Snow had been listening to Mr New Vegas Radio, waiting a few hours for if he would say anything about the Equestrian strike against the Fiends, then it finally came on, "In other news, violent crime is on a shaep decline in western New Vegas, the report accredits the decline to the falling back of Fiends in the area to their Vault 3 stronghold. Our reporters talked to a Westside local to find out more" "Equestrians I tell you, Equestrians in military armor I've never seen before. They came back with 3 fiend heads on spikes, and I could clearly see that they were Violet, Driver Nelpi, and Cook Cook."
Damien headed down from the road that led to Nelson, upholstering his 45.auto pistol as he began to twirl it between his fingers. He moved around the camp silently as he found an opening for his assault, like he had done for so many years when he attacked Legionary camps in their own turf. Once he had found an opening, he ran towards the camp and lept down to the rocks then ran towards the opening before shooting the first two Legionaries he found directly between the eyes. The lack of experienced Legionaries proved to be the downfall of the entire camp, and Nelson fell to the Demon in less than a minute. Damien shot the Legionaries directly in vital spots, mostly around the head, torso or even the neck. Once Dead Sea appeared from his quarters surrounded by two other recruits, the last Legionaries had fallen. Dead Sea stopped with his two guards. "The "great" republic couldn't find enough soldiers to liberate this camp, so they sent you? Pathetic." Dead Sea spat out. Damien couldn't help but shoot his two guards directly in the head, spinning his pistol once before putting it away and taking out his machete. He wanted to feel the joy of taking this Legionaries life, something about him felt special. "At least you might actually be interesting to me, but your really just nothing special ." Damien replied, knowing the Legionaries name. "At least you can die special." Damien swiped both of Dead Seas hands clean off before the Decanus could take out his machette before thrusting his blade in the heart of the Legionary, killing him instantly. Damien looked around the camp of twenty dead Legionaries then headed to his secondary location after freeing the NCR soliders to inform Ranger Milo that the job was done, Techatticup mine. ----------------------------------------------- Talks with Mr.House went better than expected. Equestria was given the same status as Freeside had been given several years earlier, and House and the Families were now allied with the Equestrians directly. With northern Vegas now directly under Equestrian control, then were now completely independent from NCR control.
Snow sat at one of the gates, waiting for Orchid to come back, from what she understood, it took mere weeks for Mr House's securitrons to rebuild the Strip to its current galore, but they had to build entirely new buildings, that would mean it would take longer, but she was sure it would pay off if it worled.
Orchid eventually reappeared after a while, pleased about what has happened and how successful she was in her negotiations. She honestly expected half of them to refuse her offer, but all parties did accept, even Mr.House surprisingly. Once she got to the gate, she had quite the smile on her face. "I got all of them to accept. Gosh, even Mr.House. I found the whole 'man/machine' thing about him interesting to say the least, but he give's me the creeps a little bit. Anyway, Westside, Freeside and the Strip has accepted. All of Vegas is now unified as a single force, that should scare the hell out of the NCR and Legion."
Snow nodded, "Well, I wouldn't necessarily say "unified", but most certainly unified in case of attack." She noted before looking out to see Sercuritrons approaching with construction equipment, "Well that was fast. Guards, open the gates! Get the architects! Time to get busy!"
