With everyone roaming the vault, exploring every nook and cranny, Deacon came to Nate in the Overseer's office again, asking if he could use the phone to contact the Railroad. "If...you can..." Nate said, "Then by all means." Leaving the desk for Deacon to work, he quickly tried phoning the other vaults.

\111/

"They're right outside our front door," Was a response to a situation no-one in the Railroad wanted to hear. The Brotherhood of Steel was in a mad scramble going after all available targets with extreme prejudice. With flick of the switch, they were launching their campaign against the Commonwealth.

"PAM told us they were coming for us, and while we weren't exactly rolling out the welcome mat, they took whatever they could get."

"Gave them an inch?" Deacon asked,

"...And they took a mile. Yeah. Yesterday when we first made contact with them, they were asking for ammo, guns, places close to Cambridge that were safe...Today we've got a whole camp of Brotherhood above our heads and their boys crawling all over the North End, looking for us and our safe-spots. Checking buildings, poking their heads in and searching for deserters they think are holed up with us. They want an excuse to come kicking down our door. This isn't the friendly, buying whatever we can spare, this is...them wanting everything we have."

"Who's giving the order?"

"Their Lancer-Captain Kells. Once we told Pam about yesterday's events, she suspected that their response was going to be rapid counter attacks to project power, land-grab, and create a false-rationalization narrative that if the Railroad could've been defeated so easily, then they never would've been able to stand against the Institute, further imposing the reality that the Brotherhood needs to be here. The Brotherhood is reaching out for whatever they can get their hands on and digging their heels in to make a strong push for Commonwealth territory...even if that means taking us out. They want a win...they NEED a win to justify all this activity. If they get a win under their belts, they'll be back on their feet and keep coming at us until they eventually find out about where we're spread out to. If we hold them off, then that's just another nail in the coffin for them."

"Keep your eyes peeled, and get ready to move. We may finally end up burning the North End Safe house, if that's the case, we need it to attract a lot of Brotherhood attention. I'll check in after I've finished talking with Des and the others again. I'll find out what's really going on and get back to you, Stay frosty, Glory."

"Stay Safe."

\111/

From hour to hour, the Brotherhood was changing gears and tactics from simply trying to make a presence in the Commonwealth, to aggressive expansion. The Brotherhood commanders were retaliating for the attack and failure of the first 24 hours, and were now doing everything they could to rebuild themselves and were power-grabbing. After losing over a tenth of their fighting force, and down one-third of their air support, they needed supply lines to and from the Boston Airport into and across Boston and Cambridge. Starting with the Coastline, they sent out forces to start blasting out routes they could control and maintain for safely moving troops around the Commonwealth. Fighting with Raiders in Revere, East Boston, and arriving in numbers at Bunker Hill, they were quickly trying to establish themselves and were blitzing across the county to make up for their losses and shortcomings.

In a shouting match with merchants and caravan guards moving out of Bunker Hill, there was a short standoff then shoot-out that left one dead Brotherhood member, and four dead caravan workers. Two happened to be synths that the Railroad just finished re-programming, which kicked off a whole new powder-keg once the Brotherhood swooped in with two Vertibirds and checked over the bodies, finding the synth components in their skulls.

The attack on Bunker Hill was still in the midst of occurring when Deacon was told over the phone. Instantly elevating the situation from trying to find potential trading partners, to designating all of Bunker Hill as an Institute spy assembly, the merchants retaliated and ended up killing a Brotherhood knight and a pilot, but that only turned Bunker Hill into a shooting gallery.

Deacon spoke with Dr. Carrington in Vault 75, Desdemona in Vault 114, and was hearing that the deserters the Brotherhood was looking for was <Nate> and Paladin Danse. Trying to resolve the situation at Bunker Hill, realizing he was far from the frontlines and anything they did or agreed on would temporarily pull the Brotherhood's attention away from Bunker Hill.

By nightfall the Brotherhood would reach Diamond City to secure a land route. The advance party was already buying up as much ammo, food resources, and parts to repair the Prydwen, making plenty of merchants happy for the influx of caps and making the Diamond City Market a flurry of activity. They were all completely ignorant of the Bunker Hill Massacre that just occurred.

