Chapter 2 The raid on Fortress Sanctuary
"Preston, you go to one of the guard towers and start sniping. I'll go see what's going on."
"Yes sir. Be careful, General"
And with that, the two high ranking Minutemen split ways and jumped into the fray.
After Nate joined the Minutemen, he and the settlers from Concord started building up sanctuary to be a thriving little town. As more people came, they had to build up defenses and walls to keep out the frequent raider attacks. Due to Sanctuary's fortified nature with makeshift walls surrounding every inch of the new town, it's name eventually changed to Fortress Sanctuary.
The General sprinted across town and into the guard HQ near the entrance of the town (Just as a disclaimer, I won't be following the original layout of Fortress Sanctuary)
"Someone tell me what the hell is going on out there!" Nate ordered as he slammed the door open.
"A large force of raiders attacked out of nowhere! Most of our troops that are supposed to be garrisoned here are out scouting for a new settlement! We are severely out gunned!"
Nate grabbed the nearest gun he could find. An old M1 Garand from WWII and several clips of ammunition.
Nate bolted out the door and sprinted to the walls to get a better vantage point and further assess the situation. As he climed the stairs, he could hear bullets whizzing by. He watched as a Minuteman on the wall got his head split open by a lucky raider with a high caliber weapon.
"Goddamit! These bastards are NOT gonna take this town! The General crested the wall and ducked behind the nearest sand bag wall he could find.
'Alright Nate, you got this.' He thought as he poked his head out.
*BANG*
A drugged-up female raider wearing nothing but a sack on her head got shot through the chest. High powers 30-06 rounds easily piercing her body
'That's one'
*BANG* *BANG*
Nate missed the target of a raider with a pipe rifle aimed at Preston and shot again, this time aiming true, hitting him center mass.
'That's two'
Nate saw that the raiders now were looking in his direction and attempting to blow his head off.
'Shit, I gotta move!'
Nate stealthily moved from his cover to a different one about twenty feet away.
'We are not gonna make it at this rate' 'I need something to protect me better as I shoot them.' Nate thought as bullets and lasers were exchanged around him.
"The Power Armor!" "You, You, You, and You. Follow me!" Nate pointed to four new recruits around him as they looked to him in confusion.
"You four get to the Armory, Now!"
Nate and his four Minutemen sprinted halfway across town to a secure building that Nate unlocked with a special key.
They ran down a spacious tunnel until they reached a large security door. Nate unlocked it and it revealed a large armory filled with normal Minutemen weapons. A chamber to the right revealed a set of eight T-60 power armor suits.
"Do any of you have power armor training?" Nate got a few looks of shock and no affirmation. "Shit. Well, you're going to have to figure it out. Twist the valve on the back of the armor and it will open. All you have to do is move like normal and the armor will do the rest of the work. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!" The young recruits exclaimed as they did as they were told.
The new Minutemen were fidgety and nervous as they have never directly met the General before and only heard stories about him. They still had a lot of respect and admiration though, and were excited about getting to wear power armor without needing to be trained or promoted before hand.
Normally only skilled and trained soldiers were allowed power armor. One, because the Minutemen were on short supply, and because they required special training before use.
Before the Prydwen was destroyed, the General stole the schematics to build their own T-60 power armor. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to make.
"Is everyone ready? Nate asked as he saw everyone in their suits."
"Ready as we'll ever be, sir" one recruit said as he stepped up to the door with the General
"Move out!"
With a rally cry Nate and his ragtag group of recruits sprinted over to the entrance to the town. Well, Nate sprinted, the recruits fumbled and tripped until they eventually could walk a bit without falling.
Nate ran up the stairs of the wall like he did earlier and saw that the defenders were running out of steam. Most of the turrets were destroyed and only a few Guards stood on top of the walls, Preston Garvey included. The others were either dead or being carted off into the Med Bay.
The General leaped off of the wall and slammed down onto the road below.
The remaining raider attackers who Nate estimated to be about fifteen, stood shocked as four other metal beasts leaped off the wall.
Bullets came flying left and right as the raiders gave all they had to the five new enemies. The bullets doing little to no damage to the armor as they returned fire.
Nate and his crew were unloading into the crowd of raiders and dwindling their numbers until the last four put down their weapons and surrendered. Even with outnumbering the five defenders three to one, the power armor was just too strong for them.
A few hours later*
Nate was sitting in his office rubbing his temples as the few officers out of the half dozen he originally had gave him the death toll and General reports about the raid.
"By all means this could have gone a lot worse. We defended Sanctuary with a skeleton crew against, what was the head count, forty five raiders?"
"Yes sir. We assume that this was most of the raider clan that we spotted just north of the glowing sea. If it was them , we should have decimated their numbers."
"At least that is some good news. How many civilian deaths were there?"
"Surprisingly, no civilian died in that battle. The raiders, though close, never made it past the wall."
"Well that's great news!"
"Yes sir. Unfortunately we lost almost all of our new recruits besides the four you took to get the power armor."
"Hmm, I don't want to push a draft. Set up more recruiting propaganda immediately. And with that our meeting is over. Someone tell Piper to come in here."
"Yes sir. Right away."
The three officers exited the room and a few minutes later, Piper came in.
"Hey Blue, how are ya holding up."
Nate's prim and proper General persona immediately dissolved with the presence of a person who he could actually call a friend. Nate put his head down and sighed deeply.
"Not great Piper. We haven't told the people yet but there were a lot of deaths. Out of the about twenty five troops in sanctuary at the time. Only eight survived."
"Damn blue. They were all the young ones too, right?"
"Yeah" Nate said sorrowfully
"Piper, I need a favor"
"Anything you want, blue"
"I need you to make us look good. Lie about the death toll. Make it seem as the mighty Minutemen only got scratches as they defeated a massive raider clan. I know it's against your code, but I will give you one wish. And I will do anything in my power as the General to fulfill it."
"Wow blue. You sound desperate."
"That's understating it."
"Yeah, I'll help you out. You make it hard to refuse. I don't need that wish, Blue. You have it hard enough without trying to fulfill whatever my greedy ass could come up with."
"You're the best Piper. I can't thank you enough."
"Don't mention it. When the next paper comes around, you won't see anything bad on it. I promise."
After the day was done, Nate called up Preston and they shared a bottle of whisky as they watched from afar, as the civilians cleaned up blood from the streets.