Still Here, Live and Local from Diamond City Radio.

The gunfire was growing louder, echoing through the brick filled streets, and attracting more and more attention. There were thin frail plants still clinging to life in early November, even though the dry season was marred with acidic rainfall, these plants crept up slowly from the dirt, clinging to buildings, trying to reclaim the land they were paved over.

One feral ghoul ran across the street, clambering over the warped pavement, stumbling through the rubble, and joining two more who heard the noise as well. The chatter and chirps of guns firing off were unremitting, Down a long street in Cambridge, there was the police station in the center of it. Large barricade walls were erected around it after the bombs fell, and were used by officers to hold back the tide of people looking for aid, or more nefarious means, guns and ammo.

The gates were rusted, and the barricades were collapsed, overrun by a car long ago that was used as a rolling, flaming battering ram. It was now a burnt-out husk with no wheels, and the police station was abandoned long ago. But the gunfire happening now in the year 2287 on the morning of November 1st, was drawing the attention of dozens of feral ghouls from the western half of Cambridge.

The police station was of interest to the three people scouting the location, the survivors of an eight-man team.

After seven weeks of scouting the Commonwealth, coordinating strange energy reading signals coming from Cambridge, the source of the Institute. Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel lead Recon Squad Gladius, the third recon team sent to the Commonwealth as part of an investigation to the whereabouts and loss of Recon Squad Artemis.

But since their arrival into the Commonwealth, Recon Squad Gladius was pushed to the limits of, and beyond their survival capabilities.

The first team sent to the Commonwealth was 10 years before them, a group of volunteers from the Brotherhood returned successfully with crates of pre-war technology, and a completed reconnaissance of Boston lead by Captain Sola Vagari of Recon Squad Vagus.

Recon Squad Vagus came and went three years before Recon Squad Gladius, and there was no help coming for them, not yet anyway. They were to make their forward operating base in a stronghold location marked as the Cambridge Police Station from three-year-old information. Over that long period, Nick Valentine tried to reconnect with his past self, and scout for the whereabouts of the infamous Eddie Winter tapes, and drew the attention of feral ghouls to inside the police station.

Recon Squad Gladius started with Knight Keane, Knight Worwick, Scribe Haylen, Paladin Danse, Knight Branch, Knight-Sargent Dawes, Advance Scout Verne, and Knight Rhys. One by one they were dying.

Knight Keane's power armor was damaged after the group was attacked by the Rust Devils near Fort Hagen. Some of their supplies were destroyed in the process. They came to Cambridge and set up their base within the station after clearing out the feral ghouls inside the station, wanting to use the long-range antenna built into the station, and the abundance of guns and ammo in the police armory.

Hounded by raiders from the Corvega Plant in Lexington, Paladin Danse leads the squad in an attack against Jared and his gang, only to be forced to retreat after Knight Branch stepped on a landmine, killing him instantly. He was not the only death in that attack. Knight Worwick was slain by a sharpshooter atop the Corvega plant, gunning him down from afar, striking his skull from over 150 yards away.

With their resources stretched thin after the failure to take over Corvega, they tried resupplying at the Boston Airport and scavenging supplies from Fort Strong, west of the Boston Airport, only to find the old military base was overrun with Super Mutants, leading to the death of Knight-Sargent Dawes.

Down to four members of their original team, Field Scribe Haylen investigated signals coming through the Cambridge Police Station antenna and was to inform their main chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel on their progress.

The Cambridge police station was under attack for a week straight, and the fight was ongoing even to this moment. They were attacked by feral ghouls who were drawn there by the noise of gunfire after the recon team cleared the perimeter around the building, and started construction on barricades. Knight Keane was killed by feral ghouls after his power armor was completely rendered useless, and forced out of the protective body armor.

Torn apart limb from limb in front of the other four members of Recon Squad Gladius, it was up to Haylen, Rhys, Verne, and Danse to fight for their lives, and endure.

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Paladin Danse carried a laser rifle and stood firm in the courtyard in front of the doors to the Cambridge Police Station. He wore thick T-60 power armor that deflected radiation, bullets, was airtight for walking underwater, and could withstand heat and flames for up to sixty minutes at 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Firing cell after cell of energy, the light emitted from his rifle was fired so fast, it was like a continuous laser beam, only halted every seven seconds when Danse needed to reload. Still, firing twenty shots from a laser rifle in seven seconds was an impressive feat, and it was keeping the growing swarm of feral ghouls at bay.

