Ask The Chosen One

I don’t like this. Nor can I swim- I’m just changing back into my vault suit now

Gertrude wasn’t the type to expect having to use violence in Arroyo, especially if she was the one that they had to argue with. But today just had to be an exception from her usual activities.

At the very least Gertrude had noticed Vasquez suspiciously wore an old Enclave mask, but after the NCR’s extermination campaign of the Mojave his sudden shift in attitude came as a surprise to her. What started as a casual conversation with him around the borders of town became frustrating to him enough to start an argument. It didn’t take long for it to turn to violence after one or two rude gestures about the Enclave from Gertrude.

She was unarmed, a massive setback for her, and saw certain trouble with the armed NCR soldier taking out the heavy weaponry to deal with her. However Gertrude saw one last chance to escape alive with the precarious way Arroyo was built. She ran through the quieter parts of town, throwing various things behind her to blindside Vasquez before Gertrude hit her key point.

At this point he was using a power fist to flat out feel the glory of killing the Enclave’s all time destroyer and to feel her limbs give out from the power of it, but realized he had overshot and missed Gertrude’s head by just a few centimeters. With an added shove from her, Vasquez had realized his mistake for switching to melee a moment too late. He had lost balance, and all he could see below him now was a canyon that Arroyo had used for years to get the better of attacking tribes by the only way in being a long bridge. 

Vasquez’s adrenaline kicked in and deftly made him turn himself in midair to grab the edge of the canyon to hoist himself up, however his hold did not last long with the wasteland dirt ruining his grip. He slid off to see the last bit of the chosen offering her hand too late, doing a final sting to his honor by pitying him of all people. Vasquez fell to a horrible fate, and all Gertrude could do was watch in rising guilt that perhaps if she had not snided about the enclave the way she did it would have never happened. The experience would remain in the back of her head to this day and make her chastise herself for being so uptight about older enclave soldiers.