Hello, everyone, hope you are doing well. Not a lot of action in this chapter, my apologies. Please enjoy.


(The Citadel)

Sarah Lyons lowered her laser rifle and looked at her target, a training dummy disguised as a Super Mutant, strewn with laser impacts and burn marks. She grabbed a new microfusion cell and angrily snapped it into her weapon. She had swapped her power-armor for grey fatigues. Every time she would get out of her power armor, she would be the target of discreet look from the male Brotherhood soldiers.

Sarah was an attractive woman, that was what most of the men in the Brotherhood said and thought but being one of the Chapter's top ranking officer and the daughter of Elder Lyons, all men in the Brotherhood had given up the idea of a romantic relationship with her, even though some would look at her as Sarah Lyons, a young and attractive woman and not Sentinel Lyons, the warrior and Super Mutant slayer. Today, however, other Brotherhood soldiers were not giving her that type of look and would actually not look at her at all. They had known for long that when Sarah was in this state of mind, it was best not to disturb her.

She and the rest of the Lyons Pride had been trapped in the Citadel compound for almost two weeks. Her father had ordered her daughter and her men to stay at the fortress and await his orders. All Brotherhood of Steel operations were on standby. No one could enter or leave the Citadel. Outside, Brotherhood units were ordered to hold their position and wait further notice.

Waiting, if there was one thing Sarah hated, it was waiting. Since she was trapped in the Citadel, Sarah could hear the soldiers sharing what little information they had about the Enclave. Few of her brothers and sisters in arms in Washington D.C. knew exactly what the Enclave was, and even fewer were the members of the Brotherhood who had faced it some thirty years ago.

As the daughter of the Elder of this Brotherhood Chapter, Sarah knew as much as the commanders and the rest of the senior officers of the Brotherhood, but until recently, she would never have imagined that the Enclave would resurface here. To her, the Enclave had disappeared a decade or so before she was born, crushed by the Brotherhood and a growing faction in the West, the Republic of New California.

To think that somewhere on the western side of what was once the United States, a faction rivaling the Brotherhood of Steel in power, was trying to restore some semblance of order to the Wasteland and re-establish a political regime based on the old world, while here in Washington D.C., the law of the strongest reigned, was depressing, and anyone who mentioned the Republic of New California to the people of Megaton or Rivet City would immediately be taken for an crazy man.

"Sentinel."

Sarah engaged the safety of her rifle and laid it noisily on the table in front of her before turning around. Paladin Vargas, the second in the chain of command of the Pride, stood in front of her.

"What's wrong, Vargas?" asked the young lady.

"The Elder and Scribe Rothchild asked to see you."

Sarah hoped inwardly that her father would finally give her the order to go into action against the Enclave or that he would assign her a mission in the ruins. At that point, any mission would fit, as long as she could leave the Citadel.

"All right, let's get going."

Sarah unloaded her weapon and gave it to a young boy in a gray suit. She followed Vargas to the interior of the Citadel. They walked down several corridors until they reached a large meeting room, guarded by two soldiers in power armor.

Two large U-shaped wooden tables faced each other in the center of the room. Eight chairs were arranged around them and small piles of reports and maps were in front of each one. On each side of the room were two flags of the Brotherhood. At the back of the room, a small recess was separated by a grid. On the wall inside was a pre-war propaganda poster depicting a soldier in power armor, standing over a pile of Chinese corpses and waving a large American flag. The poster, badly damaged, was completed by the words "Courage today, victory tomorrow!". The rest of the room was occupied by tables with coffee machines and bottled water.

Sarah and Vargas entered the room. Elder Lyons sat at the table on the right, facing the entrance, turning his back on the propaganda poster. To his right, the scribe Rothchild sat at the other table. He was accompanied by two other scribes. Sarah saw the rest of Lyons' Pride sitting around the table. She noticed four other people she had never seen before. They weren't members of the Brotherhood, she was sure of that. They wore green battle armor and had a white emblem on the breastplates of their armor.

"Sentinel, Paladin. Thank you for joining us."

Elder Lyons stood up and pointed to some chairs for them. Sarah sat down beside her father, and Vargas sat down beside her.

"Very well," said the Elder sitting down in turn. "Before we begin this meeting, I would like to introduce the members of the Reilly's Rangers, who have agreed to meet us."

Reilly and her men stood up slightly and nodded to the assembly.

"The reason we've called you all here is to discuss the further operations of the Brotherhood and an agreement with the Reilly's Rangers regarding the latest events."

Lyons let one of Rothchild's scribes speak who presented a tactical assessment of the situation. The Enclave continued to deploy troops in and around the Jefferson Memorial and there were more and more reports from Brotherhood units in the ruins of D.C. of ever-increasing numbers of combat patrols and outposts.

