Note: Having some trouble with Colonel Autumn here. ≖_≖

The Hellfire armors were finally finished. Augustus leaned back, watching the product of his research and hard work striding across the room. The soldier encased within the power armor lifted his weapon and sighted in a target, strafing and ducking, performing a full motion test.

"Weapons free," he ordered, and watched the soldier run down the line of targets. He ordered weapons held and asked the man a few questions. No complaints, not even that the armor was uncomfortable.

With that issue settled, he retired to his bunk and caught up on his rest. The ill-effects from the radiation exposure still caused him discomfort. The drug that he'd used to allay the exposure was being pushed into production, but was decidedly difficult to create; patrols would have to step up their collection of viable specimens from the wastes.

Augustus didn't wish to ruminate on the fact that he'd been forced to inject himself with what was basically a home-brewed concoction made from mutated plasma protein. If he'd had a choice... But much like with his want to put a bullet in James' head, he could only push aside his personal desires for the benefit of others. He'd been doing that for so long, it was automatic.

In the last day, he'd fielded a several problems. His own inability to move about the bunker in a consistent manner had been the least of these; the Hellfire armors were now able to be used and could be put out into the wastes for more extensive testing, but until his men could provide him reliable data he wouldn't be satisfied with that outcome.

There were other issues, ones he had ample experience in dealing with, relating to personnel and existing supply. Those he delegated to others as necessary, electing to reduce the amount of stress he was under. He'd told Eden that he was not at his best, and he certainly felt that.

His biggest concern... The orchestra had provided to him a condensed version of Lillie's actions in the wastes after her father's attempted coup de grâce. He'd wished that he hadn't seen the tapes, almost immediately. Watching her realize that she was still able to see, noticing her crying―her breakdown had not made him especially confident in his plan.

And her... execution, of the barman in Megaton, that was something he disliked having to watch. He was disgusted with the way it had been handled, and found himself annoyed. If he'd been aware of that prior to him recording the holotape...

The only part of her exploits that he found himself interested in, was the takedown of Evergreen Mills. Raiders were a part of the wastes that the Enclave hadn't had the time or energy to seek out and destroy in an orderly fashion. They'd dealt with them as they came upon them, and occasionally an enterprising group―such as the ones at the Mills―would win an engagement. They had numbers on their side, overpowering the Enclave's superior technology and weaponry with sheer glut of bullets.

Lillie had played it smart. At first it seemed that she'd abandoned the grimy bodyguard she'd been trailing, leaving him behind, but... she'd scaled the rocks around the encampment and isolated an important asset. A Super Mutant Behemoth had somehow been captured by the raiders, and she lobbed a grenade into the generator that powered its containment.

It had been fascinating to watch the mutant tearing through the camp, while the raiders scrambled to defend themselves. A few unlucky wastelanders had been a part of the fray, but that was to be expected. The Mills had been a slaver stronghold for years, probably longer than Augustus had been alive.

Once the raiders were dead or had fled, she located a missile launcher and brought down the beast. Dropped the launcher to find her bodyguard, securing him before―

Augustus set his mouth. What he had gathered, from her treatment of the raiders inside the Mills, was that she was angry. Angry, probably frustrated, and looking to hurt someone. She'd been trained to keep her head in battle, but―what she'd done to the raiders was not battle. It was a massacre.

He would not feel sympathy for the men she'd torn apart, nor would he argue that the judgement she'd inflicted was undeserved. But he felt sickened to know that she could be capable of such base violence. He himself knew that the wasteland was unforgiving, but there was no need to prolong death in the way she had... tormented the raiders.

He watched her enter a lounger, and saw the simulation she'd entered. She... surprised him, then. After her initial contact with the young girl on the playground, she'd briefly interrogated the residents and marched into an abandoned house. The console that she activated caused a scenario that would have been terrifying to the people living in such a place―but it had ended the simulation, decisively.

It was surprising, mostly because she'd exhibited such violence toward the raiders, but reverted to less blunt methods shortly afterward. He wondered if her anger had been sated, with the brutal assault on the Mills.

Of course, her exiting the simulation meant she found the holotape he'd recorded. It was depressing, watching how fast she tried to put the tape into her Pip-Boy after seeing his handwriting. He sighed, then reminded himself that he needed to mind his behavior. Eden was forever watching, waiting for him to express some kind of kindred spirit toward the girl and thus reveal a weakness that could be exploited. So far, he'd managed to keep the supercomputer guessing―it hadn't attempted to bait him with her voice, other than the recorded conversation in which she'd thanked him.

That, he suspected, was the way Eden wanted to point out that it heard everything, even when one thought one was safe. It did not matter what Lillie had said, or what he had; it mattered that Eden had overheard.

