There were plenty of Minutemen at the Castle today. Crews that had taken part in the liberation of Saugus Ironworks Foundry were celebrating a bit too early.

1

"I'm telling you.", a woman said around her beer. She was seated with another APCs crew in the mess hall of the Castle. "My boys are coming upon the foundry. Before we even can spill out the back, the General has walked - literally, walked, up to the line and fires off like four or five shots with that big ass pistol of hers."

"You mean the one she took from the cybernetic mercenary the underground mad scientists employed to kidnap her son?", another asked while hanging on every word.

"Yeah, yeah.", the Minuteman agreed. "And I kid you not, it was straight head shots. Each and every one of them. And then she takes off like it was nothing. The Forged weren't on the ground either. From ground to roof top, just pop-pop-pop."

2

"And then the General comes running up to my APC, right?" a man was telling another APC's driver. "Now I'm thinking that I was getting the easy duty, like my crew hasn't been pulling our weight. And now the General runs up and starts yelling at me? My Private's getting a promotion and I'm getting a one way ticket to guarding the fence at Oberland Station."

The driver objected. "But you're here now?"

The man took another swig of moonshine. "Right? She comes up and yells at me, 'The password is Bumblebee and the agent is Slag'. I say, 'What?' I mean, I'm completely off guard here. But it's the General. So I straighten up. "Ma'am. I mean, what? What ma'am?'. And she grabs me by the armor. 'The password is Bumblebee and the agent is Slag.' So I'm all salutes and 'Yes, ma'am. The password is 'Bumblebee and the agent is slag'.

Then she runs off back to the foundry building. We still haven't laid any cover fire, suppression fire, nothing. She literally reaches through a broken glass window and drags out a guy. She takes off, the General I mean, and the guy runs up to me. I don't know him from President Avery and he's decked out like the rest of the Forged. You know - the guys we came there to clear out? And then he sticks his hand out to shake and says, all very proper and what not, 'I'm Agent Slag. The password is 'bumblebee'. I understand that you're my ride out.'"

3

"So the artillery is just dropping on the asphalt with the car wrecks.", a Minutemen taking up way too much of the stairs to the top of the Castle's wall told his audience. "Boom, boom boom."

"You mean the parking lot? Yeah, we saw all that. Cleared out nearly all of the defense outside the building besides that damn sniper on the rooftop.", a woman interrupted.

"But did you see the General walk out of it?"

There was maybe three quarters of a second of absolute silence. Then a roar of protest.

"I am telling you the absolute truth. She chucks the smoke. And then she charges through the parking lot. And the Forged were all just staring at her, like it's her fault that they're not opening fire. And then it just rains explosions. But she's just listening to that thing on her wrist."

"Her Pipboy?"

"That's it. She's got an ear and an eye to the thing and it's just telling her when and where artillery strikes are coming. Finch's Farm hit first, but the farthest away from the door. But then she's running toward the line and just behind her lights up with the Slog. By the time any Forged left alive try to take aim, it's like they're getting their own personal gift from an avenging angel above."

"Then what?"

"So she makes it to the line we've setup on the other side of the - what did you call it, parking lot - and asks us: 'Are you going to leave all the dying to the snyths?' Because we're standing around like idiots and our Mark IIs are already getting up to charge the Foundry.

4

"And that's why we all burst in the door like a pack of glowing deathclaws.", a Minutemen repairing his armor told the man next to him working on his knife.

"We barely fit through that door. It's like we were ready to be nail in a fence but it turned out we were a wave on a sand castle. Forged were dropping like rad-rabbits. And standing in the middle of it all like she would have walked in and did it herself if she had to was the General.

5

"Shut up.", Piper told the Minuteman.

"But I was just giving you the story.", he objected.

The journalist scoffed. "You were giving me a story alright. I get that she's inspiring. I get that it seems like she did the impossible by bringing the Commonwealth together. But you're not doing her a service with going along with all the wild exaggerations about her.

"The General doesn't get radiation poisoning from swimming and that's how she met Admiral Zhoa. The General can has a gun that can fire two bullets from one round. The General fought a power armor the size of a building to defeat the Brotherhood of Steel. The General found the guy running the Forged who was decked out in power armor except for a helmet and hit him right between the eyes with every shot left in her revolver."

The Minuteman huffed. "But she did!"

"Look.", Piper commanded. "I traveled around with Blue just after she showed in Diamond City. She's competent...incredible even. But she's still believable. I've seen her in action. So until you're through tall taling Paul Bunyan back from the bombs, leave me alone and let me talk to someone who's willing to make a bit of sense.

"Like that guy on the stairs. People seem to be listening to him."