7The wasteland was quiet. Nothing but the whistling of the breeze flowing through the empty land sounded in his ears. Even Cross and the rest of his Brotherhood escort were quiet – the silence and grace in which they moved was eerie. No one should be that quiet when they were in power armor so heavy he couldn't even hold it.
He nervously glanced around. James knew that he was safe. His guards were good people, even if some of them could be a little rude. They wouldn't allow their charge to be hurt.
Of course, he didn't care what happened to him. He glanced down at the precious bundle in his arms, sleeping and peaceful. James smiled at the small, tired face of his son. Christopher was the last thing he had.
His team was disbanded. Catherine was dead. Project Purity was over.
Because you left. A cruel, disapproving voice whispered. You're wasting her sacrifice. Do you think she would have wanted you to run away? She would have wanted you to stay and fight for the project. Help the people of the wastes. Give them the waters of life.
Guilt bit at James' heart, but he pushed it away. The project was over. Now it was time to look to the future. Catherine was gone, but he still had his son. He wouldn't let Christopher grow up in this hell. Christopher would be safe in Vault 101. They could be happy there.
"Only a few more miles." Cross said, breaking the monotonous silence of the wastes. James glanced over at the Star Paladin when he heard her slightly distorted voice. "Our records say that Vault 101 is nearby."
James nodded. "Thank you. I don't know what I would have done without the Brotherhood."
Cross glanced at him. Although her eyes were obscured by her helmet's visor, he knew that they were staring at him with that stern, measuring look.
"You wouldn't have made it far." She replied. Her voice grew slightly softer. "Our offer still stands, James. It's not too late to come with us to the Citadel. We always need doctors and scientists."
He sighed. "I'm sorry, Star Paladin, but I can't do that. I have to keep him safe. Out of the wastes and away from the monsters."
Cross wouldn't let him go so easily. James knew that Lyons wanted him at the Citadel – although James wasn't much of a fighter, he was one of the few learned minds that still inhabited the wasteland. Knowledge was a precious commodity, and the Brotherhood was devoted to protecting and hoarding it.
Perhaps it would be a good life, he mused, if not an easy one. He would be able to research and examine whatever technological mysteries were hidden in the Citadel and be able to help one of the last civilized groups in the Capital Wasteland. They would be safe. There would certainly be other children for Christopher to play with – the Brotherhood had to replenish their numbers, after all.
But he couldn't. Christopher wouldn't grow up in the cruel world, where men squabbled like animals over a few drops of water – water that would kill them later, now that the project had fallen through. Even if they were safe, Christopher would be exposed to the cruel realities of life and horrors that no human should have to go through.
"I can't." He repeated. The bundle in his arms was pulled slightly closer, although not to the degree that it would upset the sleeping infant. "I have to keep him safe."
Cross sighed. "I understand. If you change your mind, we'll be staying in Megaton for a few days."
James nodded and glanced down at Christopher. He knew that he wouldn't be going with them, even if he wasn't able to get into Vault 101. There were too many memories associated with the Brotherhood that he wanted to forget. If he had to, he would tear the great steel door down. Christopher would be safe.
The silence that pervaded the wasteland returned. No one said anything as the journey continued – James and Cross were too focused on their thoughts and the Brotherhood Knights seemed to be above it all, too focused on perceiving nonexistent threats then paying attention to the conversation.
Suddenly, everything stopped. A strange, whirring sound broke the silence of the Wasteland. The Brotherhood snapped their focus towards the source of the sound – a small, black dot far on the horizon. It wasn't particularly loud – barely loud enough to be detected – but it was slowly getting louder.
"Church! Dillon!" Cross barked at two of the Knights. "Hide and protect James. Provide cover fire if necessary. The rest of you, find cover."
The two Knights moved quickly, roughly grabbing James and pulling him along with them. They found a large rock jutting out of the ground and crouched behind it. James was breathing hard and his arms were tight around his son.
"Stay down." One of the Knights hissed. The other was busy readying his assault rifle, clicking the safety off.
"What's going on?" James asked. Christopher was beginning to move around, apparently unhappy with the sudden movement and pressure. "What is that thing?"
The Knight looked at him. "Vertibird. Enclave. Two things that we haven't seen in a long time. Now, keep down. This might get messy if they saw us."
James clenched his son to his chest, whispering soothing nothings to the awakening child. The strange noise was getting louder – it was drowning out all other sounds. He could see that the two Knights were just as tense as he was. Apparently this Enclave was something they feared.
And then all hell broke loose. He could hear something that he dreaded – the sound of laser fire. But something was wrong. It wasn't the familiar and slow sound he was used to. It was fast – the sound was overlapping itself many times over.
