Chapter 1

Lawrence sat in the basement wing of the Citadel in the Swordsmen rec room. He had a book in his lap, reading, while Teagan lifted weights on the other side of the room, with one of their newer members, Jason Mitchell, spotting him. Lawrence was surprised at how quickly they had gone from simply him, Teagan, and Cade, to nearly a full 12 man team again.

"Carter, Elder Lyons wants you and Teagan in her office A.S.A.P." Cade's voice filtered down the stairs from the door into the infirmary. The door that was the primary egress down to this wing. Exchanging a confused glance with Teagan, Lawrence stood up and called back,
"alright. Inform her we're on the way."

The two men were somewhat excited. Neither had seen any real action since returning from the Commonwealth a year before. Their days had been spent training both themselves and the new members they'd carefully selected from the ranks of the Initiates in the Brotherhood.

As they reached Sarah's office, Lawrence knocked once before opening the door, and as he closed it, he flipped the lock. "You wished to see us, Elder?" Teagan asked, as he took a seat.

"Yeah. Read these." Sarah said, tossing both men a folder. Rifling through it, Lawrence's eyebrows immediately raised.

"This is...interesting...to say the least." He muttered, reading through one of the debrief reports from a collection team—a report sent directly to the Citadel—and not liking what he saw within.

"Kill any and everything that gets in your way?! That's not the Lyons Way at all!" Teagan said in disbelief. "Plus what's this about stealing supplies from Diamond City?! We're supposed to be working with them! I spent far too long trying to foster relations during my mission!" Lawrence continued, waving the report incredulously.

"Oh it gets worse, Swordsman." Sarah said, passing over a separate folder, and as soon as he opened it, Lawrence frowned.

"When the first page says 'Elder's report' I already know this isn't going to be good." He muttered, maybe a bit louder than he meant to, causing Teagan to smack him with the folder he was holding, as Sarah spoke up.

"I'd like to remind you, Carter that while he's the regional Elder of the Commonwealth, he is still an Elder. As always, you'll respect him." She admonished, she knew that Nate and Lawrence had a history, he'd been up front with her over the last year as they formed the close relationship needed for the Swordsmen to function.

"Yes ma'am. My apologies." Lawrence said, reading one of the reports, before looking up and handing it to Teagan, along with a field report. "Is it just me or do these facts not match. At all."

After a moment of reading it, Teagan frowned, nodding. "They don't. In a couple of these, the locations don't even match." He said, gesturing to several pairs of reports they stacked on the floor.

Sarah nodded, speaking. "That's what I noticed as well. I was going to have a talk with Nate at the year review, but then I noticed the locational discrepancies in several reports." She stood up and walked over to a filing cabinet, pulling out a pair of files, before passing them over. "Two of the scribes who were requested to fill in filed reports as well, however, at the time, I had yet to see visual proof of anything wrong."

Lawrence looked over the reports, nodding to himself. "Are we just here to advise or is there something else?" He suspected they would be deployed, but jumping at the bit had ended quite a few lives in the Brotherhood.

"You've got a week to find your last member, I want a full team of 11 in the field on this one." Sarah replied, sliding over a stack of folders. "The most recent 24 transfers who you haven't had a chance to review yet."

Lawrence nodded, taking the folders with a sigh. "Good thing we still have some of the whiskey. I'll give a full deployment brief. It'll be a good test to see which of our new trainees was actually paying attention." He said to Teagan as both men stood up, saluted, and left back the way they came.

As they proceeded down the stairs, Lawrence called out. "All Swordsmen to the briefing room. Now." Without stopping or even looking to make sure everyone was following, he marched straight there, flipping the light on in the process. As everyone came in—including Cade—and took their seats, Lawrence sighed.

"Most of you guys' first mission is not one I ever want anyone to experience." He started, tossing the report folders on the table, as various reports were passed around, in the stacks he and Teagan had prepared. "As you can see, if you read the various reports you were handed, there are discrepancies in field reports from various collection teams in relation to the reports from Elder Burns in the Commonwealth."

"Being that only one of you was in the Brotherhood during that incident" he continued, referring to the newer eight members, "the former Elder of the Brotherhood—as well as a couple of the higher-ranking members under him—was revealed to have connections to the Enclave that lead him to veering drastically from the ways the Eastern Brotherhood had adopted. Elder Burns, having done a lot in a short period to help eliminate a major threat to the Commonwealth, was appointed Elder of the new Commonwealth chapter."

Lawrence leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, and continued with a sigh. "Our mission is to investigate these discrepancies, and, if required…" He let the thought hang in the air. All of the people present knew what he was referring to with his hanging comment.

"Onto other topics." Teagan said, flawlessly picking up. "Everyone start packing your gear, it doesn't all need to be packed immediately, after all, we're not deploying for a week, but anything you don't need for immediate duties or similar needs should be packed and ready."

