Concord hadn’t changed much at first glance. Still the abandoned houses, nothing moving, though Nora was sure that there were people there. Whether normal citizens hiding from the Raiders, or the barbarians waiting for prey to enter their lairs, she couldn’t tell. The smart play was to assume they were Raiders and move accordingly. They moved to a locked house, and Nora quickly had the door open with a bobby pin. The inside was dark and uninhabited. She revised that opinion an instant later as mole rats burst through the floor. Barb shot a couple, Nora bashed a couple of more with her sword, and the house was theirs. For what it was worth. They gathered some bottles and some metal scrap, as well as some ancient canned food which might be good or not, and made their way to the next house. And radroaches.

 

One building had been a small café, with Nuka World Memorabilia scattered about. She had visited the park several times before the war, a testimony to blatant exploitation. She had loved it, the little girl in her warming to all the attractions. That set off a thought in her mind about what state the park was in now?

 

Dogmeat’s ears perked up as they left the café, and a soft whine issued from his throat.

 

“Listen,” said Barb, and the sound of shots came into her awareness.

 

There were several smaller weapons, probably pistols, the heavier bark of a rifle or shotgun, even the staccato chatter of an automatic weapon. And, something that chilled the Sole Survivor to the bone, a swishing sound that had to be an energy weapon. Those scared the hell out of her, beams that could burn her to ash. Still, someone could be in trouble, and she needed to at least look into the situation. As long as she kept her distance they should be fine.

 

The weapons she had seen in the hands of Raiders, at least those she had killed, had all been pipe weapons. Actually made of metal pipes on the whole, with very loose tolerances and absolutely no rifling. They were as inaccurate as a weapon could be, the bullet actually rattling down the barrel. Still, if they hit they could kill.

 

“Let’s check it out,” she told Barb, starting for the door.

 

“You sure? Much as I like to kill Raiders, that sounds like an awful lot of them.”

 

Nora turned a frank look on the younger woman, who was obviously frightened. “I’m going to check it out. If there are too many to handle I will leave. I would prefer that you come with me to back me up, but that is up to you.”

 

She would have liked the young woman to follow orders, but this was not a military unit. Barb could do as she wanted, and since it was her life on the line as well, Nora could do nothing about it. Finally Barb nodded her head, checked her weapon, and followed her out the door.

 

Nora led, her rifle held ready as she crouched and moved, going from cover to cover. The skin crawled across her back, and she anticipated a bullet coming out of nowhere to strike someplace not covered by armor. The dogs were up with her, their eyes roaming but always coming back to their master for guidance. Barb moved just as silently, back about twenty yards. The sounds of gunfire grew as they got closer to the center of town. The windowless facades of shops looked out on the street while rusty cars littered the pavement.

 

The Sole Survivor pointed to one building that had stairs going up to a second floor that was a ruin. Barb nodded and Nora headed in on up, on full alert, the dogs with her. The stairs continued up until she found herself on the remains of a flat roof that gave her a good look at the street ahead. That street was also a wreck, the faded glory of patriotic bunting looking down on the scene of battle. There were people out on the street, in the mismatched clothing of Raiders, leather armor covering parts of their bodies, most with some kind of soft hats covering their heads. And firing up at the balcony of a building that she recalled was the Museum of Freedom from her day. A couple of bodies lay in the street, along with one smoking pile of ash that had been a body before laser fire had burned it to something unrecognizable.

 

Next she scanned the street through her rifle scope, getting a better look at her opposition. She still didn’t know who they were fighting, but whomever it was, they would most likely be friends. And she thought she could take most of the barbarians out with little risk to herself.

 

“What are you going to do?” asked Barb as she slid into place at the low wall beside Nora.

 

“I think I can take most of them out from up here. They’re going to go to cover eventually and try to take us out, so I need you to cover the approach up here.”

 

“Got it,” said Barb, now that action was impending more enthusiastic about taking on the opponent she loved to hate.

 

Nora selected her targets, prioritizing them by weapons carried and ease of servicing more than one at a time. There was a cluster on the left side of the street, four of them, taking pot shots at the balcony. Three more on the other side, but she didn’t have a shot at one of them. And two more back. So nine that she could see. Maybe more, but she would worry about what she knew of before creating more enemies in her head.

 

Setting her rifle to single shot she centered the crosshairs on a man with a rifle in the group to the left. Holding in a breath as she had been taught she squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked softly into her shoulder and the head of the man jerked from the hit. He went down instantly, and the three with him looked around in alarm. Nora took out another, then a third, before the final Raider moved quickly to cover. The two trailers turned her way and ran up the street, coming right for the shop, while movement to the right told of those Raiders also coming.

