Ashley groaned slightly as the sun shone in through the Vertibird, shining in her face. She had managed to get to sleep, if only for a couple of minutes at least it was still some. The pierce light hurt her eyes which she quickly covered with her arm. She slowly sat up as she had tryed lying down across the seats to sleep.

Ashley yawned and stretched before getting to her feet and following Andy out of the Vertibird. She watched by the side of the Vertibird as the others exited. She looked at Andy when he asked for help.

"Oh I would... But you know I might break a nail." Ash as girly and sweetly as she could, before smirking and going over to him. "Not that I'd be much use anyway... I'm tired, I'm a medic and I'm not wearing power armour." She heaved on the back of the nuke, her feet planted firmly on the dry ground as she shuffled forward.

Andrew looked at the larger than normal mini-nuke, and then at Andy, before saying, "Ok, what have I got to lose." He then started to help Andy and Ashley drag the mini-nuke, while jokingly saying, "Don't start jumping in all at once now."

"Alright lets move out!" Henry jumped off the vertibird, relieved because he didn't have to listen to Ryan's speeches. He ran over and gave Andy a hand while he looked at where we'd be moving the bomb. It was a simple rock wall, but only 10ft behind it lay the vault . Years of erosion had made it the weakest spot in the vault, one mini nuke would do the job nicely. Henry heaved the mininuke over to the wall and helped set it down. "Ok, let blow this thing! Henry gripped his rifle and took cover. "Alright everyone! When we go in try to stick together!" In the many hallways and rooms of the vault even the largest army could get separated and destroyed. Henry hoped Jugger would be alright in the front, he'd be taking a whole lot of fire.

Despite the fact that this was not his first combat mission, Andrew still felt apprehensive. He thought, "My Sniper Rifle is going to be almost useless because of the close range combat that assaulting that glorified vault bunker will entail. I knew I should've gotten a Flamer or a Combat Shotgun, those would've been far more useful than my submachine gun. I just hope our enemy doesn't have too many Power Armored soldiers, and at least my weapon is compact." Once the countdown started, Andrew got behind a rock and said to himself, "Dakayev, your mad crusade ends here, and we'll be the ones to stop you." Andrew prepared himself mentally as the countdown moved closer to zero.

I shook my head, they don't understand what I'm saying... Do they? I gave a small smile and decided to wait, considering the others had already moved the Nukes into position and all we had to now was wait... I wondered what to do, I'd relived the past enough to have it imprinted in my mind, not even my song could keep my calm at a time like this, but something Andy said caught me unawares. He'd said, "The future is never set in stone Ryan, we'll all cross that bridge when it comes to it and what ever happens, happens."

I scratched my head, I recognised it as something I'd told him when we were on the roof, the past was easily remembered to me now. I shook my head and continued waiting.

(OOC: Sorry about short post I have to go, damn)

Nate let go of the oversized mini-nuke, and it hit the ground with a loud thump. He wiped the dirt from the nuke off of his hands on his jeans, and wiped some sweat off of his forehead. This nuke was bigger than any he'd every seen. It was pretty astounding.

"Damn, how can this thing still be considered a 'mini-nuke'." Nate said with a short laugh.

He backed up and looked at the huge explosive, now he wished he had his aviators even more, no doubt the blast would be blinding.

"Alright everyone, unless you prefer being reduced to pile of ash, i'd say we should get away from this thing." Nate said as he began to make his way back to the vertibird.

He sat down on the edge of the metal floor of the aircraft, looking out at the wasteland.

"You'd think we would learn to stop fighting, to just live peacefully with eachother. Heh... you'd think." Nate muttered.

Andrew, who'd overheard Nathan, came over and said, "Well, that's the thing about our species Nathan, War...War never changes. From the stone to the nuke, the reasons why people fight wars have always been the same. Power, to protect loved ones, conscription, are just some of them. Perhaps even if we claw our way back to where we were before, we'll probably nearly destroy ourselves once again. The only real thing that has changed about war is how many people we can kill on masse. As long as there is strife, which the Wasteland has no shortage of, there will always be war."

