Ashes of war:The Mojave wasteland

Primm

"The time for being outside has expired for today. Please go inside your houses, if you aren't a resident, stay at the motel, or have fun all night in the Vicky and Vance casino" said Primm Slim, the robotic sherrif of the town. "Get a load of this fellas, we got a robotic town greeter" said one of the  thugs. It was midnight when the thugs  tried to sneak into the town. They wanted to rob the people of this town,   as they were well aware that an old robot was the "sherrif" of the town, and it could not possibly injure three humans. Atleast, it was the widespread belief. "Please go inside your homes, the curfew is in effect." warned primm slim again. "Ya know what Henry? I haven't had a proper fight in a while, whaddya say?"said one of the thugs. "Yeah, you can do the honors, me an' Morris will take care of the houses" said the other thug. One of the thugs pulled out a tire iron, while another pulled out a hammer. "Please put away your weapons immediately, the security of the citizens is my utmost priority " warned the sherrif. "Shut the hell up" said the thug as he smashed his hammer on primm slim's torso. "Extermination protocol:Active" said Primm Slim as he sprayed the thug with bullets. The corpse fell on the floor. "What the fuck" exclaimed the other thug as he saw his partner's dead body. He charged at the sherrif with his tire iron, unsuccessfully. "That's it tin can, you're dead" said the last thug as he pulled out his pistol and shot at the sherrif. The bullet dented the upper area of the robot, but didn't harm it much. Primm Slim again blew apart the last thug. "Yee-Haw, justice is served". exclaimed the sherrif in triumph.

"What the hell was that commotion a while ba-. Oh." came asking Johnson Nash, the owner of the Vicki and Vance casino. "Don't worry fine citizen, your town is safe, yee-haw" said Primm Slim. "Oh god this is frustrating." said Johnson Nash as he saw the dead bodies of the thugs on the ground. The bodies were taken care of in an hour, after which primm slim was taken for repair as the bullet had passed several circuits, though nothing major was damaged. "What is the damage?" asked johnson. "Nothing major, though the sensors have slight damage." answered the repairman. "Slight damage?" asked johnson again. "He's basically half blind" replied the repairman. "Oh jesus christ, one bullet and this tin can becomes half blind. When the courier added the sherrif protocol to it, I thought that was a great idea. A robot sherrif, who can take more damage than us humans. But nowadays I regret the decision." said Mr.Nash, frustrated. "Oh don't worry, I'll fix him in no time. That is....5 days." said the repairman. "5 DAYS?!, the town can't remain unprotected for that long!" exclaimed Johnson. "It is either that or a half blind sherrif" replied the repairman. Johnson sighed "okay, but try to fix him as quickly as you can." He then left the room.

The first three days went quietly. No trouble was made. The Mojave courier service continued it's work of delivering packages across the land, though their bussiness was a bit slow these days. The Vicky and Vance casino, as always, was the busiest place in the town. With gamblers coming in who didn't have the guts to travel to the strip, nor the money to enter it. The bison Steve hotel, which was once taken over by the escaped convicts, was now renovated, and was up for bussiness. Though even still, people did not prefer to stay there, as they had heard it was apparently "haunted". No one knew where the story came from, but it had spread like wild fire. The roller coaster track, which was the visual highlight of the town, had a bit of protection surrounding it, with landmines scattered near it. But were they enough?

On the night of the 4th day, a shadowy figure somehow climbed the rollercoaster track, and made a vantage point on it. He had an old, rusty sniper rifle, with limited bullets. One of the town residents was taking a stroll on the street. One moment he was walking without a care in the world, the next, his body lied on the floor. Same thing happened with three more residents, who didn't even have time to scream when they saw the body. As the sun began to rise, the figure had escaped from the vicinity.

