1

Red looked to Lucy. Red looked to MacCready. Red looked across to the woman on the other side of the table. And her notable guard of Minutemen Marines and Special Forces. "Okay, I'm just curious. How are you fueling all these vertibirds?"

The General smiled wistfully. "Biofuels. Even the Rains irradiated corn and razorgrain are at least good for ethanol production, once you can find radiation resistant microorganisms. Our Stingray Deluxes fortunately use liquid hydrogen for their scramjets, so we're able to use even contaminated water for electrical cracking."

MacCready leaned back. "I told you. You didn't want to listen to me. 'Just up from Little Lamplight.', you said. 'Need to learn the ropes of Big Town.', you said."

"Fine.", Red glared at MacCready. She turned back to the General. "Three Dog says you're a warlord that nuked her own people."

The marines were not as respectful of the General as the average Minutemen and groaned aloud. The General turned to one. "Oh. Me, ma'am? Uh, look. The Brotherhood of Steel launched that weapon. We only found out after they admitted it the most recent time they surrendered. Before that, we only knew that no one in the Commonwealth had launched it because Publick Occurences proved it.

"And you know...even if it had been the General...I couldn't exactly blame her. We were trying to kill her and destroy everything that she had built for everyone. If she hadn't already made nuclear weapon usage illegal before the Minutemen Hold, I might have even suspected her."

The General raised an eyebrow.

"We were calling what you called the Gunner Civil War the Minutemen Hold because you were holding...you just wanted us to be quiet."

The General nodded.

"Sorry. Ma'am.", the Gunner finished and stepped back.

The General turned back to Red. "After the Gunner Civil War, we had a group that only knew warfare. With mercenary behavior illegal in the Commonwealth, we had a problem. So I inducted them into the Minutemen as our expeditionary forces to reconcile the facts with the intentions. They aren't allowed to operate in the domestic capacity that the rest of the Minutemen do, everyday protection and the like, but despite the green uniforms they are wearing Minutemen colors."

"I don't get it.", Red announced. "Aren't blue and green different colors?"

MacCready jumped in. "Colors, in old world military speak, refers to things like the flag you're flying and symbols and uniforms. Any given military had their own set of colors to observe rules of war."

"Rules?", Red exclaimed, thoroughly puzzled. "Of war?"

The General tried to explain. "Civilians should be distanced from warfare as much as possible: so not attacking civilians meant marking military assets as military, limiting brutality to only removing military targets from the battlefield and not just for brutality's sake, certain weapons should never be used particularly WMDs...er, weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons and whatever the hell the Brotherhood of Steel's 'proctor of potions' did to the atmosphere. That's why mercenary work is illegal - civilians shouldn't be hiring war to solve their problems instead of using a legal framework."

Red continued. "What's that?"

"What's what?", the General replied.

"The frame work thing."

The General nodded. "Right, right.

"Let's start with the social contract. You're mayor. So in exchange the town's issues needing to be solved by whoever is mayor, whoever's mayor needs to address those issues but also gets a certain degree of control over the people in order to solve those issues."

"I'm not mayor.", Red corrected.

The General looked to MacCready. "Little Lamplight's mayor was always a bratty hothead that could end up being more bully than mayor. Red's Big Town's doctor."

The red head nodded. "I apologize, Dr. Unless I may call you 'Red'."

"Why wouldn't you?", Red asked.

The General dismissed the question with a hand wave. "Back to what a legal framework is. One of the things that the may...government is going to have to do is create a stable environment for its citizens even if that's just to make it easier to exert control but hopefully to make everyone safer and more rational. So you have a certain way for people to come to you with their problems, what they can expect to be done about the reoccurring ones, and what they can anticipate is going to be done about the new. Not all are good. I absolutely hate this trial by witness thing."

"And what is that supposed to mean?", Red continued.

The General paused. "Alright. What happens if a group of people see someone trying to steal something, like ammunition or the water?"

Red scoffed. "They'd be shot."

