*Beep, Beep, Beep*

*BOOM!* ​​

A large explosion occurs and lifts a huge cloud of dust, almost knocking over a few people in the NCR encampment due to the shockwave.

...

Silence falls over the scene as a weary NCR soldier asks, "Did we get it?". Of course, they are subsequently smacked over the head by another for 'jinxing' it.

Afton glances to Karl who regards him with a small nod, "Ever seen a creature get as big as that?" he asks

"I saw a Super Mutant Behemoth once, so yeah... But we can talk about that later, seems like our troubles aren't over yet." he states while glaring at the dust cloud.

As it settles everyone is greeted by the Queen rad scorpions angry clacking. Its black carapace was heavily damaged with some of its legs blown completely off, not to mention the bottom of its armour seems to have disappeared, green blood slowly dripping from its wounds.

Sargeant Astor doesn't waste any time before ordering, "FIRE!"

No one dares do otherwise and immediately begins shooting at the now injured creature. It squeals at them like a dying animal, but the death throes are silenced in the barrage of gunfire. Everyone continues firing until they run out of ammo, the gunfire ending and giving way to their heavy, adrenaline-filled breaths.

"Alright, now it's definitely dead-guhk!"

"Bro, if you don't shut your mouth I'm going to throw you at it to see if that's true!"

Afton shakes his head at the rather undisciplined NCR men and looks to Karl, "I'll go check on it, cover me." he says before hopping over the barricade.

Astor orders his men to hold their fire while Afton is checking on it, it wouldn't look good if someone shot him in the back while doing something they were too afraid to do.

Afton reaches the creature, its entire body is riddled with wounds, the NCR weren't all that accurate but enough had hit for it to be fatal... Though, apparently it'd take a bit before this thing finally died, It was still quietly rumbling, clearly alive, but not for much longer.

He drew Lucky from its holster and pressed the barrel against the creature's fleshy head, now lacking its carapace. "Good Game." *BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG*

He unloaded all the bullets in his revolver and nodded in satisfaction as the creature jolted at the last one, he should've hit its brain judging by the response its body gave. He turns and gives a thumbs up to the encampment, ignoring the sudden relieved cheers that sounded out.

Karl walked over and gave the creature a nudge with his foot, for what purpose Afton didn't know... "Shame this thing doesn't have anything good on it... Its poison sack could be used to make antivenom, but that's about it... Unless you wanna try eating it? I doubt it'd taste good, plus the amount of radiation it'd been sitting in, you'd get mouth, throat, stomach, and ass cancer before you went to shit.

Afton shrugs, "As long as its dead I don't care if it doesn't have anything useful to take."

"Hey, what are you boys planning to do with its body?" Sargeant Astor walks over and asks.

"Nothing."

"Well then, would you be willing to allow the NCR to claim it? The higherups would probably like nothing more than to put this thing on display. They'll complain that it's a bit mangled but, they can go fuck themselves and kill another if they want."

....

"Sure? Are we gonna get paid for it or?"

Sargeant Astor chews his lip, "To that I have no idea, maybe the higherups will see fit to pay you for your work, or maybe not. Regardless I doubt you'll be able to carry this anywhere, right?"

"Fine, take it... We still have a few things to do in the town before we leave, get your caps ready because we've dealt with quite a lot of ghouls." Afton states.

Astor nods and leaves, getting on the radio and reporting about what'd happened here.

[+++Rep with NCR]

...

It was still quite early in the day, and while both Karl and Afton were a bit tired from running away from that giant scorpion, they didn't want to waste anymore time in this place. Popping another Rad X in their mouths they left again, heading back to the Fire Station where the creature had burst out from.

In the far corner of the garage, they spot a truck with multiple containers on the back of it and a few Legion recruit corpses lying next to a couple of open containers... This must be the thing responsible for irradiating the town. As if to make it clear for the duo, Afton's Geigar counter was going crazy when they got close to it, going from ten, to fifteen, to twenty.

Afton didn't waste any time and immediately closed the containers, growing to himself when the radiation only dipped a bit... Seems like they were really too late to save this town, the radioactive materials already in the air would linger for a couple hundred years at least. The effects from the Great War were still apparent, so it was a rough estimate.

After sealing the containers the duo went up to the second floor where a couple ghouls were stumbling around, they were quickly dispatched and they explored the place to see if there was anything of worth.

The kitchen was a veritable treasure trove of food, but upon closer inspection, all of it was heavily irradiated... Like, grow an extra testicle for drinking that Nuka-Cola irradiated. All of it was useless, and the duo didn't think fireman gear was valuable or useful for anything, there was something peculiar in the bathroom though.

Afton had checked the stalls and found a mishmash of skeletons in it, a fireman's axe propped up against the wall... He didn't want to think about how this had occurred, but he did take the axe. Using his Pipboy's inventory option he saw that it was classified as a 'unique' item, similar to Lucky in that it was named and superior to other common axes.

[Knock-Knock] :

DMG : 66

Crit dmg : 33

Crit mult : x1

Strength req : 5

AP : 21

Weight : 8

Value : 3200