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It was only by nightfall when the recon team decided that the time for waiting their enemies out was over. And by then, Brand's extraction team had arrived on site and was now heading for the wreck of the Centaur. The Shieldbearers, perfectly concealed atop the hills and canyons, standing beyond the reach of Dominion guns, broke cover and marched into the cactus valley.
Hulking juggernauts of steel wrapped in layers of heavy armor, they were a sight to see in that empty wilderness. Up until the war, the Dominion rarely encountered things that proved a match for their war machines. Time and time again, the Brotherhood eagerly whittled down this perceived invincibility with their new weapons.
Seeing that their window was closing, the Dominion soldiers prepared to shoot their way out of the valley and get beyond the range of the Brotherhood railguns. Brand, hoping to avoid having to kill these brave men needlessly, waited for his chance to reveal his true colors and end the battle before it begins. He got his chance when the rooks were preparing to move their wounded onto the remaining jeeps.
Adrenaline coursed through his veins, causing his hands to tremble until they grew as steady as a rock. He positioned himself in a way that he could cover the entire group within his cone of fire. Nimbly, the paladin placed the stock of his carbine onto his shoulder and pointed its barrel at the rooks closest to the jeeps. There were fifteen men that presented a danger to him should they decide to fight back. When he realized this, Brand fished around his belt for a frag grenade and pulled the pin with his teeth.
The click of the safety pin slipping free from the grenade alerted the other rooks to his actions. The men closest to him eyed him with a mix of alarm and bewilderment. Willing his voice to be clear and firm, Brand ordered the men to surrender.
"Drop your weapons, rooks." He repeated it a second time, "I said drop 'em. Now!"
"Pig-Iron, what the hell are you doing?" Rush demanded.
"I would very much like to end this without killing you lot." Brand replied, "I won't say it again."
The noise of the approaching Brotherhood assault teams caused four rooks to gamble with the odds, and they made a move for their weapons. Brand didn't hesitate to gun them down. It wasn't long before everyone else started shooting. Dominion rooks were trained to fight back, even harder when cornered, as Brand soon found out for himself. The fight drew the assault teams in like moths to a flame, and soon the towering silhouettes of the mechs loomed over the killzone. Brand lobbed the grenade at the recon team and dove for cover, killing three other rooks and wounding a fourth, Rush.
The other seven decided it was best to retreat while their window was still open, and they made a run for the jeeps to make a swift exit into the wilderness. They didn't get far as their lightly armored vehicles were reduced to molten slag by Brotherhood laser-fire.
After the noise of gunfire died down, Brand slowly emerged from the wreck of the Centaur and approached the Brotherhood assault teams with his hands raised. "Don't shoot! It's me, Paladin Danik Brand! I am of the Brotherhood of Steel!"
One of the Shieldbearers lumbered over to him, it got close enough for Brand to see through the glass of the cockpit and get a good view of the lancer-pilot's face. She was a teenager, barely over the age of sixteen. Why the Elder allowed kids to be out in the frontlines, Brand hadn't the slightest idea.
"Great work, paladin. You've led them right into our hands." One of the knights said as he approached the spy. He put an armored hand on Brand's forearm in greeting. "You're coming with us. The Knight-Commander will want to hear what you have to say."
Suddenly, there was a loud foomph as a 40mm grenade launched through the air and shattered the Shieldbearer's 2-inch thick cockpit glass. Then, the cockpit itself burst into flames and the mech toppled backwards into the dust.
Brand whirled around to see Rush holding up a smoking grenade launcher as he leaned against the Centaur wreck. His face was bloody from all the shrapnel from the frag grenade he threw earlier, and there were two cauterized holes from laser-fire bored through his armor and into his midsection. He didn't have much strength left in him to keep standing, and the rook slid down in a heap.
"You fucking traitor..." He spat as he glared at Brand.
The spy raised his carbine at his former friend and slowly shook his head, "Should've surrendered, you poor fool."
