Part 24: Brothers In Arms
Back in the slums of Freeside, we had a fair amount of freedom to do whatever we
needed. It would take almost a week of constant moving south east just to reach
the Legion’s camp, so until then, we could do anything really, as long as we
kept moving in that direction. While we were walking to get out of Freeside, we
heard one the hired criers advertising a store called “Mick And Ralph’s Storage
Store”. We went up and asked him about it, and he said they were excellent at
repairwork, and since we had a pair of night vision goggles in need of repair,
we headed straight for the store, in the direction that he gave us.
Inside the store, we found an assortment of containers, wall hangers and benches,
overflowing with various junk. They were all full of raw materials, scrap
metal, spare parts. Just the kind of stuff you’d need to repair things. Over by
the back of the store was a man with has back to us, fiddling around with
something on a workbench, probably busy repairing. As the door slammed shut behind
us, the man suddenly turned to us with a weapon drawn, and moved slowly towards
us. I kept my finger firmly on my trigger in case this guy was going to open
fire.
“Itchy trigger finger, huh?” he asked. “I just came over to show you this gun I just repaired.”
“Christ, what did we need the dramatics for then? The way you were acting, we could have
blown your head clean off.” I retorted. This guys “Acting” almost had us open fire on him.
“Maybe, if it wasn’t for my partner Ralph behind you.” He replied.
We turned around to see Raplh, brandishing a laser gatling gun. Jesus, it had
modifications and everything; a scope, laser recycler, and even a custom firing
chamber. It was a good thing I made the right call.
“Well, hello there. Nice to meet you.” he said in strain, having trouble lifting the thing.
“I..I Guess So” I awkwardly replied, still in shock of how quickly he could end my
life with the pull of the trigger. “Yeah, that’s Overkill.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” He chuckled, and heaved it back into a locked safe behind him and spun the combination lock.
“That thing must weigh a fucking ton.” Arcane said with a slanted jaw. He was mesmerised
by it. Whether through its clean, polished and modified look, or because of its
sheer power, I wouldn’t know.
“It Sure Does, but we should get down to business. Name’s Mike.” He said introducing himself,
like he hadn’t already. A badass by the looks of it, showing of his incredible
firepower. His brother wasn’t too bad either. He had a modified hunting rifle,
like mine, but it was clean and polished with a scope, laser sight and an
extended clip. These guys must have had an armoury underneath them.
“So, you offers repairs?” I asked, interested in their services.
“Repairs, Weapon sales, the works.” Mike answered me, telling us they were proficient in repair
work and selling weapons. I could probably also buy a couple mods from them, and I wasn’t sure how long my old rifle had left in her. Reliable, but with more duct tape than wood, I was just delaying the inevitable.
“Could you have a look at my Rifle?” I asked and handed it to him. He looked down and pulled a confused facial expression.
“Is this a joke?” he laughed. “Where the fuck have you kept this, up your ass?” I understood
his sarcasm. It really did look like I’d kept it up my ass.
“No, but I get that it’s a beat up piece of shit. It’s been incredibly reliable so far, can take out a radroaches from three hundred meters away. I just don’t know how long she’s got left in her. Don’t need it failing on me at a critical moment.” I said.
“We’ll probably have to get you a new model. We’ve got the same model in stock. I can
transfer your scope over, but that’s about it. You’ve been lugging around a
bunch of duct tape so far. You might just be in time to. This thing looks like
it’ll explode if you so much as nudge it.” Informing me of the situation it was
in.
“Thought as much. How much will it run me back?” asking for a price estimation. I had
thousands of caps between me and Arcane, courtesy of House, but I still needed to know.
“The Model you’ve got is a .32 Calibre Colt Rangemaster. These babies are accurate
to five hundred yards, are fully customisable, next to Recoil free, and tough
as steel. Your gun must have been good back in the days. They truly are some of
the strongest weapons I’ve ever seen. It’ll run you back at least eight hundred
caps.” He went all techno babble on me. I understood most of it though; I was
good at repair work myself.
“Yeah, I can do that. Can I get an ammo pouch, flashlight, and a laser scope on there?”
I asked, wondering if I could get any extra features included.
“You’re really going all out?” he asked. “That’ll be incredibly expensive, but I can do
that for one thousand caps for everything.”
“Sounds good.” I answered, and handed over my caps to them. It was a hell of a lot, but
I needed it more than ever now.
“This could take a while, about thirty minutes, so feel free to read some of the
magazines we’ve got over of there.” He said and pointed to a corner with a
desk, and copies of pre-war magazines. He walked off to go and get my request
finished and came back on time. He handed me a beauty of a creation. It was
just as I asked. This thing was polished, and shined so much I could almost see
my own face on the rifle butt.
“Jesus you did an amazing job, thank you.” I said, still in shock of how this thing looked.
“No problem, and have one of these, on the house.” And handed me a box of Armour
Piercing ammo. That would come in really handy if I got into trouble with
armoured thugs. I waved them off and started pushing open the door, before
Arcane suddenly snapped and remembered something.
“Didn’t you need your Night vision goggles fixed as well?” he questioned me.
“Oh shit. Yeah I do, shit you just saved us both getting fucked in the dark.” I responded
and laughed. Without these working, I’d see about as well through the darkness as
I could through a wall.
“Something else you needed?” Ralph asked, wondering why I had come back inside.
“Yeah, I need you to look at these for me” I said, and handed him my busted
Night-Vision Goggles.
“Well, at least you haven’t kept this up your ass; you just need new batteries, and a
repaired battery pack. I can handle that for Fifty caps.” He told me.
“Sure I can do that.” And handed him the paltry sum of Fifty caps, that wasn’t at all
a bad price for something so crucial. He came back after only about five
minutes.
“Hereyou go.” He said, and passed me the Goggles. “They work great; I’d imagine up
to about four hundred meters out you can see clearly. New batteries already in
there, and an extra pack for when you need them.” He was really generous,
giving out free stuff with every sale, but I imagined that they don’t see many
sales in Freeside, so making customers happy was a smart idea.
“Thank you so much, I’ll surely visit again someday” I said and waved at the pair,
before walking outside to continue our journey.
