A star streaked across the dusk sky, shining in brilliant white as the daylight sun faded.
Contrary to the popular phrase, of course, it was not a star. Simply a heavenly body shining for a moment in time as visible to the naked eye as a flash of a welder's torch causing sparks to fly from the metal. The superheated fragments of steel visible only for that brief, fleeting moment before disappearing completely as they hit the warm concrete that lies beneath Sturgis' feet as he welds from daybreak to nightfall.
As the sparks are visible to only those who openly notice rather than being taken for boredom by Sanctuary's many settlers, the finite light in the sky was noticed by only Sierra Petrovita.
Her gaze had shifted toward the heavens for that exact moment from her anxiously excited and annoyingly frantic study of the multicolors that painted every nook and cranny of Boston's premier destination of family fun and ultimate refreshment: Nuka World.
Sierra's rampant thirst for everything Nuka faded into insignificance for that scant moment as the comet burnt a piece of reality into her otherwise Nuka-loaded mind.
She had always found shooting stars to be fascinating. Not nearly as fascinating as...
"Nuka Cola!" She cried, removing the crimson shades from her eyes to her forehead, their dark and mirror-shining U.V. Ray shields in the shape of two bottle caps. The image of a friendly and smiling animated bottle and its diminutive rotund bottle cap companion now glaring a bit in what setting sunlight that remained.
"It's everywhere! The logo on all of the signs! The bottles with the other worldly glow! The rush and the sugar and that radiation-ey kick! Nuka-World, the Nuka promised land, I have finally found you!"
A few passing raiders paid her mind only in passing before moving along, adjusting their armor as they set their sights on whatever blood drenched raider activity they had on their minds at that moment.
Her shoulder length, natty blonde hair shifted in the breeze. Her bangs flew into her eyes, stinging them and as her hands changed positions from high in the air to frantically tugging at the knotted strands her balance shifted likewise and she landed on her rear with a loud ''ugh".
The passing raiders laughed at her, but Sierra paid them little heed as she instead shifted her weight onto her hands behind her, crossed her legs and simply gawked at the enormous red and white painted metal sign emblazoned with the "Nuka World" symbol.
Sierra was still quite the looker even at forty years of age, even if she was a bit naive and timid in the intelligence department. The wasteland's dangers hadn't snuffed her, the radiation hadn't mutated her and the rigors of everyday survival showed themselves beautifully in her sleek curves and solid, well-toned muscles.
Genetics also showed themselves in very flattering ways. As her old friend and former protector in the Capitol wasteland, Ronald Laren had said so many times, she had all the right curves in all the right places.
Those conversations were several years old, of course, but her body surely did not show them, nor the thirty years that had passed since puberty had begun molding her into the gorgeous woman that she had become.
Her white cotton shirt emblazoned with Bottle and Cappy, the aforementioned Nuka World mascots, covered her charms quite well. Moreso of course than the fading dark blue denim jeans that clung to her hips and legs quite well, showing the wear and tear and dust that had accumulated over her millions of foot falls and the several years' long journey from Washington D.C. to Boston, Massachussetts.
Sierra finally rose to her feet and dusted her backside off once the rocks that littered the blacktop began to sting her palms. She set her pace toward the nearest information stand and park map sign as unfamiliar eyes watched her from afar.
BBBB
From the tallest spire throughout all of King Cola's Castle where a long-forgotten flag once flew, a six-foot tall buxom shape sat taking notice of any and all who entered, left or stayed in the grand theme park, her back touching the cold and broken grey brick that once gleamed like new with maintenance, which now looked sad and gritty, dirty and depressed from over two-hundred years of neglect.
Neither Oswald the ghoul magician nor his band of brightly painted feral ghouls had a prayer of noticing her. Her instincts were thousands of years old despite her hourglass body and youthful features. Throughout all of those millenia she had been shaped and molded to be the apex being that her descendents throughout her wealthy family line knew that she could be, needed to be.
From her flawless skin to her body's perfection to her astronomical I.Q. she had been carefully bred to be the absolute pinnacle of perfection, elegance, grace and bold personality and intellect.
Aside from these qualities she was unique amongst her family in that while her father, mother, grandparents and the rest of her descendents each exhibited much the same gifts of beauty, genius intelligence and grace, they tempered these things with generosity, compassion and humility.
Aurora Celeste, however, was decidedly aware of her gifts, her bloodline and her prestige.
Aurora smiled, her full lips creasing to a point on both sides as she watched raider after raider wallow around in filth and blood while she awaited glory and recognition from her family upon her successful return from her pilgrimage. Her secretive mission would have to be accepted as a failure, but wow, they would sigh, what patience she would exemplify!
"What a worthy pioneer," they would say, "has graced us with her presence."
Then her position would be hers and her throne would be set high above the earth with glory and dominion over her people.
She knew her mission was important and yes, indeed, when she first began she had taken the job seriously, hoping to succeed in her role as a pioneer among the denizens of this destroyed earth.
She set her high powered, magnified binocs beside her on the concrete and sighed, the sound a pleasant whisper. She lazily pressed a button on the side and the low whirring of the electronics within effectively powered them down and they lay dormant and quiet once more.
