บท 96: Chems boy?
After accepting the job the duo took a look around the traders to see if they anything they could be of any help... They didn't really have much to sell, most supplies having been slowly used during their stay here, putting most into pretty bad spots.
They did make sure to stock up on ammunition though, judging by what they'd heard, there could've been anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of Giant ants... Neither had an idea how long it'd take, or if i was even possible to completely get rid of them.
Regardless, they'd taken the job so they had to give it a shot. Karl did find something of interest while asking around the traders... A plasma grenade. Afton had used quite a few of these during the battle of Helios One, but only now did he realise that they were incredibly rare, and incredibly valuable.
They could range from 300 to 600 caps each depending on who's selling, makes him feel slightly sick when he remember how any he'd been throwing around like an idiot... Karl managed to get a good deal on it as they were literally going to use it to clear the roads for these caravaners.
"What're you going to use that for anyway?" Afton asked after Karl bought it.
"You'll see kid, these things are a hundred times more useful than any ballistic grenade, I'll tell ya that."
They were suited up and ready to start clearing the roads... As they were leaving the camp a voice shouted at them... It was the Sniper that'd been glaring at them from the roof of the Barracks.
Afton turns and shouts back, "What?!"
The woman seemed to shake her head and started making her way down to the ground and towards them. Once she did they found she was pretty short, only being 5.8ft... Afton couldn't help but be drawn towards her relatively large breasts that were under her dirty white vest.
"Eyes up here virgin." she spits, causing Karl to immediately start cackling. Afton sends him a dirty look before glancing at the sniper, "You need something?"
She nods, "You two were about to head out right? Clearing the roads? Well. I have something that needs looking at. See that smoke in the distance?" she gestures between the legs of the giant NCR statue towards the town that seemed to be burning in the distance.
They nod, "Yeah?"
"Well, that's a town called Nipton, not a nice place, but still technically law-abiding. I need someone to check up on it but Ranger Jackson won't send anyone to look without reinforcements. If you're willing to check up on it while you're out there I have some caps with your name on them."
Afton shrugs, "Sure, we're going in that direction anyway... Any idea on what it might be?"
The woman shakes her head, "Maybe the remaining Powder Gangers have set up shop there after the prison was taken? Other than that I don't really want to think about it."
"We'll report back our findings." Karl says and starts walking off, Afton nodding at her and following along.
As so the two were back on the road, from the top of the hill they could see the dry-lake, as well as a small dust-storm that was occurring around it. It wasn't as bad as the hidden valley was during the night, but it'd still irritate the eyes and inhibit their vision slightly... Luckily both Afton and Karl had sunglasses that'd protect their eyes for the most part.
They ignore the Giant Ants in the overpass and instead head directly into the dry-lake. Almost immediately they could see many silhouettes through the dust.
"Know anything about these things? All I know is that they can apparently burrow through the ground..."
Karl nods, "Yeah, we best stay on concrete to stop that from happening. I know there's usually one queen that lives in their tunnels, producing a constant supply of new young... We need to clear the soldier ants out and find the entrance to the tunnel." he rubs his beard, "We're pretty lucky today though, the dust-storm will stop their pheromones from alerting the others."
"Pheromones?" Afton questions.
"Yeah, they use it to communicate with one another... Attack one and the whole damn colony'll be on your ass, unless you're in a day like today." he says.
Afton nods and spots a sillouet coming towards them, reaching for teh sawed-off shotgun hanging from his bandoleer. Karl stops him from grabbing it though, shaking his head at him, "Don't bother with this, unless you press the barrel against its head it'll do nothing." he explains.
"Yeah, my bad." Afton admits, having forgotten just how tough the exo-skeleton of these things is. Instead, he draws Lucky from its holster and aims it at the creature as it slowly heads towards him.
It reaches the highway and Afton is finally able to get a good look at it, it's around 4ft tall, 4ft wide, and 7ft long. A large creature with six legs and two large mandibles, along with two piercing black eyes.
It clacks its mandibles at him for a moment before trying to rush him, Afton just fires Lucky at its head, causing orange fluid to explode out of the wound, the creature dropping dead almost immediately.
"Huh, I was expecting it to be a little harder to kill than that." Afton admits, feeling slightly disappointed at the anti-climactic death.
"Kid, you tryin' 'ta die? Stop saying stuff like that." he growls, firing his own gun at a nearby sillouet and causing it to drop dead. He pulls out his knife and walks over to the ant Afton had killed as start cutting open its abdomen.
"What are you doing?" he asks in surprise, there wasn't anything of value inside these things... Even their meat was terrible.
Karl just shakes his head and keeps digging until he finds what he's looking for... Reaching in and pulling it out, he wipes the orange fluid on his shirt and presents it to Afton, "Lookee here. Ant Necter."
...
"I have no idea what that is."