 

Bullets hit the coping she sheltered behind, sending concrete dust into the air. Something hit the armor over her left arm, and she hastily ducked down. She thought she had been hit by stone splinters, but couldn’t say that it wasn’t a bullet. Barb’s machine pistol sent out its staccato roar, and someone yelled down below. Nora looked back over the coping, quickly aiming in and sending a short burst into the two Raiders revealed. One went down, the other ducked behind a car, and Nora sent a clean miss into the vehicle.

 

“Only a fuckin’ coward hides,” shouted a female Raider. “Come on. Show your face. I dare you.”

 

Who in the hell taught you those words of wisdom? thought a scoffing Nora. Try telling a Ranger on a scout or a Seal sniper that only a coward hides. And did they think this a school yard, where a dare would elicit the response they wanted? Nora wasn’t in this to prove her courage. She was in it to win, and if that meant hiding and striking from cover that was what she would do.

 

Suddenly a car in the street went up in a ball of flame, killing the Raider sheltering behind it and reminding Nora that she needed to be aware of her surroundings during a firefight. Barb fired again, and another Raider cried out.

 

“I need some help down here,” shouted the Scaver.

 

“Go get them, boys,” hissed Nora, and both dogs, robot and living, shot down the stairs.

 

“Get it off of me,” shouted a woman, while a man screamed.

 

Nora was on the heels of the dogs. The sight of three Raiders greeted her, one of the ground having her throat torn out by Dewey, the screaming man trying to fend off Dogmeat, who had his teeth sunk into the groin of the scumbag. While a third Raider, also a man, tried to line up a shot on Dogmeat. A quick burst and the shooter was down. Nora then drew her pistol and shot the other two in the head.

 

Another burst of machine pistol fire, this just outside, and Nora motioned the dogs to run ahead while she checked her rifle. With a quick motion she pulled and rotated the paired magazine, giving herself a full sixty rounds. Barb was positioned behind a mailbox, exchanging fire with a pair of Raiders who were using a store front as a fighting position.

 

I’ve always wanted to try this, thought Nora, pulling one of her three frag grenades from her belt. She had actually found over a dozen of the small explosives in the neighborhood, and took three with her. She pulled the pin and tossed the grenade, realizing when she had released that it was going to be short.

 

“Grenade,” yelled one of the Raiders, pulling the other back under cover just before the grenade went off with a deep crump. Nora ran toward the building, rifle to her shoulder, wanting to hit the pair before they recovered. As soon as they came up she fired a burst, sweeping it across the pair and knocking them both back. She entered the shop to see the two on the ground, one dead, the other still struggling to draw breath. A bullet to the head ended her struggle.

 

“Search them out,” she told the dogs, who both took off to sweep the area.

 

“I think we got them all,” said Barb, coming out in the open.

 

“And I want to be sure before I expose myself,” said Nora, looking around the general area.

 

“Hey,” yelled a man in what looked like some kind of uniform from the balcony of the museum. “We need your help. The Raiders are almost through the door up here. Grab that laser musket and come help us. Please.”

 

Nora saw the dead man, wearing the same kind of clothing as the speaker, lying on the steps in front of the museum. She wasn’t about to trust an unfamiliar weapon when she had a very good one with her. “Stay low and with me,” she told Barb as the dogs came running back from their sweep.

 

“We got company,” called out a voice from the next level as the small group entered the museum.

 

“Take care of them.”

Nora sighted in on a head that looked around a corner on the next floor up, sending a round into the brain of the woman and dropping her to fall to the floor below. There seemed to be no way up there, and the gate into the other room was locked. She attempted a pick, then realized that this one was too much for her.

 

“Through here,” she told Barb, leading the way through a side passage. The interior of the museum was a wreck. In places the floors had holes large enough to fall through, in others whole walls were gone. The manikins bearing the uniforms of British soldiers creeped her out, as did the canned voice in the background that told the story of the Revolutionary War. There were smashed display cases all over the first couple of rooms, broken glass all over the floor.

 

In the second room a child came out of the shadows, shotgun pointed at Dogmeat. Nora shot her down without hesitation, a single round to the head. She still didn’t like the idea of killing children, but these Raider kids were murderous little bastards. If she had the time she might have captured them and tried to rehabilitate a few. She didn’t have the time, so she put them down and came to terms with seeing their faces in her nightmares.

