Chapter 2: Cambridge

Even if Nate wasn't familiar with the area, he would have easily located the Cambridge Police Station. The sounds of laser rifle fire echoed across the Commonwealth just as he passed the Disposal Yard. Deciding that he wasn't too far Nate decided he'd hoof it.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, despite being in near perfect physical shape two hundred years ago the cryo storage had not been kind to his body. Just before he got to Cambridge he was forced to stop and catch his breath. The Med-X in his pack was tempting however he was more likely to permanently injure himself by doing something stupid if he took it. After catching out his breath and stretching out his aching joints Nate set out for the short walk that remained to reach the Police Station.

Carefully he made his way around the side of the station and poked his head around the side of the building. The courtyard in front of the station had been hastily fortified with composite walls and sand bags. Several dozen creatures, ghouls if Preston's description was to be believed, were rushing through the other entrances to the courtyard towards a three-man team that stood before the door to the station. Nate's attention was immediately drawn to the man in black T-51 Power Armor as he towered over the other two individuals, offering protection as one received treatment for a leg wound from the other.

Without hesitation Nate stepped into the courtyard, pulled a grenade from his belt he announced his presence with a cry of "Friendly from the North-West!". The frag left his hand and arced it's way to landing just outside the fortifications near a particularly dense grouping of feral ghouls before detonating. Unslinging his pipe rifle and tossing his kit bag at the stairs of the station Nate took aim at the group of ferals. Although aiming at a group of enemies that was literally the size of a large truck, he still put the sight to his eye and began picking his targets. Using precise bursts of rifle fire Nate began killing the ghouls closest to the small group of humans. Eventually their combined firepower began driving the living portion of the horde further back from their position.

Sadly, Nate lacked the ammunition for sustained engagement with his pipe rifle, once he was completely out, he tossed it aside and threw another grenade into the wriggling mass of feral ghouls. Pulling his laser musket, he continued killing the ghouls but at a pace that was noticeably slower than before, as such the ghouls began to make up the ground that they had lost. Thankfully there were only a few left at this point, unfortunately they were now on top of Nate and the guy in power armor. For his ally this was easily dealt with as he swatted the ghoul away like it was an insect, Nate wasn't as fortunate. Without the assistance of power armor the ghoul that jumped him was much harder to deal with. Dodging the gnashing teeth and grasping claws Nate bashed the ghoul over the head, using his laser musket like a baseball bat and the courtyard fell silent.

The power armor clad figure removed his helmet revealing a worn and battle-scarred face with closely shorn black hair. "Thank you for the assist civilian, I am Paladin Danse leader of this recon team. Our impromptu medic over there is Scribe Haylen and she's treating Knight Rhys for what appear to be a rather nasty leg wound. Now who the hell are you exactly?"

Deciding that honesty was the best policy, especially when dealing with walking tanks Nate replied. "I'm Nate, I was on my way to help a settlement with some Super Mutants when I picked up your distress call. I was hoping if you really are the military that you'd be willing to help me out with them."

"A noble enough cause, under normal circumstances I'd be more than willing to help take out a nest of undesirables but… well…" Danse trailed off into thought for a moment. "Let's move the wounded inside and we can talk about it."

Once inside the police station the Scribe and Knight moved further back into a makeshift bedroom area. Paladin Danse however stopped in the main room and motioned for Nate to join him "I'm going to be honest with you since I appreciate your candor earlier. In all honesty we're in a bad way, over half of our team is dead, we've been out of contact with our command since arriving here, and now a third of my surviving team is too wounded to move very far. I honestly that a fight with anyone is a bad idea, let alone a fight with Super Mutants."

As Danse paused in his assessment Nate merely nodded, to be honest if the group had been nearly wiped out by ghouls he highly doubted they'd be any match for a group of Super Mutants. His musing was interrupted by Danse continuing his report, "I know I have no right to ask for your assistance but if you'd be willing to help us secure a long-range transmitter from Arcjet Systems, I'd be willing to travel with you. Provided these Super Mutants aren't too far away so that we could eliminate them and I can return to my team before more trouble found my team. What do you say, soldier?"

Nate carefully considered his options, on the one hand Arcjet would mean another detour from his target, but if it could net him the assistance of this walking tank it could drastically speed up his journey. He guessed that only one thing would really matter in this situation, "What would you consider too far? I'm not exactly sure where these Super Mutants are located right now."

"I need to get back here everyday before sunset. The ferals are decidedly more active at night and leaving the station unguarded is just asking for them to swarm it. So, do we have a deal?"

Nate nodded and offered his hand for a shake to seal the deal. Rather than shaking it Paladin Danse clasped his right fist over his heart and said "Ad Victorium. Take whatever ammo you need from around the station. Although I'd ask that you leave our Micro-Fusion Cores alone as they're our primary ammunition. In fact if you have in spare I'd happily trade what caps we've managed to scrounge up in exchange for them."

