I do not own Fallout New Vegas, Ragnarok Online, or the plot of New Vegas Bounties as they all belong to Bethesda Softworks, GRAVITY Co., and someguy2000 respectively. I simply use the settings with the characters to create a story of how I perceive someguy2000's mod would be done if it was semi-real.
Chapter 1
Bounty Eileen
"You ready for another job?" A man covering his face said behind his desk. The man is wearing goggles and a face bandana that covers the lower half of his face, adorns a cowboy hat on top and is clothed in a brown duster with leather, fingerless gloves.
Another man in the single room building stands on the other side of the desk nods. Wearing the same duster with rolled up sleeves, light brown pants, dark brown boots, a tan cowboy hat with metal rings circling the center, a dark green scarf around his neck, and has red tinted sunglasses covering his brown eyes. The man standing accompanied his nod with a "yes".
Steven, the man sitting behind his desk and typewriter, nods. "That's what I like to hear. Our client is offering 1000 caps for this next target. After hearing about her misdeeds, I understood why."
Steven grabs a nearby sheet of paper with information of the upcoming target and hands it to the other man across the desk. "The bounty is on a Fiend named Eileen. She's a vicious twat with a reputation for castrating male captives and consuming their flesh. Suffice to say her activities are detrimental to troop morale. The payout is big on this one, so bury that sick bitch and head back."
The other man now presented as a bounty hunter, nods and turns to the door. Picking up a dark colored leather rucksack and takes his modified Marksman Carbine off his back to keep it at the ready. Opening the door to exit out, the morning light filtering into the small building welcomed the bounty hunter to a new day to traverse the wasteland.
The bounty hunter closes the door behind him and stares out into the distance, seeing the remains of a large building with rollercoaster tracks not far away, past ruined buildings and an overpass as a bridge to the town of Primm. Briefly taking off his hat to get an itch on his scalp, reveals his red colored hair to the morning shine. Putting the hat back into place, he lowers his scarf to grant access to his mouth. Taking the canteen situated behind his right kidney, he brings it to his mouth, takes a few sips of clean water to quench his thirst for the trip ahead. A rough beard can be seen before he pushes the scarf back up to cover his mouth and nose.
He brings out the paper he received from his boss Steven to read.
**Property of Randall & Associates**
Target: Eileen
Race: Caucasian
Allegiance/Faction: Fiends
Location: Fiend Territory, near Vault 3
Notes: Eileen is suspected to have captured, tortured, and murdered at least a dozen NCR soldiers in the past year alone. She's skilled with a blade, and takes pleasure in mutilating the genitals of captured men. One source reports that she's made a "cock necklace" out of dicks taken from prisoners. Oh, and she eats her victims, too.
-Randall
The man finishes reading the paper, folds and stows it away in his rucksack. He pulls out a small, rectangular device with three buttons on the top left, a turn dial underneath, Geiger Counter below that and a screen covering the right side from the buttons. At the bottom left reads 'Scorp Tech Limited Edition'. He pushes the 'Data' button and brings out a map, reading the time which states 0627. He puts the device away, bringing his rifle at a lowered position, ready to bring it up in case of threats.
Turning towards the ruined outskirts of Primm, he sets off in his trip to Fiend territory. Passing by a pack of coyotes in an abandoned truck trailer, going through the remains of a picnic and playground, reaches a hill going down with a wall built into it. Calmly walking down the hill and moves past the ruined buildings and defensive positions of the local NCR troops, he walks northbound on I-15.
On his way towards Sloan, he came across two males, roughly in their twenties, wearing blue coats over light blue shirts, dark blue pants, and somewhat annoyed expressions. One was armed with a .357 Revolver and another was holding onto a stick of dynamite in his right hand with a lighter in his left. The one with the gun spots the hunter and shouts, pulling up his revolver to shoot their next perceived prey.
The bounty hunter brings up his rifle, taking aim at the stick of dynamite that has yet to be lit and fires. The stick explodes in the poor sap's hand, taking it and half his arm and front in the explosion. The revolver wielding gunman shoots wildly, the shots missing at varying distances. The hunter calmly aims at his next target and shoots two 5.56 bullets, his rifle making little to no sound, hits center mass. The last hostile goes down, gasping for air as his lungs were pierced, he slowly bleeds out, deprived of oxygen.
The hunter scans the area quickly for any other threats, after seeing none moves forward towards the corpses in an attempt to find anything useful. Seeing how one was missing the front half of his body, he searches the other corpse and finds a stick of dynamite, four rounds of .357, and a bottle of water. He grabs the water and ammo and stows them away in his rucksack, grabs the dynamite and while walking away, lights it and throws it back at the relatively intact corpse. Uncaring of the explosion that happens behind him, he carries onward to Sloan.
He arrives in Sloan at 1155, takes a small break near one of the barriers made of sandbags to eat the Honey Mesquite Pods inside his rucksack. After eating three pods, he brings his canteen up to drink the last of the water in his canteen, mentally sighing as the water goes down his throat. Reaching into his rucksack, he grabs the bottle of water he looted earlier he opens it and pours its contents into the canteen. When the last of the water drips into the canteen, he closes the canteen and puts back into its holster in his person and puts the now empty water bottle on the sandbag barrier.
