Shadow

Basil shook off his fear and announced his presence "I am Lieutenant Basil commander of the Gun Runners 32nd squadron. I came out as requested now tell me exactly who you are and what you want."

"Who I am isn't important right now but, what is important is what I want. Originally I hoped that I could completely take you out with the Fatman and just walk in and take it however I have to give you and your men credit you're a lot tougher than I expected."

"So this wasn't a random attack it was premeditated but, what is your goal it's not money or weapons I can tell that much from how you are just wasting Mininukes."

"You are absolutely Right this isn't about any of that what I want is something much more important I want a certain item that's in your possession."

At the Raiders words Basils started to grow nervous "and what is it we have that you want?"

"It's an old prewar computer it will be completely black and be in near perfect condition. That is all I want if you give it to me I will call off the attack immediately and you can all go free."

Basil paled "How do you know about that" he roared while revving up his Gatling gun about to fire!

"How I know doesn't matter all you need to know is that if you give it to me you can live if not well I'm sure you can figure it out, also I would put the gun down if I was you" He chuckled while motioning to his guards .

Each of them brought a large backpack with them. At his motion they all took them off and showed off their contents. Each one had two to three Mininukes at that sight Basil and his men nearly collapsed in fear.

"H-how can you have so many of those" Basil stuttered while retreating several steps and dropping his Gatling gun.

"How this, how that is that the only thing you know how to say? Never mind I'll be nice and repeat myself one more time. It doesn't matter how I got these all you need to worry about is giving me what I want."

Basil fell to his knees and spoke "Fine you can have it but, you have to wait for our reinforcements to arrive later tonight."

"Oh and why should I do that" the man smiled as his eyes revealing a dangerous light.

"Because I can't trust you as soon as you get what you want what's to stop you from nuking everyone here."

"Absolutely nothing you're right if you had just handed it to me I would have just blown all of you to kingdom come. Very well we will wait for your reinforcements but, remember if you try and trick me I won't hesitate to destroy all of you even if it means destroying the computer too. After all if I can't have it no one can."

"And you remember if YOU try anything I will smash the computer myself."

Basil stood back up and hurried back to camp looking completely defeated and as he was returning he heard a voice behind him.

"I never did tell you my name did I have lots of them but, you can just call me Axel."

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"Can you see what's happening Aaron" Dan asked?

"Yes by reading their lips I can tell that the Raiders are after a computer the Gun Runners are transporting."

"All this for a computer? It must have some really important stuff stored on it."

"I agree what is on it must be extremely important to go to such lengths."

"So what do we do now?"

"From their conversation it looks like the Gun Runners are giving in and handing the Raiders the computer."

"They're just giving it to them?"

"Yes they do not have any other choice the Raider leader a man named Axel has at least 30 Mininukes and can kill us all whenever he chooses to."

"30!" Dan fell over.

"Yes 30 he is holding back because he doesn't want to destroy the computer. The trade will happen after our reinforcements get here so we have a better chance of escaping even if he decides to go back on his deal to let us go."

"If he has over 30 nukes no matter how many reinforcements we get it won't change a thing."

"I agree that's why they need to be dealt with."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to sneak into the Raiders base and detonate them all."

"If you have the ability to do that why didn't you do it ages ago" Dan cursed at Aaron.

"I did nothing because there was no need. We had no way to confirm if they had anymore Mininukes so it was pointless for me to go and even if I did I would have to leave you by yourself surrounded by enemies. It simply wasn't worth the risk."

"And it is now?"

"Yes we have confirmation that they have dozens of nukes and are ready to use them. You are going to be in extreme danger no matter what I do so I have to pick the safest option which is to eliminate the threat."

"I know you can easily sneak past a couple of Raiders but, do you actually have a plan?"

"I do once I infiltrate their base I will attach C4 near the bombs and escape to a safe distance before detonating them" Aaron explained while holding a trigger in his hand.

"Wait where have you been keeping that, No wait where did you even get that!"

"C4 is just a simple RDX nitroamine explosive mixed with a little bit of polyisobutylene natural rubber. I made it in the office of the Super Duper Mart while you were sleeping."

"That-" Dan wanted to respond how incredibly unsafe it was to make high explosives right next to him while he was sleeping but, stopped himself knowing that even if he said anything Aaron would probably just ignore what he said like he always does.

"Before I go I need to do two things, first take this" Aaron handed Dan a weather brown leather pouch with a rectangular box in it. "It's a Stealthboy use it to escape if you're in danger."

"Seriously where are you keeping all this stuff" Dan wondered out loud.

"Next I need to unlock you Pipboy."

"What do you mean unlock it?"

"There's a child lock on your Pipboy to stop you from seeing any of the more dangerous information Dante stored on it until he felt you were ready."

Dan cursed "How many secrets does this stupid thing have."

Aaron grabbed his Pipboy and began messing with it. He was so fast that Dan didn't get a chance to see exactly what he was doing.

"There now that that's finished I'll be going now" Aaron said before disappearing in front of him. "

Dan didn't know how to feel about Aaron's sudden exit. The guy left with barely a goodbye to go on what had a good chance of being a suicide mission and left him all alone. Aaron was way too serious and an asshole but, he was also the only family he had right now and Dan couldn't help but start worrying and hoped that he would be ok.

