My report to the mayor and his people was quick and to the point. They obviously didn't like my mercy killing but I knew I had freed those people from more suffering. The mayor had caught onto my description of the raiders and how their group was much more sadistic than most. I described other groups as being incredibly bad but not make flags out of human faces bad. The legion were dogs, the raiders were wild and rabid dogs, but this group was purely monstrous. They couldn't be considered human anymore. The mayor decided to have me go more in-depth into what I'd seen them doing. After my full description he spoke.
"I find these descriptions to be much like that of the Casper tribes sacrificial rituals. Pure sadisitic torture and abuse of others in some kind of patterned manner. What else did you notice about this group."
"I mentioned earlier that I found no signs of chem usage by the raiders. I would like to note that it would be easy for a group like this to develop around a specific chem or drug. Places like this, I'd mostly be looking into hallucinogenic mushrooms or morning glory. The mutagenic effects of the Great Wars bombs could have easily created a hidden natural drug that this tribe found and used for whatever purposes they might have."
Before I could continue one of the idiots broke in. "And what might this have to do with these raiders massacring a town? Does what chem they use really matter."
Once again before I could continue the head guard cut in. "Of course it matters. It can give us an understanding of these raiders and potentially give us a way to annihilate them. Hell we don't even know if the lancer here got them all. This could have been a group from a surviving Casper tribe. I don't know about you but my nightmares were fueled by the stories my father told about them. I'd rather not see them make a comeback."
Another person spoke "The lancers wiped them out quite thoroughly. We had an entire army up there searching for remnants of the Casper's and nothing but destroyed earth and skull-less bones was found. We don't need to worry about a Casper resurgence, we need to worry about this new threat coming back. If this chem is still out there or there are any more of this group they could come back."
Before a few more people could join the bickering the mayor cut them all off. "Enough, lancer Kane please continue where you were."
"Good points made by the others." I acknowledged those who defended my guesswork. "I also noticed the sadistic torture was mostly mutilation of corpses. Yes they did actively torture and kill but the people I mercy killed only had a few minor injuries. Heavy bruising, cuts and skinning. Broken fingers and toes. Nothing like practiced torture, basic stuff that the legion would scoff at. The most attention grabbing part was the mass rape of the victims. I can confidently say a little over half of the raiders were actively engaged in the violation of the victims. Apart from that was their actions towards the victims deaths and the deaths of their fellows.
Most didn't even care, while others didn't even seem to know. The first raider I purposely killed was actively assaulting the body of a raider who'd gotten caught in a collateral kill. Whatever they were on was likely a powerful aphrodisiac. The last part that I really noticed was that they had no chain of command. There's almost always a top dog in groups like this but they seemed to work like a dysfunctional collective. I actively targeted the more well armed and armored members but their deaths were barely even noticed. When I actually went into the town the remaining raiders were all in small groups and simply attacked as they could. The signs of chem use was there as they all took a bit more to kill than most would and there was near constant unintelligible screaming."
At my words whispering broke out while the mayor put his chin in his hands. The head guard made to speak before the radio crackled and a voice came through with a question. "What conclusions can you come to lancer?"
Eyes shot to me as the person finished. "Well, my best guess, it would probably be some idiots trying to revive the Casper tribes. I haven't had the time here to learn much about them but I've caught some things. I'm guessing these Casper tribals used drugs in their rituals and for warfare right? These raiders could have been normal run of the mill criminals or such who stumbled across remnants from the tribes. They cobbled together an idea and failed halfway through due to not having the necessary knowledge for what they were doing. I'm guessing this drug their using is highly addictive and the entire group became addicted psychos who'd do anything for their next or current high. There's any number of things that could have happened but this is top of the list. I'm sure other things could be pieced together to make a different puzzle but that still means more information is needed."
"Alright lancer, that should be all for a report from you. I'm sure you'd like some rest and recuperation. Mayor Molva I trust that you can properly reward him for his service rendered as I send thanks to the lancer tribe for the assistance of one of theirs."
After that he said to the room. "If there's anything else I believe Mayor Molva can tell us, I'll be disconnecting now."
His side clicked silent and I stood with the head guard following. "Lancer if there's anything you need I can provide it within reason. You'll be getting the rest of what you requested as payment today with all the 13mm ammunition we could scrounge up. The armorer has even expressed his willingness to manufacture this ammo at custom cost."
I nodded to the mayor and left with the guard following. He silently walked with me as we left and I grabbed Elizabeth. I re-tied her to a lamppost as my eyebot beeped about some light rain coming. I pulled a tarp from a saddlebag and threw it over her and tied it tight to make sure she stayed dry. I then went inside the inn and joined the head guardsman in the round of drinks he'd already ordered. A few more guards joined as time passed. We sat mostly silent as drinks were had and copping was attempted. After a fourth man joined us the head guard Weston presented me with a question. "You said this group was the worst you'd seen. But you also said it was like a few things you'd seen before. We were under the impression that most tribes and raider groups had been removed by the NCR and legion. How could someone from the west have seen something near this level?"
