Chapter 1
The man fired another shot from his 10mm, watching it land in the center of the cluster of bullets he'd just fired at a target. A tight grouping meant his accuracy was still as on-point as usual. He glanced at the time, noting that only an hour had passed since he had come down to his private shooting range in the basement wing of the Citadel. And he still didn't feel tired.
Pulling in his target, he went back to his quarters. The only living space in this part for good reason, just how he liked it. As he walked in and closed the door, he caught a glimpse of himself in the full length mirror tacked to the back of the door.
His red-brown hair looked like he'd just rolled out of bed, a stark contrast to the normally tightly-kept appearance he kept up most of the time. He noticed he was starting to get some stubble growing back in, and resolved to let it grow a bit before shaving this time, to avoid what happened last time in repeatedly cutting his face.
The Brotherhood uniform he was wearing was of his own design. A blue-green color variant of the standard Knight fatigues sans most of the extra fabric that made it so bulky. A leather snap-closure waist pouch on the back of his belt on the left side, and two leg pouches were his main tools of the trade.
That trade was Intel. As the only Swordsman in the Brotherhood, he was always called upon to scope out areas of interest that were considered too dangerous to send most forces to.
He came in at 6 ft even in height. As he put his gun away in the ammo box he used as storage, he lamented that he would not see the Citadel for a while come his next mission.
Rumors were flying about possible redeployment of a third recon team to the Commonwealth. This generally meant, he'd be going in first. Of course, after the fate of the second team that went in to the Commonwealth, there's no telling if they'd really send anyone else in.
As he settled into a chair, there was a knock on the door, causing him to groan. "Go away!" He shouted. Looking up a moment later as the door opened, he jumped to his feet, coming to attention. "Apologies, Elder, I wasn't aware it was you."
"At ease, Swordsman I'm not going to make this anymore formal." The Elder said as he entered the room. Arthur Maxson was intrigued at how sparsely decorated it was. He noticed a faded, slightly damaged pre-war photograph of a sunset behind the Washington Monument, reflected in the Reflecting Pool.
But the man seemed to like it that way, he was used to traveling with only what he could carry. Or he wasn't yet used to having a space of his own. Maxson thought to himself. The Brotherhood had only recently been able to clear the basement wing of the Citadel, so he could have an entire wing to himself to maintain secrecy. But that isn't why I'm here.
"You're probably aware of the rumors we're going to be dropping a team in the Commonwealth. I'm going to confirm, they aren't rumors. Paladin Danse will be assembling his team come morning for insertion sometime in the next week."
Maxson turned to look at the man, moving from behind him to stand at the table, speaking as he placed down a folder. "Here is everything you need to know what you do best, Lawrence Carter."
As he left, Maxson stopped in the doorway and looked back at Lawrence. "A Vertibird will be at the usual departure location in two hours." He closed the door behind him as he left.