Chapter 36 - Fresh blood for the Mojave

After putting Mike in charge and telling him what they should do until I return, I left the station, heading towards the Outpost. Luckily for me, no raider, legionary, or wildlife attacked me, making my journey to the Outpost quite calm and relaxing, despite the heat that was slowly killing me.

As soon as I reach the place, I was "assaulted" by an overly worried giant, who took me in his arms squeezing the life out of my body. Thankfully for me, Beagle was also there, stopping Vito from hugging me to death.

"Haha, sorry Dante. I was just happy to see you."

"Give the boy a chance Vito, he has been through hell. At least from what the troopers told me."

This was a surprise even for me, considering that only half a day passed since the NCRCF become once more part of the NCR. Then again, radios are a thing and with their help, transmitting information from the frontline back to the HQ wouldn't be a problem. Nevertheless, it was still surprising to know that the NCR decided to spread this rather good news as quickly as they did.

"It wasn't all that bad. I did make some friends while I was a convict."

"Like in powder gangers friends? Or other kinds of friends?"

For the first since in my life, I saw Vito horrified by something related to my words, but I couldn't understand why he would be shocked and scared of me having new friends. Maybe he was jealous?

"I'm referring to the team I ended up with. While they were locked in the CF, they weren't addicts or mass murderers like the rest of their colleagues. Mike, the guy who led the team even joined me alongside a few other guys that didn't like the way Eddie, the late leader of the Powder gangers."

"Wait for a second, kiddo. You just said that this Mike guy joined you alongside some more convicts right?"

"Yeah, seventeen of them to be exact."

"Bloody Thursday… and you left them alone with all of the loot you took I presume?"

"Yes?"

"Dante, you just got fooled by them. Once we return to the station you will see how backstabbing our human race can be."

"And if you are wrong?"

"Then I will be wrong and your right. Anyways, what are we going to do now? "

"Before you say anything, Dante, let me remind you that the road to New Vegas is still a no-go zone after what happened to Nipton. Now that I remember, ED-E should return from his scouting mission."

"Scouting mission?"

"Yeah, Major Knight asked us if he could use ED-E to spy on the legion camps that are on this side of the Mojave, and the little bastard accepted in exchange for caps out of all the things he could ask for. What could a robot do with the caps anyways?"

"Now, now Beagle, what our robotic friend does is not our business, besides, maybe ED-E gathers caps for Dante. After all, other than him, who can even understand that flying eyebot? Also, Dante, we should keep ED-E away from prying eyes while we stay here."

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, a new batch of recruits came in the Mojave, and alongside them a few mechanics. One of them, a girl named Katherine almost beat two troopers for stopping her from getting her hands on ED-E. Somehow she managed to scare a robot."

"C'mon Vito, she does sound so scary."

"For us no, but for our poor eyebot, she's worse than a deathclaw."

Just as Beagle was about to add something about ED-E's nightmare, the robot in question flew above us, before hovering in front of us. As soon as he saw me, the eyebot flew right beside me, beeping continuously as if he was complaining.

"For once in my life, at least since ED-E joined us, I can finally understand what our little flying friend is saying. Poor thing he had been traumatized by that woman."

ED-E turned towards Vito as soon he mentioned Katherine. Once he was sure that that crazy woman was nowhere close to him, ED-E once again turned towards me, but not before cursing Vito in his own way.

"Hey! Who are you calling a waste of good air?"

Vito growled and ED-E aimed his armament at him, beeping in some sort of way that it seemed as if he was mocking Vito. Never in my life would I ever imagined a robot laughing but here it was, even more so making fun of a super mutant out of all the beings in this world.

"Calm down you two. I for one suggest we leave the outpost for now, at least until the recruits leave this place, after all, I rather not have ED-E kill a mechanic."

<Beeping in response>

Even though the two of them didn't say anything, both Vito and Beagle nodded at my suggestion. A few minutes later, the four of us left the Outpost, much to the devastation of a certain Major and a new mechanic that was both so excited to meet a certain boy wonder.

It took us a few hours, but we finally were close to our station, when seemly out of nowhere, Vito grabs my shoulder, stopping in me my tracks.

"We should proceed with caution, I smell fire and gunpowder and there is a high chance that my fears may be proven right."

Even though he didn't want to be right, Vito still pointed at the station where two of the guys that I saved were guarding the door. Strangely enough, I would have thought that Mike would keep his men rather than put some of the other guys at the door, then again, with how much work they had been left to do, it wasn't strange for them to take turns guarding the entrance.

"I'll go and check, you three cover me. I chose did indeed betray me, please do avenge me, because there would be no way for me to escape alive."

Rather than answering me, Beagle took his rifle and ran towards the left side of the mountain finding himself a good position to fire from. Meanwhile, ED-E flew into the sky making his way toward the station and leaving Vito to take cover behind one of the big rocks.

Unsurprisingly the two guards aimed their guns at me as soon as they saw my figure walking toward them, but as soon as they realized who I was they calmed down.

"Phew, boss next time tell us when you are coming back."

"Yeah, we almost shoot you."

I looked at them as if they grew a second head, for more than one reason.

"Some legion freaks stumble across our place and we had to fight them. Karl was hit, but it's nothing life-threatening. We took out all of the freaks and even stole their loot before dragging their bodies to the coyotes, leaving the pups to deal with corpses."

"And here I thought that you guys choose to get rid of me."

"Have some faith in us, boss. Not only did you keep us from dying for that idiot, but you even cleared out names. Besides our lives are better here than they would have been with Eddie."

"Then I'm glad I could help you, folks. By the way three of my friends would come shortly. One of them is a mutant just so you two know."

The two guards tensed up as soon as I mentioned a super mutant, but they still nodded at me, besides, with how many of them were inside the station, there would be no problem dealing with a single mutant.

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