Quick recap: we tore shit up in Primm and now we're going to get that place a new sheriff. So, off to the NCR Correctional Facility we go! Which, by the way, is run by the escaped convicts that took over the prison. Lovely when the system is broken, isn't it? It took me and my little hovering robot ED-E a good hour and a half to get there and boy, were my feat tired. But, we did take down a few geckos and I was able to cook them over a fire ED-E made with his laser zapper. They were some good eats.

I spotted the gate of the facility and decided I'm too good for waltzing in. So, I climb a nearby hill that overlooked the front of the prison and laid down with my rifle out and ready. There were watchtowers on both sides of the main gate that lead to the visitor's building. A person on each tower with three men down at the gate. Okay. Let's see. Pop. One gone. Pop. Another gone.

With the small pop of my rifle, it most likely sounds like sound distant explosion or something. I tried aiming for one of those below but my shot missed, drawing their attention. Fuck. The three guys walked where they thought the shot came from. Fuck, fuck, fuck. If they sound the alarms, I'm dead. I carefully shot at them, nipping one in the shoulder, the either in the head and fired at the last man as he made a beeline for the hill I was on.

I shot at him until my rifle was out. I ducked behind my elevation, using it as cover and took out my revolver. I waited until he was at least 25 yards down the hill. I ran and jumped out of cover, and fanned the hammer of my revolver, squeezing the trigger every time I pulled that hammer back, sending my shots down at the man's body in quick succession.

I don't know if I hit him with all six shots but I hit him with at least two somewhere, making him fall backwards and tumble down the hill all the down to the bottom, leaving a bloody mess with every roll. That shit was awesome but when I threw myself, I hurt my arm, and the ass managed to nick me in the arm and I broke the hammer on the revolver.

ED-E came over, saw the blood coming from my arm and a small hole opened up slightly above his laser arm that dispensed a single stimpak.

"You can store these?" He chirped in a joyous manner. "Can you hold other chems?" He chirped again. "Fucking awesome. Thank you, little guy." He did a backflip.

I injected the stimpak into my arm after picking out the bullet with my knife and patched that shit up with some cloth. Infections aren't nice, or healthy, or good for your overall lifeness. Plus they stink after a while.

I walked over to the last man I killed. He had a security guard outfit on with a nametag that read Bob. Pretty sure that wasn't his real name but fuck it. Bob's dead, whether or not this was actually Bob. I searched his body and luckily, he had the exact same kind of revolver I had. I replaced the hammer and springs from that gun to mine and it was a smooth transition. Plus, I got some ammo for it too. I was almost done when I heard the sound of a pistol's hammer being cocked.

"Hands in the air." That Powder Ganger I nicked in the shoulder was pointing his pistol at me.

"Goddamn it." The second fucking time. Honestly, what the fuck is with these people and holdups.

"I said raise 'em!" The man extended his 9mm towards me and at that moment, ED-E shot a single laser beam that hit the man in between the eyes and knocked him backwards dead with a nice, single burn in between his eyes.

"Good job, little guy! Let's go do that inside!" Suddenly, I got an idea! Hmm…

We walked inside the visitor's center and were politely greeted by rifle's being loaded, hammer's being cocked and shells being pumped. "Look guys," I said, raising my arms up, "I don't want any trouble I'm just looking for," I checked my Pip-Boy for the candidate, "Meyers. Meyers, you in here?"

"What makes you think he be in here, ya damn slut?" Spoken like a true gentleman.

"Well this here robot was brought along for this very reason! How many of you have seen a robot like this?" None responded. "Exactly." I turned ED-E to the side. "See this patch? This is the hole that I patched up after I gave this little guy the ability to self-destruct with enough power to match … 14 TNT sticks going off at once. Either give me Meyer's or everyone within a couple hundred yards is going to die."

A man rose from the seven people pointing their guns at us. "I'm Meyers. Don't blow us up now. I can talk. What's this about?"

"Does it fucking matter? You're coming with me. Let's go." He laughed.

"How do you suppose I do that when, technically, I'm still incarcerated here and have these fine gentlemen ready to shoot anything that moves?"

