The gates to the fort closed and a firing line formed on top of the walls. Snipers picked targets off from a distance as the men on the wall held the advancing troops back. Preston fired his musket with precision getting some good headshots on a few of the soldiers, Piper and nick helped get the wounded out while the two NCR troopers joined the men at the wall putting their weapons to work one laid down suppressive fire with his service rifle while another emptied round after round into them with his repeater. Preston once again pulled out his flare gun and shot one into the air hoping to get some backup. Lucky stood up and raised his MG, he powered it on squeezing the trigger as the weapon whined and began spewing out rounds with loud booms, this helped turn the tide for a bit as the grenades from his MG rained down on the men exploding sending some flying and others peppered with pieces of shrapnel from their comrades armor. The snipers made quick work of those who remained as they fell back behind the bridge. Everyone took a sigh of relief, the wounded were carried off and reinforcements arrived as about twenty minutemen showed up.
"we got your flare, the castles assembling a defense force to protect our vital settlements" said one of them saluting Preston
"good" he replied
"we need all the help we can get, we got wind that these people are packing tanks so make sure our artillery is up and running.".
"Yes sir" said the man before jogging off
A Minuteman rushed along the wall handing out medical supplies and ammo
"5.56!" Shouted Lieutenant Fennel
".357" said Grenier
The man gave them ammo and scurried off they reloaded their weapons and tried to help the minutemen better prepare for another attack. The silence was broken abruptly as a loud cry could be heard.
"WE GOT MORE COMIN UP THE BRIDGE!" Shouted one of the snipers.
Everyone ran to the wall and took firing positions. Lucky peeked over and he couldn't believe his eyes, legionaries ran across the bridge brandishing machetes and spears while tanks took position behind them ready to send shells crashing down upon them.
"TANKS INCOMING!" shouted Lucky.
Preston yelled at the men manning the artillery and threw a smoke grenade at the tanks signalling the guns where to fire. Everyone took cover as the artillery opened fire, explosions rocked the enemy as they scattered to evade the shells. The smoke cleared and the tanks were trashed but everyone was surprised to see more legionaries running towards them shots rang out once more as snipers picked them off and minutemen tried to keep them away from the gate. The legionaries weren't going down so easily as a spears rained down impaling several men sending them off the wall. Two more tanks appeared out of nowhere sending a shell straight through their wall hitting their Artillery destroying a few of the main cannons, the others took aim as Preston grabbed another smoke grenade and chucked it as far as he could, the guns roared and soon shells hit the ground exploding, sending dirt and rubble everywhere. Another tank shell flew straight for them and blew open the gate pulverizing the sentries. The great walls that protected the minutemen's pride had been breached now they had to push them back or die. Legionaries and soldiers in strange power armor came in weapons raised, lucky and the two NCR Soldiers Brandon and Jake provided cover fire while everyone else fell back. Lucky Yelled.
"Come and get some!"
As he emptied his entire mag of grenades into the crowd of enemies, he stood on top of a destroyed car his Grenade MG roaring proudly, he flashed a sinister grin as he sent them flying and sending shrapnel all over them, Jake and Brandon kept them off of lucky picking off those who dared to try and sneak up on them. The minutemen regrouped and were back to defending the fort, for such a primitive design their laser muskets packed quite a punch a well placed shot can send a person in full power armor to the ground without a chance of getting back up. The battle went on for another hour with the minutemen standing their ground valiantly but eventually their defenses started to break, they had suffered heavy casualties and were running low on ammo but they couldn't lose this fight. Preston grabbed a pistol from one of the dead soldiers on the ground and shot a legionary in the head, another one rushed him but Preston fired two rounds into the man's chest and neck sending him tumbling down he kept firing, dropping and finding a new gun every time he ran empty. Piper and Nick were in the vault tending to wounded and making sure nobody left until they got the all clear and as for Lucky, Fennel, and Grenier. they were held up in one of the houses Fennel and Grenier shot from the windows while Lucky Chucked grenades and Molotovs. Even Lucas Simms was in the fight he make quick work of the legionaries with his Chinese Assault Rifle but one of them tackled the old man, the wrestled on the ground until Simms flipped the bullet in his mouth over and blew as hard as he could into the bottom causing it to fire sending a round right between the man's eyes. Simms got up and just dusted himself off
"shame" he said
" That was my last .50 cal BMG."
He chuckled as he pulled out his .357 and went to show the invaders how they fought in the Capitol Wasteland. But no matter how hard they fought the numbers still counted as their ammo ran dry and the enemy surrounded their once proud fort as the night grew dark. Preston and the last remaining troops grabbed their weapons and retreated to Vault 111.