Chapter 9 : Heart of Steel
"The Brotherhood was dying, we all knew it, but the elders refused to see reality. More of our brothers died each year, while we kept turning away good able bodied recruits. Lyons put two and two together. He finally realized that we had to become more than just a cult living in a hole in the ground. He gave us a purpose again.
Paladin Vargas, Sergeant of Lyon's Pride
Blood dripped, bones crushed. The sounds of metal scrapping on concrete and dripping blood echoed through the quiet streets, along with the guttural laughs of many more brethren. It did not take long for them to finish off the raiders, the last one already having his pieces squirming inside its mouth. More than anything, the scent of blood made the rest of them howl, the battle cries of hungry predators.
They were a pack, as long as they had remembered. There were no more words, not more meanings. Just the scent of the prey, and the thrill of the hunt.
More screams emerged from the ruins, as the smaller brethren began ripping the metallic shelters the puny flesh things hid behind. More gunfire, more prey. They were soft, barely armored. Easy to kill and digest. Kill the weak, capture the strong. That was what they had to do. Capture them. To make more.
It tossed the body it had been chewing on away casually, like a rag doll. This group was too easy. More prey, more battles, more food, was needed.
The distant echoes of gunfire caught the attention of the beast, as well as the pack, and the group howled in pleasure and anticipation, finishing off the last of the weak meat things before storming forward.
More blood. More meat.
The courtyard of Falls Church fell deathly silent as Fourteen members of the Brotherhood of Steel faced each other, weapons aimed and trigger fingers tensed. The tension was so thick that it could be cut by a dull knife. Lyon's pride had the jump on the Outcasts, but Fitts and his squad acted instinctively.
The only warning Paladin Hoss received was a power armored slam behind his leg, knocking him down to his knees, a split second later he felt the pressure of Fitt's arm wrap around his neck, along with pressure of a rifle barrel on the side of his head. Kesler and Colt did the same, quickly disarming the Paladin and Initiate Pek, holding them hostage. Colt had the Paladin dead to rights, while Kesler held a combat knife to the terrified initiate.
"So what are you going to do now Sentinel? Shoot us all?" Fitts masked his apprehension in his voice. Of all the forces to meet out in the wasteland, it had to be Lyon's pride, the self proclaimed best squad in the Capital Wasteland, probably because they had nothing to challenge them but raiders. However Fitts was not interested in seeing how his outnumbered squad would fare against them, on unequal terms.
Sarah Lyons herself showed no emotion, although she was quietly impressed by the training of the Outcasts, who had grabbed the only advantage they could in the situation without so much as a whisper to another.
Paladin Hoss almost choked as he looked to Fitts, gripping his captor's arm.
"There's easier ways to get yourself killed Fitts." The Brotherhood soldier gasped.
The Paladin was rewarded as Fitts tightened the grip around the Paladin's neck, choking the air out of him. "Yeah Hoss, like shouting at the guy who has a gun to your head."
He quickly looked back at Lyon's pride, all of them still aiming their weapons at the Outcasts. This was like a bad re-enactment of that day, when the entire chapter had almost broken out into a bloody civil war. Something of a smaller scale could happen here, and everyone knew the only thing that kept this situation from dissolving into a bloody mess, were the two leaders.
"So what's it going to be Sarah? You're going to shoot us all?" Protector Fitt's shouted, not willing to be the first to back down.
One of the Paladins raised his weapon at Fitts. "Drop them, or we drop you Outcast!" Paladin Glade shouted from behind Sarah. But the Sentinel raised her hand to quiet her fellow Brotherhood member.
"You know you can't win." Sentinel Lyons said.
"No, but I know you can't either." The Outcast protector replied, "Now, I propose a trade. You give us back our man, and we'll give you these three."
Sarah showed nothing as she heard the offer, but Fitts kept his guard up. She didn't build a reputation as the best tactical leader in the Brotherhood of Steel for doing nothing.
"Didn't know you Outcasts cared for human life."Sarah said with a tint of amusement.
"We value our soldiers above the wasteland scum." Fitts replied.
