James ducked under the power armored and tackled the Brotherhood paladin against a light pole. He slammed his own fist against the T-60 suit's rib cage, hoping that the new tesla upgrades to his own X-02 suit would be enough to stun the wearer. The Paladin punched James in the face, with his helmet catching the brunt of the blow. James stumbled backward, but drew Kellogg's pistol as he did so. He planted his foot to the ground and squeezed off a round at the Paladin's helmet. The Paladin shifted his head, in an attempt to dodge the round. The round grazed the helmet, crumpling an entire side of it. James sprinted forward as the Paladin did the same.
"Preston, I could really use some help here!" James shouted. Preston rolled under the feet of another power armored individual.
"Kinda busy here!" he shouted back. James, Preston and two other Enclave operators stood on top of the bride above the wreck of the USS Riptide. Preston had organized Minutemen to help secure the location for the Enclave to use as a small safehouse. James had come personally to ensure that the location was indeed secure after he had completed securing a military installation located not too far from the safehouse. But then the Brotherhood showed up.
James and the Paladin slammed into one another, hands locking on to different arm pieces of each other's power armor. James attempted to wrestle the Paladin to his feet. James jumped forward in a poor attempt at a headbutt. The Paladin simply leaned back and used James's moementum against him. The Paladin threw James against the railing of the bridge. Before James could recover the Paladin tackled him over the railing.
"Oh shit!" James cursed to himself as he felt himself begin to free-fall. He tapped the red button on his right forearm and felt a stream of power shoot him through the air on his back. He began to right himself in mid-air with the help of his jetpack, but the Paladin was still holding onto James's suit. James fired twice, point-blank range at the Paladin's head. The helmet seemed to be on the brink of being destroyed. James slammed the butt of his pistol and watched the helmet disentigate before him.
"Dammit!" Danse's voice registered in James's ears. Danse's face was covered in blood from the shrapnel caused by his helemt's destruction, but James recognized the face as the one belonging to one of his protégés.
"Danse." James spoke quietly. Danse was clearly on his last legs, half-beaten and nearly unconscious from the fight and taking numerous shots to the head. James could hear the rest of the battle being fought as Preston and the operators engaged the remaining members of the Brotherhood patrol with renewed zeal. James held onto the chest piece of Danse's power armor.
"What? How… How do you know my name?" Danse panted, he was delirious. James sighed and flew up above the bridge. Then he flew above the positions of the Brotherhood patrol and tossed Danse at a Corvega. The power armor absorbed the fall, crushing the crovega itself. James cut thrust to the jetpack and felt himself fall. He landed hard, shaking the ground and cracking the concrete beneath him.
"Get the Paladin, we need to retreat!" The Knight-Sergeant shouted to his subordinates.
"Oh my God, Rhys! Help him!" a scribe shouted.
"I got him, don't worry." James dropped a smoke grenade and began to make his way back to the Riptide on foot. He found Preston briefing numerous Enclave plants and Minutemen guards.
"In a couple days, I want you to send word to Hangman's Alley so that we know that this safehouse is secure. Then we'll have one of our traders stop by and drop off supplies every week while they are on their rounds, any questions?" Preston asked. Nobody had any.
"Okay, dismissed." Preston shouted.
"Sir, yes sir!" the soldiers responded. James clapped or did his best to approximate that with power armor.
"You really seem to be taking your role well, 'Colonel' Preston." James said.
"Yeah, I guess. I can lead a fire team, but big picture stuff…" Preston shook his head. He slung his laser musket and walked over to James. "I prefer to leave that stuff to you and Kat. You know you guys made a real difference around here right?"
"I don't know. Maybe she did. Me? I'm only looking for one thing."
"Revenge?" James nodded. "I get it, man. Who doesn't? But you gotta see that the Enclave is doing good. Minutemen settlements are better protected than ever before. I think this is relationship that will work out very well between two different organizations."
"Whatever, I still think the Minutemen should be absorbed into the Enclave."
"Well, what if the Enclave turns into the Brotherhood? We're gonna need someone to oppose you?"
"That's a huge what-if, Preston."
"Yeah, but still. I don't agree mostly 'cause I've never thought there'd be a problem too big for the people of the Commonwelath. It's tough living out here man."
"I get it, brother. I come from the Capital, so I know a thing or two about tough lives. But still, two organizations doing the same thing is inefficient. Besides it'll cause dissent."
"So what do you suggest?"
"The Minutemen becomes part of the Enclave. They still have a say, but instead about being disbanded, think of Minutemen as being the defense force of the Enclave."
"Go on."
"No Enclave guards. Just Minutemen serving as guards, mainting order, serving as police officers, and so on."
"Huh. And the Enclave troopers then?"
"Think of it like an actual military. But one used when needed. Someone attacks a settlement? The Minutemen are the first responders like always, then the Enclave swoops in as the calvary. But we need it to be organized for it to work."
"Well, General. You'd need to talk to my general before we can talk about integration like that."
