Chapter 4: Great Green Jewel
Nate considered the super mutant camp just down the hill from his position. All things considered it didn't look too bad, he could just make out eight mutants patrolling around the rather small encampment with a sing brazier in the middle where the majority seemed to be congregated. Being downwind had made this scouting mission much less enjoyable as the stench of rotting and decayed flesh filled his nostrils from the numerous corpse bags strewn about the place.
Tactically speaking this location was rather decent, located on the main road into and out of west Boston it made for a fantastic ambush location. Yet at the same time it was far enough away from the road to provide a defensible fall back location should they require it. Odd, from what he had been told from Preston and Paladin Danse the Super Mutants were supposed to be mostly mindless brutes, relying on brute force rather than any tactical or technological advantage and yet here they were with a halfway decent location to terrorize the surrounding areas.
From his brief analysis of the mutants he saw that three would be more of an issue than the others, they had drum-fed pipe rifles which would suggest fully automatic fire capabilities and several varying pieces of rusted metal armor. The other five lacked any armor sans a chainmail kilt, near as Nate could tell two were completely unarmed with the remaining three merely had improvised swords made out of old wood planks.
A quick check of his Pip-Boy clock showed that he only had a few more minutes before he had to rendezvous with Paladin Danse or the man charged the camp. As he did one last check of the camp through the scope on his pipe rifle, he caught something disturbing. One of the mutants that he'd mistaken as unarmed was carrying a mini-nuke strapped to his belt, checking the other 'unarmed' mutant proved that it too had a mini-nuke. Those could pose a serious problem, during the Resource Wars Nate had seen and even used mini-nukes to great effect. If those super mutants started throwing them around it could easily kill himself or Paladin Danse despite his Power Armor. Just as he was about to leave and warn Danse he saw one of the mini-nuke tips blink with a red warning light.
"No god damn way." Nate's whisper was barely audible over the gentle breeze. These super mutants must be insane, they were walking around with primed mini-nuke ordinance meaning that they could be set off by just about anything. Including a sudden kinetic impact from a copper reinforced lead projectile, or a rifle round. Checking the clock again he saw that he had just three minutes left, time to find out exactly how accurate his new scope was. With two minutes left he readied his rifle and adjusted the sight for the range to the super mutants, taking his time to make sure he could quickly swap between the two mini-nukes. Ideally, he would take out both groups within a few seconds of each other, or failing that leave them incapacitated enough that they could be disposed of easily.
Sixty seconds remained, Nate was ready to fire and lined up his first shot. His rifle barked, breaking the silence of the early afternoon only for the silence to be broken a second later by the sound of an exploding mini-nuke. The explosion tore through the center of the mutant camp completely obliterating the brazier and five of the super mutants, replacing them with a superheated ball of radioactive energy. Nate didn't notice any of this, before his first round had even made contact he was already lining up his next shot as the first mini-nuke exploded his second round left the chamber. For the second time in the same number of seconds the sound of a mini-nuke exploding turning the remaining super mutants into ash.
When the smoke cleared nothing remained of the campsite or the super mutants, a shame really Nate would have loved to get his hands on one of the rifles that they had been using not to mention all the ammo that they'd carried. The sound of someone in power armor crashing through the brush and trees broke Nate from his musings as he readied to face this ne threat charging his direction. Once he saw the familiar face of Paladin Danse he lowered the rifle and relaxed his muscles.
"What happened? I thought you were just scouting the camp, why is everything blown up?" Paladin Danse asked.
"While I was scouting, I noticed a tactical advantage that I was quick to exploit. For all the warnings you and Preston gave I thought killing these guys would be a bit more difficult."
Danse just looked at him like he'd sprouted another mouth, suggested the sky was green, or that brahmin only had one head. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You took down a camp of Super Mutants with just a pipe rifle and whatever ammo you have in your pockets?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Nate replied allowing himself a small grin. "I only used two bullets; all of my ammunition would have been complete overkill."
