CHAPTER FOUR

Timing was everything in battle. The victors were usually the side who made the least amount of mistakes and kept rigidly to the plan, you see the thing about bringing allies together in a common cause to fight a single-minded enemy was that the enemy always held the advantage. Put quite simply: the allies would always be jostling each other for first pickings at the feeding trough.

Nathan along with his contingency of Minutemen, were crouched in their starting positions in an area below the Interstate, known as Purgatory Woods. A quick glance at his watch told him three minutes to go, holding up his right arm he signaled using three fingers to indicate as much to his men.

Nathan shivered involuntarily as the cold February morning closed in on him, the grass was long, wet and any fallen leaf attached its self to him, and his men fared no differently. He could see many a swirling breath being exhaled from those equally anticipating, equally cold men and women. Unconsciously and without taking any notice, Nate took one last fleeting look upwards towards the Interstate Highway where the Outcast knights would be making their way forward.

He wondered if they were as cold and apprehensive as he and his troops were, and that's when his eyes opened wide with shock and his heart sank.

Captain William Decker was leading the first squad along the Southeast Expressway towards the interchange where the Gunners were dug in. Decker was the leader of the Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts. They all were wearing a full complement of T-51 Power Armour and each were armed with laser rifles. No heavy weapons were being used by the Brotherhood, under direction from Elder Maxson, because the interstate was already falling apart from too many years of neglect after the last 'Great War' over two hundred years before.

'Thank God for calibrated legs' Decker whispered into his headset to no one in particular. Each of the power armour suits had calibrated legs with built in shock absorbers. This muffled the sound their heavy armour made, keeping it to a minimum with little or no vibration on the road surface. This was known 'silent running' in military parlance.

Staff Sergeant Amir Nielsen led the two squads of five knights coming from the opposite end of the interstate, called Pilgrims Highway, and having just caught his commanding officers whisper in his headset, replied that his men were already in place. They were four minutes early. 'Captain, I have eyes on the gunners should we engage them, sir?'

'Negative Sergeant, we are too early, those Minutemen will not be in position themselves yet.'

'Captain there are no sign of the Minutemen below and Corporal Shaffer is signaling multiple movement ahead with the Gunners. Either way they are waking up or they have made us, sir.'

Damn those Minutemen thought the Captain, Damn them all, this should have been a Brotherhood operation – 'no heavy weapons, indeed!' He wouldn't have even bothered with a fire fight. He would have just blown the bridge supports and brought the whole of the Interstate down on top of those Gunners. This folly will cost him good men and women this day. Before he realised he had given the order, he was shouting into his headset, 'Engage on all fronts, engage on all fronts!'

A second later and the almost silent whoosh of the Knights lasers spat forward superheating the cold morning air before they bit home, hitting Gunners, equipment and barricades alike.

If that initial burst of laser fire caught the minutemen off guard it most certainly surprised the Gunners, most of whom were still dragging their weary bodies out of their makeshift sleeping places.

Unlike the newer T-60 power armour the older T-51 and T-45 had no target identification parameters. The thermal camera picked up heat sources and the soldier in the suit pointed his weapon and fired. That first salvo reaped no less than eight hits, however some of those 'hits' were behind the laser reflective barriers that the Gunners had erected. Six of those shots just harmlessly veered off at various angles into the air.

The Gunners on the interstate should to all intense and purpose be in disarray as they were caught cold, and only a handful of the twenty or so were even in a position to offer any kind of response. As five of the Gunners went down three of the knights followed on their heels, a single rocket fired by Corporal Tessa Penaloza, a former Raider, struck the left arm of one of the knights in squad B, catching fast in between the soft rubber sleeve and the metal frame of his power armour before exploding.

The resulting explosion killed the knight on his immediate left but not before it had hoisted them both in the air causing their bodies to collide with Staff Sergeant Nielsen, shoving him down hard on his back and knocking the wind out of his lungs. As the Sergeant lay there pinned by the other two bodies he was able to wave his squad forward, before laying completely flat on his back.

Why should I bother? This is not our battle, who the heck did that trumped up Vault dweller think he was? Five minutes in the Brotherhood, one rescue mission and Maxson had promoted him to Paladin! Nielsen was thinking to himself, he himself was a thirty year veteran and still only a Staff Sergeant.

Sod it all to hell! Nielsen thought, let that clown play toy soldiers if he wants to.

By the time the Brotherhood Knights had fired off the second round of lasers the Gunners themselves were in position behind heavy fortifications. The fight began in earnest. Those twenty or so Gunners were armed with a wide variety of weapons, from Grenade launchers to .22 caliber pipe pistols.

Nathan turned to Cait shaking his head from side to side. Those blasted Outlaws! Trust them to blow a perfectly timed operation for what? Personal glory? He thought to himself incredulously.

It was time; the four batteries of CM101A1 Howitzers opened fire, for one minute they rained down 105mm High Explosive shells on the Rockdale Commercial and Industrial estate.

