Chapter 86: Chapter 82

The chapter civil war had been a brutal, drawn out affair. The Outcasts’ initial assault on the Citadel had been rebuffed with some effort and casualties. Nobody failed to notice the newer scavenged gear the Outcasts had wielded, it was likely that they had managed to find a significant cache to supply them.

Their new power armors especially were noticeably more durable than what Lyons’ Brotherhood had, enduring a worrying amount of firepower before it failed. If not for the defensive emplacements, the Outcasts would have likely breached the Citadel and the casualties sustained by the chapter would have been much higher.

With the new turn in relations between the two groups, the Citadel Brotherhood recalled all patrols and outposts to brace for another potential attack. Also, Sarah Lyons and the other survivors from the Nexus had their trials postponed, and Sarah would share command with Elder Cory until the situation had eased up.

It was an arrangement that no one had the luxury of time to question, as in the weeks that followed the Outcasts were seen amassing the entirety of their forces to make camp in the nearby ruins. Scouts on both sides traded shots against each other or the defenses, though it was becoming clear that the Outcasts had a lead in both firepower and armor due to the gauss weapons and T-51b power armor that they fielded.

Sarah and the rest of the chapter’s leadership had thought that it would take some tactical maneuvering to even the playing field. After all, despite their current disadvantage, the Citadel Brotherhood was still able to dole out nearly the same amount of damage as they’ve received.

They were proven wrong when the next assault by the Outcasts began with a hundred-strong wave of Mr Gutsy robots. Protectrons, sentry bots and robobrains followed after that, and by the time the Outcasts themselves made their appearance, the defenders’ positions were either heavily swamped or had been breached by robots.

Elder Cory had died fending off several sentry bots, leaving Sarah Lyons as the sole leader of the chapter. Bitterly, she ordered the withdrawal, giving ground to shorten their defense lines. At the same time, the scribes were emptying out as much of the armory as they could, while at the same time preparing the charges to deny the leftovers from falling into enemy hands. The scuttling of gear here was not that great of a loss in the grand scheme of things, they already had the schematics for everything.

The Citadel Brotherhood held out for another week, somehow managing to keep their casualties light as robots and traitors wore at their fortifications. It became clear then that they were delaying the inevitable, that the treasonous former brothers had won this battle. Still they stubbornly held on, resisting the invaders. The defiance only crumbled when Henry Casdin, the leader of the Outcasts, issued a demand to surrender on speakers, which was repeated by his guest, Paladin Stein from Lost Hills.

Sarah remembered tasting only ash at the realisation that the ruling council had sided against them, that all that her father had worked and bled for would soon be lost. Owyn’s ideals on the duties of the Brotherhood would be buried once more under the amoral ‘virtues’ of taking the long view and working for a future that might not come as the present is left to wither away.

It was scribe Bourke that suggested the desperate plan, one that would likely damn their group in the eyes of the rest of the Brotherhood. On that night, the entirety of the demoralized faction was assembled and their available options were made clear: Fight to the last in a defiant last stand, surrender…or flee and continue the fight from elsewhere.

It was not a vote, every brother and sister were free to do as they pleased.

“And what would you do, Elder Lyons?” a paladin had asked. Sarah kept her calm as she faced him and gave her answer.

“The ideals that my father fought for are clearly not accepted by the Brotherhood that wants us to surrender. But I will not allow the traitors to freely sully his memory.” She steadied herself and steeled her resolve. “I…I will withdraw, to fight on. Owyn Lyon’s Brotherhood will continue…possibly with the aid of the Nexus.”

*****

Politics was an ugly necessity for the newly minted Elder Casdin. Upon hearing of Owyn’s death, he snuck messengers out to Lost Hills. It was a risky gambit trying to force the ruling council’s to pick a side, but the gamble had paid off, and not only had his actions of splintering the chapter been vindicated, it had been legitimised. They were now no longer Outcasts, but the true Eastern arm of Brotherhood of Steel.

Now it was only a matter of assimilating their wayward brothers back into the fold. Or judging from how the barricades were still holding, putting them down before they grew to be a bigger problem. It was a matter of time; with relations having been reestablished, already reinforcements and supplies were being sent from the west

Henry gave the Lyons defenders a couple of weeks at most, and then the Brotherhood could resume their original purpose to secure technology from the unreliable or dangerous hands of wastelanders, super mutants and more.

Maybe with the reinforcements, he could venture up to the fabled Nexus? It would be a heavy investment of brothers and resources, but even if a fraction of the rumors were true, the Brotherhood had a lot to gain from traveling north. It was an interesting proposition, for sure…

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“Report from sector Gamma,” his comms pinged up. “They’re attempting to sally out from the north halls.”

Henry Casdin snapped to the present and hastened to the command tent, confused. Surely Lyons and her people would know that leaving the safety of their defenses would be a death sentence? Where else could they run off to? Was this a defiant last attempt at dealing a bloody nose?

The elder’s confusion grew after he entered the tent and got the reports. The wayward brothers were pushing through the lines with literally everything they had. They had blitzed through checkpoints and were making a beeline towards the nearest exit.

And with the violent breakthrough from Henry’s side a week earlier, the place had barely been refortified and would be easy enough for such a force to simply bullrush their way through. There was still time though

“Get everyone to converge on their location or reinforce entrance Beta, whichever is closer. Surround them, and show them the folly of escaping.”

It was worth a try, but failed nonetheless. The brothers and sisters following Lyons’ tore through Henry’s teams without slowing, preferring to blind entire sections of the Citadel with smoke grenades and messily forcing their way through any obstacles. Henry listened in as the reports poured in, showing just how fast Lyons’ pack was moving.

Clearly his own brotherhood would not make it in time to stop their escape.

But where would they go after this?

It didn’t matter. He had to catch them and stop them before the ruling council had a chance to grow doubtful of legitimising his faction.

And so Elder Casdin allowed Lyons her escape, choosing instead to spend precious minutes to regroup and reorganize his forces. They would eventually tire and their pace would slacken, allowing him and his forces to catch up and finally put an end to this sorry incident. It would be a pathetic thing to chase and put down Sarah Lyons and her followers like hunted beasts, but for the Brotherhood to remain true to its duties, Henry would gladly carry out that sorry task.

The chase lasted far longer than expected. Lyons seemed willing to risk exhausting her brothers and sisters to death and keeping up a desperate pace. They did eventually slow, but the gap between the forces by the end of the day had grown significantly enough that getting within even effective gauss range would take hours.

But the hours eventually passed, and the final chapter of the civil war would come to a close. Lyons’ pack had switched to a fighting retreat, opening up with a salvo of rockets when Henry and his brothers finally caught them in the open wastelands right outside the city limits. The firefight that followed was brutal on both sides but the result was inevitable, the pursuers outnumbered and outgunned the pursued.

At some point in the chase, Sarah Lyons probably realised it as well and decided on finally standing her ground on the crest of a broken stretch of highway. Knowing better than to recklessly charge in, Henry carefully deployed his chapter for the final push.

He was about to give the order to advance when he and everyone else heard a rumbling from the skies. Craning his neck up, Henry saw things - no, robots… Were they assaultrons? - falling from the heavens, and followed their descent with his eyes as they crashed onto the earth near...no, around, they were crashing to form a perimeter around his chapter.

And then his helmet’s comms shrieked before a voice hijacked the command channel.

“This is Sev, speaking for the Nexus. Lower your weapons so we can talk, or awaken my wrath.”

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