"We'll find a way," I replied. "We'll figure something out. I'm pretty sure a man like you doesn't want to be near six guys holding TNT when I'm threating to kill them all." I turned to the other convicts. "As for you men, I suggest you let this man go and keep your own lives."

He slowly walked towards us and I opened the door to the outside world, keeping my weapon aimed at the people the whole time. After Meyer's got out, it was I then ED-E that followed suite. As I was holding the door for ED-E, I leaned in close to him and whispered now. A single beam from ED-E's laser cut through the room, and ignited the TNT around the Powder Gangers chest, blowing them into oblivion.

We ran from the facility as the sirens went off. We heard many people throw open doors from all over the facility as they rushed to where we made our mark. That adrenaline feeling I felt was really great. It was like I was a kid that threw a rock threw someone's window or broke their tools or something vandalistic! God, that thrill!

"What the hell was that about," Meyers asked me, when we stopped for a breathe.

"Oh! Well, funny thing is, Primm has no sheriff anymore and I heard you use to be a sheriff for a town before you were incarcerated so I thought you'd be a nice sheriff for Primm."

"Well we have to ask for my pardon at the Mojave Outpost first."

"One problem at a time… come on. Let's keep running. Wouldn't want those people behind us catching up."

We ran until we were well enough away to where we found the road and went South towards the NCR controlled Mojave Outpost. Anyone coming in from the Long 15 would cross that checkpoint and that place, according to Meyers, was where we'd get his freedom. So we walked. And walked. And walked some more. Fucking hell, it was far. Finally, as the sun was setting, we made it there. Luckily, we passed a traveling merchant that sold us some spare clothes for Meyers to change into, ditching his convict clothes. We wouldn't want any problems.

We saw the giant stone and metal statues of the treaty between the Desert Rangers and the NCR Rangers, unifying them into one. A grand achievement showered in beams from lights below. That armor on the Desert Ranger looked nice too. A duster over a thick Kevlar vest, some heavy-duty jeans and boots. To top it all off, there was a nice, strange helmet with a built-in gas mask too. I had to get some of that armor. But, first things first. As we approached the outpost, an NCR soldier stopped us.

"State your name and purpose." Some greeting, huh?

"Um, Alice Grey here to discuss some matters with the NCRCF."

"Well are you here to help?" I assumed he meant about dealing with the escaped convicts but hey, I'm here to help Primm. That counts.

"Yes."

"Okay," he said, "you're gonna want to speak with Ranger Jackson. But these kind of matters take some time and I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the morning. You're welcome to stay if you want, and if you can find a bunk."

"Thank you."

"And watch that robot. That thing hovering give me the creeps," he added. We walked to where it said Bunks and we both found our own bunks. My Pip-Boy said it was seven o'-clock, but the tremendous amount of walking we did was something I understood for Meyers to go to sleep early. I decided to hit the bar. Today was a long day. I needed to get drunk, maybe get laid. Hmm… maybe… nah, never mind.

I just needed a drink or two. So, I headed off to the bar which was the building next door and sat next to this rancher-looking girl.

"Can I get another whiskey," she yelled. She had the rosiest cheeks you could ever see and had really light brown hair. Almost like some wooden floors. She was really beautiful. "What the fuck you staring at?" She was also a bitch.

"I was uh," fuck, think; improvise "looking at your necklace!" She certainly had one. "It's really unique. I mean, you don't see many people with necklaces so it looks nice."

"Oh, well… thank you. My father gave it to me before he left."

"Why did he do that?"

"Not sure. He just up and left when I was small. Never seen him since. Eh, why bother? No one listens."

"Well why don't you come with me and tell me more."

She took the shot of whiskey in front of her. "God, I wish I could. To do that, I need to get released from this hell hole."

"What's stopping you?"

She refilled her glass and moved the glass in a spiral. "Jackson won't let me leave. Plus, I'd rather stay and mope. I got news my own caravans were ambushed and reduced to dust. Fuck it all."

