There is nothing like flying into a fight aboard an armored dragonfly, Sarah thought to herself as she passed through the air, heading to battle aboard an aircraft. This was the first time she'd ever flown. It's a first time for everyone except the pilots.
Adrenaline was coursing through her in anticipation of action. She was feeling a little weak. A little weak might be an understatement because she had just woken up from a three week coma. Sarah had ended up in that coma in similar circumstances that she was in at the moment. Sarah awoke 12 hours ago in the infirmary and demanded to know what had happened since she had been unconscious. Quickly, the medics brought her father in, and he told Sarah of all the activities that had transpired since the battle over the water purifier. The fight that put her into her coma.
Her father recounted the past few weeks: the purifier was now working, and the Brotherhood of Steel was distributing water across the D.C. Wasteland; Liberty Prime, the Brotherhood's giant death robot, was destroyed by an orbital missile bombardment during a raid on an Enclave satellite relay station.
"Our war with the Enclave is going quite well. They're on the retreat. We've sent two companies to attack Adams Air Force Base and the raid should start be starting soon."
"Who did you send?" Sarah asked, concerned.
"Paladins Bael and Krieg grabbed those available, so it's mixed squads. You know how it is." The Brotherhood was pulling double duty as guards for the caravans delivering water across the Wasteland and keeping the tide of super mutants from overrunning the settlements of the Wasteland.
"What about the Lone Wanderer? What happened to him?" Sarah was with the Lone Wanderer when she was knocked unconscious by an explosion, and she saw that she was the only patient in the infirmary. He should have been in one of the other beds.
"Oh, he's alive and well. He woke up several days ago, and he's been aiding us since. He was sent ahead of the force to 'soften the battlefield.' He's the best at that, according to Paladin Tristan."
Sarah had heard the stories from the Wastelanders. She received the reports from her brothers and sisters who encountered the Lone Wanderer. He was a grim reaper in mortal form. Death on two legs. He stood just under six feet with brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a larger-than-average build. Most would consider him handsome with his sharp features. However, very few of his enemies saw that. Anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves fighting the Lone Wanderer often didn't see anything but the flash of gunfire and shrapnel ripping apart their comrades. He was quick, quiet, and deadly, which was at odds with the massive suit of bulky blue-gray, heavy power armor he wore. He left trails of fire, death, and destruction. He was a master of dealing death to whoever or whatever his enemy was. Mutated 12-foot-tall humanoid monsters, death robots, or giant scorpions, it didn't matter. He killed everything.
On his other side, the humanitarian side, the Lone Wanderer was known as the savior of the D.C. Wasteland. He doctored the wounded and sick, rebuilt communities, and was known to save a child or two from certain doom. His most impactful feat was restoring the water purifier at the Jefferson Memorial, which filtered the radioactive water in the nearby water basin and provided clean water for the D.C. Wasteland and the surrounding area. Sarah was there with the Wanderer for that memorable event and suffered the consequences. An explosion of radiation was released when the purifier was activated, and it knocked the two of them into a coma.
The Wanderer killed raiders and super mutants who terrorized the wastes. He razed the slaver's headquarters at Paradise Falls to the last man. Now Sarah and a team of Brotherhood knights were headed to extract him from atop a giant mobile base, the Enclave, remnants of the old U.S. government, used to terrorize the wastes. Hopefully, she would get there in time.
Flying to Adams AFB was quick; the base is only a few miles from the Citadel. Sarah realized the situation they were heading into once they entered the airspace above the base. It was pandemonium. Lasers and explosions could be seen on the ground, and there were multiple fires across the base, most of them in the family housing section. The pilots quickly found the armored mobile platform, which was located on the airfield. The mobile platform was a massive armored vehicle large enough to house an entire army. The aircraft began circling the structure, looking for the Lone Wanderer. Pretty quickly, he was spotted. Lasers cut through the air wildly, explosions and dozens of armed and black armored Enclave soldiers in the distance were swarming, surging towards a lone figure clad in gray armor on a landing pad. The figures in their black devil-horned power armor fired red and green energy projectiles at the figure on the landing pad, most barely missing, but a few hit their mark. The lone figure went down.
"It's going to be a hot extract! Multiple Enclave troops are converging on the landing pad." The pilot exclaimed.
