Fallout Girls
Chapter 201: Chapter 200 - Operation Anchorage
Previous ChapterLuna’s heart was still pounding as blinding white light engulfed her again. When it cleared this time, the Moons were back in the command tent where they had met the facsimile of General Chase. The General himself was standing next to a table bearing a health dispenser.
“Finally.” Sonata limped over to the dispenser and collapsed against it, leaving a trail of blood behind her. She let out a relieved sigh as the dispenser did its work. “That’s better.”
“Is it fixing your cuts as well?” Luna asked as evenly as she could. The entirety of her right arm was numb save for her shoulder, which was radiating pain through her whole torso.
“Oh yeah,” Sonata replied. She sighed and straightened up with a sated smile. “All good! You guys can have it now.”
Luna tried to direct Trixie to use the dispenser first, but she point-blank refused to touch it until the vice-principal had fixed herself up. Just as Sonata had said, the incredible little tool completely healed her shoulder, leaving it feeling as good as new. As Trixie took her turn, Luna noticed that she was looking exceptionally pale. “Are you alright?”
It was a shockingly stupid question, but Trixie just shrugged. “Yeah, sure, I’m fine. It’s not like that kid was real or anything,” she said in a forced monotone.
Luna felt a sharp pang of guilt at the pain she was clearly hiding. “You’re right, it wasn’t real, just some twisted game dreamed up by whoever originally coded this simulation.” In truth, Luna was certain that the creepy little girl was actually the one responsible for the Slasher, but saying that out loud just felt like a bad idea.
Trixie scowled and looked at the floor. She made to say something, but the General chose that moment to finally open his mouth, “You’ve hit the targets, now the only thing left is the refinery. Good luck.”
The Moons stared at him with a mix of confusion and exasperation. The silence hung for a moment before the General nodded to the door and said curtly, “Let’s wrap this up, soldier. We’re cold, we’re tired, and we want our goddamn oil back!”
“All of this fighting really was over oil?” Trixie muttered incredulously. Luna couldn’t really blame her for being surprised. The Enclave had already admitted as much to the trio, but having it outright confirmed by a pre-war computer program was still a lot to take in.
“Who cares what these dumb humans were fighting over? Let’s just finish it and get out of this thing!” Sonata exclaimed.
As much as Luna tried not to judge her students, current or former, by their intelligence, she was a little disconcerted by how much sense Sonata had been making during all of this mess. “You’re right. Just one last push then we can get back to Rivet City.” She glanced around for her stave, found it lying on the holo-map, and was about to head out of the tent when a thought occurred to her. “He did say refinery, didn’t he? I hope that’s the last thing we have to do here.”
“I’m not holding my breath,” Trixie said quietly.
“Why would you? Does something smell?” Sonata asked blithely.
Luna decided to spare her own sanity and not comment. Leading the trio out of the tent, she was surprised, and more than a little relieved, to be greeted by a full military camp instead of the bleak nightmare they had seen the last time they were here. There were tents and prefab bunkers all over the place, and plenty of US soldiers running errands or attending to different tasks around the camp.
“I thought that weird kid got rid of most of this to save on memory,” Trixie noted quietly.
“I did. This is something of a backup version,” the child in question said brightly. The trio looked around to see the little girl sitting on an ammunition crate nearby, casually watching a US soldier with several Chinese prisoners kneeling in a row in front of him.
Luna realized what was about to happen just before the soldier put a pistol to the first prisoner’s head and pulled the trigger. Trixie understandably gasped and turned away as quickly as she could, and even Sonata looked uncomfortable watching it. “Is this something extra like the zombies or the freaky monster kid?” She asked. “I don’t get it.”
The girl giggled and turned to smile at her. “No, this isn’t one of my additions, the good General actually had this included for the sake of authenticity and his overblown patriotism. Honestly? It’s rather tame compared to some of the foulness his men got up to. This country was founded and fed by atrocities the equal of anything my homeland did at its worst.”
Luna gathered that she was missing the proper historical context to really get what the girl was saying, but at this point she wasn’t interested in learning. Every single bit of new information about this world was somehow worse than the last. Seeing the way the local military had behaved in the past was enough to make up Luna’s mind; the first thing she was doing when she got everyone back home was smashing the Geode Diviner to pieces, with her bare hands if need be.
“Shouldn’t you three get moving? I’d hate to get bored and have to add in more obstacles for you.” The girl pointed to a path leading out of the camp. “Just head out that way, cross the no man's land and get into the trenches. I’m sure that you can figure things out from there. Go on, off you go!”
Tempting as it was to refuse, Luna knew that she didn’t really have that option. Besides, they couldn’t be that far from the end of the simulation. Hopefully. Luna didn’t look back as she turned away and led the girls to the path out of camp.
“I definitely get why the Rainbooms are so screwed up now,” Sonata put in randomly.
“This whole world is evil,” Trixie spat. “You were right about us, Sonata. If humans are capable of something like this, then our world would be better off with the Dazzlings in charge.”
Luna wanted to insist that that wasn’t true. She wanted to say that their world and this world were quite literally worlds apart in every possible way, that humanity as a whole couldn’t and shouldn’t be written off so easily, but for some reason the words just wouldn't come. Helping troubled teenage students navigate the rigamaroles of growing up was one thing, but battlefield trauma was a little outside Luna’s wheelhouse.
A smug smirk spread across Sonata’s face. “Yeah, humans and ponies are all as dumb and pathetic as each other. You’d all be totally better off with us in charge.” The smirk faded and a vacant look entered her eyes as she added, “The humans in this world are super messed up, though. It’s like being stuck in those old stories about Grogar or Hydia or something.”
