A bed creaked as Ryleigh leaned back with a yawn. There was a much louder creaking, almost crunching sound followed by Fawkes muttering about the inferior quality of beds. Boomer then hopped up onto the bed with Ryleigh, landing on her and causing her to exhale with a pained grunt. The dog moved around on the bed a moment before finally settling down. Ryleigh chuckled and scritched his ears.
"Rothschild sent me out to meet with Paladin Tristan and an assault team at the Rockland Car Tunnel. The Enclave had a base out there responsible for broadcasting orders to every other outpost. It was supposed to be easy. Liberty Prime takes the lead and we follow him up, killing any stragglers. And for a while that is exactly what happened. I've almost come to love hearing Prime talk about how 'Democracy is freedom. Communism is tyranny.' or 'I am Liberty Prime. I am... America.'"
Fawkes laughed from his side of the room.
"I enjoyed, 'Probability of a Chinese victory: Impossible!'"
She laughed at his poor attempt at a robotic voice. The humor quickly turned to disbelief as she continued.
"Also a good one. Things took a hell of a turn when Prime connected to their satellite uplink and reported an 'imminent orbital strike.' The other Brotherhood soldiers all looked as confused as I was but when Prime repeated the message and said for all personnel to achieve safe distance you can bet we turned and ran. I'm actually getting pretty good at moving in the power armor."
She spoke as if she still wasn't sure if she was talking about a real event or not. At the mention of her power armor smug pride bled into her tone, causing Fawkes to laugh again.
"Amazing what adrenaline can help accomplish."
Ryleigh didn't respond but the momentary silence was friendly. The amazement returned to her voice as she continued her story.
"I feel like I've been saying this a lot the past two months but I have never seen anything like that orbital strike. The world went white and the earth shook violently. Prime was hit on the third blast and it tore him apart. Everyone back at the Citadel is devastated. Rothschild was glad we at least got a copy of the Enclave broadcast signal but without Prime things are looking rough."
Another pause as she became hesitantly concerned.
"We are at war with the Enclave. Their leader is dead but that damned computer set up a good structure for authority. They have better weapons and more people whereas the Brotherhood isn't getting any reinforcements. They can only train so many people so quickly so that means the numbers we have now is all we have to work with. Elder Lyons made some tough decisions when the Brotherhood came out to the Capital Wasteland and I can tell they are weighing on him now more than ever. No one wanted to talk about it. Not to a newcomer. Hell, not even to each other. Lucky me, I've gotten pretty good at talking with kids."
Fawkes' guffaw at that made it clear he did not agree with her assessment.
"It could not possibly be the overly friendly dog constantly at your side that the kid warmed up to. That would be ridiculous."
There was a faint rustle of a page turning in a book as Ryleigh ignored him. Boomer huffed happily, his wagging tail loudly smacking into the wall. The concern in Ryleigh's voice quickly changed to conspiratorial excitement.
"There is a ten year old boy here in the Citadel who is Elder Lyons' ward. Squire Arthur Maxson was sent to Lyons a few years after they first left the west coast. He's part of some lineage that everyone here thinks is really important."
There was another grunt of exasperation as Fawkes leaned forward on his bed.
"He is a descendant to Roger Maxson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Steel. Last of the lineage. They claim the boy's soul was forged from eternal steel and will no doubt hold him to impossible standards."
Ryleigh audibly rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"Like I said, someone important. Anyway… "
She chuckled as Fawkes harrumphed her dismissive tone and returned to his book.
"Arthur is allowed damn near anywhere in the Citadel which means he hears shit. This chapter of the Brotherhood was sent east to meet up with the Midwestern chapter and eventually search the east coast for tech. That's all the Brotherhood cares about when you get down to it. Locating pre-war tech and knowledge and keeping it away from anyone else. After seeing the state the Wasteland was in, Lyons decided to adjust their mission to include protecting the people living here. He began trading with the locals, taking them into their numbers for training, and sending troops to smaller settlements for the sole purpose of protection. That got him and everyone with him effectively ostracized from the rest of the Brotherhood.
Arthur could probably recite their Codex by heart but I didn't feel like quizzing him on how helping people was actually against their rules. He's a nervous enough kid without me asking too many questions on sensitive topics. Instead we chatted about what he knows of the wasteland, about super mutants, if he gets to do any training, and things like that. Then I took what I knew and asked Rothschild. A little prodding and he told me what Arthur assumed. The East Coast Brotherhood is on its own. Worse, a good number of them abandoned post and became the Outcasts. They only care about the original mission and think Lyons is too soft hearted. Poking around in some of the terminals on the Citadel also suggests the west coast isn't doing too great lately either. Lots of internal conflicts. Hence why they shipped the kid out here."
Ryleigh had begun muttering, lost in thought. After a moment she shook herself and yawned.
"Overseer Almodovar, President Eden, and now Elder Lyons. Everybody is so convinced they are doing the right thing. But as of right now the Brotherhood is still a hell of a lot better than the Enclave so here I am. In the morning I'm off to Olney Powerplant. Scribe Vallincourt gave me a cool new toy to test on the Enclave while I'm out there. Get this, it is supposed to scramble whatever signal the Enclave are using to control deathclaws. I can't wait to see what chaos this causes."
Her mischievous giggle earned a chuckled from Fawkes. Boomer barked and started licking at her face as she cooed at him about all the destruction they were going to create.
*Click*