(Aight) Over the next month, the Equestrian controlled area was completely rebuilt with a wave of Securitrons and ponies working with them, also setting up a connection to the Strip and extending the Strip Wall to surround the Equestrian turf. However, they made it to where the Equestrian sector was a sort of "Strip Lite", you still needed the caps or passport to get into the original Strip, but the Equestrian side was cheaper, as long as you didn't mind the Equestrians running the show. In exchange, the Equestrians would hand over 25% of the profits to Mr House. By the end of the month, thee Equestrian Strip opened for business, with all sorts of new, fun casinos that in some cases were in line with the Ultra-Luxe in niceness. (Of course there was one that was essentially an Equestrian Gommorah, with Equestrian prostitutes to boot) At the center of it all was a fancy 50 story tower that was only shorter than the Lucky 38 in which virtually all the Equestrians lived if they didn't stay at a casino, with the first 2 floors a dedicated casino floor. Snow stood at the gates of the Equestrian Strip (officially called the North Strip), it was her job today to greet the first visitors that they knew where going to be attracted, especially since the jackpot at each of the casinos for today was a free Strip passport. She sighed as she looked at the shimmering North Strip, whose lights were just turned on for the first time, "It's showtime..." she muttered
Orchid stood alongside the gate proudly, dressed in a black business suit with a purple tie. Just as the first humans went through the gate, she greeted them with a warm hospitality that made the humans feel completely at home. From now on, there was going to be alot of business in Northern Vegas, and she was going to ensure that she tried her best to assist in any matters relating to the North Strip. ---------------------------------------- Damien appeared more formal than what he usually felt like. Dressed in a black tuxedo, his hair was gelled back to celebrate the formal occasion of the North Strip’s opening. Were it not for Damien’s style of clothing or lack of weaponry, he would have appeared exactly like a member of the pre-war Secret Service. Within the past month, the series of events has left Damien at quite an advantage over the Legion. Nelson was now completely lost to the Legion, with the NCR heavily fortifying the location to almost make it impossible for the Legion to retake, complete with heavy machine guns and dug in trenches that almost made Nelson resemble more of Forlorn Hope than a former ghost town. The nearby mine was cleared of Legion and was retaken by the NCR, but was not as fortified as Nelson was. Cottonwood Cove was completely wiped out however, after Damien shot the padlock with his hunting rifle that held dozens upon dozens of radioactive barrels that soon rendered the entire camp uninhabitable while killing all Legionaries there in seconds. With the Legion crippled, the attack on the Fort was not possible at the moment due to a lack of resources needed, alongside Damien needing to hit the fortress at the right moment to critically weaken the Legion. A week later, Damien returned to Cottonwood with a radiation suit and plenty of Rad-X to take anything of use, including ammo and Legionary plans. While he found nothing much, there was one thing that he was concerned about. Contained within the plans he had found was a terrorist attack on the North Strip on the day of it’s opening, involving the murders of as many authority figures as possible and a suicide bombing in one of the casinos. Damien had plenty of time to prepare for this planned attack, but still had to abide by the rules of the North Strip otherwise he would have been used as a scapegoat for the attacks, which left him with almost all his weaponry other than some he had concealed were gone. The former Ranger headed into the gate as he went past a light purple Unicorn mare who gave him a warm smile. “Welcome to the North Strip” Orchid said to Damien. “We hope you enjoy your stay” “Thank you, ma’am.” Damien responded kindly before making his way in. Once inside, he went straight to business.
Snow did as Orchid did, giving a welcome presence to the crowd coming in before sending them off to the second screening of guards to make absolutely sure no weapons made it through beyond brass knuckles. They even had an explosive detector spell going. They knew the opening would be potentially a major target for any seeking to destabilize the region and no doubt both the NCR and Legion had reason enough to make sure the opening was marred by catastrophe. After about 30 minutes of greeting, she and Orchind withdrew into the interior of the North Strip, handing off the greeting job to two other leaders, "Whelp, here it is." Snow said as they trotted along the freshly paved streets awash with light, "Quite the welcome change, don't you think, Orchid?"
“I’m loving it so far, glad to see things are working out for the better.” Orchid replied before ponies went past her. “I still feel abit nervous, but that’s just normal I guess.” Damien went around the Northern Strip, not wasting any time in his job. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people crammed into the strip, and finding only a few frumentarii out of this amount of people by himself would have been difficult. The only thing that passed as weaponry for him was brass knuckles, a switchblade and a silenced pistol hidden deep inside of his jacket. While it didn’t have as much stopping power as he would have wanted, it was still a quality weapon. Damien was fairly accustomed to keeping holdout weaponry, 25 years of raw infiltration and combat experience for the Rangers in impossible situations allowed him to stealthier than was is normally found in a Ranger, yet alone a normal human being. After 45 minutes of walking, he finally detected one of his targets. A slender frumentari dressed in a fancy brown suit with a scar just above his lip that was moving closer and closer towards two unicorn mares, one of them being white with a yellow mane while the other mare was the light purple mare with a navy blue mane that Damien had spoken to when he entered the Strip. From what he could tell almost instantly, the two mares were major targets. Damien followed the assassin quietly, watching him from view. Once the crowd had dispersed slightly and it was enough to make a clear shot, he took out a 10mm pistol and aimed it directly at the two mares, where a scream from another mare who acted as a witness was enough to alert Snow and Orchid. Just before he was about to take the shot, Damien moved close to him almost instantly and took him by the arm to aim the gun upwards, causing the assassin to miss. Not long later, Damien delivered a brutal elbow to the stomach that caused him to drop his weapon before he flipped the Frumentari by the same arm head over heels onto the ground, landing hard onto the pavement below spine first. Damien took the sidearm from the assassin and held him down with his shoes planted firmly on his chest while pointing the pistol at his head. “Who sent you! Why is the Legion attacking the Northern Strip.” Damien yelled while the assassin, who was completely immobilized, tried to fight back. Not long later, guards began to surround the assassin.