"Go to-"
Brand emptied the last of the clip into Rush and tossed the weapon away in disgust. It would be the last time he'd ever fire a Dominion weapon. Although, he suspected his days as an infiltrator were far from over.
There were still some wounded rooks left for the Brotherhood to make use of, so they loaded them up into a truck and headed back to their forward base in the mountains at the edge of the cactus valley. In the safety of the natural fortress of rock and limestone, the Brotherhood was able to establish an fortified position that could weather the Dominion's attacks from the air as well as their artillery. Manpower and materials were moved into the stronghold, and before long the once empty mountain was abuzz with activity. Although Brand was grateful and relieved to be among his people once more, he wasn't as happy as he hoped.
Their first attempts at pushing through the Dominion frontier gave them much needed ground, but because of their failure to take one city all of that momentum amounted to nothing. Now, they were in danger of being pushed back into the Basin.
And just earlier that day, the Brotherhood had lost a sister.
"Paladin Brand!" Knight-Commander McKenzie greeted him personally as he was brought into her headquarters in the middle of the mountain stronghold. All around her were tables set up with various communication and charting equipment, which had already become the traditional scene of every Brotherhood office since they emerged from Lost Hills. "The Brotherhood welcomes and commends you for your valiant efforts behind enemy lines. I apologize for the sorry state you've found us in at the moment..."
"Don't." Brand replied, "You've held up your end just as well, even in the face of overwhelming odds. You've more than earned the right to hold those stripes."
"Thank you, paladin. It means a lot hearing that from you. Please, if there's anything I can do for you."
"I'd like a suit of armor for myself. I've worn these Dominion rags for far too long, and I'd really like to get out of them asap."
Kenzie gestured for the quartermaster to make the preparations to accommodate his request, "That can be arranged. If you would suffer a few more minutes with me, I'd like to get started with a proper debrief. Why don't we start with what you've learned concerning the defenses of Riverside?"
Karter woke up to a dark room with a single unblinking lamp shedding a blinding white curtain of light over her.
Her head, swollen and pounding with a dozen little sledgehammers working up and down her skull, felt so heavy that she thought it would fall right off her neck. Glancing down, she realized she was lying on top of a hospital bed, handcuffed to the railings.
Her clothes were gone, except for her underwear.
Karter tried to remember the events that occurred prior to her internment at the Dominion black site. Although a bit fuzzy, there was enough for her to piece together what happened before she blacked out.
A lab. Some scientists in white coats, and some curious machines wheeled into the room. The Dominion soldiers dragged her to a leather chair and strapped her in. Then, someone pricked her arm with a needle. After that, she couldn't remember anything else.
She tried to lean forward and raise her hands to her head, but the cuffs wouldn't let her get far. Karter groaned, immediately regretting her decision as the heavy pounding doubled down and the sledgehammers started hitting her brain.
"Ow. Ow. Ow."
Lifting her eyes to peer into the darkness, the scribe realized she could see her faint reflection in the two-way glass covering the walls around her, as if someone deliberately placed her there to watch her.
And someone was watching.
Behind the four-inch thick two-way glass walls, several Dominion security teams kept a close eye on Karter. As far as they were concerned, the woman was responsible for the biggest attack ever perpetrated against the Dominion military and on Dominion soil. The rest of the intel was kept under wraps. Whatever Dr. Holiday's team found while digging through her memories with the experimental memory-scanning technology they came up with, they didn't want just anyone getting privy with the details.
Their discretion was another step towards the right path to victory. Up until the attacks, the Dominion had grown lax in their security measures concerning infiltrators. After twenty years of facing the backward and savage people of the Wasteland, it was easy to let one's guard down when the last anyone would be worried about was someone infiltrating the ranks and spying for the enemy.
Calls for certain precautionary measures were made, but the sudden shift in the Dominion's attitude was not at all hard to implement. After all, the Old Blood generation was still around. And they knew how treacherous the times were in Old America when the Red Menace remained ever the unseen threat.
