Unsurprisingly, traveling with half of the Brotherhood's forces was a pain in the ass. They covered too much area, made too much noise, and frequently needed to stop. She couldn't very well provide a strong argument when most of her group was wearing power armor in the bright noon sun. They finally stopped to camp on a swampy beach a hundred feet from the walls of the Castle. Adjusting her bag straps on her shoulders, Shiloh left the star paladins in charge of the group as she approached the fort. Though star paladins generally answered only to Elder Maxson, it was clarified to everyone that the Sentinels were leading the operation.
Shiloh met with a guard wearing the strange, alien-like power armor she'd only ever seen the Enclave wear. It felt like deja vu to when she first stopped in front of the gate of the Citadel and was promptly told off by the guard posted there. Shiloh warily stepped around the alien soldier as she was let inside the gates.
The inside of the Castle was filled with crops and farmland surrounding a large radio tower. Three Dog would be foaming at the mouth if he had something like that for his broadcast. Speakers along the walls played a giddy tune that Shiloh felt would quickly grate on her nerves. Nora came to meet her, smiling broadly and wearing combat armor, "We're ready when you are, Sentinel. Let me introduce you to my Lieutenant, Preston Garvey. He will be manning the vanguard while I lead the base attack of the tower. From my understanding of the operation, you will be working with him closely."
Shiloh glanced at the man standing next to Nora. He certainly dressed the part of a Minuteman. She shook his hand, noting that he still held an untrusting look towards her. She wasn't sure why a man who clearly disliked the Brotherhood would be working the vanguard. However, she had to trust Nora's judgement, "Alright, General, just to clarify what's with the alien power armors?"
"You've never seen an X-01 power armor model?" Preston inquired, but Shiloh ignored him. She was somewhat glad the Lieutenant didn't know the exact details of her...situation.
"Not outside the Enclave," she stared him down, almost accusingly.
Nora interrupted, "It's a rarer model that I have found quite a few of and prefer on my heavy fire squads. I have an elite guard that wears the models that I find and repair. My Captain and his group will be joining the firefight." Shiloh picked up the emphasis in Nora's words, paling at the idea of Danse participating so close to Brotherhood soldiers. Preston picked up that Shiloh knew what Nora was saying and he softened a little.
"Of course," Shiloh nodded, "when you're ready we will head to the tower immediately. For the record, my orders are clear. We don't shoot unless we are shot at. If possible we will take prisoners when we can."
"I couldn't agree more. The last thing I want is a blood bath. The Minutemen will handle rounding survivors if your men want to focus on the technology. Before we go, I have something for you." Shiloh followed Nora through the Castle's hallways to her private quarters. She opened the door to see Danse standing in there, his helmet off. Shiloh blinked in surprise and Nora smiled, "Danse isn't your gift. Though I'm sure you're not complaining about seeing him again."
Danse looked sheepish and Shiloh sighed, "Be careful, Danse. That place is going to be flooded with Brotherhood soldiers."
"Of course. My directions are rather simple. Nora points, I shoot. I won't even be speaking."
Shiloh tensed in worry still, worried for Danse's life and worried for Maxson's career, "I believe you, but I will keep my soldiers as far from you as I can."
Danse slightly grinned, "Sentinel life suits you."
"It really doesn't. I'm just very adaptable."
Nora rummaged through a trunk, "I know the feeling. Here," she held up a bundle of metal and cloth, "this is for you." Shiloh took it from her hands, confused. "I used to wear it on my travels so it's well-loved, but it's stronger than that feeble combat armor you're wearing. I know it's presumptuous of me, but I think it belongs on the front lines with you. It's combat armor from the north worn by pre-War Marines and I had Danse modify its appearance slightly. The Children of Atom up north wear it, but yours is gunmetal. I thought you might appreciate the irony."
Shiloh ran a hand gently across the smooth metal surface. She felt a strange attachment to her old armor, but it was very worn and wouldn't hold up well against strong damage. Shiloh grinned, "Thank you."
