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Chapter 3: The Brotherhood

Inside the Vault, Ashley was in the room where she was frozen; she looked at the body of her dead husband. When she and the others entered the vault, this was the first place she came. She just stood there looking at him as Preston walked in. He was about to say something but he noticed her look at something, or rather, someone. He walked up to see that she was looking at; a corpse, a frozen one at that. It didn't take a genius to know what she was going through. Walking out, Sturges was outside the door and was about to walk in, but Preston stopped him.

"Don't. She... she needs to be alone." he said.

Inside the room, Ashley took Nate out of the pod and laid him down on the floor before walking out and coming back a few moments later, with white bandages in hand. She walked up to his dead body and began to wrap her husband's body in the bandages. Essentially she mummified him like the ancient Egyptians used to do. When he was fully wrapped in the bandages, she picked him up and took him to the lift and rode it up to the surface. When she made it, she then walked to Sanctuary and her home.

Codsworth followed her to the back yard and scanned the body.

"Oh my... sir." he said sniffing slightly as Ash laid him down and began to dig.

The robot helped by using his buzzsaw on the soil, helping his owner digging the hole. About an hour passed and Ashley took a good look at the 6-foot hole she and Codsworth made; the final farewell. She picked up Nate's body and placed him in the hole before covering it back up again. When he was finally gone from human sight, she then stuck a post at the head to mark where her husband was buried.

"Sir, mum will miss you. I will do my best to take care of her in your stead" Codsworth said.

"Goodbye, Nate. Take care of yourself on the other side." Ashley said before walking away and headed back to the Vault.

As she walked away, she steeled her nerves and resolve to finally accept his death. Burying her husband had given her the closure she needed to move on. Yes, she did love him with all her heart as they fought together during the war. Her childhood wasn't the traditional American one most of the time. Her father was a deadbeat drunk, her mother was gone and died a few years later when she was 10. During the war she watched too many friends die too quickly. Survival meant moving on quickly.

It was just one of the things that she learned to do. That was one of the things that allowed them to get along so well and survive the war. Both were passionate but neither wouldn't let it consume them. That was just who they were, but now she was alone. This was just war; she had to adapt and move on. Reaching the lift, she went back down to help the others.

OOOOO

The Vault 111 lift rose and stopped when it reached the top. On the lift was Ash and the two wastelanders she was with; and several crates of seeds, water purifiers, along with weapons and ammunition. They planned to connect the reactor with the settlement, giving them nearly unlimited power, but Ashley couldn't do it alone. As the lift stopped the three began to move the crates onto wheeled platforms. However, as they began loading them on, the sound of rotor blades reached her ears; she looked out into the landscape to see a flying vehicle coming in.

"Err, guys." she said, getting the attention of Preston and Sturges. "Does anyone have access to Vertibirds?"

"Well, there's the Brotherhood and the Enclave, but they're not around here and..." Preston trailed off, "Gunners."

Sturges pulled out a snub-nose revolver as his face betrayed his panic. "Gunners?" Ash asked.

"A bunch of ruthless mercs; they do anything for profit." Preston said.

Before Ashley could say anything, the Vertibird began to shake in the air. She had worked on them enough times to know when there was trouble. And from the looks of things, one of the engines was failing badly. It tilted as it came in fast and low; Preston and Ashley ran back towards Sanctuary while Sturges held back. He wasn't a fighter like those two; he was more of a mechanic than anything. He stayed put as the two moved across the small wood and back into the village, waiting for the bird to come down.

It was coming down hard but went it got low, several people jumped out as the aircraft flew into the trees and exploded. Three of them landed on their feet while three others landed in a heap. The ones who landed on their feet helped the ones who landed in the heap.

"Joe, WHAT KIND OF FLYING WAS THAT?" a man in a beret yelled.

"YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO THAT I CANNOT FLY THESE GODDAMN THINGS!" 'Joe' yelled.

Ash and Preston walked up to the group as they began to bicker with one another. One of them, a bald woman with a web tattoo on her head, was on her knee, looking at a laser wound on her friend's leg. But calling them friends would be a bit of a stretch, judging by how they were responding to one another. But then Ashley stopped and just stared. This "Joe" guy in the beret was talking almost too was horrifying to look at. He had little to no skin or hair, and his nose was completely gone. As he talked, it sounded like he had smoothing stuck in his throat, this made it even more odd, to say the least.

"Hey, Joe." the bald woman said making him look at her. "Ya got Vault meat looking at ya ugly ass."

Joe looked to Ashley who was walking up and stood next to Preston. He started for a moment before rubbing his eyes. The man with the beret looked from him to the woman who he was looking at.

"Ok, old man, what's up?" he asked.

"I don't believe my eyes." he said walking up to Ashley and touched her arm making her back away. "Ashley? Is that you?"

"Wait, Joe?" she asked looking at the body of her old boss.

"Hey, who's the cute redhead?" asked the wounded soldier as he stood but earning himself a kick between his legs.

He fell to his knees in pain holding his crotch and groaning in pain.

"Watch it, Kai." he said in annoyance.

"So, this is the miracle worker you told us about, old man?" the beret-wearing man said standing next to Joe who nodded. "So, why isn't she like you?"

"I was about to ask, you impatient dick."

Ashley just sniggered at that. "Haven't lost that attitude, have ya, Joe?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, well, a long time in the wasteland will do that to ya. But, what happened to you?"

"I was in Vault 111 until only recently. I was in a cryo freeze for the past 200 years." she said.

"Given Vault-Tec's reputation with other Vaults, I'm not surprised." the beret-wearing man said with Joe nodding, but the two of them got a raised brow from Ash.

"It's well known that some Vault-tec Vaults are little more than control groups." Joe said.

Given what she had been through Ashley wasn't surprised in the least. "Ok but Joe what happened to you? I mean you look like, errr..." she stuttered trying to find the right word.

"Walking corpse, a human without skin?" he said with a smile. "I've gotten used to the comments over the years. Anyway, when the bombs fell I was in my basement which was quite deep, except some of the radiation got through, and... well, turned me into a ghoul. Least I haven't gone feral yet."

Ash looked at him up and down. "So, you're what a ghoul looks like."

"Not been out of the freezer long, have you?"

"No, just a few hours." she said.

"Ok, by the way, where is your husband and child? Weren't they with you in the vault?"

Ashley looked down as she struggled to hold back her emotions.

"Joe, Nate's dead and someone took my baby." she said.

"WHAT, WHO? WHO DID?" he practically yelled.

"That's just the thing, I don't know. I was planning to head to diamond city after helping Preston and his group settle in." she said before Joe pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry Ash; I know how much you wanted a family after the war. I cannot imagine how hard this is for you." he said.

"Thanks, Joe." she said breaking the hug. "By the way, who are your friends?"

Before Joe could speak the beret-wearing man stepped forward. "I'm Cobra, the commander of the Star Swords."

"The group of mercs who demand food and water from villages in order to protect them?" Preston asked with a hint of resentment in his voice.

"You make it sound like we do it for fun, but yes, essentially." Cobra said.

"You demand food and water from settlements you protect?" Ashley asked in a disgusted tone.

"It's not like that; we ask for a cut of food and water from the villages we protect as payment. We assess how much food and water they produce before asking how much we can request. If they do not produce the necessary resources, we leave the village, regardless of who's living there. Bigger settlements and farms are valuable targets and produce enough for us to work. We need food and water in order to work. When we get our share, we sell the food to settlements we have a contract with. We spend caps on the ammo we need. It's a fair trade." Cobra argued.

"But what about the smaller settlements?" Ashley asked.

