1
The Castle...well, Fort Independence... You know what, screw that.
The Castle was finally repaired. The only way in was the double gate to the main road leading up to the castle, and a wharf fashioned from the previously collapsed wall leading to the sea. Both could be slammed shut in a hot second. Theoretically, the Castle could be laid to siege. But considering the Commonwealth's population's propensity for self-reliance and self-preservation gave the Castle a water and farmable food supply, any group that wasn't backed by air or teleporting military might was going to break its teeth on the attempt. Adding in the sheer amount of windmills feeding laser batteries and other automated defense turrets, probably literally.
And so far, so good. They hadn't opened fire on her yet. Hopefully, it was more than just keeping the general's coat hole free.
She walked through the gates and the conversational tone got a bit more quiet. Not the host of Freedom Radio mind you. But it was noticable.
So she called out. "The Institute has finally surrendered to the Minutemen! Where's the celebration?"
Every conversation stopped.
The General turned to the nearest woman. "Soldier, where is Shaw?" The woman pointed toward the armory. "Thank you."
2
Upon arriving, she found Ronnie and Preston talking. They immediately silenced when the spotted her. She threw a quick salute as a test. Nearly by reflex, both veterans returned it.
"Have you heard about the Institute's surrender to us yet?", she asked.
Both Preston and Shaw visibly relaxed. "So that was your voice on Diamond City Radio?"
She nodded. "Come join me in my office. And do me the favor of walking there _with_ me."
As they strolled at a business but no where near combat pace, the Minutemen manning the Castle's fortifications and civilians going about various settler tasks visibly relaxed.
Maybe she could actually hold this together after all.
3
The Castle was an extremely busy place. However, the General's self declared office was the seeming sanctuary of the fortification. A grand table was the centerpiece of the room, decorated by a GLOBE and an ANTIQUE GLOBE. A cabinet held the only rations outside of the main mess down the hall, a single bottle example of a few of the various liquors found intact on her adventures and a much more heavily used COFFEE POT, HOT PLATE, and a rapidly emptying COFFEE TIN. There was only one bed and it was retained for only her use despite her travels keeping her from it often. Most of the Minutemen that even new of this exclusive bed behind a door found it highly eccentric but some bizarre allowance for command. Those that actually interacted with her found a nigh existential horror from this fact that, if asked, she would admit she was aware of: nearly everyone except romantic partners slept in their own bed behind a closed door before the Great War. Only now were communal barracks the norm for just about everyone and shelter in and of itself too often a luxury.
"Sit down.", she commanded. "This is gonna take some time."
The woman hung both her blue colonial coat and her tricorner hat on a COAT RACK and joined Ronnie Shaw and Preston Garvey at the table. After getting yet another cup of coffee she visibly relaxed on her side of the table. Even with what she had seen on her quest to reunite what was left of her family, she barely believed what she was looking at: the other two managing to somehow sit at attention.
"I have a long laundry list of orders to hand out.", she began. "So let's get the questions out of the way."
Ronnie managed to jump in first with "How in tarnation did you manage to get the Institute to surrender?" just before Preston's "Institute surrendered? What does that even mean?"
"Alright, look. You know how much of what I done was expressly to get my son back from the Institute?", she reminded. As they both nodded, "It turns out that they had taken my son a lot longer ago than I had been led to believe. When I managed to infiltrate, he wasn't the baby I had lost or the boy I had tracked. He had grown into their elderly leader."
Garvey gasped. "That's how you/"
"I didn't shoot my own son, Preston!", she cut him off. "He explained the Institute's point of view. They really believed that they're the only ones advanced enough to survive the Wasteland long enough to ensure humankind continues. But they're all scientists, trying to press the edge of knowledge. That's why they use Synths for everything on the surface. He got the Institute on board with a new direction in leadership. Since I have military and legal experience and seemed to have proven myself in not only infiltrating them but my service in the Minutemen, he named me as his successor. I...I think he defrosted me, just to give me the opportunity to be the mother he thought I could be.
"However. He was pretty near the end from a condition that I don't even understand when I arrived. As soon as he named me as the Institute's leader..." she breathed in. "Shaun passed. My baby's gone. Just like the world I left."
"So here's the new deal. Of everyone that wanted to make their mark on the barren husk of what's left, the Minutemen are the only ones actually trying to save the people in the world instead of just their idealogical leaning. We're going to pull this Commonwealth together and make something of it, people. The Brotherhood just wanted to take any useful technology for themselves and didn't even want to interact with the citizens except to intimidate them into handing over things like common raiders."
Ronnie scoffed. "Well, they certainly aren't doing much in the way of anything in the Commonwealth now. Was that you? Or just the Institute?"
