"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Corporal Betsy exclaimed, her eyes wide behind her sunglasses. The rest of First Recon stood silent but no less astonished as clouds of dust whipped about them from the twin rotors of the Vertibird that had just landed. Two NCR heavy troopers had climbed out, escorting a huge manacled prisoner between them. The prisoner was familiar to first Recon, even though their encounter at Indian Springs had been brief.
"This is what we're waiting for?" Betsy shouted as she turned to Sergeant Bitter-Root. The Sergeant scowled darkly as he strode past the corporal without speaking and approached the three figures walking toward them.
"W-W-What do you th-th-think's going on?" Ten of Spades asked Corporal Sterling as Bitter-Root saluted one of the armored soldiers before accepting a holotape. Sterling shrugged as he watched Bitter-Root activate the tape and read the contents with a scowl while the huge prisoner silently watched with her strange white eyes.
"Damned if I know." The old soldier finally said as Bitter-Root spoke and gestured angrily at the prisoner. "But it looks like we aren't going to like it."
Finally the Sergeant put his hand on the butt of his pistol and stepped back as one soldier unlocked the prisoner's manacles while two others unloaded several crates from the Vertibird. The prisoner rubbed her wrists and watched as the soldiers climbed back aboard the Vertibird as its rotors began to churn clouds of dust. Soon the aircraft lifted off and Bitter-Root turned to his squad.
"Secure the supplies people!"
"But Sergeant!" Betsy exclaimed in bewilderment. "What about...?" At a loss for words, the Corporal pointed her rifle at the former prisoner.
"We're ordered by the Colonel to escort...Valeria to Nellis." Bitter-Root replied with a scowl at the big woman.
"Did he say why?" Corporal Stirling asked as the old soldier slung his rifle. "After what the Legion did to it, that place is a radiated pit."
"No he didn't." Bitter-Root replied as he gestured to Betsy. "Corporal. A word..."
Betsy approached the sergeant and listened as he spoke to her too quietly for the others to hear as they began to open the crates and transfer supplies to their packs. Valeria ignored their suspicious looks as she watched Bitter-Root and corporal Betsy, without expression. Betsy nodded before turning to look at Valeria. The sniper scowled when she realized the big woman was watching them, but slung her rifle. Valeria turned toward the crates and strode forward to retrieve a massive steel hammer which she slung on her back. As she straightened, she saw Corporal Stirling and Ten-of-Spades watching her with suspicious scowls.
"For what it's worth." Valeria suddenly said. "I'm sorry for knocking you around at Indian Springs." She sighed heavily and looked away before adding. "Under the circumstances, I didn't think anyone was willing to hear an explanation."
Ten-of-Spades stared at her, his eyes confused behind his spectacles, and Stirling opened his mouth to reply when they were interrupted by Bitter-Root.
"I don't know how the hell you ended up on assignment from the Colonel..." The sergeant snapped. "... but our orders are to give any help you need and escort you to the edge of the hot zone."
"Understood." Valeria replied with a nod.
"All right people, move out!" Bitter-Root barked as he waved his arm forward. First recon fell into line with Corporal Betsy taking a place behind Valeria. As they marched toward a rugged stretch of low hills, Valeria looked over her shoulder at the scowling woman following her.
"I wasn't told much at Armagosa Springs." Valeria said. "What happened to Nellis?"
"Fucking Legion is what happened." Betsy growled. "Not long after Lanius' army crossed Hoover Dam, Inculta had the Boomer's stockpiles blown. They must have stashed nukes because the whole place is radioactive."
"That explains a few things." Valeria replied without elaborating as the wind began to blow clouds of sand around them.
"I heard the Colonel's in deep shit after a raid into Death Valley." Betsy finally said when she could contain her curiosity no longer. "Does that have anything to do with why he's sending a prisoner on a suicide mission?"
"I think it made him...receptive to my offer." Valeria replied as she remembered the Colonel's battered expressionless face as he listed to her from the other side of a table in a dim interrogation room.
"You...volunteered?" Betsy asked incredulously.
"I don't want anyone else to suffer or die at the hands of the Legion." Valeria replied without turning around. "No matter who wins this war, the people of the Mojave are going to pay the price."
"That's what you said to the Colonel?" Betsy said with a snort of disbelief.
"No." Valeria replied with a shake of her head. "Royez is only interested in the security of the NCR. I promised not to say anything about Death Valley, but I will say that what happened there made him aware of how vulnerable California is."
"You're not even a citizen of the NCR!" Betsy exclaimed. "Why would the Colonel trust you?"