The hunter stands back up and continues on his way north via I-15. Walking nearby the Quarry Junction, he hears the sounds of the residents of Sloan working further in the quarry. Moving forward, he walks while the midday sun beams down harshly on him and the landscape.
As he nears Hunter's Farm, his attention is grabbed by the sounds of gunfire at the farmhouse. As he narrows his eyes, he grabs a pair of binoculars from the left pocket of his duster and brings it up to his eyes. Looking through the binoculars, he focuses on the farmhouse seeing gouts of flame being blown. Two males in blue with NCRCF on the back are fighting against three large bipedal, purple lizards. One of the lizards drops with bullet holes covering its large head with one hole in its left eye. However the other two lizards quickly pounce on the two humans, using their overbearing weight to pin the gangers. Opening their mouths, they breathe out fire, covering the poor bastards in fire. Unfortunately, one of the men had a stick of dynamite on their waist, which became lit due to the fire and after three seconds explodes. The blast scatters the human body all over the place and concussive force shot the large lizard backwards, landing on its head and snapping the spinal column.
The hunter lowers his binoculars and stows it back into his pocket. He moves onward, pulling his rifle up to the ready position and taking aim while slowly approaching the lone survivor of the battle of five. The large lizard stands up and in its peripheral, sees an approaching figure. The lizard turns and as it gets ready to charge at its next prey, a 5.56 round enters its skull and falls over covering the burnt corpse it just got off of. The hunter scans the nearby area for other lizards, seeing none he lowers his rifle and continues walking down the road. "Damn fire geckos, making me waste ammo on them," the hunter muttered.
He heads towards the downward slope of the roads with overpasses in the distance. He gets off the road and moves alongside the barbed wire fence of an old farmhouse. He travels towards the Samson Rock Crushing Plant as a place to set up while he searches for his target. He arrives and goes up a set of stairs, setting his rucksack down he pulls out the rectangular device to check the time. "1513 huh, well better do an ammo check in case things go to shit again," the hunter said to himself. Putting the device away, he removes the magazine from his rifle and ejects the round, collecting said round and inserted it back into the magazine. He opens up his duster to reveal a black shirt and various ammo holsters, three of which he opens and removes the magazines within.
He opens up his rucksack, removes a sawed-off shotgun and a holster for it, and attaches it to his right leg. Opening up the shotgun, he sees two 12-gauge shells in the weapon and with a nod, closes the shotgun and holsters it. Pulling out a pistol with what appears to be a silencer from his waist; he sets it out in front of him and searches for the other magazines for it in the ammo pouches on his person. Removing five of them, he sets them next to the pistol. Reaching to his waist again but on the opposite side, he grabs a revolver and sets it down. Reaching into a pocket, he pulls out an ammo loader with six rounds already set inside and places it next to the revolver. Reaching inside his duster, he grasps the Stun Grenades and sets them out one by one.
He looks over the small armory of his; mentally counting up the number of rounds and grenades the semi-circle holds. "Nine magazines of 5.56 rounds fully loaded, one with only 26 rounds left. Five fully loaded magazines of .45 rounds, the magnum is loaded with six rounds and the ammo loader is full. Four stun grenades and the sawed-off is ready. As long as I don't fight a long firefight, then this will be doable." He sighs and starts loading his empty weapons and puts everything back into their holding places for quick equipping and reloading.
Looking around, he sees a pile of boulders nearby and decides to hide his rucksack underneath one of the easier to lift rocks. Descending the stairs with his rucksack half-slung, he moves one of the rocks aside and places his rucksack down. Moving the rock back to cover the sack and hide it from scavengers, he sets out to the outer perimeter of his current hideout to see the current patrols of Fiends in the distance. Giving himself adequate concealment, he brings out his binoculars to get a better look at the drugged out raiders. He mentally notes the locations and routes he witnesses of the various people with little armor and bovine skulls for headwear.
While keeping an eye out on raiders, he sees one female with a short sleeve shirt showing her midriff, brown jean shorts and a knee pad on her left knee. She was walking into a demolished building with three walls still standing although one more than the other two. Moving to get a better view of her incase she became an outlier of patrol routes; he saw her grabbing some meat from a table with a skull decorating it. He noted that the meat resembled human flesh more than other forms of meat in the wastes. Pulling out the bounty notice, he put together with the rather vague description of Eileen with the one he was currently observing. Figuring he found the target he took further notice of the surrounding area, seeing only two other fiends to east of his target and several to the far west, he quickly put into his mental plan that going in through the eastern side was more beneficial as long as he was quiet.
He set up in good concealment and waited for dusk to start arriving. When the sun was setting over the canyons to the west, he aimed with his rifle. Noting that through the scope that the two patrolling fiends were out of range due to the small target size, he crawled while prone forwards to a small pile of soil acting as small concealment and cover. He checked through his scope again and found the two within firing range. One was leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette, watching his partner walk around. He kept an eye on the two, waiting for the one that was patrolling to look away from himself and the other fiend. The moment came and he shot the smoking fiend in the neck, silencing any forms of calling for help. The hunter quickly aimed to the other fiend before he saw what became of his comrade and shot him in the back on the left side, where the heart is located.
