Chapter 4

Jessica crested a hillock near the charnel house in which the raiders had taken residence. Her Pipboy told her it was 5:30 in the morning, and the predawn light revealed a vast stretch of brown and grey wasteland to the east, with the outline of the occasional rusted water tower and tangle of dead trees, bent at a strange angles.

She wasn't used to rough terrain; Civilization in the New Vegas Free Economic Zone followed roads but here… here was wilderness and silence. Long stretches of space with nothing at all.

She started east, passing some electrical towers, and stepping carefully over fallen logs. A molerat waddled about nearby, digging holes in the ground and snuffling at the harsh grasses. It spared her a glance, but minded its own business, as did she. Jessica had always gotten along well with animals, and they seemed to generally leave her alone. They were almost cute when they weren't trying to kill anyone.

Further east she pass several grey, broken walls, barely chest high – denoting where buildings used to stand. She could see an old church, the roof of which had fallen in, and a set of railroad tracks, leading from a collapsed tunnel in the north into a ravine of some sort. An explosion and gunfire sounded in the distance, but she couldn't tell where it originated from, or what was going on, so she continued on her way.

Off in the far distance, an enormous bear-like creature with black skin and pale eyes was tromping around a copse of trees. The wind was constant, and as it blew dirt in her eyes, she could hear the Geiger counter on her pip boy sounding off. She came across a busted billboard – of which there were plenty in New Vegas – and an entire field of irradiated green muck puddles of a hue and viscosity she had never encountered before. She skirted carefully around the edge of the field, taking in the bombed out, empty homes which used to be a D.C. suburb.

She wondered as she walked where Cass and Arcade were, and whether or not they were okay. This place seemed inhospitable at best. Had they been taken? Had they left? Someone had gone through the vertibird crashsite for supplies. Jessica was fairly sure she was mistaken for dead, but Cass and Arcade wouldn't have made such an error. That meant they had either left in a hurry, or they had been taken captive by someone, somewhere. And she had led them here...

House's damned robot seemed far less important to Jessica than finding her friends and making sure they were okay.

Two hours of hiking had passed and she had not yet seen another living person. This was ridiculous! One couldn't walk anywhere in the Mojave without encountering something. She hadn't seen an area of the country this bad since the Sierra Madre.

…or the divide… she shut her eyes, trying not to think about Ulysses, and that giant wound he had devoted himself to guarding.

She was relieved when she heard human voices off to her right. Three armed men were climbing out of a nearby ravine she would have missed completely had she not heard them.

They were wearing black combat armour, and wielding combat shotguns and Chinese assault rifles. On their breastplates were white claw logos. Obviously part of some armed militia or mercenary group. Jessica slung her hunting rifle over her shoulder and approach with a smile.

"Morning, gentlemen!"

The head fighter, a weather-beaten man with a buzzcut and an assault rifle, spun around immediately, keeping his weapon raised as he assessed her. His eyes widened with shock as he took in her bright green eyes and easy-going smile.

The other two mercenaries – a pair of young men - took up station to either side of him. "Oh, what the shit?" "Who's the fuck is that?"

Why was everyone's language here so foul?

"Name and business." The leader ordered, keeping his gun trained on her. The other two were less cautious. One of them had lowered his weapon. The other was outwright ogling her.

"My name is Jessica. I'm just visiting from out of town." Jessica said lightly. "You?"

"We're with the Talon Company. What are you visiting?" the lead fighter asked.

"Megaton." She eyed them. "You wouldn't happen to be going that way, would you?"

"No." The man glanced at her pipboy. "Where'd you get that?"

"From a friend back west." Jessica glanced around. "What are you boys doing out here?"

"Searching for the Wanderer's stash!" the youngest man told her eagerly.

"Shut it, Spadge!" the leader barked. "We don't know who's side she's on."

"I try not to pick sides. Or fights, for that matter." She said pleasantly, "but I am a pretty good problem solver. I'll tell you what: let's make a deal."

"What kind of deal…?"

"I'll help you find this Wanderer guy's hideout, and in return you get me to Megaton."

