Part 18: Non-Violent Solutions

Update 18: Non-Violent Solutions



I had to restrain a considerable amount of sarcasm talking to Zaius. My tongue hurt for days afterward.

"That's me. I heard you were having some trouble with the mines."

"Our air purifier's broken. It's on the bottom level. We've got no parts, and we've got no protective equipment. Without the parts, we can't fix it. Without the protection, the radon gas'll nail us. Are you any good with your hands?"

"I'm all right, I guess… if you just want me to replace the whole part I can probably do that."

"You're going to have to, because I'm sure as hell not going in there."



"equipment for the gas. I suppose you could go in without any but you'll be hurting. Again, thank you."

"This is going to suck."



Typhon had another request when I stopped by to see him. I… I didn't know what to say. So I just left. At least I was already going to New Reno. How the hell did you even shop for something like that? Was I going to have to buy it at the same store I was getting the mine purifier parts?



"I've found those missing people. They're in the tunnels beneath the city."

"What are they doing the…oh. Damn. I'll tell the families myself. Hey, I know you said you'd do it for free but I've got this hunting rifle…"

"Thanks. Almost makes me wish I didn't already have one."

It was taking me forever to work my way out of town. I still had one more stop.



"Say, Eric asked me to adjust the power ration to his house. He said that he's sweating too much."

"Eric wants more power? Eric can't HAVE more power. This is a very delicate balance of energy we run through here, and if Eric gets more power, then the hospital shuts down. Or the lights. Or the mine. We can't have that."

"Oh, bullshit. If this machine is running on uranium slugs, you have more than enough power to fill this place and New Reno and not even notice the drain. Besides, Eric used to work here so I think he'd know if it was possible."

"You don't have to be mean about it. There. Please tell him to stop complaining."

"You're all heart, big guy."

This method actually requires a fair bit of science and/or intelligence to pull off. I'll talk about the other method later, but you can also just decide to let Eric continue to stink.



Finally free, we hopped into the car for the short trip over to New Reno. There were actually a few old roads to make the trip easier, but the country was still pretty rough.



So was the town. I didn't see any point in trying to park my car neatly between the lines, since it wasn't like anybody else was going to try and park.



New Reno was the first place we really went to that still had most of its buildings left over from before the war. It was completely different, and much more imposing than anywhere else we'd been to. It wasn't that hard to find to find Renesco, since everybody in town seemed to know him.



"You know, there are decaf brands that taste just as good as the real thing."

"Name's Renesco. Just tell me what it is you want you… well, whatever it is you are. You look like one of those sun-worshipping primitives under all of that get-up."

"Close, but no cigar. We never saw the point of worshipping a flaming ball of gas."

"Worship make Grampy Bone uncomfortable. We and I just has good conversations with him and they."

"Er… yeah, anyway, we're here for some mine parts for Broken Hills."



"Zaius told me to tell you that the canary's kicked the bucket."

"And the second part…?"

"Second part? He didn't say anything about a second part, that son of a bitch!"

"Heh. Just testing you. Or screwing with you. Hard to tell sometimes. Here's the parts."

"Doc, you're alright."

"While we're talking, you seem like you're pretty educated… any idea where I could find a GECK?"



"Yes!"

"No."

"..okay… how about a blow up doll?"

"Get the fuck out of my store."



"Told you not to leave the keys in the ignition."

"There weren't any keys! The whole thing was jury rigged."

"There be eyes everywhere, fren… someone must have seen."

"I don't agree with Sulik often, but he's right… there's a guy standing right over there who must have seen the whole thing."



"And who are you?"

"Name's Jules, and I would be MOST pleased to make your acquaintance, show you around, and set you up with whatever you're looking for."

"Jules, what I'm looking for is my car. I parked it here like twenty minutes ago, and now it's gone."



I.. uh… I might have lost my temper a bit talking to Jules. Sulik and Cassidy had to hold me back for a minute. It all ended up okay, with him leading me to my car.



They had a full featured garage with an oil pit and everything. I was kind of impressed. A crowd of thugs were crowded around the car admiring it, but I pushed past them into the office. I just wanted my car back.



"Where did you get that Highwayman? I like the look of it."

"The Highwayman outside? Damn RIGHT you like the look of her. THat's one sweet machine, a recent acquisition… we're just about to spruce her up, make some adjustments, then sell her off to ol' man Bishop."

"Adjustments? What kind of adjustments?"

"Jazz up the engine, clean out the interior, put a brass rope around the license plate - and kick some of that shit outta the trunk, make some room. When we're done, it'll be worth some serious chips to Mr. Bishop."

"Might be worth some serious chips to me first, and I'm right here. How's a flat 1000 sound?"



"No juice? It was at three-foot…wait, aren't the amenities included in the price?"

"Shit no, man. That 1000 chips is just for the car. I'll need some more cash for the rest of the work."

"500 chips, and I'll wait right here until you're done."



"All done, man, take her away!"

"Thanks T-Ray. And…"



"That was for stealing my car, asshole."



I was honestly expecting a bit more of a fight from the chop shop boys, but they scattered and started running almost immediately. I knew that I couldn't trust them not to steal the car back again and try to sell it the second I turned my back, so I just kept shooting.



