OKAY. So let me get this straight before i start this chapter. I started writing this chapter shortly after i posted the last chapter. So this chapter isn't necessarily a way to add in Fallout's new title :Fallout 76. Other than that, there is nothing for me to say other than, Enjoy the chapter and i'm sorry it took so long to update.

3: The Diner

Six days ago, the courier and the USAR squad set up shop in Andale. Kendall, Specialist Craft, and Sgt Rivera were tasked with gathering materials to build up and fortify the old ruins. Kiara completely renovated the three standing houses and started tearing parts from the destroyed houses. Each day, Kiara was accomplishing things neither Kendall nor Hannah expected her to accomplish in the short time she did. Most nights she didn't sleep because she spent a good deal of them finding more efficient ways to make stronger materials last longer. It eventually came down to Kiara sending Kendall off on an Interesting adventure to an old Robco factory to the northeast to bring metal, wood and scrap electronics back to the base.

It wasn't a far trip for Kendall, but the number of trips she had to take were piling up. It all became a blur to her so she brought Lauren along to help her and try to make the trips less boring. Carrying all of the stuff wasn't much of a problem either because she had "The Knap", as Mobius had called it. She loaded her Knap with the scrap metal, Sensor Modules, Conductors, Fission batteries, and the other bits of steel protectron pieces she could get. The internal components were needed to reinforce walls, build turrets, and make more building equipment to make said necessities.

In the last week alone, Kiara and Lauren have installed traps, turrets hidden in strategic areas, and walls were 2 inches thick in some places. And with the charismatic help of Pvt. Ramirez, Andale had the capital caravans running through it again. Resources weren't a problem, defense was well handled, and now the only problem left was numbers. Right now, there were only seven of them. If they wanted to become a powerful force in the Capital, Then they would need more than the seven people they already have. 1SG Moon realized this and gathered her squad for a small meeting in the blue house.

Hannah walks into the Kitchen-Turned-Planning Room and shuts the door behind her, motions for Kendall to close the shutters on the windows, and then looks around at everyone that is gathered around the table. "Alright guys, I think it is quite obvious why we are all here. As it is well known, there aren't that many of us. And to top it all off, we aren't getting any younger while we are trying to restore the east coast... In short... We need new blood. Command's Back-up squad should be here within the the next day or so. I have no idea who they sent, other than Captain Cerris is leading the people they sent."

"They sent Cerris?!" Ramirez says excitedly.

He wasn't the only one that was excited. Craft was borderline elated, and even Maven had a little smile on his face.

"Yes, Cerris was sent."

"Hell Yeah!" The cheer sounded throughout the room.

Kendall looks at Hannah. "I'm guessing they were sending him for a boost in morale" she says.

"Yeah... With everything we are about to get ourselves into, we are gonna need the morale boost. To be quite honest, Our accomplishments on building up the city are amazing to say the least, but we haven't been recruiting anyone." Hannah with a slightly regretful tone.

"Yeah, that is true... But won't they understand when they see this base we set up?" Kendall asks, with a hopeful tone.

"They might," Rivera speaks up. "But our orders were quite clear. they told us to try to recruit.. And unfortunately, we haven't even so much as tried. Other than you guys, anyway..."

"And we can't lie our way out of it either. It's against our army's code of conduct."

Nearly everyone in the room hangs their heads before Kiara bursts in the door.

"Guys! Large group of people near the south gate! I'm not sure how many or who they are but they are wandering close to the zero barrier!" She shouts.

Everyone in the room gets up, runs out of the room, into the armory in the basement of the house, straps on Kevlar vests and grabs a few magazines for their weapons. Rivera had 2 silenced 5.56mm pistols, 3 Stealth Boys and grabbed a couple of grenades and mines. Craft had a Barrett REC-7 with an ACOG sight, A Plasma Grenade and 4 Frag Grenades. Kiara merely had the .45 Pistol Craft gave her the night they took Andale. However she also held the detonator to the town's Minefield. Hannah carried a scoped HK 417 Marksman Rifle, while Maven pulled out the spotters binoculars to spot for her. but he didn't come armed with just that. Maven had his squad LMG with him. A fully loaded, Belt fed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Private Ramirez carried the old world's iconic M4A1 SOPMOD, complete with a reflex sight, laser marker, and an under-barrel M203 Grenade Launcher. Kendall kept it simple and carried her Old Varmint Rifle that Sunny Smiles gave her after the "Incident" with Benny. She had modified the rifle to have a 6X zoom scope and a silencer.

They all gathered out in the courtyard between the 3 houses. Hannah gave out orders and positions to each person.

"Alright, Listen up, and Listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once! Maven, You are spotting with me on the roof of blue! Kiara, when I give the signal, I want you to blow the minefield! Kendall, Craft, Rivera, and Ramirez, i want you to take positions behind the barriers and open fire in 45 Seconds! HOAH?!"