"Smaller ones don't tend to last very long regardless of protection." Cobra said in a matter of fact tone.

"Why?"

"Mutants, raiders, slavers; the list goes on." Preston said, knowing what the Sword Star commander was saying. "Smaller settlements, are always a prime target for slavers as they can take people without much effort, same goes for raiders and mutants."

"Right." Cobra spoke. "But the rest of Sword Star is outside the Commonwealth border. Joe, Kai, Kelly, Jack, Hawk, and myself, are the only ones left. Those goddamn Gunners took out most of our main force."

"Not to mention they took our power armour." Joe spoke up.

"Yeah, we need somewhere to lay low. Sanctuary seemed like the best place." Cobra said almost like he was asking for his group to join the settlers.

Preston just chuckled. "Sure, more help the better."

"Thanks. Now, what do you need?" Joe asked.

"We could use some help in getting the crates from the vault to Sanctuary." Ashley smiled.

Joe and Cobra just looked at each other smiled and shrugged before following Ashley and Preston to the Vault lift. While they carried the crates, Hawk and Jack climbed onto the roofs of two of the buildings as sentries. It took around five trips to and from the Vault to get everything they needed before the sun started to set. The settlers opened up one of the crates to find seeds inside. Joe who was a bit of a gardener back in the day and started to plant them while Ash and Cobra opened two crates containing military ration packs.

Preston and Sturges set up a cooking pot over a fire. They didn't have much in terms of vegetables or meat, even then it would be irradiated. Because of this they decided to have the ration packs until the seeds mature into food. Besides the ration packs could be cooked in water quite quickly and they filled a person up for the day. As the packs cooked Ashley was looking though the other crates just looking for something. She did eat one of the packs, the others didn't like them too much but she loved it. This was mostly due her time in the army, she had just gotten used to the taste and loved it.

Cobra looked towards her concerned, what was she looking for. Setting his empty packet aside he stood and walked up to her.

"Looking for something?" he asked making her look up at him.

"Sorry, force of habit. During my time in the war, I used to do inventory; I have good eyes for detail. This is just the old habit of mine acting up." she said as she pulled a blue and yellow bodysuit out with the thighs, biceps and belly being fish-netting. "Hmm, flexible nanofiber. Highly resilient and lead-lined." she muttered to herself and smiled. "Those Chinese scientists knew how to make them."

"Huh?" Cobra simply said.

"This is a combat suit, an old one at that. Used by Chinese agents to infiltrate American checkpoints during the war. They wore this under their normal clothing." she said with as smile. "I may have not have been a scientist but the local research team called me in a few times to reverse-engineer Chinese technology."

"Ok. So you planning you go to Diamond city tomorrow?"

"Yeah." she said folding the bodysuit. "Why?"

"I'll come with you, Joe will kill me if I don't." he said earning himself a deadly stare from her.

"I don't need protecting." she said.

"That's not… *sigh* Look, you don't know much about the Wasteland. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. You need to know how things go down here."

Ash looked away for a moment, he was right. During the war there was intelligence, information about the troops, and everything. Here, she had no intel and idea what was going on. She needed a guide to find her son in this new world. She looked to him, he was well-built like Nate; a true soldier. His face was scarred with scars on the side on his dirty face. He stood with confidence knowing that the next day maybe his last. The black armour he wore brought out his brilliant brown eyes that she could get lost in. Looking down at the bodysuit, she looked back up at him.

"Ok, fine, but don't get in my way." she said.

Cobra just smiled at that. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

OOOOO

Early next morning, Cobra and Ashley checked through their packs by the bridge. The Sword Star commander was armed with a hardened reflex scoped .44 revolver, an electrified combat knife, and an armour piercing combat rifle with the rifle stock replaced by the R-91 pistol handle stock. Ashley, on the other hand, had the Chinese rifle she took from a raider back at the museum; she also had her laser pistol and 10mm as sidearms. She didn't have the laser musket, as while it was good, its slow rate of fire was not adapted for pitched combat. She then zipped up her jumpsuit with the Chinese bodysuit underneath, then threw on her webbing and a back pack. Dogmeat was standing next to them waiting, to move as well.

Before they could move, Preston and Codsworth came up.

"We're coming with you." Preston said making the two of them stare at them.

"I, too, would like a word with the man who killed Sir!" Codsworth declared.

Cobra and Ash looked to each other before looking at the two. "The more the merrier." Cobra said.

"Yeah, ok come on." Ash said.

Preston smiled as the five of them then began to walk across the bridge and to Diamond City.

OOOOO

Paladin Danse looked over the wasteland as he stood atop Cambridge police station. His black Brotherhood armour reflecting the sunlight. All he could see was destruction of the old world; death, decay, and mutations. All who wouldn't use technology responsibly. He needed to save the wasteland. Looking down, he could see the last of the barricades being set up. But was it was a growl that met his ears. Looking across the street his fears were realised as ferals came running, storming the barricade.

"TAKE COVER!" yelled an initiate, bringing up his laser rifle and firing at the abominations.

Lances of red light flew through the air and hit dead, decaying flesh; burning but still coming as a Brotherhood scribe brought up a laser pistol and fired again. The beam hit the head of one of the ferals, taking it off in the process, but more came. One of the Brotherhood snipers looked down the sight of his laser sniper rifle and she could see that they were coming from the nearby metro as Danse joined in the defence.

"Paladin, they're coming from the metro!" the sniper yelled over the laser fire.

Danse looked into the town as more and d more ferals came. "Get, Jones, Marshall and Leon. Go stomp those freaks out!" the Paladin yelled.

The sniper nodded and jumped down from his spot. "OK, YOU HEARD THE PALADIN, FOLLOW ME!" he shouted as three others joined him, all of them in Brotherhood combat armour.

The Paladin, scribe and knight covered the four as they pushed forward to the metro. The three remaining Brotherhood members stayed and fought off as many as they could but sun was beginning to set in the distance. The Scribe knew this would be trouble, she turned to the police station and ran inside. Two heavy machine guns were set up on top of the police station but wouldn't last very long. While they could use oil, the Brotherhood didn't have any to spare at the moment. Danse and the Knight fought off as many as they could but one of the ferals grabbed onto the knight, biting his leg, and making yell out in pain.

The powered armoured paladin stopped on the feral as the guns activated and fired on the ferals. Danse then grabbed a hold of the knights arm and dragged him up the stairs and into the police station.

"Goddamn freaks!" the knight yelled out.

"Calm down, you'll be fine." the scribe said as she came up with a stimpack syringe in hand.
She kneeled down and injected it into the man's thigh, making him yell in pain once again.

"Big baby." she muttered before looking at the Paladin who was looking out of the police window. "Danse?"

"Huh? Sorry," he said. "My mind was somewhere else." he rubbed his forehead before looking at the fuel gage on his arm.

The arrow pointed to the 10% mark, grunting he pressed the armour release and the suit opened up allowing him to get out. The Scribe walked up to him and looked at his battered face.

"Danse, you need to lie down, the day's been long, yes, but you need to sleep." she said.

"What, you going to pull rank?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, bed, now!". She demanded before walking over to the reception terminal and logged on.

Danse just sighed before looking out of the window once more. The guns were keeping the ferals at bay but for how long?

OOOOO

Outside of Lexington, in an abandoned building, Ashley took a look at the caps Preston had given her. The minuteman was asleep while she was up keeping an eye on a mole rat that was turning on a spit over a fire. Codsworth had shut down for the night to allow his batteries to recharge while Cobra was outside keeping an eye on things. Taking out one of the Nuka cola caps she sighed and lead back where she was sitting. The day had some interesting things going on, nothing major happened as they made their way to Lexington. The only problematic thing that happened was a mole rat attack.

