"Here's a song that I don't get to play often...eh who am I kidding, I play it all the time. I just don't get to play it for you. Stay shiny and beautiful, Diamond City. Stay Shiny and Beautiful.

" It's The Sapphires, Who do you love? On Diamond City Radio."

October 26th, 2287
10:10 A.M.

The tall concrete walls looked recently poured, cinder blocks with smooth walls and a clean finish looked expertly laid. Over the front entrance was the word 'Covenant' in white painted letters. Puttering machine gun turrets lined the walls at corners, or predominantly near the main entrance. Their barrels swung back and forth, a dull yellow light indicating it hadn't found any hostile target. Aside to the main entrance was a guard, sitting back and leaning against the wall, legs crossed. To his left was a small tin unit shack with three walls and a desk inside.

Light reflected and bounced off the lake, a small wind creating ripples on the surface.

In the three days they've spent wandering the wasteland, this was the first structure built by human hands and had the finesse of construction architectural design.

"Are you looking to visit Covenant, friend, or are you just passing by?" The guard outside the door gates asked.

Nate inhaled through his nose and nodded, taking stock of the high concrete walls and machine guns turrets tracking his movements. "Trying to get a feel for the Commonwealth, but sure, if the door's open, I might as well go in."

Meathead's eyes flicked about, sitting down in front of the guard and sweeping his tail back and forth.

"Yep, we're a real up and comer as a pit stop for traders and groups moving through." Swanson replied, eyes flicking up to the sun, he covered his brow and watched for any movement coming down the road.

"What's a...what's a...the closest trading settlement north of here?" Nate picked up on the man's sojourn guard attitude.

"You'd be a little hard pressed to find too many settled areas north, mostly going East, over to Salem, or down south towards Diamond City." The guard's eyebrows rose after his little tangent, remembering why he's here. "Are you still interested in getting in?" He said, rocking back and forth in his chair, he rose to his feet. "We got a doc to patch you up, some drink called lemonade that an old Mr. Handy Deezer makes. It's not like anything else you'll find in the wasteland."

"So what's the magic words to getting the door open? Open sesame, por favor?" Swanson gave a confused smile, but grinned after he realized Nate was joking.

The guard shook his head "No, there's a little entrance test people take. We call it the SAFE test, everyone's gotta take it."

"What's it trying to measure?"

Swanson's neck muscles brought his head up, "Huh?"

"Well, I mean all tests are suppose to measure something, right? Is it like a way to root out certain people around here?"

Swanson tilted his head back and forth, "I shouldn't really be telling you, but we only want good, honest people coming though here and getting into Covenant. No undesirables, no body who's not what they seem, you know?"

"That's a bit of an understatement...but I'm thinking of something else, what do you mean by undesirables?"

"You don't know? Are you really that new to the Commonwealth?" Swanson looked off to his right, unsure of what to do.
"Look, There's people around here that aren't what they seem...Synths. That's all I'm going to say about that."

"Oh! Synths. Why didn't you say so? I thought you were talking about...you know, all the goddamn raiders walking around..." Nate said, scratching the back of his head.

Swanson sat up straighter and wore a brighter grin. Jerked his head to the shack with three walls, and ads desk with a chair on both sides. The lean-to had a corrugated tin metal roof, made from multiple pieces bolted together.

"Take a seat and we'll begin."

\111/

Swanson compared the notes to the answers Nate gave, "I've...I'm...Hmmm...I'm gonna say that you seem like a good guy..." He said, eyes darting back and forth between the answer key and his notes.

"Yeah...definitely human." Unsure of what to make of Nate's 'outdated' answers. "Understatement..." Swanson muttered.

Nate grinned and looked down to his at Meathead who was also smiling and pretending to be a dog.

Swanson scratched his head and scooted back from the desk,.

"Well, there's some local trading that always goes on if you need supplies. Welcome to Covenant."

"It's nice to see people who aren't raiding for the hell of it." Nate commented, looking around at the pristine pre-war buildings. It's like they weren't even touched.

"Yeah, and also, mind the old robot, he's been here for a while so expect some old phrases to come out of his voice box."

"Will do," Nate waved Swanson off as he walked inside.

The colonial houses were still very much intact, built sturdily and kept maintained, these decorative houses had gardens growing food in the front with half a dozen people moving about, keeping this small patch of the wasteland secure and out of the hands of raiders and synths. A few people focused up on Nate but, there was one black lamb in this settlement, facing off with a settler sitting in the dirt, politely shaking his head and shrugging.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you. I have no idea what you're talking about." Walt Penbrose said, playing the I-no-nothing routine Sargent Shultz played on the TV show, Hogan's Hero's.

Even though neither Honest Dan nor Walt Penbrose knew of these tv shows, they were both in a similar situation. Sargent Shultz knew that a new prisoner was being held in a cell block nearby, and wouldn't tell the gang which one the prisoner was being held in because Colonel Klink ordered him not to tell.

"Hey! You from around here?" The man glanced to his left and stepped away from the man on the ground, raising a finger and pointing it at Nate, he shook his head. His hair was brown, shoulder length straight hair and blue eyes with sideburns that stretched down beneath his chin and wrapped around his lips into a mustache too. Wearing brown leather shoulder pads and grey black under armor, he carried a sheath for a long barreled automatic shotgun on his back. Here was the Hogan of this story, Honest Dan.

"No, first time I've been here...what's up?"

"You heard of Stockton's caravan that came through here? Group of five? Specifically, his daughter, Amelia Stockton leading the caravan?"

"Sorry. I don't know anything about it."

The man bit his top lip and chewed on it, "The caravan was hit just outside of this rinky-dink town, and I know it came through Covenant first, but nobody I've talked to here says they ever even saw the caravan come through here, which I KNOW they did!" he accused, looking over his right shoulder.

"Where were they headed?" Meathead whined and panted quickly, laying down on his belly and quickly sweeping his tail back and forth, putting one paw up on Nate's leg, he gave it a light scratch.

"I'll be right there Meathead, hold on. Sorry, where were they headed?" Nate called out to him.

