New Vegas: Blood Ties

Yasmin grinned and went to the radio then turned the dial till country music started playing. ''I never use the raido though. Gives away where I am.''
 
Brad listened to the music.
"That's pretty neat."
He then said, jokingly, "I'll have to keep an eye out for any dead vault dwellers."
 
Yasmin burst out laughing at that. It wasn't as dark as raider humour, but it was her kind of joke. ''You'd be surprised how useful they are.'' she said honestly, but with enough laughter in her voice that it sounded like a joke. She scratched the back of her head where the short hair was itching and needed a shave. ''I wish everyone would get here already so we can go.''
 
Brad starting laughing a little too. But it wasn't at the joke, it was her reaction. It wasn't all that funny, but there she was, laughing away.
 
"Good timing, this place is full of weirdos, I keep expecting everyone who walks by will try to jump on me. And who the hell was that guy?" Mark motions his head his right. "I didn't see him last night. Someone new? Anyways, I am ready when we're ready, I won't be handing the supplies here though, it would be an invitation for muggers, no way I'm carrying all this stuff by myself either, so I'll hand the supplies for everyone to carry once we clear Freeside. Got me non irradiated food and water, grenades and even land mines, we'll need them more than you think. Even got us some C4, not much though, we have to use it wisely... oh, and I got your ammo, some AP, what was available anyway. I also got my hands on a support weapon, if someone want's to carry it, if not I'll do it myself... we can use the firepower but it eats ammo like a starving deathclaw, someone else has to carry the ammo if I take the machine gun. Anything that can give us an edge... oh and do make sure to tell some of the guys that the meds aren't for personal use. By the way, where the hell are the others, I thought you were all coming together trough here."
 
Carib smiled at Mark, "Your getting paranoid. Good. That'll keep you sharp. As for the new guy - he came into the Strip just after Yasmin put the contract out. He's a hardcase and he's talented. Mysterious, but we all got pasts and angles. So far I have no problem with him. He and I seem like kindred spirits." Carib didn't elaborate on the man being able to walk into one of the most dangerous casinos armed with his revolvers, but Mark didn't need to know that detail. This was like a card game and everyone was keeping their cards close to the vest.

He had heard the laughter and perhaps it was his onset psychosis, but Carib could swear Yasmin's laugh was like his baby sisters. Good thing no could see his face underneath the desert mask, but still, anyone who knew of body language knew something got Carib attention. It was good laughter and one didn't hear that anymore in these bad times.

The music coming from the PipBoy was good. He remembered that Arizona Ranger song and of course, when he and Katja had leave they always listened to Heartache By the Number. He remembered to switch off the radio that was in his bunker. There was no chance of it ever being heard, but why take a chance. Someone always gets curious when they find a man hole. But Carib did pride himself on camouflage. If he trusted this gang enough he'd probably take them their to resupply and relax.

The rest would be here and Carib would wait. He watched as Brad seemed to have gotten some more spine to talk to Yasmin. Which was fine, he had no interest in her accept to see his contract to the finish. Sure she paid him 20 caps, but Carib had done harder things for less.

He took the support weapon. The Lightmachinegun was a good weapon, though Carib wished they had the Ranger variant which used a shorter barrel and used 7.62 ammo was perhaps a better choice. Oh, well, never look a gift Brahmin in the mouth.

"I got the support weapon. Be like old times." Carib liked the rate of fire and he could maintain it well enough.
 
''Well, since we're almost all here.'' She gave Brad his 75 caps, Carib 20, and tossed one to Gonzalez. She smiled when he caught it out of reflex and gave him a wink. ''I know you didn't want payment, but consider it a sign of good faith.'' She looked at the others (I'm assuming there's others with us? Doing this from my phone so back reading is hard.) ''Ok, who else is owed what? Oh, and I got us some rations too. With what you have too, we should be set for a while.''
 
