Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize is a side quest

Summary
Ghost, an NCR Ranger from the Mojave Outpost, is concerned when she notices plumes of smoke rising from the town of Nipton. To add to her concern, there have been no travelers from Nipton as of late. Ghost contracts the Courier to investigate the disturbance.

Detailed walkthrough
Upon approaching the town, the player character is greeted by an ecstatic (if not manic) Powder Ganger by the name of Oliver Swanick who proclaims life is grand after winning the lottery. Moving past him into town reveals a row of crucified Powder Gangers along the first street on the left (north). To the left of that is the Nipton General Store, where Boxcars is located. At the end of this road is the town hall. Either location yields a non-player character who will provide the information required to complete this quest.

Inside the General Store is Boxcars, a crippled Powder Ganger who will tell the Courier what happened in Nipton. At the entrance to the town hall, a contingent of Caesar's Legion led by Vulpes Inculta or Gabban will be encountered. He will initiate dialogue, offer to tell the tale of Nipton's demise, and after a brief exchange, tells them to spread the word of Legion atrocities across the wasteland, thus giving the quest Cold, Cold Heart. Talking with Ranger Ghost again after this point will complete the quest.

Behind the scenes
"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" is the name of a folk song.

Bugs

 * If one accepts this quest much later in the game (after receiving the quest "Render Unto Caesar" outside The Tops casino) and have not engaged Vulpes in front of the Nipton Town Hall until after that (he will simply engage/disengage conversation), it is possible that the player character will be unable to complete this quest. Talking to Boxcars only offers the "I'll be going now" option, and thus there is no dialogue to complete the quest. Ghost will continue to ask the player character to investigate, rendering this quest forever incomplete.
 * If this bug is encountered on the PC, it is possible to complete the quest by using the console command.
 * Engaging Vulpes and killing all the legionaries also completes the quest.
 * If one enters the house that Boxcars is in before the initial dialogue with Vulpes, he may not appear and the four legion recruits will just stand in front of the town hall endlessly.
 * If one manages to kill Vulpes without ever meeting him in Nipton and kill Boxcars before speaking to him there is no way to finish the quest.
 * If Vulpes is not present (though the legionaries may be), using the console command will place Vulpes in front of the player character and he will respond to dialogue (note that the legionaries will not follow Vulpes out of Nipton and they may be killed after Vulpes' departure with the subsequent loss of faction standing with the Legion).
 * If one goes to Nipton and talk to Vulpes before activating this quest, it will not show up in the Pip-Boy as completed.