"General, we have Curie coming in-"
"Let her in! Let her in!" Andrew insisted to the Minuteman, who nodded, opening the door. The Miss Nanny-turned Synth looked panicked.
"Monsieur Tyler! The Brotherhood! The Brotherhood!" She gasped out.
"Whoa, whoa. Curie, slow down!" Andrew said, standing up from his desk in the Dugout, the purchased house in Diamond City that had since been converted into the Minuteman barracks within the city. "Someone get her a glass of water!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I do not... eh bien, encore une fois, I could use a water." Curie said. She was seated down in a chair and one of the soldiers brought a glass of water to her, which she readily downed. "Merci beaucoup."
"Alright, Curie." Andrew said, setting the glass on the table top. "Now... you were saying, the Brotherhood?" Over the next few minutes, Curie related her story. The stranger she had met, the attack on Greentop Nursery that had been repelled, then tailing him and watching as he was subdued and taken in by the Brotherhood of Steel.
"He seemed to have some familiarity with him." Curie said. "They did refer to him by the title of 'Paladin', that is one of their ranks, no?"
"It is, yes." Andrew said, frowning as he leaned back in his chair, thinking this over. "Clearly he isn't in their good graces, though."
"Something the pair of you have in common." Preston noted.
"Seems so." Andrew said. "If he's in custody of the Brotherhood, there isn't a lot we can do. We don't even know where they're striking from."
"Or who is leading them." Piper said. "Provided it's not Maxson."
"Intelligence said he was on the Prydwen when it went up." Preston said. "I can't imagine that-"
"We didn't see a body, I'm not convinced." Andrew said.
"I know that, but-" Preston started again.
"Regardless of who it is, we should look into this man." Curie said. "If he knows the Brotherhood, then he would be a great asset."
"I agree, but there's not much we can do now." Andrew said.
"General! You have another visitor, Sanctuary clearance." The Minuteman who had ushered Curie inside once more appeared from outside. Sanctuary clearance had been granted to only certain individuals that Andrew had known throughout his time since leaving Vault 111. Only one person went by their clearance and nothing else, however.
"Deacon." Andrew said.
"You were expecting someone else?" Deacon asked.
"Like me, for example?" Cait sauntered in behind him, her now infamous baseball bat covered in barbed wire and in a sling over her shoulder.
"Good to see you both, how have you been?" Andrew asked.
"Pretty good, Charmer. I see you've been busy." Deacon said. "How did the battles down at Somerville and Murkwater go?"
"Like you don't already know." Andrew couldn't help but give one of the Railroad's best men a grin.
"Yes, well..." Deacon nudged his sunglasses back onto his nose a bit. "I keep my eyes open."
"You finished showing off, handsome?" Cait asked. "We need to tell them about the man."
"The man?" Andrew asked.
"Found a man at Vault 75. Cut his way through some Gunners like they were nothin'." Cait said. "Deacon made a big stink about him, so did the Railroad."
"Who?" Andrew asked. "Who is he?"
"Let me tell you," Deacon said, "the story of the Lone Wanderer..."
Jordan looked out over the large shipyard.
"Makes Adams look tiny."
"Hanscom Air Force Base was built up a great deal by the United States Government right before the Great War." Arthur explained as the two stood out on the catwalk overlooking the large, concrete field. "The Pre-War security systems were still very much active here despite the EMP bursts from the bombs. We lost quite a few people to-"
"Get to the point, Arthur." Jordan said, turning to the younger man. "What is it that I'm looking at?"
"Where we're working on our weapon." Arthur said, gesturing with a finger for Jordan to follow him, and follow he did down the stairs toward one of the hangars. "You recall, of course, the Tesla Cannons that were developed Pre-War and then improved upon by our Scribes during the Capital Wasteland conflict?"
"Yes, I remember."
"We have developed a bit beyond that." Maxson was saluted by two armored Brotherhood members, one of whom turned and slid a security card through a reader. There was a loud, mechanic grind as the door began to pull open at the divide. Within the hangar, Jordan could see a table set in the center and several targets set out on the far wall, many of which looked like they were heavily weapons scarred. Upon that table were the aforementioned Tesla Cannons.
"This is what you have?" Jordan asked. "This is your killer weapon that will defeat the Enclave once and for all?"
