The next morning Steve and his new friends traveled to a place Danse knew about called Sanctuary Hills it was the minutemen's largest settlement. Steve and his new companions arrived at the entrance a tall flagpole boasted a blue flag in the middle was a rifle and a lightning bolt across one another. At the guard post stood a man holding a strange looking Laser rifle the three men walked up to the man to see if they could enter
" welcome to Fort Sanctuary what's your business here?" said the man
"Garvey it's me Danse we just wanna have a look around ." Danse said.
Steve looked at preston and his eyes lit up
"well I'll be Paladin Danse oh ex-paladin Danse haven't seen you since way back when." said preston with a smile.
"yeah it's been awhile Preston ." Danse said.
"well come in feel free to ask any questions and I hope y'all enjoy your stay here" Preston said.
He stepped aside and opened the large gate that closed the fort off from the outside. the three split up and went about their business: Danse went to repair his armor and find some fusion cores, Jason went looking for a place to eat, and Steve went sightseeing he wanted to see this new world he'd been thrown in. Steve walked around taking in the sights, saying hi to a few locals. He enjoyed seeing the minutemen soldiers go about their day doing drills and target practice. He stopped by an old house and it had a sign that read "sheriff's locker" Steve walked in and looked around, the house was decent, the walls were full of posters, two sentry guns sat on opposite ends of the room, and there was a counter where a man sat and behind him guns decked the wall. The man wore a battered old brown duster but it was hard to see his face as it was covered by a cowboy hat, he leaned on the counter not moving.
" Hey kid c'mere" said the man in a deep voice.
Steve walked over to the man
" you ain't from around here are you."
" No i'm not how'd you know?" Steve asked
" I've never seen you before an- well i'll be you're a vault dweller ain't ya." said the man with a hint of excitement in his voice as he glanced at him
" what makes you think that?." Steve replied
He leaning on the counter like the man
"You have a fish out of water look about you and that pip-boy is a dead giveaway. Ya' know I used to know a guy back when I lived in the Capital Wasteland. Vault dweller aswell nice kid back then I used to be the mayor of Megaton a settlement built out of a nuke crater. That kid even disarmed the nuke and prolly saved us all. Good kid," he chuckled,
" so ya' got a name kid?" asked the man
" yeah my names Steve." he answered
" well Steve my name's Lucas...Lucas Simms" said the man lifting his head to reveal the face of an older black man. He had a white beard and held a large bullet in his mouth like a cigar with a smile.
" now I doubt you stood here just to hear me ramble What did you need?" he asked
" what do you sell?" steve asked
" well kid I sell the best ordinance in town from bullets to bombs to guns so big you could take on a deathclaw! If you need to pack some heat I'm the guy you wanna meet… what can I get ya."
so after a few minutes steve bought himself a nice .357 revolver and bought a sack-full of rounds, he waved bye at Lucas and Lucas just tipped his hat. He wandered about for a few hours till he came across an old Mr. Handy robot going about his business it turned around to point it's 3 eyes at steve
"Why hello young sir! my name's codsworth I'm the local guide here at fort Sanctuary how can I be of service?" Said the old robot in a mechanized British accent
"I'm fine right now codsworth thanks." Steve said
" Very well I'll be here if you need me like I always am sir." said the Mr. handy in a sad tone.
Steve walked away and found both Danse and Jason playing poker at a table with some locals he walked over to Jason and sat down next to him
"What are you doing you're gonna lose a crap-load of money gambling here" steve warned,
Jason leaned back and showed his cards to steve
"look" he said eyeing the other players, steve let out a long whistle of approval " see i can't lose" Jason said confidently with a smirk on his face.
"BOOM!" Jason yelled " full house! gimme your Caps!" Jason said throwing his cards down and scooping in the pile of caps at the center of the table
"Are you serious! " Danse yelled slamming his fist on the table
"Nice job Scavver."
"Lucky bastard!"
Steve watched as Jason scooped the caps into a sack and put them in his coat. Steve and the two men were making their way out when they were stopped by woman she had messy blonde hair and wore a dirty sundress
"Please, you have to help me please" said the woman crying hysterically.
Danse kneeled down to the woman
" calm down we can help just tell us what's wrong" he said.
the woman wiped her face and looked at Danse
"raiders, gangsters, somebody took my family I asked the minutemen but they're too busy I need you to help me find them please, I woke up to my husband and daughters screaming I tried to help but they just knocked me out and left me, when I came to they were gone"
Steve knelt down and looked at the woman
" we'll find them I promise "
steve could see the pain in her eyes she'd lost her family just as he had and he wasn't going to let someone else lose theirs not if he could help it.