One minute after the barrage had ended the Minutemen began there slow advance. Alongside Nathan down on the Chickatawbut Road and about one hundred yards on his immediate left were two buildings. The nearest was an old University campus and the one on the other side of it, furthest away, was a medical facility. Neither had lights or as it would appear any guards posted.

The first outlines of sentries on duty were ahead on Granite Street, their cold breathe gave their position away easily, even though they huddled down tight behind their barricades, Granite Street ran across the Chickatawbut Road.

Nathan thought it prudent to dispatch three fire teams to check out the first two buildings that were directly ahead of his squad, they had not been hit in the barrage as they were considered of low (unoccupied) value. One team would be dispatched to each building and the third team set on over-watch.

More Laser fire flashed from the road above Nathan's eye line. This time the relative quite was torn apart, the warm up was over and now a myriad of heavy and light weapons began to play, the deadly orchestra began its death concerto. Round two on the interstate ended with Captain Decker's squad of ten men managing to hit only two targets, killing them both, while the pinned Staff Sergeants squad who themselves were three men down, managing only one single hit themselves. The Gunners hugged any barricade they could, realizing that they were surrounded and probably thought they were out gunned as well. From a hurried salvo of their own, the gunners snatched away the lives of another two Knights, one from Captain Decker's squad and the other from Nielsen's.

Nathan looked across at the large square-ish building on the opposite side of Granite Street and at a sign that read Mens Wearhouse. It had to be a play on words, he thought or a dyslexic store owner. That is where he saw the flicker of flames just outside in the carpark area.

The Guards had a brazier to keep them warm but it allowed Nathan to see the silhouettes of at least three of them. How he wished now that he and his men had worn T-60 power armour with their recon visor displays, that not only gave them a clear outline of an enemy, it gave details of his distance and whether there was an obstruction between them. The camera was also able to outline enemy combatants in red and friendlies in blue.

Nathan raised his right arm and made a tightly clenched fist which signaled to his men to halt. Then he pointed his index and fore finger at his own eyes before turning his hand round towards those guards, then he held three fingers up to single how many he saw. Next he started to signal to each of the two men fire teams to peel away, indicating which of the warehouse buildings or shops he wanted them to go to.

It was only moments later that the first local shots rang out, and they came from behind the Minutemen in fact from one of the two builds behind them, they were occupied after all.

The three guards were now alert and looking passed Nathan's position and towards the sound of the gun fire, they too raised their weapons and began advancing across the road, it wasn't until they had all three stepped past Nathan that he and his companion, Cait, stood up and attacked them from behind.

Nathan hit the nearest man with the butt of his weapon knocking him down straight, Cait ever the dramatist took the nearest one to her out with a swift karate style kick while at the same time twirling around and slitting the throat of the third man/women it was hard to tell in the gloom, with her knife.

Nathan dispassionately put a single shot into the back of his prostrate enemy's head, then he signaled his group to move forward now and attack. Each two man fire team had their own objectives however because of the darkness and the unknown number of Gunner's they were supposed to keep to a firing line where by no one team got too far of the others or fell behind either.

Round three on the Interstate was beginning to get bogged down as neither side now wanted to show themselves and shots were at best speculative, but as lady luck sometimes shines Sergeant Baker, the third in command of the Gunners, was half stood trying to load a fat boy nuclear grenade launcher when Captain William Decker's shot hit the missile causing it to explode.

Four more Gunners including the Baker now lay amongst the fallen in reply a gunner hit Corporal Bernard Scott straight through his right eye, a lucky shot no doubt but the god's of war are always on hand to temper lady luck it seems.

Nielsen's squad took no casualties that round and instead of emboldening them, it caused Corporal Kylee Shaffer to check their advance while one of the squad went back to check on the Staff Sergeant.

Nielsen was covered by now in blood especially around his mid rift, the knight who had come to his side was fearful of moving him less his guts spilled out from beneath his armour, little did he know, and Nielsen was not about to tell, but none of the blood was his own.

Directly in front of Nathan and Cait was a slight embankment and to the right a stone wall that rose slightly more before turning the corner into Rockdale Street. Once up the embankment it was a further hundred yards to a short flight of broken concrete steps leading up to a covered promenade.

All of the stores windows had been boarded up and the double glass doors had been re-enforced on the inside with boards too where the toughened safety glass had shattered but was still in situ, no light was visible from the outside but on Nathan and Cait's helmet display there were the outlines in red of two armed figures just the other side of the main doors in.

Nathan signaled to Cait that she was to hit the push down bars that would cause the doors to open manually, and he would then kick them apart.

The Gunners inside had no idea what was happening outside other than all the noise but would still have been prepared to shoot whatever came through the doors. Nathan and Cait both had night-vision sights whereas the Gunners did not so when the double doors flew open it was the minutemen who had the drop and fired first.

Cait hit the female Gunner directly in front of her with a shot from her Combat Shotgun which tore a hole the size of a baseball through her upper chest, blood and sinew splattered the left side of the man she was with, he froze unable to pull the trigger of his automatic pipe pistol, Nathan dispatched him with a single shot from his Combat Rifle straight between the eyes causing his head to jolt back and the rest of his body to lift from the ground before falling backwards completely.

