Chapter 25
The Courier looked at the devastation around him, damage to most buildings looked to have been inflicted by the citizens of Freeside in the chaos than from the actual bombings by the Legion.
'Just goes to show that man's greatest enemy is himself.' He mused to himself.
"Hey, don't avoid the question." Major Keiran demanded snapping the Courier back into focus.
"What were we talking about again?" the Courier asked already knowing the answer.
"Sigh, you're a real pain to deal with. I want confirmation as to whether this was a Legion attack or not?" she reiterated. The squad of soldiers were passing an old water tower as the Courier answered with a solid 'Maybe.'
"Squad, Holt!" the Major barked bringing the squad to a standstill.
"What the hell do you mean 'Maybe'?" she demanded.
"As in we're not up to our necks in Legionnaires yet 'Maybe' as in this wasn't so much as an 'Attack' but more of a 'signal'. "He clarified.
The Major pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Now you're just talking in circles." She sighed.
"Don't you think the timing and the placement of explosives were strange?" The Courier asked.
"Of course I think it's strange, but for all we know they could've just picked any target at random." The Major countered.
"The Legion doesn't pick targets at random, they're very critical in attention to detail. So to figure out what they're up to, you simply have to look at the details." The Courier led on as he pull the last cigarette out of its pack and placed it between his lips.
"Three explosive go off one after another during the afternoon. Targets were the Mick N' Ralphs near the south gate, The Atomic Wrangler, and an old robotics factory. Not exactly the targets I would pick but it did cause a mess." Kieran reasoned.
"It did create panic which distracted us from their true objective." The Courier led on.
"The only other purpose I can think of is to signal the Legion's army." Arcade guessed.
"Bingo." The Courier huffed blowing out a puff of smoke.
"Then why aren't they here?" Kieran asked.
"Oh I'm sure they're well on their way here, moving under the cover of night. If I were them I'd attack the Fort McCarren." The Courier mused.
"That would be pointless, they'd never get pass the gates." Kieran quickly shot down the notion.
"I wouldn't want to get in, just keep the soldiers inside there from coming out." He clarified.
"Which would leave the nearby farmers and the city of New Vegas nearly defenseless." Arcade concluded.
"From there I'd pay the Gun runners and the Crimson caravan a visit giving me all the supplies I need to fight off any reinforcement that may come from Hoover Dam." The Courier said taking in another drag from the cigarette.
"Well that's discouraging, anything we can do about it?" Kieran asked.
"There's not much we can do, other than to beat them to the punch first." The Courier answered.
"Well that settles it. I'll get work on building up our defenses." Kieran said as she started barking out orders before turning back to the Courier.
"I'm sure you can make the rest of the way back on your own." She told him as she left the two.
Back at the ruins of the Atomic Wrangler the Lone Wanderer was checking on Amata and the others.
"He should've been back by now, what's keeping him?" Cass wondered.
"He'll be back any minute, I'm sure of it." Amata comforted.
"Or he could be dead." The King chimed in. Amata gave him a cold stare.
"Or he could've just been delayed." He quickly recanted.
"Well whatever the reason he better get here soon. Veronica isn't going to last like this." The Lone Wanderer pointed out. He was right, the color was starting to drain from Veronica's face as beads of sweat started to build on her forehead.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Amata asked frustrated.
"Well you can let the doctor take a look at her." The Courier answered announcing his arrival.
"What the hell took you so long?" Cass yelled.
"The occasional angry mob, oh and some idiot blocked the gateway with a building." He informed her.
"Can we please get back to the woman who's impaled on a piece of rebar?" Amata told them.
"Oh my! Well this is going to be problematic." Arcade said to himself as he mulled over Veronica's condition.
"I didn't ask for the obvious Arcade I want her patched up. Now tell me is it possible or not?" The Courier demanded.
"I was talking about the power armor she is currently encased in. The problem is that we can't move her at least without causing her a great amount of pain and needless to say killing her." Arcade explained.
"So she's screwed, it that it doc?" Cass spat.
"Not exactly, It is possible but we'll going to need to move fast." Arcade said as he set his doctor bag down beside Veronica.
"What do we need to do?" The Lone Wanderer said.
"You and one other will need to pull her off that thing." Arcade told him as he started searching for the meds he needed.
"I'm getting a feeling that there's a catch." The Lone Wanderer sighed.
"Smart guy, the catch is she'll be on a cocktail of Med-X and Psycho." Arcade retorted as he began mixing the concoction.
"She'll be a rampaging bighorn! In power armor no less!" Cass pointed out.
"And you will need to make sure she doesn't do any more damage to herself." Arcade added.
"Damage herself? She's going to rip us a new one and then rip that new one another one." The Lone Wanderer pointed out.
"Well that's the risk we'll have to take." Arcade rebutted as he loaded the mixture into a syringe.
"This is going to suck." The Courier sighed grabbing Veronica's right arm.
"The things we do for friends." The Lone Wanderer sighed as he grabbed her left arm.
"Try to keep her focus." Arcade told Cass.
"I'll do what I can." She said trying to sound reassuring.
"W-What's going on?" Veronica said half conscious.
"Just know we're the ones trying to help you." The Courier pointed out as he signal Arcade to give her the needle.
Arcade quickly injected the needle into her neck and waited. A few seconds of intense silence ticked by before the Courier eyed Arcade suspiciously.
"Shouldn't she be a raging bull by n-" He didn't get to finish her sentence as Veronica's eyes popped open filled with rage.
"Pull, Now!" Arcade ordered. Both the Courier and the Lone Wanderer pulled with all their might but progress was slow.
"She should be off by now why isn't… oh my." Arcade could see what the problem was. The bit of concrete that was still attached to the rebar was also being lifted with Veronica.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" She bellowed.
"Helping…you." The Courier grunted still pulling.
Veronica felt a tiny bit of movement in her abdomen and looked at the piece of rebar sticking out of her.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING! GET IT OUT OF ME!" she yelled.
"We're working on that." The Lone Wanderer mumbled as he pulled.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" she said flinging him off sending him 3 feet back easily.
"Ok, that's scary." Amata noted.
"I'LL DO IT MY DAMN SELF!" Veronica yelled as she reached back with her now free hand and with a roar she pulled the rebar out of her torso.
"And that's terrifying." Amata added as she watched Veronica get to her feet. Veronica looked at the Courier with rage filled eyes. He had already let go of her but she hadn't let go of him.
"I believe this is the part where she rips you a new one." Arcade noted.
"Arcade!" the Courier yelled as he felt her grip tighted.
"Alright, Alright." Arcade relented as he pulled out a second syringe. Veronica felt a tiny prick in the back of her neck. The Courier could see the rage in her eyes subsiding and replacing it with a tired look and soon fell face down on the ground.
"What the hell did you give her now?" Cass asked a bit bewildered.
"A mixture of Fixer and Steady topped off with Addictol, but more importantly we need to get her out of this armor and somewhere where I can work on her." Arcade explained.
"I'm sure the King and his men will be happy to lend their services." The Courier said eyeing the King menacingly. The King got the gist of what the Courier meant and signaled his men to move to help. After removing her from her armor the Kings carefully carried her to the Kings School of Impersonations. Amata moved to go after her but the Courier stopped her.
"Let Cass look after her. We have more important things to do." He told her.
"It doesn't feel right just leaving them." She argued.
"They're depending on us to come through, we can't get side tracked now." The Lone Wanderer said handing her a laser rifle.
As much as she hated leaving she knew they were right and with a heavy heart she left unknowing if she'll ever see them again.
AN: Sorry for the long wait, I'll try to get these chapters out in a timelier manner.