Chapter 2

Alarms rang in the dead of night, shaking the whole airport. Michael and Kenny were practically thrown out of bed, and rose to their feet, and ran outside. NCR Heavy Armored Troops were congregating near the gate of Camp McCarran.

"What the hell is happening?" Kenny yelled

"It looks like every Raider in the Mojave is approaching from the west!" yelled out a nearby trooper.

"Jesus." Michael muttered as he made sure his gun was ready for a fight.

A Vertibird was spotted in the distance, coming from the Southeast.

"The General's coming!" Shouted a few troops as they ran toward the runways, to perform their landing duties.

Within a few minutes, General Moore was on the stage at Camp McCarran, ready to announce contingency plans.

"I am General Moore, and this is a stage 1 emergency, it looks like every Raider and no-good person in the whole wasteland is coming up to our gate, this is an opportune chance to wipe out the Raiders, so I have called in every soldier I could from around the Mojave, everywhere from Mojave Outpost to the Dam itself, to come and provide reinforcements."

At this, cheers were heard coming from the anxious crowd.

"This will surely be the greatest Battle of the NCR since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, and we can make sure that all this Raider scum is wiped off the face of this earth right now. General Oliver would be proud of every single one of you if we can make this a reality."

A mix of cheers and boos greeted the former General's name.

"Our plan for battle is to just stall, we will not open the gates of the Camp until our reinforcements gain control of the outside, until then, anyone with any sort of long or medium range weapon, head over to the walls, we'll shoot as many of them as we can from up there. The first reinforcements will be arriving shortly, I saw them at the 188 Trading Post as we flew over, so maybe half an hour. Battle Stations people!"

Anyone with any sort of rifle filed towards the stairs and ladders that led to the walls of Camp McCarran, including Kenny and Michael, as they reached the top of the wall, they saw the Raiders, Fiends, Vipers, it didn't matter, they were all there to try and destroy Camp McCarran. At the sight of the NCR's firing squads, the Raiders charged forward at a full sprint, and the militia began firing its weapons. Rocket Launchers and Grenades could clear a chunk of ground real quick, but it would soon be filled up by more Raiders, it looked like a frenzied Ant Hill. Michael had shot 5 Raiders before he had to duck for cover, and Kenny was doing what he could with his dis-repaired Sniper Rifle, picking off the Raiders with precision weapons. Even General Moore got in the fray, shooting a Service Rifle into the wave of Raiders, and soon a wave of jubilation went through the militia, as the NCR Reinforcements from Boulder City had arrived.

They came around the South side of the Camp, and soon formed a wedge between the Camp's Gates, which were now quite battered, and the Raiders. Other reinforcement groups from random patrols soon found their way into the fight as well, and the NCR finally began making headway in the masses of Raiders.

There were only about 100 Raiders left when a loud horn-like noise was heard from the North. The fighting seemed to stop as everyone was in disbelief about what was charging towards the battle. Legion.

There must have been about 2000 Legion troops charging from the North, around the west side of the strip, their standards flying high. They ran and backed the Raiders in their fight against the NCR.

"Legion!" General Moore exclaimed as she thought intently. "We need to break out the Fat Man cannons, hurry!" she yelled to no one in particular. A couple of troops ran into the Terminal building, and soon they came back out pulling carts with boxes on them. The General opened 2 of the boxes, and pulled out a Fat Man Cannon along with a couple of Mini Nukes.

"Squash these bugs!" General Moore exclaimed as they shot a nuke into the sea of enemies. It exploded into a fireball and rose into a mushroom cloud. The Geiger counter in Michael's PipBoy started ticking like crazy.

After a few Nuke shots, the wave of Raiders began to recede, and slowly back up, and soon after, the NCR Power Armored troops had chased the whole wave back west. General Moore stood back up on the stage an hour after the Legion/Raider party retreated.

"The good news is, we're still here, the bad news is, the Legion seems to have returned." Moore shook her head. "Our patrols had only seen them in Arizona, not a one seemed to have been able to get back across the Colorado. Good job everyone on defending this base. It is the most integral part of the NCR's foothold here in New Vegas. Now, I know you all think that we all withhold information from you guys, but this time, I have no information with which to withhold. So we're going to send out a couple of patrols to make sure that the Raiding party is going to stay retreated, and when we get that all clear, we will let you leave if you wish. Thank You for your Cooperation and Service."

