Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 119: The Stars My Solace

Kelly had not been prepared for the sight of the Bloodhunt marching in the dead of night, an eerie mass of fire torches floating above a slow shadow, like fireflies dancing to the joy of battle. Except they were no longer marching to battle.

Too late she had found out, through Clay-Crawler's babble, that Maxson had nuked out the Bleeding Abyssal in the Prydwen's wake. It had drawn the Bloodhunt back to defend their outpost and salvage their leaders and war secrets, all of which had been destroyed, but what would it draw from the Red Claws? Submission, or retaliation? From the brief time she had known Prowess and Red Roark, it was likely the latter.

And I thought I was bad at diplomacy. Forging alliances was supposed to be Elder Maxson's forte, renowned for the way he had reconciled old wounds between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcasts. She would never forget that it was his speech at the Castle, back in the Commonwealth, not hers, that had inspired her Minutemen to fall under his banner and ship off to war. He was a Machiavellian motherfucker.

Yet here he was now, stomping on everyone's sandcastle like a squalling toddler, creating enemies on every flank. Of course, she couldn't talk, but she wasn't the mastermind of the story. I'm the squalling toddler you send out to stomp on sandcastles.

The wind created violence with her hair as she stood at the forecastle, glaring down as the Prydwen stroked over the retreating army below. She had wanted to see it from the air, get a real scope of just how massive the Bloodhunt really was. Was this even all of it? Surely the warlords hadn't sent everything they had at the Brotherhood, while leaving themselves vulnerable. After the discovery in the Bleeding Abyssal, it now all made sense how the Dark Bloods had spawned in such large numbers across such inhospitable lands. Not only were they resurrecting their dead with the specimens, but they were creating demonic thralls with the offspring of their slaves. Were some of them amongst the Bloodhunt, marching mindlessly, black scales concealed beneath heavy armor forged in horrific depictions of demons? She shivered to think.

Maybe Maxson was right to nuke the cradle of creation to hell, even if it meant provoking the Red Claws. She was glad it was gone.

Gutteral war cries resounded from below at the gliding shadow of the Prydwen. That's right, run you little bitches. Run back to your wasted home and the radiation you love so much. We'll be back for you. She spat on them.

The Brotherhood decided to join her attack with a united front of firepower, just as a spontaneous hello and then a parting farewell. Missile launchers, miniguns, grenade launchers, gauss rifles, gatling lasers, tesla cannons, plasma casters, and a few precious fatman launchers all pulverized through the ranks of the Bloodhunt. Despite the destruction, it was just a passing stroke, carving a thin path through their mass. The Brotherhood's firepower was as sexy as it was expensive.

Her heartbeat was racing by the time the explosions had ceased. Despite her mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, the mad part in her wanted to leap off the airship in full power armor and make bloody, visceral battle. It never really left her, that want and need. The fury. It had fused itself so mechanically to her soft, fleshy nature that channelling it was as effortless as breathing, and at times, as uncontrollable as a blink.

But when the airship passed over the rearguard of the army, Kelly saw the dregs of slaves, from laborers, human shields, and ill-armored warriors, forced into a life of working for the enemy. Whether they were brainwashed, under threat of torture, or had actually defected to the enemy only to find that they would never be considered equal, it didn't matter. They were all equal to Kelly, poor souls without a hope.

Except for me. I have to be their hope. Who else would be?

They toiled along in chain gangs, segregated by their working class, enough of them to equal that of her Minutemen company when it had been at full force.