Chapter 87: Chapter Eighty-Seven
Vault 3. Mojave Wasteland.
Things had been rather peaceful for the Imperials and their allies since Mr House's robot army took control of New Vegas and the NCR were forced to pull out of the Mojave for the most part. They hadn't withdrawn completely and for the most part Mr House's robots had been able to pick up the slack when it came to policing the Mojave, but this didn't mean that the newly made Free Economic Zone of New Vegas was free of troubles.
While the Rogue Trader who old Brotherhood Chapter had allied with, had spent most of the last few weeks in talks with the NCR and Mr House, Sarah Lyons had began training her own chapter during that time. Her chapter was called the Sisterhood of Steel by its members and others because of it having only women in its fighting force.
This was due to the fact that many of the men who'd wanted to sign up to join a Brotherhood Chapter had been sent to the east coast for training. Others had joined the Imperial sponsored militia known as the PDF. Even the red robed cyborgs were grabbing up people due to an extra need for manpower and inducting them into the lower ranks of their order when possible. Those recruited who had families were moving to DC to find work as labours in the new city.
Since she'd ended up with far more female candidates for training than male ones she'd decided to go for an all female force like the battle sisters only Sarah didn't have any reason to recruit children as she had no desire to indoctrinate anyone. Her only limits on numbers were the resources required and the time required for training.
The role of the scribes in her chapter had been lessened when compared to other chapters since the study and preservation of technology was the domain of the Ad-Mech within the Imperium, as such the scribes worked more as record keepers and the Sisterhood had a number of servitors as well as a Tech priest supporting them. She may have been a woman, Sarah wasn't quite sure.
Despite differences the new Sisterhood of Steel were much like the Sisters of Battle. Aside from all being female they wore power armour, albeit of a different make, and swore oaths to a higher authorities. There were also differences, the Sisterhood of Steel carried plasma rifles rather than bolters and the Sisterhood was much larger. Sarah already had fifty warriors under her command and even more undergoing training.
So as to avoid any conflicts between the Sisters of Battle and the Sisterhood of Steel it had been set down in the Sisterhood's character what exactly the group's purpose was. The Sisterhood worked directly for the Lord Captain and were sent after technology rather than to crush moral threats such as mutants or raiders. Unless those threats got in the way of a Sisterhood's mission.
This might seem as if they'd be stepping on the toes of the red robed cyborgs, only as it turned out they were quite happy to support the new Sisterhood. Sarah and her warriors had brand new sets of armour based on Brotherhood designs just modified slightly for the female form and they carried freshly manufactured plasma rifles as well as a 10mm pistol as a side arm, along with a Ripper for close up fighting. These were the weapons that Sarah had chosen to arm her sisterhood with.
Sarah could only assume that she and her lionesses, as they were also known, were getting so much support because the cyborgs were spread thin and because they'd get a share of any tech the Sisterhood brought in as part of their alliance with the Rogue Trader.
The politics of the Imperials didn't really interest Sarah. She'd only agreed to the arranged marriage with Lord Thrax so that she could have her own chapter and because it so greatly benefitted the east coast Brotherhood who'd been on verge of disaster for so long. Thrax had promised her an army made of hundreds of power armoured warriors if she desired it and she very much liked that idea as she could use such forces to make this world a safer place for everyone.
Now she making her dream a reality. Her Sisterhood was on its first operation, they were to clear out Vault 3 and do as much damage to a gang known as the fiends as possible while recovering any tech of value. From what Sarah had been told during a briefing Vault 3 was once an ordinary and somewhat happy vault, but then the water system started leaking one day and the lower levels were flooded, forcing its people to open its door to the outside to seek help.
Unfortunately, some of the first people they came across were a gang of bloodthirsty, chem-addicted raiders, lead by a man called Motor-Runner, who was loitering in the near vicinity of the vault at that time. The raiders took advantage of the vault dwellers' naivety and conned themselves into the vault, upon gaining entry they slaughtered every inhabitant and took Vault 3 as their own. Having firmly rooted themselves in this safe haven, the Fiends have since steadily grown stronger, and they now claim a large part of the southwestern New Vegas ruins as their territory. If not stopped soon they'd become a major hazard to life in New Vegas.
The gang were unexceptional in almost every way, only their growing numbers and the fact that they had unusually large number of high-tech range weapons like Laser RCWs and plasma rifles made them more of a threat than other raider gangs who terrorised the Mojave Wasteland.
The vault itself is wide-open, practically being a feral den for the Fiends and their huge packs of dogs. Whether it is murder, rape, or burning innocents for sport, the chem loving Fiends were more than happy to bring their chaos to this area, which was they had become a source of growing concern for the Imperials as well as Mr House.
Like many other raider groups, the Fiends split into small war-parties, usually between three to four members, which her sisterhood would have to deal with. The Fiends had little in the way of organization, except for their occupation of Vault 3, and groups of them could be often be seen aimlessly roaming the northern Mojave looking for their next chem score or an innocent waste lander who they could have some fun with.
Violet, Cook-Cook, Driver Nephi, and Motor-Runner seemed to be the most influential leaders, with Motor-Runner being the head that resided in and ran operations within Vault 3. All of the leaders would need to be taken care of assuming of course that the special agent who Lord Thrax had sent hadn't already removed the leadership so as to soften up the Fiends before the Sisterhood of Steel began their assault on Vault 3.
Sarah Lyons felt the upgraded vertibird touch down in the south Vegas ruins and as soon as she could the former commander of Lyons Pryde unstrapped herself from her seat and headed down the ramp. They'd not landed too close to Vault 3, but there was no way the Fiends in the area would have missed the sound of three aircraft touching down so close to their home.
