1

The vertibird hovered over the staging area of Canterbury Commons for a brief moment. When it landed, a woman in Colonel Bridget's uniform only blue disembarked along with two more Minutemen. The Minutemen in town officially went about their business, even the gate guard, no matter how obvious they were paying attention to the presence of this new woman that Bridget had run up to greet. The Marine Corps had no problem gathering like a group of half drunk mercenaries about to start a row. The only thing keeping them from coalescing on the Colonel was her own arm pointing at where they should go stand.

The two women were yelling to one another (and unfortunately not at one another) as the vertibird took flight (and unfortunately not took off) behind them. Mayor 'Earnest' Roe sighed.

The red head in blue extended a gloved hand. "Mayor Roe. I don't know if you remember me from the time we met. I am/"

"Yes, General.", the man shook her hand. "Considering the changes you've made to our quality of life, it would be irresponsible of me to forget your face. However, speaking of irresponsible..."

"I understand.", the General assured. "That's why I came myself."

Roe nodded. "Then you'll have your men abide by our agreement that the local law enforcement settles everything within Canterbury Commons."

The General's tone of voice became a bit harder. "I understand that the situation right now is a conflict between the first right enjoyed by everyone in the Commonwealth - the protection provided by the Minutemen - and the second - your local law enforcement. I'd like to state unequivocally that I have no interest in breaching that second right. Especially since the government just found me completely innocent of dropping a nuclear weapon on people who oppose me."

Roe pursed his lips. "Then you'll have your men stand down and let Dominic perform his duty."

"I understand the man is accused of assaulting Minutemen Marine Corp equipment.", the General reminded.

"There's no accusation. Everyone witnessed him try to take the woman's ear.", the mayor scoffed.

The General raised her hand in a pushing 'wait a minute' gesture. "I'm sorry. I was a classically trained and licensed lawyer before the Great War. I understand that crime and punishment are handled much more immediately now, I truly do. So - the man is witnessed to have assaulted Minutemen Marine Corp equipment. Better?"

Roe nodded.

"The Minutemen are waging a war to save the Capital Wastes and all of the Commonwealth's other territories from the Brotherhood of Steel. If an immediate surrender can be had, a POW can be more valuable than simply killing a man off the battlefield.", the General explained.

"A P O what now?", Roe asked.

The General took a breath. "All I am asking for is a little time. I'm certain local and federal government can come to some sort of agreement without anyone trying to set a precedent for supremacy."

The man glanced around at the gathered Minutemen forces, Marine forces, and vertibird hovering over head. "It's not up to me. It's up to Dominic and Machete."

The General gently touched his arm. "I would be more than happy to speak to your security forces. Please lead the way."

Roe led the General and Bridget towards one of the many not quite so abandoned as it once was buildings. At the door were several armed and armored Minutemen personnel. Outside of it was a yawning man of about fifty years of age and a much younger woman. "Dominic, this is the General of the whole Minutemen."

"I remember when she came through and set all this up.", Dominic reminded Roe in an annoyed tone. "Shouldn't take you actually coming down here to tell your men to stand down with that fancy radio your man runs."

"Men, state what you are doing.", the General said.

"Guarding a prisoner taken after assualting Minutemen personnel."

The General shrugged. "Doesn't seem like there is anything for me to order them to stand down from, since they are following orders."

"Now look here.", Machete jumped into the conversation. "Law's clear on this. This is our town. Our criminal to put down."

"I'm not disagreeing with your jurisdiction being your town.", the General reiterated.

"But, if I may ask, consider this. The criminal assaulted a machine for its ear. The 'victim' was a new type of synth we are fielding to combat the Brotherhood. What is the penalty for just theft?"

"Shooting.", Dominic immediately informed. Machete nodded.

"So if you caught a thief and even the owner of the...let's say tool prostrated herself at your feet, begging for mercy. You'd still not give the thief a day? No matter the relationship between the two, like a son stealing from his mother?", the General challenged.

Dominic yawned again, as he had not been able to take shifts away from the door like the Minutemen in front of him. "Well, if that were the case, I think I would."

"Deal.", the General declared.

"Huh, what?", Machete asked.

The General lowered herself to her knees, planted one hand on the ground and the other reached for Dominic's pant leg. "I own the machine that was damage. I am prostrating myself on the ground at your feet. I am begging you. Please let this thief live another day."

The Minutemen guarding the door were obviously uncomfortable and were thinking about raising their weapons. The gathering of ex-Gunners, now Marines started slinking over to where this was going on and Bridget walked firmly to intercept them. But more importantly, Dominic saw Machete reaching for her weapon in a fight she knew she would lose as soon as she started it.

"Well, I guess you've caught me up in my own words, General.", the man declared.

"Good.", the General stated as she stood. "That gives me another six hours and four minutes. Men, I'll be back her in about five minutes after gathering some tools to personally interrogate the criminal."

