Niza looked over the Pip-Boy as Forge explained it. After the explanation and couple of close calls with the blade, she carefully put it on, trying not to mess it too much. "Wow, fits pretty good. I'm sure you're uncle was quite the savant with technologies..." She thought to herself. "Model 420... I feel like I should know something about it..."
Forge smiled, knowing something Niza didn't, "The 420 edition is, well how should I put it, a very dangerous weapon to hold. It draws blood from it's user, putting their DNA into the system and will recognize you pretty quick. It is connected to nerves in your body, so when you try to lift something heavy the system will react on it's own and help boost your muscles leg and arm. When you run, it reacts on its own and makes you go faster. Your combat, tactical skills, and senses are hyphened, and makes your sight, hearing, and smell superb." "But, it is THE very first prototype of the 7HS70 Pulse Cannon, meaning it can shoot pulse rounds at any target, and will come victorious. Every five shots you have to reload the battery, if you shoot a death claw, dead. Cazador, dead. A pack of Legion, dead. As soon as you think fire of some sort it reacts and fires. I will tell you the rest of the larger details later, like cautions, hazards, and so on. "The pip boy you have now is a limited edition bladage glove. You insert a small knife, and use it for hand to hand combat, plus there is a button on the side of it. Press that, and the machine will launch the weapon into anything. Just be careful with it, because that is the only one of it's kind, and i'll gladly make another later." Forge did not realize how much he was talking, nor did he know how much time it took. "Please excuse me if my "nerd" side of myself comes out, it happens rarely."
Niza nodded and tried to listen to Forge, giving an occasional "wow" and "yeah" for reinforcement. Her mind was still a little lost in her imagining her self planting an NCR flag on a hill of Legionnaires bodies. She snapped back into reality as he finished up about his "nerd" side. "It happens, honey. It might even be helpful one of these days."
Forge could see the Flames Of War in Niza's eyes, although, he did think of her as a pretty woman. "Yeah, seeing you stare off into space like that is a sign your day dreaming. Anyhow, I can make the same model blade fist, or blade boy, for you. All you have to do is survive this mission." Forge had just realized that there was someone else in the room. He turned to Damien, who looked as if he was left out, "So, Damien, when can we move out?"
John, Vulpes, and a few other Legionaires went into a seperate, isolated building in Nipton while the rest of the Legionaires continued the lottery, now on the "unlucky losers" who were crucified or burned on piles of flaming tiles. Once inside the building, the Legionaires forced the NCR troopers to their knees, and Vulpes turned to John, "Kill them." He said in his cool, sinister voice, "Kill them then you shall be reborn." John nodded slowly, pulling out Lucky, "Hope you don't mind, but I prefer bullets to swords." "None at all, as long as the job gets done." Vulpes replied. John took a deep breath and pressed the barrel of Lucky to the back of the head of the first trooper. A feeling suddenly took over him, the same feeling that allowed him to shoot his way out of his encounter with Veteran Rangers the year before, the one implanted in him by his childhood in the Enclave. BANG. John moved smoothly to the next. BANG, BANG..BANG BANG. And just like that, they were dead, probably a much less painful death than what they would have originally suffered, likely disembowelment with a gladius. John looked over to Vulpes, who smiled coldly, "Welcome to Caesar's Legion, Mr Verumpian." And so begins the countdown before it's MY Legion, he thought sinisterly, "Thank you for this wonderful chance at bringing peace to this land." "Good. Now, I think Caesar will be more than happy to meet my new apprentice." Vulpes said with a smile, "Come, there is much to done." John nodded, "Go oversee the lottery, I'll make sure any chess on these Profligates are destroyed." "I like the initiative, keep it up." And with that, Vulpes and the Legionaires left. Quickly turning, John grabbed pen and paper and wrote a note, knowing that if that group of 3 went Legion hunting, they'ld likely arrive at Nelson soon. Dear Damien, Forge, and Niaz It's John, I have joined up with the Legion as Vulpes' Apprentice. This will put me close to Caesar. I plan to take the Legion by earning Caesar's favor and having him realize I would be the best choice to lead his Legion following his death. Then, an "accident" will happen with him and Legate Lanius. Then, the Legion will be mine. You can probably guess what I plan doing afterwords. Sincerly, John. PS; I will be kinda forced to commit atrocities in order to gain favor, but I swear, the end will justify the means John put the letter on the desk, then walked out, drawing subtle lines in the dirt leading to the building on his way to the town center, where Vulpes and the others waited, finished with the lottery. "Chems taken care of sir! No scavenger is going to be using them!" He reported "Good. Now justice has been served to Nipton as well. We may return to the Fort now." Vulpes replied John nodded, and the group marched off, new slaves, powder gangers, going with them.