\111/

Meathead, Thunderstruck, and Paladin Danse were in the basement of Mass Fusion. Meathead was reattempting to copy Nate's hacking skills and get into the lower section by forcing the security doors to open, knowing they were within spitting distance of passing Brotherhood patrols that were already eyeing the building.

"<You know what? I'm just going to go find the CEO's keys. His office is on the top floor, we can already get there. I'll be back in twenty.>

"I'm going to keep at getting the door unlocked," Danse replied.

"How big is the Byrillium Agitator?" Thunderstruck asked.

"Large enough for two people to carry, could probably fit on either you or Meathead's back. I'm not sure how heavy it is, but with how specialized the component is, it should be around 60-80 pounds. The only issue aside from getting detected with it, is finding a secondary hiding place for it."

"I already have a place in mind, out of the way. No-one should be able to find it for a while," Thunderstruck said, giving Danse a look that told him he wouldn't be privy to that type of information.

\111/

Nearly ten hours of surgery, Nora's body was under heavy strain, Nate found that the waiting was grating on his nerves now more than ever.

Curie was confident that Nora would recover and awaken, but the chance Nora was ever going to survive was one in two. A flip of the coin, a shot through the heart was an overwhelming odd to beat.

When Curie emerged, the room was raised to normal temperature levels and Nora was under sedation. Now it was up to her to pull through. Everything that could've been done, had been done. Heart muscles repaired, bones reknit, blood vessels reconnected, skin sewn up, it would take days for the body's recovery to accept the surgery, and then weeks to not put the heart under any undue stress. Nora was still in an extremely fragile state, everything now was resting on Nora's body to pull through and recover.

When Curie announced she was finished, there was a collective cheer, everyone was ecstatic to hear the heart monitor beeping along, an immense feeling of relief washed over Nate and his sudden change in emotion spread to everyone. There was a wave of hope at the wonderful news that Nora had a chance to pull through.

Curie would remain at Nora's side for the next coming days, ready to respond at a moments notice, monitoring her at Nate's request, but the doctor asked something from Nate as well.

"It was a remarkable sensation, feeling the weight of your wife's heart, piecing it back together. I realized I had to use every line of knowledge encoded into me to make this sturdy organ work again, and fix Nora from her core to the surface. My circuits were buzzing and every part of experience I had was put to use. My GPU felt full, I was at my limits or all the knowledge available to me, so I realized I need to be able to learn more. My RAM and processers were working full time. If I want to further my understanding of medicine, virus', and disease, I need an upgrade. I need to be able to download all that I am into a human brain and not be limited by the predictablility of a robot under human prompts guiding my movements and actions."

"I think the Railroad may have a solution to that, a synthetic body that needs a brain to upload. Deacon would be the one to ask."

\111/

In front Elder Maxson was a map of the Commonwealth, and his mind was alight with ideas on how to seize control, rebuild the Brotherhood, and storm the Institute. But the most pressing matter, even a trivial one, was the deserters Nate and Danse.

Elder Maxson saw the actions of two as an undermining of Brotherhood core beliefs. If not addressed, when things turned more grim and the true fighting begins, more numbers would think to abandon the Brotherhood if these deserters weren't brought in and made an example of.

A vertibird unit was being sent straight to where Nate was most likely to retreat to, hide and wait things out. Sending a dispatch of Brotherhood knights to secure Vault 111 also served a secondary purpose, to secure the vast amounts of Liquid Nitrogen coolant within, it would keep the Prydwen's reactors from overheating for decades if they could secure Vault 111's projected reserve supply. Thirdly, if anyone got in their way, settlers or residents of Vault 111, then they were to be considered to harboring fugitive deserters and treated as taking hostile actions against the Brotherhood of Steel.

\111/

"I discussed a lot with the Des and the others in Vaults 114 and 75, and someone in Brotherhood of Steel fucking snapped." Deacon told Nate, "They went to war with Bunker Hill, they're still going at it, as far as I know. The shooting's still going on, but all because they're after you and Danse for desertion."

"Meat," Nate said knowingly.

