Commander Williams

Commander Williams grew up near the Iron Works at Rail City, where his parents, Anne and Michael, mingled with the Pure Bloods who ran the operation. He never wanted for anything, and he was taught from early on that ambition and force could carry a person as high as those in charge. He believed it.
  When he fell for a young Pure Blood named Elena, and she seemed to return his interest, Williams thought he had finally crossed the threshold. Instead, Elena rejected him and her brother beat him within an inch of his life. The lesson Williams took from that humiliation was not humility. It was that the only reliable position was one earned by making others fear you. If he could not sit at the top, he would make certain that everyone beneath him knew their place.
  He learned to command troops and became a hard master. Subordinates were driven to extremes. Williams earned a reputation as a torturer and a murderer, someone for whom "by any means necessary" was not a slogan but a daily operating principle. He wore militaristic clothing, kept torture tools at his belt, and bore tattoos of skulls and fire on his arms and neck. His appearance served as his warning.
  The Ironworks gave Williams the assignment that should have cemented his reputation: finding the safest route to transport R.N. Hoover, the weapons designer they called "the Nuke," from Rail City to a safe house in the wastelands. Hoover carried the knowledge to build an actual nuclear device, and the Ironworks intended to use it against the Sunken Saints. Williams scouted outlying settlements as potential bases of operations and occupied one that appeared cooperative.
  The cooperation was a lie. The settlement had been turned by the Uprising months before Williams arrived. When Armistice gave the signal, the town rose up. Williams and his forces were overwhelmed, and the commander who had scarred Armistice years earlier was put down permanently in the settlement he thought he controlled.