"Oh my god, this is....horrible" sobbed Ruby Nash, Johnson Nash's wife. "Who would do such horrible thing?". "A thug, a murderer, this is the reason why our town needs protection, good protection. And we have another issue, why didn't any of us hear the gunshots?" questioned johnson. "The weapon must have a silencer ofcourse, there is no other way." said one of the residents. The theorising continued for hours, as the agitation in the town grew more. "The bullets are ofcourse not of a pistol, they are probably a .308 calliber. Hence the shot must have been from afar" said one of the residents. "Yes, though the only clear vantage point is from up the rollercoaster track, and climbing it is impossible" said another. "Hard, yes. But I wouldn't say impossible. Let's check it out." said Mr.Nash. They all went towards the track, but surprisingly, the landmines were just as they were supposed to be. They weren't even turned off. This negated the possibility of anyone climbing the tracks. This left the citizens disheartened and scared.

That night, everyone was on edge. Patrols were set on the streets, the folks without guns didn't dare come out of their houses. The patrols were vigilant. It was already past midnight, the residents were asleep in their houses, and the casino was closed for the night. Only the patrols on the street remained. Until again, a guard dropped dead, seemingly out of nowhere. Two out of the four remaining guards were alarmed, they looked around for potential threats. Bang. Another dropped dead. Then another. Now only two were remaining. Fortunately, one of the guards saw the muzzle flash and started shooting at the sniper. Their bullets mostly missed, but one hit the sniper in the hand, injuring it. The sniper managed to kill the remaining guards, but was bleeding and couldn't use the sniper anymore. He somehow got down from his perch and ran away, as fast as he could.

When the firing finally seemed to be over, the residents came out of their house and witnessed the dead bodies. They were horror stricken. "We must evacuate the town, this isn't safe anymore." said one of the citizens. "Yes, it would seem like it. Though I think it is the work of a lone man, instead of a group. He must not be far, we must follow him" said another. "But how?" asked a third. "Look here" said Johnson, pointing at the trail of blood the sniper had left. "He mustn't be far". They followed the trail, it did start to seem dwindle in the road, but atlast they reached an abandoned ranch. A team of two entered the shack, while the others waited outside. There was no sign of the sniper in the shack, though there were many other things. The same sniper, ammunition, and peculiarly, a NCR veteran outfit. Along with all this, there was a securitron in the corner, which seemed to be damaged. There was also a photo, in which there were 4 people, friends by the look of it, all with the same NCR outfits. When one of the two residents tried to touch the securitron, it's light started glowing.

"Joey...is that you?"a female voice came from it. "Where were you? We were worried about you"came a male voice. Then the securitron stuttered a bit, then shut down. It didn't turn on again after some tries. After a while, the search party gathered outside, without any signs of the sniper. They decided that they would return to primm now. They went to the town, though still on edge.When they arrived in town, it seemed awfully quiet. The silence was defeaning. There was no one on the streets. This unnerved the search party. They started going from house to house, asking for their well being. And surprisingly, there was nothing wrong. Everyone was fine. Everyone except the repairman.

They knocked on his door multiple times, though no answer came. Finally, they broke down the door, only to find his body lying on a table, with his head smashed in. As they went inside, they saw another body, with bullet holes all over it. And finally, they saw Primm Slim, or atleast it's husk. His torso was smashed in, something was taken out of it. The part was lying in the attacker's cold,dead hand. Atlast, it seemed, the threat of the attacker was at an end. Though sadly, they had lost their sherrif, again.

The town was, again, in need of protection. "An NCR nutjob, even after leaving the Mojave, they are still a pain in everyone's asses" said Johnson. "This was different though...the guy had a securitron in his shack, the same model as primm slim. It was damaged though." said the person who had entered the shack. "So, what you're saying is, the guy did all this, for a fucking robot part?" asked johnson. "Seems like it, the securitron had multiple voices coming out of it, maybe that guy had an emotional attachment to it" replied the resident. "Having attachment to a machine, amazing. Some people...."said Johnson, frustrated by everything that had transpired.

The lawless town needed protection again, and this time, a permanent one. Finally, mercenaries were hired for protection. They required a hefty pay, but they did their job very well. It seemed atlast, that the town of Primm was a secure place.