“Don’t shoot!” I called out to the raider from a nearby bush. “I’m coming out, but I mean you no harm.” Clearly startled by my presence and reacting based on what was more than likely a combination of the Rocketeer hovering menacingly close and a history of earlier betrayals, the dusty raider pointed his weathered Ferro rifle my way. He’d already called for the elevator to bring him back to Speranza safe and sound, so it’s no wonder that he’d be anxious. He was in danger of losing everything right at the finish line, just before those saferoom doors opened. But so was I, and he didn’t know–couldn’t know–that I hadn’t ever killed a raider before.
I could see him measuring my trustworthiness on the fly. “The robots are the bad guys, right?” I continued, sweating out the moment every second he didn’t lower his gun. “If I killed you here, you’d be the first raider I’ve shot down. I’m just trying to get home, same as you.” I kept moving so he couldn’t get a clean shot at me, but I remained hopeful it wouldn’t come to that. Before he could crunch the numbers on whether I was to be believed, the Rocketeer’s alert status started howling something fierce. It had spotted him while he’d had his sights set on me.
Not a moment later, it was firing rockets his way, sending him to his knees, clutching to life with a backpack of rare who-knows-what. I could’ve let him die. Heck, I could’ve delivered the killing blow myself if I wanted to. But I made him a promise. I tossed a lure grenade over the ridge, buying us just enough time to dash–or crawl–into the elevator as the powerful drone took off for my distraction. The raider was bleeding out, but he would make it.