James finally stopped firing as Preston's shouts became more and more urgent. His head was clearing and there was nothing left to fight back against the two jets and single vertibrd. Smoking carcasses of Brotherhood vertbirids lay strewn about the fields and near the bunker. Power armor frames and bodies lay near them and lay scattered throughout the battlefield.
"You can stop now!" Preston shouted once more. "There's nothing left."
"Yeah." James muttered. "Yeah you're right." He jumped off the vertibird and landed on the black, charred dirt. "Activate targeting parameters."
"Activated" Eden's voice filled James's head. "The new implant seems to be working well."
"Yeah, well Isabel did an outstanding job." James responded. "She knows her way around robots and circuitry after all."
"Can't argue with that." Eden responded. James began to inspect the dead Brotherhood soldiers and field scribes that littered the field. No Paladins. Just a couple Knights and countless initiates.
"Seems the Brotherhood's on a recruiting drive." James commented. On the HUD in James's helmet, Eden began to highlight bodies in a bright blue outline while the bunker was outlined yellow.
"The new visor program Arcade wrote is functioning perfectly." Eden said. James continued to search for Katherine and the others.
"Anyone here who we're looking for, Eden?" James asked. James noticed the vertibird's signature whir had slowed to a stop. It must have landed.
"None out the bodies we have seen. They put up quite a fight."
"Hmm. I guess Arcade really trained them well."
"And no praise for myself?"
"What do you do anyways, Eden? I haven't heard from you in months." James commented.
"Well between you no longer using Autumn's command suit until now and my work at restoring Raven Rock. A facility you yourself destroyed if I'm not mistaken, I have simply been quite busy."
"Doing what?"
"Restoring the Enclave's research. Countless mountains of data had to be recollected thanks to your first visit." James shrugged. It was a futile gesture, one Eden would not have been able to recognize, but it was instinctive.
"You guys kidnapped me first."
"That was Autumn's decision. Not mine."
"Does it matter?"
"I suppose not."
"So give me a report."
"I count at least forty dead individuals in this area alone. The Brotherhood seems to have invested quite a large number of personnel into this operation." James flipped over a dead Knight. He grabbed the Knight's holotags and snapped it off from his neck. There was a holotape. James injected it into the holotape player port.
"Your mission is to locate the purported 'Sole Survivor' of Vault 111. Paladin Danse seems to believe that she could of use to the Brotherhood in locating and eliminating the Institute. Her companion is a dangerous mercenary, one I knew from the Capital. I want you to take a vertibird and rendezvous with another patrol. Then search the area and when you have located her, radio back in for additional reinforcements." James recognized Maxson's voice giving the orders.
"But why so many for just one wastelander, Elder? If I may ask."
"The Institute seems to be paying special attention to this one in particular. Take as many men as you need. I don't want to be caught surprised by another Institute assault."
The holotape cut.
"Another one?" Preston asked. "That means they've been attacked by the Institute before."
"That does seem like the logical conclusion." Eden interjected. James nodded to Preston.
"They might've been the ones that attacked the Citadel last year." James commented. The bunker was now in sight. James lifted his gauss rifle to his chest. More dead Brotherhood soldiers, but james noticed something white pinned under it. James turned over the dead Scibe and found a robotic skeleton, broken and dented in multiple locations.
"Damn, a Gen 2." Preston said.
"What is it?" James asked.
"You never seen these?" Preston asked, almost baffled. "That's an Institue Synth right there. Tough a hell to kill. Mostly cause these bastards can call in reinforcements from out of thin air."
"What?"
"It's true. I once saw a blue flash and there three more appeared seemingly out of nowhere."
"huh. Eden, what do you make of that?" James asked.
"Currently unsure. It sounds a lot like teleportation. The Enclave once researched a similar thing once after Squad Sigma encountered an unidentified flying object in the Capital Wasteland."
"How'd the Enclave get teleportation from a UFO?" James asked.
"Sigma immediately shot the craft down and found a small green creature. They attempted to arrest it, but an orange flash and it was gone. Autumn believed it meant teleportation so he ordered that the work on such a device be done immediately."
"Did the Enclave ever finish work on that?"
"No. You arrived the week after the order." James arrived in front of the bunker. A crashed vertibird sat in front of it and the front portion of the bunker seemed have to collapsed from some sort of explosion.
"Eden. Scan the bunker." James ordered. "What did this?"
"Though it is difficult to determine what exactly engineered the destruction of the bunker's integrity, an increased rad count from the armor's Geiger counter suggests a mini-nuke was fired on this location. The vertibird seems to have been shot down by small arms fire. Specifically energy weapons."
"I'm seeing a lot of burns and melted metal here, boss." Preston commented. "I'm guessing Energy Weapons. Maybe friendly fire?"
"Unlikely. You search the ruins." James ordered. "Morales, I want Alpha to search and secure the immediate area. No prisoners. Set up a perimeter and then we can call in Bravo with a medical team." James stood in front of the bunker, the steel door remained intact, but the concrete surrounding it was cracked and crumbled. Large slabs had fallen and completely covered the entrance. "Sturges, you get any of that?"
"Yes, sir. I've got Anderson and Tanaka here at Tenpines Bluff, ready to assist. Also by the way, the Pride has completed that job you wanted them to do."
