Chapter Five

The Battle for County Crossing

"I wonder if he'll get his hat back before we leave," Nora mused as she turned over the ribeye steak in the frying pan. One of her small pleasures from the time before the bombs had been cooking, and even though much of what the wasteland offered was tough or tasteless, she enjoyed finding new ways to add flavour to it. Her cooking had definitely helped in developing good relations with all her companions, excluding Strong. He'd berated her for having a weak stomach as he ate his rotting meat raw.

Danse shrugged, laying back on his cot. "The Squire may have had Brotherhood training, but that girl's clearly been working the land since childhood. I think she could take him."

Nora laughed, shaking her head. "But you said they'd made friends. Maybe he gave her the hat? Maybe he's sweet on her!"

Danse's brow furrowed as he considered it. "…Most squires are fiercely protective of their hats…"

At that point, Burke chose to poke his head around the open door, cheeks slightly red. "Um… Tara asked if I wanted to go to hers for dinner…"

"Tara?" Nora raised her eyebrows at Danse before walking to the doorway, peering over Burke's head. Tara was stood outside a short distance away, watching them and wringing the sleeves of her jumper. Nora waved and beckoned the girl over. She could feel Burke watching her face anxiously as Tara approached. The girl's freckled face was red and she regarded Nora with awe from beneath the brim of Burke's hat.

"So! You'll be hosting our Squire for the evening?" Nora asked, smiling as she leaned in the doorway.

"Yes, Ma'am, if it's okay with you…"

"Of course it is! Is it okay with you, Danse?"

"Fine by me, so long as he's back here tonight. Don't forget Squire, we leave early tomorrow."

Burke's eyes widened and his lips pulled into a grin as he turned back to face Tara.

"Race you!" The girl grinned, whipping around and sprinting away.

As the Squire gasped indignantly and raced after her, Nora called "play nice you two!"

When she walked back inside the shack, she giggled. "What's so funny?" Danse asked, gazing at her quizzically.

"Burke is never getting his hat back!"

"… and that is how Proctor Quinlan got his cat!" As Danse finished his story, Nora was still doubled over, clutching her sides and gasping for air as she laughed. He couldn't help but smile himself, both at a story well told and Nora's brighter mood. The air between them had cleared significantly, both of them feeling lighter and better about things as a whole.

"I…I can't believe they thought the Prydwen was haunted and it was a cat!" Nora gasped, lying back across her bed. "I loved the part where Elder Maxson got spooked!"

"Don't tell Arthur I told you," Danse said wryly, smiling at the memory. "He'd have me court martialled in seconds."

They lapsed into a companionable silence, gazing up at the ceiling. Outside, the sun was setting, bathing the sky in shades of gold and orange. The roof was well made by Commonwealth standards, but there were still a few holes here and there that allowed glimpses of the sky.

"I suppose I'd better go get Burke soon if he doesn't turn up himself." Nora mused, stifling a yawn. Danse grunted in response. She turned her head to find that the Paladin had allowed his eyes to drift shut and she smiled to herself. Danse seldom ever slept, not until he was bone tired. She knew that both Cade and Haylen had attempted to convince him to take a break from his duties and catch up on bedrest, and that he had refused. It was a rare thing to witness the Paladin drifting off to sleep.

She lay there quietly, listening to his breaths as they slowed and deepened.

When the sky outside had begun to turn dark blue, she slipped from her bed and crept outside, flicking off the dim yellow light and closing the door behind her. It was going to be a cold night again, but much more comfortable than the night spent in the ruins. Most of the settlers had retreated into their shacks for the night, only the sentries still outside, patrolling the borders or stood at their guard posts.

Nora smiled, recalling when she had spent a week here with Preston and a contingent of Minutemen, helping to plan and construct the defences. She had hoped that they would make the Crossing a stronger, safer settlement, but had never believed it would attract so many people.

