Eris

Searching for a Weapon

"This is Sentinel French radioing to report that Elder Maxson and I have allocated the bunker we received the report about."

"Good. I know Elder Maxson had an interest in recovering this technology with you but if anything goes wrong you will be held personally responsible."

The 21 year old soldier rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Maxson, who fixed her with a stern look, despite the childlike glint in his eyes. They'd always been good at keeping eachother young, or more importantly, at reminding eachother of how young they were.

"Yes Captain Kells, don't worry, I'll bring him back in one piece. Sentinel French out."

"What is it with you Pre-War women and disrespecting Kells? He's a good soldier, don't make me give you a formal warning."

Annie snickered and reloaded her laser rifle, well, Vanessa's laser rifle, it made her a little sad. She missed her sister dearly, and there was deep down a part of her that wished she'd stayed behind when the Brotherhood were exiled from the Commonwealth.

Maxson leant down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and with that she was reminded of why she'd left with them. She'd built a life with them. With him.

It was nice they could touch eachother without fear of people watching, or reporting back to the council. She squeezed his arm, and then turned her attention to the bunker they'd located.

It was a metal hatch in the floor of some odd building, on an old prewar road, on the seemingly endless stretch of land between the Commonwealth and the Capital Wasteland. They as a team had been checking out locations where there had been reports of Institute activity before they'd been destroyed. If anywhere was going to have old tech to be catalogued and collected it was here.

Annie crouched down and ran her fingertips over the markings on the hatch. "I think this is an old Vault Tec research building. This is definitely their logo." She studied the lock for a moment, and then huffed, no way she could pick that, and Maxson didn't have a talent for picking locks either.

"Here." It was like he'd read her mind, and handed her a makeshift bomb. They'd packed extensive supplies for every possible situation, using the storage compartments in their Power Armor. Both of them were excellent when it came to planning ahead, and had become overly cautious since their exile.

Annie set up the bomb against the lock on the hatch, stepped back and threw a lit match, quickly covering her ears. A small explosion and a puff of smoke later and the lock was clearly destroyed, the two high fived each other, very mature.

"Be on your lookout, Antoinette," he said firmly, "we don't know what defences are set up down there."

"I think we would've heard turrets by now, if there were any." She swung herself over the edge, and began quickly climbing down, Maxson followed soon after, using only one hand to grip the ladder, the other holding his laser rifle as he peered into the bunker, ready to shoot any threats.

He actually found himself disappointed. The bunker was dimly lit, a terminals screen was glowing green to their right, sitting on a desk with a case of holotapes and a recorder. Maxson picked up one of the files and looked over it, flicking through the damaged pages, the last was dated from a year before. That combined with the layer of dust implied whoever was doing the research had been missing for quite a while.

"I don't recognise anything of importance in these notes. No weapons mentioned."

"With all due respect Elder, you aren't a Scribe, you weren't trained as one either."

He was silent for a moment. "I was hoping for weapons." It sounded almost like childish disappointment. Annie giggled and patted his shoulder, taking the file from him.