The air bites with winter chill as Jiang Xiao Shuai emerges from the smoking ruins of Vault 34, his boot crushing a skull beneath him with a sickening crunch. Blood spatters his weathered face, some drying brown and some still sticky fresh against his jawline. Behind him, his soldiers march in formation, carrying the remains of the vault dwellers like trophies.

"Move faster," he growls, voice low and dangerous as it cuts through the frigid air. "The tree doesn't decorate itself."

At the crest of the hill stands his second-in-command, Lanius, gripping a massive Joshua tree with a coil of barbed wire cutting into its trunk. Xiao Shuai approaches slowly, deliberately, his eyes raking over the green specimen with the same intensity he gives his enemies before delivering the killing blow.

"Not bad," he acknowledges, circling the tree like a predator sizing up prey. His gloved hand caresses a branch, then suddenly snaps it off with a violent twist. "But it needs... embellishment."

Without further explanation, he begins tearing limbs from the dead vault dwellers, impaling them on the branches with precise, almost artistic movements. Fingers dangle like grisly ornaments. Ears string together as macabre tinsel. When he reaches for the severed head of their commanding officer, he pauses, meeting Lanius's questioning gaze.

"She'll appreciate the effort," he says with a cold smirk that doesn't reach his eyes. "After all, only the best for my queen."

The head is placed carefully at the top of the tree, blood still dripping down the trunk as they secure it to a transport. Xiao Shuai runs a hand along the sticky surface, smearing crimson across his palm before bringing it to his lips, tasting the victory - and the gift he's about to bestow.