Mojave Outpost
I woke up the next morning covered in sweat from yet another zombie themed nightmare but, I had already expected that after what happened yesterday.
After rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I instinctively stretched out before recoiling at the shooting pain in my arm.
'That's right' I groaned remembering I was still injured but, also noticed that the pain was far more tolerable that it was before. Before going to bed last night, I made sure to inject myself with a second Stimpak to speed up my recovery and it seems like it did its job.
And since it was about time, I changed out my bandages anyway I figured I might as well take the opportunity to see how my arm was doing. Last time I saw it in Primm it was a swollen red mess covered in all sorts of nasty blisters and scabs. This time however after removing my wraps I saw that the skin on my arm had mostly returned to normal. And despite still being an alarming shade of red all the blisters were gone and all that was left was perfectly smooth skin.
It still hurt like a bitch when I touched it but, was really no worse than a severe case of sunburn.
Satisfied that I'd mostly recovered and would be able to at least try and make use of my arm today I finished changing the bandages and getting dressed. And before going outside to find Yoruichi thought over what I had on my to do list today.
The most important thing I needed to do was find a way to earn some more caps and resupply since I starting to run dangerously low on ammo. Which thankfully didn't seem like it would be too much of a problem since we were literally in a military camp full of merchants.
I also needed to find a way to buy lots of basic crafting components to see if I could make us some better armor and weapons. Because I refused to believe there wasn't a workbench somewhere in the base.
And because I really wanted to get my hands on some more powerful weapons.
Those ghouls or the convicts in Primm wouldn't even have been half the problem they were if we had a decent minigun or rocket launcher with us.
Exiting my tent I took a moment to enjoy the cool desert morning before the sun started baring down on us. Even if it was already winter and everything was starting to cool down that didn't chance the fact that this was still a desert.
Looking around I saw that there really wasn't much going on in most of the caravans. At most there were a couple people going around taking care of the brahmin, but that was it. Which wasn't really surprising since most of the caravans had probably been stuck here for days already and were probably bored out of their minds.
Leaning against the next tent over I could still hear the feint sound of breathing inside and guessed that Yoruichi was still asleep. I hadn't forgotten that I owed her a couple meals and was planning to start making due on my debts this morning. Because I didn't even want to think about what Yoruichi would do if she thought I was trying to weasel out of what I owed her.
Using my memories from the game I made my way towards the chow hall where I could already see a few soldiers and caravan guards relaxing and enjoying their meals.
I took particular notice of the middle aged woman passed out at the bar with an empty bottle of whiskey in her hand.
I was pretty confident that that was Cass the first human companion you come across in game.
I didn't know if I wanted to try and recruit her yet, because it felt weird to think about just walking up to a random stranger and asking them to join us on our adventure. But, at the same time this wasn't a game anymore and there was nothing stopping me from bringing along as many people as I want. And the idea of forming a group filled with all the different companions in the game was pretty appealing to me since the biggest problem we've been running into on our journey so far wasn't the strength of our enemies but, their numbers.
Though that would have to wait until later.
Because right now the Rose of Sharon Cassidy was blackout drunk from one too many drinks and I wanted to wait for her to sober up a little before approaching her. Not to mention that it was probably a bad idea to try and recruit someone to our group without consulting Yoruichi first, I can't imagine she would appreciate that.
Back to my original goal I quickly ordered us a light breakfast with the small number of caps I had left. It wasn't much just some biscuits, dried up bits of fruit, and a few portions of what I hoped was meat. But, it would do.
Making my way back to the tents I found Yoruichi already up and about sitting in front of our small fire looking like she'd just been run over by a supermutant.
"I guess you didn't sleep too well either" I stated while handing her breakfast.
"Don't even get me started" she groaned tearing a bite out of her biscuit "I kept having the same horrible dream every time I fell asleep."
"What was it about" I asked taking a seat next to her?
"Don't want to talk about it" she responded.
"That's fair enough" I let it go and started digging into my own meal "I've been having lots of nightmares lately too, though they're mostly just me being attacked by zombies."
She raised an eyebrow "I didn't think those ghouls traumatized you that much."
"They didn't actually" I admitted "At least no more than anything else. I actually started having nightmares back in Goodsprings. The first one was about Joe Cobb and the Powder Gangers rising up from the dead and attacking me while I slept."
"...That sounds horrifying" she sighed.
I just shrugged and didn't offer any other response.