 

The next room was a real mess. Stairs going up to a landing, more going up to the right while the ones to the left were gone. There was a security gate down through a large hole in the floor that looked interesting, but she didn’t have the time right now. She went up the stairs, then into a room that proved to be a dead end. Down the hall, toward the voices of two people laughing. She figured those would not be the people she had come to help, and the Raiders had already proven to have no tactical sense whatsoever.

 

“I’m going in there and take those Raiders down,” she told Barb, looking at the shattered door. “Follow me, and take anything down that I can’t get to.”

 

Barb nodded, her eyes wide, but a slight smile on her face as well. As frightening as this was, the Scaver was enjoying the action. Nora made sure the rifle was set to full auto and moved silently through the door.

 

The pair of Raiders were talking at the top of their voices, around the corner. Nora advanced, seeing the backs of the pair. She thought about going in and taking them down with a knife. Seeing the pistol the man was waving about made she think better of it. Aiming in on that man’s head she sent a round into his brain, the rifle making a soft coughing noise.

 

“What the fuck,” yelled the woman, dropping to a knee to check out her partner.

 

She would have been better served to take cover and check out the situation first. As it was she presented a perfect target, and Nora sent a round into the woman’s brain as well. Nora hurried over to the man and pulled the pistol from his hand, holding it up and examining the beauty.

 

“Fuck yeah,” she said, turning the M1911A1 over in her hands. The .45 caliber pistol would take down just about anything with one round, and a quick look at the Raider’s belt pouch revealed four full magazines. Unfortunately, the magazines were limited to seven rounds, but it would be a backup weapon, to be used to put people down who were already in serious trouble, and conserving her rifle ammunition.

 

“You gonna carry two pistols now?” asked Barb, eying the big pistol.

 

“As soon as we clear out this building, the N99 is yours,” said Nora.

 

Barb smiled. Her MAC 11 was 10mm, as was the pistol, so it was the perfect backup for the woman.

 

“We’re going to kill you fuckers,” screamed a man from an outer hallway, upstairs.

 

Thanks for pinpointing your position, thought Nora, motioning for her group to go up the stairs to the next level. The pair must have heard something, because one came through the door and charged, waving a baseball bat wrapped in razor wire in the air. And eating a rifle bullet in the head. The next came right after him, a pipe rifle in hand, to die just as quickly.

 

“What a bunch of fucking morons,” said Nora in a soft voice.

 

“Complaining?” asked Barb, going down to a knee and searching the bodies, something she had been doing the entire way through the museum.

 

“Not at all. I prefer my enemies stupid and overconfident.”

 

She gave a quick rap on the closed door at the end of that hall, hoping that whoever was inside wouldn’t shoot at her.

 

“Who are you?” asked a voice through the door. “Raiders don’t normally knock.”

 

“We’re the cavalry. Can we come in.”

 

The lock clicked open to reveal the light skinned black man in the colonial coat and cap, a laser musket in hand. Another in t-shirt and coveralls stood with a pistol pointed their way, while two women and a man cowered toward the other side of the small room.

 

“I don’t know who you are,” said the man who was obviously a soldier of some kind. “But your timing is impeccable.”

 

“We’ve cleared out the building, so I guess you’re free to go,” said Nora, glancing around the room to see what there was of use.

 

“That wasn’t all of them,” said the man. “There were a bunch of them on our tail from Lexington, and I’m betting they’ll be here any minute.”

 

“Wonderful,” said Nora. Just what she didn’t need, an enemy attacking her, knowing her position.

 

“Preston Garvey,” said the soldier, placing the butt of his weapon on the floor. “Commonwealth Minutemen.”

 

“So now I’m going back in time,” said Nora, wondering just what in the hell was going on here.

 

“Come to the aid of the settlers in a minute,” said the man, looking her over. “Why I joined. To help people. Before it all went to hell. And you are?”

 

“Nora Jane Adams. Lt. Commander, United States Navy.”

 

“I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds like military titles. I assume you are not with the Gunners. So, Brotherhood of Steel?”

 

“I don’t know what either of those are.”

 

“We can figure it out later,” said the man with the pistol, standing by a powered-up computer. “Right now we need to take care of our Raider problem. And I think I have an idea that will work.”

 

“Sturgis is our tech expert,” said Garvey. “He can fix anything.”

 

Then I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Sturgis, thought Nora, looking over the young man.

 

“We need to figure out how we’re going to get out of here,” cried the younger of the two women, her voice on the edge of panic.

 

“Marci,” said the man, looking as depressed as anyone Nora had ever seen. “Let them work it out.”