God, she was a mess. "Do you really want to stay here in this dump and mope? Why not come with me? You lost everything, like me. I have no memory of anything and barely have the things on me and this little robot to call my own. Come with me and I'll help you figure out what attacked your caravans. I'll help you and if you like me, you can continue traveling with me. If not, you can always stay in Vegas. I'll be going there anyways."

She took her shot of whiskey and thought for a minute. "Fuck you."

"I'll take this as a yes."

"Fuck your shit. Go convince Jackson to let me leave then I'll follow you. My name is Rose, by the way. Rose of Charon Cassidy."

"Alice Grey."

"I'll be seeing you around Grey. Hey, sweetie," she called, alerting the bartender. "Give me another round!"

I went back to the bunks and saw Meyers fast asleep with ED-E by the bunk. Climbing onto the top bunk, it felt great to take off my boots, duster and weapons as the day I had was extremely tiresome but it'd all be worth it. I turned to the side and fell fast asleep.

Morning time, also known as get-shit-done-today time, came along so quickly. Let's see… maybe we should try next door. I entered the building and saw an NCR soldier behind a counter.

"How may I help you," he asked.

"Um, yeah. I'd like to have a pardon to an NCR convict by the name of Meyers."

"No way," he said. "He's a convicted felon."

"But, but, but he's going to be Primm's new sheriff! The Powder Gangers tried making that place a home for themselves and he volunteered to protect them. His serving time ended a while ago anyways so why not just let him go?"

"Look, kid. There's not much I can do. Try taking it up with Jackson in the back."

"Maybe I will." Asshole. I walked to the back and found a man with a hat, some thick aviators and a thick mustache that ran to the sides of his mouth and chin. "Jackson?"

"It's Ranger Jackson or at least sir. What did you need?"

"I actually need two things: I need Rose of Charon Cassidy to be able to leave the Outpost and I need a convict named Meyers pardoned."

"Ha," he laughed. "I need the ants down the highway cleared out but I can't do that, let alone do your request. Sorry kid."

God dammit. "What if I took care of those ants? Would you grant them their freedom?"

"Not really. Ma'am, I play by the books. I need confirmation from the men up top to let them leave, let alone hire you for this job."

"Come on. What's two people? They both have nothing anymore. I've been to the NCRCF and it looks like no NCR are going to try to control that place for some time, if at all and Rose is just taking up space and resources by being here constantly."

He rubbed his mustache. "I normally don't do this but if you clear out the ants, under the table of course, and then we'll talk."

So ED-E and I went down to the Long 15 Highway and sure enough, the road from the Long 15 to the Outpost was blocked by giant ants.

Okay, ED-E, here we go… I grabbed my rifle, aimed at one of the ants, and shot at it. My shot struck its abdomen and it became furious, charging at me with its brethren in tow. ED-E and I shot at them, bringing down two at a time but we were outnumbered by a fuckton. I ran out of ammo quickly, damn rifle only having five shots a magazine, so we booked it.

During our run, I frantically tried reloading the gun but running while working with a rifle don't mix in. Naturally, I fell and damn it all, I dropped the magazine. At least I had two more. I had two make these ten shots count. I sprinted ahead, turned around, crouched and shot at the crowd of ants. Rinse and repeat until that was all out.

ED-E didn't have to worry about running, no sir. He was a magical, levitating robot so he just floated out of reach and rained laser hell unto the ants. I threw the rifle down when it was empty and took out my revolver. Six shots. About twelve ants left. Isn't it funny how inconvenient things become for me?

I shot blindly at the ants, not caring anymore. Hopefully if I ran fast enough, I could reach the Outpost and have the NCR mop up. Shot, shot, shot. Some of them, thank whatever lord there is, hit a few in the head, killing them and I hit two in their antenna, severing them and frenzying them. I watched as those two ants attacked the other ants in a blind rage and saw the other ants respond by attacking back. A civil war amongst the bugs.

Those two ants took out three ants by themselves before being killed themselves. ED-E burnt three with his lasers and one remained. I waited until it came near enough before finally delivering my final bullet through the ants head. Progress!

"Nice shooting, little guy." ED-E chirped and squawked and did his backflip of joy. "You're so fucking cute."

We headed back to the Outpost and told Jackson we cleared the ants out.

