AnnouncementI am making the executive decision to use primarily non-accented dialogue save for a few words. Reading over the older chapters, I realized that making it so overt is just... bad.Cait POV

  Hiding behind some shrubbery, Cait looked through a pair of binocurs toward some ramshackle fortifications.

  Andrew Station is located next to the freeway and used to service the South Boston area, but now it is a raider outpost. Having been taken over by a small gang led by a woman called Chancer, the wastend scum took no time putting up some basic defenses and started using their new base of operations to send raiding parties out.

  "I feel obliged to voice my objection to ze situation. I do not believe Basil will approve of you doing zis without him knowing."

  Cait put down her binocurs and looked at Joan standing beside her.

  Instead of the Miss Nany in which she had been 'born', Joan was now a modified Assaultron that Isabel liked to call Duelbots. Joan had seemingly been the most martially inclined of the triplets and had asked for a form more conducive to the violence she found herself doling out.

  "Rex, Joan. Not counting you and me, we have five Duelbots AND a Tankbot. They have pipe rifles and armor made from scram cans. There's a chance these gobeshites will piss their pants and surrender before even firin a shot."

  And Cait meant that. Sure, there were far more raiders than there were of them, but the combat ability was heavily in their favor. And it wasn't just pure bravado that made Cait think this way.

  Learning that the preexisting Metro system had secret connections to all the vaults made gaining and keeping control of the underground tunnels a top priority. So, over a few weeks, their merry little group had rapidly expanded and captured territory around Vault 88, the RobCo factory, and Vault 81, focusing on Metro stations. A byproduct of that conquest was running into several raider groups, all of which posed very little threat and were quickly defeated.

  Cait had volunteered to join the fledgling combat forces being assembled by Basil. At first, she received pushback from Basil, who feared for her safety, but Tanya backed her up, and Isabel refurbished a suit of power armor they had scavenged so she could have some of the best protection avaible pre or post-war.

  Cait had quickly proven herself in skirmishes while on patrol, and it wasn't long before Basil trusted her ability enough to give her her own objectives and lead her own raiding teams of robots.

  "But Basil's orders are to patrol ze area. I had agreed to come here because you promised only to scout ze station, not to attack ze outpost."

  With the recent expansion, outsiders have begun taking notice of their group. The wastenders saw the robots Isabel built and the security they represented when they would pulverize raider gangs terrorizing the area, sometimes even helping to defend local settlements or caravans.

  Settlers began making contact, and Basil, being the softie that he was, agreed to take them in. Now, there were dozens of settlers around the RobCo facility. Thankfully, they quickly settled in with the help of Marcy and Alexandra, the sisters who decided to stay with Basil from the group Cait was in when she was saved.

  And while Basil was beyond pleased that he could provide a stable situation to so many people, the new responsibilities meant his expansion pns had to be put on hold. Large and resource-rich settlements will always be targets, so Basil dedicated most of his forces to patrolling the surroundings. The remainder was spent monitoring the new settlers and helping build the infrastructure for the growing popution.

  So Cait was relegated to patrol duty.

  Day after eventless day dredged by as Cait's insecurities knawed away at her. Without her providing victories on the battlefield, Cait couldn't help but think that she wasn't providing enough value, which then grew into an unwarranted fear of Basil not needing her anymore.

  And so she hatched this pn to take over Andrew Station, the st point they needed before Basil could connect Vault 88 to the RobCo facility and Vault 81.

  It had been easy to convince Joan to divert some of the patrols to go with her; all she had to say was that they were scouting out the most active and closest raiders, which were a direct threat to their settlers. And now that they were here, Cait just had to push the French robot past the finish line.

  "Joan, our job is to protect the settlement, right? Well, these dopes are the only ones in the area that pose any real threat. Why wait and give them the initiative and time to pn a proper attack when we can end the threat now?"

  Joan stared back at her before turning to look at the raider fortress, and Cait could see the Assaultron processing the possibilities and calcuting the best approach.

  Basil had been very x with Joan, Curie, and Antoinette and didn't put much restriction on their programming, preferring to let their personalities grow naturally and freely. This freedom meant they were great at problem-solving but also created situations where they came to different conclusions than Basil and sometimes even stretched the interpretations of his orders.

