The sun vanished behind the mountains, casting deep purple shadows across the desert and painting the sky a sullen red. All was silent at the former military post of Indian Springs except for the hissing of the desert wind and the croaking of the few ravens still feeding on the dead. A lone coyote loped panting down the road, stopping to sniff the street as it followed the enticing smell of fresh blood. Finally it arrived at a pile of timbers and began to nose around the shattered wood seeking a way in. Suddenly the pile moved and the coyote leaped away, crouching and warily eyeing the ruin. The pile moved again, and then with a rasping snarl something heaved the timbers up and away with a crash, sending the coyote scrambling away with a startled yip.

Valeria stood weaving on her feet, covered with blood and gagging with pain as she fought to breathe. Her staring eyes were devoid of intelligence as she staggered in a circle, each breath an agonized struggle. Suddenly her nostrils flared and she looked down to see the upper torso of a young man in a brown uniform, exposed by the roof she had flung away. With an inhuman snarl Valeria fell on the corpse, tearing at it with her teeth and nails. When she finally lifted her bloody face from the mutilated body, awareness had begun to return to her eyes. She looked down, and with a choking cry lurched up and away from the ruin. She only took a few steps before falling to her hands and knees, shuddering and gagging blood

Energized by her ghastly meal, Valeria's body began to repair the damage to her lungs, and as her breathing became less tortured, her mind began to race as she tried to sort her last impressions before she had fallen into pain wracked darkness. A face swam into focus before her mind's eye, the boss of the Ultra-Luxe, Dean Domino. Valeria coughed and snarled as another memory came to her. The roar of voices shouting one word.

"Legion!"

Forcing herself upright, Valeria limped toward the headquarters building across the corpse strewn highway. Only bodies clad in baggy brown uniforms were visible as she approached headquarters, the door creaking open in the wind and the windows empty of glass. Inside, Valeria saw more bodies and the smell of blood and urine was heavy in the air. She leaned against the door frame and closed her eyes against the pain as she took a deep shuddering breath. She held it a moment, fighting the urge to cough, and then opened her eyes a limped into the deep shadows inside.

Valeria's eyes adjusted quickly and it didn't take her long to discover no sign of Veronica. She knew her friend must have been taken to the interrogation room, but aside from the bodies of Captain Gilles and Lieutenant Gorobets the room was empty. Valeria turned and entered another room across the hall where a radio set sat dark and silent on a desk. Nearby was a steel cabinet, which Valeria found locked. She stepped back, and then drove her steel shod heel into the door with all the power she could muster. With a loud bang the door dented in, and Valeria worked her fingers into the gap created before planting her boot against the door and pulling with all her strength. With a groan and a crack as loud as a gunshot, the door tore free revealing the locker's contents. Valeria reached inside and pulled out the familiar weight of her sledge, and then froze. She hadn't heard or seen anything, but with instinct honed by living in the wastes she knew she was no longer alone in the outpost.

Outside in the deepening twilight, four figures cautiously approached the checkpoint with their rifles ready. All wore red berets except one gray moustached soldier in the broad-brimmed hat of the Rangers.

"Five millimeter brass all over the place Sergeant." The old soldier whispered as he stood holding one of the cartridges.

"Damn!" Swore Sergeant Bitter-Root as he surveyed the slaughter. "What the hell happened here?"

"S-s-supermutants?" Ten of Spades stammered. The young soldier stuttered not from fear but from a speech impediment. Only a fool would mistake the sniper's spectacles and speech for weakness.

"No fucking way this was Supermutants." Corporal Betsy hissed as she stood from her examination of a body. "Too many bodies, and this one was finished with a blade." She indicated the soldier she had searched and the bloody gash at the base of her throat above her breastplate.

"With the fucking big blades and hammers those knuckle-draggers use." Betsy growled. "There'd be nothing but pieces."

"Looks like most of it went down here." Corporal Sterling added as he looked toward the outpost. The old soldier had been a Ranger long before he had joined First Recon, and he was their best tracker with Sergeant Bitter-Root coming in at close second.

"Whoever did this was at the checkpoint." Sterling observed grimly. "Something went south and they didn't hold back. Looks like the work of a mini-gun backed up by small arms."

"Supermutants use mini-guns." Bitter-Root observed as he looked into the gathering darkness.

"Supermutants and Nightkin don't knock first." Sterling pointed out. Bitter-Root looked at the old soldier then nodded before turning to the rest of Alpha squad. Before he could speak, a loud bang echoed across the base from the headquarters building. Immediately Alpha squad dropped into a crouch, scanning the shadows through the scopes of their rifles. After a moment there was another crash from the building and Bitter-Root waved Alpha Squad forward.

Weapons ready, the soldiers advanced until they stood facing headquarters, their rifles leveled at the empty doorway. Sterling made eye contact with Bitter-Root and nodded at the ground. The Sergeant glanced down and saw dark stains and large smeared footprints in the packed earth leading to the door. Bitter-Root nodded and with several rapid gestures sent Alpha Squad through the door where they immediately fanned out covering different quadrants of the room. The room was dark and silent except for the wind blowing through the empty windows. The soldiers spared only a moment's glance at the bodies sprawled on the floor before Betsy advanced into the hallway covered by Ten of Spades. There were only a few rooms to search, and the two quickly swept each room from the doorway before moving on as Bitter-Root and Sterling followed behind.

