Sorry for the delay in getting this out. This'll be a shorter chapter than previous ones. Hope you all enjoy!
The trip back to Sanctuary was one filled with paranoia. Raiders could ambush the group at any time, so they had to stay alert.
Codsworth had been instructed to warn the group if he detected a large amount of life signs closing in on their position, and incase that didn't work they still had Dogmeat and his trusty nose.
They had just about reached the half-way point between Tenpines Bluff and Sanctuary Hills.
...
As soon as Vanessa had woken up her brother had told her about Nate's offer, and what she wanted to do. She had made her decision very quickly. The two of them were Sanctuary bound.
So just ten minutes later Mark put Vanessa's arm around his neck and started to carry her, as she was still too sore to move on her own at the moment.
...
Now the group were approaching the bridge back into Sanctuary, they all began to relax again, feeling safe here with other people. People who weren't disgusting raiders.
Preston quickly came rushing into view and made a bee-line across the bridge, meeting the group half-way.
"I saw you carrying her from here, and you're covered in blood Nate, what happened ? How badly are you all hurt ?" Preston immediately asked, all worried about them after he'd seen the state of Vanessa and Mark.
"What happened is raiders had my sister as their hostage and they beat me within an inch of my life. But your buddy Nate here saved her and brought her back to me. Then they stayed with us to keep guard until dawn, until we could move my sister over here." Mark explained to him.
"Good to know you and your sister are okay, sir. I got worried something might've happened! I was real close to coming out to look for you guys...thank god you're all alright though." Preston responded, and then realised how rude he was being.
"Sorry, excuse my bad manners folks. Preston Garvey, commonwealth minutemen. At your service!" He said offering his hand to Mark.
Mark shook his hand and said "Nate, uh, said we could move in here with you folks. We only had a small falling apart shack out there, and Nate wouldn't let us stay there. I hope it's no trouble..."
Preston gave a quick half-smile at hearing that, and replied, "No, no. It's no trouble whatsoever! I'm actually really glad Nate brought you both back here, you're both more than welcome!"
Mark smiled and introduced himself and his sister. "Thank you, mister! My name's Mark by the way, and this is my sister, Vanessa."
"Hiya, mister." Vanessa quietly said.
"Ma'am. Well, it's nice to meet you both, and it's great to have you both here." Preston said, his smile wide now with joy at having two more people safe from raiders.
"Great to be here. Now, if it's not too much trouble, could we find somewhere for my sister to go lay down and rest at all ? She was beaten badly too and needs some time to recover." Mark told Preston, while also asking politely.
"Of course, we've got a few intact couches around here and some beds in cellars below some of the houses for her to rest on. I'll show you to them." Preston said, turning to lead them off when Nate shouted after them.
"-Hey, Preston! Vanessa and Mark can rest on the couch in my house if they don't like the cellars. Some fresh air might help, y'know ?"
Preston nodded back at him "Got it, i'll let them decide. I'll speak to you in a bit Nate." he said, as he holstered his rifle and helped Mark carry Vanessa up the street, leaving the trio behind at the bridge.
Nate took the opportunity to light up a cigarette while he had time to sit and relax now.
The first drag he took felt so calming and helped him de-stress somewhat. As he took another drag he looked down at his clothes, and decided he needed to go see if he could wash out some of the blood that covered them. And Codsworth was ever so eager to help. Surprise, surprise...
30 minutes later...
Nate was sat in his bathroom and had somewhat succeeded in his task, though there were still some little stains of blood here and there. Codsworth had gone off now to find Sturges to see about getting his buzz-saw re-attached, taking Dogmeat with him so that he could enjoy a little walk along the way. Going over the recent events in his head, so as to assess his new found skills, Nate was suddenly pulled from them by that familiar voice.
"You're something else, man."
Turning round, Nate saw Preston stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, and a genuine smile on his face.
"I'm just a soldier, Preston. A soldier, and a simple man."
