Author's Notes:
Enjoy mates
Any feedback would be appreciated, any questions too. I'll be answering questions on a youtube video soon that i'll post the link to on my profile page.
Contra woke up dazed, his eyes fluttering a few times before he finally. He pushed his arms down, trying to lift himself up, but a strong hand pushed him down. His vision swam and a fleet of words assaulted his sensitive ears, but a wave of pain made him squirm; his knee was blazing hot like a dozen needles were pushing into him while his chest itched like hell. He tried to push away the hand to scratch the itch, but a stern voice scolded him. "Yes, your awake, now keeps your hands down or I'll strap 'em down."
Contra exhales and tried pushing himself up, but a dark blur filled his vision and held his arms down. His eyes focusing, Contra recognized Wreythe standing over him.
"How are his eyes? Can he see you properly?" A tired voice asked Wreythe, who looked carefully into Contra's eyes and moved a finger back and forth, watching him follow its motion. "Yeah Doc, he's fine." Contra tried to move again, but this time Wreythe took him by his right elbow and guided him into a sitting position. Looking around, Contra realized he was in an old wooden home. Various chairs and tables filled the room and medical equipment cluttered each bench top. A bloody scalpel lay on a portable stretcher opposite his bed while a Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester stood proudly between the only two doors in the room.
An old man sat on a stool by the stretcher, wearing a pair of overalls and a red scarf tied around his neck. "Just relax a second, get your bearings. It's not everyday a man wakes up from a wound like that." The old man reached across and prodded the itchy spot in Contra's side, causing him to wince.
"How long have I bin 'ere, man?"
"We reached Goodsprings in time, Rain managed to get an escort from an NCR camp outside Primm to help us out. How are you feelin', your knee was pretty shot up. The doc had to stick some metal plate in your knee; we had to salvage a piece of metal big enough from the stop sign outside of town."
Looking around the room, Contra realized there was another patient in the room. Lying on a bed further down in the room was another figure breathing softly, the darkness keeping out any prying eyes from spying on him or her.
"Who's dat?"
"A robot found that unlucky devil lying in the Goodsprings Graveyard, brought the body back here. Turned out there was a bullet lodged in the skull, and believe it or not the so-called corpse wasn't actually dead, so I'm just letting the traveler lay here for now."
Contra tried to stand, but the Doc rushed forwards and held him down, telling him to just rest up a bit. Wreythe stood up and picked up his Remington, pulling out the scope from one of his many pockets and clipped on the scope. Picking up a backpack, Wreythe hoisted it onto his back and flipped down his sunglasses.
"Where'd dat bitch go off to?" Contra asked, realizing he couldn't here anyone else in the house.
Wreythe stepped forward, and then plowed a fist right into Contra's right shoulder, the audible thud echoing as Contra fell back onto the bed again. "She fucking helped you, you ungrateful bastard. If she didn't have the authorization from the 'Bitch-Queen', than we wouldn't have had help getting here in time. We were almost jumped by some gangers on the way here, and now you're sitting there with your ugly head rolling around bad-mouthing her like its nothing."
Contra looked stricken for a second, but reset his features into his regular dumb grin, rubbing his shoulder. "So den where's she den?"
"Hi there!"
The robot had been following Rain for a few minutes now, trundling after her as she strode through the small town's dirt streets on its single wheel. At first she marveled at how such a robust machine could keep its balance; its flailing arms attempting to act as a balancing pole, but now she just found it dead annoying. She couldn't stand looking at the screen in its central body, the image of a grinning cowboy obnoxiously lifting its hat to her.
"Please stop, I'd like to just say hi!" The robot said enthusiastically, one of its pincer hands seizing her by her the dark cloak she had bought from the town's general store. "Isn't it a lovely morning?" But Rain just swore incoherently and stopped, taking her cloak in both hands, trying to tug it out of the robot's grasp. "Now now, please, you'll hurt my feelings!"
"You're a damn 'bot! Leave me alone!"
"Please don't be angry, I just have a few questions to ask you! Let's get a drink at the saloon!" The robot picked up Rain in both pincers gently and held her as it happily slid down the dirt road, moving into a saloon marked 'The Prospector Saloon'.
