Preparations

I woke up a bit late the next day at around eight in the morning having spent a good couple hours playing Caravan with Ringo last night.

I'd basically gotten the hang of the game but, felt that it was a bit too slow paced and boring for my tastes. Though it was probably a bit more exciting if you actually put money on the game. I convinced Ringo that we should play clean games with no betting since it was kind of pointless. He didn't have much money on him and what he did have was going to be payment for helping him deal with the Powder Gangers.

So even if I won, I wouldn't really be gaining anything and could only lose money. He wasn't happy but, reluctantly agreed in the end.

After stretching out a bit I shook off the morning chills and packed up my sleeping bag. Once I had that sorted, I sat down in a corner and grabbed some grilled gecko meat and water from my Inventory for a quick breakfast. The meat was bland and tasteless but, I was hungry, so I did my best to just get it over with and washed it down with the water.

It was only after I already finished eating that it occurred to me that I could've tried using the Pipboy and select the meat directly like you do in the game so I wouldn't have to taste anything, and it would just magically appear in my stomach.

I could only remind myself that I was an idiot and remember to try that next time I needed to eat.

On that note I figured it would probably be a good idea to take stock of my Inventory, so I knew exactly what I had. After all today was a big day, I was going to be involved in my very first gun fight and I wanted to make sure I was absolutely prepared!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inventory

(Weapons)

Mercenary's Grenade Rifle

Sturdy Caravan Shotgun

*Varmint Rifle

Weathered 10mm Pistol

(Ammo)

10mm Rounds x48

20 Gauge Shotgun Shells x40

40mm Grenade x20

*5.56 Rounds x11

(Apparel)

Bandana

*Cowboy Hat

Goggles

*Lightweight Leather Armor

*Sunglasses

(Aid)

Bark Scorpion Meat

Doctor's Bag x3

Gecko Steak x4

Gecko Meat

Grilled Mantis x 6

Healing Powder x2

Large Canteen x5

Stealth Boy (99%)

Stimpak x5

Super Stimpak x3

(Misc)

Bark Scorpion Poison Gland

Binoculars

Flint and Steel

Gecko Hides x11

Large Pan

Large Pot

Manis Foreleg x10

Small pot

Tent

Vault 13 Canteen

Weapon Repair Kits x4

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since I had a Pistol, a Rifle, a Shotgun, and a Grenade Launcher along with a decent amount of ammo I felt that I was doing okay on the weapons front.

At least for now.

My bigger concern right now was my armor.

Yesterday when I thought my system was the same one from New Vegas the Lightweight Leather Armor was passable. But, now that I knew my system was the Fallout 4 system. I knew I could do much better.

The Lightweight Leather Armor was actually pretty decent for what it was but, the biggest problem was that it took up all every single one of my armor slots! Instead of that I would be much better off wearing several pieces of regular Leather Armor with an outfit underneath that would boost some of my Special Attributes.

I would have to go back to the General Store later to see if I could work something out with Chet.

Other than that, I also realized I needed to find some pajamas because if last night was any indication sleeping in your armor was a very bad idea. It was way too sweaty and uncomfortable! Not to mention it was probably going to get covered in all kinds of blood and gunk in the future and I didn't want any of that to get in my nice clean sleeping bag.

The final thing that caught my eye was the Stealth Boy, for some reason it had a 99% indicator next to it.

My best guess was that unlike in the game where Stealth Boys were single use items the ones here were reusable and could be turned on and off and that percentage was how much charge it had left. It was only a guess but, I was pretty confident that was right.

Which was really good since it meant I didn't have to be as careful with it. It might even be a good idea to try and use it during the fight later today!

Once I was finished taking stock and figuring out what I needed to do for the day it was time to go out and face the world!

Thankfully my eyes had already adjusted to the light while I was eating earlier so I didn't get blinded like I did yesterday.

My first stop was obviously the Saloon to see who was there and to maybe iron out the finer details of our plan. Unfortunately, I had missed the breakfast rush and the place was completely empty and not even Easy Peter was there relaxing in his signature chair. The only person around was Trudy who was manning the counter like always. When I asked her where everybody was she told me that her, Yoruichi, and Sunny had all talked this morning and Sunny agreed to coordinate the willing townsfolk while Yoruichi went around to convince some of the more stubborn people to help.

