POV Preston
Everyone was in position when the first artillery shell was fired. There were no slaves, so we didn't have to worry about hitting any innocents. The Artillery fired for around 10 minutes before the first Raiders were spotted. They were running as quickly as they could. After the first few, many more came over the horizon. At first, it was dozens, then hundreds, and finally thousands. As soon as they were in range, we opened fire. The enemy mostly wore Raider Armor, which gave them fairly balanced defenses. But it was slightly weaker than energy weapons. Which is what we were using.
Rio had created an interesting Plasma Sniper called the DC-17. It was interesting because it wasn't just a sniper. It could be swapped to various modes that provided weapons for almost any situation. A Sniper Mode for long-range attacks. A Blaster mode for close quarters and mid-range engagements, it could be semi-automatic, burst fire, or even fully automatic. An Anti-Armor mode that lobbed plasma grenades at enemies. And lastly, a Stun Mode for Crowd Control and capturing targets.
We shot as many as we could, but there were far too many to stop them all. We moved several of the mines to be in the most likely path they would take. Which took out a few more. Then the traps started. There were bear traps designed to snap their legs, poisoned caltrops to slow them down, Nail Traps that punctured their feet, Pitfall Traps with sharpened sticks at the bottom, Tripwire Traps connected to Grenades, Arrows, Captured Guns, Ammunition, and many other devices.
These traps weren't set up perfectly, but they would work since the Raiders couldn't take time to disarm each trap while under fire. Speaking of fire, the Raiders got into range of the EWHB-12s. They were overkill. A single hit from the EWHB-12 was easily enough to kill someone. The best case when being hit was only losing a limb. The next turrets to fire were the 50 Cal Turrets. Normally, these turrets could break through trees like nothing, but any turrets in a Settlement could break natural objects near them. But in exchange, they don't ricochet, and this also only applies to Settlement Turrets, so the EWHB-12s were exempt. Which was good, as most Raiders couldn't do anything against the EWHB-12s. They punched right through trees and armor like a hot knife through butter.
The Raiders were surprisingly motivated. Despite losing a lot of troops and even falling into traps, they kept coming. Next came the enemy's response. Several Radiers with RPGs arrived and shot at the turrets. Some hit and disabled the turrets, but several missed and flew off into the distance or hit the wall. We responded by shooting any of the RPG users we could see. The biggest loss was the disabling of an EWHB-12. It had to be pulled from the wall due to taking two direct hits from an RPG. But it was expected we would lose some.
"Have the remaining EWHB-12 fall back after destroying more trees. We will save it for the second line defense," I call over the Radio.
They respond and start destroying more trees to give Radiers less usable cover. We had already cleared out plenty of the trees, but plenty were kept as they were used as traps.
POV Warrior
"Should we send in the Power Armor?" William Black asks.
"Not yet. As long as that laser cannon is operational, the Power Armor will be useless. We must be patient. I predict that after losing one, they will pull the other back," I respond.
"Fine. But we are running out of melee users. The Disciples are almost all dead, and we are just now getting to the wall," William Black says with anxiety clear in his tone.
"Patience. All in due time. We have not lost that many, given the situation. We still need to destroy more of their defenses. Once that is accomplished, taking the wall will be much easier. And once the shell has been removed, they will be more vulnerable," I respond calmly.
The room starts to shake for a few minutes, but then settles.
"What the hell was that?" Red Tourette asks.
They send some people out to investigate, but I keep my focus on the battle. A few minutes later, another earthquake comes; this time, people start screaming.
"BY THE GODS!"
"NO NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"
"IS THAT A MUSHROOM CLOUD?"
Everyone but me leaves and sees a mushroom cloud in the far distance.
"What the hell is going on? Did someone set off another Nuke?" William asks.
POV Preston
The entire battle pauses for a few seconds as we look to the South and see a mushroom cloud followed by a small Earthquake. I was a little scared for Rio and our friends, as I knew they were in the South somewhere.
'Be safe, everyone.'
