New Vegas: Blood Ties

David smiled as he saw some of the group talk to each other. He looked around the wasteland for anything that could pose a danger. The desert climate was new to him, but he would adapt, he always would. He saw a sign, battered and rusted, but he could make the words 'Nellis' out on it. He saw no point in telling Yasmine, as she would know already where they are.
 
Mark stayed quiet for the most part, traveling in the middle of the group, aside from the sporadically chat between team members here and there everything was death quiet, just the wind could be heard, it was soothing, but that's how the wasteland worked, everything would be quiet and then all of a sudden a deathclaw cuts you in three different parts with a strike from behind. Mark felt the need to take a quick look back.
 
The Stranger tried to stay a little behind the group, his thoughts keeping him company as he surveyed the surrounding wastes. This was the furthest East he'd ever come, and he didn't know what to expect.
 
Tom was now ahead of the group, quite far ahead, about fifty metres. He looked behind to make sure the group was still behind him, good, all was well. Even though the group was out of town by now, Tom still had failed to check his supplies, so he felt the need:

-Hunting Rifle: Gregory
-23 .308 Rounds
-3 .308 AP Rounds (Recently found in the bottom of pocket)
-Combat Knife
-Spork
-10 Caps
-Very Sparse Combat Armour

He decided not to bring food and water, because he knew had to live off the land, a year and a half travelling through America had it's plus side. Tom was looking forward to this ammo of the gods Carib was talking about earlier, he had also appreciated the compliment on his weapon, he was going to repay it somehow, eventually.

As he stood on what appeared to be a seemingly normal rock, he heard a jingle under-foot. He bent down to see the source of this noise, and lifted the rock. Lone behold, underneath the rock was what appeared to a be a couple of .308 rounds, it wasn't much but Tom would take it.

He looked through his iron sight over to the distance as to recon the immediate area. Nothing. Nothing but the barren, barren wasteland, only a couple of Yuca plants in the area, not good. He looked again, odd, he swore he could seea makeshift shelter, a corrugated iron piece of fence, supported by four scaffoled legs, someone must live there, he looked again, yes, it definitly was a real one.

He shouted back at the group, "There's a makeshift shelter, about, three-hundred metres ahead, just behind the low-lying ridge", Tom pointed in the general area of the shelter to indicate where he was talking, "Should I check it out?"
 
"Knock yourself out."
Brad took a sip of one of his water bottles. He never really liked water. Too plain. But he liked to stay hydrated while walking through the mojave.
He was holding his plasma rifle, since his bag was pretty light without the energy weapon in it.
He was getting a little hungry, but didn't want to waste one of his mac and cheese or instamash boxes. Same went for his apple. He needed something to snack on.
"But if you find any potato crisps, they're mine."
He put his water back into his bag, and pulled out his pistol, and put it on a holster attached to his leather armor, just in case.
 
Although the response wasn't exactly the leader of the group, wasn't even close to it by Tom's standards, he thought he may as well now that somebody agreed with him. He made of for the makeshift shelter at a steady pace, a light jog.

It had taken Tom about fifty seconds to reach the shelter, he was an excellent athlete, he found sprinting and long-range jogging his high points. When he arrived at the shelter it was empty of life, no one was there, it was quite full of let's put it straight...shit. Itmust of been a scavengers den, if anything, Tom could help by *easing* some of the loot away.

Tom saw some .308's out of the corner of his eye and quickly pocketed them, he wasn't sure how many of them there was, but at least one of them was already spent. He looked around the den, looking for something he could stake a claim in before anyone else arrived at the shelter. Score! Tom saw a bag of what appeared to be loose caps, he opened it upon his hands, at least 35 caps, he quickly swept them into his caps satchel.

He rummaged around a bit more, as Tom pulled up a piece of scrap metal and revealed a shiny good-as-new rifle grip which he could tape to his rifle for much needed stability. Tom picked up some tearable tape he saw out of the corner of his eye, there wasn't much left on the roll but enough. He placed the new rifle grip just ahead of the rifle butt, and just before the trigger, it added more stability, more accuracy, it also made it more comfortable to handle in combat.