"Excellent. Get them to write up a report at Sanctuary and then I'll debrief them personally when I'm back." James responded. "Morales, get that bird in the air, I want Dusk to provide overwatch for the whole area. See if the Brotherhood is going to send more people this way. Get the P-80s to stop circling the area and return to the Crawler. I think we can handle things on the ground from here."
"Yes, sir." Morales's voice chipped in before the vertibird began to whir again.
"General, I've got a live Paladin here. Badly injured, dead power armor. He's stuck inside, but he's bleeding out."
"I did say no prisoners, right?" James responded.
"Sir, he's wearing Bael's holotags."
"Bael? Are you sure?" James asked. Paladin Bael was one of the men who guarded the front gate of the Citadel. James assumed he had died when the unknown force sacked the Citadel. "Fine. Secure him." James exited his command suit. He took a black tube that resembled a fusion core and replaced the armor's fusion core with the tube. "Eden, I execture sentry command." The armor jolted to life and the helmet's eyes shone a bright blue light. The armor began to patrol the area.
"Are you sure it's wise to have the air support leave and then exit your armor?"
"You know me. I don't do wise." James began to dig through the rubble, shifting concrete slabs one at a time. "That's Arcade's job." James grunted as he tossed an enormous from the front of the door. "This is gonna take a while."
"General!" Preston shouted. "I've got someone here!"
"Who is it?" James shouted back.
"Don't know. I think he's one of your guys!" James stood and jogged to the crashed vertibird. Pinned to the tree by a broken wing was Niko. He bled profusely from where one of the fuselages impaled him through the torso and into the tree.
"Hey, boss." Niko coughed.
"Hey, Niko. Listen help's on it's way, but…" his voice trailed.
"I understand." Niko croaked. "Not in time."
"I'm really sorry buddy."
"No worries. I shot that bird. Ironic that it took me down with it." Niko chuckled. James smiled, but knew from his limited medical experience that Niko was in poor condition to say the least.
"Watch him. I'll deal with the door." James ordered. Preston nodded and knelt beside Niko. James jogged back to the bunker and continued to dig.
"Shouldn't you at least grab a shovel?" Eden's voice filled James's head once more.
"Shut up." James responded. He dug until his hands bled. Then he cursed himself silently for admitting that Eden was right. Then he heard it. A low guttural growl. It was very soft, but James managed to catch a part of it. One word filled his head. Deathclaw.
"Eden. Get the suit back here." James whispered.
"You know, with the implant, you don't need to actually say what you want. You can think it, and I'll know?"
"Shut up and do what I say!" James hissed. The dirt began to crunch in the distance. The DEathclaw was getting clower. James drew his pistol and spinned the chamber. It was Kellogg's. It'd given James a degree of luck for the past month or so. He'd need it now.
In the distance, first the horns popped up, then James saw it's terrible head. He fired and the bullet landed between the Deathclaw's eyes. It wasn't enough. It roared a terrible roar, and stompled on the ground. A shockwave of wind threw James off his feet and he landed with his back against the tail of the Veritbird.
"Deathclaw!" Preston shouted. Yeah no shit! James thought. He aimed and fired once more shooting off one of its horns. The Deathclaw dropped to all fours and crawled in a serpentine fashion. Too fast for James to aim. He rolled to his feet for a better vantage for his target. Then it was too close. It grabbed James by the chest and stared at him. From what he could tell about Deathclaws, this one was an Alpha. But it was different. Most would have just attacked, not slinked silently closer and closer until it could be heard and fired upon. Besides, now that it held James, most deathclaws would have gutted him already. This was once different, familiar.
"Cuddles!" Katherine's voice shot from the entrance to the bunker. There was a large from the piece of concrete that James had removed earlier. James and the Deathclaw both looked at her incredulously.
"Cuddles?" James asked. The Deathclaw lowered James gently and slinked towards Katherine. Digging its head into her shoulder, like a pet rubbing its ears on an owner.
"I've heard stories like this before, man." Preston said. The Deathclaw seemed to be friendly to Katherine, acting more like a cat than a monster of the wasteland.
"Deathclaws named Cuddles?" James asked.
"No!" Preston responded. "Wastelanders who could use their voices to calm and tame creatures. I've never heard of it being done with a Deathclaw, but I've heard that it could happen."
"But Cuddles?"
"Man, what is it with you and that stupid name?!" Preston asked.
"It's not stupid." Katherine responded. "It's perfectly strategic and is a great tactical choice."
"How?!" James asked.
"Well, let's say I command Cuddles to attack a raider. The raider will see Dogmeat with me and assume that Dogmeat is Cuddles. He won't think that the Deathclaw is actually Cuddles. He'll just assume that the DEathclaw will kill me, so he'll try to take out the Deathclaw first."
"Oh so that's why." MacCready said as he crawled out from the bunker, dragging with him an elderly man. "I gotta say, that makes a lot of sense now."
"Don't encourage her." James responded. "Good to see you MacCready."
"Whatever, I'm here for her."
"Who's the guy?" Preston asked, weapon ready to fire.
"Tell him." MacCready ordered.
"My. My name is Brandis. I used to be Paladin in the Brotherhood of Steel. I called them here and they tried to kill me."