters headed for the steps, her boots crunching the old concrete stairs and sending chunks and dust falling to the ground.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you? Don't bother to deny I, I know it is true." John nearly cut Mark off like he had the other man, but let it play out for now, hoping he might glean some information about what the hell was going on here. As he slowly moved away from the man who's resisted, Thomnas shifted his minigun towards where John had been.

"Inflicting pain on another brought you pleasure...are we really so different? You hate me because I believe myself to be so much better than other people, but are the Brotherhood so different? I have seen the scorn you and your brothers and sisters feel towards the common wastelanders. How they think of them as inferior, just as I do."

Mark slipped a hand into his bag, and came out holding a scalpel, perfectly sharpenel. John had his weapon trained on the mans head, but rather then making a move, he threw the scalpel toward the knight named Alec and it clattered against the ground after bouncing off the wall near his head.

"I want you to know the joy that I feel when I take a life, for I know that I am making the world a cleaner place. Well, there is a stain right in front of you. Do your worst".

John reached Mark near the end if the sentence and brought the butt of his rifle against the man's already bloodied face. For a moment, he pointed the gun back at Alec, shaking his head back and forth. "Don't even reach for it."

Pressing the barrel against Marks next, he pulled the man off the couch and pushed him towards the others, keeping his rifle trained on him as the barrel left his skin. "You like killing huh? You an your buddy over there?" John kept leading them towards the hallway, pushing the man who had resisted towards the cells as well. He led them over to the open one the old man had crawled out of in his sleeping bag, and forced both of them inside with the rifle's barrel as incentive. As soon as they were both in, he used the power armor to pull the rusted cell door shut, sliding it across its old bearings and listening as the lock clicked in place. He didn't even bother wasting time on where the keys were.

"Listen up. You've both managed to piss me off enough that I think you can stay here. You want out, maybe one of your 'friends' can let you out, if you haven't pissed them off too much as well." He left the cell, turning to the others.

"As for the rest of you, go have a seat on the couch. Move." He waited for them to struggle with standing up, bound as they were, and make their way to the couch. He would question them soon, but he'd wait for Jessica to reach them first. Better to get this done as quickly as possible and then move out. He put a hand to his helmet and turned on his comms. "Ghost Team, this is Eagle One. If the sergeant has our sixth liability in tow, you can come down now. Over and out."

--------------

The Knight was still standing with his hands in the air when Winters found him, near the elevator, gun off to the side. She kept her rifle trained on him and used her left hand to hold forward the zip tie she'd pulled from her pack while coming up the stairs. She tossed it to him, motioning at him nowhere in general with her gun.

"Around your wrists. Then move away from the elevator." She waited for him to comply, first testing that the zip tie was right enough before patting him down and making sure there weren't any weapons he could try something foolish with. Careful not to let herself get between him and the elevator shaft, she turned him around towards the stairs and grabbed his discarded rifle at the ground, pointing it at his back. "Downstairs. Time to join your friends."

She kept his rifle at his back, discarding it in the corner when they reached the bottom, and was pleasantly surprised to find that two of them had been deposited in a cell. As the knight went to join his 'friends' - whatever they were - on the couch, Jessica and Calhoun came in through the front door. The private was visibly excited, though something seemed tense and amiss about Jessica. Winters got the feeling she'd been wanting to kill someone again.

John pulled up a metal stool and sat, the weight of his armor making the chair groan with the strain. It held, and he looked rather pleased with himself the way he laid his rifle across his lap, pulled his helmet off and ran a hand through his hair.

"I am General Baldric, leader of the Reapers, might of Pennsylvania, and your unfortunate captor this evening it would seen. The hulk with the minigun is Specialist Thomnas, and that is Sergeant Winters," he explained, pointing a thumb at her.

"Those two are Major Specialist Whitehall, and her spotter, Private Calhoun. Had you resisted, she would have made short work of you I'm afraid. It is well you all surrendered and did not resist.... Well some of you at least. Now. To whom do I speak, and what relation do you actually have with the Brotherhood of Steel."

((I know a lot happens here, and I know I'm moving a lot of people, but in trying to get things going. If there's anything you think I should edit, feel free to speak up. Otherwise, if everyone's okay with this, let's keep going! ))

(OOC Moment: The last post in the Arctic Wolf thread was 1/10/14. The current date is 1/13/14. As such, even though the creator of the thread is next in the posting order, he did label this thread a [Fast] thread and therefore knows about the 24hr time limit for posts. As much as I dislike doing it, i feel that to keep the thread going, I need to skip him. If this is a problem with either CoyoteSparks (Cl4ptp) or any of the Mods, please let me know and I will remove or change this post as required.)


Knight Sergeant Vasmith sat on the couch, hands bound in front of him, with the others. A man walked over, John If Alec remembered correctly, and pulled a solid looking metal stool up in front of his quarry. He sat his power armored body down and the stressed metal groaned but held his weight.

"I am General Baldric, leader of the Reapers, might of Pennsylvania, and your unfortunate captor this evening it would seen. The hulk with the minigun is Specialist Thomnas, and that is Sergeant Winters”

Alec knew all these names, having heard them at the battle for GNR, but his skull still throbbed in pain from the rifle butt strikes he had received. The Knight Sergeant’s vision swam and he tried to focus on Baldric. The blood pooled at the edge of his eye socket was beginning to annoy him, its dried crust interfering with his blinking. The Sergeant reached his bound hands up and used his left index finger to pick at the stuff. Alec shook his head violently, forcing the encroaching dark spots from his vision. The General continued his speech.

