As the sun rose over the Commonwealth, a small band of raiders made their way towards the settlement of Tenpines Bluff, circling the farming community on three sides from the woods. Crude spears glinted in the hands of some, while others grasped swords in strong, practiced hands. Only one crept forward with a firearm, a small pearl-handled 9mm pistol clutched in her left hand. The woman turned as a twig snapped behind her, her grey eyes narrowed in annoyance at the sound.
She sighed as her eyes met a pair of wide blue ones. A young girl, no older than four or five, crouched behind her, a crude dagger in the child's hand. Her dark brown hair was braided, tucked into a tight coil behind her head. The girl gulped nervously as the woman frowned at her.
"I told you to wait back at camp," the woman hissed.
"But, mater," the small girl replied, "I can fight, too."
"Absolutely not," the woman whispered. "We've talked about this, Ren. You're going to give away our position." Just then, a cry came from the other side of the settlement, followed by gunfire. "Shit!" she hissed. It was too late. The skirmish was already underway.
"Ren, stay here," the woman ordered. "Silent and invisible, just like daddy taught you."
The little girl nodded, crouching behind a thicket, her dappled gray cloak obscuring her form. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.
"Foxes!" bellowed the woman, her gray eyes ablaze, "to me! And a slow and painful death to the man who gave up our position!"
She charged into the fray, bronze hair flowing behind her as she ran, her gun drawn as she picked her targets. Tenpines was supposed to be a small farming community, an easy target. But that had been a lie, she realized as a dozen well-armed militiamen poured from the main building, quickly overwhelming he men. Word was obviously getting around about their raids on other settlements. But how had they known that her band was hitting Tenpines next? They'd been so careful, had leaked alternate targets during their last raid.
"Drop the gun," growled a rich voice from behind her. She turned slowly, her hands raised in defeat. Staring at her with rage in his dark brown eyes was a minuteman, the stripes on his duster marking him as an officer of some type. He held a large laser musket, its barrel pointed directly at her head. The man nodded to another beside him, who kicked her knees out from under her. The woman howled in pain as the second man bound her wrists, her eyes blazing with fury.
"Now then," the first man continued. "How about you tell me where you come from? Raiders around here know better than to steal from the Minutemen, so you must be new."
"I'm not telling you shit," the woman retorted, spitting at his feet.
The man frowned. "I really think you should. You're at quite a disadvantage, you know," he continued as a man dressed in crude camouflage approached, a squirming child in his grasp. The young girl growled angrily, desperately trying to bite the man's arm off.
"Renata?" cried the woman, her eyes suddenly wide with fear. "Ren, honey, are you ok?" She turned back to her captor. "Do whatever you want with me, but let my daughter go. She's...she's innocent. God, she's just a little girl."
The man sighed, waving a hand at the girl's captor. "I thought I told you to be gentle, Graves."
"I was tryin', sir," the camouflaged man retorted, "but this li'l wildcat wanted to play rough. She stabbed me, sir. Ain't deep, but it smarts like no one's business."
"Good girl," the woman said, drawing the girl's frightened gaze with a reassuring smile. "You're ok, honey. Just relax. These men know I'll kill them if they hurt you. Isn't that right?"
"No one's going to hurt anyone else," the officer said with a heavy sigh. "We'd have preferred not to have roughed you up at all. You're the ones who keep going after our settlements and stealing from the people we protect."
"You should just kill us and be done with it," the woman replied. "We'd have done worse if we'd captured you, and I'm sure you know it."
The man nodded. "Your people are ruthless, I'll give you that. But I'm not looking to kill anyone, not today. Instead, I've got an offer for you that I think you'll find interesting."
She frowned. "Like I believe that. What could you possibly offer us that would be worth this kind of hassle?"
He smiled calmly at her. "Let's start with names, shall we? I'm Colonel Preston Garvey. And you are…?"
Nearly Six Years Prior, Somewhere in the Eastern Mojave:
The brutal desert heat of the Mojave had given away to the chill only a desert night could know, the dusty air settling to cool sands under a moon that seemed impossibly large in the sky. Torches popped and sizzled in their stands, the smell of smoke and pinyon pitch filling the air. A few worn tents dotted the landscape of the small canyon, barely illuminated by the torchlight. It was an excellent location for a secret camp, isolated and difficult to reach. It had taken the pair of newcomers the better part of the evening to make her way there.