  After an awkward silence where Cait was grateful that the power armor hid her face, which undoubtedly had an anxious expression from waiting for Joan's decision, the Assaultron finally moved again and turned to look at Cait.

  "I have concluded zat your pn is acceptable and zat neutralizing this threat now is ze optimal outcome. But I will only proceed if you agree zat we follow ze standard rules of engagement and immediately report to Basil once we return to ze settlement."

  "Of course. No need to get more heat on our ass, so we keep things by the book."

  Cait was sure of her success, so providing an after-action report did not have a consequence. Following the standard rules of engagement meant offering the raiders a chance to surrender and potentially lose the initiative. However, when you had Duelbots with Assaultron stealth tech on your side, giving raiders a heads-up wasn't a big deal.

  Offering a chance to surrender had been something Basil had been adamant about. And while Cait had no love for wastend scum, she wasn't willing to get on Basil's bad side by straying from her patrolling job only to then also ignore his rules.

  "Do you have a pn?"

  Cait gave the raider camp a once-over before ying out an attack.

  "You, me, the Tankbot, and three Duelbots approach the entrance and make contact while the other two sneak onto the wall and get into positions where they can tear apart the raiders with high ground."

  Given their limited numbers, their biggest weakness was getting pinned down from too many directions. Having a couple of Duelbots go into stealth and getting rid of the raiders with the best angles early on in a potential fight was a smart move.

  "And if they don't surrender, the Tankbot and I provide cover until we get to the gate. From there, the Tankbot can ram down that flimsy entrance, and from there, the Tankbot and I will keep their heads down by suppressing fire while you and the Duelbots go stealth and root them out close quarters."

  Joan's crimson eyes glow as she processes the pn.

  "Ze pn is acceptable. Should we approach now?"

  "Better earlier than ter, I figure."

  With that, their entourage moved out of their concealed location and headed toward the enemy base. It didn't take long before Cait found herself at the entrance to the old Metro station.

  The raiders had seen her miles away, and they were now scuttling around like rats and getting into position for a fight. The raiders focusing so much on Cait worked in her favor, as it meant the Duelbots charged with sneaking in had much less security to worry about.

  "Ze Duelbots have infiltrated ze compound and are making their way to ze higher levels."

  Joan's voice came through on the intercom, letting Cait know that the first part of her pn had gone off without a hitch.

  Stopping just a few dozen feet from the entrance, Cait used the built-in speaker in her power armor helmet to make contact with the raiders.

  "We represent the East Boston Settlement. Yer group poses a threat to our security, and we are offering you this one opportunity to surrender peacefully."

  Silence followed her decration, the moment pregnant with tension.

  Cait could feel the nervous energy radiate from the riff-raff across from her. Even with just the five of them, seeing her in a full suit of power armor, an assault rifle, a modified sentry bot, and three very advanced assaultrons was a sight to behold.

  No doubt they have been made aware of a crusading robot force wiping out local raiders left and right. Maybe they had shrugged it off as another wastend tall tale, but with Cait and Joan in front of their very eyes, they were probably recalling all the rumors they had heard and wondering about the voracity of said stories.

  Eventually, a small group of raiders created a little gap in their formation, and a female raider stepped forward.

  "And why would we surrender? I count five of you and twenty of us. If anything, we should offer you the chance to surrender."

  Cait scoffs at the woman's audacity. No one ever accused raiders of being intelligent, and their ck of grey matter was now on full dispy.

  "Because surrender will afford you the chance to live in a society where you can make something of yerself instead of doing nothing but tearing down the work of others. That and you get to keep yer lives instead of being put down like rabid filthy beasts."

  Hearing that, Chancer ughed. The threat did not work.

  "Make something of myself? So I can become a sheep instead of being my own king. No, I don't think so. Boys! Show these bags of bolts why they shouldn't have messed with us!"

  And with that, Chancer cued for the battle to start.

  Immediately, the bullets started raining down on Cait and the robots around her. Most of them missed, but the ones that hit bounced off harmlessly. Even then, Cait, Joan, and the Duelbots hid behind the Tankbot while it proceeded toward the gate—no need to risk anything and let the Tankbot do its job.

  "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

  Unaware of his surroundings, a cloaked Duelbot picked up a raider shooting down at Cait from the station's roof before being thrown off the three-story building.

