He filled his mouth with air and took a deep sigh. He stood from his position as the guns of the world below him grew silent. The barrel of his 115A1 "Anna" glowed red and smoke rose from the mouth as it showed it's use. He pulled back the bolt and ejected the empty shell and the empty cartridge fell to the ground. He reached for a refill but found that he had run out of ammo. He cursed to himself as he slung the rifle onto his back and looked over the battlefield. The behemoth had fallen, it's killers enjoying the victory, but as he heard over the comm, young Phoenix had been lost. His mood took a hit, but he was not that affected by his loss. Death is not, and will not, be uncommon to Eagle Claw. It was a sad truth that many would find difficult to get used to, but they would have to if they were going to survive...he'd have to raise a drink in the boy's name, however. But not here.

A few crunches of dirt behind him made him draw his pistol and turn to see a Super Mutant sneaking up the steps as Whisper was preoccupied on the edge. He fired three times, each of the bullets making their home in the Mutant's skull, the third making it explode. They were weeding into the veteran mutants now, their skulls hardened from repeated battles and their aim...slightly better than their cousins. Whisper stood and looked toward him, nodding and making her way towards the stairs. He gave her a hand sign to hold her position however and she froze and furrowed her eyebrows, unhappy that instead of her leading the way into the blood pool below, it would be Andrew.

He approached the stairs and poked his head into the hole. He saw that there was nobody there and started to make his way down, Whisper a step or two behind him. They weren't out of the woods yet by any stretch, they must have had half an army between them and the vault. He switched his comm over to Wraiths to check on her. [i]Wraith, how are you holding up? Did you make it out of the city?"[/i] "I did, thank you for asking. Took a few dozen too many bullets however and the right rotor is fucked. I'll be able to patch it up just fine as long as a deathclaw doesn't show up to eat mah babies." [i]"The children's dolls that you keep on your dash are not your "Babies". They're inanimate objects."[/i] "Fuck you, Link and Zelda are awesome." He heard some chuckling over the comm coming from a third and fourth person and the smile that had started to grow on his face faded slightly. [i]"Ginger, Winter. Get off this frequency."[/i] "Oh leave them alone you fuddy duddy. You guys took down a god damn behemoth, give them a moment to enjoy themselves...and if they want to spend that moment flirting with me, I'm okay with it.

He was about to interject and tell them to cease communications, but it was all interrupted by something smashing through the wall and knocking Andrew and Whisper across the room. They impacted against a wall and fell to the ground. They recovered quickly to see a Super Mutant Master stepping over the rubble wielding a damn bumper sword. Andrew looked around quickly to try and find his pistol, but it was nowhere to be found. He looked towards the mutant and saw it stepping over it as he approached the two. He put his rifle to the ground and reached to the sword on his back. He clicked a small button underneath the hilt and pulled it out, an electric arc following it as he whipped out his flat tipped electric blade. He ran towards the towering monster and, just as he got there, Whisper's Tomahawk flew by his head and impacted in the Mutant's face, causing him to scream out and pry the razor sharp axe out of his face and throw it to the side as Andrew closed in and swiped at the mutant's arm, cutting it deeply and filling it's blood with a powerful electric surge. It screamed again and swung it's bumper sword, narrowly missing Andrew's head and impacting with the wall, lodging itself into a wall, leaving it open to Whisper using Andrew as a spring board to jump onto the Mutant and stab her machete into it's neck several times, screaming like a banshee. It let go of it's bumper sword, switching to melee and knocking her aside. She on the stairs, her scream cut short by the impact. She found herself unable to move for a few moments as she tried to recover. As he did so, Andrew had backed up and took a running spring, slamming into the Mutant with all the force his body could muster and bringing it to the ground.

He put his sword to the side and took up Whisper's, jabbing it through the mutant's shoulder and running it though the other side. He pulled his arm back and slammed his armored fist into what was left of the Mutant's nose. His punch didn't do much at first, just barely cracking the nose. He pulled his arm back and slammed it into the Mutant's skull again, and again and again, each strike having more fury and anger in it. The mutant squirmed and tried to knock Andrew off, but with each successive punch fracturing the Mutant's skull, it found itself going blind and after the fifteenth or so punch, it went limp. Andrew slugged the head of the mutant several more times, eventually breaking through the skull, but he didn't care as a silent visage had overtaken his personality and he snapped out of it as Whisper touched his shoulder. He had hit it hard enough and long enough that the armor around his hand had broken and his hand was actually broken from the force. He looked down to see what he had done and stood, a little horrified that he had held down the Mutant and broken his hand smashing it's face in.

He didn't say anything, he just used his good hand to pick up his sword, sheathing it, finding his rifle and pistol, sheathing them, and tending to his hand. A nasty set of hives had already broken out on it and the fact that several of the fingers were misshapen and broken lead to several muffled screams as he snapped them back into place and corrected them. The others had already moved on and Whisper and Andrew were being left behind. They had no time to discuss his injury.

Much of the rest of the journey through the ruined city of Seattle was little more than cleanup as the squad moved through and decimated the disorganized troops. They had few leaders left and the Behemoth that they regarded as a god had fallen and their will was broken. They were of no challenge now, and soon, the remaining soldiers of Eagle Claw was upon the door, and Archangel was trying to get it open. There was a large "31" on the middle of the door. Their Geiger counters were starting to sound off a little as outside the door was a very low level radiation. The second the door was opened, the area would be flooded with radiation. Wraith was able to repair the Vertibird quickly and she flew in again, dropping off the C-16 charges to destroy the FEV vats, and taking off again. Ginger, Golem, and Bear gathered around the door and Andrew briefed them.

[i]"Alright, once you're in there, take the C-16 charges that were given to you and plant them on the FEV vats. I'll leave it up to you to how much time you'll set on them. The walls are too thick for a remote detonator. When you're leaving, close the vault door behind you and destroy both consoles. We do not want the radiation leaking out any time soon. See these supports?"[/i] He motioned to the metal supports that lined the walls. [/i]"Use the remaining C-16 on them and cave this place in. Like it never existed."[/i] Next to them, Archangel yelled out that the door was ready to be opened and she made her way to the mouth of the cave to join the others. [i]"Good luck. We will be waiting for you on the outside. Nuka Cola and drinks are on me when we get back...and an extra for Icarus."[/i] He nodded and ran out with Archangel and found their way into the Space Needle, taking over and fortifying themselves for the possible onslaught from the mutants as they organized for a retaliation.

Golem, silent as ever, walked over to the console and looked back to the other two. "Ready?"