Chapter 1: This is my rifle, this is my duty...
A patrol of Brotherhood Soldiers marches down a small alley way between the Key Bank and a small bar, a
block over from Broad St. Seattle, on the intersection of Wall St. and 1st Avenue. It's cramped, dank, and a dead
man lies on his side with a large plasma burn on the side of his face, the Key Bank is 3 stories high, letting
little light come through the sky, the bar is in shambles, it being only 2 stories high. Pieces of brick fall from
the decaying buildings above, and tings against the Titanium plates of the soldier's Power Armor. Theses are
average conditions in the Seattle area, donned the City of Metal Death by the locals too terrified of the Enclave
to even stir at night.
Skulking along, the soldiers hear a hearty metallic laugh from somewhere close. The first thing that races
through each mind of the patrol: Enclave. The Brotherhood Knight Captain, newly ranked, holds his fist up, then
opens and closes it, signaling for the squad to stop and crouch. He checks his compass on his visor screen, it
reads west, then he sneaks forward to peer around the building to the streets ahead. He holds his breath, and his
Laser Rifle, tight as he creeps forward to meet his most likely demise. His mind tells him to stop, but the man
just keeps advancing, determined to make a good impression during his first patrol into the Enclave hot territory.
Just around the corner, to the right, four Enclave soldiers stand around a car talking nonchalantly like
they were on their Pre-War coffee break. The man creeps forward, takes his helmet off, and places his head against
the brick, hoping the vibrations would travel down the brick from the end of the street, the BoS soldier being 20
feet away.
"So, Gerard's the new Elder huh?" inquires one of the men propped on the car. Two soldiers were propped on
it; one was sitting on stone slab that looked like it might have fallen from the building they were standing near,
and the last was standing in front of the other three. Two donned Tesla armor and Plasma weaponry, one had on
Hellfire armor and had a Heavy Incinerator in his lap, and the last, the one standing, had an officer's uniform on
with a Viroblade Chainsaw strapped to his side and a P3-SD model Plasma pistol beside, for easy access.
"Last I heard he was," replies the standing man, "he was one of the highest ranked members of the
degenerates when they came in."
The Knight Captain didn't care to hear anymore. He turned to face the squad which was peeking out from
behind a dumpster about 5 feet away. When they saw him, they knew they were outmatched. The squad consisted of one
Knight Captain, one Knight and two Junior Paladins. They way the Enclave group acted, they seemed as if they didn't
have a care in the world. Probably a veteran squad. The Knight Captain looks back around the corner, after putting
his helmet back on, and takes note of the surroundings. Across the way there was a bakery, a tax attorney's office,
and a hair salon all with about 4 cars in front of them. He looks back to the soldiers and notices something on
their outfits. They have DC style Enclave insignias. The Seattle base's insignia consisted of an E with an eagle
plastered in front of it, with four stars one the right, left, top, and bottom. This one consisted of an E in the
middle with stars surrounding the whole thing.
The man turned around and motioned for the soldiers to come forward. He was going to have them engaged,
because they were dealing with a squad of Enclave soldiers that DIDN'T have the home field advantage. The Enclave
squad hadn't been there as long as the rest of the Seattle Enclave, therefore they knew about as much as the
Freshman Brotherhood. The soldiers all stood up and crept forward a bit with their guns raised (all Laser weaponry)
and ready to strike anything that would come around the corner. They knew that the Plasma weapons of the Enclave
could burn straight through their T-45d Power Armor no problem, and they wouldn't stand a chance without the
element of surprise.
Thank Steel that back in New York the Brotherhood had A. taken control or destroyed most of the bunkers where the
Enclave engineers and scientists worked with blue prints and armor experimenting, and B. taken over their means to
create armor. Intel suggested that New York was where the Enclave did most of their manufacturing, from producing
Nuclear Power from the Ronto Lake, to creating weapons and armor for their Vertibirds to ship to bastions all over
America. The New York area had been one of the most valuable assets to the whole U.S. Enclave. That's why the
Brotherhood spent so much time and resources in the area.
