Paladin Glade readied his gatling laser and began to spin the barrel. The humming noise it made was impossible to drown out. This "Captain Hale" figure stood atop the second story of a Pre-War parking lot, allowing The Pride to have a free shot at him while he stood in the opening. The Pride stood back-to-back with me in the center.

"What's the plan, sir?" Dusk asked as she reloaded her sniper rifle.

"We're surrounded." Colvin commented. I looked around, soldiers in black armor stood in a gigantic circle around the Brotherhood's defensive circle. I took out a reconfigured pulse pulse grenade and a vertibird smoke grenade as well.

"Are our birds still circling above us?" I asked.

"They went back to refuel." Glade answered.

"That's it? Three birds? What happened to the fleet?" I asked, recalling the waves and waves of vertibirds I found upon my return to Addams AFB. Apparently, the US had stockpiled spare parts there and there was also a manufacturing facility not too far from Point Lookout where the Brotherhood makes them and flies them over to the AFB.

"Elder Maxson took 'em all. Left three just for 'security purposes'. Nobody could have foreseen a force this big and organized readying itself for an offensive on the Capital." Kodiak said. I nodded. This would be difficult.

"Attack pattern Alpha, Gentlemen." I whispered. They all nodded, I quickly switched the mic on my helmet to no longer broadcast any sound outwards. Any communication would go over radio. I could only hope that the Pride would think to do the same. I activated the jetpack and shot up into the air. Thrusting my left arm out, just as the soldiers began to lift their rifles to aim at me I activated the wrist-mounted flamethrower. A spray of fire shot out from my left wrist and I watched as three soldiers take cover. I threw the pulse grenade, pulled out my 10mm and shot it. The grenade exploded a few yards away from the so-called Captain. A blue wave of electricity shot outwards as it exploded. The wave hit the captain and the men near him. All of their communications equipment malfunctioned due to the EMP made by the grenade. I dropped to my feet from the height that I was hovering at and tried to ignore the pain in my knees. While firing my 10mm with my right hand, I drew my .44 with my left from its holster and fired at any soldier I could spot. Without their leader, this should be an easy fight. Aiming at one soldier's head, I fired my .44, but he moved his head and the last second and dodged the shot. No way. That was impossible. In my moment of confusion someone hit my from behind, knocking my helmet off. The next thing I saw was a boot to the face.

I woke to see a man clad in black unrecognizable armor dragging me. The Pride was already rounded up. Each member was slumped and on their knees, not even able to bring up their heads let alone their arms.

"I'm sorry, sir. They fried our suits!" Kodiak shouted. I was right, the Pride did shut down their comm systems, anything they could would not be heard until someone took off their helmets for them. Captain Hale stepped forward in front of me and I noticed that I was no longer being dragged. Hale dropped to one knee, he was smoking a cigar and seemed to be inspecting my face.

"What, do I have something on my face?" I asked him. I saw a hint of a smile at the corner of his hard, chiseled face. He was bald, pale, and had two bright golden eyes. The strange color likely came from implants in his eyes. That must have been painful. Hale puffed out a cloud of smoked and stood up once more.

"Thank you, Axe. Have you rounded up all of them?" Hale asked to an unknown helmeted soldier. I noticed that he wore a T-visored helmet very similar to my own. Which was strange since I got that design from a blueprint I found in this strange Vault-like facility out in the West somewhere. There's no way anybody could have seen those blueprints though. I made sure to destroy any copies I found to prevent anyone from being able to construct it. The only difference between mine and his was that mine was brand new. His was scarred, battered and dull from what I guessed to be years of hard fight.

"Yes, sir." 'Axe' said. That's weird, he sounds like me. "There seems to be no signs of any reinforcements coming to aid them as well. I found this grenade in this man's palm here, sir." I saw Hale catch a small object. Hey, wait, that's the signal grenade! Hale fumbled with it before handing it back to Axe. "I believe that's what they would have used to signal their reinforcements via the Vertibirds we saw on our way here to assist Lietenant Boone, sir."