Ashley went and sat down at the foot of the Vertibird's doors, next to Nate's legs, away from the sun. She tilted her head to the side when Andrew started talking. She stood up and leaned her back against the 'bird. She thought about his word for a moment and nodded slowly in reluctant agreement. "Yeah... Even if someone did get a wish of world domination, personal wars will still continue which could escalate into full blown wars again." She sighed and shrugged. "Animal nature I surpose. Alpha males and all that."

Ashley stretched again sighed. "This won't change much anyway." She gestured at the nuke. "We'll might win this one... Hell, if we had a miricle we could win against the rest of the Invisible Faction in America." She hestitated. "Well... A really big miricle. But even then... The faction control half, if not more, of the world." She smirked a bit and said in wonderment to herself more than anyone else. "It's us versus half the world..." She smiled and looked at the others. "Something to tell the grandkids I guess. If I survive this, and actually have kids, that is."

Nate pulled his legs up onto the floor of the vertibird and sat down across the doorway, leaning against one of the doors. Unfortunately, everything thing that Ash and Andrew were saying was completely true. Even if they did manage to rid america of the faction, the chaos would never end.

"Alright lets stop moping and get motivated!" Nate shouted in encouragement.

He pulled three bottles of purified water out of his bag and handed one to Andrew and Ash. Nate unscrewed the cap of his water bottle as he stood up, and took a swig of it. The surprisingly cool water rushed down his dry throat, immediately refreshing him. He swallowed his water and looked at Andrew and Ashley.

"Alright, were gonna' blow that nuke, walk into that vault, and blow their [censored] heads off! Whos with me?" Nate shouted raising, his water bottle in the air.

Knight nodded silently, making sure his rifle was loaded and ready for combat. He wasn't much for pre-combat speeches, but he was ready to do whatever he needed to do.

Andrew lifted his submachine gun in agreement. He then said, "First we'll beat them here on the Eastern Seaboard, then on the West Coast, and maybe, we'll cleanse the entire Earth of their evil. War may never change and humanity will probably never learn its lesson, but there still are things worth fighting for, this is one of them."

Ashley gratefully took the purified water and unscrewed the cap, closing her eyes as the water refreshed her and cleared her head a little. It was hard to stop but she mangaged it and screwed the cap back on. She raised her bottle with Nate. "I'm with you. As long as you don't take a laser in the side again yeah? I never did thank you for that... Thank you for saving my life. Need to tell Andrei that aswell..."

Ash placed her bottle just inside the Vertibird and checked her revolver making sure it was loaded and ready before holstering it again. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a single bullet, she rolled it in her fingers, kissed it and put it back in her pocket.

Andrew opened the bottle and took swig, the Purified Water clearing his head and making him feel refreshed. He then said, "I still find it funny that when we met, we had you at gunpoint, but now we're conversing like we've known eachother since basic. This war had us meet as foes, but its made us brothers, if only by virtue of a common enemy. Welcome to the Brotherhood."

Nate took another swig of his water and listened to Andrew and Ash. He sat down on the ground and smiled.

"No need to thank me, I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for you." Nate said to Ashley.

He listended to Andrew and agreed with him. Its amazing how much things had changed in such a short time. Just yesterday he was back at the outpost, anticipating the demise of the brotherhood, and now he was sitting in a brotherhood vertibird, anticipating the demise of the Invisible Faction. If the Brotherhood would've never showed up, Nate would surely be dead by now. Its crazy how things work.

"Thanks." Nate said blunty, with a smirk.

Andrew nodded and said, "You're welcome, Nathan. Now let's puch through the Vault door, punch through their lines, and punch Dakayev in the face." Andrew still felt antsy, but it wasn't because of fear, but Nathan's words invigorating him. He said, "I feel like I could take on the whole world and win right now." Andrew then cracked a smile and said, "Thanks, Nathan."

