"Razz is down!" Poindexter cried as he fed another magazine into his rifle. Mags threw a grenade, then looked back at her team.

"Is he dead?"

"Not yet," came the downed man's reply as Mags caught sight of him. Shot in the hip by the look of it. He wouldn't be able to do much walking until the bullet was out.

The Legion had attacked not long after dawn. There had been little warning; they'd woken up for morning PT, and by the time they'd suited up for the day, there were screams and gunfire coming from the southern end of the camp.

Now there were Legionaries everywhere. Mags didn't even understand why: Golf wasn't an important target. Surely they'd be hitting the dam at the same time, but why were they here? The best she could figure was that they didn't want the vet rangers here to back up the troops at their main objective.

She'd hardly seen any of the rangers since the fighting broke out. How could they not know they were under attack? She didn't like to dwell on the thought that they may have been covertly attacked in the main building. They could all be dead already.

"We need to get him to a doctor," O'Hanrahan said as bullets whizzed by their heads. Mags put aside her concerns about the vet rangers for the moment.

"Yeah, grab him," she said to the redhead. "Cover our backs Poindexter. I'll take point." The two men nodded, and O'Hanrahan slung his rifle and bent down, grabbing the wounded man.

"Ow! Motherfucker that hurts," Razz cried as the redhead hoisted him up. "Who the fuck gets shot in the hip?"

"Keep it down," Mags yelled as she shot down a Vexillarius advancing on them. The area was thick with Legion bastards, but they managed to get through to the medical tent with no further injury.

Stepping in, Mags gaped; the tent was almost full of wounded. There couldn't be many more people left on their feet if there were this many casualties.

"Get him on a cot and get back out there!" Sawbones cried when he saw them. "We're not winning this thing."

Mags grimaced, then squared her shoulders. "We can't give up."

"Well get back out there already!" the doctor snapped back. O'Hanrahan put Razz on one of the beds and rejoined them. Just as Mags was turning to leave, the tent flap was thrown open. Instead of more wounded, though, a group of Veteran Legionaries burst into the tent.

*.*.*

The war room had exploded into chaos. Oliver had shouted orders until the rangers hustled him off to the secure area of the office compound. Veronica looked to Layla and found her going over the dam map. Lawson, the engineer, was standing with her and pointing to the diagram while the Courier nodded, frowning.

"Raul, Veronica, come here," Layla called. Once they both approached her, she looked at Lawson.

"Tell them."

"The Legion, they came through the clogged up turbine," the engineer explained. "It got clogged a week ago. They must have been working on it the whole time. But if you get to the turbine's console, here…" He pointed to one of the balcony areas in the 03 power plant building. "…you can reengage the turbine. It'll damage the machinery slightly, but it'll grind up anyone in there like hamburger."

Layla was still looking over the map.

"I need you to take care of this," Layla said to them, still looking over the map. "Lawson said the terminal's a little technical, so you two are my best bet."

Veronica looked over the map, figuring out the quickest route to the location, as well as a few alternates.

"The turbines don't have any sensors?" Raul asked. "No automatic shutdowns to keep it from getting damaged?"

"No, they do," Lawson admitted. "It's unlikely they'll trigger, though. They were always buggy. But if the Legion knew about them, they could activate them. You'll have to go to the manual override controls here if the remote access doesn't work." He pointed to a spot outside of the dam, not far from the terminal. "There'll be a valve you'll have to release."

Veronica nodded. "We'll take care of it."

"Good," Layla said, then looked to the rest of her group. "Get to Arcade and the Followers," she said to Cass. "Lily, make sure she gets that far."

Cass looked eager to go. Lily had been oddly quiet since the attack had happened. Layla moved over to talk to both women while the others double-checked their gear.

"Boone, ED-E, you're with me," She said, turning back to the rest of the group. "Is everyone ready?"

Veronica nodded and saw the others do the same.

"Good." She gave them a wry smile. "Let's all try not to die, okay?"

"Great pep talk," Cass said as she stretched to crack her back, brush gun already in her hands. "Let's blow up some shitheads."

Layla nodded, drew her. 45 and started for the doorway. A group of veteran rangers was already there, and Veronica got the feeling they'd been waiting for them.

"Plans have changed," said Castles, the team leader. The Courier laughed.

"I noticed. You boys go on ahead of me. I need to get up to one of the towers and signal the Boomers. I'll try to get through to you after."

Castles nodded. "Good. Let's go."

The veterans took the lead, charging out into power plant 04, and Veronica could see one take a shot to the helmet almost immediately. Deciding to take the initiative, she barreled through after them.

The power plant was full of people; NCR, Legion and engineers. The scribe started for a group of Legion veterans about to corner a few of the civilians as she heard the rest of her group open fire.

The Legionaries didn't seem to have been expecting so many to pour out of the offices armed to the teeth. They started falling back just as Veronica reached them. She'd barely been able to punch a centurion's head off before the rest had disappeared into the next power plant.

Shaking her head, Veronica looked back. They'd only lost one of the rangers. The rest were splitting up. Layla approached Veronica and rapped her knuckle on the other girl's power armor. "This is where we part ways." She hesitated. "Be careful."

"Kinda hard to be careful during a battle," Raul said, and Layla put a hand on her hip.

"Well, at least try not to be too much of a hero. Both of you."

