Initiate Elwin walked out of the double doors into the Citadel's bailey, heart racing and mind in disbelief. The famous Arthur Maxson, leader of the Brotherhood of Steel and the latest in the long line of Maxsons since the Great War, had his hopes on him? Gareth Elwin, lowly initiate and former farmhand. He shook his head and chuckled to himself.
"No pressure or anything…"
He walked towards the centre of the bailey, where soldiers of all ranks sparred with each other, although the majority at the moment were simply initiates, save for a few Brotherhood knights who took shots at one another to test the limits of their power armour. Elwin sat down on an empty bench facing three groups that were sparring, all initiates, and removed his combat helmet. He took off his gloves before wiping his face and ruffling up his dark brown hair, which was shorter at the sides than the top albeit not quite to the Maxson level, then laid back and watched his brothers as they slugged at each other in close quarters combat.
Of the three groups he was watching, he was very attentive to a pair of initiates that were sparring to the left side of the marked rectangular area. They looked similar, however a man and a woman. Twins perhaps. The siblings both had murky blonde hair, with the brother's cut short and the sister's in a pony tail, however they both possessed a steely appearance. Their faces were smooth and angular, yet still strong and powerful. Elwin stared at the two fighters as they equally struck and dodged one another. There was no clear winner.
"Move faster, Anton! Attack like father taught you!" shouted the sister, a clear Russian accent in her voice, as she swiftly caught her brother's strike and used his moment to propel him away. The brother, Anton, rolled and then turned before charging back at his sister with furious speed, catching her off guard and driving her into the ground. She kicked into Anton's stomach as she hit the dirt, flipping him off her backwards.
The bench shook suddenly and Elwin snapped his gaze to the left as a Brotherhood knight sat down next to him in full power armor, save for the helmet. The knight glanced at him while downing a full bottle of Nuka-Cola, then planting the bottle between him and the initiate.
"They're not bad are they?" he said, nodding towards the russian siblings.
"Agreed, sir. They're quite good."
The knight looked at Elwin, staring directly into his cold blue eyes, then laughed.
"You can lose the formality, kid. This is the bailey, where initiates, knights and paladins beat the crap outta one another and have a good drink afterwards!" he shouted, opening another bottle of Nuka-Cola.
"Are you sure that's just Nuka-Cola in there?" Elwin asked with a slight smirk and raising an eyebrow. The knight looked at him, squinting as if somehow trying to pierce his skull with eyesight alone, and then he smiled.
"Perhaps the next time you're sat out here on your own, I'll bring a few extra bottles so you can see for yourself." He let out a hacking cough, rising from the bench while wiping his mouth with a steel gauntlet.
"Ahh shit, I'll be back later. Good talking to you!" he said, running off towards the B-wing, briefly stopping by a bin to vomit before carrying on and catching the eyes of just about every person present in the bailey.
Elwin sighed in disgust before turning back to the siblings. The sister was quietly talking to her brother, who was holding a bust nose and clutching his ribs. She made several gestures, demonstrating different attacks, before putting her hands on her hips and then shaking her head. He watched as she kissed Anton's forehead and then sent him out of the marked area, his face dripping in blood. Elwin's gaze followed Anton as he hobbled towards him, then sitting on the bench.
"Are you alright? You took quite a few hits there." he asked.
Anton looked at him out of the corner of his eye, trying not to let blood spill out in front of him.
"Do not worry about me, my friend, you are next."
"Wait- what?" Elwin looked towards the sparring pit. Anton's sister stood staring directly at him, arms crossed. He turned back to Anton.
"Hey now I just wanted to sit down and watch-"
"It doesn't matter. She's picked you and she'll carry on waiting until you get into that ring with her." Anton interrupted. Initiate Elwin looked between Anton and his sister, trying to get Anton to somehow let him leave, but all he did was shake his head. Elwin sighed and bowed his head.
"Shit…" Elwin stood up and looked around. A few other brotherhood members had stopped sparring and were ready to watch the 'next big fight'. The initiate awkwardly walked into the sparring pit, suddenly conscious of every movement he made. Elwin soon enough stood before Anton's sister, who was still staring at him with her arms crossed.
"So, me and you fight now?" she asked, leaning slightly forward.
He looked around while awkwardly scratching his head. More of the sparring pairs had turned their attention to him now. Why was this considered so much of a spectacle?
"Uhh, sure. I mean, if you want…" Elwin looked at her and his heart immediately ramped up in speed as he caught a glimpse of Knight Galford coming out of the A-wing and towards the sparring pit.
"Who were you again?" he asked, raising his fists and turning so that he was more side on, with his feet spaced.
"Yuliya Borbov. Yourself?" she said, spitting into the dirt.
"Ga-"
Yuliya stopped him with a strong right hook to the jaw. Gareth dropped to one knee, clutching his jaw while the growing crowd laughed. She'd moved faster than any other fighter he'd seen. He got up, his face a grimace and locked eyes with her.
"Alright, fair play, my guard was down."
He shook his arms and circled her, light on his feet before lunging forwards and jabbing her in the gut. Yuliya swung a right kick at him and he rolled to her side, then kicking forward and grabbing her calves with both legs, flipping her forwards into the dirt. As he got up he heard several people in the crowd clap. Yuliya got up and wiped her face with a bandaged hand before charging back at the initiate. She threw two alternating punches, one to the head and another in his side before slamming down on the side of Gareth's leg with a strong kick, threatening a break and causing him to scream in pain. Several individuals in the crowd winced as Initiate Elwin sustained hit after hit. Yuliya was hitting him repeatedly with hardly a second between each strike. Finally there was a seconds reprieve where Elwin could finally regain some measure of control of his body, however it was in vain. Yuliya finished with an uppercut and then a hard kick to the lower abdomen, knocking him flat on his face. She knelt down by him.