George woke up, spitting out blood, and trying to get up. He realized that he was bleeding, from self inflicted stab wounds. George didn't know how he got them, as the last thing he remembered was passing out on the road.

In a struggle, George ripped the sleeves off of his sweater, and used the cloth to wrap the wound. After injecting some stimpaks, George began to move again, just a little slower, and with a scar on his chest.

Upon walking, he saw Megaton in the distance, along with Brotherhood of Steel Vertibirds landing nearby Vault 101.

"Oh, [censored].", George cussed as he saw the soldiers hauling mini nukes towards the entrance.

"What now?", as he said to himself. He took refuge in a nearby house, barricaded it in case, and began to patch up his wound, hoping he would be able to help Dakayev, and warn them.

Just as he thought about it, George pulled out and activated his radio.

"Dakayev? Dakayev! Damn it, Answer!"


((OOC: As a heads up, none of you currently know where George is, so don't go Chuck Norris on me and kill George. :stare:))

((OOC: I figured thats why you made George stab himself out there, just so you could spoil the surprise. :meh: ))

(OOC Unfortunately for you Silly Cat, due to the time delay I am able to post before Enclave, thus achieving a slight upper hand. Besides I figure we've had enough lifting. BTW sorry guys for the extremely long plan I just want everything to go perfect.)

The men and woman, pvssyd away. I laughed at some of the comments but kept quiet as I didn't want to stray too much from the task at hand. After all we were carrying a mini nuke. It didn't take us too long to get it into our bird. I quickly went over to Juggers bird and made sure everything was ok. They had managed to lift the nuke into the bird and attach a radio, everything was running smoothly. I jogged back to my vertibird, climbed in and shut the door behind me.

"This is it, lock and load," I said to the team, as I made my way to the cockpit. I grabbed the radio and began to give orders.

"Alright my Brothers, this is it. We take down Dakayev. Here's the plan, we attack the entrance as one force, blowing the wooden door and clearing a path to the vault entrance. Once we have blown a sufficient hole and cleared most, if not all, of the opposition at the entrance, Jugger's vertibird will land as well as vertibirds 654, 849, 460 and 251. From there you will clear any resistance and take out any cameras that are located outside the vault. From memory there are two. My vertibird and any other vertibird I haven't named, will be up in the sky waiting for the cameras to be cleared, the area secured and the nuke put in place. We will provide cover fire from the air," I breathed loudly, away from the radio, this was a big plan and I was nervous.

"Once all the cameras have been destroyed, the area secured and the nuke put in place, my group of birds will fly around the back, secure it, if needed, and place the second nuke. Once we have planted the second nuke my group will retreat to a safe distance. Once my group has retreated to a safe distance, I will radio in to Jugger and tell them to retreat to a safe distance. From here a few things can happen. 1. If you here the vault door open and Juggers group has not reached a safe distance, Jugger, you are to radio in and tell me that you are raiding the entrance as it's open. If we here no noise I will detonate the back nuke first, causing confusion, then I will give Jugger the order to detonate his. If we are at a safe distance and we hear the vault open you have my permission to detonate straight away, I will detonate mine straight after." I released the button for just a moment, just so I could sigh. I looked down at my feet, this was the hard part.

"After the nukes have been detonated we will raid vault 101. Kill anyone who resists, I know how that sounds but we can't afford to waste time and make mistakes. We need to strike fast and hard. My group will attempt to take Dakayev and George alive, Jugger and his group will smash the front line. From there we will encircle them. Good luck my brother and may Steel be with you, may steel be with us all."

I put my hand on the pilots shoulder. He started up the vertibird and we were off. I turned to the team. They all had different expressions, I just smiled and turned back around. We came up on the entrance fast. From what I could see there were only a few mercenaries outside. I picked up the radio.

"Open fire, kill the resistance and blow open that door!" I yelled through the radio. The fight for vault 101 had begun.

