Ashley stopped by her quarters before finding Ryan to make sure that her husband was there to protect her son. Butch was confused when she came in rambling about an Institute but when she told him about her encounter down in the mess and how their son was possibly in danger he paid close attention. "Go on and find your friends Ash, I'll look after our boy. Nothing will harm him I promise." Butch told her as he chambered a shell into a combat shotgun.
"Ok, I'll be back soon." She said before running off.
Ashley found Ryan and Piper out on the flight deck, night had fallen and it was eerily quiet out in the city. "Ryan, Piper! The Institute, they're here!" She shouted. They turned in surprise at what she had yelled.
"What!? How?" Ryan asked as Ashley paused to catch her breath.
"I met a woman down in the mess, she asked me about Zimmer and A3-21. She told me Zimmer created her and that when he died she took over his position in the Institute then she told me that I had to pay for his death. She wanted to take me back to the Institute but I told her to fuck off, then she threatened me, I think she's going to hurt my son, please you have to help!" She exclaimed. Ryan grabbed her shoulders to keep her steady while Piper spoke.
"Who was this woman, what did she look like?" She asked.
"She had dark clothing, black hair, and yellow eyes. She called herself Nora Anderson." Ashley replied, surprising both of them.
"That's the woman I met back in Diamond City, I knew she was no good!" Piper exclaimed. This revelation was troubling to Ryan.
"This doesn't make sense; why would they create a synth of my wife? Is this some sick joke their playing!?" Ryan yelled, infuriated that the Institute would mock his wife like this.
"It doesn't matter, we're all in danger!" Ashley shouted.
"Your right, Piper find the others and warn them of an emanate attack, Ashley, you and I should talk with the local security to track this woman down." Ashley and Piper both nodded and the three went to warn the city of the danger.
"Send a detachment of troopers to the Citadel, wipe out the local Brotherhood of Steel members then rejoin the main effort. I want the rest of the troops for the assault, capture the Lone Wanderer alive, kill anyone that stands in our way." Nora ordered her officers. She had begun planning an attack on Rivet City as soon as Ashley walked away. With her troops orders delivered she just had to take care of her spy. "X6-88, come in." She spoke into her communicator. "Go ahead Ma'am." X6 replied over his communicator. "We'll be assaulting the city shortly, when the bullets start flying you are to NOT break your cover, do you understand?" She ordered. X6 was in far too valuable position to break his cover now. "Yes Ma'am." Came his short reply. With everything in place Nora walked out of the city to wait for her troops to arrive.
After hearing what Ryan and Ashley had told him, Harkness had personally searched the entire city for Nora. With his memory restored he was able to remember her and knew that she and her Stormtroopers posed a great threat to the city and its inhabitants, but unfortunately he and his security team had been unable to locate her. "There's no sign of her anywhere, but we're on full alert." He reported to Ashley.
"My men stand ready to help as well." Ryan told her.
"Ok, I need to go check on my family now." Ashley told them. As she began to walk up the stairs towards her quarters the ships bell began ringing from the flight deck.
Ashley turned around and followed Ryan and Harkness outside to the market place entrance. What they saw sent chills down their spines as several pairs of lights flew towards the city. Two of the pairs broke off from the rest and landed in the Citadel's courtyard. The three looked up to see Institute assault transports fly overhead and land on the flight deck while another landed on the other side of the gangplank and deployed Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers rushed the gangplank and killed two of the security guards. "Back inside now!" Ryan yelled as he unslung his M4 and fired bursts at the Troopers to cover the others. Inside the market they regrouped with Piper and the others. Security forces and Minutemen soldiers ran to find cover while the civilians found hiding spots.
Stormtroopers had already secured the flight deck and were busy fighting to take the ships control tower as another transport landed. Nora stepped off the transport and loaded a magazine into her HK M27 IAR. She preferred projectile weapons over energy weapons as they allowed her to inflict more pain to her targets than lasers or plasma which instantly cauterized wounds. Seeing as that multiple High Value Targets were in the area Nora had decided to personally participate in the attack to ensure that her Troopers didn't kill anyone important. Security forces in the tower had been overrun and her troops now controlled access to all of the ships decks by way of the stairwell.
"Ma'am, we have confirmation of Anderson and the Lone Wanderer in the market place." One of her officers informed her.
"Good I'm on my way now, send your troops to the residential quarters, kill them all." She ordered before heading towards the market.
Back in the market the fighting had intensified, Stormtroopers had pushed the defenders back so far that the entire market had turned into a free-for-all. Ashley's AK-47 roared as she shot down another Trooper, but no matter how many she killed more seemed to take their place. Harkness wasn't fairing any better, his rifle had run dry a while ago and he was forced to use the weapon as a blunt instrument. After beating down another Trooper he was called out by a Stormtrooper who recognized him. "Traitor!" The Trooper yelled, throwing down his weapon and whipping out a shock baton. Harkness stared in surprise as the Trooper charged him and swung the baton, striking his weapon out of his hand before striking him repeatedly. Ashley looked over just in time to see the Trooper deliver a finishing blow to Harkness, the runaway synth's body crumpled bloody and broken at his feet. She quickly brought her rifle to bear on the Trooper and emptied a magazine into him before she was forced into cover by other Troopers.