"Fresh Meat," Deacon replied, "There's a team in the North End looking for you, the Railroad, and synths as we speak. There's been a shoot out a Bunker Hill ever since the Brotherhood got kicked out of the merchant hub for kicking in doors, looking for you two. From what I was told, the Brotherhood got in a shouting match which escalated into a bullet fest, which only got worse once they found two dead synths in the mix. The Brotherhood is swarming like mad after getting their nest kicked in. That explosion we saw before coming down here...? That was Thunderstuck. She launched an attack on the Brotherhood...Bots and Cannonballs flying from the Constitution. It's a live wire out there right now. High Voltage situation all around. Do you know why she would've attacked the Brotherhood?"

"I have a hunch, she was enslaved by Nuka-World, got free, and now sees the Brotherhood as the same raiders under a different banner." Nate rolled his eyes back, feeling his thoughts build, "Are any on their way here?"

"If Meat was wearing your Vault Colors and number, then...yeah, I'd say we've got a few minutes before they make their way here."

"Fuck, alright. Grab your gear. Be ready to be mobile."

Hancock was off in the corner, feet up on the side desk, eyes closed but with a resting expression that showed he was ready to move at a moment's notice. "Hancock, we're back on the clock."

"Were we ever off?" Hancock wondered aloud. Grabbing his tricorn and setting it back on top.

Nate went to Nora's side, gripping her right hand, passing a bit of warmth between them he shuddered and spoke, "I love you, Nora. I'm going to work, I'll be back. I love you. I'll always be thinking of you."

With a bit of pressure, he hoped for an ounce of response, but she was still deeply unconscious of the world around her.

Telling the ponies, and the twins of what was soon to come, Nate and the rest of the Vault dwellers were gathered in the Entry Foyer when a small alarm light went off indicating that the elevator lift was coming down.

With Nate's hand over the button to open the Vault Door, he ran back to the Cryolator, grabbing it from the office right as the lift touched down to the bottom of the shaft.

"Grab me the hoses, quickly! They're here!"

Biting his lip, he didn't expect a troop of Brotherhood soldiers to already be knocking at his front door, but tapping at the console, he put it into a manual override where only he could open the Vault's door from the inside.

The next minute passed all too quickly as Hancock returned with a hose that Nate connected to the Cryolator, to a storage tank beneath the panels of the floor where excess Nitrogren tanks were kept. All throughout the entire vault, nearly every other panel hid a tank of liquid nitrogen, as there was an excess of 190,000 pounds of the precious coolant stored everywhere.

Over the control console intercom, the microphone chirped and a demand came over the speakers, "This is the Brotherhood of Steel. We have the residents of Sanctuary Hills above in our control, and unless you turn over the fugitive deserters Nate and Paladin Danse, we will treat them as prisoners harboring a fugitive and they will be taken away to face judgement! Relinquish control of Vault 111 to the Brotherhood of Steel, and you will not be harmed,"

"I will gut them if..." Nate started to say,

"Nate, we've got a plan to cut relations with the Brotherhood of Steel, and draw their attention away from Vault 111, but we need to get out of here," Deacon said, but Nate's mind was too focused on the moment in front of him.

This exact scenario ran through his mind when at Vault 84, how they could seal the doors, but all the outside traders and relationships they made over the last few weeks would vanish. The raiders could easily camp outside their doors, entrenching themselves and waiting for the moment the doors parted open.

Nate was stringing together a line of curses, knowing and damning the invaders for he knew exactly what this was all about. "Cold. Dead. Hands." Nate could be heard muttering. "Deacon! Or Hancock, distract them! I need to wire this in!" Even with his Deathclaw hand, he was still managing to make it work.

Deacon ran to the console, clearing his throat and leaning down to the speakerbox he replied, "This is Vault Security, please tell us the names of the individuals you claim to have with you and their status."

"Oy! I'm supposed to be Head of Security!" Cait said, thankfully Deacon had already taken his hand off the power-button, and she wasn't heard over the intercom.

"Cait! Quiet! I need you to be ready to rush these assholes and help separate our people from the Brotherhood the MOMENT the Vault Door opens! You got me?" Nate shouted back, whipping the hose with one hand to unfurl any tangles and bends in the line, he clasped them on. "Big Girl! Your a giant target, so watch out for any who haven't fully froze over yet!" He shouted at Leighla, but understanding and appreciatign the warning, she knew she would more than likely be shot in the tight spaces underground.

