Hello everyone, hope you are doing well. In today's chapter, we follow Damian and the Rangers in their attempt to take an Enclave soldier as prisoner.

Please enjoy.


Never had Damian seen so much water falling from the sky at once, so much so that it became difficult to see beyond the curtain of rain. All around him, the raindrops were crashing on the broken glass canopy of the metro exit, the brick and marble of buildings or the metal of car wrecks, all resulting in an infernal cacophony. A torrential, heavy rain that whipped the skin, causing a stream of water to run down the steps and escalators of the metro exit and make the floor slippery.

Damian glanced briefly at his Geiger counter and was relieved to see that it was silent. He looked at the other Rangers. They all had battle helmets on their heads to match their armor and splinter brown and green camouflage pattern raincoat poncho over their armors. Damian had also been given one by Butcher, but he envied them to keep their heads dry.

The area around the metro exit was deserted. Brick and Damian advanced to a large crater, slowly filling with water in the center of the street. From there they could see Seward Square main plaza, with its two destroyed driveways, and behind it, the park at the foot of the Capitol building, once the center of American politics, now a ruin among many others. The white marble dome of the building was still standing, and Damian noticed that the facade of the building had been fortified.

Donovan and Reilly crossed the street and entered a small alley in the center of a pavilion. The brick houses did not seem to belong to this world, as the bright colors of their facades were in contrast to the depressing grey and white of the rest of the devastated city.

Just before rushing into one of the houses, Damian saw the two Rangers exchanging a small grey grenade.

"What is it?" he asked Brick.

"It's a pulse grenade. It's usually used when you pass a robot in the ruins. It toasts their circuits and saves bullets. It's also very effective against power armor."

Damian wanted to know more but decided to postpone his questions for later.

The plaza was lined with several small shops and a cinema. From where he was, Damian could see the silhouettes of the Enclave soldiers, as well as the nets, filled with flesh and bones left behind by the Super Mutants.

"Donovan," Reilly's voice sounded on the small radio. "Try to go to that house, North of the square. If those bastards try to get around us, light them up."

After a few seconds, Donovan's voice crackled in the radio, indicating he was ready.

"Butcher?" Reilly asked.

"I'm ready."

" Brick? Franklin?"

"We're in position, boss," Brick said, raising the gunner iron sight on her minigun.

Several seconds passed, until Damian heard a series of small explosions. He could see the silhouettes of the Enclave soldiers running for cover and some of them collapsing to the ground after being hit by some kind of giant electric balls.

Damian heard the staccato of Donovan's rifle.

"Flanking maneuver! Brick, two coming your way!" the mercenary said.

"Let them come!" Brick cried out. "Eugene and I are waiting for them!"

The shooting only lasted a few seconds. Reilly and Donovan were still firing and Damian and Brick took out two of the enemy soldiers who were trying to get around their position.

"One's getting away! Donovan!"

"I'm pinned! Three Super Mutants on the streets at my nine o'clock!"

Damian looked over the rim of the crater. He could see a figure running away from the square.

"Brick, go help Donovan! Butcher, you go with her! Franklin, get that son of a bitch!"

Damian climbed over the crater rim and ran towards the square, climbing over the car wrecks when he could not pass by.

The remaining Enclave soldier was heading towards a destroyed building. Damian accelerated the pace to catch up with him. If the fugitive managed to enter one of the buildings or the metro, he could easily lose Damian.

The soldier, clearly an officer, judging by his cap and grey uniform under a black raincoat, was desperately trying to open the building's emergency exit.

"Stop, you bastard!"

Damian didn't expect the man to comply, but the officer turned around and, seeing Damian approaching, tried to force the door open. He turned around again and seeing that Damian was only a few meters away from him, he left the door and started running to a metro exit on the other side of the square.

Damian looked briefly over his shoulder. The Super Mutants attacking Donovan were almost all dead. Damian could see other silhouettes on the Capitol's facade, but with the rain curtain, he wasn't sure if they were humans or Super Mutants.

Damian was right behind the officer. He was approaching the metro exit. Damian dove forward and grabbed the officer by the hips, propelling him into the escalator.

They fell down the metal steps, which had become slippery from the rain, and stopped against the closed station fenced gate.

Amidst the creaking of the gate, the rain and the sporadic shooting from the square, Damian thought he heard a ghoul's growl in his back.