"Similarly, we have still not been able to locate the main base of the Enclave and because of the range of their Vertibird, it is most likely far from here and locating it in these conditions may take a long time."

Sarah listened carefully to the scribe's reports. She was biting her inner cheek, convinced that this news was not going to move the situation towards the military option and a frontal assault on the Enclave. As far as their enemies were concerned, nothing new was communicated, except that their technology seemed more advanced.

When the time came to talk about an agreement and cooperation with Reilly's Rangers, Reilly proposed that she and her Rangers provide information on the Enclave's activities in the ruins of D.C. in exchange for computer equipment in better condition than they already had. Instead, Lyons offered to assist the Brotherhood in the event of an open conflict with the Enclave, in return for a payment. Sarah was not very happy about this idea, but in the end her father was the commander-in-chief of the Chapter and the decision was his.

Reilly and her men left the meeting room under Sarah's glance, having unanimously accepted the offer. The prospect of the Brotherhood's help against Super Mutants and the Enclave was too tempting for Reilly to refuse, especially after the Vernon Square fiasco.

"All right, we'll now move on to the final topic of this meeting. Scribe Rothchild?"

"Thank you, Elder."

The scribe and one of his assistants stood up. The latter distributed small files to those present.

"The file just distributed to you is a digest of everything we were finally able to get from the Vault-Tec computer in our archives," Rothchild explained.

The assembly went through the small file. It was a list of Vault-Tec fallout shelters and their technical specifications, such as the number of residents and the total length of confinement that the Vault had to respect before opening.

"As you can see," continued the scribe. "This is a list of the Vault built by Vault-Tec in the Capital Wasteland. The one we're most interested in is Vault 87."

Sarah turned the pages of the file to the page about Vault 87. She raised her head to her father and to Rothchild when she read the page.

"Vault 87 is the only one on this list to have a G.E.C.K.," Rothchild explained. "Of course, the risk that the G.E.C.K. was never delivered must be taken into account, in which case we would be back to where we started."

"Do you think the Enclave has this information?" Sarah asked.

"It's a possibility that should not be overlooked," answered her father. "We must prepare for this eventuality and consider frontal military action against the Enclave. That's why I had invited the Reilly's Rangers to this meeting. I am aware that four mercenaries will not change the course of the war that is looming on the horizon, but given the circumstances and our increasingly small numbers, any help is welcome, especially if Doctor Li's team is unable to restore Liberty Prime.

"Elder," said Rothchild. "I can assure you that Madison and I are doing everything we can to make it operational, but this is very complicated technology. Getting back to the G.E.C.K., I think it would be fair to let Professor Franklin's son participate. Without him and his discoveries, the purifier would just be another failed science project."

Lyons crossed his hands under his chin and thought for a moment.

"The idea of putting this young man's life in danger is distasteful to me," he finally said. "But he's already involved with Project Purity from the beginning. I agree with Scribe Rothchild that we should honor James' memory by allowing his son to finish what he started. Besides, it seems he's the only one who knows, the activation code for the purifier."

(Three hours earlier, alien ship)

The small group of survivors was gathered in front of the bays of the observation deck. Everyone had made their own little comment when they saw the vacuum of Space stretching out in front of them. Damian had helped Somah and Elliot fortify the engine core room. In a small storage room, they had found crates and old furniture salvaged from Earth by the aliens and placed them across the bridges, blocking access to the observation deck, while the door to the boiler room had been blocked by Somah, who had managed to tinker with the control panel.

While they were preparing the area to defend themselves for an attack, Damian had got to know the other captives a little better. Elliot was a 25-year-old doctor. He had been drafted to fight the communist invasion of Alaska just before the Great War. He and his team were abducted one night while in their trench on the front lines and he hadn't heard from them since.

Toshiro hadn't been talkative since his liberation and the fact that no one understood him didn't help. Damian was quite amazed to meet and talk, or at least try to talk, with someone who was born centuries before the Great War and it made no doubt that Toshiro, if that was really his name, was the oldest human being alive.

The cowboy was a rather unfriendly man named Paulson. Damian couldn't help thinking that he was the embodiment of all the stereotypes about cowboys. He too didn't talk much, but Damian felt that it was more because of what he had seen or experienced since he had been on the ship than because of his personality. He also seemed to have pure hatred towards the aliens, much more than the other members of the group.

After securing the engine room and resting for a few hours, Damian went to search a small storage room next to the observation deck. He came across an alien crate and opened it. Inside, he came across the weapons and personal effects of the three captives. He tilted Elliot's rifle over his shoulder and hooked Paulson's revolver to his belt before grabbing a large sword from its scabbard. He drew the blade and looked at it for a few moments. Japanese inscriptions were located at the base of the blade. The handle was surrounded by a thin string of black leather.

He left the storage room and returned to the deck. Somah stood guard at the entrance, sitting behind a pile of objects, her shotgun at hand. Paulson was sleeping, his feet on a table and his hat lowered over his eyes. Damian woke him up with a slap on the knee.