"Well, it seems it was right hiring you to clean house. I'd say that deserves one pardon and one pass for travel."

"You serious?"

"Do I look anything but?" I couldn't really tell through those shades.

"Thank you, sir."

"Also, take these 'lost' supplies as a bonus. Keep up the good work kid and maybe we can arrange a job out here at the Outpost." He gave me a rifle, a service rifle to be exact. He also gave me a couple magazines for it, two lunchboxes full of food, stimpaks and some caps. "Speak to Major Knight on your way out for the paperwork on your two people. The NCR here at the Outpost won't forget what you did for us, citizen."

After getting the all clear from Knight, ED-E and I went to the bar and saw Rose right where we left her.

"Did you convince him?"

"Sure did. Here's your papers proving it."

"Fucking bullshit…," she muttered surprised as she looked over the documents.

"What is it?"

"I can't believe anyone would've done this for me. Thank you."

"Anytime, Rose. Let's get going."

"Call me Cass," she said. "Just Cass."

"Okay Cass. Let's head to Primm."

We walked all the way back to Primm, which took us all day and Meyers thanked us, told us we were welcome at any time and we left back down the highway and headed to Novac, through Nipton. When we got near Nipton, we saw the smoke. Me and Cass took out our weapons, my new service rifle and her caravan shotgun, and we went ahead cautiously to scope it out. From ruins of the town, we saw a Powder Ganger run out of their cheering. We aimed at him and he stopped.

"Whoa! Hold on there! I'm unarmed! In fact, I'd say I'm jumping for joy!"

"Why is that," I asked.

"Because I fucking won! I won bitches, I won!" He was on Jet or something.

"What'd you win?"

"The lottery! The motherfucking lottery!" With that, he ran off. I aimed, shot him in the back. Cass looked at me in astonishment. "What? He'd just go back to the convicts and kill people." She looked away and continued into the ruins.

Now the ruins... well...the sight was fucking terrible. We saw people crucified, the charred remains of people in pyres of burning tires, bodies left to rot with decapitated heads and even heads mounted on pikes. I almost threw up. We came upon these people in red and black that wore masks and on who stood out, wearing a coyote pelt on his head. He approached us.

"I see you have come and viewed our work."

"You mean you did this," I asked, surprised.

"The Legion did this. Tell everyone you come across what you saw here. Tell them the Legion will do unto them what we did here. Nowhere is safe from us. As for you, oppose us and you will see a similar fate." He started to walk away.

"No, wait-" I called.

"We must go now," he told me. "We shall see each other soon, maybe. Remember this: We are Legion, for we are many. Remember this if you ever decide to oppose us."

We watched as the small battalion of men went off, shaggy mutts in tow and rifles in hands. It was funny. All of them wore skirts. Hehehe. They must feel so free.

When they were out of view, we went to check on the people on the crosses. And you know what? I kinda wish we hadn't. Powder Gangers barely surviving were strung up on those crosses. Me and Cass tried taking one down but all he did was scream in agony as we tried to take out the nails from out of his hands and feet. We stopped and he looked at us, tears falling from his pink eyes down his swollen face and off his chin.

"It's useless," he muttered. "All of us strung up are dead anyways…"

"No, don't say that. We have stimpaks. You'll be okay." The man looked up at the sky and sighed a nasty sigh.

"Look at us. We're dead. We've been here all night. We were beat, tortured, and strung up like slabs of brahmin." He gave out a bloody cough. "We won't survive."

"You will," Cass told him. "Stop moping."

He looked at her with a serious face. "All of us have been dying from radscorpion venom. They dipped the tips of the nails in venom before nailing them through us. Unless you have antivenom, we're dead." Shit! Primm is the nearest town nearby and they're just a casino and a postal service. Novac would take hours to get to and back. Would we make it?

"What do you think we should do, Cass?"

"I say we just end them here. Stop their suffering."

"Shut the fuck up," I told her. "We're not doing that!"

"Might as well," she replied. "They're suffering. We won't be able to cure them in time and if we do, they won't die from poison, they'll die from their wounds or even shoot themselves from the trauma. It's the only way"

"God damnit!" She was right. Bringing them down would kill them anyways… "What's your name?"

