A year later
A whole year has passed since Granite's group became mercenaries. A month later, as the doctor said, the remaining 3 soldiers returned to duty, to whom they had to explain the whole situation.
During this year, they completed a large number of missions, made some money, but the price was the poor condition of the power armor and an almost complete lack of ammunition for laser weapons. After all, proper maintenance and ammunition supply was only in the Enclave. Therefore, the use of power armor was limited to dangerous missions, and laser weapons were put on the shelf, giving preference to regular machine guns, sniper rifles and other small arms.
Soon, another order came up - a city called Arroyo needed mercenaries to protect trade routes and hunt raiders. Newcomers were assigned to guard the routes, considering that they mainly had to follow the caravan drivers, but hunting for raiders... Here, the Granite Company was called in, due to its experience and "job profile". And unfortunately, you still have to walk to Arroyo.
When Granite was told to gather his "enclave men" and head to Arroyo, which is north of Eureka, he felt that he had heard this name somewhere. While his soldiers were gathering, he thought.
Then it dawned on Granite - the Enclave was raiding this very village, and these "savages" were brought to the oil rig. And then the events known to all enclave men began. First, the Rig fell, then Navarro was captured.
If Granite and his soldiers were of the "immediately after Navarro" type, he would have immediately gone to burn this village as revenge. But now...now instead of hatred and desire for revenge he has some small emptiness, as if it was all extinguished. Could it be that the wasteland with its inhabitants, fights with raiders, and saving various people cooled him down and made him look at the situation from a different angle?
One way or another, now is not the time for reflection, he ordered the already assembled soldiers to take the bare necessities. They have to go to Arroyo. It was impossible to use power armor, because they probably remember WHO came in it, and its condition was not so hot. Therefore, by the beginning of the day they set off.
After about 2 weeks
The path was long, due to the presence of small mountains and hills, but they still managed to reach Arroyo. A large city appeared in their view, fenced with a wall of sand blocks, hiding the same sand houses, some of which reached five stories in height. The city was not guarded by some savages in animal skins and with spears, but by people in homemade, but quite good clothes, armed with firearms.
There were already some mercenary squads in the city itself, probably the same ones that were supposed to guard the caravans. All that was left was to understand whether the location of the raider bases was known or not? For this, Granite went to the head of the settlement. She was an elderly, almost old, woman.
Next to her, in addition to the bodyguards, stood a young brunette of about twenty years old, dressed in a yellow sweater and khaki jeans. Granite chuckled, looking at her, and then decided to get down to business.
- Good afternoon, mistress, my name is Robert Granite, I came here with my group regarding the contract for the destruction of the raider bases. - Now it became clear that the initiative regarding this issue was with the girl, since she led them to a large wall map.
- You don't have to worry, mercenaries. Our scouts have found out the location of their bases, and you only need to destroy them. Then we can talk about the reward. - the girl said.
Granite, in turn, wrote down the coordinates of the raiders' bases and their "orientation" by cardinal points and other terrain details.
- Well, then my guys will rest here for a while and we will begin to carry out our mission. I hope you will have payment for all of us, including our comrades.
- Don't worry, Mister Granite, the payment will not disappoint you. - the girl assured him.
Granite just nodded and left with the coordinates in his hands.
As he said, they rested a bit, ate some food, and were about to move out when that same girl approached them. She was dressed in steel armor, a hunting rifle with an optical sight hung on her shoulder, a patronage was thrown over her right shoulder, and on her hip holster was a massive pistol, more like a sawed-off rifle. Seeing their guide, a couple of the company soldiers whistled.
- The Eldest asked me to accompany you, besides, I can more accurately lead you to the bases of these... assholes. - And the girl, apparently, is not one of the timid.
Actually, now they moved out.
After several hours of continuous walking, they reached the first raider base. Rather, it was not a base, but an analogue of a small fortified outpost, with only a dozen raiders.
As a result, it was not difficult to clear this outpost, and in a few minutes (including the time it took to walk to the outpost), all the raiders were lying dead. The girl, as it turned out, was really not one of the timid and used rather dirty tricks, like sand/earth in the eyes, then a human shield, and killing it, if the shield wasn't killed earlier.
- Hey, girl, where did you learn that? - Granite asked, chuckling.
- I learned it in a lot of places. Somewhere in civilization, somewhere in the wastelands themselves, and some during my childhood in the tribe. That's where I picked it up from.
"Well, that's logical," - he thought.
A few raider bases and a lot of time later
Now, the last of the raider bases remained. The biggest, the largest. Literally a raider fortress, and what they destroyed earlier were probably outposts.
Granite cursed as he examined the fortress through binoculars.
- A dozen vertibirds full of soldiers in power armor would be here...they would put these degenerates on all fours. - He muttered under his breath. The girl looked at Granite strangely.
— Did you say something? — she asked.
— No, what makes you think that? — Granite asked, cursing under his breath. He had to get caught like that! And he muttered it under his breath! How could she have heard it?!
— Don't lie to me, Granite. I'm from the tribe, and we have very sensitive hearing. What were you saying about helicopters and power armor? Are you really from the Enclave?! — she hit the nail on the head.
