There were only two things Arthur Maxon wanted to be doing right now. Have something to work on and the peace and quiet to do so. With how things were developing around the camp there was no shortage of the first. The second, however, was a bit harder to get.
He didn't think the short interaction he'd had with the alien boy called Aurek would go any further. Apparently, the kid thought differently, and he'd taken any chance he had to follow him around.
It had gotten to the point where Arthur went to ask one of the scribes what would be happening with the refugees.
The boy along with the others who had been saved were faced with some difficult decisions. Only a few had chosen to return to their homes on their own, others simply didn't want to travel alone, were too injured to move or simply had nothing left to return to.
The village they were camped next to were kind enough to accept those who didn't want to go home into their care. There were however some more complicated cases. Three children, all of which had no parents or relatives. Two humans and Aurek.
The standard brotherhood procedure would be to take the children in. But the scribe who told Arthur about the situation said there had been some reservations about doing so, particularly in the case of the boy who was currently bugging him.
"What's that?" Aurek asked.
"A stimpak," Arthur replied in a bored tone.
"And that?"
"A super-stimpak."
Aurek looked at him confused. "What's the difference?"
"The dose of stimulants and coagulates is nearly double and it requires a belt to fasten it." Arthur glazed to his side to see the boy's attention had already drifted elsewhere.
"What about that?" Aurek went to grab an item on the shelf only for it to slip off the shelf. "Ahh."
With a quick motion, Arthur caught the box in question. "It's a vault-Tec lunch box." He said in an exacerbated tone. "Please don't touch any of this stuff."
"Ok," Aurek spoke in a dejected voice.
Arthur waited for the next question, but instead, he got one minute and then two minutes of silence. He was about to thank his lucky stars when the silence was broken again.
"Hey…" Aurek's chipper tone dipped slightly. "Do you know why so many people stare at me?"
Maxson stopped his work to look at him. The ever-present smile was replaced with a concerned look.
"It's because we're not used to seeing aliens." His statement made Aurek look at him in confusion.
"Really… I know there are a lot of humans, but most places in the galaxy have non-humans…" He trailed off.
"Where we're from there are no aliens, but there are these creatures called supermutants…. They uhh kinda look like you, green skin but just bigger."
"What are they like?" His enthusiasm picked up slightly.
"They're savages who kill indiscriminately for fun. Bloodthirsty beasts, no better than cavemen." Maxson's hatred of the supermutants came out easily, much to the detriment of Aureks mood.
"Oh… so when people stare at me, they think I'm one of them." He spoke dejectedly.
Arthur hesitated for a moment, releasing his mistake. "No no no… you're nothing like a supermutant… you're way too small and they don't have kids. Not to mention that they're dumb as rocks." Aurek seemed to perk up a little bit. "I mean it literally, Paladin Vargas once said that he saw one trying to eat a rock once."
The alien kid giggled to himself as Arthur let out a mental sigh at managing to keep him from being sad. Deciding not to change a good thing he kept telling funny stories that he had seen or heard from others. Before he knew it Arthur had put down his work and the two boys were exchanging stories.
"And then a giant supermutant behemoth burst into the square." Aurek kept listening with rapt fascination to Arthur's story. "Sarah and the rest of the Lyons pride open fire, but the monster didn't even flinch."
"But then out of the rubble, a stranger emerged, and on his shoulder was a fat man launcher. With one giant explosion, he blew the behemoth away."
"Wow!" Aurek had stars in his eyes. "Who was he?"
"He… He was a vault dweller, and he helped a lot of people." His mind went through the many adventures that John would tell him about. "He joined the Brotherhood too. I didn't like him at first, but we became friends eventually and he'd tell me about his adventures."
The more he spoke, the more his mood changed. Talking about his friendship with the lone wanderer and his subsequent disappearance reminded him of what he had been trying to distract himself from.
"Cool, do you have any other stories about him?"
"Uhh… yeah I do it's just." He tailed off looking at the shelf he was supposed to be stock checking. "I need to get back to work soooo…"
Aurek seemed confused for a moment about the change in mood. "Oh ok."
The two remained in silence afterwards. Aurek was content simply looking around the room while Arthur went about his work. Trying desperately not to think about the loss of the man he had come to think of as a father.
—
The return back to base had heralded several changes for Hardin. Their arrival had brought cheers and applause as the lost Brotherhood personnel were finally back. It didn't take long for things to settle down, he along with his squad and a number of others had been ordered to give full after-action reports.
