Nuclear Winter

*Thunk*

Many of the defenders jumped when something came flying into the now opened vault door with force, sliding along the floor and coming to a stop against a sandbag barricade.

A few braver fiends who had their heads sticking out scoffed as one even decided to taunt the invaders with "You missed dipshit".

"Shut the fuck up!" One girl hissed at the man as she quietly reached over the barricade and grabbed the dufflebag before pulling it over, opening it up her blood ran cold as last nights dinner made a swift retreat from her ass hole.

"What is it?" One fiend moved closer and looked in before screaming and turning to run as soon as his eyes landed on the ten bundles of C4.

However he only took a step before a bright flash and massive shockwave rocked the vault entrance.

Over 20 fiends were instantly vaporized or ripped apart by the explosion while the woman holding the bag in frozen fear simply ceased to exist in the blink of an eye.

The rest of the fiends that were crouched behind their barricades hadn't done much better as the concussive force and flames blew apart their weak defenses and defenders, sending chunks of debris and 'people' splattering the vaults walls until the super hot flames scorched even that.

The metal and concrete floors and walls buckled as a few of the doors in the room were ripped off of their frames and sent into the walls behind them.

Creaking was heard as large chunks of the roof came down burying anything left under tons of cement and super heated steel.

Getting into the vault maybe harder going until it could all be clear or unless there was room to squeeze in.

Thankfully it didn't matter as Alex had received news of the back door into the place, but even so, turns out there was plenty of room to get in even if large parts caved in, at least for three of them.

Tossing aside the detonator, Alex slung his rifle on his back and walked towards the vaults entrance and quickly yet carefully made his way through the collapsed debris, after surveying the leftover carnage he turned towards Ava, Asia and Sarah after they shimmied through behind him.

"Where's Clive and Katie?" He looked at the girls and questioned them as Ava patted the concrete dust off her chest from squeezing through the rubble.

Looking up at Alex she scoffed "Clive can't fit through the collapsed entrance and your sister said she's going to wait for NCR reinforcements. Alex nodded and a blue light flashed as his Marine Armor appeared alongside Sarah's power armor and two sets of reinforced Combat armor in ladies sizes…for the 'chest' region.

"Alright, quickly suit up for close combat." Ava and Asia took of their damaged armor and placed on the new pieces while Sarah hopped in her power armor that Alex made her hand over so he could move it into the vault for her.

After all the ladies checked too make sure everything was good, Alex switched out his rifle for a 10mm smg and ripper sword.

Just in time it would appear as two fiends came rushing around the broken hydraulic door and into the shattered entrance hall of the vault, an action both never had the time to regret as Alex quickly fired off a burst.

Three bullets striking the man on the right, one in his collarbone and another underneath his adams apple as the third shot hit above his left eyebrow blowing off a chunk of his skull, the man falling down and splaying out on the scorched floor while his comrade faired no better.

Ava whipped out her revolver and shot the man's knee causing him to fall on his face with a yelp as his momentum sent his body sliding towards the girls before Asia shot a round through the top of his head, his body slid a few more feet forwards before Sarah raised her power armored foot and like a behemoth stepping on an apple, brought it down on the fiend's noggin.

"Well Damn." Alex looked at the three and made note to not piss them off in the future, especially around guns or knives. A fact he would constantly have to remind himself of, this girls are scary.

"Let's move, we need to make our way towards the reactor room while clearing out any fiends we find. Once their leaders dead we can clear out the rest of the vault." Alex moved towards the door and had to jump back as a few bullets hit the edge of the door frame sending concrete debris over him.

Sarah moved forwards with heavy lumbering steps as her mechanical voice sounded though the visor "Maybe I should go first yeah?" Alex scratched the back of his neck and motioned for her to take the lead. "Be my guest."

Sarah just chuckled as she stepped out into the hall only for the tell tale clang of bullets on armor to ring out. Looking down the hallway she saw a makeshift barricade of dressers and tables with six fiends standing behind it.

"We got about six, maybe more." She moved back and looked down at Alex who let out a sigh.

"Do t want to use explosives while we're in here, so what do you say? Up for some roll play?" Alex looked up at her visor and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Role play?" Sarah's mind went blank.

"Uh-huh, what do you say my little Choo-Choo train?" Sarah turned to look at Asia to gauge her reaction, only to realize she was doing her best to not laugh.

"Fine, when the shouting starts, make a dash for it and give me a hand dispatching them." Sarah took a deep breath through the helmets rebreather and shouted "NOW" with a heavy stomp she took off through the door as a few bullets immediately pinged off her armor.

