GHOST TOWN GUNFIGHT
Upon exiting Doc Mitchell's house; Lucas put on the pair of sunglasses he forgot he had. Glancing up towards the sky he could tell it was roughly half-past noon. He walked down the hill which Doc Mitchell's house sat atop and waltzed past the Prospector Saloon. He made a mental note to stop by later.
The courier began his trek up another hill towards the cemetery. By the time he got half-way up a familiar voice shouted from behind him.
"My aren't you lookin' fit as a fiddle!"
Stopping dead in his tracks; Lucas turned towards where he heard the voice emanating from.
"Hey, aren't you the one who dug me up out of my grave?"
"I reckon that'd be me!," the robot bellowed with his usual chipper tone, "name's Victor, by the way."
"I cannot thank you enough, Victor, you truly saved my life!"
"Aw shucks, you should thank the good doctor for patchin' you up."
Lucas could only smile at that remark as he feels he owes it to both for saving his life. Had it not been for Victor reacting as quickly as he had that night - no doctor either their salt would've been able to mend his wounds.
"We'll, I guess I'll leave ya to it, then!," was the last thing Victor said before rolling back into town.
After reaching the top of the hill, the courier instantly caught sight of where he was buried. While investigating the site he picked up half a dozen unique looming cigarette butts. He quickly pocketed them for no reason whatsoever other than he figured they might come in handy as evidence.
As Lucas turned he caught a glimpse of something glistening next to a grave marker. He knelt down to examine it and discovered it to be a rare snowglobe. On the bottom front the word "Goodsprings" was emblazoned on it. Setting it in his rucksack he huffed it back to town and subsequently entered the saloon.
Upon entering the tavern; Lucas was met with a large Alaskan husky which was immediately apprehensive of him.
"Cheyenne, sit.," the woman Lucas presumed was the owner, "don't worry she won't bite. Not unless I tell her to, that is."
"Huh, most dogs I've seen recently were never this obedient.," the courier noted to the owner, "she's a cutie too! That's besides the point I came here to ask if there's anyway I could make myself useful to the town?"
The woman taken a bit aback by this given how no one usually cares enough to help the town of Goodsprings.
"Well, we've been having some trouble with Geckos attacking our main water source. As a matter of fact Cheyenne and I here were about to go clear them out. Care to tag along?
"Of course! Anything to repay you folk for saving my hide."
"Right then, let's head out.," she said eagerly, "oh, the name's Sunny Smiles by the way."
"It's a pleasure, Miss Smiles or is it Missus?" Lucas asked somewhat awkwardly to which Sunny chuckled, "anyway, I'm Lucas Matthews."
"Nice to meet you. And to answer your question it's Miss. I ain't got the time for relationships with all these Powder Gangers threatening the town."
"What are Powder Gangers?" Lucas inquired.
"A group of escaped convicts from the NCR prison up the road. They harass travelers and caravaneers with explosives. Dynamite is seemingly their go to."
Nodding in an understanding manner he focused ahead where the first well was located.
"Up there do you see those three geckos?" Sunny asked with a whisper.
"Yeah. How did you wanna go about this?"
"Try and hit em from a distance. Don't let them close the gap on you or you'll be dead before you know it. But Cheyenne and I won't let you die. Especially since you just resurrected from the grave. Here take this; it's my spare Varmint Rifle try to pick em off."
Taking aim down the sight the courier lined up a shot on the first gecko he got a visual on. The 5.56 round penetrated its cranium in effect killing it.
"One down."
When it came to the next two geckos it was rinse and repeat. Things got tense with the last few geckos that nearly killed a poor townswoman at the last well. Fortunately, Lucas got there in the nick of time and got the jump on the latter three geckos.
"Whew, things got heated there for a sec. That's a start, why don't you go say 'hi' to Trudy at the saloon? She'd be cross with me if I didn't ask you to."
"Sure thing, it wouldn't hurt to ingratiate myself with the rest of the town."
By the time Lucas got to the saloon it was nearly two in the afternoon. Briefly speaking with the older gentleman on the saloon's porch he learned he went by 'Easy Pete'. Easy Pete spoke with Lucas about his time as a prospector before the latter went inside.
"Me and my friends are gonna come back and burn this town to the GROUND! Got it?" Lucas looked this man over. He was draped in a blue prison guard uniform with the letters 'NCRCF' lettered in bold white lettering on the back.
"We'll keep that in mind. Now if you're not gonna buy anything, then get out.," the middle-aged woman whom Lucas surmised to be Trudy firmly retorted.
The man stormed out in a huff and shoulder bumped the once dying courier on his way out. Dusting his shoulder off, Lucas walked up to the counter and found himself a stool at the bar.
"What was that all about?"
