Headquarters: Capital Wasteland - Chapter Forty Seven (Patreon)

Charging into battle was an experience that I don't think I could ever forget. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and even just the few seconds that we paused as we found cover along the edge of the town were almost overwhelming. Obviously, this wasn't the first time I had been under fire. We had engaged raiders a few times before, both at the Bethesda ruins and at the Super Duper Mart. However, charging in and taking cover at Springvale felt very different from both of those. All of our other exchanges had been from ambush points or from superior positions, giving us a distinct advantage, putting the raider on the back foot, and overwhelming them.

This time, however, despite doing our very best to create the optimal situation, we were still standing on level ground, trading bullets with the enemy. 

Sure, we had superior weapons, armor, and positioning, and were launching a surprise attack, but we were still meeting them head-on, and they were firing quite a bit of lead at us. Our LMG cover could only pin them down for so long, and as they were forced to reload, the bullets started to fly.

Thankfully, by some miracle, I didn't freeze up, despite chunks of wood and other debris getting blown off the corner of the house I was taking cover behind. Instead, I reached down to my belt and pulled out a grenade, watching as both Joseph and Leon pulled theirs as well. Together, we threw them over and around our cover, the explosions silencing at least half a dozen of the raiders.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, we pushed forward, now with LMG cover again, our M40s picking off targets that tried to stop our advance. A pair of raiders came out from inside a home, one with an axe and the other with a beaten-up assault rifle, only for Carlos and John to take them out before they could do anything to anyone.

Deeper into the town we moved, my squad eventually making it to the main road. It was about a hundred meters of storefronts and small shops, all along a broken and trash-covered road, with a few heavily burnt-out cars along the way. The cars were clearly already detonated, their engine bays blown out and partially melted from the heat of their final reaction.

The road was flooded with raiders, almost half of them armed with some sort of firearm. Unfortunately for them, we had foreseen this area being dangerous and were prepared. While covered by our support, we slid into position and turned the whole street into a meat grinder of bullets. A few of the melee raiders survived by virtue of sheer numbers, but our main focus, those with guns, went down in seconds. The few raiders that did make it close enough to be a threat were put down quickly by our overwhelming strength.

The push was not without cost, however. John took a bullet as we pushed into position along the main street, a rifle round punching through his leg and out the other side. He was tended to by Kelsey and was already limping with us when we started pushing along the street, covering our rears as he worked through the phantom pain as the stimpak did its job. 

The Raider bodies were piling up as we tore through the town, our LMGs abandoning their first position to back track along the higher level they were on. It meant they couldn't cover us for a minute, but once they repositioned, they were at a better angle to cover our steady advance. 

As my squad dropped another group of raiders almost halfway through the town, I spotted Johnson and his team clearing one of the larger buildings. They fired in through the front, shattering what little glass remained, before pushing in through a side entrance. In just a few seconds, the building was clear, and his squad was moving on to the next one.

Then I got slapped by Karma for not focusing on my own fight.

A barrage of bullets from what we had both thought was a fallen raider peppered Carlos and me. We had been taking cover behind a partially collapsed brick wall, and the sudden nearby movement had caught both our attention. We turned to address the threat, only for a barrage of bullets to hammer into our armor, a handful slapping into my chest plate and knocking the breath from my lungs.

Three of the bullets managed to find their way into the gaps between my armor plates, and two did the same to Carlos'. Like a pair of puppets cut from our strings, we both dropped to the ground. While I was stunned, my breath slammed from my lungs and my left arm useless, Carlos was a bit more cognizant. He was able to draw his pistol quickly, somehow lining up a shot and blowing a chunk of the raider's head off, almost before I had even realized I was injured.

"Medic!" Carlos shouted with a strained voice, as I couldn't gather enough breath to say anything.

Thankfully, Kelsey and Leon were nearby, and my soldiers immediately redirected to cover them. They were on us in seconds, inspecting our injuries closely before concluding they were safe for stimpaks. I had a pair of holes in my left arm, and another in my lower chest, in a spot that left little doubt that my lung had been hit. After poking us each for just a few seconds, both of us got two stimpaks, one from our own count and one from theirs. Luckily, we had come prepared, and everyone, including the medics, had extra supplies from the medbay, as well as extra ammo.

I clenched my teeth as the stimpak was injected into my torso. The arm was one thing, but feeling your lung knit itself together was a fascinating sensation I was not eager to repeat.

Eventually, after the sitmpaks had a minute or so to work, I tried to sit up and stand, but my lungs had different ideas. I rolled over onto my hands and knees, pulling my helmet up just enough to expose my mouth. I gagged and coughed, the blood in my lungs spattering the ground in front of me. It took a minute of hacking for my lungs to feel even remotely clear, and the coughing to finally stop.

When I finally stood up, Carlos passed me my rifle. My breathing was a bit ragged, but my breaths were full, so I wasn't losing any of my combat ability. I nodded to Carlos, getting one in return. 

While I had struggled, my squad had pushed further ahead, giving Carlos and me some breathing room as we recovered. I also noted there was a lot of double-tapping going on, which was honestly something we should have been doing from the beginning. This was not the kind of world where you took prisoners from anyone who didn't immediately surrender, and even that wasn't a sure thing. 

Which, now that I was thinking about it, might be why no one actually surrendered. 

Once I had normalized as much as I could, Carlos and I rejoined the fight directly, though not by joining the group. Noticing an alleyway off around one of the buildings, I gestured for him to follow me, and together we ran around the mostly intact structure. The new angle allowed us to take down a handful of raiders that had taken cover against Joseph and the rest, leaving them open to Carlos and myself. 

Within a few more minutes, we had pushed through more than halfway through the town, and were starting to run into the raiders who had already been killed by, or who were hiding from, our M40 cover. At that point, any resistance the raiders had hoped to put up completely collapsed, and it quickly devolved into shooting fish in a barrel. We killed nearly two dozen more raiders before they broke and started to run. As dark as it was, these were people who decorated their homes with rotting corpses, rapists, and murderers. We shot them as they tried to run, finally clearing the remainder of the town.

None of them even asked to surrender, and we didn't offer them the option.

When we finally finished washing through the town like a lethal wave, we immediately turned and made our way back to the school. The M40s and LMGs had already softened up the building, but as it was mostly concrete, and most of the windows had been blocked off with stacks of furniture, wood panels, and sheet metal, there were plenty of rooms my snipers couldn't reach. We would have to go room by room to truly clear out the building.

First, the LMGs moved closer, taking up positions that gave them good coverage of the town, with their backs to the school. They would be our watchers, keeping anyone from catching us off guard. The two M40's stationed on the water tower stayed where they were, while the other two moved into the town and climbed to the second floor of one of the cleared houses, facing the school. Their job was to keep an eye out for anyone trying to escape and to cover the LMGs as well.

Meanwhile, we would break up into four teams of three and push into the building, clearing it room by room. It would be messy, dangerous, and slow, but it was really the only way we had to clear the entire building of raiders.

Unsurprisingly, as we approached the school, there was a scattering of corpses outside the main entrance. They had clearly intended to come outside and get some action, only for my men to gun them down before they could do their cohorts any good.

Rather than try to push our way into a space that was likely full of armed and eager gunmen, we hurled a handful of grenades into the main entrance, turning the space into a Jackson Pollock of blood and gore. Before the dust could settle, we thundered into the room, quickly establishing a safe zone and double-tapping anyone still moving. 

The teams quickly split up, with Kelsey and John coming with me. I was still wheezing and coughing a bit, but I was more than ready to move, especially since we were taking such a slow pace, clearing each room carefully to avoid missing any threats.