Preston gave a low chuckle and replied, "Yeah. A soldier who does a lot of good for people he doesn't even know, and a simple man who saves those peoples lives and gives them a safe new home, despite being new to this world, in a sense...You inspire me, man."
"Do i, really ?" Nate asked him, turning around and looking at him. Curious if he was really being serious.
"Yes, you do. Before i met you i thought all the good people out there had been killed off after the last Minutemen fell. But seeing all that you've done has given me hope that maybe i was wrong. I know that i haven't exactly known you for that long Nate. But i can already see all the positive things someone like you can bring to this world. You saved those two people, Mark and Vanessa. Twice, actually." Preston told him.
"Yeah. But i wouldn't have even known about their situation if not for you, Preston. You saved them just as much as i did. You're one of the good guys too, and don't go thinking you're not. While i was saving those two, you were keeping the others safe and sound. Don't put me on a pedestal, and don't be putting yourself down man." Nate responded.
Preston processed what Nate had just told him.
"You know what...maybe...maybe you are right, maybe i have been putting myself down too much lately. It's just...since Quincy, i-"
"-You feel like you're not worthy of being labelled 'a good man' because you couldn't get everyone out alive ?"
"Yeah..."
"As shitty as it sounds, that's just War sometimes Preston. Unfortunately not everyone makes it...but you never gave up. You never abandoned your group and never thought only about yourself. You put their lives first and fought as hard as you could against any threat against them. You're what this world needs too." Nate reassured him.
"I...thanks, Nate. That actually makes me feel a bit better inside." Preston replied with a thankful smile.
"No problem bud, was there something else you wanted ?" Nate asked.
"Just a couple of things, yeah. Like, for one...whose blood were you covered in ? And are you injured in any way, do you need bandaged ?"
"All that blood was the blood of maybe...twenty or more raiders i think...and no i don't need bandaged actually, i didn't actually even get hit once."
"Not even once ?"
"Nope." Nate replied with a somewhat cocky smirk.
"Damn. You a ninja or something ? I always get atleast one or two grazes every couple of firefights, and i doubt those raiders made it easy for you."
"Oh...yeah, my Pip-Boy kinda lets me slow down time and target multiple targets at once." Nate told him, laughing at how he sounded to himself right now.
"..."
There was a silence between them for a few seconds before Preston burst out laughing so much that Nate seriously thought he'd start choking to death, and Nate almost started laughing along with him the more Preston laughed.
"Man, if that were true i'd be diving into the next vault i see to get me one too, hahah!"
"Yeah i bet. By the way, i saw a whole load of weapons, armor, clothes, food, drink and chems in that Satellite station when i went there to rescue Vanessa. And i killed all the raiders in there too, so i'd recommend going back there sometime soon and looting everything we can so that this place is even more liveable and better protected." Nate said to Preston, informing him of the valuables inside the old satellite station.
"Really ? Nice! Damn that come in really handy for this new home of ours...alright then, yeah we should definetly get over there sometime soon. Especially before anymore raiders move in." Preston added.
"Exactly."
"I marked it on my Pip-Boy's map, along with Tenpines Bluff. I'll show you it's location later." Nate added
"Okay man, that'd really help. So, uh...when were you planning on heading to Diamond City then ?" Preston asked after a minute.
Nate took some time to respond. Not really sure himself.
"I was thinking after when i helped the folk from Tenpines out, but...after seeing what these 'raiders' do, well...if more raiders come this way, and if they come in greater numbers and find this place, they'll attack and might overwhelm you guys, and do...horrifying shit to the women. So, as desperate as i am to find my son...i'm gonna stick about a bit longer and make sure you guys are safe here, or safe enough atleast...besides, when i have my son back safe and sound we are gonna need a safe home here in this world that's...still so new to me...and the truth is, i don't know if i could ever really part with this place, y'know...despite..."
