War. War never changes.

The Brotherhood of Steel traces its origins back to the Unites States Army, during the time when nuclear bombs rained from the sky. Through the two centuries since the beginning of the apocalypse, the knights and paladins of the Brotherhood have known nothing but war: a war for survival against many enemies. For them, war is a grim necessity they must face every day. Since the terrible cataclysm that changed the world, the Brotherhood's growth has caused it to split into several chapters, each based in different regions of what was once North America. The easternmost chapter, led by the noble Owyn Lyons at the time, eventually settled in the ruins of Washington D.C., what is now called the Capital Wasteland.

But they did not arrive there without facing further conflict and great adversity. During their journey, they crossed through a forsaken land, a hellish and burning ruin of pre-war industrial might. This place knows only one name: the Pitt. Though it was spared from the relentless destruction of the atomic spears, the city of Pittsburgh decayed due to the irradiated rivers of Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio. It withered and rusted while its people lived in anguish, mutating and mutilating each other. When the Brotherhood arrived, it was nothing more than a haven of lawlessness, psychopaths and murderers. With their advanced technology, they laid waste to the gangs in a great scouring, sweeping through the Pitt and cleansing it in a sea of lasers and fire.

In their wake, they claimed several children as recruits and left the Pitt behind. Little did they know, the cleansing had only been the baptism for a new age of the Pitt, one ruled by an iron fist. From the ashes of their assault arose a new warlord, a member of the Brotherhood who had been presumed dead and abandoned: Ishmael Ashur. He now leads the raiders and oversees the slave labor of the Pitt, restarting its factories and forges; the fires of the Pitt now burn with industry once more. Lord Ashur maintains a tight grip on the population, working towards his own vision of the future. The legions that toil away are kept in line by the raiders under his control, but dissent and revolution have begun to foster in their hearts. They seek liberation from the oppression of Ashur's rule, and have sought help elsewhere, reaching out as far as the Capital Wasteland.

Some have answered their call for freedom. One of them is a youth from the Capital Wasteland, a hero who journeyed from his vault in search of his father, but he was not alone. He was accompanied by his love, a young woman, and together they became known as the Wandering Pair. They would go on to unite the communities and factions of the land against a tyrannical threat, including Lyons' Brotherhood. This young man, Lloyd Freeman, led them to war against the Enclave, the corrupt remnants of the US government, and realized the dreams of his parents by activating their life's work: Project Purity, a massive purifier on the bank of the Potomac River, providing free and clean water to all the people of the land, newly united under the banner of the Capital Alliance.

But they had made many more enemies than just the Enclave. One of them was a man with a past as obscured and dark as the shades he wore to conceal the eyes of a cold, calculating sociopath: Seth Burke. Mister Burke was a man who served interests entirely his own. He attempted to recruit the Wandering Pair to assist him in his nefarious task of destroying a community of people with a dormant nuclear bomb, but when they refused and had him arrested, they made of him an enemy for life. Burke escaped with the assistance of mercenaries working for an organization he himself had founded, Talon Company, and he set about his own personal war against the pair.

Ultimately, Burke was unable to exact his vengeance upon them both, but tragically, in the moment of the Capital Alliance's victory against the Enclave, Lloyd's companion Amata Almodovar became the victim of his wrath. He dealt to her what seemed to be fatal gunshots to the neck and head before taunting Lloyd and escaping. Though Amata survived the injuries, she was placed into a deep coma and her recovery seemed unlikely. Driven by rage, Lloyd hunted Burke all over the land but failed to find his hated enemy. Seeking to atone for his perceived failure to avenge his love, Lloyd heeded the cry of the Pitt, lured by the suffering of its slaves. He now seeks redemption through their liberation, working with a man named Wernher.

Burke had eluded Lloyd by travelling south, to a place long forgotten by most. Here, in the swampy lands of Point Lookout, he has begun to scheme once more. There is a darkness that lurks amongst the inbred people of this marshland, a nameless evil that alluringly whispers to any who are mad enough to listen. It has drawn many in the past and not all who enter the swamp return. In his endeavors to seek knowledge of the secrets surrounding this strange power, Burke has made a critical error and word of his current location has reached the Capital Alliance. In the midst of their assessment of this information and planning their reaction to it, an event occurred that none had anticipated; the Brotherhood, Lloyd nor Burke had thought it possible.

For in the lower levels of Project Purity, tended to since the day she was shot, Amata Almodovar woke up.

Nave here. Terribly sorry to be a tease, but in a few days I am deploying. I won't be back for a while and the first chapter of this story (which I have put off in favor of other writing projects for far too long, which I apologize for) isn't completed. I've long promised a sequel and I wanted to leave you with something before I leave myself.

This story is going to flip between parallel narratives of Lloyd and Amata in their journies from one location to the next. There may be shared chapters, or I may do alternating chapters of focusing on one protagonist; we'll just have to see. The opening chapter definitely will be a split narrative as it focuses on Amata waking up, then switches to Lloyd already in the Pitt, and so on and so forth.

It will be an ambitious work for the characters, who were primarily together for the entirety of the first story. Now, separated by cruel fate, they must both face new challenges alone and grow independently of one another. And if they should meet again, could things ever be the same?

We'll see. Wish me luck overseas; I'll return with the first chapter.