Everyone of them had a silver star on their chest as one older man stepped up. His golden star clearly marked him as the leader. "I'd thank ya if you didn't try for any more lives lancer. I have word of important news from out west from you and I'd rather not end the life of a benefactor of the Chey. Your a dead man riding if ya do take your chances."
I lowered my rifle as many weapons pointed at me. "You just make sure I leave without no more hold ups. Your people ain't my enemies and I'd rather not kill any more."
He nodded as I turned Elizabeth around. "Words been sent to our leaders of the info you gave us. They're likely to want some more info so I'd ask that ya yet them ask without that weapon pointed at them on account of one of ours bein' hostile to ya."
I turned my head a bit and nodded. I urged Elizabeth forward and rode off as fast as I could without looking like I was fleeing. I was a decent fighter but those numbers would end in death without one of the drugs I'd helped develop. I started my roughly 20 hour ride to Cheyenne and didn't see much beyond distant Yao Gui and radstags. I even spotted a radhorn herd on the horizon.
As I rode I heated a can of coffee on my lap and drank it while cupping it for some heat as relief from the cold that the high winds carried right through any gaps in my clothing. My eyebot continued to be a weird little thing and continued to give constant reports on the weather. Elizabeth stayed the almighty and aloof queen she was and kept up a steady pace down the storm beaten roads.
When I finally found a creek going under a small bridge of the road I put Elizabeth on a long rope and walked around as she rested. I quickly boiled some water for us in the few hours we rested and I managed to catch a beaver a bit up the creek in a tree line. Its meat was tough and had a nasty aftertaste so I gave most of it to Elizabeth. The meat reminded me greatly of mole rat meat and it likely would have been more palatable as a jerky like mole rat was.
After the rest it took a few more hours to get to Laramie. It in contrast to Rawlins was a much more modern town made highly apparent by the actual tractors puffing around in massive fields. It was also a great smelling place as they were obviously burning biodiesel, covering the area in a roasted peanut smell. As I road into town I was stopped a the gate for questioning.
"Hello lancer. I am town guard Lastamosa and I need you to answer some questions."
At my nod he continued "Your reason for entrance into our town?"
"Passing through to Cheyenne." I answered.
"Do you have knowledge of anyone in town that you might be hostile towards?"
I tilted my head at that but answered. "Unless they're hostile to me, or openly part of the Legion or Enclave factions, I will not bring harm and have no knowledge of them."
He quickly wrote something on his little clipboard and continued. "Are you the lancer that Rawlins radioed us about?"
"That would be me."
He nodded and made another note. He set the board down then walked to the gate. Opening it he spoke "Your free to enter. If you intend to cause any trouble I recommend that you inform a member of the guard or some kind of official authority."
I nodded to his words and guided Elizabeth free while raising my rifle to make sure she didn't nip at the man. I found the town past the walls to be a tightly packed place with fairly modern architecture and buildings. Everything was obviously in slight disrepair but the place looked like a city of the future compared to pretty much anything else. Some old museums greeted me with a seemingly still operating university behind them. The campus sprawled out behind it and a large department store and I continued past while taking a glance at the people around the place. Many of the older people continued about their business but a lot of younger people, including the likely college students looked at me.
I could see the occasional guard in the same armor as the gate guard, all walking patrols alongside their people. When I finally found an old hotel made inn I tied Elizabeth to a lamp pole and entered. I doubt ed anyone would try to steal her with the guards around and then knowing of me but I was also secure in knowing she would attack anyone that got near her. I didn't know if people here knew much about Ecus but any attempts at taking her would obviously be disastrous.
My training and taming her had been incredibly difficult and dangerous and she certainly wasn't a normal horse. The inn did the same thing the Rawlins inn had done when I entered it but more eyes stayed on me as I went to pay for a room. I didn't know how long I'd be here and I definitely wanted to get a look at the university that wasn't reduced to ruins. I bought a cheap but guaranteed secure room and tossed my stuff inside. There was a large porch out the back door of the hotel and was rarely used so I bought some nails from the general store a short walk away and nailed as many boards around the porch as possible. After that I found some hay and feed at an actual farm store and grabbed some buckets. After setting up the back porch for Elizabeth I finally got a meal for myself and slept till the sun rose.
The next day was started by running some kids away from Elizabeth's makeshift stable and some supply gathering. Around ten o'clock I was approached by a guardsmen and asked to follow him to the mayors office. This places city hall was an old botanical garden with a small mansion. I tied Elizabeth to another street lamp and entered to find people lined up at some kind of secretary desk. As the guard led me past I heard some griping and complaints for the people in line and one loudly mentioning that the mayor saw savages above actual business men.
One the second floor the guard led me to what had probably been the main bedroom. We walked up to the door which had a small L shaped desk beside it. "The mayors expecting you sir, please enter." The secretary said to me. The guard made to stand at the wall beside the door after popping it open and speaking to whoever was inside.
