With the duo separating from the Courier, they continued Eastwards along the highway. They came across an abandoned farmstead, it'd already been looted clean and Afton had quickly discovered why the original owners had left. The water supply had been heavily irradiated...

He couldn't find the reason for why this'd happened, water didn't just suddenly become irradiated, something needed to occur to change a clean source into a dangerous one... ​​

Regardless, they ignored it and continued on their journey towards Camp Searchlight...

Unfortuantely, as they got closer and closer to it, they found that some sort of green fog was covering the area...

*Click, Click, Click*

The Geiger counter on Afton's Pipboy had started going off, indicating that the area was irradiated. Nearby they could see a small camp with a few NCR soldiers manning it. As they were approaching the soldiers suddenly opened fire, not on the duo though, instead it was in the opposite direction.

In the distance Afton could see some NCR soldier being shot by their comrades... No, they weren't soldiers anymore, their skin had almost rotted off of their bodies, their eyes glazed over as they charged at the camp with what looked like clawed hands bared... Though, upon closer inspection they were just fingers that had no flesh on them and had been sharpened into dangerous weapons.

Karl looks taken aback by this, "Ghouls? The fuck happened here." he mutters.

They reach the camp and a man wearing NCR gear and goggled helmet steps up with a service rifle in his hands, "Hold up, you best be going the other direction, whole place is irradiated to high hell."

"What happened here? Last I heard this place was an NCR controlled base." Karl quickly asks, having never heard about something like this occurring... You'd think someone at the Mojave Outpost would've said something.

"What do you think happened? The Legion somehow got word of some sealed radioactive materials that were being held in the camp and decided to rectify it. Somehow they snuck it and opened the containers, killing themselves and most of the camp with 'em."

Afton rubs the bridge of his nose, "The Legion has a thing about destroying settlements, huh. What's your name?"

"Sargeant Astor."

Afton nods and looks towards the town that was almost completely infested with large rad scorpions and feral ghouls dressed in NCR gear. "Think there's anything we can do to help? We've been helping out where we can, managed to get rid of the Powder Gangers at the NCRCF, clearing roads and such. Not for free of course." he adds

Astor crosses his arms and slowly nods, "Well, if you're offering and have a large supply of Rad X and Radaway then sure... I'd be willing to pay out of my own pocket for every one of my brothers you kill, they don't deserve to mutate into those. Things. Bring me their Dogtags and I'll pay you for it."

The duo both nod, it was incredibly lucky that they'd stumbled across some radiation suits on the way here, otherwise they'd have to rely on Chems to keep the rads away. Afton gets out two radiation suits and passes one-off to Karl before struggling to get it on... Trying to put it in over his recon armour proved to be similar to putting on a soaking wet-suit.

They managed to put it on eventually though, the suit itself was neon yellow with a small canister on the hip that provided oxygen. The helmet was a sealed hood with a large orange glass that he could look through. It wasn't' comfortable but it'd do the job.

Afton glances at Sargeant Astor, "Could you hold onto some of our gear? Can't really fight when we're lugging all this around." he says, making sure to keep their valuables in his Deathclaw leather satchel as he hands off his and Karls backpack to the man. Both were filled to the brim with weaponry and made them rather heavy, the man's legs almost buckle at the surprising weight of them.

Astor quickly nods, "As long as you can free my men I'll damn well hold your dick when you're going for a piss." he says.

...

Afton shakes his head, "That... Won't be necessary..." he says as he turns to Karl and hands him some Rad X and Radaway, just in case.

They both pop the pills in their mouths and zip their hoods back up before slowly walking towards the town.

[Rad X : +45 Rad resistance in effect]

Most of the feral ghouls near the camp had already been gunned down, so they'd need to look inside the buildings and on the streets. This certainly wouldn't be an easy task as while feral ghouls weren't all that strong individually, they were perfectly capable of swarming you with their numbers... Or at least, that's what he learned in the Brotherhood.

The town itself was rather creepy, the abandoned streets that were only inhabited by deadly mutated creatures made it almost like a horror flick... This was only exacerbated by the green irradiated fog that seemed to linger in the air.

The duo walk along the road and up an overpass that gave a clear picture of the main path that cut through the town. There must've been fifty or so NCR feral ghouls wandering around, occasionally picking fights with a Rad scorpion.

Neither bothered to start shooting at them as they'd likely get swarmed and eaten alive, it was best to slowly thin out the numbers before finishing them off... The reason the NCR themselves hadn't done this was probably due to the radiation. It wasn't like taking back the camp would accomplish anything, with it so seeped in radiation it'd probably be a couple hundred years before it became habitable again... As to its relatively good defensive position against the Legion? It wasn't like the sword-wielding douche bags could travel through the camp... The Ghouls and radiation made sure of that.

The duo gave a wide berth to the ghouls as they walked around the town, scouting for information and possible areas they could start killing the enemy without alerting the rest of them.