Ad Victoriam. 'To victory'. These were the words that every member lived by. A simple phrase that demonstrated a tenacity that only the brothers and sisters of steel could follow. A simple phrase that, from the moment of recruitment, had been imprinted into each initiate's mind, like a brand on the skull. Down in the old subways of the Capital Wasteland, these were the only words that Initiate Elwin needed.
The four men slowly moved forward, three initiates and a knight, rifles to shoulder and combat lights on.
"Slow and steady, keep those guns up and your eyes ahead. If you hear anything, use hand gestures."
The three initiates nodded at Knight Galford's orders and continued to pay extra attention to their surroundings. The concrete tunnels were completely black save for the pale green bioluminescence of mutated fungi growing on the edges of the rusted tracks. Initiate Elwin's heart was pounding. All he could hear was the wind and the hydraulics of Knight Galford's power armour.
Elwin looked to the other initiates, Benny on the left hand side of Galford and Edwards bringing up the rear. Despite the three of them being initiates, they hardly knew each other. Benny was new and had only been a member for the better part of two weeks whereas Edwards had signed on from the Commonwealth, along with a horde of other new recruits. The fall of the Institute had put the Brotherhood in good standing with the Commonwealth, and due to the Brotherhood's expansion since, new blood was needed to fill many boots, resulting in a recruitment station being set up in Diamond City. A new group of recruits came into the Citadel every month.
He looked at Galford. The man had been a training instructor at the Citadel since Maxson's operation north and had adopted a strong 'keep at it until it's right' attitude. To many an initiate's dismay, this fell true to physical training too. Elwin caught the eye of the Knight.
Galford stopped and looked forward from the initiate, nodding ahead.
"Elwin, focus yourself and take point," he said in strict yet unoppressive tone through his helmet, "there's a platform ahead, which means we're close."
"Yes, sir" acknowledged Initiate Elwin, coughing shakily before moving slightly ahead of the group. He could feel Galford's gaze at his back as he continued moving his rifle around ahead, catching glimpses of skeletons, now centuries old still in their pre-war clothing. The tunnel at this section was caved in on one side, a capsized train stuck inside the rubble, forcing the team to bunch up on the right hand side.
Elwin stopped at the edge of the platform, holding up a fist to the left of his head signalling the rest of the team to hold position. The initiate took a breath before casting his light across the platform, the shadows moving in tandem with the point of his laser rifle. Elwin's breath caught as his rifle stopped, trained on a crouching figure.
It was staring at him with pale, glazed yellow eyes. A dumbfounded look upon its rotted, yellowed and disfigured face. Its clothes were old and torn. It stood, an inhuman and contorted groan. A feral ghoul.
"Remember...centre mass for kill shots, legs to slow them down…"
The ghoul launched itself forward, crying out in an almost zombie-like fashion. Red beams of fiery energy shot out from Elwin's rifle, two hitting the wall behind the ghoul and another hitting its leg. The ghoul flew forwards, casting its arms out towards the ground before sliding off the platform and onto the track. Elwin dropped to one knee and fired another three beams of energy into the withered body before it could get back up, searing the skin in several places and producing a putrid stench.
Elwin continued staring at the corpse for several seconds. The sudden silence was unnerving. Footsteps came up behind him and a hand planted on his shoulder.
"You really need to work on that aim, chum" said Benny, stepping past him to look at the corpse, "if you'd missed any more than you did then you'd be-" a shrill horde of inhuman cries emanated from further into the platform, cutting him off.
Knight Galford marched forward and pulled Elwin onto the platform before checking over his rifle.
"Shut your mouth and prepare yourself, initiate. Rule 1 with ghouls: there's always more."
Elwin loaded a fresh fusion cell into his rifle before aiming towards a set of double doors at the back of the platform, while Benny and Edwards took the side doors with Galford ready to support. A clammering of bare feet echoed throughout the platform, accompanied with grotesque snarls and cries, growing gradually louder. The double doors broke off their hinges as a throng of ghouls clambered over debris towards the patrol, scattered beams of red light ripping apart their bodies within an instant, leaving a pile of singed corpses.
"Sir, should we check the other rooms?" asked Edwards, pointing his rifle towards the still shut doors at the sides of the platform.
"No, initiate. We've spent too much time in this section as it is. We need to get to the target as soon as possible." replied Galford, moving with heavy steps to the double doors and checking over the corpses. Satisfied, the knight beckoned over the rest of the team.
"Alright, there's no more time to fuck around. I'll take point, the rest of you keep up and watch my six, got it?"
The three initiates glanced at each other before nodding or mumbling in acknowledgment.
The initiates swiftly followed the hulking suit of grey steel through numerous dusty and dilapidated corridors, passing through at one point a large room full of old inactive pre-war terminals and a scorched tile floor riddled with blackened bones. Galford led them down several sets of stairs before emerging before a giant door.
Elwin looked it over with astonishment, he'd never seen anything of the sort. It was large and round, with teeth like a great cog. The entire thing was set in a sheet of bedrock and made of dark and rusted steel. The door had a yellow circle surrounding a small amount of numbering in the centre which read '104'. A yellow panel stood beside a set metal stairs that led up to a walkway to the base of the door.
"A vault, sir? How are we going to get it open?" asked Initiate Elwin, staring up the giant steel door.
