Chapter 1: New Orders

"Raz. Hey, Rasputin!" The sharp, metallic clangs of knuckle on steel did not help him ignore the harsh voice trying to rouse him from some much needed sleep.

"Five more minutes," he growled, chucking his pillow in the direction of the noise.

"Jesus, Raz, get up." Like thunder, the door swung shut after the dull whump of pillow on concrete. "You're not going to want to be late."

Numb hands rubbing his cushion-creased face, Rasputin slowly sat up, and then cursed as his head knocked against the bunk above him.

"Why am I not going to want to be late, Will?" The man sitting opposite him, hunched over to avoid a similar mishap like Rasputin's, smiled wolfishly.

"Because you know how much Moore hates it when people are late."

"Ah, shit! What time is it?" Swearing again as his head grazed the raised bunk above his, Rasputin lunged underneath his own bed for his boots.

"Relax, it's oh six hundred." Will leaned back on the bed and interlaced his fingers. Raz turned and gave him a menacing look.

"The hell's the matter with you scaring me like that? Asshole…" Diving again under his bed, he continued his footwear expedition.

"Because you're so easy to fool, Raz. Honestly, how you made Lieutenant is a mystery to me. Any diversionary tactic of the Legion's going to throw you so far off your guard you'll get everyone under your command killed."

"That's not funny, Will." His grave tone was lost in Will's chuckle.

"God, you are not a morning person!" Will closed his eyes and he continued to giggle. "No sense of humor. Raz, you gotta lighten up a bit."

Finally finding his left boot, Raz sat on his mattress and began lacing it up once it was on his foot. He hadn't been sleeping well, which could have contributed to his sour mood, but often times Will's sense of humor was more directed at Raz's misfortune and over-attentiveness to regulation than general merriment.

"Well, I'll find a sense of humor when you get that snake out of your left pants leg."

Will shot up so fast his head bashed against the bunk and Raz rolled back laughing. Patting his leg down to find the imaginary serpent, Will's white face contorted in a red hue of embarrassment.

"That was not funny!" shouted Will. Raz laughed jovially and nodded.

"It was a little bit funny." He held his thumb and forefinger close together just to illustrate how much "a little bit" really was.

Finishing his right boot and looking around for where his belt was draped, Raz stood up. Finding it at the post at the foot of his bunk, he strapped it around himself, side-arm and all, and brushed off his regulation gear. It wasn't a fancy outfit, just some good-ol' army regs. The tan color blended in well with the desert when trying to take cover for an ambush or stay unnoticed in a fire-fight. Caesar's Legion had it all wrong with their flashy colors and bulky armor. The desert was a harsh mistress, and she didn't like her soldiers wearing too much, otherwise she'd punish them.

Too many stories of NCR falling flat during marches due to exhaustion had helped them learn well that less was more. Some padding here and there, a helmet, and a rifle, that was all a soldiered needed in the New California Republic's army.

"Did you sleep in your gear again?" Will raised an eyebrow disapprovingly at Raz.

"Yeah, fits nice."

"No wonder that thing looks like it's worn to hell." Will stood up as well, his head only going up to Raz's chin. Will wasn't short, but Raz was a tall fellow. "Well come on, we're not getting any younger."

Pulling the door back, Will stepped into the dimly lit corridor and waited for Raz to do so as well before closing it behind him. While they were stationed at Hoover Dam, that didn't mean there was an abundance of well-maintained supplies and electrical equipment. The flickering lights overhead told them that without a doubt.

With their boots echoing around them in the cement corridor, they began the long march through the staff building that had been converted into a makeshift barracks for officers. The rest of the building was a smaller officer's mess.

Several steps down and they entered the open-floor room that served as the chow hall. Coffee slowly brewing wafted to their faces like a soft breeze on the Mojave. Will's eyes brightened as he headed toward the direction of the drink and Raz followed suit, needing the caffeine to prep him for his morning meeting with the colonel.

"Morning, sirs." The mess officer nodded to them stiffly as he put a tub of scramble eggs onto the counter.

"Ech, is this breakfast?" Will made a face at the rubbery-looking mass.

"Count yer blessings, sir. The enlisted folk got gecko bacon." Upon hearing this, Will's face turned much more appreciative, like a child feigning excitement at the wrong gift.

"Oh, well that makes it better, I guess." Shoveling eggs onto a plate, he sauntered over to a table with Raz mimicking him and following suit.

"Honestly, I don't know where we get these eggs and I don't want to." Raz took a forkful into his mouth and chewed discerningly.

"No you don't, sir!" the mess officer hollered across the room. Raz stomached another bite, then another and decided that the meal wasn't that bad.

