Smoke, Caine saw only smoke, and heard only the cracks and pops of smouldering ruins coming from Nipton. He knew what that usually meant, but he didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to believe that the legion could not be mirrored, but that the NCR could be evil. He saw the bodies on the crucifixes, he saw the bastards in Roman Armour, and his instincts just took over.

Five legionnaires, three dogs, and one Frumentarius, 11 of the 7.62x51 MM rounds sunk into its target, spinning, expanding, tearing through its target, each connecting with scream or yell, three sunk into the face and body of the frumentarius, eliciting a gurgling, and yet still blood curdling scream from him. Each of the legionnaires, as well as the dogs, fell in step, the next one beginning to fall as the earlier dropped to his knees; a perfectly choreographed slaughter; a grim allusion to the brutal utilitarian upbringing that they had all endured, the military training and conditioning they had all suffered through. The only one out of step was the frumentarius, falling backwards instead, smashing into the stairs behind him, landing with a sickening crack.

The blood that flowed from their heads, going into the cracks in the intersection, spun and twirled together like rivers feeding into an ocean. Following this, cutting the victims down, closing the eyes of those who died, giving the still living water to drink, food to eat period He took the weapons off of the legionnaires, given those to the strongest and he took anything else for himself. There, in that ruin, he came to save five people. Two of them were gangers, the other three settlers. He brought them back from the brink of death, and then led them back to the town of goodsprings, making the gangers swear to be useful to the town.

Militiamen came out ready, feeling something was amiss. Hearing the commotion Trudy came out of the Prospector, asking "What's going on here? And who the hell are they?"

Caine responded "Refugees from the good town of Nipton. The gangers have agreed to be probationary citizens, until you deem otherwise."

Trudy, incredulously replied "what do you mean, refugees? I spoke to people familiar with the area only four days ago."

Deadpan, Caine said "Attacked. By legion, found these people on the crucifixes. I've promised them asylum here, if they're useful."

Sunny interjected "Fine, I'll have my men watch them. We have a couple of houses with open land; will put the three in one, in the gangers in there. Expect to be working by tomorrow, I'll let you know what to do."

Trudy said "It's decided, then. The settlers will go to the farmhouse; the gangers will go to the one nearest to the barracks. We'll try to make them feel at home, Caine."

Caine then said "I'd like to rebuild the Chryslus, can you give me a couple mechanics, or at least a mechanically oriented person and a strong one?"

Sunny returned with "Yeah, I'll give you Jim and Nick. You get some rest; I'll have a few people push it up to the gas station."

Caine thanked her, then started to walk to the Prospector. Truly called to him, "Here, have the key to the back room, it's all yours!" She then to underhand tossed the key to him and went to help the new arrivals settle in.

The next morning, Trudy treated Caine to a delicacy, her home fried Deathclaw egg. The egg itself was huge, a bit larger than ostrich egg, if the book Caine had read contained correct proportions. He had only had mantis eggs before, which are a bit smaller than a large chicken's egg, so this seemed immense. It was actually almost the size of his helmet, just a few millimetres smaller.

He actually ate the whole thing, but it took him an extravagantly long time, because of its size and how good it tasted, almost 3 hours to eat with the whole thing and a Brahmin steak. He thought they must have gained at least five pounds from that meal but he felt it was worth the effort of losing the weight, for something that good.

By the time he finished, it was almost 10.00 AM, so he decided to get to work on the vehicle. The engine itself was in good condition and, luckily, it was an internal combustion engine. That hopefully meant that it could run on whisky, If he could find some gas to mix it with. First he wanted to make sure it ran, so he broke up the VIVeC and installed its component parts so that the helmet could tune the engine perfectly, instead of wasting days and a large amount of whisky doing that. He connected a fission battery to the engine and sparked the starter. With a powerful, tremendous roar the vehicle came to life, but not wanting to waste any more of the whisky, he turned off the engine.

Now knowing it worked Caine, along with the help of Jim and Nick, began the body work. Again leaving goodsprings, the three of them took the Brahmin carts and piled them high with the Chryslus parts, collecting enough to hopefully rebuild it from the highway near the Mojave outpost. When they returned and counted the pieces, they found they had enough to rebuild the Chryslus and still have enough parts for another half of one. Also, they found a plough and the mount for a trailer hitch.

They pulled off the old body, piece by piece, making sure to organize them into groupings so they would be sure where all the new parts should go. After stripping the vehicle down to its chassis, they mounted the hitching assembly, and spent the rest of the day carefully rebuilding the Chryslus and attaching the plough to the car's grille.

They finally finished as the light began to fade, and the way the light hit it, it seemed to be waiting to stretch its legs, wanting to go somewhere, anywhere. It was almost pleading just to leave, to get on to the open road, to see the sky, to feel the wind. That night, Caine drew up plans for the modifications that he wanted to make, mapped out his journey to the capital, had one last drink in goodsprings, and then went to bed.


This'll be my last chapter in the mojave, we'll be going to the location for fallout 3 from here on out. The chapter came out a little short, but I think it came out brilliantly. I had a stroke of creativity, and I am hoping you will like it. As always, tell me what you think about the story. Things should only get better from here, but that would be easier with feedback.

Deathclaws are a large, agile and strong species of mutant chameleons, specifically Jackson's Chameleon created through genetic engineering, with the addition of DNA of various other species. However, due to mutation, they have lost their color-changing ability.

The Chryslus that Caine keeps talking about is the Chryslus motors Highwayman, something that anyone who played Fallout 2 should be familiar with. In that game, it was missing its fuel cell controller, which used micro fusion cells (MFCs), or small energy cells (SECs), to provide power for the engine. One of the new inventions that came out after the game were biofuels, like E-85. I thought, why not run a vehicle on alcohol instead of the hard to come by SECs or MFCs, using those like the car batteries we have today. The company that made it is, or rather was, the fallout universe's the version of Chrysler Group, LLC. The vehicle itself, the Highwayman, is possibly a reference to the 1957, 1958 or '59 Plymouth Belvedere, or possibly the Fury Coupe (a Chrysler product), as it bears an uncanny resemblance.

In Fallout: New Vegas, you enter a town called Nipton, where you find some legion soldiers waiting near the city hall, after crucifying the residents and some powder gangers. In the game, you can't take people down for it would kill them. I thought that if you could get to them early enough, you should be able to save them.

A fission battery is a miscellaneous item that can be found in both games, with seemingly no uses. I assumed that they were to provide power from fission, like chemical batteries we have today(AA, AAA, C-,D-cell, 9V, etc.), and that they should be able to work similarly to a car battery.