As we stepped out of the HQ, the various guards watching over the caravan spotted us almost immediately. They tensed, their weapons ready, but thankfully, no one pointed anything lethal at us. We made our way around the medical building, waving as Adam stepped out from the cleared, dilapidated structure behind it, with Reed, the head guard, following right after him.

  "Adam, Reed, good to see you again," I said with a nod, shaking their hands as they got closer. "I hope the journey treated you well."

  "So far so good," Adam said with a smile. "Business is good and so is the weather. I see a new face with you… and a new building."

  I could hear the twist of incredulousness and suspicion about the medbay, and I couldn't exactly blame him. The building wasn't there last time the caravan had been through here, but it didn't look like a shambled-together mess that most new buildings were. Instead, it looked like something that could have been built before the war, if a little cheap and simple for this area.

  It was clearly suspicious. The only question was whether it was enough to scare him or others off, either now or in the future, since more buildings would definitely appear eventually. Hopefully soon.

  "That's right," I said with a nod. "We received some support from home after you passed through, including the supplies to build our medbay and Carlos here. We also had a delivery of some of our settlement's larger exports, medical supplies."

  "Your settlement makes medical supplies?" Adam asked, his eyes widening a bit. "A source of new medicine is very rare. There are only a few places in the Wasteland that can reliably make new goods. What sort of supplies…?"

  "Antibiotics, other drugs, bandages, trauma kits, a whole spread of useful stuff," I explained. "How about we set up a table, and you can take a look?"

  "That sounds perfect," He said, before gesturing back at the building. Most of his people were now inside. "My people will be in there, taking a break and having lunch. Come get us when you're ready."

  "Sounds good."

  Reed gave us a nod before we split up, heading back to the HQ. We very quickly dragged a few scavenged tables from the "for trade" storage corner in the main hall, as well as some containers of ammo and boxes of booze. We then covered the tables with trauma kits, antibiotics, smaller treatment kits, and additional drugs, including game standards like Rad-X and RadAway. There were only a few stimpaks, since they were such a time and resource sink, but I would be keeping a close eye on how Adam reacted to them.

  Once we were done setting up, I sent Carlos over to get our trader friend. Just a few minutes later, Adam and Reed returned.

  As they approached, coming around the med building, I couldn't help but chuckle as their expressions grew increasingly shocked. Adam, a seasoned merchant, managed to recover once he realized just how he looked, but Reed took a lot longer to get over his stunned expression.

  "Well, color me impressed," Adam said, bending down to examine a container of clean, sterile bandages. "I don't think I have ever seen any medical equipment quite as fine as this. This is honestly shocking. It all looks brand new."

  "I did say we make it ourselves," I pointed out. "It's one of our primary exports."

  "I can see why, it's incredible quality," he admitted, before looking up at me with a critical eye. "Is this sort of thing standard? Would I be able to rely on shipments like these?"

  "With two weeks in between each visit?" I asked, Adam nodding to confirm. "More or less, yes. I can't account for emergencies or other issues…"

  Adam waved away my warning, clearly used to dealing with such issues. He then whistled, catching my soldiers off guard. A moment later, a member of his caravan joined us, jogging slightly.

  "They got some good st- Holy shit!"

  The man started talking, only to cut himself off when he spotted the goods lined up on the tables. He reached out to pick up one of the Med-X injectors, turning it over in his hands. He seemed genuinely at a loss for words, his jaw hanging open.

  "This here is one of my workers, Bill," Adam explained, patting the rougher-looking merchant on his shoulder. "He specializes in medicine and drugs."

  "Huh? Oh, right, yeah, sorry," the man, Bill, said, putting the injector down to shake my hand. "It's good to meet you. This is all incredibly stuff. You raid a vault or something?"

  "It's all more or less brand new, made by our people back home," I assured them. "Just recently delivered."

  "I can tell," Bill agreed, before looking to Adam. "What do you need me for, Boss?"