"To be honest, my friend, I don't think you had your guard up in the first place." she said, patting his head in mockery. Elwin struggled to stand, he felt like he'd just been mauled by a horde of super mutants. Gareth hobbled back over to the bench and watched as the evening sun fell into night. Anton was still sat on the bench with a hand to his nose.
"Well, at least nothing looks broken." said Anton, amused.
"After seeing how she cleaned you up before, I already knew I wasn't going to win." said Gareth, stretching his jaw and wincing in pain.
Anton shrugged his shoulders, "Perhaps, but yet you still fought anyway. You still tried your damnedest to beat the hell out of my sister, and that takes courage." he said, chuckling heartily.
"If that's the case then courage hurts like hell."
"True, but that's why the most courageous are the strongest. Remember, my friend," he said, standing and putting a hand on his shoulder, "even the strongest fall down. It's the getting up again that counts." Anton nodded and walked off, still clutching his side.
Gareth Elwin sat there on the bench for several minutes, pondering Anton's wise words, before setting off towards the B-wing. For him it had been an incredibly tiresome day; a fight with a deathclaw, a talk with High Elder Maxson himself and a brutal beating from Yuliya Borbov. Elwin entered through the double doors and into the mess hall, which was arrayed with the kitchen right at the back and several dozen tables between it and the front door. Extending off of the mess hall were several corridors, each appropriately signed as either paladin, knight or initiate sleeping quarters. He took the first corridor to the right. The corridor led on straight for about ten metres, with doors to the restroom in between, and then turned left at the end into a compact room with rows of beds, each with a personal footlocker and bedside table. At several points in the large room were tables and chairs and even a smaller kitchen. A line of fluorescent lights lit the initiate's quarters with a strong glow. As always it was bustling with initiates. Some had been here for a couple of years, such as himself, while others had only been here a few days at best. There was always someone new.
Gareth made his way down the left row of beds, looking at the initials carved into each locker. Ever since the Citadel had been rebuilt internally, initiates had carved their initials into their footlockers to show clearly who it belonged to, and then when they were promoted from initiate to either knight or scribe, they would cross out their initials and sometimes even leave a message for the next owner. Elwin found his, decorated with a carved Brotherhood logo and his initials beside a line of others that were crossed out. He sat down on the grey covers and took off the rest of his combat armour, leaving just the black and grey jumpsuit that was the recognised Brotherhood uniform, besides from power armour of course. Then, Gareth leant down under his bed and pulled out his laser rifle, pulling the latch on the side and then taking out the fusion cell before sliding the gun back under. He looked down at himself. He was too tired to even get out of the uniform. With that, he slowly laid back on the bed and shut his eyes.
"So I heard you got your ass handed to you by that new russian girl."
Elwin's eyes snapped open to see Initiate Benjamin 'Benny' Thornley lying on the bed next to him reading a copy of the fourteenth issue of 'Grognak the Barbarian: In the Lair of the Virgin Eater', his black hair set in a neat parting.
"And I bet the same would happen to you if you were in the sparring pit with her." said Gareth, wiping his eyes and propping himself up on his elbows. Benny ignored the comment and turned a page in his comic book.
"I also heard that after our ever so lovely Knight Galford sent me running back here, he took you to have a chat with the great and glorious Maxson." he finally turned his gaze from his comic to Gareth. "So, go on."
"Go on, what?"
"What did Maxson talk to you about?" he asked, dropping his comic in his lap and lighting a cigarette.
"To put it simply, if i get to the rank of paladin, then I'll be one of the first guys to be put into this other group that they're gonna use as a special task force called the Templars. Similar to what Lyon's Pride was like."
Benny looked at him wide-eyed, "You serious? I've heard a few paladins talk about this Templar group but there was nothing official. You know, the usual hushed up sort of B.S. we hear but god damn…" he picked up his comic and began reading again while puffing his cigarette.
"By the way, Gareth, Galford has another mission for us for tomorrow afternoon. I think he was going to let you know earlier but...you were too busy getting your ass kicked."
"He could have waited." said Elwin, looking up at the ceiling.
"Well yeah but, it's Galford. He'd sooner have a punch up with a behemoth and then go for drinks at Tenpenny Tower than wait around."
"What's he having us do now?"
Benny scratched his chin, looking up in a desperate attempt to remember, "Uhm, something about a research patrol going missing. Both the scribe and the knight sent with him haven't returned yet so I guess we have to go with Galford to find out what's happened. Simple stuff as usual after shit's gone down."
Elwin scanned the room to find the majority of the other initiates asleep, then looked at Benny with a furrowed brow.
"Why the hell are you even still awake?"
Benny looked back at him with a blank face and then pointed down. There was a wooden box filled to the brim with comic books sat between their beds.
"This is the only time I get to read this stuff. I uh, 'borrowed' the collection from one of the scribes down in the laboratory."
He sighed at Benny, his head felt heavy with exhaustion.
"Whatever, just don't wake me up again or I'm going to stab that collection with a knife."
"Whoa now, message taken, there's no need to harm the poor comics, right?"
"Benny…" he warned
Benny held up his hands as if in surrender and pursed his lips. Elwin shook his head and turned over in his bed, plummeting straight back into a deep sleep.