Sunday, August 19, 2012

Fallout: New Vegas War Journal - Chapter Five

Novac. Finally. I arrive in the middle of the night. Curiously, one of the townsfolk is still up and around. She asks if I've been up in the mouth of the T-Rex yet. Turns out the town's main attraction is a giant T-Rex building. Lacking any better direction for the moment, I head on up. I run into a tallish guy in a beret who is wearing sunglasses, despite it being night.





Boone: I need your help.
Me: Everyone does. Why me?
Boone: You're a stranger.
Me: And you trust strangers?
Boone: Better than the people I know. There's a chance you won't disappoint me.
Me: And we're off to a nice start already. So what do I need to help you with.
Boone: The Legion took my wife as a slave.
Me: Huh. And here I thought they just took men. So you want me to go rescue her.
Boone: No. She's dead. Don't ask how I know.
Me: Okay. So you want me to kill the Legionaires who took her.
Boone: Already done it.
Me: Wow. You actually solve your own problems. I'm already liking you better than most of the people I've met on the road so far. I'll probably regret asking this but what do you need me to do?
Boone: Find out which one of the townspeople was responsible for selling my wife in the first place. I know someone contracted her out. Just don't know who. You get whoever it is to come out and wear my beret when you bring them out in front of the T-Rex. I'll take care of the rest. I'll give you what little cash I have.
Me: Buddy, if this involves seeing a slaver killed, I'd do it for free.

What with half the town being asleep, my prospects for suspects to interview is rather limited. From what I can tell most of the city lives in a motel on the outskirts of town. As I wander the streets, I find a run down shack where the lights are on.





Me: Hello?
No Bark Noonan: You one of them?!
Me: Uh.. I don't think so. One of who?
No Bark Noonan: Them! Them what's not us! The chupacabras! The Commie ghosts! The mole people!
Me: Mole People?
No Bark Noonan: Yep! Everyone thinks I'm crazy but I've seen them all. The mole people took Boone's wife, you know!
Me: Did they?
No Bark Noonan: Yep! Of course they were wearing black armor at the time and looked a might more human than usual. But being as how they're usually invisible, I don't rightly know what they look like. But I'm sure they're taking our women back to their underground mud mansions, promising them the riches of the Earth so they can start farming them for their hair. The mole people are all bald, you see...
Me: Yes, of course...
No Bark Noonan: Mind you, I did see one of them stop and go into the office at the motel... and never come out.
Me: Uh-huh... interesting. Well, you must have a busy night of ranting ahead of you so uh... I'll just be on my way.

With no better leads, I decide to check out the office. A quick examination of the safe found a written and signed contract from one of the Legion Captains, offering 1000 caps for a certain woman and 500 for her unborn child, to be paid to the owner of the hotel. I waited until near dawn for the owner to wake up. She turned out to be a little old lady - the sort you'd expect to be a grandmother making cookies for the local kids. If there were people who lived long enough to be grandparents. Or if cookie recipes had survived the apocalypse. I took her for a walk, looked the other way as her head suddenly exploded and headed back up to the top of the T-Rex.

Boone: It was her? How did you know?
Me: She had a written contract and she kept it in her safe.
Boone: Damn idiot Legion. Can't do a damn thing without their paperwork.
Me: You know... the irony of that statement coming from an NCR Ranger Sniper is reaaaaal rich.
Boone: Yeah. Part of why I quit. The other part was to settle down.
Me: So what now?
Boone: Don't rightly know. Been living for revenge for so long... now that it's over, I don't really know. Apart from trying to kill more of the Legion. Maybe save some more lives. Do some good.
Me: You know, I hate the Legion too? In fact, I'm apparently a wanted fugitive the Legion soldiers have orders to kill on sight?
Boone: How do you know that?
Me: I killed an entire slaver camp. Kinda figure they'll have it out for me. I mean, it just makes sense. It's not like I have some psychic power to know to just know how whole groups of people are going to react to me based on my actions out in the wild.
Boone: I dunno. I work better alone. Two soldiers are a bigger target.
Me: Yeah but don't snipers usually work in teams?
Boone: ... okay. I'll come with you for a while until something better comes along.

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