Chapter 363: Delegating problems...
Afton continues to go over his choices, rubbing his temples as he imagines every scenario possible...As far as he could see, there were only three choices... Kill the hostages, rescue them, or do nothing.
All of them would have drastic consequences, but he couldn't see any other way around it... Unless...
He glances at the hostages and then back at his friends, closing his eyes and going over it. "You guys have two options as I see it." he starts, not bothering to look at the peoples pleading looks. "One, I take you somewhere where you would be comfortable for the duration of your stay, I cannot let you return to your regular lives, so this is your way out. Or, your second choice... I kill you all here and now to stop future problems springing up."
Boone and Cass both look indignant and confused at his words, but allow him to explain himself before drawing any conclusions.
Afton sighs, "I will use some advanced technology to teleport you to your destination should you choose to live. After everything has settled down, you will be allowed to return to your regular lives, though, I may have to remove certain memories of what you may see." he says.
Boone raises a brow at this, "I'm guessing this is from 'that' place?"
Afton nods, "Yeah." he states simply.
"Am I the only one who's finding it hard to believe that you can teleport people?" Cass mutters.
"Earlier you were swinging around an axe made of light... But yeah, sure, pick and choose the technology you're amazed by." Afton drawls before turning towards the captives. "What is your choice?
Most of them look very unsure but eventually agree to go along with whatever his plans for them were... They'd just escaped a bloody, violent, and torturous death via the hands of the Legion, so being temporarily held captive by their 'saviour' didn't sound all that bad... Plus, some of the captives' families had been killed as they were captured, leaving them with little to nothing holding them in the Mojave.
Afton nods and starts rapidly tapping his Pipboy, afterwards allowing Nyx to take over gathering the coordinates as he got out some paper and a pen. With it, he scribbles a note to Glados to hopefully protect these people as they arrive at the crater.
Cass looks over his shoulder and raises a brow as she reads it aloud, "Dear Glados, these are guests and NOT test subjects. I REPEAT! NOT test subjects. Provide them with adequate care until I return and decide what to do with them."
...
"You know... I think I'm getting cold feet for this." one of the former captives mutter with the rest of the group nodding.
Afton shrugs, "Alright, this will take a couple hours, so to preserve energy we should strike at the other camps and gather any other hostages we find here..." he looks to Cass, "You comin' or?"
Cass shakes her head, "I'm stayin' here... I'll protect these guys until you're back, never know if more Legionaries will return."
Afton nods, "Alright, keep the shotgun, you might need it." he agrees, eventually walking away towards the next Legion encampment with Boone, Anja, and ED-E in tow.
During the next few hours, the group stumbles across similar scenes to the first camp they encountered. And, just like the first, they dealt with the Legionaries there in the same manner, brutally and efficiently.
Eventually, at around 4 am, all the camps had been eliminated. The captives had all been gathered in the first camp and the coordinates had been triangulated for teleportation. All that was left now was to send them off and return to Astor and report what they found.
Afton looked at the group of around fifty people, and then at Cass who's standing next to the group, "You sure you don't want to come with us?" he asks once more before she's sent off to the Think Tank.
Cass just smiles and shakes her head, "I think I've had it with the Mojave, Afton... Nothing goes right here, so getting some distance between me and this place while helping these folks is good enough for me." she says, and Afton nods.
He could understand the sentiment, besides, she might be a valuable asset to the Think Tank due to how well-travelled she was. They wouldn't need to rely on robot scouts and the old world American map to figure out where was what. Plus, she'd probably have a good deal of knowledge on valuable trade routes... Though, Afton was still unsure what he wanted to do with the info was he got it.
"Well I'll be in touch if you ever wanna change your mind... Also, try not to anger the other... 'Unique' residents at where you're headed... Not just for your health, but theirs too." he explains before readying the teleportation device.
He was unsure how the Think Tank had recovered so much energy before his last round of teleportation, but he guessed that they might be putting his 'Glowing One Reactor' idea to use. Regardless, he taps the button and give a small wave to the people, just as a lightning bolt strikes their position.
Boone and Anja step back at the thunderous sound and shockwave produced, and afterwards quickly look at Afton with aggrieved and angered eyes.
Boone grabs his collar with both hands and pulls him close, "What did you just do!?" he growls, having just seen the group they were supposed to be protecting hit by lightning and reduced to nothing.
Afton chuckles and shakes his head, easily prying Boone's hands off of him, "Don't worry, that's just how the teleportation functions. It dematerialises them and reconstitutes them in another location, it's rather crude I must admit, but we're nowhere near creating small, stable wormholes just yet." he explains, confusing the duo more than anything. Though, from the sound of it, Afton hadn't just killed all those people for no reason.
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Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois like the chaps, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Chapter 364: Extortion
Boone huffs at him but relents, "We need to talk about your relationship with 'that' place when everyone's together... Sounds like you more than just 'escaped' that place." he states before looking around the encampment. "Think we should burn this place? Personally, I want the Legion to see our handiwork."
