(Wanna find a way to make our characters meet?) Jess rested underneath a billboard, next to a fireplace. It was a small camp where friendly travellers often meet and tell their tales of their adventures or hardships in the wastes. She went to sleep under the fireplace with the stars twinkling above her, it hasn't been this quiet for a long time.
(sure thing) Nathan collapsed at the campfire by the billboard, utterly exhausted, not noticing Jess sleeping off to the side, however he would have to notice in the morning..
Jess woke up from her rest to find another traveller next to her, fast asleep. She woke up some hours later and she kept to the shade of the billboard, making herself breakfast while keeping the noise to a minimum.
"Morning..." Jess spoke in a cheerful tone. "You've been out for a while. Just rest for a minute, get yourself woken up."
Nathan's head snapped to face the direction of the voice and in a flash was on his feet, his laser rifle pointed straight at Jess, "Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?"
"Nothing." Jess said simply, where she already had her sidearm, a highly detailed silver 45.auto, lowered right at the bottom of her lap while still positioned at Nathan's vitals, more notably his heart. She seemed very casual about everything that was happening ,as if she had seen it all before. "So...what brought you to my campsite?"
"This wasnt yiur campsite. I just found a clear spit last night and dealt with it. I had to bury a lot of bodies yesterday. Oh, by the way, your gun does you nothing when it's in your lap with someone holding their's pointing their gun at you, they'll be able to shoot you first." Nathan kept his gun trained on her, "...Nathan White, former 1st NCR SAP unit, master sergeant."
"Jessica Kennedy, was a Ranger a couple years back. Been retired for a while however. I'm not looking for a fight, you've already noticed that." Jessica said before looking at the man. "Call me Jess..."
(I'm gonna drop the thing with Sarah for Nathan) Nathan slowly lowered his laser rifle, "Sorry. I can't be too careful, no doubt the Khans would kill me the moment they saw me if one reconized me and well, I'm in NCR uniform within a few miles of the Colorado. I'm sure you can take it from there."
"Don't worry about it" Jess replied back. "Khans...I'm going to take it that you were at Bitter Springs? I was only in training then."
Nathan nodded, "1st SAP lead the charge as always when it comes to a major assault operation, you know, those guys who seemed like they might as well be Rangers at the front line? That's SAP." He sighed, "I know we didn't get it as bad as 1st Recon, but...well...When we went in, we were told to kill every Khan inside, since the brass thought it was purely a military base. I think you can get the gist from there." he sighed, shaking his head, "And now I got to go back to that cursed placed, because right now, the NCR's flanks are vulnerable, and from what I've understood, the new guys in charge of the Legion...Well...They aren't as obsessed with the final battle being entirely on the Dam as Caesar was. Look at what happened with Golf!" ********** Janius watched as the howitzer at the Fort was finally fixed, the trader had finally come across a replacement part, and even though he charged a lot for it, it was an insignificant amount to him and the Legion as it would encourage their taking of the Dam. At the same time, artillery pieces were being brought up so that they could instantly begin firing at the NCR positions (they had by stroke of luck found an armory in Arizona filled with artillery shells, likely on their way to China when the bombs fell, and most of them were anti-personel proximity shells, meaning they would explode over the heads of the NCR troopers and not damage the Dam itself but still wreak havoc amonst the NCR ranks. But first, they had to take out the massive AA cannon on the Dam. Then came the moment of truth as they lined up the trajectory and fired the first shot. The howitzer worked beautifully, but a few seconds later, the shell exploded against the side of the canyon behind the cannon and to the right, so they fixed the position and fired again with another explosive round, this time it worked perfectly. The cannon exploded into a massive number of pieces, the barrel landing on one unfortunate trooper and several rangers who were standing guard on the visitor center platform up to the cannon were wounded by shrapnel. All while having no clue where the fire was coming from. Then, the Legion began bombarding the Dam with the shrapnel rounds while Janius looked on, highly pleased, "When we take Vegas, we shall turn the Gun Runner factory into our first artillery manufactory..." he muttered. Artillery was truly an ultimate weapon in this day and age, the Boomers proved that. If the Legion could start making it and the rounds needed...