“Stay focused, girls,” Luna warned. “Hopefully this is the last section before we finish this digital nightmare. Then we can get back to Rivet City or, better yet, back to the Enclave’s HQ, and we can put this behind us.” It was a lame attempt at reassurance, but it was all she had. The girls fell silent anyway.
The scenery didn’t exactly do much to improve the mood. Rocky walls on either side of the path formed a narrow defile that led down to a series of huge metal barriers, presumably intended to protect the camp from artillery. Thunderous blasts wafted over the barriers, interspersed with sporadic gunfire.
“That sounds fun,” Sonata muttered sarcastically.
“About as fun as your singing,” Luna shot before she could stop herself. She snapped her mouth shut, mortified, but the siren just scoffed at her.
“As if you know anything about singing,” Sonata retorted
Luna kept her mouth shut. Even if she had a decent comeback, it would have died the instant she rounded the last metal barrier and saw what was waiting for them.
A wide snow-dusted field stretched out before the trio. A massive pipeline to the left stretched the whole length of it, casting everything into shadow, but the field itself was featureless save for a smattering of craters and torn sections of razor wire. As if that wasn’t bad enough, scattered shots from hidden artillery were pounding the field into mulch. A series of trenchworks beginning about halfway across the field provided cover from the barrage, but the first hundred or so yards were pretty much a killing field.
“We’re supposed to cross that?” Sonata asked.
“Apparently,” Luna replied.
“Without dying?” Sonata added.
“That would be the ideal way, yes,” Luna clarified. “But I’m sure we can work something out if that’s not your thing.”
Sonata shook her head wildly. “Nope, that’s my thing! That’s totally my thing! Like, way way into the not dying thing.”
Luna gave an exaggerated nod and focused on the blasts. Assuming that this section was actually part of the original training simulation, then presumably there had to be a way through it in one piece. “I think I’ve got it,” she said after a minute or two of scrutiny.
“Is there a pattern to the explosions’ timing?” Trixie asked.
Luna shook her head. “Not as such, not that I can see anyway, but look at where the explosions are landing.”
Both girls frowned as they did as they were told. Trixie was the first to see what she was getting at. “No new craters… they’re only hitting the ones that are already there!”
“Exactly,” Luna said, privately relieved both that she hadn't simply been imagining it and that Trixie hadn't completely shut down and given up. “I think, I hope, that this part was originally meant to be more of a test of courage than anything.”
Trixie looked out over the field still being battered by artillery. “So we should be able to cross safely if we just avoid the craters?”
“I certainly hope so,” Luna replied. “Having said that, I do think we should try to get to the other side as fast as we physically can. Just in case.”
“Yeah, getting blown up would suck,” Sonata said without a hint of irony.
Luna ignored the shiver that ran down her spine and tightened her grip on her stave. “Are you two ready?” The expressions on the girls’ faces said more than words ever could. “Once you’re moving, don’t stop until you reach the other side, and be ready for anything when you get there.” With one last glance at the girls, Luna got into a starting pose. “Good luck out there. Go!”
The trio were off like a shot. Sonata tore away with surprising speed, leaving the other two in her dust. Luna had intended to keep pace near Trixie, to help if needed, but that plan went out of the window the instant the first explosion landed nearby.
The ground bucked and shuddered under the impact. Scalding air buffeted Luna from the side, and the quaking earth almost drove her to her knees. Even the sound alone was almost enough to shatter any form of coherent thought. Expecting it didn’t help; no experience even came close to preparing someone for it. Right as the shockwaves from the blast began to fade, another shell struck the ground a little further on.
Dust and smoke obscured Luna’s vision. She tried to call out to Trixie, but the explosions were so appallingly loud that she couldn’t hear her own voice, much less anything else. Pressing on regardless, the bombardment grew in intensity, forcing Luna to practically stagger along almost completely blind. Every second, she expected to feel shrapnel tearing into her body, or to trip headlong into a crater an instant before being obliterated. That fear was suddenly and horribly realized as she felt the floor disappear beneath her feet and she lurched forward.
Pain crashed through Luna as she slammed to the rocky ground. She froze up despite herself, waiting for the end to come in a flash of light and fury.
“Uh, are you okay there, teach?” A concerned voice asked. Ever so slowly, Luna untensed enough to tilt her head back. There, standing over her with a wince twisting her face, was Sonata. “That, uh, that looked painful.”
Luna just nodded and looked around slowly as she tried to get her breath back. By some miracle, instead of a crater, she had fallen into a trench. “Where… where’s Trixie?” She finally managed to gasp out.
“I dunno-” Sonata had barely opened her mouth when Trixie dropped into the trench and landed on unsteady feet right next to Luna. “Oh, there she is. That’s everyone, so… are we going, or what?”
It was only the fact that Luna was still struggling to get her breath back that stopped her cursing the siren out loud, though she did enjoy the caustic glare that Trixie demonstrated. “Just… give me a minute,” Luna said. Crossing the killing field had taken more out of her than she cared to admit. When she finally got herself under control, Luna got to her feet and rolled her shoulders to loosen them up again. “Okay, I’m good to go. Are you both ready?” Her question was mostly aimed at Trixie, but both of the girls nodded regardless.
