Chapter 368 - Forethought

Elsewhere :

Major Joseph Polatli, commanding officer of Camp Forlorn Hope was currently caught between a rock and a hard place... The Legion had begun massing a great number of troops on the eastern side of the Hoover Dam, and he wasn't sure if they were going to outright invade it... Additionally, a large contingent of Legionary troops had completely breached through the outpost overlooking Nelson.​​

In a couple hours, the town of Novac would be under siege, and he had no idea whether the townsfolk would be able to evacuate fast enough. Evacuating wasn't really a thing in the Mojave, as if you left your settlement unprepared you'd be eaten by the numerous critters inhabiting the desert.

He had three choices from what he could see... Send troops to protect the dam, send troops to protect Novac, or split the troops to defend both. Obviously, he was leaning towards the latter, but his already standing orders made it clear that the Dam was the priority, so any troops sent elsewhere in a crisis might see him court marshalled.

He couldn't just leave Novac defenceless though, he had friends living there. Unfortunately for him, his conscience, and the people living in Novac, the General ordered troops to be pulled to the Dam to secure it, taking the choice from Joseph entirely.

It's only a day later that everyone recognised their error... The Legion troops that'd gathered near the Dam pulled back once it was night, revealing that the invasion was just a bluff. Joseph quickly realised that their main target was Novac, and while it wasn't really his fault, he couldn't lay blame on the Generals either as they didn't know, and the Dam was far too important to lose.

Sighing to himself, he'd send some men to pick up the pieces of Novac that the Legion would have left. By now they'd be carting their spoils and prisoners across the Colorado.

"Sir! The Legion forces have retreated back to Nelson! Their attack seems to have failed!"

"You what?" Joseph asks in disbelief.

"It's true! The men reported that someone triggered a huge explosion during the skirmish, causing the Legionaries to flee." they explain.

"How big are we talking?" Joseph asks, wondering how big it must have been to frighten men who literally ran at armed soldiers with machetes.

"We're talking almost 'Fiend' sized." the man states.

"A nuke?... Did 'they' have anything to do with it?"

The soldier nods, "Our surviving men report that some mercs caused it and are currently staying in Novac."

...

Joseph sighs, though this time it's not one of despair, but of exasperation. Since when did Mercs start literally turning the tide of battle and dropping nukes on their enemies? It was obvious who was currently in Novac, almost everyone in the Mojave had heard of them by now. A nameless group led by someone not even out of their teens that seems to solve every problem they come across.

"I think I'll be needing to send someone to thank them for their assistance... Rewarding folk like that'll only help us in the long run."

Elsewhere :

Vulpes Inculta was seething at the latest report he'd received. The three-pronged attack they'd schemed up had utterly failed, leaving him the laughing stock of Caesar's faction. Not to mention he knew who was responsible for it.

His wayward spy/mercenary, who seemed to think he was as stupid as the rest of the knife-wielding legionaries. He'd received word as soon as Parker returned from wherever he'd travelled to, and with a new arm no-less.

His subsequent actions had derailed months of planning and an easy path to victory. Unblocking a trade route and then arriving just as the NCR convoy did, where his sabotage attempt miraculously failed, with the NCR having no idea until days later.

Then afterwards the complete butchering of Legion soldiers near Cottonwood Cove and the failed assault on Novac. It wasn't hard to see the pattern. Where Parker and his band of misfits went, the Legion failed.

He'd hoped his threats of revealing his identity would be enough to properly 'encourage' him. But apparently not... New plans would need to be devised, for the NCR and for the mercenary.

Vulpes knew it was far too late to send an assassination squad to wipe Parker out. The man was simply too strong to deal with like that. And from his recent report, possessed some sort of energy weapon that could decimate whole armies.

So, if assassination and frontal assault wouldn't work, that just left sabotage and blackmail. Despite all his crimes against the Legion, he was still a valuable asset. Vulpes was hoping to get him to assassinate a couple more targets before dealing with Parker permanently.

If blackmail failed then he'd pit the NCR against him as well. He wanted to see that scum fight off two armies from two world powers.

Honestly, Vulpes didn't even want to assassinate Major Lowell Thompson Jr, no, instead it was just to get more blackmail on Parker to force him to deal with their true target.

The one Vulpes wanted dead before anything else was a man named Chief Hanlon. The man who foiled the Legions first attempt to capture the Hoover Dam. His tactics lead to the utter annihilation of Legion forces. The Legionaries had thought they'd won the battle once the NCR retreated from the Dam and tried to follow them, getting lead into Boulder City where the NCR started a chain reaction of explosives, killing the Legionaries and any chance of capturing the Dam.

Word is that the man didn't want to lead in battle again, but Vulpes wasn't willing to take that chance. Sure the man wouldn't be able to use the same strategy twice, but that didn't mean he lacked others.

The best-case scenario that Vulpes could see, was for one of the less competent Generals of the NCR to lead their troops, forcing a frontal confrontation and using their superior numbers to destroy them...

But, that's all in the future... For now, he needed to focus on the other more demanding threats.

"Mercenary, you will rue the day you crossed Caesars Legion. You will be treated like the last traitor, covered in oil and tossed down a canyon." he mutters to himself with a sadistic smile.