"Exactly.", the General acknowledged. "People witness a crime and immediately seek to kill the perpetrator. Sometimes, there's a police presence to do the witnessing and killing. But what if Bob hates Joe and when asked why says 'Joe's a thief'? Later Joe's found dead and Bob just says Joe was trying to steal something. Now what? Is Bob a murderer when no one saw it? How do you know Joe was actually trying to steal anything? What if Mary used to be with Bob and just recently started being with Joe? What if Bob didn't say that Joe was a thief and just shrugged his shoulders? What if Bob's brother was killed by Joe for being a thief in front of witnesses? What if it turns out that Joe is obviously a thief and is always stealing from everyone but is just a quicker draw than everyone else?

"One of my long, long term goals is to change that. But considering our constitution, I probably won't be able to any time soon."

"I don't get it.", Red declared, thoroughly stumped. "You're the General. Doesn't what you say go?"

The woman took in a breath. "I can see how people unfamiliar with a representative government would feel that way. After all, I'd be forced to admit that I did unilaterally declare nuclear weapons and mercenaries illegal. But I've managed to never do anything that went against the constitution - a collection of rights and privileges that every community or citizen gets. And we do have a civilian council that actually determines policy, even when I disagree with them.

"For instance, just recently. The Minutemen are in the process of integrating the communities of the Capital Wastes, which was surrendered to us by the Brotherhood of Steel, into the Commonwealth. Now it turns out that most communities were completely ungoverned and unprotected, usually only knowing the Brotherhood by its coercion for resources or bullying out of tech. That's why I'm coming to each individually. But Rivet City was in cahoots with the Brotherhood of Steal and wanted to keep being so. It wanted to do what a terrorist organization wanted and stayed that way for some time. Eventually, the town council was convinced to join the Commonwealth but it took us not only giving them a lot of the benefits of joining the Commonwealth like food production and water refinement and replacing their electrical supply because apparently the Brotherhood ran off with their nuclear reactor. It also took battlefield victories against the Brotherhood of Steel. I wanted Rivet City to join as a community that had a vote on the council and was not subject to my direct command. The council disagreed and considered the settlement a security risk, so it joined as a settlement."

"Is that what's going to happen to us?", Red asked. "Either we join up nicely, or we're taken over."

"No. Absolutely not.", the General assured. "While the Capital Wastes is part of the Commonwealth, it would be stupid to try to force people into it. If you don't sign the constitution, then we'll have to figure out a way to carve you out of the Commonwealth. You still stay in your town, you keep everything in it, you do how you like. But stepping outside of town would make you a foreigner and one that has already disagreed with the way we do things. We'll try to work with you to figure out an accord on how we can let you behave while in our country - just like you're going to have rules on how we behave if we're allowed in your town. But our rules will include things like trade because we can't have materials falling into the wrong hands, security because we have to safeguard our people, that we can't enforce anything in your territory so I won't officially have a mechanism to keep my people from doing things here, us siding with our own citizens over yours, and a whole bunch of other problems that no one would want to deal with.

"Integration just means we get to make sure your people get food, water, stay safe, and get a say in what goes on. The Commonwealth may have some problems but it's much easier for everybody."

"What problems?", Red asked.

The General mulled that over. "I'd say the synth issue is probably our most unreconcilable.".

She saw that Red was going to ask again, she she just explained. "'Synths' is short for 'synthetic' as in a synthetic person. At first they were obvious robots with a bit more reasoning ability than your typical robot. The Institute that made them has gotten to the point that you probably wouldn't know you weren't interacting with a person at all. But they're actually demonstrably not...well, nearly all of them with a very few exceptions. We don't exactly know the process that makes them into real people yet, but it looks like it might be a century or more of continuous operation if the synth in question is actively set to problem solving.

"So some people hate synths for all sorts of reasons: scared because they might be programmed in ways they don't like, scared because the ones that want to be treated like people probably aren't, angry because they don't look different enough. And before the government, the Institute would replace real people with them. There are the synths that have malfunctioned and act as if they want to be treated like people when they can't be people or even truly want things. There's the synths that aren't people and act as machines despite the people who want to treat synths like people, as well as the malfunctioning ones, which creates the paradox of how would you even respect the rights of a machine that wants to be a machine and not a person? It's a mess.

