General Pershing watched as Sturges and Proctor Ingram slowly got the teleporter working. To his left, Elder Maxson paced impatiently, Maxson, like Pershing was eager to get a move on with the operation. If they gave the Institute too much time to regroup there was a very real chance that they would be forced out by the sheer numbers of Synths that the Institute would throw at them.

"Got it!" Sturges finally said, as he looked up away from the terminal and towards the leaders. "Reinforcements are on their way" Just as he finished saying that, the blue hue of the Institute teleporter flashed in the teleporter room, with both Minutemen and powered armored Brotherhood soldiers were teleported from the surface.

"Excellent" Maxson said, he looked over at the General and said "We should get a move on" Pershing nodded and began to give the order when Preston spoke up from behind him.

"Sturges, if anyone comes through here looking for a way out, let them through." He looked around and finished "we are not here to murder these people."

Pershing then said "Teleport them to a place where they can be easily contained, like the Castle, so after this we can figure out what were going to do with the survivors."

Maxson had moved to his right and said "That is acceptable to the Brotherhood, but if anyone gets in our way shoot to kill." The Brotherhood soldiers stated their agreements, while the Minutemen did not. Maxson either did not notice or did not care that the Minuteman did not agree, as he turned to Pershing and said "Lets move out"

Pershing motioned for the force of soldiers to move out and they moved single file down the stair well leading to the elevator to the Institute proper. Pershing walked into the elevator and pressed the button and nothing happened. Pershing cursed and turned around "Were going to need to find another way around, the Institute has locked down the elevator."

Danse, who still had the gas helmet on, spoke up from behind a couple of Minutemen soldiers "There is a door open over here "he opened the door and said "It's unlocked!" Pershing saw some of the Brotherhood keep an eye on Danse and one of the Knights leaned over and spoke to another soldier. Pershing knew that it was dangerous to bring Danse along, but he needed his best soldiers on this mission, so the risk was worth it.

Pershing moved through the mass of soldiers and entered into the room. This part of the Institute was a far cry from the parts that Pershing had visited, this was covered in dust and rust, while the Institute proper was much cleaner. Maxson stated what everyone was thinking, "So this is the Institute? I expected more from them."

Preston stated "This can't be how they have lived for two hundred years."

The group of soldiers made their way through the what looked to be a robotics factory. They had run into a few turrets which had been brushed aside by the small army. Pershing ordered some of his men to take a position at the windows as it overlooked what looked to be the main room of the robotics factory, several synths and a de-activated sentry had taken up position. "They're going to try to stop us there" Pershing said pointing towards the synths. He then looked at Preston and asked "You brought grenades, right?"

Preston nodded and grabbed his satchel, emptying its contents showing eight grenades. Pershing smiled and directed Garvey to hand out the grenades as the rest of the team moved down towards the main area.

Maxson had already moved on ahead with the Brotherhood soldiers at his side, including Paladin Brandis. They had purged the synth forces in the stairwells leading down to the floor of the robotics factory. Maxson and his soldiers now stood on the main floor watching as the synth abominations tried to get a old sentry bot working. Just has we was getting ready to order the attack, Pershing slid to the right of him, also looking at the synths. "I left Preston and some of the Minutemen back up there, once we open fire they're going to let loose with grenades. Maxson nodded and gave the order to attack. He and the General stood up and opened up fire with their respective weapons, Maxson's a modified Gatling Laser, and the General's a old R-91 Assault Rifle. As they opened fire, many of the synths fell, and the other synths responded with fire, they themselves were destroyed by shrapnel coming from grenades.

"Very well done" A Minuteman to the left of Maxson said, he looked over and saw that it was the Minuteman wearing the gas mask, Danse. Arthur felt his blood boil, why had Pershing brought that thing with him to destroy the Institute, it invalidated nearly everything about the agreement that they had made regarding Danse! He couldn't make a big deal about it here, as they had bigger things to worry about than one synth that was aiding them, but when he and the General were alone, he would bring it up.

As he finished up that line of thought, the army found a hole in the floor towards the back of the robotics factory that they dropped down from, with only one exit. The exit led to a far cleaner portion of the Institute, where there was no rust. The army then emerged from the room into a large circular room with the back of the room showing an enclosed habitat some sort of animal that Maxson did not recognize. They were also fired upon by Institute synths who were now desperately trying to repel the invaders, they were brushed aside and destroyed.

