"I don't often come up here." Father whispered. His voice breaking the eerie silence of twilight. The sun was just beginning to rise. Katherine could see her breath fog up just in front of her. "What do you see?"
Katherine made no response. How could she? Despite helping to expedite the process of rebuilding with the CPG and the Enclave, it was not nearly close enough to being able to bring back the world Katherine once knew and lived in.
"No response." Father chuckled. "I'm not surprised." Father sat on the roof of the C.I.T. Ruins and let his legs hang. Hardly the kind of action befitting an elderly man about to die. His actions seemed to have a childlike quality not befitting men of status and rank. As if the presence of his mother awoke something deep inside of him, a feeling that had long since been forgotten. "I look up at the wounds of this world and I have no words."
Katherine remained silent as she watched her son gesture at the black, cold Boston left by centuries of irradiated storms and constant battle. It seemed befitting that Shaun's outlook of the world was reflected in the image of the Boston ruins at night. Then a small tinge of orange began to illuminate even the darkest parts of the half-dead city. Katherine felt herself smile a little as the rising sun lifted her spirits.
"I think there's still hope here, Shaun." Katherine said quietly. Father looked back up at her, puzzled. "Even now, people rebuild. It's not perfect, but if the society we came from was perfect… Then this never would have happened in the first place." Shaun looked at Katherine for a long time and then looked down at his feet and then smiled. Katherine lowered herself and sat beside him finally being granted her wish of being able to spend time with her long-lost son.
James walked out the metal house and wiped his eyes. The sun was bright now and hurt his eyes, which had been so used to the dark. He began to talk into the streets of Sanctuary Hills, where he met and passed countless settlers. He nodded greetings and waved to various passing individuals. He made his way to the bridge where Brandis was drilling Minutemen in the river. Preston stood on the bridge, watching over the trainee Minutemen.
"How are they?" James asked. Preston shook his head.
"Not nearly as good as the ones we lost." Preston responded. He looked grimly at James.
"Yeah." James responded as he fixed his blue collar shirt. "Quincy's a bitch."
"Amen, to that brother." Preston leaned against the railing. "Brandis!" He shouted. "How are the recruits?!"
"Give me a week, and they'll be ready to start the real training!" Paladin Brandis responded.
"This isn't the real training?!" A trainee asked.
"This is just the entrance exam, kid!" James shouted.
"Get back to work!" Brandis shouted at the trainee. James grabbed Preston by the shoulder.
"Come on. Let's go check on the Pride." James said. Preston nodded and followed. To two crossed the bridge as Brandis continued to shout orders at the Minutemen-in-training.
"Anything on the Crawler?" Preston asked. James shook his head.
"Lost contact a couple months ago. I don't we're getting those reinforcements." James sighed. "Did Deacon or anyone from the Railroad contact you?"
"Not since the Institute hit their safehouse in Lexington. I hear the Brotherhood's hunting them down south too. Minutemen have been seeing more and more patrols. Where are they getting the manpower?" Preston asked.
"I'm pretty sure they're recruiting. First group that can fight back against the Institute, how do you think most people would react?"
"I don't know. The Minutemen can-"
"Minutemen was dead when the Brotherhood arrived, brother. People don't remember who the Minutemen are anymore."
"I second that." Deacon said out of nowhere. James smiled and looked up to where the voice came from. Red Rocket Gas Station, now the headquarters to Lyons Pride, and so it seems now the Railroad.
"Deacon, what the Hell are you going here?" Preston asked.
"We need your help." Deacon responded.
"You always do. Follow me." James said, gesturing for the two to join him in the Gas Station. They entered and found most of the Pride members at work already. Dusk and Glade were shining and cleaning their armor and weapons in the garage. Colvin was making coffee as Gallows restocked the ammo cabinets and shelves. Kodiak swept the floors while Tristan and Vargas overlooked the map of the Commonwealth of the wall.
"Vargas I need a sit-rep in five." James said as he beelined straight for the coffee. Colvin looked up and saw James. He poured James a cup and handed it to him before going back to his business.
