Chapter 3: Forming a Team
Authors Note: Great reviews everyone and thank you for your favorites. I hope you continue to add your support. This one is more of a filler chapter so take it however you will.
Disclaimer: I do not Fallout.
(Drake's POV)
"Trudy, another round of shots." I called out to the bar keep. Trudy, the barkeep and the toughest woman in town, supplied us with our shots of whiskey. We had spent our money and sold what little supplies we had for some improved gear. Noah had gotten himself a handgun along with a service rifle to replace the one he had swiped off of the Fiends.
Zachary and Skye had bought themselves a few frag grenades and Mike modified his repeater. As for me, I gave my handgun to Skye and replaced it with a 9mm SMG with a drum clip. This little puppy can carry more bullets and a single shotgun.
I would be ready to set out for Primm tomorrow morning but for now I would relax. I didn't know what everyone else would do though, so I asked.
"So, what will you guys do now that we're free?" I got a few weary looks. Zachary looked at me and raised his glass.
"I'll stick with you if you don't mind?" He said.
"Yeah sure, two guns are better than one."
"I ain't got nothing going on." Mike shrugged. "Mind if I tag along?"
"Sure, Skye are you in?"
She looked away shyly before looking back at me and nodding. All that was left was Noah, though I wasn't holding my breath. He didn't say anything and just exited the bar. I shrugged my shoulders and looked over at the group.
"So, if we are going to be doing this, we need a job that will pay us well." I said looking for leads. "Any ideas?"
"We could try security work?" Mike suggested. Zachary let out a snort and Mike glared at him. "What?"
"Those jobs are boring and they pay shit." He grunted before downing his fifth shot. "What pays real money, is private jobs." He had us all intrigued. "There is always someone out there who needs desperate fools like us to go out and venture places that are too rough for them to go. So we hire ourselves out to them and they pay real money."
"Yeah but those high paying jobs mean dangerous work right?" Skye interjected. "Jobs like invading enemy territory, or hunting down officers of an enemy faction or even killing deathclaws."
"Yeah, but jobs like those pay big caps." Zachary grinned.
"I don't know…" Skye still looked uneasy. I can't say that I blame her. Her last time adventuring almost cost her, her freedom and her innocence. That's when it hit me.
"Skye," She looks over at me. "Last night we escaped a Legion strong hold and bested their best officers with nothing but a razor and some rocks and what little guns we had and they weren't much." I could see her attitude changing and her eyes had that same fire I had when I was her age. "We got out of that together and we made it here together. Now, we have weapons and we have each other. We can take on whatever the Mojave throws at us, got it?"
She nodded her head and smiled.
"Okay, now jobs…" Trudy overheard our conversation and chipped in.
"Drake, if you are interested, the Courier that passed through here might be able to get you some work. He said he was heading over to The Strip to get even on that checkered suit prick that broke my radio and shot at him."
"This Courier, does he have any caps?" I asked.
"No, he didn't even have a shirt until the good doctor helped him out."
"Then it's not worth our time." Zachary stated.
"How about taking care of them fiends?" Noah said as he entered the bar. "Three fiends then we take care of the rest of them in the vault. We'll make two thousand caps off of them, plus an extra two fifty each if we deliver the heads of each leader."
We all looked at each other with that gleam of greed and satisfaction in our eyes. We all agreed to it and paid Trudy her money before settling in for the night. The folks have let us use one of their halfway houses.
Since we were all gentlemen we let Skye have the one bed while the rest of us took the living room. I settled on the love seat while Mike leaned against the cushion. Noah took to lying down on the couch and Zachary took the love seat with his feet propped on the coffee table. I looked over at Noah and I could tell he wasn't sleeping.
"So, what made you come back?" I asked. He remained silent for a short while, so I didn't bother to press on.
"I wanted to see what life would be like as a traveler, but I was too scared." He finally said. He pointed at the scar under his chin. "This scar here, I got this from a lucky encounter with a deathclaw."
"A lucky encounter with a death claw, such a thing exists?" I asked.
"It is if it swipes its claws at you and you come out of it with only a scar." He chuckled. "After that I didn't want to risk going out into the open waste. So I just stayed with the NCR and have been there ever since."
"So now you wanted a change?" I asked.
"Yes, I want to see what's beyond that wall of hoover dam. I'll see you in the morning." He shifted into his couch cushion and went to sleep for the night.
We set out early the next morning. We wanted to cross the open wasteland as the critters settled in for the morning. The only things we encountered were a few geckos so we didn't ration our ammo too bad and we could make a killing on the skins. I was skinning my fifth gecko when Skye approached me.
"So, why are we going through Primm and Novac just to get to the outskirts of New Vegas?" Skye asked.
"Because it's a safer route." I explained.
"But it will cost us too much ammo and supplies." She explained. "What we should have done was just head straight to new Vegas from Good springs."
"That's a short trail sure, but far too risky." Zachary said. "There are too many critters not to mention all of the death claws as well."
"Death claws are crawling all over those planes." Mike said as he picked off another Gecko with his repeater. "They nest out in dark caves and mineshafts. They don't like the sunlight too much, but that doesn't stop them from coming up for some meat."
"So this trail works best for us." I said as I moved over to the Gecko Mike just shot and prepared to skin him.
"I didn't think of it like that." She admitted sheepishly.
