(Cryo lab)

Jackal had fallen asleep to quite rumble of voices in the makeshift clinic, Elliot zipped from bed to bed, table to table, asking, diagnosing, treating and on a very bad day consoling; in the many days Jackal had spent by Pitt's bed he watched Elliot with growing fascination, he knew his trade and he knew it well, as he ran the clinic he dealt with pretty bad injuries, mainly when a serious situation called for him to go planet side for onsite treatment, Jackal being an Alpha knew what those kinds of injuries could be like, supermutants weren't exactly friendly, but despite that the only deaths suffered was the loss of Pitt's unit, Jackal used to think that was because they had the best tech and people working for them, now he realised it was just the people, people like Elliot. Elliot always zipped about with a smile, always had some crackpot theory to blurt out and make Sally laugh, always knew how to treat what, and never lost his cool. Jackal spent his life killing, because he wanted to survive, because he was angry, to be a hero, to be a soldier, as he looked at his friend's limp comatose body, all of the medical advances of an alien ship and all he could do was wait, it made every act of violence he had ever done and seen seem… pointless, empty. Jackal was awoken to the sound of screams, one of the labourers, a ghoul called Hollow was frantically brought in as he violently convulsed as blood began to pour out of a bullet wound he sustained from a supermutant on his trip to visit Underworld. Jackal ran to the ghoul's side and quickly used a nearby hand towel to put pressure on the wound, the other medics quickly used medical instruments developed from the healing arch-ways of the ship to graft the skin together, the small flash light like tools quickly healed the skin, but Hollow still looked bad, and for a ghoul that's saying something, the medics were at a loss, and gave each other panicked looks, Jackal without thinking tore open the black duffle bag he kept beside Pitt's bed and grabbed a bottle of irradiated water, he thanked god he was too lazy to get rid of his old things and carefully poured the water into the ghouls mouth, the radiation did it's work, healing the ghouls screwed up physiology enough to give Elliot enough time to use a more effective form of radiation therapy when one of the medics tracked him down and told him what had happened.

"Smart thinking kid, despite what I supposedly 'taught' my little flock of geniuses here, you were the only one to realise radiation heal up ghouls better than any stimpack, you saved this guy's life Dr Jackal" Elliot chuckled as he slapped Jackal on the back. Jackal stood there for exactly forty seven seconds before he decided he wanted to help more.

(Megaton)

The Wanderer's house had been turned into an outpost for the WRM, the radio equipment and (scary) amount of stockpiled weaponry inside of the inconspicuous ramshackle house made it ideal for the ISO to use as a planet side base to survey the wasteland, not to mention Megaton was the largest trading city outside of the city proper, not keeping an eye on it would be crazy. SL Bronson was the head of Charlie squad and commander of the covert base of operations. Charlies filled the support roles in the WRM, in RA and Technical, they piloted and maintained the saucers respectively, in ISO they were the spies, they roamed the waste just as the Wanderer did, reporting the happenings of the wasteland back to Bronson via radio transmissions with their scavenged pip-boys from Vault 112, while helping the communities and people of the wasteland, they only physically reported in to the house for assignments, they wore no uniform, and avoided the other factions, any agent (as they were known) could choose to mentor a wastelander and make them an honorary member of the WRM, if the apprentice showed potential, then they would be officially inaugurated into the WRM as a full agent, in this respect the Charlie squad was very independent and separated from the ISO, they only took orders from their SL or the Captain himself, were responsible for obtaining their own weapons and armour (alien technology and stealth suits tended to stick out) and were far more numerous than the other divisions; it had only been a few months since the WRM had been formed and yet Charlie squad had at least forty agents (at least half of which with apprentices) across the entire wasteland, all of them, wanderers in their own right, legends whispered by some, disregarded by most even among the mother-ship. If the Captain was right, and he had always been up to now, then every single one of them was needed to combat this new heavily armed Brotherhood.

(Cryo Lab, three days later)

Pitt's head felt like shit, his eyesight was blurred, there was a ringing in his head and it hurt to move, but as his head began make sense of his memories he remembered he was lucky to be alive. He was in the Cryo Lab, the clinic, which now sported a neon sign which helpfully said 'clinic', he sat up very slowly and waved off the medics who tried to get him to lie back down, he examined his chest and saw faint surgical scars here and there, he chuckled as he thought they would be good for chatting up a girl, no sooner than he did this did he see Jackal sprint up to him full speed; To Pitt's surprise Jackal was sporting a wasteland surgeon's outfit and a med kit hung around his shoulder.

"New fashion on the ship?" Pitt groaned, it hurt to talk, that was going kill him he just knew it. Pitt's surprise soared to new heights as Jackal crashed into a full on hug with him. Pitt groaned in pain but laughed as he returned the hug.

