Just read this one, not even a single spoiler for this chapter
Ashlyn had been moving around the fort doing various tasks that had been asked of her by the Followers after James left with the caravan. Veronica was still in the tent examining the weapons James had found further. Everything was calm as a normal day inside of Freeside. Occasionally a resident would enter for some kind of treatment. Veronica walked out of the tent and scanned the area quickly.
"Ashlyn!" Veronica called out "Come here!"
Ashlyn turned knowing Veronica's voice already and waited if there was more to hear.
Veronica motioned for her rather than call out again.
"Fine…" Ashlyn said trailing off.
The two entered the tent and Veronica had Ashlyn sit next to her on her cot. Veronica immediately began to pull out the pistol James had found. Ashlyn was confused as to why she would be making such a fuss over the pistol if it was going to be sold.
"Now there's something special about this pistol itself that I only recently noticed." Veronica said proud of her find.
"And that would be?" Ashlyn asked.
"It's been modified." Veronica said as she began to point to various parts of the pistol.
"Here this is a different part that normally found on these plasma pistols" Veronica began "This type of part isn't that easy to spot though because its so similar to the standard one."
"What does it do?" Ashlyn asked more than curious about this energy pistol now.
"It's a special part to increase the speed and potency of the plasma projectile" The hooded women said "now this part here is an energy consumption regulator."
"The name should tell you relatively what it does I'm sure, but this kind is unique, this one is actually some of the more advanced models." Veronica said "This is a rare find here, this part I've only seen maybe five other times in my life and there are few records of it that I've seen."
"Just what did James find here?" Ashlyn asked her head trying to grasp around just what kind of person would have access to such specialized tech.
"Something that could get him killed if he was with the wrong people." Veronica said with a face too serious for it to be hers "This is more advanced than Brotherhood of Steel tech."
"How would you know that?" Ashlyn asked.
"I never did tell you, I'm a part of the Brotherhood." Veronica said.
"Wha-!" Ashlyn said as Veronica shoved her hand over Ashlyn's mouth to silence her cry of surprise.
"Shh." Veronica said as she slowly moved her hand off of Ashlyn's face.
"You aren't joking are you?" Ashlyn said slightly worried knowing that she was with a Brotherhood member while James was a part of the NCR who had fought a bitter war with the Brotherhood.
"Does it look like I'm joking?" Veronica began "Rhetorical question by the way, but yes, I'm one of the few people allowed to leave the bunker these days; I gather food and other supplies for everyone living in the bunker."
"What about them now? You aren't exactly getting them supplies now are you?" Ashlyn asked in response.
"They have more than just me you know, they can take care of themselves." Veronica said.
"I need to know more about you before I can let this go." Ashlyn said "Tell me more about yourself."
Veronica began to give a very long and drawn out explanation of herself; a Brotherhood of Steel scribe from California. Strange enough her biggest wish was to get a fancy prewar dress. She was the student of a previous Brotherhood elder, Elijah. Elijah had apparently caused the Brotherhood's defeat at a solar power plant called Helios One. Ashlyn had heard of this place before and showed some more interest when Veronica began to talk about it.
The explanation that Veronica gave about herself was a long one no doubt. Ashlyn found her attention waning towards the tail end of the explanation not having expected Veronica to go into such detail.
"And lastly, I was in love once, the Brotherhood ended up having her leave. I never did see her again." Veronica said "But she looked a lot like you, that's one reason I was interested in traveling with you."
"What are you saying Veronica?" Ashlyn asked "This isn't going how I think it is, is it?"
Veronica pushed Ashlyn down on the cot pinning her arms down.
"Veronica stop I don't like whe-!" Ashlyn was silenced as Veronica planted her lips on Ashlyn's
Veronica held the kiss for a while drinking in the feeling that James had felt before. From Veronica's actions Ashlyn was petrified and was unable to say anything, nor was she able to free herself from Veronica's grip. Small as Veronica was she was more than strong enough to pin Ashlyn. Veronica pushed her leg up between Ashlyn's thighs all the way up until she was stopped by hitting just where she had planned.
"S-stop…." Ashlyn said weakly.
Veronica stopped finally coming to her senses.
"I'm so sorry….I don't know what came over me…" Veronica said as she got up and quickly left the tent.
Ashlyn lay on the cot for a couple minutes not knowing what to do or how she should go about talking to Veronica about what had just happened. She heard the large doors of The Old Mormon Fort open and she got up expecting James to have finally come back. She walked out only to find that Veronica was leaving through the large gate. Ashlyn knew that she would have to go after her. Ashlyn soon ran out of the gates after grabbing her two pistols.
James made his move; he quickly looked for higher ground that he could use to gain an advantage against the Deathclaw. He saw no such thing, so he simply backed up quickly and quietly crouching down hoping that the Deathclaw would not hear his movements. James had finally found some semblance of luck, the Deathclaw didn't hear his movements and he managed to distance himself from it.
