NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE

JULY 25

11:49

The day progressed with little excitement. After they returned to the NAFB, Mother Pearl welcomed each one of them before sending them out with chores. Chores. She'd even downloaded a list of them onto Brianna's Pip-Boy. There were patients who needed tending, missiles that needed counting, and about fifteen different things that needed checked, rechecked, cleaned, tended, assembled and killed. Sunny helped a crying kid find her lost teddy before floating off to do some work with patients. Cass went off with Raquel to go hunting for lost grenades. Veronica repaired every damn thing that needed repairing while Brianna headed down to the reactor level to clear out a colony of giant explosive ants.

"You know, I'm not overly fond of doing chores for a bunch of xenophobes," Veronica remarked, slamming her fist down hard onto the ant's head as it lunged in her direction. When she found out that she couldn't use a pistol with bandaged hands, asking for help became Brianna's only option. Veronica gladly obliged. "I mean, I do stuff all the time for the Brotherhood, but at least they don't blow people up for a living." She kicked the second ant aside and moved swiftly towards the third, turning its brain into a splatter of red paste. "No, they just grumble a lot and send me out to collect their damn groceries instead of listening to what I have to say." She finished off the another ant with a punch to the spine. "Wait, am I talking out loud?"

Brianna grabbed the nearest ant by the antennae and promptly sliced its face in half with her axe. "If this is what it takes to get them on House's side, fine."

Veronica finished off the remaining two ants with the same number of effortless punches. "Are you sure you aren't just hasty to do more work for House so you don't have time to change your mind about helping him?"

"Veronica, just don't."

"Alright, alright, I'll drop it for now, but only because I've been doing some thinking."

"Wow, that's a first."

"Who helped you fight off a colony of explosive fire ants?"

"Alright, go on. What have you been thinking about?"

"The Brotherhood, as usual. I think the heart of our problems is that we isolate ourselves. Our training is top-notch, we have technology that most outsiders have never even heard of, but when it comes down to it, we're losing because we're so afraid of the outside world. We're afraid that other civilisations are advancing faster than us, succeeding where we failed. We always make enemies, never allies, and we refuse to let outsiders into our ranks. That's why this whole thing with Mr. House makes me so angry. We have common enemies, like the NCR. We could be really useful to him if we had the recruits, the alliances, if we stepped outside again."

"And that's what you're so scared of."

"Exactly. Even if I can persuade them to change, I'm scared that it'll just be too little too late. That's why I can't shake off the idea of using Benny's robot to get House out of the way. If people knew that the Brotherhood assisted in bringing down the Legion and the NCR, they'd start to accept us. There'd be no one left to beat us down." She sighed. "But you were right. It's a pipe dream. And I know that asking you to do something like that, go behind House's back, put your life on the line like that, that was stupid of me. But if House ever wants you getting rid of the Brotherhood, if he decides he wants us out of the way-"

"You'll kill me?"

"I'll wrap you in tinfoil and feed you a couple of pulse grenades," she promised, bouncing up on the balls of her feet as a thought struck her. "Pulse grenades! And pulse guns and pulse freakin' mines! Those things could roast the Brotherhood in their power armour before they could fire a shot of plasma! Yet another thing they're too scared to think about."

Brianna managed an exhausted smile. "Let's just worry about one group of xenophobic assholes for now."

"And then, like, fifty of them surrounded us! Well, maybe it was more like ten, but it was still traumatic. Gonna take years of therapy to get over it."

"Is that so, dear?"

Mother Pearl chuckled heartily at Veronica's story as she ushered them into the living room. "Looks like you're still alive and well, so it can't have been too bad." She motioned for them to sit. "I've heard lots of stories about you four. You've made quite the impression on the youngers."

"So you're happy now?" Brianna asked, taking a seat and rubbing her temples. "Ready to renegotiate?"

"Not yet, dear. I'm not keeping you around just to do housework, not at all."

"What, so it's sexual favours now too? You want us to leap through flaming hoops?"

"Now, now-"

"We had a deal, Pearl."

The old woman pursed her lips, features softening with concern. "If you want to rest here for the day, you're welcome to. After everything you and your friends have done, I'm sure the youngers won't mind sparing an extra bed. You look exhausted, child, running errands for a man who ordered you here, of all places, with no means of getting through to us but your own."

"I look exhausted because there's a fucking war coming, grandma."

"If I was your grandma I'd be washing your mouth out with Abraxo for that language," she scolded. "But trust me, child, you'll want to be a part of this. As I said before, I have waited so long for an outsider to get through to us. You and your friends are those little pieces of the world we've been missing out on all these years. Because of that, we're willing to help you. But there's one thing, just one more thing I have to ask. I've been waiting for this opportunity since I was barely a woman."

