Back In The Wastes 1

ED-E Log: 9/23/2082-1

It had been far too long since last he saw his savior, and ED-E had grown tired of waiting for him to return on his own. He knew that he shouldn't have let Six leave the safety and comfort of the Lucky 38 without him, especially after the recent loss that still weighed heavily on both of their minds, but ED-E trusted Six when he told him that he would only be away for three days to clear his mind.

According to both his internal systems and the resources available to Yes Man it had already been two months, six days, fourteen hours, thirty-six minutes, and eight seconds since Six had made that promise. Neither robot waited more than a week to begin their search for the only friend that they still had, beside each other of course. They weren't worried that the worst had happened to him… but ED-E had been with Six for one too many adventures gone horribly wrong to believe that everything was still okay. The scars he carried with him still were a testament to both Six's tenacity and the human weaknesses that he had come close to removing after almost a year of wandering the Mojave.

The two robots began their search a month after he departed from Mr House's former throne, carefully investigating rumors surrounding any mysterious slaughters or other bloody paths of destruction that Six might have trailed behind him. Yes Man first searched for Six in New Vegas, and after a few days of talking to the heads of each casino on The Strip as well as the Atomic Wrangler in Freeside, he learned that he wasn't the only one looking for Six.

They were all growing worried why the Mojave had grown so quiet recently, aside from the increased number of skirmishes between NCR and Legion forces, the two robots thought it best to search for Six on their own. While this peaceful would have ordinarily been good for business, the deafening amount of it kept everyone in New Vegas on edge knowing that war would soon follow.

Yes Man also checked the other towns and villages that the Courier had either saved or brought to ruin on his travels. The ruins of Goodspring, Nipton, Nelson, and Sloan were still in the same sad state that Six had left them in and the likes of Primm, Novac, Jacobstown, and outer regions of New Vegas had not seen any signs of him since the last time he found himself looking to sell the weapons of an assassination squad that tried their luck against him. It was almost as if Six had vanished without a trace, something that no one thought possible. Everyone that knew of his disappearance began to dread whatever it was that could stop the most fearsome man to travel the wastes since the Chosen One, but still had some hope he would return to save them once more.

After his search efforts amongst the towns and cities failed, Yes Man made an inquiry with the NCR's newly appointed ambassador, a... 'Fantastic' individual appointed to his new position for his work in the HELIOS One power plant for reasons that Yes Man could not begin to comprehend following Crocker's abrupt dismissal, leading to their shared discovery that an entire nation had lost track of both their greatest ally and enemy in their time of need. An official pardon for the crimes that Six had committed against the republic had been drafted and was ready to sign once the man in question agreed to help push back the Legion now that it was growing bolder by the day without their so-called 'Brutus' continuously calling their numbers anymore, but beyond that nothing else had been gained from Yes Man's efforts. Wherever Six had gone, it was now clear that whatever challenges he faced there must have been the most demanding one's he had ever faced before.

While Yes Man was busy with running the city in Six's absence and exhausting all the leads he could find, ED-E travelled the lesser known roads that he and Six visited regularly in the hopes of finding some signs of the only family he had left. Territory that had once belonged to the Fiends was still as desolate as when they had last left that side of Vegas, as were the roads between the Khans in Red Rock Canyon and Super Mutants in Jacobstown. The little Eyebot had been expecting as much, but it still wanted to check the places closest to home to make sure he didn't overlook anything.

A few quick questions were all ED-E had been able to ask around Jacobstown before Marcus caught wind of the robot's visit, and fearing that Six was using the Eyebot to contact Lily despite his exile, the little Eyebot had been chased out after talking with the grandmotherly Nightkin. She, like the rest of the denizens of Jacobstown who had been thoroughly 'questioned' by upgraded Securitrons on the behalf of Yes Man, had not seen Six since Keene disappeared. The other Nightkin who were still being treated there hadn't either, although whether that was the truth or lingering apprehension about talking to someone still associated with Six was impossible to tell.

From there, the lonely little Eyebot had been joined by Rex after The King caught wind of Six's disappearance and the two close companions travelled south towards Quarry Junction in the hopes of finding their missing friend. The only thing they found there were the rotting corpses of two dozen Deathclaws, the same ones that they had left behind before Six learned Sloan's secret the very same day and added a few more bodies to his 'Murder Mountain'. They searched for him in Sloan's ruin despite knowing how much Six wanted to acknowledge the place ever existed, the small town now little more than a bad memory after having been picked clean by either raiders or prospectors who heard about the inhabitants' fate.