"And right now we have a couple of compromises in place that are keeping everyone from shooting at each other. The Institute that built them is drawing them back if they're a well functioning machine and only fielding them after announcing that they're a synth. Most of the ones that are acting like they're free people are in a community that has a vote on the condition that they behave as a community. They've allowed the Institute to observe them on the condition that the Minutemen actively assure them that that's all the Institute will do. Malfunctioning synths in the wild are generally supposed to be returned to the Institute but I'd rather see them in Arcadia - the synth community I mentioned - and unofficially, I think everyone else is doing more of that including the malfunctioning synths."

Red nodded. "So how do you tell if someone's a synth?"

"You don't.", the General countered. "Anyone in this room, anyone in this town might be a synth. They can't be told apart without an autopsy that would kill a human or a synth. And a synth can only be proven not to be a person through an extensive voluntary test for sentience. But a malfunctioning one will tell you that they're a person and a really smart one will carefully inform you that they are a machine without any real feelings or perceptions."

"No one said that government was easy."

"So why don't they take the test?"

"They did.", the General explained. "They all failed, except for two. Those two gave us our first hint at what could make a synth a person."

"Who are they?"

The General frowned. "I'd rather have them say. I don't know if synthetic status would be personal information or not."

Red folded her arms. "You're really smart, aren't you?"

"Well, I'm no medical doctor.", the General said. "But I did take advantage of my benefits after serving to get my law degree."

"Serving?"

MacCready stepped in. "I thought I told you that she's the Sole Survivor."

Red turned to him. "Of what?"

"The Great War."

Red turned back to the General. The General shrugged.

"Nope.", and Red ran out of the room.

"I'll get her.", Lucy said.

2

"Red!", Lucy called out.

The woman spun on the spot. "What the hell am I supposed to do, Lucy?

"I tried kicking this can down the road. Even the supermutants don't last long in the wastes. Warlords? But this isn't a warlord. This...I've put all of you back together and I can't understand half of what comes out of her mouth. She's going to get us no matter what I say. MacCready's in there eating out of the palm of her hand."

Red pointed at the two vertibirds parked outside the walls of Big Town. "What the hell is air superiority anyway? What's a right and privilege?"

"Think of it this way.", Lucy told her. "What's going to happen if she gets pissed off and we're not in the Commonwealth?"

"What in the fuck, MacCready!", the General yelled.

Red and Lucy turned back to the building they had come out of. "I think we're going to find out.", Red feared.

The General stalked out of the building. The marines' and special forces' raised weapons kept every Big Town resident from moving. MacCready's lips were moving a mile a minute until the General just pointed and he slinked back to the troops to calm them. She stomped up to Red.

"What. Is. Little. Lamplight.", the General spat.

Red was taken aback. "Really?"

The General did not ask a second time.

Red raised her hands. "It's the town we all came from."

"Three Dog must not have slurred me as much as I have feared.", the General replied. "If I was the evil warlord that he said, I'm nearly certain no one would dare live through lying to me."

"I'm not lying.", Red assured. "We grew up there as kids and came here. That's why it's called 'Big Town' - you come here when you get big."

"Are there are still children there?", the General was putting on a show of wanting to know.

"Yes?", Red offered.

The General continued her glare. "And who takes care of them?"

"They get by.", Red replied.

"So there's an entire cave system of little children that have no one to care for them and you've hidden that fact from me.", the General assessed. "MacCready has hidden that from me!"

"To keep them safe from maniacs like you.", Red spat back.

The General lost her temper. "I'm the maniac? You let a bunch of children face who knows what out here in this apocalyptic hellscape and I'm the maniac! People helped raise you into someone that would just abandon children, and I'm the maniac."

"No one raises us in Little Lamplight.", Red countered.

The General deflated. "What?"

"No one raised us. We were kids, so those of us lucky enough to survive to make it to Little Lamplight lived there. One of us would be mayor, one of us would be teacher, and I was doctor.", Red continued. "It's how we grew up. And we survived. Now we're here and they're their. MacCready's son is there."

"And you think of that as okay?", the General exclaimed flabberghasted. "As normal?"

Red shrugged. "Why wouldn't it be?"

the General pointed to her Pip Boy. "You're marking exactly where Little Lamplight is. I'm going to at least make sure there aren't starving and thirsting children in there."

"You shouldn't do that.", Red told her. At her glare, "They'll shoot you."

The General spun to MacCready. "I would've when I was mayor. I can't even tell you how many times I nearly shot Mungo...er, Little Miss Badass."