The bodies were shorn in half by laser blasts, burnt corpses littered the street outside, and when one out of dozens got too close, Danse bashed the feral ghoul in the face, kicked it to the ground, and stomped in its head with the momentum of fifty pounds of power armor all weighing down on his boot. Sickening splats and crunched skulls made Danse sneer at the bloodshed. There was already so much, and the bodies kept mounting, there wasn't much of an end to it. Thirty ghouls were all in front of him, and he was ready, firing into the crowd with his laser rifle.

Cutting through the air was iron and steel, the sound of the Chicago Typewriter, the Thompson submachine gun with 50 round drum magazines firing .45 caliber bullets was a new sound of gun that was an interesting noise for Danse to hear after the howling, groaning, and screams of feral ghouls for the last seven days.

The metallic firing hammer tapped out bullets, chewing up the crowd and cutting them down at the legs, ripping the withered corpses apart like thin sheets of plywood, and fracturing them like glass.

The sound of gunfire and laser blasts was prevalent as Meathead walked alone towards Cambridge, following a radio signal he heard three days ago, Military Frequency AF95 repeated itself again and again.

Disguised as Nate, using his Thompson submachine gun, he loaded the drum magazine into the gun, pulled back the bolt to load in the first round, covered his ears and fired.

Getting closer and closer to his targets, the gun tended to pull upwards as the constant recoil and ejecting cartridges forced the gun up and back.

Meathead entered the square plaza in front of the Cambridge Police Station and Paladin Danse shouted, "Civilian in the Perimeter!"

Scribe Haylen fired through the broken out and boarded-up windows of the Cambridge Police Station, as Knight Rhys gasped for breath, clutching his side after a feral ghoul scraped a big chunk of his side out and was bleeding profusely. Advance Scout Verne was a brown unicorn and a blonde mane, using his hooves to press gauze into Rhys' side with plenty of force while using magic to wrap bandages around his chest as the blood clotted against the clean cotton fibers.

Feral Ghouls came up behind Meathead, and he heard them running and growling, coming up behind him. He turned and fired, the chattering of the gun was only matched by the clacking of his teeth as he shook while shooting.

First, it was three, then seven, then ten, and they swarmed on Meathead. Dropping a grenade at his feet, he ran backwards and got away from the group as it exploded, killing six feral ghouls with one blast. Firing again, he moved backward and kept on shooting everything rotten and radiated.

When there were only three feral ghouls left, Meathead pulled out his serrated combat knife and lunged at their heads, stabbing and slicing through them like dried branches. The last feral ghoul came running at him, so Meathead ran at the ghoul, jumping at the ghoul, feet first, he planted them in the chest and kicked it backward. Landing on the ground, he was on his feet in a flash and then he pounced on the downed ghoul, stabbing him in the head, neck, and chest.

In an instant, Cambridge was quiet again except for the pained moans of ghouls who suddenly lost their way, with nowhere to go, and no noise to follow.

Paladin Danse observed the man who came armed with a submachine gun and a sharp knife, watching as he wiped the blade off on the ghoul's sun-bleached and worn rags.

"I appreciate the help, citizen, but what's your business here?" Paladin Danse asked, walking towards Meathead, disguised as Nate.

"<I heard your distress call. That's my business, I detected weird energy signatures coming from this area.>" Meathead replied, standing up.

"The way you charged in and engaged those ferals, I find that hard to believe." Paladin Danse challenged Meathead, seeing if there was anything more to be had. "Are you from a local settlement?"

"<Not exactly.>" Meathead looked past Danse towards the doors of the police station, and he felt the worrying emotions coming from inside. He saw the face of Scribe Haylen, and how she was still raising her gun towards him. "Close enough to hear your distress signal, though."

There was a pointed response as Danse's eyes opened a bit, a flash of recognition appeared in his eyes. "You're a Vault Dweller?"

"<Hard to get away from the fact when I got giant yellow numbers on my chest and back.>" Meathead said, turning around halfway to show the numbers on his Vault suit.

