Chapter 10 – The Brotherhood Reimagined
The walk up to the old military bunker only took a couple of hours and the team were there by midday.
"All the turrets are off." Cait mentioned as she walked alongside Nate, "I wonder why?"
"Maybe they have seen us coming and have shut them down to be nice." Piper suggested from a few paces behind.
"Well let's go say hello and introduce ourselves." Nate moved towards the front entrance shouldering his weapon.
The team entered the small bunker building and could immediately see that the structure housed a small reception area as well as stairs down into the main complex.
Valkyrie moved up to stand the other side of Nate and said quietly, "this used to be the Boston branch of the DEW Line."
Cait gave Valkyrie a questioning look.
"Distant Early Warning line. A kind of radar curtain watching the US Canadian border for incoming ICBM's from the north."
"They did well then, didn't they." Cait said sarcastically.
Nate moved up to a figure who was stood behind a counter at the far end of the bunker. After a short conversation he returned to where the team had collected.
"So, what was that about?" Piper asked, looking back over to the man Nate had just been chatting to.
"That's Chuck and he's nice. Once I mentioned the Prime schematics, he was very interested and has allowed us in. We are to find a knight called Fiona McBride." Nate pointed to a pair of large double doors through which a number of people had passed since the team had arrived at the bunker. "It's this way."
The team followed and descending the stairs arrived at the first of two floors that marked the main part of the complex. Both floors of the bunker had a central area with several rooms off each side wall. The upper level had a large open space in the central section, which afforded a view down to the floor below. It was busy and there were dozens of people moving around from room to room, most in the very distinguishable uniform of the Brotherhood of Steel.
"Shit!" Cait shouted as she drew her weapon and aimed it at a Supermutant who had just walked out of a room to the teams right.
"Haha, do not worry Human," the huge green skinned figure said in a calm voice, "I am Grabthar, I am like you, a brother here."
Cait slowly lowered her rifle, "sorry," she said quietly.
"Well, that's not something I ever thought I would see!" Exclaimed Piper as they headed to the Cafeteria, where they were told they would meet their contact.
The cafeteria was a small version of the central part of the complex, with an open section looking down to a swimming pool below. To the left there was a bar with a ghoul serving behind it in the outfit of a scribe.
"What can I get you?" asked the friendly ghoul.
"I'm looking for a Fiona McBride." Nate asked.
The ghoul turned and indicated to a young woman leaning over the banisters, watching the swimmers below.
Heading towards her, the woman turned as she noticed Nate and the team approaching.
"Hey there, anything I can do for you?" She asked.
"I have some information that might prove beneficial to the both of us. It's classified, but I can tell you it involves Liberty Prime." Nate said.
"Now there's something you don't hear every day. Can you show me what you are talking about?" Fiona asked.
Seeing no harm in letting her look at the schematics, Nate nodded to Valkyrie who handed the folder and tape to Fiona. "Sure. Here you go," Valkyrie said cheerily.
"Liberty Prime override codes. Is this what I think it is?" Fiona had a look of surprise on her face.
"Why don't you tell me what's so interesting about this?" Valkyrie asked.
Looking into her own Pipboy, Fiona smiled, "If the info on this holo tape is real, this accelerates our timeline. There's a plan we've been working on…. A project to oust Maxson and return the Brotherhood of Steel to the ideas of Owyn Lyons. But it's easier said than done."
Piper moved up to stand next to Valkyrie, "What do you mean by that?" She asked.
"The nonsense from Henry Casdin and his gang runs pretty deep in the Brotherhood these days. And that's not something that changes overnight. I'll see what I can do about turning these codes into a functional remote control for Prime. In the meantime, there's a friend of mine you should meet."
"Ok, so why do you want us to meet this person." Nate asked Fiona.
"It's important, now that you have bought us this. She's stationed in a safe house nearby. There's not much else I can share except to say she is the key to moving this forward."
"Ok, give me a sec will you." Nate smiled at Fiona.
"Of course." She said, as she walked off to the bar.
"Right, that was weird." Cait said.
"Hmm, do we want to get involved in a plan to overthrow the Brotherhood leader. That's a bit outside our comfort zone, isn't it?" Nate looked at his companions.
