Not So Lonesome Road 11 Ants And Jackals

I woke up early the next morning like I always did and got all of my equipment ready. I left most of my stuff in the locker because I wanted to travel light today. I only brought my Varmint Rifle, 10mm Pistol, the 3 Frag mines I disarmed, and the still unused Grenade Launcher. I didn't bring the Shotgun because I wasn't sure if the small pellets would be able to do much damage through their exoskeleton. The only other things I brought were a bit of food and water.

I was careful not to wake anyone up as I left because everyone here seemed to like to sleep in. But, I couldn't really blame them since their was not much to do around here.

I went to the gate but, was blocked by the on duty guards.

"I'm sorry sir, we can't allow you to leave unless you have written authorization from either Major Knight or Ranger Jackson."

I sighed in frustration and went to the HQ to hopefully get authorization. Standing behind the counter wasn't Major Knight but, someone I didn't recognize.

"Are you Ranger Jackson" I asked?

"Yes, I am Ranger Jackson" he said while looking me over. "Normally people don't come in here this early, is there something I can do for you?"

"I want to ask for permission to leave the Outpost."

He apologized "I'm sorry that will be difficult, the roads aren't safe at the moment and if you die it will be on my head."

"But, I"m not from a caravan or the NCR I'm just a mercenary whose pa.s.sing through. Plus I was actually leaving to try and take care of all the ants on the road. Major Knight said you could pay me for my work."

His widened slightly "Oh, yes I remember now Major Knight mentioned you. He told me to give you permission to leave if you came to me. But, I don't know what pay your talking about. We don't have the authority to hire outside forces. However if that road manages to get cleared then we might 'accidentally' lose some of our supplies."

I laughed at his obvious attempts at being subtle and he gave me a piece of paper to show the guards. After I left the base I followed the roads east.

And it wasn't long before we came to the area from the game. It was an underpa.s.s that was dug into the ground with the road that used to go over it collapsed in a pile of rubble. ED-D could sense six Ants in the area but, I wasn't going to let my guard down.

After finding out how many Convicts there in Primm I decided to never underestimate my enemies. Just because there were only a few people there in the game didn't mean there wasn't hundreds there now. Especially since I was up against ants creatures that regularly lived in groups of millions. I didn't think there'd be that many ant because they were so much bigger now and there was so little food in the Mojave. But, it never hurts to be careful.

I got my Rifle ready and took aim. I was planning on not using VATS this time. It takes too long to recharge and I want to be able use it in emergencies. Not to mention if In relied on it too much I would never improve. Though I wasn't sure how much better hard work would actually make me considering my Stats and Special but, still it was a good idea to get used to shooting without it.

Once I the first ant was in my sights I fired. There was a soft ringing in my ear letting me know I scored a sneak attack critical. The ant fell dead to the ground.

I didn't have time to celebrate though because my shot put the rest of the ants on alert. They started scrabbling all over trying to find their enemy. I fired another shot but, missed hitting the ground next to the ant. That seemed to be all they needed and all five of them started rus.h.i.+ng to my location.

I took a couple breaths to stay calm and aim again. They were still pretty far from me so I had plenty of time to take a couple more of them out.

One good thing about them charging me was that they stopped moving about randomly and moving in a predictable way. I managed to land three headshots before the remaining two ants got close enough for me to worry. I got up and started running.I left them to ED-D as got to a safe distance.

Ants are blind and sense the world through their antennae. Their antennae are amazing at picking up scents and vibrations which is usually enough for them to understand the world around them. But, ED-D was a robot he didn't have any particular smell. It wasn't just that either ED-D could fly! I asked him what his max height was and he told me he could go up as high as ten feet before it started taking too much power. Those two facts made him the perfect ant hunting machine and was the reason I was so confident in coming here.

ED-D easily hovered above the ants taking pot shots at them. The ants were smart enough to realize that there was an enemy up there but, seeing as they were only the size of large dogs they couldn't jump high enough to get him. It didn't take long before both of them were dead.

Before we moved on I took some meat from the ants. I was curious about how it tastes and was planning to ask the chef at the Outpost to cook it for me.

We kept moving east and a quick look at my Pipboy told me that the Nipton rest stop wasn't much further ahead. It was the home of a small raider gang called that called themselves the Jackals. I wasn't sure if I wanted to fight them or just ignore them like I did with the Powder Gangers. Eventually I decided that I had to fight them.

I couldn't keep avoiding enemies just because they were human. I may not like it but, I had to learn to kill.

The Nipton rest stop was just a couple of dilapidated buildings and a small fireplace where the Jackals made camp. Through my Binoculars I could see them just lazing around their camp doing their best to beat the heat as the sun was high in the sky at this point.

They are paying zero attention to their surroundings just the occasional glance to make sure no giant bugs were coming.

I didn't think I could take all of them out before they could shoot me. Thinking about it I decided it was time to bring out the big guns. I loaded a single 40mm grenade into the Grenade Launcher and made my move.

I snuck as close as I could to their base, I was maybe 100 feet away when I was finally noticed and some screamed they were under attack.

I activated VATS right then because this felt like a situation where I truly needed it. Not only did they have guns and were capable of hitting me from far away unlike the ants but, my Explosives skill was still only at 15 and I hadn't used the Grenade Launcher before because I didn't want to waste ammo. So I had absolutely no idea what it's range was or how to shoot it accurately.

I could only fire two shots in VATS so I aimed for a group of three that was sitting together and at the man who looked to be their leader. I loved VATS I managed to fire the grenade reload and fire again in less than a second. The Jackals were blown up in a ball of fire.

I drew my Pistol and started firing along with ED-D were able to easily take out their remaining members who were still in shock at what happened.

Even though so many people died the entire fight took maybe five or six seconds tops. It was actually kind of sickening how easy it was to kill all of them.

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I did my best to loot their bodies without getting covered in too much blood or throwing up. I took all their weapons and not just their ammo like I normally would because I knew this wasn't the whole gang and didn't want to leave the survivors with the weapons. The Jackals gang was split into two halves. The first would stay here and watch the base while the second would walk the roads looking for people to rob.

I wasn't planning on staying long enough to meet the other half of the gang but, I did slip a mine under the body of their former leader. I knew that was a d.i.c.k move but, I consoled myself by remembering that these people killed and robbed to make a living.

With that done it was time to return to my main goal. Killing all of the ants in the area and I knew the best place to do it. The Ivanpath race track not far from here should be completely littered with them.

I called ED-D to my side and we headed north, it was time to destroy a nest.