The New Tribe
Julia shaved her head with a combat knife in preparation. She smiled at her reflection. She couldn't contain her giddiness, her glee burning two hot coals in her eyes. She grabbed another lock of hair.
"Hey, looking good," Marceline lurked in the doorway. Her fiendish grin mimicked Julia's. Julia only had half of her hair.
She had returned from the Followers triumphant, wiser about the world and with a glorious bounty of medical supplies and technology. The Goddess welcomed her with open arms, embracing her daughter with familial warmth. Ouroboros had changed very little in the time Julia was gone, and for that she was glad. The wasteland seemed to change every day, it was good that there was somewhere consistent, some place that would always be there for her. A rock in the ever shifting sands of the wastes.
She got to work on the auto-doc immediately, with help from Tiegan and Marceline. Her schematics were rough, and she didn't have all the parts necessary, but Tieg was a brilliant engineer, and in a little more than a month they had a functioning auto-doc set up in the pyramid of the Goddess.
The Goddess was delighted beyond measure. She spoke, "Julia, you are my best daughter, and my favorite." Julia blushed in spite of herself. "I want your help with something, something that I think will increase the strength of my Daughters tenfold."
Julia was expecting this. It was the reason she put so much effort into securing an auto-doc for the Daughters. It hadn't been a practical undertaking. There wasn't a medical procedure they couldn't perform without it, with the Goddess' knowledge and the supplies they accrued in tribute from tribes. The auto-doc had only one important specialty that they would be hard-pressed to perform without it. Cybernetics were a fairly new technology before the war, especially military-grade cybernetics. An auto-doc meant the Daughters would now have an additional edge over the other wastelanders, the tribals and the Canaanites and the Legion. It meant they would have an advantage over even a force like the NCR.
When she was finished shaving her head bald Julia took a controlled dose of med-x. "Just wait, this works- you're next," she waggled her eyebrows at Marce, "We are the future of the wasteland."
Julia was the test patient. If she survived the procedure, Hecate would begin performing it on other girls, until she had a powerful, cybernetically-augmented fighting-force. Julia was excited. She personally chose her augments, implants to make her stronger and smarter. To her it was not only a chance to become more powerful, it was another in a long line of refutations of the technophobic Legion.
The procedure was a success. The Goddess christened Julia the first Maenad, her wild woman, a terrifying single-person army. The first of many to come. Of course every other Maenad's initiation would be different. Their loyalty had to be proven. Their will and fortitude had to be tested. In the future it would be a ritual to make oneself ready for cybernetic augmentations. Julia only had a free pass as she proved her loyalty and fortitude by volunteering to be the first subject.
The surgery was not completely perfect. Augmentations along Julia's spine left thick scars, a trail of knotted flesh that Julia wore with pride. She was faster and stronger, she was smarter. She was a Maenad, an elite. Her scars were her tribal markings. Tribal markings of her new tribe.