Following the river would have been a good idea if it hadn't been crawling with Mirelurks. Between the five of us, we managed to punch two of them until they retreated (the blow from Boone's rifle butt causing the said retreat), while a few bullets to the face from the sniper managed to feed us more Mirelurk flesh than we wanted to keep in our pockets. I remained in the lead position, with Arcade close by because I wasn't confident in my abilities to distinguish the difference between the slightly lightly colored line marking the river we were following and the rest of the green of my Pip-Boy screen. Boone hadn't acknowledged the talk we had the night before, just taking up the rear in his usual stoic silence. By the time we found the Citadel, the sky was clouding over with the threat of rain, and we began to dread having to walk back to Megaton should the Brotherhood reject us.
Outside what my Pip-Boy claimed was the Citadel sat two sentry bots, aiming alarmingly accurately at our heads as we approached. To boot, two soldiers dressed shoulder to toe in light bluish-grey armor eyed us, miniguns in hand.
"Is he enclave?" was the first words of the soldier with brown hair, in a blast-back style. He aimed his minigun precariously at Arcade, and behind me, I heard Boone tightening his grip on his rifle.
"No," I said slowly, watching the gun. "We found the armor on the ground. Thought we shouldn't just leave it for someone else to take."
The long, intimidating barrel of the minigun lowered. "I am Paladin Bael," he said. "I imagine you five are looking for a job."
"That we are."
"You have that look about you." Bael glanced at his helmeted partner. "Well, let's hear who you are, then. I need to file a report before I let you in." He set his minigun against the wall, and his partner handed him a clipboard and a pencil.
The sky above rumbled. "I'm Lydia, and with me are Raul, Boone, Benny, and Arcade. Now, is this going to take long? I don't want to sit out here in the rain while you—"
"—hold on a minute," Bael said gruffly. "What did you say?"
I clenched my jaw and looked at him a while, wondering which part he didn't hear. "I'm Lydia; this is Raul, Boone, Benny, Arcade. Then I… asked you if you were going to take long with the report."
Bael locked eyes with his helmeted companion, eyebrows raised. "Go get Lyons," he said. Without a word, the helmeted soldier turned and jogged through the entrance.
"That must not be good," Raul muttered under his breath.
"Stop being so pessimistic," I hissed back at him. "Who knows? Maybe our heroic endeavors against the Moleroaches spread already."
"Heroic endeavors? Boss, we ran for our lives."
It didn't take long for the soldier to return, trailing another armored soldier without a helmet behind him. "What do we have here?" she boasted loudly, blonde, ponytailed head held high. "State your names, all of you."
My eyes narrowed. Maybe the third time's the charm. "I'm Lydia. Raul. Boone. Benny. Arcade."
She eyed us, a hand on her hip. "Arcade? Is it the Arcade that we're looking for?"
"You were… looking for an Arcade?" I began to chew on the inside of my cheek as Boone pointed his rifle right at her head.
Unfazed, she raised her laser rifle at his. "We got an Enclave eyebot in our custody," she continued, glancing at me. "Its original purpose in the Enclave seems to have been overwritten by a pre-recorded message directed to someone named Arcade. I believe your other companions were mentioned in it too, though I've never heard your name."
"You seem pretty calm for a gun aimed at your head," Boone grumbled.
"We have the upper hand against wasteland dogs like you," she sniffed back. "One bullet even tries to hit its mark, the sentry bots will blast your ass with missiles." She waved at the other soldiers with her left hand. "Bring them inside. Maybe they can tell us what the damn thing means."
The two soldiers flanked us, and Boone slowly lowered his weapon. Benny looked uneasy around all the high tech, but Arcade was pale as a ghost. Catching me observing him, he tried to put on a brave face but only managed a grimace. I offered him one of my own, and Lyons took the lead.
"I'm Sentinel Lyons, of Lyons Pride," she babbled as we entered a courtyard. It was flooded with recruits shooting at targets, running laps, or dropping down for pushups. "Where are you all from?"
"We come from out west," I answered. "Out there, a faction called Caesar's Legion has taken over. I was just a scavenger, out wandering the wastes. I infiltrated their base for supplies, found these four, hijacked a Vertibird, and wound up here."
Lyons flipped to face me, walking backwards. "How did this Caesar's Legion get ahold of a Vertibird? Are they notorious for having them? Do they work with the Enclave?"
"The west has been cleared of all former Enclave," Arcade butted in, straightening his glasses. "The Enclave has been gone a long time. Everyone that was once involved in it is dead. The Vertibird… it must have been scavenged from an abandoned Enclave base, though its origins are unclear."
"So where were you four from then?"
"I was a researcher in Freeside, but when Caesar's forces took over the Mojave, I downgraded to a slave," he mumbled, looking away, at the ground, glaring at it like it was the one that wronged him. "Boone was a sniper for the New California Republic. Raul was a mechanic. Benny ran a casino called the Tops."
"Any idea who would want to contact you via eyebot, Arcade?"
His emerald eyes flickered onto her, still narrowed in a glare. "I have an idea," he said. "But I hope I'm wrong."
