The Nexus’ expansion was going so much faster this time that simply keeping up with the daily updates was tiring for retired general Joe Becker. At the same time, the Nexus Enforcers, still unofficially called the Minutemen, were having a field day recruiting from the liberated slaves and assimilated settlers. It was easy to understand their sentiment; out in the wasteland, simply surviving day to day could be an ordeal and nothing good came for free. You had to pull your own weight, carry the collective burden, and don’t make yourself the weak link that’d drag your farmstead or village down, or get exiled for being a parasite.
So the newer citizens of the Nexus often found themselves wanting to make up for the luxuries that were suddenly dropped onto their laps. They needed to feel like they earned and deserved the sheer decadence of their new lives, that they had some stake in the Nexus so that should the impossible happen, they’d be lower on the ‘to evict’ list.
Or they could simply be grateful, which was what many of the freed slaves felt, and wished to repay the Nexus somehow. Many preferred the semi-stressful demands of patrolling the Nexus’ lands instead of the far more stressful rigors of being part of the military. And at this point, the pay difference was of little consequence considering how hard one had to try to end up starving to death in the Nexus.
Joe was sure Sev didn’t really care too much about how much everyone owed him, but at the same time he probably didn’t mind the influx of eager enforcers either. It definitely gave the new leaders of the Minutemen a problem they’ve never experienced before back before Sev set up shop. The new generals now often sought Joe’s advice for dealing with an excess of new recruits.
And it wasn’t a small boost in numbers, either.
Making things worse was how a good number of veterans like Joe had retired soon after Sev took over. Most of them took up farming or some other mundane but peaceful hobby, and others like Joe simply lived off nominal salaries as advisors or consultants. A few of the younger ones took to serving in Sev’s military companies, venting their youthful energy on raiders and super mutants as the Nexus grew.
At the rate they were expanding, the Nexus Minutemen were actually running out of experienced officers to promote up to captains or even generals to create new companies. And that’s after they took up Joe’s advice to tighten up the selection process. The former slaves especially were very stubborn and very determined, apparently. While policing the Nexus was mostly an easy job, the Faceless incident months back had reminded everyone that experienced leaders were still needed to tackle freak emergencies.
After all, who knows what other sinister malady Sev might uncover as he claimed more of the wasteland. The former general agreed with the Nexus’ constantly improving, constantly alert stance. Complacency would easily lead to disasters, and leave open undetected vulnerabilities in Sev’s near impregnable defenses. It was why the retired general kept his own white laser pistol by his bed stand, and a hotline straight to Sev to report anything out of the ordinary.
So Joe spent a lot of his free time meeting with former colleagues or their replacements in the Minutemen, providing his own (apparently) much valued input while keeping himself up to date with the latest developments. Abundance of recruits aside, there was also the intriguing report of rat people, though they’ve all been disappeared into the depths of Blacksite Tleilax. A shame. Judging from the retellings about how they behaved, Joe hoped that Sev would eventually let out the ratkin to be used as live-fire targets.
*****
Zoey Spikes chewed on her lip as she read the sheet of paper before her. It took a while to read the whole thing, considering the reformed raider had only just finished basic literacy months ago, but in the end it was the eight highlighted letters that truly mattered.
“APPROVED”
She had made it past the preliminary trials into the Nexus’ celebrated Companies. Giddy with joy, the young woman bit back a triumphant shout and instead opted to just punch the air several times. No sense in ticking off the prissy neighbors again. She’d go out for a fancy dinner later to celebrate, and give Craig a call later to see how he did. If she was lucky, she could rub her achievement in her brother’s face and prove once and for all that he was a pansy twit.
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Zoey calmed herself down, and went through the letter again, this time sitting by her apartment’s terminal to use the text-to-speech dictionary. She didn’t want to get any misunderstandings here. Running a hand through her naturally brown hair - one of the many perks of no longer being part of the Ash Heads - Zoey carefully read through every word aloud, then checked the dictionary on the strings of letters that she didn’t understand.
In the end, it was clear: Zoey would have to attend another round of trials to see where she placed in the Companies. Though it was a longshot, that they did not omit 1st Company in there fuelled her hopes of being among the most elite, most respected, most deadly, and most favored of people in the Nexus. And at this rate, considering an ex-raider like her managed to make it past the first hurdle, Zoey could actually believe that failure to make it into the 1st would not be due to her past life. The Nexus really did seem to live up to its fair reputation for any who call it home.
After going through the letter twice more, she went for a well-deserved soak in the bathtub, the sensation of being immersed in warm water always being a pleasurable thing for her. Zoey also took the time to admire the changes to her body once more. No longer struggling against starvation and disease, she had more meat and muscle in her now, and the missing fingers and toes were back. Having a full set of teeth was nice as well, though her gums still suffered phantom itches every now and then.
Zoey enjoyed a good half hour before climbing out of the tub and as she always did ever since she got her citizenship, the young woman stared at herself in the mirror and repressed a shudder at the fate she and some of her friends narrowly escaped from. The Ash Heads were a minor gang south of the Commonwealth, and it was a good thing they mostly harassed passing caravans or conducted night raids against other gangs.
And it was a damned good thing that she had stopped her idiot of a brother from pulling his dick out to stuff a feisty trader all that time ago. That single rape could’ve seen the whole gang being stuck in the Blacksite. Instead, after a very thorough interrogation that Zoey literally couldn’t lie her way out of, they only had to endure one round of horrific testing as a sample.
Zoey would’ve gladly offered her holes to anyone and anything to avoid getting her arms and legs melted away again, but thank Sev (literally) that they were given a chance at turning over a new leaf. The healing arches took care of old wounds, and also erased her gang tattoos. After living in the Nexus for a few months now, losing the ink was a good thing.
The former slaves in particular drove the fashion sense that emphasized an unmarked body, free from the reminder of the prices, ownership marks or degrading words tattooed or carved onto their skin, as well as piercings and ‘enhancements’ that they were forced to endure in their past life to satisfy their slavemasters. Those same tattoos and piercings were also often used as signs of allegiances to particular gangs, which didn’t help the cause.
In short, tattoos and piercings, even a simple nose ring or ear ring, drew uncomfortable stares from some folk, and Zoey didn’t need any kind of attention as she underwent the program to be fully welcomed into the Nexus. She didn’t dare test to see much it took to fail her chance at a life outside of a cold cell and agonizing torture. Three strikes or not, Zoey did her best to be a good girl, and she and most of the gang actually made it through. Most surprisingly, none of the girls as far as she knew had to even suck a cock or take anything up their orifices.
The realization that the Nexus really kept to its rules actually struck Zoey dumb for a moment back then, just as it stunned her again that she actually made it into the Companies fair and square. It was a wonderful, foreign thing, to actually not have to constantly be on alert about the world trying to screw you over. As some of the folks Zoey’s age liked to say, praise Sev for the Nexus.
Now, the question Zoey had to ponder was whether her entry into military service would be something worth losing her virginity over? Still staring at herself in the mirror, it took a few seconds before she answered herself.
“Nah.”
She’d see how she fared in the placings first. Who knows if she got into 1st Company, right? Better keep herself untouched and clean until then and stick to giving head if she really felt the urge. Supposedly, Sev preferred his cunts fresh, and if Zoey actually did get into the 1st, she wouldn’t have to worry about her carnal desires anymore.
If she didn’t make it though? Then she’d release all the pent up frustrations in her one night stand, and Zoey would make sure to get herself fucked senseless at the very least.