Deadman

“Too bad,” I lifted my shotgun and went to pull the trigger, but I found myself suddenly frozen in place.

V smiled. “You’re quick. I only just barely activated freeze in time.”

I gritted my teeth, straining to pull the trigger.

V approached me, peeled the gun out of my hands and kicked me in the chest, sending me into the wall with surprising strength. He then leveled my shotgun at my head. “How many did she bring?”

I didn’t answer, instead feeling out my options. I activated freeze on him and leapt toward him, but he countered by slamming my gun into me like a club. I was so surprised it knocked me back to the ground.

“Good try. I’ll ask again. How many of you are there?”

“Fifty.”

V shook his head. “I doubt that. Leah prefers smaller groups for this kind of wet work.” He sighed. “The screams I heard deeper in the factory. Those you?”

I gave him a toothy smile.

“Thought so. You’re newer I’m guessing. Haven’t figured things out completely or been brought totally into the fold yet.”

I remained silent. The smart thing to do was to buy time and keep him talking.

“Just letting me talk to buy time? Good. You're more on the clever side than some of the others she’s used before.” He angled the shotgun a little closer to my head. “Since you’re clever I’m going to ask you a little question. You’ve gotten those messages saying that if you don’t complete a certain objective, you’ll lose access to the R.A.S.?”

I nodded. No reason to hide it. A former Marshall like him had to have received that kind of message himself.

“If the R.A.S. could take away someone’s access for not obeying one of those messages, why do I still have access?”

I blinked, that was a damned good question.

“I just froze you using an ability, didn’t I? How is that possible unless I still have access to a system that should’ve kicked me the second I started all this?” He gestured around with my gun, as he spoke, but his face always stayed pointed in my direction, leaving no openings.

“You found a way around it?”

He shook his head. “Nope. The truth is, the system was never something that could be taken away. All you’re seeing when you get those notifications, is a lie. A message made to look like a system prompts. Used to control you, and keep you doing the things they want you to do.”

“They?” I asked.

V ran a hand across the face of his mask. “I was the original Marshall for STAR, worked with their government, brought down bad men, solved investigations. I was respected, powerful. Then suddenly, there was another Marshall. One who seemed to be able to solve problems before they started. Before I knew it, she’d become the go to. Her and her little pet in armor. After I was supplanted I started getting those damned messages. I obeyed them, fearful that I’d lose everything I worked for. I got sent anywhere dangerous that may hold old tech, or secrets. The whole time I wondered why the system had changed? Why was I suddenly having to act like a goddamn archeologist instead of enacting justice? Eventually I managed to figure it out. Had to spill some blood to do it, but I learned the truth. Leah isn’t a Marshall. She’s an Agent. A job I didn’t even know existed. She can peek in on what we’re doing, copy the abilities of other jobs, ignore abilities used by those jobs, and even create false system messages. She’s not working to help anything but the interests of people far from this side of the wastes.”

The fact that I’d received messages close to when I was or wasn’t meeting her was starting to make sense, as was the motive of those messages, and how she seemed to know what I’d been doing whenever I ran into her. That didn’t explain everything though, particularly how V had gone from that revelation to where we were now.

“Why this though? Why the factory? The Mercs? Conquering those settlements?”

He raised his empty hand and made a fist. “I needed to create a counter. Something I could use to keep her and her people out of here. Away from my people. She’s already moving pieces, getting things ready for when her folks arrive. This was supposed to help create a counterpoint. Supposed to keep STAR independent.”

“Who? Who do you think she’s getting all this ready for?”

He lowered his gun, and laughed. “Why, the US government of course.”

“Wha-”

I was cut off from my question by what sounded like a sonic boom as a bullet slammed through the opaque glass and into V’s body, throwing him across the room. I stood, and looked in the direction of the bullet, through the shattered window. Leah waved at me. She was wearing her anti-radiation suit, her massive rifle hanging over a railing and aimed into the room. I looked over at V’s body. He was gurgling, frothy blood pouring from his mouth. His eyes drifted up to me, and I saw the light leave his eyes just as I received a notification.

