Walking north and west, the passed the Arcjet Systems building in the early blue light of the morning, it was a large five-story building with a rocket logo blasting off through the letters of the sign out front, illuminated by a white light shining up at the sign. The building was quiet from the exterior, and the parking lot was full of empty cars.

"Do you know what they used to do here?" Piper asked,

"Build Rocket Engines. They printed special parts and components here, one of the only places on the eastern seaboard and tested them here. Beyond that, I don't know what else they were working on."

"How did they print parts?"

"They designed a three-dimensional model in a computer program, then made a machine re-create the image using metal."

"Anything worthwhile in there?"

"Old Captain Ironsides might want something like that, but he's on his own for now. The Federal Stockpile is just up the road."

The fog was setting in during the morning, and the light from fires in sconces was burning brightly over the Federal Ration Stockpile. Nate felt a sense of dread after looking at the cages the size of humans. These crow cages where people were placed inside and hung from tall posts and forced to die from starvation, and then picked apart by crows. There were semi-trucks moved into place as barricades around the front, barring entrance.

"What's the plan?"

"Hide the guns, make it look like we're not here to attack them."

"Are we though?" Piper asked.

Nate took off his bag and holsters, letting them drop to the ground. "Not if I can't help it." Keeping Kellogg's pistol tucked into his waistband, Piper did the same with her blaster. They stashed their supplies in a drainage pipe with a piece of deadwood over the top to hide it from view.

"We shout until we get their attention. Meathead, go be a good boy and scout around, I don't want them shooting you. Piper, you can go if you want, I have a reasonable fear that they're going to beat the hell out of anything they come across out here." She shook her head.

"I'm standing by you." She said, standing firmly by his side. Nate looked up to the crow cages again, seeing the corpses and rotting bodies contained inside. It was like a form of hanging, hanging in chains. The word was gibbeting, but Nate couldn't remember it at the time.

"Ready?"

"No. But let's go."

\111/

"On three. One, two, three. RED!"

"RED!"

"RED!"

"RED!"

"RED!"

"WE NEED TO SPEAK TO RED!" Nate shouted.

They could see the raiders moving around the base, responding to the noise.

"WE NEED TO SPEAK TO RED!" They shouted together.

Raiders came sprinting out and Nate gestured for Piper to put her hands up.

"You better be right about this one, Blue."

\111/

They came around both ends of the semi-truck, in three groups of two until they were completely outgunned and they shouted again, "WE NEED TO SPEAK TO RED!"

"Who are you?" One raider shouted, he wore a gas mask with goggles, and approached them. "And why do you need to speak with Red?" They brought out two mongrel looking attack dogs, pieces of metal strapped around their bodies and growling fiercely.

"Go wake her up, if she hasn't been already. It's about Tower Tom."

"What the hell do you want? More food?"

"We need to talk with your boss, Red."

"She ain't seeing no one."

"How about we just fucking shoot you?" Another raider suggested.

"And piss off your boss?!" Piper shouted, "Tell Red she desperately needs to hear for herself. Not passed along."

"Who the fuck are you?" The man holding the dogs on a chain pulled at their necks, throwing them into a frenzy making them bark and snarl.

"Who we are doesn't matter, yet. What we're here to do is pass information to your boss, Red, and speak with her about Tower Tom. We aren't demanding food, we aren't part of Tower Tom's gang, we're just here to speak with her about him."

"About what?"

"About Tower Tom and his gang at Beantown Brewery." One raider was tapped on the arm and sent running back inside.

"Don't fucking move a muscle. Hand over your weapons."

Nate kept one hand raised. "Slowly. Now. Drop it." They both let their guns be collected by a woman who came up to them and snatched them away. They didn't move, they were rooted to the spot.

"What about the thing on your wrist?"

"That's a gieger-counter it tells me if there's radiation in the air," Nate replied.

"Down on the ground." Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Nate and Piper waited as the gang aimed their guns at them, then two came up to pat them down. Shoving them around, they both didn't try to resist as they were held at gunpoint.

Nate pulled his legs up tightly to him, closing his eyes, and straining them to look straight up into his third eye. He waited silently as Piper tried getting comfy on the concrete pavement.

Waiting ten minutes. It was a long time of tense sitting, but the duo sat patiently, not moving and showing no signs of hostility to the barking attack dogs or the raiders.

Every time they asked what they were here for, they would reply with, 'We need to speak to Red about Tower Tom.'