She barreled forward and towards a makeshift barricade made of dinning tables and two Nuka cola fridges. Three fiends immediately opened fire on her with their small arms as another man realized the danger with his drug addled mind and tried to run.

However he never got far after he heard a crashing sound followed by screams and then a searing pain like he took a super sledge to the spine as he was lifted up and tossed forward into a thick glass window with enough force to crack his skull open like a dropped egg.

"Choo-Choo motherfuckers!"

*BANG*

Alex drove his ripper into a female fiends neck as she tuned to shoot at Sarah's back, raising his SMG he fired a single round at a man who, with a broken arm began to get up with his 9mm in his good hand.

A few more bullets later and the last of the hallway fiends went down.

"Alright, if the layout from the Vault-Tec database is to be believed, then just down these steps will bring us to the atrium. Expect heavy resistance." Alex brought out a couple of heavyweight weapons in the form of a minigun and gaggle of mk3 'mirv' smart grenades he had picked up from some wild bugged eyed merchant passing through Winter Haven before handing them to Sarah.

"Once we enter, stick right and head along the path around, it'll give us a lay of the place, and for the love of god stay behind Sarah." Everyone nodded as they made their way through the decrepit vault that was beginning to show signs of neglect.

"What happened here?" Asia whispered as they passed a very old dried blood stain and hand print on the wall.

"Was a control vault, one of the few that didn't run horrific experiments. However about a year after the last battle for Hoover dam the NCR set up not far away and pushed the rejects and down trodden into the old ruins…" Alex shook his head as the small group made their way closer to the atrium.

"The vault residents saw 'civilization' being rebuilt close by, and when people showed up on masse at their doorstep… they opened up hoping to build ties and trade with the surface." Alex looked at Asia as the realization dawned on her. "They stormed the place and slaughtered all the men… and the woman, well their finally getting their justice with every bullet we fire."

"Get ready.." the mechanical yet somber voice of Sarah spoke up as they made it to the atriums door, the power supply clearly cut off to prevent them from progressing.

Yet with a huff, Sarah reached down and pulled the door up only to catch a rather large round to her forearm. With a yell she dropped the door and stumbled back with the powered arm falling limp.

"SARAH!!" Asia ran up and opened the suit manually by turning the release wheel. With a hiss the suit opened up and Sarah stumbled back out of it with her arm clearly mangled.

"FUCK! That had to be an AP .50 cal those fuckers hit me with!" Sarah looked at her mangled arm with torn muscle and bone fragments clearly dotted about the wound. "How the fuck they get that kinda firepower?" She looked over to Alex who had taken out a Super Stimpak and tourniquet.

"No clue…if they had something like that all this time they would have used it by now on the NCR…" Alex spoke as he applied the tourniquet and then the super stimpak just above the wound before giving Sarah a quick dose of med-x to calm her down.

"So it's recent, great! Just my luck." Sarah leaned against a wall and slid down it. "Now what? The moment that door goes up we get another involuntary hole punched through us."

Alex pulled up the map on his Pip-boy, scrolling for a moment he looked up at the girls. "I got a stupid idea…"

.

.

.

"That really is a stupid idea, should we have left them?" Sarah looked over at Asia who was helping her out of the vault.

Asia just looked back as Sarah began to squeeze through the rubble. "If it's Alex it will work..remember what he said 'I don't die so easy!' So let's have some faith." Sarah chuckled and winced as she made it through.

"She said the same thing before she died.." Sarah half whispered as Asia's came out behind her.

"What? You say something?" Asia took Sarah under her good arm and they both worked their way up and out of the buildings ruin.

"HALT!"

Just before Sarah could answer a dozen or so clicks were heard as at least two platoons of NCR troopers came out of the surrounding ruins with another girl in tell tale black armor behind them.

"Lower your god damn weapons!" Katie rushed forward to Sarah's other side. "Get a medic!" She looked at a Sargent who nodded and rushed off. Katie looked over at Asia who simply gave her a look.

"Is he alive?" She looked at the girl with a glare as they moved to a safer location.

"Uh, he told me not to tell you specifically what he was doing… something about New Reno and an ass whooping." Asia watched as the glare on Katie's face was replaced by a far more cruel look and the girl began to chuckle before breaking out into a maniacal laugh.

"Oh I'm gonna give him an ass whooping for the ages if he survives this stupid shit a second time."