Chapter Thirty Two
"Hey, why don't you turn on the radio?" Vince suggested after they had been picking their way through the North End, walking south on Arlington Street. "Might even keep the animals away with all the noise."
Patrick shrugged. "It really can't hurt." The ruined homes, factories, churches, community centers and businesses had long been abandoned was now home almost solely to animals, making the long abandoned and forsaken area of old Winnipeg home. Patrick and Vince had spent the first hour or so dodging vicious canines and feral felines, as well as all sorts of wildlife that made the North End home, including radgophers, mole rats and even a radscorpion. Patrick had never seen one of the massive multi-legged insects before, but Vince had, and a few quick shots to its face made the creature curl up and die.
Patrick turned the knob of the radio on his Pip Boy, and waited for the vacuum tubes to warm up. A song was finishing, but it was a lot different than anything he had before, with a lot of boisterous trumpets and flutes and drums playing marching music. It really seemed weird to Patrick.
Then the radio went silent for a long period, with a lot of static, pops and whistles in the background.
"This is a message from the Dominion Broadcasting Service," a voice, very hesitant and clearly uncomfortable woman was speaking, but she didn't sound like any of the regular broadcasters on DBS. "Due to the current situation in Winnipeg, all normal programming has ceased for an indefinite period of time. The Enclave High Command has asked that everyone please stay indoors and off the streets until further notice. The Enclave is here to restore order, and bring peace and freedom to Assiniboia. Further updates will be provided on this channel at a future time."
Then a blaring patriotic march that Patrick had never heard before began to play again. Patrick turned to another station. The Winnipeg News Network, the other major station in Winnipeg, wasn't even playing the music, it was nothing but dead air. Radio-Tainment Assiniboia was still broadcasting, but only music. Patrick sighed, and left the station on to provide some noise. It seemed to work, as most of the skittish wildlife wasn't used to such loud noises so kept in the shadows.
After a couple hours of walking and the occasional fight with the wildlife not scared off by the songs that were popular two hundred years ago, they reached the railway tracks that marked the edge of modern Winnipeg. South of the tracks was a huge shanty town, built were hundreds of miles of old steel had been torn out to be recycled over the decades after the War of 2077. The people who lived here had started as refugees from the violence of the North End and those from outside Winnipeg and Manitoba that heard of a city untouched by bombs in the war and hoped to find some peace in the world, along with the people that lived in the area before. But all those people had made the area home, or as close as they could. While clean water was available thanks to the city, electricity wasn't, and crime was rampant here. People from here would just vanish into thin air, and no one would be the wiser. RAMP officers never went through this area in groups less than four, if they ever did.
But Patrick and Vince had to go through to get to the Health Sciences Center. So they walked straight through the dirty, overcrowded slum.
They hadn't walked much more than a few hundred feet into the slum when they heard a scream from a woman, most likely being attacked, killed… or worse. Patrick stopped, and listened, reaching for his hip, where his .44 should have been. But of course it wasn't, damnit. Vince, however, nudged at Patrick's shoulder. When Patrick looked, Vince gave a sad shake of his head. Patrick sighed, but carried on. There was little he could do there, though it did gnaw on him knowing that, all the things he had done, all the troubles he had solved, there was some he just couldn't do a thing about.
Just ahead of them, another man, carrying a rather large object under his arm. He was nervous, looking this way and that, but he only cared about getting away. As Patrick and Vince walked past, suddenly a man began to shout, claiming he had been robbed.
Turning the corner around an old apartment building that had extensions built on either end from rusty sheet metal and old wooden posts out onto the old street, there was suddenly stopped by four people, guns drawn.
"Alright, empty your pockets, and you get to live," one of them said.
"I have nothing of value on me," Patrick replied. Without his gun, his backpack or even his wallet, that was quite true. Well, he did have that tire iron, but anyone could find one of those.
"Then I guess you die," another one, a female who's voice practically dripped in blood.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Vince said, making Patrick look at his older companion from the corner of his eye incredulously.
"Oh, and why would that be?" the woman said.
"You're face to face with the Auxiliary here," Vince said, pointing at Patrick.
"What?" the first man said, looking at Patrick. "You gotta be kidding me. This little runt? I could beat him into a pulp with my bare hands!"
"Oh, you better believe it. He took down three entire raider gangs single handedly and destroyed the Syndicate in Brandon by himself!" Vince said. "He once faced down a deathclaw and killed it. I wouldn't really want to cross him, if I were you."
