Elder Arthur Maxson was angry, angrier than he had been in a very long time. He stood on the observation deck on the Prydwen with Lancer Captain Kells, Proctor Teagen, Proctor Quinlan and Paladin Brandis. Aside from Quinlan, they had all taken part in the battle against the Institute attack. Even now, if Maxson looked through the glass and down towards the Airport, there was still some laser fire being exchanged as Brotherhood patrols swept through the Boston streets around the airport, as they rooted out synths that had been left behind.
Maxson had been getting ready to return to his quarters when the attack had started four hours earlier, his eyes drifted down towards where Liberty Prime was marching around, as it had been deployed to help the Brotherhood stop the assault.
"My scribes believe that Institute was planning on uploading some kind of virus to Liberty Prime, which would then cause it to view the Prydwen as an enemy" Quinlan said, as he did, he produced a orange and yellow holotape "We got this off one of their coursers"
Using Liberty Prime to bring down the Prydwen would have been the easiest course to destroy the Brotherhood, and just thinking about it makes his blood boil "What of Cambridge? Has there been any update from the police station?" If the Brotherhood lost the police station, they would be cut off from their only real holding deep in the Commonwealth, and that was something that they just couldn't afford, especially as it put them in striking distance of CIT.
Kells shook his head "There hasn't been any updates since the initial report came in that they were under attack"
That wasn't good. If they had been destroyed then Maxson might have to call for reinforcements from the Capital Wasteland, and that would endanger their efforts against the remnants of the Super Mutant army there as well. "Brandis, organize reinforcements and get them over there, we can't afford to lose the police station"
The old Paladin, who had headed up the last of recon patrol before Danse's recon, and who had unexpectedly survived that ordeal, was now the chief officer of the Brotherhood's ground forces. He had assumed that role since the death of Paladin Danse. The Paladin snapped a salute as best he could in the T-60 Power Armor and rushed out off of the observation deck.
Maxson idly rubbed his bearded face and thought for a moment "Dr. Li is still secure, correct?"
Proctor Ingram was the one who answered "Yes, she remained aboard the Prydwen during the battle"
That was good, Li was one of the few people still alive who could work and perfect Liberty Prime's systems "I want us to be prepared for more attacks, double our patrols" he thought for another moment.
"Yes Sir" Kells said he looked as though as he was going to leave for a moment but turned back "Also, we've lost contact with Recon Team Artemis, the one that was operating in Concord"
"I'm not surprised, when things are more under control, we'll dispatch a search and rescue team"
Teagen was the next one to speak, he had been oddly quiet during the conversation."I've tasked my scribes to prep battle rations, we'll be ready in a few hours to launch an counterattack"
Maxson sighed and rubbed his eyes, Teagan was correct to assume that he wanted to counterattack. "When we get back in to contact with Cambridge, we'll figure out what were going to do, return and continue preparations" his eyes darted towards Ingram, who had stood in the meeting and had yet to say anything "Ingram, have your scribes work on repairing any power armor, we'll need them for our counterattack."
They both snapped salutes and went to their tasks. Arthur turned back towards the glass and stared out the window into downtown Boston. This expedition that he had launched nearly ten months earlier had only brought problems and struggles for the Brotherhood, and not for the first time he wondered if he should have kept the Brotherhood in the Capital Wasteland. That kind of thinking wouldn't help anyone though, and Maxson couldn't allow himself to fall into one of his moods, so instead he pulled away from his self doubt and went back to more pressing matters.
The meeting room aboard the Pyrdwen was a small one, but large enough for him to pull out a paper map of the Commonwealth, he began placing markers on the Brotherhood's outposts across the Commonwealth, as well as the other major forces. The Minutemen, at their Castle to the south, with former Knight, John Pershing leading them. He had left the Brotherhood after the affair with Danse. It had been a loss, but not a too big of one. To the west, into downtown Boston was Diamond City, the largest settlement in The Commonwealth. McDonough, the mayor, had refused both Brotherhood and Minutemen requests to garrison the city preferring to go at it alone. Also to the west, but neared to the airport was the settlement of Goodneighbor, which the Brotherhood had very few dealing with. Instead the Brotherhood had avoided the region so neither his soldiers or the people of Goodnieghbor could cause an incident.
