CHAPTER TEN

Elder Hartley had sat down in conference with Arthur Maxson and Nathan going over the finer points of the deal that had been struck. The Brotherhood of Steel now owned the entire site that was formerly known as Boston Logan Airport. Both of the Airships would be moored here for the time being. The Brotherhood had the right to fly Verti-Birds outside of the Boston Circle, which was Interstate 93 and 95.

They could hunt or forage for food outside of those same limits which included land that was claimed by the Commonwealth providing they had sort permission from the new Governor, otherwise the Brotherhood and the Commonwealth were as two separate entities.

Arthur Maxson was to be named as interim Governor until such time that a fair and equal election for the position could be held. All of the former Brotherhood personnel who came with Maxson would be integrated into the Commonwealth armed forces or into civil administrations that would run the new Commonwealth.

There were to be no recriminations towards any personnel who wished to remain with the Brotherhood. Those who joined Maxson would not be allowed to take or remove any weapons or equipment from the Airport. To do so would be considered an act of criminality.

All parties would agree to abide by the outcome of the ongoing trail, regardless of its eventual outcome.

The Market would remain operating at the Airport and an equal rate of exchange would be agreed upon so that trade could take place. The Commonwealth used coins and paper money that the Minutemen had seized from old Banks and automated cash machines, caps were also legal tender. The Brotherhood dealt in gold, and it appeared to Nathan that they had lots of it.

The meeting broke up on an amicable note with the three persons present raising a glass in toast to one and all.

Maxson, Nathan and fifty men and women of all ranks filed out of the main gates of the Airport, they were met by a rather disturbed looking Colonel R. J. MacCready along with several CM113 APC's and a squadron of mechanized infantry. The Colonel was in full dress uniform.

Hartley watched the reunion of old friends from the safety of his office and the view from the security cameras, he lazily popped a pill into his mouth while lifting his feet up to rest on the edge of his walnut brown desk. 'Doesn't it just make you glow all over? The things we can do for these poor miserable wretches.'

'Sir, do you mean the Commonwealth?' asked Proctor Eugene Nash keenly.

'Yes, yes, they do not yet know to what extent we control them.' Hartley's voice tapered away as though he was either bored or suddenly lost in thought.

'Operation Possum, Sir?'

'Isn't it just wonderful? Only weeks ago it lay in tatters and then by the invisible hand of some unknown god of fortune, Nathan Dewitt strides confidently into my hands and offers it right back to me on a plate!'

Outside the main gates;

'General Dewitt, Nathan! All hell has broken loose and we find ourselves, in your absence, in a state of war!' MacCready importuned.

Nathan looked at Arthur, Arthur returned his concerned, incredulous look back in equal measure.

MacCready then set about reporting the day's events as carefully as he could, including all of the action that, Preston, Cait and he, had taken.

Nathan asked if any of Fort Hagan's hardware had been deployed and seemed to be non-committed when he was told, no. Nathan turned to Arthur Maxson and asked how many of his people would be able to fight straight away.

Arthur spoke with Danse briefly before answering, twenty knights but they would need arms and armour. Nathan said they were to go straight to Vault 88 where they would be fully equipped with T-60f Power Armour and a choice of weapons from, Plasma Rifles to Laser Gatling Guns, or Rocket launchers if they so wished.

They were the first three CM 113's to pull away from the gathering outside the gates of Boston Airport.

'Arthur, we don't have any Verti-Birds but we do have something similar, they are called Chickasaw's, we just don't know if or how they work, do think you have anyone who could try?'

'Proctor Quinlan, Lancer Captain Kells, take two squads of Scribes each and go with the drivers Nate assigns to you.'

'Anything else Nate?' Arthur asked.

'Yes you need to take a team with you to the Governor's office over at the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston, I have already got people there working hard and they will be expecting you.'

'Professor Scara, Proctor's Teagan and Ingram you all come with me. The rest of you go with the transport over to the new Police Building and link up with Lieutenant General Garvey.'

The journey for Nathan and the others from the Airport would take around one hour and five minutes, he had summoned all of the Commonwealth's reserve forces and they were also to meet him there in the centre of Concord.

