[u][b][color=a36209]Pontiff Cromwell[/color]
[/b][/u]

“Please welcome The Jade Empress and her protégé from The Jaded Empire,” spoke the doorman.

Cromwell's face turned grim as he turned to the new arrivals.  He did not just recognize this nation, he recognized its representative.  Calypso.  Back before the Cult descended upon the Capital Wasteland, before Atom prompted him to withdraw, Calypso was a rather infamous woman in the area, a slaver who had masqueraded as a brothel madame in the town of Grayditch, at least before the locals and Brotherhood drove her out.  While the subsequent threat of the Cult in the Capital Wasteland may have overshadowed her menace to its denizens, she remained an infamous, if slightly obscure figure in the history of the Capital Wasteland.

This, however, would not the be the last bombshell (figuratively speaking) dropped on the delegation.  The NCR brought in a television transmitting a message revealing the true president leading a military action.  Cromwell was unfamiliar with the politics of the west, however, and it was difficult to keep up with it.  From what he could gather, the delegate he had spoken to from NCR was a decoy, and the real one used this delegation as a distraction to mount an invasion of the lands of the so-called Caesar's Legion.  A deceitful ploy, to be sure.

"Quite an uncanny resemblance to the real president, Grand Zealot," the Pontiff addressed Richter.  "Could he be a Synth copy?"

"No, Pontiff," Richter answered, "Only the Institute has the technology to create Synths, which is far beyond anything the NCR possesses.  This man is simply a body double, an underling who has undergone training and surgery to serve as a decoy."

"I see," Cromwell replied.  "What do you know of the Legion and New California Republic?"

"I know little of the Legion," Richter spoke as he sat down and glanced around, "But I know of the NCR.  Fifty years ago, they drove the Enclave from the region and ever since have ruled over the former state of California and surrounding lands."

"I hope this does not pain you to recall, brother," Cromwell responded.

"It does not, Pontiff," Richter reassured him, looking away from the Enclave delegates.  "I now know it was was part of Atom's plan for me."

It was around this point that things heated up between the NCR decoy and Calypso.  Both were partially right- the NCR was guilty of betraying the trust of the delegation, and Calypso was a murderous, slaving blasphemer.  But the Pontiff did not come here to watch others burn bridges- he came here to build them.  With that in mind, he put their argument in the back of his mind and approached the representative of the Free Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"Greetings, madame governor.  I am Pontiff Cromwell of the Church of the Children of Atom," he introduced himself as he sat down next to her.  Might we speak?"