An eye bot cruised through the air, shouting a spiel about jobs waiting at Cambridge Polymer Labs. Nora recalled that lab from before the war. Press releases had shouted its wonders, especially the new self-charging pieces for power armor. She wasn’t sure how far they had gotten before the bombs dropped, but it was worth checking out.

 

“Let’s look this place over,” she told her people as the stopped before the Lab building. “We can still get to Bunker Hill before dark, I think.”

 

“Your call, Boss,” said Barb.

 

There were so many research labs, hospitals, and tech stores in this region of the city, as well as the premier research institution in New England. She wanted to get to them all eventually, but today she would pass them by, choosing only one so they could get their looting fix in.

 

They walked into the building, to be greeted by a friendly Handy.  “I’m Molly. Are you here about a job? Cambridge Polymer Labs are hiring all positions.”

 

“I’m interested,” said Nora, thinking it might get her further into the lab.

 

“Wonderful. Do you have any experience with synthesizing polymers?”

 

“Oh yes. I won the science award in college, synthesizing polymers.” She felt no guilt lying to a robot that represented a long dead company. She was sure this place had things she wanted, and she would have no problem living with herself to give her live people such advantages.

 

“You are hired as a lab assistant. Follow me.”

 

The robot led them to a room with a control panel. An alarm was sounding in the background, lights flashing, and Nora was sure it had been broadcasting the alert through the lab for the last two hundred years. They robot let them into another room and the door slammed shut behind them.

 

“What the hell,” yelled Barb, moving to the door and finding it sealed. “You want to crack it with explosives?”

 

“Let’s see what happens first.”

 

“I must tell you that the director has ordered mandatory overtime until the project it completed," said the voice of Molly over the speakers. "Good luck.”

 

They moved through several rooms, none of the doors working, using the holes in the walls. They found one room with hazmat suits, and she had Barb and Heather get in them. Her power armor was protection enough, though she soon decided to egress it since it would allow her to move more quietly through the lab, depending on her augmented biology to protect her from rad poisoning. The Pip-Boy was clicking away, letting her know that there were plenty of Rads. Bodies everywhere, some skeletons, some ghouls. Her vision glasses let her know which ones were still alive and on the verge of coming awake.

 

“Okay. This looks like the panel to run the experiment. Let me look over the terminal.”

 

The terminal gave her the information she needed. And the start of the horror story of the lab. The people had been locked in here to finish the experiment or die. The military commander of Boston had ordered that they could not leave, under threat of execution, until they completed the Pizoelectric chest plate that would send energy to the power armor.

 

“Look for these,” she said, holding up a container from one of the slots on the control board.

 

The three took down ghouls no problem, Nora considering that these had been the researchers who had been trapped in there. She went into on of the side rooms, then upstairs to enter another. Taking down some more ghouls she took several of the cannisters and looked over another terminal.

 

“That bastard,” she whispered, reading how the director had locked his lover in here to die with the rest. The scientists had tried to break out, even though there were turrets set to kill them.

 

She hacked into the room across the way after jetting up on the broken platform, then went for the reactor and the isotopes. The ghoul in there was particularly strong, but not strong enough to take a long burst to the head. She gained more information from terminals and felt like she had a better understanding of armoring, nuclear physics and working with materials.

 

The experiment was actually pretty easy to run, based on the information the dead scientists had developed before the passed on or went the way of the ghoul. Nora removed the chest piece and placed it in a cargo bot. She doubted the piece would be of any use with its inferior armor, and besides, it was from a T-51. But her techs could reverse engineer it, and give her suits that were much easier on fusion cores, while possibly adding some more energy protection.

 

“The director would like to see you,” said Molly as she let them out of the lab. “Please follow me.”

 

The director turned out to be a ghoul who attacked as soon as they were in the room. Nora crushed his skull with an armored fist, while Barb gunned down the newly hostile Molly. A couple of turrets fired up outside, now that they had proven themselves enemies to the facility. Taking good angles and using cover allowed the group to take them out with no problem.

