Nate rolled out of the bed carelessly, his bare feet hitting the cold metal floor reminded him he had spent the night in his quarters on the Prydwen. He didn't bother opening his eyes, instead, he sat there for a moment letting his body catch up to his brain which was already carefully plotting out his day. He had to meet Hancock outside of the Airport and then they were going to the Castle to speak with Preston. It was probably about a settlement that needed his help. It was always about a settlement that needed his help. After having destroyed the Institute with the help of the Brotherhood of Steel, he'd been promoted and then left to do just about whatever he wanted. He was seen as more of a teller than a doer now, almost like Elder Maxson. Whenever he asked for work here they just told him there was nothing for someone of his status, just work for knights and scribes. This gave him plenty of time to do work for the Minutemen who didn't seem to give two shits that he was not only Sentinel to the Brotherhood of Steel, but also their General. How different the two organizations were.

He couldn't hide his bias all the time, though, Hancock had caught on fairly quickly, but then again, he was a Mentats kind of ghoul making him far more perceptive than he should be. The Brotherhood was everything he'd had before being thrown out of his own time. It was an organized military with specific rules and training with familiar weapons and standards. But their morals were too strong for him. Equality was for pure human kind, even ghouls who were humans and had no choice in their change were seen as abominations.

Nate had made the mistake of bringing Hancock with him onto the Prydwen once before he was promoted to paladin. He'd barely made it off of the vertibird before being surrounded by laser rifles aimed and humming. Now he left Hancock outside the Airport's boarders just to be sure no trigger-happy initiate would accidently shoot the Mayor of Goodneighbor.

So, despite the constant settlement distress, the Minutemen shared more beliefs with Nate, giving them a slightly higher standing on his priority list than the Brotherhood. Not that they seemed to notice.

With a sigh he opened his eyes and stood. Nate stumbled over to his dresser, working out the stiffness in his joints. It was nice to have a large room without holes in it letting in rads and rain, but the room was far plainer than anything he built in the settlements under his care. That was partly because he didn't spend too much of his time here, leaving him no time to add anything but essentials to the room.

He threw on his Brotherhood fatigues and grabbed his sniper rifle, then left the room, pausing just long enough to listen to the automatic lock. The Prydwen looked no different with the Institute destroyed than it had before. The soldiers moved around with their minds on everything but their orders. Normally Nate would head over to the canteen and get something fresh to eat, but Hancock always made a face at the food supplied by the Prydwen. Nate knew that the Brotherhood itself was not bad, just like the prewar military, it's those within it that the people see, and based off of them are the impressions given. One or two rude soldiers can ruin years of trust carefully built up by those soldiers' superiors. And unfortunately the Brotherhood didn't have a preexisting relationship with the Commonwealth that could negate any hard feelings now thrown at them by the settlements that were unlucky enough to be assigned to the soldiers that did not have the same mentality as the Brotherhood. Nate feared the day when one of the settlements under his protection would be contacted by the Brotherhood. He hoped the soldiers that would come were kind and offered compensation to the hard working farms and only took what was needed.

Salutes and Hail Sentinels followed his departure, and he'd almost made it to the vertibird without anyone stopping him. Almost.

"Sentinel," Lancer-Captain Kells's voice rang with a deep, defining tone that could belong to no one else. Nate hid his reaction behind a polite smile and turned to face the man. Kells was only taller than Nate because of his Airship captain's hat. Nate had never given much thought to his size until Vault-Tec had ripped his life away from him. He wasn't the biggest guy in the army, even in his friend group he was nothing special. The wasteland had hardened him though, made his softened muscles hard again, and stole the smooth skin he'd had. But it couldn't take his height, which he learned made him stand out even more since the people of the Commonwealth usually went hungry stunting their growth causing the new average to be several inches shorter. Those who work for the Brotherhood, especially those who started young, didn't see the effect as badly. Only one person had rivaled Nate's size, and he wasn't here anymore.

"Lancer-Captain Kells, what can I do for you?"

"Elder Maxson has ordered me to assign a squire to you," he said, standing with his feet together and his fist over his chest in a salute.

"I, uh," Nate blinked and awkwardly saluted back. "I wasn't aware I was going to be assigned a squire."

"We have a squire who shows great promise, excellent skills, and superior knowledge of her studies when compared to her peers. Elder Maxson and I agree no better mentor for her would be you, Sentinel." Kells had to be some hand full of years older than Nate, but he bled steel just like Elder Maxson did, which earn him Nate's respect. Nate hadn't missed the hateful stares and whispers from some soldiers because of his literal fly through the ranks, achieving in mere months what some couldn't do in decades. Nate was also from a different time, though, and had been away from this sort of life for barely a year, making it all too easy to fall right back into his old habits.

"Why not train her under Elder Maxson?" Nate wondered aloud.

Lancer-Captain Kells stared at him for a moment as if he weren't sure if Nate had actually meant to ask the question. He then responded with, "She is waiting at the Airport for you. Ad Victoriam, Sentinel." Nate nodded returning the battle cry and gave a halfhearted salute that Kells copied before departing.

Nate sighed and mounted the waiting vertibird to take it down to the Airport.