Ella, Boone, Cass, Arcade, Veronica and Raul watched as Yes Man rolled up to the main console in the penthouse. The machine typed in a few commands on the keyboard, accessing the transfer subroutines. There was a crackling as Yes Man's matrix was transferred to Mr House's Mainframe. The machine that once housed his matrix fall to the floor, now defunct, while the large screen flickered and his goofy smiling face appeared on the screen.
"Wow! Mr House controlled lots of things from here, this is just amazing!" Yes Man beamed.
"We've got a bit of work to do, so let's get to it." Ella said.
"Right!" Yes Man's monitor flickered slightly and then realigned itself.
"I'm off to the Boomers, Veronica, I need you to go to the Tops and speak with a guy named Swank. Cass, go to Gomorrah and speak with Cachino. Arcade, go see Julie, I want to get those backup plans we discussed in motion, I have a feeling we just might need a plan 'B'.
"Always handy to have a plan 'B'." Arcade said, as he moved to call the elevator. Ella and Boone watched their friends and cohorts leave.
"What about the White Glove Society?" Boone asked, turning to her.
"I kinda ruined some of their fancy dinner plans, I doubt they will come to the party, but I also don't think they'll try to crash it either." Ella moved to the back room where the bed was, she opened the duffle bag that Boone had placed in there for her. Inside was a new set of leather armour, which she quickly changed into.
The shoulder that bore her Tattoo was bare. She rummaged around in the dresser drawers and found a blue scarf. She wrapped it around her arm, hiding the tattoo. Boone watched impassively, hiding his anger at the treatment of the woman he loved by the Legion.
He reached out to her and caressed her face, she moved her hand up and held his hand against her cheek, she turned her head and kissed the rough callouses of his fingers, before closing her hand around his and standing up.
"We need to get to Nellis and get back soon, President Kimball will be at the dam in a few days, and we've got to prevent anything happening to him." Ella ran her hands through her hair and tied it up in a ponytail. Boone nodded and shouldered a small backpack and grabbed his ever-present sniper rifle. Ella checked her own favourite 10mm pistol before she replaced it in its holster, scratched, marked and weathered it had notched up quite a few kills, many against the Legion and the Fiends. Her Anti-material rifle was leaned up against the wall by the door. She arose and grabbed it as they headed for the elevator.
Alerio watched the whores of Gomorrah as they danced, trying to entice him into the den of depravity, this would be one of the first places that Caesar would clean up, and none too soon. These degenerates deserved to be upon a cross for their depravity and lack of morals. He noticed movement from the Lucky38, others too looked as Ella and her NCR dog left the 38's security and moved out towards the gate out of the strip. He waited a moment before he followed discreetly.
The dust swirled around their feet as they stepped almost in time with each other; it was not too far to Nellis Air Force Base where the Boomers had their home, Boone knew something was wrong, there was a small speck behind them in the distance, and it should have been left behind back at the Strip.
"We're being followed." Boone noted.
"Yes, I know, since we left the Lucky 38." Ella confirmed.
"Not a trader then?" Boone mused.
"Nope, my guess is it's one of Caesar's little birdies." Ella noted.
"Are we going to do anything about this?" he asked as they continued towards the broken but still standing freeway overpass that overlooked the road to Nellis.
"Nope, I have some friends who can take care of him for me." Ella said, smiling knowingly. "We have to pick up our pace though." She said, moving a little faster. They came within sight of Fields' Shack and Jimmy's Well, though why there was a well in the middle of nowhere with no water in it she had no idea.
They crested the rise where the battered and destroyed former US Air Force town had once stood, now reduced to rubble and structural timbers by the Boomer's artillery. Ella chanced a look behind her, she noticed the speck had become the shape of a man, and he was moving very quickly without running. She turned and signalled quickly, and without waiting for a response ventured down into the hot zone.
In the distance form Nellis, she heard the tell-tale Boom of a howitzer being fired.
