War... War never changes.
In Colorado, a new order is built from the remnants of the US. National Guard. It's goal is to preserve America and restore the world. The Wasteland calls them insane bastards. The remnants however call themselves the Brotherhood of Steel.
It's been over twenty years since the human race wiped itself out...
In Bunker Bravo, in Denver a soldier stirs in his sleep. In his dream he sees a man atop an old TV broadcast tower in a snowstorm. In the distance there's a garden. And in the sky there are missiles raining down. All the soldier could hear in his dreams are voices. Voices speaking both in whisper and also in monotone. Voices speaking of a doom not far off.
"He does not understand.", the soldier was trying to figure out the meaning of his dreams when he was shook out of sleep.
"Tyson. Tyson, wake up brother.". It was Oscar, Tyson's best friend and the best moron in all the US. Army. "Hey 'Os. What time is it?". Oscar pointed at a clock and walked out of the barracks room. Tyson looked at the clock and cursed under his breath. He was going to be late for morning formation, and his initiation.
Now that Tyson was 19, he could initiate himself into the Brotherhood of Steel. He always wanted to, mainly because he wanted to be like his older sister who was a founding member.
Tanya, his sister enlisted in the National Guard ten years before World War 3 went down. She served proudly and eventually became a Captain with her own platoon. Her platoon served several missions, mostly to save people from natural disasters. Mostly earthquakes and blizzards.
Eventually a few years before the great war, Tanya was sent on a mission to Anchorage, Alaska to investigate rumors of an invasion. The rumors were true, and her platoon became one of the spearheads in Operation: Anchorage.
After the battle for Alaska was nearly over, Tanya's platoon was sent to Denver to wait for further orders. Those orders never came, the missiles fell first.
For the first years, the USNG in Denver stayed hidden, only operating when they needed to. But eventually they needed food, vehicles, and ways to maintain them.
Tanya volunteered first for these missions. Mainly so she could check on her family. Eventually on one visit, her house was besieged by bandits.
Tanya fought her way through them to find her mother. She was bleeding from gunshot wounds, and in her arms there was an infant. Her younger brother, Tyson.
Tanya took her brother and brought him to the bunker. There he was taught how to be a soldier, and now he was about to put these teachings to the test and initiate into the Brotherhood of Steel.
Tyson rummaged through his footlocker until he found his uniform. It was a US. Army ACU pattern uniform with an IBA/OTV vest over it. On the vest were pouches for magazines, webbing to hold flashlights, and a knife sheath.
As he finished lacing his boots and was walking out of his room, he realized that he was forgetting something important. He ran back to his footlocker and grabbed his combat helmet.
Now that he was ready, he ran down the halls to the briefing room. The formation was getting started, and he barley found his place as General Smith was ordering roll call.
Tyson looked to his right to see if anyone in his squad was missing. They were all there in their old tattered ACUs. Tyson had one of the last new sets. Tyson snapped to attention and heard his squad leader, his sister call: "All present!".
The other squads followed suit and General Smith called out: "Stand at-ease!". Everyone snapped their hands behind their backs and looked the old General in the eyes.
"May the initiate Tyson Jones come see the General.", Tyson snapped to attention and walked out of the formation to meet the General.
"Son, you have been brought here since you were a mere infant. Since then we have taught you our way of life. It is with great honor that I initiate you into the Brotherhood of Steel. Your sister has served us for many years, I hope you do well to do the same.".
General Smith had a pin handed to him from one of his lieutenants. It was a winged sword with cog gears surrounding it. Under the sword were the letters: BoS. Above the sword another series of letters were inscribed: CoS.
Tyson almost flinched as General Smith punched the pin onto his vest and shook his hand. "Son, not only are you a member in this Brotherhood, you are a member of our most trusted Circle of Steel. Only those I trust the most are allowed in this inner-circle. And it is only they I trust for many missions.".
The Circle of Steel. The remnants best soldiers against the wasteland and it's terrors. Most of them were veterans who had fought with General Smith during the first few years.