  The main limbs helplessly filed around, trying and failing to find anything to grasp onto to stop himself from free falling. Eventually, gravity did its job, and the man crashed into the hard concrete floor head-first. His skull cracked, and his neck shattered instantly, leaving him braindead and a vegetable, the only signs of any life being the occasional spasm.

  Once they were closer to the gate, the Tankbot's generator whirled, and heat began building up as it put its motor into overdrive. The wheels spun, kicking up dirt and little bits of rock before gripping onto the concrete and propelling the mammoth of a machine forward at shocking speed.

  The Tankbot rammed into the gate. The rusty sheet metal stood no chance as the robot busted the doors apart at the hinge, sending them flying away.

  At this point, the Duelbots that infiltrated early cleaned the house, and the only remaining raiders were the ones on the walls and the ones in the station. Funnily enough, it seems Chancer has turned tail at the first sign of trouble since she was nowhere to be found; so much for that cocky attitude.

  Once the gates were down, the battle progressed to the next phase, and Joan and the Duelbots zipped out from behind cover while engaging in their cloaking.

  A turret near the escator leading down into the metro tunnels turned on and began shooting at Cait and the Tankbot. Cait hip-fired her weapon and let the tracers show her where she was aiming, guiding her gun until she was poking holes into the turret.

  It didn't take many bullets until the internal electronics failed, and the bullets inside the turrets cooked off, leading to a satisfying explosion.

  After dealing with the turret, Cait kept the raiders' attention on her and the Tankbot by hosing down anyone she saw with a shower of bullets. Any raider that wasn't immediately turned into Swiss cheese smartly sought cover and kept their heads down.

  While that kept them safe from Cait and the Tankbot, it also meant they were easy pickings for Joan and the Duelbots.

  The lethal robots phased in and out of their active cloaking, and an assortment of melee weapons broke limbs and cracked skulls as Raiders helplessly watched their buddies get taken out one by one.

  Eventually, the raiders lost complete control of the situation, and the smart one recognized that they were losing ground and started backing off into the lower levels, trying to force Cait and her forces into a narrower space where the raiders could focus their fire.

  Unbothered by the pitiful threat they posed, Cait and her forces pressed their advantage and gave chase.

  Raiders dropped like flies left and right, slowly losing more ground until they were no longer outside and had to make their st stand inside the metro station.

  "We have to bust through this st bit with raw force! The Tankbot and I will bash through them; you take advantage of the chaos we cause!

  Recognizing that the cluttered space and choke point made it hard for the Duelbots to rush in frontally, Cait took control of the situation and used the Tankbot and her power armor as the hammer to smash through the frontlines.

  Loading a fresh drum into her assault rifle, Cait charged alongside the Tankbot. The raiders who hastily formed a defensive line stood no chance as several tons of hardened steel busted down their cover and blew them aside.

  Bullets bounced off Caits armor, and sparks were everywhere as the remaining survivors concentrated all their aggression on the threat that had just bulldozed through five raiders.

  While Caits pn worked wonders, she wasn't ready for Chance to reappear on the battlefield. The raider scum didn't tuck tail and run but was just grabbing appropriate weaponry. Showing up from behind what used to be a restroom, Chancer shouldered a rocket uncher and pointed it directly at Cait.

  "You think we wouldn't be fucking prepared after all the shit you metal freaks caused in the st month. I'll fucking see you in hell!"

  Cait watched as Chancer pulled the trigger. The backbst from the rocket blew tiles off the floor, and a rge flower of fire and propelnt spewed forth as a rocket barreled its way toward her.

  She was too close. Closing the distance gave them a chance to finish the fight but also robbed Cait of the space she would need to react and dodge the speeding explosive.

  One moment, Cait was standing, and the next, fmes engulfed her vision and she felt herself spinning through the air before smming onto the ground.

  Her ears rang, and her vision blurred. She could see the Tankbot quickly retreating to her and covering her id-out body from enemy fire. Joan rushed over, and while everything sounded muffled, she could vaguely make out the French robot calling her name. Despite being somewhat cognizant, Cait couldn't react, almost like her brain was bogged down with muck.

  As the edges of her vision began to darken and Cait felt her grasp on consciousness loosening, the st thing she sees is all the Duelbot's eyes brighter than the sun and crimson red before charging into the remaining raiders.

  SPS4