-A few days ago-
"Bunker Hill.", Tessa understood. Or so she thought.
"But they aren't after a Minutemen settlement. They're trying to escape the war. Taking Bunker Hill won't get them out of it."
Cypress nodded. "But remember the fog of war. The General will only have the information she can see."
-A really, really long day-
"Once we're over the bridge, don't pursue.", the General ordered.
Brandis made a face. "Why?"
"We need to just take the hard right to Bunker Hill.", she explained. "The Gunners don't have vehicles. That's why they could pull that tunnel trick on us. I'm certain that they'll choose a route that will favor feet over armor. On the other hand, the street on the other side of the river is fairly stable. We can out race them in the APCs."
"And the troops on foot?", Brandis asked.
The General nodded. "Hopefully, circumstance will allow for a natural pincer maneuver when they hit Bunker Hill."
Brandis agreed. "The APCs hit Bunker Hill's wall first. Its current defense and us serve as the anvil that the Gunners get tempered against. In come what are now our reinforcements on foot behind them to be the hammer. Good plan."
-A few days ago-
"But it won't be.", Cypress stated.
By now, Tessa was sitting on his desk and soaking in his wisdom.
The colonel in chief of the entire Gunner organization began to showcase why he was. "The terrain will give Bridget all the real luck she'll need to meet her objective: taking the deserters to a position where they can withdraw from the war. Which of course can't be in the southern part of the Commonwealth, where we hold sway.
"Now what does she need? A place to go. Enough of a force to get there. And considering that she chose to betray us after being order to leave her command at Hub City Autowreckers..."
Tessa shook her head. "But there aren't any Gunner forces north of the 81 Castle line.
Are there?"
"Are we engaged in any propaganda?", Cypress countered.
"Red Eye.", Tessa cursed.
"So do you think that the General will have lied to us in the course of this war?", he continued.
Tessa rolled her eyes trying to remember every position that the Gunners had taken in the northern half of the Commonwealth. Hallucigen was a catastrophe. Captain Bridget had been ordered to abandon her post. The West Highway line was no where close to where they were currently projecting the deserters.
"Mass Bay Medical Center!", Tessa exclaimed.
"And with the General moving her chase forces to Bunker Hill and taking any extra time she thinks she has to warn ever settlement to the northeast, Bridget will have plenty of time to meet up with another sizable contingent of dissenters.", Cypress stated.
The woman's eyes widened. "So the next thing the Minutemen will see is/"
-a really, really long day-
A few straggling Minutemen ran up to meet the General outside of Bunker Hill's wall. "So where are they?", she screeched.
"I don't know, ma'am.", the Minuteman replied. "We were chasing you down to Bunker Hill. Nothing hit us from behind. You're in front of us."
The General ground her teeth together. She started turning exasperated. The Minutemen coming out of their run had started turning in place, taking deep breaths to get their wind back. And because of that accident, one of them spotted the Gunner force.
The General's jaw dropped. Not only were the Gunners not headed toward Bunker Hill, they were crossing a bridge to the north. And they seemed to be even more than before.
The General started waving her hand in a circular motion that was beginning to feel all too familiar. "Everybody mount up. We're on the move again. Civilians counting on us."
-a few days ago-
Tessa concentrated on her last question. "So Bridget will reinforce with Mass Bay. The terrain allowed her to confuse the General through no effort of her own. And she'll have a lead on the General that will take time for even her APCs to make up.
"So where does she go? There's no refuge trying to head north of the Commonwealth itself: might as well go jump in the Glowing Sea. She's north of the communities. Taking another Minutemen settlement doesn't keep her out of the war.
"You don't think she's trying to go to our ancestral home?"
Cypress' eyes narrowed. "To the experiment that birthed us. That forged children into troops and sharpened them by casting them out into the most irradiated, harshest days after the bombs. The very reason we use the cranium instead of the skull as our symbol."
-a really, really long day-
The General banged her fist repeatedly on the door to vault 75. Her training and experience as a lawyer commanded her not to curse in front of people she needed to lead from authority. The words did not even fit in her mouth right. But these Gunners had run her and so many, so very many of her men ragged. Caesar himself could not have moved men as fast as these Gunners raced.
And now, in a vault nearly as unknown as Vault 111 itself, these Gunners were encamped north of every line she had.
"Um, General?", a power armor clad Minutemen prompted. As if any lesser protected member of the force would not dare.
"You should hear this." Then he turned away to lead her to one of the ham radios they had placed in the APCs.
"This is a recorded message. It will repeat in three seconds.", Captain Bridget's voice sounded.
"Vault 75 is withdrawing from all hostilities in the Commonwealth Civil War.
"As a mercenary unit, we have a duty to complete any mission for our clients. Even if that mission is fighting to the death. But the Gunners as it stands have no clients. They are attacking what should be their clients.
"As a mercenary unit, we have a duty to complete any mission for our clients. We have never had any arrangement with the competing mercenary unit known as the Minutemen.
"We will not give up our values. We will not stop being mercenaries of codes. Of honor. And we will refuse to engage in destruction for destruction's sake. Therefore, the door to Vault 75 will remain closed for the foreseeable future."
"This is a recorded message."
The General snatched the microphone to her mouth. "You better cower in there, bitch! If any of us catch you outside your precious little cage, you're dead. Dead!"
Brandis moved to take the microphone from her. "Dead!", she screamed.
-a few days ago-
Tessa finally shared Cypress' grin. "So the entire Commonwealth will be threatened by a mercenary presence from the north. Even though all the Minutemen have to cover is a door, and they can do that with mostly automated turrets that they can easily produce considering their resources: the civilians of the Commonwealth will have yet another enemy to fear. And to fear that the Minutemen can't protect them from. After all, Bridget will have shown that she...no, Gunners can run roughshod through the entire Commonwealth and strike any community whenever we want.
"And all it will cost us is a bunch of traitors who we can't use in the war effort anyway!"
Cypress agreed. "But there's more than that. Yes, Vault 75 will be able to be contained with as few people as we're using to contain Vault 88. But in the chasing of Captain Bridget, the General will have pulled forces all the way to the northeast reaches of the Commonwealth. And away from the river which she's so far successfully defended."
Tessa jumped off the desk. "So we'll finally be able to take Egret Tours Marina."
Cypress shook his head. "I actually have a different target in mind."
