“We attack!” Michael declared.

Hoyte and Anis were called forward with their knights to join Michael’s paladins in their assault. Anis’ squad was divided in two equal parts. One half-squad was to fight alongside Hoyte’s squad, temporarily placed under his command. The other half-squad to protect their rear, alongside the scribes, led by Anis. Michael then arrayed his task force in a diamond formation, with his paladins at the front.

The task force advanced north with Michael leading the way. Past a small park immediately north of the cul-de-sac were two lines of trenches, connected by a communications trench running perpendicular between their lengths. Raiders dressed in all white ran along the trenches, moving several metal boxes of ammunition towards machine gun nests.

Michael opened fire with his gatling laser, followed by minigun fire from his paladins. They made quick work of the machine gun nests, forcing the raiders to flee or die. The rest of the raiders returned fire with their rifles, forcing the knights to drop to the ground as they exchanged fire.

A few of the younger knights tried to take cover behind the paladins, but Hoyte ordered them away. While the paladins were resistant to bullets in their armor, they were naturally bigger targets that attracted gunfire. The irony of knights taking cover behind paladins was the tendency for the knights to get hit by bullets that weren’t even meant for them. It was a mistake Michael had seen too many young knights make in Chicago, against the Enclave. Hopefully these young knights would live long enough to learn their lessons.

A group of raiders emerged from the houses behind the trenches. They carried grenade rifles and ran to take cover, but Michael didn’t allow them to reach their trenches. He focused his fire on the raiders, who were cut to pieces by the hail of red lights streaming from his gatling laser.

Seeing the resulting carnage, Michael understood why gatling lasers were highly prized by the Elder. Hot lead was classic and reliable, but a shrieking hail of laser fire was a terrible sight to behold.

Raiders climbed from their trenches to retrieve the grenade rifles of their fallen comrades, but Michael fired on them next. His paladins would be safe from their explosives. The knights were still at risk, however, as they continued exchanging fire with the surviving raiders, who’s positions were fortified in their trenches.

Michael called out, “Paladins, take those trenches!”

They charged the trench lines as they fired their heavy weapons, spraying the raiders in the trenches. The raiders roared in defiance of them, spraying their own rifles at their power armored enemy. It was a display of bravery worthy of the Brotherhood, but their rifles were unable to pierce through the power armor of Michael’s paladins. The raiders were shot down, helpless, and knights moved into the trenches to finish off any survivors.

The sounds of distant explosions echoed through the sky and Michael was almost tempted to remove his helmet to hear the noise better, but thought better of it. Oliver walked to Michael’s side and said, “Sounds like fighting. Maybe it’s a mutiny.”

Another paladin called out, “If I were them, I wouldn’t want to fight us either.”

It was an opportunity for Michael to earn distinction in the field. His heart thumped in his chest, there was nobody to deny him now. He was the sergeant in command, but did he want to risk his task force?

“Damn the raiders, they’re not getting away easily.” Michael decided and led the charge northwards.

A group of raiders in all white fled between houses, trying to use them for cover. As soon as they started moving from one house to the next, Michael caught them with a burst of fire from his gatling laser. Grouped together as the raiders were, they could not hope to survive. Yet, there was movement in the mess of corpses, a raider had been unfortunate to survive his fire.

They writhed on the ground in pain or in shock, maybe both. But no matter the state they were in, they couldn’t have been left intact. The tri-barrels of Michael’s gatling laser spun and he opened fire to end the raider’s misery, but another raider jumped into view. Faster than Michael could react, seemingly faster than the bolts fired from his gatling laser, they pounced on the downed raider and pulled him into one of the houses.

“What the fuck was that?” Michael couldn’t help but to say it out loud.

“What was what?” Oliver asked, running to his side.

Michael looked at the man, who looked back at him. Expectantly. Michael couldn’t break his composure in front of his task force again. “Nevermind. It’s time to disperse.”

With the lull in the fighting and the absence of raiders to contest their advance, Michael figured the raiders were regrouping for another attack.

He divided his 16 knights into fireteams of four, each led by one of Michael’s paladins. With their miniguns, the paladins would provide the bulk of the fire in their fireteams. Meanwhile, the knights would provide their fireteams with extra security in the ruins of the neighborhood, clearing houses and providing greater flexibility to their units that paladins alone couldn’t match.

Their orders were to pursue and kill the enemy, but not to wander too far away. If they discovered fortified positions, they were to pull back and find Michael. The cul-de-sac would be their fallback position, but he doubted they’d need one. All paladins earned their rank after distinguished service as knights, they could be trusted to not get themselves killed. The knights themselves were more veteran than others, distinguished by their panoply of combat armor.

Michael himself, with one other paladin left over from the division and their task force’s three scribes, would march up the 16th Avenue. It ran vertically through the neighborhood and control over it would give him control and visibility over much of the movement in the neighborhood as his paladins advanced parallel to it. Having the scribes by his side as he did so, meant he could also watch over their safety while the bulk of his task force was out hunting for the enemy.

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With a simple plan laid in place, the task force was set loose upon the enemy to kill anything and anyone that came across their path. If the enemy was preparing to attack, then they had to launch their own assault and catch them mid-preparation. His fireteams scattered left and right, eager in their pursuit.

Michael and his own team faced a quiet walk down the avenue, except for the small groups of raiders that ducked between cover to cross the road. His gatling laser and the minigun accompanying him shot them to pieces, with one or two surviving to make it to safety. Though, he suspected they might not live for long with the injuries they sustained. The scribes fired their own laser rifles, aiming well enough, but their rust was showing. They’ve spent too long at camp and their aim could not compare to their knight counterparts. Their lack of armor, another sign of their unsuitability for frontline combat, was the least of their worries.