A quick sweep of the interior of the ground floor displayed no other life forms and Nathan whispered to Cait for her to start checking for Intel that might give them some idea why this place was so important to the Gunners.

Outside fierce fighting had erupted all over the place both at this location and on the Interstate above, the three Greyhound infantry carriers had been called forward to joined the party, and the distinctive thudda, thudda, thudda, of their 30mm guns raining hot steel down on the gunners everywhere, tearing through already smashed buildings like a hot knife through butter, adding to the sheer panic and terror those untrained gunners were having to chow down on. They were like drowning men in an unforgiving ocean surrounded by sharks with no rescue in sight.

On the Interstate the battle was running out of steam and man power neither side willing to sacrifice another soul for the butcher's bill. The gunners fired wildly but hit not one Knight during this exchange, the Brotherhood allowed the Gunners to shoot first because they were order to pick their targets and meant waiting until they at least caught sight of them.

The order was a smart one as two more gunners went down and still the Interstate stood, not a car, lorry or piece of its structure had been moved from place.

Nathan and Cait hadn't been looking for long when Nate heard the familiar sound of a rocket launcher being used, none of his men had them so it must have been a Gunner. He ordered Cait outside to get a visual on who it was and where the rocket was being fired from exactly.

Up on the Interstate the rocket had struck two of the Outcast Knights, the ones in the mix and match T-45 and T-51 armour, it had caught in one of the power armour suits and had exploded catapulting both knights backwards, they in turn hit a third knight knocking him off his feet before they both landed on top of him, effectively pinning to the ground.

The first cannonade from the 37mm High Explosive rounds on the three Greyhounds had hit the hotel building that Nathan had said was occupied by the bulk of gunners, it exploded with a terrible rage spewing burning hot shards of brick, wood, metal and clumps of charred flesh in every direction.

The Gunners who were inside during the minute long howitzer barrage had lepped out of their beds to fetch all the ammunition that had been stored on the upper floors down to the lobby area before it was hit by the High Explosive shells, unfortunately they had taken it out of the frying pan and placed it in the fire.

The resulting exposition when the ammunition took a direct hit was spectacular from the point of view of the Minutemen, the Gunners were too busy dying to appreciate the show.

Gunner men and women appeared in numbers now from out of the raging inferno, some were alight from the explosion wearing only tee shirts and shorts like they had not long been a in bed, some it was hard to tell they just burned, their skin blistering and popping, others appeared minus limbs, all had given up the fight by fell prey to the hungry minutemen who had them in their cross-airs.

Knight Dean Lyons turned just in time to witness the plumb of red hot fire and debris as it rode far above the buildings and up above his position huddled on the interstate, his eyes widened and his mind was fixed in awe at the incredible sight.

It was possible from his vantage point that if he wasn't wearing power armour the searing heat alone would have peeled his skin back so close was he to the event, however, the rocket that Gunner Lieutenant Clint Berman had fired directly at him from only yards away interrupted anything else the knight was thinking has the ensuing explosion from that had severed his head from the rest of his body.

Nathan lay on the ground without looking away from the oncoming figures he was fumbling around with his left arm trying to connect to Cait. He caught hold of her leg she was facing away from him and he tapped her but she didn't respond.

'Damn!' Was all he could say before recovering his left hand to grip the under section of his gun. 'Thud, thud, thud, thud,' Nathan pulled the trigger and didn't stop until the entire magazine was empty, body after body fell crumpled to the ground before him, they never saw him in the gloom but he picked them off one by one using his night vision scope.

When it was safe to do so Nathan stopped reloaded and then turned slightly while still lying flat against the ground.

Cait still hadn't moved and now he saw a dark patch of liquid pooling under her head, Nathan noticed then that her helmet was lying a few feet away from her his heart began to sink, no, no, no not again.

Just then another Minuteman had run over to Nathan keeping low, patting him to get up and move to cover.

Sir the new comer said, not that Nathan was listening, we need to find cover there is a madman up there with a rocket launcher and those Knights don't seem to be coping with him by themselves.

Nathan could only stare at the minuteman. Come on Bex, come here drag his mate to cover and I will get the General.

Across the opposite side of the road was a small oblong building that was once a bank, the newcomer had realised that its walls would have been thicker and stronger than any of the others around so that should act as a forward command post, he had stumbled across his leader amid the carnage and chaos,

Immediately on entering the former bank building the newcomer pulled off his helmet and began to pour some water from his canteen over his head, he gestured to Nathan to do the same. Then he went over to Cait and Bex to assess the injury.

Nathan came too in time to catch the other minuteman.

Bex says it's a head wound that is why there's so much blood. She then unbuttoned a pouch on her utility belt and pulled out a roll of bandages and began to dress the wound, Cait's head lollopped to one side like a ragdolls as soon as Bex had let go, her eyes were open staring straight ahead at Nathan. He felt tears well up in his own. Cait was wild, a true product of this insane post bomb society, uneducated and uncouth but as he stared into her eyes he realised he was trying to save her every bit as much as he was the Commonwealth.