Nora clearly hadn't been expecting her to set the armor aside and pull her into a hug. Shiloh found she liked Nora's hugs. It felt like being hugged by a mother. Not that Shiloh ever truly knew what that felt like. Nora sounded emotional, "We'll be behind you all the way. I have a feeling this will be our final mission together."
Shiloh silently agreed, though she didn't elaborate. She had a bad feeling, like she wouldn't come out of this unscathed. Maybe not at all. But she didn't want to worry the older woman. She let go of Nora and approached Danse. He still looked sheepish when she tapped his power armored chest tightly, "See you later, soldier."
"I know you'll lead well," Danse pulled his helmet back on, "ready when you are, ladies."
Taking a moment in a private room, Shiloh pulled on the new armor. It fit comfortably from being used, but she already felt more protected from oncoming fire than before. The gunmetal gray of the metal went well with the black of her officer uniform. She looked the part of Sentinel as she met up with the Minutemen again in the courtyard. Most of the soldiers looked like farmers with rifles, which worried Shiloh, but Nora held her faith in them.
The Sole Survivor was speaking to her soldiers and they surrounded her, listening eagerly. Shiloh spotted quite a diversity in her crew. There were farmers, ghouls, and people in raider getups. She spotted MacCready standing next to a group carrying sniper rifles. Knowing his skillset, she hoped he would keep to the back instead of inside the firefight.
When Nora finished her speech, the group headed out to meet the Brotherhood soldiers. Shiloh met up with the star paladins and motioned for them to get ready to move. There would be no stopping now that they were heading to the tower full force.
-0-
The skyscraper itself wasn't uniquely tall by any measure, but from the outside looked deserted. If Ingram wasn't so certain, they would have questioned whether the building was habitable at all. It overlooked the bay slightly, positioned near a collapsed overpass. Four knights in power armor bent and tore off the large metal door to the attached parking garage. It proved the easiest route, since the main entrances were completely fortified with concrete and wood.
Nora's group and most of the Brotherhood kept to the lower levels, heading inside through the parking garage. Shiloh, Rhys, and Preston Garvey led the climb to the upper levels of the garage where they would charge through the stairwells and elevators. The lower groups were loud, banging around and yelling for anyone inside to stand down. So far Shiloh couldn't hear gunfire or resistance. Preston's group broke off and headed up the stairs as Shiloh, Rhys, and a few knights packed tightly into an elevator. The ride upwards was cramped and tense.
The whole group jumped when gunfire went off immediately, coming from somewhere below them. Nora's group was meeting some kind of resistance. The elevator only went up to the sixth floor. From there they exited and used halfway collapsed ceilings and stairwells to climb further up. The ninth floor was the last complete one. It was filled to the brim with expensive equipment, but nobody to man it. Curiously, Shiloh and Rhys crawled through debris and rubble to the tenth floor, which had no ceiling as the knights stayed on the ninth floor to pick through the technology.
The wind shook nearly everything and the walls were collapsed, leaving large gaps that overlooked the city and the bay clearly. Rhys unholstered his gun, pointing it at the lone man who stood in front of a terminal, "Get down on the ground, now!" He had to yell to be heard over the wind.
The man was muttering to himself, wearing what probably once was a clean lab coat. He looked disheveled and dirty, paying Shiloh and Rhys no attention. Shiloh pulled out her laser rifle, "He said get down." Approaching slowly, she nudged her rifle against the man's arm. He jumped, finally acknowledging them.
With a new ferver, the man began typing quickly on the terminal. Taking control, Rhys ran and yanked him away from the equipment. The man immediately held up his hands, not saying a word. "What did you just do, old man?" Behind Rhys, a few knights climbed up to the floor, hearing the commotion. As Rhys was yelling and the knights were unholstering their weapons, Shiloh watched the man's face.
