Chapter 4: Craterside Supply
I groaned in confusion for a moment and blinked at the unfamiliar sensation of the morning sun shining on my face.
'It's morning already' I idly wondered while staring blankly at the tiny Vaultboy icon stretching in the corner of my vision. After a moment my mind restarted and I rolled out of bed and onto my feet before checked the time with my Pipboy and seeing that it was already seven.
"Craaap" I groaned as I realized that I'd slept in, I'd meant to get up early at the crack of dawn today to get a jump on everything I needed to do but, I guess yesterday just took too much out of me.
'Whatever' I eventually shrugged at least I was well rested now and I even had the Perk to prove it which was the tiny Vaultboy icon I saw a moment ago. Well Rested was a temporary Perk that only activated after sleeping in a bed you owned or paid for, for at least eight hours it was a decent Perk that gave +10% Exp for the next twelve hours.
Which was perfect since I was planning on completing a quest or two today and an extra ten percent added on top of the experience I would already be getting was nothing to scoff at.
Stretching out I decided to head back down to the Brass Lantern they had great food there and I was planning on taking advantage of that for as long as I could. Of course they were a bit expensive but, I was willing to pay that price since after eating the same exact meals everyday for the past two decades and was enjoying some diversity.
This time I ordered the Mirelurk soup for breakfast which tasted a bit like lobster only slightly sour which I wasn't sure was because it was going bad or if that was just how it tasted but, was still pretty good regardless. And I spent the next hour or so just enjoying my meal and starting a couple casual conversations of the traders who were also grabbing a bite to eat at the Lantern and learned some interesting things.
Unlike in the game where there were only a couple or so settlements in the Capitol Wasteland, here there were dozens of small towns scattered around that were somehow scraping out a living here despite the harsh conditions.
But, it wasn't that surprising when I thought about it, after all the wider D.C. area covered well over 100 square miles. Which was a ridiculously large area when you consider how difficult it was to travel in the wasteland.
Of course the places I remembered from the game like Rivet City, Arefu, and Canterbury Commons were still considered major settlements with populations of thousands if not tens of thousands of people. And after a bartering with one of the traders a bit I managed to buy a map with the rough locations of all the settlements in the surrounding area large and small.
I know I already had the Pipboy map but, that only showed the locations of places I've been so it was mostly useless at the moment even if I already knew the rough locations of all the places I needed to go.
After my finishing my meal I figured it was time to track down Lucas Simms since between my meals at the Brass Lantern, renting a bed at the Common House, and buying a map from a trader I was basically tapped out and needed my 500 caps from him. And after asking around I found out that Lucas spent most of his day patrolling the town and taking the occasional pot shot at raiders who got too close.
Eventually I managed to track the man down it wasn't hard since he was standing in the middle of a massive crowd of people who were cheering on as the Megaton Guards escorted a belligerent group of men out the front gate.
"So... what exactly is going on here" I walked up and motioned towards the city guards who were still waving their baton's around at the small group people screaming obscenities.
Lucas sighed and shook his head "Rowdy scavengers causing a problem same as always, it happens once or twice a month. Some idiots fresh from the wastes will roll up to Moriarty's Saloon get wasted and end up blowing all their money on cheap booze and even cheaper women. Then when they finally come to the next morning hungover and broke they flip out and I'm the one who has clean up the mess."
"Sounds rough" I cringed as one of the drunks vomited on one of his friends.
"Yeah but, what can you do drunks like them supply half of Megaton's income?"
"Makes sense" I scratched my chin "Living in a shit world like this who wouldn't want a little stress relief. I've only been out here a day and I'm already getting tired of it."
"Don't I know it" Lucas shook his head before shooting me a concerned look "Speaking of which, what happened with that little project of yours."
I grinned and gave the Sheriff a thumbs up "From now on Megaton won't have to worry about any accidental detonations!"
Lucas raised an eyebrow "Not that I don't believe you but, I'm going to need a bit of proof first."
I shrugged "You could always go down an take a look."