"Saying that, less and less seems to be outside our comfort zone these days." Piper said dryly.
"Hmm, there is that." Nate agreed.
"Well, you are the boss, sweetie, you tell us what to do." Cait smiled at her boyfriend, with an expression of sympathy on her face.
"Not for this," Nate shook his head, "this is a team decision." He looked around.
"This is pretty heavy stuff." Piper blew out her cheeks, "but … from what I have been told, Maxson is a bit of a jerk and very strident in his views."
"Our friend Chuck, upstairs, said he was more like a fascist." Nate looked to Valkyrie. Cait pulled a face at that.
"What's a fascist?" Cait asked.
Nate held up a finger just as Curie was about to open her mouth to speak, "Curie, tell her on the walk home, ok?"
They all laughed as Curie blushed and closed her mouth.
"Right now, we need to decide if we are in or out of this." Nate raised his eyebrows.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to meet this person, does it?" Curie asked.
Nate looked at the other girls, who all nodded their approval. Turning away from his team, Nate headed over to where Fiona was sat at the bar and had a quick conversation with her. As he returned to his group, he entered some information into his PipBoy. "Right then, I've got the coordinates, and they are just over the river. Let's at least see what this mystery person has to say. Oh, and Fiona wants us to take the kid." Nate nodded to a young boy stood by the doorway into the cafeteria, dressed in a Brotherhood Squires uniform.
"He's just a baby!" Piper smiled. "How old are you?" she asked the child.
"Erm, thirteen." The boy answered, obviously lying. He then smiled, "I mean I will be someday. I am only nine for now, but I will be ten real soon."
"And why are we taking you with us?" Cait asked the boy.
"I'm Owen, you are taking me to see my mom." He grinned. "That's who you are meeting."
"And who is your mom?" Nate asked
"I'm not really supposed to talk about her. It's been hard not seeing her that often, so I appreciate you doing this."
"You stick next to me, ok?" Piper placed her hand on Owen's shoulder.
He nodded, "I heard some of the scouts in the bunker talking. They said you are really good at fighting Raiders and Super Mutants. Maybe if we are lucky, we might come across some on the way, and you can teach me how to fight."
"You just keep behind me and let's get you to your Mom safely, then we can talk about teaching you to fight, alright?" Piper ruffled Owen's hair.
"Well, war isn't a game kid but let's get out of here." Nate ordered as the team turned to the stairs out of the bunker.
The location that Nate had for the safe house was just over the other side of the Charles River. The team planned to cross at the lock and dam complex that lay directly west of their current location. Forming up into the standard patrol formation, with Owen and Piper in the centre, the team headed off through the woodland that scattered the eastern side of the river. Passing an old radio relay station, Cait, who was taking point signalled for the team to stop and take a knee.
Nate moved up to join Cait who was looking through the sights on her rifle.
"We have movement around the little encampment this side of the dam, see, down there." Cait pointed down the slope towards the top of the dam. The whole structure had a flat single-track road running across the top, with two small buildings situated one at each end. The nearest end of the dam had a small encampment stretching across the road, with several makeshift tents and a cooking pot over a fire. Looking through his rifle sights Nate could see two figures moving about within the camp.
"They look like raiders." Cait said.
"Hmm, you might be right, but let's not kill innocent people if we don't have to." Nate kept scanning the area with his rifle. "I'll go down and start a conversation, can you and V keep an eye on our two friends." Nate turned and signalled Valkyrie to join them.
After issuing orders and with Cait and Valkyrie sighting the two figures in the camp with their rifles, Nate started to walk towards the Dam.
"Hey!" One of the figures shouted as Nate got closer. Nate saw the other reach for a weapon they had lying on the ground.
"We just want to pass." Nate shouted.
"Hell no!" The first figure shouted back and raised his weapon to fire. Just as quickly both figures dropped as Cait and Valkyrie took them out. Nate spun just in time to catch a third raider come through the door of the small building this side of the dam. She died as Nate shot her twice in the chest. Nate then paused and waited to see if there were any more enemy before signalling to the remainder of his team.