"Despite all the reminders of your past and the painful memories that might come with it every time you look around you ?" Preston asked, as if finishing his sentence for him.
"Yeah..."
"Well, i know just how desperate you are to find Shaun. But i thank you for deciding to stay here and help us a while longer, Nate. Thank you, seriously." Preston said, placing his palm on Nate's shoulder.
"You don't need to thank me, Preston. It's the right thing to do." Nate told him.
"In any case, would you mind accompanying me somewhere not too far from here ?" Preston asked him.
"Depends, what're we doing ?" Nate asked, appearing confused to Preston.
"There's this farm about ten minutes to the south-east of Sanctuary. Built around the frame of an old high-voltage tower. I remember my squad got this call about a month and a bit back from an 'Abernathy Farm', asking for help with some raiders. But we-"
"Wait, did you just say 'Abernathy Farm' ?!" Nate asked, suddenly raising his head with a concerned look on his face.
"Yeah...why ? You sound worried." Preston quickly noted.
"I...when i was in that satellite station saving Vanessa, i found these boxes filled with...evidence of the actions of those raiders, at different settlements and...well..."
"What ? Are you saying that you found proof that the raiders have been there already ?!"
Nate gave him a simple nod.
"Shit.." Preston whispered. "So...um, so what did the pictures you saw show ? Tell me then. What exactly happened there ?"
"They'd taken pictures of what they...what they did there...fuck know why they did man, but Jesus Christ dude...there's no easy way to describe what i saw there." Nate said taking a deep breath before he told Preston everything. "They'd shot a woman living there in the stomach, stripped her naked, took pictures of her laying there in her own pool of blood, and...Well, I don't wanna imagine what they did next..."
"Fuck...Fuck! Goddammit! Why can't those assholes just leave people alone! Why do they always have to take from the hard working, innocent people out here and torment them! God fucking dammit man!" Preston exclaimed, rubbing his head and pacing about, now clearly stressed out before taking a deep breath himself.
"D'you still wanna go there ? If raiders live there now we should atleast wipe them out. Make the area even safer, and cut down their numbers y'know ? And if we don't find any raiders, and only find the corpses of those people instead then the least we could do is bury the bodies...or whatever's left..." Nate suggested, trying to sound somewhat hopeful.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good plan man. I'll let Sturges know. We shouldn't take long."
10 minutes later...
As Nate and Preston were walking down the long field they were having a lengthy conversation with each other. Just after they'd started crossing the lake south-west out of Sanctuary they'd come across an abandoned, slightly rusted APC. They were talking about how to retrieve it and if they could get it in working condition or not.
They climbed a small hill and walked around a corner, and that conversation came to a sudden halt. After following the large tower here all the way from Sanctuary they were finally here. And now, seeing Abernathy Farm in the distance not too far ahead of them, the two men both stood there and took in the rather impressive sight of the high-voltage tower now directly ahead of them. They noticed that the tower itself was covered half-way up it's structure by a crap-ton of wooden supports all over it, and there was a small farm in the distance, just outside the base of the tower.
"Looks very impressive..." Nate said after a few seconds of taking in the sight.
"Yeah, yeah it does, doesn't it..." Preston replied, with a hint of sadness in his tone.
Nate was about to say something else when the two of them heard a rifle being cocked behind them, followed by a voice yelling at them. "That's far enough assholes. Drop your weapons, put your hands up and turn around. Slowly. Or i'll shoot."
Nate and Preston both cursed in unison and reluctantly did as they were told. Upon turning around they were met with a single man, wearing farmers clothes and holding a Hunting rifle towards the pair. The man having emerged from a small capsule tilted to one side that the two men had paid no attention to on their way past. This was no raider trying to rob them, this was a paranoid farmer.
"Who are you two, and what are you doing on my farm ?" the man asked.
"Your farm ? That means..." Preston repeated to himself in a muttered tone, before his face lit up and he spoke clearly. "Forgive us for intruding, Sir. Are you 'Mr. Abernathy' ?"
