Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends

by Sleepyted

Chapter 66

The three hunkered down for what they guessed was the night when the sky that was blocked out by the sandstorm got even darker and almost impossible to see anything else. They sat around a small fire they made out of a broken chair and door they found along with the stuffing from a shredded sofa for kindling.

They found the detonator that they needed to find and Twilight made sure she kept hold of it when Anne constantly shined the laser light right at her face, which made her normal eye and robotic eye adjust to the light at different rates and make her feel ill.

Twilight was cleaning her pistols at the time, each in different sets of their bits and made sure to oil and clean every bit to make sure the guns were maintained and useable. Anne meanwhile was just smoking a cigarette as she cooked a small pot over the fire willed with some baked beans that once might have been bright and colorful but now brown and lifeless, at least warmth would make the muck go does easier. The eye bot was just sat against Twilight’s side, cuddling against her like a cat.

“I would say I hope neither of the NCR or Legion get a hand on any warheads around this place but from the looks of what those ghouls were wearing, both knew about these.” Anne stated as she stirred the pot with a knife she had strapped to her leg after so many times where she never had one on her.

“Maybe they gave up when what ever happened to them, happened.” Twilight reasoned with a shrug as she picked a bit of dirt out from the groves on Benny’s pistol.

“It’s as if the wind itself flayed them alive.” Anne said with a shiver.

“Is that possible?”

“Well, we’re talking about like hurricane level winds with very coarse dust if that is what happened… It is pretty painful to just go outside and with their muscles exposed like that, it must be like every moment of existence is pure agony…” She said sadly. “Killing them would be the kindest thing we could do for them. Nothing would fix them after ending up like that.”

“How big will this go off?” Twilight asks unsurely, the wind having died down slightly but they still needed their coverings or be sanded alive.

“Well… I dunno but I think we should get behind something when we do it…” Anne said unsurely as she looked over at the warhead from a distance, helping the scrap of the truck in blocking the way ahead.

“What if it… you know… blows up everything around?”

“We’d be incinerated within moments and no one would ever find our bodies.” Anne stated simply.

“I didn’t want you to tell me that!” Twilight yelled glaring at the woman.

“What else was I meant to say?” She asked in confusion.

“Something that doesn’t mean we both die horribly.”

“Well I would be lying then.” Anne stated. “Can we just get this started already? The suspense is killing me right now.”

Twilight sighs, pulling the laser detonator out from a pocket and pointing it towards the warhead. “It was nice knowing you.” She stated as she pulled the trigger quickly and clenching her eyes shut.

After a few moments with nothing happening she opened her eyes and looked to see what happened. Her face went blank when she saw all that happened was nothing in the slightest and after another quick blast of the light it gave the same response. “I think it might be broken…”

Anne snatched the detonator from the air and pointed it at the warhead and pulled the trigger, another small red laser light shining out and shining against the metal surface but this time something did happen, a little bit of fire burning a liquid that leaked out between two plates of metal.

“I think we need to hold the light on it.” Anne stated as she looked over the detonator before pointing it again at the warhead before pulling the trigger again.

The light continued to blaze in a constant beam and more and more small bursts of flame came from the metal until all the three could see was white.

Their ears were ringing and the first one to regain her senses but her ears kept on throbbing in pain as she staggered to her hooves an looked around in confusion and before she could take anything in she felt something hard land on her head, getting stuck onto her horn and sending her back down into a heap.

Anne got to her feet, gripping her head as she groaned in pain. She saw Twilight on the floor with a tin of spam speared on her horn, the disgusting 200 year old liquid inside dripping down her bone protrusion on her head and into her mane.

Looking over where the warhead once was she just saw a massive cloud of dust, nothing remaining of the thing that exploded and metal slag splattered around the dirt and quickly cooled off from the wind.

“Okay, so we’re alive.” Anne said looking over the detonator, tempted to just throw it away but she knew that that wouldn’t be a very good idea.

“My head hurts.” Twilight grumbled as she clutched her head, feeling the juices drip down and made her worried. “Is my brain leaking out..?” She asked in slight worry, the headache not letting her think clearly.

“I dunno.” Anne stated as she grabbed the tin and pried to off the horn and held it up, using her metal finger to peel the lid off and scooping a little bit into her mouth. “Taste pretty bad if it is.” She stated with a shrug.

After regaining her composure and kicking Anne in the non-robotic leg so she could feel it the three started to move forward again, hoping things might get easier the further they went along.

“This is pretty damn nice.” Anne stated as she held up the helmet they had found in a locker that once was inside a military barracks.

The helmet was a combination of a reinforced gas mask and a solid metal helmet. The glass of the eyes was a deep crimson, a touch attached to the side and small radio antenna. There was also with a large metal chest piece that protected the whole torso in segments that were held together with a sheet of leather between them all. There was no plating along the back, open to damage.

Twilight was sat in boredom on a rotten bed, reading through a military manual she found in a waste paper bin. Anne was getting out of the armor she was already wearing, putting on the cargo pants and military boots in the locker. Next she put on a long sleeve shirt that was part of the outfit and put the chest armor on over it, strapping it into place with the leather straps and a bandoleer filled with shotgun shells. And lastly was the large, thick leather trench coat with heavy padding along the shoulders and the sleeves were sealed to the arm with arm guards.

