A/N: So okay, I know I said no sole survivor, but I've decided the storyline will make way more sense if I include her. Keep in mind, the Evolved and the storyline of Fallout4 are very intertwined, but it's going to be a real slow burn to figure out why that is (there are a LOT of moving parts working together here, and I don't want to rush them). Maxson won't seem like such a complete dick all the time. It also doesn't make sense that Kayla is unfamiliar with the Minutemen, so that's going to change; However, I think that because of the secrecy of the Railroad, it makes sense that the Evolved's knowledge in that department is lacking. Other things may change and evolve (ha), so I'll keep any updates in the author notes at the beginning of each chapter.

The real tragedy came the next morning, when Paladin Danse came to collect me for a mission. I laid awake the entire night in fear of being tossed onto the metal floor again as a wake-up call. He seemed less aggressive when he realized I was already awake and ready, and introduced me to a curious Initiate standing behind him named Jess. Her dull brown hair was short, but her skin was nearly pristine, much different than the dirty and unkept appearances of most people I'd encountered in my short time in the Commonwealth. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought she had just came out of a vault.

And she had, apparently.

She was about as dumbstruck about the Commonwealth as me, and her timid nature appeared constantly, making me uneasy. I was used to the comfort of my pack's confidence swirling around me, and the lack of physical bonds in which I could feel their emotions had me reeling. At least around my pack, I could feel their emotions. But this? How could someone even feel comfortable lacking that their entire life.

She knew what a Salisbury steak was, so I couldn't help but be a little sour when Rhys made a joke about it as we walked down the hallway to the flight deck. Danse explained that Elder Maxson was waiting out there to give us our first mission as a "team". I missed my pack even more at his choice of term.

True to his word, Maxson was waiting at the far end of the flight deck, staring out at the Commonwealth just as he had the day before. The era of intensity that floated around him made me both uncomfortable and angry. I was used to being the one in control, giving out orders. Now I was sitting here, eating my words because I had to take orders from someone else. Someone whose position I should be in.

I huffed as he explained what we were looking at: Fort Strong, loaded with a sizeable amount of arsenal weapons that would benefit the Brotherhood's involvement in the Commonwealth. Jess was over-joyously agreeing to doing the mission before he'd even fully explained it, which seemed to annoy the both of us. I didn't take him for someone who liked to be interrupted.

"Look," Maxson said, his mouth forming into a thin line between words. "I understand your eager to take the fight to the Institute, but there are greater things at work here. You cannot and will not just go running into situations that you aren't prepared for."

She nodded in response instead of opening her mouth again.

I watched the small movements on the peninsula from the bridge, walking to the railing and leaning over as I saw something much bigger slowly drag around the ruins.

"Behemoth?" I asked, my eyes wide. Even from here, the thing looked huge. I'd known they existed and studied them, but seeming them was another thing entirely.

"How can you see that from here?" Paladin Danse suddenly asked from being me, jolting me out of my thoughts. I realized that they wouldn't be able to see shit in comparison to me, but whatever. Little late to take that back now.

Maxson cleared his throat. "A hive of super mutants and a behemoth appear to be guarding the facility. At least 7 outside, expected to be double that inside. The easiest course of action will be to use the minigun on the vertibird and take out the Behemoth from above, and finish the rest with the ground unit supporting your team."

I'd been foolish with the feral ghouls, being so caught off guard, but I'd have no problem taking out the super mutants. They may appear intimidating and large, but they had rocks for brains.

"I have a better idea," I murmured, squaring my shoulders as I took a step back from the railing. I fucking hated heights.

Danse stepped on my foot with his power armor when he, too, stepped back from the railing. I had no doubts it was an intentional way of saying that I was being disrespectful for suggesting that Maxson's idea wasn't as good.

"Don't." Danse said, so I didn't say anything more.

Maxson turned around to face the three of us, but his face scrutinized mine only, and I realized he wanted me to tell my idea.

