I made my way out of the tent, looking for a way to occupy my time until I received my payment, and resupply. I took a deep inhale, ignoring the frightened glances of the people in the camp, and started moving toward where the scent of blood was thickest. Eventually, I came to a large tent with a large red cross in the center. I pushed my way inside. It was loud, people were screaming, medical tools were being deposited onto metal trays, and Doctor’s barking orders all the while. I moved through the tent, deftly dodging those few people who didn’t move aside for me as I made my way toward the back. I saw people missing limbs, gunshot wounds, and large cauterized circles on some people I assumed were the result of lasguns. The smell of their burnt flesh made me hungry.

Near the back corner of the tent, I saw Mercy, Leah, and Graves. Graves was sitting on the ground, no chairs within the tent would’ve been capable of supporting his armored weight. Mercy was freshly bandaged, with her fingers splinted. Between that and the burns I knew were under her eye-patch she was starting to look almost as scarred as I was. Leah and Mercy were talking quietly, their voices just barely breaking through the noise that filled the tent.

Graves held up a hand to acknowledge me as I approached, and I returned the gesture. Leah and Mercy looked up at me as I did so.

“Donovan, how was your talk with the cabinet?” asked Leah.

I wasn’t sure how she knew that’s where I had been, but I wasn’t surprised. “Better than yours,” I responded.

“Mine went exactly as I’d expected,” she responded.

I looked over to the bed where Mercy was laying. “Mercy,” I said, with a tilt of my head.

She surprised me by smiling. “Donovan, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Nowhere else for me to be while I wait for my pay. Besides, I still need coordinates from these two,” I gestured at Graves and Leah.

Leah’s eyes unfocused for a moment, and suddenly I had the coordinates messaged to me. “There you go. Unfortunately, I’m grounded indefinitely, but Graves should be able to request to fly you as close as he can.”

I nodded, that would make for a pleasantly quiet flight.

“I’m afraid I lost the book you gave me,” said Mercy.

“Book? Oh, ‘The Duke’s Hammer’? You bought it fair and square. What happens to it after that is your business.”

“I shared it with some friends in The Republic. We’d only ever read the words of the founders and the prophet, but it was so refreshing.” Her smile dimmed a bit. “It was discovered by one of their husbands, she was lashed twenty times for it. I volunteered to take the lashes myself, but the prophet insisted that I could not, though I did need to watch.”

I nodded along as she spoke. I wasn’t sure what to say, but I got the feeling she was talking more because she felt she had to than because she was expecting anything from me.

“My friend died by the fourteenth stroke, but they did the last six anyway, saying that her spirit couldn’t be redeemed if the punishment wasn’t completed. I’d seen people killed before, or beaten, but it had always seemed right before that. This time…”

I continued to sit, waiting for her to continue. I expected the things I did to cause ripples every once in a while. That was why the deadmen jumping me in the alley hadn’t surprised me. Big actions could make big waves. I hadn’t thought of how the small actions I’d taken may have far larger waves than I could’ve expected. The wastes were a volatile place though. I wasn’t exactly skipping stones in a still pond so much as chucking boulders into a raging river.

“I started working with Leah after that…I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you.”

I blinked. I’d expected an ‘I hate you,’ or ‘I wish you were dead’. “You’re…welcome?”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t have realized how bad things really were without you loaning me that book. I was blind, but now I know, and by the proph-.” She paused and took a breath. “And I’ll do my best to make sure that things change for the better.”

I once again couldn’t think of anything to say, and just stood there in silence for a few moments. “Well… Get better.” I managed, making my way out of the tent, dodging around the medics and patients again on my way out. Just outside of the tent I encountered a man holding a large crate.

“Donovan?” he asked.

I nodded, slightly amused by the question. I didn’t exactly blend in with the crowd.

He handed me the crate. “Slate told me to tell you this should be everything aside from the special items she is preparing to have transported to Pott’s.”

I took the crate and shooed the man off with a nod, then I carried it into an alley between tents. I cracked it open and started taking inventory. My ammo stores were replenished exactly, not a single bullet extra or missing. The shotgun was almost the exact same make as the one I’d been using, only a different colored handle, and the fact that the barrel hadn’t been sawed-off. There were two laspistols inside as well. The power armor was the real prize, but I didn’t want to familiarize myself with new tech that may be unreliable when crossing the Cut. Aside from the loot, they’d given me I had also neglected to return the jump pack I’d received, and no one had said anything about it, though that may have been because I had slid it into my backpack. I’d been worried about how I would cross the cut itself. I was unsure of how the Pilgrim I’d met had done it, but now I had a method of my own even if I wasn’t following his exact path.

I finished packing everything up. I made sure everything was loaded and ready, took a moment to sharpen my sword, and went to re-enter the tent, but found Leah and Graves already standing outside of it.

“I have to brief you on one last part of your mission before you go.”

“Can we do it on the go?” I asked. My teeth were itching. I was feeling an urgent need to finally start on my journey across the Cut. It had already been delayed twice, and barring a threat to my immediate life or Pott’s I intended it to be the next thing I did.

Leah nodded, and fell in next to me and behind Graves who led the way to the outside of the camp where I assumed the Shrike was located.

“We are aware that restoring or activating full functionality at the bunker may not actually be possible.”

I nodded. I had already considered the possibility of simply lying to them and not turning it on if I decided against it.

“Whether it is or isn’t,” she pulled a stack of black squares from her jacket. “We want you to place one of these into whatever terminals you find. We need any information on why it isn’t possible if you can’t, along with any data stored there. That way we can confirm the job is done.”

I nodded, keeping my expression neutral. It was like they’d read my mind, but it didn’t really change anything. If I didn’t want to activate the parts of the RAS they wanted activated, I wouldn’t. I knew they believed it would give them a serious edge in the wastes, and I wouldn’t let them have it if I thought it was against the deadmen and Pott’s best interests.

“Pack these in different places,” she said, handing them to me. “You should only need one. The rest are backups.”

I nodded, took them, and began slotting them into different pockets and sections of my pack without even looking. The Shrike came into view shortly after that, and after a nod to Leah, Graves loaded himself in and started its engines. I went to climb inside as well.

“One last thing Donovan.”

I turned around.

“Good luck.”

I tipped my hat, and made it the rest of the way inside, taking a spot that would give me the best view of the ground as we flew over it, and settled in. The Republic had fallen. The Remnants had absorbed STAR without bloodshed, and removed The Republic which had been a thorn in their side, in a single day. Aside from a few unaffiliated outskirt settlements, that meant there was only one direction left for them to go, East. I strongly doubted they would find the Khan and the Iron Horde as easy to deal with.

I looked down at STAR territory as I passed over it, automatically cataloging landmarks and towns as I passed over them. This was the last time I’d be given a ride in quite some time. It was time to start flexing my walking skill again.