The saloon was dark and grimy, the thick stench of strong drink and throw up entered Rain's nostrils, but the robot just swung past an old bitch and its puppies and nestled itself between the bar and a booth, knocking over a cheap bottle of whiskey in the process. "Why sorry Mister Smiles, I'm just so darned excited; I've made a new friend!"
Mister Smiles, an elderly man with a scowl for a smile and deep unforgiving eyes shot a glare at Rain before returning to cleaning the same dirty glass with the same dirty rag. A few men from the town sparsely occupied the various booths and bar stools, but no one bothered to turn around and see what the fuss was about. The robot ordered a glass of Flamin' Hell Whiskey for Rain while it abstained from drinking anything itself. "Spoils my sunny disposition you see!" The robot explained, before asking if Rain would mind joining it for a game of pool. Rain fumed, but agreed and followed the eager robot into the other room. A pregnant woman was sitting by the jukebox, and Victor greeted Missus Smiles before returning his attention to Rain, Picking up a pool cue, Rain set up the balls and broke, while the robot gingerly held a cue and clumsily tore a hole into the fabric, the face on its central unit looking glum while saying "Never was my strong point."
"What do you want?"
The robot span. "Why, first we must introduce ourselves! The name's Victor, but you can call me Vic."
"Rain Munroe of the NCR Army, what do you want?"
Victor's face changed, the cowboy now grinning again. "Well, I know what you want; you want to know how to get to Bonnie Springs. I was listening at the Doc's window," he explained as Rain grew cross. "But what I want is on the way there, it'll be so easy!"
"What is it, Vic?" Rain's patience was running extremely low; she hated robots and all mechanical things that meant to act as humans did.
"Well flip my hot cakes and call me Suzie, won't you please calm down! All I meant was if you could check if there's anyone hangin' round that ol' graveyard on that hill. I'll be down here, but if you see anyone up there than just flash ol' Vic with a torch or something. Could you do that for me?"
"Are you out of your goddamned mind? Why the hell should we climb that fucking hill right in the middle of coyote country or whatever the fuck it is that inhabits this god-forsaken desert!" Rain had finally snapped, and had butted the end of the pool cue into Victor's tough armored body. "Go check out your own damned graveyard!"
Victor's face suddenly turned miserable before he spoke quietly.
"It's the Legion."
Rain hesitated, than grew even angrier. "The Legion's gone, Caesar's dead!"
"No he isn't. The cunning lil' devil wasn't at home when his big palace celebrated the Fourth of July. Only his western Legion bolted when they heard the news and scattered like a rat running from a big cat. I hear back east they still are thrivin', not sure where though."
"That's impossible, the NCR would know for sure! We've got spies, scouts, assassinsā¦" But Rain knew that the NCR wasn't infallible. Rangers had switched sides before; they could have done so again. The trouble with the wasteland was that no one bothered mapping or exploring the more 'uninhabitable' regions; it would be fairly easy for Caesar to hide an army far beyond the NCR's watchful eyes. But Victor wasn't finished.
"Good Mister Smiles said he saw some 'slimy critter' in his own words skulking aroun' up there, but he's an old man. The NCR are here for us, aren't they?"
"But why would the Legion have a spy up on that hill?"
"The flying behemoth. A fully-functioning plane shot past the Mojave Desert a few days ago, and while we at New Vegas have no intention of claiming it or its wreckage, the Legion could say otherwise." Victor seemed be far more serious and refined then he was before, his words no longer containing any of that 'Old Western' speech. It wasn't a far stretch for one to believe that Victor was being remotely manipulated, and judging by his words it was the illusive Mr. House that was doing so.
"We don't care whether the NCR or Legion recovers and/or repairs that derelict, but we don't want either side moving more troops in the Mojave. While the NCR have a minimal presence in the Strip; courtesy of Mr. House's rules, the Legion won't be back for decades, unless they get hold of that plane."