\111/

In all of ten minutes, from the low roar of the Vertibird's engine buzzing across the sky to suddenly two Brotherhood knights dropping out of the rig to them acting with impunity as their so-called head of security gone rogue for the second time since she and Leighla first arrived. Everyone from Codsworth, Serin Copper, Hollow Point, Golden Grain, Warner, Crab Cake, Poppy Cake, Sea Shell, Tin Hut, were all rounded up and forced out at gunpoint by soldiers who couldn't care less about how rough they were being, or they treated the residents. Codsworth was about ready to buzz their heads off for tracking in oily footprints into the carpeted living room, but that would only lead to needing to clean blood off the upholstery and ceiling, so he refrained for the time being as they demanded to know where Nate was located.

Grabbing the mares and children at the point of their guns, separating the males from the females, Crab Cake was thinking of ways to butcher and quarter the Brotherhood into sellable sections for wrestling his daughter away from him, as Poppy kept herself infront of the soldier and keeping Sea Shell out of direct line of sight.

"We'll Be Okay." Hollow Point said, even as they were directed up the hill to Vault 111, parting words with the stallions. They outnumbered the brotherhood, but the two knights, four soldiers, and two pilots staying with the landed Vertibird atop Vault 111, there was little room for counter-attack or negotiation. The groups were separated three, three, and two. Taken hostage and forced onto the lift, they descended to pull Nate out of hiding.

\111/

"What's the plan, Nate?" MacCready asked,

The Brotherhood Knight gave their response of the mares and child they brought with them, the next phase would have to be fast. How they were fine for now, but not to test their patience. They promised they would be forcing the door soon enough, and had the technology capable of opening a Vault's door.

"These bastards want me and 111's liquid nitrogen? They're going to get it."

Attaching the cryolator to the vents aiming outwards, then sealing it off with a remote trigger attached, the limitless supply of liquid nitrogen was run through the Cryolator's cores and directed out into the staging area of Vault 111. With a hiss and no other warning, the Brotherhood and every pony was frozen in an icy mist, only those further away near the elevators shaft were able to gasp once at the trick before being solidified over with ice as well. After three minutes, Nate ordered the doors opened and had everyone run out at once with rope, chains, anything they could to bind and contain the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers sent down, and warm up the ponies taken hostage. Removing them from the ironsites of the Brotherhood, and forcing the guns out of their hands and turning it against them, as the gas disappated into the vault and evaporated, the soldiers thawed out as quickly as they were frozen, but suddenly a lot colder and in swapped positions. Now with their own weapons turned on them, the Vault 111 crew wasted no time in removing the fusion core, and making sure that the Brotherhood made a terrible mistake by trying to intimidate Nate into surrendering.

The Mares were frozen along with the Brotherhood of Steel, but that was a necessity, only by stopping everything in their tracks, could they remove any chance of the Brotherhood attacking, or responding to their counterparts above.

As Nate, Deacon, Hancock, Cait, MacCready, and Leighla moved through the frozen bodies in the Vault 111 entrance, they separated the hostages from the Brotherhood soldiers. Keeping the Cryolator constantly freezing the Brotherhood as the ponies were pulled to safety, once they were out of harms way they slowly let them thaw.

As Sea Shell was woken, she started crying, scared of the soldiers and suddenly frightfully cold. Poppy Cake was angry, confused, but grateful of the surprise once she realized what Nate and the others did to save them from the Brotherhood. Hollow Point coughed heavily and couldn't stop shivering until she found someplace warm to renew her spirit.

Removing the knight's helmet, Nate ordered that all of them were blinded, strips of rags were tied over their eyes so they couldn't see.

"Ladies, I believe you were our security, so what becomes of them is up to you."

"Make an example out of them, send them to walk naked through the Glowing Sea," Cait suggested.

"Nah, then any Brotherhood would just kill the naked ghouls. I still vote for stripping them naked though, nothing strange about a bunch of naked guys galavanting across the Commonwealth, tucking tail and running home?" MacCready suggested to Leighla and Cait.

"That still wont solve the issue of them coming back again; Now that they know we're here. They know our perimeters, they know that we're still miles from being a defendable community. This chokepoint can't be the only line of defense. The elevator, even if we shut it down, most power armors are capable of withstanding the drop in. Short of welding the door shut...I was hoping we'd have more time before anyone strong enough to roll Sanctuary Hills over would show up. But, if they can't take it, they're more apt to blow this whole area up if they can't get their hands on it." Nate said, laying out their shortcomings.