"Yeah, I think I'll pass on that... got any other proof?"
"I do actually" I laughed! "But, this isn't exactly the best place to show it off" I gestured to the crowd of people who were slowly starting to disperse now that the drunks were gone.
He nodded "Agreed I really don't want to cause a panic it's always a pain in the ass calming the townspeople down when they get riled up." Lucas seemed to think a moment before snapping "Got it! Follow me kid" he waved to me and started walking off.
I was confused for a moment but, quickly followed after his as we walked back towards the center of town.
"Where are we going" I asked? "Do you have an office or something?"
"Pft, I wish" Lucas chuckled "No I just figured that if you really did disarm that bomb then I might as well give you your payment all at once."
"Oh" I mouthed figuring out where he was leading me.
Eventually we turned down a narrow alley just a couple feet from the bomb and Lucas fished a key out of his pocket and tossed it to me.
"Which one" I asked eyeing all the different doors in the alley?
"That one" Lucas pointed to a silver door at the top of a flight of stairs.
'Hmm' I thought 'It looks a bit different than I remembered.'
Not that it really mattered so putting that thought aside I used the key to unlock the solid metal door and pushed my way into my new house and my first impression... wasn't very good. The place was nearly pitch black and the tiny amount of light that was there filtered in through the rusted holes in the metal walls revealed a thin fog of dust hanging the air.
"..." I just stood there in silence for a moment wondering if the place was this shitty in the game.
"I know it probably ain't much compared to the fancy living you Vault people are used too" Lucas came in and flicked a switch by the door turning on the two florescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling and lighting the everything up. "But, it's a hell of a lot better than most of the places you'll find out here."
"I guess that's true I scratched the back of my head."
"Even if she isn't the cleanest this place does come with a few perks" Lucas smirked "Hey Wadsworth you scrapheap you still working!"
"Yes, Sheriff" a robotic British accent echoed out from the darkness before the familiar shape of a Mr. Handy hovered into view. "I'm am still functioning at optimal levels though I would say I'm overdue for an oil change been feeling rather stiff lately."
"Kid" Lucas smiled and hooked his arm around my neck "Meet your new robotic butler, and Wadsworth this guy here is your new owner."
"Greetings Sir" Wadsworth greeted me bowing his eyestalks.
"Question" I wiggled out of Lucas's grip "How come this guy comes with the house I'm no expert but, I'm pretty sure a working robot is worth far more than the small amount of work I've done."
The Sheriff sighed "It's not that we don't want to do anything else with him but, the bots programmed to never leave the building and no one in town knows enough about robots to do anything about that."
"Well then why hasn't anyone else moved in yet? From all the dust floating around I'd say its been at least a couple weeks since anyone has even been in here? I can't imagine why a property like this that comes with an awesome robot would stay empty for all that time?"
"Yeah... about that" Lucas looked a bit embarrassed and scratched his neck "Lets just say that this places former owner was into some 'questionable' things. So much so that when he died instead of holding an auction and selling off all his stuff like we normally do the town as a whole decided to just burn everything and leave the house empty."
"Okay okay that's enough" I stopped him "I really don't think I'll be able to live here if I hear anymore."
"Anyway..." Lucas continued "Think you could show me that proof now? I know I said this place was yours but, I still need to know you actually got rid of the bomb."
"Right" I slung my duffle bag over my should and reached inside to cover myself and removed the uranium core from my Inventory. And almost instantly my Pipboy's Geiger Counter sprung to life as I removed an oversized silver-grey metal ball from my bag.
"WHOA" Lucas jumped back in fear "THAT BETTER NOT BE WHAT I THINK IT IS!"
"Is that enough proof" I laughed while putting the ball back and disappearing it again before zipping the bag up?
"You're INSANE" Lucas breathed only calming down again after he noticed my Pipboy stopped beeping.
"Probably" I nodded. "By the way my bags lead lined so you don't need to worry about any excess radiation" I lied.
