O Daughter of Babylon
Chapter One: Happy Trails
This was it, today was finally the day. Six months had passed since Tonya Greene walked out of Big MT with Private Betty Gleeson of NCR Military Police, and a former Legionary Veteran names Julius… the only survivors of a much larger group. But where exactly was Big MT? In an isolated mountain valley somewhere between New Reno and McGill, the small NCR base that the trio found after wandering for more than a month, chasing fleeting radio signals until finally discovering civilization… or at least what passed for it in the Mojave Wasteland.
Turns out that there were a lot of refugees coming to McGill lately, survivors of when the Legion burned down New Reno, with a good amount of displaced NCR Troopers thrown into the mix, so no one was surprised when Tonya's group showed up. Gleeson was absorbed into another Military Police unit, and with her previous occupation as a Courier for the Mojave Express, Tonya was allowed to join the refugee camp. The only point of concern was that someone would discover Julius's identity as a former Legionary, but in all the confusion of New Reno burning, and Aurelius of Phoenix and his whole army transpo… transpond… whatever, zapped to some old theater, there wasn't exactly anyone there to point him out.
"All right, Mr. and Mrs. Julius and Tonya Greene." The Officer in charge of out-processing at the refugee camp said when they stepped forward. "Let's see… former Couriers, length of refugee status six months, new employment with, uh… Happy Trails Caravans is confirmed. Right, you're good to go, just proceed through the gate, and your firearms and anything else checked in will be returned to you."
"Thank you." The former Legionary replied once their papers were stamped. "Come on, honey."
No, the two of them weren't really married, but with how much their relationship had progressed since that very first kiss after Julius saved her life at Big MT, there was certainly no one at the camp who would question them being in love. In fact, there were a few nights where others in nearby tents would rather rudely complain about the noise the two of them were making. There was some truth to the cover, though, in that Tonya really had been forced to marry someone from the Legion, but the fantasy with Julius was better than remembering getting beat up and raped by Aurelius of Phoenix, and then him declaring that he was taking this slave as his wife, while the city she had been born in burned to the ground.
"Coming, dear." The Courier said, a big smile on her face as she followed her husband toward the gate. "I can't believe we're finally going to…
Shaking her head for a second, Tonya continued on toward the gate with him, having momentarily been surprised by how her own voice sounded. It had been a year, maybe a little more, since Dean Domino forced her into that auto-doc in order to make the Courier's voice match Vera Keyes at the Sierra Madre. Even though apparently she was a dead ringer for the ancient starlet, only a matching voice would open the vault, and according to the ghoul, Tonya's was way too high and squeaky. Having a lower and more sultry voice wasn't all bad, and it actually allowed the Courier to have a pretty successful singing career in New Reno… at least until the Legion got there.
Oh well, that was all in the past, and now a job with Happy Trails Caravans was just what they needed in order to completely start their lives over again. The job that Tonya and Julius signed up for was escort duty for a trading wagon bound for New Canaan, a large settlement in Utah, but their journey wasn't going to end there. The former Legionary had been hearing stories about a place to the far east, somewhere beyond the Legion's territory, and even past the Mojave Wasteland, if that was really possible. It was called The Capital, and it was said that there were cities there, people and civilizations that had nothing to do with either the Legion or the NCR.
Whether or not this place was real, the two of them had made a decision to leave everything behind and start over, using Happy Trails to get them as far as Utah, and the money from the job to purchase supplies from New Canaan, and from there just keep going east. It wasn't much of a plan, but then again neither was joining the Mojave Express eleven years ago when she was just fifteen in order to leave New Reno the first time. The important thing was that the Courier and Julius were in love, setting out to start over somewhere new, and then they could just figure it out.
Since they had arrived at McGill with barely anything, the only banned items that had to be checked in were some small caliber 9mm pistols, which were now being returned to them at the gate once the paperwork was signed… God, these people and paperwork, always with the damn paperwork. After that, it was through the sliding gate, and over toward the trader wagon that they would be escorting. Wasn't hard to find, the thing had HAPPY TRAILS painted on the side in big colorful letters, and there was Jed Masterson, the middle aged man in a cowboy hat who had hired them. He wasn't alone, apparently a few others had signed up, and it was a, uh… pretty diverse group.
Some of them were regular employees, given the well maintained condition of their hunting rifles, and the Happy Trails patch that was sewn onto the shoulder of their leather jackets, but the others looked like they were new hires just like her and Julius. One of them Tonya knew, or at least knew of, and that was Stella, or New Reno Sheriff Stella from back when the Courier was a kid. She looked older now, and didn't have a lot to say, which was fine, but then something on the other man's arm caught her eye while the former Legionary went to talk to Jed.
