Part 27: Flying High

Update 27: Flying High



The first thing we did after I joined the Wright Family was stop by Eldridges Weapon Store to use my new clout to get some of the firepower we'd originally come to New Reno for. Mentioning the Wright name produced an instant attitude change and a new selection.



The biggest part of his special selection was Big Guns, but I didn't have 10-15 grand to throw around and wasn't likely to anytime soon.



So we came back later that night after Eldridge had gone to bed to help ourselves to a better discount. It's amazing how little something like that bothers you after you've killed 3/4 of a town.



Unfortunately it didn't go nearly as well as I hoped.

"Not my jurisdiction, not my jurisdiction…"

"Hey, he shot first. This was clearly self defense."

"Would this.. uh.. 'Bozar' make you feel better?"

"It shouldn't, but yes, yes it would."

"Alright everybody, load up."

"You know man, we got a trunk in da car for a reason."

For those who aren't familiar with it, the Bozar is widely considered to be the apex of Big Guns in Fallout 2. It fires a 15 round burst of .223 ammunition for 25-35 per shot, with the huge damage resistance and AC reduction properties of the ammunition firmly intact.



Underneath Eldridge's shop was a cluttered mess of a junk and crates creating narrow pathways.



It even came complete with a mentally deficient gunsmith who wanted desperately to get his hands on anything he could slap a scope, speed loader, or other enhancement to. Eldridge had been taking advantage of the kid to build his business.

"Still feel bad about gacking him?"

"Not in the least."



He took a positively maniacal glee in working on weapons, so I let him upgrade everything he seemed to find interesting and then left him to tinker. I let one of the Wrights know about him later just to make sure he wouldn't starve.

One peculiarity of Algernon is that if you give him a weapon empty he'll return it loaded. This is an easy way to get large quantities of certain types of ammunition and energy cells, especially 5mm bullets. And yes, you can kill Algernon by shooting him with an invisible gun but that would be a dick thing to do.



There was also an electronic lock pick and a few other odds and ends stowed in a refrigerator. I was going to have to go back to a few of the locks that had frustrated me so much before.



We spent the next few days resting and healing after all the shooting. There was still at least one Family stronghold that we needed to stop in and visit to prevent problems from cropping up later.



We headed up to the Stables that evening to take out the Mordino's Jet production facilities.



They'd evidently gotten the news about our visit to the Mordino headquarters and started shooting on sight. I brought my new Plasma Rifle (freshly upgraded by Algernon) to test it out. The results were… gruesome. Picking money and items out of a pool of liquidated human remains isn't fun.



The slaves were smart enough to stay at the fringes of the room as we cleared out the overseers and the scientists who were conducting the experiments. A couple of them got caught in the crossfire, but sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles.



Most of the scientists took off running for their lives, but my curiosity was piqued when one of them didn't even bother to look up from her task despite the amount of gunfire and explosions that had occurred literally right outside her door.



"Excuse me, but… who are you?"

"Marjorie Reed. I don't recognize you. Are you one of the experiment drones?"

"If that'll help you sleep better at night."

"…what do you know about pharmaceutical research?"

"I know a fair amount about the composition and manufacture of base neurochemical compounds, and I think I could be of some assistance in your studies."

"Good. I seem to be short a few workers lately. Let me give you a rundown on our work on the effects and potency of Jet."

"Wait, you mean it's not potent enough?"



"Was this where Jet was developed? Did you come up with it?"

"No, Myron did all the groundwork for Jet's composition. We do mostly clean-up work."

"Is Myron your boss?"

"You could call it that. He's a smart one, I'll give him that, but he doesn't care much about what goes on up here. He mostly stays in the basement vault… no visitors except for the train of prostitutes. Typical project leader."

"How do I become a project leader?"

"Could I see him? I think it'd help me get a better a handle on Jet."

"I suppose. Here, take this pass and show it to the guards downstairs."



I don't think it will shock you to hear that the guards didn't even bother to look at our pass.



"Yeah, they're a bit too busy being dead. Sorry about that."

"God-DAMN it! I told Jesus those two morons couldn't guard a stone! So uh, you iced them, huh? Gonna kill me, too?"

"Out of curiosity, did you mean Big Jesus or Little Jesus? Because they're both Dead Jesus now."

"Relax. I probably won't kill you, unless you do something stupid. You Myron?"



"Myron, my patience isn't running very long these days so can the insults. Also, bullshit. You didn't make Jet."

"I did so make Jet! What, you think this lab is for show?"

"Okay, maybe you did. Why, though?"

"Why? 'Cause I could. Family Mordino needed a product, Myron makes a product, Mordino makes Myron happy… at least as happy as they're able. Nice lil' circle o' love, huh?"

"What part o' de circle makes you call yourself on a first name?"

"I'd love to watch you and they give a class about grammar."

"Anyway, how'd you make Jet?"



"I think you'd be surprised about who much I know about your amateurish hallucinogenic-amphetamine hybrid. I'm not convinced a child like you didn't just stumble across it,Myron."

"Okay, so we add a pharmaceutical book to the laser physics and detective novel in the library…"

"Amateurish? Ama-amateurish?! Jet's pur genius, and don't you forget it! And I didn't stumble across it, I made it!"

"You still haven't explained how yet. Show me."

"Two words: brahmin shit.

"As a fertilizer to grow the Jet crop, right? What about it?"



"Not exactly. I just pick this stuff up. It's pretty easy, really."

"Yeah, keep mouthing off, smarts. I could oxidize circles around you. I'm a natural. Self-taught. None of that bullshit Vault City purer-than-thou 'tude, see?"

"I'm pretty sure you just misused the word oxidize. So how would you cure an addiction to Jet?"



"Myron, you'r pretty smart. Consider it a challenge. What would it take to make a cure for Jet?"

"Ah for fuck's sake, it can't be done, all right? It's a goddamn drug, not a bacterial infection."

"It's basically a highly habitual meta-amphetamine, right? Couldn't you use a nervous system suppressant to break the reliance?"



"What about using some kind of endorphin blocker? That would repress the chemical and psychological addiction, wouldn't it?"

"Is anybody else just completely fucking lost at this point?"

"YES."

"Well… maybe it would work, but I'm pretty sure Jet would just chew right through that shit. Now wh-wh-why the hell are we've even talking about this?! Wh-where would you get your hands on endorphins blockers anyway?"

"Where would you, Myron? You're a bright guy."



"You'd be surprised what I can pull out of Vault City, but that's enough of that. I think I've got the information I need."

And with that, we left him alone with his dead guards and a hooker train that was going to start to leave the station now that the Mordinos were dead. It was going to suck to be Myron shortly.

As you might guess, you can actually recruit Myron. He's not very good, but you can do it. I'll cover his stats in another update.



We had to fight our way out of the other building when we came up, but after that the last bastion of Mordino strength was broken in the New Reno area. I have a feeling it took Marjorie a while to realize that her funding had stopped.



After that, it was time to leave… the entire point of this had been to get ahold of some better hardware to raid Vault 15, and by now we were more than ready.