As he was leaving Mick and Ralph's, the Stranger heard a man's voice from behind him.
"I've been looking for you..."
His first reaction was dismay that he'd been snuck up on. His second was that while he didn't recognize the voice, he recognized the feeling of the caravan shotgun on his back.
"Let me guess... bounty hunter?"
He could almost hear the sound of the man's grin on his voice.
"That'll be Ex bounty hunter after I collect on your sorry ass. Now head into that alley over there, no need to make a commotion."
"That's exactly what I was thinking..."
The Stranger complied, and headed into the alley, shotgun still at his back.
"What's the price now?"
The bounty hunter laughed,
"15,000 caps, dead or alive, seems you pissed someone off something fierce for them to put a bounty that big out on a low-life like you"
"Watch your mouth kid, I've dropped hunters alot more famous than you. Now hurry up and get it over with...
"As you wis..."
The Stranger spun, his elbow knocking the shotgun off to the side while his other hand freed one of his revolvers from it's holster. Within a split second, the bounty hunter... the kid who was barely out of his teens was looking down the barrel of the massive gun. The Stranger stared at him for a second, then a grin drew across his face.
"This is it? This is what they've resorted to sending? And you came light. Fucking insulting. You know I can't send you back..."
The kid's eyes were wide with fear, and the tears trickling down his face only serve to make that fear more apparent.
"L-l-look... you don't gotta do this... I won't tell nobody, I, I swear. Please!"
The Stranger untied the bandana from the hunter's neck a draped it over his face. He pressed the barrel of the gun into the cloth and pulled the trigger. The crack of the revolver was earsplitting but even it hadn't drowned out the kid's last words.
The white bandana was red now, and the pavement around the hunter's head was slick with blood. The Stranger lifted the kid's hand and removed a ring that was on the index finger. He pocketed the ring and let out a deep sigh.
He made his way back to the Gomorrah, walked past the rest of the group and found a seat by the bar. He simply sat with his head down in his arms. The only sound out of him were the kid's last words:
"I'm sorry"
 
Yasmin huffed as this new guy walked passed into the bar. He was getting on her nerves, and she didn't have many. She walked over to the door way leading in and yelled out ''If you're coming, get your ass over here or stay the fuck behind. But I'm not waiting for you to get one last drink.'' She turned and looked at the rest of the men, clearly annoyed. ''Who else isn't ready.''
 
He heard her call out. He gathered himself and got up to join the rest of the group.
"Sorry, ma'am, just needed to do some quick thinking.... we ready to go?"
He smiled faintly..
 
Brad signaled for Yasmin to hand him his rations, which she did.
He opened the container and saw
2 Stimpacks
1 Bottle of nuka cola
1 Bottle of purified water
1 Instamash
1 Fresh Apple
And, Brad smirked when he saw this,
1 Bottle of scotch.
He immeadiately remembered their little "conversation" last night and started to laugh a little.
 
Yasmin snorted (like a bull) and decided she was going to take a dislike to this man. ''Right. Who are we missing? Anyone?''
 
As they were leaving Mark starts handing over the supplies, some 5mm, 5,56mm and 308 ammo. Food, water, anti rad meds and stimpacks. Also two grenades and two mines each. "You may think you won't need the mines but we need to distribute the weight." As Mark is handing the mines he looks at Brad. "Know what these are for, son? You see if we run into a firefight the basic strategy is to pin down the enemy, and then have someone outflank them or getting close enough to throw a grenade. Any enemy even slightly organized will try to do the same with you. Now, time and again in the fight against the Fiends this tactic has proved less effective as those crazy bastards are so pumped up with chems that they will not fear the bullets enough to get pinned, and even take several hits and keet charging towards you, this scares the shit out of the recruits. Now when that happens and you run into some Fiends or other psychotic fearless thing that's not stopping for anything, if you throw one of these like a frisbee in their intended path, it'll stop them cold. You can't run without legs, now can you?" Mark thinks for a second then asks "You know what a frisbee is, don't you?"

"Also, if anyone would like to volunteer to carry the machine gun or the ammo..."

Since the stranger volunteered, he proceeded to hand him the ammo belts, about 2500 rounds.

"Make sure to keep an eye on the weapon operator, keep him fed."
 
Carib raised his hand, "I got it Mark. I'll be the Gunner." He picked up the Light MG and cradled the weight in his arms. It had been a while he held one, much less used it, but he had perhaps more experience with the MG than most here did in the room. He looked to Alex and didn't have to tell him to watch his back. Alex looked capable enough, of course, time would tell.