"Back to Bunker Hill. They came down north from Manchester, and I got word from my employer that they made it over the state line a week ago. I was hired by Old Man Stockton to locate the Caravan and find his daughter, and I know this was their last stop, now I find it blown to bits just a stone's throw from the front door to this sham house, and nobody's seen anything. They just keep giving me the run around." Honest Dan called out loudly. they gathered the attention of seven people in Covenant, banking on Honest Dan's words.

"Okay," Nate nodded as the man explained.

"I'll offer you a proposal, help me track down what happened to the Caravan, and I'll split the reward. At least one person walked out of that massacre, and I know it's Stockton's daughter."

"Alright, sound's like we have something to do, Meathead." Nate said , head turned towards the door.

"I'm staying here, gonna keep grilling these folks until someone starts to say something besides, hear no evil, see no, speak no evil. Stockton's offering a heap of caps as a reward, I didn't find her body, so there's hope. I don't have proof yet, but I know Covenant's involved. Let me know if you find anything." Honest Dan turned around and swung his head around, scanning the buildings and meeting the eyes of Covenant's settlers. They were quick to look away, and anger him.

"Will do."

Meathead barked loudly twice, then at the man sitting in the dirt. Growling high then low, Nate and the man looked at the third,

"What's your name, by the way?"

"Honest Dan, I play straight, and I expect the same in return."

"Nate, and that's Meathead, and I've got a pretty good ear for when Meathead barks at people like that,." Nate said, looking at the man in the dirt as his eyes widened. "Keep asking questions."

"Come on boy, let's go get some lemonade and poke around a bit." Meathead barked once and wagged his tail.

\111/

"Alright boy, what'ch you got?" Nate said, taking a sip of his cup of powdered lemonade, rehydrated with a bit of water and stirred up to break down the chunks.

"<Everyone.>" He said quietly.

"Think we should go take a peek at that Caravan, Meathead? How's that sound boy? Wanna go on a walk?" Nate said loudly, petting the top of his head. Meathead responded by barking twice and running down the grass hill for a dozen feet before stopping and whining for Nate to join him.

"Alright, slow down, Meathead. I'm coming."

Nate went straight for the door, Meathead pawed and scratched at the metal door and pushed his head against it. Swanson was sitting in his patio chair, waving them off.

"Leaving already?"

"Just going to check out a building or two, scrap or no scrap, I gotta make a living somehow. Do you lock the doors at night?"

"Not unless we have an emergency. We always have someone on watch. I'll let my relief know you're getting back late, if at all. Come back real soon."

"Thanks, Swanson."

\111/

Moving a good distance away, Meathead and Nate let go of the breath they'd been holding for far too long and Meathead was the first to speak.

"<Everyone there is a liar. They're all in on it. Whenever Honest Dan would walk by someone, they'd immediately start throwing off bad vibes, the kind of 'I'm gonna stab that guy when he sleeps' type of vibe.>"

"Let's look at the caravan first, get some real dirt on them, find then burn the bridge after we cross it."

Meathead nodded, "<So where is this Caravan?>"

"He said, pretty darn close..."

This part of the Commonwealth, the roads were hardly there any more. Fields of tall weeds grew upwards through buckled and ruptured pavement, hardly any road existed except for downtrodden paths over the compact chunks of gravel. The only real signs of a road were the cars left on the road, moss covered and sunken into the ground. Trees littered the round, making them have to take large steps over.

They were walking for fifteen minutes, when the road started curving back around to the north, or south across the Tucker Memorial Bridge which pinged into the Pip-Boy when they got too close.

"<I smell gasoline.>

"I see landmines." Nate said, gesturing with the tip of his hunting rifle.

"<This whole bridge is rigged, ready to blow.>"

Tucker Memorial bridge was doused and covered in the arctic rainbow colors that came with fuel spilled onto the concrete ground. Cars lined stratgeically, with traffic cones tilted at odd angles, with sensory land mines just waiting to go off. He could see the telltale glint of tripwires ready to spark the whole powder keg.

"<Someone doesn't want someone else getting across.>"

"Means they can't actively watch this bridge, but are ready to blow it, rifle scope please." Nate offered out his hand and the detatched rifle scope appeared in his hand.

"What are you looking for?"

"Crows nests, anything that someone could use as a potential watchtower to keep an eye on the bridge."

Unsatisfied after three minutes, they turned around. "Two large figures, roughly nine o'clock. Ground level on the other bridge."

Meathead stood on his hind paws and peered across the water. "<What the heck are those? It's like a...kid's finger painting of emotions over there...I can't tell. They're too far off to get a good reading...but they are throwing off some weird vibes>//"

"Good weird, or the kind of people who would rig a bridge to blow weird?"

"<More like, Caveman see fire, fire hot, rocks are a tool type of vibe.>"

" I don't get it."

"<Who ever those two things are over there, they've got the emotional capacity of a sentient rock."
"Oh."

"<Just...throwing out what comes to mind first. I've never had to tell people what others are thinking before.>"

"You're pretty good at it. You're an expert at being a dog and I can pretty much figure out all the little tell signs you've been giving me."

Meathead nodded, softly wagging his tail.

Doubling back, they went the northernly route, passing more rusted cars and dilapidated trucks alongside the river, when Nate noticed something on far side of the river.

"Meathead...do you see that?" A little 'bloop' noise came from his pip-boy. Meathead reared up on his back paws to get a higher vantage point then immediately dropped down onto his belly.

"Oh geeze, yeah. I see them."

West Everette Estates, it was still a grey outline in his Pip-boy, but he remembered the old neighborhood. Half of it was still under developement, and it was one of the first areas a real estate agent showed Nora and Nate to buy their house.

They had the original test model on site long before the rest of the houses went in, two years ago, by Nate's standards, it was patches of overturned dirt with only a road leading to an empty culdesac, and that was the last they'd ever really gave that area much thought. Now, there were bags of body parts hanging on metal chains attatched to the water tower, ten foot tall chain link fences surrounded a guard dog den with three green mutated hound dogs roaming inside.

"That looks like the bad side of town."

"That looks like something we should avoid for now." Nate placed a special pin in his Pip-Boy, marked M. for Mutant.

