บท 241: Clean up?
Afton had almost finished the group of undercover soldiers, he blows the head off of one who's currently on their knee's pleading for mercy. As much as he'd 'like' to spare them, he'd rather the NCR not know that he was responsible for their deaths. Even if the people who sent these men after him could probably infer that it was him.
He slowly turns towards the last soldier who'd dropped their cattle prod in fear, they try to reach for their weapon but fumble and drop that as well... They try to back up but their foot gets caught on a rock, causing them to fall onto their ass, looking up in despair at Afton as he approached.
"Now, seeing as you're the lucky survivor, I'll be needing you to tell me who put you up to this." he states, holstering his gun and taking out his knife instead.
Sergeant Robert J. Hess meets Afton's eyes and shakes his head, "I'm a loyal soldier, you won't get anything outta me." he says, his voice trembling slightly at what he knows will be his end.
Afton smirks at him, "That' fine, that's fine... All it means is that I get to practise my technique, I wonder if it'll be more or less painful to torture someone with a single arm?" he mutters to himself loud enough for the soldier to hear.
Robert pales, he'd read Afton's file and seen the brutal public execution he'd committed against two slavers... Needless to say, he wasn't going to willingly stick around for that. He grabs a handful of sand and throws it at Afton's face, before dragging himself to his feet and running in the opposite direction.
Afton had seen this coming and simply turned his head as the sand was thrown, pulling out his pistol and shooting the man's kneecap as he tries to run. He waves over to where Anja is and gestures for her to come to him, he might as well teach her some thinks about torture and interrogation.
A few hours later :
Afton wipes his forehead with his sleeve and nods at his work, the soldier was nothing but a puddle of red blood, flesh, and piss. Honestly, flaying the skin from someone is much. much harder than it looks. Just as disgusting too as it would happen.
He glances at Anja who he'd had assisting him in this venture, he was surprised to find that ghouls could be sick... She looked so green he'd almost mistaken her for a glowing one. Apparently she didn't appreciate my approach to 'torture first, ask questions later', she couldn't really complain though since he'd gotten all the information he wanted.
The NCR soldiers were sent by the OSI, or more likely in his personal opinion, Doctor Hildern. The man acted too kind, and too interpersonal. It had been a drastic change from his almost disinterested tone when they'd first met. That had soon changed when Afton's rather, unique physiology was revealed.
He knew greed when he saw it, but it was strange to see greed in someone's eyes when looking at your body. Was that what it felt like to be obsessively desired? Women sure had it rough in that case.
Yes, he knew something like this was probably going to happen when he accepted Doctor Hildern's job, and that was why he got a contract written, no point springing a trap when there was no reward after all. However, now he had a 'public' reason to be aggrieved with the NCR, which would cushion any negative actions he might take against them in future, allowing him to argue his case and potentially sway anyone who was sitting on the fence.
It was also helpful to know your enemies. The OSI had agreed and funded this operation, meaning that the entire organisation needed to be dealt with, or at least, compensation was required if they wanted to get into his good graces again.
He smirks to himself, if they wanted to study his physiology again then he'd need them to pay an arm and a leg just for a drop of blood. He wasn't worried that they'd somehow use the research against him, as it was incree~dibly unlikely that their research would amount to anything. He wasn't just saying this based on personal opinion of the supernatural system attached to his Pipboy, but also his 100 Medicine Skill professional opinion.
Shaking his head, as much as he'd like to kill Doctor Hildern as soon as possible, it was best to leave him as a scapegoat for future endeavours.
He turns to Anja "Feel confident in torturing people in my absence?" he asks semi-jokingly.
The green-looking ghoul shakes their head, "No... I would rather not to anything like this again..."
Afton shrugs, "You can wish that all you want. Doesn't make it any less likely to happen though." he says, before beginning to loot the NCR soldiers. "Help me pack this stuff, I wanna get into the Vault by today!"
Anja sighs and takes one last glance at the barely alive soldier who was heaving struggled breathes before doing as she's told. While she might have accepted this job, she hadn't thought that brutal torture would have been part and parcel of it.
Soon enough Afton and Anja had stored most of the weaponry, supplies, and other valuables the NCR soldiers had so graciously left behind. He thinks for a moment about burying the corpses before shaking his head, that was a lot more effort than he was willing to give, so instead he just dragged the corpses away from the entrance to prevent creatures from gathering there later. With that, he straps the extra backpacks of loot to Dirt-Bird before driving into the canyon entrance towards Vault 22.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
บท 242: Soylent Green
The drive through the canyon path wasn't all the long, and after a couple of minutes, Afton and Anja were greeted with small bits of grass and other plants. Honestly, it was incredibly strange to see the colour green in the Mojave, obviously except for the blast from plasma weaponry.