 

And then they looted. A large number of telephones went into Wilson, followed by the circuits of the broken down computers. As always they left the intact machines that might be of use to get more information from this place. Nora found a surgical journal that increased her medical knowledge, as well as a fusion core.

 

It was still late morning, about ten, when they exited the lab and moved up the riverside street. Nora took a look down the bridge that led to the side of Boston with Hangman’s Alley in it, then took a quick glance as the Commonwealth Institute of Technology to her left. She got a strange feeling about the ruins of the college. She hadn’t spent any time there, but many of the science and tech instructors at Boston College had been graduates, constantly singing its praises.

 

“I want to make sure we get to Bunker Hill before dark,” she told a disappointed Barb, who was chomping on the bit to get in there and see what might be available. The scaver had told Nora that many people out for salvage had gone in the ruin, and very few had come out. Those that had swore they would never go back.

 

They continued down the river road for some miles, taking fire along the way and returning it most effectively. Raiders controlled this part of the city, though Nora and company made them remember that others could challenge them.

 

“That’s Greentech Genetics over there,” said Barb, pointing to a tall two-cylinder building. “Sure to be a lot of good stuff in there, but from what I’ve heard its very well defended by robots and turrets. Not a place to penetrate lightly.”

 

Then that’s another place we’ll have to check out. Nora thought that after taking care of business to the east she would have to come back here for a couple of days and comb the area. There were a lot of Raiders to take out, and the promise of tech that could make their lives much easier. If it didn’t kill them during the search.

 

“Trouble ahead,” whispered Heather over the radio, a block ahead and scouting with the dogs.

Nora could see the trouble, as a score of Raiders battled a dozen or so ghouls. The ghouls took down some Raiders. They were tough after all. But the Raiders had the firepower, and the ghouls didn’t last long.

 

“Any objections to taking them out,” she said over the radio, receiving positive acknowledgements.

 

Nora dropped a grenade into the largest cluster on the street, then another on a small group on top of a building. A bunch retreated into a building with crumbling walls. Nora took a moment to select a round, then sent a Molotov grenade into an opening. People screamed, and a couple of woman jumped out of the opening to fall to their deaths.

 

Raiders tried to take them under fire, but at over a hundred yards the pipe weapons just weren’t accurate enough to hit except by chance. While Nora and Barb’s rifle were pinpoint accurate. In the unequal exchange most of the remaining Raiders died. But not all.

 

“Pick off any that show themselves,” ordered Nora, getting ready to go into the air.

 

“Be careful,” said Heather over the radio.

 

“You know me.”

 

“Yeah,” said Barb. “We know you. So don’t take too many damn chances.”

 

Nora laughed. Of course her friends were correct, but she had the armor and the firepower, and her tendency was to take the fight to the enemy. She landed on the roof of the building to the right, looking into the chamber and seeing the smoking bodies on the floor. Going up a ladder she took fire from an underpowered pipe rifle, putting a single round into the man’s head. She then ran across an unsteady walkway top the top of the building across the street, going up several levels and taking out another four Raiders.

 

A round struck the armor with a clang, the power of a military grade weapon. The schematic for the armor showed no penetration, and Nora unlimbered the GL once again, arcing the shell into the top of the tall building across the street. She disregarded the lift that took people from this rooftop to the taller building. She had her own lift, and rocketed into the air to land on the other building. She found the leader of the gang bleeding out her life on the top floor, a pattern of shrapnel wounds showing how she had been injured. Nora took off her head with the nanosword, putting her out of her misery.

 

The Sole Survivor looked down to the barrier blocking the near side of the bridge, spotting two Raiders under cover and a machinegun turret. A well placed forty millimeter took care of that problem, killing the Raiders and blowing the turret into pieces.

