Collaboration Pt II

We passed the Ranger HQ into the more desolate part of town and stepped before the bunker-type facility. It was hard to tell if the guards were the same from their pale complexions hardly seen through layers of combat apparel. But, I swear I saw one of them grin when they recognized the oblivious waster who asked about the place yesterday.

The Ambassador gave a greeting to the sentries and showed them a card. They asked if the dumb looking guy in sweats and flip flops was with them, and the captain nodded firmly. Then, the emblem marked door opened from the center and our party entered. Upon entry, the doors closed, and my eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lights of the dark bunker. We were standing in a large room with the same emblem from the door hanging across the back wall on a white flag. The only thing in the room was a steel table with four chairs on our side, and two occupied chairs with robed men facing us from across it. I was about to study the robed men when I noticed two towering soldiers standing in opposite corners facing us.

The robed men motioned for us to take a seat and I took the moment to look over the giants in the corners. They were wearing giant suits of T-51 power armor that I'd only seen in military magazines and old world propaganda posters. The big tin armored exoskeletons were painted grey with a blue BOS emblem in the center chest piece. The helmets had tubing around the mouth filters and sat between giant shoulder plates like a dome with black eye slits. That suit of power armor I found in the military base clearly had no resemblance to the ones I was looking at.

Before I took in the giant laser Gatling guns they carried, my eyes caught the two robed men again who silently watched us take a seat. Both of them were old men, probably in their late 50s with graying hair, beards, and the wrinkles of stress and age. Their long blue robes were largely hidden by the table, but had high collars and slim navy colored wires on the sleeves probably leading to unknown gadgets.

Once we were all situated, Ambassador Chakrabarti broke the silence with, "We're glad you made the journey all the way from Lost Hills, Elders."

The "Elder" on the left responded first, "Elder Rosco and I were already in town explaining our operations near Adytum to the Congress. So, what brings you to us on such short notice, Ambassador Chakrabarti?"

The ambassador turned towards Captain McNeil who took that as his cue to speak, "It's an honor to speak with you Elder Rosco, and Elder…"

The Elder on the left said, "Elder Quailin"

The captain continued, "I am Captain John McNeil, head of Intelligence for the Shady Sands Garrison and director of Frontier Communications..."

Pointing us out, he added, "This is Detective Paul Letinski of the Covert Operations Group. This other man is Sean Combs, NCR Independent Scout and prime informant to Detective Letinski."

Paul simply nodded with a stern expression and I stupidly gave a small wave out of instinct. Elder Rosco said, "Nice to meet you all (After focusing on me for a prolonged but expected amount of time). So, what does the head of NCR's Frontier Communications want from two Brotherhood Elders?"

The Captain said, "We understand your agents have been monitoring the reported, 'Chosen One' we need to know everything about this character."

Elder Quailin said, "Is that so? Why are our observations of this person essential to the NCR's involvement in the north?"

Captain McNeil said, "Detective Letinski here was the one who scanned the Salvatores laser weapon schematics to Ambassador Chakrabarti and has been spearheading our lead into the 'Enclave.' We've received reports that Vault 13 was raided only recently, and our agents report sightings of Vertibirds coming from up near the tribal village of Arroyo…"

Captain McNeil went on to explain every piece of intel gathered from up north in the past year. He was sure to mention my inadvertent involvement and everything I unintentionally witnessed up to my scouting of the western military base apparently called, "Mariposa." I wasn't called upon during the meeting, but nodded when it seemed appropriate, and simply listened. It turned out, the Brotherhood of Steel already knew much of what we were talking about and corroborated much of it when they explained their observation of the Chosen One.

Apparently, the Chosen One left the village of Arroyo only a few months ago of this year and went everywhere from Klamath, The Den, Vault City, Broken Hills, Redding, New Reno, Vault 15, and even the famous Vault 13 making a name for himself everywhere he went in search of a "G.E.C.K." I didn't bother to think about what a "G.E.C.K." was, but instead followed along with the Elders who explained every deed the Chosen One partook in; even his title as a New Reno Prizefighter and the shootout at the Chop Shop. Through their investigations into the Chosen One, the BOS was able to confirm much of what we theorized, and affirmed the destruction of Arroyo by the Enclave. I could tell Paul was satisfied by the slight smirk on his face when his conjectures were backed by the intel efforts of this third-party faction. I too was satisfied, but the mood shifted when the Elders explained their agents' most recent interaction with the Chosen One.

