Charlie glances back at the Corvega assembly plant hearing the raiders firing their weapons. 'What a bunch of dumb fucks' She rolls her eyes. It was already past noon, they left the Starlight drive-in early in the morning and now they're close to their next location, Graygarden. Charlie heard rumors of the place being runned by those damn handyman robots. She sighs.

Charlie is second to rear of their movement. Mary is behind her and ahead is Mark, a handyman of sorts, Julie the mechanic and tech person, and the General leading on.

She looks up at the sky, it's clear. Nothing of interest to see. 'Ugh, so fucking boring' Charlie clears her throat "Hey, General!"

"Yes, Charlie?" Nora answers back.

Charlie grinnes "So, I was wondering if you could turn your pip boy's radio to DCR? To boost the squad's morale up."

Nora turns to the others and they all nod in agreement. Nora begins to flip through to the radio, but quickly stops. "A new frequency popped up, it's a military frequency."

"Military frequency? It could be Gunners." Mary suggests. Charlie nods in agreement.

"Who are these Gunners?" Nora asked.

"They are a violent mercenary group." Julie answers. "They are basically raiders with better equipment and leadership."

Nora wanted to listen to Mary's advice, but her curiosity itched. "I'm curious to see what trap message they have to tell us." Nora plays the message. It was a call for backup at the Cambridge police station. A place she knows all too well.

"They don't sound like Gunners, they sound too organized." Mary pointed out.

"Let's go check it out, It's been awhile since I've been to Cambridge police station" Nora turns and starts to walk forward. She can hear her squad trying to protest her decision. "It's an order"

"Yes, General" They soon follow after her.

As they cross bridges they hear the sound of gunfire and groans of feral ghouls. Nora leads the squad through a shortcut from the back of the police station. Arriving they find a man in a power armor suit being attacked all over by the feral ghouls.

Charlie springs into action killing ghouls that trapped the man in place. Once freed, he thanks her. Their attention is drawn back to the ghoul, killing them left and right. Soon after, Mary runs to the guard post set above the entrance to the courtyard, swiftly she gets into position and shoots off the ghouls running towards them. Nora joins in helping Charlie on the ground, She orders Julie and Mack to protect the woman who appeared to be a medic helping a wounded man.

When it seemed like there was no end to the swarm of ghouls, they eventually made it through an hour later. Nora takes deep breaths to slow her heart rate down. She still hasn't gotten used to the high adrenaline rush from fighting.

"What's your business here civilians?" the man in the power armor asked.

Nora turned to him, still trying to catch her breath "W-we heard-d on the radio that you needed help"

The man frowned, not buying her answer.

Nora sighed " Look, I get that you can't trust anyone, but we did save your lives when we didn't have to."

The man sighed "Look, the moment we have arrived in the commonwealth we have been under fire."

"First time?" Charlie remarks.

Nora glares at her .

The man ignores her comment "We could use an extra gun on our side."

"I wanna help, but I don't like the secrecy." Nora,

"She's right. You clearly aren't from the Commonwealth, so who are you?." Mary added on.

"Very, well. I'm Paladin Danse from the Brotherhood of Steel." Danse points to the police station buildings entrance, introducing the Scribe named Haylen and Knight Rhys. He began to begin to explain their situation and their mission.

"Found the transmitter, General!" Mary yells out to the group. She takes the device from the synth she had killed and hands it to Nora.

Nora thanks Mary, she hands the transmitter to Danse.

Nora's part of the deal was over now, its Danse's turn now. The deal was Nora along with Charlie and Mary were to help Dase get the transmitter needed for Danses party to contact their leader. The other half was when they completed the first part, Dase was to help Nora and her group with Graygarden. The group made its way to exit the Arcjet Systems, outside Danse gave utmost approval of Nora's leadership. Nora couldn't help but to smile, she could feel the pride building up in her chest.

Coming back to the police station the sun was already setting. Once inside the building, Danse gave the transmitter to Haylen meanwhile Nora sat down straightway. She was sore and tired from clearing out the building of synths. Leaning her head against the wall she could see Rhys glare of disapproval. 'What's up with this guy?' Nora thought to herself. She sighed.

Paladin Danse allowed the minuteman to stay the night at the police station. Nora began to settle herself down, but soon got distracted. She walked into the office area of the station, the room was filled with desks scattered across the room. Nora placed her hand on the dusty desk across from the entrance. Her eyes began to feel watery and she felt her chest tighten.

"General?"

Nora wiped her eyes and turned to her caller.

It was Charlie, she was at the entrance, she slowly walked behind Nora. "I remember you saying that you've been here before." She whispered.

Nora nodded, she pulled the desk drawer open, from the desk drawer she pulled out a police award. She began to clean the dust off. "Aiden Mulligan II" She whispered. Her brother. Nora began to talk with no thought. Aiden was her older brother, a tall ginger like herself. He wasn't her only brother, he was the oldest of four boys and all four of them followed their father's footsteps in becoming police officers. Nora chucked, remembering the times as a kid when she would play cops and robbers with her brothers. They were ruff with her, slamming her into the ground when they tackled her. She also wanted to be a cop, but her father said it was too hard of a job or man let alone a woman. Her only way to serve alongside her brothers was to become a lawyer. While she was going to the college down the road, she would walk down to the station to visit Aiden. She would always find him cleaning his desk which was always dirty with paperwork and the food he was eating. He was always a messy person, how did he solve cases? Nora chucked.

