Aim to Please

5 | Long Road Ahead

"What the fuck?" Barnes yelled.

The machine gun turret noticed the movement and beeped in alarm as it jerked to attention; its scanner searched for intruders, but Aurora shot it before it could locate them. It exploded.

The camp awoke at the noise.

"Go! Go!" MacCready urged as he turned back to hide behind a bus.

Aurora took off for the power armor; she hoped it had a fusion core in its back so she wouldn't have to search for one to wake it up. Sporadic pops of gunfire answered by the quieted fire of MacCready's revolver sounded behind her. Just as she reached the suit, Barnes appeared around it, having come out of the shack without her noticing. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Remember me, you bastard?" She shot him between the eyes without waiting for a response. She felt so vindicated as he fell back.

A boom vibrated the road as a grenade went off and people cried out in pain. There was a fusion core already in the suit's back, so she twisted the wheel to open it up and jumped in; it closed around her.

Her vision blinked on in a yellowish-hue; the picture before her was chaotic: the flash of gunfire appeared far before her, bodies littered the road, and MacCready stayed hunkered down behind a car, poked around at different angles to return fire, then ducked back down. He reached into a pouch around his waist for a grenade; he pulled the pin then lobbed it over at the Gunners. It exploded and more people yelled.

These suits were usually paired with a big gun; Aurora looked around her—she found a minigun sitting close by. Just as she grabbed it, she heard the whirring of something starting up and MacCready's yell; she looked up. MacCready dove to the ground just as half of the car he hid behind—right where he had been standing—split apart under a red laser beam; it fell open like two loaves of bread. Revealed through the smoke and steam stood a robot in human form with claws as hands and a single red light for an eye; its face had opened up to shoot out the beam and was now re-closing. The Assaultron.

She had never faced a robot before. With a breath of courage, Aurora advanced into the combat zone. Gunners cheered at seeing her approach, thinking she was Barnes. Their cheers became gasps when she opened fire on the Assaultron.

The robot even seemed surprised by the new onslaught; it turned, registered her as an enemy, and raced toward her. Aurora stood her ground, not flinching under the rain of bullets pelting her metal suit, and followed the Assaultron zigzagging to get to her. The rapid deluge of bullets on the machine affected it—a piece on its chest would fly off, followed by another piece on the arm or face, exposing vulnerable wires—but Aurora had heard robots get more dangerous with more damage.

It reached her and drove its claw-hands into the suit's joints as it nimbly danced around her. Because of its quick speed and her clunky armor, she couldn't keep it in sight before it moved behind. She pulled her finger off the trigger and just set to driving her elbow back or using her fists to hit it. A lot of her hits landed, but the Assaultron only increased its intensity.

She heard the whirring of it charging up its laser beam behind her; Aurora took a chance and swung the minigun around. It struck the Assaultron in its weakened neck and its head popped clean off. The head went flying off the elevated highway as its body limply dropped.

Aurora couldn't believe she had survived her first robot fight. Pops of gunfire still sounded behind—just not as many—and she went to go help kill the rest. MacCready had run out of sight; the few surviving Gunners she saw had their backs to her, so she easily mowed them down.

With a final quieted shot, it grew still. As she headed toward where the shot echoed from, a figure suddenly stepped out from around a shack wall. She quickly reacted by raising the minigun; MacCready threw up a hand to stop her.

"Whoa, it's me. I know you probably want to beat my skull in, but do it out of the suit—I might survive it then."

Yeah, she might actually do that. She placed the minigun on the ground, then exited out of the power armor. Her body ached with many bruises from being knocked around inside of the suit.

"It gets hot in there," she said.

"Wouldn't know; never been in one."

Aurora gestured at it. "Here's your chance. It even stinks like Barnes."

"No thank you, then." He considered the destruction. "I feel a hundred times better knowing those two aren't bearing over my shoulders anymore."

"We don't have to worry about Gunners retaliating?"

"The way these lunatics act, you'd think they would, but I know better. For the Gunners, it's always about the bottom line. They just lost this entire waystation and that'll cost them a bit. Besides, they have no idea I was involved. We'll be fine; trust me, Aurora."

She was astonished at how much she enjoyed hearing him say her name. To cover up being flustered and her delayed response, she rubbed her neck like it bothered her. "I don't know whether or not to trust you: you almost got me killed."

"But I didn't."

"Hence the word 'almost'."

He chuckled. "Anyway, I guess I owe you a favor now. After all, you hired me and I'm the one who dragged you out here."

"I would not let you have all this fun by yourself."

He laughed. "Glad you enjoyed it. Tell you what, I'm going to give you back the caps you paid me in Goodneighbor. I'll stick with you because that was part of the deal, but now we're even."

MacCready handed her the 200 caps she had paid him with in a small bag, then he looked around. "You know, they're not going to use this stuff anymore." He eyed the suit. "That power armor can carry more, right?"

She scoffed at his subtle prod at her carrying most of the loot; she walked back to the suit to get in it. "What do I look like to you, a pack mule?"

MacCready chuckled at some thought before moving off to look for spoils. After deliberating, Aurora figured the power armor wasn't enough for her prize—and in it, she could carry more. She went after him to join in the scavenging.