The Red Mile - Starfield 164 

Nothing like walking out in the wild of this planet only to hear booms all over the place as 22:43 it them shoot at things.

Breach shotgun for the win, slugs work well on everything.

If you want to force your follower to use a certain weapon, don't you have to equip it from their inventory? Otherwise they use their default weapon that's not shown in their inventory. That might be why your fan keeps going back to the pistol with the laser. Only time I ever ran the mile I just boosted and sprinted the whole way. Think I only killed 2 or 3 of the maulers for the entire thing. (I was expecting it to be more dangerous) Of course your way might have been more fun since it was extra challenging.

When you get to the beacon go to the right and back of it find a room with loot.

Select the weapon you want fan to use by pressing B on the keyboard.