"We fought alongside a lot of good NCR men and women against the Enclave, the next time I saw them,
we were lining up their corpses in a mass grave." - Knight Captain Aiden
Honor
Shady Sands Bunker, Brotherhood of Steel NCR HQ
There was a saying that the rear of a battlefield looked the same, whether in victory or defeat, and Elder Hail did not dispute that claim as he watched the first batch of wounded being transferred to his bunker. The battle was still raging in the various cities of the Republic, from Maxson, to Dayglow and the Boneyard, and within this one day, he suspected they had lost more brothers and sisters than they did against the entire Enclave. The first Knights and Paladins were ushered into the lower levels, their power armor rented with holes and leaking blood, while several had to had their life saving armor cut open to get to their battered bodies inside.
The scribes, normally continuing with their studies, were relegated to the role of doctors and medics, and in the hallways he saw many of the initiates and scribes running back and forth between the med rooms, carrying bandages, water, anything that could bring comfort to the wounded. Usually that task had been delegated to the Knights, but even they had been sent into combat, such was the pressing need for an overwhelming victory.
Elder Hail paused as he watched another wounded being cradled by a battle hardened Paladin, the gruff features on his face softening as he touched the forehead of a wounded Initiate, barely out of his teens, in crumbled power armor.
"Initiate Daniels, I bestow upon you the rank of Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel." The Paladin conferred upon the youth his final blessings, a battlefield promotion that would be recorded by the scribes in the annals of the Brotherhood's history.
"In Maxson's name…" The boy whispered softly, just as the last gasps escaped his throat. As the youth breathed his last breath, the Paladin gently closed his eyes before laying the body to rest.
It shook Elder Hail to the core, watching the scene. One thing, more than anything, the Brotherhood was a family, in not just the figurative sense, but literally, as the Brotherhood was mostly inclusive. It was almost impossible for anyone in the bunker to not be touched by a casualty, to have a family torn apart or friends and loved ones killed and injured in the line of duty.
"In the name of Steel, let our victory be swift and just, so that we may lift this terrible scourge from our land. "
He uttered the prayer quietly, before walking back to his command center, the weight of knowing he would be sending even more Brothers and Sisters to their deaths heavy on his mind.
Dusk was falling in Shady Sands, as columns of smoke billowed above the city, blocking out the din of the setting sun. The sky was colored red, tinted with the orange of burning flames that stretched out beneath the smoke. Streams of laser and tracer rounds filled the air, denoting areas of resistance throughout the city where NCR pockets remained. Every few minutes, a low rumble was heard in the horizon, denoting a Brotherhood rocket ambush, or an improvised explosive left behind by the retreating NCR forces.
Knight Captain Aiden watched silently as the prisoners were rounded up. Dozens of surviving NCR congressmen and congresswoman who had were not evacuated in time. His stealth squad had struck swiftly, and silently, killing the presidential guards that surrounded the NCR Congressional hall, while their brothers and sisters waged the brutal frontal assault on the city, he was the dagger that struck at the heart of the NCR.
The legislators went quietly, their wrists bounded by the faithful as they were marched towards the Shady Sands bunker. Most had their heads down, either in shame or fear, while others looked upon him with vengeful eyes.
"All prisoners secured Knight Captain." Initiate Holt, his power armor covered in dust and grime of battle, saluted anxiously. The youth had been in his first battle today, leading a charge that ultimately resulted in the fall of the last NCR generator room.
"Any casualties?" Aiden asked.
"We have five wounded sir." Holt said proudly, the thrill of his first battle still in him. "None killed."
Aiden nodded, wondering just how long that would last. He had never led this many brothers against such an enemy before. The Enclave was outnumbered to begin with, a small organization of dangerous fanatics. The New California Republic was a nation unto itself, his speciality was in small squad tactics, not a full scale war. How many men like Initiate Holt would die before this was over? He thought grimly.
"Knight-Captain, Your orders?" Holt asked.
"Secure the area." Aiden snapped back to reality. "I want the prisoners escorted to the bunker."
The initiate saluted, then ran off to issue the commands with the squads escorting the prisoner.
Another explosion erupted in the next street, followed by a barrage of gunfire and screams. Evidence that the battle for Shady Sands was far from over. Aiden waved his hand at a nearby squad of power armored knights, who quickly detached themselves to investigate, and need be, provide supporting fire.
"What's going on here? I thought this area was secure." Aiden said gruffly, addressing his second in command, Knight Sergeant Synder.
The Knight stoically nodded. "It was, our Brothers had to eliminate mutant squad nearby. But they may be the raiders Elder Hail enlisted."
Super Mutants. Aiden spat in disgust. If there was one thing he hated more than the Enclave, it was the thought of super mutants. Nothing more than a failed and monstrous product of a world long gone. The fact that his own brother was killed by one of those modified freaks did little to assuage that hatred. Yet, something else bothered him.