"Not big on talking huh?" Preston asked.
"I made a mistake with Quincy. And Colvin… Colvin feels guilty on losing track of MacCready." James responded as he blew his coffee.
"What happened to MacCready?" Deacon asked.
"He went missing during Quincy. Hasn't popped up since." James said, sipping his coffee.
"Is it because…" Preston suggested.
"I don't know." James responded coldly. Noticing Preston's suspicion that MacCready was in love with Katherine. "Let's focus on work first."
"The Brotherhood's been focusing all their efforts on Raider camps and Super Mutant dens in the south. Our efforts and joint-ops with the Minutemen have pushed most of the big players out of the main city and straight into that open stretch here." Vargas said, circling Murkwater and Gunners Plaza.
"I thought we cleared Gunners Plaza." Preston said.
"We did, but losing Quincy with the Gunners and the Brotherhood, Minutemen were stretched thin so they pulled out a while ago." Tristan but in. "Way I hear things, Brotherhood's began an extermination campaign focusing all their resources on this one stretch. We don't know why but we suspect it has to do with the Railroad."
"Deacon, that's your line of work." James waved the cup at him. Deacon crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "What do we need to know?"
"Well, you already know it's open season out there on Railroad members. We've lost contact with almost all our safehouses." Deacon walked up to the map. "May I?" Tristan nodded and handed him the grease pencil. "We pulled back to our last safehouse here in Old North."
"The church?" Preston asked. "How long do you think before Brotherhood starts sniffing around there?"
"It's not ideal. But it's temporary. We need a new place, but that's not important. What is important is that we got word of an escaped synth. We sent our agent, Johnny Whisper to extract him, but we lost contact three days ago. Since that's exclusively Brotherhood real estate, we're going to need some heavy firepower to get our guys out of there."
"What do you think?" Preston asked. "Minutemen's not ready. We don't have enough experienced members and the guys who are left are defending the Castle."
"We really need you help." Deacon begged.
"Armor's not going to be ready in time, boss." Glade said as he entered the room. He wiped his greasy hands with a rag before grabbing a mutfruit from the counter. "After Quincy, most of our armor's been totaled. Parts for the X-02 are rare and don't come cheap, even if we get it through Jones." James stayed silent and let the Pride think things through on their own. There was a reason that Sarah handpicked each candidate after all. James wanted to see it.
"So what do we do?" Kodiak asked. "We have the air superiority right? Why don't we use it?"
"The P-80s have limited ranges, as they're operating from an airstrip outside the city, that limits their use before they have to refuel." Glade responded.
"We can just sneak our way in, grab the guys and then get out." Dusk suggested.
"Place is crawling with Brotherhood, raiders, gunner, super mutants, and who knows what else." Gallows interjected. "It's not as simple as sneaking in and out. We are going to need a sizable force to move through this place."
"Well, we don't have armor. We don't have our air power. What do we have?" Kodiak asked.
"We've got us." Colvin said at last. "Shouldn't that be enough?"
"This is a suicide mission, Colvin. You know that?" Preston asked.
"That's never stopped us before." Colvin responded. "Even back where we always had those shitty 45s."
"Hey, man. Those 45s always saved your stupid ass." Glade laughed.
"We'll just need to watch each other's backs out there. No stupid movements or decisions." Colvin advised.
"Glade, how many suits have been fully or mostly repaired?" Preston asked.
"Two are about ninety percent done. Rest are fifty and below." Glade responded.
"Why the huge gap?" Preston asked.
"Uh, we scrapped what was left of the command suit to make repairs and we ran out of parts." Glade responded. Preston looked over at James.
"So no more armor for you, huh?" Preston asked. James shrugged.
"Won't change a thing. I'm the Lone Wanderer. Remember?" James responded.
"So what does this mean?" Deacon asked.
"It means," James began.
"That you need my help more than I thought?" a familiar voice interrupted James. They all turned to the source of the voice. By the door, stood a pale man with light blond hair, sporting a lab coat and spectacles. James rolled his eyes.
"Arcade."