Nate was facing a soldiers dilemna, trying to understand the inner workings of Elder Maxson, a person he'd never met before, and how Meathead's meddling made him a prime target.

"We...!" He announced, "Need to give them something else to aim at. A more valuable goal than myself and Vault 111's Liquid Nitrogen stock." Exhaling a breath, his mind came up with a few tangible solutions, but his mind fixated on one. "We've got to give the Brotherhood a target to shoot at, a bigger one than vault 111. Something to put Sanctuary Hills far down their list..."

"We can give them the Railroad Headquarters under Old North Church," Deacon said. "Ever since you told us about the Institute's crows, we've pulled everyone but a skeleton crew out of the North End, and the crew still there has been wiring that catacombs with enough smoke bombs, explosives, basement napalm, and bombs to wake the dead. Ever since Nora's been in surgery, I've been talking with the Railroad. Either way, in the last ten hours, they situations changed. Bunker Hill is under attack. In the last hour alone, they've tried to move in on Railroad operations and want us to give up our intelligence and all our data on the Institute. We know they'll come after we've served our usefulness. We can't provide for them, otherwise they'll roll over us and know where we are and our strengths and weaknesses. We have to strike now before they get the upper hand."

"Shame about the church," Nate said, making a cross.

"We have old scans of it, 3D maps and everything saved on files. We saved a Mr. Handy that could use 3D projections to build any historical building we have saved. Most of Boston is on file, or at least all the historical buildings anyway. When it's time to rebuild, we can make a to-scale replica of the exact building. Besides the point, The Old one was falling in and decrepit. I'll send word to Liberty and Desdemona that negotiations with the Brotherhood is a no-go, and it's time to cut ties."

"Then what about the other five Brotherhood above us and these three? What do we do with them?" Everyone's attention went to Nate, seeing as how these invaders came into their home and were threatening to kill the lot of them even if they complied.

"Kill 'em all, that's what all the guns are for," Hollow Point said.

Nate contemplated the next course of action, sparing them, taking prisoners, or letting them face some other sort of judgement. Most paths lead to the Brotherhood coming back here to Vault 111 or Sanctuary Hills to finish off the job and wipe out any trace of progess they made since starting their residence. But only a few paths lead the Brotherhood of Steel away and never returning.

"You know what they do to deserters?" Nate said aloud, not to anyone in particular, ready to answer his own question. A few heads nodded. MacCready, Deacon, and Hancock, their heads all nodded.

"They hang them. Meathead joined them, and a day later he and Danse are already being hunted for desertion...They must've figured out he's a synth, or...knew that he wasn't a human and were coming for them."

"We don't have the food or supplies, or a cage to throw the prisoners in...and they were going to kill anyone who tried to go against them just to get to you, and once they found you, they were going to hang you, Nate. They're still holding our men hostage," Poppy Cake said.

"They'll just keep coming until we get rid of them all," Cait said. "Until their ship goes down in flames and the rats scatter, there's only one thing to do...

While Nate took one last look around him at the faces in the crowd looking to him for leadership, then turned his head up to think of the situation above them. With a nod, "Kill 'em all," Nate said.

\111/

Lotta Rosie didn't need to observe Sanctuary Hills for long as she arrived. Her sights were set for her sister, but after seeing the group separated at gunpoint into males and females, she realized Thunderstruck wasn't here.

There was a rising emotional loathing that Lotta Rosie sensed early on, she saw the Vertibird arrive at Sanctuary Hills before her. By the time she arrived the ponies were collected and divided, with the mares being forced uphill towards the vault, and the stallions pushed towards a house across the street from Nate's.

The Brotherhood's attention was on one of the more completed and restored houses in the whole culdesac. Codsworth had moved to do light touch ups on the surrounding houses, but still maintained Nate and Nora's house to the highest degree.

One soldier went through the houses, showing interest in repurposing Codsworth to the Brotherhood, and checking for any more ponies hiding. Two stayed to watch the hostages, as the two pilots remained with the Vertibird.

Following the paths they were taking, Lotta Rosie took her knife from her kit, and held it out in her hoof. Eyeing the hydraulic hoses to the power armor covered Brotherhood knight, he was watching the prisoners. While it would be easy to take the one soldier out in a surprise attack, the others wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in the stallions they were holding. Seeing that she needed to put herself between them and the hostages, she dove on the most powerful target first.

