Chapter Four

Spartan Ryan

April 19, 2284 (Local calendar)

Ruined Brotherhood of Steel base

Tracking the Brotherhood forces back to their base was a relatively easy affair, Ryan's assessment that their power armour would leave distinct marks in the ground proving true and, after passing Cortez off to military intelligence, it was a simple affair of following the tracks back to the Sierra Nevada mountain range and national park, trading the blasted scrublands of the wastes for a relatively intact forest region.

The NCR troopers with him seemed to marvel at the greenery, apparently so used to dirt and sand, but the amazement soon passed as they approached the suspected Brotherhood base of operations, and doubly so when a thick column of smoke could be seen rising up from its rough location. They had hurried to get eyes on whatever was going on, finding the base was an old mountain retreat of maybe a dozen wooden cabins.

At least, it had been.

Ryan was stood in the centre of the camp with the cabins in a loose circle around him, of which three had collapsed in on themselves after being set aflame and were still smouldering, and another four were burnt out shells that looked like they could join them at any moment. The remaining eight were grisly scenes with thirty of their former occupants still inside, throats slit as they slept.

The work had been done by a practiced hand that knew how to kill quickly and silently, and Ryan couldn't help but admire it, his initial thoughts being that a small team of people, maybe even the NCR's Rangers, were responsible for the attack but soon evidence emerged that cast doubt on that theory.

A fight had erupted in one of the cabins, the skill or luck of the operative running dry as their presence was discovered, with both sides opening fire on the other. The Brotherhood, as expected, had used laser weaponry whilst their opponent, bizarrely, made use of a single 10mm pistol judging by the spent casings and discarded magazines, with no supportive fire coming from anywhere.

They had then jumped through a nearby window and fled into the forests, the now enraged Brotherhood giving chase. Or they would have done, had their suits of power not exploded.

All around Ryan were blast marks surrounded by bits of carbonised bone and torn T-51 plating, all that remained after their fusion cores were detonated with Ramirez suggesting that, instead of self-immolation, time delay charges had been rigged up to the suits' internal systems.

Regardless of the cause, the effect was evident and devastating as along with the Paladins in power armour, the blasts also took out a huge number of unarmoured personnel scrambling to respond to the attack, or at least seriously wounded them enough so that they would be easy pickings for the lone attacker when they came back, executing the survivors via headshot.

In all, Ryan and the troopers counted upwards of eighty bodies, not including any that had burnt to ash in a fire or escaped into the woods when it became apparent all was lost, killed as a result of the actions of a single person who apparently got away unharmed.

Other than the bullet casings and empty magazines, or the dead bodies, the only thing they had left behind was a note affixed to a flagpole in the centre of the camp.

You're welcome. A friend.

Ryan had the note in his hands and was splitting his attention between it and the camp as the NCR troopers finished one final sweep of its surroundings, grabbing up whatever they could that might be of use or interest to the intelligence types back home.

'Final body count is eighty-three,' Ramirez said as he approached, taking a cloth away from his mouth in the vain hope of warding off the stench of death that hung in the air. 'I gathered up their tags.'

He hefted a bag that held them and added, 'Those that had them, anyway.'

'You mean some were missing?' Ryan said.

'Yeah,' Ramirez said with a nod. 'I figure some survivors came by afterwards and took them as mementoes.'

'Or our friend did,' Ryan said, motioning to the note. 'Could be they're for some future plan against the next Brotherhood base.'

'What, like posing as a dead guy?' Ramirez said.

Ryan nodded. 'That would be my guess.'

'Well, I'll wish them luck, whoever they are,' Ramirez said before adding under his breath, 'Even if they are a goddamn psycho.'

He stowed the dog tags as elements from his squad began filtering in, carrying whatever interesting objects they had found out in the forests or from sifting through the remains of the cabins. One of them had contained what was once a computer terminal and its accompanying servers, only for a fire to slag everything to the point of uselessness with Ryan wondering if it was a deliberate act or not.

