The days of running from California, evading NCR patrols, lugging equipment to important to lose and caring for wounded men – and stripping the bodies of weapons and armor and giving them only makeshift burials – had given him no time to think. Now, standing in the doorway of an ancient operations center with dormant computers, he felt the weight of command on him.
There was a still a war on. There were still men out there trying to find other bands of Brotherhood survivors to regroup. He had wounded. He had a fight.
"I shall see about restoring electricity," said Williams. "I highly doubt the reactors have been fully shut down."
Senior Scribe Williams turned down a dark hallway and vanished.
By sundown the power had been restored, the aging nuclear reactors holding enough fuel rods still to power the base for a number of years. The tattered band that had been a full chapter was now making their home in the bunker, and the wounded had been taken to the medical facilities. Though the medbay had not been fully stocked as Jasper hoped, it held enough supply to tend to their wounded, if not many more than what they had.
An armory had been discovered deep within the bunker, and initial reports were very optimistic of their find.
The remaining scribes had located the bunker's server room and were making headway in restoring many of the old systems. Much was left to be done but the serious blow dealt to the Brotherhood of Steel in northern California had been cushioned significantly.
Jasper had called a meeting of the ranking members of the chapter, those that could be located, in order to set about reorganizing and repairing their losses and figuring out what needed to be done in the short term to prepare the order for the long term.
The mapping table was active now, and displayed an imperfect but workable map of the surrounding area. Though systems were still being brought back online the computers were capable of displaying data on the bunker's essential systems.
Most were in the green but a few systems were either offline or in danger of going that direction. Those problems had to be ironed out for this to truly become home to the Brotherhood.
Gathered around the table now were the remaining heads of the chapter. Senior Scribe Williams was the head of the order of scribes now with the chapter, and represented a pool of knowledge and technical skill that they would need if they meant to return to their former glory.
Knight Keegan was there to represent their force of knights and was perhaps their best scout. She would be increasingly necessary in the coming days, especially as Jasper took stock of their personnel and continued needs.
Paladin Bannon was there as the next most senior Paladin, and Jasper's second-in-command.
Scribe White stood off to one corner of the table, her clipboard in hand and glasses sinking low on her nose. She would be functioning as his personal aide, something of a secretary crossed with a personal servant.
"We know we are here," Jasper said, indicating the bunker's position on the map. "Right now we're calling it Black Forest."
"As far as we can tell we're somewhere in Oregon, maybe as far as the northeast," Keegan said. Her armor was faded and dirty from her scouting trips and her helmet was set on the table's edge. Her hair was messy from so much time sweaty and mussed while on the move.
"This forest is too thick to get a good reading on our position," she continued. "So we're waiting on nightfall to get a reading by the stars."
"The remote location gives us an advantage," said Jasper. "NCR patrols clearly haven't found this place yet, and the forest is thick enough they could pass right by it and not see it."
The map reacted to his gesture, the pointer moved and the scene expanded.
"Our mapping of the region is incomplete. It was reliant on prewar satellites for imaging intelligence. Naturally satellite reception is spotty. So we're going to have to map the place by hand. Old fashioned way."
"We have the equipment to do it," Keegan said. She turned to Williams.
"I should say it's hardly a priority at the moment," the Senior Scribe said. "But yes, the equipment is on hand and if your knights are willing to do the legwork the rest is a fairly simple job."
"In addition, we need a full count on everything. We need to know who and how many we have left. Williams get one of your men on that. We also need a full inventory of what we have on hand here at Black Forest. We might be fighting off a siege within the week if we aren't lucky."
"And we aren't lucky," Paladin Bannon stated. "I can start rounding my people up for a headcount. I know I have at least five bedridden."
"None of our medical cases are terminal," Williams said. "Three days on the march must have taken care of that."
"Watch your mouth, scribe," Bannon said, not bothering to look at Williams. The Senior Scribe frowned.
"Bannon," Jasper said, voice subtly stern and commanding. "We're going to need to look to our defenses. If we're going to see a fight soon I want it to be our fight."
"Understood, Elder."
Jasper raised a hand at that. "I'm not the Elder. And that's a discussion I'd rather save for another time. Paladin will suffice for now."
Bannon nodded at that, suppressing a grin.
"A lot to do, too little time to do it in," said Jasper, standing straight at attention. "Dismissed."
They turned to leave, Keegan taking up the rear behind Williams.
"Cheryl," said Jasper, raising a hand gently to halt her. "Wait a moment."
He turned to Scribe White, whose eyes darted quickly between Jasper and Keegan.
"See about setting up a radio beacon," he told her. "Have one of your order do the task."
She nodded swiftly and excused herself, a bun of pale blonde hair coming undone in her wake. Keegan approached Jasper, keeping the table between them. She didn't speak until the door had sealed shut behind White.
"What is it?"
"I need you to stay."
"We don't have time for this. I have work to do."
"I know," he said. Wryly he added, "You've always had work to do."
She placed a hand on the table, her arm cradling her helmet.
"Do you want to have this argument here?"
"No. I don't want to have any argument."
"Then why did you ask me to stay?"
"Because I can't have you going out there right now."
She placed her helmet gently on the table before working her hand into a fist and slamming the table edge.
"Goddammit, Jas, I will not fight with you right now!" she kept her voice just below a shout. Better not to make a scene that way.
"You cannot leave this facility, Knight Keegan, because you are the senior knight until someone else shows up with years on you," Jasper said, keeping his voice low and measured. "I need you here, helping me get this place up and running. You can send some of your men to scout the terrain. But I need to know how much ammo we have, how many weapons, do we have defenses we can get online. I need the knights set to task and I need someone to command them."
She scanned him with sharp green eyes and Jasper thought guiltily to himself that she looked very beautiful even if she looked somewhat filthy. Maybe it was the filth that added to her appeal.
It hadn't been so long ago they'd been in the field together. They'd come up through the ranks together, rising stars in their fields. She had been there to see him raised to Paladin, and Senior Paladin. Her smiling approval had almost been worth more to him than the promotion in rank.
Things were different now. War had changed everything, it seemed.
"I think you're just looking for a way to keep me close at hand," she said, voice calm. She was still staring daggers at him and he recognized that somewhere in that machine of a soldier was a beating heart, perhaps one that hurt as much as his.
"And if I am does that make you any less senior amongst our knights?"
"It doesn't," she said. "It just makes you a child."
He nodded at that. "If that was what I was trying to do."
"If," she said. She picked up her helmet again, held it under her left arm. "If."
"Don't do this," Jasper said, weakly. He wasn't speaking as Senior Paladin right now. And she could feel it.
"I don't expect you to run everything off your feelings," she said, voice suddenly raw. "I know you're a Paladin first, and a man second. But… but you are human. I'm human. We make mistakes."
She looked at him when she said and somehow the word "mistakes" echoed in his mind. He closed his eyes, dropping his head lightly.
"You have duties to attend to," he said. "Dismissed, Knight Keegan."
She mimed a bow before turning for the door, sliding her helmet over her head as she did and engaging the seal.
Keegan spoke before she left, her voice distorted by the helmet's speakers.
"Can we just wait to talk about this?"
"Of course we can," said Jasper. Always the reasonable one, he thought to himself. He was always the reasonable one.
The door closed behind Keegan and Jasper turned to the bank of computer monitors that were just now beginning to feed him data. The bunker was newly alive and it had a few growing pains to get through before they could call it business as usual.
Paladin Riley tried to take some solace in the fact that he would be working too hard for the next few days to think about Cheryl Keegan.