"What we have here..." Nick Valentine said, it only took a few seconds for him to realize why Thunderstruck called him up. The dead body with peculiar red and black clothing lined with pouches. "Is a genuine Brotherhood of Steel Scribe. He was support for the heavies." Nick made a small 'tisk', noting the extent of decay, the lack of skin where flies and maggots had eaten away the most of the flesh, and the dried blood. The skin that remained was dried leather, pulled tight over the bones.

"Curious as to how the mutants never got around to moving the lost soul." Nick Valentine followed the trail backwards from the dead Brotherhood of Steel agent, to the trail of blood left behind on the steps leading up to a small shack integrated to the satellite array, then back to the bullet wound pierced through the leg.

"What we have here..." He said again, then noticing there was something underneath the wounded right leg. Possibly an attempt to elevate it, but instead, Thunderstruck helped Nick lift the body for a moment to see what was under it, and found a holotape recorder. It looked weathered, and dried black blood was still present, bonding to the player.

"I know this man." Nick finally said.

"You do?" Thunderstruck asked.

"Not personally, but, I know he and his team graced Diamond City for a few days some three odd years ago." Nick looked at the eyesockets, how a few strands of hair clung to the head, and the teeth showing through. His eyes drifted down to the dogtags wrapped around his neck, two of them. Nick plucked one off, and looked at the name.

"Could'a maybe only been for a day, but who knows? Scribe Faris, it says. Well. Let's hear what a dying man had to say."

Nick pressed the play button on the recorder, but no sound came out. Popping off the battery panel, a small layer of battery acid was present. Rubbing it off on his jacket, he popped the batteries back in and the reel started moving.

"It's been...two hours since the Paladin left, and I can't staunch the bleeding." There was a noise of air being sucked in through his teeth, and a nervous rattle of a laugh. Bullet must've hit an artery...Brandis. If you get this. I hope you made it back to Astlin at the Guard in time. There was..." The voice went extremely quiet for a moment, completely stopping. "Nothing you could do for me. Get to the bunker up north. You'll survive. That's all..." Another long stop, Faris winded. "That matters."

Nick knocked his knuckles against the wooden beam, "Well, there you go."

"Do you think he meant National Guard?" Thunderstruck asked.

"I would think so, the Training Yard is less than an hour's walk from here. For you, probably fifteen minutes."

"I know Nate was there, not too long ago. I don't remember him saying if they found this Astlin character, or anyone else, but that bunker Faris mentioned has me wondering."

"Well, far from me to deny the truth, but there's only one person who could probably tell you who, what, or where this bunker could be, but I don't know how he stands on synths. Heck, I know Nate stands my company, but he's still a bit leery on the whole issue of how I might be beeming information back to the Institute without knowing it. Hell, a lot of people were like that way when they rolled with me. As for our Brotherhood brother here, are you thinking there might be some good guns laying around?"

"That's what I'm hoping." Thunderstruck said.

"Well, if you want to solve the mystery of the missing patrol, be my guest. You're friends, I don't know if they've mentioned yet, but there's the Brotherhood of Steel camped out in the Cambridge police station. A heavy-hitter type by the name of Paladin Danse. If you want to spend the afternoon tracking down leads, I can escort your friends back to the tower."

"I'd rather make sure they're introduced and settled, before leaving," she said. "But, never hurts to have friends in places you least expect, right?"

"Truer words were never spoken," Nick replied.

"Well, let's head out, I haven't found much here." She said, trotting to the ledge. Expanding her wings she flew out over the Revere satellite array, calling out to Dart and Golden.

"Find Anything?"

"Lots of dead things, but nothing worthwhile!" Golden shouted back. The Revere satellite was more akin to a human slaughterhouse than what it was intended for. Killing the mutants who lived here was a Godsend to the rest of the people in the Commonwealth.

"What about you?"

"I found a rocket laucher, with a missile!" Dart said, setting the weapon over his back with a strap, it slipped suddenly. Dart clung onto it, but with a moment of horror and panic, he accidently fired the missile launcher while trying to prevent it from falling over. It launched at a 30 degree angle where it flew through the air for 200 meters before finally crashing into a cove of trees outside of the satellite array. The explosion obliterated a small hole in the growth, much to the silence of Dart, Golden Grain, Nick, and Thunderstruck.

"Don't worry, I found more missiles!" Dart shouted, smiling up at the pegasus.

"That's not what I'm worried about!" Thunderstruck shouted down, feeling patronized. She landed next to Nick and said, "You know what? I'm pretty sure they can make it from Bunker Hill to the tower on their own. You'll still guide them, wont you? It's a pretty straight shot from here now that everything from the Mill to the ship is dead or occupied."

"I'd be more than happy to," Nick Valentine replied.