As the small group of wastelander's were walking down the long road that led Goodsprings to the remainder of the Mojave, Damien suddenly stopped. He raised his right arm up to indicate the Forge and Niaz to stop moving. Damien looked at his belt, which held basic ammunition, a combat knife and even six throwing knives. There was a silence for a brief second as the Mojave wind blew across them. Almost on instinct, Damien took two throwing knives from his belt, spinning them in his fingers before throwing them across the road to his right, right where two Legionaries were hiding previously to pounce onto the group. Damien then took out his 45. Auto and shot another one on a nearby cliff, without even looking at him. Finally, the last two Legion assassins rushed out into the open, one of them with a Super Sledge and another with a 12mm Sub Machine gun. Damien shot the gun wielding assassin dead where he stood, and shot the other melee assassin in his kneecaps as he heard his bones shatter on impact with the bullet. While this injured the hammer weilding assassin, it did not stop him as he limped towards him and tried to strike him. Adding insult to injury, Damien took his Gladius out in a single swift movement and impaled the assassin in the stomach. As he whimpered in pain, he made the mistake of dropping the Super Sledge. Catching it in mid fall, Damien grabbed the hammer while the Legion dropped to the ground and slammed the Super Sledge into the side of the assassins head, hearing the skull shatter on impact before seeing the assassins head literally explode eastwards onto the desert away from the group. With the ambush delt with, Damien spun the weapon upside down before handing the weapon to Forge. "Thought you might like this, you might get more use out of it. You seem to have the physical capabilities to master it." Damien said. Damien then took the Gladius from the melee Legionary and his two throwing knives from the others he had killed. He then turned around to face the group of what had just happened. "I'm basically a Legion Magnet. The NCR has called me their "Demon of the East", and the Legion refers to me as that. My bounty is at least 25,000 Legion Aureus, so that translates to well over 50,000 to 100,000+ caps. Possibly more."
Forge took the super sledge, looking over and thought to himself what he could do with it. He pulled his 9 mm. pistol out from his side holster and replaced it with the hammer, and saw that it had fit. "Thanks. A bounty like that huh?" Forge put his pistol in the hole at the side of his leather jacket. He went to the legionaries and took what they had, ammunition, foods, and any source of supplies. Preferably stimpacks and maybe some healing powder.
Niza shrugged indifferently. "More Legion = More dead Legion." She watched as Forge loot the bodies, feeling some pity for him having to loot dead animals for supplies. "Just tell us next time we're about to get ambushed. I'd like a few legionaries myself." She said as she whipped out her 9mm smg, keeping it lowered but ready.
Forge kept his hand on the hammer, "I don't mind cracking a few skulls." Forge stood up with five bags of healing powder, tying them to his belt. He walked over to the group, "I don't have any respect for the dead, especially those self proclaimed idiots."
Damien, alongside his two other companions came to the crossroads that connected the road that led to Goodsprings to the rest of the Mojave and the I-15. Upon coming to this road, something seemed very off. Smoke was billowing high into the air, able to be seen far away as Novac. It was past Primm, but the town had already been experiencing some problems of their own. That could have only made one other location possible, a location that the 'Daemon' was not very fond of... "Nipton's been hit...." Damien said, taking out some binoculars. He then walked himself onto a small cliff to get a better vantage point. "Entire place appears to been wiped out. I know the town wasn't particularly the nicest place to be in, but still." Damien paused, thinking about a worst-case scenario. "The Legion possibly isn't even waiting for the Legion to fall."
