(I had an idea that a surprise Legion offensive would suddenly through the balance of power out of whack, with Legion suddenly and swiftly taking all of the Mojave north of Camp Golf, across the Black Mountain and Sloan, then to Jacobstown, with the North Strip being the last hold out against the Legion, and it becomes a sort of stalemate from there as no matter what Damien could do, NCR wouldn't have the troops to launch an offensive to secure the land and defend the Dam or the rest of the river, so the pivot point changes from the Dam to Camp Golf once more. Whatcha think? Centurion Fulius, angered by the news of Caesar's death had swiftly taken command of the army in the Mojave west of the Colorado. He knew the Demon would head for them next as soon as word broke out so he didn't let his men rest. He had them slaughter the captives and immediately left the area, heading swiftly towards the Strip. He had no intention on letting the Demon, both west and east, have any sort of spoils. He would take New Vegas, drive the NCR out of McCarren, and leave them with nothing to defend bu a damn dam. Under the quick march, the first Legion soldiers arrived at the gates of Freeside within the hour...
(Sounds like a good idea. Interested on how urban combat would come into the scenario) Damien had arrived at the outpost, only to find simply nothing alive. All of the rangers were taken captive, then slaughtered when the Legion moved inland with frightening speed. Alarmed and in not much of a state to fight, he had no choice but to enter Vegas, where a focus point on taking the whole city had come into action. (I like how Nathan was in North Vegas as well :3)
(Actually he's down by Goodsprings last I posted, but I could say that he went to North Vegas before the Legion arrived) The Legion flooded into Freeside, overwhelming any who resisted, quickly massacring the Kings and taking over Old Mormon Fort, forcing the Followers of the Apocalypse to be their medics. After securing Freeside, they blocked the gates to make sure they only opened when they were wanted to be opened. They quickly then flowed onto the Strip itself, easily overwhelming the fritzy Sercuritrons and unprepared NCR MPs, however, they had far less luck with North Vegas. There, they had shut down the gates, and the few pegasi guards flew overhead, ensuring the Legion river broke over North Vegas. Snow watched as the rest of Vegas fell within an hour, but the sealed gates ensured at least until the walls were blasted that the Legion stayed out, with a two hundred meter "no man's land" between the buffer wall and the main wall of North Strip. "Ma'am! Distress signal from McCarren, it has been overwhelmed!" A guard said, "And a pegasus scout reports that Westside has fallen as well, and the Legion has set up positions in Vault 3." Snow growled lowly, "Dammit, dammit dammit...They've moved fast..." Snow muttered, "I want permenant guards on the walls at all times, mine wmd trap the buffer zone! I don't wanna see one living man in crimson past the buffer wall! No one is to be allowed in or out that we don't have absolute trust in!" She barked, "And no one but military is allowed outside the inner wall!"
(I meant the photos you sent, forgot to add that bit in. Oh well...) Damien made his way to an almost-Legion controlled Vegas, preferring to avoid combat whenever possible and sneaking across the city. He had considered going into disguise before, but the Legion would have learnt from their mistakes. There was no more Caesar, no more Vulpes, there was only Lanius and the new Centurion that has become the designated target for Damien. However, this Centurion was no fool.... Damien took a refuge in western Vegas, inside of a long abandoned home that once served as one of the many hideouts for the Fiends. Hiding away from Legion control, he tried anything to re-establish communications with the NCR, or the Equestrians who were the only ones not defeated by the Legion. Spying on both factions, Damien found two key issues. With the sudden loss of the Dam, followed by Vegas, the already overstretched NCR has decided to go onto a serious offensive, sending over 10,000 soldiers a week through the Mojave outpost. The other issue was when Lanius arrived; he would bring at least 20,000 of the finest soldiers that the Legion had to offer, reinforcing their hold onto Vegas while preparing to cross the Dam, but would arrive by the end of December. Once Lanius arrived and if the NCR failed to retake the Dam and Camp Golf by then, it was all over. He had no allies other than the Equestrians left. He considered traveling there, but actually making it there would have been extremely difficult. Frustrated, he was forced to call them. ------------------------------------ Orchid felt something buzz on the desk back in the command centre, where it was surrounded by multiple ponies arguing at another. Orchid trotted over to see what it was, only to see the earpiece vibrating inside of a saddlebag. She then realized what it was, and who had given it to her. “Snow! Come quick, that thing we were given is vibrating.” Orchid yelled out before her face scrunched up at the tech almost in disgust. “I can only make a guess about who is calling. I’m not sure we should answer it, but feel free to take your anger out on him if you do." (I’m trying to get Damien to meet up with Nathan now.)
