Elder Lyons looked up from his desk as the partners entered. He looked from Sally to Hawk then said, "I hear you have a vendetta going against the Enclave. This should be just what you're looking for."

"I'm listening.", Sally said coldly.

"Since you destroyed their northwest base at Raven Rock and we defeated them at the Memorial we thought the Enclave were scattered and in disarray. It seems we were in error. Somehow they're communicating with each other and reorganizing their forces. We have info they have a communication depot in the southwest near the old car tunnel. Paladin Tristan is taking a force down there to try to take the garrison and he's asked for you. It seems he was impressed with your actions at the Memorial. You are a member of the Brotherhood now even if just an honorary one. If you do this you'll have to take orders from Paladin Tristan. Can you do that?", he asked, watching her over his steepled hands.

Sally eyed him coolly. "I had no problem taking orders from Sarah and I'll do whatever the Paladin wants of me if it will take out the Enclave. When do we leave?"

"We couldn't wait to see if you were going to recover so he went on ahead with Liberty Prime. You'll have to meet them at the old car tunnel."

Sally glanced at Hawk who nodded at her. "We'll leave right away, sir.", she said.

They made the trip to the car tunnel in record time for Sally. Intent on her goal, for once she didn't allow anything to distract her. They ran into a band of Talon Mercs around Robcorp but she didn't mess around trying to be safe. She plowed into them like a berserker, screaming and firing. She took only enough time to search them for usable items or the contract they usually carried with her name on it. She collected them. Other than that she just kept moving, running from wildlife or allowing Hawk to deal with them while she trotted on. He had no trouble catching up.

She barely glanced at the military transport truck, lurching to one side along the old highway not far past Robcorp. It hadn't been there before when they had come this way.

It took over a day to reach the tunnel. The weather had held with just a smattering of snow falling lightly over the landscape. The light wind was cold and energizing. Gray clouds scuttled across a leaden sky, matching Sally's mood with its cold dreariness.

Paladin Tristan was preparing for the attack when they arrived.

"Guess your truck broke down again, eh?", she greeted the Paladin.

He snorted. "Yeah. Broken axle, I think. Nice to see you again too. You can have 8 hours to catch some sleep. We've nearly finished preparations.", he said. "We're going in at 06:00." Sally and Hawk flung themselves on mattresses. They hadn't slept in nearly 36 hours and were grateful for a little respite.

It was barely light when they set out behind the gigantic thirty foot tall robot Liberty Prime. The Brotherhood had managed to repair the prewar machine and it was functioning well. It was following its programming to destroy the Red Army, which in its new programming had become the Enclave. It now tromped forward, taking out a force field, Enclave defenses and soldiers. Sally was careful to stay out of its way as she ploughed forward with the rest.

The storm moved in as they approached the communications center. The wind picked up and snow began to fall in earnest. The soldiers moved forward, the sensors in there suits helping cut through the storm.

The robot breached all defenses and reached the building housing the communication center. It drew back a huge arm and slammed a hole into the side of the building which was built high up into the side of the mountain. Suddenly a blast from the sky hit the robot, blowing it into several pieces. Sally and the men hurried up a path and into the hole in the buildings side.

Palidan Tristan was ahead of her.

"I don't know what happened out there, but Liberty Prime's gone. You've got to get in there, Sally. Find that communication link.", he said.

"What exactly am I looking for?", she asked.

"I don't know, but I expect you'll know when you find it. We'll provide cover as best we can but it's going to be up to you."

"I understand.", Sally said. "Come on Hawk."

They headed into the building along with the soldiers. It wasn't long before they had outpaced the soldiers but not without taking several hits. Sally was ploughing forward, flinging grenades, firing a flamer with precise glee. She wasn't hiding or trying to protect herself. Hawk stormed with her.

They fought their way up several floors, through several rooms, always in the lead. The Brotherhood was busy protecting their flank and cleaning out the remaining soldiers. Finally they came to an obvious control center. Sally approached it more cautiously. She wasn't afraid of getting hit but if what they wanted was in there she didn't want to risk it getting damaged. Grenades were out of the question.

Hawk held back, watching behind them, as Sally peered around the door and took stock of the room. There were only 2 soldiers in the room but they were on alert and heavily armed. She pulled out her most powerful weapon, the tri-beam laser rifle. They weren't aware she was there yet. She could only take out one before the other would be on her. She motioned to Hawk and signaled him which soldier to take. At her silent command they blasted into the room. Sally took a volley before her man went down. Hawk was luckier.

Sally limped forward and examined the control panel. It would take several tries to hack into the control computer. She leaned over it and addressed Hawk.

"There has to be another way out of here. Can you find it while I do this?"

"You're hurt pretty bad.", he said. "you'd better get a stimpack."

"I know, help me get them out of my pack."

Hawk pulled two stimpacks from her pack. He injected her with one and then himself.

"That's better.", she sighed. She turned to the terminal while Hawk went off. He came back 10 minutes later.