"I've seen Wastelanders take down more super mutants than your lot. While you're scurrying for the scraps at our table, we're making a difference." Sarah shot her own fierce gaze at Fitts. "How long can you expect to last when you shut yourself out from the world?"
"As long as we need to Sentinel. Now are you going to give me my squad member or not?"
Sarah said as she gauged what Fitts was offering. Inwardly, she cursed herself for the bad luck of running into one of these patrols. Although her father had officially exiled these men and women from the Brotherhood, they had not received any orders from the Elder as to how to deal with them, although many loyal soldiers would have preferred to shoot them on sight, many were still old comrades, and the old bonds died hard.
"You think you can just walk away from this?" Sentinel Lyons said softly.
The Protector simply chuckled at the Sentinel's remark. "Maybe not so much, but you know you can't take us down without crippling your squad. And you're not in the business of losing men."
"And if I refuse?" Sentinel Lyons said, without a hint of weakness in her voice.
Fitts shrugged, letting her do her own reasoning. "Then this will be all of our graves."
Defender Colt shivered as he heard the words, could not resist whispering over the built in helmet radio to his squad leader.
"Protector, being the leader and all, aren't you're supposed to say something like 'it's my responsibility to be in this fight, if the rest of you want to flee, do it while you still can….or….'you guys go ahead and escape, I'll stay and hold them off." Earning a chuckle from both Outcasts.
Fitts smirked beneath his helmet, oblivious to Sarah Lyons as she contemplated his offer. "What are you talking about Colt? Isn't this what you came out here for? To fight and die rather than rot away in some wasteland bunker?"
"You're preaching to the choir sir." Colt chuckled.
Fitts then turned to the Lyon's Pride. "So what will it be, wasteland dogs?"
His reply came in the form of a single gunshot, shattering the morning air.
"I am very disappointed with the latest results Colonel. Thus far, despite our patrols, we have been unable to locate the target." President John Henry Eden, commander in chief of the Enclave forces, said with reproach as he continued the conference call with his military commanders. A dozen Enclave officers sat around the table, their heads hung in shame at having failed at their orders.
Colonel Augustus Autumn stiffened in his seat instinctively, he alone knew that he was being reprimanded by a damned computer. Only he had seen what the 'president' was in person. But he had to maintain the charade, if the semblance of order and unity that held the Enclave together was to remain intact. Oddly enough, very few people questioned how someone could have been president for at least thirty years.
"Of course, Mr. President, I understand. But know that we are devoting our full military resources to the retrieval of the subject. I only ask that you be patient for a bit longer. We have several leads on where the targeted is headed next, we just need to give our scouts time to pick up the trail."
The president chuckled softly through the voice projector.
"You can rest easy Colonel, if there is one virtue I am in abundance of, it is patience. Have we not operated out here for over thirty years? I have complete confidence in you and your officers. But the American people are expecting results soon. We must be more vigilant."
Colonel Autumn nodded softly, though the hollow irony of the word was apparent to every around him. The American people? The ones who set up slaver posts in shopping malls while tearing each other apart for scraps of meat, those American people?
"I am in complete agreement Mr. President, that is why i've doubled our patrols around the outskirts of the Capital. We will have the subject in custody by month's end. I assure you."
"Very well colonel, I trust you will do us proud. Eden, signing off."
The phone conference ended, and with that, a heavy deflating of tension in the room followed as the Enclave officers relaxed.
"Agent Sigma." Colonel Autumn waved his hand for his right hand man, and elite squad leader, and already, a power armored Enclave officer, flanked by two heavily armored Tesla troopers approached the Colonel.
"Have two Vertibird assault squads prepped for launch to the Jefferson Memorial, I'll relay telemetry data from one of our patrols down by Vault 112 to you. I'm expecting our guest to show up there shortly." Colonel Autumn said smoothly, businesslike. Two vertibird squads, consisting of ten troopers. More than enough to occupy the memorial from its civilian owners.
"But sir." Agent Sigma began, "Didn't you just tell the president we have no idea where our target was?"
"Yes, but I also know when to keep my cards close, imagine the look on the president's face when we tell him we've achieved all our objectives by tomorrow." The Colonel grinned slightly, while the Enclave officer nodded in understanding.