It was just for a fraction of a second, but she saw his eyes flick out through the collapsed wall. Turning, Shiloh saw the overpass in his direct field of vision. She also saw the satellite near his terminal pointed right in that direction. Further, wherever he was looking also had a direct line of sight to the Prydwen. "Rhys…" she began over the yelling, "Rhys!" Rhys stopped his threats and looked at her. There was panic laced in her voice, "We need to go now!" He immediately followed her down to the ninth floor, calling out the knights to stay with the man after him. Shiloh nearly tumbled through a hole in the floor as they charged for the elevator. She grabbed a panting Preston Garvey as he met them on the seventh floor. "Come with me, all of you." Preston began to question but she cut him off, "There's no time, come with me!"
They once again pushed into the elevator. About half of Preston's Minutemen were able to fit. Those that couldn't met up with the knights on the top floor. "What is going on?" Preston raised his voice over the music of the elevator as Shiloh scrambled for her radio.
"This is Sentinel Carver reporting an immediate threat to the Prydwen. Requesting immediate evacuation, immediate!"
The radio crackled with Kells's voice, "Sentinel, could you elaborate?"
"Evacuate the Prydwen, right now. I don't know how fast it's coming. Send Liberty Prime to our location immediately."
"10-4, Sentinel. Evacuating now," Kells seemed to be getting the message.
Rhys swallowed, "What did you see?"
"I didn't see anything. But that man did. He activated something, or tried to activate it, I can't be sure. But whatever it is, it's on that overpass and the Prydwen's in its line of sight," Shiloh ran a hand through her hair, "We've gotta get up there."
Rhys nodded. So did Preston, "We'll back you up as best as we can. We'll have to run like hell through whatever is going on downstairs. I'll leave a man to find Nora and explain what's happening."
"If it's something big, Liberty Prime will destroy it. We just have to be sure."
Getting through the lower floors proved difficult. As soon as the elevator opened, a Minuteman dropped as he was struck by a bullet. They moved around his corpse, dodging the sprays of gunfire and lasers. It seems the firefight was moving upward as Nora began to take control of the lower floors. Preston's Minuteman headed down the stairwell to find Nora as the small group headed into the parking garage.
Running as fast as they could, they reached the overpass in record time. Through the rubble, Shiloh could see Liberty Prime's head as he crossed the bay directly towards them. They found an on-ramp to the overpass. It itself was nearly collapsed and very steep. Before Preston and his men could lead the way up there, Shiloh stopped them.
"You and your men need to stand back."
Preston frowned, "We are just as capable as Brotherhood soldiers-"
"It's not that. We don't know what's up there. But whatever it is, I have a feeling it's the high level of technology Ingram has detected. We will probably be slaughtered."
"My men have made their peace-"
"We will probably be slaughtered. Liberty Prime does not discriminate. I will not ask you or your men to run into a fight you will not come out of."
Preston swallowed, "We will back you up most of the way. Let us do that, at least."
Shiloh nodded, panting from exhaustion and panic, "Clear the way for me and I'll find whatever is up there."
"We will find what's up there," Rhys piped in. As Shiloh protested, he cut her off, "This is my choice Sentinel. I will not stand by and watch from the sidelines. I'm with you all the way."
Frowning, Shiloh gave in and allowed Rhys to come with her. The steep climb up the ramp was harrowing. They could feel the feebleness of the damaged concrete of the overpass. Their vision was blocked heavily by clusters of old cars and a large concrete ceiling shielding the overpass from the sun. Rhys was panting in his power armor, but kept in pace with Shiloh. They ducked behind a barrier as turrets popped up and began firing. The Minutemen provided cover fire as they continued climbing. The turrets were dispatched, but then the protectrons came out from behind piles of metal and automobile.
"Hold back," Shiloh called to Preston and his men as they kept back behind the barriers. Provided they had barely any armor and weaker weapons, they did best as far back as they could get. Shiloh hoped that the Minutemen found Nora so the General could provide them some additional backup, but she didn't know how much weight and damage the overpass could take.
A laser shot pinged off of Rhys's armor and he went down behind a car. Shiloh kept low and met up with him. He was panting loudly now, suffering damage from the protectron fire. Suddenly, they jumped when they heard the loud call of a sentry bot. "Shit," Rhys spat, reloading his laser rifle.