As they travelled, Nathan and the others began to plan the campaign but something kept on nagging at the back of Nate's mind, why had the Super-Mutants attacked? He needed answers to even begin to understand what things lay ahead.

Studying maps of the area and over lapping what they thought they knew about the attack, between them the leaders of the new Commonwealth forces decided on a plan of action. The forces would need to be split into three mobile battalions; "A", "B", and "C". Once they had reached the center of Concord they would each split up and go to the following location and dig in. "A" battalion would head south along Sudbury Road until they hit highway "2" there they would turn right and head up Concord Turnpike as far as the bridge of the Sudbury River. This side of the river was not built upon so would be relatively easy to defend once the battalion had dug in.

"B" battalion would cover Concords right flank, they would follow Lowell Road out of Concord, over the Concord River as far as a place called Macones Pond. This is situated where the Assabet River forks left towards West Concord and right into a series of Ponds and wetland areas. Here there were two adjacent houses, one off Lowell Road and the other across from it on Barnes Hill Road, they were surrounded by a wooded area and at their backs was a large pond.

"C" battalion would stay in Concord itself concentrating on Main Street and Elm Street where there were two bridges over the Sudbury River, along with a small detachment at the little bridge on Nashawtuc Road half way along Main Street between the other two bridges and the town center. Forward Command Headquarters were situated at Hanscom Field, at the former U.S. Airforce base. Professor Scara was assigned to HQ as executive officer to Major General Ronnie Shaw, this would also be the centre for all Intel, wounded on both sides, and if there were to be any autopsies to be carried out on the green skins.

Directly each battalion had been given one company of 120 Minutemen in heavy combat armour, armed with Browning Automatic Rifles (BAR), CM1 Garand Rifles, CM1 and CM2 carbines, frag grenades and grenade launchers. One Company of mechanized infantry which comprised of six CM8 Greyhound vehicles, eleven CM113 Armoured personnel carriers, a platoon of thirty of the 'Iron Horses', motorcycle cavalry. In reserve, once they had arrived would be ten power armour Knight in T-60f suits along with five in T-45c Minutemen power armour, for each battalion. "C" battalion would also include a Battery of six CM101A1 howitzers.

If the flyboys from Maxson's group of ex-brotherhood pilots could get the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw's airborne then they too would be given a mission brief and attached to the battalions, their role should they arrive in time, was to ferry the wounded back to Concord, they were forbidden to act in a combat role as they were considered too vulnerable to the missile launchers held by the Super-Mutants.

"A" battalion was put under the command of Proctor Teagan and given Colonel Robert Joseph MacCready as an executive officer, "B" battalion was given to Proctor Ingram with Colonel Cait Kenny as executive officer, and "C" battalion was given to Lieutenant General Preston Garvey with Lancer-Captain Kells as his executive officer. Nathan's role in any forth coming action was less clear even to himself, after organizing everything else he kept having nagging doubts about just what was going down and why. He was confident that whatever was going to happen though that the commonwealth was in good hands – Cait was as worried by his talk as any of his close friends were.

Now all anyone could do was just sit and wait.

The hours following the loss of Sanctuary and the Red Rocket gas station were full of troop maneuvers, five separate bridges needed to be covered and the townsfolk needed to be organized. Nathan called for a meeting at the old town clerk's office on monument square, it boasted the widest open space where Nathan wanted to address as many of the people as possible.

As the hours ticked by late into the night and early into the following morning, The Mayor of Concord, Henry Willard, and his esteemed guest's, the leaders of the new Commonwealth military talked until they had thrashed out a plan. Nathan would give a speech later that day in front of the Clerk's office, after which he would take a tour of the three battalions and then head off into enemy territory on a reconnaissance mission.

While Nathan put finishing touches to his speech, men out front of the building were putting together a raised platform on which he was to give his address.

Everyone's mood brightened once former Knight Captain Danse arrived with thirty power armour suited men, no longer wearing the gun metal grey of the Brotherhood, but resplendent in green/olive drab, the colours of the old United Sates military, on their right arm they bore a new emblem, a flag.