"Don't worry, well teach you the fundamentals." Noah said. She nodded before looking around cautiously.
"Speaking of which, since we're a team shouldn't we discuss our roles?"
"Our roles?" Zachary asked.
"Yeah, we carry a lot of guns, but we need someone to hold our ammo. Then there's our funds, who's going to keep track of what we buy and what we sell and how much we make?"
"Hmm, she's right we haven't had a chance to figure out our place on the team."
"I was a demolitionist in the brotherhood, I can handle the explosives." Zachary said.
"I can be our munitions master." Noah said. "Just don't give me anything to heavy. I'll hold our spare clips."
"I'll hold the meds." Mike stated.
"I'll take care of our salvage and any bits and bobs we come across." I stated. "What about you Skye?"
"I'll handle our funds of course. My Pip-Boy will be a major help to that." She pressed a few buttons on her Pip-Boy. "We'll be fine."
"Okay, let's get back on track then." Zachary said as we all made our way to Primm.
It took us another hour and a half but we finally made it to Primm. The town itself was worked over pretty good by the Powder Gangers, but this supposed Courier helped saved Primm and even managed to find them a new sheriff."
It was late in the afternoon so we decided to take a break. Noah and Mike headed over to the NCR station outside of Primm just to shoot the shit with the guards. Zachary decided to head over to the Bison Hotel, which was still closed due to the attack, but he said he needed to get something. He also gave me his caravan shotgun and asked if I could get him a laser rifle from the shop.
I sold our skins and a few trinkets along with my single shotgun. With the laser rifle we were back down to two hundred caps. I went over to the casino and collected the boy's. Turns out no drinks were being served because of the restoration of Primm.
We all stood outside waiting for Zachary.
(Zachary's POV)
As I made my way through the now abandoned hotel, I took note of this Couriers handy work. I don't know what kind of guns he was packing, but he went to town on all of these little bastards.
I had finally made my way to the small department store. Behind the register was a floor safe and after a little tinkering he cracked it open. A few years back my C.O had stashed his favorite .357 revolver in the safe after winning it at a poker game over at the casino.
He died of a heart attack a month later and left it to me. Well, at least now he did. I reached inside of the safe and pulled out the black custom made revolver with the white handle and the clove in the center.
"Thing of beauty." I chuckled as I twirled the barrel around. This was the best gun a guy could ask for. I slid the gun in my holster and grabbed the small box of caps labeled six hundred. I would get the guys a room in Novac for tonight.
I made my way outside and saw my crew waiting impatiently. Drake looked over at me with a disgruntled look on his face and a laser rifle over his shoulder.
"It's about time." He tossed me the rifle I caught it with one hand. "Seriously what the hell man?"
"My former boss left a long term deposit in the hotel." I pull out a handful of caps. "I think we'll be able to afford a room tonight." I looked over at Skye. "This is six hundred caps."
She typed a few things in her Pip-boy before nodding at me.
"Okay, let's get to Novac before dark." Drake said.
I noticed Drake had bought a bandolier for his shotgun rounds. I guess the shotgun was his preferred weapon of choice. We made our way to Primm Pass. The sun was setting and dusk was upon us. We made our way through the rocky pass and every couple of minutes I would hear a tumble of rocks and the pitter patter of feet shuffling through the rocks and dirt.
Mike and Noah heard it too as their shoulders would tense ever couple of seconds. Drake had his shotgun at the ready as well. We are about to be attacked, and I know who they are.
Vipers, those crazed cultist fucks are clever bastards. They attack at night with poisoned blades and silenced guns. Drake stopped us and right then and there. We were about to be attack. He looked over at Mike and nodded. Mike nodded back.
I looked over at Skye and she bolted towards Noah. Panic flooded my veins when she tackled him out of the way of an oncoming spear. When the spear impacted the ground, Mike followed the direction from where it came from and aimed his repeater up on the cliff and blew the viper's brains out.
I looked up and saw a couple of more Vipers perched on the cliff. They were armed with a couple of 10mm SMG's and pistols. Drake pulled out his 9mm SMG and open fired on them. I fired my laser rifle at them too.
He managed to clip one in the head and I vaporized the other. I looked over at Skye who was in a knife fight with the other Viper. I was about to help her, but what our new friend didn't realize and what I had forgotten was that she was a member of the brotherhood of steel.
She ducked under his knife, kicked his legs out from under him and after he had fell on his ass she stabbed him in the center of his chest. She looked over at me and she smiled and gave me a thumb up.
Noah blew the last ones brains out and we were all left standing.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Skye asked.
"Vipers." Noah snarled. He grabbed one of the fallen Viper's 10mm pistol and pocketed it. We snagged a few more of their gear as well. "They attack travelers at the dead of night."
"Dead of night, I can still see the sun on the horizon." Drake snapped.
"This war must be making everyone desperate." Mike said as he handed a few clips to Noah.
"Okay, we need to get to Novac soon. Then we can figure out our plans on taking out the Fiends for good." Noah said.
I couldn't agree more. We needed a well laid out plan if we were going to take out the Fiends. I looked back at the Vipers and realized how easy we managed to take them down. I have been with the brotherhood for a long time and this is the first time I had real faith in a group of strangers.
I have a feeling we could do some real good for the wasteland and I would see to it that we would uphold justice.
At the right price of course.