"Great, I'll follow you to Bunker hill then split West. I'll be back before you even know I'm gone." Thunderstruck rose both hooves up to the railing and shouted to get their attention. "Hey, knuckleheads! We're moving out! Change of plans, too! I'm taking you to Bunker Hill, then you two and Nick will keep heading South! I'm following a lead to track down some guns! I'll be back before you know it!"

\111/

Of the fifty Railroaders, and the fifteen ponies working alongside them, they all abandoned the Old North Church in haste. Anything resembling a bird within five blocks of the church was shot, and then collected. Small caliber rounds to do the least damage as possible, of 80 birds, seven were synth after being cleaned. This only furthered Nate's point that the Railroad was being watched.

Hunted with a vengence, entire parties moving out of the area in groups of five and six split in all directions, but all in all, a third went to to Vault 75 up in Malden, the rest went to Vault 114 under the Boston Common. Only a handful of people and two ponies stayed in the Old North Church, lighting candles and lanterns, making the entire neighbor hood seem much more active than it was. False sentries, the same core group of Railroaders doing double time walks that covered more area, all to attract and fool Institute attention.

"Why do I always have to be the pack animal?" Santo asked, carrying 400 pounds of gear and moving at a steady trot.

"Because, it's always a good cover for the rest of us to appear as traders, and you can carry four hundred pounds of gear without breaking a sweat." Drummer Boy said.

"I sweat! But at least pony sweat doesn't stink as bad as human sweat with all the alcohol and meat oozing out your pores! Here's a better question, why does Desdemona think I need to go with you?"

"That, you'll have to ask her yourself, but one, you need more above ground experience, and two, of all the ponies, you're the only one who can teleport herself back to base with information," Tinker Tom replied.

"What about Bottle Cap? He's stronger than me and is great with his horn, I've been teaching him how to teleport."

"We've seen it, he's great at moving cargo, strong telekinesis, and battle magic, but he can teleport all of twenty feet before getting winded," Deacon said.

"It's not my fault he doesn't practice! Pine Berry, Mango Blast, Logic Gate, Lemon Balm, Breaker Point, anyone of them great at magic, why do I have to go with you?"

"Familiarity and you're the only one calm enough not to panic when it comes to fighting. The other ponies are great at what they do, but they're still a bit traumatized from Nuka-World. You're the only one that's bounced back faster than them."

"Fuck you, Deacon, I'm halfway traumatized every time we have to walk from one side of Boston to the other; Mutant hanging meat bags, roving packs of feral dogs, getting shot at by raiders... Why do they feel the need to decorate by suspending a headless body between chains?! It seems like they're putting way too much effort into punishing someone, and then making an example out of it...! Look at that! What's with the ghoul?"

A Moldovite Ghoul with crystals embedded into its flesh staggered through the streets, "Like what the hell happened to this one? It looks like he's got rocks shoved into him."

"I'll take care of him." Drummer Boy said, raising his carbine rifle. Checking to make sure there weren't more approaching, he lined up the sights and fired. They all heard the bullet hit the ghoul, but it struck the Moldovite crystals, embedding itself within and chipping off the crystal.

Enraged, the ghoul lurched at them, hustling down the street towards them, Drummer Boy fired four more times, missing half his shots. Deacon aimed a laser rifle at the ghoul when it got closer, and didn't hesitate to help finish off the ghoul. After firing once, the beam of laser bounced off and lanced the ground. "What the Hell?" He cursed, firing again to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

Six more bullets, and seven blasts from Deacon's laser rifle to bring the ghoul down, Tinker Tom, Drummer Boy, Santo, and Deacon all observed the crystals redirect the laser's energy.

"Holy smokes, this ghoul was impervious to lasers." Deacon said

"Well...shit. I could make some badass armor from that. Synths wouldn't stand a chance." Tinker Tom said, already thinking of the possibilities.

"Drummer Boy, run ahead to the Boston Common with Santo. Tinker, let's see what we can pull off this ghoul."

\111/

"Well, that was a bust." Serin Copper said, "We ditched Curie, and half of the stuff we found."

"She's a robot, I don't know how they think, but when it comes to self-preservation, we all set that goal pretty high up on the list." Hollow Point added, "We told her we were leaving, she decided to stay at the Hospital. There wasn't anything more we could do. A raider made its way in, and proved a point we weren't willing to admit. That we're not cut out to be living in the big city. We gave it a shot, and ended up bolting when we could've taken him on. Thinking back on it, he was bleeding, but instead of taking advantage of an easy fight, we ran."

"It also made sense of why the streets were so quiet this morning. They were all gearing up, getting into position for the Gunners come back on their vertibird. The people we passed must've been lookouts." Warner said.

"So where do we go from here? Back to the ship?"

