In 2276, beams of red and green flashed across the smoking skies of the Mojave waste. For every beam that ignited the sky, it was met with a volley of 15 muzzle flashes. The gates that surrounded Helios One were ripped and torn by bullets and bombs, and for every hole in the razor wire, the soldiers of the two-headed bear came pouring in. They marched in from all sides, blasting at any Paladins or Knights they could find. The shining armor of the Brotherhood’s finest was strong, but it wasn’t enough to stop the waves of Californias sons and daughters. The order hunkered down in their personal temple of the sun, Helios One, where their leader had planned to summon its power to defeat the bear. The man, Elijah, believed that technology could save them, bring them to salvation, but on this day, his faith doomed them all.

Head Paladin McNamara weaved his way through the damp corridors of Helios One, he moved as fast as he could despite the facility being shaken nonstop from exterior artillery fire. Every step was another bombshell, every inch forward he’d be rocked by the sound of Helios’ failing structural integrity, and every time stopped for a rest, he would see more of his brothers in arms carrying their fallen. Members of the brotherhood who had been slain in battle were removed from their power armor, revealing the wounds from battle that the suits had failed to prevent. Prevention was the main goal for the defense of Helios, the old-war relic was indeed a power plant, but Father Elijah knew it could be something greater. The plant was home to onboard weapons systems, holy spears of sunlight that would surely aid the brotherhood in its restoration of Americas technological progress, though it was not to be. The Elder, technological prodigy though he was, could not get the weapons functional. The Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel was about to die over a control panel.

McNamara was hoping to stop this, for weeks Elijah had refused to leave the facility despite warnings that the Bear would soon be on top of them, believing that the weapons of Helios One would soon kill the bear. ‘More time’ was all he needed to finish them for good, but now time had run out. The Head Paladin appeared from the main facility and sprinted toward the main tower, the building where Elijah had attempted to forge his great sword to strike at the Bear; he ducked and weaved through shelling and smoke before he reached the iron gates of the power facility, and he opened the doors to find the building lifeless. The overhead lights that were gleaming during the Brotherhoods occupation were gone, but soon new life would make itself known to McNamara.

Rapid darts of red light whipped past his head as soon as he entered the brig, and as he dashed behind cover to be save from the turrets, he heard the clicking and whirring of machines that clanged off the metallic frame of the catwalk behind him, he heard the stomping of steel toes, the rolling of treads, and the low humming of jet boosters.

‘He’s activated the facilities security features,’ McNamara thought to himself, ‘what on Earth is he planning to do?” The Head Paladin could smell the smoldering metal from when the turret systems shot at him, he was pinned down and in a desperate gambit he screamed for his leader.

“Elder Elijah, I implore you, stop this madness!” McNamara pulled himself from off the concrete floor of the plant and supported himself against the wall still thudding with the force of the turrets’ onslaught. “This will not stop them Elijah, they are gaining ground as we speak, you are a good man, a wise man Elder, surely you can see that this is hopeless!” But no one responded, McNamara looked to the intercom system above his head, but no static came from it, no voice either, just deafening silence that was somehow louder than the turret shooting holes in the wall behind him. He slumped back down to the bottom of the wall and slammed the wall behind him halfheartedly and continued despite knowing that there was no one listening.

“They’ll find a way in, it doesn’t matter if we stand our ground here, you will die, I will die and this entire chapter will die if we don’t-” McNamara paused for a moment, he looked to the open doorway back out into the wasteland, and saw his brothers and sisters still struggling against the bear, still fighting in the eternal war to restore old-world glory, and he knew in that moment, that their future was secure.

“-If I don’t do something about it.” The turret suddenly stopped its firing mechanism, most likely to cool down its servos, and McNamara seized the opportunity, dashing through the hallway where he entered and didn’t even flinch as he ran across the shelled sand dunes of the Helios solar array. He sprinted through the corridors of the main structure and skidded to a halt when he reached the entrance to a planning room with several Paladins inside, all standing around a holographic map of the battleground. A tall man with brunette sideburns turned toward McNamara and placed one hand on the projection.

“Any luck with the Elder, McNamara?” The Head Paladin supported himself on both hands against the map of Helios One and shook his head.

“He’s exactly like you said Edgar, I do not even know if he’s alive down in there, he activated the security protocols, but I still fail to understand what he was protecting.” McNamara looked at the map of Helios in deep thought, but the long pause attracted the concerns of the other Paladins in the room with him.

“So then, what’s our strategy here?” Edgar looked to the Head Paladin; whose eyes rose to meet his.

“We have to make a break for hidden valley, Head Paladin Hardin, call the troops together.” Edgar looked shocked at McNamara's response, and the expression he held was spread across all the other Paladin's.

“’Head Paladin?’ McNamara, what’re you-”

“If Elder Elijah is unwilling to fulfill his duties as Elder of this chapter then that makes me the next in line for acting Elder, and my first action in that position will be to save us from annihilation, do you understand?” The new Head Paladin nodded, and the new Elder nodded in response. “Now, no matter which direction we decide to retreat, we will be facing heavy resistance. The New California Republic has surrounded us from all sides, but if we can manage to spear through their assault, we can make an escape here.” McNamara gestured to a stretch of land on the side of two ridges labeled ‘McCullough Range.’ He dragged his finger from the quadrant to a solid dot directly south of it, labeled ‘Hidden Valley Bunker.’