Elder Woolf found herself in the calculator's chambers once again. She could hear the bleeps and boops of the machines as they worked to keep the calculator alive...

The Calculator was not what she had anticipated, it was just a simple terminal, hooked up to dozens of powerful processors and more disturbingly, human brains. Dozens of them floated in tanks, a true abomination of technology, yet, ironically, the one thing that would make this place worth inhabiting...

General Woolf, as she was known back then, approached the terminal without any hesitation. She had heard its voice before, perhaps it was because she had only just started looking at women differently but something about the voice brought her comfort...

"Greetings. I am the Calculator, overseer of the Vault Network. You have proven to be a statistical anomaly that crashed my logistics programs time and time again. It is my admiration of your adaptation and ingenuity that brings you to me. I assume that you would agree that ten Behemoth robots would terminate you and your squad? I have the resources to make such an offensive, but it is not in my interest. After all, you are quite the remarkable human and, more importantly, you have something I need."

"I don't like the sound of that..." Came a voice from behind the General, prompting her to look over her shoulder to see Farsight step forward. Farsight was a lot older than she looked, she was only in her early twenties but looked like she was in her thirties... Woolf had been with her since initiation, Farsight was kind of like the den mother of the group, constantly barking orders. Though, as Woolf grew a lot more confident on the battlefield, she found herself stepping back and allowing her to make the calls, most of which she agreed with.

Still, Farsight was never afraid to speak up...

"It is the organic portion of my mainframe that has become corrupted. The degeneration of my symbiotic brains has corrupted eighty-five percent of main protocol programming. It would take only one brain to bring my organic subsystems back online, but finding a feasible brain has become a problem. I would use a brain from one of Vault 0's residents, but I compute that my CPU would only become less efficient.

However there is another solution. Yours is a brain that can bring balance to my organic neuro-network. I am offering you what you humans call a "dream come true." You can shed your mortal shell and join with me. You will share my power and resources to save humanity and restore civilization from the smoking ruins of the wasteland. Your name will never be forgotten and be synonymous with the word 'hero.'

What say you, warrior? Will you continue to fight me? Destroy me and continue to carve some small, insignificant niche for the Brotherhood? While the Brotherhood may tame a region, they will never have the lasting impact I alone can. The machinery you see before you has the capacity to remove your brain from its mortal vessel. It is in this machine that your journey to save mankind will truly begin. You must hurry, human. My systems cannot function long without a symbiotic brain."

"No fuckin' way!" Farsight snapped, stepping forward and blocking Woolf's access to the terminal, with a stern look in her eye. Woolf was, needless to say, a little startled by this but remained focussed.

"Farsight, it isn't your decisi-"

"Like fuck it ain't! I'm not letting you do this to me!"

Woolf sighed heavily, taking a step forward and holding a hand out, resting it on her shoulder.

"Farsight... You know it was going to end this way... Right? We're soldiers, either one of us could have died at any moment over the last Year or so...

"This is humanity we have to think about..."

"Humanity!? Look at what this fucking thing has done to humans everywhere! Are you telling me that's what we need!?"

Woolf paused, she didn't have time to debate this, she stepped forward and reached for the console. The Calculator would give the Brotherhood the advantage it needed to push back mutants and other threats back to where they came from or wipe them out completely. Human lives wouldn't be at risk anywhere near as often as they are now, they could make a difference to not only the Midwest but to America as a whole...

Woolf took a deep breath, she knew that here were other options... Her squad members could die in her place... Or... The General, her former mentor who was now strapped to a machine. He was the embodiment of everything he hated and she was positive that he would appreciate the opportunity to serve the Brotherhood again in any way he could.

"Oka-" As she began to speak she felt a sharp sting in the back of her head and everything cut to black. She landed with a heavy thud on the floor before a series of gunshots began to ring out across the room, followed by an explosion...

Woolf's eyes slowly opened as she looked at her clock, 3:19 AM. She woke up at that time every fucking day... It drove her crazy. She sighed heavily as she rolled out of bed and wandered over to her desk, she didn't wear much when she slept, understandably, her Elder's robes were a bit bulky and uncomfortable and she didn't want to treat them as a high ranking dressing gown.

The Brotherhood Elder took a seat and glanced over the reports of yesterday's battles. At least she had this time to do this garbage, though even the Presidents of the old world had 4-6 hours of sleep, depending on the individual. Woolf was pretty sure that it could effect her leadership...

Though, then again, it wasn't like she could do anything but wait right now. This entire war had been a pointless struggle, trying to empty a flooding basement. All she could do was wait and hope that the assault on Linden had gone to plan...

Taking Linden meant taking Marshall, meant having a foothold on the 20 interstate highway and that meant that they would likely have an easier time of forcing their way towards Carbon.

It baffled her as to how and why Cain picked Carbon... So many cities nearby, from what she heard it was a rundown mess of a place. Yet the Ghoul was adamant that he would start there and expand further out until he reached Arkansas. To think, all of this happened, because of the Brotherhood's stupid, bloody, blind old ignorance. Towards Mutants or anyone who isn't a pure bred, heterosexual human.

Her chapter had been forced to adjust their attitude, it was surprisingly easy as most of them were somewhat fearful of crossing her that they dared not protest.

Shame that blind loyalty didn't last forever...

Woolf's trail of thought was interrupted as there came a knock at the door, prompting her to look around and jump to her feet, wandering over to her Elder's robes.

"Just a moment!"

There was a short wait as she threw her robes on, pulling them down as far she they would go before she sighed, looking in the mirror. She looked like shit but it would do...

"Come in!"

The door opened and a woman stepped in, half of her head was shaved, the other was quite long. She was quite well built, muscular, with a large bust. She had darker skin than most locals, though it wasn't much different.

"We got the report from 'Lenden,' evil warriors cut us up bad but we push 'em back... Barely." She informed her, getting a relieved sigh from the Elder as she hung her head and slowly lifted it, to look the messenger in the eye.

"Thank you, Kurisu... Is the General okay?"

"General be fine, she be the one who sent the message. She was one of few not taken by spirits."

"Good..." Woolf sighed, with a faint smile, turning to face Kurisu.

"I shouldn't worry but... Guess that's my job."

"Spirits say you have little to worry about Fren, at least not about her well being. Spirits say they're more worried about those around her." Kurisu said, getting a faint, off guard chuckle from Woolf.

"Yep, spirits hit the nail on the head there." The Elder said, doing her best to cut her laugh short.

It was funny with Kurisu, many of her peers dismissed her insight as Tribal spiritual bullshit. Hell, a few years ago, Woolf would have as well. However, Kurisu was surprisingly accurate when reciting what her 'visions' told her. She began to wonder if there really were spirits or if she was just very perceptive and intelligent. Maybe it was a bit of both? Maybe she had a window in her mind that could only be opened by a strong will that allowed to her to see the third place...

It was impossible to speculate, the Scribes wouldn't dignify it and to be honest? That was for the best, she didn't want them hurting Kurisu in any way, not when it took so much to coax her out of her withdrawn state that they found her in.

"Thank you Kurisu... You can go now." Woolf said, with a pleasant smile, prompting the warrior to bow, respectably before she turned around, wandering over to the door. She remained blissfully unaware that Woolf's eyes followed her out, mostly focussing on her hind quarters.

After the door shut, Woolf turned back over to the desk and took a seat.

She'd need to send more people up to Linden to keep a hold of the territory...

She just hoped that this was the start of progress and that it wouldn't end the same way that Paris did...