The Enclave officer was already standing and looking at the entrance of the metro, terrified. Damian looked over his shoulder and saw several feral ghouls scurrying towards the gate. Damian crawled away and as he got up, felt that he was being pushed.

He stumbled and landed against the gate. He smelled the foul breath of the ghouls and retreated just in time to avoid being scratched or bitten.

The gate was about to break. Damian swore and grabbed his assault rifle and fired at the ghouls, who scattered and returned to the depths of the station. Damian turned around. The Enclave officer of the Enclave was already at the top of the escalators.

Damian heard him growl and saw him run down the escalators towards him. At the top, the silhouettes of Reilly and Donovan were outlined in the rain.

Damian looked at the gate and the dark corridor leading down to the station and turned to the officer of the Enclave who was trying to get up.

"Here, put these on him."

Damian raised his head and grabbed the pair of handcuffs Reilly was throwing at him. He turned the officer of the Enclave violently on his stomach and tied his hands behind his back.

Donovan walked down the steps and grabbed the officer by the collar of his uniform and dragged him to the top of the escalators.

"Come on, man, there are some people who want to talk to you."

The officer, still stunned by the blow and the fall, offered no resistance. Damian climbed the steps and massaged his neck, sore from the fall against the fence.

"For a moment, I thought you had gunned him down," said Reilly.

"Not that I wouldn't do it, but if the Brotherhood has asked you to take a prisoner, they have their reasons."

Reilly nodded silently. She turned around to see Brick and Butcher arrive on the double.

"We'd better get out of here," Butcher said. "The guys from the Talon Company are probably coming to see what happened, and the Super Mutants could be back any minute."

Reilly signaled her men to follow her and the small group headed for the Anacostia station. Damian followed them inside the station and was surprised to see that the Rangers didn't go through the station to Rivet City but through the tunnels heading the Mall.

"Aren't we taking him back to Citadel?"

"No," answered Reilly. "We've been asked to hand him over to a Brotherhood patrol at the Washington Monument, from there I believe they'll take him to another outpost in the ruins, or they'll take him back themselves outside D.C."

Transporting a prisoner through the destroyed tunnels of the D.C. metro was no easy task. In addition to the dangers lurking in the tunnels, the Rangers had to keep an eye on their prisoner, who, even in handcuffs, could easily escape through the tunnels and maintenance corridors.

Reilly and Damian walked at the head of the group and Brick and Donovan closed the march and constantly glanced over their shoulders and lit up the deserted tunnel to make sure they were not followed. Butcher walked in the middle of the group and guarded the prisoner who was beginning to realize what was happening to him.

Damian lit the path in front of him, his Pip-Boy's lamp adding to Reilly's lamp strapped to her rifle. The two beams of light swept across the small space between the walls and the track where the small group piled up, the deserted train cars and got lost at the bottom of the tunnel.

"Who are you?" asked the officer of the Enclave, looking at Butcher and the others.

"The Reilly's Rangers," Brick answered proudly.

"Never heard of you," the prisoner said with a grin.

"The Wasteland are vast. Not everyone has heard of us yet," Reilly replied.

"So, you're gun for hire? Mercenaries?"

All the Rangers nodded at the same time, except Damian. The officer noticed Damian's Pip-Boy.

"And you must be that kid from Vault 101? The one who assassinated the President."

"Hey, you hear that Brick?" said Donovan. "We recruited Lee Harvey Oswald!"

Brick choked back a laugh and got serious when she met Reilly's inquisitive gaze. Damian just kept walking until he started talking.

"You and the Enclave are nothing but murderers and sick people. You kill people in the Wasteland, you executed part of Project Purity's scientific team, you conducted experiments on humans in your bunker at Raven Rock, and your beloved President, who by the way was a just a pre-war computer, wanted to decimate the entire population of the Wasteland by spreading a virus in the purifier."

The officer replied with a scornful grunt and a head movement.

"You must think I'm going to give you information about our base of operations or the weapon we used to destroy your beloved robot. But I'd rather die than give you any information or help you at all. Kind of like your father."

Damian jumped back and crushed his fist into the jaws of the officer who fell to the ground.

"Hey easy man!" Donovan cried out. "He needs to be able to talk when we deliver him!"

"Don't you dare talk about my father, you bastard!" Damian shouted.

He felt a hand close on his arm and saw Butcher and Reilly pulling him away.

"Calm down, soldier," Reilly hissed. "If you want to blow off steam, do it on the mutants or the Raiders, not on him."

