After another week and a half of travel through unknown territory the expedition made it into the Capitol Wasteland, and were relieved to see a settlement appear on the horizon. "Welcome to Megaton. The bomb is perfectly safe." Said a protectron unit standing by the gate.

"Somehow that's not reassuring to me." Ryan commented as he led his people inside. After a brief introduction with the towns Sheriff, Lucas Simms, and reassurance that the atomic bomb in the towns center was truly unarmed, Ryan paid for his team to stay in the local saloon for the night.

Once Ryan made sure everyone was settled in he went downstairs to the bar and ordered a beer from the ghoul managing the place. He was halfway through his drink when Piper sat down next to him and ordered herself a drink as well. "Feels nice to have a roof over our heads again after all that time in the wastes." Said Piper once her drink arrived.

"I hear ya, haven't made a movement like this in a while but it feels good being out here. You ever travel this far down the coast before?" Ryan asked after agreeing with her comment.

"Actually yeah, remember how I told you Nat and I grew up outside the Commonwealth? The settlement we lived in isn't that far outside Maryland and I've got family that lives here in the Capitol Wasteland. Doesn't really matter now though, Commonwealths home for me now." She answered.

"No shit, small world I guess. You plan on seeing them while we're here?" Piper looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head no.

"Nah, I haven't heard from Uncle James since I was a kid. Heard he worked on that big water purifier the Brotherhoods running out by Rivet City though, so props to him for that. What about you huh? How'd you end up in the Commonwealth Blue?" Ryan took a drink from his beer before answering.

"Well my story's not as exciting as yours. I grew up out in California, enlisted in the Marine Corps, married my wife, and fought in Anchorage. Nora's parents had moved out to Massachusetts while I was deployed. Once Nora was pregnant with Shaun we moved to Massachusetts so her parents could be close to their grandchild. I didn't mind the move that much and my parents had pretty much disowned me when I enlisted so there was nothing holding me back in Cali. And, well, you know the rest. I doubt my childhood would interest you." Piper giggled at his comment.

"You were a little shit weren't you?" She joked. Ryan feigned offense and clutched his chest.

"Ow, was not…" He started before Piper cut him off with a stare. "Ok maybe I was a turd, but definitely not a shit." He defended himself.

"Oh? I didn't know there was a difference." Piper said with a raised eyebrow.

"Goddamn, it's getting warm in here with all that fire you're spitting." Ryan said with a smile. "No wonder Mayor McDonough hates you." Piper laughed at his comment and smiled back at him.

"It's not that hard to make him mad, trust me." She said with a 's expression then changed to a more serious one as she looked away from Ryan and towards the counter, causing Ryan to become concerned at her sudden change.

"Something wrong?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"No, just thinking about something." She replied softly.

"You can talk to me; you know that right?" Ryan told her.

"I know…It's just… I've been having some thoughts about…you." Ryan laughed lightly while she played with her hands.

"I didn't do anything wrong did I, I thought we were great friends." He replied, worried that he had done something to upset her.

"No, you didn't do anything…it's me. We've spent a lot of time together and you're right, we're great friends but lately I've come to care about you as more than a friend and I know now might not be the best time to admit this to you but I can't hold it in any longer. So there it is, I'm in love with you." Ryan's mind was racing; Piper had just admitted her feelings to him like that. He was happy that they we're friends and he did feel that he had an attraction to her but every time he had thought about bringing it up he could never find the courage to do so, not wanting to ruin what they had already. But here she had gone ahead and beat him to it. Piper got up to leave when Ryan didn't respond to her admission immediately. "I should go this was a mistake…" She said, but before she could leave Ryan grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Piper don't go. I feel the same way about you, I have for a while now but I was too scared to tell you." He told her while looking into her eyes.

"Ryan, you don't how happy that makes me!" She exclaimed happily.

"You make me happy too, and I promise I'll take care of you." He replied.

"I know you will, I trust you completely." Piper said before leaning in to kiss Ryan, who returned the kiss eagerly. Piper broke the kiss and got up from her seat and walked towards the stairs, while Ryan sat at the bar with a smile on his face before coming to a realization.

"Hey, wait a minute! You called me Ryan!" He exclaimed as she reached the stairs.

"That was just a onetime thing, Blue." She said looking back at him over her shoulder with a smile on her face.

Ryan and Piper's new relationship didn't go unnoticed by the others, who took notice of how the two stayed closer together on their way to Rivet City. MacCready looked at Preston and smirked. "Told you they'd get together, now pay up Garvey!"


Night had fallen over the Republic of Dave and Bob was making his final rounds across the town when he saw lights in the distance. Thinking he was seeing things he rubbed his eyes, but when he looked again he saw that the lights were brighter and moving towards the Republic. Bob quickly charged his assault rifle and ran inside to warn the others before whatever was heading they're way reached them.