"Now go."
Sigma saluted, then ran to prep his teams. Colonel Augustus Autumn meanwhile, radioed his chief of staff.
"Have my personal transport prepped. I want to see the president's pet project for myself." If the encrypted reports he had gleamed out of Eden's databases meant what he though, there was a valuable opportunity for the Enclave here.
The enclave operator on the other end relayed his acknowledgment. "At once Colonel."
Elder Lyons watched the quiet ruins of D.C uneasily from the ramparts of the Citadel, word had already come from the patrols in the D.C ruins. The Super Mutants were focusing their efforts on the downtown core. Driving Brotherhood forces back from their road outposts. The Brotherhood currently had enough manpower to maintain a tenacious hold on GNR, the Monument on the hill, and Arlington. Several more squads were spread out in undisclosed outposts, but even then they were few in number.
He sighed wearily as he rubbed the bags forming beneath his eyes. He and Rothchild had been hard had work, restoring the technological marvel they had found within the Citadel, but also at coordinating Brotherhood patrols. The Super mutants were becoming more belligerent. Not just stumbling onto patrols by mistake, they were beginning to move in packs. And with more purpose. The source of the mutants too, was another mystery, one that added onto the piles of work already on his mind.
He smiled to himself, taking the time to enjoy the quiet serenity, he wondered too, just how long his work here would take, and where the Brotherhood would go from here. He already received the reprimand from the high elders, but he knew that they were powerless to stop him.
Was it the right thing to do? Am I taking us on the right path?
His superiors, even one of his closest friends, Henry Casdin, had accused Lyons of 'going native', putting the needs of the wastelanders above the Brotherhood, twisting the original ideals of the order. But Lyons had seen it another way, the Brotherhood's goal was to rebuild the world, what better way than to protect those that dwell within it? To share the gifts that the Brotherhood discovered and lift humanity up.
He grimaced at the memory of the schism, the raw hatred and emotions that had spiralled out of control that day in the courtyard, when his chapter fractured under his watch. It was a shame he would bore to his dying day, even as he branded those he had come to trust through years of battle as outcasts.
The Elder shook his head at the memory, gripping the handrails of the ramparts tightly.
Henry my friend, I hope you are alive, but one day, we will have to come for you...
As the Elder turned around to the steps back below, he turned once more towards the city, swearing he felt the ground rumble a bit.
Falls Church erupted into a sea of bullets and flame as the standoff suddenly dissolved in the face of a super mutant onslaught. A pack of Mutants, numbering two dozen, alerted by the far off sounds of gunshots, quickly tore through a makeshift car barricade from the East.
Fitts himself, felt a painful jab in his shoulder as the .32 caliber hunting rifle bullet bounced from his armor.
Sarah Lyons immediately grasped the danger of the situation. "Pride! Battle formations!"
Thank god. Super mutants. Fitts managed to say to himself as he quickly dropped Paladin Hoss and made a bee line for the Pride fire line towards Farsight. Kesler and Colt followed, pushing their hostages down onto the ground and making the rush for their squad mate. The new batch of super mutants were brutes, armed with Chinese assault rifles, but a few sported pre-war mini guns, their barrels already tearing concrete slabs from the ground as the unloaded towards the Brotherhood soldiers.
Initiate Pek was down, huddling behind a bench while Paladin Hoss dragged his fellow Paladin behind a pre-war car. The Outcasts did not stop running even as the Pride advanced, quickly forgetting their Outcast prisoners and concentrating on the larger threat. Defender Farsight quickly elbowed Knight Dusk under the shoulder, running towards her comrades while the Pride was distracted.
"Squad! On me!" Fitts yelled in his battle helmet radio through the hail of gunfire. Explosions started erupting around the plaza as the Mutants flung their stocks of frag grenades at the Brotherhood soldiers. Spouts of earth and concrete stone flew into the air, bouncing off the plated armors of both Outcast and Brotherhood alike.