The man lowered his rifle for a moment before raising it back up and asking "How do you know who i am ? Tell me who you are!"
"My name's Preston Garvey, of the commonwealth minutemen. And this is my friend, Nate Johnson. We were scouting the area around our home, to make sure no more raiders are posing threats to us and other people out here."
"Minutemen ?...I called for some of your minutemen ONE MONTH AGO! RAIDERS CORNERED US AND THEY-" The man held his tounge and took a moment. "-My daughter suffered because you motherfuckers didn't show up to help! You never came!"
Preston looked truly upset, and felt horrible on the inside.
"WELL ?!" The man yelled at them "COME ON THEN! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!?"
Taking a step forward, Preston spoke to Mr. Abernathy.
"Sir, i wanna personally apologise for our failure and for what the raiders did to you and your family. The minutemen had no excuse to leave you folks without help. I, uh...i actually remember your call coming through. When no-one else did, i personally asked my superiors to let myself and four others head up this way to help you folks out. But our superiors denied it, they told me they couldn't afford to spare the men for it, and that there was too many threats between us and this farm to risk it anyway. Or atleast that's the excuse they gave us...I was, well...we were gonna defy them anyway and come to help you folks...but then a few days later a large group of Gunners attacked our makeshift HQ, and had us stuck in our location for another day. And after that the minutemen were almost completely wiped out...i've been escorting a group up this way, all the way from Quincy for the last month now..."
Mr. Abernathy's expression lightened somewhat, and he said. "Hmm. I think i heard a bit about that on the radio. Didn't you folk suffer some serious casualties there ?"
Preston gave a small, sad chuckle. "That's putting it lightly, Sir. The minutemen more or less died there in Quincy. The group i escorted, we travelled from Quincy, through Jamaica Plains and Lexington, up through Concord and finally found a home over in Sanctuary Hills. There's only five of us left from the twenty originally in that group that made it to Sanctuary alive. Nate, his Mr Handy and a German Shepherd found us and saved us you see."
Now Mr. Abernathy lowered his hunting rifle down. "Oh...so, the minutemen are all dead is what you're saying. That's why we didn't get the help we needed ?"
"Unfortunately so, sir. But we're hoping to start rebuilding and recruiting new members, so that we can make the commonwealth a safer place to live once again. But right now, i'm the only minuteman from my group left alive. Nate here isn't a member of the minutemen, but he's been helping me and my group survive though. I don't think we'd be here now if it wasn't for him. So, i asked him to come with me here. I wanted to know what happened to you folks here. I needed to know...i'm so, so sorry we didn't get here sooner, Sir..."
"That, uh...that sounds horrible. Sorry you went through that, mister. So, i guess i can forgive you for not coming to help us then. But you can make up for that and help us now." he told the two soldiers.
"Anything you need, sir." Preston replied.
Mr. Abernathy nodded and started explaining. "Reason i was hiding in that capsule is cause those raiders could come back here at anytime, from either the front or the back of the farm to extort us, or beat us again. I'm watching the back. My wife is watching the front. Because if-No, when they come back, we don't want them repeating what they did when they came for us the first time."
Preston shared a look with Nate. They knew more or less what he was gonna tell them, but they also wanted the full story that this man experienced first-hand.
"If it's not too hard for you to talk about, could we ask what they-"
"I'm gonna tell you. Because i need you to understand how much they need to pay...so, one peaceful day they showed up outta nowhere, and they caught us all off-guard. Attacked us, and killed our guards. Then lined us all up out front our home. Their leader, this crazy woman with a mini-gun, told us how we had 'failed them' and that we were going to pay for it."
Mr. Abernathy took a deep breath and continued once more. "I tried to reason with her, but she didn't listen and...and she drove a knife into my son, Patrick's eye-socket and forced us to watch him, as he died...God, in so much pain! -When that happened my daughter, Mary, she just snapped and screamed out in anger and tried to attack that raider scum-bitch. But the bitch knocked down my daughter so easily though. She told Mary that she had 'earned her respect' for trying to attack her, but that she still had to pay for it...and that's when she shot Mary...right in her stomach."