John, Vulpes, and the 20 Legionaires who didn't split off to go to the raiding encampment arrived at Cottonwood Cove soon afterwords, and John instantly saw problems with their position, and so he whispered to Vulpes, "This place seems awful vulnerable...beyond the radioactive mess that is Camp searchlight, you guys don't have very many defenses in place..and this seems to be the target for..eh..the Demon of the West...in fact, I think he may be headed here right now." Vulpes gave John a mildly shocked look, "And what would make you say that?" "Before I arrived at Nipton, I had stayed for a bit in a town called Goodsprings, there I met him and a couple other self proclaimed "Legion hunters" and from the sounds of it, they want a big target, and that big target is probably here." John told Vulpes as they came around the corner in the road and he got to see the full camp, and the truck with the radioactive waste containers practically spilling out, "And I think that's how they're gonna do it." He said pointing at it. Vulpes nodded, "Yes, I can see that happening..." He turned on his heels and ordered to a Legionaire, "Go immediately to Centurion Aurealius and tell him that Vulpes Inculta ordered the immediate temporary evacuation of the camp along with the containers in the crashed truck on the hillside that are NOT to be opened under any circumstance, and bury those containers where they'll never be found." The Legionaire nodded and saluted Vulpes and ran towards the main building, he then turned to John, "Thank you, you saved many a Legionaires life and a very important campsite. I think I made the right choice in you. Now come, we must depart for the Fort." And with that, John and Vulpes went to Cursor Lucas and began their long journey to the Fort..
Forge took out his varmint rifle and looked into it's scope where the city was. He had the cities location on his pip-boy for quite a while. Forge started to get a really bad gut feeling, not from the burnt city or the death of it. Something seemed off, as if something was waiting for them, "If we go and investigate that hole, then it's best if we make a plan. I have this feeling that something or someone is waiting for us."
Niza cringed at the sight of the smoke column. "Animals. Filthy Legion animals..." she put away her 9mm and brought out her assault carbine. "If we really need a plan, better think of one now. We can't stay out for no long or it'll dark, and I'd rather not like to be out at dark. but, I doubt the Legion want to stick around too long, the NCR's Mojave outpost is basically with in a stone's throw..."
Forge looked the city again through his scope. "I had friends there, one of them being a powder ganger at his post." He continued to look at the city, having a sick feeling about it. "I need to get down there," and like that, Forge slid down the steep cliff. And as he made contact with the ground, he sprinted off towards the small city, hoping that there was something that would correct his feeling. He ran, ignoring every and anything that would try to stop him. 'I hope they're still alive..."
Niza shrugged and followed after Forge, keeping her carbine pointed at the town as she ran. "Hey, hey! Wait up! There still might be some legionaries there!"
Damien and the others eventually made it to what remained of the town of Nipton, enormous bonfires full of profligate corpses and many items thrown onto the fires to blaze into eternity. Along the main street, roughly at least twenty bodies were crucified on the wooden cross, with many of the Powder Ganger's lucky enough to be alive barely alive. Damien seen Legion flags scattered onto buildings, remembering one huge flag when he entered the town. He looked around for any signs of Legion, but found seemingly no evidence. "Legion has been long gone, they must have left roughly six hours ago. Many died during this "Lottery" trap the Legion sprung, they never stood a chance." Damien told the group before noticing a letter pinned onto the door of the town hall. Walking over to the building and taking the note off, he found that the letter was specifically written for the group of Legion hunters. He took off the letter and walked back over to the group in the middle of the crucified road. "It's from John, he's joined the Legion. However, he's working onto somewhat good intentions. My best bet is that he is planning a coup against Caesar once he's in the right position to do so, and then putting the Legion into self destruct. But the other possibility concerns me." Damien said, handing the letter over to the rest of the group. "With John at the helm of a nation currently much more powerful than the crippled NCR, he could finally take his revenge against them for what they did to the Enclave." Damien then sighed deeply, taking slow paces. "I have a feeling that John might have leaked information about our whereabouts. Meaning that any Legion camp we attack now would already know of our whereabouts. So a direct attack on Cottonwood Cove is rendered useless in that the entire camp would have been evacuated and in other cases, deal with our trump card of the radiation barrels in rendering the entire area useless." Damien then stopped to face the group. "Plan B?"
