"So…you're just going to ignore the Lone Wanderer, a hero of the Capital Wasteland, and everything he's been through?" Preston asked.
"I didn't say that. I said no, I'm not going to help him. I did not say I was going to do nothing," Nora informed him, "You know what I'm going to do?"
"Subvert and assume authority?" Deacon proposed. She glared at him.
"Yes, actually."
"Got it in one."
"I'm not going to change a thing. I'm going to keep on as if nothing is wrong. Quentin is going back to the Tunnel Snakes. We are going to leak out that Paul Hannon Junior had intelligence on the Gunners, and had a peculiar way of delivering it to me. Despite his attack on me, we are grateful for his information, and we are going to act on it, starting today. By the end of the month, the Gunners will be wiped off the Commonwealth."
"That sounds like a good plan, General, but what are we going to do about Elder Maxson?" Preston reiterated his question.
"Right now? Nothing. We're going to make it look like I'm focusing on Commonwealth affairs, because that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to get the Commonwealth in order before stretching my resources too thin. Preston, I want as many units you can muster geared up, trained up, and ready to go in two weeks. Deacon, if you don't mind, I need you to find someone for me."
"You got it, Professor. What's the name?"
"Parker Quinn. He's a con artist, out by the South Boston Police Department. I've got a job for him, and if it works, he'll be a freaking hero."
"Halt! Who goes there?" the Gunner guard barked.
"I'm just here to trade. I've got the deal of a lifetime for the Gunners!"
"What are you selling?"
"I'm selling the foremost in credit and convenience."
"Not interested."
"Retard."
"What did you call me?"
"I said, the Gunners are hurting, and you turn away the best way for you to buy gear, right from Diamond City? Re. Tard."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well you're obviously too stupid to understand the complex logistical solutions I offer for your Quartermasters, so maybe you should just let me in, and I'll be able to talk to someone who isn't drooling on his own chest at the thought of counting further than ten, all right?"
"Welcome to Kill or Be Killed, I'm KLEO, owner and proprietor. How can I help you today?" the Assaultron greeted the beefcake that entered her store.
"Do you accept these charge-cards?" the man asked.
"Sure do, honey. Everyone in Goodneighbor accepts the Charge-Cards. They're all the rage these days," she purred.
"Excellent. I've got a list of guns and ammo I need to fill out."
"Hey you there! Can I interest you in a gen-yew-wine hickory Swattah? It's a Diamond City Tradition! Celebrate the all-American sport, Baseball!" Moe Cronin called out.
"You take Charge-Cards, right?" a woman with a scar running down her face in a blue denim dress asked him. He grinned, ear to ear.
"Sure do! Best way to buy a Swattah!"
"Welcome to Vaul-Trade, where we get you prepared for the future!" the Vaul-Trader declared to a man wearing leather armor and sunglasses.
"I'm going to pay with my charge-cards," the man announced.
"Can do! What'll it be?"
"You're Lucas Mills, right? You sell armor?" a woman, wearing army fatigues and combat armor, stood in the middle of the road. The caravan guards clutched their weapons.
"Yeah, I've got protection," he replied. She dug into her pockets. The guards aimed their weapons. She pulled out some rectangular pieces of plastic.
"Do you take charge-cards?"
The Gunner quartermasters met at Postal Square, where they'd started a depot for the collection of gear. It was risky, but they had to take the chance. The Gunners were low on supplies, and it was difficult to get into and out of Boston unscathed with the Minutemen taking a stronger position all around the Commonwealth.
"I can't believe it, every merchant I talked to took these ridiculous pieces of plastic," one said.
"It's crazy, they must have figured out a way to get them working again, or something," another remarked.
"That Parker Quinn's going to be rolling in caps once this catches back on. Do you know how many he sold? He was tossing them out like they were Nuka-Cola!" a third agreed.
"Is this everyone?" their commander asked. There was a dozen or so quartermasters and their Brahmins and guard. They had boxes upon boxes of ammo, guns, clothing, and other supplies desperately needed by the Gunners.
"Looks like it, Chief."
"Excellent. Get everyone rounded up, we're headed back to Quincy."
"Yes, sir!"
The commanding officer turned, only to find one of the Gunner soldiers aiming a rifle in his face, wearing a Minuteman hat.
"What the hell are you-"
The soldier blew the officer's head off, and several of the other Gunners turned on their fellows, each wearing a Minuteman hat. The 'Pop' of Laser Muskets rang out, and more Minutemen slipped into the street. Minuteman wearing a suit of T-45 Power Armor thumped along with them, holding a contraption that had six Laser Musket barrels with a single emitter in the center. The Power Armor-clad Minuteman cranked his weapon several times before firing, causing a red streak of light that crashed into the side of a building, leaving a hole in the side, and removing half the torso of every Gunner it touched, and setting fire to several others. It was an effective field test of the Laser Cannon.