A Major walked up onto the stage after that, "Everyone here right now will receive a free meal, head over to any Mess Hall if you're hungry."

Kenny and Michael walked into the nearest mess hall, and were treated to some salted Brahmin and Sarsaparilla for free, before the loud speakers blared.

"This is General Moore. We have received an all clear notice from our scouting parties. Be sure to exercise extreme caution if you venture out, the Legion is out there. General Moore, signing off."

At that, the Camp seemed to buzz even more than before General Moore spoke, people talking among themselves, creating stories and passing them along faster than the Monorail to the Strip could run.

"The Legion is back, I just thought that we had found some sort of straggling group back in Nipton." Kenny said " I think that things are going to get interesting around here."

"I agree." Michael replied. "I think I still want to go to the Strip though, if you still want to, I'm going to be leaving here soon."

"Definitely, I'm not going to let some Arizona whack-jobs stop me from seeing the Strip!" Kenny exclaimed as he ran back to the tent to collect his gear.

Michael walked over towards the gate of Camp McCarran, where there was a patrol, who motioned for him to come over. "You planning on leaving the camp?" a guard asked.

"Yes, I'm going to the strip." Michael replied, "With my friend over there, pointing at Kenny, who was now walking up toward the gate."

"I'm currently required to advise against leaving the Camp, due to Legion sightings in the area, I can't force you to stay, and in fact I really don't think it's all that dangerous out there, but my orders are to advise against leaving."

"Well thank you for your advisement, but we can handle ourselves out there."

"For your sake, I hope you're right." the guard said as he opened the gate for Kenny and Michael. As the gate opened, Michael and Kenny could see the carnage of the battle, hundreds of bodies were being disposed of by NCR Troopers, and just tossed into mass graves for burying.

"Man." was all that Kenny could muster.

"There was this quote that would play on a lot of the 'Restoring Civilization' videos we played in the Vault, 'War, war never changes.' I've never understood what exactly that meant until now." Michael said as they made their way east around the Northern wall of Camp McCarran. They came up on a broken down wagon, with a Brahmin skeleton at the front. "It's a caravan." Michael said as he searched through the boxes. "Nothing. Didn't the NCR say that they protected Caravans up here?" Michael asked

"Yea, they try, they've never been able to actually control New Vegas, there was this guy, Mr. House, and these families that run the casinos, they're the ones who own the actual city, the NCR is just here."

"So the NCR is having trouble keeping their foothold here in the Mojave, any group could come in and take over?" Michael asked, and Kenny shrugged and nodded "I guess so." he replied.

"All it takes is one wrong step by the NCR, and the Legion could potentially rise to prominence. It just depends on the Legion's true strength. If this group of Legion is all that they have, then I think the NCR will be able to defeat them, simply because the reinforcements from Mojave Outpost and down in California didn't even show up to the skirmish." Michael said as a matter-of-fact.

"How do you know so much about strategy and war?" Kenny asked.

"I was being groomed to be the Overseer in my Vault, the current Overseer took me out of school a few years ago, and he started training me militarily, both in weapons and strategy, both skills are incredibly useful out here in this world."

"You could've been the head honcho of the entire Vault, yet you came out here, looking for something? I don't get you man." Kenny said, a little perplexed.

"Sometimes, you can have everything you could ever want, but still feel empty inside, and that's what I was feeling, I had just about everything I could've ever wanted in there, but I didn't feel it."

"You know, if it was me, all I'd need is some booze and pussy and I'd be perfectly ok in a Vault." Kenny laughed. Michael laughed with him, as they came up on some buildings and a gate with a sign overhead that said "Freeside."

"Any idea what Freeside is Kenny?" Michael asked.

"The gate to New Vegas." Kenny opened the gate, they both walked in, and immediately had a gun pointed in their direction.

"Give me your caps!" the man shouted, pulling the hammer on his pistol back to the cocked position.

"Why?" Michael asked. "We have no incentive to give you them, because if we do, you might still shoot us anyway. If you really want our pitiful amount of caps, then you have to promise our safety."