Nora's chest tightened again, she was filled with sadness. She couldn't help but to cry. Ma, Pa, Aiden, Ryan, Dion, and Cillian were all dead and Nathan too. Nora fell to her knees, with her arms hugging her chest. Her teeth chatter and her body shivered. 'Stop crying, stop crying, stop crying.' She kept telling herself.

Charlie watched awkwardly, not knowing how to handle the situation. She kneeled down besides Nora and gently patted Nora's shoulder, hoping this would soothe her. However, Nora continued to shiver, so Charlie tightly embraced to the point where Nora tired herself out.

Nora gently got out of the girls arms, whipping her tears and collecting herself. "I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't put such a burden on you."

"It's fine, really. You look better now that you're not holding shit back." Charlie smirks

Nora nodded, she was feeling better. Even after being out of the vault for a couple of months, the pain of losing her past life was still lingering. Nora took a deep breath. "I'm going to get some fresh air" she gets up onto her feets and walks away from the girl, Charlie quickly gets up, but follows from a distance, but is intersected by Mary. Nora walks up the flights of stairs to the rooftop. When she opens the door she finds Rhys sitting on the floor, he turns his head towards her. Nora tried to excuse herself but the man told her to stay. Nora slowly walked up and sat down next to him with a reasonable distance between them both.

"Only in it for the money, huh?" Ryhs takes a sip of his whiskey.

Nora rolls her eyes 'what's with this guy?'. She clears her throat "No, I wanted to help. I heard a distress signal and I answered. Not everyone in the commonwealth wants to kill you."

Ryhs chuckles, "Sure, that's what they all say. You think telling us this will make us trust you. Haylen and dance may have fallen for it, but not me." he took another sip. "Hurt my teammates or fuck with our mission or else your daughter and her redhead friend will pay."

'Daughter? Does he mean Charlie?' Nora sighed, she got onto her feet and stretched her arms outwards. Anger was building up in her chest, she stood up straight.

"I'm the general of the Commonwealth's Minutemen, so watch your tone with me. Myself and the others with me have worked hard to rebuild the Minutemen, we have been burnt to the ground and have risen from the ashes, we have become stronger than ever. We will not tolerate your threats against our soldiers. We are not afraid to fight, to bring order to the commonwealth once again. I don't know how the brotherhood of steels handles its relations with others, but I suggest that you do not threaten those who have helped you when you were on the brink of destruction." Nora took a deep breath to calm herself, she had nothing more to say. "Good night, Rhys" She walks back into the police station leaving Ryhs to himself.

"All clear!" Paladin danse calls out

Nora nods, she walks up to the switch box and flips the switch on.

Julia works on the terminal connecting the power throughout the plant. "Alight, the power has been connected and the water would be pumping now, General."

Nora smiles, She ordered the group to leave the building. Once they got out of the building, it was already noon. They walk back to the gray garden was easier compared to going to the water plant. They passed the corps of the super mutants they had killed earlier in the morning. Arriving at Graygarden, Nora could hear the sprinkler system working. Supervisor white hovered over her and the nanny agreed to join the minutemen and allowed Graygarden to provide the food to the local settlements.

Nora walked up to Paladin Danse, she shook his hand. The agreement between the two was for recon team gladius to have access to the trade coming to Graygarden. She only hopes that the brotherhood, whenever they arrive, will take notice of their good gesture. The minutemen cannot afford another faction to fight against, especially one as powerful as the brotherhood.

The next morning, they made their way to oberland station. The settlement simply wanted to be protected from a raider attack and without a second thought they joined their cause. Nora was glad that the word of the minutemen were back, the people of the commonwealth needed them. The replacement squad came and took over, they informed Nora that Sanctuary had a dozen new people joining their cause. Nora smilled, their growing numbers will be a benefit to their cause. They have one more settlement to clear out before they get to diamond city. The place was called hangman's alley , The area was filled with raiders. According to the traveling merchant, the alley is near diamond city, off of the direct route. These raiders have attacked and made the merchants pay a toll to get to the city. The mayor of the city has done zero to nothing on this matter. Even in the shambled society of today, there are still crooked politicians.

Waking to the entrance of the alley, Nora rolled her eyes at the hanging bodies on the fire escape. 'What a clever name, who would have thought.'

Charlie threw a fragment grenade over the wall, one of the raiders called it out, but was killed by the fragments. Mary shot the lock on the door, kicking it open, she shot two shots at the raider swinging her axe at Mary. The rest of the squad ran in, shooting the raiders coming at them with no regard to their life.

The clearing of the alley was quick. Charlie, Mary, and Mark went inside the apartment buildings to double check if they were safe. Julie was quick to set up the radio beacon. Soon after, the beacon was up and contact was made with Sanctuary, Nora sat down on a broken stood by the trash fire. She was finally making progress in finding Shaun. Diamond city was up the road, she couldn't believe Fenway park was turned into a city, but it made sense they did.

Nora got up from the stood, she got into the makeshift shack above her. The bed was already laid out with the sleeping bag on top. Nora, laid on the bed, thanking Charlie who was already asleep.