The Enclave officer spat out the blood in his mouth and turned his head towards Damian. He opened his mouth to talk, but Brick pinned him down to keep him from talking.

Damian was about to draw his gun and put a bullet in his head and wipe that arrogant smile off his face. He took a deep breath before walking away into the tunnel and waited for Reilly and the others to join him to continue on their way to the Mall.

After a few seconds, the prisoner started talking again, but this time he spoke to Reilly.

"How much?" he asked.

"'How much' what?" replied the young woman.

The officer sneered before answering.

"You are mercenaries, aren't you? How much, to let me go back?"

"Don't bother," Reilly answered. "This time, it's not a question of caps."

About ten minutes later, Damian and the Rangers arrived at Smithsonian Station. Two Brotherhood soldiers greeted them on the platform and after briefly questioning them and telling them who they should see, let them pass.

They left the station in the pouring rain and headed for the Washington Monument.

Since Damian had been there to repair the Galaxy News Radio antenna, the place had been fortified again. Four soldiers in pwer armor stood guard, sheltered in small wooden bunkers and sandbags on either side of the entrance, and the Brotherhood had also salvaged Enclave manufactured barricades and watchtowers to place within the monument's walls to provide a better view to the trenches.

Several Sentry bots and Mister Gutsy patrolled around the concrete barricade erected around the monument. The steel gate slid open and they entered to shelter from the rain and the Super Mutants in the surrounding buildings and trenches.

Behind the monument, Damian noticed a strange scene. Several soldiers of the Brotherhood were standing near the Mall small water pond and were throwing something into it.

Damian let Reilly talk to the sentries at the outpost and approached the soldiers and the pond.

The two soldiers were talking in a low voice and were carrying what looked like a dead body. One soldier was holding the body by the legs and the other by the arms. They swung the body faster and faster and, with the help of their power armor, threw it far into the water.

"What are you doing?" Damian asked.

One of the soldiers turned to him, and recognizing him, gave him a brief military salute. Damian then noticed that the corpses were ghouls, and a little further on he saw a shipment of barrels of Aqua Pura.

"Getting rid of these ghouls, Knight," said the soldier. "We caught them sneaking out of the metro with a load of water from the purifier. The Brotherhood doesn't give water to the ghouls, so the only explanation is that they stole it."

Damian thought for a moment, when he asked the soldier if it was possible that the ghouls had bought the water from a colony, the soldier shrugged.

"Who would go and sell purified water to these zombies? All the colonies in the area are fighting to get a barrel, so I don't see who would have fun parting with it, even for caps and especially for ghouls."

The soldier turned around and grabbed a new corpse and threw it into the pond.

Damian looked in the direction of the Museum of History and Underworld. When he had stopped there a few days ago, he didn't have the impression that the ghouls were missing or needed non-irradiated water, unlike humans. Of course, the ghouls remained human, inwardly, but just as the Mirelurks would die because of the clean water in the Tidal Basin, purified water could have long-term harmful effects on the ghouls.

Damian took one last look at the ghoul corpses before returning to the Rangers. The Rangers had gone inside the outpost and seemed to be waiting for someone.

A soldier in power armor came towards them, wrapped in a piece of brown cloth as a raincoat. He stopped in front of Reilly and Damian came closer to hear what he had to say.

"Paladin Berrings, Second Monument Defense Regiment."

"Reilly, of Reilly's Rangers," introduced herself the young woman.

"So, you're the one delivering the goods today?" asked the Paladin as he laid eyes on the Enclave officer.

"That's right," answered Reilly. "Glad we can get rid of him."

"Great. The squad tasked with retrieving him should be here any minute. In the meantime, we'll put him in a warm place and maybe prepare the ground for them."

He approached the prisoner and stared at him through the visor of his helmet.

"Looks like he's been through some rough time."

"He gave us a bit of a struggle," Reilly replied, giving Damian a corner glance.

"All that matters, is that he can still talk. I just hope that will still be the case after we've taken care of him."

The officer hardly swallowed his saliva. He looked at the Paladin, Reilly and the various soldiers and Rangers present.

Berrings waved his hand and two Brotherhood soldiers grabbed the prisoner by the arms and pulled him into the outpost.

"Fucking bastard!" he yelled. "You, mercenaries fight for money, while we fight for honor!"

"Each of us fights for what he lacks most," answered Reilly with a smile.

