War… war never changes.
Ghouls, supermutants, people, it didn't matter. Killing was killing. Having advanced weaponry and equipment to do it didn't make it any better, it didn't numb you to the death, the gore, the atrocity. It was difficult, but it had to be done. That was what Sentinel Colvin always told himself. It's what he was telling himself right then in that moment, as he was lost in thought, the voice in his mind drowning out the whir of the Vertibird's rotors. He was fiddling with the right gauntlet of his power armor, flexing the servos in the fingers open and closed to make sure it was working properly. Armor failure in the middle of battle was something no member of the Brotherhood of Steel wanted.
"Five minutes" he heard the lancer bark over his helmets radio.
Five minutes to touchdown, five minutes to more carnage and bloodshed, more killing. It didn't get any easier. Content with his gauntlet the Sentinel looked up and directed his attention to the three other soldiers in the Vertibird's hold with him. All were concealed inside their own suits of power armor, but Colvin could recognize each member of his squad regardless. It wasn't just the fact that each of them had slightly differing parts to their armor, he had served with them for so long, he could have recognized them just by the way they sat, the way they acted. These were his brothers and sisters, they had all been forged in battle together.
"Are you having some armor trouble Sentinel?" Knight O'Harra asked.
"No, I'll be fine" Colvin answered confidently, "how about you Knight, are you battle ready?"
"Yes sir!" O'Harra sat up a bit straighter, he was eager for combat, just got promoted to Knight, Colvin couldn't fault him for his enthusiasm. He had been like that once, a long time ago before years of fighting had tempered his demeanor into something different. Colvin turned to his other squad members.
"How about you Knight Torres?"
"Ready sir," she answered.
"Dobson?"
"Five by five Sentinel," he answered, adding a thumbs up.
"Good, let's be careful down there, no heroics," they couldn't tell because of the helmet, but Colvin was looking at O'Harra when he said that. All three of them nodded in agreement.
The Vertibird began to turn as it circled the landing zone. Colvin looked out over the side to see dozens of figures milling about down below.
"Torres, let's clear the LZ" Colvin motioned at the mounted chaingun.
"With pleasure sir" she answered as she took hold of the weapon's handles and checked to make sure it was ready to fire.
Each burst from the barrels lasted only a few seconds, but released dozens of rounds at the targets below. With every burst a figure below exploded into a puff of red mist and viscera. Torres hooted with joy as her targets were destroyed one by one. Within 48 seconds the landing site was clear of anything living, all that remained was a pool of red and piles of mangled flesh. The bird touched down with a thud and a shudder, and all four of them piled out. Colvin's massive armored foot crunched down on something as he got out. He looked down to inspect the skull he had flattened under his weight.
Ghouls. It was ghouls today.
I didn't matter, tomorrow it would be something else. Right now it was about survival, and that meant killing every ghoul in sight. The Brotherhood brought order and civilization to the wasteland, and ghouls had no place in it. The other two Vertibirds touched down and released their cargo; two more squads. Inferno and Wyvern squads, each led by Paladins Wright and Yin respectively. Colvin led Mammoth squad, and like his the other two squads included their team leader and three Knights. Normally this many squads weren't deployed together, but today they needed to clear the area of hostiles quickly and effectively. A single Brotherhood squad was a force to be reckoned with, three squads was like a force of nature.
"Alright Mammoth," Colvin said, "take it slow, and watch each other's backs, everyone comes home tonight."
All three squads fanned out into a standard sweep formation, spaced out evenly in a line to provide optimum field of fire for everyone. They made their way toward the target building, an old West Tek facility believed to house large amounts of pre-war relics. With all the ghoul activity nearby, it was unlikely that scavengers had gotten to any of it yet. As they approached the entrance a large mob of ghouls, attracted by the sound of the gunfire, rushed out of multiple holes and exits in the building's facade. All at once the three squads opened fire, easily cutting down every ghoul within seconds. Without stopping their advance they neutralized all the targets and reached the entrance.
"Area clear" Colvin said after a few moments. He turned to survey his teams. He took a minute to plan out their next move. He could tell they were getting impatient when Paladin Yin spoke up.