He looked at the map, assuming that the garrison at Cambridge had been able to fight off the Institute attack, then his plan would be for them to assault to the south, and force their way into CIT, while the main thrust would come from the airport's direction, where Liberty Prime would assault and force their way into the Institute proper.
Clanging and the sounds of metal boots hitting the metal floor the Pyrdwen's command deck shook him out of his thoughts, he looked up from the table to reveal a powered armored Brotherhood soldier, a Knight Sergeant based on the insignia on his left arm. Kells had come running up from the bridge, and stood just behind the Knight, and a look of confusion spread across his face.
"Elder Maxson" the Knight said with a rasp "I was on one of the strike teams, we were returning to the Prydwen per orders, and our vertibird flew around the Minutemen's Castle" the soldier paused. "It appears that the Institute is attacking their Castle as well sirs"
That changed things, if the Institute was attacking the Castle, then it meant that this offensive was not only an assault on the Institute's overt and declared enemies, but all of their potential enemies as well. "Thank you Knight, report to your commanding officer"
The knight saluted as he could, and then left the observation deck. Maxson looked to Kells as the Knight left "Thoughts?" he asked, it was always better to get his officers thoughts before deciding what to do, especially in a crisis.
Kells remained silent for a moment, his eye's glazed over, probably thinking it over before he responded "I believe the best course of action is to leave the Minutemen under siege, and use this as an opportunity to launch an counterattack"
He had thought that would be his response. Kells was a good leader and officer, and he was very mission driven. How would it look to the people of the Commonwealth, who didn't really trust the Brotherhood anyway, if they just let the organization that protects them get destroyed, it would probably destroy the Brotherhood's reputation in the Commonwealth forever. That was something that Maxson didn't want, if they were here to stay in the Commonwealth, then they would need the people's support, and they wouldn't have that if he let the Minutemen be destroyed. Then there was also the moral imperative of not helping. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he didn't have a choice, he had to do this.
"I understand Captain, but we have to go in, prepare a force"
There was little surprise in Kells' voice when he responded "Understood sir, I'll prepare strike teams right away"
Another thought occurred to the Elder "I'll lead them personally, It's time that myself and the General of the Minutemen meet to discuss this situation we find ourselves in"
Colonel Preston Garvey sighed as he wrapped a bandage around the laser burned soldier of one of their Minutemen soldiers. The poor bastard had been unlucky enough to take a laser shot to the shoulder, and while his leather armor had stopped some of the worst effects, odds were the soldier was out of the fight.
The attack had begun suddenly, at one point they were going about their business, he and the General had just gotten out of a meeting when the automated machinegun turrets began firing, that had been four hours earlier, and in those four hours, they had repulsed assault after assault upon the Castle's newly rebuilt walls. The Institute and their synths had pulled back in the past hour, now being held at bay by the Castle's Artillery, which obliterated anything that got too close. Based on the amount of explosions he had heard, Preston assumed that they were going to run out of artillery shells soon. And then they would be back right where they were an hour before, fighting for their reformed Minutemen.
Losing the Castle the first time had sent the old Minutemen into a death spiral, and Preston could only assume that the same would happen again if they lost to the Institute now. He stood and took stock of the situation, the injured had been taken down to the tunnels, and he watched as two medics carried the now bandaged minuteman to the tunnels. He turned back towards the center of the bailey, where the radio tower stood, and also where General Pershing stood.
He made his way over to the General, hoping that he had been able to come up with a plan, like he had so many other times before. John Pershing had been something of a surprise to Preston, while he had named him General, he hadn't had any real expectations that he would pull the organization out of grave in the way he had, in fact, he had been able to make the Minutemen more powerful than they had been in the entire time that Preston had been a member.
"Colonel '' the General greeted him with the rank that Preston had worn uncomfortably since they had retaken the Castle. Pershing had called it necessary that Preston was his second in command anyway, and he needed a rank to show that. "Danse says we're running low on artillery shells" that confirmed Preston's worries.
"I thought as much" he took another look at the man, his bearded face gave no real indication on what he was thinking "Has Lewis been able to contact the northern settlements?"
The General shook his head as he responded "No, he hasn't, I'm afraid this isn't a localized event, if they're attacking us here, then odds are they are attacking our forces across the Commonwealth"
"If they are, they mean to seize control of the Commonwealth then, no more hiding in the shadows" Preston stated.
