POV Rio
It was getting close to Christmas, and I had just gotten an exact date for when the Synth Caretaker would arrive. They said they will come on December 23rd. Which meant I had 2 more days to wait. Thus, I decided to help MacCready while also putting more oil on the fire I had already lit.
"Are you ready to deal with Winlocke and Barnes?" I ask MacCready.
"Absolutely, I know where they are, and I know they won't move until at least after the New Year. This is the Gunners' down season. Not many jobs come during the winter, and those that do are given to the newbies as the higher ranks don't want to move away from the warmth of their base. But what is your plan?" MacCready asks.
"Well, for one, we aren't going as we are. We will be using a disguise. Enclave, like last time. We need to make it look like the Enclave is going to war with the Gunners. From what I was told, the large Gunner army the horde tore to pieces was led by a relative of Grand General August. That will likely make them enemies, but the more conflicts we can create, the better. When they are busy fighting each other, the Minutemen can start solidifying our current gains and increasing our strength," I say while taking out a map.
"We will strike from the West. There are only elevators in the center and the East. Which means they aren't expecting an attack from the West. I will use a MIRV Fatman to open the attack, which will confuse them and likely cause the death of several of them. That is where Cait jumps from the Vertibird in her Hellfire Power Armor. Preston will be joining us for this mission, and both you and he will be wearing X-01 Power Armor. I will continue to fly the Vertibird and use the Fatman and Tesla Cannon to strike where and when I can. Everyone will use Plasma weapons for this mission. Any questions?" I ask.
"I have one, can I use the Incinerator?" Cait asks with an excited smile.
I think for a moment and then shrug and agree. She is wearing the Hellfire suit, which indicates the use of Flamers, Incinerators, and other fire-based weapons. After her question, no one else had any questions, which meant it was time to execute the mission. I didn't want to wait for long, as I wanted to be back in time to talk with the Synth caretaker and give us time to relax for Christmas.
We get into the Enclave Vertibird and take off. We flew north and then East. We wanted to fly in from the West. We arrived right as the sun was getting ready to set, which gave us an even larger advantage. I put the Vertibird into autopilot and left the dummy in the pilot seat. Then I opened the door and aimed the MIRV Fatman. I estimated the best spot to strike and fired.
POV Winlock
Whistle
BOOOOOOOOOOM
I hear the whistle, but before I can even think about what it is, I feel the explosion rocking the entire interchange. The explosion is so powerful that an entire section of the interchange collapses and kills dozens of my men.
'The explosion likely wiped out the entire roof troops.'
I start issuing orders, but I don't get much farther as several loud crashes are heard from the roof. But that is followed by cracks in the pavement, and then it collapses. As the dust settles, I see three people in Black Power Armor.
"Sh@t! Shoot, shoot now you idiots!!!!" I scream while jumping behind a divider.
I grab my radio unit and scream over the comms.
"HQ! HQ! We are under attack by the Enclave! Requesting reinforcements!" I call over the radio.
"This is HQ, we read you. Reinforcements will arrive in 7 hours. Hold out until then," They respond.
"Damn it, we are dealing with the Hellfire troops, we won't last that long!" I angrily respond.
"This is an order from the General; hold your position, or you will be tried for insubordination," They respond calmly.
I get beyond furious but don't respond. I start to smell the smell of burnt flesh, and I hear the screams of my men. I look over the divider and see that most of my men in this area are dead. But I also see Barnes approaching with his troops. I look to my left and see my set of T-60 Power Armor. I wait until I am sure that the enemy isn't looking in my direction, then I make a run for it. I slide behind the suit and look at the Enclave troops.
'They haven't seen me, good.'
I pull open the suit, but before it opens, I see a bright light from my left. I turn towards it and see a large beam of blue light. I don't even process what happens next before my burnt body rockets away from the suit of armor. My vision goes dark.
POV Rio
I look away from Winlock's burnt body and aim at some Gunners. The Tesla Cannon had proven to be quite lethal. The Mass Pike Interchange had 114 Gunners stationed here. The initial MIRV and collapsing highway had killed 41 Gunners. Cait, Preston, and MacCready had killed 26 in less than 2 minutes. I had killed the 14 Gunners on the ground and 3 on the highway. The remaining 30 Gunners were not going to last much longer. Barnes was now trying to lead his troops to fend them off, but the damage they were doing to Cait, Preston, and MacCready was not enough to take them out, and even if they did, they would still have to deal with me and this Veritbird.
