Chapter 35 - Favors

Never would have I imagined that Hayes would work shoulder to shoulder with the medics, tending the wounded and carrying supplies over to where it was needed. Though I've got say, I do respect the man for what he is doing for his men and women.

When the lieutenant saw me, he nodded at me before dropping another bundle of supplies to the nearest medic and walking towards me.

"I've got to say, this might have been even bloodier if you and your group didn't take out those mortars. "

"Sorry, about those, if I knew that they were going to do so much damage to your troops, I would take them out earlier."

"That's the price we pay to win some battles, Dante. Every single one of my soldiers took an oath when they joined the armed forces. Despite everything, we are ready to die, after all, we are just means of ending a war."

I could only nod at him, not wanting to say the truth. Hayes might be trying to hide it, but it was as clear as the sky that the troopers are nothing more than meat sent to grind out the enemy forces for the top officers and general to take the honors of winning the battle, rather than having the brave soldiers earn those said honors.

"But you didn't to me to hear that. So what do I own the pleasure, Dante?"

"There are a few things that I might need your help with."

As soon as he heard my words, Hayes raise one eyebrow at me, seemly surprised to hear me asking for a favor from him out of all of the people. Then again other than the two majors and him, the only out that might outrank them was Meyer, but he was a special case amongst the rangers that despite his rather high rank, deprives the man of any benefit that might come with his rank due to some things the man did in the past.

"I need your help with the convicts that joined me. Most of them didn't fight the NCR at all or only stole from them and nothing more, at least compared to what Eddies' men did."

"What convicts? Didn't they all die?"

Hayes smiled at me when he said that before he quickly returned to his usual face.

"As for the other things, well Primm still needs a sheriff right?"

"Yeah, we did send someone there to act as a temporary sheriff, but let's face the truth, none of the soldiers are made for that job, at least not in the short term. Don't tell me you have found one?"

"There's someone that was a sheriff before he ended up in the NCRCF. His name is Meyers, and he would like to get back his old job. Of course, that would happen only if the NCR does allow him to legally become the sheriff of Primm."

"Considering the lack of people that are the sheriff and how stretched out our forces are, I don't think anyone would argue or even go against this decision. Without further ado, your man is from now onwards, the new sheriff of Primm. However, something's telling me that this isn't everything you wanted to ask, isn't it?"

"You really need a promotion, Hayes. At first, I wanted to ask you for the mortars, but knowing you guys, I doubt I would be able to get my hands on those three beauties."

"Just a few minutes before you came to meet me, one of Meyer's rangers chase away your men when they tried to get up there. Though I've got to say, you might be young, but until now, you did more good things for us than any other person did in their whole life. If we weren't in such a heated conflict with the legion, then I could have closed an eye when one of the mortars exploded, but now, I can't do it."

"A pity, thought if, by some luck in the future, you Lieutenant might get the chance to buy for the NCR some more mortars would you do it?"

"Are you kidding me, Dante? If I do manage to get my hands on a few more of those things then I might just get promoted to Captain, though I doubt I will find any more of those things any time soon."

After I was done talking to Hayes, I let the man return to his duties, while I went to check on my group. The first one I met was Meyers, who I informed of his new job. Frankly, the man seemed happy to return to his past love, though I had no idea how good of a man of the law he was, or if he would even be just.

Once Meyers left for Primm, I found Mike and the boys putting some guns and ammo away in some crates. Sadly for us, the troopers quickly went to loot the facility giving us little to no time to steal any valuables that Eddie might have in his safe, then again, we got quite a few guns and ammo to last us for a while. At the same time, one of the convicts found Eddie's secret weapon, the schematics for the mortars hidden in his vest.

Even though those things weren't precise at all, they were still a game changer in the right hands. However, it was strange because no matter how I look at it, Eddie shouldn't have had any way of getting his hands on this kind of military schematics, unless someone was behind him. That was the only explanation plausible for me since there was no way one of his loyal groups could have scavenged those schematics from god knows what hole.

By the time we left the NCRCF, the sun already set and the wild animals and mutated beasts went out to hunt. Thankfully other than a few coyotes, we didn't face any other foes along our way toward the emerging service station that Vito and I claimed for ourselves a few weeks ago. Surprisingly enough the south base that the powder gangers had transformed into an outpost had already fallen and the NCR took over it, making the whole area safer than ever, which was a good thing for the caravans.

While the station was quite small for all of us to live comfortably inside of it, I had a few ideas that might turn the whole place into a proper base of operation that would slowly take over the surroundings. Sadly that was more of a future me problem than anything else, especially now that I lack almost everything needed to even start raising a simple fence.

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