"I apologize for appearing suspicious, since the moment we arrived in the Commonwealth, we've been constantly under fire."

"<Which way did you come from? Where did you come from? I should ask.>"

"We came South, from Washington D.C. where our main chapter is located. You're a good enough shot, but that gun isn't very accurate. If you want to continue pitching in, we could always use another gun on our side."

"<Who are you?>" Meathead asked.

"I'm Paladin Danse, Brotherhood of Steel." Looking over his shoulder, He saw Scribe Haylen still tense with adrenalin coursing through her veins. "Over there is Scribe Haylen, and inside is Knight Rhys and Advance Scout Verne. We're on recon duty. I'm down four good soldiers, and we're running low on supplies. I've been trying to send a distress call to our superiors, but the signal's too weak to reach them."

"Sir?" Scribe Haylen called out. There was a pregnant pause as she came out the doors into the yard where Danse and Meathead were talking and joined the conversation.

Her blue eyes stood out, red hair, while the rest of her body was covered in cloth armor. She wore a pocketed vest with seven pouches over a long sleeve red shirt under that. Her brown pants were sewn up with extra pouches, but the design was intentional. Scribes were meant to carry many supplies with them. Down to her steel-toed boots, she was quite ready for anything. "If I may...I modified the radio tower on the roof of the police station, but I'm afraid it just isn't enough."

"What we need is something that will boost the signal, and our current target is ArcJet Systems. It contains the technology we need...the Deep Range Transmitter. We infiltrate the facility, secure the transmitter, and bring it back here. So. What do you say? Are you willing to give the Brotherhood of Steel a hand?"

"<I'll help, but who are the Brotherhood of Steel?>" Meathead asked, looking at the logo on Danse's chest. It was a circle containing three gears, overlaid with a sword going straight up through the center, and wings flourishing from the hilt.

"Our order seeks to understand the nature of technology. It's power. It's meaning to us as humans. We fight to secure that power from those who would abuse it."

"<And who are they to you?>" Meathead asked, brushing his hair back out of his face.

"They are my family. My brothers in arms. We are all raised and honor our members with the respect they deserve and are united in just causes."

"<How did humanity come to abuse technology?>"

"The atom bomb, bio-engineered plagues, and the FEV are clear examples of the horrors that technological advancement had wrought. We're here to make sure that never happens again."

"<I could argue that every robot, the power armor your wearing, the laser rifle your holding, breakthroughs in medical advancement, fission generators, and cross-continental travel were some of mankind's greatest achievements.>"

"And look where that got humanity," Paladin Danse responded, unamused by Meathead's argument.

"<I know, right?>" Meathead laughed, "<God doesn't prevent tragedies from happening, he allows them because that's human nature. If he took that away, we wouldn't even know right from wrong. You sound like you have a somewhat noble cause, the Brotherhood of Steel certainly sounds a lot more organized and unified than most of the other groups I've come across.>" Meathead left the comment open-ended, allowing Danse to reply.

"I'm pleased you agree. There are very few outside the Brotherhood who appreciate the gravity of the situation we're facing as a species. So what do you say, will you help us?"

"<I already said I would, but what do you mean, species?>"

"Tertiary goals of the Brotherhood involve wiping out all abominations that the failures of mankind produced. Synths, mutants, deathclaws, and the sources of many of these evils, the Institute."

"<What was the FEV you mentioned?>"

"The Forced Evolutionary Virus. The super mutants you see, are mankind's doing. They are not caused by radiation exposure like ghouls but from a virus resistant to radiation. It is a weapon used by super mutants who organize themselves and grow their ranks and numbers. We believe the Institute is in possession of a modified strain of FEV, based on comparisons between the super mutants in Washington D.C. and the one's the Brotherhood has come across here in the Commonwealth."

"<What do you know about the super mutants? I've dealt with them, they're...terrifying to say the least.>"

"They lack the one key crucial component that makes their numbers so large. Access to the virus. From previous expeditions to the Commonwealth, we've found that the super mutants here have no reason to be other than to hunt and kill, while as the D.C. mutants are intended to capture and kidnap settlers and expose them to the FEV to produce more super mutants. This means that the source of the super mutants is not the super mutants themselves, but a higher power controlling them. There have been no other unified organizations strong enough, or developed enough aside from the Institute to be capable of such atrocities."

