CHAPTER 6: ATTACK ON THE WHITELEGS AND A FAREWELL

The next morning Jack found Bragg, Saul and Ulysses in a room planning the attack on the Whitelegs. "Good morning." Jack greeted them as he entered. They greeted him back. "Soldier we are going to attack the Whitelegs today. Are you ready?" Bragg asked him. "Yes I am, how are we going to attack them?" The Colonel pulled out a small device and activated it, showing a holographic map. "This is the camp. As you can see there's a mountain to its eastern side. We can only attack them from the south, north and west. There will be three strike teams; Strike Team Alpha (Strike One), Strike Team Bravo (Strike Two) and Special Strike Team Charlie (Strike Three). We have 13 people who would have a chance at surviving. Strike One consists of 5 people, as well as Strike Two. Captain, you will lead Strike Three along with 2 others. One of them is Jimenez, the best special operative of Leonidas Squad. You can choose the other member. I need the other three of Leonidas for Strike One and Two. Under my command Strike One will attack from the north to lure them out of their base. Once they've distanced themselves enough from the base, Strike Two will cut them off from the behind out of the Southwest. This is where you come into the game." He pointed at Jack "Strike Three will enter the base from the South while we keep the Tribals at bay. Take everything that's valuable, free the prisoners, arm everyone who can fight and open up a third front. Captain, go and locate Jimenez. Dismissed." With that Jack left the room to find Jimenez.

After a long search and with the help of a few people, Jack finally found Jimenez sitting in a corner cleaning a gun. "So you're Jimenez huh?" Jack asked him "Yeah, you're the Captain right? I already know the details of the mission so just tell me; Who is going to be the third member?" Jack actually didn't know so he asked Jimenez. "That friend of yours, the unfunny guy with the mask seems to be a good candidate. Have you asked him yet?" "No I haven't." was the response of Jack. "But I will. Good suggestion Jimenez."

He found Ulysses at the same spot as the night before. Jack asked him if he was in a Strike Team, to which Ulysses said that indeed he was a part of Strike One and that he was confident that the operation was to be successful.

After asking other people to join Strike Three, Jack returned to specialist Jimenez, "I guess we'll be operating as a pair. I hope that's ok with you.", Jimenez just looked at him the way he always did, a cold but somehow soothed look. "No problem, more kills for us am I right?" Jack just laughed and agreed, he then went to rest as tomorrow was the big day.

-=( The Next Day )=-

"... believe and trust in your god and country. Good hunting men!" Jack -fully equipped wearing his uniform- entered the room just as Colonel Bragg finished his speech before the battle. He then found operative Jimenez, who was also fully equipped, wearing his own unique 'Enclave Specialist Armor'. It was an officer uniform with a green camouflage pattern painting along with a pair of stealth boots. The two men just stood there looking at each other, "Today's the big day huh?" Jack broke the silence. "Yeah, I guess you could say that, but if all goes to plan it'll be a slaughter fest anyway." Jimenez answered. "That's where you're wrong Jimenez. As an Enclave Captain there's one valuable lesson I learnt. A plan never survives enemy contact."

-=( One Hour Later )=-

Strike Three was trailing behind Strike One Two, with the reason being that they wanted to give the Whitelegs an unpleasant surprise. Minutes later Strike One engaged the Whitelegs from the north and over the radio Jack heard Bragg order Strike Two to get into position Southwest of the current fire exchange between Strike One and the Whitelegs. Orders were to attack them 2 minutes from the point of receiving the order.

[ One minute and thirty seconds later ]

"Alright people, this is it!" Said one of the Leonidas troopers. "The Coordinated attack on the Whitelegs will shatter them and give Strike Three time to free all the prisoners. Looking at his watch the operative finally gave the order to attack. And so it was that the Mormons thought that they had the Whitelegs cornered.

[ Two minutes later ( 4 minutes after the attack of Strike One ), 100 meters behind ]

Jack and Jimenez were observing the battle through their glasses, while waiting for the order to sneak into the camp. Jimenez then suddenly exclaimed "Chief, we got a problem. Look! There! They're trying to flank Strike One!" Jack turned to the direction Jimenez was looking at. 'More Whitelegs?! Where did they come from?' He thought. In an instance he grabbed his radio "Strike One, you got more hostiles trying to flank you from the back, acknowledge." They waited, but no acknowledgement came from Strike One. "Strike One, acknowledge, over." They tried once more, but even then they failed in receiving an acknowledgement.

[ 2 1/2 min. earlier (1 1/2 min. after the attack of Strike One , Whiteleg contingent returning from a pillage run ]

"Boss, Listen. Someone is attacking us with the loud and advanced bows." Said a Whiteleg in their native language. Another one then said "Indeed, we are being attacked by the Canaanites." This time their leader spoke "Then we will KILL them ALL!" He said "SaltUponWounds will be pleased, along with Caesar! As the representative of SaltUponWounds who is headed for Zion and as the emissary of Caesar it is my task to behead these degenerates!"