"HOAAH" The group shouts.

The group moved into their own positions as ordered, The enemy was still a good third of a mile away from the base, but they were closing in fast. somewhere between 30 and 45 heavily armed raiders were rushing towards the base. These weren't just ordinary raiders, these were organized soldiers.

"Hey Ramirez!" 1SG Moon calls out.

"Yeah?!"

"When did base say that Cerris was supposed to get here?!"

Ramirez looks at his wristwatch. "Within Next 24 Hours!"

"I hope they make it soon!"

"Amen to that!"

"10 SECONDS," Hannah shouts. " Maven. i want you on that MG now. Forget spotting, light em up."

9...

8..

7... A bullet flies over Rivera's head.

6... bullets hitting the thick outer walls of the base

5...

4...

3.. The base's turrets began to fire out towards the oncoming raiders.

2.

1

"FIRE!" Hannah screams, pulling the trigger on her Marksman rifle, hitting one of the raiders.

Maven pulled the trigger on his SAW and sprayed the area with bullets. The others, save Kiara, were taking the shots they could, given that the wall they were hiding behind was getting lit up by enemy fire. The raiders were quick to take cover behind some old Corvegas. A fatal mistake as they had just crossed into the minefield Kiara had laid out 3 days ago. Kiara prepared to flip the switch on the detonator, then, looking for approval from Hannah, who nodded to her. Kiara then flipped the switch. Every mine from 15-45 feet away from the walls of the base were detonated. Killing most of the enemy raiders. There was only 8 left standing.

The dust from the explosions started to settle after a few minutes, with each minute that passed, both sides started to worry. Each of the raiders started to worry. Their large force had been cut down by nearly 80 percent of their forces have been cut down by a much smaller force, and their last few people were running out of ammo. The USAR group started to worry because they couldn't see where the raiders went off to. It was nothing short of a standstill. A couple of the raiders stuck their heads out of cover to survey the area where their enemies lay. After a few moments of searching, a single loud crack of gunfire silences the 2 peeking raiders. 6 Left. At that moment 2 of the raiders dropped their gear and started running opposite of the base. Fatal mistake as they got a bit of distance away from the base, two shots hit and they fell to the ground, bleeding out from their stomachs. 4 left.

A few moments later, Hannah nods at Rivera and within that moment he disappeared. Rivera hopped down from the wall while the remaining raiders were reloading. 90 Seconds left on the stealth boy he just activated, he darted across the stretch of land that separated the base and the raiders taking cover behind various pieces of debris. Rivera snuck around the corner of an older burnt out house and saw 2 of the 4 remaining raiders peeking out around the corner, searching for the sniper that took out a good deal of their men. but the sniper was gone, and so were the other people fighting alongside them...

'Too Easy.' Rivera thinks to himself before knocking out the two raiders hiding around the corner.

Once finished there, the Solo USAR soldier started to look around the other sides of the cars. The last two raiders were quietly arguing amongst themselves as to what they should do. One of them suggested they run, but then the other smacks him across the back of the head.

"What are ya, stupid? Collin and Garcia got killed because they ran... We should just wait them out and escape while we ca-" The raider falls face first into the dust. as Rivera's stealth boy deactivates.

The other raider falls on his back and starts to crawl backwards as fast as he can. "Hey man, You don't gotta do this, I'm just following what I was told to-" Knock out. The raider falls silent to the ground.

In a matter of moments, the remaining 4 raiders were tied up and dragged back through the dirt back into the fortified walls of the base.

"Who are these guys? Why did they attack?" Hannah asks climbing down from the roof of the house.

"Raiders." Kendall says, not very surprised. "Though back west, we called them fiends. They're always hopped up on Med-X, Psycho, Jet, and Buffout. I'm surprised you guys don't know what raiders are.."

"Well, for the longest time we stayed underground in a bunker.. only a few people ever got to leave the place and very rarely did they ever return." Lauren speaks up.

"You guys sound like a chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel that I met a while back..." Kendall muses.

"Who?"

"A group of people that I'm Close with... I helped them out through a difficult time and they helped me." Kendall says vaguely. She wasn't sure she could fully trust this group with more info because she didn't know their intentions for the wasteland.

*10 MINUTES LATER IN THE BASEMENT OF THE "BARRACKS" HOUSE*

The Raiders sit on the floor, hands tied together behind them on the 4 support poles holding the house steady. Their eyes covered by the black bandannas they wore during their attack. Rivera sits in a chair in the middle of the room, surrounded by the tied down raiders. He's quietly talking to them while they are barely unconscious.

"-Sheesh, How far does a person have to fall, before they resort to joining a gang full of idiots that don't have the common sense to know when they should back off..." Marcus says as he plays with a 5 inch combat knife, tracing the blade with his fingers and flicking the tip of the blade with his index finger. One of the raiders slowly begins to regain consciousness and Ramirez notices this.

"Oh boy! One of you finally decided to wake up! Hold on, lemme get that off ya face!" Ramirez says rather excitedly, removing the bandanna from the now conscious raiders head.

"Ah- Goddammit man. Why is it so damn bright?" He exclaims, looking down trying to block out the light.

"I have a better question buddy, how bout you tell me who you and your buddies are and what exactly you were trying to accomplish here. Eh?"

After a few moments, the raider finally got what Ramirez was asking and started laughing. "You think I'm just going to start talking and give up secrets?! HAHAHA! You are the funniest P.O.S I've ever s- AHHHHH SHIT!"

The Raider screams out in pain as Ramirez drives the blade into his foot.

"I'm sorry, perhaps I wasn't very clear. Who. Are. You." Ramirez says, smiling, his voice however, deceiving the smile on his face.

"NGH AHHHHH Go... To... Hell..." He grunts out, spitting blood on Ramirez' face.

"Heh heh, okay... I'm gonna ask one, more, time" he says, wiping the blood and saliva off of his face." Who are you.

The Raider sits in silence before looking back up at Ramirez. "Guess you are gonna have to kill me, cause i ain't sayin' shit to you."

"Very well then. Maybe your friends will be a bit more talkative." Ramirez says, pulling out his gun. He takes one look at it, "Ah now this wont do..." He says taking the silencer off. "One will sleep, the others will wake"

BANG BANG

The other three raiders suddenly jolted awake from unconsciousness. Each one screaming as they awoke, trying to move only for each of them to realize that they have been tied down with each of their heads covered by a bag or bandanna. Ramirez merely smiled as he did moments before ending the 1st raider's life.

"This is going to be fun!" He says joyfully.

*1 Hour Later*

About an hour after the first raider was dealt with, Ramirez came up the stairs from the basement of the barracks, a slightly amused look on his face.

"Okay so these guys were tactical dumb asses.." He says with a small laugh. "They threw all of their people at us after scouting us out for the last 4 days... guess they thought we were normal wastelanders?.."

Everyone gathered around Ramirez as he spoke.

"I wouldn't trust that they really threw everyone they had at-" Hannah starts.

"No, one of the guys named off everyone that was in their gang... There was 40 of them."

"Holy Shit... That minefield really screwed them... Good work on that Kiara, but we will need more." Hannah says.

"No problem, I just need a little bit of help setting it all back up, maybe adding more defenses as well." She says.

"No Problem, Once reinforcements get here you'll have all of the help you need. But for now, Maven, you will assist Kiara with whatever she needs. Ramirez and Craft, you two have 2 tasks. Check the status of our reinforcements, then come back to me. Kendall, When 'Mirez and Craft get back, take them and find out where that gangs base is...Or was.."

"Got it. I'm gonna go stock up on ammo, just in case... That firefight drained a lot of ammo." Kendall says, holding up her last magazine.

"Very well, grab some of our armor if you want. Rivera and I need to get this place organized and ready for the intake of people... Which reminds me. Kiara, Tomorrow, i need you to start work on another house for barracks, okay? If you can start on it today, then fantastic but i do need it started tomorrow. Now are there any questions?" 1SGT Moon asks, raising her voice a bit.

"No, Sergeant!" Everyone shouts.

"Then lets get to work. Move out!" She shouts back.

Everyone starts to go do their respective assignments. Kiara and SGT Maven ran to the armory to grab mines and parts for defenses, followed by Kendall who retrieved an HK 416, A new uniform and armor to replace her old tattered desert Ranger armor. 10 Thirty round magazines, and a few rounds for the revolver she kept on her hip. Craft and Ramirez also headed to the armory to grab more ammo for their weapons and a new change in uniform, before heading outside to watch for the reinforcements. Hannah and Rivera stood in the planning room trying to figure out what all needed to be improved and set up around the base. After about 20 minutes, Kendall, Craft, and Ramirez were ready to go and started heading out the gate.

" Alright Ramirez where are we going?" Craft says as the trio start to jog their way across the wastes.

"To the North West, a place called Dickerson Tabernacle Chapel... The guy that sang out that beautiful Intel said there is a diner nearby that they were using as a base of operations." Ramirez explains.

"A trip like that could take a couple hours, even while we are running.. Are we even prepared for an overnight trip?" Craft questions, jogging a little faster to keep up.

"If you guys didn't bring a tent, then don't worry I've got a couple in my knap. Got them while I was roaming around in the divide A few years back." Kendall says.

They jogged for a while before stopping to catch their breath. The sun was setting in the west and Kendall decided to have the group stop for the night in an old rusted out shack. The Courier shot a couple of holes in the roof so that they would have a vent for smoke to escape while a fire burned in the dirt using old twigs that had been snapped off of dead trees. After a few minutes of chatting they all decided to sleep for the night.

* BACK AT FORT ANDALE*

Kiara and Maven were out front of the base laying down some mines and wire to try and slow any future attackers. The duo had mines of all kinds set up. Pulse, Plasma, Frag, and Poison one buried into the dirt surrounding the fort. One mine every 3 feet. Anyone that stepped near the fort this time wouldn't be a threat. Hell, Any mole rat that decided to get too close would be obliterated by the mines. As Kiara and Maven placed the last of their mines, Kiara looks at Maven.

"Hey I need One more thing from you, then you can go back to the watchtower and rest."

"Okay?" He says, his voice sounding rough like concrete. "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to grab some of the extra MG's we have stored in the armory and place them around the inside of the wall every 20 feet or so. I'm going to make our defenses a bit more... Human friendly... No more peeking over a wall to kill somebody and risk getting shot while doing it... "I'm going to cut out a hole in the wall, and mount an MG. And then to top it all off, I am going to put a bulletproof glass shield on the mounted turrets, that way we are not gonna risk getting shot in the head by a lucky raider." Kiara explains rather quickly as she runs off to grab a few supplies, leaving Maven to finish laying his last Poison mine.

As Kiara started to open the small door in the gate that acted as a security checkpoint for any merchant or visitor the group might have, Kiara notices more figures walking off in the distance. Far too many to be just a simple caravan. Her eyes widened. "MAVEN! TURN AROUND! MORE PEOPLE COMING THIS WAY!" She shouts.

Maven spins around quickly pulling out his Binoculars.

* WITH THE COURIER *

The next day had come quickly. Kendall rose with the sun as she had trained herself to do while back in New Vegas dealing with the Politics between The Brotherhood and The NCR. She woke Ramirez and Craft, and they were once again on the path towards this "chapel" They came across a few wandering traders and a few mole rats and a few other critters here and there. They stopped their jog long enough for Ramirez to look at the map of the wasteland found in the old house. They were near a prewar campground, just a little more to the north was this chapel the squealer spoke about.

Kendall gazed off in the distance at a sign, "Mount Mable campground. Poor bastards were just enjoying a vacation when the war began" She says in slight disappointment.

"Nothing we can do for them now, Come on... We need to keep moving. We're almost there." Ramirez taps Kendall's shoulder before moving off into the direction of the chapel.

Kendall stands up and follows the others to the chapel. The old building appeared to be abandoned, and the mostly decomposed skeletons of raiders littered the grounds. Multiple bullet casings buried in the dirt and many used up stimpaks and Med-X syringes were scattered around the chapel. The courier starts to analyze the area around her, looking off in the distance at the surrounding buildings for the diner that the raider mentioned, while Craft and Ramirez looked around the building to find some hints or clues of where the raiders would stash supplies. Kendall pulled out her binoculars and scanned the area North. She started to think that the raider they got the Intel from was lying, but then she scanned out to the northwest of where she was looking and found the Diner they were looking for.

"HEY! Guys I found the Diner!" Kendall yells out. "One mile to the Northwest!"

The other two looked off into the distance and saw the old diner. It was covered in graffiti and surrounded by corpses of radscorpions. Turrets line the top of the building and strands of barbed wire surround the windows.

To the east of the diner, stood a single guard tower, with a single sniper in it.

"Looks like your intel was off, Ramirez. Sniper in the tower to the east. Multiple guards moving around in the diner as well. Damn!" Craft exclaims.

"No use worrying about it now, we have to get into that diner and clear em out... How do you want to play this? Draw em' out and pick them off, or go in loud?" Ramirez asks the Girls.

"Or i could just nuke them?" Kendall asks, pulling her Fat Man launcher out of the knap.

"That's... A good option..." Ramirez stutters, wide eyed at the sight of the projectile in the launcher.

Craft raised an eyebrow. "How are you gonna get that projectile to take out the guards INSIDE the diner?"

Kendall sets the launcher on the ground and pulls up her pip-boy to do some calculations. "Okay, so if i can prop this up at a certain angle, then I should be able to get the projectile through the window of the diner from this exact spot.. I just need to make some calibrations and adjustments to the launcher, and we'll be ready to go."

"What about the sniper?" Ramirez asks. "Wont he know where we are right after the bomb explodes?"

"I expect the bomb to take him out indirectly.. Debris from the diner will likely fly up to hit him, if not then it should knock over the tower itself.." Kendall explains matter-of-factly.

"Alright, Lets see what your math can do then."