Dust In The Wind
The proud ones do not last long, but vanish like a spring night's dream. And the mighty ones too will perish in the end, like dust in the wind...
First our pleasures die-and then our hopes, and then our fears-and when these are dead, the debt is due, dust claims dust-and we die too... Percy Bysshe Shelley
A/N This is my first Chapter of a series I am trying, I am not the greatest writer so if you see anything that needs improvement or had any ideas please let me know. This is an updated chapter 1 after a helpful review from commandocucumber. Anyways let's get to it...
Prologue
The raider loaded another round into her Hunting Rifle as one of the Feral Ghouls heads exploded. She turned as the other feral ghouls pounced on her. Two more raiders darted up with Hunting Rifles in their hands. Panicking they shot the feral ghouls at the cost of shooting their friend in the stomach. Dawn was watching through her scope on her Sniper Rifle. "Damn raiders can't even handle few Feral Ghouls" She thought to herself. Aiming her sight to the wounded raider she took the shot. The second raider raised her Hunting Rifle searching for the unseen sniper. Almost immediately the second raider dropped. The third panicked and dropped his gun and made a mad dash. Dawn chuckled and thought to herself "not today" as the round made its way into the man's skull. She folded up her rifle and put it in her satchel. Getting up she looked across the red plain, her brunette hair blowing in the wind, to the north was the communities of Al Mac, Paradise Hills and her town Greenvale. To the east was the outline of Red, the ruins of Phoenix Arizona. The west was just dessert as was to the south. Every one now calls Phoenix Red after all the red dust that settled on everything and the blood of what the wastes call the "Tribal Wars." She looked down at her worn Regulator Duster; she hated how the dust settled down on everything. Brushing the dust off would do nothing to clean the old Duster, so instead she settled on sighing. She walked down a small worn path to where the bodies of the raiders were lying. "God damn raiders better have something to composite those wasted bullets." She said as she began searching the first body. After digging around for a few minutes and not finding anything she sighed and moved to the next body. Again finding nothing she sighed again and walked over to the last body.
"You know for a young lady, you do sigh a lot." The voice came from behind her. She laughed and gripped the revolver she kept in her Duster, turning she pointed the gun at the man's forehead. "Whoa, whoa Dawn settle down." The man said with a frown.
"God dammit Conner, don't sneak up on me." She removed the revolver from his head and put it back in her Duster. "What are you doing up this way, Al Mac in trouble?" She asked.
"I want to check out Red, Tribal activity has been low lately." Connor said running his hand through his red hair. He was wearing the old Pre-War Power Armor he found along with the Plasma Rifle he modified to shoot 3 shots instead of the default 1 shot. "And congratulation's how is being the mayor of a town holding up for you?"
"I want to talk to you about that, our towns are getting bigger and we need an armed police force, raw materials, food, water and a good and stable power source. Those are the main ingredients of any town to function properly right."
"Right and we're in short supply of most of those supplies, neither of our towns will flourish if we don't find any, and I doubt any of us will survive without a stable town to live in." Connor said.
"I think I've found all of those in one area, Red had factories and 3 Vaults. There are 4 places I think we could find those supplies. All you have to do is send some of your guards with our expedition heading to Red." Dawn said holding out her arm.
"You better be right about this, I don't like leaving my town unprotected." Connor said as he shook Dawns hand.
"You know I'm right. Be in Greenvale in two weeks that's when we leave. We'll be gone for roughly a month so pack a few Bighorns." Dawn said as she walked away.
The mighty door of Vault 132 slowly and loudly opened to the entrance of the Vault. Dawn stepped into the Vault's entrance; this was the headquarters of the local Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. Signing in, she walked straight down to the Elders chamber. After giving up her weapons, she met the man in charge, Elder McCullen along with Head Scribe Purley, Head Knight Nash and Paladin Kali.
"Dawn what a wonderful surprise." McCullen said in an welcoming tone. "How are you doing?"
"Good but I have a request, after I helped you take this Vault from the Raiders that lived here and the missions you sent me on you said anything I wanted I could have." Dawn had thought long and hard about this.
"Yes and a deal is a deal so Dawn, what is it that you want? Power Armor training, weapons?" McCullun never went back on his deals.
"Actually I am planning an expedition in two weeks to Red and we need experienced fighters with decent guns, let's say 20 Knights for roughly a month." Dawn looked across the room, McCullun showed no emotion.
"And what is this for; we can't lose men on a useless trip to Red. You know that Dawn." This time Purley spoke up, Dawn personally didn't like him; of course she didn't like much people.
"We are going to get weapons, food, water and an ambitious little project involving power." Dawn didn't want to reveal much about the power project and thankfully McCullun didn't ask.
"Ok Dawn you can have 20 Knights and Kali will be coming to, she'll be the leader of my troops. Remember that, MY troops on MY conscience." McCullun promptly got up, shook her hand and left leaving a very satisfied Dawn. She then left the Vault and headed back to Greenvale.
A/N: so that's the first chapter, again if you find any problems or if you want to see something or someone in the story just ask but please no Lone W.