Katherine looked at the mess of buildings and old training yards. The National Guard Armory stood before her, mostly completely intact like she remembered. Nate had driven her our here once. Mostly to talk to some of his old Army buddies but also to show her that in the case she ever had to leave the Vault, she should come here and use his Officer's password to gain access to couple weapons he left in a locker. Katherine sighed as she thought of Nate. She pushed the thought of him away and searched for potential threats through the scope of her rifle. She swept the entire south side of the armory.
"You see anything MacCready?" She asked to her spotter, who searched for targets beside her.
"Couple turrets, maybe some ferals. Hard to tell if the turrets took 'em out or they're just lying in wait for an ambush." He commented. He looked up from his rifle. "Beginning to think the favor I owe that buddy of yours is not enough for a job like this. I'm gonna need to get paid."
"Well, I'm sure you and I can work something out. I've got some caps lying around at home. How about you finish the job and escort me to Sanctuary to discuss payment?"
"That's not how mercs work, lady." MacCready said as he stood from his crouch. "I want to be paid up front. 1500." Katherine looked at him funny.
"For a couple ghouls, MacCready?"
"Hey, if you don't want my help, that's fine with me too."
"I thought you owed James a favor."
"More than one. But all of those combined don't equal combat of any kind."
"Who are you to say what your service is worth?"
"I used to be a Mayor of a town."
"Really?"
"Yeah, so that's my authority."
"But you're not mayor anymore?"
"No." He paused and gave Katherine a strange look. "So what?"
"It means shut up and do the job James hired you for." MacCready mumbled as he slung his rifle and drew a souped-up submachinegun from James. Katherine kept her rifle handy and allowed MacCready to take point. As they made their way towards the armory, both MacCready and Katherine took potshots at ferals that may or may not have been dead as a precaution. Katherine took care to only use his 10mm pistol and made sure to aim carefully for the head to limit her use of ammunition. But MacCready on the hand used his machinegun, spending .45 rounds like no tomorrow at the "dead" ghouls. Katherine took note of MacCready's strange behavior and inherent hatred of feral ghouls, but made no comment.
"So where is James?" MacCready asked after reloading another drum magazine into his submachinegun. He looked up and squinted to see since while the sun began to set, painting the sky in a orange, blue hue.
"He went to check a couple other old military installations."
"Huh, sent his girlfriend out to do something on her own and figured she'd need protection, right?"
"I'm not his girlfriend. And it was because he sent the rest of the Pride to check on other possible sites. He didn't trust anyone else to come with me."
"But he trusted this mutt."
"Dogmeat is my dog, not James's."
"Whatever." Katherine and MacCready took a few more steps before MacCready held out his arm to stop her from continuing. "Turret on the roof up front. You got anything that'll shut it down in one go?"
"Yeah, one of the Enclave guys handed me this." Katherine grunted as she unslung a silver coloered gauss rifle and handed it to MacCready. Maccready whistled and made a small smile as he inspected the weapon.
"You know what, I take it back. I'll call it all even if James lets me keep this gun."
"Well it's my gun." MacCready dropped to a knee and quickly fired a shot. The turret exploded.
"Then I guess I owe you one." Another turret exploded.
"Way more than one, MacCready." Katherine crossed her arms and smiled as she watched MacCready blast one turret after the other into bits. MacCready looked up from the scope, looking satisfied from his work before loading more 2mm rounds into the rifle.
"You mind if I hold onto this for a bit, ma'am?" MacCready asked, giving Katherine a small smile.
"Oh, so it's ma'am now?"
"Hey, any woman with some good hardware deserves some respect, right?"
"So woman without good hardware don't deserve respect?"
"Your words, not mine." MacCready shifted the guns he had slung over over shoulder and pulled up his submachine gun. MacCready inched forward, clearing enemies and checking dead ferals. "You're clear."
"I can take care of myself."
"Not what James thinks."
"And you know what James thinks?"
"Why else would he hire a merc?"
"Maybe it's so someone can make sure you're okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I didn't say that you aren't." MacCready made no comment and continued to clear the area. He drew the Gauss Rifle and blasted another turret to smithereens before searching for another target for the gun. "So what is your history with James?"
"Met him while I was mayor at Little Lamplight."
"Little Lamplight?"
"Small town, run by kids. I was mayor. He was a mungo. Nothing more to say past that."
"Really? That's all?"
"No. But I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay."MacCready held up a fist and Katherine recognized that it meant to stop walking. She searched her immediate surroundings for targets. MacCready crouched and began to play with an object on the ground that Katherine could not see.
"There we go. Mine disarmed, you're cleared." MacCready said, satisfied with his work.
"That's all? Between you and James?"
"Nah, but he ran with the Brotherhood for a while. I recognized him while the Enclave and the Brotherhood basically went to war with one another. Then when I became a mungo, he was already gone."
"The Enclave was bad?"
"I think so, I heard lots of stories about the Enclave. None of them particularly good. Then the Brotherhood started going around different settlements in recruitment drives. I tried joining up, but got kicked out before I could finish my training with them."
"Why's that?"
"I was in it for the money. Still am I suppose." MacCready opened the door to one of the armory's buildings. "Careful, might be more ferals here. MacCready reached into his satchel and produced a frag mine. He armed it and tossed it into the middle of the room. "Here, watch this." MacCready drew a pipe revolver from his hip and fired in a random direction in the room. Katherine heard Dogmeat's growl from behind her, followed by the unmistakable growls and hisses of ferals in the distance. MacCready slammed the door shut and waited by it for a few seconds. Then an explosion shook the ground, MacCready waited for a few more seconds before he opened the door. He backed away quickly, submachinegun primed and ready to fire. Nothing ran out before him. Katherine opened the other door and backed up. Three dead ferals sat exploded into chunks around the first room of the armory. MacCready stepped inside, weary of any possible creaks from the wood floor. Katherine stepped in on the opposite side of the room as MacCready. Dogmeat made no sound as he followed Katherine, suggesting that there were no more threats in the building. MacCready picked up a piece of wood from the ground and tossed it into the main room. Nothing. MacCready looked at Katherine and nodded. He entered the room and began clearing the left side while Katherine did the same for the right.