  "I need you to authenticate some of this," He explained, before looking to me. "I know it's unfortunate, but this is clearly high quality, meaning I'm about to spend a good amount of caps. I need to verify at least some of it first."

  "I understand," I agreed with a nod. "As long as you buy anything that's used up."

  "Of course, assuming it's real."

  Bill first checked the Med-X he had been examining, forcing just a drop out of the syringe onto his finger before putting it into his mouth. He then did the same to a RadAway, before opening a Rad-X and sniffing it, reacting almost like someone would after huffing smelling salts. Finally, he carefully opened a few bandages and other items.

  "Boss… It's all good as far as I could tell," He said. "Better than good in some cases. Never smelled Rad-X that strong before."

  Adam nodded, rubbing his chin. He seemed to be deep in thought, and if I was reading him correctly, Bill confirming that everything was real was just a formality. He was already planning on buying at least a good chunk of our supply, if not all of it.

  "In the future, I'll have to show up here with more credits while going to Megaton," He said, shaking his head a bit. "Offloading this at our next few destinations is going to be tough. I would get a much better price from the doctors and stores in the city."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Rather than respond, I stayed silent, watching him try to conjure a price. I didn't know much about trade or bartering, but I did know that volunteering a low price before someone asked for one was a bad idea. I would let him make an offer before I made my own.

  "Alright, I think that all together this is worth… seeing as it's all brand new, neatly packaged and clean… around one thousand caps," he said, nodding to himself. "How's that sound?"

  "I apologize, but I'm not used to the local numbers quite yet," I admitted. "Exactly how much would, say, a stimpak be worth?"

  "Well, it depends on its condition and the market," He responded. "But one of yours I would put at a solid twenty-five caps easily."

  I chewed that over, scanning our goods. I remember a stimpak being worth around twenty caps if you bump up your barter a bit, so getting twenty-five off the bat was not bad. Getting one and a half thousand, especially for how long we worked for, seemed like a decent deal as well.

  "Tell you what. How about a thousand five hundred?" I suggested.

  "That's cutting into my profits a bit too much," Adam said with a wince. "Could you do one thousand two hundred?"

  "Four hundred."

  "Three hundred, and I'm afraid that's as high as I can realistically go," Adam said, shaking his head. "And I can only go that high because the condition means I can sell it as brand new."

  "I suppose I could accept that price," I agreed, reaching out to accept a handshake. "For future reference, is there something we should be concerned with more? Something that sells better and is in greater need?"

  "Antibiotics are always in demand, as are antifungal and antiparasitic pills," Bill responded. "Stuff like bandages, tools, and the rest, what you have in your… what did ya call 'em, trauma kits? Those won't be worth as much, but there's still usually someone looking to buy 'em."

  "I think Bill might be underestimating what a high-level doctor might pay for a certified sterile bandage, but he is mostly right," Adam said. "The medicine you have will sell the fastest, and for the most."

  "I'll keep that in mind," I said with a nod. "Now, would you guys be interested in any of the stuff we scavenged?"

  Adam went through some of the other stuff we brought to the table, paying for a dozen bottles of liquor, and a few other odds and ends. Reed, on the other hand, bought a good chunk of our ammo and three of our guns, his men coming over to disseminate the bullets and carry the weapons back. More of Adam's staff came by to grab all the medical supplies, leaving us almost completely cleared out. By the time they were done, we had just a few crates and some odds and ends left over.

  In the end, as we shook on the final deal, we had made one thousand five hundred and fifty caps, handed over in several large bags. I immediately handed them to Carlos, who rushed them inside to the secure storage and the safe inside.

  "Thank you, Connor. I have to say I was not expecting such high-quality goods," the trader admitted. "And this is just one of your settlements exports?"

  "Yes, but the powers that be haven't quite decided on what else exactly to supply us with," I explained. "Medical supplies are usually a safe bet, but the rest is more finicky. But, as long as you're the only one coming to poke around here, you'll be the first to know when they figure it out."