The next issue was navigating the trenches. Thankfully, after a few dead ends and a ramp or two that led back up to the killing field, the way forward turned out to be fairly linear. Artillery was still battering the ground above, but the trenches provided plenty of protection from the worst of it. There were even artificial chokepoints built at irregular intervals, many of them guarded by nervous-looking US soldiers.
It was at one of those chokepoints that trouble found the trio once again. Luna stepped through first, only to let out a sharp gasp and skip back less than a second later. She had barely gotten behind the chokepoint before a hail of bullets hammered into the reinforced wood. “Watch out! There’s a Chinese soldier down here!” Luna warned.
Sonata groaned loudly. “They could’ve at least made this part easy for us. Out of the way, I'll deal with it.”
“Hold on.” Luna poked her stave around the corner and fired off a couple of blind blasts. A short burst of gunfire answered her attempt. There was little doubt in Luna's mind that Sonata could handle the wayward soldier, she didn't see any need to take any risks if there was an alternative. “Give me a second, I want to try something.”
The magic somehow felt both familiar and foreign as Luna reached for it again. Her whole body tingled as it vaporized almost instantly, turning into the same diaphanous blue cloud as before. Even the Tide Stave, instead of clattering to the ground, had turned gaseous and merged with Luna's new form.
“Uh, that's kinda cool, but what are you doing?” Sonata asked.
Luna tried to answer, only to realize belatedly that she couldn't talk without a mouth. Shrugging without shoulders posed a similar problem, but Luna threw those minor issues to the back of her mind and focused on her main concern. Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried to wriggle or twist, she just couldn’t make herself move. Gritting her currently non-existent teeth, Luna concentrated and tried to will herself to move. An instant later her not-quite-real face was smooshed against the trench wall.
“Whoa, what are you doing?!” Sonata screeched.
Sustained gunfire tore through the air again. Luna balked as she realized that she had blundered right into the Chinese soldier’s view, but her plan had worked nonetheless. The bullets were sailing right through her cloudy form without bothering her in the slightest. With an invisible grin, Luna whizzed through the chokepoint and straight at the soldier.
The poor fool kept shooting despite the fact that he clearly couldn’t hurt her. Naturally, Luna doubted that she could do anything to him either in this form, but she didn’t really need to. She simply darted around behind him, forcing the soldier to whip around to keep her in his sights. He paused to reload, slamming a fresh magazine home with professional speed, but his fate had been sealed the moment he had turned his back on the others. Just as the soldier started firing again, Trixie buried her knife up to the hilt in his neck.
This time, Luna managed to stay standing as she reverted back to her normal self. “Nice work. I was hoping that one of you would jump in.”
“You’re insane,” Trixie said flatly as the soldier dissipated.
“I’m a teacher, it’s practically in the job description.” A part of Luna’s mind idly reaffirmed that humor really did make her feel better in bad situations. That was what she told herself, anyway. “Anyway, that’s an extra advantage for us. What about your magic? It’s something to do with firecrackers or something along those lines, right?”
Trixie winced and looked away. “Uh, no. Actually, it, uh…”
Lots of angry shouting in Chinese interrupted whatever she was going to say. Luna spun around and snapped up her stave just in time to see two more Chinese soldiers appear around the next chokepoint.
“Move!” Sonata shoved the others out of the way and let out a colossal blast. In the tight confines of the trench, the hapless soldiers didn’t stand a chance against her sonic might. “Magic is, like, so cool, but maybe don’t stand around talking about it when people are trying to shoot you!”
“Right, sorry.” Luna was only given a moment to stew in her embarrassment as more shouting announced the arrival of yet more soldiers. Sonata dealt with them swiftly, but more could be heard approaching before the noise had fully died away. “It looks like these guys aren’t going to give us a chance to rest on our laurels,” Luna said grimly. “It’s just a hunch, but I get the feeling we’re going to have to keep pressing forward if we want to make any headway against this.”
Sonata blasted the soldiers that charged around the corner and heaved a sigh. “Yeah, I can hear more shouting already. Ugh, this would be so much easier if I could just sing and get them to kill each other instead.”
“Shouldn’t you at least try?!” Trixie snapped.
“Siren Song doesn’t work on computers, duh,” Sonata countered. “Even if it did, it takes more than one amulet to calm down people who’re already trying to fight you.”
“It’s not necessary,” Luna put in. “We’ve got a potent advantage now, so let's make the most of it.” Suiting actions to words, she used her newfound power to turn herself insubstantial and took the lead again.
The trio quickly settled into a comfortable rhythm as they advanced. Luna safely distracted the Chinese soldiers, then Trixie and Sonata took them out. Every now and then they discovered a handful of US soldiers who had been taken hostage, and even another one of the strange briefcases that Trixie had been collecting. Despite her misgivings about the creep who had provided her new magic, Luna couldn’t help but be thankful for it; battling through trenchfuls of trained soldiers would have been a near-suicidal slog without it.
Just as Luna was wondering how much further they had to go, the trio turned a corner and discovered that the trench ended in a ramp leading up and out.
“Please tell me we don’t have to run another gauntlet through those explosions,” Trixie moaned.
Sonata shook her head. “Nah, it sounds like we’re past them all.”
“Really?” Luna cupped a hand around her ear and listened. The constant twists and turns of the trenches distorted sound and had completely ruined her sense of direction, but the sound of the explosions did indeed seem to be coming from one direction. “Good ear. I’ll still go up and check first though, just in case.” Gripping her stave tightly, and ready to turn insubstantial at a moment’s notice, Luna crept up the ramp.