For the briefest of moments, the only sound was the breeze buffeting a few leaves across the grounds and the crackling of radioactive fires from the nearby former super mutant camp. Then Danse's deep booming laughter echoed across the wasteland. "From the results I'd say that's an accurate assessment. Let's head back to Oberland Station and give those civilians the good news."
Nate couldn't argue with that; it would be nice to get a break from this combat. The two soldiers had been fighting or running across the Commonwealth for the entire day and despite their prior experience that proved to be quite taxing.
Nate was preparing to leave Oberland Station for the second time in just one day, they'd taken a short break upon their arrival which had done wonders for their exhaustion. The settlers had been extremely grateful to Nate for taking care of their mutant problem pledging their support to the Minutemen once he'd explained just who had sent him to help. Strangely they also agreed to help Paladin Danse if he or his squad needed a place to lay low for a while, however they stopped short of extending that offer to the entirety of the Brotherhood of Steel. In their own words 'we just don't know enough about them'. Apparently while most people in the Commonwealth had heard about the Brotherhood they didn't know much if anything about the organization itself.
While he wasn't thrilled to be going backwards, away from Diamond City, away from help finding his son he'd given his word that he'd get Paladin Danse back to his squad before nightfall. As they finally prepared to leave Paladin Danse asked for Nate to hold up before they moved out. "While I appreciate your willingness to escort me back to Cambridge I don't think that will be necessary. You've already done more than enough for the Brotherhood of Steel and I couldn't ask for more."
Nate was more than a little surprised by this, while it would save him almost an entire day of travel, he had still made a deal with the Paladin. "Are you sure? I know you have your power armor and all but it's still quite dangerous to travel alone out there."
"Indeed it is, that's why I'm giving you this." He handed Nate an honest to god Laser Rifle, with a Brotherhood of Steel emblem engraved on the side. With the exception of the emblem it was exactly the same as the one he'd been issued all those years ago when the Chinese had invaded Alaska. "Since you didn't wind up needing my help with those super mutants after all this seems like fair compensation for your assistance at Arcjet."
"Thank you Danse, I'll be sure to put it to goo use." Nate told the man open and honestly.
"Just keep up the good work killing super mutants and I'll be happy. There is one other matter I wanted to present to you as well." After a pause he continued "How would you like to join the Brotherhood of Steel?"
Nate was initially shocked by the offer from what he could tell from his brief interactions with the rest of Danse's squad the Brotherhood of Steel was a rather tight knit group. They took the 'Brotherhood' part of their name seriously it was definitely an all or nothing group and they probably wouldn't take kindly to him running off after his son. "That's a generous offer but I don't think I can right now. You see my son was kidnapped…"
"Say no more" Paladin Danse interrupted. "Family comes first be it your son or my Brotherhood, family should always be first. That said this is an open-ended offer so once your son is safe, I'd ask you to reconsider. Regardless of your decision I do owe you a personal debt for saving my team so if you ever need our help don't hesitate to ask."
"Thank you Danse." Nate offered his hand to the Paladin and this time the man carefully shook it with his power armor hand. "I honestly hope I never get into the situation where I need a walking tank but it's nice to have the option." He added jokingly.
That brought a grin to the Paladin's face. "Ad Victorium. I hope to see you again, Nate. Stay safe."
With that the two men went their separate ways, it wasn't long before the thundering footsteps of Paladin Danse were lost to the distance as Nate made his way towards downtown Boston. His good mood from not having to hike all the way to Cambridge and back lasted all of an hour, once he began to walk among the ruins of Boston. It felt as though all the happiness was just sucked from his body as he walked among the decaying remains of the once great American city. Everywhere he looked was decayed, destroyed, or looted beyond recognition, anything that had survived the initial blasts had not survived the centuries since with anything not nailed down looted for one reason or another. The things that had been nailed down were left to decay and fall apart with seemingly no attempts at preservation or restoration.