"Wait, I thought we agreed on a day.", Dominic tried to make sense of the situation.

"No, we agreed on nothing.", the General reminded as if it were obvious. "You as local law enforcement set the conditions of the law in your community, answering to your mayor and your people. I, as General of the Minutemen, have not only the duty to abide by that law but also to protect the greater Commonwealth at large. Since it took me nearly eighteen hours to learn about this, find out the full complications of the situation and fly down here to resolve it, I only have so much remaining time to perform my duties. That way both the first and second right of the Constitution stay intact.

"Now, Constable Dominic D'Ellsadro, are you interfering with my duties?"

Before Machete could speak or anyone else with a federal mandate could raise their weapons, Dominic turned to Machete. "We'll be back for our criminal."

The General looked at her Pip-Boy. "In six hours and three minutes. Understood."

2

"Oh shit, it's the General!", the marine in the room squealed. He stood next to a chair with a man whose arms and legs were belted to it and then bodily chained. Wrapped around his neck and pressed against the prisoner's chest were the pincers of an Assaultron, with both its blades ready to spring into the prisoner's chest and its laser armed. The marine still wore green and the Assaultron was still painted green, but both had hasty changes to their colors to remove any skulls and add muskets and lightning bolts and stars, except for the first's tattoos.

The General turned to Bridget. "Colonel?"

"Your orders were that we cannot interfere with Commonwealth civilians: we didn't. Your Minutemen got all up in D'Ellsadro's face, even when little miss bad ass was going to start swinging her namesake. You also specifically let us grab anyone who swung on us as a POW and this fool tried to get away with an ear.", Bridget defended.

The General sighed. She pointed at the Assaultron. "You stay. In case anyone was going to be funny, the prisoner stays. Everyone else out."

After they had shuffled out, the General set her NUKA DARK and PURIFIED WATER on the table in front of the prisoner and then quite loudly dragged it away from him. She sat in the chair across from him, popped open the NUKA DARK and sipped away. She regarded the prisoner. "Oh, that's right. You haven't had anything to drink in a day."

The General took another sip and set down the drink. She set down her hat and took off her goggles, shaking out her hair. She regarded the prisoner again. "Hm. It must have been way longer than that since you've had a woman.", she told him. The woman sat back in the chair and took another sip of her NUKA DARK. "What kind of girls do you like?"

The prisoner glared back. "You think you're going to break me like this?"

The General laughed. "My marines are the greatest pack of mercenaries to ever scourge the Commonwealth. I held them to a stand still until the Brotherhood nuked them. If those salty bastards didn't rip your skin off trying to break you before I got here, I'm certainly not. Might as well spend the last few hours of your life I've bargained from the locals either entertaining you or entertaining myself.

"I thought it might be a bit easier on my conscience if that favored you, since you're the one about to be executed. But if you want me to spend your final time on earth having that robot display exactly how many bones it can carve out of you without getting your blood on the floor, who am I to argue with you? Shame you're the one that's going to do all the suffering while the people who set you up are spending their time laughing at the both of us."

"Set us up?", the would be assassin asked.

"Yes.", the General answered. "The machine you attacked was a machine. And one of our new Mark II.5 synths. She's as strong and durable as power armor and bit quicker due to her relative size and weight. She just looks and sounds and smells and feels like a real woman."

"She certainly fooled me.", the prisoner admitted.

"Kind of cute too.", the General winked at him. "So you see, someone set you up knowing you'd be in that chair and then shot. You were betrayed from the start."

"No one sets me up!", he declared.

"Yes they do.", the General reminded. "Because they just did. And now you're going to die alone, all because we don't know who sent you."

The prisoner squinted. "And what makes you think you can take out the likes of Daniel Littlehorn?"

The General sneered. "We're going to wipe out the Brotherhood of Steel with machines like the one you tried to take an ear of and the one pinning you to that chair. We've already secured air supremacy and food supremacy. Is this Mr. Daniel Littlehorn inside a vault?"

"No.", the prisoner admitted. "He's/"

"Hold on. I want to write this down. And anyone else who might have sent someone like you our way."

3

"Dominic! All yours.", the General called out to town as she exited the building. "And you guys, you did well. Get some rest. That's an order.", she told her Minutemen guards.

Bridget came up, still scooping a BOWL OF NOODLES into her face. "So?"

"So?", the General asked back. She started walking back toward the vertibird. "You're behind schedule on moving the campaign to take the Capital Wastes. If we had operational control of this place, none of this would have happened."

She then held the Colonel's elbow. "But I get it. You're a doer and soldier. I've got a list of things to do, and plenty of targets that need to be killed. Is that 'so' enough for you?"

Bridget saluted. "Yes, ma'am."

A single shot rang out. Dominic's justice was done and Canterbury Commons wasn't at odds with the Minutemen or the Commonwealth again.

"Good.", the General stated. "Now, get me to a radio. We need MacCready back in action."