Piper and Jun Write a Newspaper

12.1.2290 FRI - Goodneighbors

The Sole Survivor
The Biography of the Minutemen's Most Influential General
[Working Title]

INTRODUCTION [Change time instances to reflect date of publication. Try and talk to Blue about calling us Companions before publishing-makes us sound too dependent on her and the word can create ambiguity anyway.]

The Commonwealth, YEAR. It's been [blank] years since the Sole Survivor woke up alone in Vault 111 and became General of the Minutemen. Under her direction, settlements in the Commonwealth grew, each bearing the Minuteman flag, and the prosperity of their citizens rose despite the raids and the looming threat of the Institute. Through delicate diplomacy and crafty dealings, General Nora* managed to ingratiate herself with the region's major factions, and has formed a small council known as the Companions. Maintaining peace between the factions has been a tricky task, and will soon come to an end, now that Nora has found her son...

Sanctuary Hills, Nora's pre-war home and current headquarters, rivals Diamond City for the coveted title of "Jewel of the Commonwealth." With overflowing coffers, generous stores of food, and a relay network of provisioners hauling supplies between settlements, Sanctuary is a beacon of hope away from the ruins of Boston. Refurbished with Vault-Tec technology and guarded by towering concrete walls, Sanctuary is in the running for becoming the capital of a new nation.

[Needs conclusion or segue into something. Maybe this intro goes into Blue's first interview with me? Or should that come later?]

[*Ask Blue if she's settled on a new surname before publishing, unless she's decided to stick to just Nora.]

* * *

Piper stared at the terminal. Just over a month ago, a raid led by super mutants introduced a mini-nuke to the ramparts her Sanctuary office sat beside, and the force of the blast had broken a few things, including her terminal. She'd nearly lost this file, but between Sturges and Nick Valentine, the terminal had been repaired and every file recovered. She treasured Blue's biography and all related notes the most, but she'd barely added a word to any of it since the repairs. The most she did today was insert punctuation her fingers had forgotten to type, and gaze at an awkward sentence. Yesterday, she'd finished transcribing the electronic notes onto physical paper. A good plan, given the fragility of electronics and Piper's complex relationship with protective walls, but she'd hoped for some inspiration to come out of it. Nothing manifested.

And now the small fraction of time she had to work on this was gone. It was time to feed the crew.

Sanctuary Hills was one of the nicest places Piper had been. It wasn't as clean as a Vault, but it looked a lot more like the neighborhoods of yore, those illustrated in the comics...if you didn't count the massive walls lined with guards, biometric turrets, and spotlights. Piper still wrestled with her under-described, more approachable version of Sanctuary's defenses; it was hard to paint that aspect of Blue's portrait without making her sound vicious, paranoid, or greedy. Those walls could be pretty scary, but Piper knew Blue hoped for a wall-free future, and that everything within those walls represented a giving caretaker, a person doing her best to provide means and opportunity to everyone.

Blue had done one hell of a job with this place. The literal unearthing of Vault-Tec blueprints and manuals had been a boon. Countertops were sturdier, easier to clean. Toilets were toilets, not seats for latrines. The clinic even had a working shower, and its baths didn't need filling from buckets that caught water from a hand-pump. That was Sturges' current pet project, or perhaps his orders from Blue: running water. If they were going to get water running through Sanctuary Hills again, the first stop would undeniably be Doctor Grant's clinic.