"Once, a long time ago..." Roman Stern, the aesir, leaned over the holomap depicting the entirety of Texas Post-Great War. "We ruled over fifty states and were so close to winning over communism. Now look at this..."
He glanced up at the other aesir transhuman soldiers standing ready around the holomap table. Gavin West, Danny Fade and Harry Kidman. Three of the longest serving specialists in the Dominion military, who were now Stern's handpicked officers for his newly formed special operations force- Blackwatch. Even their uniforms had changed. From the olive green or desert camo pattern, to black bordered with dark orange.
"All the trouble we have to go through just to find one wasteland faction in one fucking state."
"Well, at least we know now where they're coming from." Gavin West crossed his arms, "When are we hitting back?"
"Very very soon, Commander West." Stern replied, his blue eyes flickering with cold contempt as he stared at the little basin sitting in the middle of nowhere out in the Texan Wasteland. Already, his mind was full of the myriad of ideas on how he'd lead the armies of the Dominion across the desert, driving back their enemies until they put their backs against the wall. A dozen different strategies, half could expend the Dominion's resources and end up failing altogether. And the other half just might give them the momentum they need to get to the Basin.
The Brotherhood was currently attacking them at two fronts, Northwest and South at Riverside. They were relying a lot on their airships and their fleet of vertibirds. A resourceful bunch, and a refreshing change from the undisciplined raider warbands that plagued the frontier. The Dominion needed a challenge, something to aspire to other than just enlarging their territory.
Blackwatch would operate under a different strategy from the Army. They would be deployed behind enemy lines, eliminating high value targets and systematically weakening enemy opposition in advance of a planned invasion. A colorful term for the work of assassins, but winning a war didn't rely on morality and ethics.
The dirtier one fights, the quicker the war ends. And since the Brotherhood proved that even they could fight dirty, it was a clear message to the Dominion that everything was fair play.
That same black site they were holding the Brotherhood prisoners served as the provisional Blackwatch headquarters until a proper one could be built for them. Already, Blackwatch had more than thirty operatives just waiting to be deployed, with even more awaiting biotransference at GenTek's laboratories.
"For now I want every operative kept sharp, and ready for deployment at all times. See to it." Stern dismissed West and the other officers. He then turned to one of his aides and instructed him to relay their findings on the Brotherhood infiltrators. The intel garnered from Holiday's memory-scanning machine produced several names and clear faces of the infiltrators they haven't apprehended or killed in the investigations. The aesir saluted him stiffly before leaving the office to go their separate ways.
West, however, had other intentions besides drilling the Blackwatch operatives or finishing up the paperwork of the after-action report that was due three days before. His position as commander afforded him certain privileges, he'd get to finish all that within the day. He'd been looking forward to do something else, something of a more personal nature.
And one involving company.
When he emerged into the empty hallway, West saw Fade disappear into the locker-room across the barracks at the opposite end of the corridor. There was no one else roaming the halls, so he quickly followed her inside.
Fade was picking out her tactical harness and jumpsuit from her locker, so she could change into her combat gear for a simulation exercise in the training facility one floor below. Then, she headed for a private stall. West glanced around, both to look out for prying eyes and surveillance cameras, then stepped into the stall behind her.
The woman was startled to feel his hands hiking up the edge of her shirt, "Hey-"
"Shh, it's just me." West whispered in her ear. He touched the naked skin of her belly and purred softly as he felt the heat of her body against his.
"Gavin, what the hell are you doing?"
"What the hell does it look like? I'm picking up where we left off."
"Don't!" Fade protested, albeit half-heartedly. This wasn't the first time her senior officer tried to get some alone time with her. It started only recently, after they both loosened up with a shared wine bottle pilfered from an abandoned shack in the Gypsy Mile. But after that, West was getting a little too adventurous. "What if someone comes?"
With the formation of Blackwatch, the base had practically become their home. Privacy in a high-surveillance society was rare, even more so in a military base, hence Fade's apprehension.