The looked just like normal mole rats, just much bigger and far deadlier. They came out in a pack of 6 to attack them but they didn't last long, Preston and Cobra then took at least two each, and saying that it was food almost made her sick on the spot. But then again, it was to be expected. The smell of cooking mole rat met her nose, and she was hungry. It had been a long day of learning. Normally it would take her a few hours to get to Boston, but thanks to the devastation, scavenging and animal attacks it took longer.

She remembered those S.P.E.C.I.A.L animations that Vault-tec did. High-quality and informative, but she never expected to follow it as a survival guide. Preston and Codsworth were asleep and Dogmeat wasn't too talkative. She needed someone to talk to; looking over to the Star Sword merc, she broke the ice.

"Cobra?" she called getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he called back.

"Could you come here, please, I a question."

He looked to her with a brow raised but shrugged. "Ok."

He got up and walked inside the hut and sat next to the fire. "So what you want to talk about?"

"What's the deal with these caps?" she asked him bluntly knowing she needed to start somewhere.

"Caps? Ok, I'm not too sure where it started but caps are used as currency out here, you can buy anything with them. Kinda like… dollars?" he asked with her nodding. "The only difference is that none of them have any extra value, one cap is one cap regardless of the maker."

Nodding at that she placed the cap bag in the bag before looking outside.

"So, don't take this the wrong way, but I heard from Joe that before you married, you used to-" he tried to say but she spoke up.

"Sleep with other guys?" Ash said with a smile. "Yeah, I used to get around; I'm not ashamed. The boys always had more than just one squeeze; I was just much better at it." She laughed. "Why?"

Cobra was silent for a moment before answering. "History about pre-war times is not well-known. The little information we do have comes from Vaults or books. The little we do know... seems like a golden age. Almost as if sex was much more sacred. These days, well, it's just one of those things that we do to make our reality a little less grim."

Ash smiled at that but she quickly fell tired and she went to sleep. With her now asleep, Cobra could only look at her, she was beautiful; almost like a goddess. Given how she fought earlier, almost like a goddess of war. Looking outside he couldn't imagine what she was going through, losing her husband and child in one day then learning you've been frozen for 200 years. She was strong, maybe stronger than he was. Hours passed before he fell asleep as well.

The sun rose and Dogmeat was the first to wake with a big yawn. He stretched himself out waking himself fully up. Standing he turned to his female owner.

"Hmmm Grace, stop it." she mumbled. "Alex whipped me hard last night and my body is stiff."

Dogmeat looked at her again before licking her hand making her twitch and one of her eyes opened. She saw Dogmeat next to her licking her, she yawned out loud waking Cobra almost instantly grabbing his .44 and pointing it around the hut.

"Relax soldier boy, *yawn* it's just me." Ashley said as she stood and began to crack her joints.

"You sound like a Deathclaw with that yawn." he said yawning himself.

"Deathclaw?" she asked looking at black armoured soldier.

"Remember that lizard you killed in Concord?" Preston asked as he sat him cracking his neck making Cobra wince while Ash nodded. "That thing is called a Deathclaw. They are the nastiest animals out here."

"Can you both quit cracking your limbs please?" the Sword star merc said. "If we're lucky we can get to the city today."

"Point." Preston said as he ripped off a leg off the molerat and began to eat it.

Cobra did the same while Ashley just looked at the brown meat of the mutated beast. Taking a deep breath she did the same and ripped off a leg as well and bit into it. After taking a bite, she immediately spit it back out.

"Ugh, god, it tastes like a foot!" she yelled before looking up at the two. "How can you eat this?"

The two looked at each other before shrugging. "We grew up with it." Preston said.

Looking at the two she looked at the leg and just swallowed before taking another bite and another and another. It tasted foul but she hungry. Once done, she picked up her bag and walked out as Codsworth booted up.

"Good morning, everyone." he said as his thruster set him to hover. "So, where are we off to?"

"Well, we're near Lexington right now, but I want to avoid it. The place is crawling with Raiders and ferals." Preston said.

"But we're still away from Diamond city, it may be the best idea to go through Lexington; we may even find salvage we can use. Besides, we're combatants." Cobra said.

Preston nodded at that. "Yeah, ok." he said picking up his own bag.

Ashley was outside, her stomach didn't like her at the moment and felt like it was going to turn itself inside-out. Cobra walked up to her and touched her on the shoulder.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick." she told him, trying to hold down her breakfast.

"Wait, err, this might sound odd but do you have any Radaway?"

"No." Ash replied.

Preston took out an IV solution bag and threw it to Cobra. The Sword star commander took the strange orange fluid into a syringe and stuck it into her arm. She was feeling a little better, if a little bewildered. She took a look at him and then to the Radaway.

"All animals, and most food and water is contaminated with radiation." Preston said.

"Oh..." she said, uneasy and unsure about what to say.

"Don't worry Miss Ashley, the amount you digested should not affect you. It's a similar amount to an x-ray scan." Codsworth piped up.

"That's good to hear, how are your scanners? What can you see in Lexington from here?"

"Not much activity. There is a bit of movement by a small building with a pool but that's about it."

"It's likely they're raiders; they must have taken out most of the ghouls." Cobra said with Preston in agreement.

"Let's move." Ash said picking up her rifle and walked with the others to Lexington.

As they walked Preston and Cobra looked around them keeping an eye out for an attack. Ashley looked around in a strange awe at the world. It held a fascinating, yet horrifying beauty to her. It was interesting to say the least. Unaware, off in the distance, a skeletal machine watched them closely, keeping an eye on them feeding video to a terminal in a white room. A man in his sixties watched as the five walked down the hills to Lexington. His beard and hair where grey showing his age, a white coat was over his green jumper.

He couldn't help but smile, he had heard about this in one of his e-mails but he never expected it to be true. A child came up and grabbed onto his arm. He turned to face the child and smiled.

"Hey there, young one." he said.

"Hello granddad, whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Oh just seeing what's going on on the surface."

"Oooooo did you see anything exciting?"

She said that a woman with dark flowing red hair came up a set of steps and looked to where the two were talking.

"Jennifer." she said in an annoyed tone walking over and picked up the young girl. "You're supposed to be at school!"

"Awww, but mom." the child demanded but the old man spoke up.

"You heard your mother, now get back to class." he said with a little chuckle.

"But granddad!" the child moaned.

"Thanks, dad." the older woman said before walking off.

The man lost his smile as he looked down and sighed, he never knew his parents. They had told him what happened but he'd never like to talk nor think about it. Looking to the screen he knew who she was after and decided to help her in whatever form he could.

OOOOO

The five entered Lexington with the three combat veterans keeping their guns up and their eyes open. raiders could pop out from anywhere, but as they walked down a street Ashley's pipboy buzzed. Looking at it, it seemed that she had picked up a radio station. She tuned the Pipboy to the signal.

"AUTOMATED MESSAGE...this is scribe Heylen of recon team Gladius to any Brotherhood personnel… all units have sustained casualties and running low on supplies, requesting support or evac at Cambridge police station..." the transmission then cut and she lost the signal.

"Cambridge? Oh shit, that place is a feral ghoul nest!" Cobra exclaimed.

"They're Brotherhood, so what about it?" Preston asked.

"I have seen a team of power armoured troops go into a feral ghoul nest and never come back."

"Sorry, Brotherhood?" Ashley asked but before anyone could answer a shot rang out and a round snapping on the concrete made them take cover.

