Note: Again I apologize for the typos. I keep going back editing things, but continuously being district with Real life. I will go back and edit some more on the chapters.
Most of the dialog is from the game, but I didn't see any way around it for the development part.
When they got inside the station Haylen and helped Rhys sit down against a wall on a sleeping bag that had seen better days, but then again so did most things in this world. "Are you going to patch me up or what?" Rhys asked the scribe that placed her hands on her hips and looked at him with a smirk. "I don't know, your prognosis looks pretty grim. Might be more humane to take you out back and shoot yah." Her tone dripping with sarcasm. The survivor certainly was amused by the interaction. At least one of them she could get along with. "Haha, you are all heart doc." Retorted the knight as he tilted his head looking up at Haylen. "Just... Quit squirming so I can get these bandages on." Haylen started to work on the wound. Meanwhile Gracie collected the gear and put it in a corner of the station. She tucked her art diary in there for safekeeping until she got back. Maybe they would allow her and Preston to sleep here for the night to get their rest and move out the next day. It was about an hour later and Gracie had her weapon of choice on her and ammo on her person. She wasn't going to be unprepared, like other times.
Gracie had order Preston to stay just in case anything should happen to her and the Paladin. No to mention to stand guard with the supplies they had collected so far from their trip to Diamond city. "Look Garvey, I will be okay, I got big tall and shiny over here." She gestured over to the paladin that kind of coughed at being called shiny. Preston look almost as sad as Dogmeat when she had to leave him behind. She pinched the bridge of her slender nose and looked at him with new resolve. "As your General I order you." Preston sighed and nodded. He wouldn't disobey her if it was an order. The Brotherhood soldiers looked a bit stunned by the news she was the General of the Minutemen.
"Wait, are you saying you are their leader?" Danse asked a bit surprised. Her copper hair moved as she turned and looked at Danse. She smiled to him and looked a bit shy for a moment as she tucked a strand of unruly hair behind her ear. It was a first time to act as an example and demonstrate she was a force to be reckon with if anyone made a mistake in betraying her and the minutemen. "That is correct, I am the General of the minutemen for the Commonwealth. We are rebuilding our group from the ground up to help the Commonwealth heal and grow healthy." Preston seemed to have some pride with her statement and stood up straighter. Danse nodded what seemed to be acknowledgement, to him they were just a disorganize militia that needed more structure, but he wasn't about to insult the very people that were about to help him on a mission. "At any rate, I am ready, Preston will stay here with our supplies." Danse nodded and took his helmet and flipped it with ease and snapped it on his power armor. "Let's head out then." Gracie just put hers on as efficient as possible without looking like a newbie.
She followed him out of the station with her rifle loaded and ready to go just in case one of these zombie like creature came at her again. Gracie was fairly certain she was going to have some nightmares after this. Danse start to jog around a corner. "We'll take this alley. Follow me." He order her to follow. She followed behind and kind of felt out of shape having to jog, but didn't want to him to think she was some soft person to push around either. She start to regret this mornings when Nate would wake up and take a jog around the area. "I am sure he is saying I told you so." She thought to herself and sighed slightly. "ArcJet is a short hike to the west. If we take this road we should be able to avoid the larger pack of ferals that are infested in Cambridge." She listen to him as they jog along the path...
"Traveling this far from the station is a risk, but getting that transmitter up and running needs to be our top priority. If it was up to me I would relocate my team. Scribe Haylen detected high energy readings in the area that need to be investigated. We don't know much about them except they are short live and broadcast on a Frequency only obtainable with a high level of technology. We are concern, whoever or whatever is creating those energy readings might be a potential threat. So it's our job to investigate it." Danse informed her, though it felt more like a debriefing. She wondered if this is how Nate's life was when he was in the military. It was no wonder her father and mother didn't want her to go that route. She would have been a hellion for any officer. However things have changed and she was much older now and thrusted into a whole new world. They jogged a while down the road with no incident or so she thought she start to slow down and look around at the area and how much destruction took place, Danse must have sensed it because he started to slow down his pace and look over his shoulder. He couldn't see her expression since her helmet was on, but if he could it would have been sadness. She sucked in a breath and started to move forward again with him. It was quite for the most of the jog there. Until they ready a railroad bridge that still main a bright red color, there was a group of raiders and a caravan trying to fend them off. Danse charged in and started to fire. She followed along but by the time she got there everyone was dead. She looked at the Paladin thinking well he is the real deal, but felt terrible about the Caravan. Even the poor Pack Brahmin was dead, such a mournful creature to begin with.