Cait represented a sort of renewal, Piper was the polar opposite, she was everything he had lost and tried to get back. Cait was the future she represented salvation, if he lost her …

'Sir, we need a plan those Brotherhood guys are pinned by some wanna be with a missile launcher.' The minuteman pointed up towards the Interstate before he continued. 'We have been pretty badly torn up down here, but our fight is over. What do you want us to do, sir?

'We sit tight while I try to contact whoever is left up there, anyway we don't know for sure we got all of the Gunners down here.'

Nathan tapped the intercom button that hung down from his helmet chin strap.

The signal was not getting through, Nathan said that there was too much interference to the Minuteman and told him he would need to get up there himself.

Nathan was able to patch through to the other fire teams though, they had all reported back that all enemies had been eliminated. It was better than he had first thought but that was scant consolation to his Minutemen. Eleven dead out of Thirty, and Nathan new a lot more would lose their lives if he didn't reach those Knights up on the Interstate.

Fighting on the Interstate had now all but ground to a halt, as indiscriminate sporadic shots rang out from behind well-fortified barricades.

Outside of the bank, Rockdale Street ran all the way to the raised interstate and on his own Nathan knew he would have his best chance of reaching the engineers lift at the base of one of the pillars, he asked the remaining minutemen to target their fire on the Gunner in the power armour suit. Look for the soft areas on his for arm and the back of his knees he told them.

As Nathan wound his way to the Engineers lift through pockets of thick black acrid smoke he saw once more the sickening debris of war around him. Will this ever end he thought to himself as he stepped over severed body parts and ducked into burning buildings for partial cover, everywhere the ground was littered with spent ammo casings, dropped weapons and other equipment, and that pervading stench of burning flesh. Nearly three hundred years later War never changes.

Every minute or so a new rocket would fizz past on the way to its target, there was more than one Gunner with a launcher Nathan thought. The lift Nathan had headed for was up on the first tear of the two tiered Interstate. That was fine because it was probably going to be a bit noisy when it descended to the ground and those Gunners were on the top tier.

As the lift carried Nathan up to the fight he was able to survey where the fighting had taken place and where it was still continuing. His Minutemen in power armour where a long way to the west. Too far away to help in this battle, they must have also met stiff opposition, and the Greyhounds were of little use as the elevation of the Interstate was too high for the .30 caliber's and Nathan was not willing to risk using their 37mm cannon's on the weak bridge structure.

Both groups of Brotherhood Outcasts had pinned the Gunners down right above his position but had obviously got pinned down themselves in containing the situation. The lift moved slowly and its motor squealed and railed against any upward movement, as it rose Nathan became aware of the Comms link being restored.

Captain Decker was asking Corporal Shaffer if she could see where the remaining gunners were, Kylee said she couldn't, and she quickly told her commanding officer that Squad B had lost four men including the Staff Sergeant.

The Captain confirmed his casualties were lighter with only three killed but that he had no eyes on the enemy nor did he know there strength only that they possessed at least two missile launchers.

As the lift came to an abrupt halt on the first level of the Highway, Nathan was quickly able to see that this was level with some of the taller building from this section of the battle field and that they had ramps and walkways that had connected them to the first tier. Most of which were broken or looked unstable due to all the weapon fire and grenades that had been used up here. There was no one alive.

Ahead and to his right Nathan saw that his side of the seconded tier of the highway had collapsed forming a ramp. Using this he could gain access to the second tier, he needed a plan. All around him were broken vehicles some at odds with each other some almost like they had been parked up and left by their owners.

There was a bus which Nathan had edged tentatively towards incase someone was hiding inside. No-one was, but it had, had all of the seats removed and replaced by mattresses and footlockers, he counted eight of each. The footlockers contained personal effects but nothing he could use at this moment.

Two more missiles zipped somewhere ahead of Nathan and he had caught the chatter from both squads of Knights that neither had found targets.

Nothing else to do but slowly walk up the ramp and try to figure out what was happening, at this time Nathan knew neither where the Gunners were nor the Brotherhood knights, and he didn't want to break into their channel incase that gave his position away.

The ramp was steep and it had many holes in it so walking up normally was going to be hard, the ramp was pointing away from where he guested the Gunners were embedded and so it might be more to his advantage to walk up backwards.

Another wave of weapons fired, this time to close to Nathan for his own comfort caused him to stop and crouch, and he waited and listened. Gunner Corporal Tessa Penaloza grimaced as she felt the heat of the laser pierce and then quarterise the wound on her left shoulder.

Her Lieutenant flashed an optimistic look at her, she returned his with a thin smile of her own, the power armour had took the worst of it but it didn't stop her shoulder from burning like heck.

By now the glare from the rising sun was also adding to Nathans problems, as he inched his way up he would be shielded by a piece of iron gantry, then the very next step the full brightness would hit him, then it was darker again.

He flicked the night vision lenses up and out of his way but that didn't help much, he suddenly caught sight of movement over to his right but what was it? The sun hit his line of sight again. Nathan refrained from discharging his weapon, whatever it was didn't fire at him either so he continued another single methodical step up.