It turned out that the trio were most of the way across the killing field. There was a short open space at the top of the ramp, dotted with covered sandbag emplacements, and the explosions from the artillery bombardment were definitely back the way the trio had come. Another ramp leading to a second section of trenches lay just beyond the last emplacement. Best of all, there didn’t appear to be any Chinese soldiers lurking around.
“I think it’s clear,” Luna called down to the others. “Come on up.”
Trixie and Sonata both looked around cautiously as they joined Luna. After a few seconds, Trixie nodded slowly. “I don’t see any of those invisible soldiers. I mean, obviously, but… you know what I mean.”
“I get what you mean.” Trixie’s instincts hadn’t been wrong yet, but Luna didn’t drop her guard as she led the way past the empty emplacements. The second ramp opened out into a small dugout at the bottom from which the next trench system began. Once again, suspiciously, there didn’t appear to be any soldiers lurking about. Luna crept to the top of the ramp and squatted, ignoring the cracking of her knees, to get a better look down the length of the trench. It was completely empty. “Trixie?”
“I don’t see anything,” Trixie replied. “What does that mean?”
“It means we need to keep our wits about us.” Luna kept a tight grip on her stave as she headed down the ramp. The moment she was about to step through the dugout’s chokepoint into the trenches proper, a lone Chinese soldier stepped into view a short way ahead. Unlike the others, this soldier was carrying an unwieldy-looking cylindrical weapon with a distinctive nozzle and had a worryingly large fuel tank strapped to his back. Luna realized what the weapon was and instinctively threw herself aside in a split-second. “Get back!”
A gout of flame erupted from the narrow trench a heartbeat later. Trixie and Sonata both yelped and scrambled away from the opening, understandably spooked by the new threat. Luna used her magic transformation only for Sonata to suddenly scream at her, “Don’t do that you idiot!”
The urgency in the siren’s voice gave Luna pause. Her hesitation gave the soldier time to advance, and she soon heard heavy footsteps crunching down the trench towards her. Cursing silently, Luna undid her transformation and barked at the girls, “Get back up top!”
The three scrambled back up and out of the dugout as one. Trixie stumbled on the ramp and almost fell, but Luna grabbed her and practically dragged her up to safety right before a wave of blazing heat washed over their backs with a distinctive whoosh. Together they belted after Sonata and dove headlong behind the nearest sandbags.
“Starswirl’s saggy bellsack, what was that about?!” Luna spat with a glare at Sonata.
Sonata glared right back at her. “Mist and cloud magic don’t work against fire, you idiot! Why do you think the Cloud Demon was scared of dragons?!”
“Erebus isn’t real, he’s a myth!” Luna snapped.
“He’s real in Equestria!” Sonata countered. Luna opened her mouth to remind her that neither she nor Trixie knew the faintest thing about Equestria, but Sonata interrupted her with an annoyed huff, “Ugh, just let me deal with it!” She looked over the top of the sandbags, waited silently for a few seconds, then suddenly unleashed the power of her voice in a sonorous blast.
“There, see? That’s how- uh-oh.” Sonata squealed and dropped to the floor just as a stream of liquid fire splashed against the sandbags. “It didn’t work?! Why didn’t my magic work?!”
Luna shifted to avoid a few stray droplets of burning propellant. When the torrent stopped, she leapt up and snapped off a couple of shots. The soldier staggered as a blue bolt struck him in the shoulder. Luna kept firing, landing hit after hit, but it wasn’t enough to take him down. Instead, he somehow managed to regain his footing and braced himself against the barrage. Luna gave up and ducked back behind the sandbags right as he was raising his weapon again. “Damn it, his armor’s too tough! Trixie, I hate to ask, but do you think you can blow his fuel tank up with a firework or your magic?”
“I’m out of fireworks, and my magic isn’t blowing things up!” Trixie shook her head violently as Luna turned to her. “What I did back with the zombies wasn’t a real explosion! I made a light appear in my hand, and it popped when I accidentally thought about it, but it was just light and noise, there was no heat or force in it! It was just-”
“An illusion!” Luna stood and fired at the soldier again. It didn’t harm him in the slightest, but it got him to stop and fire his weapon again, buying precious seconds. “Can you make an illusion that’ll distract this guy?!”
Trixie didn’t answer. She cupped her hands, a pale turquoise light glowing between them, then thrust them forwards. Luna stared in dull surprise as a rough blue simulacra of a human being appeared out of thin air next to the emplacement. It was only the barest form of a person, without any identifiable features of any kind, and for a moment Luna was worried that the soldier would ignore it entirely.
Her fears vanished as a river of fire engulfed the human-ish form. Even better, the soldier didn’t let up despite the fact that his attack clearly wasn’t having any effect. It wasn’t the exact outcome that Luna had hoped for, but she couldn’t let an opportunity like this slip by. Gathering her courage, she flipped her stave over to grip it like a spear, then vaulted over the sandbags and charged at the soldier. The stream of fire traced an arc in the air as he turned his weapon to her.
He wasn’t fast enough.
Luna collided with him at full pelt and they both fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. The two struggled, Luna fighting to get upright, when finally she managed to force herself to her knees and wrench her stave free in an arterial spray. Blood spurted from a vicious hole in the soldier’s neck before he disappeared in a blue flash, the sudden loss of mass dumping Luna’s backside onto her own heels.
“Whoa… that was pretty cool,” Sonata said appreciatively.
Luna sniffed and got to her feet, torn between pride and disgust. “It had to be done. Nice work, Trixie. We were in trouble there.”
