Lanius handed me the map and I put it into the spear. I check the map section of my status screen which has been updated with everything that Lanius had marked. The map was incredibly useful as it let's me use a zoom function similar to how you would on a smartphone moving your fingers closer together to zoom out and moving them apart to zoom in on the area. The three locations were in the area specifically right around lake Mead and would only take me about a day to hit all of them considering I have very little time to actually get stronger before the first wave. I stored some of everything including the second loaf of bread into my weapon and I walked over and took a few plates and glasses from the kitchen to bring with me on the trip. I brought Regina with me out of the camp which garnered some looks from several soldiers outside.

I went down the hill that I climbed just the day before and out of the large gate that served as the entrance to the camp and outside was completely new territory considering in fallout New Vegas you couldn't actually explore this side of the river except for the camps belonging to the legion. I look around noting that the side of the river is stripped clean because there's the camp made of several large tents down in the distance clearly for the majority of the soldiers. There were some docks down directly to the left away from the camp and there was already someone there to transport people.

On the other side of the lake after a somewhat leisurely boat ride or I guess this would be a raft ride we found ourselves at a dock that was dilapidated with boats down at the bottom of the lake about 10 ft from them. me and Regina could practically feel the docks shake as we walked to the shore. Before we really began our training I checked my stats and my weapon and noticed that the tribal spear had changed slightly.

tribal spear unlocked

melee damage:4

armor piercing:10

active ability: airstrike thrust

accessory slot=1

(mastered)

I checked the help menu and it turned out that after you mastered a weapon you could use its active ability on any other weapon of the same type. So by that logic it meant that I could technically use the airstrike thrust ability as long as I had a spear or maybe even just a spear like weapon. Another thing I noticed is that the help menu seem to be updating whenever some new circumstance was met because I know for certain this one was not on the help screen just the day before. Even though it wasn't on the menu it seems that just having the weapon equipped will eventually allow me to master it as I had it changed to the tribal spear while I slept.

"I'd say the first priority is getting some armor." I told Regina which she then proceeded to examine herself and all she was wearing was the burlap like material of her slave outfit and sandals.

I would have grabbed some extra armor from the armory in the legion camp however walking around the Mojave in a full legion get up was likely going to result in me getting shot by an overzealous NCR trooper. Now that I think about it he wouldn't really be overzealous he'd just be doing his damn job and I'd be the idiot who is wearing the enemy colors.

Back to the matter at hand I was looking around and could see what looked to be some kind of fishing supply store and an old campground up the hill. The fishing supply store was pretty much empty I mean it's been 200 years since the bombs dropped so that makes sense that it would have been scavenged and picked clean and the campground was more or less the same way and even if there was anything left over like in the game I highly doubt any of it would have been good considering it was actually exposed to the elements for 200 years. I know pre-war food stocks were viable in the game as an emergency health item but the fact that those things were so jammed full of preservatives that they were good 200 years later means that I don't think I would eat them on that alone.

As we are about to leave the campground we can hear a buzzing sound from behind us and out of a dilapidated camper come two bloatflies. I decide to go ahead and get the first shot in and try out the airstrike thrust even though I don't know what it does based on the name it sounded like it would be a ranged attack. I ready my spear and to my own surprise using a skill was as simple as performing a thrusting motion with my spear and saying the name of the skill. There was a vibration in the spear and then a blast of the only way I can describe it is visible wind or energy shot out of the tip and turned one of the bloatflies into hamburger meat or the equivalent because it exploded in a shower of guts, meat, and larvae which the last one was pretty disgusting as some were still squirming on the ground, but the force of the impact seem to stun the other one and I yell for Regina to finish the creature off with her vector K10. Thankfully she developed a bit of trigger discipline the day before even though she only fired two magazines she understood the simple concept of two or three shots means more control of the gun.

After the two bloatflies died some text appeared over where they died That said EXP:10 and the one Regina killed was said EXP:7. After a quick check of my status screen I determined that I did indeed earn 17 EXP for the encounter by checking my stat screen.

"Master Derek when I killed that one it said I earned 4 experience points but when you killed yours it said that I earned 1 why is that?" she asked I guess she earned less experience all around because she is level 9 technically.

I explained the gist of how experience worked and that she likely would earn less fighting weaker creatures given that levels are more of a deciding factor in battle then combat experience. I don't think I'm good at wording things out but I think she understood considering that she earned a total of 5 experience points while I earned 17 in total not to mention the fact that she was pretty smart and had some common sense.