"There's a stairwell over there that leads directly outside.", he said.

"Good.", Sally replied. "I've found the codes but I can't break them. I downloaded them into my Pip-boy. I'm hit pretty bad ,Hawk. You've got to get me back to the Citadel. They need this information and you know what will happen if I die."

Her Pip-boy was programmed to her bio-signs. It could never be removed while she lived without destroying it except by a master programmer who knew all its codes along with Sally's authorization code. No such person existed to Sally's knowledge. The other thing was, if she died without authorizing it to maintain its memory it would instantly self- destruct. All information would be lost. She had never been sure the authorization code she had was actually accurate.

Sally dropped her pack and heavy weapons belt. She kept only her combat rifle and the knife in its calf holster. Hawk shouldered his pack with as many supplies as he felt they would need. They went up the stairwell and out the door. The full force of a winter storm hit them as they exited the building.

They were on the other side of the mountain from the Brotherhood force. They couldn't afford to go back around the mountain. They didn't have the time or energy. Sally needed to get to the Citadel as quickly as possible and there was nothing the field medics could do for her they hadn't already done themselves.

Not for the first time Sally wished the Machinist had managed to get a motorcycle running. She had told him she would give him 2000 caps when one worked but so far he hadn't come through. A few trucks also looked to her like they could be made functional but so far no one seemed to be able to get one going. Maybe it was because what little fossil fuel had still been around before the war had burned up in the blasts and extensive fires. Only those machines capable of solar, nuclear or other forms of power still worked. Oh, well, someday.

They struggled off into the storm, Sally holding to Hawk for strength.

Dr. Bening wasn't surprised by the summons. Palidan Tristan had radioed in that the unit had made it through the garrison only to find that Sally and Hawk were gone. She had left her pack behind so they presumed they were headed for the Citadel. They would bring her belongings to the Citadel with them.

Hawk had appeared at the gate carrying a seriously injured Sally. Hawk refused to allow Sally to be taken to the clinic.

"No, she has to go to Rothschild first. The information in her Pip-boy has to be downloaded.", he insisted.

"She needs to go to the clinic. She could die!", Dr Bening argued.

"No.", Sally groaned. Hawk glared at him.

"She's taken her limit of stimpacks. Anymore could kill her and if she dies all the information will be lost. A lot of men died there, Bening, she wouldn't want that to be for nothing. Now get out of my way." Dr. Bening hovered around her, doing what he could until the download was done then hastened her to the clinic.

Sally was still unconscious. She hadn't needed operating on this time as she was found to be healing pretty well by the time Dr. Bening examined her, but she still didn't exhibit signs of what he had come to refer to as regeneration. He hung saline bags since she did seem dehydrated and artificial blood bags as she had lost a lot of blood. He was keeping her sedated mostly because he knew she wouldn't stay down until she had fully healed.

He knew her extraordinary healing capabilities had to do with the mutagenic agents she had been exposed to over the past years and had been apparent even before her exposure to the GECK radiation. It was probably the reason she had survived the GECK activation at such close range. This didn't make her any less interesting. Hawk too had the normal mutant reliance on radiation as a healing factor just as ghouls did.

Sally was tired. They had been at the Citadel for almost three weeks and she just wanted to go home. Hawk chose her favorite weapons and meds and filled their packs. He helped her into hers when she didn't seem inclined to pick it up. She was so lethargic. They left the Citadel on a cold, still morning to make the 7 hour trek to home.

Hawk was taking the lead with Sally dragging behind, hardly paying attention to her surroundings. They had used this road so often, its very familiarity made it dangerous. Suddenly Hawk stopped, pulling out his field glasses. They weren't far past the Super Duper mart.

"What is it?", Sally asked, looking around.

"I saw a light. Up there, on the road.", he pointed.

Sally pulled out her sniper rifle and peered through the scope.

"Enclave", she snarled. "I knew they would re-man that camp some time." She lowered her rifle. Her eyes began to spark as she took quick breaths, her nostrils flaring. "Did you bring the missile launcher?", she asked.

"Of course." Hawk unloaded the heavy hardware and handed it to her. Her smile was unpleasant as she took the weapon.

The battle didn't take long. After pounding the encampment with missiles it was fairly easy to rush in and take out the wounded soldiers. The scientist was already dead having been killed in the first attack. Sally left Hawk to clean up the mess while she cracked into the computer. It was disappointing in that she didn't get any useful information.

The rest of the trip home had been uneventful. Hawk was now sitting at her little table going over the books. He glanced up when Sally came up with his dinner.

"How long do you think it's going to take the Brotherhood to crack that code?", she asked.

Hawk shrugged. "It's already been a month. I expect the Enclave is digging in somewhere. It must be pretty complicated."

She sighed. "How are we doing?", she asked.

"Not bad, we've got quite a bit put aside and we have a large inventory of salvage. We need to get some trades done and check with our clients. Several owe us a payment by now. We should check on that southern cave too, we haven't been there for a while. Once we're set we can get back to taking out Enclave. Maybe we can pick up some intel from some of them if you don't kill them all.", he said dryly.

