Ghost Town Gunfight
Richard awoke and for a moment, he did not know where he was. He heard the soft motor of a refrigerator and a gurgle of water going through pipes and he opened up his eyes to see the cracked but clean ceiling of Trudy's house in Goodsprings. The soft glow of sunlight peering through the windows was hitting him in the eye and he sat up.
"Glad to see you're awake," a voice said.
Richard turned to see Trudy and Sunny, dressed and appearing well rested and looking at him expectantly. He decided it was time to get up and stretch himself and see if he couldn't be useful to the town. They ate a light breakfast of local greens and some of the remaining Gecko meat and they walked together to the town. When they entered the Saloon, there was a man Richard didn't know sitting at the booth.
"Ringo, what are you doing here?" Trudy asked him.
Ringo looked at Richard and then turned to Trudy. "I know that that thug was here looking for me. I can't keep putting your lives at risk for mine."
Richard admired the man's bravery. He extended a hand to the man. "I'm Richard, nice to meet you, Ringo."
Ringo shook the offered hand and told Richard what had happened. Ringo was a member of The Crimson Caravan Company, a shipping firm that operated in the west and he'd been on his way to Quarry Junction when some of the Powder Gangers had attacked his caravan. He'd been fortunate to have made his escape and ended up in Goodsprings. Trudy, heart of gold that she was, agreed to let him hold up in town while he healed. Joe Cobb had tracked Ringo to the town and now wanted him dead.
"I have an idea how we can help this situation." Richard told them, "we'll need some help though. Do you know anyone that has any explosives?"
"Easy Pete has some," Sunny told him. "He probably won't be persuaded to give up any though, we've been trying to get him to part with his dynamite for years and he simply will not have it."
"I'll talk to Pete, What about the Doctor? Would he be willing to help us out with medical supplies? These thugs most likely have explosives themselves, we'd need all the bandages and Stimpacks we could carry."
Trudy spoke up, "I'll go up to Mitchell's and ask him. Sunny, why don't you see if Chet would be willing to help us. If he has something flippant to say, remind him that the 'Gangers would be apt to just take his merchandise rather than pay for it."
An hour later, they met back up the Saloon. Richard laid a bundle of Pete's explosives on the table. Sunny laid down a few bits of tattered but serviceable armor and a few boxes of ammo, Trudy laid down some Stimpacks and burn cream she'd gotten from the Doc. Richard went over his idea with the townsfolk and they agreed that it was a very good plan.He did, however need a few items that he hoped he could acquire at the General Store.
Chet was a surly and shrewed business man. Richard went into the shop and began to look around, Chet stayed a respectful distance from him but he could feel those merchant's eyes on him the entire time. Richard found what he was looking for, several containers of spare electronics, a few bits of scrap metal that looked to be in good shape and a roll of duct tape. Chet totaled up his purchases at fifteen caps. Richard only had about eight caps to his name, just what was in the safe back inside the schoolhouse. He laid the old rifle that Sunny had given him on the counter as well as the Gecko hides that they'd acquired. After the dickering was complete, Richard left and went back over to the Saloon.
Throughout the day, Sunny, Trudy and Richard stayed in the bar. They listened to Mr. New Vegas on the radio and heard news of raider gangs terrorizing outer Vegas, and other various local stories as well as some pretty good tunes. While Trudy and Sunny spoke to Richard, telling him stories of the interesting things and visitors they'd seen come through town, Richard sat tinkering. He sorted the various bits of scrap electronics and found several that had the RobCo logo on them, these he set aside. He tapped a few keys on his PipBoy that the Doc had given him and found an interesting screen. He tapped a few more buttons and found that the PipBoy could interface with the electronics, at least those that had the RobCo logo on them. He used his roll of duct tape to attach some of the electronics to the hole in the dynamite after he'd removed the fuses. Having done that, he emptied the box containing the scrap metal onto the table. He'd gotten more scrap from boxes that Trudy had in her back store room. He wrapped bits of the scrap metal to the dynamite with the tape and laid each dangerous little bundle aside. He had about seven of these homemade shrapnel bombs.
Sunny came over to Richard to see what he was doing after he'd made a few. "Those are very interesting," she told him. "Where'd did you learn how to make such things?"