Afton shrugs, "As long as we don't leave traces that we were here, do whatever you want... Though, I think we should return to Searchlight before any Legionaries come to visit, there's no point to being covert if we let them see our faces."
The group eventually elect to just leave the ruined camps alone so the Legion can get a taste of their own terror tactics.
Once they return to camp they're greeted with a Sgt Astor who apparently hadn't slept all night. The bags under his eyes were bigger than even, but even with that he looked incredibly happy to see them. "You're back!? How did it go?" he quickly asks.
Afton nods, "All encampments have been destroyed... But... There was a problem..."
Astor raises a brow, "If you dealt with all of the camps then I can't imagine a problem that can outweigh the positives of this..."
"Well, we arrived too late to save any captives." Afton states, putting on the grimmest face he could manage without bursting into laughter.
Boone sends a sharp glance at the back of Afton's head but the former-brotherhood member just ignores it.
Astor deflates at the news, the happiness of avoiding their encroaching demise washing away upon hearing that the civilians the Legion had captured were dead. If he were to put the feeling into words, he'd say that he felt the collective weight of their lost souls on his shoulders. "I. See."
While Afton's trying to find the right words to console the quietly distraught man, he's interrupted as the other half of his group arrives.
Josie runs through the NCR camp and arrives right in front of Afton while giddily hopping on the balls of her feet, "Afton! There's, like, three Fire trucks down near the Fire Station! You managed to fix up a pre-war bike, can you do the same for that? Can you!?" she quickly says all in one breath...
Huh, he'd actually forgotten about those things... They would make a good base for a vehicle, strong, sturdy, with a large engine capable of carrying around tons of water. The only problem was the fact that they were deep in irradiated land.
Sure, he wouldn't be bothered by it, but Josie's whole reason for being a part of their group was to help on the engineering side of things. He could already imagine the face she'd make if he repaired it without her.
Plus, he wanted Daisy to help with the process as she expediated repairing the bike by a huge degree. This time they weren't just repairing the vehicle though, he intended to modify it into a veritable fortress, one able to withstand the explosion that'd ended up killing his precious Dirt-Bird.
He sighs and looks to Josie, "I think we'd need to transport it outside of the irradiated area before we could do anything do it... I for one don't want to sit in radioactive materials while repairing it, just because I lost my arm once doesn't mean I want to grow a third." he explains, causing the woman to pout.
He shakes his head at her look and continues though, "But, once we get to Novac, I'm sure we could fix up a vehicle to tow a couple Fire Engines out of Searchlight..."
"Really!?" she quickly perks up, her change in emotions almost jarring to those watching.
"Yeah... Sure..."
Karl arrives not long after Josie does with Dog-meat, though by the twitch in his eye, he isn't happy. "I am not taking that woman on another job, ever again." he states.
"What? I thought I did well..." Josie asks in surprise.
Karl scoffs, "You spent two hours staring at those fuckin' trucks, leaving me and Fido here to do all the work. You're lucky the Legion weren't around otherwise they'd have you bagged and tagged before you could say 'fire truck!'"
By the end of his rant, Josie was looking particularly sheepish meaning that most of what Karl had said was probably true. "I-er, won't do it again... Sir?"
Karl just huffs and looks to Afton, "Things go well on your side?"
He nods, "You could say that. Everything was handled, Searchlight should be safe for a couple weeks at least."
"That doesn't fill me with much confidence..." Astor says from the side, knowing that the Legion would probably send more forces later on. He hoped his superiors would see sense before that and send him some reinforcements. "Thanks for your help anyway guys, I appreciate it. You can rest in camp until you move on to your next destination, until then, I need some sleep myself. Spend most of the night worrying about you lot." he admits.
Afton smirks at Astor, shakes his head and holds out his hand to him before the man can leave. "We did this from the good of our hearts Sergeant... So wouldn't it be prudent to reward such 'honest' people?"
...
Astor looks behind Afton to Boone and Karl for help, but the latter just laughs at his plight while the former shrugs. "Ah, come on Afton, you almost bled me completely dry last time you were here... Shouldn't working simply to strengthen your country be enough?" he asks, causing Karl to laugh harder.
Afton shrugs, "As a Patriot, I need to keep my weaponry clean and stocked with ammo. I can't do that without caps. Plus, you'll be taking all of the credit for eliminating the Legion forces, I reckon there'd be a promotion or two on its way as well. What's that compared to some meaningless caps?"
...
Astor just releases a long, deep sigh and reaches for the pouch on his belt, tossing it at Afton. "There are 300 caps in there, that's all I got. No drinks or girls for this guy, thanks." he complains, but everyone present knows that regardless of his attitude, he's still grateful for the help.
Afton tosses the bag in the air a couple times to judge its weight before nodding. "Pleasure doing business with you, Sargeant." he drawls jovially.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross
Niggross
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.
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