AN: Chapter 24 of Fallout: Unforgotten.
As the Lone Wanderer neared the Silver Rush he began going over a mental checklist.
'Grab a few pistols and rifles, nothing too heavy. In and out, be quick about it.' He thought at least until he was close enough to see that the door was opened slightly.
"Sigh, In and out. Yeah right." He chided himself.
'Why can't somethings be easy for once?' he thought as he slowly opened the door to peer inside. The store was dimly lit but he could make out a couple of figures moving about, looters taking advantage of the chaos he reasoned.
"Hurry up! Grab whatever looks expensive, we'll be the ones coming out on top once this blows over." He could hear one of them giving orders no doubt the ringleader of the group. The Lone Wanderer stuck to the shadows as he snuck inside careful not to draw attention to himself.
"Hey can't we just make a second trip? It's not like these weapons are going anywhere." One looter noted.
"We aren't taking any chances that the owner might come back while we're away, so we're grabbing anything of value and set fire to the place afterward." The Leader retorted.
'Well you can't let that happen can you.' The Lone Wanderer's mind mused. He moved to the closest display table and grabbed a laser pistol. While remaining as quiet as possible he moved into position and flipped the safety off.
"Alright, times up! If you're not out of here when the place goes up then you're not coming out at all." The Leader warned.
"May I suggest a slight change in plans?" The Lone Wanderer said making his presence known, he had snuck up behind one of the looters and took him hostage, holding the laser pistol to his head.
"Just drop the loot and leave, it's a lot less messier than the alternative." He told them, but the looters didn't take kindly to his advice and nearly every type energy weapon was pointed at him and his hostage.
"Ah hell, who was supposed to keep a lookout?" the ringleader shouted.
"Figuring out who screwed up can wait, right now I'm going to need you to drop the loot and leave." The Lone Wanderer advised.
"Oh, I already know who screwed up." The ringleader smirked as he took aim with his laser rifle.
"Wait! Boss don't shoot-" the hostage shouted before being turned into a pile of dust in front of the Lone Wanderer.
"Looks like it was you who screwed up." The ringleader gloated.
The Lone Wanderer looked at the dust that piled on top of his boots and back at the thieves leader.
"Hard way it is then." He sighed before diving into cover. The group open fired sending plasma and lasers at his cover.
'I'm in an armory of energy weapons and I grab a laser pistol of all things to take on seven attackers wielding laser and plasma energy weapons. Sigh, It's going to be one of those days.' He chastise himself. With a deep breath he readied himself and sprang from his cover. Time slowed to a crawl as he entered V.A.T.S a light show of red and green flew by him leaving streaks in the air around him. He choose his targets and pulled the trigger verifying his decision. The laser pistol unleashed a torrent of shots at the leader, the Lone Wanderer could see the beams of light ignite his body making him burn a bright orange before disintegrating into a pile of ash. He exited V.A.T.S in time to duck back into cover.
"What the hell just happened to the boss?" the Lone Wanderer could hear one of the looters yells. His Pip-boy quickly notified him that V.A.T.S was ready again. He popped up from cover once more and enter V.A.T.S this time targeting the weapons in the looter's hands and with fast reflexes he shot the energy weapons out of their hands. The group was stunned and dumbfounded and the Lone Wanderer decided to take advantage of the situation and grabbed a nearby laser gatling gun off its holding. He quickly spun it to life getting their attention.
"If I could do that with just a laser pistol, just imagine what I can do with this." He said with a smirk.
"Woah, wait! Hold on a minute!" one of the looters shouted.
"You really want those to be your last words?" the Lone Wanderer sarcastically asked.
"We'll take you up on that offer… if it's still on the table." The looter stammered. The Lone Wanderer paused as if giving it some thought and let go of the trigger letting the gatling gun die down he nodded his head towards the exit telling them to get out and they quickly obliged. Once sure he was alone he let the weapon drop from his hands, with no electron charge pack the gun was empty. He let out a sigh and about to grab a few rifles when he noticed a shiny round object sticking partially out of one off the ash pile that was the gang leader. He knelt down a picked it up giving it a closer observation one side had three men standing side by side with the words he couldn't decipher but once he turned it over he understood the two words surrounding the profile of a man.
"Caesar, Dictator." He read out loud to himself. He pocketed the coin and grabbed a laser rifle for Amata and took a plasma rifle for himself along with a few plasma grenades. After loading up on as many microfusion cells he could carry he was about to head out when a thought occurred to him. He grabbed a plasma mine and armed it, he left it near the door and carefully closed it behind him making sure it was lock. Satisfied that the Silver Rush wouldn't be having anymore unwanted visitors he quickly made his way back to Amata.
Arcade and the Courier was nearing the gate that led to gate back to inner Freeside when another explosion erupted near the gates causing debris to fall and block there way. The Courier let out a slew of curse words in frustration but it was only the beginning of a bad situation as Arcade tapped him on his shoulder and pointed out the angry mob that was starting to form.
"I 'really' don't have time for this." The Courier said through gritted teeth.
"I don't suppose you have a way out of this?" Arcade asked a bit concerned for their well being.
"Just stick close." The Courier ordered as he began to advance toward the crowd.
One of the angry mobsters stepped towards the front determined to block their path.
"Everyone knows the Legion is coming for you, this mess we're in is because of you!" he yelled, a rallying cheer erupted from the crowd in support.
"I don't think they like you." Arcade said pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah, feelings mutual." The Courier muttered as he placed his hand on his ranger sequoia.
"They're just terrified, firing off a couple rounds into the air isn't going to make this situation any better." Arcade advised.
"Who said anything about firing rounds into the air?" the Courier retorted as he pulled his revolver and knee capped the nearest rioter. The rioters paused in sudden disbelief and soon that disbelief turned to anger fed by hatred, they began advancing on the Courier.
"It would just be wasteful." He added as he took aim at the next person. He fired and the round caught his victim in the thigh making him fall to the ground. The rioters began grabbing whatever they can to defend themselves and started throwing rocks. One person got in a lucky hit with a rock causing a gash over his right eye, he promptly rewarded the lucky individual with a .45 gov't round to the chest.
"You know you don't have enough ammo for all of them." Arcade told him, the Courier was about to admit he was right when the sound of a service rifle being fired brought a sudden halt to the chaos.
A loud and authoritative voice boomed over the crowd.
"Major Elizabeth Kieran of the New California Republic, I'm ordering any and all non-combatants to stay off the streets until this situation is resolved. Failure to do so will result in swift judgement followed by an equally swift execution." She ordered. There was a hesitation in the crowd and the Major gave the order to fire another round into the air.
"Don't make me repeat myself." She told them.
The crowded grabbed their wounded and disperse leaving Arcade and the Courier alone with the Major.
"Why the hell am I not surprise you're at the center of this mess?" The Major sighed.
"Thanks for the save Major but I had it under control." The Courier answered.
"Not from where I was standing, now tell me what the hell is going on. I'm hearing talk of Frumentarii in the town, maybe you care to clarify?" the Major demanded.
"I would but right now I need to get four-eyes over to the Atomic Wrangler and as you can see the way is blocked." The Courier pointed out.
"Then you'll have plenty of time to explain while we escort you to the back entrance." The Major told him. The Courier was about to protest when the Major cut him off.
"And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." She told him.
The Courier let out a sigh of resignation. "Lead the way then." He said bowing mockingly.
AN: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Until next time.