When I came out of Pronto's shop, some of the slaver guards that loiter in the plaza area were getting aggro against something. Pretty soon the whole place is running around shooting at something. A bit puzzled I follow along behind them to see what it is. First thing I notice is that Forty and one of the generic slavers is dead. Now I'm over closer to the pens and I see pretty much ever slaver in Paradise Falls running around shooting at something that seems to be quite elusive.
Then I see what it is:
Sammy the little kid who you first meet when you get in to Paradise Falls (the one wearing the scout uniform) is running around! Of course, since he is essential their shots are doing nothing, although evidently a few errant shots took out Forty and the other slaver.
Just before I shut down, I also noticed there was a "Raider" body laying very near to Forty.
I have 3-day respawns running. I have in the past enslaved several raiders, and in some cases ran along with them back to PF. When you do this, you can often times follow the enslaved raider all the way back to the pens, and then he/she will stand there--inside the first gate, but outside the main pen where all the other slaves are confined--and start the smoking script. They're obviously not dead, and I generally take their weapons if not their armor too, to sell it. However, I wonder if, after a while those enslaved raiders might be "respawning" without their collar and with weapons, and that that is what started the fight?
I'm going to go back to a previous save (the one right before I entered PF) and see if this still transpires this way or not. However, assuming it recurs consistently, I appreciate anyone who has any experience with fixing this sort of stuff in the console commenting.