Wave On, Old Glory

by TallYapflip

From the trenches of Anchorage to the court room, the Sole Survivor has led an interesting life. After awakening 210 years post-nuclear war, she encounters a group of settlers and a Minuteman from Quincy. She's given a chance, however slim it may be, to undo some of the damage done by the Great War. [F!SS/Piper, slow-burn, canon deviations later, some gore, and lots of patriotism.]

10. Chapter 10: 21:6

Chapter 10: 21:6

Nora crossed her arms as the small patrol she was leading back to base was gathered around in the middle of the Museum of Freedom's entrance. "Alright… I think we're being tailed." She began as the few soldiers who had restrained the Raiders against the wrought iron gate leading deeper into the museum finally approached. "Caught some movement up in the church's bell tower."

"Brotherhood?" One of the corporals asked, looking concerned.

"Probably not… Sanctuary's patrols would've picked up on a Brotherhood presence." Nora answered, shrugging. "They tend to stick out." She seemed thoughtful for a moment, eventually spotting a familiar device attached to the belt loop of a nearby corporal. "Corporal, I'm gonna need your stealth boy."

Surprised to see the General asking for his equipment in particular, the Corporal handed over the device with a confused look on his face. "Alright, I need four volunteers to head outside and establish a perimeter around the museum. I'll sneak out alongside you; all I need is for you to patrol the outside for a few minutes. On my signal, I want all of you to move on the church and surround it."

"Got it." The Sergeant nodded, pointing to three others and motioning for them to get ready.

As the soldiers gathered up their weapons and assigned two of their comrades to keep watch over the captured raiders and recovered civilians, Nora set about to removing her plate carrier, helmet, and backpack; all in a move to keep the noise of her movement to an absolute minimum. When everyone was set, Nora activated her Stealth Boy and crept outside alongside the four-man "patrol".

As she neared the church, she became certain that there was indeed someone watching their position from the church tower. She could just barely make out the barrel of a rifle silhouetted against the dimming sky. Ducking into the church, she took extra care to avoid any especially loose floor boards or debris, eventually making her way to the staircase leading to the bell tower. Making her way to the top and quietly drawing her .45 handgun from her thigh holster, she saw a man laying prone, staring down the scope of a heavily-modified hunting rifle.

She was admittedly surprised, as the man didn't look even remotely like a raider or a Brotherhood Knight. If anything, he looked more like one of the Atom Cats, pompadour and all. He wore a simple white t-shirt and jeans alongside a pair of aviator sunglasses. "Freeze!" Nora declared, leveling her sidearm at the man. He jolted slightly, not expecting the commanding voice of the Commonwealth's renowned General to shout at him from behind. "Push the rifle off the roof, now!"

Surprisingly, the man complied, simply shoving the rifle forward and sending it clattering to the ground below. Almost like had had been in a situation like this before, he kept his hands exactly where Nora could clearly see them. Hearing the noise, the eight men who hadn't been assigned to the raiders and civilians began to encircle the church, training their weapons up at the tower. "Damn…" The man muttered. "Knew you were good, but that was damn good."

"Who are you?" Nora demanded, reaching down and deactivating the Stealth Boy.

"Look, uhh…" The man began, fidgeting a bit. "Name's Deacon. Well, not my real name, but you get the point. Operational security and all that… There's a couple like-minded people that I think you should meet."

"Gonna have to be a bit more specific, 'Deacon'…" Nora sarcastically responded, allowing herself to relax when she saw that Deacon didn't have any other weapons on him.

"Alright, alright… sheesh." Deacon sighed. "Look, I'm with the Railroad." He began, keeping his voice lower. "My boss wants to meet you."

"Interesting way to get in touch, pointing a rifle at me and my men." Nora quipped. "But I get it, wanna make sure I'm not secretly with the Institute or something like that?"

"Yeah…" Deacon nodded. "We can't be too careful, not with the Brotherhood here now." After a moment, Deacon sighed. "Look, can I stand up? I can feel the blood pooling in the ol' legs here…"

Nora smirked at that. "Alright… Stand down!" She declared, holstering her weapon again. "I'll talk to your boss, just… well, follow us back to Liberty and we'll talk there."

XXXXX

"Railroad, huh?" Preston asked, leaning back in the swivel chair he was sat in. "Thought you guys got wiped out… haven't seen many of your little chalk markings on walls lately."