At the same time a new flag was being hoisted up the flagpole outside the Clerk's office, alongside the original white flag of Massachusetts, which carried the figure of a Native American enclosed in a blue shield. It was important for people to know their roots, but it was just as important to give them hope, something to strive for and this new flag represented that.

This second flag was styled very much in the fashion of an old flag that would now only have been known to Nathan Dewitt, that flag was called "the Betsy Rose" and a common misconception was that it's design was attributed to the afore mentioned Mrs. Betsy Ross. She was depicted in a famous painting as sitting with General George Washington himself and describing how she cut the stars, which she had arranged in a circle instead of lines to stitch on to the blue canton of the flag.

There were of course hundreds if not thousands of old tattered, torn and discarded American flags all over former Massachusetts not that anyone living now would have realised quite what they once represented to millions of people the world over. What Nathan had proposed would only enhance what they had already.

This new flag, "the Betsy Rose II" consisted of a navy blue canton in its upper left with thirty two silver stars set out in a circle, these represented all of the settlements that made up the Commonwealth. The rest of the flag (the field) consisted of a series of red, white, and blue horizontal lines, twelve in all, these were to represent the multi-divergent society of Human's, Synth's, and Ghouls. Its name was to be, the flag of the Commonwealth of United Settlements.

The day of Nathan's speech.

Nathan stood on the raised platform that had been erected in front of the main double doors to the Clerk's house, alongside him was Mayor Henry Willard, and Preston Garvey. Arrayed in front of the podium were a line of Minutemen who had been polished up for the occasion, and they were flanked by a single Knight in T-60f power armour.

The Mayor was the first to speak, 'Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for coming.'

There was quite a crowd gathering and sporadic clapping broke almost as soon as the Mayor had begun speaking.

'As I look around this sea of faces today I notice only a handful of you who were here on that fateful day six years ago, when we met on this very spot!'

Pause for more applause.

'How many were we? Twelve? I don't remember exactly, but I do remember that we took charge of this land from another, one who had almost sacrificed his own life days before in order that those others amoungst you, who already lived here but hid in fear of your lives, may once more immerge into the light of day, please give it up for Lieutenant General Preston Garvey.'

Loud applause along with whistles, hoots and all manner of happy noises.

Preston stood still, waiting for the adulation to die down, 'Thank you, everyone especially the Mayor for his very kind words.'

A ripple of applause once more.

'It is correct and befitting that Mayor Willard mentioned that day six years ago. Pause. Why, you may ask? Because of this man here at my side.' Preston pointed to Nathan.

'This man came wandering into town looking for his son, but looking every bit as lost himself.'

Fierce applause.

'He must have herd the gun fire, but instead of running away he did something that I have never seen repeated in these last six years or in any other year before either!'

The crowd now broke out into all manner of shouts from 'Yes sir!' to 'Amen' and everything in between.

'Nathan Dewitt shot and killed nine members of a raider gang that had me and a few others pinned in this very building behind me!'

Loud applause.

'He single handily saved us, and some of you too, who were too young or too old or too scared to fight them yourselves, but he didn't stop there. Pause. Nathan then had to fight a wild Deathclaw who had made its home in the sewers beneath our very feet.'

'Yes sir. He did that too! Please now show your appreciation for our next guest of honour General Nathan Dewitt.'

The crowd erupted in jubilant celebration.

'Thank you, everyone. Can I just clarify one thing though before I continue, that Deathclaw, he was only a baby, not a foot over seven foot?!'

Laughter broke out between sporadic groups and some more hand clapping.

'Okay, first let me begin properly by having these fine soldiers stood out in front here returned to their units. Take a long hard look at them because tomorrow they may not be with us, now, I want them to leave because war is NOT pretty and war does not look anything like these boys here!'

Nathan turned to look at a Sergeant who was stood at the side of the platform, 'Return them to their units, if you please.'

The crowd no longer laughed or applauded, there were sounds, but they were of anger and fear.