"Those two are Major Specialist Whitehall, and her spotter, Private Calhoun. Had you resisted, she would have made short work of you I'm afraid. It is well you all surrendered and did not resist.... Well some of you at least. Now. To whom do I speak, and what relation do you actually have with the Brotherhood of Steel."

Alec listened to Adan and heard the nervousness in the older man’s voice. Alec cringed internally, thinking that it was unbecoming of a man who held the title just under that of Knight Captain to show such emotions. When Adan had finished, Alec noticed the man looking around with a wide-eyed expression. Something was bothering the man but Alec didn't have time to ask what, it was his turn to speak.

“I am Knight Sergeant Alec Vasmith of the Brotherhood of Steel, My primary occupation is that of Wasteland Survival Instructor. I am currently assigned as Aide-de-camp to one, Star Paladin Lacroix. My mission is a standard locate, quantify, claim, and reallocate mission for various weapons and technology throughout the Capital Wasteland.”

Alec knew he was making a bit of a gamble, though his words were true enough in a very broad sense. He was, in fact, under orders from Lacroix to recover any useful technologies and weapons that could be useful to their order, but he had not told Balric what specifically he was in search of. Alec had been interrogated before and knew better than to volunteer information that not been explicitly asked for. To do so would be to invite unwanted attention and make himself out as a valuable prize due to the Brotherhood secrets and information he may have known.

This interrogation was a game though, Alec was going to play along. If he wanted to survive, he would have to. The General had everyone right where he wanted them, all the pieces of his puzzle were in place an now Balric was taking some time to lean back and enjoy the picture he’d made.

Alec studied the man’s face, since before he had only seen the man with a helmet on, and noted the satisfaction playing across the man’s features as he ran a hand through his hair and smiled slightly to himself. He looked very much like a man who enjoyed being in control, who didn’t play fair because, frankly, he didn't have to. He quite obviously controlled a very powerful group of fighters and as such, would have the house edge in most engagements.

Alec was not at all reassured by what he saw and decided that before any of the others could speak, he would add a little more to his list.

“I’ve met your group before General, at GNR. I was rerouted there with my initiates to help fend off the incursion. Your Reapers and my initiates ended up fighting next to each other at one point. I believe your Sergeant even helped me clear some of the mounded corpses of my men and mutants alike off the planter in front of me so that I could continue to fight. Your men fight well, General.

As Alec said this, he still felt no more safe than he had before. Baldric still held all the cards. No, Alec knew this was a game alright and he would most certainly just play it out. If his luck held, he might even get out alive.

((Skip me, I have no idea what to do with Banjo and James))

John waited patiently while the group introduced themselves. Adan, Alec, and James of the Brotherhood of Steel, Banjo of. . . well just Banjo. The two in the cell were Mark and Coyote. Strangely, John got the feeling they were not in the slightest actual companions. In fact they didn't seem to like each other very much at all. He could hear the voices of the prisoners in their cell, but didn't much care if they talked. They were unarmed and locked up. They wouldn't likely be causing any more problems. The Knight named Alec spoke up after the introductions, and John watched him curiously.

“I’ve met your group before General, at GNR. I was rerouted there with my initiates to help fend off the incursion. Your Reapers and my initiates ended up fighting next to each other at one point. I believe your Sergeant even helped me clear some of the mounded corpses of my men and mutants alike off the planter in front of me so that I could continue to fight. Your men fight well, General.”

John looked at Sergeant Thomnas and then at Sergeant Winters, but both of them shrugged. It was hard to make out any differences in people wearing Power Armor. He knew about the fight though, which meant the Knight had actually been there. “Yes, Knight Sergeant,” John said, grinning. “That's what we train them for.” Jessica burst out laughing, and there was clearly some kind of inside joke there that no one else in the room seemed to understand.

Back on subject, John waved Private Calhoun over with one hand. “Well then, if you were there, then you likely know about the truce. Calhoun, you can remove the Knights restraints.” The private nodded uncertainly, then walked to the three brotherhood members, using a combat knife to carefully cut away the zipties. Leaving Banjo tied was enough to show the Brotherhood members were only receiving respect for their positions, and that the Reapers still held no trust for them.

“I apologize for how rough we were. But there was no being sure you were actually with the brotherhood, or that you knew about the truce already. A man in my position can not take chances, you understand. Though it seems your. . . group is volatile enough where perhaps my actions were not unfounded. Regardless, one of your scribes said this might be a good place to restore our lost ammo that you could not replace at GNR. I wouldn't suppose you know where the armory is?”

Having thoughts to himself, Coyote smiled, glancing back to Mark.

"You use the wonderglue to sterilize and seal the wound, at least temporarily."

As Coyote talks, he quickly and quietly picks the lock, feeling the tumblers click into place.

"Even if the glue wears out, it'll be healed up by then."

He gently opens the door, walks out, and closes the gate in Mark's face.

"Listen, if we both skedaddle, someone will be suspicious, so just hang tight..."

Coyote walks away, smiling coldly

Really Doc, the reason is that you're a fuckin' skumbag murderer who will kill us all in our sleep.

As Coyote walks to the main room, he catches the tail-end of the conversation.

"...Regardless, one of your scribes said this might be a good place to restore our lost ammo that you could not replace at GNR. I wouldn't suppose you know where the armory is?”

Coyote walks into the open, hands above his head.

"Armory was looted before I got here, not 2 hours ago. I was scouting ahead of these people so we could have shelter for the night. I had to kill two raiders to get in here, but if you want what's left, it's in my pack..."

If the Reaper Squad wants to check, there's a .38 revolver, some ammo, and a frag mine. Coyote, knowing he'll have questions to answer on his escape, stands, ready for whatever chaos may come...

((Skip me again))