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| Dusk, looking west from Miranda's post. |
June, 2288
Dear Luce,
I don’t know what to make of your last letter. Whispers of the Brotherhood planning to take back the Commonwealth? Have people not had enough of the killing by now? Maybe Miranda was right…maybe there will never be peace in the wasteland.
The settlement was attacked last night. We’re all okay, but it was terrifying. A band of Raiders tried to storm the compound.
I was at my post when the Wanderer showed up at dusk. I noticed he had a new weapon – a combat shotgun. After the recon patrol out on the peninsula, I didn’t want to ask him how he happened by it. He went about his usual duties upon arrival, checking the turrets, tinkering at the workshop.
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| The clear night over the manor. |
Later, he came over to me, up the stairs, and stood by me for a while, silent, staring out into the darkness.
‘Clear night,’ I said.
He looked up at the deep sky sparkling with stars, and then back out over the peninsula. ‘Almost makes you forget, doesn’t it?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah, it does.’
He reached into his pack and took out a recon scope. ‘Let me see that rifle of yours, I can attach this to it if you’d like.’
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. He started to return the smile but looked away quickly. I unslung my rifle and handed it over. ‘That would be great. A recon scope would be perfect out here.’
He nodded and took my rifle, handing me a long double-barrelled shotgun with a reflex sight. ‘Take this while I attach the scope. Can’t leave you empty-handed up here. This has been with me since Concord after I left the Vault.’
‘The Vault? You were in a Vault?’ I asked.
He looked away again. ‘Yeah. I’ll be right back.’
He headed for the weapons bench and I heard him start attaching the scope. I realised I’d come to like the sound of him tinkering away back there.
And then all hell broke loose.
They came up along the west road, and through the trees to the south. A dozen Raiders. They had waited until nightfall. I was still at my post so the first thing I knew was when the west turrets open up (we have two guarding the western road into the compound). I then heard the newcomer (I still don’t know his name, I just call him Skull because of his bandanna) open fire and call out from the Island. He didn’t fall back to the compound, he held his ground and took two of them down before they even reached the walls.
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| The west road - this is the road the Raiders used to attempt to storm the settlement. 'The Island' can be seen at the bottom of the photo. |
The turrets kept thumping away, Miranda opened up with her laser rifle and Marius headed past my post with his shotgun drawn.
‘Stay up there,’ he told me. ‘They might try and come in from the east too. Here,’ he tossed me my rifle with the new scope. ‘Tag any that try and come through the trees on that side and call them out. And keep one eye on the compound. If any make it inside the walls you know what to do.’
I took the rifle and did a quick scan of the woods to the east. Nothing. Marius headed out through the gate next to Miranda’s post, Dogmeat following close behind, and the booming shotgun joined the rest of the cacophony of gunfire out there. I wanted to be a part of it, but I held my post.
The guns kept banging away and then I saw him – a lone Raider with a missile launcher, coming through the trees at the foot of the embankment to the east.
‘Missile to the east,’ I called out and took aim with the scope, saying a quick prayer of thanks to my Wanderer as the scope lit the Raider up, bright as day.
‘Fuck you,’ I said under my breath before I held it and put a .308 through his head. He dropped to the ground and rolled down the embankment, the launcher clattering to the ground beside his body.
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| View from Daphne's post. She spotted the Raider coming through this grove of trees. |
It was all over as quickly as it had begun. Did I just write ‘my Wanderer’? Huh. Luce, I think your little sister may have developed a crush.
Anyway, everyone gradually drifted back inside, but Marius and Skull set about looting the Raiders, Dogmeat sniffing around their ankles as they went from body to body. I saw Marius wander over to the east side and retrieve the missile launcher then he came back up into the compound and gathered everyone by the bell. He gave the missile launcher and a few rockets to Skull.
‘You held your ground out there,’ he said. ‘You saved lives tonight.’
I waited for him to say something to me, but he didn’t. Instead he turned to Miranda and told her she had handled herself well tonight. I could have screamed.
‘Everyone did well,’ Marius said, but still didn’t look at me. ‘I think this calls for a celebration. Next time I’m in Diamond, I’ll pick up something for each of you. Let me know what. Don’t think something you need. Think something you want.’
Everyone became excited like little kids. Miranda of course went first, said she used to have a lucky eight ball. Gerald said he missed playing chess, and that if he could get hold of a board he could start carving some pieces. I have no idea what the hell ‘chess’ is so I made a note to ask him sometime. Eliza said all she wanted was a Grognak the Barbarian comic book, and Elise thought about it for a moment and requested a nice big chunk of radstag meat so she could cook us a stew.
‘Would go real nice with all them carrots we been growing here,’ she said, nodding and licking her lips.
Marius laughed at this and suggested some whiskey to wash it down with, to which everyone nodded eagerly.
‘I’m going to sleep here tonight,’ he said, ‘just in case those guys decide to regroup and try a second time. I want guards back at their posts. Everyone else, get some sleep.’
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| Daphne's letters did not contain any photographs of Raiders she encountered, living or otherwise, but they would have looked something like this. |
‘You did good tonight.’
Marius' voice took me by surprise and I almost dropped my rifle. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘I’ll head back to my post.’
‘It’s okay.’ He sat beside me. He looked at the turret, dutifully, mindlessly rattling back and forth, a sleepless sentinel of the wastes. ‘How can you stand that thing?’
I laughed. ‘I find it soothing.’
He laughed back. ‘If you say so.’
I looked down the east hill to the Raider I had killed. I was glad that at this distance and in the darkness I could not see the blood. ‘I thought you hadn’t noticed.’
Marius followed my gaze and was silent for what seemed like a long time.
‘I’m hard on you because I…’ he stopped. ‘Because I need to be. Like I said, I need to know you can handle yourself.’
‘Who was she?’ I asked him.
He seemed taken aback. ‘Who?’
‘The woman I remind you of.’
He sighed and shuffled a little, then caught himself and sat steady, fixing me with those steel-grey eyes. ‘You remind me of my wife,’ he said. ‘I’m hard on you because I don’t want you to get hurt, like she did.’
The way he said hurt I knew he meant killed, and I wanted to ask what happened to her, but something in his eyes told me not to.
‘I better get back to my post.’ I stood.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I’m going to head off. I have something I need to do.’ He stood, heading for the stairs. ‘Hey, you never said what you wanted from Diamond City.’
I shrugged. ‘Just my letters.’
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing you want?’
‘Like I said, I got food and a roof over my head. That’s all I need for now.’
He nodded. ‘Okay.’
As we parted ways he said, ‘You know, a friend of mine keeps giving me advice, it’s always real simple: Don’t let your guard down.’
I looked back at him, ‘I never do.’
Well that’s it for tonight sis, I’m so damn tired my eyes are closing as I write this. No one has said it, but I know we all feel proud of what we did here. We might not have much, but we’ll fight for what is ours.
Love always, your little sister,
Daph x
PS - This is my rifle with the new recon scope. I think it saved my life.
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