"So you're a mailman?" Katherine asked as she sat across from Nathan. She, Nathan, MacCready, Nick, Dogmeat and a guy named Boone all sat in the mid section of the vertibird. Boone was a guy that Nathan brought with him when he arrived. Boone seemed to rigid to be an average wastelander, Katherine observed. She guessed he was probably military. Two Enclave Pride members sat in the bay behind Katherine. She couldn't remember the names but guessed that they were probably Colvin and Gallows while someone named Dusk manned the minigun on the side. Dogmeat sat next to Katherine, panting and with his tongue out. He was clearly enjoying the ride to Quincy.

"What? No." Nathan responded. "I'm a Courier."

"Yeah, a mailman." Katherine repeated. "So what are you doing here?"

"Well, the New California Republic has a package for the Lone Wanderer." Nathan said. Boone glared at him as Nathan mentioned the name.

"I'm guessing you guys are from California then?" Katherine asked.

"No. I'm from what's left of Washington. Grew up with some tribals before a Prospector took me in." Nathan said.

"Oh, how's that?"

"Most of its pretty intact. Just irradiated water and fog every once in a while."

"I've always wanted to go to Washington."

"Well, now's not exactly a good time. You see things out East may be pretty peaceful but Washington's become the front line for the Kingdom of Vancouver and the NCR."

"The Kingdom of Vancouver?"

"Really?"

"Yeah a few influential families from Pre-War times came together and decided to create something similar to Project Safehouse. They saved a lot of people but established a feudal hierarchy that's lasted 'till today. Things stayed mostly the same for them until they started expanded South. Then they came into contact with the Alaskan Snow People."

"Snow people?"

"Yeah, loads of Chinese prisoners shipped back here during the Chinese invasion back before the war. They got stuck stateside after the bombs dropped and got free. They set up their own nation-state type thing in the remaining US army bases leftover from Anchorage."

"You know your Pre-War history."

"Kinda have to. I'm a Ranger. Or was a Ranger. They used to brief us on the history of the place before we're sent for long-term recon missions. After the second battle of Hoover Dam and a few small-skirmishes in Colorado, the Boneyard got sacked and that stirred up a lot of crazy over at the NCR. Nobody knew where the attack came from except that it was from the North. I was shipped out to investigate."

"So was it the north that initiated such an attack?" Katherine asked, interested in the current events of her home state.

"No. Snow People are isolationist. They also don't want to expand from where they are. The environment is too hostile for a large population and they have some serious overcrowding issues. The Kingdom also has no idea about the attack. They don't even have a professional army."

"So where's the attack from?" Nathan shrugged.

"It's the Legion." Boone said suddenly.

"There's no proof of that."

"I just know it." Boone responded. "It's a gut feeling I have."

"What's the Legion?"

"Story for another time." Nathan responded. "Sounds likes we're just about there."

"Quicy coming into view now, ma'am." The pilot said.

"Dusk, what do you see?" Katherine asked.

"Exchanges of gunfire coming from the chuch and its curroundings. It really seems like the Minutemen are going to need some heavy ordinance to make it out of there." Dusk reported.

"You two, get ready!" Katherine ordered the two operators at the back.

"Ma'am!" They responded in unison.

"Can you land?" Katherine asked as she stood up from her seat and walked to the pilot cockpit.

"Not anywhere close, ma'am. LZ is simply too hot."

"Any air support close by?"

"None of the jets are cleared to fly. Thunderstorm's rolling through the north area right not."

"Gunships on standby?"

"Most are grounded. We're it as far as I know." The pilot responded.

"Get us down there, ma'am. We'll do what we can." Gallows said. Katherine nodded. She understood that these men preffered to be fighting on the ground rather than circling above the battlefield.

"Can you fly them over the battlefield, let them insert on a rooftop or something?"

"Not sure, ma'am. Let me get us over a few buildings first, and then we'll see." The vertibird swooped over Quincy Market. She recognized the tourist attraction that Katherine herself had visited with Nate on the free weekends that he was home from the frontlines.

"Go!" one of the paladins shouted. Each leapt off the veritibird from a different side of the open bay doors. Katherine watched the one opposite Dusk on the minigun fall and land on top of an old corvega. The small four-door sedan crumpled under the weight of the power armor. He then stepped off the wreck and began to make his way towards the church.

"Missile launcher!" Dusk shouted. The vertibird swerved in an attempt to dodge the explosive. Katherine watched as it passed through the open bay doors from where Dusk stood through the interior and out the other door and watched it trail off towards the see.

"That was a close one." The pilot commented. Katherine grabbed her sniper rifle and clipped her harness to the veribird. She stood at the right bay door and aimed out at the buildings in search of targets. Dusk sprayed hellfire on the gunner positions as the veritibrid slowed to hover over the church.

"Out, out, out!" Nathan ordered as Boone jumped out of the Vertibird and landed on the roof of the church. Nathan followed suit and slid down the roof. Katherine found a Gunner sniper and fired. The .50 caliber round tore the man's arm from the rest of his body.

"Tangoes on the second floor." Dusk reported.

"I see 'em." Colvin's voice chirped over the radio.

"Can I get some suppressing fire on the rooftops of the market building?"

"Which one?" MacCready asked as he propped up Katherine's gauss rifle. Katherine pointed it out and MacCready let loose a barrage of blue bolts in a quick succession. Katherine watched a bodies topple over.

"Firing." The pilot said. The forward mounted machine guns let loose on the exposed Gunners on the rooftops.

"Launcher to the right!" MacCready shouted. The veritbird swooped up, but this time the missle slammed into the right wing, tearing it and the propeller off completely. The vertibird then shifted to the right forcing MacCready to fall out the door.

"MacCready!" Katherine shouted as she reached for him. Then the vertibrid slammed into one of the roofs.