Chapter 2 – Teamwork

Ever since Nate had met Piper, that day she had been locked out of Diamond City for some perceived slight to the Mayor, Nate had been drawn to her spirit and tenacity. Yes, she could be pig headed and stubborn at times but she had an overarching sense of wanting to protect the little people. Unfortunately, this admirable character trait would often get her into hot water and often with the less than salubrious underbelly of Dimond City. This trouble that she seemed to find easily would, at times, lead to her being the one needing the protection.

A similar feeling of being the protector would come over Nate when he thought of Cait. Having taken over Cait's cage fighting contract from her previous employer Tommy Lonegan, he and Piper had supported Cait through her fight with addiction which ended with a successful trip to Vault 95 and a cure from her drug habit. Even though Cait was one of the toughest people Nate had ever met, having heard her story of abuse at the hands of her parents and then her Raider owners, Nate felt that he had a responsibility to protect her. He wanted to shield her from the very worst of society, as he felt Cait had already experienced more than most people would in an entire lifetime and she was only 24.

For Curie, the need for protection came in a more basic form. When experiencing new things, Curie needed to be watched like you would a small child or an over enthusiastic puppy on their first walk outside. Of course, Nate fully understood just how incredible it must be for her experiencing all these new senses since having taken on her synth body, but Curie's inquisitiveness could lead to her getting into dangerous situations without realising it. But no matter what she did, Nate could never stay angry at her for long as she had the most adorable habit of biting her lower lip when she was being told off. She would also often feel so bad for angering Nate that she would cry real tears and spend the rest of the day apologising to him, even for the smallest of infringements.

Today, the only protecting Nate was having to do for these girls was from themselves and each other. For two weeks Nate had instructed and then drilled the girls on the basics of fire and manoeuvre. Throwing situations at them that would require one of them to take a position of being able to give covering fire as the other two moved towards their target. To add a further layer of protection the pair that was manoeuvring towards the target was then instructed by Nate to split with one of them stopping and laying down even more covering fire for the final few yards. This should then give the person carrying out the assault two supporting weapons keeping the enemies heads down and denying them a chance to fire back.

Whilst the theory was easy to teach, the practice was anything but simple. Despite numerous rehursals and dry run throughs, the first real contact where the team got to try out their newly gained skills was at the Charles River Dam Bridge. Having left Diamond City and heading north, the team were about to cross the bridge when a group of raiders began engaging them from the footpath in front of the clothing store, Back Street Apparel. To Nates trained eye, it immediately became apparent that he and Cait should use their current position behind a stanchion for the bridge to give covering fire. This would allow Piper and Curie to manoeuvre up between the buildings unseen and engage with the enemy. But before Nate could issue that order, Cait and Piper were running forward, firing their own weapons whilst Curie began lighting a Molotov cocktail to throw into the general melee. Seeing that Curie was about to cook both Piper and Cait with her throw, all Nate had time to do was to shout at Curie to stop. Things didn't get any better when Curie, alerted to Nate's shout, began walking towards him almost getting shot in the process as she hadn't seen one of the Raiders who had sneaked up on her. This particular raider had managed to sneak up on their position as he was using the very tactic Nate was trying to get the girls to use. Had Nate not grabbed her at the last minute, the Raiders shotgun would have done some serious damage to her recently acquired synth body.

Thankfully, by the time Nate had untangled himself from Curie, Cait and Piper had chased off the last two raiders and were sauntering back, pleased with their victory.

"You were lucky," Nate stated in a monotone voice.

"What do you mean lucky, we kicked their arses and that is that," Responded a bolshy Cait.

"I am sorry I did not see the one that had crept up on us," Stammered Curie.

Taking a deep breath, Nate told himself that getting the girls to fight together as a team would take time and that all he needed was patience.

The rest of the journey north was quiet, and it gave Nate time to figure out his next training exercise to try to fix the drills into the girls' minds. Their destination was Mystic Lake, a large expanse of water just to the east of Lexington and between the settlement of Covenant and the Mystic Pines convalescence home. Nate had been told by Myrna, owner of Diamond City Surplus, that there had been an eccentric old boy building a houseboat on the lake but that he had recently disappeared, abandoning his project. Curiosity got the better of Nate as means of transport through the waterways of Boston would be invaluable, especially if it could double as a mobile base. The way Myrna had described the old coot's plans, it seems the boat was destined to have all the amenities a small unit such as his would need.

