Xavier stood before his army outside of Megaton, "We are the strongest empire on the East coast of America!" Everyone cheered, "The Brotherhood has shown that they are cowards! We have not heard from them since they have left the Wasteland! We are superior!" Cheers, "We do not fear!" cheers, "We keep full, we keep clothed, we keep housed, we are wealthy!" Cheers, "A man to the north once said their might is the envy of Ronto! That was a foolish statement as we absorbed them into our empire!" Cheers, "And our might is not the envy of Ronto! Our might is what Ronto fears!" Cheers, "Even now, I have gotten reports from our scouts! They march on Elysium to come strike us before we come to them!"
"Cowards!" came the cry.
"Heretics!" screamed the Treeminders.
"We have a new weapon! One that allows us to even rival our spiders!" Cheers, "I will need 50 volunteers to operate the new weapons!" There were cheers and many pushed their way through the others to reach Xavier, "Hold, we will have applications outside the Forge!" Xavier pointed to the temporary structure built next to his house, "We will then test you out in the VSS facility, test out your compatibility. The 50 best will be put in their new machines!" there were more cheers as most of the army marched to the temporary structure, "As for the rest of you... Suit up! We will be marching to deter their progress! We will take no risks until the mass of our army shows up! We will crush them!" cheers. Xavier lifted his pipboy to speak into it, shielding it from the cheers of the army, "Pinkerton." Xavier said into the mic.
"Yeah?" Pinkerton replied.
"You can do the testing alone, can't you?"
"Yes, and I will have the machines record how well they work on the field, like you ordered. I don't need you to babysit me!" he shouted, his voice being distorted through the speaker.
"Very well, I will inspire the troops." Xavier went home to dress in his customized armor. He climbed onto Sleipnir's back, pulling out a large custom plasma rifle, "We move!" they charged, north of the Wasteland, north of the Pitt, they stopped south of the southern shore of Lake Erie, where the armies of Ronto camped. They were all outfitted in T-51 b power armor, wielding plasma weapons. They took their meals in silence, no fires, no tents, they ate in formation. Xavier thought for a moment, "We need to dig a ditch, find some old posts of some sort and set them up on the north side of the ditch. The ditch should be five feet deep with steep walls. Sleipnir, you need to make a sticky web between the posts on the north side of the ditch. Ok, move." Xavier ordered quietly.
