Chapter Thirty-Six

It took a week to find an entrance to the Institute, and even then, it had been completely by accident. One of the me had been leaning against a wall when it caved in and sent him tumbling into an access tunnel that led inside the old robotics wing. The soldier had bugged out quickly, and the team rushed to inform Nate. He was staring at the hole that led to the tunnel at the moment. Silver Nightshade was standing next to him, examining the structure of the tunnel they were in. Danse was back at the Command Centre, drilling the men in close quarters combat, in preparation of the assault on the institute. The Minutemen were on the war front, and Nate knew the end was coming soon. This would be his Anchorage Campaign.

"Yeah, it's sturdy, but still, enough explosions and gunfire can bring it down. I can reinforce it, but they'd get an idea of what we're doing, if they don't already." The newly promoted captain was saying. "It's really up to you, boss, and it depends on how many people you want to sneak in."

"Leave it as it is." Nate said, before turning to one of his aides, a kid, really, barely out of his teens. "Did you mark this location?"

"Yes, sir, I did." The aide responded, and Nate nodded, before turning and strutting back towards the surface. Silver followed closely.

"You know that kid's related to Captain Farmer, from the second battalion." Nightshade mentioned, and Nate stuttered a little in his stride.

"Crap. That means I need to know his name." He muttered, and Captain Nightshade laughed.

"Bill Farmer. His nephew." The captain informed him, earning a thanks from Nate.

Nate looked over his shoulder and called out to his aide. "C'mon Bill, you gotta keep up."

The boy hurried to stay in stride with Nate, but he kept lagging behind, leading to the duo slowing down occasionally for him to catch up. Nate left the building that housed the entrance to the tunnel and linked up with a squad heading back to the Command Centre, and reached it by nightfall. He set Bill up with a bogus assignment to keep him off his back, and made his way to the combat course, that Danse was overseeing. The captain had taken his role as trainer incredibly seriously, and Nate was slightly amazed by the increase in efficiency the teams the former paladin was training had developed.

He found Danse overlooking a mocked-up facility, watching two squads go through and clear it. He was yelling encouragement or disparagement as they went along.

"That's it Ramirez! That's how you breach a room!" Followed shortly by, "God almighty Mallory, you just shot a civilian! Now I have to write to their families and tell them their child was killed by your incompetence!"

Nate cleared his throat, and Danse looked over his shoulder, before nodding in acknowledgement.

"All right, take a breather while the course is reset." He ordered, before turning to Nate and saluting.

"At ease, captain. I just wanted an update on the training." Nate told him.

"It's going well, sir. The entirety of the First Division will have run the courses at least twice by Friday. The other two haven't yet, but they're on above ground duty, right sir"

Nate nodded. "That's correct, just the First will be participating in the attack on the Institute. We've got a briefing at 1800 hours, so be ready. That's all."

Danse saluted once more, and Nate turned and walked away, listening in amusement as Danse began yelling again. He made his way through the busy tunnels to a section that was still under construction. The workers had discovered another gold vein, and miners from some of the quarries had been brought in to excavate it all. Nate was surprised so much gold could be found. There had been a shortage of it before the war, and he suspected that Vault-Tec had hid the knowledge that there was any here. The government would have shut down construction and begun digging in an instant. Preston had mentioned to him using the gold to create a backed monetary system, and while Nate admitted it had its benefits, as a military government at the moment, creating cash wasn't really the concern.

He nodded to the two guards standing outside the vein, and walked into the tunnel. The shift boss, a ghoul from the Pitt, greeted him.

"Colonel. The diggings going well, and I've reinforced the tunnel enough that it shouldn't collapse, but there's a strong source of radiation nearby somewhere. I can feel it seeping into my bones." The ghoul reported. "There's half a dozen other ghouls working in this shaft, but the others aren't, and if they stay, it could be bad for their health."

"Alright," Nate sighed, "pull the non-ghouls out, and try to find the radiation source. If we can safely remove it, it might make it safer for them to work, yeah?"

"Maybe. It depends on whether or not the radiation has seeped into the ground, or if it's in an emitting, but secure, source." He replied, and Nate nodded at him.

"Okay, thanks. Get those guys out of there, and before you go back to work, take a break." Nate ordered.

"Yes sir, thank you." And with that, Nate turned away, and walked towards his room, checking his watch. It was still another hour until the briefing, and he desperately needed a nap.

He found a guard standing outside his room, as usual, and told him to wake him in forty minutes, before entering his room, and collapsing face first onto his bed. He was out in an instant, despite all the issues that were bothering him.

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Shaun looked at the gathered heads of departments, including the newly promoted Alana Secord. If any of them were surprised by the lack of Doctor Ayo, they didn't show it. Shaun rather suspected most of them were happy that he was gone. They were all patiently waiting for him to begin the meeting, but Shaun was interested in observing his scientists. He wondered how well they would do on the surface. After the failure to break the Minutemen, he knew it wouldn't be long until they came knocking at the Institutes door, so to speak, and he wanted his people to be ready for the possibility that they lost.

"I've gathered you here today because we have a crisis on our hands. As you know, over the past year, we increased production on earlier model synths. We had almost ten thousand built and programmed as of one month ago. Now we have two and a half thousand." Shaun began, and he saw the looks of shock and fear in the eyes of all present. "The Minutemen will come for us, and many of them will want to kill us. I won't allow that to happen. Doctor Li, I want you to increase weapons development. If it comes to an invasion, I want our synths to have the best they possibly can. All synths out in the field need to be recalled as well. I want all available manpower here."

That was a lie, though the others didn't know it. Shaun knew that the Institute would fall, and he knew that his father and the Minutemen would spend weeks, if not years, tracking down any escaped synth units. By having them all centrally located, it would quicken the process. Shaun wasn't quite sure why he wanted to make his fathers job easier for him, all his instincts were screaming for him to ensure the Institute survived, but there was a little, tiny voice in the back of his head telling him that he was doing the right thing. Something his parents would be proud of.

Though his brain told him this was the wrong decision, his heart told him it was the right one. It didn't matter. He would be dead soon, but that didn't mean he wanted the others to follow him.

MMXVII

AN: We're down to the final stretch. I can see maybe four or five more chapters, and then book one of the resurgence series is complete. I have a sequel planned, and a shorter story to bridge the gap between this story and the sequel in the works. We'll see how it goes. As always, leave a review, and let me know what you think.

Cheers, SovietBabushka