"That was awesome!" Owen exclaimed as he came to stand next to one of the fallen raiders. Looking at the boy, Nate smiled as Owen had a shortened combat rifle in his hands, a weapon he must have collected when leaving the bunker. Given the kick one of those things gave, Nate could see the boy being knocked off his feet if he ever tried to fire it. Well at least it would make him feel safe, Nate thought.
The team made their way, carefully over the dam and past the lock system that had once transported vessels through the different levels of the river. Arriving at the other side, Nate fanned the team out as he checked his PipBoy for the exact location of the bunker.
"Oh, it's over here." Peter stated as he walked towards a fallen tree. Disappearing from view for a second, the team heard the creek of a metal door and a whistle.
"I like this kid," Piper smiled as she moved past Nate and headed to the bunker entrance.
The small personal shelter was accessed by a ladder and once the team were down, they made their way along a short corridor before entering the living quarters.
Nate, who was the first to enter the living space, was met by the barrel of a laser weapon, pointed at him.
"Not a step further." Ordered the middle-aged woman holding the weapon.
"It's alright, I'm not here to hurt you." Nate put his hands up as he moved aside to let the rest of the team into the room.
"We'll see about that. No sudden moves, alright." The woman responded.
Owen then stepped out from behind Piper, "Mom, don't worry, it's cool. They're with me."
"Owen, Sweetie, you ok?" His mother asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Look Mom, you really need to see this. You're never going to believe what we've found." Owen stated excitedly.
"Uh oh, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" His mom asked, smiling.
"You know those stories you always tell me about Liberty Prime? Well, these guys have found the source codes to hack into him. Fiona's gonna build a remote control with the codes, and then we can guide Prime remotely. Make him shoot at the Prydwen, Preston Garvey, or whatever target we want. How fuckin' cool is that!" Owen grinned.
"Owen! Language, we've talked about this." Owen's mom shot back. "Now one step at a time there champ. It's a little more complicated than that. Let's not get carried away." She walked over to Owen and rested her hands on his shoulders. "Thank you," she flashed a smile at Piper, who had been looking after Owen. Piper blushed bright red.
"Ok, so what's really going on here, who are you anyway?" Nate lowered his hands.
"Its ok, Mom," Owen looked up to his mother's face, "he's a friend, you can trust him."
"I don't think so. Only four people know the truth and I am not about to jepor…" Owen's Mom said before she froze. "Wait, did you hear that? Someone's here." She then shouted, pointing back towards the entrance corridor.
Curie, who was closest to the door leading to the entrance passageway listened in at the door, readying her weapon. She looked at Nate and nodded, the team all reacted by raising their own weapons.
Nate signalled to Curie to open the door and no sooner had Curie pressed the button to operate the sliding door, than a Brotherhood Knight in power armour tried to barge through.
"We have her," the voice shouted from behind the metal mask as the knight raised his weapon.
Seeing the threat, the team opened up and the armour-clad Brotherhood soldier flew backwards into a teammate that was coming up behind him. The second soldier was knocked to the floor by the body of the first as the team continued to fire through the doorway. All four Brotherhood soldiers died trying to enter the first room of the complex, the doorway acting as a choke point, stalling their attack.
Owens mom then took control and moved through the same doorway to check the entrance corridor and main hatch to the bunker.
"We're clear out here, stand down." She commanded as she returned to join Nate and his team. "I think you owe me some answers." She snapped, looking directly at Nate. "You show up here out of the blue, and not two minutes later we get attacked. How do you explain that?"
Nate, who was taken aback by the accusation, quickly recovered. "Fine, you got me, I'm an institute spy and we want our data back." He smiled sardonically.
"Erm, I think that may have been my fault. I kinda forgot to lock the door again on my way in, sorry." Owen looked sheepishly at his mom.
"Owen, really, how many times do I have to remind you. There are some crazy motherfuckers out there." The woman responded back.
"Mom, language!" Owen exclaimed.
"Um, hello." Nate called everyone's attention back to the bodies of the four Brotherhood of Steel soldiers lying on the floor.
