Cass and me returned to Randall for the bounty, then immediately hit the trail again chasing another. This time it wasn't as cut and dry like Quigley's had been. There wasn't much to work on with the target, only that they'd been raiding Caravans not too far from Boulder City. We didn't waste much time getting there, and found a guy by the name of Chesty, his parents were assholes, who'd survived one of the raids. He'd given us the location of where the attack had happened, and we went on our way from there.
The scene of the raid was different from the standard bandit fair though. Which, considering some of the things I'd seen up to that point, might've just made it normal. It was reminiscent of when I'd helped Cass deal with the Crimson Caravan and Van Graffs raiding her old company. Lots of ashes. I couldn't chalk up that the raiders hadn't taken the shipment this time, but most raiders don't typically use energy weapons either. Only minor exception being the fiends, and their near fetish level obsession with those Laser RCWs. But we were far enough outside Fiend territory that, even if our recent liquidation of their leadership hadn't crippled them, they couldn't be blamed.
Sifting through the ashes though, we found something to work with. Though one of the targets had been taken down, as per the word of Chesty, most of him had burned away in the fires. What was left of them amounted a skull, a severed arm, and a Holotape. Lucky us, the job wasn't a dead end. I let Cass tend to collecting the finger, just in case, and took the liberty of figuring out where we were headed next.
The contents of the holotape were directed to somebody named Quantril. If I had to guess, they were probably the person whose finger we were snipping. From the wording on the holotape, it seemed Quantril and his partner in crime, a guy by the name of Onoda, were former military. First guess being that they might've been former NCR. I'd met a band or two of disgraced soldiers in the past who'd taken to banditry. It didn't normally end well for them.
Except the target they said they were aiming for was the Brotherhood of Steel's safehouse. Now the NCR and Brotherhood were far from friends. In fact on the best of days they were more like dysfunctional neighbors who liked shoving dynamite in each other's mailboxes. So while I wouldn't put it past the NCR proper to go chasing them, a couple of their former soldiers? Not so much. Most of them knew the kind of power the Brotherhood had on hand. Even outnumbered ten to one, they had the firepower to tear through NCR troopers like paper.
I already knew where the safehouse was, so Cass and Me wasted no time heading there. We got there in time to watch a Brotherhood Paladin rip the head off an old man like it was a piece of fruit. Come to find that the old man in question was Onoda, and that he'd been an officer in the 'Enclave'. It was the first I'd heard of them in all the time I'd been wandering around the Mojave. Apparently, they'd been the remnants of the pre-war American government. They'd also been hell bent on killing all 'mutants', read people, of the wasteland to make way for the reconstruction of 'America'.
Basically: a bunch of jack-booted thugs who used pre-war tech to murder innocent people. Kinda like the Brotherhood, but with a larger penchant for murder.
It took some finagling to get the paladin to allow us to take Onoda's finger, but we did, and wasted no time in getting it back to Steve.
We walked in and found Steve by the coffee machine, instead of his seat at the desk.
"Damn, back already?" Steve asked "Could've sworn I just sent you out."
"What can I say, I'm a fast worker." I answered, digging the fingers out of my pocket and holdin' them out "Gotcha a gruesome twosome."
Steve collected the fingers, and gave them a look of confusion.
"Could've sworn the bounty was only for one."
"Was, until it turned out there was two of 'em." Cass answered.
Steve nodded and took a sip of his coffee, carefully keeping the bandana in place over his face. "Well, you can fill me in while I do the paper work."
We went back over to the desk, explaining how the job went. Steve practically choked on his coffee when we told him that the fingers we brought in were from Enclave officers. The NCR had a long-standing grudge with the genocidal bastards, but it was thought that almost all of them had died off. It'd been close to Forty years since they'd been blown off the map after all. Most of the chain of command would be elderly by this point, much like Onoda had been.
"You're tellin' me you managed to score not only a bounty, but the fingers from two of the Enclave's officers?" Steve asked incredulous.
"Seems about that way." I answered "Even if Quantril wasn't an officer, Onoda sure was."
"Well, that's gonna change things significantly."
"In good way or a 'this is gonna suck' kinda way?"
