บท 63: Brah, gimme a min.
The group doesn't immediately move after eliminating all the Gecko's, Karl has them skin the creatures, gut them, and harvest any edible parts.
It's fortunate that Afton levelled up his survival otherwise he'd have no idea how to skin an animal. His 30 points in survival actually forced into his mind what the most nutrition part of the creature would be. As such, he cut the liver and hearts out separately. These actually contained less radiation than the rest of their bodies, which made them for prime eating material.
The group continued on their way and eventually reached their camp on a ridge, another burnt-out campfire sat there, this wasn't the first time they'd used this spot for an ambush. Karl started up the fire and immediately started grilling some Gecko over it.
You couldn't go easy on the meat of the creatures out here, you need to almost burn them to kill any parasites that may be inhabiting their flesh. Not to mention the high levels of mutation can often lead to new and peculiar diseases.
"Any idea when the NCR caravan is going to come through?" Afton asks as he chews on the slightly charred Gecko heart.
Karl shrugs, "Tonight or early tomorrow morning, NCR think we wouldn't notice them at those times..." he says after finishing Gecko leg and standing up, "Toss me your bag son."
Afton tosses the backpack to Karl as the man rifles through it and finds some sort of cord? No, looking at it closer it resembles the fuses that top sticks of dynamite... Huh.
Karl has Afton hold it as he starts to unfurl it while walking down the ridge, he started to wonder how they had so much but realises that they'd most likely gotten it from the miners in Sloan, they couldn't very well light the dynamite and chuck it where it needed to be.
The man continues this until he reaches the middle of the road, pulling out three sticks of dynamite and tying their fuses together before stuffing them into one of the cracks in the road. He follows this up by kicking dirt over them and the black fuse that was clearly visible.
He did a good enough job as you'd definitely not notice it unless you knew about it beforehand. Afton was pretty impressed to be honest, he hadn't expected any of the Powder Gangers to be this... Professional.
Once Karl gets back he looks at the group, "The fuse'll take about a minute to reach the payload, if you spot the caravan make sure to light it early, taking out their brahmin will prevent them from runnin', as well as securing whatever they have on 'em." he explains.
"Sounds like a plan, hear bang, and shoot 'em up." Tommy confirms cockily.
And so the waiting began, everyone was given shifts to keep watch during the night, couldn't attack an NCR caravan without being fully rested after all. Plus, they didn't know when it'd actually be coming, for all they knew they'd be waiting an extra few days due to some delay.
It was the dead of night and they'd killed the campfire to prevent being spotted, Afton had put his blue NCRCF jacket over his recon armour as the temperature had dropped quite a lot.
His watch was almost over when he spotted some movement down the road, a caravan. They didn't have any lights as they knew they were walking through Powder Ganger territory, unfortunately for them that wouldn't be enough.
He quickly woke everyone up and gestured towards it, using VATS to target everyone and count their numbers... Eight people, seven looked to be ordinary grunt soldiers wearing something similar to what you'd see the American army wearing in the middle east, or at least, that's what Afton thought.
Each had had similar-looking rifles in their hands and were walking either side of the two brahmin that had huge packs strapped to them.
The one remaining person was wearing dirty almost block metal upper body armour with a similar colour helmet. It only protected his shoulders as his arms were vulnerable from his biceps to his hands.
He had some sort of revolver strapped to his hip and lead the brahmin, probably the guy who owned them... Afton looked to Karl who nodded, he lit the fuse when he judged the group with be over the trap, letting the fuse fall to the floor as it sparked to life.
Fortunately, it'd continued burning even while smothered by dirt, the NCR wouldn't see this coming.
"Get rid of the one in combat armour first, probably the most dangerous one of their group... Other than that, stay in cover while the grunts waste their ammo like they were trained to do." he says almost mockingly.
"I'm itching to kill these fuckers, come on, walk faster you pricks." Tommy says as he cocks the hammer on his .357 revolver.
...
...
The group continue to wait, the man in combat armour had just stepped directly under where they'd buried the dynamite...
*BOOM!*
An explosion erupts and killed the one in combat armour almost instantly, his legs flying off in different directions as the armour that was to protect him turned to shrapnel and penetrated his body.
The brahmin closest to him had one of its legs blown off, it gave a loud squeel as it fell to the floor, uselessly trying to get up to run by failing miserably.
The one behind it wasn't all that injured, just a few cuts from shrapnel, it turned to but a *Bang!* rung out through the area, Karl was standing on the ridge and had just fired his .44 Magnum, hitting the brahmin in the leg and causing it to fall to the floor with the other.
The NCR grunts who'd been knocked over by the shockwave quickly shook off their surprise and started firing their rifles at Karl who dipped back into cover.
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Niggross
Niggross Hope you guys liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.
บท 64: Books are best
The firefight was six verses seven in the enemies favour, though, the NCR grunts were slightly disorientated from the recent explosion.