Preston looked out from cover to see two raiders on a building not too far away, one of them held a sniper pipe rifle while the other held a quad barrel missile launcher. If there were other raiders, he couldn't see them. Pulling back, he cranked his musket as Cobra affixed his bayonet to his rifle.
"Two on the building; can't see anyone else."

"They're probably inside." Ashley said, keeping her eyes open.

"Have at you, cowards!" Codsworth said out loud.

The raider with the rocket launcher heard the Mr. Handy and fired near his location.

"OH… my..." he said seeing the explosion.

"Codsworth, stay down and be quiet!" Cobra said as he moved out of cover and fired at the raiders' location.

The raiders took cover from the suppressing fire, allowing Ash and Preston to move up to their blind spot. Keeping his eyes open, the Minuteman aimed down his musket scope at the biggest threat; with the missile launcher gone, they'd be able to move a lot easier. When Ashley, dogmeat and Cobra got to a good firing position, the two Raiders popped their heads out of cover only to be met by a laser bolt on the face. The one holding the rocket launcher dropped the anti-tank weapon and held his face in pain as the blast only glanced his face, not outright killing him.

"RAZOR!" the sniper yelled as Razor fell from where he was perched and into a car pile. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT YOU SONOVABITCH!"

The sniper fired at Preston, ignoring Ashley and Cobra, who moved up into the building. Dogmeat ran ahead of them, growling as he did. He bit the raider on the leg, puncturing his leather armour, surprising him to a 10mm round to the head. He fell back as Ashley slid her 10mm pistol back into her holster and stood where the raider was. She waved to Preston, signaling him that the coast was clear. When he arrived he walked to the edge and noticed the raider with the heavy weapon.

"Damn, that's one hell of a fall." he muttered as Cobra opened up a steamer trunk and looked inside.

Codsworth came up and noticed what the Sword Star commander was doing.

"Sir, Don't the dead deserve to be at peace?" he asked.

"Relax, tin can, I'm only taking account of their worldly belongings. Though, it's not like they deserve it." he muttered under his breath. "Ooh, shotguns! Nice." as he pulled out a combat shotgun.

Ash walked over and looked inside the trunk as wall with a smile on her face. "I assume this is good?" she asked.

"Yeah, that reminds me: should we head straight to Diamond City or help out the Brotherhood?" Cobra asked.

"I'd rather not get mixed up with those guys, but it wouldn't hurt to get on their good side." Preston said looking at the two. "Cambridge is nearby, so we can lend a hand before move on to Diamond City."

Cobra nodded at that before looking to Ash. "What do you think?"

Ashley shrugged. "I'm not sure... just who are the Brotherhood?"

Cobra slapped himself in the face forgetting about that she might now know about the Brotherhood. Preston just smiled in amusement and shook his head.

"Damn it, sorry. Preston, could you help me out here?"

"Sure." the minuteman said. "The Brotherhood are a highly militaristic group; they hunt down and preserve technology from pre-war times. Basically, they hoard all they tech they can find; many people just call them technophiles. They mostly wear unpainted body armour and their more experienced soldiers wear black T-60 power armour. They are all trained in conventional warfare, but specialize in laser weaponry and combat drops."

Preston continued, "The Brotherhood is composed of multiple chapters, but I don't know much about this one. All I know is that the High Elder Maxson is..." Preston paused to find the right word.

"Mad." Cobra added, "He really has it out for ghouls. I mean... they killed a farm run by ghouls, completely unprovoked."

There was a heavy pause.

"As I said before," Preston continued, "I'd rather not get involved, but they do have the medical supplies and ammunition to spare. "

"I am in accord, Mum. Our stockpiles will not last for much longer." Codsworth spoke up.

"Okay." Ash finally decided, leaning on a wall before sighing. "I won't be able to save Shaun if we're not in top shape." she said. "Let's grab what we can and head to Cambridge."

The two nodded before looking around the raiders' outpost. Ashley found metal armour from the dead raider in the room. The nanofibre under her jumpsuit would protect her from the elements and stab wounds, but bullets and lasers were a completely different matter. The metal armour she got was very ramshackle but surprisingly well-built; the metal exterior looked like it could deflect oncoming rounds and the thick cloth underneath would absorb the impact.

Cobra took out several weapons from the steamer trunk which included a three combat shotguns, two 10mm SMGs and several pipe weapons. He also found some whiskey, but he wasn't going to keep it for very long.

"Ahhh, that's good." he said as he took a swig.

"Throw it here." Preston said before Cobra threw the bottle to him.

He also took a swig before holding it to Ashley.

"Oh, no thanks. After my graduation I binge drank for the better part of an evening, nearly destroyed one of my kidneys and slept with two of my friends. Haven't touched a drop since." she said with a smile at Preston who just looked at her in shock trying to processes what she had just said.

"Good for you!" Cobra called as he pulled out several boxes of ammo. "Ok, since we're going to Cambridge we going to need these." he said throwing a shotgun to the both of them.

Both of them caught the shotguns and the 12-gauge shells he tossed at them. "Ghouls love getting up close, but make every shot count." he said as he stood and slung the shotgun over his shoulder.

Preston also found several boxes of ammo before giving them to Ash and Cobra. Once they were satisfied, the gang of five then headed to Cambridge.

OOOOO

Danse fired at the oncoming ghouls with his laser rifle. There didn't seem to be any end to them, but they were still no match for heavy turrets and precision gunfire. The Scribe joined the fight with her laser pistol as well, but this was going nowhere fast. There was still no report from the team who went down into the metro, and were likely dead. If their draining power cells were any indication, they soon would be too. However, hope came in the sound of gunfire that wasn't his.

OOOOO

"That's a lot of zombies." Ash said as Cobra fired his rifle in the crowd as did Preston. "Let's move."

As they moved up Preston and Ashley got their shotguns out and fired into the crowd of Ferals, cutting them down. Dogmeat danced around the ghouls biting through their legs, letting Codsworth finish them off with his saw and flamer with stunning efficiency. Preston and Ashley barreled through with their shotguns, but the ghouls still had much higher numbers. Pushing through, Ash was tackled by one of them and managed to cut her thigh through her suit. Wincing in pain, she turned her gun on her attacker and blew its rotten brains all over the pavement.

More ghouls managed to come up behind them but the merc caught them with shotgun fire and downed the last with his bayonet. No longer moving and not immediately in danger, this gave them a moment to catch the breath. Preston got on top of the battlements and scanned the streets while Ashley injected a stimpack for her leg wound.

"Clear, for now." Preston said. "I'll keep an eye out."

Ashley then turned to look at a man who stood looking out at the street. He was in full power armour with a gear and cog emblem painted on the chest. There was other heraldry, but most notably, his big brown beard and piercing eyes.

"We appreciate the assistance civilians. But what is your business here?" he asked.

"Civvies? Please, if anything, he and I are mercs." Cobra said referring to Preston, who just gave a disapproving look at him.

"I'm Ashley." Ash said before pointing at her companions. "That's Codsworth, Dogmeat, Preston and Cobra. We were on our way to Diamond city before we picked up your signal."

"Are you from a local settlement?" he asked.

"No, we're from Sanctuary Hills." Cobra said, with Danse sighing.

"I do apologise if I find you suspicious. Our mission here has been hard since we got here. I'm Paladin Danse, Brotherhood of Steel. Over there is Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys." he said before noticing Ashley's jumpsuit. "If you're on your way to Diamond City, I'd advise caution. Raiders and Super Mutants have been spotted all throughout the Commonwealth."

"Which is why we responded to your distress signal." Ashley responded, "Our supplies are low and we could use whatever you could spare."

Danse contemplated for a moment before answering. "Come in first, we'll discuss the details inside."

