After a drive down an open Mojave road the natural monolith that served as Black Mountain came into view. As Raul's truck started the climb up the steep mountain slopes Arcade tossed the bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla he'd been drinking from the bed. The mountain incline got steeper the farther they drove. The old truck's engine was struggling to climb the hill. Raul dropped it down a gear and tried to push her farther. His face was flared in nervous concentration as the engine rumbled a little more. Finally they hit a spot of steep mountain near the top that the truck couldn't climb. It's wheels spun on the mountain rock and smoke slowly started to pour from under the hood. Raul eased the truck back to a patch of flat land and shut off the lumbering beast. He quickly jumped out and popped the hood open, only to be hit with a blast of smoke. In a short time, Cowboy was next to Raul leaning on the edge of the hood.

"This as far as this rust bucket will go. Anymore and the engine will burn up. Then we'll really have a problem." Raul diagnosed the situation. Raul looked up the mountain to see the radio station. "You'll have to walk from here up the rest the mountain. I'll stay here and make sure we didn't do any fatal damage to the old girl." Raul declared as he searched for his tool box in the truck cab. Cowboy noticed the ghoul's difficulty with locating his tool box,

"Is it behind that conveniently placed rock over there?" Cowboy joked as he pointed to a stray rock in the road. Raul bent up from digging on the floor board and let out a soft, old man chuckle.

"That's a good one, boss. Really. Should take you on the road with humor like that." Raul replied in dry wit. The old vaquero bent back down and located the tool box hiding under his seat. Cowboy knew Raul was stalling to avoid returning to the place of his incarceration, so walked back to the truck bed.

"Grab your gear, we're walking from here on up." This got a groan from Veronica.

"I hated climbing this mountain the first time." she whined. Cowboy extended a hand for her to get out of the bed, but said nothing in response. The group started the steep climb up the last part of Black Mountain, leaving Raul to beat on the truck's motor. ED-E led the climbers as he simply hovered up the cliff. Veronica took a step on some loose stone and lost her footing, she started to tumble down the side until a strong hand caught her by the scruff of her robes. As the firm grasp pulled her back to her feet she saw it was Boone who had saved her the tumble. Everyone else had stopped climbing to watch the event. Veronica regained her footing and looked to thank Boone. His face did not change from it's usual stone expression, his eyes still a set, steely gaze behind his sunglasses. Once Veronica was under her own power he simply turned back to the mountain face and started to walk. Everyone else followed. They reached the gate to the newly opened Outpost Zulu. Cowboy unhitched the gate and sauntered in looking for the rangers. A ranger on the roof of the broadcast tower waved them over. The group shuffled into the cramped broadcast station that was already full of old radio junk. A ranger in veteran armor made his way through the mess to greet them.

"Can I help you folks?" he asked in a leveled voice.

"Heard you had trouble with some power armored goons. Came down here for details." Cowboy replied. The ranger rubbed his temples then shuffled through some papers piled up on a desk. After knocking several to the floor he found the one he was looking for.

"Here's the report." He handed the crumpled paper to Cowboy, "That's all I can tell you about it." Cowboy handed the report next to Arcade, who happened to be standing next to him.

"This is stuff we already heard. You can't tell us anymore?" Arcade pressed the veteran.

"Nope, that's everything we've got right there. They tried to fire a few pot shots at us, then moved along. I expect you'll be doing the same? This isn't a place for civilians to linger." the veteran's tone got serious.

"You do realize who we are, right?" Veronica perked up in youthful vigor. The veteran ranger looked over the people standing in his station, sizing them up.

"The start of a bad joke?" he huffed out. Veronica started to raise her ballistic fist before Arcade stopped her.

"We'll just be going then." he stated as he started to drag the vicious Veronica away. They all stood outside the broadcast station alone from the snobbish ranger.

"There's something he isn't telling us." Arcade issued as he waved the paper report in his hand.

"Ya think? Let me go bust his face." Veronica argued as she wretched her arm from Arcade's grasp. Veronica jogged towards the station door before anyone could stop her. Another ranger appeared next to the building with a sniper rifle in one hand, the other outstretched.

"Stop. Y'all want ta know all that happened? Come over here." he whispered in a vaguely Southern accent. The group sneaked over towards the man. They all huddled in a shadowy corner outside the broadcast station. "The captain ain't telling ya everything. I'm up on that tower all the time. I saw what happened when them power armored tanks attacked. The day they attacked it was more than pot shots. Hit one of our boys and cut him bad, died the day after."

"That wasn't in the report at all." Arcade furiously skimmed the document through his thick glasses. The report mentioned no casualites.

"Nope, cause the captain. He's on thin ice with the NCR high brass, and if they knew he had another soldier killed they'd stick behind a desk for life, at best. So he left that out. I also was sumthing on another day. Them same red armored troops marched into a little town over that way, bout... 4 clicks." the sniper pointed towards the other side of the mountain. "When they got in there they killed a few people and took the rest with them, made them join up." the sniper finished his report. Cowboy looked off in the distance while in thought. Then he looked over to Veronica.

"So, I'm guessing that Latham and his men are marching across the Mojave to conquer it for the Midwestern Brotherhood. A total domination." Cowboy reasoned. Veronica concurred the thought.

"From the stories I heard about Latham that sounds about right." this response caused Cowboy to tilt his head.

"Thought you never heard of this guy. That you barely knew anything about the whole forgotten chapter." he grilled her. Veronica looked towards the ground with a sheepish smile and scratched in the dirt with the tip of her worn boots. She looked back up at him with one arm holding her other one down across her chest.

"Well, I may have done some more research about them that the Brotherhood didn't know about." she said, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

"And you didn't think that it was all worth a mention?" Arcade buzzed in as he threw down the relatively useless report.