The General must not have wanted to continue the conversation, something about the way he held himself when they talked about the Institute seemed off, not like the Pershing that Preston had come to know "I want you on the eastern walls, odds are that's where they will push on when they come"
"Alright" he understood, the Minutemen had to hold here, and then they had to counterattack, of course, he had no earthly idea on how they were going to achieve that. Even if they did survive the coming assault.
But Preston had to put that thought out of his head, they had enough to worry about right now, and so he walked up the stairs and took positions on the wall, ten other minutemen stood next to him, probably the survivors of the initial assault. He looked at them all and found that he only knew one of them, MaCready. MaCready was another one of Pershing's group that he had found and recruited, thought MaCready was technically a mercenary for hire.
"Whats the plan boss?" MaCready asked as he reloaded the rifle that he had had since Preston had first met him. Preston wondered briefly how many synths it had destroyed in the last four hours.
"Were to hold this position at all costs" he stopped, then remembered the artillery and figured it wouldn't be too bad for them to know "The General says that our artillery supplies are running low, so we won't be able to continue the bombardment for much longer"
"Shit" MaCready muttered "The machine guns on this side are back up and operational,and they're newly reloaded" MaCready explained.
The rumbling of the artillery stopped, and Preston knelt down behind a wooden fence that had been erected to give the Minutemen patrols some cover. He cranked his laser musket three times, and felt some comfort in the hum of electricity that came out of it. There was a tense calm, the nightly wind had seemed to still, and then the Institute struck.
The blue hue of teleportation appeared all around the outside of the Castle, and synths, both the ones that showed exposed electrical components and the more normal looking ones charged. The machine gun turrets lit up in a stream of 5mm fire, and tore through several of the synths before they got too close to the walls. The contingent of Minutemen on the wall immediately opened fire.
Preston as well opened fire, popping his head out of cover to fire a round, and then ducked back down, cranked three charges into the musket and fired again. Again and again this same process repeated, the Institute's seemingly never ending supply of synths continue to throw themselves against the walls. It continued on like this for what felt like hours, and time seemed to slow to Preston.
His eyes caught sight of what he assumed to be a courser, with its signature dark overcoat moving up towards the walls "Fire on the courser!" he yelled over the din of the continued fire from the Minutemen and the machine guns. He turned and put a laser into the courser, who only flinched, but continued. It reached into it's overcoat and pulled out something. "Relay grenade!" the words had only come out of his mouth when the courser's head exploded.
"Got the bastard" MaCready said with a grin, he always seemed happier when in combat, which had always confused Preston. The grenade fell from the synth's hand and synths teleported in, "Target the coursers, we have to make sure that they don't throw their grenades up here!" Preston yelled, he was tempted to run between their positions on the Castle's wall, but he figured that the others would already have figured that out. So instead he cranked the Laser Musket and fired again. Several more minute of the fighting continued, and Preston had started to feel a little hope, that maybe they would be able to force the Institute back, then both machine guns on their section of the wall fell silent.
"The damn machine guns are out of ammo!" one of the minutemen volunteers screamed, and he rushed forwards, and grabbed a belt of ammunition that had been laid on the ground. Everything seemed to fall apart in moments that he was reloading the machine gun, a courser got threw and a grenade fell onto the caste walls. Preston turned and fired into the synths who had relayed in and, as did some of the others. With their attention divided, more synths were getting closer and closer to the wall.
The fighting was intense, more intense than any fight that Preston had ever been apart of, even Quincy hadn't been this desperate. One of the Minutemen fell to, several blue lasers having hit him square on the chest, Preston dropped his laser musket, grabbed the fallen man's pipe machine gun, and fired into the synths, who continued to try to get through. More and more fell, but more and more were relaying in. Then the automated machine gun roared to life, firing into the crowd. The synths stopped relaying in, and slowly the synths were brought down. With a few seconds to breathe, Preston caught his breath and then took stock of the situation.
Two of the minutemen were quite obviously dead, another three had been injured, with one of them needing to be taken down to the tunnels, which left only half of the initial squad, plus himself and MaCready. The machine guns continued to fire, and Preston gave the order "Make sure that thing doesn't stop firing"
"They're pushing again!" Preston reloaded the gun, and prepared for another fight.
General John Pershing was not very happy with how things were going, his artillery continued to batter away at where the Institute was relaying their synths in, and even now they continued to batter against the strength of the Castle walls. He had been relieved when Preston had managed to get a handle on the situation on his side, he was afraid Preston wouldn't be able to do it again. Shaw was holding the main gate, and even though the fighting was fierce, she had been able to hold it well enough.