Once that had been done both himself, Lukas and the rest of his squad sans Walsh had been taken aside for further questioning.
they were ushered into a larger tent filled with senior scribes of the different orders as well as Paladin and Knights some of whom he recognised. Elder Lyons had been present, but she had remained silent, letting the others present do the questioning.
From the few scathing questions that they'd been asked it was clear there were those present who disagreed with their decisions. Loudest among them had been Senior Scribe Peabody.
After a full two hours of having their every action dissected and pulled apart, they were shuffled out of the room as their fate was discussed. They stood outside in tired silence. While this mission had been far less deadly than those of the capital wasteland, it still had its moments.
Hardin was the first to break the silence. "Sorry for dragging you all into this."
No one spoke, but they all had their attention on him.
"Permission to speak, Sir," Harper asked, and he nodded. "Shut the fuck up."
Hardin's brain missed a step as he tried to register what she said.
"She's right, Hardin… if anything, it's my doing," Lukas admitted. "I was the one who made the call."
"And we were right there with you," Berger spoke, nodding towards Jules who also nodded back.
"The point is sir, if we thought you were making a bad decision we would have said so." The tension in Hardin's body unwound as Harper spoke. "As far as I'm concerned, you made all the right decisions at the moment, you too Lukas."
Before any more words could be said, a knight came to fetch them. In a single file line, they entered, all of them standing to attention before the scribes and paladins in the room.
"Before I give my judgement, is there anything you'd like to say?" Elder Lyons spoke calmly.
Hardin gave a glance towards the rest of his squad before answering. "Just this Elder. I stand by the actions of myself and my squad, we did what was right for the situation we were in. If I had to do it all again, I'd only hope I could save more people."
"I understand," Sarah spoke slowly. Hardin was almost sure he could see the beginnings of a smile on her face, only for it to be quickly replaced by a neutral look.
"After careful consideration of all the facts and the advice of my advisors, I have come to a verdict. I agree with you that the actions of yourself and your squad, while not perfect, were tactically sound considering the fact you were operating in a completely alien environment, both literally and figuratively."
"As for the decision to offer refuge to the militia personnel. I find that while the consequences have since spiralled, the initial reasons are keeping within brotherhood doctrine."
Hardin felt a small smile break out on his face. However on seeing Sarah's stern look he quickly schooled himself.
"However… a valid point has been brought to my attention. Your lack of experience as a paladin. Some among my council believe that this shortfall is grounds for your removal as squad leader… I am inclined to agree.
"Yet your squad has proven itself to be effective even with a man down, and I see no reason to break it up. Nor do I see a reason to stifle your development. So effective immediately you are to stand down as squad leader and to take up a role as second in command." her gaze shifted to Lukas. "Paladin Lukas, you are to take up the role of squad leader."
She finished her verdict and the short silence seemed to last forever for Hardin as he digested the information.
"That concluded this meeting, you're all dismissed." Everyone present stood and gave a salute. "Paladin Hardin, remain behind. I want to speak to you."
He gave a small nod to the rest of the squad as they left, He stood stock still as everyone filtered out of the room. Finally, the two of them were alone, he watched in silence as an unseen tension seemed to diffuse out of her body.
Sarah let out a long sigh. "You're not in trouble, paladin, don't worry."
"Yes ma'am."
"I really do agree with what happened. I know some people's opinions differ from mine but the position of the brotherhood should always be against those who would seek to do harm." Her head dipped slightly. "While I recognize that Paladin Lukas made the call, but as squad leader any punishment falls on you. And some of the old guard still value seniority over anything else."
"The fact of the matter is that I can't afford to alienate those people, especially not now, and this 'punishment' is the best of both worlds." She tapped on a file on her desk, Hardin could see his name on it. "Paladin Gunny has nothing but good things to say about your performance, and from what I've seen he's right. Lukas has plenty of experience under his belt, take this time and learn what you can from him."
"Don't let this knock you down… You've got a bright future ahead of you. You're talented and I don't want to see that go to waste." She stared firmly at him as she spoke. "Do you understand?"
"I understand."
—
Sarah Lyons laid down exhausted in her bed, her mind refusing to go to sleep.
After she had dismissed Hardin, she'd made her way back to her office only for Rothschild to approach her and 'advise' that she go and get some rest. He was right, she had barely gotten any sleep in the past few days, and there had been a constant stream of things to do.
