1
"How did this happen to the Gunners?", Piper asked.
The General held onto her hat as she and Colonel Brandis disembarked from the Vertibird. The reporter had managed to out sprint the Minutemen to meet her as she came off the gunship.
"Clear off for a minute, Ms. Wright." A Minuteman caught up with her. "We've let you in the Castle for entirely too long in my opinion. But hassling the General's over the line."
"What do you know about Gunner Plaza, Piper?", the General asked over the Minuteman's objection.
"So far, only what your forces are telling me, Blue. A streak of smoke across the sky, a mushroom cloud and suddenly no more Gunner Plaza. Seems like every front fell in a day or two. Nobody'll let me close to where the lines were due to 'mop up' operations.", the reporter replied.
The General nodded. "First, you've got full access until we find out what happened. You're the most investigative press in the Commonwealth. And I want complete transparency on this. When I find out who actually used a nuclear weapon/"
"Don't say it, Blue.", Piper commanded. "You've got a look about you that you might say you'll have the person hanged and pull the lever yourself. I don't think you can take something like that back."
"Was it you?", the General countered.
Piper's eyes doubled in size. "Goodness no."
"Then what I'm going to do to the person who tried to redo the end of the world isn't really your concern, is it?", the General pointed out. "Your job is journalism. I've just granted you access to keep the government responsible to the people. Do it."
The woman folded her arms. "Well, you said first. So I suppose there's a second."
The General shrugged. "Second, I'm going to go wash up and try to do something about this uniform. I've been inside of a tin can ever since I left.
"Third, Brandis. When I open my quarters I expect there to be every single colonel under my command waiting to debrief, is that clear?"
The old man shrugged. "I sent word to everyone. Zao's on his way here by boat. Shaw should be in the Castle already. Garvey should have hijacked a crew by now to get back here, especially now that you've returned. No idea about Desdemo...excuse me, code-named Desdemona."
"Alright. I'll see you shortly.", the General said.
When everyone walked back into the Castle and the vertibird was back in the sky, everyone but Piper split off from the General. The General gave her a questioning look. "You're the one that said I had full access. Let's see about washing the grime from being in the field off of you."
Blue rolled her eyes.
2
"Now that we're gathered...how much time do we have?", the General started.
The colonels were gathered around her table as they were usually wont to do. The General herself stood at the head while leaning on the table. Piper kept quiet in a chair in the corner of the office that served as the General's personal quarters.
"Before what?", Shaw asked.
Preston took up the baton. "If it's before the council arrives, maybe a day. Even with Minutemen offices in every community and direct contact with Radio Freedom, I had to spend every minute of your...what do you want me to call it? Absence? Mission? Reassuring every mayor in the Commonwealth that the Minutemen were stable enough to afford you going incognito.
"What were you thinking? General.", he finished.
"I was thinking that we were getting no where. So I...", the General started.
"I'm sorry. Ms. Wright, could you give us the room for thirty seconds? I have to discuss a military secret with my generals before we can continue."
The reporter smiled and shook her head. "No can do. I have full access until the investigation into the nuking of Gunner Plaza."
The General grit her teeth. Brandis spoke up, "You know you can just rescind that?"
"And it would be instantly worthless to extend.", the General admitted. "Fine.
"I had previously organized a strike team from our resources. I promoted MacCready to from sheriff to major and placed some of the hardiest residents of Far Harbor under his command and outfitted them as best they could request. I sent them on a disruption mission behind East Highway Line in order to try to collapse that front away from the Atom Cats Garage.
"And yes, it failed. But when they came in from out of the cold it was with intel that would have been valuable had I known it two days earlier.
"Between that and the Commonwealth's division not being capable of withstanding a Brotherhood of Steel assault, I thought to take matters into my own hands. I have before: considering the Institute or the Rust Devils. I set out with a series of custom designed synths in order to attempt what I sent MacCready in for."
"And how did that turn out?", Zao asked.
"I lost everyone in the field.", the General allowed. "Out of arrogance, I suppose. I'm swinging the entirety of the Minutemen at the Gunners and making the defense we are and then just say to myself 'but if I'm in the field, I'll Mistress of Mystery the whole war'. Couldn't have been more wrong if I tried."
"How did you manage to get behind the lines?", Shaw asked. "Everyone was looking for you, even with our Railroad representative trying to assure us that you had taken this up on your own."
"You don't know how many times Intelligence was accused of trying to form a coup by 'disappearing' you.", Desdmona commented. "The only thing that held that up was that no one believed we could take the Lone Survivor."
