There was no way this was real. Had the Enclave done this? Corpses of dead soldiers lay scattered across the entrance and bridge both Enclave and Steel. There's no way the Enclave could have had the firepower to wipe out the Pentagon.
I cleared out a lot of the roamers feasting on some of the corpses. Where was Elder Lyons? If his daughter was dead than surely he was?
The sun was setting and I decided I would take a quick peak into the ruins. There was a smoldering path that lead me into the armory of the once fortified capital of the Brotherhood of Steel. Indeed whatever had hit this place was definitely not something anyone could just order impromptu.
Sure enough most of the armory had been ransacked! I managed to scrape up a few energy cells and repair a laser rifle to near factory new. I grew tired from guilt and despair. I relocked the door laid my head down on a worn pair of scribe jumpsuits. What in the world was I going to do now?
I must have fallen asleep for days. I awoke to my stomach mumbling and my mouth dry. No problem. Common symptoms of the wasteland.
Okay well, I guess I better make my way to Rivet city.
I definitely was not paying attention when I left the armory. As soon as I had crossed the entrance, burnt out rubble of the pentagon, there was an enormous caravan of men dressed in black combat armor walking towards me on the bridge. There must have been 20 of them. 3 pack Brahmin with those barrels of water tied on their back.
I froze. If I ran they'd definitely see me. These were not the kind of mercs to mess with.
I did the unthinkable.
"Hey stop right there who the fuck are you?"
They all simultaneously aimed their assault rifles at my chest and I felt my insides sink into oblivion.
"Talk before we blow your fucking head off."
"whoa whoa boss look at neck."
"Get it off him."
Like that two of them approached me and ripped my holotag right off my neck and tossed it to the "boss".
"Haha ohh I see you're one of those power armored kids."
"Shouldn't he be dead?"
"Wait a minute yeah. They came through and wiped your asses out haha."
"What should we do with him boss?"
"Where are you going.." he squinted at my holotag, "Paladin Maxwell?"
"And don't lie to him either or we'll toss you in the river."
My body and voice trembled. But maybe they can help me figure out what the hell happened to my brothers.
"Rivet City."
His eyes glowed with excitement.
"Well I'll be damned. That's exactly where we're headed. Victor put this combat armor on him he's one of us now."
What the hell I did not sign up to be Talon Company.
"Boss what? He's a waster.."
"I said get him some armor. He knows his way around a weapon don't you Max? Probably bagged more people than you've seen in your life Victor."
"Okay boss, here put this on."
And just like that, a few weeks ago I would have called in an air strike on that bridge and shot them into piles of ash. Today I am one of them.
"Come here Max. You'll be walking next to me the rest of the way. Don't want my trainee to "get lost" along the way."
The caravan began to move again. We started a pass around the Pentagon towards Rivet City. Were they going to massacre the city or sell them water?
"How the hell did you survive that blast?"
"I didn't I was stationed under it."
"Oh shit! So you just happened to come out of your hole and see your whole squad vanish into smoke."
"Sounds like us at the capital boss."
"pfff those supermutants were nothing. Would do it all over again."
"Whoa hey stop. Stop the caravan!"
There was a small shack on the side of the river with a campfire. Three individuals wearing waster clothes were huddled around.
"What do we do boss?"
"Let's let Max handle this one."
Uh what?
"Okay kid, time for your first show. I want you to put a bullet in between each of their heads so I can get this caravan through. Don't try anything funny."
"hahaha initiation!"
One of the mercs shoved an assault rifle at my chest and I almost dropped the thing.
"don't fucking drop my gun or I'm going to drop you. Now, load this clip and go work some magic on those Wastelander bums."
I felt a hard nudge from a Chinese assault rifle barrel at my back and move forward.
"Walk!"
My heart raced but I drowned out the guilt. Talon Company savages.
There were two females and one male sitting around this fire talking to one another unaware I was approaching. I lifted my rifle and shot the male in the head. He fell right to the ground cold with blood spilling from his eye socket. The others screamed and I shot the other who attempted to pull out a 10mm pistol. The other on her knees threw her hands up.
"Please don't."
Another bullet and she flew on her back.
There was cheering in the back and the boss approached me from behind. I was in shock. I never killed a civilian like this, the Brotherhood would have condemned this.
"I'll be damned, three wasteland assholes dead. You're looking up Max. Ooh straight to the head too."
He whistled the caravan forward.
"Back to middle with me Max. See that wasn't so bad."
"How'd he do?"
"Three bullets straight to the head."
"He didn't empty his clip?"
"Haha not yet."
My face burned red hot. I was embarrassed and the heat of the dusty dry night did not cope with this combat armor. It felt light but heavy with hate and guilt. I hope to god the Brotherhood aren't stationed in River City.
"Tick Tick Tick here we are."
There was a huge Sign above an scaffold building that read River City sketched in green paint. There was another caravan parked next it. Three men in yellow jumpsuits were talking to a couple of wasters. The huge clunky carrier was still docked, creaking.
There seemed to also be these large pylons with a faint blue glow on the side of the road. What the heck are these things?
"Hey you!"
We approached the caravan.
"You Bradley? Here for the water yeah?"
"Yeah. 150 caps per barrel as ordered."
"Thanks."
"Yo Bradley you'll never guess what we picked up along the way!"
"What's that another waster whore from Dukov?"
"Nah get a load of this."
He tosses the caravan guy my holotag.
"I got him right here working for us now."
"Is he really? Thought those guys were wiped out? You better not let the Enclave find out you got Steel working in your ranks bud."
"You snitchin?"
"I ain't snitching I'm just saying."
I interrupted the conversation, "What happened to them? The brotherhood?"
"That kid from the vault took them out from what I heard. Took out the Enclave base up North too from what I heard."
"Okay enough we done here?"
"Yeah."
"So what now uh boss?"
"You, Maxwell will get a cozy tour of Talon Company HQ."
"Where's that?"
"The Mall, Capital building."
"Isn't that place infested with super mutants?"
"Was."
"What till he sees it Boss, we got the whole thing cleared out and then some."
"You guys got Jefferson memorial too?"
"Yeah, where do you think we get this water from?"
"He's learning fast Boss."
"Why do we need to go to HQ shouldn't we do another run? Make some more caps then crash for the rest of the afternoon?"
"I'm likin you already Max. See Victor? That Steel mentality has really come in Handy."
Wow, so the kid from the Vault, whom I personally watched escort Doctor Lee, whom I protected, single handedly destroyed the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel?
"Boss, who was this vault kid and where did he go? Is he still around?"
"I don't know, he hasn't shown up in our parts yet. I think he disappeared after a while, probably got chewed up by some super mutant somewhere."
We slipped past Rivet City into another metro tunnel. I had plenty of chances to escape but I wanted to see the magnitude of destruction this vault dweller did. Unbelievable how this happened in just the span of few weeks. Likewise, I don't know how I'd survive this many feral ghouls and other wasters thinking I'm Talon Company. Most of the old avenues above ground were littered with dead brothers and Enclave. There must have been some serious fighting after the Vault Dweller left. I managed to trade my assault rifle for a nice Enclave Plasma Rifle. This thing was heavy, but it packed incredible heat.
We didn't encounter much until we got to the mall.