Shiloh reloaded as well, peering over the car to see the large bot approaching near a bus at the top of the overpass. Just behind it, Shiloh saw a brief glimpse of a large, bright light, but the sentry bot began shooting before she could get a good look. She jumped back behind the car, feeling it rock under the pressure of the bullets.
Rhys was still now, deep in thought. He turned to Shiloh and she wished she could see his expression under the helmet. She gripped her hand in his, forcing him to break from his thoughts and look at her, "What are you thinking?"
Instead of directly replying, he held up his laser rifle and pulled out a pulse grenade, "Give me cover fire. The Minutemen are too far back now." Shiloh's eyes widened, but Rhys was calm now, "For Elder Maxson."
"For the Brotherhood," Shiloh whispered to him just before he pulled himself up and over the car. The pulse grenade went off right when Rhys threw it, catching the sentry bot off guard. She took the opening it provided, firing upon its weak head. Just a second later, it was firing back, directly at Rhys as he wove in between cars and barriers.
Shiloh could hear Rhys grunt when the bullets struck him. It made her feel sick. She never forgot the sound of hearing a companion getting shot. Still she fired, managing to down one of the sentry's guns. Rhys launched more grenades at it until the bot's tires began shredding from the damage. The sentry bot suddenly exploded in a miniature mushroom cloud. Shiloh felt the radiation burn her skin as she ducked back behind the car. Rhys took the explosion full force and was launched into a dilapidated bus on the overpass's side. When the blast was over, Shiloh climbed out of her hiding spot. It was eerily silent now, with no people or robots in sight. She tentatively approached where she saw the bright light.
When she got a full view of it, she thanked every God that existed in the wasteland that she caught that man's look when she did. The powerful energy signals Ingram had been picking up were most definitely coming from the abhorrently huge gatling laser positioned directly at the Prydwen.
Shiloh scrambled towards it, hands shaking as she looked at the terminal. "Fuck, fuck!" She cursed as she couldn't understand a single line of code on the terminal. She scrolled through the language, but nothing stood out. There were no options to make, not even an area to input text. She could faintly hear the shrill beep of a countdown over the hammering of her heart.
The weapon would go off any second and she couldn't do a damned thing about it. Swallowing thickly, she walked up to the side of the weapon, looking for exposed wiring. She found quite a bit of it, but had no idea if a failsafe would make it go off if she so much as touched it. There wasn't a person in sight for her to threaten to shut it off. A feeling of dread overwhelmed her and she could only pray that the Prydwen was fully evacuated before the machine would send it crashing to the ground.
Just as she moved away from the panel, she was face to face with Liberty Prime. Its large red visor scanned the weapon with Shiloh next to it. She remembered that her presence would make no difference to the robot. Scrambling away from the gatling laser, Shiloh gasped as Liberty Prime's booming voice shook the concrete she was standing on.
"Hostile weaponry targeted at Home Base detected. Annihilation immediate."
Fuck. It took thirty seconds for Shiloh to run halfway across the overpass to where she knew Rhys was. Thirty seconds for her to jump into the bus as Liberty Prime charged its powerful laser.
She could hear nothing as the blast exploded the gatling laser and she landed on top of Rhys. Suddenly, in slow motion, she watched the overpass crumble around them, sending huge chunks of it tumbling down to the ground. As the laser caught the support beams, the overpass tipped toward Liberty Prime into the bay. The bus Shiloh and Rhys were in began to roll and Shiloh's vision went black for just a few seconds as she smacked her head.
Those few seconds were enough as they suddenly were plummeted into the irradiated waters of the bay. The shock of the cold numbed her for a moment before the panic set in. The bus was sinking with Rhys inside it. She heard a dull crash as concrete fell into the water around them, only jostling the bus slightly as it was caught on the edges. The bus span in the water, allowing Shiloh to see the surface through a hole in its side.