Arriving late that evening the team spotted the boat tied up at a jetty just below Mystic Pines, on the west side of the lake. After clearing the shed next to the boat, the team set up camp on the jetty and settled in for the night. The sentry roster was agreed on and Nate took first watch. Piper and Cait turned in and Curie walked up to the point Nate had taken to stand watch, some 200 yards up the slope from the jetty. From here he had a good view of the approaches from Lexington and down the road towards the rotten landfill.

"I am sorry again for not seeing the danger in that last fight we had. I am still getting used to my new fragility and sometimes forget I no longer have metal skin," Curie began, holding out arms as if showing them to Nate. "I will make sure I pay more attention next time," she confirmed in a sincere tone.

Nate stood silent for a moment "I know you will Curie," Nate responded sounding anything but convinced.

The next week was a hive of activity around the boat shed as Nate and his team completed the construction of the boat and readied her for her maiden voyage. All concerns about combat tactics had been shelved for the moment. Whoever this old boy was, he had done a very thorough job of collecting parts for his houseboat. The boat itself was a standard inshore fishing vessel with a wheelhouse at the bow of the boat and a large open area towards the stern. Around this, the boats previous owner had constructed a two-storey super structure, with an accommodation section at the rear and an upper deck with all the benches any well-equipped workshop would contain. Downstairs, between the wheelhouse and the aft accommodation was a covered section with a re-enforced base that could hold a lit brazier. The engine ran on gas cylinders of which a pile of them had already been collected, but Nate was able to procure further supplies from Lucas' caravan as it passed on its way to Covenant. In the boat shed there were detailed plans for the boat and at the top of the document was the name 'Red Wave'.

'Sea trials' for the boat consisted of taking her for a spin around the lake a few times and practicing tying on and casting off. The boat and its workings were all fairly straight forward and easy to operate and everyone had a turn at driving and crewing in various positions around the boat. On day seven of their time at Mystic Lake they pointed the Red Wave due south and navigated her out onto the Mystic River and down towards Boston. Nate had decided to take her to a mooring point as close to Diamond City as they could get it and so chose one just outside Hangman's alley. That Raider stronghold having been cleared by Diamond City security a month ago. The trip would lead them past Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution and into the Charles River. From there they would head upriver to their new mooring. The trip took most of the day and Nate was glad to be tied up before sunset. Having secured the boat against intruders the team headed back to Home Plate and a warm meal, but not before stopping off at the Dugout Bar for a quick welcome home drink.

Back on home turf, Nate turned his attention back to the training regime. For six weeks solid he trained the girls in all aspects of close quarter and small unit tactics. Not just the simple fire and manoeuvre drills he had tried prior to finding the Red Wave, but he also expanded these drills to include operating in built up areas, including house clearance. The problem was, the more he trained his team the more frustrated he became.

It wasn't that they were bad at all the drills, nor were they incompetent when it came to the theory behind Nate's training, the problem Nate had was that they just didn't seem that motivated. Perhaps he was being too harsh on them, but there were times when he could swear they were actually bored with the drills and his instruction, despite constant confirmation from all three that they were keen to learn. Cait and Piper were quick to turn a mistake into a joking matter and become too easily distracted from whatever Nate was trying to demonstrate. Curie was a slightly better student but she too was often daydreaming or losing her concentration. The problem, as Nate saw it, was that they had all developed their own fighting style and it was proving almost impossible to shift those habits. The more he tried the more he became disheartened by the lack of progress he was making.

The one success Nate was able to celebrate was the speed at which each companion gave up their previous weapon of choice. When Nate first met Piper she had gone for a pipe pistol as her favoured weapon, and for Cait it was a sawn off shotgun, one of the old double barrel types. Both weapons entirely unsuited to unit tactics.