Description
Chapter 3: The Brotherhood

Inside the Vault, Ashley was in the room where she was frozen; she looked at the body of her dead husband. When she and the others entered the vault, this was the first place she came. She just stood there looking at him as Preston walked in. He was about to say something but he noticed her look at something, or rather, someone. He walked up to see that she was looking at; a corpse, a frozen one at that. It didn't take a genius to know what she was going through. Walking out, Sturges was outside the door and was about to walk in, but Preston stopped him.

"Don't. She... she needs to be alone." he said.

Inside the room, Ashley took Nate out of the pod and laid him down on the floor before walking out and coming back a few moments later, with white bandages in hand. She walked up to his dead body and began to wrap her husband's body in the bandages. Essentially she mummified him like the ancient Egyptians used to do. When he was fully wrapped in the bandages, she picked him up and took him to the lift and rode it up to the surface. When she made it, she then walked to Sanctuary and her home.

Codsworth followed her to the back yard and scanned the body.

"Oh my... sir." he said sniffing slightly as Ash laid him down and began to dig.

The robot helped by using his buzzsaw on the soil, helping his owner digging the hole. About an hour passed and Ashley took a good look at the 6-foot hole she and Codsworth made; the final farewell. She picked up Nate's body and placed him in the hole before covering it back up again. When he was finally gone from human sight, she then stuck a post at the head to mark where her husband was buried.

"Sir, mum will miss you. I will do my best to take care of her in your stead" Codsworth said.

"Goodbye, Nate. Take care of yourself on the other side." Ashley said before walking away and headed back to the Vault.

As she walked away, she steeled her nerves and resolve to finally accept his death. Burying her husband had given her the closure she needed to move on. Yes, she did love him with all her heart as they fought together during the war. Her childhood wasn't the traditional American one most of the time. Her father was a deadbeat drunk, her mother was gone and died a few years later when she was 10. During the war she watched too many friends die too quickly. Survival meant moving on quickly.

It was just one of the things that she learned to do. That was one of the things that allowed them to get along so well and survive the war. Both were passionate but neither wouldn't let it consume them. That was just who they were, but now she was alone. This was just war; she had to adapt and move on. Reaching the lift, she went back down to help the others.

OOOOO

The Vault 111 lift rose and stopped when it reached the top. On the lift was Ash and the two wastelanders she was with; and several crates of seeds, water purifiers, along with weapons and ammunition. They planned to connect the reactor with the settlement, giving them nearly unlimited power, but Ashley couldn't do it alone. As the lift stopped the three began to move the crates onto wheeled platforms. However, as they began loading them on, the sound of rotor blades reached her ears; she looked out into the landscape to see a flying vehicle coming in.

"Err, guys." she said, getting the attention of Preston and Sturges. "Does anyone have access to Vertibirds?"

"Well, there's the Brotherhood and the Enclave, but they're not around here and..." Preston trailed off, "Gunners."

Sturges pulled out a snub-nose revolver as his face betrayed his panic. "Gunners?" Ash asked.

"A bunch of ruthless mercs; they do anything for profit." Preston said.

Before Ashley could say anything, the Vertibird began to shake in the air. She had worked on them enough times to know when there was trouble. And from the looks of things, one of the engines was failing badly. It tilted as it came in fast and low; Preston and Ashley ran back towards Sanctuary while Sturges held back. He wasn't a fighter like those two; he was more of a mechanic than anything. He stayed put as the two moved across the small wood and back into the village, waiting for the bird to come down.

It was coming down hard but went it got low, several people jumped out as the aircraft flew into the trees and exploded. Three of them landed on their feet while three others landed in a heap. The ones who landed on their feet helped the ones who landed in the heap.

"Joe, WHAT KIND OF FLYING WAS THAT?" a man in a beret yelled.

"YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO THAT I CANNOT FLY THESE GODDAMN THINGS!" 'Joe' yelled.

Ash and Preston walked up to the group as they began to bicker with one another. One of them, a bald woman with a web tattoo on her head, was on her knee, looking at a laser wound on her friend's leg. But calling them friends would be a bit of a stretch, judging by how they were responding to one another. But then Ashley stopped and just stared. This "Joe" guy in the beret was talking almost too was horrifying to look at. He had little to no skin or hair, and his nose was completely gone. As he talked, it sounded like he had smoothing stuck in his throat, this made it even more odd, to say the least.

"Hey, Joe." the bald woman said making him look at her. "Ya got Vault meat looking at ya ugly ass."

Joe looked to Ashley who was walking up and stood next to Preston. He started for a moment before rubbing his eyes. The man with the beret looked from him to the woman who he was looking at.

"Ok, old man, what's up?" he asked.

"I don't believe my eyes." he said walking up to Ashley and touched her arm making her back away. "Ashley? Is that you?"

"Wait, Joe?" she asked looking at the body of her old boss.

"Hey, who's the cute redhead?" asked the wounded soldier as he stood but earning himself a kick between his legs.

He fell to his knees in pain holding his crotch and groaning in pain.

"Watch it, Kai." he said in annoyance.

"So, this is the miracle worker you told us about, old man?" the beret-wearing man said standing next to Joe who nodded. "So, why isn't she like you?"

"I was about to ask, you impatient dick."

Ashley just sniggered at that. "Haven't lost that attitude, have ya, Joe?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, well, a long time in the wasteland will do that to ya. But, what happened to you?"

"I was in Vault 111 until only recently. I was in a cryo freeze for the past 200 years." she said.

"Given Vault-Tec's reputation with other Vaults, I'm not surprised." the beret-wearing man said with Joe nodding, but the two of them got a raised brow from Ash.

"It's well known that some Vault-tec Vaults are little more than control groups." Joe said.

Given what she had been through Ashley wasn't surprised in the least. "Ok but Joe what happened to you? I mean you look like, errr..." she stuttered trying to find the right word.

"Walking corpse, a human without skin?" he said with a smile. "I've gotten used to the comments over the years. Anyway, when the bombs fell I was in my basement which was quite deep, except some of the radiation got through, and... well, turned me into a ghoul. Least I haven't gone feral yet."

Ash looked at him up and down. "So, you're what a ghoul looks like."

"Not been out of the freezer long, have you?"

"No, just a few hours." she said.

"Ok, by the way, where is your husband and child? Weren't they with you in the vault?"

Ashley looked down as she struggled to hold back her emotions.

"Joe, Nate's dead and someone took my baby." she said.

"WHAT, WHO? WHO DID?" he practically yelled.

"That's just the thing, I don't know. I was planning to head to diamond city after helping Preston and his group settle in." she said before Joe pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry Ash; I know how much you wanted a family after the war. I cannot imagine how hard this is for you." he said.

"Thanks, Joe." she said breaking the hug. "By the way, who are your friends?"

Before Joe could speak the beret-wearing man stepped forward. "I'm Cobra, the commander of the Star Swords."

"The group of mercs who demand food and water from villages in order to protect them?" Preston asked with a hint of resentment in his voice.

"You make it sound like we do it for fun, but yes, essentially." Cobra said.

"You demand food and water from settlements you protect?" Ashley asked in a disgusted tone.

"It's not like that; we ask for a cut of food and water from the villages we protect as payment. We assess how much food and water they produce before asking how much we can request. If they do not produce the necessary resources, we leave the village, regardless of who's living there. Bigger settlements and farms are valuable targets and produce enough for us to work. We need food and water in order to work. When we get our share, we sell the food to settlements we have a contract with. We spend caps on the ammo we need. It's a fair trade." Cobra argued.

"But what about the smaller settlements?" Ashley asked.

