Lawless World
Prologue
How does a highly educated lawyer and mother searching for her son become the most feared raider in the Commonwealth? Through a number of important events sometimes in but mostly out of her control.
They were ready. She had planned this attack for months, theorised every strategy and all possible outcomes. She made sure that every man and woman under her command had the plan of action drilled into them thoroughly and sometimes brutally so that when the time came the attack would be utterly successful. Nothing had been left to chance.
Elizabeth Reid, now known simply as "Overboss", stared with cold, blue eyes out at the town that had once been her home over 200 years ago. Her blonde wavy locks of hair flowed gracefully in the evening breeze. Staring at the town of Sanctuary Hills brought about many conflicting emotions and memories. Elizabeth could recall feeling comfortable and calm in this place once upon a time, something she had not felt since. She could remember her shock at seeing the town and her home almost unrecognisable. Her panic as she tried with every fibre of her being find her infant son after stumbling from the catacombs of Vault 111. Now the only emotion she felt towards this place was anger, an anger that had fuelled her for so long and had been focused on the people of the Commonwealth and one group in particular: The Minutemen.
The town itself had been further twisted beyond recognition in recent times, with sturdy walls having been erected around its perimeter along with other defences that would rip through most outside attackers with ease. Inside the walls numerous buildings had been constructed, some evolving from the homes that still barely stood whilst others were completely new, built from anything and everything that could be salvaged. She knew this town better than anyone, after all she had seen a great deal of its reconstruction. And as such she knew its weaknesses, its flaws and just how to exploit them.
Occupying the town were around 200 people from her latest scout reports including a very large number of Minutemen including a great deal of its leadership. Elizabeth's anger grew at the thought of them all scurrying around in there, in a place she once had called home. She had made a promise to herself many months ago, that once the time came to invade Sanctuary Hills, she would burn it to the ground. Elizabeth smirked, enjoying the thought immensely.
Looking down at the Pip-Boy strapped to her left arm she took another brief glance over the general plan of action. She once again grinned to herself, recognising how her analytical and strategic mind had developed over the years to make her deadly on the battlefield. Once she had used her skills in the court room, finding evidence, bringing forth the best case and outplaying her opponents. Now she was using them to plan the invasion of a town, gathering information about the town, analysing this information and theorising the best plan to beat her enemies. It made her chuckle at how similar and yet how different these situations were.
Realising there was little else she could do other than second guess her well thought out plan, Elizabeth decided to return to her raider camp in an attempt to get some rest before the planned night attack. She wanted to be at her best for this moment she had been waiting so long for.
The plan had of course gone off without any issue. The raider group had conducted their roles perfectly and seamlessly. Of course, some of her people had been killed in the attack but she had calculated for this and had expected it. Sacrifices had to be made so that she could get what she wanted, and she had gotten what she wanted. Sanctuary Hills was now under the control of her once more, how it should have been all along. Now was the time for the final part of the plan.
Elizabeth strode through the main street, clad in her impressive and heavily modified combat armour, and surveyed the scene around her. Many people lay dead or dying around her, some of whom she could recognise as settlers of Sanctuary and countless who had been killed by her hand. The survivors who were not dying had been rounded up at her order, chained and then taken to her old home ready for her judgement. Elizabeth had made sure that most of the leadership had survived the attack including the current leader of the Minutemen: Preston Garvey.
Finally reaching her old home she took a deep breath, raised herself to her full height and stepped through the front door. The first person she spotted was Porter Gage, her loyal and ruthless second in command. Like her Gage had a strategic mind that worked well in conjunction with hers. She would never admit it to anyone but she rather enjoyed the working relationship that the two of them had.
"They are ready for you, Overboss" Gage explained, his rough voice sending shivers down her spine.
She nodded in response and turned to the large group assembled in her old lounge. A group of around fifteen had been chained together, all of whom had then been secured in place and gagged. These fifteen were all that remained of the Minutemen leadership here in Sanctuary Hills, except one. Unlike the other fifteen Preston Garvey had been gagged and tied securely to a chair across the room from the others. She could see the anger in his eyes as he saw her, along with a look of betrayal and hurt that only increased Elizabeth's own anger towards them all and him in particular. Striding purposefully over to him, she ripped the gag from his mouth, leaving him coughing and gulping for air.
"Did you really think this time wouldn't come, Preston" she sneered. "Did you really think that I would not be able to take over this place, to best you all?"
Preston stared back up at her: "I knew you'd come, I just hoped you'd die".
Elizabeth laughed hollowly: "Well unfortunately for you, I'm not dead. I'm more alive than I've ever been".
"How did it come to this, Elizabeth?" Preston asked, pleadingly after a moments silence.
She turned to him sharply: "Oh I don't know, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that you all treated me like dirt. That you took advantage of me whenever you felt like it, not worrying at all about my wellbeing. Or perhaps it's because this all happened while I was looking for my son!"
"We did help you" Preston retorted.
"Oh really? Does helping me after I saved your life singlehandedly in Concord, after I helped rebuild the Minutemen, after saving settlement after settlement and finding the resources to build and defend those settlements sound like a fair trade to you?" She waited, and got the silent response she expected. "That's what I thought. Well I think that as I was the one that rebuilt this place, it's only fitting that it belongs to me".
With a motion of her head Gage banged twice on the front door. This signalled for a group of five raiders, who stepped through the door. Each of them carried petrol cans and began emptying them all around my old house including all over the chained Minutemen.
Preston's eyes grew wide at the realisation of what I was doing while the group of fifteen began screaming into their gags as they also realised what was happening. Elizabeth simply stared passively at the events, with one eye always on Preston. Once the cans had been emptied each person's gag was removed, and the screams and cries for help only grew. Gage at Elizabeth's command grabbed Preston and pulled him along in the chair towards the front door.
"No-no-no-no, Elizabeth stop you don't have to do this" Preston begged as he was pulled outside. Gage placed him a safe distance away, making sure he was faced directly at Elizabeth's old home.
"Shhhh, Preston. It's alright" she spoke calmly. "After all, this is my house isn't it? And as it's my house I can do with it what I please. No one would be silly enough to enter my house without my permission".
Preston continues to beg and plead to Elizabeth, but she ignores him. Instead she retrievies her trusty gold-plated lighter from inside her pocket. She turns to him one last time and smiles innocently.
"I want you to have the best seat in the house for this moment, the moment that Sanctuary dies". And with that she lit and threw the lighter through the open window.
There you go folks. I wanted to start this story at the end, and then show you how and what led to these events. Following this chapter I will be writing about a number of events that changed Elizabeth or her life drastically.