The battle was over when Drake regained consciousness. One quick look around was all he needed to figure out that Frank Morden's camp had been able to fight off the slavers. Drake checked the time on his Pip-Boy and figured that he must have been unconscious for about thirty-six minutes.
Drake slowly got back to his feet and began staggering around the camp for a couple minutes before regaining his balance. He then ran to Frank's trailer where he found the man yelling at one of his guards.
"How the hell did a army of slavers that god damn large get so fucking close to us before being spotted?!! What the hell am I paying you idiots for?!" The man was clearly angry, understandably so, and Drake dreaded what the guard had to tell him.
"I don't know what to tell you sir. One second the whole area was clear, and the next there was a bright flash of light and they were simply there."
It was clear Frank wasn't believing what his guard was telling him, not that Drake could blame the man, and he had to quickly intervene when he grabbed the poor man and lifted him off of his feet. "Do I look stupid enough to believe that pile of bullshit?!!
"Frank stop! He's telling the truth. I saw it too when they took Dana."
"They what?!!"
"Me and Dana were bringing that Olivia woman to the shelters when there was a bright flash and we were suddenly ambushed by five men right in the middle of camp! I tried my best to protect her, but they brought in five others the same way and grabbed her while I was fighting them, they then hit me with some sort of stun weapon when I tried to rescue her. But just before I lost consciousness I saw her and the man she was fighting disappear in a flash."
Frank let his guard go and barreled his way right into Drake's face. "Take me there now."
The two of them practically ran back to the surgery tents and one of them surrounded with a growing crowd. Frank shoved and commanded his way through and immediately saw what had gathered there attention. On the ground outside the tent was a severed head and leg, and a Stun Baton next to a small pool of blood soaked into the dirt, but no bodies.
"Your handy work?" Frank asked Drake as he moved to enter the tent itself.
"Yes. There was a third man whose throat I slit, but both his and the other two bodies must have been snatched by the same light that took Dana."
When they entered the tent they found two of Frank's doctors tending to the injury of the raider woman Drake had wounded earlier. It would appear that whatever armor she had been wearing on her shoulder had taken the brunt of the impact from Drake's shot.
Frank looked at Drake in confusion. Evidently raiders don't normally work with slavers like this.
"These five came into the tent after us when I dragged Dana and Olivia in here. There was a bright flash outside just before they entered too. Say, where is Olivia anyway?"
It was the raider woman who replied to him. "If you're talking about that Ghoul one of the damn slavers snatched her while you were butchering his friends outside."
Frank shoved his men aside, knelt down to her and quickly shoved his left thumb into her wound. The poor woman cried out in pure agony. "Listen here you raider cunt! You're going to tell me exactly how you bastards got passed our defenses and where the hell my daughter is right fucking now! Or I promise to teach you the true meaning of suffering."
"I don't know, I don't Know, I DON'T KNOW!!" The woman cried as Frank's men held her down.
When it became clear that nobody was going to intervene Drake placed his left hand on Frank's right shoulder and gave a slight squeeze to get the man's attention. "I know you're angry, but she can't tell you anything useful when she is in that much constant pain."
Frank seemed to relent and looked up at Drake for a moment before looking back down at his...victim? "You better start telling me whatever it is you do know. And do it fast before I lose my patience again."
"Me and my gang were captured last week. The damn bastards simply appeared right in the middle of our camp and took most of us down before we could even fire a shot. We were waiting to be conditioned when they came up to us with an offer this morning. They said they would set us free if we helped them snatch up some doctor by the name of Dana Morden."
"Why?!!" Frank demanded.
"I don't know. I swear I don't know. All I know is that they handed us our weapons while we were in our cells, and a few minutes later we were suddenly in the middle of this damn camp."
One look at Frank was all Drake needed to know that he was not buying the woman's story. A sentiment made true with his next question. "If that's true, then why isn't your slave collar working? They would have detonated it by now if it was."
"It's not! I had no idea. You mean to tell me we could have turned on those assholes the moment we got here?!"
