1

"Are we ready to do this?", the General asked.

She stood before the door of Vault 75. The turrets (laser, shotgun, and even missile) stood as a backdrop. The Minuteman in power armor handed her a microphone attached to one of the ham radios that had been scavenged to coordinate her APC force. He then gave her a thumbs up.

"Captain Bridget of ex-Gunner occupied Vault 75.", she started. "This is the General of the Minutemen. The war between the Gunners and the Minutemen can be over. Or it can last until the end of time. If it does continue, allow me to explain how it will.

"None of you are leaving Vault 75. Ever. Not you, not your men, no one. Your only exit has more firepower pointed at it than is even polite. But considering how few Vault-Tec employees are among your number and that your band is made of mercenaries and not engineers, or hydroponics farmers, or even doctors I doubt you could even keep your door closed forever with no hope of resupply.

"The other option is that the war is over. All that is left to do is to discuss the terms of the Gunners' surrender. I would very much like to do that with you, someone who realizes how wasteful this conflict has been. If I must find someone else, I suppose I could find that person among the prisoners of war we've taken from Eastern and Western Highway Lines.

" Should you choose to talk to me, announce yourself in a manner that we can avoid annihilating you. We will then accept your unarmed and singular presence.

"Please respond. Over."

And with that, the General handed the microphone back to the Minuteman. He piloted his power armor to take up the radio and flee back to the lines of soldiers surrounding the turrets.

Minutes passed.

Eventually the door that could withstand point blank nuclear blasts retracted and rolled aside. On the other side, a single woman held a MISSILE LAUNCHER at the ready.

The General called out, "I'm certain that if you hand over the weapon, it will be easier to for the automated weapons to dismiss you as a threat."

The Gunner set down her launcher and called out. "Can you hear me from here?"

"Sure."

Bridget nodded. "So why do you think the war is over? It's not like you could take this position."

"That has an answer and a question.", she replied.

"The answer is that Gunner Plaza has been nuked off the map. Both fronts of the war instantly collapsed without resupply and direction. The entirety of the Commonwealth is back under Minutemen control with the possible exception of Vault 95 and...well, yours.

"The question that goes along with it is thus: did the Gunners have nuclear capabilities?"

Captain Bridget sneered back audibly. "Gunner Plaza was incinerated and you're asking us if we had a nuclear weapon!"

"That I am.", the General assured. "Because if it was an accident and the perpetrators are at best dust, it robs me of the opportunity to provide justice to whomever would use one of those weapons again. But if that is the case, then I still have to know. The world needs for me to not do what I am going to do to someone innocent if the criminal is beyond my reach."

"The only way you're going to dispense anything is if you beat me to it.", the Gunner warned.

The General gestured around her. "I think I will. After all, I'm out here."

She snapped her fingers and the surrounding turrets focused on Bridget.

"And you're in there."

"They were my people and you're telling me they died in a fire they couldn't fight against!", the Gunner screamed.

She took a breath. Well, several actually. "Look, I need to... Let's cut a deal."

"You must have mistaken me for a used car salesman.", the General stated.

"What?"

"I am not in the business of deal making.", the General explained. "Neither am I looking for alliances, particularly with any entity that can raise a threat to the Commonwealth.

"There is a Japanese phrase - Asking politely only works when you have the upper hand. I am a general. Which means that I command forces to eliminate threats. So I will ask you politely. What are you?

"Or should some of my descendants come back and knock on this door in a thousand years and ask impolitely?"

Bridget pursed her lips. "Well, we ain't civilians."

2

The ability to turn nothing into something, scrap it into nothing and then rebuild it that the denizens of the Commonwealth regularly showed still amazed the General. Nearly the exact same setup from the ceremony before the adoption of the Commonwealth's constitution had sprung up in the Castle courtyard. There were a few extra places on stage and Diamond City Radio did not have a presence. But otherwise the same.

The General walked up to the podium. "Esteemed Colonels. Representatives of the people of the Commonwealth. And everyone listening at home. I am here today to announce what seems like the first good news in a long time. And while there are ongoing issues that I can assure everyone that I will get to the bottom of, I am not going to delay good news.

