Accidentally Starting Something

When I came to, I was laying against a rock and the afternoon sun was beating down on me over the western mountains. I looked around to see a tiny campfire and "Paul" or "Rickety Richard" who wasn't wearing his mine supervisor outfit. The man sat on a rock across the crackling little fire wearing a black set of clothes with a thick sleeveless leather jacket. Brown leather straps were slung across his body connecting little patches of rusty steel or pouches, and his hair was still greased over. I looked towards the west and through the sunlight where I saw the town of Redding. Beyond that was a cloud of smoke rising from the base of the mountain.

I looked back at my rescuer and he said plainly, "Don't worry, we're safe. We're on the other side of town."

I felt completely sober, but still incredibly exhausted, and I started to itch everywhere. I thought about Jet and began to unconsciously scratch my arms. He said, "Starting to want Jet?"

I nodded and said weakly, "Yeah... You plan that mutant attack?"

Paul/Richard sat next to me and opened up a first aid box. He injected a needle into a rip on my right pant leg. He smiled, "No, just happened to work out for us… I was originally planning to 'Execute' you for slowing your work."

I asked the guy, "What are you giving me?"

He said while working on me, "I'm mixing 'Fixer' with a stimpack… Stimpack should take away some of that pain. I mix the Fixer with it, so it spreads throughout your circulatory system. Fixer doesn't usually alleviate Jet withdrawal symptoms upon ingestion due to Jet's neurological effects. So, once I'm done here and your heart does it's work, you should feel fine… At least for a while."

He began to wrap some of my injuries after shooting me with the drug hybrid while I sat there still barely conscious. I uttered generally, "I've never been addicted to anything before."

Paul/Richard said, "There's no cure for Jet addiction… That's why the NCR sent me to investigate the outbreak in Redding… Fixer should relieve the symptoms, but you never really get over the addiction. I got my own trick though since Fixer is pretty rare out here…"

I asked him, "How did you get off it?"

He said simply, "I haven't… I needed to get hooked on Jet just to become a supervisor. However, I've found a few ways to calm the symptoms of withdrawal without getting high as a kite."

He was done working on me and moved back to a little fold out chair across the campfire. I asked, "How's that?"

I began feeling the stimpack cure all of my ailments and the Fixer stopped the itching. Paul said, "Water, simple as that."

He opened the satchel leaning against his chair and pulled out a Jet inhaler. He said with a tone of pride at his discovery, "Water severely dilutes the effects of Jet for some reason, but I still need to take a hit every day or two…"

He demonstrated his discovery before me. He poured three quarters of a Jet inhaler on the ground and filled the little cartridge with water. He began to shake it up and I asked, "Am I going to be addicted to Jet until I die?"

He looked up and responded, "At least until they find a cure… Bunch of egg heads are working on it back at Shady Sands and some places further down south. There's rumor about some doc at Vault City trying to make a cure but those fucks don't care for anyone but themselves…"

I asked the guy while the sun was half gone below the mountains, "Why did you save me? And what is it you do again?"

He adjusted in his chair across the fire and said, "I am, well, 'was', investigating the appearance of Jet in Redding. I'm a detective working for the NCR government."

I had a thousand questions on my mind, but asked, "Why do you say 'was'? What happens now? And what is this NCR?"

He asked skeptically, "Where you from again?"

I responded, "I'm from nowhere, but I came Here from Klamath."

He looked at me through the fire for a moment as the shadows grew longer. He said, "The NCR, or 'New California Republic' was born out of a tiny settlement called Shady Sands long before I was born. The NCR is trying to unify the wasteland, but the northern territories are still a wilderness."

I recalled the sign that said, "Welcome to Redding" and all the scratched out words that said, "NCR" "Vault City" and "New Reno." I asked, "Are we in the NCR right now?"

He said, "No, NCR is much further south, but it's trying to annex some of the northern settlements or encourage their membership, like Redding."

I asked, "What's important about Redding?"

He paused a minute before saying, "The NCR nation itself is much further south, but our influence has reached far beyond. Redding has gold reserves that our diplomats spent a long time negotiating for control of. Redding is split and the Northern Wastes are very chaotic, but all major settlements agreed to start using our gold currency in place of caps. I'm doing my part to figure out how to lean this community in our favor."

I asked, "In what way?"

He went on, "There are a few mining companies in Redding. One is exporting gold to Vault City far to the east. One is sending gold back to us, and the other is sending gold to New Reno to the southeast. The Morning Star Mining Company sends its gold to New Reno... Due to that city's corrupt nature, and the Morning Star Company's connection to slaves and drugs; I figured they were the best bet in finding some leads. Everyone in Redding is high on Jet, but slavery and drugs are the legitimate culture of New Reno…"

I asked curiously, "What exactly are you trying to figure out?"