Nathan held his hands high, a gesture which he used to quiet the noise down. 'I want you to know that what these fine boys and girls represent though is hope, hope in a future where they can dress this way, and why? Because the fighting will be over and we will have peace.'

The mood of the crowd changed slightly, as some now cheered once more.

'When I look around the faces in this crowd I can recognize some of you, we were here on this very spot, six years ago – remember when we had defeated the Raider gangs?'

Cheers mixed with shouts of agreement.

'Do you remember a time when there were no Minutemen to turn to for help, and your new community was under threat, what did you do?'

'We fought together side by side!' came a chorus of shouts.

'Yes you did, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. All of you stood together and fought whatever came your way, and now we ask that you do the same again.'

A great chorus of agreement filled the air.

'Whoever wants to be part of this new nation, this Commonwealth of United Settlements, and is between the ages of sixteen and sixty, meet here tomorrow morning at nine o'clock sharp, we have guns and equipment and we have the best instructors in the commonwealth to train you.'

The chorus of approval rang loud and proud late into the night. Nathan received the thanks and congratulations from many as he stepped down from his platform and made his way over to a waiting jeep.

The following morning over half of the nine hundred people who had stood and listened had returned, some looked younger than sixteen and other older than sixty but those who were lied about their age were gratefully accepted into the ranks of the New Concord Militia, and in total three battalions could be formed from the men and women who turned out.

Nathan was walking with Preston, Cait and Professor there mood had been nothing if not up beat at the turn out of locals, of course they were never going to put into combat, all had agreed, never the less it was good for morale that so many had volunteered. Natalie Wright had sent reporters and photographers to Concord to make sure her readership didn't miss a thing, and all in all things were definitely looking up.

Major General Ronnie Shaw appeared with a fleet of Dodge cargo trucks each bristling with uniforms, basic combat armour, weapons and ammunition. They had parked up alongside the Clerk's office as Nathan's party had rounded the corner, 'General, Sir's and Ma'am.' Shaw saluting as she addressed each in turn.

'Good to see you major! I trust the journey went well, no incidents to report?' Preston replied.

'No sir! We did come across a platoon of your men on I-2 on the way in though, they were parked up at the bridge over the Cambridge Turnpike, I reckoned it was odd but I checked their papers personally, and everything was in order, so I let them continue.'

'Carry on? What exactly where they doing Shaw?' that was Nathan who inquired, frowning at the others as he spoke.

'General, they had orders to blow the bridge!? Now Ronnie Shaw looked puzzled.

'What? Who the heck gave those orders to do that? Nathan was not amused.

'Begging your pardon, Sir, you did!' Ronnie was narrowed her eyes as she continued, 'It was your signature Nathan, but am I right in thinking it really wasn't?'

'Damn straight Major General, which has got me thinking about something else.'

'What's that Nathan,' inquired Cait.

'Just who did we get this intelligence off that the attack on Sanctuary was really Super-Mutants?' Nathan's eyes were wide, his right hand on his forehead, 'Preston, fetch me the man who gave you the Intel on the attack, immediately!' the last word was snarled at Preston, but not at Preston, at those responsible for this elaborate mascaraed.

Nathan turned to Ronnie, 'You! Get a team together and go see what the heck they were up to, but be careful, if they have rigged the bridge don't get careless, if they haven't, well just find a way to stop them.'

Cait, MacCready, there's nothing more to do here, I will handle the Intel, I need you two to get back to your units.'

Preston came running back to Nathan with another soldier in tow, Corporal Sara Sampson.

The Corporal stood to attention, Nathan told her to stand easy. 'Now, Corporal you are the one who informed Lieutenant General Garvey about the situation at Sanctuary were you not?'

'Affirmative, Sir!'

'How did you come by this information?'

'A Lieutenant. Him, and his platoon were high tailing it in from Sanctuary, they said it was a massacre.'

'That was it, Corporal?'

'He was a senior officer, Sir!' Sara stated as though it was an offence to question such things.

'Okay, but the report I received was a little more specific that that, so where did the rest of the detail come from?'

'Sir the Lieutenant came in with the garrison from Red Rocket, he must have told them some more stuff, that's where I picked it up from.'

