Joseph Hertz led a slave convoy towards the Lincoln memorial. He was nervous for several reasons; first he could count on one hand how many slaver convoys that had been successful since the Brotherhood established themselves as the governing force over the capital wasteland. Also there were rumors around camp the HE had been sighted recently which had sent fears around the small slaver community like wildfire. They all knew of HIS compound in Paradise falls guarded by everything from robots to mercenaries but no one had seen him in combat in a few months and there was actually a rumor floating around their secluded camp inside Vault 92 (which had been cleared by the lone wanderer ironically three years earlier) That the much hated Lone wanderer had died in his sleep. This however proved to be a lie as their leader Harmon found a severed head on his desk in the old overseers office.

Some would be surprised at the location of the only remaining slaver camp so close to the newly established settlement of Old Olney. But Joseph saw it as an advantage. They were so close that no one really suspected the old vault as a possible Slaver base of operations. The only trouble they ever really had was when a curious settler or Brotherhood patrol would see something go into the cave and decide to follow. That was what they had the turrets for though. At the entrance were their two best guards with some of our best weapons and two Mark V turrets which did good in guarding the vault's only way of entrance and exit. However the security of the base was not the main issue now. Convoys of Slaves had been intercepted and were being picked off a lot these days it seemed. This particular convoy was bound for the Lincoln memorial where a small outpost was set up to take the Slaves to a boat where they would be transported somewhere down south. However Joseph and the rest of the slavers escorting the thirty slave convoy were still nervous; this was of course the first convoy sent out since HE was spotted. Scott quietly worried and waited for the doomed convoy to meet its end. The guard in front was the first to hear something in the distance.

He stopped in his tracks and brought his AK47 to his shoulder, "He's here!" He kept his gun up and backed up to a Slave and took her hostage The other guard followed suit but their leader just stood there scared stiff at the sound of the legendary bad guy killer. A tickle of fear raced down Joseph's spine as he heard a small chuckle from his right. This chuckle was responded to by automatic fire from all three of his guards. Nothing hit of course as they were shooting out of pure fear of the man who may or may not have been lurking in the shadows. The suspicion that the Lone wanderer was lurking in the shadows was starting to drift away when a single rifle shot was heard sending shock waves of terror through the small band of raiders. A guard standing near the front of the convoy was blown apart by what Joseph though may have been a armor piercing round. Joseph, still paralyzed by fear could only watch as another one of his guards was was blown apart sending blood everywhere. The final guard dropped his hostage and ran to a rock for cover he popped up and fired a barrage of automatic fire from his gun Joseph tried to run for cover as he saw his last guard get blown away. Joseph dove behind a destroyed car. Slowly but surely a figure rose from the shadows and walked towards him casually, his old faded brown duster blowing back slightly giving him an even more menacing look. Joseph thought only once of the 10 millimeter pistol holstered on his hip before he dropped to his knees in a jumbled heap.

"Please don't."

The lone wanderer neared him and surprisingly holstered what appeared to be a modified hunting shotgun with a pistol grip and a shortened barrel. The lone wanderer stood studying Joseph for a moment. Then he spoke, "You're not from here are you?"

Joseph nodded, confirming the Lone Wanderer's suspicion.

"So why would a traveler such as yourself be out here with Slavers?"

Joseph shrugged, "It seemed like easy enough work I guess."

"Well you obviously were wrong there; let me ask something?"

"Anything."

"How much caps were you getting paid for this job?"

"Two... Twoo hunndered" Joseph spoke fear clearly shown in his face."

LW shook his head, "Two hundred caps Slavers sure are underpaid these days."

With that the dark figure drew a blade from his back and jabbed it into Joseph's chest hitting his heart directly cutting off all main bodily functions within seconds of the wound. The failed Slaver's last thought as the scene drifted out of his vision was that of regret, regret for his life, regret for leaving his village, and regret for ever crossing the infamous Lone Wanderer. As blood gushed from Joseph's mouth the Lone wanderer opened up a recorder on his pip-boy.

"Scott Davidson October 23, 2282. Found another Slaver convoy much to my surprise today. Turns out their boss is more reliable than I would have thought. Taking now emancipated slaves to East Brotherhood outpost where they can find places hopefully."

With that Scott retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaned Josephs blood off of the machete. He then turned toward the slaves projecting his voice. "I will be escorting you all to a nearby brotherhood outpost where you will be safe for the night. Please follow me and keep up or you will be left behind." With that Scott turned and led the Slaves down the road east toward the outpost. He walked keeping a vigilante eye on his surroundings not but deep down not really expecting much in the way of assault on the moving convoy in the dead of night. They mostly walked in silence as most of the Slaves were either still in shock from what had just happened or too afraid of the savior to even consider engaging in conversation with him.

Brotherhood East outpost two hours earlier

Sarah Lyons knew something was wrong when she landed and the smell of burning buildings and sulfur filled the air. It had only been a few minutes since the distress signal had come waking up everyone in the Den and sending the citadel into a complete state of panic for about five minutes. Elder Lyons dispatched Lyons pride because the distress signal had not come with a message. The only thing that signified that it was indeed a distress signal because it was operating on one of the three emergency radio signals that the brotherhood had established after they raided the remaining Enclave assets and taken their access to state of the art pre-war communications equipment.

Sarah immediately knew something was wrong because of the overall size of this attack; the entire outpost had been razed to the ground leaving nothing left, except a few bodies. Although Paladin Alexander; the commander of this outpost had not been recovered his second in command, Knight captain Rhodes' corpse was. His corpse unfortunately did not yield many clues to what had happened here. Sarah ordered that the pride form a perimeter while she radioed for backup. Sarah was trying to keep her calm demeanor but in the pit of her stomach she knew that if whatever this was came back they wouldn't have a chance. Sarah walked over the vertibird and used the radio that was just inside.

"This is Sentinel Lyons requesting a knight squad to the East brotherhood outpost immediately."

Paladin Tristan's voice filled the other end of the radio, "What's wrong Sarah?"

"They burned the damn outpost. There's nothing left... There's nothing left."

"Who burned the outpost?"

"I don't fucking know Tristan."

"OK calm down Sarah keep your soldiers cool I will be there shortly."

"OK whatever hurry up."

Sarah slammed the receiver on the radio down and started to walk back to the perimeter when she heard a voice. The kind of voice you don't expect to here again, "What the hell happened here?"

Sarah turned around and saw Scott in a dirty duster with close to thirty people standing behind him.