"Gun tag," I said simply. "It's something my p- my team does for situations like this. It's a small perimeter to secure, so flank soldiers on both sides of the peninsula. Both sides shoot at the same target at the same time. Mutants are morons, so they just spin around in circles. They die before they can decide what side to shoot at." I shrugged, taking my eyes away from Maxson's insanely tense stare he was giving me. "Less likely to have causalities when all they're doing is spinning a hole into the ground."

His eyes narrowed, but something in them was calculating what I had said. He turned to look back towards the mutant hive, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Years in the capital wasteland and our tactical teams have never thought to practice a method like that. Certainly an interesting concept. See to it that the arsenals get recovered safely. Maybe you'll prove your worth to the Brotherhood after all." He finally said.

So he had been assuming I'd be pretty worthless. Charming.

The battle at Fort Strong went pretty seamlessly. After briefing the supporting ground units on my idea, they saw it through quickly and efficiently. No casualties on our end. Maxson had been right, there were almost double the amount of super mutants inside, but they were almost always individual encounters, making it easy to pick them off one by one.

Once the site was secure, we returned to the blimp, which I was chastised by Danse for not using her real name, the Predwyn. Jess and I were both promoted to the rankings of Knight, in which I was very insistently warned could be revoked the moment I stepped out of line, so I kept my jokes about their use of medieval titles to myself. While Jess and Danse were quickly dismissed, I was left behind in the command deck with Maxson.

"I'm interested in where you came up with that tactical idea. It worked well, and I'm more than a little suspicious when you say you don't have a military background." He said, staring out of the window.

Had I said that?

"I said I didn't have a military background, not that I hadn't studied the Pre-War techniques. It wasn't exactly rocket science to put together what would've worked best in that situation," I replied.

"I'll overlook the sarcasm in that statement this time. In the future, try not to be so crass when speaking to a superior."

I almost gawked. He thought I was rude?

"It may prove more beneficial to have you reassigned to support Captain Kells. He usually briefs teams before venturing out, and if there are more ideas like that of yours, you'll be required to share them." He continued.

Required. I thought grimly. Not, hey, it would be really nice if you could help out and share those ideas willingly. Required.

I chose my words more carefully this time as my tongue clicked inside my mouth. "With all due respect… I'd prefer to be boots on the ground, so to speak. I do still need to recover my team safely, and searching for them along missions is the least complicated way to do that."

He turned, scrutinizing my face yet again with that antagonizing stare.

"I believe it's in your full capabilities to do both, is it not?" He asked.

"Yes," I replied, looking away. It's easier to just not argue at this point.

He scratched his chin, deep in thought. "Good," he said simply. "Report to Captain Kells immediately. You can begin your work now. Dismissed, Knight."

I started walking away, unsure of where to even find Kells, before Maxson spoke again, clearly irritated. "Down the ramp, not the ladder, Knight."

Finding Kells wasn't difficult, considering the ramp only led directly below the command deck to a small room. It, too, overlooked the retched Commonwealth, and I was surprised to see the Captain working alongside his scribes at the terminal, rather than copying Maxson by staring out the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Captain Kells, sir," I said uncomfortably, causing him to straighten up and turn towards me.

"At ease, Knight. I suppose you're here to begin working on military strategy. Unfortunately, my plate is a little too full at the moment, but I'd like you to begin by documenting un-common techniques. I suggest you start with interesting angles, such as the ones reported during your mission to recover Fort Strong. You can use this terminal here." He pointed to a chair with a terminal across from where the scribes were huddled together.

"If I may, sir..." I said, unsure of myself.

"Proceed," he stated simply.

"I'm not used to just sitting down and thinking them out. It's easier to see a situation unfolding and decide how to proceed, based on the parameters," I explained.

He tilted his head in thought. Instead of getting irritated, he surprised me by waving it off. "Very well, I'll see to it that Paladin Danse takes you out into the Commonwealth to familiarize yourself with situations that are presented. Document the location, parameters, technique and estimated success rate, but do not proceed with an attack. I'm interested in carrying them out with a separate party based on your written instructions and seeing how well the results correspond with your estimated success rate."

"Okay." I said. I looked around, unsure of what to do now.

"For now, you're dismissed. Report in at 0600 tomorrow for your next assignment with Paladin Danse."

"Yes sir," I said, cautiously wandering away before he could think of something else for me to do.