Nathan flicked through the report that Preston had handed to him. 'They were told that this platoon had come from further north, from the Trading post?'

'Yes, sir.'

'They said that they were the relief column and that on arrival they discovered the post and all who were there had been killed?'

'Yes, sir, they said they fought their way out and made for Sanctuary, but that the Mutants had followed them.'

'Yet nobody asked why they hadn't called this through themselves, or better yet why did they not stop to fight, they numbered around thirty didn't they?'

'Yes sir they did, but as I said I was given an order by a senior officer, and something else too!'

'Don't tell me Corporal, they had signed orders from me?'

'Yes sir.'

'Gaud damn it! We have been played, out thought and out smarted but by who and why?'

'Preston, I need you to do something for me, corporal, return to your unit, dismissed!'

Nathan grabbed a couple of hours sleep inside the Clerk's house before heading back outside to his jeep. He drove a mile alone Main Street to one of the bridges that were being guarded by "C" battalion, his destination was the South Bridge Boat House on the far bank, this was "C" battalion's forward headquarters. Cait was delighted to see Nate again so soon but the look on his face told her he wasn't here because he missed her.

'Hi Cait! Is Preston here yet?'

'I haven't seen him, I wouldn't have expected to this side of the river either to be honest, why? What are you two cooking up Nate?'

'It's a reunion, of sorts, I asked him to meet me here with an old friend.'

Just then Cait pointed behind Nathan, Preston was driving a second jeep toward them from the other side of the river. Cait wondered what was going on but thought better than to ask, anyway Preston was here now so she would soon enough.

'Hey Preston, did you manage to procure the services of my old friend?'

'Sure did General, he's flat out on the back seat, are you sure you two want to do this on your own?'

Cait was intrigued.

Nathan whistled.

Cait turned to him, looking at him like he had gone mad, 'What in the world, Nate?'

Her words hung in the air as a strange almost keening sound came from the back seat of the jeep.

'Here boy, come to Daddy!' Nathan spoke gently as though he were talking to his son, his real son that is.

The keening became a whine followed by three separate barks, then the large German Shepard sprang up from the back seat of the jeep and bounded over to Nathan, he was now down on one knee. 'Not that mangy mutt, I thought for sure he was worm bait by now!' observed Cait.

Cait and Dogmeat had both vied for Nathan's affection, but for some reason whenever the two of them were together with Nate, the raggedy tailed critter had always won out, and that included sharing a bed space with Nate so that she always ended up sleeping on her own.

'So what's with the big pow-wow with the Bow-wow, Nathan?'

'Dogmeat and I are going for a little walk in the countryside, just to stretch our legs, aren't we boy?'

Dogmeat, yapped excitedly as though he understood every word his master had just spoken.

'Oh I see! It's like that is it?' Cait looked straight at the dog when she spoke, he, for his part just whined some more and lay down flat with his front two paws over his eyes.

'Cait he's got tracking skills we both lack, I need him for this mission.'

'He's got flees! That's what he has got.' Dogmeat seemed to like that, as he rolled over on his back three or four times.

'Oh stop it now you mangy hairball!' Cait tried to sound angry but the truth was she just wanted to be with Nate, to be able to watch his back, and she would far rather have her Carbine than Dogmeat's teeth and claws.

'Cait I need you here to watch my back, don't you understand? That is why I always send you out with MacCready these days, you and he watch each other, you and I share something very special, and that makes things complicated.'

'Complicated, seriously?' Cait could barely catch her breath.

'I love you Cait, and when we are out on patrol I am not as focused as I should be.'

Cait stood unable to speak, her mouth opened but no words came out.

'Seriously, I am too busy wondering if you are alright, all the darn time, so much so I think I lose my edge out there.'

Cait's eyes welled with tears, she understood.

MacCready had heard enough, 'Oh for the love of God, just kiss each other and Nate get the heck out of here before I turn my gun on you both and then myself!'

Nate stared deep into Cait's eyes as if mesmerized by her beauty. Cait leaned forward and they kissed, pulling away shortly after, she whispered into his ear, 'take care of yourself my love.'