Chapter 6
Andrew woke up, it was 3:00 A.M, almost time to go, he crawled out of bed, kissed Eleanor goodbye, and walked out the door. Chicago in winter is very cold, especially in the early morning, especially long after a nuclear event when the fallout has settled, though not as much the latter. After getting dressed, finishing packing, and eating breakfast, he climbed into the vertibird. As they took off he dosed off, the ride would be fairly long from here, approximately four hours. He slept for three hours and fifty minutes, when he woke up they were already over Texas, nearing fort Phantom Hill. "Hey, that looks like a good place, set us down over there!" said Jackson. The vertibird set down and they all walked into the morning Texas sun.
Texas, even in early winter is a fairly warm place, it was one of the states that had been spared in the great atomic war two hundred some years ago, and much less fallout was lurking here. They hadn't been waiting very long when a man in power armor that none of them recognized walked up to them. "Howdy y'all, I'm captain Jack Austin of the Army of the Texan Constitutional Confederated Republic, and y'all should come with me." They all pointed their weapons at him, and he kind of smiled, but didn't look too impressed. "I really hope we don't have to do this the wrong way, but would y'all please listen to me instead of pointin' all these weapons around?" Austin asked. They all holstered their weapons and decided to listen to him, though they all thought this would be a good place for an ambush.
"See, we need help, we've only just declared independence from our mother nation; these guys called Ceaser's Legion" said Austin. Having been in a fairly similar situation before, the three men agreed to help them. Having picked Phantom Hill as their main base, they secured it according to plan in record time with the help of the ATCCR men. Ceaser's Legion attacked soon after they had cleared up the fort, and the battle was joined, about two hours later, the battle was over with a victory for the Texan Constitutional Confederated Republic, though with a fair amount of casualties. The next few days went by with massive assaults by the Legion being carried out until the Legion failed and retreated.
At the Citadel, Gerald Henderson and Sarah Lyons got ready to fly to Texas in their vertibird, a short time later, they were on their way, them and three others crammed into a vertibird together for five hours. They were headed towards the nearest area to the plant that they knew of: Abilene, Texas, more specifically, the fort near there: Phantom Hill. They discussed battle plans against hostile locals, and planned how to clear the place out. They would need to fly to Abilene first though, as it had oil they needed for their vertibird. These were all plans however, and no one could really know what would happen, especially since the Enclave was there.
They landed in Abilene at 3:21 P.M and got to work trying to get oil. They cleared out the area, and set to work getting the oil. Anyone who has ever inspected or studied a propeller engine has probably noticed how much oil those things take up, even more so for a helicopter type vehicle, this was going to take a while. Quite a while later, they were done, but they had to spend the night there. After making camp, they all talked about what they were going to do to take the plant. One of them turned on the radio, and almost immediately turned it off, he had, perhaps thought that he could tune in to Galaxy News Radio, instead he heard something like "stack arms men, pile on the rails, stir up the campfire bright. No matter if the canteen fails we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly blue ridge echos strong, to swell the brigades rousing song of Stonewall Jackson's way." None of them was well versed in prewar Texas history of prewar history at all, so they couldn't put it together, so they turned the radio back on and tuned to a different station. "Almost heaven, West Virginia, the rich mountains, Shenandoah river. Life is old there, older then the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze, country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong, West Virginia, mountain mama take me home, country roads." They could not figure that one out either, so they just turned off the radio.
In the morning, they got ready to go, they ate breakfast, got everything out of the way, packed up camp, and left. The short flight was not that interesting, so the same guy from earlier, and perhaps without thinking of what Sarah was going to do to him, tuned into the station again. "From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli; We fight our country's battles, in the air, on land, and sea; First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean; We are proud to claim the title Of United States Marine. Our flag's unfurled to every breeze From dawn to setting sun; We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun; In the snow of far-off Northern land, and in sunny tropic scenes, you will find us always on the job; The United States Marines. Here's health to you and to our Corps which we are proud to serve; In many a strife we've fought for life and never lost our nerve. If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded By United States Marines." After turning off the radio, Sarah Lyons threatened to make him walk to fort Phantom Hills, but this was done too late, as they were coming up on the fort, and they didn't like what they saw, two flags, one a blue field with a white star and two stripes, (the Texas flag,) and the other, thirteen stars around a big E, the Enclave.