Danse continued to move forward after a few moment of looking around to see if there was anyone else. "It might surprise you, my recon team isn't the first to visit the Commonwealth. For the last seven years two other teams were sent here by the Brotherhood to gather technology. The first one was a huge success bring back with crates of pre‐war artifacts and historical documents. The second one wasn't as much, shortly after they arrived we lost contact with them. They haven't been heard from since. Far as my team goes, lost four good men in this god forsaken wasteland. Been a target the moment we arrived, despite our minor setbacks I don't plan on giving up and going back home." At this point she wondered how many of them were really here and what other reasons they had to be here.
She licked her lips and continued to follow him within her power armor. They approached a hill and started to go up it when they ran into giant flies and deformed dogs. She was grateful that is all they ran into at this point. Up ahead was the building and they started to slow down their pace as they approached it. "There it is ArcJet systems, there shouldn't be any exterior security. We enter in the front."
Gracie was adding things together and it seemed he could handle things on his own. Why would be need extra fire power. Unless there is something else that she wasn't factoring in, a sense of dread washed over her and she followed behind quickly reloading her rifle. "Paladin Danse, is there anything else I should be prepared for?" She asked but he was already enter the building. "Damn it." She muttered under breath as she followed close behind him.
He looked around the place while commenting." It was corporations like this that put the last nail in the coffin for mankind. They exploited technology for their own gains, pocketing the cash and ignoring the damage they'd done." Gracie didn't want to really want to accept that every corporate was like that but she understood from a certain point of view the evidence was damning. She followed him while looking around the building trying to not to fall or trip over anything. They enter a room that revealed a robot massacre. Protectrons where laying in pieces all over the room. She look around and then faces Danse as he lowered his rifle. "Look at these wrecks. It appears as though the facility's automated security's already been dealt with." She titled her head and nodded. "I see that." She inched closer to see if there was anything. "Look at the evidence. There isn't a single spent ammunition casing or drop of blood in sight. "He pointed out to her. She furrowed her brow and wondered what could have happen. It was obvious Danse has an answer to what it was. "These Robots were assaulted by institute synths." She had no clue what a synth was and was not going to let him know of her lack of knowledge either, she only nodded. "I will be on the lookout."
Danse seemed impress with her response turned his back while moving to the next room. "Roger that. Let's move out." Gracie griped her rifle a little tighter and looked more alter. She couldn't know only imagine what this building was infested with, maybe giant radroaches. She cringed at the thought after having to deal with them in the vault. "This place is a mess, but I still see a few pieces of salvage that the Brotherhood might be interested in" Danse commented as they walked down a hallway. "After we're done here I'll Have to mark this place for a sweep and retrieve." He added looking over his shoulder at her. They approached a room with wires looming down from the ceiling, broken floor tiles and debris everywhere. The doors leading to other parts of the building were shut tightly.
"Looks like a dead end." Gracie knew how the doors worked in these places thanks to having the summer office job with her Mother and the occasional visit to her dad's military office. She looked around and started to head to a terminal and saw one that was functional. Danse started to speak without looking at what Gracie was doing. "See if you can find a way to get the…" Gracie slipped out of armor to type and looked up absently "Door open? Already one it." Two things surprised Danse when watching Gracie. One she was quick with her instincts which was a good trait for a soldier and the other being she was wearing a vault suit. He rose a thick brow at her "You're a Vault dweller?" She nodded while resetting the password and looked up at him.
"Can't see the forest for the trees." She said as she smirked at him and strolled over to the other terminal. She started to type again and the doors started to open. Gracie was amused at his surprised expression but saw something behind him. She guessed he did took as she jerked his head and started to aim his gun. She ran towards her armor and start to get in it when she felt the something hit her arm. "FUCK!" She yelped out as she closed the armor around her and felt her flesh burning. "You must be terminated." Was heard and Gracie narrowed her eyes and saw a robot like thing that was looked human but was creep in appearance with the rubber like skin and the voice. "Lite Em up!" Danse roared out as he fired away at them piling in at the door. One of them got passed him and started to charge her with a baton. She repeated fired at it as it got closer. "Be warned, I will not allow these attacks to continue." He uttered in an electronic like voice. "Like hell!" She yelled out backing up firing more rounds into his artificial body. One more round hit and it fell down "Shutting down." She started to kick it and curse more in rage.
"WHY THE FUCK DOES EVERYTHING AROUND HAVE TO BE INSANE?!" She ran towards another one slammed her armored fist into the head making the synth stagger back. She then planted the barrel into the chest and fired repeated rounds. The robot shattered into pieces in front of her and she looked around aiming her rifle trying to find more of them. The room was now littered with synth bodies. Danse moved forward into the other room to see if there were more, she followed behind reloading her rifle quickly, She could hear more of them chattering away. "Hello?" one of them said. "Well not the brightest piece of work that mankind has come up with." She noted in a sarcastic tone as one ran in front of her to attack Danse. She just slammed into it with her body and started fire more shots. She assumed they thought Danse was more of a threat than her or completely bugged. Danse was moving ahead like a beast firing away at anything that was considered a threat. She didn't know if she should admire him or fear his tenacious style of fighting. Another room littered again with synth bodies.