Their next destination was the abandoned shack west of Sloan, and after taking a detour by Vault 19 and passing a few ex-Powder Gangers carrying explosives to their new home, they quickly arrived at their destination. This was the first time that their search had been successful, even if it could hardly be considered that. Six had clearly been there, the staggering number of empty bottles of vodka and used Med-X needles laying on the floor was enough proof of that, but the layer of dust on them showed that he had not been there in quite some time. It was possible that he might not even have travelled there after leaving the Lucky 38 last, but neither Rex nor ED-E gave up their search now that they found some sign he had been exploring before his disappearance.

Next they checked the NCR Correctional Facility, a place that neither one of them had been to before but could recognize it at a glance after hearing Six's stories about the place. The NCR had reclaimed the area long ago and it was clear that Six had not been there since purging the last of the Powder Gangers from the Mojave, for if he had, there would have been no living troopers in sight for miles.

Discouraged but not willing to give up their search, the duo then took a detour around the recaptured jail to Hidden Valley in case Six had taken an alternate route to the ruins there to pay his respects to some former friends. Once again, there were signs that Six had visited the place but not any time recently. Rather than his usual calling card of empty bottles of hooch and chem containers, a single dress had been laid out before the Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel's tomb. Neither Rex nor ED-E had the heart to stay for long given the memories that place had carried with them and quickly passed by the area before either of them could linger over the past too long.

Fearing that Six had been feeling sentimental after visiting that area, they then travelled to the 188 Trading Post in the hopes of finding someone who might have seen Six recently. Neither the arms traders there, who could almost consider Six their own closest companions thanks to all the ammo he bought off of them since his first visit there, nor The Forecaster with his psyker talents had seen him. The fact that even a psyker could not find 'the only man without a bluff to hide behind' according to his latest forecast made things seem even more dire for Six.

It was here that Rex and Six parted ways, as after two weeks of searching for Six, Rex had gone far too long without a belly rub and tearing apart a rat or someone wearing a hat, so he decided to make his way to Freeside for just that. ED-E then made the lonely trek around Novac after seeing that Boone was still active in the area. As Boone was still not dead and Six surely couldn't fall to the bloodthirsty sniper in any way that the little Eyebot could think of, ED-E thought it was best to just avoid the area entirely in case the cold-hearted sniper tried taking out his anger on him instead of Six. He didn't quite rule out asking Boone for help in case his own search turned up empty. However, he wouldn't try asking the bloodthirsty bounty hunter until he was that desperate for help.

Camp Searchlight was the next place that ED-E thought to check, and after having to fend off one too many ghouls in the area after cleaning it out once already, made his way to Cottonwood Cove where he found the source of the new ghoul infestation. The place was still as irradiated as they left it, although now there were far more ferals wearing armor marking the allegiance to Caesar. Apparently the rumors about the place being turned into a place of worship for the fallen tyrant after Fortification Hill was reduced to rubble was true, as were the ones regarding the intelligence of the average Legionnaire given how many armor clad ghouls were wandering around the place.

Not wanting to waste yet another week clearing out ferals and running out of places to search for Six, ED-E headed north hoping the last people who still didn't hate Six to his very core knew where he had gone. Travelling through this part of the Mojave took the entirety of the final week of his journey, as the Legion had started increasing its war efforts ever since Legate Lanius became the new Caesar. ED-E was able to witness just how badly things had escalated following Six's disappearance, as the NCR forces stationed around Camp Forlorn Hope and Camp Golf were starting to fail in their efforts to hold back raiding parties coming from across the Colorado River.

What once had been a rare sight one would be lucky to see every other week could now be found every few miles, Legion and NCR soldiers fighting tooth and nail to lay claim over what both sides believed to belong to themselves with little regard of the people who had been living there for generations thought of their arrival. The near constant hail of gunfire and suicidal charges slowed ED-E's pace to a crawl to avoid becoming entangled in a fight he didn't feel like being a part of, but even so he did not slow down his pace. If anything, the current state of this of the Mojave made the little Eyebot work as hard as the hero it once looked up to before his dreams had fallen apart and he thought he had his last tune up before being saved by Six.

ED-E found it funny how even after witnessing the worst that the Mojave had to offer, he could still find it in his circuits to believe that things would be alright once the best it had to offer came back to finish what little business he still had left. While he had no illusions that Six wasn't perfect, few people considered robots like him worthy of their attention, let alone treating them as anything more than a tool to be used and discarded when it had finished serving its purpose. From one former tool to another, ED-E felt that it was only right to go to the same lengths that Six had gone for him in what was surely his time of need and continued towards the Boomers in the hopes of finding someone he knew could track down Six.