"I'm sure she'd be alright with such a discussion."
"Then count me in." Preston smiled and tipped his hat. "General." He added.
"Preston?" Sturges's voice lit up the radio. A vertibird swooped in towards the bridge. Escorted by two jets. James realized something was wrong.
"Sturges? Hey, what's going on?" Preston responded.
"It's Katherine, man. She went investigating on a distress pulse and they found a bunker."
"Okay, what's in it?"
"A Brotherhood Paladin. We lost contact with them after she'd relayed that information to us. I heard some gunfire and it sounded someone'd been shot, with all the screaming." James was already on the vertibird. Preston was on soon after.
"Take us there, now." James ordered.
"Of course, sir." The pilot responded. Morales, who happened to be on the vertibird pressed a button on the side of the circular terminal in front of James and Preston. A hologram map materialized before James. There were lines and different images, one for each operator located all over the map. James noted that the map was of the entire Commonwealth and even a bit more than what his Pip-Boy allowed him to see.
"This is where they are." Morales spoke as he typed into a keyboard, installed next to the terminal. The map suddenly shifted to a local map of an area that James did not recognize. An image of MacCready and Katherine sat on one side of the holographic map while an image of Niko and Sam were more spread out. "We lost contact with them in this location. A P-80 made a quickly fly-over of the location and captured this image. This is how we know of the operators' positions based on their individual IR beacons."
"So what's the problem?" Preston asked. "They're separated and we lost contact. Why the urgency for us?" James nodded.
"Because the P-80 was shot down on the way back with the pilot going missing. They are only a few factions in the Commonwealth capable of shooting down our P-80s. Especially since the P-80s are practically top of the line tech from Pre-War now reintegrated into Enclave Armed Forces. We have reason to be that Brotherhood shot down the P-80 and are en-route to Katherine's position as we speak."
"But we don't know for sure?" Preston asked.
"No, sir. We do not."
"Okay then. What's our ETA?" Preston asked as he walked over to the Pilots' seats.
"Fifteen minutes, sir."
"Okay, tell one of the P-80s to go ahead and get eyes on our operatives. They are authorized to use whatever force necessary to kill anybody if there is reason to believe that our operators are in danger."
"Yes, sir. Echo Forty Two, you are cleared to do some recon of the bunker." The pilot said. James looked out the open side door of the vertibird. He saw the VTOL fly over water and was nearing land full of dead trees. In the distance he could hear other vertibirds in the sky and wondered if they were friendly or hostile. He opened a locker on the verttibird and found a fat-man with six mini-nukes.
"ETA four minutes." The pilot said.
"Showtime." James muttered to himself.
Katherine ducked behind the concrete wall she was using as cover. Red laser painted the wall red with a few flying through the open door.
"Dammit, Brandis!" MacCready shouted. "You're Brotherhood aren't you? Can't you order them to stand down?!" But Paladin Brandis was in no mood to talk or even in a state capable of making decisions. He saw in the corner by the fusion generator in a fetal position. Katherine realized the shooting had stopped.
"Niko?" Katherine whispered insticively into the radio, "Niko, are you okay? Is everything clear?" MacCready loaded the Gauss Rifle with rounds.
"Two shots left. We'll have to make it count." MacCready muttered. "How many fucking soliders did they send anyway?"
Katherine looked through the window and saw at least fifteen power armor suits clanking about. Suddenly a green stream darted from out of nowhere, cleaving a soldier's hand off from his rifle. Katherine ducked and cursed herself as she recalled what had gotten them into the whole ordeal.
They cleared the satellite station with no incident with the help of a P-80 wiping out most of the supermutants there for them. They found the dead scribe's body and distress pulse radio. Then they found Brandis where he shot at Niko and activated the bunker's distress signal. For whatever reason, the Brotherhood not only investigated but also sent three vertibirds to investigate as well. That's when Brandis ran out to greet his old brothers and the Brotherhood began to open fire. Even on Brandis.
Katherine reloaded her assault rifle and realized it was her last magazine. She searched the pockets of her Enclave fatigues but found nothing.
"Last mag." She shouted to MacCready. He reached into his duster and tossed her a full magazine of 5.56 rounds.
"That was my last one too. Make it count." He said to her. Katherine rested her assault rifle on the edge of the window and looked out. Sam fell from his sniping position above the bunker in front of the door. MacCready fired at the Brotherhood with the Gauss Rifle as Katherine dragged Sam inside the bunker. He was unconscious with a red, glowing hole in his chest and abdomen and what appeared to be a third degree just under his left eye. Likely a graze from a laser bolt that nearly took his head. Katherine propped up her gun and began to fire.
"Wait, what's that noise?" MacCready asked. Katherine stopped firing a listened and recognized a high pitched whine. Katherine looked up to investigate. "Oh shit, Fat man!" MacCready shouted as he tackled her to the ground. Then the door exploded and caused the wall to collapse.