"Jesus..." Preston muttered to himself, feeling sick to his stomach at how raiders chose to interact with normal people.
"-She gave her a stimpak though, i don't know why. But then their leader had her people make sure we were all restrained, and had Mary stripped bare and then...Oh, god!" He said, covering his mouth at what he remembered about that day. "Their leader...she...she started...ugh...licking Mary's body...and then...she had her men-No! Her filthy, disgusting pigs! -Fucking PISS on her!"
Nate and Preston both looked utterly disgusted, Preston even looked like he was about to be sick.
"-They left after taking pictures of her, just...lying there, and said we had a month to get them a large supply of food, drink, chems and weapons. Or that next time they'd take my other daughter away with them and do worse than they'd just done!"
Mr. Abernathy was almost brought to tears as he recalled the horror from that day.
Nate stepped forward and asked. "Raider leader, she have this black and red armor by any chance ? And red hair ?"
"Yeah. Why ?" he asked
"Good news then. Bitch is dead. Killed her myself. Her and all her little pals up at the satellite station."
"She's...she's d-dead ?!" he asked in slight disbelief.
"Yes, sir." Nate said with a grin.
"She's-She's really dead ?! She's...Oh, thank god! Oh my god...oh, mister you don't know how relieved i am to hear you say that! Oh-ho-ho! Thank. God!" Mr. Abernathy exclaimed, absolutely overjoyed with the news. So much so that he started crying. He was so shocked by the news that he fell to his knees, dropping his rifle aside and covering his mouth, trying to cover up his sobs of relief.
At this point, Nate remembered the locket he took from the Abernathy Farm 'evidence box' back at the satellite station.
"By the way, does this-" Nate said, as he put his bag on the ground and started rummaging through it, soon finding what he was looking for. "-Belong to you ?" he said, holding out the locket in his palm for Mr. Abernathy to get a good look at.
Mr. Abernathy looked up and his eyes instantly went wide with happiness, as he focused on the locket through his tears, struggling to form words for a solid half a minute.
"Tha-That's Mary's locket! Where did you find it ?" he eventually asked.
"It was in a box in an...evidence room of sorts, at that satellite station. I took it with me, so that i could wear it whenever i killed any other raiders i came across. Let it's owner get revenge from the grave in a sense, i guess. But now that we know you're the owner of it, it's only right you get it back, sir."
"Thank you so much, mister." Mr. Abernathy said taking it from Nate's hand, before getting back up onto his feet and explaining to them, "-Its a...it's a family heirloom you see, and its been in my wife's family for generations! Oh, she'll be so glad to have it back!"
"Glad we could do something to help you folks." Nate said.
"You've done more for us than anyone else has for us in the last year. Please, come with me. Both of you. I wanna introduce you both to my family and tell them this great news! C'mon with me." Mr. Abernathy told them, motioning for them to follow him as he started walking towards the house.
Picking their weapons back up, the two men followed the now overjoyed farmer from the capsule towards his home.
They reached the front section of the house and were greeted by a small grey cat on the porch.
Nate was partly shocked and surprised to see an animal that hadn't been horribly mutated by all the radiation, besides Dogmeat of course.
"Hiya Maisie, still standing guard, eh ?" Mr. Abernathy asked the small cat, getting a loud meow in return.
"Just stay here a moment, gents. I need to go let my wife know that we have guests and that we're safe now." he said, jogging off towards a large watch tower down the field a little bit.
...
Two minutes later he returned with his wife by his side. She was a dirt-covered women with short shoulder-length dark blonde hair, dressed in a dark green jumpsuit and wielding a hunting rifle like her husband, only hers was missing it's stock.