Knight Colvin meanwhile, instinctively aimed for a brute at the fore front of the pack. The Brute's head flung back as the sniper round deflected off his scrap metal helmet, and it ran towards the Brotherhood soldier screaming in rage. Two gatling lasers from Kodiak and Glade quickly cut the creature down, but explosions soon force both soldiers to take cover. Two more masters emerged from the smoke, heavy chain guns tearing up the ruined cars that Hoss fell behind.
One of the Mutant's head exploded that instant, his body flinging wildly on the ground.
"Two mutants released from their torment." Colvin smirked as he quickly brought another one of the smaller, younger super mutants down.
"Colvin!" Sentinel Lyons shouted out, just as a brute swung a sledge hammer into the Knight. In that instant, Colvin felt his insides crush as the armor dented inward, the force of the blow throwing him several feet back.
Sarah cursed herself as she watched the melee ensue. She knew she had lost the Outcasts, but they were nothing compared to keeping her own men and women alive. Twenty mutants had attacked as a pack, pushing themselves into the centre of the plaza, while her own squad and the Outcasts were being forced to the edges. It was lucky that the supermutants were too dumb to develop any sort of tactics, the Brotherhood and Outcasts were hugging the outer edges of the square, taking cover and pouring into the mutants as they filtered into the middle like a bunch of gun-toting morons.
The Sentinel watched to her left, as the Outcasts assembled behind a makeshift barrier across the plaza, whatever issues they had discussed quickly died with the emergence of the mutants. Perhaps that was for the best for now.
Giving Fitts a quick nod, the Sentinel and her pack went to work, firing from behind cover while the Outcasts provided unspoken support.
"SCREAM humans!" The mutant master laughed maniacally, blatantly ignoring the fact that his brothers around him were being batted down by Brotherhood lasers and bullets.
"Outcasts! Fire at will!" Fitts ordered as his squad assembled. A stream of tri-laser beams scythe their way into the mutant crowd. One super mutant staggered back as it was shot in the eye, only to have a mini-gun toting brute knock him out of the way, firing a torrent of bullets at the Outcasts. The monster recoiled back as armor piercing sniper rounds deflected off its shoulder and chest plates, before finally being brought down by a Brotherhood rocket.
Like all battles in the capital wasteland, it ended quickly, the pack of super mutants forming a clump of green corpses in the square.
"All clear Sentinel. Five Mutants released from their torment. The rest are keeping their heads down." Colvin pointed towards the East, in the hole of the barricade, where several more mutants held back, seemingly having the presence of mind to realize that they were walking into a death trap.
Sarah Lyons gave a breath of relief, before finally turning back to the Outcasts, before she could walk towards them however, she stumbled slightly.
The ground started rumbling.
All eyes in the courtyard suddenly turned eastwards, as the super mutants huddling in the wreckage of the cars began moving. The groaning of steel resounded in the distance, while flocks of birds began dispersing from the neighboring buildings. A loud, guttural roar quickly filled the street, as the ground shook, each tremor reverberating louder and louder, displacing rocks and pebbles around the ruins. The Outcasts and Brotherhood alike looked up to see a tall green mutant temporarily block out the DC skyline as it emerged from the ruins.
"BEHEMOTH!" Knight Kodiak shouted as he ran back from the front lines.
"Outcasts! Fall back to the station!"
"Pride, on me!"
Both leaders instantly gathered their squads as the giant monster rushed towards the Brotherhood squad without unanticipated speed. In its hand was a large steel girder, easily weighing several tons. The mutant gripped it with no more effort than a kid and a baseball bat.
"Weapons free! Fire at will!" The Sentinel and every Brotherhood soldier fired on the monster. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air as high intensity rounds and laser fire impacted the monster, but it did not even phase the creature as it hit one of Hoss' Paladin's dead on with the beam. The Brotherhood soldier barely had time to cry in surprise as his torso exploded into a geyser of blood and flesh, pummeled by the steel girder. His body was thrown several dozen feet clear of where he stood. Initiate Pek scream in terror as he ran towards the pride, while Hoss fired his flame thrower at the creature, causing it to roar as it's lower body was covered in liquid flame.
Knights Colvin and Dusk meanwhile, pumped several armor piercing rounds at the creature's head, but the sniper bullets barely grazed the creature, as though it was impervious to pain.