Karl just shakes his head, "Its a Chem boy, sells for a good amount... Now, let's properly get cleaning this damn road or we'll be here all week."
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บท 97: So I sliced her Neck-ter...
Afton Karl's brief introduction of the Chem "Necter" the duo began systematically killing the Giant Ants. Two or three bullets to their heads would usually put them down, though some were tougher than others.
The soldier ants were generally around three to four times the size of the workers, but weren't as numerous. Their thicker carapace proved annoying to Afton as his weapons were just barely able to pierce it... Not to mention he only had so much ammo, he if had to waste four bullets just to put one down he'd run out eventually.
Fortunately, the dust-storm had allowed him to get close enough to the Giant Ants as to allow one bullet to finish them off. They'd killed almost two hundred when the winds started slowing, soon enough the storm had ended and they found themselves surrounded by a many Giant Ant corpses... All of which began to release a... Musky? Smell.
Karls pupils contract at the scent as he quickly looks to Afton, "Shit, the Pheromones!" he shouts, running towards a nearby billboard just as Giant Ants begin swarming the area, clacking their mandibles at their fallen allies.
Afton quickly follows the man as he scales up the side of the billboard. They hold themselves up by their thighs and look down at the Ants who're wandering around looking for whoever was responsible.
"They use vibrations in the ground to sense prey, their eyesight is dog-shit so we should be safe up here... I doubt they'd be able to climb up this anyway." he says.
Afton nods, the billboard was basically a steel frame with an aluminium backboard, making it impossible to climb up the back or front without slipping off... The sides were the right side for the duo to clamber up though.
[John Wick Style is in effect]
And so they begin firing their weapons yet again. Due to the distance, they were forced to use more ammunition than before, but they should have enough to clean this lot up.
An hour passes and they'd just killed the three-hundredth ant... By this time the Ants had used their pea-brains to put two and two together and fled into their burrow to avoid losing any more of their number.
Karl groans as he slides down the billboard, "Looks like we'll have to do this the old fashion way." he mutters.
"Any idea on how to get them outta their burrow?" Afton asks as they'd never be able to clear the roads if the ants could just flee like this.
Karl slowly nods with a grin, "I do... Let's go find the burrow entrance shall we?" he says as he begins walking into the dry-lake, his .44 Revolver ready in his hand in-case the ants try to ambush them.
They looked around the large empty crater that had apparently used to contain water, and eventually found a large mound with a large hole at the top of it. Karl explained that the ants still required oxygen, and thus this main entrance was connected to all other branching tunnels. Afton was about to ask how they'd deal with it when the man pulled out the plasma grenade he'd bought earlier.
Karl grins, "Your smart kid, think what happens when gas rapidly expands and replace that with plasma... Yeah, once I drop it inside we'll need to run."
Afton pales slightly and nods, plasma grenades had a huge explosion radius when compared to other explosives. If it happened underground then he couldn't imagine the amount of dirty that'd be displaced...
Karl signals a countdown and drops the plasma grenade into the mound at zero, immediately breaking into a sprint away from the mound, Afton doesn't hesitate and quickly follows, mentally counting down the time til the explosion in his head.
*BOOOOOM!*
The ground beneath them shakes as a huge amount of sand is thrown into the air, bits and pieces of the unfortunate ants that'd gotten too close to the grenade started falling from the sky as well.
Even after the initial explosion, the rumbling of the ground didn't stop. The underground tunnels made by the ants seemed to be collapsing all at once. The made that was the entrance had already caved in itself, blocking off all oxygen to the creatures.
The two eventually reached the highway and took a breather, admiring the carnage they'd caused... Bits and pieces of ants had flown quite far from the mound, and the large number of corpses still collecting dust made it look like an ant-graveyard.
"Think that did it?" Afton questions but can hear the trademark sound of sand being disturbed...
*Crash!*
A huge figure pulls outself out of the ground... It was ten times the size of a warrior ant and had almost comically small wings attached to its back. Its abdomen appeared to be incredibly swollen, and judging by the engorged oriface at its back, it'd been laying eggs. This, was the Ant Queen.
Karl takes his Stenton off briefly to wipe the sweat from his face, "Shit, never thought the Queen would survive the burrow crashing down on top of it..." he mutters.
Afton gives the man a sideways glance, "What? You scared or something?"
Karl just puts his hat back on and shakes his head, "Scared? No. Just surprised is all. Let's kill this thing and bring its head back to the Outpost, that'll be proof enough I think."
Afton nods and dual-wields Lucky and his other .357 Revolver, it was good that he did because the large concentration of Pheromones from the many dead ants seemed to have forced the queen int a frenzy.
It dashes to a nearby warrior ant and tears its corpse apart with its mandibles, afterwards turning its attention to the duo who were watching in morbid fascination. Once it moves a single leg in their direction Karl opens fire, unloading his .44 Revolver at its head.
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