It was a beautiful morning in the Mojave as Gekko entered the barracks to grab a quick breakfast. And thankfully it was a very un-awkward morning between her and the Major. He even got her Weathered 10 in top working order before the start of his shift. He tried to explain that the problem she was having had something about how the gun was unique from other 10mm pistols. Nomenclature mumbo jumbo that was a little bit above her understanding. Either way, it worked now and that was enough to make her happy. She took a seat at the bar and ordered a large plate of scrambled gecko eggs.

"Well now, look who's here!" A familiar voice came from behind her. She turned around in her seat to see Cass waltzing through the doors.

Cass sat down in the stool next to her. "So, how'd it go last night?"

"I suppose I could ask you the same thing." Gekko said with a wink. "I don't normally kiss and tell you know. But I guess I could say that it was a very good night."

Cass laughed. "I don't think I've ever had a bad night with a soldier."

The man working the morning bar shift set down Gekko's eggs. Cass looked at them hungrily. "Damn that looks good. I'll take the same thing she's having."

"Guess both of us need a good re-fueling after last night, huh?" Gekko ribbed Cass before she dug into her eggs.

"You could say that again. That is what I like about younger men. They at least have the energy to keep up. Private Charlie, the guy I have been spending time with lately. He is practically a kid still, but sure as hell knows how to please."

"Are you guys dating?"

Cass shook her head. "Oh no, not even close. More like just keeping each other from going bored out of our fucking minds in this place."

"You know Cass, I am getting back on the road today. Care to partner up with me for a while?" Gekko suggested.

"Can't. Even though my caravan is long gone, my papers keep me rooted to this spot, and there is not a damn thing I can do about it. And trust me I would rather be anywhere then here." Cass stared down at her food, which had just arrived.


Gekko got up from her seat after paying for her meal. "Well, I need to be heading off. Hope things can turn around for you soon, Cass."

"We'll see about that. You take care out there and don't get into too much trouble."

Gekko left the Outpost behind and made the day trip back to Nipton. The stench of death was starting to overwhelm the town. However, it was the only really good place to stay before Novac. She made a quick stop in the general store to check in on the crippled Powder Ganger. He was still begrudgingly stuck in the same spot. But she left him with a couple boxes of food.

She stayed the night in the same house she did the other day. In the morning she decided to pick up the grenade rifle she had found and got the hell out of that God-forsaken town. The only obstacle she ran into on her way to Novac was a small group of raiders camped near the road. Naturally, she stepped on a frag mine they set out, which alerted them to her presence. With her trusty pistol back at her side, they went down pretty easy. It felt good to have her old gun back. She had been shooting with that thing since her hands were barely big enough to hold it. Having something so familiar was a blessing when out all by yourself in the wastes.

The large green dinosaur, which signified the town of Novac was a welcoming sight. And a town with living people in it was also nice, after the Primm situation and the Nipton massacre. Next to the town entrance were a couple of ladies operating a kitchen out of a large tent. She found out from them that rooms were available to rent in the motel. Also that a group of men, one of them being checkered suit, had been there several days before.

Inside the dark, crumbling main office of the motel, an elderly woman with very large reading glasses, clad in a grimy green dress was sweeping behind the desk. She looked up upon hearing the front door open.

"Well, welcome to you." She gave Gekko a warm greeting. "You look tired from the road. Why don't you relax a spell, let this fine town take care of you."

Gekko nodded. "Thanks, and you are?"

"Oh, what am I doing? I got to thinking about making a good impression and plain forgot to tell you my name. I'm Jeannie May. I take care of folks here at the motel. Long as they aren't trouble makers."

"How much for a room here?"

"I'll give you a good flat rate of 100 caps, and you can stay here as long as you like. Least till the busy season comes. Sound good?" Jeannie May offered.

"Sounds good to me." Gekko counted out 100 caps in exchange for a room key. "Say, have you seen a man wearing a checkered suit pass through here recently?" She hoped to gain some more information on her assailant.

"Well he may have been wearing a fancy outfit, but he wasn't any kind of gentleman to me. Had his nose stuck so high in the air, you couldn't see it above the clouds. City folk, they always think they deserve better then what they got. Those hoodlums he was with seemed to know Manny for some reason. He's our daytime sniper, up in the dinosaurs mouth."

