The night before, Morgan and the others studied the layout of Goodsprings that Sunny had given them and they laid out a plan. It took several hours, held several arguments, never full blown shouting, just civil disagreements, Ulysses himself excelled at planning out surprise attacks, coming up with several good ideas and ways to box in the enemy. When Grady had asked him about it, he had stated he had experience and that they should leave it at that. Not because he was scared of what they might say, but because The Courier had told him not to for Sunny's sake.
And before going to bed finally they did a weapons check. Everyone gathered outside to take inventory and to make sure nobody's guns or whatever they had would break down on them. T, Morgan's robot and the truck's headlights shined their lights. Everyone turned their's in one by one on two big tables from the house that they had put together. Morgan turned in That Gun and surprised everyone by pulling a silver 45 caliber submachine gun out of her robot's pockets. Even Ulysses had given it something of a sideways glance. "I was a superhero for a bit," no one said a word. "It's a long story, but this thing is reliable."
Tuco turned in his shotgun, much to Grady's dismay. "What?" He had asked.
"Son," she began, "that thing is good for close quarters, but what if they're further away? Tell you what, I got something for ya." She pulled the duffel bag full of weapons she had brought with her out of the back of the truck. She dug around in it for a second before pulling out what looked like a smaller version of a cowboy repeater. "This is one of my babies, and Imma let you have it. Small enough that you can carry it in a holster on your leg, so you can switch between this and the shotty." She handed it to him with care, "I expect it back when we're finished...if we're still alive. Oh, and while I'm at it, got my brush rifle and revolver."
"K?" Morgan said. "You got anything besides that sword?"
"Yeah," K replied, she dug around the back of the truck and fished out a pair of automatic laser pistols, "for when I can't decapitate someone." She gave them each a wiggle and turned them in.
"Caliban?"
"Caliban have all he needs," and set down his board with nails, "bullets not hurt much."
"Fair enough. Isaac?"
He pulled his plasma sniper rifle out of the truck next and put it on the table, "Here's my baby."
Morgan nodded approvingly, "I had one like this back home, damn good for gooifying people." She turned toward Ulysses and just looked at him.
He nodded. "Here," was all he said. Turning in his 12.7 mm submachine gun and his flag pole, Old Glory.
"Patriotic as they come aren't you, big guy?" Grady said, her hands on her hips.
He looked at her, "More than the NCR ever was."
Her expression turned serious, "Hey now-"
Morgan raised a finger, "Ah! I'm gonna stop you both right there. This here." She gestured between the two, "Is something we don't fucking need. Especially not the night before we go in to kill a bunch of assholes and save a town. We're shutting this down, right now. Ulysses?"
He looked between himself, Morgan, and Grady, weighing it out in his head, "You're right, Pastor. This helps no one." He walked around the table and directly towards Grady, who tensed up and put her hand towards her rifle on the table. He stopped, reached into his duster and pulled something out. A small metal chunk and held it out to her. Gesturing for her to take it. Reluctantly, she did.
"What's this?" She asked.
"A token." He replied.
"Of apology?" She asked skeptically
"It is a piece of a mask. A mask belonging to someone you, an NCR Ranger Veteran, should know very well." He waited for her to piece it together.
She inspected it closely, some of the markings and it's finish striking her as familiar, "This looks it belongs to a leg-" and then it hit her, she looked up, eyes wide "this isn't-"
Everyone was watching this, utterly fascinated and in suspense.
Ulysses nodded, if he was pleased, he didn't show it, "The mask of the Monster of the East. Legate Lanius."
"Where did you get this?" She asked, utterly stupefied.
"I was there," he said, "I was there when he died."
She closed her hand around the piece, hard. Making a fist over it. A short shocked breath escaped her. She couldn't believe it. But nothing made her think he was lying. "How did he die?" She needed to know.
He didn't have to make anything up, the truth was far better than any fiction he could have told her. "Not well. After the Battle for Hoover Dam, The Courier called me into action. Getting my assistance in tracking him down. We did. When we did, she challenged him to one on one combat. No firearms. All of his people watching. I have never seen a man so broken and defeated in my life. She broke his mask with a ballistic fist and before she had ever landed the killing blow, he was weeping and begging for a quick death. She did not grant him one."
Grady let out a deep breath she didn't even know she had been holding in. She felt a huge weight fall of her shoulders. She remembered seeing him at The Battle, how he cut his way through so many good soldiers, using them as meatbag shields, or suicide bombers. They'd had to pull out, his forces had just been too much. And The Courier, who she honestly had no idea how to feel about at this point, was too busy taking over the whole of the Mojave to help them out. She patted Ulysses on his big arm. "We're good." She looked around at everyone, now feeling a bit embarrassed. "Uh, I'll be over here." And she walked off into the darkness.
