[color=ed1c24][u]Gloria Van-Graff[/u][/color] 

The Brotherhood attack came as Irving had promised. Just two hours before dawn Gloria received confirmation from her guards of incoming energy weapons fire. The Brotherhood assault struck hard and fast and within minutes the compound was breached. She ordered the remaining guards to withdraw into the interior of the compound. A sentry bot and four protectrons were sent out to engage the attackers and keep them away from the main structure. While the robotic defense would be enough to deter even a determined assault by other forces, Gloria knew they would do little but slow the Brotherhood. She hoped that the heavy fire of the sentry bot and the relentless assault of the protectrons would suppress the Brotherhood long enough to give herself and her employees enough time to retreat. 

Gloria loaded her plasma defender and holstered it behind her back. She had dressed herself quickly and simply with a black duster bearing her family's name thrown over her casual clothes. She had considered fetching armor and weapons from the armory but they would make little difference now. It had been years since Gloria was in a proper firefight and given the armaments used by the Brotherhood, ballistic armor would do little to protect her. Instead she had ordered one of sentry bots to be deployed within the armory itself. It would be a nice surprise for the Brotherhood. The remaining protectrons were set to a roving patrol protocol within the hallways to harass and slow the attackers when they inevitably made their way inside. 

Gloria moved out into the hallway and formed up with her guards by the executive office. Inside, engineers were preparing three separate holotape recordings of the radio conversation between Denver and Irving. That conversation was her golden ticket and the only way her aunt would forgive her losing this facility. Without it, there would be little point in surviving the night. To ensure it reached its intended target Gloria had ordered her guards to split into two teams. One team would retreat out of the rear of the facility and escort two Mister Gutsys that each held a holotape of the conversation. They would draw the attention and fire of the Brotherhood away from the facility and more importantly away from Gloria and her team. Gloria would lead the others away from the facility via an underground tunnel.

It was an unfinished service tunnel in the basement of the facility. The tunnel led north and connected with the Vegas metropolitan sewer system. When the Van-Graffs took over the headquarters several years ago they had discovered it and originally sealed it up as the Green had already taken over most of the sewer system. However, with annexation looming closer Gloria had recently ordered the tunnel to be re-opened and rebuilt. She had intended to use it to move troops quickly and discreetly in and out of the city. Now it was her only choice to survive the night. 

By the time the engineers were finished the Brotherhood forces had breached the building. Her guards were anxious as the attackers pushed deeper into the facility, swatting aside the robotic defenders. The wreckage of corpses smoldered and bubbled as they were devastated by the power of the Brotherhood’s weapons. In the confines of the old Repconnn Headquarters the power armored warriors were unstoppable and Gloria knew her window of escape was narrowing. With haste she grabbed her favorite engineer and sent the other ones with the surface-team. The two groups parted ways outside the armory and she didn’t look back as she led the rest of them to the maintenance room on the first floor. Behind three metal shelves and almost hidden from sight by an old auto-vac was the tunnel.

The entrance was a small rusted hatch with stenciled lettering that had long since chipped away into an indecipherable word. Inside the tunnel looked closer to a mine shaft than a proper civic project. The walls were bare earth and every four feet wood wooden pitprops stood to keep the tunnel from collapsing. Some of them were recent, others had been there since before the war. The stability of the tunnel was unknown and there hadn’t been time to verify if it still opened into the sewers or not. The first twenty yards were lit with electric lights connected by black wires that hung directly from the chalky walls.. After that Gloria and her employees used chem lamps and their hands to navigate.

It was cool and dry in the tunnel and pitch black beyond the few feet illuminated by the lamps. The tunnel was narrow, only three feet at its widest. As she scraped and pushed herself through she was thankful she hadn’t grabbed any armor, even her duster was becoming a nuisance in the cramped confines. The sounds of furious battle grew ever more distant as they pushed further into the tunnel. Aside from the shuffling of feet and armor the journey was silent. Gloria had spoken little that night and she could feel the unease from the men around her. Conversation, she feared, would only give them opportunity to voice their concerns and she couldn't allow that. Armed men panicking in an enclosed space was a recipe for disaster. All she had to do was keep them moving and eventually they would reach the sewers. 