It was only after two months of long days and fruitless journeys that ED-E finally found what he had been looking for, or rather what he had been looking for had finally found him.

"Hola niño, tell me where is the cabrón? I still owe him a face full of lead for all the shit he has done." Said a man with an oddly smooth yet predictably deep voice from behind the little Eyebot.

As the man made his presence known, two revolvers could be heard coming to a stop after having their deadly cargo spun into place for his usual insistence on his overall theme. ED-E didn't need to turn around to know who had managed to sneak up behind him and didn't so much as beep out in surprise at having a couple of guns pointed at him. He could recognize that voice from anywhere after having listened to it in the same raptured state that Six did when they traveled together back in the good days, and the shadow of a ghoul in a sombrero made it painfully obvious who was pressing the little Eyebot for questions.

Even though they had left each other on… less than good terms, to say the least, ED-E was overjoyed to hear his old friend Raul Tejada talking to him once more.

["It's been a long time since we've last met, Raul. Can you stop pointing those things at me before you hurt yourself?"] ED-E beeped in his usual way as he turned to face Six's one time friend.

"Oh, that's right. I never did find the time to install a working speaker in you, well, not one that you could use in any case." Raul grumbled after realizing just how useful his interrogation would be if he wanted his answers to be anything intelligible to him.

["Oh right, you're an idiot that can't understand me. Here we go with the beep shit again."]

"How about you just give me one beep for yes, two for no. Sound good?"

["Dick."] ED-E beeped, voicing his usual disapproval for anyone who resorted to playing this game with him like he was a malfunctioning Protectron to his oblivious audience once again.

"Perfect. Now tell me, is the cabrón with you right now?" Raul growled as he scanned the horizon for any signs for the man he was referring to.

["Don't call him that."]

"Hey, I said one or two, not four!"

["Fuck you."]

"Damn, I was really hoping you had seen him. Things have been getting a little…"

["Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition? And stop calling Six an asshole or else I will use my cattle prod on you."]

"Uhh… I'm just going to assume that you said we're a little screwed and uhh... yeah, things have been getting real bad here recently." Raul said as the tension he had been building up fell flat, blissfully unaware of what exactly ED-E was telling him through that symphony of beeps, whistles, and chirps.

"So, do you have any idea if you can get Six over here to make things settle down anytime soon or is he busy trying to kill someone else who used to give a shit about him?"

["Backstabbing bastard."]

"Oh… well do you know when you might be able to get him here then?"

["I wish."] ED-E chirped, looking as depressed as an Eyebot could.

Although Raul lacked Six's talent for understanding advanced robotics, even he knew enough about his companion to know something was wrong. What had once been a look of grim determination soon drew tense with terror as he started to realize why ED-E had come to him despite his falling out with Six.

"...why are you out here, niño? Did something happen to Six? That's… that's not why you came here, is it?" Raul asked him.

["What the fuck? I'm not Lassie!"] ED-E beeped angrily

"Woah there, one or two beeps only little guy, one or two… wait, six beeps for three questions?" Raul asked as a look of absolute horror crossed his face for the first time since ED-E had ever known the old vaquero.

["Yep..."]

"Dios mio." Raul gasped.

That had apparently been enough to put aside whatever hostilities the old gunslinger held towards his former companion as the old ghoul finally sounded concerned for his one time friend's well being. Not wanting to waste any time learning why ED-E had sought him out, Raul holstered his pistols and started making his way towards his shack with a worried look plastered on what was left of his face.

"Follow me niño, I think we have a lot to talk about."

Author's Bit:

So, rather than letting writer's block go to waste by throwing away shorts like these I figured I'd post them here, kind of like an impromptu intermission. Not only that, but I feel that breaking up the pace every now and then would be nice in addition to exposing some small tidbits of the Courier's past every now and then as indirectly as possible. Keep in mind that this is a Comedy/Drama and not Comedy/Action, I have things planned in the future and even I will want an occasional breather.

If there are any other characters or places that you want to know about, let me know. Although I do not post reviews and the like other authors, I do read through them all and respond to those that bring up a point to talk about… and won't end in me revealing too much about the plot.

I also dropped this chapter now as an excuse to tell you all about an update made to Chapter 1. Nothing major was altered… just a few embarrassing typos and other basic edits, noted at the bottom for those that are curious. For the sake of consistency alone, I felt that the update was necessary.

Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope to see you all in the future!