The Knight Captain peeks out again, this time looking to see what the Enclave was doing, before getting
startled by the explosion of the Officer's head. A bullet had pierced his skull from somewhere close. A bullet. Not
thinking, the Knight Captain swings around in an irate movement to confront the squad behind him. To his surprise,
plasma isn't flying at him, and none of his soldiers are doing anything but standing there. He peeks back around
the corner to see the soldiers are frantically firing at the building above them. At what, the Knight Captain can't
tell.
Seconds later, he knows. A group of local gang members all dressed in ragtag scrap begin to fire at the
Brotherhood soldiers from the opposite end of the ally while screaming, "Get the heck out our turf you metal jerks!
We're tired of your fighting in our town!" assuming that they owned the town of Seattle.
The Knight Captain didn't want to fight the locals because of their already bad rep in accidentally killing
civilians during a fight to get the Enclave out of one town, but before he could even protest the fighting, the
gang members were already shooting. They had small arms such as 9 Millimeter pistols, small .32 Caliber rifles, and
one had a small M14 Assault Carbine. There were 5 in all at the end of the alleyway. Before the Knight Captain
could even think to order, the soldiers were already firing.
He could hear pings and pangs coming from all over the place as bullets bounced off the metal of his T-45d.
One even hit the visor of his power helmet but he didn't react. It was his first patrol out and he was already
botching everything. He had been trained to fight locals, not Enclave and having both of them here was really
backing him into a corner, that wasn't really there. He could back the squad out of the alley way into the street
with the Enclave soldiers, but they would attack them and most likely kill them, or he could have his soldiers try
and fight from the cramped corridor, and make things severely awkward and most likely dangerous for them. If one of
the gang militants had any explosives, the soldiers were as good as done.
As one of the front soldiers drops to his knees, the rest knew it was time to go. The Knight Captain had
been thinking that there was no way that the gang members could have armor piercing rounds, but he was wrong. The
M14, carried by what looked like the leader, was loaded with AP rounds. They wouldn't be much problem in a
semiautomatic gun, but this was full auto and kept pounding over and over again into the soldier, until it cut
through the armor indefinitely.
The Knight Captain, with his scrambled train of thought, screams over the gunfire, "It's time to go!"
before backing out into the street with a plasma grenade in his hand, ready to be thrown. On of the Junior Paladins
takes the liberty to grab a hold on his same rank counterpart and drags him along into the street. When everyone
was clear the militants had begun to advance forward, but not before the pin from the grenade had been pulled and
the grenade being thrown through the air. It lands right at the leader's feet, not even giving him time to react,
and explodes, rocking the foundation of the two buildings and sending them crashing to the ground on top of the
men. The Knight Captain releases a sigh of relief but turns to the bigger threat than a measly gang.
The Enclave Officer, and the group, had been walking when a gunshot rang out from the building above them.
When his head exploded, all of the soldiers reacted accordingly. DC had been a wild and unforgiving territory,
seeing as how they were in a hostile area in which they didn't have any control in. Well, except the Purifier. That
led to the Enclave catching hell from every local they came across. They usually didn't have much problem thanks to
their superior technology and weaponry, but it defined the soldiers so much to be attacked that it didn't matter
what happened. They didn't think. They shot. Laser beams and Plasma goo were flying at the assailants who were
perched up in a window in the above building. That is until they poured out from the alleys. All except one
militant group. They had been caught in the explosion of two buildings a few feet away.
The Brotherhood squad was ready as soon as they hit the street. For the explosion, and for the fight that
ensued. The Enclave soldiers finish mowing down the last enemies with only one casualty. The Brotherhood also had
only one casualty, that one Junior Paladin being dead by several bullets piercing through the gut area of his
armor. There stood three Brotherhood soldiers and three Enclave soldiers in a stand off, staring each other down
through their respective visors, seeing who would make the first move. The Knight Captain, with his Tri-Beam 33d48
Laser Rifle in had, stands there, dumbfounded on what to do. Seconds pass as they stand there in the stale mate,
but the Knight Captain thinks to himself that it feels like an eternity.
He's terrified, having just gotten the rank a week before, and has no clue what to do. Should he fire?
Should he surrender? If he surrenders, they would most likely die. If he fights, they would most likely die. It was
a lose-lose situation, and he wants to be back home. As his throat tightens up, he realizes what he has to do. Not
die. And to do that, he must fight. His arm dangles down by his side, with his rifle in the other. He makes the
motion for three, two, one, then balls it into a fist, before dropping to the ground and firing. The rest of his
soldier drop with him and begin to fire rapidly. Their Laser beams barely do anything at first, but then begin to
bore into the Enclave as they stumble. They soon regain balance, start to withstand the bullets, and begin to fire
back.