Will ate just as slowly and skeptically, but in the end their hunger got the best of them as they finished their meals.

A coffee and a half later, they sighed happily. Raz still had time before his meeting, but not more than an hour.

"So what's this special meeting you have?" Lifting his coffee leisurely to his lips, Will peered at him over the mug.

"Not sure, but it can't be more than a routine assignment. We're still trying to figure out how many people we need to situate around the Wastes." Raz threw an arm over the back of his chair and sighed. "We put so much of our force here to stop the Legion that when it was all said and done, we realized that we were stretched thin everywhere else. I'm afraid we won't be able to recover because of the weak-points throughout the Mojave."

"You don't think that we'll be able to handle the Legion enough to reinforce our own positions?" Will took another sip.

"Well, we can't reinforce our positions if they never make it to their destinations. The Rangers help, but they're so small that the work they do is not nearly comparable to the work that a larger group of men can." Raz shrugged with one arm. Will nodded.

"We keep losing men while we try to reinforce, we'll run out of people so fast that the Legion can just sweep us up."

"Absolutely." Raz knocked back the rest of his coffee and shook his head. "The fact that Caesar can essentially bully so many people into fighting against us is almost unreal. Not to mention the trouble we have regionally with the Powder Gangers and the Great Khans."

Groaning, Will threw up his hands, "Alright, I get it." His palms hit the table heavily and the plates clattered in odd chorus. "Well, here's hoping that you don't get sent out there and you just have to handle some new recruits."

Raising his mug as if it were full of the finest liquor, he extended it to Raz, whom reciprocated and clinked them together in a toast.

"Amen."

After a few more minutes of small-talk, Raz bid Will goodbye and made his way outside to head for the forward administration building of Hoover Dam. The hot air of the Mojave Desert greeted him in a rush. Even at this early hour, the sun's fledgling rays were beating down heavily on the barren world.

Squinting as his eyes adjusted to the natural light, his ears picked up the sounds of enlisted men and women bustling about their duties. Several soldiers of Alpha Company, Raz's company, were assembled in an informal fashion outside as Sergeant White spoke to the group. Whatever he was saying was clearly hilarious as the men seemed to laugh on cue, as if watching some sort of routine.

One soldier noticed Raz walking nearby and smacked White on the hip. Looking to his right, White saw Raz and trotted over.

"Morning, sir!" Holding on to his helmet as it bounced, he greeted his commanding officer with a smile.

"Morning, Mr. White. Entertaining the troops again, I see." Raz gave a wry smile as he continued his powerful stride toward the main dam wall.

"Just keeping up morale, sir."

"Indeed."

"May I ask a question, sir?"

"Always, Dan. What's on your mind?" Raz cast a sidelong look at White who was struggling to keep up with his lengthy gait.

"Word around the camp is that Alpha might be deployed today."

"That's the word, huh?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I wonder who could have said that."

"Lieutenant Boyle was walking around this morning after wake-up call and talking to some of the company."

"Oh was he?" Raz made a note to smack Will on the head later. He didn't want his men worrying about anything unnecessarily if they didn't have to. They were edgy just thinking about Legion counter-attacks and bad news from all over the Mojave.

"Yes, sir."

"Well, until I say otherwise, we're staying right here, Sergeant, so get back to telling your knock-knock jokes." Raz waved to White who saluted quickly and jogged back to the men who had been following their progress across the dam.

Men and women kept vigilant watch from makeshift towers and sandbag emplacements spaced sporadically along the dam wall. They could have been at the start or the tail-end of their shift and he couldn't tell. They all had the same haunted and nervous expression on their face of hoping against hope that they'll actually see something.

It only took a few more minutes for him to exit the wall that separated the majority of the dam with the makeshift barracks that were situated on top of it. In retrospect, if the dam was blown, almost the entire NCR force that was stationed at Hoover would most assuredly be killed. Then again, that was entirely tied to the idea that Caesar's Legion had the explosives to do that.

Soldiers here and there saluted him as they either saw his rank or knew him personally. Returning the gesture lazily, he set his eyes for his location. From where he was he could spy the admin building, another few minutes or so away. Looking at his watch, making sure that he was still going to be early, or at the very least on time, and quickened his pace.

The door was opened for him by the soldier on guard, a young woman he didn't recognize. She nodded to him, muttering a "sir" almost in an afterthought, and he strode into the dimly lit building. It was like walking into a cave. He had to squint for a few moments to make out details.

Raz needed to be upstairs, so he marched over to the stairway, nodding to the two guards who parted as he approached.

"She's waiting for you, sir," one said over his shoulder.

Jumping two at a time, Raz reached the second floor landing in under a minute. Checking his timepiece again he saw that he was early, and grinned to himself. A good soldier was always ready for orders before they were even given. And Raz was better than good.