Deacon seemed a bit… nervous with the few Gen-1 Synths that were walking around the command center and performing repairs on some of the computers. Nora had already explained the whole… situation with the Institute, but that didn't do much to ease Deacon's tension. "Yeah… those guys didn't really leave many survivors a couple months back." He nodded over to the skeletal frame of a Synth that was running wiring between terminals. "Hard to believe you guys actually managed to take down the Institute, much less take over the damn thing."

"Surprised you already knew about the whole… situation between me and the Director." Nora piped up, leaning over the map of the Commonwealth.

"We've got someone on the inside. Codename: Patriot." Deacon answered. "Should've seen the look on my boss, Des's, face."

"Impressive." Piper nodded. "Surprised the Institute didn't catch on."

"We've gotten pretty good about keeping low." Deacon nodded. "Didn't quite believe it when I'd heard that the Minutemen just waltzed into the Institute and took it over. Definitely pretty impressive." Deacon leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up on the table and earning a glare from Ronnie. "So… can I count on you to come meet with Des?"

"I'd prefer if we met here, if possible." Nora responded. "It's not like we're enemies, I mean hell, you've seen that we've actually got the Institute under our control. After all, I might like to lead from the front, but walking into the HQ of what's effectively a bunch of spies isn't exactly a smart move for a military's commander, now is it?"

Deacon sighed. "Fair enough, I guess. I'll talk with Des, see what I can do. Fair warning, she'll probably wanna come with some guards. That's not a threat or anything, it's just with the Brotherhood here, and the whole 'no Synths allowed' thing… well, we don't get along too well. Already lost a few agents out in the Capital Wasteland to them."

Nora smirked. "Even if it were a threat, I'm not too concerned." She thumbed a gesture over to the window, where Deacon could clearly see a few power-armored CA soldiers patrolling around the perimeter of the airfield, most of them carrying enough ordnance to level a building. "Even a full-scale Institute assault only netted them one capture."

"Huh… fair enough." Deacon nodded.

XXXXX

Nora, for the first time in a long while, felt absolutely at peace. As she slowly awoke to the thin rays of sunlight poking through the window, she could feel her lover's arm wrapped around her waist and her breath gently tickling her neck. If there were ever a single moment that she could simply freeze and live through in perpetuity, it would be exactly this moment. After a few moments, she heard Piper slowly rousing from her sleep, her head slowly moving around behind her. Nora slowly rotated around, placing herself face-to-face with Piper, who was slowly rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Mornin', Piper." She whispered, smiling.

"Mornin', Blue…" Piper nodded, returning the smile. After a short yawn, Piper found her lips pressed against Nora's. That still had the nasty little habit of practically shutting down her higher brain function. "So… are we uh, still going through with that drive out to New York?"

"If we got the trucks working, definitely." Nora nodded, still not moving from her position on the bed. She was far too comfortable. It wasn't until the night shift announced that it was eight A.M., signaling their shift change, that Nora and Piper finally climbed out of bed. After taking a few minutes to get dressed, Piper in her normal trench coat and Nora in her combat armor and overcoat, the two of them headed out of the building set aside for officer housing and onto the tarmac.

Nora just about fainted when she saw an old logistics truck driving out of the hangar, trailed by a large collection of exhausted-looking engineers. The soft humming of the truck's nuclear engine earned a cheer from all around the base. With a broad smile, Nora straightened herself out and declared over the cheering. "I need fifteen volunteers! We're going to New York!"

XXXXX

Piper never thought she'd see the day where she'd get to witness a working car, let alone ride in one. Nora, the very woman who had laid the groundwork for a united Commonwealth, was now sitting behind the wheel of the massive truck with one arm resting on the steering wheel, the other on the door frame. This single truck had been months in the making, but now that the engineers knew what needed to be done to get them running, plus the factory-new parts coming up from the Institute? They just might be able to have vehicles in their army.

Armored plates had been welded over the side windows of the cabin, and reinforced glass used in aircraft cockpits had replaced the old windshield of the truck, but there was a small opening in the back of the cabin that let the troops in the back talk with Piper and Nora. A heavy tarp had been thrown over the bed of the truck, where fifteen army troopers were sat with their gear, happily singing along to the song that was playing out of Nora's pip-boy. Even Piper found herself singing along.

"When John Paul was a captain in the U.S. Naval Band

A-fightin' for the glory and the freedom of our land

He made those British sailors wish that they were on dry land

He sent their mighty vessels to the bottom of the sea

He took their bags of treasure and he sank their chests of tea

He gave his blood for all free men and his life for liberty

He fought in the rain and he fought in the sun and he fought in the moonlight too

He fought with his knife and he fought with his gun

And he fought till his blood ran through

Well John Paul Jones was a fightin' man, a fightin' man was he

He sailed to the east and he sailed to the west and he helped set America free!"

