As he stepped out of his power armour, Wernher breathed a sigh of frustration. More and more Trogs were being spotted dead in the outer city, getting closer and closer to the Steelyard. On top of that, now the Scavbots were disappearing too. No explosions, no commotion, just gone without a trace. He'd had to order the men to stop sending the bots out altogether before they lost too many to replace. The mill had enough of a stockpile of metal to keep it running for a good while, but sooner or later they would need to salvage more. The guard shifts had been doubled to make sure whatever was out there didn't take the city by surprise. Orion would kill him if it all went to shit the minute he left.

His room in Haven had the benefit of being well stocked with alcohol, including the potent moonshine Orion had brought in from Point Lookout with the bi-monthly shipments of punga fruit. As Wernher took a long swig from the bottle, he tried to calm himself down. Even if there was something new and dangerous in the outer city, who was to say it had any interest in getting inside? The former slaves who'd come from the Capital Wastes always told stories of Deathclaws and giant Radscorpions. One or two of those would easily be able to do the kind of damage they'd been seeing in the trog population. And the scouts had probably just missed the remains of the Scavbots. They might be big and dangerous, but as long as they kept the perimeter secure those Capital Wasteland creatures wouldn't get into the Pitt. Just as he'd settled his worries he was attacked from behind, tiny hands covering his eyes.

"Guess who, Uncle Wernher?"

He grinned and pretended to be thinking hard. Marie was giggling behind him, trying to be quiet and failing.

"I think that might be…. Everett!"

"Everett?! I'm not old and smelly! No, silly, it's me! Marie!"

Wernher turned around and picked up the young girl, sitting her on his knee and giving her a hug. Her black hair naturally hung in loose curls, and framed a face that could only be described as 'adorable'. Since he and Orion had overthrown Ashur, the former dictator's daughter had really grown on him. As hard as he had tried to not care about her, to see her as nothing but 'The Cure', Wernher had grown into the role of uncle to Marie. His only regret was that he and Orion were still lying to her about her parents. As far as she was concerned, the Wanderer was her father and her mother had died a long time ago. The last part was true, at least.

"When is Daddy coming home?" she asked.

"Soon, sweetheart, I promise. He had to go visit some people he hasn't seen in a very long time".

"But why couldn't I go with him?"

"He told you, he wanted you to stay safe here in Haven with Uncle Wernher and Auntie Midea. Besides, I think we have more fun without him. Like right now, we're going to go downstairs and I'll use a dummy to show you where to stab someone to really hurt them".

"Yaaaaaaayyyyyy!"

Marie squealed before running ahead. Wernher downed another mouthful of moonshine and got up to follow. Orion wouldn't approve, but he always wanted to see the best in the world. Even after all the shit he went through, he still thought people were inherently good. Wernher didn't. And he'd rather walk into a pack of Trogs than leave that little girl not knowing how to defend herself.

.

Knight Captain Pek of the Brotherhood of Steel had never been very good at combat. On one of his first training exercises, nearly 10 years ago, the Lone Wanderer had had to rescue him and the other he was with from a group of super mutants. Since then, blind luck had kept him alive and promoted him through the ranks. His career was filled with improbable chances, like the time he dropped his laser rifle in battle, only for it to go off and hit a crate of mines behind the Talon Mercs they were fighting. Or the time he had ran for his life from a super mutant behemoth, only for it to attract the attention of a pack of Deathclaws. The behemoth won, but the Deathclaws had shredded its legs and left it an easy target for Pek. Nearly every day he wished he had joined one of the Orders of the Scribes, but visions of glory had made him stupid. Now, he was alone in the middle of the wasteland trying to face down five wild sentry bots. They weren't really wild though. Pek was smart enough to know most of the wild robots in the Capital these days had been reprogrammed by the Regulators. Not even the smartest scribes of the Citadel could figure out how those damn cowboys suddenly became so tech savy. There was even a betting pool in the barracks about it. The most popular theory was that they had found some underground, pre-war robot factory that had taught them everything they needed to know. Personally, Pek was betting that they had just picked up a few books. He'd been stationed at the Arlington Library early in his career and you could learn everything in the world from those books.

As he reloaded his laser rifle, Pek realised that the wasteland was unusually quiet. From his shelter behind an overturned bus, he couldn't see what had happened to the sentry bots, but the sound of machine gun fire, missiles, and robotic warmings had disappeared. He nearly jumped out of his power armour when something clinked against his foot. Looking down, he realised that mightn't have been a bad idea as the pulse grenade went off right beside him. Knocking him to the ground, the blast also sent his armour into shutdown, leaving him immobile. Face down, Pek could only wait as he heard boots on the ground stomping towards him.

"You were right boss, those pulse grenades really do fuck up power armour" said one voice.

Pek decided to go for the bold play.

"Whoever you are, I am a Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel. In a minute my armour will reboot and you shall be terminated if you don't surrender".

Unfortunately, this was greeted by the sound of laughter and the feeling of the back of Pek's power armour being opened manually. Before he could react, he felt a needle being pressed into his back, and the ground in front of his face began to grow fuzzy and dark. The last thing he heard was another voice, and authoritative one, addressing him

"We've been waiting years for an opportunity like this, Brotherhood scum. As for who we are, we're going to get very well acquainted over the next while".