1

"You might take one, but no pound can hold all three - it's Three Dog! Putting flavor in your ears so your BLAMCO MAC AND CHEESE tastes like something other than fizzy radiation and carnal misery.

"Here's an update on Rivet City.

"Now, we've all heard of towns going dark before. Supermutants, raiders, hell...giant ants. But this just might be a first. You see, a warlord that goes by the name of 'the General' has taken over the town. And sources say, she's packing quite the arsenal. And not just your usual fare of laser and HUNTING RIFLEs. No, she's bringing vertibirds and APCs along with her marine corps.

"So far, the residents of that old ship are getting food and water. And with so many hostages, our boys in power armor haven't exactly been chomping at the bit to rush in. The Brotherhood of Steel is mustering troops in the area, but it looks like artillery posts are being built on top of Rivet City itself. So we're looking at one of the biggest stand-offs to hit the Capitol Wastes since Raven Rock vs. the Citadel. But remember who came out on top then, boys and girls."

2

Major MacCready looked out at his strike force. They were hidden but only as much as they could be in their MARINE ARMOR against the exceedingly concrete backdrop of the Capitol Wastes. Where mutated plants had evolved and not all of the paint had faded away and interesting patterns of rust colored the landscape of the Commonwealth, the Capitol Wastes were a uniform delapidated shade of grey until it fell into a bland sea of sandy brown.

And that made their targets that much more camoflauged. Perhaps when the T-60 armor pieces were new, they were shiny enough to stand out. But after untold centuries of use and repair and damage (oh, so much damage), the Brotherhood of Steel blended into this concrete jungle way too well. That's why MacCready had told his team to keep their distance. Yes, they were expecting the Brotherhood to be at the site they were set to take. But picking out the yellow FUSION COREs that powered the armor was not something one could do in the heat of a running fire fight.

So they waited.

MacCready pulled his trigger first. Before he had even let go, his people had all fired on their targets. FUSION CORES started to leak and heat up dangerously. Just like they were trained to, the Brotherhood of Steel popped out of their armors and used them for shielding against the blast. After those explosions cleared, they sought to re-equip but it was too late.

"You can either consider yourself under arrest for violating the terms of the surrender of the Brotherhood of Steel.", MacCready offered to the unarmed people his men held at gunpoint. "Or I can start stripping dead bodies of holotags. Your choice."

"Steel be with us!" blam

"Dammit, it wasn't supposed to be a choice.", MacCready told the survivors. "Now whoever thinks they're in charge better tell the others to stand down."

The man he was covering spoke up. "Uh, she had the highest seniority. Because she had the most dedication to the cause."

"Move.", the Major spat. They forced all of the survivors into the back of the camp site. "This deep into downtown, the noise has to have drawn some muties. Once we survive the wave of them, we can get the job the General sent us on done."

And again, MacCready had made the right call. Green hulking giants saw opened, unmanned power armors and immediately rushed. But they rushed into a hail of sniper fire that only the Far Harbor islanders that comprised his unit could lay down. Soon, MacCready's people had secured the objective having killed only supermutants. Sure they may have used a bit more RAD AWAY and STIMPACKS than they had expected because of one of the Brotherhood's stupidity? bravery? Audacity. But with her healing and everyone drinking the Brotherhood's AQUA FORTIS, this mission was going as right as what he was told rain used to be.

The Major looked up at the Washington Monument which he was now at the base of. "You got all of the equipment Radio Freedom prepped."

"Well, I go what he gave me. He said it was a Railroad guy in a crazy hat who rigged it. But we ran through the instructions for plugging it into the transmitter together, over and over."

MacCready activated the elevator. "Well, let's put it to work."

3

"People of the Capitol Wastes.

"Although this is the first time hearing my voice, I am sure you know me through the lies that have been told about me. I am the General of the Minutemen. We are an organization of volunteers that come to the aid of settlements 'at a minutes notice', just like the Minutemen of yore. While I may have been one of the many people responsible for rebuilding the trust between the communities we protect and the capacity we have become, my colleagues and I serve on the behalf of the civilian government of the Commonwealth. That's right - I am no warlord. I am a public servant of a government by the people, for the people.

"The Brotherhood of Steel fired a nuclear missile on us, one of the weapons of the Great War. This is not the first crime these fascists who answer to no one but their own cults have committed against us. They've stolen technology from whomever they thought they were stronger than, often by force. Because they only take, they have sought to intimidate farms into enslavement. I'm certain that all of you are just as familiar with the Brotherhood's actions as we are. The difference is that we have pushed to failure three of their invasions against our civilian populace.