Richard explained to her that before he'd become a courier, he'd spent time in a local militia. The man that had taught him everything he knew about shooting and tinkering was a man known only as Anderson. Anderson had been a former member of The Brotherhood of Steel. He had grown tired of their pedantic Codex and semi-religious fanaticism in which they held technologies and instead decided to retire in a nice small town; his small town. A few years after he had setted in, some raider gangs had come through and were terrorizing the townspeople. Anderson had emerged from his house wearing a full suit of sweet T51-B Power Armor and firing a Laser Rifle. The raiders had scattered in fear, never to return. Anderson had taken Richard and several other folks and trained them to fight. He'd taught them everything he knew about weapons, fighting and how to improvise anything into a weapon. Richard had not seen Anderson in a long time and wished he were here at this moment.
Eventually the scorching Mojave sun sank its way down below the hillside and darkness spread outward from its last rays like a giant shadow draping across the desert landscape. The conditions that evening could not have been more perfect. Under the cover of the shadow, Richard moved silently along the roadway leading in from the south. Every twenty feet, he dug a small, shallow trench into the desert scree and placed one of his shrapnel bombs into it, lightly covering it with some of the loose sand next to the road. After he had placed all of his bombs, Richard slipped quietly back into the Saloon. Richard was certain that the thugs would be coming up from the south road. When he'd last spoken to Easy Pete, Pete had told him that he'd seen Joe Cobb running in that direction. He was sure Joe had an encampment nearby.
They ate together in silence. No radio, no games of caravan, they were too agitated for such jovial entertainment that evening. Joe Cobb had promised that he'd be there the next day and Richard had the sense that Joe would keep his word. Richard hated being involved in things like this. He always felt that it was best to just let people work out their own problems. Like it or not, however, he did owe these people. After they had eaten, the three made their way back down to Trudy's house. Richard caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look. He saw the faint outline of something there, a slight shimmer in the air, He rubbed his eyes and looked again, the shimmer was still there. He dismissed this as perhaps heat being released in the stifling desert night air. The three of them settled into a long and restless night full of nightmares.
The shimmer had waited until the three figures went into the house and then began to move. The apparition was no mere heat convex, the shimmer was a person. It was indeed a very vengeful person. The shimmer had stood there earlier that evening and watched the newcomer booby trap the road that ran to the south. He decided that he would do something about it.
The next day dawned in too short of time for Richard. He had awakened from another nightmare of Mr. Checkerboard and had sat bolt upright about an hour before the Mojave sun peeked its blistering head above the horizon. He had sat at the window of Trudy's house and watched it rise. After the ladies had awakened, they walked together to the Saloon where Ringo, Chet, Doc Mitchell and Easy Pete stood waiting for them. Richard went over the plan again and they were still there talking when five people sauntered up the road with weapons.
Richard watched the five men, noting that Joe Cobb was not among them. He took quick note that the five men held pretty pathetic hardware for thugs. Two of the Powder Gangers held baseball bats, one held a knife, one of the men held a crowbar, and the last man had an unlit stick of dynamite in his hand. As they watched, the men walked slowly up the road through the town, taking their time. About six feet to Richard's right, that dull shimmer in the air from the night before reappeared to him and he turned his full attention to it. Joe Cobb, deactivated the Stealth Boy he had been using and smiled broadly at the townsmen.
"I see you have decided to surrender Ringo to us," he said with a smile in his words. "Smart move."
Richard casually flicked a hand to his PipBoy, making sure it was on the right screen. Joe pulled out a positively ancient looking .32 revolver and aimed it at Richard. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said to Richard. "Hand over Ringo now and we can all just walk away."
The five men stopped at Joe'shand signal, apparently Joe had decided that Richard would have the decision here. Richard looked to all the people of Goodsprings and they all nodded to him. "I think you had better walk away from here," Richard told Joe. "Walk away now before you all end up dead. This town has done nothing against you and won't be threatened by you or anyone else ever again."
Joe lowered his pistol and laughed derisively into Richard's face. Richard's eyes narrowed as he put pieces of the last day's events together in his mind. He flicked a button on his PipBoy, an orange button. Time slowed down. Richard's breathing was surprisingly loud in his ears. He heard the beats of the hearts of the people around him slowly, very slowly. Lub...Dub
He flicked his hands to his holster and his gun was suddenly in his hands, he turned to Joe Cobb who was still raising his pistol, slowly ever so slowly to Richard's perception. Joe's fingers had actually managed to squeeze off a shot but since the gun was still arcing upward, the bullet had penetrated the ground at Richard's feet. Time was his, he leveled his pistol at Joe Cobb's head and squeezed off a shot, blowing a hole into the thug's head. He whipped the pistol to the right and took aim at the men charging at them. Time was beginning to speed up a bit now, he noticed that the man with the dynamite had his lighter out and had flicked it on. Richard's shot went into the man's lighter, igniting the fluid, and spreading fire up the man's arm. As this hapless man's arm began to flare up with the fire, his stick of dynamite exploded in his arm, sending bone into his body, killing him instantly. Richard had enough time left for one more shot and that one ended the life of the thug with the crowbar.