 

Nora loaded up Wilson with the ammo, weapons and other objects in the leader’s HQ, including a .308 sniper rifle, then jumped down from the building. Heather and Barb were already in the process of stripping the other dead Raiders, while Nora went to check out the barrier that was blocking the bridge. She looked across the bridge to see another structure that was the duplicate of the one on her side. Sending a grenade into it, she blasted the metal door off its hinges, then sent two more in for good measure. No fire came back, whether because she had killed whoever had manned that barricade, or because they were smarter that average, realizing they were outclassed, she really didn’t know. She had suppressed their response either way, and she was willing to leave it to that.

 

“Wilson went on his way,” said Barb when she came back to them. “The first Handy is still field stripping the weapons and armor that remain, while the other is salvaging nuclear material from cars.”

 

“Good,” said Nora. While they had enough nuclear material for their needs, it was always in demand, and if they opened more settlements it was sure to run out. There were thousands of cars across the Commonwealth, and thirty or forty gave enough material to construct a large fusion generator. She was thinking that there had to be more stockpiles across the Wasteland, but where were they and how to access them.

 

“You did good work,” said the young black man hanging out on the front entrance of a large office building. He held out his empty hands, though he had a service rifle over his back. “We’re not Raiders, but that group has been harassing us for months.”

 

“Who are you?”

 

“I can’t say. Just know that we are good guys like you.”

 

“I think they’re Railroad,” said Heather as they walked on. “Crazy bastards want to rescue synths. I don’t trust them.”

 

“Well, I don’t want to kill people indiscriminately, so we leave them be, for now.”

 

It was getting late afternoon when they saw the spire of the Bunker Hill Memorial ahead and down a side street. There were lights, showing that they had power. Nora stared at the wooden warship that sat on a building a couple blocks ahead. She could make out the nozzles of large rocket engines on the bottom hull of the ship, and her vision gear showed a number of robots moving around the deck of the ship.

 

“What in the hell is that? And how the hell did a ship get up there?”

 

“That’s the Constitution,” said Barb. “They tried to recruit me last time I was by here.”

 

“Well, that sounds like a whole bunch of crazy I don’t want to deal with,” Nora told her people. “Let’s go check out Bunker Hill.”

 

Bunker Hill was well fortified, with wooden walls and towers on the outside. It looked like a great number of people were inside, and an older woman with blond hair was at the entrance with a shotgun in hand.

 

“Raider or Caravan?” asked the woman, looking them over with a suspicious eye.

 

“What?” asked Nora, not sure what the woman was asking her.

 

“I asked if you are a Raider or a Caravan Worker. So which is it?”

 

“Minutemen,” shouted Nora.

 

“I didn’t think they were still around.”

 

“We’re rebuilding. Can we come in.”

 

“Well, I’ve never seen a Raider with power armor like that,” said the woman. “In fact, I’ve never seen power armor like that. And the armor your girls are wearing looks very cool as well. Yeah, you can come in, but no shooting on the premises. I’m Kessler, by the way. And I’d watch how often your throw the name Minuteman around while you’re here. They’re not well liked.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because we called for help from you people during a Raider attack, and you bastards never showed.”

 

“Before my time,” said Nora, ejecting from her power armor, leaving it parked by the scaffolding that wrapped around the spire. “We’re a new organization, with new people.”

 

“You still have to prove yourself to me.”

 

Kessler turned and walked away, and Nora had the impression that she would not be well liked here. At least by the owners. She walked into the trade center, inside the building that had been the museum.

 

“You want a tour of Bunker Hill,” said a cute twelve year old, approaching the group. “Only five caps.”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Well, the trade center is straight ahead, the entrance to Bunker Hill behind, my mom’s medical practice to the right of the entrance, the bar and lodgings toward the back. And the outhouse up the ramp. Thanks and enjoy your visit.” The child closed her hand on the five caps Nora had given her and ran.

 

“Why that little shit,” said Heather, while Nora laughed out loud.

 

“Quite the little scammer,” said Barb with a chuckle.

 

“Well, we now know where everything is, so let’s have a look inside.”

 

Inside was a commodious open space, with a half dozen trade stands. One was manned by a short haired brunette, the other had a mousy looking woman. And there was an older gentleman and a young woman standing by a counter near the side exit. There were also a couple of scantily dressed women hanging out, tired and worn out looking, and a couple of caravan guards.

 

“Welcome,” said the short haired brunette. “If you want water, we have purified coming out of that water fountain to the side. It’s free, but showers cost. I’m Deb, by the way.”

 

Heather and Barb followed Nora to the water fountain, waiting for their leader to drink her fill, then drinking deeply themselves. “What have you got for sale, Deb?”

 

“A bunch of things. I’m the only permanent trader based here, and I restock the traveling caravans. So everything they have, I have, and a whole lot more.”

 

Nora perked up at those words, a whole lot more. “Can I have a look?”

 

“Sure. There’s a terminal right there with my inventory on it. We have a large storage facility underneath this building, and if you see something you like that we don’t have up here, I’ll send someone down for it.”

 

Nora looked over screen after screen, seeing lots she wanted but couldn’t afford. Including bunches of weapons marked as damaged. Those were dirt cheap, and she was sure that most people couldn’t fix them. She and her techs could, or they could strip them of parts. There were at least a hundred laser and plasma weapons at ten caps each, rifles a little less. If she had a couple of thousand caps she would take the entire stock off Deb’s hand, then spend a couple of days here pulling the guns apart and sending them to her nearest settlement through Wilson. And taking a dozen of the best and sending them intact back to Sanctuary, where Sturgis, Conrad and their people could refurbish them for settler use.

 

“I want every damaged weapon you have, but I don’t have the caps, yet.”

 

“What are you going to do with them. Build an army?”

 

“I’m building settlements out in the Wasteland,” she told the woman. “And I need weapons parts to defend them.”

 

“How many do you have already?”

 

“Ten, on the other side of Cambridge. And I want to get more set up to the north and east of here.”

 

“Wow. Well bless you. And the weapons will be waiting for you when you have the caps.”

 

Nora flipped another screen in the inventory and stared in shock. “You have nuclear material?”

 

“Sure do. Don’t know where the guy gets if from, but he delivered a couple of hundred grams a week for several months before I had to turn him down. No one buys the shit, except for some Gunners who use it to make nukes. I really don’t like selling to them.”

 

“Well, I could use it to build fusion generators. A hundred grams will make one generator.”

 

“Tell you what. I was selling it for twelve hundred caps for a hundred grams. I’ll give it to you for a thousand a hundred grams.”

 

“And you have how much?”

 

“Three thousand grams, at the moment. But if I let my supplier know I need more, I’m sure he’ll start delivering again.”

 

Nora doubted that Deb would put her in touch with the supplier. That wasn’t how business was done in the Wasteland. Someone had something you wanted, you bought it from them, and not for a cheaper price from their supplier. But Nora knew she had to make a lot of caps from somewhere. If she were back at Diamond City she could fuck for enough caps in a week to get all of Deb’s nuclear material and all of those lovely loverly weapons. Perhaps she could make some caps here, but she didn’t think she would have the client base she would need. Still, she could ssurely earn some caps. She thought she needed to look into it.

 

“Got any work?”

 

“Well, there are rumors of a mess of feral ghouls at an old military training ground up by County Crossing. A hundred caps to clear them out.”

 

“Places like that are really dangerous. How about three hundred?”

 

“I know how you mercs jack up the price,” said Deb, frowning. “Some ferals can’t be that much for a party like yours, with the armor you have. So two hundred, and that’s my final offer.”

 

Nora thought of the area. The military training ground sounded like the National Guard Training Yard, on Reese’s list, and sure to have some weapons and ammo. She would get paid by the Brotherhood for that as well. And to the north was the Revere Satellite Array, another target on the list, Supermutants. And just a bit on from that the Reeb Marina, the location of a Haptic Drive containing data that Scribe Halen was looking for. Of course, where she went and her timing depended on what the farmers at County Crossing wanted. If it was a kidnapping she might need to move with alacrity. If a Raider or Supermutant problem, she might be able to delay while she took care of some other things. Either way, she needed to get a settlement and a QESS set up, to make her operations much easier here.