He hazarded a glance out to the field and blanched. That flying machine – the Vertibird – had a gatling laser attached to the tip of it. It was blasting the ground where they had just vacated, littering the ground with intense, hot flashes of energy.
James saw it slowly sink down to the ground, although it remained hovering just a foot above. A dozen black armored shapes poured out of it quickly and efficiently with raised rifles. He stared at the weapons with professional interest. They seemed to be an energy weapon – not laser, they seemed far less controlled and precise – but was far different than anything he'd seen before.
And then the Brotherhood struck. He saw Cross lean out from behind another boulder and fire at the newcomers with her laser rifle. It struck one of them – a giant of a man with strange coils on his power armor, spitting out arcs of energy – but didn't seem to do anything.
More Knights began to fire at the black-armored soldiers, although their attacks seemed ineffective. Not one of the newcomers were even injured. He spotted one of the Knights with a rocket launcher try to shoot at the Vertibird, which was beginning to fly upwards.
The gatling laser turned and blasted the Knight, tearing his armor to pieces and searing the flesh beneath. James' face turned white as he saw the Knight fall to the ground, dead.
His protectors turned out from behind the rock and assisted in the ambush. A strange form of energy – it was a large, uncontrolled burst of green light – flashed from one of the newcomers' rifles and struck one of his Knights in the face.
Although the helmet blocked most of the damage, it staggered the Knight and knocked him out of cover. Several more blasts of green energy struck the exposed Knight, melting his armor and killing him.
James ducked back into cover. It was a miracle none of the soldiers had seen him. He gasped heavily and gently placed his son to the ground, nestling him against the rock. The man closed his eyes and found his pistol, an old weapon that he'd only had in case he was separated.
He glanced at it for a second and threw it away. It would be useless against their armor, and he didn't expect the Brotherhood to win this battle. Not after the butchery he'd just seen. There was no way that he would be able to even hurt one of the soldiers.
All he could hope was that they wouldn't kill him if he didn't have a weapon. Perhaps it was a foolish hope, but his only way to survive was that they weren't as barbaric as the other inhabitants of the wastes. They had to be sophisticated in order to maintain and produce that technology, after all. Maybe it carried into the rest of their lives.
James sat back, shielding Christopher with his body. A few moments later, he heard the chopping sound. He glanced up and paled as he saw the Vertibird landing only a few dozen feet away. The scientist fought every instinct that screamed at him to pick up his pistol and do anything he could to fight the Enclave off.
His reason and hope won out in the end, however. James watched with dull eyes as his last protector turned towards the Enclave soldiers pouring out of the Vertibird and leveled his laser rifle at the armored soldiers.
The Knight said nothing to James – no words of reassurance or orders to escape. It seemed that he had lost hope. All the Knight could do was go down in one last blaze of glory.
James watched as the Knight opened fire. The beam of red light flashed through the air before impacting one of the Enclave soldiers. It did nothing – James doubt it even left a scorch mark. A moment later the disciplined Enclave troops leveled their rifles at the lone Knight.
A moment later they opened fire. James had to avert his eyes as the landscape was lit up by brilliant flashes of green light. Stars flashed in his retinas even as he turned back to the scene.
The Knight was dead. His power armor – the most powerful tool at the Brotherhood's disposal, capable of making most small arms and rifles almost useless against them – was melted and warped by the green blasts of energy.
James felt his jaw clench, almost without his consent. He stayed outwardly calm as the Enclave soldiers – led by a short man in tan fatigues – cautiously approached. They had their weapons aimed at him. It was almost amusing to the tired man. Using those weapons against him would be overkill. Just a few shots could kill a Brotherhood Knight. He would be disintegrated.
Perhaps his hopes would turn out to be true. None of them were firing at him, and the man he presumed to be an officer was glancing at a picture of some sort.
"Wastelander." The man said in a haughty tone. "Are you James Harden?"
Aware of the rifles aimed at him, James considered for a moment. While this could just be a trick – perhaps they had been ordered to kill him – this could also be his way out. Either way, he was stuck. If it was some sort of hit, they would kill him. If he claimed to be the wrong person, they would likely kill him.
It was up to fortune to decide his fate.
"Yes." He replied in as calm a voice as he could, his eyes meeting those of the officer. "I am."
The officer nodded. "Good. You're coming with us, then. You two," he said, nodding at the two soldiers flanking him, "take him to the Vertibird. Make sure he is unscathed. President Eden wants him unharmed."
James didn't struggle as the soldiers pulled him upwards. One of them simply turned away and prepared to escort him back to the Vertibird, but the other was more observant. The soldier kneeled and picked Christopher up gently, ensuring the child wouldn't be harmed.
