Chapter Thirty-Three
"Attention!"
Two power-armoured Enclave soldiers that were casually chatting with each other as they stood guard in front of the Dominion Broadcasting Service building, suddenly snapped to attention and saluted.
Patrick marched right up to them. "Why are you two slacking off? Anyone could have snuck up and disabled your suits without you knowing! Why someone could have just walked through the front door!"
"Sorry sir," they both said. "We won't let it happen again," one of them replied.
"Good!" Patrick said, then saluted himself. "Return to what you were doing." Patrick then marched right past them and through the rotating doors the two soldiers had flanked. Inside, other soldiers, some in power armor and some not, saluted Patrick as he marched in.
Patrick didn't let his face change from the scowl he had plastered on as he marched past. But inside, he was laughing.
Captain McScott's uniform had fit perfectly, and with the cap with the E surrounded by stars, a briefcase in one hand and a plasma pistol on his hip, he looked like an Enclave officer on a mission, and one that brooked no interruption.
"Sergeant!" he barked, making a power armored soldier snap around to look at Patrick.
"Sir!" the sergeant saluted. Unlike most non-commissioned officers, this sergeant looked fairly young.
"What are you doing here?" Patrick asked.
"Our orders are to guard the building from any possible counter attack, sir," the sergeant replied.
"Then what are you doing here in the front office? Some damn Assiniboian could infiltrate the building while you sit on your asses!" Patrick screamed at the soldier. "Go perform a perimeter sweep! Go! Move it!"
"Yes sir!" the sergeant said, but Patrick could sense a bit of resignation in his voice. The sergeant then turned around, barked orders at the ten or so other soldiers, only a couple of whom were in power armor, and they quickly marched out of the building.
At the front desk, a woman in a dress sat, nervously glancing at the yelling Enclave officer all the Enclave soldiers that were quickly marching out as she tried to organize and file papers and click-clacked away on her typewriter. When Patrick came up, she froze and lept out of her chair.
"At ease," Patrick ordered, but the nervous secretary was anything but relaxed. "Can you tell me where the broadcasting room that the Enclave is using is?"
"I-it's on the third floor, 3-8 I believe. There are signs up there that will direct you," she said. A drop of sweat was running from her forehead.
"Thank you," Patrick gruffly answered, then marched to the elevator, past several more Enclave soldiers as they hurriedly equipped themselves and moved out. He noticed a lot of them were wearing gas masks, but Patrick wasn't sure if it was nervousness that Assiniboia had chemical weapons, or if paranoid that the air outside of the Vault was still irradiated and deadly. Either way, they all left, leaving the lowest floor of the building virtually defenseless..
He punched the button to the elevator, and waited for the little arrow in the display above the elevator to move from the number 4 to the M that marked the main floor. The elevator door opened, and Patrick walked in.
Behind Patrick, another Enclave officer, a lieutenant, ran up, stuck his arm in the door as it started to close and walked in, and saluted. Patrick returned the salute. The officer was young, a bit gangly, and had a large friendly smile.
"Good morning Captain," the officer said. Patrick just grunted in reply.
"Going up?" the junior officer said as he pushed the fifth button. Patrick nodded, but inside he was thinking God damnit, the last thing I needed.
"It sure is good that we managed to stop these Assiniboian's from trying to wipe us out, huh?" The lieutenant said, trying to spark some form of conversation as the machinery whirred into motion to lift the elevator up.
Well, not yet, Patrick thought, but he just grunted again.
"It will be a great day when America is reborn, huh?"
Kid, I wish you would shut up. Patrick didn't even grunt this time.
An awkward silence hung in the air as the elevator seemed to take forever to get past the second floor.
"I don't think I've seen you around here before," the Lieutenant asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I just came from the Vault to this god-forsaken Assy place for an important, top-secret mission," Patrick said, growling. "And I'd appreciate it if some little snot-nosed, chatty brat didn't try to interrupt me from getting this done and back to the damn Vault!"
