Of The Past We Use To Advance Chapter 4 – May's Magical Moves.
It was past midnight and the enclosure was so cold and muddy because of the heavy rain falling all over him as he lay there. The mud was deep and he was in so much pain. His only friend was a Radroach that was contently sitting in the corner under a wooden box just waiting for Falcon to die so it could get its long-awaited meal.
He was just begging for death as an escape as he was thinking back as to how he got there, back before the slavers captured him and beat him every single day.
He remembered planting a few mines as a trap for a Deathclaw that was attacking Wastelander's every time they were in the area. But when he planted the final one, of all things, a Molerat, the ugliest and stupidest of the mutated animals that scoured the wasteland, decided to run through the minefield.
It set off a chain of explosions that sent Falcon flying across the ground and knocked him unconscious.
Slavers were attracted to the explosions and had found him minutes later. When they realised who he was and that he was still alive, they decided to put a slave collar on him and beat him all the time as punishment for his 'crimes' against Paradise Falls.
The gates to the enclosure opened and two rough-looking men walked in and pulled Falcon up by his arms, his tattered shirt ripping further in the process. The two men held him in place, kneeling in the mud when a tall muscular man walked in with a board of wood. Falcon knew his name was Jotun. The dumbest of all the slavers but was surprisingly proficient when it came to capturing slaves.
Con winced in fright and pain as the slaver raised the piece of wood and spoke with Sarah's voice, "Falcon! Falcon! CON! WAKE UP! C'mon wake up already!"
Con woke up and lunged forward, falling off the side of the bed. The first thing he noticed was that his eyes were full of tears and his heart was beating rapidly, adrenaline rushing through him.
"Were you having a nightmare again?" Sarah asked quietly.
She had gotten off the bed and sat next to him as he leaned against the bed, trying to steady his heartbeat.
"Are you okay?" she asked in a soothing voice as she held him and ran her hand through his long brown hair.
He closed his eyes and said softly, "I'll be fine, just... Just give me a minute."
This wasn't the first time he had nightmares because of his past. If it wasn't from the time the slavers captured him, it was when he was almost eaten by a nest of Mirelurks, or the cannibals of Andale. Or the most frequent one, reliving his father's death over and over again.
Sarah took his hand and pulled him towards the bed where they lay for a few more minutes. If there was one thing Falcon hated, it was appearing weak, especially to someone he cared so much for, but he knew Sarah had been through her own horrors of the Wasteland and understood more than most why he had such nightmares.
It had been four days since the Brotherhood had attacked the Enclave camp at the remains of Raven Rock, so Elder Owyn Lyons called a meeting to discuss the aftermath and also assign new orders.
Falcon and Sarah walked into the Great Hall to find Rothchild and half of Lyons Pride sitting down at the circular-shaped table.
Sarah went and spoke to Vargas so Falcon sat next to Rothchild.
"Good morning my boy," Con smiled at him and returned the greeting.
Over the next few minutes, the rest of the Pride and as a surprise to Con, Star Paladin Cross, followed by Elder Lyons walked into the room.
Everyone began to settle and stop talking when Elder Lyons sat down while Paladin Cross stood behind him like a soldier guarding their King.
"Good morning everyone. First thing on the agenda for today; I would like to inform you all that since we have had the time and resources these past few months to make repairs to the structure of the Citadel, last night we officially finished clearing out the rubble that has been blocking the next series of hallways which will now be known as Ring C."
Hushed murmurs between everyone began but quietened down as Sarah said, "That's great to hear. Did the Scribes find anything of note when clearing the rubble?"
Rothchild answered before the Elder could, "Mostly there was just multiple destroyed terminals and paperwork that could no longer be read. All the floors had caved in on each other in that section of the Citadel so nothing of note survived. The good news is it now means we have the space to make new barracks for our scribes and soldiers. A few creature comforts such as a roof over their head will do wonders for morale."
The Elder continued on from Rothchild, "Reginald is correct, more housing for our soldiers will help and the first basement level under Ring C is where our new jail cells have been completed. Our Enclave prisoners were moved there last night and are all under heavy guard. We aren't taking any chances with them. The damage they could do should they escape would be immeasurable."
"Personally, I prefer my Enclave dead on the ground. Though I guess having them rot behind bars is good enough," Knight Captain Dusk said aloud, getting a few laughs or voices of agreement from almost everyone in the room.