The Brotherhood soldiers duck out of the way of the balls of fire lunging from the Heavy Incinerator, and
try their best to get out of the way of the Plasma. One of the soldiers in Tesla armor ducks behind a Pre-War car
on the left side of the street. The Knight Captain begins viciously firing at the car, hoping for it to catch fire
and explode. A few seconds later, a pop sounds and the car begins to flame. It explodes within close proximity to
the Enclave soldier, who was trying to reload his jammed Plasma rifle, and sends him flying backward, with the
whole front of his armor peppered by flying scrap. The other two soldier jump out of the way of the explosion and
duck behind a piece of rubble from a collapsed building. The Hellfire trooper lands on his Incinerator and smashes
the gas control, sending waves of kerosene out of the front of the weapon and into the air.
The Hellfire soldier stands up with his partner and peeks out from behind the rubble and the car in front
of them to the quiet BoS soldiers. To their surprise, they aren't there. The Brotherhood soldiers had taken off
while the Enclave was down and was tending to the wounded in an alley more than 30 feet from the battle scene. The
Hellfire Trooper grabs the Officer's Plasma pistol and the Tesla armored soldier grabs his Plasma rifle then they
both take off after the Brotherhood soldiers.
The other Junior Paladin had been shot in the arm with a Plasma burst and it had burned straight through
his Power armor. His arm bleeds from the burns and the popped blisters that run the length of his forearm. The
Knight tries to bandage the wound but it has burnt down to the tendon and has frayed a few nerves, leaving the
Paladin in immense pain. They try to keep him from going into shock, but they can't and he begins to spasm and
jerk. His helmet wasn't removed before hand so the other two soldiers have no clue that he has bitten his tongue
and that he is slowly suffocating. About a minute later he stops flailing and calms down, but has stopped
breathing. They grab his Holotags and cross his limp arms around his lifeless chest before they emerge.
The Knight and Knight Captain get up off the ground and leave the soldier lying there. They start moving
south east in the direction of the Seattle University campus in which the Brotherhood of Steel has set up a base of
operations temporarily, until they can get to Fort Lawson on the other side of the Enclave held Seattle Center
compound. They are cut off as the two remaining Enclave soldiers begin to fire at them from 10 feet behind them,
and are forced to duck back into the alley they had been giving first aid to the Paladin in. As the Enclave
soldiers rapidly fire at the alley way, hoping for the Brotherhood soldiers to poke their heads out, the Knight
Captain and Knight shake each other's hands, in respect for each other if they didn't make it out. They grab their
guns and jump into the street, laser beams flying, in the last ditch attempt to fight their way home. They both
knew that they have probably aroused the whole Seattle Center, seeing as how they are only about two blocks away
from the compound, but they continue firing anyway.
The Knight Captains whole life flashes before his eyes as he pulls the trigger over and over again.
Watching the red beams fly from the rifle, the Knight begins to shake, probably in fear that he won't make it out
alive. As the Knight Captain quickly shoves another Micro Fusion cell into his Laser rifle, he wishes he would've
stayed at the University that day, instead of going on recon patrol for the first time. It was his choice to go
out, and his choice to skulk dangerously close to the Seattle Center and his choices had cost the lives of several
locals (that would probably had died anyway, due to the fact that they hadn't meant to stumble upon the
Brotherhood, but the Enclave), and two rising Junior Paladins that caught in the crossfire of his stupidity.
Was it something he had to prove? That he could get in and out of Enclave hot territory with no problems?
No, he didn't have to prove anything. But he wanted to. He wanted to show that the rank shift also affected his
experience shift. He wasn't thinking of the fact that experience came with practice, not titles. He was afraid he
wasn't cut out for the job but the feeling of the higher rank pushed him to do something idiotic. Idiotic is
exactly what it was. They were low on ammo, they were low on men, and they were in completely hostile territory.
The DC Enclave soldiers probably wouldn't take them as prisoners, because they weren't used to that. They were used
to killing everyone, taking everything valuable to them, and using it for their own nefarious schemes. That's just
what they did.