A holo-recorder was produced from her nearby bag of emergency essentials and the record button was pressed.
"Princess and Heir Aurora Celeste. It has been days since your last recording." A low monotonous rumble of a voice emanated from within the holo-recorder.
"As always, the boredom overtakes me, Echo." Aurora said softly.
Her voice was a pleasant alto with a hint of a scratch just behind her accent which pronounced the 'th' of the as "zh"... pronouncing it more along the lines of 'zh-eh'. Her accent pronounced the hard 'r' of overtakes with a roll of her tongue.
'Az ahl-ways, z'he borr'dom overr'takes me.'
It was a sound resembling a mix of the French and Russian pronunciations of English words.
Her voice was muffled slightly from the sleek one-piece black leather mask that obscured her facial features. The black glass that covered the eyeholes never even betrayed the color of the eyes they hid. The deep black hood of her cloak covered her hair, the widow's peak of the fabric coming to rest just between where her eyebrows would have been had they been visible at the moment.
The Heir wore a full body suit of black leather, a crude covering she had fashioned by herself from a Yao-Guai kill she had made when she first had happened upon Boston, months ago.
She replayed the beginning of her ritual, her pilgrimage, once more in her mind as she lay her head against the cool grey brick.
Her eyes open frantically and she moves to a sitting position. The tickle of the tall grass around her and the brown, dead trees she witnesses tell her she is in an unknown wood. No man-made structures can be seen right now. All around her is thicket. Her nude hands find her black mask, her only clothing and protection from the harshness of the wasteland. Both sets of five fingers feel around the hard material and she breathes a sigh after she inhales.
Her fingers touch her breasts. Sensitive. The cool air around her hardens her nipples, as do the brief touches. She stifles a moan, widens her eyes and shakes her head from her reverie. Now isn't the time. Shelter, clothing... Those are the essentials.
Her hands frantically search for her duffle. Her only meager luxuries lie within. Those long, thin fingers test the zip before pulling the metal piece down along the teeth. Within, one eight-ounce bottle of clear liquid marked emergencies only.
Her holo-recorder with which she must log her reports and her findings within at least once every two standard days. Failure to do so will result in a failure of her pilgrimage. Therefore, her right to her throne will die along with her standing within her family.
Her electro-magnifiers with which to study her objectives from afar, as objective two cannot be completed until objective one is completed.
Finally, an energy knife with metal handle and four-inch blade for use in self-defense and hunting. Her second objective makes her attack of any n'er-do-wells impossible, therefore she knows she must ignore the distractions of other people in danger and focus everything on those two objectives.
No, her four-inch energy knife is permissible in only self-defense and the hunting of animals.
She packs the duffle neatly, her pride snuffing her gifted mind's insistence that she get moving quickly. Once zipped, her forefinger finds the silver bracelet attached to her wrist. The pad of her finger touches the ruby trinket attached to the chain. The duffle, along with all of its contents, vanishes.
However, the Heir does not panic. She knows they are safe in the ether.
Her head whips to the right at the sound of a snapping twig. Her eyes widen and her lips part in a silent scream at the sound of a blood-curdling roar. Her fingers touch the Ruby twice at the presence of a five-foot Yao-Guai.
At the insistent duo of touches, her energy knife reappears in her hand and she raises the tool to fight.
Aurora's body jerked as her memories faded and fantasy became reality once again. She smiled once more, her pride forming her lips into a full grin rather than a lopsided smirk.
Always the lady. Her father's voice repeated to her.
She looked down to her Holo-recorder once more and spoke into the holographic screen.
"Eight forty-five, Saturday evening in the month of October, Twenty-two-seventy-seven.
"This was more than a waste of time and opportunity. Not one single person of note in the whole of the Boston area of Massachusetts. However, there is hope when I hear of the existence of a theme park. The most exciting family fun extravaganza in all of Boston, they call it. If truly there is even a single person of note... who is worthy of my mission, surely that person would be found in such a venue.
However, not a single person of worth have my eyes seen since setting up camp in the perfect spot. Only those dressed in the most hideous... I refuse to call them clothes... scraps of leather I have ever seen committing unspeakable acts of deplorable violence upon one another. Their mistreatment of their slaves is abhorrible as well.
"This pilgrim is beginning to believe there shall be no person worthy of my mission to be found in all of this world. Only one month remains of my rite of passage and should objective one fail not of my own volition, yet I keep objective two unsullied, then my wasted year will not have been in vain.
"The prison of these leathers of New World bear will not have been suffered without reason. On a more personal note... Dear Shriva do I miss my Lake-Basker leathers and comfortable bed. But among the sighs, Dear Shriva, my necessary poverty is near its end and my deliverance from this world is nearing closer every sunset."
She pressed the button again before thinking once more and touching her ruby gently three times.
She stared pitifully at the bedroll she had salvaged from some ruin in Boston. Her gloved fingers touched the fabric softly, sadly, before she adjusted her leathers and drew her black fabric cloak tighter around her hourglass frame and lay down to drift off to dream above Nuka World.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to my new mini-series. This idea won't leave me alone. I'm not expecting an epic, more like a short story with a few chapters but we will see what happens. This is my attempt to get better at storytelling and making better reveals to people.