When I heard that I silently cursed myself from sleeping in!

I wanted to be the one to go around asking people for help and passing speech checks! But, now all of that easy exp was going to be wasted! I could sigh and comfort myself with the thought that it probably wouldn't have been enough to level me up anyway.

At least I knew where Easy Pete was now.

He was probably the first person Yoruichi convinced to help and was now off somewhere digging up his stash of dynamite.

If that was the case, then she was probably out talking to either Chet at the General Store trying to make him give everyone Leather Armor or at Doc Mitchell's getting some medical supplies.

Bidding farewell to Trudy after declining her offer of breakfast I decided to go next door over to the General Store because I had business there and because there was a good chance Yoruichi was there too.

We still had hours until the Powder Gangers were probably going to attack, and I wanted to ask her if she wanted to go explore since there was some mildly interesting stuff east of here like the Yangtze Memorial or Goodsprings Cave which I knew was where the Coyotes were coming from.

Anyway, as it turned out Yoruichi wasn't at the General Store either.

So forgetting about her for a second, I started talking with Chet about swapping out my modified Lightweight Leather Armor for a more conventional kind.

"Sorry" Chet sighed sadly and shook his head "As much as I'd love to take your money I can't. That Yoruichi girl came by about an hour ago and somehow convinced me to donate my entire stock of armor to the town for the upcoming attack."

"Really" I scratched the back of my head a bit upset at not having thought about this?

I mean of course Chet wouldn't have any armor to sell if he was donating all of it to the town.

"Yeah, but don't be too upset" he went to his back room to grab something "Because one of the sets of armor I'm giving out is obviously reserved for you."

"Sweet" I grinned as he handed me the pieces of armor!

From what I could tell the pieces he gave me were similar to the Standard Leather Armor from Fallout 4. So, they didn't have the best defense but, that wasn't too important because I only really cared about whether the system counted the armor as one large piece or if all the smaller pieces were separate.

Reaching down I placed my hand on one of the pieces and secretly read the prompt that showed up.

"Take Leather Left Leg"

'Yes' I mentally cheered as things were exactly as I'd hoped! The fact that I could store an individual piece in my inventory meant they were all seperate!

After checking the Leather Armor, I swept it away in my backpack and asked Chet to show me his regular sets of clothes and he smiled brightly since he could finally make some money off me.

And after browsing his wares, I ended up buying a couple sets of his Wasteland Settler and Brahmin Skin outfits both of which increased Endurance and Agility by +1 when equipped. I of course also grabbed a couple plane t-shirts and a couple extra pairs of socks and underwear which were things I forgot to think about last time I was here.

In the end I spent around 100 caps buying all the clothes and was basically broke again but, that was fine since I knew plenty of ways to make money in this world.

As I was about to leave when a thought struck me.

I remembered that there was a Workbench just outside next to the General Store and wondered if I could use it like you did in the game, and if anything about it would be different because of the mods I installed?

The Workbench itself wasn't anything special and was just a table with a clamp and a couple other tools attached to it. Placing my hands on it I was oddly nervous as another one of the strange green panels I was becoming used to popped up.

On first impression it seemed like it worked exactly the same as it did in regular New Vegas allowing me to create and craft new weapons and items as well as modify the ammunition I used. But, a closer look proved that wrong.

As I scrolled through the different option available my heart started to pound in my chest and I got excited.

The Workbench would actually let me craft nearly every weapon, armor, and clothing from both 4 as well as the ones from New Vegas! Of course, the prerequisite was that I had the required Perks and materials neither of which I really had right now. But, that didn't take away from how absurdly overpowered this was!

As long as I had the materials, I could literally make whatever I wanted! Whether it was a rare .44 Magnum or an overpowered Gauss Rifle!

I had to forcefully calm myself down since this was actually completely useless to me right now. But, plans were already forming in my mind, and I couldn't wait to put them into action!

After relaxing for a moment and recovering from my slight freakout I started looking through the options to see if there was anything I could use right now. And unfortunately, there wasn't really anything I could really use as far as weapons and armor were concerned since all of the good stuff needed high level crafting Perks like Gun Nut and Blacksmith to make. While everything I actually could craft wasn't really any better than what I already had.

