"Alright so here's how this is going to go. Boone and Jess here are going to stay here as a show of sincerity while I go tell the NCR soldiers out there that you will be releasing one hostage as a show of good faith before walking out with the second. Once you are clear of any retaliation you will then release the other hostage. And for the love of all that is fucking good don't get any funny ideas about killing the hostage. They will absolutely hunt your asses down like dogs if you do. That nice and clear?" I asked seriously.
"Transparent." Jessup said flatly.
"Wonderful, now then I best go smooth talk those nervous soldiers so they don't do anything stupid on accident." I said before leaving my companion there while I went out the door.
A short stroll later and I was in front of the soldier that was clearly in charge of this group.
"So how'd it go?" he asked seriously.
"I've worked out an arrangement that will work for both sides of this little situation. They will release one hostage as a show of good faith before walking out with the second. Once they are good and far from any of your people they will release the second hostage. Nobody dies and things end nice and quietly." I say frankly.
"So that's it? We just let them go? How am I supposed to explain that to my superiors?" he asked with a frown.
"Your superiors are the ones that called those two people in there, YOUR people, "acceptable casualties" so respectfully tell them to fuck off. Maybe don't use that same wording but you get the idea." I said with a shrug.
"Fine, you get my people out safe and the Khans can walk. I'll make sure none of mine fires on them." he said not entirely fond of the plan but clearly accepting it was probably the best he is getting.
I nod before making the return trip back to the spot with Jessup.
"All set on their side. You release the first hostage and then walk right out with the second. I will once again reiterate NOT to kill the second hostage no matter how much the spiteful part of any of your brains is itching. They will hunt you down if you do." I say cheerfully.
"Your friends got a few screws loose huh?" The guy said to Jess.
"Yeah but he's annoyingly reliable." she said as a backhanded compliment.
The following interaction could be considered only tense. The Khans grouped up with nervous faces as they sent the first hostage back to the soldiers. They then walked stiffly out into the open surrounding the last hostage and left the ruins before letting the last hostage go and running for the hills.
"Damn, I make a great negotiator. Think the NCR might be hiring?" I asked Boone with a grin.
"I doubt it." he said with the tiniest twitch of the corner of his mouth.
"Shit, and here I was thinking there was hope. Oh well, guess it's the wanderers life for me." I said with feigned heartbreak.
With our business at Boulder city done we headed west following the one eighty eight highway. After about two hours of walking we reached a small trading post set up at an intersection of the highway. The place was fortified with scrap and frankly looked like a homeless camp with picnic tables being used to to hold the goods under guard and the residents here all clearly sleeping on cardboard mats on the cracked concrete.-
I kept my eyes peeled when we were here as I knew from the game this was where another of the companions was, Veronica. I was especially cautious of this one as she had an identity that put us at odds, she was a brotherhood of steel member. As a character in the game Veronica was a good person. Bright, kind and with a bubbly personality. On that point we could get along just fine. The real problem came from her loyalty to her "family", the brotherhood.-
She mostly agreed with their beliefs about technology and that meant my nice shiny suit of high tech armor would draw her attention like a moth to a flame. It was easy to spot her as she walked around the place with a dinged up clearly repaired many times powerfist on her arm. The weapon was not very popular outside the legion or a few select individuals for a simple reason. It needed you to actively get close to whatever you were attacking to work. When everything in the wasteland either had guns or could kill a human with little difficulty at close range that left very little room for running up on something as a viable option.-
It could be done if you were skilled or armored enough of course but getting to that point for the average person was not exactly easy. My thoughts did get proven true as her gaze locked on me with the quickness and dilated in the way only a technophiles would. The sort of reaction that came not only from identifying the armor as high tech stuff but also being able to at least preliminarily understand it was WAY beyond anything she'd seen before.-
She wasn't even smooth about it as she put herself in our way.
"Oh sorry. Hey! That's some swanky armor you got there! Where can a girl go to find something like that?" she asked with shameless eyes scanning every part of the armor.
"The getting place." I said flatly.
"Come on! At least try to act charmed by my grace and beauty." she whined.
"See the problem is that you made a beeline straight for us the moment you saw my armor. I saw the whole thing. Not that you would be able to tell with this covering my face." I said tapping the face plate.
"Tch, that would do it alright. Aren't you even a little worried about someone trying to rob you wearing that?" she asked and Jess barely contained her laughter.
"I'd be more worried for whoever was stupid enough to try." Jess said amused.
"Oh, so you must be like really strong then. Is it the suit? It's probably the suit." Veronica said playing it off.
"That's a pretty big factor yeah. With this on I could crush even t-60 power armor like it was rusted cans. Squish whoever was in them like jelly. Not that I'd need to. I could just target the flaws in the armor to bypass it entirely. Numbers would mean nothing against me that way." I say with a smirk as her face pales as her imagination paints a vivid picture of her "family" suffering those fates.