AN: Sorry about not having updated this in quite some time; I'd just been a tad preoccupied with other things and, thanks to a couple of weird depressive episodes, temporarily lacking inspiration for this. Nevertheless, here we are. I know it's a short update, but it's helping setup what's coming next.
Just hours later, in a clearing in the dead woods, we find ourselves around the little metal hatch in the ground. There are, in total, eleven of us – half a dozen Brotherhood soldiers, a pair of Scribes, and the three of us. Bringing a vertibird out here would only draw unwanted attention.
Eleven may not seem like a lot, but the Brotherhood leaders reassure us that we're not here for conquest. It's more like a policing job. Which makes me wonder what the actual authorities have been doing? The mayor of Forked River hadn't been found yet, had she? Maybe she, too, had been imprisoned in Vault 98.
With two fell strokes from some sort of energy drill, Paladin Rider effortlessly cleaves the hatch in half and neatly opens a passageway into the ground.
Into the Vault.
In the light of the Brotherhood's torches, I see Kenji's eyes. His usual, graceful confidence is gone, completely wiped from his pupils.
He shows nothing but fear.
The passage is dark, and the lack of daylight does not help. In the torchlight, the floor is visibly covered with slabs of grate.
"Kenji," I whisper, the noise obscured by the Brotherhood's bootsteps. "Are you alright?"
He nods gingerly.
"No you're not. The last time you were in a vault, it was…"
He raises a – shaky – hand to stop me. "I'll be fine. It's what has to happen."
"Something wrong?" Perez juts in.
"No," we both say simultaneously. "Nothing at all."
They must have known we had come, because no more than a few hundred feet in, we hear the familiar sound of footsteps coming in our direction, following by a few volleys of gunfire. "Stay back!" someone calls out to me, and I feel myself being pushed back. I almost stumble and fall, but Kenji catches me before I can.
Fortunately for us all, Brotherhood armour is infinitely better than stray bullets, and within seconds, four Vaulters are knocked to the ground. Perez whistles in appreciation. I suppose part of it is the fact that he does not even have to join in.
Advancing forwards again, this recurs after about another minute. Another three or four – even with the Brotherhood's torches, we cannot particularly see well, only silhouettes. Perhaps they are robots – they do not scream when they fall. Perhaps they are humans, professionals, meant to die a peaceful, honourable, soldierly death even in peace.
And suddenly, I feel a little better about this. At the end of this long tunnel must lie Charlotte. I can almost see the end in sight – literally; there's a little field of pinpricks of light at the far end.
"Who are you?" a deep voice booms. "What do you want?"
"Lower your weapons," someone whispers from our end, and everyone complies.
"We are the Brotherhood of Steel," I hear Knight, "and we are here for answers."
"And you will get them. We seek no war."