Bob returned with Dave and the other adults just as an Institute assault transport landed outside the Republics gates. The Institute had developed these assault transports as a means to move their synth army when they needed to operate outside of the Institute's teleportation grid. The transports themselves would be teleported outside to the Commonwealth and made use of VTOL technology to quickly gain altitude to avoid detection before speeding off to their destination.

Bob and Dave stared in disbelief as the Transport lowered its ramp and a squad of Stormtroopers ran out. The two were clearly outnumbered but fired at the Troopers as they ran into the town while the women ran to protect the younger residents. Reacting to the fire they were receiving the Stormtroopers returned fire with deadly accuracy as Bob was shot while attempting to find cover. Dave emptied his rifles magazine in anger at the Troopers, who waited for him to be forced in to cover to reload. As Dave reloaded a Trooper sprinted to his position and knocked Dave's rifle out of his hands before striking him across the face with the butt of his rifle. Dave remained conscious and tried to lunge at the Trooper only to receive another strike to the chest. The Trooper than grabbed Dave by his collar and dragged him out to the town center were Dave saw the rest of his family being dragged out of their quarters at gun point by the other Stormtroopers before Troopers with flamers set the buildings on fire.

Dave was drug past his family and thrown on his knees in front of a woman wearing a black Stormtrooper chest plate over black robes. Nora fixed her gaze on the man in front of her, who visibly shuddered at how the fires in the background were reflected in her yellow eyes. "You dare attack the Republic of Dave, you communist pigs!" Dave yelled with sudden confidence. Nora laughed at his outburst, finding it funny that he would attempt to scare her off after putting up such a pitiful defense.

"Oh please, you're Republic is so insignificant that it doesn't even show up on any map." She taunted.

"How dare you! We will not fall to communist scum like you!" Dave continued to rant.

"Is that what you think this is, a communist takeover? How did such an idiot come to lead these people? No wonder you put up such a weak fight." Nora's words confused Dave. If they weren't here to invade why did they open fire on him?

"Who are you people? Why are you here?" Dave asked.

"Who we are isn't important, as for what I want... you have knowledge on someone I'm looking for. The Lone Wanderer, where is she?" Dave glared at Nora, how dare she attack his Republic and then demand things from him.

"Even if I did know I wouldn't tell you!" He yelled defiantly.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Nora said menacingly with a grin before nodding to one of her Stormtroopers. The Trooper grabbed Dave's youngest daughter, Flower, and dragged her by her hair over to Nora while the rest of his family cried out for her. Dave watched as the Trooper threw Flower to the ground and delivered a kick to her stomach with his armored boot, causing her to cry out in pain, before forcing her to her knees facing Nora and aiming his rifle at the back of her head. Nora knelt down to look the girl in the eyes and Flower began to cry in fear of the woman.

"Why did he hurt me? Why are you hurting us?" The girl sniffled. Nora smiled at the girl to calm her.

"Don't worry sweetie, daddy will protect you, won't you daddy?" She said in a threatening tone. "Go on, tell daddy to give us what we want and we'll leave you and your family be." She ordered, forcing Flower to look at Dave.

"Daddy please tell her; I don't want her to hurt us anymore." Flower pleaded.

"I…I can't, I don't know where she is I'm telling you!" Dave pleaded to Nora's dissatisfaction. Nora glared at the man before nodding to the Trooper once again, who delivered a blow to the back of the girl's head with his rifle, creating a sickening crack as the metal made contact with her head. "NOOO!" Dave roared as he tried to get to his daughter who had burst into tears from the blow but he was quickly restrained by two Stormtroopers. "You fucking bitch! I'll kill you!" Dave screamed at Nora while the Stormtroopers held him back. Nora remained standing calmly and smirked at him.

"Is that any way to talk to a lady? I warned you what would happen, last chance." She warned again, lifting Flower into the air by her hair. Dave looked at his daughter, wanting nothing more than to help her. He tried to remember anything he could about the Lone Wander and finally came up with something that he hoped would appease the woman.

"Vault 101…She's from Vault 101. I don't know where she is but someone there can tell you, just let my family go." He muttered and Nora smiled at his admittance.

"That wasn't so hard now was it? Kill them all." She ordered her Stormtroopers after dropping his daughter. Dave's eyes widened in surprise at her order.

"What!" He cried in outrage.

"I'll be honest I never planned on letting you go; pathetic creatures such as yourselves don't deserve to remain living." Nora said with a shrug of indifference as the Trooper standing over his daughter shot her in the back with his laser rifle while the others formed a firing line and gunned down the rest of his family in front of him. The Troopers holding Dave released him and he sank to his knees. "Don't feel too bad though, you'll see them again soon enough." Nora taunted. Dave looked up to see she was aiming a Berretta M9 at him. Dave closed his eyes, praying that it would be over soon but alas he was denied a quick death as Nora fired two rounds into his stomach, ensuring that he would bleed out slowly. He could only watch as the Troopers filed out of his once proud Republic back to their transport with their murderous leader and flew off towards the direction of Vault 101.