Chapter 364 - Extortion

Boone huffs at him but relents, "We need to talk about your relationship with 'that' place when everyone's together... Sounds like you more than just 'escaped' that place." he states before looking around the encampment. "Think we should burn this place? Personally, I want the Legion to see our handiwork."

Afton shrugs, "As long as we don't leave traces that we were here, do whatever you want... Though, I think we should return to Searchlight before any Legionaries come to visit, there's no point to being covert if we let them see our faces."​​

The group eventually elect to just leave the ruined camps alone so the Legion can get a taste of their own terror tactics.

Once they return to camp they're greeted with a Sgt Astor who apparently hadn't slept all night. The bags under his eyes were bigger than even, but even with that he looked incredibly happy to see them. "You're back!? How did it go?" he quickly asks.

Afton nods, "All encampments have been destroyed... But... There was a problem..."

Astor raises a brow, "If you dealt with all of the camps then I can't imagine a problem that can outweigh the positives of this..."

"Well, we arrived too late to save any captives." Afton states, putting on the grimmest face he could manage without bursting into laughter.

Boone sends a sharp glance at the back of Afton's head but the former-brotherhood member just ignores it.

Astor deflates at the news, the happiness of avoiding their encroaching demise washing away upon hearing that the civilians the Legion had captured were dead. If he were to put the feeling into words, he'd say that he felt the collective weight of their lost souls on his shoulders. "I. See."

While Afton's trying to find the right words to console the quietly distraught man, he's interrupted as the other half of his group arrives.

Josie runs through the NCR camp and arrives right in front of Afton while giddily hopping on the balls of her feet, "Afton! There's, like, three Fire trucks down near the Fire Station! You managed to fix up a pre-war bike, can you do the same for that? Can you!?" she quickly says all in one breath...

Huh, he'd actually forgotten about those things... They would make a good base for a vehicle, strong, sturdy, with a large engine capable of carrying around tons of water. The only problem was the fact that they were deep in irradiated land.

Sure, he wouldn't be bothered by it, but Josie's whole reason for being a part of their group was to help on the engineering side of things. He could already imagine the face she'd make if he repaired it without her.

Plus, he wanted Daisy to help with the process as she expediated repairing the bike by a huge degree. This time they weren't just repairing the vehicle though, he intended to modify it into a veritable fortress, one able to withstand the explosion that'd ended up killing his precious Dirt-Bird.

He sighs and looks to Josie, "I think we'd need to transport it outside of the irradiated area before we could do anything do it... I for one don't want to sit in radioactive materials while repairing it, just because I lost my arm once doesn't mean I want to grow a third." he explains, causing the woman to pout.

He shakes his head at her look and continues though, "But, once we get to Novac, I'm sure we could fix up a vehicle to tow a couple Fire Engines out of Searchlight..."

"Really!?" she quickly perks up, her change in emotions almost jarring to those watching.

"Yeah... Sure..."

Karl arrives not long after Josie does with Dog-meat, though by the twitch in his eye, he isn't happy. "I am not taking that woman on another job, ever again." he states.

"What? I thought I did well..." Josie asks in surprise.

Karl scoffs, "You spent two hours staring at those fuckin' trucks, leaving me and Fido here to do all the work. You're lucky the Legion weren't around otherwise they'd have you bagged and tagged before you could say 'fire truck!'"

By the end of his rant, Josie was looking particularly sheepish meaning that most of what Karl had said was probably true. "I-er, won't do it again... Sir?"

Karl just huffs and looks to Afton, "Things go well on your side?"

He nods, "You could say that. Everything was handled, Searchlight should be safe for a couple weeks at least."

"That doesn't fill me with much confidence..." Astor says from the side, knowing that the Legion would probably send more forces later on. He hoped his superiors would see sense before that and send him some reinforcements. "Thanks for your help anyway guys, I appreciate it. You can rest in camp until you move on to your next destination, until then, I need some sleep myself. Spend most of the night worrying about you lot." he admits.

Afton smirks at Astor, shakes his head and holds out his hand to him before the man can leave. "We did this from the good of our hearts Sergeant... So wouldn't it be prudent to reward such 'honest' people?"

...

Astor looks behind Afton to Boone and Karl for help, but the latter just laughs at his plight while the former shrugs. "Ah, come on Afton, you almost bled me completely dry last time you were here... Shouldn't working simply to strengthen your country be enough?" he asks, causing Karl to laugh harder.

Afton shrugs, "As a Patriot, I need to keep my weaponry clean and stocked with ammo. I can't do that without caps. Plus, you'll be taking all of the credit for eliminating the Legion forces, I reckon there'd be a promotion or two on its way as well. What's that compared to some meaningless caps?"

...

Astor just releases a long, deep sigh and reaches for the pouch on his belt, tossing it at Afton. "There are 300 caps in there, that's all I got. No drinks or girls for this guy, thanks." he complains, but everyone present knows that regardless of his attitude, he's still grateful for the help.

Afton tosses the bag in the air a couple times to judge its weight before nodding. "Pleasure doing business with you, Sargeant." he drawls jovially.