At The Precipice Of Something New

Something New

USAF Satellite Station Olivia
December the 14th, 2287
14:22

Though the wind had been biting and freezing, it was not what unsettled her the most about the former air force satellite station. As it happened, that would be due to its shockingly intact underground intelligence facility.

Before the War, she had only been inside the satellite station a handful of times, all of which had been after Nate had been assigned to intelligence rather than active combat after returning from a brief tour of duty in Anchorage. Though several computer terminals were no longer functional, a few of them having melted through themselves, there were a surprising number of functional ones. Some of them, she reasoned, had to have been created and installed in the years after the War. Still, the knowledge some of them had been there since before the War unsettled her. Her heart pounding in her chest, Nora followed after Preston, with Codsworth and Derek only a few paces behind her. Slowly, they descended down the steps into the station proper. A few raiders had attacked them outside, and disturbed a nest of mole rats. In a way, the mole rats distracting the raiders made it easier to kill them and get to the entrance of the station proper. Kill. They had to kill people. She had to kill people. Nora found her hands tightening around her gun. It still didn't feel quite real. They had to kill raiders, or the raiders would kill them or innocent people, the regular people of the Commonwealth who wanted nothing but the chance to live in peace.

Now, I understand him better. I never quite knew how Nate managed to stay so strong when he came home from combat. Now, I do. If I don't do this, if we don't do this, then more people will suffer. It's hard, but it's something we have to do. Just like he had to when he had to kill members of the Chinese Army.

Every noise, every scutter of a rad roach or every squeak of a rat, was startling. The farther down the steps they were, the closer to the station proper deep underground they were, the sounds of voices and footsteps grew louder. It was the sound of sick fucking laughter, however, that stopped the four of them in their tracks. Derek took in a sharp breath, and pushed up his glasses before reaching for and pulling out his gun. Preston squared his shoulders and reloaded his musket. Codsworth quieted his systems to a barely audible hum, ready to protect Nora and the Minutemen the second the raiders came running for them. Slowly, they made their way to the bottom of the stairs. Carefully, they each stepped over the laser trip wire on the floor. Then, Derek slid over to the computer terminal on a desk just before the corner to go deeper into the station. After a few minutes, Nora, Preston, and Codsworth standing at the ready, he hacked into the computer, and manually shut off the defence systems in the station. The laser trip wire shut off, and the humming of turrets went silent too. With near silence for just a moment, the voices of the raiders became louder. They were only a few metres away, at most.

"Ready?" Preston whispered, rolling his shoulders back when Nora and Derek shortly nodded. "Alright. It's now or never."

Not taking a second to hesitate, Preston began down the second flight of stairs down to the bottom of the satellite station, his musket at the ready. Nora reloaded her shotgun as she went after, just behind him. Derek grabbed his pistol from where he had briefly set it down on the desk. Codsworth braced himself for a fire fight. Nearly the second they reached the end of the stairs, a few raiders ran out from a room at the end of the hall to the right of the stairs. Preston barely evaded a shot towards his head, but managed to shoot down the raider with a few shots from his musket. Codsworth flew past him, and began to take on the raiders who had been and were coming into the room. Nora narrowed her eyes and fired a few rounds in quick succession. Her heart began to pound harder and harder in her chest when it occurred to her that her aim was improving. Necessity speeds up everything. If only things didn't have to be like this. A raider with a tire iron came from the shadows out of the corners of her eyes, about ready to strike Preston in the neck, and, swearing under her breath, Nora shot them, causing them to stumble back.