"The Brotherhood is here. It looks like Gompers' intel checks out." Boone's hushed voice came from behind me. He passed me and walked over to Hale. He tossed Hale a bag, I heard a familiar clinking sound and I realized those were the caps I had given to Arcade before I decided to tail the two. Hale tossed the bag to Axe.

"Stash that in one of the bags, we need to get to Pentagon soon before anyone knows we're here. We definitely don't want to tip off Lanius that we're here." Hale added. Axe nodded.

"Right you are, sir." Axe remarked and walked off into the distance. Hale walked over to me and offered his hand.

"I believe we got off to a bad start, there Mr. Lone Wanderer." Hale offered. I waved his gloved hand away and got up on my own.

"Don't call me that." I retorted.

"Then what should I call you?" he asked. It was now my turn to offer him my hand.

"James. Call me James." I told him. He nodded and waved me in the direction of the Pride.

"We tried to incapacitate your men without injuring them. I'm afraid we destroyed parts of their armor, but trust me when I say that their armor is still perfectly functional." Hale assured me. Kodiak could not meet my gaze.

"I'm sorry, sir. We saw you go down and I broke formation to grab you. That was when they shot something at our armor and we all went down from there." Kodiak told me.

"You don't need to apologize, Kodiak. I got you into this mess, and we'd all be fine if I didn't try to do things on my own." I said. "It seems I am not as skilled as I once was. Maybe my trip down here, nulled a few things."

"No, sir." Kodiak looked up at me. "It's definitely not that. These men are strange. They're stronger and faster than they appear." He insisted. "And they all fight like you." I nodded. He was probably trying to emphasize how skilled all of these men are.

"Where are you from?" I asked. Hale's eyes were widened as he glared at Kodiak. He broke his glare and looked back at me. "Is there a problem?"

"No." Hale insisted. "There is not. My contingent is from the New California Republic from California."

"California." I muttered trying to recall the old geography lessons of Mr. Brotch.

"It's okay if you don't know where it is, most wastelanders don't."

"I'm not most wastelanders."

"No, you're not. That's why we've been looking for you."

"And why is that?"

"You need to come with me. I need to take you back to the NORAD facility out near Colorado Springs."

"Colorado Springs? I haven't been there in ages, and there was no New California Republic last I went."

"We annexed the territory back in '85 after perusing the Legion all throughout the South West."

"Legion?"

"If I had a week, I wouldn't be able to explain what they are to you. But please, allow me to explain."

"Why do I need to go the Colorado again? Last time I went, all I did was perform a routine trade drop-off." Not true, I also got kicked out of Colorado's biggest gambling town, Fort Carson, for winning too many caps and for sleeping with all three of the governor's daughters. "I really hope this has nothing to do with Mr. Schumacher." Hale gave me a funny face.

"Who? No, no. This is just another job. We got enough caps to cover your normal fee."

"Fee? Caps?" Kodiak looked at me judgingly. "I thought you said you don't charge anything for your services?" He glared at me.

"Whoa, whoa. I'm not like that anymore. The Pitt had a lot of rebuilding to do, especially after I destroyed their slave system."

"The Pitt? You've been to the Pitt?" Kodiak stammered. "Why- Why didn't you tell me?" Oh shit, that's right. Lyons took him from there. "What did you do?"

"I just cleaned up the place. Really, I helped Ashur recreate the social hierarchy there and made sure that things are more like a real settlement and not this weird slave society of drug addicts." I said. Kodiak looked back up at me.

"So why did you have a fee? Did they pay you to help them? 'Cause that's certainly not what you told Elder Lyons."

"Now hold on. No, I worked for free. Well, not really, I got an apartment, free food and drinks from Ashur, but no caps."

"You didn't answer my question, sir."