"Why don't you tell us the whole story then, girl?" Cowboy's tone was fatherly. She dropped her hood down and started to tell the story.

"The Midwestern Chapter did start in Chicago and expand west to Colorado. When they first started to fray into Colorado Johnathan Latham led the chapter with a fleet of airships. They got shot down. Latham was assumed dead in the crash. Turns out that wasn't the case. He survived and wandered into a camp of super mutants. He wasn't of right mind when he challenged their leader, but you saw him. That mountain of a man beat down the leader and took control of the mutants. Farther down the road and the Brothers that did survive the crash find an old Pre-War NORAD base in the mountain, a Vault 0. It was run by a crazy computer AI called the Calculator. Before they got deep in the base they ran into Latham and his mutants. After a long fight, the mutants and Latham were killed, at least he was presumed to be dead. That's the story's end. I swear." Veronica bewildered them all with the extravagant tale.

"But, Latham did survive and what, took back his control as the leader of the Midwestern Brotherhood?" Arcade tried to guess the story's end.

"And now this nut job is trying to take over all that he can." Cowboy finished the thought up. He turned back to the sniper, who was staring in awe at the story, "Thanks for the help soldier." He bucked the soldier up on the shoulder, then turned back to the others. "So what do we do now? Can't let Latham terrorize the Mojave."

"Chased out Caesar. Just trading one tyrant for another." Arcade waxed philosophically, "Guess war never changes, does it?" Before anyone could reply to that fire erupted on the radio station.

"Get to your posts men! We're under attack!" the orders spread across the open base from the rude ranger the Cowboy met earlier. The crew pulled out their weapons and ran towards the gunfire. Cass ducked for cover and peeked over to see the attackers.

"It's more Brotherhood assholes." she yelled out to the others. Cowboy looked to see it was indeed men in red power armor charging up the hill. ED-E laid down a volley of laser fire. The shots that hit the charging armored goons knocked them off their feet, tumbling them down into other troopers until they hit the rock bottom. Cowboy looked down the line of his companions.

"We've got the high grounds, so give them Hell!" He issued an order. Cass popped up and fired off her shotgun, the others followed. Arcade's plasma round hit a trooper and melted the armor down. Boone surveyed the opposing army.

"No blue armor, don't think Latham's here."

"Well, kill the rest of them, send him a message!" Cowboy yelled back to the sniper. A stray laser hit one of the nearby rangers. The Brotherhood forces seemed to never end.

"Come on, you sons of..." the veteran ranger tried to yell out another rousing order before a laser blast hit him in the chest and ended his breath. Cowboy used his rifle to stagger another soldier. Rex was off to his left and started to bark at the Cowboy. He looked at the dog.

"What is it boy?" He looked past the cyber dog to see Raul at the bottom of a slope trying to hold off Midwesterners. Cowboy looked back to the radio station to see the rangers were faltering under the Brotherhood onslaught. "Alright guys. We have to get out of here. To the truck, Raul needs help. The other four followed him and Rex as they started down the cliff to help the overwhelmed ghoul. Two Brotherhood troopers appeared near Raul and opened fire. He ducked under the truck, more lasers cutting through the rusty frame. A third appeared on his flank and shot Raul in the belly, the ghoul collapsed next to the truck. Cowboy cracked the skull of one trooper, Boone put a bullet in the throat of another, and Cass knocked the third back down the mountain. Arcade rushed to the fallen ghoul and examined the fresh wound.

"He's hit, but it isn't fatal." Arcade diagnosed. Raul coughed a little and spoke in a winded tone.

"I can't drive that truck like this." Cowboy flared his nostrils while he calculated strategy in his head.

"Alright, help Raul in the bed. I'll drive this thing." The others helped the ghoul into the bed while Cowboy sat in the driver's seat. Once he got settled in, it dawned on Cowboy he had no idea how to drive a truck. Raul was the only one who could drive it due to his pre-War experience, no one else could. Veronica climbed into the passenger seat.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked in desperation.

"Not the foggiest." he replied in a tone too match. She rolled her eyes at the Cowboy's lack of skill.

"Okay, I picked up a few things from Raul, switch me seats." Cowboy and Veronica tried to navigate a seat switch in a hail of laser fire. Veronica got comfortable, pushed in the clutch, turned the key, and tried to shove it in reverse. The transmission grinded as it went back into reverse, the truck slowly rolling down the hill. Veronica pushed down on the brakes causing the truck to spin in place. Once the truck pointed down the mountain she tried to jam it into 3rd gear, but the shifter was stuck. She fought with it till she realized she hadn't pushed the clutch in again. The laser fire was getting more accurate and the people in the bed were getting more agitated. She pushed the clutch, jammed it into 3rd and floored the gas. The engine petered out a little then jumped to life.

"She's going to wreck the tranny doing that." Raul huffed to himself in the back of the truck. The old rust bucket started going down the mountain faster than Veronica could handle it. A sharp turn was ahead of them, but she couldn't slow down for it in time. The truck instead leaped over the edge and caught some air time. The world seemed to slow down as the truck flew through the air. ED-E let out a high pitched whistle in appreciation of the awesomeness of that event. Finally everything came down and the truck bashed against the hard ground making some noises that didn't sound healthy and caused Raul to grunt. Everyone in the bed was jumbled around and Cowboy's head bashed into the roof of the truck causing his hat to fall to the floor. Veronica, her hands gripping the wheel with white knuckles and sweat beading off her face, steadied out the truck as it swerved across the Mojave. Cowboy, clutching his head in pain, looked back to see the Black Mountain Radio Station engulfed in fire.