"What? This is a mugging, not a UN negotiation!" the man said, walking up to Michael and pushing the gun into his chest. Kenny took the opportunity to pull out his Trail Carbine from his pack and point it at the head of the mugger. He turned to fire at Kenny, but Michael grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it at the ground as the gun fired. The round went down and sent some shrapnel outward. Kenny swung the barrel of the Carbine into the back of the mugger's head, knocking him down. Michael picked up the man's pistol, and cocked the hammer, and pointed it at his head.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just end you right now!" Michael said. The man, still in a daze, lifted his hand and pointed towards an alley, where Michael could see a Woman and two children poking their heads around the corner. "Jesus man," Michael said as he helped the man back up. "All you had to do was ask, we all need to help each other out out here man, here's some caps and food." Michael gave the man 50 caps and some of his NCR Rations.

"Bless you sir. Thank you for sparing my life, I can safely say that others would not have done the same."

"Just promise me that you won't go around trying to mug people, your family needs you more than a little bit of caps." Michael scolded.

"I can see that now, thank you once again." Michael handed the man his gun back, shook his hand, and continued down the street of Freeside.

"Well," Kenny said, "That was fun."

"This place is terrible, people who are starving and can't feed their own families, risking their lives to try and get one lousy meal. What is this place?" Michael replied.

"This," Kenny said, waving his arms in a grand motion, "Is Freeside, gate to the strip, home of the Kings gang and free of NCR rule, and it shows."

"Ugh, let's just try and get into the strip." Michael chided as they continued down the dilapidated road. The sun was high in the sky, and was beating down on the concrete jungle in which they found themselves. They neared a gate, but it looked more like a military outpost, there were giant robots standing guard. One of them raced forward to them.

"Welcome to the Strip. Please present Passport or be subjected to a Credit Check."

"Credit Check." Kenny replied.

The machine opened up a slot into which Kenny and Michael poured their caps into.

"Counting, counting, 865 caps. I'm sorry, but this is not enough credit to enter the strip."

"What's the minimum amount to enter?" Michael asked.

"2000 caps." The Robot replied as it rolled back to its post.

"Well shit," Kenny said. "I guess we'll need to save up or make our way in some other way."

Michael nodded in agreement, and he scanned his PipBoy for any nearby pre-war businesses that might still be functioning.

"Hey Kenny," Michael said. "It looks like there's a Caravan company just outside of Freeside. The Crimson Caravan."

"We were just Caravan guards, I don't think that I want to get back into that business just yet."

"It's not like we'll have to go up the whole 15 to Canada. We'll just see if they have any local work, who knows, they might be able to give us jobs on the Strip that require passports."

Kenny stood and thought for a minute before nodding and gesturing Michael to lead the way.

They walked back through the slums of Freeside without incident, and were back out in the Wasteland. They wandered around following the tracking info on Michael's PipBoy, before coming up on a big rectangular wall with a big door on the side of it. "This must be it," Michael whispered to Kenny before opening the door. On the inside of the Fort-like structure were 3 buildings, some Vending booths, and a garden/Brahmin pen. Michael asked where the boss was, and they were pointed toward a building. When Kenny opened the door to the office, a cool breeze blew out, and it cooled and dried the sweat on his forehead.

"Ah, that's nice." Kenny said as he stepped into the Office.

"You like the air conditioning huh?" A lady behind a desk said. "It takes a lot to keep her going, but it's worth it. How can I help you fellas?"

Michael approached the desk and offered his hand for a shake, and lady obliged.

"Well," she said, "You certainly are a polite one."

"We've come looking for work around town." Michael said.

"I'm afraid I don't have any full time positions open at the moment, sorry." she said as she arranged some papers on her desk.

"We don't exactly want full-time positions." Kenny added, "Our caravan just got nixed by the NCR, and we want to see the strip, but we don't have the credit."

"I'm Alice by the way, Alice McLafferty." the lady said before turning her attention towards the terminal on her desk.

Michael and Kenny introduced themselves and told her of their experience as caravan guards. She then told them to wait while she continued looking through the terminal, tapping at the keys.

"I don't have any official work, but, there has been something that I need done."

"What is it?" Kenny asked.