"The people, just like you, who are in my care cannot wait for a fourth invasion or another of the horrific, civilization destroying weapons of the past. After the last invasion, the elder's of the Brotherhood personal forces were made to surrender. No more will civilians be made to shoulder their oppressions or their atrocities.

"I am sorry that the Brotherhood has inflicted upon you such conditions that you refer to the land where you live and raise your children as 'Wastes'. We have come to repair the damage that the Brotherhood has caused. Rivet City now has its own separate source of clean water, independent upon itself, for the first time with no reliance on any outside force - neither The Minutemen that provided the source or the Brotherhood that tried to keep them dependent. While, working with us we expect that Rivet City will become the same for food, the Commonwealth through the Minutemen are sharing our carefully budgeted abundance of both food and medicine with all the people we can reach.

"According to the terms of the Brotherhood's surrender to civilian ruled forces, they were no longer supposed to hold you like this. In fact, their whole gang was supposed to be disbanded. But outright treachery is just another tool of an oppressor. This may slow our ability to aid or even rescue you. But it does not stop our determination nor our collective abilities.

"Civilian communities that have no Brotherhood presence and are welcoming to join in a peaceful, future focused cause are the ones most likely to meet us first and find out all we have to offer whether its simply needed medical care or a loftier goal of protecting citizens and their rights. Those that the Brotherhood of Steel's remaining insurgents have hidden themselves within in order to extort even more in their last days: know that we are on our way and that the Minutemen have not forgotten you."

4

It was nightfall before the team noticed the Brotherhood's response. Fortunately, the Institute's rifles could be affixed with the very latest in scope technology. Slowly but surely, every member of Reilly's Rangers could be accounted for. There were no power armor clad knights in the cordon that was being set around them.

Then a voice proved that not every one under those colors were accounted for. "You're completely surrounded. Throw down your weapons and release your hostages."

"We don't have any hostages!", MacCready called back out to the voice he was certain sounded familiar. "Only criminals who are under arrest for perfidy."

"And when we rush your position to kill all of you?", the voice called out. "They aren't going to come to harm to prevent our actions?"

Then it clicked. "Mungo?"

Less than a shadow poked its head out from one of the pillars holding the gate at the entrance to the Washington Monument's base site. "MacCready? Robert, is that you?"

"Yeah. Yes, it is." MacCready licked his lips. "Look, maybe we can talk something out. You stand down your guys, I stand down my guys. We talk - just you and me."

There was a slight pause. "I'm coming in armed.", the Lone Wanderer replied.

"Dammit, mungo.", MacCready cursed. "Just you. Just me. We meet outside the gate."

"Fine. Kid.", she accepted.

After a few minutes of rushed instructions, the two met outside what was once the Brotherhood of Steel's campsite. The woman nearly disappeared into the night in her CHINESE STEALTH SUIT despite it being deactivated and her mask off. She smiled a bit too brightly at the man who now stood a head taller than her.

"So you went off to the Commonwealth.", she surmised.

MacCready felt like he was thirteen again, but a real thirteen and not the mayor of Little Lamplight that had to put up such a gruff exterior to be taken seriously. He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, the little boy of Lucy and me fell sick with something. We learned that the only thing that could cure him was up in the Commonwealth."

"Lucy.", the Lone Wanderer acknowledged. "Lucy, huh. And not Princess? And here I thought all little boys acted like that with girls they liked."

MacCready rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised if Princess was returned to sender by slavers and supermutants.

"But before we get everyone else jumpy because we're wasting time reminiscing. What are we going to do here?"

The Lone Wanderer nodded. "Look, your merc team cut Three Dog off the air, MacCready."

"Two things.", MacCready stated.

"First off, we're not a merc team. It's Major MacCready of the Special Forces. We're in the chain of command answering to a civilian government. Now I had fallen in with some real troublesome mercs when I got to the Commonwealth, I'm not going to lie. But the General herself got me out of it. She set me up guarding civilians and taking civilian orders. The Commonwealth doesn't even have mercenaries any more and everything is handled by the Minutemen. In fact, once the General gets through bringing everyone on board down here, I don't think Talon Company is going to exist. Reilly - she should think long and hard about hyping up the branding of her Rangers as explorers more than a combat unit. Nearly everyone has orders to put down any Lyon's Pride members that can't be taken into custody if they're still flying colors.