“Like you said, it had to be done,” Trixie said quietly as she stepped out of the emplacement, though Luna thought she caught the ghost of a smile playing about her lips.
Despite the added bonus of Trixie’s new magic, pressing on was the most nerve-wracking experience of Luna’s life. As she led the way down the ramp again, she half-expected another soldier with a flamethrower, or worse, to suddenly pop out of the trench ahead. Thankfully, no soldiers appeared whatsoever, and the trio were relieved to stumble across a table bearing a healing dispenser around the first corner.
The next corner was far less forgiving. A straight trench stretched out ahead of the trio, with a concrete pillbox dominating the far end of it. Luna had barely taken a single step around the corner when a pair of turrets whirred to life inside the structure, stitching a line of holes down the length of the trench and making her jump back out of sight.
“Stay back, girls. I’ve got this.” Luna shifted to her mist form and ventured back around the corner. The turrets let loose again, filling the air with death, but compared to the flamethrower they were practically a breath of fresh air.
Zipping along, Luna hurried down the length of the trench. The path forked at the base of the pillbox but she ignored that, floated snakily up the wall, and slid in through the pillbox’s window. One magical transformation followed by two blasts from the Tide Stave and the turrets ceased to be a problem.
As the mangled metal faded from sight, Luna caught herself wondering if this was how the Rainbooms felt whenever they did something cool with their magic. It was weird; she was terrified, guilty, and stressed to the absolute hilt, but on some deep level she was actually enjoying herself. Dismissing the thought with a shake of her head, Luna used her mist-form again to return to the girls.
Trixie was tucking her knife away when she got back to them. “There was an invisible sniper lurking right here by the corner,” Trixie said by way of explanation. “He tried to shoot you as soon as you got about halfway down there.”
“Huh, I didn’t even hear him over the racket those turrets were making. Nice work.” Luna gave her a nod of thanks. “The pillbox is empty now, but keep an eye out for any more of those invisible pests.” After quickly reusing the health dispenser, Luna led the girls onward. She didn’t have the faintest clue which way they were supposed to go at the fork, so she just picked the right-hand passage and hoped for the best.
The difficulty level spiked harshly beyond that point. Every other corner revealed more soldiers, occasionally with another flamethrower mixed in, and the ones that didn’t were guarded by either a group of zombies or another Pint-sized Slasher. At one point the trio even ran into a Chinese soldier toting a literal rocket launcher. Thankfully, that one proved less resistant to Sonata’s magic than the flamer-wielding freaks.
Even the trenches themselves seemed to conspire against the trio. Instead of a linear path, the three now found themselves in a maze of narrow passageways, interspersed with wooden shacks full of enemies and concrete pillboxes defended by gun turrets, while health dispensers were few and far between. Finally, after a brutal slog where they had to fight for every inch forward, the trio reached the end of the trenches.
Bombed-out ruins awaited them at the top of the ramp. The shattered, snow-covered husks of old concrete buildings spread out ahead, strongly resembling the downtown D.C. ruins. Concrete tank traps, reels of razor wire and battered sandbag barricades filled the empty spaces between the ruined buildings. It appeared that the simulation had entirely given up on subtlety by this point, as a whole bunch of soldiers were clearly lying in wait among the ruins, while another pillbox sat on a cliff to the right overlooking the scene.
“This is gonna suck,” Trixie muttered.
“We’ll get through this, we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Luna told her. “I’ll deal with the pillbox, you two just keep the soldiers back until I’m finished then we’ll deal with them together.”
Sonata cocked her head to the side curiously. “Why’s it called a pillbox?”
“It’s a nickname that Trottingham soldiers came up with because the first ones looked like the old pillar boxes they used for public post,” Luna replied. “At least, that’s where the name came from in our world.” It was a second before she realized that the girls were looking at her with surprised expressions. “What? She asked, so I… anyway, just be ready to deal with those soldiers.”
Luna silently reminded herself to stay focused as she transformed. A storm of gunfire erupted the moment she moved into the open, but she ignored it and darted up through the pillbox’s window. As expected, there was nothing but turrets inside, so Luna destroyed them before shifting back into her mist-form. She would have liked to have picked off the soldiers from her new vantage point, but the moment she moved to the window they started blasting away at her once again.
Still, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Hovering in the window, Luna made sure that she had the girls’ attention and tried to gesture towards the soldiers. It took a few tries, but Trixie soon got her intention, and she swiftly passed the idea along to Sonata.
Luna watched as the girls carefully picked their way forward. Focused as they were on Luna, the soldiers didn’t realize that they were in danger until Sonata’s magic obliterated the first group of them. The remaining soldiers regrouped quickly, splitting their fire between Luna and the girls, but between Luna’s mist-form and a fresh illusion from Trixie most of them were targeting nothing but thin air. Once Sonata had mopped up the last of the soldiers, Luna floated back down to rejoin the girls so they could move on.
The ruins ended up being just as packed with enemies as the last section of trenchworks had been. Despite that, the less cramped nature of the ruins meant that it was easier to deal with the Chinese soldiers, especially the flamer-wielding ones. As the trio pushed deeper, they were surprised and a little concerned to hear gunfire coming from up ahead.
“I hope that’s just zombies and soldiers attacking each other again,” Trixie grumbled.
It didn’t take long for the Moons to discover the source of the new conflict. It wasn’t zombies, but none of the girls were about to complain about the new arrivals. “Huh, it’s the Brotherhood of Steel,” Sonata noted simply.
