A Talking Deathclaw tells of the quest of Rodeo, the courier, to right a wrong and prevent a terrible crime from echoing on into the annals of history. Many adventures befall them and their companions along the way as they play their role in an upcoming war that might decide the future of not only the wasteland but of Mankind itself. Will good overcome evil or will a far more gray shade of events occur?




Return To Vegas


WARNING This story contains spoilers for those playing Fallout New Vegas.
This is the sequel to http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1021243 and http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?showtopic=1082744.

Mojave Madness
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16508216
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16508438
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16508572
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16524602
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16524725
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16568927
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16573977

Fall of the House
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16576449
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16581401
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16587144
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16591573
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16594697
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16598492
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16610259

Queen of Mesopotamia
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16616437
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16617464
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16620341
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16624291
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16627415
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16641906
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16650851

Fallen Eagle
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16655995
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16656111
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16656456
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16658688
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16662761
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16673363
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16688088

Colorado Cadence
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16689008
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16690659
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16694295
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16694306
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16694701
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16696372
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16704420

Hell Or High Water
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16716956
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16731882
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16761140
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?act=findpost&pid=16763355

Concluded

Of Your Memories

The yawning grave had a tiny spiral of fresh dust dancing above it eerily. The MOSES Securitron that had told me its name was Victor carried the dead Mojave Express employee toward the shack of my friend the good doctor. Curious why the robot was interested in the corpse or an apparent midnight autopsy I followed. Shuffling along behind them in my frayed desert hermit robes I ascended the gentle hill his home and clinic was built atop.

Goodsprings had been a good place to spend the last four months as I had met the good doctor and he had accepted my condition and my money and agreed to help me. He had laughed strangely though and said "and now I can add animal psychology to my resume"

He had eventually diagnosed me with what he called 'acute shizophrenia' and 'general psychosis'. I was not suprised. My long lifespan and desperate nature as well as my adventures had left my mind in flux. Time changes all things and seldom for the better.

I had been around for almost a century and knew that without fearing the reaper I would easily live two or even ten more. I had become a ghoul. My regenerative ability had kept my body from appearing as rotted and fetid as some ghouls but I had definetely begun to wither and my hide of scars had become like a detailed map of the Mojave. I was more of a desiccated ghoul than a juicy zombie-like one. But a creature of radiation none-the-less.

I now watched as the man who had promised me that there was a cure for my mind and that I need not become feral (which was my greatest fear since the moment of my first thought) worked anothere miracle. He was pulling bits and pieces of lead from the dead man's head.

"He isn't dead. But he is in a coma. If he had remained buried he would have died soon. It is good you brought him here." Doc told Victor. The amicable machine decided not to watch and silently left us alone. I said nothing either until the patient was stabilized.

"When will he awaken?" I asked. I was glad I was clear headed at that moment. I called the foggy-mindedness 'the beast within' and feared it more than I feared death. Right at that moment the beast was in a coma just like the man from the grave. I hoped it would not awaken before I could find the cure.

"I don't know. But something tells me your journey and his might be braided along with that machine out there." Doc said. I shuffled and grunted my displeasure.

"You are sounding like that witch Driw. She predicts the future with a fancy caravan deck. I have seen her do it and the results. Supersticion. You are a man of science and medicine." I heard a slight growl in my voice and realized I had irritated him as well. He was frowning as he responded.

"Driw explained to me that this would happen. She knew somehow. I may be a man of science but that girl is just as gifted with the supernatural as I am with the natural. It is too bad you do not listen to her. She knows a lot more about your condition than I do. Why you brought her to Goodsprings and then came to me for advice I don't understand. She had your answers if you would listen to her." Doc chastised me.

"I guess this means goodbye soon, eh?" I asked him after we had both collected ourselves. Good friendships were often the ones most strained. I recalled Carrie and Cobalt whom I missed dearly but had oftend wished for time away from when we had all been together.

"When he is awake. You should go. Ask Victor if you want to know more. This is beyond me. Your condition was beyond my expertise when we began. Your cure is elsewhere." He pointed to the door.

I stepped outside to find the machine standing in the chill desert air.

"I plan to go with you. Me and the girl. We will come along, if that is alright." I stated.

"The more the merrier partner." Victor offered its metal fingers that poorly concealed a weapon on its palm.

My claw slid from the long dark sleeves of my robes and we shook on it.

"Just one thing: where are we going? What is this all about?" I asked. I somehow knew the answer before it was given. The distant lights of the machine occupied city where MOSES lay dormant beneath and where someday armies of robots would again march glowed evilly. The city of mankind's sins.

"New Vegas baby!" Victor beamed gayly.

I shuddered.

Back From The Dead

Rodeo Mcrode was sitting up as Driw and I watched from across the room. He seemed zombie like as a man back from the dead ought to. His eyes were puffy and red with large dark rings around them and his body looked weak and tired. His mouth hung open and he drooled a little and as he tried to lift a hand it started shaking and fell limply back down to his lap. Being robbed and shot a few times in the face and then dumped unceremoniously into an early grave and left for dead, buried alive in a coma, would do that to a man.

"Worse than that hangover I got from Zach Galleyfrag's bachelor party at the Gomorrah. God I was in a fiery place and now I am back here." He tried to laugh after these first words but coughed and heaved and wheezed and finally something was emptied that had been lodged for awhile. It looked gross even to me. Driw cringed slightly as well.

"Was it hell? No need to thank me for your second chance son. As I understand those boys who did this to you headed south with something real important to the future of this principality." Doc sat across from the young man frowning patiently.

"Yeah I think it was hell. Not too sure I ain't still chilling there. Feel like hell right now, actually." He lifted his hand again to his head.

"Sorry I had to go rummaging around in there. Had to pull out the bullets piece by piece. Your damn lucky to be alive, with no infection or paralysis or anything else detectable right now." Doc spoke hushedly with good bedside manner as he realized Rodeo had a megrim from hell.

"I might feel like something in a pile of golden gecko fodder right now but my noggin still computes just fine. Thank God for your angelic hands. Thank you for...bringing me back. If there is anything at all I can do to even try to begin to make this up to you...Just say it..." Rodeo smiled almost begging for Doc to ask him for a favor.

"Just do whatever you were meant to do. Those boys who stopped you need to be stopped. And when you get there you will know how to help my friend Yammon. He is over there. Take him with you. You both have something in common. Both your brains have been worked on by yours truely. Except I couldn't fix his. He needs a special cure and something tells me his fate lies in your hands somewhere in the future. There is one more thing you need to know about him...but as it might come as a shock I will let you find that out about him later." Doc felt he was rambling and sorta trailed off. The clinic was very quiet. I felt like some sort of epic and sorrowful moment was passing and wished absently for Agatha's stratavarious music.

"You coming along, Yammon? I am gonna go after those bastards and get back that package." He sounded almost sarcastic and I realized he couldn't believe the task ahead. I had a feeling that resurrection and revenge were merely just the beginning of my dreaded return to New Vegas.

Primm

Our journey was delayed nearly a week as Rodeo McRode did a few tasks around town out of some kind of uncalloused sense of gratitude. He fixed a well, gunned down the smallest geckos I had ever seen who were hanging out around the Goodsprings source. He even rallied the townspeople to help each other in defense of their unwalled community whenever powder gangers attacked. Apparently some prison south of here where a number of convicts had overthrown the guards and taken the dynamite for use as a weapon was now home to powder gangers.

Early in the morning after Rodeo had announced he was fit to travel we set out, him, me, Driw and the robot with the cowboy face and theme. There was still a chill in the air as the sun cast our shadows to the right as it spilled warmth into the vale. I could hear coyotes in the distance, almost like laughing hyenas I had heard recordings of.

Ahead loomed what appeared to be a large building surrounded by a roller coaster. We had to pass through an overpass right past it. On the other side sat an encampment of some kind. As we neared Victor told us a little bit of the area's history. This led up to an explaination of what lay ahead:

"Primm is now a lawless home of the powder gangers who have killed the sheriff and run off its deputies. The remaining townsfol are holed up in the casino across from them. The soldiers camped across from them are outnumbered and inept without..." Victor told us but was cut short by the impact and subsequent richochet of a sniper's bullet on his metal skin. Several powder gangers stood on the wall of concrete that surrounded the overpass. They had lit dynamite and began tossing it down to us.

"Its an ambush!" Driw exclaimed as she ran for the cover of some burnt up wrecked cars stacked nearby. Victor's cowboy face got an angry look and opened fire with a laser from one hand and a machine gun from the other drivng the powder gangers back into Primm. Rodeo's bullets made much more of a difference as he fired from his trail carbine and shot both sticks of dynamite one after the other rapidly right out of the air.

The resulting concussions knocked both him and me off our feet and thundered in the enclosed overpass. Rodeo got up with a little blood trickling out one ear and aimed down the ironsights of his trail carbine at the ramp leading up onto the roller coaster. When he found his target he fired three shots and put two small bullets into the torsoe of the powder ganger with the scoped hunting rifle. The prison garbed escapee toppled to his death far below screaming dramatically the whole way down. The two powder gangers who had attacked from above had already fled back into Primm.

"This ain't over. We were gonna pass through here without any violence. Live by it die by it my pappy used to tell me. Well we nearly died by it without living it so time to pay the reaper." Rodeo shook his head, obviously still ringing from the blasts that nearly killed us.

"You sure about this?" I asked. Violence was something I wanted to avoid for several good reasons. One it could wake the beast within, two I would have to reveal my secret sooner than later and three it was a good way to end our quest early if we were all killed.

"It is the right thing to do and they started it." Rodeo summed up what he thought were good excuses.

"Alright then let me try and talk you out of it. If I can't then I will help you." I let one claw slip out of my robes as I climbed to my feet a little shakily as I smelled the burnt gunpowder mixed with the smell of the ruptured sticks of dynamite.

"Shoot." Rodeo started reloading his weapon.

"Have you ever killed a man before today?" I asked the firstmost and most obvious question.

"Not that I can recall. I am just a real talented gunfighter, thats all." He glanced up at me. I couldn't tell if he was being facetious or not but decided he may have shot plenty of beasts to become such a crack shot. Also the VATS from his Personal Interface Processor Boy he wore probably contributed to the incredible speed and accuracy that was otherwise impossible.

"Do raiders and fiends count as men?" I calculated the possibility his reply was semantic in nature.

"Look I never shot anyone before that man just now. I don't plan to stop there. Doesn't bother me if that is what you mean. It was a fair fight and we won. That is just how it is. What are you some kind of friggin gecko brain or something?" He snarled with irritation. His adreneline was wearing off I could smell the change in body chemistry and detect the primal urge for agression in his sudden vehemence.

"Actually that leads me to my second question." I gulped a little nervous. I thought I had seen and heard every possible spectrum range of human 'reactions' to my inevitable 'revelation' but was frequently suprised by how many new ones there were for me to experience.

"Shoot." Rodeo looked towards Primm. He had become a little bloodthirsty all-of-a-sudden which reminded me of my own dormant other self that no amount of time practicing civilization and philosophy could ever remove. In fact caging my innermost demon had simply made it stronger and made me a little crazy.

"What or I mean how would you react if I told you I am actually a small deathclaw under these robes?" I asked. Driw was still hiding but peeked up to see this. She knew I was Yammon the Silver Devil, scourge of nine tribes and stalker of the wastelands. Rodeo had heard the stories but had not associated my name being Yammon with the rest of my name and nature.

"That you are a talking and thinking version of a mythical monster that terrorizes the eastern Mojave? I would think you are sfter in the head and more crazy than Doc thought you were. Prove it." He seemed to be stifling a harsh laugh but something in his eyes was preparing and bracing and beleieved me. "I won't freak out and shoot you."

"Promise? I have been shot for showing my face. I don't like being shot, it hurts and it takes a long time for my body to push out the bullets. Sometimes there is even infection..." I slid off my hood with my claws extending from my sleeves. His eyes were wide but with something other than shock of fear. Later I decided it was the look of a mercenary who has just found a fatman and several mininukes but at that moment I wasn't sure why he was staring at me with a glare far beyond fear or fascination of any kind. It was more like the highest shape of lust in the human scale. And I had learned long ago that the human scale was far beyond that of the rest of the animal kingdom in every matter.

"Lets go kill those worthless frags." He said at last.

"I will wait here." Driw volunteered.

Victor and I walked on either side of Rodeo down the dusty quiet streets of Primm toward the building kitty corner to the Mojave Express office. A powder ganger had hiddedn in there, probably one of the same two who had attacked us earlier. His death arrived swiftly as we paid the reaper with bullets. My own turn to draw blood waited under my robes that I would throw off suddenly once we were close enough for my talons.

The second powder ganger popped out from behind a pillar on the corner of the casino across from the one the powder gangers had holed up in. He was throwing a lit stick of dynamite at use as Victor opened fire with both weapons on him. Rodeo was waiting for his VATS to recalibrate and had to sidestep the explosion this time. I was already moving toward our enemy around Victor's strafing. The powder ganger had managed to take cover as Victor was knocked around by the mighty thump of old dynamite. I found the powder ganger behind the pillar and my robes came off. Rodeo didn't see what I could do but he heard the brief and terrified screams that were stifled as his lungs and voicebox were permanently seperated from their previous arrangement. His blood added a new rust orange coat to the wall behind him. Shots were being fired by two powder gangers with pistols approaching from behind me.

I turned on them and charged. I was grazed several times but they failed to put any lead in me as I pounced. The one I killed bought time for the second one who ran into their little fortess and began propping things against the door and shouting for help from his comrades.

Victor, damaged but still in comission and Rodeo strode up to me.

"Now we will never get in there." He complained.

"My data indicates that the roller coaster was accessible from a platform on the second floor around back." Victor informed us.

"Alright then you stay here and watch the front." I instructed it. Rodeo and I jogged to the roller coaster and I boosted him up with interlocked claws then easily climbed up onto it myself. We circled around engaging two more snipers poster on the roof and lower segment of the coaster and defeating them. Rodeo discarded his weapon since it was out of ammo and in poor condition and accepted the scoped hunting rifle left by the first powder ganger to attack us. He checked it and was satisfied that it was loadded before we kickedin the back door.

We caught four of them right there playing canvas and swiftly ended their careers as they dove for their weapons. Rodeo tossed the empty rifle aside and took their unused guns. Two pistols in his belt, a shotgun on his back and a weathered ten millimeter sub machine gun in his hands with a handle added to the front making it a very deadly weapon when fired from a still-standing position and also a handy one handed weapon for running and gunning.

"Let's do this." He had that look of wicked good fun in his eyes again and I grunted disapproval but he took it as approval and led the way. As we found them one by one as we made our way to the downstairs he blew them away emptying all of his firearms into them except the ten mm smg which he kept finding ammo for. I watched his back and had to eviscerate a few that he missed who popped out behind with lit dynamite or tire irons or other weapons useless against my swift namesake talons. Explosions left in our wake further destroyed their rendered remains and rocked the building so that by the time we got down below they were well aware of our assault and waiting for us behind tables turned legs outward in a crude baricade. Except their leader who waited with a flamer poised for retribution.

Rodeo recieved a reflexive shove out of the open doorway to this final stand of the powder gangers as heat crashed into our hallway and roared against the opposite hall. I could hear the wild laughter of the powder gangers who believed our goose was now good and cooked. I spotted the barricaded front entrance and went over to it and shattered it. I let Victor in.

"Howdy partners. Sure glad you invted me to the party. Uh oh, where is the fire? Ma go get the bucket brigade..." He blathered randomly as he rolled past me on that one wheel and tore into the room gunning down the last of the powder ganger infestation.

We followed him only to discover in an adjoining room one had survived and had a hostage. It was the deputy of Primm!

"Put down your weapons and shut down that machine or I ventilate this svcker!" He screamed at us in a voice bordering on panic. Rodeo was the closest and I saw he had a gun in the back of his belt, a small twenty two pistol but easily lethal at such close range. He lowered his submachinegun to the floor and as it touched he stood quickly drawing his backup weapon and emptied it into the powder ganger, shooting the rascal's gun from his hand before putting the rest into his chest. The felled last powder ganger sighed and looked down at the new holes. Some gunsmoke escaped his lips along with some profanity. His last words spoken he collapsed and dies moments later.

I went to cut the deputy loose who didn't seem to notice I was a deathclaw.

"Primm will be grateful you have exterminated the powder gangers but we will need a new sherifff. You up for the job?" He asked.

"Nope." Rodea shook his head. "How about you accept a promotion and be the new sheriff?"

"I couldn't do that. I am just a deputy. Maybe you guys can go find someone in the correctional facility these guys left. There is this man locked up there still named Meyers. If you set him free and them go get him pardoned I am sure he will make an alright sheriff."

"A convict? Did they beat you too hard in the head?" I asked from behind him.

"No seriously he used to be a sheriff before they locked him up. We need a sheriff or the convicts will take over again as soon as you guys leave." He argued.

"Look deputy, we are in a kind of a hurry. The villains we are after have more than a week's start ahead of us and the trail is getting a little cold. Just put the friggin sheriff's badge on and do the job. You don't need us to waste a bunch of time and risk our lives busting some guy out of prison so that you will be safe from convicts. That doesn't even make sense, first off. Secondly just own up and take the job." Rodeo negotiated smoothely. I doubted even Driw could have been more convincing.

"I can't be sheriff of Primm. I am Primm's sheriff's deputy already." The deputy argued.

"So take a gander at it. Our goose was nearly cooked back there. Take one for the team buddy. You owe us this much." Rodeo didn't back down but I could sense his hot head's temperature rising. Rodeo was not a patient man.

"I just can't. You have to help me. I can't be a deputy without a sheriff." The deputy still wasn't convinced.

"Alright I will try to understand how this works...awww screw it." Rodeo stooped and picked up the smg off the floor in front of him. "You either take the job as Primm's sheriff or else there wont be a deputy either."

The man considered his options again and decided he would rather be the sheriff than leave his precious Primm lawbringerless.

We left, regarbed my hide, found Driw and continued our journey.

Nipton Nightmare

We could smell the bodies and tires burning from the interstate long before we reached the dead town of Nipton that evening. We decided to investigate and found that nobody ad been spared the horrors inflicted upon them. Worst of all it seemed as though the townspeople had all been crucified, tortured to death and burned alive while none of them fought back. The track indicated all this had been done by just a half a dozen men and a couple of mongrel wild dogs. Much larger than the vicious dogs I had hunted in the past.

"Whatever happened here...was done by unknown enemies. Not raiders or savages or even fiends are this devious." I told everyone.

"The township of Nipton is independant and served all comers. Perhaps their killers didn't approve." Our thinking machine, Victor, calculated. It was at that precise moment that I began to have suspicions that the robot companion knew more than he let on which indicated both higher intelligence and conspiricy to conceal his agenda. I narrowed my gaze on the machince as it spat out a bunch more matter-of-fact tour-guide sounding information about Nipton's history and non affiliation with any major factions. This didn't drown Victor's earlier supposition of the killers' motives.

"They held a lottery. They warped and perverted Lady Luck for this. I can sense it." Driw had a sudden revelation and it was this fact about the lottery that disturbed her. Not the blatant atrocities to victims nailed up, tied down and otherwise made helpless and then killed in terrible ways while those waiting for their turn watched. No that wasn't what made the witch feel fear and loathing. It was that fact that they had held a lottery. Used luck as she put it. I realized I didn't understand the girl with one gray eye and one yellow who had the appearance of both a bag lady with unkempt hair and the face and figure of a super model. More than just her looks were freakish, and this opinion came from a mutant deathclaw ghoul.

"Whoever did this hasn't gone far. Since we got here the crucified have been expiring one by one and the blood that was dripping from others has stopped and started to dry. We just missed them." Rodeo seemed eager for more killing. I considered that humans might have a beast within as well. If so than the young man might have over fed his. It was getting loose.

"They were headed the way we are going. They will be stopping to camp. We could catch up with them, take them by suprise." I offered. My last realization was that my own beast within wanted out also. But the only trouble was: could I put it back on its leash when the job was done?

Carp Vox Populi

We had located and approached the murderers stealthily with murder as our own intention. My only concern was that our journey would not see an end to violence, merely escalation. This was our second battle in one day, both which could have been avoided. I concluded that what I had sopposed would be a peaceful path to find inner peace was all wrong. This was more like a warpath on our way to some war. Somehow it was sopposed to end in peace. Of course if all the enemies we could find died or we died with them there would be peace in the end. Or just more war. It seemed like war simply couldn't change. I had a vision at that moment as we gazed at the strangely dressed warriors gathered around their campfire.

My vision was of the four horseman standing around a similar campfire. They were talking. Pestilence whined about his bad reputation and accusations that upon his pale horse he rode spewing both foul breath and leaving an even fouler miasma in his wake. The other horseman of havoc Famine spent his turn saying it really wasn't his fault people were starving, he was just doing his job. Conquest had a similar take but added that it wasn't really conquest if she signed a consent form prior to meeting him and that once someone called you a conqueror you were labeled as such even if you got her to say yes at some point before she said no about a hundred times later.
War was left speaking last and said something along the lines of: "I don't get it. I can change, I really can. Its not fair, I really can change...I just don't get it I really don't..."

I left my vision to behold the monsters who had killed Nipton. Even Driw had come with us but I wasn't sure what she intended to do exactly. Unless she had magical powers she was planning to unveil and use to decimate our new enemies.

"We attack on my signal." Rodeo had checked his weapon for the third time and was very ready. I could smell elevated adreneleine as well as other bodily chemicals men release when they fight. I could ear his heartbeat quickening.

"Wait...I have a better idea." Driw said.
Here it comes I thought Our cute but scary looking little witch is about to cast some kind of spell and blast these guys into the next wasteland over

"What is your plan?" Rodeo asked.

"Wait until they sleep then Yammon can sneak up and cut the first watch's throat and then we can really catch them by suprise. They outnumber us and outgun us and they really don't deserve much better." Driw surmised strategically. "And worst case we get an open fight which is what you are going for now."

I considered her ploy and realized she had darker thoughts than I had previously understood about her.

"I ain't no merciless sandman. We do this my way. We catch them by suprise now. Not kill them in their sleep." Rodeo was firm.
I tended to agree with him. Bad enough we were hunting them. We didn't need to sink to their level as well.

"Oh well. Luck is on our side anyway." Driw shrugged. She produced an ornate dagger from within her robes (which, like a medieval wizard's were checkered so that one half was gray and the other yellow. The lower half had the scheme reversed. I noted that the top also reverted her eyes which were one gray and one yellow. Obviously she was well aware of this fact.) I examined the dagger with its serpent handle and wavy blade. I think it was called a kris but wasn't sure. It was definetly prewar and I guessed it was more for show than use. But it could still do the job.

"Alright. Victor you plow into them. Yammon, you and Driw circle them and stop any from escaping. I am gonna go for the leader and the dogs." Rodeo plotted. "On one: three, two, one!"

Victor rolled away from us into the small camp and within seconds he had killed half of them in a hail of crisscrossing lasers and bullets. I split from Driw and Rodeo to catch one who had been peeing int he bushes.

I heard the weathereed ten MM SMG rake the dogs who died in doggy whines and a sort of choking bark for the second one. The leader had taken a bullet to the knee before he even knew what was happening. Then the rest of the clip grazed his neck and shoulder and he fell.

One of the survivors fled into the dark and found Driw's thirsty blade waiting for him. Her small frame delivered quite a sting for it took only one stab to end his wretched life. With a feminie grunt she pulled her weapon free and narrowly avoided the splashing geyser of hot blood her nasty tool uncorked.

Victor mechanically crushed the skulls of the two who had survived bieng shot by him in the opening moments of the night time assault. Then his cowboy face turned back to friendly and he stood down. I emerged from the shadows surrounding the ring of firelight along with Driw.

Rodeo stood over their leader who was quickly dying.

"Why did you kill Nipton?" He interrogated.

"Carp Vox Populi...stop...their...lies...for Caesar..." He gurgled with difficult articulation. Then he died.

We all stood around staring at each other blinking in the dying firelight.

"Who the hell is Caesar?" Rodeo said at last.

Dinosaur Town

We ended up pulling all the corpses out onto the interstate some distance from camp where we would not be bothered by coyotes or giant ants or vicious dogs or even wild dogs feeding. Not even I wanted to predict what would arrive to start munching on the bodies. Given a dearth of dogs in this region I presumed coyotes were the most likely bet. We had, meanwhile, built up the fire which, being cold blooded, I appreciated as the night time desert got as cold as Alaska before the Chinese left its smoldering remains glowing red hot.

Victor stood watch better than the camp's previous tenants. I was half asleep but as a creature of the desert remained vaguely alert even as I slept. Curiousity made me slightly more alert than usual as I watched my two human companions.

At first Driw had snuggled up to Rodeo who didn't seem to mind. In the dark she was just a well shaped woman with a pretty face. Her other more caustic features were no longer obvious. Her motives were not so obvious. She had mentioned to me that should she lose her maidenhood her fortune telling powers would be greatly diminished. Or something to the effect that she would need her lover ot add to her powers or something like that. I hadn't been paying attention at the time to her silly beliefs (not that beliefs or faith were silly to me...just hers...unlike other human beliefs I had encountered hers all seemed contradictory and founded on bizarre supersticion; my fascination had turned to boredom and then to rejection). Luck and destiny were far more mythical than religion and taboo, which served a purpose in human cultures I had encountered.

"Do I attract you?" She asked in his ear.

"Sometimes. Other times you friggin scare me." He replied.

"I want to tell you your fortune...and then..." She stopped and sighed. It fit her tone and words somehow but I couldn't pinpoint how.

I had often reflected that human mating rituals were the most complicated specimen of the most complicated species. They called it love and it seemed to be the single most important word to them. It was both sacred and sacrilege at once. Even more powerful once invoked than the names of their gods even. War I understood and so did they. A huge fraction of their language was dedicated to describing all the various levels of competition and conflict. There seemed no limit to the scale of violence in either direction of their linguistic spectrum. They understood war very very well. But here was love. Love was singular. And not one of them understood it at all. Pretentious humans who had strong bonds to their offspring, mates or friends might claim that they knew all about love but really they had only begun to understand it. They were still at a loss to describe how it worked exactly. But war was easy to describe for them.

"And then what?" Rodeo asked gently in complete contrast to the brutality he had been exhibiting all day.

"Well I want you to be my first...and I want you to stay with me...don't leave me..." She spoke with profound honesty and it seemed to work although I had doubted Rodeo would sincerely agree.

The biology of love was simple. Men were capable of spreading their seed everywhere and produced millions of sperm in no time at all. Women were very different and had only hundreds of eggs that they were born with. They only got one a month and then it was gone. Reproduction required a lot of commitment on a woman's part. Their gestation lasted for nine months and rearing their young took over a decade until they could fend for themselves. Men only needed a few minutes to reproduce and could do it pretty much all day long if given the chance and inclination. Women having a lot more at stake in the matter required a little time to get to know their mate to assure a good bond and more than a moment of commitment. Men just wanted a willing woman. Beyond its easy to explain biology love started getting really complicated exponentially fast and with infinite variables.

"Alright. I will stay with you. But you have to come with me. My quest is much bigger than me or my word. I came back from death's door for it. I still owe a toll." Rodeo tried to promise but something more important got in the way. She wasn't daunted.

"I know all about your quest. I want to help you, be your assistant. That is what I came to you to be. But that was before I knew your strength and courage. Now I see why it must be you who does this. You are not meant to die yet...you are death's messenger and the delivery is long overdue..." She breathed and I was listening while my body slept soon my mind would follow. My senses would register the rest but I wasn't curious about that. I had observed plenty of mating. It was the dance that intrigued me. But they had nothing else to say. Her last statement seemed to have sealed the deal for he had kissed her and from there it was downhill.

In the morning I awoke to a dead fire and stripped to bask in the warming rays of the sun. Driw had led her mate to the tent of the vexilarius who no longer needed it. I thought back to my first encounter with the Legion many years ago in Arizona and wondered that much had changed since then. They had come a long way from raiding tribal villages for slaves. The uniforms on the bodies indicated an army. I tried to comprehend this but the chill morning air had left me sluggish.

Driw had dressed and come to my side. I senses she had changed in some subtle way and half hoped her annoying forcasts were at an end. But her scent indicated she was still the same as before. Whatever they had done hadn't included direct mating. I grunted my displeasure feeling somehow cheated.

"You were up late. Do anything interesting?"

"After we slaughtered Caesar's goons I pleasured Rodeo. Why do you ask? Does it matter to you?" She sounded oddly amused.

"Yes I am jealous." I growled sarcastically. "I thought that is you 'lost it' you couldn't see the future anymore."

"Sorta. My fortune telling shifts gears, true, but I won't actually lose my powers. Especially if he stays faithful to me. That could actually enhance my powers."

"So your looking for an upgrade?" I snorted and realized I still didn't take her seriously.

"No. I do love him. I have seen him in my visions and I knew him long before. But I did not forsee that I would actually have these felings for him, for anyone." She was admired the sunrise and how it seemed to fit her mood.

I continued to bask, feeling much better as warmth seeped into me warming my blood. Somehow her words and smile made her seem more human. More of a flesh and blood girl rather than a cold conniving little witch. I still had major doubts. Humans never just changed overnight. Nothing intelligent did. The night simply wasn't long enough.

