Now it’s time to return to Camp Forlorn Hope or Nelson and move onto the two opposing quests between the NCR and Caesar’s Legion there; Restoring Hope and We are Legion, respectively. You cannot complete both quests, so if you want to side with the NCR, read the text under the headings “Restoring Hope” , “Back in Your Own Backyard” and “Reclaiming Nelson” . Otherwise, if you want to side with Caesar’s Legion read the text under the heading “We are Legion” . Some Infamy is likely, if not mandatory for either quest, so be prepared for that. Either way, once you’re done check out “Looting Nelson” for a brief discussion of the goodies that await you when you’re done.

Restoring Hope¶

Return to the Camp Forlorn Hope Command Center and talk to Major Polatli and ask what you can do to help and he’ll direct you to lend aid to the various officers around camp to more of their resources can be focused on the Legion.

First stop, return to Quartermaster Mayes and ask how you can be of service and he’ll tel you about a squad of soldiers he sent out to secure supplies… soldiers that never returned. Fast-travel to HELIOS One and talk to Lt. Haggery, who will tell you that she saw the squad and sent them back with the supplies they asked for. She also happened to put a GPS marker on the supply crate, which should lead you to them, or the crate, at least.

Head east from HELIOS One, cross the highway, and continue east into the hills, killing whatever beasties (probably Fire Geckos) get in your way. Follow the map marker to the objective to find the patrol. Note that none of them has their weapons near them, suggesting that wild animals weren’t responsible. Also be sure to search them, as one has the Forlorn Hope Letter 1 on them and another has the Forlorn Hope Letter 8. Investigate the Camp Forlorn Hope Supply Crate and pick up the Camp Forlorn Hope Supply Shipment from inside. Once you loot the crate you’ll be attacked by three Recruit Legionaries, although if you have a very good Sneak score and were hidden before looting the crate, you can evade them. If you become [HIDDEN] they should turn neutral again, unless your reputation with the Legion is too low. You can then either ignore them and return to Camp Forlorn Hope or stealthily kill them; sneak kills don’t result in any Infamy, after all.

Evade the Legionaries if possible (or at least avoid killing them openly to prevent any unseemly Infamy) then return to Quartermaster Mayes and give him the supplies. Once done, report back in to Major Polatli and he’ll send you on your next task; to help Dr. Richards fix up the injured troops in the Medical Center.

This part of the quest will require a few Medicine checks, so boost your score with a Today’s Physician magazine if your skill is low. A Medicine skill of 75 should get you through all the checks, but you can substitute skill with chems and components, if necessary. Specifically you’ll need three doses of Med-X, a Super Stimpak, some Tweezers, a Medical Brace, some Whiskey, a Bonesaw and some Surgical Tubing. Anywho, talk to Dr. Richards and pass a [Medicine 20] check to prove basic competence, then examine the soldier to the west and pass a [Medicine 35] check or provide the proper materials, then turn around and treat the closest soldier with a [Medicine 50] check, while the further soldier requires a [Medicine 75] check. Once done, talk to Dr. Richards, where you’ll receive some well-earned praise.

Tell Major Polatli the news and the last task will be handing down to you; assist in the reclamation of Nelson. He’ll direct you to meet with one Sergeant Cooper, to the south, but there’s a better way to handle this quest, and complete another quest at the same time.

Back In Your Own Backyard¶

If you want to make progress towards getting Boone’s quest I Forgot to Remember to Forget , bring him along now. It’s his favorite activity! Killing Legion scum. Whether you got Boone or not, Novac’s not a bad place to be… or at least the Toxic Waste Dump. Fast-travel from there and follow the nearby road to the east to reach the outskirts of Nelson, where Ranger Milo and some green NCR Troopers are keeping a watch on Nelson. Get some details from Ranger Milo by identifying yourself and passing a [Speech 35] check (if you pick the non-Speech option he’ll send you packing, and if you talk to him about it again, you’ll need a to succeed at a [Speech 45] check.)

Seems like the Legion has some Troopers crucified down in Nelson. Not only is this demoralizing to the other Troopers, but the the crucified soldiers are effectively hostages… albeit ones dying a slow, public death. Ranger Milo is pragmatic; they can’t be saved, shouldn’t be allowed to suffer, and killing them will remove a bargaining chip from the Legion. After he mentions the plan he’ll make a comment regarding Psycho, and if you have a bunch of it on you you can pass a [Psycho] check to get some NCR Fame. Pass the check or not, then accept the job and follow Ranger Milo east to some high ground overlooking Nelson.

