Chapter Text
After they finished eating, Malcolm went down below the overpass to speak with the Gun Runners merchant that had set up shop at the 188. It took a bit of smooth talking and a deep knowledge of firearms to convince the stubborn man to open up his stock for sale, but Malcolm managed to buy himself a telescopic sight for his hunting rifle as well as several magazines of ammunition at a discount. Though Cass wouldn't admit it to his face, she was impressed with his haggling skills. Gun Runner weapons were pricey, but top of the line with no true competitor this side of the Colorado. They took security with the utmost seriousness. One time she had heard that they even booby-trapped their caravans with explosives, so that any attempt at theft would destroy the shipment as well as any dumbass stupid enough to try and rob them.
For a girl who'd spent most of her life locked up in an underground bunker with a bunch of xenophobic technofanatics, Veronica was surprisingly personable, and it wasn't long before she and Malcolm struck up a conversation as they continued on towards Vegas side by side.
"So, what you're telling me is that you got shot in the head and not only survived, but seem to be perfectly functional."
"Calling him 'perfectly functional' is being a little generous, don't you think?" Cass commented from behind them, laying her shotgun across her shoulders.
"Twice." Malcolm corrected, ignoring Cass' comment completely. "I got shot in the head twice." He lifted up his bangs to show Veronica an ugly looking surgical scar that was hidden just below the hairline. He dropped his dark hair back into place and reached into the front pocket of his cargo pants for his pack of cigarettes and lighter. He placed a cigarette between his teeth before offering the box to Veronica. The Brotherhood Scribe looked down at it inquisitively for a moment before shaking her head.
"Uhh, no thanks. I don't smoke."
Malcolm shrugged and held the pack back over his shoulder toward Cass. Without a word she snagged one and Malcolm pocketed the pack again then lit his and Cass' before continuing on. It was another hour before they began to pass between the abandoned buildings that formed the outskirts of outer Vegas They passed a Repconn building with a few malfunctioning Mr. Handys milling about outside the doors. The old pre-war bots seemed content to let things be, so the travelers returned the favor and continued on without incident.
"Well, now you guys know about my family." Veronica started "What about you? Where are you from?"
"Born and raised in Vault City." Cass replied and jerked her thumb towards Malcolm. "This one's a born and raised farmboy. Though you could probably tell by the stench."
"Brahmin rancher." Malcolm corrected again. "There's a difference. We didn't grow any crops."
Cass shrugged "Whatever."
"How did a city girl and a rancher end up out here?" Veronica asked as they walked.
"I could ask the same about the Brotherhood of Steel." Malcolm replied, swiftly causing Cass to raise her eyebrows at Malcolm's deflection of Veronica's question back on her. "I heard about the fight at Helios. I can't imagine why your leader thought it was a good idea to hole up in an abandoned power plant in the middle of one of the heaviest concentrations of NCR troops outside of California."
"Yeah..." Veronica shifted her gaze to the asphalt at her feet. "I wonder that myself."
"You mean you don't know why you were at Helios?" Cass asked, disbelievingly.
"I wasn't there personally when it hit the fan." Veronica told her "Our Elder, Elijah, wasn't very open with us. He kept a lot hidden from our Chapter, but the Codex demanded that we follow his orders regardless. He said Helios was important and that we had to hold onto it at any cost. So we did, and we ended up losing half our Chapter and Helios in a single battle."
"That's insane."Cass muttered "Why the hell would anybody follow that bastard's suicidal orders?"
"Because that's how things are, and always have been in the Brotherhood." Veronica sighed "We're traditionalists. People who try to go against the Codex don't succeed in doing much more than making a bunch of new enemies out of old friends."
None of them spoke after that. They continued on in silence until Malcolm finally spoke up as they approached an abandoned warehouse. "We're getting close to the caravan wreck now. Keep your eyes open, this is right on the border of Fiend territory."
"What's this about a caravan wreck?" Veronica asked.
"We're investigating caravan attacks that have been occurring across the Mojave." Malcolm explained. "We're going to find out who's been doing it and kill them."
"Oh..." Was all Veronica managed to conjure as a response.