The leader raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"I assure you, I can help." Jessica said confidently. "What do you know about his hideouts?" What have you got to lose?

"Uhh… we know he uses the radio towers somehow."

"We've been searching for like, days," said the youngest, "I'm Spadge, by the way!"

"Corporal Seamus." Said the third mercenary.

"Sergeant Booster." The leader shook her hand.

"A pleasure." Jessica smiled warmly at them.

Sergeant Booster pointed up at a nearby metal tower mounted with a satellite dish. "It's somewhere's around that thing. But we can't escort you anywhere."

"I have caps." Jessica offered.

All three men perked up. They were mercenaries, she decided; money didn't matter so much to soldiers. Talon Company Mercenaries.

"How much?" Sergeant Booster asked.

"Fifteen each?" Jessica said. She had not actually counted Lagbolt's stash, but she had cashed in enough chips at enough casinos to tell by weigh approximately how much the raider had: somewhere in the neighborhood of two-hundred. The trick to bartering: start low.

"One hundred each or no deal." Booster said.

Jessica smirked. "Twenty each."

The Sergeant shook his head. "Twenty? Are you kidding?"

"And I'll throw in a few… chems A few little goodies." Jessica rooted around in her pack and pulled out a Jet inhaler from Bloodbeard's collection. She noted the way Spadge's eyes widened.

"We ain't takin' that shit! Twenty caps? No way. C'mon boys. Let's get moving." Booster motioned up the hill to the radio tower.

Jessica addressed Spadge directly, noting the way his eyes followed the chems. "Hello, Spadge, is it? Your sergeant isn't interested. How about I just give you eighty caps and all the Jet I have, and you and I can go to Megaton together. Sounds good?"

"Hell Ma'am," Corporal Seamus said, "I'd escort you for ten more caps and no chems at all… you can sell them to the doc at Megaton for good money."

Spadge grinned and opened his mouth, reaching for the chem, but Booster cut him off, "whoa, now… don't be hasty. We can… all three of us… profit from this."

"All four of us," Jessica corrected genially, "I know I'd feel much safer with all three of you and your guns around me. This Wasteland is a dangerous place…"

"That it is." Booster agreed.

"Ninety for all of us." Seamus said.

"And the Chems." Spadge added.

"And you help us find the Wanderer's stash." Booster said.

Jessica grinned. "Lovely."

Even if the Sergeant broke the terms, she knew Spadge and Seamus would happily take all the money for themselves. She gestured towards the radio tower and let them lead her onwards.

Jessica stood on the road in the middle of the bombed out town. She planted her chin in her hand and stared up at the radio tower. "So it's near the tower?"

"Rumor has it. I wouldn't bother searching there though." Seamus said.

"We spent a whole day." Booster told her, "Already searched it. And circled the thing three times looking for a cave or something. It's gotta be in the town."

Jessica shut her eyes and sighed. "So… no."

"We're pretty sure." Spadge said.

"Kind sure." Seamus said.

"It's just supposed to be around the radio tower somewhere's. We've already searched in the buildings…" Booster said.

She kept her eyes closed and frowned. "Tell me about him."

"Who? The Wanderer?"

"Yeah. What does he look like?"

"What difference does that make?" Seamus asked.

"You can tell a lot about a person from how they look." Jessica said sagely, her eyes still closed, "Just… indulge me."

"Alright, here," Booster said, handed her a paper contract.

Boys and girls, we got ourselves The Lone Wanderer to put down. Here are the details:

Name: Jason Howlett

Race: Caucasian

Sex: Male

The bounty is $5,000 caps this time around, and for a change of pace, the Vox wants the freak's head.

"Not much in here." Jessica murmured, reading through the letter twice to absorb the information.

"I wish you'd tear that up, Sarge." Seamus said, frowning.

"Five thousand caps, though." Spadge said fervently, "can you imagine having five thousand caps?"

"I uh… I really couldn't say." Jessica laughed out of disbelief, wondering how poor the average wastelander was; she herself bet twice that on blackjack at the casinos on slow Tuesdays.