"Smaller ones don't tend to last very long regardless of protection." Cobra said in a matter of fact tone.

"Why?"

"Mutants, raiders, slavers; the list goes on." Preston said, knowing what the Sword Star commander was saying. "Smaller settlements, are always a prime target for slavers as they can take people without much effort, same goes for raiders and mutants."

"Right." Cobra spoke. "But the rest of Sword Star is outside the Commonwealth border. Joe, Kai, Kelly, Jack, Hawk, and myself, are the only ones left. Those goddamn Gunners took out most of our main force."

"Not to mention they took our power armour." Joe spoke up.

"Yeah, we need somewhere to lay low. Sanctuary seemed like the best place." Cobra said almost like he was asking for his group to join the settlers.

Preston just chuckled. "Sure, more help the better."

"Thanks. Now, what do you need?" Joe asked.

"We could use some help in getting the crates from the vault to Sanctuary." Ashley smiled.

Joe and Cobra just looked at each other smiled and shrugged before following Ashley and Preston to the Vault lift. While they carried the crates, Hawk and Jack climbed onto the roofs of two of the buildings as sentries. It took around five trips to and from the Vault to get everything they needed before the sun started to set. The settlers opened up one of the crates to find seeds inside. Joe who was a bit of a gardener back in the day and started to plant them while Ash and Cobra opened two crates containing military ration packs.

Preston and Sturges set up a cooking pot over a fire. They didn't have much in terms of vegetables or meat, even then it would be irradiated. Because of this they decided to have the ration packs until the seeds mature into food. Besides the ration packs could be cooked in water quite quickly and they filled a person up for the day. As the packs cooked Ashley was looking though the other crates just looking for something. She did eat one of the packs, the others didn't like them too much but she loved it. This was mostly due her time in the army, she had just gotten used to the taste and loved it.

Cobra looked towards her concerned, what was she looking for. Setting his empty packet aside he stood and walked up to her.

"Looking for something?" he asked making her look up at him.

"Sorry, force of habit. During my time in the war, I used to do inventory; I have good eyes for detail. This is just the old habit of mine acting up." she said as she pulled a blue and yellow bodysuit out with the thighs, biceps and belly being fish-netting. "Hmm, flexible nanofiber. Highly resilient and lead-lined." she muttered to herself and smiled. "Those Chinese scientists knew how to make them."

"Huh?" Cobra simply said.

"This is a combat suit, an old one at that. Used by Chinese agents to infiltrate American checkpoints during the war. They wore this under their normal clothing." she said with as smile. "I may have not have been a scientist but the local research team called me in a few times to reverse-engineer Chinese technology."

"Ok. So you planning you go to Diamond city tomorrow?"

"Yeah." she said folding the bodysuit. "Why?"

"I'll come with you, Joe will kill me if I don't." he said earning himself a deadly stare from her.

"I don't need protecting." she said.

"That's not… *sigh* Look, you don't know much about the Wasteland. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. You need to know how things go down here."

Ash looked away for a moment, he was right. During the war there was intelligence, information about the troops, and everything. Here, she had no intel and idea what was going on. She needed a guide to find her son in this new world. She looked to him, he was well-built like Nate; a true soldier. His face was scarred with scars on the side on his dirty face. He stood with confidence knowing that the next day maybe his last. The black armour he wore brought out his brilliant brown eyes that she could get lost in. Looking down at the bodysuit, she looked back up at him.

"Ok, fine, but don't get in my way." she said.

Cobra just smiled at that. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

OOOOO

Early next morning, Cobra and Ashley checked through their packs by the bridge. The Sword Star commander was armed with a hardened reflex scoped .44 revolver, an electrified combat knife, and an armour piercing combat rifle with the rifle stock replaced by the R-91 pistol handle stock. Ashley, on the other hand, had the Chinese rifle she took from a raider back at the museum; she also had her laser pistol and 10mm as sidearms. She didn't have the laser musket, as while it was good, its slow rate of fire was not adapted for pitched combat. She then zipped up her jumpsuit with the Chinese bodysuit underneath, then threw on her webbing and a back pack. Dogmeat was standing next to them waiting, to move as well.

Before they could move, Preston and Codsworth came up.

"We're coming with you." Preston said making the two of them stare at them.

"I, too, would like a word with the man who killed Sir!" Codsworth declared.

Cobra and Ash looked to each other before looking at the two. "The more the merrier." Cobra said.

"Yeah, ok come on." Ash said.

Preston smiled as the five of them then began to walk across the bridge and to Diamond City.

OOOOO

Paladin Danse looked over the wasteland as he stood atop Cambridge police station. His black Brotherhood armour reflecting the sunlight. All he could see was destruction of the old world; death, decay, and mutations. All who wouldn't use technology responsibly. He needed to save the wasteland. Looking down, he could see the last of the barricades being set up. But was it was a growl that met his ears. Looking across the street his fears were realised as ferals came running, storming the barricade.

"TAKE COVER!" yelled an initiate, bringing up his laser rifle and firing at the abominations.

Lances of red light flew through the air and hit dead, decaying flesh; burning but still coming as a Brotherhood scribe brought up a laser pistol and fired again. The beam hit the head of one of the ferals, taking it off in the process, but more came. One of the Brotherhood snipers looked down the sight of his laser sniper rifle and she could see that they were coming from the nearby metro as Danse joined in the defence.

"Paladin, they're coming from the metro!" the sniper yelled over the laser fire.

Danse looked into the town as more and d more ferals came. "Get, Jones, Marshall and Leon. Go stomp those freaks out!" the Paladin yelled.

The sniper nodded and jumped down from his spot. "OK, YOU HEARD THE PALADIN, FOLLOW ME!" he shouted as three others joined him, all of them in Brotherhood combat armour.

The Paladin, scribe and knight covered the four as they pushed forward to the metro. The three remaining Brotherhood members stayed and fought off as many as they could but sun was beginning to set in the distance. The Scribe knew this would be trouble, she turned to the police station and ran inside. Two heavy machine guns were set up on top of the police station but wouldn't last very long. While they could use oil, the Brotherhood didn't have any to spare at the moment. Danse and the Knight fought off as many as they could but one of the ferals grabbed onto the knight, biting his leg, and making yell out in pain.

The powered armoured paladin stopped on the feral as the guns activated and fired on the ferals. Danse then grabbed a hold of the knights arm and dragged him up the stairs and into the police station.

"Goddamn freaks!" the knight yelled out.

"Calm down, you'll be fine." the scribe said as she came up with a stimpack syringe in hand.
She kneeled down and injected it into the man's thigh, making him yell in pain once again.

"Big baby." she muttered before looking at the Paladin who was looking out of the police window. "Danse?"

"Huh? Sorry," he said. "My mind was somewhere else." he rubbed his forehead before looking at the fuel gage on his arm.

The arrow pointed to the 10% mark, grunting he pressed the armour release and the suit opened up allowing him to get out. The Scribe walked up to him and looked at his battered face.

"Danse, you need to lie down, the day's been long, yes, but you need to sleep." she said.

"What, you going to pull rank?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, bed, now!". She demanded before walking over to the reception terminal and logged on.

Danse just sighed before looking out of the window once more. The guns were keeping the ferals at bay but for how long?

OOOOO

Outside of Lexington, in an abandoned building, Ashley took a look at the caps Preston had given her. The minuteman was asleep while she was up keeping an eye on a mole rat that was turning on a spit over a fire. Codsworth had shut down for the night to allow his batteries to recharge while Cobra was outside keeping an eye on things. Taking out one of the Nuka cola caps she sighed and lead back where she was sitting. The day had some interesting things going on, nothing major happened as they made their way to Lexington. The only problematic thing that happened was a mole rat attack.

