It was turning out to be one of those days where nothing was working and everything was piling up to the point where Maya didn't know whether she wanted to throw in the towel and call it a day, or carry on working to try to solve at least one problem completely. She was wholly covered in dust and old wires from working inside one of the airplane cockpits that had been sitting at McCarran for a while, nursing a freshly electrocuted finger.

"You okay there Maya?" Robert Hunter's worried face popped into view from the window, craning his head to get a better look. A balding man in his early 50s with a broad build and weathered expression like a man who had seen some serious shit in his life, he was one of the senior and most experienced engineers at McCarran who was brought in by her recommendation. Despite his acerbic attitude towards others, as well as possessing the mouth of a sailor, and a fervent belief that life in the wasteland is God's greatest ironic gift to man, Maya liked him. The two of them were as thick as thieves.

"Oh yeah Bobby, fucking great", Maya grunted in reply, trying to untangle herself from the mess she made, "Just great…".

"Take a break, you've been working almost ten hours straight you loon", Hunter laughed. He was just as filthy as she was, and honestly after the start to the day they all had, some of them were lucky to have their limbs intact.

Maya shook her head, "I'm good, just zapped my finger".

Hunter's head disappeared from outside the window with a grunt, shortly re-appearing in person to kneel next to her. "Come on boss, it's been a long day. Let's go take a short break, recollect our thoughts, and make a plan for tomorrow", he urged her, "Besides, I need to take a piss"

Maya chortled, dusting off her arms. It wasn't a bad idea, given how busy their schedules turned out to be. Not to mention she was starting to feel exhausted. "Alright", she exhaled, "Help me up".

Hunter reached an arm down and pulled her to her feet, coughing from the dust as Maya patted her overalls to get rid of some of it, "Right, let's go get some coffee".

Despite the late hour, the base was unusually active and there was a lot of chatter and laughter around as she and Hunter made their way to the canteen. It made Maya wonder if there were any training drills planned that they didn't know about. Maya had assembled a team of engineers and workers when she and Boone arrived at McCarren about 3 months ago to restore the base to working order, so the overall population in the base had gone up by almost a third. As they rounded the corner of the hallway into the dining area, Maya saw why it was so busy. A group of her engineers had congregated at a table and were having what appeared to be a drinking competition, surrounded by some off duty officers who were cheering them on.

"Crap…" Hunter muttered under his breath as he watched Maya weave her way through the crowd with an irritated expression.

"The hell are you all doing?!" her voice reverberated in the high ceiling room when she reached the epicentre of the commotion, and as if someone had pressed mute on a remote control, the entire room fell silent. The four engineers at the table were mortified, one had frozen mid swig with a yellowish brown liquid still in his shot glass. Their faces were flushed, hair dishevelled slightly, cheeks flushed and both exuding the familiar aroma of Old World Whiskey.

"Well" Maya broke the silence after no one dared step up to explain themselves, "Since no one is going to bother with an explanation –"

"It was my fault, ma'am", one of the engineers standing closest to the table piped up, "Please…We've all had a hard day and –"

"And you will have another hard day tomorrow" Maya interjected, "It will be hard every day until we get the job done. Getting inebriated and putting everyone's safety in jeopardy is not an option. It could get you or someone else around you seriously injured, or worse killed! This behaviour is inexcusable! You all have duties to perform here, which I remind you, are not to be taken lightly. Our responsibility is to rebuild the McCarran airport base, yet you all act as if you're on the Strip!" she continued, looking at every one of their guilty faces. "If anyone isn't on board with their post and all that it entails, and you'd rather spend your time with a bottle in your hand, then by all means; there's the door, have at it" she pointed to the exit.

The crowd shifted on their feet, most of them trying to avoid eye contact with her, feeling embarrassed that what they thought was seemingly harmless fun had disappointed their Chief Engineer. The off duty NCR officers quickly dispersed and got back to doing whatever it was before they were distracted, but no one from her team went for the exit…

An apologetic murmur echoed in the room.

"We're sorry Chief, we won't disappoint you", one of the engineers sitting at the table apologised, while the others nodded and pushed their glasses away.

With a nod and an exasperated exhale, Maya waved them all away and the rest of them dispersed.

Hunter walked up to her, holding his hard hat in hand, "Don't worry about it, they'll sober up by the morning".

"I hope so…for their sakes", Maya sighed, "Doughtry almost lost his hand today in that stupid accident with the hydraulic system on one of the wings. I can still smell the stench of stale alcohol on him when I pulled him away", she shook her head. "There can be no drinking, even when they're off duty. Can't risk it".