But we have no time to worry about that, as it was back to the fight. We had lost 27 of the 32 Turrets, and both EWHB-12s had been removed from the wall. We also lost several men on the wall, but the Raiders were not stopping anytime soon. But that was fine, we were still holding the wall and had made the Raiders pay dearly for it. But then we saw several metal giants on the horizon.
"Crap, Power Armor incoming!" I scream over the Radio.
The Power Armored Raiders numbered 44; most of the Armor was the crappy Raider Variant that was mostly random metal welded together, but it still provided excellent protection. But thankfully, it was also easy to break with enough hits. However, the real issues were with the 8 wearing non-Raider Power Armor. I spotted 5 sets of T-45, 2 sets of T-51, and 1 set of T-60. I aimed for the T-60 as they were the biggest threat.
I shot rapidly. A few missed. 8 hit his torso, 2 hit his head, and 3 hit his arms. But by the time I shot one last time, he had reached the wall. Thankfully, of the 44 that appeared, we killed 9. 3 of which wore the T-45 sets, the remaining being Raider sets. But in exhcage we lost all the remaining turrets and 14 people were either dead or being taken to the infirmary. With most of the Power Armor users out of my line of sight, I moved to attacking those I could still see.
After a few more minutes, we started to see the ladders. We tried to stop them from getting to the wall, but there were far too many of them, and another soon replaced each Raider that held a ladder we took down. We did manage to kill another 12 Raider set users. Mostly thanks to Grenades and the like. Those on the walls had lost quite a few people, so we believed it was time to fall back to the second line of defense.
I couldn't say for certain how many Radiers were left, but I figured we killed at least a thousand by now. And arguably, the next part will be that much harder for the enemy to use. The ladders allowed only a limited number to come up at once. The Raiders had made 60 ladders, but only 23 managed to make it to the wall intact. That meant 23 people could attack at once, while we had around 200 that could respond at the same time. And their greatest asset, Power Armor, was useless as it was too heavy to climb the ladders.
"All troops fall back to Point Bravo. I repeat. All troops fall back to Point Bravo," I hear Athena say over the Radio.
Everyone but those in the HQ head to Point Bravo. We remain in place as we are still in a great position to deliver additional intelligence and to continue to strike any targets we can. The first ladders are placed on the wall. We shoot anyone who peers over the walls while everyone else gets into their positions. Once the green light is sent, we switch to shooting at the Raiders, still coming from the East.
For several minutes, it seems like our strategy would work, but then we get word that an attack is happening on the West side. Before we can panic, Captain Guto radios over the comms.
"We'll handle it, just keep holding the line. Remeber to never surrender. Kill plenty of those Raider scum for me," Guto says.
"Copy that, Guto. Happy hunting," I reply.
Guto and his men fly from the HQ to the West wall. As this is happening, I see something that might cause some issues.
"The Raiders have something new. Not sure what it is, but it looks like a ramp of some kind. We will try to stop them, but be prepared," I say over the radio.
It turns out my guess was right. It was a ramp, and it was used to allow the Power Armor users to get over the wall. From the previously controlled situation, everything went badly quickly. We lost several of our backup turrets and the remaining EWHB-12. We also lost over 53 men trying to keep the Power Armor users out. What saved us in the end was the actions of one of the Freedmen. He strapped himself with C4 and ran at the ramp. The blast rocked the entirety of Sanctuary, but it destroyed the ramp and most of the ladders. The few remaining ladders weren't enough to breach our defenses. After the Raiders were reduced to around 100 or so, they started to retreat.
That was when we heard over the radio.
"This is Pequod, approaching position. Prioritizing elimination of enemy threats."
I then spot something in the distance. At first, I thought it was a Vertibird, but as it got closer, I realized it was too narrow for a Vertibird.
[Image Here]
"Cover Fire! In Hot!" Pequod radios.
After saying that, Pequod opens fire on the Raiders fleeing with Rockets.
"Rocket Salvo! Rocket Salvo! Pequod is in Hot Find Cover!" Pequod says again. We all get down as more rockets blanket the area.
