My thanks goes out to The Authorman, Cressida Isolde, ELMO-fANcLUB MeMbER, and last but not least, Agent 94, for their kind reviews and critique. It takes a real man (or woman) to review a story, and they done good. - NH
Part 4: Novac Though Nipton
Captain Scruffy checked his pip-boy inventory and saw that he had some interesting objects from the night before. The time read 8:24 as he perused through the machetes, dog meat, and .357 ammo that he had acquired. Scruffy shrugged this off and proceeded to loot the entire house, ceiling to floor. Then he stepped outside.
Nipton was in complete disarray, as anyone who's played through Fallout: New Vegas would know. In front of the captain was a broken house, an old tractor tire leaning up against it. To that house's right was simply a house's frame, the 6x6 planks were a ghastly skeleton of times gone by. Further to the left was the Nipton town hall. On either side in front of the barely hinged door, were piles of burning corpses and tires. Crosses lined the barely-there main street.
Further along, houses were torn up, with windows shattered or gone, and smoke was rising up from at least half of them. Along this street and to the left was another burning pile of wood, tires, and innocent people. To the right was the mutilated body of Oliver Swanick, pieces covering the whole road and smeared along the General Store's front wall. (A/N: Swanick is annoying and I make sure he dies every time I play through Nipton.)
On the way over, Scruffy stopped and took the time to point laughing at each of the hanging, crucified powder gangers. After this, he diligently looted each house for everything he could carry, before turning to the general store.
The Nipton Trading Post, as it was called, was a fairly intact building. Most of the windows were still there. It was two stories tall, and black smoke emitted from the roof. Captain Scruffy entered. The store was a mess on the inside, as you can expect for any stores past the Great War. The riots and looting that must have started during and right after the bombs were dropped probably did most of the damage, although there were signs of more recent struggles. It was here that Captain Scruffy found Boxcars.
"[censored]! I was nodding off before you barged in here! And I don't hurt when I sleep!" Just give me some [censored] Med-X and [censored], will ya?" Boxcars said. Captain Scruffy stood there staring at the man for a while, before looking him up and down. It appeared that his legs were extremely damaged, judging from the weird angles where they bent and the blood soaking his pants. Another sitting target for a dynamite show. Scruffy lit up his TNT and threw it perfectly to land beneath the Ganger's chair, and dived into a small alcove where more broken shelves lay. Boxcars never had a chance.
After the smoke cleared, Scruffy got up and looted around the store. He only picked up some random food items, and used a Weapon Repair Kit that he had found right there on the spot. His encumbrance was nearly maxing. Scruffy left the Trading Post and took the road East, stopping one last time to survey all of the damage. Seeing all of the town's fires and destruction, and not seeing a hint of and Caesar's legion, Scruffy deduced that it was he who caused all of that mayhem. Our hero had encountered three towns and wrecked two of them beyond repair.
"Wow, I need to get me some more of that stuff." Scruffy remarked, staring at the dirty, empty pitcher, and the used Jet canister in his pack. Scruffy turned to the rode and hard-jogged East.
Continuing down the broken road, our hero was met with a frag mine disguised as a traffic cone. Clever… Scruffy thought as he dove behind a nearby overturned semi and jammed a stimpak into his leg. Shots rang out from behind a rock about 50 feet out. Scruffy turned on slaughturder mode. One of his assailants was behind the rock, trying to put a large hole in him with his Grenade Rifle. The criminal never got this chance, as his buddies up on the opposite ridge also had grenade rifles, and terrible aim. A shot smacked right below his chin and exploded on impact. It was massacrificent.
At this point, Captain Scruffy realized that being pinned down in a valley when at least two of the guys pinning him had explosives, probably wasn't a good idea. He broke into a hard-jog up the road to retreat, where he was met by a fourth gunslinger, brandishing a fourth Grenade Rifle. She didn't even get a shot off before she was cut down by our hero's Cowboy Rifle. Captain Scruffy barely even looked back as he grabbed her weapon and ran up the hill. He never saw the men that were on the ridge again, but he vowed that if he did, some real slaughturder would occur.
Running at his usual pace down the road, Captain Scruffy ignored the sights and sounds of nature as he jumped over rubble blocking the street, slid over barriers, and traversed a bridge. At the foot of the bridge he met up with two traders who were running a caravan. After selling everything he picked up in Nipton and restocking on Dynamite, Scruffy plowed on. He completely ignored the Legion ambush party that was waiting for the caravan.
Without warning, a legionnaire with feathers all over his hat appeared behind him, saying, "The Kaissarr has marked you for death!" and drew his weapon. Drawing his own weapon, which was of course his new Grenade Rifle, Captain Scruffy noted that it was shameful that the author would have to use 'slaughturder' three times in the same chapter.
Two explosive shots later, the assassin team was lying all over the road. It was a bloody mess. Scruffy took everything useful from the bodies and charged on, heading to Novac. It was 2:01 when he arrived in Dino-Bite territory. Captain Scruffy rented a room, carefully disregarding and ignoring everything the innkeeper said. Once inside his room in the shanty motel, our hero made a running leap to the bed where he quickly fell asleep, dreaming sweet dreams about how he would destroy this town.
This is a generic plea commanding you to review this story. If I didn't get my first couple reviews, this story would have ended at the first chapter.