CHAPTER VI

Janus awoke to a bright light staring down at him. He fumbled around as he regained consciousness, firstly recognizing the IV in his arm, and the orange fluid being pumped into his system. Rad-Away, he realized. Gonna have a shitton of diarrhea… But Janus' bowel movements weren't the most pressing thing to attend to. He tried to remember, and recalled the dozen armored warriors before blacking out. Based on the ticking of his Geiger counter back in the Vault, he assumed him fainting must have been from all the radiation. But the Brotherhood guys must have taken care of him. What nice fellas.

"Oui! He's waking up!"

His vision returned a moment later, and he saw a bunch of guys wearing the same armor clank into the room, rifles ready. Behind them, a man in the armor, minus the helmet, stood. "I am Head Paladin Winters, of the Mt. Rainer Brotherhood Chapter. You are on very lucky Brigand."

"The name's Janus…but I'm not a Brigand." He replied to Winters. "Greetimb took my men hostage until I can recover the tech in Vault 89 for them."

"Than it seems we may be able to help each other," Winters said. "The Brigade has us trapped, with no way out. They are demanding, like they told you, that we hand over Vault 89's technology, which we don't have."

"Than who has it?"

"We don't know. We set up shop in the adjoining Vault 88, sealing off most of the irradiated sections and decontaminating the rest, while we searched 89. To no avail, I'm afraid."

"What was in Vault 89?"

"Before the war," Winters began, "Machines, more specifically self-controlled machines, were a part of everyday life. People had robots to do housework, robots to manufacture materials…to do everything. But they also made robots for combat, and security purposes. Soon, their use became so widespread that they outnumbered humans on the battlefield. With both sides deploying these robots, the obvious thought arose – what if you could control the other side's robots? Make them switch sides, and fight for your flag? Well, they found a way. It was a machine that could control any and every machine on the globe, and hack into any terminal, access any point of data – and they called it the Checkmate Project.

"Checkmate was the single most valuable piece of hardware in the world. Naturally, the government that made it wanted to protect it, and so they built an entire Vault to house it's primary server and development team."

"Only it's not here." Janus said. "And what would you do with Checkmate, if you had it?"

"Keep it out of the hands of those that could use it's power…in other ways. Our organization, The Brotherhood of Steel, is dedicated to recovering Pre-War technology, studying it, and above all keeping it out of the hands of people who would use it in the wrong way. It is our driving ethos."

And suddenly, things clicked with Janus. He remembered what Holiday had told him :

I WILL MAKE YOU THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE OREGON TERRITORY.

By giving him control of an army of robots? Janus had to admit, he had expected there to be some sort of supergun or invincible armor in Vault 89…but this was much, much better. "So where is Checkmate then, if you don't have it?"

"We don't know," Winters admitted. "But right now the pressing matter is getting out of this mess with the Brigade alive."

"Will you help me save my tribe if we escape?"

"If it means taking down the Brigade, than yes. Your help during this battle will –"

A Brotherhood scout, rushing into the room, interrupted the conversation. "Winters," he said, "The Brigade is mobilizing for an assault!"

Janus was forcing himself to step into boots when the fighting began, as the first shots were fired throughout the camp. The Brigands had descended upon them, but by the time he stumbled over his men and out of the Vault into the grey morning air, groggily pulling out his Carbine and firing at anyone who wasn't in Power Armor. Janus himself was still in his Vanguard outfit.

The Brotherhood had set up two lines of barricades around the entrance to Vault 88, and as the Brigands moved forwards the conflict only intensified. The Paladins were more heavily armed, and it showed – they were downing Brigands left and right with accurate laser and plasma fire.

And now as he slung the empty gun for a machete, stabbing and swinging over and over, he began to understand the situation. The Brigade, either frustrated with Janus' lack of progress, or wary the Brotherhood had found the tech, or perhaps both, had formed two battle lines and marched on the Vaults. The first line was lightly armed, mainly with shields and makeshift melee weapons, while the second line was armed with guns and heavier arms. The first line took cover and in doing so had formed a barricade for the second line.

Janus brought down his machete on a Brigand's shield, one formed of an old road sign laced with rubber tire treads. His blade stuck in the rubber, though the force of the slash knocked the enemy soldier off his feet. Janus drew his pistol, aimed quickly and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Than he remembered that he had forgotten to get the weapon repaired – and as a result, it had jammed. He had another pistol, a 9 MM, on his leg holster, but in jamming his gun he had given the Brigand valuable time. Janus was rushed by the fellow, who dropped the ruined shield and conceded to taking on the Stan with a sick-looking combat knife. Janus rolled and got up, taking a wrestling pose as the Brigand charged him. The knife flashed inches from Janus' neck, who grabbed the man's arm and flung him to the ground. He hit the pavement with a thud, and Janus finished the job with a wicked curb stomp to the head. Drawing his other pistol, the 9 MM, he made sure the man wouldn't be getting up.

All around him, the battle raged. The Brotherhood was outnumbered, but they had superior technology, training, and organization. It certainly helped that there Power Armor seemed to be invulnerable to regular ammunition - the Brigand's combat gear, on the other hand, offered little protection from the lasers and plasma weapons that the Brotherhood had. But their were less than thirty Brotherhood paladins, and over a hundred Brigands – making the odds just about even. That being said, the Brigade wasn't making much progress. The line of shield-wielding barricaders that stood in front of those with ranged weapons was weakening – and the Brigade's second line was beginning to take casualties.

