1

"So that's what she told me.", the Lone Wanderer stated.

"Hold up, 101." Reilly tried to wrap her mind around what she just learned. "We're supposed to believe that the Brotherhood of Steel launched a pre-war nuclear weapon from Edwards Air Force base - here in the Capital Wastes - and actually hit something in the Commonwealth. Is that even possible?"

101 considered that. The Rangers sat in a circle considering her over the make shift picnic they held with the supplies she brought out of Rivet City. The story was crazy. But so were this war lord's actions: she was even eating fresher food than she had in a long time due to the General bringing crop harvests from the Commonwealth.

"When I was in school, history showed that capabilities like that existed pre-war. Firing nukes long distances, even around the planet. It's how the world got blown up in the first place. And then, at Edwards, the Brotherhood had me call down a missile attack from a platform in outer space.", she explained.

Charon stared at her. "Where's outer space?"

The woman looked at him yet again in pity for his conditioning. "You know we breathe the air? That only goes so high up. After that is just nothing until you reach the next planet or star or something. So in that outer space, people used to fly things because there was no drag to slow them down and they would just go around the world forever."

Charon looked to Faukes. "Huh. Weird."

Faukes had no such sympathies. "Do you think she really believes this?", he asked in a booming supermutant voice. "Or is she simply claiming to in order to justify her actions?"

"When was the last warlord that claimed to be a servant?", the Lone Wanderer countered. "If the Commonwealth is actually run by a council of towns like she claims, then we are well and truly screwed."

"How's that?", Reilly asked. "We know she's in charge. We get her, this all scatters no matter how many of them there are."

"No, it won't.", the other woman told her. "If she's working for a civilian government despite being command of its forces, that means they're back to a system of checks and balances. She probably has a known successor that won't be anywhere near her except in the most secure of places. They may even expect her to step down after just time, and promote someone else to her place. And she has the support of multiple towns working directly for her. Imagine a Brotherhood of Steel that was also being fed by every town from Tenpenny Towers to the Republic of Dave."

"So what's our move?", Reilly asked.

"Well, as the Rangers, our client wanted us to find out what's going on.", 101 reminded. "So I'm going back in. I'll feel her out some more if she's still there and didn't just leave Bridget in charge. She should be since she's trying to coax the Rivet City Council into voluntarily joining the Commonwealth."

Butch objected. "Voluntarily? But she's got them locked down with troops."

"I know, right?", the Lone Wanderer surmised. "She says things like 'consent of the governed' and 'containing threats' in the same breath.

"Either way, I still have to back and change out of this vault suit and back into something that'll survive out here. I'll try to bring more supplies, even if it's just to show Rothschild when we report and get paid."

And with that the woman rolled over her back to her feet, brushed herself off and strode back to the gangway to Rivet City.

2

She walked into the museum, re-clad in her CHINESE STEALTH SUIT. The Lone Wanderer was certain that was why there were so many of the so-called Commonwealth Marines following her. It was in the Capital Preservation Society's museum that she found the General, standing next to a man fully covered in a bright white (even cleaner than a Vault's uniform inside a vault) suit holding a small weapon pointed at the displayed documents.

"What's going on?", the Lone Wanderer demanded as she stormed toward the General.

While the marines started readying their weapons, Abraham Washington stepped directly in her path. "The General is able to appreciate these artifacts better than any of us, as she comes to us from pre-war times. She was gracious enough to have her...Institute, was it? friend record them with his video camera."

The Lone Wanderer stopped in her tracks. She scoffed in Abraham's face. "She has a working video camera?"

"The Institute manufacturers them.", the General called out without turning away from the displayed documents. She acted as if she could not take her eyes off them. "They are very reluctant to share their technical ability. However, I was able to convince them of the value of recreating a record of these documents even though it's just for historical purposes at this point.

"Please excuse us, V8-22."

The 'man' in the 'suit' nodded and quietly walked a considerable distance away.

"I apologize if it appeared that we were doing something harmful.", the General said while still facing the papers adorning the wall.

