Authors note: This will kind a series of one-shots of V before leaving Night City and his interactions with the Aldecaldos as well as Panam; I may or may not turn it into a prologue for my current story A New Beginning. The main focus of these series of one shot is to fill in the blank period for when V and Panam were out doing missions together and how the Aldecaldos would take to both of them and leading up to their relationship.
Note 2: This chapter is a prologue to the nomad prologue that explores V's last days in the Bakkers, and his travel to Night City.
The New Mexico outback was a dusty hell hole and not to friendly for any nomads out there, and as I looked out my window, I could see the rest of my family in single file driving down the old interstate. We had a simple mission, to deliver supplies and goods to our contacts in the Saul Bright Aldecaldo family, though we were not expecting any trouble. We've had dealings in the past with them, but this would be my first time joining a supply run, though I figure this would have been more of an exchange of goods seeing as they have what we need, and we have what they need. The meeting place is an old and dilapidated motel that we used on more than one occasion from what John was telling me. The drive itself was not long considering the motel was roughly one-hundred miles from camp, but it was just long enough for me to wish it was over. Arriving at the rendezvous point, we realized that we had arrived earlier than anticipated, so I got out and lounged out on the hood of my Thorton Galena "Rattler", my personal ride heavily customized for the Bakker family.
Getting bored, I decided to crack open a cold one and from the distance I could her several engines closing in on our position; I drew my weapon in case it was the Raffen Shiv again; they'd up their attacks on us in the past few weeks. The first vehicle to come into view was a beast of a truck, a heavily customized Thorton Mackinow from what I could tell, and a beauty. Following the truck was a Mizutani Shion and two motorcycles, and they all parked adjacent to us; the first to get out was the woman who drove the truck, and I had to admit she was just as much of a beauty as her truck is. Following her were two men with army grade implants and an older man whom I could tell was Saul judging from pictures that I'd seen.
"Greeting Saul, I must say you are looking great today." I heard Carol say, Carol Bakker, the daughter of Johnathon Bakker who founded the Bakkers back in 2040.
"Good to see you as well Carol, are you ready for our transaction?" Saul said as He and Carol walked into an old room to talk business leaving me, John, Mikah, and the three other Aldecaldos.
"Mitch and Scorpion; how the hell have you two old warhorses been?" John asked as both he and Mikah walked up to shake hands with the two.
"Been better; nightmares are fucking insane." Mitch said as Scorpion noticed me standing by my Rattler.
"Who's that, a new recruit?" Scorpion asked as Mikah held his arm out and called me up.
"This is our prodigy V; V, get your ass up here and introduce yourself." Mikah said as I reluctantly walked up.
"Yeah, guess you can say he's our own version of Panam; he's got a real problem with authority." John said as the three of them laughed much to my annoyment, and by the looks of it, Panam's annoyment as well.
"Very funny assholes." Panam and I said at the same time, much to the enjoyment of the old vets which just caused them to egg eachother on even more.
"See, what I'd say; those two are even on the same brain wave." Mitch said as the other three laughed at our expense, something that they brought back from the military from what I understand.
"Shit, I'm gonna need a Broseph if I'm gonna have to deal with this shit." I mumbled before I started skulking to my car, before getting called out by Panam.
"V is it? That Thorton, is that your car?" She asked me as I turned to face her and noticed that she was eyeing my ride from fender to fender.
"Yep, built her myself." I said as I was proud of my little achievement.
"Mind if I take a look?" She asked me and I motioned for her to follow me, much to the further enjoyment of the vets who started snickering.
"Go right ahead, though I got a feeling that they are gonna keep fucking with us." I said as she looked back to see them snickering and pointing at us.
"Damn; if I had to guess, this is a Thorton Galena." Panam said as I popped the trunk and opened a cooler that had beer in it and I took two out and handed her one.
"You know your cars I see." I said as we sat down in the sets, and much to my annoyance here comes the vets who decide to join us as well. Great, I was hoping to get away from 'em, but I guess not and judging by Panam's scowl, she was equally annoyed.
"Mind if we have a beer as well V?" Mikah asked as I popped the trunk and they all took a broseph and proceeded to pile into the back, somehow, I don't think the car was made to fit six people.
"Fucking assholes." Panam swore under her breath as the vets just continued to giggle like school kids.
"Want me to roll the red carpet out as well your majesties?" I sarcastically asked as Panam snorted at that.
"You lovebirds wanna turn the A/C on; it's hotter than hell in here." John sarcastically replied as I brought the climate control up on the tablet and cranked it to max; he did have a point, six people in a car with windows down in New Mexico was gonna get hot quick.
Carol and Saul had closed the door behind them and opened some whiskey before getting down to business. Carol and Saul went way back; practically grew up together before Carol's father decided to leave Aldecaldo nation to form his own family due to differences with the leader at the time; hence why the Bakkers and Aldecaldos were friendly towards one another. As the years went on, Saul and Carol stayed in touch with one another and would have periodic dealings should the need arise; hell, sometimes Saul would even contract out the Bakkers to run convoy security for the Aldecaldos; this was mainly between Bakker Snake Nation land and Aldecaldos land. V himself would join some of these convoy escorts as a means of making ennys as well as collecting scrap to use with his car; though, these escort missions never allowed either Bakkers or Aldecaldos to really socialize considering the threat of the Raffens.
"Are you fucking kidding me." Carol swore as she looked out the window and saw what just transpired.
"What?" Saul asked as he looked over the docs on the manifest.