"Ha! I knew it, Elliot was so sure that it would take you weeks to wake up, but I knew you were way stronger than that! Oh and you owe me fifty caps Leslie!" Jackal shouted in triumph, as one of the more attractive medics grudgingly parted with half of her pay for the week.

"How long have I been out? And who in god's name are you?" Pitt said with a smile as he took in this new Jackal.

"Huh? Oh right I was still RA when you decided to take a nap."

"You left RA!"

"Yeah, after what happened, I just kind of lost my taste for it I guess, had enough death, just felt tired you know? Well I hung around here for a bit and-"

"A bit? Try four days straight, god you smelled rank" Leslie shouted as she changed one of the patient's bandages across from them.

"Yes thank you Leslie your input is not required here right now! So yeah four days and I just started to help around a bit and next thing I know I've gone from RA badass to doctor Jackal"

"That's medic Jackal, I think you mean you know kind of like a nurse because you're not a doctor yet"

"Woman, I will put psycho in your coffee and watch you get demoted to toilet maintenance if you don't shut up, oh no offence Hollow" Jackal said as the new clinic janitor, the ghoul called Hollow who had been the start of Jackal's medical career shuffled past with a mop and a hurt expression. "He's going to give me that look for days now isn't he?"

"I hope so" Leslie chuckled; the little argument was broken up by Pitt's heavy laughter at the whole scene in front of him. The three went (slowly) to Pitt's quarters and filled him in on what had happened while he was out, Pitt was saddened about his squad, but Jackal and Leslie managed to keep the mood light. Elliot watched them go with a smile as he tended to other patients, until he realised that Jackal and Leslie were the only medics on duty to assist Elliot and the two other doctors on call, for his medical genius, it took him two hours to realise they were still on duty, if he wasn't so adamant on not letting people realise his screw up, he might have been displeased with them.

(The Bridge, two days later)

The Captain had been organising invasion plans on fort Bannister for the last three days now and nothing was looking good. Mason had technology that put the DC Brotherhood to shame; the bunker entrance was protected by four gauss beam turrets, reinforced sentry units and at least a dozen regular t51-b power armoured soldiers, and god knows what they've crammed inside since they fried the camera one of the agents placed before being killed. Things were bleak but not hopeless, they had effectively trapped themselves in an underground bunker, if worse came to worse they could lay siege to the fort and starve them out.

"Sir I've just gotten a report that the west coast brotherhood has just taken over Tenpenny Tower and killed the ghoul residents, and have already fortified the abandoned Evergreen Mills encampment." One of the terminal techs reported as they listened to their modified telemarketer headset.

"OH COME ON! That's just not fair! Alright do we have any spare agents to send to Tenpenny Tower and Evergreen Mills?"

"Uh it would seem we only have one agent spare at the moment" the tech said nervously. The Captain sat back in his chair and thought for a moment, after a minute he seemed to have decided on something that had been bothering him.

"Send the agent to Evergreen Mills, tell them to look for those damn turrets, that seems to be the only thing they have that can pose a challenge to the saucers, I have something to do, Bigsley, you have the Bridge." Everyone saluted as the Captain left for the matrix and continued to receive and send reports as Bigsley reviewed the agent's reports.

(The Clinic)

Pitt had been making a fast recovery thanks to Elliot and Jackal, so much so he had taken to helping around the clinic until he got reassigned to the field, it was fun for the most part, but Pitt was itching for action, no many how many covert suggestions Jackal dropped him about switching to medical. He was running medical supplies to the doctor's when the Captain walked in.

"Well, we aren't going to have two switches into medical this week are we?" the Captain chuckled as walked in, patting Pitt on the back.

"No sir! Eager to get back out there sir!" Pitt said with a salute, it was all very military, until Elliot started to snicker at the Captain being referred to as 'sir'. The Captain gave Elliot an evil smile and said something about a strip poker game he had with one of the medics, Pitt didn't know what the hell strip poker was but it shut Elliot up pretty quickly. The Captain invited Pitt to his quarters and they spent the rest of their conversation there.

"Well first let me say, we're all glad to see you make such speedy recovery" the Captain said as he poured a glass of scotch for himself, as Pitt refused one for himself.

"Thank you sir, it feels good to be mobile again"

"I'll bet, now obviously we can't send you back into your old unit, so have you given any thought to where you might like to be reassigned?"