They kept a constant watch to the left of them as they continued walking north, past a boathouse filled with Bloodbug mosquitos they dispatched with baseball bats and Nate bashing the bugs away before they got too close. Meathead tried biting at one of them, then wrapped three Bloodbugs wing's in his magic, and ripped them off. Nate stomped on them, crushing them and making the ichor sacs burst and soak him in bug blood.

After the short confrontation, they were prompted them to veer right back towards Covenant.

\111/

The four bodies on the ground, and desecrated brahmin corpse, shown to be dug into by roving wild animals, the stench of the dead bodies was unbearable and sickening. Meathead took the lead, trotting through them and gagging every once and a while.

Nate wandering in a large circle around them, trying to recapture the ambush. Seeing where there would be the best spots to stage an ambush, and which direction they would be moving afterwards.

Up along the side of a hill was a semi-trailer, and his attention immediately went to the latch and the stainless steel key hole. Marks and bits of rust were scraped off in a similar fashion to which a person trying to fit a key into a lock, but missed. The key hole looked clean, and used, while the rest of the back sliding door remained covered in dust and mold.

Fitting his own lockpick and screwdriver into the hole, he eased it gently to the right, pressing all tumblers up and lifted the door up with the tip of his foot.

The door rolled up, and the inside was completely empty, except for some wooden crates at the far back end, with the floor covered in muddy footprints.

Sliding it shut, Nate turned around back down the hill to Meathead.

"Well, they came from the trailer of the truck, and they aren't here now. They would've needed to know this group was coming through here."

"<I found this in one of their coolers.>" It was a can of Deezer's Lemonade, floated over to Nate, he took it.

"So that proves they were in Covenant, but until someone says something, they're all committed to this lie."

"<Let's go back, tell Honest Dan what we found, and I'll ransack the houses, make it seem like they don't even know I'm there. Everytime you took a step closer to the first house on the left, or the farthest back house, they would grow agitated. I know they've got proof lying around in there. I'll start there.>"

"I'll off load some gear with their merchant, make it seem that we were actually out scavenging, while I'm doing that, you take a look around at our new neighbors." Meathead nodded in understanding.

\111/

With an hour of daylight left, a few torches were being light around the small village of Covenant. Nate made his way to the shopkeeper,

"Hey there, Penny is it?" Nate asked, stepping through the doorway to the first house on the right, a wide counter with plenty of shelves loaded with stacked goods were all on display.

"Yes, sir! How are you this evening? Are you looking to trade?" She asked brightly in return.

"Yes, I've got a few things to offload...How much for the shotgun you've got on the wall mount back there?"

"Oh!" Penny perked up immensely, "That's Justice, all her life she's fired 10 gauge rounds, and has known to blow a hole or stagger just about anything she bucks into...She's a bit of a character, and isn't going cheap, unfortunately. It's got sentimental value, so on another kick, I'm dissuading people with 1,800 caps for it."

"Will you take 1,500 for it?"

Penny shook her head. "Nope, the number is set in stone, right here." She pointed to her head.

"Well it looks...nice...Mind if I see it for a second?" Nate asked.

Penny pulled it off the wall mount, and Nate turned the shotgun over in his hands. The model and numbers were worn down, but he recognized the first and last four numbers in sequence. "Son of a bitch, it's mine." Nate said quietly.

"What was that?" She tilted her head up.

"It's mine, long story short, I was frozen in a Vault before the war, this gun was mine. How much for it back?"

"It's been with my family for three generations, and you said you were frozen? What do you mean by that?"

"It's the other half of that long story, now, what will you take for this shotgun?"

"Well, I'll take just about anything, I see value in everything, it's just down to the principal of me actually wanting to sell it. It doesn't do me any good to by junk, only for it to sit around for weeks on end."

Nate inhaled and sighed, "All right, but I'm buying this."

Reaching into his knapsack, he started pulling out gun after gun, pipe pistols, laser pistols, two hunting rifles, a box of 500 rounds from the mini-gun, and a small mountain of pre-war money.

"You hear anything about the caravan that guy Honest Dan has been going on about to everybody?" Nate ventured, throwing another person's name out.

"So he's talked with you too? Seems to me like he's just stirring the pot." She replied, writing little tags on all of Nate's items, a numerical value in caps and writing out a small list.

"Well, it's a small town. Not much to talk about except who's coming and who's going. What do you mean by that?" Nate asked, looking at the total, and reaching in for another gun to sell.

"Well, some people are just jealous when they see other's living a good life, and they'd like nothing better to do than drag everyone down to their level."

Nate looked off to the right, opening his right hand and giving it a wave, and Penny kept on speaking before Nate could redirect her back to his question. "And a person like Dan wouldn't know the first thing about making the Commonwealth a safer better place."

Nate slowly rolled his head, speaking slowly. "He should be...grateful...you let him in." he said, looking out the window.

Penny was quick to jump on the short amount of praise. "And here he goes tromping around, interrogating everybody!"

Nate drew a breath in as Penny spoke over him. "If the Compound did do something with Dan's precious caravan, they had a reason for it, better reasons than a man like him."

Nate blinked slowly and frowned for a moment, then he fixed it with a smile. "Where's the Compound?"

"Oh, I was just shooting my mouth off there, please forget about that."

Not so easily deterred, "Did this compound group attack their caravan? Penny, whatever things you believe, know that this group, the ones who attacked the caravan, murdered four innocent humans, and possibly abducted the fifth. This is a serious investigation. Read my lips, Any help you can provide would be good for helping the situation be resolved. That man out there, Honest Dan, he doesn't sound like the type of guy who wants to drag everyone down. He's just a guy, hired to find some answers about what happened to the people working for his boss.

Like if one of your own people working for you went out one day, but never came back. You'd want to know what happened to them, right? You sent someone after them to go check, you'd want some answers of where they went, right? Same situation here...only he's getting the run around. If you do know what's going on, you should tell him."

Nate made sure to keep his eyes on Penny, hoping for reaction. "That'll still be 47 caps for the shotgun." She said, then swallowing.

"Penny?"