The Minutemen had the Gunners mopped up in a few minutes, leaving most of the Quartermasters alive, and preserving most of their gear. The Minutemen began collecting the Gunners' gear and their purchases.
"Wh-what are you going to do with us?" one quartermaster asked. The Minuteman grinned.
"You're going back to Quincy."
"I still don't understand this operation," Captain Teller said. She was one of the unit leaders that Preston had gathered for the assault on Quincy.
"It's pretty complicated," Preston admitted, "But it went like this: Beforehand, the Minutemen got enough caps to back these prewar charge-cards at a hundred caps a piece. We got some sponsors to make it happen. We sent in Parker Quinn to the Gunners to sell them the charge-cards at a hundred and ten caps a piece. His payment is the extra ten caps."
"Uh huh. So why are we paying for the Gunners' equipment?" Teller asked. They were following the 'Gunner' caravan back to Quincy. The Quartermasters were still alive, but their 'guards' were all Minutemen in Gunner uniforms.
"Well, we took most of the gear for ourselves. Those Brahmin are loaded with bombs and some gear we're willing to sacrifice to trick them into letting our boys in. So we didn't pay for the Gunners' gear, we paid for our own gear. The Gunners just did the shopping, then we took possession of it."
"So what's with the Charge-Cards?"
"Anyone who bought anything with a Charge-Card, we knew to be a Gunner supply officer. We paid the merchants to make notes of whenever and whoever tried to use one. Once we were alerted to the use of a charge-card, we tracked the Gunner down until we found their depot. It was a mark, see?"
"Oh. Wow, that's…Better than anything we did before the first Battle of Quincy," Captain Teller said, "Almost like we're a real army now, you know?"
"We are a real army!" Preston laughed.
"Well, now we're taking the initiative, you know? No more waiting for something to happen. We're making things happen. Taking the Good Fight to them for once, know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I hear you."
It was another day before the Quartermasters arrived at Quincy. Preston's army, consisting of nearly two hundred men and women, currently holed up in Quincy Quarries to hide their presence and numbers, with scout and recon groups keeping the area clear of lookie-loos. Preston knew that there was going to be a two-pronged attack, but they were going to be the first wave. They had Power Armor and Heavy Weapons, which had been smuggled in days before one at a time. Once the battle was engaged, the Atom Cats and their Power Armor units were going to attack from the other side, along with a second Minuteman force moving in from the sea.
To the north was Gunner's Plaza, which was their HQ. A fourth force, this one led by the Brotherhood of Steel, was going to be assaulting that location, preventing the Gunners from flanking Preston's army. There were over a thousand soldiers that the Minutemen were bringing to bear. There were as many Minutemen taking part in this battle as there were stationed in settlements, nearly half of their entire force. The Gunners were going to be outmanned and now outgunned. It was about time.
The exploding Brahmin let out a reverberation that could be felt even through the stones of the quarry.
"That's the signal! FOR THE COMMONWEALTH!" Preston called out, and he put on his helmet. He was one of the Power Armor troopers here, armed with one of the new Laser Cannons the Brotherhood helped develop for the Minutemen. He was the first up the ramp, followed by two hundred Minutemen.
The Gunners' gates had been split open from the inside out, and the quartermasters, who had tried fleeing just before the bombs went off, had been shot in the back before they could take off. The Minutemen who had snuck in were holed up in a building, pinning down the Gunners who were trying to avenge their comrades. When the gates were swarmed with Minutemen, however, they took a beating.
The Gunners had enough men to face two hundred. They had the training and equipment to do so, even though the Minutemen had Power Armor. After all, they had their own suits, which they quickly brought to bear using missile launchers.
The Gunners were unprepared, however, for the Atom Cats to attack another wall, taking it down with Fat Man launchers, and breaking their wall entirely. Still, they were prepared for a second attack of Power Armor troopers, and had the Heavy Weapons to take them on. They couldn't bear a prolonged siege, but nobody ever accused the Gunners of taking their time to finish fights.
When they dedicated troops to block the Atom Cats advance, however, they found themselves being assaulted not just by stylish suits of Power Armor, but by Harbormen wearing Recon Armor, fresh off the boat. Harbormen Minutemen were still pouring off the boats and charging into the breach. A Gunner Vertibird tried to take off, but it was brought down with concentrated fire. They sent out a plea for help from Gunner's Plaza, but the outside had already been taken by the Brotherhood of Steel, who had landed their own Vertibirds on the roof of the former GNN studio.