Nate nodded and began exploring further back into the station to see what he could find. While he did manage to locate enough .38 caliber rounds to restock his pipe rifle most of what he found was rather useless 10mm rounds for his pistol which would work in a pinch but hardly had the stopping power he would like. As he moved back to the main room he began to hear the slight pitter-patter of rain coming from the windows. By the time he had made his way to the front window where Paladin Danse was waiting the gentle drone was threatening to turn into an outright roar.
Paladin Danse turned from the window and addressed Nate. "I was afraid of this, looks like we'll have to head out in the morning. Power Armor is extremely time consuming maintain if it gets to wet and right now I can't really afford the downtime or loss of efficiency."

Nate felt his eyes glaze over as he fell into his memories. Against his will his nostrils filled with the stench of oil, burning permafrost, bile, and gore. He felt the twinge on his back as a technician grinded a broken bolt from the back of his power armor. Thankfully he could still hear Danse's voice interrupting his memory. It took significantly more effort than it had with Nora's voice but he was able to pull himself from the memory before the mortar's hit.

"-bably best if you get some sleep."

"NO!" Nate accidently shouted out loud. Danse, Haylen, and Rhys all gave him a quizzical look at his outburst. "No" he said a little more controlled this time "I'll take first watch; it doesn't look like your squad has had much sleep the past few days. We can rotate out in a couple hours but for now I'm fine."

Danse looked as if he really doubted this was the case but decided to let it go for now. "Fair enough wake one of us in three hours, we'll take it from there."

Nate nodded and sat at one of the few tables that remained in one piece to service and clean his weapons while the others moved into the next room. Hours passed as he slowly tinkered and cleaned his weapons it only took an hour for him to bring his weapons back to peak performance yet he still he kept working. If he kept his mind occupied maybe it would leave him alone instead of plaguing him with ancient history, maybe it would stop haunting him with his wife's death or Anchorage.

"I thought Paladin Danse told you to wake one of us up after a couple of hours?" Nate jumped as Scribe Haylen joined him at the table. Glancing at his Pip-Boy he saw that it was almost midnight, a good four hours after he'd started his watch.

"I'm surprised any of you are awake, you and the rest of your squad looked ready to pass out just walking to your bedrolls." Nate replied completely sidestepping the Scribe's question.

"Fairly certain the reasons Danse doesn't usually sleep and the reason you can't get to sleep are very similar." Nate merely grunted in agreement as Haylen continued talking. "Now he's managing to rest just fine and you need to do the same. I realize you're a civilian and under no obligation to listen to any of us that's why I brought this."

In her hand was a syringe and before he could react, she grabbed his arm and jabbed his arm with it, injecting the cocktail of drugs into his bloodstream. Nate's eyes immediately began to feel heavy, his fatigue increased tenfold, and his head dropped to the table.

"Don't worry this is just a mild sedative mixed with a small dose of Day Tripper. Standard early treatment for PTSD victims in the Brotherhood, when administered by a trained medic. You should be out for at least seven hours; you and the Paladin can head out when you wake up."

Despite his best efforts the drugs quickly spread across his body and he passed out.

Nate woke up to a searing headache the likes of which he hadn't felt since his last shore leave before he left the army. Despite his throbbing head he didn't feel too bad, for the first time since being put on ice he had gotten a full night's sleep and not been haunted by his nightmares. The table his head rested on felt as comfortable as the bed he and his wife had shared just a week ago, or two centuries ago depending on your perspective.

Opening his eyes, he saw a bottle of purified water that had been left for him. After downing its contents in a single go his head felt noticeably better, at least until he heard the thunderous crash of a man in Power Armor coming into the room.

"Glad to see you awake soldier. It's a little later than we planned so let's move out." Danse said in a normal voice but to Nate it felt like he was yelling like a drill sergeant.

Grabbing his Pipe Rifle and 10mm pistol he ensured they were loaded with a round in the chamber before securing them for travel. He secured his laser musket to the side of his kit bag and checked that his spare ammunition was within easy reach on his leather bandolier. Moving into the main room he was able to catch the tail end of an argument between Paladin Danse and Knight Rhys.

"You have your orders Knight. You and Scribe Haylen are to secure yourselves in the station and barricade the door, myself and the civilian will be back before nightfall." Despite the tone of Paladin Danse suggesting that this was the end of the conversations Knight Rhys was still unsatisfied.

"If Danse dies you better not show your face around here again wastelander." Rhys threatened Nate.

"Rhys that's enough!" Danse shouted "Let's move out." He directed toward Nate.

Nate and Paladin Danse left the police station and began heading west out of Cambridge on the road towards ArcJet Systems.