The Outcasts fired as well, aiming for the head but finding even their tri-laser rifles had no effect. Just as the monster finished swinging its weapon to knock a car towards three Brotherhood Paladins, it eyed the black armored outcasts that had been firing at it.
"Everyone get down!" The four outcasts jumped apart, narrowing avoiding the giant beam as it hit the ground with such force that it forced slabs of concrete up from the ensuing crater.
This was getting them no where, and Farsight emptied another five bullets into the monster's skull but to no avail. Colt, his tri-laser rifle smashed in the scuffle, picked up one of the super mutant assault rifles and began firing into the creature, who was seemingly bullet proof all over.
Then the idea suddenly dawned on Colt.
The took careful aim again, firing straight at the monster's face. It did not take long before the Behemoth roared in pain. Stumbling back as its left eye exploded from the chinese round. White eye matter and blood dripped down its face as it clenched the wound with one of its hands.
The Behemoth stared at Colt, red rage written all over its face.
"Aw crap." Defender Colt yelled as watched the giant approach him, and him alone.
"Run you idiot!"
Colt pumped his legs as fast as his power armored suit could let him. Charging past the dumbfounded super mutants at the blockade while being pursued by the Behemoth, its each step shaking the very ground. God, what I wouldn't trade for a Fat man right now. Sweat ran down the Defender's forehead as he cleared the square, then he eyed perhaps the next best thing. A clump of pre-war cars and trucks.
Here goes nothing. Colt pushed back against the maddening adrenaline and fear, and took another breath.
He turned for the cars, unholstering his assault rifle just as his pursuer was gaining on him.
"Defender! Get back!" Protector Fitts shouted after his squad mate, just as Colt let loose a stream of assault rifle rounds into the wreckage of the truck and three surrounding cars, which had already begun to burn as the pre-war fusion engines lit up.
The entire plaza shook violently as the resulting blinding flash and small atomic blast tore through the ruins and barricades. Sending the nearest of Brotherhood knights and Mutants off their feet. Windows shattered, and the gale force winds tore doors and street signs apart. A storm of concrete, steel and glass blasted into every direction, impaling super mutants, and power armored soldiers. Fitts laid back for a few seconds, his eyes still adjusting through his cracked visor as he saw the bright light of the explosion and flames subside. The Behemoth took the full brunt of the blast, losing the top part of its skull and its right arm. Blood gushed freely from its wounds as it limbered for a second, before dropping dead on its back a second later, throwing up a second cloud of dust and shaking the ground once last time. A nearby building collapsed, cutting off the section of the street beneath tons of rubble and concrete.
The Outcasts, and Brotherhood watched in silence as they took in the scene.
"Colt, come in." Fitts said as he tried to reach the defender via short range radio. "Come in!" He slammed his radio helmet violently.
Kesler pulled up next to Fitts, already shaking his head softly at the scene.
"We need to search the area, pull him out of that rubble, at least retrieve his holotag..." Defender Farsight said softly.
The rest of Lyon's pride gathered behind the Outcasts. And just as Fitts was expecting them to take them all prisoner. He found Sarah Lyons, of all people, giving him a salute.
"I am sorry for your loss Fitts, I know it isn't much. But I will personally make sure the Defender's name is recorded in the codex. I just wish it didn't have to-"
Fitts raised his arm, stopping Sarah mid sentence.
"...Just stop talking Sarah. The time for that passed a long time ago." His voice hard as iron. The Protector turned to face his squad.
"We continue on with the mission, to the national armory."
Kesler and Farsight watched sullenly, realizing what Fitts meant. The Protector nodded towards his squad mates.
"I'd expect the same from you two if it was me in that situation. We know Colt, we know what he would have expected from each of us. Now let's go."
The Outcasts gathered their equipment, then moved onwards, leaving Lyons pride behind with the burning corpses as they trudged deeper into the city.
Undeadshark - Very true indeed, but probably because Lyons Pride never really had an equal challenge in the game, since they rode on the coattails of liberty prime :)
Will Freedom - Funny thing is, I wrote his name in as that on my first draft...must be a subconscious thing...:)
Thanks for reading folks! more to come!