The fiercest battle the Gunners faced, however, was from a small group of soldiers who had gotten into Quincy from the south just after Preston and his troops had made it in. Two soldiers in X-01 Power Armor had gotten through the wall, supported by a platoon of combat robots: Sentry Bots, Assaultrons, Mister Gutsies, all custom built and modified with different kinds of parts and weapons. The troops in Power Armor brought Gatling Lasers, which chewed through the Gunner lines. They were not there to take strategic positions, as they often found themselves surrounded by enemies. They were there to slaughter the Gunners wholesale.
A few Gunners managed to escape Quincy or the Plaza onslaught. They slipped into the wilderness, hoping to regroup later. Instead, they found themselves being picked off by snipers, totally unseen in the wilderness. Railroad snipers, armed with both conventional Hunting Rifles and with scoped Gauss Rifles had the entire area surrounded, taking out survivors and stragglers, preventing any continued Gunner resistance after the battle.
All in all, the battle lasted for two hours, before the last Gunner squad surrendered, having seen their officer get turned to dust by a laser musket shot. The Second Battle of Quincy came to an end, far faster than the first had. Like the First Battle, one of the participants was shattered and destroyed.
Zeke, Colonel Garvey, General Killinger, High Paladin Brandis, and Harbor Captain Bertha met in the Quincy Church. A prison camp had already been set up for the Gunners outside of town.
"The first order of business is the matter of the Gunner Power Armor frames," Nora began, "We have recovered seventeen frames from the Gunners. As promised, the Brotherhood gets a double share of them, while the Atom cats and Minutemen will have an even split. As such, the Brotherhood will receive eight, the Atom Cats will receive four for their use and one to repair and sell, while the Minutemen will keep four."
"Why does the Brotherhood get double shares of the Power Armor if all they did was take their headquarters? We were the ones who did all the tough work!" Bertha objected.
"It was in accordance to a deal made before the attack was commenced," Brandis explained, "The Brotherhood would seize Gunner's Plaza in exchange for additional help in reconstructing the city, and getting GNN plaza working again. It's not what we did during the battle, it's the deal we made for after the battle."
"…Oh. Okay," she leaned back.
"The Harbormen of Far Harbor will have equal settlement rights to the Quincy area. It is the understanding that they will construct dry docks for the continued development of our merchant marine and naval forces," Nora continued. Bertha nodded. Nora continued, "The Minutemen will take control of Quincy itself, and it will be colonized by Harbormen and people of the Commonwealth.
"The Gunners prisoners will be put on trial as we connect individual Gunners to their crimes. The most we can hope to do is identify officers, and any soldiers under their command will share their fates. The question is, what should their fates be?" Nora asked, "Are we going to execute nearly three dozen prisoners? Are we going to keep them in camps? For how long? Under what conditions? Do we exile them? This is the hardest question we have, though not our last."
"I know I'd prefer to see the Gunners all dead for what they did to the Minutemen," Preston admitted, "But that's not the world I want to build. We should handle them on a case-by-case basis, and the ones that can be redeemed should work for their freedom."
"I don't see the point," Bertha said, "These guys have plagued the Commonwealth for years. They aren't our problem, and we don't want them to be. If you don't have the stomach for it, let us handle the executions. That way, the Gunners won't have anyone with memories that Far Harbor was involved."
"The Brotherhood of Steel is not in the habit of taking prisoners at all," Brandis said.
"The Gunners are bad news, but I don't think it's a good idea to just line them up and shoot them," Zeke said, "I think putting them to work after trials is the best option we have."
"So what conditions do we put for discharging of prisoners? When is a Gunner redeemed?" Nora asked.
"Might want to put a stopper in that bottle, General," Deacon, wearing a Minuteman outfit, interrupted as he entered the church, "We just got a confession from a Gunner officer. Second in command, actually. You're going to want to read this."
Deacon handed Nora a slip of paper, and she read it, scowling. She handed it to Brandis.
"Steel save us…" Brandis muttered.
"What is it?" Preston asked.
"Preston, do you know the history of the Gunners?" Nora asked. He shook his head.
"They're a well-armed Raider gang, what's to know?"
"That they were founded and led by someone. Their entire organization as deliberate. The Gunners aren't Raiders. They're a conspiracy. Which is something I suspected from the beginning. According to this confession? The Gunners were founded, trained, and backed by Ronto."