"Orders Sentinel?" she asked with a hint of urgency.
"Alright," Colvin said as he finished his plan of attack, "Mammoth will go in the front, Wyvern, go around back and see if you can find another way in, we'll clear the building and meet inside, Inferno, set up a perimeter and make sure we don't attract any unwanted attention."
All three squads broke up and went off to their duties. As Wright began giving orders, Wyvern made their way around the building and went out of view. Colvin led his squad to the front door. With a sharp kick the door flew open and Mammoth moved inside.
The interior was pitch black, requiring them to turn on their headlamps. In the pallid light Colvin inspected what appeared to be the main lobby. A reception desk nearby had a terminal on it. After a closer look he discovered it was undamaged, and after wiring it to his power armor's energy system he was able to turn it on. Nothing special to be found, office memos, the usual stuff, but with the right tools they could find what they were looking for. He removed a holodisk from one of his suit pouches and inserted it into the terminal. It was one of the scribes' creations, an infiltration subroutine which would connect this terminal to the facility's entire network, allowing him to access all the files there directly.
In just a few minutes the screen displayed dozens of files that each contained masses of information. Colvin went straight for the file labeled "Active Projects". Inside he found swathes of technical readouts and descriptions. These would need to be taken right away, he loaded another holodisk that would automatically transfer all the files from the server to the disk. As the information was moved, something caught Colvin's eye. He scrolled back to the text. "Project Maximus: PRIORITY 1 IMPORTANCE - Unassigned Personnel are to report to sublevel 3."
"Looks like we're going to sublevel three Mammoth," Colvin said, "let's find a way down there."
Past the lobby was a large square atrium, the ceiling of which reached to the top of the building, with skylights at the top allowing some meager light to shine down through the tarnished glass. On each level was a walkway that wrapped all the way around the atrium.
"Contacts" Dobson grunted. The team turned to see a pair of ghouls come out of a nearby bathroom. O'Harra and Torres quickly dispatched them. The shots attracted more of them, and soon all the walkways in the atrium on every floor were swarming. The ghouls dropped from the upper storeys with no heed for their own safety, and as the first few were killed by the impact their corpses cushioned the fall for those that followed. As they were surrounded Mammoth instinctively positioned themselves in a circle, facing outward to cover every direction. The ghouls surged forward screaming and thrashing, but were gunned down before they got close enough to do any damage. They didn't stop coming, more and more poured out of every possible entrance. Suddenly a torrent of gunfire erupted on Colvin's right, as Wyvern squad burst into the atrium to provide support. With the combined fire of all eight of them the ghouls were massacred.
Within 3 minutes the whole exchange was over. The atrium was littered with the mangled corpses of at least fifty ghouls. Pieces of their frail bodies, limbs, organs, were scattered across couches and tables. Colvin took the scene in coldly, it was nothing new to him. At least this time it was ghouls instead of actual people. He always hated going against raiders. Sure they were cruel and monstrous, but something about killing people in a world with so few people left just felt off, like it was counter-productive. The bombs couldn't wipe out humanity, so humanity would do it itself? His thoughts were interrupted as Yin and her squad strode forward.
"Look like you owe me one Sentinel," he could hear the smile in her voice.
"Thanks for the assist Wyvern," Colvin answered to the whole squad, "we've got a new target, sublevel three, they were working on something called 'Project Maximus', it seemed highly important."
"Let's find our way down then" Yin said, "Wyvern, let's fan out and find a staircase, looks like the elevator is a no go."
Looking toward the vestibule Colvin saw that the elevator car had fallen from one of the top floors some time ago, and was hanging precariously from a snag it had caught on the second floor. Definitely not the way to go. He sent Mammoth out on a search path as well, and slowly they made their way around the main level. Colvin was moving down a hallway when he heard a shout from a doorway to the left. Entering in he saw O'Harra staring at the decaying corpse of a supermutant that had been left slumped against a wall.
"It's dead Knight," Colvin said flatly, causing O'Harra to spin around to face him with another shout.