She arrived and the first thing they noticed on her was the black and red war paint smeared horizontally across her face in a straight line. Her fiery red hair shaved on the right side of her head, layered over onto the left, and burning hazel green eyes. Her energy was fire, and other raiders around her stepped away to avoid the heat coming from her.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" She said, the attack dogs stopped barking, but kept a low growl in their throat.

"We need you to listen to a recording I took of Tower Tom, just hours ago. We want to kill Tower Tom."

"What is it?" She asked, in her arms was a heavily modified hunting rifle, on the back were crow feathers dipped in red paint, screwed into the hardwood stock. There was a cross inside of a circle burned into the stock as well, and the rest of the stock was painted red, looked just like her namesake.

"Red, just before we came here, we got Tower Tom drunk, and he confessed things he doesn't want you to hear. We were discussing a deal, but once we learned about the kidnapping of your sister, Lily, we both knew we would never work with him. Now we want to kill Tower Tom."

"Where's the recording?" Red asked.

"Here. On my Pip-boy."

"I thought you said it was a Geiger counter."

Nate ignored the comment and was ready with the file before they even walked up to the Federal Stockpile.

Pressing play, Nate asked, "Now tell me this isn't Tower Tom's voice. Before I play it, I'm going to offer Tower Tom to you. I can have him hanging by a rope around his neck if you let us live."

"Play it." She wasn't convinced yet.

'"See what happens, Tom?"
Yes. I see what you're getting at."
"You create an economy, Tom. Now, instead of raiding the farmers, or telling your men to go out and farm, you send your men to protect the farm from being raided by other gangs! Do you get me? Do you understand?"
"Yeah."

There was a pause when Nate refilled Tower Tom's cup of vodka.

"Now, I can solve your Red problem, if you show me Lily."
"Oh no, she's dead. She tried to kill me so I shot her."
"What the fuck, you fucking-fucker? So, what does Red know?"
"Nothing! I forge letters and say it's from Lily."

"We can set up a trap and kill Tower Tom," Nate said.

Red ignited.

"Beat them, then take them inside."

Nate inhaled, expecting this. "Piper, protect your face."

The nine raiders all descended on Nate and Piper, they beat the living hell out of them as they punched them, kicked them, stomped on them, and made them gasp in agony as Nate felt a punch to his ribs, and then his cheek, a boot stomping on his shin, someone swinging a baseball bat at his head, a tire iron to the knees, and then a pummeling from a flurry of fists that made Nate bleed. Bashed in the nose, head punched and kidneys punched, he felt the piercing heat of a knife hit his ribs and he realized he was stabbed.

Guttering a groan, he collapsed, and they kept beating him for a whole minute.

Piper wasn't left unscathed either, they yanked on her hair, threw her to the ground, kicked her, slammed clubs into her, straddled her and beat her, she screamed and yelled, she tried defending her face, but her hands were pinned behind her as she was forced up onto her feet and punched in the stomach. Taken a baseball bat swing to the legs, she cried out in agony. Someone took a rock and heaved it down at her chest while she was laying on the ground, then they picked both of them up and forced them to walk. Piper's walk was a stagger and Nate was limping into the Federal Stockpile.

There were tarps over the original concrete building, stretched tight over the tops of buildings that lead down into barrels to collect rainwater. Three lean-to shacks looked like they were in a state of disrepair, and needed to be fixed. Three turrets puttered back and forth along the tops of buildings, and Piper took note through her one good eye that this place was well defended.

Too much blood was in Nate's eyes for him to see clearly, only look straight down at the ground and shuffle along.

They were lead inside, and down below. They were told to 'watch the landmines' and then came to a catwalk overlooking a pit of water. The catwalk was broken in the middle, and they were heaved across, the raiders taking large steps to spur them onwards, to the cement block room with no visible escape from, and only one way out.

\111/

Piper slumped down onto the floor, feeling pain rack across her body. "Nate...Nate...Nate...why did we do this? Why didn't we fight back?"

"Cause...it was the right thing to do, and she may be a raider, but that doesn't mean anything. She deserves to know the truth, and have justice, just like you and me." Nate coughed, sitting still on the ground. He moaned quietly to himself, trying to breathe through the pain and ease the suffering. "There's a quote that's been said and used a few times throughout history." He kept his eyes closed, it was too hard to see, and his eyes were swollen.