"Anyone else can search around in this crap-heap, didn't find much of use" Tom shouted to the rest of the group, "But if anyone manages to find some whisky, i'm having it!",
 
Yasmin smiled and shook her head. “Thanks Carib, but that won’t be necessary. I grew up shooting this gun, and though it requires some maintenance,” She grinned wickedly, “I can still circumcise an iguana from 100 meters. I have good eyes, and am good at spotting…” she paused and thought for the least informative wording. “…Structural weaknesses.” She meant it in buildings and creatures. Watch things enough, hurt things enough, you’ll find out the way an old injury or a birth defect affects the body and where the best place is to put a bullet and cause the most damage. If they have no injuries, fine. Aim for the head.
Tom came up beside her and requested his pay. She pulled out 80 and handed them too him with a slight glare, warning him with her eyes that if he brought up anything from last night, something bad was going to happen. He kept quiet, so it seemed they had an understanding.
She travelled along next to Carib, because their paces matched and she actually enjoyed his company. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something about this man oozed protection, and not that she needed it, but it was comforting.
When Tom yelled out about whether he should inspect the shack, Yasmin didn’t answer. She had started to like the familiar feeling of people taking direction from her, but he wasn’t one of the young, stupid raiders she used to lead. He was a big boy and could decide for himself if he wanted to loot the shack.
She checked her pipboy and saw that they were still going the right way. Looking around she saw an old power line jutting out of the ground in the distance ahead of them. When they reached it she’d climb up and look around to see if they had anything nasty waiting for them.
 
"Ah," Carib said knowingly, "that is a rare gift. Seeing the integral weaknesses in people and objects. Usually that sort of knowledge comes about with a lot of experience and in certain trades." Carib knew that too well. You weren't trained in first aid to always help people in the Rangers, sometimes your taught to actually do more harm.

She smiled at him, though probably hoping he wouldn't press on. Carib's nature was that of a person who liked putting pieces together. But he knew this wasn't the time and whatever her past or ties to certain groups, Carib couldn't judge. Was he not a reaper of evildoers?

"I would ask where you learned all this and by your baring... but as my mother once told me, 'some mysteries should be left alone.'You are what you are, Yasmin of the Blue Eyes." And after that, Carib said no more. He wouldn't judge her or care. Whatever she was in the past and judging by that burn on the back of her neck, the one he saw the briefest outline from, she had an interesting life.

He accepted her confidence and nodded. When the time came, he'd cook up the ammo anyway and if she loved it, great, if not, at least she'd have something to brag about. Carib heard Tom go off to loot a shack. There were a lot of 0ld shacks out there. Wanderers and dwellers would build them, but more often than not they'd be eaten by some monstrosity out in the wastes or captured by Slavers.
 
As mark approached them he happened to hear those last words, he cleared his throat. Mark turned to Yasmin. "Sorry to interrupt, but, I think it would be a good idea if you gave me the exact coordinates of the base... don't worry I won't run off with the info, I just want to have it on my pipboy too." Mark looks at the map on his pipboy. His was a PipBoy 2000, the one with the dropping bombs screen saver the 3000's didn't had. "Lessee... we are about here, near Nellis, right? And we are heading in this direction... now, from the north-east edge of the map, let's take these notches on the map edges as reference... how many notches south and how many notches west is our destination?"

Mark was a bit amused by how the rest of the males reated to the only female on the team... but hey, he thought, god made us like we are for a reason I guess.
 
''Here,'' Yasmin said taking his hand and pulling him towards her then turning his arm so she could play with the pipboy. ''We're going just about.....here.'' she said, comparing their screens then tapping on his screen the right point. ''Looks like we'll be south enough from the Boomers to not get any trouble from them.''
 
As the group were beginning to make there way away from the shelter, Tom was starting to get closer to the group, yet still ahead of them. Tom looked over the horizon in the direction they were apparently going towards, nothing, oh shit, Tom could here a loud wailing noise over the ridges and the horizon, but only just, it wasn't a human wailing noise, it was as if the voice had cracked, deformed, it just didn't sound right, and Tom knew exactly what it was.

Tom ran back to the group, but only still he was in front of them. He stood on a rock to make his prescene more obvious, he didn;t want anyone going from this threat 'because they never heard me say it'. Tom straightened his back, "It seems over these ridges there is some ghouls, feral to be exact, I heard a feral ghoul wail earlier, it wasn't a nice sound if i'm honest, but prepare yourselves I don't want this whole group to perish from a simple ghoul attack". Tom in particular was eyeing Brad, who Tom had a feeling couldn't handle himself to well in combat. He decided when combat came about, he would pair himself with Brad.
 