"I wouldn't say that lady. The collars on your friends are still very much active." Replied one of Frank's guards.
The look of confusion on Frank's face mirrored Drake's. "Could they have actually kept their word and deactivated her collar remotely?"
Drake's question incited a brief chuckle from Frank before he replied. "Not possible. Even if they were trustworthy. To prevent any tech savvy slaves from orchestrating mass escapes, these collars have been specifically designed so that they can only be deactivated physically."
"Then why isn't it working anymore?"
"For the same reason they didn't simply send their entire force directly into the camp from the start. They're using an unstable teleporter." A short and bald African American, although Drake now wondered if the term American should even be used anymore when the country itself no longer exists, who looked to be in his early sixties interjected as he entered the tent.
"Connor. What are you talking about?" Frank asked in a rather odd and annoyed tone that gave Drake the impression that he doesn't particularly like Connor very much. "I thought you said that Institute inventions like this were nothing more than insane exaggerations?"
"Most of them are. Unfortunately teleportation was indeed one of the real ones. In fact, it was one of the Institute's greatest weapons in The Commonwealth's first unification war."
"Teleportation? Like in comic books and television? How is that even possible? I mean, I saw it with my own eyes and I still have a hard time believing it." As soon as he he said it Drake realized just how much of an understatement his words really were. Even though he had no memory of his life before the facility everything in his mind just seemed to scream insanity at the very idea of teleportation being real. And he now wondered if that was something that was downloaded into his mind, just like the seemingly outdated sense of morality he felt when he spoke with Derecho just before the attack.
"Do I even have a true sense of self anymore? Was everything that made me who and what I was completely erased? Do I really want to know what I was originally like?" These questions and others flooded Drake's thoughts even as Connor responded to him.
"Very few people, even among Institute survivors, know the precise science behind the technology I'm afraid. And those that do have spent the past thirty years working on ways to hinder its use within the borders of the eight nations. At least that is what I was led to believe anyway." Connor answered quite elegantly. So much so that Drake now suspected that the man was certainly one of the most educated people in this camp. Even for a doctor.
"Perhaps that's why Frank doesn't seem to like the man. Is he jealous, or simply distrustful of the man because he might not be completely forthcoming with how he obtained his education? If so, why?" Drake thought as he observed Frank's demeanor as Connor spoke.
"And just how the hell did a group of fucking slavers in the unclaimed territories manage to get their hands on that technology? Even in an unstable variation of it?" Frank asked in an almost accusing tone.
Drake may not have known the man for long, but something in Drake was making him certain that the man's hostility towards Connor was very unusual for him. "What exactly is going on between these two?" Drake wondered.
"If I had to guess the Overlords must have managed to get their hands on either an Institute survivor, or at least recovered some of their schematics. Just like most of the eight nations did."
"You said that the teleporter was likely unstable because her collar no longer works. What exactly did it do to make it malfunction, and why only hers?" Drake asked.
Connor took a moment to look Drake up, not surprising since even his eyebrows were still barely noticeable, before responding. "Well young man, as I already said, I don't know all of the science behind the device. However, what I remember reading about its history after the second unification war came to an end stated that the Institute's early prototypes had difficulty fully transporting electronic devices. The more complex the device, the greater the chance of failure. Usually what would happen is that both the subject and their equipment would vanish from their point of origin as planned, but sometimes certain pieces of their equipment wouldn't reappear at the destination. In many cases the whole device would simply vanish. The scientists were supposedly never able to figure out what happened to those lost pieces of tech either."
"That could explain why I only saw two of the slavers use those Mesmerizers, and why the blast that hit me didn't knock me unconscious right away. In fact, the only other weapon I saw was that Stun Baton you saw lying on the ground next to that puddle of blood. It was from the second man I killed with my knife." Drake explained to Frank.
Drake could tell that Frank was struggling to maintain his composure, likely due to impatience, as he asked his next question. "Do you know if any of the eight nations can help us trace where they went?"