"Ya' know, I think I found the name of our first ship when we get her!" Nora declared, the truck lurching slightly as it hit a particularly bumpy stretch of road.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" White asked, smirking. She was sat in the back, her head visible from the corner of Nora's eye as she leaned over to the viewport into the cabin.

"The CSS John Paul Jones." Nora declared, riding high. "I'm thinkin' she's gotta be a big ship, like an honest-to-God battleship! Three big, fuck-off turrets that can shoot for twenty miles!"

"Ah, the return of Miss 'Reasonable Stuff First'…" Piper smiled, glancing over to Nora, who still wore a massive smirk on her face.

"Hey, if a bunch of assholes in power armor can build a fuckin' blimp, we can sure as shit build a ship!" Fritz defended from the rear of the truck, popping into view next to White. "Making metal float's gotta be easier than making metal fly!"

"Oh shit, check it out!" White pointed forward. Sure enough, there was a familiar suit of T-49 power armor walking north, accompanied by an Eyebot. "It's the Storyteller!"

As the truck drew closer, the Storyteller eventually turned around. He appeared visibly shocked, even with the power armor, to see a working truck heading in his direction. It eventually came to a stop next to him, and he saw a familiar face sitting in the driver's seat. "Well I'll be!" He declared, laughing heartily. "Fancy seeing you out here, General!"

"Same to you, Storyteller!" Nora declared, shoving the door open after putting the manual brake on. "Where are you heading? Figured you'd be on the big airship now that the Brotherhood's in town."

"Nope, I'm heading up to Maine." Storyteller explained. "Heard some rumors about an island settlement and a synth haven, wanted to see for myself. The Brotherhood should be able to get by just fine without an old archivist talking their ear off. Where are you all heading?"

"Out to New York." Nora shrugged. "Heard some weird signals using a lot of old military jargon that mentioned Stewart AFB, and it definitely wasn't pre-war. Figured we'd do a little scouting run to see what's up."

"Well, I wish you luck." Storyteller nodded. "When I get back from Maine, mind if I come by your new HQ? I wanted to get another interview with you, since you took down the Institute and all."

"We'd be happy to have you." Nora smiled. "By the way, any news on your friend from California? Haven't had any luck on our end."

"Nothing yet…" Storyteller solemnly shook his head. "I'm not too worried though… she's tough. If anyone can make it out here, it's the Ranger with a big iron on her hip." He offered a small chuckle.

"Well, if you find anything, we'd be happy to help out." Nora offered. "Your airtime for the Minutemen did wonders for recruiting, and the towns we've passed through have already talked about making the trek down to the Castle to join up formally."

"Thank you, General… I'll keep that in mind." The Storyteller nodded. "I'll let you get back to it; I've got a bit of a walk myself."

"Alright, stay safe." Nora nodded, heading back for the truck. Before she closed the door, she offered a short, two-finger salute to the Storyteller, which he returned in kind as the truck headed back down the road.

XXXXX

"Woah, check it out!" Nora tapped Piper on the shoulder, rousing her from the light sleep she had fell into. The drive had gone into its fourth hour, even though it was only about a hundred and twenty mile journey. The disrepair of the roads and various debris forced detours and slower driving as they neared New York, stretching out the journey a bit. As she wearily looked in the direction that Nora was pointing, she saw a Vertibird making its way in the same general direction they were going. It definitely wasn't a Brotherhood bird; all of theirs were transport variants. This one was a gunship.

"Holy shit…" White managed, seeing another two Vertibirds fall into formation alongside it. "They're definitely heading for Stewart."

"Guess these are the 'Sky Marshalls' the locals back in Kingston mentioned…" Nora noted, referencing the mysterious organization that a local caravan had mentioned was responsible for keeping the roads in the region so clear. It was amazing, the group had only run into a few raiders, and they were hardly a threat compared to those found in the Commonwealth. Most of them didn't have anything larger than a handgun or a ramshackle pipe rifle, and the local towns seemed to be prospering.