As they crested the next hill, Cass froze, and jaw clenched so tight that if she squeezed any harder she might have shattered her teeth. There right below them in the middle of the roads was the ruins of her caravan. The broken, badly decomposed corpse of their pack brahmin Jasmine was the only body among the wreckage. It had been weeks since she had heard the news of the attack. She had thought she had made peace with the reality, now that she had a new focus, but seeing it for herself brought all the anger and sorrow hurtling back. She pushed past Malcolm and Veronica with slow trudging footsteps that took her closer and closer to what little remained of a lifetime of hard work. Her hands trembled with raw fury around her caravan shotgun as the names and faces of her partners flashed through her mind. The rangers had told her that their bodies had been burned to ash along with the cargo. There wouldn't be anything left to bury. Without hesitation, she began scanning the scene, pushing the images of her dead friends from her mind. She needed to find a clue, a lead. Anything that would help her find the gutless bastards who did this.
Distantly, she could hear Malcolm and Veronica sharing a hushed conversation. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she didn't care. A moment later she felt a presence behind her, and a comforting hand on her shoulder. The feeling nearly made her turn and sock him in the gut. "Do you need a minute?" Malcolm asked, he gave her shoulder a light squeeze, his voice low and unusually gentle.
"No."
"Take one anyways." he said. "Veronica and I will look around. You can help when you're ready."
Reluctantly, she relented and allowed herself to be led to the side of the road and sat down on a rock. Malcolm handed her another cigarette and lit it for her before returning to the caravan where Veronica was studying something closely on the pavement. When Malcolm reached her, she looked up at him.
"These scorch marks on the road weren't caused by a fire." she said. "This is definitely the work of some high powered laser weaponry."
"You sure?" Malcolm inquired and Veronica nodded.
"I learned how to dismantle and reassemble an AER9 laser rifle blindfolded before I was old enough to speak in complete sentences." she replied "I've got no doubt about it. The question is who had access to them."
Malcolm hummed thoughtfully. "I've run into Fiends using laser weapons before. Don't know where they get them from, but they aren't that uncommon."
"Maybe..." Veronica started "But why wouldn't they steal the cargo? Why burn everything to ash?"
"Probably because they're all a bunch of psychopaths prone to bouts of chem induced rage." Malcolm replied "'Rational thought' and 'Fiends' rarely go hand in hand."
Cass had enough of being left out of the investigation. She was more than ready to grow a pair and get to work. She stamped out her cigarette and pushed herself to her feet. "Knowing the weapons used is helpful to narrow down our list of suspects. But there's more to look at here than scorch marks on the ground." she said "They hadn't made camp when they were attacked. Which suggests that it happened during the day, and within sight of the walls of Camp McCarran." She pointed to the looming concrete walls and guard towers of the NCR's headquarters in the Mojave a mere several hundred meters away. "That suggests that this was an ambush that took place between guard rotations so not to be noticed. They had to have known the route that my caravan was taking and the time it would be here. Does that sound like the kind of planning that some chemmed out Fiend fuckheads could pull off?"
"No." Malcolm admitted. "It doesn't."
"So who does that leave us?" Cass asked.
"The Brotherhood of Steel and the Van Graffs are the only other two groups in the Mojave with ready access to laser based weaponry." Malcolm replied. "I doubt that the Brotherhood would come all the way out here just to knock off some random caravan carrying food and water. Especially with it being so close to McCarran."
"They wouldn't." Veronica confirmed, almost defensively.
"But it doesn't make sense for the Van Graffs to risk something like this either. They don't trade anything other than energy weapons. Was your caravan carrying anything like that?" he asked Cass.
"No." Cass replied, her eyes scanning the wreckage, looking for anything that might be useful. "We were never competing with the Van Graffs.
"We need to find more evidence. But I don't see anything else here that could help us ID the perpetrators." Malcolm said.
"I heard about another Caravan on the otherside of Vegas." Cass said "Got hit not too long after mine. Might've been the same people who hit mine. Might be some more clues there, but it's a long walk."
Malcolm nodded "Could be worth checking out. But it'll have to wait until tomorrow. The sun's getting ready to go down and I don't want to get caught out in Fiend territory when it does." he glanced up towards Vegas. "I got a place on the Strip we can stay in for the night. We'll head out again first thing in the morning."