Battle of Rockland

The Battle of Rockland was another turning point in The Purifier Conflict, occurring at the satellite relay station in Rockland, in 2278.

Background
Though the victory at the purifier effectively broke the Enclave's military power, at least temporarily, the disarray caused by the attack and destruction of Raven Rock was not complete. The fact that the Enclave was still capable of maintaining remote communications endangered the success of the campaign, as it would allow the Enclave to coordinate its efforts and eventually regroup and attack the Brotherhood. This could not be permitted. Through a combination of intelligence efforts and field reports, a pre-War military satellite facility at Rockland was identified as the nexus of Enclave communications.

A Brotherhood taskforce under the command of Paladin Tristan, supported by operations officer Edwards, was sent to seize the facility, disable Enclave communications, and recover any and all intel.

The Battle
Paladin Tristan set up a forward base in the Rockland car tunnel, after fighting through the Enclave perimeter outposts. The Lone Wanderer, freshly inducted as a Knight, joined the assault just shortly after recovering from their coma.

The attack followed a standard pattern. Liberty Prime was deployed as spearhead, destroying the bulk of the enemy forces and bypassing their fortifications, while ground troops under Tristan's command followed the robot, mopping up any stragglers. The initial attack went well and the combat group penetrated enemy defenses right up into the facility. Liberty Prime proceeded to create an access point into the facility, by punching through the concrete walls.

However, this was a ruse by the Enclave. Liberty Prime was lured into the cul-de-sac in front of the Rockland facility in order to be destroyed. Just as he opened the facility to the Brotherhood's assault, the Enclave initated a tactical nuclear bombardment from the Bradley-Hercules orbital weapons platform, turning the area into a kill zone. Liberty Prime was destroyed, with Tristan's forces just barely able to reach minimum safe distance.

Although the robot was lost, Tristan continued with the mission. The Lone Wanderer and Edwards headed the assault on the satellite facility, clearing it of remaining Enclave personnel. Upon securing the communications equipment, a sizable quantity of encrypted data was recovered from the primary terminal. Technically, the mission parameters were fulfilled.

Aftermath
The destruction of Liberty Prime put the Brotherhood in a very difficult position, as it removed the only significant military advantage it had over the Enclave. Lyons had little in the way of men and resources at the beginning of the conflict with the Enclave, and after the loss of Prime all of these problems surfaced, exacerbated by the ongoing water delivery program. With the resources pooled into defense against the Enclave, the newly inducted Knight, the Lone Wanderer, was ordered to infiltrate the Olney Powerworks to retrieve a Tesla coil. The coil was a technological marvel necessary for Scribe Rothchild to begin manufacturing Tesla cannons, heavy duty pre-War energy weapons, to reduce the technological gap between the Brotherhood and the Enclave.

However, while the battle was a strategic victory for the Enclave, the Brotherhood's recovery of the encrypted data sown the Enclave's ultimate destruction. By decoding it (a process likely aided by the decapitation strikes at the Purifier and Raven Rock), the Brotherhood was able to identify the Enclave's last remaining stronghold at Adams Air Force Base.

Appearances
The Battle of Rockland appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel.