[u][color=0072bc][b]Boston, The Commonwealth[/b][/color][/u] Nick Valentine had taken the lead of the small team that the Commonwealth Provisional Government had decided they’d send to the Service Center to determine exactly who The Mechanist was and how she should be appropriately brought to justice. A one Captain Joseph Martin, appointed directly by General Shaw, had led a group of seven armed minutemen from The Castle. As had been agreed upon by the Council, their squad had met up with a woman by the name of Wilma Bardin at Bunker Hill who was to be the representative for The Bunker Hill Caravaners, the group perhaps most affected by The Mechanist’s transgressions. Nick had then met them all outside of the ruins of the Old North Church, and from there they’d taken a ferry boat across the channel to East Boston where the Mechanist’s lair was supposedly located. On the boat ride over, Nick couldn’t help but think of the old pre-war theatrical dramas that had so often played over the radio in Goodneighbor: that of the stalwart Silver Shroud, the daring Mistress of Mystery, and the evil Mechanist. They’d always brought an amused grin to his synthetic face as he contemplated the irony of a robotic Detective listening to a pre-war play about how a vigilante crime fighter would stop a mad-man who wished to replace humans with robots. Now that same Detective was off to stop the Mechanist himself, so did that make him a twisted version of the Silver Shroud in this little farcical play? Perhaps...or perhaps the real tale was far more complicated than those pre-war stories could have ever hoped to portray. After all, was this Mechanist really evil? Or was she simply a girl who’d hoped to change the world for the better and failed? That’s what Nick wanted to find out most of all here. Outside of the Robo Sales and Service Center the group had met up with the final member to take part in their expedition. Robert MacCready stood leaning up against the brick wall of the building when they approached and he was certainly outfitted for just about any situation. He was armored head to toe in a full suit of heavy combat armor and he wore a belt across his chest and waist with grenades of various types strapped to it. A heavily modified plasma rifle unlike any Nick had seen before was propped up against a railing nearby. It was clear The Institute kept their newest above-ground operative well supplied with both caps and armaments. MacCready regarded the group with a casual glance as they approached and he stood up to grab his rifle before making his way towards them, “New toy you got there?” Nick quipped, pointing at the rifle. “Yeah, you could say that. Something the egg-heads gave me to test. A little something they’ve been working on. Ooh boy...do I love it. I figured we’d sure as hell need some real firepower here if it comes to a fight. Other than those cute little glowsticks you’ve got there.” “Watch it,” Captain Martin replied, “Our laser muskets can still blow a hole through that pretty armor of yours with no problems...egg-heads give you that too?” “Matter of fact they did,” MacCready smiled, “And really...I doubt it would.” “Cut it out with the dick-measuring contest,” Wilma interrupted, “Let’s talk shop. Where’s The Mechanist?” “I did a little recon before you all came,” MacCready began, “Took a look around inside the shop and around the perimeter. There’s some sort of massive pre-war security door in there, which must have been hidden behind the wall before the war. Damn near closest thing I’ve ever seen to it is one of those Vault doors. If we would have had to actually break through that...I’d say we’d have been here until the next Judgement Day...but looks like The Mechanist is welcoming us. It's wide open, just like she said it would be.” “Welcoming us, or it's a trap...” Captain Martin replied. “Doubt it,” Nick shook his head, “If what you said about that door is true then this is the real deal. The pre-war facility that The Institute was able to identify must actually be in there, and if that’s The Mechanist’s lair, it makes no sense for her to lead us here if she just intended to kill us.” “The Mechanist’s Lair?” MacCready chuckled, “You’ve been listening to one too many of ol’ Kent’s broadcasts there Valentine.” Nick gave a shrug, “The Mechanist obviously thought that old character was important somehow. Important for her to build an army and kill over it: intentional or not. The way I see it, we should take that characterization seriously.” “And they’ll answer for their crimes accordingly” Wilma said definiantly, ‘Lets go.” “After you,” MacCready said with a grin as Wilma pushed aside and entered the building. -------------------------------------- A short time later and the group had reached the elevator that the Mechanist had identified to them in her message. It sat behind the main security check-in for the facility and, just as she’d said, the elevator was unlocked and operational. Without much ado, the group piled into the elevator, only 5 of them were able to fit at one time and so Captain Martin gave the order for most of his Minutemen to stay behind and follow once the elevator returned. It was yet another risk they were taking, and if this did turn out to be some sort of trap, they’d be split up for a brief window of time. Luckily however, when the elevators