After the tenth, only people his soldiers trusted were assigned to the Circle of Steel. This list consisted of: Tanya, Jimbo, Johnny, Meryl, Jackson, and Dawes. And as of today: Tyson.
There were others in the Circle as well. But the important ones were the people everybody knew. As Tyson shook General Smith's hand and saluted him, he felt better. Accomplished.
As he went back to his squad, the briefing was starting. "At ease everyone. As most of us know there has been a missile launch out of Moscow. We do not know the purpose of the launch, or even if there was a launch. But we need to figure it out.".
General Smith grabbed a file off of his vest and opened it. "I want the Circle of Steel to take three Verti-Birds to Russia and investigate the city. Satellite readings show larger amounts of radiation there so bring full-seal suits and gas masks. You'll be leaving in eight hours. Go to the armory and suit up. I'll see you before flight. Dismissed.".
Everyone left the room except for members of the Circle of Steel. They all waited for Tanya to rally them before marching as one to the armory.
Tyson was behind his sister in the marching formation and 'Os behind him. When they got to the armory, Tanya dismissed them for an hour while they got their gear together.
Tyson was issued a freshly-cleaned M16A1 rifle with 240 bullets. He then given his knife. It was a standard USMC style trench knife with a spiked knuckle-duster. Finally he was given a sawed-off pump shotgun and two handfulls of shells.
"Son why don't you learn your rifle by the range.", the armorer ordered.
Tyson grabbed his rifle by the carrying handle and walked to the firing range in the next room. Another armorer was waiting there with a loaded magazine.
"This is how you load the gun.", the armorer slammed the 30rd magazine into the magwell and pulled back on the charging handle. "If it jams you gotta push hard on this.", he slammed his hand into a button next to the front of the butt.
Tyson took his freshly loaded M16 and fired a short burst at a target. After four rounds it jammed. "Shit.", Tyson slammed his hand against the forward-assist and heard a 'clink' of a bullet being forced into the receiver.
He fired a few more bursts at different targets. The rifle was well balanced and he could barley feel the recoil. After every four-to-six shots, the gun would jam. He would have to fix that later. He also noticed after taking out the magazine that the handguard was hot as hell.
Tyson went back to the armorer's station and asked a dumb question. "Do you guys have anything to mitigate jams on this thing?", he held up his M16. The armorer nearest to him grabbed the gun and started to disassemble it. After he got around to the receiver, he found the problem.
"You got frozen grease stuck in the receiver. I'll melt that out for 'ya.", he found a blowtorch and put it to the lowest setting against the M16 components.
"Should prevent most jams, although if the gun overheats... Well nothing can stop that. ", he handed the newly-fixed M16 back to Tyson who took it back to the range with better results.
Tyson found his sister testing out her new 'punch-guns' on practice dummies. They were some sort of metal gloves from power-armor with shotgun tubes and barrels attached. Each tube could hold about three shells each before needing a new batch.
'Boom-boom!'. She had just punched a dummy twice in the abdomen and head. The force of the 'punch-guns' forced her arms back from recoil, and the dummy was in ragged shreds.
Tyson's jaw hit the floor when he saw her left-hook another dummy to take it's head off. It went through the floor when she manually fired the guns at a distance from the target. The buckshot spread made several golden streaks in the air and ripped a final dummy to bits and pieces.
She turned around as some strands of her hair fell to her face. "Tyson, you got your issue?", she inspected him with her eyes.
"Good. Remember to grab your enviro-armor and gas mask before we leave the armory. We leave for Moscow in five hours.".
Tyson went back to the armorers and got his new armor and gas mask. "Remember boy, you got to wear your IBA/OTV over the enviro-armor. And always make sure you have a way to tell how much time's left on your air filters.".
Tyson walked out of the armory to the hanger wearing his skinny enviro-armor and IBA-OTV. He took the cushions out of his helmet to fit it over his chemical hood and waited for the flight to hell.