AN: I don't own Fallout or Halo. They belong to Bethesda and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.

Chapter Fourteen

1547 HOURS, AUGUST 21, 2545 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ SOL SYSTEM (ERROR/SOURCE UNRELIABLE), PLANET EARTH (ERROR/SOURCE UNRELIABLE) \ MOJAVE WASTELAND

With Primm, Nipton, Goodsprings, Novac and Boulder City under NCR control, the southern half of the Mojave Wasteland was finally free from the Legion and its main supply routes open to bring in new supplies and troops as the NCR Army continued its northward march.

It had started combat operations against Hoover Dam, throwing Rangers and troopers at the hydroelectric plant's legionnaire defenders, and occupied several locations on the old highway leading to Vegas. Already, old NCR positions that had been overrun by the Legion following the former's retreat were back under their original owner's control and turned in triage stations, getting the wounded back into fighting shape or getting them stabilised for the journey home.

Kilo had been at the front of the attack, assisting the Rangers in clearing out stubborn pockets of Legion resistance, leapfrogging from fight to fight with only enough time between them to grab some ammo and a bite to eat.

But as the entrance to Freeside, a downtrodden area surrounding Vegas, came into view, the officers in charge of the assault gave the order to shift into a holding position just outside the gates and begin consolidating troops ready for the final push.

The Spartans, along with several Ranger squads, had helped to clear out a compound to the east of Vegas that sat between the two entrances to Freeside of legionnaires, freeing it up to act as the new command centre for the NCR Army and barracks for some of the troops.

They dropped themselves in a secluded corner, an ammo box by each of their feet containing each Spartan's specific ammunition requirements.

Scott opened his box and began clipping the new magazines into place on his armour, fresh from the Gun Runners, then set about servicing his MA5K, cleaning the suppressed rifle and checking the internal components were still okay.

Joan and Claire did the same, disassembling their weapons with practised ease.

Jack, who had the least complicated and most rugged gun, simply cleaned the barrel of the Mule and worked the slide a few times, making sure it was still smooth.

'Got to hand it to the NCR.' Jack said when he put his gun down, leaning back against the wall. 'They may have outdated rounds but the Mule ain't doing too bad.'

'It's a shotgun.' Scott said as he ran a brush down the barrel of his gun. 'The thing is designed to shred unarmoured targets at close range and the Legion has barely any armour and you usually close with two feet before firing. You cause one hell of a mess doing that.'

'Eeyup.' Jack said. He turned to Joan. 'How are you finding that rifle?'

'It's okay.' Joan said. 'Still not too happy with the calibre and the scope but yeah. It does the job.'

'See?' Jack said. 'So long as it can kill. You think like that, you'll be happy to use whatever you get your hands on.'

'I'd be happier with a rifle that has an auto zooming scope with thermals and night vision, and fin stabilised bullets.' She said. 'I do some of my best work from afar and things like that can mean the difference between a kill and a wound.'

'Or distracting the bad guy long enough for some poor schmuck with a shotgun to get in close and finish them off.' Claire said. Her minigun was resting by her feet, its casing scuffed and dented from two centuries of use, though Kilo was still doubtful that that had actually happened.

They still couldn't bring themselves to believe that this was Earth, despite what everyone they spoke to said. The names of places matched up with the ones on Earth but many Inner and Outer Colonies borrowed names from humanity's homeworld so the same could have happened here, so it wasn't concrete proof, and some of the weapons they saw closely resembled guns from Earth's past but as with the names, anyone could have copied the designs for their own purposes.

Kilo still leaned more towards the possibility that this whole place was an Insurrectionist planet that had remained hidden from the UNSC and warped the history taught, until a civil war of sorts broke out and both sides unleashed nuclear weapons, bombarding the planet into the dreary wasteland it was now.

If that was the case, then sooner or later a ship equipped with a Slipspace drive would arrive and they could commandeer it, returning to UNSC space.

But if it wasn't and this really was Earth, or at least a parallel one, then the question they would have to ask is how they got there and why. None of them had managed to explain away the flash of light seen during their insertion. They would also have to consider where to go and who to help.

The NCR was a good choice, working to pacify the wasteland, but if Shaun was to be believed then it allowed large companied to steamroll over their smaller competitors so long as the profits kept coming in and the harm was kept to a minimum. True, if Kilo did stay with the NCR, they would more than likely remain a part of the army, deploying to hotspots and defusing them, but there would be that knowledge that not everyone was receiving the same treatment. Rebellions had started that way. The Insurrection was proof of that. How long before they would get sent against rioting citizens, tired of their mistreatment?