"Well, there seems to be an influx of Newer caps, most likely counterfeited. I just had this problem with the Sunset Sarsaparilla factory on the west side of town, but I sent someone over there and they brought back the cap presses' guts, so it's most likely not that again. No, this must be someone or something different. I wish I had more info for you, but that's about all the work I'd have for you guys right now."

Michael and Kenny looked at each other, Michael adjusted the PipBoy on his wrist, "I think we could look into it for you."

"It would be nice if we could have some sort of guaranteed payment for even attempting to look." Kenny said

"Of course, how about I give the two of you 500 caps total for looking into it, and I'll see what I can do to get you onto the Strip if you figure out what's going on?" McLafferty replied.

"Sounds great." Michael said, accepting the bag of caps McLafferty handed to him. They walked back outside, and out of the Caravan complex. "Where do you think we should go?" Michael asked.

Kenny had pulled out his Sniper and was looking through the scope to the east. "We should buy some ammo, we're starting to get low."

"Alright, let's look for that Gun Runners place."

They walked around outside of Freeside for awhile, and the sun started to set, and the Freeside lights turned on, but there was another glow coming from the East, Michael pointed towards it."Let's go this way." Michael motioned. As they walked towards the glow, they saw a windowed building with a robot in it. The glow was coming from a sign that said Gu Run ers.

"Looks like they need more lightbulbs." Kenny quipped, Michael couldn't help but chuckle as they approached the building with the robot.

"Welcome sir or madam, would you like to purchase something?" The robot asked.

"Yes." Kenny said, as he said that, a terminal on the outside wall opened its keyboard for entry.

"Please let me know if you want anything from our inventory." the robot said.

Kenny looked through the list, and saw the prices they charged for add-ons, replacement parts, and full guns.

"This stuff is expensive." Kenny whined to the robot.

"All of our weapons and parts are made here on site in our factory, everything is of the highest quality."

"Do you sell much to people?" Michael asked.

"Most of our money comes from our weapon contracts with the NCR and other groups." the robot replied.

"What groups?" Michael asked.

"UNAUTHORIZED!" The robot replied.

"Whoa there buddy, we don't want any trouble." Kenny said, his hand resting on the stock of his shotgun slung over his back.

"Please continue looking through our integrated inventory." the robot said, like nothing had happened.

Kenny started just looking at ammo, which was actually cheaper than most, while Michael pulled a cable out from the PipBoy's attachment socket, and hooked it into the terminal. Michael pressed a few buttons and the PipBoy began downloading something from the terminal. Kenny then bought ammo for all of their guns and thanked the robot. Michael walked away towards the North, and motioned Kenny to follow him.

"I got their sales records, apparently, they received payment from a man listed from New Rome, Arizona, and the transaction was marked for questionable currency." Michael explained.

"So then we know it's Legion? I mean, I've never heard about New Rome before, most of the time they just say that the Legion is from Phoenix, but anything from Arizona and Rome sounds like Legion to me." Kenny replied.

"Exactly, so my thoughts are that we need to head to the North, since that's where they came from and left to, and see if we can't find some more solid proof. Since it's dark now, we should go up there and see if we can find their camps while most of them are asleep and we can sneak around."

"Alright, but we just get in, find some sort of proof, and get the fuck out, I don't want to get caught and become a slave." Kenny said.

"They enslave people too?" Michael asked

"Yea, anyone that happens to be traveling alone when one of their raiding parties shows up and doesn't die or kill enough of them gets sold into slavery." Kenny said.

Michael gulped a little and looked North, and started in that direction. They remained silent until they came up on an old farm house outside of Northern Freeside's walls. They heard noise coming from the Western side of the house, and Michael motioned for Kenny to go around one side of the house, and Michael went around the other. The noises stopped, and Michael and Kenny pulled out some weapons, Michael his Service Rifle, and Kenny pulled out his Shotgun. Michael jumped out from the side of the house before spying what was making the noise. There were 2 raiders, naked, strung out, mid-coitus, but passed out, up against the wall of the house. Kenny couldn't help but start laughing.

"Is this normal?" Michael asked.

"For Raiders? Oh yea, all they do is do drugs, fuck, and kill, so they're living the high life right now my friend."