Despite the fact the lieutenant was in power armor that made him at least three feet taller than Patrick, and with the strength of the suit able to snap Patrick in half like a twig, the young officer was trembling in his boots.
The elevator door opened. Patrick marched out. The lieutenant hastily hit the close door button as much as he could to make the door close faster to get away from the angry officer.
Patrick glanced at a sign on the wall, with "broadcasting studio" marked with an arrow pointing to the left. He walked down the hallway.
No power armored soldiers were up here, but Patrick could see where black charred plasma and laser blasts and left marks on the wall, along with blood from the defenders where they were shot of mown down while the Enclave took over the building earlier. A large office area, with a Radioteleprinter on one side, and desks and dividers were news reporters had worked both before and after the War of 2077 took place, was now empty except for a couple Enclave soldiers. They both saluted as Patrick walked past.
He found room 3-8, and smiled as he realized no one was in there. He tried to open the door, only to find it locked.
One of the Enclave soldiers in the other room looked over to the Captain that marched by. "Sir, that room has been locked under order of Major Towes to ensure no one can tamper with the equipment."
Patrick spun around. "Well I countermand that order!" Patrick barked. "I have a very important holotape that needs to be played right now, on order of Speaker Graham! Now, do I have to report you to the head of the Enclave and say that I wasn't able to fulfill his duty because of a god-damned locked door?" Patrick could feel his face turn red in simulated anger.
The soldier took a step back. "I… uh… one moment. I'll get the Major." He scurried off.
Patrick sighed. The holotape was important, yes. But it was filled with a code that was rushed to him by a disguised Enclave radio tech loyal to Secretary Hawthorne from the Airport, who said the holotape, when inserted into the computer terminal that controlled the transmitter, would override the previous instructions, and broadcast a message from Hawthorne telling the troops to stand down. Patrick hoped that was the truth.
"Captain?" A female voice said. Patrick turned around to see a woman in an Enclave uniform, with short brown hair and eyes that were cold and calculating.
"You must be Major Towes," Patrick said. "Well I demand that this door be unlocked and…"
"Where is your identification, Sir?" Major Towes asked. "I was given orders by Colonel Granger to not allow anyone without proper credentials into this room."
Oh shit, Patrick thought. He made as if to reach for his pockets. "Hmm, I must have left them in the Vertibird."
"What Vertibird? We've had no reports of a Vertibird coming from the Vault in the past two hours." She looked over Patrick, trying to place his face, but her eyes rested on the PipBoy on Patrick's arms. "And that's not a Vault issued PipBoy…"
Patrick and Major Towes drew their plasma pistols at the same time. The two Enclave soldiers also aimed their laser rifles at Patrick as well.
"You are under arrest for impersonating an Enclave military officer," Major Towes said, glaring at Patrick.
"And you are mounting an illegal military coup on a sovereign nation that, just a couple weeks ago, signed a peace treaty with the Enclave ending the annexation of Canada," Patrick said.
"Things change," she said, calmly and coolly. "Now, hand over the suitcase, and drop your weapon."
Patrick glared, and tossed the suitcase at Major Towes forcefully, making her stagger backwards. Patrick fired three shots of his plasma pistol, but all of them missed as the major fell down. The two Enclave soldiers also began to fire, but Patrick ducked into an open room across the hall. He jumped behind a metal desk, and as the Enclave soldiers stormed in, he flipped the desk so the top was now shielding him. The metal easily absorbed the red laser bolts that their weapons fired, and Patrick fired a couple times over the top, hoping to keep their heads down. He peaked around the edge of the desk, and took a couple shots at one of the soldiers who was just hiding around the corner and didn't see Patrick. One of them hit the man on his knee, the superheated goo destroying it instantly. The man screamed in agony, collapsing to the ground, clutching at the wound. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air, and Patrick's stomach gave a quick heave, but he forced his lunch to stay down.