"No one's coming. We've got 30 minutes." West reached down and undid her belt. "Come on, let me have this."
"Let go, I'll do it." Fade relented, undressing quickly and bracing her arms on the stall barrier. She huffed irritably when he pinned her against the wall. West fumbled around to loosen his pants and moved closer. The woman felt him enter and winced as his strong hands grabbed onto her hips.
The pair had a bit of uninterrupted fun for the next hour. West kept the noise down to a minimum by clenching his jaws together and covering Fade's mouth with his free hand. Once they were finished, Fade quickly slipped into her jumpsuit and strapped on her tactical harness. "You're a fucking animal, you know that?"
West zipped up his fly and smiled happily. He knew she didn't mean anything by it. If she really didn't like him making a move on her, she would've kicked his ass instead of going along with it. The way she grinded back against him was sufficient evidence, if nothing else. "I'll see you downstairs. Don't start the simulation without me."
Fade grunted in reply and left the stall hurriedly. West stayed behind to call up someone on his pip-boy.
A few months ago, Dr. Holiday approached West with an unusual request for a little experiment he'd been planning long after it was proven that biotransference was possible. The next step was to prove the reproductive viability of aesir transhumans, which could pave the way to a more natural mode of reproducing future aesirs. Looking to verify the recent development in his experiment, Dr. Holiday immediately picked up on the other end. "Commander West. Is it done?"
"Yeah doc." West lightly pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Excellent. She should be showing symptoms within a few days. It's imperative that I remind you to play the part well."
Annoyed, West snapped. "Hey, don't forget the reason why I ever agreed on doing this. It's not just a game to me."
Holiday hadn't forgotten. The only reason why West agreed, albeit reluctantly, was that he'd rather have it done himself than anyone else. It didn't take an expert to figure out he was involved with Danny Fade, even more so than a professional relation required.
"If you say so. Good work, commander. I will notify you of the results after her scheduled medical examination."
West terminated the connection and headed down to the combat simulation facility. Already, the Blackwatch operatives were being lined up in front of Fade and Kidman for a routine inspection. Kidman was wearing his usual loud drill-sergeant persona, getting all in their faces while Fade was quietly scrutinizing the soldiers for any mistakes.
Once West made his presence known, the first battery of exercises commenced.
Brand relished in the feeling of being back in a suit of power-armor.
Kenzie noted the happy look on his face as he stepped out of the holding station, "How does it feel?"
"Refreshing, Knight-Commander. Thank you." He replied. "Now, what can I do to help?"
"Well, now that you've mentioned it." Kenzie invited him to walk with her as she headed out to inspect the troops preparing to leave for another assignment. "As you know, the Elder has given me carte blanche with dealing with the situation here at the Mid-Texan Front. While many doubt the significance of a single citadel sitting in the middle of nowhere, I firmly believe that our path to victory over the Dominion lies in our victory over Riverside. A stubborn rock in the path, but one that I will see hammered into dust."
They stopped at the rock archway fortified with steel barriers and guard-towers. Just outside the mountain stronghold were the Brotherhood knights training with the initiates, who were busy teaching the young volunteers to use the new war machines they gathered in the past week. From captured Dominion vehicles to Brotherhood vertibirds, to even the newly added Shieldbearer mechs. "Soon we will march back and take that citadel out of their hands, and add its strength to our own."
Kenzie noted the apparent disapproval on Brand's face when she mentioned her plan of making another assault on Riverside, "You disagree?"
"No, at least not in that way." Brand turned to face her, "I took the opportunity to study the map, using a perspective enhanced by my experience with the Dominion Army. I don't doubt Riverside is the shortest route to Elysion, but it is not by any means an easy one. But I think... I think I just might make it a little less difficult."
"What do you have in mind?"
Remembering the success he had with luring an entire Dominion recon team into a Brotherhood killzone, Brand thought about repeating that success but on a much larger scale.
"I'm thinking about going back to Riverside, and maybe suffer having to wear Dominion colors a little bit longer."
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