"The first. Three hours ago, Vault 95 reported in as Minutemen cleared. The complete disbandment of all Gunner units have been accounted. And the Minutemen are in possession of all previously Gunner held equipment, including remaining tank and assaultrons. This completes the terms demanded by the Minutemen of the surviving Gunner forces in their surrender. At noon today, the war will officially be entered into history as over and a thing of the past."

The audience of Commonwealth delegates actually cheered in unison for once. Preston attempted to contain his smile at the General, then noticed she was not containing hers. He shifted his head questioning her expression. The woman let out an exasperated sigh, pulled him from his seat and recreated one of the most famous pictures of the second world war - a sailor and a nurse, in the middle of a street celebrating all to themselves. When she let them take a breath, she warned him softly. "Don't expect a habit of it."

The General turned back to the microphone and spoke over the crowd. "I know at this time, I am supposed to lament the horrors of war. I am supposed to call for all people, everywhere to seek out and support peace at all costs.

"But we all know the event that ended this war. And what the necessary response in order to protect the Commonwealth from a repetition of that event may entail. And considering the publicly available, independent reports of the Minutemen's internal review as well as the increasingly completed local investigations, that response is becoming more and more likely. Even the complete cataloguing of the Gunner's previous abilities and equipment has not given up a culprit.

"Therefore, I am forced to introduce another colonel to our ranks."

Now clad in a COLONIAL DUSTER, Colonel Bridget walked out from the wall of the Castle and onto the stage.

The General softly clapped her hands until everyone else followed suit. "Colonel call-sign Bridget will be commanding the Minutemen's Marine Corps. This branch will be used for the most difficult tasks and only against threats to the Commonwealth. Let me reiterate, the people acting as Minutemen in an official capacity in communities and settlements are not members of this corp. They are only to be unleashed upon enemies of the Commonwealth as a whole and cannot interact with individual citizens in any official capacity. Hence, just as the Intelligence branch has its own regulations, so does the corps.

"While Colonel Bridget has approval over every individual that will serve under her command, so does the Colonel of Personnel, currently veteran Minutemen Preston Garvey. The role of shock troop requires a very particular type of individual. That does not excuse misbehavior, and every one of these individuals is documented and held accountable by the Minutemen through Colonel Garvey's office. Agregious criminals are banned from such service in any position within the Minutemen.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, I gotta question.", Hancock called out. "Who the hell does she think she is that she can lead a shock troop division."

Colonel Bridget rolled up the sleeves on her duster and was immediately ordered to stand down by the General. "She has served as commanding officer of a mercenary outpost for a number of years. Also, I have witnessed her ability on the battlefield to lead a large unit through hostile territory with haste to secure objectives in the open."

Kessler stood up. "You've made it readily apparent that you're going to apprehend whomever launched on Gunner Plaza. Do you really think it's necessary to establish an entire mercenary unit to do so? I mean, we haven't even celebrated the defeat of the Gunners."

Bridget looked to the General. The woman gestured to the podium.

The colonel took up her place at the microphone. "The corps is a weapon to be wielded in defense of the Commonwealth, and not lightly nor on a whim. As previously stated, if this attack was done by a Commonwealth citizen then the corps would be forbidden by Minutemen regulation to interfere and any information regarding such a person would be passed on to the Minutemen units that could apprehend the...suspected criminal.

"Any mercenary aspect of the corps is merely symbolic, in a ceremonial single cap per annum retainer and any singular reward for valorous service also to be displayed in the corps headquarters at Vault 95. Its members are just as much standing duty Minutemen. Being stationed at Vault 95 is only to aid in the corps's responsibility to not interact with the Commonwealth's citizenry in an official Minutemen capacity.

"However. If this was an attack by an outside force, whether that is comprised of super mutants or a raider group that has gone absolutely rabid then hear this. The corps was not formed to be the accommodating, rush to help, friendly, neighborhood Minutemen that the Commonwealth's citizenry relies on on a daily basis.

"We send souls to the underworld. The corp that has been built is very good at that job but now will be acting with the full backing of the Minutemen.

"And whomever chose to recreate a taste of the Great War in the present should savor that taste. Because I do not believe that the phrase is 'The Devil provides'."