"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND MAKE IT MY PUPPET!!!"
"Quelle horreur!" A Miss Nanny turned Synth exclaimed as she reloaded her rifle. The Super Mutant attack on the Greentop Nursery had been sudden and unexpected. Their numbers had been dwindling much more over the past year, thanks in part to the Minutemen no longer having to split their focus between the Super Mutant horde, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Institute.
Of course, when they did pop up, they came out strong. Like a fire dying down, their flames were burning at their hottest. Such as it was when a pack of them came charging in from the south, brandishing weapons both plundered and crude and with a few mutant hounds alongside them. Curie calculated that they must have been watching for some time before their attack. A caravan had left only an hour ago and the settlement was not as heavily defended as it often was during such times. Much of the garrison had journeyed with the caravan to their next stop, intending to return before nightfall.
The Mutants, it seemed, had switched up their tactics.
Peeking out from behind cover, Curie took a few shots, managing to take down one of the hounds that had broken through the first row of barricades.
"Hold the line!" The Minuteman Commander shouted, his laser musket going off in shot after shot as the Mutants continued pressing their attack. A few of the garrison that remained had already been gunned down even before the alarm had been sounded, leaving them pinned down. The feeling between all with a gun in hand, human and Synth alike, was the same: the defenses had to hold.
One of the Minutemen was busily trying to repair a turret that had been blown apart, ducking and dodging laser blasts from a few mutants. Curie did her best to provide some cover, allowing the man to get the turret back into some working order. The Super Mutants would fight until death, not withdrawing for anything, nor did any of them expect them to. What they didn't expect, however, was the sudden arrival of a new combatant.
A man in a blue Vault suit, armored and loaded down with weaponry, had appeared in the area. From his belt, he drew a curved sword that Curie recognized from her files as a katana. Not a weapon she had much experience with, having seen a variety of different weapons in her travels with the General. The closest she had seen being used was the Shish-ki-bab.
This blade was not on fire as that one was, yet it cut through Super Mutants just as easily. He had dropped two Mutants before the others took notice, the distraction allowing the Minutemen to push their advantage. The Vault suit wearer sliced the head off of a Hound before barreling right into another Mutant, his other arm pulling from over his shoulder a Laser Rifle. The barrel was thrust right into the mouth of a Super Mutant and he pulled the trigger.
Crimson light burst from the back of the Mutant's head multiple times, rending out the flesh and killing it almost instantly. As the last Mutant fell, the Minutemen began to quickly recover the dead and clean up the refuse.
"Pardon, monsieur!" Curie said, looking over to see the man in the Vault suit sheathing his blade and then slipping the rifle back over his shoulder. "Thank you for your assistance."
"No trouble at all." The man in the suit nodded to her. "Good day."
"Wait! Attendez un moment!" Curie said, stepping up toward the man, who stopped and looked back at her. "Who are you?" The man was silent for a moment, looking at her almost as if he wasn't seeing her. Something clearly weighed on his mind.
". . .just a wanderer." He said simply, giving a brief wave of his hand before turning and going back the way he had come from.
Madison Li sat at her desk, listening to the sounds of the radiation storms tearing at the building above their heads. Nearly two years now, she had been here in this hole in the ground with what little remained of the Institute. No matter what, it never got any easier, and the nightmares of that terrible day had not even come close to ceasing.
Had it not been for that man, the man that Maxson had sent in to infiltrate them, activating that signal...the doctor knew well that it could have been a lot worse. A lot worse.
She wondered what Father...what Shaun might think if he could see them now, having used the relay to escape into what was essentially a tiny hole in the ground. Federal Surveillance Center K-21B had long been earmarked as an Institute fallback position, all part of the Directors before even Shaun had been born preparing for a possibility of the people of the Institute needing somewhere to escape. A failsafe that no one on the Board had ever believed would ever need to be used.