Meathead stared at the ground, then back up to Danse. "<The Institute is making super mutants?>" The thought dawned on him. "And the super mutants can't create more of their own! Oh my god! OH my GOD! Fuck! OH MY GOD!" Meathead panicked, "OH my GOD! FUCK!" Meathead looked down at Danse, then turned away and swore again. "FUCK!...that's...so fucked up! Shit! Huaidan!>" Meathead swore in Chinese, one of the few swears he learned from Nate, loosely meaning 'God Damn,' or 'Dang everything to heck'.

Paladin Danse and Haylen both stood there as the realization dawned on another person in the Commonwealth.

Meathead was taking it much better than others. "I take it you realize the extent of why the Institute needs to be stopped."

"<Yes, but, I'm not the one who you should worry about freaking out over this...who else have you been in contact with since you got here?>"

"No one, our presence has gone unhindered by everyone."

"<Jesus Christ. Piper is going to flip when she hears this. Hell. All of Diamond...All of Boston will.>"

"What are you referring to?" Paladin Danse asked.

"<You do know that the Institute kidnaps people? Replaces them with synths?>" Meathead asked.

"Yes, that's why we're here."

"<Christ, the people in Boston know that too. But they sure as hell don't know what happens to the victims.>" Meathead said to Danse. "<Everyone thought they just killed them or...I don't know used them as fertilizer for their gardens...But Super mutants?! They turn the fucking victims into super mutants?!>" Shaking at the revelation, "<No wonder they're so fucking angry!" Meathead drew in a breath, then shuddered. "You..." Meathead looked Paladin Danse directly in the eye, hoping for some sort of emotional response.

Meathead could tell a synth from a human apart without even looking directly at them, and the only one who wasn't producing any emotions whatsoever was the man directly in front of him, Paladin Danse.

"<They're the real victims in all of this.>" Meathead said to Danse...and then felt the utmost pity.

"I think I understand what you're going through," Meathead shook his head. Sighing.

"<That's not why I'm shaking my head. Remind me to tell you why, someday.>"

"I'll alert Verne that we're moving out."

"<It's a shame.>" Meathead said.

Paladin Danse paused from coming up the steps. "Why?"

"<We're all making fools out of ourselves.>" Meathead said, staring back off at the ground as he processed this. "<What if...a member of the Brotherhood of Steel was replaced by a synth?>"

"We'd be forced to kill it or expel it from our ranks. This world is a vast place of every conceivable darkness from men's hearts, and it takes a man of many talents to live through it."

Paladin Danse entered the police station, and Meathead stood there, trying to mentally prepare himself to go find his dopple ganger and relay everything to him and Piper.

"Rhys. Are you going to make it?" Paladin Danse asked as he passed the sitting knight. Rhys sat up and patted his side.

"Verne got to me in time. I'll live."

"I don't know about that, it might be more humane to take him out back and shoot him," Verne said lightly in a joking manner.

"Verne. We're moving out. Grab your sidearms, we leave when you're ready."

"I'm ready now," Verne replied, clipping on his sidearms around his shoulders. Trotting out alongside Danse, Meathead blinked and then turned his head towards the noise of clopping hooves against concrete.

Advance Scout Verne was at Danse's chest height with brown and white fur, with a blonde mane, expect with the lack of sanitation, everything was yellowed. Verne bore a compass rose on his flank, but the Brotherhood of Steel emblems on his armor and battle saddle that held Verne's weapons in place fitted to the pony were blocking some of the marks.

"Soldier, this is Verne, our scout, and navigator. Any questions?"

Meathead tensed and flexed his hands. "<How long has the Brotherhood of Steel been working with ponies?>"

Paladin Danse and Verne both turned their chins down towards Meathead. "How do you know about ponies?"

"Since the Brotherhood's first inception in Washington D.C. over thirty years ago." Paladin Danse replied. "Now, where did you hear about them?"

"<I've been around. Seen a little, heard plenty of chatter. There are a few ponies around the Commonwealth, from what I've heard. A few of them working as pack-animals for traders. All that there is to talk about in these small towns are the four who's.>

Meathead counted off his fingers on all the things there were to talk about in a small town.

"<Who's coming? Who's going? Who made it good? and Who died?>"

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