Becky was finding it increasingly difficult to hide her awe at the sheer amount of magic that was packed into Rivet City. The Enclave had a fair amount of magical equipment, and a whole bunch of material in its labs, but even that was dwarfed by what was on display here. Somehow, the people of this settlement had managed to rapidly integrate stunning magical advances into the very fabric of daily life. It seemed that a trade deal with Rivet City would be more profitable for the Enclave than originally thought.

Just as Becky resolved to impress the benefits of such a deal upon the Council, Chief Harkness informed her that they had arrived at the meeting room and politely held the door open for the ladies to enter.

Agent Drops went inside first, then gestured for Becky to follow. Three other people were already waiting inside, seated around a square table with a holo-recorder placed between them. The first two were a man and a woman, both dark skinned and dark haired, but where the man was wearing a nicely tailored suit, the woman was clad in a thick leather trench coat that was so stained and patched it was impossible to tell what the original color had been. Becky recognized them as Bannon and Pia, Rivet City’s Merchant and Science representatives respectively. The last person was a young woman with a blonde ponytail, a sweat-soaked Brotherhood of Steel uniform, and a dour expression that looked like it could have been carved from granite. This was undoubtedly the new Elder Lyons.

“Sorry we’re late, I wasn’t expecting all of you to get here so quickly,” Harkness apologized quickly.

“Clearly,” Bannon noted sourly, regarding Becky with a calculating stare.

Harkness ignored him and closed the door before gesturing for the President to take a seat. “Everyone, this is President Shoichet of the Enclave. President Shoichet, these are Representatives Bannon and Pia of Rivet City, and Elder Lyons of the Brotherhood of Steel.”

Becky dipped her head in acknowledgement and took the offered seat, with Agent Drops taking up position behind her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Becky said as Harkness went to his own chair and pressed a button on the holo-recorder. She glanced at Elder Lyons. “First of all, allow me to offer my condolences for your loss. Your father was one of the bravest and most honorable men I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

“I appreciate it, but you can skip the niceties,” Lyons said gruffly. “You wanted to speak to me, so why don’t you just tell me what the Enclave wants?”

“And what you want with Rivet City,” Pia added in a frosty tone.

Becky could practically feel Agent Drops tensing up at the less than friendly welcome, but it was only to be expected. The Enclave’s reputation around the Capital Wasteland was abysmal. Changing that wasn’t going to be easy.

“Alright, straight to business.” Becky turned to Elder Lyons. “I’m aware that the loss of the Citadel is going to have something of an impact on the Brotherhood of Steel’s operations in the Capital Wasteland,” she began, deliberately understating the situation in case the Elder was trying to put up a strong image in front of the Council. “Ideally, I’d be able to offer whatever assistance possible to help you rebuild, but, and I hate to admit this, there’s elements in the Enclave leadership that want to take advantage of the Brotherhood’s bad luck.”

“Is that supposed to reassure me?” Lyons asked.

“I just want us to all be on the same page,” Becky replied simply. “I’ve got a handle on them for the moment, but it’ll be better for all of us in the long run if I can pacify them as soon as possible. So, my main concern is this…” She leaned forward, placed her elbows on the table and clasped her hands in front of her face. “What minor concessions can I ask for that won’t add more burdens to your people, but that I can still spin as significant benefits to the hardliners, in return for Enclave aid?”

Lyons frowned hard, clearly trying to figure out what Becky’s angle was. “Call me suspicious, but I get the feeling there’s something else you’re after here? What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch,” Becky replied with a casual shrug. “The Enclave and the Brotherhood have both been weakened by the recent battles. It’s in our best interests, and the interests of the Capital Wasteland as a whole, if our factions work together to rebuild instead of trying to compete.”

“How incredibly magnanimous of you,” Pia noted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“It has nothing to do with being nice or charitable, it’s self-preservation,” Becky shot. “The Super Mutants have been quiet recently, but we’re also hearing rumors that they’ve made an alliance with Talon Company. If that’s true, then there’s a good chance that either that Shepherd monstrosity that Sunset warned us about is organizing the mutants, or, even worse, there’s some faction or magical nightmare out there that’s powerful enough to force the Super Mutants to ask for help. Neither of those scenarios are something that the Enclave or Brotherhood are able to handle alone at the moment.”

The Councilors all looked anxiously at Elder Lyons, who crossed her arms and shook her head slowly. “We barely had the manpower to handle the Super Mutants before the war and our battle with Unity. Liberty Prime is in pristine condition, and is obviously massively powerful, but he’s just one robot. Hell, I’m wary about sending him after any major targets without Rainboom support in case he encounters anything else as powerful as Unity.” Pia and Harkness shared a worried look, but Lyons ignored them and glanced at Becky. “You say you want to help us, so what are you offering?”

