The Intercom turned on once again.
"All right, smoothskin, I'm letting you in. You better watch yourself. I'll sure as hell be watching you."
The moment Six and his crew stepped inside the entrance of the REPCONN Test Site, the air was thick with stale dust and the acrid scent of decaying flesh. They were greeted almost immediately by a bald, wiry man wearing a filthy lab coat. His expression twisted with disgust as his eyes swept over the newcomers.
"God, but are you ugly!"
The man spat.
"Get upstairs and talk to Jason before I throw up just from looking at you."
Rebecca's eyes narrowed.
"Hey, baldy, you know you're not a ghoul, right?"
The man sneered, waving her off dismissively.
"Your pranks won't work on me, smoothskin. I know what I am. And I know what you are—ugly."
"You're really pushing it, you little..."
Rebecca muttered, readying her Punisher. Six raised a hand to calm her, a subtle grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Relax, babe."
Six said, fixing his gaze on the scientist.
"You're Chris, right? Look, I'm not here to mess with your head, but you might wanna keep this radio on."
He handed the man a small handheld radio.
"I'm gonna talk to your boss upstairs. Just... listen in, and maybe you'll learn something."
Chris grumbled, his skepticism evident, but he begrudgingly accepted the radio.
"Fine. But if you try anything stupid, I'll know. Jason's the only one here who knows the real truth."
"Yeah, yeah. We'll see about that."
Six muttered, signaling his crew to move. They headed upstairs, their power armor humming softly as they ascended the stairwell toward Jason Bright's chamber.
At the top floor, they found Jason—a ghoul with a strange, otherworldly glow radiating from his mottled skin. He stood with an air of reverence, surrounded by his remaining followers, who all turned toward Six as if witnessing the arrival of a savior.
Jason stepped forward, raising his hands in greeting.
"Hello, wanderer. Please forgive the humble state of our sanctuary. Our true home lies in the Far Beyond, a land of healing and safety. We await the completion of our Great Journey. I am Jason Bright, prophet of this journey. Have you come to help us?"
Six crossed his arms.
"Maybe. What's the problem?"
Jason's expression darkened.
"Demons have infested the basement. Invisible creatures—Nightkin. Their presence halted our preparations. Many of my flock perished trying to clear them out. Now we are trapped, waiting for the creator's will to be fulfilled through you."
Six nodded, listening attentively. Then he casually changed the subject.
"What's the deal with Chris? Why's he think he's a ghoul?"
Jason's face tightened in something that might've been guilt—or resignation.
"Chris believes himself to be one of us. We tried to tell him otherwise when he first came to us, but he became angry, lost. In time, we realized that he was a gift from the creator, his technical skills invaluable. But Chris... cannot come with us on the Great Journey. It is a truth we must hide, for his own good."
Through the open radio channel, Six heard a sharp inhale from Chris, who was listening in downstairs.
As Six finished his conversation with Jason, a voice crackled through the radio, filled with disbelief and rage.
"No. No, no, no! How could I... Stupid! Oh god... Oh god! You're telling me the truth, aren't you? They've been lying to me! This whole time—two years!"
Six clicked his radio.
"Yep. Sorry, Chris, but you're human. Welcome back to reality."
Chris's voice, now tinged with fury, roared over the line.
"They made me a joke... two years of my life wasted! Do you know how easy it'd be for me to sabotage everything? To ruin their precious 'journey'?!"
Six smirked.
"You're not alone in wanting revenge. You in, or not?"
The radio was silent for a moment, then a low chuckle crackled through.
"Oh, I'm in. Just give me two minutes, and I'll have this whole place locked down. Nobody's getting out."
Back upstairs, Jason's glowing eyes darted nervously as Six lowered the radio from his mouth.
"What did you do?"
Jason demanded.
Six smiled coldly.
"The Great Journey's over, Jason."
Before the prophet could react, Rebecca and Boone opened fire. Plasma rounds tore through the ghouls with brutal efficiency. Jason tried to scream a warning to his followers, but the words were lost beneath the deafening thunder of their constant fire.
The massacre was swift. The Knightmare-clad crew moved like shadows of death, obliterating every ghoul in sight.
The halls of the REPCONN Test Site echoed with the screams of the ghouls as Six and his crew tore through them like reapers clad in metal. Plasma rounds and shotgun slugs filled the air with bursts of green light and thunderous booms.
