Fort Maxson, Level 1, Stockpile.

A large group of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers were rummaging through the belongings and using tools to dismantle all the sealed crates, wooden crates or metal, wielding pliers and hammers in their hands, and the floor was littered with deformed iron shells and broken planks.

Elder Decon stood not far away with the other three elders with a sinking face.

"I didn't expect him to be a member of the Ring of Steel... Devonshire Hill, I really can't see it, it's true that he is usually a little eccentric, but I used to think that he was just a one-eyed person, and now it seems that he had some kind of special identity before arriving at Fort Maxson. ”

Elder Billings rubbed his beard and felt terrified, as the most fanatical extremist group in the Order, the Ring of Steel was notorious even among the members of the Brotherhood of Steel, who were always inseparable from the intricacies of inexplicable internal investigations, and were trusted by the Council of Elders to directly follow the instructions of the High Elder.

Elder Nils turned his head and glanced at Andy with triangular eyes.

So this is his speculation? Quartermaster Devonshire Hill is no longer coming back, because he is likely to collude with foreign enemies to the detriment of Fort Maxson? I'd say even the Ring of Steel is crazy to do that, right? Is this true? ”

Elder Cosetti was directing a few soldiers to inspect a large crate when he turned back to speak.

"It may not be incomprehensible that if the Circle of Steel had decided that the termination of our Elder Blixley's assault on the Hoover Dam NcR was a betrayal of the Brotherhood of Steel based on some secret order prior to the break, then they might have secretly passed an internal vote to sentence us to death in the name of the High Elder, and they would not hesitate to do so once they were sure they wanted to do so."

Elder Decon wore power armor and silently crossed his arms and looked directly at the soldiers in front of him, Fort Maxson is a standard pre-war military-grade underground bunker, with a solid shelter technology gate and a rocky mountain tens of meters thick above, if it is destroyed from the outside, then even a direct nuclear bomb hit cannot destroy it, but what if it is from the inside? What if it still happens in this place close to the only entrance? They may be trapped alive underground.

"It's... A bunch of maniacs! ”

As he spoke, a soldier shouted.

"Hey! This box can't be opened! ”

Several soldiers immediately approached, followed by Edward, who had changed the metal box several times and found no gaps for anyone to open.

Edward pulled out a hot spray gun and tried to slice open a corner of the box, but soon he noticed a small problem.

"Something is wrong... There was a sound inside, the sound of a machine...."

He looked back, his face pale, and Elder Dison waved his hand at the soldiers.

"Carry this box out as far as possible!"

Several knights in power armor came over with iron chains and tied them to the metal box, which was dragged onto a cart with the efforts of everyone.

"Don't stop, keep looking and see if there are any other suspicious items!"

The soldiers continued to rummage through the piles of supplies, and the tense activity continued into the night, and the people of Fort Maxson confirmed that the only thing in the supply warehouse was the strange box, and that the box was the latest batch of supplies, and that Quartermaster Devonshire Hill was still missing, and most people speculated that he had returned to the Ring of Steel.

...................

In the early hours of the next day, a violent explosion occurred a few hundred meters away from Fort Maxson.

People looked at the traces of the explosion in the distance and were silent, Andy looked down at the beep-beep boy to confirm the time, it was about a week after McClofty made a bold statement at the Hoover Dam City Council, with the power of the bomb estimated, it would be effortless to blow up the entrance and exit of Fort Maxson, if the bomb had not been removed in time, everyone would have been either killed by the bomb or trapped in the ground by the collapsed rock.

All four elders were wearing power armor and standing outside Fort Maxson.

"We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this threat, I declare that from now on we are in a state of hostility with the Ring of Steel, that they have acted in violation of the Code, against the precepts, against all the morality that we love and observe, that these murderers have lost their senses, that they want to destroy our Fort Maxson, that they want to poison Elder Blixley, that they are no longer our brothers, but our enemies!"

Elder Dison loudly announced his decision to the other elders and paladins.