"My name," he told me "is Jack Bennet."

"Well, then," I started, taking out my revolver "I'm sorry this happened to you, Jack." I shot him in the chest before he was able to respond. "Sleep in peace," I muttered into his ear. We untied his body, laid him out by the side of one of the houses, and started to do the same to the other seven people crucified.

Jack Bennet, Adam Lizaac, George Fitzpatrick, Martin Grady, Liam Rogers, Tim Cruz, Stanley Brown and Harry West. All men that were crucified by the Legion. If they weren't Powder Gangers, I would've felt worse but they chose to join a ragtag group of causeless rebels instead of enjoying their freedom.

Oh well. That's life...right?

We continued onward, through some mountainous terrain, past an NCR station and that's when we saw it. A large, greenish gecko holding something in front of it. Cass and I were pretty excited. We continued walking, except we were doing more of a power walk than a stroll. When we got there, we saw the sign. Novac. We've arrived!

I circled the gecko and found a door leading inside it on its left leg. There, we met a man by the name of Cliff Brisco.

"Cliff, what is this?" It was such a mystery to me, such a marvel.

"Well now, this is Dinky the Dinosaur. He holds the world's largest thermometer, according to a pamphlet I found in the storage room." Oh. So it's not a gecko. I looked at Cass and she raised he shoulders in a "Oh Well" tone.

"What's a dinosaur? What's a thermometer?" If I ever came across a thermometer, I probably would've used it as a whacking stick or as a decoration.

"You see a dinosaur used to be these big monsters that roamed the planet long before man. They became extinct long before us, too. After the Great War, the dinosaurs came back in the form of annoying geckos." He laughed. "As for thermometers, all they do is find out how hot or cold something is. You'll see doctors carrying them most of the time."

"Oh. And what exactly is this room? Is this where you get a room for the hotel outside?"

He laughed. "No, no. This here's the gift shop. If you want a room, Jenny Mae in the building across the way can help you." Gift shop! Could I get…

"What do you sell?"

"Well I have a lot of dinky the dinosaur souvenirs. I have a lot of REPCONN Rocket souvenirs too."

"Do you sell any guns? Food?"

He sighed. "I have a bit… it seems no one wants a Dinky these days.."

"I never said I didn't want them. I'd love to see them. I also need ammo though."

"Okay! I'll bring some right out!"

He brought out a couple of magazines for my rifle stocked with bullets, a box of .357s, some shotgun ammo for Cass and a couple of Dinky and Rocket toys. My god, the Dinkys were so cute! They were all small and green and cute! The rockets looked … well like rockets. Except same parts glowed a neon green! So that was cool.

"I'm going to call you 'Mr. Dinky!'" I held the little fluffy toy to my chest and hugged it-him!-close to my chest and squeezed him hard.

After paying for the things, we went across the way and entered another building. This is where we met Jenny Mae.

"How may I help you?" She seemed nice. She was kind of old and frail with big-rimmed reading glasses.

"I was wondering if you have seen a man in a checkered suit, possibly with Great Khans by his side."

She thought about it for a moment before spurting out, "No. You can try talking to Manny Vargas up in the Crow's nest. Just go inside Dinky and head to the top."

So that's what we did.

"I might," Vargas told me. Jesus, this was getting tedious.

"Can you tell me?"

"For a favor." Of course.

"Depends what it is," I told him.

"I need someone to clear out the ghouls that took over the REPCONN building west of here. Damn zombies keep wandering into town scaring the town half to death, with some trying to attack the folks. Clear it and you get your information."

I groaned. "Seriously?"

Manny looked at me impatiently. "Do you want your damned information or not because I could care less about some girl that walks over this town as if she was royalty."

"Goddammit. Fine." He didn't have to be so damned rude.

We came back down and rented a room from Jenny May. She gave us a room on the second floor and that's where we are now, tidying everything, getting our ammo ready and guns loaded. Guys, we're going to be popping some caps in ghouls' asses.

No not money caps but bullets because you can bullets-

Never mind. You get the point.

-Alice Grey