New Tricks

Part 6 here: https://steemit.com/game/@olmech/atom-cats-garage

Rowdy had told me it would take three weeks for my power armor parts to arrive via caravan and this coming Tuesday morning would mark the end of my wait. It had taken me 10 days to get back to my home on the western edge of the Glowing Sea from the eastern shores of the Commonwealth. I had used the remaining days to catch up on my work bagging three nice radscorpions in the process. As night would come each day I had constructed my frame, hung the suit and had begun removing the old, rusty pieces that would give way to the items I had purchased from Rowdy. Unlike the suit I had worked on at her garage, none of the fasteners would simply back out with tools. Everything had to be cut apart with a torch. Eventually I had everything removed and had even found the time to sand and repaint the inner frame of the suit. All of the joints had been freed up and lubricated. All I needed now was the rest of this puzzle.

It was now Tuesday morning. Pops and I had brought the brahmin and a wagon down anticipating the arrival of my parts. We had no intention of lugging these things up the mountain a piece at a time. Shortly after the sun had been on the rise, we saw the caravan come into view. They must have my items because they had a total of four brahmin pack animals which was three more than usual. They also had an additional compliment of four armed guards for a total of six. As Pops and I walked out to meet the caravan the Trader spoke up and said,

"Boy have I got something for you!"

We immediately started to transfer the items from his brahmin to our wagon. After we finished, I tipped the Trader for his trouble and we parted ways. The Trader suddenly turned back towards us holding out an envelope saying,

"Here. Almost forgot this."

I took the envelope and opened it. Inside was a note from Rowdy. It read:

" I hope you remember how to put all this stuff together but if you run into any complications, just send word back with the caravan and I will come out to re-educate you Dumbass. Good luck and happy hunting." -Rowdy

I laughed aloud as we headed back to the house and admitted to myself that Rowdy had been occupying my thoughts quite a bit lately. She was easy on the eyes, tough and smart. The deck was surely stacked in her favor and I am confident she knows it.

I wasted no time getting started on the power armor after we got home. Everything bolted right up and even though the parts I had taken off were T-45 prewar items, the T-60 Atom Cats pieces bolted right on just like Rowdy said they would. After Pops and I had finished, we stepped away from the suit and just looked at it for a few minutes. It was an imposing sight to see. Everything about it exuded strength and power even though it was lifeless and had not been powered up.

Pops nodded his approval and with that I decided to bring this thing to life. I pulled a fusion core out of a box and plugged it in. The moment of truth was upon us. I grabbed the ring on the back to open the suit and was happy to see the thing responded to what I was doing. I climbed inside and closed the suit while the heads up display flickered to life in front of my face. I took a few steps and worked all my limbs through all the motions with no hiccups whatsoever. I then looked over at the crate with the gun, walked over and opened it with surprising delicacy. I had thought that this suit would encumber activity like this but was happy to see that was not the case. I picked the heavily modified minigun up and loaded an ammo drum into it. It was now time to test my new toy.

I immediately set out for the western edge of the glowing sea. I made my way down the well known path I frequently hunt down into the crater floor. The heads up display had been modded with a full time infra-red targeting array and I could see that I had not yet encountered anything. So I picked out some old cars and squeezed the trigger on the gun. The barrels quickly spun up and began to fire. The mangled car bodies that once were in front of me had simply disintegrated, flying into thousands of tiny pieces. A devilish grin crept across my face as I thought of the possibilities I now had at my disposal. A quick check of the radiation meter showed that the suit was sealed and I was immune to the deadly poison all around me. So I began to walk further into the crater than I had never been able to see from up on the ridge before. I soon found several old military sights and industrial complexes. I decided that I would forgo exploring them till a later date. Right now I wanted to make some of the money back I had spent on this suit.

I did not have long to wait for my opportunity as luck would have it. I crested a small ridge and found two Deathclaws fighting four Radscorpions. If the fight had been allowed to progress, the Radscorpions would most likely come out on the losing end of this even with their numerical advantage. I decided that the six of them were fine targets for my motorized wheel gun since they were so nicely clumped together. I squeezed the button and the minigun roared to life. There was no point in finely aiming this thing. You just have to point it in the right direction and hang on to it. In a matter of seconds I had not only killed these critters but they were in pieces. All I had to do is get what had worth and leave the rest. With one quick burst I had just claimed a bounty that I might not have won for a weeks worth of effort the old way.

I quickly gathered my prizes and then took a slightly wider path back home, drifting a little more to the south. I even found a Red Rocket out here...or what was left of one. I suppose there must have been one of these everywhere back in the old days. As I was taking in everything I was looking at, the thought occurred to me that all of this had been impossible for me to do just a few short hours earlier. This new trick I had picked up was going to pay off for me in a big, big way. I smiled again as I made my way home allowing myself to think of all the ways I was about to profit. Hell, I might buy the Commonwealth and send everyone somewhere else. Everyone except Rowdy perhaps...

More to come...

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