Paladin Ryan Vills was one of the few, if not only member of the Brotherhood of Steel to be a ghoul. Born in 2250 in the Citadel, Ryan only became a ghoul when he was thirty in 2280, when he was a Knight Sergeant. Ryan and his squad of Knights were investigating a Raider hideout in the Capital Wasteland when one of the Raiders fired a Fat Man mini nuke at the squad of Knights. Ryan was the only one of the squad who made it out alive.
Normally the Brotherhood of Steel did not accept ghouls into their organisation, but Ryan was one of its most loyal and bravest members, even being a friend to the Lyons family, a prominent family in the Brotherhood. Thus they allowed Ryan to stay in the Brotherhood, though over the first few years Knight Sergeant Vills only embarked on solo missions.
Over the next ten years, Ryan ascended from Knight Sergeant to the rank of Paladin. He was now a part of the East Coast chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, spending most of his time aboard the Prydwen when he was not out on missions. Ryan had gained a considerable amount of reputation for himself over the years, being known throughout Brotherhood of Steel chapters scattered across America as the Ghoul of Steel.
Paladin Vills was in Cambridge Police Station, as he had been for the past few days. He had been sent there by Elder Arthur Maxson, head of the Brotherhood of Steel, after receiving disturbing reports of activity near the Brotherhood outpost.
It was early in the morning, and Paladin Vills was on patrol, dressed in BoS fatigues and armed with a modified laser rifle. He was on duty along with two Knights and an Initiate. The Knights were armed with laser rifles as well, though not modified, while the Initiate was using a hunting rifle.
The patrol spotted two Vertibirds in the distance, flying towards the outpost. The other three thought it was a Brotherhood Vertibird, but Ryan, having a heightened sense of sight, could make out the white skulls painted on the Vertibirds. The white skull symbols, which had 'X's on their foreheads, was the symbol of the Gunners, the largest criminal organisation in the Commonwealth.
"Gunners!" Ryan shouted. "They're Gunner Vertibirds! Sound the alarm!"
In less than two minutes, a small team of Knights and Paladins had gathered on the wall surrounding the courtyard of the station. In addition, there were two Paladins armed with missile launchers on the roof of the building, ready to fire at the Vertibirds.
With two well-placed shots from the missile launcher-wielding Paladins, the two Gunner Vertibirds were taken down. But that was only the first phase of the attack.
Simultaneously, a squad of Institute synths led by a Courser came and opened fire. The Brotherhood of Steel members were all surprised, as they had never seen the Institute fighting alongside the Gunners. But in a moment they recovered and returned fire.
The squad of synths were closed to being wiped out when a Generation 2 synth appeared on the roof of a nearby building, equipped with a Fat Man, a shoulder-mounted weapon that fired mini nukes, essentially a deadly weapon.
Being one of the first to spot the synth with the Fat Man, Paladin Vills yelled, "A synth with a Fat Man! Get to cover, now!" His hoarse, low voice was distinct and stood out from all the other noises.
While the others rushed for cover, Ryan finished off the last of the synths. He was a ghoul and immune to low levels of radiation, such as that from a mini nuke, so he had nothing to worry about.
As Ryan shot dead the Courser, who was the last surviving member of the squad of synths, the mini nuke slammed into the ground in the middle of the courtyard outside the police station. A good portion of the wall and platforms were blown apart, resulting in breaches for attackers to use. The platform Ryan was standing on was blown to the ground, causing him to fall off.
Two more squads of Institute synths arrived as well as two Gunner attack parties, each of which composed of four Gunners and an attack dog.
Minutes later, the surviving Paladins, Knights and Initiates were on top of the outpost, holding off the enemy until evacuation Vertibirds arrived. It would be near-impossible to fight off the enemy even with reinforcements since the Institute synths and Gunners kept pouring in.
Soon two BoS Vertibirds appeared. As the first Vertibird landed on the helipad, the second Vertibird remained in the skies, with two soldiers manning the two door-mounted miniguns and helping to reduce the enemy numbers.
The two Vertibirds were not able to take all the personnel at the outpost, so more Vertibirds had to be called in to evacuate the remaining men, most of whom were combat personnel.
Not long after the second Vertibird departed, two more Brotherhood of Steel Vertibirds came. The same procedure was repeated and all personnel stationed at Cambridge Police Station was able to be evacuated by the fourth Vertibird. Ryan found himself manning one of the two door-mounted miniguns on the last Vertibird as it made its way to the Prydwen.
Along the way, the third and fourth Vertibirds were attacked by a single Gunner Vertibird. Ryan unloaded a few dozen bullets on the enemy Vertibird, bringing it out of the sky.
Back at the Prydwen, the evacuated personnel were treated for their injuries. Meanwhile, Ryan made his way to the Main Command Deck, where Elder Arthur Maxson was.
"Elder Maxson," Ryan called out, seeing that the Elder was in thought.
He looked up and around, trying to see who had called him. Then he saw the ghoul in fatigues and armed with a laser rifle. "Paladin Vills, I see that you have returned from the police station safe and sound. Would you tell me what happened there?"
Over the next few minutes Ryan told Elder Maxson the events at the police station. Elder Maxson was surprised at what Ryan told him, as evidence by a raised eyebrow from him.
"An alliance between the Gunners and the Institute? This is completely unheard of. Desperate times call for desperate measures, that must have been their thinking," Elder Maxson said. "We must retake Cambridge Police Station as soon as possible. It is an important location to us, and I heard that most of the power armour was left behind there."
"But Elder, with all respect, if the remnants of the Institute and the Gunners have teamed up, I doubt that taking over one outpost is all they're going to do," Ryan reasoned. "Together their firepower is a worthy adversary for us, that I'm sure they know as well."
"That means naturally they will try to rid of all the influence we have in the Commonwealth," Elder Maxson nodded his head, beginning to understand what Ryan was talking about.
Ryan continued, "And one of the only other places in the whole of the Commonwealth where the Brotherhood has considerable influence is…Diamond City."