Jugger stared absentmindedly at the nuke now taking up the interior of his Vertibird as the Lone Wanderer's orders came through.
This was it. Time for him to see if he really deserved the rank he'd gotten.
"Understood. Will do." The calm in his tone was nothing but a cover. He was starting to think of his life, and whether or not he had lived a full one.
He remembered his childhood being cut-short, and then...nothing. It took him a moment to realize that he'd been nothing but a soldier during his whole time in the barren wasteland.
He'd lived...but had he thrived?
A sense of empowerment came over him as his vertibird started descending to the entrance of the vault. He could see a small mercenary encampment outside, looking dumbfound at them.
He hoisted his Flamer up high and leaped out of the slowly opening catwalk, landing with a dust-kicking THUD onto the ground.
"Squads 4, 5, and 7. Deploy!" He barked into the radio he held in his hand. Several groups of BOS members dropped from their own Vertibirds while the others started to land.
Wasting no time, Jugger walked up to a mercenary fumbling for his rifle and whacked him across the head with the barrel of his Flamer.
He quickly turned and roasted another that was dashing towards him.
In a matter of minutes, he'd killed or burned unemotionally five more people. The sheer ease of it all threw him off, but he ignored it. There would be tougher opposition inside, for sure.

He heard screams of pain and bullets firing, as if the war had already started. But he knew better than that.

((OOC: I'll be back at 12. See ya))

I stood up slowly, listening to the laughing, happy conversations going on, then listening to Andy's orders as he directed the people and told them his plan. I smiled lightly as I waited, thinking, then I decided, I walked over to Nate and Ash who were sitting near each other. I gave a small laugh, "Well guys, who would've guessed it huh? Killing our own Faction, wow, but, I'm just glad that both of you are alive, your some of the best friends I've ever had out here... You've both saved my life, so thanks, for everything."

I gave a small half-hearted salute and then I turned around, I moved towards Andy, I gave him a half-hearted salute as well for the hell of it. I gave a small smile, "Well Andy, your a great leader you know that? Everyone here looks up to you, maybe even Nate and Ashley... Maybe, just maybe, even myself. But hell, I guess you'd want to know why I'm dragging on huh? I just wanted to say... Thanks, for everything, for every little thing you've done, for just living this far."

I leant against the wall of the Vertibird, "We've both been through a lot, but your the one that really had hell for life, but you made it through it... And because of that, what can I do but respect you? But the main thing is, I want to thank you for sparing myself, and my men, my men are the last thing that are left that's important to me anymore, so thank you for that... And thank you for choosing to do this, all of this, it could all go wrong and yet you know that it's the right thing to do."

I smiled a little, "Your a good man Andy, and good men live on... While the bad men die," I chuckled a little, "Oh and by the way? Thanks for giving me back my rifle." I turned and walked to my seat, I sat down, slipped my rifle off my back and started cleaning it.

I looked back at Ryan, he had earned a lot of my respect as well. I smiled.

"All men die Ryan, it's the choices we make that define who we are and we always, always, have that choice. You have earned my respect, I'm glad we both made right choice. Who knows I may even call you friend. But this is not the time for sentimental talk. Times of war are upon us and we have been called to rise to the challenge."

I turned back to the front window and looked out onto the battlefield. Jugger and his men were making progression but the wooden door was still intact. I radioed in.

"Hold back Jugger, I'm going to free up the path for you."

I told the pilot to unload every missile we had, into the wooden entrance. The pilot did as instructed and missiles poured out from the sides of our bird. It was a direct hit and once the smoke had cleared, it revealed a nice hole for our men to travel through. I picked up the radio again.

"Your clear to enter, still keep your guard up, Jugger."

I put the radio down.

"So far so good."

Dakayev was sitting in the overseers chair when he heard George on the radio. He dialed in and responded.

" George, [censored] you they are attack us! Squad Veros hasn't reported outside the entrance. Give me a status report damnit!"

Dakayev loaded his Gladius rifle then went back to the intercom. He pressed the button and opened all channels.


