Never Expected That From You
Piper, Nora and Cait meandered their way down the Commonwealth's coastline, suffering the bracing sea winds as they battered the women intermittently. They carried on despite the weather, searching for the raider base they aimed to destroy. After all, they'd all each suffered more than their fair share of harsh conditions in their times. One didn't survive long in the post-war world without being hardy.
They soon found their target without much issue. The raiders had occupied a series of storefronts on the boardwalk and had built up high walls around the front to fortify the complex.
"Doesn't look like much of a kingdom to me." Cait scoffed dismissively as they surveyed the raider fortress from a secluded spot further up the boardwalk. "Seen shithouses more impressive than this dump."
"Well, raiders are hardly known for their sense of style, are they?" Piper murmured as she mentally picked a path to their target.
"Doesn't mean that they're any less dangerous though." Blue said. She still held her heavy rifle leisurely in hand. "Never underestimate a bunch of thugs with guns, even if they are drugged out of their minds. It only takes one bullet to kill after all."
"Come on, the three of us can take 'em easy. Not like we're dealing with proper soldiers or ought." Cait huffed, seemingly impatient.
"Easy, babe." Nora soothed with a smile. She reached out to place a hand on Cait's shoulder, almost as though calming a tense and agitated tiger. "We'll get them soon enough."
Suddenly, a new noise took to the air above the sound of waves crashing. A consistent, repeated thrumming. It was distinctly a mechanical sound to Piper's ears.
Frowning, Cait turned her gaze skywards. "Sounds like those Brotherhood bastards are in town."
Nora sighed. "Great."
"Is that really that big of an issue?" Piper quirked an eyebrow.
She'd had a few run-ins with the Brotherhood of Steel before and while they hardly were the friendliest bunch of people in the Commonwealth, they at least fought off raiders and super mutants and left the common folk alone. Their almost fanatical zealotry for hoarding technology however meant that they would often push their way past – or through – anything and anyone.
"Just means we have to check twice before shooting." Cait shook her head as though it was most disappointing thing in the world.
"And it probably means we have competition." Nora added with a frown.
The thrumming grew louder. Then suddenly a Brotherhood vertibird swooped right over them from behind the line of buildings. The three women hunkered down low as they were battered by the downwash for a moment.
Piper picked her gaze up to watch the airship fly out across the waves before banking back around. It flew back over to the shoreline, pulling up to hover over the beach in mid-air. Even as Brotherhood troops were vaulting from the thing, raider bullets and lasers were cracking into the vertibird's hull. Shouts of alarm, anger and mad glee were ringing out from the raider stronghold.
"Well, there goes the element of surprise." Nora sighed.
Cait snorted. "Like we ever sneak in anyway." She hefted the shotgun in her hands with an obvious anticipation for battle. "Come on, it's a proper race now!"
"Think they're after something important?" Piper murmured.
"Who cares?" Cait grumbled through clenched teeth, a grin on her lips that surely rivalled the raider's madness. "Come on. Let's not give them anymore of a head start!"
With that, Cait jumped out from behind cover and made a beeline for the raiders.
Nora chuckled. "Come on then, we can't let her have all the fun." She threw Piper a quick wink before running on after her lover.
Piper shook her head to herself, before raising her pistol and chasing after them both.
The sound of their galloping up the boardwalk was completely drowned out by vertibird's constant droning and the firefight that was raging as the Brotherhood seized the beach and looked to advance on the raiders in force.
Piper looked up to the fortress' walls. A figure there happened to look the women's way as they advanced. Before Piper could shout out a warning, She, Nora and Cait were being showered with lead and laser.
They quickly ducked behind whatever cover they could find and advanced more carefully, taking turns at returning fire to allow the others to move up. More than once, a round or searing laser rifled right past Piper. She could hear the stinging whip of it race just past her head.
Thankfully, miraculously, they all made it up to the wall of the compound unscathed.
"Everyone alive?" Cait called out over the sound of gunfire, casually reloading her smoking shotgun.
"I think so." Piper breathed, pressing herself as flat against the wall as she could in case the raiders above decided to lean over the edge.
"Just about." Nora still sounded so chipper, even in a warzone.
"Look, someone's made a door just for us." Cait smirked, nodding down the length of the wall into an alley way. A still smoking wound stood proud in the wall of the raider's base.
