Seras POV
Nora's setup at what they called 'the Castle' was honestly one of the better organizations that I had come across save for the Brotherhood's blimp. Everyone here had a purpose, no one person wanting for something to do for too long. So when I finally revealed my presence, the poor woman that had the unfortunate timing to see me right as I did performed a double take and then fled. To their credit, not even ten seconds later I was greeted with half a dozen armed minutemen aiming odd looking laser rifles at me.
"Stand down!" The familiar voice of Nora ordered. The woman in question was now donning a deep blue duster, tan slacks, and wielding a rather impressive looking laser rifle. It looked heavily modified, even compared to the ones that I had seen around the Prydwen. Her soldiers reluctantly lowered their weapons and dispersed, leaving her and I alone. "Where the Hell have you been?" She practically hissed at me. "Elder Maxson assaulted me because of you and all but kicked me off their ship. I've spent the past three days having the Minutemen keep tabs on your little escapades in the hopes of finding a pattern to speak with you before you go and kill off the Brotherhood!" Maxson did what?
"He assaulted you?" I asked incredulously. Nora, apparently realizing her mistake, attempted to backtrack.
"Not exactly. He mostly just pushed me up against a wall while trying to get me to tell him what I knew about you." The glare that had faded away redoubled in intensity. "For that matter, what have you been doing these past three days? It seems like you've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
"I was getting Maxson to empty out the Prydwen so sneaking aboard would be much easier." It took a moment for her to completely understand my answer. When she did, her face drained of color and her eyes widened in fear.
"Y-you mean you've already-" She started, but I cut her off.
"Yes. And no, I haven't harmed a single hair on his pompous little head. His pride may be a bit wounded, but then again I've always been told that my wits were my strong point. At least until the world ended." I frowned at the memory of waking up one morning to deep, rumbling thunder. Putting the memory aside, I continued. "For now, at least. The Brotherhood is intact, albeit running themselves a bit ragged looking for me. I imagine that won't last another day once Maxson recalls his troops." She noticeably relaxed at my explanation, but still held a deep worry in her eyes.
"What about his whole 'you attacked a Brotherhood of Steel patrol' spiel that he fed me. I bet that's not the whole story, but Maxson isn't really known for telling lies." Oh, how naïve.
"Everyone in a position of power tells lies. Governments lie to their citizens, generals lie to their troops, Maxson lies to his soldiers. It's just a fact of life." I frowned, not liking the memories that this line of thinking was dredging up. Memories of Hellsing.
"I don't lie to the Minutemen." Nora sounded offended.
I fixed her with a stern gaze. "Haven't you? You said you had the Minutemen searching for me, but did you tell them why, or even what I am?" She obviously told them what I am, given the response I received upon arriving here. I needed her to say it.
"Actually, yes I did. They took it a lot better than I expected, Preston especially. Apparently there were rumors of a colony of vampires down south in the D.C. area." My eyebrows shot up in surprise. That would bear some investigating once I finished with Nuka World. "That was almost a decade ago, and they seemingly vanished off the map about two years ago." Or not. "Of course, no one believed that they were vampires, but given that we now know they actually exist. It makes you wonder what else is out there."
Unable to help myself, I let out a soft chuckle. "I once met a werewolf. Big, nasty thing."
"Oh?" Nora's curious tone almost made me feel bad for what came next.
"Took ages to kill. Eventually stabbed a silver tooth straight into its heart." She shot me a flat look, as if to say 'really?'. "Of course, I was barely a fledgling at the time. Less than two weeks into my unlife."
"Could we get back on topic?" Nora asked sternly.
I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, the real story is that the Brotherhood attacked me. They were doing so on orders from Elder Maxson, claiming me to be an abomination that needed to be 'put down'."
"And I can imagine how that went." Nora replied.
I suppressed a frown. "Like I told Maxson, I never truly intended to kill any of his soldiers, merely give them a fright. It's not my fault they were dumb enough to try to take on a Mirelurk Queen with what amounted to pea shooters." Seriously. There's bravery and then there's headstrong stupidity.
"General," A male voice called from the archway that lead outside.
Nora sighed exasperatedly. "And I told you, to stop calling me that." The man shot her a smirk.
"You're the one wearing the uniform, after all." He replied in a tone that told me that he enjoyed reminder her of the fact.
"That reminds me, I really should get back to Nuka World. Who knows what they've been up to in my extended absence." Hopefully no one has killed each other yet, though if they have then I might just get some more snacks.
The man fixed Nora with a conflicted look. "Ma'am, are you going back too or…?" He trailed off.
Nora let out a short chuckle. "No, Preston. I'm here for a while. Finally got a lead on infiltrating the Institute. I need to hunt down a Courser and take its ID chip." She waved the arm that had her Pip-Boy on it. "All I have to do is track it down and perform non-elective brain surgery."
"What's a Courser?" I inquired. I had heard the term from several travelers, mainly that if you saw one, you went the other way. They sounded interesting.
Nora squinted in confusion. "I thought you knew what they were? You mentioned them while we were talking just after leaving Nuka World." Realization set in at what she was talking about.
"No, that's Corsairs. They are a 'supposed' militia that was camped out down south in the Tennessee area. They ran a protection racket for the civilians that live down there, but they're closer to raiders than they are soldiers. I wiped them out about fifteen years ago, though I still catch wind of a small group of them terrorizing people every now and then." That was part of the reason I had even gone to Nuka World in the first place. I'd heard a rumor that there was a massive group of raiders and figured that it might be them trying to regroup.