Rhys wasn't moving at all in his collapsed position and she knew he wouldn't be able to swim in the power armor. Remembering the emergency protocols she was forced to read about by Sarah, Shiloh pulled her .10 mm out and, praying the water hadn't ruined it too much, made a direct shot into the fusion core on the back of Rhys's suit. It opened immediately and the water was tinted red with blood.
Even if he was dead, Shiloh wasn't leaving him behind. Grabbing him as tightly as she could, she swam towards the surface. It was easier since the pain woke Rhys slightly and he was swimming with her out of habit. They broke the surface, gasping and cringing from the pain in their bodies. The waves kept pulling them under until Rhys was out again and Shiloh felt her body go limp from exhaustion.
The tide pulled them further down the beach until they were washed up on the rocky shore. Weak but still conscious, Shiloh stared at the bright sunny sky as she gasped for air. She shakily turned over, flinching when she felt the deep bruises on her previously injured ribs. Reaching over, she felt Rhys for a pulse.
It was there, but it was weak. His suit was stained red and his chest was riddled with bullet holes. He was a tough son of a bitch, she'd give him that. Unable to move her legs from exhaustion, Shiloh dragged herself up into a sitting position. She leaned over Rhys and began to administer CPR to the best of her abilities. Whatever fledgling medical knowledge she had, it worked.
Rhys spit up blood and water, groaning as his body struggled for air. Shiloh couldn't help it, she smiled. Not since the purifier had she ever managed to get out of a situation with both her and her companion alive. Her wet hair stuck to her face as she sat back again, still panting. In her efforts, she hadn't heard the loud stomping of Liberty Prime until he was standing on the beach only a few feet from her.
She looked up at him as he peered down at her, "It's alright, big guy. We're alright. You did a hell of a job." The robot didn't reply, just continued standing there, looking at them. She knew that he couldn't possibly know who she was, but there was something profound in that moment.
-0-
Maxson was wearing his power armor as he stood at the airport. Around him, the chaos was just now settling. Right when Nora and Shiloh made it to the tower, an army of soldiers both Institute synth and Child of Atom attacked the airport. They must have known that they would be down half of their soldiers. Things were only made more complicated by the evacuation order. Scribes and squires unable to fight were loaded onto the vertibirds and flown to safety while Maxson led his soldiers in a firefight. He was able to mow down quite a few quickly with his gatling laser. It was now reaching mid afternoon when the battle wore down and they were left with more dead enemies than dead Brotherhood soldiers. Still, the fight was tough and Maxson was sweating beneath his helmet.
Soon he saw a group of Minutemen approaching, having broken off from the attack on the tower. Maxson was distracted by the battle, but it was hard to miss the loud structure explosion across the bay.
Maxson had never seen Nora look so pale until she approached him, "Elder, we've taken the tower. Most of the soldiers are still there, detaining the scientists. There was a large resistance but they were put down."
"What of the evacuation order?"
Nora looked distressed now, "Liberty Prime detected some kind of weapon. He destroyed it before it could destroy the Prydwen."
"I see," he straightened to look past Nora, "and what of the Sentinel?"
"She- she was-" he wasn't used to Nora hesitating. She couldn't seem to get the words out, beginning to shake. Realization dawned on him and he was glad she couldn't see his face beneath the helmet.
A Minuteman behind Nora spoke up, "General, the robot's looking at something on the beach."
Nora and Maxson turned, seeing Liberty Prime standing not too far off down the shore. He wasn't pacing or shooting something, just looking down at the ground. Nora gasped, immediately running towards the robot before Maxson or the Minutemen could stop her.
Nora collapsed to her knees by Shiloh, ignoring the big robot's stare. She was pale and weak, but she shook her head when Nora motioned towards her, "Help Rhys, help him Nora."
Nora took one look at Rhy's unconscious form before calling behind her for help. As a group of scribes headed by Cade began to gather around the two soldiers, Nora held Shiloh's hand, "You're alright, you're alright."
But Shiloh wasn't paying attention. Her gaze was focused on Liberty Prime. Down the beach, staying out of the way, Maxson watched in awe as Liberty Prime began to walk away, continuing its pace and propaganda calls like nothing happened.