Memoirs of a New Vegas Bitch, Part 6

Originally I hadn't expected to really do any of this quest, but it just kinda fell into my lap this time around. We can only see where this rabbithole takes us.



Back outside, I find the entrance to the sniper post. Shockingly enough, its unlocked! How convenient for the towns only defensive position.



And inside is some kind of...shop? A completely unattended shop no less, although there isn't exactly much worth taking. At least the stores caps aren't here, just some prewar money in the register. Guess the shop owner can only be so stupid.



A little child toy of the 'Tee-Recks' things. Thats cute, I guess...



This is the second pile of bobby-pins I've found here...Do people around here have to open a lot of locks? I mean, what else could they use them for? Arranging their hair?



This looks like the storeroom...Oh dang, all these toys! Was this place meant to be some kids funhouse or something? And if so, why does this pipboy say they're radio-goddamn-active? Did they like ghoulifying their kids back pre-war?




Oddly enough, the XP from picking the pointless storeroom lock is enough to give me a level-up, earning me enough skillpoints to make multiple skills into nice round numbers for skill challenges, and my 2nd perk. There really is no contest over which to take. Even nerfed from FO3, its still one of the best in the game.


Well, no more fun to be had here, lets do our good deed for the year.



Wow, if I'd been an assassin there might have been a 2% chance you'd have gotten me before I leadlined your pituatary gland. So, you're the only person in town who's watching their back for someone?




Well, I am one of the 98%, mr elite sniperor (who didn't seem to have time to watch the store behind him).




Because if you do, I can totally sympathise.




Wait, so, you only trust strangers? I find that odd...then again you live with these people.



Maybe they don't like their reflection in your fancy glasses. Anyway, you seem to want something from me (and I can guess at what...).





(If I hadn't seen that note, I'd comment about the massive blindspot you have to most of the town, but it seems this time it isn't just incompetence at work)
So, you want help to track down your wife? Info from whoever did it?



....Oh. You seem awful...sure of that.



I see. (Guess this guy is a professional...)

So, what do I do once I find them?





Wow. This is...kinda a poignant gesture. I didn't think I could approve of someone in this town. But I'm starting to like you Boone.

You've got yourself a deal. My time is valuable, but I'll spare some for you.



Right, that would be annoying. But this shouldn't take long...



Because look who just got up for work.



I stomach this bitch for long enough to ask about Checkers, but she doesn't tell me anything aside from mentioning Manny as a source. So you really are a useless waste of life.



She seems a little wierded out by the request, but doesn't argue. I get the feeling I could have gotten anyone I wanted out there to get shot by Boone, given how this town seems to operate.



Juuust about there, Ms. Crawford, and let me just...



put on this fashionable...Ooh, I like this, I might keep it a whi-



Ho-HO! Guess thats what you get for trying to insult my intelligence, slaver. Did you even check if your safe was tampered with, you dumb motherfucker? God, this was even worth the brain splatter...



She'd kept the paperwork, just for the sake of a few extra caps. And I think she figured out why that was a bad plan.




A hundred caps and a spare Beret. You know what? I'll call it good. It is a really nice beret.

This beret and its +5% critical chance is one of the best pieces of headgear in the game. My previous character wore it for basically the whole thing, lacking anything scienceier to use.

So, what next for Boone, the master of Romantic Assassination?




Hey, I do not 'wander'. I'm on a mission, and I'm not running from the odd wanted poster, like you seem to be.




...I take it back, it seems you do have this all figured out.

You know what, Boone? I think I might just be able to offer you a one-time deal, as my apprentice.







My thoughts exactly.

Companions in this game aren't just extra warm bodies with guns, they also provide special perks you get to use while they're with you, which tend to give more 'meta' bonuses than normal perks. Boones Spotter ability means enemies are marked with a red glow when you're aiming at them, to make them more visible indoors and at night (during the day the constant brownness of the landscape means the red doesn't particulalry help). So if it seems I'm suddenly being assaulted by Lord Zedds extended family, its Boones fault.

Oh? It seems there's someone downstairs.



(Aaaand he doesn't seem to have noticed his missing merchandise. Or is trying to pretend it didn't happen.)

Sooo, what do you have, Mr. Shopkeep?




Uh-huh. Anything...useful?




Witness my shock.



Sweet Moley, another of these guns! This one doesn't have the mod slots, but still, damn, this is hard to pass up.

I tried to pick-pocket like Xan suggested, but all he had in his inventory was the key to his radioactive closet. Maybe the trick only works when he's at his desk, and I didn't feel like testing this. I'll leave him for now, and pick up the gun once I'm done with Manny's mission.


By now I'd hoped to have that place to store equipment that I mentioned earlier, but with Jeannie May dead, I can't use the direct method of buying the key from her. So to offload my excess loot, I use my new convenient pack mule.




He won't carry my Legion disguise, but he will take one of their helmets and put it on. Helmets don't count as faction armor, for some reason, so he won't get shot on sight.


So with that out of the way, and Novac both safer with the turncoat dead and doomed with half their militia gone, my new apprentice and I head for this rocket facility to get rid of the Ghoul problem.



Radioactive ghoul corpses...not the most promising start, but I'm sure someone else with less regard for their health will pick it up eventually.



Ah, theres a living one....whoops. Spoke too soon. Nice shot, Boone.



Looks like someone got vaporised by an energy weapon....someone big...and is this chunk of concrete on the end of a stick supposed to be a weapon?



Theres a guard outpost here, protecting the site from raiders. Is this made by Novac, or someone else?



This checkerboard makes me irrationally angry.




Well, this place is certainly impressively large, I'll grant that. Though I haven't forgotten the locals were mainly using it as a scrap mine.



We spot the ghouls swarming around the statue at the bottom of the hill. I send a clip downrange to get their attention, and Boone has killed them all by the time I'm done reloading. He is handy to have around.



Hmm...this guy wasn't killed by us...Looks like an intelligent ghoul, and killed with a blunt weapon, not a ferals claws.



And he's got an interesting gun, one of the ever-lasting lasers that has an inbuilt microfusion reactor. Not of great benefit to me, but I'll keep it in mind.



A few more guarding the door. No big for the likes of us.



And more of these guys in the brown robes...The way they're positioned, it seems they were guarding the place. Looks like this might be a little more complex than some vermin removal after all.

Well, only one way to find out, and thats to head inside.

Holy-



Your front room is knee-deep in corpses, buddy! Gimme a second before barking orders! Who do you think you are?



Great, there are intelligent ghouls here. Thats inconvenient. Because ghouls are people too, and I find most people are just inconveniences.



Meanwhile, aside from another dead ghoul, most of the entryway is taken up by this guy. A blue Super-mutant, I think the others call them 'Nightkin'. They're supposed to be the stealthy ones, somehow. In any case, this big lug makes things much clearer. The ghouls that took this facility have been attacked in turn by these guys, meaning the battle is more complicated again. Guh...

And only now do I notice the Stealthboy beside him that I forgot to pick up. Stupid, stupid...




Well, screw that guy on the intercom. I'll give him a visit when I'm good and ready, but first I'm going to clear this place of ghouls, just like I said I would.

I spend the next ten minutes hunting ghouls and capping them, while picking the place over for something useful. I soon find why the main export of Novac is junk.



In this office, though, I find something worthwhile, a large-bore scoped revolver. A definite keeper, but I don't have any .45/.70 ammo for the thing, so I won't be using it for a while.



And Stealthboys in the safe! Oh, this was worth it after all!



I'm momentarily distracted by Boone shooting this ghoul in the throat so hard he bounces off the top of the doorframe. I do think I made a good decision in bringing him along.



Ok, thats most of the western end of the building cleared, except for this much nicer office. If the shitty office below had such awesome stuff, this place has to have something spectacular.



....Nevermind.

-------

Well, we didn't quite get as far as I'd thought we would, but still, we got a characterful quest done, and got sufficient looting and shooting done as well. So, what next?


Will we see about this fellow calling us 'smoothskin' over the intercom? Will we go see what he wants, or go teach him what happens to people who order us around? Or will we deliberately ignore him, and go anywhere-in-the-building-but-there, to seek alternate solutions to these travails of ours?