He moved forward and kept his guard up with his rifle aimed in front of him. Gracie just watch his back and followed close behind. "Damn synths have compromised most of the facility. Remain vigilant…we've got turrets ahead." He informed her as they approach another part of the building. "Lovely, I love being shot at all the time." Danse didn't really pay much attention to her humor and moved on. She wondered if this guy had any sense of levity in his body. As he turned the corner he started to fire at the turret, she was pretty amazed that nothing really hit him. She saw the next one and aimed carefully and fired before warning him. After the 4th shot it came down and Danse nodded to her as a thanks for the backup.
She smiled to herself feeling someone relieved that there were no more synths. Danse stopped and turned to her "Engine Core's ahead. Should be our final stop." He opened the door and slowed walked in, he turned on his light on his helmet. "Watch your footing. Looks like the power is out in this section." Right when he said that she staggered slightly, she stopped herself gave a sheepish nod. They headed into a very large area and Danse looked around his voice sounded astonished by the find. "Look at this place! Scribes could have a field day here."
The room was a huge and high up was a jet engine dangling, she noted the railing and down below the floor looking scorched. She wanted to see more in the light but figured now wasn't the time to ask. "Well this is certainly an interesting find." Gracie added as she watch Danse walk down. "The transmitter should in the control room at the top of the core, but it looks like the elevators are dead." She looked around for other options but he was right, shrugging her shoulders she followed behind. "We'll have to keep heading down for now and find a way to get the facility's power back online." Danse stated as he ascended down to the floor. "There has to be a power backup system somewhere. Scout the maintenance area of the main chamber. I'll remain here and watch our backs." He stated pointing to the maintenance room.
As she approach the room she noticed a console but no power to it. She moved to the back where there was a power generator and a terminal. Gracie slipped out again from the armor and brushed back her unruly curls. She cracked her knuckles and looked at the codes. "Well at least the terminal is not going to shoot me." She typed away narrowing down the options until she finally figured out, it was like puzzle game for her and felt pride when she got it unlocked. In past weeks since leaving her freezing prison she has practice a lot. Sometimes failing other times had been great. She was slowly getting better at it. "Engine Core power restored." Gracie grinned and slipped back into her armor and started to head out when she saw in the window a horrific seen of synths firing on the Paladin. He was holding his own but wasn't sure how much longer. "Thermal Engine fueled, primed and standing by for your command." She looked around in a panic and hit the big red button. She started to wave at Danse trying to get him to move in but he was focus. "Oh Gods… Please... Please... come on!" She banged on the window but nothing. "Command accepted. Commencing Five second countdown. " Gracie didn't know what would get his attention, hell she even thought of flashing him but then went against it since that would be awkward after words. "5..." She banged harder but nothing. "4…3…" She could see he was starting to back towards the door, hopefully she got his attention and that he knew what was going on. "2...1...engine firing." She peered in horror seeing Danse knelt down while everything around him was being cooked. She still feel the heat of the flames and chewed on her bottom lip hoping she just didn't cause a felt of a Brotherhood officer and a small war. "Test Firing completed with an efficiency rating of
96.7 percent." Stated the system, the door unlocked and she rushed out there to check on the poor guy. "Oh my god. Are you alright?" Danse started to move a little bit "Got…cooked by those flames, but… thanks to my power armor I'm still in one piece." She sighed in relief and gave him space to get up. He started to stand up "The important thing is we're still alive…and we have a way to get the transmitter." Gracie was impressed that this man could even think about the mission after nearly becoming a TV dinner. She only nodded and grateful her helmet was on to cover up her expression. "Let's go." She followed Danse again and wondered where this dedication came from, she wondered if this why her father has so many loyal soldiers and why at his funeral there were so many people there to honor him. Then she thought about Nate and wondered what he was like, he had told her stories but never a grand tell just simple things, he was very humble about his success, always giving credit to others before himself. Danse was already in the elevator and was waiting on her to snap out of it. He cleared his throat and she looked at the door and moved quickly and squeezed in. She was turning red, thinking that she must have looked like a complete ditz.
They rode up to the next set of railing, as they moved higher up, she looked down at the ground. Her eyes blurred and she took a step back and took in a deep breath. She didn't heights at all, Preston had to coach her into moving when they were at the Corvega plant trying to move past raiders while on the roof. Gracie sucked in a deep breath and turned her head to focus on Danse as she moved quicker up the stairs. "Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down." She whispered to herself while going up. Danse looked over his shoulder and paused. "Is there something amiss? Did you say something?" Gracie shook her head. "N…No! Not at all. Just thinking a loud!" She didn't wanted to admit her phobia to anyone. She even denied it to Preston. Hell Nate even had problems with Gracie admitting it. Danse turned and stopped again. "I don't think we are alone." The Paladin aims his rifle ahead, she mimic him and chewed the inside of her mouth hoping he was wrong. "Hostile reading detected." An electronic voice cut through the silence. Gracie rolled her eyes and took in a deep breath. As they got to the top and turned into a short hallway. She could see about three them patrolling the room.
