"What do you have in terms of assets?"
"About two dozen scientists, a few Synths." Clayton said, nervously sitting in one of the two chairs across the desk from where Madison had once sat. Now, a different woman was sitting across from him. The President of the United States...or so Doctor Zimmer said. "We have some of the archive information from the Institute, but-"
"Oh, we are already going through that information." President Holt said, glancing over at him and Zimmer, who sat in the seat next to him.
"You what?" Clayton asked.
"Doctor Holdren. . ." Zimmer warned.
"No, Doctor Zimmer. It's a fair question." Holt said. "The Enclave has taken possession of this facility and everything in it the moment we came here. That shouldn't be at all a surprise."
"I. . .suppose not." Clayton said.
"In the spirit of collaboration with our new allies," Zimmer elaborated, "I have granted them full access to our information and personnel."
"Our people?!" Clayton protested.
"Doctor Holdren. I don't think I need to remind you about Doctor Li being in the infirmary, do I?" Zimmer looked over the frames of his glasses at his young colleague. Clayton paled slightly under his scrutiny.
"I believe Doctor Holdren will just need some more time to consider things." Holt said. "Doctor Zimmer, would you mind escorting the young man back to his quarters?"
"Of course, Madame President." Zimmer said, rising from his chair. "Come along, Doctor Holdren." Clayton looked dejected, but moved quickly to follow the older scientist out of the office. The pair made their way past the two Enclave soldiers standing guard, heading down the staircase deeper into K-21B.
"Doctor Zimmer," Clayton started, but soon realized the older man wasn't listening. Or wasn't hearing him. "Doctor Zimmer?" Again, there seemed to be no response as they made their way deeper down. "Doctor Zimmer, what is-"
"Quiet." Zimmer said finally, opening the door to Clayton's quarters and gesturing for him to enter. When he did, Zimmer followed and closed the door behind him. "Alright. We're alone."
"Doctor Zimmer, what is going on-"
"They found me outside the ruins of Providence." Zimmer said. "They gunned down K6-14 before I could finish the job. Twelve years of cat and mouse wasted!"
"Wait, so you're not working with them?" Clayton asked.
"Keep your voice down, you ingrate!" Zimmer hissed. "No, of course not. But when several men in Power Armor gun down your Courser detail and put you at gunpoint, you have no choice."
"So what do we do?" Clayton asked, his voice lowered.
"We have to play things close to the vest for now." Zimmer said. "Cooperate. Doctor Li should have learned this lesson well, but it apparently passed her by."
"She's tired, sir." Clayton said. "We all were. We've been hiding in this hole for-"
"I'm not interested in your sob story, Doctor Holdren. We've all suffered." Zimmer said.
"How can you be so cold?" Clayton asked.
"It's a cold world, Doctor Holdren." Zimmer said. "Continue assisting the Enclave. I'll contact you again when I have something more concrete. Desperate times, Holdren. Desperate times." With that, Zimmer turned and left, the door closing behind him.
"Sorry to bother you, General, but-"
"Never on leave, Preston. Even when I'm on leave. And call me Andrew, please. I think you've known me long enough for that. At least when we're not in front of the troops." Preston regarded closely the man from Vault 111, the man who had saved him and the few others that remained from the Museum of Freedom. It seemed like he wasn't real, like that statue of Paul Revere outside of Sanctuary Hills. Some kind of marbleized demigod. He was a little intimidated on principle...which made bringing bad news even worse.
"Preston? Earth to Preston? Maybe there's a settlement that needs your help?"
"Sorry, Gen-Andrew." Preston quickly corrected himself. "I was just lost in thought. I have a report from the Castle."
"Alright, let's hear it." Andrew said.
"The settlements of Croup Manor and the Kingsport Lighthouse have been wiped out. Completely." Preston said. He watched as Andrew's face fell.
"Wiped out? By what? By who?" Andrew asked.
"We don't know." Preston said. "We found some bodies, but not everyone has been accounted for. The place looks like it was hit by plasma weapons."
"So the Brotherhood." Andrew scowled. Preston knew well that the Brotherhood of Steel no longer had the numbers they had before their airship had been annihilated, but they remained a near-constant menace. Like the Super Mutants, though, they were becoming less and less of a problem, or so it had been thought.
"We aren't so sure." Preston said. "This doesn't match their usual MO."
"What do you mean?" Andrew asked.
"Well, you know as well as I do that they have interest in getting settlements to pay 'tribute' for their protection." Preston said.
"Right." Andrew nodded.
"They usually don't wipe out entire settlements. Or don't try to, anyway. Even now." Preston said. "There's also some burn marks from where some Vertibirds landed, but their formation was strange, too. Outside the Brotherhood norm."
"There's got to be some kind of explanation for this." Andrew said.
"We have a group taking analysis of the area." Preston said. "If there's something there, we'll find it."
"I'd like to take a look myself, if you don't mind." Andrew said.
"Don't have to tell me twice, General." Preston said, pointedly as a soldier had come to knock on the door, now being within earshot. "What's going on?"
"Call on Radio Freedom, sir!" The soldier reported. "Somerville Place and Murkwater just went dark!"