Rain thought desperately. On the one hand she wanted to run back to Shady Sands and report to her superior that the Legion had returned, but on the other hand it could just be a jittery saloon operator and a malfunctioning robot. The NCR were ecstatic when Caesar's Palace was blown up, but now to discover the owner may have not been thereā¦
"Leave him, we'll go together, he'll just slow us down," argued Rain, gesturing towards the sleeping Contra. "We'd have to take bloody baby steps for him to keep up, leave him. In a few days he can leave back west and inform the NCR of what's going on with the Legion."
"Bullshit, if the Legion is involved with the Dear Johns then we need him, he'd be able to pretend to return to the Legion and the NCR would receive a spy."
Rain and Wreythe had been arguing for hours since the grey-eyed young lady had returned from her talk with Victor the Enthusiastic Ass, as Rain indentified him with her personal moniker. At first Wreythe was interested in just heading out by himself and finishing the job properly, but it wasn't difficult for Rain to point out that an entire fledging community of towns and cities were relying on the two of them. The Doc had left them alone, grumbling about young kids and their hormones, and now their shouting risked waking up Contra.
"We can't leave right now anyways, even if we go up to the graveyard tonight there's no guarantee that he'll be there. I'll need at least three days before I can pinpoint the exact position and physical appearance of the spy; if there is one."
"You refuse to leave him, don't you?"
Wreythe sighed. He wasn't that much older than Rain but the years of hardship seemed to pile on him as he sank into the uncomfortable wooden chair. Rain's opinion of Wreythe had changed since coming to Goodsprings. A selfish man, which is what she thought of Wreythe before, would have just jumped ship and left Rain and the wounded Contra. A selfish man wouldn't have offered to leave under the pretense of finding and killing Caesar. He was loyal, she decided, but she wanted to know more.
"Where do you come from, Mister Dyson Wreythe?" Rain asked, jumping onto an empty bench top and crossing her legs. She had changed into a pale red pre-war dress that reached her knees, the back strapless and bare like her feet. She had brushed her reddish-brown hair out and tied it back into a ponytail.
"Long answer," Wreythe said, shaking his head. "I'm just a traveler from the east looking for some answers."
"Answers?"
Wreythe leaned back in the chair and gazed at the beauty seated before him. "You think the NCR is great, don't you? I was in Shady Sands for less than a few minutes and I already knew I didn't like how things were done. Discrimination, bribery, Blackmail and I'm pretty sure I saw a body lying just outside the city as we left. A bum asked me for some money before a guard beat the living shit out of him, while a child feasted on the dead flesh of another child just around the bend. Tandi could do a lot to stop it but instead it seems she's focused on expanding her borders."
"What to do you mean?" Rain wasn't blind to the filthy acts going on inside the NCR's territory, but what made Wreythe so sure they were expanding more?
"Primm. That patrol wasn't just guarding the route from bandits; they were essentially blockading the town. The NCR is building the foundation in which their invasion of the Mojave will take place. Who controls Hoover Dam? In less than a decade it'll be the NCR, the rate their moving they'll own everything from here to Washington in just a few years time, while more and more people will fall beneath the poverty line as the NCR greedily sucks at every living thing."
Rain didn't answer. She couldn't answer. This man who had never set foot in Shady Sands before a few days ago had just predicted a possible future of the NCR, and Rain Munroe couldn't help but agree. Luckily, Wreythe saw how uncomfortable she was with that notion and changed the subject. "How 'bout you, you came out from one of the Spheres?"
It had always amused Wreythe to no end to discover people still lived in those giant Biospheres on the northern shores of Africa. The world governments had all invested in saving people in case a nuclear war occurred, and the idea to evacuate millions of people to live in these shelters had proved to be the right idea.
"Yes, but my parents took me across the Great Ocean when I was very young. We were cold and hungry, but the NCR had welcomed us with open-arms."
Wreythe nodded, and looked at her pointedly. "Maybe your opinions about the way the NCR does things will change a bit over this journey, maybe we can pop into Vegas before we go back west?"
"That might be nice; I've never been there before." Rain had never been allowed leave to visit the Entertainment Capital of the World, but this provided her with an opportunity few were given. Wreythe smiled and patted her shoulder before claiming he wanted to study that hill where the graveyard was located. His opinion of her was already starting to change.