" The Brotherhood is at our gates. Do you want to die because they want to win! No! We shall hold this gate no matter what the cost, the final frontier of a giant empire. We will rebuild. Our shimmering hope lies around the world! All we need is for brave people like YOU to help us win! The Brotherhood is going to come in guns blazing. When you see them, don't hesitate and don't listen to their "I am here to help you" mumbo jumbo. Do you want to live with mutants for the rest of your life? NO! And for that they must pay with their blood! NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE THIS VAULT FROM US! STAND AT THE PRECIPICE AND FIGHT!"

Dakayev shut off the intercom as his rifle kept track of the Atrium. He pulled out his suit radio

" Squads Gamma, Delta, and Beta are to proceed to the Reactor core. In case of emergency, I repeat, in case of hostile take-over, insure that the reactor takes out this entire building. I want explosives in and around the atrium planted and ready to prime. If this really does come down to defeat, we will go out with a bang"

"Roger that sir"

Nate raised his head up towards Andrei and he looked him in the eyes.

"I think we've all said enough thank yous haven't we? I mean, seriously, you Ash and I have all saved eachothers' lives." Nate laughed.

He looked to his right out of the window of the vertibird, and saw Paladin Jugger incinerating people. He could hear their screams from the vertibird. Killing, killing, killing, when wasn't Nate killing someone? He was starting to wonder if it was all worth it anymore.

"Thats what you get you bastards." Nate muttered.

The entire vertibird shook as a horde of screaming missiles were fired at the vault. They soared through the air, and they all rammed the wooden door and the rock surrounding it, resulting in a huge, satisfying explosion. The smoke from the missiles rose into the air, uncovering a conveniant gaping hole that now replaced the position of the wooden door. Nate let out a smirk, and looked down through the hole.

"Alright Dakayev, ready your men, you're about to go for one hell of a ride." Nate said aloud, as the vertibird began to move to their next target.

As the attack progressed, Henry became more and more confident everything would be all right. So far the plan was going along smoothly and the vault defenders would surely be surprised at the surprise attack at the back and Dakayev would be defeated. Jugger was a monster out there and Dakayev's men was probably concentrated on stopping his team. Henry said to Andy that had been bothering him about this plan. "If we blow the vault doors open, we won't be able to take cover in there if we fail to take down the ICBM." Its all or nothing

Jugger listened intently, straining his ear above the chaos around him as his radio crackled with life.
After a simple "Got it.", he motioned for his squad to move back.
"Get down! Now!"
He yelled, diving at the same time as the explosions rocked the rock wall in front of him. The wooden door was decimated, along with the rock overhang around it, allowing for a bigger entrance.
He pointed a finger at two Minigun-wielding Knights, then jabbed a thumb at himself, signaling a 'Follow me' command.

They stomped into the tunnel, with Jugger hearing a distinctly angry voice ringing through the intercom.
" The Brotherhood is at our gates. Do you want to die because they want to win! No! We shall hold this gate no matter what the cost, the final frontier of a giant empire. We will rebuild. Our shimmering hope lies around the world! All we need is for brave people like YOU to help us win! The Brotherhood is going to come in guns blazing. When you see them, don't hesitate and don't listen to their "I am here to help you" mumbo jumbo. Do you want to live with mutants for the rest of your life? NO! And for that they must pay with their blood! NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE THIS VAULT FROM US! STAND AT THE PRECIPICE AND FIGHT!"

Jugger shook his head and signaled for the two soldiers flanking him to ready themselves to shoot.
"Crazy bastard. Won't accept mercy...Fine. We won't offer it."
Spotting two cameras at the top of the now-closed door, he shot them both down with his Laser Pistol, then turned around to the line of stunned squads behind him.
They looked shocked, tense, and Jugger couldn't blame them. He'd regained the fear he was once known for.
He hastily pulled out his radio. "This is the Front-Line to the Lone Wanderer. We're ready to set and detonate the nuke at your command."