Nate was pulled from his rather brooding observations about Boston's destruction by what was quickly becoming a common noise, gunfire. It wasn't far from his current location so he carefully crept his way forward, making sure to stick to the shadows or ruins as much as possible to avoid detection. After about a block he came across the source of all the commotion, it was his old friend the super mutants. This group seemed to be lacking the armed nuclear devices that he'd found so easy to exploit earlier, instead they were much more organized. They stuck to the cover provided by a few destroyed buildings and whether by accident or intent overlapped their reloading such that they never had a complete stop in outgoing lead. Currently their attention seemed to be focused on a group on the opposite side of the street, this group had the support of a few turrets suggesting a fortified position. Looking through his scope he could just make out a few humans wearing some sort of catcher's gear as protection they also had some sort of insignia on their armor suggesting an organized group.
As Nate prepared to engage the three super mutants directly in front of him another mutant charged out of the building to their left, causing him to take another look at the battlefield. Sure enough he could just make out a few gun barrels and muzzle flashes coming from inside on of the dilapidated buildings across from the catcher gang. Nate readied two of his grenades, the first he lobbed thru the second story window while the second he merely ensured rolled at the feet of the three directly in front of him seeking cover behind a rusted-out car. The first detonated collapsing the already decrepit building's front wall, exposing all of the super mutants inside to a hail of gunfire. The second explosion must have hit the car's fuel supply as it created a much larger explosion than Nate had expected, nothing was left of the super mutants that had used it as cover. With the remainder of the super mutants flanked and without cover they quickly fell to the combined fire from Nate and the as yet unnamed catcher gang that he'd decided to assist.
Once it became clear that the super mutants posed no threat Nate began his approach towards the gang that was on the other side of the intersection. Before he'd even made it halfway, he heard a noise, it was subtle but just barely he could make out the sound of an armored foot scraping across pavement coming from behind him. He reacted on instinct alone, spinning around a knocking whatever was trying to sneak up on him to the ground with the butt of his rifle. As he took aim and prepared to fire though he realized it was one of the catchers that'd he been helping kill the super mutants, with his hands up in surrender. "Woah, easy there. I ain't no mutant see."
Nate quickly relaxed and offered the man a hand up "Sorry about that but I've been fighting constantly for the past few days."
The catcher seemed to accept that like it was normal "I just wanted to make sure you weren't a raider in disguise or somethin, guess you ain't since you didn't shoot me there. Thanks for that by the way, tomorrows payday."
Nate allowed himself a grin at that "So what are you guys exactly? Mercenaries or something?"
"What? No, we're not mercenaries, we're the guards for Diamond City."
Briefly Nate wondered why the guards for a city would be running around in the what could only be described as a baseball catchers full padded outfit, but he realized that he just didn't give a damn. "Sorry about nearly shooting you."
"Ahh don't sweat it. I'm used to having guns pointed at me, at least you had the courtesy not to pull the trigger. Anyway, the gate to Diamond City is that way." He gestured towards the end of the street at the next intersection. The fortifications were much more impressive there than at this smaller outpost, it bristled with turrets on every level and several guards could be seen patrolling it and the surrounding rooftops. The guard beside Nate waved a quick signal towards them and the few guards that Nate could make out visibly relaxed and returned to their patrols while the turrets seemed to stop tracking him. "They'll let you into the city without any complaints. Consider it my thanks for helping us with those super mutants back there. Most folks around here just hide behind these walls, it's nice to have someone who can fight hanging around."
Nate thanked the guard and made his way inside the fortifications. While not ideal, Nate highly doubted they'd hold up under a siege, they would definitely dissuade any raider gangs or super mutants from just wandering in. He noted more than a couple of gaps and poor sight lines that he could take advantage of should the need arise. In the middle of the compound was a long-ago oxidized bronze statue of a baseball player, while Nate couldn't recall the exact name of the player he remember him being extremely good at the game. As he began to have a detailed look around the compound his attention was drawn towards a rather irate woman yelling into an intercom.
"What do you mean you can't open the gate?!"