The General face palmed and frowned. "So I'm looking at a cave of enemy child soldiers that I need to rescue and find a place for."

"They have a place.", Red tried to explain. "Little Lamplight's that place."

The General waved both her hands. "Will they talk to one of you? The people that came from there?"

Lucy shook her head. "We're over sixteen."

The General looked up. "No. No,no,no."

"What is it?", MacCready asked.

"I have two ideas on how to start diplomacy despite the mess this is.", the General told him. "Both...I don't want to be evil enough to implement either of them, but I'm going to have to be to save these children."

"How is evil going to save anybody?", Red sharply demanded.

The General spoke to MacCready. "Remember how the Nucleus got into the Commonwealth?"

His face fell. "Red. The Nucleus...you know the Children of Atom? They worship radiation and had access to a nuclear weapon that could fall from the sky anywhere."

"It's my duty to keep my people safe, and the Commonwealth had just been nuked.", the General took up. "So I ordered a take over to secure any nuclear anything that could move out."

Lucy nodded. "So you did what you had to do."

"It was still an invasion.", the General told her. "And evil always pays itself forward. Yes, I managed to get an accord out of Tektus and they're a community now. But now I'm trying to convince you to join the Commonwealth. And being the person who would order an invasion of a town under any circumstances makes that more difficult. And I'm not stupid enough to not tell you I did it or deny it, because then you'd catch me and everything would be worse."

"Have you invaded anyone else?", Red asked.

The General took in a breath. "Rivet City. The Brotherhood of Steel had gotten a nuclear reactor from the aircraft carrier. We thought they were using it as an air strip for fighter jets, because they had...you know...fighter jets on an aircraft carrier. And their city's forces were supporting Brotherhood operations. So we used Rivet City as our beachhead after the Brotherhood of Steel surrendered...again...and then refused to observe it."

"What's going to happen to the Brotherhood of Steel?", Red asked. "You can't trust their surrenders. So what are you going to do to them?"

The General wrapped her arms around herself and partially turned away. "That shouldn't be something you need to worry about."

"But if we get a vote on your council/"

"They can't be permitted to operate.", the General snapped. "Wyath proved that. On top of their nuke attack. On top of their invasion that we fended off the first time.

"So we're going to take their facilities from them, obviously. And we are still taking prisoners of war...those that we can peel out of their suits and get to stop shooting. But they're too often as religious as the Children of Atom, just more dedicated to competent violence. I haven't ordered no quarter yet."

"But you could.", Red gathered.

The General nodded. "Brotherhood colors are already engage on sight, shoot to kill. We're still moving to collect communities. But the council did prioritize destroying the Brotherhood over diplomacy or integration."

"You're not even supposed to be here offering us water or food or anything, are you?", Red called her out.

The General turned to her. "If Bigtown was on the council, then no one could argue against my prioritizing you. The major vouches for you. I get to save some civilian lives and keep the Brotherhood from threatening them. Which should be the real priority - protection, not vengence. But/"

"War never changes.", Red understood.

The General frowned. "War never changes."

"We can't keep you from moving on Little Lamplight, can we?", Red asked.

The General shook her head. "How could you want to?"

"Even if we join this council of yours and vote to say 'don't'?"

The General clenched her eyes shut. "Please don't try that."

Red folded her arms. "That's my terms. We'll join up. We'll do what you want.

"But you don't invade Little Lamplight."

The General glared at her through her WRAPAROUND GOGGLES. "If I can get in without violence then I'm going to. If I can get anyone - anyone - out of there and to a place where adults will care for them, I will. But I promise not to use force before the council you're voting on orders me to do so."

She cocked her head. "And I won't give them that idea."

MacCready spoke up. "We ended up letting that mungo in."

Lucy nodded.

Red looked to the other two. "Deal."

The General circled her finger over her head. "Alright, move out!"

"What's happening?", Red asked. "I thought you were here to stay."

The General put her hand on her shoulder. "Oh, the Minutemen are. It's just these are expeditionary forces: the Marines, MacCready's command. I shouldn't have them inside your town. They'll be just outside until the vertibird with local Minutemen and supplies to get some water pumps in. I know it's beureacratic but it keeps everything legal.

"We can take you and Lucy, or whoever else your community picks as a representative back to the Castle to sign the constitution."