The couple walked up to the two soldiers and Mr. Abernathy got to introducing his wife.
"Fellas, forgive me for not properly introducing myself to you both before. My name's Blake. And this here is my wife, and mother of my children, Connie."
The soldiers both turned to face Connie, Nate gave her a nod while Preston addressed her. "Ma'am."
"Hiya fellas. Nice to meet yous both." she said, "Blake told me that you two got rid of the raiders at the satellite station and showed me that you even retrieved my families locket too. You've made this area a whole lot safer for everyone living around these parts. I can't begin to think of how to properly thank you both for the great things you've done."
Preston spoke for both of them - "That's alright ma'am, we don't need any reward. Just knowing you folks are surviving is enough for us.", Nate nodded in agreement with Preston's words.
"C'mon, i want you to meet our girls, i want...ugh, need them to know, what heroes look like." Blake said, unlocking the front door to his home before slowly opening it and yelling out. "It's alright girls. It's me. Me and your mom have special guests over we want you to meet. Of the good kind, so don't worry."
"Girls ?" Nate thought to himself.
Walking into the building Nate and Preston were met with the sight of a Brahmin in the corner of the room sleeping peacefully, and then they saw the silhouettes of two women emerging from the back of the room, from a well hidden room.
One was sat in a wheelchair while the other pushed it towards them all.
"Gentlemen. These are my two beautiful daughters, Lucy and Mary." Blake said, identifying Mary as the one who was wheelchair bound.
"Now Mary, as i told you, nearly got killed by those monsters that day. But that stimpak saved her life. Unfortunately though, she lost the use of her lower body. But she still helps out tremendously despite it." He said, turning to his daughters to introduce them to the two men in their home right now.
"Girls, these men here are...Preston, and...Nate. Right ?" Blake told his daughters, introducing them to the two soldiers. Hoping he'd remembered their names they'd given him correctly.
Preston nodded to Blake to confirm he'd introduced them right.
"Ladies." Nate said, extending his hand. Which they both looked at hesitantly, scowling at the man they didn't trust right that moment.
"It's alright girls. These men aren't gonna hurt us. They actually came out here to make sure we were all doing okay. They're both soldiers who've killed the raider bastards who came here before and hurt us."
Like he did before at the news, Blake's daughters expressions both lightened up, and their scowls went away. Replaced by shocked relief.
The one in the wheelchair Blake introduced as Mary spoke up first. "You killed that red haired bitch and the pieces of shit that were with her ?" she asked.
Nate nodded. "Yup. Every last one of them. Made doubly sure they were all dead."
There was a pause in Mary's next question. "...Did-Did you make them suffer ?"
"When i had the time to, yeah i did. Shot a lot of them in the neck, so most of them bled out in pain. But most just got a bullet to the head. I was there to rescue another women, you see. And i had to work through them fast because they were gonna rape her if i didn't get to her quick enough."
Mary recoiled at the disgusting thought, and pressed another question. "How's that women doing now ?"
"She was, uh...she was bruised, battered and tortured by them. They didn't get to carry out their plans to rape her, but...they still managed to do horrific things to her. She and her brother have moved into our home now, at my request. They're both resting up now. We weren't back there long before my friend, Preston here, wanted to come check this place out. See if some raiders lived here, or if there were good, innocent people in need of protection."
"My god! That's horrible! But they're supremely lucky you came to their aid, and it sounds like you had perfect timing too." Lucy suddenly added, voicing her views.
"Yeah, i agree. That lady sure is lucky you showed up when you did. And we're all lucky you showed up there too, i guess."
At this moment, Connie - the girls mother, spoke up and interrupted the conversation.
"Sorry to interrupt here, but look what Nate here brought back to us, Mary." she said, holding out the locket for her daughter to take.
"You...you found my locket and brought it back here ?" she asked turning back to Nate, whom just gave her a comforting smile.
