Chapter 6: Bona Fide

In good faith.

As they walked the cracked and broken road towards Lexington, Garv was thinking forward to the actual assault on Corvega. They would need more ammo, not just for the laser muskets but the mini-gun too. He had probed the idea of taking the power armour with them on their run at Corvega but dismissed it just as easily. Yes, it would have been a boon to them when it came down to fighting but it was also heavy, slow and horrendously noisy. Trying to break in stealthily with power armour was a sincerely stupid move - and with only one fusion core in it there was also the problem of what happened when it's power source ran dry. The suit would be stuck. Useless. Garv wasn't about to take the risk of relying on the suit, only for it to give up the ghost at the worst possible time. It was going to have to stay in Sanctuary for now.

They were skirting the edge of Thicket Excavations when Vaultie spotted activity just beyond the rusted chain-link fence. He didn't want a detour, but Garv knew there weren't any settlements anywhere near here, so what, in Atom's name, was a lone figure doing out here?

The three approached cautiously and peered over an outcrop of cut stone to watch the anomalous man dressed in some sort of scavenger gear start beating the metal skin of the machine he was facing with accompanying curses.

'Sturges?' Garv murmured. 'What is that?'

Their resident handyman raider considered the scene. 'It looks like an old pre-war industrial pump. See the pipes going down into the water?' He pointed. 'Thing looks busted to hell, though.'

'We should go down and help.' Vaultie replied.

Both men turned to stare at her. Getting involved in anything that wasn't your business was a fast way to an early grave. Garv had learned that one early on after Quincy but Thea returned his incredulous look with a determined one of her own. 'What? It's the right thing to do!'

To get killed, maybe.

'We're dressed up like raiders,' Garv pointed out. 'Most people tend to shoot first when they see us coming.'

'But you're with me.' She pointed out. 'And not being threatening.'

Again, he had to marvel at just how innocent Vaultie really was. They didn't need to be threatening - that was what looking like a raider was about.

'Look,' She replied in irritation. 'You can wait for me or you can help me and get it done quicker - but where I come from, you lend a hand and help people.' She wasn't making this easy - possibly because she knew that they needed her help in Lexington and was clearly using it to her advantage. 'Sturges? You know how to fix industrial pumps?' She pressed.

'Well, I wouldn't say I know exactly, but generally I find when I open 'er up I can get the feel for most things.' Sturges replied modestly.

'This is going to end badly.' Garv warned her.

'How can it?' She replied with a smile. 'We're helping people. Isn't that what being a Minuteman was about?'

Garv fumed. He was an ex-Minuteman with a laundry list of misdemeanors, murders and racketeering against him. He hadn't helped people in a very long time.

Sturges chose that moment to say 'Boss man, wouldn't it just be faster to help her do this and get on the road again rather than argue about it first?'

That stung. Mostly because Garv knew he was right but some because Sturges honestly believed that Vaultie would win the ensuing argument regardless. The man was always too smart for his own good. Both of them were giving him expectant looks. Garv sighed and growled 'Fine, as long as it's just a quick fix and he doesn't try shooting us on sight - then we are gone.'

Sturges laughed as Vaultie ripped off a half-assed salute and scrambled over the rock.

This was going to end badly.

The road down to Thicket Excavations, despite having been abandoned for 200 years, still bore the faint tire tracks of the rusted, unmoveable tractors that had - presumably - been used to shift the large slabs of rock from the deep water-filled pit.

Garv had always wondered just how the old world had worked before the bombs fell, what the sometimes strange remains of machines or buildings were used for - but on a farmboy's education, he'd never really been able to read or write very well and after Quincy, Wire and the boys would have laughed themselves stupid if he'd attempted some kind of sissy thing like that.

They were spotted as soon as they skirted around the old, rusted bubble shelters that held crumbling desks and rotten files.

The scavenger didn't shoot on sight - which was a good sign. Still, Garv did not want to jeopardize what little ammo they had left after Concord and hung back with his mouth shut, letting Vaultie do all the talking.

'Looks like you're having trouble there.' She commented.

'Yeah,' The scavenger murmured warily. 'What's it to you?'