The group on the truck shared wild speculation all the way into Newburgh, where their destination awaited them. As they approached the airbase from an old back road, they could see that it was very clearly occupied by a military force. Vertibirds were sat on landing pads all around the base, and a few soldiers were patrolling around the fenced-off perimeter. Some of them were wearing power armor that Nora had never even heard of. It was all-black with bright orange visors; the very definition of imposing. One of these power-armored soldiers noticed the truck approaching, and waved towards the base. A dozen more soldiers in similar power armor, each of them carrying plasma or laser weaponry, moved towards the gate and its fortifications. They weren't firing, simply taking up positions.

"You sure about this, Blue?" Piper asked, looking over to her partner.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained…" Nora shrugged, shutting down the truck's engine and throwing the door open. She hopped out, consciously leaving her weapon in the cabin. She held her hand up in a gesture of peace, knowing that yelling wouldn't be heard by the soldiers. The men in power armor all looked to one another in confusion for a moment, until another approached from behind them. It was a similar pattern of power armor that seemed to be covered in tesla coils, tendrils of energy arcing from coil to coil. After a moment of conversation, the man in the more-advanced power armor opened the gate and started approaching Nora.

After a few moments, the hulking mass of imposing power armor was close enough to be heard. "Don't look like any of the usual caravans, they're not usually in uniform." The somewhat young voice spoke out from behind the helmet. "That tends to be our thing."

As he spoke, Nora gave him a once-over. He was carrying a plasma rifle in his hands, and wore rather obvious officer's markings on his armor. What really surprised her was the fact that he was wearing a pip-boy. "We're from the Commonwealth, sir." Nora responded, thinking him to be some sort of military officer. "Formerly the Commonwealth Minutemen, now the Commonwealth Army. We picked up transmissions out of Adams AFB mentioning a retreat to this airbase, and came to investigate once we got a vehicle operational. Are you U.S. Military?"

"Commonwealth huh?" The man's smirk was practically audible. "We don't see many people come from the Commonwealth. Something about a glowing sea and high raider populations. Gotta admit, never thought I'd see a working truck just roll up on our HQ. And to answer your question… it's complicated. Judging by the pip-boy, and the fact that you actually give something of a shit about your hygiene, I'm guessing you're a Vault Dweller?"

Nora shrugged. "It's, uhh… a bit more complicated than just being a Vault Dweller. You're probably not gonna believe me, but… I'm a United States Marine, frozen in cryogenic stasis in Vault 111."

The power-armored figure seemed taken-aback by that. "Well then… in that case, I think we have some things to discuss. C'mon in, we can talk a bit more comfortably inside."

XXXXX

"Name's James, by the way." The hulking mass of power armor added as he led the way towards one of the smaller barracks structures on the base's grounds. He had taken off his helmet when they entered the base, and he looked like the precise opposite of what Nora was expecting. He looked no older than thirty, but had his fair share of scars. "Sorry about the tense greeting, we've been on high alert for a good while now."

"Nice to meet you, James." Nora nodded, having removed her own tricorn hat and letting her hair down. "I'm Nora, and this is Piper and the Commonwealth Army's Second Platoon, First Company."

"Nice to meet you all." James nodded. "Got some nice kit there, General." He nodded back to the CA troopers that were carrying modified Institute Laser Rifles and attachment-laden M16A4s. "Haven't seen anything quite like that before."

"Same to you, James." Nora nodded. "That power armor's something else…"

"Well, it's a post-war design, built for wasteland warfighting." James smirked, ducking into a smaller barracks building that was mostly unoccupied, save for a few men and women wearing basic fatigues.

"You guys design it?" Nora asked, earning a short chuckle from James.

"I wish." James smirked. "You've probably never heard of them, but it's an Enclave design. That's why I mentioned me being U.S. Military being kinda complicated." He nodded over to a pair of soldiers that were leaning against their bunks. They were a bit older than James, probably in their mid to late forties. "Like them, we've got quite a few ex-Enclave guys here. They were the ones who set up that beacon you probably heard from Adams. They were… well, the remnants of the old-world U.S. government."

"The hell attacked you guys?" White asked, looking over to the two ex-Enclave troopers that glanced up from the map they were looking over. "How'd someone manage to boot you out of Adams?"

The two troopers looked over to White, then to James, then simply started laughing. "You can thank James for that. Crazy son of a bitch came in with a fuckin' Tesla Cannon and started blowing shit up. Of course… no hard feelings, Commander."

"Wait… the guy that blew up your stuff is leading you now?" White asked, confused.