"Sorry, it's been one of those days." Owens mum responded. "Look, I know you have questions but it is not safe here. We need to find a more secure location. Let me grab some supplies and we can get out of here."
Nate nodded as the woman moved back into the bunker complex and out of sight. Piper, who had spotted a terminal in the adjacent room to where the team were stood, moved through and sat down at the computer. Whilst Nate would have usually warned against such behaviour, he was just as keen as Piper was to find out who this woman was and why the Brotherhood were trying to kill her.
As the remainder of the team searched the fallen brotherhood soldiers for any reason why they had targeted one of their own, Piper powered up the computer.
The machine booted up and presented Piper with a choice of eleven entries from what was obviously the owners diary.
"So, your name is Sarah then?" Piper said to herself as she looked back at the woman who was in the other room. The woman who had made her blush so unexpectedly.
"Well at least we know her name now." Nate said as he came into the room making Piper jump.
Breaking Piper from her daydream, she looked back at the computer screen. "It's her diary, I feel bad for doing this." Piper pulled a face.
"It's alright, I'll spank you for it later," Nate smiled, "but for the moment let's get to the bottom of this."
Piper gave Nate a look. "You have such a dad sense of humour."
"Oh, come on, that was funny…" Nate patted Piper's shoulder, "so, what do we have here?" He asked looking at the screen.
"One Night Stand, Father's Passing, Being Elder is Rough, that's it I'm Out, In Hiding, Birth of My Son, Boston? Fusion City, Elder Maxson? The 'Brotherhood of Gold' Really? Project Valkyrie. Where should we start?" Piper asked as she looked over her shoulder.
"Hmm," Nate read the list, "Being Elder is rough, sounds interesting."
Piper navigated down to the fourth entry on the list.
As the page opened, Piper began to read aloud.
"I may be a good soldier, but I don't think I'm cut out for this Elder bullshit. It's the same old in-fighting: finding tech vs helping the local community. I get why they're not happy about using BoS resources to distribute free water, but it's freakin' water we're talking about … it's the right thing to do.
I feel like this is a ticking time bomb. Support for my father's philosophy continues to wane, and the whispers for compromise and reintegration with the outcasts seem to grow louder every day.
The latest rift is this Prydwen debacle…
I get that we can use mostly supplies from the Enclave to build it, but at the end of the day, the only way to power would be to loot the power plant from Rivet City, which I am not willing to do under any circumstances."
Piper returned to the main menu and selected 'One Night Stand.' "Hey, I'm intrigued alright, don't judge." Piper looked up to Nate.
"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that … he's barely even legal. It was heat of the moment though… we'd just taken Adam's Air Force Base from the Enclave. A few shots of whiskey… the right
music… those abs… I couldn't resist. I hope he sticks around but I doubt it."
Piper chuckled, "naughty girl, so that explains where Owen came from."
Back to the menu, Nate pointed to 'In Hiding.' Piper navigated to the entry and began to read again.
"They bought it… I think.
Couldn't have done it without Chuck's help.
It was a gnarly explosion he rigged up. The collapsing second story really sold it. Hope it's enough to convince the Brotherhood why they didn't find a body.
Some enquiring scribe will surely ask why an Elder was fighting in the field, and that's not really a plot hole we'll ever be able to cover up… it's the best we could do on short notice.
I'm hoping they'll just sweep it under the rug. This is, after all, what the Brotherhood ultimately wanted.
Not thrilled with the safe house Fiona has set me up with but it will have to do. I just hope they can keep me in the loop."
"So, our friend over there was an Elder in the Brotherhood of Steel, impressive." Nate raised his eyebrows as he took a look at the middle-aged woman he could see through the doorway. She hadn't noticed the two of them snooping yet as she was dressing her son in some armour, cutting pieces off where his height stopped the piece from fitting properly.
"You can check a few more." Nate nodded to Piper who turned and selected the entry titled, 'Elder Maxson.'
"Owen's fifth birthday party is next week. Where did the time go?
Got word from Chuck that he and a few others are moving up here for good.
I thought it was a joke, but apparently the brotherhood actually appointed a 16-year old as Elder.