Victor Blain has transferred 2000 PP to you for services rendered

“What the fuck?” I muttered under my breath. Before I had time to read the notifications after that Leah entered the room.

“Incredible. You managed to make it here before me even going through the front? I had to kill seven men even going through the back way.”

I nodded, sizing her up a bit as I did so. “Graves played a big part in getting me through the front door. It’s all kind of a…blur from there,” I was trembling a bit, but steadied myself. Then I went to V’s body and retrieved my shotgun. Leah was turned around and facing the door.

“Mercy won’t have been able to place all of the explosives. She doesn’t have your natural rad resistance or a suit like mine.”

I leveled the shotgun at the back of her head. “Don’t turn around.”

She let out a sigh. “Now that’s a stupid thing to do. I was hoping he hadn’t had that much time to talk to you.”

“Is what he told me true?”

“Depends on what he told you?” even through her suit I could tell she was still wearing that smile she always had.

“You’re not a Marshall, you’re an agent, and those notifications that are threatening to take away the system are fake?”

She didn’t hesitate. “It’s true. All of it. Though the messages aren’t exactly from me directly. And I’m sure he gave you a very different motive for it than I actually have.”

“He told me you’re getting things ready. Preparing for the government to arrive?”

She nodded. “He wasn’t wrong. He just didn’t realize that it’s a good thing, not a bad one. He was too patriotic for his pathetic little STAR. He was willing to throw away the potential for a better wasteland. One that might not even be called a wasteland anymore. Are you?”

I laughed. “I don’t really give a shit about all that. I give a shit about being fucked with, lied to, manipulated. STAR territory, the return of the US government. In the end, that won’t change shit for me. Wouldn't change shit for Deadmen.”

She shook her head. “Why can’t it?”

“What?”

“Deadmen are US citizens as far as I’m concerned. Why don’t you think the government could make things better for them?”

“You gonna offer me puppies and ice-cream too? You’ve already been lying to me up until this point. I have no reason to trust whatever new lies you come up with.”

“I admit my methods make it…difficult to trust me, but that’s not the fault of the government. That fault is mine. What if I told you we’re already working toward a future where deadmen don’t have to suffer. Where we leave you to your own business as free Americans?”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’ve almost gotten me killed in a half-dozen strange places a hundred different ways.”

“Don’t think small!” she yelled, letting out the first bit of real emotion I think I’d heard from her. “You could make things better for not just yourself, but your people. If you kill me though…well, let’s just say your faces make it hard enough to trust Deadmen to begin with.”

I gritted my teeth. I’d been feeling myself drifting a bit since I’d become a Marshall. I’d gone from scraping by to growing, and developing. I wasn’t just a survivor, I was a force in the wastes now, and I knew I was just getting started, but what was the point of being a force if you didn’t have a cause, a drive. I could only run on a desire to grow stronger for so long. I needed an anchor, a goal, and there were very few things that mattered enough to me to motivate that. Deadmen, Pott’s Field, people who’d taken in a rabid animal, fed him, taught him, cared for him, and let him leave without ever expecting anything in return. My people deserved more, and I could help bring it to them. I could be a force for them. That’s not to say I wouldn’t still be slitting throats and filling people full of lead, that was all I knew, but I could do it with purpose.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to have the lasguns in Boon, and I threatened you to make you investigate the Black Woods, but I didn’t know if you could be trusted, relied upon. Look at what just happened with V. Could you say you’d have been more trusting?”

I lowered my gun and holstered it.

Leah turned around, slowly, her smile dropped from her face. She held out her hand. “I look forward to working together from a more honest footing.”

I took her hand too. “I want more specifics, and I can’t say I trust you fully just yet. This isn’t the place to work it out though.”

She nodded. “Graves is with me, but Mercy doesn’t know anything. I don’t fully trust her allegiance to the Republic yet. Our intel is limited there.”

I nodded and we shook hands. Her not trusting the republic spoke well of her and who she worked for. I had only gotten snippets from Mercy, and even those made me wary of encountering such a group.

“Well,” said Leah, “Let’s get out of here.”