@royal-descent // the escape
They'd been careful. From the very outset, they'd known that this relationship had to be kept strictly a secret, stolen moments far from prying eyes, and they'd been good. Only meeting when it made sense -- when Rusty came back from patrols, when he needed patching up, or when Castien needed some muscle for one of his many projects. And sure, maybe one or two of Rusty's fellow Paladins had an idea of precisely why the two spent so much time together, but if that was the case they kept their mouths shut. They were careful.
But that didn't end up mattering much. The news from the west was just getting worse. The Enclave was on the move, in spite of their strongholds on the oil platform and at Raven Rock being destroyed. They were tenacious, like radroaches, every time one nest got wiped out another one seemed to pop up. Now it seemed like something big was happening, something that threatened the foothold the Brotherhood had managed to scrape together after the NCR had fallen, and they were getting recalled. The Prydwen would start heading back west, and apart from a token force to hold the airport, every able-bodied soldier was going with it.
He stood at assembly, listening, cold dread turning his insides to liquid, glad he was armored so he could sag in the saddle of his suit, glad for his helmet hiding the anguish on his face. They were leaving, and that meant enacting the information-protection protocol. Anyone who knew too much, who'd seen too much, would be declared a liability and marked for erasure. Only Brotherhood personnel would be left, all information leaks would be stoppered on the spot.
And there would be no warning.
That night, Rusty went through the motions, helping with this project or that, helping pack down ammo and weapons. But all the while, he was quietly pocketing a few things, calling in a few favors. By nightfall he had his rucksack jammed with food, ammo and the few meager belongings he'd collected in his life on the airship, and parked his suit at the bay nearest the vertibird docks. Now he just needed to find an excuse to speak to Castien…