"Sir," the soldier called back. James kept an indiscernible expression on his face as the cold officer turned back. "He has a child."
The officer smiled, although James noticed that it didn't quite reach his eyes. James' heart fell. He wasn't sure what he had planned to do with Christopher – perhaps hide him until they were on the Vertibird, where it would be too late to do anything about him – but he didn't want one of the soldiers laying a hand on him.
"Well, well." The officer smiled. "Isn't this fortuitous? It seems that we have two additions to the Enclave today. Travers, bring them both aboard. I'm sure that President Eden will be most interested in this unexpected occurrence."
"Of course, sir." The same soldier replied. He handed the baby to James, who carefully tucked his son under his arm. "Get moving."
James looked down at his son as he was herded into the Vertibird. The two soldiers directed him into a seat and instructed him to hold onto Christopher tightly. They sat still in the strange craft for a few minutes. He supposed that they were cleaning up the remains of the Brotherhood.
His throat had a lump in it as he thought of his escort. They were certainly dead. The Enclave didn't seem the type to leave behind a mess.
He clenched his fists. While he didn't know the other Knights very well, he had known Cross for most of the two years he'd spent working on Project Purity. They had had their differences, of course, but she was always a good friend to him and a good person.
And she was dead. He couldn't help but feel a bit of hatred towards the Enclave. While they seemed to be relatively civil to him, he couldn't forgive them for what they had done. One of his last connections to the world was dead, probably burned and melted beyond recognition.
Even her holotag was probably destroyed. They were durable, but they couldn't stand up to an energy blast that could melt through power armor. She would never be amongst the archives of fallen warriors that the Brotherhood so honored.
Then he was pulled out of his thoughts. Christopher had finally had enough of being jostled around and exposed to strange places. He was a quiet baby – they had been afraid there was something wrong about him after he was born, although further tests rid them of that fear – but even the quietest of babies could have their moments.
The soldiers glanced at him in annoyance. "Can you shut it up?" One asked.
James glared at the armored soldier, but acquiesced to the request. It wouldn't be particularly intelligent of him to be belligerent at the moment. He gently shushed Christopher until the baby had begun to quiet down. That didn't take too long – Christopher was already exhausted from the travel.
Silence pervaded the cramped quarters of the Vertibird until James heard a metallic clang. He glanced up from the small face of his son and saw that the Enclave soldiers were beginning to board the Vertibird. Most ignored him as they found their seats, although some took a small glance at their new prisoner.
The officer took the seat across from James. James took the opportunity to examine the thin man.
He certainly wasn't very imposing in a physical sense. The officer had pale skin and seemed half-starved – his bones jutted out of his face, giving him a haunted, wraith-like appearance. James was sure that he could take the officer in a fight. It looked as though the man would break from a single punch.
But it wasn't his physical presence that mattered. Something about the man terrified James, now that he could see the officer close up. There was something in those eyes that frightened him – their fanatical devotion to some unknown cause, perhaps, or the hint of the brutal commander that hid behind a veneer of politeness.
The fact that the thin, pale man had at least a dozen soldiers that could wipe out a Brotherhood squad under his command didn't detract from his intimidation factor. James noticed that the sickly man was looking at him with a cold stare.
"So, I suppose you're wondering what this is about." The officer stated. James stared back at him.
"You could say that. I don't even know who you are."
The officer smiled wanly. "I am Captain Vincent. As to who we are, as a whole…we are the Enclave, the last bastion of pure humanity outside of the scattered Vaults. We do not suffer from the mutations that plague the inhabitants of the wastes. The Enclave is whole and pure."
"Then why do you want me?" James asked skeptically. "I don't seem to fit your definition of purity."
"You have clearly risen beyond the rest of what the mutants can accomplish." The Captain stated firmly. "It is clear that you are not affected by the radiation and mutations. As rare as it is, we have discovered exceptional individuals amongst the wastelanders. You are one of those lucky few – it is impossible that you are a mutant."
James dearly wanted to point out the obvious flaws in the man's reasoning, but he was far too conscious of the precious bundle in his arms to do such a daring act. While the Captain was obviously blinded by indoctrination and fanaticism, he seemed happy to treat James and his son humanely. It was more than he had hoped for.
"I understand." James sighed. "May I ask where we are going?"
"Raven Rock." The officer said, not elaborating more about the location. "You will be given a room and issued necessary supplies. Tomorrow you will be instructed in your duties and why you have been given the honor to join the Enclave."
The scientist nodded and leaned back in his seat. Christopher was asleep.
It seemed that a new future had been set out for him. Whether it was good or bad remained to be seen.