"He doesn't." Valeria replied grimly. "But he has nothing to lose, and has...someone I care about in custody."
"What the hell does the Colonel think you can do against the Legion?"
"I can't tell you." Valeria replied simply. "At best its a long shot, but I think his time is running out and he's willing to take one last gamble."
Betsy stared at the huge woman striding silently before her before shaking her head and adjusting her rifle. So the freak had her marching orders. No problem, she thought with a grim smile, so did she.
The sun was getting hotter when Bitter-Root stopped at the top of a ridge overlooking the concrete sprawl of Nellis. The sergeant turned to face Valeria with a scowl and his arms crossed.
"This is as far as we go." He announced. "Our orders are to watch Legion activity and report, not to engage, so from here on your on your own."
"Thank you sergeant." Valeria said with a nod. Bitter-Root's scowled in surprise before producing a small amber bottle from his belt.
"You will need Rad-X down there." He said as he held out the bottle. "This is all we can give you."
"That's okay." Valeria said as she shook her head with a smile. "I can take a lot of radiation. I'll be fine."
"Okay." Bitter-Root replied with a shrug as he put the Rad-X back in his belt and gestured to his squad.
"Back to camp people!" He shouted as he began to lead First Recon back into the hills. Corporal Betsy was the last to leave as she silently watched Valeria.
"I know what your orders are." Valeria suddenly said to the Corporal as he tapped one of her ears with a long nail. "I have good ears, so you don't need to pretend you're leaving." Valeria smiled at Betsy's start of surprise as she turned and without a backward glance began to jog down the trail.
Betsy shot a glance after Bitter-Root, and then with a snarl unslung her rifle and crouched behind a boulder as she put Valeria's broad back in her scope. The mutant was making no effort to hide as she descended, and somehow Betsy knew that Valeria had no intention of going anywhere but into Nellis. The corporal sighed in disappointment and lowered her rifle. Her orders were to kill Valeria the second she tried to make a break for it, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. Betsy had no idea what Royez wanted Valeria to do in the ruined base, but grimly realized that her part was done and there was nothing to do but rejoin her squad and wait.
Once Valeria reached the bottom of the trail she began to run with the speed only she was capable of. She wasn't concerned about the sniper watching her from the ridge, if Betsy planned to kill her, she would have done it already. Valeria was resistant to radiation, but not immune and without the radiation monitor on her lost Pip-boy, she had no idea how much she was absorbing as she entered the eerily quiet ruin. Valeria finally stopped in the middle of a vast stretch of cratered runway and looked about at the ruined bunkers and hangers surrounding her. House told her that the bunker containing his army was under a weather station, but she had begun to realize how difficult it was going to be to find it in the ruined sprawl. The wind echoed and moaned about her as it blew through the gaping holes blasted through the shattered buildings. Not knowing where to start, and knowing her time was short Valeria decided her only course of action was to search for a building that wasn't destroyed. According to House, the bunker had been hardened to withstand an atomic strike, but where to start looking?
Then a sound made her whirl about and seize her hammer before freezing in astonishment. Rolling toward her across the tarmac was a lone Securitron, a cloud of dust billowing behind it as it hurtled toward her before skidding to a stop. The familiar image of a smiling cowboy appeared on the robot's screen as it's synthesized voice greeted her.
"Howdy pardner!" Victor said cheerfully. "I'd like to sit and jaw a spell, but Mr. House wants to see you pronto!"
"Isn't he at the Lucky 38?" Valeria asked in surprise as she slung her hammer.
"Yep, but he can talk to you at the bunker." Victor replied as it spun on its wheel. "Follow me and I'll get you there right quick!" Without waiting for a reply, Victor sped off in a spray of dust and gravel. With a surge of power from her long legs, Valeria sprinted after the robot as Victor led her to the packed dirt stretching from the runway to a chain link fence barely visible through the heat shimmers of the desert sun. Victor didn't stop or turn around until it came to a low concrete structure next to an array of fused and melted solar panels. At the robot's approach, a heavy steel door slid open with a clang revealing a dark chamber beyond.
"Jest put the chip in that there panel and head on down." Victor instructed as he backed away from the door. Valeria looked into the dim chamber and waited a second for her eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight. A heavy control panel was set in the wall next to an opening in the floor with a flight of stairs leading down. With a glance up at Victor, Valeria stepped past the Securitron and into the chamber beyond. As soon as she crossed the threshold, the door slid closed behind her with a clang leaving Valeria alone in darkness lit only by a flickering yellow glow from the stairway. House clearly didn't want her to leave, so Valeria stepped up to the control panel and pulled the platinum chip from her belt. Colonel Royez was obviously reluctant to return it to her, but his desire to save the NCR from invasion by the Legion finally overcame his reservations. She looked at the panel and saw a slot under a bank of dark lights that was clearly the size of the chip. Valeria put the platinum chip in the slot, then stood back as she remembered what had happened several days earlier.