 

“I’ll take care of those ghouls for you.”

 

“And if you’re looking for something else, Kessler might have something for you.”

 

“You looking for weapons,” said the mousy looking woman. “I’m Cricket, and I have everything.”

 

“Let me see what you’ve got.” She looked over Cricket’s inventory, and while things were a bit pricey, she did have some interesting weapons. Including Service Rifles, a Gauss Rifle, and a couple of M60 machines guns. And an ammo workbench.

 

“You ever get over to Sanctuary Hills. Or maybe Starlight Drivein.”

 

“Not recently, no.”

“Well get over their and my people will buy five of those workbenches, plus as many of the belt feds and service rifles you have. Guaranteed.”

 

“Then I’ll have to get over there.”

 

“Did you say you have ten settlements over on the other side of Cambridge?” asked the older gentleman.

 

“I do. And you are?”

 

“Old Man Stockton, and I run four caravans across the Commonwealth. This is my daughter, Amelia. And where are these settlement located.”

 

So Nora named them off, and Stockton whistled. “Quite a number, and all of interest to me except Home Plate. Being that close to the Diamond City Market tells me they don’t need Caravans.”

 

“We would appreciate any you could run into the settlements. We’re in the market for just about everything.” She wasn’t sure about caps, but they had plenty of bottled purified water and food, and the factories would be turning out respectable quantities of things that people needed. Purified water might not go over big in Bunker Hill, since they had a damned water fountain pouring out the stuff, but she had to wonder how much of that was available for export.

 

“Kessler,” she said, walking up to the woman, who was tending a patch of vegetables. “Deb said you might have a job for me.”

 

“For the Minuteman operator, no. For a freelance mercenary with discretion, I might have something. As long as you have more than rocks in your head.”

 

“I’m smart enough. And discrete.”

 

“Well, we get on by paying off the Raider gangs. But Judge Zeller, a new operator, is trying to play us both ways. He’s taking our money, then still hitting our caravans, and we can’t have that.”

 

“How much. And where’s he located.”

 

“He’s located at the East Boston Preparatory School, North of the airport. I’m paying three hundred caps. I won’t haggle, cause I have a reputation to protect. But do the job and I will pony up some supplies for you.”

 

“Consider it done,” said Nora, who wanted to get in good with this woman.

 

“You don’t want to know how many there are?”

 

“Not really, unless you happen to have that information. Ten or fifty, we’ll go in and take their sorry asses down.”

 

“Confidence or Arrogance? Well, that’s your business. Just make sure no one knows we sent you.”

 

“And I saw you had working girls in the trade center. Let’s say I wanted to sell myself.”

 

“Yourself, or your friends?”

 

“They don’t whore. As leader of this group I do it to raise money for expenses. I…”

 

“You don’t need to explain. Sell it, give it away. As long as you don’t tease the poor men I have nothing against it.”

 

“No license or fee?”

“Hell no. Find a quiet place, I might recommend our flop house, and fuck whomever you like. You won’t find any judgment here. So good luck.”

 

Nora met her people at the bar run by the stout man and a younger man who looked like his son. “What’s good?”

 

“They have Mirelurk cakes,” said Heather enthusiastically. Nora wasn’t sure what the attraction was, since the living source of the food was pretty horrific. But she had to admit they were the closest thing to crabs the Commonwealth had post-war.

 

“Okay. Mirelurk cakes, vegetables if you have them, and beer. For me and my two friends.”

 

“So, did you get some more missions.”

 

Nora gave her people the run down on the missions, while the proprietor of the bar, Joe Salvoldi got in a very public argument with his son, Tony.