Nathan quickly crouched, he was directly in line of fire, and nobody had seen him. That was too close, Nathan thought as he breathed in sigh of relief.

Feeling somewhat naked without a power armour suit Nathan wound his way forward once more while all the time keeping his body as low to the carriageway as possible.,

The two Gunners were on the other carriage way over to his right and they were behind barricades. Directly in front of his position above was the rear end of another lorry its cab had slewed across the left carriageway blocking it completely. He turned to look up the ramp he was on, just as well, he was one foot step away from a gaping hole and certain death if he fell.

Another volley of shots pricked at Nathan's conscious effort to avoid detection, the missile shot past Nathan and into the bonnet of a car that was already a burn out wreck, unfortunately that was the present hiding place of private first class Ted Cooke another member of Nielsen's Squad B.

After the explosion it became the final resting place of the Private first class. Nathan waited for Squad B to reply, their lasers found only the ceramic surface of the barricades which effortlessly deflected those shots away from the Gunners.

Sliding his boots towards the girders on his left that had come down with this piece of roadway Nathan now reached out his right arm gingerly. Once he took a firm hold of the metal he preceded to move up once more, but keeping his body as low to the road surface as he could.

One of the Brotherhood Knights saw him and held his hand up signaling the General to stop. The Knight like his four companions were huddled behind a car that was turned sideways, it afforded them their cover, he signaled that he would throw a grenade and that the general should then move as quickly as he could to join them.

The grenade hit the enemy barricade and exploded, the gunners were already taking cover and Nathan stood up sharply almost toppling as he did and then leaning forward ran for cover.

The Gunners had no grenades left or they chose not to retaliate in kind and Nathan had noted that he had not heard any more rockets being fired. It didn't take long for the Knight Kate Wiley from Squad B to fill him in with the situation.

Nathan asked if they knew where the minutemen knights were, but they didn't. Looking back across the I-93 though it was easy to see where the other pocket of fighting was from the laser fire. They were just over a mile or so back and they too were completely bogged down.

The plan was simple call for back up, if these Gunners had no more rockets then bringing in the two reserve Verti-Birds should be safe enough, they were tough enough to with stand small weapons fire just nothing bigger.

Nathan needed to walk away from the barricade to more open section of the Interstate before his helmet comm could pick out the other minutemen down in the ruins below. Nathan ordered them to track back under the interstate until they found the next service lift – it should have been no more than half a mile away from the one he took. Nathan looked on his map before confirming that it would be near Randolph Avenue, he waited for confirmation before continuing with his orders.

This group of Gunners, whose numbers were greater than those here on Nate's part of the Interstate, were almost at the Minutemen check point where I-93 met I-95 before it turned off heading south. Once more he awaited confirmation before he continued.

They would be engaging the Gunners from behind so try to keep the element of surprise for as long as was possible and finally Nathan said that the Gunners would be lightly armoured but must have weight of numbers on their side as they had pinned the ten minutemen knights.

The Brotherhood Knights with Nathan were told to sit tight with heads down. It was no more than about ten minutes later they herd the drone of the two Verti-Bird engines coming from the direction of Milton.

Nathans comm link burst into life but was cut to ribbons by static and background noise, The Verti-Birds wanted the Knights to release smoke bombs to signal where they were so that they did not get fired upon.

The knights dutifully obliged and within seconds thirty millimeter solid slug bullets were tearing through anything in between the smoke trails. The Gunners opened fire in reply with everything they had, these were veterans and would go down without a fight.

Tokka, tokka, tokka, the noise of those Verti-Bird guns, stopping briefly while the Birds flew Nathan's position but once they had re-aligned themselves the sound began again. The knights and Nathan watched as shell casing after shell casing lepped from the side of the belching guns. Metal and wood splintered in every direction and the Gunner barricades were sliced apart by the .50 caliber machine guns that belched hot metal from the confines of the Verti Birds.

No sooner had the second round of fire began than the battle was over signaled by parts of the roof structure of the highway falling in, then almost totally silence. The Verti-Birds made one more complete circle of the second tier before signaling that it was clear for the Knights to go over and investigate. Nothing survived, the two power armoured figures they along with their comrades had been all but obliterated turning into nothing more than bloody chunks.

Nathan signaled for the knights onboard the Verti-birds to descent down on to the second tier of the Interstate. He was very relieved to see his old friend Danse come down first. Given the circumstances they might have embraced briefly but in Danse would have crushed Nathan who was not in power armour so they had to settle for a nod of the head instead.

Nathan asked that all the fallen Knights be loaded on to the Verti-Birds and taken to Knight Captain Cade who was the medic on the Prydwen. He then turned to address Danse and his two squads of T-60 armoured Knights and the twelve remaining Outcasts, asking if they fancied getting their suits dirty once more and they shouted loudly as one voice, Ad Victoriam!

Nathan pointed to where the Minutemen knights were pinned by the larger force of Gunners and simply said, go get 'em.

