Assault on Adams Air Force Base

The Assault on Adams Air Force Base was the ultimate confrontation between the Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave at Adams Air Force Base in 2278.

Prelude
Following the Lone Wanderer's success in recovering the Tesla coil, Head Scribe Rothchild and his team began assembling Tesla cannons. As the Lone Wanderer became Lyons' most capable field operative, they were tasked with an assignment of adequate importance: Based on data recovered during the ill fated attack on the relay station (battle of Rockland), the Brotherhood identified a second base of operations used by the Enclave, set up in the ruins of the Adams Air Force Base. The Wanderer was given orders to infiltrate the base, alone, and destroy the headquarters of the Enclave.

As the Enclave fortified the base, the Lone Wanderer had to bypass the fortifications somehow. The method was provided by the ancient presidential metro, a pre-War governmental rapid transit line connecting the most important locations in the capital and its nearby environs. After negotiating the winding tunnels filled with still functioning security robots and aggressive ghouls, the Lone Wanderer managed to board a functioning tram and reach Adams Air Force Base.

Battle
The Enclave only set up a small security post at the old metro station, to deal with any feral ghouls that might wander into the area. The guards never expected someone as dangerous as the Lone Wanderer. Emerging from the metro, the Lone Wanderer recovered a tactical aid package dropped by a Brotherhood Vertibird near the entrance to the base. This triggered a beacon that signaled Brotherhood forces lying in wait outside the Enclave's detection range to begin their diversionary attack, to draw Enclave forces away from the base and give the Lone Wanderer a fighting chance.

The Brotherhood attack successfully diverted the Enclave's attention, whose troops were rapidly mobilized and deployed to counter the Brotherhood incursion. Meanwhile, the Lone Wanderer made their way through the base, negotiating the old reinforced buildings and decaying hangars adapted by the Enclave for use in their activities throughout the wasteland.

As a Brotherhood raiding party entered the Adams runway, distracting the Enclave troops stationed around the crawler, the Lone Wanderer was able to reach the air control tower and deploy the access ramp into the mobile base crawler. Within it, they successfully navigated the long, winding passages and negotiated the high number of Enclave personnel still stationed on board (with superior firepower).

Eventually, the Lone Wanderer reached the satellite control tower on top of the crawler and gained access to the Bradley-Hercules weapons platform. Upon selection of a target, they were retrieved by Sentinel Sarah Lyons and taken to the Citadel, after witnessing the destruction of the crawler at the hands of a Bradley-Hercules payload.

Aftermath
Following the second rout of the Enclave at Adams, the Brotherhood enjoys a stable, but hardly unrivaled position. Suffering from severely depleted stockpiles and shortage of manpower at the beginning of the conflict, casualties taken during the fight with the Enclave and the loss of their most important military asset, Liberty Prime, make the future uncertain.

For the time being, the Brotherhood is occupied by its research into the Enclave technology. It has recovered a great amount of gear and weapons, and while it has already begun reverse-engineering it during the conflict, the process will take years to complete. The water caravan program also continues to develop, while Elder Lyons switched focus back to the Brotherhood's old enemies: The Vault 87 super mutants and Lyons' lofty goal of bringing peace to the Capital Wasteland.

The Enclave was largely destroyed as an effective fighting force, though it remains to be seen if this state of affairs will last. Their resources and mobility may lead to another resurgence in the future.

However, if the Lone Wanderer nuked the Citadel in the crawler, the situation would be dramatically different. While the Enclave would remain defeated, the loss of the Brotherhood's entire upper command echelon, headquarters, research laboratory, weapon stockpile, and the bulk of their manpower would irreversibly cripple the entire organization.

Appearances
The Assault on Adams Air Force Base appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel. It is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas, its add-on Lonesome Road and Fallout 4.