AN: Happy holidays and season's greetings! As you all open your presents I hope that you've taken time to check in on the story. (I'm sure I've made someone's Christmas. Lol) Enjoy.
The sun had long since set on the Mojave Wasteland. Three veteran rangers had travel for two whole days in hopes of at least picking up the trail of the Legion. 2nd Lieutenant Collins was nearly at the end of his rope when Major Wright gave the order to finally rest.
"Damn it, this is getting us nowhere." Wright cursed in frustration as his two comrades rested. For the past two days they have yet to come across a legion scouting party or even a legionnaire for that matter and what made things even more confusing is that they haven't found and 'victims' of the legion or even signs of one.
"No of this is making sense." Wright thought out loud.
"Well, maybe we're going about it all wrong." Collins suggested a bit tiredly. 1st Lieutenant Williams had kept quiet the entire time, in deep thought about the whole situation and decided it was time to let the others in on her train of thought.
"I've been thinking…" she started.
"Aww hell, I hate it when she begins a sentence like that." Collins moaned.
"What's wrong with me thinking?" she shot back defensively.
"I mean you always come up with these nightmarish conclusions, and they have a track record of coming true." Collins explained.
"Well I'm just putting what facts we gathered together." She retorted.
"Enough you two… I think it's time we address the Bighorn in the room." Wright suggested.
"I hate addressing the Bighorn. Can't we just let it be?" Collins muttered miserably even though he already knew they're going to do it even if he was against it.
"No, we can't… not anymore." Williams answered.
"Fine, I mind as well say what we all are thinking… How big would an attack force has to be to overrun the Mojave outpost?" He tossed into the open for discussion.
"Taking into consideration the fact that an entire battalion of NCR soldiers and a few squads of Desert Rangers were posted there awaiting redeployment." Wright added.
"That would make the Legate's forces really big." Williams muttered still partially in thought.
"Why do I get the feeling we only touched the tip of your enormous 'thought' iceberg." Collins sighed. For once Wright was beginning to believe Collins in his analysis of 1st lieutenant Williams and decided to simply open the flood gates.
"Alright Williams, lay it on us." He ordered.
There was a pause as 1st Lieutenant took a deep breath before beginning. "So let's go with the worst case scenario, that Legate Lanius has decided to switch from Caesar's tactic of guerrilla warfare to what he specializes in, which would be 'total' warfare."
"Care to elaborate?" Collins asked.
"I mean 'Total' as in throwing everything in your arsenal in order to achieve victory. From slaves and recruits to their best Centurions. I mean nothing is left off the table any and all strategies no matter how high the self-damaging the risk might be. All for the one simple goal of coming out on top." She explained.
"Hold on a second, for that to even remotely be possible. They would need a force nearly three times the size of those that were at the second battle of Hover damn, and if they did have the numbers, and that's a pretty damn big 'if' where could they all be? Scouts would've been picked up on those numbers." Collins countered reasoned but Williams was ready with an answer.
"True, but take into fact of the Courier's reports, he encountered a Legion camp several days ago and not soon after that the Nipton town hall was set ablaze, most likely in an attempt to remove the Courier from the equation and when we went to investigate we discover that the outpost was sacked. Now ask why would they hit the outpost? They've already proven to us that they can cross the river why hit an outpost and risk letting the enemy finding out." She proposed.
After a moment of silence Major Wright had the answer. "Shit, the traders." Williams solemnly shook her head in agreement. "Traders with weapons, armor, and supplies. 'Our' supplies. They cut us off, I think he's planning a siege." Williams concluded.
"A siege? Of New Vegas? That's…" Collins trailed off as the mere thought of the possibility was made clear.
"Entirely possible." Wright finished.
"We'd be wasting our time warning them, we'd just get caught in the Legate's trap." Williams added.
"Well shit, what do we do?" Collins asked.
"We adjust." Wright answered.
"And just how do we 'adjust' to this?" Collins inquired a bit frustrated.
"One step at a time. But first we have to figure out where he's hiding his forces." Wright said as he looked towards the city of New Vegas. The lights outshined even the brightest of stars in the night sky, hundreds of NCR soldiers and thousands of civilians partied on unknowing of the plans the Legion had in store for them.
"If they have the numbers there is one place to hide them, all the while keeping an eye on their target." Wright thought out loud.
"Red Cliff Canyon." Williams answered coming to the same conclusion.
"So we rally our forces and hit them before they hit us." Collins suggested.
"No good. They'll have elevation and defensive position advantage, we'd just be walking into a shooting gallery." Williams shot down.
"Then we're honestly fucked every way to Sunday." Collins spat.
"Not… entirely." Williams led on.
"1st Lieutenant Williams, if you have a way to un-fuck this situation I would very well like to hear it." Major Wright ordered.
"No one's going to like it, but it's the only way we might stand a chance… it involves the Courier." She added.
"Aww hell." Collins muttered.
"Williams…" Wright cautioned.
"We all know he has a contingency plan in case everything decides to go to shit for him." Williams began.
"…or if he just gets bored with the Mojave." Collins added.
"I'm just saying we inform him of what's coming and strongly suggest that he help us." Williams stated.
"You mean beg." Collins put it simply.
After another moment of silence pass by Major Wright sighed in resignation. "Williams this could go either horribly for the NCR or disastrous for all of the Mojave, knowing that are you still willing to take the risk?" he asked his 1st Lieutenant.
"…Yes." She answered.
AN: Alright hope you enjoyed this chapter. (Yes I know you wanted the reunion to happen this chapter and this is just a little bit of filler but it will be well worth it later on.)