"Spectacular" Danse said in a monotone voice, "Let's get a move on"
Nate and Preston followed Danse out of the building. They walked onward on the road, neither party speaking much.
There was so much walking. Nate couldn't believe how much walking there was in this hell hole, it was beginning to annoy him, but as with everything else, he just shoved it down, he couldn't be weak… not now.
"We're heading to a place called ArcJet Systems, it should have the technology that me and my crew need for backup" Danse explained, breaking the silence.
"Understood, any surprises we need to know about?" Nate said, skeptical.
"None that come to mind" Danse replied.
Nate felt the urge to make a conversation, but something about Danse told him that he wasn't a very amiable guy.
Silence followed once again, the sound of Danse's power armor clanking as he moved was the only sound.
They were nearing ArcJet, walking up a hill, Danse felt the need to brief everyone.
"Okay, you two seem like you know what you're doing, so I won't bore you with the usual pep-talk, just follow me and we should be fine"
Preston and Nate nodded.
Walking by stagnant puddles in the massive potholes in the ArcJet parking, the decaying smell that surrounded the building, that mixed with this slight, numb pain in his arm. Not enough that it seriously pained him, but just enough to be a constant reminder that it was still there.
Nate was beginning to realize how awful the Commonwealth was.
"So…" Nate said as they entered the building, looking around at all the broken-down tech, "…what exactly are we looking for?"
"We're looking for a deep range transmitter, something my crew and I could use to get the support we need"
Neither party felt it necessary to converse more than was absolutely required.
They passed room after room of destroyed security, eventually coming to a large room with a locked door.
Nate opened it with a passcode he entered into the computer nearby.
The door unlatched and opened.
Nate looked straight into the room to see what seemed like walking skeletons. He couldn't believe it.
Just as he was about to ask Danse what was going on, one of the skeletons said in a robotic voice.
"Intruder detected" which was subsequently followed by a barrage of blue beams.
Nate immediately ducked down, terrified of getting hit.
The image of the skeleton was running through his mind.
He heard the lasers almost nonstop firing, from all the shots he heard he reckoned there was only about 5 of them.
He peeked around the desk he was crouching behind at got a look at one of them, he got the image of where they were in his mind, leaned back against the desk and pictured where the skeleton was.
In a split second he shot up from the desk, fired his revolver at where he thought the skeleton would be and immediately ducked back down.
He heard the sound of one of those metallic skeletons hitting the floor and hoped it was the one he shot.
He still heard the lasers.
It was bringing back memories, he could feel his hands shaking.
His brain giving him vivid memories on what it was like to get hit by a laser… the burn.
He closed his eyes, desperately wanting it to go away.
He heard the shouts of Preston and Danse and assumed they were hitting their targets.
His head was spinning, he could feel the nausea coming on.
He gripped harder at the handle of his gun, he wanted to get up, but he couldn't, he was too scared.
He didn't have to though; he heard the shots slow down and he saw Danse getting back up from his cover.
Nate stood up as a wave of nausea hit him, he buckled over and threw up on the floor.
He was hunched over for a second, but he wiped his mouth and got back up.
He looked around and Preston and Danse were already in the other room, searching the skeletons.
Nate walked to Danse and asked, "What the hell are these things anyway?"
Danse picked up a fusion cell as he responded, "These are Institute synths, robotic monstrosities"
"They seem pretty high-tech"
"That's precisely what's so dangerous about them. This couldn't of been the only group of them, we should look out the further we go"
Nate and Preston both gave a nod in acknowledgement.
They moved further in the building, nothing bothering them until they came upon a test site of sorts.
There was an elevator on the lowest level, which was covered in a layer of ash. Which didn't make much sense to Nate until he diverted his gaze upwards.
"Jesus" He said "Is that a fucking rocket?"
"Unfortunately" Danse responded, "I suggest we find a way up, quickly"
Preston walked down to the elevator and pressed the 'up' button a few times.
All it did was glitch out one word, which was 'power'.
Nate stumbled upon another door which seemed to lead to a generator room.
"Hey guys" He tapped on the glass that looked into the rocket test chamber, "Looks like there's some power in here"
Nate watched Danse speak to Preston, he couldn't really hear what they were saying, but a few seconds later Preston walked into the room with Nate and started looking around as well.
"Hey over here, there's a terminal" Preston called out.
Nate walked up to Preston.
"It's locked"
"Sorry Preston" Nate said "I don't even know where to begin trying to hack one of those"
"No worries, the encryption on this isn't that bad, I should have opened in a few minutes"
Just as Preston finished his sentence, they heard a barrage of lasers coming from the test site.