It seems that Doctor Hildren was right to be interested in this Vault, here before them was proof of that. They continued driving towards the source of it, Afton noting that the area became more and more filled with plant life, despite the fact this area seemed a rather poor place for things to grow.
Eventually, they reached a completely green clearing that reminded Afton of national parks in his previous life... Aside from the big sign at the side that so helpfully claimed 'STAY OUT, THE PLANTS KILL!'...
"Well, that isn't foreboding at all." Afton snarks aloud, as he runs his hand over a bush, ruffling the leaves.
"Do we have to go inside?" Anja asks, clearly taking the sign's warning to heart.
Afton shakes his head, "We have a job to do, so let's-"*Rustle*
[Grit is in effect]
The rustling of leaves causes Afton to wrench his hand backwards, he isn't quick enough though and receives a small wound of his palm from a green scythe? No, now that it wasn't obscured by the bushes he could clearly see that his attacker was a giant mantis, it's bulbous green eyes were staring at him with no emotion as its mandibles slurped his blood from its blade.
"Little fucker!" he growls as he throws a hard kick at it, the mantis tries to move out of the way but is sent flying across the clearing. Both Afton and Anja were ready to start firing at it, but it seems that his kick was enough to permanently put it out of commission.
"God, I fucking hate insects." he spits, glancing around to see if there were any more in the area. He spots a smaller one hidden not too far away, but Anja had already locked onto it and fired a shot from her 10mm pistol, blowing its head clean off in a splatter of green blood.
"Good shot!" he calls out, happy that his lessons weren't going completely over her head... Unfortunately, it seems that the firing a gun out here might have been the worst thing they could've done.
Over at the end of the clearing Afton hadn't even noticed teh entrance of Vault 22 just sitting there... It was completely covered by plants and vines, concealing it from any cursory glance. Though, he'd noticed it now that a wave of green could be seen marching out.
Around twenty giant mantises escape the ajar Vault entrance and start rushing towards them, their wings occasionally flapping to give them a boost of speed. Afton, not wishing to deal with this entire situation just pulls out the Plasma mine from his bag and primes it before throwing it at the group.
He pulls Anja to the ground as a green shockwave of plasma erupts from the explosive, frying all of the insects, as well as a good portion of the plant life that'd been there. "You alright?" he asks his companion as he pulls her to her feet.
Anja nods slightly, "Yes... Are you sure we need to go inside? I've got a bad feeling about this."
Afton smirks and sends a thumbs up at her, "Eyyyy..." before realising she probably wouldn't recognise the reference, "*Ahem*, you're probably right, but we're going in no-matter-what." he states, taking one last glance at Dirt-Bird that's parked not far from their position before walking towards the entrance of the Vault, Anja reluctantly following him.
The gear-like entrance of the Vault was partially open with vines covering it, this is probably what allowed the plants to escape the Vault and start expanding outwards from there. Afton ducks under it and makes his way inside.
Once inside he almost immediately notices a peculiarity... The darkroom was completely covered is lush green foliage, which at first glance wouldn't raise suspicions... Until you realise that there isn't any sunlight for these plants to grow...
Taking a look around the room he finds a bed, some plant beds with specific herbs growing in them, and a terminal... Though, the plant life seems to have reclaimed the terminal for itself, vines and roots visibly burrowing into the terminal and rendering it inoperable.
Afton rubs his chin at the sight, it was strange indeed, especially since there's nothing inside the terminal to warrant such interest from the plants... From what he knew, roots would prioritise growing towards water and minerals.
He shakes his head and sweeps the room one last time, not finding anything of significance. He looks at the door leading deeper into the Vault and nods at Anja to follow him.
He opens the door but immediately regrets it as some sort of green dust floods out, washing both him and Anja in it. "The fuck is this?" he asks no one in particular before suddenly starting to cough.
The green dust irritates his throat and Afton shields himself from it by wrapping some cloth around his face as a makeshift filter. Slowly, the dust clears from behind the door, being picked up by the slight breeze and getting blown out of the Vault.
Afton leaves the door open for a couple minutes until all of the dust is gone, he didn't know what it was, but it didn't' seem to be radioactive, perhaps Doctor Hildern had made up a story about this place being radioactive to separate him from Boone and Karl? Yeah... That was likely.
He lowers the cloth protecting his face and takes a breath, nodding to himself as he isn't forced into another coughing fit. He glances at Anja who didn't seem to have any problem with it in the first place, "Did that stuff not affect you?"
Anja shakes her head, and Afton sighs, "Maybe I'm allergic to it or something? Whatever, we got a job to do." he says, walking down the stairs that laid before him.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
Niggross
Niggross
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know, thanks!
If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
200+ การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
3 หินพลัง 
ความคิดเห็นย่อย