"Take your shotgun, and leave." She said, moving off the all the weapons to her side of the counter.

Her ears were perked up, and red. Nate put one hand on his reclaimed shot gun and dragged it off the counter. Resting the barrel against his shoulder, he offered her one last chance to say something, but she waved him off.

Walking out into the center of the culdesac, standing in front of a large dead tree. As Nate came from the right end of Covenant, Meathead appeared from the left. Nate leaned down to scratch at his ears and ask, "What'cha got for me boy?"

"<Compound.>" Meathead growled, a small slip of paper winked into existence on the ground between the two of them.

Nate picked it up and walked towards Honest Dan, reading the piece of paper along the way. There was indeed a Compound and fishermen had set up shop right above the entrance.

Ironic.

"What did you learn?"

"<Roof>". Meathead wagged his tail and barked happily.

"The shopkeep over yonder just dropped a name. A Compound. Or rather, just Compound. It sounds like they're set up inside the sewer tunnels by the lake here, and some fishermen set up shop right above them on the brickwork."

"<Roof>." Meathead barked, he turned his head, pretending to bite at the fur on his right side, and in his jaws was another piece of paper.

"I found the results for their test too, a 28 % failure rate. That's a big margin of error for letting non-safe people in."

"So what's this all pointing to? I'm seeing a big unknown group here, working with Covenant, but I don't see this big unknown." Honest Dan replied. "And what for?"

"Synths. They're trying to keep synths out." Nate repeated. "It's a passive security system they have in place. Whether or not you passed or failed the SAFE test, they let people in. Then, while you're here, maybe here for a bed, eating food, or enjoying a can of Deezeer's lemonade, which we found at the caravan site, they send a message over to the Compound and tell the people at the other end, who is who."

"It's not until you leave that they move in. Imagine robbing a store, but no body's doing anything to stop you, but then once you leave, there's a whole army outside waiting for you and the door's locked behind you."

"So where's this army?" Honest Dan asked.

Meathead <Ruff>, and turned his head towards the mayor of the little community of Covenant walking out and standing by the gate, glaring at them, expectantly.

"Jacob would know. You ready for a fight? Cause I feel like we've overstayed our welcome and we're about to have a fight." Nate nodded his head towards the mayor, and Jacob and Meathead turned their heads to the politician in his three piece suit. Yellow rose in his lapel, giving off a slightly obnoxious pear odor.

Jacob Obsen wore the universal symbol for friendship was unfortunately lost along with the definition to most people on Earth, save a man and his dog frozen in time, and now took on a new definition by the man who wore it so proudly. Like being part of an all-boys club, modest fees, no one telling you how to run things, and you get to say whatever you want about the people you don't like.

"Well stranger, it's no lie that you've been poking around, asking about Stockton's people. That's not very neighborly, friend. I know you think you're making the right decision. Just don't make any rash decisions you'll regret." Jacob Orden was planning on gutting this newcomer like every other human who got to personal with the questions. After jabbing Nate's stomach and intestines a few times with his knife, he would saw away until the guts spilled out onto the ground.

"So. If I decided to go fishing over by that pipe chase across the way...there." Nate gestured with a sweeping motion towards the lake. "Do you think I'll regret it if I were to find something that you could explain here and now?" Nate laid out the obvious bait.

"We only make the best decisions, we wouldn't do anything without good reason." Jacob said with a soft smile, then cracking a grin, "Tell you what, just stop this investigation and I'll give you a gift. 100 Caps." Nate didn't smile, and he didn't frown either.

"I just paid eighteen hundred caps for this here loaded shotgun aimed at your cock and balls." Nate said, true, the barrel was aimed towards Jacob's crotch, only now the Mayor looked down and was brought to his attention.

"You'll be welcome back as a mutual friend any time."

"And care to explain a can of Deezer's lemonade found with the Caravan if you said there never was one coming through here? Care to justify murder, or will I leave knowing, hoping that a group of compound soldiers aren't waiting right outside those doors, or worse, you turn the turrets on me while I'm in range. No."

"All I'm asking is a little faith in us."

Honest Dan was scowling fiercely, almost as much as Meathead. Except the dog could make a scary growling sound deep in his throat at Jacob while Nate thought of a response.

"How about you stop fucking lowballing me, because I can literally smell the shit coming out of your mouth and it stinks to high fucking hell. I need to know more about what it is you think you're doing. I get Stockton's caravan, we fuck off and leave your little Covenant safe and sound. It would be a shame if one of those turrets malfunctioned and started giving off sparks. Just a few hot sparks next to these matchstick trees and your whole place goes up in flames."

As Jacob sighed through his nose, his arms relaxed. "That's a tall order, a deal like that is above me." He said disdainfully.
"Tell you what, I tell the Compound you're coming, and you can make your case to them. Good luck." The only thing he would do is tell them it's not personal and to kill them after they arrived and could be ambushed.

\111/

Nate, Honest Dan, and Meathead passed through the doors back into the Commonwealth, "So we swimming or walking?"

"Walking."

"Good, I didn't feel like getting wet."

Nate let the gated door swing shut behind them. Glancing over to Swanson, he was looking up to Nate with a scowl.

"You feeling SAFE yet?" Nate asked, crossing the road and dismissing whatever rude gesture Swason gave them after their backs were turned.

\111/

"I say we load up, guns topped off, barrels loaded, one in the chamber, we're either fighting out way in, or out depending on how far my people skills have come. Either way, expect them to turn on us at any moment until we're standing right back here in this exact spot."

Honest Dan nodded. "That's what I'd expect from a group like this." Pulling his own shotgun out and refilling his ammo bandoleer.

"When I first came here, I saw a crashed vertibird in the North end of the lake, right in the shallows, no more than ten feet deep. I've got a quick question, how long can you hold your breath?"

"What's at the Vertibird?"

"I saw the glint of power armor, just sitting there underneath the water. Back to my earlier question, how long can you hold your breath?"

Honest Dan grinned, "You want me to grab some power armor that's been rusting underwater? Do you even have a fusion core or is it all shot to shit?"

"Right here," Nate said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a fully charged fusion core. "Trust me when I say, those things work underwater."

