The General sat in an APC. Across from her sat Colonel Bridget and Colonel Zao.

"You've seen the channels dug?", the General asked.

The ghoul nodded. "If there was environment remained to destroy, I may have protested this mission. But we are given the state of the world as it is. The concern becomes whether our hastily made canals will allow your new submarine to make open water before they erode and collapse. They will if we hurry."

Colonel Bridget asked, "What do you mean by 'hurry'?"

The ghoul shrugged. "Every tide that goes out will carry some of the canal structure with it. Too much goes out to sea and it will collapse. Their walls are only dirt and dug for this one time use."

"Which means we're going to have to seize this submarine from the Children of the Atom pronto.", the woman acknowledged.

The General appeared wary. "If you don't think you can do it, now is the very last chance to tell me."

Bridget gritted her teeth. "Oh, we can do it. My...concern is your concern about hurting the Children."

"Either they did not do anything to us. And I'm taking from them. Granted, it's an untold danger to the world. So I am resolved in placing that danger into the care of more responsible and knowledgeable people. But there is already enough injustice in that. There's no reason to compound it. And we're courting war with this action anyway.", the General explained.

"Or they've already shown how dedicated they are to the spread of their glow.", Bridget objected. "This cult spreads radiation and would gladly see us all poisoned, with tumors too big to lift. They've already attacked their neighbors on this island, sabotaging the fog collectors. And we're here to take one of the biggest sources of Atom's glow that they know. We're going to have to seize the submarine by force and face them, not on the battlefield but in the middle of the night, if we leave them alive."

The General turned to Zao. "The People's Republic had its own ways of preventing religions from getting out of hand. The Children of Atom is the type of problem that was meant to be prevented rather than solved."

"Fine.", the General conceded. "As soon as we're engaged this is more than likely to turn from a police action into full scale urban warfare in an enemy territory. But I've walked among them. I've...had one of their experiences. They aren't bad people. Well, maybe High Confessor Tektus."

"So it's just their leadership that's garbage?", Colonel Bridget reminisced. "I can relate.

"No offense. Ma'am. I had meant/"

The General held up her hand to interrupt. The other woman continued.

"But what about this? We run it like a kidnapping raid without the kidnapping."

The others turned to her. "What?"

"When Gunners would grab a person, and important part was grabbing them in a way that was useful. You could still get info out of them. You could still ransom them back. They basically had to be in tip top shape. So we had a step by step process to extract a target.

"So we do that to the whole base. On one hand, there's a lot more people to grab. But that's the only problem once the door's open.

"On the other hand: We've got numbers as well. And by taking the Nucleus, we don't even have to move them anywhere. My people have the skills to keep from harming non-combatants because of those kidnapping ops. We can take the place and keep any civvies heads down.

"The problem is that I don't see us not setting off hostilities. Because we're going have to shoot every combatant dead until we reach the target - that's how a kidnapping op tends to go. And if we use those protocols, the only way not to start a war is because we've killed off too many of their combatants."

The General frowned. "This is exactly what we used to have less than lethals for."

"I suppose a BASIC LASER PISTOL can be less than lethal if the target is armored enough.", Bridget said. "But I wouldn't place a bet on that."

"I know what you mean.", the General agreed. "I tried to count on that once before. But the place I used it on was fully stocked with STIMPACKS and a robot to start the healing. While Grand Zealot Richter has his zealots marked up in graffiti tagged marine gear, the Children of Atom stockpile big yellow barrels of radiation - not medicine."

Zoa spoke. "But does not the Commonwealth produce. And are we not carrying stockpiles? And since the war with the Gunners has been won and we have not ordered a decrease in production..."

"I like what you're thinking, Admiral.", the General conceded.

Bridget nodded. "Alright, I think I get it. Me and my people grab every Gunner POWER ARMOR FRAME and Assaultron we brought up to form the front. We rush in. Civvies get tagged by the marines following behind us. The front uses basics to bring down these zealots one after another and sits on them. We stim 'em back to health. When the second string catches up, they truss them up with the civvies.

"We get light casualties on both sides by hitting heavy but soft. We take full control of the Nucleus. If you want to let these people live after the fact, you can diplomacy all you want - provided all their nuclear missiles haven't been fired. But most importantly, we get that submarine out of the hands of a community that isn't in the Commonwealth and can go over it with a fine tooth comb. To make sure that their missiles haven't been fired.

"Admiral?"

The ghoul nodded. "Once the base is secure and the bay is opened to water, I will bring my people in and take command of the submarine.

"However. I am only going to see to her seaworthiness at this point. We will be in hostile territory, even if every child said another thing. If she can even float on the surface at a single knot, I am taking her out to sea. And if she cannot, then I will only seek to do the repairs needed to move her. Once the nuclear reactor, missiles and anything else she might be carrying is out of the way of any...is it sabotage? Only then will I seek out the truths of any ICBM."

Bridget furrowed her brow. "ICBM?"

Zoa nodded. "Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. It is what the Americans called their weapons. Each had the potential to deliver a payload of nuclear bombs in a cluster to any sky on the globe they were based on.

"And that why the examination is so important, as well as an understanding and for talk. Gunner Plaza does not appear to be the fault of these people given the information that has been given to me. Gunner Plaza was a single plume of smoke from the sky. Also, a single target was hit. If the Children of Atom had access to a pre-war American ICBM, then there should be wide spread damage. Another idea is that they used a smaller, more tactical missile. That would indeed have been a much more precise attack. And this boat could have been carrying either or both. We will not know until we find out."

Bridget asserted. "So your money is on somebody else."

Zoa remained silent.

"Just do your jobs.", the General ordered. "Zoa, get the submarine out of there. Bridget, if you can leave me someone to make peace with, it would be appreciated."