Waiting to see if either would get back up for a few seconds, he quickly got up and crept towards the building containing his target within. Looking through an opening that was once a window, he saw his target lying on a bed mattress next to the table. He slowly and quietly moved up to her side and pulled out his silenced .45 Pistol. Positioning the barrel towards her head, he pulled the trigger and saw the bullet punch a hole through her skull and a pool of blood forming on the mattress. He holstered his pistol and quickly searched her for anything useful and found a note titled "Thanks" in her back pocket. He looked around real quick for anyone looking or heading in his direction, seeing none he mentally reads the letter.
'Violet,
You were right about applying the fire. I used your method and it worked like a charm. The NCR punk cried like a bitch from the start, and I had to cut out the tongue to keep the noise down. Later I burned his feet until he couldn't feel it, then cut off the cooked parts. I started over on the unburned flesh and it was like having a fresh captive again – the bastard squirmed so much I had to use another strap to keep him under control. After I got to his knees, I cut off his eyelids and let him sit under the sun for a couple days, giving him water to drag it out. I think it cooked his brain or something. Anyway, I don't know where you learned that trick, but it's great. Finally, I finished up in the usual fashion by cutting off his nuts and cramming them down his throat. He almost suffocated, so I put him on his stomach before letting the dogs after him. He lasted a few more hours and then went quiet. Thanks again for teaching me the ropes. We're going to make these NCR motherfuckers learn the meaning of pain!
-Eileen
P.S. You said some guy from way east taught you, right? Was his name Marko? I can't remember. He must be a bad motherfucker!'
Seeing how he has proof of identity of his recent victim before him, he reaches out for her knife and uses it to cut off her finger. Looking at the combat styled knife in his hand while absently putting the finger into a small bag, he notices the word "Emasculator" etched on the side of the blade. Shrugging, he wipes the blood off the blade using the clothes on the corpse; he places the knife into his back pocket and quickly checks the other two for anything useful. Finding a pack of cigarettes and a Flamer Pistol on one and a Plasma Repeater on the other, he grabs the cigarettes and pistol and heads back to the rock crushing plant while keeping his head down and crawling when out in the open.
After the many tense moments of crawling, he makes it back to the plant and sets himself into a sitting position on a wall facing away from the Fiend territory. Grabbing his canteen, he takes a large gulp of water. Nearly emptying his canteen, he puts it back and heads towards the spot he hid his rucksack to refill the canteen. Moving the rock covering the sack, he reaches in and grabs a bottle of water and quickly empties it into the canteen. Putting the empty water bottle back into his rucksack, he put it onto his back and looked towards the direction of travel back.
Before he sets out though, the sound of rocks tumbling down attracts his attention. Turning to another large pile of boulders and rocks, he sees one of the strangest sights he ever witnessed. A young girl with blond hair and red eyes is looking at him atop the pile. What he noticed, with a weary sigh, was that she had no form of clothing on. She was carrying a pole with a large bell attached, placed inside her hands that resembled paws from a breed of canine that were covered in fur up to her elbows. The same could be said of her feet and legs, on her chest was fur crisscrossing resembling a natural bra. Atop her head was what looked like the head of a canine with its eyes closed? He noticed a tail of sorts with a white colored tip behind her. The fur on her body was the same color as her hair.
The girl's eyes were wide as if she was not expecting anyone to be nearby. She quickly narrowed her eyes and readied her odd weapon as though she was going to attack. The hunter stared with a blank face, mentally sighing at the odd encounter, took his left hand off his rifle and simply raised it to signify he was not going to harm her.
The girl either did not recognize the gesture or ignored it jumped up with her weapon in a position to do an overhead strike. The hunter jumped and rolled to his right pulling his rifle up in a crouched position. He did not expect the impact of her weapon to cause a crater in the ground nor the small tremor that followed. Quickly collecting himself, he shouted at her, "Seize your hostile actions or I will deem you a threat and kill you as one!"
The blonde followed up with, "Shut it human! I know you had something to do with me being here!"
The bounty hunter pauses, then questions, "With you being here? I just got back here less than three minutes ago after killing three Fiends up north. Besides what the hell are you doing out here alone?"
The young girl looks at the hunter with anger in her eyes. She screams, "You will return me where I am from now!" while she readies her weapon once more.
The hunter gets his rifle up again while asking, "Where are you from exactly? No one looks anything like you do around here."
The girl calms down slightly, seeing the human before her has not yet to do anything hostile or unwanted. She straightens herself and replies to the man, "The caves outside Payon."
"Payon," the hunter repeats trying to recall any place resembling that name. Coming up with no matches, he simply asks, "What exactly is the area around Payon like cause I have not heard of such a name before."
The girl stares at the human, tensing slightly at his answer. She answers, dreading the results of her description. "Payon is a human settlement in a forest."