Hunter shrugged and sighed, a tired expression on his dirty face, "I'll pass the word down the vine".

With that, they both sat down in the now quiet canteen and discussed the following day's duty roster and building repairs while the rest of the base slowly prepared for the late night shift.

Boone sat at his desk with a pen in hand, the ball point hovering over a blank sheet as he tried to think of what to write. He had spent the better part of ten minutes trying to come up with the first sentence; he was never really good at this. Heaving a deep sigh, he dropped the pen and tried to rub the tiredness out of his eyes. It didn't help, just made them ache a little more.

Spending time away from Maya was difficult, even though he was only away for about two weeks and was due to back in a couple of days or so. Training the new recruits kept his mind from worrying and missing her too much, but the hardest part was the end of the day when he had to get back to his bunk. He sorely wished he could talk to her over the radio, but he knew she was on a strict deadline and didn't want to hassle her; so letters had to do for the time being.

Taking a sip of his bitter lukewarm coffee and picking up the pen, he wrote a short but sweet letter to her. Just as he placed it in an envelope and added recipient details, the flap to his tent was pulled back and his commanding officer, General Owens, walked in.

"Sir!", Boone stood up abruptly and saluted his C.O., almost knocking his cup off the table.

"At ease" he waved away his respectful gesture with an overly friendly smile. He was a handsome man in his early forties who carried his age well and a somewhat wily expression wherever he went, as though he were a fox in a chicken coop. His almost black hair was cut short, lightly going salt and pepper around the side burns, with dark blue eyes the color of sapphire. Although he was shorter than Boone standing at 5'8", he definitely had an inconspicuous authoritative posture and conduct about him that went beyond rank. "You're off duty Boone, no need for that. Have I caught you at an inconvenient moment?" he asked, looking at the letter in Boone's left hand.

"No, sir, just finished up", Boone answered, relaxing his stance.

"Ah, writing home to the family?" Owens asked inquisitively.

"Got a fiancée at McCarran, she's the Chief engineer", Boone replied, trying his best not to display a prideful grin.

"So you're the guy", the general replied, patting Boone's shoulder and a big grin on his face, "Congratulations! I can't believe that you've been here for almost two weeks and this is the first I hear about this. I heard a lot of good things about Dr. Lyons, we're very fortunate to have you both".

Boone didn't really know what to make of his C.O.'s initial remark, but he nodded and smiled just the same, "Thank you sir. We're happy to help".

"I'm sorry to pull you away from your letter, but there is a small matter regarding the new recruits I wanted to speak with you about", the general started, "I see that they are entering the final stages of their training and they require a live mission to move on to becoming fully fledged first recon officers".

Boone nodded.

"I believe I have just the task for them", he handed him a folder with the mission objectives.

When Boone read the files, he couldn't believe what the general was suggesting. "Sir… this has to be a mistake".

Owens wasn't phased by Boone's reaction, in fact it seemed that he anticipated it.

"Now I know it's a tall order –"

"It's impossible" Boone shook his head, his voice low and severe, "What you are asking of them, sir… You would need an experienced platoon with at least two squads. There are only four of them".

"Five", Owens corrected him, "You will participate with present company, show them the ropes in live combat and all that. Besides, our recon teams counted just shy of a dozen enemies on the premises. Shouldn't be too hard to set up a perimeter and pick off the enemy from a safe distance".

This was entirely unprecedented and reckless of their C.O. He knew that there are inherent risks in his line of duty that could not be avoided, but the higher ups never sent him anywhere unprepared and without sufficient backup. At least, not until now.

'Someone set it up' he thought. Standing in silence, he waited for Owens to say something, that this was an elaborate joke, anything. But he simply stood his ground and smiled at Boone; it made him feel sick to his stomach.

"I expect you will have your team ready before sunrise. It's a long trek to Black mountain with a challenging mission ahead, but I have full confidence in you and your team. And the sooner this is dealt with, the sooner you can get back to Maya", he winked and left Boone with the mission files.

Running his hand roughly over the back of his neck, Boone exhaled in frustration; there was nothing he could do. If he declined the mission, Owens would undoubtedly relieve him of duty and fail the new recruits, or worse; send the recruits without him and he would have to live with the knowledge that they were sent to their doom without their mentor to assist them. He seemed like the type to do that…

No, Boone wouldn't allow that to happen, he couldn't. Reaching under his bed, he dragged out his old duffel bag and began packing his weapons and some necessities before leaving the tent to inform his new squad of the upcoming mission. But first he would make a trip to the comms station and send a radio message to McCarran.

