My name is Rory Edwards and I was there the day the war ended. No not The Great War that make me some [censored] ghoul degenerate. I was a corporal stationed at Calvin’s Air Force Base on March 5^th 2278 when everything came crashing down. I crawled out of my bunk just like I did every morning. Well not exactly like every morning, ever sense the destruction of Raven’s Rock we were suffering a shortage of beds a few people had to share at night. But thankfully my bedmate was also my fiancée Alice Murray a beautiful woman with auburn hair and amber colored eyes.

“Good morning tiger.” She smiled at me as she slid out of bed this arrangement would be nice while it lasted. It wasn’t technically in-line with regulation but allowed due to the current bed shortages at least until the Pentagon was liberated and more bunk space available.

Without Prime the Brotherhood had no counter to our Vertibirds so victory in the upcoming final battle was deemed inevitable by command but in the ‘unlikely’ event even that assault should fail were moving Bradley-Hercules attack satellite into firing position days in advanced as a fail-safe. It would be in position and ready to fire later today no last minute heroics like last time. Had Prime arrived at the Relay Station an hour sooner the Brotherhood might be the ones in control of the attack satellite today.

After separate showers Alice and I went for breakfast where the rest of our squad soon joined us. The first was private John Dornan one of the biggest guys you’d ever see. He provided the heavy fire support with a Gatling Laser inside a suit of Tesla Power armor. He was loud too always speaking in a booming voice. The second to arrive was private Calvin Granite; He came in along side his cousin private Howard Quincy. Like myself they used the standard issue Advanced Power Armor and Plasma Rifles serving as the squad’s Riflemen. Last to arrive was our Squad leader Sergeant Daniel Scott he wasn’t nearly as big as John but inside his recently issued Hellfire Armor along with a Heavy Incinerator he was looked like the biggest of us all.

“So Sarge what’s on the agenda for today?” Dornan asked looking up from his corn flakes. Or at least they looked like pre-war cornflakes we didn’t dare ask what they were actually made from. Though come to think of it actually being pre-war cornflakes would be worse then anything else I could imagine.

“Not so loud.” Granite groaned, he was never a morning person and Dornan booming right next to him wasn’t helpful.

“Eight hours in the simulator, Yangtze campaign.” He answered much to our dismay. Running through the Yangtze campaign was brutal. We’d face assaults from tanks, anti-armor units constant threat of ambushes from Crimson Dragons, and the pain simulators on half. The limitation on the pain was so the simulation wouldn’t be fatal. You lose an arm in the program with pain simulation on full and the shock could kill you. Still half the pain of taking a gauss rifle to the chest still hurt like a [censored]. I knew then today would not be a good day, I just didn’t realize how bad today would be for everyone.

Half way through breakfast Howard and Calvin were telling the story of how they ‘bravely’ faced off against a dozen unarmed wastelanders and how one of them managed to leap onto Howard’s shoulders remove the helmet then smash his nose with it. Shortly before Granite incinerated the poor sob with a laser blast. We had a good laugh about it, most of us anyway.

“So that’s why I had to stitch up your face?” Alice laughed, in addition to serving the squad with her laser rifle she was also our field medic. “And here I thought you tripped getting out of you’re power armor.”

“Oh he did, he just landed on his ass and not his face.” Calvin added eliciting another round of laughter, and a death glare from Howard

“Its not funny you maggots.” Scott bellowed the vein on his forehead throbbing making us all shrink back. “If he’d been armed with a knife you’d be dead right now. Power Armor doesn’t make you invincible, you get careless, you get cocky and you die.” The sergeant was right of course they got careless and allowed someone to forcibly remove Calvin’s helmet.

Hoping to change the subject Calvin asked, “So Rory, have you and Alice set a date yet?” he was such a bastard bringing that up. He knew once she got started on wedding planning I’d be suffering for hours. But before she could bring up discussing the theme again the alarm sounded. No words needed exchanging, no orders were required we all leapt to our feet and sprinting towards the exit. John took his plate with him shoveling the remainder of his meal down by the time he reached the door.

While we equipped our armor and weapons an officer Captain Stone issued orders to us and several other squads. “Surveillance bots have sighted a large contingent of The Brotherhood of Steel heading our way.” This much we’d already assumed the alarm had to mean a full-scale attack and who else could pull it off. “The Bradley-Hercules satellite will be in the orbital path over the citadel in one hour and fifteen minutes. Squads, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Theta, and Delta are to intercept, your mission is to hold the line until the Bradley destroys the Citadel once that happens the brotherhoods spirit will be broken and they’ll retreat” None of use dared question that logic allowed. We knew it was probably [censored] maybe the brotherhood would retreat or maybe the fighting here would be over before they even knew what happened to their home. Could we call it victory if we destroyed the Citadel but they gained control of the Mobile Base Crawler? It made me wonder could both sides claim a pyrrhic victory? In any-event I wasn’t to concerned at the time our air support would rip them to shreds.

It took fifteen minutes to intercept the Brotherhood army as we marched Sergeant Scott went over the details of the battle plan. “Alright grunts listen up here’s how its going to work, we and the other squads are going to bog the brotherhood down and force them to regroup into a tighter force once that happens we call in the Vertibirds and them all to hell.”

“Sounds like a nice party” John laughed, It sounded like a good plan, spotting ground troops from a Vertibird was a difficult task it worked best with men on the ground. Once we engaged the enemy things seemed to be going according to plan we were pushing the brotherhood back tightening the ranks. Alice called in the Vertibirds and waited exchanging fire, making sure they stayed in position.