"With a gift left for us by the Sentinel…" said Galford, producing a small computer on a leather vambrace and walking up to the panel. With heavy steel hands, the knight extended a cord from the back of the Pip-Boy and plugged it into the panel. After several seconds, the casing that protected a red square button on the panel lifted up. Galford looked at his team.
"This vault hasn't been opened for over two hundred years. There's no telling what is inside now, so keep your guard up when we're in there." Galford took a breath and looked up at the door, then back to the panel.
"Here we go…" he whispered, pressing the button slowly.
Immediately, yellow warning lights flared up around the room and a monotonous and robotic female voice sounded over a hidden speaker.
"Welcome to Vault 104 - Government R&D Storage Facility. Please avoid using any firearms during your visit. Thank you."
The door was pulled backwards with the screech of steel on steel before rolling to the side. A walkway extended from inside to meet the one on the opposite side. The squad traversed the walkway, scouring the well lit vault entrance. There was no sign of damage in the slightest, but there was no one to greet them either. The walls of the vault were grey-blue in colour and were clean, unlike the rest of the world. There were several large computers flanking the walkway, all pristine with a white finish.
There was only one way forward. A single, central corridor that opened out into another room. Elwin looked across the ceiling with a curious expression. There were no turrets. This was the front door and there was no defense at all? Not even a protectron?
Galford turned to his men, "Alright, I don't like this at all, so let's get this done quickly. I'll continue on point, just make sure you back me up with whatever is ahead and don't get too starry eyed at the fact that this place is so clean and smooth. I'd rather not die because one of you was admiring a kitchen counter, understood? Good." Galford turned back around and started marching off down the corridor before any of the initiates could respond. Elwin and the rest quickly caught up as the knight led them out into the next room.
The entire vault seemed to be a warehouse. The ceiling extended up to about forty feet high and the length of the entire area was at least a hundred metres. There was row upon row of shelves, filled with all manner of different types of equipment. Ammunition, energy weapons, ballistic weapons, grenades of just about every type, sections of various models of power armour. It was simply a treasure trove of military technology.
Galford removed his helmet, revealing a scarred and rough, bearded face with short brown hair, and started laughing.
"The scribes will have a god damned field day in this place! Look at all of the gear they've got down here!"
Elwin shifted uncomfortably, this had been too easy, surely it was too good to be true.
"Yeah, like we've stumbled into a dragon's lair eh?" shouted Benny behind him.
"But we've yet to find the dragon…" muttered Elwin, keeping his rifle to shoulder and moving between the lines of shelves towards the other side of the room.
Something wasn't right, there was no way it would be so easy. He looked behind him and saw his squadmates rooting through the different boxes of technological pre-war goodies, relishing in their find. Elwin turned back around and pressed on, keeping his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. The initiate eventually found himself on the other side of the room, a single sliding door lay in the centre of the back wall. Elwin approached, readied his laser rifle and turned the switch. The door split half way and opened vertically with a hiss, revealing a single open room with what looked like a nest in the centre.
Edging forward to the nest, he spied several round objects in the nest. The initiate quickly approached them. They were eggs, but not the sort that he would usually find by the swampland near his brother's house, no they were not mirelurk eggs. They were too smooth, dotted around the middle and larger too.
He span around as a scream and several bursts of laser fire sounded in the room behind him.
"Deathclaw! Focus fire on its belly!"
Elwin sprinted back into the storage room to find the other two initiates and Knight Galford facing off with a hulking, horned bipedal reptile that stood about ten feet tall with long humanoid arms, each ending with curved razor sharp claws. Elwin took several shots before running closer. He stopped to fire another burst as the deathclaw grabbed a screaming Initiate Edwards and hacked him into two before throwing the upper half of him towards the shelves of pre-war tech, spraying blood all across the previously clean floor. The deathclaw then turned to Benny who was firing his laser rifle at it like a madman, the energy simply glancing off its highly resilient hide. Elwin crouched and fired several aimed shots at the deathclaw's face, turning its attention to him. It stood to its full height and roared, shaking the entirety of the vault with its sheer power before dropping to all fours and running towards him, leaving long claw marks in the steel floor.
Reloading a fresh fusion cell into his rifle, Elwin stood his ground as the deathclaw swiftly approached, firing his laser rifle at its face, hoping to catch one of its eyes. Suddenly, a small nuclear blast erupted from the deathclaw's side with immense light and searing heat. Elwin saw Knight Galford drop a Fat-Man to the ground before picking up what looked like a gatling laser. The deathclaw turned as the knight charged into the deathclaw with his power armour, getting underneath the wounded reptile with his gatling laser and unleashing red fire into his stomach at point blank range. The deathclaw screamed in agony as shot after shot from Galford's gatling laser ripped into it. After several seconds, its back glowed red and then the laser beams penetrated right through the deathclaw's hide, putting the final nail in its coffin.
Initiate Elwin ran forward as the deathclaw corpse dropped lifeless. Galford pushed the great carcass off of him before removing his helmet and taking a breather. Elwin moved on past him and helped Benny up onto his feet. The three of them looked at the deathclaw, panting with exhaustion, amazed that they'd actually survived.
Galford turned his head towards the remains of their fallen brother and his face immediately fell solemn.
"I'll get his tags...he fell like a true warrior. Well done to the both of you, not many survive an encounter with a deathclaw…," he sighed "We'll mark this place for a sweep and retrieval. Let's finish up and get a vertibird pick up. I don't really feel like walking back to the Citadel."