I feel awful for Arthur. Can't imagine the mind-fuck Cardin and his gang must have pulled on him the past five years.
Apparently, he and the Brotherhood have gone full outcast. Even the power armour colours have been changed from the traditional silver and blue over to black and red.
It will be great to reconnect with Chuck, Mike and Fiona.
I've scoped out an old bunker where they can set up shop, just south of what used to be Oberland Station. It needs a ton of work though.
This Fusion City place is a trip. They've got their fingers in everything. Made some friends in unlikely places. Even a few from the Institute."
"Yes, she definitely has some explaining to do." Nate nodded as he took another look outside to the hallway.
Piper chose the entry with the title 'the Brotherhood of Gold, really?'
"After nearly four years, the bunker near Oberland is nearly done.
Chuck said we need to come up with a name. Can't very well call ourselves Lyon's Pride, or the Brotherhood of Steel.
Owen said we should call ourselves 'The Brotherhood of Gold' because we have a heart of gold.
I laughed, but some of the others liked it. So apparently that's what we're going with.
Owen is going to move in there and start training as a Squire.
Fusion City has been good to us, but I don't want Owen exposed to some of the seedier elements here as he gets older…. And besides, he's almost nine. It's time to start to train him properly.
There's a safe house we're building across the river from the base at Oberland. I'm going to move in there and help finish the place.
I'll miss seeing Owen every day, but at least I'll be close by.
The hope is that someday I can come out of hiding, but it's too risky for me now."
"Alright," Nate rested his hand on Piper's shoulder, "call up the last one and then let's go."
Piper opened the last post on the computer, titled 'Project Valkyrie.'
"Mike is hopeful. A Brotherhood of Steel recon team has set up shop at the Cambridge Police Station.
Chuck tipped off the Nantick Banks Raiders about their presence. They managed to take out half the recon team.
Fiona, Mike and Chuck seem to think this is the start of something bigger.
If Maxson is foolish enough to put all his eggs in one basket and fly the Prydwen up here, that may provide the opportunity to initiate the end game of taking back the Brotherhood.
"Project Valkyrie" they're calling it. They say the name is based on a World War II coup, but in reality they probably just wanted something that sounded cool.
Taking back the Brotherhood will be no easy task. At least we have the home court advantage."
Nate squeezed Pipers shoulders, "Come on, we have what we need."
The two of them left the side room with the computer and joined the rest of the team who were changing magazines and preparing to exit the bunker.
Sarah approached Nate, "We're not going to come back here anytime soon. Did you grab what you needed." She was pointing to the equipment lockers. "By the way, I saw you accessing my terminal. Find anything interesting?"
"Just trying to figure out who you are." Nate answered honestly.
"So now all you lot know… great. Any questions?" Sarah looked at Nate and Piper.
"Don't worry, we'll keep your secret." Piper reassured Sarah.
"Thanks, I appreciate that." Sarah relaxed.
"We all have our secrets." Piper smiled as she turned to prepare herself to leave the bunker.
"On to the matter at hand." Sarah moved to stand next to Nate and addressed the entire team. "The Brotherhood doesn't attempt hits like this without backup. More soldiers are likely camped out nearby. One way or another we'll need to take them out. There's a town just outside the bunker. That's probably where their reinforcements are located. You think you can handle this?"
"Don't you worry about us," Cait said in a matter-of-fact tone, "you just keep Owen with you, right." She commanded as she moved up to the door to the underground bunker.
"Let's go." Nate ordered to the team.
"Owen, you stay behind me. No hero bullshit, understood?" Sarah said to her son who was stood next to Curie awkwardly holding his over sized weapon.
He rolled his eyes, "There she goes again. And she wonders where I get it from."
The team moved up behind Cait and Nate held up his hand for silence. Everyone was quiet and Sarah turned to hold her finger up to her lips for Owen. His upset face showed he understood the signal and didn't want his Mom showing him up in front of his team.
Cait leant her ear against the door and then gently gave it a push. It lifted enough to allow her to take a peek out and after a few minutes of looking around, signalled all clear. The team moved slowly out of the bunker and headed for the nearby town, and a likely encounter with the Brotherhood of Steel.