"I'm done with this" Lucas shook his head and fished a bag out from somewhere. "Here's you pay" he tossed it to me and I heard the tell tale sound of caps jingling.
"Pleasure doing business with you" I grinned while shacking the bag.
"I'm already regretting giving you a house" the man sighed before walking away.
As the Sheriff exited my new house I once again heard the amazing sound signaling a level up making me grin even more!
Time stopped as the now familiar panel appeared in front of me and I saw my Skills.
___________________
Skills
Barter: 16
Energy Weapons: 15
Explosives: 30*
Guns: 84*
Lockpick: 15
Medicine: 95
Melee Weapons: 26
Repair: 76
Science: 87
Speech: 33*
Sneak: 17
Survival: 15
Unarmed: 26
_____________________
I only thought about what to do for a moment before putting over 11 points into Guns bringing it up to a nice 84 and making sure I could max it out once I leveled up again.
Confirming my choice I moved onto Perks.
I wasn't 100% sure I would actually even be able to pick a Perk this level since in New Vegas you only got a new Perk every other level as opposed to every level like in 3. And I wasn't sure which way my hybrid system would go.
But, luckily my system was being generous and decided to let me get a new Perk every single time I leveled up, which if I'm being honest was completely overpowered.
That being said I was still only level 3 and new Perks weren't going to be unlocked until I reached level 4 meaning there weren't really any good Perks to choose from right now. I wanted to exit out of the menu and save that Perk Point for later but, quickly realized something unfortunate. My system wouldn't let me leave the menu! It was forcing me to pick something!
I cursed, if I had to pick a Perk every single level that kind of ruined my idea of saving them up to use on more overpowered ones.
Still what could I do? I couldn't really complain too badly since even if I couldn't pick Perks how I pleased I still had awesome superpowers that were basically going to make me a god at some point.
So forcing down my disappointment I looked over the very few Perks available and eventually decided on Heave, Ho! which increase the speed and distance of thrown weapons by 50%. Perfect for tossing one of my grenades behind enemy cover or maybe a throwing knife into someone's face.
Once time started again I grit my teeth and clenched up as the now familiar pain of knowledge flowed into me.
Once it passed I found that Wadsworth was staring at me with a blank look as if my crippling pain had nothing to do with him.
Sighing I asked him to start cleaning the place up since the dust was starting to bother my nose. And went to do some exploring around my new house and found that it was pretty much exactly the same as in my memories. Pretty much everything in the place had already been removed aside from some essential furniture like cooking implements and a bed that I didn't really want to sleep in after everything I'd heard. There wasn't really anything of interest though, aside from the conspicuously well maintained model stand which I deposited my Medicine Bobblehead inside of.
After that I checked my Pipboy again and saw that it was already past ten and decided it was finally time to start getting ready to head out into the wastes. I'd prepared as many supplies as I could while I lived in the Vault and already had a decent amount of food and water stored in my Inventory as well as a decent amount of chems.
But, I was sorely lacking when it came to weapons and armor and of course there was only one place in Megaton I could find what I needed.
Craterside Supply.
I'll admit I had mixed feelings as I made my way through town after leaving Wadsworth to clean, most of which involved one Moira Brown. On one hand she was one of my favorite characters in the game and gave one of the longest questlines with the best rewards. On the other hand though she was batshit crazy and was going to ask me to do things like take a walk through a mine field and break my legs on purpose. So, all in all I was a bit conflicted about meeting her.
Still I sucked it up and stepped inside her store.
"Oh my gosh" I was immediately tackled by a redhaired blur "You must be that stray from the Vault! I haven't seen one of you in YEARS!"
"Um, hi" I blushed doing my best to stay calm as the crazy redhead straddled my waist "I'm Nick."
"Good to meet you" she giggled! "I'm Moira, Moira Brown! I run Craterside Supply but, you probably already know that. What I'm really interest in is tinkering and research. Hey" she bent down stopping only inches above my face "Do you want to help me out with my research?! I'm working on a book about the wasteland and it'd be great to have the foreword done by a Vault Dweller!"