The other soldier, and now Major Towes, also began to shoot back. Patrick's plasma pistol clicked empty after a couple more missed shots. He groaned, and retreated behind the desk. Captain McScott had given Patrick some energy cells to reload the pistol, so Patrick tried to grab some from a pocket and load it in.
"Fire in the hole!" There was a soft click, then a clink as a grenade bounced off the far wall and landed right beside Patrick. Patrick, in a panic, grabbed the grenade and threw it back.
There was a loud BANG, with dust and cement and wood clattering everywhere. Patrick, his heart racing, his ears ringing, carefully looked over the top of the metal desk, with pieces of shrapnel embedded in the top. When no one tried to shoot at him, he stood up, and climbed over the desk.
All three Enclave soldiers were dead, or at least nearly dead. There was a soft groan in pain from one of them, and when Patrick walked out, Major Towes stared up at him, her eyes fading fast.
"W-why?" She asked, looking at Patrick, unblinking. "Why are you doing this?"
"To bring peace to Assiniboia and the Enclave. I have no quarrel with the Enclave, but you're being mislead by Speaker Graham," Patrick said softly.
"I was never… mislead," she gasped. "Speaker Graham only spoke… the truth." Her head tipped to the side, her eyes rolled back into her head.
Patrick sighed. He hoped that Captain McScott was right, and it was only a few people that believed the Speaker, or this mission was a failure before it started. Major Towes was not a good omen.
Patrick searched through her pockets, grabbing a key, and then the suitcase. One side, the side that must have faced the grenade was shredded to pieces, but the contents inside, the holotape and some papers that hid it, was still intact. Patrick opened the door to room 3-8 and stepped inside.
Patrick flipped a light switch, and the incandescent light bulbs flicked on. The room was a lot larger than it looked from the outside, full of row upon row of reel-to-tape memory banks, and several terminals with their black and green screens. Patrick went up to the first terminal. He pushed the holotape into the slot under the monitor.
The machine suddenly came to life, displaying lines of code, a random jumble of numbers and letters. The memory banks then sprung to life, with a lot of loud whirring, clicking, clacking and other sounds coming from the machines. Patrick didn't understand a single thing that was on the screen, but he still paid attention.
"OVERRIDE INSTALLED," suddenly came onto the screen. "PROCEED WITH OVERRIDE Y/N?" appeared, with a flashing cursor. Patrick hit the Y key.
The machines began to whir again. Patrick quickly turned his PipBoy to DBS, to hear the message that now would be on loop until further notice, if everything went according to plan.
"...Enclave High Command has asked that everyone please stay in-" the previous pre-recorded, looped message suddenly stopped. There was silence for a few moments, then another voice came on. "This is Secretary of Defense Creighton Hawthorne of the Enclave. Last night, against the advice of those like myself that urged moderation, Speaker of the House and Acting President of the United States of America, J. W. Graham, ordered the Enclave military to launch a hostile military takeover of the Dominion of Assiniboia, but made it sound as if Assiniboia had launched the first attack, so this would be in self defense. He was wrong. He lied to all of you. And if the intelligence I've uncovered has any truth to it, Speaker Graham has worked in concert with the Brotherhood of Steel, to divide the attention of Assiniboia to make this coup happen.
"Due to his rash act at possibly restoring American glory, many people; innocent civilians, brave Assiniboian soldiers and police officers, and misguided Enclave soldiers have lost their lives. But I say enough is enough.
"Pursuant to United States Continuity of Government protocols, as mentioned in the US Continuity of Government Act of 2059, and Amendment 25 of the US Constitution, and with the approval of the majority of the cabinet, I hereby declare Acting President Speaker J. W. Graham unfit for office. Secretary of State Elizabeth Morgan is hereby named Acting President of the United States.
