I established in a small campfire on Wolfhorn Ranch, it was getting too dark and I didn't want to be the victim of an ambush on that particular road between Nipton and this ranch. I wondered who created a ranch in the middle of nowhere like this, though. This ranch was the literal definition of someone who wanted to get as far as possible from civilization.

I picked up one single MRE that I found from the Legion encampment. It still begged a question on who was providing this MRE. I doubted that it was the NCR since it still bore the symbol of the old world flag albeit with an 'E' instead of the star.

It even said it out loud, "PROVIDED BY UNITES STATES GOVERNMENT"

So, at least, I could assume that this was either used by the United States Government before the war, or it was produced by the Enclave, which begged more questions, what the Enclave was doing in here? Weren't they gone after the Chosen One bombed their oil rigs?

Wait, Enclave? What? Were they even active in Mojave Wasteland? I meant, there were only remnants of them in here in the form of old people which I didn't remember the name alongside that one doctor from the Follower of The Apocalypse. Other than that, I didn't remember any trace of that old-world organization.

I looted this off the ground, though, not the body of the Legion, which meant that there were probably some prospectors looking at the sweet and juicy weapons that the Legion dropped and picked them up, which explained why I didn't find any 12.7 Submachine Gun in there nor finding any high-quality weapon in there.

[Packaged on 25-11-2272]

That was concerning, to say at least, no way the NCR made this, and no way that an ordinary organization used this. No doubt, this was made by the Enclave and the production facility must have been close to here. The question was, where?

Could it be that there was a hidden Enclave bunker in the middle of Mojave that I missed in the base game? Probably, I didn't give too much damn about it until now. Why? Enclave and technology usually went hand in hand. I opened the package with the knife that I kept in my Pip-Boy inventory, opening it with a chainsaw would probably break the whole content.

There was a bunch of packaging inside the MRE package, but it was dominated by the biggest package which was the spaghetti and meatballs themselves alongside a heating bag. It had more resemblance to modern military MRE, to be entirely honest.

There was also instruction on the heating bag.

Put the food packaging inside the heating bag

Make sure the heating element is inside the heating bag

Pour water until the line

Wait 3-10 minutes while folding the opening of the heating bag

Open the heating bag carefully and retrieve the inner package with caution

I followed the instructions and put the main meal into the heating bag. I put the heating bag on the ground while I sat down around the campfire that I created from scrap wood and dried plants around the ranch. While I waited, I was thinking.

Yeah, this was definitely the Enclave, the NCR is still stuck with a field kitchen instead of an MRE like this. To be honest, if this was distributed to the whole wasteland, like how America used to distribute the humanitarian packages to the middle-east, it would help a lot with the food issues.

I doubted that though, Enclave was known for seeing other wastelanders as mutants that deemed extermination. There was no interest in winning the hearts and minds of the wasteland as far as I knew, even though most of the previous conflicts that the US faced taught that doctrine to be a necessity. United States would always win the battle, but holding territory would be a different matter.

Then again, maybe power armors and advanced technologies might have their own edge in the grand scheme of things. So far, even during gameplay, power armor made the user impervious to damage, and more even so in Fallout 4 which turned the user of a power armor into a literal walking tank.

Some times later, the meal finished heating up and I took the hot meal from the heating bag. I tore open the thick green plastic packaging of the meal content, and oh boy. The smell was really authentic as if I was really eating from an authentic Italian restaurant. The smell of the fresh tomato and the smell of the meat entered my nostrils. I was salivating, so far, only that meal from Trudy rivaled this meal.

How should I eat this thing, though? There must have been something else I could get. I put my hand in the packaging, finding things like a cheese spread, snack bread, a pack of coffee, candy, and dried cranberries, alongside the accessory packaging. I saw a spork on the accessory packaging so I used that to eat the MRE.

The first bite was always the best bite, with all of the juicy sauces entering the saliva. If the Enclave feed their troops with this, no wonder they remained as a major power for quite a while remaining fanatical since their morale would be high for the most part.

I meant, who would ever think to find a spaghetti package in the middle of Mojave Wasteland? Not me, that was for sure. The best food that the NCR soldiers could get was instant noodles, they were fed with corns, whether boiled corns, fried corns, or potatoes. They were only given meat with little to no seasoning, and sometimes combined with intestines. Not really a good experience, to be honest. They were really scraping the barrel.

I finished the meal quickly and threw the unused packaging into the fire to burn it. I tried the snack bread with the cheese spread, it was rather average, but definitely was better than whatever old food that Lacey would sell to me.

I cleaned my hands with the provided towelette alongside cleaning my throat with Sunset Sarsaparilla that I put in my Pip-Boy. It was refreshing, to say at least. I lay down near the campfire while hugging my rifle to sleep.

Overall, it was a good dinner. If the Enclave existed, I might want to pay them a visit, but that would be wishful thinking. As long as they didn't open to the wasteland, their organization would crumble, just like how the Mojave Chapter in the future post Operation: Sunburst.