[ 3 minutes later ( 4 1/2 minutes after the attack of Strike One), Unknown ]

"It looks like some people are attacking the Whitelegs already." Said a man in bandages. "God shall be with them." He then turned to his small group and ordered them to move toward the two combatant groups.

[ 30 seconds later (5 minutes after the attack of Strike One), 100 meters behind Strike Two ]

They had tried contacting Strike Two, but they hadn't answered either. "Rise 'n shine Jimenez. We're heading into the camp." Jimenez wanted to protest but Jack didn't allow him to.

They started running towards the encampment. One the way they fought against two Whitelegs. Killing them both the arrived at the camp and started searching for prisoners. They were shocked to see that the Whitelegs had already slaughtered every single prisoner. Jack could see that Jimenez was going to go beserk if he didn't intervene. "I know that these people may have been your friends, but don't full crazy, it's not healthy." Jimenez looked at him, eyes looking colder than they already were. "These weren't only my friends, they were my family. I'm gonna kill all these fucking tribals." Jimenez exclaimed, th n started running toward the Whitelegs that were fighting Strike Two. He killed one with a knife, shot another in the head and then went on a rampage. They defeated them in a matter of minutes.

When they arrived to help out Strike One they could see that the Whitelegs were already dead and that another group, not from their party, had arrived. Their leader seemed to be covered in bandages. What was weird to Jack was that these people somehow knew each other. 'Eh, probably just some other Mormons who survived New Canaan.' But then he heard something that got his interest "Thank you for the help Joshua..." Jack was amazed. 'Was this Joshua Graham? The Malpais Legate? The man who had served the Legion before they betrayed him?' No, it couldn't be.

That was when Bragg approached him. "Soldier, you look like your face got nuked. What happened?" Jack was still observing the man in the bandages "Captain I asked you a question." Jack unfroze and answered Bragg. "They're all dead Colonel, all dead. Massacred by the Whitelegs." Jack then left for the bandaged man.

"Excuse me, are you Joshua Graham?" He asked "Yes that's me." The bandaged man said "but who are you? I never saw you in New Canaan." Jack chuckled "You see, I'm not really from around here..." and he then proceeded to tell him his story of how he ended up where he was.

After everyone talked and argued about the failed operation, as they weren't able to get anyone out alive, Joshua Graham offered them to join his cause and head for Zion. After much debate they agreed. "Youngster, ready to head for Zion?" Jack turned around to see Saul and Col. Bragg standing behind him "Thanks for the offer, but unfortunately I can not accept. I'm headed westward with Ulysses. If there's anything I could do for you tell me." Bragg did have a request "Could you, uh, track down my sister Chevy for me? She lives in a Vault along with the Leonidas Squad members that didn't join me. My sister and I, we didn't part on good terms. Please just find her and tell her that I'm sorry for everything and that I hope she's doing fine." Jack understandingly looked at him "I can do that, but tell me what happened." He demanded. "Fine. After we failed to execute a plan against NCR we split up. We had standing orders to return back to D.C. but many of us didn't want to go back. My sister , my XO (executive officer/2nd in command) was one of them. But as CO I couldn't just leave. We found a vault that needed new dwellers, so we dropped them off there, headed for a base in Utah, where we left the Vertibirds that we didn't need and then headed for D.C.. I had decided to stay in D.C. but I couldn't stay there. I don't know why. So I, along with Jimenez and the other 3 remaining active members of Leonidas flew back to Utah, where we lived with the Canaanites." Jack was surprised that were people who had endured more than him. "Alright I will definitely track her down." He then looked at his Uncle, Saul "Sorry that I couldn't hang around longer, but I will be back. I promise you that." - "It's alright. Your road and journey hasn't come to an end yet. Just don't get yourself killed out there." The trio laughed and Jack did have one last thing to tell them. "Same goes for you. And Bragg; keep Leonidas Squad together. The day that I return will be very important for the Enclave."

He then went to Ulysses. "I'm ready, let's go. We'll have to take a small detour though."

And so it was that the Enclave Officer who had cheated death helped the Mormon remnants relocate to Zion Canyon, a safe Haven. The Whitelegs, after suffering a heavy blow by the hands of the Enclave Officer, decided to move everyone to Zion in hopes of eradicating every last Canaanite survivor. But that's a story for another day.

Authors note:

So this is it. Finally finished the first major story arc. The next arc will be a semi-major one, and after that we will head for the major New Vegas arc. But the arc won't begin where New Vegas begins. It sort of already has begun. But that's a story for another day.

Likes and comment are appreciated.

Cheers