opened at the bottom there appeared to be no such welcome waiting for them. They were greeted by a dimly lit hallway instead. Cautiously, and with weapons drawn, they made their way down the hallway, passing a room which looked to be some sort of living quarters for whoever was down here. Finally, they came to a door, MacCready gave a nod to Nick, and the detective opened it, revealing a large control room with consoles and robobrain automatons clicking away at inputs. Suddenly a figure appeared from out behind one of the consoles, a young woman with dark hair in a green jumpsuit now stood before them. Her posture easily denoted nervousness, perhaps even fear, as she clutched her arms together. The woman raised a single hand to brush away strands of hair that had fallen across her face, “H-h-hello.” “Isabel?” Nick said, as he began to walk towards her, “Are you Isabel Cruz?” “Y-yeah, one and the same. Just me down here...well aside from the robots but...I..um….” “So are you The Mechanist then? Wilma stepped forward aggressively, gun raised “Do you have ANY idea what you’ve done?” Isabel put her hands up reflexively, “Y-y-yes I am, but I didn’t do it! I mean….I didn’t mean to. I thought I had everything figured out...but I made a horrible mistake. Please don’t shoot!” “Wilma! Put the damn gun down!” Nick yelled, and with a huff the Caravener agreed, lowering her weapon. Satisfied, Nick turned his attention back to Isabel, who had begun to cry, “We aren’t here to kill you Isabel, but we are here to take you into custody. Do you understand?” “Yes….I understand,” Isabel sobbed, “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to kill anyone. I was just trying to help.” “Yeah...help...about that….define ‘help’” MacCready replied with no small hint of sarcasm in his voice. Nick shot him a glare, and MacCready rolled his eyes in response. “I believe you,” Nick offered his hand, “What’s done is done. Now you need to focus on making amends. I’ll do what I can to help you.” “Thanks,” Isabel nodded, wiping her tears and nose with the sleeve of her jumpsuit, “I-I really want to try and make things right. I just don’t know how I can do that.” “Well you can start by….” A loud alarm suddenly sounded all around them, red lights lit up and klaxons blared through the room, “Oh no, what?” Isabel suddenly stood up and ran to one of the panels. “What the fuck is happening?” Captain Martin yelled, trying to be heard over the alarms. “It's an intruder alert. Someone is inside the facility. Did you bring anyone else with you?” Isabel asked. “No,” Nick shook his head, “It was just us.” Isabel quickly clicked a button and a video feed was brought up on the monitor, “Mutants!” She shouted, shocked at the sight, “They’re coming down the service elevator.” She pointed through the glass windows towards a large open door on the other side of what looked to be a large open area, “I don’t know how they found it! It's okay though I can just shut down…” The power suddenly cut out, leaving the room in total darkness, “Uh oh,” Isabel said simply. A few seconds later and the lights returned, but it appeared only the control room they were in was lit up. The rest of the facility appeared to still be in total darkness. “What the hell was that?” MacCready asked. “Something’s wrong,” Isabel clutched her head frantically, “The power just got cut and we’re on auxiliary power only now. I don’t understand…” She looked desperately towards Nick. Just as she did so, they all heard a loud screech of metal on metal as something came to a stop. The elevator… The sounds of large heavy footsteps followed by the yells and jeers of brainless mutants could be heard streaming towards them, “Minutemen on me!” Captain Martin yelled, and raced down the hallway to a doorway that led to the area the mutants were coming from, followed swiftly by his men. They each took up posts on either side of the door and behind it, trying to get as many muskets down range as they could. They cranked their Laser Muskets and waited. MacCready stepped forward to the glass windows as the sounds of the mutants had seemingly died down, “Fuck,” He muttered, just as the hulking green shapes began to emerge from the darkness beyond what little light the control room was giving off. All of the sudden the shouts began in earnest and a mutant wielding little more than a large board ran towards the open doorway, followed swiftly by three more mutants similarly armed with rusted pipes, sledgehammers, and other random implements-turned-war-clubs. “OPEN FIRE!” The Captain yelled, and The Minutemen opened up with their muskets, the powerful laser blasts ripping into the mutated abominations and downing three of them. As they fell, muscled mutant hounds raced out from behind and made a beeline for the doorway. “Fall back!” The Captain yelled, just as the first hound burst through the doorway and tore into one of the Minutemen, before swiftly turning on another. The others began falling back, firing their laser muskets as quickly as they could and finding that the thick hide of the creatures made it difficult to kill them outright. “Get behind me,” Nick told Isabel as he held up his pipe revolver. Isabel however ignored him, and was furiously typing away at a nearby console, “Come on...come on…” she muttered. Wilma had drawn her own gun and taken up a position