บท 165: Bad news bears

Not long after Afton's rather gory spectacle, the group return to the Aerotech Office Park, a solemn silence shrouding them as they do. All knew those that'd been kidnapped were most likely dead or had met an even worse fate, it was slightly disheartening to think that they weren't able to save a single person... Atleast those responsible got what they deserved though.

After parking they walked towards Captain Parker who was sat in his usual spot. "Captain."

He turns and nods towards them, "Did you manage to find anything?"

Afton sighs and hands Dermot's ledger to him, Captain Parker looks at it and his expression immediately breaks. He looked enraged, as if he was about to arm himself and sprint headfirst towards the Fiends. "Those... I... Who did this?" is all he can ask after failing to compose himself.

"Dermot and Saint James were responsible, picking out people depending on the Fiends fetishes and kidnapping them... You won't have to worry about them though, we've already dealt with them." Afton says wit ha satisfied glint in his eye.

"Did they suffer?" Parker asks, obviously referring to the perpetrators.

A brief nod gave him all the knowledge he needed to know on the subject.

The man pays them all he can, though, the amount is rather insignificant for what they'd done. A pittance of 500 caps to split between each other. Afton wasn't bothered though, he didn't do this particular job for the caps anyway.

Captain Parker looks embarrassed at the amount he was able to pay but doesn't attempt to speak on it, "Thank you for your help, without you those two freaks might've harmed more innocent people. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again." he states with certainty.

Afton's about to bid his farewell but as soon as he pockets the caps time stops... "Hmm, was wondering if this'd actually level me up." he mutters to himself as he looks at the notification.

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 23]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 24]

Shrugging to himself, he quickly deposits all his points into the Sneak skill, raising it to 83 points before moving onto the Perks screen.

Again, quite boring as there were no new Perks from what he could see... Was the system running out of things to give him or something?

Regardless, he just scrolls through all the old Perks he can now get due to his advanced skill levels and picks out one.

[Living Anatomy] : Shows health and other information on any target. +5% bonus to damage against humans and non-feral ghouls. It would be interesting to get, not just because it gave all his weapons a flat 5% increase, but because it could potentially give him some useful info.

The only other thing he could think to take would be [Intense Training]... He wanted to see the effects of getting a stat to max first though, he had an abundance of levels to put into his stat points.

Shaking his head, he eventually decides to just grab [Living Anatomy] just to see if its useful. He takes a look at his Pipboy to see his status before confirming his selection.

Afton Parker

Title : [Executioner of the Wastes]

Level : 24

S.P.E.C.I.A.L :

Strength : 8

Perception : 7

Endurance : 7

Charisma : 4

Intelligence : 6

Agility : 9

Luck : 4

Skills :

Barter : 21

Energy Weapons : 55

Explosives : 23

Guns : 100

Lockpick : 10

Medicine : 100

Melee Weapons : 100

Repair : 100

Science : 50

Sneak : 82

Speech : 100

Survival : 30

Unarmed : 33

Perks :

[Trigger Discipline], [Heavy Handed], [Rapid Reload], [Torture Techniques], [Educated], [John Wick Style], [Toughness], [Stonewall], [Sniper], [Bug Stomper], [Lord Death v1], [Spies Guise], [Quick Draw], [Adamantium Skeleton], [Ranger Tactics], [Ranger Targeting], [Ranger Awareness], [Mechanicus], [Jury Rigging], [SuperHot Block], [Solar Powered], [Miracle Maker], [Unnerving Presence], [Living Anatomy]

Companion Perks :

[Old Wisdom]

[Spotter]

He maintains his expression as time resumes, barely twitching a brow at the pain of having knowledge of multiple spec ops drilled into his mind. He gives a small wave to Captain Parker as he leaves the Aerotech Office Park, sitting on his bike as his companions walk up and look to him to see what they should do next.

"So, I'm guessing neither or you have any problems with setting our sights on the Fiends, right?" Afton throws the question out there, by now he knew the personalities of Karl and Boone, both would be more than willing to volunteer for the job, let along et paid for it.

Karl crosses his arms and nods, "Before seeing that ledger I thought they were just pests, but now I know someone needs to deal with 'em. The NCR is too busy with the Legion to put up a proper fight, so that just leaves us."

"Wouldn't surprise me if the Legion had a hand in the Fiends, matches their MO, using smaller tribes to fight for them, supplying them with minimal resources before launching their own assault." Boone adds.

Karl nods and continues to explain for Afton, "They may look like simple barbarian simpletons, but they probably have spies in every corner of the Mojave. Their members are simply too suited for that kind of work, brainwashed to be completely and utterly loyal to Caesar they aren't at risk of being compromised by enemy forces."

"Regardless, if the Fiends are in cahoots with the Legion we'll deal with them anyway. For now though I want to visit Doctor Usanagi to see about those implants. Afterwards checking in New Vegas to see if Tamia and my friend is around..." he cycles through the various things he wants to get done. It wasn't like the Fiends were going to go anywhere.

Karl shrugs at him, "Yeah, it's getting late anyway, best get that done before we find a place to camp for the night."

Just before they're about to leave though, Afton notices a group of strange-looking people approaching them.