Ain't that a Kick in the Head?

[Zephyr2011]

Mark stood on the roof of his ruined office building in the heart of the DC ruins, it wasn't far from the Mall really, just a few blocks to the Northwest. He could see most of the ruins from the top of the 17 story structure. He gazed happily over his concrete jungle, his rocky mountain wilderness of post-apocalyptia, his frontier. He had stayed high up on his tower for the past few days doing some "home improvement" clearing out more rubble and crafting doors from salvage-able material to hide the light from his fire, sealing ever more holes in the roof and expanding his living quarters. He still didn't have anything to use his generator for but he had found a gallon of gasoline in one of the other maintenance rooms of the building, so he could get it going if he wanted to. But now he was running a little low on food, only enough for another two days, this was the time he usually ventured out and he was making preparations, gathering his utilities and supplies. Double checking his ropes and harness and gear. Suddenly movement down below caught his attention. He shifted towards the edge of the building and peered down, hopefully out of sight.

 

The individuals looked like ants nearly 200 feet below, but he could make out the distinctive black armor of Talon Company mercenaries. He had no idea what they were doing this deep in the ruins, certainly not headed to the mall for a showdown with the Brotherhood at least. What could they be looking for? Whatever it was they must have been sure that they were close. They began slowing their pace and started clearing out space. One of them produced two large bundles which turned out to be tents. Another began carefully placing mines around key choke points. They were between Mark's building and another across the street. Between the two buildings were some sizable rubble piles and there were only a couple entrances into the makeshift valley that led to Mark's front door. The Talon mercs made this their base camp. Mark counted seven of them and they seemed fairly well supplied, very heavy packs at any rate and he could faintly make out what looked like assault rifles in their hands. When camp was made one of them set about making a fire, a rather large one really. Mark was chastising them in his head for making such a large, obvious campfire, it could get you killed in the DC ruins. It was one of the things that didn't translate between traditional survival techniques and the capital wasteland. Fire no longer held beasts at bay, it drew them nearer, particularly super mutants and especially Deathclaws but Mark, thankfully, hadn't seen any of the massive lizards this far into the ruins. The mercs were apparently quite happy with themselves and all sat around the fire, roasting food and blathering from the looks of it. None of them were patrolling, they put too much faith in their mines.

 

Mark had had dealings with Talon before. They were trigger happy, ruthless mercenaries and they loved killing things. They also tended to lack common sense such as checking the two buildings they were between for hostiles or other entries into the "valley." Mark decided to capitalize on this foolishness. He had tidied up a neat pile of concrete chunks near where he lowered his rope for his forays into the ruins. He carefully positioned one of the larger chunks of concrete, certainly nothing that could be thrown, close to the edge and readied a few other pieces near it. He then placed his crowbar under one edge of the large piece and set a few smaller chunks on top of it, holding one about baseball sized in his hand. He aimed carefully, albeit not with a great amount of expertise, and threw the chunk in his hand directly at one of the mercenary's heads and quickly stepped on the crowbar. The large chunk of concrete tipped, scraped and tumbled over the edge of the building bringing about a half dozen smaller pieces and no small amount of dust with it. Mark hid out of sight to prevent the mercenaries from discovering his ruse. A loud swearing issued from below with the crunch of the concrete hitting the ground. After a time Mark cautiously peered over the edge and looked at the mercenaries. He had missed his mark, hitting someone in the arm and possibly breaking it, he could tell by one individual cradling their arm as another began to wrap it in a sling, rather than killing one of them with a good knock to the head. But the plan had been successful by in large. It had all looked like a piece of the structure had fallen down, sending chunks with it and part of the debris had struck one of the mercenaries. And so the guerrilla warfare began.

[DemonLady]

"Hah, you guys are forgetting you've got the half-insane lesbian with the huge shotgun and modified rifle with you! Plus you've got an equally nuts, cute-as-a-son-of-a-gun asian girl with Enclave-level technology and two kick-butt swords, a ghoul with an accent, a psychotic, sadistic child and an ex-legionairre. Y'all'll be fine."

