Not So Lonesome Road 8 Ed-E

An old man with dark tanned skin was aiming a Shotgun at me while crouching behind a counter. He was Johnson Nash the owner of this branch of the Mojave Express.

"Easy, there" I put my hands up "I'm not one of those escaped convicts outside. I'm just pa.s.sing through."

He squinted at me for a moment before his eyes went wide "Holy Bighorn! It's you! I thought you were dead!"

"I'm not so easily to get rid of" I joked "let me guess a bunch of Great Khans and a guy in a pinstripe suit pa.s.sed by not long ago and said I was dead."

He nodded "They said, they put a bullet in your head."

"They did, though they should've used a bigger gun if they wanted to put me down."

He chuckled at that "So I take it you want to know which way they went right?"

"No, I already know they're heading west to Novac and the up to New Vegas."

"Oh, then what are you going doing here then?"

"I'm mostly here for that little guy over there" I said pointing at ED-D.

"That thing? Another Courier brought it in weeks and just left it here. Tried to fix it a couple times, see if I could make it some kind of Robo-Courier. But, it just kept breaking on me."

"Yeah, I came here to try and fix him I'm pretty sure I get him working again."

"Well, if you can that bucket of bolts up and running you can have him. I've already sunk way too many hours into that thing as it is."

I thanked him and sat down on the stool in front of ED-D and got to work. My Repair and Science skills weren't high enough but, I managed to get my hands on the replacement parts he needed.

I took out the 3 pieces of Sc.r.a.p Metal, 2 Sensor Modules, and Sc.r.a.p Electronics as well as my tools. After giving ED-D a quick look over, I found out that the problem was his Gyroscope. It was fried making it impossible for ED-D to determine how his body was oriented.

With that broken he went into an emergency shutdown so that he wouldn't fly out of control and damage himself further. It wouldn't take long to fix, so I heated up my solder gun and got to work. The sc.r.a.p metal was needed to hold the knew Gyroscope in place, the Sensor Modules were for him to be able orient himself, and the Sc.r.a.p Electronics were to replace a microchip and some wires.

After soldering the last wire into place I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I closed his maintenance panel and started him up. He clicked and buzzed for a few moments hovering off the counter.

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned" Nash gaped in surprise "I didn't actually think you could do it! But, I'm a man of my word the little feller's yours now."

"Hi ED-D" I smiled "it's nice to meet you."

I expected him to beep in response but, he was strangely quiet.

"Not, a talkative one is he" Nash snickered.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something" I mumbled to myself.

"Oh, right! ED-D Initiate: Companion Protocols!"

He seemed to perk up at that and started flying circles around beeping happily.

"I guess you'll be leaving now" Nash asked "can't imagine you want to stay too long with the town the way it is."

"Powder Gangers" I scowled.

"It's been three weeks since those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds rolled into town. And no one's done a d.a.m.n thing about it!"

"That's actually the other thing I came here for, I want to help your town get rid of them."

"What? Are you gonna kill all 50 of them yourself" he mocked.

"No" I shook my head "I'm not that good . . . yet. But, I do know how tocan get the NCR to do it."

"Bulls.h.i.+t" he cursed! "They've been sitting on the other side of that bridge for weeks just twiddling their thumbs! If they were going to do something about it, they would have done it long ago!"

"It's not that they don't want to deal with the Powder Gangers, it's that they can't."

"Explain" he narrowed his eyes.

"The NCR likes to act like they're in control and rule the wastes. But, the truth is because of the war with Caesar's Legion they're spread way too thin. Did you know there's barely a dozen soldiers over there right now?"

"That few" he gasped!

"That's why they haven't done anything they just don't have the numbers. But, I know how to get reinforcements."

"How?"

"Primm has to become an NCR territory."

"That's your big solution? Have us roll over and give in to the NCR!"

"Hey, I know it's not a perfect solution but, it's the only one you've got. The taxes will suck but, do you have any other choice? You said the they have been here for weeks, and that entire time everyone in town has been hold up in the Vicky and Vance Casino right? So tell me how much food do you have left?"

He gritted his teeth and looked like he was about to pop a vein before looking defeated.

He sighed "How do we do this? Do I have to sign something? I'm not a mayor but, I'm the closest we got after the Gangers killed the old one."

"You don't have to do anything, none of the soldiers outside town don't have the authority to do this. I'll have to go down to the Mojave Outpost and convince their commander to take Primm under his wing."

"And why would you do that for us? We can't pay you, don't have the caps anymore."

I scratched my chin "well, I'm already have business at the Outpost so it's not that big a deal for me but, if you need a reason just think of it as me building up my reputation."

"I don't understand."

"Well, after getting shot in the head I woke up in Goodsprings. The people there were nice and helped me out but, the exact same day a group of Powder Gangers attacked. And do you know what happened?"

"I dunno, what happened?"

"They got wiped out. There were six of them but, they were all killed before they could even fire a shot. If I was by myself I don't think I could've stopped them. But, because the whole town pitched in we won with barely a scratch between us. And ever since then I've been thinking.No matter how strong I become I'll only ever be one person. If I had someone else by my side I probably wouldn't have been shot in the head.

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So I decided I want to start a mercenary group. And I won't be able to recruit new members or get work if no one knows who I am.

Just think of it as a simple trade, I help you get rid of all the convicts in Primm. And you let people know about me when they pa.s.s by."

Nash seemed a bit shocked by my answer and didn't speak for several moments. Even ED-D seemed to be looking at me a bit weird as if he was evaluating his new master.

"Alright then" he shrugged "I guess that's as good a reason as any." He put out his hand to shake "It's a deal. If you get rid of the Powder Gangers then I'll make sure everyone who pa.s.ses through Primm knows who you are."

I returned his handshake and smiled "I'm glad we have a deal. It'll probably take a while for me to convince the NCR though."

"I don't doubt it, they some of the most stubborn b.a.s.t.a.r.ds out in the wastes."

"All right, I should be going. I don't want the Powder Gangers to know I'm here. Come on ED-E let's go. "

He beep in confirmation and followed me out the door.

We got lucky and managed to avoid being spotted as we rushed back to the NCR base.