"He wears a brown duster and a red bandana." Seamus said. "Tall. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A bit like captain cosmos."

"Sounds like a bit of a dreamboat, actually." Jessica joked smoothly.

"Can't say I noticed." Booster responded gruffly.

"I got a girlfriend. I wouldn't know." Said Spadge.

Seamus' cheeks were tinged slightly pink. "He kinda is…"

"Anything else I should know?"

"He's really good at killin things." Booster said.

"Well in that case I'm relieved to have you with me." Jessica told him. All the mercs stood up a little straighter and puffed their chests out.

"He's got a pipboy," Seamus added, "Like yours."

"Yeah. On account of him growing up in a vault." Said Spadge.

Jessica's eyes snapped open and she whirled around, grinning. "That might just be the hint I needed, boys!"

They stared blankly.

"Pipboy. Radio tower. Pipboys pick up radio signals…" she explained.

Sergeant Booster blinked. "I didn't know they could do that."

But Jessica was already marching over to the tower. She entered through the gate. "Plant a radio transmitter in your hideout, bounce it off the tower-" she went immediately to the tower generator and flipped the massive lever up to turn it on, "and pick it up on your pipboy."

She immediately tuned her pipboy radio as the mercs gathered around her. Very shortly a series of pips began to bleed through the static. Jessica kept tuning until it was as clear as she could make it, and then began to wander in slow circles, listening to the sound fade and grow. Not too far away from the tower, she stopped in the middle of the road, smiling down at a sewer grate.

The mercs stared in amazement.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" Spadge exclaimed.

"C'mon. Let's lift it!" Booster ordered.

Jessica stepped to the side and watched the mercenaries pry the lid up. Booster scanned the area below with his assault rifle.

They climbed down the ladder one by one, guns at the ready. What lay below was nothing but an empty sewer line. Jessica had seen some like it in Freeside. She grimaced as she moved forward into the darkness.

"Sarge, I just thought of something…" Spadge said.

"What?"

"What if he's here?"

Booster's teeth clenched. The mercs peered fearfully into the darkness, searching it for any signs of movement.

Jessica frowned. "There are three of you. heavily armed. He's just one man…"

"It ain't that simple." Booster hissed.

"I ain't fightin' him." Seamus said.

"No one's seen'im in ages anyway."

"If he was here, he probably would have heard us climbing down anyway." Jessica reminded them. All three mercs relaxed considerably.

"What did he do, exactly?" Jessica asked, "Why are you so worked up about this guy?"

"Nothing." Seamus said bitterly.

"Not true." Booster responded. "We was allies during the war, but-"

"The war?"

The mercs stared at her.

"God…" said Spadge, "You are from out of town…"

"The mutant war," Booster explained, "about a year ago, an army of supermutants tried to take the wasteland. We beat them. Barely."

"An army? How big?" Jessica was thinking of Jacobstown.

"Hundreds of supermutants. Maybe thousands. It was rough. But Jackrum – he pulled us through."

"And the Wanderer helped," added Seamus.

Booster rolled his eyes.

Jessica turned to the Corporal and smiled, giving him her full attention.

"He's been helping for a long time." Seamus explained. "Wandering around. Doing good deeds. He disarmed the bomb in megaton, rescued people from the supermutants. He's a hero."

"Killing Mercenaries." Booster shot back. "He's not a hero, he's a freak, Seamus. They say he can survive getting shot in the head. He's got mutie blood in'em."

"He saved people too. And we weren't so good either, Sarge." Seamus shot back.

"At least we're human, kid. But these freaks – these ghouls and supermutants and the wanderer… they're not like us. They're dangerous. They kill people, and they use up stimpacks and clean water and radaway and ammo… they drain us dry and give nuthin' back. The Vox is right: the Wasteland was for Humanity, and we gotta make the Wasteland ours again. Humanity first!"

Seamus shook his head.

"I've known a few good ghouls in my time." Jessica said, thinking of Raul.

"Me too. Me too." Booster said. "Some of my best friends are ghouls, and I ain't got nothing against'em. But the Leader is right: they're them and we're us. If it comes down to them versus us, just sayin: I know where I stand."