On the other side of the country was the Brotherhood of Steel. Or at least, an offshoot of it. From what little Kilo had managed to gather the officer in charge had gone rogue and changed the Brotherhood's mission to helping the poor rather than collecting and hoarding technology, as was the original mission. The only problem with joining them would be crossing America, a trek of well over 2500 miles through radioactive wastelands occupied by raiders and marauding beasts with no guarantee that the Brotherhood would still be there when they arrived.

If there was no Brotherhood of Steel Chapter on the East Coast, then Kilo could always begin drifting across America looking for a place to make themselves useful.

Any further speculation on what they might do was interrupted by a trooper walking over, holding out a piece of paper to Scott.

He accepted it and read over the contents.

'New mission, boss?' Jack asked.

'Yeah.' Scott said. 'We're to infiltrate Freeside when it gets dark and place explosives along various weak points in the wall surrounding the city, ready to create additional entrances for the main assault force, and then locate and destroy any ammo dumps or weapon caches we can find.'

'Sweep and clear, eh?' Jack said. 'Makes a change.'

Scott nodded. 'Suppressed weapons only. Grab as many explosives as you can carry then get some shut eye. We'll head out when it gets dark.'

2321 HOURS, AUGUST 21, 2545 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ SOL SYSTEM (ERROR/SOURCE UNRELIABLE), PLANET EARTH (ERROR/SOURCE UNRELIABLE) \ MOJAVE WASTELAND

Kilo crouched in the shadows, motionless, as a roving patrol of legionaries walked past, scuffed repeaters in their hands.

They had slipped into Freeside during a distraction put on by some Rangers and troopers, the NCR soldiers opening fire on their Legion counterparts on the eastern gate, drawing the guards from the northern one and giving them an opening.

Now they were crouched in shadows of an alley, scanning the street for threats.

Flaming barrels were positioned here and there, giving off enough light to see by, and banners bearing the Legion's emblem were strung up on several walls. Legionaries patrolled the area, on alert after the brief exchange of gunfire earlier.

A walled compound an NCR officer had called the Old Mormon Fort seemed to be serving as a kind of barracks as legionaries would go in and out with regular timing, and during a brief glimpse the Spartan team saw several crates that had the barrels of guns poking out and on one occasion, they witnessed one legionnaire pulling a magazine out.

They tagged the building as an ammo dump.

Focusing back on their primary mission to recon and set charges along weak points, Scott gave a series of hand signals for Kilo to move along the wall silently towards the first spot the NCR had marked out.

Earlier, an engineer had gone with a team of Rangers to spot possible weak spots where the ramshackle wall wasn't as well maintained, or where a well placed charge could open up a hole big enough for several soldiers to get through at a time. Other weaknesses had been located during the NCR's time protecting New Vegas ahead of proposed plans to take the city by force if diplomacy failed.

All in all, there were fourteen specific locations that Kilo had to place explosives at along with any caches of weapons, all the while dodging patrols and hoping that some hapless legionary didn't stumble across them by chance and raise the alarm.

They reached the first location and Jack got to work, carefully placing the bricks of C4 he had at the bottom of a join between two sheets of metal while the others watched his back.

When he was done, Jack concealed the charge with some rubbish and a few bits of debris, then followed Kilo as they moved onto the next.

Within an hour, they had gotten just over half the charges in place. A few had required waiting for nearby legionaries to leave, dragging the mission time out and increasing the chance Kilo would be detected, but it was when they went to set the ninth explosive that things went wrong.

Right where the C4 needed to be set were four legionaries asleep on rough mattresses just to the side of the designated spot.

Kilo paused and Scott flashed his acknowledgement light orange twice, asking if they wished to proceed.

Jack flashed his acknowledgement light green once in response and moved forward, slowly, as the others assumed defensive positions.

Scott dropped to one knee but glanced over his shoulder, splitting his attention between Jack and the legionary he was working next to. The man seemed deep asleep, mumbling something or another to himself, but as Scott watched the legionary started to roll one way, away from Jack, then seemingly changed his mind and went the other way, throwing his arm out.

Both Spartans froze when it glanced off Jack's camouflaged form.

