There was a reason Adam had kept his voice low and left parts of the plan secret when he was telling his allies about raiding the Federal Ration Stockpile. This was the biggest looting run he had ever taken a part in. One could only guess how many caps he was going to make from this. He hoped a lot. However if anyone else were to guess, they would likely think the same. No matter how well armed he was, how big his group was, even grown now that Pearl had joined, or even how dangerously stupid it might be, there would still likely be someone who would try to take what he had just earned. Raiders, looters, thieves. People were opportunistic. This holds true whether it be pre-war or post-war. Keeping this on the moderate down low was obviously the smarter choice. He didn't want any unexpected surprises.
However it seemed that somehow, maybe because he spoke too loud while in a public place, or maybe because he was careless, or perhaps just pure dumb luck, he ran into a group of less than friendly scavengers on the long and slow walk back to Midway. Though of course, Adam was driving the APC, everyone else was on foot.
Logically one would see a group of at least 7 with a super mutant, a robobrain, an assaultron, 1 visible protectron, and two heavily armed people alongside a fully functional APC and would decide that caution was the better part of valor. However these men were not thinking logically as they, despite being outnumbered, outgunned, and out of their minds, decided to approach the group and try to hold them up for the loot.
The men were not well armored or armed, they did not seem to be raiders however they did seem to be the kind of people who lived outside the walls of a big settlement. They were not much of a threat, even if there were 6 of them.
Adam scooted over to the gunner's seat so he could pop out of the gunner hatch and speak to them as he was still technically the leader of the party.
"How can I help you gentlemen… ladies." Adam said with a calm casual tone as he nodded politely to the men and single woman who had their one rifle and few pipe pistols raised, the rest had knives. They were an incredibly poor match for the firepower Adam's group had.
"I-I want your loot!" A gruff man in the front said, clearly scared but unwilling to back down.
"Oh?" Adam said with a smile. He then turned around and looked at the large gun on top of the APC. "You see this?" He said pointing to the cannon. "This here is a 105mm cannon. The explosive force of just one round is enough to kill all of you with just one shell. Now, I've never had cause to test this beast since I only got it recently but I'm eager to see it in action." He then turned around and smiled evilly at them.
"Care to have your skulls adorn the exterior of my new APC? Or are you going to turn around and leave before I'm forced to make a bloody mess?" Adam said with a threatening tone, planning to use an overly exaggerated threat to try to scare them off peacefully, Truly he was not in the mood for another fight, even if it would hardly even be able to be called a fight.
"I-I…" The gruff man said, stepping back, too scared to properly say words back. The woman put a hand on his shoulder.
"Vert. Drop it, let it go." She said in an almost sagely way while shaking her head. She then looked at Adam. "I apologize, noble warrior, we meant no disrespect, my people are simply desperate, times have been hard on my tribe and our food is running low, even against insurmountable odds we are forced to do what we must for our people." She said with a resolved tone.
Adam stared at her for a moment seemingly taking in whether she was telling the truth or not before he sighed. Salvatore immediately knew what was going to happen so he quietly grumbled and rolled his eyes.
"How many people do you have in your… tribe?" He asked slowly.
"34, we are not a large people." She responded. Adam nodded.
"Salvatore, Deccanus, go into the back of the APC and fill up two of the backpacks full of some of the food we found and give them to these people."
"Kid…" Salvatore looked at Adam not angry but desperate. Trying to convince him not to simply hand things out freely but Adam looked at him and shook his head. Salvatore let out a long and heavy sigh and then moved to the back of the APC to meet Deccanus who was already back there waiting for the door to open to do as Adam asked.
Adam reached into the cockpit and pulled the backdoor release latch and heard as the pneumatic pistols fired off and slowly opened the ramp to allow Deccanus and Salvatore access. The rest of the group remained where they were, staring down this small group of wasteland survivors ready to shoot them if they tried anything. Luckily Rae and the protectrons didn't open fire the moment these people acted even a bit hostile. Adam had the forethought to put them all into a return fire only mode so they wouldn't initiate combat for this exact sort of situation.
The group that had just a moment ago been accosting them were now smiling and talking happily amongst themselves. The woman looked up at Adam with admiration, respect, and gratitude.
"You are doing my tribe a great service. My people will never forget this gratitude." She said with a soft bow. Adam waved her off.
"Don't worry about it. It's everyone's job to try to make this world a bit better for everyone else." Adam smiled and then paused before adding. "There is a saying I like: paying the karma forward." Adam said to her.
"What does this mean?" She asked back.
"It means that I am doing a good deed for you today in the hopes that one day you too will do a good deed for someone else. Then, in turn, they might go on to do a good deed for someone else. In the end, through a chain of good deeds, the world will be just that little bit nicer of a place." She looked up at Adam like her whole world view had just been shaken, the idea was so moving to her she was beside herself with words. Adam just chuckled softly.
"Anyway, don't worry about it. If a little bit of food can help others then it's worth giving it out, especially if they are desperate. I'm not always a charity though." He laughed. "Anyway if you guys are in need of food, I'm not sure if you know of it but there are several towns where you can just go in to trade for food."
"Yes… I am aware of the settlements we… try to keep to ourselves." She said hesitantly.
"Well in times like these it helps to have friends, we all got to work together to stay alive, Midway, Naper, the Pier, all these places have plenty of food for you to barter for, you don't need to go it alone." Adam finished as Deccanus and Salvatore each handed over a backpack full of some of the food from the FRS. Ultimately it was not too great an amount of food, they still had a huge amount they could sell at Midway, but to people desperate enough to try to threaten Adam's group, even this much food might be a godsend. As if to punctuate this thought one of the men in the back cried a bit into his arm as a buddy patted his back.
"We… will never forget this gift, noble warrior." She said as she took one of the backpacks. "Nor your words about paying it forward." She said with another bow. Adam just smiled. As her group turned to begin to leave she stopped and looked at Adam once more, just as he was about to hop back inside and get into the driver's seat again. "If you do not mind… may I be so bold as to ask your name, and the name of this group you lead?" She said with a resolute tone.
Adam paused for a moment and stopped to think, after a few moments he responded.
"Well my name is Adam Baxter, as for what my group is called um… we don't have a name, these are just my…" He looked around at everyone, lingering his sight on each member for a moment before finishing his sentence. "Friends." He finished with a smile.
She seemed to accept that answer and nodded once more before she turned to rejoin the rest of the group as they all walked off into a different part of the city.
"You are too much a bleeding heart, you know that right? All that food was definitely worth more than a few caps." Salvatore complained.
"Yeah, but think how much more it means to them." Adam said back.
"And we got nothing to show for it." Salvatore returned.
"Oh hush honey~ sometimes doing a good deed is its own reward." Eve said to him with a soft turn of her head.
"Indeed, material gains are immaterial when compared to the glory gained from spreading renown." Deccanus said with a steeled tone.
"Helping people and making friends is always fun!" Rae added with a chipper tone.
"Pearl does not understand why we gave puny human bags but Pearl not ask why." She added as well, honestly contributing nothing to the conversation.
"Then you all are bleeding hearts, nothing runs this world more than caps." Salvatore said, sticking to his guns.
"Pearl's heart is not bleeding, Pearl is uninjured." She added, confused.
"Alright, you guys can talk this over while we move, we still got a ways to go before we get to Midway, I apologize if anyone was upset that we lost some of the caps from this run, if you feel slighted you can have a cut from my earnings, but what's done is done, we are wasting daylight, lets get moving."
The group then says nothing more on the topic as Adam headed back inside the APC and began to slowly drive alongside everyone once more, listening to the radio in the APC while he did.