The hunter, hearing the word "forest" lowers his rifle and stands up. Removing his hat to scratch the side of his head, he replies sadly, "Forest? Sorry little lady but I have not heard of any forests being in one piece after the Great War burned everything. The only settlement I'm aware of that is in any form of wooded area is Jacobstown up in the mountains."
The blonde girl loses a bit of her composure and leans forward. Thoughts racing across her mind as to how she ended up in a location with someone not aware of Payon. Even more astonishing to her was that forests are practically gone here. She straightens herself back up and simply asks the human before her, "So where on Rune-Midgard am I?"
"No idea what Rune-Midgard is either little lady but you're in the Mojave Wasteland, situated in the state of Nevada in the ruins of the United States of America," the hunter informed her.
After hearing that, the odd girl froze for a few seconds before turning towards the pile of boulders and with an angry cry, smashes the closest boulder with one of her fur covered fists. She continues doing this with the various sized boulders of the pile, turning them into small rocks and dust with each frustrated cry. As the pile of boulders become smaller and smaller, tears started forming and falling from her eyes. When the pile of boulders become a pile of rocks and pebbles, she fell to her knees and started crying silently to herself, uncaring of being watched while doing so.
The hunter just stood there, absently noting that the tail was connected to her just above her rear end, watching the odd girl let out the frustration in her system. He stayed in that same spot for five minutes keeping an eye out for threats while the girl lamented. After a while, he moved towards her to see if she was alright enough to travel on her own. However, upon reaching her, he found that the girl had passed into blissful unconsciousness. Looking down on her, he mentally thought to himself, 'Should I just leave her here by herself? I got no real obligations to her. I have more bounties to get to.' He started walking away but after several steps he stopped. Taking another moment to think, he let out an audible sigh and turned back. Making sure his rifle was on its sling securely; he bent down and picked up the girl bridal style. Or he tried to as the pole and bell weapon was fairly heavy. Setting her back down, removed the weapon from the girl's grasp and took out a belt from his rucksack. Using the belt, he secured the odd weapon to his rucksack and picked her up again.
He decided to head to Goodsprings to see if he can get the girl some clothing seeing how Sloan is more of a resting location for quarry workers than an actual settlement. Traveling onto I-15 going south was quiet, especially seeing how many people and creatures prefer hunting in the daylight for easy prey. Passing Sloan and reaching the point of I-15 where another road leads to Goodsprings, the hunter was glad nothing happened on that part of the trip back.
Halfway on the road that led into Goodsprings, the girl in his arms started to stir. She opened her eyes slowly, feeling extremely fatigued, she saw the same human she conversed with earlier carrying her and saw that night had fallen completely. The look on the human's face was mostly blank, head swiveling to keep an eye out for hostiles. She noticed that one of the human's eyes was giving off a soft green color. She squirmed a little, getting the attention of her carrier. He simply looked at her and asked, "Are you able to move on your own power now?" She silently nods, as does he and simply bends slightly down to put her feet on the ground. She stands up straighter, but with slow movements showing how tired her body is. The hunter steps back a little to give her room and informs her of what his intention was.
"I was taking you to Goodsprings, mostly to get you clothes for you to wear while in this hellhole, the one of many, that we inhabit. See Doc Mitchell too incase you are injured or ill. Afterwards, it all depends on what you want to do while in the wasteland."
The fur covered blonde does not verbally agree but seeing as she has no idea where she is at the moment decides to trust the human. She decides to ask a few questions hoping anything from her home is similar to her current location. The human leads the way and answers what he could; most of the answers were usually questions on what she meant. Such answers drowned more and more of her hopes after each one were given. Her spirits were extremely low when they arrived at Goodsprings.
Looking around, the blonde noticed that the buildings were often in bad condition, looking as though they were never maintained for long periods of time. The hunter noticed the look and promptly answered, "People don't really care about looks anymore, and as long as it still functions as intended it could look like shit for all they care. Most folks share what they can with each other in their communities, including living spaces."
The hunter eyes the building with a sign saying "Goodsprings General Store". He turns to the girl and spoke softly, "That is where we can get you some clothes for you. Some form of ranged weaponry would help too as guns are pretty much the norm in wastelands. Come on, let us get Chet up and do business with the greedy bastard."
The girl looks at the human oddly before following him inside the building. She sees it empty of anyone else but her and her companion. The hunter moves behind the counter into the back room. She hears him speak, "Hey Chet wake up. I got a business transaction for you."
The sounds of another male yawning while getting up reverberate through the shop. The one named Chet reveals himself from the back room, following the bounty hunter. Chet stays behind the counter while the bounty hunter moves to the other side, pointing at the blonde girl.
"The little lady here needs clothes and equipment to help her survive the wasteland. Got anything to help fulfill those requirements?" the hunter asked.
"I'm sure I got the stuff that does, but seriously couldn't you do this when everyone else is awake?" Chet shakes his head at that end. Stopping to yawn again, he continues on, "Well, come on girly, let us take a look at the clothes I have in stock, pick what you want."
