Capítulo 157: Saving Private Ry-Ranger Morales
With all the Fiends dead the situation quickly settled down. Afton looked over the side of the building and spotted Karl trying to tend to the injured Ranger while the man kept spouting random things like "I'm sorry Christina" and "I should've listened to you."... Perhaps the blood loss was making him delusional? If that was the case then he'd need to start working on him soon before he starts sleeping forever.
Getting down to the ground via the ladder he rushes over and kneels beside the man while his hand rifles through his Deathclaw leather bag in search for medical tools. "What're his injuries?" he quickly asks.
"Some shots to the arms and legs, and one bad one in his gut." them man calmly lists off.
Afton lifts some of the bandages Karl had applied and spots the injury, that'd definitely need surgery. It seems to have breached his intestine, bacteria will infect the wound soon enough... He retrieves some high potency alcohol and pours it over the wound, cleaning it off dirt before he plunges his tweezers inside in search of the bullet.
Most doctors wouldn't dare try this without a whole team supporting them, as well as an x-ray to get the general idea of where their target was, but Afton isn't an ordinary doctor anymore. As if his tweezers were magnetic he pulls it outta the man. He looks over the bullet to make sure it hadn't shattered and leave any shards behind, once he was confident he doused the wound with alcohol again and injected a stimpack into some key areas.
He made sure to inject it into the intestine first to allow it to heal completely before moving onto the destroyed muscle surrounding it. In the game stimpacks would heal different amounts depending on your Medicine skill, that wasn't because they improved though. It was simply because you got better at applying them.
Once Afton was done, all that was left of the deadly wound was a pink spot of skin where the new flesh had grown. He'd still be sore tomorrow, and he may shit some blood, but he'd live.
Afton looks down at the man who seemed to be coming to his senses, stimpacks didn't just regrow muscle and organs, but assist in the production of blood. "You alright?"
Morales looks down at his wound and slowly nods, "Wow... You're crazy doc. Didn't think I'd make it through that, not even my Implant could've healed such a wound." he says, laying his hand back into the sand, clearly exhausted.
"Impant?" Afton asks, with his medical knowledge he knew implants existed, but he hadn't expected anyone to be selling them in the Mojave... They are a notoriously difficult thing to credibly give to people, even before the Great-war they only had a 70% chance of working and not being rejected...
Morales nods, "Yeah... My wife Chrstina was worried about me and managed to convince me to get one... It was called moncyte or something? Supposed to slowly heal my wounds, obviously it didn't work on that one though."
"Monocyte?" Afton asks, getting a nod from the man.
"Yeah, Monocyte breeder I think she called it... Doctor Usanagi charged an arm and a leg for it though."
Doctor Usanagi? Strange, wouldn't have thought any eastern names would've survived the Great-war, with all the anti-communist robots going around trying to exterminate 'foreign spies' he was surprised they hadn't changed it... Though, he did find it quite funny that even 200 years in the future after the apocalypse, Japanese people still kick the shit out of Westerners when it comes to academic studies...
"You know anything about this 'Doctor Usanagi' Karl?" he asks, wanting to know more. Getting a couple Implants didn't sound too bad if he were honest.
Karl shrugs, "A good Doctor but makes most of her caps by selling those Implants... 4000 caps for one last I checked." he says.
4000 caps each? That makes sense, it isn't easy to recover the specific parts for each one... If Afton were honest then he'd say that the price was more than fair, especially with what she was supposedly providing.
"Alright, we should get you back to the Sergeant... Karl, we'll come back and loot the Fiends later." he says, picking Morales up in a princess carry.
"Hey, not that I'm being ungrateful or anything but... Could you carry me over your shoulder or something?" Morales asks, clearly he felt emasculated at being carried like this.
Afton gives him a kind smile, "No."
The man just grumbles in response to Afton's refusal to put him down. He and Karl eventually reach the NCR soldier's position. The area was riddled with bullets from the earlier fight, but no one seemed injured, the plan had worked flawlessly.
"Sergeant, we've brought your boy back." Karl says from the side, from the side Boone was slowly walking towards them from the REPCONN building, a satisfied look on his face.
"Ranger Morales, are you alright?" the man quickly asks while looking him over.
Morales sighs at being treated like an injured child, "Yes, yes, I'm alright... Now can you put me down? I think I can stand on my own."
Afton shrugs and lets him down, the Ranger stumbling and having to be caught by the Sergeant as he loses the strength in his legs.
"Yeah, nice one princess." Afton snarks, causing the ranger's face to go red with embarrassment.
Afton was waiting to retort to any response the man was going to give, but time abruptly froze as soon as the Sergeant got a good grip on the ranger.
[WELCOME TO LEVEL 22]
Huh, didn't think those Fiends were enough to level up... Maybe saving Morales was a quest? Whatever.
Afton just dumps all his new skillpoints into Sneak. It'd definitely proven useful while he was sneaking up on the Fiends, and would likely give an extremely overpowered Perk once he maxed it...
Looking at the Perks available he frowns at the lack of options again... This was becoming a trend, the further he progressed the fewer Perks appeared... Was it like this in the base game or was he just unlucky?
[Spray and Pray] : Your attacks do 75% less damage to companions. Afton wasn't sure what to make of this Perk... It could potentially be overpowered depending on how he used it... Imagine strapping an explosive to one of his companion's chests and sending them into an enemy fortification. The explosion would likely leave them alive while killing everyone else, though, he felt uncomfortable just thinking about it.