"Clear." MacCready said loudly.
"Clear." Katherine echoed. No sooner than the words left her mouth that she saw a dead Brotherhood soldier. "Wait, I think I've got something."
"Lemme see." MacCready said. He nudged Katherine out of the way and stepped into the room carefully. "Friend of yours?" He asked looking back at Katherine.
"We just met." She responded. She followed MacCready and entered the room. He began to inspect the body when a strange contraption caught her eye. Katherine grabbed it and looked it over. It looked like a radio transceiver with a large antennae and big red button in the middle.
"Ferals got her." MacCready commented. "Corpse is at least a couple months old with how badly decomposed it is." He began to inspect the soldier's pockets. Katherine tapped the button on her radio earpiece.
"Sturges, I found some kind of transceiver out by the National Guard Armory, Do you think you could fly on over and give it a look?" Katherine waited for a few moments before her earpiece sparked to life.
"Sure thing. Just finished wrapping up the new defense turrents back at HQ, I'll be there within the hour." Sturges responded.
"Thanks." Katherine responded. She looked at the body, MacCready stood and handed Katherine a holotape.
"Found this. We should see what's on it right?" he said. Katherine nodded and plugged the holotape into his Pip-Boy. It whirred to life and began to play the tape. Katherine listened to the tape and realized it was the dying message of a solider left behind. She suddenly felt sorry for the soldier.
"Huh, left behind. Typical of the Brotherhood. So what's that thing you found?" MacCready asked. Katherine handed the object to him. MacCready glanced at it before quickly handing it back to Katherine. "I have no idea what it is. Maybe it's best to let your guy take a look." Katherine nodded in agreement.
"So the Brotherhood is not an organization of mercenaries?" Katherine asked, hoping to pass the time.
"Nah. They what they think is best. While James was with them, there was this old guy who made the Brotherhood actually help people. But then they didn't do so well after he died. Then this new elder took control and the Brotherhood is how you know it today."
"Huh, what happened to the first elder? What changed the Brotherhood?"
"No idea. Remember, I was gone by then. I was recruited in-between the old guy and the new elder so I don't know much. But I gotta admit, I wouldn't be alive today without my Brotherhood training."
"I think James would say something along the same lines." Katherine added. MacCready shot her a small smile. The first genuine one she had witnessed all day. Then the doors flew open with Sturges entering followed by two Enclave troopers clad in X-02 power armor.
"Hey, Sturges. This is MacCready, a merc James hired to help me secure this location." Katherine said as she strode over the Sturges.
"Hey, what's up, man?" Sturges asked. MacCready simply nodded as his response. "So what's this I hear 'bout a piece of tech you don't recognize?" Katherine handed the device to him and he gave a good, long look-over. "Looks to me like it's some kind of radio. Check your Pip-Boy, see if something shows up." Katherine glanced at her Pip-Boy and realized that her hand-held computer had registered a new radio frequency. She activated it and was blessed with a beep sound that came and went in the same pattern, pitch, and tempo.
"It's just a beep?" Katherine asked.
"My guess would be that it's a distress pulse. You're gonna have to follow it to get to where you need to go." Sturges responded.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's investigate!" MacCready said.
"Well, we need to finish what James asked us to do." Katherine responded.
"Oh don't worry about that. Me and the boys will take care of it." Sturges responded. "Need to exercise y'know? Take Niko and Sam, they're still in the vertibird. Good luck!" He said before walking into the building.
"Thanks, Sturges!" Katherine called out after him. She walked to the black vertibird parked in the parking lot of the armory. It was night now and the moon placed the entire area in a cool blue hue.
"Sam, Niko, you two are on me."
"Ma'am." Niko said as he stood from his seat and exited the veritbird. He was not wearing power armor.
"What's the mission, ma'am?" Sam asked, appearing from nowhere.
"Uh, we're investigating a distress pulse. Possibly brotherhood. We have anything in the vertibird that can pack a punch?" Katherine asked. Sam lifted his plasma sniper rifle to his chest and tapped on it before walking ahead. Niko reached into the vertibird and pulled out a belt full of small hand-held radios.
"These are homing beacons for some of the P-80s back at the Mobile Crawler. How long it takes to respond depends on the location of the crawler. Without our X-02s or any other heavy ordinance capable of punching through power armor, these are our best bets." Niko spoke slowly and carefully to Katherine. As if he were not sure that she would be able to understand how important it was that she only used the beacons when absolutely necessary. Niko also reached into his pack and handed Katherine a flare gun. "One of Preston's. These supposedly will call nearby Minutemen to aid us. You are supposed to be General, they will come to you when you need help. The flare serves two purposes, nearby Enclave Operatives will also come to assist you."
"Why didn't I receive one of these before?" Katherine asked. Niko shrugged.
"Beats me. But now you have them. Use them wisely." Niko advised before grabbing his gatling laser and walking ahead to catch up to Sam.
"I didn't know the crawler was fixed." MacCready commented.
"You know what they're talking about?"
"Oh, yeah. The Crawler was a very popular bar made in the ruins of an old Enclave Mobile Crawler. Place was huge and held tons of Brotherhood troops and initiates. It was a kinda low-key thing kept hidden from officers and the elder. Oh man, those were good times." MacCready looked down at Katherine. "You wanna get going?" Katherine smiled and nodded.