"Bitter Springs is the weakest link in the NCR's defenses. It's not exactly what anybody would call 'protected' since it's now a refugee camp with a miniscule amount of NCR military support, other then a Ranger camp some miles from Bitter Springs itself. A raiding party would cause plenty of trouble, but Bitter Springs won't last longer than a minute if the Legion attacked in force." Jess replied before sighing deeply. "And some people that I used to know in the NCR say that after Golf and that radio message, morale is at an all time low. The brass don't believe that it would be possible in their current position to fortify it." ------------------------ Cato and a meeting party of Legionaries stood at an intersection on Highway 93 about a couple of miles into Arizona. It was him and around twenty other Legionary officers and about a hundred Legionaries as bodyguards. The Legionary stood proudly as he spotted a vast sea of crimson heading towards his position, alongside a figure in gold brass armor that came towards his position. Legate Lanius and his forces had arrived, the next Caesar saluting Cato. Cato and his forces saluted back as they held their fists to their hearts. Lanius spoke first to Cato, the giant towering over the man by at least 2ft. "How goes the Mojave?" Lanius spoke, the deep voice of the giant sounding deeply charismatic. "The Legion has the upper-hand in a high majority of her tasks against the profligates of the NCR. Their finest troops, the Rangers, suffered a 95% casualty rate across their entire organization. Their base of operations has been burnt to the ground. Alongside this, the Profligate troops are under equipped and are also under trained. One Legionary reported that these soldiers get barely 2 weeks of training before they are sent to die here." Cato responded. "Do you know what has happened to our fallen Caesar?" Lanius nodded in response. "It is unfortunate, but he shall be remembered for all eternity in our Legion. We must move onwards to more pressing matters at hand, such as the taking of Hoover Dam and Vegas. You’ve done an excellent job Centurion Octavius.. I’m looking to not only take the Dam and pacify the Mojave, but reinforce her from any attacks from attacks from the Bear until we can take the land that is known as California in the future." "The Mojave has an enormous civilian population, most of these are not from the bear. The high majority of the local population is divided and are generally weak, plenty of them should make excellent slaves. We have a few rebel groups here and there, such as the area known as 'Freeside' having a gang known as The Kings. Pacification should take the remainder of the year after we take the Dam." Centurion Cato then began to walk alongside Lanius while the rest of the army marched towards the Fort. The two of them arrived at a separate fortification in Arizona not far from Hoover Dam, the Legate’s personal fort. Once the battle will occur, the NCR will find itself at a side of the Legion it has never seen before.
Nathan raised an eyebrow, "Don't they know Bitter Springs represents a way for the Legion to get to New Vegas extremely quickly?"he asked, "Well, we need to get there asap then."
"It's stupid, I know. But it seems the NCR brass is too stupid to realize this yet." Jess spoke sadly before standing up. "Alright, Let's get a move on." (Time-skip?)
Bitter Springs was understandably tense. It was only a few miles from total destruction, and with the sudden elimination of the Rangers as their protection alongside their very isolated location, almost all of the refugees had lost complete hope. Even plenty of the officers had all support and were on the verge of abandoning their post, issuing a full retreat or were going to simply kill themselves to save themselves from a fate worse than death. By the time that Nathan and Jess arrived, this negative atmosphere was immediately recognizable. It was almost as if the several hundred refuges there had lost all hope. Hope, where ever it was, was non-existent. Still, the NCR believed that they could hold the location from a Legionary attack. It was this arrogance that would soon lead to their downfall.
Nathan looked around the camp, trying to clesr the thoughts of the Bitter Springs Massacre from his head as they walked through the camp, "So...How do you think we could help here?" He asked
Jess shrugged her shoulders. "I think we might need to raise the spirits of everybody around the camp, the spirits of everybody here are broken. I don't know what we can do to improve defenses yet, but morale needs to be tackled
Nathan nodded, "Right. Lets go see the camp leader." He said, "They would probably know what exactly is needed."
