Kira Dallas's Arc

Chapter 1 of 13

Kira Dallas drove the cargo truck toward Vault 141 with a full bed of medical supplies and a promise she meant to keep. She was Logistics Officer for Reilly's Rangers. Her job was simple to say and hard to do: find prewar medical gear with intact seals and get it to the field. Today the gear rode behind her. She had traded it for tissue samples and research, and she needed the buyer to hold up her end. Rush played from the dash radio. A working man's song for a working drive. In the passenger seat sat Tammy Lammens, a tabby in gray scrubs, a red medical pouch on her belt. Behind them rode Petty Officer Nobles, a black and tan cat in green camo and a black beret, a tools pouch at his side. Nobles was Kira's ticket into the Vault. The supplies bought goodwill. Nobles bought access to the tech Kira actually wanted. "You always this quiet before a deal?" Tammy asked. "I'm quiet until the seals check out," Kira said. She did not slow down. She had been burned once. A supplier with real manifests and real seals who never delivered. So she verified. Always. She cross-referenced. She tested. She watched how people acted when things went wrong. That discipline kept the Rangers alive. It also made her drive tense, both paws tight on the wheel. The camp came into view against the dark ridgeline. Kira killed the radio and rolled to a stop by the barracks, its steel roof dull under the sky. A figure in a red beret and a gray and brown jacket walked out to meet the truck. Zelda Verada. Red Hills Traders. Medic. The one who had signed the contract. Zelda looked at the loaded bed, then at Kira. "You brought everything you said." "I brought everything I said," Kira answered. She climbed down. "Now I want what you said." Zelda's mouth twitched, not quite a smile. "Straight to it. Good. I like people who don't waste my daylight." She waved Kira toward the barracks. "The Vault tech is inside. Diagnostics, sealed. You'll want to check them yourself. You strike me as someone who checks." "I check everything," Kira said. Inside, a metal medical cabinet stood packed with vials, syringes, and rolled bandages. Kira ran a claw along one seal. Intact. She tested it. It held. She let out a breath she had been holding since the ridge. Zelda watched her work. "Funny what survives when no one knows what they're looking at." Then her tone flattened. "But there's a problem with the Vault gear. It's still down on sublevel three. Behind a door only Sarah's credentials open. The deal's real. Getting it out isn't done." Kira set the vial down slowly. She had the supplies delivered and the technicians to secure the tech. Kira slowly realized that this vault dig could be the chance of a lifetime. This will take years not months to recover and process everything. Kira decided this home now, at least for the foreseeable future.