I walked over to the bloatflies with Regina and I picked up one of the writhing maggots off the ground and in response it tried to twist around and bite my fingers but my fingers were just out of reach. I tried to drop it in the weapon however an error message appeared that said that the weapon could only take in non-living objects and creatures. I dropped the maggot and switched to my hunting knife and stabbed the maggot before letting the knife absorb it.

bug knife level 3

entomology: 1

melee damage: -50%

damage against bugs: 100%

harvesting from bugs: 100%

active ability: bug zapper

accessory slots=2

paralytic whip level 5

melee damage: 6

paralysis poison recipe acquired

passive ability: paralysis 25%

accessory slot=1

Wait so for the bug knife it takes melee damage away by 50% meanwhile it's damaged against bugs goes up by 100% so is it still taking away 50% or is it giving me 100% plus the base damage there's still too many factors about the weapon and stats that I don't really know. I checked my stats which I had last night and determined that the stats were in fact rising just by acquiring new weapons I'll be it slowly but still rising nonetheless. It seems like each individual weapon aside from having its own abilities and occasional equip effects largely deals the same all around so by that logic it's all about finding the weapon that is the most comfortable in my hand or fits a very specific situation. The paralytic whip was the most interesting of the two given that it actually unlocked a recipe for a paralysis poison.

I explored the status screens and inside of the inventory there was a crafting option. I opened the crafting menu and found the weak paralysis poison which gave a 25% chance to paralyze a target to be honest that's pretty shitty if I'm intending on a quick takedown that's a 75% chance that the weapon I'm using isn't going to work. I might be able to apply it to the paralytic whip and get a 50% chance because of the weak paralysis poison and the weapons paralysis effect. I checked the weapon tree and saw that the paralytic whip was a part of the paralysis series and the bug knife was a part of the bug killer series. Just like with the wendigo series there were other weapons in these that might offer bonuses if I can get them all.

I put the rest of the bloatfly parts into the melee weapon only to take the bloatflies themselves and all of the larvae that were still inside the semi whole one fell to the ground while the rest were absorbed. As for the first one that I killed I had to pick up the chunks piece by piece which was pretty disgusting considering it was pretty much hamburger meat at that point and bits of shell. I did notice that in the item menu It had already disassembled that bloatfly and separated it into shell and meat I didn't see where the larva were however I figured that was mixed in with the meat which made my stomach turn a little don't know if I'm going to eat that or not?

I did check out as well the difference between the crafting system and the customization system that allowed me to create magazines for weapons, but the only real difference is that the crafting system is far more in-depth with items that are craftable as opposed to the weapon modifications that the customization upgrade screen allows me to do. The biggest example is the customization upgrade option allows me to automatically load the magazines it makes while the crafting screen allows me to create the magazine and the bullets separately but I'd have to load them myself or use the customization anyway to load them automatically. The crafting option lets me automatically make recipes that I know so going by the logic if I come across the recipe for a stimpak it would let me create stimpacks or if I actually learn how to make certain chems I could just make them. lastly the crafting option takes time because it says the 9mm bullets for the vector K10 would take 10 seconds for each of them so if I were to make enough for a full magazine it would take several minutes instead of the customization menu letting me do it all at once.

"Master Derek we should probably get going." Regina said as I was trying to waste time by figuring things out all at once, "I know we have a little time but we should probably hurry up and get to the locations that were marked."

As we left the campground and headed up the broken and dilapidated road we eventually came to the first location on the map which was some kind of junkyard. In the junkyard there was a whole lot of nothing plenty of scrap metal for me to store but there weren't even any enemies bothering to hide around this place. I was trying to remember as it's been a while since I played New Vegas but I'm pretty sure there wasn't a junkyard around this place. There was a shack located in the middle of the junkyard which I saved for last as I gathered up as many pieces of scrap metal and plastic and glass that I could, but I suppose the biggest find was dozens of sunset sarsaparilla and Nuka cola bottles that were stored in a bin.

The shack was pretty ordinary consisting of four half rotten wood and half metal scrap for the walls and tin roof if anything I feared the thing would fall while we were walking around inside. Inside it didn't look much better there was an old bed with some stains on it that I really didn't want to think about and a small workbench. The only thing that stood out and got me to stay was a seller door in the floor of the shack with a big thick chain and padlock on it. Me and Regina searched around for a key however we couldn't find any I considered maybe blowing it off with the airstrike thrust however I did worry about the structural stability of the shack. Regina went searching through the drawers of the workbench and found three bobby pins and a screwdriver and brought them to me.

