What was once a tug boat but now was the C.M.S. Fortune Burnee chugged her way up to the port at Egret Tours Marina. It slowed to stay a comfortable distance away from the docks even though there were open spaces, particularly with the previous wreck cleared out of the way. But now there was naval discipline, and she called in her presence by the on board CB radio to the recovered one being manned at the port. Given instruction to wait, it bobbed in the river until the C.M.S. Paul Revere chugged out leaving only the C.M.S. John Endecott in port. Having been granted permission, the Burnee finally came in.

"Permission to come ashore and crew to leave?", the Captain asked the woman standing on the dock. She stood in a full sheriff's uniform, with binoculars around her neck.

Curie called back. "Permission to come ashore granted, and leave to your crew. Zere are a few questions I have to ask of you though."

"Of course.", he said, motioning and order for his men to tie the ship down. Coming down, "What have you got for me?"

"Well, first, are zere any of your crew who require medical attention. I was originally programmed to be a Ms. Nanny. Hence, I can provide medical aid should any of your men need it.", Curie explained.

"Oh, you're the sentient synth!", the Captain exclaimed. "Sorry, ma'am. I mean, no ma'am. The Burnee took a few pot shots coming down from the lock. So while we might a few burns on the ship, none of the crew took an actual hit."

"Very well.", she continued. "Is the damage more extensive than the scoring I see above the water line?"

"I don't have a reason to think so."

"Hey, Cap'n.", one of the crew called out. "Where does she want the stuff?"

Curie raised an eyebrow.

"I already ordered that we'd get this cargo into your hands before anyone starts digging into your food stores."

"Thank you for zat, Captain.", Curie replied. "It does save me ze trouble of repositioning my people. Ze enemy has been particularly persistent today past ze bend. We have taken more zan a few smoke signals for artillery fire on attempts to come up river."

The Captain nodded. "Yeah, I think they were trying to coordinate something. We'd take a laser hit out of the woods from some cobbled together thing as if it was going to be a real attack. But after we responded with cannon fire and the thing exploded, I think we ended up softening the Gunner east highway position instead of vice versa...if that's where they're coming from."

"I concur, Captain.", Curie agreed. "Radio Freedom has given a report from ze Railroad zat ze enemy was going to test this front. So far, we are holding wizout casualty. On ze ozer hand, zis is ze first time we have had to take in four ships a day to keep supplied in artillery shells."

"That's not a smoke signal.", the Captain interrupted.

The Sheriff turned and winced at the red glare of a call for Minutemen coming from over the hills from the other side of the river bend. "Captain, I have learned in my travels with ze General zat overkill never is. May I ask ze aid of your crew in supplementing my people."

The man turned and started coarsely yelling. "You heard her, you dirty shuishuo! Drop those boxes and grab a laser musket. We got killing to do."

Curie turned away from him and took a step toward the start of the dock, in order to radio in for additional aid. She stopped when she saw an APC pull past the second building and Minutemen stormed out the back of it and disappeared again heading to where her spotters were stationed. Since that was already taken care of, she searched for the crew of the Revere and found they were already running up hill to support. She hoped that would be enough to repel whatever the Gunners were attempting.

Hope. Huh. She filed the thought and her surprise at it away. She did enjoy exploring her new found sentience post upgrading from her Ms. Nanny frame to her type 3 synth body. She sometimes wondered what new thoughts her mind would be capable of in the centuries coming when even more powerful hardware came about. But right now she had a job to do, so she set about double checking the power network to the HEAVY LASERS before the mechanical turrets. In case her hopes were for naught.

Ooh. Potential for despair: that would certainly be worth filing away for further examination.