"You know, I don't think you should be doing this." MacCready commented while Katherine snapped on her personal combat armor pieces one at a time in the Vertibird.
"Duly noted, MacCready." She responded. "But the CPG wants eyes-on reports on the Minutemen's progress against the Gunners."
"But flying a vertibird around Gunner's plaza is not really a smart move. You know that their small arms are more than enough to down one of these." MacCready responded.
"Then I suggest you make sure they don't get that chance, right MacCready?" she smiled back at him. She stood from the vertibird's seat and walked to the cockpit. "How long?"
"ETA in 5, ma'am." The pilot responded. The CPG had made significant progress in two weeks. They had repelled the raider gangs around Bunker Hill and made most trade routes secure, after an overhaul of the Minutemen war machine. There were few confrontations between the Minutemen and the Brotherhood of Steel, but most of them never moved past harsh words thrown at one another. Katherine looked over the brown hills and cracked highways that her vertibird flew over. She could see lines of Minutemen marching towards Gunners plaza, wearing combat armor and wielding sniper rifles and laser weapons. The Minutemen was mostly limited to what traders had available now, and with so many settlements collaborating together, there wa high demand for laser weapons. The only two organizations that held more were the Gunners and the Brotherhood and Katherine wanted to avoid as much confrontation with the Brotherhood as possible.
James had essentially disappeared while looking for the Railroad. He had been missing for over a week and the CPG disciplinary committee had been formed to decide whether or not to try him for disubordination. Which Katherine herself did not understand since he only dropped out of contact two days ago and that such a committee was being formed too quickly to punish what was not a small issue. Katherien concluded that politics, as always goes straight to name-calling and finger-pointing.
"We've arrived at the LZ ma'am." The pilot responded.
"Remember, we're only to observe. This is a transport variant, not the gunship." Eden's voice spoke from the vertibird's speakers.
"Any word on James?" Katherine asked.
"Nothing yet, Miss Katherine." Eden responded.
"What's going on down there?" MacCready asked. Laser fire exchanged between both sides. Gunners fired from turrets and barricaded positions, while Minutemen scrambled for any sort of cover that was available. "Sounds like our guys are getting pounded."
"It would seem that previous intelligence regarding the Gunners was incorrect. They are much more fortified than previously thought." Eden responded.
"So what's the response?" Katherine asked.
"Preston has called for air support and reinforcements. The P-80s have already been dispatched but to assist the Mobile Crawler with something. Some kind of raid on it. It has just passed New York and will arrive in a month or two. Arcade wants to take his time with the crawler."
"Noted." Katherine responded. "So what are the reinforcements? When are they coming?"
"I wanted to try a different approach than convetional reinforcements. They should arriving just now. Look to your right." Eden suggested. Katherine opened the right sliding door and saw a line of five vertibirds, one a gunship and the other four transports. The transport variant had been modified to carry more troops, so it was elongated and had four rotors rather than two. Hanging under each transport vertibird was an enormous cage.
"What's in the cages?" MacCready asked.
"A test." Eden responded. The gunship opened fire and rained missiles and machinegun fire at the Gunners' positions. The laser fire from the Gunners stopped for a few momements as the fleet passed, Katherine's vertibirds. The transport vessels quickly stopped and hovered over the plaza while the gunfire twirled in 180 degrees and continued firing. Then the winches connecting the cage to each vertibird was released and the cages dropped. The doors flew opened and a deathclaw crawled out from each cage.
"You caught deathclaws in cages?" Katherine asked. MacCready laughed as the deathclaws began to mow through Gunner lines.
"It was always possible. The Enclave has been doing it for years. We just wanted to attempt at controlling them with our control collars. But they've never quite worked the way we wanted them to." Eden said simply.
"These control collars work?" Katherine asked.
"Perfectly." Eden responded. The deathclaws made short work of the Gunners while members of the Lyons' Pride began to jump out of the rear bay of the vertibirds wearing X-02 Advanced suits of power armor. Some even wore the Tesla variant that James has discussed with Preston.
Katherine smiled. Things were looking up for the Commonwealth, slowly, the people were taking back the land. With some help from the Enclave.
"Thank you for showing up on such a short notice." A woman's voice said in the dark.
"No problem." James responded. He was in some sort of cellar and the lights were shut off.
"You've proven yourself worthy of our cause." The woman's voice spoke again and two construction lights were flipped on, momentarily blinding James. "Welcome to the Railroad."