I smirked at him and answered "Humanity can do some pretty horrific things. This level, while rare, is something that happens. I've seen super mutant mutilations. I've seen skeletons and teddy bears arranged to make humorous poses. I've seen artworks of a mad man's mind painted in the blood of his victims. I've seen heads hung on belts on the waist and staked in the ground to mark territory. I've seen meat hooks used to make corpse chandeliers or multiple bodies of meat stuffed into shopping carts. I was the only survivor of the entire battle of Hoover dam. I fought the waves of drugged up slaves and waded through the mountains of corpses. I called in the artillery bombardment that took the lives of the other survivors in an attempt to kill the leaders of the legion in the battle. I've seen the mutagen pools that make super mutants and the slums of new Reno. I've seen the experiments of the enclave and slavery on a level that would cause god himself to hate humanity." I paused at that part.
I didn't want to make a dramatic pause as I simply wanted them to understand the horrors this world held. "I've seen the power of atomic weaponry, I've seen the annihilation of entire civilizations and cultures. I've been to the lowest levels of Vault Tech vaults. Manmade hells in the realm of reality. I've seen plenty of horrible things but this group just did mass ritual sacrifice and torture because they probably don't have great brains left from whatever drug they use."
The group of men began talking over each other but Weston broke through with another question "How have you seen so much lancer? Most men wouldn't be able to see all of that much less survive it all."
I smirked. I knew most of it from my past life. All of it from the games. But I also knew that I'd seen a lot of it in reality. "Luck, a fuck ton of luck. It's all I've ever really had. I'm pretty good at most things but everything has worked out for me because I got incredibly lucky every time it counted." One of the guards snorted at that as another raised his shot glass and downed whatever was in it.
Eventually I took my leave and found a proper place for Elizabeth to stay. I'd been neglecting her care for a bit and she made sure I felt bad about it. Her two normal black horse eyes looked down at me with a pitiful sadness. Her third Ecus eye glared at me and existence itself as I took her into the large Brahmin pin I'd paid massively for. I made sure to give her the last of my jerky and had my eyebot make a reminder of o get her something particularly good as an apology. I doubted that I'd need the reminder however as Elizabeth's too smart brain would easily remember and make sure I got her something.
I finally got some rest after downing some sleep chems and woke the next morning to a headache. Popping some meds I found and took a shower before getting Elizabeth and taking her on a trip around the towns walls. Before settling her back down for the day I checked her over for any health problems before getting her multiple sizable chunks of meat, all cooked a bit to kill anything inside them.
I didn't want my only friend getting sick or hurt so I had to make sure whatever she ate was as safe as I could make it. Alongside the meat she got a decent meal and lied down to rest after the laps I'd taken her on. Once she was resting I set my eyebot to guard her and set off to finally get a look at the still standing college. I'd gotten a scholarship student card that allowed for access to all classes offered and I intended to use it as best I could.
My first order of business was actually finding out what they offered. I went straight for the main building of the college as it housed all offices of the university as a whole. It was the remnants of the pre-war college and held everything they needed to run the school. Beyond it was the tech buildings and the general studies buildings. Most general studies were in an old department store and took in elementary to high school aged children. Past general studies was the administration, war, and tech schools. Administration was as obvious as its name and something I didn't need to take. War was multiple levels, history, geography, tactics, command, support, and warfare. Tech was only two levels, higher technologies, and vehicle technology. The town of Laramie thrived on its vehicles as almost all vehicles they had were used in farming and construction.
Higher technology was mostly used for the same purposes but also branched into all the other industries of the town. The last part of the campus was a rebuilt mass living facility for all the students from pretty much all surrounding areas. The college had over two thousand students with at least half of them constantly attending classes in their subjects.
Inside the main building of find the help desk, manned by administration students, and take the offered classes handbook and the basic college information handbook. I quickly find that the only classes I want are the higher technologies classes on robotics, weaponry, vehicles, and technological sciences. After selecting the classes I'd be taking I went to the main desk and applied for them with the mayors paper making it so I could join the classes despite the requirements for them.
After registering for the classes I left to get the books and other materials I needed and to get a name plate for my eyebot. I'd be naming him Radar due to his love of monitoring the weather. After getting what I needed I put the plate on Radar, made sure Elizabeth was taken care of, then settled down in my room to start my reading. I'd bought as many supplementary material as I could as I was sure I didn't know all that was needed for to make use of the classes.