[u][b]Brotherhood I Corps HQ - Indianapolis International Airport- Concourse A[/b][/u]

Inquisitor Stahl, seated at her desk, took a sip of coffee and tried to tune out the noise being made by the repair crews, still hard at work making this place habitable, as she persued the latest report from the team at the Pentagon ruins. Regarding Lancer-Seargent Kyle, the info was a mixed bag. References to him were found in the mainframe, mostly regarding the Vertibird Wing he was assigned to, which ultimately accompanied Maxon to his doom in Boston. They had even found a picture of him in a group picture of his unit, published in the Chapter's electronic newsletter, that was a spitting image of the man currently being debriefed by the Paladin-General's staff. It had been unfortunate that the drive modules that made up the Eastern Order's Codex had been carefully disconnected and physically removed from the mainframe, presumably at the time the Citadel was abandoned to the Cult, but while useful it would merely have been confirming the obvious. She had been directed by Omaha to pass what they had on Kyle, as well as the Cult missionary captured in Markle, to the Frumentarii's commander, Vulpes Inculta, when he and his staff flew in from Omaha. An outside perspective, it was hoped, would shed some light on the strange events surrounding the pair.

The information coming back on other avenues was quite interesting though, especially the records of the Eastern Order's unsuccessful attempt to block the Cult's advance into the Capital Wasteland. Initially they had fought them to a stalemate, which the Cult subsequently broke with some kind of device that crippled the Eastern Order's effectiveness to the point that they fled the field altogether. Only the use of multiple tactical nuclear weapons by the Children of Atom had stopped the Cult from overrunning the entire area, and bought time for the remaining armed factions to set aside their differences and drive the Cult out with a desperate counter-attack. A Expedition had been dispatched to the facility it was believed the Cult found the device. According to Pre-War archives, Dunwich Borers was a manufacturer of deep tunneling and drilling equipment. The Calculator's archive of Top Secret government files, not to mention those of SAC, had little information about the firm, other than it being on the list of approved suppliers for equipment for constructing underground facilities. Speculation was that Dunwich Borers may have been another front for DARPA, but that was just speculation. Hopefully the Expedition would turn something up...otherwise attention would turn to the Vault 114 Operation, the Engineer-General's personal pet project, which had been delayed for the time being.

Stahl put down the report and swiveled her chair to look over the wall of sandbags and out the window....a perk of her rank...and looked at the tent city around the terminal building, then out towards downtown Indianapolis, ten miles away, smoke from dozens of burning buildings curling up into the clear blue sky. Michigan was a mess, but everything was largely on schedule here. The Raiders and their ghoul allies, now under constant artillery fire and probing attacks, were becoming even more frantic in their attempts to break out of the siege. The latest attempt to escape, led by a mass feral ghoul attack on the Castleton position, had been brutally cut to pieces by alert troops who had been expecting them. They were now firmly trapped between the I-465 Bypass and I-65, and every day the lines pushed them inward. Even though they were unaware the forward elements of Aurelius's command were less than a days march away, the defenders were getting increasingly desperate. It had been hoped that the Cult outpost in Ft Wayne would come to their aid, but so far they were staying put, fortifying the area around the one bridge South they had been left. It appeared that the defenders of Indianapolis had been abandoned to their fate....which was rapidly marching towards them along I-74. It occurred to her that she had never seen a crucifixion before...under the Order's Law only the corpses of criminals were displayed in such a manner.....and shortly she would likely see many. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.