Con just remained silent. His hatred for the Enclave was strong, but over the year since their defeat at Adams Air Force Base and an absence of Enclave in the Wasteland, that hatred had died down. Especially after he became sick of Talon Company constantly trying to kill him so he took a lot of his anger and frustration out on them, wiping almost all of them out at Fort Bannister.
"Unfortunately they are bred, raised and conditioned to follow the orders of their superiors without question but they are nonetheless still human. Now, when Falcon returned home four nights ago he gave an Enclave device to Rothchild for study. If you will please explain what it is my friend?"
Everyone looked at Rothchild as he began one of his long-winded speeches.
"Essentially it is a long-range communications device the Enclave seems to use for high-level communiques instead of using regular radio frequencies that can be easily intercepted. The devices are using only a set amount of frequencies to talk on that also appear to be encrypted so only these devices can receive and send information. Quite fascinating technology really. Since we started listening in to their discussions and the information they send between devices, we have been able to gather strategic information such as the whereabouts of several Enclave camps inside and outside of the D.C. area. At the moment my Scribes are sifting through the data and maintaining records of it all and preparing reports for our scouts."
Rothchild took a breath and continued in a more serious and concerned tone.
"However, we've become aware that they have set up camp in one of the old SatCom Arrays which could be troublesome."
Before Rothchild could continue, Falcon interrupted him, "Actually, you don't have to worry much about the array."
Rothchild looked at him curiously as he asked, "What do you mean? Do you have information on this array that we do not?" Con laughed silently to himself before speaking up.
"After I destroyed Raven Rock and started heading back to the Citadel, I stopped there to rest. The downside was that the place was crawling with Talon Company Mercs and a ghoul scientist who was trying to get the array working."
Rothchild's brow furrowed as he usually did when he started to think.
"After I dealt with all of them I found out that it's the only array in the area that can call down a nuclear payload from a satellite in orbit. The array's rotors are also damaged so it can't change its pre-existing target location which is about a kilometre east of the array.
"That is still a reason to worry though," Rothchild replied to which Falcon just shook his head and continued saying, "Not really. For one thing, the Enclave doesn't and will never have the launch codes."
"How exactly can you be certain of that?" Owyn asked.
"Well because I'm the only one with the launch codes. And before I left the array, I fiddled around with the operating system it was using so that the only way you can use the system is if my Pip-Boy is connected to it."
"Why have you not told us about the array before? We could have secured it and attempted to repair the array should we ever need the use of it!" Owyn demanded in an annoyed voice.
"Honestly, it slipped my mind. Especially with the fact that the only threat we've had to deal with for the past year are all the Super Mutants and Feral Ghouls we've been trying to exterminate from the city so we can start to rebuild it."
Owyn relaxed slightly before he continued talking.
"Very well then. I suppose you do have a point. But here is what is happening now though. Paladin Cross is going to be leading the Pride in an attempt to secure the array while the three of you," Owyn pointed to Falcon, Sarah and Paladin Vargas, "Are heading off to Evergreen Mills."
A look of confusion took over the faces of the three of them until Owyn continued.
"Last night a Wastelander was paid by someone to deliver a message to you Falcon. The message was a request for you to travel to Evergreen Mills and meet with someone who is allegedly willing to give us tactical information on the Enclave but, naturally, for a price."
"Oh sure, absolutely! I've always wanted to be captured, raped, pulled apart and strung up on a wall as a trophy by a shitload of drug-fucked raiders. The Mill is raider territory. Hell, it's the capital city for those fuckers!" Falcon ranted, crossing his arms like an annoyed child as if he had a choice in the matter.
"I am aware of that. Which is why Sarah and Vargas are going with you for backup. The Pride can handle taking the array while you can meet this person. It's unlikely they actually have anything of value but for all we know this contact is legitimate. I feel that we should take the chance even if it ends up being a waste of time."
Con sighed, rubbing his forehead to try and get rid of the headache he felt coming on.
He looked next to him at Sarah who smiled lightly. It's not like he could tell the leader of the Brotherhood no.
"Alright then, fine. I'll go."
"Excellent! You're clear to leave as soon as you're ready."
A smile washed over Owyn's face as he stood up, dismissed everyone and walked out of the room.