"Ah shit!" Ella swore "Run!" she shouted, grabbing Boone's hand and coursing through the craters. The ground shook behind them and they felt a wave of heat wash over them, they stumbled and fell, Ella's heart rate jumped to overdrive as they scrambled to regain their feet. She didn't hear any more howitzers being fired; she looked to the Gates and saw Raquel signalling them the all clear.
Ella sighed with relief and got to her feet, helping Boone up. They moved quickly, she noticed he was limping a little; he'd twisted his ankle slightly in their fall. They made it to the gates.
"Friend of yours?" Raquel said, pointing to the hot zone where their pursuer was trying to hide out and be inconspicuous.
"Nope." Ella said, as she helped Boone through the gates.
Raquel turned and signalled to her firing teams. "Bogey in the hot zone, acquire target and Fire, Fire, Fire!" she called over the radio. The noise from the Howitzers was much louder here she watched as Raquel's teams blasted the area where Alerio was hiding. She saw him turn tail and run just moments before the first ordinance struck the ground.
"I don't know if he got out of there or not, but I don't think that savage will be coming back!" Raquel smiled. "Now what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" she smiled at Ella.
"I need to see Mother Pearl; there's been a change in plans." Ella explained. Raquel turned to the base that had been their home for a generation or more.
"She's in her Barracks, as usual." Raquel indicated the barracks behind the ruined control tower.
"Thanks, Raquel." Ella said, patting the Master-at-Arms on the shoulder in a friendly fashion as she moved past and towards the barracks.
Mother Pearl sat on her favourite couch, though it had become less comfy as the years wore on, but perhaps it was just her old bones that were wearing through. The Courier sat on the other couch opposite with a much more pleasant young man than she had brought before. This one was much more respectful in his body language and his tone when he had spoken to her. Everything about him said 'military' and Pearl could appreciate that.
"Mother Pearl, I have come to ask another favour, the man who came with me last time, well, I was not with him of my own free will. I had been captured by the soldiers of Caesar's Legion, and presented to Caesar for punishment for fighting against him and his cause. He wants to take over the Mojave, and possibly much more beyond." Ella explained.
"This much we know, Child, we may be isolated, but from what young Janet and you have told us, we were starting to question the wisdom in aiding such savages. We would keep them at bay with our artillery, no doubt about that, but we can't remain isolated forever. Eventually we will need to make trading agreements with others out there beyond Nellis." Pearl sighed.
"Ask, you know we owe you so much for helping us."
Ella pulled out a map of the dam from Boone's backpack and spread it across the coffee table.
"These are the areas where Caesar's men will be coming through, and just beyond where the map ends is his Legate's camp. His own personal camp we will have under control, I have a little surprise for him once things get started on the Dam." She said, indicating the areas where the men of Caesar's Legion were more likely to attack from.
"If you could get the bomber crew to attack here, here, and then here, that would be great." Ella had marked the map for Pearl to go over with the crew piloting the bomber.
Pearl nodded, "Very well. My Youngers would be more than happy to help, they're almost ready for their first test flight, or I should say they are ready, it's Jack and Loyal who are still not happy with the way this or that is working, those two are worse than an crotchety old grandmother with the Lady." Ella smiled at the old lady who sat before them.
"Well, we have to get going, lots to do, wars to plan, funerals to arrange for, vengeance to be had." Ella said as she stood up from the couch, Boone following suit. Pearl got up, her old joints complaining a little more than she would admit. She moved around the coffee table and embraced Ella.
"I much prefer this young man to that pompous little ass you brought here last time, he's a good catch." Pearl said smilingly to Ella as they broke their embrace.
Ella smiled and looked shyly at Boone, who was blushing. "So do I."
Alerio grimaced and hissed through his teeth as he patted the dirty cloth against the open wound on his leg, those damned Boomers would pay with their lives and freedom for their treachery, as would the Courier and her NCR lapdog. It would be a few days before he would be able to move from the Shack near the entry to the hot zone at Nellis, that is, if infection hadn't set in before then.