Carib responded to Alex's concern, "Mark is being proactive. Fiends, Viper Gangers. Even Ferals. Lord only knows what else. Legion, too for that matter. There have been rumors they've been slinking across the Colorado River."

*****

When yasmin was doing the roll call.

"Present." Carib raised a gloved hand, the Light MG slung across his chest. Mark provided two extra boxes of ammo which kept in his assault pack.

Carib took stock of what he had.

He carried a medium assault ruck, which was pretty spacious even by post-war and pre-war standards.

-Assault Carbine XM177E3; his most favored weapon. Heavier barrel for sustained rate of fire and even has a suppressor kit. He had a reflex Holographic optic for those quick kills and was co-witnessed with the iron sights in the event the optic went down.

-5mm Loaded Mags 30rds camou X10 (300 rds)

-Extra ammo in spare stripper clips (210 rds)

-Shorty Barrel .12ga Mossberg: This was kept fastened to his kit on the right side of the medium assault ruck.

-.12ga Coin shot, slug and Magnum (55 rds total)
-10mm Pistol w/suppressor
-10mm 12rd Clips x4 (JHP handloads)
-Tomahawk
-Scout Knife

-Radio
-Garmin Foretrex 2000 wrist GPS
-Dogs
-Worn Green Notebook w/pencil and pen
-Purified Water x4 bottles
-Compressed food rations
-Caravan Lunch x2
-Bag of Trail Mix
-Gecko Kabobs x2
-dog steaks x4
-Detonator
-C-4 Brick x2
-Incendiary Grenade x1
-Frag Grenade x4
-Stimpaks x4
-First Aid Kit
-Vitamin Tablets (ten doses left)

-Anti-Rad kit: includes three bags of Rad-Away, Four doses of Rad-X.

-Stealthboy 3001 (1/2 power)
-Motion Sensor (3/4 power)
-Binoculars

-Lightmachinegun
-400 rd belts of 5.56mm Surplus ammo


He gave the detonator the test, to make sure it had power. Last thing they needed was a faulty detonator. He would set the appropriate frequencies when the mission dictated it and he would entrust a second person of that freq in the event something happened to him. Always plan for Plan B.

"Good to go."

"Ready to go," Carib said after he repacked all his gear.
 
"I am always expecting trouble. Besides the support weapon is the team's weapon, and is the one that's going to keep us all alive if we end up in over our heads. I wanted to bring this one along and as much ammo as possible, this one spews them so fast you'll run out of ammo before you can realize it if you don't control your bursts. I would had also brought a grenade launcher, but I had to keep it down on the weight and it's not like it's easy to sneak all this out. Hell, if it was up to me I would even bring a missile launcher."
 
Brad saw Carib going through his supplies, so he decided to go through his too. This is counting his rations he got from Yas.
Leather Armor
Plasma Rifle
10mm Pistol with laser sight
2 Stimpacks
2 Nuka Colas
1 Purified Water
1 Instamash
1 Fresh Apple
1 Scotch
He zipped open a pocket he'd forgotten about and pulled out:
1 Combat Knife
1 Book on computers
1 Future Weapons Today
1 Lad's Life
"Nice, some reading material. Okay, I'm ready."
 
As Tom was walking away from the table where the roll-calling was going on with David, he was realised it wasn't time for chat, he looked back at David, "Got to go back now, i'll tell you later about the proposition".

Tom walked over to the bar, "I'm Here, the guy at the front has still got my hunting rifle, good ol' Gregory has served me for years" Tom looked around the group, to him this group seemed like the stereotypical good-guys group, well from the looks of things it did.

Tom looked over to the new guy, seeing the revolvers glint in his holsters, Tom leant over to him, offering his hand for shaking, "Hello there, i'm Tom, I don't think i've seen you yet".
 
The Stranger took his hand,
"You can call me Alex, and I just signed on so it's no surprise I'm the new face."
He managed a small smile.
"By the way, I heard you mention you got a hunting rifle, you any good with it?"
 
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