Fallout: Connections of Fate

Chapter 6: Assigned

10 Years Ago
"Boss, have you seen Kawasaki today?"
Garrett looked up from his rifle to meet his subordinate's curious stare.
"He's in debrief, Barnes. Just got back from cover in the Brotherhood, and it seems like he has big news."
Barnes grinned. "I knew he was coming back today, but that's good news."
Garrett continued polishing his plasma rifle. "I doubt it. He seemed worried."
Barnes cocked his head. "Worried how?"
Before Garrett could answer, alarms throughout Raven Rock blared.
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Autumn glared at the operator at the monitor. "What do you see?"
The operator pressed several buttons on the computer and flipped a switch. "Sir, it looks like a giant... Robot. Several armed men in power armor. We're being attacked."
The the youngest man in the room took one look at the monitor and stepped back in shock. "It's the Brotherhood, sir. That has to be Liberty Prime. There's no other robots of that size."
Colonel Autumn turned to the shaken man. "Lieutenant Kawasaki, I would expect a cooler demeanor from one of Squad Gamma."
Kawasaki straightened up. "Y-yes sir."
Autumn signaled to the men at the entrance to the room. "Prepare vertibirds for myself and elite squads Alpha, Kappa, and Lambda. We're going to take the Jefferson Memorial by force. Beta, Gamma, and Epsilon will stay here to defend."
Kawasaki winced at the sound of his squad's name. His time as a spy in the brotherhood had led him to believe that Liberty Prime was unstoppable. He kept this to himself, however. He knew that Colonel Autumn would surely punish him for speaking out of turn again.
Autumn glared at Kawasaki. "Do I have to remind you of your duty, soldier? Get out there and stop those Brotherhood soldiers!"
"Yes sir! Right away sir!"
Kawasaki gave a quick salute, and ran off to the Gamma bunk room.
The Colonel watched Kawasaki as he ran from the room before letting out a hefty sigh. "This is why we need Sigma here."
The Colonel briskly walked to the Vertibird hangar, itching to deal with the nuisance in blue for good.
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Kawasaki barged into his bunk room and was met by his squad mates, already in their X-02 power armor. Barnes locked his helmet into place as he noticed his friend.
"Isaac, hurry, man. Your armor is already prepped."
Garrett adjusted the scope of a plasma rifle through the glass of his helmet before turning and handing it to a younger man, not in power armor.
"Private Martin, you're staying inside to protect the base. You're not ready for the real combat yet."
Martin nodded and gave a salute. "Yes sir!" He matched out of the room without another word, rifle in hand.
Isaac slid on his helmet and locked it in. He let out a nervous sigh. "Guys, we're fucked."
Garrett flipped a switch on his plasma splitter. Over the past months he's been awake, he had developed a taste for plasma based weapons over the lasers that had been provided in the U.S. Army. "Kawasaki, we have a job to do. Our orders are to protect this base at all costs."
Barnes walked to the door, rifle in hand. "Guys, they've got to be close by now. Can we hustle?"
Garrett stared at the visor of his nervous squad mate's helmet. "Move out, Lieutenant. The Colonel gave us orders."
Isaac took a deep breath and forced himself out of the door.
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Initiate Hannes watched in awe as Liberty Prime marched on. He was lucky enough to be selected to go with the Lyon's Pride to march on the Enclave HQ. One of the other initiates bumped him with her elbow to get his attention.
"You ready for the fireworks?"
Hannes smiled. "Amy, I'm always ready."
She instantly faked a gasp. "Lucas, you offend me. We are on a mission." She stood up straight. "You must call me by my rank in the field."
He waved his hand and smiled. "Initiate Wolfe, whatever. I'm just excited for actual combat."
At that moment, a booming voice echoed. "Red Chinese Communists detected." Liberty Prime reached for one of the nuclear bombs and prepped it for throwing. Many enclave soldiers had already exited the base and set up firing lines on the cliffs.
The gigantic robot aimed and threw the warhead straight to the base's large door. An explosion rocked the whole area, and Enclave soldiers were sent flying.
Lucas could only whisper in awe.
"Holy shit."
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"Holy fuck!" Garrett screamed, after being knocked off his feet from the nuke. Shaken, but overall unharmed, he stepped over the armored corpses of his brothers in arms that had landed around him. Their armor had cracked and shattered in some places. He turned to look for his squad mates. There was yelling behind him.