Knights in T-60 power armour could run comfortable at speeds of up to thirty two miles an hour and those Outcasts about thirty so they should arrive just as the first minutemen from Nathan's ground force were being ferried up the engineers lift.

All but one of the dead Outcasts were accounted for so then Nathan sent word to the Prydwen to send her remaining Verti-Birds to come pick up the other wounded or dead from the ground fight.

Staff Sergeant Amir Nielsen had been very lucky, Captain Cade, the Doctor from the Prydwen had told him so. The Doctor however did not see the Staff Sergeant, as the explosion from one of the Gunners rockets had hit his two fellow knights, knocking them backwards and on top of him. There Amir lay until the fighting was over and then emerging as the hero - the last survivor from two squads of knights.

Captain Cade had given orders that Nielsen have three days bed rest even though there were no visible injuries, so he was left in his cot at the field hospital in Milton by the orderlies.

It wasn't until the next morning after he had awoken that Nielsen had realised just how lucky he really was. There in the very next cot to him was a women with a large bandage wrapped around her head, but this wasn't just any women, no, no, no, this was that Irish tart who had so humiliated him in front of his squad – why though, he thought to himself, would they bring an enemy combatant into a Brotherhood tent?

The Staff Sergeant called out for an orderly.

A young man in his late teens appeared looking very concerned.

Hey what's the big idea putting her in here? She ain't one of us.

The Orderly looked confused. That is Colonel Cait Kenny of the Minutemen, I don't understand, is there a problem?

No, no, not at all, I think I must have hit my head or something, look you be off now and I will rest a little I think.

No sooner had the Orderly ducked out of the field Hospital tent doorway than Nielsen sprang out of bed and over to the unconscious Colonel.

Oh just look at you my pretty, he drooled over Cait who was oblivious to him even being there. One quick sly look around to make sure nobody was watching and he ran his forefinger the length of her body stopping a couple of times to speak intimately with her.

Nielsen solicited no reaction from Cait so feeling a little emboldened he trace his forefinger around the outside of her lips. Cait murmured and her lips parted slightly.

Now she wants to talk to me, Nielsen said to nobody in particular, then he bend his ear towards her soft red lips – what was that Missy? Did you say you can't breathe?

Perhaps if I loosen these buttons on your tunic, one, two, three…

The Orderly returned with some water for the Sergeant but on seeing him unfastening the top three buttons on Cait's uniform he just froze.

What's up lad, she was choking, I didn't know what to do, get over here instead of standing and gaping, you fool.

The Orderly apologized to Nielsen and handed him the water after which he attended to Cait. Did she speak?

No it was more of a choking sound, oh I do hope I didn't make things worse I was just trying to help.

Help myself wasn't I pretty, pretty. The Sergeant was saying to himself in his mind.

I will fetch Captain Cade back I think she might be taking a turn for the worse.

Once more the young Orderly left, left them alone, together.

Nathan was still atop of I-93 rummaging through anything useful that might have been kept or hidden in any of the many boxes and crates, when a call came through.

Danse explained that the Minutemen he had sent arrived ahead of his knights and had opened fire almost immediately, the Gunners replied with a single ragged volley before seeing his knights arriving and they just surrendered.

Three Minutemen Knights lay dead and twenty four Gunners including their commanding officer, the other eleven looked young and frightened half to death on seeing all the power armour arrayed against them.

By the time that Nathan had arrived at the Interchange between I-95 and I-93 Captain Danse and his knights had helped all of the other wounded Knights and Minutemen to the Verti-Birds and secured the prisoners in an ammunition store. The Minutemen that weren't injured were sent back to the industrial estate were there had first battled the Gunners there orders were to take stock and find out what they could about why the Gunners had dug in there.

Nathan met up with Danse at around noon when the sun was highest in the sky, today was going to be another hot one, but then it always was after a nuclear storm had blown through.

The smell from all the dead Gunners was going to attract more than just the large blackbirds that squawked and cooed from the side barriers that still ran along the edges of the Highway.

'So what's the plan?' asked Captain Danse.

Nathan said that they needed to burn or bury the dead before the smell attracted bigger things than just the Blackbirds, of course the Knights were all in air filtered power armour so they couldn't smell what he could.

Given the location Nathan opted to pile the bodies up and burn them.

Danse said he'd put the prisoners in the corrugated tin hut just across the way.

Nathan walked over to the door of the hut gulping in mouthfuls of the cool air that washed up over the sides of the Highway as he did. As he opened the door the first time he quickly shut it again and called over to Lieutenant Rhys who was the nearest Knight to him.

'Rhys where are the prisoners?'

Rhys could not hear him because of course he was still helmeted so Nate called Rhys once more this time depressing the comm link on his Helmet first.

Rhys waved his hand to signal he would come over to Nathan.

As he approached, Rhys removed his helmet, his hair hung down around his head in greasy lengths and sweat beads raced each other down his face. 'God,' he proclaimed 'it was sure good to get that thing off,' he waved his helmet at Nate.

'Yeah,' he continued, 'you noticed too.'