They looked creepy as they looked around the area. It was looking at skeletons walking around, but more solid and not as fragile. She aimed her rifle as one turned to her. "Hello?" She started to fire at it. Danse passed her and stated to fire at the other ones that were approaching her. "Come on you piece of scrap!" He yelled out as he over powered them. The first one fell over and she started to fire on another one that looked damaged and ready to fall. Parts of them were hitting the floor or flying off and hitting the wall. It was a mechanical massacre of parts everywhere, she wondered if any of them would be useful for scraping. Gracie was so focused ahead of her she missed the one to the side that came up and started to slam a shock baton against her armor. "Damn it!" she growled out and slammed her body against the metal skeletal body and started turn as she aimed her rifle at it. Danse turned and watched her holding her own ground and as the final one fell. He looked around for the transmitter, hoping it was still here. "Damn it I don't see the device anywhere." He grumbled as he looked at Gracie who was taking her helmet off to breath. She shook out her hair and took in a deep breath. "Fan out and check the synth remains. They may have been after the transmitter as well." He turned his back looking at the bodies near him. She knelt down and started put pieced in a pack just in case and seeing if the transmitter was on them. "Nothing on this one." She stated as she moved to the next one. "Neither on this one. " Danse added as moved to another one near the door." Gracie caught a glimpse of something, a box with switched and a red light. She plucked it off the body and held it up to him. "Is this it?" The Paladin turned and nodded. "Let's get out of here." He headed to the towards elevator door. "We'll take the service elevator to the surface."
After everything they went through it felt like there was still something looming in the air between them. She didn't know if she had made him mad back there or if it was the scraps she collected and put in her bag. She could just tell as she followed him up to the surface that something was on his mind. There was hardly any light outside, how long were they in there? She was didn't think it was that long but shrugged it off. When they finally got outside of the bunker area the elevator connected to, Danse turned to her and took in a deep sigh. "Well, that could have gone smoother, but the mission was accomplished." Hearing those words made her cringe on the inside. "I thought we worked well as a team." She added trying to smooth things over, if she did in fact pissed him off.
"Agreed, it's refreshing change to work with a civilian who can follow orders properly." Danse stated with a nod. She felt her blood boil hearing this but remained cool. "That being said, I believe we two important matters to discuss. First and foremost, if you'll hand the Deep Range Transmitter. I'd like to compensate you for your assistance during this operation." Gracie relaxed a little more and was about to object to any award. However he held up his rifle to her. "I think you'll find this weapon useful. It's my own personal modification of the standard Brotherhood laser rifle." He added as he pushed it into her hands. She looked at it and then back to him baffled by this offering. "May it serve you well in battle."
She traced her fingers over it and say Righteous Authority on it. Her lips curved into a smirk, but didn't say anything in fear she would offend him. "It's not necessary." She started to offer it back but Danse held up a hand to her to stop. "I insist you keep it. The Brotherhood believe in paying all of its debts." Gracie didn't push it and nodded to him and held the rifle close to her. "Now…as far as the second matter goes, I wanted to make you a proposal. We had a lot thrown at us back there. Our op could have ended in disaster, but you kept your cool and handled it like a soldier. There is no doubt in my mind that you've got what it takes. The way I see it, you've got a choice. You could spend the rest of your life wandering from place to place, trading an extra hand for a meager reward. Or, you could join the Brotherhood of Steel and make your mark on the world. So what do you say?"
Gracie suddenly felt like someone just put more on her shoulders. She wondered what was up with the men here recruiting her for everything. There were pros and cons to it and she felt like any answer she gave would have a price to it. "Paladin Danse, I am honored you offered this opportunity to me. I do have my duties as well to the Commonwealth as the General of the Minutemen and if I were to accept I have a feeling it would conflict with those duties. However there is also the fact you don't entirely know everything about me and what my main goals are." Danse looked at her for a moment and digest her words." Of course you time to think about this. My apologies for suddenly..." Gracie waved her hand at him and smiled. "Why don't you listen to my story first, then perhaps we can come up with a compromise." She offered him as she brushed her hair back and put her helmet back on. "Fair enough." He nodded to her. "We can talk on the way there, but can we walk this time?" She begged him as she started to adjust her pack and two of her rifles. The paladin nodded and secretly had a smirk on his face. "This woman is certainly unique. No wonder that minuteman picked her to help him." He thought to himself as he walked a long side her and listened to her story so far.