It was at this time that Nora appeared on the deck above the market and joined the fight. She spotted a group of security guards trying to protect some civilians from her troops and she smirked as she set her M27 to automatic and sprayed a continuous burst into them, cutting them down. Her action hadn't gone unnoticed as MacCready used his sniper rifle to force her into cover. Nora growled as she fired rounds at his positon to suppress him while she dove for cover and reloaded. Luckily for her MacCready was forced to switch targets as Stormtroopers closed in on him, allowing her to jump down to the market and join her Stormtroopers in killing these worthless creatures. After killing another group of security guards she finally spotted Anderson and his reporter friend on the other side of the market and she began to make her way to them.
Up in the residential quarters Butch could hear the fighting going on throughout the ship. He kept his shotgun close and had locked the door when Ashley failed to return before the attack, but he knew that she could handle herself in a fight, she had beat him up in a fight after all. He was more concerned with their son, the loud noises had frightened Christian and Butch was unable to keep him from crying. He paced the room but stopped when he heard the door next to their quarters being blown open followed by screams that were quickly silenced by laser fire. Butch knew that they would be coming to his door next and pointed his shotgun at the door as Troopers began cutting through. The door was suddenly blown inwards and Butch roared as he fired his shotgun through the door…
X6-88, or Lieutenant Shepard, as the Minutemen knew him was pinned down behind cover with his soldiers along with Preston and Danse. He found it quite easy to shoot at the Stormtroopers despite them technically being on the same side. He chalked it up to him being a Courser and he killed them without remorse. The Minutemen under his charge cheered as he killed multiple Stormtroopers with ease and he was unaccustomed to such praise, but he liked the feeling.
Ryan and Piper found themselves backed into a corner. Piper's M45 had run out of ammo shortly into the battle and Ryan had given her his hunting shotgun as a replacement. She had trouble with the weapon as the recoil was a bit much for her at first but once her adrenaline kicked in she was able to operate it as well as her pistol. Ryan was firing his M4 on burst into crowds of Stormtroopers and had advanced into one of their positions while Piper covered his back. As he finished off his targets he heard Piper cry out from behind him. Nora had spotted them in the fight and caught Piper in mid-reload, stabbing the muzzle of her M27 straight into Pipers sternum knocking the breath out of her and taking her out of the fight. Ryan glared at her as she smirked back at him.
"Ah, we meet at last husband." Nora said, aiming her rifle at Ryan.
"Don't call me that, my wife would never stand for this violence. You're just a fake imitation of her." Ryan yelled at her.
"Your right, I'm not your wife. I'm much better than that weakling could have ever been." She sneered back at him. Both of them pulled the triggers on their weapons at the same time only to find that they had both run dry. Ryan chided himself for not paying attention to his weapon and readied himself for Nora's attack. Nora charged him with her weapon, swinging for his head but Ryan anticipated her move and blocked with his own rifle. The two continued to melee with each other as the firefight raged around them, but Ryan found himself becoming more and more fatigued as the fight went on. Finally, Nora got the upper hand by knocking Ryan's M4 out of his hands and sending him to the ground with a butt stroke to the chin. Ryan fell against the wall as Nora reloaded her weapon and stood before him.
"Don't worry, you'll get to be with your wife again." Nora taunted as she leveled her weapon at Ryan's forehead. Ryan shut his eyes and waited for the bullet to kill him but it never came. Nora pressed her finger to the trigger but something was stopping her from firing. She was confused at her sudden inability to attack, she felt… something. She couldn't define what it was but whatever the feeling was it kept her from pulling the trigger and killing Ryan. Ryan opened his eyes, wondering why he wasn't dead yet and looked up to find Nora had a confused look on her face like she was having an internal conflict. He noticed that her unnaturally yellow eyes shifted to the bright green of the real Nora and he saw tears begin forming. Before either of them could act further Nora was struck by a shotgun blast to her abdomen, knocking her over one of the market stalls. Ryan looked to see Piper lying on the ground with the shotgun in her hands. Ryan quickly got up, grabbed his M4 and reloaded. Looking to where Nora had landed he found she had already disappeared.
Nora's chest plate had taken the brunt of the shot but a few pellets managed to puncture her armor and she held her hand to her side in an effort to control the bleeding while she limped away from the battle until a pair of Stormtroopers saw her condition and carried her back to one of the transports. "Call off the attack, we're down here." She told one of the Troopers after they laid her down in the transport and injected a stim pack into her side.
"Ma'am?" The Trooper asked, confused at the sudden change of orders.