I absorbed one bobby pin and got the recipe for bobby pins which I had plenty of ingredients for having just rummaged through the junkyard. I crafted a bunch of them which only took about 5 seconds for each given they were so small I suppose, but after a few minutes I had about 30 of them in my inventory. Crafting takes time but crafting is necessary for things like bobby pins and poisons as you can't just customize them into existence, but I had to question why the bobby pins couldn't be customized because they were just a mixture of plastic and metal in the system but I'd worry about that later. I went to work trying to pick the lock which I admittedly had some skill with.

After several minutes the lock came off and just for shits and giggles I absorbed the lock and chain into my weapon which unlocked something interesting.

chain whip

melee damage: 2

active ability: chain jail

accessory slots=5

Five accessory slots is pretty damn good considering the sharpening fan had three so does that mean the chain whip is meant to be customized. It's true that in other games some weapons were weak as shit until you customize them to fit the style you need I guess this is one of them. I guess chain jail must be some kind of crowd control skill I can only assume it binds the target but I'll come back to that later.

me and Regina walk into the basement and I'm a little shocked to see that there's actually something in there although I'm not excited to see the skeleton lying on the floor with several syringes surrounding it. I don't need to be a forensics expert and tell you he probably died of an overdose, but as I look around I see a terminal which still has power. I access the terminal and despite some corrupted files on it which is to be expected after 200 years I do see that some of his journal entries still exist marked "my journal."

10/23/2077,

I don't know who may be reading this and I'll be honest I really don't care considering in the next few days I might not be alive to really give a damn.

I suppose I could start with my name I am John coldridge I was born 60 years ago on this very day I know right Happy birthday to me because I got a big old nuclear wake up call for my swinging 60th birthday party.

I always kept the radio on as I slept as much as annoyed other people around me The noise helped me sleep more soundly and even if they didn't play music depending on the station there was still a bit of static in the background.

I think it's lucky or I probably wouldn't have known about the end of the world considering a loud siren came over the radio and after getting me up announced that flashes had appeared in California all I could do was go outside and look at the skies.

Missiles big ones I could see from the ground were coming right for Vegas In that moment I didn't know what to do I thought of running into the basement but it's no bomb shelter at best it would stop me from dying quickly which if I'm going to burn I'd rather it go as fast as possible.

As I prepared for death I watched as the missiles diverted I don't mean they flew overhead bypassing Vegas I mean they were coming for Vegas and then they literally changed course at the last second and went to God knows where.

I already figured out that Mr House had something to do with that diversion considering that haughty bastard graduated from CIT if by chance the modern time knowledge is hard to come by when and if someone reads this that is the Commonwealth institute of technology some big school out in Massachusetts for the scientists of the next generation.

Well I'm tired right now so I think I'm just going to take my medicine and go to bed damn disease makes it hard sometimes without my medicine.

10/25/2077

It's been about 2 days since my last entry well should I say my first entry I've never been the type of guy to keep his history all out there on a pedestal for people to see, my life is really not that interesting at least not enough for a biography.

I never really understood why my little sister kept a diary I mean it just made it easier for people to snoop on her secrets hell now that I think about it that's why my mother and father insisted that we keep diaries of course I'd never wrote anything interesting but still in hindsight.

I recently found myself thinking about my sister I haven't seen her in about 40 years when I graduated high school I moved out of home and went right to the workforce which ended pretty well for myself all considered I started in an old garage and work my way up even got to be a manager in that place eventually.

Back to my sister I guess I ended up moving over to Colorado something I regret to this day because after not seeing my family in about a year and a half I went home to find my sister wasn't living there anymore.

My sister met a boy and got pregnant before marriage so my parents kicked her out and refused to tell me where she was I still remember my father's words to this day considering I busted him in the mouth and ended up getting arrested for it my first and only crime was because he said to me"your sister chose to be a whore and disgrace us if you care at all about family you won't ever try to look for her."

I was pissed that they did that to my sister but that wasn't the only reason I punched him in the face that night you see I'd been sending them some money to help take care of her, sending them money for over a year in order to help with my sister's college fund and these two have been stealing from me I know right how biblical of them how righteous of them.

Damn I just had a coughing fit cuz I got myself riled up right now I just can't stop thinking about her I can only hope that she somehow is all right or she didn't have to live to see this day.

I'm sorry Lisa.

11/23/2077

it's been about a month since the bombs dropped and I started running out of medicine so the only thing I could do was sit here and wallow in pain or go to the pharmacy which hopefully hadn't been looted.

