chsdbacks Chapter 9 Prologue
Chapter 9 Prologue
The war on Helios 1 has ended. The final victor is the Republic of New California, while the Brotherhood of Steel, after losing a large number of members, chose to withdraw from there, and it is unknown where they retreated to in the Mojave.
However, this victory should be considered a Pyrrhic victory for the New California Republic.
Even though the Brotherhood of Steel lost almost half of its members here, the casualties in New California were several times higher than those of the enemy.
When he awoke from his coma, the battle on Helios 1 had only ended on the periphery. The members of the Iron Brothers were still defending inside the building, while many soldiers went in to clear out the remaining structures.
At that time, I was standing outside and could hear gunshots coming from inside the Apollo 1.
The boy just stared at that spot, listening to the gunshots that kept ringing in his ears, and then he turned to look at the battlefield where the battle had taken place.
Although the war is not truly over yet, the clearing of the outer battlefields has begun, and everyone knows that the Brotherhood of Steel has lost the war.
Some soldiers responsible for logistics and medical care are on the perimeter recovering equipment, moving bodies, and checking for any remaining wounded survivors.
Upon witnessing this scene, the boy silently joined in. He picked up the pieces of the corpse from the ground, but he couldn't find the original owner anywhere; the ground was littered with mutilated corpses.
Limbs, torn flesh, bone fragments, and shredded internal organs were scattered everywhere.
The attacks pierced through their bodies, some leaving a hole, others being torn apart by the impact. Blood flowed from these mutilated corpses, staining the earth black.
Some of those attacked by laser weapons were burned to ashes, while those hit by plasma weapons turned into a pool of somewhat viscous green slime.
He looked at the battlefield without saying a word.
Gunshots were still coming from inside the building, along with some cries of pain, while the boy was simply dragging a relatively intact corpse to the open space behind it.
As he dragged the corpse backward, a Ranger, a super mutant, came up to him.
This super mutant ranger, who was carrying weapons salvaged from the battlefield, still helped by grabbing the corpse's ankles and pulling it up when he saw Huo Yuhao's condition.
Seeing this, she looked at him and said, "Thank you..."
Upon hearing this, the tall, green-skinned super mutant spoke to himself in a slow, gruff voice, "It's alright..."
When he and his companion transported the body to the rear, they saw that the once empty land was now filled with the bodies of fallen soldiers, including New California soldiers and members of the Brotherhood of Steel.
Those bodies, whether whole or mutilated, at least awaited their final burial.
Those who were turned to ash and green slime by laser and plasma energy weapons can only be identified by the names of the last missing persons.
The gunfire inside Apollo 1 finally ceased, and the entire battle was over.
In the end, some members of the Brotherhood of Steel withdrew from Apollo 1 and disappeared into the Mojave Desert, their whereabouts unknown.
When they entered the building to clean it up, they saw even more corpses, the wreckage of combat machinery, and destroyed power armor.
At this moment, the true face of war finally began to reveal itself before his eyes. This was no longer a battle like those fought in the wild against bandits or mutated creatures, tribes, or gangs.
At this moment, what he was witnessing was a war between two organizations, two organizations with complete rules and regulations, whose members were rigorously trained and were not just some scattered rabble.
When these two forces collide, life is quickly and efficiently crushed within them.
Looking at the corpses scattered on the ground and recalling the previous battles, he truly realized the impact of equipment, troop strength, tactics, and so on on the outcome of the war.
Looking at the lifeless faces on the ground, I finally understood what John meant when he smiled and said to us after we woke up, "Our team is so lucky to be alive."
Seeing Huo Yuhao looking at the corpses like that, John, who had followed him, simply patted him on the shoulder.
In his view, the boy, witnessing such a scale of casualties for the first time, would certainly feel psychologically uncomfortable.
However, simply letting him escape from these things was unrealistic in the wasteland, so John just followed behind him, watching everything with him, letting him get used to it.
Looking at the corpses scattered on the ground, Huo Yuhao quickly calmed down from the shock. After all, there was no point in wallowing in sorrow here. He then joined the others in arranging the bodies.
During this process, Huo Yuhao would occasionally look up at the interior of the building in front of him, a question swirling in his mind: what exactly was inside this place...?
After the battlefield was cleared, Huo Yuhao's squad and some others did not immediately evacuate, but were assigned to guard the Sun God No. 1, waiting for new troops to take over.
During this time, he used his prior knowledge to examine the internal situation.
Afterwards, Huo Yuhao discovered that this place was not only a solar power plant, but also seemed to be a weapon. As for whether this was true, he could not find out.
Because he didn't have time to learn more about the situation there, as a new unit arrived, bringing with them a scientist they called themselves, and then Huo Yuhao and his group were replaced.
At the same time, he understood that there was nothing inside the Apollo 1 that could help him return.
Then, Huo Yuhao's team had a relatively long vacation, since the team members needed to recover from their injuries, so he had a lot of free time.
For him, taking a vacation was just another way to find his way back home. Even after being in the wasteland for so long, the desire to go home had never disappeared.
The boy searched the sanctuaries in Mojave, but aside from seeing all sorts of things that seemed to be experiments being conducted on the residents for some purpose, he found no clues to returning home.
He asked many people tactfully, but to no avail, which only made them think he was overthinking things.
I also visited that town, which served as one of the two supply lines from New California to the Mojave region, and which was located on the watershed. It was a town with well-preserved pre-war facilities.
Upon seeing the town, the boy and a man with curly hair stared at it in shock.
However, aside from hearing about the postman who first discovered the town and was able to fight Deathclaws with a butter knife, there were no clues to getting back.
This made Huo Yuhao increasingly prepared to leave. Although he had lived in Mojave for so long, there was no way to go home.
A sense of unease spread through him, a kind of anxiety born from utter confusion. He had always maintained a sense of alienation from the wasteland, and this feeling grew stronger with time.
Huo Yuhao didn't dislike this place. Even though violence and death were happening every day in the wasteland, what he experienced here was far more than he had in the Duke's mansion for eleven years.
This made him no longer the child who left the Duke's mansion and remained panicked, bewildered, and fearful of the outside world.
These teammates around him, and the people and things he encountered, some good, some bad, some helpless, and some infuriating, but Huo Yuhao did not treat them as things that could be discarded.
The boy cherished these things, which is why he always maintained a distance from this place, afraid that he would truly become a part of it and find it difficult to leave and find a way home, since the vow in his heart had not yet been fulfilled.
When he returned to the camp, it was as if nothing had happened, just like before.
However, judging from Huo Yuhao's expression, the rest of the team seemed to have guessed what he was thinking.
There has never been true peace on the wasteland. With the appearance of a huge mushroom cloud at the Great Dividing Range, only one of the two supply lines remains at the outpost.
No one knows how it was done; it happened so quietly, without anyone noticing anything amiss, that an explosion was created and the place was destroyed.
However, many people in the military camp realized that this was like the prelude to another, much larger war.
There is no way to avoid it, no way to ignore it; Caesar's legion from the east will surely come here.
Before leaving, Huo Yuhao and his teammates will also have to face all of this together.