Opening the double doors to the Operations Room, he nodded to several of the other officers who were milling about. Raised voices over the din could be heard while others murmured to each other in private discourse. Somewhere under hubbub, Mr. New Vegas could be heard giving a news report.

"Lieutenant Rasputin, glad to see you're more than punctual." Finding the source of the voice, Raz snapped to attention and saluted firmly.

"Lieutenant Rasputin reporting as ordered, sir."

"At ease, Lieutenant." He could see that she was pleased with his formality, but also with his gesture of eagerness.

Not many people got that much from Colonel Cassandra Moore these days, especially considering her distaste for this kind of work and her preference of combat. From what he heard she was a legend in her own right, and had she not been injured, she'd still be out on the front-lines with the rest of the men and women.

Raz shifted his stance and clasped his hands behind his back. Obviously, their meeting was a cue for some of the other officers to leave the room as at least three pairs departed at the sound of Moore's voice.

Stepping over to the map sprawled out on the table before her, Moore gestured for Raz to join her.

"I hear Alpha Company is one of our best groups." She never looked up from the map. Her voice was flat. It wasn't a question or a compliment; it was a statement of fact, a test to see if he would rise and show humility or pride.

"Alpha does what it's told to the best of its abilities, just like every one of our other companies, sir." Her nod told him that this was the answer she wanted to hear. Still with her eyes glued to the map, she pointed to a small colored marker that sat staring up at them from on the table.

Its sister stood out against the flat hills and valleys of the Mojave Waste to the north-west. Moore's other finger rested on it heavily now and she finally looked to Raz.

"It's a long trek from Hoover to McCarran. About four or five days by our estimates when traveling with a full company."

"That sounds about right, sir. Especially with a full company and assuming it doesn't attract any unwanted attention."

"If only." Leaning back, she crossed her arms and gave him a hard look. "I like your work, Lieutenant. You show promise. That's why I'm sending you and Alpha to New Vegas." Moore held a hand up to stop any sort of response from him and powered on.

"I understand that you feel you can do more good here where the action is. Believe me, I understand. The fact is that our citizens in New Vegas and the surrounding area are under more threats than Legion skirmishes. What with the Vipers, Jackals and all of the horrors that come out of Freeside, they need some order. Some solidarity from the NCR."

His eyes shifted downward as a runner hurried into the room and handed the colonel a clipboard. He could tell she saw his expression. Hers turned into one not of maternal empathy, but of professional control.

"I cut my teeth on these bastards back in the day, Lieutenant. Did you know that?"

"I did, sir."

"I know this room isn't a glamorous reward, but I have a good feeling about you Lieutenant. You get things done, you work hard and you've jumped into the fray with your people on more than one opportunity. You get it." Inside, he could feel his pride mending and Raz lifted his gaze a little more to meet hers again.

"You can make a difference for these people, Rasputin. You can help New Vegas." It was hard to deny that while Moore may be metaphorically behind a desk, she was more than just a pencil pusher. She could motivate and she wasn't a bullshitter. Moore's words were high praise.

"Well, sir, if you twist my arm any further I might not be able to hold my rifle." Rasputin grinned as Moore nodded firmly.

"Good man. And if you're worried about firepower, you'll be packing something extra."

"Sir?"

"I'm sending some Rangers with you." Raz lifted an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. "Camp Golf radioed this morning. Chief Hanlon wants a few of his people back from the dam to make a push on Fortification Hill."

"Is that wise?" Moore laughed humorlessly and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

"He's a Ranger, Lieutenant, that question really doesn't apply to him and his kind."

Nodding, Raz snapped to attention again, saluting briskly.

"Well, sir, if that's all, I'll brief my men and have them prep for an early march tomorrow morning."

"You leave at oh fifteen hundred today, Lieutenant. Have your men prepped and ready in front of this building by then." Moore looked back at the clipboard that the runner handed her moments ago. "The Rangers will be there waiting for you. Because of the nature of this assignment you'll be doing half-day marches and half-night marches. We need to keep them cool and we can't lose time."

The sudden realization of how badly Moore needed them in Vegas hit Raz as he heard all of this. Things were either going very very wrong in Mr. House's personally paradise of sin and vice, or the NCR was dying slowly without its soldiers even realizing it.

Hours after breaking the news to the people under his command, Raz stood opposite the two statues that sat grimly by the stretch of road the twisted and winded wickedly out towards Boulder City and into the perilous heat of the Mojave Wastes.

The light armor felt like a soft embrace of protection over his chest and shoulders. His helmet sat tilted back on his head, goggles around his neck, and the drums of shotgun shells hung at his sides. Hefting the shotgun in his hands, Raz surveyed Alpha Company.