Hannibal and the thirty-some Enclave soldiers were marching eastward when they came across a bunch of fleeing Legion soldiers, they had a desperate look in their eyes, so the crew avoided them. One of the soldiers set the marching tune by getting the radio set up, he played the entire patriotic playlist the station had, including, but not limited to: America the beautiful, Battle hymn of the Republic, Dixie, Hail Columbia, Anchors away, The Stars and Stripes forever, and Yankee Doodle. The songs raised morale, and off they were, marching across the wasteland, making good speed, listening to patriotic music and holding their flag high. None of them even knew they were marching at double time.
A short while after they had made camp, they noticed some Brotherhood men on the march, they had a short skirmish, but no one was killed, though the BoS soldiers did quite a bit of cursing and shouting. The men slept the night through soundly, and in the morning went back to marching, they marched all day, eating here and there, but overall just marching. The next few days were uneventful, resulting in a short round of extermination with some ferals. When not much happens, that is a good indication that something is going to happen, ant that it was. That same BoS squad they had a skirmish with had evidently been tracking them, as the night vision watchmen had reported.
The Soldier from earlier set up the radio, and as it started blasting out "America the Beautiful" the battle was joined. Nothing was in the Enclave's favor but technology. As the Enclave men ran up the hill to get the high ground, Hannibal did what was almost natural to him by now, he attacked, more specifically he activated the plunger he had been holding. About a second after the Enclave had gotten to the hill, C-4 erupted among the Brotherhood's ranks, staggering the ranks and killing several. With the Brotherhood disorganized, the Enclave soldiers charged and the Brotherhood men ran for their lives. The Brotherhood had a trap of their set to go, but the Enclave pulled back, leaving the timed trap to blow up in the Brotherhood's face.
After they had seen the Enclave flag, the Brotherhood pulled back, they started coming up with a plan to take the fort. The best way to beat an enemy that you think is larger than you is to disrupt their morale, which is hard to do if you cannot attack them directly. If you cannot attack them directly, then the best way to disrupt your enemy's morale is to convince them that you are much larger then they are. The chances are that if you convince the enemy of that, then they will surrender outright,. However, the worst case scenario is that the enemy feels trapped in on all sides, and thus decides to fight to the death or be killed anyway, making them fight harder, if you are much smaller then them and this happens, then you have signed your own death warrant.
They decided that this plan would be the best, but of course the lookouts found them first. Being an older man did not mean that Harrison had bad eyesight, to be an accomplished pilot you must have good eyesight, so Harrison would have to be the one with the most perception out of all of them, and he was lookout. He spotted the four Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, and immediately sounded the alarm. The same rules apply as earlier, and since the cannons had been poised for firing on October 23, 2077, they were already loaded. A quick laser was enough to activate all the cannons, and you would have thought there were a hundred men in the fort, but of course this led to the Brotherhood getting the vertibird minigun ready to fire. The whole battle was a fake one, a contest of smoke and mirrors, and as such hardly anyone was hurt. The most real part of the battle was when Harrison through a plasma grenade, which wounded one of the Brotherhood soldiers, after which the BoS ran back and Harrison fled into the fort.
Andrew, Thomas, and William all sat down later that night listening to a song they knew quite well, the radio was turned on and you could hear as clear as day."O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, o say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" They all listened to the tune, feeling a sense of national pride, their country had survived the worst that could happen to it, and remained afloat while all the other countries were destroyed. They started talking about how to send the Brotherhood back where they came from, a plan that would get them gone, one Idea presented itself, but they all thought it was stupid. The idea was brutally simple, strike where and when they were weakest, at night when they were asleep.
The plan was to use the prewar tranquilizer that they had found in a chest in the bunker, and use it on the watchman. They would then do the same to everyone else, and demand that they leave, they all agreed this would be the most humane option to get them to leave.