"I've got a friend in Diamond city he can help us but you'll need to come with us we'll take you there." Danse said chiming in
" we'll get ready and go in the morning." Jason said.
Danse and Jason went with the woman to go find a place to stay the night steve walked around for awhile until he came across Preston Garvey he was sitting down cleaning his rifle
"Hey kid how you doin" he said looking up and flashing a smile
"so what kind of rifle is that?" Steve asked
"This is a laser musket invented by the minutemen, with each crank of the handle and additional fusion cell is charged into one shot and then fired so the the more cranks the more cells are loaded which means more damage."
Steve was impressed at It's simple yet effective design
" So happened to the minutemen after what happened with the other vault dweller?, Danse said you guys just tried to keep to yourselves steve asked taking a seat next to him.
"well after we defeated the institute and the Brotherhood fought a bloody war against the large pockets of raiders in the Commonwealth, the vault Dweller who was now the General of the Minutemen our leader helped us protect our settlements and gain the trust of new ones while helping the Brotherhood in the war, but they couldn't hold out. then one day I went to go tell him about a few settlements that needed our help but he was nowhere to be found he just left no-one knew where he went so without the general the minutemen pulled back from the frontlines and stuck to helping the settlements around the commonwealth and that's how it's been for about 8 or 9 years" Steve looked at Preston who now had a distant look in his eyes
"Steve c'mon we gotta go!" steve turned around to see Danse motioning to go over to him.
" well Preston i'm sorry I wish he would have at least left a note." Steve said getting up
"yeah me too" he said
Preston was looking at what Steve now realized was picture of Preston with a man that he assumed to be the other vault dweller. They Stood carrying rifles and smiled like best friends. Steve left and joined the three other members of his party, they were sleeping in cots. Steve laid down on one and drifted off, he was exhausted. The next morning steve went to go look for Lucas Simms he found lucas, as usual he greeted Steve with a
" well how you doin' kid"
Steve greeted him and ended up buying some shoulder armour to put on his coat and a decent looking fedora, Steve wanted to look as professional as possible and his party hit the road. The group were traveling on an abandoned road littered with Pre-war cars and other debris when suddenly Danse being in the front halted
"what's going on danse." Steve asked
" Steve protect the woman (Whose name was Darcy), Jason let's go we'll try to see what they want"
Steve pulled out his pistol and took cover making sure Darcy was behind him, Danse and Jason went towards the group of people. Steve stood behind a wrecked car he gripped his gun anticipating a firefight and was right to do so as suddenly gunshots broke out Steve peeked over the car to see Danse unloading fusion cells at the raiders, Jason was standing back picking them off as best he could. Something caught Steve's eye, he looked and saw two raiders slowly making their way towards him and Darcy. Steve pulled the hammer back on his pistol, he popped out from behind the car and fired at the pair of raiders. He hit one in the chest making him stumble and fall back but the other one was now sprinting towards him gun aimed at the ready. Steve quickly pulled back the hammer and fired again hitting the raider in the arm slowing him down as steve pulled the hammer back again the raider opened fire Steve crouched under cover as bullets ricocheted off the car. the firing stopped Steve took this opportunity to peek over the car: the raider was reloading. Steve acted fast, took aim and unloaded a round into the man's shoulder, he screamed and Steve shot the raider again silencing him. Steve looked around for Danse and Jason who were finishing off the raiders. Steve had a slight beeping noise in his ear he couldn't get rid of. Steve looked around as it grew louder but he couldn't find the source of the strange noise suddenly Steve heard it clearer and it was behind him, he turned around to see a hulking green super mutant running towards him clutching a small bomb " Darcy run; RUN NOW!" Steve yelled Darcy complied as she took off heading towards Danse, Steve reloaded his gun, took aim and shot the mutant in the arm missing making him more agitated steve slowly backed up and shot at the object in the super mutants arm and as soon as he fired the object exploded sending Steve flying back a few feet until he landed hard on a wrecked car. His eyesight turned blurry and he couldn't feel anything all he could hear was the echoey voices of Dance and Jason
"SHIT! KID!" Jason yelled
He could hear the large footsteps of Danse's power armour approaching.
"c'mon kid stay with me here!" Danse said lifting him up.
The last thing he heard was " It's gonna be okay" before drifting off.