She recoiled her hand when she felt something wet and fought a yelp from escaping her mouth. The men around her stopped, and she grabbed the arm of the guard in front of her and swung his chem lamp around. The tunnel wall was damp.

“We must be close to the sewers. Keep going.” 

The pale dry earth of the tunnel transitioned into a deep brown soil. Small roots poked out above their heads and fungus grew in sheets across the walls and floor. Soon the roots turned darker and larger forcing Gloria and her men to duck and eventually crouch forward. The Green had grown in deep and an acid drip of anxiety began within her gut. What if the sewers were overgrown? What if she came all this way only to choke on Greenlung before delivering news of her defeat? She pushed the thoughts aside, locking them in the dark recess of her mind. She couldn’t afford desperation now, not when she was so close. She bumped into the guard in front of her. 

“What's the hold up?”

“The roots ma’m. Too thick I can’t push through.” 

She pulled on the man's armor and struggled to push herself past him. They groped and grinded against each other until finally she squeezed her way into the lead. He was right, the roots had grown so thick there was no way for an armored man to pass through. The gap was too narrow and in their exit they hadn’t grabbed any tools with which to cut their way through. She considered for a moment firing at the roots but the energy output was just as likely to collapse the tunnel. Thinking quickly she tore off her duster and dropped her plasma defender and grabbed the chem light from the lead guard. She looked at the man. His face was streaked with grime and sweat and a pained expression of panic underneath. 

“I’ll go ahead.” She said plainly, as if she was walking down the hall and not abandoning these men underground. The guards opened his mouth to speak but bit his tongue. He held her gaze for a moment and then straightened his back and swallowed some fear. 

“Come back for us.”

“I will.” and without another word she crawled on her hands and knees forward through the roots. The air was damp and warm and close. She clenched the chem light in her teeth and transitioned to her elbows and she pushed and scraped herself forward through a chute little larger than a serving platter. Unable to look behind herself, Gloria couldn’t tell how far she had gone. Eventually even the chem light died but she kept crawling in total darkness. Her fingers probed for handholds in the dark and she felt something firm and gripped it only to feel it slide away. She panicked and slammed her head into the tunnel ceiling. Blood pumped in her ears and with pure desperation she crawled on, blind terror fueling her movements. Her body was bruised and bloody and the joints of her fingers screamed for relief but she continued. Twice more she reached out for a handhold, only to have it slither away. Terrible thoughts brought terrifying visions to her mind and in the pitch black she floundered for the line between real and unreal. Pure animal instinct drove her forward. The holotape, the Brotherhood, her family, even Gloria herself faded in her mind, all that was left was a scared human clawing their way through the dark bowels of the earth. 

Was this how she would die, alone and afraid in the dark? She didn’t even know if she was going the right way. Several times she swore the tunnel went down and not up. Had she crawled further and further away from salvation? Her discipline was gone and every doubt and insecurity within her mind reared its ugly face. She had failed, and not just failed but killed herself in her failure. Killed herself in the more terrible way possible, climbed into the mouth of a great beast only to rot and expire within its guts. Exhaustion wore on her desperate strength and her instinct turned to hopelessness. Her movements became languid and floppy and finally she sank her face into the cool moist dirt. She wanted to sob but she didn't have the energy. She wanted to hold herself, but the tunnel was too tight. Her body felt distant and numbness began to creep across her face. She took one deep breath in and the air was different. She sniffed again. The scent was warm, earthy but something else, something rotten. She slithered forward a little more and heard the sound of running water. Low and quiet in the distance but she heard it all the same. 

She didn’t stop to question if the sensations were real or not, she didn’t care. If delusion kept her moving then she would chase that delusion. With movement came a chance at life, stillness brought only death.