The prisoner struggled and one of the soldiers punched him in the stomach and dragged him out of sight of the others.

Berrings continued talking with Reilly, and Damian walked away to the concrete barricade and looked through a small hole in the ruins.

The ground between the Washington Monument and the Capitol was still occupied by the Super Mutants and from time to time Damian could see them peeking out of trenches or fortified positions. The images from the simulation resurfaced in his memory and Damian chased them away with a head shake.

Who could have built these fortifications and trenches? It was a question he had asked himself as soon as he arrived on the Mall, when he had witnessed the violent skirmish between the mutants and the Brotherhood, which had forced him to take shelter in Underworld and allowed him to meet Reilly.

Did this trench system exist before the Great War, or was it built after the bombs fell? Was it, as with the various antipersonnel mines still present in some places of the Wasteland, a series of fortifications erected by the US Army in the aftermath of the Great War, in case of a possible Chinese invasion?

The other hypothesis, was that the Super Mutants occupying the Mall had dug the trenches, but Damian could not imagine them capable of erecting such defenses, even if they had already shown themselves full of surprises.

Paladin Berrings had mentioned a special detachment attached to the protection of the Washinton Monument. The Brotherhood probably had to watch over the obelisk and its radio antennas to enable Three Dog to transmit into the Wastes. Perhaps it was the Brotherhood that dug these trenches, to protect the various monuments and museums of the Mall and to facilitate their exploration and that of the surrounding ruins.

The Super Mutants may have had to attack them and forced them to abandon the trenches, forcing the Brotherhood to position themselves around the obelisk and launch bloody assaults to dislodge the mutants from the fortifications and re-establish themselves there.

In this case, this was related to the other question that many in the Brotherhood were asking. Why did the Super Mutants embark on this crusade to exterminate the humans or make them become like them?

Damian knew that the Super Mutants were not the result of radiation, as many had assumed before he discovered Vault 87 and the experiments that had taken place there. But what he would have liked to know was what could have caused these abominations to hunt, kill and capture humans.

At first, he had thought of a kind of instinct, the same instinct that causes an animal to act like all members of its species, inoculated by mutation, but he had scratched this idea out when he met Fawkes. Fawkes had not once shown uncontrolled aggression or behaved like his "meta-human brothers" and he was saddened by the mere thought of being compared to them.

Was there somewhere a supreme leader of the Super Mutants, a behemoth bigger and uglier than the others, who gave orders to his fellow humans, sitting on a throne made of wrecked cars and wearing a necklace of human skulls. A "Master" or some kind of deity, worshipped by the Super Mutants and who ordered them to transform or kill all humans?

Damian was pulled from his thoughts by a series of shots. The shots came from the other side of the Mall, towards the Capitol.

Berrings turned to one of his men in one of the watchtowers. He took the binoculars out from in front of his eyes and told him that he could not see anything.

"Any of your men?" Reilly asked.

"No," replied Berrings. "Our men coming to retrieve the prisoner are supposed to come from the Citadel and must arrive by the museum station. The whole detachment is here at the Washington Monument, plus a few sentries in the station below us to warn of a surprise attack."

The fire was increasing in intensity and seemed to come from the buildings between the Capitol and the History Museum.

"Do you think it's Talon Company?" Donovan asked Butcher.

"It's possible," replied the Ranger medic. "They've been trying for weeks to dislodge the Super Mutants from the Capitol. For all we know, they may have decided to secure the surrounding buildings here."

A loud explosion sounded. The attack ceased, as suddenly as it had begun.

"Whatever it was," said Reilly, grabbing her rifle. "It's over."

She turned to her men who grabbed their things and began to move toward the exit of the outpost.

"Are you coming?" the young woman asked Damian.

"No, I think I'll stay here for a while," he said.

"As you wish. It was nice seeing you again, Ranger. Remember to drop in at the HQ. Will celebrate the end of your coma."

The young woman left the outpost. Damian looked at her as she joined her men and they ran towards the metro entrance.

Damian wanted to stay at the outpost and was personally eager to interrogate himself the prisoner, but he was also sure that the Brotherhood would not let him get close to him.

The squad coming to pick up the prisoner arrived a few minutes later, during which Damian listened to the radio and waited for the call from Tristan or the Citadel.

The Brotherhood group had left for an unknown destination in the ruins of D.C., and Damian in turn was about to leave the outpost. His gaze fell upon the trenches filled with Super Mutants and the scene of the shooting he had heard earlier.