Make your way to the north-eastern end of the rock you’re on and look out to the north-east to spot the NCR Troopers, who are hard to see even with a proper sniper rifle at this range. As Ranger Milo said repeatedly, trying to rescue them would be suicide… but of course, this is a perfectly valid option. His main concern is drawing the attention of the entirety of the Legion’s forces in Nelson, which is, of course, exactly what you’ll want to do anyways if you’re trying to complete the quest Restoring Hope .

First, however, the boring, non-massacre route will be discussed. Get closer to the NCR Troopers if you must and put them out of their misery. This will turn the Legionaries hostile, but if you keep your distance and use Ratslayers, you should remain undetected, and the few Legionaries who stray too close can be handled by Ranger Milo. Once the three NCR Troopers are dead, report back to Ranger Milo for a reward, which includes mandatory Caesar’s Legion Infamy.

More awesome, however, is attempting a rescue. Take the job from Ranger Milo, listen to his advice, then take out the Gobi (or another appropriately awesome weapon) and proceed to murder every Legionary you come across in Nelson. Or if you want to keep Infamy and fuss to a minimum, sneak around and take out targets stealthily with Ratslayer. If you cause a ruckus you can expect to face a lot of Legionaries, including their leader, Dead Sea, but if you keep quiet, you can kill several Legionaries and Legion Mongrels and free the NCR Troopers relatively hassle-free. Once the hostages are free, Boone will comment on your heroism. Return to Ranger Milo and… well, he gives you the same rewards no matter whether you rescued the hostages or killed them.

Reclaiming Nelson¶

The NCR Troopers have been freed from the Legion, one way or another, now it’s time to free Nelson from them, as well… or what’s left of them. Return to Camp Forlorn Hope and head south and cross a hellish minefield to find Sergeant Cooper and his squad. Talk to him and direct him to either attack from the north or by circling around to the east. The decision doesn’t really matter; either way you go you’ll have to fight through a Legion strong point (typically including three or four Legion Recruits and perhaps a Legion Mongrel). Other than this watch out for Frag Mines guarding the approaches. Your goal is the Nelson Barracks north of the platform upon which the NCR Troopers were crucified. Inside you’ll find Dead Sea, the leader of the Legion forces in Nelson. Despite his rank, he’s no tougher than any of the other Legionaries around here. Kill him, take his unique Machete, Liberator off his corpse, then return back to Major Polatli for your reward.

We Are Legion¶

To start this quest you’ll have to make it to Nelson, which you can do by heading east along the road from the Toxic Waste Dump (you’ll be confronted by Ranger Milo, but his threats are empty) or you can fast-travel to the Lucky Jim Mine and travel north. Around Nelson you may be confronted by a Legion Explorer, who will demand that you go see their Decanus, Dead Sea, or die. Since he’s the person you want to see anyways… it’s no big deal. Otherwise, if you’re not pestered by Legionaries, just head into the eastern-most of the Nelson Barracks near the crucified NCR Troopers and talk to Dead Sea yourself. Like all of Caesar’s goons, he’s taciturn and short with you, especially if you critique his actions. Ask how you can help and he will challenge you to kill all of the officers at Camp Forlorn Hope all by yourself, because you’re such a hot-shot.

Agree to do so - it’s not even really that hard. In fact, if you’re Sneak skill is good enough and you do enough damage with a quiet melee weapon (Love and Hate works wonders here) you don’t even have to gain any NCR Infamy! Since you should already have completed some of the quests your targets will give you, you should know where most of them are. Quartermaster Mayes is easily disposed of when he’s in his supply tent and Dr. Richards can be snuff while he’s in the Camp Forlorn Hope Medical Center. The last two; Major Polatli and Tech Sergeant Reyes are a little trickier, since they’re both in the Camp Forlorn Command Center, but if you wait until nobody is too close to them, they shouldn’t be too hard to kill without raising a fuss. If you completed the quest Three-Card Bounty earlier, you might as well try to kill Corporal Sterling, too, and claim his unique La Longue Carabine, if you didn’t get your hands on it earlier.

Return back to Dead Sea and tell him you made good on his challenge. He’ll praise you rather matter-of-factly and hand over his unique machete, Liberator .

