Chapter 213 - Paid But Short-handed...

The group started making their way back to Camp McCarren, Afton picking up and riding Dirt-Bird as they passed the place where he'd left it... Boone admitted that he wasn't able to drive it, nor did he know where it would try to disintegrate his ass if he tried. Not that Afton wouldn't have difficulties now that he was missing an arm.

During the journey back all the adrenaline had slowly drained out of him, with the release camp the flood of emotions he had been ignoring up until now. Rage, guilt, sadness, despair towards the now dead Nephi for killing those innocent hostages, as well as taking his arm.​​

The worst part was that if he was paying more attention to the situation he may have been able to salvage it... It was fairly obvious that the Fiends would make their own entrance if they couldn't get through the main one, though, Afton doubted that had truly tried to collapse the building... Not that it mattered now, since his Mini-Nuke had rendered all of the Rock Crushing Plant to rubble.

He was still unsure how he was going to go about getting another arm... Cybernetics were hard to come by, if he didn't have the requisite parts it might take months or even years to fully develop a working one that suited his requirements. That wasn't even mentioning how hard would be to get used to being one-handed until then... He could still feel phantom sensations from his right hand, as if it was still there but just numbed.

It was strange... He'd heard people describe it before, but he'd never tried to consider how that actually felt. If he had to put it briefly, it felt like a sneeze that would never come... If that made sense?

Regardless, he was sure he wasn't the only person struggling with what actually happened back there. Karl had actually gotten to know most of the hostages before their unfortunate end, adding making it quite personal. Afton knew the man was experienced, but that only meant he'd be better at hiding it.

He put away his thoughts as the group approached Camp McCarren, he parked Dirt-Bird in it's usual spot and walked past the tense-looking gate guard, followed by Captained Krajcik and his men, some being carried by makeshift stretcher.

They enter inside and are immediately greeted by Major Dhatri, the man's eyes roaming over the injured NCR soldiers before finally resting on Afton's missing arm, the sleeve of his recon armour just limply hanging below his elbow.

"Now, if I didn't know any better I'd say there was trouble during your hunt." he states matter-of-factly.

Afton just scoffs and raises his arms, clearly displaying his missing limb, "Oh really? I wonder how you came to that conclusion?" he says sarcastically.

Dhatri just shakes his head, "Just my intuition, that and the fact a few of my men are injured saving your ass, as well as you missing an arm... What the fuck happened out there!"

"Well, the Fiends were holding some people hostage so we wanted to get them out before we dealt with Nephi... They had all been killed before we arrived though, turns out they'd laid a trap for us. Collapsed a building on her heads. Somehow we managed to survive that and make a runner after the Fiends accidentally dug us out of the rubble."

Dhatri nods, "Hmm, good your story lines up with what your friend said over the radio... Would I be wrong in guessing that you were responsible for that mushroom cloud from earlier?"

Afton looks away sheepishly, "Er, depends on what you think about it..."

...

Dhatri laughs at this, surprising Afton as he hadn't thought the man was capable of it. The heavy black bags under his eyes made him seem like an incredibly dour person after all. "I don't care much for it, but my superiors are up in arms wanting to know what'd happened. I suppose they'll be ecstatic to know the explosion occurred within Fiend territory, courtesy of a bounty hunter... Or now I suppose, former bounty hunter? I doubt you'll be willing to go out again with you missing an arm."

"No, I'm still good. Half my usual firepower is still enough to get the job done. Speaking of the job, I don't suppose I could claim my reward without Nephi's head? It was kind of annihilated during the explosion."

...

Dhatri chews the inside of his cheek while in thought, the man clearly wanted to reward him for all the trouble they'd gone through. Losing an arm was quite a significant sacrifice after all... Though, the fact NCR troops had to save them did put him a troublesome situation. The only reason he was actually considering a reward was because the explosion had killed hundreds of Fiends, not just the target of the bounty.

"I can't give you the full reward as I'd need the head for that... Disregarding the fact NCR troops were needed to assist you, the damage done to the Fiends is great enough that I can ignore it. Still, I think 3000 caps can be given for your efforts." he says and Afton can see that this is the best offer he was going to get.

Afton nods, "That's fine. I was half expecting to not get paid if I'm honest." he shakes Dhatri's hand, "Thanks."

"No problem, you've done more than enough for the NCR to give you a little leeway. You, go grab the caps for these men." Dhatri, points at a nearby soldier who quickly runs off.

Not long after the young soldier returns with a couple large pouches of caps in his arms, handing them to Afton who's body was tense as he awaited the familiar sensation...

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 30!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 31!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 32!]

[WELCOME TO LEVEL 33!]

Huh, well, this shouldn't be surprising, I did drop a nuke on hundreds of Fiend after all.