To make matters interesting a heavy snowstorm had begun – quite typical of the Van during this time of year – making it almost impossible to see more than twenty feet ahead of you. People would fade in and out of Janus' field of view, before being absorbed into the grey snowy haze once again.

A loud horn sounded in the distance, and a second later Janus heard the screams of dozens of Brigands as they rushed forwards. Evidently Greetimb had scrapped his original plan, and was now ordering his forces to take on the Brotherhood at close range. Janus fought his way back to Winters, who wielded a massive thermic lance, and was literally cutting in half any Brigand who dared challenge him. The other Paladins simply punched their enemies, though the metal fists they were using seemed to have a special punch to them. At impact with an opponent's body, two shotgun shells set on top of the fist would go off in their enemy's direction, killing them.

The battle seemed to rage on for hours as the Brotherhood and the Brigade duked it out. It had disintegrated into a melee, and bodies lay strewn everywhere. The Brigands had resorted to suicide bombing – running at the seemingly invincible Brotherhood with grenades in each hand. The tactic was ultimately futile, with many being shot before they even reached their targets. Those that did found that, while more effective than regular ammunition, frag grenades still (for the most part) couldn't breach the Brotherhood's armor.

The Paladins were clearly paving their way through the Brigade's lines. A third line of Brigands was forming in the distance, and in the front, Janus could recognize Greetimb, waving his massive sledgehammer as he ordered his new reinforcements to get into formation. These men seemed more heavily armed, from what Janus could tell, with bulkier armor and enormous rifles that Janus had never seen. They all took a knee at once, taking aim, and it was only then that he realized what the rifles were.

"Take cover!" Janus yelled. "They've got anti-material rifles!"

But it was too late. The Brigands fired in unison, and the combined sound went off like a cannon. Numerous Paladins fell as the massive .50 caliber rounds broke through their Power Armor. The Brotherhood, reeling from the new threat, staggered as it tried to reform it's battle lines. Then the Brigands fired again. This time, even more Paladins fell – at least a dozen – leaving no more than fifteen still in the fight. Another volley of that shit and were done for, Janus thought. He looked around for a weapon of some heavier caliber – and found, on the body of a dead Paladin, a light-machine gun. He knew not how many rounds were left in the magazine, and ignored as best he could the weight of the weapon. And then he charged.

Firing from the hip, inaccurately, and screaming at the top of his lungs, Janus charged the Brigade's line single handily. His bullets were going wide, and he only hit three of the densely packed Brigands, but somehow the sight of the crazed Stan fearlessly charging at them with a LMG broke up the enemy formation. The AMR-wielding veterans, for their part…turned and ran, only to be cut down by fire coming from their line of retreat. Janus was oblivious to the origin of the fire, but soon more pressing matters came to a head.

"Come back! You cowards!" Greetimb yelled, before turning to Janus. "You…" he growled. He charged at him and swung with his crowbar and caught Janus with an uppercut, which knocked the LMG out of his hands and threw the Stan to the snowy ground, with a rather hard landing. "I'm…I'm going to eat your spleen! And then I'm going to fuck your dead body and feed your liver to the-"

Still mid-threat, Greetimb's head exploded in a shower of crimson blood, and his limp corpse fell into the still settling snow. Janus looked towards the Brotherhood lines, then towards the peninsula, and saw to his surprise, the Vanguard. Strabo was at their head, reloading a smoking revolver. "Janus," he said. "Your alive!"

"For a couple seconds there, I thought differently," he said. "How'd you guys get out?"

"Well, Greetimb took most of his army with him to attack you guys, and we were able to overpower the few guards that were left. Than we found where they stored our weapons, and the rest is history."

"Ya, I assume whatever is left of the Brigade is halfway to Surrey by now," Janus said.

"Indeed so," Winters said, coming up from behind Janus. "You did the Brotherhood a great deal of good today," he said. "That final charge by you…I've never seen anyone with as much courage as you showed on the battlefield today. Your actions undoubtedly saved me and my men, and I would be honored to fight at your side, any day."

"Well, that day may come very soon." Janus said. "We are going to return to Stanley, our home. We originally believed we would have technology on our side, but now…"

"Wait a minute," Strabo said, interrupting. "You don't have the tech?"

Janus told him about Checkmate, it's purpose, and, after a slight hesitation, what he had found out about the Provost. "I can't believe it…" Strabo said, shaking his head. "I would never had thought him capable of something like that."

"Me neither," Janus said. "But whats done is done. The important thing now is getting back to Stanley, and settling things. For all we know Mason is capable of something just as bad. We need to make sure that Stanley's future is secure – and with the Vanguards in charge it will be."

"We will march with you," Winters said. "I have a dozen Paladins in Power Armor that I'm sure will prove invaluable in this coup of yours. Under one condition," Winters said.

"If this Provost of yours is in possession of Checkmate, it comes home with us."

Janus thought for a moment. If he was in charge, he wouldn't need Checkmate any longer…would he? He debated it for a second before making up his mind.

"Deal," he replied.