By the time the rockets stop, we look up and see that the Raiders had all been dealt with.
"This is Pequod. I am swinging around to the West Wall for Air Support," Pequod radios before flying around Sanctuary towards the West, avoiding Concord.
"This is Pequod. In hot! Stay out of the Kill Zone!" Pequod radios.
"The heck is that, sir?" Asks Athena.
"Reinforcements, I think," I respond.
Pequod shoots more rockets and even uses a machine gun.
"This is Pequod. No targets remaining. Ending Attack Run and heading to LZ," Pequod radioed over gain while heading to the Vertibird Landing Platform.
We approached and when the doors opened, we saw several Minutemen coming out.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, General Garvey. I hope we weren't too late," said Colonel Morris.
"No, you're right on time. We still need to deal with the remaining Raiders in Concord. We could use your help keeping them contained in there while we assault the area," I respond.
"Will do, sir. We still have a few rockets remaining. But I suggest you start soon. We saw a few leaving Concord when we were airborne. Also, I have orders from General Rio," Morris says while handing over a document.
I read it, and it basically says he is okay and for us to try and eliminate any enemies we can while capturing those when it is safe.
"I received them. I will have our men start the assault at once," I reply.
We both salute, and Colonel Morris gets back on the helicopter before flying towards Concord. We had prepared things ahead of time, so Agent Delilah was ready to shut down the Plutonium Reactor in Concord to prevent the Raiders from blowing it up on purpose. The cleanup goes well with 2 Vertibirds joining our attack. We even manage to kill or capture a few of the Raider leaders. However, a few managed to escape. Strangely enough, no one knew where their overall leader went. One minute, they were in the main office, and the next, they vanished.
Once Concord was recaptured, we started assessing losses. We lost a total of 119 people. 97 were Freedmen. 1 was a Settler, and the rest were Minutemen. Given how outnumbered we were, it was a miracle we only lost this many. The damages to Sanctuary were minimal, mostly just turrets. We lost quite a bit of ammo, though, as not everyone had unlimited ammo. It wasn't anything too bad as the Castle Armory had plentiful supplies, but it was a loss nonetheless. We captured 7 Raiders and killed well over 4000 of them. A single Caravan did escape, but they only managed to get to Lexington. This is where many of the retreating enemies fled to. We would have captured more Raiders, but the Freedmen were not interested in taking prisoners, and we couldn't refuse their help after all they did for us.
The Raiders we did capture were 3 random cowards that weren't high out of their minds, 2 were too injured to fight back, and 2 were actual leaders. One was a man named William Black. The other was a leader of a Caravan company. We also learned that a man named Kellogg was helping them. However, he also managed to escape with he others. I let Rio know, and he said he would deal with it himself. All we had to do was keep an eye out for him. As for Lexington, we wouldn't even have to do anything personally. We had made plans to deal with the Raiders there for a while, so now that they were weakened, we activated the trap we set.
The trap was an altered device that Rio used in Boston. It would awaken all the Ferals in the city and make them go more feral than usual. They would swarm the place where the device was set and try to kill anything that stood in their way. As for where the device was placed, I was told it was placed in the area where the Boss sleeps. It may not wipe them all out, but it would mean we could more easily clear out Lexington. Besides the Raiders and Ghouls. There were only Synths and Super Mutants. Last we heard, the Super Mutants had left Lexington, and the Synths were few in number.
If we take Lexington, we have a clear shot straight into Cambridge. That would make us one of the most powerful factions in the Commonwealth. Not to mention, with this victory, we struck a massive blow against our enemies and showed the Minutemen were truly back and ready to defend the people.
'One step at a time, Garvey. One step at a time.'
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Author's Note:
Wow, that took more chapters than I expected. But hey, now things will sort of slow down a bit. Nothing too crazy. Or at least Rio hopes. Pequod is a national treasure and should be in more fanfics. But I hoped you enjoyed the chapter, and until next time, Ciao.