In the distance, a large group of raiders cross the road. Not ones dressed in all white, but the lesser raiders. The disorganized rabble with white masks.

Michael ordered his team to open fire on raiders. The barrels of Miles’ minigun raised and fired on the enemy, raining lead down on them. The Brotherhood didn’t use tracer rounds for their miniguns, an unnecessary complexity when they needed every round of ammunition they could make, but Michael knew that Miles hit his targets when raiders began dropping to the ground. Michael’s own gatling laser struck his targets well, raining pure energy upon the raiders.

The scribes fired their own laser rifles, but their semi-automatic weapons could not match the firepower of their team’s heavy weapons. They were trying their best and supporting Michael, however. He would commend them to Torland when they returned to camp.

Not all of the raiders were killed during the attack, however, and a lucky group dragged themselves to safety despite the fire raining down on them. Laser fire echoed to Michael’s left, further up than he expected. One of his fireteams had advanced faster than he had.

“Let’s pick up the pace.” Michael said to his own fireteam.

They thundered up the avenue and raiders appeared from houses along the road. Their guns lit up simultaneously and fired upon Michael and his paladins from all sides, but their small arms fire was a small threat to their power armor. Stray shots were making it into the houses where other raiders were hiding in and Michael could almost laugh if lives weren’t at risk.

Michael turned to find the scribes hiding between portions of a ruined apc, which had somehow exploded from the inside. Bullets glanced above the scribes, suppressed by the bits of lead flying around them. They were being targeted by the raiders who stood on the side of the road, opposite the larger section of apc they relied on most for cover.

“Anyone seeing this friendly fire?” Miles called out, firing on the raiders with his minigun. “They’re hitting each other. I think it’s on purpose!”

“They’re panicked. Let’s help them along. Target those raiders first.” Michael called back and fired his gatling laser at the raiders focusing his scribes.

House by house, Michael and Miles cleared away the raiders, forcing them away from the avenue. When they turned to do the same on the other side, they found that the raiders were already fleeing away. They were smart enough to know that they didn’t have to be fired on before they could flee to safety.

Michael turned to his scribes, who were picking themselves off the ground. Shaky in the knees, but physically unharmed. “Are you alright?” He asked, making sure.

“J-Just a little dizzy, sir. Not so used to all of-“ The scribe with Torland’s special radio gestured to the destruction around her. “All of this. We’ll be alright though.”

“Not much action in the library?” Miles asked with a laugh.

“Not this kind of action.” A scribe muttered, but Michael ignored him.

One of his fireteams approached, running up the avenue. It was led by Oliver, with Anis and a few of her knights not far behind. “Paladin Michael, sir!” Oliver called out, winded from running. “We’ve caught sight of a fortified raider position further east, but the raiders are fleeing the area. If we don’t pursue, they will escape us.”

Michael knew what Oliver wanted to do and he happened to be in agreement. “Paladin Miles, find the rest of our task force and tell them to return to our fallback position at the cul-de-sac. The rest of you will have to wait before we advance.”

Miles left to bring the scattered fireteams of Michael’s task force to the cul-de-sac. After all, who else but a paladin could safely deliver his orders to the disparate elements of his platoon? There was little chance that one of their paladins could be confused with a raider. When the last of Michael’s platoon regrouped to their fallback position, the cul-de-sac where Abel’s platoon had been encircled, Michael had his paladins report their own findings in the field.

They were quick to report the kill counts their teams achieved, most dealing at least a dozen casualties to the raiders. One paladin, Paladin Beck, had caught sight of three dozen raiders crossing the street and wiped them out entirely with her minigun. All in all, the total casualties they dealt to their enemy neared a hundred. Oliver was eager to add to his own report, that he had personally killed a dozen raiders, while his team killed a dozen more raiders themselves.

It was a good day’s work, made better by the fact that they had incurred no losses, but it wasn’t enough. The raiders had killed around two dozen paladins of the Brotherhood of Steel. Michael didn’t know any of them personally, but they were fellow paladins. While High Command would undoubtedly draw up plans to punish the raiders, Michael sensed an opportunity to do it himself.

Knight Sergeant Anis, with her binoculars, caught sight of raider positions further north, where they had prepared defenses along the road that separated the residential ruins in the South from the commercial ruins in the North. Anis reported machine gun nests and trenches, as well as hundreds of raiders in distinct white armor, who had begun the process of fleeing the area.

The raiders must have planned their retreat before Michael arrived, which was why the platoon’s advance had been largely uncontested. First, in breaking the encirclement around Abel’s platoon. Second, in their push to disorganize the raiders and secure their retreat. This was compounded by the distinct lack of grenade rifles among the raiders. With this lack of resistance coinciding with his platoon’s assignment of heavy weapons, Michael could break the raiders here and now, but he’d need the full strength of his platoon to safely break through the raiders’ prepared defenses.

“You’ve all done commendable work, but our retreat is not yet secure.” Michael told his platoon. “So we’re going to march north and expel the raiders from the area. We will not suffer retreat in the face of the enemy, not when we can avenge our fallen paladins with raider blood. Who’s with me?”

Michael couldn’t believe his own lie, their path to retreat was firmly secured, but his platoon roared their approval. Maybe they didn’t believe his lie either, but Michael suspected they wanted to deal death to their enemies as much as he did. They were Brotherhood soldiers through and through.