Next Day

Just as Maya got her tools out to make repairs to the fuse box in her accommodation and add on a new power line, a knock at the door diverted her attention. Two troopers had just brought in an armor workbench and Maya helped them set it up in a corner in what will be the living room.

"Finally we have a proper armor work station" she sighed standing over it, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of her face. "Now, where did I stash his armor?" she mumbled, trying to recall where she saw Boone's patrol uniform. The last time he was out on patrol a band of raiders had tried to ambush them and the armor took some damage, and some of the integrated bulletproof panels needed replacing and some stitching in the long coat. He hadn't gotten round to repairing it and had been away for a couple of days to train some new recruits at Camp Golf, so Maya thought she would surprise him by fixing it up herself. Rummaging through one of her duffel bags, she managed to find it and set it on the surface, examining the damage as she ran her fingers over the trouble areas. Boone's armor of choice was the NCR Ranger veteran armor, one that Maya had found in Zion valley and gifted to him. It was distinguished from the rest as it had "Forgive me momma" written on the helmet with white paint, as well as some of Boone's own customization to it: he had added a NCR flag on the right side of his chest piece and on his left, was a drawing of a heart with a lock through it with Maya's name on it. It made her smile every time she saw it. She remembered when he asked her to draw it for him.

"They're gonna make fun of you" she remembered telling him when she presented him with the finished work on the day of their arrival at McCarran, "Gonna say that 1st recon guy went soft the second he got a girl", but Boone scoffed, and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"They can try" she remembered his reply, a faint smirk on his face. Since their relationship became serious, he always carried a grin around him as though he was the luckiest man in the Mojave. It made Maya smile remembering him that way.

The other thing that stood out about his uniform compared to the others was the custom paint Maya did of a bloody Legion bull on the back left side of his helmet to commemorate his greatest achievement in the NCR when he killed Caesar.

Maya sighed and began work on the repairs. Since Boone wouldn't be back for another two days, this gave her plenty of time to do as much work as she could before his return.

"I should be able to fix you before he comes back", she spoke out loud as she took some materials out of her duffle bag and began repairs. Several of the heavy duty Kevlar inserts had to be completely replaced and the material stitched back up, but after salvaging the materials from other equipment and components in her possession the repairs took no longer than half an hour. After that, she moved onto the fuse box and managed to get power back to the building before dawn. Wiping the sweat off her brow, she sat down at the dining table in the kitchen and took out a can of baked beans to eat. As much as she loved it when she and Boone were together, sometimes she felt like she needed a bit of space. Spending decades on her own with no one to talk to but herself and then being surrounded by people required some getting used to again. When she was alone, she got into the habit of busying herself with maintenance and scavenging tasks. It kept her sane, productive, and occupied her mind so she didn't get bored. She also learned quite a bit of handy tricks along the way. And this is what she fell back on when Boone had to go to Camp Golf. Her next task after her meal was to clean up a bit before going to McCarran to finish up repairs to the aircraft, something she had been looking forward to since they moved there.

Tossing the can in a recycling bin in the kitchen, she changed out of her dusty, sweaty clothes, dunked her head in a bucket of clean water to wash off the sweat and dirt. She also scrubbed her upper torso using a clean enough wash cloth until she stopped smelling of dust and sweat and threw on a clean dusty green military overall before heading down to the airport.

"How's it coming Bobby?" she called out to her second in command over the noise of the repair works on one of the planes. He was busying himself with a dented aileron on the left wing, trying to heat the metal with a flame to bend it back into place.

Hunter turned the flame down and pulling his welding goggles up looked at her with confusion, "Aren't you supposed to be taking the next couple of days off Chief?"

"Free time doesn't seem to agree with me" she smiled, "What's left to fix on this old bird?"

Hunter scratched his head, trying to think of where to start, "Well... there's the hydraulics for the wings from yesterday's roster that still needs replacing, the cockpit control panel needs re-wiring... Oh, and a new battery for the black box. We also need to do a full systems check. There's no way we'll be done in time".

Maya shook her head, "Always the negative one, aren't you?"

Hunter shrugged, "I'm a realist, what can I say?" and with that he slid his goggles back on and got back to his task.

Maya jumped in and decided to tackle the wiring problem, which was worse than she expected. All of the deteriorated cables in the cockpit were removed and strewn on the floor like a bed of weeds and in the corner were several reels of new wires nestled together with the old. 'Maybe this will take more than I thought' Maya mused disappointedly. At least this kept her mind occupied, away from thoughts about the past and unpleasant memories that threatened to rear their ugly heads whenever she had a moment of peace.