"The second thing is that you know just as well as I do that Three Dog is a Brotherhood puppet."

The woman objected. "Three Dog isn't censored."

"Who said anything about censoring?", MacCready replied just as fiercely. "He was vehemently anti-Enclave. He's protected by, fueled by and surrounded by heavily armed Brotherhood of Steel members at all times. There's no need for him to be censored. He's actually a tool for them - that's why he sounds so sincere.

"The General is just big on making sure everyone gets their say. Hell, I expect she'll demand that Three Dog stay on the air after this is all under Commonwealth control just to be certain that there's some form of free press in operation."

The Lone Wanderer raised an eyebrow. "So you're trying to tell me that the General of the marines that took over Rivet City/"

"Oh, she's not the general of the marines.", MacCready corrected. At the Lone Wanderer's stare, he explained. "Colonel call-sign Bridget is the leader of the entire Marine Corps, some of which are securing Rivet City. There are other colonels of other top level concerns like Brandis who's lent some of the elements of Motorpool and Preston of Personnel. There's a lot of different corps in the Minutemen now, just due to its sheer size of operation. The General is in command of them all."

She let out a quick breath and started speaking quickly and firmly. "So you're trying to tell me that she sent a hit squad to attack a power armor guarded site and take the only news source in the entire Capitol Wastes offline just to plead a case?"

He shrugged. "She was a lawyer. You know, before the bombs."

The Lone Wanderer face palmed. "Look/"

"No, wait, you look.", MacCready cut off. He sucked on his lower lip a bit and then spat out an offer. "Give us until midnight. The General just really wants her piece said to the people. You give us until midnight, we'll clean out of here and leave the transmitter. You can set up Three Dog again. Once the Commonwealth gets operational control of the area, Three Dog and the government'll have the conversation they need to have if any."

"You'll leave the hostages?", the Lone Wanderer asked.

"Mungo...", the young man replied. "They're criminals. They all are. The Brotherhood surrendered. And now they're trying to have it both ways."

"You'll leave the hostages.", the Lone Wanderer did not ask.

"We take the power armor. You keep the people.", MacCready offered.

She continued. "Are they harmed?"

"We had to use a few STIMPACKS to get them back up shape. And they know they've been in another fight they can't win.", he man pointed out.

"And neither can you. If I'm thinking correctly, behind you is a contingent of knights in power armor in case you fail at making sure the Capitol Wastes keeps hearing how great your bunch are. But if this signal goes out without an explanation, there's going to be a vertibird fleet with other support behind it that comes for us. And in that, there might not be a Washington Monument or transmitter left. But if all my people are able to tell commanders that the message went out for everyone to hear, it might be a different story."

The Lone Wanderer folded her arms. MacCready knew his people were going to wonder why he even acted like she was on somehow even footing with him. On the other hand, he had seen her in action before. Maybe the memories were exaggerated because he was a child. But between her sword and her suit and her skill that was apparently handed down through her family since before even coming to the continent, let alone the Great War, this small woman could become a monster or a phantom and all without warning.

For her part, she thought. MacCready had to understand that it was the Brotherhood that sent Reilly's Rangers out here. But every time she encountered someone from the Commonwealth, they spoke as if the Rangers were an independent agent...which was only technically true. A few more soldiers added to the inevitable fighting probably would not make a difference. No matter how the Capitol Wastes regarded her, the Commonwealth had to have its own champions. But things had not deteriorated into shooting, yet. Not even Rivet City as far as she knew. She had heard about the mustering the Brotherhood did at Project Purity and there was an immediate 'test' of the newly installed artillery of the marines on a supermutant camp just to make a point. As long as she did not start the shooting, Reilly's colors would be a pass - maybe not a free pass but a pass all the same - when it came to the Commonwealth elsewhere. She could not give that up quite yet.

"You have a deal, major.", the Lone Wanderer told him. "You have your people start packing now. You clear out at midnight. You leave the transmitter and the hos...prisoners here."

"Deal.", he man replied.

The woman stepped backwards into the darkness, pulled her cowl back on, and nearly disappeared before his eyes.

MacCready went back to his people. "Alright, start packing."

"Finally.", one the islanders said. "We were supposed to be out of here by sunset to avoid an assault."

"Yeah, but I got us until midnight, so mission successful in my book."