"Like I said, long and complicated story." James smirked, plopping down on a metal crate that was used as a makeshift table. "The short version is that I was a Vault Dweller from Vault 101, but my dad ran off to work on a water purifier project at the Jefferson Memorial. When I finally found him and we started working on the purifier together, this Enclave Colonel named Autumn takes over the damn thing and my dad… well, he went down with the ship, so to speak." James took a deep sigh, and the two troopers gave a solemn nod. "I managed to escape with a few of the other scientists that were working on the project, and we made our way to the Brotherhood's Citadel, which is the old Pentagon building."

"Dr. Li, one of my dad's old friends-" James found himself surprised as Nora's jaw dropped.

"Wait… Doctor Madison Li?" She asked, earning an equally-stunned look from James.

"You know her?" James asked, confused.

"Well… she's one of the department heads in the Institute, she runs Advanced Systems." Nora explained.

James chuckled. "Goddamn… she actually made it there, and they let her in no less. You guys managed to take over the Institute, or was that just propaganda you played on your radio station?" At the surprised looks from the Commonwealth locals, James chuckled. "C'mon, you guys really think we couldn't pick up on that? It's not exactly the most encrypted broadcast after all."

"Damn…" Fritz sighed. "Here I was thinking the Deep Range Transmitter's self-encryption still worked…"

"Oh, it's still working." James added. "We just so happen to have one too, they've all got ciphers. Hell, how do you think you picked up on a transmission all the way from D.C.?"

"Fair enough…" Fritz nodded.

"Anyway, where was I?" James sighed. "Oh, right. Dr. Li pulled some strings with the Brotherhood Elder at the time, Owen Lyons, to get us refuge in there. From there, I worked with the Brotherhood to take back the purifier, and we pushed the Enclave out of the Capital Wasteland. After a couple years, Elder Lyons passed away, and his daughter Sarah replaced him."

"Let's just say that Sarah and I became… involved with each other." James continued. "We both learned at around the same time that Arthur Maxson, the current Elder who's related to the founder of the Brotherhood, was working with a few of the higher-ups to… usurp Sarah. After a couple of nights of arguing, we both agreed that it'd be best if we left, but not without covering our tracks."

"I knew that Maxson, who was a squire at the time, was assigned to maintain Sarah's power armor before a mission to the outskirts of D.C., and the little shit rigged her fusion core to blow after a few hours." James continued, earning a few looks of surprise from the CA soldiers. "Just because I'm a scientist at heart doesn't mean I can't be sneaky when I need to be. I brought that information to a few of the Lyons Loyalists, who all agreed to get the hell out of the Brotherhood before shit went sideways. I… ahem… amended the patrol roster to get all of them out of the Citadel, we ditched Sarah's armor in the mission site, and all twenty of us made it out of D.C. relatively unscathed. Wandered up north for a bit until we found these guys." James nodded over to the ex-Enclave troopers. "A few Enclave survivors regrouped with another base up in Quebec, then relocated down here, and started to… 'ya know… not be lunatics."

James let out a long sigh. "Anyways, that's that." He shrugged. "Ever since, we've been trying to do right by the people out here. Keeping the roads safe, building water purifiers, protecting towns from raiders, all that good stuff. We've had to keep a relatively low profile, now that Maxson's stupid goddamn airship is on the move. Using encrypted channels, jamming outgoing signals, whole nine yards."

"Damn… Maxson really is an asshole." Nora sighed, piquing James' interest. "Brotherhood floated their blimp into the Commonwealth a few months ago. Spouting some bullshit from their loudspeakers about 'peaceful intentions' while sending vertibirds all over the Commonwealth."

"Yeah… sounds like Maxson alright." James sighed. "Piece 'a shit turned the Brotherhood into a glorified dictator back in D.C. from what I've heard."

"What do you mean?" White asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"There's this settlement called Rivet City, built out of an old aircraft carrier that got beached in the harbor." James explained. "It was one of the most prosperous and safest settlements in the Capital, since its reactor survived and the locals kept it running." He leaned forward, placing his armored hands on his knees. "Where do you think the Brotherhood got the reactor for the Prydwen? I'll give 'ya a hint… they didn't ask for it."

All of the Commonwealth soldiers shared a knowing glance. With that bit of confirmation, all of them knew it: war was absolutely inevitable. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin', General?" White asked, looking to Nora.

"Preemptive strike?" Nora asked, earning a devious smirk from White. "I think I am…"

"You know… if anyone else told me they were gonna go against the Brotherhood, I'd call them crazy…" Another voice added to the conversation from behind James. A woman with dirty blonde hair that was kept back in a messy bun stepped into the barracks, wearing similar power armor to the rest of the troopers around Stewart. "But you guys? I think you can pull it off… with some help, of course."

