Barring the debacle of the lightning anomaly, Philadelphia and the rest of the old-world state of New Jersey fell under Nexus rule with little issue. 5th and 6th Companies were raised from the backlog of eligible applicants waiting for a place, to fill in for the 1st Company’s absent manpower.
Sarah hoped the elite troops would quickly get out of their funk. The 2nd to 6th were good soldiers who operated with well-drilled tactical sense, but they lacked the zealous drive to fearlessly and recklessly punch through tougher targets in record time, nor did they have as clean a capture/kill record as Sev’s Own.
The ‘normal’ infantry of the Nexus were good for normal operations, but when you needed a vault or building complex cleared out with absolutely no environmental collateral or enemy deaths? And without time wasted on textbook breaching and room clearing or common survival senses? You wanted the 1st.
And right now the kids were undergoing a ‘company outing’ with Sev to restore their fanatical sense of invincibility, and to ensure that Edward doesn’t lead the whole Company into some sort of self-flagellation. It was a big enough deal that they’ve all sworn off their personal paydays with Sev for the foreseeable months, but everyone was trying to come up with more ways to further wallow in their guilt.
Sarah honestly thought the troopers were being overdramatic at that point. Sev didn’t blame them, nobody did. Anyone watching the videos of the incident would’ve agreed with her that only Sev could’ve snuffed the anomaly out. And nobody - not Edward and his 1st Company, not Sarah Lyons, not anyone in the Nexus - nobody was anywhere close to Sev.
Still, the expansion was still comfortably ahead of schedule. At least the added manpower were very helpful in bringing in peaceful settlements and securing smaller raider camps or ghoul-infested sites. More importantly, the new companies meant she didn’t have to call on robotic support to the frontlines, so her bet with Cait was still alive.
It took a couple of weeks before half of Maryland was part of the Nexus Severalty, with the ruined Baltimore being the latest acquisition. Obelisks of Light were constructed to secure the new borders while the city was thoroughly cleared out and prepared for leveling. A new staging site would be set up for the push south into the Capital Wasteland, as well as the drive northwest to ‘round out the borders’ as Sev liked to say, and maybe cleanse the Pitt.
Of course, leave it to Sev to get 1st Company up and ready to go again in time for the taking of the Capital Wasteland. Edward was there for the strategic meeting, sharp and eager as ever to bring peace through power.
“The latest reports suggest that things have gotten worse after the Brotherhood of Steel’s shattering,” Desdemona stated as the hologram map of the ravaged city was brought up behind her. “It took a while, but raider gangs have filtered up to slowly encroach into the ruins. They’re not as keen on making a scene though, mostly harassing caravans and smaller settlements outside of the city itself.”
Red circles outlined potential raider-infested sites, along with highlights on their zones of influence. “Rivet City and larger towns have so far seen little violence, though there’s been an exodus from the southwest from locations, notably Tenpenny Tower, towards Rivet City to escape a new wave of gangs.”
“What of Lamplight?” Sev asked, inquiring about the vault of children that caught his attention back then.
Desdemona gave a curt nod. “Eyebots show no signs of approaching threats, so the vault remains safe.”
“How many raiders are we looking at?” Kim Becker (not related to the retired Minutemen general), company commander of the 5th, asked.
At that, Desdemona allowed herself to smirk. “According to Eva, estimates are that the quota of captures is reaching its limit, so we can safely enact lethal force soon.” The head of Nexus Intelligence Network turned to Sev with a questioning tilt of the head. “Unless Tleilax is expanding again?”
Sev shook his head without hesitating. “No, we’ve got more than enough prisoners for now.”
A sense of excitement rose in the briefing room, the company commanders and their aides sitting up a little straighter. Sarah threw her ruler an inquiring look of her own. “So…does that mean we can prepare for full dalek operations?”
“Once we hit the quotas, sure.”
Boy, did that bring out the nervous grins from the soldiers. They might get to taste their first, proper dalek order.
“The 1st will meet the capture quota,” Edward offered in a clear voice. “Seems that there’s a few raider camps north of the city that might do the job?”