Their 'friend' obviously had disagreements with the Brotherhood of Steel judging by the destruction wrought, but Ramirez was right in labelling them as a psycho. It took a certain kind of ruthlessness to kill at least thirty people as they slept, even if it could be argued as being one of the few avenues open to a person outnumbered more than eighty to one, and to then execute the wounded after the suits of power armour detonated.

That being said, Ryan could also see it being done as an act of mercy to people suffering from grievous burns or traumatic amputation, ending their misery. A heartless person would have left them to endure the pain, maybe revelled in it, but the lone attacker had taken the time and effort to put a stop to it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So, perhaps not as ruthless as their actions might seem from the outset, but it also raised the question of why they were going it alone. They were obviously aware of the animosity between the NCR and the Brotherhood judging by the note, yet they hadn't come forward to lend their aid. At least, as far as Ryan knew they hadn't.

Either they had only just started their campaign against the Brotherhood or the NCR was keeping things close to the chest, the latter of which wouldn't have come as any surprise. Ryan's first mission for them was as much a demonstration of his capabilities as it was a way to earn their trust, and subsequently what information he and the crew of West Virginia could be allowed to access.

But even if the NCR were limiting what information was being shared, why keep him in the dark about an operative as skilled as this? At the very least they could have informed him about another asset in the region he might stumble across, if only to reduce the chances of a blue-on-blue incident.

He also had to wonder what reason, if any, there might be behind this individual's decision to go it alone in their crusade against the Brotherhood, despite being in the heart of New California. Distrust of its government maybe, but Ryan hadn't seen or heard anything yet to suggest why that might be the case.

The citizens he had seen didn't appear distrustful of the military or government, and the radio stations weren't churning out propaganda like one would expect from a fascist state. If anything they were quite comfortable critiquing the government as and when they saw fit, aligning well with the assertions of Yagami and others that the NCR was dedicated to resurrecting Old World ideals, as they called them, including freedom of speech.

In all likelihood the person behind this attack had some screws loose, despite their combat prowess, and Ryan wouldn't be surprised if a future mission involved hunting them down before they could pose a threat to society, intentionally or otherwise.

He gave the note one last look then stowed it in a pouch as the last of the troopers came filing in, Ramirez motioning for them to start heading back to base.

Spartan Ryan

April 22, 2284 (Local calendar)

Outpost Irwin

Debriefing and giving after action reports took up most of the afternoon by the time everyone returned to Irwin, Lyle and Yagami both conducting the debriefs of Ryan and Ramirez together with them paying particular attention to the Spartan's takedown of the Brotherhood outpost.

He had spent the better part of five minutes running through it, starting with kicking down the first door and finishing with his apprehension of Cortez, a chain of events that hadn't taken more then seven or eight seconds to do with Lyle letting out a low, impressed whistle when he came to a stop.

'You make it sound so easy, Spartan,' he said. 'Twenty-four Paladins by yourself? And with so little time to plan out? Not even a full squad of Rangers could have accomplished that.'

'Thank you, sir,' Ryan said. 'Having the element of surprise helped.'

'Yes, I'm sure it did,' Lyle said, gesturing to the report he had been given by a follow up unit that had examined the outpost afterwards. 'I would, however, have preferred it if you'd taken some more alive, for intelligence purposes, but that's about my only critique of your performance.'

'I'll try to keep that in mind going forward, sir,' Ryan said.

'Has Cortez said anything?' Ramirez said

Yagami shook her head. 'She's been about as tight lipped as the others we've captured of late. Just name, rank and serial number to any questions asked of her.'

'Of late?' Ryan said. 'Does that mean they were more talkative before?'

'They were,' Yagami said with a nod. 'And before you ask, yes, we noticed the trend. It started about a year ago and the crystal ball types seem to think that a new High Elder has risen up, giving the Brotherhood a unified sense of purpose again.'

'We have assets out looking into it,' Lyle said. 'But unfortunately they aren't have much luck. The Brotherhood doesn't induct many outsiders into their ranks and they deal with defectors and turncoats quite harshly, even if there's no evidence of them giving aid to other groups.'

'I heard tale of them wiping out a Followers outpost, over in the Mojave,' Ramirez said. 'Just because one of their own wanted to do some real good in the wastes.'

'A sad fact, I'm afraid,' Yagami said.