"Just like always, Sarah, you're one step ahead of me." James smirked, looking back to her. "Let's get everyone together on the runway, put it to a vote."

"You guys wanna help?" White asked, surprised.

"We've all got a bone to pick with Maxson…" One of the troopers piped up, pushing himself off the wall. "It's been ten long years since I've gotten to crack some Brotherhood armor open… can't get rusty, now can I?"

XXXXX

"Everyone settle the fuck down!" James shouted out over the chatter of conversation among the power-armored troopers that were gathered on the runway. Nora couldn't quite tell how many there were, but there definitely seemed to be just over a hundred. Mixed among them were soldiers in combat armor, scientist-types, and a few mechanics. As the conversation eventually fell to a hush, James spoke out again. "Alright… the General here has made us quite the interesting offer. Originally, we were just gonna fly ourselves out to Boston to remind Maxson and his goons what real soldiers look like, but…"

James sighed. "You all know the situation. We're running low on all sorts of shit, especially machined parts for the birds and armor. The settlers are doing what they can, but they need these parts too. From what she's told me, the General managed to take down the Institute, and make it work for the Commonwealth. They've got an actual factory in the Commonwealth producing parts for military vehicles, and that can include vertibirds from what she's told me. What I'm getting at is that she's given us the offer to join the Commonwealth."

James waited a few moments for the murmurs to quiet down. "For all the Enclave folks here, the General's an honest-to-god Marine from before the War. She managed to turn a bunch of citizen soldiers into actual soldiers. And you've all heard their radio broadcasts! She's probably the biggest goddamn American patriot this side of the planet! They've already shown that they can take the fight to where it needs to be, I mean they've got a working truck for Christ's sake."

"For the Brotherhood here, these guys are doing what our mission in D.C. was supposed to be." James added. "They're carving out a safe place for the people of the Commonwealth to live in peace. Hell, they've even got an elected government set up. I want all of you to consider that for a minute before you make your decision." He sucked in a deep breath. "Alright, you guys know how this works… All in favor of taking the General up on her offer, raise your hand and say 'aye'…" James smirked as he watched a fairly sizable majority raise their hands in unison, a few others joining in a moment later.

"Alright… it's been decided." James nodded. "We're joining up with the Commonwealth, and we're gonna kick Maxson's ass back to the Potomac!"

A/N:

Another chapter so soon? Wow, I'm even impressing myself by not being a lazy piece of shit.

P.S.: This is TallYapflip with your daily reminder that John Paul Jones is an American hero, who was such an absolute mad lad that he tethered his own sinking ship to a British ship as the penultimate 'Fuck you' to the British Navy that had fired him over defending himself from a mutinying sailor.

Reviews, yeet yeet:

Remnant7- Veronica is probably my second favorite companion in New Vegas, just behind Cass. Thankfully for the folks in Vegas, the Brotherhood was kinda kept in check by the NCR's presence, so there wasn't just a bunch of goons in power armor taking all the shiny shit from travelers.

CT7567Rules- I've given it some consideration, I'm just trying to find a good place to introduce new characters without bloating the story too much. And much to my disappointment in myself, I do have Fallout 76. I can quite literally feel my bank account crying knowing that good money was spent on that damn thing.

The yeah- I definitely see what you mean with the Turing Test not meaning true sentience, but the whole point I'm trying (rather poorly at that) to make is that if something with programmed "sentience" is just about indistinguishable from sentient creatures, why shouldn't it simply be considered sentient? I always saw the question of their sentience as being rather clear-cut, since there's the whole thing of Synths making the conscious decision to escape the Institute. Why would the Institute program that into Synths if everything about their personality and existence was pre-determined by the Institute? They've already demonstrated the ability to feel pain/emotions, as well as the capacity for independent decision-making. Synths that replace people and remain loyal to the Institute are one thing, but ones like Chase from Far Harbor are another matter entirely.

hoangxuan2309- Since I'm taking something of a more grounded approach with this, Dogmeat's still hanging out at Sanctuary along with Codsworth. My reasoning for that basically boiling down to not just being able to stick a needle into a dog that just took a .50 BMG to the head and he just gets back up like nothing happened, and Nora's more-tactical side not really wanting what amounts to a butler-bot floating around a gunfight with nothing but a sawblade and blowtorch.