"Y-yeah sure" I stuttered "I'll help you with whatever you want but, can you please get off me first?"
"Oh, right sorry" she jumped off and giggled again "I get a little excited sometimes."
"That's an understatement" I sighed and got to my feet as Moira skipped back behind her counter and started rummaging through a pile of junk.
Giving myself a once over to make sure Moira didn't break anything and realized that she knocked my 9mm loose from its holster, shacking my head I bent over to pick it up.
"Watch yourself kid" I gruff voice spoke up from the shadows as my hand touched the gun and I turned to see a grizzled middle aged man with a sawed off shotgun. "Don't go getting any funny ideas while your here got it?"
"Got it" I numbly nodded and carefully put my pistol back "... By the way why didn't you do anything when Moira knocked me over?"
"Because" he scoffed "My jobs to protect her from being robbed, not to stop her from molesting little virgin boys."
My eye twitched and I momentarily considered putting a couple bullets in the man's skull but, decided against it when I realized that might be an over reaction. Of course there was absolutely no way I was letting this go! I wasn't going to let him get away with mocking me like that even if it was true... but, that was for later. Right now I had to deal with-
"Found it" Moira screamed as she crawled out from her pile of junk holding a notepad and pencil and turned to me! "Now I just need you to tell me what it's like living underground, or what it was like coming to the surface for the first time, or really whatever strikes your fancy!"
"Hmm" I took a moment to honestly think about her question.
Moira for her part stared at me eagerly like a child waiting to rip open a Christmas present.
"Well" I eventually said "The main thing that's been bothering me since I came up here was the silence."
"The Silence" Moira tilted her head like a puppy?
"Yeah" I nodded going on to explain about how there was always noise in the Vault and how disconcerting the relative quiet up here was. "Other than that there's also the food, down in the Vault even though we were never starving we had to carefully ration everything and had a tasteless paste for almost every meal. So even if not everything you got to eat up here is good at least you have some diversity."
"Hmm" she furrowed her brow and continued scribbling in her notebook!
"Though" I continued "If I had to say what the biggest difference between the outside world and the Vault is, I would have to say the freedom."
"Freedom" Moira laughed! "That's interesting is it because of how much space there is up here compared to the cramped spaces down there?"
I shook my head "That's a part of it but, I was talking about the freedom to make your own choices. Down in the Vault literally every moment of our lives was planned out. The Overseers word was law and he controlled everything from what job you worked to who you can have children with. That combined with the tight living space was honestly suffocating and the only reason most people didn't go crazy was because they found some kind of outlet. Whether it was writing poetry, throwing themselves into work, or even starting a gang. So as fucked up as things are up here it least you get to choose how you live your life at least for the most part anyway."
Moira blinked "...THAT WAS GREAT!" She leapt over the counter trying to tackle me again but, this time I saw it coming and managed to keep her at arms length. "I CAN USE THAT! IT'LL BE PERFECT! DESPITE HOW TERRIBLE THE WORLD IS WE ARE STILL FREE TO CHOOSE OUT OWN PATH IN LIFE! AN OPTIMISTIC OPENING TO GIVE THE READER THE MOTIVAITON TO GO ON!"
"Does this happen often" I turned to my recently acquired nemesis as Moira spazzed out in the background.
"More than I'd like" the man grunted.
Moira continued writing whatever the hell it was she took from my answer into her notebook and I just stood there quietly waiting for her to tire out.
"Whoops, I got a bit too into it" Moira stuck her tongue out and knocked the side of her head when she eventually calmed down "Inspiration only comes once you know."
"Don't worry about it" I chuckled "My dad gets like that too when he's too into a project."
"Oh, what kind of work does your dad do" she questioned?
"He's a scientist" I answered "And for the past two or three decades he's been working on a way to get clean water to all the people in D.C.."
"That sounds wonderful I hope he succeeds" she clapped.
