When I got back to town I found something completely out of place. That being, most combat forces weren't here. After dropping all my stuff off at my place I went to check with the mayor to see if something was wrong. "Well… a group of lancers came by, said they had found a large raider settlement and needed more manpower to make sure they were cleaned out. A bunch of our mercs went out with them and I sent some veteran guards with a few newbies to train."
I nodded at that and did some paperwork with him for my little company. He and I both were making bank on the bikes and he was thinking of expanding into Cheyenne itself. Not only was it bigger, but it was one of the biggest settlements in the area. I figured it was a good idea so I gave him my support and left. He could handle all of that stuff, as long as I was making a good amount of caps from it.
He was very happy with it for many reasons. He was dedicated to this town and the college and had already put most of his caps from our business into both. Everything that didn't go into those went to a college education for his grandchildren. He seemed to be fully focused on giving others a better future and it showed. The guards I saw while walking down the street were better armed and armored with the college beginning to restore a part that had burned down.
After getting back to my place I started my own setup for my next adventure. If I wanted to continue I'd need to leave Elizabeth in capable hands. I could take her with me but my care for her was a burden. She was a real, living being and I couldn't shrug off her death like I could a robot or the enemies I killed. It was the entire reason I didn't want to stay in one place. It was why I'd left NCR and Vegas so quickly. I didn't want the attachments that I knew this world would use to hurt me with.
My new invisible car could probably take me anywhere and I still had West Virginia as my destination. The more I learned of this worlds wacky Science! stuff, the more I craved the technology hidden in that state. It was all probably ripe for the taking due to the pioneers destroying threats and the brotherhood chapter there having suffered from bad leadership. The first thing I did in preparation was write a letter to the mayor. It explained that I was leaving and stopping over in Cheyenne. I was leaving Elizabeth to him to deliver to the lancers once they returned. That last part explained that I would eventually get back in contact with him and that all he needed to do with my profits for the bikes was put it in an account
After the letter I readied myself to leave. My armor was a mix of riot gear, steel plate carrier, and deathclaw leather. My helmet was my stealth suit helmet, a beautiful piece based on an ARF Trooper helmet from Star Wars. It was a heavily armored, high visibility, gas masked, stealth field carrying, work of art. With my armor on I went to my armaments. The three plasma defenders went to their previous positions as a laser pistol and 44 magnum joined the ones at my hips. A carrier for grenades came next with a mix of all I had. Ammo pouches got added and filled. My blaster went to my calf holster with a lightweight laser scatterbeam went to the other side. Finally in my car went the gauss and lancer rifles.
I prepared as much food, water, and caps in my car as I could then left to give Elizabeth my goodbyes. When I arrived I was met by her unnerving stare. When she finally looked away I walked up to her and gave her a hug. She'd gotten me where I needed to go and had done it well. I fed her the best I had to offer and brushed her hair. I checked over her hooves to make sure they weren't somehow damaged then left. She made sure to swat me with her long hair tail as I went out.
I didn't want to leave her but if she died out there I was gonna go with her. I could abandon my car and my bot but not her. She deserved someone who wouldn't mostly ignore her in every town they went to. Once I left I went to my car and quietly drove off. Cheyenne wasn't far away and the ride only took a few hours. When I finally pulled into the city I easily hid my car in an alleyway and joined the traffic of the nearby markets.
The majority of goods were food and byproducts but some merchants from different places outside of Chey lands were selling more interesting items. One of them had to have what I was looking for. If I wanted to enter Denver in relative safety I'd need to eliminate or negate my human smell. The only thing that was very viable for that was distraction smells or activated charcoal. I could use the charcoal to absorb any particles that left me. All I'd need was calcium chloride and someone had to be selling some form of it.
It took a few hours of walking the makets but I eventually found what I'd been looking for. A small stall with its owner and two guards sat near the entrance to the main market of the city. The seller seemed to be raking in caps from his multiple buckets of chloride based products. Most of it was sodium and ferric chloride with minute amounts of calcium and zinc chloride. Every single one sold for more than one hundred caps per pound. After spending way to much on the calcium chloride I left to find a hotel or inn on the side of the city that lead to Denver.
Finding charcoal was a lot easier and cheaper with its production being way more accessible. I poured the charcoal out on a flat piece of sheet metal and drove my car over it all till it was mostly reduced. Once that was done I swept it all up and began reducing it by hand. The process took an agonizingly long and boring time but it passed quickly once I made a simple pounder from a mixer.
When it was all reduced I added the calcium chloride and charcoal together in a bucket and set a few bowls of water to boil. A few hours of mixing got the mix to finally form a smooth paste. With that done I carefully poured it all into large pans and set them all up outside in the slightly dry air. With the sun beaming down and no rain the paste would be dry in less that a day.
The waiting was also agonizingly slow, if only slightly less boring. I grabbed a quick drink from a small bar and went back to the market. It was large and civilized, with many merchants, lots of customers, and guards at each turn. Near nighttime I found a large weapons shop and traded my Gauss rifle for more ammunition and an ACOG like adjustable scope. It quickly fit on my blaster and I spent the rest of the day sighting it in.
