Chapter One: Long Road Ahead
Hidden Valley Bunker July 31 2289
Over two centuries ago, civilization as it was in the United States ceased to exist after the bombs dropped. Millions succumbed to the radiation—some died instantly, others live on after two centuries of disfiguring radiation damage. In the following years after the Great War, society started to rebuild amidst the ruins of the old world. This brave new world brought with it new types of creatures that threatened a great number of human settlements. Gone were the days when humans were perched top upon the food chain. In the 22nd century, a race of mutated humans dubbed 'Super Mutants' exterminated a number of settlements in what was California before a vault dweller from Vault 13 took the fight to them at the old Mariposa military base.
Out of the many failed settlements in the former Southwest Commonwealth, one particular settlement rose to prominence over time. Shady Sands grew from a humble farming community from Vault 15 to a Southwest Commonwealth empire called The New California Republic which now encompasses territory in Mexico and the former Four States Commonwealth. The NCR's expansion has come at a high cost to many other groups that rose to prominence in the Southwest. The humanitarian group, The Followers of the Apocalypse have now left the Mojave in search of a new home in Wyoming, along with The Great Khans after years of cleaning up after the NCR and clashing ideologies with their former ally. Not all chose the easy way out.
This year marks the thirteenth anniversary since our defeat at Helios One and the forty-eight year since the beginning of the war with the NCR. Three years ago we were given two choices by the newly elected NCR president Taylor—assimilate or leave the State of Maxson. We left Maxson last year and joined forces with Hidden Valley in the newly incorporated NCR state of Mojave. Our numbers used to be in the thousands and we held many bases and bunkers in the ruins of southwest America. Now we are only four hundred strong after decades of defeat and desertion in NCR territory. Time is ticking and tonight is our last night here until we are officially leaving all NCR territory. We've received word over the years that the Brotherhood of Steel has strongholds in both the ruins of Boston and Washington DC. Our only hope is to march east to join forces with our East Coast chapter, currently being led by Elder Arthur Maxson. Our order was founded by a Maxson and shall be saved by his last remaining descendant. Ad Victorium brothers and sisters!
Anita McNamara, Lost Hills Scribe
Thinking about the long road Anita faced tomorrow created an abyss in her stomach. At heart she would always be a rural west coast girl—there was a solace to be found in the vast blue skies and snow-capped mountains that touched the sky. Grief from being forced out of Lost Hills by the New California Republic was still fresh in her heart; now her and the remains of the west coast BOS are leaving the west behind forever. Growing up, she heard many stories about Washington DC—it was a city full of super mutants and crumbling monuments to democracy. People there barely had access to clean freshwater before the Brotherhood aided scientists in creating an abundance of freshwater for the Capital Wasteland—which also killed off many of the irradiated creatures that plagued societies in the area.
She glanced at her gold plated watch. Shit, she forgot that she was going to have her last dinner in Hidden Valley with Uncle Nolan and his son Joaquin. In a hurry, she slammed the journal shut and made a mental note to show it to High Elder Casdin after dinner. She jogged through the winding passageways of the bunker until she reached Uncle Nolan's office, while dodging the soldiers carrying and packing away valuable supplies towards the hanger where there was a small fleet of ten vertibirds that were being prepped for the long road east. Weapons and ammo were being placed in locked crates by the quartermaster and scribes could be heard arguing about which documents to save and which to destroy.
She tapped the green button on Uncle Nolan's door and it promptly opened with a quiet hiss. Noticing that Uncle Nolan was reading a document and Joaquin was scribbling on a scrap piece of paper. Uncle Nolan glanced up at her and checked his watch.
"Before you say it Elder McNamara, I know I'm late" she told him defensively as she held up her hands. "I was working on a document for Elder Casdin and you know how easily I lose track of time" she explained to him.
He smiled at her. "Anita, you can just call me Uncle Nolan, God knows that your father would turn over in his grave if he knew I was Elder of this chapter. He…was the one made for this job, not I…" he started to say before stopping himself.
"Uncle Nolan, you're doing that thing again" Anita warned him. She laid her hands on his desk and made eye contact with her uncle. "You're the only reason this chapter has survived, look at your son—you would have never met him if you didn't listen to your instincts. Paladin Hardin and his lot be damned!" she said boldly.