(Oh, sorry, thought you were referring to him in RP, my bad..Also, i doubt the NCR could send 10,000 men a week into the Mojave, maybe every year, but remember what Chief Hanlon said, "1,000 men die here each year", and from the shape of the NCR at the time, it seems like they're barely able to keep up with the rate of attrition) Snow sighed and gathered herself before answering the thing, and instead of yelling, she spoke in almost the voice of a disappointed mother (a tone she hadn't used in years), "Well, I hope you learned that despite your campaign to destroy the Legion, there are consequences to normal people for destabilizing a military nation. Because of your actions, Vegas is occupied, the North Strip is under siege, and who knows what else is wrong. Think about it, if you cause a nation that is entirely built on military to collapse, what do you think those in the army are going to do? They are going to do the only thing they know how. Attack and conquer. And guess what? Because you removed the leash and handler, now Legion commanders have no restraint. They will do what THEY think it takes to win. And the more you destroy the upper leadership, the more decentralized it becomes, and the more you get a bunch of super highly trained raider bands. I hope you realize that now." *********** Nathan trekked north, unaware of the Legion's sudden offensive. But as he hiked back the path to Red Rock Canyon, he noticed somethings that were off. Crouching down a hill, he pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked out to the former Fiend territory to see that it had crimson soldiers all over it, "How the hell did the Legion deploy a force right next to McCarren?" He muttered, then his eyes widened, "Oh no...They've..." he dropped the binoculars out of shock before grabbing them and putting them back in his bag. He took a deep breath then decided to sneak in. Going further north, he noticed Legion soldiers executing Fiends in the streets. Shuddering at the sight, he found a hidden place in Fiend territory and gulped, he had no idea what to do..
(Oh yeah, completely forgot about that part.) There was a silence for at least a minute before Damien decided to speak. "Anything that I'll do from now will likely make the problem worse. You're probably swimming in Legion as it is at the moment. I doubt that you'll take in the man who killed Caesar. I might as well go into hiding for a while, bide my time. Hell, after what you've just said, there's only two possible choices that are left for me. I'm just going to l-" Damien said before turning his head around seeing an odd plant placed in a corner, next to various equipment. The plant was blue, but it seemed to be doing something strange. "Poison Joke?" He said before he found a bottle of irradiated water on the ground, figuring that it fell of the desk the plant was located on. He picked up the bottle and placed it onto the desk while placing on gloves to take a leaf off the plant and crunched the leaf up before placing the remains in the bottle, before watching the radiation inside of the water simply dissolve. Damien's eyes widened as he held the finger to the earpiece "I've....found something."
(Honestly, that wouldn't make much of a difference because remember, Lake Mead is completely radiation free. There's plenty of unirradiated water) Snow sighed, "Just get here, we need every bit of help we can get, okay?" She said, "And bring as many soldiers and the like as you can with you."
(In the Mojave itself, it won't really make much of a difference. But when we take the extremely irradiated West Coast, and basically the rest of the hell that is now America into consideration, it's enormous if there is enough of it. And if Vegas sold this to the NCR, their economy would absolutely skyrocket.) "Alright, I'll make my way there." Damien said as he closed the call. He took the Poison Joke and placed it inside of a jar that he attached to his belt before he scanned his environment to find that nothing was around, yet. Damien cleaned his weaponry before closing the door behind him and decided to head north, being very careful about his environment.