The young woman who stood defiantly in the center of the frumentarii remnant's camp was known by many names. She had been born as Kestrel Davis, daughter to long-forgotten parents. When she struck out on her own, she had taken the title of Courier Six, one of the Mojave Express' most trusted messengers. And in happier days, before the great breaking of the Legion, she was known as Kestrel Inhumata, the Unburied. But those days, like the man who had thus named her, were gone, lost to the cruel machinations of fate.
In spite of everything the Legion had accomplished, Hoover Dam had been lost only a matter of months after it had been claimed. Whether it had been the capture of the Courier by the NCR or the internal power struggles within the Legion, Caesar's troops had been brutally and swiftly defeated, the man himself slain. Legate Lanius had taken his place as the new leader of the faction, and had almost immediately turned on anyone he saw as a potential rival, convinced that one or more of them had betrayed Caesar. Those men he feared either were massacred or fled into the night, their loyal followers in tow.
The foremost of Lanius' enemies approached Kes now, his intense blue eyes bright with curiosity. He stood a full head taller than the courier, lean yet imposing in the way only an apex predator could be. She trembled under his gaze, but would not give him the satisfaction of her fear. The NCR trooper next to her was less disciplined, his green eyes wide in terror as he whimpered softly.
"The NCR must be mocking me," Vulpes Inculta mused, "sending a woman as their representative. Especially one with such a...colorful history with the Legion. How much did they offer you to bring me in, Courier? It must have been a lot more than just your freedom for you to risk your life coming here under the sign of the Bear."
Kes frowned. "I'm not here for the money, whatever you may think of me. I'm here to offer you a deal."
"A deal? What could a disloyal profligate like you offer us that would be worth more than the pleasure of finally seeing your body lashed to a cross?"
"General Oliver said that if you help them depose Lanius, the NCR will allow the remaining legionaries safe passage back east. You're not going to get a better offer than that, Vulpes."
His lapis eyes sparked with interest. "Lanius? They're really more worried about him than they are about me?" Vulpes shook his head. "No, this is a trap. I've set too many of my own over the years to not recognize one so obvious." He gave a curt nod, and Kes found herself surrounded.
"You're going to kill me?" she asked coldly. "Really? Come on, Vulpes. You're better than this. You and I both know that will only provoke the NCR further. They'll never stop hunting you."
Vulpes smiled, an icy grin. "How do you kill someone who's already dead, Inhumata? You can drop the pretense now. Why did you agree to come here? I know you have no love of the NCR, or you never would have joined the Legion in the first place. You're a bitch if I've ever met one, but you're no man's dog."
Kes snorted, pulling her pistol free of its holster. The NCR trooper accompanying her didn't even have time to react before his body hit the cold desert sand, lifeless. "Damn straight," she replied. I came to warn you. I overheard the General as I was leaving. They sent another courier to Lanius, offering the same deal. And a map to this location. Your den of foxes has a rat, Vulpes."
The spymaster thought for a moment, his mouth drawn in a hard line. "Well, the NCR are smarter than I gave them credit for, it seems. Still, they weren't smart enough to send someone else to entrap me," he sighed. "So disappointing."
The courier nodded. "It was a difficult assignment, and I'm afraid it cost us dearly. But it seems that the NCR finally believes they've broken me. I should be able to move freely, at least for now."
"A Pyrrhic victory is still a victory," Vulpes offered. "Well done, Kestrel. Welcome home."
He waved off the guards, his intense gaze ravenous and calculating as he approached her. Kes shuddered slightly as his fingers traced her cheekbone, descending slowly to her neck. Even after all this time, she still was never quite certain if he was going to kiss her or strangle her when he touched her like this. Honestly, she wasn't sure if he was certain either. But that was part of the thrill, she supposed.
Kestrel gasped as his lips claimed hers, forceful and all-consuming. As cold as his demeanor was, his hunger was anything but. She was intoxicated, her willpower siphoned away by the onslaught of his kiss. There was no room for love between them, only fire, but that suited both of them just fine. Neither of them were cut out for such soft things as romance.
Finally, he released her before wordlessly walking into his tent. He didn't have to ask her to follow. After all, the night was their time, and dawn was still far off.
"My name is Kestrel Davis," the woman snarled, her grey eyes cold and feral. "Remember it, because it's the name of the woman who will kill you."