"I don't want to go diving for some armor, but that would be some good hardware to muscle our way through that compound of theirs."

"That's what I'm thinking too, I just really don't want to dive down and get it."

"Why? What's your excuse?"

"Bad experience the last time I was in a suit of power armor."

"Great, go get it." Honest Dan said, "Face your fear. Have a little puff of this first." Dan reached into a small pocket and pulled out some Jet, offering it to Nate.

"Let's get to the damn power armor first before I touch that shit. I'd need something to slow my heartrate down, not speed it up."

"Oh trust me man, this'll keep things going nice and slow..."

\111/

Meathead barked and whined from the shore as Honest Dan watched Nate breach the surface after a second attempt.

"Fusion core's in and it's open!" He yelled, climbing up the wreckage of the vertibird tail sticking out of the water. Breathing deeply, he clenched the inhaler full of jet and felt his cold hands and cold suit sticking to him. "God, I need your help walking out of dark cloudy water." He said, putting it to his lips and sucking in the fumes.

His entire body shook and he dove off the tail end of the veritibird with his arms overhead and kicking down to the lake bed. The bottom was all stones, concrete thick with a carpet of algae and the old suit of T-45 power armor, minus the helmet, waiting for someone to step in and walk it out of the water. Settling in, the motors sprung into action and secured him in place, holding his breath he took one slow step forward, and then another. His feet weren't sinking into the mud, only hard compact rocks. The surface of the water glimmered in the moonlight and Nate felt his lungs bursting and his mind racing. He felt like he was flying, he was going to do this. He was filled with confidence, and the overwhelming optimism he was going to do alright, and that everything was going to be okay.

It didn't help that it took two minutes to walk up and out. Jumping upwards, his head cleared the surface for half of a second and he tried to breath in air and only sucked down water. Gargling, choking as he sunk back down, he put in more effort and will to move faster, walking up the slope as the water around him became lighter, then he jumped up again, this time coming out of the water all the way to his neck. "GHAhuh! Hau!" He sputtered, finally walking out onto the lake shores to where Honest Dan and Meathead waited. "Hahg..." He said, sinking down onto his knees.

The back of the suit popped open and Nate threw himself backwards. Out onto the ground.

"Take it... I sure as hell don't want it." Nate laid there with his back on the ground, looking up at the stars and the moon overhead.

"You sure? You went through some hell just now to get it."

"Let me just...lemmejust...heh...hngh..." Upchucking lake water, he rolled to his side and shuddered. "When we're in there, I want you to take a rear position right behind me, and if they say anything like 'It's only business, or it's not personal. Shoot them immediately."

"You're just saying that cause you nearly died. You fished it out, keep the suit." Honest Dan said.

\111/

Into the pitch black sewer pipe, the red light behind them rapidly faded as they walked forward and into the pipe chase. Everything was dark, pitch black. Nate pressed his hands against the steel around him and walked forward, gun ready in his hand with machete and two Molotov Cocktails strapped to his hip.

There was a cracked open portion of pipe with light coming through, and the small putter of a turret swinging back and forth.

"People ahead."

Nate nodded, stepping out they were in the substation of a sewer landing with catwalks and pipes running through the ground and walls. Three men in tan armor and half dome sentry helmets.

The man in the middle, lights blaring on both sides behind him, made a shadow line down the center of his face.

"Just because Jacob vouched for you, doesn't mean you can enter, why should I let you in?" The man said, arms out, hands wrapped around the rail of the catwalk he was leaning down watching their reactions.

"I'm here for Amelia Stockton, the Synth. I'm coming in and finding her whether you mean to interrupt me or not."

"You've seen too much, and know enough. This isn't per"

A bullet punched through Manny's neck, a round blood soaked hole and he flailed like a fish out of water in the throws of death. In the small brick space, the bullet rang out and was ringing in everybody's ears.

Nate grit his teeth and pulled up Justice, firing seven rounds in succession, feeling the recoil of each trigger pull slam into the metal suit of power armor.

Holes were blown into the brickwork, into the shop lights making the tunnel chase brighter, sending this room into darkness. The puttering turret was knocked over and sideways as it started spitting out bullets at a frantic pace ricocheting into bricks or off the manhole sized blue and orange pipes running along the outside of the room.

The end of a sewer pipe and discharge station wasn't the most glamorous of locations to take cover, but Nate and Meathead could see why, highly fortifiable, and the corridors would force shooters to come at them single file. That's if the Compound guards knew to use that advantage, stupidly, they were charging right into Nate and Honest Dan's onslaught of their men as they made their way from the lower section, to the station above the sewer pip hub, where rain water met grey water.

Here were ten men, all armored up, with loaded weapons, hidden in a hole underneath the streets, but not an ounce of tactical defense strategy in between them to stop two people and a dog.

The whole path was chokepoint after chokepoint, but if they were only using it for cover fire before poking their heads up to see, Nate saw more than once, the Covenant guards were shot by friendly crossfire from their own men.

The T-45 Power Armor was much more effective at deflecting bullets than dealing with a fully grown Deathclaw. Nate kept a steady walking pace, moving forward with Justice aimed out in front of him. The 10 gauge shotgun rounds definitely packed a punch. Less spread, wider shells, more pellets, the body armor the Compound guards wore was shredded like tissue paper after only one round straight to the chest. The shot would break bones from impact if they wore protection, or rip off limbs and carve out cavities in their sides, or legs. Spatters of blood sprayed across the sewer tunnels, and was deafening to the group who never once fought down here ever.

Not once have they ever needed to put their defenses to the test, so now, they were failing horrifically and pathetically to Nate, Honest Dan, and Meathead.

\111/

Built into the walls were metal bars with giant electrodes facing down into each prison cell. The five cell doors were all locked on a second level above the main floor. An elderly woman was standing hunched over a bank of TV monitors showing most corridors from the Compound and three from Covenant.

"So here you are." She said to the monitors, not yet addressing Nate and Honest Dan yet. "Do you realize what you've done? You are well aware that in all likelihood, Stockton's supposed daughter is a synth?"