Fuck, thought Sarah. Hopefully, we can pull this off. The four soldiers in the aircraft checked their weapons, which clicked or hummed as they were readied. The team was ready.
"ETA 30 seconds." The pilots calmly adjust the approach to the landing pad, avoiding errant energy bolts. The cockpit radio starts cheering as the Enclave troopers celebrate the Vertibird's arrival. The aircraft was stolen… tactically acquired from the Enclave.
"We've got him now. Keep moving forward!" One voice commanded. Sarah chuckled at that. They were about to ruin the Enclave's day. The insectoid aircraft lands roughly on the deck.
Foowsh, the doors open into a chaotic evening sun, blinding Sarah. The sounds of explosions, screaming men and women, and the rhythmic clunk of the rushing armored figures fill Sarah's ears, and the smell of metallic blood, ozone, and burnt flesh fills her nostrils.
Her troops, the Brotherhood of Steel Knights, flood out of the aircraft and into the fight, with Sarah following after them. She sees him, a crouched figure taking cover from the oncoming firestorm of energized plasma and burning red lasers. The man's gray armor was covered in scorch marks, and entire sections were soot-black. Many armor plates were fused together where super-heated plasma had struck. Fuck, he's hit, she thought. Sarah sprinted towards him.
"Surprised to see me? We're extracting you." Sarah said, sliding up to him. She couldn't see the man's face as he wore a fully enclosed power armor helmet, so only his faceplate stared back at her. His eyes were hidden behind the helmet's reflective eye slit.
"It's better than jumping." He replied matter-of-factly. The crawler was more than 100 feet tall. It's possibly too tall for someone in power armor to survive a jump.
Sarah surveyed the man. His left leg was blackened with deep gouges and scorch marks that radiated out from a center point on his thigh plate; it was cracked and shattered. It looked like a missile hit him. Sarah was concerned. "Let's get you out of here. Can you walk?"
"I'll need help, but I'm good to move." He replies.
"Okay, get ready." Sarah readies herself to pick up the soldier. "Suppression!" Sarah yells out to her soldiers.
"Suppression!" they scream back.
Each armored knight lobs a grenade, which explodes in a ball of green plasma, scorching the attackers in their armor. The knight equipped with a Gatling laser breaks from cover and begins to sweep the shocked attackers with lasers. The automatic laser bolts cut down any Enclave soldiers who weren't killed by the grenades.
Their retreat was covered, so Sarah offered her hand to the Lone Wanderer. He took it, and she hauled him to his feet. The Wanderer couldn't move his left leg, so Sarah put his left arm over her shoulder and supported him as the two began to retreat back to the aircraft.
"Break contact. We're out of here!" She orders her knights.
The knight with the Gatling laser, their heavy gunner, moves back, past the line of defenders, and towards the Vertibird while the other knights throw smoke grenades, masking their retreat. Once the heavy gunner gets to his next position, he stops and begins laying down automatic laser fire on the Enclave until his fellow soldiers move past him. They continue this leap-frogging maneuver until each person is at the Vertibird.
Once everyone is at the aircraft, Sarah does a quick head count, three no, correction… four troops accounted for. The co-pilot opens the door. Sarah shoves the Lone Wanderer into the aircraft first and then the two riflemen; finally, she slams her fist on the heavy gunner's right pauldron, signaling him to stop laying down suppressive fire and board the aircraft. She jumps into the aircraft and fires her weapon into the remains of the forces converging on the landing pad. The gunner squeezes one last laser burst into a figure running up the stairs to the landing pad. The figure is bisected at the waist and topples over like a torn ragdoll, and the gunner chuckles at this. He turns and jumps inside, and the aircraft quickly takes flight. The landing pad falls away, leaving Sarah's stomach on the floor. She might be sick.
The aircraft banks hard to the right. "Hang on, I want to set this bird down near the control tower so we can watch the fireworks. Are we fine with that, Sentinel?" The pilot asks. Sarah looks at her team, and they give a thumbs up. She looks at their wounded comrade. He also gives a thumbs up.
"We're good. Set us down." Sarah responds to the pilot.
"Should be a hell of a show."
The bird groans and whirrs as it lands on the air traffic control tower.