He wasn't heartless and appreciated the people travelling with him. Karl was already a prominent figure in his life, he may be his best friend as well... As weird as it sounds to have a best friend who could probably be your grandfather...
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.
Capítulo 158: Tiny Tim
Though, his relationship with Boone was a weird one. The man had a lot of baggage and probably need some mental trauma counselling. Not that he'd ever accept such a thing mind you, he was too proud and stubborn to accept that he needed help.
Hopefully once Boone got friendlier with him and Karl the man would open up to them about his problems... Only then would he be on the path to recovery...
Yeah, he probably wouldn't be taking the [Spray and Pray] Perk, even if it did have its uses, he likely wouldn't ever make use of them. Instead it would be better off to just put points in something like [Intense Training] or another of the lower level Perks.
...
Hmm, thinking about it more clearly, if this Doctor Usanagi had the capability to create the Monocyte Breeder Implant, then wouldn't she be able to create the other easier ones? The one's that increased a human's base stats to a higher degree... If she did then wouldn't they increase one's S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats?
He was still unsure at whether or not maxing out a stat would provide a Perk, but if it followed the trend the skillpoints had set then it probably would. The Perk given would likely be much more powerful as well judging by how difficult it was to raise the S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat.
Going into [Intense Training] he looked over his two stats that could potentially reach 10 after gaining an Implant, Strength and Agility.
He wasn't sure which of these would give the best benefits. Obviously, if he was just going with his current fighting style then Agility would be the best bet... But he couldn't just think of the stats themselves... He needed to consider what potential Perk he would gain...
When he maxed out his Guns skill he got [John Wick Style], a Perk that allows him to even the playing field even when heavily outnumbered.
When he maxed out Speech he got [Spies Guise], a Perk that tricked people into revealing more than they usually would.
And when he got Medicine to 100 he got [Miracle Maker] a Perk that'd save his life once a week....
The trend set by these was rather random, but in the end, did correlate with their respective skill... So, if he upgraded Agility to the max, what would he get?
Would he become more flexible? Get a superpower? Get faster? It was painfully irritating to be in the dark about it if he were honest.
What would he gain if he maxed out strength? He doubted it'd just make him stronger otherwise that stat itself would become rather pointless.
Afton shakes his head after a moment, he needed to treat the potential Perks as if they'd be useless. There wasn't really a point putting all his hopes on the Perk when the stats were useful on their own.
In the end he used [Intense Training] to put another point into Agility, putting it at 9.
And with that, time resumed. Afton managed to hold the same expression he had before time got stopped as knowledge about stealth made its way into his mind.
Just before Ranger Morales is handed off to someone else so the Sergeant could discuss their pay, the man gave them a grateful look, "All jokes aside... You saved my life today, if there's anything I can do to repay you, just say the word."
The Sergeant ignores the man's heartfelt words and hands him off to one of his soldiers, "Get him comfortable, I'll radio in for an NCR doctor to check him over to make sure he's fit for travel." he looks to Afton, "No disrespect meant, it's just proper procedure considering you aren't licensed by the NCR."
Afton shrugs, "None taken. Now, we were going to discuss our pay, right?" he says, causing the Sergeant to sigh.
"Yes..."
It's funny really, the Sergeant was so desperate for the group's help, but when it finally came time to pay up he was reluctant... Should've expected it, this is what most mercenaries experience right? Getting short-changed after completing the job.
Maybe Afton should start writing up contracts to prevent anyone from backing out... Though, the terms of which would need to be specified. He couldn't very well write up a contract in the middle of a gunfight though, could he? If they found themselves in another situation like this it'd be the same result regardless...
Hmm, maybe next time they should make them squirm for a while longer to make sure they knew the severity of the situation, but even then they still might try to cheat them.
Afton sighs, whatever, atleast their reputation would spread from this. Even if the caps were not worth the effort. He distributes the caps between the group, only getting 150 caps each due to the stingy Sergeant.
"I'll tell you again, I'm sorry if the pay isn't what you thought. I don't earn much and the NCR frowns on using mercenaries... Aside from bounty hunters of course...
Afton just shrugs, "Tell that to my starving family, I'd like you to look Tiny Tim in the eye and tell him he won't be eating today." he retorts and starts walking back to where the bodies of the Fiends lay.
Karl and Boone catch up with him and the former can't control his chuckling anymore, "Tiny Tim? Where'd you come up with that, kid?"
"Oh, you haven't met my starving disabled son yet? Shame, I think you'd like him." Afton jokes, "I'll be sure to mention him in any conversations that require it." he adds just before the group splits up and starts looting the corpses of the Fiends.
Karl goes over and looks around for any more traps, disarming the one's he finds. There're a couple mines and some more bear traps, all of which he stores in his backpack.
While Afton was stripping a dirty male Fiend clean of his clothes a notification pops up in the corner of his vision.
[NCR REP Increased! : Liked]
Hm, atleast they didn't come away from this with nothing... Even if the loot from the Fiends bodies was worth more than what the Sergeant had paid them.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES
Niggross
Niggross
Hope you bois 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.
Estado de energía semanal
200+ Ranking de
Poder 
8 Piedra de
Poder 
Comentario de párrafo