"Raiders?"
Synder nodded grimly. "Elder Hail believes that they may be of service in occupying some of the enemy's fire."
Meat shields would be a more accurate term. Aiden thought, but the NCR presence here was done, the most those raiders and khans could be depended on now was burning what remained of the city to the ground. He didn't care as much for the tribals, but it sullied him to be working with the likes of the Khans, and no one deserved the fate the savages offered.
"Have the squad mobilized, we're going to secure the rest of the town."
Initiate Holt seemed surprised by this. "Sir, our orders were to secure the hall of congress."
"Any NCR trooper within a square kilometer is either lying dead or dying, this area is secure enough. Elder Hail will understand, the Khans have no right being here."
The initiate blinked, but understood the message Aiden was getting at.
"Your will Knight Captain."
The Hub
The Hub, like most of the core region, was burning. The sweet smell of corpses and ash filled the air as bodies lay sprawled along what used to be the merchant quarter. The HUB police, although better equipped than the standard caravan guard and paramilitary force, was destroyed, the last bastion of meaningful resistance coming from the police station, where the remnants of an NCR battalion was entrenched.
Eighty members of the brotherhood had decimated an NCR squad of at least six hundred. It was punishment of the faithless, and the smell of glory was in the air.
Draped with the cape emblazioned in the sword, wings and cog of the Brotherhood of Steel, Paladin Commander Palermo watched with satisfaction as his men cut a swath of righteous fury and destruction through the enemy ranks. With the Knights and Paladins sent to the front ranks, scribes were assigned to drag the wounded back to the bunker, as well as confiscate any technology the NCR had left behind. Although they were primitive tribals at best, Palermo did not deny that they had a reasonable talent in salvaging Pre-war materiale, almost as good as the Brotherhood, but then again, what else did rats do but steal and hoard?
The sacred technology would belong where it once had, under the vigilance and watchful eyes of the Brotherhood of Steel, instead of being wasted in the hands of these primitives.
"Paladin Commander." The voice of the Paladin General Sword, the right hand of Maxson, the Sword of Justice, echoed through the radio built into his power armored helmet.
"Yes General?" Palermo acknowledged through the broadcast.
"How are your squads progressing?"
"Very well my General, we've secured the water tower and the main administrative buildings, all that is left is the remnants of the NCR battalion in the police station, we believe they number four hundred."
"Only six to one? That hardly seems fair." General Sword chuckled through the comms.
"They will make for good sport at least." Palermo agreed.
"Our forces are spreading across the core region, New Reno and Junktown have been pacified."
The war was progression faster than Palermo thought, already word was coming through the intercoms that the NCR capital was close to falling.
"What would you ask of us? We are nearly done here."
"President Joanna Tibbett was able to escape our forces at Shady Sands, which is unfortunate, so now we are targeting her cabinet and advisors." General Sword explained. "We've secured their legislature in Shady Sands, now we must take the rest. Councilman Westin, the President's top advisor, is reported to be holed up in the Hub. the Vice president is seeking refuge in Vault 15, but we've dispatched a chapter to deal with them."
Palermo was impressed, only a few years ago, such coordinated strikes over hundreds of miles of terrain was impossible, but it was now, thanks to the Enclave. One of the most valuable pieces of technology the Brotherhood was able to salvage from the Oil Rig and Navarro was the command and control communication systems from ENCOM, the Enclave's high command. It was a satellite based network, linking all the vital comms in the core region that allowed the Brotherhood elders to communicate with each other, as well as filter down data to the individual level, allowing each Brotherhood soldier access to untold amounts of valuable information that allowed them to cut through the fog of war.
His thoughts ran through the events of the first attack, a mere eight hours ago. The NCR camp in the Hub was obliterated down to the last man, that left only one possible alternative where the Councilman could be hiding.
"I will gather my Paladins General, we will mount a full assault on the Hub Police station, and capture Westin."
"Steel preserve you Paladin Commander, do not let us down. Sword out."
Palermo smiled a grim smile, then turned towards the cadre of knights that assembled around him.
"Mop up the remnants of the tribals, we will focus all our assets in the police station. I want that place purified, and consecrated in Maxson's name!"
"In the name of Maxson!" The squad shouted in triumph.
The Boneyard
A squad of NCR heavy troopers, clad in composite fiber armor, advanced down the street, using the remnants of a brahmin cart and the shell of a pre-war highwayman for cover. Behind them, light infantry in pre-war assault rifles provided supporting fire, tracer rounds burning through the darkening street as flashes of gunfire denoted the positions of the troops. The NCR troopers were confident, they were the armored fists, the spearhead of the counter attack of 1st battalion. They were the best armed and outfitted battalion the NCR had to offer.
