Crossfire

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

@Gurren1

Where would the Vault be located on the map? In the Crimson Wings territory? I'm assuming thats where we're all headed to eventually.

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

@CloseEnough

Travis looked over the duo. They both seemed on the up-and-up. He nodded.
"Brick's in the bar, follow me"

Brick was finishing off a meal of noodles and what passed for beer in these parts. He wiped his mouth and began speaking to his dinner companion.
"So George, down to business, shall we?" He took out the pistol and spare mag "First off, a free clip, as we discussed, the gun's topped off too. Let's see... well the major work was the barrel, you pull back the slide there, you'll see its been replaced with a piece of old world piping I got from a Vault up north. Took her apart, cleaned her up, replaced a few parts, like the firing pin, and hammer lock, shined up everything else to look like new. Left the scratches, like you asked. That gun'll treat your family good for generations to come. We threw in the tag job too, check out the bottom there, under the barrel"

He turned the gun over to show the engraving placed n the underside of the pistol 'Cantwell Family's Legacy'

"Now comes the unfortunate talk of payment" Brick continued "Job like this, premium care and top-shelf parts, plus the labor costs, I have it figured at around 275, but I like you, so I wanna cut you a deal. You pay for dinner here, and I'll let you off with 220. You can drop by the shop tomorrow morning if you don't have the caps on ya, but you can take her with ya for the night, just treat her right is all I ask"
"For sure Brick, Thank you so much, and please tell Forge I say thanks to him, will ya? I'll be by first thing with the caps. See you then"

The young man stood, holstered Legacy, and departed to pay for their meals. Brick picked up his bottle to polish off the drink when he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Travis.

"Those people we saw are here. Got a young woman out there, wants to speak to you. Need me to come up to the shop?"
"I'll be fine, you can go back to patrol. Lead the way" he replied
They walked outside to find her seated on the brahmin.
"I'm Brick, how about we take a walk up to the house? On the way up, you can introduce yourself and tell me how I can help ya"

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

A few hours had passed since Brick had locked himself in the workshop, he was sweaty and tired, but he was done. He emerged holding the pistol, admiring his work. In fact, he was positively giddy, he didn't even want to wait for George to come tomorrow for the gun, he wanted to return it now. He walked over to the large cabinet where he displayed ammo and unlocked it, withdrawing a case of 9mm rounds.

'Let's see, 12 to fill up the mag, another 15 in a spare' He thought as he counted out bullets 'That ought to do it'

Brick walked into his bedroom to pick up his .44 Magnum and quickly checked to make sure it was loaded before shoving it into his holster. Didn't want to risk being out unarmed in public with raiders likely coming for his head. He headed out and strolled down the street towards Angie's Inn.

Sliding open the barn door, he was greeted with a boisterous 'Hey sugar!' from Angie behind the counter.
"Hey Ange, I sent a customer of mine over here this morning, George Cantwell? He around?"
"He stepped out a little while ago, I'd assume he went over to the bar"
"Thanks" Brick turned to leave before remembering "Oh, here's your cut of the caps on the Hardy job, threw in an extra 50 for your headaches last night" He tossed a small bag of caps on the counter "And Douglas was supposed to let me know if there were any radio transmissions comin' in?"
"Hasn't been down from the office in the last little while, I'll tell him you were wondering"
"Thanks again" Brick left and walked down the street a little further towards the bar. It was truly amazing to him how quickly a town could spring up seemingly overnight. Just a few months ago, this hillside was just the old homestead and the barn, now there were dozens of small shacks and market stands lining the street. People had even restored the rotting fence that marked the perimeter, making it look almost like new. He noticed Travis, one of his guards, discreetly walking near the perimeter fence, he diverted from his course and went to speak.

@CloseEnough @Sohtem

"Hey boss" Travis said, almost lazily.
"Travis. Anything out there?" Brick asked.
"Caravan wandered by about two hours ago to the south, on the road to Creswell. Apart from that, its been quiet. I did notice some movement about a mile out not long ago. Couldn't get a good sight cuz one of the Riflemen wandered around the corner, almost caught me with my rifle out"
"Can I take a look?"
"Yeah, they were just a straight glance to the south. I'll keep an eye out for ya" He unslung his rifle and handed it to his employer. Brick sighted up and glanced in the direction Travis pointed. Sure enough there was some movement, they were maybe half a mile, or 2/3rd of the way out, now, but the shape was unmistakable. A Brahmin mounted up with a human, and another standing alongside. Seemed like they were confronting a third person, but it was impossible to know what was happening out there.
"Stay close to the gate and keep an eye on them" He instructed "If they're heading this way, meet them at the foot of the hill. If it goes bad, shout for backup, either one of the guys, or the Riflemen will come running. And if they seem ok, come find me, I'll be at the bar"
"Sounds good Brick"
Brick handed the rifle back and returned to the street, heading off towards the bar.

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

I guess I can throw up a quick post to hopefully nudge things along.

