Heart of Wastes

Chapter 2

"I was young but I wasn't new to the Brotherhood and I haven't always been based out of the Capitol Ruins. At one time I was a rising star in the Brotherhood outpost in the southeast. This post was once a splinter from the Midwestern Brotherhood.

I imagine that my commanders could've found a more experienced Knight, but not one that didn't have any connections. I suppose that was a factor in their choice, I really can't be sure. The main thing being that they did pick me and being a good Knight I followed orders.

In the briefing, the Elder told me that I would be hunting down a High Paladin named Katz. I had heard the name but didn't know too much about the man. I found out that he was supposed to be some kind of Brotherhood role-model. It had been awhile since I'd been an Initiate, but apparently they whispered his great deeds in the barracks.

Officially he had been sent out to unearth what was supposed to have been a rather large tech weapons cache far to the west into the wastelands. The reason he'd been picked instead of someone of less import was because the Brotherhood leaders thought they might make contact with some form of governing body and they wanted Katz to be able to conduct diplomatic undertakings without delay.

Communications with Katz's team had been severed when he had neared his objective. The Elders feared the worst and wanted me to go and discern his fate, I was only too happy to oblige. I felt that this was my chance; this was my shot to really be something to the Brotherhood. It was unlikely that I'd ever single handedly stumble across some amazing new tech and you all know that's the way to get ahead. I figured if I successfully returned a Brotherhood legend I would matter…

I was charged with selecting my own team for the mission. I had some good soldiers in mind. I thought that it would take a five man team to accomplish the mission safely and as rapidly as Command wanted it done. I chose Knight Turk to be my second. I had done work with him in the past and knew that he was solid under pressure and had an uncanny ability to survive situations when lesser men would get themselves killed.

Along with him came Knights Johnson and Bar. Johnson and Bar where best of friends, but it was hard for some to tell because they were perpetually arguing. Brotherhood ideology, survival tactics, hell even gender roles in post-apocalyptic 'society'. This was probably due to the fact that they were different in every way. Johnson was a 6' 1" female with red hair. She enjoyed big guns, missile launchers, Fat Men, minis. And she never seemed to stop smoking. It seemed the only times she wasn't lighting or smoking was when she was asleep or was forced to wear her helmet for an inspection.

Bar was, well, short. He was a black man and preferred to keep his head shaved. He also had a penchant for rifles. If someone took your head clean off and you never saw it coming, chances were, if you were in our area at least, that Bar was behind the scope with his trademark grin.

Rounding out the team we had an Initiate. I had been trying to prevent us from having to take one along but all the other Knights were slighted for other endeavors and were therefore unavailable. His name was Trevor Kissinger. He was once a tribal from the area that the Brotherhood had taken in. I wasn't keen on the practice of recruiting from outlying areas, but I also understood that attrition would eventually cripple us if we didn't. Initiate Kissinger was recommended to me by Command; else I probably wouldn't have taken him. He looked weak to me. Not physically, his time with our training officers had taken care of that. I just didn't appreciate the shiftiness that seemed to permeate his entire body when I fixed a straight eye on him. Reservations aside he was tasked mainly with leading the Brahmin that would be carrying our supplies for the journey so I wasn't too worried.

It was with this team that I set out, outside of the safety of our compound and eventually outside of everything I thought I knew about myself or about man…"