Adams Air Force Base

"Your job is simple today," Paladin Tristan had said. "Anti-materiel duty. Doesn't matter if it's Vertibirds, laser turrets, combat robots, or artillery installations- oh, yes, there are several of those on the base. Take Mjolnir and your big green friend and destroy anything the Enclave could turn on us."

"Ground vehicles too?"

"Ground vehicles especially. Those things are atomic detonations waiting to happen. Get to the highest ground you possibly can and take them out before the rest of our ground forces arrive. If there's Enclave troops near them, so much the better, but you'll have Fawkes covering you for that. Don't waste Mojo on infantry if you can avoid it. Once you've cleared an area, move up and find more stuff to destroy. And for God's sake keep one eye on the sky. The Paladins can take out the robots and the turrets if they have to, but you're the only chance we've got against those Vertibirds. Take them out the instant you have a clear line of sight. Any other questions?"

"...no sir."

That was two hours ago, in the Metro tunnels. It felt like forever. They'd crept out of the tunnels, there'd been the initial turrets, two men on the ground with heavy ordnance- more turrets- the first Hellfire trooper and the coughing sputter of his incinerator just before the splattering rain of flame-

And then it all blurred together to the point where she couldn't remember how long it had been since she and Fawkes clambered up the metal stairs and electrocuted absolutely everything in sight, or smashed everything that was left after Mjolnir's blaze left Ellen temporarily blind. How long had she been perched on the edge of the roof, watching truck after truck explode in a shower of irradiated shrapnel?What had happened between then and the moment she'd realized the distant thudding sound she was hearing was the younger, smaller cousin of the artillery guns in the Anchorage sim, or between them and the moment she staggered back from the guns' location, watching electric arcs wreathe their massive barrels in furious blue fire?

There were deathclaws. She remembered seeing those- they ran at her, claws spread, beady eyes glittering, and then they... something. Some of them exploded and fell to ash. Some... she wasn't supposed to waste Mojo on the ground troops, but surely creatures who could cut through her armor with one swipe of their claws were different? She didn't have Vallincourt's device any more, somebody else did, it was all she could do...

And the Vertibirds kept coming. Kept rising over the buidlings, thupthupthupthuping through the smoke and the radiation. Kept wheeling around her position, wherever it might be. They didn't last long.

They never lasted long.

She'd fired on the first one. She'd known how it would look, she'd seen Mjollnir in action, right? She'd known. Only... she hadn't. It wasn't the same. The Bailey targets, the Milliways ones, they were targets and there wasn't anything left afterward and that was fine, okay? She could- she'd done that before, that wasn't-

When Mjolnir struck a Vertibird out of the sky, it exploded. It didn't disintegrate, it exploded. There were pieces afterward, flying every which way, tumbling to earth in foul-smelling flames and smoke. You had to dodge them if they fell towards you- she wasn't used to that. Not that it was hard, it just- she wasn't used to that- it was different to flee a car's explosion, to shelter from a grenade. This was here is what you did, here's the evidence, right in your face, and it might take your head off for what you just did.

This was blades of metal long enough for Fawkes to use as a sword scything through the air overhead as the only thing that had ever held them together came apart and scattered to the winds.

This was the moment- brief, fragmentary, unforgettable for ever and ever and ever- of seeing something that wasn't shrapnel tumbling away from the blaze of light, something that might've- something.

It took, from what Paladin Tristan had told her, three or four men to fly a gunship Vertibird. One pilot, one co-pilot, forward gunner, rear gunner. Sometimes they only put in one gunner, to spread the love around, was how he put it. That was a gunship. Those were the dangerous ones. There were troop transports, though- pilot, co-pilot, six to eight passengers, maybe a robot or two. She'd seen them in the Wasteland too many times.

Don't waste Mojo on infantry, he'd said-

One Vertibird. Two trained pilots. Possibly six to eight ground soldiers. Maybe combat robots. All of them downed with one pull of the trigger, before they could put so much as a foot on the ground, or even catch sight of the battlefield below. Before anyone else was even in danger.

Paladin Tristan would call that a bargain.

Who Dares, Wins

"I don't see it, Fawkes," Ellen said, scanning the area frantically. "The Enclave crawler's supposed to be here. 'On the runway between the force field and the air traffic control tower', right? That's what the advance scouts said? But all I see is that huge black building."

"Ellen," said Fawkes carefully, “that is the crawler.”

“... you’re joking. How can anything that big move?”

For answer, Fawkes briefly turned his Gatling laser towards the thing’s base and opened fire. The flash of red laser light illuminated a set of monstrous treads and wheels that must’ve run the entire thing’s length, easily taller than Fawkes’ own nine feet of height. It must have been made of sterner stuff than most machines; there was no sign of the lasers doing harm beyond a little scorching.