Uncle Nolan sighed and pointed at the plate full of limp noodles and salty vegetables. "Not the finest meal ever, but it's better than some of the fare we will have on the road" he said; which made Anita feel rather depressed. He cleared his throat before continuing on. "I value your faith in me; but, I'm not sure you understand how brutal the trek across this continent will be. We'll be on the road for weeks—surviving off of whatever rations we can find in the wasteland. I don't know about you, but I'm not excited to live off of bloat fly steaks and run the risk of being shot down by whatever insane faction is in charge of a region" he said pessimistically.
Anita nodded. "Scribe Li has just finished the last entry in the journal we compiled for you. We found a route that takes us just past Caesar's territory, although it's difficult to predict the organization level of that group since they lost their leader during Hoover Dam. It's hard to say what the Mid-West will throw at us—we've heard rumors that both slavers and twisters are rampant in that area."
"Very reassuring Anita" McNamara responded with a hint of sarcasm.
She looked at her wide-eyed cousin, Joaquin's eyes were wide with terror. Shit, he looked terrified, which was fair, but she needed to reassure him. "Don't worry Joaquin, your Dad and I will keep you safe" she told him as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know. Dad is making me wear special armor and I even get my own laser pistol. See?" he told her as he showed her his custom-made laser pistol.
Anita had to hand it to her cousin—at the ripe age of ten, he could put on a show of fake bravado. Eyeing the plate, she decided to pick up her fork and start chowing down on the sad noodles and vegetables. She winced at the first bite, but she practically inhaled the dish due to not eating much throughout the day.
Uncle Nolan leaned back in his chair and opened up one of his desk drawers. Out of the corner of Anita's eye, she saw that it was a tiny white box.
"I hope that you will appreciate this. This should have been given to you a long time ago" he told her as he handed the box over to her.
The petite white box piqued her curiosity. She took the cardboard lid off it and was intrigued by its content—a gold chain and circular pendant that appeared hollow. She grasped it and aimed it towards the dim light in the room — she had never seen this worn gold locket before. She lightly pressed the edges of the gold pendant and it popped open, revealing a surprise to her.
She gasped quietly in shock when she recognized the two photos inside the locket. One was of her father one the day he became 'Paladin' Ethan McNamara outside of the entrance to Lost Hills, it must have been from over twenty years ago. He had a triumphant grin on his face and Anita was reminded of how strong the resemblance between her and her late father was. The other worn photo was of her wastelander mother, Kyra Ali, from when she was a bartender in the small town of Maxsonville—one of the few NCR settlements that was close to Lost Hills. She had forgotten how beautiful her late mother had been—she barely stood over five feet and had tanned skin and sleek dark hair. Anita sometimes had wished that she had inherited her mother's tiny frame. Instead she ended up being nearly six foot with a strong muscular frame and ginger hair similar to her late father's. While she mainly expressed her father's looks, she did inherit her mother's curious nature and her eyes.
Sensing that Anita was pleased with the gift, Uncle Nolan smiled kindly. "Before your father died at Helios One, he wanted me to give you this. I could have sent this to you at Lost Hills, but there's no courier in the world I could have trusted with this."
Grateful tears forming in her eyes, she beamed at him. "This is the best gift I have ever gotten…I know that it has been over thirteen years, but it doesn't change that I wish that he could still be here today." Once rumors swirled that the NCR was gaining a stronger foothold in the Mojave, many Paladins, including her father, were sent into the Mojave for what was supposed to be a temporary boost in Hidden Valley's defenses. What Elder Casdin didn't know was that
He nodded in agreement, folding his hands. "I miss my elder brother often, and your mother as well. Your mother had her disagreements with the Brotherhood, but nevertheless she became an incredible scribe."
Wanting to change the subject, she brought up the final preparations for tomorrow morning. "So, what I hear is that I will be joining the aerial scouts?" she asked him curiously.
"Elder Casdin is the one who ordered that, before you ask if it was my suggestion. His logic is that you will be perfect for scouting because you're our resident geography expert slash historian" he explained calmly. "I'm staying on the ground, my place is to ensure that Joaquin and everyone else remains safe."
