At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Smoking

The Institute
April the 6th, 2288
5:30

If there were anything about the Institute which made life easier for everyone, it was the amount of time they were given to take care of themselves. Quiet hours alone felt as though they breathed new life into almost everyone.

For that routine to be broken for the whole of the Directorate, it was more than apparent things were very wrong.

Unusually frassled but as aggravated as usual, Dr. Justin Ayo walked into the Directorate's meeting room with an even colder frown than his typical, perpetual one. Dr. Clayton Holdren seemed barely awake, and kept nervously rubbing at his eyes, almost as if he thought something bad would happen the moment he stepped into the room. Dr. Alan Binet walked into the room looking particularly exhausted and, despite his usually content and relaxed demeanour, caught between irritation and concern. Long since having given up on pretending to be impossible to faze, Dr. Madison Li did not bother to hide the annoyance she felt at her routine being interrupted. Similarly, though much more tired, Dr. Allison Filmore stepped in shortly after her, raising an eyebrow when she noticed the clear tension held by Nate on one end of the table and the deeply concerned yet annoyed look on his face which Father was hard pressed to hide on the other end of the table. A heavy silence befell the Directorate once they were all seated and, at least somewhat, prepared for the meeting to begin. For how rare sudden and emergency meetings were, however, the sense of dread hanging over the room was one which could not be set aside.

"I apologise for such an early and...unexpected meeting, but this is a critical situation," Shaun said, just barely masking his anger while he spoke. "As you are all well aware, the presence of the Brotherhood Of Steel has been increasing throughout the Commonwealth for quite some time now. Though we had hoped there would be more of a delay, yesterday afternoon, two members of the organisation attacked our major outpost at University Point."

"The Brotherhood uncovered our presence at University Point?" Madison frowned. "How was that even allowed to happen?"

"That matter is to be investigated," Shaun said. "However, I, firstly, would like to commend the SRB and Robotics Divisions for the strides made in Courser development in the past two years alone. I am pleased to report, despite the situation, a Courser responded to the scene once a sudden and unusual cease in synth activity at University Point was detected. Within no more than three hours and verifying the activity detected was correct, the Courser responded to the scene and spoke to the town's people."

"Good," Justin said, sending a brief, wary look at Madison, whose eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "I will debrief the Courser myself after this meeting," He went on. "Which unit was it?"

"The Courser unit who responded to the scene was X6-88," Nate informed him, taking a look over the Courser's initial report. "X6-88 has, in just the two years since it was activated and designated a Courser, been quite good at its job, this case being no exception."

"Well, I'm certainly pleased the adjustments we've made to how we modify synths chosen to be Coursers have been helpful," Alan said, pausing, for a time, in thought. "Did we lose any major units in this attack? Or was it only the standard first and second generation synths we most often post at University Point?"

"We lost only five units in the attack, however, we have not been able to recover the remains," Shaun said, disgust for the Brotherhood seeping into his voice. "The two members of the Brotherhood Of Steel – identified and reported to our Courser as going by the names of 'Scribe Haylen' and 'Knight Rhys' – stole the remains of the five synths. It goes without saying the Brotherhood will attempt to use these remains in an attempt to determine a more effective way to orchestrate a full assault against the Institute."