"Well, come on then. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth." Nora jogged up ahead towards the breached wall, Cait and Piper close behind.
A blast from behind dragged Piper's attention back out to sea. The vertibird was smoking black plumes. She could just about make out its pilot fighting with the controls as the airship began to spiral.
"That doesn't look good …" Blue began as the vertibird whined and groaned as it struggled to maintain altitude.
A panel behind the cockpit had been blown or shot off. The mechanical workings exposed beneath flickered with fire and suddenly glowed red hot. The Vertibird strained and struggled in the air, as though wrestling with an invisible foe.
"Get down!" Cait bellowed.
Piper barely had time to think before she was pushed face down to the ground. A blast much larger than the first shook her world. Crashing and clattering swiftly followed. A whirling whoosh shot past Piper's ears before another crash reigned supreme somewhere behind her.
It felt like an age before the world settled down enough for Piper to make sense of it. She tried to pick her head up, but found that Cait had her arm on it, pinning her down.
"I think- I think we're ok." Cait muttered, panting hard.
Cait lifted herself from the ground and pulled Piper up with her.
Piper just blinked. The vertibird that had been in the sky only a few moments ago was now sat on its side, wedged in the sand and the tide. Its mass was a flaming wreck of twisted metal. Shrapnel was still tumbling about the place.
"Fucking Brotherhood pilots." Cait shook her head, half exasperated, half scathing.
"Are you- Are you ok?" Piper turned from the ruined husk to Cait.
Cait didn't answer. She was facing away from Piper. The reporter followed her gaze up the trail of destruction that had been mauled into the alleyway. A heavy propeller blade was now wedged in the side of the raider's appropriated building, its free side was still shaking slightly. The opening that had been wide open for them mere moments ago was now just a pile of rubble.
"Fuck me." Cait breathed.
"Cait! Piper!" A voice suddenly called from beyond the rubble.
"B- Blue?" Piper called back.
"Piper! You guys alright?" Nora's voice was almost muffled by the rubble.
"Just about." Cait chuckled in spite of things. "That was too close. You ok?" She called back.
"I'm fine." Nora assured her. "Don't think I'm getting back through this way though."
As though to confirm Nora's words, another heavy chunk of masonry from above the point of impact suddenly broke free and crumbled on the propeller. It wobbled even more precariously.
"No kidding." Cait drawled.
"It doesn't look at all stable, Blue." Piper warned. "I think we'd better find another way round."
"Alright, sounds good to me." Nora called back. "Stay safe you two!"
"Right back at you! Don't get yourself killed!" Cait demanded with a snarl.
"Who, me?" Nora chuckled. "Come on, you should know me better than that by now, love. See you on the other side!"
Piper could hear the patter of fast footsteps as Nora jogged off. Almost immediately, gunshots and shouting rang out from beyond the rubble.
"Nora!" Cait yelled. "Nora!"
No reply from the blonde, but the erratic staccato of gunfire ploughed on.
"Damnit!" Cait muttered to herself, turning away so that Piper couldn't see her face.
"Hey, she'll be alright." Piper attempted to soothe, reaching out to put a hand on Cait's shoulder.
The brawler sighed and turned back before Piper's hand got anywhere near. There was a hard, concerned look in her eyes that clashed harshly with the determination set in her jaw. Then, the look seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye.
"I know. She's tougher than she looks. Not that that's hard." Cait chuckled, though it sounded hollow to Piper's ears.
Piper tried a smile. "Come on. Let's not keep her waiting then."
Sharing a nod, the pair set off again. Piper couldn't see a way around the back of the complex without leaving the area entirely. The only obvious way was around the front of the boardwalk. The Brotherhood were still fighting their way into the fortress, but had managed to get themselves a foothold up on the boardwalk beyond the beach and were advancing quickly.
"Looks like there's only one way in, Pipes." Cait hefted her shotgun with an almost gleeful smirk.
"You're enjoying this?" Piper aimed a pointed look the brawler's way.
"You're not?" Cait answered with one of her own. She snickered. "Don't tell me this doesn't get your blood pumping?"
Piper didn't answer.
Cait gave a half shrug and carried on. As they made their way to follow the Brotherhood into the compound, Piper spotted something out of the corner of her eye.