"So why not do the deed then? Isn't that the point?" I asked.

"That is the opposite of the point. Love and six are completely different." She turned and walked back to the tent where her psuedo lover lay still asleep from whatever caravan girl trick she had picked up and used on him last night.

I pondered this new development and considered the source. Was this more of her nonsense or was this the piece of the puzzle I needed to get started. I shrugged and negatively decided as I had many times before that love was not worth my remaining brain cells. It was the scholar in me trying to compensate for the feasting of my inner beast all day yesterday. Nothing more.

Soon we were up and moving and for the next day and a half we walked a terribly long and uneventful stretch of desert road. Our camp the night in between found a repeat of the previous night's activities between Driw and Rodeo. I slept and woke believing that the girl was just going through a phase and would likely be rejecting him soon enough and Rodeo, who did not reciprocate her feelings would chalk it up as some free playtime and leave it at that. At least that is the scenario I was betting on. I had been wrong before. Unlike Driw I was not a fortune teller.

As we walked we were silent. We had stopped to get water for the humans and to let them rest in the shade while it got blisteringly hot out. I hunted and returned with meat and some cactus fruit and yucca I had found. As long as they were with me I could easily provide meat from my kills on a regular basis. It dawned on me that any companion in any party had a unique talent to add to the mix. As an apex predator who was part of the food chain moreso than man had become I could easily track and kill game with little effort. Foraging was an afterthought since humans were omnivores and needed more than just meat and water in their diet.

Ahead in the distance I saw what at first appeared to be a massive green lizard basking in the afternoon. As we neared I realized it was artificial. As we got close I recognized it as a prehistoric monster known as a dinosaur which I had viewed images of on holotapes during the educational segment of my life which felt like it had been a hundred years ago.

I dubbed the place 'Dinosaur Town' which stuck after further discussion even after we learned from the friendly locals that they called their home Novac. There was a motel there run by some young kid named Martin who had inherited it from his aunt who had died just outside of town with a bullet in her head. Nobody was sure who shot her or when or even why but she was dead right there in front of the dinosaur attraction. I suspected the sniper Boone had done it but kept my suspicions to myself. Folks said he was acting funny because his fiancee' had been kidnapped. Apparently this made him above suspicion in their eyes. But not mine. I had a talent for sensing good and evil in men. He wasn't evil but something nagged. His mate's abduction could be motive but I couldn't figure out how. What if she had somehow beena slaver all along? No that didn't make sense. I decided to rent two rooms and we could rest up. There were other kinds of clues to gather here. Our quarry had passed this way only nine or ten days before. Were we catching up? It was still too early to say for sure.

My keen hearing informed me Driw must have slipped in her tarot reading when I wasn't noticing for as soon as they got that bed she stopped fooling around.

I didn't sleep well. Never liked beds much myself. The desert called to me.

Perhaps all of this was destiny after all...

Boulder City

Our information gathering (or rather my own sleuth since my human companions were still on their honeymoon) had yielded a clue. Our quarry had headed to a place north known as Boulder City where a village of NCR colonists were working a crop share runn by the NCR. As to the NCR. I was well aware of them but had to explain to Driw and Rodeo who were not as enlightened as myself.

"NCR. I have heard of them and seen a few of their rangers when they want to be seen." Rodeo told me.

"They are still pretty new to the area. They only arrived about half a decade and most of their garrisons and settlements are younger than that. They drove out some of the fiercer gangs and event the technology cultists that occupied Helios One." Victor inerated cheerfully.

"Thank you Victor. He means the Brotherhood. I am suprised they have the strength to front chapters here. They are a dying breed. They have lost three wars now that I know of and have been practically wiped off the face of the earth by their various enemies. Most of the ones I have met were rusted losers so high they can't even get out of their power armor to pee or so busy fighting each other that Enclave and Super Mutants built armies right next door to them." I told the lovers. Driw was sorta hanging off of Rodeo's arm with her strange eyes glossy and filled with a sort of pity for the fallen Brotherhood.

"Where did they come from?" Rodeo asked me.

"Southern California where they ended up hiding from the Enclave and eventually ended up being drivin out by the NCR who were pretty sick of them by that point. Some fled east where they established two more chapters that were wiped out by The Calculator and Enclave or Super Mutants. I don't know whether the East Coast Brotherhood were dealt the final blow by one enemy or the other. I wasn't there anymore. I was dealing with The Calculator myself personally. Or maybe it happened later." I felt a wash of madness sweep over me briefly. Like a sensation almost. A kaleidoscope of memories and nightmares.

"Are you alright?" Driw asked me as I swam to the surface of reality.

"I will be fine." I assured her. I wondered if my husky Deathclaw voice betrayed my doubts.

"We should get going." Rodeo changed the subject.

Our little posse headed north for a distance and then we spotted smoke. As we neared the community of Boulder City we found razed crops and more crucifixions. I didn't like the thought that we were getting used to these kinds of things. This land was in desperate need or it would be plunged into a terrible war. It was becoming slowly obvious to me that it would be a war fought between the NCR and the Caesar's Legion. Perhaps if we could get the package back and deliver it safely to New Vegas we could stall or even end the coming war before it started. All we had was a young woman's prophecy and a prayer.

"Halt who goes there." Several NCR soldiers were standing around the barricaded entrance to the walled village of Boulder City.

"We are here lookng for several tribals and a man in a suit who looks like a New Vegas Earl or somesuch. They are criminals and are carrying stolen property." I told them. "I am Yammon and this is Rodeo and we are the posse who are after those men."

"Well Yammon and Rodeo, your in luck because after the lockdown following the attack from Legion centurions those bastards took two of our boys hostage and demanded sanctuary. As if we don't have enough problems around here now we got some Great Khans capturing NCR soldiers. Those boys are from California. I hate to say this but they really didn't sign up for this crap. None of us did." The Captain told us.

"I understand Captain. If you would let us inside and point them out we will go in and make the arrest." Rodeo spoke up.

"Is the man in the suit with the Great Khans?" I asked before we got underway.

"Benny? He runs the Tops. I imagine that is where he went. Said something about not being implicated according to Jason here who went after him.

I glanced at Jason who had a gash alongside his face where a bullet had narrowly missed entering his eyesocket. I mused on Benny's serious lack of headshot kills despite actually shooting people in the face with no problem. Maybe Benny's gun was too small.

"He did that to you?" I asked Jason who only nodded. "But he said that he couldn't be implicated?"

"He did, and then he pulled a gun like out of his sleeve and said it was Marie and that Marie was gonna 'take care of me'." Jason spoke. They had given him some MedX for the pain. He was a little dopey sounding as one of the drug's mild side effects. Hardly noticible but after my experiences with Charles Rose who seemed to have an endless supply of the stuff and had managed to get addicted to it I had learned all about MedX. Call it a crash course.

"Alright let's take these boys and then we go get Benny." Rodeo gut his weathered ten MM SMG ready for action.

"Hey if you guys go in first we will cover you." The Captain offered.

"Thanks buddy, that is very courageous of you." Rodeo hid the sarcasm in his tone like a pro. He had been around Driw and me too long already. I noted he had adopted some of her mannerisms and that she had been imprinted with some of his. Interesting.

We entered Boulder City and as we walked down silent and dusty streets in a row with half a dozen NCR soldiers behind us a crow took off in front of us calling to its friends. I recalled Coffee and wondered just what it was saying. "Party...Party...", "eat at joe's!" or just "Caw! Caw!". Only crows knew what they bothered to say in corvin latin.

A shot was fired and sprayed some dust onto us at it hit the ground like a microscopic meteor. Behind us the NCR scattered for cover. I shed my robes and circled around into the rubble behind the building they were held up in.

"Your treed. Give it up and come out unarmed. This is your one chance to walk away Great Khans. You can still take your pay back to Red Rock. See you families again!" Driw shouted to the desperate tribals. Driw knew about the Great Khans since her childhood had left her among them for a time. She didn't want to see them killed like this. But the choice was there.

"We never frigging got paid, [censored]!" Their leader yelled from the broken doorway concealed by a bus stop shelter. He leaned out with a twenty two sub machine gun with a big round clip on top and started firing. The NCR were crack shots however and picked him off before he took out Driw who stood flinching in the crossfire.

I went inside to find two more Great Khans armed with hatchets and sledgehammers and fought them both at once. A door next to the open doorway led inside the next door adjoining suite (which was now blocked by collapsed chunks of rebar spiked concrete from the fallen roof). I heard Rodeo and Victor shooting the remaining Khans as I battled the two guarding the hostages. Soon I had killed them both and their blood was still raining down as I cut the two young NCR soldiers free with my sharp talons. They fled screaming from the scene as the last droplets finished showering down like a crimson mist.

I found Driw alive and huddled in the middle of the street. I put on my robes. I looked at her more closely. She wasn't hurt.

"Are you alright?" Asked her. She said nothing until Rodeo arrived and found her like that and asked the same question.

"Just leave me alone..." She demanded. We looked at each other and Rodeo shrugged. Even Victor seemed a little confused.

We walked away leaving her there.

Later she found us ready to leave Boulder City behind. But something in her eyes had changed. Her air was cold between her and Rodeo now. I sensed he had really pissed her off or dissapointed her or both.

"What is wrong?" He interrogated. She just glared at him. I intrepreted the look on her face as 'don't you know?'.

"Rodeo..." I tried to stop him. He didn't know about her childhood.

"Seriously." Rodeo pressed the issue as men always have since the dawn of time. A slap came out of nowhere sounding like a miniature stick of dynamite going off next to his cheek. The way his head swung around added to the effect. I expected blood and was relieved to see Rodeo was fine. Shaken and daunted but otherwise fine.

"She lived with Great Khans...for awhile when she was a little girl. Those savages were people to her. They deserved a little more I guess. But I am not sure what she wanted. They did shoot first after taking hostages. Negotiations were over before we even got here." I sorta half explained and apologized to Rodeo as Driw stormed away.

"I want to believe we did the right thing here...but she isn't making that easy." Rodeo muttered.

"If it were easy anyone could do it...it takes our kind to get it done..." I spoke after awhile before we had caught up to Driw. She had cried and decided to let it go. Soon she walked beside her man once again but had nothing to say and he now knew not to pry.

The Lights of Vegas

The glow of New Vegas at night can be seen from practically anywhere in the Mojave Wasteland but from where we stood at midnight it had the skies lit up like twilight. Our posse had defeated the Great Khans who we still were not sure why they had accompanied Benny at all. All they had done was follow him and watch him shoot Rodeo and then get left behind unpaid in Boulder City. It seemed Benny had a real uncanny knack for leaving loose ends. His predecessors who used to drop their business rivals in shallow graves in prewar times would have been ashamed to know that New Vegas had grown soft in mankind's most hardcoe age.

"Do you know why I was so upset with you earlier today?" Driw asked Rodeo as they cuddled opposite the fire from myself.

We had set up camp miles from the southern walls of New Vegas. Tomorrow we would head for Freeside around the northeast district. Much of New Vegas's topography had changed in the last couple of decades. I realized much would be different. How different I had yet to find out.

"You lived with those tribals while you were a child." Rodeo replied. "I am sorry."

"Its not your fault. They chose to be there. But it still pains me to have to see them killed like that. My loyalty is with you though. I am sorry also. I should have been more prepared. My gift is fading..." Driw sounded very tired.

"Is it because of me?" Rodeo asked.

I had noticed that since meeting Rodeo, Driw's personality had become far more human seeming, more woman-like. It was hard to explain but before she had seemed like just a crazed desert witch with nothing more on her mind than clouded visions of the future. Now she was living that future and she seemed free to be...human. To have emotions and make mistakes just like everyone else. I felt detached from her now. Before it had been easier to relate to her.

"It is me. I have changed somehow. Suddenly everything matters. I feel like I can't control anything. Like everything is just happening." Driw spoke slowly as she considered her new shadows.

"Can you still see the future?" Rodeo asked.

"I don't know. I haven't tried. I am not sure that I want to. You know our days are numbered. We are just mortal. I don't want to know how it all ends. I just want to live ahppily ever after. But I know better. I just want tonight for us to last forever. I don't want this feeling I have for you to go away. Today I remembered being alone. In the desert with my cards and my...visions..." She was sobbing slightly.

Rodeo just held her.

I was suprised at his gentle treatment of her. I had come to learn that he was not a merciful man, his brutality rivaled any warriors. He had tasted blood and love and they had mixed in him and he had changed also. I wasn't used to seeing humans go through so much in so little time. I wondered what it all meant. I was starting to believe all the things Driw had told me. What else could explain all of this?

I stared with my reptilian eyes at the filthy colors staining the sky above the not-so-distant city of sin. What would we find in New Vegas? Was this really the epicenter of the fate of mankind? Would it be their salvation or doom? Or something else entirely? I knew the answers waited patiently.

Would I be cured?

Freeside

It wasn't quite noon when we reached the eastern gates of Freeside which we would have to pass through to get to New Vegas.

"Can you get us in there any faster?" Rodeo asked Victor.

"No sir, this is one of four ways into the strip." Victor responded cheerfully with his grinning cowboy face beaming happily as if the world had never been set on fire.

"Hey!" Rodeo tried to get the attention of several well dressed, groomed, educated and stage-accented thugs known as Kings. They ignored us while the one entertaining the rest finished his joke.

"...so the guy goes out after winning all those caps determined to get to the bottom of it and he hires Michael Angel, you know Grass Angel's uncle that famous artist and inventor?"

"Yeah, Ya!"

"Alright so he says to Mikey: 'I want a painting of Custer's Last Thought' and he comissions it and comes back a week or two later and Mikey is done and they have this grand unveiling. Right. So the guy looks up and he sees a picture with this giant brahmin with a halo standing over all these tribals who are having this big orgy and he is like 'What the hell is this?' and Mikey turns to him and says: 'its what you asked for: Custer is thinking: Holy Cow look at all these frigging Indians!' and the guy totally facepalms."

The other Kings started laughing heartily so we took that as our cue to approach. They waved us on by and we entered the desolate ruins and ghetto known as Freeside. Several guides or escorts or whatever stood there offering prices. The one wearing metal armor gave me a bad vibe so we skipped him and hired a young woman named Ashkregan for one hundred caps.

We walked behind her heading through the streets where broke mercenaries mingled with drunks, vagabonds and refugees in a sea of human discontent and misery. I heard a woman's terrified screams turn to those of hideous pain that suddenly stopped in the distance which rose the barking of dogs which got a few drunks yelling profanity at the dogs which ended in the sounds of empty bottles hitting the corners of kennels and shattering. Several cheap hokers offered me some exclusive rates which repulsed me on multiple levels. Despite my natural xenophobia about human perversions toward animals (thanks in part to the Sky Queen) they were so inebriated they failed to grasp the 'suprise package' of a robed hermit who shuffled along like an unwashed cripple.

