Afton spends an hour or two sipping some Nuka Cola while relaxing under the sun to get his bearings back. Spending the whole night modifying your motorbike was tiring as hell as it turns out.
Fortunately his [Solar Powered] Perk did more than just heal and increase strength. It also seemed to wash away his tiredness, though he wasn't willing to see how long he could get by without a good nights sleep.
The other's didn't mind the wait as they were still recovering from their own hangovers, the only thing that was annoying was the fact that they had a constant group of people gawking at Dirt-Bird as if it were some kind of technological masterpiece.
Eventually though the group were ready to move again. Karl sat on the back while Boone returned to the sidecar. They gave their farewell to Samuel and his daughter before accelerating off in the direction of New Vegas.
They'd not even driven for a couple of minutes when they were stopped by some sort of barricade? Large pieces of scrap metal had been set up in the middle of the road, blocking them from heading any further. Of course, Afton could just go off-road and head around it, but he was already very suspicious of this wall just magically appearing here.
Karl looks at them both while keeping his face neutral, "Neither of you leave the bike, soon as we get off we'll be rushed. Pretty sure its just thieves who saw us in the 188 Trading Post." he explains.
Afton smirks, "Why don't we see if my upgrades are any good then?"
The other two nod as the group gets off of the bike. Almost immediately people started hopping over the barricade and sprinting towards them with guns and knives in hand. Afton, Karl, and Boone hold their hands above their heads as they slowly back away from the bike.
The thieves seem to be encouraged by this as the rest of them follow the brave ones, yelling and cheering about how they'll "Sell it off and be rich!"... Seems they didn't realise that Afton currently owned Dirt-Birds certification, meaning they couldn't sell it to the NCR or any NCR citizen without being arrested... Though, the black-market would probably still sell it for a lot.
"Alright bois, pull that there Vehicle over here!" a man larger than the rest calls out with a greedy grin plastered across his face. "Hm, and one of you go take everything those three are carryin' might as make this a complete robbery, hehehahaha!"
...
Afton can only shake his head as one of the bandits approach the bike. Another approach them but just before they reach the group one of the unfortunate bandits lay a hand on Dirt-Bird.
"Thief detected! Termination initiated!" The robotic voice calls out as arms sprout from the back of it. The confused bandit doesn't get a word out before he's blasted in the face by laser fire. Due to the low intensity of the lasers themselves, they don't even die instantly, instead feeling their face, muscles, and bones liquefy under the intense heat.
A gurgled scream escapes the attacked bandit, causing the rest to look at them and almost shit themselves. The brief burst of laser fire ends, and without the light show covering the bandit their face is now visible to all.
Blackened and burnt while still smoking, the man resembled what an ugly feral ghoul would look like. Their tongue and eyes had been burnt out and a good portion of the bone in their face was visible due to the thoroughly cooked away skin and muscle.
[Scare a humanoid shitless. 31/50]
All of the fourteen bandits aside from their leader freeze up at the sight, the grips on their weapons loosening as their body's scream for them to flee and never return. The leader of the group simply scowls and is about to shout for them to kill the three responsible... Unfortunately for him, Afton and his group weren't going to waste this opportunity.
Afton starts VATS and focuses on the men closest to him, as well as those with the most dangerous-looking weapons. Most are only wielding shitty 9mm pistols and broken-looking revolvers. But a few do have shotguns with them. Once he closes VATS he draws Lucky and That Gun, each gun acting like a turret as they each target different people.
*Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!*
All loaded bullets in his pistols are quickly emptied towards the enemy, eleven of the men dropping dead with their grey matter evacuated onto the sand.
Karl and Boone also jump into action, both struggle to not gape at Afton's skill and efficiency at putting the bandits down and quickly start firing their own weapons.
Another couple of bandits drop dead, the last one finally releasing what a bad situation he'd found himself in. He's about to try and flee when his leader picks him up like a meat shield and starts charging towards the group, all the while giving out a loud battle cry.
Afton was almost amused by this guy, the fact the man was wielding a large machete and using one of his own men as a shield made him think he belonged with the Legion. Regardless, he holstered his empty guns and drew the sawn-off shotgun from his chest while pulling out a hunting knife from his belt.
Karl and Boone kept firing at the man but the only damage they were causing was to the bandit being used as a meat shield. The brutish man had finally reached Afton, dropping his shield and raised his machete to behead Afton.
*KABLAMMO!*
Afton raised the shotgun in his left hand and shot the man with it point-blank in the chest. Had his strength not been at 8 points his wrist might've dislocated from using a shotgun with one hand. The bandit stumbled backwards as a spray of red left his chest, a large jagged hole now decorating it.
Afton drops the shotgun and dashes forwards while he's off-balance, driving his knife into the man's arm to force the machete out of his hand. With that done he pulls it out and slices them between the ribs. The cut was so deep he'd actually managed to penetrate the man's lung.
He was about to continue cutting the man to pieces when their head abruptly exploded into a red mist and bone fragments.
