It wasn't just Afton and Karl who were having important discussions, Lieutenant Hayes and Sargeant Volkman were both sat in the former's tent, each with a can of beer in-hand.

Hayes takes a sip and starts to speak while giving Emil a suspicious look, "Do you think we're doing well in fighting off the Powder Gangers?" he suddenly asks. ​​

Emil shakes his head, "No. We lack the men to storm the prison they've made their home, the north road is cut off due to Deathclaws so getting reinforcements is difficult, not to mention more Powder Gangers have taken up residence in a nearby Vault... I doubt we'll be completing this assignment anytime soon sir." he says with exasperation.

The lieutenant slowly nods while tapping his beer with a finger, "Would you be... Adverse to trying some unconventional tactics?" he asks.

"Depends on what 'unconventional' means sir." Emil shoots back, not wanting to agree to anything before he hears about it in detail.

"I was thinking that it'd be significantly easier to breach the prison if we had people on the inside..." Hayes tentatively says.

"No. Last time we tried to get our men inside that facility those bastards threw them off of a watchtower. I'm not risking anymore lives on that plan of action." he states vehemently.

Hayes smirks, "Who said anything about using our own men? I seem to recall us having two prisoners to use at our discretion..." he mutters, causing Emil's eyes to widen at what he was referring to.

"You want to use two criminals as spies? Have you lost your mind? They're more likely to lead us into a trap then help us out!" he quickly rejects Hayes idea. Whether or not it'd work was a non-issue, the two men they'd captured were Powder Gangers, and weren't likely to betray the others.

Lieutenant Hayes sends a small smirk at him, "I wouldn't go that far Emil, you yourself said those two killed a few Powder Gangers before you reached them... I have a feeling they'd agree if I tempted them with a pardon."

...

"I won't have rapists and murderers working with my men... Find out what they were originally imprisoned for and we'll see." Emil relents, giving the man a hoop to jump through if he still wanted to pursue this 'gimped' plan of his.

Lieutenant Hayes nods, "Is that so? Good, because I already Radio'd HQ to inquire about them... The boy, Afton Parker doesn't seem to exist on their database, meaning that he'd not been imprisoned beforehand... To be honest, he's committed no crime that we know of and has instead helped us out by killing a few Powder Gangers... The other, Karl Martin, imprisoned for... Insubordination. The rest of the information was classified. These two are clear in my book." he states almost victoriously.

Emil slowly nods, "So, what... The kid's free to go, we can legally hold him here without evidence of wrongdoing, and the other is a former soldier who went against orders, not something you'd usually be imprisoned for... Something's fishy about all this." he admits.

It was midnight and the only light source around was the nearby fire lit inside a barrel, and the small amber one coming from Afton's Pipboy. He'd started checking it after everyone had gone to sleep as he didn't want to draw attention towards it, they're valuable tools and most are usually broken. He didn't know why no one had mentioned it yet, but he wasn't about to throw his luck away by blatantly using it in front of them.

He was surprised to find that Karl was literally his companion now, whether that meant he couldn't die wasn't something he wanted to test out... He got a perk from it as well, a bonus 10% EXP gain is pretty useful.

He checked the active quests he had and sighs when he saw them...

[Escape from your imprisonment]

[Find Caroline Martin]

[Find Verna Parker's murderer]

[Find parts to repair Bunkers ventilation systems]

[Find RangeFinder for ARCHIMEDES]

Hmm, not as many as he'd thought... He hadn't exactly looked around for them either though. He wasn't level as fast as he wanted, but this was mainly due to his rather stagnant lifestyle... You didn't earn exp by being a medical physician, unless it was a quest of course. He had earned a good amount of caps doing it though, so there's that.

If he made it out of this, he didn't think he'd be returning to the Powder Gangers. First off, he didn't actually like them all that much anyway, the murdering raping bastards could be compared to barbarians in the way they conducted themselves. He'd thought their hatred of the NCR was admirable, but it was just a mask to hide their indiscriminate raiding.

He'd wait to see how the situation progressed, the NCR hadn't witnessed him committing any crimes, and he doubted they knew about their previous raids on NCR caravans...

He rests his head on his Powder Ganger jacket and decides to sleep, he'd need to be ready for whatever awaits him tomorrow.

The next day Afton was awoken when Karl shook him awake, standing before them were the two NCR officers that they'd seen yesterday, both were standing with straight postures and hands behind their backs.

"Er, what'd I miss?" he groans as he rubs the sleep from his eyes.

The man with the green beret looks at him, "Late night Mr Parker? Can't imagine why as you'd been chained here the whole time..."

...

"Whaddya want?" Karl almost growls out.

Sargeant Emil steps forwards, "We've got a proposition for the two of you, depending on how it goes, we might even be willing to pardon both of you of your crimes."

...

The duo's eyes bulge at the soldiers, what'd happened between yesterday and now? They'd seem so antagonistic, but now they were offering a complete pardon?

"What's the catch?" Afton quickly asks, not believing he was lucky enough to receive something like this.