Freeside held no appeal to me but when we reached the gate the the North Vegas Strip we were stopped by half a dozen Securitrons who had just finished turning a lucky feeling guy who was sky high on psycho with a needle still in his arm into swiss cheese. We were asked to prove we were financed before we could enter and failing to produce credits or even the fact that we had Victor with us kept us out.

"How are we gonna come up with two thousand caps?" Rodeo asked us.

"I will go inside and see if Mr. House will grant you special permission to come into the strip. I know he wants to meet you." Victor told us. He wheeled past his siblings into the New Vegas circus.

"I will get to work." Driw said.

"What? No that is disgusting. What the hell are you thinking?" Rodeo objected. If I had eyebrows they would had lifted at that exchange.

"Playing caravan you jerk." Driw gave him a peck and walked away with her yellow and gray checkered hood covering her dreadlocks. She was muttering something about Rodeo's presumption that she had meant working a corner.

"Sorry. Don't know what came over me. It is this place...so foul..." Rodeo spoke after her as if she hadn't left our company.

"Well you guys want me to go with her or stay with you?" Ashkregan asked us.

"Go look after her. We are fine." Rodeo said and gestured for her to 'run along'. Ashkregan gave a kind of salute and then she trod after our precious witch who also carried most of our funds which were our ticket inside.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Split up and look for work?" Rodeo suggested.

"Sounds good. Stay away from those scantily clad women who smell of unwashed men and cheap perfume." I said as we parted.

"You too. They will only give you nausea and indigestion." He replied.

I chuckled. I wandered off in my own direction passing Old Mormon Fort and a few other ancient landmarks to arrive at the King's School of Impersonation. I guessed this was where the Kings ran the show from so I went to the guard at the front entrance and asked for admission. Inside I was directed to a kind of dining room with a stage featuring two girls juggling several random items including garden gnomes, teddy bears and Vault Tec bobble heads. I found Mr. King with a robot dog named Rex sitting and watching the performance with his back to me.

"I am looking for work." I said plainly.

"You want on the payroll you gotta prove yourself first." King said.

"By doing what exactly?" I asked.

"Go to the front entrance and find that jerk off Oriass who keeps taking all of our clients. They guy is up to something I just don't know what. Nobody is that good."

"Alright." I agreed. "I will get to the bottom of this."

"Here. Here is two hundred caps to hire him with. Go hire him and pretend to be a normal client and see what he is up to."

I took the money and left without any more words. I wandered back toward the entrance but along the way I was attacked by a feral thug and I was forced to drive him into a wall with a powerful kick. This made him drop his lead pipe and lose his bowels and run away injured and afraid. I continued along my way and ran into Driw and Askregan playing caravan with two mean looking Jackals. I waved but they didn't see me so I finished stepping and got to where Oriass waited. This was the guy who I had gotten a bad vibe from who was wearing metal armor.

"Hire me and I will get you to the Strip with less trouble than any of these other miscreants. I cost two hundred instead of the usual fee but I am worth twice that even." He promised.

"Hey that sounds like a good deal. Let's do this." I paid him and we set out through the dangerous crime filled streets of Freeside. He set a brisk pace and led me around a corner on a suspicious 'detour'. He suddenly ran ahead and engaged like eight thugs.

When I caught up I saw that he was waiting.

"See these guys would have totally wasted you if I hadn't been here to help." He assured me.

"Uh." I replied. I looked at the guys on the ground. We weren't far from the Kings hangout and I considered that I might retreat that way if this got ugly. "They are just some goons laying on the ground then. So gimme my money back."

"No frigging way. You aren't gonna spoil my business. Boys, get this Cretan!" He ordered his goons to attack. They got up and brandished fire axes, switch blades, broken bottles and one even had a small pistol. Rather than risk a pointless fight and reveal that I was a Deathclaw to any spectators I fled back to the Kings with Oriass and his minions hot on my tail.

Several Kings intercepted them and wounded one of them but were then killed by the rest. Oriass was shooting at me as I bounded inside where about twenty Kings were sitting around in the lobby. Oriass got caught in the heat of the moment and fired the rest of his weapon's clip at me blasting out windows and injuring another of the Kings. King himself came out of the theater with about a dozen more Kings.

"What the hell is going on out here!" He demanded.

"It is Oriass. I caught him faking it and he chased me ack here. He already killed two of your men outside." I tried to sound out of breath despite being ready for battle. I ducked down and hid behind the front desk as Oriass reloaded and fired another barrage accompanied by the thug with the pistol. One of them lit a molotov cocktail and threw it through a broken window so that it shattered on the staircase where more Kings were descending and cut them off from reinforcing their brothers. When the gunfire ceased and a handy fire extinguisher added a cloud of white to the black smoke mixing with the gray puffs from the gun blasts well over three dozen pissed off Kings flooded out into the streets. Most of them were unarmed but it didn't matter. Half of the thugs fled as the angry warriors emerged from the fog of battle and the other half were caught and quickly trampled.

"Oriass you have been a wart on the ugly face of Freeside long enough. Lance this boil boys!" King ordered his men. They grabbed him and tore off his armor despite his protests and punched and kicked him until he lay broken upon the asphalt. Then Kind himself walked over to him. I watched as many observers did that day. King's hand went up and recieved a LoiueVille Slugger. He raised it like a golf club as Oriass tried to lift himself up to meet King's gaze to beg for mercy. Too late. The bat came down and the entire crowd including the hardened Kings cringed at the sight. King handed the bat back to one of his men and walked casually back inside wiping his hands off on a handkerchief.

I accepted five hundred caps for the job and decided I was good off of any further work with the Kings.

I went outside and found that Driw had been playing conservatively and made only a thousand caps plus the three sixty she had started with. We walked together along with Ashkregan to go find Rodeo. It took us awhile but we eventually caught up to him in an alley beind the Atomic Wrangler. A place with a seeedier reputation than the street it lounged upon.

He was being held by two brutish bouncers and being punched in the stomache by a third. We waited until he was finished fooling arouund then went up to him as they walked away. He climbed painfully to his feet and shot them a bird to their backs before he turned to face us.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"Nevermind. How much did you guys make?" He asked as Driw dabbed blood from her lover's split lip. He had a nice black eye also.

"About eighteen hundred all day. You?" Driw asked him gently.

"Enough then. Lets get to the Strip and have some fun." Rodeo led the way. I noticed he was shaking off a slight limp in addition to holding his ribs. Driw sidled up next to him and pulled his arm over her shoulders.

We reached the North Strip gate by dusk as the noise and lights of the Strip were pulling people in like maschochistic moths. The Securitrons were very busy checking everyone out and it took us awhile to get to them. By the time we reached them Victor came rolling out to greet us.

"Howdy! Mr. House has sent word that you are to be admitted to the Strip so just follow me partners!" He informed us cheerfully. We exchanged looks and frowns.

"This is where we part ways. It has been a real drag. See you guys later." Ashkregan told us and waved goodbye then she headed back the way we had all come.

"Shall we?" I asked.

We followed Victor into the city of the party that had never ended, even after the rest of the world burned to the ground...

Lucky Thirty Eight

The night around us was an artificial moment of tribute to the atomic decomposition in a nuclear reaction. Lights and noise danced interchangeably in a cacaphony of chaos. Drunks, gamblers and swinging hokers swayed in a sea of swirling lost souls.

Near us an NCR trooper in a dishevelled uniform was leaning on a sign and vomiting dramatically. We shuffled past him trying to stick together in the crowd. Soon we found ourselves alone on the runway lit steps of the Lucky Thirty Eight where Victor had led us. Except a corpse and a jet junkie tinkering with a canister of ultra jet and unable to get the final hit out of it.

I looked up and saw that the entire sky district was now absent. Crashed out in the southern ruins I had heard. I wondered what had become of the Sky Queen and her Earls. Rumor stated that the Desert Rangers had defeated them and for a time New Vegas had been independant. I was suprised that the Setites had not seized power. But then again maybe they too had died. After all if this was the Roller District then the southern ruins were now the remains of what had been their home. A kind of perverse relief and satisfaction washed over me as I considered all of my old enemies here had died in one fould blow. Whatever that blow had been I could not know. But it had been the fatal fall of the hammer to their reign of tyranny. Now the city was run from here allegedly. How the unseen immortal Mr. House had taken control over the MOSES I was not sure but the evidence was everywhere: I looked over to see two Securitrons (built and operated by MOSES obviously-Machine Operated Security Enforcement System) with their cruel cartoon cop faces. Their cop faces grinned as they beat up some bum they had found peeing pennilessly behind the tether of the Sky District which had been made into the Lucky Thirty Eight.

We went inside and the contrast of silence and age old decay greeted us like a tomb.

"What is this place?" Rodeo gasped.

"A place where nightmares are birthed in silent darkness to be released upon the world." Driw whispered. She had snapped back into her fortune teller mode defensively. I was glad to hear her talking that way again. I had grown a little tired of her role as girlfriend to Rodeo. I had learned more than I wanted about human relationships as I found their scents and pheremones to be contradictory and confusing. No wonder couples fought so much...

"Where will we find Mr. House?" I asked Victor. He too had switched to an alternative attitude in this sanctum of darksome dreamless depths.

"I will send you to him where he waits below. Enter the elevator." He spoke in an unusually subdued tone for the gay cowboy robot routine he usually sported proudly.

We obeyed the suggestion and got aboard the elevator. I glanced down an noted Rodeo and Driw were holding hands. I realized I was holding my breath as the door closed with a hiss and we descended. Suddenly a wave of desert madness crept up like bile and I was forced to add some extra silver chains to hold down my beast within. I had always been a little claustophobic. What creature of the desert wouldn't be? Except that confines reminded me of Vault Thirteen where I had been raised under my sire and Mother Deathclaw. The Enclave...I fought the thought and instead recalled a random memory from my days as a young Death Claw. I had been the runt of the litter. A Silver Deathclaw while the others all took after mom and dad. I assembled the cardboard puzzles the previous tenants had left. My siblings chewed on them enthusiastically: cardboard tastes sweet to Deathclaws.

Soon we were in the penthouse. We explored and found that we could see most of the known Mojave Wasteland from here. There was Primm, and Dinosaur Town. Was that Hoover Dam?

"Welcome." A voice that sounded like Vincent Price from the old holootapes I had studied where my days as a student had begun greeted us. We found a head on a screeen that even looked like the famous actor and artist. We owed this devil a due.

"We are at your service." I claimed for us as the three of us stood before him.

"Good because time is of essence and the Platinum Chip needs to be recovered and brought back here." He told us.

"The one Benny took from me. Yeah I got a score to settle with him and I got a job to finish." The courier Rodeo spoke up.

"My informants tell me he is in his own casino The Tops where his henchmen the Chairmen guard him and his property zealously." Mr. House enlightened us.

We had already suspected he would be at The Tops after what Jason had told us back in Boulder City. It was too bad we couldn't recruit the Great Khans to help us. Driw would have appreciated that.

"What is in it for us?" Driw asked. Her tone betrayed this question was a mere formality. She already knew what was at stake. How important all of this was. What consequences our future loyalties would have. Hers was to Rodeo. Mine was to myself. From this quest I would be introduced to my cure. If I had to live forever I didn't want to do it as a feral Deathclaw who had become ghoulified. I was a scholar. Mindless animal behaviour was anathema to me.

"You will be securing the future. This is the first step toward restoring mankind to his holy right as sovereign of this planet." Mr. House deviated from his script as he took a moment to assess the woman behind the great hero Rodeo. "It is your destiny!" He added with a dramatic invocation of Vincent Price noir.

"Very well. We shall retrieve the Platinum Chip and see this through." Rodeo swore bravely. Again I noticed that despite his outer courage his hand had sought and found his mate's hand as if holding hands somehow recharged his bravery. Driw had defiance in her yellow and gray eyes but she supported Rodeo's decision regardless.

We were dismissed by our new patron and headed back down to the casino via elevator. Up here we found a kind of groupie Securitron called Jane who also commanded the elevator from above. Back down in the casino we found Victor waiting for us but he did not follow us further. Here was his home and here he remained as we set out for further adventures alone without him.

"See you later." He called after us in a drawl.

The Tops

We walked through the busy streets of the New Vegas Strip with purpose toward The Tops. Apparently despite being able to run the streets effectively with MOSES, Mr. House was unable to send his mechanical goons into the fortified casino to retrieve Benny and the Chip. Or maybe he just liked the personal touch of having Rodeo and his friends do it. We were going to be searched once we got inside. None of us, especially myself, could abide this. A Chairman walked over to us as he had done for thousands of compliant guests. He wasn't expecting Rodeo to whip out his ten MM SMG and fire a burst into the greeter's chest and then the Chairman at point blank. The two bodies spilled a red carpet welcome mat for us.

Other Chairmen popped out from behind corners only to be shot to death by the gun fighter. He had gotten good at shooting men in no time at all. I sopposed that any marksman and hunter was only a kill away from becoming a man killer. I shed my robes as we strode onto the casino floor. Gamblers were fleeing or hiding under tables. Rodeo had to stop and collect more ammo from his early kills to reload the weathered weapon.

I leapt over the railing as bullets from supressed machine guns with drum clips on top fired rounds everywhere. Cards flew up off of tables. I ducked and wove and as a result a roullette dealer was blown away sending the wheel spinning one last time as she fell. I was hit a couple of times but the bullets barely scratched my thick hide of scars. I scattered two bouncers having no time to marvel at the mindless muscle headedness of them to stand in the way of a charging Deathclaw, even if I was a small one.

I swatted one of the machine gunners to the ceiling and his blood showered down before his body detached from whatever it had stuck to and fell back toward me. I kicked the corpse, which still had its finger on the trigger spraying bullets everywhere into the second gunner bowling him over a railing onto a card table which toppled over onto him pinning him to the floor knocked unconscious. I heard more of Rodeo's gun take out several more Chairmen who flooded in from the adjoining restaurant and then one of the bouncers. The other one decided the pay wasn't good enough and fled past him and then Driw out into the streets.

Benny stood before us. Rodeo was walking toward him with his smoking automatic aimed at Benny's grinning face. I wondered why the man was smiling and then realized he had been expecting us.

"I am not suprised you are here. I was at first, but I got over it." Benny informed Rodeo.

I was growling and flexing my claws. The beast within could not be sated with any amount of violence and blood and I took a step toward Benny like taking a breath. Some drool dripped from my teeth like a frothing mad dog.