The Lone Wanderer looked back to the marines, who still held a number of what she thought were laser rifles pointed at her. But those too were in pristine condition. A wave of the General's hand and the weapons were lowered. They did not leave, however.

"And that's important to you?", the Lone Wanderer asked.

"How do you say, 'Harrumph'.", the General replied. "You want to pass that question off as if asking soley about the paper on the wall. What you mean for me to hear is the question on whether or not causing harm is important. You know that the real question is about the appearance: actually asking if I'm just putting on a show.

"I'm beginning to believe that I've had a better education than you, despite your Vault-Tec curriculum."

"I passed my G.O.A.T.s with nearly any job I wanted available."

"I have Ph.D. in law.", the General confirmed.

"The Constitution. I have no reason to doubt that that is the original. I once saw it when visiting the capitol as a child. But it was under so much of a safe that the bullet proof, laser defracting glass was so thick that it took using it as a lens to create the optical illusion that its armor was only a few inches thick. But I suppose a nuclear bomb would have shaved some of that armor off. Hence, it's presence here.

"But that's the original. Our country...my country, changed it so many times. Not just the Bill of Rights but so many other ammendments: Prohibition and its repeal, when to elect officials...But the most important, I feel, is the ban on slavery.

"Tell me. Are there slavers in the Capitol Wastes?"

The Lone Wanderer shifted on her feet. "Paradise Falls."

"Eulogy Jones.", the General snapped. "I will not blame a place for the actions of people."

The other woman turned to her.

At this, the General finally faced her. "When I left my vault, it was because my only son had been kidnapped and my husband shot. The thing that buffered my mind against the horror of this apocalyptic world was a deeply rooted need for revenge and a desparate need to rescue my child. Three raider gangs saw what I could do and offered me an ever growing army to shove down the throats of the people who had taken my son. My son!

"And they were slavers. But I was there. And now there are no longer Operators or Disciples or Pack, only dead raiders. There are no slaves. What is left is a free settlement of Nuka World. It's probably going to make full fledged community in the Commonwealth even before my home of Sanctuary Hills.

"I understand that you don't know how to deal with me. You were raised in what I would think of as a small but you would think of as a thriving community. There was a semblance of order and everyone outside your vault was a horror. One of the Commonwealth's communities is Vault 81. They were the same way. But I Am. Not. From. Here. I'm not born of these raider packs and people from each other behind walls.

"And I won't have it. This world is destroyed, by the mistakes of mankind and by people like the Brotherhood of Steel. And with their surrender, they are just another raider gang. And with the Capitol Wastes now being Commonwealth territory, I will do every thing I can to free its peoples from such a threat.

"What confuses me is you."

The Lone Wanderer shook her head. "Me?"

"Dr. Madison Lee worked with your father on Project Purity."

The woman demanded, "How do you know that?"

The General took in a breath. "I'm not at liberty to say. As I've said before, I'm not in charge. What I do know is that Madison left because the Brotherhood of Steel was, and by all accounts still is, using Project Purity as a weapon of war not a tool of repairing the world. And even then, it was after the Brotherhood had abandoned the scientists working on it until it became a target of their enemy...this Enclave?

"What is going on in Rivet City? Is it like this all over the Capitol Wastes? Has that tape jockey Three Dog some kind of subliminal tech that doesn't allow people to see the Brotherhood of Steel for the fascist cartel that they are? Because if I can't convince you, someone who has lost everything to the Brotherhood of Steel and has still served them to the point of becoming one of their Knights, then how can I convince the rest of the population?"

The Lone Wanderer replied. "They've spoken with their actions. You've taken over a city and told me that it's freedom."

A silence hung in the air.

For some time.

"You're free to leave. I see you've packed for it, Lone Wanderer.", the General stated.

"Am I also free to stay?", she asked.

The General smirked. "Please."

"Well.", the Lone Wanderer decided. "Reilly's waiting on these supplies, so I guess I should push on out."