Patrick would have smiled, as Vince was maybe stretching the stories a bit, but he instead glared at the would-be robbers. "So, which one of you is going to come at me first?" Patrick asked, holding his hands out and motioning them to come at him. "Which one of you want to die tonight?"
All four of them were nervous. No, they were terrified. Well, all but the chick, but even she was a bit hesitant. "Well… uh… fine. But don't ever come into our turf again!" the first man said. The three men beat a hasty retreat. The woman looked at them, scowling.
"You fucking cowards!" she called at their backs. But then she too began to run. "We could have totally taken them on!" she called as they disappeared around a corner.
Patrick and Vince looked at each other after they disappeared into the shadows of the shantytown, and then gave a small laugh.
"A terrifying presence you are," Vince said. "Come on, let's go."
The two managed to get through the rest of the slum town with little issue. It seemed as if the story of the Auxiliary, and the fact that he was here right now, seemed to have scared some of the lowlife criminals and petty thieves from risking their lives tonight. Patrick had no idea. The continued south to their destination, following Isabel Street, then turning right onto Logan Avenue, and then left onto Sherbrook Street.
They finally arrived at the walled grounds of the Health Sciences Center when a small smudge of orange finally began to break on the horizon. It was the largest hospital in Winnipeg, if not Assiniboia, and was where those who were the most ill and injured came. But it was it's role as the main medical research center in this part of the world that gave it it's reputation: it was the conspiracy theories and rumours of what went on in it's Medical Sciences Division, the one that, publically, was focused on curing and preventing diseases, as well as developing new technologies to help those that wouldn't have access to the Health Science Center, such as at Melita. But the stories of those that went past the guarded gate but never returned still cropped up, with the few that do return totally mentally and physically changed, virtually different people…
But Patrick didn't care, at least not right now. With Winnipeg in the middle of a coup d'etat, what may or may not be happening at the Health Sciences Center was the least of anyone's worries.
They walked around until they got to one of the entrances on Sherbrook Street. They were manned by red-uniformed RAMP officers, with assault rifles at the ready. The Health Sciences Center must still be in Assiniboian control then.
"Halt!" a female sergeant barked. "Hands up, and slowly approach."
Patrick and Vince did as they were told.
"Identify yourself," a male lieutenant said.
"People call me the Auxiliary," Patrick said.
That gave both of them pause. "Oh really now? And how can we know for sure?"
Patrick thought about it. He had heard the DBS had begun to embellish his story even before he got to Brandon, so how much would people believe to be true or not?
"Well, I was apparently important enough to be captured by Enclave soldiers posing as RAMP officers and dropped off in the middle of the North End to make sure I wouldn't interfere with their plans," Patrick explained. "But all I know is that I found the Enclave Vault, so it's most likely my fault for this coup even taking place, and I intend to fix it the only way I can."
The sergeant and Lieutenant looked at each other, then shrugged. "Okay, well if that's what you want to do, then Godspeed." the Lieutenant said. "We've managed to keep the Enclave away from the Health Sciences Centre so far, but it doesn't seem to have been a major target for them anyway. But if you go downtown, it's bound to be a totally different story."
"Fair enough. Can I get some supplies then?"
In moments, Patrick was given some fresh stimpaks, as well as a nurse taking a look at his ankle and ensuring it was just sprained and nothing more serious, and a better bandage for his leg (and confirming that the dog that bit him wasn't rabid or diseased), as well as an old hunting rifle kicking around the hospital and ammo, considering that the .44 Patrick had was now gone, and except for the tire iron he found he was otherwise unarmed.
"Most likely won't do any good against power armor," the lieutenant said. "But it should provide some protection if some idiot decides to take potshots at you."
Patrick nodded. Somewhere in the distance there was a muffled explosion, but Patrick couldn't tell where it was from.
"So where do we go from here?" Vince asked.
"I think the RAMP HQ is the best place to look," the lieutenant said. "We haven't heard that is has been taken over yet, and I'd bet us Mounties could defend ourselves there if need be. And, if you really are the Auxiliary, I'm sure you should be able to get access to better weapons there."
Patrick took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, sounds good. Thanks for the help."
"No worries. Good luck," the sergeant said, and both of them gave an informal salute. Patrick returned it.
Patrick and Vince were there only people on the street right now. The homes that were in a decent shape along the streets in this part of town were inhabited, but Patrick had no idea if it was a family trying to find a quiet, but urban place to live and work or if they were criminals or thieves trying to find a place to lay low, or something in between. There would be sections were half a block would look like a small community lived there, with patched up two story homes, communal vegetable gardens, small workshops and small trading stalls set up, but then nothing but abandoned homes all around them. Occasionally a solitary house would look like someone lived there, but Patrick didn't feel like knocking on the door to see who it was.
