TEN – Sunburst
"Where's Elder Elijah?" exclaimed a figure clad in T-51b power armour as he briskly walked into the dimly lit room, evidently flustered. The emblem of the Brotherhood of Steel was clearly visible on his breastplate. The faint sounds of gunfire could be heard from the outside, and the concussions of explosions could be felt even this deep into the HELIOS One solar power plant.
"Nobody knows, head paladin McNamara." replied another figure, with a sense of urgency in his voice. "He must have left when nobody was looking."
McNamara rested his arms on a nearby table and shook his head. Their Elder had abandoned them? "This time the NCR is going to win…" he muttered, under his breath. After a pause, he straightened up and wiped the sweat off his brow. "I'm taking the position of Elder until further notice, and I am also ordering the evacuation of HELIOS One to the Hidden Valley bunker." he announced to the room, and instantly provoked a heated response.
"But McNamara, what about the technology here? Are you seriously considering just letting the NCR take it all?" replied the paladin, dumbstruck.
"We have no choice, Paladin Hardin!" said McNamara, angered by his stubbornness. Coming from the usually softly-spoken McNamara, the effect was substantial. "It is only a matter of time until we are overrun! If it's any consolation, I am authorising the activation of the installation's defences to at least make it difficult to access."
This silenced Hardin, but from the look on his face he was still unhappy with the decision, his hawk-like eyes narrowed.
Knight Alex Niven silently watched this exchange, his mind elsewhere. Was this really happening? He had heard Elijah mention that the installation contained a hidden weapon that was capable of turning the tide, and here they were, about to leave it for the NCR to decipher and then use it against them?
"What are you waiting for? We need to go now!" exclaimed McNamara, gesturing the occupants of the room to rise to their feet before reaching for his helmet. With the volume of gunfire outside slowly increasing, there was a sense of panic in the air. Alex hurried towards the front entrance with the other knights and paladins, while Hardin led a team of scribes to activate the ancient pre-war defence systems that dotted the facility.
Navigating the old power plant's dingy corridors, the group eventually found themselves at the huge steel bulkhead that separated them from the outside. "Paladin Watkins, open the door." ordered McNamara, gesturing towards it. The gunfire outside had ceased, leaving an eerie silence as Watkins made the long walk.
The bulkhead opened with an elaborate display of turning gears and folding metal, and then the room was promptly flooded with gunfire, brutally shattering the silence from moments before and taking the brotherhood soldiers completely by surprise. While ducking for cover behind some filing cabinets Alex watched as a bullet punched through the bullet-resistant glass of Watkins' visor, sending his limp form falling backwards. Bringing his laser rifle up, Alex squeezed the trigger and smiled inside his helmet as the ruby beam of photons burned a hole through an NCR ranger's armour, killing or at least incapacitating him. Payback.
The exchanges continued, sparks flying off Alex's T-45d power armour as he traded shots with the NCR soldiers that were entrenched outside the front entrance. Despite the brotherhood's superior training and equipment, there were just too many of the NCR to go up against. "This is no use!" shouted McNamara, his suit's external speakers amplifying his voice over the sound of battle. "A detachment needs to hold them here while we use another exit!"
So it had come to this. He had already made the decision – if they were going to be evacuating HELIOS One, he wasn't going to be leaving alive. "I'll do it." volunteered Alex, which then inspired a handful of others to do the same.
McNamara looked across towards them, his expression unreadable from behind his visor. "Good luck, my brothers." came his short reply before he ordered his men to leave the room, with Alex and the others laying down suppressive fire.
Alex fought against them as hard as he could, but it was just no use. Each trooper he killed was instantly replaced by another, the bodies piling up outside. A bullet ricocheted off his shoulder, obliterating the brotherhood emblem that was once proudly displayed there. Alex was starting to get cold feet about his 'heroic' decision.
The firefight continued for maybe another minute, until Alex was so heavily suppressed he daren't even leave cover. Looking around the room, he noticed the bodies of the soldiers that had chosen to stay, blood dribbling from the holes punched through their armour. He was the last one alive.
Blood pounding in his ears, he rose out of cover and fired again, this time hitting a grenade worn on the belts of one of the troopers. Hoping the resulting explosion left them sufficiently stunned, Alex stood up, discarded his rifle and ran as fast as his suit would allow through the labyrinth of corridors – the thought of the pursuing NCR forces occupying every other part of his brain.