To replace these Nate selected a small number of his preferred weapons and gave the girls the choice of which one they wanted. Piper took a silenced SCAR-H with a 5.56 conversion, for Cait it was an M16 Carbine, again silenced with a medium size night scope and an extended magazine. Cait's carbine was also a 5.56 calibre. Curie had a longer barrelled M16 with a drum magazine, designed to be the units fire support weapon with its extended range and greater rate of fire. But even though the girls looked the part in their Sirius armoured suit, black PMC chest rig, radio mics and specialised weapons, they still fought as separate individuals. Their chaotic fighting styles born directly from the chaos that was life in the Commonwealth.

Determined to give the training one last try, Nate had proposed a short trip up to Graygarden to help out the robots who had set up home there. It seemed that they were having a spot of bother from some Super Mutants and would pay well for some assistance. Having bought Home Plate, Nate was keen to replenish the coffers but he also liked the idea of setting up trading relations with the robots.

The patrol route took the team East, out of Boston through the Chestnut Hillock Reservoir, past Vault 81 and up onto the disused railway tracks. The route then swung north eventually passing Oberland station and the Beantown Brewery before crossing the river and arriving at Graygarden, a greenhouse sheltered by a large, still standing section of overpass.

Having spoken to the robots and having been given the location of the Super Mutants by one of the command robots called Supervisor White, the team set off south. Their target was the Weston Water Treatment Plant just a few miles south of their current location, on the same side of the river. On the walk down, Curie explained the origins of the rather strange robot group who were running Graygarden.

"The facility is the brainchild of Doctor Edward Gray, a brilliant but rather eccentric engineer at RobCo industries, the company that made me!" Curie began, the enthusiasm for the subject reflected in her tone.

"The entire set up was designed to be completely self-sufficient, run by a series of worker robots and managed by a few supervisor robots with superior cognition processes."

"What's with the funny voices," asked Cait, referring to the fact that the supervisor they had just spoken to sounded like a pre-war screen actress, calling everyone 'darling'.

"Oh," continued Curie "They are all supposed to mimic television personas the Doctor enjoyed watching when he was alive."

"Heads up ladies," Nate interrupted, signalling with a nod of his head to a group of people milling around on the road down to the treatment plant.

The girls immediately came alert, all bringing their weapons to bear on the potential hostile group. Seeing that their ruse was up, the group of Bandits dropped the pretence of interrogating a poor defenceless caravan trader and stalked towards Nate and his team. Nate even saw the caravan owner suddenly stand up and unholster a hidden pipe pistol from within his jacket. Such amateurs he thought to himself, if they had only held position for a few moments longer they could have had surprise on their side.

Thankfully these Raiders were too green and too enthusiastic to wait to spring their trap and were now closing on Nate's position.

"Curie, go right, get some high ground and give some covering fire," Barked Nate as he saw a way of gaining the advantage over this small group of Raiders. There were ten of them but that wouldn't prove too much of an issue if the girls followed his orders.

He turned to Cait and Piper "Dead ground," he indicated, pointing to the riverbank that sloped away to his left.

"Go on then," Cait shouted to Piper.

"I'm covering you," came the sharp response. And that was when any advantage Nate had hoped to gain, just melted away. Piper and Cait broke into a shouting match as to who should go first down the bank and who should offer covering fire.

Too concerned with the approaching Raiders, Nate signalled to Curie to open fire. He thanked whatever gods were watching that at least Curie had been able to gain some high ground and contribute to the fight. Under the hail of bullets from Curie's weapon most of the Raiders hit the dirt and began crawling forward. The two that were not so fast were picked off by Nate.

There was then a huge explosion from just in front of the Raiders and a whoop from Cait. The girls, having stopped their bickering were throwing grenades from their position, half protected by the slope down to the rivers edge. It was after the fourth grenade that the dust began to settle, and Nate could see that there were three raiders remaining, two injured and one running in the opposite direction. Without any orders from him a few bursts from Curie's weapon and all three stopped moving.

On paper it was a victory and one that he was sure the girls would enjoy retelling to the locals at the Dugout. To him, that battle was a shit show, a chaotic maelstrom that just happened to go their way. Perhaps, he thought to himself, there was just no way he will get these particular leopards to change their spots. Nate kept his thoughts to himself and after looting the bodies the team set off to the treatment plant, the girls in high spirits after their decisive victory.