But, I did find a few extremely useful things under the clothing section!

After sacrificing a few of my extra sets of clothing for cloth I created a few pairs of Army Fatigues (+1 STR, +1 AGL), Military Fatigues (+2 AGL), and a Torn Shirt & Jeans (+2 END).

There were a couple other types of clothes I could have made that increased things like Intelligence, Charisma, and Luck. But, I didn't have enough cloth to make all of those, so I prioritized what I thought would be the most useful.

Once I was finally finished, I reluctantly left the Workbench behind and made a mental note to come back later once I had more resources.

Next, I found somewhere private and switched out my armor and clothes and almost instantly felt a surge of strength flowing through my body.

Pulling up my Pipboy I quickly checked my Stat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Special

Strength 5

Perception 5(7)

Endurance 7

Charisma5

Intelligence 5

Agility 5(7)

Luck 3

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nodding I was fairly satisfied with where I was at, +2 Perception from my hat and glasses and +2 Agility from the Military Fatigues I just changed into were pretty significant boosts. Though the fact that I only had 3 Luck was a bit worrying but, it wasn't a problem that leveling up a few more times couldn't fix.

I chose the +2 Agility from the Military Fatigues because Agility was the stat that effect how many Action Points I had. And having more Action Points meant I could hopefully fire one or two more shots in VATS before I had to aim manually.

And that was aside from the massive boost in speed it also gave me.

Even after only taking a few steps I could already feel the massive difference that +2 was making. My body felt light as a feather, and I was confident that my movements were several times faster and more accurate than they ever were before. Even the world itself seemed to slow down slightly if I focused hard enough almost like a form of pseudo VATS.

It kind of made me wonder what it was like to be Yoruichi who had a massive 10 in her Agility, 3 whole points higher than what I had right now!

After changing I walked back into town to try and find Yoruichi again but, not having any luck I was conflicted about whether or not I should just go adventuring on my own.

But, eventually I just decided to go chill out in Trudy's bar.

Yesterday had been a stressful day for me and I felt like I could use a break especially with a big battle looming not long in the future. And it wasn't like it would be too late to go exploring later this afternoon or even tomorrow after we dealt with the Joe Cobb.

So, I just sat down at an empty table and ordered a Sunset Sarsaparilla before leaning back and writing in a small notebook I bought from Chet earlier. It wasn't anything much and barely cost 5 caps but, was perfect to carry around with me. I was planning on using it to keep a journal of my adventures from now on as well write down any random thoughts and ideas I had.

Right now, though I was writing about things I could do in the future.

After all there was a very good chance, I was going to be spending the rest of my life in this world and figured it would be a good idea to start planning ahead.

And that game of Caravan I played with Ringo last night got me thinking that the entertainment in this world was severely lacking. Aside from one mediocre card game and listening to the same dozen or so song on loop on the radio there was literally nothing interesting to do here. If you wanted a break from the mind-numbing boredom your only real options were gambling, guns, drugs, booze, or girls.

So, it seemed like it might be a fun long-term goal to try and add some color to this boring world. Maybe 'Invent' a couple simple card and board games like Uno and Monopoly or maybe see if I could get a printing press running somewhere and try and make my own comic?

I wonder how the people here would react to Trigun or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure? I bet they'd love Steel Ball Run. Though I didn't really know how to draw or remember enough of either of those stories to copy them but, I figured those were problems enough Agility and Intelligence could solve.

Time quickly passed as I got lost in scribbling in my little journal and before I knew it lunch had arrived, and droves of villagers wandered into the bar to eat and take a rest from their back breaking work out in the desert heat.

Eventually I got tired of writing and decided to play a couple games of pool and party a bit with the locals.

And before I knew it, it was already three in the afternoon and only a couple hours were left until sunset. I remembered from yesterday that the sun set around 6:00 P.M this time of year. So, at best we had about three hours until Joe Cobb and his gang arrived.

It was probably why so many of the townsfolk were in the bar partying, they were worried about the fight that was about to go down and in here having fun to blow off some steam.