Morgan gave Sunny a look. And gestured with her eyes in Grady's direction. Sunny was going to protest, but then looked down and thought better of it. She nodded and headed off to find her.
"All right," Morgan said somewhat awkwardly, "everyone grab your stuff. Let's get some rest."
The town of Goodsprings had over 20 of Calvera's troopers watching over it. Making sure it's people stayed scared and in line. The main street was where they spent most of their time, not bothering to keep an eye on the residential areas, they figured the fear kept the people staying at home from doing anything stupid. There were always about a few snipers on the rooftops all over town. But the three favorites seemed to be Chet's General store, Trudy's Mayoral office, and the makeshift belltower of the church. The rest stayed on the ground. Taking turns and shifting every couple of hours between the various stores and official offices. Including the town jail, where one of Calvera's more entrusted enforcers, had set up as his base of operations and declaring himself the sheriff. After he had thrown the previous one in behind bars.
By midday the sun was high in the sky and the seven were ready.
Morgan and Grady walked into town as if they had owned the place, the older woman going as far as to kiss her hand and pass it to the Goodsprings sign. Almost immediately, Calvera's guards began to take notice. The two spotters in front taking notice of the women and passing the message along to the rest via radio.
Luckily, Isaac had managed to dig up several radios and tweak them in a way so that they could all communicate discreetly. The radios has been secured under their clothes, and a little see through wire worked into them, which connected to small devices they could put in and pull out of their ears without fear of them getting stuck. Isaac had worked on this the whole way back to Goodsprings and had managed to get it working perfectly. With no worries about it picking up any signals outside of theirs or radio interference.
"You seeing this?" Morgan asked discreetly, but looking at Grady to make it seem like they were talking among themselves.
"Yeah, we're seeing it," Isaac said, "we're almost all in position, you got their attention just like we had hoped. But remind me again why we're not using the robot that has a minigun and missile launcher on it?"
"Because," Morgan said through gritted teeth as they made their way towards the Mayor's office. She could feel all the eyes on her, "If there's as many more of them as Sunny says there are, we'll need it for them. Plus I don't want to blow up any buildings with the missiles right now if I can help it. We got this."
"You're the boss," he replied, there was a pause, "all right, looks like we're all in position. Even Sunny. As pissed as she is about it."
Morgan had had a long talk with her in the morning about why she should stay out of the initial attack. Needless to say she was not happy. After much arguing and even some name calling, Grady had come in and explained it to her. This whole thing was her baby, she was technically their boss. Their boss who they needed to keep safe. And that they couldn't watch out for her and kill Calvera's people at the same time. If she died, this whole thing was a bust. It would be her job to get the townspeople onboard with fighting back at the final battle. Reluctantly, Sunny agreed.
"She'll forgive us when we're done here," the 'sheriff' and two other goons were walking out of the town jail to greet them, "enough talk. Let's do this." Morgan and Grady stopped just a few feet away from them. Morgan waved her hand in a half salute, "Hey there, fellas!"
"State your business here and turn in those weapons," the 'sheriff' said, "when you're done, maybe you'll get them back." He finished with a half smile.
"Ooh," Grady started, mock intimidated, "friendly bunch aren't you? Even Vegas doesn't have rules like that. Why do you get to walk around with fancy guns like those?"
The 'sheriff' scoffed, as if he had no time for this, "Because we're the law. We make the rules around here, not you. Now you gonna turn those in or you gonna leave?" One of the other goons, a woman with short hair, spat at the ground.
Morgan looked around, and up on the rooftops, ignoring the goons, aggravating them greatly, "Awful lot guards and high tech equipment for a place like this, guess you Operators had to downgrade a bit after losing your bosses back at Nuka World."
That threw them off balance, "What do you know about that?" The female goon said, gripping her handmade assault rifle a bit harder.
"Hey!" The one with the badge said, beckoning the other goons at the mayor's office to head their way. They dutifully jogged over, leaving the the sniper on the roof alone, bringing the total of guards in front of Morgan and Grady to seven, "Let me handle this," he reached for the gun he had slung around his back.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Morgan said, her tone mocking.
The Badge hesitated, wondering what she had up her sleeve, "Why?"
"Because you just lost your high ground advantages, friend." Morgan said and gestured behind the goons. The goons turned around.
Simultaneously, the snipers on the Mayor's office, Chet's store, and the tower of the church, all fell to the ground. K had killed the first one, Ulysses the second one, and Isaac the third. All revealed themselves. Ulysses stood on top of Chet's store ominously, K jumped off the Mayor's and hit the ground without rolling or flinching, while Isaac fired a warning shot near The Badge's foot, singeing his boot. Goons that were inside the stores and other buildings kept an eye on what was happening. Waiting for the chance to come out.