Just as they were preparing to push on into what Pershing said was the hub of the Institute, the windows at the habitat housing the animals slid up allowing the animals to attack the closet soldiers, two Minuteman were ripped in half and Paladin Brandis was knocked down as one of the animals attempted to claw their way into the armor. By this point however, Maxson and the rest of the army were now firing at the animals killing both of them before they could do more damage. Brandis was slow to get up, but he did. "Are you alright sir?" one of the Brotherhood scribe medics asked. Brandis simply brushed him aside and stated that he was fine.

Pershing then said "We need to get going, the Institute is probably setting up barricades as we speak." Maxson nodded and they broke their way into the next room. Institute scientists and their synths awaited them and opened fire, two more Minutemen fell, as did a Brotherhood lite Knight but they forced their way towards the central elevator. Institute coursers and their synths were also relayed into the battle, and while the slowed down the speed of the force, they did not stop it. The fighting raged on for nearly an hour, but finally the last of the synth army was either destroyed or forced to retreat.

"Sirs!" a Minuteman engineer yelled from the door leading to the advanced systems of the Institute, and continued as both Pershing and Maxson arrived "They have locked the doors, we can't get through."

Pershing once again found himself cursing himself. He should have thought about that instead now they were forced to wait and allow for the Institute to overwhelm them! But then he remembered something, Shaun was the Director of this place and he could probably override the lockdown from the terminal. "I have an idea; you should stay here and prepare yorusleves in case this works." And without waiting for an answer he walked off in the direction of Shaun's room. As he passed the elevator, it opened and allowed him access to the room, where he found Shaun lying on his bed.

He walked over to him and said "I'm sorry its come to this Shaun."

Shaun's face turned to one of disgust on it and he said" You're sorry? You must not be sorry enough if you're here actually going through with this." he coughed and then continued" Its not enough that I lay here dying, now you plan to destroy everything, under what righteous pretext have committed this atrocity?"

John kneeled down and answered "After you attacked the Minutemen, the Brotherhood? Tried to seize control of the Commonwealth? After you spent nearly a hundred years kidnapping people and replacing them with Synths? And you can't imagine why I'm standing here?"

"I did not want to have to count you among my enemies Father." He looked away from Pershing and said "But now you are here and you are going to destroy everything I have to worked to help build."

"Help me son, there doesn't have to be any more bloodshed today, help me shut down the synths and give us a easy way to the reactor." Pershing pleaded.

Shaun's head snapped back to him and stated "I will do no such thing, if you wish to destroy the Institute, you will have to do that on your own.

Pershing nodded and without saying another word, walked over to the terminal and ordered the lockdown shutdown, and also ordered for the Institute to be evacuated. Hoping that those who could would now be able to get out, he got up and took one final look at Shaun, and walked out of the room. The sounds of battle alerted him that the Synths were once again attacking the army in the hub section. He rushed down, killing several synths as they attacked him, and saw what was attacking them. Synths armed with rocket launchers had pinned the Minutemen down but the Brotherhood was slowly pushing them back.

Pershing regrouped with them and they pressed on. They entered into the Advanced Systems Section and once again were stopped in the tight corridors by Institute scientists and their synths, but they were slowly pushed back as they broke into another long hallway. The hallway was back to being rusty and run down, similar to the old robotics area where they had entered.

They slowly fought through the area and destroyed the synths along the way, until they found themselves looking at the reactor, which was housed inside of a protective shield. What remained of the Synths and the few Institute scientists not willing to leave were all that was left? Both the Minuteman and Brotherhood soldiers dispatched them.

"Now all we need to attach the charge to the generator" Maxson said. Both he and Pershing walked up to the door leading to the reactor.

"Let me do it." Pershing said and he opened up the door and walked into the room and attached the pulse charge onto the generator.

"Ingram teleport us out of here!" Maxson yelled, and then they were all teleported, not however out of the Institute but back at the teleporter room. "Ingram what are we doing here?"

"We were going to relay you out sir, but this child showed up claiming to be the General's on." Ingram answered gesturing towards the child.

Pershing walked up to the child, and kneeled down, he appeared to be about ten years old and the child looked at him. "Please Dad take me with you!"

Pershing did not know how to feel about this, but he knew couldn't let this scared child stay here. "Ok son, let go" he looked up to Sturges and said "Make sure that he gets out and back to the Castle safely."

"Will do General"

Pershing then stood up and walked back to the relay and then he found himself on top of the Mass Fusion building overlooking the area where the Commonwealth Institute of Technology used to be located.

"That button is hooked up to the fusion pulse charge, one push and the "best hope for humanity" will go up in smoke." Preston said.

Pershing walked up to the button and flipped the switches to the on position and opened up the button cover. He hesitated and then pressed the button and a new age for the Commonwealth began.