__________________________________________________

Aaron silently made his way through the caravan and arrived at the no man's land. After Axel's ultimatum all firing by both sides stopped. Making it easy for him to move across the field without worrying about being shot accidentally.

Aaron managed to move into the Raiders camp without being spotted. Most of them were partying and getting drunk thinking that they had already won. They were completely useless but, even if they were a thousand times more vigilant they still wouldn't be able to find him.

He weaved in and out between the wandering Raiders looking for the Mininukes. They wouldn't be left out in the open with this rabble so he quickly moved on. His goal was to find the Axel and the guards he had go with him to meet the Gun Runners.

The nukes would have the highest chance of being near them. He kept his eye out for anything that looked like a command center. Their leader came off as a fairly professional man so he would definitely have some kind of headquarters here.

Not long after Aaron managed to find an extremely large tent sitting in the middle of the base. He snuck in behind an entering Raider and examined its interior. He was right it was the headquarters in the center of the tent sitting on a makeshift throne surrounded by Raiders was Axel.

The Raider Aaron snuck in with hurried up to Axel and reported "boss we did what you asked and moved the nukes to and empty field and set up a barricade around it to stop people from doing anything funny."

"Excellent I have been having a bad feeling and I think that someone might try and sneak in and sabotage us. We need to keep the nukes safe and away from our men in case anything does happen."

Aaron raised his eyebrows slightly this was such a coincidence he snuck in trying to find the nukes and the second he gets here he manages to overhear a conversation about exactly where they were it was a little suspicious. If he didn't know better he would say they knew he was here.

After getting a response from Axel the Raider retreated from him and left the tent. Axel was basically alone aside from the few guards he brought with him earlier. Aaron didn't know how skilled these people were but, he knew he was better. Looking over at Axel he had a sudden impulse to draw his Gun and end him right now.

Eventually though he held himself back. Yes he could assassinate Axel and even had confidence to escape after too but, he didn't have the confidence to fight passed the hundreds of Raiders that he would have to face to destroy the Mininukes after he did that.

Plus Axel was the only thing holding the group of Raiders together if he died what would stop them from going crazy and destroying the caravan with the nukes. Reluctantly Aaron pulled back and exited the tent.

By this time the sun had already set and campfires were burning everywhere and the constantly changing lighting and shadows made it hard for him to keep his stealth consistent and his vague outline appeared. He had to be more careful now luckily he was a master and even if he didn't have a Stealthboy he would still be able to hide from these idiots.

He searched the outskirts of the base for anything that resembled what he had heard about in the tent. It wasn't too hard to find not far from the tent was a giant circle made by surrounding Raiders. The circle was it least a thousand feet wide and all the Raiders stood well clear of it with their weapons ready.

Aaron knew this was it he could see a crate in the distance at the center of the circle. Approaching the edge of the circle he easily slipped past the Raiders and stopped at its edge. He looked carefully at the ground examining every inch.

"Mines" he thought the Raiders had filled this area with dozens of them. It was subtle but, looking closely he could see signs of freshly moved dirt. After carefully tiptoeing around the mines Aaron managed to maneuver to the crate in the middle. It took him over half an hour of patience and skill to reach the crate.

It was fairly large and looked about the right size to hold all the bombs he had seen. Aaron didn't immediately set the C4 this place was too obvious and it might have been a decoy he needed to make sure.

Aaron once again carefully checked every inch to see if there were any traps. Unable to find anything wrong he slowly opened up the lid to get a glimpse inside. Aaron was relieved to see that it really was filled with the Mininukes. After measuring how big the crate was and knowing the approximate size of a Mininuke he estimated that there were at least 50 of them inside.

He had no idea where they found that many but, he knew that he had to destroy them as soon as possible and worry about where they got them from after. He placed the C4 on the bottom of the lid and closed it.

He was ready to retreat back to the caravan and detonate all the nukes. He followed his footsteps back the edge of the circle avoiding the mines but, before he could get more than halfway back he stopped something was wrong.

Even though Aaron was more than half robot he still had a frighteningly accurate intuition and he stopped because he felt extreme danger. He spun around with his pistol drawn and ready to fire.

When he turned he saw something that he had never seen in all his years travelling the wastes. It was a strange shadow in the shape of a human with no facial features and was transparent like a ghost.

He fired his gun but, the bullet passed straight through the mysterious shadow. Then it seemed to taunt him as it held up something in its hand. Aaron's heart dropped when he saw what it was, the shadow was holding his detonator.

Aaron had no idea how it got that but, he knew he was done for and began activating his fail safe. The shadow held its thumb down on the trigger just as all of the complicated machinery inside of Aaron finished their last task. BOOM all 50 of the Mininukes exploded at once startling both camps and lighting up the night sky.

The Raiders were all in panic they had no idea what had happened and Gil sat his tent seething in rage.

"Damn it damn it damn it get everyone ready we are launching a full assault right now!"

Meanwhile in the caravan everyone was staring at the explosion in shock not knowing what had happened.

"Everyone move now" Basil shouted those idiots messed up and blew themselves up this is our chance to escape."

While all that was happening Dan sat by himself staring at the bright mushroom cloud. He felt empty and knew that for the first time in his life that he was truly alone."