"Fire another barrage" he yelled "keep the bastards away from the wall!" As long as they had the ammo for the artillery, they might as well use them. The Minutemen loaded and fired another barrage, hitting the city and and the small strip of land that connected Boston and the Castle.
Danse, who had been standing beside him, was also barking out orders, trying to keep the Minutemen who were organizing the defense and he had kept the minutemen running ammo to the soldiers on the walls said "Were going to run out of artillery shells, and then ammo, General"
It was a depressing thought, that the Minutemen could continue to destroy the synths, but it didn't matter, the Institute could retreat underground, and unless they figured out a way to get there, none of this mattered. "We need to survive this, and then hit the Institute"
Danse nodded his head "The Institute has to pay for this, but how do we survive this?"
"We just have to" Pershing unslung the R-91 rifle and began moving towards the main gate, where Minutemen forces continued to defend their walls, machine guns, and the odd laser turret continued firing, as did the Minutemen atop the walls. Danse followed, armed with his own signature AER9 Laser Rifle.
They got atop the walls, and found Cait, her back against one of the wooden fences that provided at least some cover, holding her shoulder.
"They nearly broke through" she said with gritted teeth as a minutemen medic worked on her shoulder. She cursed as the minutemen applied some alcohol to the shoulder.
Pershing looked down where the synths and some minutemen littered the ground. "Get yourself down to the tunnels, and get medical attention Cait"
"But I'm not that injured, I can still fight!" she screamed
"Cait just get down there, that's an order" he pressed
She looked at him an additional moment, and then nodded her head and struggled to feet and began moving towards the stairs, Pershing turned around and yelled "Fire another barrage, now!"
The artillery sent another barrage out at the synths. Things had seemed to stabilize "Danse, we need" a blue laser shot between them. And then more and more.
The synths were making another push, coursers threw grenades on the top of the walls, and suddenly, everything was going to hell. Pershing jumped into action, and fired several rounds into the synths on the walls, and they fell quickly. Danse was also firing, as was what remained of the minutemen on the walls. He spared a glance towards the other defensive points, and was horrified to see that Shaw and Garvey were both fighting for their lives on their respective walls.
He took to the walls, firing down into the synths who were still charging towards the gate, and he knows in his bones that this is it, that this is the last charge, he doesn't know why, but he just feels it. He reached down into his pouch and pulled a grenade, pulled tis pin, and then threw it down into the mass of synths.
The shrapnel of the grenade dropped several synths, but the remaining ones still kept coming. It was in that moment that Pershing heard the spinning of rotary blades, and he looked up, and saw four vertibirds circling overhead. There was only one organization in the wasteland that had access to them. He shot a glance at Danse, who was also looking up, astonishment clear in his face "Danse put on your gas mask!"
Danse remained staring at the vertibird not moving. Pershing shouted again, while he also reached out and shook him by the shoulder "Danse, put on the gas mask"
Understanding lit in his eyes as he realized the danger he was in, and he reached down to his waist, where a gasmask hung, and quickly put it on. With Danse's identity taken care of, the Minutemen General turned his attention back to the Brotherhood soldiers, the powered armored among them having already jumped out, some onto the walls, some into the courtyard, and then others outside of the Castle wall. Armed with laser rifles and heavy weaponry, and supplemented with Minutemen fire from the walls, they began to cut down the synths. Slowly the synths stopped relaying in, and for the first time since the Synths had started their assault, silence fell upon the Castle. The T-60 clad Knights and Paladins, joined by the lighter armed footman, along with Minutemen, pushed what remained of the synth forces into the Boston.
Pershing brought a shaky, gloved hand and wiped his brow, the Minutemen had won a surprising victory, and now came the time for a counter attack. Of course, he didn't know how they were going to hit the Institute, but that would come in time. A powered armored soldier, the power armor painted in a stark black and red paint, made their way over to Pershing and Danse. Despite the helmeted face, Pershing didn't need to be told who it was, as the way the man carried himself, the way his head stuck out just a tiny bit higher than was necessary told Pershing who it was.
"General Pershing" Elder Maxson greeted as he came to a stop just in front of the two "I believe we have a lot to talk about"
Pershing looked around the destruction and replied "I suppose we do Elder"