'And why we're at odds with them, Spartan,' Lyle said.

'I read the files,' Ryan said. 'I understand.'

'Good,' Lyle said. 'Now, I want to discuss this.'

He reached into a folder and brought out the note that had been left behind at the ruined Brotherhood base, placing it in the middle of the table so everyone could read the short message it contained, with Ryan and Ramirez going on to describe the scene they had found at the camp, and their assessment of how it had happened.

'And you're certain this was the action of a lone individual?' Lyle said.

'As far as we could tell, sir,' Ryan said.

'My squad checked the surrounding areas for evidence of anyone else,' Ramirez said, shaking his head. 'Nothing.'

'Then we have confirmation.'

Lyle reached into his briefcase and pulled out two more files, each thick with papers and photos and placed them either side of the note Ryan had found, adding, 'Two months ago, a Ranger patrol stumbled across the entrance to an underground bunker in Joshua Tree National Park that showed recent signs of demolition.

'Subsequent excavations and examinations revealed it had been home to a sizeable Brotherhood chapter, all of whom had been killed when someone or something triggered the bunker's self-destruct mechanism.'

'We thought it was in response to an attack by Enclave remnants,' Yagami said. 'Or some mercenary group, or even just an internal strife that had gotten out of hand. However, we found no evidence to suggest any such scenario. It was as though the base suddenly decided to explode of its own accord.'

She motioned for the first folder and Ryan opened it, holding it so he and Ramirez both could see the contents. Each page was a mass of text that detailed what had been found and where, and as close to a reconstruction of the events as the NCR's intelligence analysts could come up with despite lacking any living witnesses to question.

There had been no evidence of a second or third party engaging the base, or of any internal strife from within the Brotherhood's own ranks. Any and all damage to the bunker had come about from the self-destruct mechanism, which was itself tied to the bunker's central mainframe but little to no data was recovered given the damage done. As Yagami had said, it was as though the bunker itself suddenly decided it didn't want to exist anymore, regardless of who or what was inside it.

'No chance of a rogue AI, then?' Ryan said.

'Not that we could see,' Lyle said. 'The Brotherhood frowns upon such things like machine sentience, anyhow. Robots and computers are tools and should be treated as such. Any that dare challenge that are dismantled. Permanently.'

Ryan thought to the various AIs in use by the UNSC, including Artoria, and wondered what the Brotherhood might think of them before pushing it aside as he reached for the second report, leaving Ramirez to pick through the first.

'Now, this one occurred less than a month ago,' Lyle said as he began reading. 'We'd narrowed down where the Brotherhood were and Rangers had the entrance under surveillance ahead of our planned attack, reporting the goings in and out, when they noted a single individual enter the bunker. Twenty-four hours later they reappeared and an hour after that, the ground shook.'

'The bunker's self-destruct mechanism,' Ryan said.

Lyle nodded. 'As with Joshua Tree, there was no evidence of internal strife, leading us to suspect the individual seen was responsible for triggering the mechanism.'

There was a photo of the person but it had been taken at long distance, in the dark, from a group trying to remain inconspicuous, resulting in a blurry image of a person wearing some manner of black coloured armour.

'And you think they're responsible for the base we found?' Ramirez said.

'We'd like to think so,' Lyle said. 'One destroyed Brotherhood base is happenstance. Two is coincidence. Three is enemy action.'

'An enemy we'd very much like to get in contact with,' Yagami said. 'They're obviously very capable and have a common interest, and we could do so much more if we worked together.'

Ryan nodded in agreement, having some to a similar conclusion, but said, 'Do they want to work with you, though? They obviously haven't come forward, so they must have a reason.'

'Which we would want to know,' Lyle said. 'Among other things, but we can't do that until we find them.'

'Which I feel is my next task,' Ryan said.

Lyle gave him a noncommittal shrug. 'You and every other asset we have. We're actually redeploying you to a new area of operations to both pursue some leads and lend a hand to the local forces, working alongside another operative we have there. You still have to prove yourself, after all.'

'Understood, sir,' Ryan said. 'Where am I going?'

'The Mojave,' Lyle said.