He said, "I've gathered that Morning Star is the main supplier of Jet in Redding, and their ties to New Reno make me believe the crooked town is responsible…"

He paused briefly and continued, "I've spent the past month working alongside the supervisors and Jet addicted miners trying to paint a clearer picture on who exactly is responsible… New Reno is a town full of scum, but the NCR doesn't have the strength to militarily annex the place. I have to find out who is responsible, what their motive is, and stop them to avoid a conflict with the entire North..."

He looked up from the fire, "Then You came into the picture, and things are… Changing."

I was a little shocked to hear that, but vaguely remembered our chat the night before. So, I still asked, "What did I do?"

He looked at me seriously for a minute and began, "Slavery was a dying business even in the north until recently… Several years ago, slavery and missing people hit an all-time high. This was back in the mid-2230s... But then, it stopped…"

I interrupted, "What does this have to do with me and the, 'Vertibird' I saw?"

He said sternly, "I'm getting to that… When I was first inducted into the Covert Ops, we learned about an unsolved case before my time. Caravans would go missing out of Shady Sands all the time in the 2230s and the NCR military got intel on a unique case. The case detailed a caravan survivor whose whole gang went missing and the lone person returned to Shady Sands in 2233. The survivor went to the police station reporting that he was enslaved after their caravan disappeared. The survivor detailed that they were picked up by a 'Vertibird' and taken to a mine. The report was barely legible since the survivor was still in shock. They were taken to the hospital for emergency treatment, but before the Intel Community could get a real interview, the person was dead with tumorous lumps all over their body."

I said with a confused, "Wha-What?…"

Detective Paul halted me and continued, "I studied the case during my intel training, and based on what you told me; things are getting really interesting."

I asked again, "In what way?"

He was about to continue with his story, but stopped and said, "I've already told you way too much, but I'll tell you this: Slavery and missing people increase in the north. Slavers expand Ops to Klamath. Jet surges in Redding. New Reno linked companies enslave people with Jet. Then a Vertibird is mentioned for the first time since a cold case report?..."

He stopped and thought to himself. He broke the silence with a question I don't think was really meant for me to answer, "And how do Slavers from The Den know what the flying machine is called!?"

He raised his voice and spoke to the wind, "The case and even name, 'Vertibird' was a closely guarded secret in the NCR over 200 miles from The Den?"

He got up from his chair and plopped himself down on a sleeping bag next to the fire. I asked cautiously, "What does… What does all that mean?"

He threw his arm over his face as he laid there and said, "I don't know… It's been a long day… All of this doesn't make any sense..."

Suddenly, he sat up, looked at me, and asked a seemingly rhetorical question, "And how does this involve a wasteland wanderer from Klamath?"

We sat there in silence for a moment, the man shifted his eyes to the fire, and I asked, "Does all this mean your 'Jet Investigation' is over?"

He shifted his eyes back at me and said, "I guess… That smoke cloud from the Wanamingo Mine seems to say so. After I radio in what you told me, I'll probably be reassigned to investigate this giant fucking puzzle."

We sat there in silence for a minute. I couldn't believe everything this "Detective" just told me. Detective Paul laid back down to watch the stars and I stared into the flames. I asked stupidly, "Those mutants?… and the mine?… Why are they called, 'Wanamingos?'"

Still watching the night sky, he responded, "Some old folklore. When Redding was founded, they found a bunch of those purple mutant things in the old mine. 'Wanamingo' comes from some old 'Indian' story about cursing the white man who settles Redding for starting the Great War or whatever… I guess they named the creatures and even the mine itself after the curse or something?"

I was pretty tired at that point myself and said, "I guess the curse worked."

He let out a faint laugh, "Yeah. Just after you passed out, I heard the supervisors saying the mine is overrun by the damned mutants. I popped into town once I got you here and apparently, there's already word that Mayor Ascorti's putting out a charter to clear the place..."

His words turned into mumbling while he passed out saying, "Morning Star and Danger Dan are moving to a vacant mine north of town…"

I didn't bother to ask what he was talking about; I was too tired. I closed my eyes but thought about what the man did for me and said, "Thanks for saving me, Detective Paul. I probably would've died there if it wasn't for you."

He sleepily said, "No problem."

I went to sleep that night feeling extremely rested. Just before I drifted off to sleep, I heard my rescuer take a deep hit from his diluted Jet. I didn't know it at the time, but I started something in my Jet induced rambling that would affect the entire region for decades to come.