If Garv hadn't have been on edge, he probably would have had a little dark delight in the taken aback look on Vaultie's face. She looked shocked that someone could be so direct and impolite. 'We were passing through and you look like you're in a bit of trouble. I'm Althea, this is Garv and Sturges. You need some help?'

The scavver gave her a jaded, calculating look before he stuck out one greasy hand and announced 'Sully Mathis. You from a vault?'

Thea glanced down at her vault suit and then up at Mathis. 'Is it that obvious?'

'You're wearing one of their dorky space-age jumpsuits. I kinda assumed.' Mathis agreed.

Thea chuckled nervously as Garv frowned at the odd line of questioning but he said nothing as she joked 'Hey, it's more comfortable than it looks. What're you trying to do, exactly?

'Trying to get this old hunk of junk to work but it doesn't want to. There's got to be something good at the bottom of this hole but I think there's some holes in the pipe that're dropping the water flow.'

'Sounds like an easy fix,' Sturges suggested.

'You'd think so, but the waters polluted to shit and there ain't no way I'm turning into a ghoul for whatever's at the bottom.'

There. They could say they'd offered and could now get back to plotting mass murder - because Jared's boys and girls weren't likely to go down quietly. Garv knew that Jared himself was on a cocktail of chems that would kill anyone else, it stood to reason that the rest of them were junkies too - and when you were high as a kite you felt immortal. You'd fight to the last and fight hard.

'I've got some Rad-x somewhere.' Vaultie interrupted and began digging around in her pockets for the small pill bottles the drug was kept in.

Garv cursed as Mathis brightened and said 'You do?!'

She pulled out the bottle and gave it a shake with a self-satisfied smile. 'Couple of these and I'll be fine. I can repair the pipes if Sturges gives you a hand with the pump.'

'Mighty happy to.' Sturges replied but Garv noticed the chipper had left him.

'Well,' Mathis considered for a second. 'Alright. Can't say fairer than that! I got some scrap in a corner over there with a pack of duct tape.' Mathis thumbed the rusted caravan behind them.

Thea nodded and walked off to collect her supplies, leaving Sturges and Garv to stare at their new "friend".

The scavver who called himself Sully Mathis made Garv suspicious, but he had no discernable reason why. He claimed to be a scavenger, looking for loot at the bottom of the excavation but as soon as Garv had laid eyes upon him, he was reminded of the type of systematic raiders that he'd come across. After a while, you got a feel for raiders. The ones who were cowardly,the ones who were sadistically good at it, and the ones who were systematic. The ones who were too cool, too rational. They would think about the best way to achieve their goals. They were the ones to watch - and he should know, he fell into the same category. There was something about Mathis that didn't quite ring true to him. Sturges too, seemed to sense it. He'd gone practically mute, which was rare for Sturges to achieve.

Althea was completely oblivious to the growing tension and suspicion. She was still so new to this life and it's dangers and seemed to genuinely want to help - the epitome of gullible in any other form and Mathis seemingly knew had told her already that the suit was a liability if nothing else - it was hardly stealth attire - but she refused to be parted from it. Probably because nothing else was comparable to it. The pre-war outfits all had 200 years of grime embedded into them, the raider outfits didn't cover a whole lot and the stuff that the wastelanders made was haphazard quality at best- so she stuck with the vault suit.

Now, it seemed almost a sound choice. The suits that Vault Tec had provided over 200 years ago seemed mildly waterproof and durable in the murky water and with a Rad-x, her radiation exposure would be negligible. Before Thea got into the water, she handed Garv her pip-boy and guns. With those in his hands - and he marvelled at the ease in which she simply handed them over to a goddamn raider - she popped one of the small red pills, spread out her arms and swan dived into the gouge that had been carved out of the Commonwealth 200 years previously. Ignoring just how cold it must have been when she broke the surface she made her way towards the closest stream of bubbles. With that piece of melodrama out of the way - Sturges pried open the maintenance hatch that led to the machine's guts and began to tinker with what he found. That left Garv with very little to do.

He spent half his time keeping an eye on the road and the other half watching Mathis. It wasn't lost on him that now would be the perfect time to attack the two raiders with their resident Vaultie busy and oblivious to what was happening on the surface. Garv wasn't about to be caught off-guard and made it clear with several pointed looks to the scavver that he was watching him.