Sally frowned." I heard there's an encampment up in the mountains to the south. We should look for it."

"Dammit, Sally, we'll run out of resources to hunt Enclave if we don't take care of business. What will you do then?", he asked irritably.

"Fine, one round of the wasteland. Shouldn't take us more than a week. And we ask about any encampments!", she growled. Hawk agreed. It was the best he was going to get. She wasn't ready to give up.

Hawk kept to his word. They only spent a week doing trading and business rounds though he did get her to scavenge out a building they hadn't been in before. The feral ghouls inhabiting it hadn't had a chance even though Sally had taken more injuries than she needed to. Hawk was concerned about her continuing berserker tendencies. Sally was raring to go south as they had gotten a firm lead on the location of an Enclave camp.

It would soon be spring. Sally had noticed the warming days though there were still times the snow fell. Small spring plants were pushing up through the desolate soil. It seemed there was more plant life than she had remembered from her first year. Maybe the wasteland was recovering.

They had been travelling through the southern mountains for nearly a week with little to show for their efforts. A few ramshackle cabins had provided some items and some canned foods they would probably store or sell. They mostly ate what they could kill or gather from the land. There were some good pickings even this early in the spring if you knew where to look.

It was after noon before they came across the first sign. Following the trail they located the camp on the next mountain. It was a large camp with a lot of soldiers. Taking it head on would be suicide. Sally studied the camp through her field glasses. Anyone with any sense would bypass it. She put away the field glasses and settled down to wait. It wouldn't be dark for several hours.

The night was well advanced before Sally stood up. She opened her pack and took out all the frag mines and plasma mines she had. Leaving Hawk to watch her back she slipped toward the camp. Once she was close she pulled out a stealth boy and activated it. Moving like a shadow she slid through the camp, placing mines in front of tents and in paths, covering them lightly with leaves and debris, going still as a statue whenever a guard came within sight.

She exited the camp and returned to their post. She pulled on her pack and took up her favorite rifle. Hawk lifted the missile launcher. At her signal he fired, aiming to hit as many tents as possible. The camp erupted like an anthill. Soldiers streamed from tents. The explosions of missiles and mines were accompanied by the berserker screams of the big mutant and the warrior as they stormed into the fray.

The camp was empty of life. They had walked among the bodies with combat knives to make sure none would move again. It had taken most of Sally's strength. She had been hit many times with a variety of weapons. She had taken her limit on stimpacks and strengthening meds. Her hemostatics hadn't been sufficient to stop all the bleeding. She was still losing blood.

Hawk looked around at the scene. They would lose a lot of salvage if they didn't take care of it now as predators would tear into the bodies but he was afraid Sally would lose her life if they stayed.

"Let's go", he said. She stared blankly at him.

"Go?, But..". He took her arm and lifted her from where she was staring at the flickering screen of the computer monitor. She didn't argue as they started off.

She didn't make it to the Citadel under her own power. Covered with blood and gore, exhausted from the long trip after the battle, Hawk carried the injured woman the last few miles. She had lost too much blood to walk any further and was still bleeding. Dr. Bening hastened to answer the summons.

Hawk had been more exhausted than injured and after sleeping for over 16 hours he was now sitting in the doctor's office, still favoring his right arm where it had been strafed.

"I don't know what to do, Doc.", Hawk was confiding in the doctor. "She's just not herself. She's on this dangerous revenge mission, she doesn't take precautions, she just rushes in like a berserker. She ignores dangers around her. It's just not like her. She's usually so careful. Do you think she's trying to get herself killed?", he asked worriedly.

Dr. Bening slowly shook his head. "Hawk, she just isn't recovering well. She hasn't been right since the explosion. Her father's dead and her step mother rejected her. Her lover's missing. No one's heard from Captain Jack or anyone aboard the Tradewind since it headed out to sea. It was caught in the GECK activation and we haven't found any other survivors of that except you three. She probably thinks they're all dead, doesn't she?"

"She doesn't talk about it, but I don't think that's it. The radiation seemed to have been stopped by the building so it only affected those people in the building and on the water downstream. It just hit the Tradewind at the limit of its reach so I don't think the crew was killed. I don't believe Sally thinks they're dead either, though we can't know for sure. No, I don't think it's just grief. I think she's scared. She's mutating and that terrifies her because she's afraid she'll go feral. She doesn't know if she'll ever see Jack again and I'm not sure she even wants to. A lot of people she's cared about have been killed or badly damaged by the Enclave. She just wants them all dead and she wants to be the one to make them dead. I don't know what to do."

"You know her better than anyone, Hawk. You need to find a reason for her to want to live besides vengeance, or she's likely to get herself killed and you with her." Hawk agreed with the doctor.

"I'll think of something.", he said, rising to leave.

If Hawk didn't think of something soon they were both going to be in deadly peril of her carelessness.