 

“Listen to June, dear,” said the old woman who for some reason was dressed like a hippy.

 

“Mama Murphy is right, dear,” said June.

 

Well, now I have names for everyone.

 

“And your friend?”

 

“Barb,” said her friend, smiling. “I just met Nora a week ago, and we’ve taken to traveling together.”

 

“We’ve been on the run for some time now,” said Garvey. “We’re heading for a place we were hoping we could set up at, but it’s been a disaster the entire time. Gunners, Raiders, finally the Feral Ghouls in Lexington.”

 

“What are Ghouls?”

 

“Wow. You really aren’t from around here, are you. Ghouls are, irradiated people. Most of them are just like you and me, when you get past the appearance. Some have absorbed too much radiation, rotting their brains and making them stronger, faster, and murderous killers.”

 

“Then they’re something I want to avoid.”

 

“Do you want to listen to my idea or not?” asked Sturgis in a peevish tone.

 

“Let’s hear it, big man,” said Nora, not really sure what to make of the tech expert.

 

“There’s a suit of cherry T-45 Power Armor up on the roof of this building, along with the vertibird it had come in.”

 

“That’s some serious protection,” said Nora, recalling that T-45 was the kind of PA that Nate had used in his first deployment, before upgrading to T-51.

 

“You know it. And once you get up there you can rip the minigun right off the vertibird and send those Raiders on an express trip to hell.”

 

“That’s some serious firepower.”

 

“The only problem is powering it up. It needs a Fusion Core. The good news is there is one in the fusion generator in the basement. The bad news is its behind a locked security door. I’m really good at working with machines. Locks, not so much.”

 

“Don’t worry. I’ll get it for you.” And if she couldn’t, she thought Barb might. Something caught her eye, sitting on a desk, and she walked over to look at a small Vault Boy statue. “What’s this?”

 

“We’re not sure,” said Garvey. “We looked it over, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.”

 

Nora picked the thing up, expecting to have a quick look at a nice decoration. And it hit her. Something linked into her Pip-Boy, which linked into her implant, and suddenly data was flowing from the bobble head into her brain. She had the impression that she could choose the information within limits, and it would give her what she wanted. She thought about picking locks, and the information appeared in her mind, ready for her use, as if she had gone through hours working on locks to learn the feel of the tumblers.

 

“What the fuck,” she cried out, dropping the bobble head.

 

“What happened?” asked a concerned Garvey.

 

“This thing linked with my implant and gave me, knowledge.”

 

“What’s an implant?” asked Marci, her face a mask of suspicion. “Are you a fucking Synth?”

 

Nora didn’t have time to explain, and she had no idea what a Synth was. “We’ll discuss this later. But to answer your question. No, I’m not a synth. The implant is something the navy put into my head to let me interface with the flight computer on my jet.”

 

“Just a bunch of nonsense words to me,” said the sour faced woman.

 

Nora made her way to the basement and easily picked the lock to the generator room, proving that something indeed had been fed into her mind. Fusion core in hand, she made her way to the exit to the rooftop to find the power armor suit standing out in the open. The armor was rusted, and the suit had definitely seen better days. Standing out in the weather for two centuries was hell even on the tough armor, but Nora figured that as long as it protected her from bullets she was golden. She also picked up a couple of holo-tapes from a table, handing them to Barb for safekeeping and later playback.

 

Seating the fusion core, Nora turned the wheel on the back and stood away as the power armor unfolded into a mount position.

 

“Welcome pilot,” said the armor’s computer.

 

“Well, how about that,” she said, recognizing the voice module as the same that had been used on her jet. She climbed in and the suit folded up to enclose her.

 

“Turning control over to pilot.”

 

Nora started forward, finding that moving her arms and legs moved the suit. She also had a link through her implant, and wondered if anyone else in this world had her inherent abilities. She walked toward the vertibird and climbed aboard. A quick jerk and the minigun was ripped from its mount and in her hands.

 

“There’s someone up there,” called out a voice from the rooftop across the way.

 

“Get them,” yelled a voice from the street. “Don’t let them get away.”

 

She’s not trying to get away, asshole, thought Nora, stepping into the open and aiming the gun toward the Raider on the opposite roof, who had started firing her rifle at Nora. Bullets sprang from the suit, doing little to no damage, and most importantly, no harm to her body. She aimed the gun, pulled the trigger, and waited a moment for the barrels to spin up.