"Captain! We need help!"
He turned and saw his two armored subordinates closer to the center of the blast. One had his left leg blown off, and his hand was a garbled mess. He had been too close to the detonation. The other was panicking and trying to figure out how to save his friends.
Garrett sprinted over to his squad mates. "What happened?"
The helmet on the injured soldier was fractured, and he could see the terrified face of Barnes behind it. Blood covered his face and he couldn't speak.
Isaac frantically tried to save his friend's life, but blood was gushing out of him too quickly. "Captain, what can we do?"
Garrett turned to look at the hulking mass of metal that just destroyed the main entrance to their base. The robot was readying another warhead.
Garrett turned back to the dying soldier as he began to lose consciousness and stood up. "We have to go."
Barnes' visible eye stopped responding to movement. Isaac seemed confused. "Barnes is dead."
Garrett grabbed Isaac by the arm and dragged him away from the battle as fast as he could manage. "We'll be dead soon too if we stick around. I signed up for the military to fight the communist threat. Not be nuked by an American robot."
Kawasaki nodded his head and followed his captain away from the battle. The smoke of the explosions made a perfect cover as the plasma and laser fire in the war zone faded away.
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"Initiates, do you see anything?"
Amy spoke up before Lucas could even turn to look at him. "No sir, Paladin Vargas!"
Lucas was still in awe of the smoke and ashes that littered the area. "No survivors on their side."
They took a moment to look at the destruction they had caused. They didn't see the two surviving members of Gamma, already hundreds of yards into the wastes.
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Present Day
The two tired men came up to the small farm and stopped outside of the wire fence.
The younger man turned to his older partner. "Think it's safe?"
The older man shrugged. "Our tatos aren't doing well." He looked around at the undersized, but well grown farm. "We need all the help we can get."
The younger man scratched at the wiry hairs on his chin. "Which one of us is making the walk up there?"
The older man glared at his counterpart and slowly began walking up to the rickety porch. As he made it to the door, it cracked open, revealing a younger man with shaggy brown hair.
"Move an inch and you'll die where you stand."
The older man kept an icy glare, but raised his hands in a surrender. "That's one way to treat a neighbor." He motioned with his head to his friend still waiting at the fence. "We run a farm a ways west, and our crop is failing. We knew you could lend us a hand, but the real question is would you?"
The man behind the door looked behind him at something and then turned back to the man on his porch. "Are you armed?"
"Sidearm, in my right holster. I keep bigger stuff at home. Well protected, and we can give you some of our crop to sell or keep if you help out." The man looked back at the thing in his house, then sighed and opened the door. He had a sawed off shotgun in his left hand, which he had just been holding to the door. A small girl hid in the hallway, slightly peeking her head out. "Sounds like a good deal. Name's Tyler." He extended his arm to shake the older man's hand.
"Garrett. My friend hanging back is Isaac. Had to make sure you didn't outright shoot me. You know how dangerous these wastes can be."
Tyler seemed to pause for a moment, as if recalling something. "Yeah, I do."
Garrett took a look through the door at the room. He noticed a mounted plasma rifle that looked modified for long range. "Good looking rifle." He nodded. "Still work?"
Tyler seemed caught off guard, and moved to obscure the rifle. "Yeah. Shoots nice and straight."
Tyler turned to the girl and beckoned. "Come on, Ash. We're taking a trip to visit our friend here's farm."
Ashley hid sheepishly behind Tyler. Garrett smiled and nodded at the young girl. "Pleasure to meet you."
She ducked farther behind her guardian. "Mmhmm."
Garrett smiled at Tyler and began walking back to Isaac, who was still waiting, now kicking a stone back and forth. "Your daughter is fairly shy."
Tyler, again, seemed caught off guard. "Oh. Yeah... Ashley can be shy around people she doesn't know. But she's not my daughter."
Garrett turned and raised an eyebrow. Tyler looked to see if she was paying attention, and whispered in response. "She lost her parents some time ago. Too young to remember them." He looked again at her to make sure she didn't hear.
Garrett's smile faded as he nodded. Isaac extended his hand to Tyler for shaking, and the four made their way down the dusty road back to the farm.