"Thanks." Gekko nodded to Jeannie May as she turned to leave the office. Her next stop would be paying a visit to this 'Manny', first thing in the morning.

"Have a good nights rest dear. Your room is the first door on the second story, above the office."

Her new room was actually decently large. It was dark, with boarded up windows, crumbing walls and stains on the bed and carpet. But as far as digs in the wasteland goes, it wasn't anything too shabby. The queen-size bed even had sheets on it. A luxury she had not enjoyed in well over a week. There was storage for her things, a safe underneath the pre-war TV, and a working refrigerator.

Gekko put herself to work unpacking her backpack, as well as unloading ED-E. It was doubtful that there would every be any "busy season" like Jeannie May had mentioned. So as far as she was concerned, this place was hers indefinitely. She locked her extra guns and ammo in the safe, leaving out her rifle, shotgun, and pistol. Those were about all she would need to get by for now. There was some boxed food already in the fridge, and she decided to add her collection to it, as well as all the various beverages and alcohol she had gathered thus far. Her growing collection of chems went into the first aid box in the bathroom. She had to remember to sell those sometime, they were starting to take up space.

She changed out of her leather armor and into her sleeping clothes. The bed was remarkably comfortable. She had no trouble getting to sleep that night.

Gekko was awoken some time later by her stomach howling at her. Unable to ignore it, she sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and checked the time on her pip-boy. 10:30 am. "Fuck" she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. "How the hell long did I sleep?" She changed into the pair of faded out blue jeans she found in nipton, and a white tank top. Consumed a couple boxes of dandy boy apples, and was out the door.

On the left side of the obnoxious green t-rex, was a set of creaky wooden stairs, which led to the inside of the dino's belly.

"Welcome to the Dino Bite gift shop. My name is Cliff. If you're here for the t-rex figurines, you're just in time. There are still a few left." A man behind the counter greeted her.

"Actually, I heard there was a snipers nest in here."

"No one ever wants to buy the t-rexes." He begrudgingly said under his breath. "The snipers are up the stairs there to your left and through the door."

"Thanks." Gekko nodded to him as she made her way up the stairs.

A tan skinned man, who looked close to her age, turned around to greet her. "What's goin' on, man?" He had a dark brown, well trimmed moustache and beard, with a shaved head. He wore a faded red sweater with an armored green vest over it, and a red beret.

"Just looking for someone. Who might you be?"

"I'm Manny Vargas. I'm on security detail here. You see a rifle barrel sticking out of the dinosaurs mouth, you got a fifty-fifty shot it's me. Otherwise it's Boone." He answered her.

Ah, so you're Manny.

"I am looking for a man in a checkered suit. Rumor has it he has passed through here recently. Do you know anything about him?"

"Sure, I know him. What do you want with him?"

Gekko pointed to the healing stitches on her left temple. "I suppose you could say I have a score to settle with him."

"Heh, I'm not surprised. Guy seemed like he would do what ever it takes to get what he wants. Probably makes a lot of enemies. I can help you find him, but I've got some problems of my own that need to be taken care of. Maybe we can help each other out."

Or maybe I can kick you in the nuts until you tell me what I want to know. Gekko briefly pondered the thought. "Ok, what do you need?"

"This place, it's home for me now and I want that to be for good." He explained. "The only resource we have here is junk. Without that, the people would have nothing to trade. They would have to leave. Most of it comes from the old rocket test site up the road, but a bunch of ghouls took it over lately and we can't get in."

"Ok Manny, what are you getting at here?" She was starting to grow impatient.

"Well, they gotta go. Or else this will become a ghost town before too long. Does not matter to me how you do it. Just get the ghouls out of there and I will tell you what you need to know."

"I will give it some thought." Gekko replied as she turned to leave.

Not wanting to waste her time doing someone else's chores, Gekko decided to hunt around for any clues on her own. Instead of finding leads on the man she was looking for, she ended up with a growing list of people wanting her to do work for them. A wayward singer looking for new work, a sketchy doctor needing *clean* medical supplies, an injured NCR ranger worried about his buddies stationed down the road, and a Brahmin rancher whose livestock has been getting slaughtered nightly. She even ran into Victor, who suddenly decided to up and leave Goodsprings after 'living' there for several years.

For fucks sake I am not a Goddamn mercenary!

