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15.37% Steel Waste / Chapter 109: Becoming an "X-Man"

Chapter 109: Becoming an "X-Man"

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 14]

Again Afton was greeted with the level screen, a fresh set of 30 points waiting to be placed wherever he wanted.

Quickly he placed all 30 skill points into Repair, he was considering putting them in Melee Weapons, Explosives, or Science, but felt that this would probably be more useful in the short-term. Hopefully the Perk it gave when it's maxed out would be worth the effort.

Next, he new Perks he had access to were displayed before him,

[Adamantium Skeleton] : Damage taken by limbs reduced by 50%. This was monstrously overpowered. This would essentially make his limbs avoid 50% of all damage, 50% less bullets, 50% less getting sliced or bruised... He was a little put out it didn't make him like Wolverine, but this would do for now...

[Center of Mass] : In V.A.T.S., you do an additional 15% damage when targeting the torso. Somewhat useless, why would he use VATS and target someone's torso? He had the [Sniper] Perk anyway so it was counter-intuitive to pick this.

[Jury Rigging] : Repair any item using a roughly similar item. Now Afton had just made the requirements of this Perk by getting 90 points in Repair. He wasn't sure how good it was anyway, what constitutes a "similar" item? If there weren't any interesting Perks he'd pick it just to see what it did, otherwise it was a mystery.

[Purifier] : You do 50% extra damage with melee and unarmed weapons against centaurs, night stalkers, spore plants, spore carriers, deathclaws and super mutants. Yeah, no. Afton wasn't getting close to any of these creatures. The 50% bonus damage was good, but not enough to risk changing his fighting style.

So, the choice was between [Jury Rigging] and [Adamantium Skeleton]... Afton shrugged and quickly selected the latter, with that Perk he might consider just using his arms as makeshift shields now...

Afton Parker

Level : 14

S.P.E.C.I.A.L :

Strength : 7

Perception : 7

Endurance : 7

Charisma : 4

Intelligence : 6

Agility : 7

Luck : 4

Skills :

Barter : 21

Energy Weapons : 55

Explosives : 20

Guns : 100

Lockpick : 10

Medicine : 40

Melee Weapons : 41

Repair : 90

Science : 44

Sneak : 20

Speech : 100

Survival : 30

Unarmed : 30

Perks :

[Trigger Discipline], [Heavy Handed], [Rapid Reload], [Torture Techniques], [Educated], [John Wick Style], [Toughness], [Stonewall], [Bug Stomper], [Lord Death v1], [Spies Guise], [Quick Draw], [Adamantium Skeleton]

Companion Perks :

[Old Wisdom]

Afton stumbled as information about the Repair skill entered his mind, everything he needed to know about repairing generators, wind turbines, machinery and much, much more bored itself in his head. Repair was a much more intense skill than Speech and Guns, the amount of information stuffed into his head wasn't even comparable.

Karl noticed his situation and raised a brow, not saying anything and instead escorting him inside the tent and sitting him down on the bed he'd been given. It took a couple minutes for him to regain his faculties again, but even after he found himself muttering how to replace a robo-brain's biomedical fluids, or fixing a cyber-dog's cybernetic materials.

He eventually managed to regain his composure though, one thing he knew for sure was that maxing out Repair would likely be just as painful as this... Or maybe not? There was only 10 points left, much less than the 30 that'd caused him so much trouble. He was wondering if this pain was really worth it, as well as if he wanted to test how much worse upgrading Science would be.

The next couple of days Karl and Afton woke up early and went to sleep late, spending their days thinning out the ghoul horde and occasionally exploring some buildings to kill any ghouls that stayed or were stuck inside.

Their efforts were slowly becoming visible, and after three days there weren't any ghouls left wandering the streets of Camp Searchlight. During all of this Karl too the chance to show Afton some tricks that the Ranger's would use.

What was surprising was the fact that these small lessons gave way to actual Perks!

[Ranger Tactics] : Movement speed increased by 20% when following a pre-planned path.

[Ranger Targeting] : AP cost in VATS reduced by 25% when targeting multiple enemies.

[Ranger Awareness] : Ability to hear noises behind you in combat is improved by 10%.

Karl was surprised he'd picked up his teaching so quickly, but just judged it another quirk of his partner. Usually it'd take weeks to months at best to learn these things, but they just seemed to "click" at random times. Very strange.

The duo had cleared the streets and some of the building and was now looking forward to looting the public-service ones. They'd likely have a good amount of stuff to steal due to them being locked probably before the radiation disaster.

So, they find themselves outside the Police Station with weapons drawn. Corpses of the ghouls they'd previously killed lay at their feet, but they ignored them unlocked the door.

Upon stepping inside the duo were surprised to see many terminals lining the wall as well as the desks in the middle of the room. Apparently, this had been an NCR communication centre.

*Guuuuhk*

A gurgling, spluttering noise came from both directions, the left and right rooms seemed to have ghouls within them. Afton stepped forward and glanced into the right door, having to quickly step backwards a claw swipes at his face. It'd be a serious problem if his radiation suit got breached, so he'd stay as far away from these creatures as physically possible.

The ghoul stumbles through the doorway, bits of its rotten flesh sliding off of its bones as its pale eyes stare him down. Its teeth were fully exposed and looked sharper than regular humans should. Wheter this was a mutation from the radiation or just a natural adaptation he had no idea... The only thing he knew for sure was to shoot it until it stopped squirming.

Raising his two revolvers he fires two simultaneous shots into its head, instantly killing it. Afton quickly reloads as he hears a couple more enemies behind the one he'd just killed. They each individually walked through the door, getting a bullet in the cranium for their troubles. It really was just like shooting fish in a barrel, he wondered if intelligent ghouls would be this easy to kill?