James now could use the grenade rifle safely again. He quietly loaded a new round into the tube and took aim at the Deathclaw's legs again knowing that without its mobility it wasn't nearly as deadly. He also knew that if he managed to hit the Deathclaw in the head if it didn't kill it he would be helpless having only covered just enough ground to give him a safe shot.
James fired for the beast's legs. This time James' effort finally paid off the Deathclaw collapsed to the ground its legs either finally destroyed or simply broken from the concussive force of the 40mm grenade's impact. The beast still was alive though now staring directly where the grenade had came from, staring at James, eyeless.
James now knew that he could fire for a vital area of the Deathclaw and did just that. He loaded a new grenade into the rifle and went to fire. James heard a click then metal rattling. The trigger broke on the grenade rifle. James discarded the broken weapon and rearmed himself with his service rifle. James unloaded his clip and found his single clip of armor piercing 5.56 rounds. He fired at the Deathclaw's head as it began to rise again, one leg obviously broken but it didn't stop it from moving towards James with more tenacity then before.
Before James knew it he was out of rounds and the Deathclaw was approaching rather quickly for being crippled. He switched back to regular rounds and attempted to aim for any open wounds the creature had. James found a large patch of missing skin on the Deathclaw's leg. He fired away hoping to have some effect. The rounds began to pound and tear into the exposed muscle of the almost unstoppable beast.
James continued to fire at the Deathclaw trying to injure it to the point where it would either die from the trauma of its injuries of stop attacking all together. James kept walking back just fast enough to keep his distance from the Deathclaw. The final round left the rifle as James knew what he would have to do.
"If bullets won't kill it I might as well try to stab it to death!" James yelled out as he dropped the rifle and charged forward to the beast.
James jumped up and the Deathclaw immediately swung at him. James took the beast's claw straight into his chest. James was injured, but didn't stop his attack. He again charged the beast and went for its thick neck with his knife. On his second jump James dug the knife deep into the beast's neck; blade dug all the way to the hilt into its thick hide. The Deathclaw clamored at James and the blade dug into its neck.
James was swiped off of the creature with another powerful blow to his torso. He hit the ground with a loud thud. His head hit concrete causing the rebound off of the pavement to make him lose consciousness. James lay motionless bleeding out from the gapping wounds on his torso.
Ashlyn had been talking to Veronica for a few minutes and both women were beginning to calm down after what had occurred between them.
"Look Veronica, its like I said, I understand that you did that because I reminded you of the one you fell in love with. Everything is fine; I don't hate you for what happened." Ashlyn said holding onto Veronica's hand trying to get her point across to her.
"Ashlyn, I'm just so sorry about that….I don't understand how you can forgive something like that….." Veronica said tears still ever so slightly flowing down her cheeks.
"James is the reason I can forgive something like that, after watching him for the past couple days I've realized that forgiveness should always be given." Ashlyn said with admiration in her voice.
Veronica smiled.
"Also, let's keep what happened just between us shall we?" Ashlyn asked.
"Agreed." Veronica said blushing slightly.
"Lets get back to the fort, James might be back soon." Ashlyn said.
Veronica nodded.
Ashlyn and Veronica arrived back to the fort quickly. As Ashlyn knocked on the giant wooden doors she heard yelling nearby. Figuring that it was nothing she and Veronica continued into the fort. Moments later they realized that the yelling was from the remainder of the caravan that James had gone with.
"Deathclaw! He stayed back to fight it!" Mack said to Ashlyn.
"James!" Ashlyn screamed as she began to run to the gates to the Mojave.
Josh caught her before she got far.
"Wait, gather your gear at least, anything useful." Josh said to Ashlyn.
Veronica not hesitating at all had already scrounged up all of the energy weapons that James had previously brought in and handed the rifle to Ashlyn. ED-E also finally appeared to join the two women. They turned to run for the gates of Freeside and Josh along with Mack joined them with Rufus also in toe.
"He's probably dead you know!" Mack said to Ashlyn.
"No! He won't leave me alone without saying goodbye at least!" She screamed back in response as she ran ahead of everyone with Rufus reaching the site of the fight in two minutes at the fastest run she had ever gone at.
"James!" Ashlyn shrieked as she saw James' unmoving bloodied body lying in a bloody pool near the dead Deathclaw.
"James….wake up…please wake up!" She yelled holding James up in her arms holding him close to her.
"Ashlyn stop it! We have to get him back to the fort or else he really will die!" Veronica said
"Give me some fucking stimpacks dammit! I can do something right now!" Ashlyn screamed to Veronica.
Veronica handed Ashlyn a couple of stimpacks. Ashlyn thrust the needles of the stimpacks into the gashes in James' decimated chest piece. James' tissues lightly began to close but stopped after a short time. James continued to bleed out. Ashlyn pulled off the ruined armor and ordered Veronica to toss her a white roll of cloth which she used to cover the wounds that James had sustained.
Mack and Josh picked James up upon Ashlyn's approval and began to hurriedly jog him back to the fort for treatment. In front of The Old Mormon Fort Ashlyn check to see if James still had a pulse and was breathing. There was nothing.
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