"Yeah. We've got a bundle of medicine and texts that the human wanted, it'll be enough to buy ourselves some good graces. Then, when they show back up, we'll ask about getting out into the countryside where there's less conflicts going on." Hollow Point said, rising her haunches to readjust the pack on her back.

"Wont the human be mad we ditched his robot?" Warner asked.

"Probably, but unless we want to turn back now, there's nothing else we can do about it." Copper replied.

"Well, what if we could? I don't know about you, but even though we were scared, we could still turn this around. I'm going back for the robot."

"We shouldn't split up."

Hollow Point shrugged, "We shouldn't, but a group draws more attention on the streets." Undoing her bags, she took them off and passed them to Warner. Only grabbing her one gun, she said, "I'll be quick."

Galloping at full speed back to the Mass Bay Medical, she swore she could hear a few gunshots follow her, bullets pinging off the ground, or cars as she sprinted by them, but that only made her keep up her frantic pace. When she came to a slow trot outside of the emergency drop-off area, she breathed deeply, knowing that she made it. Planning an alternate route in her head, she and Curie would need to avoid the same road going back.

Careful not to call out the Miss Nanny bot's name, she passed through the open doors and into the dilapidated waiting area. There were signs that the fighting spread through all sections of the hospital, cartridges littered the floor, the walls were more torn up, pieces of ceiling were hanging down.

Hollow Point froze after coming across a few bodies, slumped over without the life in them anymore. Sprawled out on the ground, it was difficult not to see the bits of body blown out of them, spread across the walls and floor.

Carefully making her way to the E.R., she stopped when there was a Gunner waiting, having heard her hooves against the linoleum floor. He was completely dark, but there was a weariness to his form. He'd been sitting there for a long time, only to catch his breath after the hours of fighting and loud noises. He was breathing hard, expecting something to come into his vision, but he halted when seeing the pony. He raised, then lowered his rifle, arm giving out from exhaustion. He couldn't shoot anymore. His ears were ringing too much.

His hand seized, an instinctual twitch, finger pulling the trigger, he shot at the floor, letting the recoil buck and jerk his arm upwards, but Hollow Point threw herself to the side of the hallway, firing eight shots back. Most of the bullets missed, but three struck him. Causing him to fall over backwards and loudly thump against the ground. There was no final words uttered, last breath, he was dead. The Gunner felt dead long before Hollow Point even arrived, thinking how could he be alive after so long?

Jittery, Hollow Point realized she needed coverings for her hooves, to soften the noise. Without any immediate quick-fixes for her situation, she moved slower through the hallways, feeling bits of dirt and tile crunch under the weight of her hooves.

Upon reaching the ward where she last saw Curie, she took her time getting in, but a voice called out. "Hey, who's there? Answer me!"

With no other choice but to respond, or potentially face getting another burst of gunfire directed right at her, she called back, "Hollow Point! I'm here for Curie."

The doors parted a few inches, and the person on the other side examined her. "You're a pony."

"Yes."

"I saw you this morning when you all walked by." The doors opened a little more, and the woman raider with the black hair was illuminated by her plasma rifle she carried. Her arms were wrapped in bandages, her right arm in a sling, with the left arm handling the weight of the rifle in one hand.

She hadn't opened the doors any further, and seemed stuck in her head.

"What's your name?" Hollow Point asked.

"Shaia."

"Is the Miss Nanny bot still here? We had to separate a little bit ago. I need to know she's okay."

"Was that you shooting just now?"

"Yes. There was a gunner who was downstairs. Like he was confused or something. Out of it. That was the only one I've seen so far."

"You killed him?"

"Yes. He's dead."

"They killed 20 of us. Eight damn Gunners killed almost all of us, there were two left. How did you kill one?"

"Caught him off guard, if it weren't for you wearing him out, he would've shot me dead. Was Curie helping you?"

Shaia let out a held in breath, pushing the door open fully. "Yes. She's still here. She's packing up. I tried convincing her to stay, but there's only a handful of us still mobile. I don't want to trigger her, but she's too valuable to lose. Who do you belong to?"

"I...don't..." The question caught her off guard, "The Vault Dweller. He has the rights to us and the robot."

"The vault dweller? I heard of him, how he cleared about a bunch of mutants to the north. Took out a couple groups of humans too. I was there when they hung Kellogg." Shaia said, she was intermixed with the crowds of people who all gathered there over a week ago when the Institute agent was hung off the Mass Fusion tower.

"Then, you should know he's easy to work with, so long as you don't threaten him, he's a man of his word." Looking past Shaia, she saw Curie puttering around, bundling the items they'd left behind together into a big blanket. "Look, I know you don't want to let her leave, but the Vault Dweller's got a vested interest in making sure Curie helps her, especially since finding the data from the Auto-Docs that let her perform surgeries. Maybe I can help you work something out with the two of them?"