The blonde girl just timidly follows Chet to where he stores the clothes for sale. Looking through them all she goes with a pair of brown jean shorts, a red poncho, and a black wife-beater shirt. The hunter watches as she tries them on, approval in his eyes. He turns to Chet and asks, "You got any scarves like the one I'm wearing in stock? Also a pair of Biker Goggles to protect her eyes from dust?"
Chet looks at the hunter with sleepy eyes, and replies, "Yeah I do, let me grab them." Chet walks into the back room again and comes out soon after with the two items in hand. The hunter grabs the scarf and starts to tie it around the girl's neck, making sure it is on securely. Afterwards he puts the goggles on her, hanging loosely around her neck and resting on the scarf.
The bounty hunter looks at her and nods in appreciation, turns to Chet and asks, "How much for all that?"
Chet quickly tallies up the cost in his head and replies with, "120 caps for all that." The hunter nods and takes out a small pouch, opening it and dumping the contents on top the counter. Quickly counting up the required amount, separates the two stacks and dumps one back into the pouch. Pushing the other stack towards Chet, the store owner counts the caps, nodding in thanks for the business and puts the caps away.
After the deal was complete, Chet yawned once more and headed back into the back room to get more sleep. The duo of hunter and girl left the store, the hunter informed the blonde of their next course of action.
"We'll get sleep as well, see the doc in the morning and get you more supplies after that. I do not know about you but I can sleep anywhere." The hunter walks south towards an old trailer with nothing inside it. The girl looks at him and silently follows him inside the trailer. Offloading his rucksack inside, removing the girl's weapon from its improvised holster, sets it down and uses it as a pillow. Removing his rifle and setting it next to him within arm's reach, he takes off his duster and lays it on him as a blanket. Removing his hat and laying it on top of his rifle, his head lying on the rucksack turned pillow. The girl looks around in the small space, shivering a little in the cold desert air. Deciding that warmth is better, she lies next to the hunter to get as much of it as possible. The hunter looks at her and raises his left arm, gesturing that she can get closer which she accepted.
With the two underneath the duster, the body heat of the two was pleasant for the both of them and the girl fell asleep rather quickly. The bounty hunter looked at his current companion some more before looking out a nearby window to observe the stars before he too fell asleep. "What an odd day," he mumbled before closing his eyes for the night.
Morning rays of sunshine beamed down on the hunter's face waking him up. With a groan, he sits up, looks over at the girl that slept next to him. Debating whether to wake her up or give her more time to sleep. Ultimately, he decided to wait for her to wake up on her own and simply sat there waiting. As the minutes passed and the rays of sunshine moving downwards due to the sun rising upwards, the girl finally awoke rather slowly.
The blonde just rubbed her eyes to remove any dust before opening them and yawning. She took a look around herself and noticed the human she met the night before. A slight tinge of red could be seen on her face but before she could say anything, the man stood up and collected all the items he had shed before sleeping.
After adjusting the rucksack on his back, he looked at the girl and spoke, "Let's go see Doc Mitchell to make sure you got nothing detrimental to your health."
The girl just sits there staring for a few moments before nodding. Standing up herself, she followed the hunter to a house on a small hill with a fence surrounding it. Trailing behind the man as he opened the door and went inside, they searched the house for the doctor and found him eating breakfast with some Gecko Steak.
The good doctor looks up from his meal and offers a small smile at the two guests. "Well now, how can this old man help you two today?"
The hunter speaks up, "Well doc, the little lady here will need as good of a checkup you can do. Just a heads up, those 'extra' parts you see on her are actually a part of her."
Doc Mitchell looks at the blonde girl and nods, "Alright then, follow me little girl so I can look you over and make sure you're good and healthy."
The girl looks between the two men, the canine like ears on her head droop a little and follows the older, bald man into another room.
The bounty hunter watches them go into another room, silently moves into the living room and sits on the couch to wait as the other two finish. Sitting in the same position for roughly 20 minutes, the good doctor enters the living room and sits on the chair facing the couch. The blonde girl sits next to the hunter with a small blush on her face and her ears flickering a few times.
"So anything wrong with the little lady as far as you can tell," questions the duster wearing man.
"Well, despite the extra features your friend here seems to have, she is actually healthier than most folks in the wasteland. The fox appendages function as they would if they were on the actual animal." The doctor pauses for a moment to let that sinks in then continues, "With those extra appendages, I had performed a couple tests to see what else is different. Her sense of hearing and smell are increased to that of a dog's or coyote's. I would say that her physical strength is the most impressive; she is far stronger than a super mutant. If that Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester back there actually went further than 10, her strength would probably reach up to 19 or 20."
The hunter looks briefly at the girl and moves his eyes back on the doctor and asks, "What about radiation, how is she in terms of resistance to it?"
"Well due to how healthy she is, she has so little exposure to radiation that the full effects of radiation will be stronger to her than to the rest of us since we are used it on a higher level than she currently is," the older man replies.
The bounty hunter nods and thanks the doctor, handing him 50 caps for services rendered. All three stand and move about, the duo of redhead and blonde to the door and the doctor back to his kitchen.
After exiting the doctor's in Goodsprings, the male of the two speaks up, "Right then, well since your considered healthy by someone of medical expertise, what do you plan on doing now?"
