"What's this?", the General asked. She flopped a copy of the latest Publick Occurrences onto the floor of the building that shared the name of the publication.
Piper looked up from her mimeograph machine. "What's what?"
smudges instead of the date
The Last War
By Piper Wright
Now that the first multiple fronted war faces the Commonwealth, several questions face our new nation. Are our confederation of communities truly secure from the dangers that have made us call the world we live in 'wasteland'? Is a government, so eloquently stated by Mayor John Hancock of Goodneighbor that is 'of the people, for the people', strong enough to survive true hardship? And least importantly: can the woman that made it all possible hold under such incredible pressure?
To investigate these issues, this reporter traveled to the one place where all these issues and more are coming to a head. The community of the Atom Cat's Garage is nearly on the front line. It is within sight of what has been referred to as the East Highway Line, an informal marking of where the Minutemen and captured Gunners both believe the front is. So far, it is the only civilian population to come under tank fire, or at least targeting, that isn't a Minuteman Sheriff run settlement.
It is impossible to ignore the Minutemen presence here. Armored Personnel Carriers, repaired from untold age and damage from the pre-bomb era, race supplies up from Warwick Homestead and down from Jamaica Plain. Due to its proximity to open water, it has taken on the added status of 'beach head' and received supplies from Admiral Zao's navy as well. Whether it's Finch Farm mutfruits, Vault 114 ANTIBIOTICS, or even Sanctuary Hills copies of reading material there is no shortage coming to the Atom Cat's Garage.
Attache Anderson, of Colonel Preston's Department of Personnel, has set up a Mobile Army Hospital Unit just off-site of Garage territory. The Minutemen have certainly dedicated themselves to keeping the Garage itself from the effects of the war. Doc Anderson is the second busiest woman in the Commonwealth I have ever seen work. Although the mechanic Rowdy is certainly willing to give her a run for her caps working on Minutemen power armor.
The Highway Line separates the community (and Warwick Homestead, another civilian laden prize with 'beach head' status) from one of the Minutemen's greatest failures: Quincy. Due to a betrayal by a pre-reform Minuteman named Clint, the entire civilian population was displaced and the area has become a stronghold for the Gunners ever since. This entrenched force now has tanks, numbers and command of the position from which to threaten Commonwealth civilians.
Talk among the Minutemen was hard to come by. Every person in uniform was dedicated to the job. So much so that an actual interview was impossible. However, in the short window between one of the injured being capable of speaking coherently and Doc Anderson clearing them for a return of duty, some few questions could be answered. Most were a retelling of the heroics of their comrades making attacks on the Gunners or repelling in kind. Some were statements of thanks to the Commonwealth just for the simple act of being free,
But nearly everyone contradicted me: the greatest failure the said, was of Clint and Wire and others. Not in their betrayal of Minutemen but to the Minutemen ideals. The one thing every single person returned from the front by a medical need beyond the standard double STIMPACK issuance, and more incredibly returning to that very front, insisted upon was the need to live up to the ideal of helping in a minute's notice. This reporter inquired as to what inspired such dedication to a noble cause. Some said it was because of the people they left behind. Others cited their lost loved ones before the Minutemen's reform. All agreed on one thing - the General. No one was willing to let her down.
Our favorite vault dweller claims to not have met everyone, but you wouldn't know it from these accounts. Everyone has some far fetched tale of heroism that they credit to the General. And considering the incredible feats she's already completed - the integration of the dreaded Institute and the infamous Triggermen, or the destruction of the Rust Devils and the Forged - one can believe them. It's this belief in this one woman that answers our questions. She organized the government that protects our rights. She built from one hero a resurgent protective force that is right now fighting against the forces of chaos and exploitation.
That is why this reporter hopes for this lone woman. She was dropped from a world of treasures we can hardly imagine into what must still look like a nightmare to her. She was woken by the losses we knew the wasteland could inflict upon us at any moment. And yet, she has always been there for us. Our very own personal savior from day one.
So if you ever see her outside the Castle, or off the lines, take care of her. If she goes back to her home town of Sanctuary Hills, give her something put her legs up. Buy her clean water or cold Vim at the Third Rail. She will refuse of course. She'll be off on some other adventure or putting in days of building up a new place for others to lay their head or, as she is now, directing the effort that will save us all. But if any veteran deserves the rest of coming home, this one does.
"Yeah.", Piper replied after picking up the paper. "And?"
"And how could you write that I need a break?", the General countered.
"Blue!", Piper exclaimed. "You do. You've been absolutely everywhere the wasteland has to offer. You've never had a chance to sit down and just mourn - isn't that why you're pretending with me instead of moving on with Preston?
"You've ended how many threats? And those are just the human ones. The fact that you can stand in Diamond City and not be green is thanks to you. Hell, the fact that you can stand in Diamond City and not be mechanical is thanks to you.
"And now you face a far flung force of mercenaries dredged up out of raider camps and who knows where originally. Led by a psychopath that's way to smart and patient for anyone's good.
"If anyone deserves a rest, it's you."
Blue tried to breathe the tension out. "I/
"You can disagree with me on this.", Piper warned.
She tried again. "I'm not disagreeing with you...on a surface level. I'm telling you that I can take it. And sure, you don't have any reason to buy that. But that's because you're a reporter. You need to be able to see the truth.
"But the people out there, the ones that see me as invincible. That's holding the Commonwealth together. That's building bridges that would have never existed - whether it's between upper stands residents and other statuses, or across the commonwealth itself. They can't afford...the Commonwealth can't afford to see me as in need of rest. I have to be tireless, impossible, incredible, in command like a Mistress of Mystery."
Blue pulled up a chair. The door to Publick Occurrences opened and when Nat stepped through, she could feel the mood of the room. The door closed quietly, blocking out the outdoor light.
"And I have to believe that I can keep going no matter what as well. I can't afford to be stopped by something as simple as burnout."
Piper walked over to her. Kneeling before her, she placed a hand on her thigh. "Burnout?"
"It's what we called it, before the bombs. I suppose now it's quaint to have such a luxury - like a food allergy. There was a time when I was in college. Shaun was just an idea we had and we weren't even saving up for Codsworth. I was missing my husband terribly. I had transitioned from a job that was nearly ingrained in me in the military to having to study ungodly amounts for my degree. Instead of the focused and determined 'I can beat this, I can survive this' of the war I fell into a half-hearted rut. They called it the 'sophomore slump'. I called it getting too comfortable.
"When my husband came home for leave, I could see it in his eyes. He still had the fire. Not just of being determined to come back to me from the war. But the kind that makes a country great. I needed to be that for him. He was depending on me to be the lawyer and mother when he was in school after his tour.
"And now I have a Commonwealth depending on me. And I can't even do all the things that it needs because of these Gunners."
"Like what?", Nat asked.
"Shush you.", Piper admonished.
Blue turned to her. "Like a unified school. Do you realize that you're one of the few people, just because you live in Diamond City, that get to even have the opportunity to attend a school? With the teachers available here, and Vault 81 and with the Institute...I could be securing a school or even a library to use as a boarding school. Allowing the populace to become an educated one while protecting its children should be a given.
"And that's just one. In my time, I could travel anywhere I wanted in the entire Commonwealth in at most an hour. Universal running water. Electric plants. There's so much infrastructure needing to be rebuilt."
Nat offered, "Maybe our next issue should be that."
Piper nodded. "I'll get some paper and pencil. 'What We're Fighting For' by Piper Wright, with some small...tiny...miniscule help from Natalie Wright."
