The trek back to Pott’s was difficult. My escape from the Republic was masked by the shock and surprise of the Prophet’s death, but making my way through the rest of STAR territory was much more difficult. The patrols were so heavy that I was forced to take roundabout paths through dangerous deadzones I would’ve preferred to avoid. At one point, when I was deep inside a deadzone I flipped on my radio, certain I was safe from being located, and twisted the knob until I heard Adam’s speaking.

This has been an unconscionable attack on true Americans. These…beasts… savages have attacked us without reason or provocation. We offered them peace, cooperation, and a place in the rebirth of America, and they killed one of the members of our cabinet, as well as hundreds of our brave young men and women in uniform, many of them fresh recruits. When we first came to this wasteland, we heard the stories of the deadmen. Talk of them as evil, monstrous creatures that kidnap and eat men and women without second thought. Despite that we trusted them, and look at how our kindness was returned. Do we regret giving them a chance? No, that is what America is all about. America is also about responding to terrorist acts in kind, and we will show these animals what that means.

Judging by his tone and the content of the speech, it seemed like the attack by Pott’s and the Horde had been a wild success. I listened to a few more comparisons of Deadmen to various ravenous animals, then turned the knob again to hear Deux speak.

-ow I don’t like to talk politics. That’s what that other asshole is all about, but I thought I’d share the truth with you, the truth that ‘America’ (I could hear the quotations in his tone of voice) doesn’t want you to know. The reason Pott’s attacked is simple, the Remnants are working on a way to control your fucking minds, and weapons to rain fire down on anyone who's too RADICAL for it to work on. I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. These people fall out of the fucking sky, take complete control of STAR, then the Republic? If that doesn’t sound like mind control then I don’t know what the fuck does. Anyway, that’s enough bullshit, here’s, ‘Espionage’, by Beastie’s Boyz

I chuckled a bit as I listened to Deux speak. He was a natural conspiracy peddler, always had been. We didn’t need cover for our attack, we had our own reasons and the outside world didn’t need to know them. That had been my opinion. I had to admit though, that it was clever. From what the more talkative people I’d spoken with told me, mistrust in the Remnants was almost as high as it was for the deadmen among the average waster. Capitalizing on that was a good idea.

I listened to his station until I was getting close to exiting the deadzone and needed to make myself as quiet as possible. In spite of the difficulty I was having traveling through enemy territory, thanks to my increased speed and my lack of a need to rest, I was able to make it back to Pott’s only a day after the squad I’d been embedded with had returned.

I didn’t take the time to rest, instead making my way straight through the city toward the mausoleum. There was a spark in the air that I didn’t recognize on my previous trips. People were talking, I saw men and women in black sharing deadman strength booze and heard boisterous stories from restaurant patios about taking on ten power-armored remnants single handedly. A particularly drunk deadman stumbled into my path and nearly hit me, but I side stepped around him. He fell, and yelled after me.

“Hey asshole, watch where you’re going.”

I ignored him and kept walking, until I heard uneven footsteps approach me from behind. I turned around, watching as the man ran at me with a fist raised.

He swung a haymaker vaguely in my direction, and I caught his fist, bending his wrist as I did to bring him to his knees. I sighed.

“You should be saving this energy for the Remnants.”

He grunted and tried to stand and hit me, but wasn’t willing to break his own wrist to do it. I found that a little disappointing, but understandable.

Another set of footsteps approached, these much more even then the drunk I had on the ground. I looked up to see a deadwoman, she looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place her.

“Uh, Mr. Commander Donovan Sir. Could you please let go of Bernard? He’s just drunk.”

Bernard looked up at me, his eyes sobering a bit. “Oh fuck. I’m so sorry.”

Commander? That was new, especially since I was fairly certain ranks weren’t really something that existed yet in the loose militia Solomon and Jim had managed to raise. I nodded to the woman, and released his wrist, causing him to fall backward. Then I started to move back toward the Mausoleum again.