She tugged at the zipper on her grey overcoat and tucked the locket into the small pocket and zipped it back up. She looked at the clock in the quarters and realized that it was nearly ten and they were supposed to be marching out at 6am sharp. "Thank you for dinner and this necklace, Uncle Nolan" she told him gratefully. She gave him a quick hug before leaving.
"Anita!" Joaquin's small voice called out.
"What?" she asked him.
"Ad Victorium!" he shouted enthusiastically with an attempt at a brotherhood salute.
"Ad Victorium cousin" she saluted. According to the older paladins that knew her father, Joaquin was like a reincarnated version of her father.
There was too much adrenaline and anxiety running through her to even think about getting some shut-eye. After bidding Uncle Nolan and Joaquin good bye, she started wandering through the hallways until she reached the library and unclipped a keyboard from one of the terminals on the wall.
This particular terminal had come from Lost Hills—Roger Maxson himself had terminal entries on here that detailed his time in the US military. Personally, the pre-war military fascinated her greatly—the scope of the pre-war United States still surprised her to this day. She couldn't believe that once upon a time a flight between the coasts only took six hours on a jet plane and that even Canada was a part of the United States. There were days when Anita wished that she lived in the pre-war world; pre-war folks had it all in her mind. In her mind she had an on-going fantasy life in the pre-war world. She had read that many people her age would attend college for several years and learn about anything from engineering to culture studies; she decided that she would have studied world history and explored the distant lands of Europe. When growing up in bunkers underground, anything pre-war was pure escapism for her.
Although, looking back at pre-war records made her feel melancholic for anyone pre-war. By the time the bombs dropped, most Americans had realized that the thing they aspired to 'the American Dream' was in reality…just a dream that turned into a nightmare. Many pre-war documents she had read mentioned that soldiers wearing heavy combat armor and power armor prototypes were often patrolling the streets in 'riot-prone' areas of America.
Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep at the terminal and was in a deep slumber. After what felt like five minutes, she felt somebody shaking her shoulder to wake her up.
"Anita Rosa McNamara, you need to wake-up right this instant!" she heard a woman's voice yell in her ear.
Slowly opening her groggy eyelids, she realized who it was. "Damnit Veronica, I'm awake" she said while trying to compose herself. She looked at the terminal's computer—it was 5am, one hour before leaving. Shit, good thing that everything of hers got packed away two days ago.
"Sure thing, only two minutes ago you were drooling over the keyboard" Veronica quipped back.
"Who the hell let you in Veronica?" she asked sarcastically with a still groggy grin.
"Paladin Hardin almost didn't—pompous ass" she remarked. "I've got bad news for you kid, you're stuck with me on a vertibird for um, the foreseeable future" she informed Anita with an over-exaggerated reassurance pat on the shoulder. "Elder Casdin decided that we're going to be 'ambassadors to the wastelanders' he said that I had the best interpersonal skills in the Brotherhood."
Anita couldn't stop herself from snorting with laughter at her comment. "So, he means that you're a pain in the ass" she said with a straight face.
"Well, since you're stuck with me, it means you're a pain in the ass as well sister" she smiled. "All right, enough chit chat, pop out that hard drive and let's blow this Popsicle stand" she ordered light-heartedly. "You might want to get that armor on, it's a dangerous world out there."
Anita popped the hard drive out of the computer and placed it in a protective folder inside a box that got handed off to a scribe. After that, she took her combat armor out of her pack and started securing the lightweight armor to her body. It was no T50 armor, but it could stop most bullets from seriously injuring her. When she walked out of the library, it was strange to see the bunker completely empty. Anyone capable of using and holding a gun were geared up and the few children in the bunker were having their armor secured by their parents. It's a sad world we live in, Anita thought darkly, no child should ever have to worry about not living to see their next birthday.