Ferals... he dropped his hand to the butt of one of his revolvers and lowered the brim of his hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. Alone, a feral ghoul was no problem, but they were rarely alone, and even the weakest ghoul was able to suck up bullets like anything he'd ever seen.
He walked over to Tom,
"How far away were the sounds when you heard them? We may be able to move right by them."
 
Yasmin started looking for a high cliff or something. “If we can get up high enough we can probably pick them off with no problem. They’ll need to climb if they want us, and they aren’t too good at that.” She grinned. “Loose skin is hard for gripping to rocks.”
 
Tom looked over at Alex, "I heard the noise, from about over that ridge" Tom pointed at the ridge, it wasn't that far away, about two-hundred metres away, the ridge wasn't that far overlooking below, so the ghouls might just make it up the cliff, Tom looked over to Yasmin, "The ridge is that high so it is likely some of them might make it up the cliff, just to be sure, pick 'em off when you can".
 
"Oh no, its not the fact they have the mental stability and intelligence of a rabid dog that prevents them from climbing well, its their loose skin", said David sarcastically to Yasmine. He smiled and then walked over to the ridge. He then turned to the others and said,"I'll protect the rear guard. Ferals sprint like olympic atheletes."
He saw some of the others frown, and explained,"It was a pre-war event that only happened every 4 years and was held in a different country each time."
He guessed Carib and Mark knew about it from being in the NCR. He wondered if the NCR had any events like the Olympics. His mind turned back to the problem at hand.

"As I as saying, I'll protect the rear guard from any ghouls who are really hungry. Carib, could you join me, and lay down some fire with your LMG?"
David turned back to look down the ridge as he heard some noises. He looked back at Carib.
 
Mark whispers "Shhh! Everyone quiet!" then signals Carib to take position. Positioned at the center Mark takes cover and looks trough his weapon scope.
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Mark signals Carib, raises three fingers then points with his hand at the direction of the ferals.

"Glowing ones"
 
David whispers to mark,"How far away? You or Yasmine could take them out, save us a whole lot of trouble." He waited for Mark to reply.
 
Tom made sure his rifle was loaded, although the ferals were far away, and he had now scope, he was a crack shot, but as soon as he heard there was some glowing one, he readied himself for a slog, Tom lay down beside Mark, ready to fire on the order, he had learn to fire accurately with the Talon Company, they taught him a lot of his knowledge, because Talon Company as well as being a militaristic organisation, often educated and trained their recruits up to the highest order. By highest order, trained a little worse than the Brotherhood, better than the NCR Army, but about on par as the Rangers.

He lined his sights up to match one of the Glowing Ones heads, they had the advantage of surprise, they could easily take out most of the group before the rest of the ghouls noticed them.

He whispered to Mark, "Just say when, and i'll fire on order", Tom wasn't prepared to loose half of the team because of a band of feral ghouls, and they were likely not to, Tom just took precautions whenever he could. He looked back to the group behind Mark and himself. He looked at Yasmin, hoping that she knew that Tom had to have a word with her about what he saw, maybe tonight when they set camp.
 
Mark talks in a low but clear voice "Carib, use your binoculars and keep scanning for any other targets. Tom... you take the one on the right... Yasmin, take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the center. Let me know when you're both ready. Me firing will be the signal." Mark moves one click on his scope. "Estimated range... 250 meters." Then aims at the ghoul in the center and removes the safety on his weapon, lying on his stomach, takes a deep breath and starts letting the air out slowly as he concentrates to keep the crosshairs right in the middle of the ghoul's head.
 
Yasmin climbed up and took out her sniper crouching down next to David and, being a smart ass, whispered “Have you ever seen a rabid dog go after something up a cliff? Cause I have. They get up their fast. Ghouls can’t cling well.” Then with a smirk looked through her scope. She saw the ghouls then did a quick sweep to see if there was any other threats. Then her heart leapt a bit.

Further away there were about 5 massacred ghouls. Someone had been through here before. It was hard to tell just how long dead they were, but they had definitely been shot to death.

The LT cleared his throat next to her and she quickly got her target back in the sight, following his head.

“Ready when you are.” She said. And then fired.
 
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