I paced around the Predwyn. For a faction that had a long list of items to do, I sure had nothing. I wanted desperately to eat something, and I knew I was going to need to get over the humiliation of seeing Rhys in the mess hall at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to it yet.

Instead, I explored the belly of the beast. I had an ulterior motive as I peeked through room after room, realizing rather grimly that there wasn't much in terms of personal privacy. I did, however, learn that Elder Maxson and Paladin Danse had their own personal quarters, which made me a little miffed. I didn't mind being in close quarters with my pack, but sleeping next to a dozen other strangers was getting old pretty fast.

At the opposite end of the ship, however, was an old two-story maintenance room. A lot of old junk and dust had settled on the first floor of the small room, but it was otherwise empty. A small ladder with a hatch led to a second floor, where some machinery hummed away comfortingly.

Not a bad place for a room. I thought as I slipped back down the ladder to the first floor. It was clear it was relatively unused considering the footprints I left in the dust on the floor. I was pretty positive Maxson wouldn't allow me to claim this as my own.

So I did anyways.

For the better part of the new few hours, I lugged a few boxes up to the second floor, neatly stacking them against one of the walls, and cleaned the grime and dust out of the cracks. I managed to convince two adolescent boys to carry a bed into here. Part of me felt bad about it when they complied so willingly. It reminded me of a puppet show, and Maxson was the puppeteer, training the children to follow orders without question from such a young age.

I collected a few other things to make the place feel more like home, eventually realizing it was well past midnight when I finally emerged from the room again. I wasn't thoroughly exhausted, all thanks to a body that runs on barely any sleep, and I realized I could finally get something to eat without Rhys being there to make fun of me for it.

Thanks to the decent amount of caps I'd collected at Fort Strong, I paid off my tab with the bartender and then convinced him to give me some mac n cheese at such an ungodly hour. But I was paying, so he begrudgingly slid it in front of me.

I ate quickly, partially horrified, partially uncaring. I was starving from not eating for so long, but I was also pretty disgusted that I was eating food that survived a nuclear war. When I was done, I got up and turned to walk down the hallway…and right into Maxson.

"Jesus fuck," I swore, stumbling back.

I didn't notice his arm grab mine to steady me until he spoke. "I had hoped the general disrespectful and crass conversation pieces had been on an upward slope."

I dismissed his words, letting them go in one ear and out the other. I did however, notice the electric warmth that passed through my arm where he was holding it.

"I'm sorry. But you can't walk around like that! All silent and shit. You'd have to expect someone to swear about it."

He narrowed his eyes, and his hand released my arm. "You really should be more careful in your choice of words, Ashford. Forgiveness only happens so many times."

"I don't really sense you're the forgiving type," I teased.

"You're correct," he said with a straight face, but the judgement at least seemed to have left his eyes. The same warmth I'd felt during our conversation my first night had returned to the air around us.

"So what does that put me at now, like 5 lives left?" I laughed.

I could've sworn he almost smiled. "Something like that. You're using them up pretty quickly."

"I'm not too worried, I've still got about 55 lives left in my head."

He grimaced at my misunderstanding of the joke. "Cats only have nine lives."

"Okay- but, hear me out-" his eyes looked entertained as I pleaded my case. "My body mass is the equivalent of like 7 cats probably, so I've got a good thing going here."

"Don't expect to have that many chances to fix your attitude," he replied. I laughed, before realizing how weird it was to have such an informal conversation with him. For someone who was constantly berating me about things, he wasn't the worst.

But now that I'd thought about it, I got weirded out by it. Ensue awkwardness.

I looked at the wall uncomfortably. "Yeah, alright, I'm working on it. Wear a bell around your neck or something."

"What?" He looked at me quizzically, not understanding the reference.

"Oh it-" I blushed. Dammit, I need to get a handle on that. "It's just a reference. People used to put bells around a cows neck to know where they were."

"Uh-huh," was all he said, and I realized he was getting weirded out just as much as I was by the informal conversation.

He looked around me, his fingers fidgeting in one hand. "Get some rest, Knight. It's late," was all he huffed as he walked away.