As beams and glops of goo fly back and forth, the Knight screams to his partner in a frantic tone. "Jesus
Christ! I'm out of Micro Fusion cells! I'm done for!"
Determined to keep at least one person other than himself alive, the Knight Captain tosses his last cell to
the Knight, unknowingly depleting his own ammo supply. He himself reaches for a cell but finds that he's out, so he
throws his gun down and ducks behind a car. He looks to the Knight and calls back, "Go on. Get out of here. There's
nothing else you can do."
In a disturbed and shaky voice, the Knight yells back to his commanding officer with a question. "What!"
"You heard me. Go!" As the Knight takes off running, the Knight Captain jumps in front of the path of the
goo emissions that were flying towards the novice. They hit him, and batter his body all to hell and back, leaving
him lying there on the ground, limp, and lifeless. The Knight goes to turn his head, but decides against it and
keeps running. He knows what has happened to the CO, because he saw him drop his gun and take out what would save
the Knight.
The Knight Captain begins to squirm, and the Enclave soldiers run towards the downed body to deliver the
finishing blow to his head. As the Hellfire Trooper holds out his Plasma pistol towards the Brotherhood soldier, he
smirks behind his mask and says, "We are so getting promoted for this."
The Knight Captain can't help but laugh, but stops when he is kicked by the Hellfire Trooper. Burns race up
and down his body, leaving him almost immobile because of the pain, he manages one more laugh before saying, "Th-
there's no pro…promotion in your future…"
The two Enclave remnants laugh before the Tesla soldier speaks up and asks, "Oh why is that you piece of
shit?"
The Brotherhood soldier rolls onto his back smiles, even though he knows the Enclave soldiers can't see it.
He feels victorious, even at the cost of losing his own life.
The Plasma grenade he had hidden up under him explodes, burning through the Enclave Hellfire Tropper's
armor, leaving him on the ground dying in even more pain than the Knight Captain. The Tesla armored soldier died in
the blast, almost instantly. The Knight Captain had died a few seconds before the blast, being spared the pain of
more burns to ravage his body.
14 city blocks away, the Brotherhood soldier stops for the first time since he had started running. It had
been almost an hour since he had escaped the battle, and at least half an hour since he had left Enclave thick
territory. He stops and removes his helmet, then lets out a big sigh of relief before falling to the ground. He
didn't know if the Knight Captain had made it out alive or not, but he had a feeling that he wasn't just going to
throw the grenade and run. That's what the Knight had hoped for, but since the squad CO should've caught up with
him by now, he begins to expect the worse.
As he slowly rises to his feet, he can see the sign for the Harborview Medical Center, another BoS base in
the area. It looks like pure heaven to him as he begins to make his way towards it, and looks even better when he
reaches the entrance to the walled fortress. He collapses at the door, staying awake just long enough to see a few
Paladins rush out to gather up his unconscious body.
His armor is stripped from him, he's giving some medicine to keep him asleep so he can get over the
exhaustion, some medicine is also applied to the Plasma burn that his adrenaline had covered the whole way home,
and his Holotags are collected. When he awakes, the first person there to visit him is the Elder. Elder Nicholas
Gerard. He smiles at the boy of only 22, but it slowly grows into a frown. He nods toward the burn wound on his leg
and asks, "Who did this to you son?"
The Knight can vaguely remember the fight the night before, but manages to come up with an explanation to
his wounds. "My squad was attacked by locals and was chased into Enclave hot territory." He sighs as he retails the
event.
"Bradley. Bradley Giffords. That is your name?" asks the Elder.
"Yessir," He replies quickly, "named after my pa." He speaks with a thick southern accent, noting,
unmistakably, that he was from the DC chapter.
The Elder smiles again, thinking of his time in DC before being shipped to Seattle. He looks back to the
boys leg and then into his eyes. "Are you the only one who lived?"
He quickly replies again, "Yessir. My CO risked his life to save me…The other two Junior Paladins died
first..."
"Where were you when this confrontation happened?"
Three hours and several city blocks away, a Brotherhood recon team made up of three Paladins, two Knights,
and a Knight Commander make there way out of a back alley that Junior Paladin Franklin Monroe died in a day before,
when he succumbed to his wounds, they find the bodies of three men lying in the road, completely untouched for some
odd reason. One of the Paladins walks over to the dead man in Brotherhood T-45d Power armor and looms over him in
complete silence, for respect.
