I stewed on what I'd seen up by the old high tension tower for a few days before calling everyone together to talk about it. I explained my concerns: the good news saw that I'd tracked the watcher back to a raider camp and wiped them out. The bad news? We had no idea how long they'd been watching us, and I didn't think we could count on it just being those three who knew about us. We were getting close to the point when we'd be opening up the vault and bringing down the rest of the crew to Sanctuary - really just waiting for the first thaw - and we were still pretty vulnerable to any kind of concerted attack.

 

 

With the trading post built and the houses well on the way to completion, shelter and trade weren't crucial problems - while we had room for growth, the situation wasn't too bad. Defense was the big problem. I was indeed going to have to build the watch towers that I'd been thinking about, and we were going to need people to man them. At least, that was the most direct solution. Tracey reminded me about something I'd been thinking on a while back: adapting the automated spotlights we'd pieced together into a more lethal solution. Specifically, rigging up some kind of sentry gun. I agreed with her that the idea sounded useful, and I asked her to get started on it immediately.

 

Meanwhile, Winter had a suggestion for her parents' house. Specifically, that instead of starting over, we move the mushroom farms out of the vault and into the house. That way, she explained, if the settlement got attacked, our food supplies would be less vulnerable than if we got the farming going outdoors. We could probably even expand on the idea and set up a greenhouse for more conventional crops, too. I also liked this idea, but it got back to a question I'd been kind of dodging for a while: where were Stef and Fred going to live? Would Winter share a home with them? She'd been thinking about that too, and she decided that she wanted to live close to her parents but not share a dwelling. She suggested a duplex like what I was building for Tracey, with Winter living on the bottom floor and her parents - and their greenhouse - going on the top. 

 

I liked that idea, but I wanted her parents' buy-in before I started building. Winter agreed with that, and said she'd check in on the vault in the next couple of days and run the idea past them at the time. The Donahue sisters didn't have any radical ideas, but they did suggest I still look at bringing in more manpower, not just relying on gimmicks like sentry guns. They were quick to reassure Tracey that they weren't shooting down her idea, just saying that a human guard or two would always be more flexible than a machine. They added that if I was going to continue populating the settlement with people rescued from raiders, they had a rough idea of where a few more raider camps might be located. I asked them to draw up a map so that I could plan out a patrol schedule, and they got to work on it.

 

Thinking about the issue of raider camps near Sanctuary, I got to thinking about future plans. I knew there was a scrapyard north of the lake, and I was pretty sure I'd seen a pumphouse on the east bank that still looked intact. To the west, there was that high-tension tower, part of the transmission line that ran down to Abernathy Farm. All of those had seemed like somewhat defensible positions, and I mulled the idea of eventually trying to secure the lake itself. The fallout-laden water wasn't much use as a resource, but perhaps if we could build a water purifier that might change. I imagined that having a reliable, stable source of clean water would not just improve our chances for survival, but also that it would provide us with a valuable trade good. Still, we'd need a lot more people here before we could start thinking about that sort of solution. 

 

While the Donahue sisters put together their map, I finished up the second floor of Tracey's building. I learned from some of my earlier experienced and managed to create a much more open design, with a well-lit kitchen and nice reading nook with a good view of town. I planned to give this space to Holly, and I hoped she would like it.

 

 

As it happened, that opportunity came sooner than I planned. When Winter returned from the vault, she had Holly in tow with her. Evidently, the talk about setting up defenses had caught her interest enough that she insisted on coming back to Sanctuary with her niece. Adding Holly was going to stretch our supply situation a little bit, but not to any extent we couldn't handle, so I welcomed her insider the walls. After a quick tour of the guardhouse above our trading post, I showed her the apartment I'd earmarked for her above Tracey's place.

 

"I have to admit," she said, "I wasn't expecting something like this. I mean, I believed you when you said you wanted to rebuild, but I've never seen new construction like this. This is really remarkable."

 

"It's only going to get better from here. If you visited my house, then Winter's, then the Donahue sisters', and so forth, you're going to see that each house looks better and better than the last. And don't make any mistake: Winter had a lot to do with it. Your niece is really something else."

 

"Yeah," she agreed, "I don't think any of us appreciated just how special she was until she got her hands on that Workshop. You're building something special here... and I'll do what I can to help protect it. I know the plan is to try and rescue more folks from the raiders and recruit them for the settlement. If you can do that, I can train them up into half decent guards pretty fast."

 

 

I let Holly start getting settled in while I turned my attention to the possible raider camps. The gist of the map was that I'd probably find some unwanted company near the east shore of the lake - the same general vicinity I'd rescued the Donahues in - and also along the ridge to the northwest. I probably also wanted to pay a fresh visit to the Air Force satellite bunker, since that area had hosted one gang or another for years, and after I cleaned it out there was a good chance more had moved in. 

 

Winter helped me suit up, and then I headed for the ridge. I figured I'd scout there first, then check the east shore, and finish up with some reconnaissance of the Air Force base. It didn't take me long to make my way up the ridge, and fairly quickly I found signs of life - a shack nestled beneath a rocky overlook. With care, I made my way to a fallen log that projected over the hut and dropped down from above.