“Not quite.” Luna couldn’t blame her for getting it mixed up. Dozens of power-armored US soldiers were moving into the ruins, mowing down Chinese soldiers left and right. Their armor was very similar to that worn by the Brotherhood, though they bore different insignia, wintry paint jobs, and seemed to be moving just a little more smoothly than they did in the Capital Wasteland. “We must be getting close to the refinery.”
“Or the Pulse Field that the General mentioned,” Trixie supplied. “He did say that we had to overload something before we could get to the enemy headquarters.
It took every ounce of Luna’s willpower not to swear viciously. “That’s right, there were three targets we had to hit. Good thing you remembered.” She forced what she hoped was a confident grin onto her face. “At least having these armored lunks around should make it easier to get to the Pulse Field.”
Those words rang hollow only minutes later as the trio reached the edge of the ruins. The path ended abruptly at a wooden ledge, a small steel prefab building, and a six-foot drop. A vast snowy field stretched out from the bottom of the drop, broken only by yet another pillbox, a second prefab building far off to the right, and what was clearly a massive refinery off in the distance.
A small set of stairs leading down from the nearest prefab provided the easiest access to the field. Even as the Moons watched, a power-armored soldier stomped down them and ventured towards the pillbox. Before he could get anywhere near it his armor was wracked by violent spasms, electricity arcing from it with a loud snapping and crackling sound before he finally keeled over backwards. The soldier disappeared in a blue flash a second later.
“Wow, I actually thought these armored guys would make things easier,” Sonata said without a trace of irony.
Luna pointedly avoided looking at Trixie. “This must be the Pulse Field. Hopefully we can switch it off from inside that pillbox, but-”
“We’re probably going to have to go all the way over to one of those other buildings,” Trixie finished in a weary tone.
There was nothing Luna could say to counter that, so she didn’t bother trying. “Either way, I’m willing to bet there’s a turret in that pillbox that’ll have to be dealt with before we can do anything else. Wait here while I get rid of it.”
The girls nodded as Luna performed her transformation for the umpteenth time, still savoring the frisson that ran through her body as she shifted, and zipped towards the pillbox. She got about halfway to it when she was greeted by a hail of bullets. Glancing up, Luna noted irritably that there was indeed a turret inside the pillbox, along with half a dozen Chinese soldiers. Dealing with the pillbox was going to be trickier than expected.
Luna sighed silently and planned her approach. Unlike the other pillboxes that the trio had encountered, this one had a steep snow-covered slope leading up to its rear. She darted up it and hurried to the entrance and cautiously, in case anyone inside had a flamer, peeked in through the doorway. The soldiers turned and fired with alarming speed, making Luna tense up, but she relaxed when she saw that all they bore were assault rifles and a single shotgun.
For a moment, it looked like things were at an impasse. The soldiers couldn’t hurt Luna while she was in her mist-form, but she couldn’t hurt them in turn. As she tried to come up with a safe strategy, her gaze fell on the turret in the ceiling that was still firing away at her, and a twisted plan formed in her mind. It would never work on real, thinking soldiers, but against these digital dolls…
Steeling herself, Luna darted into the room and floated up to the turret, engulfing it in her incorporeal form.
The following seconds were by far the most surreal experience of Luna’s life. She knew the turret was there, technically inside her, but she couldn’t feel it in the slightest despite the fact that it was still trying to shoot her. Unfortunately for it, so were the soldiers. Just as Luna had predicted, they were all treating her as a solid target and blasting away, heedless of the fact that the bullets were passing harmlessly through her. The turret was shredded in seconds.
Luna grinned as her plan worked flawlessly. With the turret gone, she repeated the trick on the soldiers, letting them pick each other off until only one remained. Dealing with the last soldier was a little more involved. She waited, ignoring his gunfire, until he finally stopped to reload. Luna was swinging her stave before she had even finished transforming. The pearl smashed into the soldier’s head, knocking him off-balance. The follow-up blast put him down for good.
Silence fell abruptly. All evidence of the fight had disappeared, but Luna looked around with a sense of satisfaction anyway. “That… was the coolest thing I’ve ever done!” She giggled and danced on the spot for a second before remembering that the girls were waiting for her. Serious once again, Luna checked for anything that looked like it might affect the Pulse Field, but it was fruitless. The pillbox was entirely empty. She sighed and stepped outside to call down to the girls, “It’s clear, come on up!”
“We’re going to the other building, aren’t we?” Trixie asked as soon as they reached the pillbox. Luna just sighed and nodded. “I never thought I’d hate being right.”
“It happens surprisingly often as you get older,” Luna told her. The girls fell into step alongside her as she turned towards the building off to the right. “I know I’ve said this a hundred times already, but be ready for anything. If we really are getting to the end of the simulation, then it’s probably going to throw everything it has at us as part of a final test.”
The trio were exceptionally cautious as they stalked towards the steel prefab. Luna felt like her senses were in overdrive, keyed up to either shoot or transform the instant she noticed anything that even resembled a threat. Strangely, nothing made any attempt to stop the Moons as they approached, but they didn’t dare let their guard down as they climbed up the steps and walked around to the entrance. Luna tightened her grip on her stave before lunging through the doorway.
“Well that’s a letdown,” Sonata said with a huff.
The building was deserted. There were no soldiers, no zombies, not even any near-invisible assassins lurking in one of the corners. All the building contained was a single table-sized console, bearing a briefcase and a conspicuously large button on top.
Luna gave the room another once-over as Trixie grabbed the briefcase. Satisfied, Luna made sure the girls were ready, took a deep breath, and pressed the button.
