It never rained in the Capital Wasteland.
Rain was impossible, implausible, indescribable but most worrying of all, it was natural. Every Wastelander, from Raiders to the Brotherhood had experienced nature in all her vicious glory. By day a sun whose unshielded wrath ravaged the wasteland, by night an unforgiving abyss that invited a pestilence of ghouls. This was the nature of the Wasteland and rain was no different.
Unfortunately, post apocalyptic Mother Nature liked to surprise.
As the unfamiliar drops spiralled earthwards, Knight Captain Dawn was settling down for another night's guard duty. Three days in a row! Three days! Someone at the top had it in for her, only the grunts got Citadel gate duty and here she was, an honoured veteran stuck with a brainless initiate. The steady patter of rain continued to play a merry dance on her Power Armour, stoking the fires of anger.
"Ahem, Knight Captain, this rain stuff is getting faster perhaps we should…"
"Quiet initiate," she snapped, taking her anger out on the newbie, "it's only water."
Both of them knew that was stretching the definition of rain. Even behind their power helmet filters they could smell the metallic tang of radiation amongst the dark drops.
"It's not like I'm scared, but it can't be helping our rad count."
"Fine, order the sentry bot back to the gate. I'll follow." Even this felt like a defeat, a small victory for Mother Nature. Reluctantly, Knight Captain Dawn retreated to the shelter of the citadel gate, wishing she could swing the sniper off her back and shoot every one of the watery invaders.
"Cap' the sentry bot's got a reading, 100 metres and closing."
"Verify and cross reference," she growled at the chummy initiate.
"Vertibird and what?"
She could swear the IQ of the initiates got lower by the day, "Identify-the-reading-you-bloody-idiot!"
"Oh right," the initiate ran the protocol commands through the green tinted robot.
"Reading is type zero-delta-one. That's…" Dawn could just imagine his face contorting as he tried to figure out the reading.
"Human, low radiation." Dawn chipped in before his brain overheated.
"It's probably a lost trader looking for shelter, stand to just in case," she added.
Obediently, the Initiate unclipped an assault rifle from his back while the sentry Bot brought its various armaments to bear. Dawn already had the scope up to her eye but the gloom was impenetrable. She knew the ocean was barely 20 metres away but the only trace of it was the gentle sound of the tide washing against the shore.
"Thirty metres and closing."
Frantically, Dawn searched the darkness. Even with the light cast by the Citadel gate there was no sign of life.
"Twenty metres and closing." Well she wasn't going to die wandering.
"Identify yourself!" she yelled. Interference from her helmet speaker mingling with the smooth sound of falling rain.
"Ten metres," called an increasingly worried Initiate.
"Show yourself or I will shoot!" Unlikely since she couldn't actually see the threat.
"Is that how you greet all your guests?" Much to Knight Captain Dawn's relief a very human figure limped from the shadows. He wore a sleeveless, black jacket commonly used by mercenaries and a dirty pre-war hat tilted against the rain.
"State your intentions Wastelander."
"I'm here to see Owyn Lyons. Elder Lyons to you."
Dawn scoffed, her arrogance returning now she could see the helpless wastelander, "I'm afraid it's by invitation only."
"Tell him it's an old friend." The mysterious man motioned towards the intercom next to the gate.
"This isn't a pre war spy movie."
"Fair enough." Slowly, so as not to alarm the jumpy guards, he lifted his hand and shifted his hat to reveal the grizzled features. "Tell him Henry Casdin's come home."