Alex almost collided into another bulkhead, similar to the one at the entrance except smaller. After some scrabbling from his armour plated hands, he finally managed to get it open, and emerged into the open air on the opposite side of the plant. Fury and fear drove him forwards as he sprinted past the rows of mirrors towards a gap in the perimeter fence – ignoring the bullets whistling past his head and causing some of the fragile mirrors to shatter.
Once he had cleared the perimeter and was confident they wouldn't follow, Alex slowed down and maintained a brisk walk through the maze of valleys until he was at the front entrance of their hidden bunker. He silently praised the actuators in his suit's joints and the air filtration system in his helmet; otherwise he would have probably collapsed from exhaustion hours ago.
Opening the exterior bulkhead, Alex took off his helmet and made his way down the flight of steps of the ancient pre-war bunker. He was alive…but he was a coward. He wondered what his brothers would make of him as he walked through the large storage room towards the intercom, his plated boots causing echoes to dance off the dirty concrete walls.
Pressing a button, he made an attempt to identify himself. "This is knight Niven, can someone open up?"
There was no response from the intercom. Very strange. Alex stood confused for a moment, but soon mentally kicked himself when he remembered the password. Having been stationed at HELIOS One for so long, it had completely slipped his mind.
Edging closer to the intercom again, Alex made another attempt. "Err… Portcullis?"
Had it changed since last time? Alex could only hope for the best. After a few seconds there was still no answer. Were they ignoring him? He wouldn't be surprised if they were.
A few more seconds passed, and Alex was starting to get increasingly irritated. Jabbing at the button, he tried again. "Ramos, I know you're there. Open the damn door!" Maybe this was his idea of revenge after Alex's little incident with the microfusion cell which Ramos got the blame for. "Look, I'm sorry about the accident thing, okay?"
He was about to conclude that the intercom was broken when it suddenly crackled into life. Alex suddenly rushed back, expectantly awaiting a reply.
"I can't let you in, Alex." replied an indifferent voice through the intercom's speaker, crushing Alex's excitement.
"Why not?" said Alex, dumbfounded.
"Orders from Elder McNamara - the bunker has gone into complete lockdown. Nobody allowed in or out. I'm sorry Alex, but you're on your own."
Alex's disbelief suddenly turned to anger. After risking his neck for them, was this how McNamara repays him? Almost punching the intercom, he threw caution to the wind and started yelling.
"Well, you can tell McNamara to come down here and let me in, or I will be shoving his so-called 'lockdown' where the sun don't shine!"
A short burst of static was emitted from the speaker. "You're out of line, Niven." replied the voice in a threatening tone.
Alex scoffed. "I don't care. What are you going to do about it? Oh yeah – I'm on the outside, aren't I? By the looks of things, McNamara's 'lockdown' has made sure you can't even touch me!"
"Look, just leave. Otherwise he may make an exception." the voice was completely unaffected by Alex's tirade, which made him all the more frustrated. Alex stiffly turned away from the intercom, only to come back again and punch the door as hard as he could – sending sparks flying. He knew it was no use, but it made him feel better.
Getting his breath back, he slowly straightened up towards the empty room behind him – raising his arms as if asking it for answers. What the hell was he going to do now? As he started to walk away, his anger boiled away into a firm resolve. Slowly reaching for his dogtags, Alex bitterly pulled them off as if they were physically attached to his body. As he tossed them aside, he felt ashamed at his sudden outburst – that wasn't like him at all. Sure, his old way of life had suddenly been locked away from him, but he was never one to turn to anger like that. He guessed it didn't matter anymore, nobody would notice the difference.
As Alex stepped into the outside air, the bulkhead closed behind him with a resolute "clang", severing his connection to his old life. He was nothing but a wastelander now.
Alex Niven stood outside his shack on the hillside overlooking the town of Novac, staring out at the silhouette of HELIOS One far to the north. Many months had passed since the end of the terrible campaign, leaving over sixty of his brothers dead and himself without a goal or purpose. The Brotherhood had rejected him upon his return to hidden valley, without even a shred of recognition and to live with the regret of running away and blaming his own cowardice. He had lived a quiet life up in the hills ever since, out of sight of the numerous NCR patrols that had swarmed over the area like flies to rotting flesh.
Still, at least he had his power armour. The Brotherhood were probably crying over that one – sometimes Alex thought they valued technology more than people. He smirked at the thought; at least he had something to make him feel better.