Back to the Present

Marching towards the bridge after Somah a gravelly voice shouted, "Sir." Turning Ridger saw Charon, his ghoul bodyguard. "Charon, enough with that sir shit," Ridger told him, "If you want to speak formally its Captain. And talking in a hallway isn't a formal setting. Right now, its Ridger,"

"Yes si…. I mean Capt... I mean Ridger," the ghoul said, the rapid word change making his already gravelly tone harder to make out, "I'm glad you're not dead,"

"Boss, let's go. Leave the zombie," Somah shouted, earning a growl from Charon.

"Somah, no xenophobia except towards aliens," Ridger shouted.

"Yeah you negro bitch, no xenophobia," Michael shouted, wearing his uniform from the American Civil War. The tan clothing was well pressed and showed his rank as a Cavalry Captain of the Confederate Army. "Be quiet you racist pig," Somah shouted back, her voice filled with venom.

"I don't think I will, cotton picker," he retorted. Somah went for her caravan shotgun while Michael raised his LeMat Revolver. Charon unshouldered his double-barreled shotgun, pointing it Somah while also drawing his 10mm pistol and pointing that at Michael. "Don't," the ghoul growled. No one lowered their weapons. "Put them down," Ridger said. He had no weapons drawn but everyone knew he was still the most dangerous person in that hallway. "NOW!" he shouted, raising his voice. Guns were holstered.

"Somah, show me what you wanted to show me," he said, regaining his composure, "Michael, go help sanitation and think about which words are appropriate to use around me," Michael saluted and marched off. Somah started to smirk, "Cut that out," he told her. Her face returned to a neutral stance.

Entering the bridge Somah led him and Charon over to the station that had been identified by the techs as the comm station. It was able to pick up practically every communication on the planet, not that there were many left. The one that they were tuning into now chilled Ridger to the core. "This is Elder Sara Lyons of the East Coast Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. There has been a coup, most of those loyal to me are dead or dying. Requesting any assistance available on my position immediately. Ridger, if you can hear this, I need help." The message went on repeat, starting from the beginning.

He immediately walked towards the nearest weapons locker, but Somah stepped in front of him. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked. He pushed her out of the way and grabbed an Atomizer. He marched to the bridge teleporter. "You are in no position to help anyone," she told him, but he wasn't listening. He locked the teleporter to the coordinates where Sara's message was emanating. The green light showed a lock lit up and he activated the teleporter. The moment of weightlessness that came with having your molecules ripped apart then reassembled hit him and in that same moment, he felt himself rematerialize. Somehow, he appeared right between three Brotherhood Outcasts. In a split second, thanks to his combat chip, he sighted and fired at all three targets. They disintegrated into ash. He rolled away to a ruined car, praying that no one was using it for cover. "Battle is joined," he thought to himself.

P.O.V. Sara Lyons

She thought it was over. That no one was coming. She, and what was left of her loyalists, were held up in the ruins of a prewar parking garage on the North-Eastern part of D.C. Maxson hadn't been subtle with his calls for action, petitioning for Sara to be removed and for him to take her place. Many of the lower ranks supported the decision, the reinforcements from the West and members of the Outcasts that had crawled back to the Citadel begging for redemption. That had meant little though because she still had the support of Rothchild, the senior paladins, and Lancer Captain Diomedes.

Then the coup came. Rothchild and Diomedes were killed with a plasma grenade when the pair were going over blueprints in the mess hall. Kodiak had been gunned down in the armory. Vargas had been in Sara's office with her when the attack on them occurred. Fortunately, the pair were armed and Sara had a loyal guard wearing the assault pattern armor watching her door.

From there they executed a plan that she hoped she'd never had to enact. Word spread to her loyalists from alarm, word of mouth, and the general explosions that rocked the Citadel. Her people tried to secure what resources they could and make it to the vertibirds. They had managed to escape with about fifty fighters and twenty scribes. Most of their vertibirds were shot down and they had to reconvene at this sight. The fighting was hard and they didn't have enough vertibirds to get everyone out. Someone would have to die.

That was until a blue light flashed and three of the traitors were disintegrated in front of her. She couldn't tell for sure who it was, but she knew that it was Ridger. He darted to the cover of a ruined car and continued to fire at the traitors, each shot eliminated a foe. He was on his feet, but even from the distance between them, she could see he was injured. His left arm was dislocated and both his legs had a limp.

"Ridger, get to cover!" Vargas yelled snapping off several shots to cover his friend. Others, emboldened by the Paladin, joined the volley. Some overzealous members even leaped out of their cover, taking advantage of the shock and awe, charged with rippers, power fists, and super sledges. More flashes of light exploded around the ruins and more fighters materialized. They supported the push made by Ridger, firing their weapons. She noticed that they were ad hoc at this moment, a far cry from the fight she saw several weeks ago. Some wore armor, others did not. Some wielded weapons like the one Ridger was using, others did not. One man, dressed like a feudal samurai, charged forward, wielding a Shishkebab sword. Las shots against his armor seemed to sputter and spread across the armor, blackening the paint but not visibly harming him.

The Traitor Brotherhood attempted to rally, form up and counter-attack. It was almost impossible as they were not in a proper defensive position and were getting hammered. When the line of melee fighters hit the Traitors began to suffer heavier casualties as they weren't equipped for it. The strange weapons wielded by these soldiers made Sara feel uneasy, even as they were turned on her enemies. They could disintegrate soldiers in recon power armor, few forms of protection were better.

The strange craft from the Mutant Citadel descended from the sky, its arrival heralded by loud rock music. Its weapons made themselves known butchering the rogue Brotherhood members. They broke. They ran. Like rats from light, they ran. Ridger's allies took up positions to watch the streets. To watch the skies. To guard the wounded. The ship landed in the open and its ramp parted. Ridger's people started to move their wounded and dead aboard the ship. "Lyons," Ridger shouted. She turned to look at him and her heart stopped for a moment. He was limping on both legs. She had been right; his left arm was dislocated. It also looked like he had stitches that had been torn as blood flowed from many cuts on his body.

She almost regretted calling him. "Are you good?" he asked her.

"Am I….." she said, "Ridger you look like you've been to hell. Why did you do this,"

"You called for help, I came," he told her. He opened his mouth to talk again but he began to stumble and suddenly fell to the ground. "Ridger?!" she shouted to him. His men ran forward, weapons raised at her. "Step back," a man dressed like a Mojave Native told her, a revolver pointed at her head. Another man, this one the medic from the Mutant Citadel, checked Ridger's vitals and began to drag him to the ship. "Now, it's fairly obvious that you folks are in a sorry state, well guess what? We know a place that you could get some help," the Revolver wielding man told her, "Up North there's a town called Breadbasket. They have a little thing for taking in the less fortunate. We'll take you that way, in exchange for you not shootin us again. Fair?"

With no options on the table and a lot of wounded Sara only had one thing she could say, "Alright,"

Author's Note

Maxon's true colors are shown and the Brotherhood's been split. How will this affect the wasteland? Oh, that's right Fallout 4. Nevermind. Sorry for missing last weeks upload, I thought it published my bad. And about the other story, the site's acting up and won't let me post new stories. Trying to get that fixed. Anyway, thanks for reading.