Connor didn't seem to be particularly empathetic to his employer's situation when he answered, "No. At least, not that I am aware of anyway."
"The Overlords are slavers right? Wouldn't it be possible for us to just find were they sell their slaves and buy Dana's freedom back? Or perhaps attempt a rescue?" Drake asked in an attempt to defuse a tense situation when he suspected Frank was about to explode.
Before either man could answer the loud and angry voice of Frank's wife Clair bellowed from the opposite end of the large tent. "Dana's been captured?!!"
Frank rushed over to comfort his wife as fast as he could. I will get her back, I promise. Edward!" Frank shouted at one of his guards.
"Yes, sir!"
"Go find that Ghoul raider Derecho and bring him here now! If he resists in anyway shoot him and bring me his fucking corpse."
"Right away." Edward dashed out of the tent and began barking orders to help him find Derecho.
"Derecho's here?!! Holy shit we're still in the fight after all!" The wounded raider shouted in response as she tried, and failed, to get back on her feet in excitement.
"The fight? You mean against the Brotherhood of Steel in South Carolina? What does he have anything to do with that war still going on?" Drake asked in genuine confusion.
"Because he's the whole reason we've lasted as long as we have in the first place. He's the one who brought us all together and planned out all our strategies. He's our fucking savior man! And you're plan to sell him to the Brotherhood won't get your little girl back you old bastard!"
"Sell him? What is she talking about?" Drake practically pleaded back to Frank in hopes for an explanation.
"The Brotherhood of Steel knows who and what Derecho is and has placed the largest bounty conceived since the Great War on his head. They want him to suffer for the losses he caused them these last three years. I was going to remain neutral and ignore the bounty like I always do, but I might need the extra resources to buy Dana back."
The raider woman couldn't seem to stop herself from laughing.
"What exactly is so damn funny?" Draked asked her.
"You and you're boss's idea of buying someone back from the Overlords. That's what's so fucking funny."
"And why is that funny to you?"
"Because the Overlords don't do that as a matter of policy. Something about thinking that doing so delegitimizing slavery."
"Alright already! I'll go in." Came the now familiar voice of Derecho just before entering the tent.
"Get out! Their going to sell you to..." One of Frank's guards stopped her in mid sentence by applying pressure to her wound much like Frank himself had.
"Let go of her!" Derecho shouted as he tried charging at the guard, but was quickly stopped by Edwards and seven other guards well before ever reaching her.
"Steve that's enough!" Frank shouted at the guard torturing the woman only for him to seemingly ignore the order.
Drake saw the look of pure rage in the guard's face and suspected that he likely lost loved ones to raiders just like her and was simply too intent on immediate revenge to listen to anyone. And with the other guards busy dog piling Derecho, who was managing to put up an incredibly impressive fight, and the two doctors who had been tending to the woman's wound before he and Frank arrived seemingly too scared to act, Drake was the only one that could immediately stop the poor woman's torment.
Drake then pulled out his empty revolver and kicked Steve hard in his right kidney before pulling him off of the raider and onto the ground. Drake then knelt on top of him and shoved his gun straight in the man's face. "That's enough!"
The two previously stunned doctors then began tending to the now whimpering raider's injury, which had once again begun to bleed profusely.
"Thank you Drake." Clair said as she approached and knelt down to the subdued Derecho. "That raider said the Overlords refuse to sell the people they capture back to their loved ones. Is that true?" She asked him with tears in her eyes.
Derecho seemed to stop his struggling and paid full attention to her as he calmly answered her question.
"Yes. They also get angry when the person they sell them to either frees them or at least sell them back to the families. Something that has never made too much sense to me or any other raider either. Caps and supplies still hold value no matter where they come from. But that's not the biggest problem your daughter, Edward here filled me in on the way, has right now."
Frank walked up to and stood next to his wife. "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that she was the intended target of this attack from the very beginning. The Overlords only do that when somebody hires them to capture someone specific. Which means she won't be showing up at any of their auction sites. In their minds she's already been sold."