The two of us quickly finished up our meals and she asked what we should do next. And I told her it might be a good idea to go find Major Knight again and see if he knows if there's any work for us around.
Not seeing any problem with that the two of us gathered up our things and returned to the administration building where a defeated looking Major Knight greeted us as he powered his way through the days stack of paperwork.
"Oh? Hi" he greeted us without looking up from his forms "What can I do for you?"
"We were wondering if you had any work available for some hired guns" I explained?
"Sorry" Knight shook his head "I'm not authorized to contract outsiders for work but, you might try your luck with Ranger Jackson. I'm just a desk jockey, he's the one really in charge around here though that mostly amounts to sending reports back west that aren't exactly filled with the best news."
"So where can we find this Ranger Jackson" Yoruichi asked?
"Just follow the hallway" Knight pointed "You can't miss him. He'll be the guy in the white wifebeater and cowboy hat, wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors, and a rifle on his back."
After thanking Major Knight we left him too his work and walked down the hall to find Ranger Jackson. Which wasn't very hard since Knight's description was spot on, we found his in the back of a lounge area doing maintenance on his rifle.
"Well, lookie here" he flicked his hat and smirked "Looks like we've got some new visitors in the Ol' brahmin pen. Not many people passing through here anymore, least of all ones as pretty as you" he winked at Yoruichi. "So, what can I do for you fine fellows."
"We're wondering if you had any work" Yoruichi answer completely ignoring his obvious attempt to flirt with her?
Ranger Jackson sighed dropping his suave act when he saw she wasn't interested and went straight to business. "As a matter of fact I might" he rubbed his chin "And you two look reasonably capable and might actually be able to pull it off."
"What can we do for you" I asked already knowing the answer?
"As you probably already know" Jackson explained "The roads north of here have gone to hell and back escaped convicts, ghouls, and deathclaws have completely taken over, leaving us no direct path to New Vegas. Caravans have been compensating by taking the longer route that goes east of here through Nipton and up passed Novac. The problem is that now even that route has been blocked off too, and I can't in good conscience let any caravans through knowing they don't have a clear path. But, that's causing its own problems the caravans are starting to get antsy and I'm worried that they'll do something stupid if we don't get those roads cleared soon."
"So, you want us to clear the roads for you" Yoruichi frowned "That's suicide!"
"I'm not asking you to fight a deathclaw or anything" Ranger Jackson raised his hands "The local giant ant population has recently dug a new entrance to their nest right next to the highway east of here and are blocking any passage through. I just want you to get rid of them, so that way the caravans can start moving again and at least offload some of their supplies in Nipton even if they can't make it all the way to New Vegas.
"That still sounds like suicide" Yoruichi huffed "How many ants do you think the two of us can kill all on our own?"
"You don't have to wipe out the entire nest" he shook his head "From the NCR's estimates there's at least three to four hundred ants in that nest. So, it's absolutely impossible to wipe it out with just the two of you. All you need to do is kill the ants in the direct area and collapse the entrance to their nest with a small amount of explosives I'll provide you with. I'd have my men do it themselves but, I have standing orders to keep a certain headcount in base at all times and can't send anyone out as that would be a direct violation of my orders and would probably get me court martialed."
"That sounds more doable" I nodded.
"But, how much is the pay" Yoruichi got right to the point?
"When did I ever say anything about paying you" Ranger Jackson smiled and interrupt Yoruichi before she could start yelling "But... if you do this mission well, I might be able to 'misplace' some supplies for you."
"Perfect" I answered leaving Yoruichi a bit unsatisfied with his answer "Just give us the dynamite and we'll get going."
"Haha" he laughed "Who ever said anything about dynamite? No, I got something much better for you!"
Reaching into the bag at his side Ranger Jackson pulled out a large lump of a strange grey substance. My eyes widened and I backed up slightly guessing what it was!
"You just keep that thing with you" I jumped!
"Not really" he shrugged "But, I've been planning this mission for a while now and just needed to find someone stu-BRAVE enough to do it for me. And when Lieutenant Hayes radioed us about you two the other day about what you did in Primm. I had a feeling something like this might happen."
"I'm confused, what exactly is that" Yoruichi asked "It looks like clay?"
"It's C4 I answered! A stable plastic explosive that's FAR stronger and safer than dynamite!"
"Really" Yoruichi's eyes lit up! "I call dibs!"