"Well, I'm not sure, ISO Alpha is already full up, and I honestly can't see myself in a Charlie support role"

"Well I'm not sure 'support' is quite the word I'd use for Charlie, what I'm about to tell you would be better off staying between you and me Pitt. Most see Charlie squad as the techs that keep ISO's equipment running, or as the long distance recon units, now that's true to a certain degree, but there is a… substantial bit more to what an 'agent' does, know this the WRM doesn't completely rely on technology for its advantage, not that it hasn't helped, but think for just a moment, do you really think the raiders just up and quit after we destroyed one hideout with a laser, or that the people of the wasteland would trust us half as much if we just threw an orbital strike, or power armoured tanks with alien tech at any problem we face? No, there are…. Exceptionally talented people who work… discreetly for the betterment and protection of DC, some are exceptional at stealth, such as yourself, others prefer to use their talent for speech to solve a problem and some prefer to let their guns do the talking, but all are talented individuals who can work alone and without WRM support, as agents to us, and wanderers to the rest of the world, I think you have a knack for survival, you remind me of myself, as an agent you would have an enormous amount of freedom to deal with any… problems we send you to fix your way, but the support you would receive from us would be minimal to say the best, and it may be a very long time before you can step foot on the mother-ship again, but we have a mission that needs to be done, and done right, I think you're the man for the job, don't answer now, take a bit to think it over and tell me after dinner." Pitt silently saluted and turned for the door. "And remember Pitt, one way or another, keep this between us."

(Hangar)

Olin and Sally were working on one of the ships, trying to figure out how it worked, in order to reverse engineer it, it was long and tedious but Olin enjoyed the company of her little apprentice and Sally liked learning how to fix and craft, she was becoming quite the little tech.

"Hmmm, flight seems easy enough to recreate, a gravitational distortion field generator at the core of the ship making it weightless as smaller radiation powered jets push it around, with the parts on the ship we could probably build a prototype of that in about four weeks perhaps if we were to- Sally are you writing this down?" Olin said as lay under a half deconstructed saucer being held up the very distortion field, she was examining, if nothing else she had courage.

"Do you like the Captain?" Sally asked out of the blue, this led to Olin rocketing up and smashing her head into the hard metal of the ship.

"Owwww, what, why would you say that!" Olin groaned as she slid out from under the ship and rubbed her forehead.

"It's just your face always gets red when he talks to you, and I don't know he's kind of like my dad so if you guys were together, I'd have parents again." Sally said with complete innocence. Olin for all of her ice felt her heart melt a little and gave Sally a hug, but then she remembered when she hustled her out of twenty caps when she 'innocently' suggested they play a game of poker and called her out on her bullshit.

"Okay kid, what's your angle?" Olin interrogated with her coldest look, the only known tool to break Sally's power of manipulation.

"Okay so maybe you're a little more fun to work with when you think you have a shot with him" Sally said in much more business like tone, it was scary how fast she changed from sweet little girl to…. Whatever she was right now.

"What are you saying I don't? Wait a minute; don't even think THAT'S going to work on me, why are you trying so hard to get me to go after my COMMANDING OFFICER!" Olin shouted, and then was relieved to see the hangar was empty save for them.

"That's not it at all, sometimes he sneaks peeks at you in the Bridge and stuff, and you are happier when he's around and, and, okay fine, there's a new civilian on the ship called Lucy West, she knows the Captain from before and of you don't move now she'll steal him!" Sally seemed to be dead serious but Olin was stuck on the fact that the Captain 'sneaks peeks' at her, if she was alone right now, the smile would have stretched from ear to ear. Then the reality of what Sally said sunk in, a Rival! That could not be tolerated, not at all.

"Alright Sally what did you have in mind?"

(Captain's Quarters)

The Captain shared a drink of scotch with Lucy as the two caught up.

"I'm really surprised to see you Lucy; you don't seem like the adventurous type." The Captain smiled as they sat at his small white desk, which sat where the crafting table used to be.

"Well Ian has grown up and since he moved in with Karen he doesn't really need his sister around and I wouldn't really say becoming a nurse would count as adventurous, I guess I wanted a change of scenery, and the company isn't terrible." Lucy replied with a flirtatious smile. The Captain was about to say something when the intercom in his room crackled to life.

"Captain this is Olin We've made a breakthrough with the saucers you should probably come down here immediately!"

"Duty calls, I'm afraid" The Captain gave his farewell and hurried out of the room leaving a disappointed Lucy to walk down to the clinic for basic training.

Hey guys and gals! This story is starting to get out of control, the amount of ideas I'm getting for this story is almost becoming too much, but I shall persist! For those who are starting to feel like the action has been waning and everything is a little too cartoony or feel good, then stay strong as the next chapter, which I have written in advance to be released alongside this one will be for you! Moral ambiguity, hard decisions and a budding romance, along with the reveal of a FO3 character very near and dear to me and many of you I'm sure, thank you all for every favourite and comment, they mean a lot to me as it's nice to see how people react to my writing, next in our two part release: Winter comes!