He reaches down and removes the man's Power helmet to reveal a smiling face, littered with grime and dirt
from the wasteland outside. He can't help but smile to himself behind his own Power helmet at the content dead man
below him. The Paladin pulls out his Ripper he had brought specially for this mission and begins to cut away at the
Power Armor of the Knight Captain. Once he reaches his Holotags, he takes them and hands them to the Knight
Commander who looks them over.
He reads them aloud, "Knight Captain Jakob Mears, Id no. 34316. Age, 24 years, no birth date. Virginia
native, transferred from DC to Ohio to NYC before being transferred here."
The soldiers from the recon squad all sit in silence as they stand around the dead body. They strip the ID
tags and the armor from the Enclave soldiers out of spite, so they won't be identified by the Enclave pick up
squads, if they even come. The armor is taken because the scribes requisitioned it be scavenged. The Enclave had a
knack for leaving their dead soldiers lying exactly where they died, because they didn't want to waste time
cleaning up the bodies. They left it to the locals to clean up THEIR mess. It was unconstitutional, if the
constitution mattered any more.
As they get done desecrating the dead bodies, the second recon team emerges from the rubble filled alley
the patrol squad had exited the day before, 30 feet down the road. They stand in front of the Key Bank, on the
right side of the street, and look towards their comrades down the road, all having another moment of silence.
Across from them, both buildings they can see have collapsed, leaving no mention of what they are. The Key Bank
behind them has also succumb to its old age, plus the stress of a Plasma grenade impacting it and the Bar beside
it, leaving a mess of brick and rubble that the Brotherhood soldiers had to comb through to get to their brother.
On a pack Brahmin's back lays the body of Junior Paladin Marco Hesston, the man who had died the day before
after being pounded steadily with armor piercing 5.56 rounds from an automatic M14, and his Power armor. The
scribes requested that ALL the Brotherhood and Enclave armor be brought back so they can study the damage and
improve on it, much like what was trying to be done during the preparation years for the trip to Seattle. The 6
men, three Knights, one Star Paladin, and two Senior Paladins all make their way down First Avenue to their
counterparts that are stripping the armor away from the dead Enclave soldiers. As they walk, all the men are
silent. Collecting their dead brothers is always the worst job they can get ordered to do.
They reach their brothers and help them load the other two dead bodies onto the pack Brahmin's back, and
stuff the excess armor into the satchels on it's sides. It lets out a loud moo in discontent and the Brotherhood
squad of 12 all struggle, trying to shush the beast, knowing that it isn't native to the land. It was flown in from
DC to be bred, and used as a Pack Animal, because Intel from the Seattle Enclave notes that there is barely any
wildlife to be worried about, except the Mirelurks and mutated fish, plus the tribal locals. If any locals heard
the animal cry, they would have trouble, because someone would most likely investigate.
The local gang from the day before had been a fluke, and had most likely attacked the Brotherhood because
they were startled. The logical explanation is that they wandered up on the BoS patrol, while looking for an
Enclave patrol to attack, and attacked out of instinct. Most local gangs would attack any Power armored soldier in
the area due to the terror the Enclave shrouded most of Washington with. The Brotherhood squad had been at the
wrong place, in the wrong cloths, at the wrong time, and they paid for it. When they got the Brahmin to stop
sounding, the group fell silent, looking for enemies that might have heard the call. Seconds pass with no dangerous
results to the noise, and the soldiers let loose a sigh of relief and begin to shove the Brahmin on. He grunts in
discontent, but moves reluctantly with the soldiers following close behind.
On top of the 6 story West Wing of the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinic, an Enclave sniper peers down his
scope at the Brotherhood soldiers that are walking South East down First Avenue with evil intentions. His 50
Caliber powered sniper rifle is loaded with 8 bullets, and another clip lies beside him with 8 more. He holds his
breath and counts down inside his head, "3..2…1…" Like he was taught before pulling the trigger…
So, I've posted this thing at least 8 times already, but I'm still getting used to the site, and something's always
wrong. Last time I posted it, there apperantly was no dialouge marks. It's making me really frustrated, but
hopefully it'll work out this time. Hopefully.