"Don't you love it how he asks you to do something but you know you can't exactly say no to him," Falcon said to Sarah who just laughed, patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the room with Vargas.
Con started to walk out when Rothchild stopped him.
"My boy, I have a somewhat unusual request for you but before you depart for the mill, would you accompany me to the medical lab? We have a very young Enclave soldier who we're going to administer a mind-altering drug to and I'm hoping that you could help us to make him realise we are the 'good guys' here."
"Umm, you're drugging Enclave soldiers to convince them we're the good guys? Which I'm not disputing is the truth but isn't that a little... brainwashy?"
"Yes, well, it wasn't exactly my idea. You know what Scribe May is like. Always coming up with some new drug or procedure to test out. Unfortunately, she went straight over my head to ask for permission to test the drug out. As per usual..." Reginald stated in a quiet and annoyed tone of voice.
"Alright then, lead the way."
The two of them exited the Great Hall and began walking to the infirmary, once inside Falcon saw a shirtless young man who couldn't be more than eighteen years old. Con noticed that he had a few white scars decorated over his lean and athletic body that were brightened by the light tan he had.
Strapped down to a medical gurney he was struggling to break free as Scribe May approached him, a Stimpack in her hand, its cartridge full of a fluorescent blue liquid.
"Let me out, please, let me the fuck out of here!" he yelled struggling against the straps.
"Sawbones can you hold his arm still for me please," May asked as the faded green, hovering, sphere-shaped robot extended one of his mechanical arms, gripping the young man's arm with its pincer-like hand and holding it steady as May injected the drug into the shallow vein on his arm.
"Argh! Let me out, please! I haven't done anything wrong! Let me go... Le... m-mm... ee... g-g-go..," he began to fade out of consciousness, a few tears falling down the side of his face. Falcon couldn't help but feel unsettled by it all. Sure he was Enclave but, he looked so young, and he was a human who was being used as a guinea pig for another one of May's experiments.
Hopefully this one will end better as opposed to the last test subject she was working on; a raider who had developed a cold that she tried to treat. Instead, her 'serum' caused his blood to boil and organs to liquefy. It left quite a mess and a very unhappy Elder. But Rothchild did suggest it could be applied to the Mutant problem, if only as a last resort.
"Bones, can you please take note of his vitals and tell me if they change significantly," May asked.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Sawbones replied as his pincer hand arm swung upwards to one of his eyepieces before turning to face a monitor near the gurney.
"So tell me May. What's his name, how old is he and is he dead or what?" Falcon asked politely. He had learned to always be nice to May as she had a tendency to yell like a Banshee. Some people have often said they would rather go up against a horde of Super Mutants than be in the room when she yells.
"According to his holotags, he is Recruit Tyler Daniels, seventeen years old. Too young to be a soldier for the Enclave," May shook her head before continuing, "And no he is not dead. I mixed in a strong anaesthetic with the serum so he is only unconscious. Hopefully, the serum will only take several hours to alter his brain chemistry so he will lose the conditioning he has been under since birth."
Con looking slightly confused took a gamble at the fear of her yelling and asked, "What exactly do you mean when you say 'the conditioning he has been under since birth'?"
"When we did our excavations of Raven Rock last year, we were lucky enough to find some files that had some discussions between some high-ranking generals and medical staff. The generals said they wanted all children born in the Enclave to be susceptible to multiple types of conditioning so they would be obedient for their commanders. It's the Enclave's way of ensuring total control and loyalty of their soldiers."
"I've gotta say, it doesn't really surprise me that they did that. It seems low on the list of atrocities they like to commit. Also explains why they seem to be so heartless if their soldiers are conditioned to have no remorse and just follow orders," Falcon stated.
"That's what I was thinking too. The good news is, in the files we recovered there were medical reports that showed they were successful in altering the brain chemistry of children as part of this conditioning program which is how I've been able to create my serum to hopefully act as a counteragent. My hope is this serum will alter his neural pathways to be more like a normal human, removing that control and letting him think clearly. To let him see and hear the facts in front of him, without clouding his mind full of Enclave conditioning and propaganda."
Falcon looked at Rothchild who had a concerned look on his face. He then looked at Tyler who was lying there unconscious on the gurney. His hatred was still strong for the Enclave but now knowing what May had just told him, it certainly made him feel different. Sorry in a way for the soldiers. They probably don't even know what has been done to them.