Eden had been... acting oddly. There was a marked difference in its treatment of him. Augustus was unsure what to make of the sudden new vagueness the supercomputer was evincing toward him. It was almost as if the damn thing thought he'd become so enervated by his exposure, that he could not keep up with its maddening actions.

He needed to rest, but he couldn't force himself to do so until he was satisfied with the situation. If anything... Eden's reluctance to put upon him was a temporary reprieve from the scheming. He would do well to take advantage of that, while he had the wherewithal to do so.

Augustus sighed, and removed himself to his bunk. He was exhausted.

Eden woke him some time later in a casual tone, but with a comment that demanded his full attention. "Colonel," it said, "I believe we should retrieve our errant Columbia."

Augustus sat up in the bed, blinking and swallowing the dryness in his mouth. "She gained entry," he mumbled, mostly to himself. Of course she had; she had no other option―

"I fear her management of personal relations is failing her, in this particular venture," Eden murmured, sounding disappointed. "She's... having difficulty. She's eliminated the only―even if temporary―ally that could have proven of use, and is unable to retrieve the G.E.C.K. on her own."

Augustus shook the grogginess from his head and readied himself for the mission. After stepping from his room, he felt his knees shaking. He was physically weakened. Maybe enough that he could not adequately manage even a low grade military maneuver such as asset retrieval.

No, he told himself. Regardless of what he'd gone through, he would see this though to the end. He had to keep trying―if he couldn't keep up, he wouldn't be of use to Eden. If he was not of use to the conniving machine...

He doubted he would be alive for very much longer.

Augustus felt the length of his life pressing upon him, but shook it off to stand as straight as he had when he was twenty. Eden could think he was cowed, all it wished.

His men needed a reminder that he was still Colonel Augustus Autumn, the last of a long line of Autumns, and still the only leader they could depend upon.

He had been concerned that there would be complication―Lillie must be aware that her being tasked to find the Vault and the G.E.C.K. would end in her being reclaimed by the Enclave. He expected, given her recent actions, that she would either give herself up without problem or that she would have set up some kind of heinous trap for him and his men.

He already knew how they would acquire the G.E.C.K. Lillie could not possibly obtain the device for herself, but his men were outfitted with formerly top of the line, newly improved upon, power armors. He had spent the last several years working to bring those armors into existence, and they would not fail his expectations. Even untested as they were, they would not give him as much grief as Lillie had brought him.

The persons within the armors were not as reliable as the technology was, but he would not be able to readily anticipate any untoward behavior in the men until said problems arose. It was more acceptable, to him, to handle the free will of a person who might have been misled by Eden, than it was to think that his men had been subverted to the point of treason.

That being said... he kept position, waiting for the moment that Lillie would inevitably make her way toward the exit. She had come through the Vault via a difficult route through the caverns, whereas his men had marched through the radiation above-ground and set his plan into motion.

If she could be taken into custody without fighting, it would be better. Her actions... everything she had been doing out in the wastes, it was all to the point of frustrating her into deliberate mayhem. Lillie's temper had been broken multiple times, much like his had when dealing with her, and she'd shown her true nature... much like his being forced into despicable acts by Eden.

He hoped she would understand. She'd forgiven him his heinous behavior. He was willing to overlook her base violence. If she could still prove useful to him―which was why he'd given her the code―then he would do everything in his power to keep her alive.

And there were other reasons, but ones he had tried not to explore. Augustus had attempted to distance himself from her, emotionally. Anything he might have felt he'd suppressed, and when she'd appeared in the rotunda... he was not bereft of those feelings, yet. Retrieving her from this Vault might prove the same, weakening his resolve. If she chose to side with Eden―something he doubted she would do, but he could not be sure of―then he was already dead.

It wasn't in his nature to be fatalistic. He would not allow any uncomfortable emotions he might have for Lillie tinge his duty to his men. If Lillie fought, she would be subdued. But... if she turned traitor to him, he would take whatever punishment was given. It would be preferable to continuing this tortuous existence.

Augustus felt the strain more acutely than he'd realized. Every day he'd awakened from sleep, after the events at the purifier, he'd felt older than he ever had before. His feet moved more slowly, even if his mind sharpened by the day. It was easy to imagine he was nearing the end of his life.

Eden most certainly thought he was dulled by the the exposure. It had been treating him with careful words, as if he were soft clay. He'd encouraged it by shuffling about and expressing confusion. It would only be a matter of time before he could throw off the sheep's clothing and make his move.

...If the hard clay that he truly was, was not softened by Lillie, first.

Augustus sighed, rubbing his eyes, as he stood in the Vault and waited for her to show her hand.