It was gone 7 PM before she completed all the wiring in the cockpit. Picking herself back up off the dusty floor inside the plane, she wondered whether it was even worth cleaning up before she got there as she was just as dirty now as she was that morning. It was getting dark outside and Maya decided to call it a day; after all, she had tackled the worst of the problems today. Putting her tools away, she disembarked the plane and found that she was alone in the airport. She must have been so concentrated on her work that she lost track of everything going on around her. She never liked being alone in the dark...

Making her way through the base, she was stopped by one of the radio operators with a message from Boone. The mere mention of his name made her heart skip a beat.

"Got a letter for you today Maya, and you got a radio message", he said.

She took a neatly folded piece of paper and an envelope from his hand and thanked him for keeping her updated. Wondering what radio message was, she decided to read that first. The message was hurriedly scribbled in pencil, but the writing was clear:

"Maya, I will be late getting back home. I've been told to go visit our old pal Neil, the higher ups want him back. Won't lie, it'll be a mountain of a task to pull off at the end of the day without my Sterling suit."

The message left her confused; they don't have an "old pal Neil", and Boone didn't even own a Sterling suit. Apart from the first sentence, nothing else made much sense.

He must be trying to tell me something, she thought, maybe it's code…?

Maybe there was more information in the letter?

Maya ripped through the envelope and flipped the letter open with slightly shaky fingers.

Maya,

Just about done with training. The recruits have a live mission soon so it's been busy getting them ready for it. Hopefully it'll be over by end of day tomorrow and I can get back to you the following day. I'll take the truck, so will be home before you know it. Can't wait to see you again, missing you is unbearable.

Keep safe.

All my love,

Craig

'He must have written that letter before the radio communication', Maya was left with more questions than answers though, and she was beginning to feel a pit growing in her stomach. She jogged down the hallways to catch up to the radio operator and asked him when the message was received.

"Oh, that one came in hours ago", he answered.

"Can you remember roughly what time?"

The operator squinted, trying to remember, "It was before dawn, maybe… 4 or 5 AM".

She thanked him for the information and decided the best way to figure this out was to return to her accommodation. Running up the stairs to her floor, she took a seat at the kitchen table and went over the radio message again.

"Old pal Neil…mountain of a task… Sterling suit?" she spoke out loud after her eyes kept repeatedly hovering over those words. She tried to think about what that could mean, until a memory of a conversation about the difference between supermutants and nightkin she had with McNamara a while back gave her an idea. Fishing out her PipBoy from the depths of her bag, she opened up the map and had a look around to see for clues. First she checked Boone's location to within a five mile radius, but found nothing that matched even vaguely with the clue; and knowing Boone he wouldn't have had the time or patience to send her a complicated puzzle. But just as her eyes were scanning the south-westerly section of the map, her gaze focused on Niel's Shack. "Of course! That has to be it" she exclaimed, and right next to it was Black mountain, "But why be so secretive about it?" she pondered out loud. Her gut was telling her something was up, and she had to get to Niel's shack before the night was over.

'And Sterling suit must refer to Corporal Sterling', she thought. Packing up a bag with Boone's Ranger armour, extra ammo, a couple of pistols, and some plasma grenades, Maya left the flat and ran to McCarran in search of advice.

Corporal Sterling's face looked as perplexed as Maya's when he finished reading the note, "And you say you think he's at Niel's Shack right now getting ready to acquire Black Mountain as the final test?"

Maya nodded, "I've been over the message and that's the only plausible explanation I've come to".

"Hmm", Sterling mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He read through the message again before he got out of his seat and started walking out of his tent with Maya following close behind. When Maya realised that Sterling was making his way to the 1st Recon tent, she knew he thought this was serious enough to warrant their help.

"Gorobets, Bitter Root, Betsy, and Spades", he called the names of the 1st Recon members, bringing them to a standing attention, "I need you to go with Maya and check out Neil's Shack tonight. Be sure to take enough supplies for a well-armed firefight. Go to the doc and get a doctor's bag or two, for good measure".

The stern soldiers nodded and collected their gear without question. If Sterling gave them an order to move out, they knew this was serious.

"Listen carefully Maya", Sterling began, turning to her and pulling her away from the others to speak privately, "When you find Boone, bring him and his team straight back here. Do not let him go back to Camp Golf. Once here, we will take the information to General Hsu and let him deal with this".

Maya nodded, "Alright Corporal. With any luck we should be back before dawn". He gave her a small smile and a pat on the shoulder.

Maya just hoped that they would make it in time…