"The one I'm thinking of is by Doctor Martin Luther King. There's good in the worst of us..." Nate swallowed, spitting a gob of dried, reddish-black blood out. "and some evil in the best of us." Clearing his throat he finished with, "When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

"What kind of Doctor was he?" Piper asked.

Nate smiled, leaning his head back and laughing. "Haha he he he haha." The laughter echoed through the basement of the Federal Stockpile and set the guard posted to watch Nate and Piper on edge.

"What?" Piper asked, dragging herself closer to Nate. "I don't get it...What's so funny?"

"Doctorate in Theology. He studied religion at Boston University. You gotta know your local history, Piper. He was a great activist who focused America's mind to end segregation of whites and colored people. He would probably say history is repeating itself over...and over...and over...and over...again. Now we got robots. There were the blacks. Then the women...the gays...then the Jews, but they're always getting shafted. Then the Muslims...and the Eastern Mediterraneans...and then the Japs again cause nobody could fuckin' tell a Korean from a Vietnamese, from a guy I knew from Laos, from a Gook. Finally, we got to the Chinese...I wonder how that one turned out..." Nate yawned. "Now we got robots."

"Where's this coming from, Blue? Is it because we just got the shit kicked out of us?"

He shook his head. "I burned down Covenant, Piper. The people there were torturing a woman they kidnapped...Amelia Stockton. I knew she was a synth...they were working on a test to see if she was a synth...and she passed it in the wrong way. I burnt down the settlement because the people in Covenant would signal a group...to come and attack anyone who they thought was a synth...Kidnap 'em. Torture 'em. Electrocute 'em. Beat 'em to death. Then keep on testing. So I burnt the whole thing down. It was a witch hunt, so I killed them."

"It hurts to breathe, Nate. I really don't care right now." Shuddering breaths of pain were the only other noises shared between the duo for the rest of the evening.

\111/

Red couldn't sit down. Her arms were shaking too hard and her people left her alone after she threw a table at Wink. She didn't mean to throw a table at him, but when someone wakes her up too early in the morning and gets her to walk out to the front gate where two strangers tell her with backing evidence that her sister is dead, sometimes furniture gets thrown around.

It's not her fault Wink was in the way. He was standing in the doorway to her room, and now, he was laying knocked out cold on the ground outside her room with her broken table smashed around him.

Tags told her they threw the man and woman into the concrete room, a storage room they couldn't even access all that easily anyway. They were beaten, and they didn't even fight back except to try and keep their faces protected. Her entire body was sweating, and her heart was racing, but she was stone-cold sober.

Next thing she knew, she crouched down low, screaming into her hands and crying. She was lied to, for weeks...She tried looking at the letters, but couldn't focus on the words. Red knew which letter Lily was her last, and the one's Tower Tom started sending as forgeries, but she couldn't read them. Her eyes would tear up and she couldn't stand to look at them without sobbing.

There was too much. She remembered doing things with her, hunting together, going as far back as learning how to shoot, and who was the better shot. She grits her teeth, closing her eyes and crying again. Red didn't know how to be sad, happy, and angry all at the same time. She grunted, roaring as the overwhelming rage at the thought of being lied to by Tower Tom, and then disgusted that she didn't realize it sooner.

Two weeks ago...she finally had the strength to look at the letters and see the difference in handwriting.

Lily's been dead for two weeks, her people inside Tom's gang say they haven't seen her in a while, and know she was moved.

She called for one of her people inside of Tower Tom's gang to report to her. It was an hour before Holso came to her room, and spoke with her.

"Where's Lily?" She asked Hoslo.

"We don't know, and no one else in Tom's crew knows either. We've asked every single person, checked every room, they all think or say she was moved, but they never saw her get moved personally. They have no idea where she is." Holso answered.

"The newcomers said she tried to kill Tom and escape, but he shot and killed her," Red said, relaying the news as collectedly as she could.

"If we don't know where Lily is, and if Tom doesn't have her anymore. Then he needs to pay." Holso replied.

How long had her sister been dead? The words were like a brain parasite, and she wanted to beat the information out of Tom until his arms and legs were bent in ways no human body should ever bend in.

She was going to kill him. That was a fact, she told herself. She was going to poison the food, and kill them all, but then she wouldn't know where Lily was. The strangers. The thought bored itself to the forefront of her mind.

They said they could trap him.

Taking deep breaths, it took her almost an hour to finally calm her nerves enough where she could take a few steps without breaking down into a fit of raw emotion.