By crippling the Brotherhood knight, she hoped it would create an air of fear. How their most defensible man was rendered inoperable, and with good timing, Rosie could get the stallions free or out of direct line-of-site for them to retaliate. Even from a distance, it was easy to pick out expressions and see just by looking at the small crowd as to who would be ready to react. The orange and red maned Crab Cake, Grey and Silver Tin Hut, both held the eyes of those ready to react given the chance. The others, she could only hope they would figure out what to do when the time came.

Diving on the Knight, nobody expected or realized she was there until after her knife slashed through the hydraulic lines connecting the frame to the legs and arms. The Knight couldn't even raise his hands without having to life 120 pounds of dead weight on each arm, making the surprise attack all the more startling as he suddenly couldn't move. Before Lotta Rosie even hit the ground, she took a pistol and fired off twelve rounds at the Brotherhood soldier.

The stallions only had a few seconds to react and realize what was occurring as the armored knight hit the ground, and the soldier was shot down. They all saw Lotta Rosie, but didn't know who she was, nor where she came from.

"Grab the gun!" She pointed at Crab Cake and then to the dead soldier on the ground, slicing through the hydraulic hoses and further crippling the Brotherhood Suit. She intended to force the knight to eject, or eventually wedge a grenade up against the neck and test the durability and cushioning for the metal suit. Crab Cake yanked the rifle out of the dead soldier's hands,

In seven seconds, the other soldier tasked with checking out the rest of the houses in Sanctuary Hills came running. Lotta Rosie charged out of the house and tackled the soldier even as he fired at her. Three shots over her head, one barely missing her right wing, he was knocked to the ground and she flared her wings up and kicked him in the chest with both hooves. Across the settlement, the pilots were watching. In an instant they fired up the Vertibird, and were chattering over the radio about the settlement of Sanctuary Hills residents back to the Prydwen.

It would take minutes before properly being ready to take off, but after losing contact with the squad sent to the vault after they descended, and seeing the settlers retaliate, they would retreat back and return with reinforcements.

As if appearing from thin air, a hand reached out and grabbed the headphones from over their ears, yanking them off and forcing the pilot to whip his head around to face a 9mm pistol shoved right into his face, "And where do you think you're going?"

Two raiders from Red's Stockpile, and a thousand feet back were the liberated slaves from Nuka-World that Lotta Rosie freed, all on their way to Sanctuary Hills. These two were sent by Red to act as escorts and see what all the Sanctuary Hills settlement had to offer and what things of value it could provide. When they saw the Brotherhood Vertibird in the clearing, they knew they had an opportunity to get something valuable, and turn the situation to their advantage, even with Lotta Rosie going on ahead of them.

The soldier running across the culdesac towards the prisoner's was shot in the back, atop the hill everyone ascended from Vault 111 and was only beginning to survey the scene when Nate told MacCready if he had a shot lined up, to take it.

The raiders in the vertibird were holding one pilot at gunpoint when the other tried to strike the gun out of his hands. The raider fired twice before dropping his pistol, as the second pilot smashed his hand and fingers.

One bullet struck the first pilot inside the cockpit, but didn't kill him. The second bullet hit the seat and embedded itself into the frame. As the second raider tackled the pilot with a knife, stabbing repeatedly into the back and sides, the three wrestled for control of the cockpit, the first pilot leaned on the controls and raised the vertibird off the ground. The blades weren't spun up enough and dragged long divots across the ground as it moved forward, then scraping itself across the sidewalk and road, it finally revved up higher and took off.

The first pilot jammed himself with an emergency stimpak, then threatened to crash the whole 'bird, killing them all if they threatened him as the second pilot lay dying on the verge of death.

"Land it!" The Raider shouted,

"I'll take you all down with me!" The pilot retorted, "I'm taking you to the lake, and you jump! Otherwise! I crash us into the biggest pile of rocks I can find and you lose the vertibird and your lives!"

\111/

"Can you get me up there, Leighla?" Nate asked, the gryphoness looked at him and then to the vertibird.

"I can. Just don't expect me to get close to those blades of death, or for this to be a regular occurence!"

Nate sat on Leighla's back, holding onto the scruff of her neck as she took a running start at the fleeing vertibird.

