((Collab between Letter Bee and Hjalti))

((Note: As a reminder to new players/readers, I aged up Marie Ashur to 20 in this Alternate Universe.))

The story about how Marie Ashur managed to get the big, bad, Institute to ally with her was well-known in The Pitt; the Brotherhood, with the aid of defectors and prisoners from the Capital Wasteland Enclave, was making a virus that killed only Synths, forcing 'Father' to make an alliance with Marie Ashur, whose forces were not Synths, and who actually had experience aboveground instead of doing armchair generalship from the Institute's bowels.

What was not known, was that in this alternate universe, Synth Components can be used to identify Synths [i]before[/i] death - in this world, they gave off an energy signature that allowed the Institute to track Synths better, giving the Railroad no amount of headaches as they sought ways around that. Either way, one of the Railroad's agents was killed by the Pitt raiders as he tried to test out a new way of foiling trackers...and he left his science notes behind.

Marie Ashur's mother, Sandra Kudanika, managed to use these science notes in order to reverse-engineer a way of tracking Synths through their components, and so managed to free the Pitt of Synth infiltrators, allowing Marie to confront the Directors of that 'august body', and finally, Shaun himself, establishing the pact that was now putting pressure on the Brotherhood.

And so, Marie Ashur, on her 20th birthday, had many reasons to be satisfied with herself as she went to the holoconference chamber newly installed on the back of her chambers; it was time to meet up with Shaun and plan their next move.

Turning on the projectors, she waited for the Institute's head to answer...

--------

Father sighed as the call came through. As if it wasn't bad enough that they were having to deal with Ashur and her Pitt slaves, they'd even had to supply her with the holoconference technology that allowed her to contact them. Hardly surprising, considering the Pitt had a habit of killing any and all Synths or Insitute corresponsents on sight.

Marie Ashur was little more than a savage in Father's eyes. A shining example of everything wrong with the world above, but desperate times called for desperate measures. So, swallowing his pride, Father answered the call.

"Miss Ashur." He greeted the holographic form as it appeared before him. The girl was young and had the air of an upstart which, given the little intel the Insitute had from the Pitt, was almost entirely true. The girl had not only subjugated her mother, a Pitt native, but also her father, a former member of the Brotherhood of Steel.
Unlike her father however, Marie Ashur seemed to share almost none of his compassion, having inherited her ruthlessness from her mothers side of the gene pool.

"Tell me, have you received the recent news from the Capital Wasteland? Elder Sarah Lyons is prepared to go to New York, where apparently, the new Enclave Colonel has just been killed. This removes the main obstacle to the New York, Capital Wasteland, and Commonwealth Brotherhoods linking up together," whereas Shaun held Marie in contempt for her 'savagery', Marie found 'Father's' assumption that no practical experience in the 'world above' was needed to be a competent general to be...laugable. You can be as intelligent as you wanted, but if you didn't go out to the battlefield yourself, even if it was after the battle, then you didn't deserve to be called a General.

"We've also recieved news that a faction called the Book Runners - they sell guns too - is gathering a conference of local power groups at Boldt Castle to discuss 'the double threats of the Institute and The Pitt'." The Book Runners have always hated her nation for trying to depopulate New York.

"Yes well, there isn't much we don't know about here." Father replied, "The only area blind to us is the Pitt. Everything else?" He let the words hang in the air for a moment. The Book Runners were a an inconvinience, but would crumble to nothing with the placement of a few Synth operatives.
Likewise, the Enclave and Brotherhood developments were hardly surprising. Even the Enclave had been susceptible to Synth infiltration and the Brotherhood had it's fair share of sleeper Synth agents within their ranks. Of course it would all be for naught if they perfected their Synth-targetting virus. Synth production still wasn't meeting expectations and it would bee some time before mass porduction was a viable option.

Regardless, Father felt it neccessary to remind Ashur that she was surrounded on all sides. The two were effectively engaged in a stalemate. She could identify Synth infiltrators and the Insitute had the technology to wipe the Pitt from the map. The only problems were Marie Ashur's unique immunity to radiation and mutation and the fact that there was no gurantee that she hadn't hidden the plans to the device elsewhere in the event of her demise.

"I assume that your people are ready? I don't need to remind you what will happen if the Brotherhood dismantles the Institute. They would have the technology, firepower and numbers to take your... Pitt away from you. I think we both know that they consider the technology you posess quite tempting." Father considered for a moment, "Futhermore, I trust that you have more samples ready for us?"

He was of course referring to various blood and tissue samples that the institute hoped to study in order to gain greater insight into potential radiation immunity. He had once heard Ashur refer to hereelf as an unmutated human, going so far as to compare herself to him. Father considered her to be anything but.

"Of course, of course," Marie knew the dance of diplomacy as well as Father did; although that wasn't much of a compliment. She knew to send enough samples to give them something to work with, but not so much that she was rendered unecessary. "They will be sent in the next shipment."

And with that, the dance was done; Marie knew that she was walking a thin line; if not for her mother's work, she would have been kidnapped and dissected by now. Father was too proud to admit that a General who commands his troops from a bunker all the time wasn't much of a General at all, giving her the primary burden of actually ensuring that there was a coherent strategy.

And there will be one. The Brotherhood thinks they have slipped the noose? Well they would find that they've earned only a temporary respite...