"As the incumbent Secretary of Defense, I hereby order all Enclave personal to lay down their arms and either return to the Airport, or surrender to the closest Assiniboian authority, either a member of the Army, the Royal Assiniboian Mounted Police, or any government official. Those that do not do so by six o'clock this afternoon will hereby declared traitors of the Enclave, and will be put on trial for treason.
"Furthermore, as the highest ranking member of the Enclave cabinet in Winnipeg at this moment, I ask to meet with Prime Minister Hawkson at the earliest possible moment to bring an end to the fighting here in Winnipeg, and to set the stage for the future course of both Assiniboia and the Enclave.
"From this moment forward, the Enclave will turn over a new leaf. Instead of destruction, we shall build. Instead of underhanded tactics and misery, we will become open, transparent and the beacons of hope in a world that our ancestors left destroyed through war, pollution and anguish. God Bless America, God Bless the Enclave, and God Bless Assiniboia."
The message began to repeat, so Patrick turned off the radio. It would be on loop for a while now, until someone would come along to try to shut it off. But, if Captain McScott was right, then this should be enough to nearly stop the coup cold.
Either way, Patrick grabbed a laser rifle, and all the ammo he could find, and walked to the stairs, and took them down.
At the bottom floor, the Enclave soldiers from earlier where back in the lobby, and looking very confused.
"Is this a trick?" One of the privates that wasn't in power armor asked. "How can we know for sure?"
"That sounded like the Secretary," the sergeant that Patrick barked at earlier said. "But it could be a really good imposter."
"So what do we do now?" The private asked.
"Why not ask the Captain there?" another soldier asked, pointing at Patrick.
Everyone turned to Patrick. "Wait a minute, you were the guy that came in here earlier!"
Patrick nodded, and cleared his throat. "And I say we do what the radio said, at least until we have further orders."
The sergeant raised an eyebrow. "But weren't you from the Vault?"
Patrick swallowed. He could feel a cold drop of sweat run down his back. "Well, yeah. Yes. Of course! But you heard the Secretary: we were lied to. And are you going to question the authority of the man who is the head of the Department of Defense?"
"I don't know… maybe we should get back into contact with the Vault…"
"Sergeant!" Patrick barked, snapping back into the character he had before. "Are you questioning a superior's orders?"
"Y-yes… err, no sir!" the sergeant replied.
"Because if you are, then I will have to order a court martial right here and now, and you will face justice for this insubordination!" Patrick barked. "And then you'll be kicked out of the army and sent to clean toilets for the rest of your days! So did you question my orders?"
The sergeant, even though he was in power armor, visibly cringed as Patrick laid into him again. "N-no."
"No what?" Patrick shouted.
"No sir!" the sergeant said, saluting.
"That's exactly what I thought. Now all of you, go. March back to base. I will stay here and turn over the building to Assiniboia, as per our orders." Patrick glanced at the sergeant, who was on the verge of whimpering like a little puppy. All of the soldiers saluted, and left.
"And tell the guards out front to go as well!" Patrick called out as the last soldier, the lieutenant that Patrick had shouted at earlier, scampered out the door.
Soon only Patrick and the secretary were left in the lobby. The secretary had been sitting at her desk, staring as the soldiers left with eyes as large as dinner plates. Patrick walked up to her.
"Can you get a hold of the RAMP?" Patrick asked as softly as he could to try to calm her down."
"Y-yes… sir," she said, her voice breaking as she started to punch some numbers of the phone beside her.
"And tell them that the Auxiliary has secured the DBS," Patrick said. The secretary punched the last number in the code with her finger, then looked up. Patrick winked. She blinked a couple of times.
"I'd have thought the Auxiliary would have been older, if he was a real person," the secretary said. She then began to talk into her phone.
It took about twenty minutes, but soon a mass of people were outside the building, as Patrick could see through the rotating door. Commissioner Raymond, Captain McScott, Vince, and a phalanx of armed RAMP members came in.
"My God Auxiliary," Commissioner Raymond said, amazed as she saw Patrick in the lobby. "I can't believe you actually did it."