'I noticed that there is a hut full of what, kids?'

'Pretty much looks like it but boy do they know how to pull a trigger and just where to point' 'the business end of a gun.'

'Rhys are they all like this?' Nate was concerned at the tender age of the gunners.

'You mean the dead ones Sir?' Rhys asked impassively.

'Yes I mean the dead ones!'

'Yes Sir.' Rhys couldn't care less what age they were so long they stayed dead, they were his enemy.

'Look stay here I am going to fetch them outside before they roast to death in that hut.'

'Do you want me to get some of the boys over here to help?'

'Rhys they are kids, no I don't, we can handle this.'

Nathan frog marched the sorry looking bunch of preteens and a further three other children that 'didn't look a day over six outside.'

'Get them some water Rhys.'

'More water Sir?'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'We tried all that before you got here, they even refused chocolate, Sir.'

Nathan knelt down before the six year old girl and looked her over, she was wearing a ridiculously oversized helmet on her head which fell down over both eyes, she wore a checked green flannel shirt that was basic Gunner issue but it buried her so it looked more like a dress.

Her hair just managed to hang in pig tails below the rim of the helmet and her chin was filthy with dirt and probably carbon discharge from her weapon. She wore ill-fitting boots that came up to her knees and they had left bloody red welts where they rubbed against her skin.

Hello sweetie my name is Nathan Dewitt, what is yours?

No reply.

'Would you like a drink of water?'

No reply.

'Hey look you must be really hungry and I have a beef jerky bar, would you like that?' Nate offered the girl the sealed silver wrapped bar.

Her eyes wandered over to the shiny wrapper that glinted in the sun, but she still refused even to acknowledge him there.

'Shall we just slip that helmet off, you must be really hot under there?' As Nate moved his hands towards the girl she flinched. One of the other older looking youths took a step forward.

'Zero eight-zero one-twenty two seventy seven!'

Nathan let his hands drop and began to stand up.

'Say what?'

'Zero eight-zero one-twenty two seventy seven, SIR!'

Nate looked at Rhys who just shrugged, 'well at least we know they can speak, sir.'

Nathan addressed the youth directly, 'what is that sequence of numbers?'

The youth just looked up at a point above and over Nate, there were tears welling up in his eyes but he fought them back, defiantly refusing to repeat what he had already said twice.

Nathan turned and walked over to Lieutenant Rhys. 'We need help and I think I know a way we can get them to speak, Rhys my head set won't reach the Prydwen but yours will, can you ask them to send a Verti-Bird to the fort and pick Natalie and sheng up, tell them to bring their equipment.'

Rhys asked if the equipment was to torture the youths, but Nathan scoffed at him and said no he had meant their camera equipment he had an idea but they needed to work fast.

Danse indicated that all of the dead Gunners were now in a pile and ready to be burnt, but Nathan asked them to wait.

If everything went accordingly Natalie and Sheng would be here in approximately forty minutes in the meantime Nate asked if the Knights could jury rig some shelter that wouldn't cook the kids.

Nathan busied himself looking through all the Gunner weapons that had been collected together along with any other pieces of equipment and personal effects. None of the enemy combatants appeared to be older than fifteen yet to look at their bodies they seemed to be older, they were in great shape none of which made any sense.

Danse asked if they could possibly be Synths, but Nathan didn't think they were although that was the age of Shaun, the Synth boy he had agreed to take in as his own child but whom he knew would never age.

'Clones?' Ventured Danse.

'I just don't know, I think we need Captain Cade to run a full blood works on our prisoners but then that wouldn't explain little miss lethal weapon over there, she cannot be a day over six or those two smaller boys with her.'

'Perhaps they clone them in batches.'

'Ok Danse just give it up, please.' Nate's mood was turning as rotten as the air around him.

The Verti-Bird carrying Natalie and Sheng touched down on the highway just a few yards from the huddled figures of the children, Nathan went over to bring them up to speed and then tell them about his plan.

Rhys watched Nathan try to entice the petty ragdoll looking girl out away from the rest of her comrades, smirking at Nathans complete failure.

'Let me try Nate.'

Natalie really just needed to get the child to stand up so that Sheng could photograph her.

Nathan told her not to bother with treats they just didn't work, so Natalie asked if she could do something a little more radical. Nathan nodded without having an idea what she would do.

Natalie walked over to the pile of guns on the floor there she crouched down and looked closely at the weapons before selecting a pipe pistol with an extended stock, it looked big enough for a child to hold with both hands.

Natalie walked calmly over to the child and crouched in front of her, 'hey there my name is Natalie and my friend over there is called Sheng, he has a camera, look see that box in his hand, that is a camera.'

The small child looked nonchalantly at Sheng, her eyes widened for a moment as she fixed an icy stare on the thing in his hand.

'Do you know what it is?' Asked Natalie in a soft tone.

The child looked back at the pipe pistol in Natalie's hands.

'He's going to shoot you with his camera!' Natalie chose her words to exact a response.