The apparent fox girl looks up and after thinking about it, looks down and mumbles out, "I don't know." She looks back at him, and asks with a soft voice, "What do you think I should do now?"
Her companion scratches his cheek and replies with a contemplative look on his face, "Off the top of my head, you can stay here in Goodsprings, help the people out, or go out and find something to do. If you do the latter, I'd suggest finding someone who knows how to survive in the wasteland to give you tips and probably some experience so you have a better chance on your own."
She looks at him and asks, "What if I go with you? You obviously travel around and know more than anyone else who stays here would. Besides…" she starts to mumble, "…I don't want to be alone."
"You do realize that my lifestyle has a fairly high chance of death. I hunt people that have done horrible deeds, killed a good number of people, and get paid for such things." He squats down to look her in the eyes, "I get the feeling that you really don't see life as precious for other folks but that kind of life will eventually spread word of you around and those with bad intentions usually hear about such things very quickly. Most will want you dead; others like those from the Legion will try to get you as a slave of sorts."
She just stares resolutely back, "People usually try to kill me for looking different where I am from anyways so that is not different. If your kind of lifestyle is as dangerous as you make it sound, having someone else to watch your back would be better. You know I can protect myself, especially since I can launch you from here to the place we slept in with one punch."
The hunter stays in his position to stare back at her with a blank face. With a sigh, he breaks eye contact and stands back up straight. "Fine, but we're grabbing you some more supplies if you're going to be joining me in bounty hunting. Let us go back to Chet's and get you a ranged weapon you can use."
The two walk back to the general store and enter the building, walking up to the counter. Chet greets them, "Howdy you two, you both here for another business transaction?"
"The little lady is traveling with me, so she needs more supplies for traversing the roads. What ranged weapons you got?"
"I got several, but the only one in good working condition is the .357 Revolver. There are 18 rounds for it in stock as well, the total for both of those will be 94 caps," Chet informs the two.
The hunter agrees with the choice of weaponry and its price. He follows up with, "You have a bag of sorts to hold supplies, an empty canteen and several bottles of water?"
Chet moves to the side of his shop, pulling out ten empty bottles and an empty canteen. After setting them on the counter, he moves into the back room and grabs a small rucksack and places that next to the rest of what is being bought. "With all the items here, total will come to 304 caps."
"Right then, the bottles we can fill up later, thanks Chet." As the hunter begins pulling out the necessary amount of caps, Chet places all the items into the rucksack. Moving the small sack containing the caps across the counter, the hunter grabs the rucksack and hands it to the little girl.
The two exit the store and move towards the sign indicating the name of the town next to the road. Taking the empty canteen and filling it with water from one of his bottles, he hands it back to the girl. "Okay little lady, seeing how you're going to be traveling with me for the foreseeable future, you got any questions ya want to ask? I'll answer what I can and hope you will do the same when I ask you some."
The blonde girl looks up and thinks for a moment. "Well, what exactly is it that you do? All I can recall is that you killed 'Fiends' whatever those are."
The hunter calmly answers, "I'm a bounty hunter, if someone or something is causing problems for a group of people and issue a price for their heads then I will more than likely go after that someone or something. The problem with that, if it is someone of a faction that I killed, then news of me killing that person will reach that faction and they will see me as one to kill on sight."
"You get money from killing people? I never really liked humans anyways so I have no problems with that." She pauses after saying that when certain aspects of her life came into play. "Now that I think about it, why is it that I am calm around you? I normally kill humans on sight ever since my father died."
The hunter looks down at her while they are walking. "Well since I was born, I had a weird 'perk' is the best word, that anything that is canine in origin, whether full on or part canine, will see me as an ally. My father found out about it first. We both went out hunting and came across a pack of Nightstalkers on our return trip. They just ran around us and continued on their way to find something to eat. We found it odd at first but ultimately went back to our home. More and more scenarios similar to that kept happening throughout my childhood with various canine species. Seeing how you are technically part canine with those fox features of yours, you also see me as an ally. That is my best guess anyhow."
The smaller of the two figures on the road was silent; contemplating the explanation she was given. After a minute of following her companion, she spoke up. "Is stuff like that common or is it a rare fluke?"
"There are various oddities that folks out here end up developing. I met a fella who was capable of walking through a crowd of ghouls without any of them even noticing him there. There was a guy who kept finding the weirdest stuff in regular containers, most of the stuff that shouldn't have been able to fit inside the containers too. He bragged he once found a Fat Man, which is a large weapon, inside an ammo crate. The weapon itself is almost equal in size to two and half ammo crates long and one crate wide."
"Huh… alright another question then, when you were carrying me last night, I saw a green glow coming off one of your eyes. Is that another 'perk'?"
"Nope, that was an 'implant', basically something that was put into my body by a medical professional that either improves existing capabilities or adds something the body can use for better survival. The one you saw was a Bionic Eye, it allows me to see in different spectrums of light. It glowed green because it was set to Night Vision, greatly enhancing perceived light to me."
"…What does that mean?"