“How do I look?” Anne asks once she finished getting her head around how it was all meant to get put on.

“Like you’re focusing too much on looks and not being functional.” Twilight stated flatly as se closed the thin book and put it into her saddlebag.

“Come on! It looks cool.” She protested, arms going limp to her sides.

“You’re other armor had leg protection, and back protection, and better everything.” Twilight said.

“But I can’t wear that while I wear this…” Anne stated crossing her arms. “So are you ready to go?”

“I’ve been ready for the past half an hour, and you complain all the time whenever I stop to do something I want to do.” Twilight grumbled.

“Who the hell uses flare guns as a weapon?!” Anne yelled in exasperation as she tried to rub off the scorch marks off her new trench coat but they seemed to want to stay in.

“Well it did get you to run around while yelling about being on fire.” Twilight stated, the new small weapon strapped to one of her rear legs, it seemed quite a handy thing to have if she ever needed it.

“They were all aiming at me! They pretty much ignored the two of you.”

‘BEEP’

“No, it’s not because I’m fat.” Anne grumbled as they walked through the dark tunnels of what used to be a road runnel but from the earthquakes that happened the rock walls collapsed and left it more looking like a cave albeit one with rusty metal and brickwork mixed in with the rubble.

“You are putting on weight.” Twilight said with a smirk, just saying it to mess with her friend.

“Quiet.”

“You should stop eating those-“

“No, really quiet.” Anne stated, whispering as she crouched down. “Listen.”

Twilight paused but went quiet, not moving to listen for any notable sounds. After a few moments she heard it, a growling sound coming from up ahead, the eye bot floating down lower as to not be seen.

“Deathclaw.” Anne whispered as she slowly snuck her way forward, peering over some rubble.

Twilight followed suit and looked over at the beast, its hulking 10 feet stomping along with its knife like fingers soaked in crimson blood as it made its way to a shipping container.

“We should avoid that bad boy.” Anne stated as it went into the giant metal storage device. “If we’re quiet we could get past hi-“ she started until it let out another roar before getting cut off with a loud snapping sound.

Before anything could be said between the three a large horned head came bouncing out from the container, blood splattering along the ground.

“Or something else could kill it.” Twilight stated.

“What sounds worse? A deathclaw or something that can kill one that quickly?” Anne asked in worry as she pulled the massive sniper rifle off her back, just wanting to be sure to be ready for any beast that came to attack. “We need to keep moving.”

Twilight saw some movement from the corner of her eye but when she went to look she didn’t see anything, just dust and rock. “Yeah, I’m getting a bit claustrophobic in here…”

“So are these guys survivors from being skinned by the wind?” Anne asked in confusion as she crouched next to the body of an NCR ranger, his skin looking somewhat raw but nowhere near the amount of those outside and had his uniform well maintained. His neck was bent at an unnatural angle, the flesh purple from bruising.

“They could have come after them.” Twilight stated scanning the area, constantly feeling as if something was watching them, she had seen shadows move around but every time she looked they seemed to disappear.

“Probably…” Anne said standing herself back up, stretching her back.

That’s when Twilight actually caught something moving, what looked like the figure of a person quickly crawling away behind some rubble, nothing of detail visible from the lack of lighting. “Anne, something’s there.” Twilight stated as she brought Lucky out, the area not open enough for her to fly around and use her laser rifle and she felt she would need to move around quickly.

“Well, deathclaws cut up their prey, this guy was beaten to death.” Anne stated. “We need to get out of here soon otherwise this place might be our tomb…”

The three kept moving for another hour or so before they saw a large pile of rock and metal start shifting, something clawing its way out from the ground. It looked human at first glance but besides being bipedal that’s where the similarity ends. It had a larger head, large bio-luminescent eyes glowing a soft blue. It had elongated fingers that ended in a sharp claw, legs longer than a human and each toe as large as a finger and ending in a claw. Its skin was covered in a scaly leather, bone protrusions coming from its skull and down along its back like spikes. It looked at the two before opening its fang filled mouth, letting out a dry deathly screech.

“Well fuck…”

Comments

[Curtis LeMay]

“This is pretty damn nice.” Anne stated as she held up the helmet they had found in a locker that once was inside a military barracks.

The helmet was a combination of a reinforced gas mask and a solid metal helmet. The glass of the eyes was a deep crimson, a touch attached to the side and small radio antenna. There was also with a large metal chest piece that protected the whole torso in segments that were held together with a sheet of leather between them all. There was no plating along the back, open to damage.

Twilight was sat in boredom on a rotten bed, reading through a military manual she found in a waste paper bin. Anne was getting out of the armor she was already wearing, putting on the cargo pants and military boots in the locker. Next she put on a long sleeve shirt that was part of the outfit and put the chest armor on over it, strapping it into place with the leather straps and a bandoleer filled with shotgun shells. And lastly was the large, thick leather trench coat with heavy padding along the shoulders and the sleeves were sealed to the arm with arm guards.

I'm going to guess this is the standard Riot Armor, as the Advanced is in the Crow's Nest and the Elite is in the Third Street Municipal Building.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

i hope twilight gets the elite riot armor
even if it needs heavy modifying.

[alfaomega]

i actually just finished this dlc last night.

[Auxiliary Nexus]

Twilight needs those Shoulder Mounted Machine Guns. Trust me. She can probably dual wield those bad boys on her back.