'So what are two raiders doing with someone from out of a vault?' Mathis wondered as he and Sturges cajoled the machine back into life.

Garv continued to glare. The man was getting nothing out of him. He didn't like him - he didn't trust him. Sturges too was being tight-lipped and feigned total interest in the pump.

'C'mon, I'm curious. Not every day you see one of them roaming around. I could get quite a bit for an intact vault suit and pip-boy, y'know.'

Garv's glare increased ever so slightly. Was that an attempt at bribery? An offer to be their fence? Was he planning on doing something to Vaultie to render the suit and fancy computer owner-free? Garv wasn't about to let him try - they needed Vaultie and they had made a deal. He wasn't about to betray her for some shifty scavver.

'Where'd she come from?'

Garv didn't know, didn't care and wasn't about to tell him about the pre-war neighbourhood that Vaultie had taken them to. He tried to rationalize it as a potential safe-haven if something went wrong - after all, it seemed not that many people were aware of Sanctuary Hills; it seemed a perfect settlement and/or bolt-hole - but really, he wasn't about to desecrate a place that Vaultie seemed attached to. It wasn't right, even if the man was a scavver. If he was a raider in disguise - things could get ugly pretty damn fast and someone as nice and as innocently naive as Vaultie did not deserve that happening.

'Haven't you got a pump to fix?' Garv snarled which caused Mathis to raise his greasy hands and turn back to the machine. Over his head Garv and Sturges shared a look. Neither were comfortable with his line of questioning.

It was only moments later that Thea struggled up from the depths, dripping irradiated water everywhere. Her hair had gone from elegantly curled to almost straight and hung at her shoulders in clumps of rat-tails. The water had wiped most of her make-up off, but Garv couldn't help noticing that it did very little to change her face. It was still striking. Her shoes squelched as she marched back up to the machine and gasped 'I patched four spots.'

'That's great!' Sturges smiled. 'Cause I'm just about finished here.' He slammed the hatch shut with a final triumphant flourish. 'Just your simple seal breakdown, some fine-tuning and voila!'

Thea laughed at his "simple" explanation. 'You want to fire it up?' Mathis enquired with a raised eyebrow. 'Do the honours, hit the switch.' He offered.

Thea raised an eyebrow of her own and smiled ruefully. 'It's your project. Besides, I have to go get my stuff back.'

'Okay.' Mathis frowned as she turned on her heel and almost quick-marched back towards Garv. 'We need to talk.' She whispered.

The ex-Minuteman raised an eyebrow. 'Shoot.' He replied lowly.

'I don't think Mathis is who he says he is.' Thea fretted. 'I don't want to be wrong but-'

So she'd finally picked up on the wrongness, or had she found something else? Thankfully, the motor of the pump had loudly started up, easily masking their conversation from the two standing beside the industrial machine. 'What the hell're you talking about?' Garv growled lowly.

'When I went to get the scrap for the repairs - there was a computer on the desk.' She hissed lowly. 'I hacked it and I don't think this guy is who he says he is.'

'What did it say?' Garv demanded, his hands tightening on his beloved Laser Musket.

'It was talking about emptying the quarry to use as some sort of base. He said to us he was clearing it out for the valuables in the bottom. Why would he want a base?'

'I fucking knew it.' Garv snarled and went to get around her, already cranking a shot when they heard the tell-tale poc-poc-poc of Mirelurks bursting from the mud.

'Shit, we stirred something up good and proper, Garv!' Sturges shouted.

Just their luck.

'Grab your guns, Vaultie!' He yelled as he put his first shot into a mottled green shell. They would deal with Mathis eventually, but first they had to fend off the Mirelurks agitated by the pump.

A/N: It's Christmas eve tomorrow and I updated this puppy exactly a month ago - so we're due an update! I did mention that I would be taking on a few miscellaneous quests and to kick us off, I've started one of the first quests outside of the vault that I actually found as an exercise in more character building. I feel sorry for Garv, really. He doesn't ask for a do-gooder to start poking their collective noses into other people's business - it just happened.

Eifersu: Hey thanks for taking the time to review! I'm trying to keep it interesting.