Prior to this story's beginning, the Legion's purification of a town called Nipton took place. Led by the ruthless Frumentarius Vulpes Inculta, the town which had been deemed 'wicked' then suffered a cruel lottery, with few of the townsfolk escaping with lucky tickets and the rest being crucified or killed by the Legion.

As the last townsman was nailed to his cross, a recruit saw a young girl watching from atop the town roof. Startled at being seen, she withdrew a sniper rifle and picked off the Legion men too quickly for them to take cover. She left their leader alive and allowed him to walk away, but before doing so he asked why she had done this when she admitted their cause had been just. She replied she knew the Legion and knew its men, and knew she would be taken as a slave; something which she could not allow. This was a mistake.

The story begins four months later in a town called Deave, where the Legion Man has finally caught up with her.


Gabriel sniffed, rubbing the dust of the Mojave out of her eyes as she sat down at the bar, shivering a little despite the heat. There was an unpleasant feel to the town, but she needed somewhere to rest up for a little while and refuel before setting off across the Mojave again. It didn't pay to be picky.

"Can I get you anything, little miss?" the barman leant forwards, a lazy smile upon his face.

She quailed a little under his gaze, disliking the way his grey eyes moved over her. It made her feel anxious and she pulled her jacket over her shoulders to cover her a little more, trapping a layer of heat over her skin.

"Do you have any purified water?" she mumbled, her voice quiet and unusually courteous for the Mojave.

"Water?" the man at the bar sneered, his voice booming, "Sure you don't want something a bit stronger? Something to make those eyes sparkle," he slipped into a leer, leaning forwards even closer. The scent of old sweat filled her nostrils.

"No!" she said, jerking back a little too quickly, "No, no thank you. Just water, if you have it."

"Water," he repeated, withdrawing, "Ok."

Gabriel folded her hands in her lap as she waited for the man to return from the back room, where she could hear the sound of a fridge being cracked open. She began to crack her knuckles one by one, but stopped as the sound stirred a man sitting in the corner.

The whole place gave her the creeps. It was too enclosed, too low and way too many men. It made her uneasy.

"Wouldja like it in a glass?" the man drawled as he came back with a bottle.

"No, no thank you!" she said hurriedly, "How many caps?"

"For you, I'd say you can give me ten." He flashed another lazy smile and she counted out the caps quickly, not daring to meet his eyes. She always felt as though she was staring if she did that.

Keeping her head down, she exited the bar. She'd known it was a mistake coming to a town like this the moment she'd seen the settlement as a dark blot on the horizon and despite the practicalities of experiencing civilisation for a night, she'd already started to regret her decision. It was like Nipton all over again; a town of sleaze and low morals.

She broke the seal of the water bottle and took a sip. At least the woman at the motel had seemed nice, in a motherly, coddling kind of way. She'd been the one who'd pointed Gabriel in the direction of the bar for water – not that it had turned out so great anyway.

"It's your own fault," she muttered, "He was only being friendly – they're always only being friendly, that's all. Nobody was trying to take advantage of you."

Yeah, right. If there was one thing her brothers had taught her before she left, it was that men of the Mojave were pigs. She knew enough horror stories about what happened to girls who wandered down the wrong alleyway at the wrong time of night, thank you.

There was a shift in the atmosphere abruptly as she turned the street the motel was on. It was the last street out of town, open right up the Mojave with banks rising up abruptly at either side. Suddenly, she felt eyes upon her and jerked, taking her sniper rifle off her back and holding it ready in her arms, checking the clip was full.

A flash of red, in the corner of her street and she tensed. Legion red; if they Legion were here in Deave she'd have to scram, before they knew she was onto them. It paid to be paranoid: she'd seen the sleeve of a Frumentarius around Primm when she was passing through once and had left the town without a second spared. And she'd gotten away. All she had to do was not let them know she was so close…

The Frumentarius's hand shot into the air, the signal that the target walked into the street and the ambush could be sprung. There was a crack and he glanced down, shocked to find his chest glowing red besides the Legion uniform. She'd shot him.

Gabriel ran; her heart thundering in her chest as she clambered over the bank, fleeing the town for the Mojave. They'd found her again: how did they keep find her? She hardly ever stopped in towns, she moved out on the open wastes and yet the Legion kept finding her.

She shouted out as she was knocked to the ground, running straight into another Legionary as she was occupied with looking over her shoulder. It was him, the man with the stupid hat who'd she'd let walk away in Nipton, he was here, in Deave. He'd found her.

"How good of you to stop by." His voice swam through the air like an oil slick, "I feel as though there was so much more to discuss than how we left it in Nipton."

Gabriel drew her arm back, hoping to shove the heel of her palm into the man's face; to bust the nose as she'd been taught. He caught her wrist, finding her attempt at struggle amusing.

"I let you go," Gabriel quivered as the man's grip bit into her wrist, "You let me go."

A hiss erupted behind them, cutting off Vulpes's rebuke as a Giant Radscorpion reared up, coming down from over hills. The Frumentarii spun around, whipping out his Ripper as she seized the blessed distraction, darting away, her feet pounding the hard ground beneath her. She had to get away, again, she had to get-

A Recruit jumped out from behind the bank, blocking her path with a machete in hand. They were so quiet, how had they known exactly where she'd been going, where to put the ambush?

She shot him in the leg and apologised just as two more appeared; where were they all coming from? She didn't have the time to shoot them all before more emerged, their weapons catching in the dying sunlight.

Gabriel dived over the bank, groaning as her body smacked down onto the cracked tarmac below, grazing her elbows. A recruit appeared to the left of her and she turned, just as he struck out, his machete whirling through the air to impale her thigh.

She shouted, her leg collapsing beneath her and her palms biting the dirt, scraping the skin from her hands. She staggered to her feet, biting back the tears as she prepared to run again when abruptly a Frumentarius slammed into her, almost breaking her arm with the force.

"Ha," Vulpes hissed through the material of his face wrap. She could feel the edge of the Ripper digging into her side, cutting through the material of her clothes. It bit into her skin, drawing a line of blood. "I would recommend not moving another inch," he dragged her to her feet, his hand curled around the back of her neck, "Slave."


A.N: just in case you didn't guess, Deave isn't a real place in game, just some one-street town i made up. also i've messed with the timeline a bit + the courier isn't courier yet but nipton happened. that's it, + thanks for reading!^^