“What do you need?” Becky asked.

Lyons stared her down for a few seconds, then finally sighed and sagged in her chair. “What don’t we need? Rivet City has offered us shelter, food, and space to construct a new HQ in exchange for assistance with expanding the city. But we still need facilities and equipment for servicing, repairing, and upgrading our power armor and Liberty Prime, medical supplies in bulk, training facilities, and probably a hundred other things I haven’t thought of yet. We don’t even have a way of manufacturing the quantity of ammunition that we need anymore. I’ve heard of a group operating in old Pittsburgh that could get us the munitions we need, but our cap stores were all destroyed with the Citadel, and we don’t have anything to barter with.”

The list of things the Brotherhood needed was extensive, but it was all stuff that Becky and her advisors had already predicted and, more importantly, planned for. Frankly, she was more concerned about how unstable Lyons was feeling if she was freely admitting all of this. “The Enclave can help with power armor, training facilities, and ammunition easily enough. Medical supplies will be a little more tricky, but I’m sure that we can scrounge up an auto-doc and a small but regular supply of biogel.”

“An auto-doc?” Pia noted under her breath.

Becky nodded, sensing an opportunity to entice the Council as well. “I’m afraid the Enclave can’t spare one for Rivet City as well, but we can offer communications technology, construction grade power armor, and I can also see if we have any old point defense systems and turrets that’ll fit on this old tub.”

“And what do you want in exchange for all of that?” Lyons asked suspiciously. “You talk a lot, but what you’re offering doesn’t come cheap.”

The Elder’s obvious distrust was, oddly enough, a relief to Becky. “I have some suggestions,” she replied. “For a start, the Enclave wants a larger presence at Project Purity, including greater responsibility for its defenses. We’d also like to station troops at the Washington Monument, the former site of the White House, and Galaxy News.”

Lyons frowned as she considered. “Doctor Li won’t be happy about increasing your presence at the purifier, but she’ll just have to accept it. I’m fine with you having troops at the Washington Monument and the White House, but as for Galaxy News… I’ll have to talk to Three Dog first.”

“That’s fair. If there’s no opposition, we can install the necessary equipment for servicing power armor at Project Purity and Galaxy News for both Enclave and Brotherhood use,” Becky replied, glad that Agent Drops was secretly recording the whole conversation for later. “Finally, I’d like to request that the Brotherhood of Steel hand responsibility to the Enclave for all water deliveries to settlements that are further out from the purifier than Megaton.”

The suggestion made Elder Lyons grimace. Becky didn’t blame her; pretty much every major wasteland settlement was further out than Megaton. The Enclave was already taking most of the deliveries to Girdershade and the Republic of Dave, the most remote settlements in the Capital Wasteland, but taking over deliveries to all of them was a whole other matter. It would certainly be easier for the Brotherhood if they could concentrate their efforts in a smaller area, but giving up those deliveries would significantly weaken their reputation across the wastes, as well as risk undermining the Brotherhood's authority and Lyons’ own capability as a leader. It wasn’t a decision to be made lightly.

Becky could see the Elder wavering, but she decided to work on the Councilors before trying to sweeten the deal. The three straightened up as she turned her attention to them. “As for Rivet City, all I ask is that some of our scientists be permitted to spend time here and trade information on magical research with your own science team.” Becky leaned back slightly in her chair and affected a casual air as an idea occurred to her. “Of course, in addition to a few suits of construction grade power armor, the Enclave will be happy to provide trained operators to teach your workers how to use and maintain them efficiently. Speaking of power armor…” She glanced at Elder Lyons. “As a result of the incidents at Raven Rock and the Base Crawler, we’ve been left with more suits of military power armor than we have soldiers to use them. I’d be happy to donate some of our X-01 suits to the Brotherhood of Steel instead of just mothballing them.”

“Giving them your old cast-offs? How… generous,” Bannon noted.

Becky ignored him. What he was saying may have looked true to an outsider like him, but those knowledgeable in military matters would know that even battle-scarred suits of standard Enclave X-01 power armor were far more advanced and powerful than the two-century-old T-45, T-51 and T-60 models that the Brotherhood were having to make do with. Added to everything else, it was a very handsome offer in return for, essentially, PR opportunities. Judging by her expression, it was clear that Lyons could see it too.

With a heavy sigh, the Elder nodded curtly. “Alright. It’s a deal.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 156 - Time Out Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 36 Minutes