The looked just like normal mole rats, just much bigger and far deadlier. They came out in a pack of 6 to attack them but they didn't last long, Preston and Cobra then took at least two each, and saying that it was food almost made her sick on the spot. But then again, it was to be expected. The smell of cooking mole rat met her nose, and she was hungry. It had been a long day of learning. Normally it would take her a few hours to get to Boston, but thanks to the devastation, scavenging and animal attacks it took longer.

She remembered those S.P.E.C.I.A.L animations that Vault-tec did. High-quality and informative, but she never expected to follow it as a survival guide. Preston and Codsworth were asleep and Dogmeat wasn't too talkative. She needed someone to talk to; looking over to the Star Sword merc, she broke the ice.

"Cobra?" she called getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he called back.

"Could you come here, please, I a question."

He looked to her with a brow raised but shrugged. "Ok."

He got up and walked inside the hut and sat next to the fire. "So what you want to talk about?"

"What's the deal with these caps?" she asked him bluntly knowing she needed to start somewhere.

"Caps? Ok, I'm not too sure where it started but caps are used as currency out here, you can buy anything with them. Kinda like… dollars?" he asked with her nodding. "The only difference is that none of them have any extra value, one cap is one cap regardless of the maker."

Nodding at that she placed the cap bag in the bag before looking outside.

"So, don't take this the wrong way, but I heard from Joe that before you married, you used to-" he tried to say but she spoke up.

"Sleep with other guys?" Ash said with a smile. "Yeah, I used to get around; I'm not ashamed. The boys always had more than just one squeeze; I was just much better at it." She laughed. "Why?"

Cobra was silent for a moment before answering. "History about pre-war times is not well-known. The little information we do have comes from Vaults or books. The little we do know... seems like a golden age. Almost as if sex was much more sacred. These days, well, it's just one of those things that we do to make our reality a little less grim."

Ash smiled at that but she quickly fell tired and she went to sleep. With her now asleep, Cobra could only look at her, she was beautiful; almost like a goddess. Given how she fought earlier, almost like a goddess of war. Looking outside he couldn't imagine what she was going through, losing her husband and child in one day then learning you've been frozen for 200 years. She was strong, maybe stronger than he was. Hours passed before he fell asleep as well.

The sun rose and Dogmeat was the first to wake with a big yawn. He stretched himself out waking himself fully up. Standing he turned to his female owner.

"Hmmm Grace, stop it." she mumbled. "Alex whipped me hard last night and my body is stiff."

Dogmeat looked at her again before licking her hand making her twitch and one of her eyes opened. She saw Dogmeat next to her licking her, she yawned out loud waking Cobra almost instantly grabbing his .44 and pointing it around the hut.

"Relax soldier boy, *yawn* it's just me." Ashley said as she stood and began to crack her joints.

"You sound like a Deathclaw with that yawn." he said yawning himself.

"Deathclaw?" she asked looking at black armoured soldier.

"Remember that lizard you killed in Concord?" Preston asked as he sat him cracking his neck making Cobra wince while Ash nodded. "That thing is called a Deathclaw. They are the nastiest animals out here."

"Can you both quit cracking your limbs please?" the Sword star merc said. "If we're lucky we can get to the city today."

"Point." Preston said as he ripped off a leg off the molerat and began to eat it.

Cobra did the same while Ashley just looked at the brown meat of the mutated beast. Taking a deep breath she did the same and ripped off a leg as well and bit into it. After taking a bite, she immediately spit it back out.

"Ugh, god, it tastes like a foot!" she yelled before looking up at the two. "How can you eat this?"

The two looked at each other before shrugging. "We grew up with it." Preston said.

Looking at the two she looked at the leg and just swallowed before taking another bite and another and another. It tasted foul but she hungry. Once done, she picked up her bag and walked out as Codsworth booted up.

"Good morning, everyone." he said as his thruster set him to hover. "So, where are we off to?"

"Well, we're near Lexington right now, but I want to avoid it. The place is crawling with Raiders and ferals." Preston said.

"But we're still away from Diamond city, it may be the best idea to go through Lexington; we may even find salvage we can use. Besides, we're combatants." Cobra said.

Preston nodded at that. "Yeah, ok." he said picking up his own bag.

Ashley was outside, her stomach didn't like her at the moment and felt like it was going to turn itself inside-out. Cobra walked up to her and touched her on the shoulder.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick." she told him, trying to hold down her breakfast.

"Wait, err, this might sound odd but do you have any Radaway?"

"No." Ash replied.

Preston took out an IV solution bag and threw it to Cobra. The Sword star commander took the strange orange fluid into a syringe and stuck it into her arm. She was feeling a little better, if a little bewildered. She took a look at him and then to the Radaway.

"All animals, and most food and water is contaminated with radiation." Preston said.

"Oh..." she said, uneasy and unsure about what to say.

"Don't worry Miss Ashley, the amount you digested should not affect you. It's a similar amount to an x-ray scan." Codsworth piped up.

"That's good to hear, how are your scanners? What can you see in Lexington from here?"

"Not much activity. There is a bit of movement by a small building with a pool but that's about it."

"It's likely they're raiders; they must have taken out most of the ghouls." Cobra said with Preston in agreement.

"Let's move." Ash said picking up her rifle and walked with the others to Lexington.

As they walked Preston and Cobra looked around them keeping an eye out for an attack. Ashley looked around in a strange awe at the world. It held a fascinating, yet horrifying beauty to her. It was interesting to say the least. Unaware, off in the distance, a skeletal machine watched them closely, keeping an eye on them feeding video to a terminal in a white room. A man in his sixties watched as the five walked down the hills to Lexington. His beard and hair where grey showing his age, a white coat was over his green jumper.

He couldn't help but smile, he had heard about this in one of his e-mails but he never expected it to be true. A child came up and grabbed onto his arm. He turned to face the child and smiled.

"Hey there, young one." he said.

"Hello granddad, whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Oh just seeing what's going on on the surface."

"Oooooo did you see anything exciting?"

She said that a woman with dark flowing red hair came up a set of steps and looked to where the two were talking.

"Jennifer." she said in an annoyed tone walking over and picked up the young girl. "You're supposed to be at school!"

"Awww, but mom." the child demanded but the old man spoke up.

"You heard your mother, now get back to class." he said with a little chuckle.

"But granddad!" the child moaned.

"Thanks, dad." the older woman said before walking off.

The man lost his smile as he looked down and sighed, he never knew his parents. They had told him what happened but he'd never like to talk nor think about it. Looking to the screen he knew who she was after and decided to help her in whatever form he could.

OOOOO

The five entered Lexington with the three combat veterans keeping their guns up and their eyes open. raiders could pop out from anywhere, but as they walked down a street Ashley's pipboy buzzed. Looking at it, it seemed that she had picked up a radio station. She tuned the Pipboy to the signal.

"AUTOMATED MESSAGE...this is scribe Heylen of recon team Gladius to any Brotherhood personnel… all units have sustained casualties and running low on supplies, requesting support or evac at Cambridge police station..." the transmission then cut and she lost the signal.

"Cambridge? Oh shit, that place is a feral ghoul nest!" Cobra exclaimed.

"They're Brotherhood, so what about it?" Preston asked.

"I have seen a team of power armoured troops go into a feral ghoul nest and never come back."

"Sorry, Brotherhood?" Ashley asked but before anyone could answer a shot rang out and a round snapping on the concrete made them take cover.

