#apparently those are box fish carapaces

[thistransient]

Low tide

[antiquechampagne]

Antique Champagne -CH32-Gone Fishing

Payne suspected a herd of elephants stomping around might make less noise than whatever was parading past the closed office door. She was content ignore everything and bury her head under the cushions until she heard the voices in the hallway filter through.

“… you see it?..” “What the hell…?” “It’s gotta be huge!”

Payne pulled herself upright, her head pounding. She swore her brain was trying to crawl its way out the back of her skull. Stumbling to the door, she cracked it open. A wall of sound and light buffeted her, forcing her to take a step back to steady herself. A gaggle of people appeared to be cramming into Hancock’s room, while others ran up the stairs to the third floor.. Payne grabbed the shoulder of a Watchman as he passed by.

“What’s going on?”

The ghoul turned to her. “There’s some kind of thing, a ship, in the sky. Damnedest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

Payne’s mind tried to latch onto the new information, to categorize it in some meaningful fashion.

A ship? Like a hot air balloon? Dirigible? It was a harder task than she would have like.

“Where’s Hancock?”

“Up top, I think.” he continued on, trying to push past the throng to crane his neck on the balcony Hancock normally would use to address his adoring fans when he gave public addresses.

She trudged up to the third floor. the room was empty except for the ladder leading up into a blazing bright hole. Payne looked up with dread. She didn’t feel like climbing. Not only was she missing her helmet (she must have misplaced it sometime last night). The ladder looked like it stretched about four stories tall, growing as she stared up at it. She closed her eyes and pressing her temples with her palms. Grabbing a Boston Bugle to shade her eyes and headed up. Keeping to the shadow of the cupula, Payne shifted through the small crowd perched on the roof. Everyone was pointing and gawking. Payne found the afternoon sky nauseatingly bright, but all she managed to steal was a few choice glances at the oblong blot on the horizon.

"You're late." grunted a familiar voice next to her. Payne hadn't noticed she had lumbered up next to Fahrenheit.

Payne managed a grunt and nod. "Any idea what it is?"

Before Fahr could answer, Payne felt a hand on her head, tussling her hair.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Hancock's smile was nearly as brilliant at the sun. "The Brotherhood of Steel knows how to make a entrance, I'll give'em that."

"Brotherhood?" That wasn't the answer Payne was expecting. "Are you sure?"

Fahr crossed her arms. "That's what they were blaring across the 'Wealth. You could have heard it yourself, if you had gotten your ass up here earlier." Great. Fahr was still pissed.

"Give it a break, Fahr." Hancock squeezed Payne's shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." Payne was pretty sure she looked like shit, too. "If it looks like Goodneighbor isn't going to be immediately invaded by these guys..."

Hancock waved her off. "Go get some rest. I'll get you if a bunch of brothers come-a-knocking."

Payne didn't waste any more time. She excused herself, found her things and returned to her own bed.

After a few days, they once again settled back into their old routines, only it was clear to Payne that Hancock was stewing over the new player in the field. He paid handsomely for intel, even sending out scouts to scope out the areas surrounding the Brotherhood's apparent base of operations; the Boston Airport. So far, it appeared they were sending out exploration parties of their own, mostly to tech heavy locales. Payne didn't have all that much experience with them. If she had happened to come across the odd band of them out west, she avoided them. What annoyed her the most was the drone of their vertibirds as they briskly buzzed past town. Luckily, it seemed like Goodneighbor was low on their list of priorities.

One afternoon, a surprise knock on her hotel door startled Payne as she dressed for the day. A watchman told her curtly that the mayor needed to talk to her.

“The Mayor also said to make sure to bring your rifle and extra… um…. juice boxes?”

Confused, Payne rushed through her afternoon routine to arrive at the Old State House a few hours before her shift officially started. On the step, she ran into Hancock and Fahr quarrelling. A backpack lay on the ground next to Hancock’s feet.

“Come on, Fahr! It’ll be fun! When was the last time you let your hair down?” Hancock was trying hard to spread his exuberant attitude to Fahr. From what Payne saw, it was not working.

“This is stupid, Hancock, and you know it.” Fahr’s face was stone-set.

Payne's presence finally registering, Hancock bounded over to her, his eyes twinkling. “See, Payne’s all ready to go! Aren't ya, Sport?”

“What exactly is going on? Where are we going? And don't call me 'Sport'.”

“Spoilsport!" That got him a look. "You’re in for a real treat! We’re going to go for a nice little walk down by the beach. Got the fixin’s for a mirelurk bake, a little booze…” Fahr huffed. “Quit being a party pooper! Payne’s never seen where I grew up. This’ll be a good chance for her to see it!”