'Boss...' Jack began whispering but before he could finish, the sleeping legionary's eyes shot open and he looked up at the hazy form of Jack, incomprehension on his face. It vanished after a split second, replaced with panic and then determination as his mouth opened, a scream starting up.

Scott and Jack both went for their pistols, moving with swiftness no other human alive could match, and brought them down to bear on the lying man, firing within a second of the other.

The two bullets slammed into the legionary's chest, piercing through the simple leather padding with ease, but were too late to stop the other three men from waking up, initially roused by the first legionnaire's scream then jolted to full wakefulness by the double tap. Though their pistols had built in sound suppressors, the close proximity of the men negated the effectiveness and they too started shouting in alarm.

Kilo responded by turning their guns on the men, firing short controlled bursts but the damage had been done. Shouted questions and orders could be heard from inside the Old Mormon Fort and from other parts of Freeside.

Scott flashed his acknowledgement light red three times as a crowd of legionaries converged on their position, rifles and flaming torches in hand.

'NCR High Command, this is Kilo-One.' Scott said, broadcasting on an NCR channel as Kilo began picking off Legion troops. 'Enemy forces have discovered us and are en route to our location. Over.'

'Kilo-One, NCR HIGHCOM.' The reply came. 'Did you manage to accomplish your primary objective?'

'Only positions one through eight, but our exit route is cut off.' Scott said. He fired a triple tap at a decanus. 'Requesting assistance.'

'Acknowledged, Kilo-One. Be advised, Phase Two of Operation: Brutus will commence inside of two minutes.'

'Received, HIGHCOM.' Scott radioed. 'Phase Two will start in two minutes. Kilo-One, out.'

The line went dead as more Legion troops pressed towards the Spartans precarious position. They had their backs to the wall with no easy way out. Before them were hundreds of legionaries. Behind them was a fence that towered well over ten metres high, rivalling the buildings it surrounded for height.

'Jack, how many bricks of C4 have you got left?' Scott asked, reloading.

'Six, including the one I was going to plant here.' Jack said. 'Why?'

'Phase Two is a go inside of ninety seconds.' Scott said. 'I think it might be an idea to make use of the remaining explosives.'

The Spartan just flashed his acknowledgement light by way of response, guessing what Scott meant.

Operation: Brutus was the NCR's overall plan for retaking the Mojave. Phase One was responsible for consolidating their hold on the southern half of the wasteland, securing towns and routes to keep the assault force supplied, and was considered complete once the Rangers and the NCR Army was in a position to attack New Vegas.

With the C4 placed Phase Two, which covered actually attacking the Legion in the city, could now proceed, starting with the creation of numerous entry points to allow the NCR a chance to flank and surround the Legion quickly and before they could muster a response. The explosives would allow just that, awaiting an activation signal from within the NCR's compound east of Vegas to create the new portals.

Jack fished in his sack and produced the remaining bricks of C4, arming their remote detonation circuits as he went, then threw them into the crowd of Legion troops that had adopted basic firing positions, using whatever cover was available.

Some panicked and dove away from the thrown bundles but when none of them exploded, they recovered and resumed firing. A few even went to pick the packages up but targeted fire from Kilo deterred them.

When it came to within five seconds of Phase Two, Kilo backed up against the wall and half crouched, half turned away from the crowd, bracing for the fourteen separate explosions that would soon rip through flesh, bone, and metal with ease and an ear splitting boom.

The Legion, caught off guard by the sudden lack of incoming fire, paused ever so briefly and barely had any time to react as the lumps of explosive scattered throughout their midst gave off a single bleep then detonated.

Being so close to the explosions threw Kilo back against the wall they had crouched next to, winding them as body parts began raining down, littering the streets of Freeside as gunfire started up, sounding distant and oddly muffled to the disorientated Spartans.

They shook it off as a squad of Rangers peeled from the newly arrived NCR attack force and headed towards them.

'Yo, Kilo.' One said, the voice belonging to Smith. 'Got some toys for ya.'

One of the Rangers threw a weapon at Jack, his shotgun, while a second shrugged something off, Claire's minigun, along with ammo for both of the guns. Smith held a sack out to Scott. Inside were plenty of spare magazines for their assault rifles and frag grenades.

'You're with us, Spartans.' Smith said as three more Ranger squads appeared, each carrying either marksman carbines or riot shotguns with plenty of ammo to keep them firing. 'Command has given us the task of going after the head honchos themselves. We're taking out Caesar.'