I drove past the giant hollow metal sculptures and my soldier guy followed behind without a word. I could pick up the sound of a few of the soldiers trying to argue with the guy clearly in charge about letting us through. He quickly pointed out that they couldn't stop us from leaving unless they turned violent and the NCR wasn't about that. I chuckled at that as I drove down the road and the system popped up a notification telling me the quest was done and asking if I wanted to update it now.-
I mentally hit "no" since there was no telling if this would cause the system to go offline for a while. Rather than risk it I chose to find a quiet relatively safe spot to hole up.
"That interaction was not as unpleasant as you made it seem like it would be." Adam pointed out.
"The NCR are the "good guys" as far as most factions go. They also have miles of red tape that they have to go through for most things. The real problem isn't the NCR one to one like that but as a whole. If what I have is deemed important enough they won't hesitate to try and steal it or kill me for it before covering the matter up." I explained seriously.
"So the people are fine but the whole is dangerous?" Adam asked and I nodded.
"Judging from the lack of smoke north of here in that town way way over that way I'd say I'm early enough that the NCR still has to answer to the real owner of this area." I said pointing towards where my memory told me Nipton was in the game.
"Who is that?" Adam asked curiously.
"Robert House. Kinda dickish but to be fair he is over two hundred years old and forced to deal with the savage wasteland. After living in the lap of luxury before the war I imagine it hasn't exactly been pleasant for him." I said with a shrug.
"How has he lived that long? My records show the oldest human has only achieved the age of one hundred and thirty two." Adam asked intrigued.
"Technology. The man has effectively forced his body to continue surviving through a very strenuous and complex technological process. It would in fact actually be easier to say he's not even human anymore, more the brain of the man in question operating via his robots." I explained with a shudder.
"Unfortunate, I had hoped his process would be applicable to the entirety of humanity thus fulfilling my primary purpose entirely." Adam said sounding disappointed.
"No such luck i'm afraid. For now though we should probably deal with these ants first." I said as I saw the beasts in question finally as I drove down the highway.
It was not a huge amount technically in terms of the video game since by my count it was only fifteen or twenty. This wasn't a game though so these things were in fact REALLY dangerous. Each of them was easily the size of a German Shepard at least and the biggest ones were even the size of people, not small ones either. They were roaming all over the highway up ahead scavenging for food. I had chills go down my spine when I watched one find a rad scorpion and screech calling the others over. The massive venomous monster fought valiantly and killed four of their smaller number before the ants took off it's stinger and then from there it's everything else.
"While I am supremely confident the armor can withstand interaction with those ridiculously large insects I don't think the same applies to your summons." Adam said seriously.
"Yeah, no I gotta agree. Each of those things has to be a two two or three three in card terms. The numbers are also problematic." I said with a frown.
"Do you have any cards that might solve the issue without using up all your mana?" Adam asked hopefully.
"Maybe, gimme a second to check." I said before parking at a safe distance and pulling out my binder.
I carefully checked my collection and found something that would probably work. [Mutagenic growth] would give a plus two plus two counter until the end of turn which was all day in this case. It would also only cost me two life to cast. If I spend two mana on [leeching bite] as well that's an additional plus one plus one and one of the ants gains a negative one negative one till the end of the turn.-
"I've got something but it's not worth it. We'll just take a long detour off road to avoid them." I said finally.
"Alright. From my scans I suggest heading west in that case." Adam suggested.
I followed the advice and took a hard left and put some decent distance between us and the ants before moving across the sand northward. There was a convenience store along the way that I stopped at and managed to loot a few things from. Turns out the mayor of Nipton was stashing stuff there in secret. Some caps, food, chems, water, a varmint rifle and a couple boxes of thirty eight rifle ammo for it all nice and neatly stashed behind the counter. I took the caps, ammo, weapon and chems but left everything else.-
It was a decent chunk of caps too as I counted out three hundred and forty five of the things. The rifle solved my urgent need to get a weapon conveniently enough and the caps and chems would serve as fine seed money. Eventually I'd need something and money would definitely help there. From that store I continued to follow the road north and soon reached the town of Primm. It was just like in the game. Mostly ruins with a few buildings still standing and a roller coaster that was falling apart.
The largest mostly intact buildings were the Bison Steve hotel with the roller coaster attached to it and the Vikki and Vance casino. Getting actually into the town was a pain in the ass as the small platoon of NCR soldiers camped in the ruined part at the top of the junction pass bridge put up land mines. It certainly didn't help that there were stupid motherfuckers with dynamite on the side I wanted to get to who shot at me like I was a gods damned helpless shiny target. I sic'd the Skirge on their asses.-
The bug might be a one one but it was fast and if directed properly absolutely brutally efficient at killing people. I would like to say killing them caused my modern world self to cringe and react terribly but it didn't for one key reason, they weren't my first. I grew up in a bad neighborhood, the sort with gang members and regular home invasions. In no less than three cases have I had to violently protect what was mine. I didn't like doing it but after having done it before I didn't hesitate when I needed it done. Besides that I knew better than to show mercy to enemies in this world.