I suppose I should clarify my medicine is not that hard to get it's just simple syringes of med-x but even still had a couple people last week try to come into the scrap yard to steal bits of scrap metal and bolts.

That one kid damn well jumped out of his skin when I ran out with my gun but he was only a boy a teenager and I guess his girlfriend was with him and she was pregnant.

To be honest I would have given them the stuff anyway but I don't know, that kind of got me. I lowered my weapon and gave him some food out of my fridge I also told them about the supermarket right next to that pharmacy apparently they were new to the area and didn't know where to really go.

They thanked me and told me about their lives and how they went to some private school I was a little late on my medicine so some of their conversation kind of got drowned out but I got the gist of it.

She got pregnant and was kicked out he was offered to stay and even had a scholarship coming but he was a real man who when he finished school a few months later he stepped up and was going to join the workforce and help support his child and his now fiance.

I gave the boy an extra gun I had lying around and a few boxes of bullets this world was crazy already but now you don't know what to expect.

Speaking of I did have to make a run yesterday I was running low on Med-x and decided I wasn't just going to sit here and wallow in pain.

I went to the pharmacy which is only a few miles up the road even with my broken old body I could still walk that far at least, but what I didn't expect was when I got there to see roaches the size of my forearm chomping down on what I guess was the unlucky pharmacist.

Good thing I still go to the firing range cuz they were surprisingly fast and I managed to take them out but Jesus after I got to look at them I could tell they weren't no exotic roaches they were just regular German cockroaches that you find in potato sacks and occasionally get in to your house and become a nuisance.

Even the smallest of the cockroaches was the size of my hand from wrist to tip of my fingers and there were three of them I mean the fallout wasn't too bad but all the same.

Oh right if anyone's reading this for the fallout it passed within a few days the Geiger counter told me when the rain was radioactive so fortunately I'd stocked up on plenty of water from lake Mead beforehand about 20 barrels worth so I had plenty of that for a while.

fortunately the pharmacy wasn't looted too bad I did find a note from the boy I guess he's a little like me not knowing if anyone will read it but he actually left a thank you note to the nice man at the junkyard oh yeah I don't think I ever gave him a name to call me but I appreciate it all the same.

He said he stocked up on the essential baby stuff like medical care items and children's medicine but other than that he said he left most of the stuff there although he had to kill the pharmacist when the pharmacist pulled a gun and said all of the medicine was his and that he earned it.

The pharmacist's name was Joe he was kind of an asshole so that's not really a surprise, He talked down to people and thought he was a king of the world.

This entry has become far too long I've been rambling about all that's happened over the last month but I got my Med-X enough to last me for about another 2 weeks I didn't want to steal all of it considering there's other people out there who might need it and if the military does roll through here sometime soon and restores order Well I can only hope I won't spend the rest of my short life in prison.

11/28/2077

it's been a week since the last post of my little end of the world journal I just committed my first two murders today well I don't know how to feel.

A bunch of people came to my scrap yard refugees from of all places my hometown of strawberry.

It's not far from the checkpoint near nipton it's right on the other side of it still can't understand why the US military set up a rest stop and checkpoint there of all places but whatever governments the government only they know what they're doing most of the time I guess.

Still coming all the way from over there to lake Mead must be desperate if they had to walk that must be at least 30 mi away.

But of all the people I wanted to see my parents who I haven't spoken to in 40 years are still alive, barely but still alive they recognize me and tried to hug me but I just pushed them away I let everyone stay in the junkyard given that well I don't need all the space and there were children with them.

later that night I did make small talk but mostly I just listened to how things were going It turns out they missed me but they did not miss my sister they didn't regret their actions back then which I kind of figured but still hurt hearing.

After the truth got out there wasn't much they could be arrested for but the whole town hated them they had to sell their business and they were barely scraping by for the last 40 years because of what they did.

I got ahead of myself, they made my little sister Lisa have an abortion in a back alley because they were ashamed because of their own arrogance and self-righteousness they killed her because ever since abortion was made illegal you think some back alley doctor who probably didn't even finish medical school is going to know how to properly sanitize medical tools or even care about sanitizing them.

She got an infection and died two weeks later to be honest I saw red and then I just pulled my gun and shot them both right there I don't even think they had time to realize what was happening before I riddled them with bullets.

Everyone heard the shots and gave me a wide birth but I guess they figured I killed the ones I wanted. A lot of them knew who I was and remembered me a lot of them probably figured what was said.