"Do it!" Nora shouted. The Troopers ran off to issue her order and left her in the transport. Once they were gone she got up and looked at her reflection in one of the transports windows and saw that her eyes were shifting back from green to the unnatural yellow that she was accustomed to but the tears were still there. Nora was confused, she had no problem killing others why was Anderson any different? Something had stopped her from going through with it, she had even felt emotion starring at the man that the original Nora had cared for. She knew she possessed the original Nora's memories, but she had never felt her emotions before now and it scared her. What if this happened again? She could not allow herself to be emotionally compromised like that again and she promised herself that she would learn what had made her act in such a way and destroy it.
Ryan, Piper, Ashley and the others were surrounded when the Stormtroopers suddenly pulled out, leaving the group alone in the market. A quick headcount showed that they were all alive, but many of Rivet City's security and civilian population had been killed in the attack. The shop keepers that had been in the market when the attack begun had been killed along with their patrons. Even Harkness and his team had been killed in the battle. Walking out side they could see that the Citadel had fared worse as the entire building was on fire.
"Oh shit! I need to check on my family!" Ashley cried and took off running for the stairs.
"Hey wait, it could be dangerous!" Ryan shouted after her. Ryan, Piper, and MacCready followed her up the stairs to the residential quarters and down the halls. They were surprised when Ashley suddenly stopped in the hallway where her room was located. Looking past her they could see why; her door had been blown open and a dead Stormtrooper laid halfway through the entrance.
"No no no…" Ashley whispered as she ran down the hall and into her room with the others closely behind. The cry they heard come from the room would haunt them for the rest of their days, stepping into the room they found Ashley had sunk to her knees sobbing, her husband had been killed by multiple laser blasts across his body with his shotgun still in his hands and even worse her son, who wasn't even two years old had been killed by a laser while lying in his crib. Ashley held her murdered son in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Piper felt herself becoming sick and allowed MacCready to walk her out of the room to vomit. Ryan hadn't seen this kind of savagery since Anchorage and had hoped to never see anything like it again. "They killed my baby! Those monsters killed my baby!" Ashley cried. Ryan placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but knew that no amount of comfort offered would ever soothe the pain she felt now.
"I'm so sorry. This is my fault, If I hadn't insisted on coming here…" Ryan began to say before Ashley cut him off.
"It's the Institute's fault, not yours. They would have tracked me down eventually. I just can't believe they would do something like this, my baby, all those people, murdered for what? To get to me?" She said in between sobs.
"I don't know what could have drove them to this, but if there's anything you need I'm here." Ryan told her.
"Thank you, but I need to be alone for now. I'll find you when I'm ready." She replied. Ryan nodded and left her alone to grieve.
He found the rest of his people back in the market helping the survivors, which were noticeably little. Ryan spotted Lieutenant Shepard and walked over to him. "Lieutenant, what's the situation?" He asked.
"Not good Sir, we have four men down and two wounded. Local security took the worst of it though, their down to twenty-five percent effectiveness. As for the civilians, it's not good, a lot of them got caught in the crossfire." X6 reported.
"I know, those animals murdered Ashley's family on the upper deck." Ryan commented. X6 shook his head in dismay. He knew what Nora was capable of but he never thought he would witness it firsthand, to order the deaths of so many people was beyond him. He questioned if Nora had always been this way though, he'd seen her freeze up when she was about to kill Ryan. If he had to guess, traces of the original Nora were lying dormant in her and were just now beginning to surface. Regardless he was still under her command, but after following Ryan around for a while he was beginning to believe that she was wrong about the man. X6 decided that once they were done in Rivet City he would send a full report on what he and Nora had been doing back to Father, maybe he could make sense of all of this and find a way to change Nora.
Three days later Rivet City held a funeral for everyone that had been killed in the attack. Three-Dog broadcasted the news over the radio to let everyone in the Capitol Wastes know of the atrocities that had taken place. Rivet City hadn't been the only settlement attacked, as Three-Dog reported that the Citadel had also taken large casualties with most of the Brotherhood deployed to the Commonwealth and that Vault 101 had been completely wiped out just like the Republic of Dave had been. When Ashley heard the news that her old home had been massacred along with her family she attempted to kill herself by jumping off the top of the control tower, luckily Piper had found her in time and stopped her, convincing her that this wasn't what her family would have wanted. Now she walked around aimlessly, without purpose, a shell of what she used to be. Once the funeral was over Ryan gathered his forces and prepared them to depart. As they were about to head out he was stopped by Ashley running to him.
"Ryan, wait!" She called out. Ryan waited for her to reach him and catch her breath. "Wait, I'm coming with you." She said to his surprise.
"You sure?" He asked.
"I'm sure, there's nothing left for me in the Capitol Wasteland, I want to help you rescue your son and avenge mine." She told him. Ryan nodded his head in agreement.
"Don't worry you'll get your chance." He told her.
"And then we'll kill them all." Ashley replied vengefully.