Nathan noticed a man creep out of a nearby building, taking out his laser rifle and crapt up behind the man before putting it right on the back of his head, "Don't move if you want to live. If you're Legion or Fiend, tell me so you can save me the trouble of feeling bad about killing you. If you aren't, I want you to turn around, I won't kill or hurt you."
Damien stopped dead in his tracks and raised his hands up slowly, palms exposed to reveal that he had nothing in his hands. He turned his head slowly as the rest of his body followed, until he was facing directly at the man with the laser rifle pressed up against his head as he took his sunglasses off. Not many could sneak up on Damien. Only a handful of people could be able to do so, and many of them are now dead. He said nothing and simply complied to the demands of the stranger
"What a minute...You're that MOCKINGJAY Ranger..." he muttered, slowly lowering his rifle, "I'm terribly sorry sir, I didn't recognize you from behind. Name's Nathan White, former Master Sergeant of the 1st SAP company, pleasure to meet you." he said extending a hand, "Any idea what the hell has happened here?
Damien accepted the handshake before following onwards with the subject at hand. "Simple. I killed Caesar and his inner circle. The Legion has no owner holding the leash of their dogs, and now they've caught rabies and are running rabid across the Mojave, biting anybody unfortunate enough to encounter them. "
"Ah." Nathan responded bluntly, it made sense since Caesar was the one that wanted the Dam first, Vegas second, likely because of the defeat there. Any other commander would rather punch through wherever they could, "Is there any kind of safe area? Or are we going to have to go south and possibly to Mojave Outpost?"
"I'm heading north, I know the owners of the Northern Strip." Damien replied. "She told me to gather anybody with any form of combat skill and meet there, it's the only save place left other than down south. You can come along if you wish."
(Ok) Damien and Nathan traversed their way through Vegas, where it was surrounded by Legion mongrels tearing apart innocents and buildings, several large bonfires were lit in Freeside to burn alcohol and other documents, including the bodies of the dead. Damien only had to use Blood-Nap once when he had to kill a recruit legionary who wondered to far from his comfort zone. The two men made it to the end of Freeside and into 'No-Man's land', which they were quickly spotted by the Equestrian pegasi scouts flying overhead. (I had this amazing idea for this RP, but it would kinda ruin the fun of it all.)
The scouts flew down and picked the two men up, "Minefield." They explained as they flew them into North Strip. Nodding in thanks, Nathan turned to Damien, "So what now?" He asked
Damien looked at the camp as they were lifted high into the air. "I need to speak to Snow. I have no idea what the Equestrians are planning, but I believe that it's for the better if she is only seeking as many soldiers as she can. Civilians would cause problems, so she might only let a few of them in." ------------------------------ (Plot twist !) With the death of Caesar, the Legion had suffered from a severe power struggle that caused infighting amongst the Centurions and Lanius. Even with their sudden success in the Mojave, the Legion needed a miracle in order to survive in the long term. An old man with gray hair walked alongside two Praetorian bodyguards. The man was completely covered in a dusty brown cloak that hid almost every feature of him other than his boots and gloves. While he was born in the NCR, the man had earned himself favor behind the scenes for Caesar prior to his death. Unfortunately, he would not make his move for leadership unless the dictator was to suffer an unfortunate incident. That incident came earlier than he expected, and he went straight to the remains of Lanius's camp, where the Legate was forced to arrive earlier than anticipated. When the two got into a disagreement, the older man killed Lanius within seconds, shocking the younger legionaries. The older man, who was 60, sat down on the throne of Caesar that was saved when the Fort had burnt to the ground. He took off his hood to reveal a short length of silver hair, along with a matching beard. He had blue eyes and was covered in tribal styled tattoos across his back. He proclaimed himself as Tiberius Caesar a few hours later.
