Operation Touchdown

Operation Touchdown was the failed attempt by the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel to wipe out the scorchbeast threat by destroying what they thought was the main nest in the glassed cavern, on January 29, 2095.

Background
After the emergence of the Scorched Plague around 2083, the rapidly exponentially growing threat forced the Brotherhood to make it their mission to eliminate the disease. However, its spread via infected people and creatures was minuscule compared to its spread by gigantic flying bat mutants named "scorchbeasts."

To this end, they focused their main efforts on killing the scorchbeasts. They began actively fighting scorchbeasts by luring them into a kill zone with sonic generator devices built by Scribe Takano and Scribe McNamara. Within these "protected zones," the beasts would be attacked with Automated surface to air missiles and ground personnel.

Around 2093, the scorchbeast threat began to become too much for the Brotherhood to contain with such spread-out forces. They consolidated at Fort Defiance, their main base of operations, and the Thunder Mountain power plant, to maintain the facility's power. Soon, out of desperation, the faction resorted to more aggressive measures to secure much-needed supplies.

By January 2094, the Brotherhood greatly increased requisitions from the Responders and Free States, with members ordered to firmly secure supplies without stealing or initiating conflict. Paladin Taggerdy also authorized the Brotherhood to ignore the wasteland's salvage rights claims, allowing members to take supplies and salvage from areas already claimed by others. These aggressive actions further soured the Brotherhood's reputation and relationships with their former allies.

Although the usage of the sonic generator was successful, the Brotherhood realized that there were too many scorchbeasts, delaying their inevitable defeat. As a permanent solution, the faction debated using a newly-discovered automated nuclear silo against the scorched threat. Though the scorchbeasts were predicted to be able to destroy all life on the continent, Elder Roger Maxson forbade the idea of using nuclear weapons. The Brotherhood was forced to use conventional means, leading to the development of Operation Touchdown.

Battle
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 was home to the Scorchbeast Queen, which had been created by an unexpected biochemical exposure coupled with radiation exposure. 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.

The strike force encountered heavy resistance from the Scorched, yet managed to push through into the glassed cavern with some casualties. However, the 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 the rest of the Brotherhood to assume the operation was a success, albeit one with a heavy cost. This was not the case, and the scorchbeasts returned in greater numbers. Both Thunder Mountain and Fort Defiance fell simultaneously to the plague by mid-August 2095, with all members manning their posts until the end.