It was like trench warfare with both sides taking cover behind rocks and debris of old prewar buildings. When the sound of Vertibirds filled the air we smiled and cheered, we took cover behind the rock face and waited for the inevitable explosions. We looked up in horror as a series of beams streaked overhead and our air support exploded reigning fire down all around us. Word came in on the radio of similar incidents, grand total four vertibirds destroyed.

“I don’t suppose we’ll be getting any more air support?” I don’t know why I asked I knew the answer was no. Until we had more intelligence on this new weapon they wouldn’t risk what few remaining Vertibirds we had. We went back to our stalemate of plasma and laser fire exchange for another fifteen or twenty minutes.

“Do you think the Lone Wander might be here?” Calvin asked he reload his plasma rifle, before he resumed firing.

“I don’t think so,” Scott grunted letting lose a reign of fire from his incinerator down on the brotherhood position. “If the scourge of humanity was here a few of us would be dead by now.”

“Why isn’t he here?” I questioned ducking just in time to avoid a few plasma blasts. The more this fight dragged on the more it was getting to me. We’re outnumbered and outgunned between the captured plasma rifles they wielded and those shoulder mounted energy cannons they should have been driving us back but why weren’t. We were sent to hold them off until the satellite was in firing position but it was like they were holding us off.

At t-minus twenty-five minutes to firing word came in over the radio. “The red dragon has risen in the west” It was a code word, two technically. The Red Dragon was a derogatory term for the Lone Wanderer meant to equate him to Chinese communists. Risen in the west meant the enemy had been sighted inside the base parameter. We were ordered to immediately withdrawal back to the Mobile Base Crawler.

“You mean those Brotherhood bastards were just here to draw us out while that Lone Wanderer punk sneaks right up our ass?” John was always good at pointing out the obvious. When you think about it the plan made perfect sense draw out the main force while a small elite team of crack commandos sneaks behind enemy lines and causes as much mayhem as possible. We reached the parameter fence in ten minutes, under heavy fire from the brotherhood. I turned to see a what must have been a captured Vertibird landing Brotherhood soldiers outside the Crawler, and to the north they had already breached the Perimeter fence. It was T-minus seven minutes to firing and we all prayed destroying the Citadel would really break their spirits. It was utter chaos in the airfield with fighting all around. Word on the radio came in that the deathclaws had been released and were running rampant through the base.

We crossed the perimeter field and booked full speed towards the Crawler entrance, we didn’t know how long it take the brotherhood pursuing us to breach the fence and we didn’t want to get shot in the back. It happened anyways though John took a blast to the back from one of those shoulder cannons. Calvin was the first up the ramp and triggered a proximity mine, the explosion ripped through the air but thanks to the sturdiness of power armor Calvin escaped with only a broken leg. Howard and I helped him up and we rushed up the ramp.

Once inside we found the bodies of Sigma squad. Scott ordered us to make our stand here to prevent any more brotherhood personnel from gaining access to the crawler. A dozen or more of our own troops came up the ramp to reinforce our soldiers higher up and stop the assault. Shortly after word on the radio came in the robotic security had been turned against us we could here the slaughter above us as the Sentry Bots turned their Gatling lasers and missiles against us.

The clock ticked by and the Bradley-Hercules Orbital attack satellite entered the orbital path to strike at the citadel. “This is Captain Stone”, the officers voice was ragged we all knew it wouldn’t be good news. “We have lost contact with the satellite control station, we presume hostiles are in control of the Bradley, evacuate the base crawler, full retreat.” That was the reason the brotherhood wasn’t sending anyone up the ramp they didn’t intend to capture the base crawler intact.

“Retreat, retreat where?!” Scott bellowed over the radio.

“God be with you.” Stone’s last words before the radio went dead. So we left and made our way for the hole the brotherhood made in the parameter fence. None of us looked back we couldn’t bare to so we just listened as death from above rained down upon the last bastion of the Enclave. We headed south taking us further away from DC. We marched for eight hours before coming to rest in some old dog park twenty miles south of Adams. Once we were sure no one was perusing us we bunkered down for the evening.

“What do we do know?” Alice questioned as she tended to our wounds, multiple plasma and laser burns, and bruises from the concussive force of explosions. We didn’t realize how banged up we were, probably the Med-X we took during the battle.

“We regroup, and we fight on.” For the first time in my life I heard John speaking not the booming voice of pride and glory but in a quite and somber voice. John had three broken ribs from that shot in the back, thankfully whatever power that weapon had it worked best against Vertibirds.

“Yeah we’ll take the fight to the Brotherhood America will rise again!” Howard tried to be upbeat but his tone was dreary as the rest of us.

“How about we look for some antibiotics.” Calvin groaned his leg was infected, the only reason he was capable of walking was due to the power armor.

“Our first priority is simply survival” Scott explained, “Food, medicine, ammo any other supplies we might need, then we figure out our next step in the war.”

“What about Talon Company?” Howard suggested, “They hate the brotherhood don’t they?”

“You suggesting we join those mercenary degenerates their worse then the brotherhood.” John was offended by the suggested. I shared the sentiment; Talon Company was just a well-organized band of raiders and slavers. Had we won the war they were number two on the list of groups to eliminate.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Howard argued.

His argument seemed sound, but Alice was quick to point out the obvious claw. “Talon Company was also our enemy did that make the Brotherhood a friend?” That wiped the smug grin off his face.

In the end we decided to disband, scatter to the four winds so the Brotherhood wouldn’t find us. And one-day we’d reunite and strike back at them for all they took from us. It was the last time I saw them for ten years except Alice of course nothing could separate us.

And so the story of the Enclave Remnants began... maybe they moved into the Mojave, changed their names... Excellent story. I actually felt sorry for the Enclave. I also like the fact you mentioned the Lone Wanderer LOL, nice touch!