"It was hairy there for a moment," Patrick admitted. "But nothing I couldn't handle."
"Now that we have DBS back under our control and the coup has been thrown into confusion, what do we do now?" Commissioner Raymond asked.
Before anyone could answer, a loud whirring sound was heard outside the building, on Portage Avenue. The RAMP officers closest to the door began to shout and rush outside.
"Damnit, the Enclave is back!" one of the shouted. "It's a Vertibird!"
"Don't shoot!" Commissioner Raymond ordered. "Don't shoot unless they do so first!"
Patrick, Vince, Captain McScott and Commissioner Raymond all ran outside in the crush of armed RAMP men. When they got there, two power armored soldiers with miniguns were out, their weapons pointed at the fifteen or so RAMP officers that surrounded them. Everyone's weapons was pointed at one another, but no one was firing. Patrick noticed that they both had red paint smeared on the chest plate opposite to the Enclave symbol.
Commissioner Raymond, with Patrick right behind, managed to push their way to the front. "What the devil is going on here?" he shouted over the propellers as they began to spin down. "I thought you were ordered back to your base."
"They were," a man in a suit inside the vertibird called out as he started to climb out. He leapt to the ground and nearly fell, but one of the power armored men managed to catch him.
"Thanks Robert. I'm not as young a man as I used to be."
"Secretary Hawthorne?" Patrick asked.
The Secretary of Defense turned, and gave a small smile. "Ah, Auxiliary. I'm glad to see you still in one piece." His suit was rumpled, and it looked like he had been wearing it for a few days in a row now, and his hair was a mess. But he still held himself up as well as a politician would be expected to when faced with a crisis.
"Thank you. But, can you tell me what is going on now? How did this coup even start?"
Secretary Hawthorne sighed. "As far as I know, Speaker Graham managed to issue an order to execute a plan, Operation Broken Thunder, that the Enclave Armed Forces had prepared in the past few weeks, in the event that Assiniboia turned out to be less receptive to us than we would have hoped." He turned to Commissioner Raymond. "No offense."
"I understand," Raymond said. "I'm glad to see that there is some semblance of sanity in the Enclave."
"But before I got here, I've received reports that some holdouts are currently holding the Legislative Building, and holding them Prime Minister and government hostage right now," Secretary Hawthorne said, then turning to Patrick. "And Colonel Granger is in charge of them."
"Was Granger a main mover in the coup, or just a soldier following orders?" Patrick asked.
"I couldn't begin to tell you," Hawthorne said with a shrug of his shoulders. "He's ordered the soldiers under his command to prepare for anything, so we can't get close without them shooting at us. Same with the RAMP and the Assiniboian Army."
Patrick sighed. Nothing ever seemed to work out.
"There is another way," Commissioner Raymond said, getting Patrick's and Secretary Hawthorne's attention. "There is a series of tunnels under the city, built centuries ago to pump heat through the city from a central heat station. Other tunnels were dug over the years to allow people to move between buildings in cold weather, and even more when the Resistance was operating after the American annexation. Those tunnels are still there, and have been strengthened over the years to be used by the government in the event they had to evacuate the Legislative Building or anything else in downtown Winnipeg. But, they can also be used to infiltrate the building."
"That's remarkably handy," Vince said. "What do they call that in stories… Does Ex Machines? I don't know. But why hadn't you done it already?"
"We were pretty busy trying to get the Enclave out of the RAMP HQ, and hold our ground around the city to do so," Commissioner Raymond snapped. She took a deep breath. "But now we can. Auxiliary, I want you to go in and lead this. You know Colonel Granger, so you can try to talk to him about this." Secretary Hawthorne nodded in agreement.
Patrick took a deep breath. "Well, into the flames again then."
