Fighting Off the Brotherhood¶

Fight off the first group of Brotherhood members that attack, then talk to Desdemona, who will tell you that the catacombs are your only means of escape. Looks like you’ll have to fight your way through the Brotherhood of Steel who are besieging the Old North Church - it’s win or die here. Head into the catacombs under the Old North Church, where you’ll find Glory. She’ll make you make a promise, after which she’ll terminate her living subroutines (if she were human, it would be called “dying”). The vandalism of this poor, deluded person-shaped computer shall be avenged! Fight your way through the catacombs and up to the Old North Church. There will be several soldiers in Power Armor, and the entire squad will be led by Paladin Brandis, if you rescued him during “The Lost Patrol”. Kill them all and talk to Desdemona again, who will show up and come up with a horrible plan: Take the fight to the Brotherhood of Steel. Oh boy…

The Railroad Goes Airborne¶

For the next phase of this quest, you’ll need to secure a Vertibird, one of which can be found at the Cambridge Police Station. The Cambridge Police Station is of course just south of College Square (south of Lexington) where you should fast-travel to as Tinker Tom is waiting for you there… perhaps after making sure you have a hat and eyewear that increases Charisma, perhaps some Charisma-boosting chems (Mentats and X-Cell) and a few Stealth Boys, if possible. Anyway, once you hook up with Tinker Tom he’ll give you a quick run-down of what needs to be done, which essentially boils down to: “clear the area of hostiles and give him a minute with the Vertibird”.

Now, you can try to open up quietly but between Tinker Tom, Deacon and your Companion you are rolling in force (but hey, three AI helpers isn’t bad). Still, the Brotherhood has a Knight out in the Police Station front with power armor, as well as three other soldiers (one being “Knight Rhys”). Take a sneak attack shot and then go in swinging. Let your partners take the brunt of the damage and try to disarm the Knight if you can (or get his Fusion Core). On the roof is another Knight in power armor with a couple of soldiers as well, so take them out from below after clearing the courtyard. Head inside the police station after looting the bodies.

Inside are plenty of Brotherhood Soldiers and Scribes, so a short-range powerful weapon like a shotgun is ideal. Kill off anyone in the lobby (likely scribes, including “Scribe Haylen”) and then to the right take out the two turrets on the ceiling. From here Brotherhood members will come in from the left, but this door is very defensible and easily made into a killzone. Target it and, if they fall back a bit, chuck a grenade in and sweep up afterwards to take out everyone. Once everybody in the building is dead (including those in the Cambridge Police Station Motor Pool), talk to Tinker Tom, who will give you some “Explosive Charges” for the airship and head to the roof. Go ahead and follow.

Out here you are about to be ambushed by some Brotherhood soldiers (if any were left alive on the roof from earlier) and they will be joined by some more troops, who will drop in from a Vertibird. You can hop in the Vertibird you’re going to be stealing to man the Minigun, or you can just shoot down the Vertibird and any Brotherhood of Steel soldiers that drop in with conventional fire. Afterwards, talk to Deacon and he’ll give you a good bit of loot, including a Brotherhood of Steel Outfit. With that, the quest “Precipice of War” will end and “Rockets’ Red Glare”, will begin.

Objective	Reward
For securing a Vertibird from the Brotherhood of Steel	590 XP 500 Caps Plasma Cartridge x5 Plasma Grenade x2 Pulse Grenade Short Plasma Rifle Stimpak x2

Rockets Red Glare¶

When you’re ready to go, hop in the Vertibird. Tinker Tom has…. a few problems getting the hang of flying, but he gets it eventually. Soon you will be at the Prydwen and Deacon will give you a Brotherhood of Steel Uniform. Equip it right away to blend in and head out of the Vertibird. You also might want to equip your Charisma gear as well. Whatever you can put on with the Brotherhood armor anyway, which should be a hat and glasses at the very least. This of course assumes you care to be stealthy at all, which isn’t really necessary. If you want to maximize your XP gains though, you can go in all sneaky like, talk to various Brotherhood characters to pass speech checks (if you feel confident in your Charisma score and you don’t mind the odd save/loading), then fight your way back out. The choice is yours.

However you feel like doing it, from where the Vertibird is docked head west and go up some stairs, then through a doorway to the Prydwen Command Deck. Continue west around a stairwell, then mount a ladder to reach the Pyrdwen Main Deck. This is where all your objectives are. First head up some stairs to the right, where you’ll be pestered by Quinlan, who can only be satisfying one of several speech checks: one hard, one easy or one of two moderate checks. Once done, continue up another flight of stairs and head south, then up some stairs to the west and finally into a tunnel to the north to find the first “Gas Bag Valve”. Plant the Explosive Charge and, if you get caught by a Senior Scribe, pass another speech check (either easy, moderate or hard). After this, continue north and plant the other two Explosive Charges. If you passed the easy speech check, this will only buy you time, but if you pass the hard one, you’ll be able to plant all the charges in peace. If you can’t be bothered to deal with speech checks, however, just use a Stealth Boy and plant the charges, taking care to avoid running into the Senior Scribe.

You can now exit to the deck and head back to your Vertibird. Take off and Deacon will be amazed you did this without setting off an alarm. Once Tinker Tom takes you out of blast range, you will take down the Prydwen. Amazing… you’ve really taken out the Brotherhood of Steel! ? “And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…” ? Tinker Tom will set the bird down soon afterwards and you will jump off. The next quest “The Nuclear Option” will begin, but “Rockets’ Red Glare” won’t end until you talk to Desdemona.

Rockets' Red Glare

Complete "Rockets' Red Glare".

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