The reporter narrowed her eyes to focus on the strange shape on the beach. "Wait, is that …"
"What?" Cait growled, impatient to get into the fight.
"Oh, shit!" Piper swore before running off, away from the raider base.
"Hey! Where you going!" Cait called after her with a growl.
Piper took no notice. She hopped down the stairs to the beach two steps a time, then ran over the shape of a slumped body lying in the sand. It was a man, wearing the distinctive orange jumpsuit she'd seen Brotherhood troopers and pilots use from time to time. He must have been thrown clear from the vertibird crash.
Piper was by the man's side in a moment, checking him over for wounds. "You ok?"
The man – more of a boy really, he looked so young – merely groaned in pain. He was curled up on his side, his hand pressed to his stomach. He lifted the hand and looked down, hissing as he saw it red slick with blood.
Before Piper could get another word out, she was all of a sudden shoved aside by a rough hand.
"Step away civilian, now!" Another Brotherhood soldier barked, suddenly appearing to stand between Piper and the injured man. His hands flipped his laser rifle up to bear down on the reporter, finger on the trigger.
Piper's eyes widened. She gulped thickly as her brain fumbled for words to get the barrel of his gun far, far away from her head.
"Hey!" Cait growled, suddenly there as well. The brawler immediately rushed forward to shove the soldier hard, putting herself between him and Piper as he stumbled. "Back the fuck off!"
"Stay back!" The soldier demanded, and for a split second Piper was convinced he was going to fire searing laser right through Cait's snarling face.
"Cait!" Piper cried out in warning.
Cait ignored her. "You stay the fuck away from her!" She barked at the soldier, ignoring the gun barrel in her face as she stood before Piper protectively.
"Initiate. What seems to be the problem?" A new voice hollered, tinny yet stern.
The man with his gun in Cait's face almost jumped, nearly dropping his rifle or firing it even.
Piper looked round to find a giant approaching. A figure clad in silver power armour from head to toe. Every step closer was heralded by a rhythmic pulse of pistons as they worked to move the massive hunk of metal. He was flanked by another two figures, neither were as heavily armoured as the first, but no less threatening. They strode forward from where the husk of the vertibird lay.
"Knight Sergeant!" The Initiate straightened up immediately, but kept his gun aimed squarely at Cait's face. "Caught these two trying to loot from Lancer Jones, sir!"
"That's bullshit!" Cait snarled. "She was only trying to help!"
The power armoured man who must have been the Knight Sergeant took a moment to give Cait and Piper a long hard look each. "The Brotherhood takes a dim view on looting." He murmured darkly. "It's a crime punishable by summary execution."
"Oh yeah? Why don't you climb out of that tin can and prove it then?!" Cait rounded on the man immediately.
She marched right up to him, ignoring the new guns that were suddenly aimed right at her from either side. The brawler was also undaunted by the fact that the Knight was clad in fearsome looking power armour, while she was armoured in only a leather corset. She'd even dropped her shotgun somewhere. Her tightly clenched fists were bare and empty.
"Cait! Don't!" Piper warned.
Cait ignored her again. "You want to hurt her, you've gotta go through me first!" The brawler growled, not bothering to prevent spittle from flashing up on the Knight Sergeant's helmet.
"Get back!" One of the flanking troopers demanded.
"Sir, permission to fire?" The other clenched his rifle tight.
"Hey!" The shout came just a moment before a cannon blast echoed out into the sky.
Piper blinked. Seeing that Cait and all the Brotherhood soldiers were still upright and frozen in their standoff, she threw her gaze around to find Blue standing there.
For a moment, the reporter had to assure herself that it really was the survivor from Vault 111 stood there before them all. Nora had the most vicious snarl on her face, a million worlds apart from the warm, sunny smile that usually adorned the shorter woman's expression. She had her heavy gauss rifle aimed squarely at the chest of the power armoured soldier who was squaring off with Cait, its barrel smoking ominously. A faint ripple of heat clung to the air in a line straight up into the sky.
"If any of you even think about touching either of them, I'll make sure you die screaming." Nora growled, low and dangerous.
The air was taut with tension for a long moment. No one dared move.
Then, one of the troopers leaned in closer towards the power armour clad Knight. "Sir, I believe that's the wastelander who provided assistance to Squad Gladius." He murmured.