She set off, wandering between the shacks and pondering just where Burke had taken his dinner that night. It was as she was passing the brahmin pen that the Squire came into view, trotting next to his friend. Tara was again talking animatedly whilst Burke listened. Nora wondered if it was a Brotherhood trait to be quiet and reserved.

"Hello, Nora!" Tara greeted, coming to a stop in front of her. "Sorry we're late, I was just walking him back. My dad was showing off his varmint rifle and he can talk about that for hours."

"Not a problem Tara. I trust Burke behaved himself?"

"Mom said I should join the Brotherhood if it teaches manners like his," she grinned, jerking her thumb at Burke.

Nora let out a snort of laughter, reflecting on the day before. Yeah right.

"Well, let us walk you back home, Tara. I can take Burke from here."

"So, did you have a good dinner?" Nora asked as Tara disappeared inside her house with a wave, closing the door behind her. Burke nodded, falling into step beside her. "…She seems a nice girl, anyway. Very chatty."

"She is." Burke mumbled, a small smile pulling at his lips.

"…Maybe we can make a stop here again on our way back, then."

The Squire turned to look at her, studying her face intently. "…Is something on my face, Squire?"

"I was just thinking, you don't look like a general. You don't really look like a knight out of your armour, either."

"What else am I supposed to look like?" Nora raised her eyebrows at him. "I'm human. Same as everyone else. Same as you."

"But the Paladin still looks like a paladin, in or out of his power armour. You don't look like anything."

"Wow, way to hurt my feelings, Burke! I'm sure you don't look like anything out of your uniform, either!" Nora joked, gently cuffing the top of his head.

"Hey!" Burke protested, rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't look like anything because I look like me, the same way you look like you."

"…Good." Burke nodded. "I don't want to look like a squire."

"Better grow your hair out then, kiddo." Nora smiled.

As they approached their shack, there came a shout from inside. Nora paused for only a heartbeat before she raced to the door, slipping a 10mm pistol from a holster strapped to her thigh. "Wait there!" She barked at Burke, her heart beginning to pound as she heard Danse scream, the sound primal and terrified. As Burke backed away, eyes wide, Nora kicked the door open, one hand already groping for the light switch.

The small space was a mess, Danse's bed overturned and the Paladin himself sprawled on the floor, drenched in sweat, his eyes wide with terror and bewilderment. Nora lowered her gun, turning on the safety before holstering it.

"Danse…?"

"I'm… fine." Danse swallowed, drinking in deep breaths.

Nora nodded, stepping over the mattress and blankets strewn across the floor. "C'mon, we'd better put the room back together," she said gently, holding out her hand. Danse nodded heavily, grasping her hand and allowing her to pull him up.

"Ma'am?" They turned as the Squire entered the shack warily, his eyes taking in the disarray.

"C'mon Squire, we've got some tidying up to do before bedtime."

The sun had barely crept above the horizon when they departed the Crossing. A thin mist veiled the river below the tracks and the air was bitterly cold. Clouds had moved in overnight and it looked to be miserable weather. Burke, too, was miserable. He had confided to Nora that Tara had promised to see him off, but when the time came and they bade farewell to Mary and the sentries who had waited to see them off, she had not been there.

"I'm sure she just overslept," Nora consoled, noting the way the Squire's shoulders had slumped. "You'll get to surprise her in a couple of days anyway, when we head back."

"I thought you said we'd be taking a vertibird back to the Prydwen?" Danse frowned from where he walked on the Squire's other side.

"We can do both! We could take a vertibird back to the Crossing, then another from the Crossing to the Prydwen."

"That is a waste of the Brotherhood's resources, Soldier!" Danse replied sternly. "We shouldn't use the grenades so lightly!"

"Teagan gives me discounts! Especially when I bring back some of Vadim's Bobrov moonshine!" She added with a sly smile. "Anyway, I have two on me. We can do it!"

Danse tsked and marched ahead. "I'm taking point."

"You can play the reluctant hero, but I know you're excited about flying twice!" Nora called after him. "What about you, Burke? Got an opinion on vertibirds?"