"Good, more than likely." Steve answered "NCR still has bounties open on any remaining Enclave personnel. For bringing both of these in I can probably sneak you a nice bonus once I get'em cleared."
"Hell yeah." I said, looking to Cass "You hear that Cass, drinks are on me tonight."
"'Bout time." She chuckled.
"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it might take a while to get the bonus." Steve clarified "I can still give you the caps for the bounty though."
"Hey, money's money in my book." I shrugged.
Steve reached into a drawer of the desk and began retrieving the caps.
"… Been meaning to ask-" I started "What's with collecting fingers for the bounties?"
"What do you mean?" Steve asked "That's just standard procedure."
"Not with the first bounties I worked with the NCR." I answered.
"Really, what'd they want for a marker?"
"In the case of one of them, a hat, but the rest of them required severed heads."
"Shit, really?" Steve asked "Must've really wanted to make sure they were dead then, who the hell were you hunting?"
"Fiends for the brass at McCarran"
"Ah. Yep, that'd do it."
"Think this'll help speed along things?" I asked pulling out Quantril's skull.
"… Jesus man, what the hell did you do?"
"Nothing, he was like that when we found him."
"… Well. Even if we were accepting heads like the military does, I sure as shit wouldn't be able to pay you for it."
"Why?"
"His fuckin' face is burnt off!" Steve said gesturing to the skull "How the hell else are we supposed to identify him?"
"Um… dental?"
"… Six how many dentists have you met in the Mojave?" Cass asked, rubbing her face.
"… Fair point."
"This's why I only accept fingers." Steve said, filling out some paperwork "Can't fake a finger print. It sure as shit ain't as gruesome as takin' someone's head off neither."
"Again, good point. Makes more sense to me than lopping heads off, anyway."
"'s why Cooper taught me to do it."
"Who?" I asked.
"Marshal Cooper" Steve supplied "He showed me the ropes when I was just getting started."
"This's the first I'm hearing of him. Don't think I've encountered anyone from the NCR by that name."
"That's cause he's not. He's a regulator."
I saw Cass tense a little. "A Regulator, one of those asshats?"
"Wrong type of Regulator, Red." Steve answered "Though you can be forgiven for thinkin' so."
"I'm a little out of the loop here, care to fill me in?" I asked.
"Regulators are a bunch of gangster trashbags from back west." Cass answered "They claim to bring 'law and order' wherever they go, but they're more like the Omertas. Shaking people down for money, taking what they shouldn't, and forcing people to work in a portion of the Boneyard they carved for themselves called 'Adytum'."
"…So they're kinda like Caesar, but with a gangster fetish?" I asked.
Cass snorted a chuckle "Yea, basically."
"Well Cooper wasn't one of them." Steve clarified "He was from out east, and the Regulators out there are closer to the bounty hunters and Rangers out here than those Boneyard shit-stains."
"One of the good ones I'm guessing?" I asked.
"Tch, one of the best." Steve answered, and I couldn't shake the feeling he was smiling "He was the bravest lawman and bounty hunter I've ever had the pleasure of meetin'."
"That good?"
"Heh, I saw him kill three raiders single handedly- with a fuckin' fork!"
"Shit, that good."
"Wouldn't've believed that shit if I hadn't watched him do it." Steve chuckled, shaking his head "I don't know all the much about him, except he came from out in Maryland or Virginia somewhere."
"Shit, could always use hands around to help" I joked "Where's he at?"
"He stayed back east somewhere." Steve answered "Last we spoke, he said he had some unfinished business. You're free to go find him if you want though."
"Hmm… Nah, too much effort, I'll keep him in mind just in case I'm ever out that way though."
"You should. He saved my life several times, in more ways than one, and taught me everything I know. Would've been nice to have him out here huntin' for Marco with me."
"Who?"
Steve didn't answer, and I saw his expression drop behind that bandana of his. "… Someone I hope you ain't ever gotta worry about. He ain't your problem, he's mine."
"For a price, he could be." I joked.
Steve didn't answer, but I could've sworn he glared at me for a moment. "… You gonna keep chasin' bounties today, or are we just gonna keep jawin'?"
"Uh… bounties, assuming you've got 'em." I answered, looking to Cass. She shrugged clearly noticing the sudden shift in the mood.
"Right… gimme a moment, I'll get the next one."