They were all dead now, save for Madison, Alana, and Clayton. All that remained of the once illustrious Division Heads of the Institute. And of the Institute, there remained only a few dozen people and a handful of Synths.
And there she sat, sipping from a glass of scotch as she listened to the wind eating away at the cabin above them. The Minutemen hadn't found them, the Brotherhood hadn't found them, and any of the very, very few missions out into the Commonwealth had been played off as mere stragglers from the destruction of the Institute itself. They weren't in the crosshairs of anyone...but they were making no progress. Some lower levels of the base were being dug out, much like the scientists of old had down within the basement of the C.I.T., but Madison became more convinced every day that all they were doing was digging their own graves.
"Director-"
"Don't," Madison set down the half-empty glass on the top of her desk, looking at the young man who had just entered the room, "don't call me that. It's just Doctor now."
"Dr. Li," The young man said, entering properly into the room. She could see his suit, the basic jumpsuit of the Institute. In their time below, proper decorum about uniforms had been left behind in the smoldering crater that had once been their home. "I've just come up from Comms. We have...picked up an unusual signal."
"We always get radio chatter." Madison said. "Last week, someone could have sworn they heard someone chanting on the other end of one."
"Yes, ma'am." The young man said. "But this is different. This was a message. For the Institute." Madison's eyes widened.
"What?" Madison asked.
"Yes, ma'am. Directed at us. Specifically. In this facility."
"Has a reply been sent?" Madison asked.
"No, ma'am. We were waiting for your direction." Madison got up from her desk at those words.
"C'mon, let's go." The pair made their way back down into what had before been the lowest level of K-21B. The Command Center was not usually abuzz with activity, one or two members of their group on monitor duty. "Open up the channel. I want to hear the transmission." The other man sitting at the radio equipment complied. A pulled lever and three buttons pressed and soon the speakers had some feedback before they started projecting the message.
-- . ... ... .- --. . / ..-. --- .-. / .. -. ... - .. - ..- - . / -.. .. .-. . -.-. - --- .-. .-.-.- / .--. .-. .. --- .-. .. - -.-- / --- -. . .-.-.- / .-. . ... .--. --- -. -.. .-.-.-
"Morse Code?" Madison asked.
"It says 'Message for Institute Director. Priority One. Respond.'"
"It just repeats like that. Over and over again on this frequency."
"It could be a trap." Clayton said. "It could be the Minutemen. Or the Brotherhood Remnants."
"I don't think so." Madison shook her head, resting a hand against her chin. "Priority One. That's one of our codes. Only someone from the Institute would know it."
"Shall I send a reply?" The operator asked.
"Absolutely not!" Alana said. "If you do that, they'll know our location."
"They already know our location." Madison said. "They're patched into our frequency." She thought this over. "Ask for their code clearance."
"Yes, ma'am." The operated agreed, sending out a broadcast.
... - .- - . / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -.-. --- -.. . / -.-. .-.. . .- .-. .- -. -.-. . .-.-.-
"Anything?" Madison asked after a few minutes had passed.
"No, I-yes! Message coming through."
... .-- --- .-. -.. ..-. .. ... .... .-.-.-
". . .what is-?" The operator's face was scrunched in confusion at the clicking.
"Tell them that we await them at the access hatch." Madison said, her demeanor suddenly having changed.
"Director?" Clayton asked. "What is going on?"
"He's here." Madison said. "I don't know how, but he's here." She started for the staircase leading back up to the surface. Once they had arrived, they waited. A flip of the switch had unlocked the hatch, and soon it was opened...and through the light pouring in, a figure descended from above.
"Dr. Li." The man lifted the plastic and cloth helmet from a hazmat suit, revealing an old and weathered-looking face.
"Dr. Zimmer!" Madison stared in amazement as the man pulled off the rest of his hazmat suit to reveal the crisp gray suit he wore beneath, the man straightening his tie.
"You have given us quite the bit of trouble in trying to locate you." Zimmer said. "But I'm glad to see that our failsafe protocol has been followed to the letter."