"I like them." He shrugged. "More fun than being stuck on the Prydwen."

"True enough."

They walked in silence for a while, though Nora sensed that he had something to say. Evidently something he didn't want Danse to hear, judging by the furtive glances he passed the Paladin's way. "…Nora?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I could be a Minuteman?"

Nora frowned, turning to look at him. "Squire, why would you want to be a Minuteman?"

"You can make me one, right? You're the General, so you could recruit me?"

"What- Squire, where is this coming from?" Nora frowned, turning to look at him.

"Tara says the Minutemen are heroes, that they protect people!" Burke pressed eagerly. "But they also live out in settlements themselves and-"

"The Minutemen are an unorganised rabble." Nora and Burke glanced up to find that Danse had stopped and evidently been listening in. "The Brotherhood seeks to better humanity as a whole. The Minutemen are little more than a coalition of farmers and towns who only protect each other out of self interest."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Nora protested, drawing herself to her full height. "The Minutemen are the good guys, who actually look out for the people of the Commonwealth! Not all heroes wear power armour, Danse!"

"Now you're sounding like Garvey." Danse snorted. "Look, I admire what you've achieved with them. You've somehow succeeded in rallying many to your cause and you have done an adequate job in controlling them. But what happens when you are called away from them? Do you really think Garvey can hold them together? That Ronnie Shaw? They'll fall apart, just like before."

"That's not true. I've built them better than that!" Nora snapped. "What makes you think I'll leave them anyway?"

"I have little doubt that the Brotherhood will have use for you elsewhere, once the Institute is defeated and the Commonwealth stabilised." Danse frowned, gazing at her intensely.

"Elder Maxson has allowed you great liberties due to the nature of your primary mission. But that won't last forever. When we are done here and have established our presence, I have little doubt that we shall be sent elsewhere, to continue the Brotherhood's mission."

Nora stared at him, wide eyed for a few moments. Of course, she had known that the Brotherhood came from elsewhere. She had even seen the Prydwen's flight towards the airport, travelling from some place called the Capital Wasteland. But she had never really thought about what that meant, how big the Brotherhood was. In truth, she had never really thought beyond finding Shaun again.

She glanced at Burke who had watched the exchange in silence. Did she want this life for Shaun? To see him groomed to be a soldier?

"Let's keep moving." She said gruffly, breaking into a march.

Danse drew in a deep breath and exhaled, before gesturing for the Squire to move ahead of him.

As the day wore on, it began to rain. Without his hat for protection, Burke was soon soaked and shivering. The Paladin had pulled on his hood, but the Knight ignored the rain, her hair plastering to her face as it grew wet. They were passing by a shipyard when they heard a distant whistling, followed by a BANG.

Nora halted immediately, turning around, her eyes fixed on the sky. Far behind them, red lights flared against the grey clouds. Burke stared at them, transfixed, thinking how pretty they looked. "What was that?" He asked, as Nora hastily pulled on her helmet to integrate with her pip-boy.

"That was a flare," Danse frowned, watching as the red lights slowly faded away into nothing as they fell. Then another went up.

"We have to go back!" Nora said sharply, opening a compartment in her power armour.

"Soldier?" Danse frowned, watching as she withdrew a vertibird grenade.

"I just listened to Radio Freedom. The Crossing's under attack. Super mutants. We go back." Without another word, she threw the grenade. With a bang! it began to release a stream of crimson smoke. Without hesitation, Danse equipped his helmet and began to check his rifle.

Nora likewise withdrew Righteous Authority from its holster and turned the safety off. "Squire. Whatever happens, you will stay on the vertibird, am I clear?" Nora demanded. Burke nodded, his face pale.

A strong wind suddenly lashed the rain against them, and they turned to see the distant shadow of a vertibird closing in. Almost as soon as it landed, Nora was scrambling aboard. As she moved to interface her pip-boy with the pilot's system, Danse lifted Burke aboard and hauled himself up.