"Both.", the General stated. "And now that the leadership of the Institute has fallen to me, I'm having them pull back."
"But I thought you said they wanted humankind to continue?", Preston objected. "With their technology/"
He was cut off when the General raised her hand. "Preston, please. You don't know how precarious this Institute situation is. If they feel that I'm not meeting their base needs, it isn't going to result in an argument or a scuffle. They will immediately resort to responding as if they are betrayed and will stop even the slightest holding back of their ways. We'll end up needing to kill all of them. Children, some of the most brilliant and educated people I've met in the Commonwealth. They're not soldiers, Preston. They're mostly scared."
"So what are these base needs that have to be met to keep up this truce?", Preston replied.
"It's a surrender. I have changed their policies and I will change them more, in time.", the General countered. "But as I've said: they're scared. They're the type of people to treat tracking mud on your boot in the way we'd treat a Super Mutant dragging a settler off. I'm going to be very, very...very careful about asking any single member of the Institute to surface. And that's not just because they'll be in a containment suit and surrounded by heavily armed and armored Synths. And as for bringing in anyone, that's out of the question. I'd hate to even face the emergency that I would need to and even then it would be really loyal Minutemen only, volunteer only. Unless something went horribly wrong and we were destroying the afore mentioned children and scholars. Because no matter how much contempt for the surface they act like they have, a wave of destruction by people less educated is what seems to be driving them now."
"So what are they doing?", Preston inquired.
"The short version is what they always did. Science. Research.", the General informed. "The longer one. Trying to act like citizens of the Commonwealth for once. Mostly by pulling back. Until that phase is complete, gen 1 and gen 2 combat Synths have been reprogrammed to abide Minutemen. In most cases, this will result in the machines holstering their weapons. If a Minutemen unit is under fire they might help. Given the potential for animosity and distrust, Synth units aren't going to approach settlements or cities. Mostly, Institute assets on the surface are going to be recalled to the Institute."
"After I can show that the Institute has taken at least some action to peacefully integrate with the rest of the Commonwealth, even if that effort is less than Vault 81's, then maybe I can press them into something more. I just can't stress how very knife's edge this situation is right now."
"So the Institute's going to do a lot of nothing?", Ronnie mused. "You know, I think a lot of people are going to find that a relief in and of itself.
"But that means we're going to be picking up their slack."
"And that means real security.", the General informed. "And I don't mean what has passed for security since the Great War. Not 'retaliation after something happens'. Not 'rescue two out three kidnapped people'. I mean real 'let children run off and play and I'll see them back in time for supper' security."
"We can't do that.", Preston lamented.
"We can't do that yet.", she countered. "Who's the one telling me that we can take back the Commonwealth one farm at a time? We just need to implement some force multipliers."
"That some kind of Institute tech?", Ronnie asked.
The General shook her head. "No, no, no. It's military jargon...or at least it was, pre-war. It means that we can make everyone have more effective and multiply the effectiveness of our fighting force.
"The first is a command structure. Since I've been general, people have been really good at doing their job. But the organization is too flat. People I have only heard about me are answering directly to me even though the person they heard about me from I haven't even met. That needs to change. And changing over to the command structure I would like depends on information I don't have.
"So my first two promotions, if I can even call them that are you two. Congradulations, Colonels.
"Ronnie, you are hereby Colonel of Supplies, not just the Castle's armory. I need to know what we have: down to the last hat, MUTFRUIT, bullet, and STIM PACK. Even what's being carried by individuals in the field. Grab Anne to help you out."
Ronnie blinked. "Hargraves? She wouldn't know a musket from a Mirelurk!"
"But she does know uniforms.", she explained.
"Preston, you're Colonel of Personnel. Everyone knows you and you're the closest to knowing everyone I can think of. Cycle everyone through so Colonel Shaw's counts aren't off. We have a lot of wandering bands responding to trouble, make sure they come to the Castle to be inventoried. And use as many of those wandering bands to hold down the fort in our settlements for a while. That'll not just get the settlement defending Minutemen in for Colonel Shaw's count. It will allow both the wandering bands a taste of the defenders' duties and vice versa when the defenders hit the road to come here and back. But that only applies to actual Minutemen - not the civilians whose lives we're trying to make normal.
"I can't predict what situations will arise in the future. But a bit of cross experience will keep us from losing people in the future just because they didn't know what they were doing.
"And if you find some more recruits along the way, that'd be great. I think we're running a food and water surplus from our settlements right now. Ronnie, count that production too. And if you can pull of the miracle of a scavenge expectation, I'm not going to be exactly angry.
"Understood?"
"Yes, General.", the two both replied.
"Alright.", she sighed. "I'll see you both back here in a week. I'm taking a few men and going to make the pitch to the Colonels that might actually tell me no."
