They left. I can't believe it, but they left. No attempts
to re-enter, no trying to hack the vault terminal, not even
so much as a knock or a goodbye. They adjusted to the outside world much faster than I thought they would have,
which I suppose is a credit to them of some sort, though
I don't know what it says about them that death and destruction didn't seem to phase them.
Four miles walking in the desert sun got them to Barstow, where they quickly made asses of themselves in their first communication with an outsider. Is anyone surprised, really?
Gabe's an NCR ranger, out alone in the world, camped out on the second floor of the ruin in the southwest corner of town. And he's been through enough that he's got the itchiest of trigger fingers. He shooed them off once, but they returned later and he had to threaten to put a bullet in Holly before they backed off again. All they learned was that he's got a dilemma of some sort, but then who doesn't out in the wasteland? Pressing him further on the matter may lead to an altercation if they're not careful.
They fared better with Oksana and Kalyna, though if it was due to pure foolishness or an abundance of bravery I'm not sure. Morgan waited outside the restaurant and spotted a group of seven Raiders entering town from the west, moving down the road like they owned the place and generally looking like a group of bad motherfuckers. Trying to warn the other vault-dwellers but not be seen, she made her way to the rear of the building, only to find the lack of a rear entrance. Sorry, Morgan, but not everything out in the wastes is as well designed as the vault you grew up in.
The rest of the group made their way outside, and upon seeing the Raiders Oksana shut and barred the door, leaving her potential future customers to fend for themselves. One of the Raiders confronted them, told them the watertower on top of the building belonged to them and that they needed to leave, but was such wise advice heeded? Perhaps only to regroup and come back at them with a strategy? No. No, of course not. It was Holly who said "I'm going to stab him in the face!" and then she proceeded to do exactly that.
This battle, let me tell you, was one of the worst I've ever seen. I don't know how many times that brute Joe dropped his wrench, I saw a knife literally fall apart in someone's hands, bullets and knives where flying everywhere and at one point someone even took a shot at the water tower itself! Don't they have any idea how precious water is out there? Lucky for them they missed, or Oksana would have had quite the different reaction to them afterward. Morgan redeemed herself, though, with a stunning and miraculous one-shot kill right through the heaviest set of armor in play. They took to calling her "One Shot Morgan" after that, but we'll see if she can pull it off again.
Joe likes hitting people with his wrench… nearly severed one woman's spine with it. He dropped it a lot, though, but that might just be because he forgot he was holding it for a while. Not too bright, that one. Good at knocking on doors, though.
Morgan nearly died in combat (repeated sledgehammer hits will do that to you), and for that matter so did most of them. Except for Joe, who they lovingly refer to as their "bullet-catcher", who is built like a tank and somehow came away with only a few scrapes… while all his more frail compatriots got their asses handed to them. Felica's got a great eye for strategy, but she also got a switchblade through the thigh and was hobbling around on her crippled leg for a while, so she might not make it long. I suppose it's worth noting that Jodath dragged the unconscious Morgan away from combat and essentially saved her life, even using his rudimentary doctor skills to help her recover.
The bottom line, however, is that they defeated a larger and stronger group by what basically amounts to a brute force clusterfuck close-quarters rumble, and I honestly have no god damned idea how that was possible. Oksana was eternally grateful to them for saving her water supply, and offered them free "meat stew" anytime they wanted. Several of them took her up on the offer, but I don't know if karma agrees with them on that. When they mentioned the dead Raider bodies to her, she said she'd "take care of them". Food is hard to come by in the wastes. You can draw your own conclusions.
They spent some time trying to sweet-talk Willa into providing them free healthcare (haha, good one… if you knew Willa, you'd know why that's funny, I'm just saying) but at the very least she let them camp out on her old, moldy mattresses. How generous of her. But they did agree to take on a bit of work for her in order to earn some caps. They scavenged what they could from the dead Raiders, but that only netted them about 12 caps each and some equipment… which just so happened to already be mostly broken down. But hey, Raiders aren't known for their state-of-the-art equipment.
A few days of rest and a talk with Janice did them good, as not only were they able to heal and equip themselves with the Raiders' old armaments and armor, but Jodath sold off the armor from the mook Morgan laid out with one shot and made a cool 600 caps from it. 600 caps!! Just a few hours out of the vault and he's already rolling in caps and saving lives. That's… not at all what we expected, but I guess he's one to keep a closer eye on. He also appropriated the sledgehammer that's stained with Morgan's blood, and has taken to calling it "The Sledgehammer of Friendship." It's always the unassuming ones you have to watch out for.
Where the hell was I? Oh right, Janice. After selling the armor Jodath donated the majority of the proceeds to the group, who gave most of their caps right back to Janice in exchange for her repair skills. Which was a fairly sound tactical decision when you think about it, because that crap was about to fall apart.
But now that shit is looking damned near pristine, they've got caps to spare and their wounds are healed. They're heading off to play exterminator for Willa, which if their experience in Barstow was anything to go by, should be another highly entertaining endeavor.
PS - can we get someone to fix the broken speaker in here? I can barely hear my Johnny Franks broadcasts, and that's not cool.
PPS - Here's excerpts from choice parts of Johnny's broadcast. I love that guy. And NCR Nancy? Those vault-dwellers shoulda paid more attention to her, she's got a good head on her shoulders.
CLICK> RadioWasteland01