章 31: Hidden Sun

Afton and Sandra still hadn't completely recomposed themselves when the convoy was ordered to start moving again, Christine had to follow orders and so left them to rejoin the front, albeit reluctantly.

Zachary did all he could to encourage them, but Sandra was still looking particularly pale when they started walking. Afton himself didn't really know how to feel about the situation, he was still disconcerted at having watched a man's head explode, and he felt some sort of incongruity...

Regardless of his feelings on the matter, the convoy advanced, fortunately it seems one man dying instantly while achieving nothing was enough. It took a couple of days of stopping, making camp and then carrying on again, but this gave Afton the time to rationalise what'd happened.

He'd ended up talking about it to Veronica, Christine, and his mother, it was good that he had, because they all gave good advice... Well, apart from Veronica who just wanted to beat him up for feeling bad about it. Musclehead.

Eventually the convoy was able to see a large mountain with some sort of satellite dish placed atop it, Afton had checked the radio to see if it was broadcasting anything and was surprised to find it was actually inhabited by super mutants.

They seemed to be relatively peaceful, which was completely contrary to what he'd been taught in his classes. He knew from Fallout 3 that super mutants could be intelligent, but hadn't thought it'd be enough to create a peaceful community with.

He relayed what he'd learned to his father who frowned upon hearing the news, "Super mutants? Here?... Didn't think any would've made it into the Mojave... I'll let the others know and we'll decide at a later time how to deal with it, might even be able to bring you along depending on if you get tall enough to wear your Power armour." he says, patting him on the shoulder.

"They're broadcasting to attract any stray super mutants, if we leave it too long their numbers might get too big to handle." Afton explains, not entirely sure it'd be moral to wipe them out.

"You concentrate on your studies and we'll concentrate on keeping you safe, with how you acted after seeing a man die, I don't think you want to enter a war so soon... Trust me." his father explains.

The convoy continued for another few days before they were told to set up a defensive perimeter around a raised position. Their destination was nearby but had apparently attracted unwanted "flies", Afton could see the build Elder Elijah wanted, it was a huge factory looking place.

Behind it was an incredibly tall spire which was for some reason surrounded by mirrors, all pointing at the top of it. He'd like to get a better look as curiosity was killing him, but they'd have to clean out the raiders who'd set up camp first.

Around the facility, the damaged remains of robots that'd previously been defending and keeping the place tidy were littered everywhere. A few corpses of the raiders appeared to be lying around as well, telling the story of a grim battle fought... Unfortunately for them, they were squatting in the Brotherhood's new base.

Head Paladin Mcnamara, Paladin Hardin, and his father all readied their squads before moving in, none of the Initiates were allowed to join this battle, as the hallways would make it far too easy for the raiders to get a lucky shot off. Additionally, the had no idea what traps they could've lain...

Afton kept watch around the convoy as sounds of guns, lasers, and screams travelled out from the building. It only took thirty minutes before ragged-looking people starting fleeing from the building. Some Knights and Initiates in the convoy were taking potshots at them, but all seemed to be missing... Afton wanted to make sure they'd not start spreading information that the Brotherhood of Steel had set up shop here, but when he aimed at the young men and women who were only a few years his senior, he wasn't able to force himself to pull the trigger...

The sounds of death stopped, but it took another hour for the place to be scoured to see if anyone else was hiding, they did apparently find some as the couple discharges of a Gauss rifle could be heard, making it clear that no mercy was tolerated.

Afterwards, the Knight and Paladins slowly streamed out of the facility, all looking no worse for wear. They all gathered below the hill as Elder Elijah went to address everyone, "Brother, sisters, today begins a new opportunity for our Chapter, while the NCR have taken Hoover dam, they do not know how much they have lost in the process... I promise you all taking this facility instead of the dam was the smarter choice by far. Those that doubt me will see their error soon enough, this place is called Helios One, and once it is operational again, I will show you the true meaning of power." his voice travels over them.

Afton had to admit, this singular speech held more emotion than he'd ever seen the man exhibit before, in the past eleven years. The uncomfortable shocked silence from the man's sudden charisma slowly gave way to restrained clapping.

The Elder was clearly pleased with the response he'd gotten, as no on had ever reacted positively to him acting publically before...

Afton turned towards Helios One, from what he could tell, it was a solar array... Sure it was impressive it was able to produce a good amount of energy, but he didn't think it was valuable enough to trump the worth of the Hoover dam...

The Elder was playing a dangerous game, Afton had no doubt that the NCR would soon find their location... The position wasn't an easily defensible one, and would be difficult to fight against multiple angles...