"I've done more than you could ever imagine. Hand her over." Nate said coldly, staring her down.

"What would you do if you were a child, and saw your parents gunned down by Synths? Would you not get revenge on them?"

"That's what I would call a loaded question, lady. I'm sure you have an amazing sob story about how that child was you, about how your parents were actually gunned down by a vicious, cold blooded killing machine that in the end...was a synth." Nate paused pregnantly, baiting the old doctor.

The look of anger and confusion contorted her face into a twisted scowl. "You are disrespecting my parents memories."

"My wife said the same thing to me whenever I farted near a cemetery.

Now, Synth.
Stockton's daughter.
Don't care.
Now."

"The Institute ordered that robot to lay in wait, and spring out into action, killing my parents and six other innocent lives! Do you not see why they should be eliminated? I've spent years developing the SAFE test! There's no way to physically discern a synth from humans! But psychologically, there is a way!"

Nate inhaled and sighed, not wanting to argue with someone who only sees one path of logic.

"A 72% chance. I saw the statistics. I think your math is off. A 28 Percent chance of success out of 100 percent is still a failure."

"And extensive testing is only going to make that margin smaller! We are in the early stages of developing a test that will surely expose synths for the twisted heartless beings they are! Allow us to have Stockton's daughter, and I'll pay you 100 caps, and leave. We can still remain good friends with Covenant."

Nate snuffed the offer with a quick exhale through his nose, Honest Dan spoke first.

"That's the same Jacob offered, we already got the lowball offer, and that was before we killed all your men."

"Fortunately, I wasn't talking to you." She replied, lips twisting into a thin line, as if she had won some flawless victory over Honest Dan.

"Nate, is this lady serious?" Honest Dan threatened, Nate turned around, looking Honest Dan dead in the eye and tried showing him a smile that spoke 'Are you kidding me? Of course I'm not listening to this bag of crazy. Let's get her.'

The side of Dan's mouth raised a fraction of an inch in confirmation. A quick smirk.

"Doctor." Nate said cheerily, "You ever hear of the Salem witch trials?" He lunged at her, wrapping one hand around her neck. Lifting her up, strangling her, she kicked and batted at his hands, but her legs only came in contact with hard metal.

"Dan, get the door, unlock first and second cell."

He nodded, moving across the room to a monitor on top of a cart with car batteries wired to the terminal, providing a mobile power source.

"I have a 100% way of physically checking to see if someone is a synth or not." Nate said, throwing the doctor to the ground and then wrangling one hand out, he pulled out his knife and dragged her to a flat surface and set her hand down. Forcing her to uncurl the pinkie, she yelled and screamed, then Nate slapped down the machete an inch from her hand, embedding the machete knife into the table.

"I call it the Pinkie Test." Wrenching the knife out of the stainless steel desk like a stubborn axe head caught in wood, then he raised the knife up and brought it down, and cut her finger off.

Dan pressed the enter key twice and then the down arrows, instantly the cell doors to Amelia Stockton's cage opened up, along with the cell door next to it.

The daughter, wrapped in rags and clothes that look like they haven't been washed in weeks stuck to her battered and thin body. She was about to say something, when she looked down and was cut off by the piercing scream of Dr. Chamber's getting her pinkie finger removed.

Nate picked up the finger and showed the end to Meathead. "Must be a human."

"AGH! You'p Moav'a FUCKERS! YOU FUCKERS! YOU INGRATES! YOU FIENDS! YOU ANIMALS!" Nate took the back end of his shotgun and swung it like a ram, smashing Dr. Chambers down onto the ground, and then grabbing her collar, dragging her back up and towards the stairs.

"Dan, you were smoking a cigarette earlier, right? Can I borrow your lighter?" Nate said, holding the doctor off the ground above his head, he walked across the sewer tunnels and up the metal stairs, each step the power armor bent the metal down, groaning under the weight.

Amelia Stockton rushed out, her clothes were tattered rags, her brown hair and brown eyes were and Meathead barked three times. "I know, Meathead... I know...but that's not the issue. The point is, that this woman doesn't know anything about the Salem witch trials, and history repeated itself once again."

"Who are you? Thank you for rescuing me." Amelia said, unsure of who to trust at the current moment.

"Your father sent us, Amelia. I'm here to take you home." Dan said, accepting a quick hug from Amelia as being her savior.

"Would the two of you both like a quick history lesson in the Salem witch trials?" Nate shouted from up above. Heaving Dr. Chambers into a cell, she screamed as her ribs were cracked after slamming into the concrete walls. Her bloody hand made marks against the walls and she curled her fist in, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

"I promise it'll be educational." Amelia moaned lightly, feet and head towards the door, but she knew instinctively, that she would also vicariously live out the fantasy of killing the mad woman who kept her locked up in a cell for weeks.

"I could always stand to learn a little something." Dan said, watching as Nate pulled a Molotov cocktail off his bandoleer.

"Good...good...Dan, your lighter?" Nate asked, forcing the cell door shut, warping and bending the hinges. Honest Dan pulled out his gold plated flip lighter and underhand tossed it up to the second level. Nate caught it with one hand.

"Please..." She sucked in a breath, the bones in the back of her ribs were rupturing her lungs. It was extremely painful for her to breathe.

"Ahem...if I remember my local history, which I do, the Salem witch trials were conducted after the town of Salem, along with a few other towns in Massachusetts. You see, the men and women of 1692 were coming off of a civil war, and many of the men died during these battles, leaving the women as sole property owners of these estates. Now...when a family dies, their property was turned over to the government, or at the time, the church." Nate pontificated, trying to set the scene quickly and get the facts down as Dr. Chambers crawled up the brickwork, using the jagged edges as a handhold to climb the walls.

"At this time, a female owning property was unheard of, inconceivable at the time for the male-dominated society. When the trials came to pass, the minister...who at that time had exceptional clout within the community, the Puritan minister Mather wrote, "It is better that Ten witches escape, than one put to death, who is not a witch."

Dr. Chambers coughed blood, and shook as she tried groping the walls for a hand hold. "Fuuuuck...you..." She breathed, pulling herself onto one knee.