Ellen would’ve crossed herself, if she hadn’t had the Tesla cannon in her right hand.

---

The room was lit only by the blue glow of the Enclave repulsion field that blocked their way, and the glimmer of a nearby control terminal. There would be other Brotherhood forces arriving soon, with any luck. Someone would no doubt have the expertise to persuade the computer to shut the thing down and let them-

CRACK.

It was kind of amazing what Fawkes could do with that supersledge of his. There wasn’t enough terminal left to identify the remains. On the other hand, the force field was gone, so Ellen counted that as a net plus and darted ahead. The reinforcements would thank her for clearing the way.

---

“Oh, man, don’t hurt me! I just work here!”

Ellen lowered the Tesla cannon warily. That was not the voice of the Sentrybot she was aiming at.

A pale, skinny human in a blue jumpsuit, a brown cap, and a pair of glasses edged out from behind the machine, his hands in the air. “I work on the robots,” he said, pointing an awkward finger in the sentrybot’s direction. “I fix ‘em up. I saw what you did before you got in the base. You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Ellen said carefully. “Fawkes?”

“I have no intention of doing so,” the mutant rumbled.

“Oh- oh good,” said the man, lowering his hands. “I’m Stiggs. Nice to meet you. You have no idea how glad I am you realize I’m not one of the bad guys.”

Ellen didn’t entirely know how to answer that, given the situation.

“Look, I know it looks bad, but the Enclave found me when I was out in the Wasteland dying of radiation poisoning,” Stiggs said. “They took me in and treated me. Got me back on my feet, got me eating again- that’s the only reason I’m still here. I’m not proud of working for these guys, I know what they’ve done, but I don’t stand a chance on my own. I’d leave if I could get out without being shot.”

“I’ll radio somebody about that if you answer a few questions about this place for me,” Ellen said. “Fair?”

“Sure!” Stiggs said. “What did you want to know?”

---

“You know,” said Ellen, “I didn’t used to like force fields nearly this much.”

“Releasing uncontrolled Deathclaws into the general corridors does give one a new appreciation for such things,” Fawkes agreed.

“Remind me to thank Stiggs for telling us about this place if I ever see him again.”

“With pleasure.”

They waited for the distant screaming and plasma fire to die away before shutting the force field down.

---

“Revised target data accepted,” announced what must surely have been every single Sentrybot on the Crawler in unison. “Commencing attack on Enclave forces.”

Ellen eyed the terminal in front of her, with its oh-so-innocuous ‘replace IFF data’ command available for the price of a single password, and shook her head. “We definitely need to thank Stiggs...”

---

And then.

The door opened onto the upper surface of the crawler and the barely-there light of early morning, sunrise fingers trickling upwards along the eastern sky. All that remained of Adams Air Force Base was for a brief and shining instant limned in gold. It was an instant of infinite promise, after the darkness and rage of the battle within the Crawler.

In the clamorous thupthupthupthup of incoming Vertibird engines, the moment passed forever. Ellen snarled, or cried, or possibly both- she was never able to say, and with her helmet on not even Fawkes could have said for sure- and opened fire with Mjolnir until nothing remained in the sky but smoke. And then, because they were there and because if she didn’t do something about it the shakes would overwhelm her, she turned to face the last few Enclave troopers atop the crawler and pulled the Tesla cannon’s trigger as many times as the electron charge pack would allow.

The shakes won out anyway. Fawkes had to help Ellen to her feet and guide her over to the satellite uplink terminal. The damn thing was the reason they’d come all this way in the first place, and she could barely see straight even when he parked her right in front of it. It was just too much, all of it, it was just-

Satellite Uplink Terminal
No Unauthorized Personnel

> Check Satellite Status
> Check Payload
> Load Payload
> Fire Payload
> Quit


Her hands moved over the keys, almost without her volition.

*WARNING: Safety Off/System Unlocked*

> Preset Target 01: Citadel
> Preset Target 02: Project Purity
> Preset Target 03: Megaton
> Preset Target 04: Rivet City Carrier
> Preset Target 05: Adams AFB Platform
> Back


She stared at the list, as if looking long enough and staring hard enough would make the words somehow make sense. She could still hear Liberty Prime booming out his warning; she remembered the fire from the sky...

There was only one way to end this all, wasn’t there.

*TARGET ACQUIRED: Adams AFB Mobile Platform*
** WARNING: This will commit ALL WARHEADS to target and lock this station! **

> Confirm Fire
> Cancel


I am the Scourge of God, she remembered, and wondered if Mr. Brotch would ever know. If you had not committed such great sins-

** CONFIRMED **
** FIRING PAYLOAD **

Now it was too much. She grabbed blindly for Fawkes’ hand, and let the mutant lead her where he thought best.