The Long Road Ahead

by Cortana taking flight

After decades of conflict with the New California Republic, the Brotherhood of Steel is faced with the decision of leaving the west coast behind. Anita McNamara, niece of Elder McNamara is faced with the harsh reality of leaving the west coast behind forever. The brutal trek from coast to coast will reshape the remnants of the Western Brotherhood and bring betrayal and loss to all.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: To new heights and to new depths

Outer Denver, Colorado

August 27, 2289

Two hours of lousy sleep did not grant Anita enough relief to properly prepare her for the day's news. She reluctantly opened her eyes and her whole body felt stiff from sleeping in what she deemed to be the world's most uncomfortable chair. As she gained a clearer view of the radio room, she felt relieved to see Josh and Moretti standing in the corner. Much to her disdain, she saw High Elder Casdin in the corner with his two sentinels flanking him on either side. Elder Casdin gave her a look consisting of what she presumed to be fury.

"This is something I expected from Scribe Santangelo; but not from you Scribe McNamara" he said with a disapproving scowl. "You could have lost your whole squad in this neighborhood based on the amount of gang and feral dog activity in this neighborhood" he chastised.

Veronica rolled her eyes and smirked momentarily before going back to work on a circuit board. Anita used all of her might to not break eye contact with Elder Casdin. It would have been far easier for her to look down at the ground, but she felt that she needed to prove to him that she was not weak-willed. She put her hands behind her back and stood tall at her 5'10 height, easily standing the same height as the Elder.

"I apologize for disobeying orders, High Elder Casdin. However, I think contact with Elder Maxson was necessary; we need more food and viable water and I'm predicting that Saint Louis and the stretches of Indianapolis will put us all on the verge of starvation. Not to mention, we need to bypass Denver proper because this city is a death trap" she insisted to him. "There's a reason that this town reeks of charred flesh, sir" she emphasized curtly.

Elder Casdin looked at her skeptically and much to her surprise backed away from her. "You have a good heart Scribe McNamara, but you must know that we have little choice. Denver may be a death trap, but the discoveries that can be made here…are really something to behold. Did Knight Moretti inform you of what my group found underneath the remains of the Denver airport?" he inquired cleverly.

She gave him a curious look and narrowed her eyes in skepticism. "He did not inform me, Elder Casdin. What is the nature of this 'discovery' shall we call it?" she responded hesitantly. All Moretti had told her before her nap was that 'strange' tech was found underneath the airport, allegedly that was all he was told.

"It would be far simpler to show you than to explain it to you" Elder Casdin stated bluntly. "Knight-Captain Li, start up your vertibird and follow my team to the airport" he ordered him.

Anita glanced at Josh, who shrugged his shoulders in confusion. She personally felt that as Elder Casdin watched the west coast chapters fall into disarray and lose battle after battle over the years that he grew more obsessed with finding old-world technology that would bring forth a miracle for the brotherhood. In her opinion, nothing would bring them back to their full glory out west. All that was left for them out there were memories of defeat.

The Citadel, Washington DC

August 28, 2289

"Elder Maxson, what is your decision?" Knight-Sergeant Gavil asked.

Stacks of clipboards and paper organized into neat little piles all over the table in the spacious conference room. Twelve other high ranking officers stared at Maxson, in anticipation of his approval of a plan for aiding the western brotherhood.

Elder Maxson stood up, his navy blue slacks and shirt draping over his tall and toned body. If he was to be honest with himself, he knew that half the officers here would doubt the efficacy of his decision. He took a deep breath before formally announcing his decision.

"We will fly the Prydwen to a rendezvous point along I-70 in the eastern reaches of Colorado. There is reason to believe that High Elder Casdin's recon team made what he believes to be a vital discovery. Time will tell if this discovery was worth the risks, yet we have hundreds of our members that are stranded in the outskirts and they need our aid" he said in a cold, but confident tone. "How soon can the Prydwen be stocked, Gavil?" he asked his trusted logistician.

Knight-Sergeant Gavil looked down at the clipboard sitting in front of him with his notes. He smoothed back his closely cropped brown hair. "According to my reports, we could feasibly have the Prydwen stocked with minimal crew and surplus supplies by tomorrow morning. Weather looks promising thus far" he informed them all.

"With all due respect, Elder Maxson, you cannot forget that the Prydwen is a delicate machine. There must be a full crew of engineers on board to make repairs any time of the day. Not to mention, you need an escort of vertibirds to shore up the Prydwen's defenses" one of the engineering proctors chimed in. "I just don't know if this is the best use of our resources right now, especially now that we have full control over Baltimore. Maintaining control over the entirety of the capital wasteland has to be our priority."