Desdemona nodded. “Should be more than enough. Those were escapees from our brief purge of the ruins, or just the lucky few who were out of our operating range at the time.”
“Excellent,” Sev said with an all-too familiar grin. He was going to put on a show again. He stood up from his seat and used his remote stylus to draw a large area on the southwest corner of the map, around the places the old-world maps named Fairfax and Chantilly. “We’ll set that area as an exclusionary zone and leave the raiders within alone for now. Dalek everything else.”
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Everyone gave their benevolent dictator a curious look. “Are you going to give us a hint of what you have in store this time, Sev?” Sarah tried asking, only earning a larger grin in response. She then turned to Desdemona and Gwen, and the three of them shared the same suffering look before sighing.
“I’ll warn the locals,” Desdemona said with some exasperation.
“I’ll see to the logistics,” Gwen added.
“I’ll revise the plans,” Sarah finished, “See how many captives we’ll have to free.”
The company leaders exchanged their own silent glances at each other, particularly at Edward, who just shrugged in complete ignorance.
Sarah sighed again, louder this time. Hopefully whatever new weapon Sev had in mind, she’d be able to fit it into Nexus operations as smoothly as the Hornets and Mad Cats. Ah shit, she’ll have to set up a lottery for pilots again. Maybe it could be a competition instead? Best platoon or something?
*****
It took some time before the matriarch realized the particular string of noises the armored humans made was attached to her. It had a name. The shelled humans were always neutral or affectionate when uttering the noise, so ‘Big Mama’ was probably a good name, the deathclaw surmised.
A few others of its thriving clan got their own names as well. Slicey, Rumbler, Tickles, Gorger… The noises didn’t mean anything to her, but she understood the intent; The humans had adopted the pack, made them part of their much larger, much stronger pack. That they still fed their brightly marked rivals to the pack told Big Mama that her human pack was still growing and still encountering many rivals. More importantly, her adoptive humans were always winning.
So when the alpha of the humans approached the den for the first time in a long time, Big Mama took notice. With a low roar she assembled her pack to show their submission to their benefactor. The man in black not-fur was clearly powerful, even the hatchlings could smell that off him, and so much so that even the matriarch’s over-jealous mate, Toothy, kept from challenging displays of dominance.
The hard-shelled humans around the man whose attached noise was Sev stood casually at a distance, while the true alpha approached the docile pack. Again, Big Mama didn’t really know the significance of his noises, but judging from the easy pose he adopted, it felt like an offer was being made. She watched with alert eyes as he produced out a large shelled thing in his hands and pointed it at her. The blast of light surprised Big Mama, but as it didn’t cause any pain, the deathclaw matriarch simply jumped back and signaled for her pack to refrain from acting in any way. And then…
Big Mama blinked a few times, her head feeling woozy. She looked down at her claws, and then at the alpha Sev. He gave an inquisitive look, and this time the noises were…different when she heard them. “Are you alright?”
Snorting in surprise, Big Mama reeled up to her full height. She could understand him! She gave a low growl, her throat rumbling in an attempt to reply with a noise. Newfound instincts guided her. “Hrrrhhh…hrrryesss.”
Sev broke into a toothy smile and clapped his hands. Big Mama began to process that as approval, and she it took a second or two before she realized she could make out the conversation from the other humans.
“Holy shit.” That was a curse, by using something good and bad at the same time.
“What did you do, Sev?” A question, likely about what the alpha had done to her.
“Yo, Big Mama, can you understand me?” Big Mama, her name, meaning ‘large mother’. It was another question, this one seeking a reply from her.
The matriarch lowered herself to her usual predatory slouch and worked her throat again. “Hhh…yesss…” The noise…word…came out easier. That it drew more amazement from the humans was…nice. It was good being able to better understand them, to finally get a clearer idea of their intent.
“Excellent,” Sev cut in, “Now, Big Mama, are you alright with your name?”
That was a curious question. The deathclaw took a moment to ponder it, before nodding and trying her vocals again. “Yesss…am big…am motherrr…”
“Right then, so, how do you feel about going out for a hunt away from this forest?"