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14.38% Steel Waste / Chapter 102: Delivering the Courier

章節 102: Delivering the Courier

The doors to the barracks open revealing the handle bar-moustached Ranger Jackson. His eyes examine the room before eventually landing on Afton and Karl. He walks over and pulls out a bag of caps before depositing it on the table.

"This is your pay for clearing the roads, thank you for your work." he states.

Karl nods and pushes the bag in-front of Afton, "Don't mention it... What're you gonna do about the Legion?"

Jackson sighs, "Can't really do anything if I'm honest, if the Legion are able to sneak around the lookouts we've set up along the Colorado there's nothing I can do to deal with it. The higherups have been informed but I doubt anything'll happen..."

Karl nods, "Damn bureaucrats."

"Hey Jackson, what's the word on caravans leaving?" Cass asks from the side.

"I'm sorry to say, no can do Cass. As bad as it is having supplies get stuck here, it'd be worse if the Legion started destroying caravans... I hate it as much as you do, but there's nothin' I can do."

Cass can only grumble in response, she knew it wasn't his fault she was in this situation... If anything it was the Legion's fault she was stuck here. Though, her opinion of them couldn't really get any lower, enslaving women and children had already caused them to reach rock-bottom in her eyes.

Jackson leaves after a minute more of small-talking with Karl, the reminiscing about the old days and such.

Another smaller bag of caps is slid across the table and chinks against the one Jackson had left. Afton looks over and see's Cass looking sheepish.

"Almost forgot to pay you guys, might not be able to leave but you did clear the roads so..."

Afton smirks at her, "You sure? I can't imagine you've got all that much left with how you're drinking."

"Mind your own business."

"Where the roads really that bad? I saw a few ants in the underpass on the way here but it didn't seem all that dangerous..." Tamia says.

Afton just gives her an appraising look, "I don't know where you're from, but a colony of a couple hundred Giant Ants isn't something be brushed off."

"I don't know, my mom used to make light of things like that. Thought it was just the tribals who had that attitude though." Cass adds before her eyes light up, "You guys are mercs right? I doubt you'll be sticking around here much longer so why not help Tamia get to where she needs to go?"

...

"I mean... We don't really have a destination but..." Afton glances to Karl.

"I think we should head to Camp Searchlight, Jackson says the NCR's struggling to deal with the situation there... Probably some caps to be made." Karl adds.

Afton looks at his Pipboy map and traces the general area, "You want to go to Nipton then Novac right? We can take you to the former, but since you're in a rush I think we should split afterwards."

"If its too much trouble then I can go without you, I can handle myself fine." she states.

"I bet you can, but its easier and safer to travel with people."

She relents and eventually nods, "Fine, when do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning." both Afton and Karl say simultaneously, causing the latter to chuckle.

The group proceeds to spend the rest of the day talking about the routes they could possibly take the next day. Fortunately, one of the NCR troopers told them of a path that led to Ranger Station Charlie, and completely bypassed Camp Searchlight.

They determined that they'd split with Tamia once they reached it, Afton wasn't all that invested in helping her find the guy who'd shot her, even if the Pipboy had given him a quest for it.

[Checkered Mate : Assist the courier and find the man who shot her.]

Right now he was more focussed on his own objectives, finding the cunt who killed his mother, and helping Karl retrieve his daughter. To accomplish either he'd likely need a lot of resources, so gathering strength and caps was a good start.

Afton woke up the next day and made his way to the bar to get some water to wash his mouth. Cass was already up, and already drinking... She nods at him, "You leaving then?"

He swirls the water before swallowing it, "Yeah, just gotta pick up some ammo and we'll head out."

She sighs, "I'd ditch this place and offer to come with if I wasn't stuck here. Whatever you're doing out there must be more interesting than this."

Afton shrugs, "I doubt anyone would want to get involved with us, our plans might have the Legion breathing down our necks..."

Cass shakes her head, "I don't know, sounds like my kind of fun..." she sighs again, "If you get near to New Vegas and still need work head to the Crimson Caravan. Biggest traders and'll likely have something for you."

Afton nods, "Sure, thanks." he says, standing and leaving.

"See you around." she calls as he exits, slumping back onto her stool and ordering a glass of whisky once he was gone.

Afton headed around to the various traders stuck in the Outpost and stocked up on ammunition. He purchased a lot of .357 rounds aswell as .44 for Karl. The old man was currently having a cigarette on the roof and chatting up Ghost so he was left to do the shopping.

Tamia was following him and watching with interest to see what supplies he'd be buying. She had caps of her own and would occasionally pick something up, he was surprised to see how good at bartering she actually was. Perhaps she hadn't completely forgotten her time as a courier?

He still had a couple mines left in his Deathclaw leather satchel, his laser pistol, plasma pistol, sawed-off shotgun, and two .357 revolvers. He bought ammo for each weapon aswell as some scrap he could use to repair them. He had thought of trying to modify them to his specifications but decided it would be best to leave that until he had a higher Repair skill.

As his Gun skill was so high, he knew what he could add and what could potentially be useful, but in the end it was his Repair skill that decided how it would turn out. His inexperience with ballistic weapon repair was truly showing...