"Alright, alright, fine. This better be important."

"Oh, it is. I need you to find Jack and Loyal. You'll find them in one of the hangars just outside of here - Loyal will be the white-haired man muttering to himself and fiddling with scrap. Jack will no doubt have that girl at his arm, Janet. Young love is a dear thing. But do go quickly, outsiders. I've waited all my life for this."

"Then you'll reconsider my offer?"

"I promise. Just tell Loyal that it's happening. Tell him we're making the lady fly."

Brianna had never seen a hangar before. It wasn't much to look at, just a vast amount of space cluttered with shelves and large metal crates. In the very centre of the place was a small plane, beaten and hollow. A few Boomers in jumpsuits milled about, idly chatting as they filled crates and emptied crates and did little of anything else. Her eyes darted restlessly from person to person, searching for a man with white hair. Her tingling fingers tapped impulsively against her thigh as her gaze shifted.

She heard Jack before she saw him. He was moaning like a New Vegas whore, pinned against a secure stack of crates by a petite woman with flaming red hair. They at least had the decency to keep themselves in a somewhat secluded corner, but they'd thrown any thought of subtlety to the wind. The muscular engineer had his arms wrapped around his girlfriend's waist and was impatiently lowering them to her ass.

She rolled her eyes and headed towards them, waving to get their attention. They ignored her completely. "Hello? Outsider here, violent and deadly. I've got business with you."

He pulled away from the girl for a moment. "Oh, shit. I heard what the others were saying, but damn." He abandoned Janet completely, looking Brianna up and down with wide-eyed astonishment. "You look different than what I thought. Jesus, what kind of scar is that? Aw, man, I bet you've got the coolest stories. We should get a drink, man!"

"Jack, baby," Janet simpered, trailing her fingers along Jack's arm. "Let's go somewhere a little more private."

"I'm coming, gorgeous," he promised. "Maybe another time, outsider? I'm free after five, but right now I've got business elsewhere."

"Is getting your rocks off more important than making the lady fly?"

He froze. "Janet, babe, this is gonna have to wait. Janet, sweetie, wait-" But she was storming off before he could finish his sentence. Jack sighed, shaking his head in dismissal. "This is for real, right? Where'd you hear about the lady?"

"Mother Pearl told me to pass along the message. Whatever it is, it's happening. It's happening today."

"Oh man, this is great! Loyal's in the other hangar, I'll take you to him."

"That sounds real creepy, Loyal."

"Ain't nothin' creepy about it," the old man scolded. "It's a term of respect. The Lady in the Water, the Lady in the Lake, whatever you wanna call her."

"Alright, alright, but what is it?"

"It's a bomber. A big ol' plane that fell down from the sky into Lake Mead, long before the war that killed just about everything that ever lived. It's almost perfectly intact, just a few bits and pieces missin' from the engine and such. Lucky we've got all the missin' parts right here. You see where I'm goin' with this?"

"You want us to get it for you."

"Exactly!"

"So we're just gonna pick it up and carry it on our backs?" Cass asked.

The sarcasm was wasted on him. "Lake Mead ain't too far," he continued. "I'll mark it down on that Pip-Boy later for handiness' sake. Then I'll fix y' up with a remote detonator and some deployable ballasts. All y' gotta do is attach 'em to the bottom of the plane's wings, swim back up, aim the detonator and fire. Let buoyancy do the rest. Once it's raised, we can get our old Mr. Gutsy 'bots to lift it back here."

"You really think you can get it working?"

"I'm certain of it," he grinned. "It's always been a dream of mine to see the Lady fly at last. I'd be really grateful, miss. I'm sure Pearl would be too."

"Even if we agree to this," Veronica said, "high levels of radiation haven't succeeded in giving us gills. How do we do this without, you know, drowning?"

"Simple! Hold your breath!" He laughed. "And if that doesn't sound good, you could always ask Jack here." He clapped a hand down on the younger man's shoulder.

"I've been working on something to help with that," Jack explained. "I made this sweet mask that'll go around your mouth and neck, looks really cool - I call it a rebreather. What it does, basically, is recycle your air. See, I used a small cannister of sodium hydroxide which is fixed onto the back, which reacts with the carbon dioxide you exhale to form calcium carbonate, then I put in a second cannister for pure oxygen. What that does is basically-"

"Does it work?" Brianna pressed.

"Obviously! I was the one who designed it! So you'll do it, right? You'll all head out there and help us out?"

"Consider it done."

"Aw, man, this is the best day of my life!"