Afton wasn't worried about their chances though, NCR recruits are typically undertrained and given poor equipment. This is clearly shown by the way they are shooting randomly in the groups direction. At the rate they were going, it was obvious they'd run out of ammunition soon.
He peaked his head over and used VATS to memorise the enemies position before firing a few shots at them. A bright red beam left his laser pistol and struck one of the NCR in the chest, leaving a large black mark where it'd hit.
They staggered momentarily but hid behind one of the dead brahmin and continued firing. Most of the enemies attention was on Afton's position now as Energy Weapons weren't known for being covert.
This did allow the others to start encroaching on the enemies position though, Tommy and Reggie went opposite directions to get a clear flank on the NCR hiding behind the brahmin. Karl stood for a moment and fired a single round, and Afton could see the bullet enter a soldiers skull and causing it to implode like a ripe watermelon.
Clearly, Karl wasn't someone you wanted to mess with, judging by the fact he'd never seen the man miss a single shot, he must have some serious training. That, or a lot of experience.
"Judi! They killed her!" one of the NCR shout, their voice barely making it over the sound of gunfire.
Afton took their momentary distraction to pop a shot into their temple, turning part of their head to ash as they drop to the floor lifelessly.
The more the fighting continued the more demoralised the enemy was becoming... They'd only received basic training, and seeing the people you'd become close with drop like flies must've been terribly frightening... That's probably the reason they tried to make a run for it.
Powder Gangers weren't known for being merciful towards the NCR however, bullets rained down on them and Tommy ended up tackling one of the soldiers to the ground, throwing their rifle away and pressing the barrel of his revolver against their forehead.
With all the other soldiers dead Afton ran up to Tommy with his Pipboy light on, it illuminated the area, and showed what Tommy's true intentions were... The soldier he was currently holding down looked to be a young woman, judging by her expression, she was absolutely terrified.
"Fuckin' NCR whore, I'll show you what we do to you lot when you come down here." he growls, trying to undress the woman as she begs him to stop.
Afton's about to step in when Karl walks over and kicks Tommy in the face, he could hear the crack of the to-be-rapists nose being broken as they roll onto their back.
The woman looks up at Karl with hope in her eyes, "Th-Thank you si-"*BANG!*
He shoots her through the forehead, killing her before she'd even finished thanking him... Afton hated to admit he was slightly shaken by the brutality of it. Sure, he'd fought and killed, but to be able to look into someone's eye like that and end their life is... He couldn't really imagine it.
Tommy slowly gets up while holding his now broken nose, "WHAT THE FUCK KARL!" he roars, whether or not it was because the man ruined his fun, or broke his nose was unknown to Afton.
Karl briskly walks over to Tommy with a fierce look he'd not seen the man have before, "You listen here Douglas." he prods the man in the chest with his .44 Magnum, "You try and pull that shit again, I'll blow your head off your shoulders as well. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" he exclaims, cold fury clear in his eyes.
Afton could see Tommy try to act tough, but the stuttering way he gulped saliva made it obvious he was about to piss himself. The man slowly nods but didn't dare look Karl in the eye, "Yeah... I got you."
The two men separate, Karl walking back to the camp with a scowl on his face and canteen of whisky in his hand. The rest of the group rifling through the supplies had on them.
Afton reluctantly helps set Tommy's nose, packing it with balled up bandages before fixing it in place with a makeshift splint. His nose would probably come out crooked, but he probably deserved it for what he was trying to do.
The dead soldiers were stripped of their gear, seven "Service Rifles" were recovered as well as their bloody and damaged uniforms. Unfortunately, they seem to have used most of their ammo, so not much to find there.
The leader's combat armour was entirely destroyed, unless Afton wanted to go looking for the shards of it littered around in a two hundred-meter radius and welded it all back together, there'd be no point.
Afton did recover the man's revolver though, a .357 like Tommy's... The only problem was it had been heavily damaged from the explosion earlier... He'd probably be able to repair it, but it might take a while to find materials for it.
He made sure to collect their Dogtags, despite them being NCR, he still regretted that they had to be killed. As a sort of repentance, he'd keep their tags as a way to remember those he'd had to harm in order to achieve his goals.
The brahmin themselves had quite a lot of loot on them, a couple months worth of food, water, ammunition... There was a book as well, Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor? Afton picked it up but was surprised when it turned to ash in his hands.
[Barter +3]
...
His barter just got raised to 18, the small flood of knowledge expanded what he knew about the worth of general items, and the base price purified water would go for, depending on the location it could go from 5 to 15 caps... Huh, so these books are like the Bobbleheads in Fallout 3? He'd have to keep an eye out for them, though, with the way the book turned to ash in his hand, he would have to be careful where he did it and who was watching.
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Hope you guys enjoyed the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
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