I stored all my drying charcoal in my room and had a small meal before passing out. The next day came quickly and I found the charcoal almost completely dry. I had a quick meal, scoured the markets for maps and info on Denver then left to prepare. Preparation was quick as all I had to do was re-powder the activated charcoal and bag it all.
With it all bagged I packed it in my car and took off down the road. Both Colorado Springs and Fort Collins were under legion control but with Denver mostly controlled by wild dogs the area as a whole was only loosely patrolled. The dry core of the city is so viciously defended by cyberdogs and automated weapons that even the legion deemed it unnecessary to conquer.
The theory of an old world AI controlling the core was pretty popular, as rumors poured out about near infinite robots and cyberdogs protecting that area in a nearly impenetrable wall of walking steel and fur. When the city finally came into view it became clear that what little I knew of it wasn't enough. It was covered in a grey haze and radar was already detecting multiple large pack all roaming the area.
I drove right through Fort Collins and into the suburbs of Denver. An open garage gave me the perfect place to hide my car and any quality loot I got from this place. The inside of the garage was bare bones, stripped my scavengers, tribals, and the legion. The house connected to it had been reduced to a burnt out frame and walls. I spent the night there in my car with a pile of debris and trash at the entrance. From the outside it looked like lots of nothing was inside but trash, as my invisible car sat at the back.
When the next morning came I opened a bag of activated charcoal and rubbed my car with it. I then rubbed myself down and made sure that everything that touched my body was completely covered. I'd be practically undetectable unless something touched me or I triggered a trap. With my scent covered I left the garage and started walking down the road.
I passed by a place for secure storage that was in shambles, a cat rental facility teeming with dogs, a trailer, cargo, and RV storage place with practically nothing in it. Lots of ruins of homes and jobsites. Multiple massive production buildings and a massive suburban neighborhood with visibly large packs of dogs roaming them.
Upon entering the city I was greeted by a towering bottle of nuka cola and the accompanying factory. It was very obviously looted completely with the front doors blown off and dogs owning the area. Past it was even more factories and stores, all looted to the nuts and bolts holding down tables. Next was a church, or at least what was left of one. It had been burned down with a legion flag resting on the old collapsed wood.
Past it was a massive amount of legion activity with what was clearly an old football stadium and some baseball fields. After I snuck through them I found apartment blocks and a small lake in a small park. It was surprisingly well taken care of with what seemed to be a treatment facility beside it. Finally I ended my walk at a large hardware store that I easily scaled and rested on. People had obviously stayed up here at some point as it had a few old scraps meant to form walls and a roof. With a bit of tightening of the materials available I reinforced one of them and spent the night there with a can of rice and beans mixed with chicken and eaten on crackers.
The next day woke me with howling and I quickly reapplied my activated charcoal. I slipped from the building and began my journey deeper into the city. I passed a beautiful little park with what looked like a church for the cult of mars. It had multiple people in red and white robes walking around and a heavy guard presence. As I walked by I spotted a group of children following one of the robes figures to a building. Past it was what was once a sports center but was now completely legion centered.
Multiple massive banners of the legion hung from it and legionnaires streamed in and out. I passed by and found another lake and treatment center. It seemed that the legion was so deeply imbedded that they wanted to guarantee multiple water sources, even if it went against their anti technology rules. A police station and hospital were next with many heavily armed legionnaires going in and out. The hospital had a cult of mars banner at the front and I could easily see many robed people inside.
About an hour past those was another sport field that had become legion and a huge furniture store sat across from it. Hundreds of houses came next, all the way till I hit the entrance roads to the city proper. I spent a bit of time making my way to the tallest road and scouted from there. Everything past a few miles was covered in a thick grey fog that sat heavily on the city. What little I could see of it made it a living hell.
Towering skyscrapers, factories squeezed together, lakes filled with toxic chemicals, a city of spiderwebbing bridges, connecting everything. Below I could see what seemed to be dogs, wandering in and out of the ground floor of the city. Right infront of me was a heavily guarded building that had once been a luxury hotel. A small castle had been built around it from scrap and destroyed vehicles.
Massive legion banners hung from the two sides I could see. It was covered in lights with the crack of rifles echoing from it randomly. A small army of legionnaires patrolled the castle and its surroundings with multiple dogs on the heels of each. Almost all of them had a long spear and a clear bullet resistant shield. If the legion was smart they would have had people like this in their battles, not massive armies of barely armored or armed idiots.
I quickly made my way into one of the buildings near it and climbed a few floors, luckily finding one with a rope connecting the fifth and sixth floors with the stairs blocked by debris. I pulled the rope up and set up a place to sleep as the floor wasn't completely stripped of everything within. A few cushions cut from office chairs, divider walls to section off my area, and some old terminals to mess with before sleeping.
My dinner was cram jerky, hardtack, honey, and some chocolate milk from some milk powder, water, and chocolate flavor powder. It was one of the best meals I'd been able to make in this world, especially with the choco powder I'd found in the Cheyenne market. The container I'd bought had costed nearly three hundred caps and had been completely worth it for the nostalgia it brought.
In my old world I'd have been able to have chocolate milk everyday of my life if I wanted, but here it was almost impossible to find. The only country or faction able to obtain it without being assholes was the NCR and it was only available to the super wealthy elites. After messing with the terminals I'd grabbed I hit the makeshift bed for sleep.