  "That's good to hear," He said with a nod, before looking back over at his people. "It will take a bit to get everything secured and squared away, but we should be gone and out of your hair within the hour. Should be back around two weeks from now."

  "Sounds good, the place should look a bit more active by then as well," I responded. "Should have some more infrastructure set up, too."

  A flicker of uncertainty washed through Adams' face, his eyes darting to the medbay, before nodding. After one more round of handshakes, we made our way back inside, heading into the main hall, where we sat along one of the tables, within sight of the caravan.

  "So… how did that go?" Carlos asked, leaning forward. "One and a half thousand caps seems like a lot."

  "To be honest… I'm not entirely sure," I admitted. "The price seems to line up with what I remember from the game, but who knows if that's accurate."

  "I can't imagine he would be dumb enough to screw you over," Joseph pointed out. "Especially not after buying the high-quality medical goods. The HQ is a golden goose, and screwing us over would mean losing access to that."

  "Maybe, but there's a reason that goose ends up dead," I pointed out, shaking my head. "People get real stupid when easy money is on the line. Either way, we have the caps we need, and we will know if he screwed us over long before he comes back to do it again. We might even be able to leverage some restitutions if that happens."

  The two soldiers nodded, and together we sat back and watched the merchant convoy pack up and slowly make their way gone. They took their time, probably not looking forward to venturing back out into uncleared, potentially raider-infested areas. When they finally disappeared, we waited for another thirty minutes before finally leaving the HQ and heading out to the barracks. We had the caps, it was time to add a few new members to the family.

  As we stepped into the barracks, I grabbed the tablet and scrolled through the several lists, settling on the available soldiers. Just as before, standard soldiers were two hundred, and a combat medic was three hundred caps.

  "You know, having seen the other prices, two hundred for a soldier is starting to feel cheap," Carlos pointed out with a frown. "At first it seemed expensive, but it's only fifty more than that empty construction yard you mentioned. You could buy seven of us right now."

  "I think that's kind of on purpose," I responded, looking up from the tablet with a wince. "I was thinking about it, and it seems like the real restriction on my number of soldiers is upgrading the barracks. It's five hundred caps for the second level, and that doesn't even increase the capacity. All it does is offer some quality of life upgrades for the standard soldier's kit and improve the barracks. The next upgrade is another thousand, and that is the one that increases the capacity."

  "So soldiers are cheap, but the cap is expensive," Carlos paraphrased. "That's… fucking dark."

  "Yeah, it is," I agreed, shaking my head. "Needless to say, I will not be treating you like that."

  Both of my soldiers nodded, and I focused back down on my tablet. With one and a half thousand caps to spend, I decided to purchase two soldiers and one combat medic, totaling seven hundred caps. That would mean all the beds in the HQ are full, so if I wanted to get more soldiers, I would need to improve the barracks first, since I still refuse to let them live in this flimsy building. We would be a team of six people, a potent force even in this harsh Wasteland.

  With three people in my cart, I hit purchase, and suddenly three more people were standing at attention by their official beds.

  "Private Madison Nash, reporting for duty, Sir!"

  "Private John Barton, reporting for duty, Sir!"

  "Private Leon Wells, reporting for duty, Sir!"

  I stood, tossing the tablet to the bed I had been sitting on, looking over each soldier. Madison, the first female soldier in my army, was a short-haired brunette with an intense nose and low brow. Leon, who carried the caduceus staff patch on his shoulder to mark him as the combat medic, had a thinner look, with pointed features and dark skin. John was the tallest of the new recruits, probably over six feet, though he wasn't particularly well built.

  "At ease," I said, the soldiers relaxing slightly. "As you know, my name is Connor, your new commanding officer. You've come at an interesting time for us, after a shift in how the HQ system works. We seem to be at the cusp of some real progress, but who knows how well this will turn out. Gather your things so we can head back to the HQ main hall, we can answer your questions there. Welcome to the party."