At that point, Piper pointed something out. "Wait a minute. I understood that caravans that had set out for the Capital Wastes after the war had started had made it back to the Commonwealth. What more of the Brotherhood of Steel is there? I mean, their presence here disappeared when the Prydwyn was blown out of the sky."
Everyone looked to the General. The woman sat back in her chair. "Desdemona?"
The Railroad commander shifted in her seat. "Intelligence caught a Brotherhood of Steel agent in the Commonwealth proper."
"You had solid evidence of Brotherhood interference and kept it under wraps?", the reporter reiterated.
"Yes, I did.", the General admitted. "The Commonwealth's population has heard too many easy victories. The Gunners seemed intractible. Fanning the flames of another power to fear...looked imprudent. So I ordered the Rail...Intelligence to keep the captured agent to themselves and tried to end the war with the Gunners myself.
"Who could have foreseen Gunner Plaza being nuked off the map? All our attentions were on threats posed to us, not the Gunner.
"And on that note: we're the largest threat the Gunners have faced. So I'm starting with some Minutemen contingent as my prime suspect."
The General took three identical devices from her coat. "Admiral, please explain to Ms. Wright what the functions of these are."
The ghoul nodded. "On board my Yangtze, there are functioning tactical nuclear missiles. They are the remainder of what were to be fired at the America during what is not called the Great War."
Piper's jaw dropped. Her pencil kept moving on her notes. But still...
"You have weapons from the Great War pointed at us.", she tried to understand.
"Not pointed.", he rasped. "The transmitters the General has displayed are homing beacons. The remaining missiles can only be launched by arming the transmitter and will use the transmitter itself as a target.
"When I agreed to aid the Commonwealth under the command of the General, I explicitly told her that she had these three mistakes before I would take my Yangtze, filled with what the Commonwealth provided, and leave for my homeland. As you can see by them all being intact here before you, she has not betrayed my confidence? No, expectations."
The General took over at that point. "Here's what's going to happen.
"Shaw: you're going to take Piper down to the armory and provide her a record of every MINI-NUKE taken in and show her that every single one is accounted for because none had better have gone out. And confirm that none of the road crews are armed with anything nuclear as well. In the meantime, have Hargrave get her a suit for radiation.
"Because afterwards you're taking her aboard your submarine, Admiral. You will show the reporter that all three of your missiles are in their tubes. And any thing else that's nuclear strike capable.
"I want every single possible nuclear capacity of the Minutemen to be shown to have not been used to Publick Occurences before the council gets here. And that can mean tomorrow. And let me be clear, this isn't a rubber stamp. I'm sending a civilian reporter because if there is any chicanery, I will consider attempting to deceive her a sign of guilt as much as a missing weapon.
"Am I understood?"
"Yes, ma'am.", the table chorused.
"Now that I think about it - Brandis. You've been trying to tell me about some project you've had going on before I even left. It have anything to do with anything of a nuclear capacity?"
"No, ma'am.", the man answered. "But now would be a good time to discuss/"
"Then it's on the back burner until I...we get to the bottom of this. I am not going to see a repeat of the end of the world. Ms. Wright, I suggest you see Shaw's attache about a RADIATION SUIT."
Piper stood and saluted sarcastically. Then she left the room.
"Alright, now with the reporter gone.", the General started. "In answer to you, Shaw. I got behind the lines because Vault 88 has two secret entrances that aren't its blast door. I used the one in University Point Pharmacy. The entrance itself is underground, hidden and protected by about five power doors and turrets in front of every one."
"And now for you guys. Was this one of you? No one wanted a war with a single entity to last this long. Red-Eye was a grade-A ass. Tell me if someone lost discipline while I was away."
"I don't think it was us, General.", Preston stated. "I mean, I don't see how it could be. I was with either a crew in an APC being driven to communities or talking with Mayors the whole time. Brandis is stationed with how many other personnel under Fort Hagen? Shaw's here at the Castle, and it's not exactly like she could load a MINI-NUKE into one of the artillery pieces. You just pointed out how Zao's weapons are under your direct authorization."
"Hm.", the General mused. "Alright. Then carry out my previous orders as regards to Ms. Wright. You only get a break if she requests some sleep. While she's doing that, Desdemona - I am coming with you and we are shaking down every safehouse you have. No arguments. A nuclear weapon went off in the Commonwealth. No arguments."
Desdemona leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. Her expression remained hidden behind the ASSAULT GAS MASK she wore around non Railroad members.
"And Brandis, you're not off the hook yet. I'm coming to Fort Hagen Hangar and I better like what I see. That includes things being in the state they are in now, because if I get there and everything is shiny like it's been gone over before I get there..."