About half an hour later Sunny and Yoruichi walked in carrying a bunch of Coyote pelts and I let out an audible sigh of relief. I was beginning to worry that something happened to them but, from the look of things it seems like Yoruichi stole my idea from earlier and went out exploring with Sunny.

I was actually kind of salty she had beaten me to the punch again, though I was also secretly relieved I didn't go out by myself. It would have been embarrassing if I went all the way out to Goodsprings Cave only to find out they already cleared it.

"Took your sweet time getting back" Trudy frowned also a bit upset at how late they were.

"Sorry" Sunny defended and motioned to some of the pelts over her shoulder "But, the cave these guys called how was a lot deeper that we expected it to be and it took us a while to find our way through the dark."

"Yeah" Yoruichi sighed and raised her Pipboy "The light on these things isn't the best."

I shook my head "At least you're back in time because I have absolutely no idea what the plan is."

"Right" Sunny slammed her fist down on the counter "It's time to get down to business! I'll gather up the folks who agreed to help us out and we can go over our what we're going to do!"

Trudy looked over at me "You should go up to the gas station and get Ringo because there is no way we're letting his scrawny ass sit this out. This is all his fault after all."

A short while later we were all gathered in the bar again but, that atmosphere was far more somber than it was earlier.

Sunny had a crudely drawn map of the town spread out and was explaining the basics of her plan.

"Now the Powder Gangers best weapon is their dynamite, so our best option is to use rifles and take them out from a distance since we can shoot a heck of a lot further than they can throw."

I noticed a problem and spoke up "But, if we just start shooting the second, they get in range what's to stop them from retreating and coming back another day? We have more than enough people to take them in a straight fight but, if they start using guerilla tactics the towns going to have a rough time."

Sunny nodded "That's the trick. We have to let them get close enough that they can't run away too easily but, far enough that they can't do too much damage. They're probably going to approach town from the main road, so our best bet is to attack them just before they reach the Goodsprings sign while they're next to the old metal water tank."

"How should we use our own dynamite then" Yoruichi asked? "It would be a waste to have had Easy Pete dig all of it up just to not use it?"

"Yeah" Trudy pondered "If they're too far away to use their dynamite then it's also too far for us to use ours?"

Suddenly an idea struck me and I raised my hand "I actually have an idea!" I said while pretending to rummage through my backpack before taking something out for everyone to see.

"What's that" Ringo who'd been extremely quiet the entire time asked sounding slightly excited?

"It's a Stealth Boy" I grinned.

"Really" everyone stared in awe at the mysterious device!

"It looks a bit plain to me" Yoruichi leaned against her hand and raised an eyebrow "... Also, what's a Stealth Boy?"

"It's a piece of ancient pre-war tech" Ringo mumbled while looking at me silently asking permission if it was okay for him to touch. I nodded and he picked it up "I've never seen one before but, supposedly they let a person turn invisible they're also worth a small fortune and are perfect for stealing and assassinations."

"And for sneaking a butt load of explosives right into a group of enemies" I added with a grin.

Once that was said I saw realization dawn on everyone, and Sunny had an evil grin form on her face.

"Okay, but who is going to do it" Trudy asked? "From what I've heard Stealth Boys don't make you completely invisible or do anything to hide your sound. So, there is a very real chance that whoever does this is going to get caught and surrounded by gangers."

The saloon was dead silent for a moment before Yoruichi leapt up "Oh! Oh! Oh! Me! Me! I wanna do it!"

"Are you sure" I questioned while taking the Stealth Boy back from Ringo who looked upset at having to let go of something worth so much money?

"I'm sure" she grinned and bound over to my side and practically ripped the thing from my hand "I get to be invisible AND blow up a bunch of scum! Count me in! Now how does this work" she asked while fiddling with the nobs!?

"You're definitely going to be the death of me" I sighed.

"I guess all that's left to do is for everyone to get in position and wait for showtime" Sunny crossed her arms.

"Let's just hope that Yoruichi doesn't accidentally blow us all up" I shook my head resigning myself to fate and using the magic knowledge the system gave me to show Yoruichi how to work the Stealth Boy.

"Pssh" she blew me off "You worry too much! This is going to be awesome!"