It only takes another couple of minutes to finish off Barnes and the Gunners. Some try to flee or surrender, but neither succeeds. Once they are all dead, we start looting the place of everything that has any value. I also make sure to grab the set of Power Armor that is nearby. There was also another set in an abandoned Military Checkpoint. The one in the interchange is a T-60, and the other is a T-45. Both were in fairly poor condition, but I could upgrade them later.
Once we were done looting, we withdrew the same way we came in. We switched out of our disguises and then returned to Goodneighbor. All of this only took about a day. Everyone was given time to rest, but I didn't. Instead, I snuck over to Mass Fusion and wiped out the remaining Gunners there. Then I downloaded all the data that remained on the servers before wiping them and then took the Beryllium Agitator. I felt like it would be much safer in my hands than the Institutes or Brotherhood of Steel. I also got the Strength Bobblehead and the Tesla Science Issue #5, Giant Super Weapons! I didn't activate the Bobblehead. I wanted to wait until I was at the Cap for Strength. I also got some very interesting leg armor. They were called the Freefall Legs. It was useless for me, but if I could reverse engineer them, I could make my own ODSTs.
I left Mass Fusion and returned to Goodneighbor. When I returned, I found Cait doing something I hadn't seen her do before. She was praying. Or at least it looked like it. Goodneighbor had a small chapel, and she was sitting in one of the pews. I didn't want to disturb her, so I just sat with her. Eventually, she stopped, and I spoke with her.
"Didn't know you were religious," I say.
"I'm not. Or at least not really. Sometimes I just want to take a moment to mentally rant to some imaginary being. As if there is a god, then I can say he is a right prick. As my life has been one really f*%ked up story," Cait says with red eyes.
I could tell she had been crying.
"Want to talk about it?" I ask.
"Hah, sure. After Tommy stuck me with you, I was expectin' to hate your guts. Not only because you agreed to pick up me contract, but because I was waitin' for you to order me around like hired help. Now so far, you've been treatin' me like a friend. Hell, you've been damn near NICE to me. Now I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but your kindness is startin' to make me wonder. If there's anythin' I learned at the Combat Zone, it was that nobody does things for other people without expectin' somethin' in return," Cait says with a suspicious tone.
"Your friendship is all I am expecting out of this," I reply calmly.
"I don't think I'm getting' through to you. Let me explain what I mean, and then maybe you'll understand where I'm comin' from. I spent three years livin' at the Combat Zone. Smelled like puke and piss, but I called it home. I was makin' a few caps, had me own bed to sleep in, and three hot meals a day. Then the Raiders took over the place. You know that lot... they aren't exactly what you'd call "the gentle type." After they moved in, if you didn't keep lookin' over your shoulder, you were liable to get sucker punched and robbed... or worse," Cait said with a distant look.
"Didn't take me long to learn that I had to put my hard-earned caps to good use. Buyin' friends was essential to makin' life easier. So I guess I'm waitin' for you to hand me a bill, you know what I mean?" Cait asked.
"Hmm, well, I will say this. Friendship is not a transactional relationship. It is sharing. I will never say you owe me anything for being my friend. Sometimes friendships can be hard, and it takes work to maintain them. But without friends, things can be a lot harder," I say while getting up.
Cait just sits there with a thinking look. As I start to walk away, I hear her response.
"Hey, Rio," Cait says.
"Yes," I reply.
"Thanks," Cait says.
"Of course, after all, what are friends for?" I say with a smile.
I turn around and I don't see the smile on Cait's face. Nor do I hear her response.
"Heh, friends, huh? Maybe... Maybe..." Cait says quietly.
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Author's Note:
A little chat with Cait. I feel like Cait has one of the most realistic stories in Fallout 4. It is one of the main reasons I like her so much. The other story I can think of that was quite fleshed out and sticks in my mind the most was Nick Valentines. Anyway, the next chapter will be from a new person's perspective. And Rio will likely not appear in it at all. Until next time, Ciao.