Overhead, Enclave Vertibirds buzzed, flying back and forth across the sky, with search lights that pierced the early morning darkness. Every so often, the minigun inside of it would suddenly open up and spit lead down on the streets below. Other guns, sounding like assault rifles and even some laser weapons and other noises that he couldn't place, echoed through the old streets. When Patrick and Vince got to the corner of Sherbrook and Sargent Street across from a partially destroyed True Dominion Storemart, there was another muffled explosion. This time Patrick saw a Vertibird to the east, smoke trailing from an engine, spiral from the sky, and crash somewhere just a street over. A massive fireball filled the sky.
"Holy crap!" Patrick said, blinking at the bright lights. "That was close."
Vince looked over. "Maybe we should go investigate."
"What? Why?" Patrick said. "They are most likely Enclave people there, the ones that tried to kill both of us!"
"Nobody could have survived that," Vince said. "Besides, maybe there would be a weapons with something better than that peashooter in your hand."
Patrick looked at the hunting rifle. It was old, rusty, and hadn't been cared for in years. His grandfather would have had a conniption seeing that gun.
"Yeah, okay. Fair enough. Let's go."
They walked along Sargent Avenue until they got to Furby Street, just a block away. The ruined Vertibird was there, merrily burning away on top of an old swimming pool, the concrete and brick building preventing the fire from the burning aircraft from spreading.
Patrick and Vince cautiously walked down the street. They could see a couple bodies on the broken pavement, both with Enclave uniforms on. They looked like they had been thrown from the Vertibird as it crashed, and there was nothing that could help them now.
As they got closer, something moved in the rubble.
"What… who's there?" Patrick called out. There was only a grunt and a groan.
Patrick turned to Vince. "So no one could survive this, eh?"
"Shut up," Vince said, grumbling.
A large piece of metal and concrete tumbled down from where the movement came, exposing a large, metal chest plate.
Patrick and Vince both raised their gun and pointed it at the moving, groaning thing inside. A metal arm finally managed to push past, and they watched as a man in power armor slowly pushed himself up. He looked toward Patrick and Vince, but the really cracked, but unbroken, orange visors on his helmet must have made it nearly impossible to see anything.
"Who are you?" Patrick shouted.
"I'm Captain Kirk McScott," the muffled, metallic voice said, finally managing to get himself to sit up, and took off his helmet so he could see. "And… and you're that Auxiliary dude, right? I remember when you were in the Vault."
"Yeah…" Patrick said, but didn't lower his gun from the Enclave Soldier. "What are you doing here?"
"I was sent by Secretary Hawthorne to try to talk to… someone. The Prime Minister, the RAMP Commissioner, someone, and try to end this mess."
"What for? If you hadn't noticed, the Enclave is kinda launching a coup right now," Vince said. "I don't think they'd want to listen to you."
"I'm quite aware of that," Captain McScott said, irritated. "But it's only a small faction within the Enclave, those that support the Speaker of the House. Most of the Enclave soldiers sent out to do this were told it's because Assiniboia is trying to destroy us, so they believe it was a pre-emptive strike to ensure our survival. But in reality, it's so the Speaker could overthrow Assiniboia." Captain McScott finally managed to push himself out of the rubble. He walked around a little, and smiled as all the servo motors and joints were still working, allowing the walking mountain of metal to keep walking.
Patrick stared at the man. "That… makes sense. Speaker Graham always seemed a bit, well, ambitious, I guess. And Secretary Hawthorne seemed a lot more reasonable.
"Graham's a madman," the Captain said, shaking his head. "Ever since we opened the Vault, he's been going on more and more about how rebuilding America is now possible. I can't believe I voted for him before, with all this going on."
"So you support Assiniboia?" Patrick asked.
"No, I believe in the Enclave," Captain McScott said. "But, the way I, and Secretary Hawthorne see it, the only way that the Enclave can survive is to work with Assiniboia. We have the tech and the firepower, but you guys have the resources, manpower and know how to survive and prosper in the wasteland. So, in some ways, the Enclave's and Assiniboia's strengths and weaknesses all work together to make us all stronger. I've been working with the Assiniboian army here in Winnipeg for weeks now, and I've come to see just how we could all work together. Secretary Hawthorne and many other members of the scientific and military establishment in the Enclave realize that. It's the damn 'uber patriots' like the Speaker that are going to destroy it all."
