Chapter 4

"… On our way to Bethel Initiate Kissinger wasn't exactly himself. I wasn't especially familiar with him and what 'normal' consisted of for him by any means. This was our first operation together, as I mentioned. However I wasn't entirely naïve either.

'How are you holding up, Kissinger?' I shot back over my shoulder. For several miles now he'd been straggling toward the rear so much so that Bar had taken over leading the pack Brahmin.

'Never better chief', he croaked.

I nonchalantly moseyed over to Turk. 'So', I muttered, 'What the hell do you think is the matter with our boy back there?'

'If I had to guess sir, I'd say he's extremely ill. Now as to what could be causing this illness I will not venture to suggest…'

'Well he can rest when we get to Bethel.'

We traipsed onward for several more miles stopping once to fill our water containers. This had always been my least favorite part of traveling the Wastes. It was hot. It was thirsty, tiring work. And to top it off the water was grossly irradiated. In every sip you could almost feel your DNA crying. We always took every precaution that we could. We were downing Rad-X like it was Sugar Bombs, but as you all know; Rad-X doesn't make dirty Waste water anymore appetizing.

Finally we neared the ruins of Bethel. It was a sight that I'd seen a hundred times and had grown quite calloused to. Shells of buildings stood out starkly against a reddening sunset. Rubbish filled the streets. Only a couple of the buildings were still standing.

This now familiar sight made me recall the first time I'd lain eyes on complete desolation. I was about eight and I was accompanying the Knight I was Scribed to outside of the Brotherhood compound for the first time. He was being sent to scout out a nearby town that had been declared clear earlier. Someone had claimed to have seen movement and in the interest of preserving perimeter security, we were tasked with double checking.

As we neared that town I was overwhelmed by the thought that the corpse of a settlement that I was looking at had once a bustling center for human life. Real people, decades before had sweated and bled, had loved and ultimately died right where I was standing. And now nothing. Nothing to even show that these people had existed except for a few crumbling houses. Something that I bet pre-war civilization hadn't reckoned on was just how completely the bombs would destroy life. And continue to do so decades later through radiation… Anyways, I'm rambling. Back to Bethel.

We approached the 'town' cautiously because we were unsure of just what we may find. We walked down the center road of the town carefully looking for landmines that seemed to pop up in every seemingly 'abandoned' town. Weapons drawn we began clearing the houses that were still standing. Fortunately there weren't too many.

I'd just gotten through with one whose chief inhabitant had been a flame scorched teddy bear with one eye when Bar and Johnson came running up to me.

'Sir,' they both began breathlessly. The two exchanged looks and wordlessly decided that Johnson would tell me what was going on.

'Sir, we found something.'

I gestured to Turk who'd emerged from a house further down the street to come to me and shouted for Kissinger to tie up the Brahmin and join us.

After everyone was gathered I looked at Johnson and said, 'Do continue.'

'Sir, Bar and I breeched the door and proceeded to check the house. Bar went upstairs and I took the first floor. It was immediately clear that there had been Raiders in the house. Graffiti and what not. In the back room I found what appears to be a Raider Jet den. I also found several deads. After the first two floors were cleared, Bar and I proceeded to the basement in which we found a heavily enforced door. I believe that behind this door is the secret armory Katz was in search of.'

'Very good,' I said,'lets proceed.'

When we entered the house the stench of death would've been unbearable to someone who hadn't become so used to it. In the backroom were a couple of rotting Raiders that had apparently overdosed on the junk and been left by their 'comrades'.

Far more disturbing were the bodies of the poor tortured souls that can be found in almost any Raider camp. Why the Raiders did these things to their captives was unknown to me but I suspected that Raiders had no concept of the value of human life and therefore didn't think anything of taking it. In my experience however, Raiders were fully aware of the 'value' of their own life as they never laid down arms without an intense and bloody confrontation.

'Kissinger, you stay up here in the house and secure our perimeter. If there's any trouble meet back with us.' I felt sure that he could handle this since we'd already checked the remaining houses and had found nothing to suggest there might be trouble from without. 'The rest of you form up behind me. Let's open a door.'

We proceeded into the basement and I signaled for Bar to handle the door. He was exceptional with a lockpick. As he barely inserted the pick the door slowly slid open.

'Did you two check it before you came and found me?' I queried Johnson and Bar. They shook their heads 'no'.

'It seems as if someone has managed to get in. Keep your guards up.'

I was the first one into the pitch black opening. I sensed that the blackness stretched out about thirty feet in front of me. I motioned my team to follow me single file. We quickly and silently approached another door. By this time complete blackness enveloped all of us. I listened at the door and heard movement and whispers.