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

Brick sighed with relief. He couldn't afford to be arrested, he simply had too much work to do. Joe spoke up as he started going about his duties.
"That was a ballsy move boss, might be a stupid one. What if they blab your little secret?"
"Then all of it has been for nothing, we move forward with phase two- expansion. We hire more guards, more sellers, and I start lookin' for an apprentice, turn this place into a real Gun Runners outpost. I trust them though, I think the secret's safe for as long as we need to get the caps to afford phase two"
"So what about the raiders?"
"Clear up the blood, then go find Travis and Arthur, we're gonna need to be on high alert, in case they do make an attempt on us. Full perimeter check. I'll get back to work"

He retreated to the workshop and picked up where he left off with George's pistol.
"Now Legacy, where were we?"

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

@Gurren1

"Well, Joe was here all morning, so he can corroborate my story" Brick began. He took a deep breath "Start from the beginning right?'

This is it, no backin' down now'

"Can you guys keep a secret? Ok, here it is- there is no Forge. It's me. It's always been me. I created Forge as a sort of boogeyman, a new urban legend to build up the business. Get people talkin' about us, and when people started showin' up here to capitalize on the relative success, I felt a responsibility to form a reputation of 'this Forge guy is not to be fucked with' to ensure their safety. Now as to this morning, Hardy came here to collect this"

He produced the Tenderizer from beneath the counter and laid it in front of them before continuing.

"I'm usually pretty good about knowing my customers, I get a sense of their intentions from my talks with him, Hardy was the first guy I've met since I came to the Outer Banks that I wasn't 100% on. Should've walked away, I know that now, but at the time, I couldn't really refuse him without good reason, and I couldn't think up a suitable lie. He brought it here about 2 days ago, wanted it done up to be, and I'm quoting him here "fucking indestructible", so I did the work, as promised, and when it came time to pay me, Hardy decided to be a piece of shit about it. I explained to him what I had done and why the price was what it was. Now, I could try and bullshit you boys into believing that he got violent, drew a gun on me, and I acted in self defense, but I'm not doing that, I'm telling it like it is. He insulted me, insulted my work and then I hit him, cracked his jaw, right at the hinge. Now, you feel the metal capping on top of that bat, it's solid, and it's edges are fairly sharp. You can see the blood on the floor, he wasn't gonna live, so I finished him off. Joe here dragged off the body, took the caps off him, and tossed him in the river for the sharks. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. Got a few complaints about him from the people camped up here, said that he'd threatened a few of em, he'd bash in a fella's head then take his woman for himself, that sort of thing. And you didn't see him, but I'm, convinced he was a Raider, he dressed like one, definitely smelled like one. Maybe a bit smarter than the average river rat, but he had the attitude. That's about all I know, so any other questions?"

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

Won't be on as late as I usually am, just made the switch over to day shifts, so I've actually got work in 8 hours, so I'll be on again and ready to reply in about 14 hours, hopefully I'll see ya then!

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

Brick didn't have time to respond before the radio signal cut out. He smiled to himself.
'Nice kid. Respectful. Didn't catch a name, but if she ever drops by, I'll have to offer her a deal'
He turned back to Douglas "You'll be keeping tabs on this right? Any responses, let me know right away"
"Sure thing Brick"
He stood and headed out. His mind now laser-focused on what to tell the Riflemen waiting for him.

'What if... no that won't do, they'd know that's a lie. Can't tell them everything. Unless..... wait, could that...? It's just crazy enough to work'

@Gurren1

He slid back in to the house "Sorry about that gentlemen, business is booming that's for sure, even getting requests over radio transmissions now" He turned to look at Joe "So, catch me up here, what do you need to know and what has Joe been telling you?"

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

@CloseEnough

I couldn't agree more!

Fallout: The Outer Banks (Always Open)

Brick was impressed. The girl on the other end didn't sound very old, but she seemed to know her stuff.
"No payment necessary for that. If you're going to be building it yourself, here's what you'll need. A couple of military-grade circuit boards, 2 at least, but you can loop in more for extra output. You hook those into the main switchboard of a Tesla Pack, like the ones that come with a Gatling Laser, or a similar weapon. You'll want at least 20 Energy Cells lined off around your circuit, to act as power regulators. You need a microfusion cell plus a few extras on hand, 5 at least, load it in just as you would with a normal laser rifle, and it'll act as the catalyst. Attach ECP's to both power nodes inside the pack. That's your secondary power source. Vault doors are thick, so I'm thinking you'll want 10 or more Electron Charge Packs. The last thing you need is a conduit, I'd recommend an arc welder with a refined tip mod, you hook that in to the auxiliary power, fire it up when the fusion core hits 50%, should maintain the energy levels long enough to cut through the door, provided you don't waste time when swapping out Electron Charges or microfusion cells"

Brick went through his mental checklist one last time, just to make sure he'd covered everything.
"And that should be it. The offer is still on the table if you need any of those materials or ammo types, anything at all like that. I'm pretty sure Douglas here keeps the radio on day and night, so if you change your mind, you can reach me at any time, just ask for Brick"