"To fund the rebuilding of the Pitt, Ashur and I needed caps. Badly. So I offered to do some mercernary and trade caravan work for pay. It got to a point where the jobs simply got too dangerous for the 100 caps a day that I was charging, so I bumped up the price. Then people started putting bounties on my head for the success I was having." And the people I killed. I promise that it was not because I was drunk and pissed someone I shouldn't have off. "So I bumped it up again."

"What was your fee?"

"100 caps a day."

"Then?"

"500 caps a day."

"A day? What then?"

"Well, it may have actually been 5,000."

"How about after that?!"

"15000."

"For the whole job?"

"Fronted and that another 15k after."

"You got 30,000 caps for one job?! What has your time in the Brotherhood taught you?"

"Listen Kodiak, I promise it all went to Ashur. It was for good things like rebuilding schools, funding those schools. Rebuilding manufacturing presses, houses, apartments, all of those things. Besides personal expenses, I never saw a single cap!"

"But this Ashur guy did! Who knows if he really spent all those caps on these supposedly altruistic endeavors?!"

"I do."

"How?"

"He was BOS."

"So?!"

"He was Lyons BOS."

"He's the man we left behind?"

"Yeah. He's the man Lyons has also regretted leaving to die."

"I heard he was a good man."

"Last I saw, he still is. That's why I agreed." I turned back to Nathan. "Based on my beliefs, I will accept this kind of money if it for a good cause, and right I can't seem to think of anything off the top of my mind." Hale nodded and put the silver briefcase away. He sighed.

"Well, I don't know what to do. If I couldn't bring you back, I was under strict unders not to force you."

"What?"

"My client specifically told me so."

"And who's that?"

"Man named George Young."

"I don't know who he is."

"I know. He told me that too."

"And client? I thought you were part of a professional army."

"I was. Until the Battle of the Grand Canyon in '86 where a large portion of the canyon collapsed after a nuclear bomb was detonated. The ensuing collapse wiped out half of my battalion and separated me from the NCR indefinitely."

"I thought someone hired you to find me."

"No, I was hired to do so during my personal time and was hired months prior to the Flagstaff campaign."

"Flagstaff campaign?"

"Yeah, that was the Legion's capital. The Legion renewed their assault and sparked the Third Battle of Hoover Dam. This time, the NCR won with no problem especially unified and supported the by the Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, the New Enclave and the Order of the Joshua."

"New Enclave? I thought I already destroyed the Enclave."

"Destroyed? How can you destroy something that the NCR destroyed a long time ago?"

"Because they were here in the Capital Wasteland in '77. They killed my father. That's how I know." Hale's eyes widened. Axe had his pistol aimed at me.

"Put down the weapon, sir." He said carefully. I hadn't realized I had my hand on my 10mm.

"Sorry. Just a reflex I have." I muttered.

"Don't worry, sir." Axe assured me. "I have it too." Hale quickly glared at him. He stood at attention. I looked at him.

"Go on." Nathan said. "I'm to know how you managed to single-handedly destroy the Enclave."

"I didn't single-handedly destroy the organization myself. I had some help." I gestured to the Pride. "Them and the whole Brotherhood of Steel helped me destroy them." I noticed that Kodiak was sweating profusely and breathing hard. "Would you mind if you re-powered their armors up again? I would hate to be stuck like that too." Nathan nodded and gestured to Axe.

"Tup! Ajax! Get to it!" Axe shouted. Two men darted from behind him and towards the Pride.

"Why did the Enclave kill your father? Why didn't they kill you too?"

"They didn't know I was there. My father locked them into the room of the Purification chamber. He sacrificed himself and tried to kill their leader, Colonel Autumn by flooding that room with lethal levels of radiation."

"Autumn? That's a strange coincidence." Arcade suddenly pitched in. Hale turned around and Arcade stepped into the conversation.

"And why is that Arcade?"

"Because from what I last remember, the most recent President of the NCR before we got stuck out here was named Augustus Autumn!"