Part 33: The Legend Continues

Update 33: The Legend Continues



"Well… this is nicer than I expected. Kind of like NCR or Vault City without the closed in feeling."

"Almost feels like you might get a parking ticket for leaving the car here."

"What the hell's a parking ticket?"

"Something they did before the war… if you parked your car in the wrong place the cops would make you pay a fine."

"Damn. Don't ever talk about that in Vault City or they'll find some way to apply it even if nobody has a car."

"Then they all come after us because we got the only car around."



"Do you know anything about flying machines hauling a bunch of tribal villagers through here?"



None of the boats the locals had could go far enough to get to where the flying machines had went, but the shop owner helpfully directed me to an old tanker ship on the docks.



In addition to being so helpful, he also had a ton of cash on hand and ammunition for sale, which given the way Marcus was chewing through ammo with that Bozar was a welcome sight.



Across the street an ancient doctor had set up shop. The old geezer had actually taught the guy in Broken Hills. Since I knew his student he offered me a discount next time I needed to get patched up… as well as a history lesson. I could see where Doc Holliday has gotten it.



If I'd felt any connection to the government from before the war I might have been outraged that their enemies had moved onto our soil and set up shop, but once the nukes started flying I think that most of that really stopped mattering.



"Geeze, the one place where people remember the Master and he still can't get a break. Not like he was even looking this far out."

"He would have been. Besides, they seem to be doing a lot better here than in many places I've seen."



Tucked away behind the doctor's office was a weapon and armor shop, which was one way of guaranteeing job security. The owner was just as eager to talk as the proprietor of Flying Dragon 8.



"Grampy Bone say it sound like this Lo Pan gonna go blind if he keeps it up."

"Yeah, be careful if you fight that guy. You don't know where his hands have been."



If I'd known that I could just walk into a store and buy some power armor, I'd have been a lot less tempted to fight a horde of heavily armed mutants to get some. Trading in a fraction of the extra weapons and armor I was carrying was enough to pay for a suit for Cassidy, since Sulik was tough enough that he would be okay in advanced combat armor even if he was going in to the front lines...



And to pay for something for Sulik. He looked like a kid getting a birthday present when I handed him that power hammer. I can still remember the giant grin that spread across his face, even all these years later.



Down the street a pair of martial artists were swapping insults, but wouldn't quite come to blows. That they'd set up a fighting ring in the middle of the city said a lot about how the Shi thought. They'd put a lot of work into it.



We watched for a few minutes, and then a familiar and very out of place looking building caught my eye. The same one we'd seen in Klamath all those months ago, once again with a guy in metal armor standing out front.



"those who we felt deserved it and had the wisdom to properly use it."

"Yeah, I've heard you guys were kind of pricks about that. So what happened to make you say 'at one time'?"

"Several months ago we came across a group known as the Enclave. Much to our surprise their level of technology surpassed even our own. We found this quite disturbing and considered contacting them. However, we decided on a more cautious course of action until we could determine exactly who the Enclave was, and the underlying purpose of their organization."

"During which time they've been destabilizing New Reno, abducted the people out of a sealed Vault, and, oh yes, kidnapped my village… except for the ones that they didn't kill. Great job there, guys."

"And that's just what we know of. I think the Brotherhood's gone soft since the old days."



"So did you ever get answers to your questions about the Enclave?"



"Already knew that much, but thanks for the review. More importantly, why are you telling me?

"The Enclave has developed vertibird technology, flying machines that allow them to move deeply into surrounding territories. Without similar technology to counter this threat, the Brotherhood would be unable to stop an invasion launched by the Enclave. We need to have vertibird technology, or a viable count to it, for ourselves."

"I really don't like where this is going."



"All I need is for someone to infiltrate the base, steal the plans, and bring them here to me."

"And I've got 'sucker' written on my forehead?"

"Well, you did believe us when we said that you'd gotten a ranger tattoo…"



"Now we don't have the resources at our disposal to deal with the Enclave. We need your help. I am prepared to make you this offer. Perform this mission for me and I will grant you access to out facility here. THe best of the Brotherhood technology will be made available to you, exclusively. What do you say?"

"Considering that you've just told me that the technology you're giving me isn't as good as the stuff at the place I'm infiltrating I must be an idiot, but I'll do it. It's not like I don't already have a reason to pick a fight with them."



"Any suggestions on this, since it is a military base? They're not exactly easy to get into."

"It's a new base and they don't have all their personnel yet, so our source says they're used to getting new recruits. Just go in there alone and tell them you're a new arrival. They'll probably balk if you try to bring in your whole entourage, but they could probably wait a short distance away for you to come out."

"Wait a minute, if you've already got a source inside then why do I need to go in?"

"Yeah, about that… her reports stopped recently. So you might want to be a bit careful going in there."



Before leaving for the Enclave base I dropped in to see the Dragon, since he was a man whose hand I could shake without wondering where it had been. He needed one more person to break the deadlock between him and Lo Pan.



I was convinced I was that person, but he wanted to watch me fight his students before I could go challenge Lo Pan. Something tells me that Lo Pan would have been just as happy to point me in the Dragon's direction without any kind of test.



And that's how I once again found myself stripped to my vault suit, fighting people in a ring. To make things more complicated, the Dragon had requested that none of these fights would be to death. That presented a bit of a dilemma...



But I used my knowledge of medicine to come up with one area I could hit them that would almost certainly not kill anybody.

The head, eyes, and torso can all instantly kill someone with a good crit, and we're unfortunately likely to do that. Arms and legs don't disable enemies, but a good groin hit can put someone on the ground immobile. You REALLY don't want to kill anyone in this section, because this is one of the buggiest areas in the game. It's likely to crash unpredictably, and if you kill one enemy it stops removing opponents at the end of matches. It's not impossible to find yourself with four or five enemies trying to fight you if you screw it up.



It worked like a charm, too. Turns out that those boxing gloves were actually holding me back considerably compared to what I could do with my bare knuckles.




In fact, I managed to win both of my first two fights against nearly identical looking opponents the exact same way before I started to feel that it was perhaps a bit unsporting.



After that I started breaking limbs, although that really didn't slow some of them down a whole lot...



In repayment, Herb went ahead and decided to see how much I would like a taste of my own medicine. I didn't.



After that I started kicking them in the groin, then starting to break limbs while they were collapsed on the ground holding their nuts. Hey, they said 'anything goes' and I took them at their word.



By the time I got to the final fight I was dealing with people nearly as dangerous with their hands as I was, and there was no way I was going to get away without some kind of injury.



Luckily for both me and my opponents there were some amazing doctors and medical technology in San Francisco. I didn't WANT to cripple these guys for life, but it wasn't easy to go easy, if you know what I mean.



Eventually the Dragon himself came out to face me, and I gave him my best shot...



Which led to him getting right back up and giving me his. It came down to a question of who could take the most punches, and that wasn't really a question.



After the Dragon was finally able to talk, he gave me his blessing to challenge Lo Pan. He didn't say anything about whether or not I should kick him in the groin.



So I faced off against Lo Pan, a man who was a serious enough martial artist that half of San Francisco followed him out of respect for his skills. He'd probably forgotten more about fighting than I'd learned, but there was one thing he'd never heard of:



A man called Ironhand Luke who'd punched three men to death becoming the boxing champion of New Reno.