"What?" the cowboy growled as he put his hat back on.

Damian handed him his gun. Paulson took it in his hands and rotated the cylinder. An expression of satisfaction crossed his face and he thanked Damian with a slight nod. Damian returned his rifle to Elliot who quickly adjusted the strap.

Damian looked for Toshiro and found him in a corner of the room. He was on his knees, hands on his thighs and eyes closed. Damian approached silently and waited a few seconds before clearing his throat.

The samurai looked up at him and began to speak.

"Sorry, Toshiro, but I still don't understand, but I found this, and I think it's yours."

He handed the sword to the samurai, who stared at it before getting up. Still as impassive as ever, he reached out his hands and gently grabbed the sword. He took the blade out of its sheath and inspected it. He put his weapon back, placed it on his hip and took a few steps away. He stood still for a few seconds before he drew his sword and rotated and whistled the blade in an incredibly fast sequence. He put the blade away by sliding it against the tip of the scabbard and turned towards Damian. His face inexpressive, he bowed slightly forward and spoke. Not quite sure how to react, Damian bowed back.

"Hey, I think we all need to talk about a plan?"

Damian turned around and saw Somah and the others standing in front of him. He nodded.

The group was gathered on the upper level of the observation deck. Damian looked at them one by one before he spoke.

"Well, I guess everyone here wants to run away from this place. Problem, the only way back to Earth is through the command deck of this ship. The aliens use these machines to move from one point on the ship to another."

He pointed to the teleporter beside him.

"Thing is," Damian continued. "They've shut down this one and we're stuck in this room. The only way left is to go outside and activate the teleporter at the source."

"Uh, forgive me for asking, but how do you plan to do that?" Elliot asked.

"With the astronaut's suit. It's a little old, but it doesn't look damaged, so I should be able to get out without any problem."

"Wait a second, who decided you were the boss here?"

Paulson stared at Damian. The young man didn't respond to the provocation and simply but firmly explained.

"No one, but after taking the situation under every angle, it seems I'm the only one who can. The suit's too small for Somah and I also doubt it fits you or Elliot. I also doubt that you would agree that the samurai should be the one to take care of it, as we can't understand him or make ourselves understood, and Sally is obviously too small for the suit."

Paulson remained silent before grumbling something and sitting down.

"It will be very difficult to get to the door to get out," said Sally. "But I know how to do it."

Everyone looked at the little girl.

"You can go through that door, but they have to expect you to come," Sally continued.

She pointed to a door next to them that they had blocked with furniture and crates.

"But I know how to make it easier for you. You can blow all the air out of this part of the ship."

"Will it clear the air in here too?" Elliot asked nervously.

"No," said Sally, shaking her head. "Just at the door that leads to the outside. Here we'll be safe."

"Okay, and how do we do that?" Paulson asked.

"There are generators that supply certain parts of the ship with air. We're going to have to shut some of them down. From here we can only get to three parts of the ship without the teleporter. The cryo-lab, the hangar and where they assemble the robots. If you shut down those three, that should be enough," explained Sally.

Everyone looked at each other briefly. Damian, sensing that Elliot and Paulson were wondering if entrusting their lives to a young man and a little girl was a good idea.

He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and started drawing the generator he had seen in the cell block.

"There, that's what it looks like," he said, pointing to his drawing. We don't have much time, every minute we're here gives them one more chance to attack this place and put us back in a cryo-pod or kill us. We should take care of the generators at the same time, so they don't get the same idea as us and asphyxiate us."

"But we also have to guard this place," Elliot intervened. "If we all leave to destroy the generators, this place will remain defenseless and I don't think the samurai can change much against a horde of these aliens with their energy weapons."

"That's right," says Damian. "Two people would have to take care of each generator."

Elliot got up from his chair and flipped the strap on his rifle.

"I'll take care of the cryo-lab. If there are people trapped like we were, maybe I can revive them."

Damian thanked him with a nod.

"I'll take care of the robot assembly place. Machines know me," Somah smiled.

"Okay, said Damian. I'll go with Elliot to the lab. As soon as we get back, I'll go with you to take care of the assembly line. If we ever find people in that lab, they're going to need Elliot's help."

He turned to Paulson.

"Paulson, you think you can cover my back in the hangar?"

Paulson remained silent for a moment before answering.

"If that means shooting those little green bastards, then count me in."

"All right," Damian concluded. "Then let's do it."

He grabbed his rifle and headed with Elliot to the back of the engine core room. The door to the cryo-lab was next to the pods where Damian and Somah had found the others. The astronaut's remains were still inside his cryo-pod. When Damian saw him, he prayed that his suit would still be enough to allow him to make his spacewalk. He preferred not to think about what would happen to him if the suit didn't work.