"What's over there?" he asked one of the guards.

"I think that's the National Archives and right behind it is a metro station that links the Mall to Pennsylvania Avenue."

Damian remembered that he'd already heard about this Mall Museum and the face of the old history buff who lived in Rivet City came back to him.

Damian thanked the guard and left the outpost. He reached the entrance of the metro and the History Museum and walked along the front of the building, keeping an eye on the trenches and fortified positions from which, from time to time, Super Mutants appeared and scanned the area.

Damian's outfit was not especially suited for moving around in an urban environment. The flak armor of his Ranger outfit gave him decent protection against bullets or shrapnel, but the green color of the armor was far too conspicuous in the midst of the grey and white that reigned in the ruins of D.C. Furthermore, the weather seemed to be getting worse and the temperatures would soon drop, and Damian would have to find something to protect himself from the cold while still protecting himself from bullets.

He found himself envious of the Brotherhood's heavy but thick power armor, which, despite their often-deteriorated condition, made them blend into this ruined setting. Damian remembered that he had a US Army combat armor at home with a winter camouflage pattern. He decided to put it on when he returned to Megaton, but rejected the idea, realizing that the grey and white of the armor would not help him in the brown and beige of the Wasteland unless it started to snow, which he doubted.

Damian sighed, and as he thought about how to improve his wardrobe, he arrived in front of the National Archives.

The building was at the end of a large pedestrian walkway, wedged between destroyed office buildings. A large white stone staircase led up to the entrance and the façade of the museum, in an architectural style reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman buildings. Between the columns, the remains of American flags floated slowly, beaten by the wind and the light rain that was still falling.

Damian looked around him. A small alley disappeared on the side and behind the building and was to lead to the metro exit mentioned by the soldier. He tapped nervously his fingers on the handle of his assault rifle and climbed the steps.

Just above the entrance, a face, carved in stone, looked out over the ruins of D.C. and watched the entrance to the National Archives.

These carvings were something Damian had always found strange. Whether it was the bronze female figures on the corners of the Chevy Chase buildings, the faces carved in marble on the facades of museums in the Mall, the giant busts, overturned in the ruins or on the walls of the buildings, or the gigantic naked male statues in those metal circles, like in Seward Square or on the banks of the Potomac, Damian had always wondered who they could represent or why they were depicted this.

Pre-war America seemed to him to be such a strange and different world. In addition to these statues, Damian had noticed that his pre-war ancestors, like the Children of Atom, seemed to worship nuclear energy and weapons. Board games whose goal was to escape an atomic explosion, comic book heroes drawing their powers from uranium, the morbid fascination of the old world for an energy capable of reducing it to dust was an intriguing thing.

Damian entered the National Archives. The door had been destroyed by an explosion and a few pieces of flesh, identifiable as belonging to Super Mutants, were scattered around.

The entrance hall was built of marble and retained the ancient architectural style of the facade. In the center, a white wall, tarnished by the years, divided the room in two. The torn canvas of a painting was still hanging there, surrounded by its gilded frame.

Bones were on the floor, the last remains of visitors or passers-by, who had come to shelter from the bombs before succumbing to radiation.

Damian could see the light of a fire coming from behind the wall, as well as traces of blood leading to other mutant corpses. Damian went around the wall, his rifle pointed in front of him. On each side of the room, a metal door reserved for museum staff, allowing access to the technical rooms or offices of the building.

A broken double wooden door led to a large rectangular room, dimly lit by construction lamps and a brazier behind a wall of sandbags at the back of the room. The floor was littered with debris, dirt and dead Super Mutant corpses. The room was lined with white marble columns and wooden shelves, tables and furniture were scattered all over the room, as if to form a defensive perimeter.

Damian stepped over a destroyed column lying on the floor and froze. A few centimeters from his feet, a mine. He slowly moved away from the explosive while looking around to make sure no other traps were nearby.

One part of the room was destroyed, revealing a desk behind the marble wall. Damian walked to the center of the room, watching for any suspicious movement and keeping an eye out for the faint orange glow of the antipersonnel mines.

A hand grabbed his shoulder. Damian turned around and received a blow to the chin. Disoriented, Damian knocked randomly and felt his hand crash into a human face. He struggled with his assailant, stumbling and rolling over the debris and destroyed columns.