Veronica nodded back, and a moment later the rest of the group disappeared through the next set of doors. The scribe found Raul giving her an appraising look.

"You noticed she went running out to kill the flashy important people while we get to tinker with the machinery?" the mechanic said.

"The repairman's life is a thankless one," Veronica answered as she adjusted the seal on her helmet. "Not for those seeking glory."

The ghoul grinned slightly as he finished reloading his pistols. Soon they were making their way to the overflow terminal. Their path had been cleared out, and a group of NCR troops waved the two ahead as they moved to secure the next power plant.

The consoles that were supposed to work the turbines were covered in papers and snack wrappers. Brushing them quickly away, Veronica bent down to look at the screen.

"All right, here we are." Veronica said, and Raul looked over her shoulder.

"This is your department," he said. "I'll step in if you need a wrench swung at it." He reloaded his pistols. "Keep it quick; this has been a little too easy for my liking."

The scribe nodded, then started going through the console's programming. It didn't take long to find the turbine's overload command. It warned about the clog and damage, but Veronica eventually got to the override prompt. Just as she was keying it in, she heard Raul start firing his guns.

"How bad?" Veronica asked as she kept typing.

"Looks like they saved all their centurions for us."

Veronica grimaced, but it faded as she finished overriding the safety protocols. She smirked as the computer started loading the command. Then frowned.

"It's not working," she said. She heard Raul sigh as he ducked down to reload again.

"We're going to have to go outside and work the manual override," he replied. The scribe groaned.

"I don't know why we thought this was going to be easy."

*.*.*

"Happy now, Cass?" Boone heard Layla say as he finished off the last Legion veteran in power plant 01. "We've all had the chance to shoot plenty of Legionaries now."

"Yeah, great," the woman glowered. "This whole thing is fucked up. How the hell did no one notice the army was moving?"

"I don't know," Layla said with a shrug. "But there's nothing for it now. So we might as well keep moving."

The older woman gave her a frown. "When we get out there, Lily and I are breaking for the medical station."

Layla nodded. "I know. Be careful."

"I'm not the one I'm worried about," Cass retorted, reaching out and giving the younger girl's shoulder a squeeze. "Watch your back; you can't expect Boone to do all the work."

"Yeah, yeah," Layla said dismissively as she reloaded her gun.

"What's your plan?" the caravaneer asked as they reached the doors to the visitor's center

"We have to get up to one of the towers," Layla answered. "I'll signal the Boomers when we get there."

"There's a way through the building," Boone said. "We'll be exposed outside."

"Yeah, I know, but I didn't get a chance to go over the maps." Reaching for the handle, she looked back and found Boone ready. She opened the door and stepped out of the way while Boone went through, gun ready.

Nothing greeted them in the Visitor's center, much to Boone's surprise. He could hear gunfire, screams and thunderous booms outside. Mindful for traps, he led the way to the outer door. Layla moved up and grabbed the door handle.

"Ready?" she asked. Boone nodded along with Cass and Lily.

Layla opened the door, and again the sniper went first.

Bodies of soldiers from both sides were scattered along the cracked road. There were Legionaries this far back already. Boone couldn't tell if they'd come across from the other side of the dam or if they'd spilled out from their entryway at the turbines. Neither option was good; both meant they'd gone through a lot of NCR troops.

"Give them hell!" Cass yelled as she and Lily headed south toward the medical station. Boone readied his rifle and checked to make sure Layla was still with him. She moved a pace ahead, .45 out.

"ED-E, watch our backs," she called, and the eyebot beeped an affirmative. Together they moved toward the tower Boone had nearly been thrown out of during the President's visit. Their immediate area didn't have much for Legionaries. Layla did a decent job picking off the few that were nearby as Boone worked on the ones further away.

Not long after they started moving, Boone heard an explosion. He swung his rifle around in its direction. It had come from up on the hill, right where 1st Recon was supposed to be positioned.

Just as he was about to bring it up with Layla, ED-E stared beeping insistently. Boone saw the Courier looked back and grimace.

"Oh fuck." She started firing behind them.

"What is it?" the sniper asked, trying to line up a shot on a decanus coming their way.

"They must have doubled back; they're coming through the visitor's center."

Boone grimaced, then noticed they weren't far from the tower. Just as he was about to tell Layla to run for the structure, it's doors opened and Legionaries began pouring out.

He turned to try to find another way out when a flash from the Fort caught his eye, and he saw something in the sky coming their way. Before he had time to think, he dove, knocking Layla over as he did. She tried to sputter out a question as he wrapped his arms over her head, but the explosion answered for him.

The sound was loud enough to make his ears ring painfully. A wave of heat washed over them, and all other sound was muted. Boone could feel the vibrations of something heavy falling around them, and he was vaguely aware of Layla clinging tightly to him. He pulled her closer, thinking for a moment that their time was up.

A few moments later, as his hearing started coming back, he started picking up the sounds of screams. Opening up his eyes, it took him a moment to realize what had happened.

The Legion's howitzers had hit the huge anti-aircraft cannon that stood outside the dam, less than a hundred meters away. The shrapnel had rained around them, hitting both Legion and NCR soldiers. It was a miracle they hadn't been struck by it.

He let the Courier go just as he caught sight of ED-E lying on the ground nearby, unmoving.

Looking back, he found Layla staring at the chaos around them. It took a moment to realize what he was seeing in her eyes: terror.