“Bernard, you are so lucky he didn’t break your arm. I watched him kill three power-armored remnants with his bare hands. He could’ve snapped you like a twig.”

“I could’ve gotten a hit in.”

“Sure buddy. Let’s get you some water.”

That’s where I’d seen her before. She’d been in the group I was with for the attack on the vaccine facility. I hadn’t taken the time to learn faces and names. I’d spoken in general terms only to their Undertaker leader, and even then that was only to ensure we had a clear battle plan.

I made it to the mausoleum and walked inside, not waiting for a white robe as I had in the past. The Honored Dead weren’t holding council, so I instead moved to Julian’s lab where I was certain I could find at least one of them to report to. Unlike the others, he actually lived in the building.

I found him, and Mama standing behind one of his white robes at a computer, discussing something technical that was beyond my understanding. I waited for him to finish, and he turned to look at me.

“Donovan. Good to see you back,” said Mama with a smile.

I nodded.

“You were successful I take it?” asked Solomon.

I nodded again.

He chuckled. “ I’m not sure why I even bothered asking. If you weren’t you’d almost certainly be dead or captured.”

“The other attacks, how’d they go?” I asked.

“Very well. Obviously your attack was the most important, but we also managed to sabotage one of their factory bunkers, the one that we knew of, several weapons depots, and remove a dozen key targets from play. We only have two groups that have yet to return, though intel suggests one of them is trapped in a deadzone by the increased patrols in STAR territory.”

“Mercy’s extraction?”

Julian’s eyebrows furrowed. “No indication yet of success or failure. They’re possibly moving for their backup extraction point at Medina. The Horde captured it successfully, and pushed deep into the territory, raiding and destroying as they went. The Remnant’s fortifications didn’t count for much when they could simply be driven around. The Khan himself led the charge, from what I’ve heard.”

I felt uneasy at the thought that Nico hadn’t yet completed her mission. I’d offered to do it first, but she convinced me I’d be of more use raiding on the front lines then doing an extraction. She was right, but that hadn’t made me any less worried for her.

Mama patted my shoulder causing me twitch away, but I stopped myself concerned I’d knock her backward.

“She’ll be okay Donovan. She’s strong, not as strong as you, but strong… definitely smarter though,” Mama smiled at that last part.

I sighed and I looked over to the computer Julian had just been standing over.

“Anything useful?”

He sighed. “Yes and no. We have an idea of what they were doing, but to be honest we need a more complete picture of what we’re working with. It’s also clear that we aren’t the scientists they are. They’ve got a lot more experience working with this level of tech, and to us it’s all brand new. It appears that they were roughly 90% of the way to completing the vaccine, probably further along with the mortars, though actual manufacturing of either would likely take quite a bit of time. We’ve probably slowed them down, but who knows for how long.”

“I doubt their focus will be on the vaccine now. They seem pretty eager to kill us off the old fashioned way.”

Julian shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t risk something like this happening again. It could’ve been the end of us, of Pott’s.” Julian moved across the lab to a large table where he unrolled a map, one I recognized. It was the bunkers, all of them layed out. I noticed some had been circled, others crossed, and a few had notes by them. He pointed to the one in the Black Woods, the one where I’d first learned about the rEvolutionary Virus. “We sent an undertaker to this location in order to download all the technical information at this bunker. We have received no word from him since he reached the woods. We had another undertaker investigating a separate bunker nearby, but we lost contact with him as well. I would like you to go in order to check on them, and download the data yourself if he can no longer do so.”

I gritted my teeth. “I need to get back to the front. Maybe support the Horde in Medina for a bit. Send another undertaker.”

He shook his head. “Donovan, you’re the only one with experience in the bunkers. We’ve sent others to them since you gave us the map, but it never goes well. We need this information, and we can’t afford to lose people getting it. I can trust that you'll survive.”

I clenched my hand into a fist, ready to argue.

“We need to bring people back, our numbers are more important now that they’ve ever been before,” said Mama.

I gritted my teeth. "I'm leaving now then.”

Julian nodded. “Good luck.”

“Don’t need it.”