This had done on purpose as Sarah wanted the Fiends to come rushing towards her people as a disorganised mob made up of smaller groups who wouldn't coordinate with each other. They'd attack the sisterhood piecemeal and with little concern for tactics or their own wellbeing rather than try to defend their vault.
The three squads under her command not only had weeks of training under her supervision they'd been members of the 2nd Thrax regiment or navy armswomen who'd served as security on the Rogue Trader's cruiser before they'd been accepted into the Sisterhood, as such they'd been trained to fight a long time ago and many of them had actual combat experience against things far more dangerous than some drug loving gang bangers.
Which wasn't to say that the drugged up thugs weren't going to put up a fight. Sarah discovered this as she took cover so as to avoid getting shot as while she wore brand new power armour she'd not survived all of her fights against super mutants by being careless and one of the raiders was firing a laser RCW a weapon that could threaten people in power armour unlike the small arms fire coming from the other Fiends.
Sarah kept as much of her body somewhat safe behind a large pile of rubble as possible before she took a shot of her own. She missed the feel of her trusty laser rifle in her hand, the old AER9 had gotten her through some dangerous missions yet the Imperial made plasma rifle which looked as if someone had taken an urban plasma rifle and given it a protective casing that had an Aquila stamped on it, was a superior weapon.
A bolt of green energy struck a Fiend and knocked him back while also burning a hole in his chest. The fool must have been preparing to throw an unpinned frag grenade because a second later the body exploded. Sarah barely took notice of this as more Fiends were on the way and she had firefight going on around her.
By the time it was done her troops had defeated many times their own number with only one of her people going down and she wasn't even dead as her power armour had down its job in keeping the Sisterhood member alive.
"Third squad your going to look after the birds" ordered Sarah "Second squad search the bodies for anything worth taking back to the base".
Those laser RCWs would be worth something to the Rogue Trader and the Sisterhood needed to prove that it was a worthwhile investment so returning with some spoils would be a good thing.
"First squad with me" she commanded "Second squad will follow when ready".
Sarah made sure that the women under her command took things slow. There was no rush as they knew where the rest of the Fiends would be.
The walls just outside of the Vault were covered with graffiti, presumably done by the occupying Fiends. Much of the graffiti in the Vault and just outside of it was an example of how little education there was in the Wasteland and it showed just how messed up the Fiends really were.
As for the two raiders who stood guard at the base they didn't react well to the presence of the Sisterhood. One of the two Fiends charged the power armoured women with nothing other than a pool cue and didn't make it three steps before a bolt of plasma struck her in the face. As for the other guard that guy proved to be a bit more rational as he took cover before opening up with his shotgun. Not that it really mattered as he was hit by several bolts of plasma that removed what cover he was able to find while also ending his life.
"Second squad secure the entrance" Paladin Lyons ordered when the women in that squad caught up "First squad stay with me".
All of the troops she had under her command were only Initiates since they'd never seen combat while part of the Sisterhood, but given what a good job they were doing she be calling them knights in no time. Although she had been considering changing the ranks and calling her knights by the rank of huntresses since their role was to hunt for technology. This was something Sarah would dwell on later when she had the time.
Since she'd been in vaults before Sarah noted right away that Vault 3 seemed to have a much larger recreational area than the others. The recreation area included several pool tables, a dart board and some sort of table that could be used for a number of games. Not that she had much time to check the place out as the Fiends who must have been sleeping or been shooting up had by now woken up and taken notice of the intruders.
As the Sisterhood moved through the corridors they maintained discipline and only fired when they were sure of a clean shot. Most of the Fiends charged to get into hand to hand regardless of what weapons they had on them if they were armed at all, and they died quickly. If anything their corpses proved to be more of a hindrance to the operation than the living Fiends.
Within the recreation area, there was a locked door leading to the maintenance wing the part of the Vault the over all leader was supposed to live in. Since Sarah didn't want to waste time trying to bring down the door when their could be another way into that part she ordered the second squad to come in and secure the area while she took the most experienced members of the Sisterhood, who had all been members of 2nd Thrax Regiment long before coming to this world, into the living area of Vault 3.
In the main room of the living quarters, there was a cage holding a number of captives, some of them looked as if they could have walked out of here, but Sarah held back from freeing them because she didn't want any civilians running about if another fire fight started. Besides once the vault was clear they could evac the captives back to the air force base so that they could be given food and medical attention. After that they'd be free to make their own way or join up with the Imperials who always needed strong bodies.
Some of the rooms in the living quarters contained deceased Fiends who had been lying on a bed when they died, judging by the empty syringes it wasn't hard to guess that they'd overdosed and there were living Fiends who were so drugged up that they hadn't even noticed that their home had been invaded. Sarah was too honourable to kill helpless people so she left them be knowing that it was more important to kill the leaders and take advanced weapons than to murder a few druggies who would mostly kill themselves before long.
The leader of the Fiends in the Vault, a man called Motor-Runner, was found in his throne room in the northern part of the maintenance wing along with his two guard dogs, all of which were gunned down by plasma rifles before they could do any harm.
"Any losses" Sarah asked over the vox unit that was built into her armour.
Her own squad had lost no one thanks to their training, power armour, superior weapons and team work, but a few sisters in her squad had been injured since even power armour did not offer perfect protection.
"No Paladin" reported the leader of second squad.
"All quiet here" replied the leader of third squad.
This was good to hear.
"1st and 2nd squad clear out the vault" she ordered "take anything that looks like advanced technology and we'll recover the captives on the way out. When we get back to base the drinks are on me".
There was a lot of cheering upon hearing that last part and Sarah felt that glad that at least she didn't have to worry about paying for stuff now she was marrying a very rich man. She was also happy about having made a real different in the Wasteland.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone