Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Action Has Its Own Consequences

Arriving at Mojave Outpost, I immediately got greeted by a soldier which seemed to have gotten used to my appearance. I didn’t exactly stick around for a long time, but still, I had slept in their barracks and there was that. I hoped that no one held a grudge against me for turning Private Baker in. That person would be made as an example of why soldiers shouldn’t use chems. 

“Oh, package? A rifle you said? Ghost is up there on the roof,” the NCR soldier said. 

“Thanks for the direction,” I said. 

I headed upstairs to the place where the ranger was stationed. How to say this, I might have an idea where the name ‘Ghost’ came from. This… man, no, woman was as white as snow, like really white. I could see that her hair was so white too. 

“Can hear your footsteps from miles away, what do you want?” Ghost asked. 

“Sorry, I’m here to deliver a package to you, a rifle,” I grabbed the rifle from my Pip-Boy internal inventory and gave it to her. 

“Thanks, you’re a good man. Hmm, chambered in .308, with 3-12x50 scope.” She sighed. “Isaac, you’re as reliable as ever.” She adored that rifle and immediately put away her repeater and used that rifle instead. “Sorry, was carried away a little.”

“No problem.”

“Anyway, you wouldn’t have to have anything to do with the Legion camp in Ivanpah?” Ghost asked. 

Wait, how the heck did she know? I was only killing them this morning, not yesterday. How did news travel this fast? NCR was scarier than I thought. Heck, why the frumentarii hadn’t noticed me was another question. 

[Legion: Shunned]

Well, thanks for that, dear Pip-Boy. 

“No, I wouldn’t have to do anything with that,” I lied. 

“Really? I swore that I saw someone wearing leather armor slaughtering the legion camp with an NCR service rifle, are you sure it wasn’t you? You are someone wearing leather armor using an NCR service rifle,” Ghost said. 

“Hmm, I’ll let you decide.”

Ghost nodded. “If you need something, just ask Jackson or Knight. I need to watch the road again, in case of ants started bothering people again.” She sighed as she sat down on a chair and aimed her rifle at the road down below. 

I nodded. 

Man, the ranger was indeed scary. They were the special forces of the New California Republic, no wonder they could notice me doing something against the Legion. However, what would be the implication with the Legion? Would they shoot me down? Or would they do something else?

I wouldn’t know. I hoped the NCR kept them occupied long enough so I could probably grind until I had enough equipment to fight them all by myself. I knew that would be a nuisance in the early game. I wasn’t the courier, and I bet I couldn’t respawn. 

Well, that was one of the downsides of not being the protagonist in the game, I guess? There was simply something inside of my mind that kept bothering me. Why I was placed some years before the first battle of hoover dam? There was simply nothing but the NCR keeping its presence in Mojave Wasteland until Caesar decided to cross the Colorado River. 

Or maybe, was it to keep my age as the courier? I meant, the courier was pretty much old by the time he or she entered the protagonist phase of turning from a regular mailman to a killing machine. Well, there was that, I guess?

I went downstairs from the roof of the outpost. It was not a long walk. I was planning to sell some of my old weapons to Lacey in the barrack. After all, I still had one Varmint Rifle with me alongside the 10 mm pistol that I probably wouldn’t use since I already had the 10 mm SMG and a full-automatic Service Rifle. 

Entering the Mojave Outpost, she immediately greeted me. 

“Ah, young guy, what are you looking for today?”

I put both the 10 mm pistol and the Varmint Rifles on the counter. “How much would you offer for this?” I asked her. The pistol would net quite a lot of caps for me since it was valued at 750 caps according to the Pip-Boy. However, my barter skill was less than desirable at the moment. 

“How about 600 caps for both the pistol and the rifles? People are looking for the pistol, but the rifle is less than desirable if you know what I meant,” Lacey said. 

“Deal.”

Lacey put 600 caps on the counter and I transferred it all to the inventory inside of my Pip-Boy. Thinking about it again, I might need to buy armor for myself, did she sell any armor for me, though? It would be useful to have one. 

“Lacey, do you have anything to use to replace this leather armor that I wore, I meant, this thing wouldn’t do shit against bullets,” I commented. 

“Well, I do have some scratched NCR combat armor, do you want some?”

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Huh? An NCR trader selling NCR combat armor to a regular person inside of an NCR military barrack? Was I hearing things from her? No way this was a legal way to do business. Unless… the NCR was so corrupt that they sold armor to their traders. 

“Lacey, is that thing even legal?” I asked. 

“Well, better than your leather armor, that’s for sure,” Lacey said. 

“Alright, how much?” I asked. 

“350 caps,” Lacey said as she put the NCR armor on top of the counter. 

“Alright, here you go.” I put the caps on top of the counter and the NCR armor automatically entered my inventory. I immediately checked its stats on the Pip-Boy, it was an upgrade, but not that much of an upgrade, per se. 

[No-Insignia NCR Trooper Armor]

DT: 17

DR: 18

Weight: 30

Mods: Padded. 

Value: 300

Hmm, it had much more protection than I remembered. The DT of NCR trooper armor was around 10 if I wasn’t wrong. Well, it might be because of the [Padded] mod on that armor. Did it mean that I could easily modify armor whenever I wanted? That would be very nice. Well, I’d keep that in mind. 

I opened my Pip-Boy and immediately changed into the new armor. The Pip-Boy wasn’t lying, it was a hell lot heavier than the leather armor, but it didn’t make it less comfortable. In fact, it was made from quite a thick material, probably to protect from fragments. 

The thickest part of the armor was the breastplate, which was probably made from metals. Well, it was a mass-produced armor made by a nation that didn’t want to spend too much money on its conscripts. Only the rangers got the creme de la creme of equipment. 

“Ah, you’re here, nice armor, Lacey, did you give him that?” Jackson suddenly entered the barrack. He must have meant that it was me. That ranger suddenly barged in, but thinking again, he did have the authority to do so since he might be equal to Major Knight in this outpost. 

He then whispered in my ears, “I have a job for you, which will earn you a lot of caps.”

“How much?” I mumbled. 

“1,000 caps. How’s that sound?” Jackson said. 

“What’s the job?” I asked. 

“Have you ever handled landmines?” Jackson asked. 

“Landmines? Nope, never, I had never used landmines before,” I said. 

“Can you arm some landmines for me?” Jackson whispered. 

“You what?” I shouted back and recoiled from the ridiculous request by itself. I knew that I could survive a few bullets, but I doubted that I could survive being hit by one land mine that I accidentally detonated by myself. 

Besides, why couldn’t the NCR do their jobs without any offshore contractors like me? Especially that kind of job, which required military experience to be entirely honest. Still, 1,000 caps were quite a lot of money for me. 

“C’mon, I teach you how to use it. Come to my office,” Jackson said. 

“Fine,” I sighed. 

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