"In the name of Fort Maxson Commander Elder Blixley, I now declare that from today we will actively seek out the whereabouts of those who rebel, and as soon as we discover their hiding place and when the time is right, we will attack them!"

A group of paladins and knights stood up and saluted in unison.

"Invincible!!"

But among the elders, only Elder Billings was in attendance, and Nils and Corsetti were indifferent with cold faces.

"You said to attack, but you told me, how do we attack now?"

Elder Nils asked, blinking his triangular eyes.

"Since the scribes left and locked up the main armory, we can't take out all our heavy weapons, and in this state we can mobilize all our mobile forces to go out and attack, not to mention what chance of success this attack is, what if the NcR attacks? Since the Ring of Steel represented by Devonshire Hill may have colluded with the enemy, then the coordinates of Fort Maxson must have been leaked long ago, we are in danger now, and we cannot act rashly now! ”

Elder Dyson was momentarily speechless, this was indeed a critical question.

He looked at Andy.

"We need you to do you a favor, Andy."

Andy stood on the cliff and looked at the huge explosion crater in the distance, and turned around when he heard the words.

"Say it."

Elder Dison took off his power armor helmet and looked at him sincerely, his brows full of eagerness.

"We need our chief scribe back, he must have a way to cure Elder Blixley, and only he can open the lockdown armory, and perhaps he will have a way to recall the scribes who have traveled far and wide. He's a key now, and we can't turn our reflexes into proactive positions without him, and we can't agree with Hoover Dam, but as you can see, we're too busy scouting the enemy and preparing for battle, and we don't have the extra men to send out to find him. Therefore.... We have to ask for your help. ”

The beep boy vibrated a few times, and Andy didn't have to look to know that it was a hint of a new mission.

"Well, I'd be willing to make a trip for you, as long as you all agree to restore peace with the Hoover Dam by then."

Elder Decon was the first to raise his hand, and then gestured to the other elders with his eyes.

"Of course I don't have a problem, I think that now this war has lost its point of continuing, according to the last orders left by Elder Blixley, we are already in a de facto truce with the NcR, and we at Fort Maxson should not be responsible for the attack on the Ring of Steel, as long as the NcR of Hoover Dam agrees to this, of course we can agree."

Elder Billings raised his hand happily.

"Only peace is the most precious thing in the world, I think."

Elder Cosetti's eyes looked at Elder Nils, the female Iron Brotherhood Elder with triangular eyes and mushroom heads who didn't raise her hand under the gaze of the other three, but said her attitude.

"I have reservations about whether or not to reach a formal ceasefire agreement with the NcR, and as I have said before, I do not endorse Blixley's leadership, but I have the utmost respect for the rules of the chain that are clearly enshrined in the Brotherhood of Steel code. Now that she's alive, she's still the officially appointed Fort Maxson commander, and if she wakes up and agrees to this, I won't object to her decision, and I want you to understand that I'm not obeying her, I'm just obeying the Council of Elders and the Supreme Elders, and obeying the Brotherhood of Steel. ”

"Until we regain contact with the Lost Hills headquarters and get a new order, that's my next attitude."

Elder Cosetti hurriedly said that he was the same.

The two returned to Fort Maxson without looking back, still dragging on them.

Elder Decon let out a sigh of relief.

"Very well, then, this matter is unanimously passed. Andy, though we can't reward you with anything precious right now, if you can bring back our chief scribe, I promise that I will give you my personal laser machine gun, which I have stored in the main armory, as a reward for your help in times of crisis. ”

Andy nodded in satisfaction, looking forward to the pre-war high-tech energy weapons stockpiled by the Brotherhood of Steel.

"Well, I'm willing to take the commission, but I also need some information from you, where is the chief scribe now? The Great Southwestern Federation is so vast that I can't drive around in a car, and that would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Also, are you sure he can be persuaded to return to Fort Maxson? I can't turn black and white with one mouth, and if he doesn't want to, I'll have to forcibly kidnap him, even if that's the case? ”

Elder Decon waved Edward to the side.

