1

"At last, ye come to see poor old Cait.", the newly christened sheriff of Covenant said. The General had walked into town surprisingly alone. No guards, no verti-bird...nothing. It was nearly like she had appeared out of thin air.

"Sorry.", the General apologized while taking her into a brief hug. "With the Institute's integration and turning the Minutemen into something that matters and the new government and now/"

"I understand, luv.", Cait accepted. "But the boy you sent. Where does he fit into all this?"

"Would you accept 'classified' as an answer?", the General asked. She took Cait by the arm to the office building / house in case the answer was no.

"General.", the local grenadier greeted.

She saluted with her off hand. "Soldier.", as she passed by.

Once the two were in the office, and the door was locked, Cait spoke. "I suppose I'll be having to, if it comes with the rank. Doesn't mean I'm not a wee bit curious.

"Mr. Freund shows up out of the wild blue yonder with a handwritten note from you. It tells me to teach him pugilism, and after scouring the entire settlement for a dictionary I'm able to find out you mean fisticuffing. But it's your writing, and dare I say orders Ms. General-Mum, so I put the child through the ringer.

"He's certainly thirsty, he is. More afraid of disappointing you than any beating that I can give him. And he's lucky he isn't dumb. He picked up tricks so fast I actually had to show him the principles of the thing. Started putting him outside the wall without the gun and he's come back with usable salvage every time, and a story to tell. Took down two raiders with his bare hands, he did. Sure, they were a malnourished lot but that just makes 'em feistier in my experience."

The General nodded. "Good. More than good. Excellent. I'm going to send him off to MacCready to learn shooting if he's up to snuff on brawling.

"Now I have to ask you the stupid thing. What do you know about Diamond City?"

Cait sat behind what had now become her desk. On it sat a bottle of scotch and and inhaler of JET, both with an unbroken label. They both served as an announcement of her sobriety.

"If you mean in general, as much as anyone that doesn't live there I suppose. If you mean right now...well that's a bit more complicated, isn't it? Every radio with a personality is screaming to keep away from the place. Entire city's surrounded by super mutants armed to the teeth."

"More or less.", the General agreed. "I need to take the uncertainty out of it. We flew over the area when we dropped off supplies, in case the siege lasts long. I can't keep our verti-bird over the area long enough to get a good picture of what's going on. It's not like the super mutants stand still and don't try to shoot us from the sky while we take count. I need a count of heads, weapons, whatever provisions they brought. And that's going to take someone who can make it up a building in downtown alive, with a strong enough back to bring a CB with her to tell the Castle what's going on."

"And who is the sorry sod dumb enough to do something that stupid?", Cait asked.

The General looked at her sadly.

The woman shook her head. "Oh, no ye don't. I may be a tough one but I ain't going against super mutants a hundred to one."

"I'm not asking you to break the siege single handed.", the General explained. "In fact, I don't want you to engage at all. I need you back here in Covenant to hold the place together.

"All I want is scouting information. Keep far away from the super mutants, get a count of what they have and radio in if they look like they're going to say...rush the gate with suiciders or something. I don't even want the super mutants knowing that this is going on if it can be helped.

"It's just that there are very few people I trust to be tough enough to stay alive in downtown long enough to pull this off. And this will mean picking a building tall enough to get a good vantage point and staying on top of it long enough for us to gain intel from doing so."

Cait raised her eyebrow. "Can I bargain a bit?"

"Bargain?", the General repeated.

"Aye. First, I'll be wanting Mr. Freund to be watching me back on this. If he gets through this, I'll send him on his way to Mr. MacCready with whatever letter you write out for him. Should me make it from what used to be the cities to whichever farm you're stashing the dodgy soldier, then he'll have graduated my curriculum and will be a first class brawler that I can put me name to."

The General nodded. "As long as you don't take any extra risks. With him or yourself for that matter. I need you both."

"Then the second. I want you buying me a frilly little thing, like you do for Piper.", Cait demanded.

"But I like your corset.", she objected.

"Then ye better be finding a frilly little corset, you silly goose.", Cait reiterated.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do when I get some private time."

Cait continued. "And I best be having me cushy job of sheriffing back when I'm done with this mess. Me feet are becoming accustomed to being propped up on this desk as much as me ears are to being called 'Ma'am'."

2

"I think Vault 111 guessed right.", Neil told Cait. He barely peaked out over the roof of a building to see up the street that ran behind the stadium that Diamond City was housed in. His combat armor over his vault suit would have protected him should he have been seen. But the mission parameters had been for keeping quiet, low, and out of the way.

"There's a party on patrol. But no where near the number that's actually camping at the main gate. I think they're just keeping a look out in case someone tries to slip over the wall.", he finished. "Or they don't want to be too far from the camps they're setting up in the open buildings across the street from Diamond City's wall."

"Alright.", Cait replied. "Get your head back from sight and I'll call it in to Radio Freedom. The bloody git needs to just take me info instead of berating me about protocol, though. Otherwise, I'll be proto-his-calling when this is through."