"I just saw six people pile into V's Rattler like it's a damn clown car." Carol said as she opened the blinds so that Saul could see as well.
"Any idea why?" Saul asked as he looked outside and saw that everyone was inside my car.
"I assume it has to do with why him and that girl of yours flicked them off before going to his car; the vets probably talking shit about them." Carol said knowing that the vets were in the same unit together during the reunification war. Saul looked outside and just smiled as he saw that both Panam and I were equally annoyed and irritated.
The overall mood in my car wasn't as sour as I'd thought it would be, the vets ended up laying off of Panam and I and we started getting to know each other, even if just a bit. From what I was just told, Mitch, Scorpion, Mikah, and John were in the same unit and stationed in South America, so this was a reunion for them. More so, Mitch and Scorpion was very interested in my car and I went into detail of all the upgrades that I put into her.
"The first thing I did was reinforce the drivetrain to handle the added weight, and after words I replaced the engine and added in a turbocharger. The body received the majority of the work seeing as I armored up the doors and replaced the glass with bullet proof and shatterproof glass and added in a roll bar for good measure. I also added a NOX bottle for emergencies to give me a temporary speed boost of well over 200km/h." I explained as Panam was listening and Mitch whistling.
"Damn V, gotta say I'm impressed, and your car is a beauty." Mitch said as Scorpion agreed with him.
"Not gonna lie, I found the Mackinow to be more of a beauty than my car; who's is it anyways?" I asked as Panam's face lit up, and the snickers came again from the vets, but this time it was warranted as complimenting a nomads ride is essentially the same as complementing them seeing as we view our vehicles as an extension of ourselves.
"That beauty just so happens to be mine." Panam proudly stated as she looked over my dash taking in the sights one last time and thinking of ideas to further improve her truck. Unfortunately, our time was coming to an end as both Saul and Carol was able to come to an agreement and motioned for us to move out before we attracted any unwanted attention.
"Good by V, it was good meeting you." Panam said as she exited the passenger seat and Mitch and Scorpion following suit after wishing me luck on the road. Within minutes everyone was back in their vehicles and we were driving off in different directions, us back to our camp and the Aldecaldos back to their camp. Little did I know that in little than two weeks I would leaving camp for the last time and heading to Night City.
To say I was pissed would be an understatement; I was livid with how Carol had decided for everyone to join Snake Nation without so much as even asking for our opinion. The Bakkers had practically split apart from that one decision and no doubt Carol was laying in the bed that she just made for herself, and I could care less. Before I left, they said that I was betraying the family, but Carol had already done that herself, and nothing was left for me with them and my future now awaited me in Night City. To my surprise, I ended up running into the Aldecaldos as they were migrating into North Cali as well, and I decided to hit up their leader to see if they would mind an extra in their caravan. To my surprise, he requested a meet to see what my intentions were, and the Caravan pulled over for a rest break as we hashed things out. I pulled over to a spot and waited, and to my surprise I saw Saul was accompanied by Mitch, Scorpion and Panam as well.
"Damn kid, ain't you a sight for sore eyes." Mitch said as he walked up to shake my hand.
"Where's the rest of your family?" Saul asked as he looked down the road to see it empty apart from his caravan.
"Dissolved." Was all I said as each of the Aldecaldos could tell it was not a good breakup so to say.
"What happened?" Panam asked me as I leaned on the hood of my car.
"Long story short; Carol decided to sell our freedom out for a handful of Eurodollars as well as "promised" security from the Raffen Shiv." I said as Saul took that information in unaware that the Bakkers had disbanded.
"You got guts kid; I'll give you that. Traveling alone on the highway with the threat of Raffen Shiv and corpos lying around, not something for the feint of heart." Scorpion said as he looked over my vehicle and noticed some bullet holes already in the side.
"Where are you going?"
"Night City; I've got some contacts there already who I'm suppose to meet up with." I said as I pulled up the contact info for a Jackie Welles.
"Saul, we are heading in the same direction; you think he can tag along?" Panam asked as Saul thought it over before agreeing under some conditions.
"I have no issue, but if you are going to be traveling with us, you'll be following our rules; understood?" Saul said as he checked our rear once more to make sure no one snuck up on us.
"Understood." I said as Saul ordered everyone to mount back up
"Thank you Panam, I owe you." I said as she smiled.
"Don't worry, I'll look for you so you can buy me some drinks when we get established in NC." She said as we shook on it.
"Sure thing Panam, and next time you look for me, look for my name in neon lights." I said as she snorted
"Puff, highly unlikely you gonk." She said as we both went back to our respective vehicles.
"Night City, here I come." I said as I pulled into the formation right behind Panam's truck; the next two weeks of traveling was going to be interesting, but I couldn't wait to make a name for myself in NC and prove everyone wrong. Of course, the thought did pop in my head of asking Saul if I could join up, but I decided against that seeing as becoming the legend of Night City did not coincide with the Aldecaldo way of life. I could just imagine it now, my name besides the legends of Johnny Silverhand, Santiago Aldecaldo, Morgan Blackhand, Rogue, and company and boy oh boy did it have a sweet taste. The weeks quickly flew by, and the Aldecaldo caravan had finally reached the outskirts of Yucca and to my dismay, my car started to lose power. Saying my good byes to the friends that I made along the way, I made haste for the mechanics garage in Yucca in hopes that he could easily fix my ride, and I can continue on my way to Night City.
Post note: So, tell me what you think; I was personally just gonna do a few chapters to fill in the blanks for Panam's side quest, though this won't be my main work.