Elder Rosco said, "Only two days ago, our agents at the San Francisco Watchpost were able to confirm the Chosen One's experiences and was given orders to offer him entry into the Brotherhood of Steel if he performed a task for us."

Captain McNeil asked, "What was that?"

The Brotherhood of Steel confirmed the last missing piece of this picture. Elder Rosco was about to give Captain McNeil and Ambassador Chakrabarti the last bit of information needed to formally involve the NCR military in Enclave and northern affairs. He gave the location of an actual Enclave installation by saying; "We sent the Chosen One up to the Enclave's mainland base of operations at 'Navarro' along the coast north of San Francisco."

The captain asked while still writing down every word the Elders spoke, "What were his orders?"

The two Elders looked at each other reluctantly for a moment and whispered to themselves. When they looked back at the captain, they said, "The Chosen One will be granted entry into the Brotherhood upon their retrieval of Vertibird Schematics from the Enclave airbase at Navarro."

Captain McNeil asked, "You mentioned this, 'Navarro' can you pinpoint it on the map? And what did you mean when you said it was their, 'mainland' base of operations?"

Elder Rosco motioned for a piece of paper and the Ambassador handed him one. Elder Rosco drew a map and wrote down coordinates while Elder Quailin spoke. "Monitoring the flight patterns of increasing Vertibird activity shows their stop at Navarro before heading out into the ocean… We don't know where their aircraft fly to, but the aerial operations on the coast lead us to believe that Navarro is likely a refueling station, and insertion point for activities throughout the wastes..."

He paused for a second and Elder Rosco pushed the Navarro coordinates across the table to Captain McNeil.

The captain studied the piece of paper and the ambassador looked over his shoulder. Ambassador Chakrabarti said, "Thank you Elders. Please be sure to thank the High Elder back at Lost Hills for his cooperation in this matter."

Both the Elders faces remained steady as Elder Rosco said, "Is there anything else, gentlemen?..."

The meeting went on for a few more minutes where the ambassador tried to negotiate rights to the Vertibird schematics in process of Brotherhood retrieval. The Elders were firm on their, "we will have to see" mindset and we soon departed.

I thought about everything I went through the past year as the meeting wrapped up and I saw satisfaction in the faces of Paul as well as the usually emotionless captain. The two managed to link this supposed Enclave to the drug trade, the slaver activity, the Families in New Reno, the chemical hoarding, the decade ago military base excavation, Vault 13 raid, and even the recent destruction of Arroyo.

That meeting with the Brotherhood of Steel answered the last question Detective Paul and Captain McNeil had: Where is the Enclave? Thanks to the Brotherhood of Steel, the NCR government now knew where to find the Enclave in the wasteland: a hidden airbase on the coast called, Navarro.

Back at my house, Sophia was decorating the home with all our recently bought furnishings, and Detective Paul followed me in. Captain McNeil followed the ambassador back to the Council Building to make a case before the congress about use of the military while we relaxed from having verified the case. Paul and I sat across from each other on the new couches, and Sophia greeted us with a smile while hanging up curtains. She knew not to ask any questions at this point, so Paul and I sat back.

I began wondering exactly how essential I was to the investigation and what real impact my involvement had when I asked Paul, "How you feel about putting the 'Enclave Issue' to rest?"

He leaned back and took off his shades saying, "Feels good."

We remained quiet for a moment and I asked, "Sooo?... Since the government and army is taking over the rest of this; what happens now?..."

I paused for a second and said, "This is probably where you and I part ways, right? I'll go back to independently scouting shit for McNeil, and you'll go off to do whatever you do?"

He looked up at me and said, "Not necessarily…"

Then stopped to think. I pridefully wondered if he was going to offer me entrance to his secret "Covert Ops" gig when he continued, "NCR's going to be getting pretty damned involved up north really soon."

I raised an eyebrow and said, "That much is obvious, Haha. What are you getting at?"

He gave a smile and said, "How would you feel about going to war?"