behind one of the consoles, beads of sweat poured from her face. “God-fucking-damnit!” MacCready shouted as he stepped forward and readied his plasma rifle. The sound of the weapon charging up briefly could be heard as static filled the air before he loosed three shots in rapid succession. Blue plasma bolts ripped through the still-living hounds and melted gaping holes in each of them. The remaining Minutemen formed a line beside MaCready and continued firing, killing two more super-mutants as they raced down the hallway with weapons raised. Things grew quiet as the last of the mutants fell. “Was that all of them?” Captain Martin asked, looking to no-one in particular to respond. The sounds of the elevator making its way down again answered his question. Now even more abominable shouts and the howls of mutant hounds could be heard coming from the direction the first wave had just come. “Got it!” Isabel yelled out excitedly. Just then the lights in the entire area came back on, and the facility road to life as the power was fully restored. The second group of mutants was already halfway to the doorway when suddenly a set of metal security doors to the left of the loading dock opened up, and out strode a massive Sentry Bot that seemed to have been heavily modified, “Tankbot activated. Beginning security protocols. Civilians standback.” The robot opened up with two gatling lasers attached to its arms, felling the mutants and their hounds in rapid succession as one after the other fell to its substantial firepower. When the last mutant had fallen, Isabel turned to the group with a faint smile, “Uhh...got security back online,” She said quickly, indicating the Tankbot. “And just in time too,” Nick said with a thankful nod. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right as the fighting commenced S3-47 pulled out the holotape from the security terminal at the front desk of the facility. The network scan was complete, and he’d gathered what data he’d been able to from it. The program had worked just as Dr. Morales had intended it to. It shut down the facilities defenses and allowed a brief window of time to access its valuable data repositories while the mutants provided a sufficient distraction for his operation. S3 placed the holotape in a briefcase, reactivated his stealth field, and proceeded out the main entrance. Once outside the Robco Sales Building and safely hidden in the ruined alleys of East Boston, he sent an encrypted message to Dr. Zimmer, “Data retrieval complete. ” [hr] [color=8882be][u][b]Enclave Operative Issac Jabsco - Poseidon Energy Plant[/b][/u][/color] Following the sending of his message, Issac had commenced reading through the mission debriefing documents that had been loaded on his pipboy: a little *light* reading before bed. It’d been some time since he’d reviewed them last, and he wanted to make sure he had a firm understanding of their contents. He skimmed the first section, [i]Establish intelligence overview of the political situation of the COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. Known entities include: the INSTITUTE, the MINUTEMEN, the COMMONWEALTH PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT, and THE GUNNERS. The INSTITUTE is considered a MAJOR security threat to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. They have the capacity to produce energy weapons, combat robots, and other unknown high-tech capabilities. Additionally, there is unconfirmed intelligence regarding production infiltration robots. [/i] Issac thought back to the Synths he’d encountered down on the lower level, the ones that had killed whatever raider gang had been held up here. They certainly couldn’t pass for humans, but if the stories were to be believed, and he’d heard a number of them on his way to The Commonwealth from passing traders, there were Synths that looked just like humans: down to being able to bleed the same as any man. He continued, skipping down some paragraphs, [i]Confirm location and status of VAULT 81. Determine if VAULT has been compromised by external personnel and extent there-of.[/i] He’d heard little to nothing of Vault 81, but the information provided for the Enclave gave its location data. It was a secondary objective, but nonetheless an important one. The Enclave’s interest in acquiring still intact Vaults was one that had been known by nearly everyone in the Capital Wasteland after they’d taken over 101. Issac continued on down to the final section of the debriefing, skimming down to the phrase that always caught his eye: [i]It is imperative that OPERATIVE does not permit their capture by the INSTITUTE. In the event of probable capture, place muzzle of side-arm under jaw to ensure the maximum destruction of brain tissue. If unable to access firearms, OPERATIVE has been provided with suicide pill in glass ampule.