"Are you ready?" Damian asked.

"Yes, well... As ready as you can get to face aliens."

Damian gave Elliot the most comforting smile he could make. He activated the door and rushed in with Elliot.

(The Citadel, at the same time)

The meeting had been going on forever. After the departure of the Rangers and Rothchild's presentation on Vault 87, he had briefed Lyons and the Pride on his progress on another project in cooperation with the survivors of Project Purity science team. Madison Li had joined the meeting and had been equal to herself, cold and unpleasant. Sarah understood that for her, it must have been complicated. A scientist who had spent her life working to improve the living conditions of the people of the Capital Wasteland must have been frustrated to have to work on a military project, but in wartime, sacrifices were inevitable.

Sarah had returned to her quarters. As a Sentinel of the Brotherhood, she was entitled to a single room, unlike the other grunts or lower ranks officers. It was nothing luxurious, just a wooden bed, a desk with a terminal and some personal belongings.

In the early evening, Sarah heard someone knocking on the door and went to open it. A young soldier appeared in front of her.

"Sentinel," he said, greeting her with a salute. "Elder Lyons would like to see you in his office."

He went away after standing at attention. Sarah left her room, wondering what her father might want with her.

Sarah knocked on the door and heard her father's voice inviting her in. Elder Lyons' quarters were in an old office. The large wooden table and leather armchair were still there. Several personal belongings were placed on the walls or on counters. Lyons was seating at his desk, finishing to read a file.

"You wanted to talk to me, Elder?" the young woman asked, standing to attention.

"Yes, Sarah," answered the old man. "Please take a sit."

Sarah sat on one of the chairs in front of her father's desk and took a quick look at the file he was reading. It was a personal data file containing only one piece of paper.

The file was about Damian and the few information the Brotherhood had gathered about him. Eeach member of the Brotherhood had a file like this one, comporting basic personal data and military highlights they had perform. For Damian, the information were only a few lines on a piece of paper; His full name and surname, his date and place of birth, height, weight, blood type, a brief physical description and a few lines about his attitude during the Galaxy News Radio rescue mission. There also was a picture of him that one of Lyons men had taken after Damian's arrival at the Citadel. Normally, the picture would have been a more formal one, bit for now, a picture of him during basic combat training was enough.

"What do you think about the young Franklin?" asked Elder Lyons. "I noticed that both of you, were getting along during the few days he was here."

"Well," said Sarah. "He knows how to handle himself, and he has earned my respect during the GNR rescue mission. but I sense that he has the tendency of running headfirst into trouble."

Sarah paused for a moment.

"Actually, I also wanted to talk to you about him, father."

"Really? Why?"

"Permission to speak freely?" asked Sarah after a brief silence.

Lyons nodded.

"You know what I think about your decision to incorporate local civilians to our ranks. I only fought with Damian Franklin once and I only spent a few days training him at the Citadel, but I would not want to exchange him against a hundred of local volunteers. That's why I wanted to ask you to accelerate his recruitment process. That's the only reason why, when he asked me to train him, I agreed, and I think that allowing him to leave the Citadel on his own was a mistake."

Lyons listened to her daughter in silence. An almost imperceptible smile appeared on his face, before quickly fading away.

"The decision of young Franklin to join us will be his only. If I talked to you about him, it's because I have a mission for you," said the Elder.

Sarah tried to hide her enthusiasm.

"Given the recent events, I'd like you to find young Damian Franklin and tell him about the current situation and bring him back here. I think he'll be happy to see that I've finally decided to act."

Sarah said nothing. Damian had disapproved Lyons immediate inaction and secretly, Sarah had shared his feeling, but as Lyons daughter and subordinate, she has obeyed and took on herself.

"You should find him in the town of Megaton," continued the Elder. "I would have preferred to send someone else, but I know he'll be more likely to come, if the message is delivered by someone he trusts. In the meantime, I'll ask Rothchild to keep on digging on the Vault-Tec terminal. If by the time you return the terminal has not given us any more information, I'll send a small team under Vargas' command, to Vernon Square. Their task will be to find the location of the Vaults on Rothchild's list."

Lyons paused and watched his daughter.

"I know you'd rather go on combat patrol in the ruins with your men, but I think you're the best person to convince young Franklin to regain trust in us."

"Don't worry father, I'll bring him back," replied the Sentinel.

Sarah left her father and headed to her quarters. It wasn't the mission she had hoped for, but at least she could leave the Citadel.

At dawn, the young woman prepared for the journey to Megaton. She put on pale blue jeans and a long grey coat reaching to her thighs, as well as a pair of knee-length lace-up boots. She tied a pistol to her thigh and went to the armory to get a laser gun.

The heavy metal gate of the Citadel opened, and Sarah walked towards Megaton, wondering how Damian would react when she would bring him the news.


Hope you enjoyed. Until next time.