 

 

My arrival wasn't greeted with enthusiasm - but fortunately it was just a single raider and his dog guarding the post. Well, two raiders, but the second had apparently succumbed to a drug overdose some time ago and was lying in their shelter where she died. I searched through the supplies there and found a few things that might be helpful for the settlement, but it looked like most of the inhabitants had moved on for the winter. I made a mental note to keep an eye on this spot - maybe even secure it when we had the resources - but then I moved on. The idea of burning down the shack passed through my head, but I decided against it: if I did decide that we wanted to set up a presence here, having shelter already in place would make our job easier. 

 

 

From there, I swung north by the scrapyard and found it just where I remembered. Indeed, not just there, but largely undamaged. No one seemed to be around, but I knew that didn't mean it was safe an since I hadn't planned on clearing it on this trip I didn't explore further. Still, we'd have to come back here at some point. There was a wealth of materials for the Workshop in there, and practically right on our doorstep, at that. 

 

Reaching the east bank, I rather quickly saw signs of life. I was getting ready to spring into a surprise attack, but something told me this wasn't a raider I was looking at. So, shotgun still readied, I left the treeline and approached the woman.

 

"Greetings," I said, "what brings you out this way?"

 

"Well, you must be the vault dweller folks are whispering about. The lady from before the War. Bet this must all look different to you... or at least not glow as much."

 

Well, there you go, proof that despite my efforts at a low profile, rumors were still spreading. "No, it sure didn't," I admitted. "So what's your angle?"

 

"Ha," she chuckled, "my angle? Funny you put it that way. I like the fishing, and there's lots of good fishing around these parts. But I get it - this is your place - and I don't feel like skinny dipping right now. So I'll be on my way."

 

"Do me a favor," I said.

 

"Huh? Sure."

 

"Don't spread around lots of word about this place. Not till we officially open up at least. We caught some raider scouts snooping around last week, and I'd rather not attract more attention."

 

"How do you know I'm not a raider scout?" She challenged me.

 

"I don't. So, consider it also a warning: those scouts are all dead. This place'll be welcoming all sorts soon, and we'll put the word out when we're open. Until then, treat it like your favorite fishing hole and don't go spreading rumors."

 

She shrugged then. "Fair enough. But someday I might come back looking for a chance to relax with my rod. Can I sell you my silence in exchange for, um, a fishing license?"

 

I nodded to her, lowing my shotgun millimetrically, "you've got a deal. Just check in with me at the settlement first, so the others don't see you and get jumpy. By the way, what's your name?"

 

"Call me Hesper," she said. "I'll see you around, vault dweller. Or do you have a name you want me to drop in those rumors I won't be spreading."

 

I groaned internally at that all but admission Hesper couldn't keep her mouth shut about this place. Still, attaching a name to this place might not be a bad idea. "Charley," I said, "Charley of Vault 111."

 

"Huh," she said, "I wouldn't have guessed a Charley from your figure, but I guess it takes all types. Anyway, suns setting fast, and I need to get to my camp. See you around, Charley."

 

 

The whole strip of land from the Air Force base to the Red Rocket was a bust - no signs of raiders there. I was happy to find our perimeter free of intruders, but I'd really hoped I could rescue some more folks and send them back home to bolster our numbers. Still, I didn't have much choice but to accept defeat, so I headed back to Sanctuary and peeled out of the power suit before dropping into bed.

 

For the last few days, we'd been having on-again off-again rain along with temperature right near the freezing point. In fact, I think in part thanks to some help from the Neural Sentries, the whole crew had been working outside comfortably for some time now. Still, I had it in my head that we had at least another month before spring rolled around. However, after a night of almost constant rain that ran into a foggy, drizzly morning, I found myself confronted with evidence that my timetable might have been a little optimistic.

 

 

So now we were in crunch time. Based on what the Donahue sisters had explained about the trade routes, I was pretty confident that when the snow was gone, raider activity - and every other kind of hostile activity - was going to pick up. There were routes to the west and north that became impassible through the winter, and once those opened up, folks could range down from the entirely lawless areas that used to be New Hampshire and Western Mass... and Sanctuary was more or less in the middle of that migration route. 

 

Tracey was still working on her sentry gun project with no results to show for it just yet. Winter and her parents had agreed to her duplex plan for the house, which in turn meant it was time to knock down the old Rosa place. Very carefully, and with help from Codsworth and Tracey, I moved the Workshop off the Rosas' foundation pad, then everyone set to work tearing down Winter's erstwhile home. We saved all the new appliances and other complex fabricated goods, but the structure - including the improvements and repairs I'd made earlier in the winter - all went back into the hopper.

 

As we relocated the Workshop, something caught my eye and I called Winter over.

 

"Hey," I said, "what do you make of this - 'Robco Backyard Robotics Weekly: build your own radio transmitter.' Sound useful?"

 

 

Winter retrieved the magazine, which had apparently got slid underneath the Workshop at some point, and flipped through it. 

 

"I don't know how much use we'd get from a do-it-yourself communist detector, but the radio... that I think we might... well, you said you were looking for more settlers, right? Maybe we just need to ask nicely."