"Call on Wing 33 and 34 to head out from Diamond City. We'll meet them at Jamaica Plain." Andrew said, going over to a cabinet and opening it, pulling out a familiar shotgun and started filtering through a few other weapons. The man did rather like being armed to the teeth.
"Heading out already?" Piper asked, coming around the corner. "I just got the twins down for their nap. Let's go."
"No, stay here." Andrew said.
"Not a chance. Codsworth can handle them." Piper said. "I wouldn't miss this for all the noodles in Diamond City."
"Mrs. Tyler," Preston said, "we're facing something new, we don't know what we're getting into."
"Exactly, so you both need someone to watch your back." Piper said, reading her own 10mm pistol as she looked to Andrew. "Right?" Preston looked to Andrew as well.
The General shrugged. "I haven't ever been able to convince her once she's set her mind to something and I'm not starting now." He said. Preston couldn't argue with that.
"Go in, clear the place out, access the network."
"Yes, Madame President. God bless the Enclave! God bless America!" The sergeant called over the chopping of the vertibird blades, speaking into the radio.
"God bless the Enclave! God bless America!" The soldiers under his command chorused.
"Alright, enough of your brown-nosin'!" The sergeant snapped at his men. "We're going in guns blazing. If it moves, light it up!"
"What's the objective, Sarge?" A soldier asked.
"The terminals." The sergeant said. "The Brotherhood locked down the network, but we have the override. I don't wanna see anybody firing in the general vicinity of one. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!" The vertibird landed, the crew compliment of one Enclave sergeant, four Power Armor-clad men, and one scientist clad in a white full-body suit disembarked. The armored soldiers began moving to secure the area. Beyond a few scrapped vehicles and the Poseidon Energy sign, there was nothing of note.
"Move in!" They moved in perfect formation, sweeping the top level before moving to the sub-level.
"Sarge, we have bodies!" One called out. The Sergeant squinted, coming up and seeing the mass. Mirelurk corpses, dozens of them.
"Kowalski! Analysis!" The sarge barked.
"Looks like 5.56 rounds, sir!" The scientist, Kowalski, spoke up after inspecting a few of the Mirelurk corpses.
"Looks like some damn Swiss cheese..." One trooper commented.
"Stow the back chat!" Sarge snapped at him, getting him and the others back into line. "Secure the area! If somebody was here, I want to know what they were after."
"There's a terminal up there." Another trooper said.
"Kowalski! Get on it!" Sarge gestured, the scientist heading over and accessing the terminal.
"Inputting override...now..." Kowalski said after a few keystrokes. As he pressed the return key, the lights in the room went out, leaving the group in darkness.
"Lanterns on! Lanterns on! Kowalski, what did you do?" Sarge snapped. Several troopers' eyepieces were lighting up the area in cone shapes.
"I don't know, sir! Something's cut the power to the facility!" The scientist insisted, the plastic shielding over his face illuminated by the screen. "I don'-" Kowalski stopped as he watched the screen on the terminal change. Instead of showing the prompt, the image changed to show the image of an American flag in typeface. It flashed in and out of view, and the speakers began to produce an all too-familiar song out into the room.
"Bunch up! Bunch up now!" Sarge said. "This is an ambush!" It was then, his plasma pistol drawn and ready, that he noticed. "Where's Dennison?" Only three lights were illuminating the area. "Dennison! Report!"
The noise they heard from within the darkness was someone something as though they were drowning. The three light cones frantically moved about the room, seeking out the source. All three soon focused upon the armored figure of Dennison. The man's helmet had been torn away, and they saw a bloodied stump where the man's head had been as his body collapsed in a heap.
"What the fuck?!"
"Steady! Steady, men!" The sarge yelled, but his order went unheeded as one of the light cones pointed down toward the ground at the feet of one of his troops.
"Oh, god!" Dennison's head, still clad within his insectoid helmet, was on the ground. "I'm gonna be sick!"
"There's someone he-HURK!" One of the three lights unceremoniously went out as its power supply was severed...along with the head of the man who wore it.
"They got Winters!"
"Stead-"
"SHOOT FROM THE HIP!" The two remaining soldiers started shooting wildly into the darkness, plasma trails of green wildly firing out into the shadows. By this point, Kowalski had ducked under the desk holding the terminal as a shower of sparks flew out of it, the music distorting before being cut off entirely.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The Sarge yelled. It was a wasted effort as the third soldier in the group was taken down, gagging and coughing as - this time - they heard something force its way through the man's body.
"Terry! No!" The last of the troopers cried out as his cone fell on the man. "I'll get him!!!" Sarge's eye caught the blade being yanked out of the armor.
"No, do-" Again, too late and a wasted effort. The fourth trooper fired off multiple plasma blasts into the aforementioned Terry. The soldier fell to the ground.
"SOLDIER! GET YOURSELF TOGE-HRRRK!" Sarge was down, his body having been run through. Kowalski watched from beneath the desk, seeing the body of Sarge illuminated by the fourth trooper as it fell...and the fourth trooper's light went out as the head was taken off by...something. The scientist drew a laser pistol, shaking and panting as he could not escape this enemy that he could not see. He was about to move away when he felt cold steel pressing against his neck.
"If you want to live, you're going to do exactly what I say." The voice of the man holding the blade came to Kowalski's ears. "First: Where is Doctor Zimmer?"
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