Preston looked out from cover to see two raiders on a building not too far away, one of them held a sniper pipe rifle while the other held a quad barrel missile launcher. If there were other raiders, he couldn't see them. Pulling back, he cranked his musket as Cobra affixed his bayonet to his rifle.
"Two on the building; can't see anyone else."

"They're probably inside." Ashley said, keeping her eyes open.

"Have at you, cowards!" Codsworth said out loud.

The raider with the rocket launcher heard the Mr. Handy and fired near his location.

"OH… my..." he said seeing the explosion.

"Codsworth, stay down and be quiet!" Cobra said as he moved out of cover and fired at the raiders' location.

The raiders took cover from the suppressing fire, allowing Ash and Preston to move up to their blind spot. Keeping his eyes open, the Minuteman aimed down his musket scope at the biggest threat; with the missile launcher gone, they'd be able to move a lot easier. When Ashley, dogmeat and Cobra got to a good firing position, the two Raiders popped their heads out of cover only to be met by a laser bolt on the face. The one holding the rocket launcher dropped the anti-tank weapon and held his face in pain as the blast only glanced his face, not outright killing him.

"RAZOR!" the sniper yelled as Razor fell from where he was perched and into a car pile. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT YOU SONOVABITCH!"

The sniper fired at Preston, ignoring Ashley and Cobra, who moved up into the building. Dogmeat ran ahead of them, growling as he did. He bit the raider on the leg, puncturing his leather armour, surprising him to a 10mm round to the head. He fell back as Ashley slid her 10mm pistol back into her holster and stood where the raider was. She waved to Preston, signaling him that the coast was clear. When he arrived he walked to the edge and noticed the raider with the heavy weapon.

"Damn, that's one hell of a fall." he muttered as Cobra opened up a steamer trunk and looked inside.

Codsworth came up and noticed what the Sword Star commander was doing.

"Sir, Don't the dead deserve to be at peace?" he asked.

"Relax, tin can, I'm only taking account of their worldly belongings. Though, it's not like they deserve it." he muttered under his breath. "Ooh, shotguns! Nice." as he pulled out a combat shotgun.

Ash walked over and looked inside the trunk as wall with a smile on her face. "I assume this is good?" she asked.

"Yeah, that reminds me: should we head straight to Diamond City or help out the Brotherhood?" Cobra asked.

"I'd rather not get mixed up with those guys, but it wouldn't hurt to get on their good side." Preston said looking at the two. "Cambridge is nearby, so we can lend a hand before move on to Diamond City."

Cobra nodded at that before looking to Ash. "What do you think?"

Ashley shrugged. "I'm not sure... just who are the Brotherhood?"

Cobra slapped himself in the face forgetting about that she might now know about the Brotherhood. Preston just smiled in amusement and shook his head.

"Damn it, sorry. Preston, could you help me out here?"

"Sure." the minuteman said. "The Brotherhood are a highly militaristic group; they hunt down and preserve technology from pre-war times. Basically, they hoard all they tech they can find; many people just call them technophiles. They mostly wear unpainted body armour and their more experienced soldiers wear black T-60 power armour. They are all trained in conventional warfare, but specialize in laser weaponry and combat drops."

Preston continued, "The Brotherhood is composed of multiple chapters, but I don't know much about this one. All I know is that the High Elder Maxson is..." Preston paused to find the right word.

"Mad." Cobra added, "He really has it out for ghouls. I mean... they killed a farm run by ghouls, completely unprovoked."

There was a heavy pause.

"As I said before," Preston continued, "I'd rather not get involved, but they do have the medical supplies and ammunition to spare. "

"I am in accord, Mum. Our stockpiles will not last for much longer." Codsworth spoke up.

"Okay." Ash finally decided, leaning on a wall before sighing. "I won't be able to save Shaun if we're not in top shape." she said. "Let's grab what we can and head to Cambridge."

The two nodded before looking around the raiders' outpost. Ashley found metal armour from the dead raider in the room. The nanofibre under her jumpsuit would protect her from the elements and stab wounds, but bullets and lasers were a completely different matter. The metal armour she got was very ramshackle but surprisingly well-built; the metal exterior looked like it could deflect oncoming rounds and the thick cloth underneath would absorb the impact.

Cobra took out several weapons from the steamer trunk which included a three combat shotguns, two 10mm SMGs and several pipe weapons. He also found some whiskey, but he wasn't going to keep it for very long.

"Ahhh, that's good." he said as he took a swig.

"Throw it here." Preston said before Cobra threw the bottle to him.

He also took a swig before holding it to Ashley.

"Oh, no thanks. After my graduation I binge drank for the better part of an evening, nearly destroyed one of my kidneys and slept with two of my friends. Haven't touched a drop since." she said with a smile at Preston who just looked at her in shock trying to processes what she had just said.

"Good for you!" Cobra called as he pulled out several boxes of ammo. "Ok, since we're going to Cambridge we going to need these." he said throwing a shotgun to the both of them.

Both of them caught the shotguns and the 12-gauge shells he tossed at them. "Ghouls love getting up close, but make every shot count." he said as he stood and slung the shotgun over his shoulder.

Preston also found several boxes of ammo before giving them to Ash and Cobra. Once they were satisfied, the gang of five then headed to Cambridge.

OOOOO

Danse fired at the oncoming ghouls with his laser rifle. There didn't seem to be any end to them, but they were still no match for heavy turrets and precision gunfire. The Scribe joined the fight with her laser pistol as well, but this was going nowhere fast. There was still no report from the team who went down into the metro, and were likely dead. If their draining power cells were any indication, they soon would be too. However, hope came in the sound of gunfire that wasn't his.

OOOOO

"That's a lot of zombies." Ash said as Cobra fired his rifle in the crowd as did Preston. "Let's move."

As they moved up Preston and Ashley got their shotguns out and fired into the crowd of Ferals, cutting them down. Dogmeat danced around the ghouls biting through their legs, letting Codsworth finish them off with his saw and flamer with stunning efficiency. Preston and Ashley barreled through with their shotguns, but the ghouls still had much higher numbers. Pushing through, Ash was tackled by one of them and managed to cut her thigh through her suit. Wincing in pain, she turned her gun on her attacker and blew its rotten brains all over the pavement.

More ghouls managed to come up behind them but the merc caught them with shotgun fire and downed the last with his bayonet. No longer moving and not immediately in danger, this gave them a moment to catch the breath. Preston got on top of the battlements and scanned the streets while Ashley injected a stimpack for her leg wound.

"Clear, for now." Preston said. "I'll keep an eye out."

Ashley then turned to look at a man who stood looking out at the street. He was in full power armour with a gear and cog emblem painted on the chest. There was other heraldry, but most notably, his big brown beard and piercing eyes.

"We appreciate the assistance civilians. But what is your business here?" he asked.

"Civvies? Please, if anything, he and I are mercs." Cobra said referring to Preston, who just gave a disapproving look at him.

"I'm Ashley." Ash said before pointing at her companions. "That's Codsworth, Dogmeat, Preston and Cobra. We were on our way to Diamond city before we picked up your signal."

"Are you from a local settlement?" he asked.

"No, we're from Sanctuary Hills." Cobra said, with Danse sighing.

"I do apologise if I find you suspicious. Our mission here has been hard since we got here. I'm Paladin Danse, Brotherhood of Steel. Over there is Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys." he said before noticing Ashley's jumpsuit. "If you're on your way to Diamond City, I'd advise caution. Raiders and Super Mutants have been spotted all throughout the Commonwealth."

"Which is why we responded to your distress signal." Ashley responded, "Our supplies are low and we could use whatever you could spare."

Danse contemplated for a moment before answering. "Come in first, we'll discuss the details inside."