"I want to say no, but we're not in the position to say so. What do you have in mind, little lady?"

"A partnership. The Vault Dweller is going to be coming back this way, and he enjoys being able to go where he likes without being shot at. Curie listens to him, and follows him. They're both extremely smart, and can get you more territory from the Gunners. Where are you based out of?"

"Right here. This hospital is now ours. Used to be the Metro Station below this place, but the Gunner's kept butting in on us. They couldn't drive us out of the tunnels and they knew it, so when they left in their little birdy, we moved up and waited for them to come back."

"Are there any more people in your gang?"

"Another fifteen of us back down in the station, holding out."

"I can't speak for Curie, but I know she wont be anchored down to one spot for too long. Let her go, if we can make sure anytime you or anyone in your gang needs her, then she wont say no to helping people in need. But, we need to know who our allies are."

"I lost too many men, and too much blood to say yes. We need something strong to defend this place and more people."

"Then how about this, I put you in touch with a group up near Goodneighbor? They got people, and are sitting pretty comfy ever since the Vault Dweller carved out Faneuil Hall from the mutants. If you think about it, that gives you a straight shot all the way from here to Bunker Hill if you look at a map. That's a nice little strip you can have traders and caravans come along. We came down along the waterfront, and you know what I saw? The Harbormaster hotel was full of dead Gunners, and the Shamrock Taphouse littered with bits and pieces of dead mutants. Who do you think did that? I'll give you one guess. That's a lot of territory, and we need you to protect it. That's a lot of open area for scavengers to pick through and you can charge protection to any caravans running through your territory."

"You almost make it sound like you know what you're talking about. Alright, little lady. We'll do it. If you get caravans to stop by, we get the waterfront, and we'll consider you and the Vault Dweller persona grata to our gang. But, you need to get him to come by and seal the deal. I want him and a caravan right outside these doors to make it official."

"Deal."

"You know about the mutant fights Tommy's got going? Got a good line for a fighter he has. Hasn't disappointed in a long while now."

"No, where's this at?"

"The Combat Zone, pitting fighters against whatever his boys drag in from around the Commonwealth. But, judging from the scars on you, I'm sure you know all about that?"

The scars on Hollow Point, Cherry Fizz, Warner, and Serin Copper were all from being whipped and beaten relentlessly by the raiders at Libertalia, "I do, I do everything I'm told, and then still torn to shreds by asshats who can't fend for themselves. That's why when the Vault Dweller bought us, he paid with iron and their blood, not caps. He dragged the leader James Wire of Libertalia all the way across the bay, to get stabbed to death by a pony in front of everyone at Goodneighbor."

"Seems like this Vault Dweller has got a sense of justice. Trying to lay down the pressure, is he?"

"It depends, did you ever roast one of us alive and treat everyone to a big pony barbeque, or do you have enough sense not to kill your pack animals?"

"I ain't seen enough of you to know, but if you're packing, then that's weight off my back."

"Glad you agree." Hollow Point said.

Breaking away from Shaia, this who conversation left her rattled. A bluff lead to a deal that she didn't know she could make, or even pass. Then the whole dog-eat-dog, eat or be eaten mentality nearly made her break. It was like jumping through mental hoops with these humans, all probing and testing for weaknesses at any moment. If Serin or Warner came with her, she had no doubts one of them would've been turned into food for a gang of raiders that were hungry after a big battle like this. Hollow Point felt her heart beating in her throat, and was trying to swallow the lump back down.

"Curie." She said, watching the Miss Nanny bot tie the blanket of leftover supplies into a big hobo sack. Her eye cones swung around to see Hollow Point, picking up the bag.

"Ah, mon amie, so good to see you. Are you well?"

"Yes, Curie, I am. I see you were quite busy."

"Oh yes, it was quite the learning experience translating what the Auto-Doc described, and implementing it in real life. I picked up an upgrade for myself as well," She said, blinking twice, the x-ray lens replaced her middle eye cone for a moment before switching back. "Now I can take x-rays on the go and develop them all in my head! Isn't that wonderful?"

Hollow Point nodded, "That really is, I wanted to make sure you were safe. Sorry for abandoning you earlier, things were tense with all the shooting going on around us."

"Anycase, I'm glad you've returned. I know Monsiuer Nate would be extremely happy to know of all the information I've picked up since our last encounter."

"I'm sure he'll be ecstatic, Curie. Are you ready to leave? Do you need a hand with that?"

"Oh, I'm quite capable, thank you though. Shall we be leaving now?"

"Yes, let's..."

\111/

Next Chapter: Ch. 76 The Offer Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 4 Minutes