Arthur resisted the urge to argue with the proctor. He knew that Proctor Dallas was correct in his assumption. "I agree with you Proctor Dallas; however I should remind you that we are not rescuing mere wastelanders; we're joining forces with our brothers and sisters in arms. Many of whom are descendants of our founders and have only known brotherhood doctrine."

Knight-Sergeant Gavil jotted down a few lines of notes and looked up again at Arthur. "How many are there traveling?"

"High Elder Casdin was never clear with me about his numbers. The best estimate I have is at least five hundred strong. All though, it's hard to say given the…trying circumstances for the Brotherhood out west" Arthur answered to the best of his knowledge on the situation.

He decided to omit his understanding that most Brotherhood members abandoned a lifetime of hiding in a bunker in favor of becoming a citizen of the ever-growing New California Republic. Deep down, he could empathize with people wanting to live a peaceful life as a farmer or some menial job.

After nearly another hour of heated bickering amongst the inner council of proctors and paladins, he was ready to force a final vote for sending the Prydwen out west. He tapped his fingers impatiently on his thigh, waiting for an opportune moment to speak.

"It's time for a vote" he said decisively. "All in favor of sending the Prydwen out west, say I."

Much to his surprise, most of the room agreed with the proposal. "All who oppose, same sign." After only hearing a few opposing proctors, he felt relieved that his proposal passed. "I will be heading west along with the Prydwen crew."

"Elder Maxson, respectfully, I must say that's not the wisest decision" Scribe Rothschild stated pessimistically. "This isn't a simple extraction mission, it's one of the most ambitious rescue operations we have undertaken, there's too much at stake there. We have little clue about what horrors reside in the middle regions of old America" Rothschild firmly insisted. He folded his hands over one another and had a stubborn look on his face.

Arthur turned his head and made unwavering eye contact with Rothschild. "I understand your concerns Scribe Rothschild, we will discuss them after this meeting" he said authoritatively. He turned back to the rest of the councilmen. "In my absence, the deciding vote belongs to Scribe Rothschild. This meeting is adjourned" he said as he dismissed the other officers.

Standing up to quickly stretch out his arms and crack his knuckles, he started speculating in his mind what Scribe Rothschild would have to say behind closed doors. "You hardly protested this much when we flew up to the Commonwealth, what's so different about this situation Scribe Rothschild?" Arthur politely inquired.

"I know this is the last thing a man in his mid-twenties wants to hear, but you need to find a wife. As you're well aware, you're the last who carries the Maxson name…" Rothschild's wise voice trailed off.

Arthur sighed, trying to contain what he identified as either annoyance or discomfort. "I thought we had agreed to not discuss my relationship status, or my lack thereof one. I don't have time for a wife, let alone having children. It's not impertinent that the Brotherhood be led by a Maxson. A man's name does not make him a worthy leader" he insisted.

"I agree, we are not a monarchy. But, you need to make the line of succession for Elder clearer, especially if you want to go through with our plan. A plan which will make you many enemies, regardless of your name" Rothschild warned. "This is the strongest the Brotherhood of Steel has ever been, we must ensure that we only grow stronger over time, never weaker."

Arthur nodded at Rothschild's warning. "I understand your concern and I will give it thought while I'm out west, Rothschild" he respectfully responded.

Rothschild shook his head and leaned on his cane as he walked out of the room, leaving Arthur feeling guilt for shrugging off Rothschild's concerns. He smoothed out his robes and reached into his pocket, in hope of finding a cigarette. Much to his disappointment, there were none to be found in his pocket, only his lighter. It was going to be a long night, he realized just then. He had few belongings to pack onboard the Prydwen, if he was being honest with himself, he had to admit that he wasn't sure if he was prepared to spend weeks onboard the Prydwen once again.

The remains of the Denver International airport were something to behold, Anita admitted to herself. Buildings and tarmacs stretched out for miles and the main airport building was probably the largest building she had ever seen, she could see how thousands of people could fit into one building. Josh started to descend the vertibird rather quickly, which made her stomach lurch from the choppy altitude drop. Planes long dormant dotted the landscape, all in varying degrees of disrepair, their company logos long faded away.

Without thinking about it, she reached down to her side to make sure that her laser pistol was in place. Going inside pre-war places such as the airport made her feel uneasy. Ghouls or other unfavorable creatures haunted these types of places, some are keen on waiting for the right moment to strike from a forgotten corner. She knew that Paladin Hardin had cleared the place, but this place used to be one of the largest airports in the world back in the old days.