"Yes sir," he said after realizing who it was, "sorry sir, just startled me is all."
"It's alright, just don't get too jumpy, you're a Brotherhood Knight, that means discipline."
"Yes sir," O'Harra said as Colvin strode forward to inspect the body. It looked like the ghouls had been feeding on it, but decided it didn't taste too good. He didn't blame them. What was a supermutant doing in here anyway?
"Wright," Colvin called over the radio.
"Yes Sentinel?" Wright's voice came through roughly on his helmet's speakers.
"We've got a dead supermutant in here, any signs of activity on the perimeter?"
"No sir, I've got Star and Halden posted at the rear, and Genovich is sweeping around the building, they haven't reported anything."
"Roger that, keep me posted, we'll be out soon."
"Copy, Wright out."
"Worried about something Sentinel?" O'Harra asked.
"Just a feeling Knight," Colvin answered distantly, "our mutant friend here doesn't get along with ghouls, and I find it hard to believe he was here alone. Let's find that stairway."
After five or so minutes Knight DePonte of Wyvern squad reported that he'd found an accessible stairwell. Both teams converged on his location and made their way down to sublevel three. They didn't encounter any more ghouls on the way. Sublevel three was a large space dominated by machines that appeared to be some sort of turbines, it wasn't like anything Colvin had seen before. The various tubes, wires, and coils didn't look anything like nuclear generator components, in fact it reminded Colvin of the plasma weapons they held in the chapter armory more than anything else.
A green glow illuminated the wall at the far end of the room behind one of the machines. As Colvin took a step forward to investigate, the source of the light turned the corner, a green iridescent ghoul. Colvin immediately went into battle mode, raising his laser rifle and aiming dead center at the thing's head.
"We've got a Glowing One," Yin shouted as she took up a firing position on Colvin's left. The Glowing One rushed forward at Yin, lifting its hand to swing. She raised an arm to block the blow, but as soon as her armor made contact with the ghoul's flesh the plate on her forearm began to melt into slag. She gave out a scream of agony as the heated metal seared the flesh inside. She gave the thing a heavy kick, throwing it back a few feet.
"That's no Glowing One," she shouted, "what the fuck is that thing?"
"Open fire!" Colvin barked as he pulled Yin back behind the Knights. She was clutching her deformed left bracer. As the six Knights all began shooting at the ghoul, Colvin moved Yin's hand away and inspected the damage to her arm. The plate was warped, and a lot of it had simply liquified and come off. Using his armor's enhanced strength he tore the bracer off and inspected the flesh underneath in the light of his headlamp. Thankfully the armor's frame hadn't been affected, and while the burns were pretty severe, it wasn't going to affect the arm long term.
"You'll live," he told her calmly, "it'll remind you not to take ghouls lightly."
Yin gave a short chuckle that turned into a groan as the nerves around the burn began to enflame. Colvin left her to sit and recover while he turned his attention back to the ghoul. Although at this point there no longer was a ghoul, there was a puddle. The combined fire of all six Knights had reduced their Glowing One to a pile of neon green goo. After a quick sweep of the room to ensure no more of the creatures were around, they gathered around the puddle.
"No one gets near it," Colvin ordered, placing his hand on an eager O'Harra's shoulder. "You saw what it did to Yin's arm, I'm not going to risk anyone touching it. Let's look for any tech we can grab, if the scribes want this thing, they can come the hell back here and get it themselves."
They searched the room for anything that looked useful or important. Knight Valacity found a filing cabinet full of schematics and blueprints, and Dobson found several sealed metal containers with "Maximus" stenciled on their sides. On a work table littered with tools Colvin found a strange cylinder hooked up to one of the large machines with wires. He held it up in his spotlight for a better look. It seemed familiar.
"Now what do you make of this Torres?" he asked his nearby squadmate. She looked at it for a few moments before answering.
"It… Sort of looks like a fusion core."
"My thought exactly," he said agreeingly, "and if West Tek made power armor, and power armor runs on fusion cells, then it is logical to assume that West Tek was working on some sort of prototype cores to use in their armor."