Patrick nodded. "That's fairly reasonable. Okay, well we are trying to get to the RAMP HQ, so you can come with us. But you might want to ditch the power armor."
"What? Why?" Captain McScott asked.
"Well, a lot of people in similar power armor have just tried to take over Winnipeg, so I'm pretty sure they would try to shoot you on sight."
The Captain thought for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, you're right." The back of the power armor opened up, and the Enclave soldier stepped out, dressed up in a perfect Enclave officer uniform. He fastened the latch at the back, then opened up a small door on the side, and pushed his finger into it.
"What are you doing there?" Patrick asked.
"Fingerprint scanner. I can use it to make sure no one else can open it. You could drop a mini nuke on it, but it still won't open except for the person with the fingerprint that locked it." He closed the door. "Alright, where do we go?"
As they walked down Furby and then turned left onto Ellice Avenue, they quickly decided on a course of action. Since the DBS studio had been shut down, even though it was right next to the RAMP HQ, they would have to try to sneak in the back way. Heavy fighting inside the RAMP HQ had been reported, but Captain McScott had no idea how it turned out since he left the Enclave base near the old Airport. As they got closer, the sound of fighting and gunshots, along with the smell of smoke and the sound of crackling flames, proved that it wasn't getting any better.
A couple men in red painted combat armor of the RAMP stood around the Ellice Avenue entrance to the RAMP HQ. When the three people, one of them in an Enclave officer uniform suddenly appeared, they all fired a shot just over their heads. "Don't come any closer, or we will kill you all!"
"Hey hey!" Patrick shouted. "I'm on your side! I have an Enclave prisoner here!"
The firing died away just as quickly as it started when. "Who the hell are you? Why are you out of uniform?"
"I'm the Auxiliary!" Patrick shouted back. "I was never given one."
The two RAMP officers lowered their weapons. "The Commissioner gave orders for you to be brought to her as soon as you show up. Come with me."
They went into the back of the building, called Lockhart Hall back when it was a university, where the sound of gunshots, the cry of injured men, and the stink of blood and burnt flesh immediately impacted all of Patrick's senses.
Instead of being taken upstairs to the Commissioner's office like before, they were taken to a basement, but not before they were challenged with three separate passwords, to get by, which their escort, thankfully, knew. More men in red combat armor were clogging the halls: some were getting weapons, some were getting ammo for weapons they'd already used, some were limping or being led to a makeshift infirmary. But Patrick, Vince, Captain McScott and the RAMP guard eventually got past all of it, and to a room deep in the bowels of the headquarters.
Commissioner Raymond sat at a desk, staring at a map of Winnipeg laid out in front of her. Red pins were scattered all over, but a lot more blue pins, focused on some of the major centres of the city, were on the map. She looked exhausted, disheveled and miserable. Like everyone else down here, she also wore red combat armor, but it had no distinguishing marks to show that the head of the Royal Assiniboian Mounted Police was wearing it.
Patrick took a quick glance at the map. He figured out the red was for the RAMP, and the blue for the Enclave. There were a lot places in the city where the red outnumbered the blue, but most of the blue pins would represent a single, power armored Enclave soldier, who could take on entire battalions by himself without breaking a sweat. The blue pins showed that the Enclave had control of DBS and Winnipeg News Network, the Forks, Portage and Main, Union Station and even the Legislative building. The Mint, the University of Manitoba and the Health Sciences Centre were still under Assiniboian control. The RAMP HQ, with the gunfight that was still going on upstairs, was still anybody's game.
"Ma'am?" Patrick asked as he stepped in.
Raymond looked up to Patrick, and managed to force a smile. "Auxiliary. Good to see you're still among the living. How did everything go?"
Patrick took a few moments to explain everything that happened since he last saw the commissioner.
"Well, turns out Kildonan was a ruse to get us to look away from the real enemy, hmm?" He glared at the "captured" Captain McScott when Patrick finished.
"Maybe, but I did find a Brotherhood dog tag on one of the people that started the fight there," Patrick said, then reached into a pocket and pulled out the stamped metal piece, and laid it on the desk.
Commissioner Raymond frowned. "That's… rather disheartening, don't you think?"
"I have no idea. But I do have some good news to bring you about the coup, thanks to Captain McScott here."
Raymond looked to the Enclave soldier. "Oh, that you managed to gut out the heart of one of the few nations that managed to survive the end of the world, which you fucking Americans started?"
Captain McScott growled, but held his peace. "Commissioner, I want to try to broker a peace with you."