"Who is the Leader?"

"He's from out west somewhere." Booster supplied. "Came into the wasteland to help us."

"Fucked everything up." Seamus replied bitterly.

"Swear to god, kid, Imma blow your fucking head off one of these days. You want to marry a ghoul?"

"No Sarge."

"Didn't think so. You know why?"

"Cos they're butt ugly!" Spadge giggled.

"Cos they ain't us." Booster leaned out and jabbed Seamus in the chest, "and deep down, you know that."

His subordinates didn't bother to argue with him. They just rolled their eyes.

At the end of the tunnel they found a fair-sized square room, one half of which was stocked with rickety shelves.

The mercs breached first in a relatively professional manner, with Jessica following behind. She immediately spotted a small switch on the wall near Spadge's head, but held her tongue. All three mercs passed it by, missing it completely.

"Wow…" Said Seamus with a sense awe, "We're actually inside one of his stashes…"

Booster kicked an empty tin can over. "There's nothing here."

He was right; the shelves were barren. A few empty crates. One or two cans of food, and a dirty mattress on the floor.

"Well… all of this was rather anticlimactic." Jessica said.

"You can say that again," Seamus agreed.

"Actually yeah. Say it again please," Spadge said, "Aunty-clamato what now?"

"She said it was boring." Booster explained, rummaging through a few empty crates.

"At least we got it mapped out like the Commander ordered."

"Jackrum can kiss my ass. He knew nothin'd be here. He doesn't want the Wanderer caught and we all know it."

"Well…" said Jessica stretching slightly, glancing at the switch which all three mercs had missed, "If that's all…" We'd better get moving if you want your money.

"Yeah…" Booster rose to his feet. "Let's get you to Megaton. Move out."

"I'll meet you up top in a few seconds." The Courier promised. She waiting patiently until all three mercs were out of the sewer system, and then pressed the switch.

Behind her, a smooth section of flooring lifted quietly on well-oiled hinges to reveal a second staircase. Her respect for this Jason Howlett increased immeasurably. She was certain she had heard his name before somewhere back west, but she couldn't remember where.

At the bottom of the staircase was yet another room, very small but packed with shelves full of weapons. Assault rifles, energy weapons, stimpacks, drugs and medication of all kinds, and a box full of bottlecaps. There was an entire shelf full of hunting rifle, assault rifle, and shotgun ammunition, as well as a kit for equipment and clothing repairs.

Jessica quickly slipped more Jet and stimpacks into her pack, along with a considerable amount of the bottlecaps. She grabbed two extra barrel-style magazines for her combat shotgun. Then she went back up the stairs, closed the stash entrance and proceeded back out the sewer to the surface.

"Find anything?" booster asked suspiciously.

"I wish."

"Supplies are hard to come by" Spadge agreed.

"Let's get moving." Jessica suggested, hefting her considerably heavier pack over her shoulder, "And you can tell me all about the Wasteland, and this supermutant war."

Jessica had thought that the Mojave was in bad shape… but it wasn't. New Vegas was a post-post-apocalyptic world, with nations and factions on all sides competing for a wealth of technology, riches, and resources, but the Wasteland was different. The nuclear apocalypse hung heavy over the place. It was present in the constant radiation which kept her Geiger counter ticking continuously. It was present in the deranged groups of raiders, the feral ghouls and bloodthirsty supermutants.

Gangs roamed the highways and less reputable parts of Vegas, it was true, but here in the Wasteland, every single raider possessed the ferocity and savagery of the Fiends. There were supermutants in the wasteland, but they weren't the savage brutes which the Mercs spoke of – they were intelligent, and kept themselves confined to a few small areas. Rarely seen and rarely heard.

As for the wildlife, deathclaws, yao guai, and all manner of giant insects roamed freely around the world. In the Mojave, Cazadores were a pain in the ass – probably the worst thing in the mojave, but kept themselves to hill country and certain mountain passes. There were radscorpions too in certain areas and both could be avoided by a smart traveler who knew the roads. But here they were everywhere, and everything was bigger and meaner.