It was Connors who asked the next question. "Do you know where their base of operations is?"
"The Overlords have several holding sites in both Georgia and Florida, even had a few in South Carolina before I lured the Brotherhood into attacking their operations, but nobody knows where their headquarters is located. Their men are also fanatically loyal and simply refuse to even talk about the place no matter how much you bribe or torture them. I have never seen anything like them before in my life."
Connors then asked another question. "Tell me, are any of those holding areas located in or around old power plants?"
"I don't think so. At least none that I'm aware of anyway. Why?"
"The teleportation device the Institute used required a massive amount of energy to use. In fact, it required so much that using it was almost as much a burden too their overall objectives as it was an advantage. I can think of no reason why that wouldn't be the same for the Overlords too."
Drake understood immediately where Connor was going with his reasoning. "You're saying that there are only a few places where this device can possibly be located and used. That narrows the number of places we would have to search to find it significantly."
"My point exactly."
It was then that Derecho added another important piece of information. "The Overlords are almost certain to make their headquarters close to something like that device. Both to better protect it from danger and to use it to escape if faced with overwhelming odds. And if we can find their headquarters we can find who they sold her to and where they are."
Frank knelt down to Derecho. "Derecho, if you help rescue my daughter I promise to never again treat Brotherhood soldiers in my caravan. Ever."
"If you promise to patch up my little soldier over there and escort her to Darla Village you got yourself a deal."
"We can pack up and leave for Darla after the Brotherhood and Imperial forces pick up their wounded tomorrow. It's on our way to Raider City anyway." Frank then motioned for his men to let Derecho go, a clear sign that their negotiation was complete.
Frank then motioned for his guards and doctors to take the raider woman and leave while he, Claire, Connor, and Drake stayed.
Derecho looked at Connor after straightening himself out. "So my bald wrinkly faced smoothskin friend, where are all the Georgia fusion plants located? I'll start my search by checking out the closest one."
Connor almost stammered with his reply. "I wouldn't know anymore than you."
Drake, finding the question to be strangely obvious, gave the answer himself. "There are a total of thirteen fusion plants located in the state of Georgia, eight primary facilities located in Athens, Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah, Augustus, Albany, Valdosta, and Macon, and five secondary facilities in Rome, Dalton, Blue Ridge, Gainesville, and Toccoa in the north."
"How do you know all of that young man?" Connor asked in a tone hinting at him being slightly impressed with Drake's display of knowledge.
Drake thought about it and concluded that the knowledge must have been downloaded into his head like everything else. "It's something of a long story." He replied.
"It truly is Connor. I'll explain it to you later." Frank said.
"In any case we can rule out the facilities in the north since those five city states have always been hostile to slavers. The same goes for Atlanta, Raider City, and Savannah is completely ruled by fucking Super Mutants." Derecho added to the subject at hand.
"I was under the impression that the local Super Mutants were actually friendly towards humans. Is that not the case?" Claire asked.
"Yes and no. They no longer attack human settlements and even peacefully trade with them, but they are extremely hostile to anyone who enters their territory uninvited and flat out refuse to allow anyone who isn't a Super Mutant to stay for more than a week. Plus, the few visitors they do allow entry to are each given escorts to safely guide and monitor them at all times."
"Where exactly is this Raider City located?" Drake asked in confusion.
"Sorry, I forgot you're from a vault. Raider City is located in what used to be Augustus. Right in the middle of the Glow Fields, an extremely radioactive region inhabited by literally nothing but nightmares and highly profitable medicinal plants that grow like weeds."
"If it's that bad there how can, and why do, people even live there?"
It was Connors who spoke next. "It's because of those plants he mentioned. They're used in the production of highly potent variations of Rad-X and Radaway. The locals make and consume so damn much of their own products that radiation has absolutely no effect on them. It's now even rumored that children born in there have developed a natural immunity to radiation as a result."
Drake looked at Frank and Claire. "I take it the two of you are going there to see if those rumors are true."
"On top of collecting a decades worth of Radstopper and Radkiller? Most certainly." Frank admitted with a half hearted attempt at being cheerful.
