Recommended music for reading

 

"I can't spare this woman, she fights."

 

Those were the words of President Eden as Naomi was deployed to the Commonwealth.

 

Piper, now an embedded journalist to the Minutemen, followed Naomi's campaign for 13 months, photographing and keeping personal records. These are some of her accounts, mixed with narrative.

 

...people knew who the Enclave were, but nobody knew who she was. Though the only thing that mattered was that she was on our side. The Commonwealth needed someone like her. We were in some desperate times.

 

Raiders had taken to the skies after capturing some old vertibirds near Fort Hagen. They were the only ones crazy enough to fly those old junk birds. But it was enough to stop caravans during the day. The people had to submit to their new tribute demands...

 

...with less people out on patrol to keep the wasteland at bay, creatures started to invade populated areas. Monsters we haven't seen before in the Commonwealth now roamed the countryside.

 

...then the Enclave came. Driven out from the Capital Wasteland, their surviving armies had fled north, hoping to establish themselves in the Commonwealth.

 

I don't think any of us would've supported the Enclave openly, but we always believed Naomi was genuine...

 

She wasn't all talk. When people asked for help, she came.

 

And boy did we need help.

 

Being a journalist, I knew she was a PR tool for the Enclave - but she actually had a positive effect on the people. We lived in such strange times...

 

I have to admit that I found her... attractive. I think many of us supported her for that reason alone.

 

The ranks of pro-Naomi militiamen grew, and Enclave veterans welcomed that.

 

Having assisted Minutemen in countless battles, Naomi by now had become legendary...

 

 

(A soldier of French descent once told me, "she reminds me of this painting...")

 

...it was her who cleared the skies over the southern swamps and beat the Gunners back...

 

"You don't need an air force," she once told the Minutemen.

 

"You have me."

 

Her efforts alone cleared the way for the Enclave to fully establish themselves here.

 

The Enclave also seized Vault 88 and established their command bunker there. While the Enclave occupied GNN building was open to the public, Vault 88 was not.

 

"I'm neither exactly human, nor machine, Piper." She once told me. She never went into detail of her origins, but she was a lot more open to me than anyone else.

 

She hinted to me once that she'd rather just fight for the American people than the Enclave.

 

I think it had something to do with how she was being treated. When Lieutenant Scarlet, her double, was introduced, I really understood then that she was some sort of mass-produced weapon, something like a synth but more advanced.

 

 

 

"They aren't lethal to me." She told me when I first saw her get shot up, and I was hysterical. "But they do still hurt. But I can take it."

 

 

She was never too happy either about how the Enclave was handling what they called "pacification."

 

I never personally saw Naomi or men directly under her command commit atrocities. But there were whispers of settlements being razed by Hellfire squads in the countryside. Surrendering Gunners being massacred. Raiders being sent to death camps.

 

...she only fought to protect civilians and her own men...

 

...but everyone was admitting now how difficult this war is...

 

...testing the character of our nation...

 

The Enclave, particularly President Eden himself, seemed preoccupied with maintaining their own power... they began to censor information that was inconvenient for them.

 

The Enclave's commitment to the Commonwealth seemed mostly self-serving... while Naomi, having bled and fought alongside us, was really for us...

 

I remember that a great American president once said, "To test a man's character, give him power."

 

I think this synth woman's character has been tested many times in battle...

 

Either that, the Enclave has really managed to get inside my head...

 

 

TBC