"Excuse me, is that a Pip-Boy?" She asked, pointing to the device. "I've seen one before, but I didn't get the chance to take a close look."
Elijah had worn one back at the Sierra Madre, but the Courier had only gotten to see it during their brief face to face interactions, and the rest of the time that asshole was communicating through holo projectors. This guy didn't look anything like Elijah, and actually wore a really nice looking blue and yellow outfit with the number 22 on the back, shrugging to signal that Tonya's request was no big deal, and even smiling a little when she began to look over the small computer. The thing was attached to the guy's forearm, almost looking like the attachment was permanent, but it was strange… there seemed to be a button missing, like it had been popped out of its socket, and the display screen kept ticking every couple of seconds as if it were stuck.
"You know, beautiful, you didn't need to make up an excuse to come talk to me." The guy suddenly said, trying way too hard to speak in a suave voice. "You're looking for the Alpha, right? Feeling us out to see who's the strongest to keep you safe at night? Well, look no further, because compared to Ricky, there ain't no other men here."
"Uh… huh." The Courier replied, a bit startled as she looked up from the Pip-Boy. "Look, I just wanted to see your Pip-Boy, that's all, it wasn't… anything else, really. I think you're home screen's stuck, by the way, but if you…
Ricky interrupted her, saying in a condescending voice that Tonya shouldn't even try to understand how his Pit-Boy worked, because all the super-sciency stuff would just go over her pretty little head. To sum it all up, the guy believed that it somehow made him a badass, like better than any other man in the Wasteland, but Jed wanted to use because it could make maps of anywhere the wearer goes… which Ricky totally already knew. That was a handy feature, to be fair, but again, the home screen seemed to be stuck, so…
"Yeah, you like that, don't you, beautiful?" He continued before the Courier could say anything at all. "You've never had a man from a Vault before, have you? You saw my jumpsuit, right? I got it from Vault 22, you know, where I was born. I can't tell you anything about it, though, because I've been sworn to secrecy. That make you hot, beautiful? You like that I'm so mysterious, right?"
Tonya honestly didn't know what to say at this point, except to wonder why Ricky was sweating so badly that it was starting to soak through his blue and yellow shirt in a dry heat. In fact, the guy's eyes were bloodshot and his fingers were shaking a little bit. Now, the Courier was no doctor, but she knew the signs of drug withdrawal when she saw them. The events of the Sierra Madre had left her hopelessly addicted to Med-X to the point where she would collapse to the ground, shaking, crying, and get really sick if she didn't get any every eight hours or so. Thank God for Dr. Orderly at Big MT, because without his Addictol…
"Jed says we're gonna be going pretty soon." Julius said as he approached, putting his arm around the Courier and kissing her on top of the head. "Do you want anything before we head out, Tonya? Jed has some Cram left over from break…
"Hey, back off, man! You just back off!" Ricky yelled, pointing his finger and startling pretty much everyone in earshot. "I saw her first, man, and you don't wanna mess with me, all right?! I'm a total badass, you get me?! Anyone or anything that makes the mistake of crossing Ricky, and he, she, or it is gonna get…
Now it was the former Legionary's turn to interrupt, reaching out with one hand to grab the guy by the shirt, and then effortlessly swinging him around so that Ricky was pinned up against the side of the trader wagon. Jed, Stella, and the other guards just watched as this happened, and now the guy was sweating and shaking even more, but for some reason not doing anything to try and defend himself. The Courier expected Julius to hit him, but he didn't, they just stood there for several seconds before the former Legionary leaned his head in real close.
"Two things you won't do in the future, freak." He said sternly and quietly. "You won't threaten me, and you won't disrespect my woman. That's my Queen right there, the love of my life, and anything you try to do to her, I promise that I will do the same thing to you… and I mean anything."
Julius then reached around with his free hand and grabbed Ricky's ass, squeezing until the guy cried out in pain, before letting him go. Ricky scrambled away, stumbling so much that he almost fell over, trying to run and hide behind Jed and Stella. The former Sheriff snickered to herself, clearly amused, but the caravan leader didn't seem to have any emotion about it at all, at least not visibly. Jed just shook his head, commenting that he was glad to see everyone getting along so well.
"All right, last call for some of this Cram." The caravan leader continued, walking back toward the small campfire next to the wagon. "We got a long way to go, so you might as well put something on your stomach."