— The Enclave is gone... the oil rig was destroyed, and the NCR and the Brotherhood put us in a crab. And me, the commander of the Perimeter Control Company, along with the soldiers, were abandoned like we were nothing. We had to break through with the help of power armor and weapons that we could take from the Navarro arsenals, and disappear into the wastelands. In the end, it was decided to go north, to Arcata, the mercenary hub. Well, for lack of anything better, we went to them. Now we are the Granite Company. - It was useless to hide, because of just one sentence spoken under his breath, Granite's background was revealed, that he was from the Enclave.
The girl snorted, but suddenly, as if realizing something, said:
- What did you say? Perimeter control company?
- Yes, what?... - Granite asked, thinking about what was happening.
Putting two and two together, both pointed their guns at each other. Thank God they were away from the soldiers, otherwise a shootout would have been unavoidable. And it would have ended very badly for the brunette.
- So I'm now watching the raiders' fortress and talking to the one who destroyed the Rig?! - Granite asked, pointing his machine gun at her. The Chosen One pointed a hunting rifle at him.
- Well? Now we're going to shoot each other over some lousy oil rig? - asked the Chosen One.
- And whose fault is it that the Enclave's affairs went down the drain right after the oil platform fell?! - Granite asks a question.
- Your Enclave is to blame for its own destruction! First, you kidnapped my tribe, brought them to your base, and then decided to destroy the remains of humanity with the help of some F-E-V!
- What the fuck are you talking about?! - Granite was surprised by this turn of events.
- And you don't know? When I smashed your "President Richardson" he had documents about this F-E-V of yours and its dispersion all over the world!
- And how should I know if I'm just the commander of the company controlling the fucking perimeter?! Turn on your brains, since you used them before! - the former sergeant almost growls at her.
- Hmh... - she thought about it. Then she spreads her arms out to the sides, exposing her body to Granite.
- Go ahead, shoot me. Prove that you're no different from these crazy savages! - the chosen one says, almost screaming.
After hesitating for a couple of seconds, Granite exhales, lowering his machine gun, and says:
- Fuck you I'll waste more bullets on you.
- Okay. Tell me one last thing, what did your commanders tell you and what did they teach you? - she said, lowering her hands.
- There are mutants everywhere, the only "pure people" are in the Enclave, and the rest must be captured as slaves or destroyed. - Granite says, then chuckling and thinking.
- Uh-huh... it's surprising that after Navarro you don't kill wastelanders left and right, did I really get defective Enclave people?
- Uh-huh. You know, exploring the wasteland with your own eyes is pretty sobering. The only mutants here are super mutants and ghouls, while people are trying to survive. Well, and not to mention all sorts of raiders or other faggots. - Granite sighs.
- Hey! Don't say that about all the ghouls and super mutants! There are intelligent... individuals among them. - the girl protests.
- Hah, you mean to say there are super mutants and ghouls who have retained their brains and sanity?! - Granite asks.
- Of course, yes! For example, ghouls in Gecko. Or super mutants in Broken Hills, so don't lump everyone together here.
- Yeah... yeah... Damn, i didn't expect such a dirty trick from the degenerate "president" and his own commanders. - Granite sighed heavily, after which he put away his machine gun. - Then that's it, the end of the feud?
- Yeah, the end. Now forget about that incident, we have raiders to kill.
Right after that, Granite came up with an assault plan based on superior firepower, and they started firing at the raider fortress with grenade launchers and rocket launchers. The raiders suffered some losses, and the hole where the wall used to be allowed Granite and his soldiers to shoot at those inside the fortress. As soon as the number of raiders visually decreased, they went on the assault.
Once again, the assault was careful, because they do not have power armor to go straight ahead with shotguns at them. But in this case, military training compensated for this. After 10 minutes of fierce fighting outside and inside the base, Granite's squad emerged victorious from the battle. Their task was completed, all that was left was to return to Arroyo.
A few days later.
And so they returned to Arroyo. Everything was the same in the city, the only thing was that there were fewer mercenaries. Perhaps they are now guarding the caravans.
And so, Granite and the Chosen One arrived at the "government building".
The elder was already waiting for them there. Having thanked Granite for his help, one of the soldiers handed him 2500 caps.
— Hmmm...not bad, - Granite says, slightly tossing the purse with "money".
— I also have a reward for you personally. — The Chosen One said mysteriously.
— What are you getting at? — Granite asks suspiciously.
— And you follow me.
Shrugging his shoulders, Granite follows the Chosen One with a little caution. She would probably kill him quietly. But... the reward was of a completely different kind, more pleasant. Having led Granite into her room, the girl locked the door and pushed Granite onto the bed.
One 18 later (I will not describe the scene)
After a good few hours, Granite gathers the group and after a while they said goodbye to Arroyo. Their task was completed, and they were returning to Arcata.
End of Granite's arc.
From the co-author:
Yes, sex between Granite and the Chosen One is extremely inappropriate and stupid, but we couldn't come up with a better way to conceive Granite Jr.