The Squire sat on the bench behind the pilot, watching as Danse stationed himself by the vertibird's open door, one hand grasping a metal rung in the wall, the other grasping his rifle. Nora moved to take charge on the minigun.

"Prepare for lift off!" The pilot called, firing up the engines. Burke felt the jolt as the vertibird began to pull up, and he hastily strapped himself down with the belts and harnesses.

Nora and Danse set their feet more firmly, scanning the scenery below for their targets. By air, the journey to County Crossing was short. Within minutes, they began to hear the gunfire and as they drew closer, Nora spotted a pair of figures running away from the settlement, pursued by a large, lumbering green figure. They could hear the super mutant's taunts from the air.

"Firing up!" Nora barked, pulling the trigger. Burke had only moments to clap his hands over his ears as the minigun began to roar. The mutant howled, its body shuddering violently as it was riddled by hundreds of bullets. Then it sank to the ground, as red and bloody as it had been green.

"Good! Tear them apart!" Danse snarled, leaning further out of the door to take in the settlement. Smoke was rising from some of the shacks. A number of mutants were charging through the settlement, including at least three hounds. The raid was bigger than he had expected. Nora didn't dare to fire in the midst of the buildings. Instead, she turned to the pilot.

"Land somewhere safe and wait for us!" She barked. "Keep an eye on the boy!"

"Negative!" The pilot began, "I can't-"

"Pilot, that's an order." Danse's voice brooked no argument.

"Yes, Paladin." The pilot said hesitantly.

Burke felt his mouth go dry. He watched helplessly as Knight Hart withdrew her laser rifle and leaped. The Paladin dropped shortly after.

The laser shots steamed and hissed as they fired from the barrel, illuminating the settlement in bloody red light. The mutants made easy targets, being so big and easy to bait. But they were hardy and some were armoured.

She wondered how they had made it past the turrets.

"BUCKET HEAD! DIEEEE!" She turned to the right, levering Righteous Authority at the mutant that charged towards her with a howl, super sledge raised high, ready to arc towards her and crumple the plating of her armour. She fired, watching in grim satisfaction as one of her shots struck its ugly snarling face.

The sledge fell from its hands and it howled, the green skin blackening, eyes sizzling from the shots. "BLIND! ARGGHHH! CAN'T SEE!"

Nora clenched her jaw and fired another volley of shots, straight into its chest. When it crumpled backwards with a pained groan, she ceased firing and jogged past, her power armour shaking the ground. She wondered if it was the same mutant she had seen before, smashing its sledge into the road. Her thoughts were interrupted by an agonised scream inside one of the huts.

She sprinted through the shattered door to find a man held between two super mutants who were pulling on his arms with all their strength. At the sight of her, they dropped him to the floor. "Bucket head…" They hissed, their small, evil eyes glittering in their big, ugly faces.

Nora raised her rifle.

Burke was sweating. The gunfire was incessant. The pilot had set them away at a safe distance from the Crossing, leaving enough distance that he should be able to take off if required. But Burke could still see the settlement, the crimson flashes that he was certain came from the weapons of the Knight and Paladin. He could still hear the screams and found himself listening to them carefully, heart thundering. What if he heard Tara screaming? Or Nora? What if the Paladin was injured? What if they ended up like his mother?

He felt sick and barely had time to unbuckle the belts and launch to the door, heaving up the breakfast he had enjoyed that morning.

"Ugh, God kid that's vile…" The pilot muttered, turning to look out of the window.

Panting, Burke sat back on his haunches, his entire body shaking. I should help them. He thought faintly. Brothers bleed to protect their brothers…

Then there came a scream more piercing than any he had heard. A scream that turned his blood cold. Somehow, he just knew it was Tara. For a few moments he struggled to breathe. Then he launched himself from the vertibird, ignoring the pilot's shout, and charged across the cracked ground, racing towards the battle.