One trooper, armed with an Ak-112, a variation of an old 21st century soviet rifle, lifted his weapon and aimed, only to drop as a tri laser beam took his head off at the shoulder. His comrades barely had time to respond as the buildings next to them lit up in laser and plasma fire, burning holes through armor and renting the highwayman that they hid behind. One trooper dropped in pain as his kneecaps were seared through the bone by a laser beam. Another toppled over as her arm was severed at the bone by a gauss rifle, the stump still steaming from the high speed of the round. The NCR trooper knocked his head on the highwayman, unconscious. She was the lucky one, as his now fleeing comrades drew more fire from the Brotherhood occupied buildings, turning three more troopers into piles of ash and plasma goop.
Knight Callister watched in detached amazement as the NCR troopers fell, their bodies slowly disintegrating into the smoking piles of ash, maintaining their form and features until they impacted the ground, exploding into a cloud of particles. He was the chapter's designated sniper, occupying his position half a kilometer away on an apartment complex, far from the action in the streets where Brotherhood Paladins were fighting the NCR room to room.
The moment over, Callister ejected the empty 2mm EC shell from the chamber of his rifle, loading in another accelerator round. As a sniper, he used the high powered M72 Gauss rifle, a large, unwieldy gun with several coils which used an electromagnetic field to propel rounds at tremendous speed. It had the power to pierce almost any obstacle, while it combined its penetrating power with an unparalleled range, accuracy and stopping power. He never had a chance to test it, but even his fellow knights swore that a single shot was enough to stop a deathclaw right in its tracks.
Although his rifle had all those advantages, it still had to be painstakingly loaded by hand after each shot. The amount of microfusion cells, already scarce and rare, that the gun ate up was unbelieveable, which meant he had to make his shots count.
Luckily, the Brotherhood elders recognized that, so much so that every sniper squad in the Chapter was issued with their own specialized power armor, equipped with a rare and modified version of a Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. It was a series of nano-fiber circuits, which connected the user's brain and retinas to the pipboy built into the power armor helmet, allowing the user super human reflexes, if only temporarily, giving them the ability to process trajectories, assess enemy vital statistics and actions, and more importantly, pinpoint precise shots which would have the highest probabilities of hitting, all within the fraction of a second.
His spotter, Knight-Sergeant Greene, watched quietly as the gunfight on the street intensified, with more heavy NCR troopers entering the fray.
"NCR ranger sneaking up behind our Brother Knights, twelve meters east of the main line."
"Targeting." Callister activated the V.A.T.S system in his helmet, and for a millisecond, his world slowed to a crawl. In his vision, he watched with detached calm as formulas and trajectories burned in his retinas, the sprinting NCR ranger seemed to almost freeze in his scopes as his super human reflexes took hold, taking into account the distance, wind and trajectory, it took his brain another two milliseconds to decide on which area to target for maximum results.
He pulled the trigger. And the NCR ranger simply exploded into a cloud of blood as the mass accelerator round hit him square in the solar plexus, liquifying his inner organs and severing him at the top of the spinal cord.
"Kill confirmed. Quite a splash there Callister. Next target. Squad leader, behind the brahmin cart, fifty meters north."
"Acknowledged." He pulled the trigger again, this time his round whipping past a Brotherhood Paladin on the street, missing him by inches as it hit the target, taking the arm off the NCR ranger.
"Target's down."
"Not yet." Callister calmly ejected the spent casing, reloading a new microfusion-powered shell, then aimed again, right at the Brahmin Cart where the NCR squad leader collapsed behind. He pulled the trigger again, and this time was rewarded with a splatter of blood across the walls of the barricade, as he hit the spot where the wounded soldier had fallen.
Suddenly, the rooftop shook, and urgent shouts from the three man squad they left on the lower floors called up to them.
"Contact!"
"Time to go Callister, good work." Knight Sergeant Greene patted him on the shoulder, then pulled his power armored helmet back on with a mechanical hiss. Callister nodded, shouldering his M72 and pulling out a tri-laser rifle which he reserved for these situations.
Before he knew it, the five man squad was running down the stairs of the apartment complex, their power armored boots shaking the floors loose with dust and soot as they advanced.
"Word has come in from the Elder, More NCR divisions are coming in from the south." Knight Sergeant Greene confirmed via the HUD display in his power armor helmet.
"Expected, considering we're fighting at the NCR's goddamn doorstep." Callister said grimly, they were one of the largest chapters in the Brotherhood, almost three hundred strong, yet they were fighting in the most populous, most fortified city in the entire NCR short of Shady Sands, the Boneyard.
The first contact the squad made with the NCR troopers was at the steps of the second floor. Within the narrow confines of the staircase, and armed only with single shot carbines, the light infantry went down easy. Callister fired point blank into the face of one of the NCR troopers, reducing his face into a mush of melted flesh, while Greene snapped the neck of his comrade with a power armored fist.