創作者的想法
Niggross Niggross

So yeah, what do you guys think about my take on the Courier? I haven't given you much information on her but you should know there's more that meets the eye :P

Hope you 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.

next chapter

章節 103: Scaring a Cripple

Once Afton had bought him and Karl enough ammo to go another round with a Giant Ant colony, they bid farewell to the acquaintances they'd made during their stay in the outpost and left.

Tamia was with them of course, a hunting knife strapped to her hip next to a 9mm, as well as a god-damned axe! It didn't look like it was modified, as if she'd just torn it out of a tree a woodsman had forgotten it in...

"So... I don't suppose you use that for its intended purpose?" Karl mutters just as they reach the bottom of the hill the Outpost was on.

"Why would I miss use it? It splits heads just fine." she shrugs, and neither of the duo can tell if she's joking or not.

"The pistol on your hip then, I'd like to know if we can count on you in a fight." he continues, not wishing to press further at whether or not the axe would be effective in combat.

"It's not for show, if that's what you mean... I'm not a sniper but I generally hit my target. Probably better than the kid anyway." she says, sending a smirk at Afton.

He just shakes his head, "Yeah, yeah... I'd rather not waste ammo to find out." he says, ending the conversation and the upcoming shooting contest.

The group walks past the hundreds of Giant Ant corpses now collecting dust and Tamia questions them on whether or not they'd actually done this. She was impressed to hear that they had, and asked if they wanted to tag along to try and find the guy who'd shot her.

The duo declined, having their own problems to deal with, but said they'd gladly help if they were free and she hadn't done the deed yet.

Eventually they reached Nipton, it still smelt like death and the various articles of clothing and other supplies were still burning amongst the pile of tires... Fortunately Afton and Karl had taken the time to burn some of the corpses left strewn about, otherwise this place'd be covered in whatever horrifying creatures of the waste came along.

"Shit... You guys weren't kidding when you called it a massacre." Tamia mutters as she spots the corpses still hanging from the crosses... The duo hadn't bothered pulling them down and getting rid of their bodies as it'd take too much time.

Afton nods, "Yeah, I doubt anyone's still ali-"

"HEEeee-lllp!" a pained voice shouts from a nearby building.

"Huh.."

"Seems like someone's still kicking." Karl says as he and the rest of them head towards the General store where the sound originated.

They enter the store and are greeted by the trashed interior, clearly the Legion hadn't bothered delicately stealing everything, instead just grabbing everything and burning it...

"Heeeeeelp! Please, someone!" the voice shouts, giving a pained groan as they seem to try and move... The group walk over to the stores counter and see a black man wearing Powder Ganger armour sat against the wall. Afton squinted slightly at seeing the man's legs, they were bent in the wrong direction they should be, clearly unusable.

The man looks up and his grateful expression quickly turns into a horrified one, "H-Holy fuck! Fuck! I know I'm a bad fuckin' guy but what did I do to deserve this? Get my fucking legs broken before coming face to face with the Powder Ganger's fuckin' grim reapers!" he exclaims, slumping against the wall in despair.

"If you're gonna kill me just fucking do it, I'm ready!... DO IT FUCKERS!"

...

Tamia sends a wary glance at the duo and Afton just shrugs, "We aren't going to kill you so shut the hell up." This gets the desired affect and the group quiten down for a moment.

Afton didn't really know how to deal with this guy, clearly he didn't like them and his presence in the town meant he was probably a terrible person... Tamia could probably get some answers from him but it looked like Karl also had something to say.

Karl drops down into a squat, sitting on his heels as he addresses the man, "Son, me and my friends here need some questions answered. You tell us what we want to know and maybe we could provide some help, might not look it, but kid here's a doctor." he says gesturing towards Afton.

...

The man seems to ponder what he wanted to do and tries to adjust from the uncomfortable position he was sitting in, squinting and grunting in pain at the minute movement of his legs. "F-fuck, fine! Whaddya wanna know? Quick, I'm fuckin' dyin' here." he urges in immense pain.

"I'm looking for a man, he wore a white checkered suit and has damn greasy hair... Was travelling with some Great Khans last I heard." she says with crossed arms.

"Nah, I ain't seen anyone like that. Was kinda planning an attack on the NCR before the Legion came and fucked shit up..." he admits.

Tamia sighs, "Next stop, Novac." she huffs after quickly giving up this avenue.

Karl gives the Powder Ganger a look, "So, a town like this would know to keep its valuables somewhere safe. Be bad if the NCR got wise and decided to 'fix' the place wouldn't you say?"

...

The man's eye twitches but doesn't give any other indication that he knows anything.

Afton figures that Karl's probably on the right track and decides to make use of the Perk he'd gained by maxing his Speech, [Spies Guise]. "Now that I think about it, I haven't gotten a chance to test out my new methods of torture... Pulling teeth is one thing, but I think skinning a man's genitals and pouring salt on it would be-"

"WHAT! N-NO MAN! I'LL TELL YOU, JUST. NO!" he suddenly shouts before Afton can continue describing the rather creative torture technique he'd just come up with. "Northeast of here, there's a cave that the Mayor was using to store shit, that's all I know... Please!"

[Scare a humanoid shitless. 1/50]


創作者的想法
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

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