When he moved I walked in and found an old man working at a desk on a massive terminal with tall stacks of paper around him. On one side of his desk was a printer and the other side a small table with a cold meal on it. He looked up as I entered and waved for me to sit in the chair infront of the desk. As I sat he handed me a paper and stood. He walked over to some kind of radio setup and brought over a speaker and microphone attached to the radio stuff with long cords.
"Read the notes and such, my superiors want accurate info from you on the west. Anything you can tell them. If you agree I'm authorized to give you practically anything you want in this town, within limits of course. On the other side of this radio are listeners who will write down everything you give us." The old mayor said. He looked at me with hope and I could easily guess that his superiors had been hounding him to get me to agree to this. Taking pity on the old mayor I removed my helmet and began reading the papers he had given me.
The caught the old man's dumbfounded expression at finding out I had no lancer features before I started reading. Most of it was history of trading with western factions but a lot of the recent stuff was them having to face the legion in multiple ways. It all culminated in why they needed anything I could give them. I looked to the old man and spoke. "I want access to that university and all the accurate maps you can give me. I also want to see any unknown or advanced technology this town has." The mayor nodded and wrote it down as I clicked the button to activate the microphone.
"This is Kane. I was born in the New California Republic and moved away a few months ago after leaving the army. I worked with the brotherhood of steel Mojave chapter that was stationed at Helios one. I was stationed at the Hoover dam and was one of the few survivors of the legion assault on the dam in a failed attempt to take it. After that I eventually went back home to receive a medal for my service but after the ceremony I found Enclave forces were deeply imbedded into the NCR government. I left with everyone I could trust and fled to the BOS Mojave chapter. My people either went to restart their lives or joined the brotherhood. I packed up and left as I have no illusions about myself and my capacity to eliminate the entrenched Enclave. I met and spent some time with the lancers under the illusion that I was a cursor of Cesar. Afterwards I found myself in Chey territory on my way to the midwestern brotherhood chapter who know I'm coming."
As I spoke the mayor pulled out papers and began writing down what I wanted and how to give it to me. After that he pulled out what looked like a combat report and set it infront of me. When I finished he reached over and turned off our side of the radio and a person spoke. "Thank you Mr.Kane for this information. It will help massively in our trade and travel to the west. As mayor Molva likely told you he is to give you anything you want within reason as payment for your information."
The mayor clicked the microphone on and answered "Mr.Kane has already given me what he wants and it will be delivered. Good evening Mr.Davenport." He clicked the microphone off then picked everything up and moved it all back to the radio setup. I read the report the mayor gave me and found that the information it detailed was about a massive raider group moving into the nearby town of Harmony.
"That report is a scouting party running into Harmony being taken over by an unknown large raider group. I can assume that you have experience in scouting and warfare. With that and your Ecus I was hoping you could be hired to scout the enemy and report on everything you can about them. The town of Harmony was small but prosperous and many of my people are ready to go in guns blazing to avenge the loss of the town and its people." The mayor said as he pulled out a cardboard box. "This is an upfront payment of three hundred caps with one thousand two hundred as the full payment."
He set the box infront of me as I sat back. "Is there anything else you can tell me about this group of raiders? This report has no descriptions of the enemy besides them being identified as raiders."
"Unfortunately no. Our scouts were sent to find out why there was nothing coming in or out of the town and were engaged at long range. The group could only identify the enemy based on previous raider actions, such as mutilation of bodies, screaming and other signs of mental instability, and of course low quality makeshift weapons and armor."
I nodded at that and spoke "I'll take the job. I won't be engaging the enemy unless necessary, or if you can source me plenty of ammunition for my rifle." I patted the long rifle and pulled out a round. It was a massive bullet and was incredibly hard to source. The lancer tribe made them themselves via old world tech and produced all rounds themselves. I had obviously not carried many as they added lots of weight that I didn't necessarily need.
"We can probably dig up a few rounds from over the years. But I can't guarantee many. We can of course supply you with other ammunition and weapons if you wish. Our town doesn't have many people experienced in warfare or elimination of threats." He responded.
I nodded and gave another demand. "Find me a high quality 22 caliber rifle and put a good scope and suppressor on it. If I run out of ammo for my rifle I'll take that and use it to get more dead raiders."
The mayor nodded to my demand and wrote it down. I caught a bit of desperation in his eyes and could understand why he needed someone with actual experience. His people were obviously well protected normally by them being in Chey lands and not too far from Cheyenne itself. He had plenty of lawmen but no one with the ability to get the information needed to root out raiders.
He needed someone who could take a rifle and sit on a hill all day while looking at the worst of humanity and not pull the trigger on them. I'd done it before and I'd be doing it again. After we did some paperwork I finally left. I'd be getting the maps delivered in a bit and needed to prepare to scout.