How her father managed to do all that he did and still have time for her, she didn't know. But after considering it, she figured the present circumstances to be the exception, not the rule.
'Doesn't make it any easier though'.
She barely registered the footsteps outside of her tent. Only when she heard a familiar voice did she react. "I figured you wouldn't be sleeping."
Turning to face her old friend she smiled. "Vargas!" She quickly stood and made her way to her mentor to embrace him in a hug only to hesitate for a second.
Fortunately, the decision was made for her as Vargas stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, to which she returned the favour. They stayed like this for a minute silently enjoying the others' presence before they parted.
"It's so good to see you kid."
"Kid? You know you're only four years older than me."
"You'll always be a kid to me, Sarah." Seeing the tears in Sarah's eyes threatening to burst out, he gave a long sigh. "About Elder Lyons… your father, I'm sorry."
"There's nothing you could have-"
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "I know you better than anyone else. You're strong, brave and you run head first at your problems without regard to yourself."
"When you're confronted by an unfamiliar problem, you work yourself to the bone, you lose sleep because you're all caught up in here." He tapped on her head. "You push yourself so hard to distract yourself. It happened with John and it's happening now."
At the mention of the missing member of the Lyons pride, Sarah's head dipped and her eyes darkened. The months after his disappearance were hard, and Vargas was right, that was exactly what she did.
It was only through the coaxing of those around her that she put herself back together. But now, things are different. The loss she felt hit harder than she thought possible and the burden on her shoulder only increased.
"I need to step up. I need to… But I don't know if I can." She spoke softly. "Everyone's looking at me but I don't know what to do. And now we're fighting against the locals."
Vargas said nothing and let her vent. "The Codex says one of our chief tenets is 'Protect and preserve the technology of old, lest it fall into the hands of destruction'. That doesn't apply here, barely any of it does, half the Codex is in shreds."
"What am I supposed to tell them we're fighting for? This place, this planet… it doesn't need us." She stopped and slumped her shoulders, her exhaustion showing.
Vargas would be lying if he said that nothing she said resonated with him. To have everything they'd ever known be uprooted and thrown quite literally into outer space. It certainly wasn't easy to deal with.
He'd thought about it and hadn't come up with an answer, only pieces. But if there was one person he knew could do something like that, it would be Sarah Lyons.
It took a lot to break her like she was right now. When training Sarah in her early years, one of the worst things she'd do to herself was get in her own head. But Vargas knew how to get her out of it.
"When I finally got here, one of my first stops was the infirmary. I was checking on some of the people who got wounded and what do I see but an unknown alien lying on one of the cots. I asked the scribes and they told me that they'd been rescued from a slave ship."
"I talked to Hardin too… he told me about how we set up near this village. How he and some knights came to their defence. And I spent the past few days helping members of this planet's militia run from a corrupt police force."
"Maybe if we weren't here they would be ok, but we are here anyway. We can have a purpose, we can help people." He paused to let his words sink in. "My mentor, Paladin Ernst. He was there when your father, our Elder, came to DC. He would tell me about the changes he made to the doctrine, he'd say how he was changing the Brotherhood for the better."
His mentor had picked him up when he was young, personally training a young Vargas. In between, and even sometimes during, his training, Ernst would talk about his meetings with Elder Lyons.
The way he spoke about him would make you think he hated the man, but Vargas knew he talked that way about everyone. Beneath his mentor's foul language was an appreciation for doing the right thing. Something he'd passed down to Vargas.
"What I mean to say is that just like with your father all those years ago the world around us has changed. And with it, the Brotherhood must follow suit." He stepped forward and embraced her in another hug, this time she simply accepted it. "You're right about what the Codex says, but to me, it seems that the 'hands of destruction' already have a grip on technology."
"I don't know if I can take on that task." She spoke, her voice wobbling with concern.
"I know you can." He looked her dead in the eyes. "I know that I and many others will back you to the hills."
"Don't worry kid. You can do this."
—
Sholn Raa liked to think he had struck a pretty good balance in his life. As a child, he had always dreamed of galavanting around space blaster in one hand and the other holding the hand of a sexy girl.
His father had tried to temper his expectations. The old man was a buckweed farmer on Eridicon and had the grand expectation for his children to take over his farm.