"Yeah, I hope so too" I sighed wondering what my dad was doing and an awkward silence fell. "Anyway" I scratched my cheek "I just left Vault 101 and don't really have any meaningful supplies like a decent weapon" I patted the pea shooter on my hip, "Or you know armor" I gestured to my neon blue jumpsuit "And was hoping I could do some trading with you."
"Oh, of course" Moira clapped "I mean why else would you come to my amazing store... I mean aside from wanting to see me and my incredible personality!"
"Great" I smiled "So what do you recommend?"
"Well, that depends" she pursed her lips "How many caps do you have to spend."
"A little more than 500" I answered taking out the bag of caps Lucas gave me earlier. "I had more but, the food at the Brass Lantern was too good to pass up."
"I know right" she grinned "Their Yao Guai Steaks are amazing! But, back to business 500 caps really isn't too much or too little really I could give you a bit of a discount because your new around here. But, you'd still probably end up under equipped to head out into wastes by yourself."
"That's fine" I lamented over my lack of funds "I never expected to leave here with an armory."
"Well to start with" Moira held her chin and tilted her head "Since you don't have too many funds you'll want a cheap medium range gun with decent stopping power and a slow rate of fire to save on ammo as well as a small shotgun to take care of anything that gets close."
"Whatever you think is best" I shrugged and listened on as Moira continued listing out all the things I would need and showing a surprising amount of experience
'I guess she didn't own the largest store in Megaton for nothing.'
By the time we were finished trading I was now the proud owner of a 'relatively' worn .32 caliber Hunting Rifle, Sawed Off Shotgun, as well as rusted Combat Knife, and assorted ammo for everything. All in all I spent nearly all 500 of my caps, and the only reason I had any money left was because I decided to sell my 9mm Pistol to get the caps to buy a some other miscellaneous things I wanted.
After putting my new guns away I asked Moira about the Armored Vault Suit hanging on the wall.
"Ohh, that! That was something my father made for the last Vault Dwellers that came to Megaton! She ordered it payed up front and everything but, just never showed to pick it up. Guess she didn't make it" Moira shook her head.
"So how much would that cost me" I asked already knowing the answer.
"Weeeeell" Moira drawled "Normally I would say its not for sale since its been here for so long and is a part of my stores history. But, seeing as you're from the same Vault as the lady who commissioned it and because you helped me with you book I'll give to you for free."
"Really" I blinked pretending to be surprised.
"Of course" she continued "Think of it as an investment! Since you promised to help me with my research I can't have you dying too soon can I?"
"Yeah that makes sens-" I started "Wait... when did I agree to help you with your research? I only helped you with the foreword of your book?"
"You didn't" she tilted her head? "I could have sworn you promised to help me? Oh, well if your not helping I guess you won't need that Armored Vault Suit will you" Moira looked at me innocently putting a finger to her lips?
Was, was she blackmailing me into helping her finish her book?
My eye twitched as I remembered all the suicidal things she had the player do in the game and shivered... but, on the other hand her quest gave out some serious rewards.
Moira smirked as if she'd read the expressions on my face and knew she won.
"Fine" I eventually slumped down defeated "I'll help you research your book."
"Great" she jump "Now I think I want the first chapter of my book to be about surviving day-to-day dangers. Things like where it is and isn't safe to find food, the dangers of radiation, and how to avoid and even profit from hazards like dangerous landmines!"
"Sounds great" I forced a smile.
"Ooh, it does sounds fun, doesn't it? So which do you want to do first?"
I took a moment to think about that, in the game I would always pick the radiation option first since it was quick and easy to get radiation poisoning since there was, you know a literal nuke right outside. Plus it was also the safest of the three options relatively speaking at least but, I didn't want to pick that specific option just yet. Because I had a feeling that severe radiation poisoning probably wasn't going to tickle and would take a bit longer to recover from than it would in the game. And I couldn't afford to be out of commission for a couple days right now since I didn't have any money to buy more food and water once I ran out.
As for dealing with land mines. There was absolutely no way I was going near any of those things at least until I had a higher explosive skill and a way to deal with the asshole sniper who was camped out at the minefield.
Which left only one option.
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