 

“Hey stranger. Will you tell my idiot son that joining the Railroad to rescue synths is a stupid move?”

 

“They’re running scared, pop,” said Tony. “And I want to do something important with my life.”

 

“And go to war with the Institute. You might as well join the Deathclaw preservation society.”

 

“I don’t know,” said Nora after a moment’s thought. “Freeing slaves sounds noble.”

 

“Noble my ass.” The man turned away, then started wiping down the bar. “And I overheard you. If you happen to get by Malden you might want to look in on finding the remains of my grandfather. He was a Minuteman, you know. And brave as they come.”

 

“How much?”

 

“Two hundred caps.”

 

“Sweeten the deal a bit and I’ll find him.”

 

“Okay, three hundred caps. And make sure you come back. I don’t want your death on my conscience.”

 

“Well, you know my route, more or less. Anything else of interest.”

 

“I would avoid that BADTFL office if you want to avoid trouble. A very bad Raider gang operates out of there.”

 

That interested Nora. If she could take them out in the morning, it was sure to engender even more good will with the traders. So she had one more piece of business to discuss.

 

“How much for a room for my two girls.”

 

“Sleeping, or other things?” asked Tony.

 

“A nice restful sleep for them. And a room for other things for me.”

 

“Twenty caps for their room, forty for yours. Theirs is on the top floor, near the end, while you can use the luxury suite to the right side of the bar.”

 

Nora counted out the caps, then, after giving Heather her Pip-Boy to look after, got into her working clothes for the evening. The crotchless cutoffs and short breast revealing shirt weren’t much sluttier than what the other Hookers were wearing, though the body within them was of much higher quality.

 

“How much?” asked Joe as he caught sight of her.

 

“One twenty-five.”

 

"The whores inside only charge a hundred.”

 

“And I will give you a much better time than they ever could,” said Nora, scenting her rising pheromones. “Money back guarantee.”

 

“Watch the bar, Tony, while your old man has some fun.”

 

Joe was not that bad, and Nora was able to cross the threshold before he came in her. The smiling man counted out another twenty-five caps. “You’re worth even more than that, honey. I’ll be sure to talk you up at the bar.”

 

“Thanks. And one twenty-five is fine. I have to build a reputation as well.”

 

“Smart businesswoman,” said Joe, getting dressed. “You were wonderful, and your morning shower is on me.”

 

Minutes later someone knocked on the door, and Nora opened it to see a smiling Old Man Stockton. “Did I come to the right place? Or should I ask, am I Cumming in the right place?”

 

“Then come in and Cum in,” Nora said, taking the man’s hand and leading him to the bed.

 

Stockton wasn’t bad either. Not great, but competent and definitely horny. Nora accepted his Cum in her pussy, then cleaned herself out with a rag. Over the next three hours she entertained eleven men, all Caravan workers, giving her a total of thirteen for the night before she closed up shop. That gave her just over sixteen hundred caps for the evening. Once expenses were taken care of she had fifteen hundred, and she thought that Bunker Hill would definitely be profitable enough when she was here. Nora took a shower before bed. It always amazed her. The men came in her pussy and mouth, yet she had Cum all over her at the end of a working night.

 

“I’ll take a hundred grams of nuclear material and a dozen old energy rifles.”

 

“Made some caps, huh,” said Deb with a grin. “If I had your looks I’d try to make some too. But from what the men were saying, it wasn’t just looks. They were all raving about how you were the best they ever had. The other girls are going to be jealous, so watch your back.” Deb leaned forward and whispered. “The boys said that you were really into it. So let me ask you. Do you really enjoy it?”

 

“Of course I do. They Cum, I Cum, and everyone is happy.”

 

“Then you are doubly blessed, because I can tell that the other whores do it with a grimace. So good for you.”

 

Deb had the nuclear material brought up, along with the weapons. The scrapped energy weapons went into Wilson, while the nuclear material went into a cargo bot. Nora got into her power armor and they hit the road, ready for a big day of mayhem.