Suddenly, Payne’s helmet suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. Hancock wanted to show her his childhood home?

“You only want to stomp around out there to get a closer look at that flying Brotherhood ship!” Fahr sniped back.

Hancock’s smile grew wider. “You wound me, Fahr,” he sassed back.

“And,” Fahr added, “You don’t need all of us to go to sneak a peek. Someone should stay…”

“The town isn’t gonna burn down if we skip out for a night. We're not going to start a freaking settlement out there. You need to relax.” And with that, Hancock grabbed his bag and headed towards the gate, ending the argument. Fahr grumbled, cursing under her breath as she passed, nodding her head to press Payne to follow. Payne just shrugged and took up the rear.

The trio picked their way through the city, careful to avoid raiders and nests of super mutants. They made pretty good time until the buildings started to thin out. There, they started to follow the crumbling highways, the lack of cover making them cautious. Hancock stopped several times to gauge his bearings, the dank sewage smelling sea breeze blew in from the waterfront.

“5 caps says he never finds the place,” scoffed Fahr during one of the pit stops. The giant metal airship loomed in the distance.

“You’re on.” Payne quipped back.

Hancock cocked his head. “I heard you! And it’s this way!” He pointed farther down the beach, his bodyguards shaking their heads, snickering behind him.

Payne found herself focusing on picking her way around the fetid seaweed and rotting animal carcasses when Fahr’s hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. Hancock had stopped and was digging through his pack.

“Figured those nasty bastards would move in…” he mumbled as he rummaged around. “They were becoming quite the persistent pests before we moved to the city.”

“What?” asked Payne.

“See that shack over there? Around that little alcove?” Payne squinted, trying to see the structure. “Well, that’s it… but it looks like we are going to have to work up a little sweat to get there.”

Sure enough, several clutches of eggs dotted the sand between them and the shack. Hancock pulled a couple of handfuls of frag grenades from the bag, handing a bunch to each of his companions.

With a wink, he took a few of his own. “Light’em up!” Pulling a pin, he let the first one fly. It landed square in the center of the nearest nest. The eggs splattered spectacularly in flames. Payne readied her rifle, while Fahr took aim with more grenades. Like clockwork, the ground started to vibrate and lurch. In a barrage of shrapnel and bullets, the three of them ended up taking down four mirelurks. They dragged the largest one towards the ramshackle assemblage of sheet metal walls. The single room shack had seen better days. Two of the four walls had collapsed, leaving the roof barely attached.

"I know it's not much to look at, but it was home for the three of us for a long time." Hancock hung his hat on a nearby stray nail on the corrugated metal wall. He grabbed a crowbar he had brought along and smiled. Jamming it in between the joints of the mirelurks' carapace, he strained to crack the creatures shell open.

"Give me that. You're just going to destroy the shell, then we won't have anything to cook it in." Fahrenheit shooed him away. Moving the tool along the seam, she started to deftly split the shell with a satisfying series of snaps.

Payne smiled. "Guess that means we're on fire duty." They quickly found enough drift wood and old bits of lumber to have a sizeable fire going by the time Fahr had opened the beast. Payne watched as Hancock and Fahrenheit worked together to clean and carve up the useable meat. They tasked her with filling the bowl of the shell with some water, flavoring it with some of the wine and salty sea water. After that, she set it over the fire to boil. Soon, they sat down to a ample spread of boiled mirelurk, butter and more wine. Payne made sure to stay under the remainder of the roof as she ate, watching the sunset from the shadows. Hancock talked a little bit about his childhood, his favorite pranks and exploits. Conversation soon turned to the Brotherhood and it's looming implications.

"Seems like they have been picking over tech heavy targets." Fahrenheit said between bites. "They have the muscle to take on just about any nasties they find. Mutants, synths, ferals... you name it."

Payne wiped her mouth. "You think they are here because of the Institute? I mean, they have a shit ton of crazy tech."

"Maybe? Wouldn't it be nice if they just went and took care of each other?" Hancock leaned back on his elbows.

"And who do you think would pay the price in that war? Ordinary people." Payne shook her head. "They always do."

"True enough," agreed Fahr.

The night had started to cool off as dusk turned into nearly clear night. Payne moved out to enjoy the warm fire. The airship lit up the sky, a strangely out of place light show. They watched and talked as vertibirds occasionally buzzed to and fro. It seemed to take up most of the sky. The engine noise brought back prewar memories for Payne, like nostalgic music track backing their conversation. Between the presence of the Brotherhood and their clearing of the beach earlier, the area seemed to be blessedly free of hostiles. Against all odds, it was turning out to be a pleasant excursion. Even Fahr seemed to be relaxing a bit. Maybe this trip wouldn't be such a waste of their time after all.