He continued, "training does not stop just because we're prepping for a deployment either, I expect all of you to continue with your range exercises in the meantime."

"We're looking at files tonight to fill the empty slot on the team." Cade said, nodding to the empty seat at the table. "They're going to be significantly behind you, so when you're in the field it's everyone's responsibility to bring them up to speed. Quickly."

Three hours later, after much of the excitement had died down, and most of the Citadel was asleep, the three men sat down at a smaller table in Lawrence's quarters to look through the files for recruits.

"Randy Marshall. 5 years in the Brotherhood. Served in Robert Archer's Skook chapter." Teagan read, taking a sip of his whiskey before continuing, "record's got some blemishes, but nothing too extreme."

"Better then this one." Lawrence said, gesturing to the rather thick file he held. "Tyler Hudson. Year and a half in the Brotherhood, but already has several reprimands for insubordination and dereliction of duty. I'm putting this one in the 'no' pile." He dropped it into a basket on the table, as Cade read off his.

"Eric Shin. Comes from Appalachia, nearly spotless 3 year record. In fact, he has some commendations and awards from his Elder." He said, flipping through the file.

"Shin. Shin… Wasn't the the last name of the first permanent Elder of the Appalachian chapter? And come to think of it, the name of the Elders pretty much the entire time?" Teagan asked, causing Lawrence to nod.

"I check in with them periodically. They're based out of a few different spots out there, and Elder Shin is pretty hard line with not showing his sons favoritism. Based on how long he's been in, I think Eric is the youngest of the three." Lawrence nodded to himself. "Though it concerns me that one of the Shin boys would transfer out of Appalachia. Sense of duty to the Chain That Binds and the Order is too strong."

"Might be worth touching base with him regardless, I'm also concerned about the three years as an Initiate since he would have likely been a Squire prior." Teagan mentioned, opening up the next file, before barking out with a laugh.

"Oscar Jeffries. Two and a half years, a record the size of the Prydwen consisting of all sorts of things. Nothing quite bad enough or frequent enough to cause his dismissal, but still enough to warrant a spot in the 'no' bin."

"I'm not even looking at this one." Lawrence said, tossing a similarly-sized folder into the basket, and they all saw the name. "Marcus Holmes is now in the Capital? Who'd he kiss up to?" Teagan asked with a chuckle, dropping the file again after reading the name.

"I don't know. And I don't care. He's not coming within 100 feet of this unit ever again." Lawrence almost shouted, smacking his glass loudly on the table as the door opened, and all three men turned to look at it when they heard shouting.

Ryan Gaines poked his head in, looking something between scared and panicked. "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have an unauthorized individual demanding to speak with you. He claims he's a Swordsman, but refuses to recite the motto, answer the questions, or show his ID card."

Locking eyes with Teagan, Lawrence nodded, standing up. "I'm on my way. Please keep him from entering as best you can without using force." At his words, Gaines nodded before darting back down the hallway at a jog, speaking in a raised voice. "Sir, Swordsman Carter is on his way, please go back to the entryway and he will speak to you there, this is a highly restricted area."

Draining the last drops from his glass, Lawrence nodded at Teagan and Cade before making his way out to the main entrance to the Swordsmen wing. There was a slightly older man standing there in Knight battle fatigues, arguing with Gaines.

"Thank you, Initiate. I'll take it from here." He said, relieving Ryan from the torture, and as soon as the other man was out of earshot, he slammed a fist against the door from to shut the older man up.

"You have exactly thirty seconds to explain why I shouldn't have you executed where you stand, Holmes." He said, gruffly. Normally, even to a former Swordsman, he wouldn't be so brash, but how Holmes was both still in the Brotherhood,and was allowed this close to the Elder was beyond him.

"Because I was allowed here." Holmes replied with a smirk. Lawrence wiped his smirk away in a heartbeat by pulling his 10mm.

"After what you did you're lucky Luka even let you live. You know the terms you agreed to. Get out. If you have any sense, you'll be out of the Capital Wasteland before morning. If you're still here, I'm taking everything to Sarah."

Marcus paled when Lawrence mentioned reporting him to Sarah. "Come on, Carter. That's in the past, can't you forgive a guy?"

"Forgive the man that tried to blow up the purifier? Forgive the man that killed Luka Marsh? Forgive the man that was directly responsible for the death of over 45 Brotherhood Scribes?!" Lawrence shouted back, loud enough so everyone in the basement could hear him.

"You think I'm going to forgive you? I should tie you on a long rope and have a vertibird fly low to the rooftops." Lawrence turned and grabbed the door, "You have 24 hours. If you're not gone by this time tomorrow, I'm going to the Elder."