When Nate sang, he was making his voice deeper, and it echoed throughout the rocky underground. She could hear his voice echoing through the tunnels, and was sure that one of her gang would tell them to shut up, and beat them into quieting down, but as much as Red wanted Nate to stop singing, he captured how she was feeling emotionally right now. She didn't mind the song...it was an okay one, but why did it have to be this song?

Grabbing two stimpaks, she gripped them tightly in her fist and walked towards the noise. Two women followed along behind her, Territh and Darva. They followed Red closely, keeping quiet, but knowing where she was going, and guarding her in her wake.

\111/

"Some body, please
give me Just a minute
To explain my misery?"

Red could hear it from her room, and it made her knuckles grow white as she walked through the ancient tunnels and the rock floors, echoing her footsteps. She walked at them, trying to get them to shut up. She just regained control of her emotions, and now the song was bringing up the memory of Lily all over again.

"The girl that I love
She walked out on me."

"(Yea she did)" Piper added.

Moving faster, Red followed the winding tunnels to the basement beneath the Federal Stockpile.

"And now I stand here
With just a memory
somebody, please
Won't you help me?
Now wait just a minute now
You got to tell me why
Without my baby
I think I'm gonna die."

Red paused to catch her breath, wiping her face, climbing up some stairs, she gripped her fists tightly and swore, how dare the strangers sing?

"The girl that I love...
She walked out on me"

"(yea she did)"

"And now I stand here
My heart in misery.
O somebody, please
Won't you help me Ooo?"

Reaching the catwalk, Red walked around and jumped across the gap as Nate started on the chorus.

"Can't you feel the fire burning
Can't you see the Wheels are turning
But without you Baby
I know I'm going to go
Oh, can't you feel the fire burning?
Can't you see the wheels in my heart are turning?"

Nate was massaging Piper's back, trying to ease the pain when Red leaped across the broken catwalk and came up to them.

He stopped once they heard her footsteps.

She came up to them and demanded to know. "You said you want to kill Tower Tom. Why?

"We talked with Tower Tom, and he told us he kidnapped Lily."

"Why were you talking with Tom?"

"I struck a deal with one of his lieutenants, Sparta. In exchange for three things, I left her company alive and well. The first was a pile of loot inside an office they couldn't get into. It was ammo, booze, drugs." Nate bobbed his head forward. Counting on his fingers, "The second was to not bring down the ceiling on everybody's heads with a bomb I was carrying with me at the time. Third, I agreed to take out a building in Cambridge filled with super mutants, and she let me live. She agreed to let me go, so she told me to go to Beantown Brewery." Nate flicked his right hand up, dismissing the story. "Piper and I talked with Tom, got him very drunk, and he told us about the forged letters he's been sending you in the wake of Lily's death."

Red's jaw muscles were clenched tightly, rocking back and forth, she wasn't impressed with Nate's story.

"We're adamantly against any murdering-kidnappers," Piper said.

"Why?"

"My son was kidnapped by the Institute, and I only recently hung the man who did it. I want to offer that same catharsis to you."

"Why do you want to do things for me? What's in it for you?"

"The brewery. But more specifically, Beer. They already make beer, but they're killing caravans so they're not trading it away either for resources they need. Namely one is your food. Eventually, when they run out of supplies, they'll sober up and realize that they've scavenged the entire town around them and will be forced to move out, or become increasingly demanding with the tributes others are providing to them." Nate pointed both fingers towards Red. "When Tower Tom is removed, use that brewery to provide beer. Water and alcohol, safe to drink, easy to make, and people can go for three weeks without food...and only three days before they need to drink something to survive."

"Tower Tom has no leverage over you." He finished with, Piper agreed.

"So you want his brewery. I want his head."

"We can help each other out. I'm a long way from having plans in place to secure the brewery, and I don't want another gang moving in. How about Piper and myself clear out Tom and his gang. We give you Tom, and then we become partners in beer? We're not interested in caps, or your food, just the machines inside Tom's building. Caps will become a necessity eventually to pay people, but that's a long way off."

"How long?" Red asked.

"Say the word, and we can have Tom kneeling in front of you in three hours. The brewing would come after that when we're not so busy."

"How can you get me Tom?"

"Piper and I can go in ourselves, sweep and clearing the brewery. There are twelve people, five in the main entrance, seven in the back, if you lead a charge of your crew while we're assaulting the building, we can hand him right over to you in handcuffs once we're done. What you do with him is up to you of course. I suggest hanging him in front of your next enemy.