Rebecca's Punisher spun like a death wheel, shredding everything in her line of sight, while Boone's anti-materiel rifle cracked through skulls with surgical precision.
Cassidy pumped slug after slug into the writhing bodies, chuckling darkly as limbs flew. Raul moved with deadly efficiency, his plasma rifle melting flesh and bone with every shot. The Knightmare power armor allowed them to move faster than anything the ghouls could react to. It wasn't just a slaughter—it was a calculated extermination.
They moved methodically through the rooms and corridors, clearing out the Bright Brotherhood one by one. The cultists, still clinging to dreams of their so-called "Great Journey," tried to resist—but it was hopeless.
Their laser weapons barely scratched the surface of Knightmare power armor. Plasma and lead answered every plea and screamed for mercy.
Rebecca burst into a room filled with ghouls praying for salvation.
"Far Beyond this, Motherfuckers!"
She shouted as she unleashed a storm of bullets with her Punisher, turning the worshippers into chunks of smoking meat. Boone, stoic and silent, picked off survivors who tried to flee through windows or hide behind debris.
Cassidy reloaded lazily, not even winded by the carnage.
"Well, this has been a fine little church service."
She muttered, cracking a wicked grin.
By the time they reached the last room, only one ghoul was left alive: Jason Bright, the prophet of the Bright Brotherhood. He knelt in the center of the room, his glowing eyes wide with disbelief at the massacre.
"Why? Why would you do this?"
Jason gasped, as Six loomed over him, his power armor dripping with gore.
"The Great Journey... Why have you forsaken us? The creator... the Far Beyond..."
Six tilted his helmeted head, looking down at the broken ghoul with cold indifference.
"There's no paradise waiting for you, Jason. Just the grave."
Jason shook his head in denial, mumbling prayers under his breath. But Six wasn't done. He grabbed the ghoul by the collar, dragging him to the floor as Chris appeared at the entrance, panting with excitement.
"Your turn."
Six said.
"Make it hurt."
Jason's glowing eyes dimmed as Chris knelt beside him, his hands shaking with adrenaline and hatred. Chris, the once-delusional scientist, stepped forward with a manic grin plastered across his face. Knelt next to Jason, his voice low and filled with venom.
"You made me a joke, Jason... Two years of my life wasted. But don't worry—I'm going to send you on your Great Journey. A one-way trip."
Jason tried to plead, but Chris was already on him, wrenching the ghoul's bony hands apart. In his madness, Chris savored every moment of torment, as his hands tightened around Jason's neck, and with a gurgled wheeze he choked the life out of the Bright prophet with his bare hands.
As Jason's glowing eyes dimmed to nothingness, Chris finally let go, panting with satisfaction.
"That's for the two years."
He whispered.
"Enjoy the Far Beyond, prophet."
Six gave him a small nod.
"Well done."
The crew didn't waste time after that. They stripped the test site of every piece of technology and equipment worth taking—plasma weapons, rocket parts, even machinery from the launch controls.
By the time they were done, the REPCONN facility was nothing more than an empty husk, filled with the blood and bodies of those who once believed in salvation.
Chris leaned against a wall, grinning maniacally.
"You know, Six... this might be the best day of my life."
Rebecca chuckled, slinging her Punisher over her shoulder.
"Welcome to the team, mad scientist."
"Chris go outside to the War bus, and wait for us to clear the basement."
Six said, his tone matter-of-fact.
"We've got Mutants to burn."
With that, the crew marched to the building's basement blood-soaked, their footsteps echoed as the Mojave sun greeted Chris as he exited, the War Bus idling patiently outside, waiting for him to adjust to it.
Behind him, the REPCONN Test Site stood silent and abandoned, a grim monument to his broken dreams and shattered faith. In the wasteland, there were no Great Journeys—only the strong and the dead. And Chris intended to not be fooled again.
Level: 18
NAME: Six XI
GENDER: MALE
STRENGTH: 10
PERCEPTION: 10
ENDURANCE: 10
CHARISMA: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
AGILITY: 10
LUCK: 10
-----------
BARTER: 100
ENERGY WEAPONS: 36
EXPLOSIVES: 36
GUNS: 100
LOCKPICK: 39
MEDICINE: 100
MELEE WEAPONS: 39
REPAIR: 100
SCIENCE: 100
SNEAK: 39
SPEECH: 68
SURVIVAL: 39
UNARMED: 39