There were only so many ruins, rad ponds and dens for mutated wildlife one could appreciate before the various features of the wasteland melded into a boring, tedious vista. Sure it served to keep everyone grateful for what they had in the Nexus, but never did Tomas Brucks from 3rd Company imagined that serving as a soldier could be so boring.
The others who had lived harder lives had told him to be grateful for it, and Tomas supposed they were right. He and his little village had lived a sheltered life in a bunker complex, untroubled by the outside world due to its remoteness and their needs met from the mole rats they’d reared. Oh, they’d known it was a terrible life out there, judging from the scavengers and raiders that fell down the winding tunnel leading to the bunker. It was a bit of a shame that the climb out was too steep for anyone to venture out, but the deathtrap kept the community safe.
And then the Nexus came, and offered everyone a life on the surface, or at the least upgrades to their underground settlement. Some stayed, others like Tomas dared to see the vast sky for the first time, and the utter shithole that was most of the surface world. The Nexus of course felt like a totally different existence, another wonder that drew more people out from their bunker home to the point it was eventually abandoned. Last Tomas heard, his old home was being repurposed as a storage facility.
Tomas tried and successfully joined the Nexus military, as a means to discover more of the surface world. He was shocked and terrified from most of it, but as ugly and scary as the dangers of the wasteland could be, all it took was a few applications of white laser to march over the burning remains of anything or anyone daring to stand in his way. The raider camps were the most disturbing, to see people treating other people so badly, but even then the might of the Nexus violently corrected that mistake.
After a couple months of serving in the Company, Tomas’ bright-eyed enthusiasm for exploring the surface world was replaced with pity and annoyance for anything beyond his new homeland. Pity for the poor souls who didn’t know the luxury that was the Nexus’ basic living standards, and annoyance to the next set of ruins, camp or lair that he had to clear out. Fucking loud super mutants, fucking disgusting raiders, fucking creepy-ass ghouls…
Only the feral ones that had to be put down, Tomas corrected himself. The sane ghouls were often alright enough once you got to know them. Corporal Mariss was a highly competent mentor and a reliable friend, melted face or not. Also some of his ghoul neighbors were far more likable than some of the ‘smoothskin’ snobs that liked to wear pre-war clothes and put on an air of so-called ‘civility’ in their manners and speech.
Fucking arrogant pricks. Everything else they had was provided by the Nexus.
Running through the familiar thoughts and complaints, Tomas swept through another cluster of ruins with the rest of his platoon. Super mutants used to infest the place, but 3rd Company came in to purge the place. The task had been brief and thorough, so now it was just double-checking and scouring for anything else.
Tomas opened a rotting door, and thanked Sev that his helmet stopped him from smelling much of the world around him. Another super mutant abattoir, filled with butchered wastelanders.
“Fucking greenskins…” he swore before notifying his sarge. Then the bots will be down here to inspect and clean up the chopped up corpses.
The faster the Nexus cleaned up the wasteland, the better, in Tomas’ opinion.
*****
Parenthood was both exciting and terrifying to Katy and Tim. Caring for such a small, fragile thing that wailed non-stop was a daunting task, but at least it was a task alleviated by the aid of Ms Nanny bots and the vast resources of Sev’s Nexus. The horror stories told by their circle of parents was only partly realized thanks to the comforts of here, and both Katy and Tim actually could afford four hour stretches of sleep.
As wonderful as it was to be a parent, there was still a deep longing to return to battle. Katy found her fingers twitching every now and then, gripping an imaginary white laser rifle grip. Tim was little better, she caught him muttering in battle code on several occasions as he watched the mirelurk arena.
Having their friends and comrades regularly visit helped some, though they came more to see little Natasha than share tales of the latest scuffles. The little bundle of joy and screams drew everyone’s attention as the first kid born under Sev’s benevolent protection, and as such Katy sometimes felt that her daughter was treated like a revered relic by her friends.
Not that she or Tim didn’t look at their little girl the same way occasionally. After all, Natasha was the strongest reminder of just how much the couple owed Sev. From rescuing them to protecting and empowering them, Sev had given them everything so quickly, and asked for so little in return.
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If not for him, Katy might be long dead, or wished she was dead, with Tim faring no better. If not for the Nexus, they might be slumming it in some wasteland settlement or even a pre-Nexus Diamond City, barely getting by if at all. If not for Sev’s brilliance and technology, Natasha’s birth defect would not have been detected and promptly worked on with the best human and digital minds in Ix.
So when Sev personally asked for the couple’s permission to consecrate Natasha with a ritual to fully correct the frail child, both Katy and Tim easily accepted and put their trust in their protector. Even though he honestly couldn’t guarantee the outcome, even with the risk of danger, the couple placed the life of their daughter in Sev’s hands.
Katy stood with her husband in their living room as they watched a group of scientists surround the bundle on the table that was Natasha. They watched through weird looking goggles as Sev levitated a couple of bowls that contained a small amount of blood from both parents.
Then, like a scene out of the fantasy plays, the ruler of the Nexus dipped his fingers in the bowls of blood and began drawing lines on the table around Natasha. He chanted incomprehensible noises as he worked, and Katy could actually feel a buildup of an invisible force around her, enough to make her hair stand on end and her tongue to taste foul meat.
As Sev stood straight again and seemed to have finished, he beckoned with his hand and one of the scientists opened a small cooler box. Katy held back her surprise when she saw a heart being fished out and placed in Sev’s open hand.
“I’m so sorry if this hurts,” he whispered sadly before chanting another stream of unintelligible syllables.
Tim’s hand squeezed around Katy’s as they watched a near-invisible flow of something flowing out of Natasha and into the glistening heart in Sev’s hand. Their hearts broke as they saw and heard their girl writhing on the table and wailing loudly, but their trust in Sev kept them from moving.
As Sev continued chanting, and as the unknown energy flowed out from the infant, the heart began to darken and shrivel. It spasmed and spurted black ichor, staining the flooring and filling the house with the horrid taste of decay and disease.
The buildup in the room reached its climax as Sev finished the last non-word with a dominating cry, and his fingers crushed the now withered and coal-black organ in his hand. Katy felt a presence in the room forcefully expelled, and as the tension bled out of the room, a sense of purity settled despite the lingering stench.
Sev gently picked a now quiet Natasha up in his hands and gave her the familiar weird stare, and then to Katy’s relief he beamed a smile, first at the babe in his hands, and then to the parents. “It worked,” he stated simply, as if marveling at the result.
Of course it worked, Katy thought as her legs moved on their own volition towards him. When has he ever failed them? Sev wanted to give her daughter a better future, of course he would succeed in doing so.
Katy took her girl in her arms, and almost dropped her in shock. Her limbs went weak at seeing just how…normal Natasha had become. Her head was no longer deformed and facial features were no longer missing, her body no longer twisted and misshapen. Tim gasped loudly behind her, and a dull thud told Katy that her husband had likely fainted from shock.
Natasha was given the chance at simply living by the expert surgeons in Ix, but now Sev had given her a chance at enjoying life as a normal, whole human.
With eyes obscured by tears, Katy was thanking him over and over again. Tim was roused by some scientists, and he remained on his knees to prostrate himself before Sev. It would take a while before Sev got them to calm down while the scientists studied the blood-marked table.
Natasha would be monitored closely by some scientists, and some tests might need to be run. Her wet-eyed and grateful parents agreed without reservations. If not for the impropriety, Katy would have also thrown herself to Sev and offered herself out of gratitude.
When their friends next dropped by, it became a celebration of yet another miracle from Sev, though the partying had to be muted somewhat to allow Natasha to enjoy long, pain-free sleep like every other infant.