"Ugh, should we, uh, kill them?" Michael asked.

"No, they'll be passed out for awhile, let's just get out of here before..."

Clang! A shot rang out and hit the house between Kenny and Michael's heads.

"Shit!" Kenny yelled as he sprang back around the side of the house and pulled out his Sniper. Michael followed him and ducked behind him.

"You see anything?" Michael asked.

"No, it's too dark, doesn't your PipBoy have a motion tracker or something?"

"Yea, but it just shows a clump in that general direction."

Kenny took a breath in, and pulled the trigger, light flashed before Michael's eyes from the muzzle of the gun and the shot flew through the skull of a Raider whose gun had reflected some moonlight.

"Nice one." Michael said, "My PipBoy shows that they've split up, there's 8 of them now."

Kenny cracked off another shot, and another Raider fell. Michael aimed his Service Rifle into the darkness, and with the aid of his PipBoy, fired some shots, he heard the Raider he had just shot yell out in pain. They then heard footsteps get faster and faster, and soon their vision had adjusted to the light, and saw the 6 unshot Raiders rushing at them. Michael provided some covering fire as Kenny switched to his shotgun and blasted a shot into the front Raider. Michael noticed a life signature go around behind the house, and when he turned to face him, he saw a lead pipe coming down at him, he dove and took the pipe to the ribs. Landing on his back, he pulled his gun to his side and fired wildly with one arm, peppering the Raider with bullets as he fell to the ground. Kenny turned to see that Michael wasn't in immediate danger of death, and turned back around and smashed the butt of his shotgun into the face of one of the remaining Raiders, and blasted the head of the last one.

"Michael, talk to me!" Kenny yelled.

Michael raised his hand and gave a thumbs up sign. "I'm fine." He managed to make out before coughing up some blood.

"You just wanna call it a night?" Kenny asked.

"No, just give me some Med-X and a StimPak." Michael replied.

Kenny grabbed the medicine and injected it into Michael's chest. "There you go buddy, give it a few minutes." Michael laid there until the dull ache went away, and stood back up.

"Alright, I'm ready." Michael said.

"You sure you don't want to come back tomorrow?" Kenny asked.

"No, aside from the shot to my ribs, that was really fun, I've never been ambushed like that before, it really allowed me to use the strategies I've thought up over the years."

"You mean cower behind me and get hit in the ribs by a crazed maniac's pipe?"

"Well, I guess most of it was thrown out when the bullets started actually flying, but I'm fine."

They had a laugh about it as they continued North, until they spotted a glow coming from inside a Canyon.

"Kenny, you see that faint glow in there?" Michael asked.

"Yea, it looks like a Campfire." Kenny replied.

"Yes, alright, what we need to do is climb up the side of the Canyon on that ridge there and use your Sniper and my Binoculars to scout out the Camp."

Kenny nodded and they made their way up the mountains that surrounded the Canyon, and sure enough, they spotted a few campfires, and in the fire light, were the Crimson Standards of Caesar's Legion.

"Now that I'm seeing them here, this seems crazy, this is much bigger than us." Kenny said.

"Not while you have that rifle, you could easily take out 5 of them before they would be able to scramble." Michael said incredibly calculatory. "We just need to find the proof for the Crimson Caravan, and then we can get the hell out of here."

Kenny began looking through the scope of his Sniper, and Michael accompanied him via his Binoculars, while also checking his PipBoy's life signal detector for anything trying to sneak up on them.

"There!" Kenny said excitedly, look at the crate by the slave cage.

"Shhh! G. Runners." Michael affirmed. "That must stand for Gun Runners, I think that's the proof we need."

Kenny began to pack his Guns and ammo away before he heard Michael take a stutter breath. "What is it?" He asked.

"Rachel." Michael whispered under his breath.

"What?" Kenny asked

"We need to save those slaves." Michael said.

"Alright, we'll go get some NCR troops and come back."

"No, I mean now, right now." Michael affirmed.

"Are you crazy? Look down there, there's at least 20 Legionnaires down there, we're two people. You don't even know those people, there's no reason for you to risk your life saving them. I thought you were good at this strategy stuff." Kenny said stoutly.

"I do know one of them..." Michael pleaded.