After that, we drove back to Broken Hills and started cleaning up loose ends. Eric was grateful enough for the fix to his power that he told me about a guy who was betting a power fist for an arm wrestling prize and offered me some BuffOut so I could win, but I asked for cash instead.



After that I went over to the mine officer. I was tempted to press Zaius about the note, but I figured the last thing I wanted to do was spook him when I was about to go into a place as dangerous as a mine. I still didn't have protective equipment, so I was going to have to be quick.



I told everyone else to stand by and wait outside while I went in, with a set of stimpacks in one of my hands. I was hoping the chemicals in the stims would keep me going in the toxic environment of the mine.



I immediately found my revolver to be far more useful, as the entire place was full of ants. I could hear other things skittering off in dark corners, but the ants were the most prevalent…they really had a serious ant problem in Broken Hills.



I had to pop a few stims and pop about a half dozen ants, but eventually I made it to the air purifier. Even for my limited tech skills at the time it was a pretty simple matter to swap out the two modules.



It's a bit unfortunate that this level comes with all of our companions waiting outside, as it means that they don't get a chance to level up. Points go into Small Guns and Lockpick this time around… and with that we've got enough Lockpick to get us through just about any door in the game, if we use the proper tools.



On the way out of the mine I stumbled upon what I first thought was a miner who'd been overcome by the gas, but the fact that he'd been laying there long enough to have an inch of dust on top of him seemed a bit odd…



But not as odd as the fact that he got up as soon as I walked closer to him. When I told him about the New California Republic he screamed something about New California and how the world had changed, and then ran of screaming.



Zaius expressed his thanks with a beautifully chromed out high-tech automatic shotgun, which I gave to Cassidy. I was moved enough that I decided to ask Francis about the conspiracy first.



"You can talk about this note I found with your name on it on some dead bodies down in the tunnels."

"Damn it, Zaius left notes lying out again, eh? Well human, let me tell you this: I knew there are people trying to kill mutants in this town, and I knew that Marcus would only arrest them with evidence. I just wanted to make it happen with as little bloodshed as possible."

"You call a dozen dead people the minimum amount of bloodshed? If those people hadn't done anything they were innocent."



"This way you're still nothing more than a criminal and a murderer - and I only have your word that there's a conspiracy."

"Boss, what about the guys who tried to recruit you into their conspiracy?"

"Dammit Vic, he's trying to make a point here."

"If you talked to some of the people in town about your hatred of mutants, you'd find out about the conspiracy. I know two wrongs don't make a right, but I call it self-defense. I did something wrong, and I admit it. I can't stay here. I'll set out to find a way to atone for my actions… that satisfy your sense of justice?"

"I guess it'll have to. The alternative is us killing you right here, and I don't really want to do that."



Zaius was a lot calmer about it, but he also didn't appear to feel that he'd done anything wrong. He seemed to mostly feel that Francis was the prime mover, and for all I knew he was right. I had a feeling that with the two biggest firebrands in the conflict out of the picture things would calm down.



With everything pretty well taken care of in town, I figured that Marcus might be willing to take a vacation. Having someone his size to help out in the wastes would have been really useful.



He seemed to have an issue with traveling with so many people, and when I thought about cramming him, Sulik, Cassidy, and Vic into the Highwayman I could kind of see his point.



Since we were friends now, I went into his house and went through the shelves. I really didn't want to know anything about why he had a blow-up doll, but Typhon had asked for one, so...



When we gave it to Typhon I didn't even want to hear about how long he thought he'd need with it. Instead, I just put my hands over my ears as we walked away and decided to come back the next day.



"I don't think we have to go that far. Who's holding?"

"Ya got me kid. Here, I'll turn it over if there's treasure involved."

"Well then… I was going to ask for a plant, but I'll give you a break."



"thinkin' I should put it somewhere that wasn't likely to be torn down or plowed over. Somewhere indispensable, ya' know? Good luck to you."

"That's… pretty damn vague, but okay. At least I know it's not in the tunnels or the mine."



After a bit of poking around I found what looked like a fairly well concealed treasure cache, but in trying to get at the brick I accidentally ended up knocking it down the well. Things were a bit tight there, so I needed a bit of help.



Luckily help was standing by, about twenty feet from the well. I'm a bit surprised he didn't come over to look when he saw me messing around with the well.



"Keep going, Short Round."

"I'm opening the sack. It's… it's beautiful! It's so shiny! It's… it's… Uh oh…"

"Uh oh? You said Uh oh. Why did you say Uh oh?"



"Freakin' bottlecaps?!"

"That's a pisser, ain't it kid? Well, better luck next time. Get me out of here!"

"That bastard old ghoul tricked me! He just wanted me to waste my time running around so he could laugh at me!"

"Uh… friend? A little help here?"

"He knew I'd spent hours… no, DAYS, running all over creation to find that crap he wanted just so he could have a good giggle!"

"Uh… look. There's a large multi-legged thing down here that I'd like to get away from. Could ya hurry up?"

"Typhon should have known that caps were useless these days… shouldn't he?"



Eventually I decided that Typhon was just senile. Any way you looked at it I was done with Broken Hills, although I was still thinking of ways I could get Marcus to join us. That mini gun looked like it'd be damn handy in a fight.