Under the Fort Garry Hotel, where even 300 some years after it was built was still seen as the premier establishment for the rich and powerful to visit and live, was one of the entrances to the tunnels, in a deep basement amongst crates and freezers of food and dinnerware. Patrick, with his newly acquired laser rifle and a .44 magnum - not the one he lost when the Enclave had dumped him off in the North End - on his hip again, and Vince and Big Bertha in hand, were ready to go in with three RAMP Dragoons, in their red combat armor and brown Stetsons, assault rifles, grenades and a dozen other weapons.
A Dragoon Captain, one of them trained in the knowledge of the tunnels, had a key to unlock the massive, five inch thick steel door that lead to the tunnels. He unlocked it, and swung it open with metal-grinding-on-metal screeching.
"Alright, lights on, and follow me," the Captain said.
The two other dragoons flipped on a special battery operated flashlights that were attached on their shoulders to let them see. Patrick flipped the light on his PipBoy.
The first step into the tunnel was met with a splash. A good inch or two of water was everywhere, and quickly soaked Patrick's feet. The smell, wet and moldy and almost like someone had died down here, washed over Patrick and nearly made him vomit. One of the Dragoons did.
"Alright, we just have to follow this straight," their guide said as soon as everyone was in and he pulled the door closed and locked it. "Just stay close. And be quiet, we might alert them upstairs, or spook something down here."
"What would be down here?" Patrick whispered as they walked along.
"Rad gophers, mole rats, regular rats, and who knows what else. I've heard that even feral ghouls were down here at some point, but I haven't seen them myself," the dragoon whispered back.
The walls here were mostly bare dirt, and was surprisingly short and narrow but more or less went straight and level. Rusty pipes were attached to the wall, and Patrick could hear a vibrating clank or scurrying sound inside them. Patrick aimed his gun at wherever he heard a sound. Looking behind him at the dark, shadowy figure of Vince who didn't have any light, he was doing the same thing.
A loud splash ahead made everyone look, with four lights shining on the corridor. A small ripple was in the water from a large chunk of dirt that fell from the ceiling. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.
They continued walking along the tunnel, when it suddenly changed from bare dirt to concrete and steel. It wasn't in much better shape, and the water and smell was still there, but it gave the sense that someone had been here before.
"Alright, we should at the old power station now," the captain whispered to everyone. "Not much longer until we get to the Legislative building."
They took a turn to the left after a bit longer, and began to walk down the tunnels again.
The darkness and silence, interrupted only by the splash of boots in stale water and the sway of artificial light, was starting to play tricks on Patrick. Anything that was even slightly out of place in the cold and dark made Patrick more tense and paranoid, and ready to open fire.
At last they came upon another metal door. The captain that lead them here held up a hand, and everyone else stopped, and waited as he fiddled for the key for the lock.
There was a loud splash behind Patrick, followed by the hurried footsteps and splashes of dozens of small feet.
"What was that?" Patrick said, spinning around. His light came face to face with a horde of radgophers. They snarled and growled, clawing their way to the humans that had disturbed their home. The angry, hungry eyes had found a meal.
Vince was the first to open fire, Big Bertha taking down a radgopher, then slipped forward to get into another firing position. The sound was loud, nearly deafening, and the bright flash of the gun made Patrick stumble when he tried to back up, disoriented by the sudden bright light. Patrick opened fire with his .44, followed a moment later by the other RAMP Dragoons. Some of the shots hit radgophers, more missed, but the rodents kept coming.
"Shit!" The captain shouted over the gunfire. "The Enclave will no doubt hear all this gunfire. It's not going to go well up there."
Patrick loaded his .44 Magnum. "We'll have to deal with that later. Because I'd rather not be gnawed to death."
Three radgophers managed to get to the Dragoon in the rear, and the Dragoon cried out as the vicious creatures bit and clawed at his legs. He fell down into the water, and soon had the creatures crawling all over him, his head being forced into the stagnant water. He thrashed and flailed, but he couldn't keep them off. He lost his gun, he grew weaker and weaker as he struggled to hold his breath, but before Patrick or anyone else could reach him, the body went limp in the water. Many of the radgophers, now that they were on the verge of a big meal, began to tear him apart, trying to tear apart the combat armor to reach the delicious meal.