Looting Nelson¶

After you’ve satisfied or slaughtered Dead Sea and his cronies, it’s time to loot Nelson. It’s a bit more difficult if you kept the Legion around as they’ll get angry is you steal their loot… if they can catch you doing it, anyways. It’s stealing either way, but the NCR stays outside, so they functionally can’t catch you stealing anything. Anyways, with that out of the way…

In the eastern-most barracks (the one occupied by Dead Sea) you’ll find a First Aid Box, and the corpse of a maimed NCR Trooper in the back. In the western barracks you can find more NCR corpses, which can be looted for their Dogtags, if nothing else. In the various houses you can find food and other mundane objects, but the house south-east of Dead Sea’s barracks holds the Legion’s supplies, including a number of Footlockers with goodies inside and three Ammo Boxes.

…and that’s pretty much it. If you’ve sided with the NCR, there’s a bit more to do around Nelson before moving to to Camp McCarran. Namely, there’s another Legion vs. NCR quest - Anywhere I Wander - to the south of Nelson worth doing. If you sided with the Legion and want to continue to do so, skip ahead to “Camp McCarran (Part 3)” .

Anywhere I Wander¶

Travel south from Nelson along a road and, at a bend in the road where it turns sharply to the east you’ll find Private Renolds. Ask him what’s going on and he’ll tell you that some of his squad-mates were capture by some Legionaries, led by one Alexus. After he asks you to help, pass a [Barter 45] check to get him to cough up 100 Caps, or just agree to help. Either way the quest Anywhere I Wander will begin.

Follow the road east to find the Techatticup Mine, which is along the cliffs to the north. There are some Legion Recruits stationed outside who may be hostile to you now, depending on how you handled them in Nelson… but since you could pretty much stealth-kill everybody in the camp, it’s not guaranteed. If they’re not hostile yet, try to stealth-kill them to get them out of the way quietly… yes, it’s another quest where you can mitigate the Infamy you gain, but it’s not really necessary.

Once they’re gone, enter the mine and continue north, then west down a tunnel, past a pair of Legionaries and a Legion Mongrel. Bide your time and take them out quietly, or, if you’re beyond caring about Infamy, just go in guns blazing. Reach a chamber to the west where you’ll find some radioactive barrels strewn about… which doesn’t seem like this makes it a great place to hole up. Oh well. Silly Legion.

Continue down a tunnel to the north and follow it uphill and into a chamber where you’ll find several more Legionaries and a Legion Mongrel, guarding two locked cells [Average], one to the east, and one to the north. If you pick the locks and free the captive NCR Troopers beyond the gates without killing the Legionaries outside, they’ll attack the NCR Troopers as they flee… although they won’t turn hostile towards you if they don’t catch you in the act. Letting the Troopers get killed by Legionaries isn’t a great way to conduct a rescue mission, however, so get rid of the Legionaries first (either covertly or brazenly) then free the NCR Troopers.

In the eastern cell you’ll find a Doctor’s Bag and two Ammo Boxes along with mundane components and food. In the northern cell you can grab some Purified Water, some Legion Explorer Armor and Patriot’s Cookbook and Lad’s Life magazines. Once those two are free, you’ll have satisfied Private Renolds and can return to him for a quest reward, but there’s no reason to leave part of this place unexplored.

Return to the chamber with the radioactive barrels in it and explore down another tunnel to the south. Eventually it’ll open up into a larger chamber with more Legionaries, their dogs, and Alexus. Oh, and a crapton of radioactive barrels Along the way through the tunnels you’ll find two gates [Average], behind which you’ll find a variety of goodies. Beyond the southern-most gate you can find a pair of Super Stimpaks, a Doctor’s Bag, an issue of Boxing Times and an Ammo Box. Through the northern of these two gates you’ll find several Frag Mines, Frag Grenades, an Explorer Hood and Legion Recruit Armor.

Once you’ve gained this loot, there’s no need to really bother with the Legionaries in the large chamber to the south, although if you want to kill them for XP - or just for giggles - well… that’s a perfectly valid option. Alexus will drop the Techatticup Storage Key, which opens the previous two gates, for what that’s worth. When you’re ready, head back outside and talk to Private Renolds for your reward. Once done, it’s time to move on to Camp McCarran, where you can resolve some outstanding quests in favor of the NCR.