"Grab the pilot!" Nate shouted, getting ready to jump into the open side door of the Vertibird, he only had five seconds as Leighla snatched the pilot through the cockpit window, and yanked him out, flinging him down. Muscling past the raider and stepping over the dead pilot, he grabbed the controls as Leighla shoved herself down and away from the vertibird as it started veering and tipping dangerously to the right. Nearly at a 45 degree swing, both raiders desperately held onto handholds as Nate forced the controls back the other way to level the machine out.

"Land this thing!" One of the raiders shouted.

"GTA motherfucker! I'm the only one who can pilot this, now sit down and hold on!"

As the vertibird shakily turned, Nate had to mentally run though the whole procedure of operating a vertibird again. Truth be told, he never flew one solo, but had sat in the co-pilots seat on dozens of test flights along with maintaining and working on hundreds of them during his time in the army. For a moment all the controls and labels looked Greek to him, a distinct moment of 'What am I doing here again?' before reality seemed to snap back into place and he felt the pedals and steering respond to his commands.

"Oh thank God, I remembered my training." His only handicap was the deathclaw arm, and the tiny switches on the control board were far too big for his left hand to flick without destroying them. Switching hands, he held the controls with his left, leaning over with his right, he reached for the headphones to block out the roar of the engines.

The radio chatter from the Prydwen was blaring in his ear, someone on the other end was demanding to know what was happening to him and the Recon squad sent to Vault 111.

Ignoring the call, Nate focused on the two passengers instead. Using his deathclaw to wave one of the raiders closer, "You're from Red's Stockpile, aren't you?

"Yeah, and you just helped us steal this vertibird. Take us to the Stockpile!"

"Did I now? That's not the smartest choice. The pilots are dead and you now have a worthless eight-ton piece of scrap metal that you don't know how to maintain, repair, or fly. Now, you can either tell Red that you brought the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel right to your front door, because unless you know what the pilots said before liftoff, then you just fucked yourselves and your gang by alerting everyone within listening distance that their recon crew is dead, and that they need reinforcements. Wherever this lands, the group of Brotherhood reinforcements who is searching for this vertibird will stop at nothing to avenge their dead comrads, and then proceed to slaughter everyone involved just to make a point. So your choices are this. You either get hunted down, and killed for taking the vertibird back to your base, or two; You leave with your lives and something you can actually use instead. Power Armor and Fusion Cores, all you need to do is scrub off the Brotherhood insignia. Those are your choices."

"Well what about the vertibird?"

"You can't fly it, maintain it, or repair it if something breaks, so it's no use to you or Red. If you're lucky, I can hide it where the Brotherhood wont find it and come hunting for revenge. What's the choice? Hunted down for a machine you cant use, or Power Armor and Fusion Cores?"

The raider looked back at the other, having not been able to hear any of the conversation at all.

As they came to a decision, Nate timidly brought the vertibird around back towards Sanctuary Hills and then eased it down a few feet at a time over a clearing, seeing the group under Lotta Rosie's charge among other things of the groups in Sanctuary reuniting. Landing not to far from where it originally was, he felt the whole vertibird touch down on the ground.

"Gta...ten points," Nate said to himself, neither of the raiders knew what he was talking about, but Nate went through the shut-down process of turning the vertibird off.

As the propellers slowed down, and the engines powered off, Nate sighed in relief. With a moment to collect his thoughts, he turned to the other two raiders and the dead pilot. Still sweating from taking over the controls, his heart was still pounding at the sudden excursion.

"So? How's the Power Armor sound?" Nate asked, leading the raiders away from the vertibird.

\111/

As Nate fielded more questions to the raiders from Red's Stockpile, their answers and walk back to the rest of the group eventually lead to Lotta Rosie.

"So I hear you're looking for your sister, Thunderstruck. You must be Lotta Rosie, I'm Nate, Overseer of Vault 111 and resident of Sanctuary Hills."

"That's right. A pony of yours told me she would be here, but I've already asked around, and it sounds like Thunder hasn't been here in days. So where is she?"

"When she left, she was taking care of a recurring group of rogue robots, and was successful on that front. In the last two days however, I can't account for where she might be now. Only that she's safe, and will most likely return here in time, but the plan is to retake Nuka-World here in the following weeks."