Once Josh had landed the vertibird, everyone except for him and Knight Smith remained with it. Veronica adjusted the power fist contraption on her right hand before walking next to Anita.

"If Paladin Hardin dragged us out here for a weapons cache, I'm taking my chances on the streets of Denver" Veronica whispered into Anita's ear.

Anita shrugged her shoulders. "I might join you there sister" she whispered back in agreement.

After an hour of walking through the massive terminal, Anita had to admit that she was in awe of this place. Hazy light filtered in through the dusty glass walls and the ceiling to her practically reached the sky. Broken glass crackled underneath her feet, she knew it was going to take forever to get those shards out of her soles tonight. The occasional skeleton of some unfortunate soul was present as well, but at this point she was desensitized to seeing corpses. This whole airport smelled musty and tiny radroachs crawled around the place as if they owned it, damned bugs, she thought. She did realize a second later that the resilient bugs actually do own the place.

Paladin Hardin led them through the countless hallways and staircases that descended downwards, into what Hardin claimed to be a massive tunnel system that snaked for miles across the land underneath the airport terminal. Her only source of light in this hallway underground came from the weak light bulb on top of her helmet. Combined with the light reflecting off of everyone else's helmets, large shadows bounced off the wall, making her already frayed nerves become even jumpier.

Based on the dim lights coming from the groups' helmet lamps, Anita could tell that there had been spare few visitors to these tunnels in the past few hundred years. All she could smell was must and she coughed in between breaths from all of the dust that was being stirred up in this tunnel.

"Hacking up a lung back there Anita?" Moretti asked sympathetically and turned around to hand her his water canteen. "Maybe some water will help you."

She gave him a small smile, appreciating his kind gesture. "Thank you" she said hoarsely.

Another half hour passed before Paladin Hardin stopped. "Here we are" he said, pointing at an old terminal and what appeared to be a vault-style door. He walked up to the terminal and hastily punched in the password. He looked at Anita smugly.

Ear-piercing alarm sounds filled the air and a yellow warning light came on and lit up the tunnel. It barely covered the painful sound of metal cogs scraping against metal as the door was slowly opened. Anita was sure that it was a miracle that the electronics within the door were still operational, even with the rust that coated most of the door.

Bright white lights were inside and Anita could see that there was about four scribes hard at work cleaning some of the computer machinery and taking notes. She had to admit, this place appeared to be a well preserved lab with computers and other equipment everywhere. The eerie feeling she had in the tunnels still was not shaken, there was something off about this place.

"This lab is remarkable Paladin Hardin. All though I'm getting a feeling that you didn't drag my crew and I all the way out here to marvel at lab equipment" she told him curtly.

"You might want to prepare for what you see next" he advised her. "I will admit however, that there are no good ways to prepare for what you're about to see." Anita had a visibly confused look on her face. "Think about it this way, we're all going to be seeing something that few men had ever seen before us."

Veronica and Anita exchanged quick glances of skepticism before following Paladin Hardin further into the massive laboratory. This compound encompassed an enormous area, it was probably even larger than the Lost Hills complex in which she had grown up. Sterile white walls covered in dust and equipment that had lost its luster decades ago gave this place such a haunting aura to Anita. After all, this facility is underneath one of the largest airports that ever existed. Many questions flew through Anita's mind, such as who even builds a laboratory underneath such a popular airport?

After following Paladin Hardin through a maze of hallways with dusty white walls, they all entered a room with slippery gray tiles that reeked of decay and something else that Anita couldn't put her finger on.

"Hit the lights Gonzalez" Paladin Hardin ordered one of the scribes near them. The brightness of the fluorescent lights blinded Anita temporarily as her brown eyes adjusted to the new light source.

Her breath was taken away by what she saw. She blinked several times as if she wasn't sure what she was seeing was real. Much to both her horror and curiosity, it was all too real.

Aliens aren't supposed to exist, or at least the tales of them were overblown Anita had always thought before now. She had written them off as tall tales that parents would tell their children to scare them. Well. She was wrong about everything now.

In front of her two large tubes each contained a…creature she presumed to be of alien origin, not even the FEV could contort an earthborn organism to this extreme. These creatures were covered in gray skin that was thinly stretched over abnormally large skulls with enormous slanted eyes that were pitched black. Both creatures were what she presumed to be naked, all though she found the lack of genitalia on both to be especially curious. She presumed that they would maybe stand at nearly five feet and they were bone thin, which could either be their natural state of being or the result of starvation at the hands of their captors, which she assumed was likely the pre-war government.

"Well, I guess we were never alone in this universe" Veronica said in a shocked tone.

