A Chip of Hope

The Freedom Trail. Nora had walked it alone, in search of the Railroad. She had needed the Railroad's help—more specifically, Tinker Tom's hacking skills—to crack the encryption on the courser chip she'd recovered. The code from the chip was going to get her inside the Institute. For the Brotherhood of Steel.

Up to that point, Nora had done everything for the Brotherhood of Steel. She'd like to think it had been her respect for Paladin Danse that had pushed her that far. Yet, in retrospect, Nora knew it was more complicated than that.

Because Nora never expected to lose Codsworth when she faced Kellogg.

Upon exiting Vault 111, Codsworth had become Nora's support for finding Shaun somewhere out in the Commonwealth. It was unprecedented how the robot became her closest friend within the first few weeks of exploring the wasteland. Together, they shared memories of before the war, of Nate and baby Shaun, and of being a whole family despite how short-lived it had been. Codsworth became Nora's hope for some kind of happy future. Even if finding baby Shaun became hopeless, deep down, Nora was just happy she would have Codsworth. Codsworth was her family.

Then Nora learned about Kellogg. The man who shot her husband and kidnapped her son. It was time for justice to be done. She and Codsworth were going to find this mercenary named Kellogg and get answers. Maybe even vengeance. Sure enough, once they found the man, the bastard wouldn't go down without a fight.


It had all happened too fast. Kellogg turned invisible and Nora was jumped on by two synths, who knocked her down and started blasting lasers in her face. While she dealt with them, taking quite a few burns from their pistols, she heard Codsworth somewhere behind her using his saw, attacking the invisible Kellogg.

The synths were easily dealt with, with her 10mm pistol. She had become quite proficient at targeting the weak spots on of first gen synths with this particular pistol that she had nicknamed "The Bleeder".

Their limbs went flying, but she was still seeing red when she sat up. Nora grabbed for a stimpak on her belt. After stabbing herself in the arm with it, she tried standing as her eyesight cleared. She heard a bullet hit metal, an explosion, before a sizzle. Things were always exploding, but this explosion and sizzle was accompanied by Codsworth's saying, "Mum, critical systems failure. Powering da-ooow-n-n-na."

There was another explosion, shorter and more of a loud pop.

"Codsworth, don't die on me!" Nora screamed as she flung around looking for Kellogg, pistol in front of her. Bastard was still invisible. And though she could hear his footsteps, she couldn't tell where he was. "Where's my son, you asshole?" she called out, hoping he'd answer, so she'd know at least what direction to point her gun.

Instead, she received a bullet to the arm, but that was good enough. She pointed her pistol in the direction it came from and fired without actually aiming. As she emptied her clip with one hand, she grabbed for a frag grenade on her belt, pulled its pin, and threw it. She heard Kellogg scatter out of its way when it went off, and that's when Nora ran at him with another active grenade in hand.

"You're fucking crazy!" the now visible Kellogg hollered, because Nora didn't just run at him. She jumped on him, hoping it would knock him down. Because she had tossed the new grenade behind him and herself, hoping, he'd land on it, and she on him.

He did, and she did, as the grenade went off.

For seconds, all Nora could hear was ringing in her ears. Her body felt upside down and there was red everywhere again. Red had become a common color in her life.

"Codsworth," Nora had called out. Or screamed. She couldn't tell because she honestly couldn't even hear herself over the red, ringing world. Just the same, she got up. Nora got up and somehow found her way to the metallic heap lying on the floor.

"It's going to be okay, Codsworth. I can fix you." She ran her hands through the circuitry and components torn to bits in front of her. "I've been studying… robotics… for your sake… To keep you—" Nora started to cry. "Alive, Codsworth. I need you… to be alive."

She couldn't fix him. Nora had no idea how to fix him, or even if he could be fixed. All she could do was cry into her hands for several minutes as she sat on the floor next to Codsworth's useless shell. It wasn't until she heard footsteps that she stopped and just stared at the blood and tears on her hands.

"Oh, Blue!" Piper cried, crouching down to Nora. "Blue, you're hurt. We need to get you to a doctor."