"However, it's the aftermath of the Brotherhood's Carolina war that has us and almost every other wasteland doctor in Georgia going there to help the wounded raiders and tribals that managed to escape across the Savannah River." Claire explained in more detail. "We'd be halfway there already if we hadn't run into that skirmish between the Brotherhood and Imperial scouting forces."
Derecho snorted at that. "Those were a lot of soldiers for just a scouting party. How the hell did they get so far into Georgia without being detected anyway? Or haven't they said anything?"
It was Frank who answered. "We never bothered to ask. We don't take sides."
"Sooner or later you won't have a choice."
"There is always a choice. I would think someone like you would have learned that by now."
Instead of continuing the argument Derecho went simply went back to the subject at hand. "Well it seems that Athenia is the closest possible location for Overlord HQ. It's one of their largest markets and is the headquarters of the Obsidian Alliance, which they're a member of.
"If the Overlords are members of this alliance, why wouldn't their headquarters be there anyway?" Drake asked.
"Because they only officially joined two years ago and quite a few of the other organizations in the alliance are still very hostile towards them for selling so many of their people over the years. Something which the Overlords agreed to stop doing when they joined up."
"If those groups are still angry why didn't they force the Overlords to simply free their captured members before letting them join?" Claire asked in confusion.
"I don't know all the details as to why the alliance finally allowed them to join, they've been rivals of my gangs for years, but I do know that the Overlords agreed to allow the people they sold those particular slaves to to either free or sell them back to the other alliance members without fear of punishment."
"You mentioned that the Overlords get angry with customers that free or sell their slaves back to their loved ones. What exactly do they do them when they do?" Drake asked.
"Now that's a damn good question. All anyone knows is that Overlord Enforcers show up and somehow "convince" them to never do it again. Which they don't. Ever. It's strange as hell because they apparently never actually kill or torture anybody, at least not that anyone has known about anyway."
"Wait. Didn't you say that the Alliance is hostile towards yours? Can you even enter the city without being attacked on site? You're not as powerful as you used to be after you're defeat in South Carolina, so I doubt they will fear retaliation if they kill you. So how the hell are you going to rescue my daughter if she is there?" Frank asked.
Drake had to admit that Frank Morden's concern was legitimate.
"It's not like I'll be going there in person. I do have capable people who can help track her down. I have to get my ass down to Savannah to get the Super Mutants to start building defenses along the coastline they control before heading even further south to convince the other coastal groups to start doing the same." It won't be too long before the Brotherhood realizes that a river crossing would be too costly and chooses to invade by sea instead."
"You're actually going to keep fighting this crazy war of yours?!!" Claire exclaimed in almost as much shock as she did when she learned about Dana's capture. "By now even someone as stubborn as you has to see the writing on the wall. You. Can't. Win. The time of raiders and chaos is over. For the sake my daughter, for the sake of the people who believe and follow you, and for your own, please just give up and surrender already. I beg you." She pleaded desperately with Derecho.
However, Derecho only seemed to grow annoyed and irritated with Claire's pleas. "In case you haven't been paying attention none of the eight nations have been interested in accepting the surrender of any raider their war machines have come across. And even if they did, what exactly are Ghouls like myself supposed to do? Just give up our homes and everything we have ever known for the protection of the Federation or the Commonwealth?" Derecho then became much more quite and far more grim as he continued. "And what are the local Super Mutants supposed to do? Just stand around and let themselves be slaughtered for no reason? In case you forgot the leaders of both invading armies have already ordered their extermination, regardless if they are hostile or not."
For reasons that currently alluded Drake, neither Frank or Claire seemed willing to say anything after that and both seemed to lower their heads in sad resignation.
Derecho was much more calm and sympathetic when he spoke again. "I am sorry for what has happened to your daughter, I truly am, but there are more important things in this world that need to be taken care of first. And preventing a genocide is one of them." With that Derecho walked out of the tent to likely prepare for a war he can't win.