"Got a leash for your pet?" He asked cooly as he felt for a lighter for his cigar but couldn't find it. Rodeo tossed him the lighter he had scraqed off of one of the dead Great Khans to Benny who caught it and lit up. He took a drag before saying: "Thanks. Guess you took care of my debt to them. I hired them just as scapegoats. Almost worked. Except you are here. Back from the dead. Guess I will have to shoot you a lot more times in the head to be sure your actually dead this time. Twice just wasn't enough."

"Scapegoats huh?" Driw had come up behind us. She had armed herself with one of the casino machine guns. She was aiming it at Benny. My bloodthirsty eyes weren't seeing enough red to hide her aura. She wanted Benny's blood more than either of us. "We had to kill them. They had nothing to do with any of this. You betrayed them, left them to die, now its your turn you son of a mole rat!"

"No Driw Dont!" Rodeo tried to stop her but the cros of fire blasted apart the supressor and bullets raked Benny's expensive smoking jacket. He staggered back and hit the wall behind him and slid down it. His cigar had landed in the plush carpet where it smoldered. Most of the casino patrons had flooded outside. More Chairmen would find us here from where they were posted elsewhere in the casino hotel.

Rodeo ran up to Benny and lift his chin to look at him face to face.

"Where is it? Where is the Chip? Tell me!" Rodeo demanded. He grabbed the suit and shook the man but his spirit had already left for hell. He was shaking a corpse. I turned and trod back toward the front of the house to collect my robes and make sure no reinforcements arrived while Rodeo searched Benny for the Chip.

He found me there. He stood standing sullenly reloading clips with more ammo he had salvaged. Driw had discarded the broken weapon and stood behind him looking a little ashamed and a little satisfied. "I am sorry." She said meekly. Rodeo ignored her.

"We go find his suite and search that next. Maybe he has a wall safe or something he hid it in." Rodeo had collected his wits.

"Go you do that." I was still breathing heavy and felt like a talking beast rather than a scholar. Articulation for the mad is like counting grains of sand. Pointless. Absurd.

Driw and Rodeo went to do that. I heard some more gunplay as I tried to collect myself. It seemed like an eternity was passing. Every time I wrestled the beast within back into its cage it got harder and harder to do. And a saw different shadows in its monstrous dragon eyes:

Cobalt was being tortured by the Enclave in Tibbets. All I could do was stand outside and howl in rage and torment. Soon both of our cries ceased. I was laying on my back in the sand as the Vertibirds ecclipsed the desert sun like giant humming locusts. They were coming to kill all of my people at Vault Thirteen. My brothers and sisters. Mother Deathclaws. The eggs. Everything. Gruther was speaking to me. A mantis sitting on a sporeplant. It snapped shut. Gruther was saying something. I ignored him as I tore at the ground digging a grave for Xarn. The Enclave had captured him...forced him to talk. The chosen one had freed Xarn. I was digging Xarn's grave by clawing at the earth like a dog. The fresh woodland soil blotted out the blue of the sky. I looked up...

"You alright Yammon?" Driw was asking. Both she and her mate kept their distance. I realized I had been dancing crazily. Howling like some kind of rabid desert demon. My madness had subsided.

"Did...did you find it?" I asked after a long moment of meeting their gaze. All they could see of mine was two shiny eyes from within the darkness of my robe hood. Their eyes were filled with a mix of fear, pity and expectation. I hoped they had found the Chip. I would not find my promised cure until the Chip came into play.

"No we didn't We found a machine called Yes Man who told us everything. He is still connected to the MOSES but operates independantly and works for Benny. Was still connected." Rodeo told me.

"What do you mean?" I struggled to use my human sounding voice I had practiced so long to learn how to use. But the sound was like a Deathclaw growling syllables still. At least I was here and not fighting the urge to eviscerate and devour my friends. Had to count my blessings.

"After we got the low down I put him out of his misery. Damn machine was a loose end. we don't need to be tracked while we work for Mr. House." Rodeo explained.

"Are we working for Mr. House now?" I asked. My voice was sounding better. I was feeling more in control now.

"Not really...we are just getting advice from him." Rodeo relaxed visibly. Driw did so next.

"So what is our next move then?" I asked.

"We get out of here and search for Billy Bush of the Omertas at the Gomorrah. He handled the deal to sell the Chip to the highest bidder. We don't know who that was yet. At least one of the bidders was an agent for Caesar's Legion. I really hope someone local outbid that creep." Rodeo gave me most of the information they had freely gotten from Yes Man.

"Well what are we waiting for? Lets go check out the Gomorrah..." I sighed. Something inside me stirred restlessly.

Gomorrah

The Gomorrah waited us under flaming neon signs and nearly nvde women dancing outside its entrance. Prostitution was just a reminder of how easily humans reverted to animals despite a long list of features that seperated them from the animal kingdom. The bouncers here tooks Driw's dagger and Rodeo's SMG and when they patted me down they discovered my claws.

"Its with me." Rodeo claimed.

"What the hell is it?" The bouncer took a step back with his hand on his sidearm's handle.

"A Deathclaw. You know, for Billy Bush." He claimed.

"Well if Billy wants it...is it safe?" The bouncer smelled of fear.

"Sure, its heavily sedated and quite tame. Plus I have it fitted with a Deathclaw collar and as long as it has that hood on it stays totally calm." He assured the bouncer. The bouncer didn't like the idea of a Deathclaw waltzing around but a line was forming behind us so he ushered us on by nervously.

"That was easy." I muttered.

"Quiet beast." Driw giggled.

We followed the instructions of several floor attendants working for the Omertas upstairs to one of the entrances to the Zoestra Lounge where Billy Bush's office was. All around there were dim lights and smoky tendrils veiling erotic dancers on small stages. Dirty sounding music played to the rythmn of lap dances and other performances. We found the entrance temporarily unguarded. One of my claws was all it took to pop the lock and we went into the Zoestra.

I saw and heard things there that even without human taboos I found to be disgusting. The place was decorated with pillows and stained rugs and was a flux of hedonism and excess. The air reeked of six and bodies and our sight was filled with such. My Deathclaw senses detected other more subtle atrocities that my human companions didn't realize. But their imaginations and instincts filled in the blanks.

We wove through the floors to find Billy Bush's office. Several cleaner females lounged like unfed lionesses and Billy stood leaning on his desk.

"I was informed you were coming here. What is this thing you have brought me?" He asked.

"It will kill you if you don't tell us who the Chip was sold to." Rodeo assured him. He didn't bother with introductions.

"Look I am just a middleman. I am not involved in this in any other way." He told us. He turned to his desk to pour a drink. The girls had shrunk back a little at the threat but were doped on something and their reactions were underscored by lethargy.

"Dispense with the pleasantries and give me the correct name and we will leave and never return. You really don't want to see us again." Rodeo guaranteed Billy Bush.

"There were three buyers intereested. I never handled to goods, just told the highest bidder he had made the purchase and he went to collect it personally. You are looking for a man named Banister. He hangs out at the Ultra Luxe sometimes. Sometimes he is here. Runs a gang called the Freelance. They have a headquarters near the trainyard in Freeside. The other buyers might be after him too. One of em was a guy called Vespius Rex who works for...guess..."

"Caesar." Driw said softly like the word was something she wanted to spit out onto the carpet.

"Ding ding ding!" Billy Bush imitated the sound of a solt machine paying out. "Anyway the other guy who wanted it intended to sell it back to Mr. House. As far as I know good ol Benny put out a hit on the boy. If he is still alive I imagine he will be a little sore on the subject if you know what I mean."

"Good ol Benny. With his track record the guy is still alive. Does he know about Banister?" Rodeo asked.

"I told everyone everything. I don't want to be a liability. sometimes honesty is the best policy and with the body count rising I just want to sit back and enjoy my comission. Ain't nothing wrong with that is there?"

"No. Nothing wrong with that." Rodeo agreed. "What was this third guy's name?"

"Calls himself Spirit Dog. He is a ghoul wearing a tourist uniform, you know, straw hat, hawaiian shirt, tan shorts and a camera. Don't be fooled. The guy is scary as hell and apparently he wants back into Mr. House's good graces. So that means that without the Chip he won't go blabbing to Mr. House what we have all been up to." Billy finished his drink. "Anything else or were you all gonna just stroll out of here and add your names to the list for the next jerk to barge in here demanding I violate customer confidentiality?"

"Why hasn't anyone killed you? You know your an awfully 'loose' loose-end..." Rodeo commented.

"Charisma and charm go a long way in this business. That and folks feel like the free information act could work out in their favor. If you go out and find Banister then the Caesar spy might follow Spirit Dog who might follow you and after he robs and kills you then he can cloak and dagger him. Everybody wins." Billy assured us.

"I see." Rodeo nodded. "Makes sense in a really sick and perverted way."

"Is that all then? Your making my girls nervous." He gestured toward his sleepy eyed harem. They looked more bored than nervous.

"Sure. Keep it real Billy." Rodeo waved and we all left. We went back out the way we had come it and collected our weapons and wits on the way out.

The air outside never smelled so fresh...

Ultra Luxe

"I am not so sure about this." Rodeo said as the three of us stood before the tall and resplendant Ultra Luxe. A gurgling geyser fountain stood before it like a liquid pillar of glamour. The sheer size and sparkleness of the place was awe inspiring.

"We will be fine." Driw reassured her man.

It was then that I spotted the ghoul tourist called Spirit Dog. He was pretending to take pictures but he was watching us. How he planned to take the Chip from us after we collected it from Banister I was not sure.

"Goo Lash Mulligan. Gada Gada Ling Million. Gillion Lillion Minion." Spirit Dog said to me. My fellow ghoul had suddenly gotten real close and I could smell his rancid breath.

"You coming in or waiting outside?" Rodeo asked me.

I stared at Spirit Dog another moment then I looked back at the lovely Ultra Luxe. Apparently I was gonna miss out on the world's most clean and beautiful hotel. Damn this creature.

"I will catch up." I waved the couple onward. They looked at me pityingly and then headed in without me. I turned back to Spirit Dog. This had better be frigging good. I swore. "What the hell do you want?"

"Like I said: Goolash Million. Ha Ha ha." The ghoul was obviously crazy. He was wasting my time.

"Get lost. I catch you following us I will terminate your endless life. Seems like I would be doing us both a favor." I pointed one claw out of my reaper like robes directly between his eyes making him go cross eyed temporarily.

"Maybe if I catch you following me I will have to pee. Ha Ha ha!" Spirit Dog wasn't taking me seriously.

"You got some serious problems ghoul. Take my advice and forget all about the Chip, the Strip and Mr. House. Go west toward Arizona and go live on the Rez where lots of ghouls live together in peace." I urged him.

"Can't do that boy. I made MOSES and MOSES made the ME!!!! WEEEEEEHHH!" He danced around clapping his hands overhead. I wondered if I acted this ridiculous during my own moments of madness.

"What do you mean?" I asked as he calmed down. I looked around and marvelled that we hadn't drawn any attention from passing pedestrians. Vegas.

"I invented MOSES, baby. Its in my blood and the MOSES is in the mud. HA ha Ha!" He grinned a rotten ghoul grin.

"I see. What can you tell me about the MOSES then? Is there a way to control it? How does Mr. House interact with the Securitrons?" I questioned. I was finding his story interesting, if a little off.

"MOSES made Mr. House live long long time. He is no ghoul though. Not pretty like me...like me a ghoul is so pretty!" Spirit Dog sneered.

"Yes I am a ghoul too. We are pretty. Right, sure. How did MOSES make Mr. House live so long? How can he interact with MOSES at all?" I felt that I was getting nowhere with Spirit Dog.

"Yes YES. I see you so pretty! You a ghoul too. And you something else. You not just a ghoul. Gillion Goo. Yep that is me too. Mr. House is integrated with MOSES. Life Support pod and he hooked into the mainframe. Stay in emergency lockdown. Manual control. BOWL BOWL BOWL. Midnight bumper bowl. Ha ha HA!" Spirit Dog went in and out of crazy talk and useful talk.

"Great. Is he under the Lucky Thirty Eight?" I asked.

"Yes yes. Me go there with the Chip and he let me in and we get all Mulligan and Lillion. Yep." Spirit Dog decided.

"Your not getting the Chip. We are. Sorry Spirit Dog. Just give it up. Like I said. Don't follow us. Go live in the Rez and retire." I insisted. He got the drift this time and turned sulkily away and wandered on down the street out of sight.

Driw and Rodeo found me there awhile later.

"No luck with Banister. We had to ask around for him so he might know we are coming now. Looks like we are gonna have to head to the Freelance Station in Freeside where he sits on his throne. This could get real ugly." Rodeo had his brow furrowed in that human expression for worry.

"When isn't it ugly?" I wondered. I looked the way Spirit Dog had gone. I was worried that we hadn't seen the last or the worst of the mad ghoul yet.

wow, these are great! reminds me of when i used to write short fun stories for the game "return to Zork", but these are much more serious and fit the mood of exploring the wasteland perfectly!

i think you've inspired me to write some fan fiction about an adventure with everybody's favorite companion, Raul the Ghoul!

:)

New House

We were heading back toward Freeside when we spotted several of the MOSES Securitrons toppling beyond a scattering crowd of drunks and gamblers. It appeared as though a handful of assailants, appropriately armed were staging a kind of overthrow of Lucky Thirty Eight. We were forced to take sides or wait it out.

"Who are they?" Rodeo asked.

"Probably Banister's Freelancers." I guessed. I was close, as it turned out. Hardened zealots called Elite Thorn Hunters who were former Followers of the Apocalypse had joined them. Mostly for the sake of participating in liberating New Vegas violently. At least a half a dozen of them were armed with experimental pulse rifles. We later learned that Banister had connections in both NCR and the Brotherhood. He could have gotten his fancy anti robot weapons from either. Then again the Silver Rush did have those silly dwarves in the basemant building new energy weapons from old schematics. Where Banister had acquired half a dozen pulse rifles did not matter. In the end it was their use by his Freelance shocktroops against the domesticated Securitrons that mattered. The machines fell to disabling pulse rifle blasts, a couple EMP grenades and small arms.

"It has begun." Driw spoke prophetically.

"What did you mean?" Rodeo asked. The battle that happened before our eyes had been very brief and over before we could formally decide to take sides.

"This land will beling to the Scorpion Flag. On either side the Bear and the Bull will roar. But the Scorpion only has one moment of weakness. And everything is at stake." Driw spoke further. I had heard her talk this way before but Rodeo wasn't used to it.

I igored his pointledd questions and her further cryptic anolysis of the near future and went into the Lucky Thirty Eight alone to see what would happen now.

Inside more Securitrons had been disabled or destroyed by the rebels. The elevator opened. A kind of sweet electric fire smell lingered but other than the hiss of exploding sparks there was nothing further happening in the casino. Down below the rebels had continued their rampage among the final defenses of the MOSES. Banister had prepared for this siege for a long time. Here and there I found one of his rebels dead or badly wounded and abandoned by the rest of the marauding mob.