"This locket means so much to me...to all of us, mister. I...Thank you so much! I know to you it's just a dusty old locket, but to us it's-"
"-Something of great sentimental value. Yeah, it had that look about it when i found it. I'm glad it brings you all so much happiness to have it back though." Nate said, interrupting, while also speaking what this whole family was thinking."
"Glad we could bring you some form of happiness today, folks. So, uh, now that we know you're safe, and now that you know those raiders are dead, what'll you folks do ?" Preston asked the family.
Blake straightened out his back and gave a response. "Well, now that you've brought us all this news i think it's time to start the farm back up again. Time to start trading again, get old Clarabell back out on the road." He said, pointing over to the sleeping Brahmin in the corner. "-and to get some new food growing out front. We can actually start being a functional settlement again now!" Blake confidently spoke.
"Ah-actually you might wanna hold off on that for just a little longer, sir." Preston interjected.
"Huh ? Why's that ?" Blake asked.
"Whether you're trading with Diamond City or Bunker Hill or whoever, right now Lexington is still filled to the brim with Raiders and Feral Ghouls. I don't think it'd be safe to go near that area even if you're passing by from a distance, there could be snipers or hidden ghouls. I don't want you risking your life like that." Preston reminded him.
"Well then how do i support my family and keep them alive ? Our food and ammo won't be around forever you know." Blake reminded him.
"Would you mind if Nate and i stood outside for a minute or two, sir. I have an idea on how to fix this problem, but i'll need to talk to him about it first."
"Yeah, alright sure. But i need to know about this plan of yours too, you hear ?"
"Absolutely, sir." Preston assured him.
Preston motioned for Nate to follow him outside, and he followed.
"Okay, so here's my plan Nate. We're gonna head out towards Lexington and then wait till sunset. We've gotta clear it of both feral ghouls and raiders if things are gonna get better for these people and Sanctuary itself. We can't keep hoping to find raider strongholds to clear to get more supplies for us all to benefit from."
Nate gave Preston a look, and said to him. "Right. While those are all valid points, you do remember we're only two men...against a whole town of monsters, don't you ?"
"Yeah, i do. But you took out a satellite station full of Chemed-up raiders and did alright. Besides, if we go there and clear out the ferals around sunset, then take the raiders when it gets dark that should give us a big advantage."
"Why's that ?" Nate inquired.
"Because going against ferals in the dark is a terrible idea, and going against all the raiders there in broad daylight isn't bright either."
"Hmm, i'm trusting you here, Preston. Because you've lived in this type of world all your life. But even with that slight tactical advantage, didn't you hear what i just said to you ? We. Are still. Just. Two men." Nate reminded him for a second time.
"Okay then. Wanna take Codsworth and Dogmeat then ?" Preston asked, throwing his hands up in slight frustration.
"Sure. Extra support is always good. But do you know the area ? Any areas we can use to sneak attack enemies, or spots to use to hide from them. What weapons they have ? If there's any more of those 'Deathclaws' hiding in the sewers there ?" Nate asked, bombarding Preston with questions.
"I know the area well enough from the short time i was there. There's one armored raider in the town centre, with two buddies of his. The rest of town is filled with ferals. The factory at the top of town is where the rest of the raiders stay. Plenty patrol around the entrances and there's snipers on the roof."
"Right...lets work on a plan of action then. Whether we go today, tomorrow, or whenever. We need a solid plan to cover all that ground and kill all those enemies. We need to be sneaky, but prepared for an all-out firefight if shit goes south." Nate advised.
"I agree. So lets go fill the Abernathy's in on our basic-plan, then get back to Sanctuary and work on a well-thought out plan of attack. Sound good ?" Preston decided, asking Nate's opinion.
"Sounds good. After you." Nate said, motioning for Preston to go back inside first.
Preston chuckled to himself. "Age before beauty."
"Cheeky fucker..." Nate muttered, following after.
Hope you all enjoyed! This chapter was mostly just set-up for bigger things to come!