(Tenpenny Tower)

"… Are you shitting with me?" Pitt growled as he pushed his plasma pistol against Griffon's temple.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Griffon responded sheepishly. Pitt stood Griffon up wiped some dust off the shoulders of his white pinstriped suit and in an almost theatrical manner, threw him off the balcony, Griffon's gravelly scream lasted for a disturbingly long time until a faint thud hit the ground. Pitt had dealt with doing far worse atrocities such as this to survive, in fact he sat down and lit a cigarette before Griffon had even hit the ground, no his very disturbed expression was the symptom of something far more disturbing than the murder of a dick.

"Heeeeeey, what's taking so long, unlike you I have a sweet heart to get back to" Bittercup swooned ridiculously.

"We're not going back to the ship yet" Pitt said without emotion "We're going to Little Lamplight." Pitt had to fight hard to not slap Bittercup as she made a mock choking sound to show her disgust at the thought of returning to her former… collection of people who tolerated her… tried to tolerate her.

(Robot Assembly)

Bigsley was getting paranoid and he damn well knew it, he hadn't done anything wrong had he? It was just a simulation, how did the Captain even know? Was he being spied on? Did the Captain sneak in here himself? He saw himself in a mirror, Christ he looked terrible, it was like he was back in Purity….. It was like he was that empty person all over again. Bigsley looked at his interface helmet; it was automatically deleting his simulations on weaponizing the virus, it wasn't worth it, not really, Bigsley wasn't really the make friends type, nor did he feel particularly indebted to the Captain, but Bigsley had seen people who had been lost to their research, who flew too close to the sun, maybe he was getting to close himself, whatever the reasoning he had a feeling that the Captain's little history lesson was more of a warning than a threat, what scared him, what terrified him was that fact that he had been rightly admonished by a man child, that and the fact he knew Olin would find out about this, god he needed a drink. Bigsley had poured himself a glass of warm scotch and had decided to spend the rest of the day in quiet contemplation, a desire which was pretty much got the shit kicked out of it when he decided to check the deletion progress of the simulation files. The screen inside of the helmet simply said: TRANSFER COMPLETE. Bigsley put the helmet down absent minded and poured himself another glass of scotch.

"Well shit"

(Project Purity, Interior)

Gallows woke up inside the facilities make shift infirmary, shit the entire facility was make shift, his head decided that it hated him the second he tried to get up, it was fearsome battle but Gallows won in the end. As he shambled down the corridor he noticed a disturbing lack of people rushing around, he passed two rooms full of bodies with red stained white cloths covering them, but not enough to explain the absence of so many. No one Gallows encountered even bothered to acknowledge him, they were all too busy….. Packing?

(Project Purity, Exterior)

"Wow you're really not happy to see me huh?" The Captain chuckled nervously with his hands up as Sarah Lyons and the rest of the Pride minus Gallows pointed very big guns at him.

"What gives you that impression?" Lyons asked with a dead serious face. The Captain stared at her for a long time, taking in her features, he could tell how tired she was, how close to the snapping point she had been pushed, he utilised all of his experience in the face of certain death and made sure….. To push her just a little bit further. Before the Pride had even known it, the Captain had ducked low sprinted past the shocked soldiers and right up to Lyons, in one fluid motion he knocked away her laser rifle and dipped her as though they were doing the waltz. "What in god's name?!"

"Well? Shall we dance our troubles away until the sun goes down?" The Captain's black overcoat danced in the breeze as he twirled around with a very reluctant Brotherhood Elder. Every time one of the Pride lined up a shot the Captain would move Lyons in front of him and yet it seemed as though he was simply obeying the steps to some pre-war dance, Lyons was not so elegant however, a trained soldier waltzing in a T-45d suit of power armour is….. Not a sight for the faint of heart.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Lyons shouted as she expertly flung the Captain over her shoulder resulting in loud thud. The Captain laughed whole heartedly as he deftly jumped up as though he were thrown on a soft bed instead of hard asphalt.

"There are a LOT of opinions on that, but more importantly I'm more interested in what's not wrong with you" The Captain chuckled as dusted himself off, he walked past Lyons and her exceedingly annoyed soldiers and stared at project purity, it seemed like for a second he was in another time, a better time, but just as soon as he left he was back again. "I've always respected you as a soldier Sarah, you know that, I wanted to give you more time I really did but reality's always closing in on us and there some things that simply have to be done." The Captain wasn't smiling anymore, his warm and playful eyes were replaced with cameras, cold pieces of metal that only existed to lock onto targets until they were no more, he put his hands behind his back and stood straight with an authority that almost made him seem like a giant. "The offer to join us is always there and I have no intention of forcing you to rush that decision at all, but as of today this is a WRM facility, I'm sorry but it's obvious that you no longer have the manpower, supplies….. Or the will to hold it, the WBC be here before long and if purity falls, we all do." The Captain let his words sink in, he looked only at Sarah, she felt the burn of his gaze and he knew it, he made sure that she knew his words carved in stone, unescapable and completely directed at her. It seemed like hours passed when in fact it had only been twenty seconds, twenty seconds was all it took for Lyons to decide on her response.

"You want it? Try and take it" Her words were just as cold and her gaze was enough to make a deathclaw turn the other way.

"I knew you still had some life in you yet" The Captain began to unbutton his overcoat, while Lyons took off her armour, much to the confusion of the crowd and to the blind rage of Olin who had been monitoring them via the beacon launched to teleport the Captain to the memorial. "If I win I expect the Brotherhood to fall in line and follow orders, trust me you'll like the ship much better than here."

"Really too bad because we'll be far too busy with all of your saucers after I kick your deranged ass here and take them for the brotherhood." The fate of the Brotherhood, a group dedicated to knowledge, understanding and chivalry….. Semi-chivalry was going to be decided by… a nineteen year old boy and a twenty three year old woman beating the shit out of one another.

Jesus it's been so long, I'm really sorry guys but life happened and the story just kinda got swept aside, but the holidays are here and I'm committed to getting this freaking thing done, I'd really appreciate your reviews as I'm feeling rusty and may have to redo this chapter, it's basically just setting things up for the next arch which when the WCB really start hitting the scene…. Literally, there just going to start hitting everything.