To no one's surprise, most of the school was an absolute mess. Piles of trash, rubble, furniture, and more filled many corners, while other rooms were filled with piles of mattresses and drug-related paraphernalia. The smell wasn't quite as bad as the first homes we had explored, earlier in the day, but it was unfortunately pretty close. It was a horrific way to live, and made me wonder how they hadn't all died off from some super plague or something similar.

On the other hand, for some reason, some of the rooms were untouched by the raiders. In those rooms, the desks were still in rows, and the boards were still marked with chalk, holding lessons over two hundred years old. Of course, everything was covered in dust, mold, water damage, and more, but those rooms still stood out as an odd contrast. Hell, we found two rotted piles on the teachers' desks that I finally identified as apples.

As we moved, we frequently ran into pockets of resistance, with the raiders sticking together and trying to take us down. But between our superior firepower and unaddled minds, as well as judicial use of explosives, we came out on top time and time again. There were a few close calls, most notably a few landmines, as well as a few other, more crude traps. But thankfully, we managed to avoid most of them.

We also had a bit of a moment when John stepped on a wire and took a baseball to the helmet when the trap activated a pitching machine down the hall.

He was a bit rattled, but otherwise unharmed thanks to our armor.

The last challenge we ran into was the massive gymnasium, which held about eight raiders, holed up behind sandbags and junk barriers. All of them were armed with guns and were determined to make their last stand worth something. Thankfully, we arrived just as Johnson and his group did, giving us a larger team to work with.

"Johnson, take your team and run along the outside of the school," I said as we pulled back a bit. "There should be an emergency exit somewhere. Bust through that and see if we can't catch these guys off guard."

"Will do, Sir," He said with a nod, gesturing for his men to follow. "Let's go, double time!"

Rather than leave it all on their shoulders, I moved closer to the edge of the door, crouching down beside a half-crumpled locker that was still attached to the wall.

"Hey!" I shouted, raising my voice to be heard through the occasional gunshots. "This is your last chance to surrender!"

The intermittent sprays of bullets died down, a rough voice cursing from inside. Then, just as I had hoped, someone from inside the room responded.

"Fuck you!" a male voice called from inside. "You bastards! You think I'm just going to give up? We are taking you fuckers with us! I hope you like the sight of your own blood!"

"You can't win," I called out, barely holding back a smile at the last line. "We wiped out your people outside, and now we are sweeping through the inside. It's only a matter of time!"

"Fuck, fuck, goddammit! You bastards ruined everything!" the voice shouted out. "I'm gonna skin your face and wear it as a codpiece, you fucking bastard!"

"...Damn, that's a new one," I admitted, eyes going wide, before shaking my head clear and shouting back. "You won't get the chance! We-"

Before I could continue, a wave of new shouts and gunfire echoed out from inside the gym, this time coming from further back. I took that as the signal, and we moved in, catching the raiders as they tried to figure out whom they should be more worried about.

When we fired the last shot, and the school finally went silent, I took a look around. We quickly checked the nearby locker rooms before meeting Johnson and his team back in the gym. 

"Let's do another sweep and meet up in the front hall," I said, nodding back through the gym entrance. "Then we can have everyone still outside fall back to the building. We have a lot of loot to gather up."

"What about the loot outside?" Kelsey asked as we walked out of the gym. "Aren't we going to grab that?"

"Of course, certainly not going to let it rust or rot out there."

  The six of us made our way slowly back through the school, checking the areas we had passed through to confirm they were empty. As we passed a familiar hallway, I only just missed getting Johnson to step on the baseball pitcher trap.

He had the rather brilliant idea to take it back with us, along with the large number of baseballs. Baseball bats popped up pretty frequently as weapons, and there were plenty of ways we could entertain ourselves during downtime with both of them.

Eventually, we arrived back at the front hall, the rest of my people slowly trickling in, including our snipers from their perches. It took a few minutes for everyone to gather up, but when they did, I nodded and smiled.

"Well done, everyone!" I called out. "We can't quite unclench yet, but the worst is done. Now it's time to get to the fun part, looting this place to the bedrock!"