 

The stream missed the Raider, off to the right. Nora swept the stream back into her, watching in glee as the body of the woman came apart in a spray of blood. She doubted there would be much left to salvage from the woman, and looked in alarm as the round counter went down as if a vacuum were sucking bullets out. She released the trigger, admonishing herself to control her fire. She could have killed the Raider with a third of the rounds she had used. Maybe with less.

 

More bullets hit the suit, and she swept the stream across a half dozen Raiders, destroying all of them. The rest went to cover, and Nora jumped into the air, hoping that what Nate had told her about the ability to jump in armor had been correct. It was, and she hit the ground hard but with no damage to her body, and started looking for targets. One of the balcony of a building was taking shots at her, and a quick burst turned him into a corpse even his mother wouldn’t recognize.

 

A grenade exploded nearby. “Damage taken,” said the machine voice. “Take cover.” She still had armor over her form, but the pieces on right leg and arm were showing red on the damage schematic. She marched down the street, taking out targets right and left, when another player entered the fray and changed everything.

 

She had seen that one Deathclaw with Barb the other day, but this one, coming out of the sewers, was much larger. Raiders started to shoot at it and it went wild, grabbing everyone it could get to and ripping them into pieces, living up to its name. A few laser turrets mounted on buildings opened up, and the Deathclaw was soon stuck into a real fight. Everything seemed to be going its way, as the damage it was taking was minor, while it killed a Raider with each strike.

 

Nora stepped back into the door of a building, willing to let her two opponents kill each other. The few surviving Raiders were smart enough to take cover from the animal, and Nora found herself sniping at them with a weapon not made for that kind of work. The Deathclaw grabbed the last Raider, then turned its attention to the large humanoid figure that was all that was left. It moved forward, fast, catching a couple of burst from the minigun, but running into the armor and knocking it over.

 

Nora tried to scramble to her feet, to find herself lifted off the ground by the powerful predator. Her two heavily damaged panels failed, going from red to nonexistent in an instant. The Deathclaw threw her away to land on her back, then jumped onto her with both feet, damaging the torso piece.

 

Nora thought the creature would finish her, quickly, despite the armor. She backhand it with her left arm, then punched it in the chest with the right, staggering it back. Even without armor the suit was a powerful combat platform, and the Deathclaw staggered away for a moment. Nora turned, ran, and leapt into the air, landing on the balcony of a building. She turned quickly, brought the minigun up and sent a stream into the beast. She held down the trigger and sent the stream into the leaping, dodging creature, getting in some hits among her many misses. It stumbled, and she kept the stream centered on it, until it finally went down. She kept up the fire until the weapon clicked on empty, then jumped down to inspect the kill, praying that it was really dead.

 

“That was amazing,” said Preston as she walked into the museum to find that everyone had come down to the lobby. “What’s next for you. We’re going to check out the place that Mama Murphy told us about. Sanctuary Hills. You’re welcome to come along.”

 

“You might need permission to settle there,” said Nora, looking Garvey in the eye.

 

“From who?” said Marci, crossing her arms over her chest. “And I thought Mama Murphy said it was abandoned. Just another drug dream, huh, Mama.”

 

“To answer your question, Marci,” said Nora in a forceful tone, “the owner. Which happens to be me.”

 

“You don’t need the whole place, do you?” asked Sturgis, glaring at her. “Surely you couldn’t be that selfish.”

 

“I’m willing to let you settle there on a trial basis,” she told the man. “But first we’re going to gather up all the weapons and ammunition around here so you can haul it to Sanctuary.”

 

“Why?” asked Marci, seemingly determined to be contrary.

 

“Because we’re going to need the weapons and ammo. And anything else that might be of interest. So load up, people. Or look for someplace else to settle. Unless you want to fight your way through my robots and take the place.”

 

“Let’s do as she says, people,” said Garvey. “She seems to know what she’s doing.”

 

“Meantime, I’m going to scour the town and load up the power armor.” It might be near the end of its life as a combat platform, though she thought she could learn how to fix it up. As a carrying platform it was still useful, giving her three times the carry weight as she could handle on her own. A couple of trips with the suit and she would have everything of note in Concord back at her base.

 

“I can feel what you’re searching for,” said Mama Murphy, looking Nora in the eyes.

 

“Shaun? You know where Shaun is?”

 

“I don’t know where he is exactly. But I can feel his energy. And it doesn’t take the Sight to tell me what you need to do. The Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth is where you need to go. Diamond City.”

 

The words of the old woman sent a shiver up Nora’s spine. But she wasn’t about to go anywhere based on the words of a crazy old woman. She needed to do some more research before she went anywhere.