So in his early twenties, Sholn decided to run away to go on a space adventure. His 'adventure' ended pretty damn quickly and he spent the first five years of his life as a dry dock worker on Mon-Cala.
Certainly wasn't what he'd expected, but looking back with hindsight, he was damn lucky. Eventually, his time as a labourer paid off and one of the friends he'd made hooked him up with a freighter contract.
His friend had explained that he'd have to serve on a freighter ship in a certain role for a fixed amount of time, but if he did a good job he'd probably get priority for contract renewal. That first job was damn awful, he was either cleaning, sleeping or getting hazed for being a newbie.
But that first job had sent him on this career path. Nearly ten years now he'd been taking freighter contracts, he'd busted his ass and with no small sprinkling of luck he'd secured a long-term contract as a navigation assistant with a mon-cala based shipping company.
Sholn snorted to himself, it sounded a hell of a lot more official than the job actually was. All he had to do was watch the sensor array, and if any serious problem occurred he was to hand it off to someone else. It suited him just fine and it paid a hell of a lot better too.
"I'm telling you, Xir'dan giant deepwater bass is one of if not one of the best catches on this year's catalogue."
The crew quarters he was resting in doubled as a small recreation area. Currently occupying it was Sholn as well as another Mon-calamari and a Quarren, the two of which were reverently arguing over a game of cards.
"And clearly you've never really been fishing." The Quarren retorted. "When you lock eyes with a Cordian red, it's something special… it lunges and you spear the bastard. Ohh there's no better feeling in the world."
"You damn squid heads and your spearfishing." The Mon-cala rolled his eyes. "Hey, Sholn."
He lowered his datapad to look at who had called his name.
"What's your best catch?"
He had to think for a moment. "Well, I did nail an Eridicon Gravel shark once."
"Damn really!" "No way!" They replied simultaneously.
"Did you reel it or spear it?"
"Nah, I shot it."
Both men groaned, their excitement deflating. Before either of them could go on a rant about how using a blaster didn't count as 'fishing', the door to the room opened. A Mon-calamari he recognized as one of the other comm assistants poked his head in.
"Sholn! Captain wants you on this shift. Gux just showed up from shore leave and he's absolutely wasted."
Sholn immediately shot up from his seat. "You mean I get to be on take-off duty." The Mon-cala nodded. "Nice!"
Sholn rushed out of the room, constantly making small adjustments to his uniform. For some people in this career, planetary takeoff and hyperspace jumps got boring. Not for Sholn, this was by no means his first rodeo but he still loved the feeling he'd get.
Stepping into the command deck, the captain gave him a quick look. "Thank you for responding so quickly to your colleagues… mishap." He motioned to an empty seat. "Get to your station, Halock will fill you in."
Not needing to be told twice, Sholn moved quickly to the seat. Beginning his checks he was approached by the comm officers. "Get that preflight stuff done ASAP, we're scheduled for take-off in fifteen."
"Yes, sir"
The time seemed to pass quickly as he went through the motions of his role. No sooner than he was finished the ship's engines warmed up, sending a low hum throughout the ship.
"Lantilles control, do you read me? I repeat Lantilles control, do you read me." The captain spoke into his mic.
"This is Lantillies control tower A-41 we read you." A human voice came from the comm channel. "You are clear for takeoff. Transmitting your flight path now."
A ping on his screen, and like clockwork Sholn began loading the plan. "Flight path received." He announced.
The captain nodded. "Very well. Helm, take us away."
Sholn took a moment to look away from his screen to look out the viewport. He watched with no small amount of glee as the ship rose past the clouds and the sky shifted from blue to black, revealing the stars in all their glory.
"Thank you, Lantillies control. The Oceans Bloom is away."
"Good luck Oceans bloom." The connection was cut off.
The captain took in a long breath, staring out into space. "Navigation." He looked and an officer nodded to him. "Excellent. Take us to hyperspace."
AN: hope your enjoying the story so far. Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been playing too much Elden Ring. :)
In terms of the amount of personnel the Brotherhood has, I have to say this is a subject I've been humming and hawing about. Trying to find a balance between game and realistic is hard (because it's fiction), but I've put the number of BOS personnel somewhere about 2,000 - 3,000 with about 1,000 or so being front line soldiers. This to me strikes a reasonable balance between game and real life (IRL pentagon has about 25,000 staff). Not that any of this is gonna be relevant, I don't intend to make a deal out of specific numbers just estimates.
Anyway hope you enjoy. :)