"Auxiliary! You and your friend, get in!" the captain shouted, finally managing to open the door. "We'll hold these bastards off."
Patrick turned to see the metal door open. He grabbed Vince's shoulder, sending the last bullet he fired up into the cracked cement ceiling. But the two ran through the metal door, splashing stagnant water along with them. When they were through, the Captain gave Patrick a salute, and slammed the door shut behind him with a loud, thunderous boom, and then locking it again from the inside.
Patrick and Vince breathed heavily, watching the door. They could hear the gunshots as the last two Dragoons did their best to fight off the radgophers.
But closer to Patrick and Vince, the sound of running boots, along with the metal clank of power armor, and the shouts of soldiers and cocking guns told them that they jumped out of the frying pan, and into the fire. Enclave soldiers, descending a spiral staircase in one corner, flooded the room and surrounded Patrick and Vince.
"Drop your weapons!" an officer shouted. "We have you outnumbered and surrounded!"
Patrick sighed, and set the gun down. Vince followed behind him. Patrick glanced over to Vince, who shrugged his shoulders.
The officer waved them up the stairs, and flanked by Enclave soldiers, Patrick and Vince were lead up the stairs and into the Legislative Building itself.
"You had to come to the Legislative Building for that hearing, right?" Vince asked.
Patrick blinked. He nearly forgot about that.
"Well, I think this hearing it going to be a lot more important, and more dangerous, than anything any politician could come up with," Vince said with a sardonic smile.
Pip-Boy 3000 Infotracker Note #918
A Tour of the Assiniboian Legislative Building, c. 2210
The seat of power of the Dominion is the Legislative Building, one of the most beautiful structures still standing in Winnipeg. The Tyndall Limestone edifice, copper dome and "Golden Boy" statue at the top have been a recognizable feature of the old province of Manitoba before the US Annexation, and now stands as a symbol of the rebuilding of Canada and North America after the War of 2077
First started in 1913, the Legislature wasn't completed until 1920, hampered by both the First World War and the contractor siphoning materials from the site for his own personal use. With over 250,000 square feet of space inside, and standing over 240 feet tall, it dominated the skyline of Winnipeg for decades until modern skyscrapers were built in the downtown core.
In the center of the building, up a flight of stairs flanked by two bronze Bison, is the Legislative chamber. The walnut desks used by the Prime Minister, his cabinet, and all the other Members of Parliament elected to serve are still the original desks, despite almost 300 years of constant use. Unlike other Westminster parliamentary systems, such as those used before the War of 2077 in Ottawa, London and Australia, the desks are arranged in a horseshoe shape instead of directly facing each other, and the colour blue is used for curtains, carpet and other decoration unlike other parliaments use of green. There are many other hidden secrets within the building, including the ominously named "Pool of the Black Star," where one could hear conversation from anywhere else in the building due to it's construction.
The Prime Minister of Assiniboia, his cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition, members of the Civil Service and other government officials have their offices within the Legislative assembly. The Governor-General, whose residence is right next door to the building, also has a stately room used in ceremonies and diplomatic meetings. The building is well protected by the Royal Assiniboian Mounted Police: no weapons are allowed in the building itself, and all the politicians are flanked by specially chosen red-coated police officers at all times.
Around the exterior, many statues, both old and new, dot the grounds, as well as beautiful flower gardens and pathways leading right to the Assiniboine River. The landscaped park around the Legislative Building is a popular spot for Winnipeg residents to meet, picnic, hold rally's or celebrate their nation. And so long as the flag of Assiniboia continues to fly over the entrances, our nation shall endure.
So if you are in Winnipeg, come for a guided tour of the Assiniboian Legislative Assembly! Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm every hour.