...
Afton send a dull look to Boone who's rifle was still smoking, he wipes off some of the man's blood and sighs, "Really?"
Boone shrugs, "I got your back."
...
"Whatever."
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Afton glanced down at the dead bandit before looking back at his companions, "Alright, let's loot these guys and move on." he bends down to start searching the man for his possessions when time suddenly grinds to a halt...
[WELCOME TO LEVEL 21]
...
"Huh... Maybe this guy was worth more EXP than I first thought?" he mutters to himself, having not expected to level up after only these few bandits.
He wouldn't be able to get a Perk this level, but he was given skillpoints to use... Wait, now that he thinks about it, isn't he able to max out his Medicine skill?
...
Well, he'd definitely be doing that, but what skill should he level up after that? Science? No, he still felt slightly paranoid that the Legion would be sending assassins after him. Hm, on that thought, wouldn't upgrading his Sneak skill allow how to recognise stealth better? It wouldn't just increase his abilities to sneak, but also to spot other people sneaking.
Nodding to himself, he immediately placed the points in Medicine and Sneak.
[Medicine Skill maxed, Perk gained! : Miracle Maker]
[Miracle Maker] : A fatal injury to yourself can be instantly healed once a week!
...
That is completely broken. Afton could now survive a bullet causes his head to explode with this Perk alone... Of course, it'd only work once a week, but he sincerely doubted he'd allow that to happen to him within such a timespan.
With that done he clicks confirm and time resumes again, Afton squinting due to the pain of knowledge burning itself in his mind. He closes his eyes for a couple moments and waits it out, the other's not noticing as they loot the bandit corpses.
Half an hour later the trio had looted everything worth any caps from the bandits. The bodies were piled into a heap at the side of the road, whether or not someone would deal with them was anyone's guess. The group didn't want to waste any resources to burn or even dig them a shallow grave, so it'd be up to the NCR to get rid of them before pests started infesting the road.
Afton marches over to the barricade as Karl and Boone watch. The sun was still beating down on them and supercharging the former-Brotherhood of Steel member. Once he reached the scrap metal wall he gave it a hard kick, sending a good portion of it falling over.
It hadn't even been welded together, simply propped up against one another in order to stop the group from riding past on Dirt-Bird. Afton easily shifted it outta the way though, his 10 strength wasn't for nothing after all... Right now he literally had peak human capabilities. No matter how hard someone trained, they'd never be able to get stronger than him. Getting equal strength? Maybe, but it'd still take a lifetime of training and dedication.
Once the barricade was outta the way the group slipped through on Dirt-Bird and continued their journey. But, it didn't seem like they'd be getting to the Gun Runners without trouble stopping them every step of the way.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The sound of gunfire could be heard off in the distance, and Afton was debating whether or not it'd be worth checking it out. If it was a large scale battle they could just wait until it was over and pick up the remaining loot. Or, if it was smallscale, they could clean it up themselves depending on who was fighting.
"You guys think we should check it out?" Afton asks the others.
Karl nods, "Yeah, might be some folk who need help. This close to New Vegas has a lot of Fiends wanderin' around, wouldn't sit right with me if we didn't atleast makesure nothing untoward was happening."
"Untoward? Having a gunfight isn't 'Untoward?" Afton retorts dryly.
Karl just shrugs, "Kid, in the Mojave a gunfight is like invitin' your family over. No one wants it but they feel obligated to come anyway." he states, causing them both to chuckle, Afton could sware he heard Boone laugh too... But, if the man had then he'd buried it under his facade quickly after.
"Boone?" Afton inquires, wanting to know his thoughts.
"Might as well. I'll stay behind you and watch your back, try not to do anything stupid."
Afton nods, "Right, well I guess we're taking a detour then." he says, steering Dirt-Bird into a side road heading west from the highway.
As they approach the noise just gets louder and louder, eventually the group can spot a grouping of buildings. One that seemed to be patrolled by robots, probably a RobCo property judging from the specific robots... As well as the "RobCo sign placed at the front. Across the street from that were a group of three buildings that had dirty-looking people stood atop it. All of which were shooting at a small group of NCR soldiers that were hiding behind sandbags down the street.
Afton drove Dirt-Bird up to them after the Fiends seemed to lose interest in wasting ammunition on the hiding soldiers. "Yo." he says simply, giving a small wave as they give him a confused look.
"W-what? Civilians you need to leave this area now! The fiends have taken up position on those buildings over there and are firing at everything that moves!" the Sargeant of the group commands before peeking over to check on what the fiends were doing.
Karl just hops off of the bike and walks up to him, "Don't worry son, we're just here to help. We're mercenaries after all."
...
"You can help? Thank god. I thought we'd be stuck here for days waiting for reinforcements... We can prevent those fuckers from running away, but taking them out is beyond us right now. We have a couple rangers who went in to do it, but one is already dead, and the other is heavily injured. Look." he says, handing Karl some binoculars.
Hope you bois like 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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