"Basically lets me see better in the dark but becomes useless in the day as all I would see is a bright light."
"Oh…sounds kind of neat."
They reach a fork in the road and continue walking south. The girl looks around, noticing how badly the roads and buildings were damaged. "Is the rest of this 'wasteland' like this?"
"Yup, a long time ago the world leaders got together and basically decided on how our race should kill itself, they chose nuclear apocalypse and covered it up by saying it was for resources. At least that is my interpretation of what happened. What you see now is the result of it and all of us are simply trying to survive now. One of the bad things is that many of the creatures in the world have become more dangerous due to the residual radiation."
"What kind of creatures are you talking about exactly?"
"Well I'll go from most dangerous to least. First are the Deathclaws, essentially the most lethal of them all. I heard rumors that they are from before the nuclear explosions that ruined our planet. They have thick hides, extremely tall compared to people being around 10 feet tall on average. Their claws cut through armor easily. The only bright side is that they have short range of sight and prefer boxed off locations in mountains or caves.
Next up would be the Cazadors, wasps that can grow to be the same size of an average adult male. They're black in color with orange wings and red eyes. They are usually the fastest creatures in the wasteland and they are deadly if they inject their venom in you. Most folks usually see them in small numbers, usually three or four outside their nests.
Following them are their rivals the Nightstalkers. Half coyote and half rattlesnake, they travel in packs and usually hunt at night. They too inject venom into prey and due to their numbers, the venom builds up quickly. I've lived near nests of Nightstalkers before and they make the sounds of both animals that comprise of them, mostly using the coyote sounds for communication between themselves and the snake for attacking prey.
Geckos are next and they are usually split into three different kinds here. Normal geckos are purple with a tint of blue in color, hunt usually by themselves and love water. The normal ones are smaller than the other two and are easier to kill. Golden geckos live near irradiated areas and when they bite someone, inject radiation in large doses. As you can tell from their name, they are usually yellow in color. The most dangerous of the three are the fire geckos. Purple and red colored hides, spikes along their spines and they are fairly tall. They breathe fire and travel in packs. All of them have their own little territories in the Mojave so you will never run into any combination of the three at the same time.
Coyotes are essentially wild dogs that naturally live off the land, eating anything they deem edible. There is nothing really special about coyotes since they are a breed of canines that live more as scavengers than hunters.
After them, Bighorners and Brahmin are up. They are usually tame and used for meat and hides. Wild ones are territorial so if they are attacking, move back the way you came and they will leave you alone.
Mole Rats and Giant Rats are essentially the same with glaring differences. Mole Rats can dig through anything, including metal making them a structural threat but they are mostly passive, preferring to eat plants. Giant Rats can fit through many small openings and travel in numbers. When you see one, you will find close to eight more nearby.
Up next are the insects. Most dangerous of them are the Radscorpions and Bark Scorpions. Radscorpions are large and more armored than the bark ones. They usually charge their prey upon spotting them and come in various sizes, the larger they are the more potent the venom they have. The Bark Scorpions are smaller and usually are used as food for the Radscorpions. The main differences between the two are how they hunt and their venom. Bark Scorpions are more intelligent and try to go around their prey. Their venom is very hazardous, often causing blurry vision upon injection.
Giant mantises are annoying, mostly because they usually fit in with their surroundings. The newborns or 'nymphs' are in vacant areas with no adult nearby while the adults are usually in areas with prospering vegetation.
Giant ants are almost always in large areas with practically nothing near them. A dried lake, an old racing track, I remember seeing some near an abandoned farm. They are easy to spot though so killing them from a distance is not a problem. They do have large numbers though.
Radroaches and Bloatflies are the weakest out here. Bloatflies are territorial but are in locations with decaying bodies like a graveyard or in small irradiated waters. Ignore them and they will ignore you a good majority of the time. Radroaches are essentially the same but they will attack if you get too close. Usually one punch to the two will kill them so no one is really that afraid of them."
Taking all of that in, they come close to a small declination in the road. The girl sees a large roach, one the size of a medium-small dog, to her right. Going stiff, she screams while grabbing her weapon. Yelling "BUG!" at the top of her lungs, she swings with all her might, smacking right into the Radroach. The hunter watches with an amused grin as the Radroach is launched into the far distance landing in the hills somewhere. The far cries of Geckos finding food echoed in the distance.
"I don't think you hit the little guy far enough nor you screamed loud enough. You have a fear of bugs or something?"
Panting due to the scream let loose, she replies, "Not afraid… hate immensely…"
"Good to know, not exactly a fan myself but I try to ignore them for the most part. Got any other questions?"
"Not at the moment, if they come up I will ask then."
"Alright then, well I got some questions for you then. What do you prefer to eat?"
"Meat, lots and lots of meat," she answers with a smile on her face. She gains a far off look in her eyes, jaw dropping a little and drool starts dripping down just as the imagination of eating meat. Her tail is wagging back and forth further emphasizing her love of food.
Chuckling at the sight, the hunter says, "Enough of that around, you will have to try the various forms we got out here to see which one you prefer eating. Just a heads up though, you will eat plants every now and then in case we don't come across any meat."
