“Please, you got to help me.”

What a way to start the day with a cup of coffee and a woman begging me on my knee for some unknown reasons. Sure, I meant, I had built some kind of reputation in Primm, but was it that significant in any way necessary? I meant I was no better than a regular UPS service in comparison to the real world. 

Why would someone beg me for something? I had no idea whatsoever. Still, it was something that I wanted to know first before even accepting whatever I needed to be. This looked like an urgent situation, even at first glance. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked. 

“Legion. Those reds are kidnapping my children,” she said. 

“Legion? This far into the territory? Are you sure about that? How do you know that those people were the legion?” I asked. 

“They are wearing red sporting equipment. Please, you got to help me,” she said. 

“How many of them?” I asked. 

“They’re in an encampment south of here, please you have to help me,” she said. 

“How MANY of them?” I repeated the question to her since I needed the details. I was only alone with a fully-automatic assault rifle. Against legionnaires? I wouldn’t be able to hold my ground for too long. They might rely on melee weapons, but they were still capable combatants. 

“Four, there are only four of them,” she said. 

“Only four? Are you sure that there are only four of them?” I asked. 

“I’m sure of it,” she said. 

“Fine, let’s see. So, they’re camping in Ivanpah?” I asked. 

“Yes, yes, please help me,” she said. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said. 

I couldn’t promise anything. I wouldn’t be that crazy to kill those legionaries with only a service rifle. No matter how I saw this, the game event progressed quicker than expected. To think that they were able to cross the colorado river in this short amount of time was not thinkable. 

The Legion was a formidable fighting force against the NCR, giving them lots of trouble, which created another question. How the hell did they become a major threat for the NCR who owned Vertibirds, regular vehicles, and even armored vehicles? There might be something amiss here. 

I would need to know, sooner or later, or else, I would be dead in this stalemate between the Legion and NCR that would happen after the first battle of Hoover Dam if I didn’t find what the Legion had right now. Those legionaries might have something to counter all of the tanks and vehicles, perhaps, numbers.

I finished up my cup of coffee and asked the woman, “Say, what if I go to the outpost first to call for NCR backup? They’ll help, I think?”

“You think? No, the NCR only cared for themselves. Please, save my children,” she said. 

“Alright, alright, fine. I have no promise, though,” I said. 

“Thank you, thank you.”

Weird, there was no quest. Was the Pip-Boy malfunctioning? Whatever, I still got to kill some legionaries and it would gain me enough experience points for my trouble against those roman larpers. How skillful were they though?

At early levels, if you decided to blow up Vulpes with a grenade launcher or something, they became quite a threat, even their weakest weaponry would manage to kill unprepared couriers. Not to mention that their assassins would manage to kill anyone with anything sort of an assault carbine. 

Still, I had a full-auto NCR Service Rifle in my hands, that should be enough to deter the threats of razor blades that they used, right? I meant, the least that they used was a bloody machete or even a stick of dynamite. Hopefully, I didn’t have to encounter any crazy-equipped legion. 

Ivanpah dry lake was a desert, it wouldn’t take me too long to notice where those legionaries were going. Yesterday, there was no encampment while today, they might establish a basic place to sleep. They wouldn’t dare create large encampments in fear of NCR assault on their positions. 

And, as I initially thought, there were more than four of them. There were eight of them, and I could see them from this far in Ivanpah dry lake thanks to my sharp vision, or more like, thanks to how obvious their red color blended to the desert sand. 

It was hard to identify who was the leader of the encampment, mainly due to how they looked similar. Differentiating NCR ranger and NCR troopers were an easy task, the same couldn’t be said for differentiating between recruits, veteran, or straight-up decanus. They all wore the same red equipment. There was no centurion, so I wasn’t exactly a risk to piss Caesar too much.

The girls were tied down right next to their encampment. They weren’t wearing slaver collars yet, but they were gagged and tied. That woman wasn’t lying, her children were literally children of the age of 8 or even 10 at the oldest. Bloody Legion, they were worse than monsters. I wouldn’t even think of what they would do to the female child. 

Identifying the threats, I observed that most of them didn’t exactly bring guns to their battles, only machetes, but those who brought guns must be approached with extreme caution. Identifying the threat, I managed to group them into these people. 

►3x Machete-Holding Legionaries

►2x Throwing-Spear-Holding Legionaries

►2x Varmint Rifle equipped Legionaries

►1x 10 mm SMG equipped Legionaries

I took a deep breath and aimed my weapon at the person holding the 10 mm SMG. I aimed it right at its center mass since I doubted my aim would be perfect enough to hit the legionary on its head. I pulled the trigger. 

DRRTT!!!

Three bullets flew from the Service Rifle and hit the torso of the legionary, mortally wounding him, but not enough for killing him. I pulled the trigger once more to finish him off. The other legionaries immediately noticed me. 

“RETRIBUTION!”

All of the melee weapon users charged in my direction. I immediately focused my fire at those machete-wielding legionaries. I pressed the trigger one more time while pointing the iron sight right at their head. Two bullets flew and killed a legionary. 

“DEATH TO PROFLIGATES!” 

“Shut up, you’re being loud here!” I pulled the trigger one more time and three bullets flew to the torso of a recruit legionary, killing him and I pulled the trigger on another machete-wielding legionary, spending five bullets to kill him. 

Damn, should be more careful of my trigger finger. I pulled the trigger once more and killed a spear-throwing legionary. I jumped to the back to dodge one of the throwing spears. However, as I dodged, a bullet hit me right on my shoulder. The sting immediately set in. 

“Darn it!” The bullet hole on my left shoulder started to let out blood, but I was still alive. 

I pulled the empty magazine out of my Service Rifle and replaced it with a new one. I then focused my fire on the other legionary wielding a throwing spear. As far as I was concerned, one spear wouldn’t be enough to kill me, but it would deal quite a large amount of damage. 

“Die you! Bloody legionary!” I shouted as I pulled the trigger once more. One bullet flew and killed a legionary equipped with a varmint rifle. Thank God that they weren’t able to hit me that easily. I pulled the trigger once more and killed another legion, leaving the only legion standing as the one that held throwing spears. I finished him off by pulling my trigger once more. 

[+240 EXP]

[LEVEL UP!]

Energy Weapons: ◄31►

Guns: ◄50►

Explosives: ◄26►

Melee Weapons: ◄18►

Unarmed: ◄24►

Barter: ◄20►

Speech: ◄30►

Medicine: ◄50►

Lockpick: ◄26►

Repair: ◄30►

Science: ◄45►

Survival: ◄24►

Sneak: ◄20►

[16 Skill Points Available]

Hmm, where I should distribute these skill points? Should I distribute it in explosives? But I never ever used explosive weaponry, to be entirely honest. Should I just invest it in Guns more since it was apparent that I would take my time to use firearms more often? Yeah, I should probably do that. 

Energy Weapons: ◄31►

Guns: ◄66►

Explosives: ◄26►

Melee Weapons: ◄18►

Unarmed: ◄24►

Barter: ◄20►

Speech: ◄30►

Medicine: ◄50►

Lockpick: ◄26►

Repair: ◄30►

Science: ◄45►

Survival: ◄24►

Sneak: ◄20►

After distributing the skill points, I approached the children after the time resumed again from that prompt. Both of them were little adorable girls, probably kidnapped when the woman and the man were sleeping. I didn’t exactly know. Well, whatever. 

“You two, don’t worry, I come to save you both,” I said, trying to calm them both down as I untied them and took off the gag from their mouths. These legion bastards, why would they kidnap these little girls? It was simply out of my region of common sense.