"Makes sense to me sir," Torres agreed.
"Sentinel Colvin come in," Paladin Wright's voice broke in on the radio.
"Go ahead Paladin."
"Sir, we've got muties moving around on the west perimeter, I suggest bugging out fast, looks like they're coming in force."
"Alright, call in the birds for a hot pick up, we're grabbing what we found and coming up, meet at the front entrance, and tell the Lancers to have a medpack ready."
"Someone get hurt?" He asked with a concerned tone.
"Yeah, Yin."
"Will she make it?"
"She'll be fine, she's had a lot worse."
"I can hear you boys," Yin said surlily.
"We'll be up in five minutes Wright," Colvin said, ignoring Yin's comment.
"Roger that, we'll be ready for you up here."
Each Knight grabbed one or two of the sealed metal crates, Colvin picked up the filing cabinet full of documents and hoisted with one arm. Yin carried her laser rifle with her good hand to give them cover fire if they needed it. They quickly but carefully made their way back up to the atrium and went out the front doors. Outside Inferno was waiting, set up in a standard defensive formation. The ghoul remains on the landing zone were rotting in the wasteland sun, and Colvin had to shut the external air filters on his suit to keep himself from vomiting from the stench.
"Welcome to our slice of paradise Sentinel," Wright greeted them.
"ETA on the Vertibirds?" Colvin asked.
"About five minutes, just in time, those mutants are getting close, I'd say we have a fight ahead of us."
"Alright, let's get set up then. Inferno cover left, Mammoth will cover the center, and Wyvern cover right."
The Knights put down the containers and went to their designated positions. On the horizon they could see figures approaching. Within a minute the forms of supermutants were easily identifiable. They came within earshot then stopped as they surveyed the scene at the landing zone. The one in the lead growled in anger.
"Someone killed filthy ghouls already, can't avenge our brothers now! Who killed ghouls?!"
"We did" Colvin set his helmet to boost the sounds of his voice, "this location now belongs to the Brotherhood of Steel."
"Stupid metal men!" The mutant leader shouted. "We hear of you, we hate you, we kill you! Supermutants are strong, you are weak-"
The discharge of Colvin's laser rifle interrupted the mutant's ravings as a laser bolt blew cleanly through his skull, leaving a smoking hole between his eyes. The hulk fell face forward into the piles of rotting ghoul remains, it's body twitching lifelessly. The other supermutants roared in anger and charged forward. All three squads opened fire. A few mutant hounds ran forward ahead of their masters, but were easily shot down. The mutants tossed a few grenades as they ran forward, but they were poorly aimed, and as the blasts went off in random locations the pieces of thrown up dirt and ghoul bits bounced harmlessly off their power armor.
Most of the mutants carried crude clubs and boards, so while the few with guns stayed back and fired wildly, the others charged forward in a blind rage. One of the mutants ran directly for Colvin, most likely looking to avenge his leader, and swung downward with a spiked board. Colvin easily caught it mid swing and snapped it as if it were a twig. Undaunted, the supermutant swung again with the remaining broken piece. Colvin caught it by the wrist, and with an open palmed strike he slammed upward into the mutant's elbow, snapping the arm backward and causing its radius bone to burst out in a gush of blood. It dropped the splintered piece of club and screamed in pain. Without hesitation it lifted its good arm and took a wild swing at Colvin. He caught the fist in his hand and squeezed until he heard its hand bones snapping. The supermutant screamed even louder and in desperation began slamming its head into Colvin's helmet. With such a large and thick skull the impacts had an effect even in power armor. Colvin's vision blurred and his visor began to crack slightly. Right as the beating came close to being too much, the mutant seemed to stagger a bit, even it couldn't take that beating forever, and the pain from a broken arm and a mutilated hand wouldn't help. In that moment of respite Colvin took his chance. With a swift uppercut he slammed the mutant in the jaw, more bones broke. It staggered backwards and fell to a knee. He grabbed the thing's head with both hands, and as it stared into his visor with a look of searing hatred he fluidly snapped the mutant's neck. It crumpled to the ground, and Colvin wiped the mutant blood off his visor to get a look at the situation around him.