Continuing on, "You got any skills or talents meant for combat or survival I should know about… other than your ability to knock things into orbit with a single swing."
Thinking on it, she replies, "Well I can control fire, make a ball out of it and throw it at others but I usually make it to warm up the meat I eat."
"A little pyromaniac huh, that will be fun." Remembering something he collected the day before, he reaches into his rucksack and pulls out the Flamer Pistol and the fuel that came with it. "Here you go then, have fun with this if you want to. If you're wondering what that is, it is basically a flamethrower in pistol form."
Taking the offered items and looking at them speculatively, she nods and places the pistol in her back pocket and the fuel in her own rucksack. She nods gratefully at the gift she received.
"That is the last of the questions I got for you… well other than what you call that weapon of yours." Pointing at the pole with the bell, indicating which weapon he was talking about.
The girl shifts said weapon into both her arms, "Where I am from this was called a 'Jiangshi'. It was meant to be rung for the dead after they have been taken to a burial ground. It was something my father left me."
After the explanation they continued on their trip in comforting silence. Coming upon a town split in two by the road, they head towards the right leading into the ruined buildings with small guard posts and tents with a flag picturing a two-headed bear.
The hunter waves his arm towards the wrecked buildings, "Welcome to the outskirts of Primm little lady. Over the bridge that way is the civilian part of Primm where the townsfolk live. We will go over there later today to see if they have anything useful to trade."
Continuing on their way, he leads the girl up a hill with a wall built into it on the left side. A few minutes of walking they come to the remains of the playground. Pointing to the small campfire to the side he informs her, "That is usually where I sleep and cook my food when I am waiting for information on a bounty from my current client. You'll meet him soon, hope you two can get along civilly at least."
Walking southwest of the playground, she starts to notice a building in the distance. Figuring she was looking at their destination, the hunter speaks up. "The shack up ahead is where we will receive and turn in bounties. My 'boss' is a fairly nice man, does what he can to make the lives of the people in the wasteland less shitty than normal. His way of doing it is by keeping track of those in charge or dangerous individuals that get their entertainment from everyone else's misery."
Approaching the shack, the girl took a quick look around, familiarizing her surroundings for future references. The hunter opens the door, holding it for the girl to walk in. She takes a glance at the various objects inside the shack, finding it looking better inside than outside.
The hunter closes the door after entering and walks up to the desk with another man on the other side, typing away on a typewriter. The 'boss' looks up and notices the bounty hunter he has known for a couple weeks now, sending him out for bounties he acquired.
The 'boss' speaks up, "Did you kill Eileen?"
"Yes." He pulls out the small bag containing Eileen's finger and hands it over.
"Good. I think every member of the male species is sleeping a little easier with that bitch dead." He grabs a small pouch from a drawer in his desk containing the caps for the bounty and gives it to the hunter. He looks over and sees the blonde girl with animal features. "Should I be concerned about a little girl following you?"
"Nah, she wants to get into the bounty hunting gig, I'm just showing her the basics and teaching the methods of survival I learned."
"Alright then, well kid my name is Steven Randall, owner and proprietor of Randall & Associates." He sticks out his right hand for to shake hers.
The girl walks up and grabs the hand, shaking it to accept the greeting. Releasing his grip, Steven returns to typing. The hunter taps on the girl's shoulders, motioning with his head towards the door. Following him and exiting the shack, they had back to the playground.
"You've met our boss of sorts. What do you think so far," the hunter asks.
"He didn't care about my features but was more worried about me being a girl with you. Does he often shrug off details like that?"
"I would not know. We've met a little over two weeks ago so I don't know him well enough to answer truthfully."
"Hmm… well he did something you did not do, he introduced himself to me," she pointed out.
Releasing a small bark of laughter, he sticks out his hand. "The name is Clayton, given to me by my mother. Feel free to call me either Clayton or Clay."
The blonde girl repeats her actions earlier and grabs his hand, shaking it. "I'm called Moonlight Flower where I am from, so call me Moonlight for short. Nice to meet you partner."
As a notice, the various mods I play with will be listed so if you don't notice an item in the actual game it is most likely due to it being from a mod.
Project Nevada – Project Nevada Team
New Vegas Bounties 1 – someguy2000
New Vegas Bounties 2 – someguy2000
Russell – someguy2000
Weapon Mods Expanded (WMX) – Artistar
LexFONV Clothing for Type3 – Lexton
Wasters Scarf 2.0 – Urge
Official Pipboy Readius (New Vegas Edition) – Alex Scoprion and Brianide
There are more but those are not going to be part of the story, if they end up being part of it then I will put a notice of it at the end of the chapter.
This is the first story I have actually done and updates will be irregular as it will not be the main focus of my life. Quite frankly I have many ideas for stories with original characters but I will write those when a story is actually done so I can focus only one story at a time without conflicting ideas.
Eventually I will have pictures of what all my characters will end up looking like, just have to get back into practice of drawing them. If anyone wishes to use a character I have made, just ask and I'll give what I can to help you figure out the looks, personality, and abilities the character in question has.