They arrived at the Water facility and quickly took out the perimeter Super Mutants and those who had built their base on the top of the plant. He had to hand it to Curie and Cait, they were both highly skilled snipers. In order to ensure the entire inside of the plant was cleared he sent in Piper and Cait with instructions to shout if they needed help. At this point, Nate wasn't even sure he cared anymore as to whether they carried out any of his drills or not. It was clear to him that the girls had a particular way of doing things and no matter how much he tried to get them to change, they were intent on doing things their way.

With the water plant clear of Super Mutants and back online the team headed to the roof just as it was getting dark. They set up their tents, lit a fire for the evening and Curie began rustling something up for dinner. In order to gather his thoughts and to decide just what on earth he was going to do next, Nate volunteered to take first watch. Being rather intuitive and picking up on Nates quiet demeanour since they had cleared the building, Piper followed Nate to his watch position at the northwest corner of the roof.

"Hey Blue," Piper called, slinking her way towards Nate. "Cap for your thoughts?" she asked, referring to the bottle caps that passed as currency. She continued to approach nervously, sensing he was upset.

"Hey Piper," Nate smiled, greeting her with an entirely false upbeat tone. "Congratulations on your success today," he continued.

"Thanks," responded Piper flatly, "So why do I get the sense you are far from happy?"

Nate smiled, there is no chance of getting anything past Piper and her inquisitiveness.

"No really," Nate's voice changing to a neutral tone, "You did a good job clearing the plant today."

"Ok, so If that is really the case, then why do you look like you have been given days to live?" Piper responded, obviously not willing to let the subject drop.

Nate turned to look at Piper and was about to give her a piece of his mind when he looked into her eyes. Instead of seeing the rough, tough investigative reporter, all he saw was a young woman, 25 years old and having to live in this hell hole of a world. All the anger and frustration he was feeling just melted away.

IHe took a deep breath, "Maybe this isn't going to work," Nate shrugged, "Maybe it is just that I am expecting too much."

"Expecting too much, what do you mean, what's not going to work," Asked Piper, a genuine look of confusion on her face.

"My plan to have you all part of an effective, combined unit."

"But we are, Blue," Piper reassured him, placing her hand on his arm. "Ok, so maybe we aren't all commando like you would want us to be, but we get by."

"That's what I am afraid of," responded Nate, looking Piper straight in the eyes. "As soon as bullets start flying you three go all freestyle" Piper smiled at this "you may laugh" answered Nate, "but you are all lucky to come out of these fights unscathed and one day, one of you will not be so lucky."

Piper lost her smile and took on a consoling look "It is so sweet that you care for us, Blue, but we are big girls and able to look after ourselves."

"I have no doubt in that," answered Nate, letting a little of his frustration into his voice, "But you are downright dangerous when the three of you are together. I spend as much time dodging your bullets as I do anything from the enemy." Yes, Nate was being a little overdramatic, but he needed to get his point home.

Piper looked legitimately hurt by Nate's comment, "You think we are dangerous?" she asked quietly.

"All three of you are," Nate answered, deciding honesty rather than diplomacy was the best course of action. He cared deeply for all three of the girls, but he couldn't have them continue to be so flippant about the dangers their untrained actions could pose. "As I said, maybe working as a team is not going to work for us," He shrugged.

Piper was silent for a moment, looking wide eyed at Nate and he was sure he saw a little bit of moisture in the corners of her eyes.

"It will and it must," she blurted as she spun on her heals and headed back to the camp.

Nate wasn't sure what to make of that slightly strange reaction, but it sounded to him like Piper was still committed to getting the unit tactics to work. Oh well, he thought to himself, only time will tell as he turned back to resume his watch.

An hour and a half later, on returning to camp at the end of his watch he could see that all three of the girls were still up and discussing something fervently, all three seated cross legged around the fire. As soon as they saw Nate appear they all stopped speaking and Piper and Cait immediately stood up.

"I'm tired," Cait said, stretching in an exaggerated manner and she headed into the tent she shared with Nate.

"Me too," answered Piper and darted into the other tent that she shared with Curie.

"I will go on watch," Curie stated and headed off to where Nate had just appeared from.

Nate was left in the middle of the camp wondering what had just happened and why the girls were acting so weird all of a sudden.