"Keep going!" Greene shouted, the power armored figures sliced their way through the flimsy NCR resistance. One room, newly occupied by NCR troopers, was bombed as Callister rolled a grenade through the door. The screams and cries barely heard however, all drowned in the hail of gunfire that lit up the downtown core of what used to be, Los Angeles.
Lost Hills
High Elder Jeremy Maxson smiled as the reports flowed in. Junktown was now under Brotherhood Jurisdiction, and New Reno, the families, once freed of NCR influence, now went back to their own gang wars, fighting each other over the burning city as the NCR forces retreated. They would be pacified with time, but they were not able to lend their strength to the NCR forces, and even more importantly that freed up the New Reno chapter to begin offensive operations elsewhere.
He leaned back in the console chair, pleased that perhaps out of all the people involved in this war, he was the one who had the most intelligence, even more so than the President of the NCR. Yet this would not be simple. What was that pre-war phrase? They had awoken a sleeping giant. The only hope they had left was to tear apart this giant from the inside out before it had a chance to move.
And in order to do that, he realized he needed every abled bodied man and woman at the front lines. The odds were in their favor, but victory had to be assured if the future of the Brotherhood, nay, the human race was to be saved.
With that thought in mind, the High Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel reluctantly picked up his long range transmitter, and made a call.
High chief Bekter was seeing red. His men had successfully destroyed the outer defenses of Shady Sands, and now his warriors were coordinating with the Brotherhood to wreak glorious destruction on their ancient enemies. Already, his men had laid waste to vast swathes of the city, houses were burned, women were taken as conquest. Half the city was burning, and all that was left was to wipe out the rest of the trash.
But standing in his way, was six feet of pure muscle and steel, barring the way for his troops to enter the suburbs.
"You are done here Chief, there is nothing else for you here." The Brotherhood Paladin said tersely.
"I don't know who the fuck you are, but me and my boys have not even started yet!" Bekter, still hooped on battle stimulants and psycho, let out an almost animalistic snarl as his own men backed him up, Khans armed with flamers and assault rifles.
"I'll say it again, you are done. You've played your part, this area is secure, now head towards the next area of fighting."
"Fuck that, we've earned this part of town by right of conquest." Bekter spat at the Brotherhood Paladin.
"The conquest was not yours by right, my men were the ones who disabled the NCR power generators. Without us, you would be nothing but roasted slabs of meat on their electric fences."
"Fuck you and your rights you goddamn tin head." The Khan said angrily. Let us pass, or me and my boys will give you something to regret about."
Knight Captain Aiden did not reply immediately, instead he drew a power armored line in the sand, dragging his boots into a neat line as the raiders watched in curiousity and fury."
"Say what you want, but I will tell you this. If you take one step past this line, well, let's just say you'll look kind of funny running around with no head."
Aiden took a step forward, towering over Bekter.
"This section of the city is under Brotherhood control and protection now. If you wish to dispute that, take it up with my elder, but i'd imagine he'd sooner have your head on a spike than let your men run rampant through this place."
"We had a deal!" Bekter, slightly taken aback by the display, still snarled in fury.
"And we still do. Take your men to the areas of fighting, support our brothers and sisters, and you will get your reward. In time."
The Raider growled, and he sensed his men were already cocking their weapons at such a frontal insult to their tribe and leader. But reluctantly, Bekter knew when he was beat, he gave the signal for the Khans to withdraw.
"We'll meet again you damned Tin Can, and next time, you won't be so lucky."
"I look forward to it tribal. Believe me. I do so look forward to it." Knight Captain Aiden smiled then watched as the raiders dispersed.
He turned to Knight Sergeant Synder.
"Have Squad Shadow mobilized, it's time we pacified the rest of the NCR."
Sorry for the long wait...writers block .
Endless Walker: Thanks! :)
ProtectorProctor009: We'll see, like i said, i have many references to several fallouts in this. How it plays out only time will tell
ChrisJM89 : I know! I was really hoping one of the expansions in FO: NV would capture some of the BOS NCR war, but oh well that's what fanfics are for;)
MarcusBrutus: Great points Marcus
1.) The statue was destroyed more as a collateral damage of war rather than any outright targetting
2.) As to the role of Knights, here i am more influenced by Fallout 3's interpretation of a Knight's role in the BOS. It was the first FO i played so there, but i do recgonize that in the west coast they were more of a support role. Chalk it up to Maxson's agressiveness, when you fight an enemy like the NCR, it's all or nothing
3.) Again, i wish i played dead money before writing this fic (still haven't) but this takes place a good few decades before NV, he still has time to change ;)
CyberJordan: Thanks Cyberjordan! I will do my best to make the story enjoyable, but yes, look forward to many references ;)