The hatch opens, and the occupants jump out. Sarah helps the rescued soldier out of the aircraft; he holds onto her for stability, and she pulls him close so he doesn't fall, "No need to be shy." She smirks at him. He doesn't respond.
In the distance, the team eyes the massive armored base crawler with Enclave soldiers running on top. They look like ants at this distance. Everyone is gathered, waiting for the missiles to strike. The Lone Wanderer, the man they rescued, initiated a self-destruct protocol on this enormous war machine seconds before they picked him up. It was time to end this fight and, hopefully, the ongoing war with the Enclave.
Moments later, spaceborne missiles pierce the atmosphere with a blue brilliance, overpowering the evening sun. Dozens of blue spears rain on the vehicle, piercing its armored hull. There's a small explosion within the beast, then another and another, turning into a chain reaction.
"Looks like it hit the ammunition store." One knight adds.
"God damn there goes the reactor." Another knight yells.
This explosion does it. The vehicle explodes up and out in a roar, creating a giant mushroom cloud and sending debris thousands of feet into the air.
Everyone on the tower is cheering except for the Lone Wanderer. One knight shook a fist in triumph, and another two hugged each other gleefully. The pilot and co-pilot chest-bumped each other with a whoop. The team celebrated as debris rained upon them. This was a hard-fought victory for everyone, but especially for one man.
"Great show. Let's get moving." Sarah declares. The team reboards the aircraft. Sarah sits the Lone Wanderer in the row of jump seats across from her. She can now take in the full extent of his damage. His armor was covered head to toe in extensive battle damage, giant pockmarks covered his chest plate, and his forearm and gauntlet plates were a deep, bloody red. His visor was cracked, and dark splotches of dried blood were caked on his lower legs and boots. The pilot interrupted her silent examination.
"Strap yourselves in. We're headed back to the Citadel. Elder Lyons wants to speak to you when we touch down." The pilot directed towards the Wanderer. He didn't reply.
The knights and scribes never called him by rank; he was a fully-fledged Knight in the Brotherhood or by his moniker, The Lone Wanderer. Sarah wondered what his name really was. She never had the opportunity to ask. Sarah's introduction to the Lone Wanderer could have been more relaxed. They found each other several months ago in a cramped alley in Chevy Chase, downtown Washinton, D.C. The Wanderer stumbled across Sarah and her team during a gunfight with several Super Mutants, giant yellow mutants who stood eight feet tall.
Sarah and a portion of her squad, Lyons' Pride, were moving to reinforce an outpost under attack when they came across the Wanderer. Her team pinned down the two yellow-green humanoid monsters while Wanderer flanked the two monsters. It was quickly over with two bursts of fire from his assault rifle, one for each mutant. At the time, the Wanderer was raw talent and determination. He had a look in his eyes, and she could see that in him, a young man after something. He was still that young man with that same look, but he was much more practiced and methodical, like a well-oiled robot. He fought with precision and speed.
"Hey, that blood-" Sarah gestured towards his legs.
The Wanderer looked up at her.
"Blood?" He looked down at his feet.
"It's not yours?"
"…No," he responds slowly, "an Enclave lieutenant's." Sarah must have looked confused. "She exploded." He clarifies.
"Any major injuries?" she asks.
"Just some broken bones, plasma burns, and maybe a concussion." Most people would be unconscious if they were injured. Actually, most would be dead, Sarah thought.
"We'll have Sawbones take a look at you." Sarah refers to the Brotherhood's robot doctor. Sawbones wasn't a practitioner anyone wanted to see. His metallic pincers left a lot to be desired.
"I'll be fine." The Wanderer replies.
He reached down to his pack and pulled out a doctor's bag. He opens the bag and pulls out a set of tweezers. The man then removes his left thigh armor plate, what's left of it, and peels back the black undersuit worn beneath his power armor. The shattered plate had fragmented, and a piece was embedded in his leg. Sarah watched with rapt attention. The Wanderer dug at the piece with tweezers and pulled it out. This causes a bleed that quickly gushes blood from the open wound, which runs down his leg and onto the aircraft floor, creating a pool. He reaches back into his bag and grabs a packing and pressure bandage. He proceeds to stuff the packing bandage into the cavity formed by the fragment's removal. Then he applies the pressure bandage, wrapping it around his leg. Finally he pulls out a morphine sharp and stabs it into his leg.