The next morning they all got up to leave I gave them some food I know what you're thinking enough food for over 20 people Well I actually had a freezer full of meat fortunately the power's been on this whole time I guess the dam is still working got to question who's working it though but then I guess it doesn't matter.

one more thing is that they gave me another week's worth of Med-x because apparently it was my parents and they felt I deserved it I tried to insist they take it but after they've pushed back I wasn't going to deny the charity that are in my own supplies dwindling again I think my condition is getting worse.

12/1/2077

It's the first of December and well I don't know I just had the military come through they're staying at my scrap yard right now as I write this they're upstairs camping out with some refugees and I guess trying to keep a little bit of order.

The commander of the group I think his name was Leroy or something is given a speech right now It does sound like he knows what he's talking about pulling together and showing our American spirit and unifying.

bullshit is what I say the way we lock American citizens who were born in this country up in camps the way we have done so in the past. As soon as the little scuffle with China started we started locking born and bred Chinese American men and women and even children up in camps.

There's a few Chinese families up there right now I've let them stay in my shack given that the present company keeps giving them the thousand yard stare.

I don't really know what's coming next but I sure hope there is something to his speech about unification.

Maybe Leroy does know what he's talking about his name is actually Lardon but I think for the sake of my own entertainment I'll keep calling him Leroy he seems to laugh at it so I guess I'm not offending him.

Right after I thought I finished this entry he came up to me and said "it's really nice what you've done we talked to the people from your hometown."

I'll sum it up It was a bit of a conversation but he said that he heard about my parents and he understood that my parents are the type of people who wouldn't fit in who would make trouble if they could and the last thing they need is trouble.

He also said that they passed the boy and his little lady along the way from the military base and he's the one who told him the scrap yard was here and asked if they could come help.

Also the boy apparently is named Roy I think I'll just keep calling him boy though never was good with names, but the boy didn't come with the military he apparently he's going to his uncle's place up near Zion national Park.

Apparently they told him I was a good man who despite them coming to steal from the scrap yard thinking it was abandoned the boy told Leroy I was merciful and a paragon of human virtue as Leroy put it.

I don't know if I buy that one but I don't know I got a couple things to think about they said they wanted to bring me with them and it would be better if I went but I don't want to slow them down either I got a night to think about it before they all take off tomorrow.

12/2/2077

I've already said it before but my name is John coldridge and I am 60 years old as of the day the bombs dropped.

I've decided that I'm not going to go with the military In fact I've asked the military to padlock the door to the seller and I've already put a chain mesh over the window that let's the daylight in.

I don't want to slow them down and I certainly don't want to inconvenience them apparently the Chinese families have come to a good understanding with the people from the military and the white American families.

Mostly because of what I had to say I'm not going to do the whole speech again here I just told them I am sick I'm tired and I'm going to just slow them down so I'm going out my way on my terms a lot of them looked sad I don't know I spent my whole life looking on the outside of everything only interacting with people from time to time when I had to but right now I got more people caring about me at the end of the world than I ever thought possible.

I've taken an extra big dose of Med-x and I'm starting to get tired I'm going to inject two more doses which will pretty much knock me out and kill me.

Leroy is sitting up there talking to me from the window but they have to leave right afterwards.

Reason I asked him to padlock the cellar door was because I remembered that time at the pharmacy when I saw the giant cockroaches eating Joe I don't know. He was an asshole but I know the cockroaches didn't care I guess a part of me just wants my corpse left somewhat decent while it decomposes sounds kind of stupid wording it out like that but I guess it would make me feel better.

Now my vision is starting to fade after this I'm going to walk over and take the last two doses of Med-x and let my life end.

Goodbye boy I hope you and your girl make it.

Goodbye Leroy I hope you lead these people and keep the peace and maybe make a better future where mankind can love each other.

Goodbye Lisa you're the only person in my family who I have really cared much for and I only wish I could have protected you.

Goodbye world May whatever happens in the future lead us back to the good times.

You finish reading his diary and you are almost ready to cry yourself and you wouldn't really be judged by Regina given that she had already begun crying for the man. If he had been allowed to live longer with whatever disease he had maybe he could have done more good for the world but even if it was only a few people he made a difference and his shitty parents got what they got at least no one blamed him for that. Regina had gone over to the skeleton on the ground and started saying a prayer I don't really know who she was praying to but it was a relaxing gesture that if anything had made me more comfortable around her that she could show this much sympathy for someone she never met.