Snow turned around in surprise at the scream, witnessing the Fumentarii get taken down by a random citiEn with extreme skill, then she noticed the guards gathering around, "What the hell are you thinking?? Secure the area! I want a shoot first ask questions later policy in place, aim for the legs preferably! Anyone with a weapon drawn should be apprehended or put down and secure the Council!" She barled in order, to which the guards saluted before charging off, pushing past people and triple scanning people randomly.
The Frumentari had tried everything to escape from the boot of Damien, but it was unfortunately no good. He tried to laugh at Damien, who decided to take his pistol and shoot both of his kneecaps with the Frumentari’s own weapon to render him impossible to escape. Not long later, he took the knife from the assassins belt and kicked it away. Five seconds later, another assassin tried to attack Damien, Snow and Orchid, who were still nearby as the assassin shot wildly at the group. He was cut down fairly quickly when Damien, pistol still in hand, shot the secondary assassin in lower torso before running to take the knife he had kicked towards him before and threw it at his foe, hitting him directly in the crotch. Damien spun the gun around his fingers as a third assassin came from nowhere with brass knuckles, and shot him in the chest that immobilized him instantly and sent him crashing to the ground like a ton of bricks. He looked around while security done their job as civilians ran about in a panic. Damien turned around at one of the guards. “One of these Legionaries managed to get past with explosives. Check th-“ Damien was cut off when a particularly large Legionary came out of nowhere and ran as close as he could towards Damien before detonating his payload, killing anything within a 20 meter radius that involved a dozen civilians and two entire squads of guards. Damien, while outside of the blast radius, was sent sailing like a pinwheel before crashing through a building over fifty meters away from Snow and Orchid. The Legionaries were no longer going to accomplish their mission; they were just going for collateral damage now. Damien was barely awake, but still breathing as his tuxedo was torn to ribbons. He looked upwards to only see panicking ponies and humans before slipping away as the injuries he took got the better of him.
(Fast forward to Damiem waking up at a hospital of sorts with Snow and Orchid next to him to thank him? Also, the suicide bombing in that dense of a crowd would have only killed anyone in 5 meters at most, as strangely enough, suicide bombings before have been shown how the people immediately around the bomber sorta "absorb" the blast, making it progressively safer further and further out. But still, likely would hurt )
(Aight ^^) Snow trotted into the hospital room of the man who saved her and Orchid's life, and massively disrupted the Legion's plan to turn the opening into chaos. After the bombing, Snow had made sure to make a massive PR push to make sure that the blame didn't lay on security and the Equestrians, but the Legion, and that there was no reason to be deterred from coming to the North Strip, and it worked. The North Strip was already becoming a massively popular destination, reaching two thirds of the Strip's daily visitors number. After the bombing incident however, Mr House demanded a second wall be put in place around the North Strip as a buffer zone, creating almost a second Freeside, just far more locked down by security.
Damien’s injuries were non-life threatening, nor were they that serious. However, he had been in a coma for just over 24 hours and had relatively low burns across his body, he was still hurt regardless but he was treated well by the Equestrian doctors. He was awake, a small radio next to him playing ‘Wheel of Fortune’ by Kay Starr in which he felt was a perfect audio representation of New Vegas. Looking out of a window, the two mares he tried to save before trotted into the room. Even without speaking, he knew that the mares were going to express their thanks. (The song, which pretty much sums up New Vegas. Wish this was in the game...) [video]www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzjDJQrBusg[/video]
Snow nodded in greeting as the mam woke up, "Hello, we would just like to thank you for ending that plot against our opening and our lives in its tracts, only about 7 people total were killed thanks to you when it could have been much worse, and for that you have our gratitude, stranger. What's your name?"
“My name is Damien....” The ranger said, feeling slightly dizzy from the enormous amount of painkillers he had undergone. “Damien Winters. I’m not a hero if you want to label me as such, I’ve just done what I believed was right.” Orchid remained quiet until she spoke about the man. “You single handily defeated four Frumentari in combat like they were made of paper, not to mention you throwing the first Legionary with ease. How did you move like that?” “I was a former ranger....MOCKINGBIRD to be specific, a small squad of the finest Rangers that the NCR could get their hands on. “ Damien said before turning over slightly to reveal a black tattoo of a bird surrounded by a circle on his right hip, the tattoo that all MOCKINGBIRDS were given. “20 year veteran and survivor of all sorts of crazy s**t that would kill a normal Ranger multiple times, Ranger at 13. Was also a child solider trained by my father, who was a Legend in his own right. Thank you for visiting by the way” Damien replied.