Trudy glanced up to meet his gaze.
"Just some escaped convict threatening to ransacked our town. We have some guy holed up in the gas station on the northern edge of town. His name is Ringo and that man, Joe Cobb is his name, and his group of Powder Gangers allegedly raided his caravan but Ringo managed to escape."
"So he's looking to finish the job, I assume?," the courier inquired.
"Precisely."
"Want me to kill him?"
"You mean 'murder' him? He's done nothing but threaten us. There's no need to resort to violence, yet."
"We'll, I'll just pay this, Ringo was it, a visit. Maybe he has.a solution. Also I noticed Mr. Cobb broke your radio. I could fix it for you."
"Hopefully, Ringo will leave soon enough so that Cobb leaves us alone. Regardless, though, feel free to examine my radio. I'll give you 50 caps if you can fix it."
After taking a gander at the radio; Lucas determined that only a few wires came loose and fixed it with a couple minutes.
"I fixed your radio."
"Thank you! I heard it come back on. As promised here's 50 caps."
Lucas stood back up and exited the Saloon. The walk to the gas station was uneventful. That is until he entered the current hideout.
"Stop right there! I'm not afraid to shoot!" the startled Ringo yelled in surprise.
"We'll, if you're gonna shoot you better not miss.," Lucas retorted.
"Heh. Sorry, I'm a little jumpy at the moment bec-" Ringo didn't get to finish his sentence before Lucas interjected.
"Joe Cobb and his gang are looking for you. I know, Trudy told me everything."
"In that case would you be willing to round up some of the others?"
"Like whom? Sunny Smiles?"
"Yes, start with Sunny. See if she would be willing to help."
With that being said; Lucas gathered Sunny and Trudy among other residents to join the fight. Doc Mitchell donated some medical supplies to tbe cause. On top of that Easy Pete and Chet loaned some dynamite and armor. En route back to Ringot - Victor - intercepted Lucas.
"Howdy, pardner. The word in town is that some rustlers are eyeing on assaulting Goodsprings?"
"Hello again, Victor, you are correct. Would you be able to lend your firepower to defend Goodsprings?"
"Why of course! I'll show up when I hear gunshots."
After the Chat with Victor; Lucas finally made it back to Ringo.
"Is Sunny with us?," asked the man in hiding.
"Sunny's with us. He'll, the whole damn town is with us."
Without warning the door to the gas station burst open.
"Time to look alive! At least a dozen Powder Gangers are advancing on the town. Everyone's in place ready to go."
Ringo and Lucas said nothing but nodded to each other and hurried after Sunny.
Both men got into position behind large wooden crates.
"Just give me the signal," Ringo said to Lucas in a hushed tone.
"Oh don't you boys worry about a signal," Trudy said sneaking up in between the two men,"Easy Pete booby trapped the road with IEDs made with dynamite."
Almost as soon as Trudy's words escaped past her lips a thunderous boom shook the town. Bits and pieces of 4 Powder Gangers rained down around the defenders.
"WATCH YOUR STEP!" a Powder Ganger shouted right before his head got blown off by a sniper on top of the Prospector Saloon.
"Get down yall!" Joe Cobb could be heard shouting over to his comrades. Bullets whizzed by his head as two of his compatriots to his left and right collapsed lifelessly.
At once the makeshift militia rushed from out of cover Lucas immediately tackled the nearest Powder Ganger. After a brief but one-sided scuffle; Lucas took his victim as a human shield. The four remaining Powder Gangers stopped shooting as Lucas advanced on them to not put their friend in any more danger.
"Alright fellas, you've got two choices here," Lucas began, "you can lay your weapons and retreat and never come back or," he paused as he sensed someone behind him.
"Or what?" asked another Powder Ganger raising his .357 Revolver against Lucas's temple.
"Or my friends and I shoot yall dead. However, there might be a slight change of plans."
"You're damn right there's gonna be a change in plans!" Cobb shouted before laughing.
The 4 Powder Gangers advanced on him with guns drawn all aimed at Lucas. The residents could only look on in horror as it seemed that their would-be savior was gonna be gunned down before their very eyes.
This would not be the case as rapidly approaching behind the Gangers a familiar robot was rolling up. Lucas could only grin to which annoyed Joe Cobb.
"And what the fuck is so amusing?" he asked. His answer would soon come.
"Well, howdy, pardners!" Victor cried out before gunning down the three Powder Gangers beside Joe Cobb.
"Now where were we? Oh right, you were gonna surrender."
Every citizen of Goodsprings surrounded Cobb as he and the Powder Gangers that took Lucas hostage were backed - quite literally- into a corner. Defiant to the end all three men tried to get one last shot but every gun fixated on them opened fire.
The day had been won.