"And the rest of our friends just showed up to the party," Grady said, a big shit eating grin on her face.
Tuco walked out of the church, special cowboy repeater in his hand and resting on his shoulder. While Caliban walked out from behind the town jail, nail board in hand. The men and women on Calvera's payroll all gasped a little at the sight of the big super mutant in the black hood.
The Badge did not, he was squarely focused on Morgan and Grady, "All right, you assholes," he started, "just what the hell is this about? You here take over, muscle in on our shit? Or you trying to impress the boss into giving you a job? Because this ain't the way to do it."
"Not exactly," Morgan said, her tone no longer humorous, "you see," she said removing her glasses and looking Badge in the eye, "these are good people. Decent people. Something the world is in very short supply of these days. And you merry bunch of fuckwits are bullies. Something the world is in very high supply of these days." She stayed silent just for a moment, to let it all sink in then Morgan replaced her sunglasses, "so we're here to even it out." She put her hand on That Gun, in her side holster.
"Wow," the Badge said, "you rehearse that on the way here, because that was kind of impressive. But, you see," he said stepping closer, feeling the weight of Isaac's plasma sniper even from so far away, "we ain't going nowhere. Do you have any idea who Calvera is? And the hurricane of shit he can unleash on your sorry asses?"
"We don't care. And once we're done here, you're gonna give him a message from me." Morgan said.
Time went still. Silence filled the air. Not even a breeze pushed through town. The civilians hiding in the stores, dreading every second of this. No one breathed or moved a muscle, everyone waiting on everyone else to make the first move. Morgan and Badge stared each other down, each not looking away. Grady darted her eyes side to side, keeping an eye on which of the goons was going to draw first. Isaac breathed in and out, looking through the scope, ready to pull the trigger when he had to. Tuco watched Grady, and followed her eyeline to the gunmen in front of her trying to see which he could take out, after she did. K had one hand on her sword at her back, ready to pull it out, and one hand on an automatic laser pistol. Caliban braced himself for what he thought would be a barrage of bullets, ready to fight his way through the pain. Ulysses began calculating where other troops would come from. He could see a few in some of the windows, he stood ready, submachine gun in hand.
The woman to Badge's left in Grady's field of vision attempted to draw first. She was the first casualty of the day. Grady drew quicker, pulling her revolver from her holster and firing it from the hip, fanning the hammer twice and putting her down with the second bullet. Badge flinched at this and Morgan took the opportunity not to kill him, but disarm him, drawing That Gun and knocking his pistol out of his hand even before it had managed to leave the holster. Badge drew his hand back in pain and gritted his teeth at Morgan. Before his gun could even touch the ground, Morgan put a bullet between the gunman to Badge's left's eyes.
Badge attempted to run back to the jail only to be greeted by an angry super mutant heading his way, without thinking he grabbed the gunman closest to him and threw him into the super mutant's path. Making his way into the jail.
Caliban killed the gunman the cowardly 'sheriff' had thrown his way with a single strike of his nailboard. Directly connecting with the man's head and crushing his skull and brain instantly. The other one behind him fired off a shot with his automatic rifle that missed horribly, giving Caliban enough time to knock him to the ground with his foot and then stab his nail board down the screaming man's throat. He ran off in search of more victims.
There were still two Operators in front of Grady. One managed to get his weapon and aim before a plasma bolt hit him in the back of the neck, getting his head off, leaving a cauterized hole where his skull was. The other was still fumbling with her rifle when Isaac let loose two more plasma bolts at her back area, the second causing her to melt into a pile of green goo as as she screamed. Grady looked up at him and nodded a thanks before pulling her Brush rifle from her back and readying for more.
Ulysses from his roof top spotted three Operators coming from the stores across the street from his rooftop near Morgan. His gun was aimed before they exited and unleashed his automatic fire on all of them as they ran out. Piling on top of each other almost neatly. He jumped off the rooftop and rolled to the ground ready to fight alongside the others. He landed near Grady's left. She fired twice behind him and when he turned, saw two Operators dead. He locked eyes with her, in silent understanding. He nodded and they stood back to back, watching out for more gunners.
Tuco ran towards the building to his right and K's left next to the Mayor's office as Operators fired at him through the window. He managed to kill one, before rolling into cover underneath it. He saw K run to her right heading towards the other building's door, sword in hand. Tuco put the small repeater in his leg holster and grabbed his shotgun. Staying under their line of fire he headed to the door, intent on making it inside. A gunman ran through and met only the force of Tuco's shotgun, falling down dead. He stood at the doorway as people inside fired, once they stopped he rolled inside, barely being missed and landed in a kneeling position. He fired, killing one Operator. The other was in the middle of reloading when Tuco blasted his head apart.