"You haven't seen the weapon in use." Arthur said. He gestured again, walking behind a large divide with a single slit cut into it to allow a view of the firing field. "Knight Stewart, if you would please pick up the weapon and demonstrate."
"Yes, Elder." The Knight raised the Plasma Cannon onto his shoulder, crouching down to one knee. As the Elder and the former Paladin behind the divide watched, a bright light created by pulsing electricity from the barrel of the cannon.
"You may wish to shield your eyes..." Arthur said. Jordan's eyes remained glued to the sight, interested to see what it was that had Maxson so convinced that they could eliminate the Enclave once and for all. The answer came as the electricity arched from the cannon and the light seemed to envelope the entire room. When it cleared, Jordan blinked.
The heavily scarred wall... was gone. Vanished, with nothing but a massive pile of ash where it had once been.
"H-How? How did you-?" Jordan asked.
"Technologies courtesy of the Pre-War government and the Enclave at Adams." Arthur said. "You do recall the Orbital Platform that you yourself used to destroy their Mobile Carrier, yes?"
"Yes..."
"Its orbit decayed around three years ago, landing out in the Applachia region," Arthur said, "it was a massive scavenging effort, but we succeeded in taking from it a great deal of data and the remaining weaponry that it had."
"Nuclear warheads?" Jordan asked. "You re-invented Mini Nukes?"
"Not exactly, no." Arthur said, gesturing to the massive pile of ash. "As you saw there, the technology is the Tesla Cannon. We simply applied the destructive power of the Orbital Platform to the Cannon."
"Generating that much power should fry everyone near it. Not to mention the person holding said Cannon." Jordan said.
"The T-60 is a remarkable tool, with it, as you can see, Knight Stewart is very much alive." Jordan looked over and indeed saw that the man was, Stewart setting the Tesla Cannon back on the table as it still had steam rising off of it. "With that power, however, we've had a bit of a setback. Each cannon can only be used once with the backlash. All the excess energy has to go somewhere."
"And it folds back into the Cannon. Right." Jordan said.
"Correct. As you recall, Rothchild and the rest of the Brotherhood Scribe team at the time of the Capital Wasteland were already having some difficulties with just the basic modifications, which is why the weapon wasn't deployed until the assault on Adams Air Force base. With these additions, we are nearly back to square one."
"Don't you have Scribes out the wazoo for that?" Jordan asked. "I know Quinlan's worm food, but you obviously have some minds out there to be doing what you're doing."
"We lost... a lot of people in the destruction of the Boston Airport." Arthur admitted.
"Yeah, I heard about it." Jordan said. "The mighty Brotherhood defeated by a bunch of American Revolution-esque Wastelanders. Didn't see that coming."
"We trusted the wrong people," Arthur said, "a mistake that we won't be making again."
"So you went out of your way to find me?" Jordan asked with a raised brow.
"You are still a Paladin just as Owyn Lyons made you." Arthur said. "That has never changed. I have forbid even the mention of stripping you of rank. The Brotherhood would not exist without you."
"Yeah." Jordan said. "And look how that turned out..."
"What does that mean?" Arthur asked.
"If I help you, we're going to take out the Enclave, correct?" Jordan asked, abruptly changing the subject.
"Yes." Arthur said.
"Then I guess I have some work to do." Jordan said. "When do I begin?"
"O, beautiful for spacious skies! For amber waves of grain! For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!"
The PA system played a recording of "America, The Beautiful" as all in attendance at the bunker stood at attention, even the members of the former Institute. For many within the ranks of the Enclave, the song was a thing of pride. Something that was a call to action for them, to restore their nation to such glory that it was worthy to sing about. For their President, Anna Holt, it was a tool to keep them in line.
"Madame President?"
"Yes, Doctor Zimmer?" The older man had sidled up to her side and was whispering to her now.
"The communications team found the bug placed in here by the Brotherhood." Zimmer said. "We have confirmed their location, they are at Hanscom."
"Excellent." Holt said. "Tell them to begin Protocol 7."
"At once." Zimmer said. Holt now wore a smirk rather than the bored expression she'd been wearing moments earlier. Things would soon be coming together concerning that particular nuisance. Now, her focus could be upon the Minutemen... and the Wanderer.
That... that was a confrontation long in the making. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face...
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