The little girl moved at lightning speed, first she grabbed the pipe pistol out of Natalie's lose grip and then stepped forward almost knocking Natalie over screaming a defiant war cry as she pulled the trigger. 'Click, click, click, click, and click.'

Sheng took shot after shot of the angry faced little girl in the oversized helmet until she realised that there were no bullets in the gun and she let it just hang limp in her right hand.

Natalie took the weapon away from the little girl and soothingly told her that she had done very well, and that everything was going to be alright.

Natalie found it hard not to cry as she reached into her pocket and brought out a handkerchief, she dabbed the end of it in her mouth and then moved close to the little girl before dabbing her dirt encrusted face.

The little girl finally made eye contact with Natalie as every time she wiped down the child's face the helmet would slip and hit the bridge of her nose, she would then push it back up again so that she stare into Natalie's eyes.

Natalie began to wonder if using this little girl for the sort of propaganda that Nate had in mind was the right thing to do.

Natalie reached gently over to the helmet and lifted off the little girl before placing it on the ground at her feet.

'Now I don't know about you but I am so hungry,' with that Natalie started to unwrap the silver foil from the beef jerky slowly and deliberately and then she bit into it.

The Child just stared right into Natalie's eyes, almost into her soul. Natalie chewed provocatively on the beef jerky. 'Hmm this is very good,' she stated. Then Natalie offered the little girl the rest of the bar, 'look you are all clean again and you must be so, so hungry?'

This time just like with the pipe pistol the girl's hands moved quickly almost feral in snatching the bar away from Natalie and stuffing it into her mouth.

Natalie once more praised the girl before she turned swiftly on her heels and asked if all the children could have a beef jerky bar, although reluctant the children each in turn accepted a bar and soon were hungrily chewing away.

Natalie stood up and walked over to Nathan.

'I'm Impressed. The power of the press, your sister would have been mighty proud of you.'

Natalie didn't feel proud though she felt pity and she felt sick in the pit of her stomach, 'Nathan what the heel is going on here, these are not soldiers they are kids, please do not tell me that those bodies over there are of kids as well.'

Nathan didn't say a word for the truth was he felt her pain and there anguish and a whole lot worse.

'We need to get them strapped in to the Verti-Bird, Come on people let's get them to the base at Milton and let's finally burn these bodies.'

Five of the boys were put into the Verti-Bird that brought Natalie and Sheng here and the other older girls and the three smaller children were placed in a second Bird that had brought Brotherhood scribes and some supplies for the Knights.

Natalie and Sheng would wait with Nathan until he went back to Milton on the next incoming Verti-Bird.

Nathan called Danse over to talk with Natalie and Sheng.

'What's the plan Chief?' Danse asked as he nodded to Natalie and then remembering Sheng was there, to him as well.

'First I want Natalie to run a full front page spread in the paper using the best picture of that kid as she tried to shoot Sheng, God did you see her face, it was priceless!'

'Nathan!'

'No really I mean it, if we are going to unite the Commonwealth then we need a common course and that little girl has just handed it to us, even the Brotherhood will have to get on board.'

'Nathan, none of this feels right.' Natalie hated her part in this but felt that Nathan was at least trying to do the right thing, instead of just pointing a gun at it and pulling the trigger.

'Something is going down with those gunners, Natalie you can speculate just like Danse said, are they synths? Clones? Or just child soldiers breed for war?'

'Nathan the Brotherhood take youths into the ranks at fifteen you know that you have trained loads yourself over the last five years.'

'True Danse I have, but they were not allowed to train with live ammunition until they turned sixteen so there is a big difference not to mention they are certainly not allowed any frontline duty until they turn eighteen.'

'Ok, no more questions we need to start tying up loose ends and get some answers. Danse I need to get back to the Prydwen and talk to Maxson, your squad need to return to Cambridge, somebody needs to take over here and shore up the defenses while Natalie and Sheng you two have a newspaper to put out.'

The journey back to the Prydwen was a pleasant one for Nathan he was alone in the passenger section of the Verti-Bird except for the pintle mounted gun and its operator. Outside the sky was clear and the sun was beginning its decent into early evening, there was a cool breeze coming through the open door were the gunner was situated and the wine of the twin engines was somehow comforting.

Nathan wondered how Cait was, he had no idea if she was even alive, personal chatter was forbidden in mission time, what about Shaun left at Fort Hagan – he seemed happy enough but how could you tell?

Nathan's day dream was cut short when the pilot spoke via the head set, 'We're just coming round to dock with the Prydwen now Sir.'

Elder Maxson was waiting for Nathan on the forward deck he seemed consumed in his work when Nathan actually entered the room and didn't act like he had noticed him.

'Arthur,' Nathan said loud enough to garner his commander's attention.

'Nathan, pour yourself a drink you look like you need one.'

Indeed coming straight from the battlefront Nathan did look a sight, his clothes under his combat armour were torn in places and the once olive green Combat armour was now several shades of black and brown, he had cuts and bruises and the smell, the smell was that of a charnel house.

'I have asked Proctor Quilon to join us, he is on his way, please take a seat Nathan.'