Chapter 4

I quickly decided that this town would do nicely for the new home for my vault. There was fertile soil, sufficient water from an underground aquifer, and had plenty of room to expand. Unfortunately, the ranchers did not take kindly to the idea of a large city being built out of Paul's town. I had broached the subject to Miguel Andreas, the head rancher of the area while dining at Moonshines', and he did not respond very well. He slammed his shot glass down onto the table and told me in very harsh tones, "I don't want no damned city here. Cities mean more farmers and less ranch space." I pointed out the vast prairies as ranch space, but he suggested that I build my city someplace else anyway. I nodded politely and excused myself. I left the table and went to my rented room to radio my vault. They were ecstatic about the location, and advised me to find a way to dispose of Mr. Andreas. The other ranchers would not be a problem with him gone, and the farmers would welcome us.

Now Andreas had a huge tract of land for his cattle. He kept over twenty thousand head of super-sized Texas Longhorns, and had the ranch hands to match. He had five hundred highly trained riders to keep the cattle on their allotted land. They were the main force during the long cattle drives to New Reno. All of them had made the trip at least five times. The cattle drive was over a fifteen hundred miles one way through scorching desert and many difficult obstacles. They had to pass the bandit territory, which lasted some three hundred miles to the west, and only ended there because the geckos were too plentiful further west. The geckos' territory went on for another five hundred miles, and then thinned out because of the Deathclaw menace. The Deathclaws' reigned supreme for another five hundred miles. The Deathclaws didn't venture further west because bandits outside of New Reno were much more heavily armed than regular bandits. Years of dealing with the Enclave had given them combat armor and plasma rifles. They also liked to raid cattle drives on the last two hundred miles to New Reno.

After they arrived in New Reno, the cattlemen had to bargain with the Salvatores, the Bishops, the Mordinos, and the Wrights.

After the bartering, Andreas's men had to return back across the wasteland with its bandits, deathclaws, geckos, and more bandits before arriving at the safety of Paul's Town. To survive this trip, they needed to be the strongest, toughest, luckiest men to ever walk the continent. These men had skin that makes leather look delicate. A knife slash would just cut the callus on their belly and not even draw blood. They wore jackets made of deathclaw hide. Nothing short of an energy bolt could pierce the back of the jackets, and when buttoned, they made for excellent bulletproof vests.

These were some very tough men. My current plans called for the eradication of Andreas and any who stood in my way, therefore I would need to get very good mercenaries to aid me on destroying this army. I decided that I would wait until we got to New Reno before I could even consider eradicating Andreas and his men. Until then I would just enjoy the trip and gather more Intel for my vault.