"Our scribe Edward has reported to me something earlier, interesting information he noticed when he tried to crack the terminal of the main armory gate, tell Andy about your important discovery."

Edward stepped forward with his kit on his back.

"That's right, Andy, I was ordered to try to break the terminal lock set by the scribe to open the door to the main armory, and finally failed, and I mentioned this matter to you before. But in the process of cracking the terminal, I discovered that the Chief Scribe had deliberately arranged some implicit permutations of letters and numbers, and I reported them to Elder Diesson, who in turn passed on the information to Elder Nils. ”

"After her research, these combinations actually contained a set of map coordinates, and after investigation, I was able to confirm that the location of this set of map coordinates was located in a local settlement in the east, called Mesa Verde. In fact, in the early reports of the many tribes in the eastern region in the database, there was a particular tribe in the Mesa Verde region that was the focus of the scribes. Although there was a lack of practical evidence, the scribe was interested in the fact that there was a tribe where the original composition of the people came from a special background. ”

"I'll go back and pass the coordinates to your beep boy."

Elder Billings happily added.

"You get it, right? That guy is waiting for us to go and find him back, and he believes that we will eventually crack the message he left behind and go to the tribe of Mesa Verde to beg him to come back, since he is ready to stay, are you afraid that he will not be persuaded by you? ”

..................

In Edward's workshop, Andy retrieved the map coordinates left by the chief scribe of Fort Maxson.

To his surprise, according to the map notation, the place where the scribe might have been hiding was the same one he had been before, and it was the magical tribe where he had had an indescribable experience during his expedition to Mesa Verde, a tribe where the villagers were full of strange things that outsiders could not understand, a tribe that would tattoo itself with numbers that they called "destiny numbers" and "original numbers", a tribe where some ancient instruments of unknown origin were stored everywhere, a tribe where most of its members traveled all year round, a tribe in which a chief would hang a calculator around his neck and call it a holy relic.

"Crypto tribes?"

Andy blurted out involuntarily, and at the same time his mind was in a hurry, he had indeed met a mysterious middle-aged man who was obviously an outsider in the crypto village, and that person's eyes were so deep and weird, which was incompatible with the villagers of the entire crypto tribe, and it was he who helped Andy adjust the self-charging pistol to enhance its power.

If you say..... He was the chief scribe who left Fort Maxson....

"Yes."

Edward thought Andy's soliloquy was talking to him.

"That crypto tribe is very unique, we think they may be the most special indigenous village in the entire eastern region, the scribe chief after research believes that their ancestors are likely to be members of an important military research base around the area before the war, whether it is those special traces left behind or a variety of equipment that was not common even before the war, and those cultural customs and education systems that are very different from other native tribes, it is really imaginative, it is no wonder that he chose to go there after leaving Fort Maxson, I'm sure that tribe must have been deeply attracted to him a long time ago. ”

Andy hesitated for a moment, deciding to ask Edward.

"Actually, I had a question before, that is, what is the name of your runaway scribe? Let me guess, is it called Isaac Gantt? ”

Edward heard the name with a puzzled face.

"Isaac Gantt? Who's that? I guess you may be mistaken, although I joined Fort Maxson later, but I also looked at the roster, and there has never been a person named Isaac Gantt here. Do you ask me the name of the chief scribe? Of course I can tell you, his name is Yi...."

"Bang bang bang-"

There was a loud knock on the door, and a man walked in, interrupting the conversation.

It was a Brotherhood soldier with his head held high, and he handed Andy a backpack.

"On the orders of the elders, this is a gift of supplies and necessary tokens for you, please go on the road as soon as possible to carry out the mission, invincible!"

Andy took the bag and opened it to find it full of water and food, as well as a letter.

He tried to return the salute with a similar salute to the soldier.

"Uh... Invincible? ”

The soldier nodded and turned to leave the room.