My first stop was Nipton, that bustling little town filled with caravans, as usual. Thinking about it, it was a strategic point as far as I was concerned. It didn't have any NCR military presence whatsoever, and it didn't have any military personnel that came with NCR taxes. If you asked me, if I was a caravan owner, I'd choose this town. No tax and more varieties of stuff alongside traders were enough for me.

Still, I was only walking past that town. After passing a rail track on the edge of the town, I headed to a road located between two unclimbable cliffs. Well, unless I had a climbing kit, going to the top of the cliff would be suicide. Besides, there was a road between the two cliffs.

I looked at my Pip-Boy to observe the map. The way to Camp Searchlight was simply by going through that road, there was no other route. Even from mild observation, I could see that this road had many ambush points.

If the NCR was suicidal, they could take this road for delivering their logistics to Searchlight, but I doubted that it would be the case. The NCR might be a bureaucratic corrupt somehow working republic, but they weren't that stupid, I guessed?

Still, if they managed to secure this road, they would be able to go to Camp Searchlight faster and resupply the troops there for good. Eventually, I arrived at 90 degree turn in that road, there were many car wreckages, suggesting that there was no vehicle going past that road.

*BEEP *BEEP *BEEP

Proximity mine! I immediately dived into the ground before the mine managed to explode. I'd not dare to disarm it, it worked differently from the previous mine.

BOOM!

The mine exploded, and before I knew it, bullets started raining on top of my head. I immediately looked for cover to protect myself from that ambush. Where were the enemies? Don't tell me they were the jackals again. I hid behind one of the truck wreckages and looked at the hill above me.

"Jackals." They were shooting at me from the top of the cliff. From here, they were shooting at me with their submachine guns, which were inaccurate enough to shoot at me from that place. Thank God. If not, I'd be dead for now.

On the cliff in front of me, two jackals were shooting using a 9mm submachine gun and probably a 10mm submachine gun. In the middle of the hail of bullets, I carefully took aim and fired my shot. The bullet hit the Jackal gang member in the head and instantly killed him. I then fired another burst of bullets at the other Jackal, three bullets hit her in the torso, injuring her. I then fired another burst just to make sure that she was dead.

"Alright, one side completed, now to the other side." I headed into one of the corners of the trucks. I peeked from the corner, and bullets started raining at the place where I peeked from.

"Damn, how many people were there?" I asked myself as I checked how many rounds left were inside the magazine. Wiggling it around, there might be more than half of it left. I took aim carefully, but the hail of bullets made it too risky to do that.

Instead, I put my rifle out slowly, and just aimed it in their general direction as a form of suppressing fire. I pulled the trigger all at once and aimed at their general direction using my feeling. The Service Rifle emptied its magazine almost immediately and I had to reload.

I dumped the empty magazine into the inventory of my Pip-Boy and pulled out a fresh magazine. I put it into the magazine well of the rifle and released the bolt. The suppressing fire worked, I managed to take a peek and aimed carefully at the Jackals. I fired again in a burst. Four bullets hit the Jackal in the body, killing her immediately.

[+160 EXP]

No more bullets were flying in my direction. I'd say the threat was gone. I then noticed there was a bulge on my breastplate. Those Jackals must have managed to score a shot, but the armor managed to stop it. Well, thank you, Lacey, for the armor.

I continued the journey, the road ahead was straight up. Eventually, it leveled and I could see a highway from here. There was a farmstead on the left of me, but it looked unmaintained. I approached the farmstead.

[Location Discovered: Wolfhorn Ranch]

The farmstead was filled with wild plants, most of them were wild corns among other bushes. Nobody had occupied this place for a long time, I could see it. From here, I could several interesting places, mainly the high tower for solar energy production in Helios One and the dinosaur statue of Novac. There was also something interesting, a little town in the west, it must be Camp Searchlight. I only needed to follow the highway to the West.

I used the highway again and followed the road towards Camp Searchlight. Eventually, I arrived at the edge of the town. The entrance of the town was two barricades of sandbags with two NCR soldiers guarding the barricade.

"Civilian, this is a military installation, state your business," a soldier with a green beret greeted me.

"I'm from Mojave Outpost, I'm here to deliver medicinal supplies," I said as I got the box out of my Pip-Boy inventory.

"Oh. Grunts, let him through," he said.

The other soldiers put their weapons down and let me go past them. I approached the soldier that greeted me. He looked familiar, a black person with a mustache. Who this person reminded me of? Ah, yes, Astor.

"My name is Corporal Astor, I'm in charge of this checkpoint," he said.

"Lacey told me to give this supply to you, Astor," I said as I looked at the medicines.

He invited me to one of the tents that NCR established. I put the supply on the table. On that table, beside the box filled with medical supplies was a big radio, probably to radio the outpost, alongside with several maps that were folded.

"Thanks for the supply. The troops will really appreciate this. I'll tell a thing or two about our valiant hero, alright?" Astor suggested.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Don't go beyond this camp, by the way. Over there is Caesar's territory. I don't want any danger to harm you, understand?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Alright, thank you so much for the supply. You'll be welcomed here, but please, keep your hands away from the military equipment, ok?" Astor said.

"Righto."

[NCR: Accepted]