"Oh," Nora frowned. "Well a Courser is a synth designed to hunt down escaped and rogue synths. At least that's what I've been told. They're also stronger, faster, and smarter than most humans." Synth. It was obviously short for synthetic. But they could be synthetic humans? Come to think of it, that could have been why Nora's friend Danse had smelled off. I had to find one and see it for myself.
"Well, in that case I'm coming with you. It's not often I get to learn something new. Who knows? It could be fun." Nuka World wasn't going to fall apart. They may not exactly like Gage, but their fear of me should keep them kowtowed for now. Besides, I had made plans to be away for a week, and it had only been four days.
"Doing anything with someone that considers hunting a Courser 'fun' is way above my pay grade." Nora's friend commented.
"I'm pretty sure that it's above my pay grade, Preston. But" she shrugged. "I digress." She turned back to me. "I had been planning on leaving today, but if you wanted to wait until tomorrow we could."
"Nope, we can go now. I want to see one of these synths for myself."
Nora POV
Some few hours later, we tracked the Courser to Greenetech Genetics. The place was practically swarming with Gunners, probably the last of their forces in the Commonwealth area. Several floors up we could see signs of combat, most notably the familiar blue lasers that were commonplace among the Institute's forces. Seras was content to take the lead, sticking with using her hand cannon while I used the rifle that Danse gave me. The parts I modded it with made it more akin to a DMR than a normal laser rifle. It almost reminded me of my time in the army.
'Fall back to original positions, the Courser is nearing the elevator!' An intercom blared from overhead. That wasn't good. If it got up the elevator before we could catch it, then it might even finish its business here and teleport back to the Institute before we got there. How one machine could fight through an entire platoon of Gunners I'll never know.
"We should hurry." I told Seras as we rounded another corner and almost straight into a turret. Seras reacted nearly instantaneously, putting two bullets into the gun before it could even recognize us as threats. The turret exploded, sending shrapnel bouncing all over the hallway, taking one of the Gunners that had been guarding it down. I finished the other with a quick shot to the head, triggering the chain reaction effect and rendering the Gunner into a pile of ash. Out through another doorway that led us to another platform, the intercom blared to life again.
'The Courser's after the girl. Anyone alive needs to get up to the top floor immediately. That's an order!' Well, at least we knew what it was after. Seras shared a look with me that told me she didn't understand why something as important as a Courser would be sent after a girl.
"The girl is probably a synth that escaped from the Institute. Coursers are sent to deactivate and recover them." I spoke the word 'deactivate' with as much venom as I could muster. Nick, despite his shocking appearance, was one of the nicest people I had met in this time.
Minutes later, the fighting had all but ceased, save for a few Gunners that we had easily killed. Seras lead the way as we exited the elevator, keeping an eye and ear open for any threat.
"No, please! You don't have to do-!" A man cried from further in the building, but was cut off by a single laser shot. I winced as the familiar sizzling of a chain reaction occurred.
A condescending male voice spoke. "All he had to do was tell me the password. Now, are you going to cooperate?" A glance at Seras told me she was far from pleased with how the situation was unfolding. We crept up the stairs, scarcely making any sound as more of the Gunners pleaded for their lived and were summarily executed. We reached a larger, lit up room and spotted the Courser straight off. Motioning me to hold back, Seras strode forward, a confident smirk on her face. I followed behind her, seeing the Courser turn to face the vampire, but otherwise not making any overt move to attack her.
"Are you here for the synth?" It asked in that same condescending tone. Before Seras could reply, it seemed that the Gunner recognized her, given the way he screamed and tried to run away. Not even bothering to look, the Courser raised his rifle one handed and aimed for the fleeing man. Seras reached out and grappled the appendage, breaking it in half before it could fire. The Courser's eyes widened in surprise and it tried to raise its other arm, but Seras spartan kicked the Courser into a wall, where it made a sizable dent.
It seemed like some of the fluid that was inside a Courser had gotten onto Seras's arm when she kicked it. She gave it a cursory sniff, and grimaced. "Not even edible." She muttered, clearly disappointed. The Courser, to the credit of the Institute, was still alive despite having one of its arms almost ripped off and whatever passed for its ribcage crushed.
I placed a hand on Seras's shoulder. "Remember, not the head." Seras let out a soft chuckle and raised her hand cannon, firing half a dozen shots into the Courser's chest and creating a hole that was almost big enough for me to crawl through. I pulled out my Saturnite knife and moved towards the corpse of the Courser. Seras, clearly content to let me do the dirty deed, moved over and began tinkering with a terminal. The knife had little difficulty with whatever the Courser was made of and I soon had a dripping, severed head to take home. Not much of a door prize.
A nearby door hissed open, and a terrified looking girl peeked out into the room. Upon seeing the dead and beheaded corpse of the Courser, she recoiled slightly. "Don't worry," I spoke in a soothing voice. "You're safe now. He can't hurt you."
The synth, Jenny, had apparently not been on the run from the Institute for very long. She thanked me for the help and, after a few wary glances cast at Seras, left. Seras appropriated the Courser's outfit, citing that it both 'looked cool' and something about a terminator. Whatever that was. Chip, or rather head, in hand I headed back to the Castle while Seras departed back to Nuka World. She claimed she would return after a few days. Whether she finally intended to purge the raiders or not, I couldn't tell.