At the door I announced, 'We are the Brotherhood of Steel, if you have no hostile intentions then throw down your-' I didn't get a chance to finish saying 'weapons' before fire from several automatic weapons punched holes through the door I was standing in front of.

I dropped as fast as I could and so did my crew. Not fast enough however to avoid a high powered round slamming into my T4X Power Armor. Luckily it stopped the bullet and would leave only hideous bruise.

When the fire had ceased and we heard the hostiles begin to reload my team moved as one body. We burst into the impossibly dark room. I could sense my team spreading out and finding cover. Just then I heard a 'clink-clink' right behind me.

I dove forward just in time to save myself from the grenade blast that sent an intense heat wave over my back. In the instant that the blast illuminated the room I saw for the first time what we were up against. About ten Raiders had taken up position behind some over turned tables and various other makeshift barriers.

Before the glow from the frag fully wore off the ten became eight as both Johnson and Turk fired on our assailants. Turk's laser rifle drilled a super heated hole through the forehead of the Raider that still ahs his arm extended from throwing the nade. Simultaneously, the whirring sound of Johnson's minigun spooling up to rain death on the Raiders was comforting knowing I wouldn't be on the receiving end.

Johnson's target was nearly bifurcated through the waist as the stream of 5mm bullets shredded through his innards. Blood and viscera poured from his midsection as he sank to his knees trying to hold it all in, a look of disbelief plastered on his face.

Meanwhile I had found cover and picked my moment to peek around the corner to assess the situation. Eight hostiles remained and now they were returning fire. I tossed a plasma grenade over my cover and heard it detonate on impact, instantly incinerating two Raiders that were bunkered down behind some toppled over filing cabinets.

Just as the light from the blast was dying down I heard the distinctive 'crack' of Bar's prized possession, his highly modified sniper rifle. He'd taken the monstrous scope off of the beast before we had gone into the basement and now he was utilizing his deadly art with extreme efficiency even in this rather cramped indoor environment.

I chose this moment to dive from cover and slide into a good firing position. Halfway through my dive I was hit twice in the leg, the second one penetrating the armor and lodging in the muscle of my leg. I gritted my teeth against the pain and focused on my shooting, putting laser rounds through the chests of two more Raiders.

In the same instant Turk dropped another and I heard another crack from Bar's rifle, neutralizing a total of nine hostiles. Things became serenely quiet and I stood up, gingerly putting weight on my injured leg.

'Everyone ok?' I asked into the blackness.

'Yes sir' was heard all around.

'Johnson, deploy a lantern so we can see what the hell is going on.' I said.

Light shot through the blackness from Johnson's direction and we were all blinded for a moment. In the same instant we all heard the sound of a Ripper, the chainsaw-knife hybrid that Raiders seemed to prefer, tooling up. The figure of a Raider came flying through the air toward Johnson, the Ripper aimed straight for a plunge into her neck.

Before I could react, two shots rang out and the Raiders head literally exploded into pink mist spraying chunks of brain all over the room. The lifeless corpse landed on top of Johnson, knocking her down. Bar stood silhouetted against the light of the lantern, pistol drawn and still smoking.

I helped Johnson to her feet and Bar sauntered over, 'I guess you owe me one, huh?' he asked.

'I would've had him, you just didn't have to drop a big ole minigun before you went for your side arm,' retorted Johnson, however the look in her eyes was grateful.

'Ok', I said after we were doubly sure the room was clear, 'Lets see if we can find something that'll make this all worthwhile.'

'I've got something,' piped Turk after a couple of minutes of rummaging about in the papers that scattered the various desks. I held out my hand and in it Turk placed an inventory list. And it was quite a list. At one time this armory had held over one thousand brand new assault weapons. We couldn't be sure how many Katz had made off with but we could be sure that he'd been there.

In the corner, propped up in a sitting position was a Brotherhood Knight that had apparently been killed by a landmine as he was missing a leg and the lower portions of his armor were seared. On his body we found the same map that I had been given when I first set out to find Katz. However, on this map, our current location of Bethel had been drawn in. It also had a dotted line trailing off the scheduled route to the west.

'I think I know which direction we're headed next,' I said as I injected a Stimpack into my leg and pulled out the bullet that I had taken.

We all made our way back out of the room, through the hallway, and up the stairs where we found Initiate Kissinger.

He was laid back on one of the grimy beds in the backroom. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head and the now empty Jet injector was still clinched in his hand. He ws dead."