"Closest one is probably Diamond City," Nick Valentine said behind them. "Well, well," he went on staring at the blood mass on the floor. "I think these body parts must be the remains of Kellogg. Good job, the bastard won't be hurting anybody else." Upon closer inspection of the remains, he said, "All this tech. He was barely even human."

Nora tried standing up despite Piper's complaining of, "Take it easy, Blue. You're not torn to shreds like that guy, but you look… awful. You're covered in—"

"Blood, I know," she interjected. "It's mostly Kellogg's." She ignored her own injuries as if they were nothing and walked over to Nick. "I'm sorry," she quietly told him. "I should have taken you up on your offer to help take down Kellogg. Because of me… Codsworth is… "

Nick's glowing synth eyes just stared at her. Then he sympathetically said back, "We'll take him back to Diamond City with us. See what we can salvage. If his memory is still intact, we might be able to save him. I wouldn't be able to say the same of you, if it was your body we found on the floor."

"Why did you come anyway," she wanted to know. "Curiosity?"

"I still feel like I owe you. You saved my behind back with Skinny Malone and Darla. It didn't feel right heading back to the office knowing you were going into danger," he offered as an explanation. So when I got back to Diamond City, I grabbed Piper. Told her we needed to be your back-up. She didn't hesitate; said this would make a great part II to your story in the paper."

"I might leave out the guts and gore," Piper chimed in. "I haven't decided yet."


Eventually Codsworth's memory—most of it—had been salvaged onto a single chip. Nora kept the chip—kept Codsworth—with her everywhere she went. The chip was more than a good luck charm to Nora. It was a reminder of the hope Codsworth left with her.

But, it was a hope that Nora lost for some time after losing Codsworth. Grief and depression quickly overtook what hope she had left.

It was the awe of the Prydwen above Boston that momentarily swept Nora's grief aside. And while she sat on the decision to access Kellogg's memories with Nick's help, Nora decided the Brotherhood of Steel might give her a fresh perspective. She was going to use her affiliation with Paladin Danse to distract herself from her other troubles—helping the Brotherhood would help get her mind off of her grief.

It worked; for a time. Danse helped convince Nora that the Brotherhood of Steel was what the Commonwealth needed. And she believed him, because she needed something to believe in after everything she'd lost.

But her belief in the Brotherhood of Steel had been a mistake. Her time among them was not something she liked to think about anymore. Especially after…

Well, at least Elder Maxson had kept his word and left Danse alone—let Danse live; even now, though Nora had betrayed the Brotherhood of Steel. It had not even been a hard decision to make: Shaun and the Institute? Or Maxson and the Brotherhood of Steel?

Not that she wanted to violently get rid of the Brotherhood of Steel. In actuality, Nora respected the Brotherhood. They were… dedicated.

Elder Maxson, however. He was what worried Nora. She could never tell if the young man was simply dedicated, or if he was… mad with power.

It was ironic that Shaun mentioned that Nora probably has friends among the Brotherhood, but she had chosen the Institute as her family. Because the choice to help the Institute had been easy. But to face the Brotherhood of Steel in open battle—that would be difficult for Nora. She knew too many men and women—good men and women—in the Brotherhood of Steel. Seeing their faces, dead, was not something she wanted to live with.

Just as she didn't want to live seeing the dead faces of her friends in the Railroad. But it was not something she believed Shaun understood.

Why does everyone in this post-apocalyptic world take other people's lives for granted?

As Nora approached the Boston Commons, following the Freedom Trail for old time's sake as she thought and repeated to herself that she had chosen the Institute—she had chosen the Institute and she had to stick with the Institute—Nora heard several Vertibirds flying and firing overhead.

"Strange," she said out loud, watching another one fly directly overhead. What was the Brotherhood of Steel doing in this part of Boston? And why so many Vertibirds? Nora would understand if they had sent one or two Vertibirds to clear out a Super Mutant camp or Raider hang-out, but there were more than two hovering around…

"Shit!" Nora gasped and started to run. "No, no, no! Fuckin' bastards!"