The smoke from the fires burned his eyes and choked his lungs. He made for the North side of the settlement, where Tara lived just a few doors away from the shack with the brahmin. Some of the puddles that splashed underfoot were red and once he passed by a crumpled figure in the clothes of a farmhand. His heart hammered in his mouth and he wanted to vomit, but he was drawn towards the screaming which seemed to be growing more frantic with each passing second.

He passed by the brahmin pen. Something had torn down the wire fence and the animals… He blinked back tears, turning his head away from the bloody pieces that remained. Then he was in front of Tara's house.

The door was nothing more than splinters shattered across the floor. He could hear something growling, scratching somewhere inside, and Tara, definitely Tara sobbing, screaming incoherently within. He crept inside. The dining table he had sat at the night before lay broken on the floor, snapped in two, the plates and cutlery lying in pieces on the floor.

Her father's rifle lay on the floor, dark, damp stains smeared across the wood beneath it as though something… someone had been dragged across them. Burke couldn't suppress the whimpers that made their way up his throat, couldn't stop the shaking of his hands as he picked up the gun. Whatever monster this was, it was in the next room, just through the doorway on the right hand side of the kitchen, leading towards the living area and stairs.

Gulping in air, his head spinning, Burke crept forwards. His hands were so slick with sweat, he was scared he would drop the gun. He quietly prayed to his father, that some of his combat knowledge would somehow pass to him, somehow save him…

He stepped over the threshold and froze.

There, on the stairs, clawing at the wood, was a monstrous creature. It was huge, even taller than him. It's muscles were so grotesquely swollen, he felt certain that the thin, pale green skin that stretched taut over them would split. It was tearing at the steps with large yellow claws and teeth, splintering the wooden steps beneath it.

"GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" He could hear Tara screaming at it. Someone had barricaded her in a cupboard under the stairs, blocking the door with furniture. But the hound was going to get in from above.

Burke drank in a deep breath, trying to clear his head. He raised the rifle, arms shaking as he attempted to hold it the way he had seen the trainees do at firing ranges hundreds of time. The way Nora and Danse had when they killed the mirelurks. He fired.

The gun bucked in his arms and he yelped, staggering backwards. The bullet shot through the wall above the monster.

The beast immediately raised its head, red saliva dripping from between its jagged maws. It glared at him with eyes like molten gold.

He was paralyzed.

The hound held eye contact, backing slowly down the stairs. When it reached the bottom, it began to growl, the boards under his feet vibrating with the sound.

Finally his fight or flight sense kicked in and he bolted, charging back through the door.

Behind him, the creature bellowed, the sound deafening in his ears. He heard the thunder of its charge as it took off after him, claws biting into the wood. Burke sprinted around the corner, racing for the front door, his heart in his mouth.

The hound turned too fast, stumbling to the floor, allowing Burke just enough time to scramble outside into the muddy street. He had only taken a few steps when he heard a roar and was thrown to the ground.

Muddy water filled his mouth and his back burned, but the weight that had knocked him down was gone. Adrenaline gave him the strength to push himself up. He froze.

The hound was in front of him, circling back, a long pink tongue running over its yellow teeth.

Burke stared, transfixed as the creature lowered itself into a crouch, preparing to launch at him.

He thought of his mother.

The creature roared with triumph, jaws unhinging as it surged towards him…

"YEEAAARRRGGGHHHH!"

The ground trembled and laser shots struck the hound in the face. The creature shrieked, snapping its jaws shut as one shot struck its tongue. Then a figure in power armour charged from behind him, striking at the hound with the butt of their rifle. The monster snarled, shaking its head before rearing back on its hind legs, raking at the steel with its claws, trying to grasp a purchase with its jaws.

But the figure lashed out with their leg, sweeping the hounds hind legs from beneath it. The beast made to roll back up onto its paws…

CRUNCH.

One armoured foot came down forcefully upon the creatures back. It screamed, but was soon cut off as the figure stamped on its head. Then stamped again. And again.

CRUNCH.

CRUNCH.

CRUNCH.

Burke would never forget the sound.