 

Cathy pushed herself off her spot on the wall mid-sentence, wandering over to the area the others were standing once again, having wandered a bit away to rest prior. As per her signature, she tapped the NCR lady's side with her foot, smiling.

 

"By the way, I shotgun AND volunteer to take her armor off if it needs taking off, seeing as Morgan's a chicken--"

 

She was interrupted by a sound behind her, which, considering who she was and how she was, made her jump.

 

"AH, SON OF A-- DEATH.... Claw.... BABY?"

 

She crouched down to the clearly non-hostile Deathclaw, blinking.

 

"Morgan, don't shoot it. Hey, little guy. What's wrong?"

 

The Deathclaw scrapped its claws together, telling the woman that her and her friends killed its mother. The Deathclaw looked naturally sad, but still seemed happy.

 

"Morgan.. I think it's saying we murdered its mother.. which makes sense as to why it ripped out your eye. I thought it had slightly longer horns. It was a Deathclaw Matriarch.. Heh, for a mutant chameleon with claws bigger than my face, he's pretty cute, isn't he?"

[MikeRyan]

Morgan got up from his seat and limped over to the baby deathclaw and petted it

 

"Heh, looks like you might be in some trouble without your mom. Say you don't wanna come with me do you? I guess I owe you that much"

[DemonLady]

"Heyheyhey, he came to me first. Why don't we share him? Like, all of us? not really a pet, per say, but more of a non-humanoid companion. Deathclaws are smart, after--"

 

She was interuppted by a long, rough tongue scrapping her cheek, causing her to shake her head quickly.

 

"Ow.. I think that's a yes.."

[MikeRyan]

Morgan nodded slowly and took out a cigar

 

"Very well then, but I'm still going to say I owe him a big one for killing his mom"

[Flipout6]

Jay and Skyler stared at the baby deathclaw incredulously.

"Well, it hasn't attacked any of us yet, but who knows why it came here?" Skyler said. Versing just stood there shaking his head.

"A Brotherhood outcast, a former NCR trooper, an escaped Legion slave, now a deathclaw? I think someone slipped some Jet into my drink."

Jay and Skyler caught the part about the escaped slave with interest, due to their status as legionairres, but their expressions didn't change.

[MikeRyan]

Morgan froze for a second when he heard Versing mention the slave part

 

"Woah now, think of the company we have right now. We have no idea of these guys true intention, so mentioning that we have an escaped legion slave might not be so smart. Don't want anyone to be standing over me with a rope, or a knife, tonight alright?"

 

Morgan gave versing a warning look when he said that, just to show that he is slightly paranoid about being killed during the night.

Edited July 25, 2012 by MikeRyan

[tokyobiohazard]

Axelle clapped her hands together and grinned, then placed her palms on the heads of both her dogs, "You heard 'em. No killing that deathclaw. Well, unless he turns on us."

 

Ferox grinned as the two large dogs barked and started circling his feet. He had had a few mongrels of his own back when he was a lower-ranking member of the Legion, and it seemed these two pups had taken to him. He heard something about an escaped slave... But shrugged. It wasn't like he was part of the Legion anymore. It was actually quite refreshing to hear something like that and not have to quickly leap into formation with five other men.

[DemonLady]

"Hah. Them dogs is takin' to you, Ferox. Maybe we'll have to try and turn a Legion dog against its masters for you. Everyone else seems to have a pet. I have a Raven, a dog, Axelle has TWO dogs, Sandro has a frickin' YAO GUAI, Tomo has a Hawk, we all share a Deathclaw.. Only fair you should have a pet. Heck, I can prolly make some calls and find you one if we can't do0mesticate a mongrel."

 

Cathy crouched down and patted the not-yet-spiky head of the little deathclaw, causing it to smile, before falling over suddenly like all Deathclaws in the Capital Wastes do.

 

"Aha. I love when Deathclaws do that. Even the big, scary ones're cute for a moment." She helped it back up. "What should we name it? Anyone got any ideas?"

[MikeRyan]

Morgan looked at the deathclaw and shrugged "Fenrir perhaps? Or maybe Clawy. I'm not that good at naming animals, only one I have named is Loki"

 

He went over to the deathclaw and petted it carefully, like if he was afraid to lose something else to a deathclaw.