"Eager Ernie, you son of a bitch!", Skinny Malone greeted. "How you been?"
"Pulling way to many caps for you to be demanding me down where the sun don't shine.", the mobster replied.
Marwoski snarled. "Stow it.
"I know you hate taking your eye off business. So do I. But this business. And if Skinny wasn't makin' as much sense as he is, I'd've whacked him myself. So sit down and shut up until someone tells you otherwise."
There were a few benches pulled together in the middle of the atrium of Vault 114. Seated were all the heavy hitters. Marwoski and Trish. Skinny Malone, with the dame of the week standin' behind him and Dino by his side.
Ernie sat down. "Alright, I'm listenin'."
Malone started again. "Now that we're all here, we can talk business. And right now, there's only one advent in this here Commonwealth that needs our attention.
The General and her Minutemen."
Ernie scoffed. "I should have known you'd put on a show like this only to make it about some girl."
"It ain't like that!", Malone shouted. After straightening his TUXEDO, he continued.
"Before she came on the scene, things were dangerous but predictable. And we had a steady profit."
"We still do.", Marwoski interrupted.
"You too?", Skinny asked.
"No. I understand.", Marwoski stated. "I just want hims here to know that this is on the level, because he's gonna hate it the most."
Ernie glanced between the two. "Hate what?"
"I'm gettin' to that part." Skinny assured. "The General, she comes outta no where and the whole game has changed. The Minutemen are back and proclaimin' themselves to be the second coming of godalmighty. The Institute's co-op-er-a-tive. And of all the people that tried to muscle in on her turf, the Brotherhood of Steel wasn't big enough.
"Now she's declared war on criminals. The Rust Devils are pushing up daisies. The Forged are sleeping with the fishes. Who do you think she's gonna put in her little black book next?"
Ernie fell silent. His mind would only let him come to one conclusion. "So what? You want my approval for war, or just a hit?"
"You idiot!", Marwoski exclaimed. "You think it's just that easy? Them Minutemen cleared out more super mutants than you got hitters. The Castle's harder to get into than this vault. You always were a bird brain - violence ain't the answer.
"And I know that burns goin' down, but choke it down you will. That dame hit me for 2000 caps and don't nobody take me for 2000 caps but I'm keepin' a level head. And a level head says it's thinking time when the map of the local turf starts filling up with X-es instead of enemies and customers."
"So what are you two geniuses proposing?", Ernie asked.
"You can either beat 'em or join 'em.", Malone told him. "And unless you're sitting on enough robots to power through a line of power armor and the actual working ve-hicles that bring 'em, I think you're gonna agree that joining is the better bet."
Ernie looked at him like Malone had just grown another head. "Join? The Minute-freaking-men? What about me every said "Yessir, nosir, rightwaysir, to the likes of you?"
Trish smiled before starting up in her raspy, injured, ghoul voice. "That's the brilliance of Malone's play. The Minutemen have been selling the idea of a unified government for every community for a little bit now. We don't gotta join the Minutemen."
And then Ernie realized. "We just have to announce an independent community. We get Minutemen protection and our rackets. Or else, the house of cards they built on 'being the good guys' will fall all around them."
"Exactly.", Malone pointed at him. "But now comes the bitter pill to swallow. And this pills just for you. Before I even tell you what it is, I want to let you know that every last one of the dons has already agreed. And like it or lump it, you will swallow."
Ernie dismissed it. "I don't care what I have to pay in. I know how it goes. But I'm about to get my own little kingdom of the racetrack all officiated and what not. What couldn't I swallow."
Then he saw their hard stares. "Oh, you better not be about to say something likes I think yous might be about to start saying."
Marwoski spoke first. "For this to work, we need to be a community. Like Diamond City or Goodneighbor. And that means all in one spot. Not over in my hotel room. Not down in the cannery. All in one spot."
"And for my money, between a dusty old pile of irradiated dirt and this fancy vault, I'll take the vault any day.", Trish agreed.
Malone attempted to sound concillatory. "You have to understand, this is the only way the play'll fly."
"The hells with yous guys.", Ernie told them. "You think that I'm giving up all my pull because you're afraid of some blast from the past dame, then you've lost all your marbles."
"I'll cut you in.", Marwoski told him.
"What?", the table exclaimed.
"Look.", Marwoski expounded. "I saw this coming in. And I bet Malone did too. If we get Minutemen protection instead of enmity and no profits, then that means no profits. The chem game is still the biggest game we got. And if I move my operation to vault 114, there ain't no way I'm going to be able to keep your grubby fingers out of it anyways. But in exchange, I Malone's plan & coverage. So I'm willing to cut you in on the chem game.
"Now make no mistake, I'm the boss of you not you the boss of me. And I want all them raiders that ain't gonna have no races to be chemmed outta their minds, with you being the pusher.
"But there's a good future for all of us here if we play our cards right. Instead of Minutemen hasslin' us, they'll be bound to keep the roads clear for my...our chems. Nobody'll come knockin' on our door first when it's time for the king's head to fly and if they do, it'll be a vault door with all of our boys behind it.
"So what do you say, Ernie? You gonna be wise or are you gonna be a hard head and make things unpleasant?"
Ernie looked around to the other dons and considered their amassed forces. "I'm gonna make things plenty unpleasant. But you can cut me in."