The fear of hitting a mine had given way to all the concentration and adrenaline of fighting the mysterious assailant.

In the darkness, Damian couldn't distinguish his attacker, but he was sure of one thing, he was human.

They fought on for a few more moments. Damian took the advantage and pushed his opponent against a wall of sandbags. He drew his pistol and pointed it at his attacker.

"Freeze!"

Damian turned his head towards the voice. From the destroyed wall, a female figure appeared, wearing combat armor and holding a 10mm submachinegun.

Damian saw his opponent slowly rise. With the glow of the brazier, he was able to distinguish the face of his assailant. A woman, a little older than him, slightly matted skin and red hair. She wore khaki combat armor and stared at Damian with a murderous look in her eyes, wiping the blood from her lower lip.

The other woman in the office did not move and continued to point her gun at him.

Footsteps and hoarse voices came from the entrance to the Archives.

"Shit! There's more!" cried the woman in the office.

Damian looked over his shoulder and saw several Super Mutants approaching. He jumped over the sandbags with the red-haired woman and raised his gun to the Super Mutants.

"Wait until they get closer," the redheaded woman said.

Damian grimaced and pulled his finger from the trigger of his gun. Seconds later, the Super Mutants entered the room. One of them stepped on a mine. The explosion tore its legs off and threw him into the air.

When Damian heard the woman with the SMG firing, he raised his gun and fired back. The Super Mutants died quickly, between the mines and the bullets. Silence fell again, quickly broken by guttural screams from the entrance.

"Here comes the second wave," the redhead said.

Damian saw her grab a flamethrower and position it towards the door of the room. A second group of Super Mutant entered, screaming and shooting blindly. The woman in the office attracted their attention, giving the redhead time to aim her weapon.

A long tongue of fire spurted out at the mutants, surrounding them and licking their yellowish skin.

It was all over after a few seconds. The soft sound of the small crackling flames echoed through the room and mixed with the unpleasant smell of burning flesh.

The redhead turned to Damian, still holding her flamethrower. At this distance, Damian was sure she would burn too, but if she decided to use her weapon, Damian would have to be extremely fast.

"I think it's clear," the woman in the office said.

She climbed over the destroyed wall and jumped down, landing at the same level as Damian and the redhead.

With a calm pace, she walked towards them. Damian ventured to take his eyes off the redhead to observe the newcomer.

A little taller than him, she must have been in her mid-thirties and had long brown hair up to her shoulders, dark green combat armor and brown eyes.

She approached the redhead woman and gave her a little smile.

"You're good in a gunfight."

Realizing she was talking to him, Damian turned to her.

"You're not bad either," he replied suspiciously.

"It's part of the job," the young brunette said.

"It's rare indeed to meet people in the center of D.C., at least people who don't try to shoot me on sight."

Damian glanced at the redhead whose steel grey eyes flashed lightning bolts.

"Well," said the young brunette. "Why don't you tell us who you are and what you're doing here?"


Well, guess I FINALLY put the Stealing Independence quest in the story, after """teasing""" it in chapter 6 or 7.

I hope you enjoyed the prisoner part. Maybe a bit rushed or short in my opinion but I didn't feel like writing 2 whole chapters about it.

In case some of you (like me) like to picture everything in their mind while they read, the raincoat poncho thing that Damian and the Rangers use, is basically a WW2 German poncho with splinter camo. I don't know if it would be possible to find one in the Fallout universe, especially after 200+ years and nuclear war, but I chose it for 2 reasons: I thought it would fit great with the Ranger combat armor and I do actually own one of this and trust me, it's perfect for rainy weather.

Regarding the Lee Harvey Oswald reference, I initally planned to make Donovan refer to the man who assassinated Lincoln but, I changed it, mainly because I would assume that people in 2277 would more know about "recent hystory" (saying that 1963 is more recent for them than 1865, even though its like 300 oand 400 year). I also consider that some real life Cold War event happened in the Fallout universe (I think there is a reference to the Vietnam War in Fallout Tactics but I mainly used the mural painting in COncord museum in Fallout 4).

As for the last dialogue between Reilly and the Enclave officer, it's a real life dialogue that Robert Surcouf, a French privateer from the late 18th early 19th century had with a British ship captain he captured. Basically, the British captain said that "French only fight for money while British fight for honour" and Surcouf replied "Each fights for what he lacks most." Since I love this line of dialogue, I decided to add it.

Until next time.