Valeria's appearance created fear and suspicion wherever she went, but it did sometimes give her an advantage. While she was imprisoned at Armagosa Springs her guards assumed she was as stupid as most supermutants and spoke freely outside her cell. It had soon become clear that Colonel Royez's raid had put his career as well as his freedom in jeopardy. His political enemies smelled blood, and isolationist factions in the NCR wanted to put him on trial before news of what happened at the Sierra Madre created a public outcry. Valeria knew she had to act before the Colonel was arrested or relieved of command and began to demand to see him. She was still surprised when she was taken to an interrogation room where the Colonel waited for her alone.
Royez had said nothing, simply waiting with a scowl as she offered to take the chip to Nellis to activate House's army.
"Why?" Was Royez's reply.
"Because of what happened at the Sierra Madre." Valeria said quietly so that only the Colonel could hear her. "You were willing to put your command on the line to defend the NCR. Elijah showed you how vulnerable the NCR is to attack, and regardless of who wins the war, the Legion will still be a threat."
"Go on." Royez said as he crossed his arms.
"House may not be an ally." Valeria said quickly. "But he's no friend of the Legion either. If his army is at Nellis, then it's possible he could drive the Legion back across the Colorado and become a buffer between the NCR and the East."
Valeria sat and waited while the Colonel stared impassively at her.
"If I were to agree to this." He finally growled. "What assurance would I have you would do what you say?"
"Because you have my word." Valeria said simply. "And you have Veronica."
Suddenly there was a series of beeps and the lights on the panel suddenly began to flicker as the machine hummed to life. There was another click, and the platinum chip suddenly dropped from the slot into Valeria's quickly outstretched hand. Palming the chip, Valeria turned and began to descend the stairway into the corridor below. The walls and floor of the stairs were scored and blackened from repeated Legion attempts to gain entry to the steel doors at the bottom, still emblazoned with the numbers '38'. As Valeria approached the doors slid open and she stepped through into a steel lined chamber lit by fluorescent lights and dominated by a bank of monitors covering the opposite wall.
"Imagine my surprise when Victor picked you up on his scanner." Said House's sardonic voice as his image appeared on the main monitor. "After all this time I had come to believe my gamble had failed."
"I have the chip." Valeria declared as she stood in front of the Monitor. "What do I need to do with it?"
"Very simply I need you to put it in the slot on the panel below the central monitor."
"What will you do with your army once it's activated?" Valeria demanded.
"Isn't it obvious?" House snapped. "I intend to drive the Legion out of the Mojave and maintain New Vegas' independence from the NCR."
"You won't attack them?"
"Why?" House replied with the hint of a smile in his voice. "The NCR were my best customers before the Legion's victory, and I intend to restore that status quo as soon as possible."
"That's all I needed to know." Valeria said as she stepped forward and put the chip into the slot House had indicated. Valeria stepped back as a vibration began to shake the floor as a rhythmic pounding began to echo through the room.
"You have my thanks for this service." House said as Valeria looked about the room as the vibrations increased. "However it will take time for the upgrade to complete, time which I fear we are running out of."
"What do you mean?" Valeria asked with a frown.
"The barbarians are at the gate." House replied calmly. "New Vegas and the Mojave will be rebuilding for months if not years after this war. Vulpes Inculta showed admirable...enthusiasm defending my city, but his use of scorched earth has done as much damage as Lanius' pillaging. Currently the only thing keeping the Legion from storming the Strip is a motley group of tribals and militia holding the Old Mormon Fort. As soon as Lanius crushes that last holdout there will be nothing between him and the Strip but some casino security and what remains of my Securitrons. The Lucky 38 is a tough nut to crack, so it will still be standing when my army arrives."
"There's nothing you can do?"
"The Lucky 38's defenses were meant to stop a missile strike, not a ground assault." House replied. "I will survive which is what matters. This war is only a setback in my plans. I built New Vegas from the ashes of barbarism, and I will do so again."
"But what about the people trapped in the city?" Valeria demanded with a scowl of rage.
"If any are still alive when my army arrives, then naturally they will benefit." House said evenly. "But that is up to the Legion."
"No it's not!" Valeria snarled as she turned to the door.
"What do you intend to do?" House asked in an amused tone.
"If you won't act, then I will!" Valeria growled as she glared at the monitor.
"Open the door!"