"That's not going to end well." She cautions
"I'll be able to walk on it by the time we land." He replies, putting the plate back on.
Sarah was doubtful. The commotion of the impromptu medical care caught the attention of the three Knights. They each looked at each other. One cocked their head, looking at the Wanderer.
"Hey, we're landing in the courtyard. It looks like we'll have a welcoming party." The pilot says.
The aircraft lands, and the doors open. It feels good to be back, Sarah thought. The team steps out as the pilots shut down the Virtibird. Sarah rises and moves over to help the Wanderer out of the aircraft, but he shakes off her help and leaves the helicopter, stepping out smoothly.
The few people gathered outside to greet the team quickly swelled to a crowd packed with initiates, knights, scribes, and the occasional Paladin. Everyone was whooping and yelling in celebration. Many shook the Wanderer's hand or pounded on his pauldrons, congratulating him on a well-done job. Eventually, the crowd parts, creating a path, and Paladin Tristan, Scribe Rothchild, and her father, Elder Owyn Lyons, walk up to Sarah and the Lone Wanderer. Her father grabbed the Wanderer's hand and gave him a two-handed handshake.
Elder Lyons had tears in his eyes. "When I first met you some time ago, I was leery of your motivations and even more concerned with your methods. At the battle for Project Purity, you proved yourself… and any doubt I had about you dissipated that day. Now, with the Enclave in ruin and with you to thank for it, I'm almost at a complete loss for words. I feel proud to call out one of our own, and I promise that what you've done here today will be recorded by our scribes as a historic moment. On behalf of the Brotherhood of Steel and behalf of the free people of this Wasteland, I thank you."
The Wanderer was silent for a moment. "What else needs to be done?"
The Elder chuckles. "Paladin Tristan and Scribe Rothchild have some things that need to be taken care of, but you've done so much I would hate for you to do such menial tasks." The Elder replies.
"Nonsense." Paladin Tristan interrupts. "He's the best mutie killer we have around here." He says with a loud, boisterous laugh and slaps Sarah on the arm. "He's better than all of Lyons' Pride." Sarah rolled her eyes and smiled at that.
"Yes, if you encounter any cameras or sensor modules in your travels, please bring them to me. It would be greatly appreciated." The elderly scribe piped up. "I'm trying to rebuild Liberty Prime, and any bit helps."
"Bah, that robot only had two good engagements while this man has dozens under his belt." Tristan asserts, poking the Wanderer in the chest. He grabs the Wanderer's hand and shakes it vigorously. "Come on, let's get you taken care of and out of that armor. I'll have the cooks make you a nice steak." He then puts his arm around the Wanderer, and the two then walk towards the laboratory where the mess hall is located.
Sarah goes to follow the two soldiers, but she's pulled aside by a Knight-Captain. "Ma'am, Lyons' Pride has a tasking from Paladin Edwards. Your squad leaves tonight."
Sarah didn't know this Knight-Captain's name. Still, she knew she worked in operations with Paladin Edwards, the operations section commander who directs the Brotherhood of Steel combat and patrol operations. "The work never stops, huh?" Sarah replies.
The Knight-Captain looked remorseful. "Sorry, the celebration is cut short. Congrats, ma'am, you do a damn fine job."
"Thanks. How's the arm?" Sarah asks. The Knight-Captain was injured during a recent patrol. A super mutant had broken her arm with a sledgehammer. The mutie hit it hard enough to break it into three pieces even though the knight was wearing power armor.
"Should be good in a couple months." The knight glanced down at her watch on her good arm. "Sorry, I have to run Sentinel. I have a meeting." The knight sprinted away. Sarah shook her head with a smile.
Despite how much had been achieved and how many enemies they killed, there was always more to do. More patrols to conduct, new mutants hide to destroy, and water caravans to protect. Hell, Pride might have to escort the water patrols themselves if things keep going like they are. Sarah thought. Hopefully not. It sounds boring.
Sarah walked away looking for her squad and pondered what the future would have in store for her and the Brotherhood. Would the Lone Wanderer have a place with us? She wondered.