Suddenly the bunker's intercom was live and Elder Casdin's voice could be heard over it. "My fellow soldiers of the Brotherhood of Steel, this will be the most difficult feat the Brotherhood has undertaken yet" Elder Casdin said shakily into the speaker system, his age clearly showing in his voice. "Over two hundred years ago, our founder Roger Maxson led us on a perilous journey from the horrors of Mariposa. Just as our great founder did two centuries ago, I am asking each one of you if you will accompany me on a journey that will define the Brotherhood of Steel for the rest of its days!" Hardin's voice boomed over the intercom that ran throughout the bunker.
"AD VICTORIUM!" many voices shouted together throughout the bunker, including Anita's.
Elder McNamara stood next to Elder Hardin near the entrance; both making sure that every soul inside the bunker was accounted for. Anita stuck close to Veronica as she made her way to the hanger, along with the other scouting crews manning the vertibirds. To her surprise, her friend Knight-Captain Li was piloting the vertibird. Li was around Veronica's age and came from a small Brotherhood outpost that was near Dayglow. Knights Smith and Moretti were assigned to man the turrets in case of any trouble on the road. Anita was fairly certain that both Smith and Moretti were from Hidden Valley.
Seeing the vertibird up close and thinking about being hundreds of feet in the air made her stomach drop. Taking several deep breaths, she stepped aboard the hovering vertibird and strapped herself in with the two buckles. The hanger ceiling started the opening process and Anita felt her eardrums nearly burst from the loud blare of the alarm and the vertibird engines starting. The hanger doors were soon wide open and Anita saw the sun peaking over the horizon.
There was nothing that could prepare her for the turbulence. She felt her body jolting within the harness—needless to say, her heart was racing and she was nervous about opening her eyes.
"Hey Josh, how much experience do you have piloting?" she heard Knight Moretti say over the vertibird radio. "I'm trying to make Scribe McNamara feel comfortable with opening her eyes."
"Um…I know where the controls are and I have flown 500 hours in the training simulations" he answered shakily.
Anita exhaled sharply at that. Light peeked into her eyes, but she was still nervous about opening them. She popped one eye open and then the other, but just focused on looking at the vertibird ceiling.
"See, we're in good hands ma'am" Moretti responded sarcastically.
"You're a jerk" she told Moretti and shook her head. Veronica was next to her, Anita could tell that she was apprehensive as well about being in a vertibird. Unlike her though, Veronica was becoming more adjusted to being high up in the sky.
"So, what did you lot do to get stuck with me?" she said half-jokingly into the intercom as she glanced over the crew. "Scribe McNamara is here because Elder Casdin has no idea what to do with a historian."
"I was born outside the brotherhood" Knight Moretti chimed in confidently. He smoothed his dark hair back and put on his sunglasses as the desert sun grew brighter.
"I think I'm just here to keep y'all out of trouble" Knight Smith said with a classic southern drawl. He was in his mid-thirties and had laser burns all over his hands and neck. "I think Josh was assigned to pilot our sorry asses because he's the only one who can put up with your bs Moretti" Smith joked.
"Copy that" Josh said over the intercom. "It's going to be a long haul across America folks. Remember, wait for Delta squad to confirm hostiles. We're not in a good position to be picking fights right now" he ordered.
Breathing deeper and deeper, Anita looked away from the ceiling and turn her head to the right. She saw the humming blades of the other vertibirds flying in tandem. After mustering more courage, she looked down onto the long 15, she saw the few hundred BOS members walking along the 15. What an impressive sight they must be to the Mojave—it wasn't every day you saw an exodus of this size in NCR territory, let alone multiple vertibirds. From up here, everything seemed so trivial in the Mojave. The feral death claws and rapid scorpions could only dream of attacking them now.
Off in the distance she could see the vibrant neon lights of New Vegas and the desert plains that grew into snow-capped mountains. She focused on the Mojave, not wanting to miss a beat—she wanted to try and preserve this final glimpse of the Mojave in her mind forever. Her only regret was not going to her Mother's grave before she left California to say her final farewell. She whispered part of the Lord's Prayer to herself, as her mother often did when she was a child. As the day dragged along, her heart felt heavy as she tried to only look to the east. The East, she tried to tell herself, over and over would bring her a fresh start that was much needed. Out east, brotherhood members didn't have to cower in bunkers, out east, they were free to see the sky as often as they wanted.