In order to show he was serious, Franklin stepped out of the van. To show he wasn’t weak, he had four shells step out of the back of the van. After consuming the materials from the police station, he now had an extra 100% of the nanites needed to make his body. He could create a second copy of his consciousness and have his twin walk the wasteland if he wanted. Such a thing might have been tempting as it would save a lot of time fixing this world, but he wasn’t ready.
Franklin met the gang leader on the other side of the fence. Much of the prison had fallen into disrepair since the war, but the twin fences that blocked the outside world remained intact. The doctor would have been impressed if it wasn’t compromised by 200 years of decay. He reached a hand out for the chain wires and pulled a section of the fence apart. It had only taken slightly more strength than the average human man had to draw, and the doctor made it look easy.
“Hey! Quit that,” Eddie yelled, raising his energy gun.
“Or what? You will try and kill me. Dooming your gang to a slow death at the hands of the NCR or a painful death being slaves for the Legion,” Franklin said.
Eddie scowled at Franklin. He had been displaying a great deal of anger and frustration at the doctor ever since he joined the crowd. Franklin’s arrival had thrown a wrench in his plans for the NCR, and word was quickly spreading about Nipton among his gang. The doctor had made him seem weak, and now he needed to reassert control over the panicking convicts.
“What are you selling, courier?” Eddie chidded.
“Exactly what I said. I saved a few other members of your gang in Nipton from the horrors the Legion inflicted upon them. I can prevent them from doing the same to you all. You just need to accept my deal,” Franklin said. He had told the crowd what he was offering, but Eddie must have thought the doctor had a different angle.
“Then spell it out for us. I am getting tired of looking at your face already,” Eddie said. His hostility was understandable, but it still gave Franklin an unfavorable impression of the man.
“I want your gang to break up. No more Powder Gangers. At the same time, a company will be formed and hire all the old members of the Powder Gangers. It will operate officially as a legitimate business, running caravans, owning land, and conducting trade with local or distant settlements,” Franklin said.
“You want us to go legit? That's your plan? You must be a fucking idiot if you think the NCR will accept that,” Eddie said.
“They will. The NCR is desperate right now. With the Legion pushing west from the Colorado River, they are making it difficult for caravans to make it to New Vegas. Your gang is blocking the only other way north. They are not giving up on New Vegas, so they will either push the Legion back or wipe you guys out,” Franklin crossed his arms. Sooner or later, someone will come to squash them, and their chances are not good.
“Well then, the NCR is shit out of luck then. Death Claws have taken over Quarry Junction and now block the road north, not us,” Eddie said.
“What about the route around Goodspring?” Franklin asked. He didn’t know what a Deathclaw was, but it didn’t sound good.
“Way I hear it, all manner of wildlife has been pushed that way from the quarry by the Deathclaws. And that area is Great Khan’s territory. Caravans aren’t safe there either,” Eddie said.
“Then the Deathclaws will need to be cleared out,” Franklin said, not knowing the significance of that statement.
“HA! You really are an idiot. Sure, just go kill a whole nest of Deathclaws. Good fucking luck with that,” Eddie and a few other of the convicts started to laugh.
Everything dies when you put a few holes in its vital organs. Well, mostly everything. Franklin had lost their attention, and now the gang was laughing at him. He had made a critical mistake underestimating these Deathclaws, and now all the work on intimidating them had disappeared.
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The good news is that if these Deathclaws are as scary as they say, then bringing back a few trophies will tip the scales back in his favor. All that needed to be done was collect them.
____________
“For once, I might have underestimated this world.”
He had unfairly believed their reliance on vacuum tubes and being culturally stuck in the 1950s meant the world was somewhat weak and underdeveloped. Looking at the creatures that stalked the Quarry with a drone had changed that.
Franklin had driven his van along the cliffs and skipped the main road to the southwestern side of the quarry.
These Deathclaws definitely lived up to the name. Ten to thirteen feet tall with dark green scaled skin. Long tails with spikes down their spines. Claws that were a foot long. Franklin thought they looked like mini Godzillas.
Dozens of these creatures wandered the quarry, denting or tearing apart mining equipment and using it to build nests. Two of these Deathclaws had a different look. One was a sizeable fourteen-foot-tall beast with long horns. His scales were solid black, and his tail was twice as long as the others. There were two of these variants. He would call them Emperors.