They took the news well-enough for people who had just been told they were going to march through the desert with a high probability of being attacked to finally end up at New Vegas where they would be fighting urban warfare at its worst.

Off to the left, milling in a semi-formal group, were the Rangers that were to accompany them on their journey. No uniform seemed to give them a cohesive feel. That came from the smiling faces and lively conversation that bubbled out of them.

Seven in total, they wore crimson berets and cowboy hats. Light gear and thick boots covered their athletic frames. Each had a rifle strung over their back and a different side-arm at their hip. The only things that each member had was an emblem of a bear on its hind legs somewhere on their clothing or hat, and a pair of thick mirrored sunglasses.

It was believed that the shades were used to protect their oh-so-important eyesight from the harsh light of the desert. If that was true, one of them was taking his eye protection a little too seriously. He still wore his glasses, even in the waning light of the sun and had a pair of goggles hanging from his neck too, ready to switch out at a moment's notice. Did he really need those? He couldn't even read his face to tell if the extra pair of eyewear was out of humor or seriousness as the lower half of his face was covered with a kerchief.

Sergeant White made his way up to Raz and saluted.

"Everyone's present and accounted for. They've got rations for the march as well as the gear to do some water capture at night."

"Good thinking, Dan. We're traveling with the lake to our right but going near that beach at night could be hazardous. Lakelurks don't like people much."

"You think they'd come after such a large group" The sergeant looked back worriedly to the assembled soldiers.

"I doubt it, but if the worst happens, we should be prepared for it. We'll keep watches on the shoreline just to be safe." White nodded and threw up a hasty salute as he went to his squad. The other sergeants began to rouse their teams and prep them for moving out. They had only a few minutes left.

Ranger Grant's presence became apparent as the other Rangers began to shuffle about anxiously and stare in Raz's direction. Looking behind himself, he saw the eye-patched man striding over.

"Lieutenant." His salute was a formality. No sincerity lived inside of it. Grant was not a friendly man, nor was he a kind one. The fact that he was out today meant that his interest in the mission was personal. With the Rangers part of Raz's expedition, it made sense.

"Ranger Grant, what can I do for you?" Raz nodded and saluted firmly to the man, turning his stance to face him more directly.

"I just wanted to thank you for letting my men come along with you." He really didn't. At least, he didn't sound like he wanted to. "They may have been able to get there faster on their own, but the likelihood they would all survive is questionable."

"Well, Alpha is more than up to the task of keeping everyone here safe and making sure we all get to where we're going." Raz jerked his head in the direction of the company and Grant nodded stiffly.

"See that they do, Lieutenant. Thank you for your service." He saluted again, a practiced motion. Turning on his heel, Grant went back inside the admin building. Colonel Moore exited as he entered.

"Everything ready, Lieutenant?" She looked at her watch. "You leave in a minute."

"We're all prepped, sir."

"Good. Move them out and keep a good pace." Moore saluted him now, and Raz returned it gratefully. The gesture from her was more meaningful and much more rare. "I'll expect a radio from you when you reach McCarran."

"Yes, sir." Raz nodded to her as she stepped past him to address those assembled directly. Raising her voice above the din, she spoke out as if this was the last time she'd see any of them. As if this was the last day of the war.

"Today, all of you move out to New Vegas. While I know that some think that gambling and excitement await you at your final destination, know that you will all play a vital part in the safety and security of our citizenry there. You are soldiers first, people second. You took an oath to protect those who chose to be people first. Do not fail them, and do not fail yourselves."

Her tone said more than she actually did. Somber, flat, and grim. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Moore did not have high hopes for the mission, and sending in Alpha was a tug-of-war on her better judgment.

If Alpha made it to McCarran, then she would have lost one of her best companies at the dam. If Alpha didn't make it, then the entire NCR would have lost one of its best companies, and another weak link in the chain would appear.

Before turning her back on those soldiers who stood stock still in straight lines, she saluted each and every squad individually. Even the Rangers returned the gesture grimly, if a little informally.

"Alright, listen up! We walk in lines of two and we stick together. Keep your salt pills handy and drink your water sparingly. We may be walking next to the lake but do NOT go get a drink unless a CO tells you." Raz stepped in Moore's place as she left and shifted his voice to an authoritative one.

"We want to make it there in as short as time as possible and in one piece. Keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you. The Mojave kills the unprepared. And we won't be unprepared, will we?"

He was rewarded with an enthusiastic "NO, SIR."

"Good. Squad leaders, move'em out!" At his word, shouts rang out along the lines as they formed and the first squads began to march along the destroyed road out of Hoover Dam's protection.