Without hesitation, she walked closer to the enormous tubes, somehow managing to downplay her inner horror at the creatures before her. She looked at the sensor lights on the tube, surprisingly, all of the status lights were green. She looked back at Paladin Hardin and Veronica. "These creatures are still alive" she said in awe. Stepping back, dozens of horrifying thoughts ran through her mind. If taken out of the vats, it's hard to say if the creatures would be hostile, she sure as hell wasn't going to find out for the sake of science. Who knows what sort of diseases they carried, especially pre-war diseases for which the cures had long been lost.

"We plan on sweeping any tech out of this place and destroying the creatures. They're assuredly a threat to humanity if they are freed" Paladin Hardin assured. "Gonzalez thinks that the creatures are in a state of hibernation and we should be able to suffocate them inside the tanks. The technology those creatures brought to earth should belong to us and not the diseased gangs pillaging Denver."

"For what feels like the first time in a long while, I find myself agreeing with you" Veronica stated in agreement with Hardin. Anita knew the two had been at odds for years now, it was surprising to see them agreeing on something.

Deep down, Anita knew that Hardin was right, but there were so many questions that she had that she knew would never yield answers. She turned to Hardin and Veronica. "I should be able to alter the sensors to suffocate them with oxygen" she found herself saying. She closed her eyes temporarily before she walked over to the terminal to give the aliens their death sentence. For all she knew, maybe they could understand every word they were all saying in their language and knew that their death sentence was about to take place.

Trying to quell those thoughts as she began a search through the computer's files to figure out how to flood the tanks with excess oxygen. After several minutes of searching, she found the file she needed to execute for the tubes. When she adjusted the oxygen sensor, the program asked her to confirm and she found herself hesitating. Taking a deep breath, she hit confirm.

Sounds of gas hissing into the tubes rang in her ears and Anita screamed when she saw the alien's eyes blink at her multiple times and they started banging their spindly fingers against the glass. She saw them open their mouths and she instantly covered her ears as a high pitched screech nearly burst her ear drums and she watched the two aliens twitch and scream in their final moments. After about ten minutes of them struggling, all of the tube sensors turned red, indicating that the subjects were dead. She stood in shock at the sight and ran her hand through her ginger hair in a feeble attempt to calm herself. Veronica looked down at the ground as did Paladin Hardin. Watching creatures struggle for air was harder to watch than shooting down the raiders in Lakewood. Shooting something almost felt more like an act of mercy than letting them choke inside a chamber for over ten minutes.

Emotionally overwhelmed, Anita choked back tears and ran towards the exit towards the rest of the lab where Moretti was waiting. She was hyperventilating and it took about fifteen deep breaths and a swill of water to calm her nerves. Moretti looked at her in pity and gave Veronica a confused look as she walked back with Paladin Hardin.

"What happened?" he whispered into Anita's ear. "I knew they found something strange, but I had no idea what was in those chambers, I promise you" he insisted. "I would never lie to you" he promised her quietly.

She just shook her head in response. "We'll talk about this later, I just want to get out of this place" she whispered with desperation in her voice.

For the next three hours, she felt on edge until Josh started up the vertibird and started flying back towards her Uncle Nolan's group. Everyone onboard was eerily quiet until Anita broke the silence.

"I still think that Elder Casdin wasted our time that we could have spent traveling eastwards. At this rate, it's going to be middle of October before the Capital Wasteland is even in sight" she said very frustrated. "Yes, aliens have advanced technology, but at this point does it even matter?" she asked pessimistically.

"You did the right thing Anita. Alien technology is useful to have, but it will not stave off starvation or disease, both of which are going to become issues if Elder Maxson ignored our plea for aid" Veronica said in agreement. "Casdin is too concerned with maintaining the past and not looking to the future" she added.

Anita nodded in agreement and she put her head in her hands, all she wanted at this point was more than fifteen minutes of uninterrupted sleep and not having to explore pre-war ruins. Somehow her exhaustion hit her so hard that even with the loud roaring of the vertibird's engines and whirring of its blades, her body found the sound to be cathartic as she felt herself dozing off with her head leaning to the side. Before her eyes closed completely, she took in the rugged landscape to the distance and the vibrant orange-pink hues of the Colorado sunset.

"That's an awful lot of liquor for one man, promise me you'll share" Knight-Captain Gavel remarked as he checked the inventory lists for a final time before all the cargo was stashed on board the Prydwen.

"If I'm feeling generous" Arthur quipped back with a smile.