"So why are you dead set on hanging him?" Red asked. Piper focused on Nate as well, why bring up hanging again?

Nate thought back to False Pass, the gallows for every single Chinese soldier who touched land. How it was a deterrent for soldiers trying to cross the pass.

"It's a process to hang someone. First, you need to tie the rope in a hangman's knot before looping it around his neck, and cinching it down tight. Then, either thrown off a balcony or ledge, his neck snaps. It will show to everyone else around watching it happen that you're not to be messed with, otherwise they'll suffer a similar fate."

"I'd rather cut his head clean off with the sharpest blade I can find."

"That's faster than my way, I suggest when you do lop off his head, get him to bow onto his knees first, it makes him show humility."

Red considered it. "If I release you, who's to say you won't go running back to Tom after we beat the living shit out of both of you? That you won't just try to attack us?"

"You'll have to put your faith in us, Red. We wanted to avenge Lily's death the moment he mentioned it, but we came straight to you so that you knew because Tom has no right treating you like this. He does not deserve to be happy at the expense of Lily's life and your suffering. It was the honorable thing to do to come and tell you, and from what I've seen, there is very little honor or respect in the Commonwealth. You deserve all the respect in the world, and the honor of killing Tower Tom goes to yourself."

"Do you know where her body is?"

"No, but, if we're allowed to leave, and be partners moving forward, I'll find out where she is so you can have a proper burial."

"Why would you do that? I'm not looking for any partners."

"I treat everyone in my community with the respect they deserve. You deserve all the respect in the world for what you had to go through. Tom disrespected you, and he disrespected your sister's memory by forging letters to you. He is a man who doesn't deserve to live for kidnapping a person, who knew your sister would try to escape and return to you."

"My men inside Beantown tell me she hasn't been seen in a while. They thought he moved her."

"You have people inside Beantown?" Nate asked. "I suggest you send them a message or have them identify themselves in some way so we know they're part of your gang. Tell them we're coming. How many people do you have inside Tom's gang?"

"Three. Daro is out with Sparta, and we haven't communicated with him in weeks. Gretchen and Price are both with Tower Tom."

"Is it possible to pull them out of the area without causing suspicion?"

"I can send them a message," Red replied. "They'll know you're coming and to stand down when you arrive."

"Good. That's excellent." Nate smiled, trying to see through his cracked eyes. His eyes went to the stimpaks in Red's hands, hoping that they were for Piper and himself. "Tom is dishonest in telling his people what he does with prisoners. You, however, did us an amazing kindness for sparing our lives. You could've let your people kill us, and be done with it, thank you for sparing us." He thanked her, bowing his head until it touched the concrete floor.

Piper tensed, she's never dealt with raiders this intensely, and the way Nate put it, he was always humbling himself in front of them.

"Why do you talk about honor and respect?" Red asked.

"I come from a time where respecting and honoring the family was a dying art form, and taking pride in the community meant taking advantage of it until the community broke apart. There was no love for the community, there was no love for the family. You would not have spared us unless you loved your sister very much. That is why I respect you. That is why I came to you, hoping you loved your sister. That is why I will never work for a person like Tower Tom."

Red popped her fingers, her knuckles, balling up her fist and thinking things over. She looked up at the ceiling, realizing she hasn't had the time to wonder about the rest of the world with all her focus on Tom and Lily.

"With Tom dead, his people will either have to fight back or surrender. With caravans moving through, it'll be your decision what to do with them. You'll have support with people coming to deliver supplies, and people will still want what you have, but instead of fighting over it, you can trade for it. You will avenge your sister by honoring her memory."

Nate raised a hand to her to shake. "Partners?" He asked,

She looked down at his hand, "Partners. Now, take this." Red said, offering the stimpaks to Nate and Piper.

"As for the beating my gang gave you, think of it as initiation. You're one of us now."

"Don't worry about it, I understand. We didn't expect anything less than what you did." Nate and Piper both took the stimpaks and injected themselves, healing the surface injuries and healing up the open wounds. They were both sore and ragged from the encounter, but with a gesture of goodwill from Red, they felt like they could breathe easier again.

It still didn't make getting beaten to hell and back, then waiting two hours without anything to ease the pain any easier.

\111/

Next Chapter: Ch. 41 Recon Squad Gladius Estimated time remaining: 23 Hours, 35 Minutes