At the end of the hallway, Betsy looked into the interrogation room and saw the corpses of Gorobets and Gilles. With a snarl of rage, she scanned the shadows and turned to nod at Ten of Spades. There was only one room left, and the only way out was the door they had entered by. Ten of Spades stepped aside and nodded as Betsy moved into the doorway and aimed into the shadows. Immediately she saw the smashed locker, but before she could turn a huge hand seized the barrel of her rifle and with a wrench tore it from her hands and sent her sprawling to the floor. Ten of Spades realized immediately that the intruder had hidden next to the door and leaped to the side in trying to get a clear shot.

He only fired once as a giant shadow exploded from the darkness, knocking his rifle aside and seizing him by the front of his breastplate. Before he could move or draw another weapon, Ten of Spades was yanked from the floor and flung down the hallway. With nowhere to go in the hall, Sterling and Bitter-Root were both knocked sprawling as the private's body slammed into them. Before any of the soldiers could untangle themselves, there was a rush of movement as the intruder charged and leaped over them toward the door. With a curse, Betsy lunged into the hallway wild-eyed and bare-headed, snapping off a shot as the intruder smashed through the doorway. There was a screech as the bullet ricocheted off something metal, and creature was gone.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Betsy swore as she ran forward. The rest of Alpha Squad had struggled to their feet and ran after her as she sprinted outside, and then threw her rifle to her shoulder and swept the horizon looking for a target. Finding nothing, she lowered her weapon and gritted her teeth in fury as the rest of the team joined her.

"Was that a S-S-Supermutant?" Ten of Spades stammered as he limped to Betsy's side.

"It was big enough." Bitter-Root growled. "But I'm betting it was that mutant freak we captured."

"Then lets get moving!" Betsy demanded. "She can't have gotten far!"

"No." Bitter Root replied shaking his head grimly. "As much as I'd like to we have other priorities."

"What priorities?" Betsy snapped. "She has to know what happened! Shit, she probably killed the Lieutenant and the Captain!"

"Maybe, but this post wasn't wiped out by just one person." Bitter-Root observed. "If the mutant had been part of it, why was she still here?"

"I'm guessing from the tracks that she was hurt." Corporal Sterling added.

"Didn't seem that way when she threw us around!" Betsy snapped. "She knows what happened and she's getting away!"

"She's gone." Bitter-Root said grimly as he slung his rifle. "All she was interested in was escaping, and there's no way we'll find her in the dark."

"How do you kn-kn-know that?" Ten of Spades demanded as he rubbed his shoulder.

"We were ready for trouble, and that mutant still managed to take us out." Bitter-Root explained with a scowl. "She could have killed any one of us, probably should have, but didn't. Even if we caught up with her in the dark, some of us might die taking her down, if we took her down."

"So what now?" Betsy growled as she lowered her rifle.

"Our priority is getting to Death Valley Junction and reporting what happened here." Bitter-Root said grimly. "This could be a Legion incursion, and that changes everything. We have to either get into short wave radio range, or flag down a convoy."

Bitter-Root looked at his squad, and then turned to look down the highway. "We could be looking at a war people. Our priority is to report to Colonel Royce, and that's final." He turned to look sternly at Corporal Betsy who nodded and slung her rifle with a scowl.

"Let's move out!"

As Alpha squad began to march out of the outpost, Valeria finally slowed her breakneck pace to a walk over a mile away. Adrenaline and her inhuman stamina allowed her to escape, and now she considered what to do next. The soldiers she had eluded were from the NCR, and doubtless thought she had something to do with the massacre. Perhaps killing them would have been pragmatic, but she hadn't considered the prospect for an instant. She was already consumed with shame and disgust over what her battered body had driven her to do, and she couldn't bear the thought of adding more needless deaths.

She could hear coyotes yipping in the distance as she turned to the North. She hadn't seen Veronica's body among the dead, and although she couldn't be certain she clung to the hope that her friend was still alive. If she had indeed seen Dean Domino from her cell, there was only one reason he would be in NCR territory. He was looking for the Sierra Madre, and for reason's she couldn't fathom was doing it in person. Dean knew Veronica had studied the mythical casino, so there was a chance he had taken her prisoner to help him find it.

Valeria took a deep breath and found her lungs almost recovered from the terrible injuries she had sustained. She was still not fully healed, but knew she had no more time. She had to believe that Veronica was being taken to Death Valley, because the alternative was more than Valeria could bear. The NCR would be hunting her, so she had to stay clear of roads and towns to avoid being re-captured. Gritting her teeth, Valeria started to run into the desert. House and his mission to recover the chip were meaningless to her now. Veronica was the only friend she had in a lonely cruel world, and she wouldn't stop until she found her.

And nobody had better get in her way.