The following unique Deathclaws looked similar to the Emperor's, except they had a red undertone to their scales and bright red eyes. This one slept in a nest made of broken machinery, wood, and corpses of humans and animals. He would call this one the Empress.
His drones managed to capture footage of two Deathclaws fighting. They clawed and smacked each other around, but the environmental damage showed their true strength. They could crush cars, tear apart steel, and throw massive tires. The strongest creature he had seen was the giant scorpion the size of a cow. Without even conducting an autopsy, he could tell that pre-war scientists made these monsters. Now that they were loose, they have claimed the title of Apex Predator of the Wasteland.
There were twenty-five of the standard variety Deathclaws, two Emperors, and one Empress. Franklin actually had to think about this. His current firepower needed to be improved to defeat these creatures. They also had the advantage in numbers and speed. Franklin would be swarmed if he tried to use the mail van as a combat platform.
Left with little choice, it was time for escalation in deadly nanite warfare. Franklin sent the drones around to look for raw materials he could use to fabricate his new weapon.
Soon, the drones found something that shouldn’t be used for materials. Humans around the Quarry. He didn't know how he missed them, but a small group of buildings were on the road to the Quarry. They dressed in overalls, and the equipment in their buildings suggested they must have been part of the mining crew that operated the Quarry before the Powder Gangers revolt.
There was another group making camp nearby. Three people sat around a campfire with bed rolls overlooking the mine. One of them had the same twin mohawk haircut as the cannibal gang. He wasn't going to assume they were a part of the same group, but he was still wary.
His nanites tore apart much of the plant life and some old buildings around the area. They even found a big hole with some ruined cars and a semi-truck trailer. The raw materials were brought back to the van and sent through a fabricator. The process would take a few hours before everything was ready.
Franklin spent some time studying these incredible atomic-age dinosaurs. They were the product of rigorous testing by some unknown pre-war scientists. He was impressed with how they created such an astonishing killing machine. It was unfortunate they had forgotten one thing. Ever since mankind threw the first stone, we have learned the value of fighting from a distance.
With his best army sergeant accent, Dr. Franklin spoke aloud to himself. “Boy, I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like… Victory”
He created two giant flying drones with flame throwers. They also had their own speaker systems and flew to Quarry Junction, blasting Ride of the Valkyries along the way. Was it a cliche? Yes. Did the doctor love cliches? You bet he did.
Attracted by the sounds of music, the Deathclaws began to rush out of the Quarry to the drones. They flew around thirty feet in the air. Once they had grouped up to stare at the drones, he unleashed fire on the group. With the material gathered from the native plant life and some refinement, he had easily made napalm. The sticky substance stuck to the Deathclaws and continued to burn them even as they rolled around in the dirt.
They were smart murder machines. They quickly spread out and ran for cover. Those that were burning tried to smother the flames by burying themselves in the dirt. Others began to grab small boulders and throw them at the flying drones.
“The intelligence of these creatures is incredible. They are even adapting to an unfamiliar enemy with unknown tactics, or at least I assume they haven’t fought flamethrower-equipped drones before,” Franklin stated for his records. These creatures might not have human-level intelligence, but it might not be hard to breed a variety that is close. Perhaps someone has already done that. Perhaps he might do that.
The Deathclaws put up a good fight, nearly knocking both drones out of the sky, but Franklin had included enough redundant nanites to repair them. Unable to deal lasting damage, the Deathclaws died slowly, with their flesh charring and cracking due to the flames. Those that survived retreated into the Quarry. No doubt they would regroup with the Empress and Two Emperors. The Empress had a nest inside of a wall. This meant his drones would need to fly low to aim at them, but it would bring the drones into melee range.
“What to do? Hmmm. Might as well get some combat data for the shells,” Franklin noted, driving the mail van forward. He was on the southern edge overlooking the Quarry. Several excavators, draglines, and conveyor systems were used to crush and move rocks around. His scans showed that most of this pre-war equipment might actually still work. If the NCR could repair these machines, that spoke volumes for their capability.
A quick search of his memories confirmed something he had heard in passing but wasn’t paying attention to: the NCR actually moved the stone mined here along old railways. Did they have trains? If they are moving all the way to California, the tracks must be in working condition and probably maintained.
Another mark for the NCR. Franklin liked them a thousand times better than any other faction so far. They seemed to be as flawed as any other government from his world, but that didn’t mean people weren’t trying to fix it. Perhaps they only need the help of one grey-goo scientist.