I waited for the elevator but by the time it came back up the rebels were already leaving. Their raid was complete. The MOSES had transferred its power to the holder of the Chip. Apparently one among them had been carrying the coveted object and was now part of the machine in replacement of Mr. House. Someone who would remain loyal to Banister and do whatever the new tyrant dictated. Some of the disabled Securitrons got back up. They were announcing some kind of upgrade. Their police faces were replaced with soldier faces. I didn't want to know what that meant. I was intimidated by the raucous rebels and their new Securitron allies. If Mr. House had been bad then he had been the lesser evil. The Chip was carried out on a velvet pillow.

I hid.

Several warriors who looked like a mix of Fiend and Brotherhood who wore the emblem of the Freelancer scorpion entered along with Banister and then several of the Securitrons who suddenly had new allegience and powers. I noted that the huge shoulder pods were open and sported rocket grenade racks. This was in addition to several other weapons that had unlocked and popped out when the codes on the Platinum Chip had been entered into the MOSES.

"Friends and Followers. A new age has dawned. I am now the King og New Vegas!" The man called Banister who was tall and wore a beard as well as regal robes announced to the bulk of his forces at that moment. They cheered. The soldier faces on the surviving Securitrons grinned evilly.

I snuck out the side entrance to the quieter streets of New Vegas at dusk.

I found my companions hiding near the Gomorrah.

"Banister has seized the Lucky Thirty Eight and replaced Mr. House." I summarized for them briefly.

"That is not all that is going on." Driw pointed to where two more of the Scorpio Guards of the Freelancers stood near a young woman who was attended by slaves outside the coronation of King Banister.

"Nadine." I recognized the human. Driw nodded.

"How did she get here?" I asked Driw.

"Why don't we find out?" Driw pulled on her yellow and gray checkered hood and left Rodeo and me standing there so that she could go learn Nadine's story over the last year and a half since we had seen her.

I felt somehow that her presence meant we had at least one ally in whatever struggle lay ahead.

Saying a Prayer For

Driw had waited until we had settled in our rooms in Vault Twenty One to repeat Nadine's stories. Our stay in New Vegas had taken on a different shade. Now we and Caesar's agents were the only ones who still needed the Platinum Chip. I wasn't sure what had happened to Spirit Dog. I realized that our involvement might represent the only independant efforts to save New Vegas from a terrrifying future. Why Rodeo felt inclined was beyond me. Maybe there was more to his personality that I understood. I was along for the ride. Somehow this quest would lead to the one where I found the cure to my madness. I had faith.

"Years ago Nadine and Victor Crane left Damien's Caravan as it neared New Vegas and headed here to settle down. Life in Freeside was very hard and only a little better than the caravan or even the wild wasteland. Victor Crane despite being such a good man had a tendency to gamble and one day he was playing a game of Black Caravan with non other than Hans Horijion who is the second-in-command of the Freelancers. Black Caravan is a game where the wager is a sum named by the winner. Typically it isn't for money. Victor Crane was sure he would win and ask for relief from his debts. He lost and Hans demanded a night with Nadine. Victor refused and so Hans and his personal goons went out to find her anyway. Victor stopped them but in the process he wounded a couple of the goons and gave Hans a disfiguring scar. Hans went to Banister Crane who is related to Victor Crane as their last name inplies and is the reason Victor brought Nadine to Freeside believing that his cousin would emply him or at least protect him. Hans convinced Banister to allow him revenge on Victor by taking Nadine away and keeping her until she bore him a child. Banister agreed on the condition that Nadine would be his concubine instead of Hans's. This was good enough for Hans who delighted in seeing Nadine agree to go peaceably while Victor Crane was held by the Freelancer goons. She had been told that if she became Banister's concubine Victor Crane's very life would be spared. She has not seen Victor Crane since and doesn't know where he is. Also she has prayed for a miracle and an end to Banister's bed. She is finally pregnant."

"Impossible." I growled.

"I know. But she showed me her belly. She is indeed pregnant. SHe will give birth soon enough and her debt to Banister will be paid. Unfortunately because of the cards she has refused to help us get the Platinum Chip from Banister." Driw agreed and told us the bad news with a strangely optimistic tone.

"Wait. Why is this impossible? What do you mean 'the cards'?" Rodeo asked.

"My love, I told this woman of her fate long ago. I used my own caravan deck for a tarot reading. Like the one I gave you. She feels betrayed now because all of her troubles began with the game of Black Caravan." Driw paused then said: "It is somewhat sad what happened but look at the results. She has become pregnant with Banister's child and also she is in a unique position to help us. The fate of the wastelands will be decided in these days and by the hands of those playing this wretched game of fate."

"Nadine's womb was ruined long ago. She cannot be pregnant. Her bond to Banister would not have ended. Yet a miracle has occured." I explained. I scarcely believed Driw was correct. Yet what choice did I have?

"I do not understand. Who is Nadine?" Rodeo asked.

"She was in the caravan that rescued me. She knows Yammon and he gave her his book. She gave it to me and I read it and decided to help Yammon find his cure. Her role was central all along. I read her future but the choice to give herself to Victor Crane was hers. I could not tell her what would happen. And I did not forsee her pregnancy. In fact the cards mentioned many times that she was barren, that 'her body had been ravaged by the winds of change'. Yammon knew for other reasons. One of his talents includes reading the scents and pheremones of humans. His senses are very different from ours." Driw explained to Rodeo.

"Will she help us?" I asked after we had all sat contemplating how this affected things.

"I don't know. For now she will not. Perhaps her attitude will change after she has given birth. We shall see." Driw considered.

"What now?" I asked them. Driw shook her head. It was like shrugging but with less hope for words.

"Banister will become a tyrant possibly worse than Caesar and far worse than an NCR police state. When he owns the energy sources here like Helios One and Hoover Dam he will combine them with the MOSES and the results will be a kingdom run by a monster. Nobody will be able to challenge his authority. States like NCR will fall at his whim. We know all of this and we stand in his way by choice. That is our fate. I have already died. I am alive now for a reason. I could have stayed in my grave but instead I am now in the middle of a war for the very soul of mankind. You two can help me fight him or get as far away from the coming war as you can." Rodeo gave us a little speech. It wasn't needed. Driw was madly in love with him and I had yet to walk away from such events. I recalled the siege of Cheyenne Mountain and the final battle against The Calculator I had participated in. I also remembered being defeated and driven out into the desert by the Enclave where my madness finally took hold of me. Perhaps the cure to my madness was to embrace it. The beast within liked that idea.

"I am with you." I said.

The two of them sat quietly for awhile.

"We can do nothing as we are now. We must forge an alliance. Caesar sits to the east and NCR to the west. Between them sits the deadly Banister who now controls New Vegas and soon he will threaten both. Many tribes sit in this region as well. They must learn to trust us and stand up against Banister as one or be defeated one by one later. We must convince them." Driw said without making a riddle out of it.

"Very well." I agreed. Rodeo nodded. Her solution seemed the obvious choice. How we were going to convince them remained tomorrow's challenge. For the night we were to rest. I went to my own room and let them enjoy their evening.

West Side

We headed out from the Strip of New Vegas westward through a large opening into West Side. Several Freelancers were guarding it to keep the peasants out of the Strip unless they could pay the new toll. Leaving the Strip didn't cost anything yet.

We walked through West Side which seemed like a less crime oriented version of Freeside. A young boy was leading a supply carrying Brahmin to the various shops which included a family run Pawn Shop. We had not gone far when we ran into a rally featuring several dozen West Siders and militia. Their leader was a woman named Madam Pretty who had horrible scars coverin her exposed flesh and face.

"We will not stand the shake downs or pay protection money to these Freelancers!" She was shouting. Many at her rally carried picket signs or cheap firearms. So far there were no Freelancers or their Securitrons dispersing the crowd. I suspected it was only a matter of time. Would they be incited to riot or would their resistance be easily crushed. I glanced around spotting a very old Super Mutant hanging out with several tougher looking West Side Militia overlooking the crowd. They were watching the Strip. Still no sign of the Freelancers.

It was still rather early in the morning though. Madam Pretty continued to hold her rally until the picketers were ready to march. They soon did before noon and went to the opening to the Strip which was being sealed up by slaves who were being forced to stack large chunks of concrete, pieces of wall and bricks to seal off the Strip from West Side. I wondered if this meant that Banister had future plans for the West Side colony since he had avoided confronting them directly. Perhaps he didn't see their discontent as a threat and like a good business man: was not interested in wasting a source of revenue.

We went to speak with Madam Pretty.

"What do you want? Did Banister send you?" She asked.

"No we are trying to gather those who would stand against him. This is the first place we have come to and it seems you are willing to resist the Freelancers. Will you help us fight against him when the time comes?" Rodeo asked her.

"We will. But first we must deal with the Followers of the Apocalypse." She pointed beyond West Side.

"Surely you dont mean the relief workers at Old Mormon Fort?" Driw questioned her.

"Not those ones. There are other ones we call the Thorn Cultists. They supply the Freelancers with recruits for Banister's growing army. There is nothing we can do about the Fiends who have allied themselves with the Warlord Of New Vegas. But our efforts must start with undermining him." Madam Pretty proclaimed.

"What can we do to help?" Rodeo offered the West Side leader.

"Go to The Thorn and defeat their champion Aesir. If you do then Red Lucy will be forced to negotiate and perhaps we can get her to withdraw her Elite Thorn Hunters from bolstering Banister's forces." Madam Pretty tasked us. We agreed to do so and headed over to The Thorn which was an underground arena just outside the outer gates of West Side.

We heard a cheering crowd and as we rounded the corners of the tunnels we emerged out onto a catwalk overlooking the battle pit where the ground was stained with the gore of countless gladiators and pit fights. Two radscorpions were battling a pair of cazadore. We watched for a moment as the spectacle continued and then Driw spotted Red Lucy down below. Rodeo left us there to go and speak with her. Soon the cazadore had killed the radscorpions and Rodeo returned.

"Red Lucy has agreed to let you fight Aesir but you must first prove your power by fighting a match up of her choosing." Rodeo said.

"Wait, I am to do the fighting?" I asked.

"Yes. I told her I own a ravenous Deathclaw. She wants to see if I am telling the truth." He smiled. I nodded.

Rodeo led the way down a ramp into an area of the arena down below where holding cages stood empty of held Giant Rats, Night Stalkers, Fiends or Deathclaws or stood empty awaitingf fres arrivals from the bountiful wastelands. I stripped off my robes and handed them to Driw.

"Wish me luck." I hissed. The chamber closed shut seperating us and I turned to face the entrance to the battlefield beyond.

"In this next battle a ravenous Deathclaw will compete against a batch of fire geckos in a fight to the death." Red Lucy announced me and my opposition. The cages opened mixing me with the four fire geckos. I wondered what sort of twisted fate had garnered me a rematch as I dimly recalled the Earls who had pitted me against fire geckos in a pit fight long ago.

I battled them fiercely and suffered some scratches and burns but in the end their ichor stained my claws and the kerosene-like smell of their gore lingered as I trudged back to my holding cell which even wild Deathclaws did without prompting.

"For our next battle we will see that same ruthless Deathclaw fight Aesir himself in a grand finale!" Red Lucy announced. At the mention of aa appearance of the champion Aesir the crowd went especially wild. I wondered who or rather what to expect Aesir to be.

The cages again opened and I concluded that as long as Aesir only fought opponents who had just fought and been fatigued and damaged it was no wonder he always won.

I stared out at an old friend.

Bewildered I did nothing as he walked around blowing kisses to the crowds. His other had holding the mighty super spear Sicarius with its powerful pnuematic pistons and vibration couplings supporting a four edged blade of slaying. He had his back to me still as the crowd threw treats and favors to their idol. His awesome shoulders supported a leather shawl studded with topaz which had a smooth shine accenting his huge headdress of feathers and small bones and other dessicated trophies of his numerous kills.

He finally turned to face me and raised the deadly Sicarius for a swift strike but stayed his hand. His godling eyes narrowed slightly then widened in recognition. He called me by a name I had not heard in a very long time:

"Goris!" He beamed grinning a super mutant grin as he lowered Sicarius. The crowd had fallen into a reverent hush. Something unprecendented was happening...

"Kill it Aesir! Kill the damn thing!" Red Lucy shouted indignantly from above. My old friend ignored her as he slung Sicarius upon his shoulder by its ornate strap and moved not to harm me but to embrace me in a hug.

He dropped me bcak down and I was soon over my suprise to see him alive and well.

"Cobalt." I recalled.

Just then the cages opened as a dozen Fiends and several cazadores and even a giant mantis flooded the arena. Apparently this had proven intolerable to the fanatic Red Lucy. The show must go on.

Our reunion was cut short as Cobalt and I stood back to back. A Fiend's heart was punctured by a cazadore while the giant mantis pounced on another. A second cazadore flew strait at Cobalt who sliced it neatly in half, stinger and all with Sicarius. The two halves flopped away wings still flapping and getting off the ground momentarily. The charging Fiends had to avoid the deadly half stingers as the careened around like runaway party balloons which I had delighted in inflating and releasing as a child in Vault Thirteen for the amusemant of my siblings.

I tore through my share of the Fiends until the giant mantis landed on my back. I saw Cobalt sweep through several of them by swinging Sicarius in a wide arc and cutting them all in half at the waist. Soon the remaining Fiends found themselves backing away from the one the cheering crowd knew as Aesir as they fired their useless small guns at him. I backed up into a wall crushing the giant mantis between my back and the rough surface.

The remaining cazadore was headed strait for me when one of the tactless Fiends, strapped in long fuse dynamite yelled something about ultra jet and tackled the cazadore right out of the air. The other Fiends had backed away from their Aesir still shooting and then all of our breathing enemies stood in the center of the arena together. The battle ended in a bang. as my ears stopped ringing I could hear the crowd had cheered until they were hoarse. It was the greatest gladiator match up of all time and all bets were off.

Cobalt and I exited the arena side by side leaving a great deal of awful carnage in our wake.

I sopposed now Red Lucy would agree to our terms and meet with Madam Pretty.

Keep your Enemies closer

Cobalt had awoke one morning to find that the Enclave were under attack in Tibbets. Klaxons rang out as power armored soldiers armed themselves and ran through the hallways to battle stations. War had broken out between the Enclave and the now powerful Caesar's Legion. The battle at Tibbets had raged for hours. Wave after wave of legionaires swarmed against the last Enclave fortress until it fell.