Nate told Preston to keep at the terminal while he helped Danse.
He ran out of the room and took cover with Danse behind the wall just in front of the test site.
"Damn things came out of nowhere" Danse exclaimed.
Preston came around the corner and shouted that he managed to get the auxiliary power up and running, this was confirmed by a few speakers around the site.
Nate had to think of something quickly, he could already hear the barrage of lasers, he couldn't let those memories come back.
He remembered a red button in the opposite room of the terminal.
"Preston!" Nate shouted, "You see a red button somewhere over there?"
"Yeah" Preston shouted, "There's one over h-"
"Press it!" He could barely hear his own voice over the barrage of gun fire and robotic callouts.
"What? What does it do anyw-"
"Just press the damn thing" Nate could feel his anger, adrenaline building up.
Nate heard Preston's fist slam down on the button, which was followed by a countdown on the speakers.
"Danse…" Nate said, "Time to move"
Danse responded with a nod as he walked across the doorway into the observing room.
Nate shoved his hand onto the red button beside him and ran down the hallway.
He made it just around a corner and slammed on another red button as he heard the speakers say "one".
He stood there watching the synths melt into the ground, nearly out of breath. Seeing the brilliant yellow light and the synth's skull like heads sink into the floor was somewhat therapeutic.
"I'm sure glad I got out of dodge before that" Nate said, out of breath.
"Well at least the elevator's working now" Preston said, "So we should be able to get up."
Danse and Preston stood there watching the rocket, Nate was looking down at his shaking hands, trying to calm himself.
The rocket eventually stopped, and they walked out into the test area.
They walked over the melted metal mounds to the elevator. Nate pressed the button to go up.
They all stood in the elevator going up, Nate just wanting to be done with this.
It stopped at a catwalk. They looked ahead and saw another room full of synths.
They looked at each other to give the go-ahead and snuck closer.
The catwalk was small, so Nate lagged behind so that Preston and Danse could go ahead.
He knew he wouldn't be much help in this fight.
Danse shouted something as he jumped behind cover in the room, Preston taking a pot shot from behind the doorway.
Nate closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and thought of Nora.
Blocking out he laser fire and replacing it with her voice.
His hands stopped shaking.
He opened his eyes, ran and dived into cover further in the room.
He heard a robotic callout coming from his right, it sounded relatively close while also being elevated.
He lifted his right arm toward the point of the sound before the synth had time to move, he pulled the trigger and to his utter dismay as he ducked back down behind cover, he heard the shot hit the wall.
The shaking came back, the pain in his left arm seemed to spike.
He gripped the gun and figured covering fire was better than him sitting there.
He got up and aimed in the direction of one of the synths, he shot three times before it connected with its arm.
Preston threw a grenade, above Nate's head.
Nate saw it fly over him and heard it hit the ground behind him.
Before the synths had time to warn each other, Nate heard the explosion.
It seemed to take care of the rest of the synths, the room was small enough the scatter got to most places.
Nate looked back down at his hands, still shaking subtly.
He shoved his gun into its holster.
Danse walked over and knelt down by one of the synths and ripped something from its clenched hand.
"Alright, we got what we came for" Danse said as he looked back up "Lets take that elevator to the surface"
Preston walked over to Nate and helped him up.
He gave Nate a concerned look before nodding his head to the elevator.
The elevator took them to what seemed like a storage building.
They walked out into the fresh air.
Nate looked up to the sky, it was close to night, the sun just peeking though the horizon.
Danse turned to them. "That went relatively well"
"Glad we could help out" Preston said.
Nate was just staring into space.
Danse took off his helmet and ejected a fusion cell from his rifle and put a new one in.
"The Brotherhood doesn't believe in debts, I want you to take this in lieu of payment" He said as he extended the rifle
Preston knew better than to argue.
"Thanks" he said as he took the rifle, "but just remember, this is all thanks to the Minutemen"
Danse squinted his eyes and nodded unenthusiastically.
"Come see me back at the police station if you can, you fight pretty good"
And with that Danse walked off down the cracked road his power armor creaking as he disappeared.
Preston turned back to Nate and snapped his fingers in front of his eyes to get him out of his daze.
"Come, lets get back to Sanctuary, its getting dark"
Nate nodded. They started walking down the road.
"You know…" Preston said in a quiet voice "I saw you in the fights back there, I've seen some of the old timers in the Minutemen act similar... You okay Nate?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" Nate said softly.
They walked a bit further before Nate talked again. "I guess now I owe you the truth"
"Whenever your ready" Preston replied.