That seemed to give the Knight Sergeant pause. "Truly? The one Paladin Danse told us about?"
"In the flesh." Nora didn't lower her gun an inch. "Me and my girls aren't looters, but we're more than capable of defending ourselves. If you don't believe me, then just try and shoot me, but if Danse has told you guys anything at all, then you should know better than to go toe to toe against me."
Another long pause gripped the air as Nora and the Brotherhood Knight stared each other down. The sea breeze that wafted them all was the only movement in the air.
Then, the power armour shifted and the helmet bent down to look at Piper.
The reporter somehow resisted the urge to gulp.
"Your concern is appreciated, but your assistance is not necessary." The tinny voice came out of the helmet.
Before Piper could think of a reply, the Knight turned to beckon to his men. The pair flanking him strode forward and began seeing to the wounded man on the ground.
Piper took note that their attention was no longer on her. She picked herself up from the sand, careful not to make any sudden movements that could be interpreted as threatening, and chanced backing away. She was almost surprised that no one else tried to turn a gun on her.
After a moment of defiant glaring, Cait came with her, keeping her stare on the Brotherhood every step of the way.
Once the other two women were clear of the fracas, Nora finally lowered her rifle. Piper noted that the blonde kept her finger near the trigger.
"Good day to you, civilians." The Knight gave what seemed to be a begrudging nod, then turned away and began barking orders to his men as they re-joined the assault on the raider base. One of the soldiers dragged the wounded man to his feet and helped him hobble away to the side lines.
"Come on." Nora murmured. "Let's get out of here."
Cait was still glaring daggers at the Brotherhood soldiers as she snarled. "Like hell we will, we were here first!"
"Just leave it, babe." Nora reached out to put a hand to the brawler's arm. "It's not worth it. Not like there's much here to fight over, is there?"
For a long moment, it seemed awfully likely that Cait would go charging right back into the fray guns blazing. Instead, she tutted dismissively before finally turning away from the cracking and barking of laser rifles making short work of the last of the raiders.
"Come on, we'll get 'em next time." Nora soothed with a smile, reaching up to rub at the back of Cait's neck and into her hair.
Piper wasn't completely sure if Nora was talking about the raiders or the Brotherhood there. Sparing one last cautionary glance over her shoulder to make sure that the soldiers had definitely lost interest in the three women, she followed Cait and Nora as they climbed their way back up onto the boardwalk.
"You ok, Pipes?" Cait asked with a sigh, the hint of disappointment still clinging to her. She'd clearly been looking forward to that fight.
"Yeah, yeah I'm just fine. A bit surprised we came out of that without someone getting blown to bits though." Piper chuckled, only half joking.
"Can't believe they pulled guns on you." Nora snarled low. "Bastards."
"Well, I'm sure glad you came when you did." Piper smiled. "Both of you." She eyed Cait in particular. "Though, that was a pretty stupid thing you were about to do there, Cait."
"What do you mean? I could have taken him." The redhead huffed indignantly.
"Cait, Piper's right." Nora sighed with a smile. "You're a hell of a fighter, but even you couldn't do much against a trained soldier in power armour with just your fists."
"Like you're one to talk." Cait smirked. "You were really gonna fight all those soldier boys on your own, were you?"
Nora turned to smile at them both, but there was serious look in her eyes. "Of course I would have. If they'd have tried to hurt you, either of you, I'd have shot them all." She moved to walk between Cait and Piper, putting an arm around each of them. "No one hurts my girls and gets away with it."
"Then you're just as mad as I am." Cait smirked.
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with Cait on that one." Piper chuckled. "Still, that's awfully sweet of you, Blue, thanks."
"Aww, don't mention it." Blue smiled wide.
Piper glanced at Cait. "And … thank you, Cait. If you hadn't have stepped in when you did …"
"Hey, don't mention it, Pipes." The brawler smirked, giving the reporter a playful little shove. "So … how about that threesome now?"
Piper let out a stumbling stream of inelegant noises.
"Cait …" Nora chuckled.
"Alright, alright. Maybe another time then." Cait winked Piper's way.
Piper did her best to recover some semblance of her composure, thankful that the conversation turned to the more stable ground of what Cait planned to do to a certain power armour clad Brotherhood Knight the next time she saw him as they walked back home together.