A blinding flash and a deafening crackling sound filled the air outside. Luna hurried to the window just in time to see the US soldiers begin their advance, charging full-tilt towards the Refinery across the now deactivated Pulse Field. In a matter of moments, laser fire crackled between the soldiers and the Refinery’s defenders.
Luna glanced back at the girls. “It looks like this is it. Follow those tin cans and let them draw all the enemy fire!”
Together, the three darted out of the building and joined the charge. Despite their head start and the frankly ridiculous distance to the Refinery, it didn’t take long at all for the Moons to catch up to the US soldiers. Luna suspected that there was some programming trickery going on. As the miniature army approached the Refinery walls, Luna saw that it was turrets, rather than Chinese soldiers, that were raining laser fire down on the attackers. Strangely, they only seemed to be targeting the power-armored soldiers, not that she was complaining.
A pair of massive steel doors in even more enormous walls formed the entrance to the Refinery. Just as Luna was wondering how they were going to get through them, one of the soldiers raised a strange launcher of some kind. The following blast lit up the field, shook the earth, and smashed the doors off of their hinges.
“What was that?!” Sonata exclaimed.
Luna shook her head. “I have no idea, but it cleared the way. Look.” She pointed through the breach to where a second wall waited, with an ordinary set of double doors providing access. The power armored soldiers made no attempt to breach them, instead forming up outside, reinforcing the idea that the person running the simulation had to do the heavy lifting.
“You’ve finally reached the end.” Luna tried not to shudder as the creepy girl made a reappearance, stepping out from behind a soldier. “All that remains is to deal with General Jingwei, the leader of the Chinese forces in Anchorage. Be warned, by all accounts the real Jingwei was a force to be reckoned with, and Colonel Chase certainly didn’t water down the man’s skills when creating this simulation. I look forward to seeing how well you fare against him.” Before anyone could respond, the girl gave a little wave and vanished into thin air.
“So we kill one more guy and we’re done?” This is gonna be easy!” Sonata slapped a hand over her mouth as the other two glared at her.
“Stop. Tempting. Fate,” Trixie snarled.
Luna just sighed heavily. Knowing that they were so close to the end had sent a fresh wave of concern for the girls rushing through her head, but, at the same time, she knew that the only way out was through. Besides, hesitating for too long would probably just inspire the creepy kid to add in some new atrocity for the trio to deal with. “Brace yourselves, girls. Let’s end this nightmare.”
Squaring her shoulders, Luna marched up to the doors and shoved them open.
On the other side was a wide courtyard. Dozens of Chinese soldiers were spread out around the area, but it was the one standing dead in the center of the space that drew the Moons’ attention. His uniform was largely the same as the others’, save for a peaked cap, decorations on his shoulders that presumably denoted his rank, and a sword scabbarded at his hip. A US soldier was kneeling in front of the man, bound and bereft of his armor. There was no doubt that this was General Jingwei.
The General eyed the soldiers pouring into his HQ with contempt. He drew his sword, flourished it, then stabbed it through the heart of his captive. He calmly withdrew his blade before glaring at Luna and shouting something to her in Chinese.
“Um, Sonata? What did he say?” Luna asked.
Sonata shrugged, a confused frown marring her features. “No idea. I’ve never heard an accent like that before.”
“That’s probably not good,” Luna muttered. Jingwei was still glaring at her, and she suspected that she was supposed to reply to him somehow, but she didn’t have the faintest idea what she was meant to say. Taking a deep breath, Luna drew herself up, hitched an icy expression onto her face, and called out in the most authoritative voice she could muster, “It’s over, General. Surrender now, and you and your men will be spared.” She had no idea what Jingwei said in response, but it didn’t sound like a surrender. Whatever it was, he raised his sword on the last shouted word and all Tartarus broke loose.
The Moons scattered as both sets of soldiers simultaneously opened fire. Bullets and laser fire shredded the air, forcing Luna to transform while the girls dove behind the nearest power-armored troops.
Jingwei’s voice rang out through the courtyard and Luna noted sourly that none of the soldiers were aiming at him whatsoever. A heartbeat later she realized that they weren't shooting at her, either. Suspicion turned to grim resignation as the General pointed his sword directly at Luna and shouted what was unmistakably a challenge. The simulation was to end with a showdown.
Luna shifted back into human form just as Jingwei charged. She snapped off a shot, grazing his shoulder, but he twisted to dodge the second. The third went wide and she transformed just in time for his blade to sail harmlessly through her. Luna immediately zipped off to a safe distance before changing back. She fired again just as the General was turning to face her. He rolled aside, narrowly dodging the shot, but she was ready for him.
“Gotcha!” Luna fired just as Jingwei was rolling to his feet. Vicious excitement turned to shock as he swept his sword up and deflected the bolt at the last second. A glowing blue current ran up and down the blade, while tiny sparks flared from its edge. “Oh that’s not good.”
The General growled something in Chinese and charged again. More bolts were slapped aside just as easily, sparks flying with each swing. In a panic, Luna tried the transforming trick again.
It was a mistake.
Pain ripped through Luna’s body the instant the sword touched her. The shock knocked her back into her human form and she landed hard on her back. The General was standing over a second later, blade raised high. For a brief second Luna saw the face of Death before he disappeared with a roar like thunder.
“Can you please stop sucking at this?!” Sonata snapped as she hauled Luna to her feet.
