At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Gunning

The Castle
May the 24th, 2289
15:11

"Well, there we've got at least one of the old guns reconstructed and in testing. Good news is, after some whinging and groaning about it, I got enough of your Minutemen here to get me through the old tunnels and, in one hell of a stroke of luck, we found there's a decent bit of usable shit laying around. And poor General McGann. Looked to have died drinking and, frankly, I don't blame him. If I got trapped somewhere, I'd certainly prefer to die drunk and passed out happy."

Taken aback when the woman fired a few shots in the air from her pump action shotgun to get the attention of the Minutemen working in the courtyard of the Castle, Preston startled again when several of the Minutemen looked up and began clapping upon seeing him entering the Castle. Seeing much more of the rubble than he had anticipated being cleared and the two broken down bastions already being rebuilt, the General of the Minutemen could not help but smile. A little less than a month, and already his people seemed inspired. Holstering her shotgun, the woman paused about halfway into the courtyard with the General, setting her hands to her hips in thought. The dawning summer air was breezy, making the sunlight feel less heavy on their shoulders. On a flagpole near the radio transmission station, an aged flag of the Minutemen was fluttering in the wind just above the fifty star flag. The flag we always were taught was the real flag of the United States...wonder if anywhere else is like that or if the Harbour is just strange. The thought making him uneasy, he refocused himself on listening to what his Colonel was saying, in between her giving orders to a handful of the men and women working around them. When she began walking through the courtyard again, she waved for him to follow after her, giving him a faint, seemingly rare smile when he did.

"Seeing as I'm sure you're still wound up in nerves about the state of things here, I'm here to tell you not to be," She said, turning towards him. "I wouldn't have accepted your offer to rejoin the Minutemen if I hadn't heard the word going around that you really did take back the old Castle. Knew you'd been gaining numbers and a handful of allies, 'course, but I'm a bit of a stickler."

"Just glad to have someone with your experience on board, Colonel Shaw," Preston said, shaking her hand. "You rallying up people to join too...I didn't expect it."

"But you damn sure appreciate it," She said with a brief laugh. "To be quite honest, I'm simply glad to see the Minutemen ain't dead in the water. It's been about a decade since I officially left but, after having held out for so long and seeing everything go to shit, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic seeing what you've been doing so far."

"Good to know," He said, stepping out of the way as a few Minutemen began to lift and move some initial structures for the construction work going on all around them. "I'm impressed at how motivated you've gotten everyone to be. A lot more has already been done than I was even ready to hope for."

"Shows the inspiration of the cause," She confidently replied. "If a spry seventy six year old curmudgeon like myself can come back to the Minutemen, then anyone can or start to take part in taking care of the Commonwealth."

"That's what I was hoping for," Preston happily said. "After all we've been through to get here, it does me good knowing and seeing there are a lot of good people in the Commonwealth, people willing to take up arms to help their friends, families, and neighbours."

"There are and, grim as it is," Her gaze darkened when she looked off at, in the distance, the looming face of the Prydwen. "Those Brotherhood assholes coming in and playing saviour have probably motivated some people too. They leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I've never had personal contact with them. Did stop by a handful of our allied settlements before coming back here just last night. Most of 'em have either had a bad experience with them or know someone who has."