The Capital Wasteland was a wilderness every bit as savage, brutal and merciless as the worst Jessica had ever seen. It was a miracle humanity had managed to even survive under such harsh conditions.

According to Booster, the arrival of the Brotherhood of Steel had made things moderately easier. They had kept the supermutants by and large contained within the ruins of the city, allowing the settlements outside the breathing room they so desperately needed. There had even been an attempt to build a massive water filtration system powerful enough to supply the entire wasteland with clean, pure water. But it had all fallen apart…

Until the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101 had arrived on the scene.

The Mercs had differing views. To Seamus, the story was inspirational. Some twenty years after the failure of the purifier project, the Wanderer had walked out of a vault near Megaton, and set about fixing every problem in the wasteland, helping everyone everywhere he could.

Booster, unsurprisingly, had a less rosy view of the man: "He's a thug. Good fer nothing but killin' things."

"It's about killing the right things, though." Seamus said earnestly. "He's a hero."

"He crucifies people."

"Excuse me?" Jessica stopped in her track and whirled around to look at them

"Only Enclave. And sometimes raiders." Seamus said.

"As if that makes a difference?" Jessica demanded furiously, "There are worse things than the Enclave, Corporal! Far worse!"

"Well I mean… I know… It's a brutal world, Ma'am…" Seamus shrugged, taken aback.

"You can't build a civilized world on that kind of brutality!" Jessica turned away, breathing heavily and glaring into the distance, remembering the horrors of Nipton. She had agreed to Vulpes Inculta's request to spread news of the atrocity, and after the Legionaries march off, she had moved from cross to cross, putting each suffering individual out of their misery.

"That's what I keep saying!" Booster told them cheerfully. "That's what the Vox Populi is all about!"

Jessica's eyes narrowed. "Vox Populi?"

"Yeah. Dunno what it means."

Spadge, who had climbed to a nearby hill, waved at them. "Guys, we're here!"

Intrigued, Jessica joined him at the top of the hill. Beyond them was an enormous sturdy circular wall, cobbled together from scavenged metal. The trio had been escorting Jessica for the entire afternoon, and evening was falling. The traveler's long shadows stretched far ahead of them, and lights from beyond the wall were bright against the darkening sky beyond.

"There it is: Megaton," Sergeant Booster said, "Second biggest city in the Wastes."

Over the wall, Jessica could see ramshackle roofs and sections of airplanes. A banner was waving from a flagpole on one of the tallest roofs. She felt a cold dread seep into her heart as she watched it flap in the breeze: a white Deathclaw head on a black background.

On the dusty plain below, a six soldiers were approaching. That cold feeling in Jessica's gut only increased as she took in their armour- made from repurposed football gear. Their weapons were cleavers and hunting rifles. One of them wore the feathered helmet of a Decanus.

"Oh shit… it's the Vox." Seamus said.

"Vox Populi is Latin, Corporal." Jessica said hollowly as she watched the soldiers approach. "It means The Voice of the People."

House and the NCR were wrong. They had been in such a rush to retrieve Liberty Prime from the Capital Wasteland before it was swallowed by the Legion's expansion, but their intelligence had been faulty. No wonder the Legion was pushing west so hard. There was nowhere East left to conquer: Caesar's Legion was already here.

Here's another update. Merry Christmas everyone.

After the disaster of Mutatis Mutandis taking so damned long, I'm determined not to let my Fallout stories sit idle. I want to finish this series, so I'm going to update as often as possible, and the juices are flowing!

I know you're all impatient for us to see the Lone Wanderer again, but please, give me a chance to develop the world, and Jessica, as she's integral to the plot of this new series. There's so much to explore! I think it's been over ten years since I started writing Modus Operandi. This new series is almost a soft reboot in a way. Different villains, different plot, different game.

The last trilogy was Fallout 3 – this new one is primarily Fallout New Vegas.

I want to see Jason at the Hoover Dam and Camp Forlorn Hope. I want him to see the Sierra Madre and Zion Canyon too, but I have to do the legwork to get him there. All I ask is patience. :)