“Just doing what I'm paid to do - harass the muties until they leave or attack us. If they leave, we let 'em go. If they attack, we wipe them out.”— Norton
The second time the player returns after finding Jacobstown, Marcus will approach you with news of New California Republicmercenaries harassing the town. He'll then ask you to peacefully deal with them. When asked why the mutants don't kill them, Marcus says it's to avoid giving the NCR an excuse to terminate Jacobstown.
Finding the mercenaries is relatively easy since they're directly in front of the town. To resolve the quest one can pay them 2500 caps or tell them to leave with a Speech check of 65. If the player character has a very high NCR standing they may also be able to tell them that they're an NCR hero. Norton will recognize the player character and they'll leave.
Alternatively, the player character can also kill them, but this leads to less XP reward and lowered reputation with the NCR.
Note that there will always be 5 mercs (including Norton), all wearing metal armor/reinforced metal armor, combat armor and high-quality weaponry, so a head-on fight might prove difficult for some.
After completing the quest the player character will gain 350 XP, or 250 XP if they asked for caps from Marcus, regardless of whether they used a Speech check or gave the caps to Norton.
PCPlaystation 3Xbox 360 After convincing Norton to walk away via caps, the area just south of Silver Peak Mine shows a non-hostile non-player character on the compass. The spot the compass points to shows an option to talk to Norton and one or more mercenaries. Doing so does not activate a dialogue. [verified]
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After convincing Norton to walk away via caps, the area just south of Silver Peak Mine shows a non-hostile non-player character on the compass. The spot the compass points to shows an option to talk to Norton and one or more mercenaries. Doing so does not activate a dialogue. [verified]