Outside, K charged at a woman with an assault rifle coming out of the building and buried the sword in her stomach. The woman screamed. K was about to pull it out when she noticed two gunmen inside through the windows. She held the woman up with her sword and used her as a human shield as the two gunmen unloaded their guns in K's direction. K pulled her laser pistol and still using the woman for cover, fired back. Not hitting either of them but creating enough time for her to move. She let her shield fall and jumped through the window. She rolled forward and used the momentum to stab the first man she landed in front of. She grabbed his assault rifle and with one hand used it to fire at the other gunman while he was still paralyzed with shock, while pulling her sword from the first one's body. Another one was coming down the stairs, and she managed to fire off the very last bullet at his head. He came tumbling the rest of the way down.
Morgan ran into the whorehouse next to the jail, gunning down an Operator as she walked through the door. She instinctively aimed her gun at the man at the counter. Several of the workers screamed. He put his hands up, "Don't shoot!" He shouted.
"Are there anymore inside?" Morgan asked.
"Yes, three, no four! Upstairs."
She made for the stairs, one was at the top already waiting. He fired down at her twice. One missed. The other hit on the shoulder, she flinched but no blood came out. The man looked at his gun then back at her, "You got the-" she fired before he finished, hitting him in the heart. He fell backwards into the hallway and crumpled to the ground.
"Yup," she said, scratching at the ballistic fiber left somewhat visible under her clothes. She put her pistol away and unslung her Silver submachine gun. She reached the top of the stairs and there were two more gunners waiting for her. She let loose with Silver killing them both. She turned towards the end of the hallway and saw one more gunman holding a woman hostage. She raised her gun and aimed, "Don't do it to yourself," She said.
"I'll do it! I swear, I'll-" his brains exploded on the wall behind him.
Outside Caliban charged into the building next to the general store. From the outside, all you heard were gunfire and screams, then suddenly two dead Operators flew through a window.
Grady and Ulysses separated and ran towards other stores.
Grady stormed into the Saloon and dropped two more as soon as she entered. Gut shotting one and head shotting the other.
Ulysses stormed into the barbershop and killed a man running at him with a straight razor. The other attempted to surrender. He didn't allow it.
An Operator sprinted out of the Mayor's office, trying desperately to make a run for it. He nearly ran into K who was ready to stab him, when three plasma bolts turned him into goo. She looked up at the tower and smiled at Isaac while flipping him off at the same time. He returned it and surveyed the area for more.
Morgan stepped out of the whorehouse reloading That Gun. The street quiet now. She tapped her earpiece, "How we doing, everyone? Sound off."
"Tuco, clear."
"K, clear."
"Isaac, clear."
"Grady, clear."
"Caliban, here."
"Ulysses, clear."
"All right, everyone outside the jail, there's one more inside."
The seven gathered around the jail. Their guns pointed at it, except for Caliban, who simply stood looking terrifying. Awaiting the final Operator. After a moment, he came out, hands in the air. "Just what the hell have you done?!" He shouted.
"I think the results speak for themselves, don't you, genius?" Said Grady, a big smile on her face.
"Go back to your boss," Morgan said evenly. "let him know we're here and we're waiting for his cowardly ass. And you can quote me on that."
Badge put his hands down, holding his bloody one, "Oh, I will. And when he comes, I'll be here with him. I'll remember your face!" He said directly in front of hers. She punched him good and hard, sending him to the floor.
He sat up, his nose broken, face a bloody mess, "Fuck!" A bullet landed right next to him causing him to jump, "All right, enough already!"
"You can quote me on that, too. Now beat it."
Badge scrambled to his feet and ran off.
The seven stood in the street for a while, waiting for someone to come out. For several minutes no one did. "You know," said Isaac, slinging his rifle around his back, "considering what we just did, I was kind of expecting a big damn heroes kinda welcome."
"People rarely get thanks for doing the right thing," said Morgan.
"Especially. For doing the right thing," added Tuco.
Grady fished something out of her backpocket, "Y'all are making me depressed," she said dryly, and put a small whiskey bottle to her lips and swallowed, then she passed it to Morgan, who was standing next to her, "there's your hero's welcome."
Morgan took the bottle and scoffed, "Cheers." And she took a swig, shaking her head afterwards from the burn.
They stood that way for a while passing the bottle, taking a drink, and passing it to the next person until everyone but Ulysses and Caliban, who refused, had some.