All the supermutants who had charged his troops lay dead around him, not a single friendly injury. The mutants who had guns were still up and fighting though, and were grouped together behind a rusted out truck shooting at their position. In the distance Colvin heard the distinct droning of Vertibird rotors. Their transport flew into view within a minute. One of the birds turned its side to face the entrenched supermutants, and a Lancer on the minigun opened fire. In seconds the group of mutants was shredded into meat, and the Vertibirds came in for a pick up.
They loaded the retrieved items on board and climbed in. The flight back to Seattle was silent. It was only a half hour away, and no one ever really liked talking after battles. So they simply sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts, letting the adrenaline wear off. Now that the mission was finished, Colvin was looking forward to learning what exactly they had found, and getting cleaned up and fed. The flight passed by quickly, it always seemed to go faster going home than leaving, and soon the shape of the Tower could be seen out the window. The Tower was the central headquarters for the Northwest Pacific chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, and it was built in what was formerly known as the Space Needle. It was a big tourist attraction before the war, now it was a military command center. Elder Andrews and all the other leaders of the chapter had their meetings and battle assessments at the top. The rest of the chapter was housed and operated in a compound built around the base of the Tower.
The circular top portion of the Tower also served as a landing pad for the chapter's four Vertibirds. With only four birds on station, the Elder's decision to send three of them on the same mission had been seen as a bit irrational. It better have been worth it. Colvin would most likely need a new helmet, and Yin was lucky to only need a new arm plate, and not a new arm. The Vertibirds touched down on the landing pad and all three squads made their way out, taking the cargo with them, to present to the Elder. While the scribes looked over their findings, Colvin and his squad returned their power armor to their repair stations, and got some food. After their meal they were summoned up to the command deck to meet with the Elder.
They exited the elevator to find Elder Andrews and Head Scribe Nurian present, as well as both Inferno and Wyvern squads. Even Paladin Yin was present, a bandage wrapped over her burned arm. The Elder greeted them and asked them to gather around with the others.
"Now," the Elder began, "do you have any idea what it is you found Sentinel? It was quite a wealth of information."
"No Elder, although I speculated that this Project Maximus had something to do with fusion cores."
"Ah, and right you are, or at least to a degree," the Elder said with a smile, he turned to Nurian, "what exactly are these devices then Belthian?"
"They are some sort of power source. We know that they incorporate the same kind of plasma technology that our standard plasma weaponry does," she began calmly, "but that is not the truly amazing thing, they are designed to fit into every suit of power armor as a normal fusion core would, but they are incredibly more efficient and powerful compared to their nuclear counterparts."
"How much more efficient?" Colvin asked, his interest piqued at the prospect of improving their power armor.
"We are unsure of the exact measurements without further testing, but based on my observations, I'd wager that one of these cells could potentially power a suit of armor for months- years even perhaps!"
Everyone in the room seemed to catch their collective breathe at once. One cell powering a suit of armor for years? That would open the doors to much more extended use and deployment in combat. No need to resupply for new cores, this could change everything about how the Brotherhood's soldiers could operate in the field.
"Very impressive," the Elder coode, "but the important question is, can we produce more than what we have found here?"
Nurian looked at the Elder and smiled confidently.
"Yes Elder, I believe we can."
A/N: Hello folks, author here. This is the first part in a pretty lengthy story I plan to do based on Fallout, this will be all OCs and will not have spoilers for any of the games, so don't worry if you haven't finished Fallout 4 yet :P I hope this one wasn't boring or anything, and if it seemed kind of pointless it wasn't because I really want to take time to establish story elements with good exposition. Please let me know what you think, and if you want updates on this and other stories from me, follow me on tumblr (Encalamah), or if you want an easy way to ask me stuff. Sorry for folks who expected this to be like my Gravity Falls story, it's veeeeeery different, and I just wanted to do something other than romance writing, so here we have the other end of the spectrum, I hope you guys enjoy it, I'm really excited to be starting this and can't wait to see those reviews. Thank you all for the support!