What did she do to earn this view of the city? She wondered to herself in her nightgown on her balcony, 80 floors up. Boston wasn't much of a city anymore, but it was all she ever knew. She leaned over the edge, looking at the mercenaries making their rounds on the ground floor. It wasn't so long ago that she was one of them.
The long nights camping out a raiders den, fearing the slightest motion might trigger a turret and she'd be a feast to whatever ghoul found her the next day.
She could remember her boss saying the magic words. "Maria, we're promoting you." She remembered how high she felt. In reality, if her starting position was the floor, the promotion was standing on a soggy carboard box. Didn't matter. It was exactly what she needed, it was a high that she kept chasing until she was there in her penthouse; no one to call boss, head of the Crimsons Mercenary Guild.
They truly were a power player; Gunners, Brotherhood, Institute, they all feared the Crimsons.
A knock came at the door.
"Hello?" She said.
"May I enter?" Her lieutenant Killian answered.
"Of course." She came back into her bedroom and sat at her vanity, pouring bourbon into her tea cup.
He came in with a manilla folder. "The intel about our next target."
"Yes… thank you." She received it and left on her vanity.
"Anything that I might give you?" She shook her head and he saluted and left, closing the door on his way out.
She took a sip of her bourbon and flipped open the folder. She perused the photos, one by one, just a raider group that was getting too big for their britches. That was until one picture of a man with 2 very distinct scars on his cheeks. "Long time no see…" She brought the photo up to her face. "Last time I saw you, you nearly brought the world to an end… again… but you certainly brought yourself back…" She smacked the photo down. "Let's nip you in the bud this time."
Very suddenly the door creaked open. Her head turned. No one was there. She grumbled, "They could build atom bombs but they couldn't build a decent door." She got up and closed the door, and made her way back to the vanity mirror.
She looked herself deep in the mirror and smiled. How long was it since she smiled? The world was going to change and maybe just maybe she'd have a hand in it.
As she looked in the mirror, out of thin air, a giant made of black metal appeared behind her. He wrapped his metal gauntlet around her mouth before she could scream and with the other he swiftly brought out a dagger. And before she could even understand what was happening or reach for her pistol, came a sharp pain in her chest and then… darkness.
The ripples of her actions were destined to create a tsunami, but her tale as she meant to tell it ended with a dagger in her heart on that fateful night.