The RAMP leader looked for a moment, then burst into laughter. "You really want us to surrender to you? I would never…"
"No, I mean that we end this fighting. The majority of the Enclave has been lied to by Speaker Graham. I'm here on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, Creighton Hawthorne, who wants to end this coup, and restore the status quo." Captain McScott explained what was going on.
Now the Commissioner listened. "So, it's just a small group, eh?"
"It's not much more than a dozen people, most of whom are still stuck in the Vault in North Dakota and have never stepped outside. They are totally disconnected from what is going on, but most of them are in high ranking positions so can issue the orders."
Raymond drummed his fingers on his desk. "Alright then. So how do we end this?"
"That… I don't know," Captain McScott said. "I'm a doctor, not a soldier!"
"What?" Raymond and Patrick both said at the same time.
"I have a PhD in Medicine. I was the only one that Secretary Creighton trusted, or could afford to spare, to get this information to Assiniboia. But my Vertibird was shot down before I could get here."
Raymond sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "So, great. Now I know who started the coup, and that it's a small number of people who started it, but I have no idea how to stop it!"
Patrick thought for a minute, then snapped his fingers. "I know someone who might be able to stop this."
Raymond looked at Patrick. "What? Who?"
"Colonel Granger, the guy in charge of the Enclave military. He's the guy that was with me when I went through North Dakota." he turned to Captain McScott. "What is his role in all this?"
"He… he is leading the coup here in the city. Secretary Hawthorne hasn't been able to get a hold of him to tell him to stand down."
Patrick could feel his heart begin to sink. "He… he is part of the coup?"
"As far as I or Secretary Hawthorne know, yes. He could just be mislead like most of the other soldiers, but considering that he has managed to take over most of the city, I think he has been part of it all along."
Patrick blinked, then sighed, leaning on the desk. "I… I thought he was going to try to get the Enclave and Assiniboia to work together, not to destroy them."
Vince rested his hand on Patrick's shoulder. "Sometimes people lie. Lord knows how many times I've been told a fib in all my years."
"Or it's just a mix up, and if we can get ahold of him, we can end the fighting." Captain McScott said.
Patrick glanced up at the map, looking at it. "Maybe… maybe we could stop this, without Colonel Granger." Patrick said.
"What now?" Raymond asked.
"What if I get into the DBS studio and try to get it back for Assiniboia?"
Commissioner Raymond shook her head. "No, that would be nearly suicidal. I know you've dealt with a lot of bad guys the past while Auxiliary, but I think power armored soldiers will be a bit too much for you."
"There is a radio transmitter at the airport base," Captain McScott said. "We've been trying all night to issue commands to the soldiers in the field, but our broadcast has been jammed. The radio techs think it was coming from the DBS studio. So if the Auxiliary could get in, and shut down or revert the broadcast back to DBS, somehow… then maybe, just maybe, we could get the actual message out. But the radio antenna and transmitter can't be damaged."
Commissioner Raymond drummed her fingers on the desk, then shrugged and sighed. "I have no other ideas. And I guess if anyone is going to be able to get in there and shut everything down, it would be you Auxiliary. Good luck."
Patrick, Vince and Captain McScott left the office and into the hallway.
"So, what's your big plan then?" Vince asked.
Patrick looked down at the floor, then at Vince, then to Captain McScott. He looked around the hallway again, but then back to Captain McScott, and he smiled.
"Say, that uniform you're wearing… that's about my size, right?"
Pip-Boy Infotracker Note #5241
To Rebuild America
Issued from the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Acting President of the United States
Fellow members of the Enclave, the time has come.
Today, we march forth. Today, the reconstruction of the United States begins.
The so-called Dominion of Assiniboia has made a mockery of the memory of America, and it needs to be eliminated. The city of Winnipeg will make a fine point to launch the offensive to reclaim the Midwest and the Great Plains from the traitorous Brotherhood of Steel. From there, it is but a matter of marching to reclaim Washington, DC, Texas, the South and New England. Once everything East of the Mississippi is reclaimed, then the entire west will fall like dominos.
America will be whole again! America will be great again!
The fight to claim Assiniboia will be hard. But with our technology and our superior soldiers, we will not only take them over, but bend the irradiated and mutated people of the surface to our will. They will have no choice but to follow our orders, or die.
And America will be rebuilt, and we will become the world's superpower, able to dominate the whole world like we once did.
Our first step is to destroy Assiniboia. And today we will do that!
God Bless the Enclave! God Bless America