When Cobalt had emerged from his shattered holding cell's doors he had found himself among many dead humans, both Enclave and Legion. It had been a bloodbath. The Enclave had called in reinforcements and as the two Vertibirds arrived they were hit by Caesar's new weapon. Cobalt watched the aircraft slowly descend, burning brilliantly in the night trailing flames and white smoke until they hit the rocks and disappeared in a flash of heat and death.

Cobalt had found Sicarius and walked away.

Lights in the distance had drawn him toward New Vegas.

He had left his old life behind, a broken creature once known as Cobalt. A godling. A hero and a chieftain. Now he was a gladiator and a champion, reborn as Aesir.

"Goris." He chuckled.

"I am called Yammon now. I had almost forgotten my old name." I was smiling also.

"So had I. I had been called Aesir so many times my old name died each time the crowd screamed." He brushed aside a strand of beaded bones and feathers that hung from his headdress. I looked at the white raven on his shoulder.

"You missed Coffee?" I asked.

"This is Gringe. Way smarter than Coffee. Gringe knows magic spells. Gringe sings and tells stories. He came to me in a dream and when I awoke he was there." Cobalt gave a piece of rodent meat to his bird. "Say something Gringe."

"Something Gringe." Gringe spoke.

"Will you come with us?" I asked Cobalt.

"Of course. Where to?" He asked.

"We are seeking help uniting the remaining tribes here against Banister. The Warlord Of New Vegas." I told him.

"He has grown strong. Even Red Lucy bows to him." Cobalt nodded. "He is a wicked man."

"I know. And it will be men who defeat him. But the wasteland poses great dangers. We can help my friends, Rodeo and Driw unite their fellow humans against him. Our role is small but vital." I told Cobalt.

"I will help. So will Gringe." Cobalt fed the brid another piece of the meat and took a bite himself.

As we were standing there near the entrance to the Thorn my companions Rodeo and Driw returned with a young woman in an NCR uniform.

"This is Paxton. She sat in on the meeting between Madam Pretty and Red Lucy. The NCR is interested in assessing the local tribes for their usefulness against Caesar's Legion." Rodeo told me.

"I am from California. Lieutenant Paxton of the Four Twentieth. The general sent me ahead to find out our own strength as well as potential allies and the situation against the Legion. The Four Twentieth will ba along in about a week." Lt. Paxton trusted us and expected us to trust her in return. I sensed great good in her. She needed our help. I did not feel we needed hers. Nor did I trust the NCR.

When this was all over would New Vegas be free to live in peace? It was doubtful. The NCR had too much invested here already. Various settlements we had seen on the way to New Vegas proved they had big plans for the vast energy sources here. New Vegas might be the last hope to reuild the wasteland. NCR wasn't just going to ignore that fact. No it was certain that the Four Twentieth was an occupational army. While the Rangers held the Dam against the entrenched warriors of eighty six tribes the NCR was making its own moves. I wondered that it had taken fortune telling from Driw to see where this war was headed.

Regardless of our best intentions things were going to get very very ugly indeed...

Queen's Gambit

The early morning held the powers of eros and pathos in light and darkness mixed with perfect precision on the breeze. The woman in our camp had left her two Scorpio Guard escorts out in the winds. Sand shifted across sand raising sleepy dust devils who were not interested in dancing in the temperature between night and day in the desert.

Driw had her head tilted and only her left eye, her yellow one, open as she stifled a sneeze. Then she returned Nadine's greeting. Rodeo climbed out of their tent to see what was going on.

"I have changed my mind. Banister asked me to marry him. I would rather slit his throat than be his wife." Nadine said to Driw.

"There is no other woman who could be his queen. It has to be you." Driw replied.

"It isn't fair. I had to lose Marcus James to be with Banister Crane? The worlds best man dies so that I end up with the worst?" Nadine complained. Her voice held understanding, however. Her words betrayed only a reluctance that she wished could rule her actions rather than the determination that actually did. "I am going to carry his child. I will be his bride. But my heart belongs to the wasteland, not to his paradise."

"I know. If it could be me, I would take your place." Driw swore. She embraced Nadine and the slightly older girl found herself sobbing into Driw's robes.

"Oh think twice...just another day for you and me...in paradise..." Gringe was singing. The white raven had turned to face the two women from where it perched on Cobalt's shoulder. The Super Mutant had caught a nap where he sat facing the desolate rocks and sands and hills that represented the Mojave. His back was turned and a layer of dust had settled making him look like a grim boulder that leaned on a gleaming silver lance and wore a feather headdress.

"Is he good to you?" Nadine whispered to Driw as she glanced from her friend's hood over her shoulder to Rodeo who was stoking the coals of last night's campfire. He wore only his faded jeans and had pulled on his cowboy hat.

Paxton crawled out of her tent and joined him at the fire. She was wrapped in a blanket against the chill. The California officer was a comissioned one and she was as soft as a housewife. What she was doing out here was appeasing irony. Any Ranger would have been a much better choice. Paxton's talents were buried in an inaccessible place where she would prove to be a burden to our mission.

"Is there gonna be coffee this morning?" She asked Rodeo. She had her Park Ranger's hat on although she was not a Ranger.

"Do you have any?" Rodeo brightened.

Paxton shook her head.

"Breakfast then?" She asked.

"Wasteland Omelet sound good?" Rodeo asked. He was gnawing on a piece of jerky.

"It sure does."

"Well I agree. But we don't have any of that either." He spat a bit of morning phlegm onto the fire. He offered her the rest of the jerky and she shook her head. Paxton was frowning miserably but did not complain.

Meanwhile Driw and Nadine were saying 'goodbye'. Nadine left our camp as suddenly and silently as she had come. As the warmth of the morning sun bathed the tents and bodies and began thawing out the cold of desert night time Nadine followed her shadow to the guards. She was reflecting inwardly. Probably musing that her shadow contained the layers of her own personality as well as the child within her womb. The Scorpion Guards followed her on either side as she went back toward New Vegas.

Hidden Valley

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It took days to reach our first destination. The winds of a perpetual and dark storm obscured the realm of the Brotherhood of Steel. Assuredly these ones would not be like those I had encountered long ago at the Morning Star.

Paxton was uncomfortable with dealing with this first tribe. Apparently she had been educated about the NCR's victory over the Brotherhood Of Steel long ago. She had gone to great lengths to hide her NCR uniform and gear under a heavy rock in the middle of the windswept compound.

She had donned a simple brahmin skin outfit and a slave scarf but there was one object she had kept. We searched several closed off bunkers which were challenging to find in the storm. In the last one we took shelter as the storm grew worse with nightfall. We had decided to wait until morning.

Rodeo was talking to Paxton and asked her about the locket she was examining.

"I was raised in California as you know already." She said and handed him the heirloom. "Things are alot different there. Peaceful, civilized. People worry about elections and the economy, not desert tribes and environmental hazards like here."

"You want to go back?"

"No. I belong here. It is what my mother would have wanted. You don't understand. My parents died while I was in the academy in a car crash..."

"Car?"

"We have Highwaymen Two Thousands manufactured at the factory restored by President Tandi in her last year. It was a huge undertaking getting the factory back online but by then the NCR alredy had the resources and man power for such projects. In the future we may even be able to design and make our own vehicles. Possibly even ones for military use. It would make a huge difference." Paxton spoke softly but her hushed voice echoed in the dark.

"You don't sound bitter."

"I am not. The vehicle was considered a sign of status. My father was a politician and my mother..."

"A nurse?" Rodeo guessed.

"Well yeah. But they both would have wanted me to do this. It is what I chose and it is an important task. Humanitarian even." Paxton considered her next words for a moment then said: "I am even going to speak to the Brotherhood Of Steel when we find them. My father would be proud."

"I bet he would. Me pa was a courier like me but he died when a Deathclaw tore him apart and ate him."

"You don't sound bitter either." Paxton already knew I was a Deathclaw from the conversation between Madam Pretty and Red Lucy she had participated in. She hadn't seen me though, not with my robes off anyway.

"Who is this then?" Rodeo examined what he held in the gloomy emergency lighting of the entrance of the sealed off bunker.

"I am not sure. My great great grandmother I think. I myself have a talent for medicine and diplomacy. And I am a good cook too." Paxton was smiling, I could tell by her voice.

"I am suprised you aren't married."

"As a comissioned officer it would have affected my promotion to the frontier. I had to leave the comforts of home behind. So much is needed to be done out here. I believe in this."

"Good becuase we might all die for this cause. You wouldn't want to not fit in would you?" Rodeo sounded only half serious.

"I can say I am prepared but you wouldn't believe me. I am not sure I believe me. But here I am risking my life anyway."

"That is right I guess. Get some sleep." Rodeo suggested. He gave her back her momento and crawled over to Driw.

I left them all as they slept and went back out into the storm. One bunker remained to be searched. I went in to find that we were too late.

The door to the Brotherhood Of Steel's stronghold had been torn free and as I entered I found signs of violence. These proceeded the dead bodies. It seemed as though the BOS had been obliterated. I soon found a destroyed MKII Securitron left behind by the slayers.

Banister was a step ahead of us this time. There would be no help from the BOS. I realized that this was consistent with all of my previous experiences with the BOS. Nor was it the first time I had arrived to find them annihilated.

They were good at making enemies.

Two Flags

"Morning Bing." Rodeo had one of his big irons to the head of the younger courier.

"Sir, I heard you aren't working for the Mojave Express anymore. I brought you a letter. It is from New Vegas." Bing didn't move. He knew Rodeo would blwo his brains out without remorse. Rodeo had gotten really good at killing men over the past couple of months.

"Gimme and get." Rodeo tapped the boy's shoulder with the barrel and accepted the envelope. Bing got up and ran off, soon out of sight.

"What is it?" Driw asked, finding Rodeo reading. It was remarkable that so many of my companions were literate. Education wasn't rare in some places, but in the Mojave it weighed like gold.

"A wedding invitation." He frowned.

"For all of us. How sweet. Guess they needed some butts to fill the seats on the bride's side of the aisle." Driw said slappily. Once again Rodeo's mannerisms had oozed into the witch's choice of expression.

"Nadine's coronation. Queen of Sands and King of Lore...a match made on Earth. For a vow made in Heaven." Rodeo repeated Driw's earlier prediction. She hadn't realized he paid such close attention to her fortune telling. Apparently he did.

Suddenly as they stood facing each other again the sounds of a skirmish nearby reached our camp. The NCR Camp Courage we had just visited for supplies was under attack. Or they had attacked someone.

We arrived to see the end of the massacre. A dozen Legion warriors had wandered too close with a brahmin cart pulling three hooded prisoners and found themselves battling more NCR soldiers. It had been quick and bloody.

One NCR officer was dragging himself back to their camp with two machetes in his back. A bleeding Vexillarius limped up behind him with a drawn pistol. He fired two shots and appeared to miss as dirt blew up around the NCR officer. The NCR rolled over impaling himself to death but fired a sawed off shotgun at the Legion leader shattering his skull and sending his wolf hood flying through the air.

Everyone was dead. We looked over the carnage but it was thorough. Camp Courage had been wiped out and so had the Legion slave raiders. Ironic that the prisoners were unscathed. We cracked open the cage and set them free. We pulled their hoods off and untied them one by one. They were all fighters. Captured to be gladiators most likely.

"You free Grognog, save him from cage. No cage for Grognog. Now Grognog go with you and repay you." The massive warrior barbarian Grognog with long dark hair and a necklace of totems said to us in third person. A new friend. He added a couple machetes and throwing axes to his attire then pulled a massive bumper sword with a skull in its hilt from the bottom of the cart. It was wrapped in paper like a christmas gift. His personal weapon apparently. "I am Runding. I sing for battle." He prayed over the mighty sword. So the sword got to be first person. Interesting. Then he tossed the paper wrapped desert combat shotgun to the dark girl.

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"Name is Boxy Frown. I got a score to settle in New Vegas. I reckon if you are going that way I can watch your backs for awhile." The dark woman began loading the gun. I had seen the like in California where they had been manufactured before the war. "Mine is a long story but let us just say I was gonna get to him either way. Killed my man, set me up. These Legion [censored] or on foot makes no difference."

Paxton noted her jacket had an NCR emblem in a circle crossed out. "Are you NCR?" she asked.

"Nope." Boxy eyed Paxton who was wearing her NCR officer's uniform. She said nothing more and after giving Paxton a long stare she finally looked away. There were bodies to loot. Boxy was apparently a killer of a special breed. Cold, calculated and hell bent on some kind of revenge. I guessed her target was Banister. Only he was big enough game for a poacher like her.

Our third new friend made me uneasy. While the other two were nuetral he was definetly evil

"I am Lemure." He introduced himself. He had the spirit of an animal mixed with the aura of a merciless sinner who had done terrible things. And that was his good side. "I feel I owe you one too. But after that we are even."

"We don't need you." I said.

"So we are even now?" He smiled evilly. He was unwrapping his own personal weapon. A deathclaw gauntlet. He also pulled on a wicked looking mask.

"Yes. Get lost." Rodeo supported my decision, which was good becuase he was in charge.

Lemure turned and faced me and then Rodeo as if adding us up. Cobalt stepped in behind us and it was then that Lemure decided to back off. For now. He walked away but I worried we hadn't seen the last of him.

Indeed as we continued on our way, heading to New Vegas for the wedding, he shadowed us. He was a creature of the night and it would be under of cover of darkness that he would go from stalker to slayer. But he was very stealthy and our attempts to catch him always failed.

The feeling of being hunted was alien to me until I met Lemure. But it was better then betrayel which he had promised us if we befriended him. In the meantime New Vegas loomed ahead.

Wasteland Wedding

We had arrived a day early for the actual ceremony. But never-the-less Banister had been throwing parties around the clock. Boxy, Rodeo and I went poolside from our hotel The Flaming Flamingo. It was anything but quiet but we needed to know if our new friend was as volatile as she seemed. It was obvious to me that a profound love had been replaced with cold vengeance in her heart. She had not told us her story but we had deducted that her boyfriend had been an undercover NCR ranger and had been hunted down and killed by Banister's men. Boxy had been captured in her first attempt and they were to dispose of her but had somehow failed. Then she had been captured again by Caesar's Legion slavers possibly on purpose.

She was wearing a swimsuit and I couldn't figure out how she had concealed a switchblade, brass knuckles, garrote and a single shot pulse pistol made of plastic in the skimpy outfit. Another mystery about her. She seemed cool and calm as she escorted Rodeo and casually surveyed the reclining Freelancers and pampered Fiends who were so doped they acted almost civilized. Something in her eyes was not comprimised though. She had already figured out how many of these men she could kill before they took her out. But that wasn't her plan. She bathed like some of the other girls were and blended in perfectly.

Rodeo found me wedged in a shadow.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"She is a model of self control, but make no mistake, one clear shot at Banister and our cover is blown." I replied.