"So, a man who has escaped the Profilgates's grasp for the past 40 years now stands before, a man trained from birth to take down nations, if my accounts of you are correct." Caesar said to John, "And has already made quite an impact despite only just joining as Vulpes' apprentice, you're a man who gets things done. I like that. And I can already tell you would be quite the Frumentarii, however, I feel like that would be wasting your talents, don't you agree?" John simply nodded to Ceasar, "Yes sir." "Good then. Even though I fairly certain we will take the Dam in the coming days, I want to be sure that we have a good plan in place to make sure that is a certainty. You know The Profligate military fairly well, don't you?" Yes sir. I had to study it inside and out for the first 18 years of my life." "Good. Then I will have to apologize to Vulpes, but I'm gonna to steal you from him. I feel like you would be better in a leading position. I am going to assign you twenty Legionaires, you may retrain them as you wish." Caesar said, "Then, once you consider them ready to go, I will give you an opportunity to display them for me, only then will you earn my trust. You may go." "Oh, one more thing sir, I think you should remove the bounty from the Demon of the West's head, all it does is draw dozens of your soldiers to their deaths, and I think we will need as many soldiers as possible to ensure victory." "Hm...You make a good point...That bounty has been in place for 5 years and over a thousand Legionaires have died due to it....I'll think about it. Now go." John nodded and left the tent. ************ John looked at the twenty soldiers standing at rapt attention to him, his cowboy duster now dyed red and reinforced with Legion gear, studied each and every one. "Alright, let me get a few things clear." He started, "I may have spent the longest time in the Legion, but I have been fighting the Profilgates and other undesirables my entire life, so any questioning of my position will be punished. Severely. Two): This training will be the hardest thing any of you have gone through, yes, even harder than the training you all received to be Legionaires. Three): Now that you're under my command, you are going to fight my way. Close combat is to be avoided at all costs, but you will be deadly and efficient in it if you are caught in it. Our role is going to be focused on destroying the Profligate command structure. Without leadership, they collapse. Destroy the things they hold onto, leaders, flags, Rangers, etc, and they will be but dust in the wind. Not even the deadliest Veteran Ranger can live through a bullet to the head, so you put two in it. Kill the rangers on the battlefeild, and you invigorate our troops and destroy their troop morale. Got it?" The Legionaires saluted and yelled, "Yes sir!" In unison "Good. From now on, you are my Vivorum Umbras(Elite Shadows), and your training from here until I see fit will be 7 hours of sleep, wake at 7, have until 7:30 to snack and get ready, train from 7:30am-noon, half an hour to eat, train until 9:00pm, and train for another 2 hours. And we begin this schedule right NOW!"
Niza thought for a moment before looking at the maps on Forge's pip-boy. "We could head to Novac. I hear they see the occasional Legion party pass by in the distance there." She looked around at the death and destruction of Nipton. "But we can't just let this go unavenged. We can't let those animals trample on more towns like this. We'll need think something before this is repeated."
Forge took the paper out of Damien's hands, reading every last bit of it, "Looking at this makes me wanna kill something. If you ask me, it would be a stupid idea. But, it would be a good thing having less NCR in the mojave, not that i'm against them. I just hope that the Legion is destroyed, so the NCR can finally move outta here. But, if the Legion does fall and the NCR doesn't leave, then I will give them a reason to leave." Forge walked up to one of the crucified Powder gangers, looking at him, "Richardson you idiot, I told you to leave here, but no, you decided to stay." Forge spoke to the dead hanging body. He looked at the large building and turned to a pile of burning tires. Forge threw the paper into the fire and watched it burn to nothing. "The Legion will pay. I don't care if it's an army i'm going against, they will all burn beneath my feet." He took a combat knife near his feet and held the blade in the fire. Forge then took the hot blade and cut a symbol in on his arm. It was a circle that had a black widow spiders symbol in it. "The one thing my uncle told me, was that this symbol stood for extinction. Thousands of years ago, a great spartan warrior had this marking, and he alone took out 200 Persians. If you ask me, you have to have a lot of balls to do so." Forge said. "Anyways, what this about plan B?"
"I have a feeling that Cottonwood Cove is going to be a trap. Even if we clear the entire camp, the Legion can just come back and reinforce the area. It would make no difference to what happens if we take down the camp, the only way we can take down the camp is with a radiation bomb like what they did to Searchlight." Damien said. "That would mean the only way for the Legion could deploy troops is to either reinforce Nelson and transform that into Cottonwood or make suicide trips across Lake Mead where the NCR can simply blow them out the water." Damien then looked back. "We can make it to Novac by night-fall. We can rest there for the night until we decide to attack another location. Unless we can construct a radiation bomb and render the entire camp uninhabitable."