"Amelia is a Synth. One hundred percent replaced by the Institute."

"-What...what are you doing?" Dr. Chambers called out weakly.

Honest Dan quietly pulled back on the hammer of his shotgun, cocking it into place. "What are you getting at?"

"Getting at? I'm Getting at Amelia Stockton, your employer's daughter, was replaced by the Institute, and her memories 'Control C and then Control V'ed into a robotic look alike. I can prove it four different ways...one which you'll be immediately opposed to, the other...you'll think is crazy...beyond the typical normal, everyday crazy. Like...aliens from another planet type of crazy."

"And the other two?"

"An X-ray scan, but I don't have access to one right now, and the other is in the Institute itself, and the same goes for us walking up to the C.I.T. and knocking on their front door and asking if Amelia is a synth, which she is."

"I don't like you making accusations of my employers daughter being a synth, Nate." Honest Dan's eyes narrowed, Nate held up the palms of his hands to him.

"You're right, I completely understand, I just wanted to preface the different ways I could prove she's a synth."

"So what are the first two then?" Honest Dan wondered out loud.

Nate held up his hand, showing Dr. Chamber's severed pinkie, the blood, cartilage, bone dripping and coating Nate's fingers. "The Pinkie Test."

"No."

"You don't even know what I'm about to ask."

"Cut it off."

"Then you do know, it is the least insane out of the other three."

"What's the last option?" Honest Dan asked.

"The crazy one. Meathead, could you come here?"

The dog hesitantly climbed up the steps while Nate wrapped up the history lesson.

"The version I remember was that it was based off a very old book. You see, that minister was inspired to use the quote about fractions from the book of Genesis. Chapter 18, verses 23...to...30 or so. Short verses.

A man named Abraham is talking with God. God tells him he is going to destroy the town of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham asks, "What if there are righteous people in that town? What if there are fifty? What if there are ten?" And God Replied, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

Nate scratched the lighter, and Meathead stood next to him.

"But she's just one! ONE SYNTH!" Dr. Chambers screamed from inside her cell.

"And there are only nine people in Covenant, including yourself. So if I've got my math right..." Nate said to Dr. Chambers.

"Verse 27-29; Abraham stood at the spot where he spoke with God the day before, and saw the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah with smoke rising from them like a furnace. However, God remembered Abraham, and spared Lot's family, where he lived at the time, and spared his family." Nate said, finally catching the rag to the Molotov on fire.

"No...NoNoNNONONO!" She backed against the wall, away from the flames coming out of the bottle.

"You see...history repeats itself. At the end of the witch trials, a few of the women were hanged, drowned, or burned at the stake." Nate made to heave the burning bottle, and she screamed, but he held his hand at the last second.

"<That's cruel.>"

"Yep. Show them, Meathead."

Meathead stood infront of the bars and a swath of green fire rose up around him, and standing in his place was an exact duplicate of Dr. Chambers.

"NOOOO!" She screamed, an ear pitched wail that echoed throughout the entire Compound, her screams were sent ever higher as Nate threw the bottle at the wall over her. Fire caught onto the motor oil and sugar, raining down on her and sticking to her skin. Flesh charred off and incinerating her, she continued to scream and scream, inhale and suck down flames, cooking her lungs and burning her tongue black, and then screaming until her vocal chords were burnt away.

Then she writhed in agony, eyes still locked onto the duplicate of herself until her eyes were seared and cooked out of her sockets.

Nate turned away, looking down at Honest Dan and Amelia, holding him tightly in a scared embrace.

Rubbing his eyes once to clear the ash and smoke, "Honest Dan, Amelia, this is my dog, Meathead."

"There wont need to be any discussions about what occurred here, will there?" Meathead asked.

Honest Dan regarded Nate in a different light, the light of an underground sewer pipe chase tunnel system. Poorly and dimly lit.

"Nope, just one question...what is that thing?"

"<I'm Changeling.>" Meathead said, shifting into the form of Nate. "<I infiltrate, I disguise myself, and I live off the positively generated emotions around me. I live for love and long for a peaceful society, but what happened today here was only breeding hatred. What happened today shows why I still need to disguise myself, and hide among people, operating in the shadows beneath the scrutiny of others. I am the greatest threat the Institute will ever face, and they will know our fear as they fear us.>"

Amelia was shaking in Honest Dan's arms.

"<Before the war, my role was much simpler. I sense energy, I feel other's emotions. Dan, Courageous, upbeat, fearful. That's natural, curiosity in the place of the unknown.>

<Amelia...You look scared. But the only way I can tell you're alive, is if I look at your diaphragm and watch for you breathing, and the slight pads of your heartbeat making your entire torso move. Otherwise, I apologize for what happened to you here now, and what happened to you then, but you've been kidnapped, replaced, and you don't even realize it.>

Blood rose to Amelia's face, cheeks and nose turning red.

"What do I do? How do I go back?" Nate gripped the catwalk safety bar, from the way Meathead's ears flicked back towards him, and the look of contempt in Honest Dan's face, every male in the room didn't want to deny her hope, but they didn't want to tell her that right now.

"Amelia. As of right now, the Institute may already have a way to swap bodies around like this. In that case, it's a greater matter of getting into the Institute. You mean, back to being human? Amelia, the Institute is the only one who can answer that question. We can hint at it, and promise that we'll never stop searching for a way, but it may not be us to be the ones who help you solve...your...problem." Nate realized his roundabout explanation was losing steam, but wording it right seemed to keep Amelia's shock in place, and from letting her blast all the fearful energy around the sanitary room.

