Operation Touchdown

Operation Touchdown was a failed attempt by the Appalachia Brotherhood of Steel to wipe out what was thought to be the main Scorchbeast nest in glassed cavern.

Background
After the emergence of the Scorched Plague, the Brotherhood made it their mission to eliminate infected people and creatures. To this end, they focused their main efforts on killing scorchbeasts, which were responsible for the spread of the plague. The crux of these efforts was Operation Touchdown, a mission to eliminate a major scorchbeast nest in the glassed cavern. Unknown to the Brotherhood, the cavern had been used by Thomas Eckhart and the Enclave as a laboratory to experiment with compounds developed by Arktos Pharma in an attempt to create a virus to raise the DEFCON level for a retaliatory strike against China. Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy, Knight Johnny Moreno, and other members of the Brotherhood entered the caverns, determined to end the threat of the scorchbeasts once and for all.

Operation
The strike force encountered heavy resistance from the scorched yet managed to push through into the glassed cavern with some casualties. However, the strike team grew ever smaller as they continued to encounter threats such as mirelurk queens and fog crawlers before finally reaching the heart of the nest. While placing bombs the team realized the nest was in fact a lab and where the scorchbeasts were originally created. As they realized this, the team was surprised by a large scorchbeast. In the ensuing battle, the last surviving team members including Paladin Taggerdy and Knight Johnny Moreno were slain. Operation Touchdown was a failure.

Aftermath
After the operation, no scorchbeasts were seen for a few weeks, leading to the rest of the Brotherhood assuming the operation was a success, albeit one with a heavy cost. However, this wasn't the case, and the scorchbeasts returned in greater numbers, leading to the abandonment of several Brotherhood outposts to focus on the defense of Fort Defiance and Thunder Mountain power plant. Thunder Mountain was overwhelmed in 2098, and Fort Defiance fell soon after, ending the Appalachia Brotherhood.