The sky was growing dark by the time Gekko admitted defeat to herself. She headed on over to the snipers nest, so she could tell Manny she would take the job. The info just better be damn good.

"Goddamn it! Don't sneak up on me like that. What do you want?" A different man was on duty this time, glaring at her expectantly through his sunglasses. He also had a shaved head and wore a red beret.

"Nice to meet you too." She grumbled. She recalled something about there being another sniper in town. "I was looking for Manny."

"He works days."

A loud bang came from the door behind her. Both of them jumped as the sniper reached for his rifle.

"It's ok, it is just my robot." She cracked open the door enough to let ED-E in. He beeped at her as he buzzed through the door. "Are you always this jumpy?"

"I think you should leave." The sniper replied, eyeing ED-E suspiciously. "Wait, you just got into town didn't you? Maybe you shouldn't go. Not just yet."

Gekko was thrown off by the sudden 180 degree change in demeanor. "So… why do you want me to stay all of a sudden?"

"I need someone I can trust. You're a stranger. That's a start."

Gekko cocked her eyebrows. 'What, you only trust strangers or something?"

"I said it was a start." He snapped at her. "This town... Nobody looks me straight in the eye anymore. I want you to find something out for me. I don't know if there is anything to find, but I need someone to try."

Goddamn it! Not another person looking for someone to do their work for them. What is it with this town?

"My wife was taken from our home by Legion slavers one night, while I was on watch. They knew when to come and which route to take, and they only took Carla. Someone set it up. I don't know who."

"So, you are trying to track down your wife then?"

"My wife's dead. I want the son of a bitch who sold her. Just find whoever did it, and I promise I will make it worth your while."

Gekko sighed. Of all the people in this town needing help, this guy sounded like he needed it the most. And he was the only one who mentioned a payment. Which there was no denying it, caps were always needed. "Fine, I will see what I can do. What if I find this person?"

"Bring him out here in front of the nest while I am on duty. I work nights." He took off his red beret and tossed it to her. "Put this on, it will be our signal so I know you are standing with him. I'll take care of the rest."

"One quick question before I leave. Since you are on nights here, do you know anything about the Brahmin slaughter that has been going on at McBride's?"

"Only that it happens around midnight and that it sounds like a mini-gun being fired. I can't see over there from the nest, and any time I have gone to look, I could not see anyone near by." He answered her.

"Ok, thanks for that bit of help anyways." Gekko turned to leave.

"Oh and one more thing." The sniper spoke up. "We shouldn't speak again. Not until this is over. No one in town knows that I know what happened to my wife. Best they never do. Or the Legion will be after me next."

There was only a couple hours until midnight, and Gekko was not feeling tired. Not yet at least. She decided to camp out for a while on a ledge facing Dusty McBride's house. She listen to the suave, sexy voice of Mr. New Vegas read off the recent news on her pip-boy. The time passed quickly as she watched the Brahmin root around in their pen and listened to some soft tunes from New Vegas Radio. She made sure to check often for anything wandering around the area. Most people in the town seemed to turn in rather early, so it was very quiet around her.

As midnight approached, she turned off her radio and paid close attention to her pip-boy screen. A couple of minutes later, a non-hostile marker showed up. She looked towards the area it came from. Over by the mountains to the West of town. She scanned hard in that direction as the dot moved closer. But nobody was there. Maybe ED-E was malfunctioning? The moonlight shimmered off of something next to the Brahmin pen catching her attention.

Suddenly a blue super mutant flashed into view where the shimmer was, holding a mini-gun. Flashes of light blazed from the end of the barrel as the mutant gunned down an innocent Brahmin. Gekko grabbed her rifle and opened fire. The bullets barely seemed to affect the mutant, but were enough to turn his attention towards her. Gekko opted for her shotgun and charged in, shooting at the mini-gun. She disarmed the mutant, who pulled out a large make-shift club crafted from a hunk of concrete attached to long poles of rebar. She ducked as the club swung right past her head. She aimed up and fired into the mutants face point blank. It took several shots from both her and ED-E before they were finally able to bring him down.

Super Mutants were nothing new to her. But she had never seen a blue one like this before. Perhaps it was some sort of different mutation. He was also markedly more difficult to bring down compared to other super mutants she had dealt with in the past. She quickly searched the body and found some sort of journal. Inside was a bunch of non-coherent rambling and something about the screams of Brahmin keeping the author up at night.