"So that's what Old Man Stockton offers.", the Lone Wanderer finished her story...well outside of the town of Cantebury Commons.
Butcher pointed out, "Well, the obvious question is whether or not we can trust him."
And for the first time in a long time, the normally quiet Charon objected. "That is an irrelevant question.
"He is telling the truth. So we get licenses and do not believe him. While obtaining brahmin and trader garb, we check those licenses against others to ensure they are legitimate. We confirm the licenses, pack up our gear as 'trading goods', and use our disguises to infiltrate the Commonwealth. At any moment, we could be in a fire fight with the Minutemen or this Institute or every danger of the waste or any number of bounty hunters thinking that they are going to be lucky.
"Or he is lying. So we get licenses and do not believe him. While obtaining brahmin and trader garb...you see where I am going with this?
"If our actions do not change based on whether he is honest or scamming us, then it does not matter if we trust him."
Fawkes stroked his chin. "I disagree."
The ghoul looked to him. "How do our actions change?"
The super mutant shook his head. "Initially, not so much. With the possible exception that we kill Stockton. On one hand, we keep him from signalling that his scheme was successful so that the Minutemen do not know that we are on our way. On the other, we lose out on any pay he may have given us that wasn't up front and his mere death may signal to the Minutemen that we are on our way and know their plan.
"But afterwards, if we trust him then we can trust the path to the Commonwealth he sends us on. We can trust his information about the locals. Setting up a base of operations in the Commonwealth, should we need to, becomes much easier.
"If we think he's lying, we'll have to surprise the Minutemen enough that they can't identify Reilly's Rangers as the caravan we will be pretending to be."
Reilly nodded. "But we probably should be doing that anyway. And while we can cover Charon up and then have someone use the same disguise themselves, I can't imagine that there are so many civilized super mutants that we won't instantly blow our cover taking you with us no matter how useful you'll be in the getting us there."
Fawkes touched his nose. "But someone will have to remain behind anyway. The Brotherhood of Steel is still our client. Someone needs to inform them of the work we've failed at and this new long term mission."
The Lone Wanderer put her hand to her face. "The Brotherhood still hasn't moved on their policy about ghouls enough to prevent Tenpenny Tower or Underworld. There's no way that Reilly's colors alone are going to let you get the direct contact you need with the Brotherhood."
"So we're down two men?", Butcher asked. "In the most hostile territory we've ever been in?"
Donavan added. "What about Stockton? If he finds out that we're leaving people behind to spread word about what he's doing, why won't he confess to the Minutemen in exchange for leniency? We'll be extra screwed if that happens because we won't even know when our cover is blown."
"So were' not down two men?", Butcher reassessed. "We're just screwing over the Brotherhood of Steel."
The Lone Wanderer pitched in. "We screw this up: Stockton's going to be put into that position anyway."
Butcher just sighed.
Reilly took control. "Charon's right. We're going to do it anyway. We can only mitigate the dangers.
"We take Stockton up on his offer: get the licenses, paid up front and then split.
"What we don't tell him is that we head back to headquarters. Considering how long we've been gone, we may have to retake it. But given that, we leave Fawkes holding down the fort. We pack up everything we can into our trade caravan disguise and even Stockton won't be able to describe us.
"Then we head to the Commonwealth. And if any target looks juicy, we take it. These so called community representatives, Minutemen production, whatever. Anything that makes the General pull back forces to the Commonwealth and out of the Capital Wastes. We can cut and run back here any time if our cover holds. And if it doesn't, then finding out this mystery of why the General is working with some Institute isn't going to help us. And it's not like Stockton can out us without revealing he was the one that set us upon the Commonwealth in the first place."
