Chapter 464 - Laser Bomb?

After Afton leaves Tamia slumps against the table. She absolutely hated showing weakness to anyone, injuries were one thing, but grief? Especially for people who she'd never met? It felt like she was acting like a child.

Recent events had only hit her after dropping off Carlos at the apartments, it felt like a cold hand as gripped her heart and was trying to pull it out of her back. She was honestly a few insults away from breaking down into tears.​​

To fix this, she tried man's most common solution to problems... Alcohol and guns. The shooting range was pretty easy to find with that Glados robot giving directions, though, it did try to persuade her not to fire weapons while drinking. And by 'persuade' she meant spew a litany of incredibly creative insults that varied from her weight, looks, and mental capacity.

It was more funny than it was hurtful, so Tamia just ignored it all and started self-medicating with alcohol and the smell of gunpowder. That's when Afton comes strolling in like he owns the place... Which he probably does, and starts trying to get her to talk about her feelings or some shit.

She'd tried to be polite at first, but the fact he was treating her like she was fragile glass was aggravating to no end. She wasn't weak! She didn't need help! Just time to process everything.

Veronica had lost Christine, her lover and she seemed fine.

Boone had lost his wife and unborn child yet he seemed fine.

Even Afton who'd lost both his parents and been thrown out of the Brotherhood which for all intents and purposes was his family, acted fine. He seemed fine!

Then why was it so different for her? Someone who could kill a man without batting her eyes was now struggling to deal with her grief for people she'd never met.

...

Admittedly, she may have overreacted to Afton, biting his head off when he was trying to help... But what else did he expect? Suggesting that she might blow her own brains out!?... She had thought about it, but actually doing it never crossed her mind.

She'd be fine. She just needed to do something to make her forget about it. She was tempted to go find Caesar and show her dissatisfaction with him, but she knew what Afton was doing to him was probably worse than anything she could come up with.

Whatever, she'd apologize to Afton once she felt up to it...

Elsewhere :

Colonel Cassandra Moore walks around the utterly annihilated former wall belonging to the Legion. The melted metal remains and literally glassed sand promoted the theory that Parker and his group had dropped a nuclear bomb here.

The only problem with it however was the severe lack of Radiation. Had a nuke explode here they'd have easily been able to find the radioactive material, yet there was none, meaning something else must have done this.

"Any idea on what could have caused this, Professor?" she ask, thoroughly confused and worried about the weapons Parker had deployed here.

The scientist looks over the notes he and many of their researchers had compiled while inspecting the place, he slaps the corner of the paper with a glare, "It just does not make sense, all of the damage we have found indicates that it was caused by something akin to laser weapons." he exclaims with an exasperated expression.

Colonel Moore raises a brow, "You mean they detonated some kind of laser bomb?" she asks.

The scientist nods with a slight shrug, "Everything indicates so, it would also explain the lack of radiation in the area, as well as the lack of damage elsewhere."

She nods, "It would explain why a few of my guys were blinded by it."

"Indeed... It would be like being shot in the eyes by miniature lasers! Forgive me, but, are they still alive?"

Moore nods again, "They are. They said they saw a bright flash through their scopes and then pain."

"Would it be possible to contact Mr Parker? Technology like this has never been discussed, let alone built..."

She shakes her head, "He's an incredibly dangerous individual who, intentionally or not, crippled some of my best men. Add his other crimes and there is no chance of redemption for him, only the president might be able to do something, but I doubt he'd do that and risk the next election." he states.

The scientist looks disappointed but gives a solemn nod before leaving.

Moore looks to one of the nearby soldiers and gesture him closer, "Update Parker's file. The rest of the NCR needs to know the threat he poses. Hopefully they'll listen and not ignore it like all the other reports." she waves them off.

The higher-ups had basically called her a liar when she'd reported what Parker had done. They couldn't seem to believe that a man and a small unit of people could singlehandedly do what the NCR army could not.

Add the fact Moore wasn't sure how they escaped with Caesar in hand and the story becomes more and more unbelievable. From the radio chatter they'd picked up, it sounded like the Legion thought they had magic or something, being able to disappear at will.

The only other thing they'd managed to uncover was the fact Afton Parker and another unknown person had almost singlehandedly wiped out the Legion's forces in the Mojave... With impenetrable armour and powerful weaponry the Legion hadn't seen before (Which isn't saying much)... Moore felt like she was in some bad science fiction novel...

Despite all this though, there was still nothing she could do about Parker. She'd have to direct all of her forces to defend the canyon passage they'd managed to take from the Legion. Sparing any troops to try and attack Novac was a fool's errand, especially with how the Brotherhood of Steel had sprung up from nowhere and was now harassing the recently opened trade route.

The only boon was the fact the Great Khans had seemingly stopped all aggression out of nowhere... Which was a plus...

She sighs and shakes her head, "Send a couple Ranger squads to monitor Novac, I don't want to see a single thing leave without me knowing about it!"