Come Fly With Me

Come Fly With Me

Prologue: No Gods, No Masters

Thomas stood calmly as he waited for the Lucky 38’s elevator to arrive at the penthouse, bottle of whiskey in hand. He had a feeling this would happen. He was upset that it had happened so quickly, there were still so many steps he hadn’t gone through. He was prepared for the worst, wearing his Elite Riot Gear, a Sequoia held loosely in his other hand.

“About damn time you came to your senses,” General Oliver Lee said as he stepped out of the elevator, flanked by a pair of Veteran Rangers.

“I agreed to this meeting, General,” Thomas said, spitting the last word. “The answer is no, I just thought I’d make it all proper.”

“So you refuse to turn over control of the casino to the NCR?”

“I refuse to turn control of Vegas to a power-hungry, expansionist, morally-bankrupt shithole,” Thomas countered.

“Like you’re one to talk of morality.”

“I give a shit about everyone in this city. You, on the other hand, see your own soldiers as cannon fodder to be thrown at the enemy so you can stand atop a pile of corpses and call it ‘victory’.”

Thomas smirked as behind the General the two Rangers glanced at each other. He knew they agreed with what he said, that they viewed ‘Wait-and-See’ as an idiot. “Our demands are reasonable,” Lee countered.

“Your demands are tantamount to slavery. It might not look like it, but the NCR’s bureaucracy is more efficient at controlling people than any slave collar. I made a mistake, backing your cause,” Thomas spat. “I swung the odds in your favour, and this is how you decide to repay me? A knife in the back?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Moore had Crocker fired, after all he did to negotiate peace with the Kings. You claimed credit for everything me and Hanlon did, because you’re an incompetent glory-hoarding coward. Maybe I should have sided with House.”

Thomas couldn’t help but smirk as the General drew a 9mm pistol and pointed it at him. “This had gone on long enough.”

“Really? A 9mm? You’re gonna need some real firepower if you want to keep me down.” He downed his bottle of whiskey and threw the bottle over his shoulder. “I really doubt your soldiers are gonna throw themselves at the man who beat the Monster of the East to death.”

“They won’t have to,” the General sneered.

“Oh, you mean the heavy troopers coming in by monorail?” Thomas reached into his duster and pulled out a remote detonator. He flipped the cover off of the trigger. “How many men did you lose at Hoover Dam? How thin is the Senate’s patience with you? They know you’re full of shit. Hanlon may have denied everything, but I made sure that word got out that everything that went right was because of him. I know for a fact that if you throw any more men away, not even your friend Kimball can save you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Simple. I’ve been in contact with the President.” Lee’s mouth dropped open. “He wanted to thank me personally for saving him. He told me himself just how much shit you’ll be in should you fail now.”

“Y-you’re bluffing!” the General said, looking at the detonator with fear.

“Oh really?” Thomas asked, turning to look out the window. From here he could make out the monorail that linked the Strip to Camp McCarran. “Kiss your career goodbye, Lee.”

Even from the top of the Lucky 38, they could hear the explosions clearly. Thomas wasn’t sure exactly how much C4 he’d packed onto the tracks, but he had set up five of the pillars to come down. He knew that the train full of troopers hadn’t left, but he was willing to bet that Lee didn’t.

“You - !” The General raised his pistol and emptied the magazine into Thomas’s chest. The man just looked down at his body armour before giving Lee a non-verbal ‘are you fucking stupid?’

“Now I can claim self-defense,” the Courier said as he unloaded the Sequoia into the other man’s gut. “You guys saw it, he shot first,” he said defensively to the two Rangers as Lee bled out.

“You blew up the monorail!” one of them said, unholstering his Sequoia. The other started trying to save the General, but Thomas knew that it was a lost cause.

“Yeah, just the monorail,” he countered. “The troopers aren’t gonna be leaving any time soon.”

The Ranger just pointed his Sequoia at Thomas’s face. “You won’t leave here alive. Even if you get past us, 1st Recon is ready to kill you the moment you step outside.”

“You mean the very same 1st Recon that owes me about half a dozen favours?” Thomas snorted. “You can stop trying to save him, by the way,” he called to the other Ranger. “Even if you stop the bleeding, he’ll go septic.”

“You won’t get away with this!” the first Ranger yelled, opening fire. Thomas managed to duck under shot, the bullet slamming into the ancient glass that separated the penthouse from the outside, shattering it.

“Well that makes things easier,” he muttered as he punched his attacker in the throat. “If you’re smart, you’ll stay there,” he said threateningly to the other Ranger.

As the man ran through the great gap, ignoring the howling wind and sudden cold, the other Ranger decided to ignore his advice. Taking his fallen comrade’s revolver, he pulled the trigger twice. One shot found its way into Thomas’s leg, stumbling him.

“Motherfucker!” Thomas screamed as he picked himself up. He had to get away, he knew that. Groping around inside his duster, his fingers gripped around something pistol-shaped. He grinned as he pulled out his Transportalponder. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it would give him time to recover, and the Big Empty had a lot of things he could use.

“Stop!” He turned to see the other Ranger leaning out of the broken window.

“Not happening!” Thomas screamed back, pointing the Transportalponder into the air and pulling its trigger. Instead of the swirling vortex of blue energy he was used to, though, tendrils of crackling electricity shot down his arm. They didn’t hurt him, even as they enveloped the rest of his body. “Oh boy,” he muttered, moments before he felt himself get pulled apart.