"What! Hey, no fair" I tried to argue! "I already let you have the grenade launcher! Let me have this!"
"Too late" she rebuked "I already called dibs!"
"Here you go beautiful" Ranger Jackson chuckled respecting the dibs and tossed it over to her "Don't worry too much about being careful with it, you could light this stuff on fire and it still wouldn't explode."
"Then how do I detonate it then" she asked while playfully molding the explosives around in her hand and I grumbled off to the side?
"With this" Jackson fished out a small device and demonstrated how it worked to Yoruichi "This is the detonator all you have to do is flip this little switch here so that the light turns on and press down on the button on top for at least three seconds. After that it'll ignite the blasting cap in the C4 detonating the explosives."
"Got it" she nodded paying close attention.
"Oh, and you might want to be careful with this" he added while handing it too her "Because if the detonator breaks, that C4 will be completely useless."
"Is there anything else" I asked as Yoruichi put away her new toys?
"Nope that's about it" the ranger responded "Just don't get yourself killed because the paperwork for dealing with that is a bitch."
"Right" I responded not sure if he was joking or not.
As the two of us left I realized that we still had a major problem to deal with, we were still out of ammo!
Sure, I still had some pistol ammo and a few rounds for the caravan shotgun but, that didn't seem like it would be enough when we were going us against an army of giant ants. There shells made them far tougher than nearly anything else we've had to fight so far and my tiny handguns just weren't going to cut it this time.
The best solution I could think of was for one of us to pick the ants off from a distance with the armor piercing rounds in the varmint rifle while the other blew them up the grenade launcher. But, even then I only bought 20 armor piercing rounds in the first place and Yoruichi had already used a few of them killing the radscorpions at the rest stop yesterday. And the same was true for the grenade launcher, we only had a couple rounds left for it!
I shared my thoughts with Yoruichi and she just shrugged and said we'd figure it out. And that if it was too much we could just return to the outpost and tell Jackson we couldn't do it. Which I guess was reasonable since it wasn't like we had to fight the ants to the death. And even if we couldn't kill them I was confident we could out run them since both of us had fairly high endurance and the ants didn't have any ranged attacks.
"Allright let's do it" I punched my hand!
"That's the spirit" Yoruichi slapped my shoulder!
As we left the outpost I briefly wondered if I should stop by the roof of the mess hall and talk to Ranger Ghost. She was the person responsible for defending the base and kept an eye out on anything coming up the I-15 with her trusty sniper rifle. And was also the person who gave out the quest "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize" which was a simple quest that only involved going down to Nipton and reporting back to Ranger Ghost the the Legion destroyed the town.
It wasn't something I was looking forward too but, it would be stupid of me not to accept the free exp.
A haven't really been paying much attention to quests since we left Goodsprings but, that was mostly because in these early stages they didn't give too much exp at least compared to what I could get by killing a horde of enemies and also because a lot of the quests were connected and could be completed just by chasing after Benny. Without having to do anything extra.
But, now that I was at the Mojave Outpost things were going to start opening up a bit more and I'd have to start actively seeking out quests.
However, I ended up putting talking to Ranger Ghost on hold for now. Because when I took a good look into the distance with my binoculars, I didn't actually see any large plooms of smoke billowing out anywhere.
I wasn't sure what was happening but, from what I could tell the Legion hadn't actually attacked the town yet. So, there was no point in trying to get the quest from her since the reason for it hadn't even happened.
I had absolutely no idea why that was and could only wait until after they made a move.
It might have been a bit cruel to not even try and save them since I knew the town was going to be destroyed. But, even if I wanted too what could I do? It wasn't like I could go and tell Ranger Jackson that the Legion was going to attack. At best he'd think I was crazy and at worst I'd be interrogated to see if I was a Legion spy.
So, really all I could do was bite the bullet and leave the people of Nipton to their fate.
Focusing back on the task at hand the asked Yoruichi to hand me the varmint rifle since I would need it for the coming fight. She responded by asking if I was okay to shoot with my arm and I smiled and flexed my fist telling and telling her I was mostly healed.
She looked a bit skeptical but, still handed me the gun regardless.
Checking my Pipboy I saw the quest marker on the map that showed our destination and estimated that it was about a four hour round trip from the outpost. Not at all far considering how far we've already walked but, not exactly close either.
And since I knew the path there was relatively safe, I decided to ask flip on my radio and listen to some music to help kill the time.