Chapter 2
Three days the recruitment team of Terry, Smiles and Trudy stayed in NCR governed Primm recruiting. During that time we found six people who wanted to come to Goodsprings. Two farmers, A mechanic, deputy bugle and 2 others that wished to join the defense force
After searching around and being pointed in the direction of the military governor of Primm Lieutenant Hayes. they asked and received permission to scavenge the old bison hotel despite being told that they had cleared the hotel of any surviving powder gangers that had been missed and had their own supply people requisition anything they needed. as they swept the outside of the hotel including the tracks of the broken roller coaster they found a powder ganger body at the top of the tracks that must of been missed by the NCR forces stripping him of his convict uniform they found twenty-six caps, two twenty NCR dollar bills, a beat up ten millimeter pistol, two and a half magazines of ammo totaling thirty rounds a razor sharp combat knife and half a dozen 5.56mm rounds but no rifle could be found
As the team moved in through the double doors ground floor of the hotel they came face to face with a trio of dead convicts judging from their bullet ridden clothes there was no guns visible deciding to clear the rest of the floor before scavenging moving behind the desk and its still working terminal peeking through the open door into what looks like a break room there is no bodies various iceboxes and trash lie around moving around the corner they find another body this one missing his arm bellow the elbow and his head hanging by a small strip of meat again no guns the bloody crowbar however was picked up by the melee preferred recruit Bobby Ortiz a mountain of a man moving on they looked into the small store and saw no signs of people living or dead. sweeping quickly down the hall they found three more bodys in the cafeteria one of them horribly burned.
Since there was no signs of life Sunny showed everyone how to booby trap a door by rigging a grenade with a strip of duct tape and coyote fur string they split up into groups of two to check for valuables. as time passed they brought what they had found to the main rooms desk the convicts and troopers even the courier may have searched but not very well. they returned with bags of books empty sarsaparilla bottles. A few weapons were found three 9mm pistols a varmint rifle that had seen much better days around fifty rounds of ammunition two shots of MED-X and a bottle of RAD-X two stimpacks some random food and drinks five sets of random armor stripped from the dead. Beggars cant be choosers after all, almost three hundred NCR dollars and sixty caps by time they were finished loading all the captured loot into some of the sleeping bags the convicts used they snuck up the stairs to the second floor.
"The moment they open the door they found a decapitated body of a raider. moving on searching room after room they found five more bodies none living though. They spent the next two hours looking in every drawer desk and cabinets finding a cabinet the cons had been using as a gun rack filled with two near perfect 10mm pistols and a 10mm SMG with almost a hundred rounds they also found almost two hundred NCR dollars and another sock filled with about sixty caps. "Quite a haul from a well looked over building summer commented to the others" they chuckled as bugle said " No one ever said the NCR was smart.
"They carry all of their finds to the main lobby and after cleaning the armor sets up Sunny, Bugle and I stay in our leather armor while the other three make their choices Bobby chooses a thin leather shirt with bandoleers for ammunition David picks up a padded leather vest but keeps his well worn jumpsuit and lastly Sam trades out his fithy rags for a blue sleeved vest they all start splitting up the guns and ammo at Sunny and my suggestion. they go from lightly armed with only one gun among the three of them to all of them with a pistol on their hips a rifle or shotgun in Bobby's case and each with almost a hundred rounds.
To lighten their load they carried their finds over the the Vicky and Vance hotel across the street to sell what they could to old man Nash. they were able to sell the biggest pain to Nash the remained ten sets of clothes that were not deemed useful enough to carry back with them along with a dozen doses of psycho, jet and buffout making another hundred and sixty caps. Mission complete they meet up with Trudy who hadn't found any more volunteers together they head out all six with improvised packs while Sunny and I also carry goodsprings issue hip bags.
They made it halfway to the sky diving school in excellent time. But before they could see the picked over remains of the next building voices carried ".. guy in Primm says those Goodsprings fuckers will be coming soon there's only nine of them only. six of them shooters we take them first." Smiles motions everyone to stop and get down. Terry and bugle comes over as do the other three defense force newbies gather close. Smiles looks at the men around her and whispers "looks like the NCR missed a few raiders looks like at least eight of them. It's too dark, but they all have either rifles or shotguns maybe pistols. I say we wait till night and sneak up on them and do it quietly" Terry nods and motions to the gear bag they brought since they left Goodsprings.
They didn't just have food, water, extra ammo but three razor sharp throwing knives and a pair of short javelin's. Just enough. Terry thinks as they spread out the stealth weapons and tell bugle to guard the others. "Now" Terry says "The hardest part" Smiles nods "the waiting". The hours pass slowly lightly napping as they can.
After what felt like hours it was time. The moon high in the sky Terry snaps. Smiles and the others gather up their weapons lightly jumping under mine and Smiles watchful eye and ear to secure any equipment that makes noise till you can't hear a thing. Smiles take's Bobby and I take David. The last Sam stays behind with Trudy the mechanic Phil and the two farmers Sarah and Jack. Slowly moving up we see a campfire going with four men standing or sitting nearby and eight others on makeshift cots asleep. I motion to Smiles raising a spear and motioning to all of us then at the four awake men. She nods and turns to her guy just as I do the same to whisper "Ok so all four of us will throw a spear at the four awake guys then we will take the other eight prisoner" he nods.
I look back and give a thumbs up to Smiles one that she returns. We move up to less the ten feet from them thankfully the firelight has robbed them of any natural night vision. Out of the darkness four javelin's fly out. Three men drop without a word. The fourth is hit in the stomach but before he could scream Smiles hand flashes and a hilt appears in his throat and he falls without a peep like the others. The militia moves up and starts silently removing weapons from the sleeping men. Only one wakes up and is killed with a slit throat. Once all the weapons are in friendly hands the sleeping men are awoken with a banging pot to see three men and a women each with two slung shotguns or rifles with another in their hands several pistols in their belts told these guys their weapons are no longer theirs. As did five of their buddies bleeding bodies scattered around. Smiles looks over the seven men who were going to kill them earlier. "Hello guys we are the "goodsprings fuckers" I believe you called us two hours ago" their faces go pale as they realized their trap had backfired horribly. "Now I have for you three options: One. We take you just up to the road to Primm witch is now a NCR town and you can go back to jail or executed witch ever they decide. Two we kill you right now or. Three we fit you with these wonderful explosive collars and you guys work for us for a few weeks not as slaves but as workers and we let you go we will even pay you. Now because you were going to try and kill us it won't be well paying at least until the end of your hard work sentence then the pay will double plus room and board fifteen caps a day three meals and a safe place to lay your head now if your not that good with math after the four weeks it will double to thirty caps and you can start over with a fresh slate in goodsprings. How's that s…" she was interrupted by a man in his early 20s who had been sneering the entire time " how bout this instead you cunt? Suck. My. Di.." The back of his head exploded as Smiles pulled the trigger on the shotgun "now as I was saying…. Oh yes how's that sound fella's?" Smiles continued.
The six survivor's looked between the headless corpse, the others and the shotgun welding smiling woman they all said "that sounds great" "Wonderful!" Smiles says she looks back at the newbies "Watch these guys if they twitch shoot them got it?" The two guys pop the barrels on their double barrels to ensure they are loaded "Yes ma'am!" Collaring the six survivors took about five minutes they stripped the dead of their clothing finding some extra ammo caps and food the clothing can be cleaned and repaired to either sell or trade later on like back in primm. The body's were left where they fell the sleeping mats were however taken as well. A few minutes later they were on their way home, prisoners in tow having survived the third Actual Battle in Goodsprings militia