Gavil was a pain in his ass sometimes, but he was eternally grateful for his talent in keeping the brotherhood well supplied. He proved his worth probably a thousand times over in Boston where it felt like every day a new calamity had arisen, yet he never failed at any of the nearly impossible tasks he was assigned while there.

Despite all the time spent aboard the Prydwen, he was still in awe every time he saw the ship. It was a miracle of engineering and he hoped that soon there will be another one built at Adams Air Force Base. The plans are there, but there simply needs to be more man power to put another one together, even if it was at a fraction of the Prydwen's scale. It's not as if the parts just show up, it takes many patrols years to find all of the parts necessary to even build the skeleton of one. It took over six years to construct the 40,000 ton engineering marvel that was hundreds of feet long and capable of hauling a number of vertibirds. Arthur had to admit that the Prydwen looked striking against the rising morning sun and the crumbling skyline of Washington DC backdrop.

When he was fourteen, the Enclave remnants were defeated and all of their advanced weaponry and bases became brotherhood assets. The formerly broken tarmac pavement must have been redone recently at the base, he was impressed with the amount of progress that Adams has undergone over the past ten years since full BOS occupation of the base. He still remembered begging Elder Lyons to let him fight the Enclave, back then he still had a rather abstract perspective of war. He didn't quite understand the brutality of war as an unexperienced fourteen year old. There were still times, even recently that he still felt shocked by some of the decisions that must be made to win the war so to speak. Subduing those thoughts in his mind, he felt much pride run through his chest as he turned around to see that his skeleton crew of soldiers and lancers were all standing behind him. He nodded at all of them and started walking on the metal walkway that connected to the Prydwen's main deck with his bag slung across his broad shoulders. Two vertibirds flew up to the magnetized dock and out came the lancers that would be taking charge of flying the Prydwen west.

Reaching the door that led to the command deck and living quarters, he opened it and all he could think of all the time he had spent there overlooking the ruins of Boston for over a year. Not wanting to think of that retched city, he walked down the stairs that led to the flight control center along with the lancers.

"Captain Cahill, how are we looking?" he asked the grizzled man with prematurely gray hair. Cahill straightened out his new navy blue cap with pride, Arthur had recently promoted him to that rank after Captain Kells was appointed Elder of the Boston chapter, he was glad Cahill was enthusiastic about his new position.

"All systems are green, the Prydwen has never been in better shape Elder Maxson" Captain Cahill responded with a salute. "She's ready when you are sir" he said respectfully.

Arthur nodded in acknowledgment and walked over to the intercom station to begin a brief speech before take-off.

"Most of you are no stranger to the Prydwen. For many of you, this is the second voyage you have all undergone onboard this mighty vessel. Today, brothers and sisters, we are undertaking the longest voyage yet, for we are going nearly halfway across old America. Our western brothers and sisters need our aid and we will once again become a fully united brotherhood! Ad Victorium!" he said confidently into the intercom's microphone. He turned around and saluted to Captain Cahill to start the take-off procedures.

Within moments, the Prydwen's launch engines fired up with a loud roar and Arthur reached for the bar above the window to hold himself steady as the Prydwen lurched forward, he forgot how powerful the ship's engines were when launching. While they were slowly gaining elevation, he felt the air pressure increasing and was relieved after about ten minutes when he felt his ears pop.

"Attention all crew members, the flight deck is now accessible" Captain Cahill said into the intercom microphone. "Take-off is successfully complete, enjoy the flight."

Arthur couldn't resist the chance at taking in the views of the Potomac River basin. He walked out of the control room and back onto the flight deck. The strong winds whipped through his dark hair and as he gripped the safety railing, a feeling of elation overtook him when he looked from the pale cerulean sky to the ground. Down below, he could see farmlands below him and ramshackle settlements. Over the past decade, the local flora had taken on a healthy emerald green hue during the summer, compared to the sickly yellow grass and tree leaves that he remembered during the summers of his youth. Aqua vitae, he remembered reading on a plaque at the purifier, the water of life it meant. He was confident that within another ten years, this region would be just as fertile as it was hundreds of years ago. Three springs ago, he saw the dormant cherry trees blossom for the first time. Despite the irradiated monsters that roamed the ruins, he knew that there was finally hope for rebuilding the region with every plant that grew strong and healthy.

Humanity will grow strong once again, he knew it in his bones. The closing decade of the twenty-third century would begin a new revival of humanity's potential.

Author's Note: Hello everyone! Thank you all for such positive feedback and all of the views; it makes me happy to see that many of you are enjoying this story. My mid-term exams and projects ate up all of my time, along with car issues and working part-time. I've been working on this chapter for over a month at this point. I don't have a beta reader, so take it easy on me:)