"It has." Madison said. "We've suffered severe losses to the-"
"I have been briefed on the recent conflicts within the Commonwealth." Zimmer said. "Had I not been on assignment, we would surely not be in such dire straits. Please, take me to Father. I have much to discuss..."
Madison, Clayton, and Alana looked awkwardly between each other.
"Dr. Zimmer..." Clayton started.
"I am the Director of the Institute." Madison cut in quickly. "I am afraid that Father is. . .gone."
"Gone?" Zimmer asked. "What do you mean gone?"
"He passed away." Madison said. "His cancer. It accelerated to-"
"Yes. Yes, I see." Zimmer cut her off, taking his glasses off and a cloth from his suit jacket, cleaning the lenses as he stared thoughtfully for a moment. He sighed as he pushed his glasses back onto his nose. "That is...most unfortunate."
"We have been attempting to rebuild as best we can, I-" Madison started.
"As pure the Renaissance protocol, yes, I am aware." Zimmer said. "I have brought some new allies to assist us in that endeavor. As well as to remove our enemies from the board."
"Allies?" Alana asked.
"I did say that we were having a bit of trouble trying to locate you, did I not?" Zimmer asked the younger scientist with more than a little condescension in his tone. As if on cue, another figure came down the ladder that Zimmer had just travelled from. They landed with a thud, their body clad from head to toe in Power Armor, capped with an insectoid helmet with glowing, red eyes.
"No!" Madison gasped, moving back. She remembered all too well. The Capital Wasteland. The day they had descended on Project Purity like a plague of locusts. The day...
James.
"Doctor Li, please, compose yourself." Zimmer said as the Enclave soldier moved aside for another of his fellows and then another. "I have parlayed with the American government on the behalf of the Institute, and they had generously agreed to grant us access to their resources."
"I do not permit this!" Madison's voice rose. "Do you know who these people are?!"
"He is well aware, Dr. Li." A woman's voice was the next that she heard. Rather than the yellow suit that Zimmer had worn, this woman wore a white hazmat suit that Madison had seen only the once before.
"That...that voice..." Madison said, finding it all too familiar, yet she couldn't place it. When the woman removed the helmet of her suit, however, Madison's eyes widened in rage. "You!"
"Now, Doctor Li...is that any way to address your President?" Anna Holt, almost twelve years removed from the last time Madison had seen her, looked upon her former boss with no small amount of a smug smirk.
"My...My what?" Madison asked.
"May I present President Anna Holt of the Enclave," Zimmer said, gesturing to the woman who had just entered the bunker, "You two are familiar with one another, if I recall."
"Oh, yes." Anna nodded her head. "We're old friends."
"You're no friend of mine, you traitorous bit-" Madison had drawn her sidearm, a plasma pistol, and leveled it at Anna's head with the intention of blowing it clean off.
A gun went off, but not hers. Madison gasped and dropped her pistol as her hand exploded in pain. Zimmer was holding his own pistol, of Chinese make, having taken the shot that disarmed her.
"Zimmer? What the-?" Madison hissed. Clayton and Alana moved to assist her, but the Enclave troops leveled their own weapons at them, forcing the back toward the wall.
"Madison, we are in dire straits as I said before." Zimmer said, holstering his weapon. "The time has come to set aside old differences and get focused upon Phase Two of Renaissance."
"Phase Two?" Madison hissed. "What...what are you talking about?"
"The might of the Enclave, empowered by the science of the Institute." Zimmer said. "A rebirth of our ideals, and a ticket back to our rightful place as the masters of the Commonwealth."
"This...this isn't..." Madison's head was throbbing, her vision starting to swim from the pain radiating in her hand.
"Get her medical attention, immediately." Zimmer said, gesturing to Clayton and Alana. "And have the others gathered in whatever common area you have here...we have much to discuss. And a long, long road to travel..."
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