Strangely enough, there wasn't anyone standing watch when we approach Sloan, Then again no one would think that someone was dumb enough to attack through NCR's territory. Despite the lack of soldiers guarding the road, one miner was standing on a chair drinking some beer without a care in the world.
As soon as he saw us, he grabs his rifle and points it toward us just in case we were some kind of raiders foolish enough to attack an NCR settlement by ourselves.
"That's far enough, lads. What business you two have here?"
Goris look at me, pleading with me with his eyes to answer the man since I was the one on good terms with the NCR. Even though I had no reason to let Goris do the talking due to what he was, it still felt strange having him look at me like that as if I was the reason we had a gun aimed at us.
"Actually sir, we are here to talk with the sergeant in charge of this town. "
"And for what purpose would you a young lad would want to meet the sergeant in charge? This smells like Legion assassination tactics."
Just as the miner was about to fire his gun, a familiar man wearing ranger armor walks on the road, shouting at the miner.
"Stand down Lewis! That boy is a friend of mine for Pete's sake."
Lewis threw the ranger a scoff before sitting back in his chair, leaving the ranger to take care of us. Meyer then took us away from the road, to a less populated corner of the mining settlement. As soon as we were far away from the miners, Meyer takes out his revolver and points it at Goris startling us.
"Give me a good reason as for why have you brought a fucking Deathclaw into this settlement or I swear to god I'll blow his head off."
"Well, human, our mutual friend here was kidnapped by my daughter and because I'd rather not have your army marching into my home killing everyone dear to me, I choose to follow Dante and talk with your superiors as well as to apologize for that misunderstanding."
Despite being a ranger, Meyer took a step back, eyes wide open staring back in shock at Goris. Never in his life would have he thought that he would one day talk with a deathclaw, and yet here he was standing just a meter away from one, listening to him talking. For a second he thought that he went mad, but when he heard Goris talking once again, he finally accepted that maybe just maybe the NCR was wrong about these creatures.
"I've told you that those people would fear me."
"It's not fear beast. I do not fear death, but I'm neither a fanatic to fight something like you. Now tell me, boy, what the fuck happened in the past couple of days."
Since there was no point lying, I told Meyer everything that happened, minus a few less important things, mostly about Violet. By the time, I finished my story about how I have meet Goris, Meyer has already put his revolver back, finding the whole thing crazy more than anything.
"Look, Dante, even though I've got back some of my authority, thanks to you, I'm still in no place to settle this conflict between the NCR and the Deathclaws that live inside the Quarry junction. Frankly, the only one who could do it is the general himself, but knowing how that piece of shit, he would rather kill all of your pack than accept a truce. "
"You know the general, Meyer?"
"I was stripped of my authority because of that asshole. He ordered me to take one hundred and fifty troopers and capture a bloody forward camp of the legion, a camp that had three times more legionnaires than I had troopers. It was a bloodbath and sadly only I and thirty-seven men and women made it out alive. Since this operation was led by me, I become the one to take the blame while Oliver fucking Lee become the good guy since he apparently told me that it was a suicidal mission, but I ignored him. That's the kind of leader we have made all of the decisions in this hell."
"In the end, there's no hope for a peaceful solution is it?"
"Look, I don't like your kind, not many people do, but I can understand your side now that I've realized that you aren't just a mindless killing machine. However, as I said before there is nothing I could do to help you two out. If the general wants your pack dead, he would muster hundreds of soldiers to make sure that none of your pack leaves this desert alive. He's willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives for a fucking medal. But there's a way, one that doesn't exactly appear in the manual, but one that would ensure …"
As Meyer was talking, something exploded a few kilometers southeasts of where we were, rising up in the sky as a mushroom cloud. This was the first time I'd seen such a big explosion, and yet rather than being scared or dumbfounded by what I was seeing, I somehow felt that I should go there, alone if possible.
Unfortunately for me, I doubt Goris and even Meyer would let me check that place alone, which in the end might be for the best since god knows what could be waiting for someone there. Just as I was about to turn around and run towards the explosion, Goris grabbed I should stopping me in place.
"I know that you are young, but that's not a place you want to be anywhere near, believe me."
"The deathclaw's right kiddo. That was a fucking mini-nuke going off, and considering the ban on those things, the only ones who have access and use them like that are the Legion. Not even those tin cans are that stupid to bring back the weapon that almost ended the world."
"If that's true then we have to see what happened there! What if the legion somehow managed to get a force big enough to conquer most of the area and that was just the beginning?"
My question shut Meyer, but that didn't stop the ranger from contacting his men, telling them to gather at the roadblock. Even if that was just an accidental explosion, it was better to check and find that out than to ignore it and possibly be attacked.
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