[/i] He fumbled at the dog-tags around his neck, feeling the tiny glass vial that had been attached to them: a lone pill inside. Enclave High Command was taking no chances when it came to The Institute. Of course, they had no assurance that Issac would actually commit to such a self-sacrificing act should the need require, but Issac thought of it less as a way to keep Enclave secrets secure, he knew little of them anyway, and more as a final insurance for himself. There were many, many fates that could befall him in the wasteland where death was infinitely preferable to the alternative. He’d seen that far too often already in his life. His review was suddenly interrupted by an incoming reply on his pipboy. Direct from EnclaveNet, [i][/i] Issac was stunned as hadn’t expected that Sutler, and this could only be an order from him, would send reinforcements so early on into his mission. He’d only just arrived in The Commonwealth, and it was Issac’s expectation that he’d only receive support if and when his objective was complete. That Sutler had given the order for support to be sent now could only mean one thing: he was taking this mission far more seriously than Issac had even previously thought. There was no doubt about it now, Sutler was going to be monitoring this operation closely, “Just 48 hours…” Issac muttered, “That doesn’t leave much time.” He immediately activated the nearby Gutsys standing guard with a simple voice command, “Begin maintenance protocol immediately, get this place cleaned up.” As the Gusty bots sprung into action, Issac laid back down on his bedroll, he’d grab a few hours of much needed sleep and then would be ready to start his own preparations. ----------- As the 48 hours came to an end, Issac waited atop the roof of the building expectantly, watching the skies for any sign or sound of the promised support. As he did so, he took stock of what he’d done to prepare for their arrival. The Gutsy bots had managed to clear away most of the offending debris from the majority of the plant’s office and plant floor spaces. While they lacked the tailored programming of a Misty Handy, the Gutsy units were still efficient enough at completing such tasks and continuously rotated among themselves between performing guard duties and cleaning the plant. Issac, meanwhile, had completed his own personal preparations. He’d been monitoring the local radio chatter as requested, and most of what he’d heard concerned ‘The Minutemen’ who appeared to have an encampment of some sort in the nearby town of Quincy, a short distance north from the energy plant. All his notes on what he’d heard had been compiled and would be given to whoever the CO of the support contingent was. Along with that, he’d placed the remains of the destroyed Synths inside one of the office rooms in the plant for potential observation. Finally Issac had also managed to repair the plant’s auxiliary power generator, the completion of which he was quite proud of himself for. The building now had limited power, and thus some essential operational systems were restored. That all done there was little enough time left to do anything but wait. Wait until he could hear the sounds of rotary blades ripping through the air which, before long, he did. Issac rushed down to the plant’s parking lot as the vertibird drew closer and closer, and before long finally extended it’s landing gear and touched down in the center of the vacant lot. Issac stood sharply at attention near the entrance. The commanding officer that exited the bird was none other than Colonel Granite. It was all Issac could do to contain his surprise, the Colonel was one of the highest ranking members of The Enclave currently and a close friend of the Supreme Commander: that much at least Issac knew. He’d no inkling whatsoever that the Colonel would be the one to arrive here however. As Granite approached, Issac remained firmly at attention, and raised his hand in the usual salute style of the Americorps, with his palm facing forward, “Colonel, sir, welcome to The Commonwealth.” OOC: Report that will be provided to Granite: [hider=Operative Report] [i]Radio Transmissions Report Field Operative ORION Enclave Americorp Field Report: ...Numerous mentions of 'Commonwealth Provisional Government’ made in multiple transmissions, along with ‘Minutemen’, no mentions made yet of ‘Institute’ or associated personnel. Radio transmission for presumed military operations follow a standard broadcast protocol, and appear to be encoded. A separate radio frequency seems to regularly broadcast with information pertinent to the safety of Commonwealth residents, including what appears to be calls for assistance and aid from ‘Minutemen’ forces (see Addendum A.) Other noteworthy radio broadcasts in the area include a station out of ‘Diamond City’ run by a mentioned Travis Miles. Broadcast format appears to be standard news reports and local happenings, accompanied by music…., Addendum A. (Broadcast Begins at Approximately 0600 hours) [Voice of woman heard over radio, along with sounds of gunfire] “Hello! Hello? Are there any Minutemen listening to this!? Our Caravan has been ambushed! [Inaudible] attack! We need help! Please!” [Voice of a man responds after a short pause] “Caravan, this is the Castle. Where are you? Over.” “[Inaudible]...hold up in a house. Don’t think we can keep them off much longer. Please hurry!” “Roger. I’m contacting Colonel Garvey, his detachment is closest to your position..[inaudible]..if you can and...[inaudible].” [No further transmission from either source recorded. Approximately one minute after transmission ends, a red flare incendiary was visible in the sky five miles due north west of Poseidon Energy. Within several minutes a second flare is seen coming from the location of Quincy. No further activity observed.][/i] [/hider]