Karl dealt with the ghouls in the leftmost rooms and afterwards, they looked around to see what was worth looting. They found various weapons, a grenade launcher with some ammo for it, some actual ballistic grenades, service rifles, NCR armour, etc.

As they'd done so many times before this, they stuffed their backpacks with every valuable item that was efficient to carry... Afton didn't know how they were supposed to carry what, five backpacks full worth of loot to a trader, but they'd managed somehow... Loot was loot, and there was no point in wasting it.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

Chapter 110: Making the Queen 'Mine'

After the duo picked the Police Station clean they deposited their loot with Sargeant Astor before heading directly for the Fire Station. The door leading inside seemed to be connected with the inner garage. A few fire engines were collecting dust outside the closed garage doors, it was unfortunate they were in-operable otherwise their trip across the Mojave would be significantly easier.

Another thing Afton noted was the huge amount of radiation that was coming from inside the Fire Station. If the duo weren't wearing radiation suits and ingesting a healthy dosage of Rad X they might have grown a few more limbs or something equally morbid.

Afton stands next to the door and glances at Karl, the man had taught him the Ranger method of breaching and entering, the Brotherhood just generally charged in with Power Armour so this was more covert that the way he was initially taught. He'd open the door and Karl would kill anything visible inside.

Both suspected there'd be a few ghouls, or maybe even rad scorpions inside due to the high amount of radiation... Hopefully there would be too many.

He signals Karl with his hand, *3, 2, 1* before opening it and quickly backing away, getting ready for Karl to start firing...

...

Karl hadn't fired any shots, and instead just stood there with a shocked expression on his face... Afton wondered what was up and took a glance inside-Oh my god...

"RUN!"

They both shout simultaneously and start running away, just as a Rad Scorpion around the size of a fire truck charges through the garage door, completely destroying it. It's like a battering ram as it smashing through the trucks and rapidly catches up to them.

The two were running faster than they'd ever run in their lives, neither had expected such a monster to be inhabiting the building... The door was even locked, meaning it'd only gained sustenance from the radiation... CRAZY!

"FUUU-CKING RUN!" Afton shouts as he hears the creature gaining on them, he fires a few blind shots behind him with Lucky, but pales when the bullets simply bounce off of its carapace.

They hop over small rock fences and debris in an attempt to lose it, but while it does slow the creature slightly, it simply barrels through the obstacles like the Juggernaut.

The duo don't have a many options and choose to run towards the NCR encampment, they rapidly wave at the patrolling soldiers who wave back as if this was some sort of greeting. Their waves quickly stop when they spot the HUGE rad scorpion charging towards them.

"HOLY FUCK!"

"SARGEANT! A MONSTER IS COMING!" they shout, Sargeant Astor quickly appearing and getting stunned when he sees the duo running towards them with the monster in tow.

The shock quickly wears off as he realises they were about to get caught up in it, "STOP YOUR STARING AND FIRE!"

*BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!*

The entire encampment opens fire on the rad scorpion, causing Afton and Karl to duck due to the bullets whizzing over their heads, fortunately the encampment was on a slight hill, making it somewhat easier to avoid them and hit the huge scorpion.

The bullets impede its movements for a moment, the service rifles the NCR were using weren't able to penetrate its carapace, but the sudden barrage definitely made it wary of approaching any closer. Its carapace may be almost unbreakable, but its eyes and mouth were vulnerable. As it was so large, it wouldn't take much for a stray bullet to destroy them.

Afton and Karl reach the encampment, huffing and breathing heavily while Astor looks at them, "What the hell have you brought to my camp!"

"That thing was living inside the Fire Station! You're lucky we discovered it this soon otherwise it might've grown even larger!" Afton quickly says, covering both his and Karl's asses.

Astor shakes his head, "We'll talk about this later, just help us try and kill this thing first!" he holds of the conversation as he starts firing again.

Afton is amazed to see that the bullet fly off of its carapace as if they were colliding against an immovable object. The Rad scorpion queen blocked its eyes with its claws and starts heading towards the camp, having finally mustered up to courage to attack them.

The NCR soldier all seem to simultaneously shit themselves at seeing this, grabbing a grenade and throwing it at the creature.

Most are thrown at it, while a few of the less impressive soldiers completely whiff their grenades. Luckily no one had dropped a live one at their feet otherwise everyone would be fucked.

The grenades rolled to stop near the Rad scorpion as it scuttled over, *BANG!* they all exploded, the shockwave shaking the ground momentarily as everyone focuses on the cloud of dust that should contain the corpse of the Queen Rad Scorpion...

...

"It's not dead!" One soldier shouts as it charges through the dust relatively unharmed. The damage it seems to have sustained was pieces of its carapace being torn off by the explosion, leaving a few of its legs vulnerable to damage.

The barrage resumes but this time a few shots actually harm the creature, bullets lodging themselves in its left legs and causing its charge to slow somewhat. It still didn't seem to be enough as all of its vitals were still enclosed in the carapace.

Afton knew that if it reached the encampment most of the soldiers would run for the hills, these guys weren't the cream of the crop, instead just being recruits who'd only been in service for a year or so.

He pulled out all of the mines he'd kept from Primm, primed them before tossing them all in the path of the monster. Soon enough a small pile of miles had formed, and Afton was pretty worried that they'd still be in its blast radius... Eight mines all exploding simultaneously might actually harm some of them in the encampment.

He, and everyone else crossed their fingers and prayed to whatever god they worshipped for this to work as the Queen charged over the mines... *Beep, Beep, Beep*


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hopefully you guys liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

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