"<Robots can express emotions, they can look angry, happy, sad, joyful, prideful, every emotional display under the sun, and I will not think any less of them for that, but for humans to see what I see, they must recognize each others' emotions. Emotions are not a weakness or a feature. They are what define us. They are what make us feel whole inside. They are the driving force behind what makes us rise each morning, Amelia. If you say you are happy, then you feel happy, and want others to feel happy, then so be it. If you say you are in fear, hold the image in your mind of what you fear most, and say that it can't affect me. That fear has no hold over you, Amelia. You are free. You've lost everything, and can now reclaim everything.>"

"So where does that put me?" Amelia asked,

"<You're a Synth, now you can defend yourself from others who would seek to do harm for that reason alone.>" Meathead said. "<Go to your father, you still have Amelia's memories, and to some, that is more than enough reason for them to love you. He'll want to see your face, because he needs to know what happened to you is that you're still you! You're still Amelia! You've been abducted, but, you're still you.>"

<Your own father can accept you as being a Synth, and if he doesn't, then it's his loss! It's the Institute's fault for what happened to you! They are no better than raiders! They are no better than thieves! They are not making humanity better, they are trying to subject it to their will and enslave all of us!>"

"That still leaves Covenant."

"I'll handle it." Nate said, exiting his power armor. "Amelia, take this power armor. It'll protect you."

"You're giving her a suit of power armor?" Honest Dan asked,

"It'll make your job easier too, there should be enough juice to make it all the way to Bunker Hill."

"What do you mean when you're going to handle it?"

"I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. I'll handle it. Now both of you, get going. As a courtesy to the two of us, don't go spreading this type of information around, the Institute is watching and we'd like it if the Institute never knew about the one thing that can separate humans from Synths."

"I won't."

"It'll be a long time before I even mention this place, let alone what happened at it." Honest Dan said, looking over his shoulder.

"Then safe travels." Nate said, coming down the steps. He stepped out of the power armor and let Amelia take over. Honest Dan didn't say anything else, only looking at Nate and Meathead, chewing on his bottom lip all the while.

"<What are you planning on doing?>"

"I'll take the other twenty Molotovs we've picked up along the way so far." Nate said, holding out an open hand.

\111/

October 26th, 2287

3:00 A.M.

Swanson held his head down, right hand across his chest, on his sword, with his left hand slipped under neath his right arm, holding a .38 revolver. Pointed forward, he propped his legs up on a small wooden box and leaned back in his chair against the wall, pretending to be asleep. Eyes squinted low and scanning,

He was suppose to be on watch, waiting for normal passers and foot traffic to come by Covenant, but they were still so tense on waiting for the man with the dog to return.

He was so concerned about looking like he was asleep, he didn't hear Nate and Meathead get close to him. Swanson was so caught up in making his outward appearance look like someone who was asleep, that he was all caught up in his head. Nate reached right up to Swanson's hip and was pulling out the chinese officer's sword when tension pulled on his belt and his eyes flew open.

Gasping, his hands went for the sword and he immediately cut his palms on the blade, shoving his hands into the sharp part, he tried to wrestle it away from Nate by swinging his hips to the right and rolling out of the chair.

Nate pulled the sword free and stabbed straight through Swanson's ribcage, and he cried out "ARAgh!" Like he was so sure he could pull it out like a sliver and put some pressure on it, then he would be okay. He only needed a stimpak, then he would be okay. Only he died thinking he would be okay as Nate lifted the sword up, out of his chest, then stabbed it back down in. This time making sure he was dead.

Barricading the swinging doors to Covenant, they couldn't be opened from the inside, and there was only one way in or out of Covenant.

Nate took a small wooden crate, one that used to carry bottles of Nuka-Cola, filled it with Molotovs, and lit them one after the other.

Walking clockwise around Covenant, he started at the lakeside door, going north and east, tossing Molotov cocktails over the wall and having the sugar and used diesel oil burst against the wooden houses inside.

The bottles smashed on the dried grass, or in the trees, one after the other, the flames quickly caught hold, and it wasn't until the fourth cocktail Nate tossed did he finally hear the voices shout in response.

It was a shouting at first, 'what was that shattering noise?'

"What was that!?"

But the following three glass bottles breaking made everyone inside Covenant stop. By the time Nate tossed the sixth Molotov, Brian Fitzgerald was the first to see the flames, then immediately be covered in the sticky oily pitch as Nate tossed a seventh flaming cocktail over the wall. His screams alerted everyone else to the carnage taking place. Nate walked around the walls, tossing more and more bottles. One bottle burst right over Brian's head, and his screams were elevated.

The men tried tackling Brian Fitzgerald, smothering him with dirt and clothes, but the backside of the first settler house and backyard were completely engulfed in flames, and spreading to the roof. The second settler house and living quarters were also starting to catch hold of the fire. Wind fanned it greatly, spreading it to the dried trees and bushes around the ground.
The fire didn't stop as Nate's eleventh and twelfth Molotov cocktails crashed into the yellow building they were using as a city hall and jailhouse.

Penny Fitzgerald was not around to see her husband be consumed in flames, she only saw the fires rising up behind the houses across the dirt street from her, and she ran towards the front door of Covenant.

Ramming the door, she expected the lock to hitch open, and they'd be safely making their way down the road away from the fire. But it was locked.

"Help." She said to the door. "Help! The door is locked!"

Jacob Orden was the second person to reach the door, attention pulled away from the door as more bottles rained down into Covenant, setting the general store and doctor's office on fire.

"Jacob! The town is on fire!"

"We need to get out! SWANSON!" He screamed. Pounding his fist on the door. Kicking it, shoving it, trying the door handle again, it turned, but they couldn't get the doors to open and part.

"SWANSON!

"SWANSON!"

"SWANSON!"

Nate stood in front of the doors with an empty soda crate. listening to the pounding fists and hearing the aggrivated thumps turn to desperation as the fire spread down the hill, and towards the nine settlers in Covenant.

Their shouts were short yips, then yaps as the fire and smoke became unbearable, turning everything white hot. Even the door was getting too hot to touch, and people standing too close screamed and flinched away. Trying to turn their backs to the fire was impossible, the flames went from ten feet tall to fifty feet tall as the houses caught fire and sending billowing black smoke clouds into the sky.

They punched the door, kicked it, and eventually ran from it because, the fire was coming around their feet.

Cornered, the grass fire crept along until the settlers clothes started smoking, and their skin was melting. Their faces and hands burnt off, as the screams lodged in their throat from the fire and smoke made it impossible to scream any longer.

Nate turned his back from Covenant, beckoning Meathead to follow with a wave of his hand, and the dog followed right along side him.