Luna threw her a glare before looking around for the General. Her heart dropped when she spotted him getting to his feet a short distance away. “Whoops, hang on.” Sonata blasted him again only for Jingwei to stab his sword into the ground and clutch it tightly. The force of the sonic attack pushed him back, his blade carving a furrow into the ground, but he managed to weather it nonetheless. “Uh… that’s…”
“A problem,” Luna finished. “We need to slow him down somehow, that way I might be able…” She trailed off as her gaze shifted to the siren next to her. “I need you to go kaiju.” Sonata looked at her as if she was nuts. “The big version of you! Your origi-”
“You said it was dangerous!” Sonata shot.
“So is that guy!” Luna gestured to Jingwei, who chose that moment to wrench his sword out of the ground and launch himself at the pair. “Just trust me!” Luna shoved Sonata away before transforming.
A nightmarish chase ensued as the two dashed around the courtyard. Luna struggled to stay out of Jingwei’s reach, desperately trying to come up with a way to fight back while dodging his blade at all costs. She tried to look out for Trixie and Sonata, but the General was relentless, hounding her without giving her even a second to breathe. Luna was running out of ideas when a wave of static washed across the courtyard.
“I’m done with these stupid human games!” The ground shook as Sonata’s true siren form appeared in the sky above the courtyard. Scattered gunfire clattered off of her scales, but she ignored it and set about destroying every Chinese soldier she could find.
Relief and fear alike flooded through Luna at the sight. Overloading the simulation while they were still inside it was absurdly risky, but it was the only way the Moons had a real chance at stopping Jingwei. Glancing back, she saw that the man in question was glitching, his body flickering and his legs pumping faster than he was actually moving. Payback time.
Quick as a flash, Luna returned to her normal form and raised her stave. Every shot she fired hit Jingwei clean in the torso, his defensive swinging hitting nothing but air. Even so, he didn’t stop, not until a bolt struck him in the face and he dropped to his knees, just a few paces from where Vice-Principal was standing.
Luna let out a breath that she didn’t realize she’d been holding. She aimed her stave one last time, ready to end this, when Jingwei suddenly surged to his feet. Luna barely had time to react before the General slammed his sword through her stomach.
Someone screamed her name, but Luna couldn’t acknowledge it. She just stared down at the blade buried to the hilt in her abdomen. There was surprisingly little pain, at first, until Jingwei pressed a button on the hilt and suddenly her life exploded in agony. The electricity doubled Luna over, pressing her against the General in a twisted parody of an embrace. Jingwei whispered something to her in Chinese, but Luna stubbornly interrupted him through gritted teeth, “Just shut up you prick.”
She punctuated her words by punching the sharp end of her stave through his windpipe.
The simulation instantly froze. A ringing silence fell as Jingwei disappeared in a blue flash, leaving Luna to slump to her knees.
Trixie was at her side in an instant. “A-are you alright?! What can I do?! Don’t die!”
“It’s okay, Trixie,” Luna replied. “I’m… I think I’m actually… fine?” She wasn’t lying. The pain had vanished as swiftly as Jingwei had.
“Did I break the computer? I think I broke the computer,” Sonata said as she strolled up to the other two. “Whatever, it’s not my fault anyway. You told me to use my real power.”
Luna just shook her head. She would have stood up, but her legs were still feeling like jelly. “It’s not your fault, Sonata. I think we’ve finished the simulation.” She jerked her chin to where General Chase had suddenly materialized out of thin air, striding purposefully towards them.
“That’ll do, soldier. Stand down!” The General apparently didn’t realize that Luna was on the floor, as he was talking to a point somewhere above her head. “With the General’s death, our boys can secure this refinery and be on their way to Anchorage proper. You’ve helped pave the way for taking the city back from the Reds, soldier. Good work. You’ve also gone above and beyond the call of duty by recovering important enemy intel and exposing their plans to us. Again, well done, soldier.”
“Wait, we did?” Sonata asked.
Trixie snapped her fingers in realization. “That must be what those briefcases were!”
“That’ll complete this portion of your training,” General Chase continued. “Report to your superior for debriefing and reassignment. Dismissed!”
Luna sighed heavily and let herself droop to the floor as her vision went white.
Squill couldn’t keep the grin off of her face as she climbed up the first guard tower. Vikia and Gruber, the Pitt’s best sniper and its best fighter respectively, were both up top already.
“Just great, now I’ve got a mouth-breather and a worker stinking up the air around here,” Vikia said without turning around. “What are you doing here, scab?”
“That’s former scab, bitch.” Squill eagerly stepped over to the railing and looked out from under the protective awning. “I’m here to watch. You heard about those two scabs who brought back the most recent steel order? Well, those fuckers just got sent back out into the Steelyard to fill two orders.”
Gruber let out a wet snort. “Wha’s the fuckin’ point? Radstorm’s gonna hit any minute, which means the big bitch is gonna be out an’ about. Fuckin’ scabs’ll be dead in seconds.”
“Yeah, Lucy’s a tough motherfucker.” Squill enjoyed the way Gruber shuddered at the mention of the trog’s name. Leaning in close, she lowered her voice as she added, “These fuckers, though, they ain’t ordinary scabs. See, one of those fuckers has got some fucking strong magic, and other ain’t just some pushover from what I’ve heard.” Squill felt her grin widen as the others both perked up. She suspected that the girl was actually one of the Rainbooms the newest slaves had spoken about, but she didn’t bother to mention it to the others. “I’ve got ten smokes that says they manage to fuck up at least one of Lucy’s heads before she gets them. You fuckers in?”