"You and what army?" Lotta Rosie asked, "Your pony also said that Sanctuary Hills was looking to expand, well...?" Pointing to the group of liberated people who spent the last day following Rosie North after her recovery, "That group of sad-sacks just came from Nuka-World over the land. They say nothing good about what's happening West. You and everyone who gets away from that place would be better off forgetting a place like that ever existed."

"Trust me, there is nothing more than I would like to not picture a place like Nuka-World, loaded with raiders, but your sister is the one who is encouraging the plan. She and others want to break the marauders grip and eliminate slavery. We've got people moving into place to move the gangs in different directions, but ultimately, using them as the first wave against the Brotherhood of Steel."

"The Brotherhood of Steel? That's who these assholes are? You're not trying to stop the gangs at all, you just want to take over."

"That's the idea, Miss Rosie. Thunderstruck and I, along with half a dozen others are leaving for Nuka-World in the next few days. Packing up, securing weapons, people, supplies, and finding a route in."

"Then take the tunnel. The Transit Center. It's clear. I made sure of it. Red's in control of that area now. Explain to me what sort of deal you have with her. As I'm not interested in living under a raider's thumb, even when it comes to them leaning on us for supplies and..."

Seeing the two raiders make off with two sets of Brotherhood Power Armor, "...Defenses," she finished.

"I helped Red acquire land from Lexington out from the raider bosses, along with West Boston to Bunker Hill. Cambridge, I'm not entirely sure who's running things there, but I understand the raiders there are based out of the Kendall Hospital and Monsignor Plaza. After killing Tower Tom, and Jared, along with finding her sister's resting place, I've gained what amounts to be a favor from Red. If they really want what we have, then they'll have to earn it by going against the Brotherhood of Steel picking. The Brotherhood already started attacking merchants and traders in Bunker Hill, and word will get out across the Commonwealth that the people who came here today are just another group of raiders with more guns and shinier armor. My goal is to maintain this land and make it thrive more than any other before someone new comes along to challenge us. Whether it's the Gunners, Brotherhood of Steel, Institute, or anyone else who comes up our road and says we need to give them our time, trust, and resources for their greater good, we'll turn them back."

"Seems like you weren't prepared for a simple scouting expedition."

"We were busy."

"So if I come to you and say, I've got people who need a place to settle, and need to keep away from slavers, then what's your response?"

"Then they're welcome to join. Our community needs to grow, we have houses that need to be built, farms that need to be worked, and defenses that need fortifying. If they aren't welcome to the idea that everything they put their effort into is to grow their family and be under the employ of people who need work done to not just create living areas around Sanctuary Hills, but Concord and beyond, then this isn't the place for them."

"That is up for them to decide. The place I came from was barely able to hang on because they found old tech the Institute wants, now I hear a different group wants you and your Vault. All I want is my sister, if you say it's up to the ability of raiders and ourselves to keep what's mine safe, then that is on you. I've got a slaver calling my name, and he wants me in chains. If you can't keep people like that away, then this community is just a breeding ground for the next group of slavers to come in and wipe out."

"I know, that's why we're leaving for Nuka-World. We're going to cut the slavers off at the source."

"What, by freeing their slaves?"

"That will occur, but ending slavery is going to end by introducing them to the free-market trade of small-businesses, and reviving manufacturing. The inventions of convenience made processing easier, and required less manpower. The same machines and technology the Brotherhood wants to keep away from people, empowers slavers to stay in control. By revitalizing plants and factories, building roads, and making trading routes safer and sturdier, we eliminate the need for slaves altogether."

Lotta Rosie mulled over the thought, "Then there's about twenty of us that need a place to stay. However, I am already doing my part to keep raiders from looking in our direction. I fly laps around the Commonwealth and report on who's moving to the Stockpile."

"Then keep your eyes out for Thunderstruck. She's out there somewhere."

"Speaking of flying, what are you going to do with the Vertibird? I saw those two leave with the Power Armor, so I can only figure you lead them to believe the suits were worth more to them than the chopper."

"I'm saving it for a rainy day. Fuel isn't cheap, you know. Until then, I'll paint it up and stash it someplace covered."

\111/

How did nobody ever make the connection to the Brotherhood of Steel coming from the Pitt essentially made them the Pittsburg Steelers?