Rodeo studied the girl for a moment then shook his head. "I think she could abide waiting to do more than put a bullet in him. She has been through a lot, she has learned patience and cunning."

"You know more about revenge than I do." I said plainly. Part of me doubted this as the beast within complained.

"Sometimes revenge is only part of getting even. Just like lust is only part of love. There is a higher motive, and a higher one than that. It becomes your life." Rodeo explained.

"Sure, whatever. We will be disarmed on our way in. Cobalt and myself can't really be stripped of our natural weapons. And unless they strip her she will still have weapons. I just want to know that she can play it cool. This is not the time or place for an assassination. Banister may have taken over New Vegas but the Scorpion is keeping the Bear and the Bull out. We need him still." I recalled the various discussions of the brewing war we had spoke earlier.

"Leave her to me. I am in charge I will take responsibility for Boxy." Rodeo seemed to know his troops better than any general. It occured to me that he was a kind of fourth army thowing in its ante in the poker faced battlefield of New Vegas.

I went back to the room I was sharing with Cobalt and Grognog. The 'bachelor pad' Paxton had called it. Gringe had found this comment irristible and had laughed maniacally at it. But out front waited a suprise. Spirit Dog.

"You go big white tent see queen get her big shiny crown. The sands pour out for her and he knows all, knows each of the stars by name." Spirit Dog cackled.

"What do you want?" I asked the ghoul in a tourist's Hawaiian t-shirt, shorts, safari hat and big prewar camera hanging from his neck.

"Get me in, wanna snap a shot of the coronation of the Queen of Mesopotamia. Gotta have something for the Romans. Lord knows the girls in California dont surf with two headed sharks. Gotta have something Roman to put in their palm, cuz my skin is a little raw, a little peeled. Kind of a dry old geezer. But I fix things you know. You don't have nobody to do that. Maybe you need a fixer, case you get a broken thing needs a jury, right?" Spirit Dog blathered insanely.

"You want in? Why should I help you get into the wedding?"

"Cuz I will help you later if you do." Spirit Dog said something that actually made sense for once.

"We will get you in. But go away until then." Driw's voice from her cracked door. She was up waiting for her man. I shrugged and shuffled into my own room where Grognog was asleep on the floor next to his bed. So was Cobalt. I eyed my own bed and opted to sleep on the floor as well. We were three of a kind apparently.

Sleep came and stole me away to my private Deathclaw dreams.

I awoke just before my two bunkmates and shuffled to the sink for a sip of water. Grognog knew I was a Deathclaw already since he had taken a look at my tracks which were distinctly Deathclaw. He had mentioned that my robes hid my shape but that tracks do not lie. He awoke and began to admire Runding. Comparatively Cobalt typically felt Sicarius to be better company than pleasant morning conversation. I snorted and wondered what they would think if I held my claws out to the morning sun and prayed to them.

"I am Runding I will sleep for the rites of the sand and lore. Grognog will go and use his eyes and spirit while I sleep." Grognog spoke in that peculiar way where his massive bumper sword was first person and himself in the third. It took some getting used to.

"I will have to leave Sicarius. Gringe stay and guard our weapons." Cobalt was not pleased with the notion. I wondered how the white raven could possibly guard the two mighty weapons but decided that if it made Cobalt feel secure with leaving his super spear here then I would not point out the obvious flaw in logic. Cobalt donned his feather headdress and declared himself ready. We went out and met the girls who had dress nicely and had just left their own hotel room.

Paxton wore a pink prewar relaxed wear. She also had on a bonnet and carried a small handbag which concealed a pistol. I sensed the weapon from her posturing but doubted an usher would detect its presence so easily. I was suprised Paxton had decided to smuggle in a weapon but then I remembered she had gotten up early to find her bunkmate Boxy half dressed and sorting out a huge cache of concealed weapons she would be packing. I guessed Boxy had inspired the slightly younger girl.

Boxy had red bell bottoms that looked like a dress at first glance. Her top was red also and crossed her chest to hold her large bust and tied in the back of her neck leaving her smooth dark brown skin exposed on her back. Her hair was tied back with a long red ribbon that hung all the way to her butt and danced and swayed with each slight draft of a breeze as it the long red ribbon were a living thing inclined to childish happiness. She wore red on her lips as well and she seemed to be in a very good mood. Only her eyes betrayed what was really going on in her mind.

"You boys ready?" Boxy posed and pursed her lips with enough sass to halt a trio of giants who normally wouldn't look twice at a woman. Only Grognog was truely human but as a confirmed bachelor and married to his sword Runding he might as well be a Deathclaw or a young Super Mutant. Boxy just had that much flare.

"We ready. No weapons. We got dressed too." Cobalt spoke for us.

"Grognog leave me behind but he not think far from my shiny beauty." Grognog again spoke from his sword's vantage point.

"You are carrying enough gear to arm the whole congregation I presume." I said. She nodded slightly.

"You fellas don't need no weapons. Your all real tough. Things get out of hand you can deliver justice with your fists...or whatever." Boxy made an expression that could be counted as a smile except its effect was more convincing to the three giants she was staring down. Paxton seemed to be taking notes but she would never equal half the woman Boxy was.

As we stood around halted by Boxy in the hallway Rodeo and Driw emerged from their room. They alone had brought a wedding gift. It was wrapped but I could guess that it was the flags of NCR and the Legion carefully cleaned and folded. Driw had brought them from the battlefield. It was appropriate if a little bizarre as wedding gifts.

We left the Flaming Flamingo and found Spirit Dog outside waiting for us. The lunatic ghoul tourist has acquired two extra cameras.

"He is coming with us." Driw told everyone. She whispered something into Rodeo's ear and he gestured for Spirit Dog to follow us. Driw winked her yellow eye at me, the left one and I wished I knew what it meant but took it to be some kind of reassurance. Driw knew I didn't trust the ghoul and she respected my talent for reading loyalty. But he had a role in this messy play so who was I to obect? Hell for all I knew Lemure was still following us but had just backed off enough to disappear off of my visceral radar. Keep your enemies closer. I glanced at the harmless looking Lieutenant Paxton who was pvssyring happily with Boxy.

We arrived at the wedding and had to pass through a metal detector which was set off by Spirit Dog's cameras, Rodeo's belt buckle and spurs, Grognog's wrist bands, Boxy's hidden weapons and Paxton's purse. They searched me and upon seeing that I was a Deathclaw they got real nervous and in patting down Boxy they failed to find anything. She distracted them like a pro by acting like their groping was welcome. They could hardly look away from the looming Super Mutant and Death Claw she was friends with either. It was as if they simply didn't want to find anything. Paxton's purse ended up being our sacrifice fly.

"Oh I am sorry, I forgot that was in there." She said in a sweet Californian accent. They checked her weapon and waved us all in after examining the handwritten invitation which named Driw and Rodeo and 'friends' without specification as to who of how many their friends would be.

I felt a laugh bubbling inside me as we passed security to be among Legion, NCR, Freelance, Fiend and Omertas and others who had been completely disarmed for the very political wedding. We alone occupied the bride's side of the aisle. We couldn't help but stare at the hodgepodge of groom guests. Paxton whispered something to Boxy which made her laugh. It was a sincere laugh and contagious for I finally allowed my cacaphony of demonic chorus which constituted the laugh of a Death Claw to escape and disturb the other guests. Their reaction got all of the bride's guests giggling, even Cobalt.

Soon we all had to stand as 'here comes the bride' started playing on the honky tonk piano. Nadine looked ravishing in her flowing white gown as Banister and his best man Hans waited at the altar where a minister from the White Glove Society waited in his ordained robes and mask. Her gown hid the fact that she was entering her third trimester of pregnancy rather well. Soon she had made it all the way down the aisle.

"Marriage...Marriage is what brings us together today..." The impressive clergyman spoke from within his mask which muffled his voice. His hidden face reminded me of a hangman executioner for some reason. He continued the rites and then asked thhe big question. "Do you Banister Crane take this woman Nadine James to be you lawfully wedded wife to love and to hold, to cherish in sickness and in health till death do you part?"

"I most certainly do." Banister replied. His beard didn't hide his wicked grin.

"And do you Nadine James take the name and duty of being the wife of Banister Crane, to serve and to uphold, to forsake all others and to call your husband until you have died or survived and to bear his offspring and to honor him for all of your days?"

Nadine hesitated. She looked to us for a moment as if asking our permission. But her eyes met Driw's more than the other bride's guests. Driw nodded.

"I do." She said softly.

Boomer Rumor

Driw, Rodeo and myself sat around discussing the remaining tribes we might get help from. The words came up in conversation that my reputation would either help or hinder us with some of them. To many I was known as Yammon The Silver Devil. To the Twin Mothers Cult members such as the Blackfoot and the Vipers I was called Hades The Hellbringer. I reflected that I ought to have avoided eating so many of them but ohwell. Then there was the Rez where I was Gorik The Ghoulish and of course among the old caravans from the Pitt and Ronto back east I was one of many nightmare urban legends known as a Morlock. Not much of an accomplishment. Any long lived and especially vicious trog could earn that title.

"What about the Boomers?" Driw asked.

"Surely they don't really exist." I objected. Soon I had to eat my words. Ironically we had just discussed my own mythical shadows.

"They do Yammon. You don't know everything." Rodeo gave me a look. I shut up.

"But they cannot be reached. Not by normal means." Driw was sounding thoughtful.

"What about Cobalt? We could fashion a shield for him...and that bird could help him navigate. Surely their spotters cannot hit a flying raven." Rodeo had this crazy idea.

"That is insane." I objected.

"It could work." Driw argued.

I felt outnumbered by the comittee. It would be who would have to ask Cobalt to risk life and limb for this mission. I was not pleased.

"Don't worry, Yammon, I will ask him." Driw stood up saying as if she had read my thoughts.

"I don't like it." I told Rodeo

"You don't have to." He patted my haunches and followed his mate to try and talk Cobalt into the suicide mission.

Cobalt not only agreed but he was enthusiastic to prove his valor and courage. He fashioned the shield himself out of large chunks of scrap metal he pulled off of an old armored car near the West Side where we had been staying after we left the Flaming Flamingo.

I noted that Boxy and Paxton were missing and went back to our old hotel to find them. They had been frequenting the downstairs bar which had all female patrons for some reason. The upstairs lounge was the opposite. I wondered about the significance of this and soon got all the explaination I needed.

I walked into the bar to find Boxy shattering barstools on a small gang of the beefy women. One of them tried to drag Paxton away and got the last of the barstools over her head. Only one adversary remained.

"I got a black belt in kung fu!" The huge drunk woman claimed. "And I saw her first."

"Like I said I she is with me!" Boxy objected. "And I got my black belt in bar stools!" Boxy found another half smashed stool she had failed to deplete over another head earlier int he brawl and lifted it and broght it down to break along with the larger woman's arm. Paxton shrieked as a second brawler grabbed Boxy from behind so that the injured one could lay in a couple of punches.

I roared an ear splitting Deathclaw bellow which imiediately got my beast within to stir. I spent the next few moments resisting its urge to wade in and start killing. Meanwhile the fight was over as Boxy and Paxton shuffled over alongside me, unaware that blind fury could overtake me at any moment. I fought the beast within and managed to subdue it this time. We left.

"I could have handled them." Boxy advised me.

"Sure I bet you could." I struggled to say. Words blurred into primal growls while the beast was snoozing. But soon it had gone back to sleep. "What was going on?"

"You don't know? Those women wanted Paxton. She went in for a drink dressed all [censored]ty..." Boxy stated.

"I was not dressed [censored]ty!" Paxton protested. I glanced at her and noted that in addition to elevated hormone levels she was definetly dressed in plumage meant to attract sixual attention. If it was obvious to an animal then her protests were void I decided.

"Whatever. It is a gay bar, Yammon. Don't you know anything?" Boxy gave me a slight shove. Her scent matched Paxton's. Did humans of the same gender mate? What was the point? I decided to figure this out later. Meanwhile we had a mission to accomplish and something told me that with such a smooth start we would be succesful with no effort at all. I sighed a Deathclaw sigh as I realized that if this Boomer thing worked out we might not need help from other tribes.

"I guess I don't" I muttered

Under Fire

We travelled northeast of New Vegas past the New Vegas Clinic and North Freeside entrance up the road. I caught the whiff of a massive Deathclaw colony on the breeze to the east but ignored it as we travelled up a slight hill into the firing range of the Boomers. A man stood there and he addressed us.

"You go this way you will get blowed up. NCR and Legion try it and they lay all around in bits and pieces here and there. Big ol craters. Only hide and seek will keep your legs and arms on your torsoe." He told us. Then he ran off.

"Cobalt are you ready?" Driw asked the Super Mutant godling who carried his massive shield like a wall. Gringe lef this shoulder as Cobalt nodded and set out to reach the front gate. I decided that if he could risk it I would try my own way. Stealth and cunning were just as valuable as brute strength. I followed.

Cobalt had said nothing. Instead He let Gringe lead the way as he charged forward blindly behind his shield. I zigged and zagged among the buildings staying out of sight and under cover. If Cobalt got hurt someone needed to be there the drag him to safety.

There came a kind of low toned whistling noise which ended in a detonation that sent a plume of earht and asphalt skyward. Soon more shells followed, raining down withour restraint or mercy. Everywhere the ground was shaking and craters were carved out from the lifeless scoria. Even the buildings were not enough to protect me completely. I almost didn't move fast enough as a wall was turned to splinters that flew like a swarm of pissed off bloatflies all around me.

Cobalt suffered a direct hit which shattered his shield and sent him to the pavement. He got up holding the smoldering remains of his crude portable wall and then after collecting his senses he discarded it and charged strait ahead to the gate as fast as he could limp. We reached the chainlink fence at the same time.

Cobalt laughed in relief and I did too. Soon we were confronted by two Boomer Guards armed with missile launchers. They were joined by a hard looking woman. Gringe alighted on Cobalt's shoulder.

"I am Raquel. Welcome newcomers. We have long awaited your arrival. There is much to be done. Mother Pearl is waiting for you both, whatever you are." She furrowed her brow eyeing me and Cobalt. I realized my robe had come apart in the shrapnel and hung all over me making me look like a hairless wolfman dressed as a mummy. Cobalt wasn't any easier on the eyes. He was covered in bruises and dirt and scorchmarks and his headress hung lamely to one side while several loose feathers drifted off of it.

We both laughed again as we drank in our beaten appearances. The noise of a Deathclaw and Super Mutant laughing startled the two guards with Raquel and they almost blew us away with the missile launchers on their shoulders aimed at our heads. Luckily the Boomers were all well trained in their excessive weaponry. It occured to me that even the Enclave would have reason to fear these brutal heavy hitters.

The gates of Nellis swung open in open invitation.