Time resumed it's snail's pace and Richard noticed that Trudy, Sunny and Ringo had taken out the remaining raiders, Cheyanne even got in a kill, having bitten a man's throat nearly out. Richard's knees almost buckled as the effects of the V.A.T.S system wore off. Doc Mitchell had not been kidding, it gave one superhuman speed but really drained the wearer of all their stamina afterwards. The citizens of Goodsprings let out a cheer at their accomplishment; their town had been saved. Richard helped the townspeople police the bodies and saw them to the cemetery. He took only the Crowbar from the raiders as it just might come in handy on his travels as well as Joe Cobb's Stealth Boy. The rest of the items they gave to Chet. They noticed during the cleanup that Joe Cobb, undercover of his Stealth Boy had dug up Richard's homemade explosives and planted them beside each of the buildings in Goodsprings. Had Richard detonated the explosives, he may very well have destroyed the town.
Sunny gave Richard a hug and Ringo shook his hand in thanks. Easy Pete tipped Richard a wink and disappeared into the bar. "So, what will you do now? Are you gonna stick around Goodsprings for a while?" Sunny asked Richard.
"I really have to be off, the man that shot me must not be too far ahead and I want to try catching up to him. I may go down to Primm first and see if anyone there has spotted him as well as talk to the man that runs the Courier Office, maybe he'll have some idea where to look next." He turned to Ringo. "So what's next for you?"
Ringo told Richard that he would be heading to the Crimson Caravan compound outside of Vew Vegas and to look him up if he's ever in the area.
That afternoon, Richard departed from Goodsprings with a pang of regret in his heart. He loved that town but he knew that his destiny lie ahead of him, not behind him. He would catch up to Checkerboard if it was the last thing he ever did. He made his way to the south and refreshed his canteen at the Goodsprings water source. He made his camp some ways away in an old camper that was long ago abandoned. As he chewed his Gecko jerky and stared into the small campfire he had built himself, he allowed himself to smile knowing that the town of Goodsprings would be safe for a time at least. That night, blissfully, he did not dream of the man in the checkerboard coat.
Author's note:
As one of you have pointed out, my first few chapters have been sort of 'parroted' from the beginning part of the game. This is an unfortunate occurance as this particular FanFic is about my own character as he plays the actual game, not an unrelated character that just happens to be from the franchise. Who knows, in the future I may indeed make a completely original Fallout themed story that is set in a locale unrelated to the games, we'll see. Just be aware that although this story is a work of fiction, it is in no way going to be a walkthrough. This is going to be Fallout: New Vegas as seen through the eyes of my main character: Richard Burke. At times the dialogue will be copied directly from the game, like I did with the radio broadcast, at other times, I'll be making shit up. Whatever makes for a better telling of the story. An example of this is Ringo being in the Salolon rather than in the gas station. I felt that this added a more realistic feel rather than that of an RPG. If you liked changes like that or even if you hated them, feel free to leave a comment, I will always accept constructive, and I cannot emphasize that word enough, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
Regarding V.A.T.S. -sighs- I like Vats as a gameplay mechanic. I don't find myself using it too often in my own gameplay as my characters tend to be a 'sniping from the cover of bushes' type but on the whole, it's a neat system. I know that the alterations for that system got mixed reviews from fans when Fallout 4 came out. I am going to be using it sparingly in this story as you can see from Richard's experience that he didn't like it too much. As far as the 'science' behind the V.A.T.S. system, for the purposes of the story I'll give you all a brief overview of how I see the system here in a notation rather than in the story itself:
When the PipBoy user presses the V.A.T.S. button on the device, the PipBoy sends out a chemical which enhances the speed of the wearer. It does NOT in fact slow time down in the slightest but from the user's perspective, time will seem to stand still. As a side effect of the use of it, the wearer will experience a sharp increase in Fatigue and prolonged use will become addictive (might explore this possiblilty later in the story. Who knows)
As always, I thank you all, my loyal readers for putting up with the sporatic nature at which I tend to write. Sometimes I can get a good amount of time to set aside for writing and at other times, I just cannot. Also be aware that I have an on going Warcraft FanFic that is still being written as well as this Fallout one. If you like intensively lore friendly WoW fiction, Immortal Love is sure to be right up your alley. Thanks again loyal readers and I'll see you on the next page!
~Az